Writers Unbound

Directly before the passing of acclaimed novelist and journalist Norman Mailer, I happened upon an article about him in Playboy’s current magazine. (I won’t say WHERE I happened upon this, but needless to say, it wasn’t at the library or anything!)

Anyway, it’s honestly a really prolific article/interview and I’m glad I got to read it. Mailer’s death wasn’t entirely surprising, according to the blogosphere, but it’s still a blow for writers and readers everywhere.

Meanwhile, I am anticipating the movie release of my NUMBER ONE FAVORITE BOOK of ALL TIME by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Love in the Time of Cholera, due out this weekend.

I’ve heard that fans of the book will be a wee bit disappointed by the movie, but I’m just happy to relive one of my favorite stories of all time, good movie or bad. I have been looking forward to it for quite a while.

If I can pattern my fiction writing after one novelist, it would be Marquez. He captures setting like no one else. In fact, I haven’t read Cholera in almost two years.

The last time I read it was in the summer of 2005, while in the mountains of Mexico, and while I cannot even begin to tell you much about the characters, I could probably describe the town/setting in intricate detail. It’s his ability to capture place as a writer that has always pulled at me. If only I could do the same. It’s really place, not people, who seem to inspire my own writing.

How about you? What is it that inspires/inspired your novel?

Will you be seeing Cholera with me this weekend?

Any thoughts on Mailer’s passing?

Norman Mailer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gabo, Love in the Time of Cholera

Publisher’s Weekly reported that Harper Lee will be receiving the Presidential Medal of Honor on Monday for her literary contribution To Kill a Mockingbird.

NaNoWriMo is definitely well under way. Their website is backed up like crazy The forums are also hopping.

Hollywood Writers Strike latest is available at WritersWrite.

NPR interviews a writer who writes about a ghostwriter who writes about a man who may or may not be Tony Blair. Huh?

JK Rowling sues a small Michigan publisher over intellectual property rights. She also finished her first book after the Harry series. What a busy week!

You can now read Gone With the Wind from Rhett’s perspective.

MySpace gets into the book business.

Slate Magazine is having a special fiction week for our reading pleasure.

Don’t we all have an excuse for that unfinished novel on our hard drive and in our heads?

I do, anyway, and I like company. 

Over the summer I stumbled onto an August issue of O Magazine where Walter Mosley, author of 47 and multiple other books in several genres, tells you that This Year You Write Your Novel. That article was singlehandedly responsible for getting my novel out of my head and at least halfway on through my fingers (I’m still working on it). 

Mosley addresses a couple of my novel writing fears:

1) Similarity of my characters to real life
2) Lack of an ending. I didn’t know the ending.

Mosley helped me both via this highly recommended article in the August 07  issue of O Magazine.

Another way to go about getting your novel out would be to join National Novel Writing Month. For all the would-be NaNa novelists out t here, I wish you the best of luck! Keep us updated!

Happy writing!

They’re both making news, ok?

Over the weekend, The Daily Telegraph, out of the U.K., revealed that J.K. Rowling affirmed that her Harry Potter series, or at least the last installment, is inspired by her own Christian faith. In the article, Rowling admitted to struggling with her faith, and said simply ”My faith is sometimes that my faith will return.” Beautiful- but we didn’t expect anything any less eloquent out this accomplished writer, did we? Seems she eluded the questions and comparisons until now as she didn’t want her fans to know where the series was going.

Meanwhile, in different news, in a different genre, it seems literati have two  new translations of Tolstoy’s War and Peace to contend with on the market.

Let me attempt to translate NPR’s coverage:

One new translation is published by Knopf and translated by R. Pevear. It is a translation of Tolstoy’s final version of the book.

The other new translation, published by A. Bromfield and released by the publisher Ecco Press, is 400 pages shorter, and is a translation of an early version- one may even say an early draft- of the tome.

Ecco and Bromfield argue that this shorter version is an ”original version,” not a draft, whereas Pevear and Knopf are quoted as saying it’s really not the same book at all. 

From a writers POV, I’m vaguely uncomfortable with the words “draft” and ”version” being interchangeable in the Ecco argument. Is it a first draft? Is it an original version? The publishers at Knopf argue that the 400 “missing” pages are what makes War and Peace the notable novel that it is.

Um, yeah, rewriting, editing and working on your text is supposed to have that effect on your final work! Can you imagine if all the first drafts generated from NaNaWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) were considered versions instead of drafts? Yikes!

From a readers standpoint, I can tell you that the 400 pages would probably make a huge difference to a lay reader. Have you read War and Peace? I attempted it multiple times in high school. I couldn’t keep the characters straight and gave up.

I’ve read an abridged and unabridged version of Les Miserable, and can honestly say that I would not have moved on to the unabridged if I hadn’t first read the shorter work. But, we’re not talking about abridgement here- the 400 pages missing are said to substantially change the work.

Thoughts?

tolstoy, war and peace, harry potter, nanawrimo, national novel writing month, christianity, christin fiction

I read the first book in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I liked the book; I admire Rowling. I came away from that first novel with the realization a new world classic had been born.

I kept meaning to read the rest of the books. But I just never got around to it. I have watched parts of the movies, usually on Saturday afternoon when I’m cleaning the bedroom. When the latest book came out, I mean to purchase one. I didn’t do that either.

But I did want to know what happened to Harry Potter. So I did an Internet search. I am sad to report that every reputable site I checked—or those I could determine were reputable—refused to satisfy my curiosity.

I have to marvel at the kind of loyalty that still has the wraps on a book that came out days ago. Most wildly successful books have been drawn and quartered by the time they hit bookshelves. This situation has to be a cultural phenomenon. The American government cannot keep a secret, but the unofficial Potter cartel can.

I guess I’ll have to wait to learn what happened to the world’s most popular worker of magic.

But I’m not very happy about that.

Maybe I’ll just saunter to the bookstore and read the last few pages.

RELATED LINK
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
Join the book club, shop at the Harry Store and get the book if you’re a fan.

Word Press, Technorati, Tags, Harry Potter spoiler, Rowling, publishing, novels, sorcerer

Saturday Night Live offers a Harry Potter parody. Hermione has certainly grown up.

Author J. K. Rowling has expressed her annoyance over pre-release book reviews of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.’ The reviews were published in the United States. China Daily reports Rowling said, “I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children.”

The fact that reviews are only now appearing contradicts the typical book review process in the United States.
(more…)

Are you the next sensation in children’s writing? Cheerios wants your submission for a children’s book. Previously unpublished adult authors are invited to submit a story.

Your story should be suitable for children 4-8 years old. Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing will review the winning story for a potential book deal. Three top finalists will receive cash prizes.

First-time author Jacqui Robbins’ book “The New Girl…and Me” is one of five books to be tucked inside Cheerios cereal boxes. A press release says, “The children’s book contest is part of the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories program to get high quality books into kids’ hands. Over the past five years, Cheerios has donated more than $2 million to First Book (www.firstbook.org), and has given more than 25 million books to children inside boxes of Cheerios cereal.

The deadline for submissions is September 7, 2007. Entries can conveniently be submitted online.

Be sure you carefully read the guidelines at www.SpoonfulsofStoriesContest.com.

Ed. Note: For administrative purposes, this code establishes a Technorati Profile.

Word Press, Technorati, Tags, Children’s Book Contest, Children’s Writers, Cheerios Contest, First Book Contest

The St. John’s River has inspired my pen many times–resulting in poems, articles and essays.

Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner and Edith Wharton are three of my favorite classic authors who have become well-known standard bearers when it comes to writing place. Wharton with her renderings of society and the class system of her day, recreates a place that grows far beyond geography.

Today authors like Khaled Hosseini, Rick Bragg and Tim Dorsey grow characters and plot from the places where they have lived and the cultures that arise in those places.

Novelist Carol Goodman does this with her intriguing mysteries. She may not have lived everywhere she’s written about, but she weaves the mythology of places into her plots.

Florida is a great opportunity for writerly exploitation—the state where I live is politically conflicted, green year-round and quirky. Where else do cops dress up like Uncle Sam and pull speeding motorists?

The poetry collection I’m finishing now—“Notes from a Florida Village�—delves my own experience with Florida. Poems about the St. John’s River, a favorite restaurant nestled beneath great oaks and the small green lizards that line up like soldiers on my front walk all grew from observing and experiencing place.

If there isn’t a place you want to tackle directly in writing, you can always do what J. K. Rowling does—make one up while you’re sitting in a café.

The world has never been so accessible—even if you can’t go somewhere in person, the Internet offers so many options for learning about a culture or locale.

But in my opinion, starting at home is one of the best options for a writer to explore his or her craft. My backyard has probably inspired more poems than any exotic place I’ve traveled. All around us are common objects and familiar faces. I think reshaping the familiar into something uncommon is a great challenge, but it’s also a comfort.

I don’t necessarily think you always have to write what you know. After all, a different journey begins when you set pen to paper, one you perhaps didn’t envision when the crystallization for a piece of writing formed in your brain.

But in writing about the familiar, you may discover things you never knew about—true epiphanies—sitting right under your nose.

Word Press, Technorati, Tags, novel, place, history, mythology, writing, style, technique, Wolfe, Faulkner, Wharton, contemporary novelists

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This is my first column for a new topic at 451press.com. I hope you’ll join me each week day for news, interviews and general information about writing.

I’ve worked as an independent journalist for years, and naturally, I have seen many changes in my profession. But these last few years have brought about trends and developments I never envisioned.

Now working writers often use the term “content provider.� The impact of the Internet cannot be understated. Years ago, I never envisioned having 24/7 access to most of what I write for different publications and sites. Now, if an essay or article comes out in Christian Science Monitor or The Florida Times-Union, I can pick up the link and archive that link permanently. This makes it handy for prospecting editors to see my work in a convenient way. Gone are the days of mailing bulky introductory letters and packages with clips. Email is one of the best blessings an independent writer has.

I also do a lot of poetry—my first book was a poetry collection that’s still on the publisher’s list. I’ve learned a lot about this quirky genre and will share some of those experiences in future columns. Who’d have ever thought poetry would be alive, courtesy of former U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, on youtube.com?

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Collins for The Writer, and I’ve also enjoyed hearing him in person at a reading. In my opinion, no other laureate has done as much for American poetry as Collins. I like the animation for Collins’s poem “The Dead.”

There are a number of resources I depend on, among them, membership in the American Society of Journalists and Authors. I also pay for a subscription to Freelance Success, a network that has truly earned its keep for me. I pay for a listing and subscription at Media Bistro as well. I’ll profile these and other organizations in upcoming columns.

I’ll also include writing prompts and handouts for use by educators or writers. I often speak to classrooms, and I’ve found teachers to be very receptive to new ideas to get those student pens (or keyboards) in motion.

Meanwhile, stop by each day to see what’s up in the writing business. If you have tips or suggestions for columns, please leave a comment here.

Above all, if you’re a writer, keep at it. Perseverance is one of the most valuable qualities a writer can have. (text by Kay B. Day)

Ed. Note: All columns by the previous editor are now archived in the category, “Wildcard,” for your convenience.

Word Press, Technorati, Tags, Writing, Freelance, Content Provider, Journalist, Educators, Teacher, Curriculum, poetry, Media