Vicki Lane's Blog, page 545

Goose Update

The white goose has a friend!  These two were enjoying a leisurely lunch apart from the rest of the flock as I passed by on Tuesday on my way into town.
On my way back, I was surprised to see the flock lined up in formation.
The white goose, however, appears to march to a different drummer.

India Black

 

Here's a good read for the dark days of January. I  loved this cheeky romp -- a kind of  Fanny Hill meets Nancy Drew in a world Dickens would have known. India Black, the witty and resourceful young madam of a London brothel,  is a delightful protagonist and I shall follow her future career with particular interest. 

I was sent an advance reading copy some while back (full disclosure: Carol Carr and I are represented by the same agent) but the book only became available yesterday. 

If you enjoy a strong female protagonist and mystery in a historical setting, you need to meet India Black.


Sound fun? A full review can be found at http://www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/

FAQ - Critique Groups

Q: What's your opinion of critique groups?
A: A critique group -- the right critique group -- is a wonderful thing, especially for a not-yet-published writer.  Meeting regularly, whether in person or by the Internet, will at the very least encourage you to keep turning out pages. 

Ideally your critique partners will catch things that you overlooked (why is that character's name Mandy on p. 3 and Mandi on p. 35  and how can her hair be straggling down her back in Chapter 3 when she just had it cut short in Chapter 1, a few weeks previous?) 

And then there are the things that you as the writer know but haven't quite communicated.  (You may know that Cuthbert's deep silences and curt answers betoken a depth of soul and shrinking from the banalities of crude modern life but your critque partners may point out that he comes across as a jerk.) 

Just as it's hard for a writer to proofread her own work -- your brain reads the even though your fingers typed teh -- having fresh eyes on your work to look for continuity issues and for the overall sense and pace is invaluable.

Of course, there are good critique groups and bad critique groups. You don't want readers who delight in tearing down with no suggestions as to how to fix what they see as wrong. You don't want readers who hate the sort of book you're writing. ("I can't read chick lit" or "I hate sci-fi" -- that sort of attitude.) You don't want readers who are fixated on looking for their pet aversions, be it passive voice, the use of 'had' or adverbs or semi-colons, to the exclusion of paying attention to the story.


And you really don't want readers who are no more than cheerleaders.  "O, I love it! You're an amazing writer." Well, maybe a little cheerleading to keep you plugging away is a good thing. But if you're serious about the writing life, you've got to learn to deal with criticism  -- you've got to learn to learn from criticism.


In my opinion, a good critique group needs to be small -- two to four folks would be plenty, assuming you're going to give good attention to each other's work.   

Where to find a critique group?  The one I was in before I had a contract and an editor of my own grew out of a writing class I took. Four of us from the class continued to meet after the class had run its course.  This is a good way of forming a group because by participating in a class with the other folks, you'll gain a feeling for their critique style and whether it's likely to be useful. I know that several of the classes I've taught have formed spin-off groups. 


And there are on line critique groups but I have no experience with them. Browse around and see what you can find. 


Once you are in a critique group, you should be able to judge after a few sessions if it's going to be helpful or not. If it's not, get out. If it's really toxic, get out fast.


Maybe in the comments someone will have more suggestions.

A Fresh Look

After all the Christmas red and green, my eyes are craving a change so I haul out the blue and yellow bits and pieces -- throw pillow covers, quilts, paintings, et cetera, et cetera.
The tree and its lights are gone but we still have tiny white lights around the windows, bookshelf, stairs and mantelpiece. They'll stay up through the dark days of January while the starry quilt adds its own light. I love beginning the new year with a new look -- well, the same new look we had last January. And will have next January. A lifetime's collection and inheritance of stuff (as well as a goodsize mathom closet) makes it possible.

A Good Beginning . . .

It rained all day yesterday -- a fine beginning to to the new year. Our pastures and our woods soaked up the blessed moisture as the snow melted and the soft rain continued to fall, melting the snow.  
I was happy to catch a glimpse of what must be the same gang of turkeys that we watched grow from poults last year. The two hens are pretty much indistinguishable from their full-grown offspring now. The almost white one is still with them and they seem to ave picked up a few extras -- probably 'jakes' -- young males. The house was filled with the smell of pork roasting, collard greens and black-eyed peas simmering with hog jowl and cornbread baking. On the television, various bowl games brightened the grey day with a confusion of colors. (I'm not a football fan myself but I live with one. )


It seemed to me the perfect way to begin the new year.

(This is late posting because our server has been down...)

Happy New Year - 1/1/11 !!!

As the sun peeks over the ridge on the first day of 2011, I hope you have your black-eyed peas and hog jowl for good luck, as well as collard greens to put money in your pockets. . . or that you have the necessary accouterments for whatever tradition you follow -- be it first footers, Christmas tree bonfires, picnics on the beach, fireworks . . .

May it be a good New Year for all of us on Spaceship Earth!!!


 

Goodbye, Christmas

The cold last day of the yearAnd I put away the ornaments, Pack up the Nativities,Return the Santas to the old trunk And, as my grandmother taught, Make sure that the tree is out of the houseBefore the New Year comes in.

More Christmas Books

Helen asked if I got any more books and the answer is a resounding Yes!   

Red Lily is one I asked for -- on Kay Byer's recommendation. "Isabel Zuber's poems weave their way quietly and sinuously into the reader's ear and imagination.  Their emotional landscape pulses with mystery mixed with a keen-eyed awareness of life's seasons and the reverberations that ripple ceaselesly from that knowledge."


Oh, yes. They do, indeed.
My niece, who reads my blog and has probably noted that I like wandering about graveyards and looking at old headstones, sent me this terrific field guide(profusely illustrated) to cemetery symbolism and iconography. 

I absolutely love it. And I forsee taking some day trips to graveyards farther afield.
My sister-in-law sent this charming old book -- copyright 1885. It's set in a boy's school that reminds me in many ways of the Plumfield of Alcott's Little Men. Most of the boys are manly little fellows and the girls are paragons of womanly virtue. It should be cloying but it isn't, at least not to me. But then I grew up reading my grandmother's old books. And it's a painless way to research the era.


Interestingly enough, the illustrations --"by the best American and English artists" -- seem to have been gathered nilly-willy and fit to the story, much as we bloggers glean images from the Internet.  The Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, a fascinating and eclectic little book, roams all over the place from lazzi (comic gags used by Renaissance actors) to confetti (originally candied fruits) . . .  to omelets, frilly lingerie, big hair and beyond. The Hare with Amber Eyes is the story of a wealthy, cultivated Viennese family who, because they were Jews, lost everything on the Nazis' entry into Austria. Everything, that is, but a collection of netsukes. I've just begun and am really enjoying it. The hefty package from my son and daughter-in-law had the clue "interred in the desert sands"on the label. (In the family, we put clues on our gifts to one another and try to guess what's inside before ripping the paper off.)
I should have guessed but the size and the weight had me confused. It's a Doonesbury Retrospective and I'm having a great time filling in the years I missed before I discovered that I could begin my day with a fresh Doonesbury on line. So, what are you reading? 

Mountain Born

Mountain Born by Jean Boone Benfield is "a recollection of life and language in Western North Carolina" and I highly recommend it to any of you who have an interest in the folkways of Appalachia.

I don't know the author (who grew up in the next county) but much of what she writes is familiar to me -- and delightful!


Ms. Bennfield writes of growing up in the Forties and Fifties, of Asheville at that time, of food and farms and family life, of traditions and superstitions, and, best of all, she lists some seven hundred old words and sayings --'some not fit for polite society.'

"Helpless as a one-legged man at an ass-kicking" is one of my favorites. And "not enough sense to pee a hole in the snow." And -- well, I could go on.

For those of you who've told me that my books remind you of your grandparents or other kin, this is a book you'll love!

Thank you, Ms. Benfield, for this loving, witty, and wise compilation of memories!

In other news -- we had a whole day of sunshine yesterday! What a pleasure! 

FAQ - Classes

Q: Do you do online writing classes? I don't live in the Asheville area but would love to take a class with you.
A: Alas, no online classes. The ones I teach through the Great Smokies Writing Program (see side bar) keep me pretty busy.  But if any of you are interested in spending a week in the mountains and doing a class, I will be teaching at Wildacres Writing Workshop, July 9 -16. 

There are classes in non-fiction, flash fiction, poetry, short story, and novel writing.  And if that doesn't tempt some of you prolific bloggers out there . . .

My class will be  'contemporary commercial fiction' -- that basically means popular fiction as opposed to literary (though some popular fiction is rather literary and some literary fiction is popular . . . )

The tuition, which includes room and board is pretty reasonable.  And there are a few scholarships available.

 I'm really excited about this opportunity. Ron Rash, just to drop a name, is leading the short story class  and I'm hopeful I'll get a chance to sit in at some point. And the poetry offering is so tempting . . .


I haven't been to Wildacres before but the area is beautiful and I've heard nothing but good things about the facility and the food and the programs.


Do check out the links.   It sounds fairly idyllic.