tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5785384423348091782024-03-13T04:52:27.661-07:00Once Upon A Time, Ruth Knafo Setton's blogRuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-36920690852930018222023-06-26T13:56:00.000-07:002023-06-26T13:56:40.439-07:00Picky Eaters!<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhAUv4HgPViNGq3m-c2dThbFTK6KF1Zl1RHXXjOGEzLb4G7TuXWD0--bM1gpzRtV2Np7ski94-CwGfwKmodl2OjHr1Jc83F-z8sfTIGmpWbPD_xyh_SFN1lQduXyqk6Qgcww9FZEuFZFlMVtBB-mthSFYU1kVtK2wKnRiraPTsgFO1Jau7lip1jURsBQxu5" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1139" data-original-width="2048" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhAUv4HgPViNGq3m-c2dThbFTK6KF1Zl1RHXXjOGEzLb4G7TuXWD0--bM1gpzRtV2Np7ski94-CwGfwKmodl2OjHr1Jc83F-z8sfTIGmpWbPD_xyh_SFN1lQduXyqk6Qgcww9FZEuFZFlMVtBB-mthSFYU1kVtK2wKnRiraPTsgFO1Jau7lip1jURsBQxu5=w400-h223" width="400" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Picky Eaters is a game created by my son, Avi Setton, and his wife, Tanya Basu. They have created and developed a wonderful card game called Picky Eaters. I'm so proud of them! I've played the game several times now, and I love it! Here's Tanya to tell you all about it. Enjoy!</span></p><p>In December 2022, during that weird gap of time between Christmas and the New Year, we dreamed up our card game, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pickyeaters/picky-eaters" target="_blank">Picky Eaters</a>. </p><p> Avi, my husband and co-designer, and I were sitting at our kitchen island, drinking coffee, and sharing what we had dreamed of the night before. Usually, our dreams were bizarre nonsensical adventures, but Avi had a semi-lucid dream where he had created a game and was excited about it. This wasn’t strange for him — Avi and I had become regular boardgamers over the pandemic, and his mind was the type of logical, mechanical space that slipped into game mode at rest, not unlike the dream game sequences that occur in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit. In the dream, Avi was tasked with creating mixtapes specific to a person’s musical tastes. The mixtapes could be shuffled and re-combined, but each person’s requirements added nuance to the process. When Avi woke up, he thought the mixtape idea would be a great foundation for a game. </p><p>I thought so, too. Maybe I was starting to be hungry for breakfast, or maybe my own brain — which spends its free time swirling around cooking, recipes, and food — was also in a dream state. “What about the mixtape, but with food?” I asked. “Like you have to make them what they want?”</p><p>Over the next few hours, we sketched out what would become Picky Eaters. We knew it would be a straightforward game, but we also wanted it to be strategic, a game that would unite parents and kids, serious gamers and more casual ones. We knew we wanted a game that reflected the currents of food today. We wanted something memorable and fast with a bit of a competitive edge, where there was no way players could know who was “winning” or “losing” until scorepads were drawn up. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWluSj8-Ketbld0dTr249N6bg0_bPYpoLnd6kaQ-jijIZbl7oXFqih-SUGDQg0F1uTSLpFnR36GoGMPXfYwaHM6TKq0i2c0dZClll0X1y5p2Lx9-CvhGxpnJ31tEwQAjkojqarlcICH4lkya5vV6LEbGBOsL6YoT95RZAEhG2WZxPNjQtmpCt8hoA6UFCD/s640/Picky%20Eaters%20cover.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="453" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWluSj8-Ketbld0dTr249N6bg0_bPYpoLnd6kaQ-jijIZbl7oXFqih-SUGDQg0F1uTSLpFnR36GoGMPXfYwaHM6TKq0i2c0dZClll0X1y5p2Lx9-CvhGxpnJ31tEwQAjkojqarlcICH4lkya5vV6LEbGBOsL6YoT95RZAEhG2WZxPNjQtmpCt8hoA6UFCD/s320/Picky%20Eaters%20cover.jpeg" width="227" /></a></div><p>The game revolves around having 5 picky guests over, and making them a meal that respects their dietary restrictions. That means including meals that go beyond what we might consider Western meals and including recipes that combine ingredients in non-Western ways. </p><p>This was really important to Avi and me. We both grew up the children of immigrants, and food was a central part of our childhoods. As the child of Indian immigrants, dinner every night was Indian (save for Saturdays, when breakfast was diner-style breakfast by my dad and lunch and dinner was fast food, which I deeply appreciate to this day). But I was always confused by what people associated with Indian food, because it was not the Indian food I grew up with. The Indian food in restaurants were tomato-y, creamy chicken curries, naan, mixed vegetable thalis, paneer. Those are all delicious foods, but my Bengali parents were cooking up a menu that most Indian restaurant menus simply don't address: mustardy fish dishes, goat curries, and steamed vegetables topped with mustard oil (in case it's not clear, Bengalis have a thing for mustard). </p><p>Avi grew up the child of Israeli and Moroccan immigrants, and I've heard many stories about how his family ate at holiday dinners. His grandma self-published a cookbook that we cherish filled with traditional Sephardic, Moroccan recipes, many of which graced elaborate Shabbat dinners. There are tagines, couscous, and vegetables prepared in time-honored ways, layered with spices. Like me, Avi found descriptions of what was considered "Jewish" food very different from his lived experience. </p><p>For both of us, growing up in the 90s in majority white suburbs, we understood early on that food played an integral role in identity. We both loved the suburban foods of our childhood and to this day resort to macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets when we need a little comfort. But there are some meals that hit the nostalgia sector of our brains in a way no other food can. A cozy bowl of hot, brothy couscous with squash, peppers, and tomatoes nourishes Avi when he feels like he needs a pick-me-up of nutrition and warmth on a cold day. For me, there is nothing like a plate of turmeric-y dal ladled on a bed of rice when my stomach isn't happy. </p><p>Creating art that was both reflective of our experience and introduced others to a new perspective they might not have had was a driving force for us. Like other sectors, the board game community has grappled with diversity and inclusion over the past several years.</p><p>We knew our experiences weren’t the only ones, and we also knew that our experiences offered us a unique perspective into game design. As Wingspan designer Elizabeth Hargrave has pointed out repeatedly, <a href="https://twitter.com/elizhargrave/status/1661014895444496396" target="_blank">male designers continue to dominate board game awards</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/elizhargrave/status/1663883853612589058" target="_blank">despite the fact that women are a strong force in the community</a>.</p><p>Furthermore, board games have often only focused on the experiences of mostly white cis-men, with common themes being war, trains, and conquests. Sure, many of those games are fun, but they can get tiring and isolating. There has been a growing surge of interest and desire to create games that tell stories from other perspectives with themes that deviate from the norm, such as Black, queer, and other perspectives. </p><p>We’re hoping Picky Eaters — and future games to come from Le Fou — can offer something new and fun in these veins for beginning board game players, sparking conversation and a sense of inclusion. </p><p>In a few short weeks, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pickyeaters/picky-eaters" target="_blank">on July 11, we will launch Picky Eaters on Kickstarter</a>. It’s been both a whirlwind (we only designed this game seven months ago in our kitchen!) and a slog (the month of May as we anxiously waited for our prototypes to ship was one of the longest in recorded history, I am sure). We have no idea how Picky Eaters will be received by the public, but we plan to offer expansions that dive deeper into the Picky Eater universe (Avi has already designed a full expansion and we’d love to have versions that address regional cuisine and desserts). One thing is for sure: We’re excited to introduce the world to Picky Eaters! </p><p>If you’d like to learn more, visit our <a href="https://www.lefoullc.com/" target="_blank">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lefoullc/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/LeFouLLC" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG0xWlm3ffg" target="_blank">Check out the teaser to Picky Eaters here</a>. And <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pickyeaters/picky-eaters" target="_blank">sign up to get notified when we launch on Kickstarter here</a>. </p><p>Thank you for your support!
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPEBv1Z2iC8W2-hCw6w176dMsY7Bs0hjB_uLvH6kxGDqvDfUOH1UafPiJ3PMKcGsXExGmY8Y-oOjRThUUDaVL3XIAQgCZWf_VcBvfU_np5nSZcnnDTiCH2bytzA2-jx1RjUGtezrT3I7I1SDpfCieMxz2N6POcZ_S6yXWhW7OVy3VFJW7dCcSI1hIqE7sG/s640/about%20us%20final.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="640" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPEBv1Z2iC8W2-hCw6w176dMsY7Bs0hjB_uLvH6kxGDqvDfUOH1UafPiJ3PMKcGsXExGmY8Y-oOjRThUUDaVL3XIAQgCZWf_VcBvfU_np5nSZcnnDTiCH2bytzA2-jx1RjUGtezrT3I7I1SDpfCieMxz2N6POcZ_S6yXWhW7OVy3VFJW7dCcSI1hIqE7sG/w640-h350/about%20us%20final.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div>Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-30954846054634069402023-04-21T14:02:00.001-07:002023-04-21T14:02:17.003-07:00Zigzag Girl Rises from the Box!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_MAmWAfmcpdgw0_q7oUjj8B5-89BmS8HZKk2QdE0-MRZ6Z9zabRM5zy6ZykouwoM4b-tgOKJEXZhYy3t3iV2PNmzJf-ac3aWeeiGxHVzl1DduG_aPlBAZoZ84PUsUaI_nJeha_P7RIb51WBxArFQOho96CrsKzEyO1qF4A4pcoKLNUFZVkqFIwf8s8w" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_MAmWAfmcpdgw0_q7oUjj8B5-89BmS8HZKk2QdE0-MRZ6Z9zabRM5zy6ZykouwoM4b-tgOKJEXZhYy3t3iV2PNmzJf-ac3aWeeiGxHVzl1DduG_aPlBAZoZ84PUsUaI_nJeha_P7RIb51WBxArFQOho96CrsKzEyO1qF4A4pcoKLNUFZVkqFIwf8s8w" width="180" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Hello, my friends! It's been a while. If you follow me on FaceBook, Instagram or Twitter, you know that I'm around, and busy. But I'm rethinking the best ways for me to use social media. Today, I posted for the first time on Substack Notes. Just giving it a try.</p><p>Meanwhile let's do a catch-up and round-up. The big news is that I entered my novel, Zigzag Girl, in the ScreenCraft Cinematic Book competition, and it won! </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_Sr8HaqSEtQPIRjVyad-RdNNkLiTl8Lo7FfXtDlzVjPmt-DOv01HAdLG6uoaWMAu9mnVyfVsntDmtD7IDZs1CN_XJnmaw4gR4fzdcg7_piqfHGpH9UmkYsKJczbqhpyZ753D8DNL20A-k4QjnqFLpc15LHH4xNIWrhfCGRNN_MDoHc0qLFx-M89HeNQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="749" data-original-width="750" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_Sr8HaqSEtQPIRjVyad-RdNNkLiTl8Lo7FfXtDlzVjPmt-DOv01HAdLG6uoaWMAu9mnVyfVsntDmtD7IDZs1CN_XJnmaw4gR4fzdcg7_piqfHGpH9UmkYsKJczbqhpyZ753D8DNL20A-k4QjnqFLpc15LHH4xNIWrhfCGRNN_MDoHc0qLFx-M89HeNQ" width="240" /></a></div><br />I'm the Grand Prize winner! With the prize comes a year of mentorship with Richard Kahan. I'm absolutely thrilled. <p></p><p>Those of you who know me know how long and hard I've worked on this book. I'll say more about it another time, but briefly, it's a mystery suspense novel about a female magician that takes place in Atlantic City. Yup, Atlantic City, with detours into the notorious Pine Barrens. It's got magic, a haunted theatre on the boardwalk, a band of colorful characters, a reluctant killer. And unfortunately, for our hero, Lucy Moon, the mysterious magician she's attracted to is the prime suspect.</p><p>I'm looking forward to Zigzag Girl's journey into the world. Meanwhile I'm working on a new novel and a screenplay. More on those later too.</p><p>As for the round-up-- I don't know about you, but during the pandemic I got used to watching movies and binging shows and miniseries... I went through a craze during which I obsessed over movies from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Movies before cell phones and computers. I craved the street scenes, watching human beings crowded on a city street. No one looking at a phone. When people needed to make a call, they used a phone booth! </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEieJ6WvRjEdm9eifhKA2Pln3YE5PRGN2mWl1H-kOWZIDED8nRkXzP_hwNJEVRxgEYu525C7u9ezWNoxDRXHysOI069jBqRDAOIIWlkpU1lsxKk1heS1ZFIrfpva4CIWwNONxHK843R0gWdZZ2cuO8BOGxEgfcqJcOgMq_7T_6DdXCCqVQrkN1C_0ClF1Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEieJ6WvRjEdm9eifhKA2Pln3YE5PRGN2mWl1H-kOWZIDED8nRkXzP_hwNJEVRxgEYu525C7u9ezWNoxDRXHysOI069jBqRDAOIIWlkpU1lsxKk1heS1ZFIrfpva4CIWwNONxHK843R0gWdZZ2cuO8BOGxEgfcqJcOgMq_7T_6DdXCCqVQrkN1C_0ClF1Q" width="240" /></a></div><br />Detectives went to people's houses to talk to them. Once you left your home or office, you couldn't be reached. Can you imagine? You were incommunicado. When you got home the first thing you did was check if the light on your answering machine was flashing, which meant you had a message. There was something so personal and intimate about human connections and interactions. Which leads me back to those street scenes. <p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBDPqn0pL5bpCvK6HaNV0Xxfb41kfmSz33ybFWY4FOb5yQLmkEk48MAW1bBNxscDqSY-KwaF0vwIzia4jPM8Z9_CsFiwltLQ1ujy1siJLYEihamywruG-hQ7xxI7dqo3iteXMd30iPSqcCyPhAB67XH4ilL_-SaeF7WkGqvqlbAzP_ehKDY_oApXiBVw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBDPqn0pL5bpCvK6HaNV0Xxfb41kfmSz33ybFWY4FOb5yQLmkEk48MAW1bBNxscDqSY-KwaF0vwIzia4jPM8Z9_CsFiwltLQ1ujy1siJLYEihamywruG-hQ7xxI7dqo3iteXMd30iPSqcCyPhAB67XH4ilL_-SaeF7WkGqvqlbAzP_ehKDY_oApXiBVw" width="320" /></a></div><br />I'm sure the lockdown and masks and isolation intensified the yearning to see people's faces again-- not on Zoom-- but in person. So I watched movies: <i>Dirty Harry, The Conversation, Blow Out, Three Days of the Condor, Dog Day Afternoon, Moonstruck, Tootsie</i>... <p></p><p>And for shows set in the present I binged <i>Severance, White Lotus, The Last of Us</i>, and others. I'm currently loving <i>Perry Mason</i>, which is set in 1930s LA, which is retro and moody with brilliant music.</p><p>That's enough for now. Hope you're all doing well. And I'll be back soon.</p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-43015091619592617712022-10-12T05:46:00.000-07:002022-10-12T05:46:06.826-07:00 Girl Meets Ghost: The Inspiration for I Scream Man<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9yIoMHvrWwm4AzeIkqjaazQxOQo8GzeHYfOkshnJtnhXZhG60eSM76kHFJg6Qv5kObmZF3C-ywKbOay12Wk6ZYXca1HqSAnym25pxoMjz1uXApuPa9T0NHnWnH1k49g2P6EukCml4pZLQr0YmnClFoME-XV8u2ESq6w65dgvJISqnC5YSUpqJutRW/s640/I%20SCREAM%20MAN%20cover%20FNL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="427" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9yIoMHvrWwm4AzeIkqjaazQxOQo8GzeHYfOkshnJtnhXZhG60eSM76kHFJg6Qv5kObmZF3C-ywKbOay12Wk6ZYXca1HqSAnym25pxoMjz1uXApuPa9T0NHnWnH1k49g2P6EukCml4pZLQr0YmnClFoME-XV8u2ESq6w65dgvJISqnC5YSUpqJutRW/s320/I%20SCREAM%20MAN%20cover%20FNL.jpeg" width="214" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Today's guest post is by my friend, kindred spirit, and sister-writer, Katherine Ramsland, who discusses the inspiration for her recently published crime novel, <i>I Scream Man</i>. Katherine has played chess with serial killers, dug up the dead, worked with profilers, and camped out in haunted crime scenes. As a professor of forensic psychology and an investigative consultant, she’s vigilant for unique angles and intriguing characters. She's as fascinating as she sounds, and when the two of us get together, our conversations roam the world and go on for hours, especially when we talk about writing and crime. Take it away, Katherine!</span></div><div><br /></div><div>What do ghost hunters, crime writers, and forensic scientists have in common? They all seek to solve mysteries. This shared goal, and some overlapping tools, inspired me to approach paranormalist Mark Nesbitt to co-write <i>Blood and Ghosts: Haunted Crime Scene Investigations</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Scientific methods come first. Only when we run out of options do we use paranormal tools, such as mediums, dowsing rods and recorders. Even then, all leads must be corroborated. A case in point: When a medium told us that a murder had occurred in 1936 in a specific room at a haunted winery, we looked for news accounts. There were none. She “divined” that the murder was covered up. This explanation doesn’t fly. No records, no credibility. </div><div><br /></div><div>My investigations with Mark inspired my current fiction. <i>I Scream Man</i> is the first novel in the Nut Cracker series. Forensic psychologist Annie Hunter manages a PI agency that “takes on hard nuts to crack” – including some with rumors of ghosts. Her core team includes Ayden, a private eye, and Natra, a cadaver dog handler who doubles as a data-miner. Annie also has a network of forensic experts to call on, as well some skilled paranormalists. </div><div><br /></div><div>She’s a skeptic. She swiftly exposes phenomena that can be explained by other means. However, she’s open to the possibility of a genuine ghostly encounter. She’s heard about some that she can’t discount, such as the report about ghosts dancing on a grave near Philadelphia that inspired a search that uncovered a mass murder. (I do inject actual incidents like this into my stories.) </div><div><br /></div><div>I first introduced my team in a short story that I based on a case where I live. Frank Smith had a business partnership with offices in a hotel. His firm was going under when Smith suddenly killed himself. He and his partners had taken out a life insurance policy with payouts meant to cover their share should any of them die. But the plan had a suicide clause, and Smith had died before it expired. His wife and partners contested the coroner’s finding, to no avail. </div><div><br /></div><div>Three months passed before the first ghost report. A maid was cleaning the former office. As she wiped the bathroom mirror, she saw the reflection of a man in a brown suit staring at her. She turned. He was gone. She quit. Rumors floated of other such sightings in and near that room over the next few years. </div><div><br /></div><div>My real-life paranormal investigators thought we should explore this case. Maybe Smith hadn’t killed himself. Maybe he’d been murdered and his ghost was trying to get someone’s attention. There’d been rumors of a contract hit. We asked the current coroner for the death report. </div><div><br /></div><div>On the morning Smith’s body was discovered, his secretary had tried to enter the bathroom that served as their copy room. When she couldn’t get in, she’d called security. They’d discovered the body, bleeding from shots to the leg and stomach, propped against the door. With no other way in or out, the coroner had decided Smith was alone in the room at the time he died. The gun was there. Ergo, suicide. </div><div><br /></div><div>However, he’d been shot twice. Not impossible but certainly worth a closer look. When we learned that someone had shot at Smith’s home three weeks before his death, we reconsidered the contract hit. But first we had to determine that someone could have shot Smith and escaped the bathroom while leaving him propped against the door. </div><div><br /></div><div>We reconstructed the incident with a mannequin that was Smith’s size and weight. I included this in my Nut Crackers short story, “The Case of the Staring Man.” Renaming Frank Smith as Barry Ross, here’s how Annie Hunter tells it: </div><div><br /></div><div><i>I closed the bathroom door. With some difficulty, we placed our mannequin against it, slumped like a man who’d just been shot. From the other side, Natra pushed. The door didn’t budge. She pushed harder, moving Barry slightly, but she couldn’t get in. Ayden and I repositioned Barry and tried to get out without disturbing him, as we thought his killer would have done. But neither of us could exit and also keep him in place in a way that blocked the door. We even stood the mannequin up. We still couldn’t manage it. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Natra had an idea. She grabbed two foam pillows off one of the double beds. Standing them between the door’s edge and frame, she made a space large enough to squeeze through. Ayden went in to place the mannequin against the door. Then he worked his way through the gap without disturbing the body and pulled the pillows free. The door closed. He pushed. The door resisted. He pushed again and finally got in. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>“Okay,” I said. “Good enough. As long as the killer took the wedge item with him – or her – our locked room mystery is solved. So, by using a removable wedge in the door, a killer could have shot Barry Ross, posed him, and squeezed out.”</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>Like the Nut Crackers, my actual team used recorders to collect electronic voice phenomena (EVP), asking questions to elicit a name and a reason for the haunting. We got a word wrapped in static that we all agreed ended in “er.” Murder? Maybe. In addition, we used dowsing rods to acquire answers to “yes” or “no” questions. An infrared trail camera was set up in the room and to record anomalies that might occur overnight. (No results.) </div><div><br /></div><div>When a records check on the Smith case prevented us from learning more and we couldn’t locate his former wife, we had to accept the dead-end. But the Nut Crackers had more luck. That’s the beauty of fiction. They solved the murder of Barry Ross and found the culprits who’d staged it. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>I Scream Man</i> uses a similar coordination of methods for a much more complex case. Traditional investigation comes first, but paranormal tools are always ready. Annie cites their effectiveness in other cases to justify using them. Her favorite is remote viewing. </div><div><br /></div><div>I hope to continue this series for a long time. Under the right conditions, forensic science, crime writing, and ghost hunting can supplement one another in a way that meets their respective objectives. </div><div><br /></div><div><i><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></i></div><div><i><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><b>I SCREAM MAN</b></i><b> </b></div><div><br /></div><div>When a boy vanishes under strange circumstances, forensic psychologist Annie Hunter collects her team of sleuths, the Nut Crackers. They link the boy to a network of powerful people, the “I Scream Men,” who gain political favors through a juvenile sex trafficking ring. As Annie tries to hide a victim they seek to silence, head predator Alder Plattman – nicknamed “Plat-eye” – snatches her young daughter. Relying on coded clues, some quirky allies, and the mysterious method of remote viewing, Annie sets out to rescue her daughter and cripple the criminal network. Among her associates is attorney Jackson Raines, a youth advocate whose brother stole the network’s secret records before he was murdered. As a hurricane bears down and Plattman chases Annie’s team, they race to recover this vital cache before he can find and destroy it. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtnOlQ6nFuRGWxtG_RUqwksOPiLo7N4si2-AShF_qum9PcxXvyz27W20rCUgJR-4Ul_PSLRy4HxXHQx4Rdy9Lz1hb9b4MfqQc0NSf4Kn4kz51QuwlWx7V4cn0dkBZ4Rqoy28ndTcAWkE3p5vWnModT-SxGzs2WJT-7amsX8YSivDNwvNRpedmb7_l/s432/RamslandAuthorPhoto.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="432" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtnOlQ6nFuRGWxtG_RUqwksOPiLo7N4si2-AShF_qum9PcxXvyz27W20rCUgJR-4Ul_PSLRy4HxXHQx4Rdy9Lz1hb9b4MfqQc0NSf4Kn4kz51QuwlWx7V4cn0dkBZ4Rqoy28ndTcAWkE3p5vWnModT-SxGzs2WJT-7amsX8YSivDNwvNRpedmb7_l/w200-h191/RamslandAuthorPhoto.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><div> <i>Katherine Ramsland</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Katherine Ramsland spent five years working with “BTK” serial killer Dennis Rader to write his autobiography, <i>Confession of a Serial Killer,</i> and has been featured as an expert in over 200 true crime documentaries. The author of 69 books, she’s been a forensic consultant for CSI, Bones and The Alienist, an executive producer on Murder House Flip and A&E’s Confession of a Serial Killer, and a commentator on 48 Hours, 20/20, The Today Show, Dr. Oz, Nightline, Larry King Live, Nancy Grace and other shows. She blogs regularly for <i>Psychology Today</i> and once wrote extensively for CourtTV’s Crime Library. She’s become the go-to expert for the most extreme, deviant and bizarre forms of criminal behavior, which offers great background for her Nut Cracker Investigations series. <i>I Scream Man</i> is the first novel in the series.
</div>madeirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13106231466903705782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-58704747787728612282022-06-29T11:39:00.000-07:002022-06-29T11:39:03.029-07:00My Love Affair with Samba...<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9T17IaP7vu1vOvNnePTQmRDFHOUP8uepFIwb_KwmU2RYCiTDhLXMFxPQjZ12FPtoFuzzRNIus_UbYUH4DM4CFdMCqHpZDj8j-NG39urN3S6T4C5Ar2abvpgS3HNy-ADiv7oyWHrXhmrOXGJhvRlx0hvbgOWoT4GK5LdJv24ou01-pdDVupDkC_c1zkA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9T17IaP7vu1vOvNnePTQmRDFHOUP8uepFIwb_KwmU2RYCiTDhLXMFxPQjZ12FPtoFuzzRNIus_UbYUH4DM4CFdMCqHpZDj8j-NG39urN3S6T4C5Ar2abvpgS3HNy-ADiv7oyWHrXhmrOXGJhvRlx0hvbgOWoT4GK5LdJv24ou01-pdDVupDkC_c1zkA" width="180" /></a></div><i>Baiana from Salvador</i><br /><br /></div><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>"'She came from Bahia, from centuries of dancing and sorrow…' Even that long-ago day in a darkened theater—the first time I heard samba—I knew there was no first time. My ears recognized the whispered words, my mouth tasted the sadness behind the joy, and my feet moved to the rhythm." </i></b></span></p></blockquote></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>My love affair with samba began in that darkened theater years ago, and like all long love affairs, it sparked mysteries, surprises, and discoveries. Music of resistance, music for lovers, sensuous and hushed, it speaks in a whisper louder than a shout. It has been the soundtrack of my life: I've written, dreamed, danced to its rhythm. </p><p>No one expressed the multitude of voices of samba more than the "Little Poet," Vinícius de Moraes. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqHTXIheQx6WyVhi0sIslVPod6R6eK1jLXd8PgABD-NdYige66jiwLRGgnniIOUCb9Fotetm_hv4gmx9L599V909QVfkxlJDcQ285DrUrwOhd5s97owBJZpKUjYMfZ-Zt1YURwn3_SqvYINhYsaXionCUBN2YcnJAo4zjAWMMsvxjvcWgrRLHN18z_0Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqHTXIheQx6WyVhi0sIslVPod6R6eK1jLXd8PgABD-NdYige66jiwLRGgnniIOUCb9Fotetm_hv4gmx9L599V909QVfkxlJDcQ285DrUrwOhd5s97owBJZpKUjYMfZ-Zt1YURwn3_SqvYINhYsaXionCUBN2YcnJAo4zjAWMMsvxjvcWgrRLHN18z_0Q" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Vinícius de Moraes</i></div><p></p><p>Vinícius was my introduction to samba, and I knew that one day I'd need to travel to Brazil, and in particular, to Bahia, where samba was born-- and where he wrote some of his most influential music. The voyage itself was transcendent and transformative, as was the experience of writing an essay about it.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEinQER09clxEai6LhmI6A0wRsTuMb9ZKfEAcxHnAC4qR5Sna12XeCW27Wx-aYfPRrRLUK_08OueslpIWjFvxoUgLPcTQTt3Z3uGkbu67NlQdZYFXXYdYGXXcY_EJ1d9vxm1x-F7vRocQRX8tkjQjtt20PBhJ6V2FlxzIm5utd-1bf-qgWn33gPoNSc3BA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="306" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEinQER09clxEai6LhmI6A0wRsTuMb9ZKfEAcxHnAC4qR5Sna12XeCW27Wx-aYfPRrRLUK_08OueslpIWjFvxoUgLPcTQTt3Z3uGkbu67NlQdZYFXXYdYGXXcY_EJ1d9vxm1x-F7vRocQRX8tkjQjtt20PBhJ6V2FlxzIm5utd-1bf-qgWn33gPoNSc3BA" width="320" /></a></div> <i>Baden Powell (l) and Vinícius de Moraes (r)</i><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p>"A Mouthful of Sadness: Listening to Vinícius in Bahia" came out today in <i>Off Assignment</i>, and I'd like to share it with you. An interview follows the piece. Please follow the link:</p><p>https://mailchi.mp/offassignment/vinicius-in-bahia/</p><p>I'd love to know what you think, and if you've experienced similar voyages-- through the mind and the world-- that resulted in unexpected revelations. </p><p><i>Sarava</i>!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhW2M_K2RXufCIcL38WewWAXPolDtVHfpaaT3_0mTXjdnwMqMcYxSsfzaXXatqXLyYChJzgxP1QxtvpzcKaoua5bvsfOMf0Xgd53WTnwHELMbAlqMH58VMOLmV8UxNqEvgPrRJsM8Kpm9S8L7rpr7jZ6LJJoXbVhVdtUfPPwLaRWliotYUa2aVtdPxmAw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhW2M_K2RXufCIcL38WewWAXPolDtVHfpaaT3_0mTXjdnwMqMcYxSsfzaXXatqXLyYChJzgxP1QxtvpzcKaoua5bvsfOMf0Xgd53WTnwHELMbAlqMH58VMOLmV8UxNqEvgPrRJsM8Kpm9S8L7rpr7jZ6LJJoXbVhVdtUfPPwLaRWliotYUa2aVtdPxmAw" width="180" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p>Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-91077907832122854602022-03-14T09:23:00.001-07:002022-03-15T08:10:30.829-07:00Dreaming for a Living<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhkvFWcCheIsKCWbYYNMtp4vyD-KpTa8wlQKgQFEDSVXGRlMF8lJTfwhS6qg2HVIwsV1bqNekqdokX9N9llmkFSEMdd7pKlMeesy_4YE4JDfq1WuwSeFaqHOKApHgbx8siqt8-lB3e-bt_M9pv83MmyWqagO57OwvqZ1IaCV_6OBZFDLY33A3IhZw1cWw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="185" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhkvFWcCheIsKCWbYYNMtp4vyD-KpTa8wlQKgQFEDSVXGRlMF8lJTfwhS6qg2HVIwsV1bqNekqdokX9N9llmkFSEMdd7pKlMeesy_4YE4JDfq1WuwSeFaqHOKApHgbx8siqt8-lB3e-bt_M9pv83MmyWqagO57OwvqZ1IaCV_6OBZFDLY33A3IhZw1cWw" width="163" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><p><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><b><i>I dream for a living. --Steven Spielberg</i></b></p><p>Thanks to my son, director/editor Ishai Setton, I was privileged to attend the all-star lineup at the DGA's roundtable with the five directors nominated for the 2022 Director's Guild of America Award: Paul Thomas Anderson, Denis Villeneuve, Jane Campion, Steven Spielberg, and Kenneth Branagh. For nearly three hours they answered moderator Jeremy Kagan's in-depth questions about their ways of creating new worlds on screen. It was interesting to note that all five nominated films-- Licorice Pizza, Dune, Power of the Dog, West Side Story, and Belfast-- take place in the past or in another universe. How did they bring these "foreign" worlds to life? How did they rehearse their actors? How do they deal with fear? </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbDVgJe-0OBwo_dc-yb_YPkaoyxvVoKbh9z2UJTRvbAXEZszbDEmWnyt3Zt8YcY2OxhgBj3w2FNx5feMpvTj5G48-MDywxbDzZ-1aJvjTXyM41VeezZf0VZoKZG4jvyEAnmkkMvWf-gtkK1QQmo_E0bWE0eRiDeXcop_3j4kAmTOp-GV2qTxSRlRMKDA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbDVgJe-0OBwo_dc-yb_YPkaoyxvVoKbh9z2UJTRvbAXEZszbDEmWnyt3Zt8YcY2OxhgBj3w2FNx5feMpvTj5G48-MDywxbDzZ-1aJvjTXyM41VeezZf0VZoKZG4jvyEAnmkkMvWf-gtkK1QQmo_E0bWE0eRiDeXcop_3j4kAmTOp-GV2qTxSRlRMKDA" width="180" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p>It was one of the most inspiring, fascinating panels I've ever attended. I was torn between taking notes and simply absorbing their words and insights. I found their observations very helpful as I'm in the process of creating a fictional world for a new novel. I've jotted down some takeaways that I hope you'll find useful in your own creations. </p><p><b>Steven Spielberg</b>: the godfather of the group. Wise, witty, humble, at 75, a father of seven and grandfather of six, he was terrified when he began West Side Story, his first musical. The storyboarding process was critical to block the scenes and find the right setting. It was filmed mostly on a set in Paterson, NJ, and in Harlem. The biggest challenge: crosswalks and stoplights. They had to block them out after filming. He rode around the set, taking pictures with his iPhone, seeing the movie before filming. </p><p>A great example of how to think visually: The brilliance of the fire escape scene, which was modeled on the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet. For Spielberg, the key was to keep the lovers apart. Tony just got out of jail, and as he tries to get to Maria, one obstacle after another confronts him. The difficulty is reflected in the lines and bars that shadow his progress as he breaks through to freedom. Musical numbers were filmed live. No over-dubbing in the studio. </p><p>His advice to actors: "Faster and funnier. Go faster than you think it should go." In the cutting room, the first things to go are the gaps and pauses in scenes, which you don't see until later.</p><p><b>Jane Campion</b>: The process of pre-production is the key to all the directors' films, but her route to the film was particularly interesting. Her script was adapted from the novel, Power of the Dog, by Thomas Savage, about two brothers on a ranch in Montana, but when she went scouting in Montana for the actual ranch, she discovered the land was not how she'd imagined it and there was no house. Writer Annie Proulx told her: "The West doesn't exist. It's a myth."</p><p>She returned to her native New Zealand and scouted locations there. Much cheaper. She had the house and barn built with special attention to interiors and space so when characters look out the window they feel the distance is right between the barn and the house. </p><p>She hit a block in terms of understanding her film and her story and underwent dream therapy. She described a recurrent dream she was having of herself on horseback--a horse she didn't know--riding down a path that grew narrower and narrower until she knew she'd fall of the horse at the end of the path--there was nowhere left to go--and she'd die. Through the therapy she understood that she needed to <b>know </b>the horse before riding it. She needed to <b>know </b>her characters and her story before filming. She talked to her characters and heard one of them say: "She's got to get dirty." Jane had to dive deep into her story in order to direct the characters and make this movie.</p><p>A fun tidbit: before filming the drunk scenes, Kirsten Dunst would spin in circles. Sometimes she'd have a small drink as well, Jane admitted with a laugh. Also-- Jane said that Benedict Cumberbatch is such a sweet, helpful man that he played totally against character, and Kirsten would tease him constantly on the set, insisting that he wasn't "bad enough." </p><p><b>Denis Villeneuve</b>: The key to filming Dune was in the storyboarding process. As a boy, Denis and his friend, Nicolas Kadima, mapped out storyboards for the film of Dune they hoped to make one day. During the planning for the movie, Denis and storyboard artist, Sam Hudecki, planned the visual progression of Dune. He forbade Hudecki to go on the internet or to look at previous depictions of the worlds of Dune, Denis wanted to return to the images he'd drawn as a kid. For him, "the key to the story is how you interpret it through images."</p><p>While Spielberg admits he doesn't rehearse his actors-- "The first take is the rehearsal"-- Villeneuve talks to his actors, one on one, long personal conversations before shooting, during which they privately explore the actor's thoughts and ideas about the character. "I need to understand who is in front of me," he said. He admitted that getting high on "spicy" banana bread his son baked helped him describe his vision of scenes to actor Timothée Chalamet. "Timothée got it," said Denis.</p><p>About fear: "Always. I am always afraid." He's now working on the second part of Dune, and when people ask him on set what to do next or how to solve a certain problem, he no longer pretends he knows. He admits, "I don't know." </p><p><b>Kenneth Branagh</b>: a marvelous storyteller, talked about recreating the world of his childhood in Belfast through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy. "Your imagination expands to fill the vacuum," he said, when he looked back at the small flat he'd lived in with his family and how vast with possibility it had appeared. In Belfast, he tried to recreate that sense of promise, danger, and wonder of that time. </p><p>He also spoke about his awe of the great Judi Dench who plays the boy's grandmother. He wanted to show the love between Judi Dench and Ciarán Hind, who plays her husband in the film. Ciarán read her a short romance story in "that glorious voice." After he left the room, Judi looked at Branagh, her eyes sparkling, and said, "I'm in love with him." </p><p>About being a director: he asked Annette Bening about the most important characteristic a director can have. She told him, "It's not sexy, but being organized is crucial." He has kept that in mind with every film. To be as precise and clear as possible. To prepare before the filming. All that work beforehand frees the director, the actors and the crew during the actual shoot. </p><p><b>Paul Thomas Anderson</b>: He described driving from his home in Tarzana to drop off his daughter at school in Studio City, and on the return trip scouting locations for Licorice Pizza. "The Valley hasn't changed that much," he said. He found the actual waterbed store he remembered though the store sells something else now. </p><p>He recalls the experience of working "through the Covid of it all." And the extensive preproduction process. For him, it involved driving to the locations with two partners and filming scenes on his iPhone, mapping out the entire movie before shooting. He explained, "It's a mix of <b>attack</b>--telling the story a certain way that you have in mind, and <b>accept</b>--working with what's in front of you." A mix of planning and improvisation, always staying open to the moment. </p><p>He had the whole auditorium laughing when he said, "Working with teens, you realize that the real shooting starts at 3:30 in the afternoon, when they're finally awake."</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgpmiXodou0FiJNbpk0S3nKishsY6x1ZixwnzUBIwSW2wdjjDwJTIQTxRgu76O8vclz5b9A23jpt1DzCM4QOGusJuEDAvNAJlv7dR6PYIX30T0BqPouXphLQKxiEXH8B2i9aPV9PFO19WMUS-K7kx4dHOfh3Db6X3iRD4OT043nOBU_5Ch4qaIlkYeBjQ=s4032" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgpmiXodou0FiJNbpk0S3nKishsY6x1ZixwnzUBIwSW2wdjjDwJTIQTxRgu76O8vclz5b9A23jpt1DzCM4QOGusJuEDAvNAJlv7dR6PYIX30T0BqPouXphLQKxiEXH8B2i9aPV9PFO19WMUS-K7kx4dHOfh3Db6X3iRD4OT043nOBU_5Ch4qaIlkYeBjQ=s320" width="240" /></a></div></div><br /> Later that evening, during the awards ceremony held by the DGA, Denis Villeneuve admitted that as a boy in Canada, it was a tradition to wear a hockey jersey with your hero's name on the back. He put the name "Spielberg" on his jersey. He spoke to a visibly moved Spielberg:<p></p><p><span face="kepler-std, serif" style="background-color: white;">“Mr. Spielberg, you are a giant for me. I am here tonight because of you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart of what you’ve brought and what you still bring to this day to cinema. After all these years, you are still a pure source of inspiration, so sir, I salute you.”</span></p><p><span face="kepler-std, serif" style="background-color: white;">Jane Campion won the best director award for Power of the Dog, and in her acceptance speech, said:</span></p><p style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1rem; padding-left: 5.8rem; padding-right: 5.8rem;"><span style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">"The road here has been long. I remember being the only woman in the room. I remember that outsider feeling as I fought to get my stories told from undeserved perspectives to light in a male-dominated field.” </span></p><p style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1rem; padding-left: 5.8rem; padding-right: 5.8rem;"><span style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">Campion then added to loud applause, “I think perhaps it’s time to claim a sense of victory on that front. We’ve come so far, and what’s more, we’re never going backwards. That sense of the eternal horizon invigorates me.”</span></p><p>That sense of the eternal horizon is evident in all five directors--seasoned, experienced, brilliant-- yet always looking for the next project, the next challenge, the next world to share with us.</p><div><br /></div><p style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1rem; padding-left: 5.8rem; padding-right: 5.8rem;"></p>Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-40891847069078927232021-09-13T05:32:00.000-07:002021-09-13T05:32:16.033-07:00The Serpent and the Seventies<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S3xKU6U6xJ0/YTyw0EQz0WI/AAAAAAAAC_s/CDHdSX3L2TEQo4FEOuf8kvE7tK87h-KKwCPcBGAYYCw/s1815/82704E87-30CB-475D-9D2C-C4FFEE551DB9.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1815" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S3xKU6U6xJ0/YTyw0EQz0WI/AAAAAAAAC_s/CDHdSX3L2TEQo4FEOuf8kvE7tK87h-KKwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/82704E87-30CB-475D-9D2C-C4FFEE551DB9.jpeg" width="264" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><span><span> We're in Kanit House, a stylish yet shabby five-story apartment house in Bangkok in 1974. Balconies face a sun-drenched inner courtyard with a swimming pool where young hippie tourists from Europe and America share travel experiences, swim, get stoned, and listen to music. </span></span>Alain Gautier, a suave dark-haired gem dealer wearing aviator glasses, stands on his balcony and watches the people frolicking below. He watches with purpose until he selects his prey. </p><p><span><span><span> </span>Gradually, we come to recognize what he looks for: the vulnerable, reckless, needy, trusting. He studies them the way he studies jewels through his loupe, searching for<span> genuine gems or fakes. Even before we learn what he's capable of, we sense danger. Even before he invites the unfortunate one to his room for a drink, and afterwards, coldly watches the person convulse in mysterious spasms. Even before we glimpse the man and his accomplice carrying the sick person down dark stairs. The following morning, there is one less hippie in Bangkok. But their money and passport remain-- to be stuffed in a safe with many other passports to be used later by the man and his two accomplices: Ajay, an Indian criminal, and Marie-Andrée Leclerc, a young French-Canadian woman.</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span> On the other side of town </span></span></span></span>Herman Knippenberg, a young Dutch diplomat, Third Secretary in the Dutch Embassy in Thailand, studies newspaper reports of a couple who were knifed and set on fire while still alive. Although the couple is identified as Australian, the diplomat wonders if these two are the young Dutch man and woman who disappeared and whose parents called him to find out what happened. Knippenberg's investigation leads him down a dark and twisting path that uncovers the serpent's den and opens to an unimaginable web of horror that spans countries. </p><p><span><span><span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-geJ8IMl8HSA/YTyxEdRhAoI/AAAAAAAAC_4/MhWh-XZaN1cZlY_QiYcH5PXl7UeRNOjrgCPcBGAYYCw/s274/B1DE0B95-6CDE-4D3E-8ABF-28DE47A1ACA6_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="182" data-original-width="274" height="182" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-geJ8IMl8HSA/YTyxEdRhAoI/AAAAAAAAC_4/MhWh-XZaN1cZlY_QiYcH5PXl7UeRNOjrgCPcBGAYYCw/s0/B1DE0B95-6CDE-4D3E-8ABF-28DE47A1ACA6_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="274" /></a></div><br /><span> <i>Billy Howle as Herman Knippenberg</i><br /></span><p></p><p><span><span><span> <span> </span></span></span></span>The Serpent is a chilling, sinuous eight-part miniseries coproduced by BBC One and Neflix that reveals the world of the seventies as it tracks Charles Sobhraj, a real-life gem smuggler, escaped convict, and serial killer who preyed on backpackers on the Hippie Trail-- Bangkok, Kathmandu, Hong Kong, and Delhi. in the mid-seventies. He drugged and robbed countless people, and murdered at least twelve, and probably many more. Half-Vietnamese, half-Indian, he was raised in Vietnam, and later, in Paris. By the age of sixteen, he was in jail for petty crimes and theft. For the rest of his life, he'd be in and out of prison for increasingly violent crimes.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZcQwJqeVygU/YTyw95zMJoI/AAAAAAAAC_0/9YqlWQCqlOECvvpgaAnquci1vQEJcLCRQCPcBGAYYCw/s224/8D245CAF-5C1E-485F-8AFE-428C1B648694_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="224" height="224" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZcQwJqeVygU/YTyw95zMJoI/AAAAAAAAC_0/9YqlWQCqlOECvvpgaAnquci1vQEJcLCRQCPcBGAYYCw/s0/8D245CAF-5C1E-485F-8AFE-428C1B648694_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="224" /></a></div> <i>The real Charles Sobhraj and Marie-Andrée Leclerc</i><p><span> </span>Sobhraj, played by actor Tahar Rahim, has nothing but contempt for these young drifters. He, Ajay, and Marie, now known as Monique, roam the Hippie Trail in search of victims. By observing how Sobhraj manipulates Monique, grooming her into his pimp luring potential victims to their room, we see how he manipulates everyone. A hollow man, he mimics human emotions, tests his followers' limits, demands utter obedience. Monique admits he turned her into a slave. Those who dare to challenge his authority or disagree with him are doomed. A vengeful god, he wants payback for every time he was mistreated for his mixed heritage. From The Guardian's review of The Serpent: "In the series, as in real life, he uses valid complaints about racism and neocolonialism to justify his crimes as a kind of revenge on the embodiment of careless white privilege." But the truth is he mistreats and abuses everyone who comes in his circle.</p><p><span> Watching busloads of young tourists from Europe and America get off in Nepal and India is a revelation. They are </span>mostly white, traveling to third-world countries with no sense of caution or danger. Disgusted with wars, capitalism, and society's rules, they've come to Asia to seek enlightenment, experience, community, drugs, and the meaning of life. In Slouching Toward Bethlehem, Joan Didion describes their mind-set: "drifting from city to torn city, sloughing off both the past and the future as snakes shed their skins." They are here to transform themselves.</p><p><span> </span>So is Sobhraj, who shifts his identity with each passport he steals, and with each person he encounters. Poor Knippenberg, back in Bangkok, tries to make sense of this chameleon and to follow his winding, dizzying trail. He must fight the indifference, hostility, and threats of the diplomatic community and local police who view these hippie tourists as disposable. No one cares to investigate their disappearances, no matter how suspicious they are. In addition, at that time, there exists no powerful DNA analysis, and police departments in different countries barely communicate. The world was a playground for serial killers. </p><p> If you weren't alive pre-cell phones and internet, pre-social media updates and CCTV, it may be difficult to imagine how different the world was. How private you could be. How possible<i> </i>it seemed to attain true solitude and freedom. For those who went on the Hippie Trail in the seventies, their only contact with the people back home was the weekly mail pick-up. If you wanted to drop off the face of the earth for a while, you could. </p><p><span> </span> Why can't I stop thinking about this show? I've just finished writing Zigzag Girl, my first crime novel, in which an amateur sleuth confronts a serial killer. My sleuth lives in the 21st century and has the advantages of modern technology. She searches the web for clues, and she carries her cell phone, but she still must face the heart of evil. I've been thinking a lot about the monster that hides behind a human face, the inner rage that simmers and eventually explodes in violence. Sobhraj's cool mask hides the seething fury inside him.</p><p>But it's more than that. The show is brilliantly constructed: Knippenberg-- the force of light-- attacks Sobhraj-- the force of darkeness-- without ever meeting him. Knippenberg forms his own small team to investigate: his intelligent wife, a courageous French neighbor in Kanit House who witnessed suspicious activities, and a jaded Belgian diplomat. He nearly loses his wife and his job, but he is driven by the pursuit of justice. The storyline jolts back and forth in time, showing us how Sobhraj has been robbing and murdering for years. It's depressingly clear that he will never stop, and more depressingly, that it's unlikely he will ever be caught. </p><p><span> By the third episode, we've seen what happens when Sobhraj gets angry, and we tremble for Dominique, a young Frenchman. Drugged and held captive by Sobhraj, Dominique struggles to escape with the help of the French neighbor. It's edge-of-your-seat suspense. The final episodes can be frustrating, but the task to capture a charismatic manipulator who shifts identities, freely crosses borders, bribes his way out of prison after prison, a man for whom everyone is prey, is gargantuan. Amazingly, he has met his match in the stubborn Dutch diplomat, a true hero. He cannot </span>give up. In his words, Sobhraj "got inside me like some sort of tropical malaria." </p><p><span>Thanks to Knippenberg's efforts, Interpol finally enters the case, and Sobhraj is arrested in India. That's not the end of him: he served 21 years in India, returned to Paris a free man in 1997, and in 2003, went back to Nepal, where he is now serving a life sentence. In yet another improbable twist, he married a young Nepalese woman, who, of course, claims he is innocent. But he is still in prison, and that is thanks to the efforts of one man. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qz3Lrqugg5E/YTzLXecRaEI/AAAAAAAAC_8/gLC2AzQJK_4fMPuD7excAKozFL-A_OcrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1500/E9F07786-8EC5-4CED-8085-5EAA4DECACD8.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="749" data-original-width="1500" height="160" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qz3Lrqugg5E/YTzLXecRaEI/AAAAAAAAC_8/gLC2AzQJK_4fMPuD7excAKozFL-A_OcrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/E9F07786-8EC5-4CED-8085-5EAA4DECACD8.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div> <i>The swimming pool at Kanit House</i> <br /><br /><p></p><p> Despite the darkness at the center, The Serpent portrays a time of hope, innocence, and seeking, when the world seemed vast and uncharted, and adventure and knowledge waited around the corner. That may be why I'm ultimately so fascinated by the show. I'm haunted most by the image of the group gathered around the pool at Kanit House. Like all the young, they feel invincible. They dream of tomorrow-- the world they yearn to explore, the love they hope to find-- unaware that from his balcony, a man watches. For a terrifying moment I picture myself in that group. <i>Don't look up!</i> I want to tell them. <i>Please, whatever you do, don't meet his eyes</i>. </p><p><span> </span>The show is dedicated to them.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-63737894000288929672021-07-31T06:18:00.000-07:002021-07-31T06:18:32.254-07:00Remember Writing Letters?<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4R9YO8gl9uk/YQQ6wVikIoI/AAAAAAAAC7o/k7aM2G57bG0JtvUOQFwZA7f_jCOR5VdigCLcBGAsYHQ/s300/FAF9CE88-B025-4633-A699-777AF212C178_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="249" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4R9YO8gl9uk/YQQ6wVikIoI/AAAAAAAAC7o/k7aM2G57bG0JtvUOQFwZA7f_jCOR5VdigCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/FAF9CE88-B025-4633-A699-777AF212C178_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="249" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sp7rm2xTsAY/YQQ69QZvxeI/AAAAAAAAC7s/Zz0W9L3MHxEX72KV_THe39ECird9qVWogCLcBGAsYHQ/s224/9D45979A-F359-4DE6-A4BE-3FB744EBD452_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="167" data-original-width="224" height="167" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sp7rm2xTsAY/YQQ69QZvxeI/AAAAAAAAC7s/Zz0W9L3MHxEX72KV_THe39ECird9qVWogCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/9D45979A-F359-4DE6-A4BE-3FB744EBD452_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="224" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I didn't keep a quarantine diary, but I wrote letters. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">During the pandemic my husband and I went on a nostalgia kick. We watched movies from the 70s and 80s, delighting in a time before cell phones and computers were widely used. In our isolation, we already cringed at crowd scenes, but we loved how personal and intimate the characters' worlds felt. People met in person rather than communicated on a phone, they wrote letters and missed important phone calls because they weren't home. It lasted for months, this yearning for a time before plague, a time that seemed more innocent, for a thriller that relied on human ingenuity rather than technology.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I began dreaming of letters I'd received and sent. Letters that changed lives, perfumed letters, witty letters I wished I'd kept, love letters that bared souls. I wrote new letters I didn't mail: to people I 'd lost touch with, people I'd never met but who intrigued me, those I'd met only once but who left an impact, historical figures, characters in my stories who puzzled or infuriated me, and old lovers.</div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Remember writing and receiving love letters? It was so much more than the words on the page. First, the scribbled rough drafts. The careful selection of pen and paper-- oh God, remember stationery? The torment of writing the letter-- finding the exact words that conveyed the message you wanted to communicate, stopping before you said too much.... If you were a girl, adding the faint trace of perfume before you sealed the envelope. Then the anxious wait for a response. Checking the mailbox, hourly sometimes. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It wasn't just love letters, it was letters themselves-- those mysterious missives from somewhere else, exotic stamps from different countries, the suspense of opening the envelope. Handwriting that revealed so much: impatient scrawl, precise printed letters, words that crawled uphill or diagonally across a page, back-tilted timid letters, misspellings before the days of auto-correct. A non-business typed letter brought its own set of questions: why so impersonal? is their handwriting that bad? what's the underlying message here? Then there were aerogrammes-- those wonderful thin blue sheets sent home from travels. You had to squeeze everything onto the side of one page. Unfolding them without tearing away part of the writing presented its own delicate challenge. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SqdOMEzSpXI/YQVGZdB5tgI/AAAAAAAAC8E/I2HdwZKTWaMS9oADyiX9OEMDX96398wiACLcBGAsYHQ/s326/2D742082-A042-47CD-964B-9FE6168C5ED7_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="171" data-original-width="326" height="168" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SqdOMEzSpXI/YQVGZdB5tgI/AAAAAAAAC8E/I2HdwZKTWaMS9oADyiX9OEMDX96398wiACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/2D742082-A042-47CD-964B-9FE6168C5ED7_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At the height of the pandemic I taught a creative writing class on Zoom and described letters to my university students, all born in the 21st century. They sat in their little Hollywood Squares and stared, baffled, while I explained the art, passion, and power of writing and receiving letters. Replacing the shortcut of emojis with the search for the exact words to convey mood and intention. The built-in delay before pressing, "Send." The fact that you can keep them, concrete and solid memories. Once they figured out that letters went way beyond text messages and emails, I sensed a shift in mood. One young woman said with a sigh, "I wish I could get a love letter." Another said, "I want to write one, but I don't know who to send it to."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I decided to give them an assignment: write a letter to someone far away and tell them something you can't tell them in person. You can make it up or make it real. You can send it or keep it. But write a letter with a pen on paper (on paper? with a pen?!). Bring it to class. You can share the letter or not.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">They shared them. Amazing to listen to 19 - 21 year-olds read letters they'd written by hand... on Zoom. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The letters were moving, funny, heartwarming, and tender, and often illustrated with drawings. I thought, plague or not, we're still here, still the same yearning hearts and souls straining to connect. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Afterwards a few students thanked me for the introduction to letter writing. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I feel like a visitor from another planet. What can I show them next? Ah! I know. That inscrutable monolith of power that sat grimly silent for hours while you watched and waited... and waited... for it to shrill to life. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gT_fClulfPE/YQVLNIJ9mUI/AAAAAAAAC8M/uCNK3My-t5ApnIY2jmu4teU9bp9tP8FfQCLcBGAsYHQ/s274/13DE1847-01DB-4794-B256-54824DB6EAD5_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="182" data-original-width="274" height="182" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gT_fClulfPE/YQVLNIJ9mUI/AAAAAAAAC8M/uCNK3My-t5ApnIY2jmu4teU9bp9tP8FfQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/13DE1847-01DB-4794-B256-54824DB6EAD5_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="274" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></div>Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-17635680691945083762020-04-08T10:25:00.001-07:002020-04-08T10:25:40.303-07:00Why is this night different from all other nights?<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7p4TJ9U25jQ/Xo4Ee8CSVbI/AAAAAAAACTg/6xXfADOd5Qs3HTawormqpv8uArN163NrACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/BB5560B2-046D-4F5C-87B6-F03B2FD810D6_1_105_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7p4TJ9U25jQ/Xo4Ee8CSVbI/AAAAAAAACTg/6xXfADOd5Qs3HTawormqpv8uArN163NrACK4BGAYYCw/s320/BB5560B2-046D-4F5C-87B6-F03B2FD810D6_1_105_c.jpeg" width="320" /></a><br />
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According to some friends, every Jewish holiday can be summed up by one of two responses:<o:p></o:p></div>
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“<b><u>The King (Pharaoh, fill in the blank)</u></b> tried to destroy us, we <b><u>won/lost</u>,</b> let’s eat.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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That brings us to Passover, the eight-day holiday that commemorates the Exodus—the Jews’ flight from slavery in Egypt to a 40 year-long trek through the desert that led to the Promised Land. The metaphor of an entire nation of people journeying from slavery to freedom is so powerful it’s no wonder many groups and nations throughout history have borrowed this story, remade it in their image, and used it as a banner of hope when times are dark.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s an understatement to say that we’re living through dark times. I’ve hesitated to write about it and generalize in any way because I can’t presume to know under what conditions you are experiencing the plague. It’s so wildly different for all of us—except for the aura of uncertainty that clouds our thoughts and actions. Which brings me to the first of the 4 questions traditionally asked during the Passover seder, the ritual meal in which Jews remember (and in a sense, relive) the plagues suffered during the time they were slaves to the Pharaoh and their subsequent escape:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i>Why is this night different from all other nights?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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During the seder in 2020, the experience of naming the plagues and journeying from darkness to light will be different than it has ever been. For the first time, many of us will celebrate alone, away from family, and will rely on Zoom, FaceTime, and Skype to connect with family and friends scattered all over the world. For many of us this will be the first time we’ve lived through a plague and watched it destroy lives. For many of us it will be the first time we suffer from a virus that seems to have come from both the ancient world and a dystopian future.</div>
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Below is a passage from my first novel, <i>The Road to Fez, </i>in which a family celebrates Passover/Pesach in Morocco while trying to decide whether it’s safer to remain in Morocco or to take the chance and travel to Israel. Papa Naphtali is the American heroine’s grandfather, a mystic and musician who was inspired by the memory of my own grandfather:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i>“This </i>is what Pesach means to me,” Papa Naphtali says. “It represents the most courageous, terrifying decision human beings have ever made, to leave a known life of slavery, and to enter the unknown, dangerous promise of freedom. They had to lose the habits of slavery, to learn to straighten their shoulders and to look strangers directly in the eyes. It took forty years of wandering in the desert before the first generation of slaves was gone, and the new generation born free and wild in the desert was ready to fight for the promise. Imagine the terror. Imagine looking over the rocks into the land you thought was a myth, and seeing that it was real, that you could touch the ground and smell the air. We’re always on the verge of freedom, but frightened to take that last step. So what will we do, mes enfants? Remain in the desert for another forty years? Or advance to the vision of light, which may be a mirage?”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Uncertainty may be the most frightening thing of all: we simply don’t know when, where, how this plague will end. We don’t know how long the quarantining/isolation will last. We don’t know what our post-Pandemic world will look like. It will certainly need to be navigated and explored as if we are entering a new country.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i>“Travelers’ </i>reports differ as to what they saw when they entered the Promised Land. Bananas, oranges and pomegranates growing wild, or shimmering desert; a place of death, or one of life.”</b></div>
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Today is one of those dreamy days when I find myself voyaging to times I wandered freely: doing Sun Salutations at dawn on the Observation Deck of a ship, telling stories to my students on a lower deck of the ship as we sailed directly into the setting sun, digging at an archaeological site near Jerusalem (see photo), exploring a stage set on the Paramount lot in LA, or simply walking into a restaurant and hugging friends. More than anything, I miss hugs!</div>
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Each Passover, Jews are urged to relive this experience of plagues, exile, freedom as if we were the ones who lived through the first Passover. Each year we make it a time of reckoning for ourselves and our world: which plagues have we survived? What exiles are we suffering? How has our world changed? What does freedom mean to us? And each year, the traditional wish is: “Next year in Jerusalem.” This year, we may alter that wish to… wherever we hope to see ourselves next year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Papa Naphtali says, “Time circles and returns to that endless moment in the desert. For the Jews, it’s always that moment. For us, it’s always now.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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And I circle back to the first question: there are many answers, most involving the Passover meal, the ritual foods and songs, the four glasses of wine, and the matzah, but for me, the answer to why this night is different from all other nights is because it returns us to the wanderers in the desert. They are us, and we are them. We have fled plagues, slavery, starvation, and thirst, and now we are poised on the edge of darkness. For a moment we stand together, remembering how it felt to press against each other in the uncertain darkness, before we take the next step, before we know whether it will bring more darkness or light.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That moment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And then we take a deep breath, drink a glass of wine, and carry on toward the promise of the sun. One step at a time. I'll close with my favorite quote by Camus, a fellow North African:</div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;">"I realized, through it all, that in the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;">invincible</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"> summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger – something better, pushing right back."</span></b></div>
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Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-664596686364911352020-03-12T07:52:00.000-07:002020-03-12T07:52:27.019-07:00Drinking Coffee (and Other Things) with Writers<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QNcPnL-qz5s/XmpJRBjIQcI/AAAAAAAACQY/qTp__6vWMRA7FqoVO_9VpJFrU1hBUc2YQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/6BB05867-FFE5-4A6D-852E-A8977FCA8D8B_1_105_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QNcPnL-qz5s/XmpJRBjIQcI/AAAAAAAACQY/qTp__6vWMRA7FqoVO_9VpJFrU1hBUc2YQCK4BGAYYCw/s320/6BB05867-FFE5-4A6D-852E-A8977FCA8D8B_1_105_c.jpeg" width="208" /></a> <br />
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During these strange times we're living in, the more we realize how important it is to connect with others. Today, I'm pleased to welcome Joyce Hinnefeld, a dear friend and writing sister with whom I've bonded over countless cups of coffee, to discuss how crucial these human connections are.<br />
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Take it away, Joyce!<br />
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I must have drunk a thousand cups of coffee with various writer friends through the years. In kitchens and living rooms in apartments and houses in New York and New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In countless Starbucks and Paneras. In a number of independent coffee shops that have come and gone in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. Drinking coffee and talking to other writers are two of my favorite things to do.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Usually, of course, we talk about projects we’re working on. There have been conversations about alternatives to traditional burial, the secret lives of magicians, feminist re-readings of the New Testament, working-class lives in New England mill towns, and more. I remember lots of helpful advice about my own work. To give a mother’s realization about her young adult daughter a physical manifestation—a gesture, a stirring in her daughter’s sleep. To dig further into a seemingly passive character, a young woman from the Pennsylvania coal region who won’t admit her deepest desires, even to herself. To keep an eye out for too many meandering, clause- and comma-filled sentences. (Like my previous one was, until—picturing the furrowed brow and raised eyebrows of a couple writers’ group members through the years—I broke it up into fragments.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Every writer I’ve known has dreamed of having a Maxwell Perkins-style editor—brilliant, gentle, as fully invested in your work as you are as the writer. But writers today seldom have editors with the time and inclination to edit in that way. As a writer of books published by small presses, I’ve been fortunate to have smart and attentive editing—but my work has always traveled a long, circuitous route before landing on an editor’s desk. And fortunately, as it’s traveled along that winding route, it’s often landed, first, on the desks (or more recently the tablets) of trusted readers. Of friends who are also writers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In my experience these friendships with writers might have begun in more formal writing workshops—at the 63<sup>rd</sup> Street YMCA in New York City many years ago, in graduate school at SUNY Albany in the early 1990s—but the lasting ones have continued well beyond that context, or, more recently, have emerged in other contexts. A colleague in the art department at the college where I teach has a party, where I meet a friend of a friend: a writer. A new writer is hired at the college in the next town over, and someone suggests I get in touch. A young writer, seeking a lower cost of living and more time to write, moves to the town that I never thought I’d call my hometown and asks if we can meet for coffee or a drink. And so it begins. (And what’s great about my friendship with that younger writer is that besides coffee we often go out for drinks—something I hardly ever do anymore!)<o:p></o:p></div>
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My relationships with writer friends now are markedly different from those I had with the people I knew in workshops; these writer friends have offered so much more than suggestions for a manuscript I’m struggling with. They’ve helped me negotiate the tricky challenges of being a writer and a parent. They’ve talked me down from my panicked terror over figuring out how to use social media to promote my work. And they’ve understood, and sympathized with, my frequent “fish out of water” feeling as a writer in an academic setting.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve taught creative writing at a small liberal arts college in Bethlehem, PA for longer than I would have ever thought possible when I started the job back in 1997. These days I can’t believe I was fortunate enough to land such a job, and in an age of near contempt for the liberal arts and humanities, and of exploitation of contingent faculty, I know not to take this job for granted. I’ve been lucky in lots of ways, and one way in which I’ve been lucky has been in meeting young people, year after year, who are passionate about language, literature, and writing. Still. Even now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s not easy to keep going with writing, when you’re often working long hours elsewhere to make rent and pay your bills. I know this, firsthand, from my former students. <i>I miss our workshops</i>, they sometimes tell me, when I run into them a few years after graduation. <i>Find some writer friends</i>, I tell them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Six years ago I started a writers’ conference at the college where I teach. I must have been on drugs when I decided to do that, I’ve since told a number of people. But in fact I wasn’t on anything at all when I first conceived the sort of weirdly utopian vision I had for a conference that would, I hoped, help writers—of all ages, and at all levels of experience—find each other. And in many ways I think the Moravian College Writers’ Conference—scheduled to run for the fifth time at the end of March—has done just that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m pleased about this of course. But I think the best thing the conference has given me is a chance to spend a day with some of my favorite people in the Lehigh Valley: other writers who live here and, in many cases, teach here. To join these writers in recognizing new talent, young and old, and in urging that talent to keep going with the work, no matter the limited prospects for publication, or for teaching jobs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And to drink a lot of coffee together—even if it’s the coffee from the college catering department and, to be honest (don’t tell anyone I said this), it’s not very good.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Joyce Hinnefeld is the author of the short story collection </i>Tell Me Everything <i>and the novels</i> In Hovering Flight<i> and </i>Stranger Here Below<i>. Her new book, the story </i>collection The Beauty of Their Youth<i> (published this month), is the latest title in the Wolfson Press American Storytellers series. She is a Professor of English at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA, where she directs the Moravian College Writers’ Conference. Learn more a </i><a href="http://www.joycehinnefeld.com/" style="color: #954f72;"><i>www.joycehinnefeld.com</i></a><i> and like her page at </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jhinnefeld/" style="color: #954f72;"><i>https://www.facebook.com/jhinnefeld/</i></a><i>.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-26825507756423358832019-12-04T05:17:00.000-08:002019-12-04T05:17:03.310-08:00A Theory of Grace: guest post by Ethel Morgan Smith<br />
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!<br />
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I spent a couple of weeks in November as a resident at VCCA, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a truly wondrous home for the arts. I've been there many times, and each time, it's an amazing experience. While there, I worked on revisions for my novel-- still working on them-- and will tell you more about that soon. But I came home in time for Thanksgiving!<br />
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Today we welcome Ethel Morgan Smith to the blog. She will share an overview of her forthcoming book, <b><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt"; font-size: 14px;">A Theory of Grace: </span><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt"; font-size: 14px;">Voices & Visions of the </span><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt"; font-size: 14px;">Civil Rights Movement.</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt";"><span style="font-size: 14px;">It sounds fascinating and relevant, and I look forward to reading it. Take it away, Ethel!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Theory of Grace tells us stories we’ve not heard before about The</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Civil Rights Movement. The voices of the 10 individuals
interviewed</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">offer more than personal stories; they afford a fresh historical</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">perspective. Their stories will move us, teach us, and take us on
a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">compelling journey. This work is dynamic and will raise new
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">about what it means to be human beings who seek justice against</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">tremendous resistance.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">One narrow and prevailing view </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">sees
the TCRM in terms of Martin Luther King, Jr. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">and/or Rosa Parks, marching and making speeches. Many others
consider that </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">it ended with the Obama presidency. The TCRM is so much
bigger and deeper than that.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">It grew from intellectual and historical efforts; and it continues
to</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">advance. The Movement is and was powered by mostly people like the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">individuals I write about, ordinary citizens, stepping into big</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">moments by working behind the scenes, whether it was our teachers,
our</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">parents having bake sales, or car washes to raise money for civil</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">right workers, or volunteers who helped with voter registration in
our</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">churches and homes. This work expands the TCRM to the present and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">future. Some of these brave warriors worked at the elbow of icons,
and</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">others were clearing new paths, all passing through history
without</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">wide recognition. The beauty of this book is the implied notion
that</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">there were–and still are--thousands, and thousands more, each
doing</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">their bit to achieve social justice for all. Theory of Grace</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">introduces us to some new witnesses and new voices that most
people</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">haven’t heard. It takes a giant step forward toward negotiating
the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">narrative of a continuum of time periods, making it a work of
social</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">change. And like the narrative that it is, it writes a new chapter
in</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">history; a new culture is born.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">We cannot talk about TCRM without visiting earlier movements that</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">began planting seeds of hope and freedom: slavery, Reconstruction,
Jim</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Crow, the Great Migration, WWI, and WWII. Many of my interviewees:</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Emma Bruce, John Canty, Andrea Lee, Ann Cole Lowe, and Virginia</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Blanche Franklin Moore, can trace their ancestry back to slavery,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">which provides a direct chain of narrators. We will learn not only</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">about their contributions, but also about the extraordinary impact
on</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">dozens of others. The book will view contemporary events, in all
of</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">their catastrophic and challenging potential, through the lens of
the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">brave individuals who overcame equally extraordinary obstacles of
the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "" "timesnewromanpsmt" "" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">past.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ethel Morgan Smith is the author of two books: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From Whence Cometh My Help: The African
American Community at Hollins College </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reflections of the Other: Being Black in Germany. </i>She has also
published in<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> The New York Times,
Callaloo, African American Review,</i> and other national and international
outlets.<o:p></o:p></div>
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</style>Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-14370592589023895612019-10-23T07:26:00.004-07:002019-10-23T07:26:57.328-07:00Guest Post: Footnotes on the Cutting Room Floor <br />
A guest post today by Marlena Baraf, whose lovely, lyrical memoir about growing up Jewish in Panama, resonates deeply with all of us who--to use the title of one of my essays-- "live between question marks." Marlena writes:<br />
<br />
"<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I love words that illustrate different perspectives. Hybrid. Hyphenated. Bilingual. Multicultural. Synthesis. They point to the richness possible with human groups."</span><br />
<br />
I asked her about the stories she couldn't tell in her memoir, what she had to leave out....<br />
Take it away, Marlena!<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iBjV7hCEHXE/XbBfmpo3ALI/AAAAAAAACGM/svmyl8GHFOM6UsYpcK4yzIWbFOBz5hBlACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_c209.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iBjV7hCEHXE/XbBfmpo3ALI/AAAAAAAACGM/svmyl8GHFOM6UsYpcK4yzIWbFOBz5hBlACK4BGAYYCw/s320/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_c209.jpg" width="220" /></a><br />
<br />
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My memoir, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">At
the Narrow Waist of the World, </i>is a mother-daughter story set in Panama
that moves with me to the United States when I was fifteen. It began with a
single scene. A memory of my mother under the calabash tree in our brick patio.
She had just received shock therapy, “the sugar kind,” my uncle said, which
referred to the use of insulin to induce shock treatment many years back. It’s
an image I’d buried until it surfaced during a creative writing exercise. That scene
opened the door to the story of my mother’s overwhelming anxiety that pushed
away the fledgling love of her children. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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There was always someone’s telling
line, or a snapshot in my mind. Me as a five-year-old, waiting at the door for
my father to arrive from work, feeling my heart soar like a pink, party
balloon. My mother’s manicured hands placing tiny boxes of matches on the bridge
table, her bracelets clinking as she set them down. I built the story on scenes,
scenes with emotion--show not tell—because I felt that the real truth had to
arrive unvarnished.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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However. There is a “however,” of
course. My story happened against the backdrop of a country few Americans know,
the tiny Isthmus of Panama, within a family of Sephardic, Spanish-Portuguese
Jews ensconced in Panama since the 1850s. Readers could not read my mind and
all I knew. (How I wished they could!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
had to provide grounding information. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
I used scene and character--my great
grandmother, Julita, a matchmaker of hearts--to tell the early family story.
Through family legend about my wildly creative grandfather Jicky, I was able to
comment on the building of the canal and the early life of Panama City. But
some information did not fit within the roller coaster of my mother’s illness
and the lyrical memoir that was taking shape.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
In his novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao</i>, Junot Diaz--feeling he
had to ground readers in the story of the Dominican Republic and the 31-year
rule of dictator Trujillo--provided extensive footnotes. It was a controversial
move, and I had understood its necessity. I considered adding footnotes to my
manuscript to catch the compelling facts I was uncovering.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
In my book, I describe morning mass
in the nun’s school I attended. In those years there were few options for
Jewish children in Panama. About three years after I left Panama, two Argentine
Azkenazi brothers arrived in Panama and founded the first Jewish school, open
to all religions. My little brother went to “Einstein” as the new school was
called--but that was long after my story. Many of my cousins and some Catholic
children attended Einstein as well. This I felt was a sidebar, but an
interesting one, to orient Jewish readers.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2L4eI9MWMC4/XbBgGUl390I/AAAAAAAACGY/cJzt-IRnNX4y_LvcD9YarCGek8oO1Aj_wCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_c20a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2L4eI9MWMC4/XbBgGUl390I/AAAAAAAACGY/cJzt-IRnNX4y_LvcD9YarCGek8oO1Aj_wCK4BGAYYCw/s320/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_c20a.jpg" width="320" /></a>There were also details about the
treatment of mental illness in Panama and the US in the 50s and 60s. I’d
visited my mother at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. Father and son,
Charles and Karl Menninger, are said to have introduced psychiatry to the United
States. They railed against the conditions at asylum facilities in the
mid-twentieth century and <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">believed
in providing psychiatric treatment in a humane environment, certain that people
with chronic disorders (like my mother’s) could return to their families and
lead productive lives.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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I got advice from “beta readers.”
One reported, “I love the footnotes. Why don’t you put them in the back of the
book, so they don’t interrupt the flow.” Another reminded me of the nature of
my memoir: textured and immediate. Footnotes might give it an “academic feel.”
I wavered back and forth for months, and finally I decided. I wove into the
narrative information I couldn’t bear to leave out. And I dumped the rest. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Here’s a scene from the memoir and
the matching footnote that landed on the cutting room floor. In the book (on
page 119) I’ve just returned home from college in the United States and traveling
in a rickety train along the cinch belt that was the Canal Zone that cut
through the narrow waist of Panama:<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’d be riding alone, looking past the open windows at swamps, tall grasses, and
jungle—bamboo reeds sticking up in low-lying water—scenes that made me think of
Vietnam, deep in my consciousness after a year of campus protests at Oxy.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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On the cutting room floor:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">“At that very moment American soldiers were training for
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ride home.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-94PCGm3fcOw/XbBgVEyEGCI/AAAAAAAACGo/iIU1PLoujuEuvjqJNJlgfww-O4FKLGcTgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_c20b.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-94PCGm3fcOw/XbBgVEyEGCI/AAAAAAAACGo/iIU1PLoujuEuvjqJNJlgfww-O4FKLGcTgCK4BGAYYCw/s320/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_c20b.jpg" width="320" /></a>Marlena Maduro Baraf is a Jewish Latina who immigrated to the
United States from her native Panama. Her work has been published in Ms.
Magazine, Lilith, Lumina, Sweet, Huffington Post, and other publications. In
past lives Marlena was book editor in New York City. She also studied at
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<!--EndFragment--><br />Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-57431598517377246562019-10-14T06:58:00.000-07:002019-10-14T06:58:19.002-07:009 Tips for NaNoWriMo
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J1dn-yxaHsw/XaR5tKaaIZI/AAAAAAAACFI/XybUKa9WEEsHxnJqBhuUUDKx1MBiSibSQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_aca2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J1dn-yxaHsw/XaR5tKaaIZI/AAAAAAAACFI/XybUKa9WEEsHxnJqBhuUUDKx1MBiSibSQCK4BGAYYCw/s320/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_aca2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">At
a recent writing workshop I led, everyone was talking about NaNoWriMo with
varying degrees of panic and excitement. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel
Writing Month or, as non-writers call it, November. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>NaNoWriMo has become a global phenomenon with thousands
of writers participating, joining in online communities, charting word counts
and progress, sharing stories of success and failure, and providing pep talks
for each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">So
what’s the deal? You try to write a novel in one month. Can it be done? Sure.
At least a first draft for fast writers. Writers who move to a different beat may
not get a complete draft down, but they can get an overview of the novel and quite
a bit written, often more than they thought they could. At the very least, it’s
a catalyst that gets your ass in chair and your mind moving. It also forces you
to focus on narrative momentum and getting the story in gear. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">To
that end, I’ve put together a few tips that writing colleagues and I have found
useful, and that I hope will help put this journey in perspective. And in case
you’re wondering, yes, I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo before, and I’m going to
do it again! I’m at the tail end of one novel and hoping to plant the seeds for
a new one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Here
goes!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">1.
Prewrite!!! Start prewriting now, if you can. Write a tentative outline, draw a
map, brainstorm circles and connections, list key scenes and beats, motifs and
symbols… whatever it takes to help you envision the big picture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">2.
Clear the decks of other obligations as much as you can. But hey, life goes on.
Families, jobs, responsibilities—we’re not islands. Do what you can with what
you have. Make that enough, and it will be enough.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">3.
Dive right in and write what excites you, what you’re dying to write, the
reason that drives you to write this novel. You can work your way out from
there, and back and up and forward. Start at the throbbing heart of your story.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">4.
Maintain a regular writing schedule. Whatever your lifestyle/work habits, wherever
you are-- train/bus/coffeeshop/library/your own study—create a time that is
yours, preferably the same time everyday, devoted to writing. But make it
realistic, the kind of schedule you can keep up for a month.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">5.
Try to get the big research issues dealt with before you start writing, but
inevitably questions will arise. You can sink into the quicksand of google and
spend days looking up details. Keep it to a minimum. Wherever I need to
research, I type: XXX. When I’m looking back over the manuscript, that’s easy
to find. I tell myself: “I’ll XXX it now and look it up later.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">6.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t get too precious with your words. There’s a
time for that. It’s called December. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">7.
Be gentle with yourself. Don’t expect perfection in a first draft. Don’t beat
yourself up if you’re not a speedy writer who races to the finish line. Focus
on getting as much done as you can. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">8.
Don’t stop writing on November 30<sup>th</sup>. Be thankful you’ve started a
great practice. Try to maintain it, with modifications of course. The reason
diets don’t work is because they’re intense and exaggerated for a brief period,
and impossible to maintain over a long time. What does work is changing your
attitude and lifestyle. If you make writing a part of your daily life,
NaNoWriMo will simply intensify what you’re already doing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">9.
Have fun with it! Don’t get so tense and obsessed with daily word counts that
you can’t be playful. Think of this month as an adventure, a voyage you’re
embarking on. Look at the blank page as a place where anything is possible,
your Queendom or Kingdom. This is the beginning—every road beckons, every door
is unlocked, and your imagination is the only limit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Here’s
my writing mantra:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Say it hot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Say it short.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Say it you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Say it now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3n91f0kDriY/XaR-emq1JUI/AAAAAAAACFg/cO5MUk65uRQL_ljHON2_SLhMgBAzS9UtwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6157.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3n91f0kDriY/XaR-emq1JUI/AAAAAAAACFg/cO5MUk65uRQL_ljHON2_SLhMgBAzS9UtwCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_6157.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Writing
is such a solitary practice that whenever we can connect with other writers and form
a community it helps on many levels. If you’re in a writing group, you may decide to work
on NaNoWriMo together, sharing encouragement and experiences as you go through
the month. If not, you may find it helpful to get a writing buddy, online or in
person, with whom to compare notes. The most valuable part of this experience
may be the heightened awareness that although we write alone, we are not alone.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Good
luck and happy writing, you wizards and witches! And if you have any tips to
add, please share them in the comments!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Happy
Halloween!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-78613536633928950542019-10-01T06:35:00.001-07:002019-10-01T06:35:29.882-07:00Guest Post: The Reader and the Writer’s Imagination<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mxZNMpYiBk8/XZNUoQFpWBI/AAAAAAAACEI/jMuzCG6lnrUV_dPMvRflfi42qVkRVttTwCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_a983.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mxZNMpYiBk8/XZNUoQFpWBI/AAAAAAAACEI/jMuzCG6lnrUV_dPMvRflfi42qVkRVttTwCK4BGAYYCw/s320/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_a983.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
Hello, friends! Back with another guest post by a wonderful writer and dear friend, Miryam Sivan, whose new novel, <i>Make It Concrete</i>, just came out last month. It's a beautiful novel, and I highly recommend it! By the way, I took the above photo during one of Miryam's and my long walks, during which we talk about everything under the sun. This one was taken in Central Park on a hazy summer afternoon, a good time to brood over the power of the imagination.<br />
<br />
In this post, she poses fascinating questions about points where "reality" and our lived experiences intersect with the imagined experience of "fiction." Where does one end, and the other begin? And does it matter? These questions are in my mind as I navigate the final stretch of my novel-in-progress. More on that in the next post! For now, enjoy Miryam on The Reader and the Writer's Imagination!<br />
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Recently I read a book review that praised the writer’s autofiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That got me thinking about that genre and
what we once called autobiographical fiction. After a little reading I realized
there’s a bit of a muddle. To some degree the new name (since the 1970s) of autofiction
has added cache to the older familiar genre of autobiographical fiction. Autofiction
sounds sexier and often includes the voyeuristic meta aspect: writers writing
about writers writing. I get it. And I like it, if, like with Philip Roth’s
Zuckerman trilogy, the writing itself is s</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">uperb. And in general, since I don’t read to mine a writer’s
private life, I don’t care what’s auto and what’s not. I care about the quality
of the sentences themselves, the story being told, the larger philosophical or
political concerns of the text.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Not caring about sources is reflected in my own fiction. I do not
have an agenda to use or not use my life’s experiences. And I do and don’t use
them. For the most part though, I don’t, at least not in terms of plot and
characters. The most deliberate mining of my own life comes in the emotional
lives of my characters. Which is also where the deepest motives for writing a
story are revealed. Example: if I write about violence against women, then I
will use the feelings I may have had in relation to a specific incident (either
a news item or from someone’s life I know) to express my character’s pain,
fear, anger, helplessness, etc. What exactly happened, to whom, and how I make
up, imagine, if you will, but the emotional landscape is often already known.
Though even then it’s blended with the imagined….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
am less interested in what happened and more interested in what might happen. Sticking
to a character based on myself, seems to me infinitely boring, limiting, and
frankly I don't think I could pull it off.... I would be hyperconscious all the
time of how I was molding and resisting strands of what I think are true, want
to be true, want to erase – both from memory and certainly from the page. I
know how profound influential unconscious bias is and would track it in my
sentences. This would compromise my great pleasure in the freedom of making
stuff up. And while I believe in the wonderful work of psychotherapy, I don’t
want it to become part of my writing process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
irony of course is that no matter how imagined, readers who know me think much
of the material in my fiction is autobiographical. In my recently published
novel, <i>Make it Concrete</i>, my protagonist, Isabel, has a boyfriend, a
lover near home, a lover in a foreign country, and is capable of picking up a
sexual adventure in her travels depending on her mood. Not only have certain
readers expressed discomfort with her sex life (another subject I intend to
write about soon), but they assume it reflects my life style. “I wish,” I
respond, not going defensive on Isabel’s account. <i>Je ne suis pas Isabel
Toledo!</i> And stop looking at me like I’ve invited you into my bedroom. Same
goes with many details of the book. Isabel has 3 children. I have one. One
person actually asked me how I was able to write about this. Huh? Or how about
Isabel’s dog? She has a small Jack Russell terrier while I have always had
large dogs. Someone said to me that they knew I’d put my dog in my book. Guess
all dogs look alike to some people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Back
to emotional mining. I am the mother of one and can easily imagine being the
mother of three. I am a dog lover and size in fiction or in real life doesn’t
matter. I know this emotional bond very well. It’s not hard to put it on the
page and it’s certainly not hard to imagine loving a dog with a very different
temperament than the ones I’ve been lucky to live with. Luckily for many writers
their readers are not always people they know personally, so they’re not subject
to this kind of personal scrutiny.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
say all this stridently, but I don’t feel this way. I actually find it amusing,
not upsetting. Even when I write imaginatively people assume I’m writing
autofiction. And in <i>Make it Concrete </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I confuse them even more since the novel is about
a writer who writes! Isabel Toledo is a ghostwriter for Holocaust survivors…
something I did <i>once</i> years ago. Isabel has been doing it for twenty
years and is on her sixteenth book…. like one child versus three…. So heck, let
readers think I’m having fabulous erotic encounters with gorgeous men in unusual
sexy locations. Yippee!</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8-g3MCBd67k/XZNTCppG7zI/AAAAAAAACD4/emuMyTuHo-oO6-5NtCpPj3nyBnmiXDYoACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/MIC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1036" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8-g3MCBd67k/XZNTCppG7zI/AAAAAAAACD4/emuMyTuHo-oO6-5NtCpPj3nyBnmiXDYoACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/MIC.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">Originally from New York City, Miryam Sivan has lived for over twenty years in Israel. She is a Ph.D. and teaches literature and writing at the University of Haifa. Many of her short stories have come out in American and British journals and two were staged.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>SNAFU and Other Stories</i>, was published in 2014 (Cuidono Press), and her novel,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Make it Concrete</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>was published in 2019 (Cuidono Press). Sivan is currently revising a novel,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Love Match,</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>a Romeo and Juliet story set in Haifa, and is working on a screenplay about Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s. </span><a href="https://www.miryamsivan.com/" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">https://www.miryamsivan.com/</a></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto;">
<b></b></div>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-4082507854004222222019-09-10T04:26:00.002-07:002019-09-10T04:26:51.097-07:00Ode to My Library: Guest Post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XiPItJl-vT8/XXJ4R2rum3I/AAAAAAAACCA/3gaA662rGykm6upQT84UI5oIcr10rO8jgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_8962.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XiPItJl-vT8/XXJ4R2rum3I/AAAAAAAACCA/3gaA662rGykm6upQT84UI5oIcr10rO8jgCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_8962.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
It's been a long day's night of a summer, working on a couple of projects which I'll tell you about in my next post, but today Kate Racculia is here! Kate is a wonderful writer whose new book, <i>Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts, </i>will be out next month. I can't wait! In the meantime read on to find out about her relationship with her books. Impossible not to relate! You've got me thinking about my shelves and their crazy "organization"....<br />
<br />
Here's Kate...<br />
<br />
<br />
Ah, books and their shelves...<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
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My books and I, we
have a problem.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
When I say “my
books” I mean, of course, the many, many volumes—primarily of fiction, but a
smattering of poetry, plays, and nonfiction—I have amassed over my lifetime.
The books of my childhood: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Westing
Game</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The NeverEnding Story</i>, anthologies
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Calvin and Hobbes</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Far Side</i>. The books of my teen years—a
copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jurassic Park</i> with SOON TO BE
A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE emblazed on a red starburst—and of college (Flannery
O’Connor, Shakespeare), graduate school (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Who
Will Run the Frog Hospital</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Room of
One’s Own</i>), and beyond, up through the past decade of my life as a
professional novelist. The problem my books and I have now isn’t so much that I
have too many of them (I do), or even that I have a problem getting rid of them
(I don’t, when I bother to weed), but that I possess enough now to comprehend
the flaws in my initial organizational system.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
This
system, if you want to call it that, is a mishmash of circumstance and
affection, maintained by a mix of habit and laziness. Eternal favorites go
here. Current reads are here, and travel back and forth between living room and
bedroom. Books I was reading when I moved are shelved here, vintage mass market
paperbacks are stacked there. Books I’ve borrowed and intend to return but
admittedly probably never will are stashed there. Books that I can feel
exerting that special kind of gravity, that I’ll end up writing about someday,
even if I’m the only person who will ever be able to trace their influence—are
stacked, precariously, there. I am both a re-reader and a used bookstore
magpie, and go to my own shelves to revisit gems or discover un-read treasures.
The result is that my apartment, which is quite big enough for one person and
two cats, is full of not only overstuffed bookcases but random stalagmites of
books (from my vantage on the couch, I count five) that I admit are trending
less “cozy” and more “cluttered.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
But
now comes the problem: if I am, as Marie Kondo suggests, to pile all my books
into one room, sort through and only keep the ones that give me joy—where and
how on earth am I going to put the joy-givers <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">back, </i>and ever hope to find them again? I’ve Kondo-tidied other
parts of my life, my kitchen, my closet, so I know the delight and freedom that
comes from only surrounding yourself with objects intentionally chosen. And
humans better equipped than I have already come up with plenty of useful organizational
schema: Melville Dewey gets points for complexity. The alphabet—a classic. I
half attempted, several years ago, to make a bookshelf of favorite authors,
snuggling my Barbara Pyms up to my Stephen Kings, and plan to return to it
(probably around the same time that I read and return those borrowed books).
Bookshelves organized by spine color give me hives, though of course this is
essentially how my books are organized too: by a design entirely of my own
making, based on my recall both of the book’s physicality and when it came into
my life. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Scarlet Pimpernel</i> was a
gift, is a TV movie tie-in with Jane Seymour on the cover—it’s in the mass market
stack. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beloved</i> was a used book sale
score, missing its cover: a rough linen spine on the eternal favorites overflow
shelf. In order to organize my library in such a way that any human other than
me can find anything in it, I need to surrender the very particular ties I have
to each of my books as objects. I need to depersonalize it, in other words.
Which is probably why the idea feels so uncomfortable, and why I’ll get around
to re-organizing as soon as I return those books I’ve borrowed: they’re already
organized just so, as the library of my life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt"; font-size: 14px;">Kate Racculia is a novelist living in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She is the author of the novels<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto;">This Must Be the Place</i><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt"; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto;">Bellweather Rhapsody</i><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt"; font-size: 14px;">, winner of the American Library Association’s Alex Award. Her third novel,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto;">Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts</i><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanpsmt"; font-size: 14px;">, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2019. She teaches online for Grub Street, works at her local public library, and sings in the oldest Bach choir in America.</span> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Visit Kate at:</span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="https://www.kateracculia.com/">https://www.kateracculia.com/</a></span><br />
Here's information about her latest novel:<br />
<a href="https://www.kateracculia.com/tuesday-mooney-talks-to-ghosts">https://www.kateracculia.com/tuesday-mooney-talks-to-ghosts</a></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-71368879202140787882019-06-17T06:10:00.000-07:002019-06-17T06:10:26.780-07:00GUEST POST: MY DAUGHTER’S PHOTOGRAPHS; MY WRITING: CONNECTED BY VISION AND LOVE I have always loved the idea of literary salons, in which creatives from all disciplines gather to discuss issues, challenges, inspirations, and joys in their work. One of my greatest pleasures in maintaining this blog is the chance to create an online version of the salon with guest posts by people I admire and love.<br />
Today, I'm delighted to welcome my friend, sister writer, Janice Eidus, and her daughter, Alma.<br />
The ways in which Janice and Alma, whose photos illustrate the post, connect through their art inspires me. I hope it will inspire you too!<br />
Take it away, Janice!<br />
<br />
<br />
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
marvel at the intensity and craft of the photographs in my daughter’s
portfolio. Now 16, Alma has wanted to become a professional photographer since
she was in middle school. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
marvel too at the deep connection between her work and mine as a writer. For
instance, a while back, Alma took a series of photographs of her close friend
Natalie. Tall, thin, and doe-eyed, Natalie is conventionally attractive by
society’s standards. But Alma’s intention was to reveal her friend’s inner
beauty: her loyalty, generosity, intelligence, and empathy. In one photo,
Natalie is surrounded by lights seemingly suspended from the sky. In another
she walks dreamily through the rain. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-20aT_lyRaVg/XQeK69pAqwI/AAAAAAAAB84/Kt0bRq1WOZENOVkMwCmPIemsfWqT3kU7QCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_bf47.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-20aT_lyRaVg/XQeK69pAqwI/AAAAAAAAB84/Kt0bRq1WOZENOVkMwCmPIemsfWqT3kU7QCK4BGAYYCw/s320/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_bf47.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My
intention too is to explore the inner lives of my characters. When the husband
in my comic novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Urban Bliss </i>cheats
on his wife, I delve into his past so that readers will understand why. In my
short story <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vito Loves Geraldine </i>I
examine what underlies teenaged Geraldine’s unconditional and undying love for
Vito, the cutest boy in their Bronx neighborhood. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One
afternoon on impulse Alma took a photo of a young girl alone in a playground.
The girl’s back is to the camera. Unmoving, she sits on a swing, appearing
disconnected from the world around her. My story <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Davida’s Own </i>was similarly inspired by my sighting of a girl the
same age alone on a beach, staring at the water.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
her self-portraits, Alma limns her transformation from a shy 13-year-old to a
poised high school junior. Her tentative expression and stance at 13 are
determined and confident at 16. In my autobiographical essays, I reveal myself
as a woman grappling with a difficult past while delighting in current joys. I
describe how as a child I scrawled short poems, plays, stories, and “novels”
about my life with a charismatic yet violent father and a depressed mother.
Like Alma’s friend Natalie I was sometimes surrounded by light and sometimes by
storms.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Recently,
Alma shot a black-and-white series of a woman’s hand. The woman appears to be
sitting at a table with a copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The New
Yorker</i>, an energy bar, and a cup of tea in front of her. As the photos
unfold, the woman’s hand turns the pages of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
New Yorker</i>. She takes bites of the energy bar. She sips from the cup of
tea. Here, Alma is paying homage to Andy Warhol, an artistic hero of hers and
mine. Like Warhol, whose subjects range from sleep to soup cans, Alma brings
together seemingly quotidian details while analyzing the texture of
contemporary life and art. And by the way, it’s my hand, magazine, and cup of
black tea in Alma’s photos, which makes me feel a heightened and profound connection
to them.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x-G1rAILmis/XQeLQJD99NI/AAAAAAAAB9E/b0DWJyd3KOQ6BlEO8u4_MfMJiBaS9DKswCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_bf46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x-G1rAILmis/XQeLQJD99NI/AAAAAAAAB9E/b0DWJyd3KOQ6BlEO8u4_MfMJiBaS9DKswCK4BGAYYCw/s320/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_bf46.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6HZQmxaBkWw/XQeLih2DD_I/AAAAAAAAB9Q/SP3s7dVo9jstLBczNmaW2vJ3pF7Yenp3gCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_bf48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6HZQmxaBkWw/XQeLih2DD_I/AAAAAAAAB9Q/SP3s7dVo9jstLBczNmaW2vJ3pF7Yenp3gCK4BGAYYCw/s320/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_bf48.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Alma’s
current subject is shadows. With intricate lighting and meticulously arranged
vases, flowers, and everyday items like fabrics, she captures with her camera shadows
of various shapes and sizes. These shadows remind me that my writing – even the
most comical – contains dark and shadowy truths. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Urban Bliss, </i>the husband’s illicit affair is painful for both
himself and his wife. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vito Loves
Geraldine</i>, I look not only at the pleasures of unconditional love but also
at its implicit heartaches.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Many
photographers inspire Alma, including Martin Schoeller whose portraits of both
celebrities and non-celebrities are un-posed and natural, evoking their genuine
personalities. She also loves the work of the young British photographer Juno
Calypso whose photographs subvert the meanings of the words “feminine” and
“romantic” as she embarks on a solo world tour of honeymoon hotels.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As for me, I’m influenced by
numerous writers. Angela Carter’s stunning, elegant prose and fierce feminist
vision show me how fiction can transform readers’ worldviews. Edgar Allan Poe’s
unreliable narrators have intrigued me since I was a little girl reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Annabel Lee </i>for the first time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Day by day, Alma inspires me as
well. I’m confident that she and I will continue on our respective artistic
journeys. Along the way, we’ll learn more and more about the power of the
imagination, the thrilling and rewarding artistic process, and our own deep –
and ever-deepening – connection.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xr8l353gwWM/XOxBMcbiWmI/AAAAAAAAB7U/FSMJSKnevy0OEhKeTthAKgDGSI2oEhJBACEwYBhgL/s1600/unnamed-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="480" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xr8l353gwWM/XOxBMcbiWmI/AAAAAAAAB7U/FSMJSKnevy0OEhKeTthAKgDGSI2oEhJBACEwYBhgL/s200/unnamed-2.jpeg" width="172" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Alma Kastan<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zPzpwUcgfxo/XOxBSq4qbqI/AAAAAAAAB7Y/3uTSi6E03PAEQ_z_Qa3UT8smE6r6LjE1wCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_1014.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="360" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zPzpwUcgfxo/XOxBSq4qbqI/AAAAAAAAB7Y/3uTSi6E03PAEQ_z_Qa3UT8smE6r6LjE1wCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_1014.jpeg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alma Kastan is a rising high school senior. She studies photography at The International Center of Photography and New York Film Academy, and plans to become a professional photographer.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0.5in; text-size-adjust: auto;">
<span style="color: #0433ff; text-indent: 0.5in;">Janice Eidus is a novelist, short story writer, essayist, and a writing coach who works one-on-one and in small groups. She’s twice won</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #0433ff; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span class="" style="color: #0433ff;"></span></div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; text-size-adjust: auto;">
<span class="" style="color: #0433ff;">the O.Henry Prize as well as a Pushcart Prize; her novels include <i class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;">The War Of The Rosens</i><span class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;">;<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Urban Bliss</i><span class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;">; and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;">The Last Jewish Virgin</i><span class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;">. Her short story collections are<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Vito Loves Geraldine</i><span class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;">The Celibacy Club</i><span class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;">. Her website is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="" href="http://www.janiceeidus.com/">www.janiceeidus.com</a>. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; text-size-adjust: auto;">
<span class="" style="color: #0433ff;"><span class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; text-size-adjust: auto;">
<span class="" style="color: #0433ff;"><span class="" style="line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></span></div>
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Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-41885233676484336612019-05-23T13:40:00.000-07:002019-05-23T13:40:21.381-07:00Dark Fascination: Serial Killers and me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zz2DxVnqvf0/XOb-1W7kKDI/AAAAAAAAB6k/cCSoeW-1u1Y0GC6_km4gDjH8808u9_dcACLcBGAs/s1600/tedb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zz2DxVnqvf0/XOb-1W7kKDI/AAAAAAAAB6k/cCSoeW-1u1Y0GC6_km4gDjH8808u9_dcACLcBGAs/s1600/tedb.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
What have I been doing the past year-- besides not blogging? If you've seen the photos I've posted, you've probably imagined me wandering through nature appreciating moments of wonder, beauty and peace. And though that is true, I doubt you've imagined me devouring books and movies about serial killers. And if you happened to peek at my browser history, which on a given day might include searches for homicide by strangulation and the decomposition of a body buried in a pit, you'd be forgiven for backing away, carefully. <br />
<br />
If you're a writer, you know I'm doing research. The two main characters in my new novel are a female magician and a serial killer. My fascination with murder and mystery is not new. I was a noir kid growing up in suburbia. By night I was a fearless detective who helped Nancy Drew, Sam Spade, and Philip Marlow navigate the dark unknown. Problem was that by day I was a wimp, scared of the dark, horror movies, snakes, and clowns. <br />
<br />
My imagination magnified all dangers. A mere glimpse of a scene in a horror film would root in my mind for decades. Here's one I can't forget (I've blocked the title!): the moment a man realizes that his wife has been possessed by evil forces. As he stares in horror, her face shifts from human to leering skeleton and back to human. But from that moment on, no matter what she says or does, he knows that she hides her true self behind the mask of a beautiful woman. <br />
<br />
My desire to be a detective led to my desire at age 9 to be a writer, or a detective with a pen. My writing is a search for clues to understand what it means to be human. In the end, isn't that the greatest mystery of all?<br />
<br />
Maybe that's the source of my dark fascination with serial killers: how they manage to compartmentalize their various identities and roles. I have seen the face of madness, more than once. Once you've seen it, you never forget the terrifying moment when the mask is removed, and the shadow-self is revealed. Serial killer, Ted Bundy, called his dark force The Entity. Dexter, TV's favorite serial killer, called his shadow, The Dark Passenger, and said, "The only way to kill a Dark Passenger is to take out the Driver." When the Driver is charming, charismatic, and attractive, it is difficult to believe the gruesome brutality of his crimes. Which leads us back to Ted Bundy. <br />
<br />
I began reading about him a few years ago, and quickly grew fascinated and dove into the extensive Bundy bibliography. In the early days, I had the naive hope that if I read enough, learned every detail of his life, the secrets he hid to the stories of every woman he murdered, I'd come closer to understanding him and perhaps find the human connection that would help me create my own killer. <br />
<br />
I soon realized that would not happen. Psychologists who studied him could come to no conclusions either. But I'm not the only one who is fascinated by Bundy. Though his murderous rampage was conducted in the 70s, you could say that he's the serial killer of the moment. There are two movies about him currently airing on Netflix, both directed by Joe Berlinger. The first is a 4-part documentary, "Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes," during which we hear Bundy analyze himself through a third-person perspective that allows him to distance himself from his "confessions." Even so, the interviewer recalls that when Bundy "really got going," his blue eyes "went absolutely black," echoing Carol DaRonch, who described his "beady, blank, lifeless eyes." DaRonch was the one that got away, and it's because of her testimony that he was first caught and sentenced. <br />
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Hoping for a clue to the "why," we listen to Bundy describe his idyllic childhood much the way his mother describes "the best son in the world," but at every point his whitewashing is punctured: he had no idea how to act with people, especially girls; he was arrested twice for suspicion of burglary and car theft, the records expunged when he turned 18; he was a loner who wandered his neighborhood at night, peering into windows to watch women undress. We hear him pontificate on all manner of subjects at mind-numbing length until on Death Row, he finally admits to committing at least 30 murders, and we hear the chilling whisper of a killer confessing in first person to transporting the head of one of his victims for necrophiliac purposes.<br />
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How do you reconcile the monster who went on a one night mad rampage of rape, torture, and murder through a sorority house in Tallahassee, and then stole a car and while on the run, stopped to buy socks with a stolen credit card. Lots and lots of socks.<br />
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"One of my fondest dreams is to have all the underwear and socks I ever could conceivably use. It’s one of my fantasies. To be able to wear new socks every day!"<br />
<br />
Yes, that's Ted. Obsessed with socks. He once said if he'd had enough white socks, he'd have been happy. A sock fetish? A need to be pure, as if by changing into a new pair of white socks every morning, he could erase the crimes of the day before? A wish for enough money to buy dozens and dozens of socks and never have to worry that he couldn't pay for them? Maybe a mix of all the above.<br />
<br />
All his life he envied those who had money and felt insecure and outclassed by them. The truth is he was insecure around everyone because they seemed to hold the secret to... simply being human. What did it mean to fall in love with someone? To be one of the popular guys who knew what to say and do, who got girls effortlessly? That insecurity was matched with an arrogance-- he was smarter than everyone else. And for years, it seemed that he was.<br />
<br />
The second film, "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile," is a feature film starring Zac Efron as Bundy, that is based on Elizabeth Kloepfer's memoir, "The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy." Efron is great but the movie wants to have it both ways: to tell the story from Liz Kloepfer's perspective while describing events she had no way of seeing. The book actually reveals the tension of what it meant for her to love and live with Bundy on and off for several years. <br />
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I first read her account a couple of years ago, hoping to find out what she saw and experienced. Were there clues to his secret identity? Did she sense something was wrong? I also wanted to know how it was from his perspective, how he managed to live with a woman and her small daughter for years, day in day out, no escape hatch, no place to hide. It was while he lived with her that he began his killing spree, attacking female students at universities in Washington and Oregon. He killed, and then went home to Liz and her daughter. Were they only his cover, his mask to appear normal, or did he feel something for them? He did have black nights, when he disappeared to his own apartment. Ah, I thought, that's where he went to take off the mask and breathe before returning to the performance of being Ted Bundy, law student, suicide hotline operator, and loving boyfriend. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PeNZ7GBB4aw/XOb-7JmRvNI/AAAAAAAAB6s/X4oX8eXoksAu3wiyWvvAF0VHDIZA89zEQCEwYBhgL/s1600/elizabeth-kloepfer-featured.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
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Ted Bundy and Liz Kloepfer </div>
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Liz did grow to suspect him.
Turns out that the nights the girls disappeared, he did not stay at her
apartment. He had curious objects in his car and apartment--a hatchet,
crutches, pantyhose, and a bowl of female underwear. She called the
police in Washington and in Utah to report her suspicious boyfriend, but
they dismissed her calls. After she reported him, she stayed with him.
That's the stumbling block for most of us. You suspect your live-in
boyfriend is a killer, but you take him back again and again. <br />
<br />
And
yet isn't that what we do with handsome, charming men who-- as Ted
Bundy put it-- "snow" us? We don't want to believe that evil hides
behind a smiling human face. Centuries ago, Shakespeare said it: "That a
man may smile and smile and be a villain." Our first instinct is to
insist that evil is something foreign and separate from us, as if the
killer is out there, an alien monster, non-human, and we are watching
safely from behind our curtains. It's a means of self-preservation, a
delusion we want to preserve, because the alternative is far more
terrifying, maybe the source of the true horror: the Dark Passenger is
the guy in VW Beetle next to you at the red light, smiling, and when the
light changes, off he goes, leaving a trail of white socks. Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-73988352618997277352017-05-16T07:04:00.003-07:002017-05-16T07:04:49.572-07:00From Mummies to Aliens: The Power of Language<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V2vpSlextNs/WRXaIoNwGyI/AAAAAAAABUA/L5cpHvEnkWIdTysVA2FTjeR1u8znr8lcQCK4B/s1600/arrival_wallpaper_1_by_fermayam-daotk7w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V2vpSlextNs/WRXaIoNwGyI/AAAAAAAABUA/L5cpHvEnkWIdTysVA2FTjeR1u8znr8lcQCK4B/s320/arrival_wallpaper_1_by_fermayam-daotk7w.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alien language in the film Arrival</i><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Neo6IemRo5I/WRXcT5mdNRI/AAAAAAAABUY/jICP2_NS-70ttq60rucxg8NmoFS-PfGFwCK4B/s1600/2016_A_Womans_Afterlife_Gender_Transformation_in_Ancient_Egypt_37.47Ea_b_PS1_1500w_600_800.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Neo6IemRo5I/WRXcT5mdNRI/AAAAAAAABUY/jICP2_NS-70ttq60rucxg8NmoFS-PfGFwCK4B/s320/2016_A_Womans_Afterlife_Gender_Transformation_in_Ancient_Egypt_37.47Ea_b_PS1_1500w_600_800.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
<br />
<i><a href="https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/assets/system-images/made/assets/system-images/remote/https_d1lfxha3ugu3d4.cloudfront.net/exhibitions/images/2016_A_Womans_Afterlife_Gender_Transformation_in_Ancient_Egypt_37.47Ea_b_PS1_1500w_600_800.jpg">Coffin of the Lady of the House, Weretwahset, circa 1292–1190 B.C.E. Brooklyn Museum)</a><br /></i></td></tr>
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I recently visited the Brooklyn Museum and was fascinated by the exhibit, "Gender Transformation in Ancient Egypt." The ancient Egyptians believed in rebirth, and therefore, placed great importance on the rituals of death and burial, including mummification, spells carved on tomb walls and coffins, and the prayers in the Book of the Dead that accompanied the body. </div>
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A curious belief they had was that in order to make rebirth possible for a woman, she had to briefly turn into a man. According to Egyptian belief: the man created the fetus and transferred it to the woman during intercourse. So... a woman alone in her tomb could not conceive the fetus of her reborn self. What do you think they did? Deny women the possibility of an afterlife? Or come up with a creative solution? <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Like magically transforming a woman's mummy into a man long enough to create a fetus? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">That's exactly what they did. Priests turned a female into a male b</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">y the strategic use of male color and language. Red was the color used to represent a man's skin so they painted the woman's skin red -- on her coffin. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">And as a writer, here's what I find most interesting: the "you" in their language had both a masculine and feminine form. On the woman's coffin, and in spells recited by the priest, the woman was addressed with the masculine form of the pronoun, as if to fool the gods that the body buried inside the coffin was a man.</span></div>
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Earlier scholars attributed this to mistakes, but recent research reveals the logic behind the transformation, and the magical power of language to not only affect reality, but to change it. Later, the woman will return to her female identity and be reborn as a woman, but for a brief time, the ancient Egyptians believed that through words she could be transformed into a man long enough to give birth to herself. </div>
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Like everything that explores and demonstrates the power of words, this blows my mind. It reminds me of the film, ARRIVAL, in which a human linguist (Amy Adams) decodes the written language of aliens. Their ink blot language is circular, no beginning or end. As the linguist learns their language, her mind expands to accept their vision of time, and she begins to perceive the world as they do, circular rather than linear. The verb tenses, or concepts of "future" and "past" no longer have any meaning, or at least not the meaning we attribute to them. The film's central idea demonstrates the theory of linguistic relativity -- that the structure of language affects its speakers. Past and future events swirled through the movie in no apparent order -- making it a frustrating experience for some viewers and a very exciting one for others. </div>
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The idea <span style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">that language shapes our world dates back to the mummies, and long before. </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Whether or not we believe in the power of words to express our thoughts and beliefs, and even more, to actually shape and determine them -- i.e., to transform gender or to see past and future as a flowing circle rather than a horizontal line -- we can, I think, agree that language teaches us a great deal about who we are, what we fear and desire, our potentials and our limitations. And our responsibility to use language with care.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Words can offer passageways into wondrous realities. Or slam the door in our face. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b><i>As long as we are not chased from our words we have nothing to fear. As long as our utterances keep their sound we have a voice. As long as our words keep their sense we have a soul. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b><i> -- Edmond Jabes</i></b></span></div>
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</style>Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-88246836889353140752017-04-24T04:32:00.000-07:002017-05-11T21:11:52.498-07:00Owning a New Identity, As Writer<br />
My friend and sister writer, Kate Brandes, just published her first novel, <i>The Promise of Pierson Orchard, </i>a powerful, compassionate story that is both relevant and timely. It's my pleasure to turn today's blog post over to her. She has very insightful words to share about what it means to be a "real writer." Take it away, Kate!<br />
<br />
OWNING A NEW IDENTITY, AS WRITER<br />
<br />
If I had to select one photo
of truest self, this would be it.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-moBAxy5pKbY/WP3g6TlhgWI/AAAAAAAABS4/rshfIYB17RY9HMD-E2-indAOGDKKiGw-ACK4B/s1600/13626403_10205777738877595_920682426017981012_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-moBAxy5pKbY/WP3g6TlhgWI/AAAAAAAABS4/rshfIYB17RY9HMD-E2-indAOGDKKiGw-ACK4B/s320/13626403_10205777738877595_920682426017981012_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Working on the very last edits of my novel before it went
to press.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2JirOj8B4jE/WPPeiZksctI/AAAAAAAABRM/PTam6KYPt-AtLbG0bLQlYuuKTT2AhEkbQCK4B/s1600/17634411_10207693305045552_7205495291964927006_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2JirOj8B4jE/WPPeiZksctI/AAAAAAAABRM/PTam6KYPt-AtLbG0bLQlYuuKTT2AhEkbQCK4B/s320/17634411_10207693305045552_7205495291964927006_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A photo of me as a child with the word "thinker "
written on the back</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
At the age of 46, after seven years of working on my novel, it will be published this year :)<br />
<br />
I didn’t start writing until I was in my mid-thirties.
Before that I worked as an environmental scientist and didn’t think of myself
as a creative person.<br />
<br />
I found after my first son was born that I wanted to try making
something that would reflect my view of the world. I’ve always loved reading
fiction and understand the world better through stories. I’ve also kept journals all my life, used mostly
for working out problems or making important decisions. So perhaps it was
inevitable that I turned to writing as the creative outlet I found myself
searching for.<br />
<br />
Even though I had two small children, a full time job, and
more volunteer commitments than any sane person should have, I crammed in time
to learn how to tell a story on paper. I worked hard, whenever I could. And
eventually, after years of rewriting and rewriting, I got a publishing contract
for my book.<br />
<br />
Part of the job when you have a book coming out is to seek
out successful novelists and ask if they’ll do you the favor of reading an
early copy of your book and, if they like it, write a short “blurb” you might
feature on the cover or inside pages of the final novel.<br />
<br />
So last fall, this is what I found myself doing and it was
one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I had to ask established writers
that I admire, all people I didn’t know well, if at all, if they would read my
entire novel and say something about it even though I could offer nothing in
return and they were busy with a million other important things. Some said no,
but to my surprise several said yes and were gracious and generous. I will
always be grateful to them.<br />
<br />
I confided to one of these writers how hard it was to reach
out to her and ask this favor because, I told her, she was a real writer with commercial
success, and I was just pretending to know what I was doing.<br />
<br />
She quickly emailed back and told me she had two words of
advice for me and they were: <u>Own It.</u><br />
<br />
I’ve thought a lot about her response. She’s right. We
should own everything we do. I’ve worked more than a decade on my writing. I do
have a newly published book and some short stories. And yet... I still struggled
to feel like myself in these new writer shoes.<br />
<br />
It’s been an interesting journey from environmental scientist
to writer. My entire community of people used to know me only as a scientist. This includes everyone with whom I went to
college and graduate school and everyone I’ve worked with over 20+ years.<br />
<br />
But lately, some people only know me as writer. In many ways
my long-held identity as a scientist is fading to the background as my
investment in my writing self grows. It’s dizzying at times.<br />
<br />
But what I’ve found is that with each new experience as a
writer, which have been many this year with a first book coming out: readings,
signings, teaching my first workshop, and more – I am more a writer everyday. I
am owning it because I’m having to live it. That’s the way people grow all the
time. I don’t hesitate much anymore to call myself a writer.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PkwwKX2dyag/WP3hyIhPkCI/AAAAAAAABTM/tPdl1EvuEKYq4kR8Cx83DXRL8HKZVHCOgCK4B/s1600/flood-simulation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PkwwKX2dyag/WP3hyIhPkCI/AAAAAAAABTM/tPdl1EvuEKYq4kR8Cx83DXRL8HKZVHCOgCK4B/s320/flood-simulation.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Working as the science director at the Nurture Nature
Center in Easton, Pennsylvania in 2009
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3gb63mlCvig/WP3g_VCGcGI/AAAAAAAABTA/XsKhh1f5_OIYo9uYj7mvl11S-BC2FQAFgCK4B/s1600/941777_4633148481623_1993166161_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3gb63mlCvig/WP3g_VCGcGI/AAAAAAAABTA/XsKhh1f5_OIYo9uYj7mvl11S-BC2FQAFgCK4B/s320/941777_4633148481623_1993166161_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With my kids in 2013
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KK9WxmpgIvU/WP3eRjxXGAI/AAAAAAAABSA/GBybms6EWYsZZMnB41XF1xDN-dujmey4wCK4B/s1600/13626403_10205777738877595_920682426017981012_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"></a>Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-86548145705487935712017-04-17T07:44:00.000-07:002017-05-11T15:44:21.379-07:00Miracles for Breakfast or How I Learned to Love Poetry<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U6JENPL5sHM/WPPgSAyy5SI/AAAAAAAABRY/MOQ-N_QGlKoCwkD3fV7Zcvwmo7NOBXmvgCK4B/s1600/69416583.jpg" imageanchor="1"></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--L0CIISlLDA/WPPg5-6FxFI/AAAAAAAABRg/xKoPoXPRfWY1AbfEhcEIjFE2CXf1G8aiwCK4B/s1600/elizabeth-bishop.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--L0CIISlLDA/WPPg5-6FxFI/AAAAAAAABRg/xKoPoXPRfWY1AbfEhcEIjFE2CXf1G8aiwCK4B/s320/elizabeth-bishop.jpeg" width="320" /></a><img border="0" height="180" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U6JENPL5sHM/WPPgSAyy5SI/AAAAAAAABRY/MOQ-N_QGlKoCwkD3fV7Zcvwmo7NOBXmvgCK4B/s320/69416583.jpg" width="320" /><br />
<br />
<br />
The professor I was secretly in love with gave
me the book. I’d never heard of the author, Elizabeth Bishop, and I didn’t like
poetry.<br />
<br />
“I have an assignment for you,” he said.<br />
<br />
“I won’t like it if it’s work,” I warned.<br />
<br />
“Keep the book by your bed, and every night
read a poem until you find the one that speaks to you. Then read it over and
over, dream about it, write it out word by word, sing it, draw it, eat it,
drink it… until it’s inside you.”<br />
<br />
“Then what?”<br />
<br />
“Then read it to me.”<br />
<br />
The book was slim with a torn cover. It had
belonged to him. On the title page he’d written, “For Ruth,” in his confident
black scrawl. I breathed in the pages to see if I smelled his solid, sensual,
hard scent. Then I set the book on my windowsill, where it absorbed fresh air
and sounds from other windows. Each night I restlessly searched the pages, but<br />
“A Miracle for Breakfast.” found me.<br />
<br />
At six o'clock we were waiting for coffee,<br />
waiting for coffee and the charitable
crumb<br />
that was going to be served from a certain
balcony<br />
--like kings of old, or like a miracle.<br />
It was still dark. One foot of the sun<br />
steadied itself on a long ripple in the
river.<br />
<br />
Each night I read it like a
prayer… a love letter… a note thrust into a crevice in the Wailing Wall. I knew
nothing about the poet, nothing about poetry, nothing about form. But I knew
about miracles, and I knew how breakfast—coffee, a roll, eating crumbs off my
palm, the sun rising over water—could be a miracle. I knew nothing... but I tasted
this poem. I tasted the poet.<br />
<br />
Winter turned to spring, and each night I kissed the words. My
bedtime ritual. No matter how late I came home to my tiny apartment, the last
thing I did before sleeping was to read my poem. Sometimes only the first and
last stanzas. Sometimes I skipped around. I loved these lines: <br />
<br />
Was the man crazy? What under the sun<br />
was he trying to do, up there on his
balcony! <br />
<br />
Was the man crazy? Was I? One night, stunned, I
discovered the pattern. Six words were repeated creatively, wildly, in each
stanza: coffee, crumb, balcony, sun, river, and miracle. I looked it up: a
sestina! I was as awed as if I’d discovered a new country, scaled a mountain
peak. <br />
<br />
The pattern made me fall in love with the poet.
To be able to do that—to disguise the pattern, to use the same words in different order,
and yet to tell a story—that was a miracle. That was art. I cried that night,
alone in my bed crammed with books, papers, dreams of stories half-written and
travels not yet taken. I cried for Elizabeth Bishop, for the narrator of the
poem, for my professor, for myself, for all of us waiting for a miracle for
breakfast. <br />
<br />
Months after he’d given me the book, I went to
his office and read him the poem. His eyes teared. So did mine. I thanked him
but it took me years to understand the power of the gift he’d given me. The
gift I try to share whenever I can. <br />
<br />
Years later, I learned the poem, written in the
mid-1930s, was about the Depression.
<br />
Decades later, I read Billy Collins: “They want
to tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.” And I thanked my professor again for showing me how to fall in love with a poem. <br />
<br />
Last week, I watched Jim Jarmusch’s film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paterson, </i>about Paterson, a busdriver (played
by Adam Driver), who creates poetry out of the miracles of everyday life. Each
morning over his breakfast of Cheerios, he ponders the beauty and power of a
humble Ohio Bluetip Matchbox and transforms it into the flame of his love for his
wife. The poem (written by poet Ron Padgett) begins with these lines: <br />
<br />
<i>We have plenty of matches in our house.</i><br />
<i>We keep them on hand always.</i><br />
<i>Currently
our favorite brand is Ohio Blue tip . . .</i><br />
<br />
Simple, concrete words. William Carlos
Williams, the patron saint of the film, said, “No ideas but in things.” He
called poetry, “a necessary guide amid the bewilderments of life.” <br />
<br />
Throughout the day Paterson eavesdrops on
conversations, walks his dog, drinks at a neighborhood bar, and jots down his
lines. Slowly, we see what it means to live life as an artist: to be here in
this world, and simultaneously to be there in the world you’ve created. The artist merges the two. <br />
<br />
Every art teaches us how to see. It takes strands of reality and weaves
them into something that makes others see what you see, and in the process
helps them to see their own reality, transformed into a poem, a painting, a
song, a story. Poetry shows us how to see the miracle in the matchbox. <br />
<br />
We licked up the crumb and swallowed the coffee.<br />
A window across the river caught the sun<br />
as if the miracle were working, on the wrong balcony.
Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-21097340535356100282016-08-02T05:31:00.004-07:002016-08-02T05:31:59.126-07:00 The Art of the Writers Residency<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hKN5FxolamM/V5gQNAdd1RI/AAAAAAAABG4/o9H7DgIyjZkdaVfmlnC8CgqntvObpTZhgCLcB/s1600/castle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hKN5FxolamM/V5gQNAdd1RI/AAAAAAAABG4/o9H7DgIyjZkdaVfmlnC8CgqntvObpTZhgCLcB/s320/castle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>Rocaberti Castle</i><br />
<br />
I've been to many writers residencies, and in fact, I'm looking forward to returning in late September to the wonderful Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A writers residency can offer the priceless gifts of time and space to create, but it definitely helps to know how to prepare for one, and my friend Georgia Clark offers helpful tips below. Take it away, Georgia!<br />
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<i>Abby Rodriguez, Georgia & me at Rocaberti</i></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">By Georgia Clark<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Ruth and I met in a <a href="http://rocabertiwriters.com/">14<sup>th</sup>
century Spanish castle</a>, a few hours north of Barcelona, on my sixth
writers’ residency. I’d never been on a residency before moving from Sydney to
New York, and stumbled across my first one (the wonderful <a href="http://noepecenter.org/marthas-vineyard-writers-residency-named-one-of-top-residencies-in-u-s/">Martha’s
Vineyard</a> residency) quite by accident. Now, I absolutely love them. Allow
me to share my passion with you…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What the hell’s a
writer’s residency?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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An organized time and space for writers to work. Some are
free, some cost money. (The free ones are generally the most competitive). Some
include meals, some include one meal, some have a space for you to cook. Some
are structured (our Spanish residency included time with a mentor), most are
not. Some will be life-changing. All exemplify the adage ‘you get out what you
put in’. They exist because writing is hard, community is important, people are
generous, and hey—who doesn’t want to spend a few weeks somewhere gorgeous,
bashing away in a room of one’s own? <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How do I get in?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The application for a residency can be a lot of work
(possibly including a writers resume, sample, outline of intended work and
references), but once you’ve done one you can pretty much repurpose it for
other residencies. Be as human and engaging in your project pitch as possible:
explain why the work matters to you and what you’re about, really. Don’t be too
formal. The magic of a good residency is about artists who think and feel, not
business people who have perfect CVs. Overwhelmed by choice? Narrow it down to
ones you can travel easily to, ones friends recommend (and might be a reference
for; this helps), ones you can afford. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Find your ideal residency at <a href="http://www.resartis.org/en/">Res Artis</a>, <a href="http://www.pw.org/conferences_and_residencies">Poets & Writers</a>, <a href="http://www.artistcommunities.org/residencies/directory">Artist
Communities</a> or random Googling. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do I prepare?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Great question, Georgia. Even though most writers’
residencies are self-directed, it’s a great idea to mentally and physically
prepare for them. Decide well in advance what you’ll be working on, and set the
bar high for yourself. At my last Martha’s Vineyard residency, I committed to
writing the outline for my next novel, which was a big, unwieldy task that
would’ve taken me three times at long in my usual, distraction-heavy
environment. At the <a href="http://www.obras-art.org/">Obras</a> residency in rural
Portugal, I made the mistake of assuming I was there to polish what I thought
was an almost-completed novel, only to hear back from my editor on Day 1 that
is was an “okay” first draft. I wasn’t prepared for that and consequently spent
a lot of time crying into large glasses of admittedly excellent port. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Alternatively, you might be on residency to relax and find
inspiration: long solo walks, time away from the kids, etc. Again, set some
goals for this: maybe you’ll commit to finding three great ideas for your next
project. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tips on having a
great residency! <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Join your
fellow writers for at least one meal a day, ideally dinner</b>. It’s a great
way to take a break and make real connections. Pair up and take turns cooking
meals.<o:p></o:p></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bring
sleep aids and exercise gear.</b> You’ll be mentally exhausted but not
physically which can make it hard to sleep. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Disconnect
from the outside world. </b>Set up a vacation email and manage loved ones’
expectations of contact. Once phone call a day is fine, constant texting is not
really the point. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Don’t
worry about anyone else’s work.</b> It can be easy to feel annoyed or jealous
at how much or little other writers are doing or have achieved in their careers.
Let it go. This is about you.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Know that
there will be at least one crazy person.</b> Give them a wide berth. Don’t get
involved in drama; just enjoying gossiping about. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">See
something special as a group. </b>To make it especially memorable, plan a group
outing to see a local landmark/museum/bar. Being a good writer means having a
good community. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Have fun! I’ve met wonderful people from all around the
world in residencies; they really are one of the most fun parts about being a
creative. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gZopOtOTaNA/V5gRPuWKxlI/AAAAAAAABG8/4G9-1steIp0KywAPKdrMYiX-vb5GstAbACLcB/s1600/Martha%2527s%2BVineyard%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gZopOtOTaNA/V5gRPuWKxlI/AAAAAAAABG8/4G9-1steIp0KywAPKdrMYiX-vb5GstAbACLcB/s320/Martha%2527s%2BVineyard%2B1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Share your tips,
stories and advice about residencies in the comments below!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W3tt3OmqBoo/V5gQDQjEE2I/AAAAAAAABG0/7XKP2aIQcD81FNO5wDMxTcwPzkMi7H0ZQCLcB/s1600/The-Regulars-Georgia-Clark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W3tt3OmqBoo/V5gQDQjEE2I/AAAAAAAABG0/7XKP2aIQcD81FNO5wDMxTcwPzkMi7H0ZQCLcB/s200/The-Regulars-Georgia-Clark.jpg" width="131" /></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "cambria"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Georgia Clark
is the author of THE REGULARS, forthcoming from Emily Bestler Books/Atria in
August 2016. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @georgialouclark. Sign up
for monthly writing tips at georgiaclark.com</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "cambria"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-62595420189904592692016-07-19T06:58:00.000-07:002016-07-19T06:58:20.141-07:00 Packing Heat: Writing the Sex Scene<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-onkgBohed8U/V44vvbhZbXI/AAAAAAAABGQ/EWUPgx82iTM8-h4MYSCUtyva7S6K_u0TQCLcB/s1600/kiss%2Bimage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-onkgBohed8U/V44vvbhZbXI/AAAAAAAABGQ/EWUPgx82iTM8-h4MYSCUtyva7S6K_u0TQCLcB/s1600/kiss%2Bimage.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>If you've been struggling with writing scenes of desire, eroticism, and sex, you're not the only one! </i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>In today's post, my friend, talented writer, Katherine Ramsland, shares her journey into writing the sex scene. Take it away, Katherine!</i></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many
of us who write fiction face decisions about how to portray erotically charged
scenes, especially those involving sex. The decisions are fraught with personal
issues:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Will
my mother read this?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Will
readers think this is what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> like?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Will
anyone but me think this is hot?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Those
scenes that succeed for me might say something about me, but they also affirm
word choice, delivery, and the ability to pull me into the characters. So,
there’s a lot to build before you get to the sex act. S</span>ensuality can be achieved
in many ways, and we probably won’t succeed universally, since sex is so
personal. But whether sex is important to a plot or just an enticing sideline, we
must figure out our approach.<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve
read novels that start with characters coupling. Because I don’t know them, the
scene falls flat. </span>I’ve also read novels where no matter how much the sex
partners grind and bounce and beg, the scene lacks energy. This means it lacks
credibility. And I want to skip over such scenes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unless
you’re just writing porn, you need to make readers care. Elizabeth</span>
Cratty, who wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How to Write a Sizzling
Sex Scene</i>, says that emotional intensity is the key to making sex scenes
pop. This means longing, a sense of connection, and vulnerability. “When you’re
writing a sex scene,” she says, “both parties bring to the union their entire
histories.” <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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There are no formulas. Some authors bring characters right
up to the moment of unclothing and then cut away. Others are highly graphic.
Some use clinical words; others think you should never do that. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Go on any blog that gives advice about how to write a sex
scene and then read through the comments. They will range from “thank you, this
really helps” to “you’re so wrong. My sex scenes use blah, blah, blah…” I once
read a novel in which a specific image had a strong impact. It kept coming back
to me as the hottest moment in the book. To my surprise, the author said that
if she could do it over, she wouldn’t use that image. So, who really knows?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve seen advice that we should do only what feels
comfortable to us. By putting our character in motion, we discover our
boundaries. But here’s the thing: I cut my teeth on the multiple drafts of D.
H. Lawrence’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lady Chatterly’s Lover</i>,
some of which were shockingly crude to a teenage girl. I’ve read the Marquis de
Sade books, I wrote a companion to Anne Rice’s erotica, and I’ve written nonfiction
about all kinds of BDSM, including the kinky sex of necrophiles. But I still
find it difficult to decide how much I want to describe in a sex scene in my fiction.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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I can imagine it all, but I find that packing heat into
words diminishes the impact. So, am I just not finding the right words or the
right ways to string them together?<o:p></o:p></div>
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For me, the kind of embodied emotion that draws characters
together is an intensity that keeps growing, with the hint that they will become
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">more</i>. It’s a force that they struggle
against but also facilitate in a way that triggers conflicted feelings. Eventually,
the craving becomes too strong to block. It’s a raw, commanding force that undermines
the characters’ calculations but still gets them to their goals.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ripper Letter</i>, inevitably
involves sex, because the core of my supernatural universe is erotic. My
protagonist, a female detective named Dianysus, finds a divination device that
works best with sexual energy. To get the goods she must work herself up. She
creates a fantasy figure, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she</i>
still must turn all the dials.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I was
going to include a scene here to illustrate what I mean, but it doesn’t work. I
could tell you how she </span>slid her fingers down the curve of her side, and how
her breath shortened and heartbeat increased as heat flushed through her. Or her
first impression of the character with whom she will eventually entangle. But
taking these scenes out of context is like deflating a balloon. If you don’t
know her, you won’t feel her.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, I think that a good sex scene is not necessarily about
the words. It’s about emotional rhythms that play covertly in the background. We
need to figure out how to fuel this while also guiding the overt plot. When
Dianysus does have her “entanglement,” it happens at a time, in a place, and for
reasons that surprise her, and yet the thrust of energy that propels her has
been there all along. That’s what makes it work. (I think.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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How do we accomplish this? Whether we outline or write more
spontaneously, I think we must remain alert to multiple layers of emotion. This
will arise from our character development, so creating character profiles, with
motivations, goals, and flaws, is part of the process. This means focusing on
what they desire, how they deal with being thwarted, how this changes them, and
how it impacts their momentum. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Writing
dynamic sex scenes could be similar to the fluid genius of good improvisation.
An NIH-funded f-MRI study on jazz musicians revealed that when they played
their extraordinary riffs, the part of the prefrontal cortex that engages
self-awareness shut down: the musicians lost their internal censors and moved
boldly into the music.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It’s
a remarkable frame of mind,” says Johns Hopkins researcher Charles Limb,
“during which, all of a sudden, the musician is generating music that has never
been heard, thought, practiced or played before. What comes out is completely
spontaneous. What we think is happening is when you’re telling your own musical
story, you’re shutting down impulses that might impede the flow of novel
ideas.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Writing
a memorable sex scene needs more improv than formula, more exploration of the
titillating unknown. Still, we also know that improv experts have generally
practiced for many, many hours. They know their instruments and methods so well
that they can totally indulge. They can enter what psychologist Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi calls the state of flow. This is a </span>complete absorption
in a given activity that produces a sense of effortless concentration. The moment
is exciting and alive, inwardly attuned. We are one with the work.<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Becoming
good at writing sex scenes might involve such uncensored focus. So, like
musicians who know all their notes, it might help to make a list of the sensual
and sexual words that appeal to you, and then bathe in them. Immerse. Get so
familiar with them that when it’s time to work up some writing improv, you’re
already intimately connected to the most useful words. You can choreograph your
sex without having to think.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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I think I’ll go try that now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Katherine Ramsland has published 59 books. She teaches forensic psychology, is an expert on serial murder, and has personally explored the Ripper murder sites</i>. <a href="http://www.katherineramsland.com/"><span class="s2">www.katherineramsland.com</span></a></span></div>
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Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-43819210241620014432016-07-07T05:19:00.002-07:002016-07-07T05:19:10.642-07:00The Sweetness of Doing Nothing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EVwnm5U0588/V3z276s6dNI/AAAAAAAABE8/Vr4WYc7KjOEMiwwMsJLolXiDU8pncxw_QCLcB/s1600/odalisque.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EVwnm5U0588/V3z276s6dNI/AAAAAAAABE8/Vr4WYc7KjOEMiwwMsJLolXiDU8pncxw_QCLcB/s320/odalisque.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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It was my thirteenth summer, and the livin' was easy.... My parents had planned no activities for me, no summer camp, no piano lessons. Each day was an eternity to be filled by my own desires. Eventually my bike led me to the pool or the library-- ah, that old high-ceilinged, sunny library, where I could explore freely, and sneak into the adult section, and pick whatever caught my eye: new and old, glittering titles, fairy tales and mysteries, travel books and biographies. I lay in my backyard and read for hours, and afterwards, closed my sun-dazed eyes and imagined myself traveling to exotic lands, and maybe even creating one of my own....<br />
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When it got dark, my friends and I played games and leaped after fireflies....<br />
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It was one of the best summers of my life.<br />
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I have a Mediterranean temperament-- work hard, play hard, and savor sleep, food, and sun. I write everyday, except those periods when I am forced to stop, either because of life's demands or because my mind and body tell me it's time to slow down.... To play with kids... to lie out back and read like I used to... to linger over lunch with friends... to walk in the park... It's time for me to be quiet. To gather words again, slowly and lovingly, the way I used to gather ripe berries with joy and wonder, eating them from the bush, dizzyingly sweet.... To catch words the way I used to catch fireflies-- a flash of light and heat between my palms-- and then, to release them.<br />
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I used to worry about losing words after I'd set them free, but then I remembered my grandfather on his rooftop in Morocco. He raised fifty homing pigeons in two enormous brass cages. He never locked the gates. He trusted they would return to him. They always did.<br />
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I had to trust that my words would eventually return, too. And they do. They know I'm on my own rooftop, waiting.<br />
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Sometimes I think we just have to trust in life, in its organic rhythms, to carry us where we need to be. And sometimes that place is right where we are at this moment.<br />
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The Italians have a delicious phrase for the art of doing nothing: <i><b>Il dolce far niente</b></i>.<br />
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The ancient sages of religions incorporated a day of rest in the weekly calendar. Farmers learned that fields cannot be harvested year after year without being given a season to lie fallow in order to renew and replenish. Humans are the same: we need time out from our increasingly regimented schedules.<br />
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Doing nothing is hard work, particularly when balancing our jobs and children, but if we can try to wrest a moment, an hour, a day from our busy lives, we find unexpected rewards.<br />
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So what can we do to increase our enjoyment of the art of doing nothing?<br />
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<li>Get over the guilt. This is my personal challenge. </li>
<li>Savor the moment. Be in the moment. Whatever you're doing, try to do it with all of you.</li>
<li>That means putting the phone away for a moment. Look at who you're with. Look at your surroundings. Look at your food. Be here, now.</li>
<li>You can also withdraw for a bit to dream and recharge. Enjoy a siesta... you don't have to sleep, but you can close your eyes....</li>
<li>Read a book for pleasure. </li>
<li>Actually, do something, anything-- garden, cook, draw, paint, play music-- for the sheer joy. No judgment, just for yourself and the people you love.</li>
<li>Play. Borrow children if you don't have any and follow their rhythm. </li>
<li>That means slowing down. If you've ever walked with a child, you know that the way to where you're going may have fascinating detours you never explored. </li>
<li>When you have leisure time, try not to over-organize it. Leave time to be spontaneous.</li>
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I find profound similarities between the Zen art of mindfulness and the art of doing nothing. They're all about living in the moment, as much as you can. </div>
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<i> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">‘Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Only this moment is life.’ </span></i><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~Thich Nhat Hanh</strong></div>
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We can't live in the moment all the time, but the more we practice doing it, the better we get. </div>
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If you have any suggestions, please pass them along!</div>
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Remember: you don't have to go away on vacation to experience the sweetness of doing nothing. It's inside each of us, waiting for us to discover it. </div>
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Enjoy! </div>
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Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-16041141587261044042016-06-14T05:00:00.002-07:002020-06-04T08:52:00.769-07:00Becoming Human<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I recently finished a screenplay, inspired by a novel I wrote, that takes place in 1963. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 35.5pt;">From the beginning I wanted the neighborhood to be composed of different ethnicities coming together to form a community—to me, that is the true meaning of the American dream. Not a melting pot, but an immigrant stew, rich with a multitude of spices and ingredients. Or as Danny, Sophie’s Moroccan-Jewish trumpeter father, puts it, “a blues song sung in different languages and accents.”</span><br />
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1963 was a pivotal year in
America. In March Betty Friedan published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Feminine Mystique. </i>In August Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream”
speech at the March on Washington. And in November, the president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was
assassinated. Two days later, millions of Americans, glued to their TV sets, watched Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner, shoot and kill JFK's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">. </span></div>
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Violence had entered the American living
room. </div>
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Newscasters, including Walter Cronkite, were visibly emotional. People all over the world were shown, weeping and stunned with grief. Frank McGee said on TV: "This is a<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> moment that will be emblazoned in your memory and you will never forget it... as long as you live."</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">It changed the path of our country, and also the journey of TV news coverage. Images were indelibly branded in viewers' minds: the convertible procession through Dallas... Jackie's pink pillbox hat and pink suit... the smiling, handsome President suddenly crumpling in the seat of the convertible... Jackie refusing to change her bloodstained suit... Lyndon Baines Johnson being sworn in as the new leader... Oswald's smirk in his mug shot... his murder... the State funeral -- Jackie in black, little John-John saluting his father's casket.... </span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Less than a week later, Americans celebrated Thanksgiving in a country, and a world, changing before their eyes and spinning beneath their feet. </span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">People ask me how it felt to write a historical story. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">The truth is I never felt I was writing a "period
piece"—the events I describe still burn with urgency, the words crackling with
relevance: racial tension, women's rights, religious intolerance, xenophobia, gentrification. All I had to do was look
at today’s headlines to see them reflected in the past. </span></div>
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But 1963 was also the year of Hitchcock's "The Birds" and the musical, "Bye Bye Birdie." Beatlemania was born, and so was the Smiley Face. The first Bond film was released, and eerie Barbie Doll and Ronald McDonald commercials aired on TV. </div>
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The thing is I'm not writing about issues -- I'm writing about people trying to figure out what it means to live life as a human being. One of my characters, reeling from the horrors of the Holocaust, only 18 years earlier, says, "To become human is the challenge. It's not enough 'to be' anymore. We have to learn to 'become.' It's the greatest war we have to fight. Against ourselves, first of all. If this war has taught us anything, it's how difficult it is to become a human being." </div>
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It's the greatest question we can ask ourselves: What does it mean to become a human being in our world?</div>
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In 1963 the seeds were being planted in American soil, all the 'isms and issues that govern, and haunt, our lives today. <span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Imagine if they'd been watered and cherished and allowed to grow free under the sun. </span></div>
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Imagine.</div>
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It's not too late to become human.</div>
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Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-60146829582984130582016-05-18T05:42:00.000-07:002016-05-18T05:42:17.138-07:00Living in Two Countries
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1S1JFdPgLdE/VzxgPPTsSJI/AAAAAAAABCk/UCPaqzbeulgMZjrdAoD2N_cvz-mF0LH-ACLcB/s1600/man_with_gun__middle_distance_by_valera098-d36bzf9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1S1JFdPgLdE/VzxgPPTsSJI/AAAAAAAABCk/UCPaqzbeulgMZjrdAoD2N_cvz-mF0LH-ACLcB/s320/man_with_gun__middle_distance_by_valera098-d36bzf9.jpg" width="281" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JoLSM86ErTU/VzxfVUeF6_I/AAAAAAAABCc/ccYteFKejnoeJsXBfMbz3KOCvgjUHCjvACLcB/s1600/grocery-store-produce-displays-5018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JoLSM86ErTU/VzxfVUeF6_I/AAAAAAAABCc/ccYteFKejnoeJsXBfMbz3KOCvgjUHCjvACLcB/s320/grocery-store-produce-displays-5018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<i><span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt;">After
all everybody, that is, everybody who writes is interested in living inside
themselves in order to tell what is inside themselves. That is why writers have
to have two countries, the one where they belong and the one in which they live
really.</span></i><span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt;"> – Gertrude Stein<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt;">I murdered CG. I did it yesterday morning: after coffee, before breakfast. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt;">I can't kill on a full stomach. Does strange things to my digestion. Problem is I'm rusty, haven't murdered anyone in years, and now I'm faced with all sorts of problems. Not guilt. She asked for it. No, it's the body! I have to get rid of the body without... Who is that man? Why is he watching me? What? What do you want?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt;"><i>No, I can't eat yet, thanks... I'll go to the market later. Milk, eggs, bread, okay. </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">He's coming toward me. He can't have seen anything. Don't fall apart. You did nothing wrong. You did what had to be done to save...</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><i>Cheese with peppers, the kind you like. I know. I have to make an appointment with the doctor, too.... They're coming tomorrow, I'll clear up tonight after...</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">After I dispose of the body. And get rid of this man approaching. Okay, freeze, everyone. You mister, stay there. Hold that thought. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">The supermarket is supernaturally bright. So many suspicious people milling around the produce...</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">It's him! He must have followed me. How is that possible? I don't know, but it's him. The same deranged light in his eyes. He jams the cart and blocks the bananas, allowing no one else near. Entitled, knowing more than he should, daring anyone else to reach for a banana...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Now he's moving toward the... grapes. From a safe distance I watch. He reaches in a plastic bag, grabs a handful of red grapes and gulps them down, all at once. Shameless, without pleasure. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">He looks around furtively. Sneers. The mad light in his eyes. "They're not ripe yet."</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">His voice is strangely high-pitched, creepy, in such a big man. And his words: They're not ripe yet. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>They're not ripe yet. </b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Oh my God, of course not. They're not ripe yet. The girls. The pretty girls. He knows what I've done. He's saying I acted too soon. I should have waited.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">But I had to silence her. The questions she was asking would have led right back to...</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Yes, but now they'll have more questions about what happened to her. And once they start digging, they won't stop till they get to the heart.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">He's at the Bread aisle. He turns back. One look. And a nod. To let me know he knows.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I'm getting out of here. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.85pt;"><i>No, I don't have coupons. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.85pt;"><i>Yes, I'll give a dollar for the fund.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.85pt;">I forgot the eggs, the milk, the bread...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.85pt;"><i>Hi! I didn't see you. Yes, I'm fine. No, I haven't seen Ann. Definitely, we'll get together soon. Bye!</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.85pt;">Why did she ask me about Ann? Does she think I've done something to her? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.85pt;">It's true that someone else needs to notice CG is missing. Not just the mad-eyed man. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.85pt;">My phone. <i>Hi, sweetie. Yeah, I'm good. Just leaving the market. How are you? Really? That's great. Listen, I have a question. If someone said to you, "They're not ripe yet," would you take that as a warning...?</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17.85pt;">Tossing and turning all night, moving my people around, a dream in which we're all crammed in a supermarket, moving our carts, eying each other with suspicion, and he's there, of course, moving toward me with deadly threat....</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">I return to my people this morning. After (black) coffee... Ah, here they are, frozen as I left them. CG, dead. Banana Man watching. A new person, a woman, enters. "Have you seen...?"</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Wait. No. I've got it. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">CG, get up. A brief reprieve. You're not ripe yet. There's one more thing you need to do before...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><i>I know I forgot the milk and eggs, but I bought bananas.... They're not ripe either?</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">They never are, he says, his mad eyes focused not on CG, but on me. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><i>I'm coming, I'm coming, just give me one more minute....</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">You, that's right, all of you, including you, CG, just wait right there. I'll be back tomorrow. </span></span></div>
Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-578538442334809178.post-58613285610853867922015-06-29T08:25:00.000-07:002015-06-29T08:25:25.349-07:00Celebrating Love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Lovers in St. Petersburg</i></div>
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Some of you may remember that when I set out on my voyage last August, I decided to use "love" as the focus of my blog posts and explorations of the world. The idea came to me in London, when I walked along the Thames and saw an exhibit celebrating love in all its forms and inviting the passerby to enter the "tunnel of love." </div>
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I've never not been fascinated, even obsessed, by the question of love. Like many girls, I wanted to be Nancy Drew, but with one caveat: I wanted to be a love detective--to seek out the mysteries, secrets, wonders of love. I snooped and spied on everyone, strangers and friends, trying to get to the heart of what I considered the greatest mystery of all: why do we fall in love with one person, and not another? </div>
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I read romance comics--anyone remember those hoary, moralistic tales?--and devoured love stories wherever and however I found them. I wrote my first love story at age 14 and proudly handed it in to my English teacher. It was a terrible imitation of Colette and D.H. Lawrence (did I mention I was a very precocious reader?), a sensual realization by a woman that her lover has left her and will never return. The woman breathes in their sheets and pillows, still smelling of their lovemaking, and she knows she will never forget his unique scent and the love they shared. Keep in mind this was written by a girl who had been kissed a couple of times, but who gleaned her knowledge by following people, staring at them and eavesdropping on conversations, and of course imagining what exactly Lady Chatterly and her lover did without having a clear sense of the depths and heights, and even the humor, of passion. All I knew was there was a world out there I needed to explore. </div>
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The teacher ripped it to shreds in front of the entire class. She called my writing, "obscene," a word I'd never heard of before. After that, years passed before I shared my writing again. </div>
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Today I may have a clearer sense of the realities of love, but I'm still every bit as curious (my husband says, "nosy") as when I was a kid and picked up <i>The Royal Road to Romance </i>by Richard Halliburton, an early 20th century traveler and adventurer, simply because of its title. Little did I know it was the beginning of the merging of my two great passions: love and travel. I'm not searching for definitive answers anymore: there is no one true solution to the mystery of what is love or who we love. And there is no one voyage that will tell me: this is it, the final border, no more to see, nothing left to explore. There will always be more. Many great travelers have said that we travel in order to understand the landscape of ourselves. Love, like travel, teaches us to see with all our senses. It is a promise and a gift. </div>
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I believe love is the most profound form of travel: it teaches us to explore another human being with the same curiosity, humility, wonder and compassion with which we explore a foreign country. And to return to ourselves, hopefully, with a new generosity and tenderness. As we approach the 4th of July, our day of independence, let's celebrate the freedom to love and marry whom we choose. Happy Freedom Day, everyone! </div>
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<br />Ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01339104727438478821noreply@blogger.com4