3/30/11
WILL TAISHA ABELAR'S NEW BOOK COME OUT TODAY - MARCH 30 2011 - AS PROMISED? A PUBLISHING MYSTERY STORY BY CHRISTINE TRZYNA
Guess what? If you go to April 1 2023 and see the post TAISHA ABELAR'S LOST BOOK - STALKING WITH THE DOUBLE (RESTORED VERSION) you will be able to read a manuscript copy of the book.
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NOTE JUNE 2022 I think Taisha Abelar is in life eternal but physically not in the body she came in with during her life that entangled with Castaneda.
Taisha Abelar, if you don't know, was one of the close devotees of the writer Carlos Castanada, one of his, if you will, "Witches," though perhaps what she was really was more of a "Sorcerer," or, if you will, simply a Yogini with a different cultural and religious sensibility than Hinduism, a sensibility that was about Ancient Mexico.
Today, March 30, 2011, is supposed to be the release date of a book she was writing when she, and the other "Witches," disappeared after Carlos Castaneda's death. This book has had at least one other false start that I've heard about. It has been "at a publishers" for years and the left behind employees of Castaneda's who give workshops have been very, shall we say, studied, in the way they use language to indicate that maybe Taisha is "traveling."
Years ago an employee of a coffee house I frequented turned me on to her first and only book, and it's a book that I've read more than once, several years apart; I like to see how the material sits with me and my own emerging sensibilities.
This book has more than the disappearance of Taisha and a few other cohorts - possibly in a suicide in a mine shaft in the Arizona desert but the bodies were never found - as a mystery.
It is also a publishing mystery. You see, the ISBN, which are printed on the back of most books published so that they can be identified by a code that allows them to be purchased by book stores with ease, are purchased by the publishing house in a block. This sequel will be sold with an ISBN code in that original block. Some interpret this standard practice as indicative that the book was actually written at about the same time, in the works anyway, and suspect that what has actually happened is that Taisha's estate took some notes and turned them over to a ghost writer - or two - or a dozen by now - to turn it into a book akin to the original. So did Taisha actually write this book and will it be anything at all like the original which was written, though she is called a "Stalker," while "in Dreaming?"
In order to turn out a book that is truly Taisha's, if the manuscript (or not) that she left behind was indeed in need of major reworking, the ghost writer(s) would really have to get into her head, maybe even live her kind of life, in which there was NO TIME for anything much besides the search for eternal life of a not Christian kind. And will this ghost writer(s), like all ghost writer(s), who never get credited, remain silent and be possibly the biggest publishing business secret since the supposed secret of who actually wrote Castaneda's books?
I've been fascinated with this story from the beginning when, after the disappearance, it was Taisha's estranged family who wanted her declared dead, some said, so they could benefit in some way from her estate, which was an inheritance from Carlos. Maybe those left-behind didn't want a planned group suicide to dirty up the Castaneda inheritance of magic or maybe, for all we know, it will be Taisha returned to this world, who will do the book signings?
C Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved Including International and Internet Rights
3/27/11
SHAKE RUSSEL DEEP IN THE WEST
Heard this song and "You Got A Lover" in the late 1970's at a club called Steamboat Springs in Houston Texas. The songs stuck with me. So many years later I was in a coffee house on Ventura Blvd in Los Angeles and I overheard some people talking about ordering Shake Russel tapes or CD's I went over to talk to them. Still going like all singer-songwriters do. Beautiful song. "Are you listening to me when I'm talking to you? - Together we're one and divided we're through."
3/21/11
BEADWORK MAGAZINE'S CHALLENGE CREATIVE INSPIRATION
Having designed some jewelry in my time, recently I started reading BEADWORK magazine, and I love the feature they call "The Challenge." A few designers receive the same assortment of beads and stones and metal elements and then do what they will with the package.
They don't have to use all the beads provided and it seems to be OK if they use some of their own supply as well. Besides seeing how different artists manifest art in the form of the functional art of jewelry, I've seen some of the most gorgeous jewelry I have ever seen in this magazine.
To bead takes great patience and manual dexterity. I am truly impressed. And for those who want to follow along there are often patterns and instructions.
They don't have to use all the beads provided and it seems to be OK if they use some of their own supply as well. Besides seeing how different artists manifest art in the form of the functional art of jewelry, I've seen some of the most gorgeous jewelry I have ever seen in this magazine.
To bead takes great patience and manual dexterity. I am truly impressed. And for those who want to follow along there are often patterns and instructions.
3/14/11
3/10/11
OTHER PEOPLE'S REJECTION LETTERS Edited by BILL SHAPIRO : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW
OTHER PEOPLE'S REJECTION LETTERS
"Relationship Enders, Career Killers, and 150 Other Letters You'll Be Glad You Didn't Receive"
edited by Bill Shapiro
Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers (Random House/Bertelsmann)
OK, with a SUBTITLE LIKE THAT, WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO GIVE A LOOK-SEE? I like this kind of collection, scrapbook-like with it's reproductions of the actual letters including, it would seem, some real addresses on the letterheads, like the letters recieved by persons dumped from the LDS church. I'm a sucker for books that are scrap-book like!
But rather than horrified, I thought it was all FUN! Perverse Fun maybe but still fun because we know that those who contributed their misfortune to this book must have gotten over it already in order to reveal it to the world! And if they didn't get over it, then they GOT EVEN by showing just how cold and without compassion some letter senders can be!
Will this book stop YOU from forgetting to be kind when you ought to be? Will you tear up that Dear John letter and figure out a better way to say goodbye? If only this book didn't have so many REJECTIONS FROM PUBLISHERS in it!
C Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
"Relationship Enders, Career Killers, and 150 Other Letters You'll Be Glad You Didn't Receive"
edited by Bill Shapiro
Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers (Random House/Bertelsmann)
OK, with a SUBTITLE LIKE THAT, WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO GIVE A LOOK-SEE? I like this kind of collection, scrapbook-like with it's reproductions of the actual letters including, it would seem, some real addresses on the letterheads, like the letters recieved by persons dumped from the LDS church. I'm a sucker for books that are scrap-book like!
But rather than horrified, I thought it was all FUN! Perverse Fun maybe but still fun because we know that those who contributed their misfortune to this book must have gotten over it already in order to reveal it to the world! And if they didn't get over it, then they GOT EVEN by showing just how cold and without compassion some letter senders can be!
Will this book stop YOU from forgetting to be kind when you ought to be? Will you tear up that Dear John letter and figure out a better way to say goodbye? If only this book didn't have so many REJECTIONS FROM PUBLISHERS in it!
C Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
3/7/11
STRAND BOOKSTORE NEW YORK SELLS INTERIOR DESIGNERS BOOKS BY THE FOOT
According to Lisa Birnbach and Chip Kidd, authors of TRUE PREP, an Alfred A Knopf Borzoi Book published in recent months, the STRAND BOOK STORE IN NEW YORK has 18 miles of books. Preppies and their designers are DECORATING WITH BOOKS, often purchased (remaining unread?) by the foot, but with the assistance of 3 employees who know the kind of titles a person might want to have on display on their shelves. Nancy Bass Wyden is the store owner who says that Ralph Lauren stores and J. Crew Stores use the store as a resource for books in the categories of glamour, aspirational, on the Vanderbilts and Astors, and Slim Aarons photos of WASPS.
2/28/11
CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW : THE GIRL IN ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S SHOWER by ROBERT GRAYSMITH
The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower
by Robert Graysmith
C2010 Berkeley Publishing - a Penguin Group
Marli Renfro, a nudist, and early Playboy Playmate, was the BODY DOUBLE not the STAND IN for Janet Leigh in Hitchcock's Psycho. The murder scene, filmed for days in a shower set, and then cut cut cut to build fear in the audience and get past the censors. Despite the black and white film - or perhaps because of it - the innovative flashes of pictures went so quick it was almost subliminal and the audiences' tension in watching the film exploded. Hitchcock's attention to detail was unprecedented and the scene was part of movie making history.
The author, true crime author Robert Graysmith, has long had a thing for this model, Marli Renfro, that spurred him on to detail a life gone bitterly ironic when she was murdered, but it turns out that the press had reported erroneously, because the reporters didn't know the difference between a Body Double and the Stand In. Turns out Marli never was murdered and has lived an OK life defined by outdoorsy activities.
Within this book Graysmith not only takes us on the behind the scenes making of a Hitchcock movie, but also the history of Playboy magazine and Clubs and the players in the early hours of the sexual revolution in the early 1960's.
Is it awful to reveal that I felt kind of wrongly lead on that Marli Renfro had not been murdered? I wish only that Graysmith had, at the point of revealing this to us readers, gone on to tell the story of the woman who had been, the Stand In!
All and all a fascinating tale and one that made me think of the days I worked as a movie extra.
C Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.
by Robert Graysmith
C2010 Berkeley Publishing - a Penguin Group
Marli Renfro, a nudist, and early Playboy Playmate, was the BODY DOUBLE not the STAND IN for Janet Leigh in Hitchcock's Psycho. The murder scene, filmed for days in a shower set, and then cut cut cut to build fear in the audience and get past the censors. Despite the black and white film - or perhaps because of it - the innovative flashes of pictures went so quick it was almost subliminal and the audiences' tension in watching the film exploded. Hitchcock's attention to detail was unprecedented and the scene was part of movie making history.
The author, true crime author Robert Graysmith, has long had a thing for this model, Marli Renfro, that spurred him on to detail a life gone bitterly ironic when she was murdered, but it turns out that the press had reported erroneously, because the reporters didn't know the difference between a Body Double and the Stand In. Turns out Marli never was murdered and has lived an OK life defined by outdoorsy activities.
Within this book Graysmith not only takes us on the behind the scenes making of a Hitchcock movie, but also the history of Playboy magazine and Clubs and the players in the early hours of the sexual revolution in the early 1960's.
Is it awful to reveal that I felt kind of wrongly lead on that Marli Renfro had not been murdered? I wish only that Graysmith had, at the point of revealing this to us readers, gone on to tell the story of the woman who had been, the Stand In!
All and all a fascinating tale and one that made me think of the days I worked as a movie extra.
C Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.
2/22/11
THOMAS JEFFERSON's BOOKS FOUND AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN SAINT LOUIS
"Dozens of Thomas Jefferson's books, some including handwritten notes from the nation's third president, have been found in the rare books collection at Washington University in St. Louis...
"The books were among about 3,000 that were donated to the school in 1880 after the death of Jefferson's granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, and her husband, Joseph Coolidge.
There was no indication at the time that any of them had belonged to Jefferson. But it turns out that 2 1/2 years after Jefferson's 1826 death, his library of 1,600 books was sold to settle debts...
LINK TO THE FULL YAHOO NEWS STORY ABOVE!
"The books were among about 3,000 that were donated to the school in 1880 after the death of Jefferson's granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, and her husband, Joseph Coolidge.
There was no indication at the time that any of them had belonged to Jefferson. But it turns out that 2 1/2 years after Jefferson's 1826 death, his library of 1,600 books was sold to settle debts...
LINK TO THE FULL YAHOO NEWS STORY ABOVE!
2/20/11
MARGARET ATWOOD Quote
"All writers are double, for the simple reason that you can never actually meet the author of the book you have just read. Too much time has elapsed between composition and publication and the person who wrote the book is now a different person."
- Margaret Atwood
2/17/11
POSTING FROM SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER : THE 1000 JOURNAL PROJECT ONE MORE WEEK!
"The Journals have traveled by air, sea, and land throughout forty countries and all fifty states. They've been the subject of treasure hunts, hidden in remote caves, abandoned at airports, left in the lost and found, and stolen at gunpoint. If you're local you have one more week to go in and add some art, poetry, or other writing to a journal page... I did today... LINK TO THE FULL STORY - 1000 JOURNALS TRAVELI(NG! - and Skirball Information.
2/7/11
BABY NAME BOOKS ARE INSPIRATIONAL FOR CHARACTERS
I love BABY NAME BOOKS! I like to browse through them - collect them ! That's because I'm inspired by names to develop characters.
Get this: In college I wrote a long story in which I made up a name for a character. It was an unusual name but felt right to me. In fact, it was as if this character, who I came to know well, was telling me what their name was, the way you hear some babies, before birth, whisper their name to their mothers or commuicate it silently as newborns. So I went with this character name. But in critique sessions in my writing workshop the professor and a couple students told me that the name was too unusual, that they got stuck on it while reading. Not good!
I tried, I really did, to find another name for this character. I questioned my motivations for naming this character something unusual. But then again, she was hardly an ordinary person. I was grateful that I could find and replace, using the computer, when the time came to change the name, but simply I never did find another name for the character and the manuscript remains in storage at this time.
Then recently I was looking through a baby name book and there it was - for the first time I had ever seen it in print - this unusual name I had used for the character!
C Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights
Get this: In college I wrote a long story in which I made up a name for a character. It was an unusual name but felt right to me. In fact, it was as if this character, who I came to know well, was telling me what their name was, the way you hear some babies, before birth, whisper their name to their mothers or commuicate it silently as newborns. So I went with this character name. But in critique sessions in my writing workshop the professor and a couple students told me that the name was too unusual, that they got stuck on it while reading. Not good!
I tried, I really did, to find another name for this character. I questioned my motivations for naming this character something unusual. But then again, she was hardly an ordinary person. I was grateful that I could find and replace, using the computer, when the time came to change the name, but simply I never did find another name for the character and the manuscript remains in storage at this time.
Then recently I was looking through a baby name book and there it was - for the first time I had ever seen it in print - this unusual name I had used for the character!
C Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights
2/1/11
JOAN SLOAN Quotation
"Though a living cannot be made at art, art makes life worth living. It makes starving, living. It makes worry, it makes trouble, it makes a life that would be barren of everything - living. It brings life to life." - Joan Sloan
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