Books Part 3

This time around are three completely different books; each is an incredible piece of literature for very different reasons.

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
This story has been told already, several times in fact. It has been the subject of at least two other books, including a pictorial of the actual events as captured by the ship's photographer. Lansing's style of story-telling, however, takes the reader far beyond the retelling of a harrowing event. He spends time developing characters, much like a novelist would, and he begins with the ship herself as she struggles to survive long enough to see her crew off safely. Riveting, fascinating and sometimes terribly disturbing, I could not put this down.


Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr
This is a follow-up to Karr's earlier memoir, The Liars' Club, where she danced deftly between observing her parent's demons and fending them off. Here she attacks only her demons, and does so in a brutally honest and incredibly creative way. Not may authors can get away with prose like:

"Through that fishbowl lens, you’ve been looking for the truth most of your life. Recently that wide eye has come to settle on me and I’ve felt like Odysseus, albeit with less guile and fewer escape routes, the lens itself embodying the one-eyed Cyclops."

AND

"I shit you not!"

And once again she goes beyond the naval gazing effect of the confessional memoir to share her descent into alcoholism and climb out into the arms of her newly discovered God. So good on so many levels.


The Kiss by Kathryn Harrison
This is not for the faint of heart. It is the story surrounding Harrison's incestuous relationship with her estranged father. There are no real details of the sexual encounters included, only the raw emotional truth that resulted. I kept asking myself how something so horrific could be written so beautifully. I have read some of her fiction, which is quite good, but the level of writing here is above and beyond the other attempts at retelling her story through fictional characters. As difficult as this must have been for her to write (and I once heard her tell a story about just that) the truth truly set her creative powers free.

Silly Ol' Internet!

I have been honing my online research skills for a few years now. Investigating my (deceased) childhood abuser has proven to be very challenging and so has forced me to learn to be creative and patient in my searches.

It has also taught me that although we are in the new technology age, the information age, that not a ton of information is available online. Okay, there is a ton, but not as much as one might think or as accurate. In fact, unless one chooses to have an online presence, it is difficult to track someone down without having access to government records (many of which are simply not available to honest lay-people).

For instance, I spent years looking for my good friend Pat. I knew that he left the area when he joined the Air Force, but I didn't know if he was still on active duty, where he had settled, etc. The military doesn't exactly post regular updates about where its people are living/working. I actually sent out several emails over the years hoping to track him down. Eventually it worked, abut 10 years after I started. He made an obscure posting on an obscure website years ago that happened to have a still active email address attached to it. We have been in touch ever since, and I eventually convinced him to join Facebook for more regular contact.

Recently I have been searching another old friend, Flo. I heard from a mutual friend, who is nearly invisible on-line or off, that she had married her long-time sweetheart and said honey was now teaching. I stumbled across his (the honey's) name because he is an active musician and pops up occasionally online. About 5 years ago I sent off an email to the band address asking about her, but heard nothing. This week I found him on MySpace and sent him a message. So far nothing.

Then I found a listing for them both in San Francisco--IN THE ONLINE WHITE PAGES. D'Oh!! I could just call her at home!

That is way too easy. Calling someone at home? Isn't that a little out there? I mean, email is a nice safe way to make contact and just as easy a way to avoid someone. I'm going to have to think about this...

With Some Explanation

Part 2 of my list of favorite non-fiction books, but this time I'm going to include some exploration of what I enjoyed about each one.

Fire in a Cane Break: The Last Mass Lynching in America by Laura Wexler
Lynchings are not a new concept, and one reason many stories are still timely is because the silence surrounding the perpetrators is slowly cracking. This leads, in a few cases at least, to prosecution of the evil doers. This book takes the time to solve a decades old mystery. The author spent probably hundreds of hours doing research and tracking down the living survivors, guilty and innocent, of a horrific and unjustified mass lynching. Wexler takes what could be a fairly simple story and tells it in a way that is always riveting. I find her combination of reporting and suspense building to be inspiring.

Wrapped in Rainbows: Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd
I originally purchased this book because I wanted to work with Valerie in my graduate program. I did work with her, but didn't read the book until a few years later in preparation to teach a Hurston novel for a community college English class. This book is the first time that someone attempted to unravel the various stories that Hurston told about herself to get to the truth of an extraordinary life. A fascinating story, and great insight, about a fascinating woman.

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Why are we fascinated with serial killers? Never mind, don't try and answer that. Just read this book. Larson does a wonderful job of telling the stories of the Chicago World's Fair just before the turn of the 20th century, one of the first serial killers who preyed on people who flocked to the fair, and the detective who cracked the murder cases. The author's only flaw is his tendency to take on the lofty tone and sentence structure of the men of late 19th century Chicago, and to refer to historical happenings that were (sometimes only peripherally) related to the story as if we all know all the stories. It sucks to be on the outside of an inside joke without enough information to find the story yourself.

Let's Not Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
I could relate to most of Fuller's experience even though she grew up in Africa on a ranch and I grew up in a small town in the U.S. The woman simply has a great way of telling a story. An interesting life doesn't hurt.

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
On one hand this is an incredibly inspiring book. A young girl lives through cancer, the chemotherapy and years of failed reconstructive surgeries. She is a world-class poet and all around fun gal. On the other hand it is depressing because she ultimately died of a drug overdose. It is still a great read.

A reason for book lists

Here comes the cliche:
In order to be a good writer, an aspiring writer must be a reader.

I do read a lot. I have a very bad habit of going from one book to the next, a bit like an addict I suppose (big surprise). I don't always take the time to digest the contents before I move onto the next fix.

Instead of just chewing them up and spitting them out, I thought it would be interesting to begin a list of non-fiction books I have read (and enjoyed) in the last few years. I'll do this periodically, and possibly add in novels as I go.

Consider this Part 1. Some new and some classics (in no particular order):
The Possibility of Everything by Hope Edelman
Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore
Columbine by Dave Cullen
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Followed by a nice gentle rejection

The agent from NM that I queried has apparently moved and left no forwarding address as the snail-mail query I sent out was returned undeliverable. There IS a typo in her address, but not enough to keep the letter from making it to the proper destination. There is the possibility that the agent herself didn't like the typo and returned it unopened for that reason alone. She has already ignored my email query (even though one of her clients TOLD me to email her), so after sending an email request for her correct snail-mail address and hearing nothing, I may just give up. I can live with that.

The NY agent who was recommended by another friend sent a very nice rejection today after looking over my proposal, summary and sample chapter. It was short, sweet and to the point. Nothing really to complain about.

Am I disappointed, yes. Devastated? No. Absolutely not.

I'd like to do more research and writing before I send out any more queries or copies of the proposal. ALTHOUGH if someone wanted to send me to an agent, I wouldn't grouse about it.

And another referral...

I sent my proposal to a good writer friend. He read it through and then suggested I send it off to an agent friend of his.

Nice!

Even if nothing comes of the referral, it is very validating to get that kind of response from another writer.

I still haven't heard from the last agent I queried, so I checked out online info about her. My buddy at AWP had suggested that I shoot her of a quick email to see if she would like to take a look at my proposal. As it turns out, she doesn't accept email queries. That is kind of frustrating, especially as I should have checked more closely before I sent out the email. So I will print the query out (and of course doing a quick revision) and resend it via snail-mail today.

And with any luck I will have the energy to do some creative writing today and avoid grading papers.

A Published Essay!!!

Can be found at this wonderful online journal:

http://storyscapejournal.com/

And There It Goes...

I just sent off a query email to a literary agent suggested by a good acquaintance. Let's be honest here, a referral from one writer to another for an agent is like gold. Or at least that is my perspective today. I might not feel the same way in a month when I have heard nothing from her.

Interesting article about book marketing

Stimulating Conversation Blog

Congratulations!

"We love your piece, 'One Simple List,' and would like to publish this in Storyscape Journal."

*sigh*

I'm a happy camper.

Oh, and they'd like to include it in their print version. Hah!

We love your piece, "One Simple List," and would like to publish this in Storyscape Journal.

"Please Read Previous Issues"

The warning we often see embedded in submission guidelines is to read past issues before submitting. Make sure that our work is in line with the kinds of writing that they publish. Make sure that the subject matter I prefer to write about is their idea of "literary."

But what if I read previous submissions and simply do not like the writing that you publish? What if I find themes of that particular poem to be uninteresting? What if I don't find anything included in that journal to be up to my personal standards? What if the call for submissions, or the submissions information page has typos?

I suppose then that I can feel superior, un-bookmark the cite, delete the email from my inbox, or simply not return for further reading.

It's nice to have some feeling of control over where I WANT to send my work.

Inspiration

One thing that aspiring writers hear over and over again is that we must read. Reading is the path to learning to write. By reading we will subconsciously upload the grammar rules, the magic of the fusion of dependent and independent clauses. We will come to understand coordination and sub-ordination; we will absorb the rules of organization and development. We will follow the path set forth by writers who are so very good at what they do that they are published in books that we can grab in our hands, or upload onto our screens.

I don't disagree with this, but I think the reailty goes much farther than that. The less aspiring I become and the more comfortable I am with the writing life, the more I find that reading inspires me. It always feels good to connect to a writer through their art, that is not a new feeling. But to near the end of a book and see visions of my own works swirling between my eyes and the pages in my hands is more powerful a feeling than I might of anticipated had I thought about it.

Feeling inspired at the beginning of a book is nothing particularly new to me. I often make notes about structure or pacing when I am on the first dive into a new book. The inspiration and effort ultimately wanes as I become more immersed in the pages, my notes set aside and my mind wrapped fully within the prose. But later, when I am nearing the end, reading so quickly because I am anxious for each word, then re-reading because I don't want to miss anything (and more importantly don't really want the book to end), I am finding that I am filled with a new kind of inspiration that verges on overwhelming. I feel my own stories are connected to the words of another in a different way than I had been led to believe.

And I like it.

:-)

Revision Update

I did hear back from the editor. She would love to have me send her a revision of my earlier submission. Now the questions. What does it need? What can I do to strengthen it, update it, make it better? Suddenly I see the value in having a schedule that regularly allows me to write so that I can keep current within a writing group. Harumph.

To Revise or Not To Revise

Well over a year ago I submitted a (hastily written but well proof-read) essay to be considered in an anthology. This week I heard from the editor with an update about the glitches she has encountered in trying to complete the project and get in published. The gist of the email was, if this is taking too long for you, let me know and I'll pull your submission out of the pile.

My attitude is not that this is taking too long, the piece was written specifically for her anthology, but that what I really need to do is a complete rewrite. Now, my piece may be in her pile of rejections already; I do believe that the email was simply a courtesy at large, not meant just for folks she was considering including. I wrote her back and gave her the out of rejecting the essay outright, or leaving it all alone for now, or letting me do a rewrite. Not sure when or if I will get a reply, but having the information certainly makes it easier for me to let it go in general for now.

Even if it does desperately need to be rewritten.

*sigh*