good ideas...

You know that realization when you are critting someone and you go beyond the scope of their current work and you see the sort of film settle over their eyes and you know they won't ''go'' there and too bad. That happened in my nonfiction class today. The difficulty with participating in a workshop full of young people is that they don't have life experience and their grasp on history is iffy - so when someone old like me is in the room and I read what they wrote but KNOW that their explanation is merely their lack of research - that's fatal. Generally I shut up but today I offered them the means to take their essay beyond self indulgence. Too bad. Cool subject. ::sigh::

One of the things that seems to surprise my classmates is how much of their life they should research when writing. The idea that they are writing memoir seems to suggest to them that they are experts when this just isn't so. In one story the girl centers the story on a catfish alternately called a crawdad. Is it important? I don't know except to say that because it was called both names I wondered if it was a catfish. The detail in our world is important, at least to me as a writer. What happens is that there is a tendency to write against a blue screen. Vague surroundings are the norm.

The teacher - always comments on my specificity. I don't want my readers to be vaguely somewhere doing vaguely something while the protagonist has meaningful thoughts. The WHOLE story has to lift -

In any case, mostly I keep my mouth shut and practice exercising generosity of critique.

migraines...

My son, who is 28, had a problem last night. Basically I've been working with my son for about 8 years on mistakes I made while raising him which caused him issues as an adult. He has made a lot of progress but he still has 'stuff' - last night one of those popped up like a zit - really. He cornered me in my bedroom to 'talk' and I explained to him that as you work through one big issue, eventually it fades out and under it you find other issues that are lurking or hidden and they pop up like zits - free at last.

We had a good discussion but it is stressful. This lesson costs me $1250 bucks - more or less, since part of his current issue is around reactive spending and I'm his damn safety net.

On the one hand this is all good because HE CAME TO ME - on the other hand @#%^$@# there goes bucks...sigh.

Once again I suggested he go to a therapist - once again he rejected that saying it was hard enough telling me stuff. GAH!!! This is one of the downsides of being in psychology - advice or expertise. ::sigh:: Still, I have to own my stuff too here. So we muddle forward.

The problem is that I have Celiacs and I had been marginally naughty about 30 minutes before his 'confession' and most of the time I can get away with a naughty here and there - but when you add stress to naughty my Celiacs bursts out with a full on migraine and that was my reward - that and my dog was very active last night and wouldn't let me sleep. That led to me staying home from morning classes to get rid of the migraine (they last from 12-18 hours from onset) - I'm in the nearly recovered part right now and will head to school in another hour or so.

nice editors...

OMG I almost have good news -

A certain editor wrote me a very very nice note which has me quite happy at the moment. I am hoping this will translate into more good news within a week or so. YEAH!!!

This is for the story that I wrote during my winter break so I am quite pleased that it is receiving such a good reception. I don't have many stories out at the moment because I had them on my older MAC laptop and they were not transferring to this PC well at all. However, I put them on my thumb drive and I'm hopeful that this week I can muck with the school's big MACS and get them in a form that the PC will tolerate. It is daunting - I moved hundreds of things off the MAC - about 80 or so are stories - then there were novels and starts and trunked stuff and well, you get the picture. In any case my "new" group of stories is pretty much submitted - except for the last piece which is still in crit, hope to polish in about a week. I'm quite pleased with the state of my writing at the moment - I seem to have improved when I wasn't looking. :)

My cat story was reviewed in class today and it was really quite funny. This is a non-fiction non-academic essay that I decided to structure like a Stephen King short story - my objective was to shock my readers both because this is non-fiction and it is unexpected content. Boy was I successful :::gleeful hee hee::: They were trying to figure out how I managed to be creepy and nonfiction at the same time. Was totally funny. Got pinned in the hall later by people wanting to confirm that my story is true :))))))

Stephen King must know a thing or two about structure LMAO

Most of them complained about my one whole paragraph about the town - not because it wasn't good - but because they thought the story was about something else and then I twisted it. So satisfying - really - I need to do Stephen King again....very very fun.

All of them seemed to think I need to publish this like immediately - because it scared them and it should be out there in the public eye. :::hee hee:::

I do need to add a bit more to it but I knew that, we are required to do a revision so I left room to do that when I turned it in to the class.

Plus - I found 9 dollars on the ground today. WOW!!!

Someone is smiling on me today!

screening for agreement...

For the person reading this blog who, on their own blog screens out posts that are not in agreement with her - bad form.

As I see it, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution - not both. Racism will not end with people clinging to it as a means of justifying their own racist actions. You either work toward ending hatred or spreading it. Decide if the demon you think you fight is reflected in your own mirror.

Anyone can scream about how victimized they are - it is much more difficult to do the work of healing which requires a surrender of your guns.

RACE FAIL -

I've grown annoyed with the circling behavior where people present the position that 'writing vile crap about each other' will IMPROVE anything. Violence doesn't cure or improve violence and words can be just as violent and hurtful as other types of actions - they are registered in the body and mind as equivalent injuries.

Morgan Freeman in conversation with Mike Wallace said:

“You’re going to relegate my history to a month?” Freeman asks Wallace. After noting there is no “white history month,” he says, “I don’t want a black history month. Black history is American history,” he tells Wallace.

The notion of a special month for black history may be hurting rather than helping efforts for racial equality, Freeman believes. When Wallace wonders whether racist attitudes may be harder to eradicate without the education that Black History Month provides, Freeman retorts: “How are we going to get rid of racism? Stop talking about it!”

Freeman believes the labels “black” and “white” are an obstacle to beating racism. “I am going to stop calling you a white man and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man,” he says. “I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You wouldn’t say, ‘Well, I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.’ You know what I’m saying?”

What he said was controversial but important. Narrative has a place in processing wounding and that place should be validated and supported. But, who is that narrative for? Do we have good black writers engaged in writing about the WHITE experience of black slavery from a perspective of cultural damage of white descendents? Why would they? That wound isn't 'visceral' for a black person. White writers are, inevitably, going to approach the material from a different wounded position than a black writer will.

When RACIAL FAIL '09 gets around to being about HEALING PROCESS rather than privilege of written assault under the guise of defense - then maybe we will see a reduction in all the inflated egos pretending to injury. Healing isn't nearly so glamorous as screaming the words RACIST and WHITE PRIVILEGE while a chorus of people congratulate you for being violent and racist - the very thing you are SCREAMING about.

things I wish I'd said...

I've been a slush reader for the Berkeley Fiction Review this semester and for the most part that means scowling at mediocre short stories - looking for reasons to like them. Bah - most of them are plotless wonders and I keep thinking I've missed something - do literary shorts no longer need to have an actual story in there?

We have passed a few up the editorial line but even those I wouldn't buy if it were my money on the line. I know the Review is a for-love market but really....

However, this week at the editorial meeting the dude next to me said something I wish I'd said - we were reviewing a story that had made it out of slush and it had a few issues - during the comment phase he says, "This story gave me literary blue-balls."

I choked and tried not to snort up my guts from laughing - OMG and he was SO right about the problem with the story.

it's Sci Fi night....

Okay, let me type something before hitting enter...

My science fiction class is going on or sorta starting but not for real yet...the rain has stopped - mostly and I lost my bike key but luckily I had my extra with me ::sigh:: this means that I will have fun for 2 hours and then get home really late.

I have two writing pieces due like now - this means I have to get busy - I did some research today and the more I read the better I'm liking my nonfic one - I think I have lots of meat to play with. My fiction piece is being pressured by other tempting stories trying to get my attention too - what's up with that? Actually, I have a problem with being seduced by the dark side - topics, prompts - anything but what I 'should' be writing.

More later - peeps is showing up...