Do Wah Do: Word Shop Newsletter August 2008
Summer has come to a close and there are number of things I didn't do; like sit outside and read a really fine novel. Or lounge at the beach. (No lounging with this dog!)
I did spend several days in Seattle rocking my lovely new Granddaughter, Riverwind. This how Grandmothers are supposed to spend their days. Just sit in a chair all day and snuggle the baby. At home I have a wonderful old rocking chair that my mother remembers her Great-grandmother reading to her in. Bring on the babies!
"As my Grandmother used to say, 'The only thing better than babies is more babies!'" --Howard Giles
I could have lounged at Lake Tahoe, (no dog) but instead I banged away on the computer compiling a bunch of my stories. The staring-out-the-window part of writing in Tahoe was quite satisfying; I could live here, I thought, looking across the lake. Surely Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Meanwhile, cruising some 30 years of stories I discovered that my character's eyes are always twinkling and that breakfast figures big in my fiction. Bacon AND Sausage. This is what comes of writing in the morning.
"Never eat more than you can lift". -Miss Piggy
The best book I read all month was Three Cups of Tea about Greg Mortenson, a climber who got lost in Pakistan, drifted into a village in the Karakoram mountains and ended up vowing to build a school for the impoverished children. Over the next ten years he built fifty-five schools for Pakistani villages, focusing primarily on schools for girls. This is a story that everyone should read and one that most people will enjoy. I bought several copies to foist upon folk. I understand that you're busy; the Resurrection Book Group read this book last October when I didn't have time for one cup of tea, much less three. Then several months ago Carolyn read it and said in her most Carolyn voice, "Alliee, you need to read this." So, I can relate to the getting-around-to-it problem. Still, it is worth reading. Now. $15. I'll give you a deal.
"Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born." — Dale E. Turner
My plot for a fall class is to do an eight week Intergenerational Illustrated Journaling class. The title is One Page at a Time. I started out planning to do this for the wonderful Home School bunch that took my Story Writing Class last year. Then I thought, why limit it to kids? Wouldn't children benefit from seeing the work of teens and adults? Wouldn't adults benefit from being around teens and children? Why are people always separated by ages? This class is especially for people who don't think they can draw. Or those who don't think they can write. It is not, however, for people who don't think. We'll start in early October, as I'm off to Hawaii any minute now. If you're interested, weigh in on what day/time you'd prefer. I'll announce the winning schedule in next month's newsletter.
"Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual." -Arthur Koestler
Right now I'm reading 3 books in tandem: Glenn Clark's I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes, Somerset Maugham's Summing Up and Julia Cameron's Finding Water. If anyone wants to do theFinding Water 12-week Creative Workshop with me, jump in. I'm only a couple chapters into it. Splash!
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." -Heraclitus
A number of people wanted to join the "dirty dozen" gang going around to different churches every week. At least one character claimed the nome de plum of Tithe-less. Tithe-lass. Unfortunately these folk hailed from all over the country and given the current price of gas....
Another bright idea bites the dust.
"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."--John Steinbeck
Flying somewhere or other a guy got into the seat next to me and stuck a paperback Anne Patchett novel entitled, Run, into the magazine slot. "Hey, I'd like to read that," I said. He said his wife had recommended it. Later, I looked it up at my distributor and discovered it was due to be released in September 08. Wha? The guy...er, bloke...had an English accent. Is this fair? Frustrated, I ordered her little book What Now. Turns out What Now is a marvelous essay, which had been a commencement speech. Great for people in the thrust of change: graduates, retirees, or everyone else still trying to figure out what to do with their life.
"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." --Winston Churchill
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, is on our book-clubby fiction shelf for $3. It is the kind of novel I particularly hate. The protagonist does something stupid in the first chapter and then the rest of the novel unfolds because he doesn't tell the truth about it. You get to watch 20 years of idiocy before he finally does the obvious. Aside from this teensy problem the book is compelling and Kim Edwards' writing decent.
"Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit." -Edward R. Murrow
I ordered an out of print book, which arrived wrapped in clear plastic. Peering through the plastic I discovered it was the wrong book. I'd ordered a paperback, entitled This is My Body. This was a hardback Mary Higgens Clark mystery. I typed an enraged email to the bookseller. WRONG BOOK! " Open the package," he wrote back. Sure enough, the Mary Higgens Clark hardback had been gutted and the paperback I'd ordered was nestled within. The title of that disemboweled mystery? The Second Time Around. Really! The Word Shop has a whole stack of Mary Higgens Clark hardback mysteries at $2-$4 each. If someone doesn't buy them soon, they may be put to nefarious use.
"The best way to kill your music is to sit down every day and work at it. You got to sneak up on it and catch it when it's not looking." --Iggy Pop
Gottcha.
Blessings,
Alliee +