Monday, March 20, 2006
Weekend of Mystery
Yet I have known some teachers who teach mystery reading and writing. High school students love it. I thought: never me. I was just too uncomfortable as a nonreader of mystery. Following an old adage to do the thing that most scares me: I signed up for the weekend seminar at Grub Street to learn all I could about the genre as a teacher, not to mention pick up tips for fiction writing for my own novel-ever-in-progress and short stories.
Here is the class description:
Instructor: Hallie Ephron
2 days, 9AM - 4PM, includes hour for lunch
Fasten your seatbelts for this two-day crash course in mystery writing. Mystery author and Boston Globe crime fiction critic Hallie Ephron will step you through the process of turning a kernel of an idea into an intriguing mystery novel. You'll learn to capitalize on your writing strengths and shore up your weaknesses. The class will address:
* planning, twisting the plot, and constructing a credible surprise ending
* creating a compelling sleuth and a worthy villain
* deceiving and revealing with red herrings and clues
* writing investigation, spine-tingling suspense, and dramatic action
* revising-from sharpening characters, to optimizing pace, to smithing words
* making the reader care
Cost of registration includes a copy of Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: How to Knock'em Dead with Style.
Ms. Ephron, author of several mysteries (see below), proved to be a dynamic teacher who is both a master of her material and an excellent presenter. We sat there and just absorbed the "bones" of a good mystery. We were given gems of practical tips for writing in the genre (and writing fiction in general), and how to establish oneself in the community.
One of her messages was: writing is not a miracle. It is hard work (massive amounts thereof) coupled with persistence that get published. She encouraged us to believe in our writing. If it is good, it will get published (after much rejection, of course). All in all, she was very positive without being falsely enthusiastic.
I had worried about dedicating an entire weekend to mystery writing. Now I can say that it has given me new ways to see my own novel (for example, how to build good dialogue and suspense). I may also teach mysteries next year armed with my new knowledge and my copy of Ms. Ephron's wonderful craft text: Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel.

Thursday, March 16, 2006
Yo-Yo Ma (and me)
L. and I made the short walk to the symphony tonight for an 8 pm concert. It was our second trip this year, our first time to hear Yo-Yo Ma. We were fortunate to see James Levine conduct our first visit (he is currently undergoing surgery for an arm injury suffered during on on-stage tumble a few weeks ago). Yo-Yo Ma was the superstar draw and he did give an impressive performance wailing away at this cello. Both L. and I, however, preferred the Ligeti piece. He is one crazy Transylvanian composer, excuse or bias.
Symphony hall is impressive with its wall of organ, ornate gilding, mythological statues, and eclectic crowd. It is worth going just to eavesdrop on the rich array of strange, strange conversations. There are some serious orchestra fans out there.
It is amazing to live within walking distance to the hall, and so many other art venues (not to mention independent book stores, boutiques, etc.--and, of course, a Dunkin Donut on every corner.)
This year in
While Yo-Yo Ma was making his cello sing, my mind drifted here and there. I thought of my first cello solo experience back in college. It was a fall night at Notre Dame, waiting in line to buy football tickets. Matt came by (I don't remember his last name! roommate of B.) and played a simple piece (was it by Bach?). I was entranced by that impromptu cello under the stars. In my book, his performance beats Yo-Yo. So, wherever you are Matt, I am sending you my thanks!
David Robertson, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Ligeti, Shumann, Strauss
And an excerpt from Shumann's Cello Conerto

Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Writerly Quote of the Day

Sunday, March 12, 2006
Eve is Coming! Eve is Coming!
In honor of Eve, here is a poem that I have been working on. I am still not "finished" with it. Or perhaps it is not yet finished with me!
The Scent of Belief
for Eve Ensler
My vagina speaks two words from the pulpit of her: "I believe!"
Hallelujah! Praise be to the Living God
on High from High,
I have found the scent smack between my warm white thighs.
Pink-folding rose purpled red, brown-bleeding,
ocean depths of deep-crystalloid wet,
torn fire-breathing,
ripped from cry of laughter
that stinks up,
wretched river of sweat,
civilizations gone into your wide-mouthed face,
deep into the proteins of your rusty-forgotten red soul until
you cannot stand hushed before such truth—
Wash over me! You on my skin gentle, skilled. Deep down water. Yes, yes.
That smell, my smell,
you can name it now.
Alluring-repulsive invitation with waxy seal, always there, unspoken.
We believe you will beg,
lament on hard—blistered fists pounding and kneeling—sore knees aching,
for sugar blackened incense.
Agitated, never right, no peace. Only impressed upon.
Waiting
until you too find your voice,
find your words stolen, and then
speak softly
through folds of bruised flesh collapsing in praise:
amen.

Friday, March 10, 2006
Gladwell on Freakonomics
Now Gladwell (on his very own BLOG) has commented on Freakonomics, a book he loves but yet has criticisms for as well.
Of course, this is fascinating stuff if you have read Malcolm and Freakonomics (plugging here).
But, even if you have not yet moved Jane Austen to the back burner in favor of a little modern cultural/pyschological/economical analysis. . . .this is still a worthy read.
Plus, you will get to see a picture of Malcolm.

Thursday, March 09, 2006
Google Chat with a Ten-Year-Old
Daniel: hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
me: whoah
tell me a joke...
Daniel: hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
me: Okay, now you are just showing off!
Daniel: booooooooooooooooooooooo
me: :)
Daniel: booooooooooooooo
boooooooooooooooooo
booooooooooooooooooooo
me: who
Daniel: booooooooooooooooo
me: ?who?
get it?
bo who?
stop crying?
stop crying!
Daniel: lame+old
me: OUCH!
Daniel: what?
me: calling me LAME and OLD
Daniel: the joke is LAME and OLD
me: Oh, right.
Daniel: jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez
me: :)
Daniel: ;)
me: Did you invite Jon over yet?
Daniel: no
john
me: what are you doing this weekend?
sorry JoHn
Daniel: chases birthday...... science project........ same old same old
me: Is Chase in your class?
Daniel: chase's
no he left
went to amenia
me: then how are you going to his party?
I am confused
Daniel: his mom or dad is taking me
me: to Armenia?
Isn't that in Europe?
Daniel: Amenia, no
me: Is it in NY?
Daniel: it's in Dutchess county
me: Sweet
What did you get him?
Daniel: ds game
me: good deal.
Daniel: momomomomomomomomomomomomomomomomo
me: will you play football again? at the party, I mean.
Daniel: ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
i don't know
me: okay. I am off to take a shower.
I just got back from the gym
And now I have to go to a writing class
I don
Daniel: ts
me: I don't want to be sticky in the class.
Daniel: forgot the e
me: I AM THE STINKIEST right now
Daniel: huh?
me: tse?
Daniel: hahahahahahahahahahaha
u forgot the e
me: okay....spelling police...whatever!
Daniel: ts as in the noise
me: what? I don't get iti!
Daniel: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
me: like you are shaking your finger at me for being a bad girl?
Daniel: SPELLING POLICE. WATCH OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NO
me: danger beware all bad spellers....*WE ARE AFTER U*
Daniel: ?!@#$%!?@# CAPS LOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
no bold?!?!?!
me: I think spelling is overrated. I mean...who cares?
Daniel: yeh
me: I know, I just caps lock and it totally didn't work with the bold
Daniel: mine did
me: show off
Daniel: AD
@!?@#$%!&!@#$ CAPS LOCK
me: crazy
Daniel: UHUH
me: ALDFJDLKJSLFJDSKL
HA HA
Daniel: see it works!
me: cool
Daniel: @!#$^#!$#@$$@$%@@!%!$@$^@
me: awesome awesome awesome are you.
Daniel: yeh............. right
me: Seriously, dude, I STINK
must go shower
Daniel: :{
me: must be clean
Daniel: :}
;(
me: must be the CLEANEST in the world!!!!!
Daniel: :(
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
me: what are U doing?
finished with homework, etc.
Daniel: faces
yep
me: I heared that is supposed to be really warm this weekend...
Daniel: yep
me: maybe 60 degrees
Daniel: wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww
me: now that is ....truly......AWESOME
Watch me:
I
am
about
to
sign
off
and
take
a
shower
Daniel: noway
me: yesway
Daniel: crud
me: crudway
Daniel: huh
?
me: Why? Do you have something to tell me?
Why should I stay?
Give me a reason....
Daniel: u
dont
need
shower
@@
me: You don't smell mle
Daniel: _
me: Seriouisly, I STINK reall nasty
Daniel: @@
-
@@
me: I am saying goodbye now.......
Daniel: -
me: bye
bye
bye
bey
bey
bye
bye
bye
bye
Daniel: hehehehehhehehh
bey
me: BYE
Daniel: u stiill on?
me: szia
etc.
bye
bye
bye
No I am not
I am not here
I am in the shower
I am washing my hair now
Daniel: NO SPELLING POLICE!!!!!!!
me: The water is too hot!
Daniel: UHHUH
HOW ARE U TYPING
me: It is hard to reach the comptuer from the shower.....but I can do it!
Daniel: UHHUH
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
me: STOP SHOUTING
Daniel: IS URE LYING GRADE
me: What?
Janet is scratching her head in confusion
Daniel: 0 IS URE LYING GRADE
NICE
me: Oh.....very, very very very FUNNY
(really that was funny!)
Daniel: 100 IS URE WRITING GRADE
me: :)
Daniel: UHHUH
me: Wait, who is the teacher?
I am supposed to give grades.....
Daniel: UHHHHHHHHHH U
YEH............................
me: Dude
I
am
outa
here
Catch you
LATER
Daniel: NO URE NOT
me: ACK!
Daniel did not receive your chat.
Daniel did not receive your chat.
Daniel: ure still on?
me: LEAVE ME ALONE
just kidding
Daniel: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
me: I was rereading our chat
Daniel: UHHUH
me: we are two funny people...
Daniel: WHERE IS TATA
me: California
He will be back tomorrow am
Daniel: UHHUH
me: k
bye
Daniel: KK
me: bye
Daniel: UHHUH
UHHUH
UHHUH
UHHUH
UHHUH
UHHUH
UHHUH
UHHUH
UHHUH
UHHUH
UHHUH
UHHUH
me: Ack
Argh
uch
Daniel: ArghArghArghArghArghArgh
Argh
Argh
Argh
Argh
Argh
Argh
Argh
Argh
me: :0
Daniel: ACK
ACK
ACK
ACK
ACK
ACK
ACK
ACK
ACK
me: splat
Daniel: GO OUT ON 1
5
4
3
2
1

God Says Yes to Me by Kaylin Haught
God Says Yes to Me
by Kaylin Haught
I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said sure it is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked up that
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

Saturday, March 04, 2006
Hubbard Street Dance in Boston
A few times over the years that I was living near Chicago, I Here is the program description: In their 2004 Celebrity Series debut, Hubbard Street From its humble beginnings nearly three decades ago, Program: Strokes Through the Tail - (2005) Boston Premiere Float - (2003) Gnawa - (2005) Boston Premiere Check out their website: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago |

Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Eisenberg: Twilight of the Superheroes
I am currently paging my way through this very "hot" collection of short stories by Deborah Eisenberg. It seems it is getting press everywhere all over the place. So far, it deserves all the attention it has garnered.
NPR Audio Book Review 'Twilight of the Superheroes' Explores the Senses' by Alan Cheuse

Saturday, February 25, 2006
Philip Roth: Goodbye, Columbus
Sheer Playfulness and Deadly Seriousness are my closest friends.
This week's novella for class discussion is Philip Roth's first, Goodbye, Columbus, which is still published with five short stories. It was first published in 1959 and won the National Book Award the following year. Other than this work, I have previously read "Sabbath's Theater" (1995) and I still have "The Plot Against America" (2004) on my bookshelf--a Christmas present I am still wading my way toward.
Here is a summary of the novel provided by enotes.com:
‘Goodbye, Columbus’’ is narrated from the point of view of Neil Klugman, a twenty-three-year-old Jewish man who lives with his aunt and uncle in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, and works at a public library. It concerns his relationship over the course of one summer with Brenda Patimkin, an upper-middle-class Jewish college student staying with her family in the suburbs. Their relationship is characterized by the stark contrast of their socioeconomic differences, despite the fact that they are both Jewish. The summer ends with Brenda's brother Ron's wedding, after which Brenda returns to Radcliffe College in Massachusetts. When the two arrange to meet at a hotel over the Jewish holidays, she tells him that her parents have discovered her diaphragm and have both written her letters expressing their dismay and their disdain for Neil as a result. As Brenda feels she can no longer continue the relationship, Neil leaves the hotel, ultimately achieving a new sense of self-knowledge, which is expressed by the dawning of the Jewish New Year as he arrives back in Newark.
Here is the New York Times May 17, 1959 Review of the novel:
By William Peden
Some years ago, in the vanguard of the Southern literary renascence, Ellen Glasgow commented that what the South needed was "blood and irony." The same might be said of some recent writers who have concerned themselves with depicting the role of the Jew in American society, which is the subject of Philip Roth's collection of short stories and a novella. An English instructor at the University of Chicago, 26-year-old Mr. Roth has published fiction in Harper's, The Paris Review, The New Yorker and other periodicals. "Goodbye, Columbus," a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award, is his first book, and an impressive one. There is blood here and vigor, love and hate, irony and compassion.
Mr. Roth's novella is a somewhat incongruous mingling of conventional boy-meets-girl material and portrait-of-the- intellectual-as-a-young-man, narrated with an occasional fondness for clinical detail reminiscent of Edmund Wilson's "The Princess With the Golden Hair." Young Neil Klugman ("Whenever anyone asks me where I went to school I come right out with it: Newark Colleges of Rutgers University") meets beautiful, wealthy Brenda Patimkin, a Radcliffe undergraduate. Neil pursues Brenda with the determination of a well-trained bird dog, and soon catches her. After a summer love affair, he rejects Brenda and the nouveau-riche Patimkins with the smug self-righteousness of Joyce's Stephen Dedalus.
Such a summary, however, does justice neither to the author nor to his people; out of such hackneyed materials Mr. Roth has written a perceptive, often witty and frequently moving piece of fiction. He is a good story-teller, a shrewd appraiser of character and a keen recorder of an indecisive generation. Although Brenda's family has "moved up" from Newark economically by virtue of Mr. Patimkin's Kitchen-and-Bathroom-Sinks Enterprise, and Neil has made the "migration" intellectually, they are all of them refugees haunted by echoes from a not-to-be-buried past, unsatisfied by the too-tasty viands of a sterile hedonism, and confused by the uncertainties of the future. Characteristically, at the wedding of Brenda's brother, Neil and Brenda are further apart than ever, and in the gray confusion of early morning Neil sees some of the Patimkins "from the back, round-shouldered, burdened, child- carrying--like people fleeing a captured city."
Most of Mr. Roth's protagonists are, like Neil Klugman, adrift in a limbo between past and present. The author seems to know his people inside and out, whether he writes of a boy arguing the Virgin Birth with an exasperated rabbi, ("The Conversion of the Jews"), or, in "Eli, the Fanatic," of a young Jewish lawyer trying to explain suburban mores to the leader of a rabbinical orphanage, or, in "Epstein," of the ludicrous yet pitiable aftermath of an aging man's search for love. These stories, though concerned with universal, archetypal experiences, are somewhat transmuted into that which is at once strange and familiar. "I'm a Jew," one character says. "I am different. Better, maybe not. But different."
It seems that there is little I can say about the author only because there are legions out there in the literary world who are making their living doing just that.
CNN/TIME: America's Best Novelist
New York Times Featured Author: Philip Roth
(needs free registration with New York Times)
Vocabulary and Great Lines from Goodbye, Columbus:
dithyrambs
1 : a usually short poem in an inspired wild irregular strain
2 : a statement or writing in an exalted or enthusiastic vein
- dith·y·ram·bic /"di-thi-'ram-bik/ adjective
- dith·y·ram·bi·cal·ly /-bi-k(&-)lE/ adverb
"Actually we did not have the feelings we said we had until we spoke them -- at least I didn't; to phrase them was to invent them and own them."
"Sitting there in the park, I felt a deep knowledge of Newark, an attachment so rooted that it could not help but branch out into affection."
muscleless devotion
slashing my face with a smile
"His breath smelled of hair oil and his hair of breath and when he spoke, spittle cobwebbed the corners of his mouth."
sententiously
1 a : given to or abounding in aphoristic expression b : given to or abounding in excessive moralizing
2 : terse, aphoristic, or moralistic in expression : PITHY, EPIGRAMMATIC
- sen·ten·tious·ly adverb
- sen·ten·tious·ness noun
"By the light of the window behind him I could see the hundreds of spaces between the hundreds of tiny black corkscrews that were his hair."
At the wedding:
"I stayed behind, mesmerized almost by the dissection, analysis, reconsideration, and finally, the embracing of the trivial."
I smiled as collusively as I knew how.
: secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose
- col·lu·sive /-'lü-siv, -ziv/ adjective
- col·lu·sive·ly adverb
". . . and I did not say a word, afraid what a word, any word, might do."
"I was getting no answers, but I went on. If we meet You at all, God, it's that we're carnal, and aquisitive, and thereby partake of You. I am carnal, and I know You approve, I just know it. But how carnal can I get? I am acquisitive. Where do I turn now in my acquisitiveness? Where do we meet? Which prize is You?"
". . .with just a little body-english"
"And then he exploded into silence."
"I looked, but the outside of me gave up little information about the inside of me."
"What was it inside of me that had turned pursuit and clutching into love, and then turned it inside out again? What was it that had turned winning into losing, and losing -- who knows -- into winning? I was sure I had loved Brenda, though standing there, I knew I couldn't any longer."
