Sybil Baker's Blog, page 12

Singapore--a few photos

Singapore is a first world country, with the third highest per capita income in the world (the U.S. is 8th). I love the international mix of the place. In many ways it's an open and forward looking society. I don't worry about Singapore's future. As a writer though, at least a Singaporean writer, life could be difficult as censorship and government control are strong factors in this society. Security and safety is privileged over free speech that might offend people's cultural/religious beliefs or the overtly criticize the government.

I really enjoyed meeting the students and asking their questions about the writing life. I was impressed with Singapore Management University's and the Wee Kim Wee Centre's commitment to sending writers in the schools. I'm looking forward to my next visit. Here are few photos:

I'm off to Singapore where I'll be one of the visiting wr...

I'm off to Singapore where I'll be one of the visiting writers for the American Writers Festival. I've been on a lot of long flights, but today will be a new record. I fly out of Chattanooga at 11:35 Saturday and arrive in Singapore 12:30 am Monday. (Chattanooga to Atlanta to Tokyo to Singapore). You do the math.

http://smu.edu.sg/centres/wkwc/events...

As a bonus, here is a "lucky accident" from the River Rocks Festival.

Photography Session #1

I suspect a lot of my creative writing students would get immense satisfaction over my first photography "shoot" as part of my MakeWork grant project. Bob Boyer, who used to be a professional photographer, has already loaned me a stack of books and talked with me about some of the composition basics. As a complete newbie, I'm having problems understanding the importance of Aperture and Shutter Speed (which is why I've always relied on good old Auto for my snapshots).

Saturday we went to Coolidge Park for the RiverRocks festival--my "assignment" was to photograph "Discovery." I quickly found that it was hard to take good photos when certain permanent objects were in the way, subjects moved, or I couldn't get close enough or didn't have a strong enough zoom lens. Bob set my camera so I could adjust the Aperture, which I did pretty randomly, not quite understanding when I'd use one end of the settings (like 30) vs. the other end (like 6 or 8). I understood the concept--the higher the aperture, the more the whole shot is in focus, but the lower the aperture the less the background is in focus, allowing you to focus in on one subject.

I took a bunch of photos, downloaded them unadulterated into a folder, picked a few I thought were halfway decent and put them into a folder. I gave the jump drive to Bob to look at. His response? "We've got a lot of work to do..."

It's like when you first start out writing and you think your writing is awesome, then you find out how awful it is. Then you learn why it is so awful, and when you write your next piece, you see the problems but don't have the technical ability to correct them. 

"We've got a lot of work to do..."--I'm reminded of Malcom Gladwell's point in Outliers about the 10,000 hour rule: Gladwell explains that reaching the 10,000-Hour Rule, which he considers the key to success in any field, is simply a matter of practicing a specific task that can be accomplished with 20 hours of work a week for 10 years (Wikipedia) 

I can say that was pretty much true with my fiction writing. I've only got a year to get some pretty decent photos and not even 20 hours a week to work on improving my skills, as I need to spend more time actually writing. So I'd say 10 hours down, 9,990 hours to go. I'm going to meet with Bob later this week--then I'll post a photo or two from the Festival and tell you what is wrong with them.

MakeWork Grant project begins!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, as I’ve been spending more of my social media time on Facebook. However, a few weeks ago, I was the lucky recipient of a MakeWork grant here in Chattanooga. This grant will enable me to work on a special edition of a novel I started this past summer. From the website here is the information on my project (http://makework.is/blog/single-post/makework-2012-announcement) :Sybil Baker
Literature
Special Edition of Novel Set in ChattanoogaSybil’s grant will focus on Replay, a novel based in Chattanooga. Inspired by Chekhov's "Three Sisters," the novel traces the stories of three sisters (a lawyer, a reporter, and a musician) in Chattanooga from 1999 to 2011. She will have a multimedia approach to her novel allowing readers to engage with the text in multiple ways. By providing a CD of local music with the novel and including photographs of different parts of Chattanooga, the novel will enable readers from all over the world to understand and appreciate Chattanooga on many levels.What this means is that for the next year or so, I will be taking photographs in Chattanooga as well as learning more about the local music scene, especially its relationship to Americana music. Over the next few weeks I will start my photography lessons, and I will share some photos on the blog.I’ll also be documenting my immersion in the local music scene and the recording of some local artists.

Review at Necessary Fiction

Lots of great things the past few weeks--I had such a fantastic time at the Yale Writer's Conference with the participants and other visiting writers. Last night's reading at for the Fusebox art & word series was relaxing and rejuvenating. Today an insightful review (there are spoilers though) at Necessary Fiction:

Yet this account does not do justice to Into This World whose excellent construction and clever writing make it a delight to read. Alternating chapters reveal different strands, with flashbacks to Wayne’s tours of duty in Korea, where the reality of his experience is sympathetically told. The suspense at the end of chapters urges the reader to speed on.

You can read the review here:

http://necessaryfiction.com/reviews/IntoThisWorldbySybilBaker

Numero Cinq

Really enjoying the Yale Writers' Conference (although I do miss Rowan). Douglas Glover at Numero Cinq has published a story that came out in Prime Mincer last summer. He is such a great reader (as well as writer of course) and I recommend his latest book Attack of the Copula Spiders to all writers. Here's what he says about the story:

"Here’s a dark, laconic, mesmerizing story of alcohol and infidelity in the expatriate demimonde of Seoul. A kind of free-floating rage drives the story; music on the juke box insists; motifs (music, a lover’s infidelity, smoking, the Seoul sewage system — yes!) recur with a maddening rhythm, the whole thing driving toward a climactic violence." 

You can read the story here

http://numerocinqmagazine.com/2012/06/17/women-who-smoke-fiction-sybil-baker/

I'm off to Yale. To teach.Never thought I'd write those t...

I'm off to Yale. To teach.

Never thought I'd write those two sentences but there they are.

Yaler Writers' Conference:

http://www.yale.edu/summer/writing/faculty.html

How We Spend Our Days--a day in the life...

I'm heading to Asheville where I'll be reading with Chris Hale and my buddy Sebastian Matthews at Malaprops tonight. Like most writers there is no typical "day"--especially if you're in academia, but I wrote about my first day of summer and how I start off on the wrong foot when I accidentally sleep in:

http://catchingdays.cynthianewberrymartin.com/2012/06/01/how-we-spend-our-days-sybil-baker/

Thanks to Cynthia at Catching Days to do this--it was fun!

Self Interview in Nervous Breakdown

So excited to be in the Nervous Breakdown--a self interview (what do I want to know about myself?) and an excerpt from INTO THIS WORLD. I talk about what I learned from my parents, Koreans, and South African husband.

The interview is here:
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/tnbfiction/2012/05/sybil-baker-the-tnb-self-interview/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sybil-baker-the-tnb-self-interview

And an excerpt from the novel is here:

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/tnbfiction/2012/05/excerpt-from-into-this-world-by-sybil-baker/

Enjoy!

This and That

Some nice press for INTO THIS WORLD. First a mention in Media Bistro/Galley Cat as a recommend in their new books section here:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/daemons-in-the-mist-manhunt-coming-attractions_b51955

And a great write up by fellow Engine Books author Myfanwy Collins. Here's a bit of what she said:

"The third person point of view deftly switches amongst the many characters showing us their past and present with exquisite detail. I was especially touched by the empathy shown to Wayne, the dad, who set the whole tale in motion by making the decisions he made as a young GI in Korea.."


Check out the whole review here:



http://myfanwycollins.com/2012/05/27/into-this-world-by-sybil-baker/