When is it time to give in

and change my protagonist to a nicer person. Problem is-it makes her more generic. But three agents have all found her unlikable so I have to consider changing her before I send it out to anyone else. Why do we want to like our protags? We've been down this route before on this blog but if three agents said the same thing, would you change it?

The Burnt Orange Heresy

is about an up and coming art critic who is offered (by a rich patron) the chance to interview a reclusive French artist whose entire work may have perished in a fire. The catch is: he must steal one of the paintings in exchange for the opportunity to interview the artist. The deal is made on a handshake.

Now right here, and I'm only on page 35, I am incredulous that Willeford can make me believe this rising art critic is willing to steal a painting for the sake of an inteview. In many books, I would stop reading right there, thinking the whole concept is bullshit and the writer isn't giving us a realistic character. Who would risk imprisonment for an interview at the start of a promising career. But I am reading on, betting Willeford will pull it off. He'll find a way to make this credible. He's playing with the reader. I think this because I have read four of his books I trust him and his ability by now.

Do you ever put a book down because the concept or setup doesn't seem plausible or do you usually assume the writer will make it work by the end? Do you ever write your way into such a quagmire?

The Nod

Three months ago, we were excited over the Democratic Primary. We said, how could we lose with so many good candidates to choose from.

But something's happened, and now it seems possible that no matter which candidate gets chosen they'll lose because we've let the genie out of the bottle: the genie being that a candidate can perceive their candidacy as more important than seeing the Democrats take the White House.

Voters are doing this too, saying, "I'll vote for McCain rather than Obama or rather than Hillary." Severe animosity has replaced excitement.

An underground campaign, emanating perhaps from Republicans perhaps from other quarters, is tagging Obama as a secret Muslim, someone who would favor African-Americans. I've heard this several times in the last week.

Also attacks coming from both sides are beginning to take their toll on both candidates. The eventual candidate is going to have a very short time to turn this around if this drags on until August. Find a way to end this process by June. Approach each candidate about negative advertising.

We must find away to stop this. Surely anything is better than electing someone who seems the war as a hundred-year deal.

What ideas do you have about saving the White House?

My Town Monday: Borders Bookstore-the original

My Town Monday

Back in the seventies when we wanted a book in the Detroit area, there were not many good bookstores to choose from. Daltons and Waldenbooks were likely to have best sellers, some classics, and a small selection of other books. There were a few independent stores and although their stock might be more eclectic, it was no more reliable and often the book you wanted had to be ordered. There were some decent used bookstores that were fun and cheap but there was never any guarantee you’d find what you wanted. Locating a book two years old was often a problem: too old for the new stores, not old enough for the used bookstores.

But if we had a little time on our hands, we could drive to Ann Arbor, an hour away, and visit Borders, named for the family who operated it, an exceptional bookstore that even carried university press books for my husband. It was like a trip to heaven for the Abbott family, a whole day affair, something truly special. And for 20 years, it was a single store that was packed night and day with University of Michigan students and professors, townspeople and visitors like us. Often you waited in line twenty minutes or more to buy your books---and it was just books then: No coffee mugs, no music, no toys or games. Borders was known for requiring their clerks to pass a stiff test and treating their employees well. They weren't as cultish as the staff at Trader Joes' but close.

And then came the nineties and a buyout from Kmart, stock options and eventually there were 1100 Borders competing with even more Barnes and Nobles bookstores and Amazon and Powell online and a public that didn’t read very much. And those online stores sold used books at a quarter of the price.

I was skeptical that the public who read books really needed a megabookstore within five miles of their home. Donuts, yes, Coffee, yes, drugstores yes. But books? Right from the start, they looked too empty to sustain their size and inventory. But I crossed my fingers.

Now it appears Borders days are numbered. The store on our corner is likely to close because there is a Barnes & Noble within three miles. I am sad about this. Maybe a new independent bookstore will eventually open in Ann Arbor. Oh, yes it’s already there and called Shaman Drumm. Maybe we’ll drive there again to get our books. But probably we’ll order them online. You can’t go home again and with the price of gas…

For more posts about My Town Monday acorss the globe, see the blog of creator, Travis Erwin http://traviserwin.blogspot.com/

The TBR Pile

How do you decide what to read next? What comes into consideration? Having just finished Christine Falls, a book I liked as a novel but not as much as a crime novel, I don't want to pitch headlong into something too similar. Having just finished The Wire, I don't want to read something about urban decay.
These are the top three books on my TBR pile. Well, Lush Life wasn't up there but it's a library book and I only have two weeks to read it. I've started the Chabon book three times and something puts me off each time--even though I liked The Wonder Boys and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. The Willeford book has extremely small print which can also put me off. But I love his books and would probably force my eyes through it.
Maybe I'll just read blogs. Oh, yeah, that's one reason why people aren't reading books anymore so I'd better make a choice.

Yesterday's Lessons

Yesterday two African-American men brought me to tears and strangely enough their messages had a common theme--something I'd never considered before.

The first man, of course, was Barack Obama, who made one of the most lucid, carefully considered, meaningful speeches on race I've ever heard.

The second man, was a character on IN TREATMENT, the bereaved father of a suicide victim. In thirty minutes, the actor Glen Turman brought this man and his issues, grievances, and sadness to life.

This is where there narratives converged. Both the fictional character and the very real Obama made it clear that the generation of black men who grew up in the forties and fifties were very different from the generation that followed. These men had almost no hope that avenues for success would ever open to them. This hopelessness made them harder and more bitter than those who would follow, and rightly so. Thus ministers from that generation might read America differently than some of their parishioners.

Their sons--in the sixties and seventies had some reason to hope for more-as Obama pointed out, he's the prime example of it--a candidate for President. Racism is still a huge problem but we recognize its existence now and can work to change it.

You can find Obama's speech on MSNBC if you missed it.

Setting

I've been wanting to set a story in an indoor pool for a long time. To me, indoor pools are very sinisters places. They look strange: the wavering water casts shadows on the tiled walls. They smell strange: all that chlorine can't escape like it does outside. They feel strange: slimey and rough at the same time. They sound strange: sounds seems to bounce off every surface. They taste strange: the chemicals and humidity choke me.

But maybe indoors pools wouldn't freak you out in a story at all. Maybe you grew up on them and it's fruit cellars or animals dressed like humans that scares you.
What motiff or setting do you want to use because it's scary or sinister to you?

My Town Monday-Part Deux

Okay, here's a better Monday story.

A.J's Cafe in Ferndale, Michigan is attempting to set a record by singing "Danny Boy" for fifty straight hours. Hundreds of people have signed on for this task, backed up by instruments as varied as kazoons, guitars and organs.

This song has special meaning to A.J. O'Neill (on the left) who last sang it as his father's funeral. The fifty hours will finish today at five.

One elderly woman, on hearing it sung for several hours and perhaps a bit tipsy, asked. "Does nobody here know 'When Irish Eyes are Smiling?"

My Town Monday

And yes, I know it's Sunday but Mondays are a bad day for me to spend time on my blog. There's that thing called work I go to sometimes.
As often as I find frustration with being in Detroit, I also find areas where I am lucky to live where I do. For instance, we have four venues for independent and art house movies within forty minutes from us. It's a rare film we don't have a chance to see and I know that's not true for everyone out there.
Most of the audience at these art houses are over fifty--well, really over sixty so the future of these films in Detroit concerns me but for the moment, I am very satisfied. When we arrived here in the seventies, it was considerably harder to find these films except at the Detroit Film Theater, part of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
We see at least one movie a week at a theater. Seeing them at home on DVD is far less satisfying to us. I need the smell of popcorn and sticky floors to be transported. I could do without the people talking behind us but...
How does your town measure up for foreign and independent movies?

Home Again, Jiggedy Jig

Being in a place like this, makes returning to














a place like this awfully hard.
Not that I'm not grateful for the brief respite.

More later, but you Florida people are pretty darned lucky.

Being in a place like this: Makes returning to this hard.

My Town Monday

It isn't my town but I can pretend it is for a bit.
The fifty degree improvement in temps is pretty enticing. Stay well.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

I know saying one more good thing about this show is like dropping a pebble in the ocean, but I think it's one of the best shows ever done for television. I just learned a third season is going to be financed by NBC and Direct TV.
If you haven't given it a try, do. It's not just about football or even mostly about football. It's about life in a small Texas town, good and bad parenting, the stigma of being poor or black, paraplegic culture, what it's like to be a teenager, what it's like to be a friend. The production values are superior, the acting sublime, the writing superlative. And if you haven't given it a good try, please do. You're truly missing something.

SPRING BREAK

And if anyone knows of any fabulous restaurants or sites in the Keys or Miami, let me know. And it better be spring in Michigan by the time we return.

(Hey, we're gonna meet Vicki Hendricks. My husband's REALLY looking forward to that.)

Have a great week.

Artwork by Pat Dosine.

Margaret Selzer et al

I'm trying to come to an understanding of why writers like Margaret Seltzer, James Frey and the rest of the growing number attempt to dupe the reading public. Do market demands value a memo over a novel to this degree? Or is there a pathology at work with these writers? Is it just more fun to become the character in your work? Is the game afoot from the beginning or at some point, do they begin to see either a monetary,a personal or psychological advantage in turning a novel into a memoir?

Clearly Ms. Seltzer went to a lot of trouble, coming up with collateral witnesses to boost her deception. Yet wouldn't any sane person realize that such claims were just too far from the truth not to be invalidated. And by a sister who didn't want the family name besmirched. Did she want to be caught? What do you think?

POV

Is it always clear to you what POV to use in a story? I usually use the third person limited POV. I like the slightly more distant and atmospheric setting you can create with this approach.
First person is good for getting inside someone'e head but you're limited, I think, in describing anything more than what the "I" can see in front of him. It requires a very dynamic "I" like Ken Bruen's creation of Jack Taylor to pull it off.
And the third-person omniscient POV is just too remote for me. Those long shots can be fuzzy.
Much like in film I like the middle-range shots.
But every once in a while, I'll find a story isn't working from my preferred vantage, shift to first person and suddenly things fall into place. What about you? What do you like to read/write?

My Town Monday

Detroit's Eastern Market

The Eastern Market is one of the few places in the racially divided city of Detroit where people come together on a weekly basis.

Every city of any size has one: Reading Terminal in Philly, the Farmer’s Market in LA , the Union Square Market in Manhattan. In Detroit, it’s called the Eastern Market and it’s a permanent group of retail and wholesale structures with the outdoor component offered on Saturdays. This is our version.

Detroit's Eastern Market (1891) is the largest historic public market district in the United States. Every Saturday, Michigan's market attracts more than 100 farmers and vendors from Michigan, Ohio, and Canada selling fruits, vegetables, breads, baked goods, jellies, jams, honey, apple cider, cheeses, spices, herbs, plants and flowers. Flower days in mid May are incredible with acres of flowers to choose from. At Christmas, Michigan’s many tree farms sell their wares.

More than 26,000 Detroiters, suburbanites and tourists shop here most weeks during the spring, summer and fall. The prices are outstanding as is the selection. But the experience is even more exhilarating.

Right now the Eastern Market District has made plans to revitalize itself. The district would like to be more than a once a week destination for veggies shoppers. To see the plans, go to

http://www.detroiteasternmarket.com/

Do you have a market like this in your town?

Kevin at Fifteen Months.

Kevin Louis Abbott at fifteen months. I don't know what the thing with wearing the hat all the time is cause he's got hair under there but we couldn't get it off of him.

Hate to Write a "Me" blog entry

but I am feeling somewhat frustrated by where to go next. Can I really keep turning out stories that most of the zines that are active right now don't quite like. Almost all of them want a fairly high-degree of violence and bedlam in their stories. You only have to look at the names of the zines to see this.

I love to write stories where a crime takes place or where the protagonist is a marginal character but I can't always amph up the action to the necessary degree. Sometimes it's about what's going on behind the scenes or in the guy's head that interests me. This is not complaint about any of the zines. Most have published a story of mine along the way and I am very grateful. This is my purely my frustration with what to do next.

I could start a second novel, but until I hear from more than one agent who's read it, this seems premature. Maybe I don't have what it takes to write a novel. Better to find out before starting another one. And how long should I expect an agent to keep it? One has had it for five weeks. At this rate, I will 107 before I go through the list.

I could return to writing literary fiction. I just had a story published in Bayou Magazine. As far as I know, no one will ever read it there though because it's in print. I like the zines because I think people do read stories on zines. I can write literary stories forever and not become part of any community, which I did for five years. I like being part of a writing community. I liked knowing who Stephen Blackmoore and Greg Bardsley are when I read their stories in PWG. I like this little blogosphere we have here.

I almost had a story accepted this week in Ellery Queen. They asked me to send another story along. But guess what? All my other stories are too violent for them probably because I've been trying to write for the crime zines. Maybe I can drain a story of its more violent aspects. Have you ever done that? Made it more or less violent for a publication. I wrote that story specifically for them-using a stack of EQMM that Bill Crider sent me to gauge the kind of story they liked.

Can I send that story to Alfred Hitchcock or is that not done?

This is going to be one of those blog entries that sits all alone out there because its whiny and narcissistic. Sorry. It's snowing again in Detroit, I discovered my new treadmill makes my back hurt and even now it hovers over me, silent and scolding at the same time. So too does my Dell.

Goodbye, Boogie Man of My Youth

There was no one who struck greater fear in my teenage heart than William Buckley. He articulated a right-wing, hawkish agenda with more skill than any other pundit of the time. He could make mincemeat of almost anyone on his television show and I watched it, hands held to my eyes. His voice alone, arrogant. educated, sinewy, serpent-like terrified me. Is there anyone out there now who encapsulates an ideology like he did? The right-wing radio/tv hosts today get by on rage and accusations, not through a rigorous mind. Maybe I was too young to see the holes in his arguments, but I was always secretly afraid he was right. He wasn't, of course.

Trvivializing Ralph

Truthfully, I must chastise myself for even putting his name on this space. For even giving him one more chance to get recognition. And I did hesitate but rage overcomes good sense sometimes.
He has said on announcing his candidacy that he won't be trivialized. And really that's what it's all about, isn't it? He can't sit an election out due to his monumental ego, his towering narcissism.

Despite being one the single greatest causes of what has happened in this country in the last eight years, he won't be trivialized by allowing a man who represents all of the same things he does to run unimpeded against someone who clearly doesn't. I had some friends who voted for Nader in 2000. None of them did in 2004. If anyone out there can make a case for him, please enlighten me because in my mind, he's just in it for the sound bites, for the ego trip, and doesn't give a hoot if he saddles us with another hawk.
Care about America. No bloody likely.

Making it Real

I’ve been thinking a lot about authenticity after seeing two movies recently. How does a writer/director imbue his/her work with authenticity?

In the movie Definitely, Maybe, I never for a minute believed the protagonist or his colleagues were campaign workers for Bill Clinton. They looked like models on a lunch break on West 57^th St. So right from the first frames, I failed to buy into the concept.

In the movie Cockfighter though, the milieu of the cockfighting circuit was wholly believable. Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton, in the lead roles, perfectly captured Willeford’s character and world, thanks to the talents also of director, Monte Hellman.

Does casting actors who look like real people give more credence to a movie or TV show? I think so. This is one of the reasons, I think, The Office works wonderfully. No one doubts these are the sort of people found selling paper products in Scranton. Very few characters of The Wire come from Hollywood casting offices. British television recognizes this, but American television largely believes that viewers want Jennifer Aniston and Matt Perry on every show. Do we demand beautiful people on the small and large screen? Would you go to a romantic comedy where the main characters looked like the couple you spent last Saturday night with?

My Town Mondays

Michigan has lost more jobs than any other state and the impact of that reverberates around the state, especially in Detroit. One of our greatest losses is a first-rate newspaper. The Detroit Free Press has a venerable tradition but at the moment, it is sliding into an equal footing with newspapers from very small cities that are forced to import news reports and, in this case, reviews of TV, movies and books. The newspaper has lost all of this coverage over the last year. This means that our reviews are plucked willy-nilly from the newspapers still able to finance such pages and it means we lack a consistent voice in these affairs. (We have a second paper, the Detroit News, but as I have never subscribed I can’t speak to its quality).

I am watching the same thing happen to the Baltimore Sun on The Wire, of course. The ultimate outcome may be a few national papers that have local inserts. England, for instance, goes with national papers but that is a much smaller country. Oh, for the days when my kids delivered papers (Josh delivered, Megan collected) and every front step had a paper sitting there. Now it’s a rarer thing.

Would you forgo a local paper if a NYT or Washington Post was delivered to your doorstep with an insert that gave local news?

Or is your local paper still a viable publication?

Mr. and Mrs. Bryon Quertermous

are on their way to Florida now after the loveliest of weddings. Although we were strangers at the event, their gracious friends and family made us feel very welcome. The bridesmaid wore elegant black gowns with white sashes and carried red roses. Becky was the classic stunning bride. I'll let Bryon tell you what he wants to about this event, but our friend carried himself like the Cary Grant he was always meant to be. And what a nice guy to ask his father to be his best man. A good time was had by all and we shed a tear or two in his honor. Best wishes to the happy couple who seemed to enjoy every minute of their special day. And thanks for one of the nicest wedding we've ever attended.

Dexter

Sometimes the TV or movie version of a novel lets you down. Often it does. But in the case of Dexter, I found the novel too dark and expected to find the TV version even darker. But because of the talent of Michael Hall, I am able to watch it.

He gives a humanity to Dexter I was never able to find in the book. Although he may tell the viewer, he can't love, you can see that he can indeed experience love when he looks at his sister, or his girlfriend's kids or perhaps even his girlfriend. The message in his voiceovers are softened by the glint in his eyes, the delicacy in his touch.

Can you think of other examples of actors that made a character from a novel more palatable or lovable or real. Usually it goes the other way. Although Anthony Hopkins created a memorable Hannibal Lector it wasn't bu softening him, but by creating a character you couldn't take your eyes off of. In a TV series, that probably wouldn't work.

Election

I'm getting a little worried. Hillary is beginning to resemble the Reese Witherspoon character, Tracy Flick, in Election, feeling a sense of entitlement, willing to resort to dirty tricks. As it becomes clear that Obama may be the people's choice, will Senator Clinton resort more and more to personal attacks in the coming debates. If you were her advisers, would you suggest this as her only possible chance to win the next few primaries? Can she possibly win without doing this? Does she care about the Democratic Party enough to bow out gracefully or will she risk sabotaging their chances in November?
I have been of two minds about Hillary since the beginning, wanting a woman to be elected President but maybe not this woman. Now I want her to do the right thing and let the people speak. Don't gut Obama in the debates. Play nice.

Titles

On his blog "Dot Dead Diary," Keith Raffel has been polling readers with choices for a title for his new novel. He's at the end of the project without one. A friend told me a few weeks ago that a title was the first step in the process for her. The title pointed the way. I have heard of other people who have changed the title on the way to the printer practically.
For me, it works both ways. The title sometimes comes early and sometimes late. Only rarely do I pick one that I really think sums up the story very well. I think some of the best titles are just one or two words:
The Drowning Pool
The Shining
Mystic River
Officer Down
Priest
Bloodwork
Night Gardener
Brighton Rock
Miami Blues
Miami Purity
The Poet
Trashed
Queenpin,
Moneyshot
Tomato Red.
None of these titles tell you much about what the book is about, but they catch your eye and maybe set a mood. Do you find it hard to find the right title? What are some of your favorites?

Kwame on The Wire

I can't help but see parallels between the fictional State Senator Clay David on The Wire and Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. Both know how to manipulate city residents, getting them to believe that a lack of support for their antics, even in the black community, is racism. Getting them to believe, in Kwame's case, that voting for the other African-American running for mayor in 2006 was racist. That he is the authentic African-American.
Of course racism exists and is a serious problem but it seems like it's being used as a shield, as a defense.

Both men know what words to use and their style of delivery comes from the black church and appeals to black voters. They know how to make the audience cry. They can play the victim of a plot to bring them down.

Unfortunately in Kilpatrick's case, the charges are probably real not fictional. He's likely guilty of a number of crimes, but will the Wayne County Prosecutor, Kim Worthy, have the guts to indict him, coming up for reelection. Will the Michigan Supreme Court turn down his appeal to suppress tapes/text-messaging?

Kwame had everything needed to be a good and decent mayor in a hard time, but he craved the perks that came with it--women, parties, expensive cars and vacations. Maybe he was just too young. We should cry, but for Detroit, not him.

The Song Is You

The Song is You is out in paperback this week with a nice front cover blurb by James Ellroy.
This is my favorite book of Megan's three novels because it is set in fifties Hollywood, about the movie business, and is both tragic and romantic. Plus I like the protagonist, Gil Hopkins, a flawed character who can only do good for so long. I also enjoy the portraits of real Hollywood actors in it--like Barbara Payton. Watching Megan write and illustrate her stories as a child, watching her watch movies as much as we'd allow, this was the book I'd have expected her to write. So if you put off buying it because of its hardback price, here's your chance now.
Sorry for the blatant daughter promotion, but it seeps out of me every now and then.

In Bruges

Sometimes a movie just strikes the right note for your mood and this one rang the bell. Funny, tragic and with the added treat of seeing Bruges on film, it couldn't have been more fun. Two days ago we saw Definitely, Maybe which had all the authenticity of a Hallmark card, but this one just felt like the real deal. I think it's Colin Farrell's best performance and Brendon Gleason and Ralph Fiennes (is he ever bad?) were ridiculously good. Maybe it traded too much on dwarf jokes but other than that, a good time.

The "Just Doesn't Fit in Anywhere Story"

What do you do when you have an idea for a story but you pretty well know you're going to have a hard time placing it if you write it? Do you write it anyway if it's pretty well plotted in your head? What if it's a humorous story that really isn't all that dark. Most venues want dark. If I go the literary route, I'm screwed too because they just don't want people to die. Those crazy bastards. Sometimes people gotta die. Just in humorous or not too dark ways. It's not a cozy; it's not-hardboiled; its not suspense. It's just...well, it is what it is. I need a new zine for stories that just don't fit in other places.

One Last Story--"A Day Late" by Wellesfan

http://wellesfan.blogspot.com/2008/02/day-late.html

Plus Christa's story should go up sometime today (see below). She lost her power yesterday.

A Final Story for V'Day

Afterward
by Todd Mason

It wasn’t until he knew she’d been murdered did he realize how much he missed her, and how terribly fast that came to him. There it was, right in front of him, in the paper. It was a freak story, or else there wouldn’t’ve been a reason for the wire report to be carried from one city/suburban cluster to another, every city has its share of routine murder, young men (usually young men, not always either) drunk on despair and testosterone and whatever substance was supposed to make things easier right then, angry spousal equivalents, payback abuse or just abuse.

He hadn’t seen her in years, hadn’t corresponded (if that’s what one did with email) in months, maybe as much as a year. He knew she was happy, in a way he was quite sure she’d never been when they were together, a way she probably couldn’t be with him. She’d gone through several changes, was settling into a new job, she loved her husband the way you’d want to be loved if you were him. An off-duty police officer who’d developed a habit of pulling over women of a certain age managed to home in on her one night as she was driving home from the night class. Officer Friendly made sure he was the last to see her alive. She was the sixth of seven they knew about. He’d really gotten sloppy by the seventh.

Sitting there staring at the paper, seeing her name there, knowing there was no reason for authorities to contact him (maybe a call from Officer Friendly’s best buddy in the Academy or at the local land-grant school,, or maybe his ex partner), didn’t make him feel any less clobbered. Her husband might’ve, but he’d’ve had his own version of real-time hell to cope with, not this sudden smack after the fact. Cold print. Gasping. Cold, blind rage. Officer Friendly had been called Davy by his family. David Miller. Pillar of the community.

He sat staring at the paper and weighed his options. He could go to the trial, try to find a way to kill Davy Miller or at least introduce him to some small measure of what the wire story didn’t detail too closely of what he’d done to at least seven women. He could go to the trial, in that other big city up north a bit, and try to get some satisfaction out of his Twinkie defense, the slam-dunk the prosecutor would have, the life imprisonment with the hope of a shiv in an ex-cop’s back .He’d never have another conversation with her, he’d never get a card from her again at year’s end, she wasn’t at least walking around somewhere else nor laughing nor thrusting her hips just so as she came, nor rolling her eyes just so at some weak joke someone else would make (she’d wiggle her eyebrows to let you know she knew how weak her joke was, if it was). He wouldn’t know that she was fine. She never would be fine again. His impotence in the face of that fact wasn’t as hard to bear as the thought of her loss, but was no more reassuring.

He sat and thought about what he would do, what he was worth, how little David Miller was worth, what she…had been. He couldn’t completely catch his breath, he wasn’t yet ready to cry, if that was coming. Maybe on his trip north.

Whatever he was going to do, he need to gather a few things, make a few calls. And he needed to know when the services were. And the trial. And whatever came afterward.

I Heart You

The day has arrived and below are the sites where our flash fiction stories appear. Mine is below the list. I hope you enjoy them all and have the happiest of Valentine's Days.

Patrick Bagley "Loving Rachel" http://patrickshawnbagley.blogspot.com/

Sandra Seamans "Bye, Bye Love" http://powderburnflash.blogspot.com/

Aldo Calcagno "Love on the Rocks" http://acalcagno.blogspot.com/

Patricia Abbott 'Tongues" http://pattinase.blogspot.com/

Graham Powell "The Last Time" http://www.myboogpages.com/

Bryon Quertermous "Stand Up on Blow Pops" http://bryonquertermous.wordpress.com/

Clair Dickson "Cupid's Bullet" http://bofexler.blogspot.com/

Cormac Brown "Warmer" http://cormacwrites.blogspot.com/

Gerald So "Connect the Dots" http://geraldso.blogspot.com/

Steve Allan "The Many Forms of Love" http://noirwriter.blogspot.com/

Christa Miller "Beautiful Trouble" http://freelancemother.wordpress.com/

John McAuley "Since I've Been Loving You" http://powderburnflash.blogspot.com/

r2 "Doctor, Doctor" http://powderburnflash.blogspot.com/

Sophie Littlefield "Rival Passions" http://powderburnflash.blogspot.com/

Todd Mason "Afterward" http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2008/02/afterward-vignette.html

Wellesfan " Day Late" http://wellesfan.blogspot.com/2008/02/day-late.html

Tongues
By Patricia Abbott

The girl in the dorm room next to mine speaks in tongues. I hear her late at night when all the other girls are asleep. Most of what she says makes use of the more obscure letters of the alphabet—like z,x, and k’s. She sounds angry, like the voice of God in her ear isn’t joyful.

No one else on our floor ever mentions it.

Speaking in tongues is not as common as you’d think—even at the Southern New England Bible College. My parents sent me here, not realizing that all Christians don’t play bridge and drink martinis on Saturday night. The ones at SNEBC would never slip between their starched sheets without first pressing their knees to the floor in prayer

At Karin’s church, parishioners speak in tongues, give testimony and lay on hands. Karin likes to tell her personal salvation story. It happened in a Thunderbird on a country road as she was weighing the sin in letting her boyfriend unhook her bra.

Does everyone who speaks in tongues use the same language? Can they talk to each other? Were they born knowing “tongues” or did it come to them like a taste for artichokes came to my father months after he returned from Korea? I never find the right words to ask Karin this.

It’s spooky listening to her, knowing she’s pacing her cell-like room and talking gibberish for hours. The syllables seem to rush out of her mouth and bang up against the wallboard. If I put my palms on the wall, I can feel the vibrations.

In daylight, Karin seems normal, pretty in a wispy way. She baby-sits for a woman who once dated President Kennedy and works the dinner shift at the second cash register in the cafeteria. I can see her from behind the counter where I restock the applesauce and Jell-O. Her checkout line moves much faster than the other one.

In December, Karin invites me in to watch “Color Me Barbra” on her contraband TV. She teaches me stuff, telling me that my favorite song on my Lawrence Welk album is actually a movement from Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto # 1. She plays it for me on her record player.

One night Karin comes to my room, mumbling the words I usually hear through the wall, letting her tongue flutter near my ear like a trapped moth. I can smell her breath—it’s anise or licorice and sends shivers down my spine. In the cafeteria later, I stare at the picture of Moses on Mt. Sinai over the tray table while holding a flashlight. She empties both cash registers in seconds.

When the campus police arrest Javier, a work-study student, Karin seems surprised. She puts a dollar in the canister being passed around. His picture from the yearbook is glued to the front. He’s smiling and you can see the gap in his teeth. Someone says they’ll be sending him back to Haiti or Trinidad or wherever he came from.

On Valentine’s Day, Karin invites me to spend the weekend at Kennedy’s mistress’ house. We take the children duckpin bowling and feed them hamburgers. Later we look for things the Sprague’s won’t miss. Karin looks over my haul with a practiced eye, telling me that paste jewelry and ceramic birds are junk.

Karin lights candles in the living room and draws my trembling hands to the flame. She makes me kneel with pebbles under my knees on the tile floor, telling me I’m a bad influence and that she didn’t steal things before I was assigned to the room next to her. I look up and see the little girls huddled on the steps. Their bare legs look like pincers in the half-light.

Two men come for Karin the next morning and take her away in a Volkswagen bus. Mrs. Sprague removes stones from my knees with tweezers and bandages my hands, shaking her head and asking me why I didn’t tell anyone about Karin.

“You two are students at a Bible College,” she tells me “How did this happen?” I want to tell her that a love for Jesus isn’t the only kind of love.

LAST CRY FOR V'DAY FLASH FICTION

If anyone has a story they haven't made me aware of as yet (or Mystery Dawg or Gerald So), please do so pretty quickly. My tech skills are such that last minute subs may drive me over the edge. Plus I want to go to the movies and lunch with my honey.

Is It Over for Senator Clinton?

Smoke Screen by Jean Pierre Jacquet.And, if so, why? Was it her negatives that sealed her fate? Would the voters have been satisfied with Clinton as a candidate if Obama hadn't come along? Was it his exceptional charisma or would other candidates have achieved the same thing? If Al Gore had entered the race, would he have pushed her off the podium too? Was it Obama's unique message of hope and transformation? Was it his race, which took the expected constituency of African-American voters away from her. Did she seem like old hat? Like we were electing her for a third time?
Was it her personality once people got a good sample of it in the debates. Was being a woman harder to overcome with voters than being African-American? Their message was virtually the same. She would seem like the more experienced bearer of that message. Was it her history that did her in? Were Bill's remarks in South Carolina the death knell? What do you think is the single greatest reason for her probable failure? I feel sad for Hillary Clinton. Sometimes you do everything right and something still derails you. Look at Ted Kennedy. Wouldn't he have been a great President?

The Wire (SPOILERS)

By Pat Dostine. (See below for website)This picture reminds me of The Wire, one of the few shows we really look forward to. This year the showdown between Omar and Marlo has completely dominated the hour for us. Although I look forward to watching Gus Haynes (City Editor on the Sun) bring Templeton to his knees, and watching whether a alcohol-fueled McNulty will end up murdering someone to get police funding to investigate last year's "bodies in houses" story, it's the dynamics of the Street that holds my interest. It's playing out like a Shakespearean tragedy. How about you? Will Omar or Marlo persevere?

"At Last"

More art from Jean Pierre Jacquet to reflect "Love Hurts," a Valentine's Day blogorama. Speaking of which, what song will you be most likely to play on the 14th. I vote for Etta James' "At Last." Lots of cover versions, but that's my favorite.

My problem in getting these links up here makes me wonder what's gonna happen on Thursday. I hope Aldo and Gerald are more proficient.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csoMt1CiP04
http://jeanpierrejacquet.com/NewWebdocs/JPJ/Blind_Trust.html

Have You Ever Written a Love Poem?

Our artwork today comes from Pat Dostine, whose first artshow opened this week at the River Gallery in Chelsea, Michigan. http://patrickdostine.blogspot.com/

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

My husband wrote me this one. Okay, well William Butler Yeats wrote it first but my husband copied it and gave it to me when I was seventeen. Asking for a poem was too much pressure to put him under. He went on to write many things, but no poems.

Have you ever written one for someone special? I hope so. There's nothing like a poem.

"Don't Squat with Your Spurs On"

Artwork begins today for our St. Valentine's Day flash fiction fun. This evocative piece comes from Jean-Pierre Jacquet, renowned for his marvelous artwork for Hardluck Stories last year. This piece is called Plumb Lines.

Sometimes I find myself going to a ridiculous amount of trouble to get a small detail ( that probably no one will ever notice) correct in a story. Right now I am trying to find the exact phrase a cowboy uses to get the cattle moving and to that end spent most of the morning looking at sites, fascinating but time-consuming to find this out. It ended with my emailing a cowboy. Let's see if he responds to my strange question.
Do you do this too or is it just me? What's the most ridiculous piece of information you got by doing this? I can't tell you how much I found out about being a midwife in England like this a few years ago. I'm still getting emails asking me if I still intend to enroll in a training hospital in London.
And you can imagine what happened when I googled "school girls" once looking for the correct dress at private schools.
The Internet, a curse or blessing.

Could this possibly be true?

That Michigan, land that I live in, may have another primary? How can this be? It would cost the financially-strapped state a million dollars. And this Super-Delegate thing is bugging me too.
Forty percent of the delegates to the Dem. convention are Super-Delegates, most of them pledged before Obama was a viable candidate. When did elections in the US start resembling those in Soviet Russia? Oh, I guess about 2000. Or was it always like this?

Where Do I Begin

Three people have read my novel. All three of them have suggested a different point to begin the story. One scene is the essence of the book but would require two immediate flashbacks. The second possibility is the scene that points out the dilemma but it's a talky scene. The third is a driving scene that's in reaction to her discovery of her dilemma. The last possibility casts her in the most negative light so maybe it's not a good place to start. If a unlikable person puts a reader off, this would be most likely beginning to do it, but it does allow me to move forward instead of doubling back.
Do you have trouble knowing where to begin your story?
P.S. Now two recent readers have told me I am writing a rumination on an artist's life with crime elements. WTF. How did that happen? How do I pitch this?

Super Tuesday

Yesterday two friends sent me detailed defenses of Hillary Clinton, one from Robin Morgan, the other from Stanley Fish. You can find either editorial by googling their name. I do believe an agenda is being served with the attacks on Hillary Clinton and that many of these attacks are orchestrated by the Republican Party and the media. Shoot down the stronger candidate now--or at least the one that appeared to be the stronger candidate.
It is easier to get away with attacking a woman than a black man. Racism trumps sexism as an issue as it did in the sixties. We can talk about ironing shirts but not about shining shoes. It is sickening that there are still people who would define either of these candidates in this way.
The important thing to remember is that the Democrats have come up with two highly credible candidates that are both from minority groups. Can you imagine the Republicans even choosing a VP from either group much less a President? And instead of reveling in how far we have come, we have been manipulated into choosing one and denigrating the other. I'm not talking about a vote in a primary but a public show of preference, name-calling and sickening jokes.
Hillary or Obama, take your pick. I will happily vote for either-- candidates who care about universal health care, an end to the insanity it Iraq, a serious commitment to improving the environment, insuring children don't go to bed hungry, a fair tax system, better schools. The list goes on.
It is so important to stand behind whoever the nominee is because we are in danger of doing what seemed impossible a few months ago--losing the White House to another supporter of the war, someone else who says America first, last and always and the rest of the world be damned. Sure McCain looks good next to George Bush but they are not very different at all. They didn't look very different eight years ago and time has not changed that.

Some Things I Have Recently Enjoyed

Persepolis. I admired more than loved this movie because the story was so familiar (not the author's fault) from Reading Lolita in Tehran. But the images were haunting and the story clearly told. A good capsule of what's happend over the last 30 years. And some of the artwork is stunning.
In Treament is my new addiction. Five nights, five patients, each of them telling a story that is poignant and riveting. All of this is held together by therapist, Gabriel Byrnes, who sees his own therapist on Fridays. I didn't like HBO's fall try at a therapy series but this one, minus the embarrassing clinical sex, looks to be a winner.
I've only seen the first two episodes of this Breaking Bad but Brian Cranston holds the screen with the story of a high school chemistry teacher with lung cancer who raises money to suppost his family (his son has CP and his wife is pregnant) by opening a crystal meth lab in the dessert. It manages to be funny, sad and engrossing so far.
This book defies the notion that a murder must happen by page 3. No crimes take place for 3/4 of the book and I was not bored for a second. Willeford is a genius at setting , character and atmosphere, and most of all, humor. I laughed more reading this book than anything I can remember. I dread the day when I close my last Willeford book

Insomnia's my middle name

Dinner conversation tonight: what do you watch at 2:00am when you can't sleep? My husband picks movies. It doesn't matter where in the movie or whether he's seen it. He just likes the pace and feel of a movie to get him sleepy.
I can't do this. I have to watch a movie from the beginning, even if I've seen it.
Our two guests, not married, both admit to watching infomercials. Neither cook yet both are mesmerized by cooking gadgets-blenders, processors, coffee-makers, knives. At some point I learned how to tune out commercials (much like Sunday sermons) so this isn't for me either.
I watch old sitcoms-I need a narrative, something cheerful, something short. I wish there was a channel that always had an old sitcom on at 2:00. Maybe Sports Night or Frasier or The Larry Sanders Show.

What do you watch at 2:00 am?

Is sending out queries hard for you too?

Here I am after two weeks of doing this and I have only sent out 8 queries to agents. What makes me so resistant to doing this? Is it fear of failure? Is it the work involved in figuring how who, when, where and what? Something stands between me and finishing this task. Is it hard for everyone or do you whizz through it? So many of their websites seem to chide you for bothering them. Or warn you. Some seem determined to reject you from the start. Are these people any nicer once they've taken you on?

"What's Your "Go To"?

In reading the chapter of Russell Banks' new novel yesterday (thanks to TM for the referral) I noticed the emphasis on weather and setting. I wonder if most writers have a "go to" when beginning a book or story" weather, atmosphere, character description, time period, dialog, a street scene. Many of my stories begin with someone driving in a car. This is sort of odd since I rarely drive. But maybe in my dream life, which is where most of this process comes from, I am quite the driver.
Where do you "go to" to get comfortable in a story? Do you find you begin with similarly-set scenes from project to project?

Will Someone Please Explain This?

One of my favorite writers is Russell Banks. Continental Drift and Affliction both reflect blue-collar male malaise in the late 20th century better than almost any other books I can think of. They are scary, real and sad.
Today his new book The Reserve was reviewed in the New York Times. I am not going to repeat any of the review here. It's possible that this book does not live up to his earlier work. Clearly, Banks is writing about a different sort of person than the blue-collar guys in his earlier work; the book is set in a different stratum of society.
What I want to pursue here is this? Should a reviewer feel he/she owes the public the same sort of critique a newspaper editorialist owes the public when he/she finds out a politician is corrupt. Because I feel this is the sort of review I read today. Should words like cheesy be used? Is this civil language?
How far is going too far for a reviewer?

Patry Francis and The Liar's Diary

I don't know Patry Francis personally. I know her name from "Killer Year," from blog traffic, from her own blog, from favorable mentions of The Liar's Diary.

From the movies and books she lists as favorites on her blog, I know we're a lot alike. We may even be of a similar age, coming to writing later in life--or at least to writing a novel. There's something that catches in your throat when you weigh the chances of getting a first book onto a shelf at this age. But Patry did it.

It's evident from her blog, from her trailer, from all of it, that she throws herself into whatever she chooses to pursue. I hope I meet Patry Francis one day.

As I was thinking about Patry last Friday, I went into a Borders and saw The Liar's Diary on the sale shelf. It was the hardback version, making way for the newly issued paperback today. Not wanting to carry it into the restroom (you know what they do to people who do that) I let it rest on the sales' table. Twenty minutes later, after browsing and such, I came back for it. It was gone. Someone else knew about Patry Francis.

I hope you know about her too. Her book is availabe in paperback this week. Buy it. Don't put it off like I did because she's going to sell a lot of copies. You don't want to be without yours.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD31Ip3y3Gk

The Muse

The Muse

True or false: looking back over my creative work, as a writer, painter, musician, actor, I find it hard to distinguish later what pieces came to me in some mystical (muse-like) way from what pieces came to me through repeated, hard work.This is true for me. The exception being that writing that comes like a ghost in the night sometimes has a more dreamlike quality to it--totally fitting but not necessarily better. What about you.

What Would You Do

Between dinner and seeing Persepolis last night, four of us got into this discussion re: the Heath Ledger death though only as a backdrop. Here's the scenario:

You come into a friend's house. He's lying dead in his bed. It's almost certain, he has died from a drug-related and self-induced incident. Strewn around his bedroom are other illegal drugs, pornographic material, letters from his mistress (his wife lives in his other house), a computer open to his email screen or to a porno cite, a cellphone that probably has calls to a drug dealer, a mistress, etc. on it. Would you tidy things up for him? Would you get rid of some of the damaging objects in his room? Or would you regard it as a possible crime scene and sacrosanct?

An Invitation

A second invitation to submit a flash fiction piece for our Valentine's Day challenge. Mystery Dawg will post all stories from writers without sites of their own on Powder Burn. Both of us will list links to all the stories. Nice to keep it to around 700 wrds and maybe tie love and crime in a big red bow. We have about ten or so writers, but we want more. Come on. You know you want to. Would it be Valentine's Day without some mayhem.

Reading Sideswipe by Charles Willeford, the third Hoke Moseley. Does anyone have a better voice? Okay, maybe Ken Bruen but not many others. He can make you laugh and cry in the same sentence. Whose voice lights up your nights?

Rejections

We all get them--except sometimes we don't. Sometimes we never hear from the editor at all. Sometime we find out we've been rejected when the zine or journal comes out. I much prefer a note or even a sentence telling me this in advance of the zine appearance. Maybe it's hard to say no to writers but it's part of the process--getting rejected and if we can't take it, we shouldn't be in this business.
I can take your rejections. It's the wondering that kills me.
What do you think?

South Carolina Debate

I wouldn't be seeing so much of these debates if my husband wasn't a presidential scholar and that would be fine with me because I'm starting to get scared. I guess the problem is that the Democratic candidates' positions are too close so that Hillary and Obama are forced to argue about voting records, PACS and Boards they've sat on. But even Obama's nearly unflappable civility it starting to fade with the constant onslaught from Senator Clinton and her spouse. Going into this season, I thought I might support her, but all she's proven to me is she's the toughest candidate. Is that her intent? Is that the most necessary trait in a presidential candidate? Is there such a thing as wanting to win too much--because I think she does and it's making her into something scary. I thought she'd found her voice last week, but apparently it's a voice that changes to suit the night.

Where do you write?

There was a fascinating piece in the NYT yesterday about the success of romantic novels written by Japanese women on their cellphones, some while on their way to work on the subways. Many of these novels go on to regular publication and of last year's ten best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels. This led to a discussion in our household on where people wrote. Thomas Wolfe on his refrigerator, Hemingway at the cafes, etc. Neither my husband or I can write by hand any longer. We are limited to computer access, but I can carry my flash drive around from computer to computer and not mind. He prefers his own at home.
What about you? Anyone still using yellow pads? Must you write in one place? Do you write better in Starbucks than at home alone? Can you only write in the A.M.? In the P.M.?
Is anyone here writing on their cellphone?

***Even stranger is that this method of writing (on cellphones) is changing the way books read there. They are growing closer to comics and manga in their extreme terseness. Wonder if that will come are way.

Thirteen Months

We got our first opportunity to babysit for our grandson at our house for an extended period of time and we learned just what things he likes to do: try to fit a small ball into every cubbyhole and bowl in the house; dance madly spinning around and looking upward, arms stretched to Stephane Grappelli's "Night and Day," grab CDs out of the CD stand and watch us change them, push every button on every machine in the house (how do you get you TV off of anagram and back to digitial?) say woof, woof, climb up and down the stairs, always teetering on the top step for a minute, go up the steps with things in both hands which he puts on the step above him, climbs up, picks them up and repeats. And when we all got very tired, watch Barney and Teletubbies. He only likes the puppets though.

The Importance of Proofreading"

Pretty damned funny. Hat tip to Dorene. (Wish I could figure out how to directly download it.)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjhOBiSk8Gg

The hottest love has the coldest end

I am sick, sick, sick of revisions. I now have two versions of the same novel that differ substantially. One's a lot more literary than the other. What to do? What to do? Write something else while I think.

Will you write along with me? Could we have a Valentine's Day round robin. No one has done this for a year or so. I think it's too much to ask for love stories from you guys, but how about love/crime flash fiction stories. Under 750 words. Is anyone interested? I'd guess we'd need at least 8 or more for it to seem like anything other than a lame-brained scheme. If eight or more people send me a story or tell me they will send one by February 12th, we can do it on the 14th. Link them up and celebrate the day as only we can. What do you think?

P.S. If anyone (and this means you Bryon Q.)has a love story without any crime in it, that's good too. Come on. I bet you all have one or two on your hard drive. That night you poured your heart out. The night you forgot to knock someone off. The night you just didn't have it in you.

This is a one-time thing because I don't know how to make a site. Let me know.

Criminalistics

I've started my class in criminalistics. In the coming weeks I will learn about evidence documentation; shoeprint/tireprint impression evidence; firearms and tool mark examination; questioned document examination, fingerprints and personal identification, serology, DNA, bloodstain pattern interpretation, drugs of evidence, trace evidence, arson and explosives, courtroom testimony. Will this help me as a writer? I hope so.
One thing that doesn't help me is that everyone around me at the back of the class (where I used to sit when I was a real student), spends their time text messaging and checking their voicemail. The class is spending the semester on the Jeffrey MacDonald case (Fatal Vision). I was the only student in a class of 50 that had heard of the case. I'm not even sure they knew who Charles Manson was? And these are the future Detroit Police.

The Michigan Primary

I live in a state (Michigan) where you can only vote for Hillary Clinton or undecided if you're a Democrat tomorrow. If you're a Republican you get the whole roster of horrible choices. Is this fair? Should the Democratic Party be able to decide that a primary in Michigan is invalid because we jumped the queue? Should the Democratic Party in Michigan sue the National Party for disenfranchising it? They've even taken hotel rooms away from eventual delegates to the national convention. When are we going to draft a sensible system for choosing Presidential candidates and what should that be? I vote for regional primaries that alternate every four years. What do you think?

TV Characters

Re: my post yesterday, Gerald has kindly pointed out that Tony Shaloub has perhaps pushed his characterization of Monk beyond the initial concept of the writers, making him more memorable than any individual plotline would suggest. He also pointed out that Jim Garner did this with Rockford, Tom Selleck with Magnum and so on. Now if the writing is superior the actor probably doesn't have to work as hard. Or in some cases, individual efforts don't shine as brightly (take The Wire, which is all about writing). Or maybe also due to a very large cast allowing little airtime for any one character.
What individual efforts made more of a movie or TV show than the writing allowed for. What did you watch strictly for an individual performance?
Julia Louis Dreyfus has done this with her two followups to Seinfeld. Christine is especially tepid save for her performance (IMHO). Tony Randall and Jack Klugman did this with The Odd Couple, which ran out of steam after its many incarnations. Michael J. Fox carried Family Ties on his back for years. What else?

Monk

I am always surprised at how often this television show is willing to turn to pathos rather than crime-solving or humor. Is this lazy writing or do they define this basically as a show about mental illness? I don't watch it that often but it almost always seem to center around the loss of his wife, which is tragic but many years in the past. Dwelling on it so often seems a bit like the easy way out.

Should I Throw in Flying Saucers, a Vampire, a recipe or a sixth century Chinese girl

I signed up for Publishers Marketplace or whatever it is where you get notice of the deals made on books everyday. Someone said it was a good idea to understand the marketplace if you were trying to sell a book.
But no kidding, it just scares me. Every book has some supernatural element. Or is set in a remote place. Or features recipes. Or afghan patterns. Or dogs that are afghans. and solve crimes Or creatures from other worlds that fly and fight. Doesn't anyone write about regular folks? Do you ever consider adding such an element just to make it sell?

Was Hillary's Crying for Real?

I can't figure out how to upload video (I am so computer illiterate!) but you've all seen this. Was it for real? It's an ongoing disagreement in our house. I believe no woman would take a chance on crying publicly as a stunt because it brings all the stereotypes to mind for potential voters. Can a woman who cries because she's losing in a primary be taken seriously as Commander in Chief.

I think Hillary cried out of tiredness and frustration.

My husband thinks it was a strategy to humanize her since this is one of the biggest knocks against her--that she is inhuman.

What do you think? Did it make you more or less sympathetic to her candidacy?

Keep this in mind. When Hillary cried, nobody died. Okay, bad joke.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVlwH7-05Fk