Limbo Exercise #41

I have made reference before to Dorothea Brande's book Becoming A Writer. Hers was one of the most influential of the many books I'd read (and I'd read dozens) when I was initially striving to do just that, become a writer. Brande emphasized that the craft could be learned and that we did not have to be subject to the whims of a muse. Instead, we could learn to write on command.

As a result of this book one of the things I did to develop this ability was to begin doing daily limbo exercises. If you look up limbo on Google you see videos pertaining to loosening your body. My limbo exercises were designed to loosen my mind and free my pen, or rather, my fingers that tapped on the typewriter keys. And to learn how to create prose on command.

It would go like this: I would take a blank sheet of paper and at the appointed time each day fill it with words. The subconscious mind would actually begin composing long before reaching my seat to do the writing. This daily discipline was quite helpful in enabling me to produce volumes of creative copy. Many of those exercises unearthed some fascinating material and became the basis for articles, stories and poems. What follows is an extract from one of those limbo exercises, circa 1982-4.

Of course he only said it because he was obligated to speak.
He did not like it any more than they did.
But what was he to do?

With best wishes... This time he understood. Wherever there were answers there must be questions. If only he could figure it out.

But then, adults were like that. You can never figure them out. The safe thing was not the best thing, but it was O.K. At least for the time being.

The ideas introduced themselves and he pondered their value. When he finished the exercise he found new ways to explain it. The potential was enormous.

Why had he taken so long to recognize what was plainly evident to all? Surely it was his youth, his lack of experience. The rigorous training would eventually pay off. He was certain of this.

In the meantime, he would wait. Counting days. It would happen as planned or it would be broken up. There were no other paths.

To all you writers out there, "Write on!"

Are Art Museums Necessary?

Several years ago a friend and I drove to Minneapolis for a day and, among other things, visited the Walker Art Center. The Walker is probably the best repository of contemporary art in the Twin Cities and considers its mission to be a catalyst for artistic expression.

The day my friend and I visited they were featuring a show by a group of Italian artists who were active back when I was in school. This was their interpretation of where the modern art scene had left off. My friend, not an artist or trained in the arts in any way, was literally ice cold to it all, and at the time I ended up writing a brief, harsh essay about the experience, which I reproduce for you here.

A BETTER USE FOR THE WALKER CAN BE FOUND

In the early part of our century Nobel prize winning author Andre Gide gave a lecture in which he declared that it was a dangerous thing for art to get out of touch with the public. “When the artist no longer felt his public close to him... art did not die, it lost its head.” His prescience has all but been ignored by an art world so full of itself that it is now an expensive (taxpayer supported) joke. Said Gide, “The artist who has lost a sense of his public is not fated to stop producing but rather to produce works with no destination.”

No where can the empty folly of the arts be better witnessed than in the Walker Art Center’s current exhibit “Zero to Infinity: Arte Provera 1962-1972.” The exhibition presents a collection of Italian artists’ works that purports to be significant and serious. The show included an audio-visual introduction to the movement. Not one person was in the room watching the presentation. Nor were there people in the many rooms of the gallery. I counted perhaps three paying guests. It was a Saturday, yet there were more guards than visitors.

A friend and I came down from Duluth to pay homage to modern art. My friend, not from an arts background, called our six dollar admission a “charitable gift to an undeserving beneficiary.” I, on the other hand, had been an art major. I was in fact making art at the very period in which this work was created. And if there was any doubt then, there is none now. Modern art has lost its way.

While visiting the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair I had the privilege of seeing a true art masterpiece, Michaelangelo’s Pieta. What I find remarkable to recall is that we stood in line for hours in order to spend a few moments with this incredible work. Where is the art that people would stand in line for today? Words like “appalled” and “disappointed” come to mind when I reflect on this recent trip to the Walker. The building could be put to better use. How about as a homeless shelter?

To be honest, the vitriol here was unkind though it does bring into focus some of the problems the arts culture is experiencing as it seeks funding from an indifferent culture. Perhaps I need to write a rebuttal to this in order to locate some kind of middle ground on the matter of museums.

In the meantime, what is the role of art in society? Why do artists make art and who should be funding that?

Till the morrow.

Wordless Wednesday, October 5

Art and belongings of Dr. K to be sold in auction

In the early 1990's I had the privilege of being assigned to do a series of article on ethical issues in terminal health care. The assignment came about primarily because I had been asked what I thought about Dr. Kevorkian and the countless assisted suicides he had performed. I've found that researching a matter and writing about it can be exceedingly helpful in gaining an understanding of things. The five articles appeared in The Senior Reporter, a seniors publication, founded by a former editor of the Duluth News Tribune. With the exception of the last they were to be written as a journalist, not opinion pieces.

The experience was tremendously helpful as I gained access to doctors, nurses, ethicists, a prof who was part of the Hemlock Society, and even the physician who wrote the preamble to President Clinton's health care initiative, Dr. Arthur Caplan. These many interviews gave me an uncommon insight into the complexity of the issues surrounding terminal health care in America. Due to advances in technology, a 1980 a presidential commission had difficult time even coming to agreement on the definition of death.

My last article in the series was titled The Pros and Cons of Doctor Assisted Suicide. It's an article that I could not have written had I not researched and written the previous four pieces. Two years later this last piece was republished in Truth Seeker magazine which assembled a whole edition dedicated to this issue. Interestingly enough my article appeared in the midst of works by the leading proponents of assisted suicide, the only voice raising a red flag about the possibilities of going too far with this matter. One of Dr. Kevorkian's articles abutted my own, and one of Dr. Kevorkian's painting was used as an illustration in my article.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who passed away in June of this year, built his reputation on challenging the establishment and captured many headlines. But he was also into music and art, a painter of some rather macabre subjects designed to make one think.

This morning a news story about the sales of Dr. Kevorkians art and other possessions caught my eye and brought back this memory of the painting that was used to illustrate my own article. The media nicknamed him Dr. Death, but it may be that his loose cannon approach played a role in the development of modern hospice care to alleviate the suffering of the dying.

The editor of Truth Seeker, in her opening column, cited this article as the most important one in that edition of the magazine, Making The Final Choice: Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legalized? See also the Associated Press story, Dr. Jack Kevorkian's art, belongings to be sold

In the meantime... make your day count to the full. You only live once.

Things We've Learned So Far About ePublishing

This summer T.J. Lind and I formed N&L Publishing for the purpose of publishing a handful of things that I have written over the years but for which I was unable to find a traditional publisher for. The whole process of getting an agent, writing book proposals and all the rest of the games the publishing industry plays simply exhausted me. I never stopped writing, but I did stop trying to get my work in print by that channel.

Then the Kindle came along. And the Nook. And everything changed for writers like me.

The cool thing about eBooks (to me) is that Amazon.com treats them with the same respect as their print companions so that my books have descriptions, reviews, ISBN numbers and really cool book covers. (That is, unless you design a not so cool one... but I really like mine.) In my opinion The Red Scorpion and Unremembered Histories look just as attractive as the latest Stephen King bestseller and, with the exception of the authors' names, just as interesting of a read.

So, TJ and I met this past week to discuss what we have learned after three months of working together and getting two books listed at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. Here are some of the things we have learned about ePublishing.

1. Conversion software is frustrating.
Writing a book using your favorite word processing program is only the beginning. You still need to convert the manuscript into a specialized form for eBook readers, and it isn't quite as easy as it looks. For both of the books we have launched the final day involved numerous iterations which TJ would format, email to me and I would review. Sometimes the revisions he made would "take" and sometimes they would not. It can be a tedious process but you have to review every single line every single time if you care about the quality of the final product.

2. How to get books onto Kindle and Nook.
We persevered, and we have learned the process. It has been very rewarding emotionally and it's nice to know that each one will be easier going forward.

3. Learning time management.
Both TJ and I are very busy. In addition to being a full-time high school student, he has the same full life of most teens his age, which includes a job, friends, and other interests. One of his interests is the Proctor DECA program, which is how our paths crossed. He is planning a run for State DECA President, which is simply one more thing he's added to his plate for the year. And with my own host of activities, including the Red Interactive collaborative art events, my free time outside the office has been fairly chewed up as well. The key for each of us is learning the others' rhythms.

4. Fast communication is easy, but accuracy also needful.
It's so easy to send a lot of quick snippets and messages these days. But a book needs the same patient attention as ever before, and you just can't ignore this.

5. eBooks can be corrected after they are in print.
The Red Scorpion was a major undertaking. And I'm embarrassed by how many errors slipped through the cracks. Right at the end I asked TJ to change Mr. Harris to Mr. Henley near the end of the book. For some reason the software inserted Mr.HenleyMr.HenleyMr.Henley in the place of Mr. Harris. Fortunately, an early reader caught this and we corrected the online version of the book. Unfortunately, for the sake of the book launch party that we had September 15 we had fifty copies printed, all of which had this funny Mr. Henley in triplicate. Maybe this erratum will make these original 50 books more collectible some day, though I doubt it. It's just embarrassing.

6. People like the story.
Feedback in the digital age is nearly instant. It was great to see three five-star reviews show up on Amazon.com in a relatively quick manner.

7. Market research works.
When we produced the 50 printed versions we weren't sure which book cover to use. I liked TJ's version with the haunted house, and he liked the original with the red scorpion that I painted. We printed 25 of each to see which one the public would prefer at our launch. The scorpion covers were favored 3 to 1.

8. The economics of printed material is a problem.
To get costs down we would have to print hundreds or thousands of books. Yikes. That's not only a big outlay of cash but then there are the storage issues. At $5.00 a book and priced at $9.95 we would make zero dollars if we brought them to B&N who would take their cut at our expense. In short, this might explain why writers get such a small slice on the dollar of things they produce. The publishers, distributors and distribution channels all need their piece of the action.

For what it's worth, if interested in either of our first two books, simply click on the book covers here on your right and they will take you to Amazon.com where you can get a free preview of each.

In the meantime, have a great week... and read on.

Start a Huge Foolish Project

In one of my files of notes and quotes I found this poem by Rumi and it spoke to me this morning. Its title is "These Spiritual Window Shoppers."

These spiritual window-shoppers,
who idly ask, 'How much is that?'
Oh, I'm just looking.
They handle a hundred items and put them down,
shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,
in that shop.

Where did you go? "Nowhere."
What did you have to eat? "Nothing much."

Even if you don't know what you want,
buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project,
like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.

Rumi


I like the instruction here, "Start a huge, foolish project..." Why not? Why puddle around in the glum fog of nothingness when you have so much stirring inside of you that you don't know where to begin? Isn't it true that we concern ourselves too much with what others will think?

The poem makes me think of our Red Interactive project and the attempt by John Heino and myself to use an abstract concept, like the color red, to spark the imaginations of a whole world... engaging hearts and minds and cultures by spreading the red.

I think, too, of my effort to publish four books in two months. What a crazy notion when six months ago I had never published a one, though I did sell a book as part of a series that never was completed. Alas, this weekend my second book was published on Amazon.com as a Kindle edition. If all goes well, by mid-October -- and maybe next week! -- there will be a third, with the fourth to be available by November 11, two months after the launch of the first.

How about you? Where lies the dream that you are passionate about, but have been afraid to share for fear of what another will say. Treasure it. Nurture it. Feed it. And maybe one day your ark will save a world.

Read a preview of my newest volume, Unremembered Histories.

Unremembered Histories Submitted for Publication

This summer when my 16-year-old collaborator T.J. Lind and I mapped out our plans for the fall, it was our intent for N&L Publishing, the fledgling publishing company we formed, to produce four eBooks beginning in September. The first of these was my Young Adult novel The Red Scorpion. This afternoon N&L Publishing completed and submitted a second book, Unremembered Histories.

Unremembered Histories is my first published collection of short stories since winning the 1991 Arrowhead Fiction Competition. While the individual stories stand alone as independent entities, the common thread here is the paranormal or supranormal aspect in each. The title of the book is derived from the centerpiece story, "An Unremembered History of the World" and its introduction to the notion of parallel histories as well as the brokenness within our own history.

In many of these stories, such as "Two Acts That Changed the World," I season real life situations with a probing imagination. In this and other stories you will recognize one of the themes of a lot of my art and writing... that is, a fascination with dreams, dreaming and the interaction between our internal worlds and the external world.

When I was in seventh grade I found myself so enthralled by the imagery in my dreams that I began to keep a dream diary. If I'm not mistaken the first entry involved a couple characters from a television show. As my habit of making notes upon waking developed, I was able to remember and record as many as four or five dream stories each morning. With dreaming so much a central feature of my youth, it's no surprise that some of the stories I later produced include some reference to dreams and dream consciousness.

The story "Duel of the Poets" was my attempt to acknowledge Jorge Luis Borges as one of his literary influences. "Duel of the Poets" has been translated into Croatian where it was selected to be the centerpiece of a poetry site in the 1990’s.

The book's title is Unremembered Histories. On Monday, if not sooner, you will find it available at Amazon.com for $1.99. I'm utterly persuaded that everyone who reads the six stories in this volume will find at least one that they find special. I hope you’ll find a way to check it out.

In the meantime, read your heart out.