just the facts, ma'am

Are you going back in time through writing a historical novel? Then you’ll be doing research on the fashions, mores, diet, and customs of the times your characters live in. Don’t rely solely on movies, TV shows, or <heaven forbid> wikipedia for your information! Sometimes the movies got the information shamefully wrong. You wouldn’t want to have any anachronisms, would you?

Here are the kinds of books that would help. They make for fun reading even if you aren’t writing a historical novel—or is that just the English major in me?

Below: covers from City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London

and Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England



in medias res

in medias res. Defined in Creative Writer's Handbook as "'In the middle of things.' The strategy of beginning a literary or dramatic work in the midst of the action rather than at the beginning of the chronlogical sequence. See point of attack."

Okay, so point of attack is: "Moment in a literary or dramatic work at which the plot, but not necessarily the story, begins."

Sometimes when we read back over a rough draft, we can see that a revision where we begin in medias res would be better than a chronological organization of events.

A movie that begins in medias res:

Raging Bull.

A video game that begins in medias res and goes backward:

A novel? Mary Shelley's Frankenstein:

Ode to Pork, continued

Kevin Young, author of Ode to Pork, has a great website!

http://kevinyoungpoetry.com/home.html

Where has he been all my life? I have read some of his poems here and there, but had no idea of the huge body of work he has written. He's prolific!

Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels, came out this year.

Previous books include:

The Art of Losing, 2010

Dear Darkness, 2008

For the Confederate Dead, 2007

Black Maria, 2005

Jelly Roll, 2003

To Repel Ghosts, 2005

And other books. He's won numerous prestigious awards. The titles of his books are so great, I can only imagine the wonders to await us in his poems. Kevin, if you are reading this, I love you! Call me!

BOOK REVIEWS IN HAIKU?!

Okay, here's a challenge. How to write book reviews in Haiku? Three lines, with 5/7/5 syllables in length.

http://37days.typepad.com/haikubookreviews/2005/05/teaching_with_y.html

Teaching with Your Mouth Shut - Donald L. Finkel

Teaching or learning?   
Don't just Tell your students things,
help them discover.

By Patti Digh

Subversive Children's Books

The Today show did a segment on subversive children's books. Some that made the list:
Where the Wild Things Are
Harriet the Spy (one of my favorites)
The Story of Ferdinand
Yertle the Turtle (Dr. Seuss)
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type (no, this is not my memoir) :-)

What children's book would you add to the subversive list?

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40099066/ns/today-books/

BLOOD, BONES, AND BUTTER

I adore the title of this memoir. It reminds me of a time in my life when I cooked for a living. Why do these brilliant people keep stealing the thoughts right out of my head?

By the way, cooking is dirty, backbreaking, hot, dangerous, repetitive, and allows no time for sleep. Just shoot me if you hear me talking about opening a restaurant.

who'd a thunk it? OMG is now in Oxford English Dictionary

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/03/dictionary-texting-omg-lol.html