Updates on Anything

For some reason Google keeps dropping me from their search list. I used to be able to find my site at the bottom of the 1st page of results when I typed my name into the search field, but then it no longer showed up. Then it came back. Now it's gone again. I have no idea why. A friend of mine says to just wait until Google re-indexes and keep linking to meaningful content. Think Ebay or Yahoo or Google will swap links with me?

My story has started chapter 8. 15.5K words and I just went back through all of them to make the tense more consistent throughout. During the process I also did a fair amount of editing.

A local weekly newspaper has done a review on the book I published last October. You can see a quote from it on my website: www.thejeffhowe.com.
Overall, I thought the review was a good one. The editor of the newspaper read the book from a perspective I didn't foresee happening, but that's the beauty of all this. He did mention to me on the phone and in the review that he thought it was a dark book. I would have to disagree with him there. I think much of it is quite lighthearted. There are some dark pieces, but the book is balanced in my opinion so as not to skew one way or the other.

That's about it for now. Cheers.

To Those Who Still Think Jimmy Carter

is a Noble Human Being: Click Here
He should have stayed with building houses.
It was the only thing he did well.

When Serious Becomes Silly

The Weather Channel's "climate expert" host, Heidi Cullen recently called for the American Meteorological Society to force meteorologists to embrace and espouse global warming (GW) or lose their certification. Cullen's background includes a degree in Near Eastern religions and history, which, in my opinion, gives her the unmitigated Marxist authority to squelch debate in a field where hysteria is swiftly taking over. She obviously feels (FEELS) her most worshipful goddess Gaia is being threatened by our very existence here on earth ergo lockstep (goosestep) is in order. As for the other "scientists" on the GW bandwagon, many receive governmental grants to study the anatomy and physiology of future thinking using MRI imagery or some such frippery. So it stands to reason that if they can bang the gong for global warming long and loud enough, money will spill from government coffers (re: our pockets - do you understand this?) into their pockets and justify their long years of college partying. In other words, FOLLOW THE MONEY!

A Secret of Success

I watched the debut of American Idol last night. Not the entire two hours, a little over half actually. At that point it starts getting tedious to me. I'll probably watch the 2nd "debut" tonight as well, or at least part of it.

I think I have figured out its popularity.

We live in a time where egalitarianism has replaced diplomacy. There are public schools that don't give grades any more because they don't want to traumatize children by giving them what they earn through work and diligence, or lack thereof. I heard a news report not too long ago where a community was considering not keeping score in its school athletics so as to avoid having a winner and a loser. WINNER & LOSER. Those two words are really offensive to many people, especially those in the administration of public education for reasons I have difficulty fathoming.

I have been involved with poetry review websites. These sites allow you to post your poems and receive reviews from other members.. You also read and review poems as well. Egalitarianism reigns on those sites, generally speaking. It would seem that the quality of the writing doesn't matter to many as they effusively praise the ostensible poets' tortured efforts. God forbid you say anything negative about their work. You may then become a target of anger and harassment for telling the truth.

The truth.

Therein lies the conundrum. There is truth. There is absolute truth. Unfortunately it is tossed aside on a regular basis to prevent the denigration of "self-image". I'm not talking about little lies, such as when a wife asks a husband how she looks in a dress and he does his best to let her know that to him she is lovely.

I'm talking about a culturewide phenomenon that puts the feelings of the individual above truth, beyond reality.

I frankly think its all merely projection from those who are establishing the mindset. They project how they would feel if they were told their efforts or abilities are not up to par with accepted levels of performance.

Yet the real world states differently. And that is where American Idol comes in.

Take away the glamour, the hype and American Idol is about weeding through thousands of people with varying abilities to sing in order to find the next marketable star. Yes, it's about money. But it's also about talent, work and ability. Those three qualities are rewarded regularly. If you have the ability to be a good mechanic and you work hard at it, you can make a decent living. Someone will hire you. If you have the skill and talent to be a good artist, people will buy your work. The marketplace is a strong filter that ultimately weeds out mediocrity.

When we don't allow our children to learn how to deal with defeat, we do them a grave disservice. There was a sixteen year old auditioner on the show last night who was a horrible singer and was pretty much told that. He came out of the audition swearing and crying saying that the judges were wrong, they never gave him a chance, he's in actuality a great singer. It was a pathetic response to the criticism he received. But I imagine that through his life he was told that he was great and had a future in entertainment. Perhaps his family and friends are all tone deaf. Maybe nervousness really kept him from performing at his peak. But he was unable to pull it off when he needed to and the show weeded him out.

I have read the blistering commentaries on Simon Cowell's bluntness. There are times when I think he does it as much for effect as anything else. Even so, he has to move the process along efficiently, and that doesn't allow for handholding, reasoning, assuaging feelings, edifying. Why have we become a people that need all that on a seeming hourly basis? Why can't we accept our limitations and either try to improve on them or find something else we are strong at? Is our collective ego so fragile that nothing but praise will suffice?

American Idol takes us back to reality. Because of this, I see it as the ultimate reality show. As long as people hunger for reality, American Idol will be popular.

Flickr Pictures

I have posted a bunch of pictures at flickr.com.

There are pictures of gemstones and mineral samples, some I have unearthed, some I have bought. I collect these for myself, and I occasionally sell them on Ebay as well.

There are pictures of artwork I have created by hand or using Photoshop on the computer. And there are pictures of Raphine, Virginia, a pleasant little town in the Shenandoah Valley. We stop there about every year when we travel to North Carolina to see my wife's parents.

You can see the pictures by clicking here:

Jeff's pictures

Cheers,

Jeff

Book Update

I have finished 5 chapters and it looks like the 6th is getting close to being wrapped up also. I have been averaging about 2400 words per chapter, and I'm trying to decide organizationally how I want chapter 6 to lead into 7. As 6 is entirely, at this point, a flashback chapter providing some background on the main character, I thought I would bring it back to the present in the last few paragraphs. But I'm not real sure at this point.

A newspaper editor who is reviewing my poetry book asked me today if I write every day. I told him not recently as I've been distracted with other things that need to be done. But I thought about his question and I wondered if I said no, does that make me seem like a person who doesn't take the writing seriously.

I've heard of writers who devote a daily portion of time to writing; I guess we've all heard that. But I can't say I've ever heard a professional writer say that he/she writes only when the mood strikes.

I mostly write in the morning before going to work. I'm up between 4 & 5 am, and that is a good time for me to do so. I'm by myself, I don't have to be tending to the wife or kids. It is freedom from obligation, and, therefore, the perfect time.

Anyway, back to the book. Several things have opened up on my in this book, and I'm amazed at how the story takes on its own life. It's as if I'm merely recording something someone else is telling me. Conversations between characters comes pretty easy to create. I get a little bored with the narrative portions where I have to get a character from place to place or time to time. Chapter 6 looks back at the character's divorce and his mom dying. Once I got into it, it flew by pretty quickly as do most of the flashbacks.

Writing a story is an interesting and odd experience. Even if it never gets published, I think the exercise alone was worth it.

Keep the pens ascribbling.

Cheers,

Jeff

What is Poetry?

I have seen many people struggle with this. it would seem that poetry is actually rather difficult to define, yet we can usually identify it when iwe see it. Make sense? I have belonged to several poetry review websites. I currently don't hang my hat anywhere with regards to that, but my time spent at those sites has been interesting.

There seems to be many ideas about what constitutes poetry. There are some who say that if you write something from the heart it is poetry. Well, I can write the words, "I hate my mother!" (in actuality I love my mom, but go with me on this example) and mean it straight from the heart. But I wouldn't call it poetry. Would you? I believe I have seen some people who probably would. Remember, if the criteria is to write something with emotion, then anything should suffice, right? Wrong.

Then there are some people who think that a mish mash of nonsense words thrown together equates to poetry, and there I would disagree again. In fact, I would emphatically state that it is not poetry, but merely people trying to mimic what they believe poetry should be ala abstract art. But what about The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll? As nonsensical as it may seem due to the words coined by Carroll, it is actually a strictly structured poem that creates an thought thread, has a beginning, a middle and an end. It is metered, has rhythm. It is a poem.

Then others may point out the work of E.E. Cummings as a sort of reference for "abstract" poetry. But once again, there's far more to Cummings than meets the plebian eye.

When poets forsook traditional, classic structure and style for more experimental types of poetry, this opened up a whole new world to people who couldn't be bothered to work the meter and rhyme. They justified what they did as good because poetry no longer needed to rhyme, nor did it require assonance or consonance - it could be whatever they wanted it to be. There is a grain of truth to that, but it still isn't necessary poetry. Or if it is, it's not good poetry. The same thing happened with "abstract expressionism" in the art world. With its advent, it freed up people to simply fling paint at a canvas and call it good. You see, it is supposed to reflect something deeply emotional for that person and, as such, becomes sacrosanct. You are not supposed to criticize it. The same holds true with freeverse.

Here's the thing. There is good abstract art just as there is good freeverse. But they still have to follow certain rules to make them effective. Throwing out the rules because one is either unwilling or just too lazy to learn those rules will always be revealed in that person's work. Or should I say lack of work? Because real creativity takes work.

There are essays that can be written about this, probably have been. And I may touch on it from time to time.

Cheers, Jeff

Inspiration Revisited

One thought that comes to mind - when I'm writing poetry, when I'm actually sitting at the computer with an idea that I'm trying to work through with a poem, I like to play solitaire or some mindless game. Just that little bit of distraction from focusing too hard on the piece I'm working on allows me to relax into the zone of creativity.

Doesn't ALWAYS work, but enough to keep me doing it.

Play and write - hey, sounds like a plan!!

Cheers,

Jeff

Update on Book

Chapters 1-3 are complete - there will probably be some editing, particularly of Chapter 1, later on. Chapter 4 is solid, but I haven't hit the wrap up part of it yet. This leaves me with some questions about what to do next with the story line. I have a pretty good grasp about what I plan for plot directions and twists. But I haven't exactly got a route mapped out to get to them.

I think a lof of it has clicked pretty well to this point. The inspirations, though, have quieted down a bit, so I'm doing some others things instead of writing (like trying to fix my dead computer).

I still haven't decided on how long this book will be. I have close to 8,000 words, and I am running around 2.2K words per chapter so far. I have it in the back of my head to aim for 60,000 - 80,000 words total. The one thing I fear is the story running out of steam before then and having nothing but a short story on my hands. I'd really rather have this be feature length.

Wikipedia gives a good idea of word counts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_count

This is an interesting blog on writing books:

http://writinganovel.blogspot.com

Happy New Year and Happy Writing!

Cheers, Jeff

Observations on Inspiration

Inspiration. Where does one find it? In my experience, it usually finds me
instead. Issues, scenes, stories, recollections, anything I respond
strongly to becomes good fodder for writing about. As stated in a previous
post, I saw horses in a pasture on a misty morning and it inspired a poem.
I once wrote a 16,000 word short story called "The Concourse" based upon a
short blip of a dream I remembered having. Another night, I awoke in a
state of heightened fear as I dreamed watching my son drown. It became the
basis for "The Drowning". I read an article on Syd Barret, founder of Pink
Floyd, last year that made me want to write something about him. His story
has a tragic side, for no one ever really figured out if there was linkage
between his LSD usage and mental illness that caused him to leave the group
long before they achieved superstardom. But I didn't write anything until I
saw a magazine article about his death this year. That provided the
catalyst, the impetus, so to speak, to focus the original inspiration back
to my writing. "Ask Dick" was inspired by a story about Teri Hatcher
growing up with sexual abuse. "Why Your Mother Screams" was inspired by a
side note I read about drummer Jim Gordon while reading an online article
about Eric Clapton during his Derek and the Dominoes days.

Inspiration may come in other forms. Forms that are less structured. One
day, the words "fins and chrome" popped into my head from out of nowhere.
This was the result:

Coopdavill

Hurly burly finzenkrome
Coopdavill, she got forize
Three and ninety cubes on tap
Thunder honey, hipsenthize

Doublebull it backlights red
Her top comedown, you gettin now?
Toucher honey seat sosoft
Plushly white with skinocow

Taker to dadrive in spot
Popcorn, soda, neckalot
Coopdavill got finzenkrome
Coopdavill she take you home

©Aug. 2006. All Rights Reserved

I have found that hitting my mid-forties has been sufficient inspiration for
numerous poems about time and aging, as has past love relationships and my
twenty-year marriage to my wife.

Sensations: a turbulent fall day, a warming thaw in the middle of January,
a particular snowfall, or the point where summer gives a hint of coming
autumn. These are terrific motivators to try and capture a feeling in
words.

A song, a book, a political statement, anything it takes to stir the fires
inside is worthy of exploration in poetry.

The story I am currently in the process of writing was actually inspired by
Robert Frost's poem "The Mountain." I wanted to write something with a
similar feel to it, but make the setting the mountains of western Maine.
Frost's style is very prosey, and while I was writing my version of it I
kept getting frustrated at the lack of poetic value it seemed to have. So I
ended up changing it over to prose. In doing so, a myriad of ideas for plot
and characters have opened up to me, and I am quite excited by the
possibilities of the story line.

But inspiration isn't always so kind. It has a way of being absent for long
periods of time. It may also spring out at most inopportune times. It
behooves the writer to always have paper and pen handy to jot down ideas
when that happens. I can't say how many times I'ved missed out on a good
idea simply because it popped in, and then popped out almost as quickly when
I didn't take the time to record it.

There are times I have been able to spark some ideas or inspiration by
actually just sitting down and writing. When I open myself up to flow and
rhythm, I sometimes find concepts following close behind.

But that' s not always the case, and I have found that usually when I try to
write without any good framework established by inspiration and ideas, the
poem really goes nowhere. It gets convoluted as I try to get the juices
going, and, at the end, I find myself rather dissatisfied with the whole
thing. I keep them, though. I archive them because they can be filler in a
book (let's face it, not everything is going to be a masterpiece), or they
may inspire something different later.

These are just some observations on inspiration. If you have any you would
like to add, feel free in the comments section.