2017 Iron Pen

I didn’t win or place in this year’s Iron Pen Contest. It didn’t come as a huge surprise. I spent all of 2 of my allotted 24 hours on my entry. This was 2 hours in the wee morning of Saturday. It was dark outside, chilly inside, and I was clasping at straws on how to use the contest’s prompt “Miracles are wrought with axes”.

                                                                                            

The prompt had arrived in an email a 5 pm Friday just as expected. I read it, pondered its meaning, appreciated it wasn’t quite as esoteric as some past prompts, and spent the evening thinking about how to use it.

My working time this year would be, by necessity, a lot shorter than the usual 24 hours.

I’d been planning on going to the QC Theatre Workshop’s staging of the 1st Annual Susan Glaspell’s Playwriting Contest winners that same Friday night. I enjoy plays and don’t go often enough. The other major hitch for this year’s Iron Pen was Saturday’s trip to Madison, Wisconsin that had to have an early start. I’d planned on taking my laptop and sneaking in some writing time. (I’ve always been a little too ambitious with time management, so why stop now.)

Since I was so short on time, I didn’t look up the quote as I usually do. If I had I’d have found this excerpt from John Ditsky’s comments about a Bretolt Brecht play:

“Again, the Story Teller moralizes, and this time it is clearly the Christian ethic the weaknesses of which—as Brecht sees them—are under scrutiny:

   All mankind should love each other but when visiting your brother

   Take an axe along and hold it fast.

   Not in theory but in practice miracles are wrought with axes

   And the age of miracles is not past.

Especially in its combination of brutal referents [axes] and naïve beliefs [miracles], Brecht’s notion of revolutionary justice is obviously never without its element of simple force.”

This info might have shaded my interpretation of the quote as I was listening to the reading of the national award winner, A Whole Other Shade of Blue. Because to my mind playwright Gwendolyn Rice dropped the proverbial axe when she interrupted the otherwise ideal vacation of her protagonists with the body of a child, a refugee, washed up on a lovely white sand beach. (Seriously, I should have seen this coming. It was Greece. It was an island. It was all over the news last summer. Doh.)

Anyway, I thought of the quote. I thought about continuing my campaign for reviews. I went with it.

After 2 hours I had something short and, to my mind, pithy. I figured my chances of fine tuning it the next day were nil—so I sent it in. (I’d leave it to some future time to work on it some more.)

I don’t regret my decision. Iron Pen for me is a welcome writing challenge; a chance to donate to the MWC; and, if I ever win again, the opportunity to be my own kind of judge for the next year's contest.

I plan to go to the award ceremony and be impressed with the efforts of others.

There’s always next year.

My Swedish Tomte

I’ve wanted to write a short story with a Christmas theme for quite some time. The closest I came was starting a fairy tale about a tomte stuck in a December snowstorm. It didn’t get very far. For one reason—I couldn’t decide if it was meant for children or adults. I left it be.

When I went back to the tomte tale for another rewrite, I gave my little man more background and Swedish atmosphere. It still wasn’t what I wanted. I left it alone again.

Last December 17^th, I was set up to sign books at the Colony Store’s Customer Appreciation Day Sale. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn to the wintery side and the usual crowds of discount shoppers didn’t materialize, so I had some extra time on my hands. While perusing the Colony Store for gifts, I came to a colorful display of the bearded little creatures from Swedish folklore—Jultomten. Lots of them. More than I’d ever seen in the past. It was a delightful treat. I picked up a small handout next to the display that explained the background, history, and references in literature of the little folks.

I have five of Sven Nordqvist’s wonderfully illustrated books in my collection, so his pint-sized tomten were the ones most familiar to me up to that point.

That little handout became quite useful for the next few rewrites of my story and I do believe I finally have my Christmas Story. It’s well ahead of the next Christmas season, but now was the time to get it done.

Reality in Stories

C. Hope Clark recently answered a reader’s question about writers using actual locations in their stories—“do they need to get permission?”

Clark’s response touched on all the issues I faced when I decided to use Bishop Hill, Illinois, a real place, in my mystery Clouds Over Bishop Hill.

Yes, I wanted that extra “oomph” of reality. I kept the centrally located village park and the layout of the streets around it pretty much intact. Same with most of the backroads. I altered the scale of the geography in a few places and relegated the wind turbines to a metaphor.

Yes, I knew a few people would not be pleased. There are quite a few pithy quotes out there about the folly of trying to write for everyone. Look them up for some inspiration.

Yes, I avoided shining a bad light on real people and businesses. They were my friends and neighbors for 24 years. I moved my fictional Lutfisk Café to a vacant lot across the street from the real restaurant that was my favorite haunt for a lot of years. I let the Colony-era buildings be themselves. They’ve been working on character since 1846. I took extra efforts to make sure my fictional characters had their own unique personalities. Overall, if a building or business or person could be changed or moved—I did it.

Yes, I made sure the bad stuff happened well away from the village in otherwise empty places.

Yes, I named as many local towns as I could. I wanted to spread the joy around, because it is a joyful experience to read about familiar places used in fictitious, mischievous ways within a book.

Yes, I tried to keep my villains, my bad guys, as out-of-towners and I almost made it. One local made it in, but he’s no one that I ever met.

Yes, I tried to be positive. It is just in my nature.

Find C. Hope Clark’s thoughts about “Using Real Places in Your Story” in the Jan. 20^th edition of Funds for Writers.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#label/Business%2FFundsforwriters/159bdb7aa93c7f5e

Guerrilla Girls

Two members of the anonymous group of female artists known as Guerrilla Girls came to Rock Island’s Augustana College. Frida Kahlo was the speaker in Centennial Hall on a chilly January night. She presented a slide show of public activism that dated back to 1986. She used the F word, feminism, fairly often.

We saw lots of posters, stickers, and guerrilla masks. The full head masks were surprisingly mobile and expressive. The bananas thrown out to the audience were a nice touch.

I always enjoy a dose of statistics and those presented for the inclusion of female artists in major museums were low, low, low. Same for artists of color. Same for artists of non-mainstream sexual orientation.

Other evidence presented: A brief overview of clothing options through the major periods of art history—Greek, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Modern.

Greece-nude guys

Middle Ages-everyone but the baby Jesus was clothed

Renaissance-lots of clothing

Modern-the majority of women bare it all

One point that was made often: Rich white men were paying big bucks to influence the art market and were thereby defining our culture through what is purchased and shown in museums. An interesting thought. Do museums really exist to provide extra storage space for the art collections of wealthy folks?

My own thoughts reflected back on the research I did on art forgery in preparation for my novel, Clouds Over Bishop Hill. I came across some interesting statistics on how much forged art is out there. Possibly quite a bit. As much as 40% of all fine art in museums and collections could be forgeries, fakes.

Hummm … that means those rich white guys may not be getting their millions of dollars worth of art value. Tsk, tsk.

So, if you see “Painted in the style of…,” you might want to pause before buying. Better yet, go out and look around for the work of some under-represented artists, female or otherwise. Then your art purchase will be a good deal for the artist, and a shot in the arm for our culture as a whole. 

Call for Guest Columnists

The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus are once again seeking guest columnists for their Viewpoints page. Up to 5 writers will be chosen to produce 1 column every 5 weeks and be paid for their work.

As a former guest columnist I can say that it’s a great opportunity for any writer looking for more exposure and experience. I dug out my entry for the 2008 call and reprinted it below and left it as it was submitted.

I was lucky in that Governor Blagojevich gave me the perfect pedestal to stand on. I could gather facts and opinions just by walking down the street to get a cup of coffee. Distilling all that information into a compact column of 600 words was a bit harder and I went through a lot of rewrites in a short amount of time. Yes, I was pushing the deadline.

The deadline for 600 words is BEFORE midnight on Feb.5^th. 

Look for all the details in The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus newspapers. 

Go for it!

Don’t Wait to See Bishop Hill

By Mary Davidsaver

“You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone,” a common refrain usually said with sad overtones of regret.  Well, it didn’t happen this time around, at least, not yet.

Governor Blagojevich’s amendatory penmanship stirred up some dust over here in Illinois, maybe more than anyone expected.  Could be he thought no one would notice or care if state parks and historic sites closed their doors, barred the gates, and quietly went away.  Wrong—it was noticed right away.

It got a lot of people to rise up off their sofas, brush off the crumbs, and get active for their cause.

For some, it’s been a crash course in Civic Activism 101.  For others, it was doing the work that was necessary; to sit by and do nothing was not an option.

The first petitions to “save” the Bishop Hill State Historic Site in Henry County got out so fast that they had to be rewritten when further details became available. 

A committee formed to coordinate the information that needed to be gathered.  Petitions went out to all the surrounding towns and letters of support were garnered from everywhere possible.  The dry statistics that proved the financial impact of the proposed closings were gathered and collected into a notebook that grew in thickness as the days passed.  It was copied numerous times and passed around wherever possible. 

Most importantly, it was working the telephones, talking to the right people, and getting appointments in Springfield to talk to even more people. 

The response from our local elected officials was fast, sincere, and as effective as possible.  Rep. Don Moffitt came on short notice and returned often.  His support mirrored that of thousands of others.

The result was getting noticed and making a difference.  The closing date has been pushed back twice so far.

One might wonder if any good can come from a mess such as this.  Well, there is good to be had aside from this new found activism and community cohesion.

When you live in a small historic community like Bishop Hill, it can become easy to believe that the world revolves around you.  This coming crisis of closing the state historic sites has proven that to be a false belief.  Yes, we have support pouring in from local and international sources, but there are many more folks out there who haven’t a clue what all the fuss is about.  These are the ones who will call or email to ask if anything is still open, as if there’s a gate at either end of town that is going to be closed and locked somehow, as if there is nothing else here besides the state sites. 

Businesses have resorted to posting signs in their windows to reassure their customers that the majority of Bishop Hill is not going to disappear any time soon. 

Losing the state historic sites would be bad, but Bishop Hill is a unique little place that may well have more museums per capita than Springfield.  The visitors that are returning for another look know that.

And it looks like Bishop Hill is attracting new visitors, while others are encouraged to appreciate our historic treasures one more time.  Judging by the number of cars in town, it’s fair to say that visitation for Bishop Hill as a whole is up—at least for now.  Thank you, Governor, for that much. 

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Thank You

I was the fortunate beneficiary of some amazing help during my book launch weekends last September. I can’t get over how lucky I’ve been.

First, Martha Downey, state site superintendent, invited me into the Bishop Hill museum. Whenever I mentioned it I always had a few people in total denial. If not an absolute first for a book launch, then surely a rare event.

Second, one of my BH pals held an open house event and invited me and my book to be a part. The other member of our trio showed up to help out. Pals like that can only be treasured.

Thirdly, the MWC Press held a release party upstairs at Bucktown Center for the Arts in Davenport, Iowa. They provided the space and the basics, but it was my turn to add the embellishments. I brought real Swedish coffee I’d purchased at the BH Colony Store, real cream, wine, and Swedish visiting cake. (A former BH neighbor made the almond-topped cake for me years ago and I was so glad to have finally located the recipe.)

Important note here: I didn’t bring Swedish meatballs. Specifically, I didn’t bring my mother-in-laws Swedish meatballs.

I’ve been promising meatballs for my book launch for some time and fully intended to fulfill my promise. I’d practiced making them … once. Actually, I practiced making the sauce … once.

Instead of making each little meatball by hand, I went looking for frozen Swedish meatballs. Surprisingly difficult as it turned out. I only found them in Fareway’s freezers.

Clearly, I wasn’t applying myself to this task.

When I thought about how to get my homemade meatballs to BH I relented, the logistics where too daunting. I inquired at the PL Johnson’s. PL’s has some excellent meatballs and they were gluten free to boot. But again, the logistics seemed to be more than I could handle.

So, sadly, no meatballs.

I compensated for no physical meatballs by adding an envelope with my mother-in-law’s recipe nicely printed out and a jar of the secret ingredient for the sauce to the items I collected for drawing prizes. Not a secret any longer. It’s instant coffee. About which my brother-in-law has often said, “That’s just plain wrong.”

I say it is chocolate-like and why not add it to a sauce. I’ve had Molé sauce in Mexican restaurants. Close enough.

So, I am beginning my New Year with a brief visit to the best times of last year and offering another THANK YOU to good friends and new readers I’ve met along the way.

Susan Van Kirk Part 2

Monmouth, IL, author Susan Van Kirk was a fortunate find for me both for her mysteries and for her blog.

One of her blog posts from Dec. struck me as especially helpful for readers as well as authors. It was a practical “How To” on writing book reviews for readers who don’t usually write reviews and may have trouble getting started.

Van Kirk began with listing FIVE things for the reader to consider:

PLOT: I looked up “plot” on the web and found it described as “The main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence.” Using that definition the reader should think about: the pace of the plot, did it sag anywhere, did it confuse, and was it engaging enough to finish the book?

CONFLICT: Discord between characters is a natural and essential component of all stories, short or novel length. Conflict starts the action and keeps it going. Subplots can show up with their own set of conflicts and tie into the main plot. The reader can ask if the conflicts presented where resolved in a satisfactory fashion.

Keep in mind that books may keep some plot points up in the air as enticements for the next book of a series.

POINT OF VIEW: POV refers to who is telling the story. The reader can ask: was the right person chosen, if the POV come from more than one person was it confusing or not, and did the choice of viewpoint work out.

Viewpoint here would be the author’s choice of how the story is told. Such as: in first person, the “I”; or in third person, the “he, she, it, or they”. Second person, the “you”, is difficult to write and relatively rare.

CHARACTERS: The reader probably formed an opinion about the characters as far as liking them or not, feeling sorry for them or not, maybe taking their side and wanting them to grow and succeed. Did the reader find the characters well rounded and believable? Did backstory information slow down the plot?

SETTING: Did the reader find the setting, real or imaginary, worked well with the story? Did the descriptions bring the setting alive to all the senses? Was there too much description at times?

Van Kirk ends her blog post with these words:

“Just pick a question or two that makes sense with the book you read. The important thing is that you consider writing a review, however brief. Even going to a site and giving a book stars is helpful if you don’t want to write your thoughts. …The writer you save with your review may be the one you like the best.”

Use this link to connect with Van Kirk’s blog post:

http://susanvankirk.com/book-reviews-revisited/