The Blog Itself

Countdown to e-reader?

2012-01-13T11:57:00.000-05:00

I've been swayed a bit of late toward the prospect of getting a Kindle or Nook. I've pushed back on the idea because I feel that I'm in some way cheating on my favorite bookstores, namely the Book House, Northshire Bookstore, and the Open Door Bookstore. I think if I actually had shelf space I'd be more inclined to keep getting my books. They make me look so smart! Except for the "Twilight" books (thanks, Melanie).

I'm not sure how many books I have on my shelves that I haven't read, but it's a significant number, probably 35-40, maybe more. So Melanie and I cut a deal, when I've read all the books that I own, if I still want an e-reader, I can buy one. Not a bad deal.

Nothing will stop me from buying books by Roy Peter Clark, Tracy Kidder, Dave Eggers and my peers, but did I really need to buy "Commencement", "Mr. Peanut", "Swamplandia", or "I Thought You Were Dead"?

We'll see when I'm done reading all these titles. Maybe if I time it right, it'll be Christmas time and I'll be able to save my family hundreds of dollars in books they normally buy me.

Writing Backwards

2012-01-05T07:42:00.000-05:00

I know the ending of "The Last Championship."

It's not when the old guys won the tournament. It's a scene with me and my team during the summer of 2010 after we lost our bid at the championship. We're all hanging out, drinking Coors Light behind the ball field talking about the season and talking about how we should all hang out (but never will). I'm 70 pages deep into the writing, but I'm going to skip and write the ending.

Stephen Covey, author of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People," has a habit called "Begin with the End in Mind." How can you set about a plan without knowing where you're going?

The great Roy Peter Clark wrote in both "Writing Tools" and "Help! for Writers" to have the end in mind so way every word feeds or funnels to this ending. Clark cites that in J.K. Rowling's pre-drafting of the Harry Potter series the last word would be "scar." She changed this slightly, but she wrote seven books with that vision, that Harry's scar would no longer feel any pain.

To use a bad open-water metaphor, I've felt like I'm treading water in the middle of a giant lake while writing the LC. But once I figured my ending out (which I'm going to start when I finish this blog post) all of a sudden a light house blinked off in the distance. It's still far, far way, but I now I know where to swim.

Find your ending then swim like hell.

Reader/Writer Goals for 2012

2011-12-31T08:41:00.000-05:00

Once again I have failed.

I set a goal to read 50 books in 2011. I read 42, 14,726 pages, for an average book length of 350 pages. I could rush to finish Help! for Writers, but that would be a waste. Roy Peter Clark's tips for writers need to be slowly ingested and digested.

I read my book about eight times this year while editing it through the spring, so if that counts, then I made it. It doesn't. I'll likely back off and try to read 45 in 2012.

Other goals? I want to have a workable and complete first draft of "The Last Championship," get more organized, and network better.

What are your reader/writer goals for 2012?

Hazzah!

2011-12-13T15:34:00.000-05:00

Who thinks blogging is played out?

I know I have to do this, but these are now about 17 (and counting) words written here and not elsewhere.

The thought of blogging makes me want to stay in bed. I'm not above it, trust me, I lack the ego to be held above anything.

Did I just write a blog post?

Hazzah!

iRejections version 1.0

2011-10-26T11:51:00.000-04:00

Here's a new section titled iRejections. They're rejections with earbuds, cool, sleek, and, dare I say "trendy" to have. Actually, I just want to share each and every rejection I get. I'll eventually publish all the rejections I had to "Six Weeks," but for now this one from Creative Nonfiction will have to do.

Dear Brendan,

Thank you for submitting your work for Creative Nonfiction's "Anger & Revenge" issue and contest. We enjoyed reading the 200 submissions we received (well, most of them; a few of them unsettled us!) and have had a difficult time choosing the essays to include in the issue. Unfortunately, we have decided that we will not be able to publish your essay at this time.

As always, we regret that, due to the small size of our staff, we are unable to respond personally to every submission, but we appreciate your interest in the support of Creative Nonfiction. We hope you'll consider submitting work to us again in the future.

Best wishes,
CNF Editors.

See, that wasn't so bad, was it?

Owning It

2011-10-03T21:41:00.000-04:00

It sure has been awhile since I've written here. Part of my reasoning is that if I'm writing here, then I'm not writing elsewhere, where it really matters, which is to say, books and narrative, not little quibbles like this so I can have a social platform.

But I've been thinking that I want to share something that I've always believed, and it came to light when I read the Susan Orlean interview in this month's Creative Nonfiction. She said, "I'm a little astonished by the lack of ambition and the lack of savvy about going about a writing career."

She spoke specifically of her undergraduate students at NYU. Now, at 31, I don't know if I'm considered a "young" writer or not. Most would say yes, but I'm starting to climb that time ladder and soon enough I'll no longer be able to claim the sobriquet "young" before writer. Any how ...

I've maintained that I want to be one of the greatest of my generation. I'm also realistic and know that I have nary an inkling of what you might refer to as "God-given" ability. I work for every damn word and, sadly, it often shows. All I can do is aim for a certain measure of competency and hope to be more competent than the next guy.

In order to do that, whoever you are, but especially me, you have to OWN it. Own your discipline. I can think of nothing I'd rather do than read and write. To use an exercise metaphor: if reading is food, then writing is exercise; one fuels the other. Read too much (without writing) and you get fat and lazy. I procrastinate through reading. Write without reading, without fuel, and you bonk. But striking a balance between the two and now you're onto something.

Owning it means I'm reading while I'm in line at the bank, the post office, at a bus stop. It means I don't watch television (can't afford it anyway) and don't bother with much recreation (aside from going out to eat with Mrs. Blog Itself). It means that when I have 30 minutes of a lunch break working the Retail, I'm sitting at the lunch counter writing the next book or essay. It means that I woke up at 5 a.m. that morning and read an essay from Creative Nonfiction and mapped out a scene I wanted to hit later once the sleep punched out.

When you're like me and you know you have to earn every word, you have to bust it every free minute. You have to steal time and make it work. Otherwise you're just another who thinks it would be nice to have a writing career, but don't have the "ambition" and "savvy", as Orlean put it, to make it happen.

There are hitters who can just step up to the plate and crack that ball to holy Hell without thinking and without making their hands bleed. I'm not that person, never have been, never will be, but I'll keep trying to make my words better day by day.

It's all about owning it.

Takes money ...

2011-08-16T06:17:00.000-04:00

I have a plight. Who doesn't? Mine is to sell my book to the best of my abilities. So I took out a little ad space on Facebook. I set a small daily budget (that somehow I was allowed to exceed. Not too happy about this. Why am I setting a threshold if you're going to allow the budget to be broke?).

Either way, it has resulted in 27 new fans of the book's Facebook page. There's a link to my website where you can buy the book from the Facebook page. I don't think any of the 27 have bought it, but it's getting more exposure.

I ran the ad for just 24 hours and was surprised by the outreach. I'd recommend it if you have some spare dollars you want to use to promote your work. When it comes from a small publisher, you might be the only one doing it ... able to do it.

The Arrogance

2011-08-14T19:08:00.001-04:00

I was lucky to visit the Capital OTB Channel's set on the backstretch of Saratoga Race Course and talk about the book. Tom Amello asked me an interesting question to which I gave the worse answer. He asked when I came across the subject, what arrogance did I have to pursue it?

Arrogance may have been a funny word to use, but I think I get it. Why did I feel like I could pull it off? My answer was terrible. I went into how I went to U Mass and studied journalism and it got off course from there. What I should have said was that I love story telling. I love tight frames for nonfiction and I love to see my characters in their elements. I should have said I hate hit-and-run journalism; get the quote and get on with it.

That's what this amounts to. I've been trained to love long form narrative nonfiction. That's what the answer should have been.

Live TV. Live with it.

The Tour Rolls On

2011-08-03T08:19:00.001-04:00

I'll give you an idea of the poor man's book tour. Sunday morning I had a signing four hours away. I left at 4 AM and arrived at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, NJ. I hauled my 62 books in and set them up on a table. I like to stack five books on top of one another and fan them out like a deck of cards. It's a nice display.

I placed many business cards out and I will quickly have bookmarks printed with book information on it. I can't advocate anything better than bookmarks with the cover art, web site, contact information. Some people feel awkward and pressured in front of the author. Giving them a bookmark lets them buy it on their own time. The leverage of saying you WILL personalize it for them works wonders. I say, "The book is $25, but it comes a FREE personalization courtesy of the author himself." They usually smile and agree.

I've sold 100 buy hand so far at a handful of signings. I've been having a blast talking with readers and seeing them light up when you identify yourself as the author.

Now it's onto Annapolis ...

The "Tour"

2011-07-23T07:40:00.000-04:00

I don't have a moment to talk about the book tour, but I will. I most certainly will.

One little thing:

I had a dream that I could wield Lord Voldemort's wand.

Go! Contact a writer you respect

2011-07-04T18:54:00.000-04:00

I always wondered how it was that the best writers all seem to know each other. Gay Talese and David Halberstam. Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ezra Pound.

I respect more authors than I can count and I often write to them. I've written to John McPhee, Gay Talese, and Andre Dubus III and had nice dialogues with them over email (or snail mail with Mr. Talese). As writers, I believe that we're all tied, no matter how talented or talentless we are. We can learn so much from the great practitioners and that most are just an email away!

Begging them for advice or a referral is NOT the way to go. I like to begin by saying how much I admire their work—with specifics—and ask them a question on craft. It proves you're a student of the genre and often opens the door to great conversation ... from the best in the world.

This doesn't give you license to annoy, but by showing some respect you've created a powerful contact who shares a common love.

When does a writer become a writer?

2011-06-26T20:26:00.000-04:00

Before I nod off to sleep I thought I'd pose the question: when does a writer become a writer? If you pick up a pen and start a short story or essay, does that encompass the ever-important title of "writer"? Same goes for your computer; did you start to hammer out a thought, give it some form? Maybe the true testament to being a writer is when you hate every word you wrote and want to correct and re-write all that you've penned.

Are you a painter just because you bought a canvas and slathered on some oils?

I felt comfortable saying I was a "writer" when my first essay was published in the summer of 2007. Then I felt I wasn't merely a sports writer at a small newspaper, but someone who had taken the craft to a slightly different level. But that was me.

My feeling is the moment you make the decision to do it, to elevate your words to something more than speech, then you're on the right track.

Perhaps everyone has their threshold and when you find it, well, welcome to the club, it's a big room and the beer's on ice!

The Last Championship

2011-06-09T15:07:00.000-04:00

I'm setting up signings and so forth. It's fun. Maybe even a little nauseating for you, the reader. I've been aggressive on Facebook (according to the wife, a little too annoying), but that's what I've got to do.

In the meantime, there floats "The Last Championship". The few times I've had a chance to lock down some quotes (I'll reprint Crash Davis' "I Believe" speech). Just some great stuff I'm accumulating to make a story with a common thread.

It'll be nice to get writing again.

Commonality

2011-06-01T10:13:00.000-04:00

I borrowed (OK, stole, but I'm returning it right after I write this post, I swear) an issue of Entertainment Weekly from one of my favorite coffee shops ("Can I give a shout out?" "Sure." "I want give a shout out to Professor Javas, wooooooo!" "That's awfully nice.")

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) wrote a piece about toughening up your skin and dealing with rejection. His is about film, but it's about the salesmanship of your work and that's a commonality across all art.

"You have to be able to sell," he writes. "When you walk into the roomful of deep-pocketed bigwigs, you have to channel the spirit of Billy Mays and sell you idea like it's the greatest thing on the planet."

Here's his condensed rules:

Rule 1: Cook up an idea to its tasty end.
Rule 2: Be prepared to meet always-questioning, confused investors/executives.
Rule 3: Be tenacious.
Rule 4: Meet the right people.
Rule 5: Be confident.
Rule 6: Be ready for them to say no.
Rule 7: Listen to their feedback—unless it's wrong.
Rule 8: Don't give up.

There'll be more time for analysis later. Looks like I'll be "borrowing" this issue longer than forecasted.

Great Dubus quote from 2001

2011-05-23T19:18:00.002-04:00

Snagged this off Oprah's website. How did I find it? I was www.andredubus.com and came across a link. Writers, enjoy this quote:

Most of the time I feel stupid, insensitive, mediocre, talentless and vulnerable—like I'm about to cry any second—and wrong. I've found that when that happens, it usually means I'm writing pretty well, pretty deeply, pretty rawly.

One of the things I tell the writers with whom I work is, man, when you finish a draft of a poem, or short story or novel, you make sure you go out and celebrate all night long because whether the world ever notices or not, whether you get it published or not, you did something most people never do: You started, stuck with, and finished a creative work. And that is a triumph. That is something to celebrate. All the stuff that I'm talking about is really from the point of view of trying to create art—and I don't mean to sound highfalutin when I bring the word "art" in. All I mean is, a work that seeks to illuminate truth in whatever way possible.

That's good stuff. That's the stuff of The Blog Itself!

Worst criticism

2011-05-15T18:40:00.000-04:00

I'll get back to the Money piece later ...

I read the review for McKay Jenkins' new book "What's Gotten into Us? Staying Healthy in a Toxic World" and came across this line from reviewer Elizabeth Royte:

When Jenkins reads the label of a deodorizer that masks pet smells, he writes, “I’d like to tell you what was in these products, but none listed a full set of ingredients.” A more dogged reporter would have picked up the phone and called the manufacturer or a chemical engineer.

Aside from getting facts wrong (a fear of mine) this is probably the worst thing a reporter can read (my second fear). It spears at the heart of the literary journalist. Does the extra due dilligence serve the story? That's the question. I think in this case it probably does, so leaving the phone on the hook in this case might have been lazy. Something else a reporter never wants to be called.

The Money Problem, Intro

2011-05-12T08:01:00.000-04:00

I attended the Power of Narrative conference at Boston University two weekends ago. A common theme among the writers and journalists was "How can I make any money?" The panelists were all very successful writers like Gay Talese, Isabel Wilkerson, Ken Auletta, and others.

Wait ... I have to go to the doctors now to get my knee looked at. I'll resume then.

Head over to The Carryover!

2011-05-04T15:12:00.000-04:00

I have two blogs.

This one.

And a horse racing one that I started three years ago. This week I'm spending most of time over there blogging about racing but also about what I'm writing about, etc.

So, head on over there. It won't disappoint. Okay. It probably will, but isn't it better to have tried and be disappointed than to never have been disappointed at all? Hmmmm ...

Dubus at Northshire

2011-04-13T16:39:00.001-04:00

MANCHESTER, VT — Andre Dubus III, best selling author of the new memoir "Townie," entertained about 20 visitors at Northshire Bookstore Thursday March 24, 2011.

Dubus is at the tail-end of a long book tour promoting "Townie" and felt welcome back in his home region of New England. He dived right into his reading which hit upon his early childhood and sketched his father and mother.

Dubus was cool and unpretentious, so grounded and so approachable. You want to have a Guinness or two with the guy and play air hockey or ping pong.

As soon as he took the podium he said, "How ah ya? You'll understand more than Texas." Naturally, it felt good to be back in New England.

He leaped into his reading, one that detailed his early family life versus the violence that permeates through much of the rest. It was an essay he had written and then it turned into so much more.

"What I love about writing is what it teaches the writer," Dubus said.

Another great line he recited was when writing memoir you "should be able to sue yourself for libel."

For me, I suited up into my writerly uniform that I copy from Gay Talese and took notes here and there. I asked him about the full-frontal nudity that memoir is versus the cloud of imagination you can hide behind in fiction. The discussion from the twenty or so people who attended the reading was insightful and intelligent.

I was second in line to get my book signed behind an old lady. Then we were both cut by an old man with four copies of "Townie" to have signed. He said, "I wanted to be first in line ... " I wanted to say, actually, you're not the first person in line, this woman is. You can cut me, but don't cut her." I didn't say this.

When it was my turn he asked me if I was a writer.

"Yeah, actually, I am," I said.

"I could sense a writerly vibe from you," Dubus replied.

I told him that I was working on a memoir about my father and baseball.

"Do you play?" he asked.

I told him of my exploits of playing a little college ball.

"So you were a player," he said.

This statement is always hard for to answer in the positive or negative. If I were any better I wouldn't have been cut and not many people can say they were on a Div. I roster no matter the role. Anyway ...

I told him about my book coming out and he promptly wrote down the title and said he'd look for it. I have to believe he will. This is a guy who loves to sit down in his bunker with his pencil and notebook and "dive into his psyche one true word at a time."

That's a writer you can trust and believe in.

AD III

2011-03-24T09:33:00.002-04:00

I'll be at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT to see Andre Dubus III, author of the new memoir "Townie," speak about the book. He is the best-selling author of "The House of Sand and Fog," which was an Oprah Book Club selection and made into a movie.

I watched an interview with him on his web site with the Boston Herald. He's got the four virtues of any fine writer and public speaker:

1. He's SMART
2. He's SHARP
3. He's FUNNY
4. He's GROUNDED

These four virtues ensure that a writer takes his work seriously without taking himself seriously.

I will have much, much more later.

Bye, bye No. 19 Part 3

2011-02-21T11:04:00.000-05:00

Dr. Osinski needled my gum tissue to numb my mandibular nerve, a canal of neurons running along the jaw.

Within seconds my left jaw, tongue, and lip went limp. The dental assistant gave me a pair of protective sunglasses. She had a mask over her mouth. I could see her green eyes (or were they hazel?) on the other side of her goggles. She readied a suction device and held it like a Samurai would a sword.

"Since the tooth had a root canal and has no feeling I'm going to start sectioning now," Dr. Osinski said.

"Ogay," I said.

The shrill of his drill broke through the crust of my crown and it popped off in two pieces as if this were mountain top removal. Dr. Osinski was zoned, moving from instrument to instrument like a one-man band yet conducting to his assistant where suction was needed.

"You're going to hear a little crack," Dr. Osinski said.

"Ngah," I said.

I felt the gravity of Dr. Osinski's effort. It sounded like an unpopped kernel of corn broke. He bore down on his grip again.

My chest heaved while I took these giant breaths, like a whale coming up to the surface. My left leg lifted up and spazzed. My palms glossed over. My head was yanked in his direction.

"You okay?" Dr. Osinski asked.

"Uh huh," I said.

He burrowed to find the infection, the section of charred tooth. The assistant swept in with gauze and packed it into the Deep Water Horizon. I looked into her eyes and she looked down on me with a certain tenderness while Dr. Osinski mined for the infection whizzing and wheeeeEEEEing the drill.

She leaned into my left shoulder and the warmth of her body and eyes soothed me as music would a savage beast. And if I were the beast, I could say the music didn't eliminate the discomfort but turned it into a white noise.

"Uh," I said.

"Did you feel that?" asked Dr. Osinski.

"'Elt a' 'ittle' 'inch," I said.

He grabbed another syringe and pumped my gum with with more Novocaine, and waited ten seconds. Then he spelunked.

He came up for air and gauze, depressed my chair, and brought up the back.

"Take a rest and we're going to take an X-Ray. We're almost there," Dr. Osinski said.

I felt tired. My jaw cramped. I folded my hands and read his diplomas. Temple University. One hundred twenty hours of implant training.

The assistant took me over to the radiation chair. And there on the screen was the hull of No. 19. The crown was gone and a deep fissure of cracked tooth led into its hearth. I saw the post from the root canal, like a fist breaching the surface of quicksand. I saw the cement packed into the unearthed roots. The roots were clawed and clung.

I went back to the chair and reclined. Dr. Osinski gripped and made quick work of the roots. He flooded my mandibular nerve with so much Novocaine I had no idea save for the clink of my tooth on his tray that it had come out. He put some gauze down that came up black in a few minutes. I kept looking into the eyes of our red-headed assistant who saw into the ugliness of my mouth with its baby teeth, crooked enameled chewers, and fillings.

How can dentists, hygienists, and assistants kiss anyone? Knowing what they know. I'm hideous!

Dr. Osinski layered the graft then threaded the fishing-line stitches into and out of my gums.

When he finished I peered over to the tray and saw No. 19, half of it anyway. The root was a centimeter long, maybe longer. The other half was on a different tray. The black infection was far more prevalent on this piece. We agreed that the infection was just bad luck. Oh, isn't that just bad luck. Yeah, looks like bad luck.

Our discussion was hurried and I felt I was keeping him from something. He told me I did a "good job." That it wasn't an easy job and that he usually knocks out the patient for that kind of job. I wanted to be put up on the wall with the "Tough Tooth Club," but figured it would be creepy.

We shook hands and he scampered off to another patient who shared a similar posture that I had an hour ago.

Dr. Osinski. Sure-handed. Hell of a dentist.

Bye, bye No. 19 Part 2

2011-02-14T17:31:00.000-05:00

Oh, yes, Part 2!

I faced two decisions: 1. Visit the dentist sans insurance and bite whatever bill flew my way. Or 2. I could get insurance, wait the five weeks it would take to become fully enrolled, and hope that the time lost wouldn't have deleterious effects.

So I waited the five weeks while the swelling persisted. It ebbed at night while I slept and flooded after I ate my Wheaties. But I needed to wait until February 1, 2011, the day my insurance kicked, also the day of my cleaning and evaluation.

Lisa, the hygeniest, peeked into my mouth, saw the swelling, and decided we'd better take X-rays, I was already due, anyway.

I sat in the chair and she zapped me with radiation and looked over at the computer monitor (they do these things digitally now!).

"Whoa," Lisa said, she's got a dry sense of humor I appreciate. I chuckled ... uncomfortably.

She spotlighted my tooth and drew attention to a blackish area between the fork of my roots.

"This is supposed to be bone. The infection, which creates an acidic environment, has eaten away the bone."

Meaning?

"The tooth will probably have to come out."

After spending $2,000 on the root canal on No. 19 just two years ago, the thought of it coming out left me, well, defeated.

So she cleaned my teeth and flossed with world-conquering vigor before Dr. Ryan Osinski entered. He reiterated what Lisa had said: that, yes, the tooth should come out, but not after we try and kill the infection with twenty-one pills of 500 mg of amoxicillin. He'd try to put a graft in place to keep my options open for an implant, otherwise it would be a removable denture forever since a significant portion of bone matter had eroded. "But we need to kill that infection otherwise the novacaine won't work and the graft won't take. Had you come in when the infection started, we have been able to save the tooth," Dr. Osinski said.

We set the date for 10:15 a.m. Valentines Day.

"After that we can talk about some of the cavities," Dr. Osinski added.

So I took my medicine.

Part 3 to follow ...

Bye, bye No. 19 Part 1

2011-02-14T12:18:00.000-05:00

I've had a nasty little history with No. 19. No. 19 is a molar in the lower left jaw of the adult human. I no longer have one.

You see, it was the year 2003, college senior eating cashews when I broke the tooth. It had already had a filling, which, at this point, fell out. Broke the tooth on a cashew! Not an almond. Not a pistachio. Not a Brazil nut. But a cashew. They are the softest of all!

A visit to my then-dentist revealed that the tooth broke below the gumline so they only way to fix it would be to have a root canal. I couldn't do it then so she put in a temporary filling. It eroded away and, still unwilling and unable to have a root canal, she put more temporary filling on the tooth.

Ah! Now I'm remembering right. She planned on filling it with your typical permanent filling but she couldn't numb the tooth. It was too sensitive to the cold air from the suction so she then put the temp on to regroup later. It was super sensitive to temperature but if I was eating chocolate chip ice cream I could melt the chocolate onto the tooth and create a buffer. Little things.

That filling again eroded until one day in 2007 while I ate an omelet with carmelized onions I was struck with the most awful pain from that tooth.

The root canal could no longer wait.

I underwent the agonizingly long root therapy process where the endodontest guts the roots of the nerve, packs it with cement, inserts a post, and anchors a temporary crown. The general dentist will cement the permanent crown.

Finally, I was able to eat crunchy foods again.

But a few weeks ago I noticed a swelling in my gums; an abscess bubble reminiscent of the ones I'd get in my youth. But I didn't have insurance.

What to do?

Guest Blogger Mathina Calliope recaps the AWP Conference

2011-02-09T14:58:00.001-05:00

My friend and fellow Goucher College MFA in creative nonfiction alum Mathina Calliope blogs from the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in her hometown of Washington, D.C.

And, by the way, make sure you start following her blog Calliope Terpsichore. The link is at the end of her piece which means you have two options: 1. You go down and click on it (don't do this). Or 2. You read her recap and THEN you click on it. I'm glad we're in agreement!

Haaaaaave you met, Mathina?

A friend asked if I had a takeaway from AWP, an immediate, applicable direction or task. “No,” I said. “It was the opposite.” He looked confused. I said, “Instead of this”—and I held my hands out to my sides, arms at 90 degree angles, and brought them together and forward, creating a triangle in the air that ended in a point in far out in front of my belly button—“it was this”—and I held my hands together, touching my stomach, and then opened them out as I pushed them forward—the triangle flipped over.

In other words, it was an opening, perspectives-and-possibilities broadening experience, not a narrowing, focusing and fine-tuning or chiseling one. This is wonderful, because it gives me lots of exciting directions to think about, but it’s also challenging, because it’s hard to know which one to explore first, and it’s hard to pull it together for a re-cap.

Hence my random-nugget approach:

Memoirists are maligned at every turn, and yet we keep writing our stories. I attended several sessions relating to memoir, and noticed two things: 1) the sessions were packed, and 2) the panelists defended memoir—the valuable contribution it has to make to the public discourse—vigorously. The conclusion I drew from the various sessions is that the best memoirs are like the best fiction—they hold up a mirror to their readers (even if the narrators are “ostensibly narcissistic,” as one panelist put it), and help us to make sense of our own experiences.

Finding an agent is tricky. Your idea needs to stand out without being gimmicky. Don’t send the agent flowers or balloons or food. (Although in a Facebook posting a few months ago, an agent I know acknowledged that 25-year bottles of Scotch would be welcomed, and the proposals attached to them given special attention. I honestly cannot say the extent to which he was joking.) You should say how your book is similar to others that the agent has represented (to show you’ve done your homework and understand what makes this particular agent a possibly good match for your work), and yet you should not make your book sound TOO similar; agents don’t want to represent the exact same project twice. Here was the most suprising (and possibly practical) information I learned: Free content doesn’t hurt. In other words, just because you’ve published something online already (say, portions of your book on a blog) does not mean that an agent will not want to see it in a book form. In fact, that it’s been seen before makes it all the more attractive. (Of course, once the book comes out, the content would have to come down off the blog in order to encourage people to buy the book.) Huh!

The line between fiction and nonfiction is not nearly as neat as James Frey’s detractors would have us believe. This I gleaned from a session on how writers choose whether to write fiction or nonfiction, given the same material or theme. (My favorite reason to choose nonfiction, given that I’m writing it: The main difference between fiction and nonfiction: People read nonfiction.) Maybe everyone else knows this, but it was mostly news to me that most fiction writers are “compressing and altering but never inventing from whole cloth” when they write. This really gave me food for thought. Should I fictionalize my memoir? What would be the advantages or disadvantages of doing so?

In a session on intimate details, we were given the advice to think of a detail that really reveals the essence of a character, and then assign him or her the opposite quality—in order to make him or her more believable, less stereotypical and flat.

Finally, when you decide to utilize social media to develop your platform (sorta like I’m doing on my blog, www.calliopeterpsichore.com!), stick with it. Don’t open a Twitter account, tweet four or five times, and declare that it didn’t work. Hang in there, and commit to starting and sustaining authentic conversations with people. Your message and your vision go far beyond your book project. Have something to say and say it well. Sort of like you do on paper.

—Mathina Calliope is a guest blogger for The Blog Itself.

Guest Blogger Mathina Calliope blogs from the AWP Conference

2011-02-03T13:34:00.002-05:00

My friend and fellow Goucher College MFA in creative nonfiction alum Mathina Calliope blogs from the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in her hometown of Washington, D.C.

Haaaaaave you met my friend, Mathina?

Hi, Readers of The Blog Itself!

What an honor to guest blog here about AWP. And what a whirlwind today was. I attended SIX 75-minute sessions.

Highlights:

At a session on the essayist in the 21st Century, Robert Atwan defended traditional forms and warned against privileging "bric-a-brac" over substance. He also, somewhat contradictorily, I thought, quoted Gertrude Stein saying, "If it can be done, why do it?"

Dustin Beall Smith in a session on the narrative stance in memoir, discussing the ephemeral nature of memory: "You get exactly one shot at uncorrupted memory" before the written, constructed version replaces the mind's. "Writing the memory disturbs the memory because it materializes it."

Literary agent Julie Barer on submitting work to agents: "Don't lie. I don't like it."

Social media: Do it. Embrace it. Love it. Good Reads and Red Room are especially useful for literary types. Google The Conversation Wheel. Tweet during your downtimes, e.g., from the toilet (Ew, but, okay).

Best piece of information all day? Yes, sometimes agents do "meet" writers by encountering their work on the slush pile. Yip!

Read, read, books, books

2011-01-21T15:34:00.000-05:00

Soooooo, how fast do you typically read a book, a 300 page book? Does that take you a week? Two weeks? Three days? Five days?

I think I have reading insecurity. As writers (or as anyone who simply loves books) we have to read a lot; not just for pleasure, but to unearth how it was done. I always feel behind the curve. People often ask, 'Have you read _____ ?' And so often the answer is no. I write it down and ensure that I pick it up.

There is an alarmingly large amount of books that are must reads for the writer. From classics, to the classics of the living, to contemporaries. What's the best balance? Probably 50 percent classics, 30 percent neo-classics, and 20 percent contemporary.

What do you think? Are you as insecure about your reading as I am?

Memoir need not be Myopic

2011-01-20T11:52:00.000-05:00

Being a reporter helps with memoir. I’m treating my characters — in this case close family — as I would the subjects of any extended piece of literary nonfiction. Memory will provide the spark through which to interview countless people to form the best reading product.

There isn’t much difference between this and any other form of first person journalism. The only difference is the closeness to which I already know the characters. But I hardly know them at all. Do you really know your mother? Your father? I mean KNOW them. What made them who they are? Could it be that whatever it is about them that peeves you is grounded somewhere deep in their upbringing?

This I seek. I always knew this: memoir need not be myopic, but with the interviews I’ve conducted I realize that I am the narrator and witness to story.

Reading Resolutions

2010-12-29T07:54:00.000-05:00

I think I made a similar resolution a year ago, but this year I plan on sticking to it: I'm going to read the books on my shelves before I buy new ones.

I had a nice Christmas. Santa delivered many books (nine) down my chimney. Add to that a $100 gift certificate to my favorite indy book shop, The Book House, I may not have to spend a dime on books this year. Add to that my great library system.

The goal is to save a little cash. The way some women load up on shoes, I'm the same way with books. If I walk into a book store, especially a used bookstore, I'm walking out with another copy of "The Catcher in the Rye" or something by Kurt Vonnegut.

Also, I just finished "The Glamour of Grammar" by Roy Peter Clark. Great read. I vow that I will read this book at the beginning of every year and "Writing Tools" halfway through the year until I'm done with writing. Sharpen the saw. Not a bad habit.

So You Want to be a Journalist

2010-12-16T11:51:00.000-05:00

Got this from a link provided by New York Times sports writer Joe Drape. If you are a reporter or were formerly a reporter, this will crack you up.

Another scene deconstruction

2010-12-03T15:14:00.000-05:00

How would you WRITE this?

This is another scene deconstruction, but this one is from "The Black Swan." I find these infinitely valuable and will link them up as I find them.

Also, when I'm watching a show like "Lost," I often think how I'd write the scene on the page. Every commercial break is an internal cliffhanger. Every episode ends with a bigger cliffhanger. Every season ends with a BIGGER cliffhanger. (When you found out at the end of the third season that they were flashing forward and that they got off the island, did you not say, 'That is the great mind-f^8k in television history?). I know I did.

With that in mind, I'm always trying to end little sections with mini-cliffhangers. I like page breaks too because they give the reader a chance to breathe and take stock of what just happened. And if the mini suspense is enough, the hope is that the reader will keep going ... then tell his/her friends to buy a copy of the book because, 'My God! It is so damn good!' I'm sorry. Got blinded by delusions.

Ha!

The Final Countdown

2010-12-03T07:31:00.000-05:00

Copy edits are done, gonzo, bye bye. Now comes the thematic and strengthening edits.

I've already posted that there are four main writing tools that I plan on honing while I read through this manuscript one last time. They are:

Activate Your Verbs

Be Passive-Agressive

To Generate Suspense, Use Internal Cliffhangers

Write From Different Cinematic Angles

There are likely more, but I can't get bogged down too much now. It's crunch time. Time to put a bow on this and kick it out the door!

The Power of Scene

2010-11-25T15:13:00.001-05:00

I posted this link on my Facebook page. It's a scene deconstruction by David Yates, director of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1. It's a wonderful rendering of the power of scene.

How can we, as writers, and, particularly, writers of narrative nonfiction, learn from this? In this three-minute video, along with its commentary, explores and illustrates two of Roy Peter Clark's 'Writing Tools.' Here are the tools illustrated:

1. Write from different cinematic angles (#34)
2. Report and write for scenes (#35)

With your notebook in hand you can move the camera. It's difficult when trying to catch dialogue, but if there's a lull in the action or if you have a voice recorder picking up the dialogue, you can tune your sense to the scenery. When I got and skim through the manuscript again I'm going to make sure to build as many scenes as possible (hey, you do it as best you can in the first run throughs, but sometimes you fall into the habit of telling vs. showing.) I picked a couple habits and I'm going to comb through the ms with my frequency tuned to habits 34, 35, and 30 (Use internal cliffhangers)

To that end you are killing two habits with one notebook. Which is why, no doubt, these two habits are 34 and 35. They are linked, like Voldemort and Harry.

Ode to Egg Nog

2010-11-25T11:18:00.000-05:00

I just monstered my first cup of Starbucks Egg Nog latte. That's right. Egg Nog is now a PROPER NOUN. But there is nobody better than my buddy Joel to opine about this heavenly lather. This is a post from his myspace page (remember myspace?). Anyway, this is his post:

Egg Nog
I'm lucky enough to live in a part of the world whose Egg Nog is supplied by HP Hood. Actually, that statement isn't totally correct because I don't think that you can seriously consider and non-Hood Golden Egg Nog as truly "Egg Nog". Garelick, Bud's, I've tried them all but let's get serious - only The Golden actually counts as true Egg Nog.
I've travelled a lot, but I've only truly lived away from Hood's distribution zone for two Nog seasons and those were in North Carolina where it was possible for me to fly back to Boston and bring some down in a cooler. I lived in Australia for six months but it was right after Nog season. I was pleasently surprised to see that they offer their version of nog year round but it doesn't really count as real egg nog. Too frothy, not enough nutmeg, and I think they use platypus eggs. But the Aussies get an A for effort for their year round distribution scheme. I honestly don't know what I'd do if I moved somewhere permanently whose grocery stores didn't stock The Golden. Its a big factor running through my head as I'm looking for jobs right now.
I don't think that its an exaggeration to say that I gain 10-15 pounds during Nog season every year. I operate on an annual cycle where I start to gain when the Nog comes out and then lose it by Feb. 1 or so. Sure, some of it is your typical holiday weight but I'd say that 85-90% of it is pure saturated fat from Hood's plant in Chelsea. Hood has been releasing The Golden earlier and earlier in recent years which has predictably moved up the onset of my cycle and increased the total gain amounts. Its ironic to think that the best and worst things that could ever happen to me are actually the same thing - a year round supply of The Golden.

Could it have been worded any better? Perhaps. But when you're blinded by passion, who can blame you for poor grammar or the effects of typing with an erection? (This last part is conjecture, but knowing Joel, he was mightily aroused while writing this post.)

Never a Day Off

2010-11-23T10:52:00.000-05:00

This is great work. I don't mean my actual book, though I do hope it will be well received. I mean there is no better work. I have people who don't understand. They are money chasers and hell, I don't blame them. The quote at the top of this blog sums it up.

There is no work I'd rather do than click away on this keyboard, build scenes, and illustrate nonfiction through action and dialogue.

I've got the day off from selling running shoes but that means I get to do some real work. That isn't to slight my gracious employer, but I am who I am. I'm a goddamn writer. Everything else is marbles.

Likely New Subtitle

2010-11-11T17:02:00.000-05:00

As I've been posting here that I want to amend the subtitle, the co-director of SUNY Press is in accordance. He even took it a step further by suggesting getting Rachel Alexandra into the subtitle. This was his suggestion and I think this will be it:

How Three-Year-Old Filly Rachel Alexandra Beat the Boys and Became Horse of the Year.

It incorporates the 'boys' part that I think will work and it includes RA's name which should pull up more searches.

Good stuff, no?

Subtitle change?

2010-11-10T08:25:00.000-05:00

I emailed my editor over at SUNY Press trying to change the subtitle of the book.

Right now it is "How a Three-Year-Old Filly Won the Woodward Stakes and Became Horse of the Year."

Who besides those who follow horse racing even know what the Woodward Stakes is? That it is a race for older males? Nobody. My pitch was to change the subtitle to "How a Three-Year-Old Filly Beat the Boys and Became Horse of the Year."

For one, it sounds better. Two, it has more crossover appeal. While the Woodward sealed Horse of the Year, it was her wins against the boys in the Preakness Stakes (the second leg of the Triple Crown following the Kentucky Derby) and the Haskell Invitational (a lucrative, popular race for colts at Monmouth Park). Rachel Alexandra was 3-0 against the boys in 2009 and that subtitle speaks to the "Girl Power" movement.

Right or wrong?

Prologue and Epilogue

2010-11-08T08:25:00.000-05:00

Working on the prologue and epilogue to create a teaser that leads in the narrative and, finally, to wrap up what my main characters did in 2010.

Rachel Alexandra fizzled a bit winning two and finishing second in four races in 2010 before being retired in September.

Calvin Borel won the Kentucky Derby again. He had a quiet year until the first day of the Breeders' Cup where he got into a fight with jockey Javier Castellano in the winners' circle following a race. Borel put his finger in Castellano's face and barked, "I'll kill you motherf*cker!"

It took several people to hold back all 110 pounds of Calvin Borel.

Castellano made a horrible, reckless move on his horse nearly unseating one rider, but also rudely effecting Borel on his mount.

I'll touch upon the other threads later.

Organize!

2010-11-04T08:50:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I decided to really organize my "newspaper" clippings and notes. I put newspaper in quotes because I purged the Internet for newspaper stories and printed them on my own printer. It's like modern day microfiche! There are some actual newspaper stories that I photocopied or clipped out, but those are tough to file.

My clips and notes are all over the place. It's embarrassing. I took an entire afternoon to get the right stories in the proper binders. My fear is that I'm going to have to index the entire manuscript so I had better get my notes in line. But the real disconcerting fact of my organizing was stumbling across articles I had either printed and not read, or printed, read, highlighted, but never used in the manuscript. And not used because I chose not to, but didn't use because it was sloppily "filed." There are some good stories that I plan to use to strengthen certain threads throughout the book.

What if I didn't feel like organizing my notes Sunday? I would've missed these great articles that will only strengthen themes and characters.

Better late than never, but be organized and you'll never have to worry about being late in the first place.

Tons more at The Blogs Themselves

2010-10-27T21:14:00.000-04:00

I can't get enough of Rachelle Gardner. If in sports there are "player's coaches" then Ms. Gardner is a "writer's agent". The tips and insights she provides are priceless. I respect her opinions so much that I've added every one of her agent friends whom SHE follows to The Blogs Themselves roll call down the right rail.

Enjoy them.

For Shimmyhoots

2010-10-26T10:13:00.001-04:00

I just submitted a humorous essay to Shimmyhoots and in their auto reply to say that they received my essay, they want the writer to tell their friends. So here's the letter and I suggest going to www.shimmyhootsreview.com for a good laugh.

Auto Reply


Congratulations!
We, the editors of ShimmyHoots Review, have successfully received your
submission(s).  Thanks so much for your contribution.  We promise that your
submission(s) will be given our absolute fullest attention.  

Until you hear back from us, tell all your friends and family about ShimmyHoots
Review, and make sure to read any and all submissions already posted online.  We
found them funny and hopefully you will too.  

Take care, and know that we are rooting for you.  We are honored to help fuel your
writing career.

Sincerely,

-The Editors of ShimmyHoots Review

Blurbs

2010-10-26T09:29:00.000-04:00

My blurb commitments are coming in. It's quite exciting and even more flattering that the folks you admire and respect plan on reading your work and (hopefully) writing something nice about it.

I'm about halfway through the copy editing of the book on this round. Doing this while filling out the marketing questionnaire. I've got about 15 local bookshops that I hope to visit and distribute the book.

For the time it's important to prioritize and list the tasks that need to get done on a given day. It's like a swarm of gnats. That's how my brain feels. I need to settle the mind and focus on a single task.

On another topic, I bought my wife a Kindle. It's pretty damn cool. It's going to be hard not to get one myself at some point. After all, I rarely buy CD's, but I will always buy Metallica's. Perhaps there will come the day that I will say I rarely by books, but I will always buy Dave Eggers' or the classic books I just love to collect. Do I really need a hard copy of "The Liar's Club" (even though I like it) unless I'm going to have Mary Karr sign it? No. I'd be just as happy to have a digital copy and save the extra five bucks I spent on the paperback.

That said, support your indy bookstore!

There's something to be said about having a shelf full of books. Maybe it's a writer/reader thing, but the books we read — good or bad — are on display and illustrate our tastes and, to some extent, who we are. I like that.

Well, what next?

2010-10-22T12:47:00.000-04:00

The marketing questionnaire is nearly complete. I've listed close to 20 local independent bookstores where I'd like my publisher to distribute to. It will be nice to pay a visit to each store and do readings and signings, even if it's just for the homeless guy who came in to go to the bathroom.

Maybe when I'm older this all get ... old. I hope not. I hope to never lose sight of what it means to connect on as intimate a level as possible with the people who plan on giving up $25 of their dollars to read a book. That's not cheap. You can't forget that. I don't think I ever will. I hope not.

Questionnaire

2010-10-18T07:01:00.001-04:00

Woke up at 5 this morning and came downstairs to work on a marketing questionnaire. Did that for about a half-hour. Then I had to take Smarty and Jack for a walk. With Mrs. Blog Itself working twelve hour days out on the Hudson River she's out the door by 6:30. The dogs need exercise. She needs time to get ready. Soon enough I'm off to work selling the running shoes ... Hopefully I will have an hour or so to squeeze in some editing. Crazy.

The Semipermeable Membrane

2010-10-13T20:24:00.000-04:00

It's not my IMMEDIATE concern, but a concern, no less. I jotted down in the Ninth Edition of the O'Meara Chronicles (my name for my journal) certain items that I need to address, all concerning the marketing.

I first wrote down who I want to ask to blurb the book (turf writers, other esteemed authors of narrative nonfiction), who are my print contacts, my online contacts, radio hosts to phone, television shows to go on, even a reach. My reach, though I'm not holding my breath, is sending a query to the Rachel Ray Show. She grew up in Upstate New York and it can only help that I was a fan of Rachel Ray before she became RACHEL RAY. This goes back to the year 2002. I first made 'Jumba-lika'.

I wrote those down because come 2011, that is where all my energy will be devoted: to promotion, publicity, marketing, and, ultimately, selling. Right now I am artist, by then I will be all business.

Think of there being a wall between the two, only the wall is a semipermeable membrane (remember that term from biology?). There is a homeostasis between the two. There has to be.

SUNY Press to publish "Six Weeks."

2010-10-13T07:45:00.000-04:00

I'd like to announce that the State University of New York Press plans of publishing my book "Six Weeks in Saratoga: How a Three-Year-Old Filly Won the Woodward Stakes and Became Horse of the Year."

I'm so energized to hit my audience with this. I'm energized to work tightly with the press and get to work on promoting this book.

You know something? I may just have to blog about the process of promoting a book that will have a launch date some time in the summer of 2011.

Sound good?

Good.

Getting Started

2010-10-11T18:58:00.000-04:00

I've put it off for some time mainly in the spirit of gathering some info, reporting if you will. But it's time. I'm finally working on The Last Championship. If you don't know what this project is just check out my 'Current Projects' banner above.

I just finished a page and a half. It feels good. I've been wrestling with what kind of voice I want for this book. I've settled upon the voice of Randy from "A Christmas Story." I love that childish remembrance told through the voice of a grown male narrator. I want it to be unique, funny, but appropriately funny. There will undoubtedly be those moments that necessitate a increasingly benign tone. My hope is that I will be able to mine some heavy stuff, namely my father's parents deaths which he has never spoken of (they were killed in a car accident nearly 30 years ago in their sixties). But I also want to visit what I feel is the often overlooked tragedy among American boys: that of sport.

I was lucky to play sports at fairly competitive levels, but I was flushed down the toilet in my pursuit of professional athletics. It's hard for me to articulate at this writing, but think about it. Men and sports, probably no bigger let down.

I'm Back

2010-10-05T20:33:00.000-04:00

Lots of doings. Just got married ... well, that's it, but for those who have tirelessly planned a wedding you know that that is enough.

I want to commit more time to this space, as well as time over at the horse racing blog The Carryover. I'd like to get more followers than just Kim Hosey and Brian Spadora (though if I had to cherry-pick two followers it would be my friends from Arizona and New Jersey).

Gotta come up with some ideas. Maybe you can help? I do know that I want to start a community that critiques each others' writing so there's some accountability. It would be mutually beneficial. We all want the same thing. We may as well help each other out.

Director's Cut of Interview with author Thomas French

2010-09-21T21:13:00.000-04:00

Below is the unabridged transcript of my interview with Pulitzer Prize winner and author Thomas French that appeared in Brevity. He's a great friend, teacher, and mentor and it was my pleasure to read his amazing book "Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives" and book him for this interview. I knew him before he was on the Colbert Report ...

What is “Zoo Story” about?

“Zoo Story” is about freedom and its limits. It’s obviously about zoos and captivity and the sort of tangled relationship between humans and other species. But in the end it’s about our version of freedom and our conflict with nature that we want to both exalt nature and control it.

You always come back to the elephants, you begin the story with them, you end it with game wardens, why the elephants? Is it because they are at the ethical crossroads of captivity and freedom?

Yeah, the surface reason and the deeper reason. The surface reason is those elephants on that plane, their flight to the zoo and arrival at the zoo is really the central spine of the story in some ways. Because how that species does is central to the zoo and it’s also a focal point for the controversy and the tension that a zoo embodies. And on the surface it’s right there. The arrival of these elephants at Lowry Park signals the shift from the zoo trying to become a midsize zoo to a big city zoo. There’s an ambition or a hubris—depending on your point of view—on whether or not to bring in these elephants. They’re just a really important spine that holds the story together.

Deeper than that, elephants are a species that challenges the tension of the zoo most profoundly because in the wild they wander for all these great distances, they’re very intelligent, they’re very emotional, very aware, they have memory. For these wild elephants to be plucked from Africa and taken and dropped into this captivity inside a zoo that’s trying to do a good job and take care of them. Even when they’re trying, that’s a very complicated question, that question goes to the heart of both the wonder and the problem of zoos.

What I also found very interesting was the subtitle of your book “Life in the Garden of Captives”. On the one hand garden elicits a sense of paradise and refuge, but you wouldn’t necessarily tie it together with captivity. What was the idea behind that as your subtitle?

You just nailed it there. There’s a tension between those two words, between garden and captivity. That’s what a zoo is. Actually most zoos are run by a “zoological gardens” and what you just said paradise, paradise originally meant “walled garden.” There’s so many good things going on at the zoo, so many good intentions, so much care is expended to try to do the best for these species and to make these species thrive. It’s very problematic because the moment we start to manipulate nature, which we’ve been long before the idea of the zoo, but the moment we start trying to do that, at that point you’re playing God. And we’re not God.

In a zoo, the motives, the tension between the desire to make money, enough for the zoo to stay afloat, and the desire to fight for the conservation of the wild, that tension never goes away. It’s embedded in virtually everything inside a zoo.

Were those notions things that you brought with you to the project or did those bubble up through your research, that the more and more you scratched, the more and more you found this conflict?

Well, with this one I knew about the elephants on the plane before I started my reporting. I got interested in the project because I read news stories about these elephants and the controversy about them being flown over. Right away I knew that would be important and that would be a central spine of the work. I figured those elephants would really tell a lot. I had a pretty good idea that the project’s central theme was about freedom and its limits. So I knew those things right away. As I got deeper into it and learned about how a zoo worked and saw these different forces in action that theme blossomed and grew much more rich than I could have initially envisioned.

Everything you want to write about is waiting inside a zoo, everything: life and death, sex, power, money, all of it is there intersecting in one fairly small world.

What was the impetus that I said, ‘I’m going to follow the inner workings of Lowry Park’?

It was really “Life of Pi”. I read “Life of Pi” in the summer of 2003. And it’s a beautiful novel and it’s really a novel about a lot of different things, but there’s that passage fairly early around Page 16 or 17 where the narrator, who grows up with this idea of zoos, our notions of freedom and this romanticized misconception that humans have about zoos, and animals and freedom and the wild and I read that. I love the whole book, but that passage stuck with me in terms of being a reporter. I just realized that I never read a really good in-depth look of what life is like inside a zoo. Yann Martel, that part of the book, it’s a fairly brief portion of the book, even though he’d clearly done research into zoos, I wanted to know more. I had never read a nonfiction work that really gave some depth. That was good because we’ve all read journalistic works about whore houses, police stations, city hall, public schools, nursing homes, hospitals, we’ve read a lot about these different institutions, but this seemed like an institution that really needed an in-depth journalistic approach that I’d never seen. I’ve found out that there have been a lot of books written about zoos over the years over the decades, but I hadn’t read anything that really tried to do this and go in and tell a story of life unfolding inside this arc.

There’s something to that, that it’s about animals, and people love animals, so you had that angle going for you as well.

You got animals. There’s a moment toward the end of “Life of Pi” that I love. There’s a moment at the end when Pi tells his story, then he tells a different version of the story without animals and he asks his interviewers which version of the story do they prefer: the version with animals or without and they say, “Well, of course, the version with animals.” And he says this line that I just love, “So it is with God.”

And so I think if you have a chance to explore these questions through different species that are all trying to coexist on this one planet that is overcrowded it just becomes really interesting, especially when one of the species has presumed supremacy.

This had started as a serial narrative for the St. Pete Times so what was the process behind expanding it into a book?

The first two-thirds of the book the story part of it is very much like what was in the series. But this whole new way it turns in the last third of it with Lex [Lowry Park CEO Lex Salisbury] is that in the book the elephants are central to it. Lex’s vision of what he wants to do with this zoo and the cost to other people in the zoo and some of the animals and himself really becomes ultimately the central organizing arc of the book. That’s really different in the book from the series.

The other thing is that I did, not so much reporting at the zoo, I really had a lot of reporting, I won’t say I had everything I needed, but I had a ton. I went back and read everything I could about zoos, the history of zoos, the politics of zoos, and I read about the different species I was focusing on. I read a ton on elephants in terms of books, research on elephants, their physiology, their communication, their reproduction, I read a ton about chimps and tigers as well. So I grounded all that first-hand reporting and grounded it with a ton of research. That really changed and deepened how I wrote the book.

It’s not a long book. I kept it pretty tight. That was a conscious decision. I tried to keep it to a nice tight, very active story with these characters and their lives spinning out in different trajectories and then explore these issues that are illuminated by those trajectories.

I also had a sense that first two-thirds of the book largely dealt with the animals: the elephants, Herman, Eric, Enshalla, and the last third Lex takes the main stage. He really takes the stage when he fires the bullet, what was the reasoning behind that structure where as Enshalla goes away, here comes Lex?

Lex and the zoo and the way it all turned out in the year or so after I wrote the series, even after I finished my proposal and I had a contract with Hyperion all this stuff with Lex really took center stage with Lex in the headlines. So the life of the zoo turned in that direction and I was lucky enough to have had enough time. If I had just tried to write about one year in the life of a zoo it would’ve been really interesting but you wouldn’t have gotten a sense of what happened with Herman and what happened with Enshalla. Or the elephants, the elephants gestation is 22 months, usually, so I needed a longer arc and I had that, so when things took that dramatic turn with Lex it felt like a very natural completion of the arc.

Lex’s ambition, long before Lex was forced out, Lex’s ambition was problematic. It did a lot of good things for the zoo, for the zoo’s standing. I say in the book that a lot of people who don’t like him call him a visionary but that vision came at a real cost and so what happens, at first it costs others, some of the animals, some of the people there at the zoo, ultimately it, very classic story, it costs himself a lot. And that ending I’m glad I had time to watch it play out. And then to build a chronicle in the book because I think it was really important.

Initially the way the book was proposed Lex was going to survive and keep trying to reinvent the zoo and test the boundaries between what he could and couldn’t do. Lex is the classic alpha drawn to define for himself what the boundaries were. And ultimately it cost him, dearly.

“Undertow” and “Freedom” are two of the most powerful chapters in the book and they’re back to back. Give me a sense of how hard it was to write and report on the deaths—some would say murders—of Herman and Enshalla.

I really had gotten close to both of those animals. I’d been following them for years when they had both died. I wouldn’t say they were murdered. I know some people would but that’s not a word I would use. So when they were killed my first thing was that it just ripped me apart. I love both those animals. It was heartbreaking. But once I got done being heartbroken I realized I had to sit down and write it. And the different ways that they die—the way they lived their lives, their lives were so different from one another even though they spent so much of their lives within fifty yards of each other. Their lives were so different, their deaths were so different, to get over the emotional surprise of them being killed ... there was something very important to chronicle in those deaths that was an important part of writing this out. But it was hard. I loved those animals.

It was a huge double blow for the zoo.

This leads to a curious take I often think about, not that you ever wish ill-will on your characters but in nonfiction you’re at the mercy of the facts and you can’t make anything up, is there ever any part where you wish a certain sense of drama on your characters for the purposes of story?

No. Usually whether you’re talking about humans or animals, characters who are deep into some important stage in their lives or are faced with a decision or a challenge that’s really compelling to watch how they deal with it. And I don’t wish for that.

I look for characters and something I can chronicle and reveal to the reader that’s compelling and is going to illuminate a larger issue and then with their permission—if they’re human—you watch them deal with those things.

Sometimes along the way beautiful things happen that you can’t see coming and I had it happen in the opposite way, with Herman and Enshalla something really horrible happened. I’ve followed other characters where something incredibly exciting and beautiful happened for them and because I was already embedded and watching their lives I got to chronicle that too.

You just look for characters who are in the middle of something active, with something changing in their lives and then you keep quiet and keep taking notes.

The beginning the first line of the book is really great. Creative Nonfiction did something in their last issue where they polled a bunch of people for the great beginnings of books and I just might have to rank yours as one of the best. When you step back and take a helicopter’s point of view, that is just a great beginning. How did that come to you?

That one, sometimes you really struggle with your opening and other times it’s there right in front of you. This one I was actually here at Goucher and I was getting ready to do my reading and I just finished my first six months or eight months of reporting and I just wanted to tell people about what I was witnessing during my reporting. I hadn’t written anything yet so I took one day. In between our workshops and lectures I wrote it quickly, I was on deadline because I had to read it that night. That line just bubbled up and there it was. It was very close to the very first line that I wrote that day.

Sometimes it just comes to you. Obviously the animals play a large part, but did you get a sense that the animals weren’t the only ones held captive?

Sure, that’s one of the themes of the book that we have this romanticized idea of freedom but none of us is really completely free. We’re all bound by territory and laws that are either manmade or natural. We all have predators to deal with and challenges and nobody is free in a classic sense so to watch all the different ways that we’re contained and the different constraints that are on us was really right there in my mind from the start.

For instance, to watch Brian French, the head elephant keeper, his love of those elephants and his dedication to them, I think I say it directly, “if they are his prisoner then he is theirs’ as well.” Because he lives with them, he sleeps beside them in that cot. That was a beautiful thing, you just see these different constraints, the way these lives these boundaries that we embrace in our lives or placed upon us.

I also felt that Enshalla’s trainer was also captive, in a sense.

In a way her love of Enshalla, her love of Enshalla is what keeps her at the zoo longer than she wants to be there.

Here’s Brian and the baby elephant and he has a dispute with Lex about how to care for these elephants and it’s interesting, freedom can be really dangerous, can be deadly. Enshalla, when she stepped out of her den, that’s the first time she’s ever been free in her life and she had never been at greater risk.

Zoo Story doesn’t necessary have a neat, closed-circle time line. It wasn’t one football season or courtroom drama, how did you plan on handling the end?

Just reporting like that for a year wouldn’t have worked, the way everything unfolded for various reasons I ended up spending longer and I’m thankful it went that way, but the people at the zoo, it was hard for them because it’s stressful to have a reporter around that long.

I got to witness this larger arc of a zoo trying to reinvent itself. And it required more than a year to see it unfold, both the benefits of it and the costs of it. And in the epilogue returning to Africa and to the elephants there in Africa just made sense to me because so much of what the book is about (stems from Africa).

At the end to have Nick and Ted again talk about man’s romanticized notions about the wild was really powerful. I liked the idea of beginning and ending in Africa and also beginning and ending with this idea of what the wild is really like.

In Action

2010-09-06T20:41:00.000-04:00

Here is a pretty cool photograph of 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra on her way to the paddock in September of 2009.

But what's this? Look in the far left corner of this photograph. Yes! Reporting in action!

I was taking in the sideline banter from people calling out to Rachel. Much of it was amusing. Much of that banter is in the book, so whenever you should get a chance to read it you will know when and where I got the material.

The Bleak

2010-08-31T18:20:00.000-04:00

Something awfully disconcerting happened the other night. I neglected to check my "professional email" to see if any agents/publishers bit on my queries. It's unsettling because on some level I've given up and didn't give it a chance. I just assumed that there would be nothing or a NO.

Two book proposals were sent, one in November 2009 and January 2010. No response. Just as good as a NO. But what if it got lost in the electronic ether. I hate following up with these guys. You feel like a feel. Strike that. I feel like a fool.

This game is not for the weary. You just have to fight your eyeballs out for your work. No one else will. The hope is that your projected image of you and your work will be come through when you try to sell it.

I was fitting a man at Fleet Feet a few nights ago. He used to be in sales. He has a friend who is a writer with a penchant - like yours truly - for rejection. So this guy who used to be in sales just kept hammering on his friend, Keep selling. Go to the next guy. Keep selling.

He made a great point. You have to be able to flip the switch from artist to salesman and not think twice about it.

He even told me, this is great (you get a sense of how well this guy and I hit it off), "No offense, but you're a nobody, so you have to try that much harder."

"Believe me, I understand."

Here's a guy in sales who has an understanding about publishing. There's an underlying principle: salesmanship.

Get that first one. Sell the shit out of it. Parlay it into No. 2. Then you'll no longer be a nobody. There's too many celebrity books on those shelves. Let's get our on the shelf so there's at least one less of theirs.

Second Place

2010-08-23T21:07:00.000-04:00

Well, my goal for this baseball season was to at least make it to the championship game for the purposes of the story. So within a year's time my dad won a championship and I reached one.

I've started the necessary steps toward this memoir. What's that? I treat it like I would any immersion project and that starts with reporting. How is memoir any different. In my opinion, it isn't. You are now a reporter of the personal. You ask several people to either back up your memory or refute it. You ask the uncles and aunts everything about your parents. You talk to the friends because, believe me, your father is a different dude than you ever imagined.

It's not enough to tap into your own well just because it's memoir. Treat it like any other form of narrative nonfiction with the exception that your memories and your family are the main characters.

No Championship

2010-08-19T09:18:00.000-04:00

We got swept.

Though, last night's game was sharp until a point. There were a few key mistakes. Darnell and I got crossed up on our signs. He had trouble seeing my fingers. I called a curve ball down and away. He threw a fastball up and in. The ball deflected off my mitt thus plating the tying run.

We had taken the lead in the fifth inning when I drove in Darnell on a single to left center to give us a 2-1 lead. When we took the field, we loaded the bases with nobody out. Darnell then forced a 1-2-3 double play for two outs and two runners on. Then I got crossed up.

The Dodgers surged ahead with three runs in the top of the seventh on some shaky defense. Namely with nobody out and the bases loaded our second baseman, Arty DeGregory, fielded a hot grounder from double play depth and threw the ball home instead of turning two up the middle, taking two outs and giving up one run. I wasn't expecting the ball (my fault), but then the ball was ten feet off the plate and I couldn't keep it from getting away (sort of my fault). That signaled the end.

But it was a nice season and all I could ask for for "The Last Championship." I figured that if my team reached its championship round then it would set up well for the baseball memoir. I'm looking forward to writing it. It has unique angles and promises not to be a mushy, romanticized treatise on baseball.

Those nauseate me.

This definitely will address how much I hated baseball at one point, but it will also chronicle my dad's story and how sometimes one's method of communication is solely through sport.

Tough Poll Question

2010-08-10T21:35:00.000-04:00

It's so tough that not a single soul has voted.

Seriously, it is a tough, tough question with no wrong answer. OK, there is ONE wrong answer. No, I'm not referring to the woman on the list. No, there isn't a wrong answer, but it gets you thinking: Zeitoun vs. Into the Wild. The Orchid Thief vs. Strength in What Remains. Gollum vs. Frodo.

Only three days left to vote!

Thriller!

2010-08-09T08:25:00.000-04:00

I'll chime in with more, but I will add that the Cardinals won 4-3 in the extra innings against the Orioles.

We now play the Dodgers Wednesday, 1 vs. 2, in the winner's bracket and semifinal game. We win, we're in the finals with six days rest. We lose we have to play again for a bid in the finals.

Then it's best of three.

Could this be the last championship?

Winner's Bracket

2010-08-07T07:40:00.000-04:00

That's right. On a night where the rain came down like knives, swarms, mists, sideways, and straight down, the Cardinals defeated the Mets, 9-5, to advance to the winner's bracket of the Roy Hobbs Playoffs.

Naturally, the game was sloppy. Every ball felt like it had been slimed by a dog. Our pitchers, Darnell Baker and Ron Plourde, had difficulty gripping the ball and standing on the hill. Jimmy DeGregory, who hadn't made an error all season, made two in one inning.

But we hit the hell out of the ball. We scored four runs in the first inning. Then we kept pouring it on anytime the Mets came back.

Melanie, my fiancee, had found a four-leaf clover a few weeks ago (which I lost). Before I lost it I was able to rub it on my slumping bat. I came back with a hit to right field (which actually struck one our runners, so there was an out involved) and a hit to left field, a walk, and two runs scored.

Next up, the Orioles at Gavin Park. We were 3-0 against them in the regular season. Perhaps they are due. All I know is that we are without three of best players. Time to get it on!

Rain, rain, rain

2010-08-05T06:51:00.000-04:00

So the Cardinals took Game 1, 9-5, against the Mets in the first round of the Roy Hobbs Playoffs. It was an ugly win, but rain will do that. It rained the entire game at varying levels of intensities.

I hadn't had a hit in four games so it was nice to get two and score two runs. We're on our way.

On another note I claimed all seven score sheets from my father's senior softball tournament championship and will begin to work on that in the fall and winter.

I'm actually considering self publishing. The last thing I need is to have written three unpublished books sitting on my hard drive. This begs the question: what's worse, self publishing, or writing books that remain unpublished? At least one has a chance even if there is a stigma attached to it.

What would you do?

Evolution

2010-07-26T07:15:00.000-04:00

I'm fascinated by the war sparked by the presence of e-books. Here is another ripple to the potato chip.

Missing your friends

2010-07-13T14:25:00.000-04:00

In any extensive work of narrative nonfiction you invariably become friends with your characters. You just do. You spend so much time with them and they are so gracious as to share their lives with you for your own benefit, so you can get the story.

Every time I edit my manuscripts (I have two) I am thrown back to the experience and I start to miss the people I spent all that time with. The stories come alive and all of a sudden I'm back with them as I was during the reporting.

With my first one, On the Backside, I remember missing good ol' Phil Schoenthal, the young horse trainer in Maryland struggling down at Bowie. I missed going to his barn and watching him rationalizing the nutritional benefits of eating breakfast sandwiches with sausage and cheese.

I always got the sense that he liked having me around as well since most of the people he worked with spoke Spanish. Just an impression I got since he rarely shut up (trust me, I ain't complaining).

For my latest manuscript, one that I just got done editing in full, I miss Charlie Hayward and his struggles with Albany politics and the naysayers. When Calvin Borel one his third Derby this year I jumped up and said, "That's my man! Bo-RAIL!" When Nick Zito finished second in the Derby, third in the Preakness, and second in the Belmont, I thought my goodness, there's another character, another friend of mine that I was blessed to be around.

Then of course there's Rachel Alexandra. Sure, she went 0-for-2 to start the year, but she romped in her third race and she's damn sharp now. She's back in Saratoga, though I haven't stopped by. For some reason I doubt her trainer, Scott Blasi, will recognize me. Perhaps he will, but he'll probably be more frustrated that I'm back.

You see, not all your characters like having you around as much as you think.

Sh*t My Dad Says

2010-07-04T18:13:00.000-04:00

If any of you have had a father you know loves you but keeps things at an arm's distance (and is wildly profane and speaks his mind) then Justin Halpern's Sh*t My Dad Says will be the most entertaining 150 pages you read in a while.

I convinced myself to get it since I'm working on a father/son baseball memoir framed around his senior softball tournament and my summer baseball league and thought I'd better pick it up. It's research, after all.

Well, how's your writing coming along?

That's a Big Win

2010-06-30T21:19:00.000-04:00

That's a big win, Cardinals 6-3 over the Cubs.

It was big because we had to come back, down 3-2, in the bottom of the sixth. But it was also big because we are now over halfway through the regular season: Time to get your game face on.

We improved to 7-4.

My arm is about 95 percent. I threw a guy out in my last game from behind the dish. My legs aren't pinching as much, meaning I'll be able to steal bases again.

These first eleven games have been the bricks, the foundation, of my baseball body, and our collective bodies. The muscle memory and the THOUGHTS were there, but the body kept slacking.

Now it's serious. I know it's a 30+ wooden bat-league in Upstate New York, but we're out there to win. The playoffs are nine games away and it's time to separate the pretenders from the contenders.

I went 2-for-3 with two runs scored. I'm ready to start rising to the top.

***

Two games ago my father came into town to watch me play. It had been ten years and he was pretty pumped. I went 1-for-2 with the game-winning run in our 2-1 win over the Orioles. I also threw out that aforementioned base runner. I could publish ten books, but it won't satisfy the way a nice line drive to center field does.

After I threw that runner out, our center fielder for the game, Ron Plourde, said, "Where'd that arm come from?"

I just shook my head and smiled. I always keep a few beans in the chamber. They're the only ones I've got.

Ha!

2010-06-26T20:47:00.002-04:00

Talk about Karma! One of those essays I mentioned below got rejected today. The "Saving a Racehorse" one that I had submitted to Creative Nonfiction for a contest came back with a "no."

Guess I should keep my big fat beak shut.

Holding Patterns

2010-06-26T07:15:00.000-04:00

Aside from rejection, my least favorite part of this profession are the holding patterns. The waiting, as Tom Petty said, is the hardest part. I fully understand that it is part of the game, but it's easier to be impatient when you're waiting for your break. Here is a list of what I have out:

Six Weeks in Saratoga (book)

On the Backside (book)

The Last Championship (essay)

The Greatest Run on Earth (essay)

Saving a Racehorse (essay)

In the meantime I'm always checking my email to find out from this editor or that editor. Six Weeks has been with an editor for nearly six weeks. On the Backside has been (I hope) at Middle Atlantic Press since April.

I once waited six months before following up on a book submission. I reluctantly did it, but it had been half a year. What I found out was that the person reviewing my manuscript had left the press and, consequently, all her projects fell by the wayside.

All that the main editor said was, "I'm sorry, but thanks for submitting your work to us!"

I was steamed. They were never going to say anything. I had been waiting on them so I could either give them the rights or submit elsewhere.

So when is it Okay to follow up? Or, after not hearing from them for six months, should you just assume they turned it down? I'd say go with the latter (as it stands I've had Six Weeks with two agents/editors for six and eight months. No word, no publish. I've moved on.).

What conditions are you comfortable with following up?

What's your average?

2010-06-21T07:11:00.000-04:00

I called Dad on Father's Day to wish him a nice day and, naturally, before I could even say, "Happy Father's Day," he chimes in about baseball. Sometimes it takes 10 years, 20 years, and, in my case, nearly 30 years to realize the currency of my Dad: sports, and more specifically, baseball.

Ever since I started playing baseball again he calls me more than once every two months. I've spoken to him almost once a week since I started running back out that diamond.

On some level I think every son wants his dad to give him life advice and wisdom. To lack that connection, one could feel cheated. That is until one understands the other's world view.

So Dad asked me what my batting average was. I said I didn't know, but had played so few games I could go back and figure it out. I said somewhere in the neighborhood of .333. He said to go back and figure it out.

He soon added that he's batting .680 and said that that was after going 2-for-4. So that's why he wanted to know.

Left 'em loaded

2010-06-18T06:31:00.002-04:00

Ugh. Left the bases loaded with a chance to clear them and tie the game against the unbeaten Dodgers. Instead we lost 3-0. Not a bad game, but damn, that could have been sweet.

More later.

Great fade

2010-06-11T20:02:00.000-04:00

Darnell pitched a gem for the Saratoga Cardinals Thursday night defeating the Rangers, 2-0. His command was spot-on.

If you look in the box score, I went 2-for-4. However they were bloop singles to right field. They were terrible at bats, in my opinion. Historically I took all my satisfaction from baseball by what I did at the plate. I feel just a tad slow and that there's a loop that makes me hit these lazy balls to right. Need more reps. Need to start my swing sooner.

I don't know. It burns me. It was never enough to get hits, they had to be quality hits, timely hits, hard hits. That's what Sunday morning will be for when we look to get even with the Mets.

With Anticipation: Zoo Story

2010-06-10T10:17:00.001-04:00

For a few years now I've been waiting for the release of my friend and mentor Thomas French to publish his book "Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives."

I read the newspaper narrative from the St. Pete Times and loved every word in 2007. "Zoo Story" is released next month.

Here's a nugget from an interview with French in Book Page:

That's what narrative reporting is. you look for what friend of mind calls fault lines, where good intentions clash with other aspects of reality. Or where the need to make a profit runs up against other questions, such as the issue of conservation. This is really a story that takes place at the intersection of conservation and commerce.

And you thought it was just about animals at a zoo?

The Aches

2010-05-27T10:02:00.000-04:00

I am shy of my 30th birthday. I've heard that the body slows down. I've respected that. My hope was that I was over-respecting it. No such luck.

My body, even at 29, is beaten from just a few baseball games. Certainly accelerating the soreness is catching. Squatting in the neighborhood of 150 times grinds away the knees and leaves the thighs sore two to three days. My nagging rotator cuff pinches every time I "go for it." My quadriceps are yanked and don't want to turn over. My hope is that this holy trinity of pain will heal.

Throughout the course of a game I'm thinking, Yeah, this is fun, but this is the final season. I DO want to be able to walk for the next 30 years of my life (I'm short changing my life expectancy.) This is a common thread among all the guys. Yet they always come back.

It's a wonderful game. To me it beats playing golf, running, swimming, biking, playing guitar, playing drums, doing triathlons, and, most certainly, playing softball.

And perhaps that's why "they" always come back. They've come to a similar realization.

Hitting a moving round ball with a moving round bat is pretty damn cool.

A Treat for You

2010-05-19T09:13:00.001-04:00

Where I live in Saratoga Springs, the Capital Region of New York State, I have the most wonderful public radio station, WAMC. The Roundtable, a culture/topical morning program hosted by Joe Donahue, is a particular treat. Donahue routinely interviews authors—local authors, yes, but mainly BIG TIME authors. He's had Kitty Kelly, Stephen King, T.C. Boyle, Pete Nelson, and a buffet of others. It is such a wealth for writers to hear authors talk about their stories, their work habits, their craft, their access, etc.

On May 18, 2010, Tracy Kidder was on the show (not for the first time). He has been on frequently so I am attaching a link that will allow you to listen to the podcast of Donahue's conversation with Mr. Kidder.

Here it is, the interview with Mr. Kidder.

Cardinals fall, ?-3

2010-05-17T08:04:00.000-04:00

The score is of little importance. I don't even know what it was. We got beat and boy, was it ugly. We faced junk-baller who could barely break 60 MPH. It was ugly, friends. I went 0-2 with a SAC Fly and a strikeout. Wasn't my day.

I also caught for the first time in 13 years. Both my quads are now detached and floating within the skin of my thighs.

Next game is Thursday against the best team in the league. That's four days to rest the legs.

Cardinals win 4-3

2010-05-15T07:22:00.000-04:00

Thursday night's game was a winner. We won on a walk-off error. It was ugly, but it's nice to have the ball bounce your way time to time.

Here's my rundown for my first game in 10 years:

First at bat: Hit by pitch in left shoulder blade.
Second: Infield single.
Third: Game-tying RBI single to right field.
2-for-2, 1 RBI, and we won.

I made one little error in the field. Must remember that when the first baseman is 5-9 and 50 years old that he doesn't have much range. Must hit him in the chest. Whoops.

All in all it was a lot of fun and I came out of it with only a small pulled muscle in my left quad. We'll see where this goes.

Gearing Up

2010-05-11T08:02:00.000-04:00

This is an onion in the ointment. It was only a matter of time before I had to bone up the cash to fund this season, this is the form of gear (my manager has fronted my league fee for now. I feel like a pro! I'm getting paid to play ball!)

Naturally I went to Dick's Sporting Goods. I had to get pants. $25. Two lesser-caliber, 32" bats by Rawlings. $60. Red socks (Sox). $8. And a pair of Nike molded Keystone Low cleats. $35. The cleats are somewhat narrow, but they are cleats and that is to be expected.

It stung to spend that kind of loot. Still, it had to be done.

***

Ran some sprints in the 30-degree chill at Skidmore College's turf field. Did 12 sprints at about 90 feet. Four of them I pretended I was stretching a single into a double. This presumes that I will even put the ball in play. I have my doubts.

The quads pinched just a tad so I knew to back off. I stretched.

During lunch today I'll throw a ball against a wall again and give it some more gusto. I'll swing a bat close to the same wall to work on the shortest possible path to the ball, which leads to my inner dialogue before every pitch: Quick bat. Quick bat. Quick bat. Meat.

Lessons from GU and Power Bar

2010-05-09T10:45:00.001-04:00

Small lesson here. I work at a running specialty store (don't run much, but that's beside the point). On our nutrition wall are many products for in-race eating: gels, gummies, etc.

Of late we've been trying to phase out Power Bar. It doesn't sell. GU, on the other hand, sells like mad. There are holes on the wall from where the boxes of GU once rested.

How is this any different than what we do when we are trying to sell a book? GU makes money. Power Bar does not. Therefore what do we 'owe' Power Bar? Nothing. Make a better product. Be more popular. That's a YOU problem if YOU can't sell.

Wherever our work is lucky enough to end up, it will be taking up shelf space. It will be in competition with Dan Brown, Stephen King, and Stephanie Meyer, the same way that Power Bar and GU are in competition with one another.

So how can you make your work more marketable while still adhering to some form of artistic integrity? How can we make our work GU versus Power Bar? Part of that is finding representation from someone who believes in us. Part of that is our own energy for selling our work and ourselves.

Worth discussing, no?

More throws

2010-05-07T20:44:00.000-04:00

This is my greatest worry: my rotator cuff. It pinches ever so lightly. I think I had mentioned this, maybe not, but I got overzealous during a dodgeball game five years ago. Hasn't been quite the same.

My arm has not been in "mid-season" form since I was 20.

Ugh ...

So I threw a soft baseball against a wall during my lunch break today. Thwak. Thwak. Thwak. The arm felt OK. A pinch here, but strong there. It needs more time, this rebuilding.

54 Throws

2010-05-05T15:02:00.000-04:00

Today is gorgeous. 76 degrees. A few "happy" clouds as the artist Bob Ross would say.

I took two baseballs, my only two, and my glove and walked down to a big field at Skidmore College. Not a ball field, just a field. It has a backstop. I stood 20 feet and threw the balls. Jogged. Picked them up. Jogged back. Threw them twice more. After 20 reps I backed up to about 40 feet. Same thing.

Then at 60 feet the backstop looked much farther away. I put some air under the ball and hit the backstop halfway up each time. That ball lofted, it floated, it spun, it revolved. It clanged against the backstop with a "ting." My fingertips loved the scuff of the stitches, where I would blister and callous after the first few throws in the high school gymnasium of Bristol-Plymouth Vocational Technical School where Dad taught English and Reading. He always had a great clock for when enough was enough, especially early on in the training.

My rotator cuff is a bit off, not from this throwing, but from being overzealous in a dodgeball game about five years ago. It never quite healed. It felt great today, but I'm weary for the time I turn it loose.

Not for while. Need many more days of easy reps.

The Last Championship

2010-05-05T11:24:00.002-04:00

While I'm editing other manuscripts, I'm starting to organize a father/son baseball memoir. Without drawing it out too much I'll explain some the nuts and bolts.

Last summer Dad and his slow pitch softball team won a tournament and I took notes throughout the whole tournament. I thought it would be a good thing to write about. Then the guys go out and win the thing. It inspired me watching them play with the energy of Little Leaguers. It made me think about reconciling the sour end to my own baseball career.

I was a nut. I took the game so seriously that for the last three or four years it was like a job I hated but was good at. I was such a perfectionist that I'd be pissed at the TYPE of hit I got. If it was a swinging bunt, a bloop single, I was ticked. Sure, it felt all right to get on base and help the team, but I was inwardly selfish that the hit didn't look good enough.

Long story short, I'm joining a 30+ wood-bat baseball league this summer. My effort is learn to love the game again.

I think there are a lot of athletes who reach age 20 and burn out by whatever game they play. I know I was. Maybe my story will strike a chord (ooo, new cliche for The Cliches Themselves).

I want to thread the whole story — mine and Dad's — around his tournament where he most likely won his last championship.

Apparently the team I'm joining is a decent squad. We could win it all! I may walk away, win or lose, after this summer, but it's my attempt at reclaiming the game I used to love and learned to hate.

So, I want to, for the sake of my own organization, and to keep up the momentum, write about my season here at The Blog Itself. I'll be writing about it in my journal, but to riff on it here will be a way to share my season and to see how it plays out in print.

The Balance

2010-05-04T09:47:00.003-04:00

When you're struggling to get a foothold, when are you wasting your time and when are you educating yourself to be better?

I read a few blogs (Brian Spadora, Kim Hosey, Mary Richert, Roy Peter Clark, Rachel Gardner), not many, but a few. There's a chunk of time.

I write for three: Two I own, one for Horse Race Insider.com. That's a chunk of time. I struggle to find a readership but where should my writing energies be spent?

I read a "ton" of books. I surround ton in quotes because that is relative. Fiction. Nonfiction. Journals. Magazines.

I think the writing energy should rest mainly in the books and essays. After all, that is what builds a broad readership that will drive a "fanfare." My first mistake was in my "bio" section of my latest essay "Fear of Flying" was not putting down my links to my Web site and blog. Bravo, Brendan. Missed opportunity.

I don't know about you, but I've got a laundry list of books to read in order to become somewhat well-read. As a writer those pressures to be well-read are greater because the only way to be a good writer is to be an even more voracious reader. My problem is that I am a slow reader. Depending on the book and its typeface/font, it takes me between 80 and 90 seconds to read one page. That's if I stay engaged and don't fall asleep. In an hour I can read in the neighborhood of 40 pages. Is that a lot? Average? Below average?

So on top of reading blogs, books, writing for blogs, writing my own unpublished books, how do we find the time? Most of us have 40-45-hour work weeks. We've got to exercise. We have to cook. Some have children. I have dogs who need exercise. Boy, it sure is tough. But it's a lifestyle. Most of us do it because we love it. I know I do. And I hate when people call what I do a hobby. It ain't no hobby!

My beer brewing is a hobby. Writing is a lifestyle. It's what I hope will sustain me in the following years. I hope to write a book roughly every 5-8 years. I have tons of ideas that I feel will have traction and an audience.

To find that time the days have to adhere to a schedule. On a day off, say, 9-10 is blog hour. 10-11 is editing Chapters 2 and 3. 11-12 is reading hour. 12-1 is lunch. Then back to it. Map it out. Set a stopwatch. When it beeps you are done with that chunk of time.

Now it is 9:36. I'll say from 10-12 I'm editing a block of chapters from "6 Weeks." I'm sending out a series of queries in the upcoming weeks and I'm selling the idea that I have the book written. So it has to be tight and sharp. Real sharp.

From 12-1, I'll try to hammer through the book I'm reading so I can get it done. Not enjoying it as much as a I thought I would (Dreams From My Father).

So, here's my goal. It's lofty, I know, but just read the following line.

I will have more books published than Jose Canseco.

Canseco 2, O'Meara 0.

Worth Every Penny

2010-04-23T07:53:00.000-04:00

My friends and Ms. Blog Itself know I have a hard time spending money. It comes from growing up having to pinch pennies and then becoming an adult who had to pinch even more (so much for upward mobility). Naturally it's hard to part with every dollar. So I parted with ten of those dollars on the latest issue of Creative Nonfiction and, believe me, it is worth every penny for one part alone: the interview with uber-author Dave Eggers.

Readers of this blog know that I have a literary man-crush on Dave Eggers so perhaps this is simply gushing. The interview is extensive and you can tell that the interviewer, Jeff Gordinier, asked the questions a writer would ask of another writer. It's a brilliant interview on writing habits, music, and the Craft.

The new format of the magazine is better than I thought it would be. I thought it would be a flimsy magazine like ESPN The Magazine. Creative Nonfiction is magazine size, but is still made on the strong paper that readers have been used to for the past 17 years.

It's a great issue made all the better by Eggers' presence.

Read Gardner

2010-04-22T13:56:00.000-04:00

If you're a writer and you're not reading literary agent Rachel Gardner's blog then you're a fool.

Gardner not only updates her blog regularly (as in daily) she has guest bloggers to boot. She offers tips for writers on the query letter as well as any number of tips and points from inside the world of publishing.

This from someone who makes a living fifteen percent at a time. Her words and pointers leave the park on contact.

Recently she broke down a query letter that was both mediocre and intriguing. Gardner analyzed it paragraph by paragraph saying what worked and what didn't. Ultimately she asked for a partial of the woman's manuscript even though the letter meandered.

In another post she defended publishing's business model from those who blast it out of frustration. Sure it needs a face lift, but her points teach a lesson.

I struggle mightily to get a foothold in publishing. I freelance and sell running shoes to keep my head afloat while I sell two nonfiction manuscripts. Emphasis on try. It hasn't worked yet, but with insights from people like Rachel Gardner, you get the feeling that there are people who want to fight for you. You just have to give them a reason.

What are you doing? You haven't visited her blog yet? What more do I have to do? Go! Go! Go!

Music

2010-04-21T09:19:00.000-04:00

What music do you listen to when you write? I listen to a wide range, but I usually come back to Metallica. Metallica is my favorite band and I find their songs beautifully crafted. They tell stories too.

I don't always listen to songs wrung out with power chords, rather sometimes I listen to Four Cellos play covers of Metallica songs. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "Harvester of Sorrow" on the cello are incredible.

What music inspires you to write yard upon yard of sentences?

It's a business, treat it that way

2010-04-13T07:50:00.000-04:00

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner, as seen on The Blogs Themselves, wrote a nice post about treating your writing like a business. Sounds obvious, but how many writers scoff at the notion that they are artists and above the responsibilities and parameters of business metrics? I'd say plenty. I am not one of them.

Gardner suggests keeping records of your queries, who you sent them to, when you sent them, and the response. I've been doing this for some time. Every time I start an essay, I create a "Submission Filer" for that essay in the essay's folder. For the book project I have a submission filer that lists the agent, the time, and the response. That list is getting depressingly long, but it's evidence that my query seeds are flying like helicopters into the wind.

The problem is that they land on asphalt and fail to germinate.

Cliche Added

2010-04-10T20:13:00.002-04:00

Just added another cliche to The Cliches Themselves: a twinkle in the eye.

Put a dagger in that one.

Easy to be derailed

2010-04-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

With other work commitments that steal time away from prose, it's all the more important to spend free energies on the craft. It takes effort, lots of effort. Certain days I have to wake up two hours earlier just to get in more reading or to write a few words.

I understand that there are families and other acts that rightfully put artistic writing aside.

If you want it bad enough, you'll find time for it. You have to. Otherwise you'll get gobbled up. Hell, let's lean on each other from all corners of the country from New Jersey to Maryland to Arizona.

Do it for a few words. Pull a question out of Roy Peter Clark's "Writing Tools" and hone a skill. Submit an essay. Read an anthology edited by Norman Sims.

The time we cease being students will be the hour of our greatest ignorance.

Sponge Dinosaurs

2010-04-06T20:59:00.000-04:00

I recently posted a tweet about learning to write smaller and have the piece earn the right to be longer. Ernest Hemingway once said that he never sought out to write a novel, rather he wrote short stories that exposed themselves to be novels.

As an amateur I often think of topics as book projects. But what I should be thinking is how to condense it into 10,000 words or less. Perhaps that's all there is and I won't waste too much time. I've got a nice short essay. Perhaps it will show more potential, popularity and, in essence, become its own book proposal.

Hell, make it like those tiny capsules that soak up water and turn into a giant sponge dinosaur.

Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air" all started as long pieces for Outside magazine. Truman Capote sought to write a magazine story for The New Yorker but it turned out to be "In Cold Blood." Tracy Kidder wrote a long piece for The New Yorker which resulted as "Mountains Beyond Mountains." Madeleine Blais wrote a story for The New York Times Magazine that became "In These Girls Hope is a Muscle."

The point is to think small and let these shorter pieces earn the right to be longer.

Back with "Fear of Flying"

2010-04-01T14:30:00.000-04:00

I'm back from my soiree in lovely Las Vegas. T'was my defacto bachelor party, but you wouldn't necessarily call it a bachelor party-no strippers, just food and spirits with some of my brethren.

I've posted the link on Facebook, Twitter, and I'll do it here as well. My essay Fear of Flying is a short little number about my meditations aboard a flight. I do it in order to keep my mind as occupied as possible while flying. I don't like to fly. But this whole notion is giving me fodder for another long form project on flight. Imagine following the building of an aircraft from its inception to its maiden flight. It's Tracy Kidder's "House" but with an airplane. I'd like to explore what it takes to be a pilot, a flight attendant, and an air traffic controller and tie them all together with this one plane. It's a backburner project, one that I will start to collect some string for.

I can't tell you how many projects I have in my account. I get one, then I'm inspired by another, but worried that another will get away or be discovered by someone else. I suspect I will be without writer's block for the next 15 years.

That's something.

Out of the Office

2010-03-23T20:17:00.001-04:00

I'll be out of the office for the next week. Be sure to tune in then or, better yet, read up on old blog posts.

The Power of Potter

2010-03-18T16:23:00.000-04:00

Writer's Digest Publisher Jane Friedman had a guest blogger write about the strengths of the Harry Potter Series.

It had its last installment and I want to make all the posts available to followers of this blog. The author, Jim Adam, breaks down the entire series from a craft point of view. The workshop is designed for fiction readers, as is the magazine for the most part. But many of the tasks are easily applied to narrative nonfiction. In fact, I'd argue, that by learning more and more devices used by the best novelists, we as writers of nonfiction can coax out the proper information from our own real characters.

Narrative nonfiction writers strive to have their prose read with the fluency of the novel. While it is impossibly hard to reach that standard, armed with the proper tools we can get ever closer to having a fact-based account read like fiction.

True Stories

2010-03-17T09:09:00.002-04:00

I bought this book (I know, I said I was trying for a year of free reading, but there are some exceptions) for two reasons: 1. It's written by Norman Sims, a friend and former professor of mine from U Mass, Amherst. 2. Sims spotlights Michael Paterniti.

Who is Paterniti? He is a modern literary journalist who wrote, quite possibly, the best piece of narrative nonfiction/literary journalism in the past 30 years, maybe more. The story is "The Long Fall of One-Eleven Heavy."

It is a chilling story of a plane crash. The tone, the writing, the detail, seem strikingly fabricated. One of Sims' classes, when presented with two pieces of journalism, "Long Fall" and another one that was, in fact, invented, the students thought that "Long Fall" was the illegal fiction published under the banner of fact.

Sims was skeptical as well, until he went to Portland, Maine, to speak with Paterniti. What Sims found was a reporter who sought out the details with Sherlock Holmes precision and used the literary devices of the novelist to make sure it felt seamless.

Paterniti spoke with the chief investigators, the coroner, families of the dead, to sculpt this portrait of grief. Is it a compliment that his story was so good with so much detail that we are forced to think it's fabricated? That's a glass half-full assessment, I suppose. On the other hand it could be seen as an insult too. But all Paterniti would have to do is ask, "You want to see my notes?"

I remember reading "Long Fall" for the first time, mistakenly before I was about to fly, and was floored by it. I e-mailed Sims with that doubt that comes with thinking you can hit a baseball and then you step into the box against Randy Johnson—all of a sudden you don't feel so dandy about your abilities.

He replied:

"Brendan:

I had deep suspicions when I first read the piece. So I went to Portland, Maine, and interviewed Paterniti about his reporting and how the piece was done ... Needless to say, I'm convinced that his extraordinary reporting gave him the materials, but the construction of the piece grew from his abilities as a writer.

Don't be too intimidated by a piece like that. They only come along once every couple decades ... "

Sims, a journalism professor, did the grassroots reporting to find out the methods of a brilliant literary journalist. What he found was validating, refreshing, and enlightening. Both because the form still exists, and because it was done within the boundaries of fact.

Read this interview by Brian Spadora with Norman Sims.

Can there be TOO much reporting?

2010-03-10T13:53:00.001-05:00

After finishing "The Breaks of the Game" by David Halberstam I was immediately struck by the reporting. He seamlessly dances from character to character like Gabriel Garcia Marquez in "100 Years of Solitude."

But when is there too much reporting? At what point is the author bombarding you with so much fact, so much research, that the intent seems to be a reportorial body building contest equipped with veins and grotesquely striated muscle?

My example for this is Gay Talese's "Unto the Sons." It could have been 200 pages shorter and had a lot more punch. I read it two years ago and was both amazed and irritated by the degree of information within its pages. In the end more irritated (especially when he starts to refer to himself in the third person).

Halberstam, it is my feeling, had to go into the character detail he sought because while shadowing the Portland Trailblazers for the 1979-80 NBA season, they stunk. They didn't win the championship or do anything remarkable at all. There is very little game action, which, I must say, was nice. This is unlike John Feinstein's "A Season on the Brink." He describes nearly every Indiana Hoosier game. Unnecessary. Pick and choose for the most effective punch.

This goes for everything. Just because you went through the trouble of researching something doesn't mean it belongs in the book.

I won't say who

2010-03-04T15:32:00.000-05:00

One agency I pitched "Six Weeks in Saratoga" to said that if an author doesn't hear from the agent in three weeks, then the agent will pass on the book.

Does this bother you? It bothers me, to an extent. I understand agents are inundated with hundreds of queries and manuscripts a month, some worthy, some borderline good, others clearly bad. But does it hurt to at least send some form of correspondence? I did seek you out and thought that your agency would be a good fit for my work. I don't just throw queries like rice at a wedding.

Give me, at the very least, a form rejection letter. Give me a nail in the coffin, not this open ended "reply" where I'm staring at the calendar for three weeks.

Who's with me?

Sometimes while reading ...

2010-03-04T14:29:00.000-05:00

Ever read a smashing work of nonfiction and wonder how the hell did he/she get that? It's seldom skepticism, rather it's high praise?

What if a literary journal took a piece of well-known narrative nonfiction, let's say Gay Talese's profile of Joe DiMaggio "Silent Season of a Hero" (which I like better than "Frank Sinatra has a Cold") and added margin notes of where and how information was obtained?

Was a scene recounted by the character's mother? Was the author witness to this or did he/she re-create it? In one particular instance does the author refer to himself in the third person for narrative consistency or was that "third person" actually a third person? (Talese does this in the DiMaggio piece.)

Laura Wexler, a writer and Goucher faculty member, did this in her 2006 lecture. She broke down a segment from her book Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America, where she cited the information for a scene: interviews, secondary sources, primary sources. I believe, if I recall correctly, that the lecture was about footnotes, about covering one's tracks so when people question you can reliably say where you found your information.

This inside look at the scaffolding of a piece would be terribly interesting.

Year of Free Reading Continued

2010-03-02T13:07:00.000-05:00

After polishing off a couple books and taking a few more out from the library the savings keep adding up. I finished 'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac. Liked it a lot, could definitely see it as a defining book of a generation in the same way 'The Sun Also Rises' was for Ernest Hemingway's crowd, the same way 'Diary of a Whimpy Kid' is for mine. Hmmmm....

Back to the savings ... my method of deducing savings comes from a used copy at Amazon then adding $4 for shipping. 'On the Road' plus shipping was $10, bringing my savings to $51 on the year.

I am also reading 'Almost Human: Making Machines Think' by Lee Gutkind, 'The Breaks of the Game' by David Halberstam, and 'How We Are Hungry' by Dave Eggers.

The money saved on these books alone is $29.

Year to date savings is $70.

New Blog on The Blogs Themselves

2010-03-01T16:50:00.001-05:00

Just added Lyons Literary, LLC to The Blogs Themselves. I have submitted to this agency and like its layout and blog, so I've added it to the blog roll to offer y'all some more insights from industry professionals.

It hasn't been updated in a while, but, hey, we're all busy. Cheers!

The Cliches Themselves

2010-03-01T15:26:00.000-05:00

Here at The Blog Itself, I'm starting a list of cliches, those repetitive terms that make you sound like Dan Brown instead of Tracy Kidder.

Here's one for starters: Slow as molasses.

How about another? Dumb as a doornail.

There are hundreds more. Got a cliche you don't want to hear anymore and want to share it with The Blog Itself, send it along.

On Foreshadowing

2010-02-22T14:48:00.000-05:00

Tom French has it down. Of his many skills are his ability to foreshadow in nonfiction. In my own work I'm locating moments that can be strengthened by planting a key element early to maximize punch later. It's right out of RPC's Tool No. 29 — Foreshadow dramatic events or powerful conclussions.

French does it masterfully in his serial narrative "Zoo Story." In Chapter 8 of the nine-part series titled "Code One," French writes that a "code one" is emergency protocol on how to deal with escaped animals. On Page 4 of the PDF document he writes of code ones with elephants in mind and gives a rundown of the protocol for dealing with the elephants, to inform the audience what would happen in the event of an escaped elephant.

Later, there are mounting tensions with the chimpanzees where the long-time alpha, Herman, is murdered by Bamboo, a young upstart.

With the aggression mounting in the animal word and the human world (workers are laid off, some quit), on Page 7, at the end of the chapter, there is an announcement: "'Code one, tiger.' Enshalla is out."

My feeling is that while he was drafting the story the code one with Enshalla happened, and he found a way to go back and make this moment—already strong—stronger by planting the more benign code-one education with the elephants. (To find out what happens, read Zoo Story. He's currently turning it into a book.)

He also segues beautifully into RPC's Tool No. 30—To generate suspense, use internal cliffhangers.

"Code one, tiger."

Enshalla is out.

Tell me you don't want to keep reading.

Ten Years in the Cold

2010-02-22T11:20:00.000-05:00

I read two great stories, both of which I feel will help writers who are mired in that funk. You know that funk (right?) when the rejection slips/e-mails rest in a pile as tall as a coffee mug.

It really is about attitude. I've been a life-long pessimist and still carry the card and wave the flag, but while it gets a lot of laughs (usually from fellow pessimists) where has it gotten me? The short answer is nowhere. In this story title "Why Men Fail" from Men's Health is a great read. I can think of no better industry that could use a lift like writing. It kills you. It is difficult to keep plodding. I know I feel heavy with doubt and failure every morning around 11 A.M. Then usually before bed. Then again at 2 A.M.

This story by author Dani Shapiro about the writer's apprenticeship is, frankly, a downer. But underneath it hibernates the solution: tenacity wins. What the current publishing climate has done is put another level of filtration before us. It's filtering the nasty coffee grinds out. What if we can plow through this new level of negativity? What will that say when we come out the other end smelling better than Andy Dufresne in "The Shawshank Redemption."

Kinda bummed ...

2010-02-18T16:45:00.001-05:00

I've got Issue No. 36 of Creative Nonfiction and was reading it, enjoying it. I figured that if there were a nonfiction journal that I should subscribe to with my limited supply of disposable income that Creative Nonfiction should be it.

I visited the Web site and saw that when Issue No. 38 comes out (I skipped 37), it will be larger in format than its original, the original which was closer in size to your typical paperback book. I loved this format.

No. 38 will be like a normal magazine and Creative Nonfiction is not a normal magazine. Proof: it will have a conversation with the invincible Dave Eggers.

What do you think? Do you wish they would keep their original format? Or do you think that after 15 years you are ready for them to go for larger aethetics?

The Waiting Game

2010-02-18T15:02:00.003-05:00

Tom Petty said it best when he sings, "The waiting is the hardest part."

That's the nature of writing. A query/proposal goes out. Then it takes weeks to come back, usually with a 'no' attached to it.

For 'Six Weeks' I have one query and two book proposals out at this writing. One proposal I sent on November 30, 2009. Another was sent on January 13, 2010 (after a response to a query on January 12). The latest query departed on Friday, February 12. I keep a log of where/who I submit to, the date, and the response (plus the date of the response).

It keeps things in line and reminds you that you have the guts to put your head under the guillotine again, again, and again.

On breaking through the first level, revisited

2010-02-17T13:59:00.000-05:00

An author who is spectacular at describing things on a different level than us mortals is Jon Krakauer.

In his latest book, "Where Men Win Glory", he describes the late Pat Tillman's death with such a perfect choice of words that I paused and was genuinely haunted by the expression. Tillman was shot in the head by his own men and, forgive me for lacking complete recollection, but he described Tillman's head looking like a "burst balloon."

Perhaps this came to him on his first draft, but then again maybe he sat and labored over this because it was such a poignant and tragic moment that it needed to be told in a gruesome and visual way. He had to give the moment its due attention. He only had one chance to make it dance. I doubt he has regrets the word choice. That was brilliant.

Breaking through the first level

2010-02-16T11:51:00.000-05:00

I've read 'Angels and Demons', 'The Da Vinci Code', and 'The Lost Symbol'. I don't think anyone who considers themselves a 'serious' writer would say that Dan Brown is a gifted wordsmith. His language is soft, many 'ings' and he overuses phrases and words like 'her blood turned cold' or 'gazes'. But he does have a talent for making you turn the page.

I drove to Lake Placid and back and listened to 'Da Vinci Code' for fun and, at times, had to turn it off because of the over-dramatic portrayals. Turn the volume down, Mr. Brown. But this can be helpful. Often his descriptions, metaphors, use of certain words, are on the 'first level.' That is the description or word 90 percent of people would choose. His problem is that he uses that first level word or phrase.

Writers need to chisel through that first level for a better way to describe or phrase something. It's not shameful to have thought of the first level, only shameful to have recognized it and then used it.

He stared in utter shock. Can you be in utter shock? I think 'shock' says it all.

It pays to read the bad. It teaches you what not to do, which is every bit as important as what to do.

Look where you can submit work

2010-02-12T12:18:00.000-05:00

I've included a Literary Journal Yellow Pages on The Blog Itself so you can go and read their work and see if your stuff can dance on the same floor.

The more I come across the more I'll add. I can tell you right now that I have had two essays published by Joseph Conrad's SN Review but have been rejected multiple times by Creative Nonfiction, River Teeth, Wags Revue, Brevity, and Fourth Genre. And I still included them. What a guy!

Go check 'em out!