Caroline Bock's Blog: Caroline Anna Bock Writes, page 6

Unexpected Book, TV and Movie Delights of the summer of ���15

Labor Day. Unofficial End to Summer. But summer of 2015 had
a few unexpected delights���
Books��� Re-read Are You There God, It���s Me, Margaret. How ahead
of the time was Judy Blume ? unexpectedly fresh and relevant, especially since I have a ten-year-old daughter!
Television series��� Humans on AMC��� Synths, a.k.a. synthetic robots, more humane than humans���and complete with
British accents. This BBC drama is a futuristic take on the
���Upstairs/Downstairs��� life with lots of plot turns and heart. Plus, I've read that it's already renewed for a second season.

The Strain on FX��� The second season of New York City under
siege from pulp fiction-inspired, Nazi-backing, vampire-infected creatures took the idea
that NYC could be a dangerous place to bring up kids to new levels. A fabulous multi-racial
cast, inspired by novels of the same name, make this well-written series worth watching. Plus, I've heard: expect more of THE STRAIN next summer! 
Movies��� Jurassic World ���Saw this with my kids and found, unexpectedly, it was lot
of fun for me too Made me think again: how cool would a real Jurassic Park be?

  
Mr. Holmes ���I went for the cast���Ian McKellen as the aging Sherlock Holmes, and one of my all-time favorite actresses, Laura Linney as his housekeeper.
What I didn���t expect is how much this would be a movie about the process of writing. If you are a
writer, go immediately to see.   

  
I Believe in Unicorns ���I streamed this absolute delight of
an indie film about first love on Amazon���and now I believe in
unicorns. If you liked "Fault in Our Stars," I suggest you watch I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS. It's now streaming to a television or computer near you!   

 

  



So here we are at another Labor Day, which has a special
meaning to me. The setting of my new young adult novel, BEFORE MY EYES ,is Labor Day weekend on Long Island,
New York. If you haven���t read BEFORE MY EYES yet, I urge you to do so this
Labor Day. I find there���s something unexpectedly metaphysically rewarding about
reading books at the moment, or in the place, that they are set.
Onward to autumn!
Caroline  

Best of 2014 and Looking Ahead to 2015

Best of 2014 and Looking Ahead to 2015

Best new book read: Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. All the Light We Cannot See

Best new place: Pittsburgh, one night visit included the Carnegie Science Center and the Duquesne Incline. Looking forward to second Pittsburgh trip in 2015.

Best New Thing About My Writing: Having BEFORE MY EYES published in February by St. Martin’s Press… and returning to writing scripts for television and film. Looking forward to diving into flash fiction, a new novel and scriptwriting in 2015! Before My Eyes

Best favorite new bookstore: Politics and Prose in D.C. (best 1-day class taken there with Leslie Pietrzyk)

Most unexpectedly best political movie of 2015 streamed on Google Play: The Interview; going beyond the sophomoric bits of sex and drugs and comic book action, this movie had a lot to say about the inherent evils of dictatorial regimes (mass starvation, concentration camps) and how the media in their countries and around the world props up the lies of these regimes.

Best new version of classic musical, which my nine- year old daughter also loved: Annie.

Best book on writing read: Still Writing by Dani Shapiro.Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life

Best movies about the inescapable human condition: Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game, and Boyhood.

Best New Exercise: Rookie Yoga.

Best TV Show: House of Cards, best new TV series: Madame Secretary, and for summer watching with above nine-year old: The Strain. Looking ahead: TV series I can’t wait for new season for in January (and no spoilers please from the Brits in the crowd!!) Downton Abbey.

Most unusual thing I did in 2014, and one of the best: Late-night party at burlesque bar in DC to celebrate friend’s birthday!

Best, best new thing… that all my family is healthy! Looking ahead in 2015 to a new year of inspiration, writing, books, movies, and friends and family.
Before My Eyes

BEFORE MY EYES for ENGLISH AND AP PSYCHOLOGY CLASSROOMS

"Before My Eyes, by Caroline Bock, takes the reader through the last few days of summer from the perspectives of three narrators: two teens and a mentally-ill young adult. Bock skillfully weaves together the topics of schizophrenia, gun violence, family issues, and typical adolescent angst while at the same time providing a compelling story. Though the reader gets a glimpse of the book’s climax in the first few pages, the end plays out in an unexpected way when unlikely heroes emerge. As a retired Professor of Education, I believe Before My Eyes would be an excellent book for an 11th or 12th-grade English class, and since it provides a realistic portrayal of schizophrenia, it might even be a good choice for an AP Psychology class. Whatever one’s reason for choosing this book, the reader will not be disappointed."—Edmund Sass, Ed.D., Professor Emeritus of Education
This summer, I "met" Dr. Sass through the world of social media. He runs a website, Educational Resources and Lessons Plans, and I emailed him about my new novel, Before My Eyes. He was driving through the small town of Bock, Minnesota, population 106, (a town I someday plan to visit!) when he received my email. And so it goes that we he read my brief note, and he agreed to review a copy of Before My Eyes.
I am amazed how we find ourselves connected to one another—and grateful.

--Caroline  
P.S. The Teacher's Guide for BEFORE MY EYES is also posted on my web site...click here.  

WHAM!!! Write A Story...A story about a story....

Wham! Write A Story!! (a story about a story for adults as well as kids)
Wham! Will writes. Ka-zooom!! And our hero flies off. The end.
He adds a half dozen exclamation points to his ‘Wham’!!!!!! and three more to
his Ka-zooooom!!!!!!!!! 
 “I’m done,” he
says in a very loud voice. “I’ve written the greatest story ever!”  
But Lara, his best friend, doesn’t agree. His story isn’t
done. It hasn’t even begun.  
“Yes, it is! See I wrote ‘the end.’" 
“You don’t have a beginning,” says Lara. “Where’s the ‘Once
upon a time’ or ‘it was a dark and stormy night?’” 
“I have “Wham!' With an exclamation point.”  
“Okay, you can start with wham! But something has to happen next. You
have to introduce the setting or the characters.  Then something has to happen to the characters. Also, you’re
using a lot of exclamation points!!!”  
“Exclamation points look like soldiers, and I like them. But what’s
the setting? Why do I need that?” 
“Where the story takes place. The setting is also about when it
takes place. For example, does it take place now? Or in the past? Or in the
future?”  
“I want it to take place here, Lara. On the page.” 
“You have to take it off the page. Bring it into reader’s
mind. My mind.”  
“Then, how about at school?” 
“What kind of school?  You have to be specific. The more details in a story, the
better the story. An elementary school? A big school? The world’s biggest
elementary school?” 
“The world’s most gigantic elementary school. A billion and
twenty-nine kids go there.” 
“I’m glad I don’t go there.” 
“It’s my setting,” says Will. 
Lara stretched across the white sheet of paper, her
character aching to go someplace. To do something or to want something—the
story needed a plot.     
“Okay, so you have the setting. Who’s in the story? Who’s
this story about? Is there a main character—other than us— that does something?
That propels all the action and stuff forward.” 
“Huh?” 
“What happens next? That’s the plot. You have to ask
yourself what happens to your characters?” 
Will underlines with his newly sharpened yellow pencil a
line where he says that his superhero flies off to fight the evil alien mutants,
right before ‘the end.’

“Let’s back up. Is that your main character? A superhero? Not me?”  
“I don’t write books about girls.” 
“Today you will, or I’m leaving.” 
“I guess I could add you but only as a secondary character.” 
“Forget it then. This story ends now.” 
“No, wait!!! Lara!!! You can be a main character too.” 
“A superhero too?” 
“Yes, a superhero, too.” 
“What’s my name in the story?” 
“Can’t you just be Lara?” 
“What’s the other superhero’s name?” 
“He has a name,” said Will, clutching his pencil even
tighter.  
“You didn’t include it.” 
“But I know the name.” 
“And I only know what you write on the page, Will, and what
I read. So what’s his name? What does he look like? What is he thinking? Seeing? Touching? Feeling? Use all of your senses to describe him—and me.”   
Will put his pencil down on the lined notebook paper.   
“That’s okay. You are going to have to edit and revise this
story—every writer does that. But hey, tell me, what does this other hero want?
What do I want?” 
“I don’t know. I never know what you want, Lara!” 
“I want to save the world, of course. Ka—zooom!! Don’t all
heroes want to save the world?” 
Will snatches up his pencil and scribbles that down: save
the world. Ka—zooom!!.  
“What obstacles do we face? What decisions do we make? All this
tumult is about something called: Plot. We have to have stuff happen to us.
Challenges. What helps us or stops us from doing our job or getting what we
want or, in this story, saving the world? Start at the beginning, again. You
can do this. You can write your own heroes, Will.” 
“Can I use exclamation points?” 
“Maybe just one or two,” said Lara laughing with Will, and
with that Lara ka-zoomed off the page. 
“Wham!” dashed off Will, beginning his story, again....

------------Caroline Bock is the author of two critically-acclaimed young adult novels: BEFORE MY EYES and LIE.  Ka -zoooom!!!

Character Building Excercises -the Fictional Kind

First some thoughts on
character:“Character is the very life of fiction. Setting exists so
that the character has someplace to stand, something that can help define him,
something he can pick up and throw, if necessary, or eat, or give to his
girlfriend. Plot exists so the character can discover himself (and in the
process reveal to the reader) what he, the character is really like: plot
forces the character to choice and action, transforms him from a static
construct to a lifelike human being making choices or reaping the rewards.       And theme
exists only to make the character stand up and be somebody: theme is elevated critical language for what the
character’s main problem is.” (On
Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner, p. 54)  
 
On the ‘”accuracy of
the writer’s eye”“….whether you’re writing about people or dragons, your
personal observation of how things happen in the world – how character reveals
itself can turn a dead scene into a vital one…. Good advice might be: Write as
if you were a movie camera. Get exactly what is there. All human beings see
with astonishing accuracy, not that they can write it down…. Getting it down
precisely is all that is meant by ‘the accuracy of the writer’s eye.’ Getting
down what the writer really cares about – setting down what the writer himself
notices, as opposed to what any fool might notice – is all that is meant by the
originality of the writer’s eye. Every human being has original vision….”  (p. 71, Gardner).  
Pixar story artist
Emma Coats tweeted a series of “story basics” here are her highlights on
developing character: #1 You admire a character for trying more than for their
successes 
-- Simplify. Focus. Combine character. Hop over detours.
You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free. 
-- What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw
the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal? 
-- Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might
seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience. 
-- Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great;
coincidences to get them out of it are cheating. 
--What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the
character.   What happens if
they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.   --If you were your character, in this situation, how would
you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations. 
Writing EXERCISES… 
1) Take a simple act, say unbuttoning a shirt, pulling on a
sock, pouring a cup of coffee or milk, and write it in slow motion, that is,
give it two hundred words. Don’t automatically lapse into hyperbole (and thereby
the comic), but think of the effect: make it matter-of-fact, sinister, gross,
full of touch, feel, sight, and smell.  
Discuss how the manner in which the character performs the
act shapes his character.         
 
2) Write two hundred words on a character entering a space
(a car, a classroom, a kitchen, a backyard, etc). Inventory all the sense of
the space as she moves toward the one thing that she desperately wants in that
space. Take your time and describe in detail what the character sees, hears,
smells, senses and knows—and doesn’t know—about the surroundings.        
Discuss how the character’s perceptions or point of view,
and motivation or want, shapes this character.                                                            Adapted
from Ron Carlson Writes A Story by
Ron Carlson

--------I've written two novels with multiple points of view... if you haven't read them yet, consider BEFORE MY EYES and LIE.
Write on!
--Caroline

READ ON- new flash fiction, a short short

FLASH FICTION: "Read On" -- You'll ruin your eyes, she said, like your mother, and god knows you have her eyes. She had to wear glasses.Cat's eyeglasses.She'd never wear those glasses around the boys. And here my Nana offered up another one of her sayings—about boys and girls and glasses, which went up there with the lecture on your body is a temple. The book, a library book, cradled in my arms. You'll ruin your eyes, she continued. With books. With reading. And look at me, no man likes a girl smarter than him. Look at me. Put down that book.
-------
Anybody who knows me, knows that I didn't book down that book or any other. Read on! --Caroline

New Flash Fiction - FREE

Have you ever been pregnant? Have fun reading this short short I just had published by the terrific Akashic Books!! Find it here...

"Little Bear's Apgar Score" is now live on Akashic's website, and can be found here: http://www.akashicbooks.com/little-be...

A READER WRITES...

"Before My Eyes, by Caroline Bock, takes the reader through the last few days of summer from the perspectives of three narrators: two teens and a mentally-ill young adult. Bock skillfully weaves together the topics of schizophrenia, gun violence, family issues, and typical adolescent angst while at the same time providing a compelling story. Though the reader gets a glimpse of the book’s climax in the first few pages, the end plays out in an unexpected way when unlikely heroes emerge. As a retired Professor of Education, I believe Before My Eyes would be an excellent book for an 11th or 12th-grade English class, and since it provides a realistic portrayal of schizophrenia, it might even be a good choice for an AP Psychology class. Whatever one’s reason for choosing this book, the reader will not be disappointed."—Edmund Sass, Ed.D., Professor Emeritus of Education

P.S. A Teacher's Guide to BEFORE MY EYES can be found at my website www.carolinebock.com.


Before My Eyes

Warning! More Thoughts On Having A Friend Who's An Author...

Warning! More thoughts on having a friend who’s an
author…  
-You will be asked to come to a reading. Wearing black is
always appropriate. Saying how whatever she reads is “moving” will work well
for most books.  
-If you haven’t bought a copy of her novel, she will expect
you to buy one and she will sign it for you. Or, you can say you have read it
on your kindle or nook or Smartphone. You will not have to say that you only
read the free excerpt. 
-You will find out that she’s often depressed and she will make
a bad joke about ending the way Sylvia Plath (head in gas oven) Hemingway did
(his own shotgun). You will not think this is funny and neither will she, even
though, she will say it is only a temporary condition, this darkness and
despair. It’s only until she starts writing again, and then, on occasion, when
she writes, and afterwards, a postpartum depression.   
-You will ask if she has started her next novel, trying to
distract her, trying to encourage her—and she will say she is done writing
novels, nobody buys books, nobody reads—and you will be secretly relieved, you
will think that you will have your old friend back until the day you call and
she is excited once again, happy even. She has started a new work. She can’t
talk about it. It’s too early, too new, too fresh. She just has to write. You will
say you understand even you don’t because you are good friend and you know by
now that writers need good friends.
--Caroline Bock is the author of the new young adult novel: BEFORE MY EYES St. Martin's Press) available everywhere print and ebooks are sold.

So cool... poetry on the Diane Rehm show...including my first poem!

Do you remember the first poem you ever wrote? That was the question radio host and interview extraordinaire Diane Rehm asked today on her WAMU/NPR radio show. I was at my desk, working, writing, and my third grade poem from Mrs. Murano's class, at George M. Davis Elementary School in New Rochelle, NY, popped into my head. As far as I remember, it is my first poem, and I wrote it at age eight. Impulsively, I tweeted it to her-- and she read it on the air! It's right near the top of the show. (click here for link) And here it is too:
In the woodswhere there are tall,towering treestiny,timid animals,rigid, rustling leaves,I stand therejust me.
I've gone on to write and publish more,including my new young adult novel, BEFORE MY EYES, (St.Martin's Press, 2014)which has one of the main characters, Claire, age 17, writing poetry, which is featured in the novel. 
Do you remember your first poem? 
--Caroline