TRUE GRIT

Image via Wikipedia

"Eight Portraits of Courage! We need room for a Ninth."

Department of Courageous People, & Death With Dignity

I spent the latter part of yesterday afternoon in a meeting. Its purpose was the notarizing of various documents to do with a truly remarkable woman who I shall, for the moment, merely refer to as 'A.' She is a friend, a neighbor whom I have grown to respect and admire. 

She is only in her sixties. She has had an astonishing life. 'A' is not the initial of her first name. I have chosen it because it stands for 'Adventurer.' 

She is, as we speak – bar a miracle - dying of cancer; so the meeting was mainly to do with her will and what she wanted done if she was rendered incapable: 

“Pull the plug!” conveys the essence of her message.  

The affair could have been tense and generally miserable. In fact, it was surprisingly cheerful, largely thanks to A’s vibrant personality – despite her pain – and the presence of another remarkable woman, B., who happens to be the condo president. It also went on much longer than expected because the notary got stuck in traffic.  

I felt very peculiar when I was asked to witness A.’s request to obtain the medication necessary “to die with dignity.” I was brought up a Catholic and to believe that life is sacred. On the other hand, if your cancer is so pervasive and severe that your death is certain within weeks, and your pain unimaginable, don’t you have the right to determine the time and manner of your passing?

I have no doubt at all but that you do. 

I signed willingly; but inside I confess I just wanted to cry. I still do. Death is as normal as sunrise; but we need all the people of courage that we have. Sadly, the world doesn’t work that way.

Today, I feel a true mixture of emotions; but dominating all is a sense of real hope about the human condition. 

We seem to be remarkably inept at the political level, but down in the weeds, where real people live - and die - there is true grit.

TO PLAN OR NOT TO PLAN; THAT IS THE QUESTION: BUT MAYBE IT SHOULDN'T BE

Image via Wikipedia

"Of course, I started with a Business Plan."

Department of Bifurcated Writers, Conflicted Authors & Business Planning

We creative types have a tendency to think of ourselves as somehow apart from the commercial world. We have the notion that whereas business people spend their days doing things that are socially dubious, in pursuit of no higher goal than material gain; we authors, painters, movie makers and the like, are out there pushing the envelope of creativity, wisdom and beauty – while not only entertaining the over-salaried and their wage slaves, but illuminating the human condition into the bargain; and, hopefully, making a buck as well.

In short, we – the under-appreciated and seriously unrewarded – seekers of a higher truth - tend to think of ourselves as the antithesis of business people and, just perhaps (though we mightn’t say this publicly), superior.

Let me cross my fingers: Needless to say, I am too high-minded to ever having been guilty of such intellectual arrogance, but I will admit that for much of my life I have been conflicted about the relationship between commerce and creativity.

Department of Epiphanies and Sudden Flashes of Insight

I certainly prefer to think of myself as a writer but recently, while planning to re-enter the writing arena – perhaps sparked off by the most intensive period of work in my life, and arguably the most enjoyable into the bargain – I have had an epiphany: Not only do I like many aspects of business, but I am convinced that we creative types could learn a great deal from the business world – and vice versa.

In fact, in relation to the latter, I feel that U.S. business is far too important to the community be left to the speculators and dealmakers who currently seem to have a lock on that sector, and would benefit enormously from  leveraging that underused asset, American creativity.

Creativity, when you think about it – and you should think about it – is all about adding value in an innovative way – and is about as entrepreneurial as you can get.

I will be pursuing this theme later, but for now, let me just say that, apart from producing works of originality and genius, we writers might be well served if started off by writing ourselves a Business Plan.

“OVERKILL!” I hear you shout; or maybe the Big One has finally hit Seattle.

No. If you don’t where you are going and have determined how to get there, it is exceedingly unlikely you will succeed.

Friends, fellow authors, creative types and related crackpots, oddballs and misfits, planning can be a creative activity too.

WE ALSO SERVE WHO REWRITE

Image by San Diego Shooter via Flickr

"A battle is fought to be won!"

Department of Excellent Writing Advice

As part of learning how to blog – and these days I sometimes wonder whether I’m not more student than writer (or whether the terms should not be interchangeable), I’m currently subscribing to a number of blogs who specialize in giving blogging advice and advice on writing in general.

I’m not just interested in the specifics of such advice, but how they present themselves in general. Inevitably, there are similarities, but all the good blogs have distinctive personalities.

Today, Walt Shiel, author of VIEW FROM THE PUBLISHING TRENCHES http://www.waltshiel.com  offered a nugget that resonated:

“Begin your writing, fiction or article, where the action begins. This action can be internal (e.g. An important insight or personal decision) or external (e.g. a calamity or key even). Begin too early and you lose your reader. Begin too late and you lose your story.”

Now that is good writing.

Department of Book Doctors

Editors used to do all that that is necessary when it comes to critiquing and developing a book. Unfortunately, with the ever increasing of the corporate ownership of publishers followed by the inevitable pressure to cut costs, the editors of traditional publishing houses rarely have the time to do what may be necessary. 

That is a pity for all sorts of reasons starting with the fact that even the most talented writer cannot bring perspective to his or her own work.

Enter ‘Book Doctors’ who do much the same thing as editors used to but who are prepared to do even more than a commercial editor to save book. Here I refer you to Jason Black at PLOT TO PUNCTUATION  www.plottopunctuation.com  I have neither met Jason, not done business with him; but his site is impressive.

I have done some book doctoring myself, and once spent six exhausting months on a project trying to rescue and restructure a truly excellent book about THE BATTLE OF 73 EASTING. The topic was the famous tank battle that took place in the first Gulf War in 1991. The patient survived and you may read the result as WARRIOR’S RAGE by Douglas Macgregor.  

I should probably have claimed co-author status, but he was the one who had been under fire and had seen his men die so it was, quite rightly, HIS story; and a fascinating one at that. 

We also serve who re-write.

I have to say it is a pretty good book.

FREE-THINKERS GET EATEN

Image via Wikipedia

"I'm an expert, head of my local Tea Party group,
and a pretty good cook. So shut up and listen!"

Department of Fantastic Thanksgiving Dinners

My friend, Chris Carrdus, loves to cook. He says that cooking calms him and wonders why we aren’t all taught to cook well. Good cooking starts with locating superior raw materials – a skill unto itself - largely frees one from the dubious merits of the processed foods industry, and results in a tastier, more nutritious and generally healthier end result.

Yesterday, he produced a perfect Thanksgiving Dinner. We are all in awe.

He believes that if you don’t learn to cook at your mother’s knee, the chances are that one will never learn to cook competently. I fear my situation supports his theory. I am no better than an adequate cook. Food at home was prepared by our housekeeper, a lovely woman, whose culinary skills topped out at frying an egg. Food away from home was the product of my boarding school’s kitchen and no better than one might expect under such circumstances. 

My mother could write, paint, spoke excellent French, was a pretty fair opera critic and a compelling conversationalist but there it stopped. When I once remarked that the food at school, unlike that at home, was, at least, edible, she deployed the full power of her extraordinary personality to render me silent and terrified. But I was telling her no more than the truth. Still, through experiencing the really bad, I have come to truly admire the outstanding. 

Thank you, Chris.

Department of Experts, Witch Doctors & Earthly Gods

When I was young, I had the notion that by a certain age, I would be an expert in something or other, and would have the air of confidence, respect, rewards and defensive armor that go hand in hand with such a lofty status.

Over time, I have seen so many experts in so many fields get it wrong so often that I have become skeptical of the societal convention that causes us to largely accept the pronouncements of experts in an unquestioning manner.

This doesn’t mean that I reject the concept of expertise – clearly there are many people who have considerable knowledge and experience in their own subjects. It is more that I deplore the way so many of us abdicate our ability to think clearly and cogently in favor of the pronouncements and posturings of witch doctors (whether they be business leaders, politicians, medical doctors, academics or the military). In fact, it is a favorite journalistic practice to write something like: “Experts say that …” instead of evaluating the evidence.

It is so much easier to pass the buck intellectually.

Perhaps I would adore the rewards and accolades that come from being inside the club that is a professional association – I’m probably no less venal than most – but I find it very hard to believe that they would equal the satisfaction that one gets through retaining one’s intellectual integrity by thinking for oneself.

Because that is what some of us writers do. And regardless of our circumstances, we love it.

Thanksgiving indeed.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL!

Image via Wikipedia

"Any more eel anyone?

Department of Conflicted Bloggers

Thanks to reading the blogs of a number of extremely talented bloggers – as part of endeavoring to master this curious activity – I now know that blogs, and the paragraphs and sentences contained therein, should be short, content filled, entertaining; and punchy. Nonetheless, I violated the ‘short’ rule with a vengeance this week to write a veritable essay on the U.S. economy which you can read on my companion blog at http://vortitanicnation.blogspot.com  Essentially, it is a 22 point critique of the current predatory, and valueless, American Business Model, which seems to be very good at making the Super Rich richer but very bad at raising the living standards of the U.S. population as a whole. In fact, they are in decline.

In truth, I do think blogs – generally speaking - should be short, and as described, but I do feel there is a need for longer pieces on occasions, and I am somewhat conflicted as to where to put such essays. There are plenty of possible locations – online storage is booming – but not so many where such thought pieces are likely to be read. Currently Scribd www.scribd.com seems the best option, but I’m open to suggestions.

Department of Thanksgiving and Eels

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Though I have had my ups and downs since arriving in the U.S. in 2001 – just in time for 9/11 – I cannot think of a more fascinating time to be alive and writing; so I count myself a very lucky man indeed.

There is a nice piece about eels in the New York Times today. It posits that eels played a significant role in ensuring the survival of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony and suggests that eel rather than turkey should be the “symbol of colonial resilience and gratitude.” In short it implies we should be eating eel today instead of turkey. Now there’s a thought to chew on.

Writers tend to do strange things so I had better confess here that I was once briefly in the eel business under decidedly bizarre circumstances. You can read all about it, and other many other adventures, when MY COTTAGE IN IRELAND appears very shortly.

Enjoy the day.

DEATH OF AN INTELLECT WE ARE GOING TO MISS; DEATH OF AN INTELLECTUALLY COURAGEOUS MAN

Image via Wikipedia

I ARRIVED A LITTLE LATE TO MEET UP WITH THESE GUYS,
BUT THANKS TO BRILLIANT AUTHORS LIKE CHALMERS JOHNSON, MY JAPANESE TRIP WAS A GREAT SUCCESS. 

I prepared for a year before going to Japan to research my second thriller, RULES OF THE HUNT, and it was time well spent. 

It’s a paradox of research, which I have written about before, but the reality is: the more you know in advance, the more people are likely to tell you. They feel that you must be genuinely interested to do all that work, they feel you have paid your dues, and you start the discussion with sufficient knowledge to know what questions to ask, what nuances to pick up, and – especially important in Japan – how to behave.

Chalmers Johnson is dead at 79.

As part of the process I read a great many books and was particularly struck by the works of Chalmers Johnson. Subsequently, I became an even great fan after reading his BLOWBACK  trilogy which documents many of the undesirable consequences of our activities overseas and then moves on to deliver an exhaustive critique of U.S. imperial overstretch which not only generates enemies in itself, but which we cannot afford.

One of the most attractive qualities about Chalmers Johnson, whom I never met except through his writing, was that he was intellectually fearless. He said what needed to be said and the consequences be damned.

He died yesterday at the age of 79.

 .

This is an extract from the eulogy his friend, James Fallows, wrote:

“Johnson -- "Chal" -- was a penetrating, original, and influential scholar, plus a very gifted literary and conversational stylist. When I first went to Japan nearly 25 years ago, his MITI and the Japanese Miracle was already part of the canon for understanding Asian economic development. Before that, he had made his name as a China scholar; after that, he became more widely known with his books likeBlowback, about the perverse effects and strategic unsustainability of America's global military commitments. Throughout those years he was a mentor to generations of students at the UC campuses at Berkeley and San Diego.

Johnson and his wife and lifelong intellectual partner Sheila were generous and patient with me, as I was first trying to understand the world they had studied and analyzed. I vividly remember spending an afternoon in the early 1990s on the sunny patio at their house in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, north of the UCSD campus. I'd moved back from Japan, was working on a book about it, and spent hours writing notes as fast as I could as Johnson described Douglas MacArthur's mistakes and (occasional) successes during the U.S. Occupation of Japan, and why Japan's economy was unlikely to open itself on the Western model, even if U.S. or British economists kept giving lectures about the importance of deregulation. I have never concentrated harder as I tried to be sure to capture his bons mots.”

MUMMY, DADDY! WHERE DO IDEAS COME FROM?

Image by _gee_ via Flickr

A COMPULSION TO
TAKE RISKS.
CLEARLY A WRITER...

Department of The Twins Are In The Tulips

I’ll let you into a secret: mostly ideas don’t come from under a cabbage. Babies, of course, do; as I’m sure you know. I can confirm that for a fact. I’m the eldest of twelve (true) and I remember full well that our garden always featured a healthy crop of cabbages. Mind you, we also grew much else, but I don’t recall any of my siblings being found under the rhubarb. 

Department of Heavenly Voices

Though I’m fascinated by innovation, and have worked with creative people for significant chunks of my life, I don’t profess to understand the creative process to the extent I would like. Then again, perhaps that’s a good thing. Who doesn’t like a good mystery! Nonetheless, this morning I gained an insight into the process. I have been thinking about writing a science fiction novel for some time but had failed to come up with a theme. On the other hand, I had a location – Seattle.  Then this morning, as I was gazing out at the snow falling into Lake Washington, the whole concept came together in a flash and a voice thundered from the heavens: “And don’t forget my byline.”

Did the heavenly voice have an American accent? Doubtless: I don’t recall. But the incident made me realize that one of the ways I assemble a story is by racking up a series of elements on a mental shelf and not worrying about whether they connect or not. 

Time, one’s subconscious and faith does the rest. Here I don’t mean faith in a religious sense but more in the sense of the confidence of a high-wire walker. Somehow, you know that things will work out even though any observer with his or her head screwed on would say that your chosen profession was hazardous, insecure, stressful in the extreme and scarcely conducive to marital stability. 

Yet you persevere because it’s what you do; and you can’t conceive doing anything else. It’s not a job. It's a mission in life. It’s a compulsion - and it is truly satisfying. 

Sounds like writing to me.