Stuck in Oz

Last night I saw Wicked at the Boston Opera House with my husband and my sons. I’ve been useless all day today, stuck in Oz, picturing the story, singing the songs, loving Elphaba. I’m scheming ways to get back, even though ticket prices make that a foolish notion, even though I’m a grownup who should know better. I want to go back to that place, that time, that immersion in the story.

This, I recognize, is the disease that made me want to be a writer.

What’s going on here? As Martine Leavitt said in a lecture I heard her give this summer at Vermont College of the Fine Arts, the older I get, the harder it is for me to suspend my disbelief in a story. Samuel Taylor Coleridge considered this the touchstone for success in the reader’s engagement with fantasy. Perhaps I’m a sucker for musicals, but Wicked’s Oz shattered my disbelief. It was the Oz I recognize from Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and from the 1939 MGM film with Judy Garland, so I entered this world of wonder with wide open eyes and fresh expectations, but I was already comfortable with the conventions of Oz. Its rules and denizens required no explanation, and the skillful twists with which the new invoked the old were a frequent pleasure.

But it takes more than just a world to make this mother and cubicle dweller spend her day composing emails and browning pot roast with her heart over the rainbow, romantically imagining herself completely green. It takes characters I can love intensely to snare me into another world and make me want to stay there. Perhaps “love” is too generic. Wicked’s chief players were complex, conflicted, immoral, amoral, passionate, self-absorbed, indifferent, casually cruel, idealistic, betrayed. In short, the stuff of family theater. They hooked me. I keep thinking about them. I want another invitation to their party. I’m like the wizard who dallied (wink) indulgently when he ought to have gotten back to Kansas and on with his snake-oil selling business.

This is why series have such power in our culture. Even at the risk of wearing out worlds and characters we adore, the consuming public would rather go back, and back, and back again to our favorite stories, served up in new episodes like warmed-up leftovers smothered in canned gravy. I’m no different. I clamor for sequels just like everyone else. At least now, if I want to get stuck in a world, I can create one.

In this instance I’m fortunate. If the textured landscape of Broadway’s Oz pleased me, I have Gregory Maguire’s novel to look forward to, and a signed copy on my bedside table to boot. And, what luck! It’s the first of a series. I can dally, stuck in Oz, for as long as I like. Wonderful.

The True Meaning of Smekday, & St. Patrick of Ireland

The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex (Hyperion 2007).

A marvelous middle-grade mashup, irreverent and smart and funny. Equal parts Doomsday, alien adventure, road trip tale, biting satire, and, er, girl meets Boov. Begins with a mole and ends with a cat, and I won't say much more, other than that Gratuity Tucci, our protagonist, is as feisty and funny an unlikely heroine as you'll find this side of the galaxy. As for Adam Rex, the author, as if it weren't bad enough to be that clever and funny, also illustrated the graphic novel excerpts throughout. A bit of swearing if anyone's concerned about that, though Gratuity always apologizes, and anyway, she's being shot at by an army of poomps, pardon my language.

And now, in a complete reversal of genre:

St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography, by Philip Freeman, Simon and Schuster, 2004
In keeping with my fascination with early Catholics (tardy Catholics intrigue me far less), I recommend for your delectation this slim little volume. If you can get past the bestial Druid rites of kingship, you'll love this. (Perhaps the bestial Druid rites of kingship will be an attraction for you.) A profitable read, accessible and interesting. A close look at the remarkable life and faith of St. Patrick of Ireland as revealed through his only surviving writings, with all the shamrock nonsense stripped away. Provides a thorough context of his life and times -- the social, political, adn religious backdrop of Britain and Ireland during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, loosely contiguous with the life of St. Augustine of Hippo. Well worth reading.

Reading Roundup

Books I've enjoyed recently:


CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins (sequel to Hunger Games)
I started reading this the same night that I finished HUNGER GAMES, even though it was 3 a.m., and anyone who's read HG will understand exactly why. The suspense doesn't stop, and Catniss's victory quickly turns to more dire peril. Discussion question: how long, YA readers, do we remain patient with the female hub of a love triangle who toys with two hearts and delays making up her mind? At one point does she lose sympathy for not playing fair? Make no mistake: I'll be waiting in line for my copy of MOCKINGJAY.



ORACLES OF DELPHI KEEP by Victoria Laurie (Delacourte 2009)
This debut novel impressed me for its ambitious interweaving of ancient oracles, elemental demons, treasure hunting, exotic adventure, ghastly beasts, historical fiction (pre-WWII Britain), and middle grade orphan friendship story. The beasts in particular stand out in my memory. Hats off to Ms. Laurie for her greasy-hair-by-slavering-fang depiction of her sinister hellhounds. Somehow a beast scene that in audio format lasted about half an hour had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Note: a sequel, THE CURSE OF DEADMAN'S FOREST, releases August 24, 2010.

What I'm reading now:

ST. PATRICK OF IRELAND by Philip Freeman (Simon and Schuster 2005)
Technically, I'm reading this as research, but I'm enjoying it immensely. My appetite for historical study, particularly through the lens of the lives and times of literary and religious figures, is ever-increasing. This is highly readable.

In other news:
I've had two columns come out in the MetroWest Daily News lately. They are:
The failure I'm most proud of, and Weighing in on running.


My next two books release to stores in 24 days! THE RAT BRAIN FIASCO and CURSE OF THE BIZARRO BEETLE, both titles in the SPLURCH ACADEMY FOR DISRUPTIVE BOYS series, release August 12. Check out www.splurchacademy.com for more info. The pictures you see here are being made into washable tattoos, which we'll have available at every signing & event. Don't miss yours!

My goal for the summer: if I must waste time, waste it reading! (Which, of course, is never a waste. But I need to trick myself sometimes.) May you have wasteful summers full of books, too.

Snippets from "Sabbaths" by Wendell Berry

At my bridal shower, fifteen years ago, I received an unusual gift: a slim volume of poetry entitled "Sabbaths" by Wendell Berry. I had never heard of him. The friend who gave it to me wrote, simply, "Good luck" on the title page, and I don't blame her. I was 20 years old. I assumed she chose the book because I was about to become a Berry.

The dishes are broken, the towels long frayed and cut into rags, but this shower gift remains, and at certain moments through the years I've returned to this volume to immerse myself in Wendell Berry's sabbatical meditations. I have no experience critiquing poetry -- I fear I lack the vocabulary, and the breadth of exposure to do it credibly -- but I love these poems, and through them, this man, Wendell Berry.

Fast forward fourteen years to the publication of my first novel. I bought a plane ticket and flew to Salt Lake City for my first-ever out of town book tour event. I contacted the instructor of a distance writing class I'd taken, years back, and invited him to come to my event. He had said nice things about my writing nearly a decade prior, and I wanted him to know his student had made good. He politely declined, saying Wendell Berry was also in town that night. I didn't blame him a bit.

It startles me to learn, with a little research, that Berry has written a handful of novels and dozens of essays, critiques, volumes of poetry. I only know this one collection. For me he remains a Sabbath voice, someone I hold secret, as though these poems connect us privately.

I am a Sabbath-keeper, in my imperfect way, and as my writing life has gotten more hectic, I've felt the need all the more to guard this day of worshipful rest zealousy -- this cathedral in time instead of in space. However pressing the Monday morning deadline, I still won't work that day. It's reckless and wrong to attribute one's blessings to any worthiness on their part, but I have felt this hallowed time to be a lifeline for me, and a conduit for heaven's help through the frantic balance of my week.

I'll share below three moments from this volume that resonate for me. All selections are from Sabbaths by Wendell Berry, North Point Press, San Francisco, 1987.

From poem IV:

Projects, plans unfulfilled

Waylay and snatch at me like briars,

For there is no rest here

Where ceaseless effort seems to be required,

Yet fails, and spirit tires

With flesh, because failure

And weariness are sure

In all that mortal wishing has inspired.

Poem X (in its entirety):

Whatever is foreseen in joy

Must be lived out from day to day.

Vision held open in the dark

By our ten thousand days of work.

Harvest will fill the barn; for that

The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled

By work of ours; the field is tilled

And left to grace. That we may reap,

Great work is done while we're asleep.

When we work well, a Sabbath mood

Rests on our day, and finds it good.

From poem II:

The mind that comes to rest is tended

In ways that it cannot intend:

Is borne, preserved, and comprehended

By what it cannot comprehend.

Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by

Your will, not ours. And it is fit

Our only choice should be to die

Into that rest, or out of it.

---

So thank you, Jeannie T., for this gift that keeps on giving. Used editions of this collection can still be bought, I believe.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

It's laughable for me to blog about The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins since I'm clearly the last person on the planet to read it, so nothing I can add will benefit humankind. I have a pernicious stubborn streak, and the more I heard THG praised, the more I procrastinated reading it. I even had an advance reader copy before the book came out -- I could have scooped you all. But I held off. There hasn't been much time to read anyway this spring. Finally this week I found some time and knew I needed a compelling read. Yikes! I just finished, and I may not sleep tonight. At a book launch party this evening at The Wellesley Booksmith for my friend Jess Leader's new book, Nice and Mean, I couldn't resist buying Catching Fire. And those of you who've read THG will know exactly why. Those of you who haven't, should. Gut-churning suspense, anguished and confused love, a dazzlingly corrupt and convincing post-apocalyptic society, and a heroine we all wish we were. YA dystopian adventure; Strongly recommended. But you already knew that.

Anything but Typical, by Nora Raleigh Baskin

I'm working hard to catch up on my reading after long months in Deadline Land. Tonight I had the good fortune to read Anything but Typical, by Nora Raleigh Baskin, winner of the 2010 ALA Schneider Family Award for Middle Grade. The Schneider Family Award recognizes "a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences." 12-year old Jason Blake, a student with Autism, or ASD (for Autism Spectrum Disorder), has more to manage and remember in a given day than NT (Neurotypical) peers will deal with in a month. His feelings are poignant, even if he doesn't express them typically, or appear to express them at all. On a website where he posts stories he's written, he forms a new friendship, but when the opportunity to meet this friend at a story writing convention surfaces, Jason's terribly afraid Rebecca will respond to him the way other girls do, and that's far too much risk to face, however eager his parents are to go. A perceptive, non-patronizing middle grade realistic novel; most strongly recommended.

Autism intersects with my life in several significant ways, and for that reason, among others, I have tended to avoid novels addressing autism. I'm extremely glad I overcame my own hesitation (Jason and I have a few things in common) and read this graceful novel. The author has my heartiest congratulations.

Book Gargoyle's Advice for Young Writers (including To Outline or Not To Outline)

An eighth-grader wrote to ask me for some writing advice this past week, and I thought I'd share my response to her request here. ***

There are many books, classes, websites, etc., that teach about fiction writing, but I think that all the best advice boils down to these things:

1. Read a lot, and
2. Write a lot.

Those are the basics, and without that, any other advice is pointless. "Write a lot" can mean writing a lot of fiction, but it can also include poetry, essays, journals, articles, etc. Any writing that you do develops your facility with words, sentences, expressions, description, metaphor -- the building blocks of language. And writing develops your ability to think, reason, argue (a point), teach, explain, and inspire.

Read for enjoyment and write for enjoyment. Find books you love, and read them over and over. Savor them. Write what makes you smile, makes you laugh, or makes you swoon, but write something that moves you in some way. Maybe it's dark and gloomy and macabre, but if you enjoy that, you'll write it well.

Once you've gotten into a groove of reading a lot and writing a lot, the final step I would add to my list is this:

3. Begin to think seriously about how to improve your writing. Study what makes great writing great. When you read a book that seems fantastic to you, try to articulate why. (This is the benefit you can gain from school essays and book reports. If you can explain what you like, and what is working, as well as what is not working, in a book you read, then you have learned something.) When you receive critical feedback from a teacher on something you've written, analyze the feedback and see what it can teach you. The best teachers of writing are good readers who know how to spot what's working and not working in a text. There aren't clear-cut right or wrong answers about how to write well, but we do have some good solid fundamentals. Your use of grammar and language should be solidly correct. (There are many great resources that can help you master these; the golden bible of language and grammar is THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by Strunk and White.) Your writing shouldn't be confusing. Read over what you've written and make sure you didn't leave out details that help us understand who shot the sheriff or where the magician was standing when the lights went out. Love your characters, even the bad ones, and make them interesting. Your story needs a beginning (where characters and the problem are established), a middle (where characters wallow through their problems and things get worse and worse), and an end (where all heck breaks loose, until things are finally resolved, for good or ill). Don’t be afraid to let your writing sparkle. Use breathtaking words and outrageous comparisons. Pour on the descriptions, the excitement, the suspense, the jokes. (If need be, you can always trim them later.)

You asked about outlines. Do I think it's best to use them, or not? I don't have a definitive answer to this. The first few books I wrote, I did not use an outline. I have begun to use them more, especially as I write books in series. When plotting really matters, as with mysteries, they can be very useful, to make sure you don't forget to reveal important clues and tie up all your loose ends. With almost every novel I write, I end up using a single-subject spiral-bound notebook that I use to jot down important details like timelines, character names, problems I stumble upon and must fix before I can proceed, maps, etc. But while a bit of planning may ultimately be necessary for any writing project before it's done, I'm inclined to think that for writers who are starting out, it's more liberating not to use an outline. Start with a glorious beginning that excites you, create some characters, and see where they lead. If you reach a blocked tunnel and you think you might need to outline your way out of it, fine, do so, but know that often an outline kills the fun. Particularly if you feel like your outline must be very formal and proper with correct margins and Roman numerals. Just say no to outlines like that. In this, as with most kinds of writing advice, let your own instincts be your guide. If you feel like an outline would help you, give you a roadmap and a plan, then outline away, but if it sounds like as much fun as taking standardized tests at school, skip it.