So I thought I’d wrapped up with The Literary Others event after Annabel, but I realized I had time to sneak one more into the group! And what better to do than add one that someone else suggested. Tom, one of the editors, filled out my lovely comment form and offered me a review copy of The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard and I figured why not add it to this month’s event. And it was at this point I realized I’d read at least one piece of work from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Intersex, but hadn’t read one primarily for Trans and though it was a great addition! I did not receive any sort of compensation and below is my honest opinion.
Tag: Short Stories
Boston Book Festival, Part III: The Books
I’ve blogged about the panels and my awesome workshop, but I haven’t written about the plethora of books I purchased!
Going into the day, I set aside $40 knowing there would be book deals of some sort and that I would end up purchasing at least one book to get signed from a great panel presentation. I was very proud of myself, by the end of the day I only went over by $13! Honestly, I expected it to be closer to going over by $30. The major problem however is I’ve added an additional 14 books to my bookshelf to read (that are now staring at me) and an additional at least 20+ books to my list of books to read eventually (some of those I bought were already on my list). I encourage you to check out my bookshelf for books that are physically (or digitally) sitting on my bookshelf(/Kindle) waiting to be read, and check out the green on my reading list to see all the new additions as they are books I didn’t purchase I now want to read!
So without further ado here is my collection of new purchases!
You can see the festival program and the One City One Story booklet bottom center. The short story was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. It was The Whore’s Child by Richard Russo, and was about a nun in a writing course and her professor’s views/opinions. I thought it was well written and an intriguing enough story, if a bit bland overall. I didn’t go to the discussion, but I am glad I read it.
Boston Book Festival, Part II: My Workshop
“I am laughing to myself. I just got off the phone with my sister and as usual she brought up something from high school, Remember that time we stole a fire hydrant? What ever happened to it? Just asking that question sends both of us into a fit of giggles….”
And so begins my ‘short story’ that I wrote during my Jumpstart Your Writing workshop at the 2011 Boston Book Festival. (Don’t worry you can read the rest at the end of this post in blue, but it’s definitely not the whole story or even a well written story – I only had eight minutes to write!)
As you read in Part 1, I had a great time at the panels, but I think the coolest thing I did (aside from spending too much money on books) was to step out of my comfort zone and take a writing workshop. The workshop was an hour-long and provided for free by Grub Street, one of the largest independent centers for creative writing in the US (and it’s a nonprofit). The description read,
You’ve spent the day hearing great authors read from their work–now it’s your turn to create some of your own. Join Grub Street for an hour of innovative and inspiring prompts that will get you brainstorming ideas for new stories and scenes. The focus will be on creating memorable characters and settings, inventing plots, and improving dialogue. This session is designed for people interested in writing fiction and non-fiction, but poets will also benefit from the challenge.
The workshop was really interesting. I took Section B with Grace Talusan, who was great! We started out with a bit of an overview and then jumped right into the writing activity. It was four basic steps and it was brilliant and just forced you to write regardless of what it was you were writing. My notes are to the left and below.
Book 63: Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street – Herman Melville
This is my first introduction to Herman Melville. I don’t believe I’ve read any bits of Moby Dick, even though I know (as most people do) the opening line, “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago…” This is a novella so I wasn’t sure whether to count it in my total, but decided to as it was an interesting read, and probably a fascinating case study for Mellville’s mindset during the time, or the character Bartleby.
Melville wrote this, among a series of short-stories after publishing Moby Dick. Many believe he wrote this in response to his inability to follow-up with the success of the novel, and that it shows clinical depression through the character Bartleby.
At the heart of the story is Bartleby, who does not speak unless spoken to and even then only complied to requests of help/work during the first few weeks of his employment by the narrator. The way Melville told the story convinced me Bartleby didn’t speak English and only parroted the sentences which sounded like questions back to the narrator.
Click here to read the rest of the review and for quotes from the novella.
Book 40: Boston Noir – Dennis Lehane (ed.)
I assumed this was a random small collection of short stories as I picked it up for very cheap at the 2010 Boston Book Festival, but this past week I was in a Barnes and Noble (resisting going off on a ridiculous rant about BN) this past week and it was on display with other ‘New Fiction.’
Overall I enjoyed the various short stories, but a lot of them didn’t really connect me to Boston, the feeling of Boston. Quite a few of them took the typical route – through the Irish connection or the crime, but a lot of them were just sort of stories that could have been anywhere else in the world with the change of a few signifying characteristics (and some couldn’t be). With subjects ranging from turn of the (18th) century dockside stories to Catholic priests and child abuse and WWII survivor stories to a financial district murder, they are broad and cover most of the city.