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.

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

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.

JOHN BRADSHAW quote

"You're a human being, not a human doing." - John Bradshaw

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.

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!

ALBERT EINSTEIN quote

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

- Albert Einstein

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!

WE ARE EVERYWHERE (NEXT MAGAZINE REDUX)

From the March 1996 Next Magazine

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.

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.

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."