Spontaneous Prose by Jack Kerouac

by JENNIFER ROVA

picture by Palumbo 1965

Jack Kerouac, 1922-1969,  developed a personalized style of writing called spontaneous prose. It is also called free writing, automatic writing and unstructured writing. It is about sitting down and writing without regard to subject, grammar, punctuation or rewrite. Put down your thoughts without planning is a good definition.

It ended up making him famous through books like On The Road (1957). This is a barely fictionalized story of road trips with friends and about drinking, drugs and sex. He had copious notes but spontaneously wrote the actual book in a three-week session of writing. He composed it on one 120-foot long scroll of paper. He compared this writing technique to improvisational music of jazz musicians coupled with the teaching of Buddhism. Kerouac, Alan Ginsburg and others defined the Beat Generation, a term coined by him. Kerouac died at age 47 from abdominal bleeding due to alcoholism.

 Proponents of this type of writing advertize it as a way to break writer’s block. They also expound on its ability to make us better writers if we sit down every day and write spontaneously for 15 minutes . Maybe we should try it…minus the alcohol.

 ESSENTIALS OF SPONTANEOUS PROSE Jack Kerouac

SET-UP The object is set before the mind, either in reality. as in sketching (before a landscape or teacup or old face) or is set in the memory wherein it becomes the sketching from memory of a definite image-object.

PROCEDURE Time being of the essence in the purity of speech, sketching language is undisturbed flow from the mind of personal secret idea-words, blowing (as per jazz musician) on subject of image.

METHOD No periods separating sentence-structures already arbitrarily riddled by false colons and timid usually needless commas-but the vigorous space dash separating rhetorical breathing (as jazz musician drawing breath between outblown phrases)--"measured pauses which are the essentials of our speech"--"divisions of the sounds we hear"-"time and how to note it

down." (William Carlos Williams)

SCOPING Not "selectivity' Iof expression but following free deviation (association) of mind into limitless blow-on-subject seas of thought, swimming in sea of English with no discipline other than rhythms of rhetorical exhalation and expostulated statement, like a fist coming down on a table with each complete utterance, bang! (the space dash)-Blow as deep as you want-write as deeply, fish as far down as you want, satisfy yourself first, then reader cannot fail to receive telepathic shock and meaning- excitement by same laws operating in his own human mind.

LAG IN PROCEDURE No pause to think of proper word but the infantile pileup of scatological buildup words till satisfaction is gained, which will turn out to be a great appending rhythm to a thought and be in accordance with Great Law of timing.

TIMING Nothing is muddy that runs in time and to laws of time-Shakespearian stress of dramatic need to speak now in own unalterable way or forever hold tongue-no revisions (except obvious rational mistakes, such as names or calculated insertions in act of not writing but inserting).

CENTER OF INTEREST Begin not from preconceived idea of what to say about image but from jewel center of interest in subject of image at moment of writing, and write outwards swimming in sea of language to peripheral release and exhaustion-Do not afterthink except for poetic or P. S. reasons. Never afterthink to "improve" or defray impressions, as, the best writing is always the most painful personal wrung-out tossed from cradle warm protective mind-tap from yourself the song of yourself, blow!-now!-your way is your only way-"good"-or "bad"-always honest ("ludi- crous"), spontaneous, "confessionals' interesting, because not "crafted." Craft is craft.

STRUCTURE OF WORK Modern bizarre structures (science fiction, etc.) arise from language being dead, "different" themes give illusion of "new" life. Follow roughly outlines in outfanning movement over subject, as river rock, so mindflow over jewel-center need (run your mind over it, once) arriving at pivot, where what was dim-formed "beginning" becomes sharp-necessitating "ending" and language shortens in race to wire of time-race of work, following laws of Deep Form, to conclusion, last words, last trickle-Night is The End.

MENTAL STATE If possible write "without consciousness" in semi-trance (as Yeats' later "trance writing") allowing subconscious to admit in own uninhibited interesting necessary and so "modern" language what conscious art would censor, and write excitedly, swiftly, with writing-or-typing- cramps, in accordance (as from center to periphery) with laws of orgasm, Reich's "beclouding of consciousness." Come from within, out-to relaxed and said.

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/kerouac-spontaneous.html

Be a Boy Scout about Your Writing

By JENNIFER ROVA

A white-tailed fawn born in June.
It jumped into our large window well.
Such a pretty baby! 

The motto of the Boy Scouts of America is “Be Prepared!” This holds true for writers also. The other day I rounded the corner of our house to find that a newborn white-tailed deer had jumped down into a large window well and could not get out. We had this happen before and were prepared. We knew not to touch it as human scent will make the doe reject her fawn and the baby will starve. We had a lost fawn in the neighborhood a year or two ago. People tried to reunite it with its mother but had neglected to wear gloves. The mother rejected her baby because of some anomaly or because humans had touched it. The fawn bleated several days for its mom and for food before finally lying down on our front lawn too weak to continue the fight. It died an hour or so later. The mother of this summer’s fawn had not abandoned her fawn. We saw her walking slowly and watching us from across the street. She knew where her baby was but was helpless.

The air conditioner unit is about 4.5"' high
He or she is so tiny. It will gradually lose the white spots

Several men who were installing replacement windows tried to help my husband by providing a ramp hoping the fawn would use it to climb out. It (she? he?) would have nothing to do with that plan. It tried to jump up onto a middle concrete tier several times but could not get its back legs to hold. Bob moved to one side of the well to encourage it to try again. After two more attempts, the fawn was able to stabilize itself on the middle landing and then jump the three feet to the grassy area of our lawn. It  bounded off joining its relieved mother.

Fawn successfully getting the courage to jump up the
second concrete tier of the window well and escape
Very brave for such a little one new to this world.

There are two lessons for writers here. The first is to be prepared as you never know when a story idea will present itself. Keeping writing supplies on hand (in a purse, pocket, car, boat or bicycle pack) will let you record thoughts while they are fresh in your mind. You can jot down details, emotions and possible story lines for future reference. With the fawn, I was at home and had a camera so I could document events as they happened. Carrying a camera as well as paper and pencil is a great asset to writing your story later. You can capture the scene exactly. Magazine editors love to have accompanying pictures to validate and illustrate your story.

The second lesson is patience. The fawn displayed patience despite being afraid of its situation and the humans around her. Her mother showed the same as she waited helplessly for her baby to return to her. My husband exercised caution and patience while encouraging this wayward fawn to jump higher than it thought it could. Writers need patience to develop their story ideas, to write, to rewrite, to submit and then wait for a response. Hurrying is not in the writer’s favor. Patience is.

Practice the Boy Scout motto - “Be Prepared!” - if you want to think of yourself as a writer.

The WNI Six-Word Story Contest: We have our winners!

After careful deliberation, the judges have made their choices of the top winners of our Six-Word Story Contest.

First place goes to Heather Lynn Atwood of Mesa, Arizona. In a Writing North Idaho first, Heather, actually tied with herself for first place with two entries:

I swapped stilettos for a minivan.

and

A wounded veteran. Not bleeding. Empty.


Our second place winner is Nancy J. Wood of Canada, who wrote:

Guests gathered. Bride waits. Exits alone.

Third place goes to Kerri Thoresen of Post Falls, Idaho, with:

Battered and bruised but still standing.

The judges looked for fresh themes, a lack of cliches, clever language, vivid imagery, and above all, a story. What makes a six-word story, versus a sentence or a statement?

The best stories tell a tale, evoke an emotion, create a vivid picture, and open the mind to deeper reflection. They move forward from beginning to end.

In Ernest Hemingway's famous example, "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn," we see the clear image of the baby shoes. "For sale" tells us they are no longer needed, for whatever reason. So far it sounds like any typical classified ad or Craigslist posting.

"Never worn" is the heart of the story, the part that raises deeper questions. It tells us that the baby simply didn't outgrow them. What happened to the baby? Did he or she die? Was he or she given away, or taken away? Was there no baby to begin with? Did someone buy baby shoes in anticipation of a baby, but something happened--infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, a broken marriage--to crush that dream? Our minds move from the beginning--the basic fact of shoes for sale--to the end--something happened to that baby, and we want to know what it was. Clearly, "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn" tells a story in a way that, say, "For sale. Baby shoes. Size two" does not, even though both contain six words.

Many thanks to all who entered. We hope you had fun and felt challenged, and will enter the next Writing North Idaho contest, which will be announced in November. In the meantime, feel free to send feedback about the contest or ideas for future contests to wnicontest (at) writingnorthidaho (dot) com.

Happy writing!
from your friends at Writing North Idaho

Traditional vs. Indie Publishing--What's Your Call?

by Jennifer Lamont Leo

The debate between traditional vs. indie book publishing continues to blaze. Over at Jane Friedman's blog, I found this very interesting post by Claire Cook (author of Must Love Dogs and other contemporary women's fiction) titled Why I Left My Mighty Agency and New York Publishers (for now).

After encountering some problems with her publisher, Cook noticed that, "Independent self-publishing had taken off and grown into a viable alternative. Authors in situations similar to mine were becoming hybrid authors—both traditionally and self-published. And in this new world, there was little of the cloak and dagger stuff I’d experienced in traditional publishing where everything from money to marketing was kept secret. Indie authors were generously sharing everything they learned to help others on the same path. Via message boards and blogs and conferences, a great support system was bubbling up." She ended up purchasing back the rights to many of her books and going the self-publishing route.

So far I've been holding out to find a traditional publisher for my historical fiction. But the longer it takes to get a nibble, and the less specific the feedback as to how I could improve the manuscript (not "these are the story's weaknesses"--i.e., things that as the author I could potentially fix--but indecipherable "even though we loved it, we're going to pass" messages), the more I'm tempted to take the plunge and explore indie publishing in greater depth.

How about you? As a writer, are you a diehard traditionalist, or do you see value in self-publishing (and why)? As a reader, does it make any difference to you whether a book has been traditionally or independently published? Share your thoughts in the comments.

The Working Writer: Sources for Paying Markets

Photo: Jennifer Leo

by Jennifer Lamont Leo


Few writers get into the writing game to get rich--few realistic writers, anyway. That said, the worker is worth his wages, and there's nothing icky or impure about wanting your hard work to be rewarded in the coin of the realm.

For those interested in the monetary aspects of the writing life, here are three market resources that are currently earning good reputations in the writing community:

Scratch Magazine

I've been enjoying an online magazine called Scratch produced by Jane Friedman and Manjula Martin, described as "smart, useful stories about the intersection of writing and money, for writers of all genres and trades. Each quarterly issue features in-depth interviews, reportage, resources, and personal stories about the work of being a writer."

It's pretty new, just 3 or 4 issues so far, I think. Recent issues have featured interviews with Cheryl Strayed, Susan Orlean, and Jonathan Franzen, talking nuts and bolts of the writing life. Interesting.

Scratch is available only through paid subscription ($20), but I believe that their "Who Pays Writers" feature is free.

I've got no "scratch" in the game. Just thought I'd pass along the info in case someone's interested.

Funds for Writers 

Funds for Writers, compiled by author C. Hope Clark, offers two e-newsletter options: a weekly free newsletter that lists "semi-pro or higher paying markets and contests as well as grants, crowdfunding, contests, publishers, agents and employers," and a paid biweekly subscription ($15/year) that lists "grants, competitions, markets, jobs, publishers and agents seeking your work and all paying $200 or 10 cents/ word and up."

I recently began subscribing to the paid newsletter, and a recent issue listed 16 contests with cash prizes, 10 grant/crowdfunding opportunities, 21 editor/agent listings, 19 paying markets, and 3 writing jobs. Most of these are opportunities I probably would not have ferreted out on my own. To have them pre-researched and gathered in one spot is, to my mind, a useful service for a busy writer.

Hope also blogs at chopeclark.com

Rat Race Rebellion

While I've not yet used Rat Race Rebellion myself, it came highly recommended to me from a trusted colleague as a source of genuine, scam-free job leads, so I checked it out. The site, run by training and developing company Staffcentrix, is a clearinghouse for all sorts of pre-screened work-at-home jobs and job-referral services, not just writing. On a recent visit to the writing-and-editing section, I found 49 referral listings. A handful of these were already familiar to me; the rest were unfamiliar and seemed worth checking out. Of course, as for all referral sites, caveat emptor and YMMV apply. Still, this site looks to be intelligent, well-organized, and a potentially helpful tool in navigating the paying markets.

Have you had experiences with any of these resources that you'd care to share? Or are there other resources you'd recommend for fiscally-minded scribes? Let us know in the comments. 

 

5 Tips for Marketing Your Book Using twitter

By Mary Jane Honegger

Have you been thinking of turning to the Internet and social media to market your blog, book or other writing project?  Have you thought of using twitter as a marketing tool?  I've considered it for awhile now, but couldn't quite figure out how to use twitter until I found a few tips on the www.bookmarketing tools.com website, a website dedicated to helping authors market their books.  

 I think you'll like their low-key, but strategic, marketing suggestions better than the alternative another desperate author posted above.  Check out their tips:

5 Things For Authors To Tweet About 

(That Aren’t “Buy My Book!”)

www.bookmarketing.com

A major trap that authors fall into on Twitter is trying to get too many people to buy their book.

Of course, as a self-published author your goal is to get people to buy your book, but constantly repeating “BUY MY BOOK!” (or some variation) on Twitter will get old very quickly and cause your readers to stop following you.

You worked hard to get a reader to follow you, you don’t want to lose them!

To keep yourself from falling into that same trap, you need to find something else to tweet about it. Here are 5 ideas of stuff that you could tweet about that aren’t just the same ol’ “BUY MY BOOK!”.

1. Tweet about relevant, popular hashtags

Find hashtags that are popular and relevant to your book, and write something to contribute to the discussion. Don’t forget to include the #hashtag. Other people following that hashtag will see your tweet and possibly even start to follow you.

Need help finding popular and relevant hashtags? One great place to search is at Twitag. If you want to find hashtags sorted into groups, then you should use Twubs. Another great option is Hashtags.org. For strictly popular and trending hashtags, you can use What The Trend.

Using these resources, you can find relevant hashtags to allow you to join in the conversation where your future readers are and get them to start following you!

2. Tweet your milestones 

Have you sold 100 copies of a book? Tweet about it! What about 1000 copies? Definitely tweet these major milestones, because if your readers see that 1000 other people have purchased the book, they will feel left out, and want to join in (by buying your book). Simply tweet the milestone and include a link to the book, and you will be promoting the book without annoying your readers.

You could tweet monetary milestones too, but that becomes a little murky, especially for those who don’t want to share their earnings. Stick to number of copies sold (or borrowed, or downloaded), and it will cause readers who have purchased to be excited they have helped you reach a milestone, and as I mentioned, it will make those who have not purchased the book want to feel included.

3. Promote interesting quotes from your book

 No doubt, you put some thought into what you wrote in your books. Whether your book is nonfiction or fiction, there are some quotes that you had main characters say, or that you included to emphasize a point, that you are probably quite fond of. Use this gold that is already in the books to promote the book!

Most readers won’t know about these quotes unless they have actually read the book. Pick out some of your favorites, put them into a tweet, and write “from [BOOK NAME HERE]” with a link to Amazon after that.

Not sure which quotes to use? Amazon will tell you! Go to your book’s page on Amazon.com, scroll all the way down to where it says “Popular Highlights” (under the reviews). This will list the most popular passages that were highlighted in your book using the Kindle software. Pick out some of the most popular and tweet those!

Using interesting and intriguing quotes from your book is a great way to promote your book, and the best part is, the work is already done, you just have to copy and paste it!

“Using interesting and intriguing quotes from your book is a great way to promote your book.” – Tweet This

Enjoy that tip, it’s one of my favorites!

4. Tweet quotes from reviews

While the last tip had you tweeting quotes from your book, this tip will have you quoting about your book. Use lines from the top reviews of your book in your tweets. Of course you should link to your book, but people want to know about others think about your book.

If you know the reviewer is on Twitter, you can thank them directly for the great review, giving them a little shout out. This will make them feel appreciated, and it can cause others to want to leave positive reviews so that they too are thanked by you!

Promote Discounts (and network with other authors)

5. While this option is the closest to “buy my book!”, it approaches it a little differently.

First, when you have a book that is discounted or free, just let your readers know! This is a great time for you to tell them to buy your book, because those who may be following you who haven’t purchased that book may finally pull the trigger because of the discount.

You can also network with other authors to promote books for each other. This allows each of you access to a new pool of readers that you didn’t have access to before, and those readers and followers will learn about books that they hadn’t heard about before. It’s a win-win for everyone involved. So, while you’re still saying “Buy my book” or “Buy someone else’s book”, you are giving them a reason to want to buy when promoting a discount or another author’s book.

Final Thoughts

Twitter is a wonderful resource for being able to have direct access to fans that authors just a few years ago didn’t have access to. Don’t take this for granted by telling them to buy your book all day long. Use different ideas on this list, and you can still promote your book on Twitter, just in a new and creative way.

JUST FOR FUN 

Different Drummers Touches Audiences

by Mary Jane Honegger

Different Drummers

by Don Caron & Lyle Hatcher

According to  retired Spokane financial adviser, Lyle Hatcher, there is a market for family-oriented movies that elicit emotion through the telling of true stories that touch the audience without dependence on Hollywood special effects and hype.

After years of retelling a personal story of inspiration, Hatcher decided it was time to share his tale with the world. Teaming up with Don Caron, a former sound supervisor for North by Northwest, the two spent the next ten years creating Different Drummers – first as a screenplay, then as a book, and lastly as a movie. 

“Prepare to have the wind knocked out of you...in a good way!”

John Robideaux - Robideaux Marketing

Different Drummers is based on an unusual true story about events that took pace in 1965 involving two fourth-graders. David, wheelchair-bound by Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, is growing progressively weaker, while his friend, Lyle, has a problem with an ever-increasing energy level.  David informs Lyle that their teacher is about to die and claims that God told him. When their teacher does die, a doubtful and confused Lyle convinces David that he can teach him to run, secretly viewing this as a way to test the existence of God.

Different Drummers is a coming of age story that deals with the issue of hyperactivity, the crippling realities of childhood muscular dystrophy, the medicating of school children as a means of controlling behavior, and an exploration of the existence of God through the eyes of a child. This true story is at once heartbreaking and uplifting - each viewer's journey will be unique...and unforgettable. - Website

Hatcher and Caron wrote the story as creative nonfiction, telling the story the way they wanted.  They did not pay attention to Hollywood insiders who say family-oriented stories are not what American audiences want.  Some of the things that set this film apart:

1. Hatcher and Caron became co-authors, co-directors, and co-producers, retaining total control over the project.  The two also provided much of the financing.

2. The film is not “based” on a true story as are most creative nonfiction projects. According to Hatcher, “It is a true story.” He says nothing was either added or deleted in an effort to increase cinematic impact.

3. The film was not written to appeal to specific movie demographics.

4. Hatcher made the decision to use the real names of the characters in the story, honoring his strong commitment to tell the true story.

5. The movie was filmed where it happened, in Spokane. In fact, some of the scenes were shot in the actual homes and buildings where they originally took place.

6. There is no violence, sex, or profanity in the film.

7. The film questions the existence of God with no apology.

Their hard work paid off. The screenplay won the top award for outstanding screenplay at the Houston Film Festival out of a field of 3,500 and other awards; the book sold by the thousands; and the movie continues to draw capacity crowds and inspire moviegoers wherever it is shown.

Based on a true story, Different Drummers is one of those uplifting films that makes you want to go out and live life with everything you’ve got . . . Misty Layne - Rogue Cinema

Different Drummers touches lives, Hatcher told a film group last week. He says people pass the books from one to another and come back to see the movie time and again. Different Drummers is showing in Kalispell (already sold out) and Salt Lake City soon. After that Hatcher is unsure where the movie is headed, but retains faith the movie will become a blockbuster.

 Visit the website at www.differentdrummersmovie.com to learn more about the movie and an upcoming DVD release.

The following is an excerpt from the Different Drummers website:

From It has been forty-plus years in the making, but David’s story is finally being told, thanks to the persistence and faithfulness of his childhood friend, Lyle Hatcher, and the help of David’s mother, Gloria Dahlke. The boys’ friendship is beautifully detailed in Different Drummers, a book that was recently made into a movie and filmed on location in Spokane, the same place where their story originally took place.

The two boys never imagined their lives would become the subject of a book, let alone a movie. They were young and just living ordinary lives in North Spokane in the early 1960s, attending elementary school, collecting bugs and getting into a fair amount of innocent trouble. But their friendship, which included David’s struggle with muscular dystrophy and Lyle’s hyperactive nature, left an extraordinary legacy. There are no drugs or alcohol, no sex, profanity or dysfunction in this story, yet it’s compelling in its simplicity. It’s a true story focusing on David’s intrinsic relationship with God and Lyle’s determination to test the existence of God; it tells the events of the boys’ lives and their time together, including the death of David at age 13.

“Too many people have lost their way and are in despair,” says Gloria Dahlke, David’s now 91-year-old mother, who still lives in Spokane. She is sure that her son’s story will reassure those who are lost and in despair, and will give them hope. That’s why she’s excited that now, more than four decades after her son died, his story is being told. For her, thee book and the upcoming movie fulfill her son’s dying wish.

The Joy of Prosody: The Joy of Rhyming!

By Liz Mastin

The Joy of Rhyming!

The poetic conversation has been “non-stop” concerning rhyme and whether it is passé in this day. However in his book Writing Metrical Poetry by William Baer, many famous poets have argued strongly in favor of rhyme, among these are poet George Santayana saying, “Like the orders of Greek Architecture, the sonnet or the couplet or the quatrain are better than anything else that has been devised to serve the same function; and the innate freedom of poets to hazard new forms does not abolish the freedom of all men to adopt the old ones.”

Edgar Allen Poe said, “Contenting myself with the certainty that music, in its various modes of meter, rhythm, and rhyme, is of so vast a moment in poetry as never to be wisely rejected – is so vitally important an adjunct, that he is simply silly who declines its assistance – I will not now pause to maintain its absolute essentiality.” Robert Frost stated:  “Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.”

        A Little Poem

          Poems needn't rhyme

All of the time.

But if they do, 

                     That's okay too.  - Anonymous

Of course most of the famous English poets used rhyme and meter, among these Shakespeare, Pope and Donne, but times have changed greatly, and as always, unless rhymed poetry is done correctly it will fall under scrutiny! For instance, using what is called “forced rhyme” is considered particularly grievous, for a poet should not use a rhyming word “just” because it rhymes. The rhyming word should further the idea of the poem. It may mean adjusting a line’s phrasing to make the chosen idea-word work well for him.

Here are some types of rhymes taken from “Rhyme – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”:

Masculine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words:

rhyme

sublime

Feminine: a rhyme in which the stress is on the second from the last syllable of the words:

picky

tricky

Syllabic: a rhyme in which the last syllable of each word sounds the same but does not necessarily contain stressed vowels:

Cleaver

Silver

 

Slant Rhyme (Imperfect – Near – half):  Slant rhyme, known also as half-rhyme or imperfect rhyme , refers to words that  have final matching consonants and almost rhyme (farm, yard) or appear to the eye to do so (said, paid). “Many poets use slant rhyme to introduce an element of the unexpected and prompt their readers to pay closer attention to words themselves rather than the sounds of words.”  Emily Dickinson, for example, pairs “soul” with “all” in one of her poems. She was a prominent pioneer  in slant rhyme.

*Slant rhymed words appear to be of one syllable.

Assonance: words (within a line) having matched vowels

 The horse coursed through the field.

Consonance: words having matching consonants

The robbers had rabies.

Semirhyme: a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word

Bend – ending

Weak Rhyme: A rhyme between a pair of one or more unstressed syllables. Unlike syllabic rhyme, the pair of words will contain differing numbers of syllables.

hammer – carpenter

Among those using rhyme and metrics today are rappers, songwriters, metrical poets, and there are those of us who enjoy writing both metrical and fee verse. In free verse, cadence takes the place of counting stresses (feet), and rhymes normally appear as internal rhyming, assonance, consonance and alliteration.

1. In the poem below: You will find syllabic rhyme in “dizzy” and “easy” in the first stanza; “breath” and “death” constituting a masculine rhyme.

2. In the second stanza, “pans” and “countenance” form an example of weak rhyme and “shelf” and “itself” form a semirhyme.

3. In the third stanza, “wrist” and “missed” is masculine and “knuckle” and “buckle” form a feminine rhyme.

4. In the fourth stanza, “head” and “bed” is masculine  and “dirt and “shirt” are also masculine.

My Papa’s Waltz

By Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy;

But I hung on like death:

Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans

Slid from the kitchen shelf;

My mother’s countenance

Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist

Was battered on one knuckle;

At every step you missed

My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head

With a palm caked hard by dirt,

Then waltzed me off to bed

Still clinging to your shirt.

LIZ MASTIN BIO

Liz Mastin is a poet who lives in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho during the summer and Bullhead City, Arizona in winter. She thrives on the study of the great poets, their biographies, the schools of poetry to which they adhered, and the poetic conventions of the times in which they lived.

While she enjoys free verse as well as metrical poetry, her main interest lies in prosody. She notices that most of the enduring poems are those we can remember and recite. Liz enjoys poetry forms such as the sonnet, the sestina, the couplet, blank verse, simple quatrains, etc. and she hopes to see modern poets regain interest in studied metrical poetry.

Liz is currently putting together her first collection of poems which should be completed this winter. The poems are a mixture of metrical and free verse poems.

Six-Word Story Contest ends July 15!

Just a couple more days left in the Six-Word Story contest! Send your entries by midnight on July 15, 2014 to wnicontest (at) gmail (dot) com! For details visit our Contests page.

Enjoy the "New Old Time Chautauqua" in North Idaho

by Jennifer Lamont Leo
and Olivia Luther Morlen

Chautauqua is coming to North Idaho! (Chautauq-huh? a few of you might be saying.)

Following in the path of similar performers from a century before, the New Old Time Chautauqua (NOTC) will be kicking off their 2014 “Keep the Faith” tour in Sandpoint, Idaho, next week. In addition to their “big show” held at the Panida Theatre at 7:00 PM on Saturday, July 19th, they will hold several events that are free and open to the community starting on July 17th, including a potluck, workshops, a town parade, and community service shows. Visit the New Old Time Chautauqua website for details.There's also a special Chautauqua exhibit on display now at the Bonner County History Museum in Sandpoint.

The original Chautauqua, an adult education movement that fired up the public imagination back in the the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was based based on an even earlier idea: the Lyceum movement, formed in the 1820s by Yale professor and farmer Josiah Holbrook. When Holbrook starting giving informal geography lectures in his community, he found people eager to learn, and his lectures became popular. He realized that working adults hungered for education and self-betterment, and believed that improving oneself through education, music, and the arts should be a lifetime commitment.

To that end, Holbrook formed what he called the Lyceum movement: groups of citizens dedicated to fosterin

g perpetual learning in their own communities. Lyceum members would research topics and then present their findings to their group. Hired expert lecturers were also invited, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and David Henry Thoreau. By the Civil War, Lyceums were found in rural communities throughout the United States.

In 1874, Methodist minister John Heyl Vincent and inventor/businessman Lewis Miller enhanced the Lyceum concept by utilizing an idyllic location to recruit Sunday school teachers for religious and cultural events. Named after Chautauqua Lake, New York, where the movement got its start, Chautauqua assemblies spread across the United States, mostly in small towns and rural areas, bringing speakers, musicians, entertainers, preachers, and lecturers of all sorts of subjects. The “Mother Chautauqua,” as it came to be known, still exists and continues the same sort of programming as it has done for 140 years.


In 1904 Keith Vawter and his partner, Roy J. Ellison, created a standard 6-day program for a summer Chautauqua that could be rented, complete with a large brown tent that fit up to 1,000 people. That first packaged Chautauqua was a great success! Word spread and many towns, especially those in the Midwest, were clamoring to book a Chautauqua. The brown Chautauqua tent became the ubiquitous symbol of what came to be known as the Circuit Chautauqua.
The original message of Circuit Chautauqua was that the rural life was the American ideal and that young men and women should stay at home rather than migrate to the dark, spiritually corrupting cities. It was more than entertainment. It became a movement. Circuit Chautauqua would bring the cultural and intellectual stimulation needed to create that Jeffersonian ideal--the educated farmer.
In response to the demand, numerous Chautauqua “bureaus” sprung up to provide the culture and education. Ellison-White was one bureau, located in Boise.

While the lecturer was generally the Circuit Chautauquas’ big draw, it was by no means its only attraction. Politicians could not resist the large audiences, especially during election years. Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft spoke at Chautauquas, as did William Jennings Bryan, who gave his famous “Cross of Gold” speech over 5,000 times on Circuit Chautauqua. Both Bryan and Russell H. Conwell, who gave his “Acres of Diamonds” speech over 6,000 times, were enormous draws at any Chautauqua.

Chautauqua crowd in Illinois, circa 1909

There were also opera divas, marching bands, scientific lecturers, exotic groups from far flung nations, jugglers, and eventually even actors and plays. African American Jubilee singers from the South sang gospel. The “Chautauqua Girl” organized games and readings for the children while the parents edified themselves under the brown top.

When the rise of radio, movies, and the automobile gave rural and small-town residents access to a broader range of options for entertainment and education, the movement declined. However, there's never been anything quite like it before or since. Come out and taste “The New Old Time Chautauqua” experience for yourself, coming to Sandpoint, Idaho, July 17-19.

Guest Post from Kelly Sullivan

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                                                                by Kelly Sullivan

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I Am Not Afraid

By kelly sullivan on 10/1/2012 6:19:00 PM 5 Comments

For seven years I lived in a striking landscape. Mountains shoot from the valley floor. Rivers run as clear as air. I was too afraid to stand in it alone. I was convinced that the grizzly wildlife would strike me from behind, streaking my canvas with blood and immortalizing me in all the wrong ways.
I got past that last week. I was back in Teton Valley ID for a visit. I had just launched the biggest project of my career on a crowd-funding platform and I was excited to see it succeed. I had been consumed by it. I dreamt about it for almost 20 years. I put in the hours. I focused all of my energy on it. I spent money we didn’t have. I put potential FingerSmear jobs on the back burner.  I wanted to rock the clubhouse with this philanthropic gig of a lifetime. 
I am not one to tout the pains in this world. They are there. A blind man can see them well. My life and my art are about the beauty that lives, and the world that I believe is possible. Through it, I will connect a generation of girls. I will inspire them to be stronger and more fully engaged in their future. I will tell them to forge the future THEY see – not the one that others see for them.
I have dedicated my life to art and this collaboration is possible because I’m taken by the power of it. My drive to communicate through paint is vital to everything I have to offer this world. For me, everything I do in art -  teach, collaborate, FingerSmear, or paint in the solitude of my studio – must all coexist together.  They all go hand in hand. They are more powerful together than they are alone - just like mighty fingers...
I drove out to the end of the road, to that same valley floor where I’ve seen the wild life roam many times before. I set up my easel and I painted. I ignored the phone and worried not about the bears. My mood turned from anxiety and exhaustion to peace. The shifting of colors absorbed me. The quiet covered my fearful mind, and I was gone.
I am working to raise funds for my project that I know will shift life for the girls that participate in it. My paintings will help me move Mighty Fingers Facing Change from one place to the next. My art is what makes this project possible. It’s what gives me the ability to think that I can take this canvas around the world, and the strength to make it happen.
I can stand alone in the wilderness. I am not afraid anymore. But the fact is, most of the time I prefer a bit of company.

Why You Write Like You Do

by JENNIFER ROVA

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test© , introduced in 1962, is a personality inventory developed by Isabel Briggs-Myers and her mother, Katherine Briggs. Since then, millions of people have taken this test to help them determine what jobs may be the best for them or to learn how to fully develop their strongest personality traits.

This test is based on Swiss psychiatrist and psycho-therapist C. G. Jung's four principle psychological functions by which we experience the world: sensation, intuition, feeling and thinking, called dichotomies. Jung believed that people are born with or develop certain ways of perceiving their world and making decisions.

People are made up of all four dichotomies. Briggs-Myer and Briggs took these four principles and devised a series of questions which put together people's traits into 16 categories which are made up of the four dichotomies (Sensation, iNtuition, Feeling and Thinking. People have percentages of each of them in their make-up but the percentages used will vary depending upon the activity in which the person is engaged.*

Certain traits are defined as follows:
Extroversion E - Introversion I
Sensing S - INtuition N (so as not to confuse with introversion)
Thinking T - Feeling F
Judging J - Perceptions P

Taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator© test will group together how you perceive yourself and how you handle your world. A combination of these four capital letters will place you in a traits category showing your most strongest trait first.

For instance, writers are often in the INFP category meaning they categorized as Introverted (versus extroverted) or as thinking things inside themselves, not exploring outside themselves. They use iNtuition versus sensing things. They use Feelings versus thinking to guide their decisions as well as Perception instead of judgment to help them make decisions. These people are often composed, introverted, self-reliant, reserved and thoughtful. They are intuitive, creative, imaginative, idealistic and innovative. They use feeling to make decisions, are empathetic, ethical, authentic as well as perceptive, accepting, tolerant and open-minded. People who are INFP are Princess Diana, Audrey Hepburn, Fred Rogers, John Lennon, Curt Cobain, William Shakespeare, A.A. Milne and Helen Keller.**

Writers are also often in the INTP category. They are introverted, intuitive,independent, self-reliant, thoughtful; innovative, unconventional, theoretically complex; thinkers who are analytical, objective, rational and unsentimental. They are perceptive, tolerant, open-minded, changeable and unstructured. They are often engaged in their own thoughts and may seem shy or standoffish. They want to know the exact how and why things work before they commit. Some INTP people are Einstein, William Jefferson, Descartes, Darwin, Marie Curie, C.J. Jung, Socrates and Lincoln.**

ENFP  and ENFJ are also categories where we find writers. ENFP are extroverted, intuitive, feeling and perceptive, gregarious, social, expressive,  thinking, adaptable, whimsical. Some famous people in this division are Bill Clinton, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Edith Wharton, Carol Burnett, Dr. Seuss, Robin Williams. ENFJ  are extroverted, intuitive, feeling (versus thinking) and judging instead of using perception. Oprah Winfrey, Pope John Paul II, Dr. Phil McGraw and Martin Luther King are ENFJ's.**

I took the free on-line test at www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp (scroll down for tests) and found I was ISFJ or introverted [22%], sensing [88%] (versus intuition), feeling 56% (versus thinking) and judging [33%] and not so much perceptive. On another web site, I came up with about the same with the strengths being my ability to sense decisions and realize a solution followed by feeling. I am among 14% of the population and in company with Rosa Parks, Kate Middleton, Mother Teresa, George H.W. Bush, and Laura Bush.**

Another web site to take a free, similar test is at www.t16personalities.com  If you haven't taken this "test," you may wish to do so. It gives you insight into yourself as well as showing you your strongest way of making decisions. Initially I thought writers would fall into fewer categories. I should have sensed that writers come from all personalities. That is why some of us write historical fiction while others prefer to write biographies or young adult stories. Find out what type you are!

SOURCES:
*http://www.myersbriggs.org/myers-and-briggs-foundation/
**www.truity.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator

The Shot Heard Round the World

 Emerson's Concord Hymn

Sung at the completion of the battle monument on April 19, 1836

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;

Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,

We set today a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit that made those heroes dare

To die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

The shaft we raise to them and thee.

 

Cut the Clutter

                                                  Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto

My novel in progress has received a great shot in the arm. Hiring an editor to help with the finishing process has been an enlightening and rewarding experience.  Some pages of the manuscript have few needed changes, and some have more, but each and every suggestion is thrilling. Is that an odd word choice? No. The suggestions give me goose bumps. My editor is a really good writer, and every line her pencil has drawn is an improvement. So many sentences slated for change, are ones that I struggled with and re-wrote time and time again. In some cases, I have eliminated them, making short work of the problem.

Four Stanley Cups and a Funeral, is a novel about a quest for identity, set  in a very male arena.  In a family torn apart by conflict, defined by winning and losing, a starstruck dreamer comes of age, seeking redemption. Lessons have been learned and grief has run its course. I would recommend the memoir form, or as in my case, an autobiographical novel, to anyone who wants to make sense of their life and times. While I would not venture to say the process has left me older and wiser, I can say it has left me older. The countless hours I have spent recalling snippets of dialog from loved ones who no longer walk upon this earth has left me with greater gratitude and affection than ever before.

Reading my work with the editor's marks has taught me more about myself than I imagined it would. The editor's skill with the language has filled me with awe. She has added better words! She told me to be judicious with exclamation points! Who could ask for more? She has also reigned in my overblown enthusiasm, my too often repeated phrases, and spiffed up idioms passed along incorrectly through the generations. Writers tend to speak of editors in glowing terms. They thank them profusely when the work reaches the published form.

You can only do so much by yourself. No matter how well you did in school, or how praised your writing has been, you may have developed appalling habits over time. I know I did. Like golfers, tennis pros, or professionals of all kinds, we can all benefit from an unjaundiced eye. Yes, a friend can proofread the manuscript, but an editor can do so much more. Don't hesitate to seek help. If your work is accepted and another editor comes on board, so much the better. It is the editors who choose to take on the work of getting a manuscript to publications. Spare them the tedious, obvious line editing, and let them get to what they do best. I, for one, am hooked on the process.