Recently in Writing Process Category

I'm really excited about my new project, which has me thinking about all things paranormal. Turns out, they're all around us -- almost, well, normal.  The Bible is one source for images and ideas, but the appeal (some would say awareness) seems basic to our humanity. If we don't believe, exactly, we are nevertheless captivated and strangely affected by the supernatural. There's the vampire craze, of course; but angels and demons (thank you, Dan Brown, we cannot use that phrase in exactly the same way ever again), hybrid beings, and mysterious doings are part of the warp and woof of our lives.

Some weeks ago, when the summer ahead seemed endless, I opened a hulking book that has been quite a ride -- Galilee, by Clive Barker. Immortal beings intersecting with extraordinary human beings in ordinary settings. It's wild, not least because the narrator is a curious being and so self-aware of telling the story (another layer that's intriguing). Besides that, I've been watching old episodes of Saving Grace, True Blood, and the pilot of Neighbors from Hell (didn't do it for me), Supernatural, and the Gates. So many more! -- and I'm open to suggestions. Hope you enjoyed a magical Fourth~

I attended a great session at the 2010 VA Fest of the Book on the business of reviewing books. C-Span's Book TV recorded it. I just recently watched it again, after receiving some very nice comments about the question I asked (Is it appropriate to thank a reviewer? - some said "yes," others "absolutely not"). I was in the audience, though, not part of the program and found it to be awesome -- insightful, entertaining, inspiring, and surprisingly funny. I recommend it. The panelists, from left to right if you watch the video were: Rebecca Skloot, reviewer and also author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; Bethanne Patrick, of The Book Studio; Ron Charles of The Washington Post Book World; Katharine Weber, review and author of True Confections; David Montgomery, reviewer for the Chicago Sun-Times and The Daily Beast and author of Thriller 2. The moderator was Bella Stander, of Book Promotion 101.

If most people don't get the biblical references, why do the creators of popular tv, movies, music and lit still use them so much? Pondering this question over iced tea with a novelist, Ph.D.-candidate friend, we decided: it's tough to say. Here are a couple of ideas that we bounced around: 

1) Audiences do recognize the biblical language, themes or characters and that's enough because the Bible continues to resonate or at least suggest something greater than what immediatley meets the eye.

2) The creators know that only a few people are going to know the reference but think, "Who cares? We know it's in there. It's cool and adds levels of meaning that are super-rich. The minority who pick up on it are going to love it."

3) It keeps people like me in business. Ok, no. That's definitely not their reason... and it's hardly a business for me. But I do love catching those biblical references, contemplating how the creators integrated and interpreted them, and what that means for the greater story or art.

What do you think is the explanation?

Living as a nomad, it was bound to happen: I left my computer behind. Bouncing between cities (two) and offices (four) as I've done the past semester, I rely on THE LIST -- things to do before leaving the house (empty the kitchen compost, e.g.) and things to bring (er, that'd be the computer, e.g.). The list works great... if I actually use it. Last week, I didn't. The irony is, I'm finally settling in again, finally staying put  -- one city, one office, for the most part, anyway. Maybe that was it. I let my guard down, got cocky.

"Remember." The Bible is full of commands to remember. It is itself a testimony of remembrance, a witness to the power of memory, and its commands humanize with their instructions. Of hospitality and kindness, "Remember that you also were foreigners, strangers in a strange land." Of faith and community, "Do this in remembrance of me." To recognize the sacred and sanctify the ordinary, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."

Being without my computer, the days were different, slower. I wrote by hand, read huge chunks of books for ideas and a big-picture sensibility (rather than recording with detailed notes). Thanks to Audubon, I identified a pair of green herons and watched as Beverly, a large almost black beaver, munched the mini maples around the periphery of the pond out back. I cleared bamboo and braised local lamb shanks. I spent time with the ones I love -- two- and four-leggeds alike. 

Then it was Memorial Day. Dinner with new friends and the invitation to share gratitude. Thanks for this place, these people, the food. But thanks, too, for the ones who have gone before. Honor to their memory -- those who have sacrificed in our armed services, yes, but also to those ordinary and extraordinary individuals whose lives, vision, and selves helped shape the ideas, conditions and company I enjoy today. My great aunt Lucille, Thomas Jefferson, those who fought to ban DDT, Louis Pasteur, my boyfriend's father.

Truth is, I have a terrible memory. I want to remember that as I age so that I don't worry unnecessarily about my forgetting. But, well, you see the problem there. Maybe, though, forgetting can lead, as in the case of my computer, to different kinds of remembering. Deeper remembrances -- of our tiny-ness, of our dependence on and debts to others, of what is holy. Now where did I put those keys?

The Virginia Festival of the Book kicks off today, St. Patty's Day! I'm on for a Bible Babel book talk tonight -- 6pm at the Charlottesville Barnes and Noble on Emmett. If you're in the area, do come! I had a chance to visit over coffee yesterday with my fellow panelist, Winn Collier, and our charming and insightful moderator, David Bearinger. I think it's going to be great fun. The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities has been putting on this remarkable event for years. You can check out the line-up for each day (it goes through Saturday) by following the link above. Hope to see you there!

Huge snow in VA, cold days clear down to FL, these are the days for books. Any form, any genre, grab a fav or something new and settle in.   Want something fun to share with family gathered over the holidays? Or maybe you need a break from the mayhem. Perhaps you're going solo this year and feeling a little blue or happily free(!) ... books. Gotta love 'em. Need some ideas? Check out this bibliophile website , culled from Don Swaim's CBS radio show, "Book Beat," where you can listen to great writers talk about their books, the craft, life, in brief segments. There are countless books featured in the line-up. Find one to suit your taste, hunker down, and be transported.

Over the past couple of days, my editor, agent, and I have been scrambling to deal with an ironic case of mistaken identity in Bible Babel. In short: the main character's name isn't correct in the version poised to go out to reviewers and potential endorsers. Yikes! One of the reasons that I wrote Bible Babel was to help people understand big and little puzzlers such as why God is sometimes referred to as LORD (appearing as big capital L, small caps ORD) and other times Lord. The former, LORD, is the way many English translations render the Old Testament's four-letter, personal name for God (transliterated YHWH). This is THE NAME that God revealed to Moses, a stand-in for God's very presence in the Jerusalem Temple, and by which God's people could specially know their particular God. "Lord," on the other hand, is the translation of a different Hebrew word, a generic noun meaning just that -- "lord, master," or (brace yourselves, feminists) "husband." YHWH or LORD never appears in the New Testament, and the transition from LORD to Lord (especially the manner in which "the name of the Lord" functions in the New Testament) signals a provocative theological shift -- finally defining what makes a Christian a Christian. Well, just before the book's galleys (final form "lite" -- i.e., possibly containing typos, etc) were produced, a typesetter misunderstood copyediting instructions and changed some cases of Lord to LORD. The result -- sometimes there's an error that may confound though a reader wouldn't necessarily identify it as the typo it is, and sometimes the text simply doesn't make sense. Even though the galleys clearly state that this is an "uncorrected proof," to the credit of my superb editor and the team at HarperCollins, the plan now is to correct manually every instance in which the word appears erroneously before sending the copies out. Whew!  

The James River Writers conference was a smashing success! Many thanks to Jason Tesauro, Ginny Pye, the Library of Virginia, volunteers, organizers, soiree hosts, agents, editors, panelists, moderators, and all who helped make it great! Although finally only writing is writing, talking about the craft, hearing the stories of how stories came to be, and simply hanging out with folks whose passion is the word is inspiring and invigorating. In the ups and downs of this business that some do pursue for the business of it all but most for love of the written word, the poem finely wrought, the tale that grabs and holds, the novel take on a nonfiction subject, it's good to be reminded that each book is unique and the whole process innately subjective. Another's success is to be celebrated as much as one's own. This isn't, as Katherine Neville pointed out, a zero-sum game. How great to have an opportunity to be with others sharing the experiences and products of our solitude.

"The Saint John's Bible" is a remarkable, gorgeous representation of an ancient technique of rendering sacred text -- written by hand and "illuminated" with fine art.

Here's a partial description: "The Saint John's Bible is the first handwritten, hand illuminated Bible in more than 500 years. Under the artistic direction of Donald Jackson, M.V.O., one of the world's foremost calligraphers and Senior Illuminator to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's Crown Office at the House of Lords, The Saint John's Bible was commissioned by the Benedictine monks of Saint John's Abbey and University in Minnesota, U.S., to ignite the spiritual imagination of believers throughout the world and to illuminate the word of God for a new millennium."

What effect does engaging in such a process have on those who undertake or undertook it? And what effect on those of us who have the opportunity to hold in hand and read such texts?

Of these sentences, which do you think is better?

1) "The Bible is a singular document of inestimable influence; but all evidence to the contrary, it can be really, really hard to understand."

2) "The Bible is a singular document of inestimable influence, but despite all evidence to the contrary, it can be really hard to understand."

Oh, and feel free to weigh in on how many "really"s should be included!

This sentence, in some form or another, will appear in the first paragraph of Bible Babel's chapter 1. FYI, one of my goals for Bible Babel is that it be a light, swift read, humming along even while it introduces and engages serious and heady info.

Here's the greater context (Ch.1's first full parag):