tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68877976241985312372024-03-12T16:04:43.351-07:00You Have My WordAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-21038120368066467032017-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:002017-01-23T12:00:14.357-08:00Indie publishing: Is it still a trip worth taking?<div class="MsoNormal">
Every indie author knows that a book’s main marketing
vehicle is a good cover. Whether it’s an ebook or print book, it’s the cover
that sells the book and becomes its branding. As a book designer, author and
publisher, I’m sure that is true, but what else is true about marketing indie
books in this ever-changing publishing landscape. As I’m about to publish my
first series of novels, I’m embarking on a journey to find out what is true and
what is not true about indie publishing and marketing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One thing I know from personal experience is that exposing
yourself as an artist is scary and it’s even scarier without the support system of
a publishing house. I recently watched comedian Neal Brennan’s show on Netflix
in which he talks honestly about how scary it was for him to begin a stand-up
career after working behind the scenes as a writer for many years. I relate. It
was scary for me to publish my books and start to put myself out there on
social media. In fact, last year I had to take a break from social media
because I was being stalked. There are real and imagined dangers for those of
us who step out of the shadows and bare our souls without protection.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another thing I know is that it’s becoming more and more
difficult to sell your own books and the process is becoming more complicated. A
good friend of mine, a fellow author and publishing consultant, was the first person
who delivered the bad news to me. She had published her first novel during the golden
time for indies and the book was hugely successful. She didn’t make a fortune
but the book was well received and made some real money. When she published her
second novel several years later, things had changed, and even though her
second novel garnered even better reviews than her first one, it was much more
difficult to market. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The golden time of indie published I refer to was four or
five years ago when it was coming into its own and flourishing. Technology had
made it possible and those who had discovered that were able to take advantage
of the opportunity to publish online and market their own books through a
number of available book marketing sites without shelling out their life
savings. But, sadly, things have changed since then and it is much more
difficult for indies such as myself to compete with the big publishing houses.
Why? Because the big publishers don’t want to let go of their power. Of course,
they don’t. We all know from watching politics how reluctantly people give up
power.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For hundreds of years, the decisions about whom and what
would be published resided in New York City with the literary gatekeepers—the
agents, editors and publishing executives. When they lost that power to indie
publishers and authors, however briefly, they looked for and found ways to
subvert them. They began to monopolize the most successful avenues for
marketing books, pushing aside those who had less money and less clout than
they have.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>Ebooks have been the backbone of indie publishing because
they are so much easier to market and distribute than print books. Depending on
whom you talk to and what articles you read, ebook sales either are or are not
flourishing. The state of publishing is cloudier than ever and is complicated
by indie ebooks not being fully counted, the closing of book stores, the rise
of novelty print book sales, and many other factors. In fact, according to
publishing guru Jane Friedman, sales are down even for the big publishing
houses. One thing is clear, being an indie author requires even more knowledge
and work than it did in the past. Things are changing so fast that those of us
who want to remain independent have to study, study, study. We can’t rely on
old methods for success (and by old, I mean what worked last year).</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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I want to know what’s working right now, don’t you?<br />
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
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<ul>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Besides writing novels, I also design my own and
other authors’ books. I’m currently designing and formatting a book for
humorist Bill Rodgers, to be published soon. Visit my book design website at </span><a href="http://www.idbks.com/">http://www.idbks.com</a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">My novels, available on Amazon and other bookseller
sites, are: </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The Legend of Juan Miguel,
The Passion of Juan Miguel </i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">and</span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> The
Return of Juan Miguel.</i></li>
</ul>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-84794677492321123192016-05-31T13:53:00.000-07:002016-05-31T13:53:14.694-07:00On Being a Bona Fide Texan<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
I am a native Texan and I write
fiction about Texas. So, naturally, when I saw that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> had published an article titled, “What Makes Texas
Texas,” I decided I’d better see what those folks in New York think about us.
What can they tell me about Texas that has eluded me while I’ve been living
here all my life?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
was interesting. They employed someone who moved here from Brooklyn to write
about it. Typical. The guy actually did have some interesting albeit cliché
observations about the livestock shows, Frito pies, open carry gun laws, Texas flags
all over everything kind of stuff. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
meat of the matter, though, as usual could be found in the comments section.
The comments from people deploring our culture (or lack thereof) got the most
thumbs-up recommendations from others around the country. No doubt very few of
them have ever been here or done much more than fly over or drive through. They
know us by reputation only. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Novelist
Stephen Harrigan, himself a Texan, summed it up. “I think part of the reason
Texas is having a moment is because it’s being more itself than it’s ever
been.” I do love that quote. There’s just a hint of sarcasm in it—so Texan.
Bless their little hearts up there in New York, they don’t know when someone is
pulling their short, stubby legs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some
of the commenters who do live in Texas managed to capture its essence. The mass
of contradictions. The friendly optimistic people. Love of land. Competence.
You know, real stuff. Living here in Austin surrounded by people who moved here
from other places, I sometimes miss the real Texas and real Texans, the ones I
grew up with. It gives me such great comfort to know they are still out there
and I can rejoin them any time I want to. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Not
everybody feels that way. A semi-famous liberal who had moved to Austin looking
for a progressive mecca recently published a nose-thumbing (er, I mean farewell)
letter to the city and Texas as she exited the state bound for San Francisco. I
paraphrase: “I expected Austin to be the way I expected it to be and it wasn’t.
Boo hoo.” Many people wrote back to point out that she was, after all, in the
middle of Texas. A few, I think, offered to buy her plane ticket. If I could, I
would just reply, “… and the horse you rode in on.” But not being from Texas,
she probably wouldn’t understand. Anyway, you get the gist. It isn’t paradise
and it isn’t perfect. But it has substance. There is definitely a there there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One
of my grandfathers left home at 13, worked as a cowboy on cattle drives, sold
moonshine, became a U.S. Marshall, and then built a railroad. My other grandfather
raised 12 college-educated children on a dirt farm in the middle of the dust
bowl. That is called dealing with the unexpected.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Most
Texans are passionately Texan, and that is because they are not dead inside.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">My historical fiction series, The Juan Miguel Series (</span><i style="line-height: 20px;">The Legend of Juan Miguel, The Passion of Juan Miguel,</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"> and </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">The Return of Juan Miguel</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">), is available online from most book sellers.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-88756257510497777412016-03-11T06:42:00.000-08:002016-03-11T06:43:49.414-08:00The revolt in politics follows a revolt in publishing <div class="MsoNormal">
Several years ago, writers revolted against the publishing
industry gatekeepers, the so-called experts, the insiders playing an insider’s
game. They were the agents, literary critics, and other hangers-on who were in
it to make money, to promote their own agendas, and further the interests of
their friends. Suddenly, we as writers were on to them and their game. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, writers started publishing, publicizing, and marketing
their own books, which was something that wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t
been for the Internet. There was a burst of expression, some of it well done, a
lot of it un-refined. Things are still shaking out but overall it’s been a boon
for writers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It seems to me that same sort of revolt is now happening in
politics. Suddenly, voters are on to the so-called experts, the fakes,
the people who’ve been lining their pockets by being self-serving poseurs. You know, lobbyists, pundits, and professional politicos. That old adage, "Pretty words are not always true, and true words are not always pretty," never seemed more true.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As with any revolution, it’s not pretty. Things have to even
out again. People have to get over being mad. The inauthentic have to be weeded
out. We know who they are. It’s painfully obvious every time they appear on
television and proclaim their shifting, self-serving messages, trying
desperately to win us back. Those of us who’ve had bad spouses are familiar with this
game of manipulation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I read a story recently in the <i>New York Times</i> about how the GOP elites can still control the
situation if they just follow certain guidelines. Has it come to that? People
think nothing of openly trying to subvert the will of the people, however
misguided their will may be. When the people speak, they speak. That is
democracy, take it or leave it. What a writer writes, he or she writes. Both
are pure expression, not to be feared. It’s a process and until some stop trying to manipulate what people do and what they think for
their own motives, things won’t get back to normal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My historical fiction series, The Juan Miguel Series (<i>The Legend of Juan Miguel, The Passion of Juan Miguel,</i> and <i>The Return of Juan Miguel</i>), is available online from most book sellers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-51518647815007018802016-02-04T11:06:00.000-08:002016-02-04T11:06:39.595-08:00Foreign films can teach us about the state of our own culture<div class="MsoNormal">
If you want to know how cynical our entertainment industry
is, watch some foreign films and compare them to our own. Personally, I gave up
on American film and television several years ago. I reduced my cable to the
basics so I won’t be a complete hermit and I rarely go to the mainstream
blockbuster films in theaters. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
American films can now be divided into three categories:
things that go boom, puerile comedy, and partisan propaganda from Hollywood
elites. These just don’t interest me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How do I entertain myself? I watch movies and television
from other countries. Almost any country has better drama than ours does.
Better structured plots. More intelligent dialogue. More finely drawn
characters. More heart-felt emotions and themes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
British drama is the best, hands down. They are, after all,
the land of Shakespeare. But many of the Scandinavian countries also have
wonderful television series. Our neighbors south of the border do an array of
exciting films, many of them quite controversial and provocative. Asian film is
also really good, from its historical drama to its romances and comedic dramas.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, you have to get used to the subtitles, but once you’re
over that obstacle, there’s a world of good plotlines to explore. It’s a
wonderful way for a writer to see, within a few hours, the differences in plot
construction from one culture to the next.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are a couple of really good dramas I watched recently—the
Dutch movie, “Secrets of War,” and the Korean series, “Secret Affair.” The word
secret in both titles is coincidental. One is about a couple of boys during
World War II who befriend a young Jewish girl before she’s sent away to the
concentration camp. Such a beautiful story and such great young actors. The
other is a romance about a young man who’s a talented but poor pianist and his
older female mentor. Of course, they fall in love, but the ins and outs of the
plot are artfully done and the acting is superb.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My series, The Juan Miguel Series, on Amazon:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HX9JND6?keywords=The%20Legend%20of%20Juan%20Miguel&qid=1454424050&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1">The Legend of Juan Miguel </a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-63624195675007318912016-01-27T10:59:00.000-08:002016-01-27T10:59:37.896-08:00On being a published author <div class="MsoNormal">
Word to the wise: writing and publishing a book is way, way
more trouble than anyone could ever imagine.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having said that, it’s also second only to raising a
daughter in good old-fashioned gratification. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The feeling of accomplishment is huge but Oh My Lord, the
frustrations. Just when you think you’ve figured out how to structure a novel,
then suddenly you’ve forgotten everything you knew. Extend that ad infinitum to
designing, publishing, and marketing and dealing with Amazon and Smashwords and
iTunes and Book Bub and Goodreads and people who love you and people who can’t
stand you. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s been a long, hard climb but all three of the books in
The Juan Miguel Series are now available on Amazon. And the first book is
available on Barnes & Noble, Kobo and other Internet sites for a reduced
price.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hT0C2kvNc1E/VqkSKIAw0fI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/k1hyUn4wIUk/s1600/series_cover_3.qxp_layout_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hT0C2kvNc1E/VqkSKIAw0fI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/k1hyUn4wIUk/s320/series_cover_3.qxp_layout_1.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thank you to everyone who’s read or supported my books so
far. And thank you, Brené Brown, for giving me the courage to go on. We’ve come
too far to quit now.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-90531499450317931192015-09-17T09:11:00.000-07:002015-09-17T09:13:01.606-07:003 Reasons the ‘Look of Your Book’ is important<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
My own experience
is that the look of a book is second only to the contents of a book in
importance. It’s that other artistic expression that will sell it, explain it,
express it, and hold it in the readers’ imaginations. Tonight, I’ll be
appearing on a panel discussion titled, “The Look of the Book” at the Writers
League of Texas. I’m looking forward to hearing what my fellow panelists have
to say. Here’s why I think the design and cover art of a book is so important.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
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</span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The
cover is the number one marketing tool.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: .25in;">
I happen to be a published author as well
as a book designer. I’ve been through the marketing paces, so to speak. For my
first published book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Legend of Juan
Miguel</i>, which was an Amazon.com bestseller in 2014, I was an integral part
of the marketing planning. I learned a great deal from the woman who actually
did the marketing. One of the first things she asked me when we began was, “Do
you have a good cover? A good cover will make or break a book.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Many authors
these days concentrate on ebook sales because, frankly, for many of us, that’s
where the money is. And ebooks are sold online, mostly through book marketing
sites. The first thing browsers of those sites see is the book covers.
Sometimes that’s all they see. Many of them judge the books solely on the
covers. Or the covers and the first few lines of the sales blur. If the book
cover doesn’t catch their attention, the book has no second chance.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The
cover image kick starts the reader’s imagination.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Writers—especially
fiction writers, but nonfiction writers too—have to catch the reader’s
imagination within the first few pages. The story should begin to live in the
reader’s mind very early in the process or the reader will close the book and
never open it again. The characters and how they look and sound need to come
alive in their heads and the book cover often kick starts this process. The
reader uses the image on the cover to set the scene in his/her own mind and
begin to visualize-fantasize the story. Even a nonfiction book needs to present
a good visual for the reader. Thus, all of the photos, charts, and lists often
contained in a nonfiction book.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Without this visual advantage, your
readers are swimming in uncharted territory. They’re relying solely on your
word descriptions and we all know how tricky description can be. Too much or
too little loses the reader. A good descriptive cover image, along with a compatible
back cover and inside design, are the author’s main visual aids.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
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</span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A
professionally done design makes your book look professional.</b></div>
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Nothing says
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world that you’re just “dabbling” and are not a serious author who’s willing to
put time and money into the book’s presentation. Don’t brand your book as a
throw-away, unprofessional, amateurish effort by throwing together your own
book cover. Your book and you as an author will be forever branded that way.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">Visit my book design website, <a href="http://www.idbks.com/">www.idbks.com</a>. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">My published novels, </span><i style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">The Legend of Juan Miguel</i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;"> and </span><i style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">The Passion of Juan Miguel,</i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;"> are available on Amazon.com. </span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-17250512952285711882015-09-08T08:17:00.000-07:002015-09-08T08:17:33.018-07:00I am the defector, out of step with the walking dead<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Leonardo da Vinci
famously said, “I awoke only to find that the rest of the world is still asleep.”
I know what he means. Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, there’s just no
stuffing it back in. Once you’re truly awake, you can sedate yourself, you can
hit yourself over the head, you can try lulling yourself with falsehoods, but
you just can’t fall back to sleep.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I woke up seven
years ago after a severe illness and I’ve been blindingly awake ever since. I
awoke to how absolutely unimportant were the things I’d striven for, how empty were
my ambitions. What is really important in this life became crystal clear and
now it smacks me in the face every day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That point was
driven home to me a few days ago when I tried very, very hard to backslide. I
took a job working for a company that does layout and design for hundreds of
newspapers all over the country. Actually, I was recruited, so I have somewhat
of an excuse for dabbling in the dark side. I worked exactly one day and
believe me, I barely made it through those nine hours. Rows and rows of people
staring into their computer screens—on deadline—under pressure—in an
industrial-style facility akin to a modern sweatshop. During the training, I
kept distracting myself by trying to see through the door, over the heads of
the workers, through another door, and out a window that looked out on a
parking lot with one lone tree. Whew! Enough of that nonsense.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I went home,
grabbed something to drink, and sat down to write. Thank you, Lord, for the
sanctuary of writing and the blessed freedom to think. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To what do I
attribute my defection? A roadblock in my soul with a sign that says, “No
turning back. You’ve come this far, don’t be afraid to go farther.” I’m like
Siddhartha of old, who by the end of his life had shed the layers of his
worldly skins, leaving him defenseless and capable of little else but being
aware. And what a big job that is.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If there are
others like me, then fine. If not and I am alone, then fine. If I’m just that
crazy lady who writes, then fine. God didn’t put me here to march in lockstep
with the walking dead. He put me here to connect to the divine in my nature and
once I did that, I became authentic. For that there is no cure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
I’m sure you know “I
am the defector” is from the song, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Great Defector</i>, by Bell X1. It goes on: “The accountants have taken the movie,
Yeah, they’re on the set.” <span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">I don’t know exactly what the songwriter meant,
but those two lines are pretty descriptive of American life as we know it right
now. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">My published novels, </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">The Legend of Juan Miguel</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;"> and </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">The Passion of Juan Miguel,</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;"> are available on Amazon.com.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-30253352791176943472015-08-24T12:14:00.000-07:002015-08-24T12:16:08.752-07:00Making something out of nothing, the backdrop to beautiful thoughts<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Art is made in
desolation and in desperate circumstances sometimes. Well, most of the time.
Very few secure, comfortable people think about creating something. What do
they think about? Beats me. I’m not one of them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I recently broke
my foot, which forced me to sit down and write a book. Maybe I would have
written it anyway but definitely not with such pathos. Pain and pathos seem to
go together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Last year, a good
friend of mine wrote a book about what was arguably the worst time in his life.
And yet, he wrote a wonderful, funny book—so wonderful, in fact, that he sent
it off to one—I repeat <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one</i>—publisher
and they accepted it for publication. Do you know how rare that is?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>His
book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Loaded South,</i> chronicles his
adventures and misadventures driving a cab in Austin during the height of
Austin’s hippie-dippy, celebrity-ridden, blues-and-country-band-laden period.
It was a lost time in his life but out of it came an endearing tale. He took
something bad and made it something good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hailing
from Lubbock, Clay was familiar with that whole process of seeing the funny in
the ridiculous. (My favorite Clay story about Lubbock is that he once had a
history teacher there who told the class that Abraham Lincoln committed
suicide. When Clay objected, he was sent to the principal’s office.) People
say, even songwriters sing, that “you can’t live in Texas unless you’ve got a
lot of soul” and rightly so. It has to do with accepting what you have and
making it something wonderful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Singer-songwriter
Sarah Jaffe has got a lot of soul. She’s from Denton, Texas, north of Dallas.
If you’ve been there, you know how much soul she has to have. It’s in direct
proportion to the loneliness and downright dreariness of that north Texas town.
But loneliness and dreariness can be advantages. They can be the backdrop to
beautiful thoughts. Sarah’s song, <i>Clementine</i>, is her beautiful thoughts put
to music. As you listen, you know there is a problem but you don’t know what it
is. She longs to be more delicate. She longs to be named Clementine. She isn’t either
of those things. But she is a great artist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If
you want to see paintings full of longing, look at the paintings of Vincent Van
Gogh. The longing is palpable. He had so much passion and he had nowhere to put
it except the canvas. He became one of the most famous and celebrated artists
who ever lived. But in his life, he had nothing. Nothing but his art. He
accepted that and made it something wonderful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Kudos
to Clay and all of the other creators who create something from nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #7c7c7c; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">My published novels, </span><i style="line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">The Legend of Juan Miguel</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;"> and </span><i style="line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">The Passion of Juan Miguel,</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;"> are available on Amazon.com.</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-13721707896543310292015-06-15T11:58:00.000-07:002015-06-15T11:58:31.841-07:00Archetype and stereotype are a little too close for comfort<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
In fiction, as in life, if you try
to control people too much, they become tiresome. You have to treat your
characters the way you treat your family and friends. Let them solve their own
problems. Let them have their foibles. Let them make their own mistakes. Writers know that solving
problems too soon or asking your characters to be perfect are the death knells for
the plot.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
recently attended a session for writers given by novelist Paula d’Etcheverry, a
former successful romance writer who now has set her sites on other genres. She
gave a great talk. I receive a few priceless nuggets anytime I listen to
another writer. This time, the nuggets were about characterization and how that
relates to keeping the plot interesting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Until
we know what a character wants, we don’t know what the story is about,” Paula
wrote in her handout. And also, “Until we know what the stakes are, we don’t
care.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Wise
words, indeed. Sometimes we forget that the readers don’t, and shouldn’t, know
all that we know about our characters. We have to illustrate their dilemma
through their words and deeds.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paula
has her own way of creating interesting characters. She bases them on
archetypes—heroes, bad guys, helpers, guardians, truth tellers, etc. To a
certain extent, we all have those archetypes embedded in our psyches from past
stories and from our own experiences. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Here
is the danger: the word archetype and the word stereotype are dangerously close
in meaning. Besides that, the word type is one-half of those two compound
words. And type is the root word of typical. No writer wants his or her
characters to be typical because typical is boring. It’s a fine line to walk
between typecast characters and real, human, breathing characters who
reverberate within the recesses of our soul. It’s up to the writer to walk that
fine line so that the reader never discerns the balancing act.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Those
of us who enjoy a more organic method of writing fiction will never sit down
and chart characters based on a list of archetypes. For many of us, that is
just too pat. But Paula makes the point, and I think she’s right, that without
archetypes, stories are too weird for the reader to comprehend.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Here
are some helpful lists she gave us. Interesting goals for characters: win,
escape, stop, and retrieve. Interesting characteristics for characters:
sympathy, jeopardy, likability, humor, and power. Those are all true but a good
plot with good characters is so much more. Sometimes I think that it’s simply a
gift of the gods.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">My published novels, </span><i style="line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">Th</i><i style="line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">e Legend of Juan Miguel</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;"> and </span><i style="line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;">The Passion of Juan Miguel</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 24px;"> are available on Amazon.com.</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-64626711681518073782015-03-09T10:54:00.000-07:002015-03-09T10:54:33.746-07:00From John Graves to Rick Bragg, we all write about ourselves
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who is Juan
Miguel? Who is he based on? People often ask me about the main character of my
fiction series and they are often disappointed when I have to tell them that
Juan Miguel is me. As writers, we just cannot escape ourselves. All of the
characters, the motives, the feelings, the thoughts, and the language belong to
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What many of us
as writers don’t realize at first but start to realize later is that everything
you write is about you. You can write about the weather. It’s about you. You
can write about your mother. It’s about you. You can write a novel. It’s about
you. You can write about mashed potatoes. It’s about you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I give the same
advice to aspiring writers, young and old alike, including myself. Tell a good
story. You’ll be in there somewhere—probably everywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Goodbye to a River</i> is one of the best
stories I’ve ever read. Somehow Texas writer John Graves makes it compelling
that he took a canoe trip down the Brazos River in the 1950s, a short time
before the river was to be dammed and much of the scenery and wildlife
obliterated in the process. It’s a great read and contained within the big
story are many wonderful small stories, past and present. His observations and
knowledge are priceless. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .25in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this Texas
classic that has won numerous literary awards, Mr. Graves managed to avoid the
many pitfalls of writing about himself, and he did it quite artfully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .25in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can usually
tell rookie writers because they want to write about themselves in memoir
style, as if they were a character in a novel. “I did this, I did that, I saw
this, I said that, and then he did this to me and she said that to me and blah
blah blah, nobody cares.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .25in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The trick is to
reveal yourself to yourself and everyone else while talking about something
else. Then it’s interesting. Then somebody cares.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .25in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That doesn’t mean
there aren’t some great memoirs out there. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Running
With Scissors</i>, Augusten Burroughs’ indictment of his liberal upbringing and
the dysfunctional family who adopted him, is one. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Angela’s Ashes</i>, Frank McCourt’s anecdotal retelling of his
childhood in Brooklyn and Ireland, is another. My all-time favorite memoir is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All Over But the Shoutin’</i> by Rick Bragg.
It’s a book about growing up southern and I can relate to that. Mr. Bragg, you
tell one hell of a story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .25in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do the great
memoirists have in common? They have great life stories to tell. Not all of us
do. Were my struggles at Sam Houston Junior High School as interesting as Rick
Bragg’s struggles growing up poor, fatherless, and practically homeless? No,
frankly they weren’t. And very few of us can write like Rick Bragg or John
Graves. Lucky bastards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .25in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My published novels, <i>The Legend of Juan Miguel</i> and <i>The Passion of Juan Miguel</i> are available on Amazon.com.</span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-77805128192892753052015-02-11T10:51:00.000-08:002015-02-11T10:51:31.117-08:00When you say Texas is crazy, do you mean ‘crazy good’ or ‘crazy bad’?
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Saying Texas is crazy is like
saying Waco is dull or Houston is big. Duh.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
This is a crazy-ass place. There’s
no doubt about it. It’s as likely that someone will pull out a concealed weapon
and stick it in your face as it is that someone will give you the shirt off his
back if he thinks you need it. It’s a place of outsized faults and outsized
virtues. But it’s not soul-dead and that’s what I like about it. As the Doug
Sahm song goes, “You just can’t live in Texas if you don’t have a lot of soul.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I’ve been outside the state a few
times in my life and I can report back to my fellow Texans that people are
considerably calmer in other places but they’re considerably less caring.
Dispassionate, they call it. Insipid, we call it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Because this is a place where
things stand out in stark detail. It’s hard to hide from the truth when there’s
no place to hide. But the truth can be freeing. People here don’t tend to look
at X and call it Y. They don’t look at bad actors and call them victims. They
don’t look at evil and call it circumstances. Self-reliance is in our DNA, as
is contrariness, and both of those can take you far. The gods tend to favor the
doers. We know that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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To borrow from one of my favorite
Texas writers, Molly Ivins, <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Good Lord, Lubbock, Texas! Well, about 88.3 percent
of the world there is sky—and if you are used to that—it feels like freedom and
everywhere else feels like jail.”</span> It’s an apt description of the entire
state. That big Texas sky unites us, humbles us, and breathes life into us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
What do I have to say to those who vilify
my home state? Davy Crockett said it best in a note he left when he packed his
saddlebags and left Tennessee on his way to Texas, “You may all go to hell, and
I will go to Texas.” Later at the Alamo, Crockett died with his boots on,
surrounded by his fellow Texans, people from different backgrounds and races
who a had common world view. They desired freedom above all else. They didn’t
give up or give it a half-baked effort. They died trying. And that, my friends,
is about all we can do in life.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7c7c7c; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">My published novels, <i>The Legend of Juan Miguel</i> and <i>The Passion of Juan Miguel</i> are available on Amazon.com.</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-18248552987273490142014-10-28T12:55:00.000-07:002014-10-28T12:55:59.538-07:00Scarlett, jazz, and pretzels
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“There’s always
going to be somebody who doesn’t like something.” My grandmother used to say
that and it’s a good thing to keep in mind when you’re creating a work of art.
I was reminded of that recently when I saw an exhibit of artifacts from the
making of the movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gone With the Wind</i>.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
hadn’t realized that so many people opposed so many aspects of the famous film,
which was based on Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller. There were letters there
from the NAACP protesting the portrayal of African Americans. Ultimately, the
filmmaker did consult with the head of that organization and compromised
somewhat on the objections. There were also letters from the head of the KKK. I
think even that hateful organization was assuaged by taking out a scene they
found offensive to their creed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Although
the movie was wildly popular and still is, no one thinks it was a balanced
portrayal of how things should’ve been. It was not politically correct, may not
have been accurate, and is probably not great art. But it endures. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Wynton
Marsalis, the great jazz trumpeter, had some insightful observations in an
interview I saw the other day. He talked about the vagaries of being dedicated
to any art form. I got the feeling he had first-hand knowledge as he described
how fickle the public and critics can be, how difficult it is to make money and
still maintain artistic integrity. His advice? Be resolute. You hear a lot of
advice for artists—be persistent, be dedicated, be patient—but be resolute is
probably the best advice I’ve heard. When no one else believes in you, you have
to continue to believe in yourself and run that gauntlet between the people who
like this and the people who hate that. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
is a problem that confronts us when we do something creative. Portray what we
think is true or what we all wish were true? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Ultimately, it’s
for the artist to decide. Sometimes, the world wants you to bend yourself into
a pretzel so it can toss you into the box with all the other pretzels. Don’t do
it. Be resolute.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> My published novels, <i>The Legend of Juan Miguel</i> and <i>The Passion of Juan Miguel</i> are available on Amazon.com.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-45895274217919982592014-10-15T11:22:00.000-07:002014-10-15T11:22:54.910-07:00Georgia O’Keeffe and I See Eye to Eye
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<br />
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Georgia O’Keeffe
said in her later years that living on the wide open, barely civilized prairies
of north Texas inspired her to begin her lifelong journey as an artist. She
sensed in the place and the people what we Texans sense in ourselves—freedom,
unbending self-reliance, and unending possibilities.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
I feel a kinship
with her. I grew up on the same high tabletop plain she was talking about. The
most important thing I learned from it was to be content with solitude. And I
learned the corollaries of that, to look within for meaning, for entertainment,
for the sound judgment of your real instincts.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
When she was in
her 20s, O’Keeffe taught art at Amarillo High School and later at the West
Texas Normal College in Canyon. She painted the magnificent Palo Duro Canyon,
the haunting endless flat prairies, and the unmatchable sky. Like so many
others before and since, she found some things there she never expected to
find, like beauty, mysticism … God, even.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Is
there really beauty on the lonely wind-swept flat dusty plains of North Texas? Yes,
it’s there. The place is indescribably beautiful but only if you’re looking
beyond the surface. O’Keeffe learned to do that during the few years she spent
there, and we’re all the richer for it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
I’ve been
researching Georgia O’Keeffe’s time in Texas — five or six years in the late
1910s — for my next novel. What a treat to see one of my favorite places
through the eyes of one of my favorite artists.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
My published novels, <i>The Legend of Juan Miguel </i>and <i>The Passion of Juan Miguel</i> are available on Amazon.com.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-78400247688188969312013-12-19T12:48:00.000-08:002013-12-19T12:48:30.713-08:00A Lifetime of Meaning in 28 Words
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<br />
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So many stories in literature are
about awakening because life is about awakening. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blue Like Jazz</i>, Donald Miller says the elements of good
storytelling — setting, conflict, climax and resolution — come from that great
conflict in the universe, which exists in our subconscious and we experience as
separation from the divine. When we awaken to this, we know we must find the
divine within us, which is a journey to our true self. Donald Miller says it a
lot better and a lot funnier than I can. Just read his book.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Even though they
lived more than a century apart and their writings were nothing alike, I love
Edna St. Vincent Millay just as much as I do Donald Miller. They both had an
unconventional approach to the act of awakening and they both had the gifts to
express it well. Besides, Edna St. Vincent Millay—who had a really cool name—wrote
the poem, “Renascence.” Anyone who can do that is immortal in my book. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Miss Millay was an
American poet and novelist who was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize
for poetry. She had a controversial personal life, probably because she had an
open mind. She had red hair and liked to call herself “Vincent” sometimes. Nancy
Milford’s biography of her was named <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Savage
Beauty</i> and that’s probably pretty descriptive. She was the type of woman
who attracted both women and men admirers although men didn’t seem to
understand her or her poetry. “She liked nature,” one man wrote of her. Oh, what
a shallow, shallow being he must have been. She wrote about so much more and everything
about her tells you she was awake from an early age.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Her poem
“Renascence” is about awakening. I’ve loved it since I was an adolescent and reading
it was quite possibly the beginning of my own personal renascence. The words I
love best are toward the end. Sometimes I read the whole poem just so the last
words will have the power they’re intended to have.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The world stands out on either side, no
wider than the heart is wide.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Above the world is stretched the
sky, no higher than the soul is high.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Words
to remember for a lifetime.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7c7c7c; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> Find out about my books on <a href="http://www.annaksargent.com/" style="color: #c65555; text-decoration: none;">http://www.annaksargent.com</a> Order my novel, <i>The Legend of Juan Miguel</i>, at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Juan-Miguel-Unlikely/dp/1938749065/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382377196&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Legend+of+Juan+Miguel" style="color: #c65555; text-decoration: none;">http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Juan-Miguel-Unlikely/dp/1938749065/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382377196&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Legend+of+Juan+Miguel</a></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-24639621366845329552013-11-05T08:17:00.000-08:002013-11-05T08:17:50.311-08:00Birthday Blues and Birthday Bliss
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It’s my birthday
and I’ll cry if I want to. I know those are not the exact words of the song, but it’s my
birthday and I’ll write what I want to. <o:p></o:p></div>
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These days,
birthdays just remind me of my real age. Not how old I wish I were or feel or
act or look or pretend to be. You know, that stark, cold, harsh number. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Pablo Picasso once
said, “It takes a long time to become young.” And someone else said, “Youth is
wasted on the young.” Both things meaning this: The older you get, the more
youthful you feel even if your body says, “no, no, no.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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At least that’s my
take on things. I’ve never felt so grateful for every day I’m here and able to
do what brings me joy. Writing. Walking. Being with family and friends. Cooking
healthy food. Music, books, art, nature. Shopping. (Whoops! Did I say that out
loud?)<o:p></o:p></div>
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So today I’m not
going to do any work. I’m going to receive birthday wishes, have a birthday
lunch with my buds, appreciate my wonderful daughter, son-in-law, and
grandchildren, do a little shopping, have a birthday dinner with another
friend, and feel the gratitude in my heart.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Later, I’ll cry if
I want to.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7c7c7c; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7c7c7c; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Find out about my books on <a href="http://www.annaksargent.com/" style="color: #c65555; text-decoration: none;">http://www.annaksargent.com</a> Order my novel, <i>The Legend of Juan Miguel</i>, at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Juan-Miguel-Unlikely/dp/1938749065/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382377196&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Legend+of+Juan+Miguel" style="color: #c65555; text-decoration: none;">http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Juan-Miguel-Unlikely/dp/1938749065/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382377196&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Legend+of+Juan+Miguel</a></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-45781954429348641632013-10-22T14:47:00.000-07:002013-10-22T14:47:42.327-07:00Once you find your way through the maze of creative writing, you’ll never get lost again
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<br />
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I’ve been on the road to writing
historical fiction forever, however I can’t say I was always totally aware of
that. Many years ago my sophomore English professor—I think his name was Mr.
Marcum—called me into his office. I remember it as if it happened yesterday. We
chatted for a while about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For Whom the
Bell Tolls,</i> our reading assignment. Then he stopped abruptly and said, “You
are one of the most perceptive students I’ve ever had … and you write well too.
You should consider a career as a writer.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
had to stop myself from laughing out loud. It didn’t sink in at all. I had
other plans. I can’t remember what they were but I definitely had them. I was
an art major at the time, a fact many people now find difficult to believe
because I went on to become a journalist. So, eventually, I did write for a
living—every day I wrote about every kind of thing a person could possibly
imagine, most of it not remotely interesting to me. But when you’re on daily
deadlines, you don’t have the luxury of being interested.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So
that brings us back around to my English professor and his class. We had an
assignment every week to write an essay stating our opinion. It could be about
a book, or a movie, or something in the news but we had to construct our
thoughts in an orderly fashion. It was my first time to do that and what I
learned holds me in good stead to this day. I remember sitting on my bed
pulling the sentences out of my brain like you would pull sore teeth out of
your mouth. They weren’t perfect and my sentences still aren’t perfect but the
thinking was good discipline. It opened up certain pathways in the synapses of
my brain, the pathways of cognitive thought that end up in the garden of
expression. Once you go down that pathway, you never have to lose your way
again.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What
exactly is the main character all about?” Mr. Marcum asked me that day in his
office.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“He
has a heightened sense of duty and that guides all his actions,” I said.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“How
is that expressed in the writing … not the words, but the writing?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It’s
sparse and direct and the writer has shed his skin.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yes,
and why did he do that?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Because
he wanted to reveal the character’s motivation.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
“Yes, that’s
right,” Mr. Marcum said. “And motivation is at the core of all storytelling.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thus
began my thinking about writing and my pathway to writing fiction. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Find
out about my books on <a href="http://www.annaksargent.com/">http://www.annaksargent.com</a>
Order my novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Legend of Juan Miguel</i>,
at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Juan-Miguel-Unlikely/dp/1938749065/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382377196&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Legend+of+Juan+Miguel">http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Juan-Miguel-Unlikely/dp/1938749065/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382377196&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Legend+of+Juan+Miguel</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-34208345844725869602012-10-29T11:32:00.000-07:002012-10-29T11:32:04.684-07:00The Value of Time Keeps Inflating
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You think the value of gold is
going through the roof? Well, also inflating like crazy are the value of
leather, silver, diamonds and almost everything else that’s considered
luxurious or rare. For me, it’s the value of time. It gets more and more precious
as it goes by.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Mankind has made some feeble
attempts to understand time. But Stephen Covey, the author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Seven Habits of Highly Effective People</i>,
didn’t attempt to understand it. He just attempted to use it well. He came up
with a way to divide your time into parts and make use of each part thereby
becoming one of “the highly effective” people he so admired. I love his choice
of words. Not successful people, not lovable people, not admirable people, not
compassionate people but “effective” people. We all want to be effective or do
we?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I’m not sure I want to make maximum
use of every minute I’m given. When I’m busy, time goes by at break-neck speed.
I like to slow down and be aware of its passage. Please, God, just let me enjoy
it. I love it so.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Stephen Covey, as much as he
thought about and valued time, ran out of it recently as we all will. We can
divide it, we can analyze it, we can parse it, we can regret it, but we can’t
stop it. It goes and soon, we go with it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Another Stephen, Stephen Hawking,
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some time ago and pretended to understand. I think he basically said that time
is a boundable thing that had a definite beginning and will have a definite
end. Do you buy that? Because I don’t. My IQ is probably half of Stephen
Hawking’s but that doesn’t make sense to me. If space is infinite, and I’m sure
it is, then time is infinite. The Big Bang happened an infinite number of times
and will go on happening. There’s our time and there’s God’s time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here’s what I know about time. On a
summer evening, I can sit out on my patio and watch the thunderclouds building
in the distance. The setting sun turns the tops of them a stunning peach color
and makes the sky look aqua by contrast. I can sip my ice tea and watch the
deer foraging for food in the meadow and hear the pigeons cooing in a nearby
tree. That’s not one of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s just
a good way to spend time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I guess you can know more about
time by just spending it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-73411989656108341252012-10-08T11:10:00.000-07:002012-10-08T11:10:55.514-07:00Don't Be So Careful
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Careful is dull.
Careful is insipid. We don’t listen to or feel inspired by or follow careful
people. Maybe we don’t even like them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
President Obama
can tell you about being too careful. In the first presidential debate, he played
it cool. He was really really careful. He was so careful that he sat with his
head down and took careful notes so he wouldn’t forget anything. Mitt Romney
wasn’t careful. He was almost jumping out of his skin, he was so anxious to put
his foot in it. Sure, Romney said some things he probably regretted but at
least he said <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">something</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
As an editor, I
had to teach myself to listen to that small voice in the back of my head that
says things like “slow down” or “is this really true?” or “go over it again” or
“what will people think?”. But as a writer, I have to kill it. Periodically, I
smash it and send it to hell but it keeps coming back.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
I’m trying to
learn to “throw caution to the wind.” I love that phrase because it paints a
perfect word picture. You reach inside and ferret out all that is holding you
back and toss it into the wind and let it blow away. Dictionary writers define the
phrase as being reckless but there is definitely an upside to throwing caution
to the wind.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Some of the most
un-careful writers of all time were honored last week at the Austin Public
Library’s Banned Books Bash. Such notables as Sara Hickman, Jake Silverstein
and Amy Cook read excerpts from many of the most careless, incautious,
subversive and offensive books of all time. Allen Ginsberg’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Howl</i>, which was actually banned by our
government; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ulysses</i>, that wonderful
Irish passion eruption by James Joyce; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To
Kill A Mockingbird</i>, a banned book that was once subversive but is now read
in public schools.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
The emcee was Owen
Egerton, who himself is an outrageous storyteller and the author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Book of Harold</i>, a religious satire.
He bemoaned the fact that all of the banned books on the event’s list were at
least twenty years old. He urged everyone present to write some books worth
banning. “Let’s get out there and offend the next generation,” he said. He
wasn’t joking. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
That oppressive
yoke of conformity is so heavy to carry around and yet so hard to take off.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-62023002710711293272012-07-25T12:50:00.001-07:002012-07-25T12:54:18.254-07:00Is there anyone out there who can use the language?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">Here
is something for any novelists or would-be novelists to consider. Jim
Harrison’s masterpiece, the epic </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Legends
of the Fall</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;">, was only 80-plus pages long. The writing was so sparse and so
tight that it took him only that many pages to tell us a sweeping story,
stretched out over the span of many years. And he didn’t neglect the inner
vibration of the story, either. It pulsates with meaning.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
So,
what’s the point, you ask? The point is that language, when used right, can
convey vast amounts in a small space. Language, when used right, is power. And
yet we seem to have forgotten that. I rarely meet anyone anymore who can talk,
much less write, with power. I’m not saying we’ve been dumbed down but we all suspect
that’s the truth. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
As
a former print editor, I am constantly finding simple mistakes of punctuation
and gammar, not to mention just plain bad wording in books, newspapers, and
online. Oh my, online. It’s as if the writer has no regard whatsoever for the
reader. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
With
writing, there’s an art to letting go and staying restrained at the same time
but first you have to know the rules. And be able to follow them. And be able
to stay grounded in them. Art is the manipulation of the form but first you
have to have a form. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
I
know what you’re going to say … everybody does it differently. Pat Conroy does
go on and we love to read those rich, lush uses of language. Please, Mr. Conroy,
don’t ever stop. In some of his books, like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prince
of Tides</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Santini</i>,
he gets it just right and in some, like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beach
Music</i>, he seems to be out in his own stratosphere of imagery. But it’s
always beautiful.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
As different as
their writing is, Harrison and Conroy have something in common. Both writers
know that what matters is not only the words and their meaning but also the way
they’re strung together and form a whole. The shape of the whole conveys the
deeper meaning, the one that can’t be said with simple words.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-51961326211212002412012-07-16T12:45:00.001-07:002012-07-16T13:08:18.256-07:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #e06666;">What Don Quixote has to
do with Texas</span></span></b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
If you think
everything we say comes from the Bible or Shakespeare, think again. A whole
pile of it comes from Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish novelist who wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Don Quixote de la Mancha</i>. Oh, my, the
list is impressive. From “what I have earned from the sweat of my brows” to “let
every man mind his own business” and “give the devil his due.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Read the entire
list of famous quotes from Don Quixote sometime and you’ll be amazed. But one
of his most quoted quotes is this: “An honest man’s word is as good as his
bond.” Maybe that phrase came to Texas by way of the Spanish who have lived
here since before the Anglos came. Or maybe we just adopted it because it rang
so true. Whatever the origin, we say it a lot and we believe it. In the Old West,
before the rule of law found its way to the frontiers of Texas, two things
mattered. A person’s word and what he or she did to back it up. Meaning I’ll
give my word and then I’ll stand my ground. It’s a pretty simple recipe for existing
in the world — one that survives to this day in a place that’s only a whisper
away from the frontier way of doing things.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
So
because I live here, smack dab in the middle of Texas, I decided to allude to
that recipe in naming my blog. It has a double meaning, of course. Anyone can
see that. I love words and I love to say them, read them and write them. Is
that unusual for a Texan? Hell, no! It’s ingrained. It’s more than a tradition.
It’s a sacred trust, handed down for generations of storytellers and tellers of
tall tales. I know it goes against type — Texan as the strong silent type — but
I swear to you it’s the truth. Some of the greatest storytellers of all time
lived here and still live here. How do you think we’ve kept that Texas myth
going for such a long time? We keep telling the stories over and over. Putting
a little more hair on them with every retelling. It’s fun and we enjoy it when
the rest of you buy into it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Austin,
where I live, is one of the most literate places in the country. We read more
books per capita than most anyplace else. We’re home to one of the largest
(some say the second largest) writers organization in the country. Yes, we’re
what you might call super-literate. There is a tension between who we really
are and who the rest of the world thinks we are. And that, my friends, is what
Texas is all about. Or as Cervantes would say, “Can we ever have too much of a
good thing?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
By
the way, read that list of sayings from Don Quixote here <a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes">http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes</a><a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes"></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-18994310561968029882012-07-10T08:56:00.002-07:002012-07-10T09:07:36.000-07:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #e06666; font-size: large;">Separated by a common state</span></b><br />
<div style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%;">
Matthew McConaughey
goes to my church and the other day, he was sitting a couple of rows behind me.
I’m pretty sure he looked at me several times during the service. Of course,
his wife and kids were with him, but still I felt we were getting close. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
It’s that seven
degrees of separation thing. Now that Matthew and I are friends (at least
there’s friendship on my part), I’m two degrees away from the movie, “Bernie.”
My friend who lives in the Four Seasons in downtown Austin is a neighbor to one
of the actors who played a Carthage resident, the guy who was so, so funny. She
is also two degrees away from the movie. But I digress. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
The Carthage folks
in “Bernie,” whether they were real or actors, were actually only one degree of
separation from most of us in Texas. We don’t just know people like that. We
are related to them. Richard Linklater got them just right. He hit on that
balance between their philosophical bigotry and their actual demeanor, which is
quite often not bigoted at all. They
were so spot on — the way they looked, the way they talked, the storytelling. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Who can explain
why an entire town stood behind a man they were almost sure killed one of their
most upstanding citizens? I can. For whatever reason — probably a reason of the
heart — they perceived Bernie Tiede to be one of them. They probably knew he
was gay. They probably knew he was up to no good, hanging around the rich widow
with his eyes on her money. And eventually they probably knew he killed her and
stuffed her body in a deep freeze in her kitchen. But they loved him all the
same.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
It’s eccentric,
just as Texas is eccentric. You can’t pigeonhole it. It sometimes defies
description, much less definition. Most southerners are like that, too, as are
most southern movies and novels. It makes northerners nervous, liking their
stereotypes all neat and tidy like they do. But for most of us in the south, it’s
just, well … home.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
“Bernie” is based
on Skip Hollandsworth’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Texas Monthly</i>
article, “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas,” which is a great read. You can
find it here <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/1998-01-01/feature4.php">http://www.texasmonthly.com/1998-01-01/feature4.php</a><br />
So I passed up the
opportunity to see Matthew in “Magic Mike” because as far as I know, he doesn’t
play one of the male strippers. Although, I may need to rethink that decision.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-41101910237138559162012-07-02T10:26:00.002-07:002012-07-02T10:38:51.845-07:00<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Nora Ephron had a
license to be ridiculous</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
What did Nora
Ephron know that Ann Curry didn’t know? In the words of Marilyn Monroe, she
knew it’s better to be utterly ridiculous than to be utterly boring.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
When I heard Nora
Ephron died last week, I reread her book, “I Feel Bad About My Neck,” as my
personal tribute to a woman I never knew but loved dearly. She was a Jewish
lady who lived in an apartment building in New York and wrote wonderful, funny
stories. I am a goy who lives in the middle of Texas and writes historical
fiction. But she felt like a sister or a best friend.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
I laughed until I
cried just as I did the first two times I read that book. Nora didn’t age
gracefully. She aged kicking and screaming and making jokes. Let’s hope she
died that way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
She wrote about
everyday things like her neck, her purse, her hair, her apartment building, her
life. I wondered whether she wrote about her last years or her battle with
cancer. If she did, I want to read it. I loved everything she wrote because she
had such insight into the human condition.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Why, you say,
bring Ann Curry into this? Why bring up that poor woman who was fired recently
from NBC’s Today show — that poor woman who was made to go on national
television and debase herself by saying goodbye. All of us felt her pain.
Admitting you’re no longer in vogue is a humiliating experience but to do it on
television is unthinkable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
I brought her up
because she didn’t know what Nora Ephron knew. She didn’t know that it’s better
to be ridiculous than to be boring. Ann Curry is sweet and sincere and
competent and that’s the problem. If she’d been a bit more outrageous, she’d
still be in.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
Nora Ephron
highlighted the ridiculous like no one else. Like the woman who travels all the
way across the country to look for a man she heard on a call-in talk radio
program. The couple who love each other but are afraid to be intimate except on
the phone late at night watching the same TV show. The married lady who writes
about her failing relationship and divorce and throws in a few recipes to boot
because things may be going to hell in a hand basket but by God, we all need to
eat and we might as well eat something that’s good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
We’re all slightly
ridiculous, so why not admit it? Nora Ephron did and her admission gave us so
much joy.<o:p></o:p></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-92065061376163209852010-10-26T11:38:00.000-07:002010-11-03T09:12:15.139-07:00Character Transformation<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What fiction and life have in common</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Donald Miller’s book, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A Million Miles in a Thousand Days: What I Learned While Editing My Life</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, is exactly what the subtitle says it is — a recounting of what Miller learned about life while learning how to make a movie based on his bestselling memoir, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Blue Like Jazz.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What’s wonderful is he takes us through the process of figuring out what makes a good movie — i.e. a good story — and in the process we learn how important it is to make good stories in our own lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> It begins when two filmmakers, Ben and Steve, arrive at his home in Portland and proceed to dissect his book, tearing it apart and putting it back together in a format suitable for a movie. One of them explains to him life itself is just a series of random experiences, which a good writer can make insightful and interesting. But a movie has to have “structure” and “action” and “conflict.” <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Feeling he needs more knowledge about the “structure” of a good story, Miller attends an expensive Los Angeles seminar by renowned storyteller Robert McKee. When later he confesses to his eccentric friend, Jordan, he failed to get the point of the seminar, Jordan sums it all up for him: “A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> He comes to realize the point is not the “getting something,” it’s the character transformation that goes on while the character journeys toward “getting something.” The point of the story (and of life) is for us to search for and find something, thereby transforming ourselves. In fiction, it’s called character arc. In life, it’s just called living. <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Here are some of my favorite of Miller’s epiphanies about storytelling and life:<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<ul><li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The hero/heroine has to do something good in the first part of the book/movie to make him/her sympathetic.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Characters don’t want to be transformed. They must be forced to change.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">An inciting incident kicks off the hero/heroine’s journey. It is usually a doorway through which they cannot return.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Fear, which is created by ambition, is the bugaboo in all stories. The characters are going to encounter it and we are going to encounter it but we shouldn’t let it boss us around.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The harder the resistance encountered in the journey or pursuit, the more important the task must be.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Two things that make an epic story: extreme risk and sacrifice.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The middle of the story — which Miller calls “the crossing” — is the most difficult because you’ve lost sight of the beginning and the original purpose and you can’t see the ending yet. There is a point in the middle of the story when characters feel they just can’t take it anymore and are tempted to give up. McKee told his students, “You put them (the characters) through hell … that’s the only way we change.”</span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Good stories need memorable scenes and they’re often in strange places.</span></li>
</ul></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .25in;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Throughout the book, Miller tells us his own personal stories about learning to make a movie, leaving behind his life as a “coach potato” in order to take up bicycle riding, making a grueling climb to the top of Machu Picchu in Chile, falling in love with a woman and then losing her, founding a nonprofit to help disadvantaged youth, and taking part in a cross country bike ride to raise money for a charity.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> He uses his stories to tell us what he learned about life — basically, if you want good stories, you have to be a good character. <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Find Donald Miller’s blog at </span></i><a href="http://donmilleris.com/"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://donmilleris.com/</span></i></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter.</span></i><o:p></o:p></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6887797624198531237.post-16824446681018557022010-10-26T11:30:00.000-07:002010-11-03T09:08:41.802-07:00Reframing Faith<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Are God and creative writing related? Owen Egerton thinks so.</span></b></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“The best kind of writing comes from questions and a human being wrestling with those questions. A writer's job is not to resolve the mystery but to expand the mystery,” Owen Egerton, Austin comic, writer, and seeker of truth, said recently to a group of aspiring writers. Egerton was talking about writing </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Book of Harold, the Illegitimate Son of God, </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">published this year by Dalton Publishing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Egerton is already a well-known provocateur in Austin — the author of another novel, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Marshall Hollenzer is Driving,</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> co-creator of the Sinus Show, screenwriter, commentator for National Public Radio, and comedy recording artist. He spoke to the Riverbend Church writing group, The Scribe, in early September.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">T</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">he best writers have a relationship with mystery, a desire to explore and take the readers along with them, he said. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Book of Harold </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">was his own experience at wrestling with a mystery — what would it look like if a guy made the same claims now that Jesus made back in his day. Harold Peeks, an unassuming middle-aged nobody, starts telling people he is the son of God, saying things like “God is insane. And totally in love with us” and “We are utterly alone, and unavoidably connected.” The story takes off from there with Egerton asking questions about faith, religion, and institutions along the way. He very much wants us to see the whole topic through new eyes and he provides some belly laughs to ease the glaring truths he uncovers about religious institutions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In spite of the pitfalls of religion as an institution, Egerton seems to have retained his ability to be awed by the great mystery, and he connects it to writing. In fact, people of faith have a responsibility — indeed a duty, he said. A duty to preach? A duty to teach? No, a duty to create beauty. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“When you create beauty, you're doing something that honors God,” Egerton said, “and it involves framing.” He used the example of Jesus' story of the widow's mite. No one knows her name or who she was, but Jesus put a frame around the widow doing her small part by giving out of scarcity. “He framed a moment and found meaning there.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The truth we're seeking can be compared to the blind spot in our vision, Egerton said. We can see it obliquely, out of the corner of our eye, but we can't see it if we stare at it. “The beauty of fiction is it's not on the head — you see around the edges. That's why we're more moved by a story than a statement of fact.” Just relax and follow the story, he said, you will wander onto the truth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He approaches writing as a calling, an almost-religious vocation. “If I don't write, I'll be sacrificing something I was meant to be,” he said. Writers must follow their own inner vision to be any good at all, but they also have to be mindful that they are asking a lot of people. “We are asking people to read us when they could be reading the greats, like Hemingway or Flannery O'Conner.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Egerton is now a Quaker and describes his religious philosophy as “shruggism.” When people ask him what he believes, he simply shrugs. He joked that Quakers stay silent in their services because they're afraid they're going to offend somebody if they speak. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Book of Harold </span></span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">is an irreverent, humorous, gentle pilgrimage through the claims of religion that in no way diminishes faith, but instead reframes it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: .1pt; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Owen Egerton’s website, </span></span></i><a href="http://www.owenegerton.com/"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://www.owenegerton.com/</span></span></i></a><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, has contact information, a list of appearance, and a social media section.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425940775512161768noreply@blogger.com0