What I’m Reading Today: Not much. My time was wonderfully claimed by making homemade macaroni and cheese with my four-year-old twins. They did such a good job!
I’m working on figuring out how to podcast! Very cool, and very exciting.
I listened to a great interview with Scott Sigler on Author magazine, and he talked about how he serialized a couple of novels via podcasting and how they really took off after a while. He’s a publishing phenomenon.
So that got me thinking, my work is nothing as compelling as Scott’s but why couldn’t I read some stories? I don’t have a novel ready to serialize, but short stories would do nicely. Just another way for people to see if they like what I write. I already have a few clips up. I know, for myself, I love coming across audio of an author I like, and I listen and relisten to it as I work. Who knows, maybe eventually I could interview people or add other things. But for now, just stories.
So I’ve create On-again Off-again Audio, which will be an occasional podcast on my website. I bought a good headset/microphone from Radio Shack and downloaded Audacity, a free audio editing software. I found Melody Loops, a site where I can get music clips to use for intros. I’ll have to pay for them, but they’ve got a great selection, and I like the idea of paying artists for their work. I tried the headset/microphone. After a number of false starts (okay, maybe 10), I got it to work and I’m recording! Now, all I have to do is figure out how to edit them and how to put a player on the page. Oh, and find some quiet space and time to record where the twins are asleep and our elderly deaf cat isn’t yowling at the top of her lungs.
If I were to serialize a novel, I might use Podiobooks. They give you tips, help you out, and even offer an RSS service.
Wish me luck on this new endeavor!
Questions of the Day: Have you tried podcasting? What do you think? Is it a good way for writers to get their stuff out there?
September 9, 2010
September 8, 2010
Rattawut Lapcharoensap Reading
Labels:
cool people
What I’m Reading Today: Started Stephen Elliott’s The Adderall Diaries. Fascinating memoir. Books about drug use are often written in this sort of dreamy style, where the effect of the drug overshadows text conventions. Stephen’s is written in a matter-of-fact, almost newspaper style. He’ll toss something off, mention something that happened to him, and the disconnect between the tone and the horrific thing he’s talking about just shocks me. I’m curious to see if he “goes there,” i.e., more fully confronts the emotions involved.
Rattawut Lapcharoensap, or A (sp?) as he is called, is our university’s visiting writer this semester. He writes short stories and has won a bunch of prestigious awards. He was born in Chicago but raised in Bangkok. I went to his great reading last night.
In person, he’s tall and slender and gangly and gives the impression of being a young university student. Though he’s spent a lot of time in Thailand, he does not have a trace of an accent. As he told us, he and his lovely wife June are 10 days away from being parents.
Brad Watson gave a great introduction, talking about all the accolades he has received and welcoming him. Brad mentioned that Rattawut was in Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists 2 (which is why I was reading it), and though he’s thankful for the honor he mentioned that he doesn’t really consider himself American first and he isn’t really a novelist but a short story writer. It would be a fascinating novel, if he wrote one.
He read a new story called, I believe, “In the 90s.” The phrase “in the 90s” was a refrain that haunted the story. Sometimes it reflected the optimism of that time, sometimes the harsh realities, when they hit. The story was about a young man in Thailand and his growing up. It’s the prosperous 90s. He has a brother who he is close to who is gay and his mother dies of cancer over the course of the story. There are compelling scenes that so masterfully underscore the theme in subtle ways, down to the very details. For example, an uncle leaves to work in Saudi Arabia doing construction, and when the uncle and the boy’s mother hug, they hold each other like it’s the end of the world. And for them it is: they realize they will never see each other again. This resonates with the feeling in the story that something is coming to an end, that something that was wonderful is going away.
There’s another great scene where the two young boys get their mother to ride on a roller coaster, and the mother is scared to death but does it for her sons. She has a line, I forget, but something like “I’m fucking dying here” and this mother never curses. It’s a premonition of what’s to come in the story. This sounds dark, and it is, but there are also some very funny scenes, like when the brother at the airport? rail station? announces he is gay before he goes north to help workers protest. The main character says, “Well, I hope you can accept me for who I am, because I have to confess that I’m heterosexual.”
Then, it ends with the protest coming closer and closer to the city, and finally the protagonist is reuinited with his brother. I was so afraid it was going to be a shocker ~ protestors would be shot or something ~ but it wasn’t. It was a celebration. Kudos for the wonderful uplifting but not trite ending.
Afterwards, at the reception, I got to talk to some great friends and got to chat with Rattawut’s wife June. She’s an artist from NYC. She and I and two other women from the university had a great talk about the OBGYNs in town and about kids. And I also got a chance to chat with Rattawut.
A lovely, lovely reading. Looking forward to reading more from this great writer. Check him out.
Questions of the Day: Do you attend readings? Do you think they’re worthwhile?
Rattawut Lapcharoensap, or A (sp?) as he is called, is our university’s visiting writer this semester. He writes short stories and has won a bunch of prestigious awards. He was born in Chicago but raised in Bangkok. I went to his great reading last night.
In person, he’s tall and slender and gangly and gives the impression of being a young university student. Though he’s spent a lot of time in Thailand, he does not have a trace of an accent. As he told us, he and his lovely wife June are 10 days away from being parents.
Brad Watson gave a great introduction, talking about all the accolades he has received and welcoming him. Brad mentioned that Rattawut was in Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists 2 (which is why I was reading it), and though he’s thankful for the honor he mentioned that he doesn’t really consider himself American first and he isn’t really a novelist but a short story writer. It would be a fascinating novel, if he wrote one.
He read a new story called, I believe, “In the 90s.” The phrase “in the 90s” was a refrain that haunted the story. Sometimes it reflected the optimism of that time, sometimes the harsh realities, when they hit. The story was about a young man in Thailand and his growing up. It’s the prosperous 90s. He has a brother who he is close to who is gay and his mother dies of cancer over the course of the story. There are compelling scenes that so masterfully underscore the theme in subtle ways, down to the very details. For example, an uncle leaves to work in Saudi Arabia doing construction, and when the uncle and the boy’s mother hug, they hold each other like it’s the end of the world. And for them it is: they realize they will never see each other again. This resonates with the feeling in the story that something is coming to an end, that something that was wonderful is going away.
There’s another great scene where the two young boys get their mother to ride on a roller coaster, and the mother is scared to death but does it for her sons. She has a line, I forget, but something like “I’m fucking dying here” and this mother never curses. It’s a premonition of what’s to come in the story. This sounds dark, and it is, but there are also some very funny scenes, like when the brother at the airport? rail station? announces he is gay before he goes north to help workers protest. The main character says, “Well, I hope you can accept me for who I am, because I have to confess that I’m heterosexual.”
Then, it ends with the protest coming closer and closer to the city, and finally the protagonist is reuinited with his brother. I was so afraid it was going to be a shocker ~ protestors would be shot or something ~ but it wasn’t. It was a celebration. Kudos for the wonderful uplifting but not trite ending.
Afterwards, at the reception, I got to talk to some great friends and got to chat with Rattawut’s wife June. She’s an artist from NYC. She and I and two other women from the university had a great talk about the OBGYNs in town and about kids. And I also got a chance to chat with Rattawut.
A lovely, lovely reading. Looking forward to reading more from this great writer. Check him out.
Questions of the Day: Do you attend readings? Do you think they’re worthwhile?
September 7, 2010
My Friend Pembroke
Labels:
cool people
What I’m Reading Today: A friend lent me Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists 2 (thanks, Nina!). Every story I’ve read so far, amazing.
Good friendships are my social lifeblood. You know, the ones where you share common interests, you’re always emailing or getting together, it’s not one sided and you both put in the effort, you always look forward to hearing from them and you do a lot to try to make them look forward to hearing from you.
As a writer, having a great friend who is also a writer is so wonderful and sustaining. I have a number of these (thank you so much, peeps!), and today I wanted to talk about my friend Pembroke Sinclair.
We met when we were both going to grad school here at the University of Wyoming. We had a nineteenth century novel class together. My friend/mentor/Sir Walter Scott-expert Caroline McCracken-Flesher taught it. The class included both grads and undergrads, and the grads met separately once a week. Pembroke was looking out after a friend's baby, so she brought him to class, with Caroline’s okay. We got to know one another a little in that class. Then, later, she applied for a job as word processor and technical editor at the place where I worked. We really got to know each other then, and we’ve bolstered each other’s writing ever since. I’m rooting for her to go all the way!
It’s great when you know another person’s writing so well. Pembroke loves scifi/fantasy/horror. She’s particularly attracted to kick-ass women narrators, zombies, the devil, and events of biblical proportions. You can check out her blog here and then check out her stories (right-hand menu).
She has a book out called Coming from Nowhere. Here’s what it’s about:
And ~ SO COOL ~ here’s her book trailer. She’s the first close writer friend who’s had a book trailer! They did such a great job creating it, and the text is spot on. Short but exactly right. And I love the fact that the end part ~ “the success of either cause rests entirely on the discovery of her true identity” ~ is exactly what the book is about. She’s looking for who she is, and what she discovers impacts everything. I love the aliens in this book, and you’ve got to pay attention ~ she creates a great plot!
Questions of the Day: Do you have great writer friends? I sure hope so!
Good friendships are my social lifeblood. You know, the ones where you share common interests, you’re always emailing or getting together, it’s not one sided and you both put in the effort, you always look forward to hearing from them and you do a lot to try to make them look forward to hearing from you.
As a writer, having a great friend who is also a writer is so wonderful and sustaining. I have a number of these (thank you so much, peeps!), and today I wanted to talk about my friend Pembroke Sinclair.
We met when we were both going to grad school here at the University of Wyoming. We had a nineteenth century novel class together. My friend/mentor/Sir Walter Scott-expert Caroline McCracken-Flesher taught it. The class included both grads and undergrads, and the grads met separately once a week. Pembroke was looking out after a friend's baby, so she brought him to class, with Caroline’s okay. We got to know one another a little in that class. Then, later, she applied for a job as word processor and technical editor at the place where I worked. We really got to know each other then, and we’ve bolstered each other’s writing ever since. I’m rooting for her to go all the way!
It’s great when you know another person’s writing so well. Pembroke loves scifi/fantasy/horror. She’s particularly attracted to kick-ass women narrators, zombies, the devil, and events of biblical proportions. You can check out her blog here and then check out her stories (right-hand menu).
She has a book out called Coming from Nowhere. Here’s what it’s about:
JD does not have a past--at least not one that she can remember--and that makes living life on Mars challenging. With nowhere to go, she is sent to the local military academy where she is trained to become a member of the elite secret police. While there, she becomes a pawn in Roger's struggle for military dominance and Chris's rebellion to overthrow the military regime. She supposedly holds a secret that will change the face of the soldier, but, unfortunately, she doesn't know what that secret is. Her only desire is to find the truth of her existence, and finds herself thrust into a realm where the truth of her past and present is more horrific than she ever imagined.
And ~ SO COOL ~ here’s her book trailer. She’s the first close writer friend who’s had a book trailer! They did such a great job creating it, and the text is spot on. Short but exactly right. And I love the fact that the end part ~ “the success of either cause rests entirely on the discovery of her true identity” ~ is exactly what the book is about. She’s looking for who she is, and what she discovers impacts everything. I love the aliens in this book, and you’ve got to pay attention ~ she creates a great plot!
Questions of the Day: Do you have great writer friends? I sure hope so!
September 3, 2010
Should I Be Building a Mountain?
Labels:
the writing life
What I’m Reading Today: More delightful Stoner.
Have you come across Rumpus Radio yet? Great, as is everything that comes from the Rumpus. Not to mention that Stephen Elliott, who created the site/phenomenon, is a great writer, teacher, and person. I just listened to Rumpus Radio Episode 8, where co-hosts Stephen and Nato Green interview Steve Almond. Their talk ranged ~ compellingly and touchingly and entertainingly ~ from writing to Stephen’s love life.
Stephen said something that really struck me, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since:
I’m elated because yes! someone’s said it, and said it in a positive light. “You know what? You don’t have to feel guilty about this. You can be fulfilled by all kinds of writing, and that’s perfectly okay. It’s about your creative fulfillment, not about all those other things.” Because writing this blog is fulfilling to me. As is the professional writing I do for my day job. As is helping other people with their writing. And I also think all my other writing symbiotically feeds my creative writing.
But, on the flip side, what if it is also about those other things? In other words, what if I’m writing these things not to fulfill a creative need but because I “should”? I’m thinking promotion rather than art? What if I’m writing it because it’s easier to write a blog post than to write the book? What if I’d rather muse about what another writer said than to confront the emotional and craft issues I need to to do the thing that is at the center of it all? What if I’m being chickenshit?
In other words, what if I’m frittering away my creative strength building a series of small hills, instead of the mountain I was meant for?
Questions of the Day: What do you think? Does all your other writing help or hinder what you were meant to write?
Have you come across Rumpus Radio yet? Great, as is everything that comes from the Rumpus. Not to mention that Stephen Elliott, who created the site/phenomenon, is a great writer, teacher, and person. I just listened to Rumpus Radio Episode 8, where co-hosts Stephen and Nato Green interview Steve Almond. Their talk ranged ~ compellingly and touchingly and entertainingly ~ from writing to Stephen’s love life.
Stephen said something that really struck me, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since:
Five or six days a week, I send out a daily Rumpus email. Originally this was supposed to be links to various things. Fairly quickly, it turned into whatever I was thinking about, and then I felt guilty because I wasn’t working on a book. Then, at some point, I thought, you know, this is what I’m working on. This is all I care about. I spend two to three hours a day writing a literary email about whatever I’m thinking about, whatever’s going on in my life, and I no longer have any interest in putting out a book. That might change, but I’m feeling it, you know what I mean? It’s completely satisfying creatively. I think it’s similar ~ not financially, but creatively ~ to putting a book out. I’m getting so much out of it, more so than I ever did with a book.This left me with equal parts elation and desperation.
I’m elated because yes! someone’s said it, and said it in a positive light. “You know what? You don’t have to feel guilty about this. You can be fulfilled by all kinds of writing, and that’s perfectly okay. It’s about your creative fulfillment, not about all those other things.” Because writing this blog is fulfilling to me. As is the professional writing I do for my day job. As is helping other people with their writing. And I also think all my other writing symbiotically feeds my creative writing.
But, on the flip side, what if it is also about those other things? In other words, what if I’m writing these things not to fulfill a creative need but because I “should”? I’m thinking promotion rather than art? What if I’m writing it because it’s easier to write a blog post than to write the book? What if I’d rather muse about what another writer said than to confront the emotional and craft issues I need to to do the thing that is at the center of it all? What if I’m being chickenshit?
In other words, what if I’m frittering away my creative strength building a series of small hills, instead of the mountain I was meant for?
Questions of the Day: What do you think? Does all your other writing help or hinder what you were meant to write?
September 2, 2010
Twitterpated
Labels:
online
What I’m Reading Today: More wonderful John Williams's Stoner. A great antidote to what I’m talking about in today’s post.
You’ll have to forgive me. I’m a bit distracted. I dove into Twitter yesterday. Well, belly flopped might be more appropriate.
The way I got there is the same age-old story that you’ve read over and over. I wondered what it was all about. I started an account and put my location to Baghdad (wasn’t it?) when they were asking people to foil the government tracking down bloggers. (Sorry ~ I feel bad that I don’t remember the specifics.) I didn’t do much. Then I thought, maybe I’ll try it. So I did. Not much happened. I wondered, what’s so great about this? I got an agent (Hi, Rachel!) and as a result felt I should be doing more online. I felt guilty. I still wondered, what’s the big deal. I made a plan: Okay, I’ll tweet at this time and this time and this time. (You’re going to see later why this is funny.)
Then I installed Tweetdeck, a desktop app that lets you follow in realtime. (It lets you follow Facebook posts too, but that service has been intermittent. They’re trying to fix it.) I don’t know how you can really effectively do Twitter without some sort of connection on your desktop. The conversation is transient and ephemeral.
Then I tentatively tweeted a bit. I thought, I’ve got a lot of friends on Facebook. I’ll ask them for their Twitter feeds so I can follow them. Lots of great responses. (Thanks, guys!) I started following more people. But the first person to respond was friend/writer/great gal/tweeter extraordinaire Jeffe Kennedy. (Check out her great blog, Love, Power, and Fairytale Endings!) She tweeted to friends for #WW WriterWednesday a very sweet introduction. Then all hell broke loose.
But now I get it! It’s a rapid and ever evolving conversation. It’s not about announcing things to the world, a one-way conversation ~ though some people use it this way. It’s like Facebook but much faster. It’s like a dinner conversation ~ you have to pay attention and listen and try to be amusing and informative. That’s why it’s so funny to think that you can just tweet every couple of hours. It doesn’t work that way.
So, it’s also pushed me over the edge. I’m thinking about getting a blackberry. Next thing you know, they’ll be installing digital “augmentation” into my brain!
Questions of the Day: So, tweeps? Do you hang out? Are you a lurker, a shouter, a twee brilliant conversationalist?
PS If you would like to follow me, I'd love it! My handle is TamaraLinse. I'll follow you back.
You’ll have to forgive me. I’m a bit distracted. I dove into Twitter yesterday. Well, belly flopped might be more appropriate.
The way I got there is the same age-old story that you’ve read over and over. I wondered what it was all about. I started an account and put my location to Baghdad (wasn’t it?) when they were asking people to foil the government tracking down bloggers. (Sorry ~ I feel bad that I don’t remember the specifics.) I didn’t do much. Then I thought, maybe I’ll try it. So I did. Not much happened. I wondered, what’s so great about this? I got an agent (Hi, Rachel!) and as a result felt I should be doing more online. I felt guilty. I still wondered, what’s the big deal. I made a plan: Okay, I’ll tweet at this time and this time and this time. (You’re going to see later why this is funny.)
Then I installed Tweetdeck, a desktop app that lets you follow in realtime. (It lets you follow Facebook posts too, but that service has been intermittent. They’re trying to fix it.) I don’t know how you can really effectively do Twitter without some sort of connection on your desktop. The conversation is transient and ephemeral.
Then I tentatively tweeted a bit. I thought, I’ve got a lot of friends on Facebook. I’ll ask them for their Twitter feeds so I can follow them. Lots of great responses. (Thanks, guys!) I started following more people. But the first person to respond was friend/writer/great gal/tweeter extraordinaire Jeffe Kennedy. (Check out her great blog, Love, Power, and Fairytale Endings!) She tweeted to friends for #WW WriterWednesday a very sweet introduction. Then all hell broke loose.
But now I get it! It’s a rapid and ever evolving conversation. It’s not about announcing things to the world, a one-way conversation ~ though some people use it this way. It’s like Facebook but much faster. It’s like a dinner conversation ~ you have to pay attention and listen and try to be amusing and informative. That’s why it’s so funny to think that you can just tweet every couple of hours. It doesn’t work that way.
So, it’s also pushed me over the edge. I’m thinking about getting a blackberry. Next thing you know, they’ll be installing digital “augmentation” into my brain!
Questions of the Day: So, tweeps? Do you hang out? Are you a lurker, a shouter, a twee brilliant conversationalist?
PS If you would like to follow me, I'd love it! My handle is TamaraLinse. I'll follow you back.
September 1, 2010
Professional Listening
Labels:
the writing life
What I’m Reading Today: Some social networking stuff.
I recently came across this great piece by Chris Brogan. He says:
Especially since I pride myself on being a good listener. When I was teaching, they took videos of us to help our teaching (both exhilarating and horrifying to view), and one of the main things I took away from that is that I listen. My body language says, hey, I’m listening.
But to explicitly say that it is a professional skill. Wow. That means you need to work on it. You should be able to bill your client for it. Not just your presentations skills, your talking, your putting it out there. No. How, and how well, you listen.
It makes perfect sense. How can you possibly do your job without listening to others, no matter what your job is?
It also struck me that it is our job as writers, even more so, to be professional listeners. Whether we’re eavesdropping to develop an ear for dialog or doing research for historical accuracy or just perceiving the sounds around us (the shshshshs of the air system, the pad-pad-pad of feet on the stairs, the click of the keyboard as I type). It is not just our pleasure, but our obligation. How can we hope to emulate the world around us if we don’t really sense it?
Questions of the Day: Is it just me? Have you thought of Professional Listening as a skill you need in the workplace, like PowerPoint?
I recently came across this great piece by Chris Brogan. He says:
I’m a huge proponent of professional listening as part of a business communication strategy. Lots of people will sell you ways to speak. They’ll give you lots of ways to get your message all over the place. Me? I’m passionate about listening as much as I am speaking. You know: two ears, one mouth, that stuff.I love that! I had never heard the saying two ears, one mouth. And I’d also never heard of listening as a professional skill. How fabulous!
Especially since I pride myself on being a good listener. When I was teaching, they took videos of us to help our teaching (both exhilarating and horrifying to view), and one of the main things I took away from that is that I listen. My body language says, hey, I’m listening.
But to explicitly say that it is a professional skill. Wow. That means you need to work on it. You should be able to bill your client for it. Not just your presentations skills, your talking, your putting it out there. No. How, and how well, you listen.
It makes perfect sense. How can you possibly do your job without listening to others, no matter what your job is?
It also struck me that it is our job as writers, even more so, to be professional listeners. Whether we’re eavesdropping to develop an ear for dialog or doing research for historical accuracy or just perceiving the sounds around us (the shshshshs of the air system, the pad-pad-pad of feet on the stairs, the click of the keyboard as I type). It is not just our pleasure, but our obligation. How can we hope to emulate the world around us if we don’t really sense it?
Questions of the Day: Is it just me? Have you thought of Professional Listening as a skill you need in the workplace, like PowerPoint?
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