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Right, so a few days back I said I was burned out on fiction workshops. And tonight I had one of the best workshop sessions of my life.

I was worried because this story was pretty experimental for me. It doesn’t follow a neat arc, the language is intentionally sexist (it includes an off-camera rape executed by the main character), there’s a fair amount of Spanish dialog, there’s magic, and it’s a mash-up of fantasy, western, and mystery. And apparently most of it is working. I got a surprising amount of comments on the strength of the sentence-level prose (which is always fantastic to hear) but there’s something else going on, I think.

I had also mentioned that I’m getting away from trying to write stories that will sell, and instead I’m trying to write stories that allow me more creative freedom. The result (in this instance) was a story that really seemed to catch people’s attention. Better yet, people made fantastic points I hadn’t considered, and they will actually make this a much better story. There were virtually no stock workshop comments, like “I didn’t feel like I knew the characters” or “the story didn’t start until page 4.”

And perhaps the best part is that this story was really a world building exercise for a novel I’m developing in my head. The fact that a lot of people who don’t usually read genre found it compelling? Well, that’s the best news of all.

Current Mood: Pretty Good |

Brother Todd and I have agreed to make standing Skype appointments to speak Spanish on Monday and Friday mornings. I was amazed at how hard it was to speak Spanish for a half-hour after months away without practice, and it’s no less amazing how much easier it was the second and third times. It also looks like I’m going to make my first Club Ñ meeting, which is the free gathering on Tuesdays and Wednesdays hosted by the university’s Spanish department.

Spanish is like crack for me: the more I get, the more I want. Part of me wants to try and swing another Guatemala immersion trip in August. A bigger part of me wants to just chuck it all in and move there for good.

My vocabulary is probably around 2000 words, I can use around twelve different verb tenses comfortably, and I’ve got a decent grip on grammar. As long as a Spanish speaker is willing to come down a couple rungs on the language ladder, I can speak with just about anybody on most topics. Without hardcore immersion, that’s about as far as you can get.

But a notable exception was the cashier at the pizza joint in San Jose who refused to A) slow down, B) use common words, C) speak while facing me, and D) enunciate. But I want that next step, the one where you can chat up the cashier at the pizza counter or read a book without running for a dictionary every two seconds. That’s a lot harder to come by.

I attended a craft talk by one of the people who is interviewing for the fiction position in our program. His writing would be categorized as magic realism/fabulism/not-realism, and his academic interests are in Latin American and Native American lit even though he’s a white guy who grew up in the Midwest.

If our department doesn’t hire him, I might see if he’d be willing to adopt me. Seriously, the fact that he’s would probably be the perfect faculty member for me is enough to convince me that we won’t get him.

Current Mood: Feh To Most Things |
Currently Listening To - Uncle Tupelo - “March 16-20, 1992″

Last Tuesday Wisconsin held their primary and, if you hadn’t noticed, Barack Obama won. I voted for him in case you’re wondering. I don’t love Obama and I don’t hate Hilary. I accept the fact that I’ll be voting for the Democrat regardless who gets the nomination.

One thing that bothers me is the increasingly common charge that Obama’s campaign is based on empty rhetoric. While I do agree that the man would do well to give more concrete examples of his priorities should he win the office, I object to the idea that automatically equates rhetoric with negativity.

A couple of English professors on NPR the other day made (and remade) the point that the word “rhetoric” is a value-neutral word, yet for the majority of callers it was being used as a pejorative term. Rhetoric, for these callers, necessarily meant empty or false promises. One misguided caller went so far as to evoke Adolph Hitler as being charismatic leader armed only with rhetoric, and look how that turned out yada yada yada. (BTW, I love the crackpots who call in to public radio.) Happily, the professors rightly shunned any comparison out of hand and reiterated the idea that rhetoric itself is not dangerous by definition.

Having done a lot of reading (of both fiction and criticism) on utopia in the past 12 months, one of the reasons Obama got my vote was because of his utopian rhetoric. It’s pretty clear that Obama is getting people excited, and excitement alone creates an opportunity for change. Most utopian criticism agrees that it’s utopian thinking that’s important, since it provides a stimulus for change. Utopia achieved is another (theoretical) question entirely. Or to put it the other way, it’s the old “shoot for the moon and if you miss you’ll still be among the stars” cliche’.

I feel that it is precisely through rhetoric that significant change can occur. Hilary may be able to call in favors and ram through her policies, but I fear that’s only going to deepen the political divide in this country. My hope is that Obama’s rhetoric will frame issues in such a way that change can happen without anyone losing face and bi-partisan legislation may actually be possible again.

Is that overly hopeful? Maybe, but that’s what utopian thinking is all about.

Current Mood: Okay |
Currently Listening To - Son Volt - “Straightaways”

Yipee! Spurs beat Chelski in the Carling Cup Final!

Obviously, Spurs aren’t anywhere near breaking into the top four in the league due to their shocking early season form, yet I count this win as a breaking in of sorts as the “top four” have dominated the cup competitions in England for years.

The last twelve (!) FA Cups have been won by the top four: Man Ure (3), Ars*nal (4), Chelski (3), and Liverpool (2). The League Cup hasn’t been as bad, but either Chelsea or Man Ure have won the last three.

Spurs win also marks the first time in dogs’ years that a team outside the top four beat one of the top four in a cup final. So well done boys!

Current Mood: Happy |

Last night I couldn’t sleep (an all-too-common affliction for me) and started thinking about Oulipian constraints and Christian Bök’s work, who I mentioned a few days ago. For some reason, I started thinking about sentences that only feature a single vowel, the letter ‘o.’ Here’s what I came up with:

* Goons shoot dollops of loon poop on top of doorknobs.

* Drop food not bombs on poor Togo.

This isn’t great art by any stretch of the imagination, but it does provide some space to stretch the creative muscles in a fun, stress-free way. Try it, you might like it.

Current Mood: Tired of Reading |

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Isn’t it nice when you find new authors that you instantly adore? That’s been my reaction to a couple of the writers we’ve read in my Native American Novel class. I want to read some more James Welch, but the author I have really developed a crush on is Louise Erdrich. Her novel Tracks is to blame.

Tracks is a book that doesn’t fully reveal itself on the first read. The narrative switches between two different narrators and it takes awhile to adjust to the rhythms and the voice of each. Once I figured out this rhythm, it was simply a matter of letting go, leaving yourself in the hands of a fantastic storyteller. As I read some of the chapters I though they’d make terrific stand-alone short stories. It turns out several of the chapters appeared in places like The New Yorker and Harpers prior to the novel. Chapters that function as complete stories as well as part of a whole: something I like very much.

Anyway, Erdrich is one of those writers who makes you feel like you’re sitting with a good friend with a cup of hot tea as you hear the story unfold. There’s a touch of the fantastic about the events and a subtle mystery to how the story is being constructed. Happily, Erdrich is a writer that I think I can learn from. Sometimes I read great books but think that pulling apart the prose won’t do much good because the writer’s style is so far from my own. Not that I can try to match Erdrich’s brilliance, but I think I can learn from the rhythm of her stories.

So I have Four Souls, a sequel of sorts, coming on audio through interlibrary loan and the rest of her work has made it onto my not-so-short list of writers I need to read whenever I get time for recreational reading.

A brief note on this but I think I’m allergic to short fiction workshops. I believe this affliction is temporary as I am not discrediting the benefit of workshops, and I certainly am still learning how to write better stories, but I think writers need time away from workshops just as much as they need time in them. Jay Lake wrote awhile back (I wish I had time to find his post) that writers need different kinds of workshops at different points in their careers.

The fiction workshops I’ve been in have been focusing on the salable story, which is not a bad starting point. However I’m in a more experimental mode, less “what does a good short story look like?” and more “how can we push against those rules?” As odd as it sounds, I’ve been writing stories that I don’t think have a good chance at selling because I’m experimenting. Yes, I know that if you write well enough you can break any rule in the book and that’s what I’m hoping for, but not what I’m counting on. In other words I’m not writing specifically for publication, I’m writing in ways that interest me. With some luck, they’ll interest some editors as well. But the important think is giving myself the creative freedom to explore. Otherwise, it feels too much like work.

Current Mood: Fine |

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Have I mentioned how much I like my classes this semester? Thought so, but it’s worth repeating. I think what appeals to me so much (besides the terrific subject matter) is the fact that two of the professors take time to address professional development, and all of them have urged us students to push boundaries in terms of both our creative writing as well as academic work. I sense that each one is a little fed up with the state of academia.

This shouldn’t be too surprising for the fiction workshop. The professor said he’d rather have us fail spectacularly with an experiment (in voice, in structure, etc.) than write something conservative. Which is good news and, frankly, taking risks is what graduate fiction workshops should be about. Still, it’s good to be encouraged. And this professor also encouraged us to get a certificate in professional writing to improve our marketability. At first I balked at this idea, but the program actually looks pretty interesting since it’s mostly e-based communications, like newsletters, presentations, web pages, etc. This is something I actually have professional experience doing, and teaching this stuff might actually be kind of fun. It’s another handful of classes, but the job market being so crappy, this seems like a better idea the more I think about it.

But I think there are even more interesting examples of professional development in my Native American Novel class. There’s a lot of work to do: bi-weekly papers of 2-3 pages, a review of a Native American book that came out in the last six months, a survey of scholarship in a particular area of Native American studies, and an academic paper. This is all in addition to reading a novel a week plus its two or three critical articles. In case this isn’t clear, this is a ton of work for one class.

Yet the professor is dedicated to making this productive work. He spent time critiquing the style of our first short papers and urged us to find our own voice in academic writing. These were both firsts for me. Many of the creative writers, myself included, struggle with the arch tone and jargon-laden critical articles we read. It’s often a slog to read and it’s hard to write, yet I suspect that most of us feel that this tone is essential for our scholarship to be considered professional. This professor, however, rates voice and clarity over dense academic-sounding prose. The ideas still have to be of a very high quality of course, but he’s trying to help us find unique academic voices. Which is pretty extraordinary.

And the assignments are intended to be functional. It’s not read a new book and write a review, but write the review with the end goal being publication in a journal. The same goes for the review of scholarship and paper. The review of scholarship gives you a good idea of the hot topics, topics that have grown cold, and topics that are unexplored. The idea is that this review of scholarship will help direct the final paper, which again is intended to be submitted for publication or to be presented at a conference.

Despite all my simmering anger over the whole injustice of the TA situation, the actually content of what I’m learning is pretty damn fantastic. Having said that, I also think getting my degree in Literary Studies as opposed to Creative Writing would have killed me, so I’m happy with the path I’ve chosen. Now if I could just lock down a damn teaching position…

Current Mood: Okay |
Currently Listening To - Wilco - “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”

2 UPDATES @ 9:00 PM
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1) The link for the light graffiti is wrong below. Check out this one instead.

2) The other writer’s rule—don’t name your character something stupid like Ichabod or name the cat Pussums. Look, there might be people named Ichabod and cats named Pussums, but they don’t belong in your story. Seriously.
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I’m in a lull between classes and I’ve been using this time to read slush for the department’s literary magazine. Here are some writerly tips that I may or may have heard before, but they’re oh-so-true.

* Google “standard manuscript format” and use it. It’s really distracting when you open a new ms and find that it’s spaced at 1.5 instead of double, or is in some odd font, or the author’s full information is a banner at the top of the page. It’s distracting. In fact, don’t do anything you think might make your manuscript stand out. The truth is that it will stand out, but in a bad way. The story needs to stand out, not the format or delivery method.

* Don’t summarize the story in the cover letter, and certainly don’t say how poignant the ending is.

* I read very few stories all the way through. Generally, if I make it through the first few pages I will continue to the end but this is the exception, not the rule. The writing is rarely embarrassingly bad, but way more often the story has a slow start, has run-on sentences, or uses way too many similies and metaphors in an attempt to be “literary.” If I don’t like what I’m seeing in the first couple pages, I’ll scan pages 10 and 15 and if I see the same stuff happening, it goes in the rejection pile. I have forwarded stuff on to the senior editors with notes like “I think this story could lose 1K words,” but that means I thought the story was mostly working. Most stories are mostly broken though.

In my Visual Narratives class we’re ending our section on Oulipo. It’s cool stuff, even though it’s not entirely my bag. The basic idea is to place constraints on your creative work. Georges Perec’s novel The Void was written without the letter ‘e’ for example. (Try writing anything, even a short email without the letter ‘e’ and you’ll appreciate Perec’s achievement.)

We listened to some of these recordings by Chrisitan Bök today in class. He limits himself to only using a single vowel for each piece, meaning that in “Chapter U” all the words have ‘u’ as the only vowel. It’s a bit silly and nonsensical in places, but the extraordinary thing is that it’s quite poetic and funny more often than not. Give some a listen.

And I thought this site, which features some “light graffiti,” is pretty cool, too.

And Chinger forwarded this ignorant story from ABC news on to me. The basic plot: college kids experiment by starting out flat broke and working his way out of poverty, suggesting that poor people just don’t have a good work ethic.

As friend Ching points out, the article (and the student) elide certain facts, like that he’s young, in good health, educated, and white. Yes, he doesn’t tell his employers about his education, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t educated. That doesn’t mean that he’s not drawing from his 20-odd years of schooling and experience that would naturally help him climb the ladder faster. Stupid.

Current Mood: Grouchy |

Lest ye think I exaggerate or have little recourse for complaint regarding the snowfall this winter, I hope these two pictures suggest that I have good reason.

The above is the car in the driveway. Note that the shovel to the right is about four feet tall. That would make that snow bank pushed against the neighbor’s garage about six-and-a-half feet tall. Yesterday, I had to flatten parts of this bank into a shelf so I could drop more snow on it. There simply isn’t anywhere else to put it.

See? Nowhere to put snow. Those mountains on either side of the driveway can’t be built upon without them collapsing. That means the only real option is heaving the snow up and over these walls (which are about 5′ high). You ever try to throw wet, heavy snow over a five-foot wall? Believe me, it gets old fast.

To be clear, I like winter. I like snow. And yes, sometimes I even like those bracing, cold, single-degree days. The problem is that this winter has snowed non-stop and the days in between have been bitterly cold. It’s a bad combination. It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have to shovel, but I do. Which means it’s bad.

Current Mood: Tired of Shoveling |

Madison broke the old snowfall record last week. Anybody notice that it’s only mid-February? I had some choice blue language for the weather this Sunday when we got about three inches of slush atop a layer of the snow that iced over on Thursday. Peachy! Oh, and our “flurries” this morning ended up being about 2″ of accumulation. The city has lost its collective sense of humor about the situation.

This past weekend I decided to break out the skijoring equipment Amy got for me and Athena this Christmas.

Alas, the Bean isn’t very good at it. We’ve put a lot of effort into making sure she doesn’t pull when on walks but now I want her to pull. She’ll do it if she’s chasing a frisbee or if Amy calls her to come, but without artificial stimulus she naturally slows down so she’s out ahead of me, trotting but not pulling.

And the deep snow doesn’t help either. I don’t want to go on established trails because Athena would probably ruin the tracks but breaking trail ain’t easy and I’m not great on x-country skis to begin with. Still, it was nice to get outside for an hour or so and screw around. Saturday didn’t snow, but it was only in the teens temperature wise.

I may have mentioned this, but I’m ready for winter to go away now.

Current Mood: Tired |
Currently Listening To - Oasis - “Be Here Now”