Seattle Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

I had a wonderful time at Seattle Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night last evening.  There’s little else that can better remind me of the truths in life than Shakespeare’s comedies.  I had forgotten what a wonderful play this is.  There is no fool like a wise fool, and none is wiser than Feast very ably played by Chris Ensweiler, who pokes great fun at the Puritans who, in Shakespeare’s time, waited in the wings with their sharp knives to fall on the bard’s ideals.  Ensweiler, Carter Rodriquez and Sean Patrick Taylor made wonderful music on stage with dueling Spanish guitars and a lyrical mandolin. Ray Gonzales was terrific as Sir Toby Belch.  He reminds me a bit of the able Powers Boothe, who could not possibly have done a better job.  Gonzales captured Belch perfectly by affording him all the dignity the sod imagines he possesses.   Everyone was wonderful, but most especially Susannah Millonzi whose heartbreaking earnestness brought my entire front-and-center row to tears in the last act.  An uproarious comedy that can make the audience cry is a comedy indeed.  Thanks once again, Seattle Shakespeare.

Performance and correction

On our last full day in New Mexico, Springer and I took the beautiful drive to Eagle Nest and Ute Park.  The last piece of that road through Cimmaron Canyon State Park is one of the most beautiful drives on earth.

Four hours of mountain driving had taken their toll, and we decided to stop for  a rest before returning to Santa Fe.  Springer walked Kit Carson Drive while I took my laptop into Tazza House Coffee for ninety minutes of writing.  I recalled that the shop had a lovely flagstone patio in the back with umbrellas and an arbor. 

 On my way through the back room I passed a fellow in his thirties seated at the large table near the rear entrance.  He held a guitar in his lap and was writing music across several pieces of staff paper spread out before him.  We exchanged a nod, and I continued on to the patio where I set myself up at the table with the best chance of an hour and a half of shade.

After a while, a guy in his forties sat at the next table with his guitar and asked if I minded if he played.  I said I didn’t.  As he set up, he complained that the barista had charged him for his coffee unlike the one the previous day who gave him coffee gratis for playing.  I muttered something sympathetic and returned to my work.  The fellow played Eagles and Crosby/Stills tunes haltingly, having forgotten a few of the lyrics and changes.  But his voice was good, and I liked the tunes, so I wasn’t at all annoyed.

After a half-dozen songs the composer from inside appeared with his guitar and began playing along, very well I thought.  After several songs the composer stood up and the two exchanged compliments.  Before going back to his work inside, however, the composer asked the singer if he minded some criticism.  After the singer assured him that he didn’t, the composer told him that if he needed to rehearse, he should do it in private.  It would make his public performance more welcomed and, in fact, better because his mind would be focused not on himself but on his audience.

I’ve thought about that conversation for several months now, and I think I finally understand the composer’s wisdom, as it applies to me at least.  It is just what my good friend, the Irish writer Daisy Wilson-Morrow, was trying to tell me when she said I should not be too careful with my first draft.  I have a tendency to edit as I write which slows me down and inhibits my flow.  Editing certainly is important, but real composition is not done by editors – or composers editing.   To compose is to perform, even if the composer is alone.  Stopping a performance to make a change halts the imagination.   The musician/writer is sent from the room, and the editor/critic is brought in to smooth and niggle and balance.  That’s all very fine, but the writer should understand that composition has not actually advanced.

A change in direction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve decided to take a change in direction in chosing my next piece.  Having completed the first novel in the Inventors’ Daughter Series and written an extensive chapter-by-chapter outline of  the second, I feel confident that I can take a haitus and return to the series when I am ready.  This feels natural to me, as I try to rotate my crops between whimsical and serious works.

In the meantime, I’m going to write a 5000-10,000 word story about myself and my friends when we were seventeen and eighteen.  It’s a sad story I’ve wanted to tell for many years now and feel I am now able to tell it truthfully.

The pitfalls of mixing first-person and third-person narratives

Last month at the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) Western Washington monthly meeting we heard a very interesting talk on plot and pacing from Elana Roth, agent with Caren Johnson Literary Agency. I got a lot out of Elana’s talk that I would like to share, but her first point was that we restrain from blogging about the specifics of her talk. Let me say only, that if you have a chance to hear or read her comments, please do.

During the Q & A I asked her a specific question about the book I’m currently working on:  Is it okay to mix first and third person narratives.  Her answer shocked me. 

No!

What I’m writing is a crime/sci-fi novel for middle graders, with a heavy emphasis on the crime genre.  It’s nearly noir for kids.  In order to make it interesting I must write scenes out of the protagonists POV.  The technique gives the Harry Potter novels much of their tension.  The reader feels a doubling of urgency when the villains are on stage, as it were. 

My first draft was written in the third person and was pretty good.  The major problem was that it was difficult for me to give authenticity to the main character, an eleven-year-old girl, while staying in the third person.  So, I studied books that use the first person to create a more vibrant character (The Postcard by Tony Abbott, for one).  Then I rewrote the novel, making the main character’s POV first person.

The story was definitely improved by my being able to give my character an inner voice.  She could not only comment directly to the reader, but in a real, humorous and appropriate way. But I was troubled by the mixing of the first and third person narratives. 

Alana was adamant in her opinion.  It just doesn’t work, she said, and you won’t find good examples of it – unless the mixing was very organized and predictable.  That wouldn’t work for my book.

I relented and returned to the third person.  I did keep many of the access points by using the classic “she thought” technique.  In doing so, I believe I’ve improved my access to the character, and so my telling of the tale.  I do want to thank Alana Roth for helping me through this.  I might have made a serious misstep had I – not only heard – but taken her advice to heart.

North Central New Mexico

Abique, NM

Springer and I just got back from one of the most beautiful places on the planet – Northern New Mexico – Santa Fe, Taos, Abique, Eagle Nest, Truchas, Madrid and Galisteo.  Pictured here is Abique, NM, where Georgia O’Keefe did most of her desert work.  The hills, the sky and the life are breathtaking. 

The Presbyterians own Ghost Ranch, her former residence.  They conduct a school for art and spirituality which is worth looking into.

You can see some of my photographs at the link below.  I focused as much on the vegetation as anything else on this trip.  It had rained heavily the month dressing the hills in every color.
Photographs

friendships and wormholes

Ordinary life is linear.  

Walk into an old workplace, and you are struck by the ocean of time and experience that separates your old life from your new. 

Seeing a dear friend again, however, is like entering a portal – a wormhole if you will – directly into the past bypassing the distraction of other memories.

The integrity of the work

A writer – any artist or craftsman, really – has a relationship with his work.   The work is dependent on that relationship.  If the artist foresakes the integrity of that bond, the work suffers.  For this reason, never take your criticism out on the work, but on your own efforts to create it.  Never think to youself, This statement is inferior, but I can fix it.  Instead, think, I can show the truth of this more truly.

The Lady Washington on Seattle’s Lake Union

This is the ship featured in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. The ship travels the West Coast giving educational tours and sailings.  The younger crew is training for certification, and fun.   I take these cruises for background research for the next book, and fun.

Watch the video: Sarah and Alex

Watch the video: Good Ship Handling

Watch the video: Sarah Puts Her Back Into It

Van Gogh’s imitators

Van Gogh’s imitators paint using ten times the number of brush strokes in the copies that he used in the original. 

Why is that interesting?

Leave a comment, if you like.

If you have a story that must be told …

 If you have a story that must be told, you must tell it, or nobody will.