Matt Foley: So you want to be a writer

Matt Foley: So what do you want to do with your life?

Teen: I want to be a writer.

Matt Foley: You want to be a writer? Well, la-dee-frickin' da!

Man on Wire

This documentary was absolutely spellbinding. It only strengthened my admiration for the documentary and nonfiction story. With stories like this in the world, why would we need to make anything up?

MAN ON WIRE had all the requirements for an amazing story--unique characters (especially the main character--what a charmer!), love story that goes awry, faithful friends, a seemingly impossible journey. I just cannot believe that something like this actually happened.

Before I watched this, I oftened wondered why it wasn't titled "Man on a Wire" or something like that. I found out that the police report which was filed after the World Trade Center highwire act actually said "man on wire" for the nature of the complaint. Ha!

Nanowrimo recap

My Nanowrimo went a little off track; I'm sure that's been said before by others! I wasn't sure how it would work out, though, since I'm not working on a novel or a book at the moment.

Instead, I wrote an essay. I started the month not even thinking about essays, and now I have an essay that I'm sending to a contest today. Overall, I consider that productive. It's been good practice.

FULL DARK, NO STARS

I highly recommend the new Stephen King story collection. I totally breezed through it. What struck me is how he is the master of the first paragraph. You have no choice but to keep reading. Three of the first paragraphs in the four stories are just great. Here's a sample:

"The one thing nobody asked in casual conversation, Darcy thought in the days after she found what she found in the garage, was this: How's your marriage? they asked how was your weekend and how was your trip to Florida and how's your health and how are the kids; they even asked how's life been treatin you, hon? But nobody asked how's your marriage?"

Gaaaah! Like, what did she find in the garage? We must find out! But just look at how much you can surmise in that one little paragraph.

Nanowrimo and other excitement

For the first time, I'm taking the plunge into NaNoWriMo. However, 50,000 words by the end of the month is a bit ambitious for me. I would be happy with 500 words a day, especially since I've been writing 0 words a day for a while. I'm hoping this is the catalyst that gets me writing and thinking.

I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking about my Camilla Hall project for the past month or so. I mapped out her journey using A WRITER'S JOURNEY, and that seems to be uber-helpful. I think it's actually a little too early to write (a lot more reading and re-reading of sources to do), but NaNoWriMo gives me the impetus to at least start jotting something really rough.

This morning's writing session went so well. Tuesday I'm a little nervous about. I'll be swimming in the a.m. from about 6-7:30, then I have yoga in the evening from 5:30-7 p.m. A full day of work in between. On days like that, just getting something down will be an accomplishment.

I'm so super excited for NonfictionNow! at the end of the week! It's been a long time coming--the last one in 2007 seems so long ago. I left the 2007 conference completely energized and excited.

Snails, etc.

Amid the celebrity memoirs (Billy Idol is the latest), it's nice to see there's room in the publishing world for the quiet memoir. This makes me happy.

Here's the latest one I've come across:



It's the story of a woman, who while recovering from an illness, watches a snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. Wow. It's about watching a snail. I don't think it gets much more quiet than that. I would love to see that pitch and cover letter :)

More here.

What's your favorite quiet memoir?

Qualities of light

While running on Thursday morning, I noticed how like a switch the landscape suddenly looked different. I think it was a combination of factors: clear air (not the hazy humidity we deal with for most of July and August), a lower sun angle at that hour, and the corn and soybeans taking on a yellowish tinge as they head toward harvest season.

The word I would use is “vibrant.” Everything just seemed so much more vibrant than it has in the past couple of months, those heavy-air months in which I’ve been taking early morning training runs.

And people wonder why I don’t like summer? And why I anxiously await the return of fall and winter? And why I would seek a place to live along Minnesota’s North Shore where the grand Lake Superior tends to keep the haze and heat at bay?

Vibrant.

Guess who's "writing" a memoir? Update

I guess this is why people "write" memoirs and why agents/publishers are so eager to represent/sell them.

As reported earlier on this blog, Drew Brees and Sean Payton (both of New Orleans Saints fame) had signed memoir deals. This is the result so far, according to the New York Times:



Don't overlook dear Kendra Wilkinson, right in the middle of those two men :)

Guess who's "writing" a memoir? (July 29 edition)

From Publisher's Marketplace:

Star of the MTV reality stunt shows, Jackass, Wildboyz, and the upcoming film Jackass 3-D, Steven "Steve-O" Glover's PLAYING DUMB, detailing his single-minded quest to become a professional idiot, his addiction to fame and drugs and his subsequent recovery.

*Also noted that this is a MAJOR deal.

Contrast that with this deal (reported on the same day):



Humaira Shahid's DEVOTION AND DEFIANCE: One Woman's Crusade for Justice in Pakistan, an inspiring memoir of her ten-year battle as a Muslim journalist and legislator to win unprecedented reforms protecting women from violence in the name of family honor, often at risk to her own safety, within a government ruled by corrupt politicians and tribal leaders.

Which would YOU rather read?

Butters, the writer

Guess who's "writing" a memoir? (June 29 edition)

Oh yeah...

Soleil Moon Frye (aka Punky Brewster)'s first book HAPPY CHAOS, a combination memoir/manual, with stories from from own unconventional childhood growing up in the limelight as a child star, and thematically linked anecdotes from her experiences as a parent of two young daughters...for publication in summer 2011...

An early Amazon.com customer

I was waxing nostalgic today and thinking about how long I've had the Internet. I had it set up in my house in Mankato in 1994, and I'm guessing I was one of a few who had a home connection. I remember when Amazon.com was just a start-up, selling hard-to-find books. I must have bought my first book from them in 1995 or 1996. It was Robert Fisk's PITY THE NATION.

Later that year, in December, I received a package in the mail from Amazon. I hadn't ordered anything, so I was curious. I opened it and found a coffee travel mug. It came with a note that said something like, "Thank you for being an Amazon.com customer. Please accept this gift in appreciation." I thought that was very cool. Now I see what Amazon has done and how they'd go bankrupt if they sent a holiday gift to every customer these days! It makes me wonder how many customers they had that year, that each one of us could receive a gift. Any guesses?

I still have that mug. It's a prized possession.

Guess who's "writing" a memoir? (June 9 edition)

From Publisher's Marketplace:

Demi Moore's currently untitled book, chronicling her life and career, promising a candid narrative that will be framed by her complicated relationship with her mother, Virginia King, who died in 1998, and her own experiences as a mother to three daughters, to Jonathan Burnham at Harper, with Jennifer Barth editing, in a major deal, for over $2 million according to Crain's, for publication in 2012.

Michael Caine's second memoir, THE ELEPHANT TO HOLLYWOOD, the follow up to his 1991 book What's It All About?, the story of how he grew into a film star, his insider's view of Hollywood and the story of his career.

Legendary rocker and original KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley's memoir NO REGRETS, covering his childhood in the Bronx, his ups-and-downs and influences which catapulted him into a life of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll, and what is was like to be one of the founding members of one of the most influential bands, to Jeremie Ruby-Strauss for VH1 Books, for publication in Summer 2011.

Actually, I have to say that all three of these have some narrative potential--they've all led some interesting lives. But $2 million?

The ode to the "quiet" memoir

At last, a shout-out to the "quiet" memoirs that do it well. Not everyone has to be a celebrity to get their story sold...

Thanks, Laurie Hertzel at the StarTribune!

Jennifer Egan's slideshow

Wow, I love this so much! Jennifer Egan did a great job mapping out her latest book on, of all things, PowerPoint! I'm so inspired.

Great Rock and Roll Pauses

View more webinars from JenniferEgan.

OK, this is scary (and not just because it's a massive run-on sentence)

From Publisher's Marketplace:

Senior intelligence officer and author of THE INTELLIGENCE WARS Steven Ohern's IRAN'S REVOLUTIONARY GUARD, in which he states that no organization or country -- not al Qaeda, North Korea, Russia, or China -- poses a greater threat to the United States and they will soon possess the ability to send Americans back to the nineteenth century by a single Iranian nuclear weapon exploded high above a Midwestern city, whose resulting electromagnetic pulse emitted by a high altitude nuclear detonation could destroy computers, consumer electronics, and, most critically, hundreds of large transformers that distribute the country's electricity, wiping out America's lights, refrigerators, water pumping stations, and televisions, leaving 300 million Americans without food or water.

Thoughts on rejection

Nathan Bransford hits it right on, in my opinion. With "maturity," I'm finally seeing it more this way. The truth is, not everyone is going to like your book, whether it's an agent who's seeing the manuscript or a reader who gets it as a book. I really doubt there are too many agents who beat themselves up after seeing something they passed on get published and do well. Well, maybe a few!

Guess who's "writing" a memoir? (May 4 edition)

None other than my very own guv, Tim Pawlenty. Awwwww....

From Publisher's Marketplace:
"Minnesota governor (and possible 2012 presidential candidate) Tim Pawlenty's memoir, including reflections on his life, career and vision for America..."

Publication is 2011. He's getting himself all ready for 2012, isn't he?

Guess who's "writing" a memoir? (April 29 edition)

Baba Booey. Yes, a guy they call "Baba Booey."



From Publisher's Marketplace:
Howard Stern Show regular Gary Dell'Abate's THEY CALL ME BABA BOOEY, written with Cha Millman, for publication in November 2010.

Pico Iyer's essay on the comma

I love how this is written.

Thanks to the fine folks at Brevity for passing it along.

A great obit

Of course I read page B2 of The Mankato Free Press every day. Sometimes there is just a great, well-written obit on the page. This was one of those days.

Warren Harding Latourelle

"...Warren was born on the family farm in Danville Township, Blue Earth County, Minnesota on April 4th,1921. His parents were Sherman and Edith (Schultz) Latourelle. Doctor Carl Lembke of Minnesota Lake was the attending physician. 'Doc' told his parents he was such a fine baby boy that they should name him after the President, and so they did."

I love it!

30 years, and finally success

I'd been reading good reviews of Karl Marlantes' MATTERHORN, and heard a little about the backstory--that he had served in Vietnam and basically had been working on this book ever since. But I just read a great story in Poets & Writers that filled in the details. This is a guy who once worked as a lumber salesman. He was a guy, like so many of us, who bought books on the writing process and read them voraciously. He went to college before he served in the war and was a writer there, but other than that from what I can tell he was a self-taught writer (like so many of us). He endured rejection after rejection, but always plugged away on the novel. As the story says, "...he didn't really think about why he perservered in the face of so much rejection; writing this book was just a part of his life." I can identify with that. I'm very much enjoying crafting my story and playing with the creative nonfiction form--that alone brings me a lot of satisfaction. Of course, some wider recognition would be nice! :)

I'm going to buy MATTERHORN, even though my reading list is pretty long. I love the idea of supporting a guy who seems like "one of us," those self-taught writers who put butt in chair every day to get it done, even if it takes 30 years.

CNF writers=Ginger Rogers

I went to the Minnesota Book Awards last night to support a most awesomely talented writer in my writer's group, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, who was a finalist in the young adult category for THE SKY ALWAYS HEARS ME AND THE HILLS DON'T MIND. Most of our writer's group was there. As one woman put it, "it was like our Oscar night." So true! I'm so proud of Minnesota's literary community. It's filled with so much talent, yet it's not too huge--everyone knows everyone, it seems, and if you don't know someone, someone will introduce you!

Catherine Friend introduced the general nonfiction finalists with a great way of thinking about nonfiction. She said that Fred Astaire got all the credit for being a great dancer, but Ginger Rogers was just as great and not only that, she danced backwards and in high heels. Friend compared nonfiction writers to Ginger Rogers--they have to create a story and structure just as fiction writers, but they have to add the extra detail of working with the facts. In essence, they're dancing backwards and in high heels. I loved it! I love working with the facts, thinking about how I can arrange them for greatest impact. But it certainly is difficult. Thank goodness I've never tried to write fiction (nor have I had any desire to), because I've never been tempted to say, "hey, maybe I should just fictionalize this"!

Guess who's "writing" a memoir? (April 7 edition)

From Publisher's Marketplace:

"TV stars, newlyweds and hopeful parents, E! anchor Giuliana Rancic and Apprentice winner Bill Rancic's I DO . . . NOW WHAT?: Stories and Advice from America's Favorite Couple, a window into their love affair, first year of marriage, and their intimate struggles to have a baby, a mixture of memoir and advice..."

Um yeah, I've been married more than 15 years. Sign me up to buy this book of their marriage advice.

Prediction: Remainder shelf in two years after their divorce.

Guess who's "writing" a memoir?

About once a week, I roll my eyes after reading the latest memoir deals on Publisher's Marketplace. I often find myself asking people, "Guess who's writing a memoir?" I think it could become some sort of parlor game. Yes! Match the blurb with the "author"--I think I'm on to something!

I will update this blog regularly (probably once a week, seriously) to list people who are able to secure book deals based on their celebrity (or usually, quasi-celebrity) alone.

Here are a few from the past couple of weeks, with the Publisher's Marketplace blurb:

Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints quarterback (two-book deal): "chronicling his journey from a shoulder injury that almost ended his career in 2005 through the Saints come-from-behind victory in the Super Bowl, including a look back at Brees' childhood and his years at Purdue, also highlighting the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans of the Brees Dream Foundation"


Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints coach: "detailing the Saints' remarkable season and how it lifted the entire city, including intimate stories about the players and coaches who were key to the team's success, and paying tribute to the everyday local heroes he met along the way"

Duff McKagan, Guns 'N Roses bassist: "a story of an ordinary guy who met with extraordinary circumstances, and the circumnavigation through these situations."

Ekphrasis

Me, in a poetry class? What the hell? But yes, I went to the Loft on Saturday for an ekphrastic poetry class taught by the amazing Jude Nutter. For a long time I've found myself inspired to write after viewing art, so I thought I'd give this a try.

Here's the painting I used:



The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, by Frida Kahlo.

I roughed out the organization of a poem. I'd like to find the time to craft the language. I'll do that in my spare time, ha ha!

It actually felt good to change gears for a few hours, to take a break from memoir revision. Like changing up your exercise routine gets new muscles in shape, changing up your writing routine can clear out the cobwebs.

Screenplay by Syd Field

I just finished SCREENPLAY by Syd Field and I'm brimming with ideas for how to shape my story. Comments from several helpful agents (so, so pleased with those who took the time to comment!) were starting to sound the same: strong writing, distinct voice, but no real narrative arc to draw it all together. It hit me one day that I should seek information on the three-act structure. I really think this might be the form that works. Of course, I'm not going to adhere to it rigidly, but I think the basic ideas might apply. I can fit the story into an Act I, Act II, and Act III, and I have the all-important plot points. I'm actually excited to revise--who would have thought?

I know I feel better after reading this

Saw this on Janet Reid's blog.

I'm in the middle of this process now--it all sounds so familiar! Except for the actual publication part, of course.

I think I'm going to print it out and share it with everyone who asks, "So when's your book coming out?" :) I wish I had kept my mouth shut all these years, because it's hard to explain what a long and demanding process it is to those who haven't been through it.

Writing vs. editing

Why would I rather work on something brand new than edit? I think it's because the new piece is fresh, it has potential, no one has rejected it or critiqued it yet. I have two pieces right now that need editing, but a new essay is calling. I only have a couple of hours. What to do?

Contest season

I'm compiling my annual list of writing contests. I can tell I have time constraints--my list is much smaller than previous years. I have one essay in mind to start sending out, but I have to spend some time polishing it.

I was on the Bellingham Review Web site checking out the guidelines for the Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction, and I see my piece from 2007 is still up there as an example of creative nonfiction work. I thought that was nice.

My non-Valentine's Valentine to everyone!

As I get older, I get more cynical about Valentine's Day. It seems to be a holiday for the newly in-love. For us older people, well, hey, if you're still bumming around the house with me, I'm assuming you love me. I don't need a $100 bunch or roses or a $2 card for that matter to prove it.

So here's a treat, an ode to non-Valentine's Day, from Morrissey, of course. "Tell me, tell me that you love me. Oh, I know you don't mean it."

Twilight

OK, I am far removed from my teenage years, but I'm reading TWILIGHT. I wanted something easy to read as I travel to and from Miami this week. Stephanie Meyer has been criticized by literary circles for her writing. And I say the writing is clunky at times. But yet I keep reading. And I went to NEW MOON, and was surprised by how much I liked it.

Here's why, and here's why I think these books are a success even if they aren't exactly "literary." Meyer taps into the exact emotions I remember experiencing as a teenage girl. Oh my gosh, I remember being completely obsessed and gaga over beautiful boys. Trying to catch his eye at lunch, or analyzing for hours one sentence he may have said to me, or feeling the butterflies at the realization that he might actually like me. Swoon! Meyer transports me back to that time, and her target audience is right in that time. No wonder it's so appealing.

Validation!

I think this is how I write! It's so good to see that a published author also works in this way. I feel like day-to-day I don't get anything done, but when I look at how far I've come in a month, or a year, somehow it all adds up, but I'm mystified as to how it happened:

This comes courtesy from a page off the Park Literary Group Web site. Janice Y.K. Lee is one of their clients:

Janice Y.K. Lee
Sometimes, I don't know how I finished my novel. I'm the most distracted writer, jumping up and down to attend to this child, that bill. When I do find myself writing, I scare myself sometimes. It's as if I write from one very specific corner of my brain, and I can't think about it too much. I never write for long stretches--it comes in five minute bursts, here and there, interspersed with much daily matter.
Here is my usual schedule:

Get the kids off to school
Make another cup of coffee
Bring it upstairs where I sip at it while answering emails (I live in Hong Kong, 12 hours difference from NY so I usually wake up to at least two dozen emails)
Browse newspapers online
Open up a Word document that I'm working on ("youth essay" for a magazine article or "new" for what I'm too frightened to call a novel)
Go right back to browsing newspapers and blogs
Shop for books on Amazon
Don't complete the purchase
Go back to the Word document

And so on. It goes like this for much of the morning. Somehow work gets done. Somehow, at the end of the month, I have five more pages, or an essay finished, or a short story edited.
Accepting this scattershot way of writing was important. For a long time, I thought it meant that the work I turned out was not good enough, or that the distraction showed through in the writing. This is not true. This is just the way I write.

-----------------------------------------------
For me, my list would be:

Check email
Respond to some if I feel like it (I will respond if I want to put off writing)
Look into writing contests/journals accepting submissions
Open up Word document
Open up journal document
Write in journal about what a distracted writer I am
Check Facebook
Get back to writing
After about half-hour, check my writing group blog
Get back to writing
After 10 minutes, research on Internet something I'm writing about
And on it goes...