Tuesdays with Story
WRITER’S MAIL for August 12, 2010
by Clayton Gill
Good Words from Way Back
“It is better to wear out than to rust out.” –Bishop Richard Cumberland in G. Horne’s The Duty of Contending for the Faith (1786), found in The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Pick Up a Few Bucks, Plus Free Tips
Tuesdays member Terry Hoffman reminds us that the 2010 Wisconsin Book Festival opens next month, September 29-October 3 in downtown Madison (http://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org/).
The Festival’s theme this year is “Beliefs.” Speakers include Marilyn Taylor, Wisconsin’s Poet Laureate, who brings together a panel of poets for an event called “The Gods Will See You Now: Five Wisconsin Poets on Matters of the Spirit.”
Also, Terry forwarded a “help wanted” notice from fellow Madison writer and Festival organizer Carrie Kilman, who is “looking for someone to help coordinate publicity, promotions and logistics for the 2010 Wisconsin Book Fest… as well as to help wrap up the Festival in the couple of weeks following. In all, the position would last about two months….
“The right person would be a dynamic self-starter, would love books and reading, would have event-planning/publicity experience (or transferable skills), and would be available for approximately 10-20 hours a week (and possibly more, if available). The position would start ASAP.
“This could be a good fit for freelance writers and/or anyone with a part-time job. If needed, most (though not all) of the work could feasibly be done during odd hours, outside of the 9-5 work day.”
If you’re interested in the paying job, please contact Carrie soonest: Carrie Kilman, tel. 608.698.5755, e-mail carrie.kilman@gmail.com; and visit her website http://rageisgood.com.
Otherwise, the Festival could use your volunteer help: http://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org/support/forms.php?id=445&category_id=2407
All the News That’s Fit to Embellish
“News stories can provide great inspiration for writers, “says Tuesdays member Alicia Connoly-Lohn. She offers these “kernels”:
● “Sink hole swallows SUV, traffic light in Wisconsin” http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100723/od_yblog_upshot/suv-swallowed-by-sink-hole-in-wisconsin
● “King Arthur’s round table located”
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/07/king-arthurs-round-table-located.html
● “Lone thief robs Paris museum of $613M in art”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/20/world/main6502139.shtml
● “Abandon Earth or face extinction, Stephen Hawking warns—again” http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/08/09/abandon-earth-face-extinction-warns-stephen-hawking/
Even the Half-Way Famous Resort to “E-Publishing”
Tuesday member Brandy Larson found Martha Woodroof’s blog touting the ease of electronic publishing a novel she had written then abandoned “half a decade ago.” Woodroof reports and blogs for National Public Radio from station WMRA in Harrisonburg, VA.
“I went with Kindle,” Woodroof reports, “mostly because it takes so little investment—and because, well, it puts your book on a website with a staggering amount of traffic. With all those people itching to buy books, I figure maybe someone—someone, that is, who is not a member of my family—will buy mine.
“The one thing Kindle doesn’t do is erase author typos. A friend has already let me know about mine.”
Reading Recap: August 10 Meeting
A full roster and a full table of writers spent the evening–7:00-9:00 p.m. at Barnes and Noble West–delving into the essence of male, the supernatural, the art of funny, blue towels, and more.
Holly Bonniksen-Jones was first up with a scene from Coming Up for Air. Kim Simmons felt that Mike should try to control some element of the phone call arranging the meeting–maybe have him choose the time. Holly wondered about cutting the end of the phone call, but Patrick Tomlinson said to keep it in because it eliminates the need to explain when and where the meeting scene takes place. Terry Hoffman felt that Mike’s dialog was far too wordy for a guy. Elijah Meeker and Patrick agreed. Carol Hornung felt Liza would seem more sympathetic if she eliminated any expectation of an apology from Mike.
Jen Wilcher rewrote the beginning of And So We Meet Again. Elijah felt it had improved a great deal over previous drafts, and Patrick said it was time to move forward. Holly said to get rid of the speech tags, and Anne said to look out for repeated words. Holly and Carol liked the term “soft indigo.” Blue is a key thematic element in this story.
Patrick Tomlinson presented a section from A Hole in the Fence. Though it was funny, Dan Hamre said it took an awfully long time to get to the point of the scene–the phone call. Anne Allen suggested starting out with some action, otherwise the reader would get bored. Kim suggested editing down the footnotes: Make them much shorter, otherwise they distract too much from the story. Members pointed out some minor technical issues: Use commas, not periods, before speech tags; and, capitalize Professor when used as a pronoun.
Carol Hornung read the first scene of a new mystery, Sapphire Lodge. Anne pointed out there’s a lot of detail, but we have no idea what Finley looks like. Patrick had some technical concerns about the location of the wound on the victim, and there was debate about the blue towel, which Carol noted will be “light blue” in the revision. Carol introduced the concept of synaesthesia: Colors being sensed in the place of something else, in this case emotions. Elijah liked the first description of the occurrence until the word “synapses” appeared, which made it too technical too quickly.
Terry Hoffman read Chapter 3 of The Journal. Anne wanted the main character to react more to the realization that Doug did not succumb to temptation. Elijah and Holly felt the use of the word “relived” was “a bit too cutesy” in this case—generally, other plays on words do not appear. Holly also thought the description of Nathan and his room should be more emotionally wrenching. Andrea pointed out that the main character needed to stop wondering about whether she’s going crazy and begin to believe the journal is real.
Kim Simmons finished the evening with two chapters of her fantasy novel The City of Winter. Patrick suggested clearing out the speech tags when it’s clear who is speaking. Pacing is good, members pointed out. Dan would like some more emotion, a bigger reaction to the revelation told to Ryoko. Holly felt some of the words were a little too modern for the fantasy setting. Then broke out a big discussion on the weight of various swords and things kind of swirled into a GenCon enigma. Members suggested that readers unfamiliar with the fantasy genre needed a basic explanation of the weaponry used in City, while devout “fantasy/ska people” would be well aware of the challenges of running with a heavy scimitar whapping against one’s body.
Special thanks to Carol, who provided the August 10 Recap.
Who’s Up Next?
August 17: John Schneller (Chapter 1, Book 3 of trilogy On Mount Zi), Patrick Tomlinson (Any Port in a Storm), Judith McNeil (radio play Part 3, “South to Sunday”), Aaron Boehm (?), Elijah Meeker (Chapter 1, Heahwerdtunm), and Skye Winspur (?).
August 24: Randy Haselow (Chapter 2, Hona and the Dragon), Andrea Kirchman (?), Terry Hoffman (The Journal), Anne Allen (Homecoming), Patrick Tomlinson (A Hole in the Fence), Dan Hamre, (first 5 pages of Tractor Jockey)
August 31: Fifth Tuesday details of exact time and location to come.
September 7: Randy Haselow (Chapter 3, Hona and the Dragon), Cathy Riddle (Chapter 6, Beer Crimes), Jen Wilcher (?), Amber Boudreau (Chapter 15, as-yet-unnamed-novel), Pat Edwards (poems), and Jerry Peterson (Chapter 12, For Want of a Hand).
September 14: Dan Hamre (last 5 pages of Tractor Jockey), Annie Potter (a memoir), Kim Simmons (The City of Winter), Holly Bonniksen-Jones (Coming Up For Air), Carol Hornung, (Sapphire Lodge), with room for one more.
Writers Mail: TWS Newsletter Duty Roster
August – Clayton
September – Kim
October – Pat Edwards
November – volunteer needed
December — Clayton
Pat Conroy’s My Losing Season: Book Review by Millie Mader:
This often dark, searing biography was written in 2002, and was given to me recently. Since I have always been a Conroy fan, I relished the hope that this book might open a portal into his life, bringing to light why his protagonists always seem plagued by self-doubt and deprecation. In this revealing book, Conroy replays his sad childhood in lyric prose and stunning metaphors. His writing is pure art, and it opens his soul.
Conroy paints a bleak, disconcerting picture of his entire youth. It was a life of belittlement and degradation at the hands of an abusive, militaristic Marine colonel father. The eldest of seven children, Pat Conroy saw them all beaten and ridiculed by Colonel Don Conroy. The manhandling was thrust upon young Conroy’s beloved mother as well. The family had moved 23 times from the day Conroy started school until he entered college. Just when the family felt they were making friends, they were uprooted. There was no sympathy, and no attempt at understanding by their father. Conroy leads us through several journeys to schools he loved, only to be jerked out within a short time. He praises the nuns and Jesuits who taught him—his father would brook no public schools and paid no heed to any praise that his son received. Conroy’s great love of basketball allowed him to retreat into his own world for brief periods. He was beloved by all his English teachers, as he showed great promise with his writings way back then. His father called English a “pussy” class, and showed nothing but scorn.
Conroy details his development as basketball player from high school through his college years, where he played as a Bulldog at the Citadel. What he lacked in height, at five-foot ten or eleven, he made up in pure drive and heart. He was overjoyed for one of the first times in his life, when he was elected “All State,” with an invitation to represent his high school in the North-South All State games in Columbia, SC. There was only sarcasm from his father. “We’ll all be in Omaha, Nebraska by then,” his father declared. Yet another tour of duty was in the works. With the intercession of his mother, Conroy was allowed to go to Columbia for the games. He was given the cheapest train ticket available, and had to sleep upright for three nights. At Columbia, he did well, and impressed the coaches. Sadly, he did not receive a scholarship, but was offered a “walk on” position with the Bulldogs. His family would incur no expense, but Conroy was told there would be no college in his future if he did not accept this offer. His love of the game superseded his distaste for a military college, and he packed up to leave. The next four years would be the most meaningful of his life. He later learned that he had received several offers of full scholarships from other schools, which his parents had discarded without showing him. Colonel Don Conroy called these institutions “too Protestant.”
The book details in vivid text how Conroy barely overcame the cruelty and indignities of being a plebe, and his achievement in becoming a valuable basketball player. About this time, a curtain opens in his subconscious, and he foresees, too, his blossoming love and talent for writing. The first male to understand him and to compliment his work was a kind and brilliant English professor.
Conroy’s book describes the games played at The Citadel as though the reader is in the stands, but they are also fraught with Conroy’s insecurities and disappointments. Senior year plays out as a season of joyous wins and many close, but devastating losses. Lasting friendships are forged and Conroy revisits them in this book.
The publication of Conroy’s The Great Santini in 1976 forces Conroy’s father to see himself in the dictatorial, abusive military colonel who is the protagonist of this novel. Conroy’s father feels furious and betrayed, yet, as Conroy writes, the man slowly morphs into a far more normal father and husband. An uneasy peace results, and, when he dies in 1998, the father is truly loved by his family. My Losing Season includes a lengthy prologue and epilogue, which were both necessary and helpful to follow Conroy’s own account of his remarkable journey.
From the Wordsmith: Burn, Not Spurn
In darkest, coldest January, we prayed for sunshine. We could not scorn it, as we might now in August when the heat index pushes 100-degrees. Back in January, A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg featured “heliolatry,” a noun, pronounced “hee-lee-OL-uh-tree,” meaning “worship of the sun.”
Heliolatry comes from the Greek helio- (sun) + -latry (worship). A related word, Garg says, is heliotrope (a plant that turns toward the sun). For usage, he offers: “Professor Frazer himself has warned that his vaccine is not an invitation to feckless heliolatry, stressing that any jab, no matter how effective, ‘is not a replacement for prevention’.” –Tamara Sheward, “Browned Off by a Baking Fad” in the Herald-Sun (Melbourne, Australia), January 7, 2010.
For more: http://wordsmith.org/words/today.html
From Word Spy: Life at Idle
From Paul McFedries’ Word Spy comes NEET or Neet, a noun, meaning a young person who is neither working, in school, nor in a training program (from the phrase “not in employment, education, or training.”)
As an example of usage, McFedries offers: “Here’s another thought, lifted from Ridley’s inspiring book: ‘The 21st century will be a magnificent time to be alive,’ he says, a message which deserves to be disseminated far beyond the literary pages, so as to reach everyone from Neets and unemployed graduates to Lib Dems who cannot believe what they have got themselves into.” –Catherine Bennett, “Phew. At last we can ignore the gurus peddling happiness,” The Observer, June 27, 2010.
For more: http://www.wordspy.com/
“So What’s Your Excuse This Time?” You overslept. You’re late. The boss is in your face about it and you’ve got say something ASAP—up to 400 words—before our Fifth Tuesday feast and festival on August 31.
Let Shel Ellestad or Jerry Peterson know you’re coming and how many others you plan to bring as guests. Your guests don’t have to be writers, or even readers, yet. If they’ve already heard your old, lame excusesFriends, spouses, and children are welcome. Details on the exact time and location are coming soon.
Please send your Writing Challenge “Late-to-Work Excuse” to Jerry pronto.
The Final WordThanks very much to all Tuesdays who contributed to this issue of Writer’s Mail.
“When an editor tells you (the writer) that something is not working and makes a suggestion about how to fix it, you have to be the judge of whether that is the right fix. Editors are very happy to have the writer come up with better fixes than theirs.” –Kate Wilhelm (author of more than 30 novels and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and other awards) in Storyteller.
Tuesdays with Story 
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