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Books Take a Village by Storm

5/31/2015

 
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A WRITER'S WIT
I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.
Walt Whitman
Born May 31, 1819

Ten Days in Eureka Springs

WCDH

PictureWriters' Colony at Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs AR
Eureka Springs isn’t exactly a village, but its 2,000 friendly denizens certainly make the place seem that way! Recently I was privileged to spend ten days at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in ES (where I stayed two months in 2009 laboring over a novel). The colony is a great place to work on any writing project. Check out the WCDH website to see about fellowships.

If you’re a writer looking for a place where you know your writing time will be respected (no music or cell phone usage inside residence suites) and have a few bucks tucked back, consider making application to WCDH. Because I was considered an alum I only had to schedule a time with the director this year! No new application needed. Several repeaters were present while I was there, and we had a great time reminiscing or comparing notes.

If you don’t win a fellowship consider staying for a minimum of $45 a day (you are encouraged to pay more if you can afford it). The price includes a comfortable suite with its own bath and three meals a day (one that is served each evening in the dining room of the main building, at a meal where you can chat with other writers staying in the colony). While I was there I was able to revise a couple of chapters from a new book, work that has taken the work in new directions. And if you need a break you can hike along hilly little green belts distributed throughout town.

VILLAGE WRITING SCHOOL

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Several months ago Alison Taylor-Brown, novelist and director of Eureka Springs’s Village Writing School, invited me to make several presentations on independent publishing at the school’s Publish! 2015 event at the Village Writing School, May 15-17. Throughout the weekend I emphasized that writers who publish their books independently must wear all the hats of publishing: publisher, editor, copy editor, publicist, to mention just a few. And to produce books that are on par with others, they must be willing to locate the resources to hire out at least some of those hats. During the weekend I enjoyed becoming acquainted with two other authors, Pamela Foster and Thomas Eaton—who explored related topics.

Books Are Blooming in Eureka Springs!

PictureRJ Reading at Main Stage
Each year the ES library association (having one of the nation's few Carnegie libraries) sponsors Books in Bloom in mid-May—rain or shine! This year was no exception. The event held at the historic Crescent Hotel featured twelve authors of various genres from noon to five on Sunday May 17. Refer to BIB's excellent website to check out this year’s writers. You just might want to attend in 2016.

Following VWS events on Saturday, May 16, the other presenters and I each gave a ten-minute reading from our writing at a new community venue called the Main Stage. Then Alison swept us off to a reception for the Books in Bloom authors, where we were fortunate to visit with an array of local and national literati.

I would close by saying that if you could see what this small community accomplishes on behalf of books and their authors, you might begin to dream up similar events where you live. All it takes is a bit (a lot) of planning, some (a lot more) commitment, and (even a little) money!

NEXT TIME: My Book World

BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!

Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"

My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
03/12/15 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
03/26/15 — "The Best Mud"
04/02/15 — "Handy to Some"
04/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
04/16/15 — "Men at Sea"
04/23/15 — "My Long-Playing Records"
04/30/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
05/07/15 — "Snarked"
05/21/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
05/28/15 — "Bathed in Pink"
Watch for more podcasts later this summer!

New Yorker Fiction 2015

5/29/2015

0 Comments

 
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 A WRITER'S WIT
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Born May 29, 1917

HIS DESCENDANTS

PictureBoris Pelcer
June 1, 2015, Salman Rushdie, “The Duniazát”: Ibn Rushdi, philosopher and physician, in the year 1195, is banished by the Berbers from Córdoba in Arab Spain, for his liberality, to live in exile in the village of Lucena. ¶ Unlike A Thousand and One Nights, a work Rushdie seems to be emulating, this narrative condenses many mythical years into a few pages: Ibn Rushdi’s cohabitation with the supernatural sixteen-year-old Dunia and their production of “a multiplicity of children” (63), all minus earlobes like Dunia; Ibn’s naming all his children and their descendants the Duniazát, or children of the world; the distribution of these offspring throughout the world, particularly to North America; and finally Ibn Rushdi’s return to his rightful place following acts of the reigning caliph, who brings the “ascendancy of the fanatical Berbers to and end” (65). Rushdie, the author, is a wordsmith supreme, to be sure, drawing readers in as easily and surely as if they’ve been devoured by one of his novels. And, in fact, this tale is lifted from Rushdie’s upcoming book, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights.
Illustrator, Boris Pelcer.

NEXT TIME: Books Take a Village by Storm


BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!

Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"

My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
03/12/15 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
03/26/15 — "The Best Mud"
04/02/15 — "Handy to Some"
04/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
04/16/15 — "Men at Sea"
04/23/15 — "My Long-Playing Records"
04/30/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
05/07/15 — "Snarked"
05/21/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
05/28/15 — "Bathed in Pink"
Watch for more podcasts later this summer!
0 Comments

MLPR Podcast 10 "Bathed in Pink"

5/28/2015

0 Comments

 
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A WRITER'S WIT
Love came bearing love
A chalice of light
We bathed in love and drank it
Then our flesh
Seemed like the leaves
Enameled bright forever.
"Each Day of Summer"
May Swenson
Born May 28, 1913

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Today's podcast features excerpts from "Bathed in Pink," the final story in my collection, My Long-Playing Records and Other Stories. Instead of attending a reading—dressing up, driving to a venue—you can enjoy this reading I'm about to bring to you! And if you'd like to have a signed bookplate, send me a message using the contact box on my home page (see above), and I'll mail you one. ¶ Plagued with rheumatoid arthritis, an old woman narrates "Bathed in Pink." She reveals her feelings about two sons, one who calls—every day, just as she's about to eat, and the other one who calls only when he wants something. Yet her complaints are tempered by the love she expresses for her grandchild. This is the only story in my collection that was never published. It did, however, win an award from the Tennessee Writers Alliance, a cash prize I then used to purchase a small photocopy machine for my office. Click Play to begin.

Music Track:
Patrick O'Hearn, in a performance of "España," recorded 1998, on Yoga Zone: Music for Meditation, for The Windham Hill Group, O1934-11373-2.
NEXT TIME: New Yorker Fiction 2015

BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!

Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"

My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
03/12/15 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
03/26/15 — "The Best Mud"
04/02/15 — "Handy to Some"
04/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
04/16/15 — "Men at Sea"
04/23/15 — "My Long-Playing Records"
04/30/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
05/07/15 — "Snarked"
05/21/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
05/28/15 — "Bathed in Pink"
Watch for more podcasts later this summer!
0 Comments

New Yorker Fiction 2015

5/24/2015

0 Comments

 
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A WRITER'S WIT
Arnold Wesker   
Whatever happened to the good old days: you know, dirty attics, tuberculosis and general all-round suffering?
Arnold Wesker
Born May 24, 1932

Freezer Burn

PictureNick Meek
May 25, 2015, Dorthe Nors, “The Freezer Chest”: This story is a short-short, one about a number of Danish students’ trip on a ferry to England in 1989. ¶ During the crossing one of the students, Mark, an older man returning to high school to finish his diploma, tells the story of having his fingers smashed in a Freezer Chest. The narrator Mette looks back on this trip in which she is intimidated in different ways by two individuals. First, Mark outright declares his dislike for Mette and later humiliates her in a rather indelicate manner. Henrietta, a friend, betrays Mette in a more savage though subtle manner. An evocative short-short story! Nors’s most recent book is Karate Chop: Stories
Photograph, Nick Meek.

NEXT TIME: Books Take a Village by Storm


BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!

Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"

My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
03/12/15 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
03/26/15 — "The Best Mud"
04/02/15 — "Handy to Some"
04/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
04/16/15 — "Men at Sea"
04/23/15 — "My Long-Playing Records"
04/30/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
05/07/15 — "Snarked"
05/21/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"

0 Comments

New Yorker Fiction 2015

5/24/2015

0 Comments

 
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A WRITER'S WIT
In my opinion, the true pioneers are those artists who make manifest in their works the new content, the determining char- acteristics of life in our time.
Mikhail Sholokhov
Born May 24, 1905

Charity Begins in Boston and Ends in Seattle?

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May 18, 2015, Justin Taylor, “So You’re Just What, Gone?”: Charity, a sixteen-year-old girl, travels by plane with her mother from Boston to Seattle to check in on her Grams, whose health is in question. ¶ So . . . I love airplanestories . . . but wait . . . this one is only partly an airplanestory. Yet it is the portion that sets the story in motion. Seems that Charity is separated from her mother on the plane and must sit between Aisle Guy and Fat Hawaii, author Taylor using a trope called periphrasis to substitute an apt (and sarcastic) description for a proper name—just what a smart teen might think. However, in a moment of poor judgment, the fairly intelligent girl accepts Aisle Guy’s business card, and he suddenly morphs into Mark. Later in the week Charity texts Mark at his hotel, and he begins to stalk her . . . electronically via cyberspace. Through texts they exchange intimate photos, and when Mark becomes particularly insistent that they meet and abusive when she demurs, Charity becomes frightened. ¶ With her mother’s permission (and her mother's two twenties), Charity heads to the Seattle aquarium she’s wanted to see since they first arrived. There she does something nearly as odd as texting with a perv, something totally unexpected and yet not for a teen living in our texting/Instagram/phonecam world of putting it all out there. One wonders if she'll still be alive at thirty-four! After reading this story I have great faith in a new generation of writers, particularly in Taylor, who can use periphrasis effectively and cleverly thread a connection between Charity’s required reading, A Tale of Two Cities, and this tale of two cities. I can die happy. Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever:Stories is Taylor's most recent book.
Photograph, Brian Finke

NEXT TIME:
Another Look at New Yorker Fiction


BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!

Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"

My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
03/12/15 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
03/26/15 — "The Best Mud"
04/02/15 — "Handy to Some"
04/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
04/16/15 — "Men at Sea"
04/23/15 — "My Long-Playing Records"
04/30/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
05/07/15 — "Snarked"
0 Comments

New Yorker Fiction 2015

5/24/2015

 
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A WRITER'S WIT
 . . . anyone who has been cajoled, trapped or persuaded into any kind of promise, usually looks upon himself more as a victim than as a criminal, when he succumbs to fate.
R. B. Cunninghame Graham
Born May 24, 1852

Joke Not That Funny

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May 11, 2015, Sheila Heti, “My Life Is a Joke”: I normally don’t care for the genre of fantasy, but Heti’s story is rather an outlier. Her narrative does not have the normal features of what the reader may think of as fantasy. Her narrator’s return from death is more of a metaphor. The story, similar in some ways to Ann Beattie’s Major Maybe (April 20, 2015), is also sort of prose poem in which Heti effectively echoes certain words or phrases: witness or witnessing, a number of jokes, chicken-crossing-the-road (to die). It’s one of those stories that requires not only a leap of faith but also a suspension of disbelief of normal perceptions (most notably the reality that you cannot rise from the dead). And much to my surprise I love this story causing me to think of what my own chicken-crossing-the-road threshold might be. Heti’s most recent work is a novel, How a Person Should Be.
Illustration, Mark Smith

NEXT TIME: Another Look at New Yorker Fiction

BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!

Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"

My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
03/12/15 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
03/26/15 — "The Best Mud"
04/02/15 — "Handy to Some"
04/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
04/16/15 — "Men at Sea"
04/23/15 — "My Long-Playing Records"
04/30/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
05/07/15 — "Snarked"

MLPR Podcast 9 "Killing Lorenzo"

5/21/2015

 
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A WRITER'S WIT
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
Alexander Pope
Born May 21, 1688
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Today's podcast features excerpts from "Killing Lorenzo," a story from my collection, My Long-Playing Records and Other Stories. Instead of attending a reading—dressing up, driving to a venue—you can enjoy this reading I'm about to bring to you! And if you'd like to have a signed bookplate, send me a message using the contact box on my home page (see above), and I'll mail you one. ¶ This story is narrated by a middle-aged man who loses his job as a paralegal and attempts to find meaning in his life by returning to the playing of a musical instrument he learned as a youth. "Killing Lorenzo" first appeared in the final issue of Harrington Gay Men's Literary Quarterly and exists only in PDF format. The journal's demise is tragic because it once showcased narratives of men who often had no other voice. Click the "Play" button.

MUSIC TRACK:
Andrew Lucas, organ performance of Toccata (Douze Pièces, No. 3) by Théodore Dubois, recorded January 3-6, 1994, on Organ Showpieces from St. Paul’s Cathedral, Naxos 8.550955.
NEXT TIME: NEW YORKER FICTION 2015

BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!

Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"

My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
03/12/15 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
03/26/15 — "The Best Mud"
04/02/15 — "Handy to Some"
04/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
04/16/15 — "Men at Sea"
04/23/15 — "My Long-Playing Records"
04/30/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
05/07/15 — "Snarked"
05/21/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"

Out of the Office

5/8/2015

 
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BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!

Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"

My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
03/12/15 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
03/26/15 — "The Best Mud"
04/02/15 — "Handy to Some"
04/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
04/16/15 — "Men at Sea"
04/23/15 — "My Long-Playing Records"
04/30/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
05/07/15 — "Snarked"

MLPR Podcast 8 "Snarked"

5/7/2015

 
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A WRITER'S WIT
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first
      was made.
Our times are in his hand.
Robert Browning
Born May 7, 1812
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Today's podcast features excerpts from "Snarked," a story from my collection, My Long-Playing Records and Other Stories. Instead of attending a reading—dressing up, driving to a venue—you can listen to this reading I'm about to bring to you! And if you'd like to have a signed bookplate, send me a message using the contact box on my home page (see above), and I'll mail you one. ¶ This narrative is set in the 1990s, adapted freely from my experience teaching high school English for ten years—a place, as great as it was, that always bothered me because of the two distinct populations passing like ships in the night. This story is my attempt to satirize what I saw. Click the "Play" button.

MUSIC TRACKS:
Ace of Base, a performance of "Living in Danger," by Jonas Berggren and Ulf Ekberg, recorded 1993, Arista.

Cairn and Johnson and Nigel Ogden, a performance of "Bright Play On," recorded 2010, on Wurlitzer, Hammond, and Cathedral Organ Music.

Chumbawamba, in a performance of "Tubthumping," by Chumbawamba, recorded 1996-7, on Tubthumpers, Republic, UD 53099.

Church Organ All Stars, in a performance of "Halloween Pipe Organ Suite 1," with Michael Silverman, recorded 2008, Autumn Hill Records.

Grease company, a performance of "Born to Hand Jive," by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, recorded  1972, on Grease - The Original Cast Album, MGM Records.

Mexican Mariachi Party, a performance of "Mexico En Polka," by Cinco de Mayo, recorded by Mariachi Zapapan.

Musical Creations Studio Musicians, in a performance of "One Hand, One Heart," from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, recorded 2010.

P. Diddy, a vocal performance of "Bad Boy for Life," by P. Diddy, Black Rob and Mark Curry, recorded 2001, Arista.
NEXT TIME: NEW YORKER FICTION 2015

BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!

Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"

My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
03/12/15 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
03/26/15 — "The Best Mud"
04/02/15 — "Handy to Some"
04/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
04/16/15 — "Men at Sea"
04/23/15 — "My Long-Playing Records"
04/30/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
05/07/15 — "Snarked"

New Yorker Fiction 2015

5/1/2015

 
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A WRITER'S WIT
We are always doing some- thing for Posterity, but I would fain see Posterity do something for us.
Joseph Addison
Born May 1, 1672

Jostling the Apologizer

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May 4, 2015, Milan Kundera, “The Apologizer”: Alain, a young Parisian, ponders why his mother, who wishes to abort him but does not, abandons him to be raised solely by his father. ¶ This story is a gentle one in spite of its content. It is gentle because the teller, Kundera, seems seems that way (he shifts briefly to first person). Alain’s mother wishes to take her own life in order to destroy his tiny one (but instead drowns a young man, her “savior”). Then his mother emerges from the river to drive off and be free of her guilt. In spite of his strained beginning Alain loves life, thinks his is pretty fine, wishes to live even if he has never (like anyone) asked to be born. And yet Alain imagines that his conception is one of violence, in which his father breaks his promise to withdraw before orgasm:

“He stood at his mirror and examined his face for traces of the double, simultaneous hatreds that had led to his birth: the man’s hatred and the woman’s hatred at the moment of the man’s orgasm, the hatred of the gentle and physically strong coupled with the hatred of the courageous and physically weak.”
Who apologizes in life, Kundera asks, the angry woman who jostles a man on the street or the man who has been jostled out of his reverie by such anger? This narrative seems very much in the tradition of others French, Albert Camus, for one, giving us a disjointed, bumpy narrative until all its pieces come clattering into place at the end. Kundera may be best known for his 1982 novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Eric Ogden, Photograph.

NEXT TIME: My Book World

BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!

Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"

My Long-Playing Records Podcasts:
03/12/15 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
03/26/15 — "The Best Mud"
04/02/15 — "Handy to Some"
04/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
04/16/15 — "Men at Sea"
04/23/15 — "My Long-Playing Records"
04/30/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
    AUTHOR
    Richard Jespers is a writer living in Lubbock, Texas, USA.

    See my profile at Author Central:
    http://amazon.com/author/rjespers


    Richard Jespers's books on Goodreads
    My Long-Playing Records My Long-Playing Records
    ratings: 1 (avg rating 5.00)


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