Getting in Touch with my Inner Belle

So I finished 'The Book Thief' and have started Kathryn Stockett's 'The Help' a confection of my favorite kind: literature of the American South.  This one started in early 1960's Jackson, Mississippi.  (Or, Mi-ssippi, in the slow drawl of the characters.)  I adore fiction about the South: the descriptions of weather, flora, and fauna; the written dialect; completely off-the-wall characters; funny turns of phrase.  It's all so lush, rich, and languid.  It even makes this life-long New Englander slow down just a touch.    Truman Capote, Rebecca Wells, Carson McCullers, Kaye Gibbons, the goddess Eudora Welty...they are all masters of the genre.

Here's the really sad part:  I've never been south of the Mason Dixon line!

It's my favorite genre of literature, and I have zero experience with the actual region. Even my precious DOG is technically from Alabama.  She's been down South, y'all, but me...not so much.

Time to get cracking on some travel plans, mayhaps?  Or would I be terribly disappointed by the reality of something that I enjoy so much on the page?  (Putting aside the obvious negative issues around race and discrimination.  That is NOT entertaining or romantic, and I don't mean to imply any endorsement of such!)

Perhaps I should ease into it, and start in the Carolinas rather than head straight to Tennessee...

What do you think, readers?

And do pick up a Southern writer if you haven't: it's a perfect antidote to the February malaise.  Start with Capote's 'The Grass Harp'.

My Friends are Real Characters

I can't count how many times I have listened to a friend's anecdotes, stories, adventures, or philosophy, and said 'I couldn't make that ind of stuff up!'  And then I grapple with the ethical question:  since I like my friends, and they are so interesting, is it OK to turn them into characters in something I write?  Do I have to tell them first?  And then, is it less 'creative writing' and more simply documenting their stories?  Is it flattering, embarrassing, or cheating?

What do you think, readers? 

Legacy: Dead or Alive?

I've been consumed lately by worrying about my 'legacy'.  As a single with no designs on having children (why would I?  My dog is perfect!) I wonder what I'll leave 'behind' as a legacy.  Of course, a giant body of amazing literature would be great, but that's a stretch.  I need something more realistic to wrap my head around, to feel like my being alive served some sort of purpose.

But I've been thinking: perhaps my legacy isn't something I'll leave behind, but rather the difference that I can make in people's live NOW, today.  Small acts of courtesy, thoughtfulness, acknowledgement...maybe that's what I am here to do.  Maybe making small differences in people's everyday lives is enough of a legacy.  After all, what does it matter to me how I am remembered when I am gone...I'll be gone! 

I heard it put best like this:  try to be someone's miracle.  You never know what's going on in other people's lives, and someone can be having the worst, difficult, trying day of their lives.  That one small gesture, kindness, smile, whatever, might be the the best thing that happens in that person's day.  What a gift, to be responsible for making a difference to someone else.

Readers?  Do you worry about such things? 

No Excuses!

I have been quiet for far too long (well, I suppose that depends on whether you think I have something worth saying) and with no good excuse.  I had a sick spell, sure, but who hasn't this season.  Work got really busy.  So what?  Personal issues...aren't those exactly the things that inform writing in the first place?

Thank you, followers, for being there for me and continuing to encourage me.  It's a good reminder that if I really have 'write that damn novel' as a goal, I have to commit to it each day, regardless of the life's obstacles, intrusions, interruptions, and demands.  Only my own lack of commitment can cause me to fail. 

Onward and upward, and back to regular notes to you all!

As for my reading life, nearly finished with 'The Book Thief'.  Next up, Mary Karr's latest installment in her memoir series, 'Lit'.  What are you reading?

New Inspiration

So today my friend Pam read the blog, and wrote to tell me that she was born in Seoul, and described the street food vendors, for whom corn on the cob was a regular offering.  And just like that, I have a thread with which I can work to weave out the story about the woman on the T.  Thank you, Pam!

Stay tuned for a character sketch about this scene. 

This was such an exciting development:  I was devoid of any inspiration at all yesterday, and now...a long-dormant image has information that can bring it to life.  Thrilling!

Books on Writing

I seem to have a hoarding problem:  I collect books about writing.  Many, many of them.  And how many have I read in their entirety?  Oh, I would guess about one-fifth of the collection.  I seem to believe that just having them on my shelf, the spines of the books watching me as I sleep, will somehow imbue me with inspiration, inculcate me with ideas, provide me with capacity to produce pages and pages...maybe instead of working on a novel, I should be writing about writing!  At least I would buy my book, in that event!  I've even gazed titles at bookstores, picked them up, flipped through them, gotten halfway to the register, and realized, 'Oh.  Wait.  I have this one.'

What's prompted this confession?  The new addition I received today, "Making a Literary Life" by Carolyn See.  But this was a legitimate purchase!  It was recommended to me by my PUBLISHED AUTHOR friend Judith Jaeger ("The Secret Thief".  Read it.)  And, I used a gift card, so...

I hope that the A&E network doesn't find about this and create a new series, 'Hoarders Of Books About What They Should Be Doing Instead of Just Collecting Books About Writing'. 

How Do People Come Up With These Things?

One of the things that makes me terribly envious are writers who are able to come up with very unique means of telling their stories.  I am one of those first-person narrators, story told chronologically, sort of writers.  A bit vanilla.  But some people are so clever with the ways they tell their tales.  Right now I am reading 'The Book Thief', which uses death as the narrator, and has all kinds of funny breaks in the action to do asides to the reader.  When it's done badly, it's just annoying, but when it's done well, it makes the book unforgettable.


What about you, readers:  Any favorite alterntative tales out there?