a new blog

I've added a new blog to my list -- Baghdad Bureau, w/ Ahmad Fadam. Regardless of your position on the war, I think it's important to be open to this perspective. Because all of us need to be challenged on this issue -- politically, spiritually, and humanly. We are living in a time and place where it is so easy to be unconscious to war. And that alone makes me feel very uneasy.

they write down their words one at a time...just like you and me

I went out to lunch w/ a friend/colleague this afternoon and we got into talking about all the celebrity encounters we've had--between the two of us, there were plenty. Some of them were big media celebrities, like Cal Ripkin, Jr. or Chris Noth, while others were those whose presence got to us, namely those writers we admired. I told her about meeting Andre Dubus, while she told me about meeting a reverend who greatly influenced her life (incidentally, both encounters took place at Quail Ridge Books -- I bow down to you, QRB). We got on the subject of getting starstruck--stammering, saying stupid things, or saying nothing and just *looking* stupid. And we wondered, who would we really want to meet but would be afraid of making fools of ourselves in front of?

I've already talked about John Taylor, but I got to thinking specifically of writers with whom I'd love to have a conversation but would fear the starstruck factor. Two come to mind: Aaron Sorkin and Nora Ephron.

Maybe it's because they have academy award nominations and emmys. Maybe it's because their words are iconic: Men and women can't be friends because the sex part gets in the way; You can't handle the truth! Maybe because they've worked with a caliber of talent that I could only work with in my dreams. Maybe it's because of just how they've influenced my writing, left an impression on my style. When I write dialogue, for instance, I visualize the scene playing out in front of me, an ensemble cast w/ Allison Janney and Brad Whitford and Tim Busfield saying the words. I imagine Mahattan locations. When I write from what I know, I think of Nora Ephron, when I play with rhythms, patterns, and voices, I think of Aaron Sorkin. When I write humor, I think of both of them. And many more, too.

But when it comes down to it, they're writers, just like you and me. They write crappy first drafts and endless revisions. Their characters talk to them (or perhaps don't talk to them sometimes). They have writing routines, periods of time when it's all crankin' out and times when they've got nothin'. They have a process. They have certain readers whom they want to please and whose opinion matters to them. They know struggle. They also know tension, resolution. They know their themes, what moves them to write, what they witness and respond to. The know the language. They know the words. I can certainly have a conversation about that, can I not?

And it's about the conversation. Surely they would appreciate that. Especially Aaron, king of the conversation. I would want to talk about the words with them.

So Aaron? Nora? Meet me for coffee sometime? I'm buying.
And I'll try not to say something stupid, I promise.

looking for Cary Grant

Lately I've been into Cary Grant. I get Turner Classic Movies and they show a lot of his films, especially in the afternoon (which I prefer to, say, John Wayne films). I'm not a film buff and I'm not nearly familiar enough w/ Cary Grant to extoll his virtues as an actor, icon, yada yada yada, but there was definitely something about him that I haven't seen before or since, that je ne sais quoi.(Editor's Note: I corrected the spelling on this, thanks to kaa's comment. You don't wanna know what I had before...). They say George Clooney comes close, but I'm not buying it.

The man was a great comedian, for one thing. His timing was excellent. He could play both comic and straight man. He handled dramatic well, too. He was attuned to what was going on around him. I've often heard that good actors listen. He also had that accent going for him, of course. And he was incredibly handsome. Romantic. I saw him in Notorious recently, w/ Ingrid Bergman. Ooo la la... Yesterday afternoon, TCM showed a film (I never did get the title) in which Grant played an angel who comes to a bishop, played by David Niven, and his wife (it just came to me: could it have been The Preacher's Wife?). Anyhoo, everyone who comes into the angel's path falls in love w/ him -- men and women alike (all except the bishop, of course). They fall in love w/ his charm, his friendliness, his sense of joy, etc. It was clearly a cute little movie, what I would call "delightful", walking a fine line of that and cornball. The point is, I don't think it was a hard stretch of plausibility to fall in love w/ Cary Grant.

I don't know if he could handle the accent, but if there was ever a movie about Grant's life, it occurred to me that w/ makeup and wardrobe, Chris Noth could make a good Cary Grant. Just a thought, anyway.

The point is, I like when characters inspire other characters. When I first conceived my novel Faking It, I had originally envisioned Devin to be a younger version of Mr. Big in terms of looks and style. In my unfinished academic farce, I described the priest as "a George Clooney knock-off" in looks, humor, and charm. I think creative writing is/can be just as rhetorical as academic writing. That is, it's often in response to something else. (Isn't it interesting that I chose the two characters in which I made earlier comparisons to Grant? I didn't do that consciously!)

I wonder, could a Cary Grant-esque character be pulled off in this day and age? Or is he forever canonized (too much hyperbole w/ that word choice?) in black and white, or grainy, gritty color? When I think about it, Devin could be as close as they come, although I hadn't intended to write him that way (and in the sequel's revisions, I actually did make the comparison).

I've been thinking about character the last few days, especially since ours haven't been talking to us much these days (or, they're sending mixed messages, or I'm just not interpreting them correctly). My writing partner and I actually had to make a list of flaws for one character because we thought he was getting too close to flawless. It was fun, really. And I suppose there's a little bit of me in my characters, especially the protagonists, whether it's sharing a taste in music or our writing profession or my stubbornness. A well of self-inspiration.

Nevertheless I'm sure Cary Grant will appear, and reappear, in my writing, just as Aaron Sorkin, Richard Russo, Nora Ephron, and I already do.

Apparently, he already has.

typical

I knew it.
Today I am officially starting my fall semester course planning and what's running through my head? Ideas for my creative projects.

One blow to the head oughtta do it...

weekend edition

So, forgive my absence -- the 4th isn't my favorite time of year.

Today wound up being a day to totally crash -- read, nap, watch Wimbeldon (Nadal beat Federer! I still can't believe it!) -- and eat choc chip pancakes w/ too many choc chips in them (if there is such a thing as too many). The highlight of the weekend was my writing partner who, on demand (yes, I literally demanded her to get me out of my writers block), set me up w/ a scene to write. She wrote the first half of the scene, I wrote the second, and while she spent the weekend moving into a new home, I went to Caribou and merged the two pieces. We both concluded that we rock.

Tomorrow begins my descent into fall semester course planning. It's time. I want to get mentally and physically prepared now so that I'm not complaining and scrambling later. And I know what's going to happen. All of a sudden, I'm going to have a burst of inspiration for my creative projects and will want to work on them instead. Then I'll kick myself for watching so much tv this past week (four hours of friggin' L&O CI yesterday!). Let's hope I'll stay focused.

The other highlight was watching Juno (finally!) last night (really good!) and revising my vision board this morning. Yes, I have a vision board. I'm a big fan of vision boards. I use a cork board and pushpins rather than oak tag and glue because I find the vision changes from time to time. I also like vision boards because I love making collages. And I find that vision boards sometimes stimulate my creative energy, which translates to writing. Anyhoo, I added a whole bunch of images to my vision board, and it looks quite packed and pretty now.

There you have it: I survived another 4th-of-July weekend. Hooray. Let the Dog Days officially begin.

trudging through the mud

I wrote close to 3000 words per day during the month of May. That's insane. So it occurred to me that maybe I burnt myself out. Because I don't think I wrote 3000 words for the entire month of June. And maybe I just needed to cool out, numb myself on tv (honestly, doesn't anyone show original programming anymore? marathon after marathon after fucking marathon. How many times can you see the same Vincent D'Onofrio L&O episodes? I mean, he's awesome and everything, but come on...).

Yesterday I took out my nonfiction draft and read it, making notes in the margins and stuff. Crap. Crap crap crap. I banged those drafts out so quickly, and in a very short span of time. A chapter a day, pretty much. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of revision that needs to be done. Then again, I say that everytime. And once I let go and let it come to me, lo and behold, I've got a revised piece, a finished draft. So there.

But if I may change the topic, please do check out the mystic-lit blog and read the cheese post. I need to write a comment on it and say thanks, because I so needed to hear it.

So here's to being productive today. I don't have much time left-- I've got to mentally and physically start prepping for the fall semester.
(any good marathons on?)

feelin' the love

Last I checked, my You Tube video got 75 hits--of course, 70 of those were from me... Just kidding, although I had a hard time trying to figure out how the embedding worked, and I *still* can't get it on my own website.

I sent the link to at least 50 people, posted it on my Facebook page (yes, I caved and got a Facebook page), and Stacey has linked it on the Write 2 Publish site. That's pretty cool. Also nice is how many responded to tell me how much they liked it, and asked when/where the book was going to be published. It makes me feel a little better about going through w/ self-publishing, namely print-on-demand. There's a demand!

I felt very validated, especially by those friends and family who told me how proud they were of me, how far I've come, how I'm "on my way" in terms of my writing career. I even got compliments on my glasses! And if you've known me for longer than these last eight years, you'd know that I *have* come a long way. And things are moving forward for sure. It's both exciting and scary. But it's good. But it excited me into another writers block the past two days. I think I'll come out of it today, though. I'm getting together w/ friends at Caribou for "communal writing", and I'm making plans to get together w/ someone else and share the nonfiction book w/ her -- that motivates me to want to work on that.

Anyhoo, today's gratitude list includes Google, YouTube, Stacey, all my friends and family (and those I don't know) who viewed it, and my laptop/internet. In other words, thanks, technology!