Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
Tuesdays with Story
February 4, 2015

 He said it . . .

“You know, sometimes people say to me, ‘Why do you choose to write that creepy stuff?’ And I usually say, ‘What makes you think I have a choice?’ ” – Stephen King, novelist/short story writer (1947- )

 Neither snow nor sleet nor dark of night . . .

 Yes, Madison got three inches of snow yesterday afternoon and evening, making a mess of rush-hour traffic. Nonetheless, four first-and-thirders proved they had no fear of winter’s worst and trekked into B&N.

Kashmira Sheth and Amit Trivedi (chapter 12, novel) – This story, set in 1947 India after the partition of India and Pakistan, is about the love of two young people frustrated by circumstances over which they have n o control. The major discussion centered on when is the best time to provide a detailed description of a character, when the character first appears in the story or when the character becomes important to the story?

Mike Rickey (“Samadhi”, a poem) – Samadhi is a journey inward, the practitioners striving to become free of sensory input so they can focus on heart, mind, and soul. Discussion centered on several critical lines in the poem. Here’s one: “A secure heart is tremendous work to clean.” If a heart is secure, that suggests it is already clean. But what if the interpretation were a secure heart (desirable) requires a tremendous work to maintain? That, all agreed, is more on target. “Everyone interprets a poem differently,” Amit said, “based on his or her own experiences.”

Jerry Peterson (chapters 7-8, Rooster’s Story) – Discussion here centered on when is something an information dump and should be cut? In chapter 7, Mulqueen tells the Wright brothers why he is in their debt . . . they had defended him in an incident in WW I. Said Kashmira, that is something the men would have talked over years ago back in the war, after the incident. If it’s important to the story, she said, create a moment between Mulqueen and his daughter where she asks why he feels he owes the brothers something, and then he explains about the incident back in the war.

Who’s up next . . .

February 10: Rebecca Rettenmund (chapter 9, Lookout).

February 17: Lisa McDougal (chapter 26, Tebow Family Secret), Amber Boudreau (flash fiction), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter 12, part 2, novel), Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapter 11, Coastie Girl), Millie Mader (chapter 60, Life on Hold), and Andy Brown (chapter, The Last Library).

March 3: Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapter 12, Coastie Girl),, Pat Edwards (???), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Mike Rickey (poems), Judith McNeil (???), and Jerry Peterson (chapters 9-10, Rooster’s Story).

Fifth Tuesday . . .

Do you have it on your calendar? If not, block the date out today so you can be sure to be with us. . . on March 31 at Mystery To Me Bookstore. Second-and-fourth group hosts.

Special guest, TWS alumna Susan Gloss Parsons. William Morrow published Susan’s first novel, Vintage, last year. She will talk with us about her book and her publishing experiences. 

Great phrase . . .

From Word Spy Paul McFedreis:

tech-free tourism

Meaning: (noun) Travelling without a mobile phone or similar devices, particularly to places that block or cannot access internet or cellular signals.

Examples:

“We’re adding one more travel trend to our 2014 list – tech-free tourism. If you’re addicted to your gadgets and social media, going cold turkey has never been scarier. So here are our top travel destinations – with device-free policies and/or sans wifi (the horror!) – that’ll help you quash that FOMO.”
– Shairah Thoufeekh, Travel Trend: Tech-Free Tourism, The Honeycombers, April 1, 2014
Editor’s note: FOMO is short for fear of missing out.

“Journalist seeks comment on tech-free tourism.”
– SourceBottle, Journalist seeks…, Twitter, August 18, 2013

“Tech-free tourist destinations are gaining popularity among business travellers looking for a true detox from the digital world. … Islands are the obvious choice for tech-free tourism. Queensland’s luxury Lizard Island is also proud of their no mobile phone coverage status on their 24 private beaches.”
– Rachael Oakes-Ash, Digital detox: the rise of tech-free tourism, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 11, 2013

Earliest:

“Dave Decker has a summer vacation idea: Take your cellphone and notebook computer, put them in an egg basket and just walk away. Decker is executive director of the Tri-State Tourism Council, which covers southwest Wisconsin and parts of Iowa and Illinois. He’s urged tourism businesses to promote technology-free getaways – in part because it’s sometimes hard to get a wireless connection in their neck of the woods.
– Rick Barrett, Southwest Wisconsin cellphone gaps pitched as tech-free tourism, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 14, 2012

Notes:
Reader Mark Worden told me about a synonym – no-tech tourism – that was coined by novelist and artist Douglas Coupland:

“No-tech tourism is a form of temporal eco-tourism in which one reads books or watches film and TV precisely because of the absence of 21st-century technologies.”
– Douglas Coupland, I’m with Smupid!, The Financial Times, September 6, 2013

Kashmira Sheth’s 9th book out in April . . .

And it’s a picture book, Sona and the Wedding Game. Peachtree Publishers will release the book one April 1. Kashmira, a member of TWS’s first-and-third group, has not yet set a date for the local launch, but it will be at B&N Westside.

Kirkus gave the book a starred review, highly prized because starred reviews are hard to come by.

Here’s the story synopsis: Sona’s big sister is getting married and she’s been given an important job to do. She has to steal the groom’s shoes. Sona’s never attended a wedding before, so she’s unfamiliar with this Indian tradition as well as many of the other magical experiences that will occur before and during this special event. But with the assistance of her annoying cousin Vishal, Sona finds a way to steal the shoes and get a very special reward.

The last word . . .

“People are always asking me to what I attribute the success of The Mousetrap. Apart from replaying with the obvious answer, ‘Luck!’ – because it is luck, ninety percent luck, at least, I should say – the only reason I can give is that there is a bit of something in it for everybody.” – Agatha Christie, mystery writer/short story writer/playwright (1890-1976)

Editor’s note: The Mousetrap opened in London’s West End in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. It has by far the longest initial run of any play in history, with its 25,000th performance taking place on November 18, 2012. It is the longest running show of any type in modern times.