The Brutal Setting

"In front of them was the village green with its pond and bench, its bed of roses and hydrangea, late flowering phlox and hollyhocks.  And at the end of the common, anchoring it and the village, stood the three tall pines...There were weathered white clapboard cottages, with wide porches and wicker chairs.  There were tiny fieldstone houses built centuries ago by the first settlers, who'd cleared the land and yanked the stones from the earth.  But most of the homes around the village green  were made of rose-hued brick, built by United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution...The people who created the village had been desperate for sanctuary, hiding from a war they didn't believe in."

This beautiful description is taken from page 15 of Louise Penny's The Brutal Telling.  Penny has long been one of my favorite authors.  Her fictional village of Three Pines is a place I would love to visit.  It's a place where people know each other and come together for meals and laughter, superstition and fingerpointing.  It's a vibrant place of real, flawed people who happen to live in one of the most picturesque villages every created.

And yet from this first description of Three Pines in The Brutal Telling (book 5 in a series), one can tell something is slightly off.  Why the architecture and horticulture seem perfect and comforting, we are giving the information about the first settlers.  Three Pines wasn't begun as a vacation spot, but rather as a refuge from war, settled by those who were on the run.


Hemlocks, 1939, courtesy
Paramour Fine Arts



Penny uses setting so perfectly.  She at once creates a place you want to sink into and never leave, but of which you are also wary.  Why do so many secrets live in this place? the reader wonders. 

These books always leave me questioning if I can ever create a place so special, so magical.  And I read them as slowly as I can so I draw out the experience for as long as possible.  But I can't read them too slowly, as they don't want to be put aside!

Do you have a book or a series that is like this for you?  Is there a setting from literature to which you are drawn?  How about in writing...Have you created a magical place for your characters and your mind to go?

Around the World

Location can be so interesting in a book.  Or, it can be completely unimportant and flat.  I, for one, love reading a book in which the location is another character.

So today I am recruiting...What is interesting about where you write or live?  Why is it a great setting for a book...or why not? 

We are lucky enough to have a world of bloggers from around the world.  If any of you are interested in guest blogging for my "Writing Around the World" week (scheduled for the week of Oct. 18th), I'd love to have you!  You don't have to be from outside the U.S., but I'd love to have at least half of you from other countries.  And you can post about where you write or where you live.  The subject: why that place makes an interesting setting for a novel.  What does your location bring to a book that other cities or countries do not?

Respond here or email me at micheleemrath (at) ymail (dot) com.

Plot

I'm just going to say it: this is my biggest problem in writing.

PLOT.

There it is.  The big word.  The big structure.  The big backbone of our stories, and it's my weakness.

How can that be? you ask.  Doesn't every writer want to write b/c they have a story inside them?  Don't you come to the page with an outline in mind?

And I answer, I have asked myself all of these questions and I pray to God the answer is that there is another way.

I have lots of beginnings.  Lots of characters.  Lots of characterization ideas.  Lots of ideas in general...but no complete plots.

How do you do it?  Do you make yourself attack an outline until your plot is complete?  Do you go to a work with a fully formed beginning, middle, and end?

I'm expecting as many different ideas as there are responses, and I'm hoping to find my way in some combination of the below...For the sun is shining and the kids are in school.  The time is now.

Sunday Foreign Post Roundup

1.  Actually from the week prior, but a very good lesson for all writers and speakers of the English language.  Crystal always has the best and clearest lessons!

2.  A cat walked into a bar and said "Ouch!"  Just kidding.  This one is about diversions!  Distracted?  Let Elizabeth Spann Craig teach you how to write them well (better than this one, anyway).

3.  Simon reviews a Cinderella story.  Yep, you read that correctly--and he liked it!  Read his review and you, too, will be caught up in the story by fellow blogger/writer Michelle Davidson/Lady Glamis.

4.  An honest and funny reaction to getting The Call.  Plus, a cool cover and an exciting new release from debut YA author, Mindi Scott.

5.  Reading challenges galore!  Check out Rose City Reader's list--some she's hosting and several hosted by others.  If you're into reading, this is the link for you.

6.  A list for readers and writers of noir.  Paul Brazill brings you plenty to click through at 'You Would Say that, Wouldn't You?'

7.  Critiques--how to take the bad with the good, and how important critiques are to a writer (Jan Morrison at Crazy Jane).

8.  The Hot Word blog--each day bringing you the history behind a different word or concept.  Hosted by Dictionary.com, but really interesting.

Hear, see, feel...WRITE

Against a backdrop of constant cricket chirp, the marching band keeps time in the field beyond the woods. In my living room I sit, new jeans hugging curves and boosting confidence. They feel so crisp, so fresh. Above my head the fan breathes its continuous exhalation. Drums, horns, those standing chimes musicians hit with mallets—all come together to serenade the night. It's a lot of noise for a still house on a quiet night in a small sub-suburb. When the band music dies away, the thump of a car stereo's base is briefly heard, broken by a horn from the distant highway and the revving of a motor somewhere closer. I even hear my feet brush across the carpet, imagining the microscopic dust and fibers spraying into the air and settling down again, this time in a new place for a new adventure. A tiny bug crawls up the white baseboard beside me. It can't quite reach the top. At about halfway, it is suddenly gone--movement so quick it's like several bugs are dancing. But it's just one lonely guy trying so hard to reach the crest of the white wood, maybe hoping to touch the Pottery Barn 'Rattan'-painted wall.

Ice clinks. Cold tea slides down my throat. The glass hits the slate coaster a little too forcefully...And the band starts up again, this time led by the horns instead of the drums, a slower, more melodic tune to end my prose.

###

This piece is inspired by Jessica Carmen Bell (The Alliterative Allomorph), whom on Thursday wrote about writing with the senses.  She concentrated on the sense of touch, and this is what I wrote for her post:

I first wake up, usually with a small body nestled against mine. The soft toddler pajamas rustle as the little head snaps toward me. Soft, baby skin brushes my shoulder. Then she is gone--on to play now that Mommy has opened her eyes. And I roll over for the first time that morning. That first change of position in the breaking dawn is sooooooo good. I land on my husband's pillow and it is somehow softer, definitely cooler, and the risen puffs of the matress cushion me gently, inviting me to stay longer than I should.

Aaaah, I think I'll go to bed. :)

Do you write with your senses?  Can you write from them right now, spontaneously?
(By the way, I love pictures in my posts, but I'm intentionally not giving you any visuals today.  I hope the words paint their own picture.  Successful?)

Reading should not be a privilege

Blogger extroardinaire Margot Kinberg has given the 'Literacy Builder Blog Award' to me.  Wow!  Thank you, Margot!  As I wrote on her post, it's been a bit since an award has come my way.  And I was ok with that.  There were so  many, so close together for a while there, that it was beginning to feel forced.  This one, though, is a bit different.  This one really means something.

As writers, how can we not push for literacy?  According to UNESCO, 1 in 5 adults is not literate.  UNESCO and the international community have a goal of "increasing literacy rates by 50% by 2015" (Literacy Decade).  One push to meet this goal is LIFE.  "LIFE targets the 35 countries that have a literacy rate of less than 50 percent or a population of more than 10 million people who cannot read nor write. Eighty-five percent of the world’s non-literate population resides in these countries, and two-thirds are women and girls" (LIFE).

Want to help?  Here is a link to programs supported by the UN Literacy program.  There are probably many more in your area, and there are always companies giving to such organizations with some purchase or action.  Watch for them.  Ask your library what you can do.  Head to your community center and start a reading time.  Volunteer to read stories at a local school or even to neighborhood children.  Give money.  Give books.  Give.

Think about where you would be without books.

And now back to me.  :P

Here are the rules for this award:
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.

2. Display the award logo on your blog site.
3. Tell us five of your favorite words and why you like them, (add as many as you like).
4. Pass the award on to three bloggers you feel are excellent literacy builders, and link to their sites.
5. Contact the bloggers you’ve chosen and let them know about the award.

Words

1. Tiffany's- my husband came up with this one for me!  (and he's so right...so why doesn't he shop there more often?)
2. Abstract expressionism- okay, so it's a phrase, but it evokes such imagery and feeling of art and passion and modernism
3.  Perspicacious- "having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning" (dictionary.com)
4.  Discombobulation- "to confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate"

Achilles defeating Hector,
1630-32


5.  Baroque- (Jan Morrison's list made me think of this one, but who doesn't love a word with 'q' in it?) "an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century in Europe" (wikipedia)

Who gets it?  Who has encouraged literacy?  Aww, guys...this is the tough part!  Can't I just give it back to Margot?

1.  The Rose City Reader.  If you haven't visited this blog, you should.  A wide array of book reviews, links to reading challenges, and intelligent takes on the world of the bibliophile.
2.  Steph the Bookworm.  While we don't always read the same genres or sub-genres, I highly respect Steph as a reviewer.  And I think she encourages reading through her fun and interesting blog!

3.  Mary of Giggles and Guns.  This woman burst onto the blogging scene and hasn't stopped commenting since.  She says in her profile she has wanted to write all her life and has notebooks and journals full of the stuff.  Now she is fully engrossed in the writing community we have here and what could be more inspirational than that?  (Oh, and she also has a great list of banned books on her blog; go read it!)

4.  Debbie Cowans.  She is a fantastic writer and a great blogger.  I sadly miss a lot of her posts because I'm not hopping around much this Fall, but I am resolutely stating I will get back to Debbie's blog!  See?  She inspired me.

5.  Mason Canyon of Thoughts in Progress.  Really, is there a blogger among us who does more to promote literature?  Mason covers everything from self-help to thrillers and the authors who write them, too.  She is fantastic, a guaranteed stop for any reader or writer.

That's it!  Go forth and read...to yourself and to others.

Grapes

My week didn't start out so well.  Sunday, my child hit me in the head with an electric keyboard--right at that sweet spot between the ear and the temple.  Sunday night, my other child hit me in the face while I was leaning over to explain something to her fuss-face.  Monday afternoon I found out I didn't get a job for which I'd been asked to apply and had really been hoping to get.

Then came the grapes.

Tuesday morning I sat on my couch typing away with a steaming mug of coffee and a bowl of grapes.  On the weekly T-days, both of my children go to preschool.  So this Tuesday, my husband offered to take them so I could get some time to myself without having to put on makeup, do my hair, put on clothes, and drive 25 minutes each way.  So I sat on my previously pristine, postmodern couch in my minimally decorated, child-adjusted living room and breathed.

In.        Out.  In.          Out.

Each grape in my mouth was a burst of spirit.  The juices flowed over my tongue and left behind that sticky feeling, that reminder of how the good things and life leave a trail of reminders that we can choose to pay attention to, or ignore.

What is it about grapes?  Grapes appear as early as 5000 BC in Asia, and in hieroglyphics on Egyptian tombs (whfoods).  They appear in art.  We all know the pervasive subject of The Still Life.  This one is Still Life of Grapes, Plums and Apples, 17c., Jacob van Es.

Then there is the religious painting.  Here we see Traubenmadonna, 1525, by Lucas Cranach the Elder.  He was known for his realism and worked as a court painter in the Netherlands while also being a friendly with both Protestant Reformers and the Catholic Church (wikipedia).

And, grapes appear in architecture going back centuries.  This is a building in Prague's historic Malá Strana district, in the market place at the center of the town (wikipedia).
















So grapes have been around a while.  They are the sustenance of the wealthy in many media portrayals.  I think of Charles Laughton in Sign of the Cross, seen here not actually eating grapes, but giving that too-exhausted-from-being-in-power-to-do-anything-but-be-self-indulgent vibe. 

Do they still hold that flavor?  Do they make you feel self-indulgent?  Or has self-indulgence taken on a whole new meaning with all the chocolates and Internet searches and movies on demand we have at our fingertips?

I felt self-indulgent with my coffee and grapes in a silent living room, sunlight barely breaking through the backyard foliage.  But was it the grapes?  I think it was everything.  It was the peace after the storm.  It was the calm in my heart that replaced any bitterness.  It was the relief that comes from knowing what is (or what is not) next.

How do you indulge yourself?