What happens when a crusty FBI agent meets his scrappy new recruit? Read about it in Two Beats of Reg Mitchell’s Heart. Hope you enjoy.
Learning From Other Writers: A.S. Byatt
Okay so here’s the hard truth up front – there are some things about the book Possession by A. S. Byatt that I don’t like. I have a genuine animosity toward books that romanticize affairs, and the character of Maud Bailey I find irritating, and not in a good way, about 90 percent of the time. (Really? You’re just too beautiful, smart, and privileged? What a cross to bear.)
However, I find myself rereading this book every few years, because in spite of the fact I don’t love it – I actually do – as a demonstration of what’s possible in fiction. Byatt created not only a story with two distinct plot lines, but readable and enjoyable poetry from two completely different voices. It’s literary fiction, a love story, and a mystery novel – and each piece clicks in like a perfect jigsaw puzzle to enhance the overall experience.
I learn about voice. I learn about pacing and plotting. I learn about how to make historical events feel connected to modern life (which is actually good for my other career as a history prof too) – reading this book is a writing class in and of itself.
Must Love Books
Just finished the novel Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson about an editorial assistant juggling too many publishing jobs. First of all – of course I had to read a book with that title!
One aspect of the novel that stuck out for me was the protagonist’s pain at the disconnect between the actual love of books – full of creativity and messiness and imagination and hope and many of the unquantifiable joys of life – and the cutthroat pure numbers fame game of the publishing industry she’s working in.
Don’t get me wrong – I believe that many, if not most, people in the publishing industry genuinely love books (in fact, I’ve met some of them and they clearly did). But I also feel this frustration – especially as I’m looking toward launching my own novel out into the world. As a person with a full-time job in a separate field, I don’t want to turn reading and writing into a business, it will suck the joy out of it for me. Yes, I’m willing to put in some work – but at the end of the day it has to bring something different to my life than worries about sales, statistics, and the bottom line, or I’m just not going to be interested in doing it.
Maybe it’s not the best way to go about it – but for now it’s my way. And hopefully, someday, my own book, at least for a few people, can be something that helps others love books.
Writing Quirks
Editing some of my writing today and here are two revelations about myself –
Apparently I’m perfectly happy to use the Oxford comma in my fiction – but I’m always reluctant to use semi-colons. They just feel pretentious to me – I’m not even sure why.
I always want to use a comma before I start a dialog quote even if it’s not a dialog tag. I spend hours of editing time fixing this and yet I still haven’t broken the habit.
Limitations?
Earlier this summer my brother and sister-in-law came to visit. They wanted to hike down to this beach – and I wasn’t quite up to it for several reasons. So I chose to stay behind at the overlook while they, and my husband, went down to the beach. This could have been disappointing to me – could have made me decide that going on outdoor adventures wasn’t for me. Instead, I got to spend nearly a half hour enjoying this view. Most of the time it was in absolutely blissful solitude (except for my bald eagle friend, Sam, who is in this photo).
It reminded me that while I haven’t accomplished all I would have liked in the past couple of years in terms of writing, or blogging, or art there are lots of things I have managed to do. And I’m not sure I would have even explored painting so much if I hadn’t needed another low pressure creative outlet. So maybe limitations are just invitations to explore life in a new way.
I Want
I want to be the person
who in bumper-to-bumper at 5:45
waves the other driver in.
I want to be the writer
who makes you feel at home
in a fairy tale.
I want to be the teacher
that helps you find yourself in the
sticky-glorious American past.
I want to be the “Saint”
who actually, occasionally,
acts like it.
I want to be the woman
who keeps
wanting.
-Jenel Alan
If a mermaid painted abstract art…
How do you get a grown woman to connect with her inner child? Give her a jar of glitter medium.
An Alternative to Blowing Holes in the Walls
In many versions of the character Sherlock Holmes (the title of the post is a reference to the Benedict Cumberbatch iteration) the great consulting detective gets easily bored and does wacky things as a result. I’m not saying I’m a Sherlockian genius by any means, but I do have a busy brain that can make me a anxious when it gets bored. So, here’s how I survive long Zoom meetings with lots of people … and luckily it just looks like I’m taking notes
Night Owl’s Haiku
Night Owl’s Haiku
Joy to see the sun
Light the zigzag tops of trees
But still, yuck, morning.
Some days, not many…
Poet
Some days, not many,
I’m a poet.
I rein down the world.
Force it to slow until I can see
The clouds move and
Words grab hold.
I’m not one of the Emilys
or Langston, of course.
Who is?
But some days,
Not many,
I’m a poet.
-Jenel Alan
Jenel Alan 