The Deep: Captain Val's Answers to Last Week's Questions

Gobsmacked: Celebrating Me Birthday Month with a Giveaway!

            For the month of May, I’ll be givin’ away a signed copy of my France, a Love Story, along with a surprise: a signed copy of a book by another author who … I'll just keep ye guessin’.

            Here’s me instructions: leave a comment on me blog, and your name goes into the end-of-the month drawin’. The more comments, the better your chances. If you subscribe by email, send your name and comment to valinparis (at) earthlink (period) net. If ye wish me to post yer comment to me Captain’s Log, tell me, and it’s done!

Bonus! Every captain needs followers and here’s how to serve yer captain. Bring a mate on board Gobsmacked by having them sign up to receive me blog. For every mate you bring aboard, your name goes into the drawing three times. I’m using the pirate’s code of honor for this. Just tell me you signed ‘em up. No cheatin’ now or it’s the gangplank!

The Deep: Captain Val's Answers to Last Week's Questions

Last week, I wrote ‘bout how a writer’s job resumé offers nothin’ but a skeleton of their experience. Writers ha’ to dig deep into personal experience to understand human nature and create living, breathing, believable characters. Some authors might disagree, but they don’t sail on my ship.

That’s why I suggest asking more personal questions of authors at readings. Depending on the nature of the book (‘cause you want to ask pertinent questions, not superficial, sensationalistic ones), the questions can be related to what the novel or memoir brings to the surface for you emotionally.

Here’s where I dive in deep water. Remember the questions I posed from last week?

“Ha’ ye ever been close to dying?”

“Ha’ ye ever taken a dark road and been lost?”

“What terrifies you and why?”

As promised, I’ll ask ‘em of meself and tell ye how they relate to life and work. A’right?

Ha’ ye ever been close to dying?

Job experience in me twenties:  drive-in restaurant waitress, telephone switchboard operator, movie theater ticket sales person, keypunch operator for a woolen mill (Ah, that dates me!)

Life experience and answer to the question:

Aye. At age twenty-three, I was beaten and had a knife put to me throat by a bi-polar, alcoholic Vietnam Vet who I was divorcin’ at the time. I’ve used that fear and aspects of the experience in me writin’. I’ve also used the characteristics that kept me alive—strength, determination, resilience, and street smarts. I learned first hand about PTSD, what war does, how it effects families, what violence looks and feels like, and can empathize with those who continually face the threat of violence and death during war and at home.

Ha’ ye ever taken a dark road and been lost?

Job experience during my thirties:  artist, editor of a literary arts magazine, graphic artist, cultural resource coordinator for the arts

Life experience and answer to the question:

No. I’ be lost a time or two, but ha’ ne’er taken a dark road. Even when I was wi’ me ex-husband, we had a child, traveled, and moved to Oregon from the East Coast. My son and Oregon were my greatest gifts from the ex, and I troll those waters, too, for me writing. The dark always yields to the light.

What terrifies you and why?

Job experience from forties onward: strategic planner at a community college; graphic designer and illustrator; writer

Life experience and answer to the question:

Nothing terrifies me, not after the experiences of my twenties, after the death of my best friend in high school, the suicide of my father, the terror of my ex. I follow me passion, have a terrific family, live in paradise, have the love of a great man, and if anything would frighten me, it would be the thought of losing any of my family, especially outliving the young ‘uns. But I don’t live there. I do however explore the possibilities, using those fears in the current work in progress “Parallel Crossings” where the five-year-old daughter of the main character is kidnapped by her ex-husband, and the girl is never found. That’s how I work the whole bloody thing into a story.

Guest author Erika Dreifus answers one of me questions

To show you scallywags what happens with authors when you ask questions like the ones above, I contacted Erika Dreifus, author of the brilliant debut short-story collection Quiet Americans. The connected stories about the Jewish experience during and after the Holocaust are so different and rich with characters who feel so real, I had to ask Erika the following question. Her answer follows.

Have you ever had a personal tragedy that gives you a strong empathy for your characters and what they had to endure?

“I think that the opposite situation may be true, that the immense good fortune and privilege with which I have been blessed are what have attracted me to the characters, themes, and events in Quiet Americans. It is because I find it so difficult to envision coping with the challenges that are woven into the stories that I have tried so diligently to do exactly that: envision. Then, too, the fact that certain characters and circumstances are so closely modeled on my beloved grandparents and what they did, in fact, have to endure does add a strong dose of personal connection to the mix.”

* * * * *

So there ye ha’ it! All told, if ye do one thing this month to celebrate me birthday, go to an author’s meet and greet, reading, or signing. No bones about it. They put their whole life into their work, and we benefit.

From the Gobsmacked ship to yours, a hearty hi-ho!

Captain Val

Captain Val's review of Erika Dreifus' QUIET AMERICANS

Coming Up!

May Giveaway!

“Platform, Flatform”

“A View of My Writers Room Wall: What Inspires Me”

“Oh, Google, My Name is …”

… and soon an interview with Jessica Maxwell of Roll Around Heaven

Why I Hate Writing

            I’m a scallywag for saying I hate writin’. Aye, ‘tis a bold faced lie. I’ll ‘fess up to being frustrated at times, at others, near death apoplectic, when a story takes a bad turn or characters won’t come out of hidin’. It can turn a writer wicked mean when lost at sea with no stars to guide you.

            The truth? What I hate has nothin’ to do with the writing itself. And I’ll bet a hogshead that there are a few of you who’ll know where I’m headed soon enough.

            But first, how in Hades did I board this writing ship in the first place? Here’s my tale.

One of my favorites

            Early on, it was an artist’s life for me. My love was working with live models in the studio around other artists who felt the same. Comin’ away with a stack of sketches gave me a swagger and somethin’ to show my mates and acquaintances. In my quarters, I’d work my charcoal and pencils to nubs, sometimes working the watercolors, too. I sold some pieces with little effort. Few can render an expression of a sad wench’s face or capture a body in movement, even if I do say so myself. For a final in a UO Advanced Drawing class I hung a series of large drawings of a friend I’d photographed, leaping off a couch, naked. The professor pulled a simple still life ink drawing from my pile of sketches and said, “Why didn’t you choose this one?” I wanted to say, Because it took a bloomin’ minute, max.

Bloomin' Ink Sketch

            Instead, I said, “Because it’s people and the human form that fascinate me.”

            He shook his head and said, “You’re better than you think you are.”

            So he thought I was insecure? No, my good man, your backhanded compliment missed the boat. What I wanted was someone to answer my unspoken question, “Why wasn’t I lovin’ the life?” I wanted someone to ask, “What are you doing here? Do you really want to be an artist? What are you passionate about?”

            Years later, I wondered why I had no drive to be an artist full-time, make a career of it. How in hell had I ended up there?

            Oddly and obviously, I learned through writing that we sail in certain directions for a variety of reasons, and those reasons become clear when something is closely examined. What is that “something?”

            Three clues, me hearties:

Glenn Close as Patty Hewes

            What should writers pay attention to in discovering their characters?

            What are therapists looking for when they’re digging around in their clients’ problems?

            What makes the Glenn Close character Patty Hewes on the brilliant show “Damages” so ruthless? (Yes, pirates watch TV. They’re lyin’ if they’re denyin’.)

            Answer?  Motive. Motive. Motive.

           

            Motive is the reason for doing something. And usually, the motive is hidden or not obvious. So why had I become a visual artist? What was my motive?

            Expeditions like this take years. Not ‘til long after schoolin’ or bringing in the doubloons in non-sailin’ jobs did I find the answer. When I finally dragged up a motive from the murky sea floor, there was my truth, aye, staring me in the face like a—

            Ey! What do we have here? A good mate has brought me my lunch, and I fear I’ll have to leave you hangin’. A hungry captain … well, is a dangerous captain.

            So, stay on board. I’ll be getting’ back with ya next week to finish this tale. (Hey, I’m a pirate! What did ya expect?) And I’ll be at the coast for a week of breathing salt air and doing that hated writing, har, har.

            ‘Till then, thanks heartily to the sixty-eight mates who have joined this expedition. You make me proud!

            And ye gentle men and lasses of fortune, stay away from bad motive people, you know, the kind who bring you or others misfortune. Thar are plenty of them on the high seas.

            To our sweet trade,

            Captain Val

Coming Up!

“The Tale, Continued”

“Sink or Swim: the Dangers of the Writing Life”

"The Fountain of Creative Ideas, or Why My Resume Wouldn't Land Me a Normal Job"

 "Platform, Flatform"

... and an interview with Jessica Maxwell of Roll Around Heaven