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The only thing benign about Herman Koch's The Dinner is the title—which, like almost everything else about the story, is designed to throw the reader off. "My Dinner with Andre" this is not. Politics, culture, morality, and childrens' lives are at stake (only the first three were at stake in the movie). The questions: What would we do to protect a child who has committed a heinous act? What would we do if we had somehow (implicitly, explicitly) encouraged or modeled or genetically produced an evil creature? Who do we love and why do we love them and what does familial happiness look like? At what cost, secrets?
All this unfolds over the course of a meal in an expensive restaurant. Two brothers and their wives have come to High Civility to discuss a horrific, seamy event. Paul, whose jealousy and creepiness are transparent from the start, tells us the story. He tells us who he is, even as he repeatedly cautions that many parts of the tale are not our business.
It's a brutal, brilliant book (compared to Gone Girl, I think it greatly supersedes it). It's not the kind of book I typically read, it oozes with contemptible people and scenes, but I was riveted by Koch's ability to see his vision through—so entirely relentlessly. And then I got to the paperback's extra matter and an essay by Koch himself called "The First Sentence."
For me, a book is already finished once I've come up with the first sentence. Or rather: the first two sentences. Those first two sentences contain everything I need to know about the book. I sometimes call them the book's "DNA." As long as every sentence that comes afterward contains that same DNA, everything is fine.
Koch's first two sentences, in case you are wondering, are: "We were going out to dinner. I won't say which restaurant, because next time it might be full of people who've come to see whether we're there." And absolutely, yes. The entire book is bracketed within them.
I believe in the power of first sentences, too. I think about them as setters of mood and tone. I wondered, though, whether I could say, about any of my novels, that the entire story rests within the first two sentences. I decided to conduct a mini-experiment. I grabbed a few books from my shelf. Opened to page one. Conducted a self-interview and assessment. I had to cheat in one place only (Dr. Radway), where more than two sentences were required. Otherwise, I'm thinking Koch is onto something here. (And if it is true for my books, I suspect it is true for yours, too.)
From within the fissure I rise, old as anything. The gravel beneath me slides. — Flow
Once I saw a vixen and a dog fox dancing. It was on the other side of the cul-de-sac, past the Gunns' place, through the trees, where the stream draws a wet line in spring. — Undercover
In the summer my mother grew zinnias in her window boxes and let fireflies hum through our back door. She kept basil alive in ruby-colored glasses and potatoes sprouting tentacles on the sills. — House of Dance
There are the things that have been and the things that haven't happened yet. There is the squiggle of a line between, which is the color of caution, the color of the bird that comes to my window every morning, rattling me awake with the hammer of its beak. — Nothing but Ghosts
What I remember now is the bunch of them running: from the tins, which were their houses. Up the white streets, which were the color of bone. — The Heart Is Not a Size
From up high, everything seems to spill from itself. Everything is shadowed. — Dangerous Neighbors
My house is a storybook house. A huff-and-a-puff-and-they'll-blow-it-down house. — You Are My Only
The streets of Seville are the size of sidewalks, and there are alleys leaking off from the streets. In the back of the cab, where I sit by myself, I watch the past rushing by. — Small Damages
There was a story Francis told about two best friends gone swimming, round about Beiderman's Point, back of Petty's Island, along the crooked Delaware. "Fred Spowhouse," he'd say, his breath smelling like oysters and hay. "Alfred Edwards." The two friends found drowned and buckled together, Spowhouse clutched up tight inside Edwards's feckless arms. — Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent
We live with ghosts. We live with thugs, dodgers, punkers, needle ladies, pork knuckle. — Going Over
If you could see me. If you were near. — One Thing Stolen
Sidenote: In every case, the first two sentences of my books existed within the book in draft one. Sometimes they weren't posted right up front in early drafts. But they always eventually got there.
0 Comments on does the entire book lie within its first two sentences? Herman Koch and a Kephart experiment as of 1/12/2015 8:46:00 AM
It is possible to feel affection to people far away, in other countries—never met, never seen. This morning I am grateful to Callenbach, the Dutch publishing house that beautifully reproduced Small Damages not long ago and today shares Undercover, the first young adult novel I ever dared to write (1997), seems like centuries ago.
And get a load of that pink!
Thank you, Callenbach.
0 Comments on I don't know what it says, but I like it (Undercover, in the Netherlands) as of 1/1/1900
I got behind on this day—a book to read and review, some client care, a trip to the dentist, some forever inadequate taming of the jungle of my garden (oh my), and lunch with a friend whose capacious mind is thrilling, frankly, to be near. What he knows. What he thinks. I sit back and listen.
It is not until just now, then, that I have a moment to thank Sarah Lamport Laurence for a list of tween books that has a lot of people talking. People are looking for Sarah's kind of thinking about books all the time, and today she put together a most valued collection of recommended reads for tween readers. I am honored to find both Dangerous Neighbors and Undercover included.
Yesterday, it became official: Callenbach, the glorious Dutch publishing house that released a gorgeous, translated Small Damages two years ago, has purchased Dutch translation rights to Undercover, the first young adult novel I ever wrote and published.
Like Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, Undercover first appeared in 2007 and taught me several things about risks worth taking. Like The Heart Is Not a Size, Undercover is vaguely autobiographical—a Cyrano story of a teen who cannot see her own beauty and who relies on words to bridge her to the world. My Elisa writes poems. She has an English teacher who cares. She skates secretly on a frozen pond. She meets a boy named Theo. Her words, she soon discovers, have power. But so, perhaps, does she.
It is moving to think of vestiges of my own Radnor High and adolescence being transported to the Netherlands, under the auspices of a publishing house established in 1854. It is also telling, and hopeful—a sign of optimism for all of us—that books written years ago still live on, somehow. This idea about longevity is perhaps the lesson for me of this year, as Flow, seven years later, emerges as an affordable paperback, and as Undercover begins the process of finding a new audience in the Netherlands, as it has also found in China.
My thanks to Alpha Wong of HarperTeen for negotiating the agreement, and to Amy Rennert, my agent, for letting me know.
0 Comments on Lessons in Publishing Longevity: Undercover Sells to the Dutch House, Callenbach as of 5/30/2014 9:43:00 AM
Seven years ago, I published two very different books—a vaguely autobiographical first novel for young adults, Undercover, and Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River.
Both represented a turning point.
Both remain books that I remember with great fondness. The stories I was given the freedom to tell. The people I met throughout the telling. The lessons I learned about the risks worth taking.
Both books have surprised me deeply in recent weeks; both have been returned to me.
A few days ago, as I wrote here,Flow arrived in warehouses as a brand-new paperback.
Today I learned that Callenbach, the fantastic publishing house that beautifully packaged Small Damages for Dutch readers, will be publishing Undercover as well.
By many, many measures, my writing life is a modest life. That is, perhaps, why news like this touches me as deeply as it does.
0 Comments on Undercover, my first novel for young adults, sells to a wonderful Dutch publisher as of 5/28/2014 7:37:00 PM
There's this kid. Call him Poetry Boy, even Poetry Bandit, if you'd like. Things aren't exactly perfect home. Things aren't precisely perfect at school. But Poetry Boy has his whole life handled. He's king of his own world—finding "easy prey" within the halls, writing poems nobody sees, scratching little insider insults into the pages of old books. It's all cool, life is cool, it's all just fine (believe him), until a kid named Robin finds the book Poetry Boy has been keeping and uses it as blackmail leverage—lending life many shades of intolerable.
(Well, okay, yes. It's true. Poetry Boy might have had a thing or two coming from Robin.)
This is Rhyme Schemer, K.A. Holt's engaging, clever middle grade novel in verse, which will be released this coming fall by Tamra Tuller and Chronicle Books. I'm celebrating it today because it's poetry month, because my secret poet Elisa of Undercover really wants to meet the secret schemer, and because I will actually meet author K.A. Holt in less than a week, in the sunny city of San Antonio.
And because it's just that good. Listen:
Kelly looks at me. Her head is on her desk, too. Those freckles are the same color as the desk, like the desk has splashed a little on her face.
And:
Mrs. Little looks at me sideways. I know she wants to say something but I don't want to listen so I pretend I don't see her eyes in the corner of her face like a hieroglyph.
Fine writing. Fine storytelling. Something very fine to be looking forward to.
0 Comments on Rhyme Schemer/K.A. Holt: Reflections as of 4/4/2014 9:37:00 AM
I began blogging some nine books ago, right around the release date of Undercover. This was my most autobiographical young adult story, a tale vaguely based on my own days as a striving high school poet with a love for ice, float, and speed, and with an English teacher who took note of all I was afraid to be.
Today my friend Ed Goldberg (of the blog Two Heads Together, among other things) sent word that Undercover has been remembered by Jennifer Miskec and Katy J. Stein in a February 2013 VOYA article called "Classics Outside of the Classroom."
From the article:
Over the last decade, young adult literature has seen a minor boom in the publication of adaptations of classic literature. What can be an English teacher's best friends, books like Sharon Draper's version of Romeo and Juliet (Romiette and Julio) makes Verona a little more imaginable; Beth Kephart's Undercover, Cyrano d'Bergerac recast with fifteen-year-old Elisa, makes Cyrano just like one of us. These adaptations can be a useful bridge between the teen reader's own life and the privileged space of classic literature, because authors modernize—and sometimes even sanitize—the famous stories, making them both familiar and educational for a new audience.
The piece goes on to describe a number of YA literary adaptations, including a beautiful long paragraph dedicated to Undercover.
I am indebted to the authors. I am indebted, as well, to Ed. I had always hoped that classroom teachers would discover Undercover and make it part of a broader curricula.
Thank you.
1 Comments on UNDERCOVER remembered in "Classics Outside of the Classroom" story in VOYA, last added: 2/1/2013
Today at Penn we taught each other something about second-person memoir, distance, intimacy, essential remove, and compassion. B bought us cookies because I, having run long during a lunch-hour interview, was flat out of time. B is just like that. We love our B.
At home I found a package tossed up against the door. It was heavy and, I discovered, pink. The Chinese translation of Undercover. I like having a pink jacket all my own. I like the float of flowers.
I like this.
5 Comments on Undercover in Chinese (a nice gift at my door this late afternoon), last added: 3/1/2012
Ohhh, that's so fun! It's wonderful that your books are being published in so many foreign formats. And Undercover, which will always be my favorite, just because it was my first BK book. :)
I knew Dear Reader was a happening place months ago, when I was invited to stand in as a guest columnist for Suzanne Beecher. Dear Reader is where a book-reading community gets built, where book clubs find their inspiration, and where conversations gather speed and force. For my own guest column, I wrote about the young people I've met in my time as a young adult novelist—the passions they stir and the things they teach, the many ways that I am hopeful for and with them.
It was a special opportunity, and so I did something I've never done before—offered all six of my young adult books (the seventh,the Seville-based Small Damages, won't be out until next summer) as a summer giveaway. And oh, what a response we have had. I've heard from school principals and librarians, grandmothers and moms, fathers and grandfathers, uncles and aunts. I've heard from young writers and young readers, students on the verge of college and students on the verge of applying to master's degree programs. I've received notes from all across the country and all around the world. Many readers have asked for YA books featuring a male teen; I'm 6,000 words into writing one of those. Many described their particular passions, their favorite books.
I had originally thought that I would give all six books to a single winner, sweepstakes style, but as I read these notes through and considered the huge volume of mail, it occurred to me that there were some very right and particular titles for some very particular readers. Here, then, are the winners, with the lines or thoughts that triggered my own "I have just the book for them" responses. Please know, all of you, that I read and considered and valued and had a very hard time choosing winners. I hope you'll look for books that sound interesting to you and let me know what you think.
Undercover, my first young adult novel, about a young, Cyrano-like poet and her discovery of her own beauty, to 14-year-old Kyla Rich, who wrote, "My 12-year-old sister and I love to read. .... you can never read too much, especially with how much you can learn from reading: Learn about the world, about scholarly things that you'd learn in school, or, sometimes, about yourself. I never really knew why I read so much or why I liked it but, as I read your Dear Reader, I realized why. I read to understand, to know beyond myself. Exactly what you said in your Dear Reader. I guess that might be another reason I write. My sister and I are writers, unpublished of course, and we write to craft the kind of books we like to read, to give someone joy, to help someone, maybe even start a craze. We write for even that ONE person who likes our books, even if it is just one. At least someone cares enough to read."
House of Dance, about Rosie's quest to find a final gift for her grandfather (and her discovery of a wonderful cast of ballroom dancers), to Patricia Corcoran, who wrote, "I'm 63 years old and have read for as long as I can remember. Except for when I was growing up, I didn't read Young Adult books. I don't know why, but I didn't. About 3 years ago, I started reading them and thoroughly enjoy the ones I've read so far. I have 2 grandchildren, Gregory who is 9 and Emily who
3 Comments on Meet the Dear Reader Giveaway Winners, last added: 7/8/2011
Last week I ran into a woman I used to teach with years ago. She told me about Dear Reader and that it's run by a high school classmate of hers. Small world!
A few words to the Zionsville Sixth Graders to Miss Rachel Bing, their remarkable cadet teacher. I have never managed to talk to a camera without making some silly mistakes. So please forgive those as you listen.
3 Comments on Answering the Zionsville Middle School Readers of UNDERCOVER: A VLOG, last added: 4/27/2011
I just finished reading Undercover and read the letters the students wrote to you. I am touched by their letters and that you answered them in this vlog. I loved the book and will be recommending it to my adult (as well as my younger) friends!
I post now the final UNDERCOVER letters from my continuing series featuring the sixth-grade students of Miss Rachel Bing's Zionsville, IN, class. See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 for background on this exceptional (high school, as in, Rachel is in high school) teacher and her students. These letters are breeze and sun, indelible. These letters bring me hope.
From Peyton:
Elisa dropped her mouth in shock, she had won! She had won first place! She ran off the ice into her father’s arms, happy tears running down her cheeks. “Oh, Elisa,” cried her mom, “you were wonderful!” Just then, Theo came up to Elisa, “Can I talk to you?” he whispered. He led her over to a corner. “I want you to know that I’m sorry. I’m done with Lila. When I was with her I was a jerk.” Then he leaned over and kissed her. Elisa looked at him, smiled, and walked away.
Hello Mrs. Kephart! My name is Peyton, I’m twelve years old, I go to ZMS and that is my prediction of what I think would happen after the book ended. Miss Bing is my cadet teacher and she read my class your book, Undercover. When Miss Bing started reading Undercover, I was immediately drawn into it. Every day, she would read us a chapter, but that wasn't enough. We begged her to read more, so finally we were at two chapters a day.
The book was great, but the words you used were amazing. The way you use words is indescribable. One line especially got my attention, “Cruelty is its own brand of hideous.” That was my favorite line in the book. I was wondering you are going to write a sequel to Undercover? I know for sure that a ton of people would read it. Also, are you considering making Undercover a movie? If not, I would consider it. Can’t you see it in your mind? It would be amazing! I too, like you, love to write. I could literally write you pages, and pages, but, we are only aloud to write one page, tops. When I heard that you actually responded, I almost screamed. We were all so happy! Then, Miss Bing said that you said you might feature some of your letters on your blog which made me want to write an even better letter than before. As, we were reading, I was seeing a little bit of myself in each character. Are any of the characters based off you when you were Elisa’s age? I am really looking forward to reading some of your other books, because I will for sure look for them. I hope you know that you are an amazing author and that I hope you continue to write more!
From Ryan:
My name is Ryan and I'm in sixth grade in Mrs. Plantan's class. Miss Bing, our cadet teacher, read us a great book called, Undercover
0 Comments on UNDERCOVER letters from Zionsville Middle School, final entries in the series as of 1/1/1900
In my continuing series featuring the marvelous, heart-expanding sixth-grade students of Miss Rachel Bing's Zionsville, IN, class, I share with you now the next several letters. See Part 1 and Part 2 for background on this exceptional teacher and her students. Know this as you read: Rachel is but a high school senior. She reads books like UNDERCOVER (my first young adult novel) out loud to her students, then has them, in her words, "play charades with emotions because they will soon be writing their creative stories and they need to know how to be descriptive."
The next several letters, then—candid and exhilarating:
From Jordan:
In class we have a cadet teacher named Miss Bing. She is thinking about becoming a teacher someday and she would want to teach Literature/English. Our teacher Mrs. Plantan gave her permission to read us a book. She chose your book, Undercover. At first no one was excited, because the book didn’t sound interesting. Then that day when she started to read it we all got so into it and especially the drama and poetry. Just recently we finished the book. Everyone is so curious at what would have happened after the ice skating championship. I would think that she would go to find Theo standing there no longer dating Lila, because he finally realized that cruelty is its own kind of hideous. I would hope that Elisa and Theo would get together and create their own happily ever after. I thought that because everyone loves and wishes for a happy ending. That is just what I would want to happen, but my question for you is what would you include in it if you were to write a sequel or follow-up to Undercover?Also since Undercover had such great description and detail it is easy to visualize. My class and I wanted it to become a movie, because we think it would be a great one. Have you ever thought about talking to a movie director and turning it into screenplay?
You described all of your characters with much detail and personalities of their own. Did you base any of your characters off of you? If not, out of your characters which character reminds you most of you? I remind myself most of Jilly because she is girly, creative, and she loves clothes. Another thing that I loved about the book was all of the similes and metaphors in the book. It made it more interesting. When you heard a couple in a row it made you look up and listen that much harder. Your book for me was one of the best books I have ever heard, because of the amount of passion and creativity put into it. I loved how in the first part it was mainly about the honors English and the secret love letters. Then Part II was more about the drama with Theo and Lila and then Elisa secretly having a huge crush on Theo. I overall loved the book. I am very glad that Miss Bing picked your book, Undercover to read to our class. I am also going to look at some of your other books.
From another Jordan:
My name is Evan, if you might have heard our sixth grade class decided to read your novel, “Undercover”, because a young adult teacher named Miss Bing came in to observe our class and see what we do. Throughout the book we kept notes, learned literature, and even tried to listen intently. The plot of the book had such profound meaning and suspense. Every chapter was leading to the next and every time that we would meet our two chapter quota for the day, we would beg for one more. I have to say that everyone in our class loved your book. We all took it all in and adored it. Like my teacher Mrs. Plantan says, we have to enjoy books like these, like a sweet bar of Belgian chocolate.
I do have a few questions about the book though; do the characters have any relation with your life? Does Elisa win the skating competition, or does something else happen? Lastly, if you would make a second book for Undercover, would you?
To make a book that is as adored as Undercover, I know that you must be very busy, so all that I would like to say is, thank you for writing this book, and thank you for your time to make Elisa, Theo, Lila, and Elisa’s parents sound like they could hold a conversation with us, because of their complex personalities and moods throughout the novel. I hope that everyone that has read your book has found the thought behind the nature box, the skating competition, and even the marble girl, to be part in one of the best books they have ever read. This is what I have found about this novel. It is made for everyone to enjoy.
From Hannah:
Your book, Undercover, has some very life-like characters. I think the character I relate to most is Elisa. I may not be so creative with words, but I am creative with pencils. My poems are in art, not in words. I also am undercover (or at least I try to be). I don't like to meddle i
0 Comments on The UNDERCOVER letters from Zionsville Middle School, Part 2 as of 1/1/1900
Undercover Boss, one of reality TV’s newest additions, is based on a truth that many thoughtful CEOs grasp: they do not have a thorough understanding of what goes on at the middle and bottom of their organizations. There are multiple reasons why. Immediate subordinates do not know either. Middle and lower ranking managers withhold their understanding from those above them. First level managers cut deals with hourly workers that permit the employees to do well enough financially while not working too hard – lest the employees act disruptively. CEOs hired from outside have even less of an idea about what goes on, as insiders feel resentful about being subject to outsider rule and choose not to tell what they know. The reasons why CEOs face this predicament are thus far reaching. The question for CEOs who grasp this tough reality is whether they can do anything about it.
Undercover Boss provides one solution to the top boss’s dilemma: Change clothing; create a new identity; become a temporary hourly employee; expose one’s shortcomings as a worker; [eventually] reveal one’s identity to those who helped; provide high profile rewards (and an occasional punishment) to employees who were encountered; hold a public meeting to reveal the charade; and, finally, go back to work as an apparently enlightened CEO armed with the knowledge acquired. Here the TV episode ends. But is this the whole story?
As someone who has spent several decades studying organizations, serving as a middle manager in universities, and working as an organizational consultant to numerous systems, I believe the findings that undercover bosses turn up are, for the most part, valid. The problems are with the procedures the CEOs use. Most critical is the rationale built on deception. The show operates from the premise (shared with social scientists who conduct experiments using deception) that one can establish laws of human behavior by employing methods that include lying to the people who provide data. In short, one lies to learn the truth.
In social psychology over the years, students to whom the experimenters lied later told other students, who then became what was termed “experiment-wise.” Beyond that, lead investigators carried out studies demonstrating that experimenters (perhaps inadvertently) communicated experimental hypotheses to the people providing data, thus possibly invalidating the findings produced. To compensate for these two problems, researchers introduced a second order of lying. Investigators began to lie not just to their “subjects,” as respondents in these studies were called, but also to the experimenters who executed experimental treatments. Among researchers who used deceptive practices, this later development ushered in a new order of experiments based on “double deception.” Viewed in organizational terms, these practices emanated from temporary organizations in which top managers (professors) lied to middle managers (graduate students), who in turn lied to subordinates (undergraduates or innocent citizens).
Undercover Boss appears not yet to have reached the second stage of employing deceptive practices. Shows currently close with an apparently happy gathering of employees smiling as their CEO reveals the deception after having returned to his actual role. The implied explanation for the observed employee satisfaction is that the people feel pleased, because the top boss has taken the trouble to find out what organizational life is really like at the middle and bottom of the system. One wonders, however, just how long the initial reactions will last. Might there be resentment toward the employees who assisted (some wittingly, some unwittingly) the boss in his deception a
0 Comments on “Undercover Boss”: Lying to Tell the Truth as of 1/1/1900
In the midst of launching new books or struggling to write them, we are reminded, by gracious souls, of stories that did once make their way into the world; we are reminded that that is possible. Serena Agusto-Cox affords me that gift this morning, with her kind review of Undercover, my first novel for young adults, and the most autobiographical of them all.
Thank you, Serena.
4 Comments on Savvy Verse & Wit reviews Undercover, last added: 8/7/2010
My friend Adam (he of knowing all-things-garden fame) wrote just now about Dangerous Neighbors, a note that echoed my friend John's note of a while back, and Ed's note of even longer ago, and Mandy's, too. What they said is their own business. What it has all made me think is this: Perhaps, if I am lucky, Dangerous Neighbors will earn its sequel (as I had always hoped Undercover would; I'd planned the whole thing in my mind). And if it does, I know the story I will tell, I know where I would go, I know how much I would enjoy going and being there.
Time will tell. I will wait for time.
2 Comments on Dangerous Neighbors, the sequel?, last added: 7/21/2010
Don't spend a second more on my blog today. Head here, to Sarah Laurence's beautiful blog—rich with her photographs and musings on books and the writing life. This week she's featuring an interview with me (my favorite teen books, my assessment of teen readers, a never-before-seen photo of me in high school, among other things) and a review of Undercover. But more than that, she's sharing her own lovely sensibility. I urge you to take a look.
2 Comments on Sarah Laurence takes us to the ponds of Maine...and Undercover, last added: 3/3/2010
Beth, it was a pleasure both reading your novel and geting to know you through our conversation. Thanks for connecting me with Mandy and others in your community too.
"A writer must have a place to love and be irritated with. One must experience the local blights, hear the proverbs, endure the radio commercials, through the close study of a place, its people and character, its crops, paranoias, dialects, and failures, we come closer to our own reality... Location is where we start."
— Louise Erdrich, quoted in A Jury of Her Peers, by Elaine Showalter
Outside my window at this hour the smoke billows up from the neighbor's chimney and the pink sky goes sweet blue, toward black.
This is my home, my view, my slice of somewhere, and again and again, it appears in my books.
I write about suburban Philadelphia because as a teen I lived here and as an adult I returned here. I write about Juarez because once, in 2005, I took a trip across the El Paso border that changed my life. I write about a cortijo in southern Spain because I've been there, because once a man tall as royalty took me out into his dusty hectares in an open-to-the-sky jeep and said, Might I introduce you to my fighting bulls? I conjure a secret poet at Radnor High School because I once was one of those, and I story ghosts through a garden much like Chanticleer, down the road, because I spent two years walking through, week after week, and because a stone I had made for my mother rests there, beneath the katsura trees, and because I don't know where I'd be without seeds and all they beget.
I write where I've been, who I've been, what feels like mine. I have this place that I love. I begin here.
7 Comments on Writing What I Know and Where I've Been, last added: 2/8/2010
I think underneath all fiction is an element of truth. Our characters and experiences come more alive when we funnel our own truths through them. Beautiful view and places of the heart dear friend. (Hugs)Indigo
I get your posts at night, which is kind of weird - it feels like I'm sneaking a look into the future. Hmm. Sometimes I can't write about a place until I've left it. I love William Saroyan's Places Where I've done time: 'Well, some places are happy places and some aren't, and that's pretty much all you can say on the matter."
"Location is where we start." So often this is what gives an author's work its authenticity, its grounding (as Sierra said). Your sense of place is very strong.
For many years I've been at work on a novel that takes place in Seville. Last April, finding myself one draft away from sharing the book with editors, I put it aside, again, to focus on other things.
But it's now the new year, and the book beckons—perhaps a dozen small scenes to work in. Printing it out, settling in, is like returning to an old and trusted friend.
Here, below, are the opening lines. But before I get too nested in Seville, I'm headed to the Big Apple today to see West Side Story, a gift from my brother who remembers my ice skating days and my final choreographed performance to "Somewhere," my favorite song from that brilliant show. I love "Somewhere" so much that I scened it into Undercover, my quasi-autobiographical novel about a Radnor High School poet who finds her voice (and one idea of beauty) when she learns to skate.
The streets of Seville are the size of sidewalks, and there are alleys that leak off from the street, and in the back of the cab, where I sit alone, I watch the past rushing by. I roll the smeary window down, stick out my arm. I run one finger against the crumble-down walls. Touch them for you: Hello, Seville.
7 Comments on Returning to Seville, last added: 1/3/2010
seville! i have been there two years ago, you transported me back in time! i love spain.. can't wait to read that novel either.. you have to publish faster, beth. i can't wait that long!
have fun in new york today :) maybe i will meet you by accident (unlikely though).
The extraordinary week that has been this week found me in a classroom last evening among teens who have lived through the hardest kinds of sorrow and who look at now and look ahead and imagine themselves writing. I'd written a talk. It was soon abandoned. It was more important to sit on a desk with my things sprawled about me and listen for the young writers' stories. We talked about whether or not writing heals, and about whether or not it's possible for writers to write what they do not know. Poems were recited from memory. Early plot lines unspooled. A question asked about the pretensions of books versus the power of movies. One of the girls in the room had been reading Undercover; she described it, with great sophistication, to her peers. One of the young men, a science fiction and horror writer, had also tried to read the book. It wasn't for him, he said, and then he worried that his words had somehow wounded.
I had a copy of Mary Oliver's poem "Wild Geese" in my folder. I read it aloud. It was a still and perfect moment, a poem that spoke with force and meaning to the writers in that room. You do not have to be good, the poem begins. You do not have to walk on your knees/for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
"I like it a lot," the science fiction writer said. "It means we can be who we are."
8 Comments on We Can Be Who We Are, last added: 10/4/2009
The Wild Geese poem - that is what your blog tells me/does for me every time I come to visit. I've been wanting to tell you that the last couple of days and couldn't find the words. Then you gave them to me. As usual. Thank you, B.
This is a reminder to you under-25 writers out there about the readergirlz writing contest that is now up and running. Please visit the readergirlz author-in-residence site to watch a brief video that features yours truly talking about the importance of vulnerability in writing. The contest prompt is described below. The winning work will be posted on this blog.
"I believe that the stories that touch us are written by authors who remain vulnerable to the world - who leave themselves open to the raw wounds and the glorious possibilities of yearning, outreach, and hope. Watch the video, then write no more than ten lines of poetry or prose expressing a fully lived emotion. Send your entry to kephartblog AT comcast DOT net by September 25th, 2009. The author of the winning ten lines will receive a signed copy of Undercover, a novel about a young, aspiring poet who discovers the beauty that lives within her."
4 Comments on Making Music: The readergirlz writing contest, last added: 10/3/2009
What a cool contest! Of course, as I already have UNDERCOVER (thanks to your amazing generosity), I won't be entering, but that's such a neat idea to get younger writers involved.
It has been walking-and-sitting-outside weather, but I've been inside, piled high with work, feeling sunk beneath innumerable pressures. I'm in the final leg of a major edit of the Centennial novel, finishing up a client project, trying desperately to get the house in order, looking for time to get myself in order, too, before the academic year begins at Penn.
And I am missing books. I am missing easy strolls through bookstore aisles and time spent hovering over recommended reading tables. I am missing time on my deck, a book in my lap.
I am ten pages into Graceling; I'll finish that when some of this work clears. After that, I am headed to the bookstore to find out whether books like A Gate at the Stairs (Lorrie Moore) and Crow Planet (Lyanda Lynn Haupt) and Parallel Play (Tim Page) and Zeitoun (Dave Eggers) and Border Songs (Jim Lynch) and I'm So Happy for You (Lucinda Rosenfeld) are for me. I'll likely come home with some of those; no doubt I'll find and revel in the unexpected, too.
In the meantime, a big hug to Bermudaonion, for her deeply kind review of Undercovertoday. Bermudaonion has a lot in common, it seems, with my protagonist, Elisa. Which means she has a lot in common with me.
7 Comments on Books I Think I Want, and an Undercover Review, last added: 9/4/2009
At least the mad-dash of september generally mellows with the changing leaves of october. It is def one of the "and this too shall pass" times of the year.
Nice to come back from my holidays in Spain and see that the writing is as good as if not better than I left it before. I hope you can catch up with more reading.
A few days ago, I wrote of my new role with readergirlz, as author in residence. Today readergirlz is rolling out my first writing vlog, which is titled Remain Vulnerable. Visit the readergirlz blog and watch the video. Then participate, if you choose, in the writing contest we outline there. The winner will receive a signed copy of Undercover.
4 Comments on Remain Vulnerable: The inaugural readergirlz vlog and writing contest, last added: 9/3/2009
Your video posts are wonderful and this one is no exception! I think I might turn it into a meme on my blog and lists the things that I feel vulnerable about.
I put the finishing touches on the Penn syllabus yesterday, then took my readings to that leafy campus to have them readied for Blackboard. I am teaching, as I have noted here, about vulnerability—about the ways in which we open ourselves and our words to the world. I am teaching heart and I am teaching craft, and Edith Wharton's words, here, inspire: As to experience, intellectual and moral, the creative imagination can make a little go a long way, provided it remains long enough in the mind and is sufficiently brooded upon. One good heart-break will furnish the poet with many songs, and the novelist with a considerable number of novels. But they must have hearts that can break.
I came home to a gorgeous review of Undercover by the phenomenal reviewer/reader known to so many as Booking Mama. She made me think, with her words, about the journey that I have taken since I began to write young adult novels a few years ago—about where I have gone with my characters, and what I, in writing The Heart is Not a Size (due out next March), decided to return to. Thank you, Booking Mama, for that.
8 Comments on Edith Wharton and Undercover: The Hearts that can Break, last added: 8/18/2009
And I am in love with the picture on the top of this post. I will (hopefully, if bureaucratic stuff all goes well) be taking a writing class at Penn too, taught by Melissa Jensen. Your students will be lucky to have you as a professor. :)
How exciting! :)