The Literary Marriage

August 19th, 1978

Very early in our relationship my husband professed his intent to see me achieve my writing dreams. He told me that it would happen. There have been many times when I have asked him if he wasn't perhaps deluded, or just plain wrong. These are joking comments from me because his steadfast belief has sustained me from start to finish.

Many writers have described unions where both parties are committed to the literary life. Female writers joke about needing a wife, one who types each draft, brings lunch in on a tray and does not say a word while the genius is at work. If early success yielded substantial financial success, that just might work, but for most of us, it is not that cut and dried.

 The ups and downs are all imaginary.

He asks, “How was your day?”

“A new character arrived!”

“That's great!”

Or, “How was your day?”

“My novel is falling apart. I just wasted the last decade, no the last four decades, no my entire life. I should have gone to law school.”

“How was your day?”

“My agent called. The book is going to auction. There's talk of a movie deal too. They think it will be perfect for Johnny Depp.”

I never stop thanking God for the gift of my imagination.

If you read copious volumes of writer's diaries, you learn a great deal about their marriages.  Lucy Maud Montgomery had a terrible time of it, and I could all but cry for her as she listed her trials and tribulations. I wanted to whack her husband over the head with a hockey stick and said so aloud to my beloved as I waded through the volumes. She created a fine fictional husband for herself in the person of Gilbert Blythe. Ted Hughes, married to Sylvia Plath, is not held in very high esteem either. Leonard Wolf, married to Virginia, tried very hard, but as it was she who wrote the diaries, he did not fare very well either. What of Zelda Fitzgerald and the Hemingway wives? If you read The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain, you know what I mean.

I will state here and now that I owe everything to my husband. In changing times, I was afforded the choice to be home with my children, a decision I will never regret. In fact, I miss those days sorely. My husband has helped me with computer issues, printer foibles, discouraging setbacks and several lapses in confidence. Being a creative person himself he knows that the power of the imagination can leave artistic types rather unhinged from time to time.

Tolstoy had the secretarial sort of wife, and by all accounts, she did not exactly have the life of Riley. What would the marriage of two writers look like? I shudder to think.

“How was your day?”

“Chapter five is falling apart again. What about you?”

“Our accountant called. He said we should just pay off the mortgage with the last royalty check.”

Constant support and eternal optimism. That is what marriage has given me. Last night we watched back to back episodes of Downton Abbey.

“Should we really be watching last week's show when we've seen it already?”

“Yes,” I answered. “We can discuss each developing storyline and then watch the new episode in silence.”

“Oh.”

Do we know of any really admirable literary marriages? Stephen King writes only for his wife. She does not read each developing page, but is given the privilege of being his first and most important reader. She is very independent according to him and has no trouble filling the hours where he is unavailable. He is not to be interrupted for any reason. She once slid a note under his study door to inform him of a plumbing emergency. He considers himself lucky, as do I.

An Introduction to Fabulous Idaho Writer - Joan Opyr

I just “discovered” a writer whose writing is funny and irreverent; thoughtful, provoking, and unique beyond belief … and she lives in Idaho. Joan Opyr is the author of three award-winning books, Idaho Code, From Hell to Breakfast, and Shaken and Stirred. In addition to her Idaho series, she is working on a “Southern family chicklit gothic,” completing nursing school, and raising a family.

Idaho Code Amazon Book Description
Idaho Code is a funny book about love, family, and the freedom you can find in a state that values individuality more than common sense.

Small-town Idaho, where everyone knows your business, is no place for a baby dyke to go looking for love. Especially when murder and homophobia are stalking the streets. For Wilhelmina “Bil” Hardy, trapped in the coils of her eccentric family and off-the-wall friends, neither the course of true love nor amateur sleuthing runs smooth. Mistaken identity, misunderstandings, and mysteries galore take Bil to places she’s never dreamed of visiting.

Quote from Shaken and Stirred
Sometimes, I think my story is about addiction and adultery. Other times, I think it’s about bad luck with the Avon lady. And not just one – one I could chalk up to chance. Two rotten Avon ladies feel more like a curse.

Interview with Australian author and writer, Jesse Blackadder

Q. If you were a book, what would it be and why? 

I wish I were Beowulf, but in fact I am Thud! By Terry Pratchett. Why? Because at the heart of that book is an abiding sense of the painful unfairness of the world combined with an obligation to make that world better. And it’s really, really funny. Plus, trolls, dwarves, a Nelson Mandela made out of diamonds, and a bitter, recovering alcoholic cop who keeps on trying.

Joan Opyr Biography– Bywater Books
Joan Opry was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, the daughter of a professional ballerina and a damn Yankee. She has a BA and MA from North Carolina State, finished the course work for a PhD at Ohio State, and is finishing a BS in Nursing at Lewis-Clark State College. Her goal is to be a middle-aged woman who can’t seem to settle. She is the author of three novels, each of which won a Golden Crown Literary Society Award. Two were Lambda finalists. Her most recent novel, Shaken and Stirred, won an Independent Publishing Award.

Her books, published by Bywater Books, are available on Amazon.

Maybe I’m more like an anthropologist — a funny anthropologist. It’s like Margaret Mead and E. F. Benson had a baby and then dropped her on her head. - Joan Opyr

Opyr Blog

Opyr also writes on her blog, The Hell You Say: Musings – okay, ranting – from the author of Idaho Code and From Hell to Breakfast. Her unique writer’s voice comes through loud and clear in her posts, which are crammed full of humor and wit and that ever-elusive item for most of those who write – quotable text. This is one author you need to check out ... she's fabulous ... and I'm not just prejudiced by the fact that she rides a motorcycle, although I hope to meet her some day on the road less traveled.    

The Writing Process or We Want the Funk

Post by Joan Opyr

June 9, 2014

I’ve been tagged by the fab and groovy Andi Marquette in a writing process blog hop. There are four questions. Here are my four (or more) answers.

Q. What are you working on?

Right now? The NCLEX. I just graduated from nursing school, and I sit for the boards later this month. I’m one of those writers who needs a day job, not only because writing has not thus far made me rich but because I need a lot of human interaction and excitement to feed my imagination. I can’t just shut myself up in a room and write. Some writers are like cerastium — they grow like mad in stony ground. I’m more like a rose bush. I require constant feeding, pruning, and spraying for aphids.

That said, I am working on a couple of projects. One is a third and final book in my Idaho series, a sequel to Idaho Code and From Hell to Breakfast, called, tentatively, Wish in One Hand. I feel that there’s more to be said about Bil and Sylvie and about the evolution of lesbian life in Idaho. I started work on Idaho Code in 1994. Twenty years have passed since then, and it’s been eight years since the book was published. We will soon have marriage equality here. Times have changed both in the state and in the nation since my characters were fighting anti-gay propositions like Proposition One. I’m not sure we even dreamt of same-sex marriage back then. It seemed amazing enough that we had Ellen or Ross’ ex-wife and her girlfriend on Friends.

My other project is Southern family chicklit Gothic. It’s about five sisters growing up in the Great Depression. There’s a major character in the novel who’s lesbian, but the book isn’t lesbian-focused. I’m not consciously trying for a crossover. I no longer care if my books are pigeonholed as lesfic; I write what I want to read. But this is a bigger story, I think, and I’m trying to get into the heads of characters with whom I don’t have a lot in common, apart from being Southern and a woman. I don’t have a title for this one yet. Perhaps Look Homeward, Hell’s Angel.

That was a joke, y’all.

Q. How does your work differ from others in its genre?

That’s a tricky one. My books are funny, but so are a lot of other books. I write funny mysteries, but that’s nothing new. I write funny dysfunctional families, but Amy and David Sedaris have raised the bar so high on that front that I hesitate to mention it. What’s more, the Sedaris siblings are, like me, from North Carolina. I think I hate them. They’re sucking up all of my oxygen.

Perhaps what distinguishes my writing is that my humor is broad but also weirdly erudite. Or maybe I mean dilettantish. I have a mind full of trivia. I began my educational career as a medievalist. My role model as a writer is Chaucer. I think my goal has always been to write a Canterbury Tales featuring gay people. As Chaucer may already have done that with The Pardoner, there might be nothing unique in this, either. Damn it.

Q. Why do you write what you do?

Because I want to read it. I write books for me, for my friends, for my family. I write books about people who interest me or make me laugh.

Q. How does your writing process work?

At the moment, it works like a 1968 Volkswagen with no heat, a broken gas gauge, and windows that won’t roll down. When I’m in the groove, it purrs along like that Maserati in Joe Walsh's Life's Been Good. I’m either feast or famine. When I write, I write. I sit down and type until the story is out. I wrote my third novel, Shaken and Stirred, in two weeks — meaning the first draft, that is. I spent another year editing it. I’ve heard many times that the art of writing is in the editing, but unless you’ve got a draft to work with, art is not possible. If I can just get it out, I know I can get it right. Well, nearly right. I’m never entirely happy with the finished product. I think if I were, I’d stop. No more books. Time to lie down and die.

Need more specifics? I do write to music. In fact, I make up a soundtrack that I think will suit the mood of the story. Once I have my main characters, I put together five or six hours of music that I think they’d enjoy. Sometimes, certain songs or pieces of music appear multiple times. Back in 1994, when I was working on Idaho Code, I made mix tapes using CDs and a dual cassette deck. And so now you know that I am 105.

What else? I eavesdrop. I go to the mall, to Jiffy Lube, to my doctor’s waiting room, and I listen. I don't record, even though my iPhone would let me do that. I take notes. I listen for patterns of speech, figures of speech, idiosyncrasies of expression and, always, funny stories. People are so interesting, especially when they have no idea they’re being observed. I want to say that I feel like Jane Goodall, but someone might get the idea that I think of other people as chimps, and that’s not right. That is deeply wrong. Most of the time. Maybe I’m more like an anthropologist — a funny anthropologist. It’s like Margaret Mead and E. F. Benson had a baby and then dropped her on her head.

One final confession: Moleskines and fountain pens. I compose on a computer, but I take my notes in Moleskines and I write with a Parker Vector fountain pen in blue-black ink. It’s a habit, it’s a superstition, it helps get me in the mood. Some writers drink. Others sleep around.  I like beautiful notebooks and smooth pens. I’m a writer with a happy liver and a happy marriage.

"Hilarious Spoof" doesn't begin to cover it

From Hell to Breakfast Amazon Book Review

by Jill Kuraitis

This masterpiece in the genre of Small-town Lesbian Ranch Vietnamese Pawnshop Murder Mysteries is even funnier than Opyr's first book, Idaho Code.

Hang onto a notebook to keep track of the wonderful characters and their various nicknames, be ready for coffee-spitting while you read, and consider reading it aloud to someone - it's even funnier that way, especially if you can do accents.

The descriptions and characters are so vivid you will being seeing it as a movie by the end of the first chapter.  Good book!

Enthralled with The Goldfinch

Reading is a rare privilege.

 After having spent the past two weeks in the company of a master, I feel as if my life has now changed forever. After reading a book like The Goldfinch, one doesn't emerge unscathed.The characters remain, concern for them lingers, and the settings have left an indelible imprint.

Donna Tartt's latest work encompasses a world unto itself. The tale of a young man enduring- post traumatic stress, the loss of his mother, an obsession with a painting, and uncertain care-  had me enthralled from start to finish. Thrown to the winds of fate, Theo Decker is lucky to find one very good and kind man who becomes his guiding light.

By the grace of God, there are writers who have the ability to take the reader by the hand and lead them into the doorway of a world so perfectly described that it ceases to exist in the imagination: it becomes real. Dickens could have written this book; the characters could have been drawn by him as they are that fine.

As it turns out, I am not the only reader to come up with this assessment. While browsing on Goodreads, I was surprised to find that Stephen King chimed in:

" Theo Decker’s mother is killed in a bombing that rocks the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Theo, unharmed, escapes with a valuable painting called The Goldfinch. He carries this symbol of grief and loss from early adolescence into an adulthood fraught with danger and beset by addiction. The long middle sequence, set in a housing development on the seedy, sand-blown outskirts of Las Vegas, is a standout. Tartt proves that the Dickensian novel—expansive and bursting with incident—is alive and well."

Years ago, our book club read Tartt's first novel,  The Secret History, and then the second, The Little Friend and now surely the best book I have read in 2014, The Goldfinch. As in Girl With A Pearl Earring, a  painting is a central theme. The work by Carel Fabritius, a student of Rembrant's,  is beautifully and exquisitely described, and is the thread that pulls us through from start to finish. Depicted is a dear little finch, chained to a perch, sad, and hopeful at once; it is a simple and elegant, much loved painting that has enthralled art lovers and critics for centuries. Tartt describes the masterpiece as one that appeals to children. 

Carel Fabritius 1622-1654

If you long to read a book that sweeps you away and becomes an experience, if you love antiques, New York, fine painting, and beautiful writing, you will be captured by this novel. As winter drags on, curl up, and treat yourself to some deep thinking as you become taken up with The Goldfinch.

Craving Lobster Chowder

We are pleased to offer this guest post from Dana Tuttle. She is a busy Mom with a passionate interest in history.

                                            Statue of Mary Dyer in Boston,
                                             by Sylvia Shaw Judson


Should I worry that I am obsessed with dead housewife theologians? Why do the guys with the beards and the cigars get all the attention? These women who loved God and were executed fascinate me. Whether it was false accusations within a marriage, or a determination to do something radical for God…I am intrigued. How do these women end up laying their heads on chopping blocks, being racked until their bones dislocate, tied to the stake to be burnt alive, or simply pushed off of a scaffold with a rope around their neck? I want to know what drives these women to their untimely deaths and I always try to figure out what they could have done differently.  All of them were strong-willed, feisty, and brave—each one with her own unique story. I have a deep love for Anne Boleyn, Anne Askew, Lady Jane Grey and now, my fascination continues with Mary Dyer. She was the first woman to be executed on American soil for her religious beliefs.
I appreciate that my daddy knows me well and gave me a copy of My American Eden: Mary Dyer, Martyr for Freedom, by Elizabeth S. Brinton, for Christmas. I admit that I have been so wrapped up in the English Reformation that I forgot that some of those feisty women sailed to America! With such a huge interest, I was shocked that I had not heard of Mary Dyer. I was eager to learn about her and Brinton did not disappoint. I quickly got sucked into the world of Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1635, and into the lives of the Dyer family as they arrived in the harbor. Brinton did a wonderful job of telling the story and painting the scene in my mind. She gave an accurate picture of what happened, as well as an unbiased opinion of the characters. I felt compassion for Mary, her husband, William, her children, her friend, Anne Hutchinson, and her servant, Irene who is the voice in the story.
What is really interesting is how Brinton has the gift of making me crave lobster chowder and planted in me a desire to visit Newport, Rhode Island and Boston, Massachusetts. Now that is a good author! The more I read, the more I was compelled to research Mary and the facts surrounding her. I always know that I am reading a good historical fiction when I find myself saying, “Nuh uh!” out loud and looking it up, only to find that it is recorded in history. This gave me the confidence in Brinton as an author. I have read historical fictions that are so embellished that it completely loses its integrity as “historical.” I really appreciate how closely she stuck to the truth, while maintaining her creativity as a writer.
The thing about historical fiction is that you already know the ending, so the author’s goal is to fill in the blanks and help us to understand how the ending came to be. In particular, how did Mary Dyer, known as “The Rebel Saint,” end up swinging from a rope by her neck in Boston, Massachusetts. On June 1^st, 1660, Mary Dyer willingly allowed herself to be executed as an example and to cause the laws banning Quakers, or any other choice of worship, from being persecuted or put to death.
Mary Dyer is famous for the moment when immediately after she was pushed off of the platform “a gust of wind blew across the common, catching Mary’s skirt, puffing it full with a snap. Her dress billowed as a sail does when suddenly grabbed by the wind. Someone said, ’She hangs there like a flag’” (viii). Her execution caused a lot of controversy, and soon after, the laws putting Quakers to death were changed.
The word “journey” is overused these days to describe one’s spiritual life. But for Mary, it truly was a journey! Born an Anglican in England, she and her husband, William followed a band of Puritans to America. They became respected citizens in their colony. Mary, and several other women, began following the famous, Anne Hutchinson, who was banned from the colony for her antinomian beliefs. I could go off into a huge theological discussion here, but I want to stick to the review of Brinton’s book.  Anne’s theology was attractive to the women of her town and they felt spiritually fed by this loving midwife. For their involvement, Mary and her husband, William, were disenfranchised and had to leave the colony with the rest of the men and women who followed Anne Hutchinson. The Dyers moved and settled twice before finally settling in Newport, Rhode Island. Here is where the story takes a twist and begins to bother me. Mary decides that she needs to go back to England to settle her estate. She went against her husband’s will and she left behind 5 children. The youngest son was only two years old! She promised to be back soon, but ended up staying for 5 years!
During her time in England, she met George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, and quickly converted. It was an easy step from Anne Hutchinson’s antinomian theology. Mary was unaware that Quakers were banned in Boston and was immediately arrested, strip-searched and whipped upon her arrival in the harbor. She was kept in jail with no heat or light for two months before her husband got word that she was there. He was given custody of her and she was banned from ever returning to Boston. They returned to Newport and Mary saw her children after 5 long years.  Upon her arrival home, she left her family again and secluded herself on another island with other Quakers.  Then finally, she went back to Boston against her husband’s will and the law that banned her, to make herself an example.
I loved the voice Brinton gave Mary’s husband, William. Page after page, he continued to support her, forgive her, and persuade her to stay home to serve in her calling as a wife and mother.  “Yea, joyfully I go” (229). In my opinion, Mary missed out on all the opportunities that God had placed right in front of her. God blessed her with a new world, a loving husband, a home full of children who needed her love and guidance, and an island of friends and neighbors to love and serve in her vocation as a mere housewife theologian.
Yet, as I read Mary’s story as an American woman, I am reminded that I have the freedom to believe what I want to believe and attend the church of my choice. I must respect the fact that she was a huge influence on the foundation of the religious freedom we enjoy in our country. Mary contributed willingly to our American history and the freedom we have today.  Read Brinton’s book, it is fascinating!
Now, about that lobster chowder…mmm!

 

www.amazon.com/My-American-Eden-Elizabeth-Brinton-ebook/dp/B00AGHKFS4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1394455589

Author's Note:


It may be interesting to add that Sylvia Shaw Judson is the creator of the Bird Girl statue featured on the cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. In the case of the statue of Mary Dyer, created in 1959, the model who sat for the sculpture was Anna Cox Brinton, grandmother to my husband, Howard Brinton. This fact came to light well after my work on Mary Dyer had begun.

The Beauty of North Idaho & Local Authors

                                                

    What comes to mind when you think of north Idaho? Is it fishing at Dawson Lake in Boundary County? Snow skiing at Schweitzer?  Sailing on Lake Pend Oreille,  or perhaps paddling the deep blue  waters of  Lake Coeur d Alene?  Is it the pristine beauty of Priest River,  and picking huckleberries in  late  summer? Maybe the rich heritage of the  Coeur d Alene Indians or   historic Cataldo Mission, the oldest standing building in Idaho - also known as the Mission of the Sacred Heart, founded by Jesuit priest, Father Pierre-Jean De Smet  in 1848.

    How about the  Route of the Hiawatha Trail, the old Milwaukee Railroad line making its way through Wallace ,  now a popular mountain bicycle trail popular with locals and tourists, or Camp Sweyolakan, one of the oldest resident camps in the United States with nearly 300 wooded acres on the shores on Mica Bay, with one of the largest fleets of classic war canoes [for more about Sweyolakan, see my stories "Two if  by Sea" IDAHO magazine, September 2012 and "Paddles Aweigh - Around the Lake in Ten Days" IDAHO  magazine, December 2013].

      North Idaho has long been touted for its beautiful rivers and lakes,  rich forested land and  abundant wild life - elk, deer, moose; Red Tail hawks and the majestic Eagle soaring across a  smog free sky.

      I have travelled in Mexico, throughout Europe, western Canada and many parts of the United States, and still find north Idaho to be among the  most magnificent landscapes I've ever seen. What some might call,  'God's Country'.  But there is another hallmark here, too. Something worth noting. It is a fertile environment for the creative mind, the daydreamer, the artist, the musician, the writer.

     While there isn't space  here to recognize every author from north Idaho and their books, several come to mind:

       Marianne Love. After reading her,  Pocket Girdles and other Confessions of a Northwest Farm Girl, an uproarious collection of autobiographical stories  about rural life in the northwest,  I decided I wanted to write memoir, to tell stories  like she did, in a humorous, heartfelt way. It was after attending one of Marianne's writing workshops, and her encouraging words about blogging I started my own blog, 2 lane highway( http://2lanehighway.blogspot.com).   Marianne remains one of my favorite writers.
                                                     

        
     Nancy Owens Barnes. Moose for Breakfast Outdoor Poems & Essays  published by Rushing River Press gives picturesque view of north Idaho living through Nancy's colorful words and prose. Nancy is winner of the 2008 Zola Award for Poetry and was 2007 Jessie Cameron Alison Writer of the Year. Her book South to Alaska From the Heartland of America to the Heart of a Dream of one man's dream of living in Alaska fulfilled after he builds a 47 ft. boat in his Arkansas backyard begins a journey through a watery world he knows little about, to a world he cannot forget.
                                                   

     Elizabeth S. Brinton. "We landed with no thoughts of religious freedom in mind."  So begins, My American Eden / Mary Dyer, Martyr for Freedom. Chris Peck , editor, the Commercial Appeal writes, She captures with grace the gripping human story of a remarkable woman of faith who dared to challenge the dark side of an emerging America. Brinton uses her grasp of history and politics to help us better understand what happens when the line between government might and what is right is blurred.

     Phyllis Horne.  The Carnival Girl - One Woman's Journey Through the Carnival Life tells how the author ran away from home at 14 and became a carnie - a carnival worker at the Pike in Long Beach, California. Hers is a story of brushes with the law, broken relationships and family trials until she eventually overcame those challenges and eventually owned her own business in Idaho.
                                                   

      Ana Parker Goodwin.  A former psychotherapist and lecturer turned writer, Anna writes a fictional account of Dr. Faythe Bradington , a Clinical Psychologist, shocked to learn that an ex-client is suing her for implanting false memories of childhood sexual abuse in  Justice Forbidden - A Dr. Faythe Bradington And L.P. Sanborn Novel. Ana is also co-author of renowned textbook on Sand Play Therapy.

                                         

       

     D. Faye Higbee.  The Dog Paw Chronicles/The Autobiography Of A Writer chronicles the authors life in short story form, with the addition of canine philosophy by Red the Dog.

    Michael Marsden. Author of several books, including The House in Harrison and The Black Dog Bed and Breakfast, Michael is a long time member of Idaho Writers League. His favorite quote is  one from E.L. Doctorow, "Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader, not the fact that it's raining, but the feeling of being rained upon."

     Not just published book authors, but scriptwriters,  magazine writers, copyrighters, and bloggers as well.   Mary Jane Honegger recently won first place at the Sandpoint Film Festival  for her screenplay, Root Bound ,  a short film of how complications arise when a young professional denies his Idaho roots when he is hired by a national television show.

     Jenny Leo and Jennifer Rova are contributors to Writing North Idaho, and currently working on a novel.

    As writers we have a tendency to only look to the J.K. Rowlings,  Steven Kings  and other renowned authors far away for inspiration,  motivation and instruction,  when  local authors  very near can often provide the same right where we live, and write


* Note: All book titles mentioned in this blog can be purchased on Amazon
    

 

   

   

   

    

     





    

    

    

     

      

Anna Quindlen: On Being Enough

After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm enough.'   --  Anna Quindlen

Anna Quindlen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and bestselling novelist with a book list that includes seven novels including six bestsellers and eight nonfiction books. She began her career as a copy girl for The New York Times at age 18.  After graduation from Barnard she was hired as a reporter for The New York Post, then returned to The New York Times as a columnist from 1981 to 1994. 

She was only the third woman in the paper’s history to write a regular column for the Op-Ed page and won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her work in 1992.  She left her newspaper career behind to concentrate on becoming a novelist in 1995.

Like her columns, her books (both nonfiction and fiction) take a sophisticated, insightful and thought provoking look at life.  Add it all together … her background, her high profile newspaper career and prestigious, award-winning body of work ... and you would think Anna would be one of the most self-assured, competent and confident women you would ever meet.

 If success is not on your own terms -- if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your own heart -- it is no success at all.  -- Anna Quindlen

So it comes as quite a surprise to learn that Anna Quindlen, like the vast majority of us, felt she was “not enough.”  She says it wasn’t until she turned 50 (eight years after winning the Pulitzer Prize) that she woke up secure in the knowledge that she was “enough.”   During an interview Anna said she became a “girl imitation,” acting “less than” in order to fit the expected image of a woman.  

“[I became] nicer, sweeter, less outspoken [and] less combative.  All the qualities that you need to be a good opinion columnist tend to be qualities that aren’t valued in women.  And I think that was a bit of a challenge for me when I became an op-ed columnist [for The New York Times] and has been a challenge for many of us who do that as a living.  -- Anna Quindlen 

Since reading her first book, I considered Anna Quindlen an inspiring role model, but I didn’t think we had much in common because our lives were so different.  She is a New Yorker who graduated from Barnard.  She began her career at age 18 with one of the most prestigious newspapers in the country ... and then won a Pulitzer Prize for her writing, for heaven's sake!  And I, well ... I have none of those accomplishments on my resume.

 I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.  -- Anna Quindlen

But in sharing these truths about herself, her value to me increased even more because I realize that although we may have walked different paths, we do have much in common.   We share the journey of being a woman and the challenge of finding the strength to become yourself and to share your truths as a writer with candor and integrity.  I appreciate the grace and wisdom with which she continues to illuminate the path for the rest of us.  

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.  -- Anna Quindlen

Find Anna Quindlen’s latest novel on Amazon:

Brilliantly written, powerfully observed, Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined. -- Amazon.com Review.  

Visit her website at annaquindlen.net.

Novelists Are Spy Masters

Did you ever write the words, 'how true', in the margins of a great book? Have you picked up a novel in a used book shop and seen the words scratched in pencil from a previous reader? Did you mar A Tale of Two Cities in high school? I was subject to my sister's hand me down copies, so I was initiated into the 'how true' habit. Now I resort to a notebook and copy sentences that deserve this attention.

Ian McEwan is an English writer whom the San Francisco Chronicle, reviewing “Sweet Tooth,” describes as, “a thinking persons bestseller whose intelligent, tightly plotted novels, narrated in careful prose, address the pressing social and political issues of our days.”

 While visiting a charming and rustic cabin up in Bayview Idaho, a great friend whose intellect never ceases to astound me, pressed her copy of this work into my hand. As we had both read Atonement, and On Chesil Beach for the Best Food Ever Book Club, I could not wait to begin, Sweet Tooth.

A thinking person's bestseller is an apt description of Booker Prize winner, Ian McEwan's talent. Born in Aldershot England, on June 21 1948, he has enjoyed a very prolific career. He lived in Singapore and Lybia while his father, a sergeant major in the British army, worked on campaigns during the years of the Cold War. Ian McEwan's novel,  Amsterdam yielded a Booker Prize. His novel Atonement was shortlisted for the same award. The film of the same name, starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightly, was nominated for an Oscar. The story is a family saga set during before and during the days of World War II. It involves an innocent mistake with devastating consequences, and the need to 'atone' for both.

A great writer will craft sentences that are truly memorable. When lifted from their context, the sentence may stand alone,  live on, and be quoted frequently.

From Atonement:

“A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.”

A character in the novel describes why she writes:

“A story was a form of telepathy. By means of inking symbols onto a page, she was able to send thoughts and feelings from her mind to her readers. It was a magical process, so commonplace that no one stopped to wonder at it"

On Chesil Beach was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2007. Being that it was one of our summer selections for the Best Food Ever Book Club, I had the rare thrill of reading it on vacation, on the lovely southern coast of England where the tale is set. I could open the hotel window and smell the sea breezes while devouring this depiction of a marriage going off the rails, right from the start.

McEwan writes: “You can spin stories out of the ways people understand and misunderstand each other.”

In Sweet Tooth, chapter three begins with these words:

“I didn't cancel my appointment with MI5.”

Set in 1972, during the Cold War, an attractive young woman, a bishop's daughter, is recruited and given an assignment to work for British intelligence, known as MI5. She is to meet with a writer she admires, inform him of a charitable foundation willing to support him on the basis of his talent and  promise. His early misgivings are instantly overcome with the promise of cash and sponsorship. Once he accepts, she is tasked with  holding his hand through to completion. Publication and an ensuing award banquet follow, feeding his belief in himself.  In reality, it is a clever ruse on the part of government forces wanting to steer the conversation to their desired political ends. The Cold War rages on, and certain powers that be fear communist rhetoric infecting the Kingdom. When will she be found out? When will his dream of success shatter into a million pieces? Would this not represent the worst nightmare for any writer, to be seduced into thinking your writing is good, when in truth you are being used as a pawn in a sham production?

McEwan states: “You could say that all novels are spy novels and all novelists are spy masters.”

"The Incredible Depth of Green"

Transatlantic, by Colum McCann, is described as "masterful and profoundly moving," by Kirkus reviews. With skill that transcends life itself, McCann weaves together these threads:

Newfoundland: 1919

Two aviators, Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown set course for Ireland in a Vickers Vimy. Hoping that a transatlantic crossing would help to heal the wounds of the Great War, they fly into the cold and dark in a craft made with wood and linen.

Dublin 1845-46

Fredrick Douglas, visits Dublin while on an International Lecture Tour. He finds support for the Abolitionist cause among Irish Quakers. He sees poverty, starvation, filth and disease the likes of which shocks a former slave. He bears witness to the scourge of famine.

New York 1998

Senator George Mitchell departs for Belfast leaving a young wife and newborn son at home. The son of an Irish American father and a Lebanese mother, he is sent by the request of the President of the United States, to apply his capable hand to the tiller, and to steer the erratic, explosive and fragile peace process to a safe harbor.

How does Colum McCann whose considerable talents won him the National Book Award, for Let the Great World Spin, manage to connect these events? He employes the perspective of generations of women, all descendents of Lily Duggan, an Irish servant in the household hosting Frederick Douglas.

Transatlantic is a tale so beautifully written, it has an hypnotic quality. Here is one passage:

"The north below, is stunned with morning sunlight. Patches of bright yellow on the mud flats. The fields so wide and grassy. Lake and water meadow. A silver estuary and a huge lake. One small cloud, cast out by the herd, limps away to the west. The plane banks and the city of Belfast appears, always smaller than he expects it to be. The high cranes of the shipyards. The maze of the side streets. The soccer pitches. The flats. The fretful desolation. Then out over the fields again, the incredible depth of green. He has never quite seen the lans so bright before: a clear day through the morning clouds. He is used to its gray edges, its laneways, its high walls. They pull in over Lough Neagh. A vague sadness on touchdown, a tensing of the throat.

On the grass below, the shadow of the plane is squeezed down to its own size, then is gone. Welcome to Belfast Interntational. Contents in the overhead bin may have shifted during flight."   P.121

From an interview in NewStatesman, Colum says, "What could be worse than be called an historical novelist? It's the idea of becoming an alternative historian that really interests me: an historian of the smaller moments. It's a privileged position for the fiction writer, one that opens up a lot of pores- and sometimes wounds as well."

Ireland is a nation of story tellers, singers and poets. A scant few stand above all others: Colum McCann is one.

Family Sagas and the Stuff of Legend

 Gone With the Wind,
 Tara

Margaret Mitchell,

1900-1949

Tolstoy wrote: “All happy families are alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Of all the countless words stemming from Tolstoy's prolific pen, this statement is one of his more famous and oft' quoted lines. 

When I think of this depiction of family life, my mind casts about. Did I come from a happy family? Am I creating a happy family? What constitutes an unhappy family?

When I read Tolstoy's statement the first time, I was still in high school. His words had the ring of truth. I knew some unhappy families, and the sad moniker was more evident in childhood. To this day, I can think of certain houses, walking in, catching my breath and feeling scared. Like a cloak protecting children, the fear was a filmy layer I sensed at once. When I think back to these unlucky homes, I recall the thick silence and an awareness of my beating heart. I felt pity for whomever it was who brought me into this house. There would be an air of tyranny. I would know of an issue too. We had somewhat of an understanding of every marriage in our old neighborhood. I do not know how. I recall that I listened to adult conversations by the hour; I found them fascinating. If I sat very still and remained quiet, I could hear more delicious details. When I heard the phrase, “little pitchers have big ears,” I would sit back on my heels, disappointed to know that I was about to be sent out of the room.

I became aware of family traits at an early age because we were always hearing about whom we took after. I knew the good and the bad from both sides of the family, and where those traits became evident. Life seemed to be a game of genetic ninepins. Good traits were pointed out, and failings all had something to do with ancestry. There was disagreement among the ranks. Nevertheless, with all of our faults combined, we were unabashedly happy. Imperfect, zany, optimistic, risk takers, competitive, generous and compulsive; we seemed to have a never-ending penchant for drama.

Writing a family saga involves events in the character's lives over time and generations. We get involved in political families, famous families, royal families, and powerful families, loving all that is familiar and unique. We root for them, get exasperated by them and generally want to see the family triumph over all adversity.  When setting out to write such a tale, a lofty ambition indeed, we must first decide if they are a patriarchal, or a matriarchal clan. Did they slip along the way, and climb back up again, or did they devolve into a great mess? Do hurts and stings have a lasting effect? Are they a family who can bounce back from adversity? Can they go from an unhappy family to a happy one? Is there an offshoot? Is there a villain, or a hero? Are they the stuff of legend? Will the third generation squander the efforts of the first? Will predators destroy them? There is no end to the possibilities of a great family saga. 

Pictured above is the desk where Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind.

In no particular order, I have supplied a list of  family sagas I have read and loved:

Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald, 

http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Your-Knees-Oprahs-Book/dp/0743237188/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381351055&sr=1-1&keywords=fall+on+your+knees

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott,

 http://www.amazon.com/Little-Bantam-Classics-Louisa-Alcott/dp/0553212753/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381351146&sr=1-1&keywords=little+women+by+louisa+may+alcott#reader_0553212753

Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell,

http://www.amazon.com/Gone-Wind-Anniversary-Margaret-Mitchell/dp/1451635621/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381351406&sr=1-1&keywords=gone+with+the+wind 

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez,

http://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Solitude-Gabriel-Garcia-Marquez/dp/006112009X/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381351532&sr=1-1&keywords=one+hundred+years+of+solitude 

East of Eden, by John Steinbeck,

 http://www.amazon.com/East-Eden-Oprah-Book-Club/dp/0142000655/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381351609&sr=1-1&keywords=east+of+eden+by+john+steinbeck

House of Spirits, by Isabel Allende,

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=House%20of%20Spirits

The Godfather, by Mario Puzo,

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+Godfather&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3AThe+Godfather 

Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley,

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_5?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=roots&sprefix=Roots%2Cstripbooks%2C264&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Aroots 

Launch your book with style

Invasion of Heaven Book Launch

September 28, 2013, 7 – 9 p.m.

White Room in Spokane, WA

117 West Pacific Avenue

Some writers really know how to launch a book.  One such writer is North Idaho's Michael B. Koep, who is hosting a "fantasy-filled" book launch of his debut novel, "The Invasion of Heaven" in Spokane on September 28.  The public is invited (but must RSVP) to share in the recreation of "the book's most mysterious scene" in the famous Italian Uffizi Art Gallery and enjoy live music, art, sword fights, food (including Italian appetizers), beer and wine, prizes and a reading and book signing with Michael.  

Wow!  This sounds a little more exciting that sitting at Hastings or Aunties surrounded by stacks of your own books and addressing a small crowd of your most ardent fans ... er, family.  This guy definitely wants to make a splash as an author and decided to market himself in a unique and powerful way.  He made proactive press releases that used professional-looking graphics, planned a unique and compelling launch party and plans to launch an interactive website.  He also organized his book as a trilogy (which is what publishers are looking for) and has already advised his readers to watch for "Elliqui, Part II of The Newirth Trilogy," in 2014.

In researching this creative approach to a book launch, I discovered that Michael used the services of Book It Northwest, a business that specializes in helping non-fiction authors bring their work to the attention of Western Washington audiences and media.  I guess maybe they are expanding into Eastern Washington with this launch.

Info from their website: Partner with Book It Northwest and benefit instantly from behind-the-scenes knowledge of the Northwest's event and media protocol.  Company principals Gail DiRe and Diane Duthweiler have intimate knowledge of the publishing and media worlds.  Let them help you create and carry out a public relations strategy and press plan.

Their services include: Event & Media Booking, Press Releases, Press Kits and Media Coaching, PR & Marketing Consultations, Media & Event Escorting, Book It Northwest Do-It-Yourself Author Publicity Kit, Local & Custom Event/Venue & Media Lists, and Web Copy.

Sounds like what they offer may be of value to authors like Michael who are open to launching their book in a creative way.  Check them out at bookitnorthwest.com.

Michael B. Koep's Press Release:

Art penetrates the veil between this life and the next…

THE INVASION OF HEAVEN

Part I of The Newirth Mythology

By Michael B. Koep

  

(Coeur d’Alene, ID)—The mysterious death of a bipolar housewife forces psychologist Loche Newirth to see traces of insanity in the most terrifying place: himself. All at once he is wanted for murder; in a battle of wits with another psychologist; AND he may be seeing things—a crystal blue iris with a fathomless black pupil starts popping up to stare at his life.

Next, the doctor is tangled up with a stuttering and sometimes stoned artist who claims his portraits are a link to the afterlife.

Part one of The Newirth Mythology: The Invasion of Heaven is filled with a mind-bending cast of double-crossing characters bent on destroying what was thought to be beyond the reach of human treachery: the life we all hope for behind death’s door.

The idealistic Dr. Newirth must elude supernatural kidnappers and real life police detectives on his journey from Northern Idaho’s mountain lakes to Northern Italy—and beyond—sometimes at the heels of a swashbuckling, poetry-spouting patient who likes to speak in anagrams and claims he’s more than 600 years old. Is he ally or enemy?

Art is the key to understanding author/artist Michael B. Koep’s fiction debut and he provides passage into his new myth with traces of his invented language, Elliqui, as well as pen and ink drawings.

Amid swordfights, shootouts, betrayal, just-discovered family members and secret guardians … in a milieu of fine art, fine food, secret lovers, myth, mafia, murder, ancient languages and the loud music of classic vinyl LPs, The Invasion of Heaven brings new life to the age old questions of what it means to be human, what lies beyond and if, “The eyes on the inside always tell the t-t-truth.”

  

Coming soon … an interactive website for fans who want to help expand the nascent language of "Elliqui" for future installments of "The Newirth Trilogy".  Look for Part II in 2014!  Find out more about Michael on his website: www.michaelbkoep.com.  

About the Author/Artist

By the age of 12, Michael B. Koep had written a complex, Tolkienesque fantasy with its own number system, language and runic alphabet. He continues that tradition with his fiction debut.

Koep has been called an Inland Northwest "Renaissance Man”. He is a former educator who co-founded a Northern Idaho fencing consortium, but he is best known as a drummer and lyricist for the progressive rock group KITE and percussionist for the variety, power trio The RUB.  Koep is a visual artist who has attempted to paint the human soul and winner of a Costello Poetry Prize.  If you meet him, in this world or another, ask him about the medieval village he built for his wedding.

If you are interested in attending the book launch party:
RSVP contact: 

Blair Williams: 208-446-9696

For an official Passport Invitation, email your mailing address to: treearc@frontier.com

Story Structure: Internal vs. External

(Note: This a re-post from an April 18, 2011 entry.)

The Ospreys returned to their nest last week. At first I noticed only one. A few days later I saw the pair sitting atop the nesting platform, surveying their domain.

So, what’s their story?

When I saw the Ospreys had returned, I thought about the long journey they had made from their wintering grounds along the western coasts of Central and South America, to the nesting platform alongside the Pend Oreille River near our home in North Idaho. I also thought about the instinct that drives them to make such a remarkable journey.

I thought about these things because of a recent conversation I had with a writer friend. Over coffee, one of the topics we talked about was how well-written stories always contain two stories: an external story and an internal story.

As a writer, understanding how to bring out the internal story in my writing is something I have had to learn, and continue to study. Even though I feel the internal story was probably lurking somewhere in the things I wrote, I hadn’t learned to recognize it, define it, and focus on making it a more effective.

The external story is the tangible story. It is the action a character takes to fulfill the need of the internal story.

The internal story is the intangible, abstract story. It is a character’s yearning for something that comes from within. It reflects a basic human need, a desire, a belief, or inner turmoil in a character’s life. It comes from a need for love or respect, a yearning for adventure, the desire to right a wrong, or to fulfill certain long-term hopes and dreams. These internal goals are what drive characters to act.

Here are examples of the general internal need that drives the characters of three famous stories:

The Grapes of Wrath: Tom Joad is driven by the instinct to survive; the urgent need to protect his family during the Great Depression.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Atticus Finch is driven by the desire to fight social inequality.

The Old Man and the Sea: Santiago is driven by a desire to secure the honor and respect of the village fishermen.

Freelancer Mary Lynn Mercer writes the following in her article, Five Keys to Effective Internal Goals:

“Readers are interested in characters whose external goals, motivations, and conflicts move the plot, but they care about characters whose inner landscape is vibrantly developed. Internal goals, motivations, and conflicts weave together the foundation of larger-than-life characterizations--the kind of characters readers remember long after the story ends.

Whereas external goals are physical and photographable, internal goals are born of intangible, universal human needs. Some examples of human needs include: intimacy, acceptance, identity, mastery, security, fulfillment, survival, harmony, and integrity. Usually, one need dominates a character for his or her life. The selection process is a blend of motivations planted in the character's backstory and individual personality.”

And later…

“An internal goal is the dominant landmark on the inner landscape of a multidimensional character. Around it revolves the internal conflicts and motivations that make characters feel real and make readers care.”

So, what about the Osprey? If I were to write about them, their journey—year after year—would be the external story. The unbendable need for the pair to return to their nesting place, reestablish their bond and raise their young would be the internal story, driven by instinct. And, of course, there would need to be conflict, such as how the Ospreys would boot out the Canadian Goose I sometimes see in the nest before the Ospreys arrive.

With a little research, writers can find several writing-related books and blogs that cover this topic of internal and external plots. But here is a bare-bones definition: Wanting a candy bar is an internal story. Eating the candy bar is an external story. Yum.

Breaking up with the word can't.

Waiting in our car while my husband chatted with a Priest Lake business owner a couple of weeks ago, I began reading an essay by Richard Nelson from a book I had tucked into my bag before leaving home. Nelson’s writing quickly drew me in, enveloped me, yet, at the same time, gave me that sudden itch I sometimes get when reading at home—that itch to close the book and head to my computer with a mad desire to emulate and learn from what I have just read, thinking…THAT is how I want to write, THAT is how I want MY readers to feel.

I love the fact that one writer can inspire another to such a degree, that a writer’s carefully chosen words can make one want to jump up and begin working; can spur another writer to wonder—what words did the author use that brought about that specific emotion? How did the author place that particular phrase on the page to make it work so well? What came before it and what came after it that made it effective? How did the author end the paragraph? How did he transition into the next?

As writers we often study the work of others, a key element to understanding voice, style, tone, and how one constructs stories and articles. Mystery writers read mysteries. Memoirists read Memoirs. Poets read poetry. Freelancers read, well, everything. It all becomes part of the learning process, which brings to mind a comment I heard someone say on a television commercial the other day: “Education means breaking up with the word can’t.”

To me, that education includes self-education. It means tackling what you don’t know with a robust desire to know; to have a thirst for knowledge that drives you to look into all of the corners for what you need. It means reading, researching, connecting with other writers, and paying attention to the methods of those who came before you. Other writers make me want to write better. They motivate me with their knowledge and confidence, with their hard work and push to follow their dreams and to get their stories onto paper. I admire those who treat their writing not only as a business, but as a necessity.

In his book Writing Naturally, David Petersen expresses the idea that, yes, a formal education, writing workshops, and how-to publications can help you write better, but then adds:

“Yet the best any and all such external aids can do is to help you help yourself. What makes good writers isn't nearly so much teaching as it is learning...learning via reading, studying and dissecting the work of other writers, good and bad; learning by writing and revising and getting rejected and revising some more and weighing informed criticism and eventually getting published and never-ever fooling yourself into believing you know it all. These things, such self-directed educational struggles, adapted as a lifestyle, make good writers."

For me, breaking up with the word can’t means taking my education as a writer fully into my own hands, then learning what I need to learn on my own and from others in an effort to consistently and purposely improve my skills and advance my work.

But the hidden, unfortunate, part of such education is that most of those writers from whom we learn, like Nelson who made me want to leap out of my seat with enthusiasm, will never know the impact of their work on writers like myself who, in this case, quite simply, became inspired while waiting in a car near the forested shore of a North Idaho lake.