Author: Jnana Hodson

In downsizing to a remote fishing village in Downeast Maine, this eclectic writer feels everything's coming together.

TRIPLE PLAY

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

Any writer tackling a large work such as a novel or screenplay will need to consider the matter of structure. The easiest way out, of course, is to follow a conventional model.

In fiction that might mean 60,000 words, more or less, spread out over 20 to 24 chapters, typically in a straight chronological order, past tense. For the film, something that would come in a little under two hours. To that you’d add pacing, points of conflict, resolution, number of main characters, and so on.

Sometimes, though, you find that’s not the best way to organize your material.

For example, in its revisions, Promise emerged with three sections, each set in a different locale – Prairie Depot, the Ozarks, and finally the Katonkah Valley. Each one, as it turns out, can be viewed as a novella held together by the central couple, Erik and Jaya.

I didn’t intend it this way. The original version had five sections, for one thing, which I came to feel were simply too unwieldy. The cuts provided what I feel gives a better balance.

Let me also admit to a fondness for shorter novels. Novels, mind you, not simply novellas, no matter how much I enjoy them, as well. Maybe it’s a reflection of my typically crowded schedule.

Still, both short stories and novellas stand as kinds of orphans in today’s literary scene. They should be more popular than they are. An occasional solution, one I’ve enjoyed reading, runs a central character through a set of short stories to culminate in a volume of novel length. It’s a tricky strategy, though, and hard to pull off.

Maybe that’s one more reason I feel a special satisfaction with Promise.

Hope you do, too.

Promise~*~

For your own copy, click here.

WHAT ABOUT THAT “BROAD CONSENSUS” IN THE CONSERVATIVE CAMP?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 3 Comments

My introduction to the news site Politico came in being handed some of its articles for our newspaper to republish. The problem was in refitting them to our available space – they were way, way too long, and very difficult to distill. For the record, I love long, closely reasoned reports, even though I’ve also been an avid briefs fan for much of the daily news budget.

From the pieces our publisher had selected, I perceived an underlying leaning to the Republican establishment. Still, having such connections can allow access to unique insights and information. I’ll listen, as long as it’s grounded in fact.

More recently, I was surprised to learn that the organization includes not just the oft-quoted Politico.com website, either, but is more crucially built upon a Capitol Hill newspaper that is published anywhere from once a week to five times weekly, depending on the political insider news happening. (Oh, how I love that flexibility. Just imagine being free to say, “Let’s hold off another day.”)

As we sink into the big money at play in the ongoing Republican presidential primary season – and the congressional and statewide elections to follow – Politico’s investigations into the billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, become especially intriguing. I’d thought, as conservatives, they’d all be in the same camp.

Instead, Politico is ruthlessly on their trail. It makes for some fascinating – and frightening – reading.

For some of the latest, click here.

AWAITING THE WISDOM OF SERPENTS

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 4 Comments

Failed Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s recent endorsement of Donald Trump is disturbing on several fronts.

First, Carson was seen as morally pure, if nothing else, up to this point. Maybe even as innocent as a dove, as Scripture puts it. Not so anymore. He’s cast his lot with, well, dare we say those of ungodly ways?

Second, though, is his reasoning, that Trump is saying one thing in public but something quite different in private.

(Huh? Which one can we trust? Carson believes the words in private, but coming from a con man, can you ever be sure you’re not being sold only what you want to hear? A private conversation can be awfully seductive.)

If this is the case – and Carson’s not the only one perceiving the public/private dichotomy – are Republican voters not being set up for another of the kind of candidacies that have been fueling their anger, the politicians who promise them what they want to hear and then do something quite the opposite in office as they do the bidding of their biggest campaign contributors? Is Trump cynically plying this into the biggest betrayal yet? Is his “telling it like it is” nothing more, as he knows, a big lie?

Of course, the alternative, his public pronouncements are equally terrifying.

Either way, this can’t have a happy ending, not with all the anger and hate that’s brewing.

WHERE DO YOU ORDER YOUR SEEDS?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 3 Comments

Yes, we know all about the catalogs and the pondering that happens each January, along with the flurry of ordering. If you’re a gardener, you’ve wrapped all that up and have the seed packets in hand.

So where are your favorite sources? And why?

And if you need inspiration or simply want company or comfort, consider the experiences in these poems:

Garden 1  For more on my poetry collection and others, click here.