If you live in or near Chicago and are making plans for the weekend, think about attending the Printers Row Book Fair. I'll be there at the IWPA tent on Dearborn near Polk (booth BB). This will be my third year at the fair, and it's fun.
This is your chance to see and hear some famous authors, as well as to talk to us unknowns. I'll be featuring all three of my books, Reinventing Myself, Seniorwriting, and Elder Expectations.
Of course there are a lot of books to buy, including mine, but entrance to the fair is free, the crowds are friendly, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
For more information: http://www.chicagotribune.com/about/custom/events/printersrow/
Suddenly, I had the urge to write another rictameter. Until I come up with another crazy idea, I think I'll return to the old one. This time, I think I'll try using the letters of the alphabet for inspiration. I more or less got the idea from http://www.goinglikesixty.com/, at least the alphabet part. As usual, I invite you to try the same thing in any form you choose, poetic or otherwise.
"Hungry Minds: Tales from a Chelsea soup kitchen" is an article in the May 26, 2008, issue of The New Yorker by Ian Frazier. This is a fascinating story about "the largest soup kitchen" in New York City, at The Church of the Holy Apostles at Twenty-eighth Street and Ninth Avenue in Manhattan.
For fourteen springs, Frazier and others have conducted a weekly writers' workshop there after lunch. In those fourteen years, about four hundred soup kitchen guests have participated. Using optional topics such as "How I Came to New York," "The Other Me," and "My Best Mistake," workshop participants write for about forty-five minutes and then read their pieces aloud: standard writing workshop precedure in a non-standard setting. The groups held public readings each year for audiences of seventy-five to one hundred.
Frazier relates the substance of some memorable workshop writings, including one man's most important moment: his attempting suicide by jumping into the East River. A former backup dancer wrote a song about the soup kitchen.
This article is not only about the writers' workshop. It is also about the history of The Church of the Holy Apostles, its leaders, and its struggles to survive, as well as a history of a Manhattan neighborhood. While Frazier's article is well worth reading for those interested in any of those topics, the part that interested me most included this line:
"Somehow, writing even a few lines makes the person who does it more substantial and real." Their writing makes the soup kitchen guests memorable, and on a mild late May evening, when the church doors are open, "For a moment, the whole city seems to flow in with the air." What a marvelous way to express the power of diversity and compassion--and of writing.
Elder Expectations: My Life in Rictameters (Lulu, 2008), which got its start right here on this blog, is now available from the publisher. It's a little book, just 56 pages, and it sells for $9.95.
I've had a lot of fun writing my rictameters; if you haven't tried writing poetry yet, why not? Anyway, this is a quick read. I'd appreciate any reviews anyone cares to write.
This book won't appear on Amazon.com or other web sites for some time (it will show up eventually), but for now, it's available from Lulu. There's a link in the sidebar to the left.
Update 6/18/08:
Elder Expectations is now available at Amazon.com as well.
Yesterday I attended the Illinois Woman's Press Association's annual awards luncheon at the Union League Club in Chicago. Again I was pleased to receive two first-place awards, this time for my second book, Seniorwriting: A Guide for Seniors Who Want to Write and for one of my eGenerations columns, "Sharing your Experiences, Memories, and Stories."
I also received a second place award and an honorable mention, respectively, for two of my "Never too Late!" blog posts: a book review, "Retirement Planning: Looking Beyond the Money" and my post, "On Laundry and 'Going Green.'"
Here are the judges' comments on the first-place winners:
On Seniorwriting: "A very fine step by step guide for any senior who has a story to tell and who wants to write it down. Practical, interesting, engaging."
On "Sharing you Experiences, Memories, and Stories": "This is a terrific guide to self-publishing that sets out to answer the question 'What should I do with my writing? How can I preserve and share it?' In a crisply organized, smoothly written column, Styne takes her readers on a quick tour of publishing options ranging from blogging and participating in online communities, to personal printing and distribution of written pieces, to Web sites that manufacture books on order and a company that makes an audio kit for recording one's life story. Filled with good advice, this highly readable column offers writers a variety of ways to publish their writing."
The judges had good things to say about my other winners, too. About the book review, they said, "This review of the book "Your Retirement, Your Way," by Alan Bernstein and John Trauth (McGraw-Hill, 2007) raises a number of important issues that should be considered by people planning to reitre. It's not only about whether one has saved enough money, says Styne, noting the book's subtitle: 'Why it takes more than money to live your dream.' Savings and financial issues aside, Styne reflects on chapters about the importance of setting new life goals and planning the next phase of one's life, 'Preparing Psychologically for Change,' and 'Determining How You Want to be Remembered.' The soon-to-be-retired reader will find a number of helpful ideas on how to make the transition smoother and more rewarding."
On the blog post "On Laundry and 'Going Green'": "Mulling the inconveniences of being green, the author considers the suggestion to hang laundry outside to dry in order to save the energy used by clothes driers. In her humorous, unsentimental voice, this Chicago retiree draws a line in the sand. 'Those who grew up on farms (as I did) or in small towns,' she says, 'often remember sweet-smelling, right-off-the-clothesline garments fondly, but not me. To me, hanging clothes out on the line was a chore, just another of my mother's tedious responsibilities.'"
Thank you, judges, for your kind comments. Now the first-place winners go on to the National Federation of Press Women's national contest. I doubt that I'll win at that level (I did win one first there for my blog, "Never too Late!" last year and a third for my book Reinventing Myself).
These may strike some among you as minor awards, but to me they represent welcome recognition of my writing in 2007. I've never expected to become a famous, best-selling author, but I delight in these small triumphs. They support my basic belief that seniors should follow their passions, whatever they are. Mine is writing.
To read my winning entries:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Marlys%20Marshall%20Styne
http://egenerations.com/article-201-6-sharing-your-experiences-memories-and-stories
http://seniorwriter.blogspot.com/2007/12/retirement-planning-looking-beyond.html
http://seniorwriter.blogspot.com/2007/11/on-laundry-and-going-green.html
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
Photo by Marianne Wolf-Astrauskas: Seniorwriter at the luncheon, with fellow Chicago Cultural Center volunteer Joyce Dunn (left).
Every time I take a trip, and I've taken many of them, someone asks me to report on it or write about it. I've never been sure how to respond. I plan to study the art of travel writing more sometime, but as of now, I don't do much of it.
Travel writers seem to lead interesting lives: they sometimes enjoy free trips in exchange for articles designed to encourage others to visit certain places. That's fine, but for me, travel is about experiencing and enjoying--and as I grow older, sometimes about enduring physical hardship.
I have enjoyed many travel books and articles, especially those with fabulous photos of exotic places. However, I have never aspired to write such a book or article. My only real travel writing experience involved my husband's and my motorcycle journey in the former Soviet Union in 1990. I wrote about it for a Wright College publication, and I reprinted it in my first book, Reinventing Myself. At the time, motorcycle touring in Russia was unusual, and I kept good notes during the trip.
Today, when it seems that almost everyone travels everywhere, I have come to realize that there's little I can add to the fine travel writing that appears regularly. I have resolved to blog a bit about my trips in an impressionistic way. For my recent South Africa trip, for example, I have already posted a few pictures of the impressive animals in their natural habitat. Soon, I intend to write a bit about South Africa as a country today, and then I'll discuss the problems of elder travel. I'll share a few more photographs as well.
If any of this interests you, see my other blog, "Never too Late!" (There are various links here.) Meanwhile, what are your thoughts on travel and travel writing?
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
Photo by the author
Hello again. I returned from my trip to South Africa (and Swaziland) late yesterday, and I need a recovery period. One of the things I'm thinking about is how and what to write about my trip, which was wonderful but physically taxing.
As a preview, one of my favorite features of the trip was an open-vehicle safari through Kruger National Park (followed by another on a tour bus, but it wasn't quite the same). I was actually able to see all of Africa's "Big Five" animals: Elephants, Lions, Leopards, Cape Buffalo, and Rhinoceros. Of course you can see all or most of the above in any zoo, but somehow it isn't quite the same. In Kruger, the animals have all the rights and the right of way. It's as close as I'll ever get to their natural habitat.
Since I use an instant digital camera, I'm not confident of having good photos of all of the big five, but you'll see a few photos here anyway, as soon as I can sort them out.
Check out my other blog, "Never too Late!" in a few days. I'll have a lot to say there about the difficulties of travel for elders who aren't very agile. Still, I'm glad I went!
There won't be any posts here for a while. I'm traveling to South Africa for nearly three weeks. While I'd like to send regular reports of my trip, alas, it's just too much trouble for me to carry a laptop computer and figure out the connection problems.
I plan to keep an old-fashioned pen-and-notebook journal, so I'll share the trip--with photos, I hope--after I get back in May. Meanwhile, keep writing!
Hillary Carlip's a la Cart: The Secret Lives of Grocery Shoppers, according to Chicago Tribune reporter Patrick T. Reardon (April 8, 2008), is a "gloriously idiosyncratic project that taps into the deeply human pastime of daydreaming about the lives of others."
Carlip gathered 26 grocery lists (for example, "Coors, Oreos" written on the back of a matchbook cover), imagined what each writer was like, and then dressed up in that role for a photograph at a supermarket. She later wrote back stories about the shoppers and their shopping trips.
The idea apparently came from Hillary Carlip's teenage discovery of a discarded list in a supermarket cart. Since then, she's collected some 2,000 to 3,000 lists.
This idea fascinates me, at least the writing part. Carlip is also an actor and performance artist, which led to the photos and assumed personas. I have not read this book, but reading about it reinforced my beliefs that we reveal a lot about ourselves through our writing, and that almost anything can be a worthy topic.
What would my list reveal about me? That I'm no cook, am concerned about my weight, live alone, and am not poor, since I waste a lot of money on prepared foods: cooked, sliced chicken breast; packaged salad greens; lo-cal frozen dinners; sugar-free Jello.
I like idiosyncratic writing projects (see my coming rictameter collection). However, perhaps those of you especially concerned about your privacy need to shred your grocery lists along with your credit card statements.
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
Just in case anyone is interested in my rictameters, I will be publishing a collection of them in a month or two. The title will be Elder Expectations: My Life in Rictameters. It will contain 39 poems in 56 pages. This is obviously not a money-making proposition, but it is fun! Stay tuned.
Any interested agents or publishers or potential reviewers out there? I doubt it, but I'm always open to suggestions. Hope springs eternal.
I've never claimed to be a fiction
writer, but I've experimented anyway; two of my stories were accepted by Amazon Shorts. Like my other works, they have not been best sellers, and I learned long ago that writing would not pay in monetary terms. Still, I was pleased to notice that each of my stories, "Marie's Story" and "Volunteer," has received a four-star review from a reader. Update: each has received a five-star review as well! Update 2: "Marie's Story" has now received a second 5-star review!
Check out the reviews. If you have a credit card and an extra 49 cents, download a story, read it, and write a review yourself. It won't make me rich, but I'll appreciate it. Tell me what you think. Be honest. And you can read the current reviews without buying.
Click on one of the Amazon icons on this page, or on this link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/103-1435355-6091001?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Marlys%20Marshall%20Styne
Here's another of those little challenges that's been passing around in the blogosphere. I credit The Joy of Six (http://joyofsix.typepad.com/) for it, but from there the links go backward. I'm not sure who originated it, but here it is. You have to write your own answers. Please note: I've changed it from one word to one word or phrase. Do it either way.
You're Feeling: Worried.
To Your Left: TurboTax installation disk.
On Your Mind: See above.
Last Meal Included: South Beach four cheese pizza.
You Sometimes Find it Hard To: Get started.
The Weather: Beautiful.
Something You Have a Collection of: Small Travel souvenirs.
A Smell that Cheers You Up: Chocolate.
A Smell that Can Ruin Your Mood: Smoke.
How Long Since You Last Shaved: N/A.
The Current State of Your Hair: Limp.
The Largest Item On Your Desk/Workspace Right Now (besides computer): CD Rack.
Your Skill with Chopsticks: None.
Which Section You Head to First In the Bookstore: New.
After That?: Chicago Authors.
Something You're Craving: Chocolate.
Your General Thoughts On the Presidential Race: Depressing.
How Many Times You've Been Hospitalized this Year: None.
A Favorite Place to Go for Quiet Time: My recliner.
You've Always Secretly Thought You'd Be a Good: Newspaper columnist.
Something that Freaks You Out a Little: Crowds.
Something You've Eaten Too Much of Lately: Chocolate.
You Have Never: Driven a SUV.
Never Want To: Lose my mind.
I've written before about my long walks that often terminate at the McDonalds at Chicago Avenue and State Street in the Gold Coast area of Chicago, just off Michigan Avenue and very near my future home, The Clare at Water Tower. Between bad knees and bad weather, I haven't been able to take one of those walks for some time, but today, a sunny Saturday, I finally did so.
The crowd at this location today seemed to be a bit lower in collective social and economic status than the usual weekday crowd. During the work week, the homeless and the less fortunate mix with affluent business people, but on weekends, most business people drink their coffee and dine elsewhere, often near their homes in the suburbs.
Why, in a neighborhood of exotic dining spots, do I choose McDonalds as a desitination? Well, I don't eat there; I go only to drink a small black coffee and to rest. My long walk requires athletic shoes and comfortable exercise clothing, so I don't look presentable enough for the average Gold Coast restaurant. I like the anonymity of looking a bit shabby (or perhaps I'm basically a slob). And as a writer, I like the usual variety of interesting people to observe, all ages, all races. Here's what I saw today.
First of all, I noticed several morbidly obese people. I am a bit heavy, but seeing these people (most of them with full trays, not cups of black coffee) reminds me of the folly of overeating. I feel compassion for most people with weight problems, since I am one of them, but I need that reminder. I was also reminded of how easy it usually is for me to avoid or ignore the less fortunate members of Chicago's society. At this particular McDonalds, they are in full view.
Today, one older, shabbily dressed, obviously demented man was talking to himself in a loud voice. I couldn't quite understand what he was saying, but every sentence seemed to contain the profane GD words, and worse. Finally, a plain-clothes Chicago policeman asked him politely to quiet down, and for the most part, he did. I wondered about the man's problems. Is he alone in the world? I admire the social service workers who try so hard to help. I have no such talents.
Remaining aloof as usual, I finished my coffee and walked to the nearest bus stop, where I used my senior free fare card. Soon, I hope to be able to walk both ways, but I'm not ready yet. I could have paid full fare, but . . . Anyway, the walk brought a combination of hope and despair. Perhaps I sound like a snob, but it's not my intention to put down those less fortunate than I. I do have to admit, however, that they make me feel lucky, as well as slightly uncomfortable.
Be an observer of people. Have a cup of coffee at a place slightly ouside your usual realm or your comfort zone. You may get some good story ideas. Perhaps that's the search that keeps me going back to McDonalds at Chicago and State.
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
March Ends
Last day.My challenge ends.No more poems for now. AsSpring appears, we hope for times ofLight and warmth, long walks, cheer, good friends to shareOur memories of winter andOur plans for future life.We welcome you,Last day.
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
Susan Breen's novel The Fiction Class (Plume, 2008) is a book that kept my attention from beginning to end. This book interweaves the challenges of writing and teaching writing with the challenges of life itself.
Arabella Hicks, named for the heroine of her mother's favorite romance novel, balances copy editing jobs and weekly visits to her argumentative, hostile mother in a nursing home with teaching fiction writing to a varied adult ed class.
Arabella is 38, single, isolated, unsure of herself, and still grieving for her father, who died after many depressing years in a wheelchair as the result of Multiple Schlerosis. Her mother has advanced Parkinson's Disease.
A further depressing fact is Arabella's inability to conclude the novel she's been working on for seven years, Courting Disaster.
Her Wednesdays form a pattern: teach the class, then visit her mother, Vera Hicks, bringing coveted fast food that may or may not be appreciated. Vera's condition and mood swings are impossible to predict, so Arabella approaches the visits with dread.
Like many writing teachers, Arabella seems to rely on her students' written work to get to know them. Ironically, when her talk about the class inspires Vera to write a story of her own, Arabella learns about her mother as well.
The newly-awakened Arabella learns, in a sense, to believe in miracles as she finally begins to understand her students and her mother and to open her heart to love. and as that happens, she can begin a new novel.
The connections between real life and fiction have always fascinated me. My experiences as a reader, writer, teacher and visitor of my own mother in a nursing home make The Fiction Class ring amazingly true to me. The book also supports my belief in the power of writing for all, something that Arabella and Vera and most of the writing class students seem to discover as well.
Postscript, 3/22: Author Susan Breen has an interesting web site. Visit to find out more about her, and enter her writing exercise contest to win a free copy of The Fiction Class.
http://www.susanjbreen.com/writingexercises.htm
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
Seductive Candy
Candy:
Tempting. Too good.
Chocolate, caramel,
Peanut butter, almond, raisin.
Bane of teeth, producer of fat, best friend.
How convenient to buy it,
Calling me from each shelf.
Must resist it,
Candy.
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne.
This sounds like a day of celebration for stodgy old English profs like me, but--not really. I approach so-called Grammar Gurus with caution. I've come to realize that too much emphasis on grammatical correctness can stifle writing efforts completely. I favor a more relaxed, common-sense approach.
According to Nathan Bierma in his article "Don't get carried away on National Grammar Day" in the February 26 Chicago Tribune, the "policewoman" behind the sponsoring group, SPOGG, or the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, is Martha Brockenbrough of Microsoft's Encarta web site (http://www.encarta.msn.com/). She writes a column there entitled "Grumpy Matha's Guide to Grammar and Usage."
Like almost everyone, I laugh at extreme examples of poor writing. Here's one from Courtney Love's blog, as quoted by Brockenbrough:
"ive been nbot working the tightest program and been multi tasking and managing time horribly- so i was on the phone and i said i wanted pretty short bangs- not NO bangs and she cut them when i was on the phone with one of these whakcjob banks that heres some trust and some joint bogus account and some insane mortage in- these f***s for years and years and years=- in anycase anyone know exactly how many records Nirvana has sold all in worldwide since Nirvana started?"
"Grumpy Martha" provides a translation, but I'll let you look it up or do the translating yourself. 'Nuf said. Nobody should write like that. If Love's fans think that's adequate writing, I'm glad I belong to an older generation. Still, it's possible for grammatical criticism to go too far. Martha even takes Elvis to task for singing "I'm all shook up" rather than "I'm all shaken up." It just wouldn't be the same.
Nathan Bierma goes on to quote Mignon Fogarty, whom he describes as "a more level-headed grammatical authority" known as Grammar Girl (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/) . Fogarty hopes that "participants [in National Grammar Day will] focus on spreading the word about the style points and grammar myths that many people latch on to as truth. For example . . . it's OK to split infinitives, and sometimes it's acceptable--even preferable--to end a sentence with a preposition. It's shocking, but true!"
National Grammar Day is promoted as a chance to flag any violation of standard English usage in any situation, to write notes to storekeepers about misused apostrophes in signs and to set errant newspaper writers straight with "friendly" emails. However, I agree with Mr. Bierma that "Such corrections are seldom friendly, welcome or necessary. They are usually self-righteous, irritating and misinformed."
If you note some personal conflict here, you're right. I believe in good, correct writing, but I also believe in honest self expression. Let's hope that the two can coexist. Let's just be a bit careful!
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
Like most people with an Internet presence, I Googled my own name recently. There are certainly a lot of references to me, many of them very minor. It's an interesting exercise, however.
This time, I found a new review of my book Seniorwriting on a senior site I've been aware of, but not visited very often. I was reminded that this site is worth checking out. You can find the review of my book (with a mention of Reinventing Myself as well) at
http://www.septemberuniversity.org/booksaging.html. Take time to examine the rest of the site as well.
The reviewer mentions the relatively brief length of my books. I'm happy to say that he did not condemn that quality: instead, he wrote, "Ironically short books are much harder to write than long ones and Seniorwriting contains all of the elements you need to begin writing." I guess it's not bad to be a woman of few words!
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
We bloggers sometimes get the feeling that no one is reading what we write (hint: leave more comments). Today, I happened upon this review from "The Senior Surfer" (http://theseniorsurfer.blogspot.com/), a blog I'd not heard of. There's nothing like a good review or a kind comment to brighten a cold winter day in Chicago!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007:
If You Ever Wanted To Write Your Life...
"Have you always wanted to write a memoir but never quite gotten around to actually starting the darn thing? If one of your New Year's resolutions is to get that memoir out of your head and onto paper, you might want to turn to Write Your Life, an inspirational blog that just might give you the guidance you need to finally churn out your life's story. Created by senior blogger Marlys Marshall Styne, also a retired English professor and memoirist, Write Your Life is filled with the kind of useful tips and exercises designed to liberate the writer within you. For example, if you're "stuck" creatively or not sure exactly how to start writing about your life, Marlys suggests ten journal assignments to get you going in the right direction.A copy of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style on your desk and Write Your Life on your desktop might be all you need to get that memoir written in 2008! Best of luck!"
Posted by Aurelio Zucco at 10:33 PM
Categories: Notable Senior Blogs
Thanks, Aurelio. It took me more than two months to discover this, but I appreciate it!
Here is an idea I found on "Wintersong," previously borrowed from "Grannymar" (an Irish blog), borrowed from . . . . You get the idea. This is one of those memes going around the blogging world. Here are the rules:
* Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
* Find Page 123.
* Find the first 5 sentences.
* Post the next 3 sentences [sentences 6-8]
* Tag 5 people
I'll skip the tagging part; that's too intrusive for me. But I decided to give the rest a try.
The book on top of my "To Review" pile, one of those books sent me by a publisher for review on one of my blogs (I don't get books from the "big guys" in publishing, of course), is Send Yourself Roses, by actress Kathleen Turner, in collaboration with Gloria Feldt (Springboard, 2008).
I'm not a fan of celebrities' or ex-celebrities' books, most of which seem to be ghost-written anyway, but after all, this book does fit my criteria otherwise: it's the life story of an older woman, and it deals, in part, with aging. O.K. The cinching factor was that I happened to see one of Turner's movies, Serial Mom (1994), on TV fairly recently. It's a funny film, but not a great one. Still, I was amazed by Turner's ability to make a monster killer almost sympathetic, in a humorous way. Turner is best known, of course, for her first film, Body Heat (1981). She also had later stage successes in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? (2005-2007), as well as many other roles.
Page 123 of Send Yourself Roses comes in the chapter "Hold On to the Power to Say No." She regrets the one time (according to her) that she accepted a role mainly for the money. The film was Switching Channels, 1988. Turner was pregnant at the time, the film was delayed, and "Since Michael Caine couldn't do the film in time, the producer hired Burt Reynolds." As Turner's girth increased, her co-star wasn't very understanding.
Here are sentences six, seven, and eight from page 123:
"For whatever reason, he [Burt Reynolds] immediately said to me, 'I've never taken second billing to a woman.' I excused myself, ran to my room--we were rehearsing in a hotel--and called Jay [her husband], breaking into tears, saying, 'I don't think I can do this.' Burt was just nasty."
I've not finished reading this book, nor have I written my review. I may do so eventually. There is a certain charm in entering a world very alien to my own to encounter a woman whose life has been nothing like mine.
Pick up the nearest book and give this exercise a try.
http://wintersong.wordpress.com/
http://www.grannymar.com/
An update, February 21:
In the interest of fairness, I tried this with my own book Reinventing Myself. Page 123 falls toward the beginning of the chapter entitled "Taking a Walk." This passage is leading up to my explanation of why I prefer outdoor (fair weather) walking to other forms of exercise and to a description of things observed on a neighborhood walk:
"I'm not into suffering. Yes, I can exercise by using my stationary recumbent exercise bike or a treadmill at the local health club (there's one in my building), but that's quite boring. The bike's in my bedroom, so I do try to use it several times a week."
Not only is this one of the duller passages in the book, but it makes me feel guilty that I've not been exercising lately. I guess this writing exercise can be dangerous!
Another Update, March 18:
I finally reviewed Kathleen Turner's book on my other blog, "Never too Late!" Here is a link:
http://seniorwriter.blogspot.com/2008/03/lessons-from-50-something-actress-book.html
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
Life tends to get a bit dull in the midst of a cold, snowy, dreary winter, but sometimes something that I see gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling. It's such things that we should remember to write about.
This time, I happened to see a TV news report on the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. Just the sight of that happy little Beagle, Uno, made my day! Somehow, the usual poodles and other more exotic dogs don't impress me very much, but Uno is different.
I'm basically a cat, not a dog, person. I had dogs during childhood, but my later city life has not encouraged me to get a dog. I don't consider a city apartment the best place for a dog. Frankly, I'm too lazy for those outdoor walks, especially in the winter.
Uno reminds me a bit of my father's long-time companion, Bill. I remember Bill best as a fat and ailing older beagle whose decline seemed to parallel my father's (he--my father--died at age 70). Still, I have a picture of my father with a very young Bill, just a puppy, and he was very, very cute then.
The sight of Uno doing his victory walk, tail in the air, strutting happily, brought back fond memories. When something makes you smile, take time to think about it--and write about it, too. I'll have to write more about my father's dog, Bill.
(Happy Valentine's Day to all! Tell that special someone that you love him or her.)
It has bothered me a bit that on those rare occasions when someone asked about one of my past columns, I was not able to help him or her. The current column was always there at the top of the "Connect" page, but earlier ones could only be found when they popped up at random. Now, at last, all the columns can be found at http://egenerations.com/write-articles.
For anyone who might be interested, here is a list of titles for the columns I've written thus far. I'll try to keep the list updated. You can find them all with the above link.
1. Tell Your Story!
2. Excuses for Not Writing? A Few Reassurances and More about Getting Started
3. Need More Writing Suggestions? Your Life Experiences, Your Special World, Your Legacy
4. Writing to Discover: Who are you? Where have you been? Where are you going?
5. Flexing your "Writing Muscles": Interviewing Others--or Yourself
6. Sharing Your Experiences, Your Memories, Your Stories: Printing, Copying, or Publishing
7. Writing to Heal: Writing as Therapy
8. Expressing Yourself On Line and Off: Journals, Blogs, Books, and Blooks
9. Tell Your Life Story Through Poetry?
10. My Experiences with Print-on-Demand and Online Self-Publishing
11. Does Your Writing Need Improvement? Self-Editing, Copy Editing, and Content Editing
12. In Defense of Old-Fashioned Communication: Writing Holiday Letters
13. Year-end Thoughts and Last-Minute Gift Suggestions
14. Looking Back and Looking Ahead: A New Year of Writing
15. Newspaper Book Reviews: An Endangered Species?
16. The Humorous Side of Book Reviewing, or Is It?
17. Internet Book Reviews
18. Become a Book Reviewer?
19. Fact, Fiction, and Book Scandals
20. Writing Inspirations, Part I: Photographs
Happy reading and writing!
In my November 18, 2007, post "The Truth About (Old-Style) English Teachers and a Book Reviewer's Dilemma" here, I lamented being unable to review an interesting and well-intentioned book because it contained so many elementary writing errors.
As a relentless promoter of life writing and family stories, I hate the disappointment of reading a seriously flawed book, especially one that shows promise. I'm too honest to encourage readers to buy a book that I find hard to get through.
Now I've found a second book I can't review in a positive way. This book was sent to me by the author in good faith, and I have not intention of shattering her dreams with a published review. More writing errors? No. This book is very well written in the technical sense. Its "sins," as I see them, are an unrealized premise or unifying idea, weak organization, trying to cover too much ground, and a strange lack of vivid personal details. There's too much telling and too little showing.
I don't question this book's value to family members and friends. What I question is whether it has value for the wider reading public. The author, who has apparently formed her own publishing company to publish this book (I'm not attacking self-publishing; I've done it myself, although not by forming a company of my own), tried too hard to make her family's story special and unusual, and I didn't see it that way.
I guess my real point is that while I believe everyone has a story to tell, and that family lore should be recorded, not every book deserves general publication and distribution, at least until it has had serious copy and content editing. (See my eGenerations column, "Does Your Writing Need Improvement?" at http://egenerations.com/article-1053-6-does-your-writing-need-improvement). Be careful!
As for the book in question here, I hope I am wrong, and that the author's dreams will be fulfilled. I still believe in big dreams.
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
I've read more than enough diet books during my lifetime, from the sensible to the faddish, from the scientific to the ridiculous, without solving my weight problem. After absorbing the "wisdom" of all those books, I swore to ignore this year's diet book crop.
Then, I discovered Julia Cameron's The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size (Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, 2007). With a title like that, how could I resist?
It seems that Cameron, author of The Artist's Way and much more--non-fiction, fiction, plays, poetry--teaches a twelve-week course in "creative unblocking." As her students became more creative, they astonished their teacher by becoming slimmer as well. She observed that "weight loss is a frequent by-product of creative recovery." Apparently, "Overeating blocks our creativity [and] we [also] can use creativity to block our overeating."
This book is divided into two sections, "The Tools" and "Situations and Solutions." The tools begin with "Morning Pages": basically writing three daily pages of a journal. This is the same mind-clearing, self-revealing journal exercise I've long recommended and frequently practiced. "Writing Morning Pages, our mindless lives are behind us." These pages are great places to examine all relationships, including that to food. The Morning Pages evolve into full-fledged journals, by this time addressing eating matters for those with weight concerns. Other useful tools include walking and finding a "body buddy" to cheer one on, among others.
The "Situations and Solutions" of Part Two cover more than thirty common food situations, generally with writing suggestions and/or examples. For "Scaling the Scale," Cameron quotes a student who writes, "I feel the scale is all that stands between me and disaster. I can only imagine what would happen if I tried to go a month without its input." The cure for bathroom scale panic, according to the author, is to weigh oneself monthly, not daily.
In "Eating to Please," the author points out that many believe that food is love, so we eat what a loved one eats and join in extravagant meals. We may eat to show our appreciation for "Aunt Helen's cheesecake" or other festive goodies. The suggested writing task to overcome this tendency is to "write out the worst scenario you can imagine if you refuse a dining experience." Use humor; what will happen if you stand up for yourself? "How would it feel to stick to your own agenda and even lose weight during the holiday season?" That would be great, but it's never happened to me.
This is an interestiong book, and I suspect that any fledgling or would-be writer who completed all the suggested writing tasks could develop a better relationship with food, a better figure, and some additional creative skills as well.
While the sheer number of situations and writing tasks intimidates me a bit, this book is full of cleverly-written common sense. This is a book that requires action. It does not suit the couch potato style of reading for escape or entertainment, so put down that bowl of chips and pick up a pen!
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
Have you heard about Amazon Shorts? The gigantic online bookseller and vendor of other goods as well includes a section offering short pieces of writing (fiction and non-fiction) for download at $0.49 each.
In order to participate, an author has to have at least one book for sale on Amazon, and then any submission has to be approved for inclusion as an Amazon Short.
To my surprise, two of my short stories (yes, short stories--fiction) were accepted. I am not basically a fiction writer, but two stories I wrote last year, "Volunteer" and "Marie's Story," appeared as Amazon Shorts yesterday. To find them, do a search for my name under "Books" at Amazon.com. Search Amazon Shorts for other choices, too.
I found the idea fascinating, although it is not likely to be a revenue producer. Some authors use the Shorts to generate interest in their related books, or even to provide updates or additions as Shorts. Others offer serial episodes of longer stories or books. My stories are not related to my books, although they are written by a senior and feature seniors, perhaps encouraging other seniors to write, and writers in general to include sympathetic senior characters.
If you are an author with a book or books offered by Amazon, consider submitting shorts as well. If you have a dollar to spare, I'd appreciate your downloading, reading, and reviewing my stories (as customer reviews). I am interested to know what someone, anyone, thinks of them.
If you have any experience with Amazon Shorts, either as a reader or as an author, please let me know. To me, it's an interesting experiment; it's existed for several years, yet I had not heard of it until fairly recently.
My books and shorts: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/105-2997487-5818060?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Marlys%20Marshall%20Styne
Amazon Shorts: http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sa_menu_sh2/103-1435355-6091001?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=13993911
For authors: How to participate in Amazon Shorts: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=570212
Copyright 2008 by Marlys Marshall Styne
"According to health experts, the extreme cold can cause major health problems, such as pneumonia and hypothermia, in senior citizens.
"People over the age of 65 are more likely to develop these complications than any other age group because their bodies tend to have more difficulties regulating temperature."
If you have any doubts that seniors can write, or that they should, or that senior writing workshops are worthwhile activities, read "Students Outshine Instructor" on the Wintersong blog. I would love the chance to "facilitate" such a group!
http://wintersong.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/students-outshine-instructor/
I've written quite a bit about the joys of blogging. Now I invite you to watch a video from "Blogging in Paris." Claude, the author of "Blogging in Paris," is featured at the end of an interesting, short France 24 TV show.
Claude is a sixty-three-year-old widow, a former English teacher who obviously lives in Paris. Like most blogs, hers offers a view into the world of another elder blogger. It's a wonderful new world in which we can visit other countries without leaving home.
If you have considered a blog, especially to help your family and friends keep in touch, give it a try. It's very easy to do, thanks to Blogspot and similar sites.
Link: http://blogginginparis.com/2008/01/12/45-seconds-on-france24/
Do you read book reviews? Do they influence your reading choices? Book reviewing provides good writing practice, and you may discover some wonderful books in the process.
My blog is worth $8,468.10.
How much is your blog worth?
