On Writing: Words to Write By

Ursula K. Le Guin, while accepting her Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, at the 2014 National Book Awards:

"I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being. And even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom: poets, visionaries—the realists of a larger reality. Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable; so did the divine right of kings. … Power can be resisted and changed by human beings; resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words. I’ve had a long career and a good one, in good company, and here, at the end of it, I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river. … The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom."

Yeah, I Decoupaged a Typewriter

In general, I’m a big fan of the Olivetti aesthetic. The Lexikon 80, the Lettera 22 and 32, are sleek and gorgeous, and the Valentine romps in my dreams like a far-too-expensive lover.

I’m far less enamored of the boxy look of the Lettera 33, and the Lettera 31 (aka The Dora) is downright ugly, especially in the all-too common putty color. I picked up a Dora last year some time, cleaned it up and freshly beribboned it, and was sad to see it’s also not a spectacular typing machine. It works, sure, but it feels cheap. I’ve heard similar things about the action of the Valentine, but at least it’s nice to look at.

So, I took my Dora and decoupaged it.

Teaching: A Little Slam Action

I stole these slams from my fourth-block creative-writing class. They did all the work. I just pushed "record."

The Blues: Seven Days, Five Books, Some Other Stuff

I closed the door of my classroom approximately 168 hours ago, and it will remain shut (barring trips back for reference material) until August 26. Since the door closed I've hosted one barbecue, attended one wedding, attended one Makers of Manchester meeting, met one Rhodes Scholar for a beer, spent three days in curriculum-development workshops for a new Freshman Writing class, shared one KC’s Rib Shack platter with my wife, slept about fifty hours, started breaking in a new messenger bag, played three hours of (mostly losing) poker, watched three episodes of The X Files, wrote a couple of thousand new words of fiction, plowed through the new Rolling Stone and Poets & Writers, and read five books.

I feel pretty good about the week, but I have a mixed reaction to the books.

On Writing: A Story’s Story

This week I have a story running in Fiction Vortex, a new publication interested in SF and fantasy of a “literary” bent. They’re nice folks, and I like the (twice-weekly) stories they’ve published thus far.

My story is called A Feeble Gleam of Stars, and it’s been around a while. I dug through my flash drive and Google Doc files to try to figure out how long. Note: To avoid the possibility of spoilers, read the story before you continue this post.

What I'm ... (May 24, 2013)

Reading:

I’ve been on a “dirty realism” kick this month: Charles Bukowski’s Ham on Rye, a bunch of Ray Carver short stories, and The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake. I’ve long been a fan of grit -- as any oyster can tell you it’s the only way to get a pearl – and stories of doggedness.  Life’s default is “not pretty and generally unsatisfying.” Happy endings and happiness itself are fleeting.  We can learn a lot from fiction that refuses to sugarcoat that, while still revealing the pearls -- the shiny bits that make it worth the work.

I picked up Michael Chabon’s The Wonderboys for $1 at the supermarket donation bin the other day. So far, so good.

I also received my contributor copy of Something Wicked Vol. 2. It looks good and, may I say, there’s something mightily satisfying about seeing your name in an other-published book. You can get the ebook (published by Random House Struik) on Amazon  or preorder the paperback via Barnes & Noble. I haven’t read it yet, but I have looked at the pictures. Did I mention every story has an illustration?

Writing:

I’m still punching and scraping my way through the latest revisions of Leaving Home. I have vowed not to write anything new until I get that together, revise the synopsis, and get the book back into the ring. You can do it, Rock!

Listening to: 

George Jones.

The new Bowie album.

A chum recommended the new Daft Punk, but I gave up on it and listened to Parliament instead.

Watching:

Batman Beyond … In the future, Batman is still around, but he’s a kid in high school. Great visual style plus crusty, old Bruce Wayne.

Drinking:

HiCu – Magic Hat’s cucumber/hibiscus ale. In a summer variety pack near you. Light and weird.

On Writing: Working in Two Worlds

     I've written here before of my interest in manual typewriters and the changes they make in my writing process. I have four of the things now, three-quarters of that stock picked up from the eternal yard sale set up a block or two from my favorite bar. My babies represent four of the big classic brands: Underwood, Olivetti, Royal, and Olympia.

 

Olympia Carina 1 (Early 1980s)

The Olivetti Lettera 33 (types in cursive, 1968)

Underwood Universal (1950s)

Royal Quiet Deluxe (1948)

     I love writing on the things. They smell like machine oil, dust, and ink and make quite a racket. The work feels like work, percussive, like I'm pounding the words out rather than politely poking them into my hard drive and Cloud. The downsides are, of course, the inability to save files electronically and a certain inflexibility in the editing room. 

    My heart leapt, then, when I found USBTypewriter.com. The fellow there, Jack Zylkin, has rigged a way to use a manual typewriter as a computer keyboard, linking it to your desktop, laptop, or iPad with Ye Olde USB port. Zylkin sells an "easy" conversion kit and a "DIY soldering kit." He also sells full conversions, but I think enough of my skills that I will attempt the process myself ... and then beg for help.

      Here's to the best of both worlds! 

What I'm ... May 2, 2013

Reading:

Every Last Drop by Charlie Huston. — This is the fourth book in Huston’s hard-boiled vampire series, featuring undead tough guy Joe Pitt. Half-life ain’t getting any easier for Joe, and, early in the book, a cranky old bat chews his eye out.

The Promise of Water by Andrea Crossley Spencer — This is a work-in-progress by a schoolmate about a man with a dark secret and a missing sister. Feels like you’re going to see this one in the bookstore someday.

Fiction Vortex  — A brand new sci-fi e-zine that picked up my short story, A Feeble Gleam of Stars, for mid-June publication.

Writing:

I’m about 150 pages into the latest revision of Leaving Home. Having a good time ripping, shredding, and rebuilding … but I’m kind of a masochist.

Listening to: 

I don’t even know. Music, possibly static. My brain hurts. But I’m intrigued by the new Snoop Lion disk.

Watching:

Doctor Who, the back half of Series Seven — I’ve been a fan of the Doctor since high school, and was part of a startup fan club in 1988. The last few episodes … how can I say this gently … kind of bite. The new companion is fine but Matt Smith seems to be thinking about something else. Plus, the scripts suck eggs.

Defiance — Siffy went back to science-fiction, and I kind of like it. There’s a lot of potential here, if they can stop lifting ideas from everything else. Confession: When I first heard the title, I secretly hoped it was a Deep Space Nine spin-off.

Drinking:

A lot of water — My classroom gets north of 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the afternoons. Gotta hydrate.

On Writing: Back to the Whiteboard

Used to be, I’d hear authors talk about how this book took three years to write, this one took four, and I’d wonder what was wrong with them. How could they possibly be going that slowly? Even at a page-a-day pace, any hack can have 365 pages at year’s end.
     Then I wrote a book in earnest, and I’m beginning to understand.  Leaving Home, the manuscript that earned me an MFA and a raise at my day job, started with a short story in the spring of 2010 … and still isn’t finished.  

On Writing: Literary Urinal Encounters

I peed next to Andre Dubus III this weekend, an unscheduled celebrity encounter during the New Hampshire Writers Project’s annual “Writers Day.”

For the event, the NHWP hauls in a relatively big regional fish (Dubus of Haverhill, Mass., this year, Vermont mystery writer Archer Mayor last) and makes him or her the keynote speaker. Lesser known but still top-quality local writers are pulled in to fill the pool with panels and workshops. (I went to a great one on writing suspense with Hallie Ephron that I’m still thinking about.)

Dubus is likely best known for The House of Sand and Fog, an Oprah’s Choice book that I waded through in the early naughts. His latest book, the memoir “Townie,” is much better. Here he is, at Southern Vermont College, talking about writing in general and memoirs in particular. It’s worth a listen

By the way, Dubus is not my first celebrity urinal encounter. That honor goes to Rene Auberjonois, who was Father Mulcahy in the film version of MASH, Chef Louis in The Little Mermaid, not to mention Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.