Enough

 I made one trip to the convenience store for nicotine and caffeine. Too many cigarettes have been smoked lately. I made two calls and took care of some personal business. Then it was dinner. CC called. She sounded good - a trip to the new counselor, and an NA meeting, all sounding like she is working on getting sober. We discussed her usual tactic was to withdraw. She mentioned she was a rebel. I, finally, got a chance to tell her it was time to rebel against the crack. She agreed. I meant to do some writing afterward, only I got too tired for the work. The closest I came to any writing was looking up info on the Della Rovere popes. I checked out the news without finding anything of great interest. I have had The Last Kingdom playing in the background from Netflix.

I found the following in my drafts and thought it had been posted, but I guess not.  

Rejections as of 9/13:

Thank you for your patience in waiting to hear back from us, and thank you so much for sending your work to Moon City Review. We certainly appreciate your support.

I'm sorry to say that we were unable to find a home for this particular submission in our journal, but we very much hope you'll consider MCR again.

Sincerely,

Joel Coltharp

Fiction Editor, Moon City Review

 ***

Thank you for sending us "Problem Solving." We appreciated the chance to read your work. We will not be including your submission in the upcoming issue, but we wish you well with your writing and hope that your work will be a perfect fit for another publication. 

As writers ourselves, we understand the time and effort that writers devote to their craft, and we know that it is never easy to receive these messages. Please know that we receive many submissions and can publish only a small number. Often, decisions are difficult.

We do accept--and encourage--simultaneous submissions. See long lists of other publication possibilities at 

http://newpages.com/

https://www.newpages.com/writers-resources/young-writers-guide

http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines?&perpage=*

http://www.everywritersresource.com/literarymagazines/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/35517751475/

https://discover.submittable.com/

https://publishedtodeath.blogspot.com/

https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/

https://chillsubs.com/

https://heavyfeatherreview.org/calls/#journals

https://www.clmp.org/programs-opportunities/calls-for-submissions/

https://duotrope.com/

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Barbara Westwood Diehl

The Baltimore Review

I think Baltimore Review is the only one that recommends other places to submit one's work. If for nothing else, I like this publication. Do check them out!

Today, I got the following rejection for "Problem Solving":

Thank you for sharing this work with The Adroit Journal, and thank you for your patience as we consider and discuss submissions. We hope this note finds you well.

After a review of your submission, the staff has unfortunately decided that this submission is not right for us. Best of luck placing this work elsewhere, and thanks again!


Sincerely,


The Editors


The Adroit Journal
www.theadroitjournal.org

 Switching to today's reading.

From Indianapolis Monthly: Shift: Shapiro’s Delicatessen by Michelle Mastro.

But the pandemic wasn’t the first globally divisive issue Shapiro’s has faced. When the same hate-mongering that drove the Shapiros from Russia reared its head in Indiana, Louis Shapiro was ready. In 1924, Ku Klux Klan member Ed Jackson rode on a wave of bigotry to his election as state governor. After years of enduring quiet antisemitism, Indiana Jews found themselves under increased harassment from KKK-associated law enforcement and politicians such as Jackson.

“Prohibition on the surface has nothing to do with Jews,” says Michael Brown, executive director of the Indiana Jewish Historical Society. “But it was definitely used to attack Jews. In fact, rabbis were arrested in Indy because they just had too much sacrificial wine for Passover.” Louis resisted those antisemitic threats, redecorating his landmark storefront to defiantly read, “Shapiro’s Kosher Foods,” and painting a huge Star of David on its facade.

Almost a century later, Brian Shapiro is grappling with some of the same issues. Since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israeli citizens, he’s seen an uptick of what he believes to be bots attacking the deli on social media. “I just look at their posts and go, ‘I’m glad that you have this much free time,’” he says.

Ed Jackson was a protégé of D.C. Stephenson. I guess if you do not know your history, then you need not know when it is repeating itself. 

Still, no sign of the rat.

sch

Reading Up On Old TV Shows; Watching the New "Lost in Space"

 I want to note two British articles on old TV shows for you, dear reader.

The Sandbaggers: the greatest spy show ever? by Dan Lomas (Englesberg Ideas)

The long-forgotten TV series that got Dune right by Ed Power (The Telegraph)

I saw a couple of episodes of The Sandbaggers before my arrest. I do not recall how that happened, but I knew the meaning of the title above. It did make an impression on me. I learned even more reading the article, which impressed me even more. The British do literary spies better than we ever have. That includes spy shows.

I have long maintained that the SciFi Dune miniseries deserves a better reputation, and remembrance, than it gets over here. The article above makes that argument much better than I ever have.

I woke up at 4 AM, coughing and phlegmatic. I felt a little feverish. At 6, I had enough energy to call in sick. Now, I am sneezing. Yesterday, wiped me out. Ridiculous. I cannot afford to be like this. 

The other sticky trap caught a mouse. I think it was a mouse: gray upper body, white under. It is dead. I would rather be at work. The air in this apartment worries me. My eyes are watering.

Anyway, I decided I might as well do something, so I decided to catch up with the email. I read Bond or Blofeld: war, espionage and secrecy in the twenty-first century from Englesberg Ideas (I am really getting into this British outlet.) I booted up Netflix, which presented the latest version of Lost in Space. We watched the first two seasons at Fort Dix FCI. Like Star Trek, I did not see much of the original Lost in Space. Reading the reviews while in Ft. Dix, it seems many people have a great emotional investment in the original. I do not. This reboot has several good things going for it - a great robot design, and Parker Posey. The child actors should have been dropped into a star and the adults left to carry the show. 

Having finished this post, I think I will ingest some more caffeine and read a LitHub article, then probably retreat to bed.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention attending liturgy at St. Photini's, the Orthodox mission church here. Wonderful service. We went to Elm Street Brewery, as usual, and discussed the new Serbian Orthodox church coming to Muncie. St. Photini's may continue in conjunction, or it may retreat. The future is wide open, but there will be an Orthodox Christian presence in Muncie.

No sign of Rasputin.

sch 

finished work on this post. Read 

Writing Advice

One thing worrying over the fate of the nation left was unread email newsletters on writing. Catching up, but not got a good grip on my time, yet. Therefore, I leave you without comments, only quotes. I hope these will lead you to the original articles for further information.

From K.M. Weiland's Helping Writers Become Authors:

 The Third Plot Point (Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 10 of 12)

The Third Act begins with another life-changing plot point. More than any preceding it, this plot point sets the protagonist’s feet on the path toward the final conflict in the Climax. From here, your clattering dominoes form a straight line as your protagonist hurtles toward an inevitable confrontation with the antagonistic force. Because the entire Third Act is full of big and important scenes, this opening plot point, by comparison, can sometimes seem less defined than the First Plot Point and the Midpoint. However, its thrust must be just as adamant.

The Third Plot Point represents a Low Moment for your characters. The thing they want most in the world will be almost within grasp—only to be dashed away—causing them to question their investment in the conflict. The subsequent Climax will be the period in which the characters rise from the ashes, ready to do battle from a place of inner wholeness. The Third Plot Point is the place from which they must rise.

The 3 (Structurally) Most Important Characters 

Within story, all that defines the “protagonist” is that this is the person creating the forward momentum in the plot. They do that by wanting something. They have a desire, which will translate into the story goals that move them forward. In some stories, the desire may be that they want to move away from something else, but it could also be that they have something specifically in mind they’re moving toward.

***

However, within storyform, functionally speaking, the antagonist is simply whatever or whoever is creating the obstacles between the protagonist and their momentum.

I often to use the term “antagonistic force” rather than “antagonist” because this also reminds us that the antagonist doesn’t have to be human. It doesn’t have to be a specific character within the story. Usually, the antagonist will be human and will be at the very least be represented at certain points throughout the story by proxy characters, which we’ll talk about in just a second. However, fundamentally, the antagonistic force is nothing more or less than whatever is creating the opposition through which the protagonist has to move. 

***

However, the relationship character doesn’t have to be a love interest. This character simply represents a relationship that is important to the protagonist and is creating motivation for what they’re doing. This relationship character shines a light on the “why” of the protagonist’s motivation. The antagonistic force shines a light on all of the things the protagonist hasn’t dealt with or hasn’t figured out yet as a way to be able to move forward toward the end goal, whereas the relationship character is shows the broader context of why the protagonist is doing this—what they’re trying to build, why they’re trying to expand.

Antagonist vs. Villain: What’s the Difference? 

However, because “villain” has no specific correlation to the antagonistic force, it’s equally possible to see a villainous character who is not the antagonist—functioning either as the protagonist (e.g., Alex DeLarge in Clockwork Orange) or as a supporting character who is not opposing the protagonist’s forward momentum (e.g., Mr. Wickham in Pride & Prejudice).

Amy Shearn's The Forever Workshop had What Is the Voice of Your Novel?

Style is achieved through a combination of word choice, syntax, punctuation, rhythm, and POV (which we’ll talk more about in lesson six!), and tone. Tone can be a tricky thing to wrap one’s mind around. I like the multi-layered definition Matthew Salesses gives in Craft in the Real World: “an orientation toward the world…the distance between the narrator and the character…the distance between our world and the world of the story.” 

But voice? I think the easiest way to think about voice is: how the novel sounds. And/or: the novel’s personality. This is a combination of your particular voice, and the tone and style you choose for your novel. What agents, editors, and readers are often looking for when they pick up a new book is a unique, exciting, or unforgettable voice. 

sch 11/18

Rasputin Dead? Politics, Writing, Reality

 I think Rasputin is dead. That is the name I gave to the rat invading my apartment. He (I do not want to contemplate a female) is a black-and-white domestic rat. I put out the sticky traps on Sunday night. However, I added a little surprise of my own: peanut butter and brown sugar sandwiches laced with D-Con. I woke at about 1 AM on Monday morning to hear this thrashing noise from the kitchen. I thought Rasputin was in the trap. Nope. He had taken the sandwich hidden in a plastic sandwich bag and was dragging the trap back into his den. Only the whole apparatus would not go. Then the rat ran off. In the morning, before work, I dragged the sandwich back into the middle of the kitchen floor. I also noticed that the beastie had eaten the peanut butter/D-Con combo that I had placed in the actual killer trap without tripping the device. When I got home, I noticed he had eaten about a quarter of the sandwich. Today, nothing had been moved of the sandwich. There was also the sandwich top lying away from the bag. No sign, or sound, of him tonight. I think he is dead. Tomorrow I work on certainty.

I worked over a little today. I strained my back, and was pretty much exhausted by noon. I came home, barely able to stay awake, watched an episode of Jack Ryan, and then collapsed for two hours. Since then, I ordered dinner from Domino's, worked on this post, did a little reading and a little writing of emails, and plan on finishing the night with Russian Doll. I feel like a slight fever. 

Dr. Febe Armanios's The Evolution of Coptic Orthodox Wedding Traditions (Public Orthodoxy) gave me insight into the Coptic world, and it also gave me food for thought about our own culture - that marriage is more than a contract between two individuals.

I have read Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude. I paid no attention to the byline when I read “Multiple Worlds Vying to Exist”: Philip K. Dick and Palestine on The Paris Review's site. I was not expecting much when I saw the title, but I feel miserable tonight and did not fight my curiosity. It was time well-spent, giving me much to think about regarding my evolution of thinking on the Israel/Palestinian conflict (albeit, I think Leon Uris did describe the nakba) and also my own writing about settling the Midwest. I think this will rub off into my "Chasing Ashes". Otherwise, I am rationalizing why I am letting my sore body excuse my not writing.)

Amy Shearn's How to Figure Out the Macro and Micro Setting of Your Novel (The Forever Workshop) is another I read with "Chasing Ashes" in my mind. First, in light of my idea that within Indiana there is no Magic Mountain to give perspective to life; secondly, in how Thomas Jefferson's grid system imposed an antagonism between the geometries of nature and of humankind. I had that second idea in the story already, but I think it needs more explicit emphasis.

Five obstacles to Trump’s peace plan by Sergey Radchenko (Engelsberg Ideas).

sch

Writers Write! All You Have to Lose Are Your Chains!

Some items from earlier in the day and even from last week. The laundry is done. I went to church. I set out more traps for the rat. Now, I am waiting for time to go to bed so I can get up and go to work. MW called, and the connection was bad and when I tried to call back I got no answer. Wash, shampoo, rinse, repeat.

 Authoritarians like Trump love fear, defeatism, surrender. Do not give them what they want by Rebecca Solnit (The Guardian)

We do not know what will happen. But we can know who we can commit to be in the face of what happens. That is a strong beginning. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything, and everything we can save is worth saving. Let Julian Aguon have the last word: “No offering is too small. No stone unneeded … All of us, without exception, are qualified to participate in the rescue of the world.”

Writers point the way forward from Nathan Bransford's Blog

I’m not a sanguine person when bad things happen. I don’t think tribulations happen for a reason, nor do I believe in the comforting fiction of cosmic justice. Sometimes there are no silver linings. Sometimes the bad guys are never punished. Sometimes moral ugliness, when stared in the face, is just ugliness.

I do, however, believe in free will. So, when faced with a trial, the question then becomes: What do you do about it?

Well, we write.

The type of person who writes can’t help but see through the dark mist of the present to the promised lands beyond. We yearn to shine spotlights in dark corners. Even when our aim is escapism, we still must employ empathy–that critically endangered currency–to create plausible new worlds.

Speaking of writing,  my latest submissions, which I have decided to promote "Irretrievable Breakdown" from my "Dead and Dying Stories": A Public Space and Portland Review

StreetLit got what will probably be my last submission of "Problem Solving".

Another rejection for "Problem Solving" was also received in the past few days.

Thank you so much for submitting to The Dawn Review. After careful consideration, we have chosen not to publish your short story in our fifth issue. Due to the high volume of submissions we received, we are only able to offer feedback for the first 150 submitters this time around.

Of course, this is not an objective judgment, as writing is inherently subjective. We appreciate you trusting us with your vision and wish you all the best in placing your work elsewhere.

Sincerely,

The Dawn Review

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Maybe I Do Not Understand Modern Men?

 That is how I feel after reading Sophie Kemp's New Tyrannies (LARB).

I understand neither the problem of consent, or the sense of male entitlement, mentioned below.

This is appealing to young men ages 20–29, nearly half of whom voted for Trump, for a variety of reasons. None of those reasons are particularly satisfying to me. One friend I asked said it had something to do with the way talk of consent has been codified into the American education system. This friend, in his mid-thirties, said that when he was in high school, there was still a prevailing sense of ownership among men, that sexism was allowed and encouraged (he also mentioned that during this time he often did things like try to suck himself off while watching Mind of Mencia).

We - the men I knew in my twenties - certainly knew that no meant no.  What is so bloody new about that? If she doesn't want to, keep working and find one that does. I do not know any of my friends who thought they were entitled to have any woman they chose at any time they wanted. When we did find a willing woman, we thought we had gotten lucky. Mostly, because we had, gotten lucky, that is.

All more troubling is this paragraph about women:

And how could that not be seductive, to an extent? To be told what to do. If young men crave hierarchy, it would only be natural that women would too. That all these ideas would circle each other, have the snake eat its tail, let the oil circle the drain. I am seduced by it. There was one time recently when I was wearing a prom dress at a bar and I let a man say something despicable to me and I liked it. Because I am exhausted by a certain kind of politics around consent. So are many other women that I know. It becomes very easy to backslide into this way of thinking, dangerously so.

I was almost 30 when I found some women like being submissive. Oddly, they were also quite assertive about themselves. Play was one thing. Do not mistake play for how they went through their lives, they would eat you alive. One had a sex drive much more like a man's than a submissive girl. I think she later got her handgun permit. I know another had a handgun permit when I met her. That one was a dead shot and would have shot anyone forcing her into anything undesirable.

Decades ago, I thought we were regressing to Victorian morals. Has it happened? Liberation was for nothing? Where is Erica Jong when we need her? Or Xaveria Hollander?

Finally, I cannot agree more with Ms. Kemp's estimation of these "men":

This more than anything feels like the prevailing pathology of men in this cohort. They feel small. They are looking for a way to get their power back. They do not deserve that power, obviously, but they do feel entitled to it. And women, to an extent, are enabling it. They are enabling it in the kind of sex they are having, in asking for things that they shouldn’t ask for....

There is no honor or glory or joy in taking advantage of making others small. Then, too, that is the thing about fascists, they are small and scared people. Equals are better lovers. 

sch 11/17

Appreciating William Saroyan

 While in prison, when I decided that I would try to be the writer friends and family expected me once to become, I set myself the task of filling in the holes of my literary education. I drew up reading lists from other people's lists (particularly Entertainment Weekly's "100 Best Novels of All Time"), the prison's leisure library card catalog, and the library's copy of Books In Print. William Saroyan was a name I knew. What I knew of him was The Human Comedy. What I read was a collection of his short stories. He knocked my head around. If I can ever get my prison journal up on this blog - I am having trouble even making notes like this - there will be a discussion of what I read. 

Today, I got my email newsletter from The Millions with this headline: Here is My Heart: The Frailty and Hope of William Saroyan. I had to check it out. While Henriette Lazaridis does not discuss his work in strictly literary terms, I think she gets at what makes Saroyan worth reading.

 My husband took the book from me that day and held it just as gently as I had. He listened to what I had to say — about my father and about the lovers who cannot eat and about my heart — and understood. Now there are two copies of Saroyan’s book in the house. Mine sits on my desk beside my laptop, and his copy rests on his nightstand. Not reading matter, it’s more of a reminder, perhaps to both of us, of how important it is to offer without knowing what the outcome will be.

In that vulnerability lies the beauty of Saroyan’s work. It is simple. It is basic. It doesn’t lay claim to any grander place in literature, nor does it deserve one. It is, sometimes, all we need. A little book, an offer, a question. Did you eat?

Perhaps Saroyan has passed from fashionable, but the fashionable forgets all too often to be simple, to be heartfelt. I know I do.

My memory is also of a writer who turned the short story inside and out and played with the form. There was an exuberance, a life, in how he told his stories.

sch 11/15