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January 14, 2006
My contents of my Amazon order, my fad (flash a day) routine, the scandal of James Frey and the lesser known J T Leroy
This week I got my order from Amazon. Then I went around in circles so I could know where to start. Most of the books I needed to get: the online Deluxe version of Writers Market 2006; two writing books by Josip Novakovich--one of my favorite stories of all time was helped along by staring at his chapter on plot, both books so similar I would have only got the one; Jeff Herman's guide to Agents--I want sit-down-on-the-couch-to-read info where I can tick off who I think might be a good fit for my novel--window shop while the going is good! And 3 books by Yasunari Kawabata--including the Palm of Hand stories. Kim Chinquee told me about Kawabata and I am reading him for the first time. He's awesome. But I agree with Kim about this--read him in little bits at a time. The other two books in my package are: Best American Short Stories edited by Michael Chabon and What You've Been Missing, SSC by Janet Desaulniers, 2004 Iowa Award winner. Jeff Landon told me about Desauliniers months ago. And talking about the Iowa Award, it's been won this year by Zoetrope member, Jim Tomlinson. Roy Kesey, another fine fine writer and Zoetrooper, was a semi-finalist. Soon we shall take over the world.
Oh where was I? Today I wrote two microfictions. You'd think they would only take minutes. I started being serious about these nugget-like stories after McSweeney's ran their 25 minute short stories competition.
My days are over before they start. I am working on a theory about how time is speeding up. I rarely end up doing what I plan to do. Usually, I have a list this long about what to do before I start writing in the morning. Then I opt for writing over the list. Just a little microfiction today. And then Kim Chinquee (check her out from her Bliggidy Blog--see the side bar) comes into the online room and leaves more word prompts and I think, just one more and then I'll do the tax return. I have put my GST (general good and tax) form on top of my back-up discs but that hasn't helped. I seem to do all right working with all that guilt in the background.
This brings me to the scandalous matter of James Frey, the author of the memoir A million little pieces. For those who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, check out the gos in Smoking Gun. I saw an article on Frey in Poets and Writers (July/Aug 2005) and enjoyed reading it--the drug-addict-turned-sucessful-writer because I think Cinderella was a nice bedtime story (if only I had not been born in a shabby hut on the side of a mountain, I could have been heard this one when I was still a child) Oh, I think I could get the hang of dramatizing myself. Spillover fiction!
Around the time I was reading this article, my husband heard an interview on the radio with a writer who had overcome a drug addiction. My husband said if he was ever going to write--the interview was penultimate inspiration. "You don't have a drug problem," I said to him, "and you have a middleclass Jewish background." He wasn't impressed with me that day.
This week I said to him, "You know that inspiring guy you heard, the drug-addict-cum-good, well he's a fake." Maybe I was upset that my husband had not been motivated by yours-truly who avoids doing the dishes and her tax forms in order to write.
Perhaps it's a shame that James Frey was found out, maybe that's the real moral--don't be found out--and where've I heard that before? I know I didn't pay much attention to him till the hoohah began. Then I began to click on articles written by people who seemed to know when the Emperor was not wearing clothes (see article in Exile, a Moscow based newspaper). James Frey might end up selling more books than ever but as I read a superb short story by Dennis Lehane in Best American, I had a monkey chattering in my head about first person narrators who were down and out.
Anyway onto the next scam of the week. And this time it's J T Leroy (and I have a link to an article by him in my sidebar). The first notice I ever took of Leroy was when I saw a posting about the Rockstar games competition. He was the judge. As I was trolling around the internet looking for clues to what kind of story to send, I saw the article in Poets and Writers, titled 'JT Leroy from the street to the red carpet'. I mentioned the article to a few other writers who were also interested in entering their work. One of them pointed out a story in Zoetrope Print and said it was not anything special. I went to find the story, thought it was okay, not a favorite, but a well-written first person pov story set against a degraded background and homosexuality. First person pov, I find, can tend to be a little self-conscious--I've tried to write it out of enough stories of my own--it's a voice that can get tired fast.
So when I get a chance, down comes that link on my sidebar. I'm still having problems working out how to link all my juicy stuff in an efficient fashion. My sidebar is quite slender, and there are all the other pages in the blog that require updating each time I change a sidebar item. So changes to the links are not a juicy favorite.
Posted by girija at January 14, 2006 03:43 PM
Comments
Hey Girija!
Kimmer's right about Kawabata, but keep on reading him. I admire him so much--his work seems simple but it's incredibly poetic and filled with the mystery of ordinary things.
Posted by: Jeff Landon | January 15, 2006 02:01 PM
Hi, G. I'm glad for your microfictions. And for this blog.
Posted by: Kim Chinquee | January 18, 2006 07:53 AM