The Writing Process

     

Tucson Weather Today

______________________________

I have been doing some pinpointed research and tentatively writing a haphazard collection of seemingly unrelated short episodes that I hope to include in what I intend to be an original novel. This is not at all an enjoyable task. Below is a smattering of examples:

**********

Research:

It is fundamentally irrational to use violence to achieve a peaceful society.

Nonviolence is the personal practice of being harmless to self and others under every condition. It comes from the belief that hurting people, animals or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and refers to a general philosophy of abstention from violence based on moral, religious or spiritual principles
--Wikipedia

Governments use force and violence to obtain its revenue.

Ayn Rand wrote: "A government is an institution that holds the exclusive power to enforce certain rules of social conduct in a given geographical area." And: "A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort, or enslaves him, or attempts to limit the freedom of his mind, or compels him to act against his own rational judgment -- a society that sets up a conflict between its edicts and the requirements of man’s nature -- is not,"

Ms Rand also wrote: "Man’s rights can be violated only by the use of physical force. It is only by means of physical force that one man can deprive another of his life, or enslave him, or rob him, or prevent him from pursuing his own goals, or compel him to act against his own rational judgment."

There is more . . . much more, but that's enough for now.

**********

Food For Picky Demons is my Working Title

Lincoln "Linc" Powers is the name of my protagonist (main character.)

Linc believes in the ideal of non-violence, but he is not always able to incorporate it into his dangerous, adventurous, but quite profitable endeavors. (I do not yet have all the details worked out.)

It is my intention to describe (in literary style) and present to the reader the basic and true essence of a man -- I cannot reveal yet how I will do this. Because I do not yet know.

"The only story that seems worth writing is a cry, a shot, a scream. A story should break the reader’s heart."
--Susan Sontag

Opening Sentence:

Immediately after the shot a cry emerged from the forest's darkness that surrounded the tiny cabin; it started as a low rumble reminiscent of a grizzly's growl and rose to the pitch of a threatened puma's scream.


Body:

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ending Sentence:

Lincoln knew that even though the man had been taken from the forest, the forest remained lurking within the man.


Damn! This is hard.

_____

A friend from years ago posted this photo on Facebook

Hal Gray and his wife, Marcia (Parkinson) Gray.

He was my music teacher in elementary school.

She was my first grade teacher in 1945. This is a

recent picture. They look fit as a pair of fiddles.

_____

Did You Know . . .?

Judy Blume received “nothing but rejections” for two years.

According to Ms. Blume: I would go to sleep at night feeling that I'd never be published. But I'd wake up in the morning convinced I would be. Each time I sent a story or book off to a publisher, I would sit down and begin something new. I was learning more with each effort. I was determined. Determination and hard work are as important as talent.


Note: Had to laugh at this cartoonist's tale about rejection slips

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1885, Mark Twain published his famous novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At the book's heart is the journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on a raft. Jim runs away because he is about to be sold and separated from his wife and children, and Huck goes with him to help him get to Ohio and freedom.

Huck narrates the story in his distinctive voice, offering colorful descriptions of the people and places they encounter along the way. The most striking part of the book is its satirical look at racism, religion and other social attitudes of the time. While Jim is strong, brave, generous and wise, many of the white characters are portrayed as violent, stupid or simply selfish, and the naive Huck ends up questioning the hypocritical, unjust nature of society in general.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been hailed by many serious literary critics as a masterpiece. No less a judge than Ernest Hemingway famously declared that the book marked the beginning of American literature: "There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

composition  (kahm'-puh-zish'-uhn)
noun
1.
 a. The combining of distinct parts or elements to form a whole.
 b. The manner in which such parts are combined or related.
 c. General makeup: the changing composition of the electorate.
 d. The result or product of composing; a mixture or compound.
2.  Arrangement of artistic parts so as to form a unified whole.
3.
 a. The art or act of composing a musical or literary work.
 b. A work of music, literature, or art, or its structure or organization.
 4. A short essay, especially one written as an academic exercise.

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

John Joseph Travolta

(born February 18, 1954)

John Travolta is an American actor, dancer, and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta's acting career declined through the 1980s but enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction, and more recent films such as Face/Off, Ladder 49, and Wild Hogs. Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won the Golden Globe Award for his performance in Get Shorty.

Vanna White

(born February 18, 1957)

Vanna White is an American television personality and film actress best known as the hostess of Wheel of Fortune since 1982.

Molly Kathleen Ringwald

(born February 18, 1968)

Molly Ringwald is an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Having appeared in the John Hughes films Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Pretty in Pink (1986), Ringwald is part of the "Brat Pack" and has been called the greatest teen star of all time. She has also played Anne Juergens in the ABC Family show The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

Cybill Lynne Shepherd

(born February 18, 1950)

Cybill Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her better known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show (1971), as Kelly in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), as Betsy in Taxi Driver (1976), as Maddie Hayes in Moonlighting (1985–1989), as Cybill Sheridan in Cybill (1995–1998), as Phyllis Kroll in The L Word (2007–2009) and as Madeleine Spencer in Psych (2008–2013).

__________

"If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything."
--David foster Wallace

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

Right Of The People To Keep And Bear Arms

    

Tucson Weather Today

_________________

HISTORICAL CLIP

On 'January 31, 1950' U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announced his decision to support the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II..

Then, on November 1, 1952, the United States successfully detonated "Mike," the world's first hydrogen bomb, on the Elugelab Atoll in the Pacific Marshall Islands. The 10.4-megaton thermonuclear device  instantly vaporized an entire island and left behind a crater more than a mile wide.

Three years later, on November 22, 1955, the Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb on the same principle of radiation implosion.

I saw this image on Facebook --
Liked it. Copied it. Pasted it here.

 

Sometimes I grow so confused by the rhetoric of the American Ruling Class, the Industrialists and Politicians with their subservient lackeys, they who in the background manipulate the pretty-faced script reading puppets of the Mass Media, that I feel like throwing in the towel and just accepting things as they are. After all, I am only one man, and an old man at that... and I will soon be out of the picture. A vanished voice plucked from the roar of an ever-growing population.

But at other times I feel a feeble spark of defiance and begin to tap, tap, tap the patiently waiting letters, numbers, and symbols of my keyboard.


There is an old tried and true principle known to the once ubiquitous door to door salesmen that pestered harried housewives during the mid-twentieth century know as the foot-in-the-door ploy. And I wonder if the newest generation of supposedly informed citizens (voters) of the United States are familiar with that principle: getting a foot in the door is the first step to making a sale. Canny salesmen knew that. So the most successful sales persons did just that; they slipped their foot in the doorway as soon as the customer heard them knock and innocently opened the door.

Politicians and elected officials know and use that principle. You can bet on that -- take it to the bank, as it were.

Dedicated liberals such as President Obama and the leaders of the Democratic Party know that in a dispute with conservative congress-persons (the Republican Party) they, the liberals, must ask for the moon and seemingly settle for a crumb of cheese. Why? Because with the passage of time that crumb (foot in the door) will (by accretion) grow until it is as massive as the moon which was originally sought.


WORD FOR TODAY

accretion [un-KREE-shun]
Noun
1.
a. Growth or increase in size by gradual external addition, fusion, or inclusion.
b. Something contributing to such growth or increase.
2. Biology The growing together or adherence of parts that are normally separate.
3. Geology
a. Slow addition to land by deposition of water-borne sediment.
b. An increase of land along the shores of a body of water.
4. Astronomy An increase in the mass of a celestial object by the collection of surrounding interstellar gases and objects by gravity.

Simply put, accretion is the growth of a massive object by attracting more bits of smaller matter.

Passing a law that restricts gun ownership by banning certain types of guns is, on the surface, apparently a common sense act. But wait! Perhaps this is not common sense at all. Perhaps it is one of those crumbs of cheese.

History shows that additional laws will follow. It is inevitable. Eventually private citizens, the people of the United States, will no longer be allowed to own a gun of any kind. Only the enforcers, the members of the police and the military will be allowed to carry and use a firearm. And by then, the president may no longer be as meek and mild as Barach Obama. The future president will be (by accretion of power) more on the order of Orwell's Big Brother. Or worse.

Once, a rag-tag army of freedom-loving militia men rebelled and followed committed leaders in a war against King George of England. Those leaders knew what it would take to win such a war. And that is the reason that the following phrase appears in the U.S. Constitution:

The Right Of The People To Keep And Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed,

_____


BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Jackie Robinson

 

Born Jan 31, 1919
Died Oct 24, 1972

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was an American baseball player who became the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball,

In addition to his cultural impact, Robinson had an exceptional baseball career. Over ten seasons, he played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship. He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954, was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949—the first black player so honored. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

Carol Channing

 

Born Jan 31, 1921
Age:  91 years old

Carol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards (including one for lifetime achievement), a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. Channing is best remembered for originating, on Broadway, the musical-comedy roles of bombshell Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and matchmaking widow Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly!

Channing also appeared in a number of movies, The First Traveling Sales Lady (1956) with Ginger Rogers, the cult film Skidoo and Thoroughly Modern Millie, opposite Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore. For Millie she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.

Suzanne Pleshette

 

Born Jan. 31, 1937
Died Jan. 19, 2008

Suzanne Pleshette was an American actress and voice actress. After beginning her career in the theater, she began appearing in films in the early 1960s, such as Rome Adventure (1962) and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). She later appeared in various television productions, often in guest roles, and played Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show from 1972 until 1978, receiving several Emmy Award nominations for her work. She continued acting until 2004, four years before her death.

Minnie Driver

 

Born Jan 31, 1970
Age:  42 years old

Amelia Fiona J. "Minnie" Driver is a British actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film Good Will Hunting, and an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Riches.

__________

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
--Unknown
(Not M. Twain)
    

Thoughts On Reading Preferences

An article The Death Of Fiction in the January/February 2010 issue of Mother Jones first states, "Lit mags were once launching pads for great writers and big ideas." and then asks, "Is it time to write them off?"

Illustration: Frank Stockton

While I found the article interesting, I have to admit that it brought my mind back to those seemingly heretical thoughts I have been harboring and musing upon for a long time: my own thoughts on the subject of popular writing versus literary writing.

Not thoughts engendered and shaped and refined by learned teachers and professors of literature.

Not echoed second-hand opinions, but my own intuitive thoughts which, when revealed, so often transform bosom buddies into hostile antagonists.

My thoughts are based on my observations of simple common-folk, the general run of middle-class American citizens with which I (being one of them) usually associate.

For example:

The writings attributed to William Shakespeare were neither obscure nor elitist: at that time. In the 1500s. Around 500 years ago. Those popular works used words the people of the time understood and used themselves. Understandable words that were arranged to bring about an enlightenment of sorts, but known words, notwithstanding.

Words that were an illumination of a higher truth than that which the members of the audience were accustomed to ponder. Words presented not so much in written form to be read as is done today, but in poems to be declaimed and voiced in performed plays, words to be spoken aloud by actors.

When I speak of or write about my opinion as to what constitutes enjoyable reading, preferring Stephen King to Shakespeare, I am immediately characterized (loudly and scornfully) as being an uneducated lout. Which I am. Without a doubt.

Do I in turn step up and call out in derision, labeling my accuser an elitist snob? No. I merely sit back and wonder why these highly educated yet unreasonably-incensed castigators cannot simply continue to read whatever they want to read and, in turn, allow me to read what I want to read?

Another example:

From Beowulf:

Hwat! we Gar-Dena in gear-dagum

beod-cyninga prym gefrunon,

hu ba aoelingas ellen fremedon.

Oft Scyld Scefing sceaoena preatum.

(Translation)

Lo! the Spear-Danes' glory through splendid achievements

The folk-kings' former fame we have heard of,

How princes displayed then their prowess-in-battle.

Oft Scyld the Scefing from scathers in numbers...

Ever will be

the Morlocks

and the Eloi.

No further elaboration needed.

Loyalty to a petrified opinion

never yet broke a chain or

freed a human soul.

--Mark Twain