b e h i n d t h e c u r t a i n

Closing Borders, Expanding Horizons?

2011-03-20T13:14:00.001-05:00

This past month news broke that the national bookstore Borders had filed for bankruptcy. It wasn't particularly surprising news, but it was a bit sad. Many of the stores will be shut down, including my local Evanston store.

Evanston Borders: I took many a lunch break here. Also bought a really cool U.S. wall map for my cube.

The Borders bankruptcy is yet another stark reminder that the publishing world is changing. We're already seeing the impact of e-books and e-readers, but what does it all mean? Will the printed book eventually go the way of the dinosaur? And if so, what would the world then look like?

A friend from college, M. Clifford, has actually written a fun novel that touches and expands upon this topic. It's a work of dystopian fiction, titled The Book. The protagonist is Holden, an everyman who works as a sprinkler-fitter and also happens to love reading. But all he has ever known is "The Book," a digital reader provided by the United States government in a world where paper has been outlawed due to environmental reasons. However, as Holden soon discovers, the government has been editing the digital stories and feeding lies to the public for years. In order to expose the truth, Holden goes on a quest that puts his life - and others - in danger. (The Book made the Top 250 out of 5,000+ entrants in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award and has received numerous rave reviews. One such review can be found over at Her Book Self.)

Interestingly enough, M. Clifford's The Book was the first book I ever read on an e-reader. It really got me to think about the future of e-reading, both the pros and the cons. But another aspect of the book that I enjoyed was pondering a paperless future. Is that really a possibility?

Of course, there have been various paperless predictions in the past. For instance, check out this 1975 BusinessWeek article titled "The Office of the Future." Here's an excerpt worth a chuckle:

Some believe that the paperless office is not that far off. Vincent E. Giuliano of Arthur D. Little, Inc., figures that the use of paper in business for records and correspondence should be declining by 1980, "and by 1990, most record-handling will be electronic."

There were many predictions in the late 1970s and early 1980s regarding the decline of paper. But the future proved to be quite the opposite. We use more paper today than ever before. However, as the aforementioned BusinessWeek article from 1975 also noted, sometimes predictions that seem obvious just take much longer than expected to materialize:

But there seem to be just as many industry experts who feel that the office of the future is not around the corner. "It will be a long time—it always takes longer than we expect to change the way people customarily do their business," says Evelyn Berezin, president of Redactron Corp., which has the second-largest installed base (after International Business Machines Corp.) of text-editing typewriters. "The EDP [data-processing] industry in the 1950s thought that the whole world would have made the transition to computers by 1960. And it hasn't happened yet."

As I mentioned earlier, seeing my local Borders close is sad. The publishing world is changing, and change is hard. But with new technology comes new opportunities. So I'll choose to believe that a better day is ahead, even if right now it's hard to see.

Book Review: Insomnia

2010-09-26T21:01:00.006-05:00

Today I finished reading Stephen King's Insomnia. While I had been familiar with King's career, some media interviews, and a few movies, this was the first time I read one of his novels. Based on what I had heard about the book, my expectations were set reasonably high; and I'm happy to report that King exceeded them.

What immediately struck me with King's writing was his intriguing use of analogies when describing action, scenery, emotions, etc. This speaks to King's "voice" as a writer. He just has a knack for describing things. Not only can he paint a vivid picture, but he can do it in a thought-provoking manner. Over the course of the book, his wide range of knowledge really shines through.

In Insomnia, the protagonist is the 70-year-old Ralph Roberts who lives in the fictional town of Derry, Maine (also the scene of King's earlier work, It). After Ralph's wife dies of cancer at the beginning of the story, he starts to suffer from a type of insomnia called "premature waking." Every day he finds himself waking up earlier and earlier, absolutely unable to get back to sleep. Anyone who becomes severely sleep deprived will stop functioning properly as a human and might even start suffering hallucinations. When Ralph starts seeing strange things, he wonders if he's really seeing them or if it's the lack of sleep.

On a personal note, in the past few years I've come to better understand some of my own sleep problems. So the various discussions in this book about Ralph's insomnia really entertained me.

Insomnia isn't known as one of King's scarier or more disturbing stories, but it still has plenty of suspense and will be disturbing at times. King does a fantastic job of setting the scene in Derry and building the characters. The town comes alive and feels real. There are a few psychos in the book and, true to their characters, their language can be some of the most vulgar you will ever hear. Also, a central theme to the plot is the political issue of abortion. So if that's a heavy topic you like to avoid, this story isn't for you.

The book is nearly 800 pages long, and I'm torn over how I feel about that. On one hand, yes there are times in the beginning and middle parts of the novel where it moves a little too slowly. And yes, King is able to get away with more tangents and long-winded descriptions because of his name (example: I read an article recently that said writers should just cut to the chase and not describe a person walking across a room to answer a phone, but in Insomnia there was one time when King did exactly that). On the other hand, King's attention to detail and ability to tell a long story is part of what makes him special as an author. Some details that might seem frivolous and a waste of your time earlier in the story could come full circle and help make the ending just a bit more satisfying.

When I think about the depth of characters and the multi-faceted plot, I would feel uncomfortable labeling Insomnia simply as a horror story. As far as I'm concerned, it's action, mystery, drama, fantasy, and horror. It's a good story that shouldn't be boxed into one category.

Curiously, Insomnia has not been turned into a movie. In July 2007 there was news that Insomnia would become a movie, but there has been no news since -- except for one video where King is asked about it in November 2009 and says there are no plans for the movie. It would admittedly be a difficult movie to make. Aside from writing a solid screenplay adaptation of this complicated novel, they'd also have to make sure that the auras look real. But something tells me that a studio will eventually take the risk and make this movie.

Overall, I found Insomnia to be a worthwhile read. It was an entertaining story and gave me a better glimpse into the creative mind of Stephen King. For those of you who would like hear more from the author himself, below is a video clip of King talking about his work in general as well as his new book, Under the Dome.

Are there any Stephen King fans out there? If so, feel free to let me know what you thought of Insomnia. I'd also be curious as to which is your favorite Stephen King novel.

Hair In My Coffee: An Interview with Kristin Russell

2010-09-14T00:05:00.002-05:00

From a blog dated March 3, 2010: "When do you find time to write? This is the question I am most often asked. And honestly, I think because I don’t have very much time, I am more productive when I sit down. I might only have fifteen minutes to add to a scene, or come up with a topic. Right now, I have a client sitting in my chair with foils in her hair. I am writing during the thirty minutes her color processes."

Welcome to the world of Kristin Russell, a Nashville writer who runs the blog Hair In My Coffee with the tagline: "I'm a writer, hairstylist, wife, and mom. Balance is the goal, coffee a necessity." She is also the author of Recovering Ramona.

Kristin leads a busy life, and some of her recent adventures took her backstage with Roseanne Cash and Robert Plant at the Americana Awards. But she still has graciously found time for an interview here at Behind the Curtain as part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. Below she answers ten questions about books, blogging, and writing a novel. Enjoy!

1) How long have you been blogging?

With Hair In My Coffee, about six months. I had a blogspot blog a couple of years ago, but wasn't very consistent with it.

2) When I first saw your blog, it made a good impression. It looks very professional, yet it still invites in the reader. In your work as a hairstylist you likely deal quite a bit with fashion and image. How involved were you with your blog's design and look?

Well, I am not very technologically savvy, so I hired someone to help me set it up. I knew I wanted something that looked very clean and simple, so we came up with the template together. My dad has gotten really into photography, and took all of the photos for the blog.

3) Your blog's name is "Hair In My Coffee." How did you settle on that name? And did you know that there's another blog out there named "Dog Hair in My Coffee?"

No, I didn't know about the dog hair one, that's funny! As a hairstylist, I always have hair falling off of me, which really grosses out my husband—one morning he said, "there's hair in your coffee!" And it just stuck for some reason.

4) How many books do you read in a month?

Depends on the month, but usually two to six. I work full time, and am also a mom, so it can be hard to find time.

5) What is your favorite genre and why?

I love character driven fiction. I also love really well-written memoir that is a story in itself, not a chronological account.

6) If you could meet any author, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you ask them?

Hemingway. I would just like to observe him for a day, go fishing with him and have a meal—see what came out of his mouth.

7) What is your favorite movie based on a book?

I can always watch Austen's "Emma", the one with Gwyneth Paltrow. I wish a lot of Cameron Crowe's movies were books first, like "Almost Famous", I would love to read that.

8) How did you come up with the idea for your novel, Recovering Ramona? Did the main idea pop into your head one day, or was it a process of working through different ideas over a period of time?

Recovering Ramona has taken many different forms, but it has always been the story of a mother and daughter who are distanced, and come together in the Joshua Tree desert. I think I've written five or six versions now. So yeah, it's evolved.

9) You blog about a wide range of topics in your life. One of my favorite posts of yours was when you talked about your identity relative to your father and son. For instance, in college you were uncomfortable when people would come up to you and say, "Oh, you're Pastor Smith's daughter!" And yet years later when your dad posted Facebook photos of your young son and he became a little celebrity in the community, you sometimes had people come up to you and say, "I know you, you're Finn's mom!" I liked that story because you revealed a variety of emotions, and it showed how you were maturing in your life. Overall, what do you hope to achieve through your blog?

I think the most important thing for me with blogging is to remain transparent. Of course, I hope people like my voice, and will eventually buy my books, but I just want to be honest. Some days it's profound, others it's silly, and that's just who I am. If I try to be someone else, it will come off false, and readers are too smart and have too little time for that. I just lay it out there, and see what resounds with folks.

10) What are some of your other favorite book blogs?

http://blog.largeheartedboy.com I love that he writes about books and music, my two greatest loves.

http://thebookladysblog.com Her irreverence and honesty are quite entertaining.

http://bookmavenmedia.com/blog She is so plugged in to the publishing and book industry, and has maintained her passion for quite a long time.

I also learn a lot through Twitter. I follow the publishing houses, agents, and editors. And @rosannecash is always tweeting about books along with music. She is a true literary lover.

* * *

A big thank you goes out to Kristin Russell for granting me this interview (and for interviewing me on her blog). I have begun reading Recovering Ramona and hope to see that book in stores one day soon. In the meantime, Hair In My Coffee really is an entertaining blog. People should check it out!

Where I Was

2010-09-07T06:02:00.004-05:00

Nine years ago it was a beautiful Tuesday morning much like any other, except that I was rushing around to get ready for a job fair. It was my senior year of college, and if I had learned anything since freshman year, it was that you don't wait until the last hour of a job fair to show up. In a market where there are plenty of good applicants, companies tend to close shop well before a job fair is officially over.

And so I was hurrying to get there early. After I had eaten a small breakfast, showered, shaved, and gotten into my best suit, it was time to start studying the companies again. I looked at the job fair's booth map and scouted where I wanted to visit. Time was slipping away from me as I double-checked to make sure that I had enough resumes and rehearsed in my head how to answer standard questions: "Why do you want to work for our company?" "What experience would you bring to this job?" "What has been your favorite college class?"

Finally I was off. Probably a little later than I wanted, but I was out the door and making my way across Lincoln Avenue onto Green Street. It was the same intersection where a few weeks later I would stand frozen and watch a black SUV turning left, only to have the minivan in front of it unexpectedly slow down. What for most cars would have been a simple case of applying the breaks hard and steering clear of the minivan turned into the SUV losing control, jumping the median, and rolling over a few times across oncoming traffic before landing next to a tree in the green grass. Fortunately the driver had his seat belt on and walked away fromt the accident. Nobody was injured. Although, I have wondered how it would have been different if I had been 50 feet farther up the sidewalk. My choice would have been to either "Run Forrest! Run!" or let that big black bowling ball pick up the spare.

But there was no crash today. At least not on Green Street. I kept walking and prepping in my mind. "Are you willing to relocate out of state?" "Where do you see yourself in five years?" "What do you like to do in your spare time?"

When I reached my destination, the Illini Union which is at the heart of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's campus, I marched up the steps with determination. My only goal was to come out of this fair with as many 2nd job interviews as possible. This, I figured, would give me the best chance at getting on the road to landing that all-so-coveted job upon graduation.

As I reached the top steps, I heard many voices plus one voice that seemed to trump the others. I entered the doors and saw hundreds of people gathered. This actually annoyed me. Is there some type of political speaker here? If so, I was in no mood for it. I weaved my way through the crowd, trying to get to the ballrooms where the job fair would be. But along the way I noticed that there was no speaker. Instead, there was a huge projector TV set up with some type of breaking news story on CNN. Okay, maybe I have a few seconds for this. I stepped closer and crowded in with everyone else.

A plane crashed into the World Trade Center? No, more than one. And the Pentagon? What's going on here? Now there's a plane down in Pennsylvania?

Information was coming fast and furious from the TV, but it was still hard to know exactly what was happening. It felt as though I were watching a movie. Was this really happening? And would planes be dropping out of the sky all day?

In that Illini Union crowd, I actually encountered a friend. As we spoke about these current events, which were yet to be labeled simply as "9/11," I knew in the back of my mind that this would be the first of many conversations about this day.

My memory of September 11, 2001, isn't perfect. I don't remember all of the details. I do know that I eventually pulled myself away from the TV coverage in order to visit the job fair. And I wasn't the only one. While the conversations at the booths were different from what I had been used to at other fairs (people were obviously talking about the attacks), the foot traffic was about the same. Students still wanted jobs, and companies still wanted to collect resumes.

Once I got back to my apartment after the fair, the magnitude of this morning's crimes against humanity started to sink in. The rumors of al Qaeda's involvement were confirmed, and that started to bring things into focus. Still crazy, but more focused. There were prayer vigils on campus, American flags started going up everywhere, and some fear still hung in the air. One rumor had September 22 as being the next attack because of the symmetry. Get it? 9/11 and then 9/22? That didn't make any sense to me, but I didn't completely rule it out until 9/23 came without incident. Fear didn't rule the day, though. People came together and showed bravery, kindness, and love. From the first responders to the people waiting in long lines to donate blood, Americans showed great unity on 9/11 and the weeks that followed.

The news coverage of 9/11 was literally 24/7. And it was on more than just your standard world news outlets. It was covered by all news outlets. I recall going on espn.com shortly after 9/11 (maybe a day or two later) and every story on the front page was related to 9/11. Seriously, I couldn't find a non-9/11 story on espn.com.

That's all history now. I got a few 2nd interviews from that fair nine years ago, but no job ever came of it. And yet I still remember walking across campus to the fair that morning, wondering how in a few months my life might change. Little did I know that it already had.

Whole New Worlds

2010-09-04T17:17:00.001-05:00

Back in July I mentioned my plan to start reading more short stories. So in early August I picked up The Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction. It's a collection of short stories edited by Gardner Dozois. I've been reading through it at a leisurely pace, usually at night just before going to sleep or during lunch breaks at work. I'm about a quarter of the way through, and it's been an enjoyable read. I've had so much fun experiencing so many authors for the first time, as well as the wide variety of stories and styles. Each story has been an opportunity to enter a whole new world.

Also on my current reading list is Stephen King's Insomnia. While I'm very familiar with King's career and have always paid attention to his interviews, I actually haven't read one of his novels yet. Strange but true. I think part of the reason for this is that I tend not to seek out horror books, but a bigger reason is that they're so darn long. It's rare for me to read a 700-page book for pleasure.

For whatever reason, this summer I've been pulled closer and closer to finally reading a King novel. It started a few months ago when I was perusing the library and stumbled across Lisey's Story out on a desk. I read the jacket and flipped through it a bit. I thought about borrowing it, but I figured that if I were to read a King novel it should be one of his more well-known stories. Otherwise, I could envision this conversation:

Person A: Have you ever read a Stephen King novel?
Me: Yeah.
Person A: Which ones?
Me: Lisey's Story.
Person A: Is that it?
Me: No, I haven't read It. Just Lisey's Story.

About a month later I had another close encounter with a Stephen King novel. I was at the library on a completely different mission, but as I went through the "What's New" section I came across Under the Dome. I picked it up, read the jacket, scanned the map of the town and the list of characters, maybe even read a page or two. Then I set it back down, unwilling to take a flier on such a long book that I had never known anyone else to have read.

And so when I heard about a week ago that M. Clifford was reading Under the Dome, I got curious and asked him for some Stephen King recommendations. And voila. On my next trip to the library I borrowed Insomnia. So far I'm on page 311 out of 750+. Right now I'll only say that I plan to finish. And who knows, I might do my best Her Book Self impersonation and write a book review. We'll see.

As ever, I'm trying to expand my horizons. And I'm also changing something about this blog today by activating the comments. I had left them hidden because I didn't like the idea of some stranger ripping my work. Constructive criticism from someone I know is fine, but the idea of being criticized by a stranger bothered me. But starting with this post, comments are open. My hope is for this blog to be more of a place to exchange ideas, as opposed to just me writing in a vacuum.

The Versatile Blogger Award

2010-08-23T22:37:00.001-05:00

You might not realize it, but you're currently reading an award-winning blog. That's right, folks, I recently won the Versatile Blogger Award:

Many thanks to Lisa at Her Book Self for bestowing this honor upon me. It's really nice to be recognized every now and then.

As part of my duties for winning this award, I am supposed to state 7 random things about myself and then pass this award to 15 other deserving blogs. So here goes!

Seven random things? Well, one thing is that I sometimes like to keep myself shrouded in mystery. That's one random thing about me. I'll leave two through seven a mystery...

Now for passing this award along. Let's see... I could award Her Book Self with it, but she's already won it -- twice!

Another blog I'd like to give it to is M. Clifford, Author, but he also has already won it. Although, if you haven't already, you really should check out M. Clifford's blog. He's a very talented writer who I'm proud to have attended college with at UIUC, and I've been following his progress as an indie writer. He sets a great example with his passion for writing and promoting his work.

I really have to come up with 15? That could take a while. How about I just find one? Okay, one it is.

And the winner of the Versatile Blogger Award is... drumroll please... I said drumroll please... Behold! Witness the verbal clash of David Faroz Precht vs. the tentacles of the Internets!

I actually used to work with David at the American Academy of Pediatrics. He's since moved to Korea and launched a brand new web comic earlier this month. It's called Hancomic. Check it out!

And if you peruse David's blog, I think you'll agree that he's a versatile blogger. Congrats, David!

What's Next?

2010-07-27T22:09:00.000-05:00

Recently I've been toying with the idea of writing a short story that is related to my novel. I'm kind of excited about it, but I still need to work out the details. And it won't be easy.

For what it's worth, the short story I'm toying with wouldn't involve my novel's main character. It would actually be based on a secondary character. That's probably why I'm having so much fun kicking this around. It requires a different mindset on so many levels.

It's also been a while since I've read a short story, but that's on my to-do list. Maybe I'll get to it this weekend.

World Cup Is Over, but South Africa Still Cheers

2010-07-18T21:09:00.001-05:00

I really enjoy much of Rick Reilly's work. And today he did a nice job of putting Louis Oosthuizen's Open Championship golf victory at St. Andrews into perspective. It's an inspirational two-minute video.

Judging a Book By Its...

2010-06-15T20:43:00.003-05:00

Earlier I blogged about a contest where the first 200 words of each contestant's novel would be judged. I promised a "full report" regardless of the outcome. Unfortunately, after waiting several weeks without being notified of my victory, I think the outcome is that I didn't win. This comes as a shock to me, especially considering my stellar submission:

It was a dark and stormy night, and there in the ground lived a hobbit who had just found The Boy Who Lived...

How did that submission not win?

Okay, so I'm kidding. (Well, it's true that I didn't win, but it's not true that the above sentence was my submission. Apologies to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, J.R.R. Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling.) However, I do hope to learn a few things from this contest. It also got me to further ponder a topic that I've wrestled with in the past: When starting a story, how do you balance "grabbing the reader" with "setting the stage?"

I suppose the obvious goal is to catch the reader's attention and set the stage at the same time. But it's easier said than done. There have been many times when I've found myself writing on and on about a certain setting, feeling as though each detail made it seem more realistic. Then I'd come back to it later and realize, "Whoa, that's too long and boring for most readers."

When entering a contest that only looks at your story's first 200 words, it really puts this question of "grabbing the reader" into sharp focus. Will the reader be intrigued by the first few sentences? Will they feel it's original? Will they keep reading?

If your first few sentences or paragraphs don't interest the reader, then you've probably lost them before page 2. That can be a terrifying thought for a writer. And yes, I've felt that pressure to try and catch the reader's attention early. I'll probably always feel that pressure. But at the same time, the best I can do is just relax and tell the story.

The Greatest Goal in U.S. Soccer History

2010-06-11T23:42:00.001-05:00

In just a few hours, the U.S. will play England in the World Cup. And while England is favored to win, they're not nearly as heavily favored to beat the Americans as they were 60 years ago. In 1950, England was 3-1 odds to win the World Cup. But the U.S., having lost its seven previous international soccer matches by a combined score of 45-2, barely registered at 500-1 odds.

Making matters worse, the team that the U.S. assembled for the 1950 World Cup only had one chance to scrimmage with each other beforehand. Even their coach felt the situation was hopeless, admitting, "We have no chance."

And so the game began. As expected, England dominated play early. But there was only one problem: They weren't scoring goals.

Then in the 37th minute, the Americans took their own shot on England's goal. As the ball is in mid-flight, Joe Gaetjens - a Haitian immigrant studying accounting in America and working as a dishwasher - dives and redirects the ball with his head.

It goes right into the goal.

From that point forward, the U.S. managed to hang on and beat England 1-0. Gaetjens was the hero and carried off the field in celebration.

Storybook ending? Not quite. Joe Gaetjens' life eventually took a tragic turn in his home country of Haiti.

Honestly, I wish that this is where the public story of Joe Gaetjens ended. But it's not.

A few weeks ago I was watching ESPN's Outside The Lines when they showed a special on Gaetjens called, "A Goal, A Ghost." While watching it, I found myself getting upset for two reasons. First, the horror of the political situation depicted in Haiti; and second, the fact that I had never known about Gaetjens before. It seemed to me that more people should know about his story.

If you have 9 minutes to spare, the ESPN video about Gaetjens is here. While most of America knows nothing of Gaetjens' story, you'll find in this video that some in Haiti do still remember.

An Unexpected Parting

2010-06-01T22:27:00.002-05:00

So yesterday news broke that Guillermo del Toro has stepped down as director of the upcoming Hobbit movies. Apparently the reasoning is that MGM's money problems eventually delayed this project to the point where del Toro's original three-year commitment to working in New Zealand would need to be doubled to six -- and his long-term scheduling with other movie projects wouldn't allow that.

I've actually been looking forward to del Toro directing these movies for a long time, so this news came as a disappointment. Sure, del Toro will still help finish the scripts and played a big role in setting up these films, but that's not the same as seeing them through to the end.

The first del Toro film I saw was Pan's Labyrinth in the winter of 2007. I was curious to see it for two reasons: 1) It seemed like the type of story that would interest me and 2) Guillermo del Toro was getting rave reviews for it. Since the movie was subtitled (the actors speak Spanish), I couldn't immerse myself in the story as much as if it had been in English. But I still enjoyed the film. What I liked most about Pan's Labyrinth was how dark and dangerous it felt throughout. This young girl was surrounded by horrors in both the real world and the magical world. I couldn't help but root for her.

While I would recommend Pan's Labyrinth to anyone who likes dark fantasy and doesn't mind Spanish movies, it isn't the reason I'm a fan of del Toro. The reason I'm a fan of del Toro is because an onslaught of DirectTV commercials in 2008 finally spurred me to rent Hellboy in the winter of 2009. And I loved it.

What surprised me most about Hellboy was how funny it was. I really connected with the humor in that movie. Plus I'm a fan of stories where the heroes are kind of laughable to begin with -- you know, the type that get you saying to yourself, "These guys are the heroes?" Some people don't like that. But, if done right, I do.

The day after I watched Hellboy on DVD, I put the disc in again and started going through the special features. I ended up watching most of them, including going through the movie a second time with del Toro commenting the whole way. Listening to him point out subtleties in the movie and why he chose to do certain things a certain way gave me a better appreciation for him as a director. I also recall him going into great detail in another special feature about building the set and how much of it didn't make it into the movie. His attention to detail was impressive, and it very much seemed as though The Hobbit would be in good hands with him.

Some people think that del Toro's departure will allow Peter Jackson to direct these films and therefore all is well. That may be true. But maybe I just like the idea of giving somebody else a chance?

Chicago's Mighty Blackhawks are Back

2010-05-29T13:47:00.013-05:00

Tonight Chicago will become the center of the hockey universe when its hometown Blackhawks host the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The United Center will be rockin', the Hawks will be flying all over the ice in their red sweaters, and when they light the lamp with their first goal, a huge air horn will blare, Chelsea Dagger will be cued, and 23,000 fans in the "Madhouse on Madison" will be bursting with excitement not seen since a guy named Jordan played here with the Bulls more than a decade ago.

And while I've hopped on the 2010 Blackhawks' playoff bandwagon, this isn't where the story starts for me. Rather it goes all the way back to 1992 when I first moved to Chicagoland. The Bulls were my favorite local team at the time, but the Hawks were pretty good in those days too. I remember rooting for Jeremy Roenick, Chris Chelios, and Eddie Belfour as they battled into the playoffs every year. When a Hawks' game would come on the radio, they'd play the Blackhawks' official fight song, "Here Come the Hawks," and I took a liking to it - even though it was an oldie from 1968. By my second year in town, I had a red, white, and black hooded sweatshirt with the Blackhawk logo in one corner. It became my favorite shirt.

But somewhere along the line things started to go wrong. The first cracks that I noticed were when the Blackhawks' owner, Bill Wirtz, refused to pay Roenick his market value and ultimately traded him away. Over the next few years, both Belfour and Chelios would also be traded away as the Hawks continued to fade. In 1998, they missed the playoffs for the first time in 29 years. Sadly, things were about to get much worse.

Wirtz always had this "blackout" rule that if the Blackhawks didn't sell out a home game, then that game wouldn't be televised locally. When the Hawks were winning all those years, this rule didn't matter because the Hawks would sell out and the games would be on TV. But when the Hawks started to lose - and kept losing - the fans stopped showing up. And then the games disappeared from TV. For the casual fan who enjoyed an occasional game on TV, such as me, this put the Hawks out of sight, out of mind.

At some point in the 2000's, the Blackhawks became poison in this town. I remember listening to sports radio and one of the hosts was half-heartedly plugging the Hawks' game that would be coming on later that night (on that same station) but the other host, a lifelong Hawks fan, said he wouldn't even bother paying attention to the Hawks. He wasn't just frustrated with the Hawks' failed rebuilding attempts, he couldn't support Bill Wirtz's poor leadership of the franchise from top to bottom. Longtime Hawks' fans all across the city weren't just abandoning the team, they were boycotting Wirtz.

Here's the opening from a 2006 article by ESPN's George Johnson, titled, "Worst franchise: Blackhawks":

From bad to Wirtz.

"Sad?" says one who has watched this once-proud franchise fall into disrepair, the tragic victim of neglect and poor planning. "It's not sad. It used to be sad. Nobody cares enough to be sad anymore."

Other NHL franchises are poorly run. But for consistently gruesome seasons, the Chicago Blackhawks are a tough act to follow.

But again, things finally began to change. In late 2007, I started to hear whispers that the Blackhawks had two of the best young talents in all of hockey. It was just a rumor from the handful of people who still actually paid attention to the team, and given the fact that I don't know much about hockey, I wasn't sure what to make of it. Although, if this rumor were true, then the Hawks likely had a bright future brewing. These players' names were Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

Could the rumor be true? Had the Blackhawks landed not one, but two of the best hockey players in the world?

Another thing that happened about that same time was a change in ownership. When Bill Wirtz passed away in September 2007, his son Rocky inherited the team. And any questions about Rocky's new leadership were soon answered as he began changing nearly all of his father's policies. A big part of this was his hiring of the marketing magician John McDonough away from the Cubs in November 2007, making McDonough president of the Blackhawks. And not long after, the team approved a deal for Hawks' home games, regardless of attendance numbers, to go back on TV. Finally.

Signs that the Hawks had become a fan-friendly organization were popping up everywhere. I first noticed it on sports radio, where the same Chicago hosts who had turned against Bill Wirtz's Hawks in the mid-2000's were now willing, even enthused, to talk about the Hawks again. The team's head coach Denis Savard, a former Hawk great himself and fan favorite, was a popular guest on the talk shows.

By the summer of 2008, it was apparent that Chicago had one of the best young hockey teams in the NHL. Yes, they had barely missed the playoffs. But Patrick Kane won rookie of the year, and perhaps his toughest competition for that award was his teammate Jonathan Toews. (Toews would go on to become the team's youngest captain ever at age 20.)

And there was more news. In July 2008, the Hawks announced that they were bringing in Scotty Bowman to be the senior advisor of hockey operations. I actually received this news with mixed emotions. On one hand, I hated Scotty Bowman. Back in the 90's when the Hawks couldn't quite get over the hump in the playoffs, it seemed to always be Scotty Bowman standing in their way (coaching the Pittsburgh Penguins in '92 and then later in the decade with the Detroit Red Wings). But at the same time, I truly respected Bowman's hockey knowledge and career resume. Bowman is the only major professional sports coach to win a championship with three different teams. He's won Lord Stanley's Cup 9 times as a coach, and he's been a part of 11 Stanley Cup winners as either a coach or a consultant.

Now, to be clear, Bowman wasn't being brought out of retirement just for a ceremonial role. He was given the keys to the castle. And he was bringing "his people" with him. I didn't know exactly who his people were, but I knew that they must be brilliant hockey minds. Well, at the very least I knew that Bowman was a brilliant hockey mind. The people he was bringing with him were kind of a mystery to me. It felt like the Hawkey Mawfia was moving into town. And I kind of liked that.

In September 2008, the Hawks announced a marketing campaign called One Goal. The cornerstone of this new ad campaign would be TV spots featuring different players. And the campaign turned out to be so successful that they continued it for a second season. These TV ads generally consisted of one player skating up to a microphone, stating a serious personal goal for the season but in a humorous way, then skating back to black and leaving the fan with this message on their screen:

The One Goal ad campaign has been a hit with fans. Although, if you want to be a jerk on Twitter, after the team loses a game while scoring just once, try tweeting, "Do you know what the Blackhawks' problem was tonight? They only had #onegoal"

The One Goal TV ads have worked on multiple levels. First off, each ad introduces fans to one player. I'm sure players love being in an ad that spotlights them, which has to be good for team morale. Second, while what the player says and does might be comical, it's often done in a way that allows someone who knows little or nothing about hockey to start learning some basics of the game. And finally, the ads imply a very simple yet exciting message: One Goal. (We're here to win the Stanley Cup.)

And now the Hawks are here in the Stanley Cup Finals. Sometimes it seems like it has taken forever, especially considering that the Hawks currently have the longest Cup drought going. They have played more seasons without winning the championship (49 years) than any other NHL team. But sometimes it feels as though this current return to prominence has moved fast, almost too perfectly. Here's an excerpt from an article this week by ESPN's Jon Greenberg, titled, "No reservations":

It seems as if the stars aligned for the Blackhawks in the past few years. After all, how often does a team follow such a straight pattern of improvement? From barely missing the playoffs, after a miserable decade, to going straight to the conference finals to the Stanley Cup in successive seasons?

Even karmic forces couldn't disrupt this team. Longtime fans howled when they fired team legend Denis Savard four games into this past season. Then veteran coach Joel Quenneville came in, the improvement was obvious and the slight was understood.

Last summer the team unceremoniously booted general manager Dale Tallon, another favorite, ostensibly for screwing up the team's restricted free-agent offers (not to mention overpaying for a couple of free agents). Then Patrick Kane, the budding star, was arrested in his hometown on an assault charge, and free agent Marian Hossa, the pricey prize of the summer, needed immediate surgery and was shut down for months.

Maybe the bad karma, if that's really an actual thing (a million Cubs fans nod their heads sadly in unison) was superseded by how generously the team, under the leadership of Rocky Wirtz, has welcomed back its legends: Hull, Stan Mikita, Tony Esposito and even Savard, who moved into a ceremonial role soon after his firing.

If you read it carefully, the above excerpt also recaps some tough moves that have the Hawkey Mawfia's fingerprints all over them.

The Hawkfather: Since coming to Al Capone's old stomping grounds in Chicago, Scotty Bowman has been all business. First he ordered a hit on Denis Savard's coaching career. Then, like any good don, he kept things in the family by replacing general manager Dale Tallon with his own son, Stan Bowman.

Things sure do seem to be getting better and better for the Hawks. Patrick Kane has now become the cover boy of Electronic Arts' NHL 2010 video game and was instrumental in the U.S. Hockey team's silver medal win at the Olympics this year. Jonathan Toews led Canada to the gold and was named Best Forward in those same Olympics. When the Hawks were on a road trip in California shortly thereafter, the team was in the audience for The Tonight Show. Toews and Kane had a funny bit with Leno where they got to show off their Olympic medals.

The Hawks have also invaded the music scene. The first time I heard the United Center celebrate a current Hawk goal, I thought to myself, "Oh, that's the Amstel Light song." It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I heard the song referred to on sports radio as "Chelsea Dagger." At that point I suspected it had originated from the Chelsea soccer team in England. It sounded like a great song for drunk soccer hooligans to sing after a goal. But after researching the song, I learned that it didn't originate with the Chelsea soccer team. (Although, my hunch about drunk soccer hooligans wasn't too far off the mark.) Now Chelsea Dagger is played all over Chicago radio.

The Hawks' stated goal is to win the Stanley Cup. And most of the so-called experts predict that they will. Regardless of the outcome, it should be fun to watch. I'll be pulling for the Hawks, and yes, winning the Cup would launch this team's popularity into the stratosphere. But in terms of being a fan-friendly organization that makes Chicago proud, the Hawks have already arrived.

Agent Search: Toe in the Water

2010-05-24T20:43:00.001-05:00

One day about eight years ago I was on the train into Chicago. Somehow I ended up in a conversation with the guy next to me. He mentioned having past experience in the publishing industry, and I mentioned that creative writing was a hobby of mine and perhaps one day I'd try to publish a book. It was one of those care-free conversations, because you know you'll never see the other person again.

I asked him a few questions about the industry, and he gave some answers. At one point we were talking about writer workshops. He suggested that whenever I'm working on something, I should go to workshops and get feedback from other writers. I knew that he was giving good advice, but I still admitted to him that I worried somebody might steal my ideas. He just shook his head and said, "No, you'll have the opposite problem. You'll find that it's hard to get anyone to read your work."

All these years later I still remember what he said. At the time I knew he was right, but now that I've actually finished writing a book, his words are much more relevant to my current circumstances.

I've recently started the process of looking for an agent. And from what I've read and heard about this process, it's very difficult. Good agents are busy people and they're bombarded with query letters every single day. For the most part you can expect to be ignored. If an agent replies and offers even a single reason for rejecting your project, well, that has to be considered better than no reply at all.

Despite the long odds, your chances are zero if you don't try. Right now my goal is to find an agent who really knows the market and can push me to improve both my story and writing.

But of course, the key is to find a good agent. There are many inexperienced agents out there, and some are frauds who prey on newbies. I'm reminded of the time I heard sci-fi author Mike Resnick discussing the catch-22 that wannabe authors face when trying to find an agent. He likened it to this Groucho Marx quote, "I would never join a club that would have me as a member."

Oh well. At least I've started the process. And, quite unexpectedly, a friend who runs the literary blog Her Book Self has now kindly pointed me toward the "Dear Lucky Agent" Contest: Fantasy and Sci-Fi. You submit a logline and the first 150-200 words of your book, and the winner gets a year subscription to WritersMarket.com plus as a critique of your novel's first ten pages by a good agent.

I'll give it a shot. And, win or lose, there will be a full report on what happens.

Happy Pi Day!

2010-03-14T12:12:00.005-05:00

In case you didn't know, today is Pi Day, a day to celebrate one of the most important yet mysterious of numbers: pi.

It seems like such a small, simple thing. Pi is just the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. We see circles in our everyday lives, and indeed we see circles throughout the universe. But much about pi remains maddeningly hidden from the human mind.

Here's an excerpt from a fun Pi Day article on cnn.com:

If a circle is such a simple shape, how can its key proportion be so complex? Why is it impossible to know what pi is exactly, its digits continuing on infinitely in a seemingly random fashion?

... Mathematicians know that pi is irrational -- it cannot be represented as one number divided by another -- and transcendental, meaning it is not algebraic. That means, theoretically, that its digits will continue on indefinitely without ending in repetition -- in other words, the digits won't suddenly continue infinitely as 5s after 3 trillion digits (Pi's digits were calculated out to a record 2.7 trillion places in December by French computer scientist Fabrice Bellard).

That also means, mathematicians theorize, that any string of numbers you can imagine is somewhere in pi -- for instance, look for your birthday. Coincidentally, "360," the number of degrees in a circle, occurs at digits 358 to 360.

On the other hand, the true "randomness" of pi's digits has never been proven, which is frustrating, said David Bailey, a technologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who is still working on this question.

"For all we know, just out beyond where we calculated, there are no more 5s," he said.

I don't know about you, but all of this talk about pi is making me kinda hungry:

And really, isn't celebrating Pi Day silly? Serious mathematicians and scientists wouldn't waste their time on such nonsense, right? Well, I don't know. My guess is that Albert Einstein would be a fan of Pi Day. After all, today is his birthday too.

A Cold Night in February

2010-02-14T21:35:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago I actually finished shifting around scenes and smoothing out the plot of my book. While I do consider that another milestone, there's still much work to do. Right now I'm going through the story chapter-by-chapter and doing minor edits. Earlier today I deleted two pages from one of the early chapters and considered that to be good progress. (Note: If you ever attempt to read my book and discover it to be long and boring, just remember that it used to be even longer and more boring.)

In my previous post I disclosed that my book is about a young girl who goes on a magical adventure in a dangerous land. So where does such an idea come from? I'm not really sure. But I do remember that I thought up the main character on a cold night in February about six years ago.

Back in February 2004 I was recently coming off a journalism internship and found myself unemployed yet again, still living with my parents at age 24. I was sending out resumes and trying to make something happen, but it was a frustrating time. Making matters worse, my latest novel project had just crashed and burned. I had been certain that I would finish that one, but I was wrong yet again.

So one cold February night, after my parents had gone to bed, I found myself alone in our family room. I turned off the TV and planned to go to bed, but instead I just stayed in the chair, alone in the dark.

Thinking.

I thought about many things, including the fact that I needed a job to get my own apartment. But I also came to grips with something else: I was at a crossroads in my quest to write a novel.

In high school I had arrogantly told myself on multiple occasions that I could write a novel "anytime I wanted." So there was no rush. Just wait until the time was right, come up with an idea, write the novel, and be done with it. That line of thinking made sense to me in high school, but after multiple attempts to write a novel, I had changed my tune. Writing a novel that I could be happy with was much harder than I thought.

On that February night, I was particularly struggling with my latest novel project failure. I had been so sure that I would finish, and I had worked so hard. Yet I still came to the point where I felt compelled to abandon it. Was this simply my fate in novel writing? For the first time in my life, I doubted that I would ever be able to finish a novel.

I considered giving up on trying to write a novel altogether, but somehow I knew that was a lie. At some point down the road I'd be dabbling in it again. However, would I ever break the cycle of starting novels that I never finished? This bothered me. In fact, it bothered me so much that I couldn't go to sleep.

So I kept thinking.

Finally I just asked myself, "If you had one shot in your life to write a novel, what would it be?" And I think the significance of this question was twofold. First, I had to give myself a sense of urgency. No more feeling that I have all the time in the world and that "some day" I'll make it happen. I had to look at this as a one-shot deal. Second, I had to figure out what I really wanted to write about.

In all of my previous attempts at writing novels, I knew that I had the passion to start writing those stories and assumed that the passion to finish would naturally follow. In considering my latest failure, there had been many ideas that I wanted to explore. And sure enough, I set out to explore them. But ultimately the story collapsed for one reason: I didn't care about the characters.

Sure, I created characters that I thought did interesting things, and the story had some mystery and intrigue in my mind. But as the plot became more complex and the writing more difficult, I started to question if it was worth completing. When I further considered the main characters, I suddenly realized that in a way I was detached from them. They were okay and somewhat interesting to me, but that wasn't enough. If I didn't find myself caring about the characters, then how could I expect anyone else to care?

In the midnight hour of that cold February night, I wrestled with these issues like never before. I needed to come up with a character that seemed realistic to me--one that I could actually care about. And I had to create this character before going to sleep. That was my new rule.

And so I paced through the kitchen into the living room and all through the first floor of my parents' house, just considering all of the possibilities. At this point I had a clean slate. The sky was the limit, or so I thought.

I actually needed to simplify things and felt compelled to get back to my roots. I remember as a kid staring at a blank sheet of paper and loving the idea that I could write anything I wanted. At age 10, I wrote my first stories for fun on my own, sometimes filling up 30 notebook pages (front and back). During the process I'd usually discover that the side of my left hand was totally covered with pencil lead, and sometimes that same hand would start to cramp. But I kept writing. After all, I enjoyed writing these adventure stories about my friends and me. I especially liked finishing and sharing them with friends and family. Sometimes this was as simple as walking into the next room and handing them to my sister.

Aside from my own childhood, there are two other childhoods that have long been of particular interest to me: Those of my parents. For my whole life my parents have told me stories of things they did as kids. And really, I've always listened intently to these stories. In a way, their history is my history.

From a literary standpoint, I thought that I had moved beyond telling stories about kids. But in truth, I had some unfinished business there. The world in which we live can be a harsh one, especially for a young and vulnerable child. While I didn't yet have a story idea for this topic, a fictional character did start to develop in my mind. Many of her traits - the way she looked, the way she acted, even her name - seemed to flow naturally.

I'm not sure when a novel can officially be considered "finished." There always seems to be something that could be rewritten or done better. But from the standpoint of having written a story that I enjoy, well, this year I finally finished.

I'm also not sure if it's possible to know when I began this novel. Maybe it was when I was just a kid staring at that blank sheet of paper. However, I do know that my idea for the main character came on a cold night in February; and when I finally went to bed that night, I felt pretty good.

You've been warned.

2010-01-28T20:34:00.001-06:00

A few years ago I was on the phone with a friend who kept asking me what my novel was about. Over and over I told him that I wasn't really ready to talk about it. He finally relented and said, "Okay, let me read it when you're done. But just make sure it's not one of those fantasy novels with magic. I like novels that are realistic."

Almost without fail, when someone finds out you're writing a novel the next question is, "What's it about?" And while I'm flattered that anyone would care to know what I'm writing about, what really has surprised me the past few years is how genuinely happy people seem to get when the topic of my novel-writing comes up. However, along with this excitement also comes a little pressure, because I don't want to let people down.

I've always been relatively tight-lipped when the "What's it about?" question pops up. That's probably been a mistake, but I did have my reasons. First off, I wasn't comfortable trying to explain a story that's still unwritten. Second, I didn't want to become that guy who always talks about writing a novel yet never actually completes it.

When I finished a first draft a couple years ago, I gave it to three family members to read. Their reviews all had three things in common:

The manuscript needed much improvement
The ending was especially lacking
They were surprised that I was even writing about this topic

So what exactly am I writing about? It's a fair question. Do you have any guesses?

My very first post on this blog gave you a clue.

The answer is that my novel falls into the realm of "Young girl goes on a magical adventure in a dangerous land." No, I'm not joking. And yes, there are already plenty of these stories--the Wizard of Oz being but one of many.

I'll have more to say about all of this in the near future. My hope is to start posting more frequently on this blog. Some thoughts for me to consider: putting up a brief synopsis, sample chapters, and exploring the pros and cons of traditional publishing, self-publishing, e-publishing, or even the newfangled iPadding. Whatever may be, I'll try to have fun with it.

Now some people reading this post might be thinking to themselves, "Wait a second, my idea of a good novel isn't some girl frolicking into La La Land. I shall have no part in this!" Oh well, what can I say?

You've been warned.

A December Memory

2009-12-23T23:01:00.001-06:00

Whenever I see the year's first Lexus December to Remember TV ad, I know the Christmas season has arrived. While I used to mock these ads as being unrealistic and corny in the early years of this marketing campaign, I've since come around to accept them as one of America's modern holiday traditions. Plus I like their music.

And perhaps I'm just a tad bit jealous that I've never looked out my window on Christmas morning to find that sitting in the middle of a picture perfect winter wonderland is a $50,000 Lexus with a big red bowtie on top. In fact, probably the closest I've come to this dream scenario was a few days ago when I trudged across the street in the bitter cold to get to my Civic, found a ticket in my door, brushed the snow off my windshield and discovered another ticket. It was kinda like a Lexus December to Remember moment in the sense that it involved a car, lots of snow, and a surprise. But it was still different.

This year I actually managed to put my Christmas tree up before the December to Remember commercials started running. Heck, I had my tree up before Thanksgiving. It's a tradition that seems to be gaining momentum for me. Even though my tree has more holes than the Chicago Bears' defense, and it's crooked, I still enjoy it because its lights look cool in the dark.

Another key aspect of my burgeoning Christmas tree tradition is the ornaments. I've collected a fair number of them through the years. When putting up the tree it's always fun to look through them again. Some of the ornaments are pretty (a colorful gingerbread house), while others are cute (a puppy playing with an ornamental ball). Some are serious (a sparkling Nativity scene), others funny (Kermit the Frog on a sled). Some have personal meaning to me (a crystal football from my aunt and uncle), whereas others I have no idea where they came from (an ugly stuffed rabbit that I keep wanting to throw away). And of course my tree has a hidden pickle.

So which ornament is my favorite? I don't really have one favorite. But I do think that this year I finally figured out my favorite Christmas tree ornament memory. If you look on my tree, you'll find an ornament of a little polar bear cub poking his head out of a red stocking and another ornament of a doe wearing a Santa hat. Both of these ornaments have something in common: On the back the amateur painter left his mark, "GM 93."

It was actually one particular night a few days before Christmas Day 1993. I remember because at the time I was frustrated that I'd still have to wait a few days before I could open my presents. So in my boredom I decided it couldn't hurt to join in the silly craft that my mom, sister, and aunt were doing: painting plaster Christmas ornaments.

At first I didn't have much hope for my ability to make an ornament. But at least the hardest part--the ornament's shape--was already done for me. All I had to do was pick some colors and stay within the lines so to speak. I'm sure that I messed up a few of the plaster ornaments along the way, but I got better as the night went on. A few times I even found myself having fun painting my ornaments, although I distinctly remember thinking that opening my presents in a few days would be better.

I recall my grandma was sitting at the table with us that night. My dad and grandpa were in the house, too, but my mom, sister, aunt, and I were the ones painting. We all had the freedom to do our own thing, yet we could still easily check on what the others were doing. At evening's end I proudly hung my new ornaments on the tree--and promptly went back to wishing I could hurry up and open my presents.

That was sixteen years ago. I didn't know it then, but it turned out to be the only time we painted Christmas ornaments together. My grandma has since passed, my sister moved to Germany, and these days the holidays look very different for my family. Life marches on and time stands still for nobody. But those two ornaments, a cub and a doe, remind me of a night in December long ago when we were all together and happy.

NaNoWriMo No Mo

2009-12-06T08:30:00.000-06:00

So November has come and gone. Boy that went fast. This year is flying by too. Come to think of it, so has this whole decade...

Heading into NaNoWriMo this November I set a goal of writing every day (except for Thanksgiving). I didn't quite meet that goal. There were five days where I didn't write or get any significant plot and/or editing work done. (This includes Thanksgiving, but I didn't end up watching football that day either. I had forgotten that Thanksgiving "football" has turned into a sad tradition of the Detroit Lions getting slaughtered on national TV.)

Despite not quite hitting my personal goal nor even trekking halfway to 50,000 words, overall I'm pretty happy with the month. I spent at least a part of 25 days in November either writing, editing, or working through the plot of my novel. (Note: I didn't start a new novel for NaNoWriMo, but rather kept plugging away on my current project. This might be a violation of NaNoWriMo rules, but I think we're OK since NaNoWriMo is mostly for fun and I didn't claim on their site to be an official winner. Otherwise they might have to open an investigation.)

I do think the peer pressure of NaNoWriMo, along with the goals that I set for myself, forced me to write more in November than I otherwise would have. The first week of November I especially felt a mild sense of urgency to make progress everyday. I even found myself doing weird things like getting up early and writing before work a few times. Even stranger, I started regularly listening to classical music. (I'm by no means a classical music aficionado, but I do think this type of music has finally made its way into my playing rotation.)

I'm not sure why November was specifically chosen for NaNoWriMo. But for me personally, I've found that the fall and winter months have historically been good writing months. More often than not when I look at the fictional writing I've done during a year, not much gets done from April through August. If I look at this year, 2009, so far I've only had four good writing months: January, September, October, and November. In fact, 2007 was the last year that I recall spring and summer months being productive.

December has gotten off to a slower start for me than November. But I still plan to make a comeback. We'll see where things are at next decade. Err... January.

Evanston: Year One

2009-11-22T13:37:00.002-06:00

It’s hard for me to believe, but I’ve already been living in Evanston for more than a year. And what a year it's been. Here are but a few of the memorable moments: I heard gunfire that actually hit a person, witnessed the aftermath of two separate grand theft autos in one day, had a likely prostitute brazenly strike up conversation with me, was taken in an ambulance to the ER, had my parked car’s door and mirror sideswiped, was robbed (paying Cook County taxes), and even had my wallet stolen, too.

Now, that's not to say that my life in Palatine was without drama. After all, the Cook County taxes were the same. Plus, back in my previous apartment I was attacked by the bogeyman, experienced the presence of ghosts, and was visited by space aliens.*

I knew from the start that my move to Evanston, right next to Chicago, would be more of an urban environment than I’m used to. Now looking back on the past year, I'd say that Evanston has basically been what I expected. But it didn't start out that way.

A few days before the move, I decided to check out my future apartment complex one more time. I wanted to get a better lay of the land for the logistics of the move, plus I was curious to see what the place was like at night. So last October after work I walked over to the place. When I got to the narrow alley (where I would be driving the U-Haul truck in a few days), there was a cop arresting a guy. I'm not sure what he was being arrested for, but there was somebody in a nearby SUV looking on in distress. I suppose this story by itself is no big deal, but it didn't feel like a good start.

Moving day actually went fairly smoothly, except for when the key to my apartment didn't work at first and it took us about 20 minutes to get in. Oh, and once we were in, the first person to use my bathroom, which had no door handle, got locked in. Other than that, it went well.

About a week after I moved to Evanston, I was happily typing away on my computer at work when suddenly I heard what sounded very much like a gunshot outside. But of course, this was the middle of a bright, sunny day in downtown Evanston. There are no gunshots in the middle of a bright, sunny day in downtown Evanston. So I ignored it, until a colleague asked aloud, "Was that a gunshot?" To which I replied, "No I don't think so. Probably just a car backfiring or something." I guess I was becoming what I always promised myself I'd never become: That dope in a horror film who is walking along in the woods, hears what sounds like the footsteps of a psychopathic predator, dismisses them as probably "the wind" or "a squirrel," keeps walking, and then is caught unawares from behind by a man wielding a chainsaw yelling, “TIMBER!”

So yeah, it actually was a gunshot. Some guy at the train station had apparently assaulted somebody. A cop on patrol heard about it and wanted to ask the suspect some questions. Suspect keeps walking away, but Cop insists he stop. Suspect pulls out knife and goes after Cop. Cop shoots Suspect in shoulder. Suspect drops knife and eagerly awaits trip to hospital.

That shooting barely made the news. On the web, it was just a two-paragraph story. That's it. In Chicagoland, a cop shooting a knife-wielding man in the shoulder just isn't a big deal. But for me, having it happen where I work just one week after I moved to town was a relatively big deal.

About the same time, maybe a week or two after I had moved in, I heard what sounded like a cop car’s single siren “Whoooop!” behind my apartment, followed by my apartment building’s back door slamming, followed by somebody flying up the steps. I didn’t see anything, just heard it. I had no idea what was going on, but it didn’t sound good. What was going on here?

Those first few weeks I also was without Internet access at home, so I made more than a few trips to Panera to use their free Wi-Fi. One night I’m there, minding my own business, checking email and eating dinner. An older guy in grungy clothes walks up to me and puts a pink sheet of paper on my table. He smiles and starts to introduce himself. I know right away that he’s going to ask for money, but then he starts to put his hand down his pants…

Now, at this point I’m having a flashback to one of those In Living Color episodes with Damon Wayans’ Handi-Man character. Do you remember the episode where he had to help somebody in a bathroom? Right before Handi-Man entered the stall (with some unknown person in it), he said to himself, “This ain’t gonna be pretty!” Similarly, as I saw this stranger put his hand down his pants, I said to myself, “This ain’t gonna be pretty!”

As it turned out, the guy pulled up his shirt to reveal a thick, uneven scar that ran across his stomach. He said he got the injury in Vietnam and wanted to know if I could contribute to his organization. I told him, “Sorry.” Then his demeanor soured, and he asked if I could give him “food or anything at all.”

That first week or so there were quite a few people coming into Panera at night asking for money or food. They could have renamed it “Panhandlera.”

Usually I can get a sense for a place and kinda know what to expect. But admittedly, I was struggling to get a baseline for Evanston. That’s why during Week 3 of my Evanston Experiment, I signed up for the daily police report’s email list. I wanted to see what type of crimes typically happen in Evanston, where they happened, and how often.

The crime reports were interesting at first, and they did give me a baseline. One of the most common things (every week) was people leaving a wallet or other valuable unattended at the public library and having it stolen. But people walking down the street and getting roughed up was fairly common, too. Usually just a push or a single punch. But sometimes worse. One person reported walking down the street, slipping on the ice, getting laughed at by people on the other side of the street, and then getting shot in the leg. (Yes, you read that last sentence correctly—at least that’s how it was reported by the police email. Person slips. Gets laughed at. Gets shot.)

At about Week 6, around one of the early snows of last December, I had just gotten back into my apartment after a long day at work. I don’t remember if I had cleared snow off my car that night or moved it to the other side of the street or what, but I do remember it was a cold, dark night with very icy conditions outside. Once I had gotten into my warm apartment, I was there for the night. No messing around outside again.

So I take off my hat, gloves, coat, boots, and start figuring out what’s for dinner. Then I hear, from somewhere outside, a lady scream.

Sadly, I revert back to the dope in the horror film and say to myself, “Nah, you didn’t hear a lady scream outside.” So I go back to doing what I’m doing, safe, warm, and dry inside my apartment.

And then I hear a lady scream. Again.

Okay, so now I have a moral dilemma. The angel on my right shoulder is saying, “Hurry and put on you coat and boots and go see what’s going on!” But the devil on my left shoulder is saying, “It’s so dark and cold out there, yet it’s so safe and warm in here.”

Now I’m thinking that even if there is a lady in trouble out there, if I go running to help I’ll probably just slip on the ice and get shot. (Hey, it’s happened before in Evanston.) And besides, that might not be a lady screaming. Maybe it’s kids who are just yelling at each other? Kids hoot and holler all the time. If I hear a third scream, then I’ll go outside.

There was no third scream. But the next day I got my daily crime report and noticed that the previous night at about that time, a woman across the street and down the way from where I live (about 75 yards away) was clearing snow off her car when a man approached, entered her car, and stole her purse. (I’d have screamed, too. But statistically it’s better to yell, “Fire!”)

Fortunately, it’s been about a year since I’ve seen anyone get arrested at my apartment, heard a bullet pierce the shoulder of a knife-wielding assailant, had someone show me his stomach scar while asking for food off my plate, listened idly to the screams of a damsel in distress, or had anyone get locked in my bathroom. In fact, you could probably say that things are back to normal. Either that or I’ve gotten used to it.

*Note: For those of you who are confused by my bogeyman/ghost/alien reference, you might want to read up on sleep paralysis.

NaNoWriMo

2009-11-01T19:20:00.000-06:00

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This annual event has been around for more than a decade, but I hadn't heard about it until two-time NaNoWriMo winner elbakerone brought it to my attention back in 2007.

The concept of NaNoWriMo is really fun. For 30 days in November, writers from all walks of life commit to starting and completing a novel of at least 50,000 words. That means writing, on average, 1,700 words per day. Writers online fill out their own bio, keep their word count stats updated, and in some cases have "write-in parties."

NaNoWriMo's we're-all-in-this-together feel was always alluring to me. Plus I liked the idea of a community that shares my passion for working on a novel. The only thing I didn't find appealing about NaNoWriMo was the aggressive goal: Write a novel in month!

Nevertheless, I've decided to dip my toe in NaNoWriMo's waters this month. I won't complete 50,000 words, but I do hope to at least write every day. (Or at least every day but one. I'll still probably skip writing on Thanksgiving in favor of my traditional turkey feast followed by 10 hours of watching football. But if that's my only stumble, I'll consider it a successful month.)

We'll see where things are at in December.

Scouting Capricon: Language Arts and Somewhere In Between

2009-10-01T23:30:00.000-05:00

Back in February I made it out to Wheeling for Capricon, which is one of the bigger science fiction and fantasy conventions held in Illinois each year. For those of you who haven’t been to one of these “cons” before, it’s basically three or four days of sci-fi and fantasy fans hanging out at a hotel, doing everything from having serious debates about their favorite movies and playing role-playing games to dressing up like pirates and dark elf princesses, dancing to filk music, and partying. (Yes, they have parties. Lots of them.)

Over the course of three days, dozens of panel discussions are offered. Some of the choices this year included, "What Happens After the Shuttle is Retired?", "Sequels That Never Should Have Happened," "Can You Judge a Book By Only Reading Page 119?" and "Her Heaving Bosom Was Heaving in Zero-G." (I am not making these up.)

This was my second year attending Capricon. The main draw for me, aside from being something different, is the fact that it's an opportunity to hear published authors talk about their craft. I like to think that it's been educational, but even if not, it's at least been entertaining.

I also like to think that my second time at Capricon was a chance to learn from the mistakes I made the first year. For instance, last year I just kind of walked around aimlessly through the art gallery. But this year when I went to the art gallery, I made sure to go when the Artist Guest of Honor, Gary Lippincott, would be giving a tour. This time I wanted to listen to an expert and get something more out of the experience.

So I showed up for the tour at 11:30 a.m. sharp and checked in my coat (which is required to minimize the chance that somebody would steal something). Gary wasn't there, but I was told he might be running late from a previous seminar. When he finally showed up, I introduced myself and said I was there for the tour. He said I might be the only one, at which point a nearby lady said that she, too, was there for the tour. And so the three of us embarked on our journey through the art gallery.

The first part of the gallery was dedicated to Gary's artwork. He primarily works with water colors now, which apparently is more of a rarity these days for fantasy artists. The first painting that he showed us was an original (as opposed to a print). It was going to be a cover for an upcoming book.

The second painting that he showed us was a print, but I think I know who has the original. This one was a little more personal in nature. I'll let you take a look for yourself:

As with any art, different people will have different interpretations and opinions. But, for me, it was interesting to listen firsthand as the artist told the story behind this particular painting. Yes, those are a bunch of fairies running through that girl's hair. But that girl, as it turns out, is the artist's daughter. And you know what? She loves the painting.

As the three of us made our way deeper into the gallery, the lady on the tour mentioned she was there because her son was starting to become very interested in art and design. Also, somewhere along the way the three of us became four. A smallish white guy with glasses and a notebook (you'd have never guessed at a sci-fi convention, I know) wandered into our group.

In terms of what I like artistically, I was probably indifferent at best to most of what I saw. However, I did enjoy listening to Gary explain the various types of paintings throughout the gallery, which ones were more difficult to make and such. Sometimes he would admit that he didn't know how a certain painting had been created, and it was usually at these points that the guy with the noteboook would start giving answers. At first I thought he might be making things up, but as time went on I decided that he probably knew quite a bit. After all, he had a notebook.

When we came to a rather creepy painting of a man in a business suit with an octopus for a face, the guy with the notebook said this painting was a tribute to Lovecraft (even though there was no mention of Lovecraft anywhere). So, not knowing any better, I asked, "Who is Lovecraft?" He replied that Lovecraft was an American horror writer from the 1920s and 30s.

I don't know, but at that moment there was something in the way the guy with the notebook spoke of horror with such excitement and detail that made me a bit uneasy. Plus he was carrying a pen with that notebook, and pens can be sharp. So I made a mental note not to turn my back to the guy again.

At the back of the gallery was the most expensive--and in my view the most spectacular--artwork. I had never seen a Lichtenberg figure in person before, and they had at least five or six on display. One of my favorites was a tree similar to this one:

From this picture, it might not look like much. But here's how it works. In the clear acrylic, you first carve out the boundary for the tree (or whatever other shape you want, if any at all). In the tree above, look at the bottom center. You'll see a bright point that leads into the tree's root system. At that very spot a beam of electrons were shot into the acrylic by a multimillion-volt particle accelerator. It's almost like catching lightning in a bottle, and it looks really cool in the dark.

When we neared the end of the tour, we came across a set of paintings that managed to stump both Gary and the guy with the notebook. Neither one of them had a good guess as to how these pieces of artwork were made, although they started to suspect that they were some type of hybrid style. This was also the first time I noticed the guy with the notebook actually writing in his notebook--perhaps this was a mystery he planned to solve.

And so we came to the end of the tour. I thanked Gary for his time and expertise, and we all went our separate ways. I came away with a better appreciation for the work that goes into those paintings, as well as what an artist goes through to sell them. While I didn't buy anything, there was one oil painting that I considered. I liked the scenery, the characters, and the way the bright colors contrasted with the dark background.

It was about 1 p.m. when the tour was over, and I was making my way to lunch. Unexpectedly, in the hallway I saw the guy with the notebook. I went up and stopped him, thanking him for sharing his insights during the tour. He just shrugged and went on his way.

After lunch I planned to attend the "History of Fantasy Art" seminar that Gary was leading. But when I showed up, the room seemed in disarray. There was confusion as to whether this was the right room for his seminar, and I think I recall something being wrong with the projector (or maybe that room didn't even have one). In any case, I looked around the room and it was like we were getting the band back together again. It was the same people who had been on the tour, plus a few more.

Learning from past mistakes at these types of discussions, I made the decision that I had had enough fantasy art for one day and aborted the mission. I turned around and walked back out into the hallway, flipping through the program to see what else might be of interest. The seminar titled "How Come Everyone Speaks English?" seemed promising. The description read: "In much of SF/Fantasy literature and media, all the newly encountered alien races speak English. Obviously not realistic, but how does one get around the problem?" Sounds interesting enough. (It was either that or "Can You Judge a Book By Only Reading Page 119?")

So I showed up to the "How Come Everyone Speaks English?" panel discussion and took a seat near the front. There was a panel of three people, and I'd guess about 12 to 15 people attended.

It's hard to know what you'll get at these types of panel discussions. Sometimes one person will dominate a panel, leaving the other panel members to sit uncomfortably in silence as the alpha male (or female) enlightens the world (or room of five as the case may be). On the flip side, the same can be said of the people in attendance. One person in the audience could hijack an entire discussion by asking annoying question after annoying question, or by taking it as their one and only opportunity to tell us everything about "the way things should be" or "the way things were."

Fortunately, this session had a good panel and a good audience, making for an interesting discussion. I don't think we made much progress on getting around "the English problem," but it was kinda funny to hear anecdotes about languages actually used in the real world.

There was one guy who I clearly remember sitting at the back of the room by the door. He kinda reminded me of Cliff (with glasses) from Cheers. He talked a lot, but I wouldn't say he hijacked the discussion. Plus I liked listening to him. One of the tidbits he shared was that in Chinese you can form a complete a sentence by phonetically saying "ma" seven times in a row. (I haven't been able to verify this online or from friends. But that hasn't stopped me from trying to come up with the English equivalent. So far the longest string I have come up with is four: "Aye, I eye 'I.'" As in "Yes, I see the letter I." And no, I didn't spend a long time thinking that up. It just came to me in the shower this morning. But yes, I agree that I shouldn't be thinking about these types of things.)

Another guy told of a time when somebody wanted to translate "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" into Russian. Unfortunately, it ended up as "The wine is good, but the meat is rotten."

There were other amusing stories shared, mainly dealing with multinational advertising campaigns gone bad.

Another guy (lots of guys here) mentioned that he once read a book where the author had created an alien periodic table of elements. I'll admit that's an impressive feat, but you'd probably have to understand the real periodic table of elements in order to appreciate it. That and you'd still have to care about a fake periodic table of elements. But believe me, this guy did. What can I say? To each his own.

Probably my favorite story from the discussion came toward the end from Cliff. He recounted the time when a linguistics professor was lecturing his class about how in some languages a double negative can sometimes be a positive, but there is no language in the world where a double positive can be a negative. At that point one of the students stood up and said in a very sarcastic voice: "Yeah, right."

Fun.

2009-09-19T09:53:00.000-05:00

“This is going to be the best thing ever.”

I wonder how many novel projects started out with the author thinking that way?

Mine did. (Actually, all of mine have—even the ones that crashed and burned a long time ago.)

Now, to be clear, I never at any point really thought my book would literally be “the best ever.” But at the beginning of such a project I certainly have moments of exuberance when I feel it could be the greatest book idea I’ve ever had… or at the very least an exciting and important project that I want to aggressively pursue. And honestly, I know other writers who confess to having the same thoughts.

But high expectations can be a dangerous thing, even when it’s only you setting them for yourself. As this current book project has moved along, I have often compared my current thoughts and emotions to when I first began. Whenever I consider that things have been going much slower than anticipated and the quality being produced isn’t meeting my original vision, it can be a devastating feeling. The project can seem overwhelming, and it’s in those moments that sometimes I want to quit.

In the six months since I last updated this blog, yes, on at least one occasion I thought about retiring this particular book project. That’s just the truth.

But there is some good news regarding this project. In the past month I’ve been a lot more productive, and I’m excited about the challenges I’ll be tackling next. Better yet, I’m having fun with it again.

And speaking of fun, that's what I want this blog to be. I realize my last two posts have consisted of some nasty four-letter words ("fail" and "quit"), so I'll see what I can do to lighten the mood in here.

I do have a few more post ideas that I hope to put up in the next few weeks. These will mainly be stories about my writing journey in general (not necessarily about this novel), as well as a possible post that narrows down the topic of my novel. Also, I could put up a post about some other observations I've had unrelated to writing--mainly because anything that affects me as a person will, in some way seen or unseen, affect me as a writer. And besides, it's about time I finally deliver on my promise to compare where I used to live (Palatine) with where I currently live (Evanston).

'Til next time...

Failure.

2009-03-16T22:24:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I don't really plan things out, but other times I do. For instance, my first post on this blog was actually written 8 to 10 months ago. Seriously, I only tinkered with a few words before I slapped it up here last month.

And speaking of this blog, I think it was sometime in early January when I decided that I was going to start this blog on February 16. But when that day rolled around, part of me wanted to delay starting this blog. The only reason I went through with it is because I wondered if I was just chickening out.

In hindsight, I probably should have delayed starting this blog, mainly because so far this year my writing on the novel front has been much slower than I wanted. For all the benchmarks I set up for myself, to date I've missed them all.

I suppose missing benchmarks or intermediate goals could be interpreted in various ways. The way I look at it is that I have failed to get off to the type of start I wanted this year.

I do have a few hunches as to why I haven't gotten as much work done on my novel as I wanted, and my hope right now is to translate these theories into a practice that results in improvement. What do I have to change in my daily routine in order to become more productive?

Another goal of mine had been to write on this blog every two weeks. Well, that hasn't been happening, either. Part of the reason is that I'm suffering from analysis paralysis. There are so many different subjects I want to tackle, but each time that I start to explore one of them in depth, I inevitably want to fully develop a post that I find meaningful on more than one level. It's almost as though I want to write about everything, and then I end up writing about nothing.

But that's enough about the past. One of the changes I'm making right now is to just not worry about this blog. I'll update it when I update it.

As for looking ahead, well, let's just say that I'm looking forward to this next month.

The man behind the curtain

2009-02-16T22:40:00.000-06:00

Most people who know me are aware that I’m trying to write a novel. As such, it’s not uncommon for me to get questions like, “How’s the novel going?” or “What’s it about?” Of course, most people who know me also know that I rarely disclose anything about it. Sure, I might say, “It’s going well” or “Ugh, I haven’t gotten much done in a while.” But for the longest time I didn’t reveal to anyone what it was about.

With this blog, I will begin sharing my personal journey of writing this book and, eventually, the process of trying to get it published. It’s been a long road so far, and it appears that there is still a long way to go. However, at least now with this blog I have an outlet to share what I’m experiencing along the way.

So what’s with “Behind The Curtain” as a blog title? Well, from my perspective, I would like my finished novel to stand by itself, independent of the imperfect author who created it. Ideally, I don’t want people prying into my life’s experiences trying to see how it might have consciously (or subconsciously) affected the story I’ve written. With this blog, I hope to start conquering that fear. But my guess is that a part of me will still always want to say, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”