Meg Sefton's Blog, page 24

Tips for Writers: Always Tell the Truth, Even When You’re Lying

Another reblog, some invaluable thoughts about telling the truth in writing.

Mitch Teemley

Photo by Thom Milkovic

Most of us are familiar with the Blind Men and the Elephant story. Its point is twofold:

No one has a complete picture, even if they were “there in person,” but…Everyone knows what they think happened, and what it meant to them

This is true in both fiction and non-fiction.

True, journalists, as non-fiction writers, are supposed to render facts as objectively as they can. But honest, objective fact-finders know that even after interviewing eyewitnesses (“blind men”) their summary will inevitably fall short of “complete.” Hence, “rioting occurred” is more accurate than “the protest turned into a riot” (did everyone riot? Were there no objectors?). And “many wept” is more accurate than “there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience” (did no one roll their eyes and visit the loo?). There’s no such thing as a complete picture, and so, in essence, there’s no such…

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Snake River

I like this.

Eunoia Review

Two dogs colored like copper circuit wire

circle us.

We kneel and cajole, hoping to feel
their pink noses press into our palms.

Instead, they watch us like we are the strangers
who don’t belong.

The boys have built a fire
and this is where we remain

leaning
and leaning
and leaning

towards the smoke and flames,
which broadcast this shadow burial.

Then we stray, breath ash in sighs.

The red dogs circle
vultures round a new grave
They ease closer now

and when they think we’re not looking
they roll
in the earth freshly turned by spades.

Molly Headley-Benkaci received her B.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts and was shortlisted for a Fulbright award shortly thereafter. She finished her Master’s in creative writing through the University of Oxford in England in 2011. Her work has been seen in Beginnings Publication, SWAMP, travel writing anthology The…

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The Arts

Child in Bronx Botanical Garden by Stanley Zimmer, flickr

When you feel a small seed of an idea, you want to live alongside it, let it nurture you, let it inspire observation and questions. Creating is a delicate process. 

Inktober: Breakable

Baby by Holly Lay, flickr

Breakable inside my heart was a tiny baby.

She had cried her tiny baby cries that I had disregarded.

I dreamt I joined a chorus the night I fed and rocked her.

And now, someone loved is in my heart.

Inktober: One

Bleak Cross inside Colosseum by Jeff, flickr

I used to believe God hated gays. I used to scream “Baby murderer!” outside abortion clinics.

One morning, a feeling washed over me. I sensed “We are all one.”

I had to make new friends, find a new family, start a new life.

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Inktober: Change

Inspired by the BBC select documentary The Pregnant Man, Amazon Prime Video

Seahorse by Randall van Gurchom-Colijn, flickr

Respect the woman who became a man who became a woman to carry his wife’s baby and who became a man again. He has lived a thousand dreams of metamorphosis, possibilities curled up inside, waiting for change.

Inktober: Scorched

Check out the stories in The Poisoner’s Handbook before it leaves Amazon Prime Video at the end of October.

last drink by martin.much, flickr

During the Depression, four men took life insurance policies out on drunkard Mike “The Durable.” They poisoned him, froze him, gave him a broken glass sandwich, hit him with a car. Finally, they killed him with carbon monoxide. They were scorched in the electric chair but Mike became a legend.

“News of the World”

SMU Libraries Digital Collection, Fourth Mission (San Antonio), flickr

Have you seen the movie News of the World? It stars Tom Hanks who plays a Civil War veteran turned itinerant storytelling newsman. He agrees to return an orphan who was taken in by the Kiowa. They travel across Texas and face many dangers.

I loved it. And it would be a good family film. There is violence, but not a crazy amount. The young actress Helena Zengel plays the child and she’s amazing.

It may be that I’m originally a Texan and have considered moving back to Texas, but likely it is the stellar performance of Mr. Hanks and Ms. Zengel and the high production value of the film that makes me really glad I watched this.

Stream on HBO Max with membership.

Inktober: Bottle

solitary coat rack by Greg Hirson, flickr

Bottle broken my promise to you left the divorce papers on the hall tree your mother’s wedding gift to us to whom was also given a baby a name you used to call me whose life consumed with mid-day drinks, as well as midnight when I see our end.

Inktober: Swollen

Mouldy tarts by mediamolecule, flickr

Swollen white molded strawberries like victims of Pompeii; forgotten raw brisket for marinating, bloodying the sink; neglected half-dry clothes mildewing the wash—the ghost of your mother tisks from the corner. You bristle. She used to say you thought highly of yourself. Now you know you are no one, nothing.