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What I’m Reading: Things That Crash, Things That Fly by Scott Gould

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Things That Crash, Things That Fly (Rating 5) – A Good Storyteller with a Good Story to Tell. Scott Gould’s memoir, Things That Crash, Things That Fly, speaks to everyone recovering from an experience — in his case a divorce — that has left them blind-sided and angry, in search of explanations and revenge. On the eve of a trip to Italy, including the small village where his wife’s family is from, she announces that she will leave him when they return. Readers recognize her sadism, but in his desperation to remain married, Gould is in denial until a “piercing” revelation (I won’t spoil it by revealing more) releases his rage. Wallowing in post-divorce misery, Gould returns to Italy to investigate the death of a young American World War Two bomber and tarnish his ex’s reputation. A good storyteller, with a good story to tell, Gould has an outward-looking eye for detail and an inward-looking eye for reflection. As an author myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I appreciate the dexterity with which Gould interweaves these two perspectives. In search of revenge, he experiences gratitude. In search of closure, he instead opens himself to new people and possibilities. Gould discovers that the dead soldier is kept alive by the stories of the villagers. Likewise, this return journey is a resurrection for the author. He tells his own tale and in the end, the book and its author soar.

Why writers read: “Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” – Mark Twain

Pandemic Thoughts: Literary Shin Splints

“(Our) bad idea in the pandemic was finishing our daily dance regimen jeté-ing and tumbling down the promenade in Riverside Park. It was a total blast — until it gave us really bad shin splints” (Choreographer Justin Peck, The New York Times). Shin splints are caused by prolonged running, typically on hard surfaces. I wondered if there was a writer’s equivalent and concluded that it’s overexplaining, telling the reader what you’ve already shown. The cure for physical and literary shin splints? Give it a rest! Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

Dancers and writers can both get shin splints when they come down too hard

Why writers write: “The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.” – Andre Gide

Pandemic Thoughts: Aging and Mortality

“[During the pandemic] my older themes have been coming back into my work” (artist Eddie Martinez, The New York Times). That’s not true for me as a writer. However, I’ve always been drawn to writing about the elderly, due in part to growing up with my grandmother and also working as a Junior Red Cross volunteer at a “home for the aged and infirm” in high school. This year’s losses from COVID-19 have spurred reflections on aging and mortality. I started a new novel set in an old age home in the 1960s. Although the idea has been percolating for a while, I believe the pandemic made me choose to write this book now. Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

The pandemic’s severe impact on the elderly spurs thoughts of aging and mortality

Why writers write: “If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.” – Isaac Asimov

What I’m Reading: My Year Abroad by Chang-Rae Lee

My Amazon and Goodreads review of My Year Abroad: A Novel by Chang-Rae Lee (Rating 3) – Bifurcated, Half Good. My Year Abroad by Chang-Rae Lee, is the story of a year in the life of Tiller Bardmon, a twenty-year-old, motherless, one-eighth Asian, upper middle class dropout from a New Jersey college town. In this bifurcated tale, part of Tiller’s year is spent living semi-anonymously with an older woman who is in a witness protection program and has a young son. The unlikely threesome form a quasi-family, and Tiller becomes a father figure to the boy, who possesses an uncanny talent for cooking. Tiller has spent the earlier part of the year in China, taken there by a wealthy Asian-American businessman, who is both mentor and father figure. His adventures abroad range from exotic to kinky to torturous. “Adventures” implies an exciting journey for the reader, but Lee’s overlong and fanciful descriptions of bizarre figures and unbelievable events were boring. As a fiction writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I found the author’s riffs to be self-indulgent. By contrast, Tiller’s tame domesticity, in the company of fully drawn characters, especially the young boy, was moving and engaging. A better book would have truncated the unconventional experiences abroad and remained stateside, delving deeper into the creation of an unconventional family.

Why writers read: “We read to know that we are not alone.” – C. S. Lewis

Pandemic Thoughts: Regaining Focus and Momentum to Write

“When time becomes hazy and slippery, [our] focus is scattered. After a while, you gain a little clarity. Quarantine becomes a microcosm of life itself: When you come to the end of it, what would you like to be able to say you’ve done? Doing something is better than doing nothing. And a tiny bit a day, I began to write” (novelist Carolyn Parkhurst). My chronology has been the reverse. The longer the pandemic drags on, the more ambiguous the endpoint, the more effort it takes to keep going. But, because I’m a worker by nature, I continue to write every day, and the energy is self-sustaining. Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

More Microfiction Published at 50 Give or Take

More of my microfiction has been published at 50 Give or Take. This online publication from Vine Leaves Press emails a story of 50 words or less to each subscriber’s inbox every day. All are welcome to read, subscribe, and submit. FREE. Check out these stories of mine:
Hit SEND November 25, 2020
Test Results December 22, 2020
Fido’s Lament February 13, 2021
Window Seat March 17, 2021

50 Give or Take: A story in your inbox every day. Subscribe, read, and submit for FREE!

Why writers write: “A short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger. – Stephen King

Pandemic Thoughts: The Lost Art of Letter Writing

“I’ll write to you. A super-long letter, like in an old-fashioned novel” (Haruki Murakami, After Dark). United States Postal Service (USPS) reports that two-thirds of survey respondents say exchanging snail mail letters during the pandemic lifts their spirits. Although electronic communication is faster, the slowness of letter writing makes it more reflective and purposeful. USPS is of course promoting its paid services, but their snail mail advice is nevertheless valid. As a writer, I compose email letters as slowly and thoughtfully as my snail mail letters in pre-internet days. Perhaps more so, because I can revise email letters before hitting “Send,” just as I revise manuscripts before I click “Submit.” Long-form letter writing is an art worth preserving, a form of epistolary literature. Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

Writing letters is a lost epistolary art

Why writers write: “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” – Anaïs Nin

Pandemic Thoughts: Self-Quarantine is a Writer’s Habit

“I’ve been watching the Apple TV series ‘Dickinson.’ Emily Dickinson spent so much of her life writing poetry in isolation, and as a young poetess quarantining I connect with it” (Amanda Gorman, The New York Times). Writers self-isolate by choice. We don’t need a pandemic-imposed quarantine to sit alone, reflect, and (re)arrange words. Gorman’s talents will continue to bloom after the pandemic withers. For me, while COVID-19 has limited in-person connections during the hours I don’t write, most of my day is otherwise unchanged. As before, I spend the time with myself, writing. Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

Why writers write: “Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences.” – Sylvia Plath

Pandemic Thoughts: The Sagging Middle

Fiction writers are plagued by the “sagging middle” when a story’s momentum wanes midway. A Google search on craft articles yields about 82 million hits for writing beginnings, 18 million hits for endings, 5 million for middles, and fewer than one million specifically for sagging middles. The hard-to-heal malady can be paralyzing; some writers give up. Thankfully, I’ve never faced this problem with a manuscript, but it’s how I feel midway through the COVID-19 pandemic. In the beginning, I was actively engaged adapting my daily life. When vaccines soon emerged, I was optimistic that the ending was foreseeable too. But as the pandemic drags on and people await vaccinations in a high demand-low supply world, I’m treading in a pool of inertia. A time will arrive when the manuscript of normalcy is retrieved from the drawer, but until then, I and others like me will dwell in the sagging middle. Read more of my thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

The middle of a seemingly endless pandemic is like the sagging middle of a novel

“Momentum carries the writer through the first few chapters. The end of a novel is exciting to tackle. But middles can be a mess.” – Fiction Editor Beth Hill

International Women’s Day: Three Novels With Strong Female Characters

Today, March 08, 2021, is International Women’s Day. Here are quotes from three novels with independent and courageous female characters:

From A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve.: “Years of farm work had made her limbs and torso as sturdy as a tree trunk. He started at the bottom and climbed to the top. ” The novel is a fictional biography of Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin Coroner in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz. Meinhardt wants the respect given normal people. The women he meets, including Rosie the Riveter, want to be treated with the same respect as men. The book cries out for justice in the face of discrimination. Order at Amazon.

From On the Shore: “I was sorry I’d told Mama about my dream to be a scientist, and hoped she hadn’t spilled the beans to Papa.” An emotionally charged tale of an immigrant Jewish family in turmoil when their children rebel during WWI, including their young daughter who rejects a traditional woman’s role. Order at Amazon.

From Tazia and Gemma: “Most of the women are paid six dollars a week, men up to two dollars more.” The heartfelt and suspenseful story of two courageous women. An unwed Italian immigrant survives the 1911 Triangle Waist Co. fire in NYC and flees westward in search of freedom. Her daughter seeks her father fifty years later and instead discovers her mother’s brave fight for justice. Order at Amazon.

For more information about each book, see NOVELS.