What I'm Reading Now - Winter 2018

It's been way too long since I have shared some of my favorite titles.  Like my list of a year and a half ago, I pick up books for a variety of reasons - recommendations from friends, authors who are coming to visit Portland at The Literary Arts series I now attend with a dear, dear friend, a recommendation from my writing coach and mentor (I consider her this; we haven't talked about it), Whitney Otto, or from some thread I follow on a list in the New York Times, or Washington Post, or by Anne Patchett's blog, musing, or on social media.  Given all the sources, my choices are not as eclectic as you may think.

George Saunders hit my list this year - with Lincoln in the Bardo, and Tenth of December (a collection of his short stories.) I found them both a wonder to read. I would never recommend Lincoln in the Bardo to anyone.... it is far too strange.  But I loved it. It amazed me.  I can't believe an alien (I mean an outer space alien) did not write it.  But I heard George Saunders speak, and he is indeed, a real human.

Another Literary Arts treasure, Jesmyn Ward.  I read Sing, Unburied, Sing and Men We Reaped.  I would recommend the later.  I had trouble with the ghost appearing in Sing, Unburied, Sing.  I wanted the story to move forward without this device. After I heard Ms. Ward speak, I changed my mind, but my thoughts have drifted back to wishing the story did not rely on it.

Mauricio Lim Miller signed my copy of The Alternative.  I recommend it if you are interested in how Mauricio's approach to social work and social services might make you think that everything we are doing to help is wrong.

Thank You, Kristina McMorris, for your delightful story, The Edge of Lost - recommended by Whitney to me as part of my journey as a writer.  I am looking forward to reading a galley of Sold on a Monday.

The list continues:

The Leavers by Lisa Ko, also recommended by Anne Patchett's blog.  I must have read it twice, I picked it up to re-read chapters so often.

Chemistry by Weike Wang. A memoir of an overachieving Asian American who finds herself outside her passion for science.

we are all completely beside ourselves - karen joy fowler Recommended by a member of my writing tribe. READ IT, so fun.  The Guardian calls it a provocative take on family love...

The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides.  It was good, recommended by Anne Patchett's bookstore blog, but Middlesex !!! Listening to this on audio in my car. Seventeen discs and I am sorry it's almost over. Go to the library.. check it out. (I had to renew twice... the only place I can listen is in my car, and between the snowstorms, travel and a wicked cold, I hit the expiration date twice.)

Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee.  If you travel to Asia, or have done so, or have interest - read it.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Congrats to her, this story is being adapted for a mini series by Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon.  Don't wait. It's a quick and very entertaining read.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid.  Clever, readable, important. 

Somewhere in there, I also read my first Stephen King novel, 11/22/63, and I loved it til the end (which took a long time to get to) where I felt like the pay off did not really pay off.  But the premise is amazing, so full of hope. What if JFK had lived?

Oh, and one last that I have to recommend - The Grail by Brian Doyle.  Brian imparts his thought on a journey to find the perfect bottle of Oregon Pinot. Buy a bottle of Lange Pinot Noir, and enjoy them both.

'Til next time I get the urge to scan the nightstand, bookcases and coffee tables.  Happy Reading!

Obession is the better part of valor.

I have just spent two hours.  Changing one line for another in one paragraph. A line of five to seven words in a manuscript of over 84,000 words.

In Version One, Peter says, "You want me to go . . . "

In Version Two Peter says, "I'm just going to head out ..."

I change it. I change it back. I change it back again. I change it. ... I eat lunch.  I change it.

I leave it as Version Two. We need to see this character with a little spine. He needs to take a little control.  We will respect him more.  We will not love him any less.

Peter is just going to head out.  He'll be back.

The Cheating Life

Writing is the Only Magic I Still Believe In

"Now, the curse of mortality is: we get one life, one point of view, and a single point in time at most. If we're lucky, we know a few languages to access the world and understand it. But writing cheats that because we read stories, we write stories, we can experience a vast number. And it's hard when you think about that. That this writing, these stories we tell, isn't magic."

- Jarred McGinnis, Ted Talk

Moving Through: The Phases of Writing Feedback

I recently signed up for a class with a firm that provides a variety of services to aspiring authors, including those with an idea who can take online classes augmented with over the phone coaching to start their project off right, all the way through to a class designed to help those who have completed writing a novel or memoir and need to learn all about the publishing process.  I fell into the latter category. 

I had met the founder of the company at a writing conference a little less than a year ago, and liked her enthusiasm and confidence and her commitment to helping writers.  I had finished my first novel, and thought I was ready to pitch it, and did.  It’s now in a drawer, and surprisingly, it is not shouting out for my help right now.  Instead, I embarked on my second novel, a story that I had carried around for a while, and that came onto the page with relatively little angst.  It had its moments, no doubt, but the story seemed more ready for me somehow than the first had been.

I signed up for the class to ready my pitch to agents, and back-timed the completion date. I would be ready by September.  I worked through ten weeks of exercises.  The class prepared me well for the hardest parts, providing encouragement and plenty of links to editors, coaches and writers who all lamented and advised on the query letter and the synopsis.  Still, even with all the advice and preparation, cutting my novel of 83,476 words to two pages of the most salient part of the story, and then further to just a two paragraph query, was just as painful as they all said it would be, but at least I knew I was not alone.  I spent more than one week on each, and another two weeks on researching agents and agencies. 

Finally, I submitted my work to the reviewer tasked with giving me feedback.  She filled my pages with questions and comments, and she made sure to point out three killer paragraphs in my writing that she loved.  Here is what I remember from my first reading of her feedback.  “You are not ready.”  That’s it.  Over the next week, I took a ride on the following roller coaster:

1.     Day One: Deny

Obviously, you did not understand my work. In fact, you changed a few words in the synopsis that changed the whole story, and your comments from that point on were just based on something other than the reality of my novel.  Maybe I should ask you to re-read again?

2.     Day Two: Ignore

I need to work today.  I will deal with you later.

3.     Day Three: Shut Down

There are three themes to my book. Not one. How simple-minded a reader would only want one? I read all the comments again.  I tweak a few words in my synopsis.

4.     Day Four: Dim Light Shines

Okay, I thought about it. The book is about the third theme you pointed out.  I attack the synopsis with this in mind to see what might happen, and it changes.  I re-read the blogs and the other links provided about writing a synopsis for the class.  I edit mine to two pages, and the two other themes now present as sub-plots, I think.  Interesting result.

5.     Day Five: Illumination

I see how where I started my book, page one, might be an issue. And I knew that info dump in the first chapter was questionable.  You clarified. It wasn't just questionable, it was wrong. I rewrite without all that, shorten things, move sentences, edit them down, edit them out.  That page long conversation that went nowhere. You thought it was clever, too, but called it as extraneous.  I knew, but I loved it.  So funny and so true.  I pared it to what was important.  It’s only a paragraph now, but the point is made.

6.     Day Six: Experiment

I write a new beginning.  I edit the rest of the first chapter again.  I take my dog for a walk. I edit it again.

7.     Day Seven: Awaken

 I wake to read what I have written.  I think.  I close the file and hope that I do not open it again for one week.  I think it just might be better after all.

In three weeks, I will resubmit it all to you, my dear and wise reviewer.  Sit tight.  Perhaps I will be more ready.

She Reads

She reads stories about relationships and about strong woman.  She reads a lot, and is comfortable reading a wide range of literary fiction, women’s fiction and even young adult, but she draws the line with romance novels, and only likes murder mystery with a strong relationship twist or plot, and only in the summer.  She regularly peruses The New York Times bestseller list for recommendations.  She read all of the The Hunger Games, and The Secret Life of Bees, anything by Anne Patchett.  She reads Jody Picoult, but only in between something she considers more intellectually demanding, unless, of course, it's summer.  She read The Girls, but didn’t recommend it to anyone. Late at night, she watches romantic comedies like Sleepless in Seattle, where a child helps bring adults who need love together.  She is in a book group or wants to be, and also takes children to book hour at a local bookstore or the local library.   Other books on her shelf include Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, and The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  When pushed, she will select A Light Between Two Oceans as a favorite, or Rules of Civility, but her friends recommended Nine Woman, One Dress, and she can’t wait to dig in. 

Last Night I Learned of Skinny Scarfs and Cynicism

See that silvery light breaking through the trees?  See how the dark green leaves of the Oregon grape along the trail twinkle?   It is the first sunny day in the most dreary winter of my many years in Portland, and ahead of me, sunbeams, beside me, thoughts of Colum McCann's talk to a packed house at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall last night.

This morning, Forest Park, Portland Oregon

Most fitting, Mr. McCann's scheduled talk had been postponed due to the what we are now referring to as the "Snowpocalypse" in Portland.  He arrived this time to a city poised for a weather breakthrough.

Colum spoke for nearly an hour with us, painted a word and gesture canvas covered in humor and passion and the threads in his life -  of people, and work, and words that pull him through, and propel him forward, and move him past what is not good, what makes it hard to go on, what might stop him from telling another story in his life.  It was difficult to imagine this energetic man reaching the end of any rope.  He reveled in his own conviction, in the quote from Samuel Beckett he shared, that he read to us twice and repeated later in the talk.  He convinced me.  He could be drained, and then he revives, with the odd and energizing connections that he finds in his work.

“You must go on

I can’t go on

I’ll go on.”

-Samuel Beckett, The UnNameable

By the time he finished, I knew Colum as an Irishman, as a son, as a brother, a New Yorker, a father, a husband, and as a citizen of the world.  He told of his visit to a local high school just that morning, and thanked us, his audience, for the opportunity to meet the amazing teachers, and the students, and a librarian there who gave him a gift, a skinny scarf.  Truly a man with grace.  He invited us in, and after this night, I am inspired by his call to arms to me, and writers, storytellers and to other humans who are seeking ground when their world is filled with turbulance. 

"Refuse cynicism. Find the dignified, anonymous corners of the human experiment."

I see that shaft of light this morning, and its reflections on moss.  I see it.

Some Thoughts on Democracy

Fourth of July in Mendocino, California

Books shape things for me. Something some character said in the midst of a heated moment, a truth about life, might pop up later, and will influence my day, or my reaction, or even my writing.  While reading Don DeLillo's work this summer, to prepare for that lecture in Portland where he sat on stage and talked about his writing, I came across a passage that I later read to my writing group and copied for a folder of notes and quotes that I reference at times for inspiration. I read this whole book, White Noise, without ever connecting strongly with where Mr. DeLillo was taking me, until I came to the passage below.  Months later, it has surfaced in my thoughts, and today, I have to share it. 

Jack Gladney, our narrator and main character of the novel, enters a Catholic church seeking some shelter from the poisonous cloud that is eating away at his family's safety and health, and his community's well being.  The cloud has followed his car, packed with his family, from his home to a camp in the mountains, and back.  While it never truly attacks, the consequences of the cloud affect them all.  He begins a dialogue with an old nun he finds in the church, who leads him to an impression that she may not believe in heaven. Jack asks her ".... are you saying you don't take them [heaven and other faith related beliefs] seriously?  Your dedication is a pretense?"  She responds -

"Our pretense is our dedication.  Someone must appear to believe.  Our lives are no less serious than if we professed real faith, real belief.  As belief shrinks from the world, people find it more necessary than ever that someone believe.  Wild-eyed men in caves. Nuns in black. Monks who do not speak.  We are left to believe.  Fools, children.  Those who have abandoned belief must still believe in us.  They are sure that they are right not to believe but they know belief must not fade completely.  Hell is when no one believes.  There must always be believers.  Fools, idiots, those who hear voices, those who speak in tongues.  We are your lunatics.  We surrender our lives to make your nonbelief possible.  You are sure that you are right but you don't want everyone to think as you do.  There is no truth without fools.  We are your fools, your madwoman, rising at dawn to pray, lighting candles, asking statues for good health, long life."

There is more to this dialogue.  Jack makes a little fun of the nun, for her long life that he attributes to her prayers, for continuing to pray knowing that in the end, she will die anyway.  He chastises her, tells her "You're a nun.  Act like one."  She ends the conversation with this.

"We take vows.  Poverty, chastity, obedience.  Serious vows.  A serious life. You could not survive without us."

I think that many of us want to be the nun when it comes to our values, our beliefs, what we want our leaders to represent, but like Jack, we are lost about where to go, how to be safe, how to change anything.  Do we hide in a camp in the mountains like Jack tried with his family?  March on Washington?  Post relentlessly on social media? Sign a petition?  Stay vigilant?  There is always the chance to write our representative in Congress.  We hope that our nuns, the ones who have taken the serious vows, will help us survive.

I found a quote today in a timely essay by E.B. White, posted on-line this morning by The New Yorker. 

"Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth inning."

I hope in the coming months, I find my nun, and the coach who will know how to play me in this, our ninth inning, to help me find my way to stand up for what is right, and more than that, to make a difference.  After all, "Hell is when no one believes."

Summer 2016: What I'm Reading Now

NOW: Louise Erdrich, THE PLAGUE OF DOVES    Favorite Character - Neve Harp and her snakes. And also reading Alice Munro, VINTAGE MUNRO, the absolute in short story.

THE RECENT PAST

1. Louise Erdrich. THE ROUND HOUSE - The first of the authors for the September selection at Portland Literary Arts - Art and Lecture Series

2. Tobias Wolff, PHAROAH'S ARMY -  Research for The Education of Harry Burns, and because Whitney Otto mentioned it.

3. Elizabeth Strout, OLIVE KITTEREDGE -  Also read THE BURGESS BOYS, both because Jennifer Lauck suggested it (she was spot on!).  Jennifer thought the writing might inspire me in my journey. The four part series on HBO was a winner, too.

4. Ann Patchett, BEL CANTO - after also completing, and loving Ms. Patchett's other amazing novel, STATE OF WONDER.

5. Lorrie Moore, WHO WILL RUN THE FROG HOSPITAL -  I remember loving it years ago, and needed to read it again.

6. Dana Spiotta, EAT THE DOCUMENT - I saw Dana speak at this year's Tin House conference, and then read her novel, also set in the period of Cooking Harry.  "Every sentence works."

7. Bill Clegg, DID YOU EVER HAD A FAMILY - Thank you Mr. Clegg, for inspiring me with characters who deepen on the page.  An inspiration for my 'point-of-view' woes.

On Deck -

Emma Cline, THE GIRLS - The NYT and Powell's and and a lot of critics love it.  I am not diving in too fast as the content seems a bit grisly.  It's on the nightstand.  Will let you know.

William Kent Krueger, ORDINARY GRACE - Recommended by the Cannon Beach Bookstore, one of my favorite independent bookstores in Oregon.

Kate Atkinson, A GOD IN RUINS - On the list because LIFE AFTER LIFE was an incredible mind blowing book.

And of course, I have another list that includes a sampling from all the upcoming speakers at Portland Arts and Lecture Series, including Don Delillo, Colum McCann, Tracy K. Smith and Siddartha Mukhejee.

On Reading

"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.

Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."  -William Faulkner

If you write, or study writing, you know of this quote.  I love the intent of these words, so simple an instruction from Faulkner, even the part about throwing writing out the window.   The more I read, the more I know what belongs there.  The more I read, the more I notice sentences, and those verbs.  What a good writer does with verbs can amaze.  Sometimes the most unusual combination of words will jump from the page, and make me smile.  I'm not sure of the recent notion of right brain and left brain, and all the spirit and science of that argument, but I know this.  There is a center of delight and creativity that awakes and deepens as I now read not just for amusement and entertainment, but as a writer.  My wish for you - find that place, and explore it.  Poise your fingers over the keyboard and write, write, write.  Then read, read, read.  You'll feel it.