GRAVITY

Okay, so movie reviews aren't my usual thing.  Well, don't worry, this is not a movie review.  I'll go ahead and say SPOILER ALERT, which isn't really needed.  I don't give anything away, but if you want to see the movie without any inkling of what it's about (other than what I just gave away in the poster) then cease reading here and come back later.  For the most part, this is a genre discussion. 


Alfonso Cuaron's new movie GRAVITY came out this weekend.  I just saw it and I confess, as much as I love Cuaron (CHILDREN OF MEN, come on!), I was reluctant to see this one.  I take issue with Man versus Nature stories.  Ever since being forced to read "To Build a Fire" in grade school, I've shivered at the thought of the futility of man in the face of the great big insert-here (world, universe, everything).

So, a movie about two astronauts trying to survive in the vaccum of space?  Kind of awful.  I just think of Jack London's protagonist and those damned matches.  And then I think of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" and those damned matches and it makes me want to stay home forever in footie pajamas by a warm fire with a cup of cocoa.

The thing is, Man versus Nature is such a stripped down format, but it's so darned effective.  It's just Man (or Woman or Child) with nothing more than the clothes on their back-- if they're lucky-- and maybe one or two not-so-impressive tools.  And then there's Nature, red in tooth and claw, with all of her glory suddenly gone not-so-glorious for said Man/Woman/Child.  What more do you need?  These stories are about tension, hope and hopelessness, and digging deep for the will to live.

It gives me a stomach ache.

So, SPOILER ALERT (again, not really, unless, etc.)

What's impressive about GRAVITY is the way the ante, which is already literally sky high, gets upped, and upped along the way.  "The Little Match Girl" and "To Build a Fire" are short stories.  They both have one villain, manifested in one simple way-- the cold gets colder.  In GRAVITY, there's more than one way to die.

So, I'm sitting in the theater with my stomach clenched and my feet flexing at the ankles, like I'm trying to pump the brakes from the passenger seat and I come out of the theater more stonyfaced than entertained (appreciative of the effects, the camera choices, my belief in Cuaron as one of the most talented, thoughtful directors of our time, yes) and it occurs to me:  I wrote ORLEANS.  And I've been told that its given some readers the same tension tummy.  And yes, it is in some respects a Man versus Nature story in which there are many ways to die.

What was I thinking?  So, this is my apology for making any of you guys feel oogie while reading ORLEANS.  Hopefully it will stay with you, the way Andersen's and London's stories did with me.  It's funny how what you read as a child influences what you write as an adult.  It's also interesting to create something I considered "fun!" (ORLEANS, to me, is dark, difficult, but a romp with a badass heroine aka "fun!") from a place of childhood fear.

Maybe I should write something set in space?  Truly, just the thought makes me cold.  Which probably means it's worth looking into.

Hey, don't forget, I'm at the Teen Book Fest on Saturday, 10/12/13 at the Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.  Come on by and say hello!

Meet the Author - Booktober 2013!

Can you believe it's almost October?  Time has flown, and that brings us to a whole new page on the calendar and a few new chances to meet in the real world.  This October, you'll find me at the following events:

 

 

Sat., 10/12/13 - Teen Book Fest – Los Angeles, CA
LA Public Library Central Branch, 630 W. 5th Street Los Angeles, CA 90071

  11 - 11:45 AM - "Historical Fiction" Panel - I'll be moderating a discussion with

• Patricia McCormick (NEVER FALL DOWN, SOLD)
• Elizabeth Ross (BELLE EPOQUE)

  2 - 2:45 PM - "Other Worlds" Panel

• Me!
• Cecil Castellucci (LAST DAY ON EARTH)
• Tom Leveen (SICK)
• Gretchen McNeil (3:59)
• Mary E. Pearson (THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX)
• Marlene Perez (DEAD IS JUST A DREAM)

Sat., 10/19/13, 12 - 4 PM - Inspiring Authors for Teen Girls Author Fair – Los Angeles, CA
Barnes and Noble, Manhattan Beach, 1800 Rosecrans Avenue, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266This event is a fundraiser in support of  For Women Only whose education program, “Passport to Life: A College Bound Project” is an Education Program helps prepare young women aged18—24 to pursue their academic goals.
 

Wed., 10/23/13, 6PM - 7PM - LitCrawl YA "Book and A Movie" - North Hollywood, CA
Republic of Pie, 11118 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood CA 91601
Join me and my fellow YA writers for this Los Angeles Review of Books hosted portion of the new, exciting LitCrawl as we team up our books with movie trailers, clips, and a reading from our latest novels.  Includes:
 

• Cecil Castellucci (LAST DAY ON EARTH)
• Gretchen McNeil (3:59)
• Jennifer Bosworth (STRUCK)
• Lauren Strasnick (THEN YOU WERE GONE)
• Sarah Skilton (BRUISED)

What's LitCrawl, you ask? 
 
"The nationwide phenomenon known as the Lit Crawl debuts in Los Angeles’ North Hollywood (NoHo) Arts District this fall on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 from 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm. Mark your calendars now!
Restaurants, bars and other hip NoHo venues will host an evening of thrilling readings with the best of L.A.’s writers in a sampling of some of the greatest ongoing readings series from throughout Los Angeles County. Multiple literary genres will be represented spanning fiction to poetry. It promises to be a magical, vibrant literary night for all!
Los Angeles is home to one of the largest, fastest growing, and most diverse literary scenes in the world. An incredible array of local reading series and literary organizations are expected to participate in the first Lit Crawl LA: NoHo Arts District for a uniquely Los Angeles literary night."--- www.litcrawl.org/la
 
Phew!  That's a lot.  And there will be more.  Look for a panel at Comikaze the first weekend in November.  But for now, 'nuff said.  See you out there!
 
 
 
 

Fried Egg On Teflon: Holding a Story

Okay, maybe I should have used a different image.  Picture a bear scooping salmon out of a stream.  Or rather, picture a bear trying to scoop salmon out of a stream.  That was me yesterday and today, trying to grab hold of pieces of a story that has been swimming through my mind for a couple of years.  You see, I started a project about three years ago.  My lunch time project, I called it.  No matter what other book I was working on (ORLEANS, as it turned out, for much of that time), I also worked on another story.  But I only wrote it long hand, and I only wrote at lunch time.  You could find me sitting outside a fast food Mexican plate eating way too many chicken nachos, and scribbling on a yellow legal pad.  I wrote without an outline (unheard of for me, like parachuting without a parachute!), and just asked myself "what would I do next if I was her?  If I was him?"  And I wrote a book.  I typed it up, patted myself on the back, and gave it to a friend who pointed out it wasn't a book so much as a novella, and what did I mean by this, that or the other?

Clearly, she hadn't been eating the nachos.  So, my brillance was just a diamond in the rough.  And I worked on it some more and at the end of a while I had my version of a noir novel.  It excited me and I thought, why not write a cycle?  Why not write an American Gothic novel to go with it, since it had some of those undertones?  Only this time I'd go whole hog and have it all-- the big spooky house, the characters drifting into madness, the heat, the confusion, the violence.  I even have a title.

But I don't work that close to the nacho place anymore, and I can't seem to find my legal pads and, if you read this blog you know I'm supposed to be working on Something Else.

But, yesterday, I found myself on the freeway driving past my location and I thought about the story.  A lot.  And decided I'd outline it this weekend.  If only I could get a grip on more than just the idea of it.  A gist is not a story.  It's a gist.

Sometimes you see images of a story.  At least I do.  Pictures flash in my head.  If I'm very still and have a pen and pad (or a receipt or gum wrapper) I can capture those images and coalsce them into a story.  And then, sometimes, you get the flashes, you have the pad, and all that comes out is a shopping list of what you want the story to be.

So, instead of an outline, here it is Sunday night and I am left with an image of an egg sliding out of a teflon-coated frying pan.  This is my brain.  It's empty.  Maybe that's a sign.  Time to replenish the creative well.  I will try to look at art this weekend, and hear music, and maybe read ABSALOM! ABSALOM! again  (that Faulkner, what a nut). 

And maybe one day my brilliant cycle of Southern Californian Gothic Noir will be a real live salmon/egg/story on a plate in front of you.

In the meantime, back to that Something Else.  I swear, it's coming along.  (It is!)

Writing Exercises, Deep-Fried, On A Stick.

There's this writing exercise in Natalie Goldberg's innovative book on, Writing Down the Bones.  Part memoir, part workbook, there are lots of great prompts and exercises to get the creative juices flowing.  The one I'm thinking of asks the reader to make a random list of items, then choose a profession and write down verbs associated with the profession.  Now, use the verbs with the nouns.  The goal is to find innovative descriptions.  Her example uses chef-related cooking verbs, resulting in a sentence about dinosaur bones marinating in the earth.

The L.A. County Fair (yes, we have one) is going on this month.  It is a magnificent land of carnivals, games, pig races, living libraries, craft villages... and every food you can imagine, dipped in batter and deep-fried on a stick.  (For a complete list, click here and choose the "fried food" category.  There's deep fried cereal for cryin' out loud!)

It's like a culinary school drop out played madlibs with the phrase, "Deep-fried (noun) on a stick."  For example (and these are real things), insert:

1. Watermelon
2. Cheesecake
3. Pineapple Upside Down Cake
4. Bacon-wrapped pickle
5. Snickers Bar
6. Reese's Peanut Butter Big Cup
7. Ribs (okay, not on a stick, unless you count the bone.  They are described by a new word, "fry-b-que.)

The game has also been played with "Bacon (noun)":

1. Cotton Candy
2. Nutella Bun
3. covered in chocolate, sprinkled with sugar

And "Krispy Kreme (noun)":

1. Double Cheeseburger
2. Sloppy Joe

Now, the list is not as shocking broken up like this, but when you say:

1. Deep fried watermelon on a stick
2. Bacon cotton candy, or
3. Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe

... it hits you like a heart attack, or heartburn, or worse.

If you could put any random food items together and deep fry them, what would you pick?  And how would you describe the flavor? 

I watched a young woman take her first bit of watermelon on a stick.  It looked like a giant, triangular chunk of battered fish drizzled in streaks of red (presumably watermelon) sauce.  Her first bite was all batter, which she said she liked.  The second, deeper bite resulted in something resembling a fried raw meat pocket as the pink interior fruit was revealed.  She began to laugh, covered her mouth to keep her tasty treat from escaping, and stopped laughing long enough to say, "It's good."  I asked if the watermelon was still cold.  Nope.  "It's hot... and that's weird.  I like cold watermelon.  But it's good."

Is it?  Really?

Now, you're probably wondering, where does the writing come into this?  Here, a simple exercise:  What non-food item can you insert into the above phrases to come up with a new way of expressing things?

1. Jed left Marla with nothing but an old sock and a case of deep-fried heartache on a stick.
2. It was what Stevie called a bacon blind date-- started out good, got even better, 'til you wondered if it was too much of a good thing.
3. She wrapped him up in one of those Krispy Kreme hugs, soft, sweet and a little nauseating.

Hmm.  Not too bad.  Like the deep-fried watermelon.  Now, if I can use "hot watermelon" in a sentence, you'll be the first to know.

Oh, wait:  Turns out kissing your best guy friend after discovering he has a crush on you is kind of like eating hot watermelon-- weird, but you know, still pretty good. 

Thank you, and good night!

Where I've been

I've been missing from the blogosphere for a couple of weeks now.  Want to know where I've been?



In Seattle.


Being a tourist.

 

Getting down to the basics:

 

Food.

 Nature.

My inner self.

 And the things that really matter.

 I've also been at Hedgebrook.  Celebrating 25 years of the most wonderful place.* 

 

 

Oh.  And I've been writing.  In the woods.

 

 

 

 

*In 25 years, Hedgebrook has housed, fed and inspired over 800 women.  Won't you help them continue their amazing philosophy of "radical hospitality?"  Somewhere, thousands of women writers will be saying "thank you" from the bottom of their hearts. 

Touring the Backlist: LUCY THE GIANT

I've been feeling nostalgic this week, thinking about the other books I've written.  Mostly, I've been wondering how the heck I did it.  Yes, I'm still up to my elbows in a rewrite and while I'm not entirely in the weeds, it feels like a long hike back to the clubhouse (A weird golf metaphor, I think.  I don't play golf, but I watch TV shows where they do.).  No matter how many books I've written, I suspect I will always reach a point where I think it's impossible/horrible/terrible/no good.  And then I remind myself, "You've done this before," and I try to remember how so I can do it again.

 

So, this week, I'm taking a look back at my very first novel, LUCY THE GIANT.  This one was a doozy because I had never written a story longer than 30 or so pages before.  I remember having the idea and feeling driven to complete it.  Then I drove right off a cliff, down the wrong road a few times, and final found my way to a satisfying "The End."

 

The hardcover dust jacket

 

 

I learned to persevere when writing LUCY.  I learned that despair is just a bend in the road before reaching hope.  That it was okay to not really know what I was doing, as long as I knew what I meant and stayed sincere about it.  Which meant not quitting.  And loving the characters.  And seeing, I mean really seeing the world they lived in-- taste it, touch it, smell it, feel it in my bones.

 

The paperback

 

That's something I forgot to do early on in this current manuscript-- really feel the world.  I had an idea of it, knew what it looked like and just threw it on the page.  I was more interested in getting it down than I was in breathing life into it.  It's a common problem with my earlier drafts.  I am too busy telling the story, rushing from A to Z, to really stop and smell the roses.  So I'm smelling the roses now (and dashing around in the new scenes... I promise I'll smell those roses later).  I spent a long afternoon in the study carrels Central Library with a stack of books on history, costumes, toymaking and the clockmaker's guild.  When in doubt, I say, do some more research.  The little details you stumble across give your story depth and a sense of veracity that is difficult to just "make up."

Wandering those shelves, sitting at the long tables with other silent readers, I remembered there is a whole world happening around my little story.  It's a fantasy, but it's historical, which means Napoleon and war and the Congress of Vienna and all sorts of things are happening at the same time as my guys are trying to figure out how to open a nut.  Which immediately sounds like a writing prompt to me.  And it was.  I came home, and I wrote.  And I'm still writing.

And I learned that from LUCY THE GIANT. 

Sadly, Miss Lucy is out of print for the time being.  You can probably find her living in the warm dusty arms of a used bookstore somewhere.  It's a fun, sad, moving little book about a man-sized girl finding her way in the rough world of Alaskan crabbing.  There's a pretty good feast written into that story, and a version of a dress I used to own (or maybe just wished I did).  And there's crab.  I love crab.  And Alaska, which I also love.  LUCY is a thank you letter to the Last Frontier State because, while I always knew I wanted to be a writer, it was a trip to Alaska that made me one.

Teen Drama Queen

Yesterday, I lead a writing circle with the theme "Teen Drama Queen" for a local Hedgebrook fundraiser.  (Hedgebrook, you might recall, is the Shangri-la of writing retreats for women in Washington State.  Applications are open now, check it out!)

Seriously, this is part of Mount St. Mary's Doheny Campus.

Classes were taught in and around a Victorian mansion on the Doheny Campus of Mount St. Mary's.  So beautiful!

My particular workshop was designed to help adults get in touch with their inner teen in order to write YA.  One of the most popular prompts was about high school crushes.  Here it is-- give it a go!  If you are still in high school, think back to elementary school and have at it:

Crushes

List three to five people you had crushes on

• Choose one
• Write a moment when you acted on (or reacted to) the crush from your point of view
• Write the same scene from their point of view
• Write it from the point of view of an distant observer
• Write what you WISH had happened

Have fun!