Positive Attributes

Last week, my husband and I were waiting at the fish counter at our local grocery store. The large man in line ahead of us was taking an inordinately long time to make up his mind about his purchase. While he dithered, we looked over the selection of fish, deciding we would go with a nice piece of wild caught salmon, just the right size for the two of us to share. Mr. Big was given the piece of sea bass he'd chosen, and we were all set to place our order. But wait . . . Mr. Big wasn't finished. With a slit-eyed glance in our direction, he told the man behind the counter he wanted more. Yup, he took the piece of fish we'd been foolish enough to admire within his range of hearing.
I wish I could say he didn't do it on purpose, but that glance he'd given us told me otherwise.

One of the criticisms I receive most often about my stories is that the people I write about are so unlikable. I'm going to endeavor to change this. With effort, perhaps I can cross the threshold of world-weary cynicism and actively search out positive attributes in my fellow human beings. Maybe then I can create characters who are kinder, more capable of generating sympathy. But jeez, with guys like Mr. Big lurking about, that is a tall order.

One Good Man

This photo comes from a free data base, but it is uncannily like the image I have in my head of a particular fire station in Indiana. (W.L.--West Lafayette?) One hot July day, my mother and I stopped  there to see Uncle Ray at work. He and three other men were sitting out front on aluminum lawn chairs, playing cards at a rickety old table just in front of the blue chair in the photo above. I was nine or ten, much more interested in my popsicle than in whatever the grownups were jawing about. Until the alarm went off. To this day, I've never seen people move like those guys did. Probably under a minute to clear away table and chairs, don their gear, and speed off on a screaming truck.

Ray crossed that mightiest of all thresholds last week, just shy of his 86th birthday, which would have been tomorrow, April 19. My cousin, Nancy, wrote to tell me about his funeral: "All the active firefighters on duty Sunday night came to the viewing in their uniforms. . . one station after another. The Last Alarm was done by the Chief and about 60 firefighters, active and retired. I had never seen a tribute of this nature except in the movie, BACKDRAFT."
Nancy also described the ride to the cemetery, past fire stations where all the trucks were out with their lights rotating and the men were standing at attention. I would like to have been there, but I am happy with my own special memories:
Green grapes in Tupperware containers. More than once, Uncle Ray drove to Chicago to pick up my mother, me, and my brother. Mom didn't drive, and he was that kind of generous. Aunt Bev always packed up grapes, which my cousins and I ate all the way down I-65.
Fire trucks. In every conceivable form. Real ones, toy ones, old ones, new ones. I never see a fire truck without thinking of Ray.
Blue jeans, black shoes, and white crew socks. Uncool in the mod 60s, but Ray's iconic fashion statement made a lasting impression on me. Eat your heart out, Ralph Lauren.
Red velvet cake. Okay, maybe this was Aunt Bev's specialty but, often as not, it was made at Uncle Ray's request. They were into red velvet (the real deal, not some poncy mix) decades before anyone in NYC had ever heard of the stuff.

I'll miss Ray's smile, the genuine twinkle in his eyes, and the soft drawl I still associate with grownups talking late into the summer night while I slept on the pull-out couch in Grandma's living room. He was a truly good man.

Revision #2--Done

Just finished a revision of Twelve Thousand Mornings, the sequel to The World Undone.  90,520 words. No illusions--there are more revisions ahead, but maybe I won't start them until next week. I had plans to work on other projects today, however, there's something about finishing a revision that makes me want to goof off, read other people's books, take a nap, binge watch Mad Men, and eat chocolate cake.

Vive L'imagination!

Feeling sorry for myself because everyone is out of town, escaping the wretched weather (yes, more snow in Chicago tonight). Writer's imagination to the rescue: this morning, with a little help from Fresh Market, I shall be having breakfast in Paris.

Winter 2014

A threshold I'm not so keen to cross. An article in the Tribune this morning said we adapt to the cold after constant exposure so that 30 degrees in November feels much worse than 30 degrees in February. Hmmph.
I'm trying to make the best of it by focusing on the good parts of a cold, snowy winter: hot chocolate, burrowing under thick blankets, escaping into a novel set in Jamaica or India, relishing comfort foods like mac and cheese, split pea soup, cassoulet. Given that 50% of that list involves high-calorie food, and that the weather is not conducive to exercise, it's no wonder the old jeans are a bit snug.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of things useful to the writer in these arctic days. I've been keeping a weather log because come July, I will have (blissfully) forgotten the details of things like ice around the inside of the front door, the shredded wheat dryness of my skin, and static electricity that jolts me every time I walk across the carpet in wool socks to touch a light switch.
There's also that intriguing theory of adaptability. In addition to frigid temperatures, what else do we become so inured to that it ceases to be something we view as problematic? We might have to shrug off the winter weather, but too much of the time it seems we just accept corrupt politicians, greedy corporate entities, a broken health care system, the disenfranchisement of large portions of our society . . . the list is endless, and the stories are limitless.

The New Year

2014 it is . . . and has been for two weeks. To the left is one of my fave photos, taken in Ireland in 2010. Nearly four years ago now, and yet another indication of how time slips by too quickly. Wasn't I there just a few weeks ago? The image is perfect for illustrating the threshold, the theme (and definition) for Liminalesque, and who doesn't have a sense of moving to a new space as we enter a new year?
For me, new stories, new adventures, and new characters await discovery, along with a few old friends who are hanging around looking for excitement. The first draft of the sequel to THE WORLD UNDONE is finished, and the revision process has started. Here's to Lamott's words of wisdom on "shitty first drafts", to the new year, and to crossing another threshold.

Forging Ahead

If you read this blog, you know I do a lot of thinking while I'm walking Woki. Two weeks ago, our regular walk route found us near the finish line of a bicycle race. Not so unusual along this beautiful stretch of the North Shore. We didn't pay much attention to the colorfully suited hordes streaming past us at ridiculously fast speeds. On a walk, Woki doesn't care about anything but squirrels, and this day, I was completely preoccupied feeling sorry for myself over typical writer-angst stuff. A story I'd worked hard on had been rejected, another one had gotten filleted in a critique group, and the novel-in-progress wasn't progressing. Poor, poor, pitiful me.
A mile or so down the road, we came across one of the bikers, sidelined with mechanical problems. She had almost made it to the finish line, only to have a flat tire ruin her day. I got to thinking about the hours and hours she put in training for this event, and how sad it was to have it spoiled at the last minute. Sounds a lot like writing. Spend hours and hours working on a story only to have it ripped to shreds in a fifteen-minute critique, or summarily discarded by an editor after a five-minute read-through. Woki and I stopped for a moment to talk to her and offer our sympathies. As so often happens, I got more solace and inspiration from the encounter than I could offer.  The biker, whose name is Antoinetta, smiled and shrugged as she said, yes, she'd spent months preparing for the race, but what can you do? Next time would be better.
The older I get, the more I realize that there really does seem to be some sort of ying yang, and for every crappy thing that happens, something good comes along to balance it out.
Did I mention that last week THE WORLD UNDONE was chosen as a finalist for Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year?