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, May 29, 2005 Back to the grind Back to school work tomorrow, for the final 10 days or so before I turn in grades. I have to go in early both days this week, first to sit in on a Masters oral, later to meet with students. Friday I have a trip to the VA for a minor operation but it requires fasting beginning Thursday. Going to be a busy unordinary week.
Got a lot of reading done today, mostly in Bloom, and in starting Hart's second novel, Sin, which early on is not as good as Damage (which the Washington Post called "a masterpiece," and I would agree).
And so the term nears its end. Lots of writing decisions to make, hence my perpetual brooding over several dramatic decisions ahead. I think I'm getting close to making them, though. If I can turn in my grades on June 9, well, then I can begin my summer and get into a routine with my several engaging projects. I feel this is going to be a great summer.
5/29/2005 08:54:00 PM |
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Coincidence? Had a lovely evening with our new friends from Michigan, dining on the river, after dinner coffee after a walk, taking the trolley back to their new downtown apartment. John's in town only a short while, then back to Michigan to work on their house, which I think he is getting ready to sell to move west. At any rate, birthdays came up -- and John and I are only a day apart. Why we get along so well? We cracked up when we learned.
Another day of reading and brooding about writing projects. Four, count 'em, short novels by Josephine Hart are ready for me to pick up at the library. Alas, it means no one has them checked out! But soon I'll have read all her long fiction that's been published, and we'll see how I like her then.
Saturday, May 28, 2005 Loss Just learned that an old friend of mine, John Basham, dropped dead this morning in his home in Port Townsend. He was 59. John and I were very close in the 60s and 70s, when we both lived in Eugene, but stayed in touch over the years. We saw a Mariners game and had dinner together last fall, the last time I'd seen him, though I talked with him on the phone a few times since then. He was diabetic and recently had a kidney transplant, so his death isn't shocking but not expected today all the same. He was a fine friend and a good country music singer. I spent many late nights in the 70s drinking his special concoction called "the Green Death." John was with me when I met Fred Ross, the logger poet, in the Unity Tavern.
5/28/2005 01:41:00 PM |
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Star Wars It takes the new Star Wars a while to get in gear with its central story but it moves quickly once it does. All the same, for my tastes the movie was too long and repetitive in its fight sequences. But the kids love it, I'm sure.
I'm reading The Lucifer Principle with great interest and doing a lot of brooding about the new mystery and changes in the road story. Next week at this time I'll be grading final projects. Not long now at all.
Tuesday, I sit on the committee for a Masters' degree oral exam. Don't do much of that, enough to enjoy it.
5/28/2005 09:05:00 AM |
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Friday, May 27, 2005 Discoveries Seems to be my moment to discover exciting new writers. No sooner did I discover Josephine Hart (and put all her novels on reserve at the library) but I heard Howard Bloom on the radio and rushed to the library for his book The Lucifer Principle. For a long time I've believed evil and war are "natural" in the human world, but I don't find the notion of Original Sin convincing at all. Bloom makes a scientific, historical and evolutionary argument for evil in a book I've only begun but which is gripping reading.
I'm going to deal with "evil" in the subtext of my new mystery, its more serious contemplation under what must be a driving suspenseful "whodunnit" narrative. To this end, I'm using Jack the Ripper mythology and fact in some fashion or other (also because Hollywood has done so much with it, and after all my hero is a Hollywood guy). This one, thus, will have more gore than the first one.
Thursday, May 26, 2005 This and that Caught up on prep work for today, so I can spend the rest of the day reading or doing chores, before going to the university. Read a good student script! Always nice to do that.
Very excited about discovering Josephine Hart and eager to read all her novels after Damage. They have great titles, like Sin and Oblivion, and all are short, my kind of stylist. This may turn out to be a great find, even a kindred soul.
Supposed to reach 90 today. I'm ready! Love the heat and get so little of it here in Puddle City. Why I've lived here for 25 years is one of life's great mysteries.
5/26/2005 10:05:00 AM |
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Kerouac's Scroll I'm considering a major plot change in my road story novel. Motivations would change. The advantage, I think, is a more suspenseful narrative; still looking for disadvantages. I'll brood about it for a couple weeks, until my grades are in, and then reevaluate the situation. It would be tricky to handle, but it might be worth it.
All my summer books are lined up -- Melville, background stuff for the mystery, background stuff for the hypertext. Reading on the deck on a fine summer afternoon! I can't wait. (I'm also going to read everything I can find by Josephine Hart.)
5/26/2005 07:41:00 AM |
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Damage This first novel by Josephine Hart, published in 1991, is a gem: dramatic, thought-provoking, disturbing, compelling. I couldn't put it down last night and finished in a few hours. It well deserves its press clippings: "a passionate, elegant, ruthless story" (Iris Murdoch), "I have read something rare." (Erica Jong).
This is the story of a man who has an obsessive, mutual affair with his son's girlfriend and finance. Here he is in bed with his wife.
And so we lay in bed. A man whose eyes could deceive a wife of nearly thirty years, and a wife who after nearly thirty years could be so deceived. Our practised movements were as pleasant as an old remembered song of long ago. But even as I surrendered to those final shudders that are all and nothing, it was, I knew, a final defeat for Ingrid in a battle she did not know she waged. And it was a triumph for Anna, who had not even fought. 'I cannot and will not do this again.' That was my last thought as Ingrid drifted dreamily to sleep in my arms.
His lover reminds him of something:
"Possibly. I warned you at the beginning. I told you to take care."
"Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive."
"Yes. You remember. You can have what you want of me forever. I want what you want. We can continue for all our lives, together. Lives can be arranged like that. If I married Martyn, think how easy it would be. We could see each other all the time. I could entwine myself around you like ivy round a tree. I recognised my ruler. The moment I saw you, I surrendered."
The lover talks of her traumatic relationship with her brother, who later commits suicide:
But young boys in their early teens cannot lie chaste for long, beside a female body. Suddenly he was erect. Such a little movement, such a fleeting caress and his semen was on my stomach. He wept. His tears ran down my breasts. I felt as though I had received some strange benediction. Semen and tears. They would always be symbols of the night for me.
The man in his bedroom at home:
We were in the bedroom. I never really thought of it as ours. Certainly I never thought of it as mine. It was the bedroom where Ingrid and I spent that time of our marriage, the room which tells the real story of a man and woman in that strange arrangement. But the story has no observers other than the participants. They must in most cases lie to themselves, and to each other. The secrets of the bedroom lie buried under layers of time and custom, children, work, dinner parties, illnesses, and the myriad other rituals and events with which we dull the pain.
His son discovers the affair and accidentally falls to his death. The man to his wife:
"Can I see Sally sometimes?"
"Of course. But ask her not to tell me."
"I will."
"I do not ask your plans. Keep them secret from me."
"I will."
"You never loved me, you know."
"No."
"Deep down I knew that. But it seemed to suit both of us at the time."
"Yes. Oh yes, it did . . . so well."
"Is this love's revenge, do you think? Its lesson? It will not be cheated."
"Perhaps."
"I'd like to find that certain kind of love too."
The man visits an old male friend of the lover, looking for her:
"My wife wished I'd died. Not lived to do this."
"But then you'd never have lived at all. Would you?"
"No."
He smiled, as he led me to the door.
"Few regret the experience."
“Do you?"
"I never had that kind of experience with Anna. Neither did Martyn. In that one way you were truly made for each other. Men and women find all sorts of ways to be together, all sorts of ways. Yours was high and dangerous. Most of us stay on the lower paths."
I cannot recommend this extraordinary novel highly enough. Compelling, dramatic, about what might be called the dark side of biology (what Norman Mailer was getting at in The Prisoner of Sex).
5/26/2005 06:19:00 AM |
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Wednesday, May 25, 2005 The sun! the sun! Into the mid-80s today, maybe 90s tomorrow, and I feel like my battery is charged! Why did I ever leave the sunshine of southern California? Well, because of the traffic. At any rate, did lawn work, sweated, having a great day.
My wife and I are having a running battle about the movie Damage with Jeremy Irons. She thinks it's about rape and disrespect for women (woman as victim). I think it's about passion and the power of lust -- and the woman in the story is hardly a victim, she's a willing participant! I got the novel on which the movie is based and was tickled pink to discover it was written by a woman. It's a short novel, might read it right away.
Got another good art submission for the review, paintings. Fun, exciting, when good stuff comes in.
Nice thank you note regarding the reading Sunday with an invitation to do it again sometime. I did have them laughing quite a bit.
I'm not doing any prep work today, going to do it all tomorrow morning. I should be able to get it done before class. I'm cooking this afternoon, my special meat loaf (beef, lamb, pork). Feeling great, thanks to the sun. I'm a sun kind of guy and dream of living in the southwest desert.
5/25/2005 02:59:00 PM |
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Reading The reading last night had a small turnout but it was great fun nonetheless, and we sold a few books and autographed more for the bookstore. The bookstore host was delightful! I love these small indie bookstores, and this one has been in its neighborhood for twenty-five years.
Now I'm more or less home free with the signings, I think. I hope the next ones I do are for the mystery.
Not too much prep work to do today. Reading to do, chores to do. Love this great weather! Not long now before summer officially begins, which is to say, with the end of school.
5/25/2005 02:38:00 AM |
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Heat spell Our very wet spring is turning dry and hot, according to the weather reports. With the weather, of course, one waits and sees. But the forecast has the temperature pushing ninety by Thursday. I'd welcome it.
One albatross removed! Finished a very rough draft of book two of the musical yesterday, enough for the composer to write songs, and we'll regroup at the end of the summer and see where we are. One more to go: my late book review. These deadlines are "loose," so it's not the end of the world, but I do want to get it off my back before school ends so I have a clean slate for all my summer projects.
Heard from Mike Hollister, author of the Hollywood trilogy, a project I like very much. The 2nd in the series, Follywood, is due out soon, and he is letting me publish an excerpt from the 3rd in the review.
So glad I got my fine copy of Moby Dick! The "classroom text" arrived yesterday and, just as I suspected, it's an edition with print so small I can barely read it with my glasses. This never would do. My instincts in getting a better edition for my old eyes were right on. And I got it, hardbound and all, for a steal. It's become, in fact, one of the prized additions to my library.
In class today we begin to watch Adaptation, a fun movie for screenwriters, so I don't have too much prep work. Will spend the morning reading.
5/24/2005 07:11:00 AM |
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Monday, May 23, 2005 Musical Going to spend the day in coffee shops with the AlphaSmart and act two of the musical and see if I can finish it. Too many household chores to do to stay here ha ha, too readily sidetracked. I need to get this done. Good weather ahead, I can catch up on chores on Wednesday and Friday.
5/23/2005 07:39:00 AM |
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Community The "Portland Reading Series" in which I participated last night is a very successful program. There have something good going here, having created a strong literary community. It's a very young crowd, almost all in their twenties, young writers and young families who bring their kids to the readings. It's not an exclusive community, or I didn't get that impression.
I was there for one reason only: the reading took place in a Portland neighborhood to which I feel special affinity because in 1967 I lived there and wrote my first short stories to get accepted by the literary magazines. This is where I became a writer, quite literally. The neighborhood was very different then, rundown and low rent, sprinkled with prostitution and after hours clubs (where you could drink bourbon in a coffee cup from 2a.m. till sunrise, where the police made their rounds and left you alone). So I arrived at the reading early to walk the neighborhood and reminisce about my writing roots.
There were seven readers and a string band scheduled for the night, which made for a longer night than I wanted. I was the third reader and left right afterwards. I'd chosen two short comic pieces because I knew they would play well, as indeed they did. The audience loved my performance. But I didn't feel like basking in glory and such. Indeed, being so much older than everyone else, and being the only one there who was not in a large group of fans and families, I felt like the odd ball out, which actually was fine since my motives for being there were so specific -- I was paying homage to the gods for their help in 1967. This done, I left.
But it was nice to see the old neighborhood in such vibrant shape, filled with young energy. Time marches on and all that. I personally haven't been a part of a literary community like that since the 1980s, in northwest Portland, when I was a playwright-in-residence, and even more so before that on the east coast at Salisbury State College (now university). Since the 80s my journey has been more that of a lone wolf, especially recently since outliving all my closest friends.
I had a great time last night. Probably one of the more memorable readings of my career. I don't give that many, but this was one of the most fun for me. Leaving afterwards was perfect, too. Literature as hit and run.
5/23/2005 07:18:00 AM |
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Sunday, May 22, 2005 Annual trip Every spring I take my annual trip to Abbott's Green Thumb, a sprawling water garden supply center in town, family owned since the 1950s, a place full of necessities, treasures, character and characters. This morning is that day. I'll get plants for my pond, mosquito protection, and maybe find a treasure like a new frog.
I haven't done anything this weekend yet to address those nagging writing chores I need to do before school ends. But I did select an assistant fiction editor, Joshua Weber, a recent MFA with good energy, who wrote a fantastic short story. Still looking for help in creative nonfiction -- and then the staff will be closed, I think. No rush for the latter, though. I have the major bases covered now.
5/22/2005 09:14:00 AM |
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Saturday, May 21, 2005 Writing roots 1967 was an important year in my writing career. The beginning. It's the year I dropped out of graduate school "to become a writer," moving to Portland for the transition. I lived in two areas in Portland during my writerly coming of age, first in a duplex on Mississippi Ave., then a black neighborhood; and later in a woodsy cabin in Multnomah Village, not far from where I live now. And tomorrow night I give a reading not far from the duplex on Mississippi! It was there I wrote my first published short stories, so the neighborhood remains special to me. It has changed hugely, of course, now undergoing "gentrification," the latest Portland neighborhood to become the "in" place to be. But some old memories remain. Only a block from the reading, at a pizza joint, is the building that was an after-hours joint. I spent many a 3a.m. there with bourbon in a coffee cup. The cops made their rounds and let it be. My major hangout The Overlook Tavern is gone but the building remains. The duplex is gone, recently, a new town house on the lot. Across the street was a whore house, which also is gone. But tomorrow will still be a trip down memory lane for me, giving a reading where I first got my chops as a writer.
5/21/2005 09:45:00 AM |
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Friday, May 20, 2005 Resurrecting old material As noted here a month or two ago, I resurrected and finished an old screenplay, The Wrong Life, which is "resting" now before I look at it before a final rewrite (I hope). I found another "first half" of a screenplay that I like, working title Hitler's Blue Movie, inspired by my adventures as a Russian linguist during the Cold War. A part of the plot would mesh easily with my road story -- and it would crank up the adventure quite a bit. This is a "male friendship" story along the lines of On the Road (hence my title, Kerouac's Scroll), and I have two "surprises" that drive the plot but this other might be just what I need for book three (of three) of my structure. I'm going to try it out. And go on and finish the screenplay, too. I'd like to finish three or four screenplays in the next twelve months. Shouldn't be a problem unless the stories get stuck.
Today I am devoting to myself, relaxing and reading, maybe a little writing, before I get serious about these two nagging things I should finish this weekend. Library opens at ten and I have a pile of books to pick up, research for the new mystery and for the Tchaikovsky hypertext I'll start this summer as well. Man, it looks like a great summer!
5/20/2005 08:46:00 AM |
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Thursday, May 19, 2005 Office hours I have a "clear" weekend in which to catch up on some stuff -- the book review, the musical -- both can be finished this weekend if I put my mind to it. And I need to! Because then they will be out of my hair with only two weeks to go, a free summer ahead.
Otherwise, I seem to be in my end-of-the-term funk. Fall schedules are out, and I have a job ha ha. Wonder how much longer I'll teach.
5/19/2005 02:57:00 PM |
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Celebration Last evening's gathering and celebration of the anthology were quite nice. It was held in a wonderful French bakery, 10 of the 13 live contributors were there, and I got to visit with writers I haven't seen in person in years. And the turnout was quite good. And we sold and signed some books. So the publisher was happy. And the writers were happy, too.
5/19/2005 07:42:00 AM |
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Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Swamped I'm caught up on student work, thanks to a busy morning, but only for a few hours -- this afternoon I pick up the last draft of their script projects before they turn them in for a grade in two weeks. Tomorrow, then, is a busy day reading them. I also have the anthology "party" and signing tomorrow, 4-7; a reading the following Sunday; a solo signing the following Tuesday. Then I buckle down for finals, after which the summer begins. Not long now.
Didn't get the fiction editor I'd hoped for. She can't make the commitment. So I'm still looking and will handle it myself in the meantime.
A few hours at hand, plan to spend them with Melville. Today in class we watch The Monster That Ate Hollywood.
5/17/2005 11:38:00 AM |
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Monday, May 16, 2005 And so we begin ... The signed contract and the corrected manuscript are off to Eric, my new agent, and I feel like a new era of opportunity has begun, what with the review coming together and now the mystery series very much alive and possible. With regard to the latter, all I can do is write another and do my best to make it better than the first. And another after that, etc. I am hoping we have three years (the first year plus the automatic two-year renewal) to get this mystery series off the ground -- that's a really good shot at it. I'll do my best to make it work, and I feel confidant that Eric will do his. I'm feeling damn good about my relationship with him. I want to justify his faith in this series.
Lots of school stuff to do in these remaining weeks, of course. I really look forward to the summer, so many fine projects in the works. Onward.
5/16/2005 03:04:00 PM |
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Hollywood and Seattle Today In Literature begins with another tale of literary immortality risen from failure:
On this day in 1939 Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust was published. Although now ranked with F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon as one of the best novels about Hollywood, and on the Modern Library's Top 100 of the century list, The Day of the Locust had mixed reviews when it came out and was a commercial flop. (As was Miss Lonelyhearts and West's other two novels: in his only decade of writing -- he died in a car crash on December 22, 1940, at the age of 37 -- West made $1,280 from his books.)
The second book of Mike Hollister's Hollywood Trilogy, of which I thus far am very fond, is due out soon. I solicited excerpts from the final book for the review.
Yesterday we hopped an alumni bus and took the three-hour trip to Seattle to watch the Mariners beat the Red Sox 5-4 in an exciting game -- and the first time we've seen the home team win! On the trips to and fro, my mind was wrestling with the first paragraph of the new mystery. I finally have something close. Four or five hours on a few opening sentences! I never do this as a screenwriter unless it's over a story point, but never about rhetoric.
Today I hope to spend most of the day preparing a clean copy of the mystery for the agent. Maybe I can get it in the mail tomorrow.
5/16/2005 06:26:00 AM |
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Sunday, May 15, 2005 Long haul My contract with the agent is for a year, which automatically renews for two more years if neither of us steps out of it. So let's assume at least a three-year relationship. That gives me lots of room to get things to him, not only at least two more in the mystery series but the road story novel, to see what he thinks of it. This is the best opportunity I've had for a while to sneak out of the literary margins.
5/15/2005 06:32:00 AM |
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Saturday, May 14, 2005 New York calling Got a good start on act two of the musical, about half of it scripted when I was interrupted with special delivery from my new agent in NY, my manuscript with minor changes to make, reprint, and return so he can start marketing; along with two copies of the contract, one to sign and return. I'll try and get the ms back to him early in the week.
Feels damn good to be off and running with the mystery. Interesting how things turn out. Of course, we still need more favors from the gods, but my agent's enthusiasm for the book and the series is nice to witness. I know he'll do his best.
5/14/2005 03:41:00 PM |
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The musical Going to spend the day with the musical and see if I can get all or most of the book for act two done.
I have someone interested in being fiction editor for the review -- if I can get her, we'll have another top name on the masthead. Hope we can. Then I need a creative nonfiction editor, and we'll be done. I'm leaving for myself only scripts, hypertext and hypermedia.
5/14/2005 07:08:00 AM |
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Friday, May 13, 2005 Reading I don't do readings very often but an opportunity dropped in my lap and I took it, for several reasons: to see what it feels like since it's been a while; and because it's a younger crowd. The event is Sunday, May 22, at 6:30pm at the Mississippi Pizza Pub in Portland, and I plan to read two short humorous pieces, which usually play well: Meeting Nicole Kidman and Advice to an Artist on Choosing a Wife.
May 18th is the anthology party and May 24th I sign books at Annie Bloom's Books in Multnomah Village. And then I can begin my summer reclusion ha ha.
5/13/2005 11:04:00 AM |
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Thursday, May 12, 2005 Dead Body In A Small Room I've been playing this close to the vest while I marketed it. Now that I've got an agent representing it, I feel secure in sharing more about it.
The protagonist is Dallas Norgood, a successful Hollywood screenwriter who narrowly survives a bout with cancer and so is determined to create a less stressful life for himself. To this end, he moves to Sogobia, a small desert town in northern Nevada, where his sister and only family is a cop. Sogobia has legal prostitution.
In this first book, Dallas gets involved in the apparent suicide of Brooke, one of the working girls. Her mother insists that the suicide note was not in her daughter's writing, that it was murder. Dallas, who's been thinking of writing a book about brothel culture (book author as a new career), looks into Brooke's death and the more he looks, the more it looks like murder. His investigation takes him into an eastern religious cult in Oregon, where Brooke had spent some time, and into local Basque culture, her former lover (and the father of her aborted baby) being a Basque revolutionary-in-hiding. Then the FBI comes onto the scene with an agenda of its own.
Along the way, Dallas moves between his regular hooker at the local brothel and Cheyenne, the woman who has the janitorial service there ("Mop Around the Clock") and in whom he has romantic interest. The two threads of suspects come together when Cheyenne is taken hostage by Spanish loyalists and offered in exchange for her brother, the Basque revolutionary. Dallas finds himself smack in the middle of a showdown at Butch Cassidy Days, a festival in nearby Winnemucca.
But the true circumstances of Brooke's death reveal themselves only after Cheyenne is rescued -- in a twist that Dallas doesn't see coming.
A "gimmick" in the book is how Dallas resolves the mystery: by writing what he thinks happened out as a screenplay, a film in his head, watching in his mind how it plays. I think I'll use this device throughout, showing the actual screenplay pages as I do in this first one. He works it out the same way he works out story problems in a fiction, in other words. Then he has to test it, prove it in the marketplace so to speak.
It was great fun writing this because it is first person, in the voice of a screenwriter who is more or less yours truly. That's why the agent pissed me off who said, Love the story but dislike the hero. I took it personally ha ha.
5/12/2005 12:56:00 PM |
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Full plate My summer plate is really full, what with a second mystery novel to write now. But it's important to do obviously, so if some more "serious" work gets delayed, that's the breaks. But I think I can do most of what I have set out to do. I don't need to finish the road novel, that's what I can push back a tad. Before summer, though, I need to get two monkeys off my back, act two of the musical and the overdue book review (of four books).
Mike Hollister, who is writing a fiction trilogy about Hollywood, the first novel of which I praised here, the second due out in a few weeks, is going to send me excerpts from the final novel for the review. I admire his work and am really looking forward to this. (I solicited it.)
Going to read a bit in Melville before going to school today. We're in the marketing part of my screenwriting class, so I can share some of my adventures with them, including the new signing with the agent. Although the screenwriting and fiction marketing worlds have many differences, they share some things, too. Agents are more essential for a beginning novelist than for a beginning screenwriter, for example.
This weekend I am going to see if I can 1. finish the book review and 2. draft act two of the musical. If I could accomplish those two things, great relief would result. These are the only projects bugging me right now. All the rest is great fun.
I fiddled around with a structure for the new mystery in Storyspace this morning. It's like using a story board. I have a basic concept but no plot, which is what I started developing. In the first one, the "villain" changed three times while I was writing it! I give myself lots of rope, letting things change along the way. Still, the draft of the novel of very close, more than is usual for me.
Such a wide variety of opinion from the agents who saw this! One loved the story but disliked the hero. One liked the hero but disliked the story. Some really didn't say anything specific in their rejections. So you get five rejections in a row ... and then #6 calls you past midnight his time, all full of enthusiasm and ready to roll with it. You can't figure any of this out, you'd go crazy. What writers need to learn is not to get discouraged by bad news but also not to believe your press clippings when they are good. Just keep doing your work. Let all the rest take care of itself. You have to "do it," that is, you have to market in order to have what opportunities may come your way, but you can't take it too seriously, it seems to me, or you'd go crazy. You can't figure any of this out. Why does one agent like the hero but not the story and the other the other way around? Who the hell knows? But the point is, Who the hell cares? They're just folks with opinions, presumably dictated with a clear sense of what they think they can sell. They don't make any money unless they sell your work. So they have to believe they can do it to take you on, it seems to me. (Disregarding the scam agents here, who want upfront money from you to support them and have no marketing skills at all.) Spieler, the agency, is a tad high brow by the list of books they've sold, a lot of high brow nonfiction in science, for example, and I very much like that in them. I'm a high brow guy ha ha.
The contract for the mystery, however, in no way has dampened my enthusiasm for starting the review. My heart of hearts is still there.
5/12/2005 11:42:00 AM |
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Changes, once again Just when I'd more or less given up on placing my recent mystery, I get a call last night, past midnight NYC time, from an agent who had asked for the manuscript -- and he wants to represent it. The Spieler Agency, reputable, track record, etc. Announcing it in his staff meeting today, sending me a contract, requests minor fixes in the manuscript. Had one question: "Can you write one novel in the series a year?" He's realistic regarding the marketplace, selling it not a piece of cake, but he's behind it. So we're off on yet another new adventure.
Funny how these things work out. The rejections had discouraged me, I suppose (though I should know better). All it takes is one agent behind it. And now one editor ...
5/12/2005 05:34:00 AM |
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Wednesday, May 11, 2005 Hypertext This morning I wrote the first page -- in this context, story space is the better term -- of my summer hypertext. The story strategy is this: story spaces that equal one computer screen, no more, no scrolling required. The spine is the story of the last day or few days in the life of the protagonist. Each story space has phrases that link to various back story elements, filling in the biography and drama. Within all this, embedded music links (the protagonist is a composer). I think it will work. It also will have a very clean appearance, which I like -- great simplicity on the surface, great complexity layered underneath. I have considerable research to do and have ordered some hard to get books to begin. About a year ago, when I first thought of this project as a traditional novel, I found an out-of-print book that will be very helpful here. This is going to be a challenging project but quite good if I can pull it off. I'm excited about it! Onward.
5/11/2005 09:35:00 AM |
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005 Office hrs. Been looking for a hypertext project for the summer. Have one idea, which would require a ton of research in the Oregon Historical Society. I may or may not do it ... probably see how hard it would be to find what I need. Today another idea came to me, fictional based on biography, which would not require as much research and also have a broader audience -- ideally, I'd like to write a hypertext I can submit to Eastgate, the top place to be. I could embed a sound track with this one, since it has musical subject matter, and I've asked John if he'd be up to writing an original piano score for it. We'll see what happens.
Meanwhile I'm looking for a fiction editor for the review to handle prose -- I'll handle scripts and hypertext myself. I was thinking of doing it all but I think that would be too much. And I'd love to get a fiction writer with a solid reputation attached. I sent out a few feelers to my first choices here in Oregon. Again, we'll see what happens.
More and more, I suspect Kerouac's Scroll may be my last "linear" novel. My juices for hypertext are stirring again, and I don't have time to do everything any more. I have to be very selective in the projects I take on. The review is going to take lots of time but I consider it time well spent. The timing is perfect for this -- both in my own rhythm, and in the literary community. Although the review is not "regional", it is going to be important regionally, I think. The first issue is going to have to cause a stir, and thus far I am getting the material to do just this. The range, the quality, the quantity, all need to be there.
Monday, May 09, 2005 The $5 Bible Here's the wonderful edition of Moby Dick I found at Powells bookstore. Easy to read, hefty to handle as befits the bible of American literature. I'm enjoying this re-reading of the classic more than any before (which enjoyment was considerable). 5/09/2005 07:01:39 PM |
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Rainy Monday Off to see Crash for the 2nd time. Did a little writing this morning and a little reading in Moby Dick, enjoying this wonderful book more than ever. I had forgotten how funny it is.
5/09/2005 11:00:00 AM |
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Sunday, May 08, 2005 Moby Dick I signed up for a six-week course on the Melville classic, starting in mid-June. It's not a university class but sponsored by Literary Arts, the same outfit that hands out the Oregon Book Awards, as a kind of pilot project. I'm taking it to refresh my familiarity with an old favorite but also to snoop on how the class works in case I want to propose one down the line. Also I might meet some interesting people. To this end, I went to Powells Books, our world-class bookstore, to see if I could find an edition easier for my old eyes to read than the edition on my shelf. To my shock and joy I found a 2004 Castle hardback, looking like a Bible (most appropriately), with easy to read type, not a mark on it -- for five dollars and fifty cents! A paperback adjacent to it was twice that, although there were one dollar used paperbacks as well, all with the usual small print for student eyes. There was only one copy of this gem, this bible, so I snatched it up -- and now I have a hefty book that's completely readable I can haul around and fancy myself a preacher of literature.
5/08/2005 12:53:00 PM |
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Reading screenplays Just reread after a few years Jeremiah Rickert's screenplay adaptation of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, and it's good work. Jeremiah's a former student whom I selected to be assistant editor of the journal. I want to use his screenplay in the "Editors' Showcase" section. Indeed, publishing good screenplays that are hard to market is one of my main goals for Oregon Literary Review, in this way hoping to develop a readership for them. Only screenwriters read screenplays presently but this should change. Screenplays are perfect for readers in today's rush of a world, with the scope of a novel and the word length of a long short story. Maybe by making them available more readers will look at them. I'll also be looking at another former student's script, an adaptation of Kate Chopin's The Awakening, which was optioned. I hope to give screenplays more literary respect than they have today.
CBS' Sunday Morning had a piece on mom rock bands, "rocker soccer moms," and it brought back memories of a regional hit twenty years ago, the musical play Angry Housewives. Today mom bands are singing "Eat your spaghetti!" -- then it was "Eat your fucking cornflakes!" I started a sequel to Angry Housewives I never finished called Happy Househusbands, yet another example of a good commercial idea losing my interest. I need to write these "pop" things quickly before I get as bored with my own writing as I am with virtually all of pop culture ha ha.
5/08/2005 11:30:00 AM |
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Evolution Spent the morning out and about with the AlphaSmart, getting a few pages done on the novel along the way. It's evolving nicely. In fact, this is more fun than a first draft usually is for me, perhaps because the material is so personal and autobiographical. Most of my decisions are about structure, what order to present the material in. I think my three part division -- Eros, Fidelia, Agapé -- is going to work. It's at root a love story, a paean to male friendship, hence the Kerouac connection. At any rate, I continue to be surprised, but also delighted, with the material.
A mellow day before it gets crazy at school. Hope to read a submitted screenplay today, make a decision on it. Going to love this editorial job.
5/08/2005 09:25:00 AM |
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Saturday, May 07, 2005 Screenwriting articles I added six old articles written for Creative Screenwriting magazine to my archive. They are:
Nixon: A Symphonic Tragedy
The Rhetoric of Action
The Screenplays of Quentin Tarantino
The Los Angelisation of Raymond Carver (Short Cuts)
Fine-tuning Villainy: Salieri's Journey from Stage to Screen (Amadeus)
Electronic poetry Found two first rate critics/poets to write introductory essays on ][mez][, one in Germany, one at the Univ. of Buffalo's Electronic Poetry Center. Also going to republish Max Eastman's infamous "The Cult of Unintelligibility," which states the "traditionalist" position regarding avant-garde art forms. Eastman was talking about Gertrude Stein, cummings, Joyce, etc. but the identical argument is made against the electronic poets by those who view their work as gibberish. We're already getting some established names into this. I thought we might have to build credibility with a few issues, but this seems to be filling a vacuum or something. At any rate, folks are jumping aboard rather readily.
5/07/2005 02:06:00 PM |
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Ultimate compliment Thinking of seeing Crash again this afternoon, I liked all but the last ten minutes that much. Meanwhile, a busy morning, catching up on yard work and then some editorial chores. So far I've accepted two short screenplays, one short stage play, a selection of code-poetry, a digital literary art excerpt, and a selection of digital dot photography. And we don't officially accept submissions until June 1 ha ha. All the editors are up to speed except my music editor. Already the issue's possibilities begin to reveal themselves. We'll post a "sneak preview" in the fall, after school starts, and the final edition Jan 1, adding to it for two months before pushing submissions forward to the July issue. We'll see how that rhythm works out. I can see that the worst thing to happen would be to get few submissions but judging by the early response, this shouldn't be a problem. We also can be overwhelmed without the manpower to handle them all. I have no idea what will happen. I suppose that is part of the fun.
5/07/2005 12:14:00 PM |
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Friday, May 06, 2005 Crash I loved this movie -- until the last ten minutes. Dark, intense, engaging despite its episodic structure without the usual clear "beginning, middle, end" narrative parts, it only disappointed me with its ending. Here the movie turns to the latest fad in TV drama resolution, the pop song. In drama after drama on the tube, the closing moments are "visually" told but the images are superimposed with obvious pop lyrics, dumbing down the communication. The movie does the same, and for this I will never forgive it because a near classic was in the making. The movie's intensity is so great that my wife had to leave after the first 20 or 30 minutes, unable to take it. I loved it. Roger Ebert's review in yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times pretty much summarizes my response to it:
BY ROGER EBERT / May 5, 2005
Chicago Sun-Times
"Crash" tells interlocking stories of whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, cops and criminals, the rich and the poor, the powerful and powerless, all defined in one way or another by racism. All are victims of it, and all are guilty it. Sometimes, yes, they rise above it, although it is never that simple. Their negative impulses may be instinctive, their positive impulses may be dangerous, and who knows what the other person is thinking?
The result is a movie of intense fascination; we understand quickly enough who the characters are and what their lives are like, but we have no idea how they will behave, because so much depends on accident. Most movies enact rituals; we know the form and watch for variations. "Crash" is a movie with free will, and anything can happen. Because we care about the characters, the movie is uncanny in its ability to rope us in and get us involved.
Cutting edge Received a submission from Australian code-poet or "webwurker" who writes under the byline ][mez][, a woman with a solid international reputation in the esoteric circles in which she works, and I definitely plan to include her. Worked this morning on my introduction to her section. I'm looking for someone more knowledgeable than I to write an essay introducing her work. Then I'll feature two pieces: her explanation of the special language in which she works, using computer coding symbols as well as letters to form "words"; and selections from her current work. This is the kind of "cutting edge" stuff I hoped to attract, while also publishing traditional work side-by-side. Should be interesting! I'm a tad blown away to get a submission from Australia so soon and from someone so well respected in her narrow field.
5/06/2005 10:53:00 AM |
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Thursday, May 05, 2005 Back in the groove Got 1000 words done on Kerouac's Scroll during my office hours. Picked up on it very quickly. Now off to class.
5/05/2005 04:06:00 PM |
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Busy, busy I was so busy yesterday I never got here. Some of it was the last month of the term "crunch time" but I've also been doing a ton of work setting up the review. It may be in the right place at the right time -- at any rate, excitement is high and submissions are trickling in, and I've already accepted a few pieces.
This weekend I have to take some time to take care of the new monkeys on my back, in particular the book review and the musical. I have to get the book review out by Monday. I have to script act two of the musical before school ends so I don't have to deal with it through the summer.
All this done, I need to get writing! I've been being the editor, not the writer, these past days. But it's okay, this is a very exciting project. I'm getting a "look" I like. I do not want a fancy corporate-looking site but a simple literary journal looking site. I want the content to wow folks, not the "look." I also dislike busy art as much as I dislike busy writing. All the same, I've accepted some "busy" literary art I found interesting. The contents of the review will be wider than my own personal tastes.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005 I needed that (I think) I've written here before about giving up my power mower for a reel one, the kind you push along, which makes such a pleasant sound. I always think of Our Town because they usually use it as a sound effect. At any rate, with so much rain, the lawn was very long and with a sun break today, and more rain on the way, I figured today was the day to get it done. Usually I take two days to do our large, hilly lot but with some breaks I got it done late this morning. I was tempted to haul out the power machine but stuck to my principles. It was a tough chore with the push mower but the exercise was great and certainly sped up my slow heart ha ha.
Another talented faculty member has asked how he can participate in the review. We'll meet to discuss this and also to discuss the expansion of the film studies program, which he heads, and how screenwriting fits into that. So much going on!
I haven't done any writing lately and very much need to. Soon, soon!
Another agent asked for pages of the mystery, another passed. Only two left of the original seven. My heart really isn't in this project any more. One of my readers, however, just turned in her report and very much liked it (shouldn't have any problem publishing it, she said, not knowing how tough the marketplace actually is). I'll probably make a PDF and put it in my archive.
Caught up A very long weekend preparing for the Sideways viewing and discussion in class, which begins today. Now I can catch up on writing projects.
Front burner: Kerouac's Scroll, the road story novel. Over 100 pages into it now. Going okay for a first draft. This may be my last "book" for a while as traditionally defined. New energy for hypertext and editing the journal.
Back burner #1: the collaborative screenplay.
Back burner #2: a new hypertext based on the Bedrooms & Bars story, changed a bit. Same characters and back story, different ending. I got the new update Storyspace 2 For Windows, an extraordinary hypertext writing tool, and I'm eager to put some mileage on it. I also have an idea for a non-fiction hypertext project, hypertext journalism really, which I've never done before, using both historic and new photos I'd take myself. This would be a good summer project.
Necessary chores: the book review! It's a tad late. This weekend, I hope. And I just volunteered to be the screenwriting judge for the competition sponsored by the Pacific NW Writers Assoc., picking three winners from the ten finalists.
On the downhill side of my university class with the "free" summer ahead of me. Fall I get to use my new screenwriting textbook for the first time.
Some really nice positive feedback on starting Oregon Literary Review. A writer of digital literary art, who is a visiting professor here, delighted to find a friendly journal for his work, and I already accepted a short piece that links to a longer piece. The former publisher of Arrowood Books, which published Christmas at the Juniper Tavern, sent good wishes. Hadn't heard from him in over ten years. We are getting some attention early on, which is good. I think it's entirely possible we could make a name for ourselves. All depends on the quality of the work. High standards and all that.
I also accepted two short screenplays from a former student that placed 2nd and 3rd in a competition -- I solicited them (a former student). Also looking at an adaptation to film of Winesburg, Ohio.
Monday, May 02, 2005 Sideways Finally finished a huge project for school I've been working on, a comparison chart of the three versions of Sideways, novel, screenplay, film. Here is Sideways: novel, script, film.
Already made the first official acceptances for Oregon Literary Review, two award-winning short screenplays by Lisa Frank and a digital literary art journal by Joel Weishaus. Also waiting for an animation I think I'll use. We're off and running, and we haven't even officially opened yet.
5/02/2005 06:38:00 PM |
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Sunday, May 01, 2005 Focus Didn't get done yesterday what I needed to get done for school. Too much time fiddling with the new journal! So today, twice as much to do.
Lunch yesterday was great. It was with the 20 year-old son of an old girl friend, who wants to be a writer and/or actor, wanted to pick my brain before starting college in Seattle, a great young man. He's been living on his own since he was 18, most recently in Bali. International interests. I told him he sounded like he might make a good documentary film maker. I also told him not to rush, that I didn't take writing seriously myself until I was almost 30, that my majors as an undergraduate were, in order, Mathematics, Philosophy and History before I graduated with a degree in English, and in graduate school I first was on a Ph.D. program in American Literature (Melville), then an MFA program in fiction, before finally getting an MFA in playwriting. For a writer, "it's all material."
5/01/2005 03:34:00 AM |
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_The Writing Life