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Charles Deemer MFA, Playwriting, University of Oregon Writing faculty,
Portland State University (part-time) Retired playwright and screenwriter.
Active novelist, librettist and teacher.
cdeemer@yahoo.com.
Links:
Literary archive
Personal home page
Photo
Electronic screenwriting tutorial
Online writing classes
References
Bookstore
Highlights:
Dress Rehearsals
A memoir
Love At Ground Zero
Seven Plays
Oregon Book Award finalist
Blogs by (mostly) creative writers:
"Can We Talk About Me For A Change?"
Playwright Debra Neff Nathans
Inkygirl
Debbie Ridpath Ohi, a weblog for writers (resources)
Silliman's Blog
Ron Silliman, contemporary poetry and poetics
Maud Newton
literary links, amusements, politics, rants
Darren Barefoot
Technical and creative writing, theatre, Dublin
Rob's Writing Pains
Journey of a struggling writer.
Mad, Mad World
Cara Swann, fiction writer, journalist, "reflections on humanity, random news & my life."
Writeright
Random musings on a writer's life and times.
Flaskaland
Barbara Flaska's compilation of the best online articles about music and culture.
Write Of Way
Samantha Blackmon's written musings on writing (composition and rhetoric).
Alexander b. Craghead: blog
Writing, photography, and watercolors.
Rodney's Painted Pen
Rodney Bohen's daily commentary "on the wondrous two legged beast we fondly refer to as mankind."
His pen runneth over.
Frustrated Writer
This one named Nicole.
scribble, scribble, scribble
Journalist Dale Keiger teaches nonfiction scribbling to undergraduate and graduate students at Johns Hopkins University.
The Unofficial Dave Barry Blog
The very one.
The Hive
The official blog of science fiction / horror author Terence West.
William Gibson Blog
Famed author of Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic: The Screenplay.
The Word Foundry
Joe Clifford Faust's "blog of a working writer: tracking writing projects, musings on the
creative process, occasional side trips into music, media, politics, religion, etc."
A Writer's Diary
By Cynthia Harrison, who has the good sense to quote Virginia Woolf: "The truth is that writing
is the profound pleasure and being read the superficial."
Bow. James Bow.
The journal of James Bow and his writing.
Ravenlike
Michael Montoure's weblog about writing, primarily horror and speculative fiction.
Globemix
By David Henry, "a poet's weblog from Aberdeen, Scotland."
Modem Noise
By Adrian Bedford, a "fledgling Pro SF Writer, living in Perth, Australia."
boynton
"A wry writerly blog named in honour of a minor character in a minor Shirley Temple film."
Real Writers Bounce
Holly Lisle's blog, "a novelist's roadmap through the art and ordeal of finding the damned words."
2020 Hindsight
By Susan.
downWrite creative
Phil Houtz's notes on the writing life.
Vivid: pieces from a writer's notebook
Blog of Canadian poet Erin Noteboom.
The Literary Saloon
The literary weblog at the complete review.
Rabbit Blog
The rabbit writes on popular culture.
This Girl's Calendar
Momoka writes short stories.
Twists & Turns
Musings by writer Michael Gates.
Plays and Musicals -- A Writer's Introspective
A blog by John D. Nugent - Composer, Playwright, and Artistic Director of the Johnson City Independent Theatre Company
The American Sentimentalist
"Never has any people endured its own tragedy with so little sense of the tragic." Essays by Mark W. Anderson.
Screenwriting By Blog
David C. Daniel writes a screenplay online. "I've decided to publish the process as a way to push myself through it.
From concept to completion, it'll be here."
SeanAlonzo.com
Official site of occult fiction author Sean-Alonzo, exploring symbolism, alternative
history, philosophy, secret
societies and other areas of the esoteric tradition.
Crafty Screenwriting
Maunderings of Alex Epstein, tv scribe, about life, politics, and the tv show I'm co-creating.
Letters From The Home Front
The life of a writer, 21, home schooled, rural living.
Venal Scene
The blog of bite-sized plays inspired by the news (by Dan Trujillo).
'Plaint of the Playwright
Rob Matsushita, a playwright from Wisconsin, "whines a lot."
I Pity Da Fool!
Glenn's adventures in screenwriting.
Time In Tel-Aviv
Hebrew modern literature at its best, by Corinna Hasofferett.
Big Window
Robin Reagler's poetry blog.
John Baker's Blog
Author of the Sam Turner and Stone Lewis novels.
Suggest a writer's blog
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The Writing Life...
"And it came to pass that all the stars in the firmament had ceased to shine. But how was anyone to know?"
The Half-Life Conspiracy
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Monday, March 29, 2004
Lyricist & Librettist
I seem to be spending more and more time working with composers. I'm actively working with two now, with a third project waiting for the composer to get over a writer's block.
I'm most excited about Dark Mission, the John Nugent opera I've mentioned here before. But now a musical in progress has a second wind, a senior citizen romance with the working title Sunset, on which I'm working with composer Robin Henderson.
Robin has written a beautiful melody for the moment when a woman must leave her home to move into a retirement center. With my lyrics, the song is called "Growing Old" and you can listen to it here. The melody existed before the lyrics (the libretto existed before John's music), and it was a new adventure writing words to fit the mood and story of the moment. If we can maintain the quality of this piece, I think we'll have a decent musical. Onward.
3/29/2004 06:35:13 PM |
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Home free?
I think I may have shaken this virus -- at least I seem to be at 90% now. A nice day, going to do some lawn work between basketball games and cooking. The new term starts tomorrow and I am ready! Eager to get back into a solid work rhythm. Eager for warm weather. After spring, summer, and I can't wait. Onward.
3/28/2004 12:19:49 PM |
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
And now the news
I've been struck by how differently reporters on NPR and the BBC report the news on radio. Say a U.S. Senator is in a late night automobile accident. A witness is interviewed. An NPR reporter is likely to ask, "What happened?" or "What did you see?" A BBC reporter is more likely to ask, "Were you aware that the Senator was intoxicated at the time of the accident and had a minor prostitute in the car?" BBC reporting is advocacy journalism. Questions are loaded, with the answers the reporter wants wrapped into the question. If an unwanted answer comes, the reporter is likely to rephrase and try again.
3/23/2004 06:51:13 AM |
Monday, March 22, 2004
Tease
Good weather teasing Oregon before the rains return later in the week. Managed to get a bit a yard work done, despite still feeling sick. Started polishing the textbook for the publisher, first two chapters done. Had a momentary setback with a computer problem but the good fellow at Canon support talked me through it quickly. Impatient to get running at full energy again. Health! Not something to take for granted. Everything depends on it. Onward.
3/22/2004 07:40:40 PM |
Friday, March 19, 2004
March madness, contracts, life
I'm enjoying the NCAA tourney, perhaps my favorite sporting event. I root for the schools who can't afford to put players' names on the jerseys. Back in the 80s, when I was living on writing income and grants, and thus had an unstructured life (no obligation except the occasional deadline), I used to schedule free time for March Madness so I could live at the bar watching the games. Occasionally I would go out of town and rent a motel to watch them. Used to love to go to a strange town, rent a motel, hang out at the local sports bar, a stranger. Sometimes --- call it the actor in me -- I would roll play, often as a Russian immigrant who spoke little English. Got a lot of free drinks.
Contract arrived. I thought there might be trouble -- I didn't like two items on it. However, I just got an email that the publisher gives in on both points, so it looks like we're in business.
Continuing to improve. Last night I slept without waking myself coughing. Life improves. Life goes on. Onward.
3/19/2004 12:02:44 PM |
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Paradise Lost
We live in a cottage behind a house. Although within city limits, we are surrounded on two sides by large abandoned apple orchards, giving us the illusion of country living. When we bought the house, the orchards were owned by an eccentric old man who lived on the property, refusing to sell to developers. He died about a year ago, willing the property to a young man with instructions never to develop it. Alas, the young man could not afford the property taxes and sold -- to a developer. And now, finally, the land will be developed. We expected as much, of course -- too much prime property and all. Yet, seeing the plans, it's hard to accept that over forty trees are coming down almost within spitting distance of us. Seven large upper-end houses will go up in the two orchards. Actually this may raise our property value but nonetheless, the woods will be missed, and maybe all the birds we feed, too. They call it progress, of course. Onward.
3/17/2004 09:30:58 PM |
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
This and that
Health continuing to improve, up to maybe 75% now. Even managed to mow the lawn today, or most of it.
Returned university student script projects and picked up their finals today. Should get my grades in on Thursday or Friday. Then about ten days off.
John continuing to move ahead on Dark Mission. Eager to hear all of it.
Decided my small CD collection lacked some essential basics, so today I ordered CDs by Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb.
Eager to get well. Eager to get back to the writing projects. But first, the finals. Onward.
3/16/2004 08:00:49 PM |
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Summer
Looks like an end of summer deadline for the screenwriting text, which should be easy to meet. Indeed, I should be able to get it in earlier. With end of summer, they would hope to release it next spring. Being formally reviewed by their staff now for what other suggestions may materialize ... but it looks like the present book will be more or less the same, with some minor additions. I like projects like this, where they find me rather than the other way around (my teaching job at the university was this way, too -- once they added a new Masters writing program, they beefed up their writing faculty and asked if I'd be the screenwriting guy. It's been a wonderful gig.). Onward.
3/11/2004 08:18:20 AM |
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Screenwriting textbook update
The publisher loves my print-on-demand screenwriting book and wants to republish it with only minor changes, such as adding exercises at the end of each chapter and redesigning it to add more white space (how appropriate!). So they are preparing a contract, and it looks like this will happen. Onward.
3/10/2004 12:29:25 PM |
4 for the price of 1
Have you caught all the planets visible in the evening sky? Brilliant Venus high in the western sky with reddish Mars above it. Rising in the eastern sky, Jupiter, second only to Venus in brightness. And almost straight overhead, Saturn. Mercury joins them if you have a clear western horizon (as I don't). Quite a sight! Onward.
3/10/2004 12:51:19 AM |
Monday, March 08, 2004
Durrenmatt
The Shakespeare Festival in Ashland is doing on of my favorite plays this spring, Durrenmatt's The Visit. Definitely need to get down and see it. Onward.
3/8/2004 08:14:39 AM |
Of dogs and wives
Thought I was on the road to recovery yesterday. Hardly coughed at all. Weak but otherwise a mellow day.
Then this morning at 3 I woke myself up with a coughing fit, which lasted over an hour. Ended up chasing my wife to the couch in the living room. Sketch, our rat terrier, stuck in out with me, diving under the covers to ride the storm.
Now, this morning, I feel okay. We'll see how it goes. 3 more scripts to read and I'll be caught up. That's been the tough part, keeping up with my students while at half-speed. Haven't done my own writing in a couple weeks now.
3/8/2004 08:13:30 AM |
Saturday, March 06, 2004
Hack hack
Still sicker than a dog, just can't shake it. Getting behind on my student reading and need to catch up this weekend ... the avalanche of scripts starts end of next week.
Opportunities dropping into my lap, things I would have jumped at earlier in my career, but in these more individualistic and mellow days I find myself turning them down. The two things that really excite me now are writing novels and librettos. That's about it. The textbook publisher is wanting two books, screenwriting and playwriting, but more and more I think I will do at best only the screenwriting one -- if he wants a two book deal, it's no go. A playwriting book would be too much work for not enough reward. But I can do a screenwriting book in my sleep. Still haven't committed to a screenwriting book but he's sounding like he is ready to talk contract ... we'll see if we find a common ground for specifics of the book. Meanwhile, I am ready to start a new libretto, adapting a play of mine, might begin before summer. It will be an adaptation of Varmints.
Need to get well and get back to Patriots and Kerouac's Scroll. Need to get well! Onward.
3/6/2004 01:43:55 PM |
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Dark Mission
Dark Mission is the opera for which I wrote the libretto, based on the Whitman Massacre in southeastern Washington on November 29, 1847 (more about the massacre here). Writing the music is composer John Nugent, and he's been sending me the first music files this week. I love them! John's music has me very jacked about this project. Here are some examples (note: to see the sheet music and hear the music you need the free Finale Viewer, which you can download here):
- Timothy's Search. In this scene, Chief Timothy is curious about the message from the missionaries. He will become one of the few Christian converts.
- Banished. Cayuse medicine men had to pay the consequences of their medicine. This cultural fact helps explain the motives of the natives regarding the "massacre." Here, a medicine man who gave bad medicine is banished.
Hope you enjoy John's music as much as I do. Onward.
3/4/2004 10:30:23 AM |
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Should I ... ?
I've been contacted by a publisher of college textbooks about writing them a screenwriting book and a playwriting book. The former interests me most since I've already done it. The latter would be harder on my end. I sent them my present screenwriting book, What Happens Next?, and we're starting a discussion on the matter. We'll see what happens. Onward.
3/2/2004 03:24:33 PM |
Monday, March 01, 2004
I don't own stock
The suite of free software at www.finalemusic.com for composing music, exchanging it on the net, printing sheet music, and so on, is incredibly good. I've been fiddling with it, composing a bit myself, and it is user friendly and powerful and I have no idea why it is free. If you compose music or work with a composer, check it out. Onward.
3/1/2004 07:05:09 PM |
Dark Mission
Using wonderful software called Finale, John Nugent, the composer putting music to my libretto Dark Mission (a tragedy based on "the Whitman Massacre"), has posted the music to some initial scenes, and what a rush to listen to it! Most of it is first rate to my ear, which naturally fuels my excitement for the project. I think John is a wonderful composer, and it's an honor to work with him. Much work to do -- but what an encouraging start! Onward.
3/1/2004 05:25:05 AM |
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__The Writing Life
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