A Writer's Game of Tag

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I was pretty fast when I was young, fast enough to avoid getting tagged and told, “you’re it!” But speed has gone the way of my hair. So, Mary T. Wagner, the author of When the Shoe Fits…Essays of Love, Life and Second Chances found it relatively easy to catch up with me. This is not to imply that Mary is super fast, although she’s certainly pretty quick with her wit and insight. If you’ve ever read her work or heard her read her stories at a live lit event, you know that. And it is also not to imply that I am so terribly slow that anyone can “tag” me. Let’s just say that running after and away from people these days is a far different game than it was decades ago.  

This little game of blog tag comes at a great time. This early autumn, the new Dream of Things edition of Any Road Will Take You There will be released. I’m so honored to be part of the Dream of Things family. Publisher Mike O’Mary is dedicated to offering “meaningful books” and I’m so thrilled that he believes Any Road Will Take You There fits in that category. Plus, this spring Dream of Things will publish my collection of essays: There’s a Hamster in the Dashboard. And once again, I am indebted to Mike and Dream of Things.

Still, Mary is the star here today. She’s the one who invited me into this blog tag and I am here to keep the game going!

THE BLOG TOUR AUTHOR QUESTIONS...

“What am I working on?” – Lots! I teach college and I’ve got two classes underway this fall. One is a radio storytelling class where we take creative nonfiction stories written by the students and turn them into audio presentations, like something you might hear on This American Life. It’s really a wonderful process and the students have great stories to tell. I also continue to work as a reporter and anchor for CBS radio in Chicago. And I’m working on the final details for the new release of Any Road Will Take You There.

I also have a novel I’m hoping to get published soon. I’m now working on final edits and have at least one publisher interested. But there’s still a lot of work to be done. The novel is entitled Night Radio and revolves around a young man who has dreams of being the next great Rock n’ Roll radio personality at a time when music on the radio had cultural relevance. But his own demons and the mistakes of his father haunt him, eventually derail him, and then ultimately help to inspire him to host a special radio event that will be the most difficult and rewarding of his life

“How does my work differ from others in its genre?” – My work is different, I believe, in that the stories – true or fiction – revolve around the male experience. Most of my work is creative nonfiction, memoir, personal stories, with a uniquely male perspective to them. Believe it or not, men can be introspective and deeply emotional. I try to bring that out in my work. The books and essays are not the male version of what some call “chick lit” or women-centric stories, but rather they are tales of how men fit into the world, about their dreams, worries, mistakes, and miscues. I want to shine the light on vulnerability, a trait rarely acknowledged by men. I frequently encounter men who tell me how I have been able to put into words what they had not been able to say. And the women who read my stories say they have given my books to the men in their lives as gifts. I am truly honored.  

“Why do I write what I do?” This may sound trite or cliché, but I have to write what I write. It is part of who I am and what I want to be. Even if I were not being published, I would probably write the same stories. It is like breathing.

“How does my writing process work?” – There’s a process? LOL. Yes, I guess there is. First, I write nearly every single day. It may be very short, but I write. It’s important to stay limber. Like working out; you have to do it regularly.

I also keep notes on my computer and in several Moleskine journals. I refer to them often and when I’m ready, I start to write. Joan Didion once said, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking.” This is exactly how I work. I write to discover my story. It’s not the other way around. I use no outlines, only the aforementioned notes, then I redraft over and over until I dig through the words and find what I’m trying to say.

And now it’s time to get back to the game…

I’m tagging two authors, both wonderful writers with incredible stories.

Madeline Sharples’ memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, is the harrowing but ultimately uplifting tale about her son Paul's diagnosis with bipolar disorder, through his suicide at her home, to the present day. It details how Madeline, her husband, and younger son weathered every family's worst nightmare.

In addition to Leaving the Hall Light On, Madeline co-authored Blue-Collar Women: Trailblazing Women Take on Men-Only Jobs (New Horizon Press, 1994) a book about women in nontraditional professions and co-edited the poetry anthology, The Great American Poetry Show,Volumes 1 (Muse Media, 2004) and 2 (2010). Her poetry accompanies the work of photographer Paul Blieden in two books, The Emerging Goddess and Intimacy as well as appearing in print and online on many occasions.

Madeline is now a full-time writer and is working on her next book, a novel, based in the 1920s. She and Bob, her husband of 40+ years, live in Manhattan Beach, California, a small beach community south of Los Angeles.

And there’s Eleanor Vincent. 

Eleanor has unbelievable courage to tell a story that is both heartbreaking and healing.

This is from the Dream of Things website. I couldn’t say it better:

Swimming With Maya demonstrates the remarkable process of healing after the traumatic death of a loved one. Eleanor Vincent raised her two daughters, Maya and Meghan, virtually as a single-parent. Maya, the eldest, was a high-spirited and gifted young woman. As a toddler, Maya was an angelic tow-head, full of life and curiosity. As a teenager, Maya was energetic and independent – and often butted heads with her mother. But Eleanor and Maya were always close and connected, like best friends or sisters, but always also mother and daughter.

Then at age 19, Maya mounts a horse bareback as a dare and, in a crushing cantilever fall, is left in a coma from which she will never recover. Ultimately Eleanor chooses to donate Maya’s organs. Years later, she is able to hear Maya’s heart beat in the chest of the heart recipient. In a story that has been called “heartbreaking and heart-healing,” Eleanor Vincent illuminates the kind of courage, creativity, faith, and sheer tenacity it takes to find one’s balance after unthinkable tragedy.

Madeline and Eleanor…you’re now IT.

Thinking About Nature

I need to walk in the woods more. I am a member at the Morton Arboretum outside Chicago, and get there far less than I would like. And I did hike in The Rockie Mountains recently. But I read today a passage in a beautifully written book I picked up recently. The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich. It's creative nonfiction, a memoir of sorts, and it is stunning. Like all good creative nonfiction, the pieces in this collection are about far more than they first imply.

In an essay entitled "On Water," Ehrlich writes about life, it's changing, evolving nature and its magical link to nature itself.

 

"Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are. We are often like rivers: careless and forceful, timid and dangerous, lucid and muddied, eddying, gleaming, still. Lovers, farmers, and artists have one thing in common, at least -- a fear of dry spells, dormant periods in which we do no blooming, internal droughts only the waters of imagination and psychic release can civilize. Too little water brings on the weeds, while too much degrades the soil the way too much easy money can trivialize a person's initiative. In his journal, Thoreau wrote, "a man's life should be as fresh as a river. It should be the same channel but a new water every instant."

Marvelous.

Books Alive!

Printers Row Lit Fest was a great success! Beautiful day and a great group of writers at the Chicago Writers Association booth. Writers Laura Enright (To Touch the Sun) and Raymond Wlodkowksi (Motor City Boys) were on either side of me and it was wonderful to spend the day with them.

But the takeaway is this...

Books are still very much alive. Yes, the publishing world has been turned on its head, and the new model for publishing, reading and consuming books continues to evolve almost daily. But... the reality is this: reading, storytelling, the human need to share stories is more alive than ever. Look at the people at Printers Row! I commented several times on Sunday while signing copies of Any Road Will Take You There how diverse the crowd was. Young, old, hipsters, hippies, old-school librarians, moms, dads, kids, students, and all of them mixing with rookie writers, veterans (James Patterson stopped by the Chicago Writers Association booth just looking around), teachers, booksellers (big and small) literature nerds, and book hoarders.

Printers Row Lit Fest has been going on for 30 years and each year it has adapted to the times, to the unique changes in the world of publishing, and each year people flock to Dearborn and Harrison streets in the historic Printers Row neighborhood of Chicago to devour stories.

Besides my writing, I do a lot of radio work, as many of you know, and many years ago the so-called experts proclaimed radio was dying. TV was going to kill it, they said. And now the Internet is being accused in the (so-called) murder of radio. Thing is, there's been no crime. Radio is not dead. Is it changing, adjusting, and still need of balance? Sure. It's evolving. Publishing is doing the same thing, evolving. But nothing can replace radio's most appealing element: its ability to be uniquely intimate. And nothing can replace what a book can do: take us to lands and cultures unknown, ignite imagination, or turn the mirror on each of us, demanding us to reexamine our place in the world. That can't be replaced. That can't be duplicated.

Don't believe me? Come out to Printers Row Lit Fest in 2015, and I'll prove it to you.

Where the hell have you been?

I've been a slacker.

It's been months since my last entry here at MUSE. That's horrible. I need to get more regular, you know? I'll get better. Really.

But meantime - an update...

ANY ROAD WILL TAKE YOU THERE, my road trip memoir, has been accepted at Prairie Lights bookstore in Iowa City. I'm thrilled. This is a wonderful, historic bookshop in the middle of the campus city and blocks from the Iowa Writer's Workshop, the church of literary writing. In June, I'll be at the Chicago Writers Association booth at Printers Row Lit Fest in Chicago. Nice.

I'm also waiting to hear from publishers on two manuscripts. I won't talk about it in depth, as not to jinx the whole thing. But - one is a collection of stories about being a lifelong pet owner, and the other is fiction about a young, rock-n-roll radio announcer who loses his way and believes facing his demons on the air in a special New Year's Even broadcast will get him back in balance.

But enough about me...

Questions:

Are you a poetry person? It seems to me you either are or are not. If so, why? What's your favorite line from a poem? Why?

I consider myself a quasi-poet guy. Love Billy Collins, Keat, Dylan Thomas. My favorite at the moment is Colins' "Love." Gorgeous.

Tell me about your love of poetry...or your dislike...why?

Until next time...

David

Haiku in the New Year

When I was privileged to be the writer-in-residence at the Jack Kerouac House in Florida a couple of years ago, I tried writing haiku from time to time. It seemed appropriate. Kerouac wrote haiku, and sometimes very good ones. It wasn't always traditional, the 5-7-5 syllables, the mention of season, the juxtaposition of thought. But it was interesting, sometimes poignant, sometimes even funny, and always, it seemed Kerouacian cool.

My haiku? Well, the poems seemed amateurish. But they got better, I thought. It was fun to write them, at least.

So in this new year, I've been trying to get back into some semblance of meditation. Simple stuff. Just a way to clear my head and ground my thoughts. And from time to time, jotting down a haiku or two. Not as a writing process really, but more as a "moment in time." Just something to add to my meditation.

I worked on a standing meditation this morning, breathing and soft, light movement. The 15-minute meditation produced this:

I follow my breath
    the icicle hangs from high
In a silent day

And, in a more modern approach...

I stand and move
    a slow silence
The dog sleeps

Any good? Hell, I don't know. Really don't care. It was just an exercise in thought, in emotion. I offer this as a suggestion. When you're approaching something new, something creative, set no bars to jump. Just do the thing. Let it be. Let it happen. No goals. No judgement.

Somehow this seems appropriate for writing haiku, and for the New Year.

David

Have I Bit Off Too Much?

I'm not much of a resolution guy, at least when it comes to the New Year. I think of it more as a refresh or a reawakening. 

This year I began several new initiatives and I'm concerned I may have given myself too much to consider. Well, maybe not. Honestly, I don't know. 

I started meditation. Light stuff. Something I had done, and done poorly, before. But I found a new book - "Mindfulness" - that is helping. We'll see. 

I also started a new food plan to lose a few pounds. That, has been, so far, going incredibly well. I actually started this a day BEFORE the New Year. All so cliche, right? 

And today, I also began a new story, one that was inspired by several storylines in movies I've seen lately. Inspiration from other stories is not unusual (and not copying, by the way). These storylines and my own life experiences have been bubbling on this one for some time. It's about a banished professor who returns to the English countryside where he wrote his first and only book to be confronted by a young woman who insists he has written about her life. She is compelled to meet him. He is reluctant and impatient with her, considering her a bit of a nutcase. But when she begins to reveal her story, he is haunted by its precise detail, details from his book and his life. Well, at least I think that's where it's going. You know how that is...the story will ultimately tell itself. 

I also returned to my work on pet stories, a group of essays I hope to complete this winter. 

All too much? 

Maybe. But, if all of it doesn't stick, some of it will, right? 

David 

Resolutions...No, Really.

Not much of  New Year's resolution guy. Not much of a New Year's guy. Not because it's "for amateurs" as some say, but because it seems strange to me to resolve to be better, eat less, drink less, smoke less, get healthy, blah-blah-blah at the beginning of a new year. Why not make it, say, February 12 or June 1? It doesn't really matter, does it? If you want to resolve, why focus on the new year? But I guess if a long-standing tradition helps you resolve something worthwhile, then have at it.

But if you do resolve anything this New Year, I'm asking you to consider including a different category of resolve.

Yes, health, friends and family issues are certainly good subjects for resolutions. But I suggest you include the category of "creativity." How do you resolve to further your creative side in 2014?

If you write, write more, be more disciplined. If you paint, paint more or take on a new project. If you dance, dance with purpose. And if you simply just keep a nightly or daily journal - stick to it. Buy yourself a nice leather journal and a good pen and have it at. Make the time for yourself. Creativity is really about discipline. You have to have a plan. Make a time and place for your creativity and don't waver. It's like working out - set a time, a place, and a plan and then JUST DO IT!

It's nice to think that creativity begins from some magical place, is sparked by a muse, or a spiritual moment. And part of that may be true. But don't wait for that "moment" or your muse to speak to you. Get to it. Resolve to nurture your creative side, but do it with purpose.

David B