Attention Must Be Paid

Apparently, scientists needed evidence that Living in the Now is beneficial. Hence, this article from the NYT science section Wandering Mind is a Sign of Unhappiness:

Whatever people were doing, whether it was having sex or reading or shopping, they tended to be happier if they focused on the activity instead of thinking about something else. In fact, whether and where their minds wandered was a better predictor of happiness than what they were doing. 

...it’s in keeping with the religious and philosophical admonitions to “Be Here Now,” as the yogi Ram Dass titled his 1971 book. The phrase later became the title of a George Harrison song warning that “a mind that likes to wander ’round the corner is an unwise mind.”

Or, to put it in the positive, a focused mind is wise and happy.
“Flow” — immersing your mind fully in activity— is key.

Writing, for example.

Which leads me to a clumsy but apt transition...a favorite quote:

If you dedicate your attention to discipline in your life you become smarter while you are writing than while you are hanging out with your pals or in any other line of work. --Russell Banks

Tomorrow: Community Writing Workshop

I'm leading tomorrow's Writing Room Workshop: "Out of Your Head and Onto the Pages."

For the price of a Cappuccino,
you can write in class,
and share your in-class creations.

Sunday, Nov. 14, 2-4 pm. Bobby Pearse Community Center, N. Main Park.

These second Sunday $5 workshops, sponsored by the Emrys Foundation and Greenville Parks & Rec, are designed to stimulate creativity and generate ideas. We’ll use a some in-class writing exercises to inspire new work. 

The focus for tomorrow's workshop are beautiful sentences. Great first lines*.

Smart gripping scene starters. Openings-- those shiny cut jewels! 


The stuff's too good not to share. A virtual workshop, maybe? 

*As noted in my previous post on great first lines:

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
-- One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.
--Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

In the town, there were two mutes and they were always together. - Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The Grandmother didn't want to go to Florida.-- Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find."

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. - George Orwell, 1984

They shoot the white girl first. - Toni Morrison, Paradise

I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. - Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex


It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York. - Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Autumn Shift

Already it is Autumn and I noticed the birds very dilegently scarffing up the seed and the squirrels frantically stuffing themselves.

One squirrel, an adolescent one, judging from his slight, wiry body and his unbushy tale, came all the way up to the front porch and helped himself--as you see from the photo-- to the jack-o-lantern...turning a fairly friendly pumpkin to a zombie flesh eater.

I came across this description of the Fall from my local Yoga place:

The energy of the tree is beginning its retreat down into its core and roots to prepare for Winter's cold. All unnecessary energy is conserved and protected, and what is no longer useful is let go. It is a symbol of the beautiful process of transformation--of ongoing change.

Fall is a time for examination, for letting go of what is burning our energy up unnecessarily. Metal, the element associated with Fall, is a symbol of detachment and dividing what is essential from what is not, so that we are purer in the end.

I think that's a lovely description of Autumn.

Part of my energy, to prepare for the winter, is being directed to reading...a favorite winter pasttime...[a favorite summer pastime, too.]

I read and recommend Freedom by Jonathon Franzen, mentioned previously... I'm reading The Best American Short Stories of 2010, edited by Richard Russo, and recommend it also.

Why My Arm is Purple

The closest I will come to gripping an Oscar...
was being presented the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction last week at the New York Yacht Club.

I'd like to thank the Academy...

Thanks to Reba Williams, founder of the award, and Dave Williams, her husband, and the judges who decided on SECRET KEEPERS as the winner, I had a heavenly week.

I pinched myself a lot. Hence, the purple arm.

My friends, if you have a southern author in mind who has had a book published this year or next, a book set in the South, nominate them for this award--and send in a copy of their galley or book to Reba for consideration.

I tell you, last week's reception was one of the best moments of my writing life.
 

Among those attending the reception were David, Aurora and James, editors and publicists from Picador.

 

Voracious Reader

I am guest blogging today for A Good Blog is Hard the Find:

I was an Army brat. We moved from South Carolina to Bremerhaven, Germany when I was nine.  Then something happened that had an impact on my life -- a big old crater-sized impact.
Our television didn't work.         CONTINUE READING

That's me, at nine,  Girl Scout wanna be....

Freedom Reading

Monarch stopping by.

Moonvine slowly opens at 6 pm

Cloudy and only 80 degrees? That's positively crisp.

I'm out there. All day. The monarchs are stopping by--one hanging out on the fall aster-- the hummingbirds are zipping, the moonvine parasols are opening at dusk every day-->

 And so, having overdone it, and pulled muscles, lugged bags of compost the wrong way [with back and not knees] I'm paying for it.

Sore. Tired. Ready to read.



 You've probably heard about the dust-up around Jonathan Franzen's new novel, Freedom.
I'm reading it on my iPad...and generally...loving it.

By the second chapter, especially--found myself hooked. Patty is one of those characters with more layers than Baklava.

Don't know if it will live up to all the hooplah--cover of Time?! Great American Novelist? etc., etc.

Maybe. Stay tuned.

New Fall 2010 Writing Room Schedule

Hot off the press, as they say. Actually, before the press...think of this as a preview. A galley.

This year, we are partnering with the

City of Greenville's Parks & Recreation to offer Writing Room classes.

All Writing Room offerings this fall will be at the Bobby Pearse Community Center here, at North Main Park across from the Soda Shop,  904 Townes Street, Greenville, SC 29609-5500 (864) 467-4331. 
Hope to see you there!



Here's  the skinny on the fall Writing Room schedule...registration should be ready soon on the Emrys website:



Monthly Writing Workshops: Out of Your Head and Onto the Pages
These writing workshops, led by various members of the Writing Room faculty, are designed to stimulate creativity and generate ideas for fiction and nonfiction. We’ll use a series of short in-class writing exercises to inspire new work and deepen your writing. Come prepared to write in class, to share your exercises without fear or self-judgment, and above all, have some fun.
All levels, beginner to experienced
Instructor(s): One or more of the Writing Room Faculty
Location: Bobby Pearse Community Center
When: The second Sunday of the month: Sept. 12, Oct. 10, Nov. 14, Dec. 12
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Cost: $5 cash only. Please pay at the door.

***

Memoir: Work & the  Story of Your Life
We've all held a variety of jobs, both paid and unpaid, and even if we didn't realize it at the time, we were collecting immersion research material for possible future essays. In this class, we'll use a focused reading of work essay excerpts as jumping-off points for our own work, and start drafting essays about our various work experiences.
All levels, beginner to experienced
Instructor: Joni Tevis
Location: Bobby Pearse Community Center
When: Sunday, October 24
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Cost: $25; $20 Emrys members
A former park ranger, factory worker, and cemetery-plot-seller, Joni Tevis currently teaches literature and creative writing at Furman University. Her book of lyric essays, The Wet Collection, was published by Milkweed Editions.

***

Creative Writing 101 Workshop
This six-week workshop provides an excellent overview for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the craft and practices of creative writing. We’ll talk about fundamental elements such as point of view, character development, plot, dialogue, voice, imagery and setting. You’ll get a mixture of brief lectures that hit the high-points and weekly writing exercises that let you try your hand at what you’ve just learned. Discussion of published works—short stories, novel and memoir excerpts, and creative nonfiction— will illustrate these concepts. You’ll also have the option to share and discuss each other’s work. At the conclusion of our workshop, you’ll be a more knowledgeable and skilled writer and will have gained a sense of where to move onward with your writing.
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Instructor: Mindy Friddle
Location: Bobby Pearse Community Center
6-week class
Wednesdays: Nov 3, 10, 17 and Dec. 1, 8, 15
Time: 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
Fee: $180; $170 Emrys members
 Mindy Friddle is founder and director of the Writing Room. Her novel, The Garden Angel (St. Martin’s Press/Picador) was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers.” Secret Keepers, her second novel, won the 2009 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson.

Butterfly Watch

The butterflies are migrating...I counted three tiger swallowtails, two black swallowtails, a monarch, and a painted lady.

They love the butterfly bushes of course, but they can't stay away from the joe-pye weed.

 When you think about it--or maybe when you don't think, you just feel-- the butterfly is the most amazing creature.  Those intricately designed thin-as-paper wings-- that carry the creature from flower to flower so it can lap up the sweet nectar with its tongue...and it travels over oceans...miles and miles. I mean, who could make that up?

They say the turtle makes progress only when she sticks her neck out. Figuratively speaking. 
I spotted this turtle on a walk the other day....moved her/him a few yards away to safety.

Not to be outdone by the ethereal aesthetics of butterflies-- turtles are their kind of wow.  Reptilian scaly feet are earthbound but that shell! With its own decor...like the butterfly wings' designs.

SECRET KEEPERS: The Movie

FILM, I mean.

Do you read a novel with a clear picture of the character in your head-- an actor?

You think....So-and-so would be perfect as  Jake.

Or, I always pictured someone like [Academy-award winning actor A] playing her.

On MyBooktheMovie today you'll find the sterling cast I suggest for SECRET KEEPERS the movie, starting with Emma:

Emma Hanley - Frances Conroy
I’ll never forget Frances Conroy's fascinating role as Ruth, the matriarch on HBO’s Six Feet Under. Both Frances and Emma, as it happens, are redheads and willowy and southern. Frances, born in Georgia, would capture Emma's soft lilt and steely kindness--and her unexpected chance for a late-in-life romance. She’d make Emma her own.

READ MORE including who will play Jake, Dora, Kyle, and Gordon. Oh, and also a suggestion for director.

Thanks, Marshal Zeringue for asking me to cast my movie!

Point of View Reading List

I just wound up my class at Hub City's "Writing in Place," where we focused on point of view. Here is my reading list for exploring point of view, one of the most fascinating and important elements of fiction writing:

SUGGESTED READING:

First Person POV                                          Second Person POV "you,"
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald                      Bright Lights, Big City, McInerney
Housekeeping, Robinson                           "How to Become a Writer," Moore
Huckleberry Finn, Twain                            Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, Robbins
Anywhere but Here, Simpson                     If on a winter's night a traveler, Italo Calvino
Lolita, Nabokov

First Person POV, serial                          Third Person, Objective, [mostly dialogue]
One Foot in Eden, Rash                             “Hills like White Elephants,” Hemingway
The Poisonwood Bible, Kingsolver            “I-900,” Bausch
                                                                     “I-80 Nebraska,” Sayles
First Person POV, plural “we”     
"A Rose for Emily," Faulkner                    Third Person POV, Close
The Virgin Suicides, Eugenides                 Norwood, Portis
Then We Came to the End, Ferris               Rich in Love, Humphreys

Stream-of-Consciousness                      Third Person, serial
As I lay Dying, Faulkner                        Little Children, Perrotta
The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood               Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Tyler   
                                                                  The Hours, Cunningham
Third Person, Omniscient       
Bleak House, Dickens                            Various Narrative Points of View, alternated
Empire Falls, Russo                               Two Girls, Fat and Thin, Gaitskill
Ragtime, Doctorow                                Machine Dreams, Phillips
Bel Canto, Patchett                                 I was Amelia Earhart, Mendelsohn
Anna Karenina, Tolstoy                         The White Hotel, Thomas
Pride and Prejudice, Austen                 The Plague of Doves, Erdrich
Amy and Isabelle, Strout                       The Bluest Eye, Morrison
Ironweed, Kennedy
“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor     

Hub City This Weekend: It's About Perspective

I'm going to be at the Hub City Writing Conference this weekend in Spartanburg, SC. I'm leading a fiction workshop, and my focus is narrative point of view in fiction. [Info on the conference registration follows, but my class is full. I think all the fiction classes are full! ]

The essential question for point of view: Who is telling the story?

Narrative point of view is about perspective. Through whose perspective or “consciousness” is the story viewed?

Besides the first person, "I"--which everyone seems to start out with-- there's first person plural, "we," and second person, "you." And third person "close," where we have access to the thoughts of one character. Third person omniscient is what I'm most interested in exploring, especially because not enough writers use it. Or don't start using it early enough...it is a "mature writer's technique," as Richard Russo mentions in his fabulous essay, "in Defense of Omniscience."

In Praise of the Narrator as Storyteller...with authority. And wit. And inside knowledge.

I love that witty know-it-all narrator in omniscient POV, the storyteller who takes you by the hand with authority, and leads you into the story.[ Or perches with you in the front row to watch the drama, or settles in for court-side seats.] The narrator who judges, predicts, warns, praises, moves back and forth in time.

This kind of narrator:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." -- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Debra Spark's essay, "Stand Back," from Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing, University of Michigan Press is immensly helpful and a pleasure to read. I'll be quoting from Debra on this subject, too:

“. . .many contemporary narratives are written in first person or in a third person that's a virtual stand-in for the first person. [In that case,] the third-person narrator has access to a single consciousness and rarely uses his or her status as narrator to offer up much that a single consciousness wouldn't provide. Your narrator need not be your protagonist. Or you, for that matter. Distance can, in some cases-for some stories-be a good thing. And even when distance isn't advisable, it can't hurt to consider options for the narrator-character relationship.” –Debra Spark

Hub City Writers Conference and Bookshop Opening

There are still spaces available  in fiction and non-fiction at the 10th annual Hub City Writing Conference July 30-Aug. 1 at Wofford College. This year's event features a keynote address by novelist Elizabeth Berg and Sunday morning panel session with representatives of small presses and literary magazines on the topic of "how to get published."

Published novelists, poets, essayists, and literary critics lead a series of workshops over three days that include intense instruction, challenging exercises, and an opportunity for feedback. To register, please visit www.hubcity.org/conference.

She's my tomato...and a recipe

Just letting it all hang out.

It's 100 today. That's oppressive for everything but tomatoes. This one was begging-- pick me!

If you want tomatoes roasted, just pick them at about 4  or 5 o'clock. Their skins are warm and thin, their flesh is tender and juicy.

The world is experiencing the hottest summer on record. Ever. The world.

So, anyway. Friday's Funkytime on a day like this begins with a bourbon slush.

Here's how to make it:

Gather up this stuff: 

• 1 (6 ounce) can frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1 (12 ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate
• 1 cup  sugar
• 2 cups strong brewed black tea
• 2 cups bourbon whiskey
• Some water-- 6  to 7 seven cups
• mint sprigs from the garden

Mix it up and put it in the freezer. Overnight is best unless you're desperate. Serve it slushy. Gussy it up with sprigs of mint and lemon or orange wedges. Sit on the porch and sip your adult slushy and remember what December feels like.