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

Seeing 200 different famous actors interviewed Inside the Actors Studio try to respond to the ridiculous question, “What’s your favorite curse word?” by trying to say a word for coitus in an interesting way, you realize how much movie-watchers owe to writers. 

JRMcF

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 

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

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



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.

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