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JustA Theater & Production Company is a new Los Angeles-based company dedicated to fostering and employing diverse and emerging writers and actors.

We are seeking original work for our inaugural 2015 season: three staged play productions and two short films.

We would like to reach out to students in your prestigious program for play and short screenplay submissions. Our starting stipend for writers is $150.

Here are our submission guidelines:

Characters should primarily range between the ages of 15 and 30.

At least two characters must be women.

Diverse themes and characters are encouraged.

We welcome scripts of varied genres. Feel free to submit plays with elements of absurdism or magic-realism, as well as plays rooted in realism.

Staged plays should not exceed 115 pages total.

Screenplays should not exceed 15 pages.

Please submit the first 15 pages of your piece to:

infoATjustatheaterDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )
.
For more information, visit our website.

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Hi, folks! I am an artistic person, and I buzz around art. I will dip my toe into most forms of expression. There are a few that I've focused on and have found that those experiences have informed my novel craft.  This week I'm going to talk about screenplay lessons.

I've written a few screenplays. This experience has helped me with novel craft.  A screenplay is a working document, it is not the finished product: the film.  I've learned about writing novels by writing screenplays. Here are three useful bits that I've learned:

First, screenplays force you to think about scenes and pacing.  A screenplay has a tight structure. It is much more compact than a novel and rarely has any room for internal thoughts. Becoming more aware of scenes has made me more aware of what to cut in my novels. Every scene in my novel must argue for its right to be there.  Novelists tend to be in love with the beauty of the words, and sometimes that is at the expense of storytelling. Each scene in my novel must move the plot forward, develop the journey of the main character, offer serious conflict, offer a glimpse of the internal working of the main character, have laser focus on the goal of the story, and offer some beautiful language and deep internal thought. If I can't achieve this with a scene, I toss it on reject pile.

Second, screenplays can help you move forward when you are stuck.  Like picture books, screenplays are a visual medium. Sometimes, I reach a place in the novel that I'm not sure how to proceed forward. I break open Final Draft or Celtx and move forward with my novel in a screenplay format.  My first drafts are now always a mix of screenplay sections and narrative. Writing a screenplay is analogous to sketching. A rough draft is a sketch of the novel. All the needed scene pieces are broken apart: opening with setting, dividing the dialogue, dropping in an emotional tag, and then describing the action can keeps me from bogging down in a first draft.  Next time your draft grinds to a halt, try writing the next scene in screenplay format.

Finally, screenplays can help you beat the static parts out of your novel. Screenplays do not welcome big chunks of dialogue, must keep action swirling on screen to entice the film goer, and must be aware that the person who plays the character in the screenplay is paramount in making that character come to life. I avoid prosy dialogue. Screenplays have made me aware of this. No one wants to read about nothing happening. It's surprising how easy it is to write about a character watching the sunrise or swimming in the lake, or reading a book.  Blow up that sun, fill that lake with piranhas, and have the heroine  toss that book into that arrogant so-n-so's face.  Also characters must be nuanced. I really cast my characters now when I write. I learned this from screenplays. Character on a great journey is still a working document, the character in the screenplay vs the character in a film. It's the little things that set characters apart and make them spring from the page. You have to know if your character loves chocolate, scream when she is angry, or bite her fingernails.

Novels need to breath with life. Screenplays have helped me achieve that.

Hope something here is helpful. :) I will be back next week with more novel crafty lessons.

Here is a doodle: Clown

Finally a quote for your pocket:

When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing. George Orwell

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Thanks to a very generous benefactor, we are taking PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month on what appears to be developing into a massive blog tour beginning December 1st through the 5th!

Seven years ago, I began offering the beta version of PlotWriMo for novelist word drunk from NaNoWriMo. Over the years I continued refining and perfecting the steps to help writers revise all those words generated in November into a compelling story with a plot (and all other novelists and memoirists and screenwriters alike struggling to create a pleasing form for their readers)

Earlier this year, I partnered with Jill Corcoran who brought her insight and love of concept and knowledge of the inside of publishing. Together we created an entire video series of the program. The feedback and "ah ha" moments we have received have been enormously rewarding and makes all the time and hard work worthwhile.

Sample of feedback:
"Jill (video 4, I think) explained what agents meant when they say "They didn't connect" and it was like a lightbulb had been screwed in my head-- I failed to meet all of the essential elements of a scene. There was always something about my former MS that I could never pinpoint that felt off, and that was just it! I needed more emotional development, conflict/ tension, dramatic action and clear goals PER scene."

"I watched the Revise Your Novel in a Month videos and really began to understand the difference between crisis and climax and the key ways to develop each part of the plot."

"PlotWriMo is the closest “formula” for structuring a book I’ve ever discovered. It’s like an algebra equation for writing – if you’re missing any of the energetic markers you can’s solve for X."

"It’s helped me re-envision my own work and I can’t stop myself from dissecting every movie and book I’ve read since."

"I've learned a lot through the PlotWriMo series. I've always struggled with revision, but the PlotWriMo series has helped me organize my revision so that I am going deeper than I ever have before at making my story shine."

"Now, what did I learn from the videos? Goodness, what did I not? It's all about the structure. Being a pantser doesn't work when you are revising (Not sure it would work for me - ever), but you have to be clear in your journey. I also learned to forgive myself. To keep writing. And that we can learn from our mistakes and become better writers."

"I watched PlotWriMo and learned about EMs, concept and that the antagonist OWNS the middle."

“Ah, ha” Moment: The exercise of writing down all of the themes, and getting down to the grittier ones. And when I found my darker theme was about loss, and the threat of losing someone you love. I couldn’t believe when I went back and looked at the Energy Markers and found that common theme. I’m working on deepening the scenes with metaphors and thematic significance."

"Don't start drafting until you're happy with the concept and markers."

"As for what I learned, viewing both the crisis and the climax from my antagonist’s point of view gave my story dramatic action and the depth it needed to bind the story and pull in the reader."

"Yet my greatest aha moment came with the challenge of writing the concept, giving my story definition. As a young woman I took my family on some exciting adventures, wounds and all, and the only dream still intact in the end was my passion and desire to be a writer. I couldn’t just throw out my concept because it wasn’t good enough, or my life wouldn’t be either. Crafting my concept, meant validating what I had done and why, all the parts and pieces."

"I really had an "aha moment" when Martha Alderson talked about the end mirroring the beginning."

The icing on the proverbial cake was the news that one writer secured an agent (having the amazing opportunity to chose from 3 offering her contracts). As she writes: "No word of lie - it is absolutely thanks to Jill Corcoran and Martha Alderson! The last round of revisions changed everything! I just thank god I have the videos and future classes for other books! I have worked like a dog on this book, but the videos and Martha's book really changes everything. The advanced workshop kicked my butt in the best way possible and made me really rethink some things and made the work so much better!"

The tour begins December 1st through the 5th so if you'd like to add your blog to the tour, please sign up ASAP. 

We're using the opportunity to spread the word about writing and revising stories and about A Path to Publishing in general. Jill and I will visit all the participating blogs, comment and award prizes. (If you'd like to simply follow along on the tour, I'll list the participating blogs during the tour.)

See you soon!

For help about the Energetic Markers to write toward every week of NaNoWriMo.
The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

For plot prompts to move your writing everyday and reach each major turning point: The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing. To complete write your story in a month, complete 4 prompts everyday. (As one writer proclaims: The PW Book of Prompts is my lighted path…)

For plot help and resources during NaNoWriMo: 

1)  The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
2)  The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3)  The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.
  ~~~~~~~~
To continue writing and revising (and, lots of writers are finding PlotWriMo the exact right resource to help pre-plot for a powerful first draft. Knowing what to look for in a revision helps create a tighter first draft):

•  
• PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month

 ~~ View your story in an entirely new light. Recharge your energy and enthusiasm for your writing. 8 videos (5.5 hours)+ 30 exercises

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A Common Thread, an online literary journal run by undergraduate students at Valparaiso University (Indiana) is currently seeking submissions for its 2nd issue on the theme of "scars." 

Genres include poetry, fiction/ flash fiction, artwork/photography/comics, drama/screenplay, and creative nonfiction/flash creative nonfiction. 

Please see our website for more information and guidelines. Submissions deadline is December 1.

 Submissions portal.

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The Great Plains Emerging Writer Prize, sponsored the Great Plains Writers’ Conference at South Dakota State University, is given annually to a writer of the Great Plains region who has not yet published a book, but whose work and career shows exceptional promise. The winner will receive a $1000 honorarium and a featured reading at the conference in Brookings, SD in March, 2015, as well as land travel and lodging.

Submissions open October 1, 2014. Postmark deadline December 1, 2014. All genres open; include a maximum of 15 pages of poetry or hybrid-genre work, or a maximum of 20 pages of fiction, nonfiction, drama, or screenplay. Work submitted may be previously published, but must be stripped of all information identifying the author or the venue. Judging will be blind. Entry fee $15. 

The Great Plains region is broadly defined as reaching from western Minnesota to eastern Montana and from the Canadian border to central Oklahoma. We consider writers to be “of” this region if they have resided here more than three years or have a demonstrable historical link to the region (e.g., you grew up here and moved away). Please state your relationship to the region in your cover letter.

For full guidelines visit our website.

Submit electronically here.

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The Animal Becomes Us

Email submission deadline: September 30, 2014

Issue #14 of cahoodaloodaling—The Animal Becomes Us—is open for submissions. We’re leaving this wide open to interpretation. Consider this your open invitation to send anything from light verse about your animal companion to speculative were-animal stories. 

Submissions due 9/30/14. Guest editor TBA. Issue live 10/31/14. See more information on submitting and read past issues here.

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April 10, 2015 will mark the 90th anniversary of the publication of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald — a book that many people believe is the best novel of all time. To celebrate the occasion, we are planning ahead — and getting started with our latest anthology: The Silver Birch Press The Great Gatsby Anthology, a collection of poetry, prose, art, collage, photography, and other work that celebrates this remarkable novel.

WHAT: Poetry, prose, paintings, drawings, photographs, and other work inspired by The Great Gatsby. 

TYPES OF WRITTEN MATERIAL:
Poems (up to three — either original work or found/erasure poetry based on The Great Gatsby)
Short stories (up to 2,000 words)
Essays (up to 1,500 words)
Creative nonfiction (up to 2,000 words)
Short plays or screenplays (approximately 5 typed pages)
Other literary forms (up to 2,000 words)

TYPES OF VISUAL MATERIAL (send jpg files of approximately 1MB):
Photographs
Collage
Paintings
Drawings

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: September 1, 2014 

RELEASE DATE: April 2015 

HOW TO SUBMIT: Please email written entries as MSWord attachments and visual entries as a jpg attachments to:

silverATsilverbirchpressDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

along with your name, mailing address, email address, and one-paragraph bio. (If submitting an erasure poem, provide the edition and publication date.)

PAYMENT: All participants will receive a copy of the Silver Birch Press Great Gatsby Anthology.

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Mason’s Road: A Literary and Arts Journal is currently accepting submissions for our ninth issue. The theme for Issue #9 is “Truth,” and we are looking for unique and arresting takes on this topic.

All submissions will be given thorough consideration for publication. However, your work will also be considered for our Mason’s Road Literary Prize, which includes publication and a $500 award. For this issue, the award will go to the best entry we receive, as judged by Bill Roorbach, the award-winning author of Life Among Giants.

Our submissions period runs for three months: February 15 – May 15, 2014. Please look here for submission guidelines.

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E.T.A. is a literary journal run by undergraduate students seeking submissions for its debut issue. E.T.A. seeks to publish original works of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, art, dramatic literature, aphorisms, orchestral compositions, screenplays, Viewmaster slides, comics, or truly anything you can conceive. We’re looking for works that go beyond the silver lining and interrupt the normal fluctuations of the every day. E.T.A. strives to publish works that embody the idea of movement, both physical and mental. Lead us down a path we aren’t expecting; make us want to crawl out our windows and wander by foot along a foreign highway, amble about the roads of our minds, or just make us step outside to see the stars.

Submission guidelines for writers:

No more than six submissions per person.
Fiction /Dramatic literature/screenplay
No more than 15 pages or 5000 words, double spaced with one inch margins and a readable font. (Do not feel dissuaded from submitting flash-fiction, or any other such short creative works.)
Poetry
Readable font. No more than 5 poems per author.
Please submit by March 25, 2014 electronically to:

ETAJournalATgmailDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to .)

or our P.O. Box:

Brandi Reissenweber, English Department
ETA Submission
Illinois Wesleyan University
P.O. Box 2900
Bloomington, IL 61702

If you have questions or ideas for other submission formats or styles, please contact us at:

ETAJournalATgmailDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to .),

and we’ll be more than happy to answer your questions.

See our Facebook page for more information.

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She stakes her claim on her story boldly and with confidence. Quickly, it becomes apparent to me that the writer is speaking in a different language. I stop her mid-sentence and ask her what happens at the climax of her story. She pauses and then continues. Still, in the foreign language. I stop her again.

"Rather than tell me about the special features and functions of the outer-space suits they're wearing and all the other technical details about the exotic world you've created for your story, tell me what the protagonist does at the climax."

She takes a stab at answering my question. Before she can leap back to her place of confidence and try to wow me with the authentic details of her story, I ask her what happens to the protagonist at the crisis of her story.

Again, another good attempt at an answer.

Not giving her a chance to say anything further, I ask her what affect the crisis has on the protagonist or, in other words, what does she learn at the crisis that helps her prevail at the climax?

The longer I probe and the deeper we dig, slowly the through-line or the primary plot that drives the external action of the story emerges. Unencumbered by the techie jargon and heavy details, the writer is free to roam the galaxy she's created in search of the dramatic action, character emotional development and thematic significance of her tale.

Yes, the authentic details she's dreamed up make her story unique and the establishment of all the inner workings of the story world is important.

Stepping back and evaluating the story at the overall plot and Universal Story level is essential.

Today, I write.

Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot allows for a more loving relationship with your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts in The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms used here and in the PW Book of Prompts:
1) Watch the plot playlists on the Plot Whisperer Youtube channel.
2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
3) Fill out the exercises in The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories
4) Visit:
Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook
Plot Whisperer on Twitter

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The Great Plains Writers’ Conference, in cooperation with South Dakota State University’s American Indian Studies Program and American Indian Education and Cultural Center, announces the inaugural competition for a new annual award to encourage tribal writers in the early phases of their writing lives and to honor those of extraordinary merit and promise.

The winner, judged by AIS and AIECC, will receive an award of $500 and be invited to read at the Great Plains Writers’ Conference at SDSU March 24-26, 2013. This year’s conference focuses on examining the legacy of Vine Deloria, Jr.

WHO CAN SUBMIT: Tribal writers from the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Minnesota who have published no more than three creative works in distributed periodicals.

WORK ACCEPTED: Fiction, creative nonfiction, drama, or the screenplay (20 double-spaced pages maximum) or poetry (15 pages maximum).

LOGISTICS: Send materials by January 15, 2013 to:

Emerging Tribal Writers Award
English Department
South Dakota State University Box 504
Brookings, SD 57007

There is no application fee.

Visit our website.

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A fantastic subplot -- both riveting and taking place in an exotic locale -- spans from the beginning of the Middle to nearly the Crisis toward the end of the Middle. Based on the proposed length of the book, she has nearly 7,000 words left to write to reach the beginning of the End.

The writer begins to integrate a minor subplot that has wanders from draft to draft without a firm place in the historical novel the writer envisions and without any real purpose. Still, the writer clutches fast and hopes this is the right place for the minor subplot.

As she writes, all the energy she's created through the fantastic subplot fades and the impact of that subplot is diminished. Yes, the minor subplot foreshadows what occurs at the Crisis. Yet, to pull the story to the Crisis with the minor subplot becomes an impossibility and deflates all the work she's already written.

In our plot consultation, I jump to the Climax and press the writer for her thoughts and ideas about protagonist's ultimate transformation in the scene she envisions at the crowning glory of her story.

Before long, the exact right place for the minor subplot reveals itself.

To begin the Middle with the minor subplot allows the writer the scenes to prepare the reader and build the energy to the fantastic subplot and also to foreshadow and inform the Crisis to come.

The writer's delight that this minor subplot has suddenly found its place in her story is evident even over the airways all the way from Shanghai. It's almost as if the minor subplot pulls off the mask it's been hiding behind and reveals its true nature and ultimate power to the overall story.

"I can't believe it takes understanding the end of the story to truly understand what comes before," she exclaims.

The End defines the Beginning and the subplots in the Middle and just about every other important aspect of any great novel, memoir, screenplay.

Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

More Plot Tips:
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master

2) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

3) Watch the

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Subplots reign in the Middle (1/2) of novels, memoirs, and screenplays. Developing a few is a good tip if you find yourself slogging through writing the Middle and tempted to go back and begin again.
Keep in mind: too great a proliferation of subplots confuse the splendor of the primary plot.
A character-driven story set in the exotic worlds of the Ivy League and Wall Street. Dysfunctional and self-abusive behaviors based on the archetypal back-story wound of having witnessed and taken part in the socially acceptable behavior and subtle practice of devaluating and belittling the mother by a cruel father and a pair of impressionable boys.
Each one of these elements forms a subplot that supports the thematic significance of the entire story as do the addictions that consistently take him down: bulimia, then pornography, and alcohol and drug abuse, and the steps he takes to heal.
Each of these subplots contribute to his primary plot. Contribute to... not overshadow.
Plot Tip:
Craft only the number of subplots necessary to best support the primary plot. Prioritize each subplot based on how each best contributes to the overall story.
Push minor subplots to the background or, when need-be, let them go entirely.
Remember: Not every subplot deserves a front-row seat in your story.
Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories)

For additional plot tips: Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
2) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

3) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

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Do you writes in layers, one or two layer per draft? Or do you write all the layers of your novel, memoir, screenplay at once?
And what are all these layers, you ask?
Emotion: evoking a range of emotions -- positive and negative -- in the reader through the characters' show of emotion.
Conflict, tension, suspense, urgency and curiosity: shaping the dramatic action to keep the reader turning the pages to learn what happens next.
Character transformation: showing a flawed character change overtime spiritually, emotionally, physically, or mentality or all of the above.
Thematic significance: bringing meaning to the story.
Relationships: revealing the complexity and intimacy of the characters in relationship to each other.
Sensory: using senses -- auditory, visual, tactile, taste, smell -- to transport the reader deeper and deeper into the story world.
1) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (The companion workbook is coming this summer and available for pre-order now ~~ The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories)

2) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube

3) Watch the Monday Morning Plot Book Group Series on YouTube. Scroll down on the right of this post for a directory the book examples and plot elements discussed.

For additional tips and information about the Universal Story and plotting a novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:

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by Christina Hamlett

How much do you really need to know about someone before you’re hooked into wanting to learn more? The process of setting up character introductions for your screenplay or theatrical script has a lot of similarities to the 1990’s matchmaking invention of speed-dating. Credited to an L.A. rabbi seeking to provide a social forum for Jewish singles, the concept of investing only a few minutes to scope out potential mates isn’t unlike using a few sentences to bait a reader’s curiosity about why your heroine collects ceramic owls, why your hero doesn’t own a car, or why the villagers never go to the lake after sundown.

Like many a bad first date, though, new screenwriters and playwrights have a tendency to not only spill too much too soon but expect every detail divulged to be permanently stored in the recipient’s memory. The result? Excessive backstory doesn’t just slog the pace of the plot; it makes it hard to distinguish what’s actually relevant and necessary in order to follow the action. In other words: too much information.

The use of backstory as a literary device traces its roots as far back as Greek mythology, was frequently employed in Shakespearean works to explain rivalries and revenge, and has long been a mainstay of soap operas to account for brooding obsessions and family secrets. Whether revealed partially, fully, chronologically or intermittently, backstory elements that are used wisely serve the purpose of lending depth and providing a context for understanding what has brought the characters to their present situations and mindsets.

In fiction – as in life – people aren’t born interesting; they become interesting as a product of shake-ups in the status quo that challenge and transform them. Because the majority of storytelling is linear, however, writer often embrace the notion that viewers of the film or play have to be brought up to full speed on everything that has happened in the past before they can possibly begin to grasp the meaning of the immediate problem. This approach either takes the form of copious scenes that recite highlights of the hero’s life, interactions and influences or an extended prologue that focuses on the era, environment and cultural framework in which subsequent events will transpire. Both of these strategies are guilty of violating the “show, don’t tell” rule and forestalling a plot’s official kick-off. They’re also typically comprised of specifics that never make a second appearance (i.e., Tim’s childhood turtle named Horton), much less have any connective value to the development or resolution of the core conflict.

Viewers today have shorter attention spans and more distractions competing for their leisure hours than prior generations. Accordingly, the first 10 minutes of a story for stage or screen creates an expectation of what will follow. That said, if your contemporary murder mystery set in Hawaii starts out with volcanic eruptions and screeching pterodactyls, it better be pithy and pertinent or you’re likely to lose your audience long before you get to your first dead body floating in the Halekulani swimming pool. By tightly focusing on your characters' relationships to the core conflict and to one another in the now, you're on your way to writing a leaner and more marketable script than one which takes too long meandering through life in the past lane.

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A writer says her story "tanks around page 25" and bores her even to try to rewrite.

I recommend she spend some time standing back from the words of her story and view the inner workings. In other words, analyze the structure before you worry to much about the details and even the words you write. 

A Plot Planner is a visual line that represents the invisible energy of the Universal Story. It enables you to assess the significance of your characters and the dramatic action of your story by seeing how all the scenes work together against the backdrop of the entire piece. Such a multilayered attentiveness to your story allows for a unique perspective into the deeper meaning of your story.

A plot planner gives a visual accounting of all the scenes in a story. It helps you compare scenes that heighten conflict and suspense to those quieter scenes that show the character in control. Each scene delivers more tension and conflict than the preceding scene and builds with intensity to the story’s climax. Standing back from all the words and viewing the story as a whole allows you to better determine the causality between scenes and the overall coherence of the story. With such an insight, you are able to turn scenes with emotionally rich characters who are experiencing conflict into the driving force behind an exceptional story.

The plot planner is a visual aid to help you write and finish your project in a way that pleases you and ultimately satisfies your readers, too.

Writers report that when they hit a rough patch and lose energy for their stories, merely a switch from writing to filling in a template stimulates their creative juices. Before writers know it, they are back to writing.

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Riot by Walter Dean Myers. Egmont USA. September 2009. Reviewed from ARC from publisher.*

The Plot: A story of the 1863 New York Draft riots, told primarily through the eyes of Claire Johnson, 15, daughter of an Irish mother and black father.

The Good:

The problem with an ARC like this is I don't have the photographs, maps, and illustrations the final copy will have and, as an armchair history lover, I want them.

The author thanks Professors Padraig OCearuill and Marion Case of NYU's Glucksman Ireland House in this book. So, while my copy lacked the various back matter, my assumptions are that the history in this can be relied on. For example? Those thinking "a white mother? and black father? in New York City in the nineteenth century? I don't think so!" can be rest assured (if they rely on Wikipedia) that New York was one of a handful of states that never had laws about marriage between the races.

Riot is balanced; it portrays and does not excuse the violence, but Myers illustrates that the roots of the anger and the violence were about racial hatred, yes, but also fed by ignorance, poverty, and social injustice.

The use of a screenplay is interesting; unlike Monster, it's not being written by a character. It starts on the streets of present day New York, rapidly skipping back in time until July, 1863 is reached. Riot does not pretend to be written in the nineteenth century; from the first scene it's clear that this is a look at the past through present eyes, the present day unseen narrator being the screenplay writer.

The storytelling device focuses primarily on Claire, who, literally, has a foot in both worlds as the racial tension escalates into violence and she tries to figure out her place in her world. A number of other people are also introduced, covering the variety of people touched by the riots: a girl working at the Colored Orphan Asylum, soldiers, police officers, rioters, observers. The camera cuts away to these other players, always returning to Claire and how she sorts things out.

At times, the speech and action of Claire and others seems modern; but the screenplay format is a constant reminder that this isn't really historical fiction. It's often been said that historical fiction doesn't reveal as much about the historical time being presented as it does about the present. And that is what the sometimes modern thoughts or actions reminds us -- that Claire's questions about identity and race are not some long ago quaint question but are today's issues. Yes, we've elected the first black president; but look at the dialogue, still, about whether he is "black" or "white." Looking at the violence that "have nots" inflict on other "have nots" is not something safely in the past.

* True Story about how I got this ARC. Waiting for the plane to Chicago for ALA, I had a "meet up" with someone I know via Twitter, who works for Egmont, and gave me a copy. Add it to the list of "anecdotal evidence of the benefits of Twitter."


© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

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Remember when I posted about this? Well...the Boston Red Sox WON the World Series!!! I should've bought the leather sofas I was drooling over...

Oh well. Congratulations, Boston Red Sox! You did us proud!

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