Michael J. Roueche's Blog, page 14

Book Earns eLit Recognition

Somehow we didn’t get the news, but luckily someone noticed it. We recently received an email from someone congratulating us on receiving the 2011 Silver Award for Historical Fiction in the eLit Book Awards program. (“The eLit Awards are dedicated to honoring the best e-books published each year for the North American market.”)

We looked it up online, and  “Beyond the Wood” was listed. So we were excited about that. We appreciate all the recognition the book has received, but we especially appreciate all of you who are reading it. We welcome any feedback and suggestions we can get. It keeps us motivated to finish editing the sequel.

 

All of Shakespeare Before the 450th: Merry Wives

As part of my commitment to read all of Shakespeare before the 450 anniversary of his birth, last week I finished the third play, The Merry Wives of Windsor. It was entertaining, but not particularly meaningful. Sir John Falstaff’s tenacity of gullibility and the image of him stuffed and carried in a basket of dirty clothes made the play worth revisiting. According to shakespeare-online.com, Falstaff appears in three of Shakespeare’s plays, and appears in this one at the insistence of Queen Elizabeth. Words/phrases that captured the play for me: Heavy cost of jealousy; beware of conspiracies, especially in your own home; the trouble with controlling parents; the persistence, foolishness and self-destructiveness of undisciplined desires; and lastly, easy forgiveness. We’re three for three on this last point—but I suppose that’s why they’re comedies.

Quotes that appealed to me (for various reasons):

Slender (discussing marrying Anne Page): I will marry her, sir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet Heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married, and have more occasion to know one another.

Falstaff: Think’st thou I’ll endanger my soul gratis?

Mrs. Quickly: …the boy never need to understand any thing: for ’tis not good that children should know any wickedness: old folks, you know, have discretion, as they say, and know the world.

Mr. Ford: …I must let you understand I think myself in better plight for a lender than you are: the which has something emboldened me to this unseasoned intrusion: for they say if money go before, all ways do lie open. Falstaff: Money is a good soldier, sir, and will on.

Host of the Garter Inn: Disarm them, and let them question; let them keep their limbs whole and hack our English.

Anne Page: O, what a world of vile ill-favour’d faults looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!

Anne Page: Alas! I had rather be set quick i’ the earth. And bowled to death with turnips.

Falstaff: I would all the world might be cozened; for I have been cozened and beaten too.

Mrs. Quickly: …I was beaten into all the colours of the rainbow….

Mrs. Quickly: Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted with desire!

Falstaff: See now how wit may be made a Jack-a-lent when ’tis upon ill employment.

Falstaff: This is enough to be the decay of lust….

Sir Hugh Evans: Song: Fye on sinful fantasy! Fye on lust and luxury! Lust is but a bloody fire, Kindled with unchaste desire, Fed in heart; whose flames aspire, As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher….

Favorite word from play: anthropophaginian: a cannibal

Next Up: Twelfth Night

“Beyond the Wood” named 2012 John Esten Cooke Award Winner

Got home Friday night to news that “Beyond the Wood” was “selected as winner of the 2012 John Esten Cooke Fiction Award.”

John Estin Cooke was a writer and Virginian who served in the Confederate Army and was one of the first to write Civil War fiction.

The award is “given annually to encourage writers of fiction to portray characters and events dealing with the War Between the States, Confederate heritage, or Southern history in a historically accurate fashion…. The judges…consider the effectiveness of research, accuracy of statement, and excellence of style in selecting the winner.”

Grateful to have “Beyond the Wood” recognized on those criteria.

Two Down for “All of Shakespeare Before the 450th”

With my commitment to read all of Shakespeare’s works by April 2014, I finished “Two Gentlemen of Verona” a week ago. Before I give you my five-cent comment on the play, I should tell you that I am reading all these plays and sonnets from “William Shakespeare: The Complete Works” from Gramercy Books in New York, copyright 1975 by Random House. Everything’s crammed into 1229 pages. So the print is small—that’s ok, I have reading glasses. The type is sometimes squeezed into a line without spaces between the words—not so ok, but I’m getting used to it. If they still have too much type for a line, they put a bracket in front of the word and put it at the end of the line above or below (whichever line has the most space I suppose)–not ok at all, it breaks you concentration as you try to figure out which line it goes with. You have to wonder how anyone approved this publication, unless they assumed no one would ever notice (i.e., never read it). They were almost right. It’s been sitting on the shelf, virtually unread for decades. At any rate, I’m reading the plays in the order they appear in the book.

Back to Verona: Definitely a comedy. Somewhat entertaining, but I could live my life without ever having seen or read it. Words that came to mind as I read it: Superficial love, false friends, puns, intentional misunderstandings, selfishness, betrayal, treachery, ingratitude, easy repentance, easy forgiveness, inconstancy contrasted with constancy. I had the thought after I finished it that if Shakespeare had written only The Tempest and Two Gentlemen of Verona (the two read so far in this effort) he would have left the impression that forgiveness was the easiest of virtues.

Quotes that appealed to me (for various reasons):

Speed: Ay, sir; I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton; and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing for my labour!

Antonio: I have consider’d well his loss of time, and how he cannot be a perfect man, not being tried and tutor’d in the world: experience is by industry achieved and perfected by the swift course of time.

Speed: If you love her, you cannot see her…. Because love is blind.

Julia: Seal the bargain with a holy kiss.

Julia: What! Gone without a word?Ay; so true love should do: it cannot speak; for truth hath better deeds than words to grace it.

Launce: I reckon this always—that a man is never undone till he be hanged….

Proteus: A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears.

Speed: How now, Signior Launce? What news with your mastership?     Launce: With my master’s ship? why, it is at sea.     Speed: Well, your old vice still; mistake the word. What news, then, in your paper?     Launce: The blackest news that ever thou heard’st.     Speed: Why, man, how black?     Launce: Why, as black as ink.

Julia: I am my master’s true confirmed love, but cannot be true servant to my master unless I prove false traitor to myself.

Silvia: A thousand more mischances than this one have learn’d me how to brook this patiently.

Silvia to Proteus: Thou hast no faith left now, unless thou hadst two and that’s far worse than none; better have none than plural faith, which is too much by one….

Valentine: The private wound is deepest….

Valentine: Who by repentance is not satisfied is nor of heaven or earth; for these are pleased; by penitence the Eternal’s wrath’s appease’d….

Proteus: O heaven! Were man but constant, he were perfect; that one error fills him with faults; makes him run through all th’ sins: inconstancy falls off ere it begins….

Valentine: One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.

 

 

 

“Beyond the Wood” Honored Again

Last night I attended the 18th annual CIPA EVVY Awards where “Beyond the Wood” was honored with a merit award. I appreciate the accolade, but the highlight of the evening for me was meeting Nick Zelinger of NZ Graphics, who designed the wonderful cover for “Beyond the Wood.” We’d spoken by phone as he worked on the project, but I never got the chance to meet him. Last night, I did, and that was fun.

Once again thanks to Vesta House Publishing for all the work in making “Beyond the Wood” possible, and thanks also to CIPA and its literacy foundation which sponsored the evening.

Hoping for Adversity (to go away?)

It rained several times last week in Denver following a dry and hot period, but before the rain came and during that dry spell, I had to answer that difficult, universal existential question: To water or to not water? (At least on the high plains desert of Denver, it is a difficult universal and for the grass existential question.)

In Colorado, water is limited resource, and you don’t want to waste it. But the question goes beyond conservation: early, frequent watering has a negative effect on the strength of the grass. Sounds rather uninteresting, I know, but I think the principle extends to some extent to humans—and that’s more interesting.

I once attended a class from the local water company on xeriscaping (a combination of the greek word for “dry” with the word “landscape” applied to creating a yard using minimal water). The teacher explained that if you water your grass too much, too often in May, the roots don’t grow as deeply as they would if they have to struggle for water during that period. If you water too much, too frequently in May, the heat of July and August taxes your short-rooted grass making it more susceptible to drought and heat, more likely to brown out and die—unless you dump lots more water on it. To get your grass ready for the adversity of summer heat and drought, you should make it work hard for water in May.

If this likewise applies to humans: Is the best preparation for adversity and hardship in life earlier adversity and hardship? Is that the only way to get our roots of faith, hope, stability and strength deep enough for the next challenge? It all sounds like we are (or would) be caught in a loop, but I think it rather an upward spiral. Life was meant to challenge us from birth to death; adversity is a crucial part of it. Why, then, do we (read “me”) always want it to be easy? (Don’t answer that: I already know.)

Nonetheless, all of that is not to say that we don’t need positive support and experiences in our lives. But like the grass, we don’t need frequent, superficial, appearance-only support: we all need meaningful support and friendship that nurtures us and draws us to a stronger, deeper, more meaningful, more satisfying level of life.

 

“Beyond the Wood” Receives Recognition

We got word yesterday that Beyond the Wood was “named a Finalist in the Regional-Fiction Category of the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.”

Thanks to Vesta House Publishing and everyone else who critiqued, edited, designed or contributed in any way to the book and effort. I appreciate all the support you’ve given, and more importantly, I appreciate all of you. Thanks. You’re great.

Shakespeare Update: The Tempest Down

A couple of weeks ago, I marked Shakespeare’s 448th birthday. I decided then to read by his 450th birth anniversary all his plays and poetry—easy to fit in over that time. I’ve decided I’ll keep track of my progress on this site, and my first report is that I finished “The Tempest,” which was “Hailed as a stunning climax to the career of England’s favorite dramatist… Some believe that Prospero’s final speeches signify Shakespeare’s personal adieu from the stage.”

My intention is not to rehash here the stories, but to note briefly my personal reaction to them: In this case, “The Tempest” is simple, straightforward story in spite of protagonist Prospero’s magic powers. No modern twists and turns. For me, Ambition, Greed balanced by Forgiveness, Reconciliation capture the play’s message. The first two attributes still seem to be very much in vogue in the modern character; the latter two continue still in short supply, although greatly needed for a healed world.

Prospero’s last few lines in the Epilogue well carried the message:

And my ending is despair,

Unless I be relieved by prayer,

Which pierces so that it assaults

Mercy itself and frees all faults.

As you from crimes would pardon’d be,

Let your indulgence set me free.

One play down, a bunch still to go and only 102 weeks left!

In case anyone’s interested, other quotes that interested me (for varied reasons) as I read the play this time around:

Miranda: “Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.”

Miranda: “Good wombs have borne bad sons.”

Prospero: “…With colors fairer painted their foul ends.”

Prospero: “O! a cherubim thou wast, that did preserve me! Thou didst smile, infused with a fortitude from heaven…which raised in me an undergoing stomach, to bear up against what should ensure.”

Antonio: “What impossible matter will he make easy next?”

Gonzalo: “…The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness, and time to speak it in; you rub the sore, when you should bring the plaster.”

Alonso speaking of sleep: “I wish mine eyes would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts….”

Sebastian speaking of sleep: “It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth, it is a comforter.”

Sebastian responding to Antonio’s suggestion that Sebastian kill his own brother for the throne: “What, are thou waking?”

Antonio: “…And, by that, destined to perform an act, whereof what’s past is prologue; what to come, in yours and my discharge.”

Miranda: “How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that hath such people in ‘t.”

Prospero: “There, sir, stop; Let us not burden our remembrances with a heaviness that’s gone.

And with that prompting, I will stop. Next up: “Two Gentlemen of Verona.”

Canst Thou Speak Like Him? Alas, 448 years too late!

448 years! With wild amazement, I do mark this auspicious day. Yesterday they didst cry throughout the streets (or at least on the radio, and I did hear it there) that on this day, the 23rd day of the fair month of April of the year of our lord 2012, we do mark the lustrous 448th birthday of William Shakespeare. Doth ‘t not give us reason to celebrate? The hamlet of Chicago doth think thus, having proclaimed the occasion Talk Like Shakespeare Day. (But ere your excitement shouldst overflow your banks, I was saddened that the zany proclamation was, alas, in official, legal and stilted modern-proclamation English.) The site doth even allow you to choose a favorite video.

Yet, to mimic the speech of Shakespeare is one, to capture his genius another, as John Dryden hath written: “Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.” (The Tempest. Prologue.)

Having considered all, I think perhaps that I should read/watch all his plays by his 450th. That doth give me two years.

Word in Red: Words that according to Shakespeare Online are credited to the Bard. See the site for more.

Staying Alive: A Pretty Good Reason Not to Follow

This morning I took the car in for an oil and brake-fluid change, and I waited for it to be done. Not very interesting I know, but while I waited in a small waiting room, I was entertained by visiting with a woman who is raising a 13-year-old daughter. She told me about the challenges she faced because she hasn’t given her daughter a cell phone, ipod, etc. She told me how she had once taken a group of her daughter’s friends to the zoo and had noticed total silence in the car. Looking in the rear-view mirror she saw what is now common: almost all of the kids totally absorbed individually in listening, texting, surfing the internet. They were alone, sitting side by side in rows. She said she pulled over and had the discussion with her wards about “since we’re all here together, let’s visit.” As she told of the incident, I had several sympathy pains for her daughter. But I had to admire the woman and her willingness to take a stand that I would think unpopular with her daughter, her friends and most of society.

In the last few minutes we were together, she talked about how important it is to teach your children to not follow the crowd. Our last topic reminded me of a column I read last week in the New York Times about the Titanic: “As Hundreds of Men Perished, One Ignored a Rumor to Survive.” The writer, Nicholas Wade, focuses on science for the Times, but strayed a bit with this column. His grandfather survived the Titanic. Wade writes:

“My grandfather was standing on the top starboard deck of the boat with a large group of men when a rumor went around that the men were to be taken off on the port side. Almost everyone moved across the ship. Only he and two others stayed where they were.

“Shortly after, he heard a cry of ‘Any more ladies?’ from a lifeboat swinging level with the deck below. Leaning over the edge of his deck, he looked down at the boat.

“‘Any ladies on your deck?’ a crew member asked him.

“‘No,’ my grandfather replied.

“‘Then you had better jump.’”

His grandfather jumped and survived, all because he wasn’t swayed by a rumor or the movement and momentum of the men around him. By this time 100 years ago, Mr. Wade’s grandfather had been pulled from the lifeboat and was on his way–alive–to New York.

I thought this one more good story to add to the parental arsenal for tactical use when the kids come saying once again, “Everyone’s doing it.”

And Mr. Wade’s closing line is perfect for the big impact:  “In any event, I owe my existence to the fact that in those few critical moments he had the confidence to think differently from the crowd.”