The Road Ahead

ur class ended well. I learned about "the business" and what my next steps are. Namely, to formally pitch ACYW and to prepare to pitch other ideas. While I've learned about the all important log lines - the line or two used to describe one's film idea most succinctly - I still need to learn how to write a synopsis (a 2-3 page overview of the movie in case readers get passed the log line). Once I get a better feel for that, I can really start moving head.

I also got a number of movies for Christmas which I look forward to watching to see how they told their stories. One is Paul Newman's Slap Shot. Within the first 5-8 minutes of the film we have a very good feel for who the main characters are. On the whole, a solid first act. The third act, too, presents a couple great twists. But in the second act the movie slows down.

Thanks to class, I watch movies differently now and have a better feel for what needs to be stronger to keep a viewer's attention. Hopefully I'll apply my new eyes to my own work as well.

The Good News Is...

ou want the good news or the bad news first? I typically go bad first. For the sake of drama, though, you get good news first.

Good news: The class had no beef with the car alarm symphony. Whew.

Bad news: I have a number of scenes and characters to work on yet. That being said, I am happy that I not only received constructive criticism, but potential solutions as well. Most of which I'll adopt directly or rework in.

If anything, folks in the class wanted more of this or that as opposed to less which, I reckon, means I'm on the right track...

Done...again!

onsider the second draft of the screenplay complete. I still await feedback from class, but I'm excited. I feel good about it probably because I brought it back to what I originally wanted it to be - a satire about two Africans starting the Peace Corps in the U.S. I even worked in a reverse "The Gods Must Be Crazy" scene, Coke bottle and all.

I get feedback from class tomorrow night which should be interesting. I'm curious if they'll buy the car alarm symphony. If enough people do, I'm good. If they throw my screenplay back at me (literally), I'll rework it.

Anyone want a sneak peek?

Finding Soul in Screenplays

while back I wrote about how there seemed to be a lack of poetry/soul/beauty in screenplays - dialogue aside. As I spend more time writing and editing my screenplay, though, I'm finding places for soul.

First, where the scene is set. It's easy to go back to the same three or four sets, but a shift in setting can color an entire scene.

Second, the description of that new setting adds even more texture to the image.

Third, if the dialogue presents the foreground activity of a scene, slugs of description between lines can color the background. What I like about this is that it doesn't take away from the main action the first time you watch a scene, but when you watch it a second time it can add to the scene.

These are the areas I've been concentrating on lately as I finish up the screenplay for class.

Perhaps the best way to describe it is that writing fiction is like painting a large mural with long brush strokes while writing a screenplay is like painting with shorter, more poignant strokes. There's art in both, but they're painted in different ways for different audiences and media.

General Update

t's certainly been a while since I posted an update. My apologies. In general, the screenwriting course has been fantastic. I'm making good progress and getting good, constructive feedback. I'm handing in my second portion of work - the first half of Act II - this coming week and am moving ahead with the rest of the screenplay for full submission the week after. Once that's all done I'll address all the feedback and work on another full draft before considering submitting to contests, agents et al. Needless to say, more work to go.

Enjoying Rehab

ell, what can I say? Rehab is exactly what I needed. My screenwriting course through the Gotham Writers' Workshop has been great. I have an excellent instructor and have already received positive and even more importantly, constructive criticism on my screenplay's first act from my classmates. They have helped me address a nagging problem: Giving Josaya and Gibson their own voices and building up their characters. Now I have a better view of the way forward. And on that note, it's time to hit the books.

Grinding It Out

ince my last post, I've registered for an introductory screenwriting course through the Gotham Writer's Workshop, started writing my second screenplay (The Beer Flower Limited) and begun reading the course's textbook which has already given me some good pointers on screenplay structure. I've also landed a new job which will allow me to attend the night course and, hopefully, free up more time to write. I hope to read the textbook once all the way through before starting the course so it's not all brand new and then again in class. I've also requested from the NYPL the movies the textbook refers to so I can get a better feel for them before we discuss them in class.

All in all, I'm feeling good about this fall and the progress I can make. Yeah, I know, all ho-hum to-do list kinda stuff, but that's what it takes. There are a few folks out there who make it overnight, but for the rest of us, we grind it out day after day.

Banging it out

ith a little more time on my hands lately, I put it into adapting ACYW and on Monday morning I finished. Yeehaw! I can now put it aside for a spell, take a look at it before I start the screenwriting course later in September and for the time being move on to other projects.

I can think of three stories that have been on my mind of late; the story of a meal, a story about searching for one's lost sense of humor and a romantic comedy along financial-political lines. Each story challenges me in different ways and I believe each story holds a lesson for me to learn from simply taking the time to ruminate on the issues they explore.

On to the next...

Rehab

t the pace I'm on, I'll finish adapting ACYW in about a month; just in time to begin the Gotham Writers' Workshop screenwriting course at the end of September.

I'd like to write more, but to be honest I'm at the point where I feel that taking this course is like checking myself into rehab. I've overdosed on this project and now need to dry out, to see the essentials of it, to boil it down, to finish it up and to move on to other projects which I look forward to thinking about, exploring, developing, getting high on, riding that buzz and then moving on to the next hit.

My lack of productivity has also translated into a change of identity. I'm no longer seen by those who know me as a writer, but as a cook, as a baseball fan, as a softball player, as an alumni coordinator, not as a man of letters and that I miss. I've lost a step, I can feel it. I look forward to getting back in literary shape.

Given Lemons, I'll Make Sorbet

oly cow! It's been a month since I last wrote. No bueno. Sorry, folks. In general, progress on the screen adaptation of ACYW continues, but just not as fast as I'd like. I've been given a lot of lemons lately to deal with and just the other day figured out how to make lemon sorbet with them (which is particularly good with Prosecco). It's a new project I look forward to starting as it deals with the significant loss of my sense of humor lately. Hopefully in the process of writing, I'll get it back or at least find out where it's been hiding and try to coax it out with some other lemon-based good.

Kickass Reminder

henever I read some particularly good writing, I jot it down. After entering some particularly good writing from the book Rework today, I came across some old notes I'd taken on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Specifically, I came across these two bits:

1) “This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council,” the voice continued. “As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you.”

2) “And what’s happened to the Earth?”
“Ah. It’s been demolished.”
“Has it,” said Arthur levelly.
“Yes. It just boiled away into space.”
“Look,” said Arthur, “I’m a bit upset about that.”

This reminded me of two things. First, if you have a kickass idea (setting a book around Earth on the short end of intergalactic eminent domain), make that idea the centerpiece of your work! Second, fully express how big an idea that is through your characters and their reactions ("I'm a bit upset about that.").

I have a kickass idea (setting a book around the U.S. on the short end of the Peace Corps) that I've been shying away from. I need to address it and let it lead the story because it can.

4 A Day

ust a quick update. I've been adapting four pages of text a day and making good progress. My thinking is also changing to a more screenplay mindset. Rather than drawing something out as I would in a novel, I'm looking for quick bites that get the idea across quickly, clearly and powerfully letting the visuals fill in the blanks that I'd otherwise have to explain in prose detail.

All the king's horses & all the king's men need not apply

owdy, folks. In our last episode, we found our protagonist up against a wall looking for aplomb. Instead, he's spent the last couple of weeks piecing together adult aspects of life at the expense of his writing. But unlike Humpty Dumpty who put his trust in all the king's horses and all the king's men, all I need to do is string together an hour or two a day to get it together again. Tomorrow will be a good day to get back on track.

Clearing Hurdles with Aplomb

ot only did I flip through a few screenplays and index the range of terms that I encountered, but I've gotten a better feel for the software, Final Draft, and today I adapted more than half of the first chapter of ACYW.

I've stopped, momentarily, as I've hit a small wall - one that I saw coming and which I believe, with some thought, can be hurdled with aplomb. Throughout ACYW I go into detail about Detroit, Dearborn, Michigan, the local, state and national economies, and then later as we experience the fall of 2008, the stock market. The wall is, how do I present these important figures? Chances are, my characters are not going to have memorized obscure, but important, statistics nor will they be able to recall the level of the Dow on specific dates.

This wall gives me an opportunity to present the information in creative and indirect ways. It can come from a radio in the background. It could be grazed from the covers of newspapers read by people in the background of a scene. Those are a couple simple ways to do it, but I'll need to give this more thought.

Can you run through those cheeses again?

n the 1983 John Hughes comedy Mr. Mom, Michael Keaton loses his auto job and has to take care of the kids while his wife starts a career in advertising. With his new responsibilities come new decisions to make along with a slew of new choices to choose from. At the supermarket, he asks for cheese. The woman behind the counter quickly runs through about seven different varieties. Overwhelmed, he hems and haws before asking her to go through them again. The line of prepared moms groans behind him.

I received Final Draft, the screenwriting software, the other day. Today I sat down with ACYW and opened up the software. Before me lay a blank canvas. Problem is, despite reading a handful of screenplays, my screenwriting lingo is sparse. I don't know what cheese to order, never mind how much. Fortunately, no one's groaning but me.

I did a quick Internet search for screenwriting vocabulary, but didn't find anything comprehensive. What I'll do now is quickly flip through the five screenplays I have and jot down and index of terms. Then I'll tape them up on my wall for reference.

When it comes to formatting, I want to play by the rules. When it comes to story, I can have more fun.

How to throw a screenplay

fter finishing the screenplay to Slumdog Millionaire, I'm on to The Shawshank Redemption. I have found there is little to no poetry in screenplays, which saddens me. I'll have to find other outlets for that - probably song. The dialogue is great. It's rich and it runs. The side notes, at times, could be construed as pitches made by the screenwriter to the studio - hyperbole seems to be the norm. At other times, though, they seem like brainstorming sessions between buddies. The best example of this that I've read so far comes from Shawshank as the screenwriter, Frank Darabont, introduces Tommy, the young Presley-like inmate, that Andy Dufresne works with towards his GED:

"DOLLYING Tommy as he struts along, combing his ducktail, cigarette behind his ear. (We definitely need The Coasters or Del Vikings on the soundtrack here. Maybe Jerry Lee Lewis.)"

That thinking out loud, that's fun. I'm glad it's kosher as ACYW has its own soundtrack and I look forward to throwing out tunes to accompany the action.

Industry Standard

n my own I can accomplish so much. With the help of others, some more. And now, apparently, it seems that software (along with luck) can round out the percentages. After a catch-up lunch with old friend Philip Buiser of Two Penguins Productions, I learned that Final Draft, a screenwriting software application, can make sure that my submissions are properly formatted. While I will continue to read screenplays to get a feel for them, working with an industry approved app should smooth out the process of adapting ACYW and writing future work.

Screenplays Galore

aving only read one and half screen plays, it's hard to come to conclusions about what makes one. Fortunately, a friend has lent me three more. I should finish "Life Is Beautiful" Wednesday morning before starting the next four: "The Shawshank Redemption", "Slumdog Millionaire", "Thank You For Smoking" and "The Hurt Locker". I'm particularly interested in reading the last which I've never seen. The rest I can visualize because I've seen the films. "The Hurt Locker" will test that and really force me to think about how blank a canvas a screenplay is.

Strand-ed

he Strand, an institution of a used books store in NYC, is home to 18 miles of books. Of that 18 miles, I'd say screenplays make up about six feet. Though I was able to snag copies of The Shawshank Redemption and Life Is Beautiful, the pickings were slim. While I would expect bookstores in Los Angeles to have more screenplays, you'd think NYC wouldn't be a slouch in this department.

Perhaps there are other spots that have more. Perhaps the Strand's four shelves' worth was their bone thrown to screenwriters. Or maybe, just maybe, people just don't read screenplays. Zeus knows I'm reading my first at 33. Dunno. That being said, the beauty of screenplays is you don't depend on their sales to survive. You just have to sell one.

Of Idioms and Brooklyn

ust a quick update. I finished reading The Stories Behind 100 Chinese Idioms. Some favorites:

1) Tyranny is fiercer than a tiger.
2) All that is needed is an east wind.
3) Like a crane standing among chickens.

I've now moved on to John Patrick Shanley's screenplay of Moonstruck, a favorite movie, which does a nice job of bringing together the stories of several characters akin to what I try to do. I may try to hit the Strand to see what screenplays they have as the NYPL, for once, doesn't seem to have many (at least not circulating).

People, Events, Ideas - Screenplays?

few years ago I came across the following saying which one website attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt: "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." I'd tweak this a bit and say, "Great minds tend to discuss ideas. Average minds discuss tend to discuss events. Small minds tend to discuss people."

I mention this because the woman who just read ACYW and provided feedback essentially said all I cared about were the ideas driving the plot and not the characters. While I do not subsequently align myself with Roosevelt's "great minds", I do agree with the assessment. While I grew to enjoy my characters after a lot of work, they do come second, if that, to the ideas that drive my writing.

To this end, she recommended I make ACYW a screenplay. I have never read a screenplay, but I requested some from the library and will do my homework.

This brings up some questions. First, why can ACYW afford to be less character driven as a screenplay than as a book? Second, why is it necessary to be intimately familiar with characters to appreciate the ideas at hand? Third, if a majority of the world thinks about events and people how screwed is work driven by ideas? This also, of course, begs a more personal question.

Back in the Groove

ow that a number of concerns are out of the way, I only have one distraction from writing: baseball. Every year I brace myself for a serious writing hiatus as my mind wanders to the playing field and every year I find a way to make progress nevertheless. Hopefully this year will yield more of the same.

To that end, I picked up The BFL the other day and put pen back to paper. It felt good. Very good. It didn't take long for the story to come back to me, nor for my interest and excitement for the story to do the same.

I have also restarted my research into Chinese language. I picked up The Stories Behind 100 Chinese Idioms at the library and should finish it in the next few days. I'll share some of my favorite idioms and the stories behind them in future posts.

Jinxing Myself

ork on The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-) has temporarily stalled while I tend to other matters that require attention. Yeah, I'm not happy about it either, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

That being said, a writer/editor is taking a close look at Any Color You Want. We'll then consider how to pitch it to some of the agents and independent publishers that she knows. For as much as I'm trying not to get ahead of myself, it is fun to think about a possible book tour and how I would present myself and my work in an engaging manner. More on this later, like, when it gets closer to being a reality.

Getting Wet

ow many Chinese holidays or festivals can you name? Well, until very recently I couldn't name any. To correct this, I read a book from the Chinese Classic Cultural Stories Series on traditional Chinese festivals. In some ways, this took me back to Frazer's The Golden Bough, one of the first histories of religions and, by extension, history of festivals.

I read up on Chinese festivals to get a better idea of when in the year I should set my story and what, if any, festival or event, I could set the story around. I have a few festivals in mind, but the winner may be the Water-Splashing Festival which usually takes place around April 12th. According to Traditional Chinese Festivals, "young people are divided into two camps, one of young men and the other of young women, throwing floral bags to each other. If a young man cannot catch the bag from a girl, he has to plug a flower on her coiled peacock bun. If a girl fails to catch the bag from a boy, she has to put a flower on his chest. With the lapse of time, a favorable impression and a tacit mutual understanding will develop between them [that the bag] will always land in each other’s hands, as if it had eyes. This is the unique Dai style of expressing love by young people, romantic and unforgettable."

Cool story, eh? And one I think I could have some fun with.

Mining the calendar

n Any Color You Want I used the lead-up to and the outcome of a kids' soccer tournament to build tension (along with a historic Election Day, a mammoth financial meltdown and other goodies). In The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-), I have a rivalry between two individuals (Pijiu and Houston), two countries (China and the U.S.), (at least) two media outlets (East and West) and other factors to build tension, but it never hurts to consult the calendar.

In this case, I'm consulting the Chinese calendar, in particular, their calendar and history of cultural festivals as described in Traditional Chinese Festivals (2007) from the Spring Festival to the Harvest Festival. Until I actually get to make the trip to China, this book and others have greatly enlightened me as to Chinese traditions, history, culture and language - all bits that can only make my story richer and more poignant.

Working with a particular festival can also help me time my story as a community/country prepares for a festival, celebrates a festival and then recovers from it essentially providing its own arc which the rest of the story can run parallel to, if I so choose.

Lastly, thanks to Jessica Hische for the capital "I" that lead off this post. She has made such caps available for free through her Daily Drop Cap site.

9 down...11 to go

Yeah, another one down, another one added. No biggie. It just means that I'm getting into the story more, getting into detail more and making each chapter more defined and tight. I might end up doing some consolidating down the road - needless to say, there's a lot more road to go down if the last book, its multiple drafts and two years of writing are any indication.

Meetcha at the corner!

"She wrote to him fairly regularly, from a paradise of triple exclamation points and inaccurate observations." I came across this quote in Salinger's Nine Stories, "For Esme - with Love and Squalor". And smiled to myself. And I thought people only over-exclamated with the advent of e-mail and text messages.

8 chapters written, 11 to go. Yes, I added a chapter. Have been looking over a chapter's outline in the morning and making notes, before writing after work at night. Seems to move the process along faster.

Back to Salinger for a moment. In an earlier post I discussed how he wrote without an edge to a certain degree, that is, he didn't use literary handicaps like murder, sex, violence, drugs or the cops to grab a reader's attention. He also wasn't afraid to abandon the traditional arch of a story. The dependence on an arch to guide a reader along is something I also look forward to abandoning as I gain a reader's trust.

I'd like to think that with President Obama in office and his way of speaking without sound-bites, ie, taking the long way around giving us context as well as content, that full-bodied stories will see a bit of a revival. I know, I'm a sucker.

6 down...12 to go

That's the score, folks. Definitely not on track to make 2/27, but am making progress nonetheless.

Telephone poles, hedgehogs and rigor mortis

As I did for my African characters in Any Color You Want, I've done some research into Chinese proverbs and idioms for The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-). Some that I've come across include:

Using telephone poles as chopsticks - putting much material to petty use.

A dog snapping at a hedgehog - having nowhere to bite.

A hand stretched from a coffin - asking for money even when dead.

A swarm of ants on a hot oven - milling around in a panic.

These come from 100 Chinese Two-Part Allegorical Sayings.

4 down...14 to go

Four chapters down, fourteen to go. What's even better is I'm seeing the story and all its various parts come together not only in the chapters I'm working on, but in chapter as yet written. I just have to do a better job of being more productive on days I work, not just the days I have off. Getting my ass out of bed in a timely fashion would be a good start...

The Importance of Tangible Nouns

I got a little excited the other day about beer truck murals, beer bottle labels and chapstick. Here's why. These tangible nouns give me flexibility. First, they can change over time. Murals change with ad campaigns, personal choice or simply the seasons. Labels start on bottles, but can be peeled off. Their designs also change. Chapstick is new one day and all used up later on. They also allow me to convey an idea without saying it directly.

Edgar Watson Howe once said, "A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice." I'd wager that most of us don't take advice unless we ask for it. In this case, no one has asked for my advice. No one has asked me to write this book (or any book) providing advice or counsel on anything. But I've got a story to tell and some would say it has a moral. How then do I give advice to those who haven't asked for it? Well, I could take Howe's advice and provide a good scare. To a certain extent, I see that happening in The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-). But more traditionally, in fiction circles, writers use symbols. In this case, I've got my tangible nouns.

That being said, what I may wish to be a symbol for failure or l-v- may be understood for something completely different, if it's understood at all.

Of Beer Trucks, Bottle Labels and Chapstick

While I'm still working on the broad strokes of The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-), I have already come up with two to three touches that I look forward to working into the greater picture. In Any Color You Want, it was the Car Alarm Symphony. This time I'm going to play with beer truck murals, beer bottle labels and chapstick.

And for those of you familiar with A Midas Spring, yes, that chapstick.

2 down...16 to go

I've put together two chapters so far and have the next two days off so I should be able to pick up some ground.

The more I think about this story, the more versions I think of, each with varying levels of detail or complexity. I could see writing two versions - the one I'm currently working on and one more akin to The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The second version could be done relatively quickly - a few sentences a page, more broadly defined characters and setting. Hmm...

18 chapters in 18 days

That's the challenge I'm presenting myself. I'm already pissed off for not introducing myself to a girl tonight at Amy Bloom's reading so I'm going to take it out on The BFL. 18 2-4 page chapters in 18 days. Mark it down. February 27. It's on.

In other news, I submitted ACYW to a contest and started research on small presses.

A Dahl Version

I spent a lot of time this week refining The BFL's outline which now calls for eighteen chapters. I also considered how to write the story. Going with the subtitle, The Girl Who Cried L-v-, I could write it akin to a Grimm fairytale, or in a more modern vein, akin to a Roald Dahl story. While he wrote with greater detail in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a number of his books find ways to make the most of the little description that he provided. To this end, I'm considering writing a rough Dahl version of The BFL, ie, starting with 2-4 page write-ups for each chapter, concentrating first on moving the story along and second, working in key details that appeal to the five senses.

Once I have that broad version done, I could then review and consider what parts of the story to expand on and what needs greater descriptive detail.

The end

After staring at my computer screen for the last three days, taking innumerable breaks to nap, to run errands, to listen to reggae, the Gym Class Heroes, Holly Miranda and Hall & Oates, to track down Chinese drinking songs and attempt to make dark Muscovado brownies (failed, but succeeded in making a tasty potato casserole with gouda, garlic and thyme), I have come up with the framework for an ending to The Beer Flower Limited. It needs work - no doubt - but I like it. It works. Or it will with some jigging.

After a little more cleaning up of the outline, I should be ready to race ahead.

What happened to that kid?

The boy who cried wolf. What happened to him? Sure, the wolf ate the flock he was guarding when no one responded to his final call of, "Wolf! Wolf!" But what happened to the kid? Anyone know? I've come up empty other than pure speculation.

Chinese Drinking Songs

I figured if I'm going to write a book about beer in China, I should look into Chinese drinking songs. Thankfully Jerome P. Seaton edited just such a book, The Wine of Endless of Life: Taoist Drinking Songs from the Yuan Dynasty (1985). Most notably, I enjoyed the songs of Yun-K'an Tzu:

who envies you
oh high and mighty
all done up in purple
and dangling your badge of rank
my heart's at peace
I'm satisfied with me
there aren't many in the world today
to match this
crafty rascal.

*

when I'm drunk I sleep
and even when I'm not
I loll my head and
stagger east and west completely
shameless
there is no spring
there is no fall
toot-toot, woo-woo
this music
keeps me young.

Of course, there are at least caveats to Seaton's work. One, it's Taoist, not Phi Delt. Two, it's approximately 700 years old. Unfortunately, at the moment, I have little else to choose from, but I like Tzu's work.

Possible subtitle

The Girl Who Cried L-v- (a play on the boy who cried wolf).

Learning from the past

After a year and a half of writing Any Color You Want, friends suggested that I cut the first 70 pages and get to the action. Before doing so, I noted what bits from those first 70 pages I really needed and then found homes for them later in the book. Tonight I've taken pre-emptive steps to making the same mistake with The Beer Flower Limited.

Until tonight, my outline consisted of 7 chapters. Earlier this week I hit the point where the little engine ran out of track. Over the last few days I've gone back to flesh out the outline more. So far I've more than doubled the number of chapters, adding depth to the story and characters. I've also rejigged the order of things so that the reader hits the ground running instead of being hit over the head with slow moving background info upfront.

All this being said, I'm still not sure where the story will end up. Back to work on the outline...

RIP J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger passed away today. Fortunately, he will live on through his work. Here's a selection of his that has been on my mind lately from Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters:

"One night some twenty years ago, during a siege of umps in our enormous family, my youngest sister, Franny, was moved, crib and al, into the ostensibly germ-free room I shared with my eldest brother, Seymour. I was fifteen, Seymour was seventeen. Along about two in the morning, the new roommate's crying wakened me. I lay in a still, neutral position for a few minutes listening to the racket, till I heard, or felt, Seymour stir in the bed next to mine. In those days, we kept a flashlight on the night table between us, for emergencies that, as far as I remember, never arose. Seymour turned it on and got out of bed. 'The bottle's on the stove, Mother said,' I told him. 'She isn't hungry.' He went over in the dark to the bookcase and beamed the flashlight slowly back and forth along the stacks. I sat up in bed. 'What are you going to do?' I said. 'I thought maybe I'd read something to her,' Seymour said, and took down a book. 'She's ten months old, for God's sake,' I said. 'I know,' Seymour said. 'They have ears. They can hear.'

The story Seymour read to Franny that night, by flashlight, was a favorite of his, a Taoist tale. To this day, Franny swears that she remembers Seymour reading it to her:

Duke Mu of Chin said to Po Lo: 'You are now advanced in years. Is there any member of your family whom I could employ to look for horses in your stead?' Po Lo replied: 'A good horse can be picked out by its general build and appearance. But the superlative horse - one that raises no dust and leaves no tracks - is something evanescent and fleeting, elusive as thin air. The talents of my sons lie on a lower plane altogether; they can tell a good horse when they see one, but they cannot tell a superlative one. I have a friend, however, one Chiu-fang Kao, a hawker of fuel and vegetables, who in things appertaining to horses is nowise my inferior. Pray see him.'

Duke Mu did so, and subsequently dispatched him on the quest for a steed. Three months later, he returned with the news that he had found one. 'It is now in Shach'iu,' he added. 'What kind of a horse is it/" asked the Duke. 'Oh, it is a dun-colored mare,' was the reply. However, someone being sent to fetch it, the animal turned out to be a coal-black stallion! Much displeased, the Duke sent for Po Lo. 'That friend of yours,' he said, 'whom I commissioned to look for a horse, has made a fine mess of it. Why, he cannot even distinguish a beast's color or sex! What on earth can he know about horses?' Po Lo heaved a sigh of satisfaction. 'Has he really got as far as that?' he cried. 'Ah, then he is worth ten thousand of me put together. There is no comparison between us. What Kao keeps in view is the spiritual mechanism. In making sure of the essential, he forgets the homely details; intent on the inward qualities, he loses isght of the external. He sees what he wants to see, and not what he does not want to see. He looks at the things he ought to look at, and neglects those that need not be looked at. So clever a judge of horses is Kao, that he has it in him to judge something better than horses.'

When the horse arrived, it turned out indeed to be a superlative animal.'

I've reproduced the tale here not just because I invariably go out of my way to recommend a good prose pacifier to parents or older brothers of ten-month-old babies but for quite another reason. What directly follows is an account of a wedding day in 1942. It is, in my opinion, a self-contained account, with a beginning and an end, and a mortality, all its own. Yet, because I'm in possession of the fact, I feel I must mention that the bridegroom is now, in 1955, no longer living. He committed suicide in 1948, while he was on vacation in Florida with his wife...Undoubtedly, though, what I'm really getting at is this: Since the bridegroom's permanent retirement from the scene, I haven't been able to think of anybody whom I'd care to send out to look for horses in his stead."

Mutual Fund L-v-?

In The Beer Flower Limited, a woman believes in the mass market when it comes to l-v-, but not when it comes to her homemade beer while a man believes in mass market beer, but not mass market l-v-.

Question: Could she say to him that his view on l-v- is like shunning mutual funds for single stocks? Or are they apples and oranges? If so, discuss.

Double shot

That's right, two posts in one night. Can you handle it? Good.

I recently finished re-reading Salinger's Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters which, along with Franny & Zooey, are my favorite works of his. Salinger, of course, caught the literary world's attention with A Catcher in the Rye, a book that had an edge. These other two works, though, don't. There is some rising action in F&Z and there is certainly some tension in Carpenters, but nothing like the edge of Catcher.

While this blog primarily exists to shame myself into writing, it is also a place where I consider the practice of writing. To this end, I highly respect Salinger in F&Z and Carpenters especially, because he writes with a handicap. He refuses to play to the readers' baser desires. Sex. Violence. Explosions. Aliens/Vampires. Not here. If there's a cop, it's because a character needs to know how much longer a parade is going to hold up traffic. Amen.

By today's standards, I doubt he could have started his career with anything but Catcher. It grabbed peoples' attention and built him a following. After that, he slyly worked Eastern philosophy and detachment into Western literature, moving away from Holden Caulfield to Seymour Glass.

Neither of my first two books eschew edge. I'm not at the point where I can do that. I do, though, look forward to that book.

Joke's on me

One of the reasons I write is to explore questions that I have more fully. This is certainly the case with The BFL, where I am exploring the merits and demerits of rationing l-v- versus the merits and demerits of deluging the world with it. What I have already learned, having scribbled in small blue font for nine pages thus far, is that no matter what I conclude, in order to produce a work that I am proud of, that is beautiful, I am going to have to l-v- my characters. The joke, therefore, is already on me as I cannot afford to ration here. I've discussed this before, but considering this story, the irony is particularly apt.

In other news, I've decided to start submitting ACYW to various contests to see where that may lead.

Going Global & The BFL

I don't know how long this trend will last, but I've noticed that my first two novels are both global in scope. While the first takes place in Dearborn, Michigan, it reaches around the state, the country and then off to the Arab Middle East among other places. The novel I'm working on now takes place in China, between a native and a New Yorker and it too will have people putting their equivalent of two cents in through global governing bodies, international corporations, various media outlets and beer houses and halls the world over.

I like this. I like showing how there are repercussions (globally) to our actions. These actions range from judgments passed on blogs and in pubs to violence incited over cartoons or a lack of good beer.

While I did not explore this much in the first book, this time I will have more opportunities for the protagonists to see and react to the waves of responses they stoke.

Lastly, my new working title for the book is, The Beer Flower Limited (BFL). I have Brittany Morford to thank for this. Thank you, Brittany.

It's about...Mr. More.

As I learned with my last book, it's important to prepare a succinct answer to the question, "So, what's your book about?" In short, I've come up with, "Love, quality versus quantity...starring a Chinese beer-ess and a Wall Street banker." Intriguing or just weird?

Speaking of quality versus quantity, the Economist ran an interesting article recently entitled, "Hi there" with the subtitle, "Life is getting friendlier but less interesting. Blame technology, globalisation and feminism." Among other things, the article discussed greeting etiquette and how the old Dear Mrs. Post has quickly become, Yo Fanny!

Along that line, I always enjoyed the formality of Russian names in the works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. While some found all the long names confusing, I liked how you could tell how close two people were according to how they addressed each other. Today, the Economist article argues, everyone is on a first name basis. That being so, intimacy seems to be assumed, not earned.

To this end, my love-everything female protagonist is on a first name basis with the entire world while my love-few male protagonist's first name is, at least early on, barely known. I look forward to playing with this.

The story continues to move along, a little each day. And that time I spend working on it every day is the greatest release I get. Amen.