Some words carry extraneous weight and word choices reflect opinions and perspectives beyond surface communications. ‘Undocumented’ and ‘Illegal’ both refer to individuals who’ve overstayed their visa or entered the U.S. without going through customs. Referring to a person as ‘illegal’ makes my skin itch. No person is illegal. Even undocumented sounds judgmental in a country of immigrants. Some words get hijacked and lose their general, benign, or obvious meaning in a morass of political hyperbole and vitriol. The phrase, ‘family values’ once meant a focus on the family and valuing children, old people, and extended familial ties above other affiliations—like
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A while back—quite a few years ago—a friendly acquaintance asked me if I knew someone who could help her write her memoir. I suggested that I become her ghostwriter and as we worked on the initial draft, we moved from friendly acquaintances to being friends. Over the next couple of years there were drafts, rewrites, experiments in non-linear storytelling, long pauses in the process, and many, many, many serious discussions about big serious issues. We talked about naming names. We talked about guilt, responsibility, and ownership of bad decisions. We talked about the difference between coping with an abusive past
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Will this be the last full rewrite? Will I manage to make the manuscript work this time? Or will I give up on this story and chuck it into the heap of ideas that seemed promising, but never solidified? Is it finally time to OPEN THE BOOK? I’m driving myself a little crazy. This is nothing new. The ability to drive myself crazy is among my most finely tuned skill sets. This story began years ago and I’ve written it three times—yes, three complete, novel-length manuscripts with the same story. There are huge differences in each evolution of the novel
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Do I collect anything? Stories. I think that the stories people tell me, the stories that fall out of the newspaper and into my imagination, the stories I dream, and the stories I read and save in my mind are my collection. Sure, I have books, but I’ve been shedding them, winnowing the physical library down faster than I add to it. I have Tango shoes, but I’m giving away the ones I don’t wear. Yes, I have art—but not a conscious and curated collection. I’m comfortable having a few of pieces in many categories, and I seem to lack
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Right now the motor is grinding. I can feel the sound in my teeth and my head is starting to throb. I can only imagine how the cats, with their sensitive ears, are coping. At least I know it will stop soon and that having the contractor and his assistant in my bathroom is a temporary source of stress. It’s awful and it’s nothing. Just an annoying by-product of minor renovations, and yet… Sound impacts mood, productivity, sleep, appetite, and SANITY… Right now, as they are finishing up for the day, I’m breathing freer and wondering how the word sound
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I went to a nightclub to see a noted drag act. Alexis Michelle was fabulous! She’s a great singer with endearing patter between songs, a wonderful selection of music, an engaging personality, and a head-to-toe, fully realized persona. The difference between the person and the persona is important to performers. With a drag show, it’s a conscious construction with make-up, manicure, eyelashes, wig, gowns and more… It’s also an agreement between the audience and the performer. Just as a theater audience agrees to occupy the space of the fourth wall, the nightclub audience doesn’t try to look behind the curtain
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There’s nothing like celebrity gossip. It’s especially amusing when half the celebrated people are mystifying. Who ARE these very important people? Yes, I’ve fallen out of the pop culture loop in enough categories to start feeling old. I don’t see that many action movies. I don’t play games on my phone, Kindle or computer. And most of all the only “reality” TV shows I enjoy are cooking shows. I don’t know the name, or face, of the current bachelor; I haven’t the faintest idea who is conniving to be the winner of the newest survivor incarnation; I don’t want to
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Sometimes a peculiar thing pops up too often not to take note. Coincidences are part of life and play an even bigger role in fiction. Still the third time is a charm, right? And that’s when a notion becomes something that can’t be ignored. First it was on the Alienist TV show based on the Caleb Carr novel, then it was on Victoria, the dramatization of the life of Queen Victoria on PBS Masterpiece, and then it was on a series called The Frankenstein Chronicles that I found on Netflix. What am I talking about? The use of mercury to
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Some words come out of the fog, live in the darkness, hide in corners, ooze evil, and tempt storytellers. They are the words that resonate around a campfire and create the backdrop for mysteries, suspense thrillers, and tales of horror. These words fuel a spark that becomes a story. Late last year my conversation partner in an English as a second language program and I were pushing at the limits of her English vocabulary. We were talking about mysterious words. I picked a few, including SUSPENSE and FOREBODING, and as a lark, I suggested that we both write a few
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