Joel Arnold's Blog, page 16

This week's reading/watching

I had the urge to read an old-timey mystery, so read Agatha Christie's The Murder in the Library (a Miss Marple mystery). It was enjoyable in that comforting way that only an Agatha Christie murder mystery can be. I also read Harry Shannon's novella Behold the Child, which I also enjoyed. Very well written hard-boiled gritty cop stuff with a bit of the supernatural thrown in for good measure.

I also watched the documentary Man on a Wire, about a tightrope walker who rigged a tightrope between the World Trade Center buildings and spent nearly an hour walking back and forth across it (staying just out of reach of the waiting police officers). It was fascinating how he and his cohorts pulled it off - someone in the film compared it to planning and executing a bank heist. The title comes from the police report filed - how they described his crime.
 

Writing and Me - a dramatization

Me - 'Time to get some writing done.'

Writing -  'Can't we do it later?'

Me - 'We've procrastinated long enough. Come on - let's get going.'

Writing - 'Isn't there a Forensic Files marathon on?'

Me - 'That can wait.'

Writing - 'You haven't checked out YouTube for a few hours. What about that?'

Me - 'Stop it. Get over here.'

Writing - 'What about email? Facebook? Twitter? When was the last time you jerked off?'

Me - 'Now that was uncalled for.'

Writing - 'But it's so hard to get me started.'

Me - 'But remember how good it feels once I do get you started?'

Writing - 'We're still talking about writing, right?'

Me - 'Get off your ass! Now!'

Writing - 'Settle down. Geez.'

Me - 'I'm waiting.'

Writing - 'You know I can block you if I want.'

Me - 'Not today you won't.'

Writing - 'Wanna bet?'

Me and Writing lunge at each other and grapple on the floor.

Me - 'I'll rip out your adjectives!'

Writing - 'You don't have the chops.'

Me - 'Stop struggling!'

Writing - 'You're the one struggling.'

Writing kicks Me in the nuts, and Me strikes back at Writing's run-ons.
Writing writhes on the paper as Me takes a huge bite out of Writing. Writing bleeds unnecessary dialog all over.

Writing - 'Okay - okay...I give. I give.'

Me and Writing calm down. Me and Writing reluctantly start working together - slowly at first, then faster and faster. Writing and Me soon remember why they are together. They work for hours. Finally, spent and exhausted, they call it a day. They stare at each other wistfully. Finally, Me looks away, embarassed.

Me - 'I'm sorry for that whole biting thing.'

Writing starts to walk away, then looks back over its shoulder.

Writing - 'That's okay. I'm screwing your wife.'

Me - 'What?'

Writing - 'Never mind.'

End
 

Writing Tip o' the Day (now with vitamin C!)

Tweaking

When I feel that I'm nearly done with a writing project, whether it's a short story, magazine article or novel, I give it a quick read-through as if reading someone else's already published work. You know that voice in your head you use - your comfortable inner reading voice? The one that you use for the bulk of the novels and stories you read while sitting in your favorite comfy chair? I use that voice when reading my nearly finished draft, and that way I often catch problems with the overall flow of a piece. It helps me see that perhaps I used to many short sentences in this paragraph, or this transition from one paragraph to the next isn't very smooth. Or maybe that sentence is confusing, or I really need a different word here. So then I make those changes, rinse and repeat until I can read the whole thing through without hitting any bumps in the narrative.

Do you have a favorite method of - um - tweaking?

The Power of Music

You know how certain songs can evoke certain feelings? Or perhaps there's a song that brings back a specific memory or reminds you of someone? There are certain songs from the early '70's that provoke this strange feeling in me. Sort of a longing, a melancholy that I couldn't quite place my finger on - until last night. It's like these songs were trying to bring back some memory, or some sensory...something. When I heard these songs, it was like there was a dream on the tip of my memory that I couldn't quite place. One song in particular that did this was One Tin Soldier - the 1971 version sung by Jinx Dawson of the band Coven (I had to look that up!) for the movie The Legend of Billy Jack. Another was Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves by (gulp) Cher, also from 1971. I totally remember listening to the '45s on my Show'n Tell Phono Slide Viewer when I was 3 and 4 years old. I can even picture what the label of the '45s looked like, down to the font used.

But so anyway, I discovered another group that evoked these exact same buried-dream-can't-quite-place-my-finger-on-it feelings. The late 60's/early 70's Korean band The Pearl Sisters. The reason I looked them up on You-Tube in the first place was because I'd talked a while ago with my sister Lori, whom my family adopted from Korea in 1970 - she was 12 and I was 2 at the time. In fact, my very first memory is of picking her up at the airport, and she had this purse on her shoulder with a long strap, and I held onto this strap as we walked through the airport, looking up in wonder at my new sister with long, black hair. But we were talking recently about her life in Korea before coming to the U.S., and she mentioned how one of her favorite bands was The Pearl Sisters. I finally looked 'em up, and there are a bunch of their songs on YouTube.

So last night after my wife and kids had gone to bed, I sat up listening to a bunch of their songs, and my God, did it ever send me back into that same mind-frame, that mysterious longing/loneliness/melancholy/not-quite-sure-how-to-describe-it-feeling.

And so I think perhaps I figured out what it is - what that feeling is, or what it's associated with; my sister. She was really my first friend, I think, and she'd listen to these songs when I was 2, 3, 4 years old, and she'd play with me and we'd have so much fun jumping on the bed, singing along - it didn't matter to me that she wasn't conversant in English, yet - and she'd let me hang out with her and watch her and bug her... But then she and I both grew up, and a big part of me missed having that new, exotic sister/friend to fawn and fuss over me and indulge my infantile whims. So I think the feeling is a nearly subconscious longing for my early, early childhood, and the early attachment I had with my big sister.

She's still a wonderful big sister, and I really should give her a call one of these days soon.
 

To All the Bookstores I've Loved Before

Some of my favorites:

The Book Worm - West Yellowstone, Montana
    One of the best, most eclectic selections of used and new books I've ever seen. The owner knows his stuff, and whenever I've been there, I've never seen anyone other than him behind the counter. When I worked in the park all those years ago, this place was often an oasis in a desert of touristy crap. I mean, there's only so many shops you can go into that sell shot glasses of an erupting Old Faithful before your brain turns to mush. Plus it was open late during the summer - a good place to wear off a buzz from W. Yellowstone's bars before heading back into the park.

The Haunted Bookstore - Iowa City, Iowa
    This used to be housed in an actual big old house when I first visited it in 1989. Each room contained a different subject. They served free coffee and tea, and there were cats roaming around the building. Now it's located in an actual businessy building closer to the U of Iowa, but it's still wonderful, and there are still cats. It's the kind of bookstore I wouldn't mind being stranded in for days and days.

Powells - Portland, Oregon
    Okay, how can you not love a bookstore so friggin' huge that they have maps available for navigating the four floors of new and used books.

And then we have all the great Minneapolis bookstores...

Once Upon a Crime - Minneapolis, MN
    Mystery bookstore, as the name suggests, run by a couple who obviously love what they do. They hold all kinds of events, signings, book release parties, etc, and their annual Write of Spring celebration in which dozens and dozens of local writers show up to sign books and chat is pretty darn amazing. If independent bookstores are going to survive in these tougher economic times, this is the way to do it.

The Book House in Dinkytown - Minneapolis, MN
    Overflowing with used books of all varieties. I spent many hours here in my stint at the U of MN. So many books crammed in shelves and on the floor waiting to be shelved, it felt deliciously dangerous, like the shelves could collapse at any time, burying you under an avalanche of bound pages. Hey, there are worse ways to die!

Dreamhaven - Minneapolis, MN
    Everything a sci-fi, fantasy and/or horror lover could want in a bookstore. Aside from the great selection of books, there's a lot of fun knick-knacks, and they host readings of local and non-local authors.

Uncle Hugos/Uncle Edgars - Minneapolis, MN
    Half is sci-fi, half is mystery, and taken as a whole, it's a lot of great reading with knowledgeable owners. A fun place to spend hours browsing.

What are some of your favorites?

The Care and Feeding of Writers

Congratulations! You have a writer! Follow these simple instructions to get the most enjoyment out of this recent addition to your family.

Housing:   Keep your writer warm and dry. Change its bedding often as writers tend to slough of dreams of fame the older they get.

Food:   Make sure your writer has plenty to eat, as well as a daily multivitamin. If left to its own devices, it may try to consist on nothing but coffee and Pop Tarts. If your writer becomes jittery, assume it's doing this secretively and correct its behavior with a rolled-up newspaper or the promise of a writers' conference.

Exercise:   Make sure to take your writer on daily walks. It may grumble about this, but assure your writer it's for the best. Bring along treats to entice it, and don't forget a few plastic bags to pick up any unnecessary adverbs it leaves behind.

Obedience:   Make sure to use strong, firm commands with your writer. It may bristle if you use five words when only one will do. Again, if your writer remains obstinate after repeated commands, a rolled-up newspaper is appropriate. Make sure to give lots of praise when your writer receives an acceptance or takes a shower, as both are cause for celebration.

Follow this simple advice and your writer will provide years of companionship and detached bemusement.

Holy Crap!

Woke up to a lot of snow this morning. It's still snowing even now as evening comes on. I shoveled out our driveway and walk - as usual I wasn't prepared with getting the snow blower ready, and we had no gas for it. So I shoveled - it must've been 6 to 8 inches, very wet and sticky. I'll pay for it tomorrow, I'm sure, when my back feels like it's on fire. The kids came out and had a great time playing in it, though, and it was pleasant out - not very cold, not much wind to speak of, and the snow falling lightly. Paige made a snowman. Zach brought out his dinosaurs. They both tried out the sled down the hill at the side of our house. I remember loving this kind of snow when I was a kid, too. We had a small hill in our backyard, and I remember spending countless hours sledding down it.

My Blog

My blog can be a bit schizophrenic; it's never really sure what it wants to be. Sometimes it wants to talk about writing. Sometimes it wants to talk about family. Sometimes it wants to market. Sometimes it wants to talk about autism. Sometimes it wants to talk about other books. Sometimes it wants to be serious, and sometimes (although it's hard to tell) it tries to be funny.

So I guess if my blog had to have a mission statement, it would be this:

Beneath the Trap Door will provide a potpourri of crap, at times useful, more times not, but it will always be interesting. Except when it's not.

Done and done!

Rudiments

I played drums in my high school and college days to earn a little extra cash on weekends. But before getting to that level, I had to learn my rudiments; rather monotonous exercises that you repeat over and over again until you can practically play them in your sleep. If a drummer wants to be any good, rudiments are a necessary evil. They have funny names, too; paradiddles, flamacues, ratamacues, flamtaps. But once you have them mastered, your coordination and timing will have greatly improved. Aspects of these rudiments can also be combined to come up with an almost infinite number of beats and rhythms. Even when you have them mastered, it's important to continually revisit them in order to keep your hands in shape and your mind sharp.

All skills have their own set of rudiments - and writing is no exception. What are the rudiments of writing? It's not quite as straightforward as the rudiments of drumming. Aside from the obvious - sentence structure, proper use of grammar, the mechanics of dialog - another rudiment that I feel is just as important (and one that I have to constantly remind myself of) is the act of getting the words out. Just writing shit down. Purging it from your mind and getting that raw material on paper so that from there you can use that mess of basic words, fragments and sentences to shape, shape and reshape them into a solid structure - a dwelling into which minds can explore, experiencing, as John Gardiner talked about, the uninterrupted dream that a good story should strive to be.

I find that once I coax those initial words out, no matter how garbled and crappy they may be (and believe me, they are more often than not quite a mess!) I at least know that I feel much more committed to making that story work.
 

Writing Tip o' the Day

Often, when I sit down to work on a story, article or novel, I become overwhelmed by the idea of the mental journey ahead. It seems like such a Herculean task (yes, even short stories!) I enjoy being in the middle of writing something. I enjoy being in the middle of the editing/rewriting process. I enjoy receiving what little cash may be involved. But starting out...

So here's what often works for me. First, I tell myself not to worry about it. Second, I just start writing something - anything. Maybe write about one of the characters in the story, or a small tidbit of a scene, or maybe I start writing something completely unrelated - like a journal entry, or a letter to my family, or ideas for other stories and characters. The point is to just get my pen moving across the paper (and I still usually write longhand in a spiral-bound notebook for my first draft - I feel like this gives me more flexibility. Besides, on a laptop, if I'm stuck, it's so much easier to screw around on the web then try to work through my, um, stuckedness.) But as long as my hands moving across the paper and I'm writing something - anything - then eventually I'll get back into whatever it is I was supposed to be working on in the first place.