52/250: Choice 9 + author talk + the nature of poetry & flash

this week's flash
the new 52/250 theme issue is up: Lucky Number
the story i have in it is: Choice 9
the story comes with a touch of magic realism, in form of a Chinese dragon.
"It’s not a real dragon, of course. Just a promotion dragon. It stops in front of her..."

i really like the title image of the lucky issue: "Groups of three plus one" by Lyvonne Barber. for me, it's a visualization of the 52/250 concept: send out a theme, and then gather the different flash stories that grow from it, some in coincidental thematic groups, some as solo spurs. i also like the element of chance of the sorting: "by order received". which this time, accidentally placed my story Choice 9 between numerative neighbours: "Unlucky Number 911" by Susan Gibb and Tens by David Ackley.

author talk
in September, the 2 poets Daniela Elza and Arlene Ang met in the virtual daily café for an author talk - the talk is now up in Daily s-Press, poetry, skeletons, birds and PiratePad included. here's the direct link to the talk: author talk Daniela Elza + Arlene Ang

a thought from the talk struck me especially while putting the lines in layout, and that i keep returning to:

"Here, in North America materialism is so rampant. A plague, really. And the disposability that supports such a system also robs things of acquiring spiritual meaning. I see freedom in poetry because we all own the materials it is made of, and it provides a spiritual self sufficiency which materialism does not like, since it wants you to be dependent on it. I think when we are emotionally in tact we need less stuff." - Daniela Elza

it made me think, to some degrees this is also the nature of flash stories. there is no real money in poetry or flash: there are almost zero literary agents that would accept poetry manuscripts or flash story collections - not because they don't like those formats, but because there is no publisher market to them. yet both formats strive in the internet, and there is a wave of poetry and flash chapbooks from small and indie presses + also (and this goes with self sufficiency again), in the author-published world. virtually, there are fields of poetry and flash, coming in all colors and shapes. and they are out there, many of them free to be visited, read, printed.

another thought, connected to it: looking at my reading habits, i find myself reading more and more small press works, and texts published online, and less "established" books.
.

today: daily author talk + 2 new two² pages

today: a day of words.

now up in daily s-press: the second author talk. it was a joy to put this together, and it almost feels as if this talk happened for real, in a small café with bookshelves on the wall. here the link: Jessie Carty + Mel Bosworth author talk

this talk also made me think of the note Daniela Elza from Canada left in the comments after the first talk: "I think there is a lot of value in these conversations. We learn from each other just in the mere asking of questions. Let alone answers. It is wonderful to be able to talk across continents.
The whole idea of mapping the inside and the outside is a wonderful definition for writing. And walking this territory is transformative. And reaching to each other across and within is doubly so." - Daniela Elza

& blueprintreview:

the next 2 pages of the new two² issue of blueprintreview are online:

• Dream Girl - a dream story
• and Two, Too: An Other Inspiration - a poem.

happy friday~~

author talk: from context to the core of things

very short version of this post:the second part of my recent author talk is up:
author talk: Rose Hunter + Dorothee Lang Part 2
on poetry, solo travel, languages, pov + photography, roads, spaces and ?

longer version with notes:in June, Rose and i went ahead and started an author talk via e-mail. the base plan for this talk was to have a brief conversation about our current books. which then lead to some associated themes: solo travels, expectations, reality... you name it.

at some point, we thought of wrapping it short, but it was too interesting to cut this, and so the talk moved on to questions that went much deeper than first planned, like here:

"Writing and photographs - I wonder if you could say something about the intersection between these two art forms, for you? Do you see yourself primarily as a writer, or a photographer, or both?"

another fascinating point was the contrasting comparison of both books - looking at the way the books developed, the way they found their structure. we also looked at single poems and stories, some of them published before online - which then lead to the aspect of context:

"A special treat of reading through your collection was the encounter with poems I have read before, in another place. Context is one of the aspects in writing and in layout that keeps fascinating me, the way the environment reflects on a text or an image, and vice versa."

which also is true for this talk: it was surprising to see how placing 2 books next to each other brought out aspects a single review doesn't reach. it's a different way of looking at a book, and the process that lead to it.

the first part of the talk went online 2 weeks ago, now the second part is on:

author talk: Rose Hunter + Dorothee Lang Part 2
on poetry, solo travel, languages, pov + photography, roads, spaces and ?

(the first part is here: author talk Part 1)

anthology short story films

in february, i read Judith Hermann's collection of short stories "Sommerhaus, später" (here the blog post). this week, i saw that there is an episode film that is based on the stories: 5 stories, interweaved. it made me think of Robert Altman's "Short Cuts", which is based on short stories by Raymond Carver. (here more about Short Cuts).

of course, i was curious for the Hermann-based film. how would it work, those stories together? unsure what was to come, i watched the startig scene: a car driving along a winding canyonland highway. in total silence. on and on.

well, i thought. then the couple started to talk. and there still was no sound. "that's not the film. that's the cables" - i finally realized. but it was interesting, to move into the film like that. and to start it again then, this time with sound. and move from US canyonlands to Iceland, then on to Jamaica, on to Germany, then to Venice, and then back to the canyonlands in rather short cuts, with the stories almost blending into each other, with the soundtrack overlapping scenes. (maybe i noticed the soundtrack more because of the unintended silence in the start).

and in a peculiar way, the hurricane theme that started in June moved on here - the Jamaica story unwound around a hurricane that was moving closer. "Ich will dass er kommt," the bikini woman above says in 2 scenes: "I want him to come." (hurricanes are male in german: der Hurrikan).
which made me think of the Hemingway quote again: "He always thought, though, that if there was ever one that bad he would like to be there for it and go with the house if she went."

and another suprise: 2 of the stories didn't really speak to me in the written version. but in the film, connected with the other stories, they were touching.

not sure if there is an english version of the film, but here is an english review of it: Nichts als Gespenster – Five Judith Hermann Tales / KinoGermanFilm.

(and here, more about anthology films)
~

new yorker butterfly saturday

saturday. in the garden: butterflies. and me. reading Lorrie Moore's short story "Childcare". which is featured in The New Yorker. and actually is an excerpt of her upcoming new novel, "Gate at the Stairs". so now i know a book to wish for in September.

here is some of it:

“Well,” Sarah said as we both got into her car. “That was, for all intents and purposes, a complete disaster.” She started up the engine. “You know?” she continued. “I always do the wrong thing. I do the wrong thing so much that the times I actually do the right thing stand out so brightly in my memory that I forget I always do the wrong thing.”

and here, the story link: Childcare, and more about Lorrie Moore.

~

32°

32°.
summer full on.

and i finally thought of asking this question in the library: "if i have a book wish -"
the one at the counter smiled at me. and pointed at a red folder. "- then just write it into the book-wish-book."

so simple.
now, for a book to wish.

(and almost in time, there is a book post up in the millions. only that it is about future books. but wow, so many good books to come. even though it feels, both the authors with international background and the non-male authors are missing a bit.)

~

faces of zeit

Zeit is "time" in german. and "Die Zeit" is a weekly newspaper. i picked up the latest issue yesterday in town. it comes with an extra magazine this time: a Zeit Literature. with summer reads. and with Marylin on the cover. the sight felt kind of subtly coincidental: Marylin between all those Michael Jackson magazine covers. what a painful parallel.

but back to the Zeit: one of the main international news features is Iran. that's also where the photo next to Marylin is coming from. and strangely, one of the most interesting literature articles wasn't part of the Literature Magazine, but part of the feature pages: Iranian author Mahmud Doulatabadi writing about these times. -- and about writing.

"Die Einsamkeit ist das Los eines jeden Schriftstellers." -
"Solitude is the fate of each writer."

another photo from Iran, in between his lines, showed Neda, the student who was shot during a demonstration. again, a photo that felt subtly coincidental - some pages further, in the national main news, there is a photo of a demonstration in Germany: students going on strike for better education. in the collage, that's the news snippet in the right upper corner: the young woman with the flower. it looks so peaceful, this demonstration. but it made me wonder where the line is. and it made me think of the student's in 68, here in germany. back then, the demonstrations went violent. and a young man was shot. Rudi Dutschke. not much later, some students turned into terrorists, and founded the RAF. which then lead to endless tragedies.

from holding roses to throwing bombs. odd, maybe, to think: but maybe sometimes, the way is frighteningly short from R to B.

another oddity: just some weeks ago, some files were found that tell another story. Rudi Dutschke, the student who became a symbol of student's protest, and of state violence - it seems he was shot by a policeman who now turns out to be an agent of Eastern Germany. which moves the whole history of that time in another light.

(and maybe i got an overdose of news today, after those lake days. but somehow, all those newsbits keep spinning in my head. together with the story of Dubai, where the mega-building-hype seems to have gone bust. where construction sites are on hold, and investment plans fall to pieces. where people lose jobs in fast forward, which translates into losing ones visa. or worse: into prison time, as that's the verdict for being unable to pay ones debts. that's the newsbit in the lower left corner- luxury turning to chains.)

what a Zeit.

~

the story is all

while having a web-coffee, i came across this group-interview with 10 editors in Clarkesworld Magazine:

The Story Is All - Ten Fiction Editors Talk Shop.

here are 2 quotes:

about submitting
When I'm reading an unsolicited manuscript, I'm reading to reject. I need to be done with your piece as quickly as I can, because there're 20 more in that stack, and my wife is going to bed in 30 minutes, without me if necessary. So you've got a few precious minutes to grab my attention, and you better use them. - O'Neill / Black Gate

about stories
Do something with your life other than struggling to sell stories. Sheila Williams, above, rightly recommends that you populate your stories. I'd say you should populate your life. Do some stuff that not all the other striving writers have done. Go out into the world and discover interesting things about how it works. Report back.
Or, alternately, live in a closet and eat cactus. Emily Dickinson barely ever left her room. It really doesn't matter how you do it. It's not about writers and editors, it's about stories and readers. - Nielsen Hayden / Tor.com

~

orange / booker

another photo from the trip to town yesterday: this church is under renovation for as long as i can remember. it feels, as soon as they are through with one go, they start with the next.

and 2 links: the longlist for the Orange Prize and the Booker International Prize have been announced:

Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 - long list

Man Booker International Prize 2009 long list

In Praise of Not Knowing

webpage of the day:

In Praise of Not Knowing -
An Interview with Michelle Richmond

an ending line to remember:
But I remember that Richmond once sat where I sit: Ashe Hall, room 427. She once had Lester Goran as a professor. And she also once had no idea what came next.
“Good. You shouldn’t,” she tells me. And her tone is so reassuring, I believe her.

meet the author

webpage of the day:

meet the author
authors introducing their books in video clips

and here is their book shelf. (or is that author shelf?)

what to wear during an orange alert?

webpage of the day:

what to wear during an orange alert?
..to introduce, inform, interact, and instigate.. ideas

"reader meet author", "watch lists" (links to online songs & stories & videos), and other dives into the world of online subculture.

murderati

webpage of the day:

murderati
12 mystery writers dedicated to mysteries, murder and marketing

it seems to be the time of collaborate projects. i might start a tag for those.

stray future questions

some links i came across this weekend:

Paper Cuts - the New York Times book blog, a place i keep returning to regularly. they have a video interview with Toni Morrison up, a conversation with Toni Morrison about her book that reaches back in time to the founding century of the States. also new: a new part of their "Stray Question" series, this time featuring author Elizabeth Graver. i like this interview form, casual and short, the same questions for different authors. and Graver's answer to the web-question "Is the Web a distraction or a blessing?" is interesting: "I do wonder how the Web is changing the texture and reach of contemporary fiction, as well as the writing process. It’s so easy, now, to find out a little about a lot or a lot about a little. It’s so easy to get interrupted or to interrupt yourself. But what a lovely lot of things to find. If it’s the Web, are we the spider or the fly?"

and browsing blogs, i came across the link to an interview with Cory Doctorow in the Guardian, on his new book, and on sciene fiction: willing science fiction into fact. it made me remember the tv feature i saw with him earlier this year, and his reflection on science fiction, back then i tried to piece his thoughts together from memory in translation (here the blog post: wastelands or magic kingdoms). In the Guardian interview, there is the statement again, now directly from him: "All science fiction writers, whether they admit it or not, are writing metaphorically about the present. To extrapolate the future is really to comment on the now. - The job of a science fiction writer, historically, has been to understand how technology and social factors interact," he says, "how technology is changing society."

Zen Habits, Lost Years

what i am reading this week... 2 links i came across.

Zen Habits - a blog i came across a while ago. i subscribed to the feed, and this week, perked up, when i saw the latest entry titled "The Lazy Man's Guide to Getting Things Done". which isn't so much about lazyness. it's more about shifting the focus a bit, towards interesting thoughts. here some key lines: "Focus on being effective, instead of trying do everything perfectly. Let things slide, let your house get a little messy, let your desk be a little less than immaculate." and this: "Try to let things happen, instead of making them happen. Remember that a small rudder directs even the most giant ship." and this one: "The number one dream killer is doing what works. We follow a template of what has worked for other people. But just because climbing a corporate ladder works, it doesn’t mean it’s the best idea for you."

The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace - an article in the Rolling Stone. long, and thoughtful. i printed the 11 pages, and read them this weekend. it's a tormenting and inspiring read, reflecting his live and personality: "David Foster Wallace worked surprising turns on nearly everything: novels, journalism, vacation. His life was an information hunt, collecting hows and whys. "I received 500,000 discrete bits of information today," he once said, "of which maybe 25 are important. My job is to make some sense of it." He wanted to write "stuff about what it feels like to live. Instead of being a relief from what it feels like to live." Readers curled up in the nooks and clearings of his style: his comedy, his brilliance, his humaneness."
and i just saw - Harpers Magazine put a page up with the articles Wallace wrote for them:
"David Foster Wallace - In memoriam."

ecstatic talk bits

what i am reading this week... 3 links i came across.

Pep Talk from Neil Gaiman - NaNoWriMo is starting again. i won't be part this year, as i am wrapped up in the group novel, which is moving towards completion now. or rather: jumbling towards it. maybe it's no coincidence that i chanced upon the Pep Talk from Neil Gaiman this week, in this season of revising and renovating: "Writing is like building a wall. It's a continual search for the word that will fit in the text, in your mind, on the page. The wall-builder erects her wall one rock at a time until she reaches the far end of the field. If she doesn't build it it won't be there. So she looks down at her pile of rocks, picks the one that looks like it will best suit her purpose, and puts it in. The search for the word gets no easier but nobody else is going to write your novel for you."

100 Bits of the World - the homepage of artist Sabrina Ward Harrison. moving, literally. full of colours in these days of vaining light. and coming with words from Walt Whitman: "Love the earth and the sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul,.."

Ecstatic Days - Jeff Vandermeer's blog on books, his new Predator novel, his experience of writing it in 2 months, quotes from Nick Hornby about being found out, Ninjas, other ecstatic instances, and various writing tips: "Okay, I’ll admit it: work on my new novel is going well because every morning my long-suffering yet often amused wife Ann hides the router box and my cell phone. I get up around 7am, I have my breakfast, then get down to work. Around noon I take a break to get some lunch, then go back to it, usually at that point editing or organizing notes. Around 2:30 I call Ann on our landline and she tells me where the router box and the cell phone are so I can finish up the afternoon with necessary emails and other work, before going to the gym."

5 under 35

These five writers have each been selected by a previous National Book Award Finalist or Winner as someone whose work is particularly promising and exciting and is among the best of a new generation of writers.

that's what the National Book Foundation announced.

they have a bio of each writer on their webpage, but somehow, they didn't include any links. curious as i am, i googled for interviews and short stories. out came an interesting reading trip.

---

Matthew Eck - The Farther Shore
"I joined the army because I always knew that I wanted to be a writer. I’d been reading Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O’Brien and Ernest Hemingway and it just seemed like the right thing to do to gather life experience and meaning and understanding." - Matthew Eck

interview: litkicks - interview
book review: New York Times - A Soldier's Tale
----

Nam Le - The Boat
"Maybe I’m old-school in that I still believe the finest thing a story can do is move its reader—to set off a little sob in the spine, as I think Nabokov called it. I don’t believe in technical self-limitation. I do believe 21st century consciousness is a complicated thing—and that its complications are without precedence. At bottom, I believe it’s a tough but good time to be writing." - Nam Le

interview: Luna Park - interview
short story online: Zoetrope - Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice
author/book webpage: NamLeOnline
---

Keith Gessen - All the Sad Young Literary Men
"I'm not exactly sure where the idea of it being a "serious literary" book came from--from Gawker? From things I said to the Times? I don't know. And I do have serious intentions with the book, don't get me wrong. But the *form* of the book is primarily satirical." - Keith Gessen

book review: Herald Tribune - All the Sad Young Literary Men
interview: The YM Keith Gessen Q&A
interview on n+1: New York Inquirer - Blogs, Beef, and Babyshambles
blog: Keith Gessen Blog
----

Sana Krasikov - One More Year: Stories
"It’s often when we think we have a very clear grasp of our reality that everything changes. Which makes me wonder if there’s a fractal-like quality to some motifs, or if the experience of “not seeing” that’s being explored on a very small scale in the stories is, in fact, reflective of a bigger, mass experience of uncertainty." - Sana Krasikov

book review: Bilateral Commitments - New York Times
interview: 3 Guys 1 Book - Story Interview
essay: Sana Krasikov: 2 stories worth the challenge
----

Fiona Maazel - Last Last Chance
"I started reading up on the Vikings and learned — to my delight — that much of Norse mythology is about language and poetry and storytelling. He who is best with words always wins. Since much of the novel is about story-telling as it dovetails with some principles of your average twelve-step program (you tell us your story, I’ll tell you mine), it all started to work out." - Fiona Maazel

review & interview: Fiona Maazel's Got the Human Condition
book review: Bad Habit - New York Times
book page: Last Last Chance
----

years and years

"Have you ever noticed that when an author becomes really popular, readers act like the author's success appeared out of nowhere? - In reality, a big success takes anywhere from 2 to 10 years."

those lines, they come from the blog that i regularly read: Pub Rants, by Agent Kristin, who gives peeks into the life of a literary agent. her statement on overnight success is one to ponder on. even more so as magazines and tv stations are so eager to present shooting stars. while the reality behind the headlines works different.
(direct link to the post: Overnight Success Takes 2 to 10 years)

another writing timeline i came across: Laurel Snyder, author of "Up and Down the Scratchy Mountain", does a blog tour these days, and talks about her writing experience.

"The process was painfully slow. It took almost a year to write 70 pages, head down, working a few hours every few days. And then it took another 2 years to revise that draft. And then it took six years of edits and drafts and disappointing mailboxes to get to this point. But I should say that when I began I knew NOTHING about writing long prose. Nothing! So this book functioned, in a lot of ways, as an exercise for me– it taught me POV and arc and all that silly stuff poets don’t need to know."
(interview link: Books, Chocolate, Sundries - Laurel Snyder)

and then there is Tolkien. last month, i read the first book of Lord of the Rings. which then made me pick up his biography in the library. turned out, it took Tolkien 16 years to write the trilogy. even after he finished, he kept rewriting scenes. and he kept working on another novel, one that is connected to the Rings, too: the Silmarillion a book that was finished by his son.

years and years.

but then, life isn't only about the finishing. it's also about the process. that's what an enlightening cartoon clip reminded me of this morning. here the link: Alan Watts - Life and Music.

here's to the music of life.

future with(out) a smile

"It's easier to write about how the current world went wrong than it is to come up with believable ways how the current world is going to survive and prosper."
- Gardner Dozois

this quote, i came across it about a month ago. today, i was reminded of it when i read a review in the omnivoracious blog: there's a collection of stories for a better future out now. it's title: Seeds of Change. i haven't read any of the stories yet, but what already struck me was the line from John Joseph Adam's introduction:

"It is my hope that reading these stories inspires some to plant their own seeds of change—that when we see something wrong, we'll do something about it. We're all in this together—and the first step toward change can begin with any one of us."

sounds so simple. so logical, really. and still, the human mind is neither: simple. or logical.

which brings me back to the first quote, and the place that linked to it: SF-writer Paolo Bagicalupi's blog entry on Optimistic CO2 Sci-Fi. in this entry, he sums the parameters of human behaviour up in a plain and ingenious two-pointer:

So I see the central problem of realistic optimistic sci-fi as being at least two-fold:
1. We’re all so self-serving.
2. We seem to be biologically wired not to deal with any problem that’s not an obvious and immediate threat.

and finally, the blog entry where the quote is from: Jetse de Vries reflection on the same topic: Optimism in SF: Is It Dead?

between their sci-fi-lines, both of the posts of course point towards a more pressing question. realistically, how long can we keep living the way we do?

everything

"Quick Read" -

promised the book cover. the book's name: The Book Boy. written by Joanna Trollope. 94 pages in 16pt print. a book that easily can be read during one afternoon. that is, if you can read.

for that's what the book is about: it tells the story of Alice. who can't.

"I can't - " Alice stopped again, and took a deep breath.
"I can't - read very well."
Mrs Chandra looked amazed. "What has that got to do with anything?"
"Everything," Alice said. "Everything. It makes me - different."

everything. no ABC. and fitting that i returned to A this week in the library. yes, i am still reading alphabetically. S, it is right now. but when i walked past the A-shelf, i saw that it carries ne books. one of it, Mitch Albom. For One More Day. the most beautiful passage of this book are the letters a mother slips into the pockets of her son. so that he carries her words with him when he is without her, in a new place. like at his first day at school.

I waved good-bye with the letter. It didn't occur to her, I guess, that I was just starting school and didn't know how to read. That was my mother. It was the thought that counted.

and then - S. a library book about a library. Ian Sansom. The mobile library. with a note that i wished would have been story-length.

I write because I read, and I read because I write, the two being pretty much inseparable in my mind. I don't know which came first, the reading or the writing, but I do know that I started reading because of libraries. .. The great truth and beauty of a public library is that you don't own the books: they, briefly, own you.

reading and writing. and libraries. touching, too, to meet books in the library that, briefly, have owned you already.