What You'll Never Write

Today's blog is from guest contributor Bob LaVallee, writer and long-time Grubbie, who's been keeping a list of in-class writing exercises "that will never be used." You'll soon seen why. Add your own to Bob's list, or if you really want trouble, post your responses.

Thanks, Bob!


Unused Writing Exercises

1.) Put your thinking cap on and list forty synonyms for "potato."

2.) Picture your instructor. Now describe how you would make hot monkey love to him or her.

3.) Pretty little bunnies: Why do they scare you so much?

4.) 47 down.

5.) Describe why you are a better writer than the other people in your class, especially Julie.

6.) Pick any two words from the list below and write a novel based on those words.

Whale
White

7.) In 100 words or less, write something really good for a change, ok?

Off the shelves, part one

I fancy myself to be quite the bookworm. Since I was five, and was able to actually read books instead of pretending to read them but really just reciting them from memory, I carried a book with me everywhere. I never went out to dinner with my family without lugging a tome along with me to pass the time. Granted, my family's entire dining repertoire consisted of trips to various Chili's restaurants throughout the greater Denver area, so a book was more crucial than you might think.

Of course, my parents were thrilled by how smart and nerdy I appeared, and I was thrilled too. How cool to be allowed to escape into other worlds at the dinner table! But once I was old enough to realize that it was not, in fact, cool to read Gone With the Wind while eating one's Rojo Burger, I tried to tone down the outward displays of dorkdom. Narnia might be cool, but having a social life was probably pretty cool too. Privately, though, I still devoured books, and remained the kind of child, and then teen, who would rather spend a Saturday reading than out with a crowd. By the time I reached college, I was thankful for how many books I had read, as they gave me a leg up in the hyper-intellectual atmosphere of my school.

You can imagine my disappointment, then, in the following scene: I have just started my MFA program. I invite my fellow writers over to my apartment for a party. One of the guys, also from Colorado and seemingly a kindred spirit despite his penchant for wearing Man Clogs and talking incessantly about the Denver Broncos, walks into my bedroom and starts perusing the bookshelves. The large, built-in, overstuffed bookshelves. He looks at the books for a while, long enough for me to prepare myself for the scintillating conversation ahead, the comparing of favorite authors, the bonding over short story collections. After a while, he glances at me and says, "So... where's the literature?" I stare first at him, and then at my shelves. Names leap off at me: Faulkner, Hurston, Baxter, James, McEwan, Stegner, Dillard, Coover, Cheever, a veritable canon of my literary life. I have no idea what to say. Finally, moments past the comfortable response time, I decide to be breezy. "Ha ha ha," I say, "So funny."

NOT so funny. Two things transpired from this moment. First, Man Clog man and I never, ever became friends. Second, I developed a new and incredibly tedious insecurity about what I've read and what I'm reading, stemming partly from the realization that much of my self-confidence comes from thinking of myself as a reader. To make fun of my bookshelves is, sadly, to make fun of me. And whether or not you'd look at my shelves and think they were filled with trash, they do tell you a lot about me. I like well-written books. I like sentences that sing. I also like a really good plot. The Other Boleyn by Phillipa Gregory? Loved it. Loved it so much I've now read her entire ouevre, including what turned out to be her abysmal Wideacre series (incest? No thanks).

The reason the title of this post is "part one" is that I haven't actually made it to the topic I was originally planning to write about. Stay tuned next Thursday for what I was intending to say--I'm off to read The Whole World Over by Julia Glass, which even Clog Man might think is a really good book.

In dread and books,
Whitney Scharer

The Grub Street Rag, 6/25/07

"Language is the dress of thought."

--Samuel Johnson

Welcome to the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene sent out every Monday from the couture fashion atelier in the back room of Grub Street's world headquarters. As always, if you are receiving this e-mail in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.

Selling books, old-school style
F.O.G. (Friend of Grub) and local author, Jon Papernick, and Back Pages Books in Waltham, have teamed to create the 1001 Book Project, which was written up yesterday in the Boston Globe. The project aims to sell 1001 copies of Jon's amazing new novel, Who By Fire, Who By Blood, and gain the interest of a U.S. publisher by creating buzz at the community level. We're huge supporters of both Jon and Back Pages, and urge you to check out the article, the bookstore, and Jon's dazzling novel.

All of Grub's your stage
Did you take a writing workshop at Grub Street this spring? Or do you have a 5-minute long piece you've been dying to read at an open mike night? Then Grub's the place to be this Wednesday night, when Grub students, instructors, and community members have a chance to show off their scribbled stylins' at our Spring Season Showcase.

Softball Department (brought to you by guest sportscaster, Tom Champoux)
ANDOVER –This week’s “Softball in a word”: Audacitude. Part audacity, part incertitude. The dauntless, plucky gang of Word-Slingers took on the Channel 4 news crew in Andover. Our beloved team put on quite an impressive display at the plate, spraying singles and doubles around the field.

The leather, too, flew wildly, if not always on target, and the team put up an impressive 5 quick runs. But, unfortunately, the Channel 4 news crew displayed a not-so-surprisingly fair aptitude for the sport themselves, quelling the Word-Slingers valiant effort. The final score isn’t really as important as, say, feeding hungry children or curing cancer, but suffice it to say we didn’t even cover the spread. The team did stage a late, smallish rally that included Laura's head-first, dust-generating slide.

Tom Meek showed off some great stuff and on the pitcher’s mound and Becky Tuch beat out a wicked throw for an infield single. Ethan Gilsdorf scored twice and Jon Papernick scooped up everything hit his way. No bumps or blood, and the only bruising afflicted our collective egos.

Great to see new players on the field and we hope lots of other folks are inspired to show up and root, root, root, for the home team. Alright, for those of you who just can’t squelch that yearning to know, the game ended with the fairly ugly score of 19-7.

Cheers,
Whitney, Chris, Paige and Sonya

Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where, like a bicycle built for forty-eight, we offer you the chance to win a prize. This week it's another question about Whitney's favorite author. Has Ian McEwan ever been convicted of a crime, and if so, what is it? Email your answer to Whitney. Winner receives a gift certificate for ice cream at J.P. Licks.

Answer to last week's quiz: In Ian McEwan's astoundingly good novella, On Chesil Beach, Florence plays in the Ennismore quartet. Winner: Sandra Pianin. �

Get Your NEAT On

Okay, you probably didn't think you'd get lifestyle advice here at the The Penny Dreadful, but Whitney told me I could write about anything at all and I've been working on a nonfiction proposal about NEAT (to be explained later) all week long and it's on my mind. And I might add, it's a very relevant topic for you because I'm assuming you (like me) spend the majority of your waking hours parked on your bum in front of your computer.

You (like me) are probably sitting at this very moment.

Well the NEAT book I'm helping birth is by a scientist named Jim Levine who runs a lab out of the Mayo clinic and he's been studying obesity and metabolism since he was nine. Yes, nine. He was (it might be obvious) a very curious young boy and luckily his parents left him alone to build an aquarium for snails. He wanted to know whether snails moved in a straight lines or whether they zig zagged, so he woke himself up every half an hour all night long to chart their progress. He did this for months. I can't remember whether they went straight or zig zagged and it doesn't really matter. What matters is that Jim was obsessed with how living creatures move. He kept obsessing about movement into his teen years, through a PHd and an MD and right up until now. And lately he's been in the news because he's got a very simple and elegant and yet revolutionary theory about why we are all so damn heavy, sluggish and depressed (how many people do you know on Prozac?).

It turns out that it all boils down to NEAT - Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis. Now this is just a fancy word all of our movements large and small throughout the day. It's about how many calories we burn just living - climbing stairs, chewing gum, tapping our toes, necking (love that word), etc. It doesn't include exercise. Jim argues that in the past generation or two, we've lost 1000 calories of NEAT per day which equals pounds and pounds of fat every year. In earlier generations, people stayed effortlessly lean by just living! But now we're literary chained to our desks and it's killing us.

Jim argues that it's in our DNA to move, we evolved to move, our brains literally get high off of movement. Einstein thought up his theory of relativity while riding his bike. I'm sure more than one of you has come up with the perfect ending to your latest story while taking a walk. This is no accident. The brain creates while the body moves. One of the most striking images in Jim's book is an MRI of the brain of a sitting person verses a standing person. When a person simply stands, his or her brain lights up. It's there on the MRI in black and white.

Through very cool experiments using specially designed underwear which tracked the every movement and twitch of the people in the study, Jim has discovered the difference between the lean and the fat among us. It's not food. It's not exercise. It's NEAT. The difference between heavy Harry and lean Lawrence is about two and a half hours of NEAT per day. This is good news for all of us because it means if we can figure out a way to be more active for two and a half hours per day, we can stay lean. He's not talking about going to the gym or going on a diet. He's simply talking about moving more within the framework of your day. I love this because I loathe the gym. I pay every month. I never go. And I love eating, too.

Still, how do we do this? Well, he's got a lot of ideas, but one of the neatest ideas (and this will sound crazy at first) is a walking desk he designed. Tired of his own sendentary life, Jim decided to create his own desk. He went out and bought a treadmill, then he fashioned a desk on top of it. He does all of his email and phone calls now while walking a mile per hour. When he first tried it, he thought that he would be exhausted at the end of the day, but, in fact, he had more energy than ever. Since then, he's piloted versions of this desk at Fortune 500 companies and found that the people who try it, never want to go back to sitting. These desks are being mass produced and launched this summer.

In any case, it's food for thought. Since working with Jim, I find myself saying to my kids or my husband "let's get our NEAT in." I'm trying to make myself more NEAT by gardening, doing house projects I've been dreading, walking at least an hour a day and so on. Before I cram a donut into my pie hole, I ask myself if I've moved enough to earn it. And, I have to say, I do feel much better. My friend Judy, a professor at MIT, has been living this way all of her life (she thinks nothing of walking from Belmont to MIT, for example). She shrugs her shoulders and tells me that this is all common sense. I know she's right. But we are so far out of whack, we have so competely lost sight of how our bodies are meant to function (it's like we're trying to heat a house with an air conditioner), that this feels like a revolution to me. As soon as Jim's walking desks are on the market, I'll be in line (assuming I can cough up the dough - I have no idea what the cost will be), so if you call me, you might well hear the slight buzz of my treadmill as we talk...

That's all my proselytizing for tonight. I'll just end by saying: It's Friday night! Get off your ass and go dancing:)

Eve Bridburg

A Good Bingo

If, like me, you've never played Bingo before--real Bingo, as the smokers told my sister outside the church--I highly recommend a trip to a bingo hall like St. Joseph's in Malden, which hosts Bingo each Wednesday night year round. Had you decided to go last night, you would have found the Grub Street staff (plus various husbands and family members), huddled around a long table, its surface dimpled and puckered with waterstains resembling an embarrassing skin ailment, frantically daubing at cheap paper bingo cards. Here are a few things you would have learned:

1. Bingo at St. Joseph's is a wicked bah-gain. For the timid (Whitney and Sonya), there are 9-game cards for $5--and that's for the whole night. For the experienced and slightly cocky (Chris) there are 12- or 15-game cards. Bingo does not take long to master, and by the end of the night we all wished we had been cocky.

2. Bingo builds up an appetite. Luckily, Saran-wrapped donuts, Klondike bars, congealed pizza and watery lemonade are all a buck or under.

3. Bingo games have beautiful patterns. On the brown board we make kites. On purple we make butterflys. On olive green we make crazy Ls, Ls that stand tall and Ls that loll lethargically, like drunks huddled against the walls of our bingo squares.

4. Bingo is not a noisy game. Quite possibly, this is because it's such an intense activity, but more likely it's because many of the players are hard of hearing and don't want to miss the calls. Much attention has been paid to creating a calming atmosphere: the potentially-concentration-killing shriek of the folding chairs' metal on dull linoleum has been craftily eliminated by shoeing the chair's feet with cut tennis balls, which also lend the room a sporty vibe, as if we're all playing bingo in a romper room. The bingo caller's voice is robotic, the timing between placing the number on the screen and calling it out perfectly synchronized, and as the games begin, the only sounds are of daubers thumped on pulpy paper, the click and slide of plastic bingo coins laid down on the more professional players' boards.

5. Bingo simultaneously soothes and exhilarates. Games may begin in silence, but as more and more numbers are called, murmurs build, a storm of muttering, tension rising, daubers thumped more assuredly or poised agonizingly above the board when numbers can't find their match. "Why isn't he calling any Bs?" someone stage whispers. "I17, I17, I17" the elderly woman next to us chants, rubbing the blank space on her board with a gnarled finger. And then, from a corner of the hall, a nonchalant "Bingo," the winner too cool and self-assured to shout it out with glee. A collective groan, a pause as the numbers are run through the computer, and then the caller says "That's a good bingo," and like a choreagraphed troupe, the entire room rips their bingo cards off and throws them away. A good bingo for one, a bad, bad bingo for everyone else.

6. The Grub Street staff is not a lucky staff. No one got close to getting bingo. We did, however, reminisce about a favorite short story: "After the Denim," by Raymond Carver. We drank the root beer and ate the Klondike bars. We learned our favorite bingo patterns (Sonya's is COVERALL). We chatted with the woman sitting next to us, there alone, her many daubers toted lovingly in a quilted carrier, who propped up a photo of her grandson, Elijah, and a cedar charm carved in the shape of an elephant. She helped us learn the rules of the game and waved goodbye when everything was over. Win or lose, THAT's a good bingo.

In dread (and bingo),
Whitney Scharer

The Great Pretender

When I was seventeen I stalked a music writer in Minneapolis. He spent his time attending punk shows, writing reviews for our local newspaper, and responding, wearily, to my emails. “For the last time,” he’d say, “what do you want to write about?”

“Punk shows,” I’d say. “In Minneapolis!”

Years have passed but I’m the same: still wanting to write what others have already written. I find myself imitating. I may have good ideas, but never as good as that real genius over there. So I copy the geniuses, watching and nodding and mimicking their every gesture, just as an aerobics teacher is watched by her most desperate and sweating student.

It’s for this reason that people warn against reading while writing, but I can’t help it. I read Raymond Carver and suddenly all my characters become alcoholic and mean to their wives. A little Jane Austen turns them back into women. My flip-flopping is obvious and predictable. If Lorrie Moore writes about triplets, I want to write about triplets. If she writes about sheepdogs romping through Iceland— I, too, want to know such sheepdogs.

More disturbing is my impulse to copy other writers’ styles, aside from their content. After Amy Hempel I write dense sentences; after Dickens they’re pages long. Once, while studying “The Bible as Literature,” I began using the word “shall” in a story, frequently and without irony. Robert knows, I wrote, that he shall see her later, that she shall be wearing sandals. At these times I feel like a spineless writer. How can other literature influence me so easily?

Admiration, I think, is the problem. When you love a story, when a voice haunts and dazzles you, it takes up residence in your brain. It’s easy to go knocking on that residence when you’re unsure about your writing's direction or style, even though those borrowed ideas may be flagrantly inappropriate for the piece at hand. Imitating other work can also-- however falsely-- seem easier, since it means gliding on the details of an already-imagined world, rather than imagining it yourself.

Writers often talk about “finding your voice,” which means, I've realized, reaching a level of confidence in your writing interests that can withstand the torrent of reading wonderful—and very different—voices.

To counteract my Great Pretending, I have a little trick, which until now only Whitney has known. My trick is to read crap. A poor essay, a garbage story, a thoughtless poem. It’s shameful but true. Somehow scanning just a page of something I don’t like, that I don’t admire, makes me want to write something different and better. I forget chasing someone else's genius, and my own voice gets pushed into motion. In short: I stop pretending.

~Sonya Larson

Grub Street Rag, 6/18/07

Welcome to the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene sent out every Monday from a picnic blanket in the Public Garden, near the world headquarters of Grub Street. As always, if you are receiving this e-mail in horror, please advance to
the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.

Department of Congratulations

It's only fitting that we use our email newsletter to trumpet our enthusiastic congratulations for Grubbie David Scott, who published his third book this year. Called The New Rules of Marketing & PR, it's the #1 PR book on Amazon.com right now, and in the top 1000 books overall! David got his start as a novelist in a Grub Street workshop with Jenna Blum, and we've been proud to watch his growing success over the years. To read more about his book, check out http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/index.htm. Hurrah also to Grub supporter Hank Phillippi Ryan, whose first novel Prime Time was published last week. She has some great readings scheduled in the next weeks, including one at Porter Square Books tomorrow. We're also hoping to see you all at Redbones to celebrate the publication of Grub-Master-Fiction-er Stephanie Gayle's My Summer Of Southern Discomfort. All details below.

A writing whirlwind this week at Grub

We've got a LOT going on this week and next: seminars tonight (sold out, unfortunately for all you procrastinators out there), a film tomorrow night, weekend workshops, the Spring Season showcase next week, and much more. Though we wish we could talk about all of it, we'd like to put in special plugs for two fantastic events: the Boston premiere of the Out of the Book film series featuring Ian McEwan, and stellar Grub instructor Jamie Cat Callan's "Writers' Toolbox" workshop this weekend. Details for both are below, and these are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities here at Grub.

Softball Department (brought to you by guest sportscaster, Jen LaVin)

Grub Street Word-Slingers 5 Big Blue Moxie 8

NEWTON – Despite a full contingent, a handful of fans, and nice, if muggy, weather, The Word-Slingers just couldn’t bring forth enough of their own moxie to beat Big Blue Moxie at Forte Park in Newton this Father’s Day Sunday. In the end, it was Big Blue Moxie 8, Word-Slingers, 5.

But the team gave their all, with Captain Becky Tuch taking one on the shin, shortstop Jon Papernick taking in one in the chest, Ethan Gilsdorf straining his quad in the first inning, and Anna Goldsmith sidelined with a nasty case of carpel tunnel.

With most of Moxie’s runs coming from balls hit further than anyone thought a softball could be hit, The Word-Slingers put up a good defense Sunday. In his Word-Slingers debut, Matt Baker snagged some tough balls at second base and veteran Tom Meek filled in admirably as pitcher, also going 3 for 3 at bat.

But with the outstanding fielding skills of Moxie preventing the Word-Slingers from converting their many well hit balls into runs (including Diana Beaudoin’s first hit!), it was determined some batting practice is in order. So with batting cages booked, a positive attitude, and time to heal wounds and bruises, it will definitely be the battle of the media this Sunday, when The Word-Slingers take on word-slingers of the different kind, the Channel 4 News Team, at P&G field in Andover at 11 am.

Cheers,

Whitney, Chris, Paige and Sonya

Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where, like a kangaroo wearing a fanny pack, we offer you the chance to win a prize. In Ian McEwan's astoundingly good novella, On Chesil Beach, what is the name of Florence's quartet? Email your answer to Whitney. Winner receives a gift certificate for ice cream at J.P. Licks.

Answer to last week's quiz: In Marisha Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics, the narrator, Blue Van Meer, calls the two gossips Dee and Dum. Winner: Stephanie Erber.

Forget Moleskin

I once knew a guy whose mom accidentally “threw out his novel,” which he later revealed had been scribbled on a pile of post-it notes. Idiot! I thought, but perhaps his writing method wasn’t so ridiculous.

Plenty of writers have preceded him. Borges, an obsessive-compulsive, wrote on accounting paper. Hemingway drafted on napkins. Famously, Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road on one continuous scroll, and Abraham Lincoln scrawled The Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope in a train car. What is it about humble materials that can produce great writing?

An old boyfriend once gave me a beautiful leather-bound blank book. “Oooh,” I’d said, and reached for it as I might a newborn child. It was from Italy. It smelled good. The pages were thick as cotton, cut rough around the edges, and I kept opening and closing the binding to hear it crack. Finally: an appropriate receptacle for my literary genius.

Weeks passed. “You’re not writing in the book,” said the boyfriend. “Go away,” I said. “I am too.” The truth was I had hidden it in a drawer. Was it possible to be scared of a pretty stack of paper?

Days later I pulled open the drawer and laid the book on my desk. I watched it. Then I spent several minutes selecting the best variety of pen— perhaps a ballpoint, or a blue felt tip. The luxury of the whole thing, the expectations of it, stalled me. Like an antique arm chair lined in velvet and silk, it was a beautiful thing to behold-- but you’d never want to use it.

The best stories, I often think, begin on napkins and in the margins of receipts. Not because that image is somehow more struggling or romantic, but because it more closely follows the distraction of one’s own writing ideas. If a story is going well, you may continue “writing” it while in the shower, or while falling asleep, or while pulling carrots from the garbage disposal. In such moments, who has time to find their leather-bound beauty? Scrawl it on your hand and keep pulling.

But more importantly, makeshift materials and beaten-up desks may better serve the goals of writing itself. If a writer’s job is to discover the odd details of life, to find what’s unlikely and unique and surprising— then it helps to be in such settings yourself. If your writing life is too comfortable, if it's not gritty enough, you may find yourself losing the intrigue that spawns stories in the first place. Or, I should say, I do.

So forget moleskin, and fountain pens crafted by French artisans. Artists need something to work against. They need friction. Embrace your dank basement desk, your crumpled legal pad, and your “studio time” on the city bus. Your means are not predictable— and your writing won’t be, either.

~Sonya Larson

Grub Street Rag, 6/11/2007

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

--Jack London

Welcome to the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene sent out every Monday by the impatient impatiens planters at the world headquarters of Grub Street. As always, if you are receiving this e-mail in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.

At Laaaaaaaast!
The summer workshop calendar has arrived. Every year we say something like "man, we're going to take it easy this summer and have fewer classes," but somehow we always end up scheduling a huge menu of workhops, complete with many we haven't offered before. This summer, check out new amuse-bouches like Reading Like a Writer, The Middle of the Story, and Forms of Poetry; delectable aperitifs like Novel in Progress, Memoirs I and II and Writing & Producing the Short Film; and decadent palate cleansers like The Structure of Short Fiction and Master Ten Weeks Ten Poems. Hungry for more? We've also got nine weekend courses, four daytime workshops and seminars, and ten tasty seminars. No matter what you pick, we know you'll be satisfied.

Go forth and save
Grub Street Benefit Days at all Massachusetts Borders locations is this Thursday and Friday, June 14th and 15th. You'll get 10% off your purchases at all Borders stores, and 10% of the net sales will go to your favorite non-profit: Grub! Click here to download the PDF coupon: http://www.grubstreet.org/email/EventCoupon.pdf.

Softball Department (brought to you by guest sportscaster, Jen LaVin)
Grub Street Word-Slinger 5, Irish Cannolis 14
SOMERVILLE – Sunday, The Word-Slingers successfully defended their record-breaking non-winning streak, losing to the Irish Cannolis 5 to 14 at Trum field.

Going into this latest game, the team assumed their black-colored shirts would provide significant intimidation. But you know what they say about assuming… And unfortunately, the team soon discovered that it was no match for the pale pink of the Irish Cannolis, who served them up their second loss of the season. Seems black shirts are just plain hot on a nice sunny day.

Despite the score, the game proved to boost the spirits of The Word-Slingers immensely, who turned out in record numbers. With fans in the stands and subs on the bench, the team enjoyed some memorable moments, with Chris Castellani’s handful of strikeouts, including one of the other team’s heavy hitters (which drew cheers from both teams), and Jeff Stern’s impressive catches in center field, including one sliding on his knees that ultimately drew blood.

New players and rookies alike agreed that, given the quality of the play and the fun that was had, the score should have been much closer. As a result, The Word-Slingers look forward to taking on Big Blue Moxie in Newton on Father’s Day, June 17, and bringing the losing streak to its long overdue end.

Cheers,

Whitney, Chris, Paige and Sonya


In addition to our ongoing workshops, Grub Street offers numerous writing-related events around town. See our website for a long-term view of all we do. Here is a sample of what's on the horizon:

FREE LUNCHTIME COURSE: Tuesday, June 12th, 12:30-1:15, Brown Bag Lunch Series Do you work downtown and want to fit some writing into your day? Or do you have a schedule that gives you free afternoons instead of evenings? Bring your lunch and come on over to Grub Street for a Brown Bag Writing Workshop. In 45 jam-packed minutes, you'll meet fellow writers and get your creative juices flowing with some great writing exercises. Led by one of our award-winning instructors or ambassadors. Best of all, you'll leave lunch with some new ideas to ponder for the rest of your day, and beyond. Taught by instructor Sonya Larson. These workshops are free and open to the public. Max. 15 students, email sonya@grubstreet.org to RSVP or call us at 617.695.0075.FREE, 160 Bolyston Street, Boston MA.

Tuesday, June 19th, 7pm, Harvard Book Store and Grub Street present The Boston Premiere of Out of the Book
Harvard Bookstore, with help from Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon and Grub Street Writers of Boston, presents the Boston premiere of Out of the Book – a new series of short films about notable authors. Join us on June 19 for a special evening featuring readings, music, and a new film featuring bestselling novelist Ian McEwan. McEwan’s new novel, On Chesil Beach, focuses on the first night between a young married couple. What better way to celebrate the debut of this film than a group of talented writers talking about other “first nights”? Grub Street’s own Pamela Painter, Jon Papernick, and Elizabeth Benedict will read their own short pieces about wedding nights. Directed by Doug Biro (Herbie Hancock: Possibilities) and shot over four days in England and the United States, the film includes interviews with McEwan in London, on location footage from Chesil Beach and Oxford, and original soundtrack, commentary from peers and critics, one perplexing glimpse at British media, and more.$7 Grub members (show your card at the bookstore); $10 non-members. Tickets are available at the store or over the phone with a credit card at 617-661-1515. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Harvard Square.

SEMINAR: Monday, June 18th, 7pm – 10pm, What We Talk About When We Talk About Voice

What is "voice," and what do writers and critics mean when they discuss it? How does voice differ from other literary elements like point of view, tone and style? In this one night-seminar, fiction writer Becky Tuch and poet Jennifer Elmore will lead you through this discussion as well as writing exercises that will examine the complex concept of voice. You will explore issues of voice in well- known novels, short stories and poems, as well as in your own works- in-progress. Experimenting with voice is a productive way to stretch your writing skills and/or end your writer's block! Come prepared for writing exercises and to leave with new ideas for your own work. Instructors: Becky Tuch and Jennifer Elmore.
$45/$40 members, Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

SEMINAR: Monday, June 18th, 7pm – 10pm, Travel Writing
Ever thought travel writing would be a great way to make a living? Dashing off a few pages on your last vacation experience can seem easy, but can you shape the story into a form that is original, well-written and most importantly, saleable? In this highly informative seminar taught by a freelance travel writer for The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler and The Washington Post, students will receive a comprehensive overview of the travel writing field: the types of stories, the markets available to freelancers, how to shape stories and write pitch letters, what publications actually pay, plus more esoteric craft matters such as what makes a good travel memoir. Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf
$45/$40 members, Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

SEMINAR: Monday, June 18th, 7pm – 10pm, Truth In Fiction
Fiction relies heavily on a writer's creativity and imagination, but generally there are kernels of truth and personal, human experience in even the most outlandish stories. In this seminar we will examine the way that our daily lives, our experiences, our feelings, even our darkest secrets and most emotional days can color our un-truths, and can yield vibrant and emotive writing that will have readers asking, "Did this really happen to you?" The key here is finding the balance between drawing on the key elements of your experiences, and using key emotions and elements to create new characters and new situations. We'll begin by free-writing, and then examine some passages from popular books--some that work, and some that don't work as well--and then we'll spend the rest of the time working on putting pieces of the experiences of our lives into another language: fiction. (Be prepared to share your work with others). Instructor: Brian Sousa. $45/$40 members, Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

WEEKEND COURSE: Saturday-Sunday, 6.23.07 – 6.24.07, 9-4pm each day (includes one hour for lunch) Weekend Workout For Novelists
If you want to work on a novel but can't find the time for a 10-week workshop, this intensive weekend class will give you the tools you need to get started. Through a combination of in-class exercises, readings, discussions of craft and an overnight assignment, you'll learn how to get your novel started, as well as how to keep the story moving 100 pages in. Come to class with a short summary of the novel you'd like to write, or a first page; leave with an opening scene or even a first chapter, as well as strategies to keep the writing flowing come Monday morning. Note: This workshop was recently the subject of a Boston Globe article, which praised Lisa Borders for creating an inspiring and productive workshop.
$195/$170 members, Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

WEEKEND COURSE: Saturday-Sunday, 6.23.07 – 6.24.07, 9-4pm each day (includes one hour for lunch) The Writers' Toolbox
Spend the weekend with one of our most inspiring and entertaining instructors as she leads you through exercises from her recently published how-to book, The Writers Toolbox: Creative Games and Exercises For Inspiring the 'Write' Side of Your Brain (Chronicle, April 2007). The exercises – with names like "First Sentences," "Non Sequiturs," and "Last Straws" – are meant to be fun, generative and also applicable to any piece of writing on which you're currently working. Best yet; Jamie Cat Callan is an expert at giving on-the-spot feedback on the scenes and descriptions you'll be generating. $195/$170 members, Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

WEEKEND COURSE: Saturday-Sunday, 6.23.07 – 6.24.07, 9-4pm each day (includes one hour for lunch) Screenplay Lab
If you want thoughtful feedback on your complete or near-complete screenplay, this is the workshop for you. Spend the weekend transforming your screenplay from a good first draft to a more compelling, more marketable revised version. You will also get advice on how to get your screenplay to the right contests or agencies.
$195/$170 members, Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

On the Horizon:

6/25: The Dialogue-Driven Story

6/25: Rejection, Rejection: Why It's Happening to You, and How to Avoid It

6/25: You’re Writing A Memoir: So What?

6/25: Words and Images

7/21-7/22: The Story Details

7/21-7/22: Travel Writing

7/21-7/22: Surviving the Slush Pile

****Events Around Town****

--READING: Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 7:00 PM Julia Glass, The Whole World Over
Says Kirkus Reviews: "Readers who love quirky characters and a gentle wit that breathes affection even as it skewers human foolishness and frailty will follow [Glass] anywhere." Julia Glass is the author of the National Book Award winning novel The Three Junes. She is a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and winner of three Nelson Algren Awards and the Tobias Wolff Award. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.
FREE, Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge.

--READING: Thursday, June 14th, 7pm, Jacqueline Sheehan reading from Lost and Found
Grub member and weekend workshop instructor Jacqueline Sheehan reads from her novel Lost and Found, published by Avon/Harper Collins in April 2007. "Jacqueline Sheehan is a New England psychologist noted for her essays and the critically acclaimed novel, Truth,
based on the life of abolitionist Sojourner Truth. This new trade fiction original is a stunning, shattering work that gently probes the human psyche to unveil a measure of what it takes to find oneself in a time of loss." Oh, and there's a dog, a gorgeous dog who completely steals the show. FREE, Central Square Branch Library, 45 Pearl Street, Cambridge.

--READING: June 17 – 23, 2007, 7:30pm each night, Solstice Summer Writers' Conference
Sunday, June 17: Pulitzer Prize Finalist and National Book Award Finalist for poetry Cornelius Eady, Newbery Honor and Christopher Medal recipient Norma Fox Mazer, and MA Book Award winner Roland Merullo. Monday, June 18: Pushcart Prize nominee & Theodore Goodman Award for Fiction winner Lee Hope, Los Angeles Times Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award Winner Randall Kenan, and Oprah Book Club/best-selling novelist Andre Dubus III. Tuesday, June 19: Borders and Amazon’s “Best of 2004” novelist Sarah Micklem, award-winning poet Naomi Ayala, and, from Pine Manor’s MFA Program faculty: award-winning novelist Dennis Lehane. Wednesday, June 20: Poet, translator, and anthologist Kurt Brown, award-winning fiction writer/program assistant Tanya Whiton, and best-selling novelist & creator of the first African American female detective, Valerie Wilson Wesley. See website for complete schedule. The readings are free and open to the public. Copies of the authors’ books will be available for sale and signing during the cash-bar receptions following the readings. Free, Founder’s Room of Pine Manor College, located at 400 Heath Street in Chestnut Hill.

--READING: Sunday, June 24th, 7:30pm, Grace Paley and Mark Doty
One of the most acclaimed short story writers of our time, Grace Paley’s collections include The Little Disturbances of Man, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, and The Collected Poems. Mark Doty is the author of seven books of poems, including School of the Arts, and three volumes of nonfiction prose. This reading is part of the Juniper Summer Writing Institute's reading series at UMass. FREE, Bezanson Recital Hall, Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where, like grandma panties under lowrider jeans, we offer you the chance to win a prize. In Marisha Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics, what are the nicknames the narrator gives to the two main high school gossips? Email your answer to Whitney. Winner receives a gift certificate for ice cream at J.P. Licks.

Answer to last week's quiz: On June 4th, Raymond Carver would be celebrating 30 years of sobriety; he reportedly took his last drink in June 1977 after joining Alcoholics Anonymous. Winner: Anne Stuart.

Guest Blog: Jane Roper's *Baby Squared*

For our very first guest blog, I am excited to recommend the work of one of our favorite Grubbies: Jane Roper. Jane was a student in the very first fiction course I taught at Grub Street back in January of 2000. It was also Jane's first fiction workshop at Grub, though she was a writer by profession at one of Boston's most prominent advertising agencies.

Thanks in large part to my inspiration (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little), Jane went on to write great fiction and a beautiful novel, work that eventually landed her in the Iowa Writers Workshop. We don't acknowledge this often enough, but Jane was also one of the founders of "The Muse and the Marketplace" conference - in fact, it was Jane who named it!

She returned to Boston a couple years ago, and is now an instructor at Grub as well as a mother of twins. Jane is an excellent writer, which you'll see when you check out Baby Squared, which she promises to update about 3 times a week. Enjoy!

Jane says: "If you're not already familiar with it, Babble.com is a cool new parenting site from the folks at Nerve.com. It's aimed primarily at urban-dwelling / Gen-X parents, and has parenting advice, essays, forums, articles, etc. all with a bit of an irreverent twist. (It's also got a lot of ads for upscale baby products, which, like me, you can choose to ignore). One of my favorite guilty pleasures on the site is Fame Crawler -- the celebrity baby blog."

Thank you, Jane, for all you've done for Grub Street and for your wonderful writing. We look forward to following you on this latest adventure.

~Chris Castellani

Dreaming big, but will fiction follow?

I know that everyone says not to start stories with dreams, but last night I had a strange one. It involved me "accidentally" marrying the wrong person (a common theme in my dreams, oddly) and not knowing what to do. At the end of the dream, I was standing on a frozen river, and when I started walking, my feet kept punching through the snowy crust and getting stuck in the current below. I walked this way for a while, and then came to the edge of a canyon. I stood on the canyon's rim, and looked over at the opposite rim, where my (accidental) husband was standing close to the edge. I called to him to get his attention, and when I did, he shouted with surprise and fell, plunging quickly into the depths of the canyon. The dream was a vivid one, and I watched him fall with a heady mix of emotions: sadness, fear, and most of all a deep relief that I would no longer have to be married to him.

The oddest thing about this dream was how literary it was. Instead of just unfolding, dreamlike, it was as if there was a sort of narrator, voicing over everything. I dreamt the words "punched through the snowy crust" and "deep relief," felt them AND heard them.

As I lay there, somewhat awake, I kept thinking that I had to get up and write it all down, that THIS was a story worth telling. But I've never been smart enough to keep a journal next to my bed, and the few times when I've had something to write on when I wake up in the morning, I'm
always disgusted when I read over my "amazing" nighttime ideas. And of course, by the time I was in the shower this morning, the dream seemed utterly absurd, silly and improbable; certainly not the stuff of good fiction.

But it got me thinking about where good ideas DO come from. While my dreams have never turned into good stories, I've found that I do my best writing in the morning, when my brain is still teetering between sleeping and waking. I think it's a flexibility thing--as soon as my Outlook calendar is open and my day is blocked off into checkboxes on a task list, I have a lot more trouble being creative.

I'm curious if other people have had luck using ideas that come from dreams, and how those ideas are remembered--just as flashes of images, or whole narratives? Has anyone written a successful story that came from a dream? Feel free to comment. I'd love to know what you think.


GRUB NEWS: We're all psyched about the Night of Debuts tomorrow night, June 8th, at 7:30pm. The event features readings by authors Jennifer McMahon, Tish Cohen and Patry Francis. Jennifer's book, PROMISE NOT TO TELL, was mentioned on NBC’s Today Show Saturday morning as one of ten “sizzling beach reads” for this summer and scored a 4-star review in People, while Tish Cohen's book sold out on Amazon the day it debuted, and Patry's book The Liar's Diary has gained a huge national following. The lovely Porter Square Books will be manning the book table, and we'll all sip champagne and nosh on chocolate treats. If you'd like to come, RSVP, please: 617.695.0075 or sonya@grubstreet.org. See you there!

In dread,
Whitney Scharer

Never Enough: The Elusiveness of "Meaning" In the Writer's Life

A cool thing happened today. I was self-Googling, that unseemly but mostly harmless habit all writers have but seldom discuss, when I came upon a hit I hadn't seen the day before. Finally -- a new mention to either stroke or slap my ego! It had been a while.

Apparently someone was presenting a paper about my second novel at an MLA-affiliated conference. The abstract of the paper articulated a thesis about the "unspoken" in Italian American culture, which I had dramatized via my traditional characters. Having researched and written numerous papers like this in grad school, I harrumphed at the PC subject matter (multi-culturalism, the canon, "authentic voice"); I chuckled at the tell-tale use of the colon in the title; I winced at the memory of my own feeble efforts to say something new and important about the work of authors like Whitman, Coleridge and Eliot. Then it struck me: this person wasn't writing about some nineteenth-century classic. S/he was writing about my book! S/he may have even highlighted her copy. Notecards may have been involved.

I found myself blushing, flattered. I re-read the abstract many times. When Whitney and Sonya walked by, I quickly closed the tab, as if I were looking at porn. (Of course, in a way, I was...)

As far as I know, my books have never been written about or presented in this way before. In fact, despite a decent track record, I am always astonished when someone tells me they've heard of me, let alone read or enjoyed my work. Some of my writer friends expect to be studied; I expect to be ignored, then forgotten. If people do show admiration, I immediately question their taste.

I used to look forward to a time when I didn't have such dreary expectations. I once envied the so-called established writer -- that distinguished gentleman who published a substantial body of work, won awards, gave lectures, and had his work dissected at MLA. I thought, how confident I'll be! Surely I'll sit around each night reading my own books, delighting in every perfectly-placed word, taking bets on who might honor me next.

But I will never be that writer. Not necessarily because I won't be able to establish myself, but because, even if I do, no honor or award - no sustained success - will ever convince me I am truly worth a reader's time. (Even you now, reading this, don't you have anything better to do?) I wonder how many so-called established writers share this other unseemly habit of mine, the one that compels me to question the judgment of my admirers.

It all goes back to my belief that one of main reasons we write, and want so desperately to publish, is that we want to make a permanent and meaningful mark on the world -- something that will ultimately -- finally! -- convince us that we matter. I find it a cruel and yet strangely comforting irony that nothing can convince us of this along the way, and that constant dissatisfaction and uncertainty are actually what keep us going. Keats had something to say about this; so did Wilde; I imagine it's nothing new.

I imagine it's also why so many of us drink.

~Chris Castellani

Grub Street Rag, 6/4/2007

"Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it." --Colette

Welcome to the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene sent out every Monday by the slug salters at the world headquarters of Grub Street. As always, if you are receiving this e-mail in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.

Hooray of the day
Do we have news to report or what? Grub member Matthew Sandel's 10-minute play, "Hugs and Kisses," was a finalist for the recent Boston Theater Marathon 2007. Master Class novelists Iris Gomez and Randy Meyers have both been chosen as semi-finalists for the 2007 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Novel-In-Progress competition. Instructor Mike Heppner has a new story on Nerve.com , and exhorts us to "go now while it's still free." And last but not least, Grubbie Tom Meek's "Quin Quimby" is a finalist in the 48 Hour Film Contest. Congratulations to all--what an inspiration you are!

Debut News
We're so excited about our Night of Debuts this Friday, June 8th at 7:30pm, featuring authors Jennifer McMahon, Tish Cohen and Patry Francis. Jennifer's book, PROMISE NOT TO TELL, was mentioned on NBC’s Today Show Saturday morning as one of ten “sizzling beach reads” for this summer and scored a 4-star review in People, while Tish Cohen's book sold out on Amazon the day it debuted, and Patry's book The Liar's Diary has gained a huge national following. More details below. If you'd like to come, RSVP, please: 617.695.0075 or sonya@grubstreet.org.

Softball Department
RETURN TO MUDVILLE
Grub Street Word-Slingers 5 CFKAIBT 31
ANDOVER – The name of the field has changed (from Gillette to Proctor & Gamble), but it remains a house of horrors for the Grub Street Word-Slingers, who were defeated in Sunday’s home opener before a soggy crowd of one.

“You know it’s bad when you’re down 6-0 before the game starts,” said veteran infielder Jeff Stern, referring to the stiff penalties incurred by the team when only one of the four required female players – bemused rookie Diana Beaudoin – showed up. For each of the missing women, the CFKAIBT were awarded two runs. Worse: the Word-Slingers got an out every time one of the missing women came up in the batting order. If they’d managed to mount any rallies, these outs would have been total rally-killers.

After three scoreless innings, the sleeping beasts of the CFKAIBT roared awake in the fourth, adding six runs. The Word-Slingers chipped away inning by inning with a run or two, but by the sixth, as the rain turned to mist, so did any hope of an Opening Day Miracle. The CFKAIBT hit so many home runs that the official scorer lost track, which means that 31 is a fairly conservative estimate.

Worst: these CFKAIBT were a surly, humorless bunch – inscrutable and off-putting as their name. “If you’re going to trounce us, at least laugh at our self-deprecating jokes,” said doused flamethrower Chris Castellani, whose attempts at gallows humor between pitches fell continually flat. It was obvious that the CFKAIBT did not belong in the Recreational League. Less obvious is where the Word-Slingers belong.

Next game is Sunday, June 10th, 12PM at Trum Field (Somerville) vs. the Irish Cannolis. Will they cream the Word-Slingers, or be devoured?

Cheers,
Whitney, Chris, Paige and Sonya


In addition to our ongoing workshops, Grub Street offers numerous writing-related events around town. See our website for a long-term view of all we do. Here is a sample of what's on the horizon:

Reading/Book Party: Friday, June 8th, 7:30pm, A Night of Debuts
Come hear the work of Jennifer McMahon, Tish Cohen and Patry Francis.We'll have champagne and a selection of desserts, and the event will also feature a fun contest. Tish, Jen, and Patry will each pick one name from a hat, and the winner will receive a free consultation with the author on their query letter and first manuscript page. This is an excellent opportunity to hear three great readers and get feedback from authors who have achieved huge success.
FREE (donations accepted and appreciated) Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA. RSVP, please: 617.695.0075 or sonya@grubstreet.org.

Saturday Serial: Saturday, June 9th, 10AM – Noon, Metaphor Mastery
What makes a metaphor memorable? When does it enrich a moment, enlighten a character, and when is it just awkward or distracting? Learn how great writers have freshened images through some powerful and unlikely associations, and try your hand at new ways of likening a truck, a village, or a human heart. Coffee and donuts await you!
FREE (donations accepted and appreciated) Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA. RSVP, please: 617.695.0075 or sonya@grubstreet.org.

Tuesday, June 19th, 7pm, Harvard Book Store and Grub Street present The Boston Premiere of Out of the Book
Harvard Book Store, with help from Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon and Grub Street Writers of Boston, presents the Boston premiere of Out of the Book – a new series of short films about notable authors. Join us on June 19 for a special evening featuring readings, music, and a new film featuring bestselling novelist Ian McEwan. McEwan’s new novel, On Chesil Beach, focuses on the first night between a young married couple. What better way to celebrate the debut of this film than a group of talented writers talking about other “first nights”? Grub Street’s own Pamela Painter, Jon Papernick, and Elizabeth Benedict will read their own short pieces about wedding nights. Directed by Doug Biro (Herbie Hancock: Possibilities) and shot over four days in England and the United States, the film includes interviews with McEwan in London, on location footage from Chesil Beach and Oxford, and original soundtrack, commentary from peers and critics, one perplexing glimpse at British media, and more.
$7 Grub members (show your card at the bookstore); $10 non-members. Tickets are available at the store or over the phone with a credit card at 617-661-1515. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Harvard Square.

SEMINAR: Monday, June 18th, 7pm – 10pm, What We Talk About When We Talk About Voice
What is "voice," and what do writers and critics mean when they discuss it? How does voice differ from other literary elements like point of view, tone and style? In this one night-seminar, fiction writer Becky Tuch and poet Jennifer Elmore will lead you through this discussion as well as writing exercises that will examine the complex concept of voice. You will explore issues of voice in well- known novels, short stories and poems, as well as in your own works- in-progress. Experimenting with voice is a productive way to stretch your writing skills and/or end your writer's block! Come prepared for writing exercises and to leave with new ideas for your own work. Instructors: Becky Tuch and Jennifer Elmore.
$45/$40 members, Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

SEMINAR: Monday, June 18th, 7pm – 10pm, Travel Writing
Ever thought travel writing would be a great way to make a living? Dashing off a few pages on your last vacation experience can seem easy, but can you shape the story into a form that is original, well-written and most importantly, saleable? In this highly informative seminar taught by a freelance travel writer for The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler and The Washington Post, students will receive a comprehensive overview of the travel writing field: the types of stories, the markets available to freelancers, how to shape stories and write pitch letters, what publications actually pay, plus more esoteric craft matters such as what makes a good travel memoir. Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf
$45/$40 members, Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

SEMINAR: Monday, June 18th, 7pm – 10pm, Truth In Fiction
Fiction relies heavily on a writer's creativity and imagination, but generally there are kernels of truth and personal, human experience in even the most outlandish stories. In this seminar we will examine the way that our daily lives, our experiences, our feelings, even our darkest secrets and most emotional days can color our un-truths, and can yield vibrant and emotive writing that will have readers asking, "Did this really happen to you?" The key here is finding the balance between drawing on the key elements of your experiences, and using key emotions and elements to create new characters and new situations. We'll begin by free-writing, and then examine some passages from popular books--some that work, and some that don't work as well--and then we'll spend the rest of the time working on putting pieces of the experiences of our lives into another language: fiction. (Be prepared to share your work with others). Instructor: Brian Sousa.
$45/$40 members, Grub Street Headquarters, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

On the Horizon:
6/23: Writing Workout for Novelists
6/23: The Writers' Toolbox
6/23: Screenplay Lab
6/25: Nuts and Bolts of Journalism
6/25: The Dialogue-Driven Story
6/25: Words and Images


Grub Street wants to promote YOU!!! Please send events for consideration to whitney@grubstreet.org. Our apologies if we can't fit you in.

--SEEKING SUBMISSIONS:
Meeting House, the new online journal of New England Fiction, is accepting submissions for its first issue. We want to highlight the best fiction from New England writers, and we're looking for stories of any genre. Send your best to meetinghouse@newenglandfiction.com. For more information, visit our website, www.newenglandfiction.com, or email info@newenglandfiction.com.

--JOB OPPORTUNITY: Temporary Copywriter at Oxfam America
Work for a great organization, and have fun too: Check out http://www.idealist.org/

--READING: Monday, June 11th, 6:30pm, ANNE FADIMAN reads from At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays
Harvard Book Store is delighted to host Anne Fadiman at a reading of her new collection: At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays, a book that Publishers Weekly is calling "a perfectly faceted little gem." In At Large and At Small, Anne Fadiman returns to one of her favorite genres, the familiar essay—a beloved and hallowed literary tradition recognized for both its intellectual breadth and its miniaturist focus on everyday experiences. With the combination of humor and erudition that has distinguished her as one of our finest essayists, Fadiman draws us into twelve of her personal obsessions: from her slightly sinister childhood enthusiasm for catching butterflies to her monumental crush on Charles Lamb, from her wistfulness for the days of letter-writing to the challenges and rewards of moving from the city to the country.
FREE, Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge.

--READING: Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 7:00 PM Julia Glass, The Whole World Over
Says Kirkus Reviews: "Readers who love quirky characters and a gentle wit that breathes affection even as it skewers human foolishness and frailty will follow [Glass] anywhere." Julia Glass is the author of the National Book Award winning novel The Three Junes. She is a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and winner of three Nelson Algren Awards and the Tobias Wolff Award. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.
FREE, Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge.

Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where, like a cyclops with an eye patch, we offer you the chance to win a prize. If Raymond Carver were still alive, what would he be celebrating today, June 4th? Email your answer to Whitney. Winner receives a gift certificate for ice cream at J.P. Licks.

Answer to last week's quiz: In Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, John Logan, a doctor, dies trying to save someone in a hot air balloon. Winner: Joel Murphy.

The Long and Short of It

Weeks back, Whitney and I began a long-desired task: Project Novel. We’d both write one, leaving our usual short story voices behind. But even on page one, that voice was pestering me.

For years I’ve worked to make my short fiction sharper, cleaner, and punchier. Like Picasso’s sketches, it seemed that 3 precisely drawn lines were better than a hundred so-so ones. So I learned to make cuts. I snipped anything that felt redundant or irrelevant. I gave myself assignments in efficiency: Define a character in 7 words or less. Tell a house’s history in one paragraph. I like to believe it helped: my scenes popped to life, my verbs became stronger, my dialogue more honest and interesting.

Then came this novel. How different could it be? Writing a novel, I figured, looked like writing a short story except you didn't stop. I gathered my story collections around my desk, like a swarm of loyal cats, and flexed my writing hand. Here we go! Project Novel! I typed a first page in my practiced short story style. A character in 7 words? Done. A house in 3 sentences? Done and done.

After a break I read over my remarkably efficient first page, and frowned. Rather than roll beautifully, my prose clunked. It felt choppy and frantic. I began to wonder if my preferred short fiction style felt a bit like walking in stillettos. It was deliberate, swift, and maybe even thrilling, but you wouldn’t want to shlep like this all day.

And days, I’m realizing, is what novels require. Weeks, and even months. In asking readers to spend so much time reading, a writer must learn not to exhaust them. Readers need relief. They need comfortable— though not boring— shoes.

So what makes some voices work for novels, and others not?

The answer may lie in rhythm and pacing. Short fiction puts emphasis on the sentence, since there are so few of them, and a good one will reveal character, advance plot, set the scene, and establish voice— all at once. This speeds the story’s momentum and escalates readers toward the fast-approaching end. But such sentences in a novel may feel hurried or even out-of-touch. Novels have space to stretch out, so why not stretch? If a novel doesn’t do this, readers may actually feel cheated out of rich and available details.

The novel form turns my idea of efficiency on its head. Redundancies in short fiction become emphasis in a novel; irrelevancies become digressions. There’s just way more room to run around.

I'm not suggesting that a successful novel style is somehow more admirable. On the contrary, a great short story can contain more life and truth than 300 pages of a novel! Below are some invaluable writers known much better for their stories than for their novels. When I'm procrastinating on this novel, I like to think about what makes their writing work better in a shorter form.

Jorge Luis Borges
Raymond Carver
Lorrie Moore
Amy Hempel
Pamela Painter
Denis Johnson
Flannery O’Connor
Anton Chekhov
Andre Dubus
O. Henry

...and please, add your own!

Of course, good writing is good writing-- whatever form it comes in. That’s the long and short of it.

~Sonya Larson