VOICES

I like books. All books. But I will admit to being an avid fiction hound with an affinity for short stories, which make particular demands on both readers and writers who must focus their attention on every word in order to together build an immaculately self-contained world. Not easy, but, after the final page is turned and the last symbol typed, certainly worthwhile. I recently finished reading Julie Orringer’s How to Breathe Underwater, an inspired first collection by a writer who shows great, great promise. What are you reading?

Maybe we should petition for a National Short Story Month. Which month do you feel would be most appropriate?

So here’s what I’m thinking: I have 25 students in my creative writing workshop who are operating at 25 different skill levels.  My favorite and most successful writing prompts have included asking them to evoke one setting, preferably small so that they must pay attention to details (the inside of their bedrooms, the inside of their cars, the inside of their girlfriends’ mouths) or giving them the first line of a story, such as “We’d seen the body.  Now we wanted to see the car.”  I admit it: I buy books entitled What If? and The Writer’s Idea Workshop for writing prompts because what works for me doesn’t necessarily work for my students, who seldom enter my workshops with a notebook full of ideas they want to explore.  So I am in the market for even more writing prompts.  Share your favorite(s) with me and if yours is voted most useful by my students you will win an autographed copy of my upcoming book, Voices of the Lost and Found.

Most of you were probably forced to read Slaughterhouse Five in high school (and were unexpectedly surprised and grateful afterward for having been introduced to such an original and inspiring thinker).  I recall feeling quite sad when Mr. Vonnegut publicly announced that he had finished writing books.  Several years later when Timequake hit the bookshelves I was elated.   Was I annoyed by the seeming publicity stunt or the change of heart that perhaps revealed a capriciousness normally alien to such a stable and grounded thinker?  Nope, just elated.  Needless to say, Mr. Vonnegut has now most certainly put down his pen and the world is a diminished place.  What are your favorite Vonnegut books?  Which author do you feel will leave the world a lesser place upon his or her passing?

One of the questions I was asked recently is if there is a fictional character I relate to.   My first thought was to be clever; this question begs a reader/writer to show off, yes?  To demonstrate his or her wide reading base, to throw around names like Holden Caulfield and Daisy Miller.  Elizabeth Bennet, I thought, clever and practical and resilient.  No, I thought, Anna Karenina, dramatic and tormented, capable of the most extreme (and memorable!) acts.  But at the end of the day I’m still struggling to isolate my mirror image in literature.  Which character(s) are you?

I recently learned that my short story, “Honesty Above All Else,” has been selected for inclusion in the latest of the big city noir anthologies, Detroit Noir.  For those of you interested in crime/noir stories, check it out at http://www.akashicbooks.com/detroitnoir.htm

I’ll be reading at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit on May 20 at 3 p.m. I am particularly excited about this reading at the cool new hip graffiti-splattered building on Woodward. I’d love to read from my story “Way Past Taggin’,” which is narrated by a young male urban tagger, but how convincing can you expect a suburban white woman to be when speaking in urban dialect? I can hear the voices–the inflection, the lilt–in my mind’s ear when I write, but I can’t begin to approximate them in speech. Do you find that this is true with your characters?

When my writer-friends told me that I should create a web site to promote my book, I balked.  First off, I did not know how to create a web site.  Next, I find self-promotion challenging at best and downright obnoxious at worst.  Simply put, I would rather write a novel than a one-paragraph promotional bio.  From where I sit, there’s just too much at stake.  Enter Sandy O’Brien, promotion-savvy web guru.  Within days of hiring Sandy to build my site, I had a pretty good idea of what it would look like, and within a few weeks it was up and running.  Painless.  Really.  Sandy offered ideas and insights on appearance, navigation, content and promotion while making it clear that the ultimate vision was mine.  I’ve amassed quite a few email addresses through the Contact feature and feedback on the site has been universally positive.  Need an understanding, professional web builder or just want more information?  Visit Sandy at

www.skoenterprise.com

The reading at MOCAD was swell.  I was particularly impressed with fellow reader and poet Robert Fanning, who was incisive, articulate and, dare I say, funny.  MOCAD, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, is a hip, funky venue that, despite its tall ceilings and stone walls, is acoustically sound.  Check out the readings the third Sunday of each month from 3-5.  MOCAD is across the street from The Whitney on Woodward.

WSU Press launched my book, Voices of the Lost and Found, last night at a gala event at the Detroit Historical Museum.  This was particularly gratifying for me, as it’s rare to see so many people from disparate parts of my life–childhood friends, relatives, colleagues, “writerly” friends, students–together in the same room.  What a treat it was.  Andy Mozina read from his book, The Women Were Leaving the Men, and Vievee Francis and Jack Ridl read from their poetry collections.  All were wonderful in very different ways.  It was quite a memorable celebration.