2020
A SNIPPET: Now I know why the call them the blues — plural. There are so many of them. I am not an interior decorator or painter so I don't know the names for all the hues but here's an attempt using only a couple I know. This afternoon sitting on the porch in the sun I noticed the different colors in the sky. The blues progressed in shades from a pale pastel over by Denali darkening at each altitude eventually to a deep cobalt overhead. If I had a guitar and even better knew how to play it, I could hear myself plunking out one of those John Lee Hooker riffs, maybe a little up tempo to mirror the happier mood I found with my discovery of the blues.
Rim of Red Water
I started a book in the late 1980s paralleling the life and importance of sea otters with the growth and history of Alaska. I had completed a good deal of research and wrote first drafts of nine chapters and outlined two more with the understanding in my head that this would eventually become a generational novel. Then life intervened. First came the Exxon Valdez oil spill, then an unexpected pregnancy which led to a hasty wedding and eventually a complete change in life style from living the romantic life of a boat captain and in the off-season a writer working at his craft in the Alaska wilds into a husband, father and responsible (somewhat) career person attempting to provide for his family. I came across it a week or so ago and thought somebody might like to read it even if it is unfinished and please understand this is a hastily edited first draft and if it ever sees the light of day beyond this blog it will take some serious rewriting, including the development of that generational narrative. I have posted 18 chapters on a separate page titled
Rim of Red Water
Patience, my dear, patience
Nov. 21, 2018
This meme showed up on facebook a day or so ago. For anybody who writes it certainly rings true. It reminded me of an event in my own life.
Some years ago I was walking with a woman friend in downtown Anchorage. This was in the days of the Book Cache of Fifth Avenue, I believe. We passed the book store's window and stopped for a moment. It was dedicated to a single book and I recall saying in a low under-confident voice, "someday I am going to have that window."
Her response was less than enthusiastic. I don't recall her saying anything, just giving me a "yeah-sure" glance.
Four years later I walked past that same window, alone this time. And guess what: the only book in that window was one I wrote.
A few years later I was walking by the same window: same book, different woman. As we
stopped to look at it a fellow we knew walked up. He asked what we were looking at. "Tim's book," she said.
In a challenging tone he demanded to know what I had to do with that book. "He wrote it," she said. The surprised expression on his face looked more like an insult than an compliment, but …
… sometimes the medicine does work.
Some years ago I was walking with a woman friend in downtown Anchorage. This was in the days of the Book Cache of Fifth Avenue, I believe. We passed the book store's window and stopped for a moment. It was dedicated to a single book and I recall saying in a low under-confident voice, "someday I am going to have that window."
Her response was less than enthusiastic. I don't recall her saying anything, just giving me a "yeah-sure" glance.
Four years later I walked past that same window, alone this time. And guess what: the only book in that window was one I wrote.
A few years later I was walking by the same window: same book, different woman. As westopped to look at it a fellow we knew walked up. He asked what we were looking at. "Tim's book," she said.
In a challenging tone he demanded to know what I had to do with that book. "He wrote it," she said. The surprised expression on his face looked more like an insult than an compliment, but …
… sometimes the medicine does work.
Stories I've written, always meaning to send
November 20, 2018Let this be a lesson to some young person out there. If you have an idea, about anything, carry it through as far as you can. You will often stop at some point when you realize it's not going to work, but everyone has at least one good idea and it's a goddamned shame when you look up one day and find out someone else had the same idea and carried it through.
Case in point. Tonight while watching television and ad come up for a new show scheduled to begin in January. It's called "Found Innocent." It gave me a cold chill.
You see, I had this idea years ago, even wrote what's called a treatment for it. I have searched for that treatment but so far no luck. In it the main protagonist each episode took on the case of a person imprisoned and maintaining his innocence. Each prisoner would provide a different story, some of them actually innocent and others who were just where they were supposed to be.
I found it. It's dated May 5, 2014, but it may have been updated on that date. I probably had been thinking about it long before that, Anyway, just because I can, this is what I had prepared: ( And for the sake of truth I am not going to make any corrections or changes at all. This is the way I left it in 2014)
INNOCENCE
BAsed in the cliche that everyone in prison says he's innocent and loosely based on the Innocence Project
He has a buddy in the police department. They meet when the detetective forces his way into the office (most police don't like the lawyer) and makes him very nervous. Turns out the lawyer ahd been instrumental in proving the policeman's convicted brother was actually innocent and so he says a faver is owed. Lawyer takes liberal advantage of access to police files.
He has to have a secretary gatekeeper helper but this is cliche. He could have a law grad student helpling with all the hyoung innocence'
Private detective. This is going to be a woman, tough and capable who does investigations for the lawyer. There can be sexual tension here, but she over the long run pushes off any hint of connection.
Detective's boss and colleagues don't like his connection with the lawyer and at times try to subvert him.
Head of the firm: Silver haired white guy who doesn't like all the pro bono work. )A thought here some civil case he forces on the lawyer turns out to be connected to one of his innocence cases.
Maybe need a nemisis prosecutor.
FIRST CASE
Prisoner, hard case biker gangster who is guilty of a lot but not the crime he was convicted of. not very likable but that's part of the deal of the innocence project, if the person is not guilty he is not guilty no matter what kind of person he is.
The guy's crime: Seeing a biker gang fight. Gun shots. A guy goes down. Just then someone attempts to drive a pickup truck through the center of the fight scattering combatants in all directions. The prisoner sees a guy layng in the street and grabs the shoulders of his lether jacket and pulls him to safety, only in turning the guy over to learn he is not only dead, he is wearing the jacket of the other gang. Our biker pulls th body into the bushes and hightails it not realizing he has dropped his knife by the body and picked up some blood on his own clothing. By a circuitous route he makes it to his bike as he hears sirens. He atempts to get out of there but the street he heads down has cops coming at him. He makes a quick turn into an alley. but his rear wheel hits a spot of oil and he skids out of control into the side of a building right in front of the comps and knocks himself out. He wakes up in jail. The bllood on his coat, his knife by the body, and a witness who saw him dragging the bodyh away are enoujgh to convict him. He gets 15-30 for second degree murder largel becasue of the prior arrests and convictions. mostly for assault but a couple of minor possession drug busts. His gang is supected of drug trafficking.
During the fight: whole bar erupts. Spills out into the street. As it does a big guy grabs the girlfriend and drags her kicking out a side door into an alley. There he slams her against a dumptster then throws her to the ground, holds her down and starts to tear off her jeans. from her pocket she pulls a knife and stabs him in the stomach. and while he is still shocked she cuts him across his neck. Then she is abel to squirm out from under him and head away from the meless int he street down toward to opposite end of the alley.
In the street sirens and then police and the boyfriend runs and turns into thee ame alley to escape. when he is about halfway down the alley a car roars into the alley heading toward him. He sees the victim laying there and runs, pulling him out of the way just as the car passes. But, right behind the car comes a police car. The police see the guy with the victim, come to a stop and jummp out to subdue the guy and put him under arrest.
Meanwhile the gril has left the alley just before the first car, hides agains a wall is it also emerges and turns away from where she is hiding. Once free of any observation, she makes her way down the street and into the darkness whil her boyfirend is hauled off to the jail.
CHANGE THIS SLIGHTLY TO AVOID IDENTIFYING THE REAL KILLER. During the fight a big tough guy drags the girl out of the bar by a back door opening into the alley. Minutes later the boyfriend/convicted runs into the alley to escape police. He sees another figure farther donw the alley running away. He starts to follow mostly for his own escape but trips over the guy. A car screetches into the alley chased by police. The figure disappears at the end of the alley in the same shot where the biker is pulling the victim out of the ay of the car. The car roars past followed by a police care which sotps when they see the biker with the body.
Now how do they prove him innocent.
1 did they check his knife for blood
2. attack the witness... did he actually see the guy stab the victim no only dragging him away
3. forensices: blood on his jackt is it the kind of spatter that would come frtom stabbing someone? No only dragging and turning over. Knife found by body, too bloody from neck wound, no prints, blood washed away. Might somewhere find an odd print of partial finger but cut off evenly. Like made from fingerless gloves like got girl was wearing. Looking at one print taken.middle and lower sections of finger but no tip print.
4. Depth of stab wounds, neck wound is shallow but evidence knife was twisted while in the wound.
5. Investigation centers on identification of the mystery person in the alley. Interview people in the fight. Did anyone see anyone go out the back door? Identifiable. Bartender might have seen (a man and a woman leaving) Later admits, man was forcing woman out the door.
SOULUTION
Turns out she did it. WEaker knife wouldnds plus a gun shot from a small weapon.
What are protagonist's top five monthly expenses
Preparing for winter
October 25, 2018
"I read late into the night and go north for the winter," with apologies to T.S. Elliot
With snow getting closer I just placed my winter book order. Thanks to a friend who alerted me to the PBS Great American Read program I will be taking some good books instead of a bunch of cheap detective novels. Most of my favorite authors are included in the list and though they included "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, they left off Mark Twain's seminal work and generally agreed to be the first modern American novel, "HuckleBerry Finn." James Patterson has a book on the list, I have to say, not a fan. I read one book of his and started another and all I could think was this guy needs an editor. I did like his appearance on Castle though, especially when he chided Castle for putting out only one book a year. Some TV writer had a good time with that one.
Back in the days before Amazon, book day would always be a big one, when in anticipation of a winter in the woods I would head for my favorite book store and spend a couple of hundred dollars on reading material for the season. These days it's a survey of Amazon some late night, still fun but not the same.
In recent years I have been having some measure of trouble. My curiosity about new books kind of faded with a few exceptions around the heyday of the generation that brought us Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Hmmm, Mailer wasn't on that list either. Anyway I have not kept up and therefore didn't really know what to look for in new fiction and true to the adage, you can't tell a book by its cover.
I am fortunate enough to have a long-standing friend who is a voracious reader and who last year recommended several books to me and I liked them all. She is the one who informed me about the PBS book list and program and voting. She was quite excited when her favorite was named the top book of the 100 — "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Going down the list she told me about on PBS there were several I had never heard of, mostly written after Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal. Each of the book covers on the main page opens to a synopsis of the book and something about the author plus some quotes from the text, all very helpful when looking at works you've never been aware of. I chose four off the list for now, plus another book she had suggested knowing our interest in Native American history.
I am not recommending these books because I haven't read them, but they are the ones that interested me enough to buy them:
"The Book Thief," by Markus Zusak
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime." by Mark Haddon
"A Separate Peace," by John Knowles and, yes, I know this is older than Mailer.
"Looking for Alaska," by John Green and, again, yes I know it is not about the state Alaska, but about a woman named Alaska. Still, Alaska on the cover is a natural draw.
Those are the four I picked off the list. The Native American history book is:
"Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI," by David Grann.
Maybe to many readers, five books don't seem to be a lot for a winter in the woods, but I do have some cheap mystery novels I bought earlier, plus I plan to spend much of this winter working on my own potential addition to the next list. I would say wish me luck, but it's easier than that, simply, hard work or as H.L. Mencken wrote, "It's easy you just sit at the keyboard until beads of blood form on your forehead."
Oh, one other thing. Thanks to Amazon and my excessive use of my credit card late at night under the influence of some adult beverage, I had enough points accumulated to get all those books for a total of $4.46 including shipping. As always I hope the authors get the full royalty despite what I paid for their works.
Now, just add snow.
Here's link to the PBS list: The Great American Read
And here's an extra special treat. The entire finale.
Appreciation
June 14, 2018
That's a picture of me with Tom Walker and his daughter Mary Anne. He made all the photos in our Wild Critters books. Mary Anne came from Outside for a visit before starting a new job and we met for a lunch in Talkeetna. Our conversation rambled all over the place as you might imagine among three people who hadn't seen each other for years. I had brought along a bunch of books for Tom to sign, so when I give them to people they will have both signatures. Mary Anne mentioned she only had one signed book left. She said with her friends getting married and having babies she is always giving Wild Critters as gifts. This is something I have thought about and I mumbled something I hoped they wouldn't hear, which was, nobody in my family has ever done that. It is one of the things that has stuck in my mind for years and it is an abrasion between me and my family. I have a son and a daughter and two nieces and two nephews. Not one of them has ever asked me to sign a book for them to give to someone as a gift. Sometimes when I run a conversation with my kids through my mind I bring it up, like, you must have friends who are having babies. Has it ever crossed you mind to give them a Wild Critters book as a gift. Maybe you have, but for sure you have never asked me to sign one, so I am assuming you never did. Is that too much to ask from family? Frankly it bothers me that it bothers me, but so it goes as one of the least fun parts of the writing life. Over the years I have signed several books for friends who gave them to their friends who have had children. Not one of them was in any way related to me. I just realized the irony of thinking of this and posting it the day before Father's Day. One more holiday I have to ignore.
Preparing for winter
October 25, 2018
"I read late into the night and go north for the winter," with apologies to T.S. ElliotWith snow getting closer I just placed my winter book order. Thanks to a friend who alerted me to the PBS Great American Read program I will be taking some good books instead of a bunch of cheap detective novels. Most of my favorite authors are included in the list and though they included "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, they left off Mark Twain's seminal work and generally agreed to be the first modern American novel, "HuckleBerry Finn." James Patterson has a book on the list, I have to say, not a fan. I read one book of his and started another and all I could think was this guy needs an editor. I did like his appearance on Castle though, especially when he chided Castle for putting out only one book a year. Some TV writer had a good time with that one.
Back in the days before Amazon, book day would always be a big one, when in anticipation of a winter in the woods I would head for my favorite book store and spend a couple of hundred dollars on reading material for the season. These days it's a survey of Amazon some late night, still fun but not the same.
In recent years I have been having some measure of trouble. My curiosity about new books kind of faded with a few exceptions around the heyday of the generation that brought us Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Hmmm, Mailer wasn't on that list either. Anyway I have not kept up and therefore didn't really know what to look for in new fiction and true to the adage, you can't tell a book by its cover.
I am fortunate enough to have a long-standing friend who is a voracious reader and who last year recommended several books to me and I liked them all. She is the one who informed me about the PBS book list and program and voting. She was quite excited when her favorite was named the top book of the 100 — "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Going down the list she told me about on PBS there were several I had never heard of, mostly written after Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal. Each of the book covers on the main page opens to a synopsis of the book and something about the author plus some quotes from the text, all very helpful when looking at works you've never been aware of. I chose four off the list for now, plus another book she had suggested knowing our interest in Native American history.
I am not recommending these books because I haven't read them, but they are the ones that interested me enough to buy them:
"The Book Thief," by Markus Zusak
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime." by Mark Haddon
"A Separate Peace," by John Knowles and, yes, I know this is older than Mailer.
"Looking for Alaska," by John Green and, again, yes I know it is not about the state Alaska, but about a woman named Alaska. Still, Alaska on the cover is a natural draw.
Those are the four I picked off the list. The Native American history book is:
"Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI," by David Grann.
Maybe to many readers, five books don't seem to be a lot for a winter in the woods, but I do have some cheap mystery novels I bought earlier, plus I plan to spend much of this winter working on my own potential addition to the next list. I would say wish me luck, but it's easier than that, simply, hard work or as H.L. Mencken wrote, "It's easy you just sit at the keyboard until beads of blood form on your forehead."
Oh, one other thing. Thanks to Amazon and my excessive use of my credit card late at night under the influence of some adult beverage, I had enough points accumulated to get all those books for a total of $4.46 including shipping. As always I hope the authors get the full royalty despite what I paid for their works.
Now, just add snow.
Here's link to the PBS list: The Great American Read
And here's an extra special treat. The entire finale.
Appreciation
Isn't it ironic?
May 28, 2018
Being a copy editor can be even worse than a teacher when it comes to correcting other people's grammar and spelling. Having been one on and off for fifty years, the compulsion might be stronger in me than in most, but over the years I've learned even the best of friends don't appreciate your efforts to improve their use of the language. After a while I've even been able to read facebook posts without editing, except once in a while being outraged at what someone says it's easy to flash on some flagrant misuse of the language just to add to the ridicule such people so richly deserve.
Along with spelling and grammar and just as important is the over use of words and phrases including clichés. Often such usage will insinuate its way into a whole country of writers especially since the advent of the Internet. One day at a newspaper where I worked a reporter used the word "roughly" when referring to an inexact measure, as in "the car weighed roughly 1,200 pounds." Within weeks every reporter at the paper was using "roughly." A couple that are particularly bothersome are "meet up" and "back in," both of which add an unnecessary word, as in " they had planned to meet up back in 1998. First of all the verb is "meet,” not "meet up." Secondly "back in" is superfluous and redundant: "in 1998" means the same thing without sounding like a hillbilly; But all that is background,
A week or so ago I went to a memorial for a friend of mine who also was a copy editor for most of his adult life. He had quite an effect on my life because he was the fellow who would hire me back at the newspaper when I came in off the water or out of the woods so broke I had no idea where I would live or how I would eat. He did that four times.
I hadn't intended to speak at the memorial; I had never done it before and I am quite uncomfortable talking with two people at once, let alone a roomful. But an idea had been floating around in my head and when the microphone was passed close to me I took a deep breath and grabbed it. I opened with something like this: "As I look around this room, I see several people Jim hired over the years. Well, I hold the record; he hired me four times." There is a fine line between lightening the atmosphere in a mostly serious situation and bad taste but when people laughed comfortably, it felt like I was on solid ground. I went through a brief recollection of my interactions with him, emphasizing all that he had done for me over the years. Then I asked how many people in the room were writers; and how many were editors. A few hands raised to each. I pointed out that each of us had probably lost someone over the years and that memories of those people tended to pop into mind at odd times.
Then I said something like this. I am going to give you something to remember Jim by. From now on, every time you go to write or encounter in something you are editing, the word "iconic," stop and reflect for a moment and ask yourself "what would Jim do?" Then leave it out.
Again it got a comfortable laugh and his wife even smiled at me, so I assumed I hadn't stepped over that line and sat down.
Since then two people who were there brought up "iconic" when we were talking, and I am guessing most of them will feel a twinge when they see the word and maybe in memorializing my friend I have managed in a small way to begin the process to take an overused and misused word out of the national syntax.
2017
Influence, a double-edged sword
September 17, 2017
This came up as a conversation on facebook today. A peek into the past. Seems like half the influences in life are the ones you have to overcome rather than ones that help you along.
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| Originally published by The Adult Side of Tumbler |
More about the writing life
2010
OK, I lied
April 8, 2010
This subject just doesn’t want to go away, at least in my own mind, although I have heard from a couple good friends who are accomplished writers on this subject. As I have thought about “writing what you know” (and before Twisted River) I have questioned it before. Of course what you do know gives you insight, but still so limiting. One example I have, came through setting up a high school writing class.
Here is another voice on the subject, My friend and a wonderful writer, Patricia Monaghan:
"Your comments on Irving's questioning of "write what you know" reminded me of when Stanley Elkin came up to Alaska. He was brought up to do readings etc, and I got to drive him from Anchorage to Homer, or was it the other way around. Anyway, he was full of sage advice. Like, one time over drinks when I was complaining that my editor (I'd published my first book and really wanted to sell a second) wanted me to do something I wasn't very excited about. Stanley asked what I wanted to write about, and I said sun goddesses, but no one was interested. "Well, if you don't write the books you want to write, who's gonna?" he asked. I had no answer to that. So I spent years writing the sun goddess book which was in print for six months, but it was still the best thing to do.
Incidentally, the teacher afterward told me she had never thought of including fiction and would I let her keep my teaching notes. I did. And, they must have worked for her because I was never invited back.
And I will make no more promises to stop talking about writing any more.
April 8, 2010
This subject just doesn’t want to go away, at least in my own mind, although I have heard from a couple good friends who are accomplished writers on this subject. As I have thought about “writing what you know” (and before Twisted River) I have questioned it before. Of course what you do know gives you insight, but still so limiting. One example I have, came through setting up a high school writing class.
A friend had told the teacher about me and she asked me to come talk about nature writing. It was a nature writing class, sort of aimed at observing and journaling, so I thought in order to say something new I would try how nature writing is used in fiction that is not particularly about nature.
My favorite example of that is Norman Mailer's description of the Connecticut salt marshes in Tough Guys Don't Dance. It was one of the best pieces of nature writing I have ever read. I remember stopping after being enthralled with how much the author knew about it, and when I came alert and realized it was Mailer I was actually surprised. Yet, do we think of Mailer as a nature writer? NO. Was he writing about what he knew? Not really. Did he do it well? Yes.
Or, you could say we are always writing about what we know, as in looking at new things through our own old, tired personal perspective. Did Truman Capote know anything about cold-blooded murder? It goes on and on. And right now I apologize to all my students I told to write what they know, except I do remember telling them take what you know and expand it into new areas. So maybe I am OK.
"Anyway, over a dinner at some roadhouse, Stanley started talking about the "write what you know" idea. He said it was exactly right, because you would provide really perfect details that way. Like, he said, when he wrote about Chicago, where he was born, he could describe in detail the Guatamalan-Chinese restaruants. He then went on to expatiate on the perfect of this recipe and that recipe. And all the time I was thinking, "Guatamalan-Chinese?" I finally asked him if he was putting me on. He grinned. "That was fun. I was just making that all up," he said. It was weirdly believable stuff, except--Guatamalan Chinese?"
Here is another voice on the subject, My friend and a wonderful writer, Patricia Monaghan:
"Your comments on Irving's questioning of "write what you know" reminded me of when Stanley Elkin came up to Alaska. He was brought up to do readings etc, and I got to drive him from Anchorage to Homer, or was it the other way around. Anyway, he was full of sage advice. Like, one time over drinks when I was complaining that my editor (I'd published my first book and really wanted to sell a second) wanted me to do something I wasn't very excited about. Stanley asked what I wanted to write about, and I said sun goddesses, but no one was interested. "Well, if you don't write the books you want to write, who's gonna?" he asked. I had no answer to that. So I spent years writing the sun goddess book which was in print for six months, but it was still the best thing to do.
Incidentally, the teacher afterward told me she had never thought of including fiction and would I let her keep my teaching notes. I did. And, they must have worked for her because I was never invited back.
And I will make no more promises to stop talking about writing any more.
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Pelicans? Really?
April 9, 2010
Remember how we used to watch Northern Exposure just looking for the writers’ Alaska mistakes? Most of us have read a book or two where the author made some little mistake about Alaska that made us question the credibility, even in fiction.
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Remember how we used to watch Northern Exposure just looking for the writers’ Alaska mistakes? Most of us have read a book or two where the author made some little mistake about Alaska that made us question the credibility, even in fiction.
Living in a relatively exotic place you find writers who attempt to capture it often make those little mistakes in detail that can ruin the whole work. Some we can excuse and move on, some we can’t. Often it would have taken a minute of research to get it right. One example that comes to mind was in a book I found and read on a boat one time. It was a mystery novel about Russians spying in the Bering Sea. It was a good story and I was enjoying it until a pelican landed on a fishing boat near the Aleutian Islands. Before I questioned it out loud, I did look up pelicans but my suspicions were correct. They are definitely a southern bird, or at least were before global warming. As far as I know none have ventured this far north so far. The problem was this book involved some rather sophisticated technology and I found after the pelican episode, I didn’t believe the author’s expertise with that subject either. It ruined what otherwise was a pretty good tale.
Maybe the most outrageous work about Alaska by a non-Alaskan was a short novel called Slade’s Glacier. In it, the author used every Alaska cliche known to man but only got about 200 pages out of all of them. The best was a guy in Juneau who found a mastodon that had melted out of a glacier and fed the meat to his sled dogs.
Alaskans see this a lot, but I am sure so do most people, especially those who live in exotic locations with unique geography, nature and people (is there a place on earth that doesn’t have those?).
What is all this about? It is about writing what you DON’T know. And, in it is what causes the admonition to write what you know. But it can be overcome. A couple of books by Outside writers who got it right: Sailor Song by Ken Kesey and Coming Into the Country by John McPhee. Kesey’s book is set in a town patterned after Cordova, Alaska. As far as I know it did not do as well as his more famous works and he was criticized in Cordova for not including this or that, especially Native culture. He told them another bit of writing advice, a good novel is about people and can happen anywhere, he simply chose to set his there.
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When I write, I feel like an armless, legless
man with a crayon in his mouth.― Kurt
Vonnegut
Thoughts on Mother’s Day, I’m just sayin’
May 9, 2010
An e-mail conversation with Patricia Monaghan
are we losing it? here is my son's mother's day post
"Word to your Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Thanks and respect!"
-- TJ
There are two friends (young) on FB who communicate in some patois that I haven't a clue about. It's all "playa" this and "moman" (mo' man?) that. I read such postings and remember "back in the day" that I said things like "wow, far out," but I really didn't say them very often, and certainly not in mixed (age) company. not only has the language deteriorated, but so have manners. But then, I'm officially old now so I can bitch like that...word!
-- PM
S'up yo
One of the real challenges of the new age copy editor is battling this
patois getting into print. there seems to be a major assault on the
language in terms of shortening some words and compounding others.
And worse, the people actually writing this stuff don't seem to care.
I don't know how many times I have put bio and info back to their
original form. Lite for light comes to mind and it goes on and on.
Somewhere along the line it became acceptable to write veggies instead
of vegetables. As you might be able to tell, I could go on and on
but I get tired of it myself. I was so proud of my son when he used “you're” properly in a facebook
post.
I'm just sayin'
--TJ
You should be correcting college papers. But actually, one expects marginal literacy there. But writers for the paper? I am also just sayin'. I just distinguish between That Stuff and slang, though. I rather like slang. Except for "at the end of the day," which isn't so much slang as some kind of bureaucratize jargon. But slang is peppy and fun, in it place (tends not to stay there). Emoticons? Gimmeabreak. And these Palinesque uses of the ampersand and suchlike (or is that amprsnd&schlk) which as far as I can tell is just a way of squeezing more words, but less content, into Facebook postings. I am a dinosaur, I admit. I am saying harumph a lot these days. remember when "a lot" was considered very downscale? have to go figure out placement for two paw-paw trees now. We don't know if they will survive this far north, but in a sheltered spot maybe? w/memories of back-in-day
--PM
I like slang, too, but in its place. I always get a kick out of the new phrasing that rips across the language but alot of it (on purpose) getting into what is supposed to be proper language bothers me. I think every writer particularly newspaper reporters, should sit down with a 10 year old kid some time and go through a newspaper. First all the sex and violence will have you rushing past pages and turning to sports in a hurry, as if that is even safe any more, but the language usage.... but , dad my teacher says.... We are supposed to set the example and it is not happening. They are bombarded with the wrong stuff before they have a chance to learn what is correct.
I was out playing with a rose bush today. Very amateur at this but I enjoy it. And I seem to have good luck. 7 bucks for an "almost wild" rose bush at Fred Meyer. If I kill it, I won't lose much. I have been slowly getting my little flower garden ready. I actually had one geranium last the winter indoors and now has four blooms on it. Not supposed to put things out until June here, but I took the rose out of its package and put it in a big pot that I can move in and out of doors by day and night... we shall see.
Did you really mean to say alot? My stars.
I was blessed with good editors. I thought I was pretty good when I got out of college, but I remember Larry Davies peering over his glasses at me and saying "committee. Now when did that become a plural noun?" I was always writing "the committee took their time deciding..." and so forth. I learned more grammar in a year of working for Larry than four years in college. But I did have some pretty good primary instruction, though. I think I can still diagram sentences.
We oldsters are charged with complaining about the young. Don't you feel conventional?
-- PM
I did mean "alot" did you not notice the words in parentheses after it:?
I also had some good basic education and then worked with some good editors. A book about Max Perkins who edited Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Caldwell and Wolfe also helped. And another thing is working with some good writers over the years, including yourself, that, too, is an education in editing.
And age? Conventional? I feel empowered.
-- TJ
Word
--PM
Represent
-- TJ
May 9, 2010
An e-mail conversation with Patricia Monaghan
are we losing it? here is my son's mother's day post
"Word to your Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Thanks and respect!"
-- TJ
There are two friends (young) on FB who communicate in some patois that I haven't a clue about. It's all "playa" this and "moman" (mo' man?) that. I read such postings and remember "back in the day" that I said things like "wow, far out," but I really didn't say them very often, and certainly not in mixed (age) company. not only has the language deteriorated, but so have manners. But then, I'm officially old now so I can bitch like that...word!
-- PM
S'up yo
One of the real challenges of the new age copy editor is battling this
patois getting into print. there seems to be a major assault on the
language in terms of shortening some words and compounding others.
And worse, the people actually writing this stuff don't seem to care.
I don't know how many times I have put bio and info back to their
original form. Lite for light comes to mind and it goes on and on.
Somewhere along the line it became acceptable to write veggies instead
of vegetables. As you might be able to tell, I could go on and on
but I get tired of it myself. I was so proud of my son when he used “you're” properly in a facebook
post.
I'm just sayin'
--TJ
You should be correcting college papers. But actually, one expects marginal literacy there. But writers for the paper? I am also just sayin'. I just distinguish between That Stuff and slang, though. I rather like slang. Except for "at the end of the day," which isn't so much slang as some kind of bureaucratize jargon. But slang is peppy and fun, in it place (tends not to stay there). Emoticons? Gimmeabreak. And these Palinesque uses of the ampersand and suchlike (or is that amprsnd&schlk) which as far as I can tell is just a way of squeezing more words, but less content, into Facebook postings. I am a dinosaur, I admit. I am saying harumph a lot these days. remember when "a lot" was considered very downscale? have to go figure out placement for two paw-paw trees now. We don't know if they will survive this far north, but in a sheltered spot maybe? w/memories of back-in-day
--PM
I like slang, too, but in its place. I always get a kick out of the new phrasing that rips across the language but alot of it (on purpose) getting into what is supposed to be proper language bothers me. I think every writer particularly newspaper reporters, should sit down with a 10 year old kid some time and go through a newspaper. First all the sex and violence will have you rushing past pages and turning to sports in a hurry, as if that is even safe any more, but the language usage.... but , dad my teacher says.... We are supposed to set the example and it is not happening. They are bombarded with the wrong stuff before they have a chance to learn what is correct.
I was out playing with a rose bush today. Very amateur at this but I enjoy it. And I seem to have good luck. 7 bucks for an "almost wild" rose bush at Fred Meyer. If I kill it, I won't lose much. I have been slowly getting my little flower garden ready. I actually had one geranium last the winter indoors and now has four blooms on it. Not supposed to put things out until June here, but I took the rose out of its package and put it in a big pot that I can move in and out of doors by day and night... we shall see.
Rambling here
word
Okay, we have the pawpaw in. Plus its friend/mate/spermdonor, which isn't looking too healthy. I'm going to buy another for insurance. Does that make a menage a trees? (If one partner is nasty, do they have a menage a trois)
Did you really mean to say alot? My stars. I was blessed with good editors. I thought I was pretty good when I got out of college, but I remember Larry Davies peering over his glasses at me and saying "committee. Now when did that become a plural noun?" I was always writing "the committee took their time deciding..." and so forth. I learned more grammar in a year of working for Larry than four years in college. But I did have some pretty good primary instruction, though. I think I can still diagram sentences. We oldsters are charged with complaining about the young. Don't you feel conventional?
-- PM
I did mean "alot" did you not notice the words in parentheses after it:?
I also had some good basic education and then worked with some good editors. A book about Max Perkins who edited Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Caldwell and Wolfe also helped. And another thing is working with some good writers over the years, including yourself, that, too, is an education in editing. And age? Conventional? I feel empowered.
-- TJ
Word
--PM
Represent
-- TJ
|
Originality
May 14, 2010
All right. It is or should be the goal of every artist to be original. How many actually succeed? The word derivative probably wouldn't exist, at least in that context, if many did. For a writer to be original, well if you think you are, don't read Shakespeare, because just about everything written about since, was written by him first.
My father once told me there were only 39 basic plots. A few years later I figured that one out: That's how many shows there were in a television season at the time. Does that mean now there are only 20 plots? If it is indeed finite, I would say it is the number of plays Shakespeare wrote, whatever that number is. But, of course it is infinite, not challenged much these days, but infinite nonetheless. I recall once saying something original. We had had a volcano eruption. I was staying with friend and for a reason I cannot recall at the moment I had my huge Weber barbecue grill with me. I looked out the window and said to my friend, " Maybe I had better go out there and clear the volcano ash off my grill." Thinking about it, I doubt anybody else in the world had ever said that. Original, I believe.
With that in mind, now I am wondering if this is original. In many, many sitcoms, the main guy has a sidekick who is a little off, maybe a slob, maybe stupid, maybe conniving. Think Maynard G. Krebs, think Joey, there are many. So in the slob sort of sidekick format, tonight I was talking with my niece on line about my daughter's wedding plans and having some frozen fried chicken that I managed to overcook so the breading was crispy. It was the Banquet variety which my son and I call mystery chicken because many of the pieces don't look like they came from any chicken we have ever seen.
So here I am alone in my little bachelor house, chatting online, nibbling on mystery chicken and watching a "Bones" rerun on TV. What I wasn't watching was where all the little crispy crumbs of chicken were falling. Now most people would probably use a napkin to clean them up, right? I DID have a napkin in my lap but it didn't do much good. What does the slobby sidekick do? Not sure. What I did was reach for my Dyson industrial grade hand vacuum cleaner. End of problem, though I probably could have used a different accessory that wouldn't have sucked my shirt in several times. This might be original. I am pretty sure Shakespeare didn't write about it, although I will bet that some king or Roman in his writing did something unusual to rid himself of food residue. It does seem an effective way to deal with the problem though I am pretty sure I will not be taking the Dyson to my daughter's wedding dinner. (Although the slob sidekick in the sitcom might... it would be the kicker at the end at the main guy's wedding, the last thing you see before the fadeout is him pulling out his trusty Dyson to pick up a spill on the floor, or table favors, or the groom's tie, or picking the wallet out of a rich uncle's pocket, or...)
So, for now, at the very least I am claiming originality. Now the work begins to expand it into an entirely new plot. Believe me, this is not a breath-holding situation.
Addendum: This is embarrassing. For fun I looked it up. Shakespeare wrote 38 plays that survive. Could my father have been right? Just one number off? I am sticking with the number of shows in a TV season. Or, and this might be intriguing, is there one plot out there Shakespeare didn't write? Like maybe that thirtieth song of Robert Johnson's?
Conversations with Patricia: Part Deux
October 8, 2010
Settling back down to write. Trip was good until the weather turned dreadful and I caught a cold. Expensive way to watch TV: pay for a hotel in another country. But drugs are good...xx PM
That's good to know there are good drugs in Ireland, I will keep that in mind.--tj
The drugs came with us. Codeine. Stops the coughing, and most thought. Also makes everything glitter prettily.
I could use a glitter view of life... the view was tempered some when the lady of my dreams started wearing meat.
Yes, the meat dress was...interesting. It looked better than I expected it to, though, I must confess. I'm struggling to get back into writing after weeks away. You know, writing is hard....
Hard, really? I heard you artists lived on inspiration and literature just flows from your fingers when the mood strikes
Hahahahahahahaha It takes me days to get into writing when I've been away. I feel all squirrelly. Have been reading PalinGates for inspiration. Have changed a few words here and there but feel like I don't remember how to write. Y'know??
OH btw speaking of struggling with writing, I have been invited into a writing project and I am having a crisis of confidence wondering if I can actually do it. Some Iditarod people want to do a coffee table book of the first 10 years. One nice thing about it is that two of the musher from that era demanded that I be included and several others agreed. Honestly I just don't know if I have it any more to write for publication. (AND, honest, that was not a cheap hint for you to tell me how great I am) I really am very insecure about it.
I won't take up your cheap hint....I'll answer seriously. Writing really is hard, and self-exposing even when we don't seem to be writing about ourselves. That's what people don't really realize, the level of skinlessness it takes to write about anything at all. Once upon a time, I thought it got easier. Now I think it gets harder. I have taken to saying that I don't like writing, I like having written. And I do like having written. But man, the writing part is so darned painful...The only thing worse than writing is not writing, though. You'll feel bad either way, so I'd say, write the book and feel bad that way, rather than feeling bad about NOT writing it., Pretty morbid, huh.
For comments about not remembering how to write, see previous message. Over years of writing, I recall maybe an hour of pure inspiration. I also remember a morning where I took seven showers rather than let my mind get cluttered with life stuff and interfere with what I was unable to write
Seven showers. Now that is some record. I, for one, prefer cleaning house as a way of avoiding writing. I have even painted walls rather than writing. My house is always very clean when I am avoiding writing. Is there something about cleanliness and writing-avoidance here?????
Ha ha I don't think it is cleanliness as much as mindlessness. Remember Mary Tyler Moore always rearranged her cupboards when she was upset? So in the area of avoidance your have a clean house, I have a clean white raisin of a body.
You know what, Patricia, that is some of the best advice about writing I think I have ever seen anyone give. Although I am not totally enamored with what I have written. I have always felt I never cracked through my own mental barrier to that lucid insightful masterpiece I feel is lurking in there somewhere. It is like that blog comment some time ago about when did I start to "used to be a writer." And, I do recall moments of inspiration that were absolutely wonderful. I can think of only one other experience when I felt more alive and fulfilled. The self exposing got to me recently and I turned off my blog. When it got to 1,000 hits (I am sure you have more than that on your web page), I suddenly felt overexposed. I had just started that blog as an outlet for what little writing I have been doing lately, never intending for it to be widely read. I never even told many people about it. Mostly it was just for me. But, my view of the world isn't everybody's and when people started making judgments about me based on some spouting off on the blog I kind of panicked. The final thing was about the meat dress when my sister posted on facebook "I thought he just bought a new suit." Oh dear. I don't want some people reading what I think., On your words I will give the Iditarod book a try.
I'm glad I can help a bit. Only another writer friend can understand. I have SO MUCH trouble with the blog stuff and the FB stuff and all. Having the secret FB page helped; I feel I can be a bit honest there, not thinking about the writer-persona. (Personna? Perssona? How the @#$#$ do you spell that?)
I don't have a counter on my web page at all...I don't want to know. I have occasionally googled myself, looking for something I know is out there--and found weird reviews of my work and gotten freaked out beyond words. (Did I ever tell you there was a brief right-wing campaign against me for working at a Catholic school but writing about goddesses?)
I am sure one reason I hate Sarah Palin so much is that she WANTS exposure, and I hate it.
Some days I think I need a serious psychiatrist. But I have never gone because I think the psychoses are what I draw from to write.
Who was it who said he didn't want to see a therapist because, if his demons went away, his angels might go to? Was that Rilke? For me, I someday hope to be OUT of therapy....xx PM
Why are we writers, again?
October 22, 2010
The following is an instant messaging conversation with my friend Patricia who died in 2012 long before her time.
I am having the @##$est time trying to get back to work on the novel. Everything looks just stupid. I've been trying unsuccessfully for two days.. ISH, as they say in Minnesota...xx PM
There are X's and O's to type. I kind of hate to tell you this, but I learned over the years not to read back until I had a complete draft. When you said you fixed a word here and there I was a little worried you had done that and might be talking yourself out of the worth of the project. To get back to it, all I ever found I could do was try to stifle the past (of the project) and start off in a new direction. Maybe just for a flight of fancy take off on a bit of a sub plot. and, there is always the shower
I actually have a full draft done. I'm into the revisions. I have about half revised. I put a personal deadline of Jan 1 to get it done, and I think it's doable, if I can ever make myself believe I should spend my time this way. I know a lot has to do with momentum, and I lost that by taking a month off. I tried to work while traveling but that did NOT work. I have to be home to concentrate. Writing sucks, you know? What a stupid way to spend your time...ugh..PM
Just think of the joy of one well-turned phrase. You can do this. Maybe a sip of wine, maybe not. One thing I have done in the past, too is look carefully at one character and see how I could flesh that person out.
Ah, that is an idea. I would take some wine to help jump start except I've got yoga in two hours. I did make a few tiny changes that smooth the text. I know from past experience if I can just keep butt applied to chair for long enough, I can get momentum going again. Right now inertia is going in the other direction!! xx PM
One of my favorite phrases: this inertia is getting me nowhere.
Now imagine my dilemma: do I keep responding because I enjoy our talks, which would be selfish as it also encourages you to procrastinate, or
do I say um well this: I have a New Yorker cartoon where I write at the cabin. In it a writer is slumped over his typewriter holding his forehead. He is on a porch probably in the Hamptons and his wife is standing over him. She says Picture this, the rush of publication, store windows filled with your work, a nationwide publicity tour which puts you on Leno sandwiched between Sandra Bullock and an ocelot from the LA zoo, all this while the paperback bidding and movie rights soar to insane unimaginable amounts.
NOW HIT THOSE KEYS
OMG You have that cartoon? I had it on my office door for years. HITTING THOSE KEYS
There is another one.
Same scene, but this time the wife is holding a sandwich
She says. Try this: A woman spends her summer waiting on her artist husband, sublimating her own life while she supports his creative drive until one day she cracks, turns into a sado-maso killer whore. Now eat your sandwich.
Okay, I never cut that one out, but I saw it. I once performed in a line dance singing "nympho lesbo killer whore! nympho lesbo killer WHORE!" at a women's conference. Okay, now even I know I am procrastinating....
haha what do you mean NOW? Am I going to have to haul out the Updike poem?
Yes you are!!
All right! heavy artillery
I always have a copy of this wherever I write
MARCHING THROUGH A NOVEL
By John Updike
Each morning my characters
greet me with misty faces
willing, though chilled, to muster
for another day's progress
through the albumen quicksand,
the marsh of blank paper.
With instant obedience
they change clothes and mannerisms,
drop a speech impediment,
develop a motive backwards
to suit the deed that's done.
They extend skeletal arms
for the handcuffs of contrivance,
slog through docilely
maneuvers of coincidence,
look toward me hopefully,
their general and quartermaster,
for a clearer face, a bigger heart.
I do what I can for them
but it is not enough.
Forward is my order,
though their bandages unravel
and some have no backbones
and some turn traitor
like a head with two faces
and some fall forgotten
in the trenchwork of loose threads,
poor puffs of cartoon flack.
Forward. Believe me, I love them
though I march them to finish them off.
THE VERY NEXT DAY
I got a teeeeeeny little bit of writing done today. One thing I do know, if you keep at it, you usually wind up getting something done. xx PM