The authors are writing under fake names for their own security and privacy. The book is devastating to read. If this is the life of a Latin Queen who achieved high rank, what of those who were not ever so powerful? Coming from a background of child abuse, Lady Q manages to eventually make a break from the Latin Kings gang. But to do so she must first endure physical violence, mental abuse, drug addiction and dealing, the prison sentence of life for the man she loves, prison for herself, and wrecking the same havoc on her own child.
page 73
"In the hood people hurt one another, betray each other, even kill each other, but life goes on quickly. Resentments don't last. And what is the cause for strife one day is not expected to make a difference the next. The only unforgivable thing is when someone changes gang allegiances: this is the cause for mortal retaliation... '
page 116 - Sonia homeless...
"The closest Sonia came to a permanent shelter that winter was a room she rented at a boardinghouse. But she could only afford to pay for one week. After that she would leave the room early in the morning and come back late at night to avoid the landlord. She felt like a criminal, but her welfare check wasn't enough to both pay rent and buy diapers and food for herself and her baby. She knew that she wouldn't be able to avoid the landlord forever, she she wasn't surprised to find the locks changed when she returned to the room one night. There was no Thanksgiving dinner for Sonia and Lisette that year. There was no Christmas either, and no New Years celebration. No family, no friends, no gifts... She walked the streets in desperate need of help while Christmas shoppers turned their faces away so they wouldn't have to see her. She spent New years eve in a cold, dark hallway listening to the echoes of those who had something and someone to celebrate. Sonia looked at her a baby girl and softly apologized... She promised herself to never forget all the so-called Christians who passed her by as they acquired their tokens to celebrate their faith while she was left to suffer with a newborn baby on the streets...'
Chicago Review Press is the publisher...
Copyright by the authors 2008
The author Raymundo Sanchez will respond to questions mybloodylife@hotmail.com
12/20/08
From THE END of THE AFFAIR by GRAHAM GREENE
Chapter One, first paragraph -
BOOK ONE
"A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. I say 'one chooses' with the inaccurate pride of a professional writer who - when he has been seriously noted at all - has been praised for his technical ability, but do I in fact of my own will choose that black wet January night on the Common, in 1946, the sight of Henry Miles slanting across the wide river of rain, or did these images choose me? It is convenient, it is correct according to the rules of my craft to begin just there, but if I had believed then in a God, I could also have believed in a hand, plucking at my elbow, a suggestion, 'speak to him: he hasn't seen you yet.'
For why should I have spoken to him? If hate is not too large a term to use in relation to any human being, I hated Henry -I hated his wife Sarah too. And he, I suppose, came soon after the events of that evening to hate me:as he surely at times must have hated his wife and that other, in whom in those days we were lucky enough not to believe. So this is a record of hate far more than love, and if I come to say anything in favour of Henry and Sarah I can be trusted: I am writing against the bias because it is my professional pride to prefer the near-truth, even to the expression of my near hate."
BOOK ONE
"A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. I say 'one chooses' with the inaccurate pride of a professional writer who - when he has been seriously noted at all - has been praised for his technical ability, but do I in fact of my own will choose that black wet January night on the Common, in 1946, the sight of Henry Miles slanting across the wide river of rain, or did these images choose me? It is convenient, it is correct according to the rules of my craft to begin just there, but if I had believed then in a God, I could also have believed in a hand, plucking at my elbow, a suggestion, 'speak to him: he hasn't seen you yet.'
For why should I have spoken to him? If hate is not too large a term to use in relation to any human being, I hated Henry -I hated his wife Sarah too. And he, I suppose, came soon after the events of that evening to hate me:as he surely at times must have hated his wife and that other, in whom in those days we were lucky enough not to believe. So this is a record of hate far more than love, and if I come to say anything in favour of Henry and Sarah I can be trusted: I am writing against the bias because it is my professional pride to prefer the near-truth, even to the expression of my near hate."
12/16/08
WORD REINTRODUCTION! IXNAY!
I am reintroducing the word IXNAY into my vocabulary! It's Pig-Latin I am told. I like the sound of it! It certainly sounds like a banishment!
12/9/08
Quote from JOHN BY CYNTHIA LENNON (On the Anniversary of John Lennon's death)
JOHN
By CYNTHIA LENNON C 2005
Crown Publishers New York
Pages 5-6-7 (Chapter One)
"One early December afternoon in 1980 my friend Angie and I were in the little bistro we ran in north Wales, putting up the Christmas decorations. It was a cold dark afternoon, but the atmosphere inside was bright and warm. We'd opened a bottle of wine and were hanging baubles on the tree and festive pictures on the walls. Laughing, we pulled a cracker and the toy inside fell onto the floor. I bent to pick it up and shivered when I saw it was a small plastic gun. It seemed horribly out of place among the tinsel and paper chains...
(Cynthia proceeded to London where she was staying with Mo Starkey, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr's (Starkey) first wife.)
"I was asleep in the spare room when screams woke me. It took me a few seconds to realize that they were Mo's. At that moment she burst into the room: "Cyn, John's been shot. Ringo's on the phone - he wants to talk to you."
"I don't remember getting out of bed and going down the stairs to the phone. But Ringo's words, the sound of his tearful voice crackling over the transatlantic line, is crystal clear." Cyn, I'm so sorry, John's dead."
"The shock engulfed me like a wave. I heard a raw, tearing sob and,. with that strange detachment that sudden shock can trigger, realized I was making the noise. Mo took the phone, said goodbye to Ringo, then put her arms around me. "I'm so sorry, Cyn," she sobbed.
"In my stunned state I had only one clear thought. My son - our son- was at home in bed: I had to get back so that I could tell him about his father's death. he was seventeen and history was repeating itself in a hideous way:both John and I had lost a parent at that age."
By CYNTHIA LENNON C 2005
Crown Publishers New York
Pages 5-6-7 (Chapter One)
"One early December afternoon in 1980 my friend Angie and I were in the little bistro we ran in north Wales, putting up the Christmas decorations. It was a cold dark afternoon, but the atmosphere inside was bright and warm. We'd opened a bottle of wine and were hanging baubles on the tree and festive pictures on the walls. Laughing, we pulled a cracker and the toy inside fell onto the floor. I bent to pick it up and shivered when I saw it was a small plastic gun. It seemed horribly out of place among the tinsel and paper chains...
(Cynthia proceeded to London where she was staying with Mo Starkey, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr's (Starkey) first wife.)
"I was asleep in the spare room when screams woke me. It took me a few seconds to realize that they were Mo's. At that moment she burst into the room: "Cyn, John's been shot. Ringo's on the phone - he wants to talk to you."
"I don't remember getting out of bed and going down the stairs to the phone. But Ringo's words, the sound of his tearful voice crackling over the transatlantic line, is crystal clear." Cyn, I'm so sorry, John's dead."
"The shock engulfed me like a wave. I heard a raw, tearing sob and,. with that strange detachment that sudden shock can trigger, realized I was making the noise. Mo took the phone, said goodbye to Ringo, then put her arms around me. "I'm so sorry, Cyn," she sobbed.
"In my stunned state I had only one clear thought. My son - our son- was at home in bed: I had to get back so that I could tell him about his father's death. he was seventeen and history was repeating itself in a hideous way:both John and I had lost a parent at that age."
12/3/08
I'm Reading THE DUMBEST GENERATION by MARK BAUERLEIN
This book promises to tell us how the "digital age stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" and Harold Bloom is cover quoted as saying that this is THE VIRTUAL END OF READING among the young.
I love reading so much! But I wonder if the author suffers from generational prejudice. Is it that young people are not reading BOOKS but reading on the NET?
I love reading so much! But I wonder if the author suffers from generational prejudice. Is it that young people are not reading BOOKS but reading on the NET?
12/1/08
RAMAKRISHNA Quote
"The more you advance toward God, the less He will give you wordly duties to perform..."
-Ramakrishna
-Ramakrishna
11/24/08
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS THE LAST TEMPLAR BY RUGGERO MARINO
Christopher Columbus, The Last Templar
by Ruggero Marino
Translated from Italian by Ariel Godwin
Destiny Books
C 2005 Sperling and Kupfer Editori S.p.A.,Milano
English Translation 2007 C Inner Traditions International
CHRISTINE TRZYNA QUICK REVIEW
The author didn't convince me that Christopher Columbus was a Knights Templar, though said to have a Templar's values which, according to the author, was that Christians, Jews, and Muslims live in peace. What was most interesting about this book is the assertion that Columbus was actually not the nephew of a Pope, Innocent VIII, but his son and that the seafarer had access to maps housed at the Vatican that would prove to show that the North and South American continents had been "discovered" before. So the idea that he set sail and bungled a exploratory trip to "India" is set adrift, and instead a disinformation campaign began, which asserted Spain's rights to the new lands.
Innocent VIII is said to have had Muslim and Jewish ancestry himself, as well as many children, of whom only two he recognized. In color the book features art and portraits showing the pope and Christopher's likeness, as well as maps existing in Columbus lifetime that show the New World was known.
Always interesting, the idea of dangerous forces of Secret Societies...
by Ruggero Marino
Translated from Italian by Ariel Godwin
Destiny Books
C 2005 Sperling and Kupfer Editori S.p.A.,Milano
English Translation 2007 C Inner Traditions International
CHRISTINE TRZYNA QUICK REVIEW
The author didn't convince me that Christopher Columbus was a Knights Templar, though said to have a Templar's values which, according to the author, was that Christians, Jews, and Muslims live in peace. What was most interesting about this book is the assertion that Columbus was actually not the nephew of a Pope, Innocent VIII, but his son and that the seafarer had access to maps housed at the Vatican that would prove to show that the North and South American continents had been "discovered" before. So the idea that he set sail and bungled a exploratory trip to "India" is set adrift, and instead a disinformation campaign began, which asserted Spain's rights to the new lands.
Innocent VIII is said to have had Muslim and Jewish ancestry himself, as well as many children, of whom only two he recognized. In color the book features art and portraits showing the pope and Christopher's likeness, as well as maps existing in Columbus lifetime that show the New World was known.
Always interesting, the idea of dangerous forces of Secret Societies...
11/22/08
EXCERPT from JACK - A LIFE NO OTHER by GEOFFREY PERRET (John F. Kennedy was an avid reader!)
Jack - A Life Like No Other
by Geoffrey Perret C 2001
Randon House New York
In this book by Perret, we learn that the youthful J.F.K. was an avid reader, and that he did deserve the Pulitzer for his book "Profiles in Courage" which was criticized as ghost written.
page 32-33 covering his studenthood at the prep school Choat:
Jack's half of the room in Choate House, the one that he shared with young Godfrey Kauffmann, was a clue that no teacher could miss. Yet nearly every faculty member who had to deal with him, from the headmaster down, was convinced that young Jack Kennedy was not using the brains God gave him. It was their responsibility to cram enough self discipline into the bout o get him into an Ivy League college, but it seemed a thankless uphill struggle.
The clue they slighted was that Jack had tuned his half of the room into a shrine to the word. There were piles of books everywhere - on the floor, on the chairs, on the bed, on the dresser. And whether at school or at home, he invariably seemed to have a book in his hands.....
"I guess I read a lot," Jack replied, neither boasting nor being unduly modest. And as he explained to Horton, he did not simply read widely. He tried to memorize what he read, argued with it, summarized the writer's argument and filed the summaries away in his mind."
by Geoffrey Perret C 2001
Randon House New York
In this book by Perret, we learn that the youthful J.F.K. was an avid reader, and that he did deserve the Pulitzer for his book "Profiles in Courage" which was criticized as ghost written.
page 32-33 covering his studenthood at the prep school Choat:
Jack's half of the room in Choate House, the one that he shared with young Godfrey Kauffmann, was a clue that no teacher could miss. Yet nearly every faculty member who had to deal with him, from the headmaster down, was convinced that young Jack Kennedy was not using the brains God gave him. It was their responsibility to cram enough self discipline into the bout o get him into an Ivy League college, but it seemed a thankless uphill struggle.
The clue they slighted was that Jack had tuned his half of the room into a shrine to the word. There were piles of books everywhere - on the floor, on the chairs, on the bed, on the dresser. And whether at school or at home, he invariably seemed to have a book in his hands.....
"I guess I read a lot," Jack replied, neither boasting nor being unduly modest. And as he explained to Horton, he did not simply read widely. He tried to memorize what he read, argued with it, summarized the writer's argument and filed the summaries away in his mind."
11/19/08
CARLOS CASTANEDA QUOTE from THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY
pages 125-126 paperback
"We are beings on our way to dying," he said. "We are not immortal, but we behave as if we were. This is the flaw that brings us down as individuals and will bring us down as a species someday."
Don Juan stated that the sorcerer's advantage over their average fellow men is that sorcerers know that they are beings on their way to dying and they don't let themselves deviate from that knowledge. He emphasized that an enormous effort must be employed in order to elicit and maintain this knowledge as a total certainty.
"Why is it so hard for us to admit something that is so truthful?" I asked, bewildered by the magnitude of our internal contradiction.
"It's really not man's fault," he said in a conciliatory tone. "Someday, I'll tell you more about the forces that drive a man to act like an ass."
"We are beings on our way to dying," he said. "We are not immortal, but we behave as if we were. This is the flaw that brings us down as individuals and will bring us down as a species someday."
Don Juan stated that the sorcerer's advantage over their average fellow men is that sorcerers know that they are beings on their way to dying and they don't let themselves deviate from that knowledge. He emphasized that an enormous effort must be employed in order to elicit and maintain this knowledge as a total certainty.
"Why is it so hard for us to admit something that is so truthful?" I asked, bewildered by the magnitude of our internal contradiction.
"It's really not man's fault," he said in a conciliatory tone. "Someday, I'll tell you more about the forces that drive a man to act like an ass."
11/18/08
CHRISTINE TRZYNA QUICK REVIEW THE SOCIOPATH NEXT DOOR by MARTHA STOUT, Ph.D.
THE SOCIOPATH NEXT DOOR
by MARTHA STOUT, PH.D (Harvard medical School instructor, psychologist)
C 2005 by the author
Broadway Books New York
How do you identify the sociopath, the one in 25 people who can do anything to you - the most horrendous things - without regret, compassion, or even consideration for your feelings because they themselves have near none? This short but to the point book by Martha Stout may help you realize who is likely to have this frightening (to us) mental illness. Sociopaths are rarely in a jail cell but more likely in your workplace or own bed. Stout helps those of us who have been victimized by these characters realize that identifying them and eliminating them from our lives is about all we can do, since they can be as clever and charming as they are damaging. To help you, my reader, get to the point of it, here are some important excerpts from Stout's book:
Page 43...
by MARTHA STOUT, PH.D (Harvard medical School instructor, psychologist)
C 2005 by the author
Broadway Books New York
How do you identify the sociopath, the one in 25 people who can do anything to you - the most horrendous things - without regret, compassion, or even consideration for your feelings because they themselves have near none? This short but to the point book by Martha Stout may help you realize who is likely to have this frightening (to us) mental illness. Sociopaths are rarely in a jail cell but more likely in your workplace or own bed. Stout helps those of us who have been victimized by these characters realize that identifying them and eliminating them from our lives is about all we can do, since they can be as clever and charming as they are damaging. To help you, my reader, get to the point of it, here are some important excerpts from Stout's book:
Page 43...
"No, Skip was not consigned to eh edges of society, he does not drool, and he is not (yet) in prison. In fact, he is rich and, in many circles, respected - or at least feared, which masquerades brilliantly as respect. So what is wrong with this picture? Or perhaps the question should be: What is the worst part of this picture, the central flaw in Skip's life that makes him into a tragedy despite his success, and into the maker of tragedies for so many others? It is this: Skip has no emotional attachments to other people, none at all...
His mother is there to be ignored, or sometimes baited. His sister is there to be tormented. Other women are sexual plunder and nothing more. He has been waiting since childhood for his father to do only one thing - to die and leave his money to Skip. His employees are there to be manipulated and used, as his friends have always been. His wife and even his children are meant for the eyes of the world. They are camouflage,. Skip is intellectually gifted, and he's fabulous at the gamesmanship of business. But by far his most impressive talent is his ability to conceal from nearly everyone the true emptiness of his heart - and to command the passive silence of those few who do know...
pages 50-51
"Still, I believe that somewhere buried safely away from consciousness, there may be a faint internal murmuring that something is missing, something that other people have. I say this because i have heard sociopaths speak of feeling "empty" or even "hollow." And I saw this because what sociopaths envy, and may seek to destroy as part of the game, is usually something in the character structure of a person with conscience, and strong characters are often specially targeted by sociopaths...
Page 90
"Moreover, the shameless know us much better than we know them. We have an extremely hard time seeing that a person has no conscience, but a person who has no conscience can instantly recognize someone who is decent and trusting.... an easy mark...a caring person who could be counted on to assume more than her fair share of responsibility.
Page 91
"And sexual seduction is only one aspect of the game. We are seduced as well by the acting skills of the sociopath. Since the scaffolding of a life without conscience is deception and illusion, intelligent sociopaths often become proficient at acting, and even at some of the particular techniques employed by professional actors. Paradoxically, the visible signs of emotion at will can become second nature to the cold-blooded- the appearance of intense interest in another person's problems or enthusiasms, chest-thumping patriotism, righteous indignation, blushing modesty, weepy sadness.... Crocodile tears from the remorseless are especially likely when a conscious-bound person gets a little too close to confronting a sociopath with the truth. A sociopath who is about to be cornered by another person will turn suddenly into a piteous weeping figure whom no one, in good conscience, would continue to pressure...
Page 115
"Sociopaths sometimes exhibit brief, intense enthusiasms - hobbies - projects, involvements with people - that are without commitment or follow-up. These interest appear to begin abruptly and for no reason, and to end the same way.`
11/13/08
TOUCHED WITH FIRE by KAY REDFIELD JAMISON Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperment
TOUCHED WITH FIRE
Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
By Kay Redfield Jamison C 1993
The Free Press
Focusing on English poets and writers of renown, including a genealogy focus on familial mental illness (though perhaps not diagnosed as contemporary psychiatrists might today then), Kay Redfield Jamison links artistic talent and temperament with Manic Depression - now called Bipolar disease. How many of today's artistic and literary geniuses are too medicated to create, that's what I want to know!
Page 117
"Profound melancholy or the suffering of psychosis can fundamentally change an individual's expectations and beliefs about the nature, duration, and meaning of life, the nature of man, and the fragility and resilience of the human spirit. Many writers, artists, and composers have described the impact of their long periods of depression, how they have struggled or dealt with them, and how they have used them in their work. The influence of pain's domination fills novels, canvases, and musical scores; there is no shortage of portrayals. Poet Anne Sexton, for one, described the importance of using pain in her work: "I, myself, alternate between hiding behind my own hands, protecting myself anyway possible, and this other, this seeing touching other. I guess I mean that creative people must not avoid the pain that they get dealt... Hurt must be examined like a plague."
Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
By Kay Redfield Jamison C 1993
The Free Press
Focusing on English poets and writers of renown, including a genealogy focus on familial mental illness (though perhaps not diagnosed as contemporary psychiatrists might today then), Kay Redfield Jamison links artistic talent and temperament with Manic Depression - now called Bipolar disease. How many of today's artistic and literary geniuses are too medicated to create, that's what I want to know!
Page 117
"Profound melancholy or the suffering of psychosis can fundamentally change an individual's expectations and beliefs about the nature, duration, and meaning of life, the nature of man, and the fragility and resilience of the human spirit. Many writers, artists, and composers have described the impact of their long periods of depression, how they have struggled or dealt with them, and how they have used them in their work. The influence of pain's domination fills novels, canvases, and musical scores; there is no shortage of portrayals. Poet Anne Sexton, for one, described the importance of using pain in her work: "I, myself, alternate between hiding behind my own hands, protecting myself anyway possible, and this other, this seeing touching other. I guess I mean that creative people must not avoid the pain that they get dealt... Hurt must be examined like a plague."
11/10/08
ROCKIE GARDINER of ROCKIE HOROSCOPE RIP
Rockie Gardiner, the astrologer who wrote the weekly column in the LA Weekly called "Rockie Horoscope" died on Halloween! This was the ONLY astrology column that I followed, since the year that it was right on for me six weeks in a row, and one of the reasons that I was sure to pick up an LA Weekly on Thursdays. A friend of mine, Robyn, tells me that she had predicted something really special happening on October 21, 2008, and wonders if she knew of her own death. I will really miss the column!
11/8/08
MEDIA and CELEBRITY and MADONNA
MEDIA and CELEBRITY and MADONNAby Christine Trzyna
You may not think much of me for this, such a literary person I am, but I am absolutely interested in the Madonna - Guy Ritchie divorce which is making all the news in Britain and the Internet. At the end of my computer time I go check Yahoo news for the latest. I want to know if Madonna will be generous. If she will leave England. If she has a man waiting in the wings. And of course, how she will recreate herself for the next act of her life since she gets the PRIZE for BEST CHAMELEON. For all that, I recently read the book about his life with her by her talented in many things but for writing brother Christopher Ciconne. Click on the title above to be taken to "How Liz Rosenberg is Killing Christopher Ciconne's Book Tour" with her control of some television media...
Thanks to David Hauslaib's Gossip on the Internet
Q When does someone become public property?
A When they become famous - a celebrity.
Easily this means movie stars, but it can go like this. One day you talk to a reporter about your life, the article appears in People or another magazine, now "everyone" knows you, and so you are now public property, and so your life is not legally protected as private. If any NEWS happens to you, if you become NEWS, reporters and researchers and writers might find you and write about you in the media. Of course you might decline to comment or hire a Public Relations person to do a "spin" on you to help you fix an impression that you feel is erroneous even if it is the truth.
The truth is the key here because people are not committing libel or slander if they tell the truth and further, and getting at the truth is a fetish, and at least in America it is assumed that everyone is entitled to an opinion. Now adays there is even something called ADVOCACY JOURNALISM in which the journalist is not assumed to be able to keep his or her own opinions out of the story. Or let's face it, as an editor just the bit you choose says something about you after all. For instance if you pick and publish information that makes Madonna seem like the greedy and materialistic person she is - cheap with her family and hardworking sibling Christopher for instance - which is what he says - you might be expected to be a fan of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who in his book, reviewed here, spends pages using her as a bad example. So much for her leanings towards Kaballah.
Of course a way to become famous is to write your own memoir when in a sense you have no control over what you've lived but you do have control of what you want to say about it. If it gets on the best seller list people may be asking you about your life from then on. Or you will find your own book at a garage sale being recycled. I like to read the disclaimer statements some memoirists start out with.
Years ago journalists respected public figures like U.S. Presidents by not reporting what they knew about their private lives while celebrity oriented movie magazines did more than put a spin - they fabricated stories about their stars that were barely if at all true to give an impression.
Madonna, I feel, is probably not capable at this point of giving an interview or really saying anything spontaneously (even if it sounds like she is) and without an agenda. I believe she is quite the PR expert and knows how to play the media better than anyone. Which is why maybe it's exciting to see what actually makes it into the press about this divorce and wonder if she planted it there and what she's up to or if she and Liz Rosenberg are actually loosing some control!
I really loved that one article that said Madonna sleeps wrapped in plastic !
You may not think much of me for this, such a literary person I am, but I am absolutely interested in the Madonna - Guy Ritchie divorce which is making all the news in Britain and the Internet. At the end of my computer time I go check Yahoo news for the latest. I want to know if Madonna will be generous. If she will leave England. If she has a man waiting in the wings. And of course, how she will recreate herself for the next act of her life since she gets the PRIZE for BEST CHAMELEON. For all that, I recently read the book about his life with her by her talented in many things but for writing brother Christopher Ciconne. Click on the title above to be taken to "How Liz Rosenberg is Killing Christopher Ciconne's Book Tour" with her control of some television media...
Thanks to David Hauslaib's Gossip on the Internet
Q When does someone become public property?
A When they become famous - a celebrity.
Easily this means movie stars, but it can go like this. One day you talk to a reporter about your life, the article appears in People or another magazine, now "everyone" knows you, and so you are now public property, and so your life is not legally protected as private. If any NEWS happens to you, if you become NEWS, reporters and researchers and writers might find you and write about you in the media. Of course you might decline to comment or hire a Public Relations person to do a "spin" on you to help you fix an impression that you feel is erroneous even if it is the truth.
The truth is the key here because people are not committing libel or slander if they tell the truth and further, and getting at the truth is a fetish, and at least in America it is assumed that everyone is entitled to an opinion. Now adays there is even something called ADVOCACY JOURNALISM in which the journalist is not assumed to be able to keep his or her own opinions out of the story. Or let's face it, as an editor just the bit you choose says something about you after all. For instance if you pick and publish information that makes Madonna seem like the greedy and materialistic person she is - cheap with her family and hardworking sibling Christopher for instance - which is what he says - you might be expected to be a fan of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who in his book, reviewed here, spends pages using her as a bad example. So much for her leanings towards Kaballah.
Of course a way to become famous is to write your own memoir when in a sense you have no control over what you've lived but you do have control of what you want to say about it. If it gets on the best seller list people may be asking you about your life from then on. Or you will find your own book at a garage sale being recycled. I like to read the disclaimer statements some memoirists start out with.
Years ago journalists respected public figures like U.S. Presidents by not reporting what they knew about their private lives while celebrity oriented movie magazines did more than put a spin - they fabricated stories about their stars that were barely if at all true to give an impression.
Madonna, I feel, is probably not capable at this point of giving an interview or really saying anything spontaneously (even if it sounds like she is) and without an agenda. I believe she is quite the PR expert and knows how to play the media better than anyone. Which is why maybe it's exciting to see what actually makes it into the press about this divorce and wonder if she planted it there and what she's up to or if she and Liz Rosenberg are actually loosing some control!
I really loved that one article that said Madonna sleeps wrapped in plastic !
11/5/08
THE MAN BEHIND THE DA VINCI CODE by Lisa Rogak (2nd Posting)
THE MAN BEHIND THE DA VINCI CODE
An Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brownby Lisa RogakAndrews McMeel Publishing - Kansas City
See my previous post on this book by using the Google search feature above...
Page 55
"After learning the craft of constructing and writing a novel - one that was actually sold to a major New York publisher - Brown felt he had developed a good sense of what worked and what didn't when it came to commercial fiction. Setting for one, was crucial.... for his novels, he believed that location was perhaps the most important factor, since it would dictate the degree to which secrets could be revealed and present a unique opportunity to educate the reader about a topic they may know little about.
"If you're writing a love story, don't set it in the middle of a parking lot," he said, suggesting that the story be based in a location that is interesting all by itself. Once that is confirmed, he added, it's imperative to show the environment from a fly-on-the-wall perspective. "If you set a story in a private school and don't reveal any inside information about what it's like to work or study at a private school, then you've got a boring setting," he said.
Page 89"Beginning in the 1990's, international corporations saw money and prestige in book publishing companies - especially if they could tie them into other media outlets they owned to facilitate cross-promotion - and so they began snapping up privately owned publishers buy the carload....
"And they needed to make a profit. While publishers of old were primarily interested in producing good literature, the first concern of the conglomerates was financial. Whether a successful book had a literary bent or was more commercial in flavor didn't matter....
Book Expo is the largest trade show for the publishing industry there is.
An Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brownby Lisa RogakAndrews McMeel Publishing - Kansas City
See my previous post on this book by using the Google search feature above...
Page 55
"After learning the craft of constructing and writing a novel - one that was actually sold to a major New York publisher - Brown felt he had developed a good sense of what worked and what didn't when it came to commercial fiction. Setting for one, was crucial.... for his novels, he believed that location was perhaps the most important factor, since it would dictate the degree to which secrets could be revealed and present a unique opportunity to educate the reader about a topic they may know little about.
"If you're writing a love story, don't set it in the middle of a parking lot," he said, suggesting that the story be based in a location that is interesting all by itself. Once that is confirmed, he added, it's imperative to show the environment from a fly-on-the-wall perspective. "If you set a story in a private school and don't reveal any inside information about what it's like to work or study at a private school, then you've got a boring setting," he said.
Page 89"Beginning in the 1990's, international corporations saw money and prestige in book publishing companies - especially if they could tie them into other media outlets they owned to facilitate cross-promotion - and so they began snapping up privately owned publishers buy the carload....
"And they needed to make a profit. While publishers of old were primarily interested in producing good literature, the first concern of the conglomerates was financial. Whether a successful book had a literary bent or was more commercial in flavor didn't matter....
Book Expo is the largest trade show for the publishing industry there is.
10/28/08
CARLOS CASTANEDA QUOTE from THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY
page 106-107 paperback
"It's very very important, don Juan went on, "that you yourself deliberately arrive at that breaking point, or that you create it artificially and intelligently."
"What do you mean by that, don Juan, " I asked, caught in his intriguing reasoning.
"Your breaking point, " he said, "is to discontinue your life as you know it. You have done everything I told you, dutifully and accurately. If you are talented, you never show it. That seems to be your style. You're not slow, but you act as if you were. You're very sure of yourself, but you act as if you were insecure. You're not timid, and yet you act as if you were afraid of people. Everything you do points at one single spot; your need to break all that, ruthlessly."
"But in what way, don Juan? What do you have in mind?" I asked him, genuinely frantic,
"I think everything boils down to one act, " he said, "You must leave your friends. You must say goodbye to them, for good. It's not possible for you to continue on the warrior's path carrying your personal history with you, and unless you discontinue your way of life, I won't be able to go ahead with my instruction."
"It's very very important, don Juan went on, "that you yourself deliberately arrive at that breaking point, or that you create it artificially and intelligently."
"What do you mean by that, don Juan, " I asked, caught in his intriguing reasoning.
"Your breaking point, " he said, "is to discontinue your life as you know it. You have done everything I told you, dutifully and accurately. If you are talented, you never show it. That seems to be your style. You're not slow, but you act as if you were. You're very sure of yourself, but you act as if you were insecure. You're not timid, and yet you act as if you were afraid of people. Everything you do points at one single spot; your need to break all that, ruthlessly."
"But in what way, don Juan? What do you have in mind?" I asked him, genuinely frantic,
"I think everything boils down to one act, " he said, "You must leave your friends. You must say goodbye to them, for good. It's not possible for you to continue on the warrior's path carrying your personal history with you, and unless you discontinue your way of life, I won't be able to go ahead with my instruction."
10/22/08
QUICK REVIEW by Christine Trzyna of LIFE AFTER DEATH by DEEPAK CHOPRA
LIFE AFTER DEATH
by Deepak Chopra C 2006
Harmony Books an Imprint of Crown
BRAIN VERSUS MIND
There is so very much to consider in Deepak Chopra's "Life Afer Death," that opens the wondrous realms of the afterlife to the reader, bridging science and spirituality. As for an excerpt I would like to report on communication, that is to say, the idea that through MIND which is beyond BRAIN itself, not only can humans reveal clairvoyant or other "psychic powers," but so can pets. The idea here is that MIND mysteriously links to all knowledge ever known.
Pages 216-219 tell the story of N'kisi an African Gray parrot with a 700 word vocabulary who seemed to be able to read his owner, Aimee's, mind. In order to experiment, the parrot and the owner were kept out of each other's visual fields and the owner watched television. Aimee had "astonishing stories" to tell researcher Sheldrake: "When she was watching a Jackie Chan movie on television, during one scene with Chan perilously perched on a girder, N'kisi said, "Don't fall down," even with no line of sight to the picture. When an automobile commercial came on next, N'kisi said, "That's my car." Another time Aimee was reading the lines, "The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice," in a book when simultaneously from another room the bird said, "The color is black." (CT) So researcher Sheldrake decided to confirm for himself. Aimee looked a a picture of a girl in a magazine, and with remarkable clarity from the adjoining room the parrot said, "That's a girl."
And so it goes, convincingly.
The idea of MIND as something coexisting but separate from BRAIN isn't foreign to me but in this book it becomes tied in with the idea that if you can imagine something it can manifest.
The back section which reveals book resources the author used may fuel my reading through the fall; so very many books that hold promise to reveal great mysteries!
by Deepak Chopra C 2006
Harmony Books an Imprint of Crown
BRAIN VERSUS MIND
There is so very much to consider in Deepak Chopra's "Life Afer Death," that opens the wondrous realms of the afterlife to the reader, bridging science and spirituality. As for an excerpt I would like to report on communication, that is to say, the idea that through MIND which is beyond BRAIN itself, not only can humans reveal clairvoyant or other "psychic powers," but so can pets. The idea here is that MIND mysteriously links to all knowledge ever known.
Pages 216-219 tell the story of N'kisi an African Gray parrot with a 700 word vocabulary who seemed to be able to read his owner, Aimee's, mind. In order to experiment, the parrot and the owner were kept out of each other's visual fields and the owner watched television. Aimee had "astonishing stories" to tell researcher Sheldrake: "When she was watching a Jackie Chan movie on television, during one scene with Chan perilously perched on a girder, N'kisi said, "Don't fall down," even with no line of sight to the picture. When an automobile commercial came on next, N'kisi said, "That's my car." Another time Aimee was reading the lines, "The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice," in a book when simultaneously from another room the bird said, "The color is black." (CT) So researcher Sheldrake decided to confirm for himself. Aimee looked a a picture of a girl in a magazine, and with remarkable clarity from the adjoining room the parrot said, "That's a girl."
And so it goes, convincingly.
The idea of MIND as something coexisting but separate from BRAIN isn't foreign to me but in this book it becomes tied in with the idea that if you can imagine something it can manifest.
The back section which reveals book resources the author used may fuel my reading through the fall; so very many books that hold promise to reveal great mysteries!
10/20/08
10/18/08
TAI CHI IS LOST ON ME by Christine Trzyna
TAI CHI IS LOST ON ME
By Christine Trzyna
By Christine Trzyna
If you've ever needed slow paced gentle exercise, you've probably been recommended to a Tai Chi class. Tai Chi seems to have more of a guarantee than Yoga does that it will remain slow paced and gentle. Twice now I've studied Tai Chi at low cost classes taught by dedicated devotees. The exercise is said to help you heal faster, keep aging at bay, and prevent major illnesses. Of course many people who practice Tai Chi are also dedicated to healthy lifestyles, careful of what they eat, avoiding smoking, alcohol, and drugs too, so who can say for sure it's the Tai Chi? The other benefit of Tai Chi is that it's supposed to be relaxing.
Unfortunately I've never experienced relaxation by practicing Tai Chi. I am one of those "Monkey Brained" people who gets more bored the slower it goes. "What's next?" I want to know. I quit one class after learning the form over months of time just about when we were to start learning the form backwards. I just didn't see the point. I buy that new circuits wired for Tai Chi develop in your brain after practice. I can probably still do the form years later, without practice. But I never seem to be inspired to do so.
I think mental - intellectual - stimulation is very important to my overall happiness, so I don't want to be bored. That's why it perplexes me that the crossword puzzle set is taking to Tai Chi at senior centers.
Often you hear that Tai Chi is the basis of all martial arts. It was the first monastic means to self protect without harming, a Buddhist traveler's mode. So originally it must have been practiced singularly. Maybe what appeals to the seniors is the Group Mind of it.
Watching a group practicing Tai Chi in unison, the silence of it, is more relaxing to me than being one of the group. Yet Group Mind makes me want to rankle for very Westernized individualism.
I like yoga classes where you can keep your own pace if you fall behind or want to go more slowly, where you aren't stressed or strained, and the exertion of a "good" class leaves me in a final relaxation in which my mind is shut off and I can go off somewhere out there for a spell. Five minutes of this deep rest can be energizing as well, once you come back and go off to a productive day.
C Christine Trzyna 2008
10/16/08
WILL I EVER BE GOOD ENOUGH Healing the Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers by KARYL MC BRIDE
WILL I EVER BE GOOD ENOUGH
Healing The Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers
by Karyl McBride, Ph.D. C 2008
Free Press
An article in a fashion magazine lead me to this book about engulfing and/or ignoring mothers who care more about appearances than most, and who are so self-involved as to want their children to not only live up to their expectations but make them proud.
Page 37-38
"Although these two parenting styles are seemingly opposite, to a child raised with either narcissistic style, the impact of the opposite is the same. Your self image becomes distorted and feelings of insecurity seem impossible to shake.... The engulfing mother smothers, seemingly unaware of her daughter's unique needs or desires..... If so it is likely that the natural talents you had, the dreams you wanted to pursue, and maybe even the relationships most important to you were rarely nurtured. Your mother constantly sent messages to you about who she needed you to be instead of validating who you really were. Desperate to merit her love and approval, you conformed, and in the process, lost yourself.
"If you were raised by an ignoring mother, the message she gave you over and over again was that you were invisible. She simply did not have enough room in her heart for you. As a result, you were dismissed and discounted. Children with severe ignoring mothers do not receive even the most basic requirements of food, shelter, clothing, or protection, let alone guidance or emotional support.... Emotional and physical neglect sends you the message that you don't matter.
"Having a narcissistic mother, whether she is engulfing or ignoring makes individuation - a separate sense of self - difficult for a daughter to accomplish. Daughters with unmet emotional needs keep going back to their mothers, hoping to gain their love and respect at a later date. Daughters who have a full emotional "Tank" have the confidence to separate in a healthy fashion, and move on into adulthood....
Page 54 The Secretly Mean
The secretly mean narcissistic mother does not want others to know she is abusive to her children. She usually has a public self and a private self, which are quite different. Daughters of the secretly mean describe their mothers as being kind, loving, and attentive when out in public, and abusive and cruel at home. It is hard not to feel significant resentment toward your mother for this, especially if she fooled a lot of people outside the family...
In Chapter "Where is Daddy?" McBride says that husbands married to narcissistic women live around them. Instead of the parents being a couple with boundaries around them, the husband and children live around the wife/mother's needs.
Page 72
"Oftentimes when Mother is narcissistic, she may be able to do some of the earlier nurturing because she has control of the infant and small child and can mold the child to her wishes. But as the child grows older and develops a mind of her own, the mother loses control and no longer has the same kind of power. This causes the mother to begin her demeaning, critical behavior with the child, in hopes of regaining that control, which is crazy-making for the daughter...
Page 73
"Setting healthy boundaries requires direct statements and clear communication. Narcissistic families commonly have a skewed, ineffective communication style called "triangulation." Instead of the mother talking to the daughter, the mother may express her thoughts and feelings -usually negative and criticizing - to another family member in the hope that he or she will tell the daughter. Then the mother can deny that she said it, although the message somehow got out there anyway. This triangulation in communication is passive aggressive and is an expression of the sentiment "I will get you back, but not directly to your face."
Healing The Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers
by Karyl McBride, Ph.D. C 2008
Free Press
An article in a fashion magazine lead me to this book about engulfing and/or ignoring mothers who care more about appearances than most, and who are so self-involved as to want their children to not only live up to their expectations but make them proud.
Page 37-38
"Although these two parenting styles are seemingly opposite, to a child raised with either narcissistic style, the impact of the opposite is the same. Your self image becomes distorted and feelings of insecurity seem impossible to shake.... The engulfing mother smothers, seemingly unaware of her daughter's unique needs or desires..... If so it is likely that the natural talents you had, the dreams you wanted to pursue, and maybe even the relationships most important to you were rarely nurtured. Your mother constantly sent messages to you about who she needed you to be instead of validating who you really were. Desperate to merit her love and approval, you conformed, and in the process, lost yourself.
"If you were raised by an ignoring mother, the message she gave you over and over again was that you were invisible. She simply did not have enough room in her heart for you. As a result, you were dismissed and discounted. Children with severe ignoring mothers do not receive even the most basic requirements of food, shelter, clothing, or protection, let alone guidance or emotional support.... Emotional and physical neglect sends you the message that you don't matter.
"Having a narcissistic mother, whether she is engulfing or ignoring makes individuation - a separate sense of self - difficult for a daughter to accomplish. Daughters with unmet emotional needs keep going back to their mothers, hoping to gain their love and respect at a later date. Daughters who have a full emotional "Tank" have the confidence to separate in a healthy fashion, and move on into adulthood....
Page 54 The Secretly Mean
The secretly mean narcissistic mother does not want others to know she is abusive to her children. She usually has a public self and a private self, which are quite different. Daughters of the secretly mean describe their mothers as being kind, loving, and attentive when out in public, and abusive and cruel at home. It is hard not to feel significant resentment toward your mother for this, especially if she fooled a lot of people outside the family...
In Chapter "Where is Daddy?" McBride says that husbands married to narcissistic women live around them. Instead of the parents being a couple with boundaries around them, the husband and children live around the wife/mother's needs.
Page 72
"Oftentimes when Mother is narcissistic, she may be able to do some of the earlier nurturing because she has control of the infant and small child and can mold the child to her wishes. But as the child grows older and develops a mind of her own, the mother loses control and no longer has the same kind of power. This causes the mother to begin her demeaning, critical behavior with the child, in hopes of regaining that control, which is crazy-making for the daughter...
Page 73
"Setting healthy boundaries requires direct statements and clear communication. Narcissistic families commonly have a skewed, ineffective communication style called "triangulation." Instead of the mother talking to the daughter, the mother may express her thoughts and feelings -usually negative and criticizing - to another family member in the hope that he or she will tell the daughter. Then the mother can deny that she said it, although the message somehow got out there anyway. This triangulation in communication is passive aggressive and is an expression of the sentiment "I will get you back, but not directly to your face."
10/14/08
Quote from ANDY SELSBERG in A GRUDGE CAN BE ART from THINGS I'VE LEARNED FROM WOMEN WHO'VE DUMPED ME
Andy Selsberg in his short essay "A Grudge Can Be Art" Lesson #11 in "Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me"
Edited by Ben Karlin
Grand Central Publishing New York
"The Grudge is a way to show you care, a way to stay connected. It would have been an insult to let what we had be downgraded to a mere polite acquaintanceship or even worse, nothing." - Andy Selsberg
Edited by Ben Karlin
Grand Central Publishing New York
"The Grudge is a way to show you care, a way to stay connected. It would have been an insult to let what we had be downgraded to a mere polite acquaintanceship or even worse, nothing." - Andy Selsberg
10/9/08
QUICK REVIEW by CHRISTINE TRZYNA of FRANKLIN & LUCY by JOSEPH E. PERSICO
FRANKLIN & LUCY
President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, and the Other Remarkable Women in His Life
by Joseph E. Persico C 2008
Random House New York
REVIEW by Christine Trzyna
The gist of this story is that by the time the polio crippled FDR was in the White House, he had entertained a long term affair with Lucy Mercer ( later Rutherford), a woman of class but without funds, whom Eleanor his wife had hired to be her secretary. Eleanor discovered the affair, wasted away physically, and negotiated a "stay married" deal with FDR's mother, who was holding the money bags. Agreeing to live separate lives, they did so, with the same acknowledgement of their privacy as the press gave FDR to greatly hide the fact that he could not walk or stand unaided. Lucy Mercer, cut off from Franklin, made her own wealthy society marriage, and meanwhile at the White House staff accommodated Eleanor and Franklin's new love interests; In his case a young woman name Missy LeHand who lived there and in her case a lesbian journalist who gave up her career to be with Eleanor, Lorena Hickok.
This book does not "proof" that "lesbian" relationship stating that in Victorian times and in social classes where men and women were kept apart, it was not extraordinary for women to have emotional relationships and write "I love you," in letters. Letters exist. Many have been destroyed. But there were many. Just as we might e-mail today, these women wrote and posted letters to each other most every day, sentimental and feeling, full of assurances that they understood how each other felt, perhaps using language that suggested rather than being explicit.
The suggestion here is that despite Missy and other love interests if not affairs, it was Lucy Mercer Rutherford that was the love of FDR's life.
To change the subject to the economy of the time, when the stock market went down about 90% and 33 % of all Americans were out of work and there was a banking crisis and the Great Depression began - kind of like NOW - page 225 reminds us of what FDR did as president.
"That inauguration day, after he had been sworn in, Roosevelt turned to face a sea of umbrellas and began speaking of the trials that vast numbers of his countrymen still faced. "I see millions of families," he said, "trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day. I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by so called polite society half a century ago. I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children. I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions. I see one third of a nation ill housed, ill clad, ill nourished. It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope - because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposed to paint it out."
President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, and the Other Remarkable Women in His Life
by Joseph E. Persico C 2008
Random House New York
REVIEW by Christine Trzyna
The gist of this story is that by the time the polio crippled FDR was in the White House, he had entertained a long term affair with Lucy Mercer ( later Rutherford), a woman of class but without funds, whom Eleanor his wife had hired to be her secretary. Eleanor discovered the affair, wasted away physically, and negotiated a "stay married" deal with FDR's mother, who was holding the money bags. Agreeing to live separate lives, they did so, with the same acknowledgement of their privacy as the press gave FDR to greatly hide the fact that he could not walk or stand unaided. Lucy Mercer, cut off from Franklin, made her own wealthy society marriage, and meanwhile at the White House staff accommodated Eleanor and Franklin's new love interests; In his case a young woman name Missy LeHand who lived there and in her case a lesbian journalist who gave up her career to be with Eleanor, Lorena Hickok.
This book does not "proof" that "lesbian" relationship stating that in Victorian times and in social classes where men and women were kept apart, it was not extraordinary for women to have emotional relationships and write "I love you," in letters. Letters exist. Many have been destroyed. But there were many. Just as we might e-mail today, these women wrote and posted letters to each other most every day, sentimental and feeling, full of assurances that they understood how each other felt, perhaps using language that suggested rather than being explicit.
The suggestion here is that despite Missy and other love interests if not affairs, it was Lucy Mercer Rutherford that was the love of FDR's life.
To change the subject to the economy of the time, when the stock market went down about 90% and 33 % of all Americans were out of work and there was a banking crisis and the Great Depression began - kind of like NOW - page 225 reminds us of what FDR did as president.
"That inauguration day, after he had been sworn in, Roosevelt turned to face a sea of umbrellas and began speaking of the trials that vast numbers of his countrymen still faced. "I see millions of families," he said, "trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day. I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by so called polite society half a century ago. I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children. I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions. I see one third of a nation ill housed, ill clad, ill nourished. It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope - because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposed to paint it out."
10/7/08
CHRISTINE TRZYNA QUICK REVIEW : THE MAN BEHIND THE DA VINCE CODE By LISA ROGAK
THE MAN BEHIND THE DA VINCI CODE
An Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brown
by Lisa Rogak
Andrews McMeel Publishing Kansas City
This book was interesting for two reasons. It explains how Dan Brown's exposure to Prep Schools and Secret Societies as a student moved him towards that subject matter for his world-wide best seller, The Da Vinci Code, and it explains his writerly life, researching first, heavily plotted schemes before writing, his use of a voice command computer rather than typing, and what went on with his agent and publisher that made the book a very marketable effort, but one that has interfered with his ability to get another book done. Dan Browns wife, Blythe, (a woman behind her man) who was responsible for the strategy of promotion for Dan's music CD's and his earlier books is given ample credit for her contributions to his success.
Page 23
He discovered he possessed a fortitude that was extremely rare among other aspiring young artists. Essentially, Brown couldn't understand how others just like him could fall into a deep depression and give up after only a few months of receiving countless rejection letters. he thought he was missing something because he viewed each rejection as instruction in how he could try harder. With that realization, he knew that Phillips Exeter was responsible. .... "Exeter vaccinated me against the fear of failure," he said.
Page 47
"Besides writing first thing in the morning, Brown also got into the habit of meticulously planning every plot point and twist, each character's relationship with the others, and the forward movement of the story before he wrote even one word of the novel. He realized that the more he knew about the story and its direction in advance, the better. Specifically detailing the tension from one chapter to the next was a great help when the time came for him to actually start writing." .... He knew some novelists wrote blindly, by starting with an idea or image and then writing to see where it would take them. In literary works where the pace moves slowly and tension isn't integral to the plot, Brown could understand this. But the kind of story he wanted to write depended on building lots of suspense, keeping the reader guessing what would happen next, and throwing in lots of surprises - in other words, a page-turning novel....
Page 49-50
"I know I am supposed to name all the great writers who have inspired me, but I'm ashamed to say that I am so buys writing I have almost no time to read anything other than non-fiction and research books," he said. "On vacations I grab some mainstream thriller off the best-seller rack. Not glamorous, I know, but the truth... But there's another reason he shies away from reading current popular fiction. "I read almost exclusively nonfiction, because I am always researching the next novel, but I don't like to read fiction when I'm writing because it tends to color what I am doing," he said.
Page 61 (On marketing his first book, Digital Fortress)
"Brown pulled out all the stops. He had learned from promoting his music that you never knew how someone could help you, so he prepared postcards with an image of the cover of the book on one side and reviews, comments, and a toll-free ordering number of the other. He also devised a succinct motto for the novel: "The government's greatest secret is that they know all of yours." He sent the cards to everyone he had ever known in the music business, as well as to his fellow classmates at Amherst College and Phillips Exeter.
Page 71
"Seasoned authors - and even those with only one book under their belt like Brown - quickly come to realize that once the manuscript has been handed in, their responsibilities to the production phase of publishing are over. Of course, he'd have to answer copy editing questions and check the galleys for typos, but typically only the art department and the sales force have the final say over the content and design of the cover.
An Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brown
by Lisa Rogak
Andrews McMeel Publishing Kansas City
This book was interesting for two reasons. It explains how Dan Brown's exposure to Prep Schools and Secret Societies as a student moved him towards that subject matter for his world-wide best seller, The Da Vinci Code, and it explains his writerly life, researching first, heavily plotted schemes before writing, his use of a voice command computer rather than typing, and what went on with his agent and publisher that made the book a very marketable effort, but one that has interfered with his ability to get another book done. Dan Browns wife, Blythe, (a woman behind her man) who was responsible for the strategy of promotion for Dan's music CD's and his earlier books is given ample credit for her contributions to his success.
Page 23
He discovered he possessed a fortitude that was extremely rare among other aspiring young artists. Essentially, Brown couldn't understand how others just like him could fall into a deep depression and give up after only a few months of receiving countless rejection letters. he thought he was missing something because he viewed each rejection as instruction in how he could try harder. With that realization, he knew that Phillips Exeter was responsible. .... "Exeter vaccinated me against the fear of failure," he said.
Page 47
"Besides writing first thing in the morning, Brown also got into the habit of meticulously planning every plot point and twist, each character's relationship with the others, and the forward movement of the story before he wrote even one word of the novel. He realized that the more he knew about the story and its direction in advance, the better. Specifically detailing the tension from one chapter to the next was a great help when the time came for him to actually start writing." .... He knew some novelists wrote blindly, by starting with an idea or image and then writing to see where it would take them. In literary works where the pace moves slowly and tension isn't integral to the plot, Brown could understand this. But the kind of story he wanted to write depended on building lots of suspense, keeping the reader guessing what would happen next, and throwing in lots of surprises - in other words, a page-turning novel....
Page 49-50
"I know I am supposed to name all the great writers who have inspired me, but I'm ashamed to say that I am so buys writing I have almost no time to read anything other than non-fiction and research books," he said. "On vacations I grab some mainstream thriller off the best-seller rack. Not glamorous, I know, but the truth... But there's another reason he shies away from reading current popular fiction. "I read almost exclusively nonfiction, because I am always researching the next novel, but I don't like to read fiction when I'm writing because it tends to color what I am doing," he said.
Page 61 (On marketing his first book, Digital Fortress)
"Brown pulled out all the stops. He had learned from promoting his music that you never knew how someone could help you, so he prepared postcards with an image of the cover of the book on one side and reviews, comments, and a toll-free ordering number of the other. He also devised a succinct motto for the novel: "The government's greatest secret is that they know all of yours." He sent the cards to everyone he had ever known in the music business, as well as to his fellow classmates at Amherst College and Phillips Exeter.
Page 71
"Seasoned authors - and even those with only one book under their belt like Brown - quickly come to realize that once the manuscript has been handed in, their responsibilities to the production phase of publishing are over. Of course, he'd have to answer copy editing questions and check the galleys for typos, but typically only the art department and the sales force have the final say over the content and design of the cover.
10/6/08
ASTRONAUTS DIARY SURVIVES FALL TO EARTH FROM EXPLODED SHUTTLE
Ramon Ilan, Israels first astronaut, and one of the six who died when the shuttle exploded entering earth's atmosphere February 1st, 2003, wrote a diary while he was aboard and by some miracle a portion of it survived. Click on the title above to get to the story featured on Yahoo News.
10/4/08
QUICK REVIEW: THE JESUS PAPERS by MICHAEL BAIGENT
QUICK REVIEW by Christine Trzyna
THE JESUS PAPERS BY MICHAEL BAIGENT
c 2006 by author
Harper San Francisco
I'm reading this book because the famous "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown based some of his fiction book research on what Baigent and others of the same intention published as non-fiction, the search for the truth about Jesus. Some say that Dan Brown and his ilk have wanted to dismantle Christianity or the Church (Catholic, but all other Christian faiths that believe in the divinity of Jesus, that he died on the cross for our sins, and through him we have eternal salvation of our souls) through revealing what supposedly the Knights Templer and the Masons have long known; that Jesus survived through a carefully conspired plot, he and his wife Mary Magdalena fled to France, where they had children, and their heirs became known as the Merovingian Kings.
Baigent is one of several authors who are akin to the gentleman travelers of the turn of the 20th century, wealthy men of inheritance mostly who were the unwitting founders of the social science of anthropology. And I am with them on their mountain climbs, sea voyages, and travels across the world, investigating, digging up, and experiencing...and coming up with theories and proofs that perhaps the contemporary establishment of anthropology would debunk. So I'm a sucker for a book that has so many color photos of important temples and underground spiritual centers that he has explored.
He is also on the quest of the Historical Jesus, rather than one of faith, or the one invented to be divine after the fact of life.
Page 39
On page 39 Baigent explains, "According to the gospels, through his father (Joseph), Jesus was of the Line of David, through his mother, he was of the line of Aaron the high Priest (Mathew 1:1 16 Luke 1:5,36;2:4). We suddenly get an understanding of his importance to the Zealot cause when we realize that because of his lineage he was heir to both lines. He was a "double" messiah; having inherited both the royal and priestly lines, he was a "Messiah of Aaron and Israel," a figure, as we have seen, who was clearly noted in the Dead Sea Scrolls. And we take as an expression of this fact Pilate's supposedly ironic sign placed at the foot of the cross: This is Jesus The King of the Jews (Matthew 27,37.)
Page 118-119
"Imagine the problem the Zealots, whose entire focus was the removal or destruction of Rome's hold over Judea, had organized a dynastic marriage between Joseph, a man of the royal line of David, and Mary, of the priestly line of Aaron, in order to have a child, Jesus - the "Savior" of Israel - who was both rightful king and high priest."
Egyptology is of interest to me. Baigent goes on about the religious beliefs of the Egyptians. Page 169,
"Dr. Jeremy Naydler, who has made a study of the deeper mysteries expressed in the Egyptian texts, stresses that we must never allow ourselves to forget the experiential (my emphasis) nature of these ancient religious writings."
Speaking of Egyptian temple rituals using the terminology appropriate, Baigent mentions some notions that I believe are equivalent to Hindu spiritual belief and practice, notions that move across cultural lines.
Page 169
"Under usual circumstances, this state would translate as "sleep," but in this specific ritual context, it indicates something more akin to a state of trance or meditation. Its main use, scholars think, was during the animation rite for sacred statues called "the Opening of the Mouth" when divine power was called down to reside in the statue, which was thereby rendered sacred. This same rite also formed part of the funerary practices. it is evident, in the latter case at least, that while in this ritual state the priest somehow moved into the world of the dead, the Far-World, and that on his return he was able to describe what he had experienced as a dead person.... seems to have happened regularly during these rituals.
Page 170
"We can be confident, I would suggest, that this ritual journey was not just an intellectual invention or some kind of priestly drama, a "pious fraud" that provided smoke and noise enough to impress but little true fire.
Around the late third to early fourth centuries A.D. the philosopher Iamblichus of Apamea, one of the most prominent Platonic scholars of his era, was teaching in what is now Lebanon. His teaching was centered upon what he called THEURGY,... that is, "working with" the gods. He contrasted this with THEOLOGY - "Talking about" the gods. He was interested in practical effects rather than intellectual argument; he wanted his students to know, not just to believe.
(THEURY IS A NEW WORD for me!)
THE JESUS PAPERS BY MICHAEL BAIGENT
c 2006 by author
Harper San Francisco
I'm reading this book because the famous "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown based some of his fiction book research on what Baigent and others of the same intention published as non-fiction, the search for the truth about Jesus. Some say that Dan Brown and his ilk have wanted to dismantle Christianity or the Church (Catholic, but all other Christian faiths that believe in the divinity of Jesus, that he died on the cross for our sins, and through him we have eternal salvation of our souls) through revealing what supposedly the Knights Templer and the Masons have long known; that Jesus survived through a carefully conspired plot, he and his wife Mary Magdalena fled to France, where they had children, and their heirs became known as the Merovingian Kings.
Baigent is one of several authors who are akin to the gentleman travelers of the turn of the 20th century, wealthy men of inheritance mostly who were the unwitting founders of the social science of anthropology. And I am with them on their mountain climbs, sea voyages, and travels across the world, investigating, digging up, and experiencing...and coming up with theories and proofs that perhaps the contemporary establishment of anthropology would debunk. So I'm a sucker for a book that has so many color photos of important temples and underground spiritual centers that he has explored.
He is also on the quest of the Historical Jesus, rather than one of faith, or the one invented to be divine after the fact of life.
Page 39
On page 39 Baigent explains, "According to the gospels, through his father (Joseph), Jesus was of the Line of David, through his mother, he was of the line of Aaron the high Priest (Mathew 1:1 16 Luke 1:5,36;2:4). We suddenly get an understanding of his importance to the Zealot cause when we realize that because of his lineage he was heir to both lines. He was a "double" messiah; having inherited both the royal and priestly lines, he was a "Messiah of Aaron and Israel," a figure, as we have seen, who was clearly noted in the Dead Sea Scrolls. And we take as an expression of this fact Pilate's supposedly ironic sign placed at the foot of the cross: This is Jesus The King of the Jews (Matthew 27,37.)
Page 118-119
"Imagine the problem the Zealots, whose entire focus was the removal or destruction of Rome's hold over Judea, had organized a dynastic marriage between Joseph, a man of the royal line of David, and Mary, of the priestly line of Aaron, in order to have a child, Jesus - the "Savior" of Israel - who was both rightful king and high priest."
Egyptology is of interest to me. Baigent goes on about the religious beliefs of the Egyptians. Page 169,
"Dr. Jeremy Naydler, who has made a study of the deeper mysteries expressed in the Egyptian texts, stresses that we must never allow ourselves to forget the experiential (my emphasis) nature of these ancient religious writings."
Speaking of Egyptian temple rituals using the terminology appropriate, Baigent mentions some notions that I believe are equivalent to Hindu spiritual belief and practice, notions that move across cultural lines.
Page 169
"Under usual circumstances, this state would translate as "sleep," but in this specific ritual context, it indicates something more akin to a state of trance or meditation. Its main use, scholars think, was during the animation rite for sacred statues called "the Opening of the Mouth" when divine power was called down to reside in the statue, which was thereby rendered sacred. This same rite also formed part of the funerary practices. it is evident, in the latter case at least, that while in this ritual state the priest somehow moved into the world of the dead, the Far-World, and that on his return he was able to describe what he had experienced as a dead person.... seems to have happened regularly during these rituals.
Page 170
"We can be confident, I would suggest, that this ritual journey was not just an intellectual invention or some kind of priestly drama, a "pious fraud" that provided smoke and noise enough to impress but little true fire.
Around the late third to early fourth centuries A.D. the philosopher Iamblichus of Apamea, one of the most prominent Platonic scholars of his era, was teaching in what is now Lebanon. His teaching was centered upon what he called THEURGY,... that is, "working with" the gods. He contrasted this with THEOLOGY - "Talking about" the gods. He was interested in practical effects rather than intellectual argument; he wanted his students to know, not just to believe.
(THEURY IS A NEW WORD for me!)
9/24/08
SPANISH POETS GRAVE - FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
Click on the title above to go to the Yahoo News story about a controversy over the grave of Federico Garcia Lorca, considered Spain's best 20th century poet and playwright.
9/23/08
WRITERS ROUND TABLE ? HERE'S SOME ADVICE!
WRITERS ROUND TABLE? Here's Some Advice
By Christine Trzyna
I've been asked about Writers Round Tables. Now that school is back in sessions and students are settling in, this may be a good time to establish and participate in a Writers Round Table that runs until the holiday season.
I think these opportunities to share, critique, and discuss writing and becoming published can be a very valuable support system for the writer, that is if every member is at about the same place in their writing AND as dedicated to participation and mutual success as the next. This is rare. My experience is that it's very difficult to select the group members and that just accepting or not accepting members implies judgement that someone has to make. I've found myself being "given" the responsbility for running a Round Table by the more passive other members, becoming the "heart and soul" of the group (according to one ex member of a Round Table I was involved with for well over a year many years ago). It's a responsbility I took on and often enjoyed but I doubt the group would have stayed together as long as it did if I hadn't.
First of all, you must decide if you want to focus on a genre or form of writing, such as poetry, short stories, chapters from novels, freewriting, etc. I find that three hours is about enough time for about 5 members to discuss poetry or short fiction. I think more than about 7 members becomes overwrought, with some people feeling they did not get enough focus or time.
Second, you must decide if you want to be a real critique group or not and what the basis for that critique will be and set standards for professionalism which means NO PERSONAL ATTACKS allowed. Writers must use the lexicon of the critique focusing on the piece, not the writer. Even in my college workshops personal attacks were allowed by a professor; I don't respect that.
Third, if you're determined to send work out as a goal of the group, all members should share in their responsibility to bring publication opportunity information to the group. One group I belonged to became locked in procrastination and perfectionism and the fear that sending work out that was not A plus and five stars, even to small local chap book publications, would result in some sort of banishment from the publishing industry if the work failed to be accepted. Thus some members presented the same short story a half dozen times or more; excruciating indecision about a few word choices and the like. I believe it is better to keep writing, keep producing, without the editor in your head stopping the process, than to agonize like this. If the work holds it's own, it can withstand the go through with an eventual publishing house editor.
Fourth, decide if you have a system for exiting a non-cooperative or abusive member. Sticky, sticky, sticky. But the GROUP has to do it if it needs to be done.
Fifth, enter into a confidentiality agreement with the group so that your ideas and work is not pirated. This has happened in a group I was in in which during the first session I submitted some story ideas to a new member who showed up without any of his own work. The guy was a screenwriter who never showed up again or even attempted to return my work to me. I don't believe people who identify themselves primarily as screenwriters should be in a group with people who are concentrating on short fiction or novels. Sorry! But I live in a town where just about everyone says they are a screenwriter - particularly in Starbucks - where just about everyone has a laptop with a screenwriting program (but me), and where just about everyone has a manuscript in their desk drawer at the office. And sadly, every one of them seems to be looking for the Story Idea that will make them rich and famous, and most of them can't think of that Story Idea themselves so, some of them steal.
Sixth, meet somewhere that the writers can linger with a couple coffees or tea rather than meet in people's homes. Keeping in mind the confidentiality of the work, this may be a difficult place to locate. However if everyone doesn't have a home to use on a fair, rotational basis, even hosting the group can become a powerplay in the group. So to keep things democratic, even under the trees in the park is better. And forget the potlucking or taking turns bringing food. Write instead of cooking.
C Christine Trzyna 2008
9/21/08
I'm reading THE JESUS PAPERS by MICHAEL BAIGENT
Reading THE JESUS PAPERS by Michael Baigent, "Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History" which is, if you don't know the secret, supposedly held by the Nights Templer and the Masons, that Jesus did not die on the cross, but lived after being taken down from the cross and fleeing to France, had married Mary Magdalene, had children, and through them and then the Merovigian Kings, his DNA is evident in contemporary personages such as, say, the future King of England, Wills.
No, it doesn't say all that in this one book exactly, but Baigent and some authors like him working on the same premises, have had their research used by Dan Brown, the author of the fictive DaVinci Code. I've been in one literary -spiritual argument after another recently with my friend I call Rev John who believes the Catholic Church is a Satanic Power, that the worship of The Blessed Virgin Mary is heretical, and that the only penance Catholics get in the confessional is Hail Marys... Yes, and we are still friends. Rev John thinks the DaVinci Code is fact, not fiction. I owe it to my heritage religion to straighten him out, don't ya think?
Tell you this... I love all the archaeological and historical sites Baigent visited and photographed and presents in this book.
No, it doesn't say all that in this one book exactly, but Baigent and some authors like him working on the same premises, have had their research used by Dan Brown, the author of the fictive DaVinci Code. I've been in one literary -spiritual argument after another recently with my friend I call Rev John who believes the Catholic Church is a Satanic Power, that the worship of The Blessed Virgin Mary is heretical, and that the only penance Catholics get in the confessional is Hail Marys... Yes, and we are still friends. Rev John thinks the DaVinci Code is fact, not fiction. I owe it to my heritage religion to straighten him out, don't ya think?
Tell you this... I love all the archaeological and historical sites Baigent visited and photographed and presents in this book.
9/20/08
9/16/08
CHRISTINE TRZYNA MUSING on THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY by CARLOS CASTANEDA
I've been reading Carlos Castaneda's THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY, which is his "album of memories" (memoir) written in the year or so prior to his death from cancer and published in 1998. Carlos Castaneda is a controversial figure in the realms of literature, anthropology, academia, pop culture, and the new age - spiritual movements. I've read around him, reading the accusations and proofs he was merely a liar rather than a man taken on a journey into Yaqui shamanism in the early 1960's by a character named Don Juan and that he wasn't. But let's say I had never read anything else he'd written, had never read the controversy. I would still find THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY fascinating, a good read. (One book that pretty much accused him of being a liar on the basis that he had once the audacity to take a Creative Writing class at Los Angeles City Community College was just outrageous!)
Most importantly, I believe that the directive that Don Juan gave Carlos, that he write the album of memories as a series of story/events that had turning points in his personal development, to be an excellent one that any memoirist ought to consider. Thus Castaneda gives us stories large and small, each holding the realizations he had because of his experiences for the reader to consider. He is posed as the everyman in his memoir, humbled and awed, not as an egotist.
From all the Castaneda I have read, I have borrowed two concepts from him which may simply be a matter of word use. MOOD and MOMENT. In this moment I want to write my own album of memories. Both the mood and the moment at this time in my life are strange.
Most importantly, I believe that the directive that Don Juan gave Carlos, that he write the album of memories as a series of story/events that had turning points in his personal development, to be an excellent one that any memoirist ought to consider. Thus Castaneda gives us stories large and small, each holding the realizations he had because of his experiences for the reader to consider. He is posed as the everyman in his memoir, humbled and awed, not as an egotist.
From all the Castaneda I have read, I have borrowed two concepts from him which may simply be a matter of word use. MOOD and MOMENT. In this moment I want to write my own album of memories. Both the mood and the moment at this time in my life are strange.
9/13/08
QUICK REVIEW : MIND HUNTER by JOHN DOUGLAS and MARK OLSHAKER
QUICK REVIEW by Christine Trzyna
MIND HUNTER by JOHN DOUGLAS and MARK OLSHAKER
Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
From the Special Agent Who Pioneered Criminal Profiling
by John Douglas (the Special Agent) and Mark Olshaker
A Lisa Drew Book - Scribner Publisher
John Douglas was a pioneer of "profiling" serial killers and he's been on a number of important cases anyone in range of the news has heard about. Besides experience, statistical analysis, and luck, he also seems to have the instinct for an important detail that makes all the difference. He practically diagnoses a crime scene, getting into the mind and habits of a serial killer. Page 69: "Eventually I would come up with the term signature to describe this unique element and personal compulsion, which remained static. And I would use it as distinguishable from the traditional concept of modus operandi, which is fluid and can change. This became the core of what we do in the Investigative Support Unit."
Trivia question of the week: What is the most common vehicle owned by a serial killer (see answer below!)
What this Master Profiler wants you to know is that criminals are experts at profiling their victims and often think out every last step or detail of the crime before they commit it.
page 63
..."Just as they had in school, people felt comfortable opening to me. The more I questioned these guys, the more I came to understand that the successful criminals were good profilers. They each had a carefully thought through and well-research profile of the type of bank they preferred. Some like banks near major thoroughfares or interstates so that getaways would be easier and they could be many miles away before a pursuit could be organized..... page 64... But if you started profiling the cases - you could begin seeing patterns. And once you began seeing patterns, you could start taking proactive measures to catch the bad guys... in effect you could force the robber to select the bank of your choosing and be ready for him when he did."
page 111
"The desire to work with the police was another interesting revelation, which was to come up over and over again in our serial killer studies. The three most common motives of serial rapists and murderers turns out to be domination, manipulation, and control. When you consider that most of these guys are angry, ineffectual losers who feel they've been given the shaft by life, and that most of them have experienced some sort of physical or emotional abuse...it isn't surprising that one of their main fantasy occupations is police officer."
Ed Kemper of Santa Cruz was one killer who had even gone past university security with two bodies in the car, one wrapped up in a blanket and sitting in front, the other in back. He said the girls were drunk and he was taking them home.
Page 113: "He told us that when he stopped his car for a pretty girl, he'd ask her where she was going, then glance at his watch as if trying to decide if he had enough time. Thinking that she was dealing with a busy man who had other more important priorities than stopping for hitchhikers would immediately put her at ease and erase any hesitations. Aside from giving us a look into a killer's modus operandi, this type of information would start suggestions, verbal cues, body language, and so on that we use to size up other people and make instant judgements about them often don't apply to sociopath. With Ed Kemper, for instance, stopping for a pretty hitchhiker was his most important priority, and he had thought long, hard, and analytically about how best to accomplish his objective; much longer, harder, and more analytically than a young woman encountering him casually would have done from her perspective..."
Page 114
"Manipulation Domination Control. These are the three watchwords of violent serial offenders. Everything they do and think about is directed toward assisting them in filling their otherwise inadequate lives....Probably the most crucial single factor in the development of a serial rapist or killer is the role of fantasy...with most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers."
John Douglas interviewed Charlie Manson and is of the opinion that the murders of Sharon Tate and her friends were not planned or intended by Manson but this was a point where he lost control over his followers and the situation.
Page 120
"He had been forced to live by his wits his entire life and so had become extremely adept at sizing up the people he met and quickly determining what they could do for him. He would have been excellent in my unit assessing an individuals psychological strengths and weaknesses and strategizing how to get to a killer we were hunting."
The Volkswagon Beetle!
MIND HUNTER by JOHN DOUGLAS and MARK OLSHAKER
Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
From the Special Agent Who Pioneered Criminal Profiling
by John Douglas (the Special Agent) and Mark Olshaker
A Lisa Drew Book - Scribner Publisher
John Douglas was a pioneer of "profiling" serial killers and he's been on a number of important cases anyone in range of the news has heard about. Besides experience, statistical analysis, and luck, he also seems to have the instinct for an important detail that makes all the difference. He practically diagnoses a crime scene, getting into the mind and habits of a serial killer. Page 69: "Eventually I would come up with the term signature to describe this unique element and personal compulsion, which remained static. And I would use it as distinguishable from the traditional concept of modus operandi, which is fluid and can change. This became the core of what we do in the Investigative Support Unit."
Trivia question of the week: What is the most common vehicle owned by a serial killer (see answer below!)
What this Master Profiler wants you to know is that criminals are experts at profiling their victims and often think out every last step or detail of the crime before they commit it.
page 63
..."Just as they had in school, people felt comfortable opening to me. The more I questioned these guys, the more I came to understand that the successful criminals were good profilers. They each had a carefully thought through and well-research profile of the type of bank they preferred. Some like banks near major thoroughfares or interstates so that getaways would be easier and they could be many miles away before a pursuit could be organized..... page 64... But if you started profiling the cases - you could begin seeing patterns. And once you began seeing patterns, you could start taking proactive measures to catch the bad guys... in effect you could force the robber to select the bank of your choosing and be ready for him when he did."
page 111
"The desire to work with the police was another interesting revelation, which was to come up over and over again in our serial killer studies. The three most common motives of serial rapists and murderers turns out to be domination, manipulation, and control. When you consider that most of these guys are angry, ineffectual losers who feel they've been given the shaft by life, and that most of them have experienced some sort of physical or emotional abuse...it isn't surprising that one of their main fantasy occupations is police officer."
Ed Kemper of Santa Cruz was one killer who had even gone past university security with two bodies in the car, one wrapped up in a blanket and sitting in front, the other in back. He said the girls were drunk and he was taking them home.
Page 113: "He told us that when he stopped his car for a pretty girl, he'd ask her where she was going, then glance at his watch as if trying to decide if he had enough time. Thinking that she was dealing with a busy man who had other more important priorities than stopping for hitchhikers would immediately put her at ease and erase any hesitations. Aside from giving us a look into a killer's modus operandi, this type of information would start suggestions, verbal cues, body language, and so on that we use to size up other people and make instant judgements about them often don't apply to sociopath. With Ed Kemper, for instance, stopping for a pretty hitchhiker was his most important priority, and he had thought long, hard, and analytically about how best to accomplish his objective; much longer, harder, and more analytically than a young woman encountering him casually would have done from her perspective..."
Page 114
"Manipulation Domination Control. These are the three watchwords of violent serial offenders. Everything they do and think about is directed toward assisting them in filling their otherwise inadequate lives....Probably the most crucial single factor in the development of a serial rapist or killer is the role of fantasy...with most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers."
John Douglas interviewed Charlie Manson and is of the opinion that the murders of Sharon Tate and her friends were not planned or intended by Manson but this was a point where he lost control over his followers and the situation.
Page 120
"He had been forced to live by his wits his entire life and so had become extremely adept at sizing up the people he met and quickly determining what they could do for him. He would have been excellent in my unit assessing an individuals psychological strengths and weaknesses and strategizing how to get to a killer we were hunting."
The Volkswagon Beetle!
9/11/08
ALBERT EINSTEIN quote
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
- Albert Einstein
- Albert Einstein
9/8/08
IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN CREATIVE GENIUS AND BIPOLAR (MANIC DEPRESSION?)
Click on the link above to be taken to the latest news of this theory and the evidence for it. (Of course your list of geniuses may not be their list of geniuses.)
MIND HUNTER by JOHN DOUGLAS and MARK OLSHAKER coming up...
Reading Mind Hunter - Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
From the Special Agent Who Pioneered Criminal Profiling
by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
Quick Review coming up soon!
From the Special Agent Who Pioneered Criminal Profiling
by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
Quick Review coming up soon!
9/7/08
WE ARE EVERYWHERE (NEXT MAGAZINE REDUX)
From the March 1996 Next Magazine
You're the poet?" they asked. Later a woman timidly slipped me the song lyrics she'd written and a Russian man, an intense immigrant, presented me with a thick manila envelope and dashed out. It was full of poems he'd published in a Yankee literary journal.
WE ARE EVERYWHERE
by Christine Trzyna
Poets are sometimes performers, sometimes producers, sometimes workshop leaders or magazine editors. These are the high profile poets we know of. But poets can be found everywhere, even in unexpected places. AT LAVC's computer lab, where I culled my poetry file for an eventual chapbook, other students were surprised to see my poems making it through the printer between spreadsheets and graphic presentations.
You're the poet?" they asked. Later a woman timidly slipped me the song lyrics she'd written and a Russian man, an intense immigrant, presented me with a thick manila envelope and dashed out. It was full of poems he'd published in a Yankee literary journal.
Some complain about not making money through poetry. Conversely others feel that poetry is tainted by ambitions that include financial reward. But poets are not unemployed - they can be found in every profession,
Poets make "real money" in "real" jobs in the "real" world. I was once a member of a writing group that included a jet propulsion lab engineer, a landscaped designer, a telephone operator, and a retired IRS officer. Perhaps as we gossip, asking what certain poets "real" names are, we should also ask, what do they really do for a living? A quick survey of my poetry pals includes an office manager, a computer specialist, a teacher, a sociologist, a construction worker, a waiter, a cabdriver, temporary workers and coffeehouse counter clerks. Poetry is written from a vast variety of viewpoints and on "unpoetic" subjects. We are not stereotypes. We are everywhere.
What I disdain is the way some poets judge other poets, rather than praising diversity.
"Not really a poet" - a person who also indulges in other forms of writing.
"Idiot Savant" - a person whose great talent attracts jealous backstabbers.
"No Talent Bum" - a person who could give a damn about literary pretension.
"Bastard/Bitch" - a person who dares to read work inspired by bad romance, even though the ex is staring them down in the room.
"Overachiever" (No such thing!) - a person who keeps trying to perform although they bomb.
Worse of all "LA poet", as in, "Don't get known as an LA Poets!" - a person who is not approved of by the snob establishment, who some point to as "in San Francisco" or "Poets & Writers," or "The Lannan Foundation."
Such comments make me sad for the era when community had something to do with upholding each other's creative path. It makes me understand why some poets prefer to write, and remain, in secret.
9/4/08
BREAKING THE "RULES" of CREATIVE WRITING
BREAKING SOME OF THE RULES OF CREATIVE WRITING
By Christine Trzyna
Here are some of the Rules of Creative Writing I've heard in various classes that I've found published authors have broken successfully.
1) Never use italics or bold or fancy fonts as a means of expression. You should use adjectives and adverbs.
2) Never have more than a few characters. The story is too complicated and difficult to follow when you load up your short story or novel with too many.
3) Don't use run on sentences that are overly descriptive with fancy language. If you can't read it without taking a breath, the sentence is too long. (Strunk and White advocates simple, clear, communicative writing.)
4) Use standard punctuation. This is not the place to get creative.
5) Don't write your life story and then try to publish it as fiction.
9/2/08
FROM RIGHT TO JONG by Christine Trzyna (NEXT MAGAZINE redux)
FROM RIGHT TO JONG by Christine Trzyna
(This article appeared in July 1994 Next Magazine.)
I've worked a number of trade shows before, but the ABA Convention was the best. The Orange Ocean Press Booth, ion the Small Press area, was home base for me and visited by a horde of O.O.P's published poets.
When Moss Sheridan showed up with a substantial tote of autographed books - one from Allen Ginsberg- we realized that for a paltry $1. donation to help rebuild LA's earthquake ravaged libraries, we too could be the owner of a brand new hardback. The PR people at the convention center claimed 30,000 were in attendance and the book signing lines were hot and incredibly long - definitely requiring cushy flats to endure the waiting. I, never the less, circled in my corporate heels and braved the lines.
Somebody had to keep plugging in the Orange Ocean Press and surfing videos at the booth,so I planned my autograph hunting with discrimination. Though, OK, once I escaped by telling the guys I had to go to the ladies room. My prime target: Erica Jong.
I love Erica Jong and through thousands of books have passed through my life, each of hers remain in my permanent collection, making it through my many moves. But something went wrong and I found myself in the Disney gate instead, where I could only see her from afar. If I'd had more than a buck on me, I would've tried to "tip" the gate-keeper; instead I told the truth, tears swilling in my eyes. I got sympathy and was allowed int the FEAR OF FIFTY line.
Although I am not of her generation, Ms. Jong's seven poetry books and six novels, her many essays, have always spoke to me. She has always written honestly about the struggle for a woman to be an artist/writer/per. As I waited, I thought of all the things I I would say to her when it was my turn. When the time came I was too dumbfounded by emotion to do anything but smile.
FEAR OF FIFTY, due out in August (1994), contains an entire chapters, "Seducing the Muse," which is dedicated to her experiences as a poet back when a woman was called "poetess." It includes the ambivalence of sending work out, the glory of success, the poetry scene in which she read, and the way the publishing world turned its back on poets.
To quote Ms. Jong, "I returned again and again to poetry after each novel because poetry was guaranteed to be obscure, thus ambition-proof, so it was possible to write it with little thought for the outside worlds... The best you can do is work at not caring too much about the outer symbols and continuing to do whatever it is that centers you and makes you remember your true self... Poetry has remained that for me."
8/30/08
NEXT MAGAZINE REDUX - Update
Earlier in this blog I mentioned that I would be presenting articles I wrote which were published in NEXT Magazine years ago. NEXT Magazine was a poetry scene magazine in start up when I gave a lot of energy to it for well over a year of my life. Like many such start up magazines it started up and sputtered, deficit of enough volunteers who shared the vision of what it might be by the editor and owner of the magazine, G. Murray Thomas. Like poetry magazines in particular it was started on small funds and failed to attract the kind of important advertising necessary to any magazine on any subject. But what was worse was the well known "fact" that poets were a stereotypically poverty-stricken group, bringing their own tea bags into independent artsy "coffee houses" and performance rooms because they just wanted the free hot water. Seems hardly anyone believed poets would read the magazine, read the ads, and actually spend.
Dealing with the poetry scene and the reality of poets who played upon those stereotypes as well was my forte. Coming up between music videos of songs that have come into my consciousness recently, I'll be running some of my articles from so long ago. Coming up first FROM RIGHT TO JONG, my review of the American Booksellers Convention of 1994...
Search for Erica Jong elsewhere on my blog...
Christine
Dealing with the poetry scene and the reality of poets who played upon those stereotypes as well was my forte. Coming up between music videos of songs that have come into my consciousness recently, I'll be running some of my articles from so long ago. Coming up first FROM RIGHT TO JONG, my review of the American Booksellers Convention of 1994...
Search for Erica Jong elsewhere on my blog...
Christine
8/27/08
THE FLOW OF THE BLACK GEL PEN
I remember a writing professor of mine talking about a famous author who wrote on long sheets of butcher paper using a fat pencil, the kind first graders use to print with. The author had big hands. I love the feel of a good black gel pen on smooth paper. Not the Chinese import kind of paper...
8/25/08
LISA HUBLER (My Mindful Meditation Teacher) Quote
Lisa Hubler says she probably got this quote from someone else.
"Meditation is a radical act
"Meditation is a radical act
of non-doing."
8/22/08
USING REAL PEOPLE YOU'VE OBSERVED, MET, OR KNOWN IN FICTION AND NON FICTION
USING REAL PEOPLE YOU'VE OBSERVED, MET, OR KNOWN IN FICTION OR NON-FICTION
By Christine Trzyna
Recently a proud poet presented to me and a few other friends a poem she had written about us and grief and loss. For each of us she had taken a bright yellow marker and colored the lines that were about us. She signed it with an artistic flourish in the bottom right hand side of the paper like a painter adding a little hug. She thought she was giving us a gift - empathy.
Being the fastest reader of the group I quickly sensed that my friend Joy was going to be insulted when she read what the poet had written about her. The poet had made an unfortunate word choice, using the word "lost" that made it sound like Joy had her legs amputated when actually she meant to say that Joy had lost the easy use of her legs due to knee injuries. Another woman was upset because her real name was used in a passage about her loss which was the custody of her children.
Situations like this are common within poetry circles and at readings where everyone knows everyone. But using real people you've met, observed or known during your life is literary tradition. Perhaps Truman Capote is now most notorious for having a used a group of society women he called "The Swans," as characters in a novel. They recognized themselves and all but one of them shunned him from that time on. He literally (!) ruined his career as a result.
Why did I use Joy's real name above, when Joy is actually not aware that I blog? Because when I think of Joy I attach to her more closely rather than using the distance of a fake name or alluding to "one." And I think that even the reader who doesn't know anyone named gets a sense about this, that ring of truth that is so important in fiction too.
In my own writing I sometimes struggle with creating a composite character out of a few people I know who are a lot alike in some way, and coming up with fake names that still "fit" a character born of my imagination or based on a live person.
Being the fastest reader of the group I quickly sensed that my friend Joy was going to be insulted when she read what the poet had written about her. The poet had made an unfortunate word choice, using the word "lost" that made it sound like Joy had her legs amputated when actually she meant to say that Joy had lost the easy use of her legs due to knee injuries. Another woman was upset because her real name was used in a passage about her loss which was the custody of her children.
Situations like this are common within poetry circles and at readings where everyone knows everyone. But using real people you've met, observed or known during your life is literary tradition. Perhaps Truman Capote is now most notorious for having a used a group of society women he called "The Swans," as characters in a novel. They recognized themselves and all but one of them shunned him from that time on. He literally (!) ruined his career as a result.
Why did I use Joy's real name above, when Joy is actually not aware that I blog? Because when I think of Joy I attach to her more closely rather than using the distance of a fake name or alluding to "one." And I think that even the reader who doesn't know anyone named gets a sense about this, that ring of truth that is so important in fiction too.
In my own writing I sometimes struggle with creating a composite character out of a few people I know who are a lot alike in some way, and coming up with fake names that still "fit" a character born of my imagination or based on a live person.
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