EXERCISE: What Would You Recommend Reading?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 11:41:58 -0400

Here at work, someone has suggested a spring/summer book swap.  Bring in three books that you like (or maybe one's you don't like:-), and trade them around.

Which inspired me to wonder -- what books would you recommend to the rest of the list for summer reading?  Feel free to include that book which you are going to be writing, if you think it's ready for prime time.

Tell us a little about the book.  Why should this be on our reading list?  Should we get the library copy, or acquire a hardback for our very own shelves?  Or just get a used copy, so when we throw it across the sand dunes, it won't be much loss.

Who are the characters?  What is the plot about?  Theme?

What sticks in your memory from this book?

Go ahead, write about your three recommendations (I know, Valentine has 1,000 to recommend, but let's keep it focused for this exercise.)

(Now, where is that suntan lotion?  Got to get ready for the day or two of summer that Boston is bound to get sometime...)

EXERCISE: A Quote

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 13:39:30 -0500

Here's an interesting quote:

"Above all we need to be taught more affection for the infirmities of life.... Both artist and lover know that perfection is not lovable.  It is the clumsiness of a fault that makes a person lovable.... This is a common theme in the folk lore of Arabian Nights: where you stumble and fall, the air you find the gold."  Joseph Campbell

What are your favorite examples of this notion?  Does it hold up, the idea that our infirmities, clumsinesses, and other stumbles and failures are our gold?

What is it about the "come from behind" hero that makes them bigger than life?

Exercise: One More Day...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 23:39:10 -0500

aka the resurrection shuffle?

Watching the Arts channel recently, and a phrase from the opera in progress
caught my eye.

"Heaven has given me one more day..."

Here's the premise.  Suppose that (heaven, magic, advanced medical technology, the whim of the whisp, something) has brought our protagonist back from the dead, for 24 hours.  One extra day.

What do they do with that day?  Who do they see, where do they go, why do they do these things?

A simple tale, but what would you do with one more day?

Go ahead, ponder it, mix well with characterization, scenery, a good shot of plot and plunder, and let the words jell.

Write!