UNTITLED

And then I had again that room,
The sensation I had gone back
Fifteen years and was alone again.

That feeling I had had in childhood

Of being unique and strange
And alone came stark and sweet.

The honey mood of relaxation

And a strain of old music,
Familiar, limpid music.

JEC Thomsen (circa 1962)

Writing Powers Process, Not Just Product

Author George Saunders (Saun) described one of the lesser-known sides of the writing process in his interview with George Stephanopoulos (Step) on ABC’s Sunday talk show, This Week, in February 2013. Here are some excerpts from an incomplete transcript that capture the bits relevant to anyone interested in the writing process.

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Step:…Funny, dark, realistic at the same time…You seem to tap into this economic anxiety that so many Americans are feeling right now.

Saun: It seems that’s the big American subject....

Step: One of thing you write about is the absence of wealth creates an erosion of grace.

Saun: …Fiction isn’t actually a great propaganda tool. Often the first impulse of a writer is to pull up the big manure truck of his ideas and his politics and “stand there reader and dump it,” but I find if you just concentrate on language and on making lively new situations [possibly incorrectly heard?], then ideas come out of the woods.

Step: …If you set out to write overtly political fiction, it won’t work.

Saun: That’s right. I’ve tried and it doesn’t work. There’s something about the intimacy of exchange demands openness on both sides. And on the writer's part it means, I don’t know. I might think I know, but I don’t. know. It’s weird because the way to get to those ideas is through the language, paying close attention to phrases and sentences, and if you do that in a kind of an open state, not only will the ideas show up, but they will be the highest form of your ideas. They won’t be propagandistic; they won’t be superficial. They’ll be sort of deep and ambiguous.

Step: It also seems that you’re trying to create space in those sentences for heart. That’s another way to reach across that divide.

Saun: That’s right. A Longfellow quote I’m probably mangling: If we could look into the secret history of our enemies, we’d find sufficient suffering and sorrow to disarm our hostility. I think fiction is almost a mechanical way to work through your own shallowness. You start out with a condescending relationship to your character, almost by definition, and as you work with the sentences, you find that the bad sentences are equal to over simplicity or condescension. And as you work with language, you move yourself toward complexity and often to a state of confusion, where you really don’t quite know what you think about the person.

Step: You may not, but when you send it out into the world, what do you hope to get back?

Saun: I think the highest version is you’re sending out a bundle of energy—concentrated energy that you’ve made with your own sweat and your heart—and it goes out and jangles somebody. That’s the highest form. Now, there’s another level where you do hope to make people more alive in the world, maybe more aware of the fact that we have more in common with others than we think we do, that’s kind of whole [?]; but even that gets a little bit intentional. So for me it’s just trying to deliver an energy charge in a certain way.

Step: You did it for me and you did it for so many more. Go to abcnew.com/thisweek for an excerpt.

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From George Saunders interview with George Stephanopoulos on This Week:, Sun 2/16/13, regarding Tenth of December (short-story fiction), new book

Have a look at the New York Times review Stephanopoulos refers to in the interview, George Saunders Has Written the Best Book You’ll Read This Year, by Joel Lovell, January 3, 2013 , which nominates Saunders as a “writer for our time.” This catch-phrase (or trope) seems to have irked other writers (just Google and see what I mean), mostly because Saunder’s achievements remain with the short-story form and not novels. But honestly, to go from being a technical writer to a great writer is clearly an achievement.

Poetry in Motion

Working on my mom's poetry & art manuscript lately seems to be rubbing off on me.
These simple, childish verses fell into place yesterday, while traipsing around the Cherokee Removal Park during the Sand Hill Crane Festival.

As I strive
to be alive,
so parts of me
live and die.
To be born anew
in days come true,
nearer to the heart
of my real parts.

And on a lighter note...

Glad to say
we walked today
&, oh,
by the way,
I love you,
yes, I do.
All things true,
Me and you,

 

In Response to Walden

Wisdom need not be calm and even, static.

Human beings, having suffered deeply,

because of themselves and others,

In their very desperation may be acute

to the deeper meaning of things.

3/3/60, by JEC Thomsen

A sense of profound innocence floats among the opaque images of young and old,
who no longer make foot prints.
Yet, we can feel the lasting impressions of their virtues and qualities.
Let these be reminders of the eternal blessing we are all entitled to when we enter this world.
Oh, cherished life! May what gave their lives purpose, live on,
In things we can touch and feel, for that is our priviledge, as humans beings.

--In rememberance of those who died on Friday, December 14, 2012 in Connecticut and in support of those who grieve.

Afternoon on the Palisades

Afternoon on the Palisades.
In the sun, flat walls and
faceted whites.
Glare, glitter and metal,
The frame of a dark wet window,
The nostalgia.
The long straight avenue to the sea
Bends slightly a broad open way,
And the cards steram down to the end.
Gardens of bright color run by,
Mauve, rust, saffron, olive.
Blue triangles of sky seen through windows
over the edges of roofs.
That delicate cloudy color of a good day.
All the lightness and the air.
The cast images on Glass
of unknown figures passing by,
Their worlds held within.


Finn de Wyet (aka Joyce Thomsen), circa 1962

Casting aside what one has done is one thing. It's a whole other thing to look at what one hasn't done. Look forward to reading excerpts here from my upcoming novel--a cross-genre mix of historical fiction, fantasy, and mystery for young adults.

Grog for the blog

Ok, in case you didn't know, a grog is the best cure for the common cold or influenza, and better than all that stuff with gosh-knows what in it. Try it; you'll like it.

Grog Recipe - courtesy Food.com

Grog
By Mille® on February 16, 2002

• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Total Time: 20 mins
• Serves: 4, Yield: 48 ounces
About This Recipe: "Nectar of the pirates!"
Ingredients:
• 4 cups water
• 1 lemons, juice of
• 1/2 cup sugar or 1/2 cup Vermont or Canadian maple syrup
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 16 ounces dark rum
Directions:
1. Bring water to a boil in saucepan.
2. Dissolve sugar in boiling water.
3. Stir in rum and lemon juice.
4. Carefully pour drink into heatproof glasses or mugs containing 1 cinnamon stick each.
5. Serve hot.
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 (391 g)
Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
% Daily Value
Calories 364.1
Total Carbohydrate 27.8g
© 2011 Scripps Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. http://www.food.com/19835
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Technology Riding More Power Waves Between Netbooks & Tablets

Amazing how technology works. The temptation of portability has been around for at least 15 years now with the introduction of notebooks, but the definition of portability continues to ride a wave of ups and downs. No sooner do I get use to crating my 5-pound laptop around the house and overcome my hardpressed feelings about carrying it on an airplane or to meetings, then the netbook appeared. That allows me some light-weight computing power on the road, keeping the majority of my files on a thumb drive and the minimal apps needed to do stuff I really care about (like writing). What's happening now? They're supposedly phasing netbooks out and phasing in tablets, notably led by the iPad and iPad2. That's fine if you consider typing as texting, but it really doesn't work for the serious types, like me. Yes, you can buy a keyboard, but do you really want to cart that around? No, sir, I don't. If men and women can managed to coexist, why can't we have a world with netbooks and tablets?

Times are changing, or is time changing?

OK, you can rake me over the coals for taking way too long to update my blog, but since the folks who actually read this don't own up to it, I'm not going to spend more than this sentence on an apology. Onwards.

I'm quite caught by this little conundrum: are the times changing (like global warming, it's all happening relative to how we grew up) or is time itself changing? A few milliseconds (in rotation or in travel around the sun) really could make a signficant change in how this planet behaves. Who's to say that 10 of our minutes haven't been stretched or shriveled, imperceptible to us because it's all so "relative"?

There you have it, my thought for this week.