Saturday, January 31, 2015
Updike or Bellow?
Who is the greatest novelist of the 2nd
half of the 20th century, Updike or Bellow? I say Updike.
Friday, January 30, 2015
A Good Reason Not to Submit
A publisher announced they
wanted mss. I had one of just the right genre. I looked at their details. My ms
was too long by 20 k words, too many to revise. I was relieved. I didn’t have
to send it.
I know, I know. Submitting
is part of the process. So is getting rejected. So is marketing once you get
published, and maybe before, “building your platform,” which sounds more like
preparation for diving or ski jumping. Come to think of it, ski jumping is a
good image for submitting manuscripts.
I know a short story
writer who says he gets published more than other writers not because he’s a
better writer but because he’s a better submitter. “I have the next periodical
or publisher cued up from the moment I have submitted to the last one. On the
same day a rejection comes, I submit to the next one on the list.” I admire
that. I hate doing that.
I like writing. I like
having written. I like getting published. I like people telling me I’m a great
writer. I just don’t like that step in between the writing and the accolades.
Maybe I’ll write about that so I can put off having to submit...
John
Robert McFarland
Daughter
Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in
America will be published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press,
in 2016.
My
novel, VETS, about four handicapped
and homeless Iraqistan veterans who are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will
be published by Black Opal Books in 2015.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ In
Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
A PLUG FOR ONE OF MY OTHER
BOOKS:
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
Thursday, January 29, 2015
TOOTIE-HEADS
When our granddaughter was in kindergarten she returned
home one day ashen-faced.
“Something happened,” she told her mother. “It’s so bad I
can’t tell you.”
“No, that’s okay. It’s always okay to tell your mother.
“Louis said something.”
“What?”
She whispered. “He called Alan
a tootie-head.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know, but it must be
bad, because Teacher sent him to the principal’s office, and he never came
back.”
At this point, should I explain
what tootie-head means, or let you figure it out for yourself?
That’s always an issue for an
author. Not everyone who reads a piece knows all the meanings. Like most old
people, I now read in the areas of sociobiology, brain research, and quantum
field theory. None of them are my native tongue. I appreciate it when Wilson or
Koku or Carroll explains a term. I’m also aware that they can’t do every one,
that I, as the reader, have to make some assumptions, or do some dictionary
work.
Lindsay Faye, in her Seven for a Secret, provides a helpful
glossary to the lingo of Irish immigrants and the newly-founded police force,
the copper stars, and the criminal underworld in 1840s NYC. I did a glossary
for my The Strange Calling. A
glossary is one answer if you are writing technically, or in fiction, in an
area where it is not reasonable for the average reader to understand.
I have recently read James
Joyce’s Dubliners, his first book,
short stories of the Dublin of a century ago. Now only is the language 100
years old, but much of it is Irish slang of the time. I get enough of it,
though, to feel the poignancy of these stories.
So, explain tootie-head or not?
I think I’ll let you figure it out.
John Robert McFarland
Daughter Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2016.
My novel, VETS, about four handicapped and homeless Iraqistan veterans who
are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will be published by Black Opal Books in
2015.
In case you missed it, a Tweet Repeat: Not everyone will
be cured, but everyone can be healed.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ In Winter: Reflections on Faith from
a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
A PLUG FOR ONE OF MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE
CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and
Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
THE MOON ROSE
Titles
are important. They should inform and invite and incite with intrigue and
insight and ingenuity. In other words, you should be the little ingine that
could.
Use words
that everyone likes. People like moon and rose, so they should be included in
titles. In fact, you can just use Moon Rose every time. It works for every
genre. Thriller? The Moon Rose Conspiracy. Mystery? The Moon Rose Murders. Religious? The
Moon Rose Revelation.
Romance? The Moon Rose Lover. Works every time, and you don’t
have to spend time thinking up a new title but can concentrate on more
important things, like checking the sales rank of your book on Amazon. [The
answer is 2,183,762.]
But if
Moon Rose doesn’t work for you, you can practice book and article and story
titles with the subject lines of emails. They should both inform and intrigue. I’m
surprised by the number of writers and other mortals who either don’t title
their emails at all or just keep hitting reply so that the subject line
eventually reads re:re:re:re:…ad infinitum. [Actually, Ad Infinitum might be a good title.]
I spend
a lot of time on email titles, because I want to be sure they are read. If I
want to tell Howard that my turtle died, I can simply inform, “my turtle died,”
[in order to save time in typing, since I have used so much of it in thinking, I
rarely use capitals in email titles] which is okay, but if my turtle died
because it stuck its tongue into an electrical outlet while trying for an ant, I
could use the title, “mourning becomes electric.” Howard is bound to read that.
Authors should
practice creative titling in all that we do. Get in the habit of thinking
intrigue in every title. “The one who is faithful in email titles will be
successful in book titles.”
If you
get an email from me with “the moon rose turtle” on the subject line, be sure
to read it.
John
Robert McFarland
Daughter
Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in
America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2016.
My
novel, VETS, about four handicapped and homeless Iraqistan
veterans who are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will be published by Black
Opal Books in 2015.
I tweet
as yooper1721.
I also
write Christ In Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the
Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
TODAY’S
FEATURE FROM AMONG MY TITLES:
NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I
AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who
Love Them
[AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and Japanese translations] Paul K.
Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount, called it “The best book for
cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Double Standard Trouble?
I write to keep myself
“off the streets and out of trouble.” Of course, I do not mind if my characters
get onto the street and into trouble. Is that a double standard?
JRMcF
Monday, January 26, 2015
WRITING FOR GRANDCHILDREN
Today our grandson, Joe,
is 16. Not bad for a boy who died 3 times before he was 2 years old.
We write for many reasons.
Something inside compels us. Someone outside compels us. We want to sit behind
the table at a book signing instead of stand in front of it. We want fame and
fortune. We want to meet Terry Gross. We want to impress at least some of the
exes who live in Texas. There’s nothing, however, that can match a grandchild
saying that you are a great author.
That’s what Brigid did
when she was in 6th grade. She started “An official fan site devoted
to John Robert McFarland, the Great Author.”
And when I wrote a book
for Joe, for his 11th birthday, Beware
of Page 7, only one copy, hardback, with his picture on front and back
covers [Brigid helped me do the production with lulu.com.] as we sat on the
sofa together and I began to read it to him, he said, “I love the way you
write.”
Once Brigid told her
mother that if he were alive, she would like to meet Mark Twain. “What makes
you think you’d get to meet Mark Twain, even if he were alive?” her mother
asked. “Grandma and Grandpa would introduce me,” she replied. Joe added, “That’s
about right.” Grandparents are ageless and know everybody.
When Brigid started her
senior year of high school, I wrote a book for her, too, about a girl in her
senior year of high school. Only one copy. It’s called Sunrise, the opposite of Twilight,
upside down, on a cupcake.
If you’re a writer, and
you have children or grandchildren, write a book just for them. I’ve had some
success as an author. Sold some books, won some prizes, got some reviews.
Nothing, though, makes a writer feel as successful as hearing a grandchild say,
“I love the way you write.”
John
Robert McFarland
You
can read about Joe beating cancer as a little boy at http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
Brigid
and Joe’s mother is on twitter as KatieWriteBks. Her Learning to Swear in America will be published by J. K. Rowling’s
publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2016.
My
novel, VETS, about four handicapped
and homeless Iraqistan veterans who are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will
be published by Black Opal Books in 2015.
I tweet as yooper1721.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Elmore Leonard applied to Dean Koontz
I am currently reading THE HUSBAND, by Dean Koontz. It’s an intriguing story, but the book
would be even better had Koontz listened more carefully when Elmore Leonard
told the secret of good writing: “Leave out the parts that people skip.”
John Robert McFarland
Friday, January 23, 2015
RUN-a review
In some post not long ago,
I hoped, on page 53 of RUN, [Ballantine,
2014] by Andrew Grant, that Marc, the main character, would die soon so I would
not have to read any more about him, because he was so self-destructive that he
did not deserve to live.
I am happy to report that
after that, Marc, and RUN, got much
better…
…until Marc saves his wife
from death, or worse. Her death is certain. In an heroic effort he saves her.
But now she’s not sure she can continue to be with him because he’s the kind of
person who kills people! And that’s not the worst! He takes a car so they can
get away. “You stole a car?... That’s not the Marc Bowman I married.” He’s
killed two people, to save her, and she’s worked up because he stole a car? I realize that characters take
on a life of their own, but, really, can’t the author do SOMETHING to make them
a little more believable and bearable?
And there are too many
folks masquerading as good guys who might be bad guys. It gets confusing. Of
course, it’s confusing for the characters, so it should be for the reader, but
if the reader has to work too hard just to remember who is whom, to stay in the
flow… that’s not a good thing.
With the exception of
those two fairly lengthy and mind-boggling episodes, and the caveat on too many
confusing characters, it’s a good story, interestingly told.
And the best thing? Most
authors have trouble finding a satisfying ending, but he final two pages of RUN are great!
John
Robert McFarland
I understand that Andrew
Grant is the brother of Lee Child, Lee Child being a pen name. His real name is
Jim Grant. If a man or woman named Lee Child wanted to take a pen name, could
s/he be Jim Grant?
Daughter
Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in
America will be published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press,
in 2016.
My
novel, VETS, about four handicapped
and homeless Iraqistan veterans who are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will
be published by Black Opal Books in 2015.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ In
Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life
and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a preacher,
but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really a “call,”
though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know, I’ll do
something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE THE MAIL and Other Stories of
Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN
978-1-300-38566-0
If you like baseball
poetry, take a look at “Frosty & the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Who Would Name a Kid Dick?
If you write for kids, be careful what you name your
characters.
One night at the Red Herring writer’s group, one of the
young mothers told of overhearing her 12 year old son and one of his friends
laughing about their school principal. “Who would name a kid dick?” they
chortled.
John Robert McFarland
Daughter Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2016.
My novel, VETS, about four handicapped and homeless Iraqistan veterans who
are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will be published by Black Opal Books in
2015.
I also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from
a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
JUST WORDS: THE GLASS ELEPHANT
On my mantle is an elegant little clear glass elephant,
its trunk raised in joyful triumph. It is a reminder of a book.
When I was about eight, I took a book out of our branch
library. It was about a little elephant who, with great bravery and disregard for
himself, saved his herd from disaster. I thought it was a magnificent story. I
wanted to be that elephant. I wanted that book, to remember that little
elephant.
But my family had no money for books.
Later, in the window of a hardware/toy store on the main
street on the way to school, there was a little elephant statue, copper, its
trunk upraised in victory, the same way as the little elephant in the book.
Every day I passed that elephant twice, as I dodged drunks staggering out of
the taverns on the way, and dashed into alleys to escape the bullies. Each day
I plotted how I could get enough money to buy that statue, so that I could
remember the book forever. But we were very poor. I received no allowance. I
was too young to get a job, except an occasional errand for a neighbor, or
selling an occasional leftover newspaper that the delivery girl for our block
would give me, if she had any left over, for helping her on her route. I never
got that statue, that reminder of the courage of that little elephant, the
reminder of his story.
We usually don’t need reminders of books. They are
themselves the reminders. They sit on the shelf, or on the table, or in a
haphazard pile on the floor, and when our eyes happen onto them, we are
reminded of the enjoyment, the involvement, of reading that book.
I worry about what we’ll do to remember ebooks. No pages
within covers to hold in our hands to remind us of the story. Perhaps we’ll
need more elephant statues.
Reminders of books, of course, are not really reminders
of boards and paper and ink and glue. Having boards and paper and ink and glue,
together, in a book, is a great thing. But they are really a reminder of the
story and the characters in that book, a story and characters that have become
ours in the reading.
When our granddaughter was eight, I told her the story of
the little elephant, and how much I wanted that statue so that I could be
reminded of that book. When she was sixteen, she presented me with the little glass
statue that raises its trunk in victory, on my mantle. Now that elephant is a
reminder not just of one great story, but of two.
John Robert McFarland
Daughter Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2015.
My novel, VETS, about four homeless and handicapped Iraqistant veterans who
are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will be published by Black Opal Books in
early 2015.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from
a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE
CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and
Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for killing,
and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full circle…
THE STRANGE
CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a
preacher, but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really
a “call,” though? I said, “I’ll try it for 50 years, and if I still don’t know,
I’ll do something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE
THE MAIL and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0
If you like baseball poetry, take a look at “Frosty &
the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
Monday, January 19, 2015
Learn to Write by Listening to King Preach
If you want to know how to write in a way that
both communicates and inspires, just listen to MLK preach.
JRMcF
JRMcF
Sunday, January 18, 2015
The Ballroom Prize We Almost Won
I have learned a lot about
writing from lyricists, because songs are so compressed. Each word has to carry
a lot of meaning. Every once in a while a phrase hits you just right, because
it’s just off center, which is where most of life is lived.
So it is with “Moments to
Remember,” by Robert Allen & Al Stillman, recorded most famously by The
Four Lads.
“…the ball-room prize we almost won…”
Almost won…
That’s the key, almost. That moment
is more memorable because it was not a trophy, but an almost.
In writing, it’s important
to remember that the almosts often
make the best memories.
John
Robert McFarland
Daughter
Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in
America will be published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press,
in 2015.
My
novel, VETS, about four handicapped
and homeless Iraqistan veterans who are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will
be published by Black Opal Books in 2015.
In case you missed it, a
Tweet Repeat:
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ in
Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life
and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a preacher,
but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really a “call,”
though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know, I’ll do
something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE THE MAIL and Other Stories of
Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN
978-1-300-38566-0
If you like baseball
poetry, take a look at “Frosty & the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
Saturday, January 17, 2015
HOW NOT TO JUDGE A BOOK
I
listen to writers talk about the covers of their books. There is a lot of agony
in that talk. Will the cover be nice enough to attract readers?
One
of the oldest adages, not just for writers but for life, is: Don’t judge a book
by its cover.
Everyone
knows you can’t trust a pretty face. A pretty face is a good place to start. I
like to look at pretty faces. Most people do. But a pretty face is only a
start. Many a pretty face is a mask for a wrinkled heart.
So
we should not refuse the wrinkled faces. Behind such wrinkles might be a full
and giving soul.
So
why would we trust a pretty cover for a book? The cover tells us how talented
the artist is, not how talented the writer is. If I pick up a book because of
its cover, and the story inside is not worth my time, I’ll not trust that
author or artist or publisher again.
I
have been blessed with great and interesting covers for my books. I greatly
appreciate the artists and editors who produced those. But if I can’t write, if
I don’t know how to tell a story, no cover will cover my inadequacies.
John Robert McFarland
Daughter Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2015.
My novel, VETS, about four handicapped and homeless Iraqistan veterans who
are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will be published by Black Opal Books in 2015.
I
tweet as yooper1721.
I
also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for
the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
Friday, January 16, 2015
Pirating is Wrong, Even if it Helps You Get the Word Out
I recently did an internet
search for my book, Now That I Have
Cancer I Am Whole: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and
Those Who Love Them. It’s interesting to see who is using your work, and
how. I often find references to it on sites for cancer patients, or quotes in
speeches or sermons.
This time I found that a
site I had never heard of is offering a pdf of it free. So apparently the
entire book has been pirated. I have reported it to AndrewsMcMeel, the
publisher. We’ll see what they are able to learn and do.
I’m caught in a dilemma,
though. My purpose with that book was never to make money. I want to help
cancer patients. It’s been successful at that. Just this week a university
professor told me that she has been using the book for years not just with
patients but in her research on how to lessen the long-term side effects on
chemo patients. The late Paul K. Hamilton, Jr, MD, FAPC, the co-founder, with
Lynn Ringer, of CanSurmount, called it “the best book by a cancer patient, for
cancer patients, ever.” I hear regularly from patients who appreciate having
the book as a companion on their cancer journey. I even had correspondence with
a patient in the Czech Republic who had read the Czech translation and had
enough English for us to write back and forth.
It’s a wonderful blessing
to me to know that sharing my own cancer experience has helped others. I want
to share with as many cancer patients, and with “those who love them,” as
possible. It’s okay with me if I don’t make money from the book. But I realize
that my sharing would never have been possible if AndrewsMcMeel doesn’t make
money from the book, so that they can stay in business and keep publishing.
Most authors aren’t in it
for the money. Very few of us depend upon writing income for our livelihood. We
write because there are voices in our head that we have to get onto paper or a
screen before they drive us crazy. But we also deserve the rewards, material
and otherwise, that come from working, just as CEOs or garbage collectors deserve
the rewards of their work.
So pirating is wrong, even
if you wear an eyeshade instead of an eyepatch. Pirates don’t produce. If the
people who do the producing don’t get rewarded, they can’t keep producing. The
internet makes sharing possible. It also makes theft easier. Authors should
search out their work from time to time to see if it is being misused.
John
Robert McFarland
Daughter
Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in
America will be published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press,
in 2015.
My
novel, VETS, about four handicapped
and homeless Iraqistan veterans who are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will
be published by Black Opal Books in 2015.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ in
Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
Thursday, January 15, 2015
A Quote on Poetry from Robert Frost
Robert Frost said that
each of his poems began with a lump in the throat.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Knucklers, Hummers, & Slow Curves-On Baseball Poems
A
REVIEW: KNUCKLERS, HUMMERS, & SLOW
CURVES: Contemporary Baseball Poems. Edited by Don Johnson. With a foreword
by W.P. Kinsella.
It’s
not that long ‘til spring training, and when you live where anything above zero
is considered warm, it can’t come fast enough. In the meantime, you just have
to read baseball poems, which I have been doing with this book edited by Don
Johnson.
How
can you review a book of over 100 poems? Aren’t some better than others? Well,
yes. Some of these are better than others. After all, if you include Robert
Penn Warren and Donald Hall and John Updike…
As
I read, though, each poem gave me a faint, uneasy feeling, as when you are
feeling nauseated but aren’t sure yet if you’ll throw up.
In
the first place, they are too long. That, however, is minor. Many people like
long poems. I like poems, though, that are short enough to memorize, so I can
listen to them whenever I wish, like Shelley’s “Ozymandias.”
I
finally figured out what it is that these poems share, and why I don’t really
like this book: these poems are not really about baseball.
Uniformly,
they use baseball as a front to talk about something else.
Well,
isn’t that true about all poetry? Yes, but good poetry makes you think it is
about only one thing while letting you experience two or more other layers at
the same time.
“Casey
at the Bat” is about more than a single at-bat by a famous player, and “Frosty
and the Babe” obviously is, but neither Ernest Thayer nor I seemed to notice
that as we wrote those poems. [1]
In
a baseball poem, you need to smell the grass, taste the popcorn, hear the crowd
and the crack of the bat before you move on to the relationship between
a man and his son, or a girl trying to make a boys’ team, or what happens in a
prison when the sun goes down.
Also
there are too many poems about the Yankees!
John Robert McFarland
1]
The very nice “Baseball Attic” web site recently reprinted my “Frosty & the
Babe” from the Baseball Almanac site, without my preface explaining that I
wrote the poem for Robert Frost, since he had promised one to his friend,
Albert Krymborg, but never got around to it. Baseball Attic readers speculated
that the “Frosty” in the poem must have been Frosty the Snowman, despite all
the references in the poem to “verse,” and “pen,” etc. So much for cultural
literacy. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
Daughter Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2015.
My novel, VETS, about four handicapped and homeless Iraqistan veterans who
are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will be published by Black Opal Books in
early 2015.
I
tweet as yooper1721.
I
also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for
the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
SOME
OF MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE
CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and
Those Who Love Them
[AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and Japanese translations] Paul K.
Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount, called it “The best book for
cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE CALLING:
Stories of Ministry
[Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a preacher, but I made a deal with God
to save my sister’s life. Was that really a “call,” though? I said, “I’ll try t
for 50 years, and if I still don’t know, I’ll do something else.” These are stories
of what happened in those years of questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE
THE MAIL and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Both a Start & a Full are good-a thought
I had an interesting discussion
with a non-writer last night. I mentioned that sometimes a story, even
novel-length, will appear to me completely done, from start to finish. He protested
that one should write without knowing at the beginning what will happen, like
life. Why one or the other? If you have only a start, start it. If you have the
whole thing, complete it.
JRMcF
Monday, January 12, 2015
What Ben Said
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Benjamin Franklin
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Understanding vs Experience
“Understanding is the booby prize.” I don’t know who said
it, but it’s true.
Good story-tellers go beyond understanding. They help us
to experience.
John Robert McFarland
My novel, VETS, about four handicapped and homeless Iraqistan veterans who
are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will be published by Black Opal Books in
2015.
I tweet as yooper1721.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
BATHTUB FAMILIES
I went to the pharmacy. There was a sign noting that I
did not have to wait for my prescription. They would text me when it was ready.
Apparently the pharmacy is trying to create writer’s
block. Writers should not go off willy-nilly and wait for pharmacy texts. We
should wander the aisles as we wait. Otherwise, we would not, like Billy
Collins, discover “Bathtub Families,” those collections of cows and pigs and
other families to keep you company in the bath, and if we do not make those
discoveries, we cannot write marvelous poems about them.
Why is it that Billy Collins always discovers things like
Bathtub Families before I do? No wonder I have nothing to poeticize about.
Billy has already jumped on all the good trampolines for poems.
Billy and Michelangelo see with the same eyes.
Michelangelo said he saw David trying to get out of that block of marble. All
he had to do was chip away the parts of the block that were not David and put
him into a museum in Florence. [Italy, not WI. Florence, WI, has a statue of an
ice cream cone.] Billy sees a poem trying to get out of a bunch of bathtub
animals. Anything he looks at, Billy sees a poem trying to get out.
Good writers see the stories trying to be told, in
anything and everything. If you have eyes to see and ears to hear, there is no
such thing as writer’s block.
But Billy Collins,
In your fecundity,
Can’t you leave a little something
For my profundity?
John Robert McFarland
Daughter Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2015.
My novel, VETS, will be published by Black Opal Books in 2015. It tells of
four homeless and handicapped Iraqistan veterans who are accused of murdering a
VA doctor.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write, once in a great while, Christ in Winter:
Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE
CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and
Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE
CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a
preacher, but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really
a “call,” though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know,
I’ll do something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE
THE MAIL and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0
If you like baseball poetry, take a look at “Frosty &
the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
Friday, January 9, 2015
Who stands in for the reader?
In
a story or a drama, one of the characters needs to be a stand-in for the
reader/listener, the representative of their interests.
JRMcF
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Winning and Losing
Last
night I dreamed that I was writing in this blog. I wrote: “Stories are always
about winning and losing.” Dreams are not usually that immediately relevant and
realistic, and they are not nearly as interesting to the listener as to the one
who tells about his dreams, but this one is right on. I would add to the Dream
Editor’s words this: what is most intriguing in a story is not just who wins
and who loses, but how we win while losing.
JRMcF
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Borrow the Book, Keep the Story
I think
I really just wanted to be a reader, but since that is not exactly a
profession, I figured I needed to be a writer.
Reading
was a profession for my great-grandfather, John White McFarland. He lied about
his age to join the federal navy in the civil war. He was on a boat on the Ohio
River. I don’t think he was wounded, but got a disease. At any rate, he was
disabled and they didn’t expect him to live, so he was granted a pension for
life. He lived to be about 98, I think it was. So while he was technically a
farmer, he was really a reader. He would walk from Oakland City to Princeton,
or other places, to borrow books from individuals. There was a doctor in
Princeton who had an extensive library. My great-grandfather would borrow a
book, read it as he walked home, stay up all night reading by candle light, or
perhaps they had kerosene lanterns then, and then read as he walked it back the
next day. It was a point of honor with him that a borrowed book was returned
the next day.
I loved
reading as a child. I also loved books, the actual bound volumes. I also loved
comic books. Anything with a story, but seeing books, holding them, possessing
them, all that was important to me. We didn’t have money for books, though, or
much of anything else, so I learned that even though I could not possess the
book, I could borrow the book and possess the story.
One
summer I was in a reading program at the branch library on Washington St in
Indianapolis. It was just catty-corner down the alley to my school, Lucretia
Mott PS # 3. Kids had to read a book and then tell the story to the librarians
to prove they had read it. Usually it was pro-forma, just enough to prove you
had done it. They always made me tell the whole story, though, even called the
other librarians over to listen. I could tell they were pleased, because they
smiled a lot, but I was also afraid they didn’t trust me. It never occurred to
me that they thought the way I told the story was cute.
I’m
still trying to tell the story, well enough that they’ll call others over to
listen, well enough that they’ll think I’m cute.
John Robert McFarland
Daughter Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2015.
My novel, VETS, will be published by Black Opal Books in early 2015.
In case you missed it, a Tweet Repeat: I like to sit in coffee shops
and fantasize about being a writer. Perhaps actually writing would add something
to the fantasy.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write, once in a great while, Christ in Winter:
Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE
CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and
Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and Japanese
translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount, called it
“The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE
CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a
preacher, but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really
a “call,” though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know,
I’ll do something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE
THE MAIL and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0
If you like baseball poetry, take a look at “Frosty &
the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Hoping Marc Dies Soon
It is not a good sign if you are hoping by page 52 that the main character, the narrator yet, is killed soon, because he is so stupid and self-destructive that he does not deserve to live even one more page.
While reading Andrew Grant's RUN.
While reading Andrew Grant's RUN.
Friday, January 2, 2015
In Praise of Multi-Author Poetry Books
JUST WORDS: A review of GOOD POEMS, Selected & Introduced by Garrison Keillor [Penguin
Books, 2002]
I have several books of poems
scattered throughout the house in strategic places, and I read a poem from each
of them each day.
I prefer books that contain
poems from many different writers, rather than a single author, although one or
another of the volumes of Billy Collins is always in my rotation, and usually
another individual writer or two, Ferlinghetti or cummings or Frost.
Perhaps my preference for
multi-author volumes is because the first book of poetry I ever had [and I can’t
remember its provenance] was The Best
Loved Poems of the American People, edited by Hazel Felleman. Each day I heard
a different poetic voice, got a different slant on language and the world.
Reading the same poet each day
can get you into a rhythm, and that is good. However, I still appreciate
getting jarred out of my own ruts each day by having to hear a new rhythm, a
different voice.
I think it was Halford Luccock
who told of the man who loved macaroons. He hid them all over his house. He was
forgetful, so he never remembered where he had hidden them. But every once in a
while, as he rummaged through a drawer or opened a cabinet, he would be
delighted by the appearance of a “macaroon unaware.” That is how I feel about a
book of poetry by different authors.
So one book stays in the
rotation. I finished GOOD POEMS, Selected
& Introduced by Garrison Keillor this morning, “Fishing in the Keep of
Silence,” by Linda Gregg, but it goes back onto the shelf, back into the
rotation, back tomorrow morning to “Poem in Thanks” by Thomas Lux. I look
forward to encountering Jane Kenyon and Wendell Berry and all the others as
they suddenly appear, “macaroons unaware.”
John Robert McFarland
Daughter Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2015.
My novel, VETS, will be published by Black Opal Books in early 2015.
In case you missed it, a Tweet Repeat: You never have to
reboot a yellow pad or a ballpoint pen.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from
a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE
CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and
Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE
CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a
preacher, but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really
a “call,” though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know,
I’ll do something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE
THE MAIL and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0
If you like baseball poetry, take a look at “Frosty &
the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)