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When do you get feedback on a work-in-progress? Never, early, mid-project, as often as possible?

Types of Feedback and When to Get Them

Good early feedback

• Pat on back. Often what you need is just a pat on the back, someone saying, “Good job!” My local critique group does this by just asking people to share good news. You can do this by posting word counts on Facebook or simply telling friends that you’ve finished a full draft of a novel. Those who understand the importance of your writing in your life, will be excited and celebrate with you. And be sure to celebrate your small successes, because the large successes are often few and far between.
• Market evaluation. If your goal is publication, another type of early feedback that is helpful is to get an idea of how your story might fit into the marketplace. This can help you decide if you want to push it to the top of the project list, or bury it. Maybe you’re writing a biography of Hilary Clinton and three just came out. You need to know this because they are your competition; your book must be different and better than those, or it won’t sell.
  
  Sometimes, though, the market analysis and feedback may say you’re a fool for writing this particular story, that it will never sell. And you must say, too bad, it’s my story and I’ll tell it anyway. Even when your attitude is one of passionate commitment, it’s good to know the odds are against you. You’ll work harder, you’ll push yourself to excel beyond your wildest dreams. You’ll look for tiny ways to build the audience for this story, to make readers care more. In short, even a negative market analysis can be the impetus for an successful story. Go on: buck the trends and do your own thing and amaze us all. We’ll love you all the more for being the underdog who succeeds. Just know that’s what you’re doing up front.

Good ongoing feedback, get as often as you like or need

Reader Report. One valuable type of feedback is just a reader reporting on when s/he is engaged with the story, when it loses his/her interest, when s/he is confused, when s/he is bored. This might also include things like, “I didn’t like Phillip when he did that.” These type reader reactions can then be compared to your goals at that point in the story.

One way to ask for this type feedback is to ask trusted readers to pay attention to their mental state as they read the draft and mark the mss this way (Feel free to create your own variation):

• Big C in the margin: I am confused
• Big B in the margin: I am bored
• Big S in the margin: This story is too slow, speed up.
• Any comment jotted in the margin: Anything they want to fuss about.

It is often hard to train a reader to read this way, because everyone wants to solve the story’s problems for you, or they want to mark up every misspelled word. That’s not the type of feedback you’re going for here, though. Instead, you are looking for a reader’s reaction to the STORY itself. Explain to the reader that they are a reader you are Trusting with responsibility for the Story, that you can take care of grammar and such later, but here, you just want them to focus on Story. You just need a reader’s reaction.

Good feedback after first draft

When the first draft is done, now is the time for intensive feedback from other writers or editors. This is the first time you deal with technicalities of storytelling.

• Overall story structure. For many writers, the hardest thing is to see the forest for the trees. Overall story structure is hard because after 50,000 or 100,000 or 150,000 words, how do you step back and see the structure? You can monitor this yourself with a Shrunken Manuscript. Or you can find a critiquer who can see this story of thing.
• Overall feel for voice. Another important critique at this point is whether the storytelling voice is working. Does the voice pull the reader through the story in a compelling way? If not, there’s work to be done.
• Overall feel for character. Does your character come alive for the reader? You need a check on your characterization skills and notes about specific places where it works and where it doesn’t.
• Any other technical issue, for example, how to get in and out of a flashback. At this point, good critiquers will point out a myriad of things that need attention. It could be that the character’s names are off; maybe, you are bouncing around POVs; perhaps, the setting is bland or overblown. Now is the time to get feedback on anything else that occurs to a good critique.

Good feedback after second or any other draft

Ditto. Everything you need on the first draft, you need here.

Good feedback before you submit

• Ditto. Everything you need on the first draft, you need here.
• Copyediting. This is the ONLY time you need a critique to focus on copyediting. You, the writer, should be copyediting through out each draft, so there should be few things to catch here. But it’s good to have someone else go through it now and make sure you haven’t missed anything. Spelling and grammar do matter. Now is the time to take care of it.

Is there BAD feedback?

Yes. Here are a couple types of feedback to avoid.

• Avoid feedback that focuses on the reader’s vision for the story. Often a critique will focus on his/her opinion and not try to understand your vision for a story. Ignore them. This is your story, your idea, your passion—your book. You do NOT have to do what this critique says. Period. Get them out of your writing process and never let them back in.
• Avoid feedback that kills a project. I’ll admit it. I’ve had feedback on stories that meant I put the story away and never looked at it again. The critiquer’s feedback was, literally, deadly. They attacked the very idea itself and made it loathsome even to myself. Maybe they were right, maybe not. Either way, that story will never have a resurrection. Are you as sad about that as I am? I will never let that person critique another story for me. Never.

Value Good Critiquers

For those early readers who manage to be honest and yet encourage, hang onto them. Mention them in the acknowledgment of your novel; publicly thank them. Give them free copies of the published work.

Thanks, Dori, Sue, Kristen and Deborah. You’ve been faithful critiquers for me. I appreciate it.

And thanks, Stephen, for asking about how and when to get feedback.

I’m starting a series of posts about plot this week – as requested. Thanks for popping in or sending me emails with your preference!

Plot and Character are Intertwined

Before I start talking about plot, I have to say something about characters, the people who will be DOING and REACTING to the plot. Obviously, they are intertwined. We all know that. Without some external events, there’s just a character spouting off his/her philosophy of life. Without characters, there simply are no events and no story.

I also know that stories begin many places, but that two common places are with a plot idea or character idea. Yet, I’m easily intimidated by the Character Folks, who insist that good stories must, of course, begin with Character.

I understand exactly what you mean; we read because novels are the only art form which allows us inside a person’s head to experience events with them and to understand life from a different point-of-view. And, in fact, character books are more likely to be considered a “literary” work of art than, say for example, a comedy or an action-thriller.

Yet, your Characters are nothing without events that challenge their very core.

Still the Character-First-and-Foremost Folk intimidate me, probably because I have to work harder at characterization because I’m such a private person myself. When a character wants to give the readers a look at his/her emotions, thought processes (the very things that make novels so unique), my response is, “Wait up.” That means you’re exposing yourself, your privacy might be violated, are you sure you want the world to know all that? Or, it’s just none of the reader’s business, and s/he had better butt out of your life. I struggle to commit the character to paper.

So, here I am talking about Plot or the events of a story and I’m okay with that. But without characters, especially the character’s emotional reactions to the events, all the work on plot is wasted. You can artificially separate these story elements, yet this thing we call a novel is so rich precisely because of how these are woven together.

OK, Plot. I’ll begin tomorrow with a discussion of the three levels of plot: outline, scenes, pacing.

Revising in the Home Stretch

I know what method of working has made the first 2/3 of my mss better. I’m just getting tired.

Don’t get Lazy Now! I’m on the last third. I know that I must rewrite a major scene for a subplot/secondary character climax. But much of these later chapter are in good shape. By now in the story, so much is set, the stakes are established, character arcs and plot arcs are underway, the scenes are focused and full of tension. My inclination is to avoid the work!

But I think it’s still essential to question everything! Runners know you can’t stop until you’ve actually crossed the Finish Line.

Questions I’m still asking myself:
Is this scene essential to the story line?
Is there a better way to present this scene?
Is there a better way to set it up?
Can I raise the stakes?
Is the dialogue snappy enough?
Could the reader possible be confused at any point?
Are the emotions still building?
Are the characters’ actions exciting?
Can I improve the language at any point?
Are descriptions static or full of emotions?
Can I connect scenes in any way?

Of course, each scene presents new challenges, so these are only a few of the concerns at this point. The main problem is to not rush this last section, to slow down and take each scene very seriously, as if this scene might prevent the entire book from working well. It’s very, very hard. I want to be finished! But I’m trying to keep to the working method that worked and trying to keep myself focused and working.

Related posts:

1. Omit Scenes
2. Goal disaster in Novel Revision
3. Compress Novel

"The red liquid was wine, but it shimmered like blood."--from The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I'm sure Stephenie Meyer could be trusted to rearrange this simile into its proper order.

And can we talk about that title for a minute? In my opinion, "The Lost Symbol" is right up there with "When You Reach Me" for unmemorability, and by that I mean my inability to remember it correctly. The Secret Symbol? The Lost Code? When I Reach You? When You Get Here? Some years ago I had similar trouble with the beautiful picture book Night Driving by Jon Coy and Peter McCarty. In the space of one issue of the Horn Book I think I referred to it as Night Ride, Drive at Night and Night Drive Home (oops, that's Joni Mitchell).

A tangential question that came up when we were discussing digital review copies made me pull out my calculator. How much longer are books getting?

I compared fiction for ages 12 and up reviewed in the Magazine in the September issues of 2009, 1999, 1989 and 1979 (October issue; we were on a different schedule then).

Average number of pages in books for teens reviewed in 1979: 151
1989: 157
1999: 233
2009: 337

Now, part of this is the current preponderance of fantasy, which has always tended to run longer--the longest book reviewed in the '79 issue was Robert Westall's (fabulous) Devil on the Road, at 245pp. But when I took fantasy and sf out of the 2009 sample, I still came up with 280 pp. average for realistic YA fiction, almost twice as long as it was thirty years ago.

The success of Harry Potter must take some of the heat for this; another factor could be that YA has gotten older: there is much more published for older high school students than there was even ten years ago. Plus, realistic YA seems more character-driven than it used to be in the old problem novel days, and while this has given the genre undeniable depths, it may also have encouraged a certain amount of yammering on. And people are also blaming the nexus of word-processing, larger lists, and smaller editorial staffs combining to mean less pruning. What else? I suppose we have to consider the possibility that the current crop of Horn Book editors and reviewers likes longer books, but surely you know us better than that.

How to revise a novel and build a career as a noted author – a humorous look

1. Write the first draft of a novel. That should be easy.
2. After a month or more off, reread the novel.



3. Take strong meds for your upset stomach.
4. Highlight every golden word, phrase, sentence, paragraph or emotional moment in your story.
5. Wonder why your entire story is highlighted.
6. Print out fresh copy and try number four again, this time being honest.
7. Remove everything not highlighted.
8. Reread.
9. Rejoice in your extremely intelligent, emotionally touching words.
10. Take the first scene or chapter and reread it. Turn the pages over. Totally rewrite that section. Throw away the old section and never look at it again.
11. Repeat number ten until the entire novel is rewritten.
12. After a month or more off, reread the novel.
13. Repeat numbers 2-12, six more times. Really. Seven revisions with this method is the perfect number. Perfection.
    Note: it is cheating to go back to number one and start the process all over again. To date, I’ve cheated exactly eight times. And I’ve paid a heavy price for that cheating. Please, don’t do it.
14. Send manuscript off to your editor or agent of choice.
15. All of that should have taken you seven years, a year per draft, so you’re now seven years older. While your agent sends out the manuscript to carefully selected editors in a single-submission, exclusive strategy, repeat from number one. Somewhere in there, you’d better pick up bike riding or yoga — or both — to keep your body going while this wonderfully productive career of yours takes off.
16. Finally, fourteen years after that first draft, sign your first contract and send in your second manuscript. And when your editor asks if you can do the requested revisions in seven-and-a-half days, you say yes. Repeat number three before you try to comply.
17. Do the requested revisions in seven-and-a-half hours. Yes, those last fourteen years of apprenticeship have really trained you how to write.
18. Sit back and enjoy your new career! It was a long apprenticeship. But you made it.

Anyone have advice on shortcuts?

Related posts:

1. muttering
2. Surprise Yourself in the First Draft
3. Revisions Take Time

What Age Do you Have to Be to Write a Novel?

The question of the perfect age to write a novel comes up sometimes when I do school visits.

Too young? At what age are you too young to write a novel and have it published? I’ve seen a 13 year old published and published well. .

Too old? And Richard Peck (April 5, 1934 - ) is still writing strong and many say he’s writing his best work now, including this one due out in September.

Basically, you just need to have a story you want to tell and you want to tell it badly enough that you’ll play with words over a long period of time so you get enough words written.

Strategies for Different Ages

But this also means that you must find different ways of working for your stage of life. When I first started writing, I had four kids at home and was home schooling the oldest. I carried around an ink pen to remind myself that when I had fifteen minutes free, I should write.

Today, I go to work at my office and try to work 4-6 hours per day. It’s hard to make myself stop when I come home!

Find a way to work. Find habits that let you work and revise your novel.

Post from: Revision Notes Revise Your Novel! Copyright 2009. Darcy Pattison. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Time to Write
2. Measuring Progress Poll Results
3. Fearless Writing #2

How I Shrunk my Picture Book Manuscript - and Why I’ll Do It Again!

by Lee Wind

At a schmooze of the SCBWI Tri-Regions of Southern California, discussion ranged far and wide, pulling info and tips from many sources. Lee Wind showed a shrunken manuscript of a picture book, complete with glitter, colors and stickers. The report says, “It helped him look at pacing, consistency, internal and external arcs…”

I originally developed the Shrunken Manuscript Technique to help writers see the overall structure of a novel. Here, it shrinks a picture book to a couple pages. I wondered how this is different from using a thumbnail layout, so I asked Lee to explain.

–

Shrink a 530 word picture book manuscript? But it’s already so short!

I wondered if I would actually learn anything at all from the exercise.

I decided to try it anyway, so I could discuss it at the schmooze on revision that I was co-coordinating, having read about the idea, among other places, here at Darcy’s amazing blog!

I made the font size 6pt, changed the margins so all the text would be in a two inch wide column down the left side, and sat down with the printout like an enthusiastic kindergartner with stickers,
highlighters, and glitter dots.

It came out to three pages long. I taped them together, took a ruler and drew a black line where I imagined page breaks.

Shrunken Picture Books, Photo by Rita Crayon Huang

And then I got out the pink highlighter. I drew a square around the
scenes I thought were really GREAT. As you can see, I had three in the beginning, and six at the end, and NOTHING but NOTHING in the middle. (the very bottom was a “key” for myself to explain what all my symbols meant.)

Then I got out these cool pink glitter dots. I put those on scenes
where I got “goosebumps” - scenes that really packed an emotional punch. I had two in the beginning. A big stretch of NOTHING in the middle. And then three scattered at the end.

I was starting to see a pattern.

Then I took out my “tiger” stickers (you know those return address
labels you get for free with nonprofit mailings - the ones with the
photos of wildlife by your name? They’re the perfect size to cut out
and use for this!)

And I put tiger stickers on every scene my antagonist (bad guys)
showed up. There they were, in the beginning and in the end.

I did more stickers, and quickly discovered that the part of my story
that was “working” was actually NOT the part of the story I wanted to emphasize. My “real” main character, in my mind, didn’t even show up in dialog until, um… page 4. See in the photo, that scene that starts off the middle, with absolutely NO pink box, or glitter dot, or tiger sticker? That’s where my “real” main character took center
stage.

Yikes! I was telling the WRONG character’s story.

I also put in stuff about locations, to make sure there were varied
enough possibilities for the illustrator, but really, once I figured out that I needed to re-do the story so it really was the story of my
younger character, I was itching to do a complete re-write.

I think if I had just done a list of my scenes (like an outline) and
worked from that, without shrinking the actual manuscript, I could
have missed this entirely, because my main character - in my mind- was present in the first three scenes, but as an observer. Having the actual manuscript with dialog and everything right there made me
realize she wasn’t really the focus of the beginning of the book, and
that’s a problem I might not have seen so clearly without shrinking
the manuscript.

So, was it useful? Absolutely.

Would I do it again? I’m getting my highlighter and stickers out
right now. Time to shrink the next draft!

Thanks for coming along with me on this virtual shrunken manuscript
journey. And Darcy, thank you for the opportunity to share my
experience with your readers!

Namaste,
Lee

ps- Appreciation to Rita Crayon Huang for the awesome photo of me
holding up my shrunken picture book manuscript at our schmooze on
revision!

Lee Wind is a writer who blogs about Gay Teen Books, Culture and
Politics at “I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell do I Read?“

Post from: Revision Notes Revise Your Novel! Copyright 2009. Darcy Pattison. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. More Shrunken Manuscripts
2. Shrunken Manuscript v. Spreadsheet Plotting
3. Shrunken Mss

Learn to Listen to Critiquers

Listening to critiques is hard!

I have to remind myself that writing is communication, with a writer and a reader. When I get feedback, what I’m really doing is checking to see if I communicated what I wanted to. Well, no. I didn’t.

I have two choices:

• Ignore the feedback. This guarantees that a chunk of readers will not understand my story, my essay, my attempt at communicating.
• Clarify through revision. Revision is the process of clarifying the communication.

For fiction, this means partly that the reader has an internalized concept of story and your story must fit that concept, at least to some degree. You can break expectations, of course, and often the best novelists do, but the novel must fit some of these conventions, or communication breaks down.

Plot holes. The reader’s reasoning process say, uh-oh, that wouldn’t have happened that way. Or, you can’t have that happen at the same time as this other event. Whatever - the story violates the reader’s sense of what is possible.

Character holes. The reader just doesn’t believe this is a person, but just a collection of characteristics. Successful novels put together characteristics, emotions, actions, reactions in such a way that the reader believes.

Feel free to disagree with any and every piece of feedback you get. But only after you’ve listened, and thought, and thought and tried to make sure your communication is reaching your readers.

Post from: Revision Notes Revise Your Novel! Copyright 2009. Darcy Pattison. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Revision: Understanding critiques
2. Feedback
3. When to Ask for a Critique

Writers Plan Around Life Events

Do you plan your writing year? Do you plan a month or a season ahead? How do you deal with stressful periods of life?

I view my writing as my work, something I am privileged to do every day. I do try to plan ahead and make sure I’m accomplishing something. I set goals: this year, I’ll write a new MG novel. In the next month, I plan to block out the plot of that novel and the month after, I’ll write the first three chapter of the novel. Things like that.

But I also find that life has a way of interfering. Novels are emotional stories and I need some modicum of stability in order to do this.

Beyond the issue of deadlines, what I’m passionate about at the time, etc. it seems there are two types of writing times.

Stable and Quiet. This is when I work like mad on a novel, trying to get as much written as I can. Novels seem to need longer stretches of time and they need emotional involvement.

Busy with Events, Stress, Upheaval. This is when I work on speeches, websites, writing lessons, publicity materials, magazine articles — things that don’t take my undivided attention and full emotional strength. Sometimes, picture books can work in here, especially when there’s a day or a couple of calm days in the midst of a busy month.

Do you plan out your whole year? How do you deal with the stressful periods?

Post from: Revision Notes Revise Your Novel! Copyright 2009. Darcy Pattison. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Writing rhythms
2. Turning Life into Fiction
3. Career in Writing

Deborah Stevenson sent me this useful chart.

In my new fascination with readers-as-fans, I've been visiting fanfiction.net, where readers become writers, choosing their own adventures for Harry, Hermione, and Bella (is that name an hommage to Mr. Lugosi?). While the site has more than 350,000 Harry Potter stories and 32,000 Twilights, who would have thought that Tuck Everlasting would have 182?

Here's a taste:

"Fuck that Amy, Give me the bottle." Beatrice had just downed her third shot that night and was reaching for the entire bottle of Jack Daniels as her drunk friends looked on, laughing their heads off. Her alcoholism had just begun that past month. It was two twenty am and she was already high, getting drunker by the second.

She was a victim of unrequited love.

She had fallen into a downward spiral of depression, and only one man could pull her out.

-

Winifred Foster went to work every morning, no matter how hungover she was from the previous night. 7:00am at the local diner, close to where the spring used to be. She was now 107 years old. But to her 'friends' and colleagues, she was 17 year old Beatrice Allen, new to the town of Treegap since a year ago, when she had grown tired of Tokyo. Winnie had dyed her naturally chocolate hair black, and bought some hazel contact lenses to hide her vibrant green-blue eyes. She did this in fear that somebody should recognize her, over time. She kept a low profile, and traveled around a lot, blown off lots of replaceable friends, but she did this because she could not risk the secret of Tuck Everlasting.

The spring had survived, she was still the rightful owner of the wood, she refused to sell it. Even if she had wished to, no buyers would be able to track her down. So many years of aliases, and fake IDs. Her actual identity was a mystery to anyone who wanted to find out. She only faintly remembered the 'Man in The Yellow Suit' now, but he was still there, taunting her somehow. Maybe it was her remorse, for not being there when her mother died, for faking her death and leaving everyone behind. It wasn't her fault she had begun getting older and not a thing had changed. She had no choice but to run. She had a new life to expect then. Now? After nearly one hundred years, and still no Tucks. She had no idea what to expect.

And as she poured some water for a kind gentleman in his booth, she wondered if she could make it another day, in her meaningless existence. She contemplated drinking herself into alcohol poisoning; but 'of course', she thought with a bitter laugh she would never die.

The first U.S. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, a children’s laureate for the United States, will be announced on January 3, 2008 by the Children’s Book Council (CBC) and the Library of Congress’ Center for the Book. The position was created to help raise awareness of the importance of children’s literature, and how children’s books help literacy, education, and the development of children’s lives.

The ambassador will have a two-year term, and was chosen for their contribution to children’s literature, known ability to relate to children, and dynamic and engaging personality, among other things.

This position was inspired by Britain’s Children’s Laureate, which has included Quentin Blake (1999-2001); Anne Fine (2001-3) (who set up the wonderful free printable bookplates for children); Michael Morpurgo (2003-5); Jacqueline Wilson (2005-7); and now Michael Rosen.

I think it’s so important that children are encouraged to read and to love books; books nurture children’s imaginations, minds, and souls, and can offer a kind of friendship, advice, and help when children may not have any around them. So anything that encourages children to read–and that reminds adults of the positive effects of reading–is a good thing. And this feels like a very good thing.

If you want to read the entire press release, including the people on the committee who selected the ambassador, and go here.
I’m assuming there’s more information on www.cbcbooks.org as well, but right now their site is down.

What can we say? Support the work of Tia Chucha. This event sounds great! I'm only celosa I'm in Chicago and not Califas!


Lisa Alvarado

Manuel Ramos



PROVOCACIONES: LETTERS FROM THE PRETTIEST GIRL IN ARVIN by RAFAELA G. CASTRO
Last week Daniel Olivas mentioned this book and I wanted to give it a bit more attention. It's a new work from Chusma House, the respected publishing enterprise of Charley Trujillo (Soldados) that offers fine literature sometimes overlooked by readers and reviewers. Here's the announcement from Chusma House about Castro's intriguing book:

"A collection of sensitive essays that depict the lives of a close knit Mexican family living first in Arvin, in the San Joaquin Valley, and later in the San Francisco Bay Area. These insightful, loving, guilt ridden, and at times very sad narratives, reveal the religious, moral, cultural, and ethical values of a young girl raised in the 1950s and 1960s in a Mexican Catholic working class home. We are told stories about a special Mexican mother-daughter relationship; about loving one’s family but needing to leave it; about living in another country and loving it; and about the role of the Peace Corps in the lives of young Americans of the 1960s. The essays cover the years from the late 1930s, when the author’s parents married and came to California from New Mexico, to the 1990s when their lives ended. In between those years their special marriage experienced intense love and intense tragedy."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
"Rafaela G. Castro was born in Bakersfield, California, but has lived most of her life in the San Francisco Bay Area. She spent two years in Brazil with the Peace Corps before receiving degrees in English Literature, Library Science, and Folklore from the University of California, Berkeley. She has lectured in Ethnic Bibliography and Chicano Studies at UC Berkeley, and recently retired from the Humanities/Social Sciences department of Shields Library at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of Dictionary of Chicano Folklore."


CHILDREN'S STORY WORKSHOP
The Aurora Central Library and the Colorado Authors League presents another workshop in the CAL Speaker Series, "I Wrote (or Have an Idea For) a Children's Story - Now What?" CAL speaker Denise Vega is author of, among others, Click Here (To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade) (Little, Brown & Co. Books for Young Readers, 2005) and Build A Burrito (Cartwheel Books, Scholastic, 2008). The workshop takes place at 6:00 p.m., March 29, Aurora Central Library, 14949 E. Alameda Parkway, Aurora, CO. The event is free, but please call 303-739-6626 to reserve a space.

CALL FOR CHILDREN'S LITERACY VOLUNTEERS
Friends of Food For Thought, a children's literacy group that works with low-income youngsters in Denver, is recruiting volunteers and board members.

The organization has been in existence for about 14 years. Find a short description at http://www.ffft.org/

The board usually meets the second Wednesday of the month from noon to two p.m. in Denver.

Volunteers can work on developing participants for and planning book drives, fund-raising, marketing, and events.

For more information, Bonnie F. McCune, Library Community Programs Consultant


WHAT I'M READING NOW
One of the books resting on the small table next to my bed is Murder & Other Acts of Literature, edited by Michele Slung (Book-of-the-Month Club, 1997). I picked up a pristine copy of this short story anthology at Miss Prothero's Books on Santa Fe Drive here in Denver. (Check out this store the next time you are cruising the West Side, visiting the Museo de Las Americas or the art galleries, including CHAC, or grabbing a bite to eat at El Noa Noa or El Taco de Mexico. It's address is 1112 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204, 303-572-2260.)

The basic idea for the collection is that the crime fiction was written by authors not necessarily recognized as crime fiction writers. That attracted me immediately -- here was an opportunity to stretch my understanding of several writers. This book provided a chance to read mystery and detective stories by authors I respect but who are not usually associated with those genres. And what a lineup: John Cheever, Eudora Welty, Naguib Mahfouz, Alice Walker, Isak Dinesen, Louisa May Alcott, William Faulkner, Isabel Allende, Gabriel García Márquez, Virginia Woolf and fourteen other esteemed and honored writers from around the world. For a reader this type of collection is a treasure, something to linger over while propped against a pillow with a book light the only illumination in an otherwise pitch-dark bedroom. And linger I have, limiting myself to one story each night, no matter how tempted I am to flip the pages from the James Thurber piece to the Rudyard Kipling story.

I haven't finished the book so I can't say which of the stories will turn out to be my favorite, but Mahfouz, García Márquez, Allende and Woolf so far have set a pretty high bar (no surprise, right?) The Mahfouz story, By A Person Unknown, is a troubling, ambiguous detective story centered on a serial killer whose crimes are works of heinous art. Perfect and cold-blooded, the killer appears to have no motive for his cruelty; he leaves absolutely no clues nor does he make any mistakes. He appears seemingly out of nowhere and leaves the scene untouched, undisturbed except for the blood and protruding eyeballs of the strangled victims. The horror mounts and normalcy becomes a lost ideal. The detective, Muhsin, grapples with trying to solve the crime but he realizes that, essentially, such acts of violence can never be solved, they can never be explained. Where is the reality in that?

Miss Forbes's Summer of Happiness by García Márquez is creepy. How's this for an opening line: "When we came back to the house in the afternoon, we found an enormous sea serpent nailed by the neck to the door frame." A classic tale of misdirection, the ending surprises the reader who can only say, "Yeah, that's it."

Monk is quintessential Faulkner, almost Gothic in its tone, while Allende's An Act of Vengeance reads like a Shakespearean tragedy with a depressing but romantic Latina twist.

Ah, nothing like a good murder story to stir up the literary juices. As the editor says in her Foreword: "Murder and Other Acts of Literature implies what we already know, that the pen can be lethal and that the book is indeed a blunt instrument. Thus, when those wielding these weapons are among the world's greatest and most honored literary figures, what more desirable fate than willingly, for a few hours, to allow oneself to become a victim of their artistry?"

MARKETPLACE WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU ABOUT BUSH'S RECENT TRIP THROUGH THE AMERICAS
Joellen Easton of the public radio program Marketplace sent in the following survey that she thought some readers of La Bloga might want to answer. She invites you to answer questions on their website, found here. Here's her message.

What was the impact of President Bush's Americas trip? Was this all political theater? Or do you expect Bush’s trip to affect your life or the lives of other Latinos in the U.S.? What do you expect to happen as a result of the trip? Share your insights with us. The trip highlighted some tensions between the U.S. and its neighbors to the south. Bush and Chavez's dueling tours underscored their ongoing tug-of-war for influence in the region. In Mexico, president Felipe Calderon pressed Bush for U.S. action on comprehensive immigration reform focused on creating jobs, not a fence. What do you make of the Bush visit, and what it means for relations between the U.S. and Latin America?

Joellen Easton
Analyst, Public Insight Journalism
MarketplaceMarketplace Money
American Public Media


Finally, the answer to the question I asked a few weeks ago is Jack Kerouac. If you don't remember the question, you can find it here.

Later.