TAGGED

5 Replies


by Alan Beard

I’ve been ‘tagged,’ whatever that means, by Alan Beard, author of Taking Doreen Out of the Sky. The editor of the great ‘Short Review’ Tania Hershman tagged Alan to answer some questions and Alan, in turn, tagged me. Here I go with more info than you ever wanted!

1) What were you doing ten years ago?
1998? I was walking everywhere and very fit because I let my son use my car to get he and his sister to school. It was a good thing. What I remember about it is that being without a car, time slowed down. I know that sounds weird, but it’s true. I remember I wrote every morning. I’d had no success in placing any piece anywhere, but I hosted a writing group every Thursday (maybe it was Wednesday) around my dining room table.

2) What 5 Things are on your to-do list today?
**Work on the novel. I’ve listed the chapter numbers on scratch paper and as I edit each one I cross it out. Just started this process for the millioneth time a couple days ago. I’m on Chapter 6 and determined to get to the end this time.
**Walk at 8:30, this weird cross-country ski thing (on the streets of SoPas) I do now every Monday and Friday with Estelle and her band of acolytes.
**Go to lunch with my mom-in-law and some far-flung cousins in from Oklahoma.
**Cook dinner.
**Welcome my husband back from London. I have missed him!

3) What would you do with a billion dollars?
Revamp the education system in the United States. Encourage the culture to elevate the position of “teacher” to the status of JDs, MBAs, and MDs. All those kids who go to law school because they have no idea what they want to do would go to hard to get into grad schools to learn how to really teach and to develop new and effective strategies. I know. The teaching to teach and the strategies happens, but if a country cannot lure its brightest citizens to the profession, then the profession needs to be put on a par with those that do lure. What is that lure? Money, yes, but also cache, status, and satisfaction in actually contributing to society.

5) List the places you have lived.
Louisiana, Iowa, California, in my head.

6) List the jobs you have had
Parks and rec, retail sales, counter person at Rusty’s Roast Beef, as well as store manager, district manager, buyer, and teacher. Did I say wife and mom and mistress of Risuli and Cinder?

7) List the people you’d like to know more about.
Not so much “know about” but rather to go to lunch with: Joyce Carol Oates, Carol Shields (alas), Harper Lee, Margaret Atwood, W. Somerset Maugham, Pablo Picasso, Abigail Adams, Jane Addams, Helen Keller, and Joshua from “So you think you can dance.”

BTW, the numbering isn’t mine though I probably messed it up somewhere!

Another Lesson From Reality TV: Emulate those who succeed

4 Replies

Project Runway is my absolute favorite reality show. Although my other favorites feature real talent and creativity, PR features the kind of creativity that I relate to. Not saying I could do what they do anymore than I can sing or dance. I can’t sew anything but a curtain panel, but I’m talking about deeper stuff, that digging into the hidden corners of the right brain when doing art and finding originality. That’s what two designers were able to do on last night’s premier of Project Runway, Season 5.

What is originality? Talent and imagination, certainly, but also a third component, knowing what to do with it. One could say a person either is talented or not, has imagination or doesn’t, but I don’t believe that. Like everything else in our genes, the amount of talent and imagination varies, but of more consequence is what we do with what we have. Last night’s first episode of PR is a good example of what I mean. There is talent and imagination in each contestant, but two of them also showed that third component: savvy, the wisdom and shrewdness to pay attention to those who succeeded rather than to those who failed.

I can’t remember their names, Blond Tattoo Girl and Wistful Guy is what I’ll call them here. BTG and WG are obviously students of the show and so were familiar with last night’s challenge: Season 1’s grocery store outfit, and they were successful because they looked to the winner of that challenge while everyone else focused on what previous contestants had done wrong. That shift of perspective last night made all the difference.

Here’s the set-up. The contestants were taken to a grocery store and given $75.00 to purchase materials to fashion an outfit. Tim Gunn told them to think about the WOW factor, to come up with something that would “blow the judges’ socks off.” Austin Scarlett, the competitor who WON this challenge four years ago, pointed out that he succeeded by delivering the unexpected. The name of that episode was “Innovation” and his design, a bustier sundress made of corn husks, transformed an ordinary agricultural product into a snazzy little summer number. Yet despite these admonishments, many of the contestants headed straight for the easy-way-out aisle.

The most obvious and forgiving “materials” to purchase are, of course, trashbags, shower curtains, and table cloths. My immediate thought as they scurried into the aisles to buy these exact items was “These guys have thought about this challenge.” Of course they have. Me too. Everytime I take onions and avocados out of their plastic netted bags I think ‘evening gown yoke.’ But unfortunately, this year’s designers focused on the contestants who floundered with seemingly unsewable products, and they were determined not to fall into the same trap.

All except Blond Tattoo Girl and Wistful Guy. They paid attention to the winner of that challenge. They recognized Austin’s inventiveness and had considered about how they too could innovate. WG made probably one of the most impossible choices. He bought plastic drinking cups. As one of the judges said, “Exactly what ANYONE would hurry to grab for this challenge.” But it worked. He molded–literally with an iron–a corset top and bell skirt that looked wearable and was definitely sexy. He remembered the word “innovation” and by the silhouette he chose, he also remembered the corn-husk design. He kept it simple and pretty, AND used the unusable.

This worked for BTG, too, who won the challenge. SHE was crazy-creative with her vaccuum cleaner bags, her coffee filters, her tacks, and her binder spirals. Again I’m positive she’s thought about it before the show, asked herself, “What would I do if…” Her dye and bleach treatment to the bags created a fresh and artistic skirt. The burn-out filters worked humorously with the tacks for the bodice. It was charming. I was pleased she won.

So why am I–a writer–spending all this time on this topic? Because this first episode of the season carries with it a potent message: emulate those who succeed, not those who lose.

How many times has a writer, a friend, or even me, said, “I read the worst book. I know what’s wrong with it, so I know what not to do!”

Is this what any creative person should think about? An artist? A designer? A writer? Or should he or she instead, study what’s hanging on the walls of the Norton Simon and MOOLA? Watch what’s coming down the runway at Olypus Fashion Week? Or read closely for the content, the structure, the language of To Kill a Mockingbird or The Yiddish Policeman’s Union or Tess of the D’Urbevilles and shout out loud, “Now this is the kind of art I want to do!”

The two best pieces last night were created by savvy designers who listened, who studied the winners, who dug to the center of their imaginations, and who executed with confidence and verve. That’s the kind of writer I want to be. An original.

Not Knowing Shouldn’t Keep Me from Not Doing

1 Reply

“The single largest advantage a veteran writer has over the beginner is this tolerance for not knowing.” –Ron Carlson from Ron Carlson Writes a Story.

It’s funny how I’ll read a book about writing or even just a piece of literature and then I go on and on about it for days. This time it’s Ron Carlson. Last week he helped me write a whole story which I’ve submitted to Flash Fiction On-line, a new venue for me. And this week he’s helping me stay in the chair for my novel. I’m bolstering that with keeping track of the time in the chair and how much I accomplish. I started work at 9:13 this morning. BTW, I shouldn’t be typing this right now. I’ve now been distracted for about 10 minutes! Dang, and it’s 10:08 AM. That means I managed to work less than an hour before I figured out a way to goof off. Back to WCB. It’s now 10:09.

It’s 4:28 and I’m three chapters in having done more editing than I would have thought. But I’ve learned a lot writing my flashes this year about what I don’t have to say so I think these chapters are tighter and therefore, better. As for my seat of the pants in the chair, I haven’t been very good. I would be six chapters in if I’d just stayed the course. I tried to work outside away from the phone and internet but it’s been hot here today and the garage isn’t air conditioned so I gave up and came into the chill of the house where there is email and EDF forums to read, food, and HGTV. Yish.

But I am begun really this time. I have to keep up my momentum because I do not want to reread these chapters again until I’m finished. I taped a note on the fridge that says “Aren’t you sick of the first 125 pages and aren’t you curious to see what you wrote after that?” I’m gonna feed my dog now and maybe come back up for chapter 4. I’m going to hold myself accountable to YOU out there.

Okay. I did it. It’s 8:30 and Chapter 4 is in the vault. I’m feeling as if I’m in a rhythm now so hopefully tomorrow with be more of the same.

Hmmm a good writing day…

4 Replies

I forgot how it feels. And I have to say it feels like a swim in a cool pool on a 106 degree day, a frosted Margarita with crunchy salt, a deep tissue massage in the shade of a bongo tree. UH, well, I’ve been working with words too long today. I can’t think of anything better. But I feel good. Writing. Lots of words on paper. Nothing better. And I owe it to Ron Carlson.

I read Ron Carlson’s book Ron Carlson Writes a Story recently and he reminded me that the most important thing a writer can do is “stay in the chair.” He nailed me on the hopping-up to pee, eat, catch something on TIVO, paint a picture, nap. I do it all, I confess. Today was different.

Actually it was amazing. I probably have six or seven stories at various stages of development, plus, of course, that dang novel hanging around my neck like a flamingo. So my plan was to pick something (one story in particular has been making good progress this week) and stay in the chair. But after I finished the Sudoku–Tuesday’s is easy–and was cleaning up the kitchen, I got a surprise. A title popped unbidden (?) into my mind.

Now title-popping happens to me all the time and though I jot them down with a vague idea of what the story idea could be, they evaporate more easily than that Margarita up there on a 106 degree day. Today was different.

With the title, Dani-Girl’s Rules for Getting Everything Right, also came the story, one I’d fooled around with about ten years ago. To my conscious mind, the two, title and story, didn’t seem to belong together, but the miraculous unconscious was looking out for me. I marched upstairs, grabbed my Ron Carlson book as a guide, and sat down in the chair.

In his book, Carlson takes the reader through one of his own stories from beginning to end, almost sentence by sentence. He wrote it in one day by staying in the room, and reconstructs just how that story evolved. By doing this, he becomes a coach, explaining his thought process just as he’d coached himself years ago when he wrote it.

He starts by telling how he started by writing a good telling opening sentence.

So I did.

The minute the nose of my Honda Civic points north on the 5, my hands begin to sweat, my breath goes shallow, and somewhere down in my lower intestinal tract, I feel a rumbling very similar to distant thunder, only not as pleasant. “Don’t Go Home” is the first cardinal rule in Dani-Girl’s Guide to Getting Everything Right and after a lifetime in a tract house in Lomita with my German-Irish father, Rule 1 is easy to follow. After all, he’s the reason I designed the guide.

That worked to keep me in the chair. I went back to Carlson.

He tells me to write another one. And I do. And another and I didn’t get up even though my butt got sore and I had to pee, I wrote until I had 1400 words, beginning, middle, and end. It needs revision, it needs readers to help me see the flaws, but hey, I have a story!

Sounds so simple. I wonder that I don’t remember this simple trick–the staying in the chair trick. I know I won’t be able to do it every day, but I will try not to forget that I can do more than I do every day. Thank you Mr. Carlson. I hope writers everywhere pick up your little tome and take a seat.

July EDF Calendar

Leave a reply

July’s Table of Contents For Every Day Fiction

July 1 Sarah Black Wood from the River
July 2 Alex Watson Beloaralsk
July 3 Alex Moisi Garden Furniture and the Apocalypse
July 4 DJ Barber The First Fourth
July 5 K.C. Ball The Mixture
July 6 Kevin Shamel To Save the Disco
July 7 Milan Smith A Bad Day Got Better
July 8 Sarah Hilary Post-Apoc Play (in beta)
July 9 Brian Dolton If We Were Briar Roses
July 10 Kim McDougall Touched
July 11 B. Teuscher Rain
July 12 Kathleen Mack One Toke Over
July 13 A.C. Wise The Chupacabra in Love
July 14 David Macpherson Forbidden Planet
July 15 Peter Tupper Sparkers
July 16 Oonah V Joslin Division
July 17 Edward Caputo Gruff
July 18 Venkatesh Vedam Hello
July 19 Allison Sherman Garden of Promises
July 20 Bill Ward Gandolo of the Watchful Eye
July 21 Nicholas Ozment The Only Difference Between Men and Boys…
July 22 Carlos Navarro The Killer Fog
July 23 Nick Logan The Next Move
July 24 Bill West Eternity
July 25 Scott M. Sandridge Sleep Paralysis
July 26 Joanna M. Weston The Train
July 27 Frank Roger Hellish Paradise
July 28 Jonathan Pinnock Cock Up
July 29 Megan Arkenberg The Soucouyant
July 30 Madeline Mora-Summonte A Quarter For Your Thoughts
July 31 Amy Sisson The Lion Tamer’s Sock

Iowa Pix

2 Replies

Most of these were taken by my sister in Iowa. These are some familiar Iowa City and Coralville pix.

1. Coralville Strip, showing CopyWorks where I’ve spent many a hectic afternoon.
2. This is the parking lot of Jane’s hairdresser’s salon on the strip.

3. This is the bridge by the EPB going into Coralville.


4. The Heartland Inn in Coralville.



5. The Iowa House. I always stayed here and requested a river view. Now I’m not so sure!

6. The Mayflower, Sharon, for you.
7. Jane’s commute along Hwy 30!

Water

Leave a reply

First Louisiana. That’s where I was born. Down the bayou. More hard ground back then. The gulf moves inland bringing salt water to fresh water wild life. Louisiana provides 30% of the nation’s sea food. Or did until Katrina. Brush Island sank with the rest of the barrier and Houma is almost a coastal city.

Now Iowa. I lived in a little town in the northeast called Alpha. 113 people until the Halversons moved out, leaving only 98 of us. Then we moved. I thought I’d come to California to be a Mouseketeer. Don’t laugh. I was 6. Alpha has a creek, cutting through town that I was forbidden to play near. Today it may be more of a river.

My sister lives in Mount Vernon Iowa. She has three kids and works at the University of Iowa 30 miles away in Iowa City. I used to go back there in the summer to take writing classes from grads of the famous Iowa Writers Workshop. The names of authors are pressed into the sidewalk on brass plaques. Mecca. The ped bridge across the Iowa River which takes one from the Student Union to the art gallery is underwater.

In case you’re addicted to good fiction

2 Replies
June’s Table of Contents at Every Day Fiction
Be sure to vote after you read each story

June 1 Brian Dolton The Gray World
June 2 Greg Likins Cavedweller 2.0
June 3 Tels Merrick Say It With Flowers
June 4 R. L. Copple The Captain’s Chair
June 5 Catherine J Gardner Burying Sam
June 6 Gay Degani Spring Melt
June 7 Margaret B. Davidson Homecoming
June 8 Harold N. Walters Stumped
June 9 Ann Wilkes The Heist
June 10 Sylvia Spruck Wrigley Listen
June 11 Nick Logan Desert Island Solitaire, or, A Good Cigar Is A Smoke
June 12 Lee Beavington Second Opinion
June 13 Bill Ward Junkyard Rats
June 14 Jennifer Tatroe When She Comes to It
June 15 Gianna De Persiis Vona Sacrifice
June 16 Madeline Mora-Summonte The Salute of the Old And Crotchety
June 17 Rosie de la Mare A Moment
June 18 Nicola Horn The End
June 19 Kevin Shamel Mail
June 20 Milton T. Burton The Watchers
June 21 Chaz Siu Prodigal Piano
June 22 Oonah V Joslin Missy’s Summer
June 23 Sarah Hilary Waste of Space
June 24 Andrew Males Mars Ascent
June 25 Mark Ward The Devil and the Details
June 26 Jason Stout Larry Legend
June 27 Frank Roger The End of Time
June 28 Kurt Rice A Legacy of War
June 29 Gustavo Bondoni Virtuoso
June 30 Harley Crowley There When You Need Them

Spring Melt JUNE 6 EDF Be There!

Leave a reply

My story “Spring Melt” will be published by Everyday Fiction on June 6. I’m hoping everyone will stop by for a quick read. It’s only 1000 words so it won’t put much of a dent (dint??) in any one’s work day.

Everyday Fiction has been a terrific boost for me as a writer who needs a lot of reassurance. It has provided me with a place for people to see how and what I write. Print is so hard to share when it comes to short stories. While I am thrilled to have a piece published by THEMA, it’s not something people can actually put their hands on easily. The two anthologies are available through Amazon, but I’m in the dark as to whether any one out there has bought them, let alone read my stories.

But EDF is instant gratification. Of course they have to say “yes” but if they do, then it’s out there, being read by fellow writers, friends, family, strangers, even my PMC teacher.