The Writer Makes It... Sort Of

I attended my first meeting of a critique group this past week. I sort of put it together by throwing an invite out to the Austin WriterGrrls, a group of which I am a member, and two women responded. We met over some very good food and exchanged notes and ideas on our respective pieces.

I was concerned that sensitive little old me would not take kindly to constructive criticism, but I was wrong. I found their notes so helpful, and true! Sure, I may not always agree and I may not take every suggestion, but it is great to have someone point something out to you that you, as the writer, just couldn't see.

In other EXTREMELY EXCITING YET TOP SECRET news, I have been offered a reading/signing event at a bookstore. Like a real author. I guess "offered" is not the proper term since I approached them, but they have enthusiastically accepted. The catch? It's the damn story I wrote using my pen name. Which means my alter-ego gets to have her own party, and I don't. Which means I can't even tell you the details here or invite any of my friends.

Ms. ------ is going to become famous at this rate, while April Boland remains a hack. Cruel irony.

If it wasn't my life, I'd find this incredibly amusing.

TSS Week 7

Do libraries make anyone else weak in the knees? I have been spending a lot more of my time there lately and I find that it is comparable to a meditative act.

Anyway, I suppose that rather than being the year I read dangerously, this is the year that I read choosily. For some reason I am finding it much easier to drop books that I'm not into. This past week I said goodbye to both War of the Worlds and My Antonia. I was about 1/3 into WW and 1/2 into My Antonia, but I couldn't take either anymore - they both bored me. I am secure enough in myself to admit this, though these are both deemed classics.

In other news, I finally started reading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. This book was recommended to me years ago by a college classmate who swore by it. The only Vonnegut I've ever read is Slaughterhouse-Five but that was enough to make me a fan. Cat's Cradle is odd - naturally - but I like it!

I also took a short Italian novella out of the library in order to brush up on my language skills. It is called La strada che va in città or The Road to the City. It has been pretty readable so far, and quite enjoyable. The author, Natalia Ginzburg, was Palermitana like the part of my family featured in my novel :)

I was rereading an old meme, thinking of tagging stu with it, when I realized that the following:

Have you ever written based on artwork you’ve seen?

No, I haven't, but that's an excellent idea.

...is a lie. I once wrote a poem about Giacomo Balla's "Abstract Speed + Sound."

Last night I wrote the epilogue to my novel. Felt kind of silly considering I have not even cracked 3,000 words yet, but it came to me and I jotted it down. Maybe it will come in handy.

I formed a writing critique group with two other women, and we are supposed to meet next week. I have never been involved in one before because I am sensitive (read: scared), but it is a necessary step. I hope it goes well and we all get a lot out of it.

I received my copy of the book that shall not be named (the one I contributed to with a pseudonym) last month. It looks amazing and I am so proud to be a part of it. The publishing company and I have been trying to get the word out to editors, even making myself available for an interview. No one has bit yet, except for one local magazine, and they only have room for a blurb. *Shrug* I'll take it. I want the book to do well because the proceeds go to charity, and besides, I don't exactly need the exposure under a fake name. Still pretty exciting though. Cannot wait for the big publication party.

The Writer Develops Tunnel Vision

I have become totally consumed by my novel. I guess that is a good thing, what a novelist should aspire to, right? Not only have I jumped head first into my research, planning and actual writing, but I am refreshing my grasp of the Italian language. No one in my family speaks it and it is a mark of pride for me that I do, so I do not want to lose it through laziness and lack of practice. Ci vediamo!

Other news: well, not much, as I just said that I am consumed by my novel :) Actually, the Good Life editor offered me the opportunity to write a follow up on my domestic violence feature. After a bit of a rest, I am going to take him up on it. Exciting!

TSS Week 6

I had a fantastic experience this week - I got to see Anne Lamott. I randomly decided to read her book, Grace (Eventually), last week, having no idea that she would be in town to talk about it. (I wasn't aware that it was her most recent work.) When I saw the flier for the event, I was completely surprised (and jazzed).

This is the first time I have seen her and she was great - a very funny and compelling speaker, just like her writing. She took questions from the audience, and I had the opportunity to ask her something I have always wondered while reading her work, which is what kind of criticism she receives from mainstream conservative Christians and how she deals with it. She spoke of extreme hostility with previous book releases that seems to have died down now. It seems she is just comfortable with herself, even her uncertainties, and that is enough for her. I think she is a brave, special woman.


Here are some Grace (Eventually) quotes that I found meaningful:

"Being human can be so dispiriting. It is a real stretch for me a lot of the time."

"...it really is easier to experience spiritual connection when your life is in the process of coming apart. When things break up and fences fall over, desperation and powerlessness slink in, which turns out to be good: humility and sweetness often arrive in your garden not long after."

Dishonesty

I am getting sick and tired of these writers who publish fake memoirs. Does no one have any integrity anymore? If you are a great fiction writer, then fine, there's a market for you. There is really no need to make up outlandish autobiography material. You wreck the credibility of all writers when you do this. If I want to write a memoir that contains an incredible (true) story or two, one that could really change someone's perspective, I now run the risk of not being believed because of Gentiles who claim to have been raised by wolves while escaping the Nazis and suburban white women who want to be gangbangers.

Many writers like myself have a great deal of respect for our craft, that's all I'm saying.

TSS Week 5

I finished the Secret Garden this week and just loved it! (I have been having a lot of luck with these children's books lately.) It is an inspirational story that highlights the beauty and power of nature, as well as, to borrow a phrase, the power of positive thinking. For example, here is a great quote that I noted down:

"Much more surprising things can happen to any one who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place."

While the ending was predictable and obvious long before, it still packed an emotional punch. All in all, this novel was a joy to read.

Feeling that I had lost the magic of putzing around library and bookstore shelves for random finds, I spent some time looking around my local library this past week. I wound up taking a copy of Stephen Ambrose's To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian home with me. I am really enjoying it! I have loved American history since elementary school but haven't read much of it in recent years. This book is very approachable and engaging. (As a literature person, I often find nonfiction, particularly histories, extremely dull.) Ambrose makes some arguments that are more conservative than I am used to hearing and believing, so it is interesting to hear a new view and figure out what I think about it. Can't seem to put this one down.

Skimming tons of books on Italian immigrants who came to America in the late 19th century, as my primary novel is based on a true story involving my great-great-great grandparents who came here. Research is more fun than I thought it would be, though I don't want to speak too soon because it's early yet :)

I am also still completely captivated by the Fables series, having read volumes 6 and 7 this week.

Happy Sunday Salon everyone!

C. Hope Clark writes in her FundsForWriters newsletter:

The serious writer:

• writes regardless of the circumstances
• rewrites until he can't stand to look at the words
• rewrites more until he adores his words and wonders how the heck he ever wrote that first draft
• would like to earn money as a writer but won't stop writing because he can't pay the rent from the income
• is in no hurry to publish a great story
• doesn't submit not knowing if the story is good

I am quite frustrated with my hosting service. My website, AprilBoland.com, has been down for a week, though it has always been maintained and paid for. The thing that bothers me is how it might hurt my credibility. The last thing I need is editors finding an "expired" site through my link. Voice mails and emails haven't helped yet. BlueFish Hosting, you disappoint.

In other news, I really got a handle on my second (and now primary) novel. If anyone pays attention to the word count bars on the side of this blog, you will have noticed that after a very long dry spell, I wrote 1,100+ words of novel #2 on Sunday. My boyfriend and I spend a lot of time reading, writing and lounging in local coffeehouses, and we found one on Sunday that was so comfortable and great that I let loose a barrage of inspiration. It was pretty exciting, after all this time of banging my head against the wall.

In order to keep my momentum, I scoured the shelves of local libraries for appropriate books so I can research both the time period and the various psychological aspects of my characters. Wish me luck.

I leave you with a great quote from Suzanne Harrison that I found in my Worldwide Freelance Writer newsletter this morning:

"If you want to be a professional writer, earn your living as a writer, and succeed and prosper as a writer, then you must treat your writing as you would any other business, or professional service. Set your writing hours, and keep them. Don't wait for the muse to strike. Get up every day and write, regardless of what you're thinking or feeling. How would your boss respond if you didn't bother turning up for work? Would he understand that you "just don't feel like it today?" No, I didn't think so. So why do you treat your writing any differently?"

Poet #5: Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Rich: her work is balm to the feminist heart.

"Nothing can be done
but by inches. I write out my life
hour by hour, word by word
gazing into the anger of old women on the bus
numbering the striations
of air inside the ice cube
imagining the existence
of something uncreated
this poem
our lives"

"It is strange to be so many women,
eating and drinking at the same table,
those who bathed their children in the same basin
who kept their secrets from each other
walked the floors of their lives in separate rooms
and flow into history now as the woman of their time
living in the prime of life
as in a city where nothing is forbidden
and nothing permanent."

"I dreamed I called you on the telephone
to say: Be kinder to yourself
but you were sick and would not answer"

TSS Week 4

I am at a crossroads with the Decameron. While the tales are interesting, I'm just not into reading a long book of various tales right now. I need a plot, a story with main characters to keep me going, and the storytellers just aren't doing it. I hate to put aside another My Year of Reading Dangerously title - making myself look like a wuss here - but I must. I am having a selfish period right now; having just completed my degree in literature, I just want to read what I want. I am having an adverse reaction to heavy "classics." So, that's that.


While I am continuing along with Fables volumes, I decided to try another critically acclaimed graphic novel, which led me to Blankets by Craig Thompson. I found it on Time's list of top graphic novels. It was 600 pages long but I finished it overnight. Fantastic. His descriptions of an intense fundamentalist Christian upbringing rang true with me, and the tale of young love is, at once, both sweet and realistic. Great read, I would definitely recommend it to graphic novel fans.




I finished another incredible book this week: Rosemary Daniell's Confessions of a {Female} Chauvinist. I haven't enjoyed a book of essays like this one in a very long time. Daniell writes about everything from being one of the only females working on an oil rig to her relationship with a renowned Southern poet who also happened to be an alcoholic and a narcissist. Daniell is an interesting breed of feminist - she quotes statistics on sex discrimination in employment, for example, but she also admits that she likes to wear pink clothing and high heels and date stereotypically macho men. She is a modern day Southern belle who has broken the unspoken rule among Southern women: "Do what you want, just don't tell." (I'm paraphrasing.)




Lastly, I finished French Women Don't Get Fat, and if you're interested in my thoughts, you can read them over at the Feminist Review.