Letters to the Void, #4

Dear Void,

Sometimes it's hard to remember you're there. For some, every day is a hustle, for others it's a game of survival, for yet more, every day is sweet, relaxing and/or largely a repeat of the day before. Still, in each of our respective day-to-day existences, your existence, dear Void, as broad and all-encompassing as it is, may not entirely relevant.

You're pretty distant, y'know.

But sometimes all it takes is a story to remind us that you're still there, that indeed you've always been there.

Letters to the Void, #3

Dear Void,

In order to better understand where you're coming from and what you're trying to articulate, I've realized that I must do precisely the opposite. It's not in the attempt to contemplate the inconceivably vast universe and all that it encompasses, but rather in contemplating the conceivably small and familiar and near, that I come closer to a better understanding of just what you are, dear Void.

So let's begin.

Re-Post! Artificial Intelligence and its (not so) Godlike power in THE VALLEN

I am a fan of Believer magazine and in the most recent edition (which I received in the mailbox earlier this week), I came across an article by Meghan O'Gieblyn and wow! did it put the hook in me. I mean she was talking all about the worship of artificial intelligence and the Book of Job and the burden of choice and what kind of god God was back in the fourteenth century versus now, and so on.

The kind of stuff that just enthralls the fuck outta me. (Needless to say I stayed up to finish the article, titled Good Shepherds.)

Letters to the Void, #2

Pale Blue Dot: Image of Earth taken by Voyager 1 on February 14 1990

Dear Void,

Hopelessness and hopefulness go hand-in-hand like optimism and pessimism, or like faith and faithlessness. The pendulum swing from one to the other makes for good drama, perhaps, but it makes for stress in our everyday lives. 

Letters to the Void, #1

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Firestorm_of_Star_Birth_in_Galaxy_Centaurus_A.jpg

Dear Void,

You are much fuller than people suspect upon first impression. I previously misunderstood just how vibrant your vast emptiness actually was. Instead of limitless vacuum out there in the universe, there are enormous bands of gas churning in and out of galaxies like breath. There are energies known and, assuredly, unknown. There is a dark, even the utter darkness in the pupil of a black hole, but that dark, while terrifying, is yet beautiful and magnificent. I wonder... are there not byways crisscrossing over that big black? Are there yet the jet-trails of those who have passed before?

Update!

Update for the month of June 2019:

I am busy scribbling, scribbling, scribbling. I have new stories bubbling over the rim. I've got one about an Afghan who gives their American counterpart a laughing disease. I've got another about that roadtrip back home after Thanksgiving and a not-so-nice ghost paying a visit in the car. I've got yet another about a farmer on Mars.

So many stories!

So little time...

Check back in to find out where I place these stories (fingers crossed!), and in the meantime feel free to peruse the archives and take a gander at my nearly a year's worth of blogging on everything from my latest novel, THE VALLEN (currently in querying stage), to my first short story ever published, to my dissections on various novels, writing styles and how-to's for writing here.

J.G.P. MacAdam Online is yours to explore!

Recent r/literature Posts Breakdown

I'm considering whether it is advantageous for me to create quarterly or semiannual summaries of posts I've created (and which have been abundantly upvoted) on r/literature. Most of these posts concern books or articles I've read and literary techniques or theories or thoughts I've developed and/or am developing as a result.

Perhaps this will be a good idea, perhaps not. But let's give it a go.

From biggest to smallest then!

Knowledge + Time = ?

I try to determine what the wall is, where it’s leading Essa, and what walking the wall costs her.

This is the central conflict, dilemma, struggle, call it whatever you want, of my newest novel, THE VALLEN. From conception (during the 2016 Presidential campaign in the United States) to brainstorming to outline to writing the rough draft then many other drafts after, I’ve come to the point where I have now completed a submittable manuscript.

And all the while…

I’ve been asking…

Just what is the wall?

There are walls and walls and walls...

Borrowed from Wikipedia

Walls have been around for a long time. As architectural objects, they have a multitude of structural and cultural uses. I can claim no expert knowledge of walls, or their uses, or their endurance or deterioration over the ages, but I can gather together my sentiments towards walls and scribble them down here.

In writing a novel, THE VALLEN, featuring a wall — a border barrier, in particular,  — I obviously withhold some very strong feelings towards walls, barriers, earthworks and other structures which bar or impede free movement.

The world of THE VALLEN

Borrowed from pbs.org

In the months leading up to the 2016 United States presidential election, I clicked off the news and asked myself: what would America look like if Trump’s wall stood for over a hundred years?

What would you do to challenge that impediment to your movement? Would you try to flee—even if it was your own people who stood up the wall in the first place? Or would you welcome it? Is the wall good? Is the wall bad?

Chapter breaks and how I used them in THE VALLEN

From this amazing site showing a variety of past-present photos

Welp, I'm at the halfway point of proofreading THE VALLEN (like p. 185 in my double-spaced manuscript) and I'm pausing to reflect on why I've organized the chapters in the way that I have.

Essentially:

• Odd-numbered chapters: Essa's past
• Even-numbered chapters: Essa's present

Outlining a blueprint for THE VALLEN

The Wall of Jericho, artist's rendering, more information available here

The power of a blueprint (or outline) for a novel is perhaps best represented in the plot of the novel. (I spoke in a previous post about how Rowling's outlining technique for Harry Potter benefited the page-turning plot of her books...).

Memory spreading its branches through THE VALLEN

Memory interconnected and disconnecting bits falling away

In the beginning of novel development, I tend to research every teensy-weensy little thing. For THE VALLEN, I went over memory and walls and how to build walls, and where and why walls were built, and how memory is stored, the latest neurological science, how technology enhances or impairs our memory, whether all of this translates to knowledge—and if it does—then what kind of knowledge?

What is THE VALLEN?

Filched from Wikipedia

In keeping with the updated purpose of this blog, welcome to a behind-the-scenes scoop on my newest novel, THE VALLEN.

What is The Vallen? 

Funny you should ask that, my main character—Essa Finch—asks the very same thing...

So...where to begin talking about THE VALLEN...hmmm...hmmm...

Don't yell at me, I'm an artist - Part II

Sarah Jung, pic filched here

In a prior post, we delved into the romanticization of mental illness and how this rather common aspect of the human condition is particularly romanticized in those people who we call—and who call themselves—artists...

Now, let's delve into oversensitivity. This quora post features a quote from Pearl S. Buck explaining quite well the definition of sensitivity I'm aiming at:

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create—so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.

What is real?

What is real and what is not? What is fiction and what—truth?

In reading, then thinking, over The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, I am conflicted with these very questions. It's Beagle who's brought them bubbling to the surface. What with his characters in one ethereal dialogue after the next:

"Spells of seeming," the unicorn said...
The magician answered: "[Madame Fortuna's] shabby skill lies in disguise. And even that knack would be beyond her, if it weren't for the eagerness of those gulls, those marks, to believe whatever comes easiest."

What SHOULD my story do?

My story...my story...my story...Dammit! What should my story be doing? Trying to accomplish? Is it one thing or many?

Hmm...

Whether thy masterpiece of a novel, or thy life's story, or thy "Story" on Facebook that exhibits annoying notifications across my (not thy) feed, when we speak of our story—just what the hell are we talking about? What should we be saying? What are we trying to accomplish via telling our story?

Let's get to the bottom of this...

A Word on Too Many Words

Reading over the Goodread comments on Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies, I somewhat ruined this book for myself. Well, even if shortlisted for the Man Booker award, the first 50 or so pages just rung my attention completely dry—so—it wasn’t just the Goodread comments with spoiler alerts, informing me about the unsatisfactory ending and prompting me to lay this book down before wasting anymore of my time reading another word (I admit I especially searched for those comments to substantiate my own suspicions…), it was all the so many words themselves…

Don’t yell at me, I’m an artist – Part I

 

Sarah Jung, pic filched here

There exist many stereotypes about creative types. Just the typifying of people as creative types is itself a corralling of certain individuals who exhibit certain traits into a certain group. A commenting along the lines of: “Oh, you’re a one of those…” or a: “Yes, I’m an it…”

The Perils of Diction

Filched from here

Let's take a step into the world of word choice, or diction. For a brief interlude into the elements of style (tone and diction), look here, and read up on how diction fits into a writing piece as a whole. Otherwise—all our readings up—let's dive in...

Magic in the Making

Filched here

Do we, as writers, need to plan out the Magic in our stories? Does it have to have a pattern or be consistent? Does it have to follow a rigid Dungeons & Dragons-type system, or can it be free-wheeling like Beagle's The Last Unicorn?

In another post, I talked about the difference between fairy tale magic and systematized magic, that every magic "system" — for lack of a better word — encompassed a bit of both.

The Shapes of Refugee Stories

Image taken from here

I just can't read them all. There are too many migrant-refugee books and not enough hours and not enough energies to read every friggin' one of 'em.

So, I take a deep breath....and Google stuff...

If you've never taken a gander at Kurt Vonnegut's The Shapes of Stories thesis-that-never-was, now would be a good time to take one:

Diction & Dick Jokes: A Look at Carl Hiaasen

Writing humor is not something that all writers undertake.

Some dramatic novelists might stick in a silly scenario or sarcasm, but they'll steer clear of riddling their work with gags for fear it won't be taken as a "serious" work. Some non-fictionalists won't sully their work with a single dirty phrase for fear of appearing (cringe) unprofessional.

Past and Present Concerns on Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"

https://dinanaim.wordpress.com/

I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy and it was a quick read. It took me all of two sittings on two separate days. I saw the film first, years ago, and just happened to pick up the book out of a stack in a thrift store. Many people absolutely love McCarthy and his works, so I decided to read it and...

Magic Systems — Arden's The Bear & The Nightingale

http://avalinahsbooks.space/the-bear-and-the-nightingale/

There're whole heaps of praise out there on the internet for Katherine Arden's debut: The Bear and the Nightingale, a fairy tale-esque coming-of-age story taking place in medieval Russia. I'm not going down that praising path, though I did enjoy the book over Christmas break (absolutely a winter read). Rather, I'm going down the magic-system path. And when it comes to fairy tales, pinning down a magic system is about as difficult as making waterfalls flow backwards.

Heart of Darkness...On Xmas

Sometimes there's just too much to think about in a book. While perusing over the Scmoop entries on Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, a dozen different blog topics came to mind. Should I focus on Conrad's diction? Or how about his style for this book, which isn't so much "poetic" as it is ruminative? Or maybe about the way Marlow's narration sets the mood? Or about themes of imperialism, humanity, madness, honesty/dishonesty and evil?

Rather, I've decided to talk about context, the circumstances surrounding both the author's life and the author's society that ever even allowed such a book to be contemplated, nonetheless written.