They're a Brick! House!

         Okay, I admit it. Disco is my favorite driving music. It keeps me awake and alert and energized.

       In fact, in the September issue of Sasee magazine, a story of mine ("Still Dancing") is going to appear. It chronicles my horrific unbelievable past attempts at dancing.

                                                         These are plates. Don't you think any food
                                                  placed on it would boogie-oogie-oogie right off?

        Tomorrow, some local writers are going to be guests at a private event, featuring Gloria Gaynor, the queen of I Will Survive. Cathi LaMarche, Alice Muschany, Lynn Obermoeller, and Linda O'Connell will be dancing under the disco ball--and they each have a story of theirs published in an anthology about surviving.

                                                      This is the cover of the anthology inspired
                                                     by Gloria Gaynor's song "I Will Survive."

         Please send them congratulations and if you're older-than-mud "seasoned" enough to remember the disco era, give them your best dancing advice...

         ...'Cause they don't need no stinkin' writing advice. They're solid writers. Each of them is a Brick! House! of writing skills.

Be Careful What You're Hating On

       When I was in high school, I hated crab ragoon. My sister Virginie, Charmaine  (the 3rd Musketeer of our group) and I would go to a local Chinese restaurant almost weekly. They had crab ragoon and I waited patiently while they crunched away, because after their appetizer-turned-entree, we'd have fried ice cream. That I loved...

       The fact was I hated crab ragoon, despite the fact that I had never even tried it.

photo by wintersoul1

        Now, of course, I adore it. If there was a swimming pool full of crab ragoon, I'd happily dive in and eat my way out of it. And then I'd be renamed Shamu.

        A couple of weeks ago, I got word that a publisher liked a story of mine but it needed tweaking. They wanted to include it in the Not Your Mother's Book...On Family--if I did some revising.

         I looked at the story several times and felt no inspiration. I began to hate the story. I had written it in a whirlwind session of submissions, and not only felt the ending "fell flat" but thought the whole piece was dead...and I wasn't in the mood to beat that dead horse.

         Yesterday (thankfully) I found out it was a different story they wanted. Also, (thankfully) the talented Linda O'Connell, the co-editor of the book, did some magical work on the story that I had never hated.

         What have you hated/resisted, until you tried it and found out it either wasn't too bad or you found out it was positively addicting?

          And pass that plate of crab ragoon. I'm in the mood for another one...   

The Power of Ad-Libbing

          This morning I saw the story of George Raveling on the "CBS Sunday Morning News" show. Decades ago, Raveling showed up--at the last minute--to the march on Washington, volunteered to help with security (there were lots of celebrities, like Marian Anderson and Sammy Davis, Jr. in the front rows) and when Dr. King stepped away from the podium and was beginning to ball up the copy of his I Have a Dream speech, Raveling asked if he could have it. At that moment, a rabbi stepped up to introduce himself, and King handed George Raveling the three typewritten pages and the moment was over.

         For several decades, the copy of the historic speech stayed where it had been stashed--tucked in the middle of an Eisenhower biography...until someone asked him how it felt to be the first black basketball coach of something-or-other (my eyes glaze over when it comes to sports) and the interviewer asked him if he had gotten involved in the Civil Rights movement. Raveling mentioned he'd heard King's famous speech, and had the copy. Ever since he realized its importance, it's been framed and is protected. He's offered it to museums, stipulating that they sign papers stating the speech belongs to him...They've refused. He's been offered 3.5 million for it. He's refused. He's since given the speech to his son, with the stipulation that it never be sold.

         Sorry. I've spent a lot of words telling the "back story" and now I'm finally to what blew me away.

      The words "I have a dream" are nowhere in those three typed pages. Nowhere.


       There are, however, several spots where an asterisk was penciled in. And those were where King took off, adlibbing, making a four-minute speech into a sixteen-minute speech...transforming a powerful piece into an unforgettable moment.


         If your story is moving along, in a certain direction, but then veers off in another...perhaps it's a good thing. Embrace the spontaneous moments. Make use of the ideas that suddenly and unexpectedly burst in your brain.


       After all, it might transform your tale into something even better...  


          By the way, I just got word that my stories in two upcoming Chicken Soup books---Think Positive For Kids and Just Us Girls--have made it to the final round and will be included in those collections. Without my critique group, the felonious (at least in our daydreams) WWWPs, these slice-of-life stories would not have had a chance of getting published, so not only do I believe in the power of spontaneity, I also believe in the power of critique...

Stories Retold...and Reworked

          I am a firm believer in taking left-overs, adding some ingredients, and coming up with a new creation.

       Today was my first day back to school with kids. I have my old teacher resource books, the activities we do every year but added to the mix are new things I learned from the summer workshops I attended, along with a new group of kids.  (I think I have a super group of students. I can already tell that some of them are great writers.)

       After school was over, I checked my email. A story that I had written, submitted to another anthology with some of the sassier (and seedier) elements included, and then reworked (with a great deal of help from my critique group, the notorious WWWPs) has made it over the first Chicken Soup hurdle.

       It's a dating story, one that happened when I was a waitress.  Some guy was a SA (smart-a**) and whenever I waited on him, he would specify "only small onion rings" and would be a PITA (pain in the a**) about other things as well. And not one thin dime did I get from him as a tip. (He was the manager of the restaurant. I ended up marrying him.) 

Helpful Hint:  Do not EVER tick off your server until you've had all the food and beverages served. Even refills can be tampered with.  Waiters and waitresses can do evil things to your food, and you'll never know...but they will.

      What new creation have you come up with, using old stuff? Or, what sort of dating horror story do you have to tell? Inquiring minds want to know...



         

Public Readings--Do's and Don'ts

        A group of writers (poets and story-tellers) got together at a restaurant/bar recently, and I went to their public reading. I've compiled a list of (hopefully) helpful hints.

1.  If you are nervous and tend to mumble/not enunciate clearly, shave off your beard and mustache for the occasion. (Ladies, that goes for you in the hairy menopausal phase, too.) We can't read your lips with all that hair obscuring our view, and as fast and mumbly as you present, we need all the help we can get.
Give the audience what they want.

2.  You may think your twenty minutes of rambling introduction. About. Each. Poem. is engaging, but look at your audience. Their eyes are closed. Drool is coming from their mouths. They're snoring. Be aware of your audience.

3.  If you're nervous, and alcohol is available, have a drink. A glass of wine might help out with #1. Drink.  (Sorry. That's all I could come up with for that one.)

4.  Be passionate/involved in your piece. Speak with expression. Pepper your piece liberally with Sioux's favorite word. Make the crazy redhead happy.

5.  Be humble. Come up, give us a tidbit of an introduction, and then read, darn it, and when you're finished, leave the microphone. That's why we came--to hear you--and if you're good, your words will speak for themselves. Give the audience some credit.

What tips do YOU have for writers who read their stuff in public?

By the way, Linda O'Connell has almost reached her Chicken Soup goal. Is it a gross of stories (144)? Is her goal equal with her age? Find out what her next goal is, since she's about to hurdle over her current one...(Ask her.)

Creating Engaging Characters

       Meth. The science behind it is intriguing. The business of it is fascinating. And thanks to Vince Gilligan and Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, I get to immerse myself in the life of a meth-maker. All because of the show Breaking Bad. On August 11 the final (sixth) season begins. (Sigh.)

       This show begins with a high school chemistry teacher--a very nice guy who never breaks the law--and after finding out he has a horrible cancer and mere months to live, decides to make meth (really pure meth) to take care of his wife, his high school-aged son (who has cerebral palsy) and his not-yet-born daughter after he dies. What began in season one with just drug manufacturing and distributing has spiraled out of control. Murder. Horrible choices. And lots and lots of lies.  

      As writers, we have to create interesting people when we craft fiction. We can't just have a person in our story go instantly from calm and rational to homicidal. Internal things have to start percolating. Tiny fuses have to be lit so when the explosion comes, the reader is left charred right along with the character.

         What shows or movies did you love (or do you love) that immerse you in a different life?  (And if you do watch Breaking Bad, don't tell me about how it ends. I don't have cable/satellite, and will have to buy the DVD once it comes out.)