Things are in transition right now. The moving truck has left the driveway, but there are boxes piled high and walls that need a coat of paint, not to mention pictures to hang and furniture to rearrange.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how things look, and what can be done to improve the site. Thanks for being part of it!

a glorious time in a glorious space

I also presented a paper to the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society. Officers Brendan Wolfe and Judith Tonning offered a warm welcome.  It was really a lovely evening, and I was both enlightened and encouraged by this remarkable group.

I used the occasion to offer my first formal presentation of some new research on Warren Hamilton Lewis. Warnie stands in his brother’s shadow, and his legacy has been marred by his well-known struggles with alcohol. But there is so much more to know about this man: a fine writer, a gracious friend, a key member of the Inklings. I have been studying his letters and look forward to writing more about him.

If you are interested in C. S. Lewis, I urge you to support the work of this Society: http://lewisinoxford.googlepages.com/

chicken, basket, bookshelf

Several months ago, I wrote about my ceramic chicken, the one I use to store projects that are on hold. Sometimes I am waiting to hear from a publisher, sometimes a piece is just plain stuck, sometimes I need to gather additional materials, sometimes another deadline interrupts. Sometimes I just give up. In all of these situations, I find it helpful to put the project in a flat basket on a bookshelf, and set a large ceramic chicken on top.

Yep. I really do. It serves as a visual reminder that sometimes things just need a little time. Even though I am tempted to fret or feel discouraged, when I see that a project  under the chicken it helps me to remember that it’s not over, it’s not hopeless, it’s not ruined, it’s not wasted. It’s just not ready yet. It needs more time.

The hardest ones for me to deal with are those projects that have gathered up a stack of rejection slips.  When I am trying to pitch a book, I usually start with a list of 20 or so preferred publishers, then I put them in order of preference, then I print out a list of addresses and prepare a stack of envelopes, then I print out two copies of the proposal.

A rejection letter comes in; a new cover letter gets printed and slipped into the next envelope and a new proposal goes in the mail to the next address on the list the very next day.

But sometimes I run out of addresses. That’s what happened in the case of my devotional book “Clay in the Potter’s Hands.” Stacks of rejection letters, hours of pitching it at writers conferences, all kinds of trouble and nary a nibble. So that particular book manuscript has been sitting under the chicken for a very long time.

Today it hatched.

Here’s how it happened. I am working on two scholarly articles at the moment, one for a conference and one for a book. Both are due in a couple weeks. Today was a writing day: Wake up, take Sierra to school, come home, sit down, write, write, write, pick Sierra up from school.

The day was going great. Until I got to the “write, write, write” part. It wasn’t exactly writer’s block. It was more like writer’s restlessness. I didn’t mind sitting and writing. I just had absolutely no juice whatsoever for the projects I was working on.

I pushed words around for a while, took a walk, pushed, fiddled, did some laundry– hey, if you’ve ever written anything, you know just what it looks like. Except underneath the “I don’t wanna write” part there was another part that whispered, “I DO want to write. I just don’t want to write THIS.”

In frustration, I looked under the chicken, saw the pottery book, pulled it out, sat down. And started writing.

The whole process of re-reading and re-vising was so fluid, so alive, so engaging, so exciting. I was late picking up Sierra from school because I was having So Much Fun. I lost track of time.

A publising plan, a timetable, and a thousand and one other decisions are waiting in the wings. I’ll get to them. Later. For now, I’m having an absolute blast watching as this new hatchling breathes the breath of life. And feeling the profound privilege of being present as it does.

On the other hand, not everyone who knows how to host a dynamic radio show knows what to do when a guest is in the studio.

Enter Joy Curry, host of the morning show at WETN, 88.1 FM and wetn.org.  She’s got a voice built for radio: lively, versatile, thoughtful, quick, sparkling. I talked with her on the air this morning, and she did everything right.

In setting things up, she kept in touch, answered messages promptly, gave sterling directions on where to meet and how to prepare.

When I arrived, she was warm and welcoming. She was ready to talk about my book, but even more, she had prepared music and introductory material that was beautiffully suited to the occasion and the topic.

On the air, she managed to walk that fine line between substantial content and light-hearted entertainment. And she made it all seem effortless. She was well-prepared and also open to new directions. She immediately found the heart of the topic and kept the conversation on track.

Hats off to Joy Curry and kudos to WETN.  Folks in the Chicago area: you have a real jewel in your midst. I feel blessed to have been a small part of it.

Check it out: http://www.wheaton.edu/wetn/AMshow/morning.htm

The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s thrilling fantasy about Frodo, Gandalf, Aragon, a giant spider named Shelob, a Dark Lord named Sauron, Orcs, Elves and Dwarves, increased in popularity when director Peter Jackson created his now famous film trilogy. At the same time the movies were being produced, scholars, readers and fans were busy, too, writing about Tolkien and his fantasy masterpiece.One of the best books written recently is The Company They Keep by Diana Pavlac Glyer (2007). She talks about Tolkien in the context of The Inklings – a group of Oxford professors and other writers (including C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams) who met on a regular basis to read to each other and give and accept criticism and suggestions. Not only is this a really good portrait of the Inklings, but Glyer also sheds some wonderfully original light on the collaborative nature of the writing process, and how none of these writers would have written as they did without the support and help of the others.

By far the best biography of JRRT was written by fellow Englishman, Humphrey Carpenter, entitled simply – J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. This was published originally in 1977, but reissued in paperback in 2000. Carpenter also edited The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien and reading Tolkien’s letters (especially the ones that he wrote while he was creating The Lord of the Rings) provides a fine portrait of what he was struggling with as a writer and what he was trying to express with his fiction.

Tom Shippey is often considered one the preeminant experts on Tolkien and his works. Two of Shippey’s best are J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (2001) and The Road to Middle-Earth (2003).

For a more spiritual take on Tolkien’s writings try either J. R. R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth by Bradley J. Birzer (2002) or J. R. R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality and Religion by Richard Purtill (2003).

If you just want one book that brings together many of the essays about Tolkien and his most famous work, check out Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism, edited by Rose A. Zimbardo and Neil D. Isaacs (2004).

And finally, for a look at Tolkien’s heroes as compared to some more modern figures, try Return of the Heroes: The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Social Conflict by Hal Colebatch (2003). Meg

Originally posted by Newport Librarians.

Labels: Great Books

“It surprises and satisfies,” declares the cover, and it turns out the cover is right. The New Writer’s Handbook: A Practical Anthology of Best Advice for Your Craft and Career, Volume 2 is well worth your time.

I was concerned that the short chapters and multiple authors would mean shallow content and a bumpy ride. Largely due to the skillful editing of Philip Martin, the whole thing holds together very well. More than 60 short articles on a variety of writing topics are carefully grouped and sequenced. They are practical, clear, varied, and economical.

I tried a quick skim, and I found myself reading it instead. I thought I’d be restless, and I found myself immersed. I figured it’d be same-old same-old, and I found good information, strong voices,  and fresh perspectives throughout.

I should add that I contributed one of those short chapters, a look at Lewis and Tolkien as collaborative writers.

I like this book. I am proud to be part of this project.  

I’ll add another post or two about apostrophes later; right now, I want to comment on the process that people used to try to argue their point and break the deadlock.

1. Some folks argued that one usage LOOKED BETTER than the other. That’s making usage decisions based on aesthetics.

2. Others said that when they googled a certain word, MOST PEOPLE did it a certain way. That’s making usage decisions based on consensus.

3. Then there were those who appealed to their fourth grade teacher, their best friend’s first cousin, or some HANDBOOK or style sheet they dug up somewhere. That’s making usage decisions based on authority.

4. Finally, there were a few stubborn stalwarts who insisted that whatever THEY HAD BEEN DOING for the last upteen hundred years or so had to be right because, after all, that’s what they’d always done. That’s making usage decisions based on habit.

Aesthetics? Consensus? Authority? Habit? When we are not sure what is correct when it comes to matters of punctuation or usage, what should we do? Or, more to the point in this post, what guiding principle do we use to make the decision?

This one:

5. The debate was broken when someone (dear old “anonymous”) pointed out that what is correct depends entirely on what MEANING you are trying to convey. That’s right. Punctuation, like other matters of usage, is intended first and foremost as a servant of meaning.

In short, it doesn’t make any sense to ask whether it is better to say students’ or student’s: the question is, how many students do you mean?

Commas, semi-colons, periods, all that stuff: it doesn’t have to do with needing to take a breath, to look good on the page, to pay attention to Ms. Turabian, to sound right, to fit in the the crowd, or do it again the way you’ve been doing it  for time out of mind. The first thing you gotta know is exactly what you are trying to say. Then you do your homework and get the best information possible to help you say exactly that.

Andrew Lazo talks; Will Vaus and Diana Glyer listen

Josh Long, Mike Glyer, Lions, Tigers, and other notables crowded into the bookshop.

Back in October, Will Vaus and I were featured speakers at a book signing at the Mystery and Imagination Bookshop in Glendale, California. Local signings can be particularly energetic, and this event was no exception.

Josh Long, a Tolkien scholar and teacher at a near-by high school, had invited his class to attend the event, and he sweetened the deal by offering extra credit to his students if they came in Narnia costume. There is nothing quite like talking about C. S. Lewis with Prince Caspian, a White Witch, and a few assorted LIONS in the room!

Other not-so-fictional notables included Stan Mattson of the C. S. Lewis Foundation; Inklings scholar Andrew Lazo; authors Joseph Bentz and Tom Allbaugh; Hugo winner Mike Glyer; and musician Lynn Maudlin. (Lynn took all of the pictures featured in this post).

Will talked about The Professor of Narnia, I talked about The Company They Keep, and then we answered questions from the audience. Our hosts, Malcolm and Christine Bell, were an absolute pleasure to work with. They were well prepared, they communicated freely and frequently, they publicized well, and they provided a bright and spacious venue for a truly great evening. Kudos all around.

Takeaway: Local, special-interest bookshops provide an extremely important service when they connect readers with writers. It’s a great deal of fun, and everybody wins. Ask your local bookshop to provide time and space for authors and fans to connect face to face.

On April 9th, I had the pleasure of meeting with the Harrisonburg C. S. Lewis Society at their local Barnes & Noble. The group, founded by Will Vaus, was attentive and lively– we had a terrific evening.

I enjoyed the fact that this Barnes & Noble did not shove the group off into a little side room, but provided comfortable chairs right in the store for my presentation and book signing. People could easily drift in and out of the conversation, and I appreciated the openness of the setting.

I was also glad that the first question following my talk wasn’t a request for more details about the Inklings, but a plea for advice: how can writers today do what the Inklings did?  Bring part of a writing group has so many advantages, but it can be difficult to start and sustain a group that really works. I reminded them that the Inklings started small, established rituals and routines, met every single week, balanced support with criticism and advice, and were choosy about adding new members. Those components seem to make a big difference in the health and longevity of a group.

Copies of The Company They Keep, stacked and ready for signing.

Thanks to the Harrisonburg CSL Society for their warm hospitality. And kudos to Barnes & N oble for supporting writers, readers, and reading groups.

http://www.cslewis.org/programs/regional/sw/2009/index.html