Today my fiction teacher told me he wants my next submission to be "written by" a woman. Meaning, all three of the stories I've turned in to him have been told in first person from a man's point of view. Technically, though... I gotta fight and say that second story was written from several different POVs - two guys, two girls - thankyouverymuch. So really only two stories have been "by" guys. But hey, I'm up for the challenge of writing as a woman.
In fact, in my rock class tonight, I got the idea. The whole afternoon starting from when he said that to me (in front of the whole class, in the middle of someone else's workshop...) my mind was reeling. "Lady stories," was all I could think. "What lady story could I write that's still me? That's not typical. That will knock their socks off?"
And, not to be cocky, but I've got it. I scribbled notes down while we listened to music from the late '50s. I wrote a list of questions. I will have to do research for this story. And I am fucking excited.
Today was also noteworthy because my boss called me a writer. Later, a friend introduced me to his friend as a photographer. I feel talented. And pompous. But, for once, other people are calling me these. Feels kinda nice...
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
POETRY.
In philosophy today, I wrote six poems. I usually don't post poems here because I don't want critique. This one isn't up for critique either, but I wanted to share it. I figured at least Frank would get a kick out of it. Don't focus on style or anything - though I did try to emulate the style of Peterotica with my matter-of-factness. It's all about sensory details - what I saw, what I felt. I want you to feel it too. Get swept away.
Playing Chess with Death
Good fucking lord this class is boring.
Watching that guy set up a chess set
on a rocky beach.
Then Death appears
and challenges him to a game.
And all I can think about is that Family Guy
when Death breaks his ankle
and Peter has to kill those kids
from Dawson's Creek
(like he always knew he would).
And then he hooks Death up
with that girl from the pet shop
(but maybe that was another episode -
Death has been in a handful,
first voiced by Norm MacDonald,
then Adam Carolla,
always uncredited.
Carolla is my favorite but I haven't found
anyone who shares that opinion).
Now they have found Death
dead on the beach
(I guess he lost at chess),
or maybe it was the other guy,
they're hard to tell apart because they look alike
and this movie isn't in English anyway.
Playing Chess with Death
Good fucking lord this class is boring.
Watching that guy set up a chess set
on a rocky beach.
Then Death appears
and challenges him to a game.
And all I can think about is that Family Guy
when Death breaks his ankle
and Peter has to kill those kids
from Dawson's Creek
(like he always knew he would).
And then he hooks Death up
with that girl from the pet shop
(but maybe that was another episode -
Death has been in a handful,
first voiced by Norm MacDonald,
then Adam Carolla,
always uncredited.
Carolla is my favorite but I haven't found
anyone who shares that opinion).
Now they have found Death
dead on the beach
(I guess he lost at chess),
or maybe it was the other guy,
they're hard to tell apart because they look alike
and this movie isn't in English anyway.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Scratch Beginnings
I haven't written a blog raving about a book since Rebecca Flowers, I do believe, so I'm way past due with this one. Ignore my fangirl-ness.
I've wanted to read Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard since I heard Drake and Zeke talk about it on their morning show probably close to a year ago. I'd been searching for a paperback for a long time, but it was out of print. I think it was just a really low-budget first printing type of deal. The second edition is coming out in hardback this fall, but I wanted to read it NOW. I thought the premise sounded really fascinating - a recent college grad leaves everything behind, except for the clothes on his back and $25. He was on a quest for the American Dream, to put it in corny terms, but basically just to prove that good livin' is still possible. His goal was to end the project after a year having a furnished apartment/dwelling, a vehicle, a steady job, and $2,500.
This was an informal rebuttal against Barbara Ehrenreich's books Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. She's totally down on the American Dream. She argues that once you're poor, you stay poor, you can never get your head back above water, your life will progressively go downhill, and you'll be working shit jobs your entire life just to make ends meet. Granted, this is NOT a lie. Some people are like this. It's just really depressing to read Nickel and Dimed as a senior in high school and think, "Shit, I'm going to slave away my entire life and never get anywhere, and never be happy." So in that book, she left her life behind (except for say, her laptop, car I think, credit card, etc) and moved around to different cities to work retail jobs and try to find an apartment and make ends meet. She couldn't do it. She worked at Walmart, complaining for several chapters about this and that, yada yada. It's just a dark read, I felt bad with each page I turned. I haven't read the other book, and I sure as hell won't. Apparently she takes off trying to get a higher-up position in the corporate world, and can't get hired because she's a woman of a certain age. I call bullshit, but that's my opinion. Maybe it's fact, maybe it's a good book. Tell me if you've read it.
In comparison, Adam Shepard is a hero. Yeah, that's a strong word, and probably a little lame to use in this context. Sure, he took a year off to do a crazy experiment for no real reason. It's not a formal rebuttal against Ehrenreich, and as far as I know he didn't have a book deal or anything ahead of time, kind of sponsoring his project as she did. So he goes off to a randomly selected city using none of his contacts. He stays in a homeless shelter for 70 days, even though he'd gotten a steady job as a mover by that point, and was saving money like nobody's business. By the time he moves out, he's steady enough to stand on his own and not be forced back to the streets. His project lasts only half of the allotted time, because his mother's cancer comes back and he goes home to support her, but even in that short time he had accomplished all his goals. In fact, he had doubled his projected savings. Take THAT, Ehrenreich. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it, if you're driven.
That's what I take from this book. I'm not going to go out and attempt this project myself, but I loved reading about it. More than that, I love the inspiration it gave me. I come from a similar background to Shepard - supportive parents, never living paycheck to paycheck, having a good college education, pretty much being able to go where I want with what I have. So I shouldn't be complaining at all. A car wreck or hospital stay won't break me. I can lose my job and take time searching for another, because I have savings. But still, reading about his extreme drive was just what I needed to kick my ass. I'm going to grad school next year, and til now I'd kind of been looking for places near family or friends, so I won't *really* have to be on my own. I've been playing it safe. Now I'm ready to get out there and try anything. I can be on my own and still survive, because I'm working towards something I really want. The last chapter of the book was more inspirational than any self-help book I've ever read the back of. And that he's so like me, and from my generation, and has this attitude makes me really optimistic. With his background: family, college education, being an athlete, being attractive, he could pretty much sit around and get stuff shoveled onto his plate for nothing. But he wants to work for his dreams, and that makes me want to work for MY dreams.
Ok, that was a whole bunch of chicken-soup-for-the-soul crap, but really, READ THIS BOOK if you want to feel hopeful. I wrote him an email saying pretty much everything I said above, which means it was a novel. I wrote it at 1a, as soon as I closed the back cover of the book. The next evening I had a reply from him! He read my entire essay. He thanked me for reading the book and taking the time to "write such a thorough email". He wished me luck on grad school applications. I LOVE when authors write me back, have you noticed? He's doing an appearance at a local bookstore in late November, and I already marked it on my calendar. I can't wait to hear him speak about all of this. Maybe this will give me time to think up some good questions...
READ IT.
I've wanted to read Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard since I heard Drake and Zeke talk about it on their morning show probably close to a year ago. I'd been searching for a paperback for a long time, but it was out of print. I think it was just a really low-budget first printing type of deal. The second edition is coming out in hardback this fall, but I wanted to read it NOW. I thought the premise sounded really fascinating - a recent college grad leaves everything behind, except for the clothes on his back and $25. He was on a quest for the American Dream, to put it in corny terms, but basically just to prove that good livin' is still possible. His goal was to end the project after a year having a furnished apartment/dwelling, a vehicle, a steady job, and $2,500.
This was an informal rebuttal against Barbara Ehrenreich's books Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. She's totally down on the American Dream. She argues that once you're poor, you stay poor, you can never get your head back above water, your life will progressively go downhill, and you'll be working shit jobs your entire life just to make ends meet. Granted, this is NOT a lie. Some people are like this. It's just really depressing to read Nickel and Dimed as a senior in high school and think, "Shit, I'm going to slave away my entire life and never get anywhere, and never be happy." So in that book, she left her life behind (except for say, her laptop, car I think, credit card, etc) and moved around to different cities to work retail jobs and try to find an apartment and make ends meet. She couldn't do it. She worked at Walmart, complaining for several chapters about this and that, yada yada. It's just a dark read, I felt bad with each page I turned. I haven't read the other book, and I sure as hell won't. Apparently she takes off trying to get a higher-up position in the corporate world, and can't get hired because she's a woman of a certain age. I call bullshit, but that's my opinion. Maybe it's fact, maybe it's a good book. Tell me if you've read it.
In comparison, Adam Shepard is a hero. Yeah, that's a strong word, and probably a little lame to use in this context. Sure, he took a year off to do a crazy experiment for no real reason. It's not a formal rebuttal against Ehrenreich, and as far as I know he didn't have a book deal or anything ahead of time, kind of sponsoring his project as she did. So he goes off to a randomly selected city using none of his contacts. He stays in a homeless shelter for 70 days, even though he'd gotten a steady job as a mover by that point, and was saving money like nobody's business. By the time he moves out, he's steady enough to stand on his own and not be forced back to the streets. His project lasts only half of the allotted time, because his mother's cancer comes back and he goes home to support her, but even in that short time he had accomplished all his goals. In fact, he had doubled his projected savings. Take THAT, Ehrenreich. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it, if you're driven.
That's what I take from this book. I'm not going to go out and attempt this project myself, but I loved reading about it. More than that, I love the inspiration it gave me. I come from a similar background to Shepard - supportive parents, never living paycheck to paycheck, having a good college education, pretty much being able to go where I want with what I have. So I shouldn't be complaining at all. A car wreck or hospital stay won't break me. I can lose my job and take time searching for another, because I have savings. But still, reading about his extreme drive was just what I needed to kick my ass. I'm going to grad school next year, and til now I'd kind of been looking for places near family or friends, so I won't *really* have to be on my own. I've been playing it safe. Now I'm ready to get out there and try anything. I can be on my own and still survive, because I'm working towards something I really want. The last chapter of the book was more inspirational than any self-help book I've ever read the back of. And that he's so like me, and from my generation, and has this attitude makes me really optimistic. With his background: family, college education, being an athlete, being attractive, he could pretty much sit around and get stuff shoveled onto his plate for nothing. But he wants to work for his dreams, and that makes me want to work for MY dreams.
Ok, that was a whole bunch of chicken-soup-for-the-soul crap, but really, READ THIS BOOK if you want to feel hopeful. I wrote him an email saying pretty much everything I said above, which means it was a novel. I wrote it at 1a, as soon as I closed the back cover of the book. The next evening I had a reply from him! He read my entire essay. He thanked me for reading the book and taking the time to "write such a thorough email". He wished me luck on grad school applications. I LOVE when authors write me back, have you noticed? He's doing an appearance at a local bookstore in late November, and I already marked it on my calendar. I can't wait to hear him speak about all of this. Maybe this will give me time to think up some good questions...
READ IT.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Espresso Distress
I drove my dad's pickup to school. I'm not used to skydiving out of vehicles, so I misjudged the distance as I hopped down. My canned doubleshot, already slick with condensation, fell from my hands. I watched it tumble to the ground in slow motion, yelling "Nooooo, this isn't good!" as it smashed onto the asphalt. Glorious espresso began spewing from a pinhole near the lid. I stood helpless, but laughter from a nearby parked car made me flee the scene, running for class like a mexican running for the border.
I returned three hours later, under the mask of darkness. The can laid beneath the truck. I nudged it with my toe and shied away, but it did not spit at me. It felt half full. I glanced around furtively and saw no one, which I hoped meant no one saw me. I squatted down and grabbed the can, popped the top, and chugged it.
It was good.
I returned three hours later, under the mask of darkness. The can laid beneath the truck. I nudged it with my toe and shied away, but it did not spit at me. It felt half full. I glanced around furtively and saw no one, which I hoped meant no one saw me. I squatted down and grabbed the can, popped the top, and chugged it.
It was good.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
i pretend to close my eyes
I love having a roommate who works at Starbucks. Right now I am sipping my second mug of anniversary blend, which is the most delicious coffee to ever touch my tongue. I think I will pack her right up when I move to grad school.
Sometimes I think it would be funny (in the saddest, most pathetic way possible) if I didn't get accepted to any grad schools. I'm sitting here planning my life around it, talking about it all the time, thinking about it nonstop, and then I will apply and get rejected eleven times over. I give you permission to laugh at my ludicrousness, because I certainly will be. After I finish crying for three weeks.
One thing contributing to my love/hate relationship with Facebook is people from high school adding me. I love stalking people as much as the next person, and I like seeing what they're up to, because usually I had ideas for what they'd be doing by now. On the other hand, if I wasn't friends with you in high school, why do I want to be online "friends" with you now? I doesn't help that lately I've felt like the biggest lamewad. I'm still an undergrad, my job isn't interesting, despite how many "friends" I have on Facebook, I'm not really close to many. Plus, everyone from high school got so friggen beautiful. No lie, it's a total metamorphosis. And here I am, plodding along, exactly the same. Seriously. If anything, I look better in my high school pictures. I still dress in the same jeans and t-shirts (literally, in some cases). My face still looks the same ol' plain ol'. I'm still tall and slightly chubby. I'm still awkward. I still have dimples on my knuckles, and I have stubby fingers. My hair still hangs limp, whenever it's not in a ponytail. How did I miss whatever these girls got to turn into glamorous career women? Maybe I should have taken home-ec after all...
Sometimes I think it would be funny (in the saddest, most pathetic way possible) if I didn't get accepted to any grad schools. I'm sitting here planning my life around it, talking about it all the time, thinking about it nonstop, and then I will apply and get rejected eleven times over. I give you permission to laugh at my ludicrousness, because I certainly will be. After I finish crying for three weeks.
One thing contributing to my love/hate relationship with Facebook is people from high school adding me. I love stalking people as much as the next person, and I like seeing what they're up to, because usually I had ideas for what they'd be doing by now. On the other hand, if I wasn't friends with you in high school, why do I want to be online "friends" with you now? I doesn't help that lately I've felt like the biggest lamewad. I'm still an undergrad, my job isn't interesting, despite how many "friends" I have on Facebook, I'm not really close to many. Plus, everyone from high school got so friggen beautiful. No lie, it's a total metamorphosis. And here I am, plodding along, exactly the same. Seriously. If anything, I look better in my high school pictures. I still dress in the same jeans and t-shirts (literally, in some cases). My face still looks the same ol' plain ol'. I'm still tall and slightly chubby. I'm still awkward. I still have dimples on my knuckles, and I have stubby fingers. My hair still hangs limp, whenever it's not in a ponytail. How did I miss whatever these girls got to turn into glamorous career women? Maybe I should have taken home-ec after all...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
