Writer Wednesday: Denise Mina

I’m a candidate for an MFA in creative fiction at Fairfield University. The program places a clear emphasis on literary fiction (think James Baldwin, not James Rollins.) So I was shocked when my mentor (short story writer Al Davis), recommended that I read a genre mystery – Scottish writer Denise Mina’s Field of Blood – as part of my literary training. “She uses a lot of literary elements,” he told me.

Mina blurs the line between genre and fiction. And she's Scottish.

Al was right. Field of Blood is a thriller and a mystery, but it was beautifully written. It was recommended to me, I think, because it’s about a reporter, and at the time, I was working on a piece about a journalist. But I recommend it to anyone, not only because of all the lovely Scottishness in the book, but because it’s a very well-told story.  Below the page break is the craft essay I wrote for Al about one of Mina’s literary elements: description.

Read more

/0 Comments/by

You can’t end bullying by being a bully.

Tensions are running high about the suicide of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers student who committed suicide after being outed as gay via his roommate’s online webcam. This blog isn’t really about Clementi’s suicide or teen bullies or the legal ramifications of what happened in New Jersey two weeks ago. It’s about the reaction to all three.

Oddly, I haven’t heard any live, in-person discussions about this story at the college where I work, but I’ve witnessed a lot of heated arguments online in the last few days. People are upset. Celebrities are posting videos, drawing attention to multiple gay teen suicides, and asking that society do something to stop the kind of bullying to which Tyler Clementi was subjected.

The problem? People are becoming hysterical, and that’s never good.

Read more

/3 Comments/by

Something wicked (awesome) this way comes.

This week, PBS is showing Macbeth, starring Sir Patrick Stewart, and I am so excited.

Avoid this one. Avoid it like the plague.

I’m researching a novel, and I’ve spent a lot of time with the Scottish usurper lately.

In the last week, I’ve seen three film versions of  Macbeth. One, shot in the ’80s, was really terrible, of the variety shown to high school English classes by substitute teachers. I couldn’t get all the way through it, although in my own defense, I tried twice to watch it. It was horrible.  Both members of the Macbeth family panted their way through the first act. By the time they murdered the king I was ready to take a dagger to my own temple.

McKellen was actually kind of a hottie. Who knew?

I later saw a very good version of the play, one which got both Ian McKellen and Judi Dench knighted. The film suffered a little, because it was a minimalist production, shot in 1979 and it could not help being dated. That’s a minor issue however – the actors were amazing, particularly McKellen and Dench. All the other Macbeths and Lady Macbeths pale by comparison. (Other high points: look for both Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars films and the Sheriff of Rottingham of Mel Brooks’ Men in Tights among the cast.)

Then I saw an older version of Macbeth – Roman Polanski’s  1971 film, which is not dated at all, but beautifully shot with period costumes, horses, sets, and hundreds of naked women (it was produced by Hugh Hefner.)  That Macbeth was a case of style over substance. The film was over-directed; it had far too much cinematography, Shakespeare’s lines were rewritten and re-arranged, and the violence recalls the violence done to Polanski’s own family by the Manson family.

Annis as Lady M.

I actually liked Francesca Annis as Lady Macbeth (you nerds know her as Dune‘s Jessica), but I thought her role was crippled by her own good looks. She had to do the sleepwalking scene nude, for example. And instead of nagging her husband she would occasionally burst into tears to keep him in check. Ah well. That’s what happens when Hefner is executive producer of a Shakespearean production.

I’ve been most excited about the  Stewart Macbeth, which features Kate Fleetwood as the Lady Macbeth. The preview – set in what appears to be the  WWII era, looks amazing, and Stewart’s stage production got great reviews. Stewart might be the only actor who can match McKellen’s Macbeth. I can’t wait to find out. Below is the preview.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuFFTTymqc8&fs=1&hl=en_US]

/0 Comments/by

Home improvements

We can do it!

I’m back online after spending the second of two weekends on home improvements, and the gods have not punished me yet.

Until recently, our back porch was literally rotting away. This really bugged me  – the steps became slimy in the rain and a couple of weekends ago, I pulled a patch of moss off the steps only to realize the moss had been covering a damp hole in the wood.

The fact that I could stick two fingers through my back step raised my ire to new levels. I decided that my husband wasn’t getting to our redneck-looking back porch fast enough, and so I took things into my own hands.

Read more

/10 Comments/by

A crisis of political identity and a picture of a cat

Last night, spurred by fatigue and indignation, I began a blog about current events. It quickly became political. Then it became emotional. Then it became crazy.

So because I don’t want to be that blogger, I shelved it and went to bed. But I woke up thinking that oh my god, I grew my opinions back.

Let me explain. I’ve been repressing my own politics for a decade. As a reporter, I wanted to appear fair and objective and politically neutral. I’m not saying I always succeeded, but I did refrain from a lot of political discussions. I didn’t register with a party. I honestly did consider all the sides of each situation, and if I argued with friends and family about politics or current events, I always found myself playing devil’s advocate. I’d argue for the side with which I even didn’t agree, just to even things out in my mind, just to make me feel neutral. For a while, I actually believed I had no political opinions.

But now they’re coming back, and while it’s a thrill to not shove my feelings under the rug, I am sometimes surprised by the thoughts bubbling to the surface. The last time I was actively politically-minded, I was in college. Things have apparently changed: I thought I was a liberal, I might actually be a socially liberal libertarian. I don’t know. I’m going to have to do some research.

It’s a little uncomfortable for me to write about this, like talking about religious belief in public,  but I think I should probably know what my beliefs are, because if I continue to spew them, I’m eventually going to have to defend them.

This blog is a little heavy so let me end by distracting you with a picture of a cat. Whatever I may be politically, I at least know that I will always be able to define myself as a crazy cat lady.

/0 Comments/by