Notes for July 31st, 2009

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 31st, 1965, the legendary fantasy novelist J.K. Rowling was born. She was born Joanne Kathleen Rowling in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, a British girl of Scottish descent. Though her first name is Joanne, she has always been known as Jo. "No one ever called me 'Joanne' when I was young, unless they were angry," she once said.

Around the age of five or six, Rowling began writing fantasy stories, which she read to her younger sister. She enjoyed playing "wizards and witches" with her childhood best friend, Ian Potter, whom she would name her most famous character after. She attended St. Michael's Primary School, whose headmaster was a kind, elderly man named Alfred Dunn.

When she was a young teenager, Rowling's great aunt, who "taught classics and approved of a thirst for knowledge, even of a questionable kind" gave her a copy of Hons and Rebels, the autobiography of British political activist Jessica Mitford. Mitford was born into a wealthy, aristocratic family. In the 1930s, her sisters and father were ardent Nazi sympathizers, but Jessica became a devout communist, eloped, and ran away to Spain to fight the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. J.K. Rowling loved her autobiography. Mitford became her heroine and she read all of her books.

Rowling received her college education at the University of Exeter, where she studied French and the classics. University was a "bit of a shock" to her, as she "was expecting to be amongst lots of similar people– thinking radical thoughts." Once she made some like-minded friends, however, she began to enjoy college. After a year of study in Paris, Rowling returned to London, where she worked as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International.

Around this time, in 1990, while on a four-hour delayed train trip from Manchester to London, an idea formed in Rowling's mind for a story about a young boy attending a school of wizardry. She wouldn't act on the idea until a few years later. In 1991, she moved to Porto, Portugal, to teach English as a second language. While there, she met Portuguese TV journalist Jorge Arantes. She married him the following year and bore him a daughter, Jessica (named after her heroine, Jessica Mitford). Six months after the baby was born, Rowling and her husband separated.

Just over a year after the separation, Rowling moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, to be near her sister. She was diagnosed with clinical depression and contemplated suicide. Broke and surviving on welfare, Rowling decided to try her hand at writing. She completed her first novel, writing in longhand in cafes and at other locations while out with her daughter, (she took her out for walks to get her to sleep) then typing it up on an old manual typewriter. She decided to go back to teaching, but in order to teach in Scotland, she would need a postgraduate certificate of education, which required a year long, full-time course of study.

While studying for her teaching certificate, Rowling tried to get her novel published. After an enthusiastic response from one of their readers, the Christopher Little literary agency agreed to represent J.K. Rowling. They submitted her novel to twelve different publishing houses, and all of them rejected it, some stating that the novel was unpublishable and would never sell. Finally, a small publishing house in London called Bloomsbury - which was teetering on bankruptcy - decided to take a chance on the book and publish it. This was because Alice Newton, the eight-year-old daughter of Bloomsbury's chairman, was thrilled with Rowling's novel. When given the first chapter to review, she quickly the demanded the next. And the next.

J.K. Rowling was paid a 1,500 pound advance by editor Barry Cunningham, but he warned her not to quit her day job, because she had little chance of making money in children's books. Her novel was published in June of 1997. It was called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It told the story of Harry Potter, an 11-year-old orphan boy being raised by his ignorant, hateful, and abusive aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Forced to live in a staircase closet and tormented by his odious cousin Dudley, Harry's bleak life changes forever when a giant called Hagrid arrives to take him away from his nasty relatives.

Hagrid reveals to Harry the truth about himself, which his aunt and uncle had concealed from him: Harry is a wizard, like his father, James Potter, and his mother Lily - his aunt Petunia's sister - was a witch. When Harry was a baby, his parents were murdered by the evil dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who tried to kill Harry as well. But Harry miraculously survived, and the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead is the result of his attempted murder.

Harry discovers that there exists a secret world of wizards and witches hidden from the eyes of muggles - people born without magical powers. Hagrid takes him to Diagon Alley, a shopping district in the magical world, where he learns that he has inherited his parents' fortune. There, Harry buys the books and accouterments he'll need for boarding school - the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - where he will learn to master his magic and become a great wizard.

On the train ride to Hogwarts, Harry meets fellow students Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The three will soon become inseparable best friends. At school, Harry meets his teachers, including kindly old headmaster Albus Dumbledore, (modeled after Rowling's old headmaster, Alfred Dunn) teacher and house director Minerva McGonagall, and professor Severus Snape, director of the sinister Slytherin house, who may or may not be a "death eater" - a follower of the evil Lord Voldemort.

At the Hogwarts school, the students play a sport called Quidditch - kind of a cross between soccer and polo, the playing field high in the air, the players riding on broomsticks. Harry takes a liking to the sport and becomes a talented Quidditch player.

As the forces of good and evil in the magical world prepare for a coming war, Harry learns that his ultimate destiny is to face (and hopefully destroy) his parents' murderer, Lord Voldemort, to whom he is psychically linked via his lightning-shaped scar. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first is a series of seven Harry Potter novels that follow the boy wizard through his years at Hogwarts, as he prepares for his final showdown with Lord Voldemort. Meticulously plotted and detail-rich, the novel became a huge bestseller after it was published in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. J.K. Rowling has said that if she had been in a better position to do so at the time, she would have fought her American publisher, Scholastic, Inc., to retain the novel's original title for its U.S. publication.

The Harry Potter novels created a literary phenomenon. They not only encouraged millions of children to discover the joy of reading, they also earned millions of adult fans as well, including me. They also disproved the long held notion that children's novels must be brief and fast-paced. Rowling's amazing fantasy novels are full-length and epic in scope. The fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, (2003) clocked in at a whopping 750+ pages. She has earned the respect of many of her fellow writers, including horror master Stephen King, who is a huge fan of the series.

There were however, some people who were less than thrilled by the adventures of Harry Potter. Christian fundamentalists around the world attacked Rowling's novels, accusing her of encouraging children to dabble in the occult, including practicing real witchcraft and engaging in devil worship. Rowling dismissed these ridiculous accusations, explaining that magic in her novels is depicted as a talent - a gift one is born with - and not part of a religion. She also noted that she belongs to the Church of Scotland.

Christian fundamentalists still attack her novels. The Catholic Church was mostly divided on the issue; Cardinal John Ratzinger, now Pope Benedictus XVI, attacked the Harry Potter novels for their "subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly." The Harry Potter novels were at the top of the American Library Association's list of most challenged books for the years 1999-2001.

The Harry Potter novels made the jump to the big screen in November of 2001, when a feature film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released. Like the novel it was based on, the movie was a huge hit. The film version of the sixth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was just released this month. It was supposed to have been released in November 2008, but studio Warner Brothers decided to hold it up and push it as a summer blockbuster in 2009.

The last film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be released in two parts, as the studio claimed there was too much detail in Rowling's last novel for one feature film. That didn't stop them from condensing the 750+ page Order of the Phoenix into a 138-minute movie whose screenplay removed a tremendous amount of important details, including the critical ending scene between Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore. Needless to say, the film was a huge disappointment.

J.K. Rowling said from the beginning that the Harry Potter chronicles were planned to be a seven-novel series. At the end of the last book, there is a prologue set 19 years in the future. While some new characters are established, there is no indication that Rowling will continue the series further - though she hasn't ruled it totally out of the question, either. She has written some supplemental books, including Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, (2001) Quidditch Through The Ages, and most recently, The Tales Of Beedle The Bard (2007). She has expressed interest in writing other, non-Harry Potter related works.

All in all, the Harry Potter novels have sold over four hundred million copies. The book, movie, and merchandising royalties have made J.K. Rowling, once a broke single mother on welfare, the 12th richest woman in Britain, enabling her do a lot of philanthropic work, raising money to combat poverty, help single mothers, benefit multiple sclerosis research, (her mother died of the disease) and for other causes.

On the day after Christmas, 2001, Rowling married her second husband, Neil Michael Murray, an anesthetist. She bore him two children, a son and a daughter. They live on an estate in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. They also own homes in Edinburgh and Kensington, West London.

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Quote Of The Day

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"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better." - J.K. Rowling

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video is a two part video of J.K. Rowling delivering a commencement address at Harvard on June 5th, 2008. Enjoy!

Notes for July 30th, 2009

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 30th, 1818, the legendary poet and novelist Emily Brontë was born in West Yorkshire, England. Her sisters Charlotte (author of the classic novel Jane Eyre) and Anne were also poets and novelists, and her brother Patrick Branwell Brontë was a poet and painter. Their father was a poor Irish clergyman, but he did have an impressive collection of classic literature.

Emily and her siblings educated themselves by reading all their father's books. As children, they created imaginary worlds and filled notebooks with stories about them. Emily attended Miss Patchett's Ladies Academy at Law Hill School near Halifax, then later, a private school in Brussels.

When Emily's sister Charlotte discovered her talent as a poet, they decided to collaborate on a book of poetry, along with sister Anne. Due to the prejudice against women writers in the Victorian era, the Brontë sisters published their poetry under pseudonyms. Emily became Ellis Bell, Charlotte became Currer Bell, and Anne was Acton Bell. Their first book, published in 1846, was titled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.

The following year, Emily Brontë published her famous novel, Wuthering Heights, as Ellis Bell. Originally published in two volumes, (Anne Brontë later wrote a third volume that continued the story, called Agnes Grey) Wuthering Heights told the story of the intensely passionate, yet ultimately doomed love affair between childhood sweethearts Heathcliff and Catherine, who grow into soul mates, only to be separated by cruelty and snobbery, their unresolved emotions threatening to destroy them.

When it was first published, Wuthering Heights received mixed reviews due to its stark and brutal depictions of emotional and physical cruelty. It has since been recognized as one of the great classics of English literature, and rightfully so. Unfortunately, Emily Brontë would never write another novel. After her brother died of tuberculosis, Emily contracted the disease herself, the result of a cold she caught during his funeral. She died in December of 1848, at the age of thirty. Her sister Anne died of tuberculosis the following year.

After Emily Brontë's death, her sister Charlotte edited her two volumes of Wuthering Heights into a standalone novel, and republished it under Emily's real name. Five years later, Charlotte also died young of tuberculosis, or so her death certificate stated. Some biographers have claimed that she actually died of either typhus or dehydration and malnutrition from excessive vomiting brought on by severe morning sickness.

Although Emily Brontë's life was tragically cut short, her literary legacy lives on. Wuthering Heights continues to inspire readers to this day, and has been adapted numerous times for the stage, screen, radio, and television.

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Quote Of The Day

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"Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves." - Emily Brontë

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a reading of Emily Brontë's classic poem, Remembrance - read by an animated photograph of Emily herself! Enjoy!

Notes For July 29th, 2009

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 29th, 1965, the writer Chang-Rae Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea. When he was three years old, Lee's father moved the family to the United States so he could finish his training and become a psychiatrist. The family moved first to Pittsburgh, then to New York.

As a young Korean-American boy, Chang-Rae Lee struggled to learn English. His parents only spoke to him and his older sister Eunei in Korean, so they could learn to speak English without a Korean accent. In his mind, Chang-Rae found himself caught between two languages. He didn't speak at all when he entered kindergarten. But by the time he was ten years old, he had become fluent in both languages and served as a translator for his mother, who had even more difficulty learning English.

Chang-Rae Lee's experiences as the son of Korean immigrants would shape his future writing career. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, an exclusive East Coast prep school, then went to Yale. Instead of following the path of most children of Korean immigrants and study medicine or law, Lee majored in English. During college, he began writing fiction.

After graduating, he became an equities analyst for Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, a Wall Street investment bank, while writing part-time. He found his job unfulfilling, so, taking a cue from his old friend and prep school roommate, novelist Brooks Hansen, he quit to become a writer. His unpublished early novel, Agnew Belittlehead, won him a scholarship and entrance to the creative writing program at the University of Oregon. After graduating in 1993, he was hired as an assistant writing professor by the University. That same year, he married his wife, Michelle Branca. She bore him two daughters.

In 1995, Chang-Rae Lee's first novel, Native Speaker, was published. In Lee's offbeat tale, Henry Park is a young Korean-American man who suffers from identity issues, alienation, and an inability to express grief over the sudden death of his seven-year-old son, who was accidentally killed by his white playmates in a freak mishap. The novel opens with Park's wife, who is also white, leaving him.

In an intriguing twist, Henry Park works as an operative for a shadowy detective agency whose clients hire it to dig up dirt on people. His psychological problems begin to affect his job, so he seeks therapy. Henry suffers from alienation because he was unable to fit in with either his parents' Korean culture or mainstream American culture. As he struggles to find himself, he asks his employers for a second chance and is assigned to infiltrate the campaign of John Kwang, a popular Korean-American politician and candidate for mayor of New York City - a task made difficult by the fact that Kwang reminds Henry of his father.

Native Speaker earned Chang-Rae Lee both the prestigious PEN / Hemingway Award and the distinction of being the first Korean-American novelist ever published by a major American press. His second novel, A Gesture Life, also dealt with identity and immigrant issues. It told the story of Doc Hata, a Korean who served in the Japanese Army during World War 2. As a child, he had been adopted by a wealthy Japanese couple. As a soldier, Hata falls in love with a Korean woman, who, like over 200,000 others, was forced to become a "comfort woman" for the Japanese soldiers.

After the war, Hata moves to America, where he fits in with his neighbors because he had become a successful businessman, but he is unable to connect emotionally with anyone. He suffers from a crisis of identity and is always at odds with his rebellious, mixed-race adopted daughter, Sunny. He adopted her when she was seven. Now a pregnant teenager, Hata forces her to have an abortion, hoping to save her from the failure that his life has become.

Chang-Rae Lee's third novel, Aloft, was published in 2o04. His latest novel, The Surrender, will be released soon. He still teaches creative writing.

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Quote Of The Day

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"The truth, finally, is who can tell it." - Chang-Rae Lee

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video is a film school student's fake trailer for a feature film version of Chang-Rae Lee's novel, Native Speaker. Enjoy!

Notes for July 28th, 2009

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 28th, 1932, the famous children's novelist Natalie Babbitt was born. She was born Natalie Zane in Dayton, Ohio, but the family moved around frequently. Growing up during the Great Depression, Natalie enjoyed reading fairy tales, folklore, and books about mythology.

When she discovered an illustrated copy of Lewis Carroll's classic Alice In Wonderland, Natalie was determined to be a children's book illustrator when she grew up. Her mother, an amateur landscape and portrait painter, encouraged her. She gave Natalie art lessons and made sure she always had enough paper, colored pencils, and paints.

Natalie Babbitt studied art at the Laurel School for Girls in Cleveland and at Smith College. After graduation, she married Samuel Babbitt and bore him three children. She spent the next ten years as a stay-at-home mom, though when her husband became the president of Kirkland College in New York, she performed all the duties of a college president's wife, including attending various functions.

In the late 1960s, Natalie and her husband collaborated on a children's book called The Forty-Ninth Magician. Samuel wrote the story and Natalie drew the illustrations. The book was published in 1966 and was successful. Unfortunately, Samuel's work left him little time to write, so further books were out of the question. Natalie's sister asked her to draw the illustrations for a comic novel she'd written, but that panned out due to her constant rewrites, which required Natalie to keep drawing new pictures.

Frustrated, Natalie Babbitt decided to write her own books. Her first solo effort, Dick Foote And The Shark, was published in 1967. With her enchanting fairy tales, she made a name for herself as one of the best children's writers of all time. She also has a gift for humor and satire. In 1974, Natalie published The Devil's Storybook, a collection of humorous Saki-esque short stories featuring the Devil as the main character.

The Devil's Storybook has nothing to do with religion. Instead, it presents the Devil as a comic character. As Jean Stafford, book critic for the New Yorker magazine, noted: "This Devil is not dire; he is a scheming practical joker and comes to earth often when he is restless, to play tricks on clergymen, goodwives, poets, and pretty girls." Natalie Babbitt's ferocious wit, combined with her hilarious illustrations, made The Devil's Storybook a favorite of both children and adults. In 1987, Babbitt published a sequel, The Devil's Other Storybook.

Natalie Babbitt is, of course, best known for her fairy tales and fantasy stories. In 1975, she published Tuck Everlasting, a novel that most of her fans (including me) consider to be her best work. Set in 1881, the novel tells the story of Winnie Foster, a bored and lonely 10-year-old girl stifled by her wealthy, overprotective parents. She escapes from them by exploring the forest near her home. One day, she finds a mysterious family, the Tucks, (mother Mae Tuck, her husband, and their two sons) living in the middle of the woods.

The Tucks have a secret, which Winnie discovers: they are immortal - the result of drinking water from a hidden, magical spring. Winnie befriends the Tuck family and promises to keep their secret. She grows close to their younger son, 17-year-old Jesse Tuck, and thinks that it must be wonderful to live forever. But she soon realizes that immortality is more like a curse than a gift. The Tucks live a lonely, isolated existence, trying to prevent their secret from being revealed, for then everyone would want to be immortal, and the world would become a terrible place.

When Mae Tuck kills a man to save Winnie, she's sent to prison, but Winnie helps her escape. The Tucks flee, taking their secret with them - except for some magic spring water which Jesse Tuck gave to Winnie. Will she drink it when she turns seventeen so she can marry him and live forever?

Tuck Everlasting was adapted twice as a feature film, first in 1981 - a rarely seen, independently made gem that really captures the essence of Natalie Babbitt's novel - then again in 2002. The 2002 version is a Disney film - a horrible adaptation that turned Babbitt's great novel into a sappy teen romance - despite the fact that Winnie Foster is only ten years old in the book. The movie was panned by critics and film goers alike.

In 1977, Natalie Babbitt published The Eyes Of The Amaryllis, a haunting tale of the supernatural. It's summertime, and 11-year-old Geneva "Jenny" Reade has been sent to stay with her grandmother for a while and help the old woman, who has broken her leg. Jenny's grandmother believes that her husband, who went missing at sea thirty years ago, will soon send her a sign of his love.

Jenny doesn't believe her - until she meets the ghost of a drowned man named Seward. Seward's job is to return to the sea anything of value that may wash up on shore. When Jenny finds an object of value that washed up, her grandmother believes that it's a sign from her husband. But Seward warns them that the sea wants it back - and will take it back by force if necessary.

The Eyes Of The Amaryllis was adapted as a feature film in 1982 - an excellent, independently made film that wonderfully adapts Natalie Babbitt's novel to the screen. It features a memorable performance by 11-year-old Martha Byrne as Jenny Reade. A year later, she would star in the science fiction classic, Anna To The Infinite Power - another indie gem.

Natalie Babbitt has written seventeen children's books. Her latest, Jack Plank Tells Tales, was published in 2007.

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Quote Of The Day

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"Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live." - Natalie Babbitt

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features clips from the wonderful 1981 feature film adaptation of Natalie Babbitt's classic novel, Tuck Everlasting. Enjoy!

IWW Members' Publishing Successes

Internet Writing Workshop members continue to find publishing success in all venues. Congratulations to this week's crew!

Jody

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Barry Basden

Callused Hands has published "Morning Walk" and reprinted a slightly different version of "Retirement Haven."

You'll have to scroll or read your way down to them.

Amanda Borenstadt

My short is up on Postcard Shorts.

Fennel

I have two book reviews to report: "Liv's Struggle" by Dorris Jean, up at Long and Short Reviews, and "Love Heals all Pain" by Melissa Miller, also at Long and Short Reviews.

Ann Hite

Here's one of my many reviews, "Emily's Ghost: A Novel of the Brontë Sisters" by Denise Giardiana, out this month on Feminist Review. "Emily's Ghost" was wonderful. Check it out.

Rebecca Kellogg

My latest article for Action Online is up on the home page now. Thanks to all who offered feedback!

Tom Mahony

My short essay, "Gentleman's Pot Farm," is up at LabLit.

Randy Radic

My review of "Ferryman" by Carole Sutton is up at Alvah's Books. Thanks to Carole Sutton for the book and Rebeca for the opportunity.

Loretta Russell

My latest article is up at Food for Thought: a news café.

The people brought the health care protest local (only 45 minutes away from me) and despite the 105 temperature, the (I'm guessing) mile walk to the California congressman’s office and it being a Thursday afternoon, a lot of people from this area showed up. Rowan O’Connell-Barger, who is also referenced as a contributor, took the photo of the women from the Women’s Specialties clinic, but the rest was my work.

After making some changes to localize it, I also sent the piece to a weekly paper in Burney (same distance away in the opposite direction) and the publishers said they will not only run it, but offered me a stringer position. They also ran photos of the last protest in the state capitol.

The reason I tell all this is that there 'are' opportunities out there for web and print (which are hurting) newspapers. I’m not in it for the money, but to rebuild my writing/journalism résumé. This group has helped me a lot to relearn the concise writing needed, so thank you to all!

Carole Sutton

If you want to see a superb review of "Ferryman" with a very interesting and innovative perspective, take a look at our very own Randy Radic's review for Alvah's Books.

Many thanks to Randy, and to Rebeca for her site. Have fun!

Mona Leeson Vanek

My stories on the Rockford, WA, Horizons Community Blog for July 15th, 21st and 24th:

Education Opportunities

Social Networking Tips

Spokane physicians voice opposition

Joanna M. Weston

What a way to come back from holiday! Four poems up at 7beats! Scroll way way down. Many thanks to the poets:-)

This Week's Practice Exercise~

The World's a Poem~


Prepared by: Ruth Douillette
Reposted, revised, on: July 26, 2009
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Exercise: Find an article in a newspaper or magazine on a topic that interests you: a current event, a political development, a science breakthrough, an obituary, or anything you react to emotionally. Turn the prose into a poem that expresses the essence of the article. Give your poem a brief introduction. For example: "This poem is based on the book burning staged by Alamogordo objectors after they read When Pigs Fly."
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William Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, recollected in tranquility."

If this is true, then we are all poets at heart. Often those who write prose include poetic elements in stories. The use of rhythm, figurative language, alliteration, metaphor and other literary devices is not exclusive to poetry. Yet we often steer clear of writing poetry, fearing it as something foreign, very different from the familiar prose of everyday language.

While poetry is different, it is in many ways similar to prose. A poem can tell a story, although it doesn't have to. Poetry expresses ideas, thoughts, and actions, like prose, but in a different way. Poetry condenses and concentrates the essence of prose, saying much in few words.

Many of us may feel incompetent when it comes to writing poetry, so, if it helps, don't think of yourself as writing a poem--what you are doing is simply what Wordsworth recommended: letting your feelings overflow.
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These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop.

Notes for July 24th, 2009

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 24th, 1802, the legendary French novelist Alexandre Dumas was born in the village of Villers-Cotterets, Aisne, France. He was half-black like his father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, who became one of the best generals in Napoleon's army. When he publicly criticized Napoleon's military leadership, the emperor accused him of sedition. Thomas-Alexandre resigned from the army in disgust, and the ensuing scandal ruined the Dumas family. When Alexandre Dumas was three years old, his father died of stomach cancer.

Although his mother Marie-Louise couldn't provide him with much of an education, as a boy, Dumas loved books and read every one he could get his hands on. That and his mother's stories of his father's bravery as a soldier planted the seeds of his future writing career, as Dumas dreamed of heroes and high adventure.

When he was 20 years old, Dumas moved to Paris, where he was employed at the Palais Royal in the office of the Duc D'Orleans - Louis-Philippe, the future and last king of France. While working in Paris, Dumas began his writing career. He wrote articles for magazines and co-wrote plays for the theater. In 1829, King Henry III and His Court - the first play Dumas wrote himself - was produced, and became a great success, as did his second play, Christine.

After writing more successful plays, Dumas turned his attention to novels, as serial novels were in high demand by newspapers. In 1838, Dumas' first novel La Capitaine Paul - a novelization of one of his plays - was published. The success of the book led Dumas to create a studio of sorts dedicated to producing short stories and serial novels, where he received input from assistants and other collaborators.

From 1839 to 1841, Dumas also compiled an eight-volume collection of essays about famous crimes and criminals in European history called Celebrated Crimes. During this time, Dumas married actress Marguerite-Josephine Ferrand, known by her stage name, Ida Ferrier. Though he loved Ida, Dumas was a notorious womanizer and fathered at least four illegitimate children, one of whom, Alexandre Dumas Jr., would become a fine novelist and playwright himself.

In 1844, Dumas published The Three Musketeers - the first in a three-book trilogy, The D'Artagnan Romances. (a fourth book, The Son Of Porthos, aka The Death Of Aramis, was published 13 years after Dumas' death; though it bore his name, it was actually written by Paul Mahalin) In this classic swashbuckler, a young man named D'Artagnan sets out to join the King's Musketeers. He meets three of them - Athos, Porthos, and Aramis - but ends up being challenged to a duel by each man.

Just as D'Artagnan's duel with Athos is about to begin, the guards of the evil Cardinal Richelieu arrive and threaten to arrest all the men for dueling. Using his skill as a swordsman, D'Artagnan helps the three Musketeers defeat the guards. The impressed Musketeers befriend D'Artagnan and offer to take him under their wing. Soon, D'Artagnan runs afoul of the vengeful Cardinal and his beautiful but deadly spy, Milady de Winter.

The Three Musketeers was followed by two more novels - Twenty Years After (1845) and The Vicomte de Bragelonne, aka Ten Years Later (1847). It would later be adapted numerous times for the stage, screen, radio, and television.

From 1845-46, Alexandre Dumas published, in serial format, what is considered to be his greatest novel, The Count Of Monte Cristo. An epic novel of adventure, vengeance, hope, and forgiveness, the book told the story of Edmond Dantes, an honest and loyal man framed for treason by group of conspirators including a romantic rival and a corrupt prosecutor. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Dantes is befriended by fellow prisoner Abbe Feria - a priest and sage. He becomes Edmond's friend, father figure, and teacher. They work on a plan to tunnel out of prison.

Fourteen years later, Dantes finally escapes from prison. Before he died, the ailing Abbe gave Dantes a map to a treasure he buried on Monte Cristo, an island off the coast of Milan. Dantes finds the treasure. Now a wealthy man, Dantes buys the island and re-invents himself as a mysterious aristocrat known as the Count of Monte Cristo. He returns to France, where he finds that his former fiancee Mercedes married one of the men who framed him. Dantes executes an elaborate plan of vengeance against all the conspirators responsible for his imprisonment.

Even though the success of Alexandre Dumas' plays and novels brought him wealth, he spent money lavishly, and his mansion, the Chateau de Monte Cristo, was always filled with friends and acquaintances looking to take advantage of his generosity. As a result, he was often broke and in debt. He continued to write more novels, including another classic swashbuckler, Robin Hood (1863), Dumas' retelling of the tale of the legendary outlaw Earl of Huntingdon, his Merry Men, and his love, Maid Marian.

Alexandre Dumas died in 1870 at the age of 68.

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Quote Of The Day

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"How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it." - Alexandre Dumas

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video is a clip of what must be the most unusual adaptation ever made of Alexandre Dumas' classic novel, The Count Of Monte Cristo - a Japanese anime version! Enjoy!

Notes for July 23rd, 2009

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 23rd, 1888, the famous mystery writer Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago, Illinois. When he was seven years old, Chandler's Irish mother moved the family to England after they were abandoned by his father, a civil engineer and drunkard who worked for an American railway company.

In England, Chandler's uncle, an affluent lawyer, supported the family. Chandler received his education first at a local school in Upper Norwood, then at Dulwich College, London - the same public college where P.G. Wodehouse and C.S. Forester learned to write. After graduation, instead of attending university, Chandler traveled through Europe, spending time in Paris and Munich.

Raymond Chandler became a naturalized British citizen so he could take a civil examination, where he would receive the third highest grade ever earned. Chandler then took an Admiralty job which lasted just over a year. He began his writing career as a poet, and published his first poem during this time. Chandler came to dislike the civil service. Despite his family's objections, he quit and became a reporter for the Daily Express and the Bristol Western Gazette newspapers. He was unsuccessful as a journalist, but did publish some reviews and continued writing poetry.

With a loan from his uncle, Chandler returned to the U.S. and settled in Los Angeles, where he earned a meager living doing menial jobs, including stringing tennis rackets and picking fruit. Finally, he took a correspondence course in bookkeeping, which he completed ahead of schedule. It enabled him to find decent, steady employment. When the U.S. entered World War 1 in 1917, Chandler enlisted in the CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force). In France, he fought in the trenches with the Gordon Highlanders, an infantry regiment in the British Army. By the end of the war, he was undergoing training to be a pilot for the RAF.

After the armistice that ended the war was signed, Chandler returned to Los Angeles. His mother moved in with him. He soon fell in love with Cissy Pascal, a married woman 18 years his senior. Cissy ended her marriage in an amicable divorce, but Chandler's mother didn't approve of their relationship and would not allow them to marry. He had to support both women financially for the next four years. Chandler's mother died in September 1923. Five months later, in February 1924, he married Cissy.

By 1932, Raymond Chandler had become a highly paid vice president for the Dabney Oil syndicate. It would only last a year, as Chandler's battles with alcoholism and depression took their toll and resulted in his firing. But he got his life back together and decided to try making a living as a writer. He taught himself how to write pulp fiction, and in 1933, his first short story, Blackmailers Don't Shoot, was published in Black Mask magazine. He continued write and publish stories regularly in pulp fiction magazines for several years.

In 1939, Raymond Chandler's first novel, The Big Sleep, was published. It became a huge success, and introduced the world to Chandler's most famous recurring character - a hard-boiled detective by the name of Philip Marlowe. While Marlowe was a tough guy, he was quite different than most hard-boiled detectives. He was intelligent (college educated) and complex, tough as nails yet sentimental at times, and somewhat fluent in Spanish. He had few friends and a passion for both classical music and the game of chess. If he suspected that a prospective client's job was unethical, he would refuse to take the case. Chandler's writing style was hard-boiled and fast moving, with clever and lyrical metaphors: "The minutes went by on tiptoe, with their fingers to their lips." This distinctive style would be referred to as "Chandleresque."

In The Big Sleep, (the title is a euphemism for death) Philip Marlowe is hired by elderly, wheelchair-bound millionaire General Sternwood. The case seems simple and straightforward: Marlowe must track down a blackmailer who claims that he's owed gambling debts accrued by Sternwood's unstable daughter, Carmen. Marlowe soon realizes that nothing about the case is as it seems; people surrounding Carmen and the blackmailer start turning up dead, and Marlowe becomes ensnared in a grim, sordid web of murder, madness, and the illegal stag film business.

Chandler's debut novel was a huge success. In 1946, it would be adapted as a feature film starring Humphrey Bogart. Though the novel had to be sanitized considerably for the screen as per Production Code requirements, the movie version of The Big Sleep is still considered an all-time classic film, and rightfully so. Before the movie was made, Chandler's success as a novelist earned him a job as a Hollywood screenwriter. In 1944, he and Billy Wilder wrote the screenplay for the suspense film classic Double Indemnity - an adaptation of James M. Cain's novel. In 1946, he wrote an original screenplay for a noir thriller called The Blue Dahlia, which starred Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. In 1951, Chandler co-wrote the screenplay for the Alfred Hitchcock classic Strangers On A Train - an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel whose story Chandler found implausible.

Raymond Chandler continued to write more classic Philip Marlowe novels, including Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady In The Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1954), which won him an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1955. After he completed The Long Goodbye, Chandler's wife Cissy died following a long illness. Her death shattered him, and he plunged into a new battle with his old demons, drink and depression. He attempted suicide in 1955. After recovering in England, Chandler returned to California. He died three years later at the age of 70 from heart and kidney failure.

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Quote Of The Day

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"I have a sense of exile from thought, a nostalgia of the quiet room and balanced mind. I am a writer, and there comes a time when that which I write has to belong to me, has to be written alone and in silence, with no one looking over my shoulder, no one telling me a better way to write it. It doesn't have to be great writing, it doesn't even have to be terribly good. It just has to be mine."

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a short lecture on Raymond Chandler by Judith Freeman, from the Master of Professional Writing Program at USC. Enjoy!

Notes for July 22nd, 2009

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 22nd, 1936, the novelist Tom Robbins was born in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Both his grandfathers were Southern Baptist preachers. The family moved to Virginia in 1947. At the age of 16, Robbins studied journalism at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, but he dropped out of college when his fraternity expelled him for disciplinary problems.

In 1954, Robbins was drafted into the military. He enlisted in the Air Force and served a two year tour of duty in Korea as a meteorologist. After his discharge, he returned to civilian life, settling in Richmond, Virginia. He became part of the local art scene, spending time with painters. In 1957, Robbins enrolled in art school at Richmond Professional Institute, now known as Virginia Commonwealth University. While there, he became the editor of the campus newspaper and worked as a copy editor for the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper.

After art school, Tom Robbins spent a year hitchhiking his way around the country. He settled in New York City and became a poet. In 1961, he moved to San Francisco, then a year later, he moved to Seattle to get a Master's degree at the University Of Washington's School of Far Eastern Studies. Over the next five years, Robbins worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, first as a sports reporter, then as an arts reviewer. In 1966, he wrote a column for Seattle Magazine and hosted a radio show on KRAB-FM, a non-commercial station in Seattle. The following year, Robbins went to a concert by legendary rock band The Doors, which was a life-changing experience for him. It was a major factor in his decision to move to La Conner, Washington, and write his first book.

Tom Robbins' first novel, Another Roadside Attraction, was published in 1971. It introduced his trademark writing style - non-linear narrative combined with offbeat humor and sharp satire. It told the story of John Paul Ziller and his wife Amanda - a hippie guru - who open a combination hot dog stand and zoo called Captain Kendrick's Memorial Hot Dog Wildlife Preserve. Other weird characters in the novel are a baboon named Mon Cul, a well educated fellow called Marx Marvelous, and L. Westminster "Plucky" Purcell, a football great and part time drug dealer who accidentally uncovers a secret order of monks who work as assassins for the Vatican. Plucky also uncovers a shocking secret dating back to the beginning of Christianity.

His next novel, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (1976) featured a main character, Sissy Henshaw, who was born with an unusual birth defect - enormously large thumbs, which she uses to hitchhike around the country. In her travels, Sissy meets and becomes a model for the Countess, a lesbian feminine hygiene product tycoon. The Countess introduces Sissy to her future husband, a Mohawk Indian named Julian Gitche. Sissy also meets sexually open cowgirl Bonanza Jellybean, and an escapee from the U.S. government's Japanese internment camps with the erroneous nickname "The Chink."

In 1993, director Gus Van Sant - a friend of Tom Robbins - adapted Even Cowgirls Get The Blues as a movie starring Uma Thurman as Sissy Henshaw, John Hurt as the Countess, Rain Phoenix as Bonanza Jellybean, Keanu Reeves as Julian Gitche, and Pat Morita as The Chink.

Tom Robbins has written ten novels so far, including memorable works such as Still Life With Woodpecker (1980) and Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas (1994). His latest novel, B Is For Beer, was released earlier this year, in April of 2009.

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Quote Of The Day

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"There is a similarity between juggling and composing on the typewriter. The trick is, when you spill something, make it look like a part of the act." - Tom Robbins

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a reading of Tom Robbins' short story, The Purpose Of The Moon. Enjoy!

Notes for July 21st, 2009

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 21st, 1899, the legendary writer Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois - a suburb of Chicago. His father, Clarence Edmonds "Doc Ed" Hemingway, was a country doctor. His mother Grace was an aspiring opera singer who earned money giving voice and music lessons. She was a domineering and fiercely religious woman who shared the beliefs of the strict, fundamentalist Protestant population of Oak Park, which Ernest Hemingway described as having "wide lawns and narrow minds."

As a boy, Hemingway adopted his father's hobbies of hunting, fishing, and camping in the woods and lakes of Northern Michigan, where his family owned a summer home. They often vacationed there, and the young Hemingway's experiences instilled in him a passion for both outdoor adventure and living in remote areas.

In high school, Hemingway excelled in both sports (he boxed and played football) and academics, displaying exceptional talent in his English classes. His first literary experience was writing for both the school newspaper and yearbook. In his senior year, he became the editor of the newspaper. He sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Ring Lardner, Jr. as a tribute to his literary hero, Ring Lardner.

After graduating high school, Hemingway decided not to go to college. Instead, he began his writing career as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star. Six months later, against his father's wishes, he left the job to join the Army and fight in World War 1. He failed his physical due to vision problems, so he joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corps instead. On his way to the Italian front, he stopped in Paris, which was being bombarded by German artillery. He tried to get as close to the combat zone as possible.

When he arrived in Italy, Hemingway witnessed first hand the horrors of war. After an ammunition factory near Milan exploded, he had to pick up the human remains. He wrote about the experience in his first short story, A Natural History Of The Dead. It left him badly shaken. In July of 1918, Hemingway's career as an ambulance driver ended when he was badly wounded while delivering supplies to soldiers. Shrapnel from an Austrian trench mortar shell lodged in his legs, and machine gun fire badly injured his knee.

While recovering in a Milan hospital, he fell in love with Agnes von Kurowski, an American nurse six years his senior. They planned to return to America together, but when the time came, Agnes jilted Hemingway and ran off with an Italian officer. This painful betrayal left a mark on Hemingway's psyche, and was reflected in his classic novel A Farewell To Arms (1929). After the war, he returned briefly to Oak Park before leaving for Toronto, Ontario, where he lived in an apartment on Bathurst Street, now known as The Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway resumed his journalism career, landing a job as a reporter for the Toronto Star newspaper. He met and married his first wife, Hadley Richardson. She hated their cramped apartment, so they moved to Paris, where Hemingway covered the Greco-Turkish War for the Toronto Star. In this obscure yet important war, he witnessed the horrific burning of Smyrna, which he mentioned in a few of his short stories. While living in Paris, he met Gertrude Stein, who became his mentor and introduced him to the American expatriate community of writers and artists who lived around the Montparnasse Quarter. This community came to be known as the Lost Generation, a term Stein coined from a comment made by her mechanic.

In 1923, after enjoying great success as a foreign correspondent, Hemingway returned to Toronto, where he began writing fiction under the pseudonym Peter Jackson. His first child was born - a son named John but known as Jack. Hemingway asked Gertrude Stein to be his godmother. Around this time, Hemingway had a falling out with his editor, who believed he had been spoiled by his overseas assignments. He deliberately gave Hemingway mundane assignments. A bitter Hemingway angrily resigned from the Toronto Star in December of 1923. His resignation must have been either ignored or rescinded, as Hemingway continued to write for the newspaper - albeit sporadically.

In 1925, Ernest Hemingway's first book was published. It was a short story collection called In Our Time. It featured four Nick Adams stories. The book's title, which came from the English Book of Common Prayer, was suggested to Hemingway by Ezra Pound. The 1930 reprint of the book included the piece On The Quai At Smyrna as an introduction. It was based on Hemingway's experiences covering the Greco-Turkish War. The same year his book was published, Hemingway met writer F. Scott Fitzgerald at the Dingo Bar in Paris. Just two weeks before, Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby was published.

Hemingway and Fiztgerald became close friends. They spent a lot of time together talking, drinking, and exchanging manuscripts. Impressed with Hemingway's writing talent, Fitzgerald did a lot to advance his career. Unfortunately, Fitzgerald's wife Zelda took an immediate dislike to Hemingway. The feeling was mutual. Zelda and her husband were having marital problems at the time. She blamed the decline of their sex life on Hemingway, whom she called a "fairy" and accused of having a homosexual affair with Fitzgerald. There is no evidence that the two men had an affair or that they were gay or bisexual. Zelda was both a heavy drinker and mentally ill, and would later be institutionalized. To get back at her for attacking his masculinity, Fitzgerald slept with a prostitute. The conflict between Hemingway and Zelda ended his friendship with Fitzgerald and created lifelong animosity between the two writers.

Hemingway and his wife Hadley divorced in 1927. He later married Pauline Pfeiffer, a devout Catholic from Arkansas who was an occasional fashion reporter, writing for Vanity Fair and Vogue. Hemingway converted to Catholicism and continued to write. Tragedy struck the following year when his father, in poor health and with financial troubles, committed suicide by shooting himself with an old Civil War pistol. Hemingway returned to Oak Park to arrange the funeral, and angered the Protestant community by voicing the Catholic view that all suicides go to Hell. Not long afterward, Harry Crosby - an old friend of Hemingway's from his Paris days and the founder of Black Sun Press - also committed suicide.

A year later in 1929, Hemingway published his classic novel, A Farewell To Arms. It was an autobiographical novel based on Hemingway's experiences in World War 1. In it, Frederic Henry, an American soldier, is wounded in Italy and recovers in a Milan hospital. There, he meets a British nurse, Catherine Barkley, and falls in love with her. By the time he has recovered, she is three months pregnant. They are separated by the war, then reunited later. They flee to Switzerland by rowboat where, after a long and painful labor, Catherine gives birth to a stillborn baby, then bleeds to death. The novel would later be adapted for the stage and screen.

Ernest Hemingway wrote ten novels, most of them all-time classics. He also wrote ten short story collections, several non-fiction books, and two plays. His famous 1952 novella The Old Man And The Sea -written while Hemingway was living in Cuba - was his favorite, and with good reason. His previous novel, Across The River And Into The Trees (1950) was savaged by critics. They said Hemingway was washed up as writer - he had become a parody of himself. The Old Man And The Sea proved his brilliance.

Hemingway's thrilling tale of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman far out in the Gulf Stream, who struggles to reel in a giant marlin, won him tremendous praise by critics, who compared his novella with Melville's Moby Dick and Faulkner's The Bear. The Old Man And The Sea also won Hemingway the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1983, when I was thirteen, my eighth grade English teacher assigned the class to read this amazing book. I loved it and became a big Hemingway fan. I still am.

In July of 1961, just three weeks before his 62nd birthday, after suffering from health problems and mental illness, Ernest Hemingway committed suicide with his hunting rifle. Ironically, even though he had previously voiced the Catholic belief that all suicides go to Hell, the Catholic Church ruled that Hemingway was not responsible for his suicide due to mental illness. He was therefore allowed to be buried in a Catholic cemetery.

Hemingway's father and two of his siblings had also committed suicide, and years later, his granddaughter, actress Margaux Hemingway, would take her life. Some believe that the disease haemochromatosis ran in Hemingway's father's family. It's a genetic disease that causes an excessive level of iron in the blood - which not only results in damage to the pancreas, but also causes instability in the cerebrum, resulting in depression and mental illness.

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Quote Of The Day

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"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof shit detector. This is the writer's radar, and all great writers have had it." - Ernest Hemingway

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video is a biographical presentation about the life of Ernest Hemingway. Enjoy!

Notes for July 20th, 2009

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 20th, 1304, the legendary poet, scholar, and philosopher Petrarch was born. He was born Francesco Petrarca in Arezzo, Italy. Petrarch's father was in the legal profession, so he demanded that his sons study law as well. Petrarch spent seven years in law school. However, he considered this to be wasted time - his main interests were writing and Latin literature and he hated the legal system, which he considered to be the art of selling justice.

After the death of their parents, Petrarch and his brother Gherardo went back to Avignon, where they spent most of their early years. To support himself, Petrarch worked in clerical offices. This gave him time to write. He became friends with the writer Boccaccio and corresponded with him frequently. Petrarch also completed his first major work, Africa - an epic poem written in Latin that told the story of the great Roman general, Scipio Africanus.

Petrarch's epic poem made him a celebrity throughout Europe. He became a priest and continued his work as a scholar and writer. He wrote mostly in Latin, but his most famous collection of poems, Il Canzoniere, (The Songbook) was written in Italian. This work contained over 300 sonnets, a form his name would be attached to. Though he is sometimes mistakenly credited as being the inventor of the sonnet, he was not. He did, however, invent the particular rhyme scheme for the form that came to be known as the Petrarchan sonnet.

The sonnets in Petrarch's book were inspired by a mysterious young woman known only as Laura. When Petrarch was 24 years old, after he had left the priesthood, he first saw Laura in church on Good Friday. It was love at first sight for Petrarch, but alas, Laura was a married noblewoman who could not return his affection. Despite her nobility, Laura was a sweet-natured and humble girl, which endeared her to Petrarch.

Unable to realize his love for Laura, Petrarch wrote over 300 sonnets secretly professing his unrequited love for her. They are among the greatest love poems ever written. Not much is known to history about Laura. Some scholars believe that she may have been Laura de Noves, wife of Count Hugues de Sade - an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade. When she died in 1348, Petrarch was wracked with grief. The composer Franz Liszt would set three of Petrarch's sonnets to music for voice in his work Tre Sonnetti Di Petrarca, and later transcribe them for solo piano in his suite Annees De Pelerinage.

In 1341, Petrarch was crowned the first poet laureate of Rome since antiquity. He traveled all over Europe as an ambassador. During his travels, he collected old, crumbling Latin manuscripts and became a leader in the movement to recover the manuscripts of ancient Roman and Greek writers to keep them from being lost. He was an adviser for Leontiuis Pilatus' translation of a Homer manuscript acquired from Boccaccio - though he was greatly displeased by the result. In 1345, Petrarch himself discovered a previously unknown collection of Cicero's letters, the Ad Atticum.

During the Italian Renaissance, Petrarch was a highly regarded philosopher. He is credited with founding the Humanist movement and describing the ignorant times that preceded the Renaissance as the "Dark Ages." But he will always be known as one of the greatest writers and poets of all time. During his lifetime, he wrote poetry collections, essays, numerous scholarly works, and a large volume of correspondence. He brought the sonnet to prominence long before the birth of Shakespeare, and his love poems were magnificent. One of his most beloved sonnets is Sonnet #140:

She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine,
A noble lady in a humble home,
And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,
'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.
The soul that all its blessings must resign,
And love whose light no more on earth finds room,
Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom,
Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine;
They weep within my heart; and ears are deaf
Save mine alone, and I am crushed with care,
And naught remains to me save mournful breath.
Assuredly but dust and shade we are,
Assuredly desire is blind and brief,
Assuredly its hope but ends in death.

Petrarch died in 1374, the day before his 70th birthday.

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Quote Of The Day

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"There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen. Other pleasures fail us or wound, us while they charm, but the pen we take up rejoicing and lay down with satisfaction, for it has the power to advantage not only its lord and master, but many others as well, even though they be far away- sometimes, indeed, though they be not born for thousands of years to come. I believe I speak but the strict truth when I claim that as there is none among earthly delights more noble than literature, so there is none so lasting, none gentler, or more faithful; there is none which accompanies its possessor through the vicissitudes of life at so small a cost of effort or anxiety." - Petrarch

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features tenor Antonio Giuliano singing Franz Liszt's Tre Sonnetti Di Petrarca at a tribute to Pavarotti, accompanied by Kathryn Lewis on piano. Enjoy!

IWW Members' Publishing Successes

It's been another great week for Internet Writing Workshop members, who continue to find publishing success in all venues.

Congratulations to this week's crew!

Jody

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Barry Basden

"Tell Me One More Time" has been reprinted at Big Pulp.

They paid $5, less Paypal fees, in case you have any dysfunctional or violent pieces lying around.

Mark Budman

Flash Magazine (University of Chester in England) took two of my interconnected flashes that were critiqued here in 2008 by the title "Triptych." Now it will be called (guess what?) "Diptych."

Thank you everyone for critiquing it.

Norman Cooper

Postcard Shorts has published my short short story "Decision" on their website. It's a little yahoo, because they publish anything that is submitted, but a yahoo nonetheless.

The Dead Mule will publish my prose poem "The Light" in their October issue. This piece of prose began on Practice-W and continued to grow on the Prose-W list. This marks a second prose poem of mine published by The Dead Mule this year.

Fiction at Work will publish my flash fiction story "Fine Print" on October 26th issue. This story began on Practice-W and continued to grow on the Fiction-W list.

I will provide links to both when they become available.

It's been a very productive month for me where writing is concerned. Thanks to all who helped me with these stories. I couldn't have done it without you!

Mira Desai

"Forwarding Address," a translation of Pravinsinh Chavda’s Agalnu Sarnamu, is online at Pratilipi.

There is a certain fragility, a brittle incompleteness in this story about a father-daughter duo eking out an existence by the banks of a river.

Diane Faulkner

My latest article is up on Examiner.com in the Careers & Workplace category. Please take a peek. I'm the correspondent for Jacksonville, FL, but my pieces speak to a national audience.

Examiner.com, I think, is a great place for people like myself who've lost some confidence in one's ability to both come up with interesting and useful subjects as well as one's ability to write. This site has done wonders for me, and though it doesn't pay much, I've been able to put away enough to cover utilities & gasoline, and I've only been doing this for a week and a half. Plus, the commentary I receive from followers/readers has sparked more article ideas for me.

Many people poo-poo these sites as they do grossly monetarily undervalue the work, but I cannot begin to put a value on the confidence and drive this correspondent gig has spurred in me.

Fennel

My review of "Faith of the Heart" by Sandy James was posted to Long and Short Reviews. Someone then also posted the review to Blog for Siren and BookStrand Authors.

Alice Folkart

My poem, "I thought I saw. . . " is the 10th entry in the current 7Beats a Second. If you scroll down (but not too fast, there's some good stuff in there), you'll find mine just after the large photo of a field of yellow and red flowers with a barbed-wire fence.

Hope you like it. Also note two poems by my fellow Hawaiian writer, 'Ilima Stern.

My review (and a lot of other very good and interesting ones) of "Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography" is up at the Internet Review of Books. Thank you Carter et al for the opportunity.

This deftly-illustrated 'comic-book' version of Duncan's adventures would make a super holiday or birthday present for anyone interested in weird and wild personalities and/or the history of Theater/Dance.

Rebecca Gaffron

I'm in good company with Karyn at 50 to 1, where my story "Mid-Thirties Crush" is posted.

Thanks to everyone for their helpful hints and encouragement.

Karyn Hall

"Impact" is up at 50 to 1. (Thanks Alice, for the site.)

My first book review, "Bufflehead Sisters" by Patricia Delois is up at The New Book Review.

And, my submission "The Painter" is up on Postcard Shorts.

Ann Hite

My new book review, "The Education of Harriet Hatfield" by May Sarton is up at the Internet Review of Books.

Kristen Howe

Last week, since I'm behind on my poetry submissions, I sent out a poem to The Poet's Art, a new poetry market that was featured in last year's issue of Poet's Market. My poem, "Homecoming," which had been revised, has been accepted. Due to a backlog of submissions until 12/09, it won't be published until 3/2011. There's no website, but I do get paid in a copy in two years.

Tom Mahony

My short story, "Thinking Man's Metal" is in the latest issue of Cantaraville.

Ally E. Peltier

A reprint of my article, "Author Platforms: Why Background Matters, and How to Get the Right One" appears in the July 19th issue of Funds for Writers. This first appeared last year in Writer's Digest and was also used in the 2009 Writer's Digest Guide to Literary Agents.

Randy Radic

My essay "Size Matters" is up on Kasanova Online Magazine. (Adult Content)

My review of "The Spanish Civil War" by Paul Preston is up at Alvah's Books. Thanks to Rebeca for the book and the opportunity.

Bob Sanchez

"When Pigs Fly" has a brand-new cover! The new cover design may be seen by visiting my blog.

It isn't on the market yet, though--that is probably a couple of weeks away. The new edition has a few minor edits as well, and because we got rid of several blank pages, the price even came down by a dollar! (I had no idea folks were having to pony up an extra buck for blank pages.)

Anita Saran

I just got accepted by Suite101 (a paying site) as one of their writers. So thrilled!

I will be writing on vegetarianism and, of course, about writing fiction.

Wayne Scheer

I join my fellow IWWers at Postcard Shorts with my flash, "The Next Move."

Also, a humorous flash, "Thanks, Dad," has been accepted at Cynic Magazine for their November issue.

Ghoti Magazine accepted my story, "The Affair," for an upcoming issue. I'm pleased because Ghoti is fairly selective. They accepted a story of mine almost three years ago and have rejected a good many since then.

"The Affair" was critiqued in Fiction a while back, so thanks to all of you who helped me improve the story.

My flash, "Trying to Be Good," is up at Camroc Press Review. This one began in Practice, so my usual appreciation goes to the Practice critters.

"Till Human Voices Wake Us and We Drown," is up at Flashes in the Dark. It's a recent attempt at horror.

Another one of my stories, "Not Ready," is featured this week at Sniplits. For 48 cents, you can hear the story read by a pro. Just so you know, I don't get the money. Sniplits paid me up front. They will soon be reopening for holiday, sports and historical romance stories. It's a kick hearing your story read aloud, so you might consider submitting stories to them.

And, finally, light humor. "Sister-in-Law" is up at Nights and Weekends.

Mona Leeson Vanek

North Palouse Journal, our local weekly newspaper, published my "Survey identifies need for official town Web site," as a guest editorial opinion piece on July 9, 2009. (No website.)

Rockford's website recently launched, and the webmasters provided links for the majority of what residents wanted. After seeing the revised version, the mayor asked me to provide the "Welcome" for the Home page. My heartfelt thanks to all who critiqued and helped spruce up my SUB, "Rockford's Opening Statement."

Also, note that the Home page links to the Rockford blog, where I provide information for weekly events. I also include a list of topics I'd like folks to know more about or think might be of interest to them.