Weekend of Mystery

I spent the past weekend clustered around a conference table with twelve other aspiring mystery writers. Actually I have never aspired to write mystery. In fact, except for a brief affair with Mary Higgins Clark in high school, I have rarely picked mysteries to read (plane rides being exceptions, but even for planes I prefer thrillers).

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.

Hallie Ephron Mysteries
(writing as G.H.Ephron)

Amnesia
Addiction
Delusion
Obsessed
Guilt

Visit her website at http://hallieephron.com/

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 Boston reminds me of the riches of living in Rome, where I studied during college. Indeed, it does feel like I am "living abroad" here in Boston for the year. Only this time I have the cash to go to concerts and eat in restaurants. Truthfully, the free concerts in Roman churches still rival any ticketed event here. The romantic memories of a college year in bella italia are hard to top.

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!

Here is a link to the program notes for the concert we heard this evening:

David Robertson, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Ligeti, Shumann, Strauss

And an excerpt from Shumann's Cello Conerto

Writerly Quote of the Day

"A thing I have always loved about writing, or even simply intending to write, is that it makes attentiveness a habit of mind."--Marilynne Robinson

Eve is Coming! Eve is Coming!

Eve Ensler is coming to Boston March 21 - 26 to perform her newest play "The Good Body." I bought myself a nearly-front row ticket the better to see her expressive face by. I won't rave about Eve here and now, but I could (and should) in a later entry, perhaps. I do want to encourage local Bostonites to check out the show. I can't vouch for the play yet; but I do support her activism to end violence.

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.

Gladwell on Freakonomics

Those who know me, know that I am a Tipping Point/Gladwell fan. I also enjoyed Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner.

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.

Malcolm Gladwell's Blog Entry on Freakonomics

Plus, you will get to see a picture of Malcolm.

Google Chat with a Ten-Year-Old

me: Hey Dani

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

Taken from Being Alive edited by Neil Astley and published by Bloodaxe Books

Hubbard Street Dance in Boston

A few times over the years that I was living near Chicago, I attempted to make it to a Hubbard show to no avail. Finally tonight L, d. and I will make a night of it: Italian for dinner and then off to the show! Here is the program description: In their 2004 Celebrity Series debut, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago mesmerized crowds with energy that literally jumped off the stage and into the audience. From its humble beginnings nearly three decades ago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago has blossomed into one of the most influential and original forces in contemporary dance. Performing the repertory of the most innovative international and American choreographers, the company of 21 powerfully versatile dancers sails through work blending ballet, jazz, and modern influences. "The troupe can dance anything and everything- and...they invariably do so with fluid brilliance and understated virtuosity." -Chicago Sun-Times Program: Enemy in the Figure - (1989) Choreography: William Forsythe Choreography Assistance: Ana C. Roman, Thomas McManus, and Ayman Harper Original Score: Thom Willems Strokes Through the Tail - (2005) Boston Premiere Choreography by Marguerite Donlon Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Float - (2003) Choreography by Julian Barnett Music by Orvar Smarson and Gunnar Tynes Gnawa - (2005) Boston Premiere Choreography by Nacho Duato Music by Hassan Hakmoun, Adam Rudolph, Juan Arteche, Xavier Paxadiño, Abou-Khalil, Velez, Kusur and Sarkissian Check out their website: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago You can read information about each dance on the program as well as each choreagrapher's bio.

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.

Link of Note:

NPR Audio Book Review 'Twilight of the Superheroes' Explores the Senses' by Alan Cheuse

Philip Roth: Goodbye, Columbus

Sheer Playfulness and Deadly Seriousness are my closest friends.

--Philip Roth

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.

Check out a few of these links:

The Philip Roth Society

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."