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."
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.
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
Sunday, October 31, 2004 Slow down No writing done yesterday, only a bit today -- hope to do better tomorrow and Tuesday morning. Not sure why the slow down, lack of energy, mild funk. Happens.
10/31/2004 05:21:19 PM |
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Saturday, October 30, 2004 Ray The Ray Charles movie is worth the price of admission for the sound track and performance alone (Oscar nomination surely) -- but at the same time, it suffers from the same weakness of most biopics, lack of a compelling story. If this were a movie about "a nobody," it would suffer greatly from lack of a compelling narrative. Because the subject is famous, our curiosity keeps us interested. But the story here is quite weak, though not as weak as in Ali. There is an attempt to drive the narrative by Charles' relationship to his mother but it comes off as contrived, as if the writer knew he didn't really have a story and so tried to manufacture one. Yet the performance is so strong, the Ray Charles soundtrack so fine, the curiosity about this genius so great, that the movie works -- even though it's not the kind of movie I ever would recommend to my students.
10/30/2004 09:55:45 AM |
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Friday, October 29, 2004 Draft Your Screenplay in 30 Days! The National Novel Writing Month business has inspired me to start a new online class. It's a hell of a lot easier to draft a screenplay in 30 days than a novel. Details upcoming at Writers on the Net.
10/29/2004 04:14:08 AM |
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And what were you doing at age 19? Dylan Thomas was already writing first rate poetry, like this one published in the paper and announcing his arrival:
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
The force that drives the water through the rocks Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams Turns mine to wax. And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.
The hand that whirls the water in the pool Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind Hauls my shroud sail. And I am dumb to tell the hanging man How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.
The lips of time leech to the fountain head; Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood Shall calm her sores. And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.
And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.
Thursday, October 28, 2004 Office hours Managing to get a little work done on the novel, writing in Word Pad and emailing it to myself, to copy and paste into the manuscript tomorrow. Feeling the end so close -- less than a dozen chapters away, and my chapters are short -- is a kick in the pants to get writing. I think it may be early November when I reach the end. We'll see! But I'm staying with this since I'm so hot now. After I have a draft, I'll let it sit while I work on the libretto, and with luck that will go quickly, too (I'm already in the second act), and I can finish before returning to the novel, the rewriting, which of course is the most fun part of the entire process.
I assume John is working away to finish up Dark Mission. We need it entirely out of the way and also need the full score to be available sooner rather than later. And then he can concentrate on Varmints.
So all is well -- busy and well. Even looking forward to rehearsals tonight, working one-on-one with the actors.
10/28/2004 03:31:21 PM |
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Speaking of Sinatra... If you haven't read the thin classic by Pete Hamill, Why Sinatra Matters, check it out!
10/28/2004 11:56:34 AM |
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Chairman of the Board Out on errands, the radio played a version of It Was A Mighty Good Year, a very fine pop song indeed, sung by Ray Charles and Willie Nelson. Talk about a disaster! Think of Sinatra singing What'd I Say and you get the idea -- or recall the laughable Pat Boone covers of Little Richard! Some very good singers simply can't sing some songs. Sinatra owns the Year song, from the phrasing and vocal tone, it's a song written for him. Listening to Charles and Nelson, both of whom I love, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I've never heard such a bad version. 10/28/2004 11:54:45 AM |
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Let's patent mornings like this Very productive morning! Finished the student scripts, wrote a chapter on the novel, ordered a welcome home present for my wife, and now getting ready to pay bills and mail out the opera score -- all before having to leave to the university. Unless I hit a stone wall, I think I'm a few weeks from finishing the draft of Patriots. Onward, indeed! 10/28/2004 10:12:45 AM |
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Dark Mission Another opportunity for our opera: a director connected to Houston Grand Opera, who directs around the country, a woman recommended by my PSU connection here, has requested the score. She actually lives in Portland but works in Houston much of the year. If she likes it and wants to direct it, this would be great news!
Meanwhile two more scripts to evaluate, then I should have time to get some writing done before leaving for the university. Working one-on-one with my three actors at rehearsal tonight. Then home! Yes, I think I'll catch the Ray Charles movie tomorrow. Onward.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004 WORLD CHAMPIONS! Harriet is still in New England -- and what a fun time to be there! She was in Boston area yesterday but I think she went up to Maine today. In the mail today came a Red Sox hat she sent me. Maybe I'll wear it tomorrow -- she's the Mass. native, not I, but what the hell.
Got a tad of writing done today before starting the student scripts. Only two left to do, which I can read tomorrow morning.
Student scripts I have an unusually good class this term with more than usual "natural" screenwriters, those who immediately understand the special rhetorical demands of the screenplay form. This is great because it means they can spend most of the term working on storytelling issues, not rhetorical issues. Also makes it much more fun to teach a class like this. A few years ago I had a term filled with zombies and almost quit teaching.
10/27/2004 02:01:38 PM |
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Decisions, decisions I've decided not to participate in the November NaNoWriMo event and have removed the swami blog. The main reason is that I'm on a good roll with Patriots now and should finish the draft in November, and my "extra" time needs to be focused on the new libretto.
At the same time, I love this idea! I've been looking through the book about the event and endorse the pedagogical assumptions behind this event: that a bad first draft is better than no first draft, that an initial emphasis on quantity rather than quality is more practical in the short and long runs for writing a good novel (or screenplay, or play, or book of any kind). I call this approach "the forest track" in my screenwriting class.
I hope to set aside a month this summer and write the swami draft I'd planned for this event. But right now, I have two writing projects to finish before the end of the year, in draft, and am most eager, of all new projects, to begin my seniors road story -- so I think the plate is already full enough.
But what a fine idea this is! I endorse it heartily.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 Office hours Spent office hours fiddling with the template of my new swami blog, trying to make it look a tad more like a book and a tad less like a blog. Pretty heavy stuff for a non-programmer like myself. Have it to the point where I probably should leave it alone. Now off to class, then to rehearsal, then home (when the game likely will be over).
10/26/2004 03:57:14 PM |
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Ever onward More progress on Patriots this morning, finishing a chapter and outlining the immediate chapters to come. A real good shot at finishing this draft before Christmas. Of course, next week I begin the swami novel as part of NaNoWrMo, national novel writing month, which may slow down progress on the current -- too much, though, and I should abandon swami. Need to keep my priorities straight. But I am optimistic I can move forward with both at the same time. We'll give it a shot at any rate.
Ready for class this afternoon finally. Collect drafts of the their term scripts, so I have a ton of reading to do tomorrow, to get them back to them Thursday. I feel good about progress on the novel these past two days. Makes it easier to put on the teaching cap.
Hope to make real progress in rehearsal tonight, too, even though I am missing the Series game to do it. I'll be able to watch it tomorrow night. Hopefully it may be over then ha ha. Can the Red Sox sweep? Maybe the question is still, Can they actually win?
Rec'd a somewhat encouraging reply on our opera from the PSU person -- the opera program is broke but she recommended someone to give the score to and she might do scenes later if she can get a budget.
Happy birthday Wake up birthday call from a good friend in LA. A surprise and a treat. Woke up the dog, who went out to pee, came back in, jumped back on the bed, crawled under the covers and went back to sleep.
Monday, October 25, 2004 Mornings! Nothing like getting a ton of morning writing done to brighten the spirits and make the rest of the day a joy -- the day has barely started and the important task of the day is out of the way. Great feeling! 10/25/2004 10:04:35 AM |
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Monday goals Dividing the day in to two parts: before and after noon. Morning, write, primarily on the novel. Afternoon, some prep I need to do before class tomorrow. A busy week, what with rehearsals Tuesday and Thursday. Hope the Red Sox sweep in four, I'd be able to see Wed. night's game.
10/25/2004 07:16:43 AM |
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Sunday, October 24, 2004 Sunday A bit of progress on Patriots today, on the laptop, and some grunt work on the libretto. Enough to keep me content. Need to do some school work tomorrow but also should have time for some writing on the laptop.
Glad the anthology is ready for the printer finally. Was a long haul. But I'm very pleased with the design inside and out, and of course I always liked the contents, having chosen it ha ha.
Listening and watching the Red Sox now, hoping they don't blow a lead and can go up two games. Taped 60 Minutes on TiVo -- so easy! -- and will watch it later tonight perhaps.
Got a call from Harriet. The reunion was hot, especially with Red Sox scores announced every thirty minutes. Now she's with a relative in Cambridge, midweek to New Hampshire and another relative.
It's turned cold and damp. I hope we get another good day for lawn work, I'd like one more before putting it to rest for winter.
A Picture From Life's Other Side Breakfast this morning at Nobby's across town, where Millie has been serving me for 18 years. Started a conversation with a tall "cowboy" -- hat, jeans, snap shirt, boots -- who happened to be from La Grande, and we discovered we have several mutual friends. Ends up he was a day off a 3-week binge, which ruined his 9 years of sobriety, and he wasn't quite sure how he ended up in Portland. Planned to hitchhike to Arizona since his wife, with 20 years sobriety, didn't want him returning. Nothing at all unusual in this kind of story, though it had been a while since I sat down and heard one live. I debated whether to give him some money or not -- he might just drink it -- but what the hell, since we had mutual friends, I did, and we parted our ways.
Just watched the movie version of The Visit, based on the Durrenmatt play recently butchered in Ashland. I haven't seen this for many years and remember disliking it. Well, I rather like it now! Yes, it is different from the film, not as absurdist and more "realistic" in style, as films tend to be, but I think it stays close to the heart of the film. I may use it in class, in fact.
10/24/2004 11:36:09 AM |
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Finding rhythm Today I should be able to get back in primary rhythm, working on both the novel and libretto. Onward.
10/24/2004 05:44:28 AM |
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Saturday, October 23, 2004 Royalties Got a couple surprise royalty checks in the mail. One so small it should be framed, and the other about six times more than I expected. Always fun to get surprise money.
I'm really pleased with the design of the anthology, finally. Appreciate the publisher giving me so much responsibility in this department. This is going to be a fun book to tour with actually.
10/23/2004 03:25:04 PM |
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Eureka! The designer, while also submitting covers based on our concept, changed the concept entirely and presented us with something that we both immediately liked. That's what designers are for. So we have our cover, we have our text ... should go to the printer by mid-week. Oregon Historical Society wants books by Nov. 20th, which is cutting it close, but enough should be available for the December event and the rest of the run soon thereafter. The publisher's major marketing campaign will begin later, probably in February. He's rushing to make the big holiday book sale event at the Oregon Historical Society. Looks like Larry Colton and I will man the table.
10/23/2004 01:36:34 PM |
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Anthology: the last step? Call from Joe, the new covers are in, so I'm on my way over there as soon as I log off. I'll also deliver the new proof with the format corrections, largely, still needing attention. If we have a cover we like, this should be it. If not -- well, I guess we wait for more tries at it. We know what we want but for some reason have a hard time communicating this to the designer.
Man, the inside book design is first class now once it is consistent. The authors may bitch, some of them, because I'm making the author names smaller than is usual but to my eye it gives it considerable class. After all, my name is among them ha ha.
Meanwhile, I've managed to get my head back into Patriots and off the swami, and I have the next scene firmly in mind, which I hope to write this afternoon on the laptop while I'm watching UCLA on television. I still root for the Bruins. They were my team as a kid, I got my BA there ... even though I've been in Oregon like forever, I root for the Bruins. I wish they'd go back to the single-wing! When I rooted for them in the late 40s, early 50s, they were the last team in football to abandon the single-wing for the T, using it as a predecessor to the shotgun offense. Interestingly enough, the summer after my freshman year at Cal Tech, I went to varsity football workouts where the coach was a former UCLA coach who had been Coach of the Year in 1948 -- and now had fallen so far he was coaching Cal Tech! He used the UCLA single-wing! Over the summer, I made first string quarterback, which was mostly a blocking back, though sometimes I became a receiver. I got my name published in Street & Smith's Football Digest, in the local edition that included small California schools. The highlight of my athletic career! Then I got injured before the season started, and then I decided to transfer to Berkeley, and although I again played organized football in the Army, tag football, this was pretty much the end of my so-called athletic career. I think I enjoyed the summer on the varsity as single-wing QB as much as anything, calling the signals, and often blind-blocking some put sap who was set up.
Saturday stuff OK, got through the anthology ... main issues are format consistency, some scattered typos. But the text looks very good now, nicely designed (once it is consistent). Hope we get the cover together. Joe getting new cover proofs today, we may end up meeting later. At any rate, chances are good for getting the manuscript to the printer next week. We are getting good billing at the early December book sale at the Oregon Historical Society, where I and several contributing writers will be available to autograph books, so obviously we need copies by then. Since the printer wants four to six weeks, we are getting close to deadline.
But Joe has had the anthology idea for five years, talking about it with friends. Once he got the right editor ha ha, it happened it five months.
On the writing front, I seem to be preoccupied with the new swami idea -- new ideas are so exciting and also so much easier than ideas in development. I need to put the swami aside and focus on my other two major projects, the novel and the libretto, and see how much I can get done before November and this new blogging experiment.
Harriet made it safe and sound to Boston. To think she's there on World Series Day, attending her 50th high school reunion, where I'm sure there'll be much talk about the Red Sox.
10/23/2004 07:10:32 AM |
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Friday, October 22, 2004 Email posts If you see something here you like, you now easily can email it to a friend. Use the envelope icons at the end of each post.
10/22/2004 05:44:37 PM |
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Anthology Have new proof for the weekend ... getting real close now. Main remaining problem is format consistency. And the cover, though Joe and I are in agreement about what we want it to look like ... need to communicate this to the designer.
Today in Literature From today's wonderful website, Today In Literature (if you haven't bookmarked this site -- and joined -- do!):
"Untitled," by Kingsley Amis, who died on this day in 1995. This poem was written in the late 70s, but not discovered until the spring of 2004, in a box of Amis's papers. Martin Amis says he thinks it one of his father's best - unpublished because too revealing of a different Kingsley beneath the usual laconic-ironic-"Old Devil":
Things tell less and less: The news impersonal And from afar; no book Worth wrenching off the shelf. Liquor brings dizziness And food discomfort; all Music sounds thin and tired, And what picture could earn a look? The self drowses in the self Beyond hope of a visitor. Desire and those desired Fade, and no matter: Memories in decay Annihilate the day. There once was an answer: Up at the stroke of seven, A turn round the garden (Breathing deep and slow), Then work, never mind what, How small, provided that It serves another's good. But once is long ago And, tell me, how could Such an answer be less than wrong, Be right all along? Vain echoes, desist.
10/22/2004 02:43:12 AM |
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TGIF A very busy day yesterday, glad it's end of the week time. Early this morning, later ha ha, I take Harriet to the airport and begin my bachelor's mode for two and a half weeks. Hope to get a ton of writing done! Easier, sometimes, to fade into the trance of writing when the house is empty. Later this morning, meeting with publisher for the proof revisions, which I hope are in tip-top shape so I can approve them and we can move on to the printer. He already told me he himself rejected 3 more designs of the cover and has asked for more. So she's 0 for 5 in that dept.
My first rehearsal last night went very well. We probably don't need all the rehearsals we have. I may cut one or two later.
Thursday, October 21, 2004 The novel blog I created a blog for the proposed novel The Assassination of Swami Kree. I've actually had this story in mind for over ten years, using some characters from my play Christmas at the Juniper Tavern. I've had maybe 3 or 4 false starts over the years, varying in size from 20 to maybe 75 pages. Nothing recently.
Since this is an "event," National Blog A Novel Month (November) or whatever it is, and November has 30 days, it makes perfect sense to me to organize the novel in 30 parts, Day 1, Day 2, etc. -- and maybe I can get a quick "ticking clock" in there, the audience knowing of the assassination attempt on the swami, and of the FBI's charge to try and prevent it (or are they rather for it?). I've already defined my major players at the novel blog ... others may materialize, as they are prone to do.
However, this exercise can't interfere with my other projects -- or I will abandon it. This I want to be more like blogging than "writing," just quick stuff off the top, to see how it goes. Late night, early morning stuff, blogging time. What it may do is cut down on my blogging here, though here I can comment on how things are going there.
We'll give it a start on the first, at any rate, and see what happens.
Babies and Thorton Wilder On the bus to the university, a woman with a young baby sat near me. For the rest of the route, as passengers boarded, they couldn't help but smile and grin at the child. Babies do that.
No one seemed to be thinking, Oh you poor kid, growing up in a world where pollution will come home to roost, where Nature wins, where wars will be fought with greater weapons than anything we've imagined, where destruction and grief will grow exponentially ... nope, not at all. Instead it was smiles, as if to say, How beautiful the beginning of life is, when all things seem possible!
This "natural" optimism when looking at a baby, however replaced with more sober reflections later, is at the heart of Thorton Wilder's plays, especially The Skin of Our Teeth. No matter how bad things get -- an Ice Age in the play! -- we humans manage to get by "by the skin of our teeth." I suppose that means we'll colonize the moon before we destroy Earth. We'll survive as a species.
No one does Wilder much any more. Optimism is out of fashion. Our Town is considered high school material at best, not a play of deep philosophical seriousness.
It was Durrenmatt, my favorite playwright, who reminded us that Wilder was America's greatest playwright.
10/21/2004 02:24:22 PM |
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Blogging a novel If I do this in November, it won't be the novel I plan after Patriots, called Kerouac's Scroll, but something lighter, a mystery I've had in mind for some time called The Assassination of Swami Kree, in which I resurrect the character in my play Christmas at the Juniper Tavern. A plot driven "entertainment," not a literary novel. I couldn't write a literary novel in a month. One could make a good shot at a plot driven novel, I think. Try to treat it as a blog and just let 'er rip. Seriously thinking about this -- "in my copious free time," as the saying goes. One always can start and abandon it, like so many writers do ha ha.
10/21/2004 06:12:53 AM |
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Student power Echoes of the sixties. The university administration cut a deal with a financial institution to adminster new student ID cards that double as a debit card. The student government, protesting that they were not in on the negotiations and that the company pressures students to charge things with their new cards, has called for a boycott of the new IDs, beginning in November. Nice to see students taking charge on issues that matter to them.
10/21/2004 06:06:04 AM |
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Wednesday, October 20, 2004 Blog a novel Blogger is participating in November "write a novel" month by challenging users to blog a novel in a month. I may give it a try. 10/20/2004 10:31:44 PM |
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Three surprises On errands today, my wife and I decided to swing by our health clinic to see how long the flu shot line was -- being old farts, we qualify. No line! So we were surprised to be in and out in a few minutes.
Message from the publisher that I don't need to look at the anthology proofs until Friday, which makes my schedule considerably easier. Surprise #2.
And finally, THE RED SOX MIRACLE, PART ONE, IS COMPLETE! How much fun to be in a Boston bar tonight.
A tough day tomorrow, more to do in class than I have time for, will have to spill into next week. Friday Harriet flies east for her 50th high school reunion near Boston (!) and will visit relatives as well, being gone almost 3 weeks, so I'll be slipping into my "baching it" mode, which means crazy hours and louder early mornings.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004 Office hours Somehow I managed to get a tad of work done on the novel this morning before coming to the university. Not much but enough to keep me "in contact" with it. This looks like a very busy week in class. I pick up script pages today and will go over them Thursday. Meanwhile, we are watching A Beautiful Mind in class, most of it today, and need to discuss it as well -- I may push this back to next week, depending on how much student script discussion we do. That is first priority. And the publisher wants me to look at the new proofs sooner rather than later but when the hell I have time to do that before Friday only the devil knows. A good Russian saying, that, only the devil knows, tolkah chyort zniyet, if I remember correctly from my ancient Russian linguist days.
I watched Interiors recently, the Woody Allen "serious" film, and like much about it. A very "pretty" film visually. Perhaps a tad too "posed," too conscious of its own visual art. I belong to the "magician" school of the arts, which says all the tricks should be invisible and seamless, when you "see the art" the artist has failed. As I recall, Cocteau was most eloquent in expressing this philosophy.
Coming to auditions tonight are three actors I've worked with before and I could cast them in a heartbeat, which gives me some security for the 4-person cast I need. But I enjoy working with new faces, so it truly is "an open" audition. This is a fun and very important part of the process. Someone said that casting is 3/4 of directing. Rehearsals begin right away, Thursday. We have six rehearsals -- a lot for a staged reading, actually, but I always do this many, which is why the readers do so damn well, they practically are off book. I enjoy rehearsing a lot more than actually seeing the show!
This may be my last drama service for a while. I'm a tad burned out, even though I only do this once a year. But if I enjoy it this time as much as others, maybe I'll change my mind. I may "hold out" with the musical director -- that is, refuse to do another (subject) until he agrees with my proposal to do a piano-accompaniment, narrated, short (45 min) version of Dark Mission with the choir. I've been sending him MIDI files, trying to get him interested, but so far no response. In fact, I thought I would have heard from the 3 folks I pitched the opera to by now. I fear that if they were crazy about it, I would have heard from them -- and since I think so much of John's music, I wonder what the hell is wrong with them not to jump at the chance to premier this fine opera. I won't bug anyone until after the first of the year but then I'll find out officially what the hell is going on. In fact, maybe I'll send Ruth an email today, with a short "any verdict" note. Hmm. Let me think about that.
Ever onward The new proof of the anthology is ready (already!) -- now I have to find where to fit it in this week because tonight I hold auditions, Thursday begin rehearsals, for the UU drama service, making me even more busy. If I get my student scripts, picked up today, read tomorrow morning, maybe I can look at the proofs tomorrow afternoon.
Meanwhile the Red Sox continue to perform small miracles, winning last night in 14 innings after the previous 12 inning win. Ortiz the hero each time. Game 6, which I'll miss, in NY tonight. If there is a game 7 tomorrow, I can watch it.
Monday, October 18, 2004 Boston Red Sox I haven't seen a lot of Red Sox games over the years. Never followed them. But this year, with their end of the season rush into the play-offs, I've been watching them.
They are an entertaining team. However, I don't have the physical constitution to be a Red Sox fan. They find too many ways to beat themselves -- I'd be a nervous wreck! When they come through, however, as they did last night, watching them is a fun, joyous experience. Maybe they can make history and go all the way. I just don't want to lose any sleep over it.
Sunday, October 17, 2004 The Library of Our Lives The Morse play is directed by Judith "Sparky" Roberts, who did a great job. She reminded me that over 30 years ago she was an undergrad at U of O when I was in grad school and directed the writing team of "The Library of Our Lives," in which she was cast. This was an extraordinary multi-department project out of the Experimental College attached to the university at the time: a soap opera satire written, acted, directed, produced by students under the supervision of faculty. As a teaching assistant, I directed a team of writers and under the pressure of deadlines ended up doing a lot of writing myself. We produced and broadcast (over the U's cable TV station) 2 30-minute segments a week! Some 60 pages of good script a week, friends. I often was rewriting a scene ahead in the production studio as scenes got televised. Peter Jamison, later the production designer of the movie "Missing," was the director and the guy who brought me into the project. Sparky played a pregnant coed who gives birth on screen in the final episode ... as I recall, she gives birth to a cat. At any rate, this was a wild project involving four departments and over 100 students, a project later written up in a magazine as the first soap opera satire to be broadcast. I have no idea if tapes exist but it would be a hoot to see them.
10/17/2004 05:44:21 PM |
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Saturday, October 16, 2004 Bravo! Wayne Morse play went very well, tight production, good appreciative audience, kind intro of the playwright. No complaints or constructive criticism whatever.
10/16/2004 01:55:47 PM |
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Friday, October 15, 2004 Pure luck A question from Eric reminds me that most of the good things that have happened in my writing career are largely a result of luck. Examples:
1. Christmas at the Juniper Tavern getting on public TV. The stage play is running. A former Portlander, now in LA beginning a film career, comes up to see his girl friend and sees the play and loves it. He is looking for a "calling card" project. His dad is on the board of Oregon Public Broadcasting, so he can pull strings and do the amazing thing of getting them not only to produce a local drama but to do it within 2 weeks, before the show closed! A miracle, really. It gets done and goes on to win an ACE award. I get some nice money and credits, a reputation.
2. Claude Offenbacher now playing Wayne Morse. I looked all over for an actor for 2 years. No luck. I give the script to the Wayne Morse Ranch folks, they give it to a director, and she gives it to Claude, recently retired and bored. Bingo.
3. Getting into Phi Beta Kappa. At UCLA I needed 2 more units of language credit. I took Classical Greek because no one was in line (I planned to take German but the line was long). My Greek teacher loves me. I graduate with a strong B average overall at UCLA, not enough for Phi Beta Kappa, and go to grad school in Oregon. After my first year grad school, a strange request! March with the undergrad seniors at Oregon to be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa! What, what? What the hell, I do it. I don't understand till I get the certificate, with my Greek teacher's signature as Pres on it. She PERSONALLY got me in, despite a below required GPA, because she thought I was such a hot Greek student (I guess). I wore the pin on my baseball cap for years until it was stolen.
And so on. Lots of good fortune, lots of butterfly effect.
Interruptions I got almost no writing done this week, thanks to house guests and the unexpected, sudden dropping of the anthology proof in my lap -- the price one pays for multi-tasking, I guess. Just when I was finally back up to speed on the novel, too. So next week I need to get back in the novel groove, and also in the libretto groove, and hopefully find a rhythm that I can maintain through the term now. I have a great class, which helps. Classes of zombies are a real drag. I still hope to finish the novel draft this year and the libretto draft, if not this month, this term. I think I'm done with the anthology now, except early next year when I have to do the book tour thing, which I always embrace with mixed feelings. The writer as huckster. Didn't use to be this way. It used to be sexy and mysterious for a writer to be private, a recluse. Now they want you on goddamn talk shows. Hustle, hustle, hustle. The goddamn world has turned into one gigantic MARKETPLACE. It sucks.
10/15/2004 09:27:54 AM |
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Claude as Morse An exciting day! Go down to Eugene/Springfield to see a full production of my one-man Wayne Morse play for the first time -- a script I wrote 20 years ago. Better late than never ha ha. Playing Morse is Claude Offenbacher, who owned the role in the staged reading I saw a year ago, so I expect he will be terrific. The play is scheduled to tour into Portland later but I wanted to see it now. Also, it's a good excuse to eat in my favorite restaurant in Oregon, Zenon's in Eugene. A leisurely day, then, taking off at mid-afternoon with the dog, meeting up with the wife and house guests in Eugene. Meanwhile, been playing with a new toy, TiVo, which is fantastic. Changes the way I deal with TV. 10/15/2004 09:16:05 AM |
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Thursday, October 14, 2004 Light at the end of the tunnel A great meeting with publisher and designer this morning -- we ended up all on the same page. Early next week we'll get a new proof and with luck this one can go to the printer. Have an hour to relax before U-time, to boot! Onward.
10/14/2004 01:53:18 PM |
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Meetings A full morning of meetings regarding the anthology with publisher and designer. Hopefully, I'll have time afterwards to gather my thoughts before heading out to the university. Got the first batch of papers and -- yes! -- have several good screenwriters and one natural excellent screenwriter, judging by immediate work in this strange form of writing. By the end of the term, everyone will be writing well -- the plan ha ha. It's always exciting to get a natural screenwriter in class.
10/14/2004 06:57:13 AM |
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Wednesday, October 13, 2004 Another hectic day ...but I'm caught up, i.e. got through the anthology and my student papers. Meetings all morning tomorrow with publisher and designer, then to the university and my class.
10/13/2004 09:22:51 PM |
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Tuesday, October 12, 2004 Office hrs Man, barely getting a breather. About 2/4 through the anthology m.s. -- shocking number of typos (for a copy editor presumably reading it), more design issues, etc. Have to insist to Joe that he be patient about getting to the publisher -- we can't rush this. Reading the contents again, however, I am more impressed than ever with the quality of the writing. A damn good book! It just needs to LOOK good as well as read good.
I've already -- after 48 hrs -- had enough of house guests ha ha. 3 more days to go. They will come down to see the play with us on Friday, then continue on the LA on Saturday.
Friday Night Lights Saw this last night with my brother-in-law, who called it the best football movie he's ever seen. Surely it aspires to be the Hoosiers of football -- and comes close but I'm not sure it makes it, being good instead of great. What bothered me, I suppose, is that it's too much on one level, and the character of the coach is especially on one level. The off-the-field story is not developed as much as in Hoosiers, for example. Still, a good movie. But I guess I would say that it doesn't own up to the fine book in the final analysis. The book is great. 10/12/2004 04:25:22 AM |
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Busy! Life is very hectic of a sudden.
Sunday night house guests arrived. Early Monday morning a meeting with the publisher dropped the anthology in my lap for a final proof and look over. The cover is a mess. The page design is close but still not quite there. Some stories were in the wrong order (!) -- I have no idea how that happened when I gave the designer a complete electronic manuscript with the stories in the right order. In short, still grunt work to do. I still have most of the manuscript to go through today -- rushing to finish before my class since tomorrow I'll have a lot of student work to read and evaluate. Thursday another meeting when the m.s. goes back to the designer for corrections and changes. Friday we head south to see my Morse play.
My wife is entertaining the house guests, not I. Her sister and brother-in-law. My challenge today is to finish proofing the m.s. so I am unburdened tomorrow.
10/12/2004 03:59:33 AM |
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Sunday, October 10, 2004 Pinter Don't miss the story on Harold Pinter in Today In Literature. The first review of my first play was put down as "ponderous Pinter." A friend of mine, who knew my work better than this, wrote a letter to the editor putting down the critic. My work wasn't ponderous Pinter at all, he explained -- but "awkward Albee." He was right on!
In a wonderful production of The Homecoming at the University of Oregon, which I saw when I was in graduate school working on my MFA in Playwriting, an extraordinary thing happened. The play was done in the round, a small theater, perhaps 150 in a full house. Across the stage from me, in my line of sight, sat an elderly couple. Some twenty or thirty minutes into the play the old guy couldn't take any more. He stood up and grabbed his wife and headed for the exit in a straight line -- which took him across the middle of the set, walking right through the action on stage! The actors, bless their souls, didn't bat an eye.
I had another experience in this theater when my first play, the awkward Albee, was done. During one production, across the set in my line of sight, sat a middle-aged couple. At intermission, the woman was in tears. A sensitive response to the action actually. However, seeing her devastated me. Who was I to write something to cause this woman so much visible discomfort? I didn't watch act two but paced outside around the theater, debating with myself the moral obligations, or lack thereof, of the dramatic artist. The resolution is I kept writing, hoping to move my audiences.
10/10/2004 04:56:55 AM |
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Philip Roth's new novel Some 300 pages into this 360+ page book, I was in the firm grip of a masterful storyteller and beginning to believe I was reading a masterpiece. Then Roth released tension on the line that hooked me, and I escaped. He blew it.
The story strategy that released me is understandable. This is on the surface a "what if...?" novel -- what if Lindbergh ran against FDR's 3rd term and was elected President? Lindbergh, anti-Semitic, would make a peace treaty with Hitler, and the US would not enter the war. And more importantly, how would all this affect a Jewish family in America?
This novel works so well so long because it is so personal, narrated by a man in the family who was a boy during the tortuous years in question. Roth's challenge in messing with history, of course, is how to wrap things up, how to return to a world that could lead to the present -- or whether to stop at some fanciful historical moment. Roth chooses the former, wisely I think, and ingenuously as well. His mistake, in my view, is stopping the narrative in its tracks to give us 40 pages of exposition to explain the history of his ending. In this long section of purely informational prose, I escaped as an engrossed reader. The mistakes are twofold: not camouflaging the exposition in a more personal package and taking forty pages to do it (ten would suffice).
Roth gets back on track in his final short chapter but by then it was almost too late. He had an angry reader on his hands, angry at being released, angry at the book's failure of becoming a masterwork. All the same, this is a book to recommend, a noble try at something really extraordinary. Here's an excerpt, when the narrator as a boy is thinking of running away from home and history:
. Father Flanagan was father to all of them, regardless of race or creed. Most of the boys were Catholic, some Protestant, but a few needy Jewish boys lived on the farm as well -- this I knew from my parents, who, like thousands of other American families who'd seen the movie and wept, made an annual ecumenical contribution to Boys Town. Not that I'd identify myself as Jewish once I reached Omaha. I'd say -- speaking aloud at long last -- that I didn't know what I was or who. That I was nothing and nobody. Just a boy and nothing more, and hardly the person responsible for the death of Mrs. Wishnow and the orphaning of her son. Let my family raise her son as their son from here on out. He could have my bed. He could have my brother. He could have my future. I'd make my life with Father Flanagan in Nebraska, which was even farther from Newark than Kentucky.
TGIF? Friday was one of those days that gets absorbed by unexpected home owner problems, in this case our phone lines going dead, and so I spent much of the day waiting for and dealing with repairmen. Fortunately, the Red Sox game was on the tube, and I got to watch them blow a lead before coming back for a dramatic victory. But I got no writing done. However, I did get more reading done and now am near the end of the novel. Comments when I finish.
So today I once again pledge, hope, intend to get back in gear on the novel.
Oh yes ... saw the debate. Once again, I remember the old lady who quit voting because "I don't want to encourage them." What a sorry excuse for political statesmen these two are.
10/09/2004 03:46:34 AM |
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Friday, October 08, 2004 Dark Mission Orchestrated scenes 5 and 6 today from John, both of which are quite fine.
I'm still totally engrossed in Roth's new novel. Very fine work! More to say about it after I'm done. Onward.
10/08/2004 09:54:04 AM |
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Thursday, October 07, 2004 Roth's new novel The Plot Against America arrived, and I've been reading it during my office hours. Fantastic so far! This novel has me in its grip, and it will be hard to put it down to go teach my class. Hope Roth keeps the tension through the story. This may end up being one fine novel. Onward.
10/07/2004 03:52:00 PM |
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Update Still dragging on the novel, caught up in school and other things, but should have a chance to pick up momentum after today, during the 4-day break till class next week. Haven't rec'd new files from my composer (John), which I had hoped to be getting sooner rather than later ... seems like it takes forever to wrap the opera up. Ah, he's busy, I must be patient. But it's not done till it's done, and I'd like to see it done.
10/07/2004 11:02:28 AM |
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Wednesday, October 06, 2004 Wednesdays In the restructuring of my university week, Wednesdays are now the tough days, the single day set aside to read student work. In the earlier structure, I did this on weekends, in theory, but often put it off until Monday, the day before my first class of the week. An advantage to the new structure is that students have their weekends to do homework if necessary, pages due on Tuesdays instead of Thursdays. But today my reading is light since we are just starting the term. So I hope to get some writing done today.
I'm also eager for the new Roth novel to arrive so I can start it. Ready to lose myself in a good novel. About time I reread Dos Passos' USA, too. Soon. And a revisit to Steinbeck is also overdue.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Office hours Ah, the institution of office hours begins once again. A good time to catch up on grunt work and other chores. And sometimes a student actually shows up! Presently I'm following the Bostom game on the pitch-by-pitch website, which is an unusual way to see a sporting event. Might as well join the hordes rooting for Boston since no other team in the playoffs interests me all that much.
10/05/2004 02:58:24 PM |
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Cornel West Democracy Matters by Cornel West is a challenging, surprisingly optimistic study of our culture and future. Some excerpts:
But we must remember that the basis of democratic leadership is ordinary citizens' desire to take their country back from the hands of corrupted plutocratic and imperial elites. This desire is predicated on an awakening among the populace from the seductive lies and comforting illusions that sedate them and a moral channeling of new political energy that constitutes a formidable threat to the status quo. This is what happened in the 1860s, 1890s, 1930s, and 1960s in American history. Just as it looked as if we were about to lose the American democratic experiment -- in the face of civil war, imperial greed, economic depression, and racial upheaval -- in each of these periods a democratic awakening and activistic energy emerged to keep our democratic project afloat. We must work and hope for such an awakening once again.
Hip-hop culture and rap music are, in many ways, an indictment of the old generation even as they imitate and emulate us in a raw and coarse manner. The defiant and insightful voices of this new generation lyrically proclaim that they have been relatively unloved, uncared for, and unattended to by adults too self-indulgent, too self-interested, and too self-medicated to give them the necessary love, care, and attention to flower and flourish. Only their beloved mothers -- often overworked, underpaid, and wrestling with a paucity of genuine intimacy -- are spared. They also indict the American empire for its mendacity and hypocrisy -- not in a direct anti-imperialist language but in a poetic rendering of emotional deficits and educational defects resulting from the unequal institutional arrangements of the empire.
Monday, October 04, 2004 Adaptations Adaptations are so much harder than original stories! Reminded of this today, as I get back into the libretto based on a stage play of mine. Act II is going to be very tough going. I'll stumbled through as best I can, then forget the source play entirely and look at what I have and what I can make of it in its own right.
Only a tad of work on the novel today. Still not fully into the rhythm of it.
Also in a mild funk, which exercise in the yard didn't entirely overcome. Roth's book should arrive in a few days -- eager to bury myself in it. Onward, sort of.
10/04/2004 03:40:47 PM |
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Sunday, October 03, 2004 Fan Appreciation Tour Saw the touring gold-medal US women's soccer team tonight in a rusty mismatch against New Zealand. I left in the 2nd half with the score 4-0, NZ having taken only 2 shots to this point, the US missing over a dozen shots, and the stars being taken out. The event was better than the game. Best, I arrived an hour early, before most of the 16,000 or so full stadium, which reminded me of my childhood, watching warm-ups, watching the crowd arrive. In the early 50s my dad often took me to see the LA Rams play at the LA Coliseum, and we'd arrive pretty early so dad could park on the street and not mess with the lot. So we'd sit in the nearly empty stadium and watch the teams exercise, warm up, and so on, and this rhythm became part of my enjoyment of the game. But I don't do that much anymore, so it was fun to arrive early (possible only because I was alone!).
I need a good work day tomorrow since I got precious little done today.
The Plot Against America I don't often buy books, using getting them from the library, but now and again a book comes out and I can't wait. Such is the case with Philip Roth's new novel, The Plot Against America, which I just ordered and which should arrive this week. It's gotten mixed reviews but I suspect I'm going to love it. I'm a great admirer of Roth at any rate and am excited to see him trying something new, a political novel, although of course politics is imbedded in much of what he writes.
Meanwhile it's good to see John back at work on Dark Mission. I am eager to have all the orchestrated files at hand so I can go through the entire opera, imagining I were listening to it live. Which I surely hope I get to do some day. I haven't heard from anyone who has the piano score. I don't like bugging busy people but if I haven't heard by the end of year will send out some feelers, particularly concerning the possibility of a May date at the university.
Today I see the women's soccer team on their national tour. Before then, should be able to get some work done, including a return to the new libretto.
Experts are waiting for Mt. St. Helens to erupt. The second time it erupted, was that 1986?, I actually was having sex when the phone rang and a friend back east told me the mountain had blown again, and I looked out the window and could see it! We figured our lovemaking helped the energy along, ha ha.
10/03/2004 08:41:09 AM |
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Saturday, October 02, 2004 Oregon Book Awards The finalists for the Oregon Book Award have been announced. I was hoping my novel Love At Ground Zero would be selected but it wasn't. I've been a finalist three times over the years but the two works I feel most proud of were not selected. The awards game is a total crap shoot. There is no accounting for taste. That really is the first and most fundamental truism in the "business of the arts," in all its ramifications (awards, publications, productions, etc.): There is no accounting for taste. Amen.
Actually I've been a judge in a book competition before and so have even more reason to know this, ha ha. In fact, when a book I felt good about a few years ago did not get selected, I was depressed until I saw who the judge was (the OBA has the good sense to use out of state judges) -- a woman whose work I am no fan of! It made sense she would return the compliment. So you win a few, lose a lot, and keep on truckin'. Onward.
10/02/2004 02:21:04 PM |
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What people are reading The week's most accessed writings in my archive:
Friday, October 01, 2004 Ichiro! Ichiro got a hit each of his first two times at bat to set a new record at 258. He may add to it tonight and in the two remaining games. Relatives of George Sisler, who set the earlier record 84 years ago, were in the packed stands in Seattle. Ichiro got a very long standing ovation. An historical baseball evening. Looked great even on TV.
10/01/2004 08:04:27 PM |
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Motion One of those non-stop days when I don't seem to have accomplished much really, just been in constant movement, running errands, having meetings. Perhaps the most constructive thing I've done is take the dog for a run. Well, days like this happen. At least it's a beautiful day. The first week of class went well. Onward.
10/01/2004 02:17:44 PM |
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_The Writing Life