How about Facebook?
What’s your primary social medium? And why?
What serious revisions look like
I’ve mentioned the deep revisions What’s Left underwent on its way to its current incarnation. Most of the work was done entirely on the computer, but a few rounds on paper helped, too. Here’s a sample from maybe Round Nine.
Envisioning your reader
One of the basic bits of advice given to a writer is to envision your reader. It’s one that’s always troubled me, though. Could it be because I carry multiple identities as a writer? Poet, novelist, Quaker, retired journalist, with overlapping interests?
As a poet, I can’t describe the audience that shows up for a reading — the individuals seem to represent all types. Picture my readers? They could be anywhere in the subway car I’m riding!
OK, maybe it’s a younger, or at least more hip, crowd, but not entirely.
There go the pole bean vines
There aren’t many big metro areas in the Pacific Northwest
Like Joshua and Jaya in my novel Nearly Canaan, I was surprised by the relative importance of smaller urban areas in the Pacific Northwest. Look how quickly the population figures drop.
Looking at the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, here are the ten largest cities by metropolitan area population. These figures have mushroomed since I lived in the region four decades ago and even desert communities have been deemed desirable destinations for retirees. As for geographic perspective, remember that the Seattle standard statistical metropolitan area includes the wilderness of Mount Rainier National Park. Anyplace else have an active volcano?
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- Seattle, 3.9 million. Ranked 20th in the U.S. Feels more like Boston, Chicago, or Atlanta in its impact.
- Portland, 2.4 million. Ranked 30th in the U.S.
- Boise, Idaho, 730,426
- Spokane, Washington, 559,891
- Salem, Oregon, 432,102
- Eugene-Springfield, Oregon, 379,611
- Olympia, Washington, 286,419
- Tri-Cities, Washington, 296,224
- Bremerton, Washington, 269,805
- Yakima, Washington, 251,446. The major metropolis for the middle third of a large state.
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Note that six of the ten are west of the Cascade range. None are in the eastern half of Oregon.
Just to the north, Vancouver, British Columbia, has 2.4 million population, making it Canada’s third largest metropolis.
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What would your community match on the list?
Aw, gee, Doc
Kinisi 23
BARN DOOR GAP ROAD
DEAD END
Carnivorous plants
So William Shakespeare wasn’t the writer?
The range of the bard’s vocabulary and situations long appeared to be beyond the possibilities of the man’s background and training.
Long ago I came to a sense that he might have simply been the recorder and editor of a more free-form ensemble, an improv troupe, if you will.
Now I’ve come across arguments that the real playwright was Amelia Bassano, and it’s far more convincing.
A digital search will point you to the arguments, pro and con.
Anyone else like the idea that the most important writer in the English canon was a woman? One of Italian and Jewish descent, at that?
Are you sure you’d want your parents to see this?
In What’s Left, Cassia spends hour after hour organizing the chaotic mess of her father’s photo studio after he vanishes in an avalanche halfway around the globe.
He was something of a hippie, too, as she sees in some of his excesses from the period. Here’s something that popped up for her in a conversation with her aunt Nita. You won’t find it in the final version of the novel, though — some things just got toned down.
And? You ever see the movie he made about the courthouse?
The one with the dome turning into his girlfriend’s breast? Diz’s?
You remember he made that while he was still an undergraduate? Before all the really freaky stuff that followed?
Yes, and that reminds me. We need to have to get that reel converted to digital from Super 16. Before it starts disintegrating or fading.
You know what a hit that was in some circles? How he was on the verge of notoriety or celebrity?
So why didn’t he continue in that vein?
How would he have paid the bills? The big bills? Where were his introductions? Producers, distributors, even actors? Or his confidence,
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I’ve been trying to think if there’s anything in my past quite that outrageous, but it all seems to be included in my Freakin’ Free Spirits series. My kids would likely be disappointed, but I’m glad my parents never knew the details. I hate to think, though, of some of the things my two girls are hiding from me. My, the times have changed!
What’s something you or your friends are hiding from your parents? What’s most shocked or surprised you about them? What other directions might their lives have taken? What might you hope your own kids never ask you about?
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Jnana's Red Barn 