Freelance Travel Writing

I'm considering doing some freelance travel writing for WT next year--probably in Uruguay (they're looking for South America). I don't have any writing samples yet, but I could write up a few when I visit Europe with the family, just for sampling. I could also offer to send some when I'm in Europe next month. I think it's good that I have a lot of future promise (with my education in French coming along) for travel writing, so I'll emphasize that too, I think. Right now I'm looking at LonelyPlanet, but let's see where else I could possibly apply. This is exciting. I'm seriously considering it.

The Naked Diner, etc.

So, I finished my short story called The Naked Diner! Thank God I got away from the sci-fi theme--it was headed in that direction, and that genre never works well for me because I'm not original enough. So, for this week, I have left (1) Benedetti translations, (2) finish reading Orlando by Woolf, (3) start screenplaying work on SOAP, and (4) work on some poems, if I can. Next week, botany story! (And continuing screenplaying work on SOAP.)

Here's a bit of The Naked Diner:

“Have you selected what you’d like yet, sir?” She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, but it might just be because she’s nude. In fact, I’m sure that’s the reason, the mix of her brash nudity, showing all she’s got to give, and her polite stance, quiet voice, use of the word, ‘sir.’ I’ve never seen anything like that before. She’s the purest woman I’ve ever seen, because she’s got more to hide from me than any other woman. She gives herself last, her body first. And she’s blonde. I’ve always had a thing for blondes.

Well, I guess I'll get to the Benedetti later today. Right now I'm working on a short story called, 'The Naked Diner,' which is exactly what it means (although, with some sort of existentialist doubt, etc, black coffee, missing shoes..etc.). The Virginia Woolf is amazing, and will be a great thing to read for the botany story--so I'll have to get back to the botany story next week, as I imagine I'll be finished with Orlando by the end of this week. Work, as my boss is not here, is even less work than it even was. Which is why 'The Naked Diner' is coming along so smoothly, and why I might have a story and some translations done by the end of today.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being narration-style is getting to be annoying. The overbearing-author thing isn't subtle enough for me, and this guy is so contemporary that you'd assume that he might have figured out what he was doing...I'm more forgiving if that sort of stuff happens with, say, Thomas Hardy, because he hasn't had as many authors he's been able to read...You must always expect more from newer writers, even though, quite unfortunately, they're the ones who usually end up being worse. But, anyway. Now I've decided, again, to change SOAP into a screen play.

Europe...Among Other Things

My plan: while on vacation in Europe with the family, I will write one short story every day, or a poem--although poems usually take much longer than a day for me, but we'll see what I can do. I'll edit everything on the planeride back, then I'll be back a day, and then off to France for study-abroad. (I don't understand the logic of traveling thusly, but my parents affirm it's the best thing to do.)

I've been meaning to write a poem lately, so let's see if that happens...perhaps I will just do the Benedetti translations instead, as I had been planning to do this weekend anyway...Translations always help my writing in general, though, so perhaps I'll work on a poem and some of the botany story after working on the translation. So, this weekend, I should start revising SOAP, and do somewhere from 1-10 Benedetti rough draft translations (this is of poems--not prose).

I'm basically halfway through The Unbearable Lightness of Being, so I can probably get that out of the way soon. Metro rides make a great thing for reading. It's a touching subject, but I think that's more on a personal level than with the actual level of the writing. Too bad it's a translation, I can sense so terribly how much is lost there. Perhaps I'll learn Czech after French? We'll see how quickly I learn French. I'm advanced in the language lab and in the homework thus far, so I'm doing some outside reading from books my brother has lent me (he took French in high school and has a bunch of books). I should have known that French would consume me this way. The same thing happened with the English language, and that's why I read so much; it took such great effort for me to learn it, and language has seemed so powerful since then.

I would like to add, this blog has made a huge difference in my writing: not just how much I write (which has expanded), but just, how I feel about writing, how much I read, and how confident I feel about the whole thing. I recommend it to anyone who takes writing seriously.

I'm putting in an excerpt from The Unbearable Lightness of Being, because I've been meaning to since I started reading it:

Cemeteries in Bohemia are like gardens. The graves are covered with grass and colorful flowers. Modest tombstones are lost in the greenery. When the sun goes down, the cemetery sparkles with tiny candles. It looks as though the dead are dancing at a children's ball. Yes, a children's ball, because the dead are as innocent as children. No matter how brutal life becomes, peace always reigns in the cemetery. Even in wartime, in Hitler's time, in Stalin's time, through all occupations. When she felt low, she would get into the car, leave Prague far behind, and walk through one or another of the country cemeteries she loved so well. Against a backdrop of blue hills, they were as beautiful as a lullaby.

For Franz a cemetery was an ugly dump of stones and bones.

Socrates on a Plane (again!)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being has taught me that it's okay to have a narrator who's overbearing, as long as you give the rest of the characters enough credit. So, I'm going to give SOAP another chance at being written in prose. That said, I have to basically rewrite the entire thing. That is, have the text next to me, but have a completely new word document opened on my computer. I'd really like to work on the old typewriter if possible, though...I'll see how much it costs to get that thing fixed.

Experiments in Ethics

Experiments in Ethics (by Kwame Anthony Appiah) was an amazing book. It was a fast read--it's not too long--but very engaging, complex, and like a piece of art, better the more you applied from the outside world to the text. I just finished it now during work (instead of looking up information on Uruguay...well, while looking up information on Uruguay...). I did extend my coffee break, and read it on the Metro, but no matter! It is finished, so all my intense reading today was totally worth it.

The entire time I referred to Appiah as a she, and I could never figure out why, and it turns out he's gay (looked him up on Wiki!), so, as Alyssa puts it, "That's probably why you thought he was a girl." Now I'll be connecting him to Michael in my mind all the time, because I miss Michael very much, but that will make my appreciation of his work even more awesome, so it's a good thing. I was very moved by the book as a whole, and was almost moved to tears this morning, but it's not a very appropriate thing to do during a coffee break, especially in front of a cafeteria full of employees. It felt like a mix of philosophy, very fun journalism (a la Freakonomics, a la The Omnivore's Dilemma), and literary criticism.

The entire book centered around ethics, but did so in such a way that it would show the faults in many ways we look at ethics, and then show that these faults, once we are aware of them, allows us to better our ethical views. The way he played around with ethics was absolutely wonderful, and it makes more sense now to know that, other than being affiliated with philosophy, he's affiliated with comparative literature and translation. I'm considering e-mailing him and letting him know I'm a fan, and that I'd love to talk about the criss-cross between comp lit and philosophy. This is especially important because many consider the two to be quite opposite one another (i.e.- East v. West dichotomy), but once you bring cosmopolitanism into the picture, the exact opposite happens, and there are many things the two subjects have in common with one another. (Come on. Everything relates back to philosophy.) I'm also apparently, for a while, the only person at school to double major in Philosophy and Comp Lit, so it'd be good to talk to someone who's a big fan of both (even though, Prof Deppman is big into philosophy and literature--but he focuses on continental philosophy, mostly).

This book, and George Michael's song 'I want your sex,' have made work today quite wonderful.

Benedetti Translations

I think I'll start some poetry translations of Benedetti this weekend. That'll help me get into his voice...I should really read La Tregua, I've decided, but that'll have to be not this week, since I have to finish the Appiah, and begin and finish the Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Submission!

Well, I offically submitted to another contest, and I just did that...good thing I did, considering the contest is over at midnight XD. It's through New Millenium Writings (www.writingawards.com), in case you're curious about that. I submitted my new short story--this time titled 'The Mortgage.' I would have loved to submit 'Red,' but they said short-shorts had to be a certain amount, and it's a little bit longer than that. Oh, well. Perhaps I should see what happens if I cut my short-shorts, although they already seem short enough. Anyway, I've got to finish the Appiah book, because I'm having a book discussion on The Unbearable Lightness of Being on Sunday. So. That's that.

Love to all!

The Mortgage/ The Dead Pledge

So, I've finished the short story! It was just like any other story I write, but by forcing myself to extend it to 2000 words or more (it's still pretty short, but not a short-short), I was able to have it go in directions I only thought possible if you were writing something of, say, the length of a novel. But it was an inbetween of the two, and I loved doing it. Editing is still in line and all that, but, I'm just very happy to have finished my first good real short story (in my college career, anyway--there are plenty I've written in the past). It's titled 'The Mortgage,' although it was originally titled, 'The Dead Pledge.' I'll switch back and forth between the two, but truth be told, 'The Dead Pledge' was far too hard to figure out unless you were thinking of mortgages. Maybe I'll be a jerk and title it 'The Mortgage and/or The Dead Pledge,' but I think I'd only do that for a comedic piece, which this certainly is not. Here's a tiny bit from the beginning:

It all begins around the time my cup’s half empty. It must be a trick of the midday light, but I swear on this house I’m sitting in, that I see those slender legs, ankles crossed, sitting at the window. Your hair changes color every week, and today it’s some sort of auburn, with little wisps of blonde in the front. A couple strands hit your smile. Oh, good, you’re smiling today. It lights up your entire face, did you know that? You look down and nod slowly—of course you know, I’ve told you a thousand times before. When you look up, you aren’t smiling.

Books I've Decided To Read, in the next couple months or so

Experiments in Ethics by Appiah--I'll be finishing that one up this week.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.

And, before I go to France, at least, The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller.

There are of course the other books I spoke of, but those are the kind you can flip through randomly; what I mean to say is, the books just mentioned are ones that'll go stale if you don't read them with enough time on your hands.

Socrates on a Plane

Today my boss was talking to me and he said, "Sit down. I want to tell you a story." And that's when I realized that my almost-finished SOAP has to be made into a screenplay. Damned revelations.

After some thought, I've decided on Virginia Woolf. She hung out with Lady Ottoline Morrell and Bertrand Russell. She's got to be cool--and her writing. Well. It sounds astounding.

In other news, I've started writing at work...I started doing it during lunch break...and now...well, it's unstoppable.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-392840/Lady-Ottoline-Morrell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Ottoline_Morrell

Readings

I guess it's always important to write about what books you're in the midst of reading, if you're going to have enough confidence to write in general. So, here goes with the summer books:

Gracias Por El Fuego (Thanks for the Fire) by Mario Benedetti. I'm considering translating a couple of his books for Comp Lit, whether or not I do Honors. So I'm reading up on him. The book itself is *really* political--about Uruguay--so on the one hand I feel very comfortable with it (it's Uruguayan), but on the other hand I don't (it's about politics). My mother tells me his best book is La Tregua (The Truce) , and says I should read it, but she says it's terribly sad. I know what it's about--a widower who falls in love with a young woman at work--and I don't know if I could handle reading that considering preference for older men. But perhaps that will make the read all the worthwhile. Look Benedetti up here if you want... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Benedetti. Super-famous, only has had one book (of shorts!) translated into the English. I'm considering contacting his publisher next time I'm in Uruguay, although if he's in Spain, I should give it a try while I'm abroad next fall.

Experiments in Ethics by Kwame Anthony Appiah. This was recommended from http://www.ethics-etc.com/ (and I recommend that site to you). It just arrived in the mail yesterday, so I haven't started reading it yet, but I'm planning on doing a tiny bit of that while waiting for Kate today for lunch. So, hopefully, that'll be good.

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. One chapter left in this one--I read it for my botany book, and I'll be done with it soon (reading Pollan--not writing the book). I recommend ANYTHING by Michael Pollan. I heard he's kind of a jerk, but I want to bone him anyway. He has a very yummy love for thinking.

I'm up for reading some Edith Wharton or Haruki Murakami, but I'd love some recommendations. I'm also in the Raymond Carver mood, but I think I've read everything by him...why did he have to die? Got any recommendations?

I'm starting up a new short story today. Two goals: (1) make it good and (2) make it long enough to be an actual short story, as opposed to a short-short (which is what all my short stories are right now).

Sneak Peek: Wiki says, 'The term [mortgage] comes from the Old French, dead pledge.'

Contests!

So, I sent out an excerpt from the botany book today, to Glimmer Train, which is a pretty presitigious literary magazine, but what I applied for specifically was 'The Fiction Open,' which actively looks for new writers as opposed to already-published ones. You can check it out at www.glimmertrain.org if you like, by becoming a member (which takes like, two seconds). What's great is that you can do it all via internet, and don't have to deal with annoying mail, SASE (self-addressed-stamped envelopes), manuscript formats, etc...Here's a little portion of what I sent--you can skip it if you want by just scrolling down the block-quote.

Before I could finish comprehending my thoughts on the playwright, Lilly opened my door, grabbed my hand, ran with me, and took my love in the middle of a golden field. It all seems very romantic, this much is true, but the romantic version doesn’t account for the scratches on my knees and dirt stains on Lilly’s dress, or for the kidnapped child sitting in my car, or for the fact that my wife and I were officially criminals. Quite articulate criminals, perhaps, but criminals nonetheless. All these worries disappear amidst an orgasm, but return when the rest of the world creeps back into your own.

Anyway, after that, I typed up a manuscript version of 'Red,' a short story I put together during January. Prof. Chaon had read that and loved it along with another story ('I'm Just Joking'). They're apparently both very Raymond Carver-y. I'm sending it out to the Writers' Forum Short Story Competition, hosted by Writers International Limited. (You can find them at www.writers-forum.org.) I'm very, very lucky that my parents support me on my decision not only to be a writer, but that they have always supported my decision to write. This makes it easier to have to pay entry fees, as long as postage fees are paid all the way to Dorset. I will also leave you a piece of 'Red,' and that will be the last for you. Au revoir.

When I touched the corners of her paper, I thought of the corners of her mouth. I could feel the heat of her thoughts as I traced the pen marks through the paper. But I didn’t unfold the thing.

C'est une blog!

This is my first post on my blog! Welcome, everyone! I love writing, John Cusack movies, exclamation points, Amy Winehouse (and/or Mahler), and hummus.

nota bene (sp?): We will not speak of rejections on this site. That's not good karma. Unless it seems proper to do so. But perseverance is what matters; as long as you are true to yourself, nothing else can be more obvious.