A Picture May Prompt a Thousand Words

We've all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. Here's another angle on that old saw: a photo (or other visual image) may also help inspire and expand ideas. I'm teaching a memoir-writing class right now, and each week I have offered my students some new tools to help them access memories and to enter deeper into the events they want (or need) to write about. Last week, I had everyone bring a photo to "explore" through some questions.

 

This exercise will work, too, for writers in other genres. For the poet, digging into an image, whether a personal photo or a found image, can pull up fascinating connections and inspirations. For the fiction writer, images of settings, people, animals, or objects can serve to inspire short stories or scenes in longer works, especially when the narrator or a character answers the questions. An image might even provide the kernel for a longer piece of writing. For nonfiction writers who work outside of memoir, images can inspire deeper explorations.

 

So if you're looking for a way to go deeper, or wider, or to find new ideas, try "interrogating" a photo or painting. Start with these questions:

 

• Where is this?
• When?
• Why were you there?
• Who else was there?
• Did you go there more than once?
• Did something special happen there?
• Is some object in the photo significant to you?
• Is a person or animal in the picture significant to you?

 

Now dig deeper:

• What do you hear?
• What do you smell?
• What did you eat or drink?
• What does it taste like?
• What’s the weather like?
• What time of day is it?
• What are you wearing?
• Who else is there?
• What do you feel with your hands, your feet, your skin….
• What emotions do you feel?

And so on....

Give it a try. Let me know how it goes. Send a picture of youself writing!

Reading for Earth Day and for Life

 

 

Every time I write a new novel about something sombre and sobering and terrible I think, 'oh Lord, they're not going to want to go here'. But they do. Readers of fiction read, I think, for a deeper embrace of the world, of reality. And that's brave.        ~ Barbara Kingsolver

 

Today is Earth Day 2013. What are you reading? Here is a very eclectic list of suggestions to read, or re-read, today, tomorrow, this year. These are just a few of my favorites - I can't list everything! - so I have also listed some resources for more "to-read" suggestions and other environmental resources.

 

In the coming weeks I will be casting a wider net to include writers from non-U.S. and non-Western traditions. If you have suggestions, or would like to write a guest blog in that vein, let me know.  

 

In the meantime, I hope you will add to my list in the comments. More than that, I hope we will all read at least one serious book about an environmental subject in the coming year. Earth will survive us, but we (and many other living things who share our Earth) may not survive ourselves.

 

~ Sheila

 

Fiction

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Buffalo Gals and Other Animals Presences by Ursula LeGuin

Dune by Frank Herbert

Tracks by Louise Erdrich

At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiessen

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

The Dragon Keeper by Mindy Mejia

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

The Sea Wolf by Jack London

Native Tongue by Carl Hiassen

 

 

 

 

Narrative Nonfiction

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

The Book of Yaak by Rick Bass

The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin

The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Erlich

The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley

Entering the Stone by Barbara Hurd

 

 

 

Poetry

Rather than list individual poems, here are ten poets whose work often has an environmental focus.

 

Joy Harjo

Mary Oliver

Ted Kooser

Annie Finch

Walt Whitman

Gary Snyder

Seamus Heaney

Denise Levertov

Wallace Stevens

Elizabeth Bishop

 

 

Resources

The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment - check resources for bibliograhies & syllabi

Ecology Hall of Fame

Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment

Ashland Creek Press

Orion Magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tough Calls - Handling Gritty Issues in Cozy Fiction



 

If you have read Drop Dead on Recall, my first Animals in Focus mystery, you know that dogs and cats and other critters are vital characters. After all, the series isn't called Animals in Focus for nothing. In fact, each book in the series spotlights a different "animal activity" and each mystery hinges on an animal-related issue. Just as they do in real life, serious issues can create major problems for writers.

 

In the first book, Drop Dead on Recall, we meet animal photographer Janet MacPhail and her Australian Shepherd Jay at an obedience trial, where a top-level competitior keels over. Soon Janet, Jay, and their very important feline family member Leo find themselves embroiled in a series of murders that seem to be linked to breeder ethics (or lack thereof) and cut-throat competitiveness. That infant puppy is my real-life Jay at one week old.

 

In The Money Bird, coming in September, Janet has her lens focused on retrievers training for AKC retrieving tests, especially the handsome Drake and his almost-as-handsome person, Tom Saunders. Drake, too, is inspired by the Labs I've owned and rescued over the years, especially my first Lab, Raja, a big chocolate field-bred goofball. Here he is with my beautiful Malcolm, who was one of the real-life models for Leo.

 

A number of challenges presented themselves as soon as I began writing. First, this series falls under the "cozy" umbrella, meaning that readers expect a few things:

1. Murder and sex are fine; graphic details are not.
2. Adult humans may be killed; children and animals may be threatened, but shouldn't be harmed.
3. Serious issues may be presented, but soap-boxes should be kept mostly tucked under the writer's desk, not plunked down on the page.

Knowing these "rules" is helpful in some ways, restrictive in others. After all, I'm writing about creatures and issues that stir intense feelings in me as well as in my readers, and it isn't always easy to stifle myself. Many authors face this problem in fiction, where characters and story (plot, if you prefer) are the real focus. So how do we strike a balance? Not all of us do - I'm sure we've all read books in which the author's passion for some cause overshadowed everything else. If you're like me, you may have quit reading. I don't like to be bludgeoned when I'm reading mostly to be entertained.

 

On the other hand, I do like to learn new things, and I have often read fiction that teased me into looking for more information about something.

 

I hope I'm striking that balance in my own fiction. In The Money Bird, wildlife trafficking is the larger issue woven into the plot. It's an ugly business, and I've tried to present it in a way that will encourage people to learn more without overdoing it. While I wait to find out whether readers think I've succeeded, I'm working on the next book in the series. Activity and issue, you ask? For now, they will remain a mystery.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The Money Bird is available now for pre-order. Autographed copies of Drop Dead on Recall, Rescue Matters, and The Money Bird are available from Pomegranate Books.

 

 

Write Here, Write Now - I'm Back!

I'm back - almost, anyway. Monday, April 15, is "relaunch the blog day" for Write Here, Write Now! And you're invited. I hope you'll give it a test drive for a couple of weeks. I'll post on my Facebook Page and Twitter to let readers know the day's topic and, when relevant, who my guest is. If you want to be sure you don't miss anything, why not follow my blogs by email (see form at right)?

So here's the plan.

On Mondays the focus is FICTION. I'll write about topics of interest to readers and writers, and have guests from time to time -- authors mostly.

Wednesdays will focus on NONFICTION mostly, with occasional posts about poetry, drama, and...who knows?

Fridays are about "the writing life," broadly defined. The reading life, too, since readers will find many of the posts interesting, I think - after all, if you love to read, you, too, are affected by the "business of writing," and how your favorite authors (including some you haven't read yet) approach their work and creative lives.

I have a terrific group of guests lined up. No need to dress up or RSVP - just show up. Bring your friends. See you Monday!

And in other news.....

Do you enjoy memoirs? Scroll down for a list of 10 memoirs I like, and also two essential books on writing, if you write.

I will be teaching Write Your Memoir at the Cameron Art Museum's Museum School in Wilmington, NC, from April 24 through May 29, 2-4 p.m. on Wednesdays.
 

 

Memoirs take many forms and serve a variety of purposes, but memoir writers share at least one common purpose: to record something about their lives in a form that other people can read. Whether you want to leave a rather private record of your life for your friends and family, or a literary work that may reach thousands of readers, this class will help you:

•find memories to include in your story;
•organize your memories and reflections into a logical form; produce new writing;
•revise and polish what you have written.

We will spend some class time each week on writing exercises designed to help you generate ideas and new material. We will also look at short excerpts from at least one published memoir each week, and I will suggest memoirs and craft books that you may find inspiring or helpful. We will set aside some time to share your writing if you want to, but no one will ever be required to share.

Materials: writing tools (paper, pen/pencil, computer – your choice!).

Register at http://www.cameronartmuseum.com/index.php?c=registration

 

Suggested Reading....

If you are writing a memoir, I hope you read lots of good ones, plus a few good books on the craft of writing. And even if you have no plans to put your own memories down, there are some great memoirs out there - inspiring, thought-provoking.... 

 

Memoirs: Whether you're writing your memoir or not, you may like some of these terrific memoirs, some new, some older.... There are many more excellent memoirs out there - these just happen to be ten I like.

 

 

 

Dog Years by Mark Doty

Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams

Half the House by Richard Hoffman

The Chronology of Water by Linda Yuknavitch

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

West with the Night by Beryl Markham

Licking the Spoon by Candace Walsh

Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl

Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo

Time on the Ocean by Theo Dorgan

 

 

Craft of Writing: There are MANY excellent books on the craft of writing, and on writing memoir in particular. I'll come back to that later, but for now, here are a couple of books that I consider essential reading.

 

Good Prose by Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd

The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick

 

READ! It's good for you!