tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21825814.post3496765532805638931..comments2023-09-30T04:12:28.281-07:00Comments on Finding Fair Hope: A Time in Old FairhopeMary Loishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01515655542270431289noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21825814.post-16111067856218302722010-10-31T06:53:36.352-07:002010-10-31T06:53:36.352-07:00After some thought on novel................
I des...After some thought on novel................<br />I described a story type that I would write if I could. It is not intended as advice. Events, facts and folks run before the hot air in my head like a movie. The thing is that hot air rises and is gone forever dissipated into the clouds, fleeting glimpses. ML surely has a tighter grip on ideas than that. I know that 'smack' you mention, and I stay all skint from the falls.F Gumpnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21825814.post-50553785333403883962010-10-29T07:42:35.113-07:002010-10-29T07:42:35.113-07:00No harm intended nor insight perceived...
"Li...No harm intended nor insight perceived...<br />"Life is like a box of chocolates....." I have plenty of other things to do. <br />Good luck.F Gumpnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21825814.post-9093772582030271952010-10-29T05:39:27.987-07:002010-10-29T05:39:27.987-07:00I knew there was some reason not to post on the bl...I knew there was some reason not to post on the blog that I was working on a book. The working title refers to the paintings of The Peaceable Kingdom, which I have worked into the narrative. I was looking for a theme besides "heaven" (I've used that one) and "utopia" (way too many others have used that one). The only mention of John Dewey is the one in this excerpt. It is not a book about Marietta Johnson; she is a character in it because she was so much a fixture in Fairhope of the day; I try to do her justice in the scenes I have already mentioned. <br /><br />I know titles are important and cannot imagine that having Mrs. Johnson's name in the title would sell more than about 20 books, all to old-timers in Fairhope (who haven't bought my other books either).<br /><br />I'm trying to get the voice right, and am working more for an Edith Wharton tone of detachment than Harper Lee's no-nonsense capturing of a Southern childhood. Ms. Lee did that better much than I could. Mrs. Wharton did too, of course, but I like her late-Victorian style of looking back at previous decades. <br /><br />Mr. Gump, please forget I mentioned my book to you. Inspiration is not what I need and advice only makes me feel I'm on the wrong track. As Marietta Johnson would say, it smacks of criticism, which stifles the creative urge.Mary Loishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01515655542270431289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21825814.post-67724951150765099622010-10-29T04:55:45.408-07:002010-10-29T04:55:45.408-07:00A 'selling' title lures folks into a prefa...A 'selling' title lures folks into a preface page or back cover. Maybe something like "Christmas with John Dewey" or "A John Dewey Christmas" or "Scrooge and John Dewey Duke It Out at Christmas"<br />or "Mrs Johnson Makes John Dewey's Christmas" or "Getting Organic With John Dewey" or "What Did John<br />Dewey and Mrs Johnson Do for Christmas?" or "Merry Christmas Mrs Johnson" or "Dowdy , Dewey"<br />or Mrs Johnson Teaches John Dewey a Lesson". Getting a reader to <br />initially pick up a book is the first step. Books are like plays. They are made for an audience.<br />Format could be to use all of your<br />detailed and wonderful historical collection as background, the truth so to speak. Then use the characters/personalities and their actions as they anticipate the big event of JD's visit. Not only Mrs J , but also students/families and other town folks as their routines are made special for it. The time of Christmas adds much opportunity as well, even weather.<br />My minds eye has a Tom Sawyer-ish feel to it for style, or even that of "To Kill a Mocking Bird". <br />The 'story' could be about the<br />people (some may be ficitonal by necessity) as the event is told using the beauty of the time and history as romantic background.<br />To relate the history as history <br />does not engender as much interest as do people's lives and feelings. "Mama, John Dewey Was at School Today".. "Mama, I Got to Read My Poem for John Dewey". It is not an event itself that draws interest, but the people and how they are entwined into an event that tweaks<br />the curiosity of emotion.F Gumpnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21825814.post-40911157456477077042010-10-19T14:11:21.601-07:002010-10-19T14:11:21.601-07:00I don't think it's going to be Peer Gynt, ...I don't think it's going to be Peer Gynt, or entirely about the school, but Mrs. Johnson keeps coming through to me loud and clear. It's a pleasure to travel back in time to old Fairhope and Philadelphia just after the turn of the century. Comments like yours encourage me, and prod me to keep after this theme.Mary Loishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01515655542270431289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21825814.post-21948146964576869612010-10-19T13:42:51.341-07:002010-10-19T13:42:51.341-07:00I sure hope the novel is about the school life. I...I sure hope the novel is about the school life. It could be a multiple saga, each as long as Peer Gynt, or longer. Individual lives during and after attending MJS and what they brought to life (rather than what life brought to them). <br />Seems a daunting endeavor to me.<br />I can stay still barely long enough to make a blog comment much less write , rewrite and edit for <br />days.<br />MMmmmm.. what and how is it to be, this novel. My curiosity is up for it. Even as a non-reader for entertainment, I'll have to read this one.Harper and Rownoreply@blogger.com