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Robin Laub, a Life Stylist
Just Ask Robin
RSVP Guest Blogger Series: Catharine Clark
Submitted by Robin on Mar 08, 2019
Catharine Clark is the owner and director of Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco. Established in 1991, the gallery represents 25 artists working across media and is the first to have a dedicated media screening room.The above photo is Catharine Clark with artist Stephanie Syjuco's Cargo Cults: Head Bundle, 2016. Archival Epson pigment print. 40 x 30 inches. Edition of 5. Exhibited at Paris Photo 2017.
Read on to learn more about what motivates this amazing businesswoman and get inspired by her passion for art.
Robin: What draws you to contemporary art more than other styles?
Catharine: I am drawn to art from across eras, but I like the engagement that working with living artists provides. Further, while I believe art at any point in history reflects the values of that period, I am interested in current events and the human condition at this moment, and the myriad ways in which contemporary artwork reflects our social and cultural condition.
R: How have you seen the San Francisco art scene evolve since you opened your gallery in the 90s?
C: I have witnessed the scene growing (and at times shrinking) largely in response to economic factors. For example, when I first opened my gallery in 1991 in Hayes Valley rents were very cheap, making my start possible. A portion of that neighborhood was cut off from the rest of the Civic Center in the aftermath of the 1989 quake because a segment of the central freeway had literally fallen onto the street. The down side of this event was that crime and human sex-trafficking flourished in the part of the neighborhood that was on the "wrong side of the tracks." The up side was inexpensive spaces were available for rent (to creatives), which enabled me to get my start. The art scene shrank after the so-called dot-bomb of 2000 and the subsequent event of 9-11, and again after the financial crisis of 2008-2009, and then the quick rise in the tech sector in 2013, which forced rents upwards before the art market had recovered from the down turn, causing tremendous attrition from the city (and neighboring cities, like Oakland) of creatives. A few people and organizations helped to curb the exodus—Andy and Deborah Rappaport of Minnesota Street Project, for example, Spike Kahn and her many efforts to secure affordable studio spaces for artists, and local collectors, who made efforts to support galleries and artists through the difficult periods—people like Lorna Mayer (Calas), Andy and Deborah Rappaport, Nion McEvoy, and Kevin King (and others).
R: When selecting artists, do you have a method or is it an organic process? For example, do you seek out politically oriented artists?
C: As an art historian I had been trained to write and analyze artwork, but not to necessarily render an opinion about whether the work was meaningful to me personally. It took me a few years of having a gallery and exhibiting artists' work to recognize what artwork I thought was most relevant and also resonated with my personal taste. And, yes, much of that work has political content, but that word should be understood broadly. Sometimes it is a political act just to be able to make art.
R: What is your most cherished piece of art from your personal collection?
C: That is like asking me to pick my favorite child! I am incredibly fortunate to have assembled a collection of art that I would say is like a portrait of my life's experiences. One of the kindest gifts anyone ever bestowed upon me was from the artist and musician, Paul Rucker, who, when I was undergoing treatment for cancer three years ago, made me an incredibly meaningful work reflecting on the KKK's bombing of the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, resulting in the senseless death of four girls. The work portrays the "faces" of four cellos carved from a single piece of wood. It uses the "language" and visuals of music/instruments to create an elegy for the lost lives. Paul told me I could either sell the work and keep the proceeds to pay for my treatment or keep the work for myself. The act of generosity was so tremendous that I could not bear to sell it. I have it hanging above my piano in my home and it reminds me every day about the value of life, friendship, and compassion. The word grateful is over used these days, but simply put, that artwork evokes tremendous gratitude in me for the supportive community that surrounds and sustains me.
R: As a successful business owner, what advice do you have for women planning a career in the art world?
C: Seek out the mentorship of women who have come before you. Support other women and people who are under-represented. Build a community around you that will help you through difficult times. Work hard. Build bridges. Communicate. Maintain relationships. Be kind. Be authentic. Recognize your privilege to have chosen a career that so many are afraid to pursue.
R: What keeps you motivated and inspired?
C: The art! And the capacity art has to change lives and foster strong communities.
R: Dancer, teacher, author, editor, gallery owner, award winner—the list goes on. What other titles would you like to add to your list of accomplishments?
C: Mother of two amazing adolescents, who are also my inspiration to work harder and smarter! My daughter, Lilah, has transitioned from being a classical ballet dancer to working for non-profits that serve the un-housed; and my son is still in high school, but has a huge heart and a keen eye and mind when it comes to observing art of all kinds from visual to performing. Nina Katchadourian has a photograph in her series "Sorted Books," which reads: "What is Art? Close Observation." If this is a true statement (which I believe it to be), you could say Max is an artist, of sorts. That said, I think he wants to be a professional soccer player—he was most proud of me when I was able to get one of Sandow Birk's works from "Imaginary Monuments," titled Proposal for a Monument to World Football (2015) reproduced in Howler Magazine (a publication dedicated to "football" aka American soccer).
R: What can we expect to experience at Catharine Clark Gallery at the beginning of 2019?
C: We will open the 2019 season with an exhibit titled Network Paradox of an 18-foot scroll that is a portrait of the history of the internet by Greg Niemeyer (and a collaborative video work with DJ Spooky aka Paul D. Miller in our media room). The exhibit commemorates the web's 50th anniversary and there will also be a performance by DJ Spooky at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
More about Catharine
In addition to programming exhibitions, Catharine also hosts fundraising and development events for non-profits and political campaigns. A member of the San Francisco Art Dealers Association since 1994, Catharine has served as a trustee and executive committee member for ZER01: The Art and Technology Network, as a trustee for Lick Wilmerding High School Alumni Board, Recology, and SF Camerawork. She is a member of the San Francisco Advocacy for the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and has served on the advisory boards of San Francisco Arts Education Project, among other not-for-profit organizations.
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Meet Robin Laub, a Life Stylist
I create fun and fashionable experiences so you can fully enjoy the moments that matter most. Whether you're planning a party, a trip, or even an outfit—I can help you envision the possibilities, plan the details and pull it off with effortless grace and style. You only have one life. Let me help you live it with style.
Healdsburg - Food - Part 2
It's Goal Time
Healdsburg - Style - Part 1
Holiday Recipe
Let's Dance in the Sun!
As part of the Graybird Foundation rebranding launch of LifeMoves.org, we needed a special event that expressed the transformational moment in the this nonprofit's history. We knew from the onset that there was only one person that could take the essence of an idea and transform it into an unforgettable celebration: Robin Laub. Robin masterfully incorporated the LifeMoves new branding and identity into an extraordinary experience. The signature cocktail, decor and the LifeMoves bicycle were all elements that made this a once-in-a-lifetime event that attendees will never forget.
Jill G. CEO/Founder, Graybird Foundation
© 2022 Robin Laub


July 16, 2008 / Spam Karma has long protected Zero to One-Eighty.
Dr. Dave discontinues development of his anti-spam WordPress plugin and licenses the source under the GPL. I've been using Spam Karma, and Michael Hampton's Bad Behavior, on this site for around two years to great effect. Dr. Dave is stepping down and making the project available for others to take over. He cites time as one major reason, and the state of WordPress development as the other. Fair enough. Best of luck on future projects, Dave.


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The Final Twist Writers Society
August 6, 2016 · 4:25 PM
Click here for more information on what we are about, how to find our meetings, and our upcoming speakers!
Filed under Writing Craft
September 5, 2020 · 11:09 AM
So, You Want to Write Science Fiction
Mark H. Phillips
So, you want to write a science fiction story. Suppose you've got to produce a short story in a month. Knowing a bit about the conventions of the genre might save you from wasting time and effort on flawed starts.
Science fiction is a genre of ideas. More than any other genre, knowing your conceptual raison d'être from the start is essential. Character, setting, voice, etc., are all subservient to elucidating the ideas. Think of a science fiction story as a purified and dramatized version of a particular kind of rhetorical tactic in a particular kind of conversation. It's one in the morning and two friends are sitting at a back table of a bar discussing philosophy or physics or anthropology or economics or politics. Capitalism versus communism. Determinism versus free will. Nature versus nurture in sexual orientation. You're both trying to come to grips with some conceptual choice, get the other person to see the issue from a new perspective. At some point one of you launches into a thought experiment: "What if…" "Imagine a world where…"
A good thought experiment forces a thinker to address the crucial issues head on, engages their intuitions in ways they may not have anticipated, forces them to zero in on what is essential and dismiss the irrelevant. It should be designed so the person cannot worm out of the dilemma or duck or confuse the issue.
Here's a thought experiment I used with a rather rabidly homophobic friend of mine, Bob, while discussing the ethical, social, and legal status of the LGBTQ+ community. Suppose a new COVID-19 vaccine, rushed into production without sufficient testing, has a bizarre mutagenic side effect: several months after everyone in the world has been vaccinated, half of all humans wake up having completely changed to the opposite gender. The newly re-gendered are all fully functional, their chromosomes altered and then fully expressed overnight. All of their memories are intact.
Suppose my homophobic friend is one of the newly re-gendered (Karma is a bitch). If Bob is still 100% attracted to only females, is Bob suddenly 100% lesbian? If homosexuals should suppress their desires and marry only someone of the opposite sex, would Bob be forced to marry a guy or remain celibate for the rest of "his" life? Or would Bob, obviously feeling gender dysphoria, be tempted to have a sex-change operation and thus become a transsexual? How would the laws and social customs change if, overnight, the population of legislators and voters were 50% homosexual instead of 4.5%? How would gay couples react if one or both partners switched genders? How would feminist organizations adapt if half their members were suddenly male? Would Congress finally get around to installing more women's restrooms in the Capital Building? Imagine the chaos in the Middle East.
The better the thought experiment, the easier it is to adapt it into a science fiction story. The science fiction writer fleshes out all the details to create an engaging, exciting, emotionally riveting story. I first came across this notion of science fiction as thought experiment in an introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. Many stories are set in the future or on a distant planet only because that allows the author to control the details of the thought experiment, to bring rational and emotional focus on just the concepts they choose.
Innovation is rewarded, but it is not necessary to come up with new thought experiments. There are hundreds of famous thought experiments from philosophy, physics, economics, sociology, etc. just waiting to be exploited. Think of them as chords in music. You, as composer, just need to use those chords to create new music. The sudden-change-of-gender trope has been used many times in the history of science fiction. Heinlein used an unforeseen sex change as fodder for his musings on gender in the classic I Will Fear No Evil. Star Trek did it to Captain Kirk in the last (and perhaps the all-time worst) episode of the original series. Involuntary re-sleeving into an opposite-gendered body was included as a plot device in the Netflix adaptation of Altered Carbon. If you want a fun and fecund resource of one hundred thought experiments you could turn into science fiction stories, check out Julian Baggini's The Pig that Wants to Be Eaten.
Once you have chosen the thematic thought experiment of your story, what else do you need to be aware of as a newbie science fiction writer? Do you need to be fluent in science? Nope. There is a niche in the genre called hard science fiction that prides itself on not violating any presently understood science, but most science fiction writers and readers have only minimal scientific knowledge. You might choose a scientifically astute beta reader to flag any outrageous howlers for you, but basic Wikipedia-level research is quite sufficient for most stories.
What is more important than specific scientific knowledge is a rigorous logical extrapolation of your thought experiment. If your story is of the form "What if X happens?" then you ought to spend time figuring out exactly what Ys and Zs must follow. The fundamental "What if…" can be quite outrageous as long as what follows from that premise is seemingly inevitable. David Brin's Practice Effect imagines a world where the laws of thermodynamics are different. Artifacts deteriorate when not used, but become better with use. In that world, the rich own too much clothing to improve through constant use and so pay bums to wear their clothes for them until rags are perfected into ball gowns and tuxedos.
Science fiction fans cherish rational thinking as much as fans of detective fiction. In detective fiction, the plot must function like clockwork. The detective's solution cannot have any holes. In science fiction that logical rigor is often expended in worldbuilding. You must compel your reader with sound arguments that a society faced with mass gender switches or changes in the laws of entropy would inevitably adapt as your story suggests.
Worldbuilding and the slow working out of a detective's solution also follow the same pace. I've argued in a previous blog that readers, and especially science fiction readers, will tolerate necessary and sufficiently fascinating data dumps. But they prefer that information be trickled into the story. Tease the reader with hints and glimmers slipped into the action. They need to feel that they are figuring out the rules of your new world without too much help. If you confuse them because you gave them too much intellectual credit, they'll forgive you. If you explain everything like they are twelve-year-olds, they'll resent you for your clarity.
Traditionally, science fiction is written in a straightforward journalistic prose. The ideas and worldbuilding are the stars; rhetorical flourishes usually just get in the way. Orson Scott Card cautions writers to stay away from metaphors, for instance, because readers are hypersensitive to clues about how your strange world works. A reader is just going to get confused if a character "took heavy mechanical steps towards the door." In a non-science fiction story, no one would contemplate that the character was a cyborg. In a science fiction story, actual mechanical legs might be a plausible inference.
On the other hand, language and dialect can be crucial to worldbuilding. Alex's use of the Nadsat argot in A Clockwork Orange tells us a lot about the world he lives in. Klingon is a fully constructed language developed by linguist Marc Okrand for the movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and has since rapidly grown into the "real" world. Many actors on the series The Expanse had to train for months with a language coach to master the Belter dialect that gives the show such a unique feel.
The history of science fiction is replete with high concept stories populated by cardboard characters. Modern fans are much more discerning. Characters should be fully and realistically developed. But those characters should be designed to further the thematic core of the story, fully consistent with the world they inhabit. Your character exists to illuminate your thought experiment, to emotionally engage with it, to be torn by its inescapable logic. Never sacrifice the logic of the thought experiment to increase character realism. And never let a character off the hook by eliminating the need to truly face the dire consequences of their dilemma. Logic trumps sentimentality every time. If you want it the other way around, there are plenty of other genres for you to try. Here's a test of your ruthlessness. Could you write a story like "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin? (Read it for free here.) The story caused a furor when it first appeared in the August, 1954 edition of Astounding Science Fiction and most fans still have strong reactions to it. I won't spoil the story here: go read it and see what I mean.
The same capitulation to ruthless logic resonates in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in the infamous Kobayashi Maru test, a simulation designed as a no-win situation to teach cadets about dealing with the real possibility of the universe kicking their ass no matter how cunning they are. The only cadet to beat the Kobayashi Maru test is, of course, James T. Kirk. He cheated and reprogrammed the computer to allow a positive solution. Which meant that he had never faced a no-win tragic situation. Which meant that he was all the more devastated when he had to face a similar scenario outside a simulation. The logic of their theme demanded a price, and the writers didn't relent just because the character was beloved by the fans (a lesson reversed by the writers of the reworking of the Khan story in Star Trek: Into Darkness).
Of course, the very best way to imbibe the conventions of science fiction is to read lots of it. Since my supposition was that you would crank out a story in a month, I'll have to give you a short best-of-the-best list. Here are six examples of the genre chosen to give a wide variety of styles, options, themes, and techniques:
1) Neuromancer by William Gibson
2) The Persistence of Vision by John Varley
3) Dune by Frank Herbert
4) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
5) The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
6) Startide Rising by David Brin
As works drift away from this core concept of a literature that fleshes out thought experiments, we get into subgenres that are science fiction more by historical affinity or superficial trappings. That's how family resemblance concepts work. I'm not interested in quibbling about what "real" science fiction is, but this guide on how to write science fiction won't help produce works in these peripheral categories.
Space opera, for instance, is mostly action/adventure fiction dressed up with space ships, ray guns, and bug-eyed monsters. It can be very well written and quite fun, but it's really war stories, westerns, or gangster stories rewritten into alien locales with cool futuristic tech. Fantasy is a very popular genre. It's usually not driven by thought experiments, but rather by mythopoeic battles between Good and Evil involving magic. The Lord of the Rings is great fantasy. Star Wars is good fantasy with light sabers and Jedi instead of broadswords and wizards.
A lot of the science fiction that appears on TV and in the movie theaters is space opera or space fantasy, and my guide won't help you write those types of stories. Star Trek in all of its incarnations (including The Orville) is science fiction that meets my core criteria. Altered Carbon and The Expanse qualify. By my definition, The Handmaid's Tale is science fiction.
I hope this Quick Start guide will inspire you to write some excellent idea-based science fiction. It is a challenging, but immensely rewarding genre, with some of the most devoted fans in the world. You've got a month. Starting…Now!
Learn more about Mark H. Phillips and his writing here.
Cooling Things Down
It's the dog days of summer and I live in Houston. It's hot. I want some cool relief. I also want some cool relief from overly intense emotional fiction. I'm tired of the overwrought. For some writers, the very purpose of writing is to provoke the most intense emotional responses possible in the reader. In Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le Fou, Sam Fuller, the famous director playing himself, sums up his attitude toward storytelling: "Film is like a battleground. Love, hate, action, violence, death. In one word, emotion!" I think many of today's writers have taken this to heart. There is too much emotion set at too uniformly high a pitch.
In preparing this essay I came across hundreds of articles on how to make your writing more emotionally intense. I found virtually no articles on how to dial back the emotion, and why a writer would want to do so. Of course, there will always be a market for melodrama, with its cloying sentimentality; fainting damsels about to suffer fates worse than death; passionate confrontations, one after another; frequent cliffhangers, sacrificing plot coherence to the need to keep the audience's passions feverishly aroused. This form is still the norm in operas, soap operas, and telenovelas.
To each his or her own, but I have no desire to read or write this type of melodrama. My fictional tastes run towards the much cooler end of the emotional spectrum. I enjoy detective fiction where the goal is to enjoy pure intellectual rational deduction featuring clockwork plots with intricate and sinuous plot twists. The coldly analytic Sherlock Holmes stories are obvious examples. I occasionally indulge in a cozy where the suspense and emotional intensity is set so low that the writer can take time out to explore the nuances of cooking the perfect scone. I enjoy hard science fiction (SF) where the author speculates about how humans or aliens will adapt to new technologies, and where the writer can take the time out to explore the nuances of orbital mechanics or terraforming if that's integral to the plot. I'm fond of the atmospheric ghost stories of M. R. James, which provide mild chills when compared to the gut-wrenching terror provided by Stephen King or Clive Barker.
So there are types of literature where emotions sometimes need to be tamped down. Even in works that seek maximum emotional intensity, the writer will often want to dial things back, to allow the reader to recover from shocks, to make the emotional highs more intense by contrast with muted passages, or to allow for a slow but steady increase in the arc of suspense.
So, what techniques allow an author to artfully dial back emotional intensity?
1) Use distancing to mute the reader's emotional reactions. Distancing is another layer of point of view (POV) similar to the different kinds of shots in motion pictures. Films constantly alternate between long shots, medium shots, and closeups. Long shots are used to set scenes, capture epic battles, sometimes to pull back from the action to allow cooler, more reflective moods into a film. Medium shots are used for interpersonal action. Lovemaking, kung fu fighting, courtroom cross-examination, etc. Closeups are used to bring us as close to a single character as possible to show us intense individual emotions. The writer, unlike a filmmaker, can go further than the closeup to gain emotional intimacy and intensity by going directly into a character's soul and revealing their direct passions either with God-like third person insight or with a first person stream of consciousness.
Compare these descriptions of the same character and situation:
a. People familiar with the staid banker, Benjamin Kite, today may be surprised to learn that in his teen years he was more susceptible to female charms.
b. Benny saw Carol and fell immediately in love.
c. Benny felt his face flush. Carol was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. He told himself that he had to win her.
d. Benny thought, "Holy shit. What a fox. I've got to ask her out. But if she says no, I'll die."
If you've chosen a third person POV you can dial back emotions by using your authorial voice to pull back from the action, put the emotion in a wider context or farther back in nostalgic time. When you want to ramp up the emotion, zoom in on the character's direct actions and emotional responses. If you are in a first person POV, the same options exist: to put (d) in first person just remove the "Benny thought". (a) would read, "People today see me only as a staid banker. They would find it hard to believe that as a teen I was more susceptible to female charms."
A good writer will continuously vary the zoom for the specific moment-by-moment needs of the story. A movie consisting of only highly emoting actors seen in extreme closeup would be unwatchable.
2) Tell, don't show. If you want to dial down the emotion, take some time to just tell your reader things. Not everything has to be action or dialogue. In Moby Dick, Melville takes the whole of chapter forty-two to discuss the cross-cultural and literary association between the color white and death. Neal Stephenson, in his bestselling SF novel Seveneves, describes how to simulate gravity in space by linking two pods with a cable and spinning them around like a bolo. I doubt many SF readers were upset with him for taking the time to do so. Enjoying the descriptions of such technological strategies is part of the joy of SF. Writers are told that if they tell rather than show, readers will lose interest. That's only true if what you have to tell them is of low interest. Tell them something fascinating occasionally, and they will love you for it.
3) Don't forget the old standby of comic relief. There's a reason Una O'Connor appears in the films The Invisible Man and The Bride of Frankenstein. She allows the audience a moment of laughter amidst the grim suspenseful doings. Unrelieved emotional tension numbs an audience. You can increase emotional payoff in a work's key moments if you allow your reader to recharge their emotional batteries in between.
4) You can tamp down emotional intensity by reminding your reader that they are reading fiction. In a previous blog, I've dealt extensively with postmodernist and metafictional techniques designed to intentionally throw the reader out of full immersion and thus emotional involvement with a text. Authors as diverse as John Fowles, John Barth, and David Foster Wallace have often traded emotional immersion for spectacular intellectual prose fireworks. In theater, Bertholt Brecht advocated the use of distancing effects such as lighting the audience seats as brightly as the stage or breaking the fourth wall to address the audience directly. He wanted to inhibit the audience from an emotional involvement with the characters and allow them a purely intellectual appreciation of the systemic wrongs that were causing the characters' dilemmas. He wanted his audience to act on what they had seen, something that might not happen if they wallowed in emotion as passive escapism or experienced an emotional catharsis that encouraged an acceptance of the status quo.
There are many other techniques an author can use to control the emotional intensity of their work. Sometimes, for the good of the whole, you have to ease back on the throttle. Doing so with artistry and finesse is what good writers do.
Filed under Books, Writing Craft
Tagged as Mark H. Phillips, novel writing
Remember that television show called "The Voice"? Each week, talented singers vied for the approval of the judges to see if they had the best voice. If the judges were publishers and editors, and you read a portion of your novel for three minutes, would you be selected the winner?
I just finished reading James Scott Bell's book on "Voice"—which I highly recommend. The definitions of an author's voice have always been a bit vague and varied, and no one seems to know how to achieve it. It's assumed the author's voice is what makes his or her writing unique enough to stand out in the crowd, but Bell argues the point. He believes "voice" comes from the character in an author's story, not from the author alone. His formula involves the character's background and language filtered through the author's heart onto the written page (or, C+A=P). Thus, "to create a memorable voice, you must first create a memorable character."
Whether you prepare character outlines or allow your characters to develop on their own (plotters vs pantsers), you need to (1) decide his/her role and manner in life. Bell's example is "a straight-laced detective on the verge of retirement," which gives an immediate impression of who that character is in life. Only then do you (2) sketch your character's physical appearance and (3) his/her background (level of education, where they grew up, their family life, etc.). The fourth thing Bell suggests is for you, the author, to create an event that occurred in your character's life at a pivotal age that proved so emotional, it has been carried through to the present. That age can be nine, sixteen, or twenty-seven, depending on your character.
The last thing—what your character wants, desires, yearns for, or dreams of—is usually listed as #1 on most character description lists. After scrolling through photos to find one that fits what you see in your mind as that character, Bell takes us back to "voice" with what he calls a Voice Journal – what your character sounds like when he speaks or thinks. He suggests doing what great actors do when preparing for a certain role. They study that character until they feel what that character feels and thinks what that character thinks.
In my drama class in college, the teacher said that in order to be a good actor, you have to believe the lie. You have to become the character you're playing to such an extent that every person in the audience forgets they're watching a play or a movie. Daniel Day-Lewis is a prime example of a "character actor" who immerses himself to such a degree that you forget you're watching Daniel Day-Lewis. Suffice it to say that nearly every movie he's been in, he's been nominated for an Academy Award. He not only believed the lie—he got the audience to believe it as well. His voice, his accent, his mannerisms, his beliefs became embedded in that character. In comparison, take Robert Redford (forgive me, Redford fans). He's a good actor, but every movie I've seen him in, he was Robert Redford playing a character. He never quite got over himself enough to become that character.
I think this is what Bell is saying when he urges the writer to filter the character, his/her voice, background, and beliefs through your heart (as a writer) while finding something to relate to in your character's background, something that will make you feel what they feel. As humans, we all have the same basic emotions—fear, jealousy, rage, rejection, joy, and love. We use the same gestures and much of the same language. Find it in yourself and bring it to the surface in your character. For instance, Nora Roberts has one voice for her romance novels and another voice for her J. D. Robb novels.
What does Bell see as your number one priority? It's not worrying about your voice, your critics, or your audience. It's writing with joy. When you write with excitement, it comes through. When you love words, it comes through. Write first. Edit second. Be emotionally engaged, and enjoy the ride. Bell quotes the beginning scene in Romancing the Stone. As Joan Wilder types the final scene of her novel, she's weeping. Real conflict, real emotions = voice.
There is so much more in this slim little volume called "Voice," but I wanted to touch on the major points in case, like me, you've wondered how on earth to find your voice. It's there. You just have to look inside.
Learn more about the author at http://cadenstclaire.com.
LETTERS FROM THE WAR TO MY MOTHER
By Laura Elvebak
With the stay-at-home orders from the pandemic, my first thought was, "Now I have plenty of time to write that short story and the new Niki Alexander mystery as well as blog every day." Instead, interruptions gave me an excuse to mute my good intentions. At first, my part-time job cashiering at Petsmart took me away from home and left me too tired to think about writing. Now my hours have been cut to four a week, if that.
More time to write. Right? Except I couldn't force myself to sit my butt on the chair and crank out words. I found every excuse not to write. There were long-neglected projects to fill my time. I cleaned every room in the house, though I only had the energy to do one room a day. The next project was finding albums and filling them with all my stored photographs that have languished away. There were books on my table half read.
But the project that finally grabbed my attention and time, to the point of obsession, was the box of letters I recovered from the obscurity of an ignored cupboard. They were sent to me by my father's widow after his death. Now the excuse of the pandemic offered me unlimited time with a history I had not explored. A chance to know the mother I barely remembered, the distant father of my youth, and the love that produced me. I had put off this journey into the past long enough.
My father and mother were married October 17, 1941 in Los Angeles. They had an unforgettable romantic honeymoon in a mountain hotel, and spent three months in wedded bliss in their little apartment. He worked during the day for an insurance company, she as a dental assistant. Together always when they weren't working, they filled their nights wrapped in each other's arms. (This was recalled ardently and frequently in his letters.) They were two people deeply in love and planning a life together.
Then came the call of the draft and my father was duty-bound to serve his country. He was determined to be the best soldier he could be and make his wife proud. They didn't know it at the time, but Mother was already pregnant with me when he left. I arrived August 25, 1942, while he was in basic training at Camp Grant, in Rockford, Illinois. Despite his requests for a furlough to be with his wife for the birth of their daughter, his superiors and even his health had different plans for him. Surgery to repair a ruptured hernia was held in the army hospital following by six weeks recovery time. War in Europe cancelled many furloughs. Not until January 1943 were they able to spend time together and for him to get acquainted with me. Eventually he was transferred to the Medical Corps in Nashville, Tennessee, where he served as a medic technician and then as supervisor over the lab.
Their letters contain a love story that transcended time, war and death. Written with the passion of newlyweds, they covered the years from January 1942 to December 1945 and recounted the hardships of separation during wartime. Fortunately, my father was never sent overseas to fight, and wrote my mother every day during basic training and throughout his transfers that ended in Nashville. He only missed days when he was too exhausted from working day and night.
The letters were the only way he knew to be close to his beloved bride and if the mail from her didn't come for a day or more, he would grow deeply despondent. They shared their thoughts, their plans, their money worries and, most of all, their love and desire to be once again reunited as a family. He was so proud of her, as a wife and as a mother. He loved hearing how she took me to the beach and the park and read to me, teaching me at an early age to count and know my alphabet.
They both smoked cigarettes. Even when he was recuperating in the hospital from his hernia operation, he smoked to relieve the boredom. On the other hand, he cautioned his wife about smoking in the house around their daughter.
He described marching for hours in the snow day or night, marching or building tents in the summer heat and humidity. It was an adjustment from growing up in Los Angeles with the mild weather. There was always the worry about money – he sent most of his $32 a month pay to my mother and made sure she got the allotment checks she was due. He worked hard to reach the stripe of sergeant for the increase in pay.
I loved reading of their constant affirmation of their love. Little things, like Mother sending him homemade cookies, cakes, stuffed dates, darning his socks he'd sent her, reassuring him of her love in return. The few furloughs he got, he spent with her and me. If he couldn't get off base, Mother would travel anywhere to be with him. Although she returned to her home with family in North Dakota for my birth, she quickly returned to Los Angeles within three months to be with my father's folks, even if it meant hitchhiking a ride with truckers.
My father was finally honorably discharged in December of 1945. Tragedy struck three years later when my mother died of cancer. I was five years old. As I reflect back on those times, I can't help wondering how my life would have been different if she had lived.
I've been asked if I plan to use these letters as research for a book. I've thought about it, but this blog may be the only way I can write about them. I treasure the photographs relatives have sent me, taken during this time and I have filled albums with them.
Here is one of my favorite pictures.
On my tricycle:
Laura Elvebak is the author of the Niki Alexander Mystery series, three standalone novels, and multiple short stories. Her latest short story, Sucker Punch, was selected for publication in The Final Twist Writers Society anthology, Menu for Mayhem.
Where to find material in the time of COVID-19
by Cash Anthony
We've all known of stay-at-home writers. They may not have identified themselves as that, but many fine authors and poets were moms staying home to take care of their children, finding time to write whenever they could. House husbands have been writers: Clive Cussler told how he got his start, writing at night while his wife was at work, after he gave their children supper and put them to bed. Many famous male authors stayed at home once they were willing to commit to their writing and give up their day jobs, enduring their share of months without income or relying on family, friends, patrons, and sometimes other writers' generosity to get by until their writing provided an income.
So, what to write about now? How do we find something inspiring that doesn't simply reflect the grim reality sweeping around the world?
This period when our nation is fighting a pandemic provides a rich source of material, and not just from the drama of those with positive diagnoses scared half to death, or those in ICU fighting for their next breath.
It's also a time when emotions are high, and those are the stuff of 'material'. Certainly there's fear, both among the general population and especially among health care workers. But there are other emotions, too, generated by this time but not directly related to getting sick.
For example, young children are bewildered. They don't understand why they can't have play dates or use the fixtures installed in the park, if they even get to go there. A program on NPR this week discusses attempts to explain a pandemic to children on the autism spectrum. Not only are children perplexed, but their parents may well be uneasy and frustrated, yet trying to be protective, when giving these kids some kind of explanation they can absorb.
Teenagers are usually highly social humans, learning to take their cues from their peers and oriented toward wanting to belong, even while wanting their independence. Foolish and irresponsible teens have been shown on the beaches of Florida and Gulf states, partying in denial of the dangers of close contact. But others–far more, in fact–decided not to celebrate and instead are manning food banks, Meals on Wheels, restaurants needing drivers, curbside delivery volunteers, and their sewing machines as they learn how to make masks. Seniors, whether in high school or college, are uncertain about their futures and how they'll reclaim their grade point averages, how admissions committees are going to rank them, how employers will look at their transcripts when the last semester of their education shows only pass-fail grades. This uncertainty is a crucible for hot tempers, despair, lashing out…the sort of emotions that engender arguments that turn into fights, slamming doors, aggressive driving.
Beyond explaining to young people what the pandemic is and why their movements are curtailed, parents are also struggling to home-school and entertain their children. If a parent doesn't understand the material himself, this can bring up a barely disguised sense of inadequacy and even shame. Whatever the reason for not going forward to a higher rung of education–poverty, lack of emotional support in their own youth, indifference, boredom, failure to apply timely or uncertainty about how to gain entrance to an institution of higher learning–these situations can play on an adult's sense of competence.
And there's the consequence of isolation. Many writers know not merely solitude but also loneliness in the best of times. There was always plenty of fear here. Is my work good enough? Is this draft really better than the last one, or was I wasting my time trying to improve it only to make it worse? Who wants to read this stuff, anyway? Where is the support of my peers that might ease some of this concern, or don't I deserve it? Where in the world can I buy a webcam and have it today, when they're sold out everywhere? For while I'm holed up struggling to put words on the page, I'm missing out on the social network that I find so inspirational in creating characters, having to extrapolate from emotional scenes I remember, or imagining the worst reactions of others to a steady diet of bad news and worsening statistics. Humans not only live in social environments for convenience and mutual aid and protection, they crave all the other benefits that satisfy their animal needs: hugs, pats, squeezes of their hands, strokes, sex, and the stimulation of non-physical connecting. They want to share comforting words and ideas, and they want to know what other people are doing. Gossip, bragging, sarcasm, subtext–these are indirect ways of expressing hostility, which may be more palatable than outright arguing when living in close quarters with people who will quickly let them know the consequences of lashing out.
Finally, there's the other side of the coin. That is, positive emotions. We still see them expressed, for instance when children get to play outside. The normal running around, chasing each other, making mud pies, collecting bugs, helping in the garden, riding their bicycles and skateboards give them some welcome excitement, exercise, and fascination. For adults, the taste of take-out from a favorite restaurant can inspire extra delight as a change from home cooking, even when it's eaten without waiter service, over the sink. Liquor stores, which only the city of Denver foolishly attempted to close down (to massive protests) at a time when bars and clubs are shuttered, are still open locally and fully stocked, as are gun shops if your interest runs that way. Adults can also enjoy comedies and comedic moments in their favorite dramas on TV or in movies. Even without a live audience, some comedians are capable of giving us laugh-out-loud moments.
This past week, John Oliver presented one of the most unusual bits I've ever seen on TV: showing a set of extraordinary watercolors that were sold on a 1992 TV art auction in south-central Pennsylvania. He was so taken with the last piece that he put out a plea to his audience to find the person who bought it then, so he can buy it now to hang on the wall behind him while he broadcasts from home.
What could inspire this offer? RAT EROTICA! by a "furry artist" named Bryan Swords, of York–aptly nicknamed (I'm not making this up) Biohazard. If you watch the last seven minutes of the March 29th episode of Last Week Tonight, starting at minute 20:51, you'll be at least amazed if not highly entertained. https://tinyurl.com/ttl9mgw. You'll have to wait through the first commercials before you can advance your cursor toward the end of the show, assuming you want to get away from Coronavirus news; and unfortunately the Internet version keeps trying to skip to other ads toward the end, but don't touch your cursor. After a short break, Last Week Tonight will continue on its own to the end of the show. So, persevere.
I wasn't guffawing, but I certainly grinned more than I ever have listening to Dr. Tony Fauci.
Stay safe, write at home but try not to stress if you don't feel productive–and if you need material or just inspiration, you can write about what you wouldn't expect to see on TV, when it suddenly pops up.
Cash Anthony is an award-winning Houston screenwriter, author, editor, and director for stage and film. Her short stories have appeared in A Death in Texas, Dead and Breakfast, A Box of Texas Chocolates, Twisted Tales of Texas Landmarks, Underground Texas, and Deadly Diversions. She holds a B.A. in Plan II and a J.D. from The University of Texas at Austin.
May 1, 2020 · 5:01 AM
From Plotter to Pantser (or Something In Between)
by Jack Strandburg
First, for those writers and wannabe authors who might not know the difference between a plotter and a pantser:
Plotter – plans out (outlines) their story before writing. Although this definition from Google states "novel" I substituted "story," to include novella and short story.
Pantser – flies by the seat of their pants – writes with little to no planning.
I found a documented third type, a Plantser, who writes the story in blocks or stages with varying degrees of planning. This method, one that I'm striving to adopt, is an approach for writers who want to reduce the risk of wandering into plotless ramblings requiring significant rewrite and revision once the first draft is completed.
My journey to "Plantsing" began a month or so ago after some prodding, urging, and insistence from my writer's group, that I stop plotting and start pantsing. I couldn't blame them, because they were only responding to my frustration that my plotting approach was keeping me from accomplishing any (and I mean any) writing.
There are plotters and there are plotters. I am (or hope I can now say used to be) the extreme plotter, where I wanted to have my story planned out from beginning to end, with every event in between. Now, I've been writing for over 30 years and am experienced enough to know that story and character are more likely than not to change while writing, but I fell into a situation where my plotting was also functioning as procrastination. If I didn't know my middle, or in most cases, had no idea how my story would end, I convinced myself I couldn't start the story.
Whether I wanted it or not, plotting became my safety net. If I never started writing the story, I'd never fail, thereby preserving my belief that I was a great writer. Sounds crazy, but I've researched enough to know that many writers experience the same emotion and doubt.
I'd been working on a short story for an upcoming anthology, and had the majority of the story plotted out, but couldn't come up with a satisfactory ending. I had several ideas, but different endings, at least in my mind, meant different steps to that ending. Here again, my need, no, let me be honest – obsession, to have steps A to Z firm in my mind, was keeping me from writing the draft.
One Sunday about two months ago, I and three other members of my writing group met at a friend's home to discuss one another's current projects, offer suggestions to help, and more importantly, hopefully provide much needed confidence to actually put our stories down on paper.
The session did provide a measure of confidence and for me, a kick in the butt. During the next week, I decided to go undercover and put on the hat of a pantser, certain nobody would recognize me.
I had enough of a story to start writing, yet still fought with my stubborn plotter mind to ignore the fact I had no satisfactory ending. I plunged ahead and, within two weeks, I finished the first draft of the story. The ending not only evolved with little to no anxiety, hives, or unidentifiable rashes, but to me, was an obvious way to end the story, and in my mind, fit the theme like a glove.
This experience provided me with much needed confidence and armed me with a lethal weapon to combat my plotter approach. I'm not likely to become a true pantser, because I'm going to plot and outline to a degree, especially when it's a novel or novella, but now I realize I no longer need to wait until I have a flawless beginning, a strong middle, and a rock solid ending before I start to write the draft.
If plotting is keeping you from writing the story, if you have one or more characters with a goal in a location and a situation, ideally a conflict, trust me, you have enough to start writing. And the beauty is, the scene you write doesn't necessarily need to be the first scene of the story.
I'm now a firm believer in the Plantser method, and only wish I could claim I came up with the term.
Give plantsing a try – you might find it's in your wheelhouse.
Jack Strandburg is the 202o president of The Final Twist in Houston, Texas. He is a degreed professional who has been writing since his teenage years. His first published novel by Solstice Publishing is Hustle Henry and the Cue-Ball Kid, a parody of the movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
He is an editor and proofreader for Solstice Publishing. Learn about Jack's editing services here.
April 18, 2020 · 11:00 AM
Editing for Passive Voice
by Genie Olson
Editors are often overwhelmed. Imagine a desk and computer with an inbox piled high, filled with a steady stream of submissions. Like any mortal chained to a profession, shortcuts become the saving grace when wading through deep waters. Editors, young and old, develop techniques to quickly filter out manuscripts that will, to be blunt, require too much work.
The author may believe their work is the next best seller and an epic movie deal is on the horizon. It could be true, except . . . rejection.
One reason for a quick dismissal is the silent creep of passive voice. The editor simply does not have enough time or energy to comb through 80,000+ words and rearrange subject and verbs to remove passive voice. The manuscript ends up in the trash heap and the editor is on to the next one.
How does an author avoid this and hopefully gain more time with the editor?
Unless you are an English major and understand the mechanics of diagramming sentences, any talk of objects, prepositional phrases, subjects, and verbs, will likely have you cowering in the nearest corner. So, I'll do my best to coax you out and teach you to appreciate, and not ignore, your word processor when it underlines passive voice.
What is passive voice? I'm going to give you two ways to identify and ferret it out.
First, it is generally the use of state-of-being verbs. Put simply, the use of the verb was. That said, not every use of was is passive, but it's a good place to start when editing a manuscript. Conduct a simple search for the word was and evaluate the sentence for passive voice.
Second, look for instances where the subject of the sentence is caught in a prepositional phrase. Remember prepositional phrases from grade school? My teacher used a house as an example. She told the class, you can do it to a house, it's probably a preposition. In the house. Across from the house. Over the house. At the house. (You get the idea.) A preposition indicates position, direction, or time.
When the subject becomes trapped in the prepositional phrase, the sentence is written in passive voice. In other words, the doer (subject) comes after the verb (action word).
Passive Voice: The test was passed by the student.
Was passed is a state-of being verb. By the student is a prepositional phrase. The test becomes the subject because the student is trapped in a prepositional phrase.
Active Voice: The student passed the test.
The student is now the subject of the verb passed. The doer (student) comes before the verb (passed).
Here are a few more examples of passive voice, changed to active voice. I've italicized the subject to show it caught in the prepositional phrase and coming after the verb.
Passive: The files were thrown away by Robert.
Active: Robert threw away the files.
Passive: The holiday dinner was made by grandma.
Active: Grandma made the holiday dinner.
Passive: The decision to run the red light was made by Jim.
Active: Jim decided to run the red light.
Learn to seek out and destroy passive voice to increase your chances of gaining more than five or ten minutes of an editor's time. This change will make your writing stronger, and the meaning more clear.
A bonus of active voice is that readers tend to identify more with the subject. Consider the last example. How many of us have been in a hurry and run a red light? Did you identify more with the decision (passive) to run the light, or with Jim (active), who actually ran the light? When you read the passive sentence, did you think Jim was foolish? When you read the active sentence did you think, yeah, unfortunately, I've done that?
Keep the emotion in your writing, and the editor interested, by making it more active.
Event Postponed
Postponed! We are so disappointed. We were looking forward to meeting you and answering your questions.
This is an update. The Final Twist Anthology MENU FOR MURDER has been POSTPONED due to health risks. When things nomalize, we will reschedule.
Meanwhile, MBTB has 20 signed copies and can be purchased for $12.95 by telephone at 713-524-8597 or through the MBTB website. Orders over $50.00 are shipped free of charge.
If we manage to figure out a way to live stream a panel event, we will let you know ASAP.
Houston's Murder by the Book is open. If you need a few books to keep you entertained while home, this is a great place to find them.
2342 Bissonnet Street
They may even have signed copies of the books you crave.
We Hope to See You Soon .
These Six Houston Writers Want to Meet You
Author Signing Party
What has driven this normally quiet, unassuming group into a burst of seemingly blatant self-promotion? Have they lost their collective minds? Has the webmaster run amok? And who thought posting that photo was a good idea? Could it be an abundance of excitement over publication of their 8th anthology? Or is it the thrill of meeting readers at Houston's Murder by the Book on March 14?
If you don't yet have your signed copy of Menu for Mayhem, come join the fun. You may also be able to score a signed copy of Denizens of the Dark.
If you are dying to get your hands on signed copies and can't join us on March 14, you can order your copy in advance by contacting the store.
Which delicious mystery will you read first?
Texas Chili Cook-Off
Red hot chili fuels this rip-roaring tale.
Explores death and compromise in the hearts and minds of a young girl and her brother in northeast Texas in the late 1950's, a world that is fast disappearing.
A father and child pursued by assassins. Can Eva Baum save them?
Dying for Corn
Biker and sleuth Jessie Carr is already working a case when she asks her partner, retired Texas Ranger Beau Marsberg, to help an elderly woman wrongly accused of murder in East Texas. Even the sheriff is having trouble figuring out how she did it, since the corn pudding she served the deceased passed all lab tests–but why did the victim want more and more of it?
A Tailor Serves Kyselo
An old Czech man will decide a young thug's fate the traditional way: with a bullet to the brain or a hot bowl of soup.
Serves up a suicide/murder bubbling over with the people and politics of Northeast Texas at a time when oil had a hand in everyone's life, and sometimes, their death.
Mr. McKraken
What's a Guardian to do when an unexpected guest views their hosts as a meal?
Hot Mulled Cider
When Emerson's murderous brother Bryce visits for a holiday handout, Emerson prepares his ultimate reward.
When pro-wrestler Catrina Magdeleine learns she has a half-sister in California, she takes the first plane out of Mexico to protect her from their abusive father. But he's not the only danger that awaits. Abandoning her commitments in Mexico was bad enough, but involving the Mexican Mafia could kill them all.
Recipe of Doom
Sabatier and Kern must travel to a demon-haunted dimension to save a boy's kidnapped soul.
An evil mother-in-law, an adorable daughter, and a meddling maid under one roof – what could go wrong?
One Simple (and Fun) Way to Improve Your Writing
Full disclosure: This interview is last because it took me the longest to acquire. You might think getting your spouse to sit down and answer a few questions would be an easy task. In our case, you'd be wrong. I'm glad I persisted. I learned a few new things about my husband.
To what do you owe your success?
I live by Sherman Alexie's advice, "For every page you write, read a thousand." I'm a narrative junkie and biblioholic. When I can't find exactly what I want to read next, I have to go ahead and write it myself. I enjoy writing, but I probably enjoy researching even more. For my science fiction novel, The Resqueth Revolution, I researched zero point energy and Nazi secret weapons projects for about six months and then wrote the first draft in just six weeks.
Which of your stories is your favorite?
I think I'd pick "The Fritz Ritz" in the Final Twist anthology, Underground Texas. It's about a murder in a WWII POW camp in Fredericksburg, Texas. I enjoyed researching the history of the camp and read several journals by guards and German prisoners. I wrote the first draft in a little bed & breakfast in Fredericksburg to get the feel of the place. I also enjoyed researching and writing "In the Darkest Deep" in the anthology Twisted Tales of Texas Landmarks. It's a suspense story set in the abandoned tunnels of the Superconducting Super Collider near Waxahachie, Texas. I got to research illegal urban exploring and tunnel hacking and combine it with my experiences with SCUBA diving.
What are your top 3 short stories of all time?
"The Dunwich Horror" by H. P. Lovecraft. I took a half year and read S. T. Joshi's excellent H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, simultaneously reading everything Lovecraft wrote as it came up in the context of his life. Cursed books of eldritch knowledge, unspeakable cosmic horror: what could be more fun?
"A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman. Now take the Cthulhu Mythos of Lovecraft and have a master storyteller like Neil Gaiman combine it with Sherlock Holmes. Oh, and it won the Hugo award for best short story.
"Glacial" by Alastair Reynolds. I like my SF hard and as cold as space itself.
You've also published two novels. Do you prefer writing novels or short stories?
Each has its attractions. With novels I enjoy the room to explore themes, develop characters, and layer complexity into the plot. With short stories I enjoy the challenge of having to attain a laser focus on just the essential elements. Of late I've been experimenting with flash fiction of under a thousand words. I've also been trying out rarely used story structures: I just finished and submitted a story for an upcoming Final Twist anthology that uses a serial point of view structure I've only seen once before in Theodore Sturgeon's Godbody.
Your Eva Baum novel was published in 2008 as "the first in a series." It received great reviews. One reviewer said the book was better than sex! Will we ever see a second book? What has Eva been up to for the past decade?
There is a second Eva Baum novel written, but not yet edited or published. I particularly enjoy writing about Eva because I get to write her exploits in collaboration with my brilliant wife. While fans of Eva have had to wait for the next novel, Eva short stories have been appearing regularly in the Final Twist anthologies. I'm extremely happy with the way Eva has developed in the short stories, but we're going to have to get the next novel out there because it contains some startling and dramatic changes in her life.
In addition to the short story singles shared above, you can find Mark's stories in these anthologies from The Final Twist:
e-book paperback
One last question – who is the love of your life?
My wife, Charlotte, but I would vastly prefer she stop quoting that review about my writing being better than sex.
On that note, feel free to use the comments to ask your own questions of Mark H. Phillips.
Remember, you can meet members of The Final Twist Writers Society at Houston's Murder by the Book (https://www.murderbooks.com/hours-and-location) on March 14, 2020. We look forward to meeting you!
Today's question for our readers: When Is Severe Biblioholism a Bad Thing?
anthologies audience body language book clubs book reviews books Bridget P. Haines C.J. Sweet Cash Anthony caterpillars character Charlotte Phillips clues communication contest craft Debra Black editing Fantasy fiction finding time to write genre haiku hiatus history How to be a Professional Liar Ink L. Stewart Hearl language Laura Elveback Laura Elvebak learning through teaching Leif Carl Behmer life stories literary fiction literature love make a difference Mark H. Phillips Mark Phillips memory movies mystery nanowrimo Natasha Storfer novel writing Peter S Beagle plot practice Prison Entrepreneurship Program promotion publishing red herring Sally Love screenplays Sharing forward Sleeping with the Undead story tags target audience The Final Twist The Last Unicorn tools university of Houston UofH verbs villains writer's hook writing writing craft writing experiences writing group writing groups writing Inspiration writing questions
Next Meeting - TBA
Networking: 10:00am - 10:30am
Business Meeting: 10:30am-11:00am
Guest/Round Table: 11:00 am-12:00pm
The Final Twist Writers Society · To Undertake and Complete

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Anyone fortunate enough to have witnessed the late great soul singer Edwin Starr and his exhilarating band The Team would've witnessed a collective of musicians at their peak.
Their astonishing live shows cemented their reputation as an outstanding live act rarely matched. Rightly revered for the storming protest classic, War (1970), Starr was a hero on England's Northern Soul circuit, and continued to perform right up to his death at the age of 61 in 2003.
Keeping the legend that was Edwin Starr and his music alive is his original eight-piece band The Team. Formed in 1982 by percussionist Clive 'J.J' Hare and bass player Kevin Kendall, the band – since Edwin's untimely death – have been fronted by Edwin's younger brother, Angelo. Singer, multi-instumentalist and original member of The Team, his credits include Alexander O'Neil, The Funk Brothers and more recently Lemar.
On February 15, at the Jazz Café, Reading, The Edwin Starr band aka The Team features Angelo Starr on vocals with special guest, Northern Soul diva Lorraine Silver. They perform a special one-off show, re-living Edwin's hits, soul and Motown classics as well as material from The Team's new album, Keeping The Faith.
"The fans were always kind with praise for Edwin, and for The Team during our many years as his live band. In fact, it was their suggestion that The Team should continue Edwin's legacy since we'd always been such a large part of the overall show.
"Perhaps because I would sometimes get called forward to perform a song or two in Edwin's show, it ultimately lead to our decision that I would 'step forward' to front The Team rather than drafting in someone new," said Angelo.


text:
Chris' osteosarcoma story
"I didn't think I'd be able to do much after my amputation."
Chris was diagnosed with osteosarcoma after doctors discovered a tumour in his leg when he was just 19 years old. Following amputation, he went through over a year of successful treatment, but in October 2017, two further tumours were discovered. Unfortunately, doctors then told Chris his cancer was inoperable.
Now 22, Chris' cancer is shrinking, and he is determined to raise awareness of cancer in young people and his passion to play golf is showing no signs of stopping either.
Video of Chris' Osteosarcoma Story
Our research brings treatments to people who need them, faster.
1 in 2 people in the UK will get cancer during their life time.


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text:
You are in: Home > Places > T M Blagg, Autumn Excursion, 1908: Brunsell Hall, Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 12 (1908)
Brunsell Hall, Car Colston
By Mr. T. M. Blagg.
Exterior of Brunsell Hall.
This house, or rather what is left of it, is known by the name of Brunsell Hall, and is so marked on the Ordnance Survey maps of the district. It is named from the man who built it, and whose family lived in it, Samuel Brunsell, Doctor of Divinity. About the years 1660 and 1664, Dr. Brunsell bought lands from the Thoroton family, as appears by the title deeds which have been shown to you, and he also bought a messuage and certain lands from William Kirke, which in the time of Richard II. were Robert Chaworth's, and upon this land, as Thoroton records, "the said Doctor hath built a brick house, being very near Screveton Church, of which he was also Rector." In the portion which remains of that house we are now standing. The house which occupied this site previously belonged to Richard Kirke, who, being a Roman Catholic, was forced to convey it to his brother William, and died in prison. As there is a legend that treasure is buried in the garden it may be speculated whether Richard may not have hidden his money and plate, and handed over only his real estate.
The Brunsell family came out of Wiltshire, and the Doctor's brother Henry had married the daughter of Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor, but I'm afraid we cannot prove that her relative, the great architect, designed the room in which we now are! Dr. Samuel Brunsell was born in 1619, and was a wealthy and powerful dignitary of the church. In 1660 he was Prebendary of Nassington in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, and in 1664 succeeded his brother Henry Brunsell, who became a Prebendary in the Cathedral of Ely, to the Prebend of Norwell Tertia Pars in the Collegiate Church of Southwell. He had held the incumbency of Bingham during the Commonwealth, but was not formally instituted to that rich rectory until 1662. He became Rector of Screveton also in 1663, but resigned the living in 1671, and was instituted Vicar of Upton, but resigned in 1683. He was appointed Vicar-General to the Chapter of Southwell in 1669. He died in residence at Southwell, 17th January, 1687-8, and was buried in Bingham church two days later. The documents relating to his various appointments I have brought for your inspection, as also the printed copy of a sermon which he preached in Newark church on the day of the happy Restoration of the Monarchy. His son, Henry Brunsell, succeeded him as Rector of Bingham.
Dr. Brunsell, in his capacity as Rector of Bingham, is said to have been one of the last men to officially "lay" a ghost. The said ghost frequented Chapel Lane, at Bingham, and much annoyed and perturbed the good folk of the town. One cause why ghosts "walk" is supposed to be this,—that the material body has not received Christian burial. A grave was accordingly dug in Bingham churchyard and a coffin prepared. Whether the coffin, with the lid invitingly open was left overnight in Chapel Lane, or whether by cunning incantations the graveless sprite was coaxed to enter it, I do not know; or whether in the morning or at the dread hour of midnight the ghostly cortege moved; but this has been told to me by an old man whose grandmother heard it from her grandmother (all Bingham folk), that Dr. Brunsell, majestic in wig and gown, with the populace in procession, escorted that coffin, borne on bier shoulder high, from Chapel Lane to the churchyard, where the solemn burial service was read and the coffin lowered into the grave. Thenceforth that restless spirit troubled no more the good people of Bingham, as he who doubts my story may prove, by keeping vigil by himself in Chapel Lane, any night he likes!
Interior of Brunsell Hall.
The members of the Brunsell family who continued to reside at Car-Colston led very scandalous lives and came to a bad end, and the property passed into the possession of my own ancestors, the Sampeys, in 1759."


This thesis argues that the emperor Hadrian used vast building projects as a means to display and project his distinctive religious policy in the service of his overarching attempt to cement his power and rule. The undergirding analysis focuses on a select group of his building projects throughout the empire and draws on an array of secondary literature on issues of his rule and imperial power, including other monuments commissioned by Hadrian. An examination of Hadrian's religious policy through examination of his architectural projects will reveal the catalysts for his diplomatic success in and outside of Rome. The thesis discusses in turn: Hadrian's building projects within the city of Rome, his villa at Tibur, and various projects in the provinces of Greece and Judaea. By juxtaposing analysis of Hadrian's projects in Rome and Greece with his projects and actions in Judaea, this study seeks to provide a deeper understanding of his religious policy and the state of Roman religion in his times than scholars have reached to date.
Brines, Chelsie W.. Hadrian's Religious Policy : An Architectural Perspective. Master's Thesis. East Carolina University, January 2015. The Scholarship. http://hdl.handle.net/10342/4889. April 19, 2019.
Brines, Chelsie W., "Hadrian's Religious Policy : An Architectural Perspective" (Master's Thesis., East Carolina University, January 2015).
Brines, Chelsie W.. Hadrian's Religious Policy : An Architectural Perspective [Master's Thesis]. Greenville, NC: East Carolina University; January 2015.


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Tour the Main Library of the Columbus Metropolitan Library
Take a look it's in a book at CML's main branch!
Main Library of Columbus Metropolitan Library
By Nick Dekker
The Columbus Metropolitan Library is routinely ranked as one of the best library systems in the country, with a central building plus 22 branches spread across Franklin County that offer welcoming spaces for reading, research, studying, community gathering, and so much more.
The jewel in the library's crown, so to speak, is the Main Library building on South Grant Street in downtown Columbus. The original building opened in 1907, funded by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Built in the Beaux-Arts style using white Vermont marble, the building has been expanded a few times over the 20th and 21st centuries, with a significant renovation taking place over 2015-2016. The updates modernized the building and added new amenities while better preserving and showcasing the original structure.
Like all of the branches, the Main Library features thousands of volumes and welcoming community spaces. The renovations opened up more room for readers and studiers, including private study booths, homework help stations, access to media resources. The large reading room features tall glass walls that look out into the nearby park, while a cafe and gift shop on the main floor offers guests a place to relax and recharge.
The main atrium of the library is bright and welcoming, with three floors overlooking it. On the main floor is an expansive children's area, with shelf upon shelf of kid's books, computers, a study area, and plenty of nooks and crannies for reading your favorite stories. There's even a special lower-height entrance that's just for kids!
Back in the atrium, the stairway to the second floor features a long mural from the beloved Columbus artist Aminah Robinson. Robinson worked in all sorts of media, and was known for her large-scale pieces employing the African concept of Sankofa, depicting and exploring the past in order to move forward into the future. Take time to really explore Robinson's eye-catching mural in the library; you can see more of her work at the Columbus Museum of Art a few blocks away.
One of the most popular seasonal attractions at the Main Library is the Huntington Holiday Train. A tradition for more than two decades, the giant display features multiple model trains running through a wintery landscape. Kids of all ages have fun spying all the little hidden details throughout it. The display typically opens in late November (just before Thanksgiving) and runs through the first week in January.
The renovations also designated a space on the second floor of the building as the Carnegie Gallery, which is dedicated to showing the work of Ohio artists. Exhibitions rotate every couple months, and often partner with other Ohio organizations to showcase the artists' work around a theme.
Finish your visit to the Main Library with a stroll outdoors, too! The recent renovations better connected the rear of the library to the adjoining Topiary Garden park. The park is perfect for a quiet walk, but you can't miss its most famous feature: a recreation of Georges Seurat's painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte" in topiary form. The unique landscape has earned attention from publications worldwide.
For more literary adventure, check out #OhioFindItHere at Ohio.org.
IWKWC0031E: Content item not found Ohio Content English/tourism/travel-inspiration/author/Nick Dekker.


Getting a healthy dinner on the table is tougher than it sounds, especially on a weeknight. But if you change your point of view — focusing less on the menu and more on togetherness — mealtime becomes much more enjoyable. "Family mealtime is about communication," says Lynn Borteck, a licensed clinical social worker with Aetna. "The key is not the meal: It's the connection and bonding that really count." Read on for some hard-earned wisdom that can make any meal taste sweeter.
Don't feel guilty about ordering in.
I love the evenings when we order pizza or pick up a rotisserie chicken and prepared side dishes from the market. A window of time opens for us to go play outside after I get home from work — precious minutes that would otherwise be spent chopping vegetables and checking the oven. Even small changes to your usual work/dinner/bedtime routine can be more uplifting than you'd think.
Relax about the clean-plate club.
My daughter announces she's not hungry for dinner and refuses to touch her food — again. I've had to learn to take a deep breath and not worry so much about it. My biggest concern was whether she was getting enough nutrition. Then I learned that pediatricians advise parents to keep the big picture in mind: It's okay if your picky eater rejects everything but pasta at dinner tonight, as long as she gets a variety of foods over the next few days. Now I know that my daughter will eat when she's hungry and over time get what she needs to develop and grow normally.
My daughter loves to use our salad spinner. And my husband's knife skills make him a world-class onion chopper. Think about getting your posse to help with meal planning, shopping, cooking and cleaning up. It may not make the process faster or easier, but it will keep everyone too busy to complain (much). Plus, it's a great way to build kids' confidence, teach them about healthy ingredients and encourage them to be more adventuresome about tasting new foods.
My mother once suggested I set the table earlier in the day, and it's made a surprising difference. If it seems trivial, pay attention to how often you have to jump up during dinner to grab forgotten napkins, cups, condiments, and so on. For working parents, table-setting is a great chore to assign to an older child or babysitter.
What are your stress triggers? If the sound of kids bickering sets you off, music might lighten the mood. Ask the kids to create a dinnertime playlist that includes their favorite songs as well as yours.
Little hacks like these can bring peace back to family mealtime. Because healthy meals are only partly about what you serve, and enjoying your time together is good for body and soul.
Joanna Kessler is a lifestyle writer and editor based in New York. She is an avid yogi and believes this is the year she'll finally conquer the crow pose.


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Assad's 20-year rule, from Damascus Spring to pariah
Following his inauguration in 2000 after the death of his father, the iron-fisted Hafez, a London-trained ophthalmologist was seen as hope for change but has left his country more bloody and poor than ever
AFP |
Updated: 06.09.20 , 11:02
Bashar al-Assad's rise to power after three decades of his father's iron-fisted rule raised hope of democratic opening. But 20 years later, Syria is isolated and war-ravaged.
(Photo: AP)
Crumbling under a stinging economic downturn, Western sanctions and nine years of war, Syria today is a far cry from the vision Assad projected when he was propelled to the presidency a month after his father Hafez died on June 10, 2000.
"There was a good deal of anxiety in the early stages, as Syria hadn't experienced a peaceful transition of power in decades and Hafez al-Assad was all many people knew," said Faysal Itani of the Center for Global Policy.
But "soon this all subsided as Bashar settled in and projected this aura of modernity, youth, and openness".
Syrian President Hafez al-Asad (center) with Iraqi Vice President Saddam Hussein (left), Algerian Foreign Minister Abd al-Aziz Bouteflika (right), and Syrian Vice-President Abd al-Halim Khaddam (far right, half-covered) at Arab League Baghdad Summit
(Photo: Courtesy )
Sworn in at the age of 34, the London-trained ophthalmologist exuded the aura of a reformer who could fundamentally alter Syrian politics through economic liberalization and a limited opening to the West.
His ascension to the presidency, a year after Jordan and Morocco crowned new kings, added to the impression that a tide of change was sweeping the region.
For a brief period after he was voted in through a single-candidate poll, Syria saw a surge in political debate and activism, after almost 40 years of emergency law.
Destruction in Hama following the 1982 Massacre
This burst in political activity was inconceivable under the rule of Hafez, whose forces notoriously carried out a 1982 massacre in Hama following an Islamist uprising.
"Bashar was a very different character from the other prominent figures in the regime," said Syria expert Daniel Neep.
He was only second in line until his older brother Bassel died in a 1994 car accident.
"In a country that had not seen any significant political or economic opening for over a decade, Bashar's ascension to the presidency appeared to signal the promise of long-overdue reform," said Neep, assistant professor at Georgetown University.
'Liberaliser idea died quickly'
In September 2000, around 100 intellectuals called for reforms including the lifting of the state of emergency, public freedoms and political pluralism in what became known as the Damascus Spring.
"The idea of Bashar as liberalizer died quite quickly," Itani said.
By the summer of 2001, Assad was cracking down on dissent. The promise of economic liberalization also faded as wealth fell exclusively in the hands of regime associates.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Syrian President Bashar al-Asad
"Bashar's 'social market economy' turned out to be a formula for rapacious corruption among Bashar's inner circle," Itani added.
"Economic inequality deepened, and much of the middle class and rural populations fell into dire poverty."
Bashar's attempts to draw Syria closer to the West also ended in failure.
The man who was received in Paris in 2008 by France's then-president Nicolas Sarkozy and whose British-born wife was dubbed a "Desert Rose" by the Western press is now a reviled figure.
The brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011, and the war that has since killed more than 380,000 people and displaced millions, have undermined his international legitimacy.
Syrian civilians fleeing the fighting in Aleppo
A spate of sanctions imposed by the European Union and United States, the latest of which are due to go into force this month, have compounded a crippling economic crisis.
Most of the population is living in poverty and the Syrian pound has hit an all-time low against the dollar, triggering a fresh wave of dissent in government-held areas while violence continues to stalk regions that evade Assad's control.
'Strategic, economic failure'
Syria has also lost its status as a regional heavyweight under Assad's watch and is now widely seen as heavily dependant on Russia, Iran and an assortment of Tehran-backed militias, including the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
Hezbollah militants using American-made armored vehicles in Syria
"Hafez had always kept Syria independent from foreign interference. Bashar has become beholden to external influence to keep his regime intact," said Neep.
"What we're seeing now is a strange, sub-contracted form of political authority that has no precedent in modern Syrian politics."
For Itani, Bashar's reign is a far cry from the days when Syria was a major independent strategic player in the region that held political and military dominance over Lebanon and controlled the tempo of operations against Israel.
Syrian government troops in southern Syria
(Photo: Reuters)
"Bashar al-Assad's Syria is a strategic and economic failure," he said.
In Assad's third decade in power, the country "will be an impoverished rump of its past self", Itani predicted.
Fissures will also weaken traditional alliances as suggested by the recent rift between Assad and his tycoon cousin Rami Makhlouf, whose assets were ordered seized by the state last month.
"Bashar resembles Hafez in his tenacity and ability to keep the core of the regime intact," Itani said.
"He's just not as competent or as lucky as Hafez was."
First published: 10:56 , 06.09.20


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T-50 Seen Fitted With Air-To-Surface Weapons!
FighterSweep Fans, the Sukhoi T-50, also known as the PAK-FA, is entering a new phase of flight test. It was seen recently taxiing out for a flight equipped with both anti-ship missiles and free-fall bombs. Russia's Aerospace Forces (RuAF) are expected to field the aircraft, which doesn't have an official designation yet, sometime later this year or early in 2017.
According to pictures released on the internet, Russia's Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA fighter aircraft started flight test campaign armed with air-to-surface weapons.
These tests took place at the Gromov Flight Research Institute, located at the Zhukovsky Air Base. Pictures unveiled on the russianplanes.net website first showed the T-50-2 prototype fitted with Kh-31 anti-ship missiles. A second series of pictures unveiled a few days before show the same prototype aircraft performing a test flight armed with two Kh-31 anti-ship missiles.
The Kh-31, also dubbed X-31 in Russia, is a Russian air-to-surface missile. It can reach a Mach 3.5 max speed, depending on variants. Its warhead is equipped with a 94kg HE shaped charge. The Kh-31 has an operational range of up to 110 km.
T-50 equipped with Kh-31 anti-ship missiles. (Photo courtesy of Evgeny Volkov/russianplanes.net)
T-50 equipped with gravity bombs. (Photo courtesy of Evgeny Volkov/russianplanes.net)
A few days later, the website released pictures showing the same aircraft fitted with 6 free fall bombs. The PAK FA previously had only performed flight tests with air-to-air missiles. Russia's T-50 PAK FA is a fifth-generation fighter programme of the Russian Air Force.
The original article in its entirety can be viewed right here.
(Featured Photo courtesy of Russia-Insider.com)
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Forums › Libmonster International › DE
Byelorussia to enhance cooperation with Russia and CIS
Byelorussian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country will strengthen economic and military cooperation with Russia and enhance integration with other CIS countries as NATO is moving towards the Byelorussian border. Lukashenko, who is in Germany on a one-day working visit, told journalists after touring an international industrial fair in Hanover, Lower Saxony, on Wednesday that "the development of partnership with Russia is an indisputable foreign economic priority of the republic." "Russia in the East and Germany in the West are the countries to which Byelorussia's economic cooperation is directed," he said. He said Byelorussia wants to use its location as a hub between the east and the west of Europe. "We would like to have a very high level of relations with Moscow and Bonn, although our cooperation with Russia is not free of problems, including in the creation of the Customs Union, our two peoples are bound by close historical ties and seek to live in friendship and partnership," he said. On relations between Germany and Byelorussia, Lukashenko said that "the government of Germany makes cooperation conditional on the international political situation in the republic, and very often there is a policy of double standards behind this." "Germany has not yet ratified the agreement on partnership and cooperation concluded between Byelorussia and the European Union in 1996. If we cannot develop political cooperation, we will focus on economic and trade ties, especially since leading German businesses show considerable interest in Byelorussia," he said. During his private visit at the invitation of German entrepreneurs, Lukashenko had talks with the leaders of Siemens, Continental and MAN. "We signed several agreements of intent with the German companies with a focus on creating joint ventures in Byelorussia. In addition, the question of economic cooperation at the level of private businesses was in the centre of attention at the meeting with Lower Saxon ... Read more
Full version:: http://libmonster.de/m/articles/view/Byelorussia-to-enhance-cooperation-with-Russia-and-CIS


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Nashville to consider banning hourly room rentals at hotels
Hotels and motels in Nashville that let customers pay for rooms by the hour might soon be forced to halt their hourly rates.
The Metro Council is considering legislation that would prohibit rentals at hotels on an hourly basis, a push the bill sponsor says is meant to crack down on a form of temporary lodging that he says enables prostitution and drug use.
The ordinance would prevent any hotel, motel, or other similar establishment from offering any discount or rebate for early checkout of a room for a period of less than 10 hours.
"Their business model is such that it encourages prostitution, illicit drug use, and no good economic development happens around them," said Donelson-area Councilman Jeff Syracuse, who has introduced the bill.
"A perfect example is the one that I drive by everyday called the Airways Motel, that was actually a pretty swanky place in the 1950s, when it first opened up. It is now some place that you want to shield your eyes when you drive by."
The ordinance cleared a procedural first of three votes last week and will be considered on a key second reading on June 20.
Syracuse said he's counted 17 hotels and motels in Davidson County that offer hourly rates for less than 10 hours a day.
The Tennessean was unable to retrieve a comment from Airways Motel — the hotel on Lebanon Pike that Syracuse cited by name — despite multiple phone calls and a reporter's visit to the motel in an attempt to talk to a manager.
A sign outside the Airways Motel advertises three-hour stays for "$28.00 and up" and free adult movies.
Read related stories:
More:Nashville's long-dormant Dickerson Pike on cusp of growth
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Council attorney Mike Jameson said multiple cities have prohibited hotel rentals on an hourly basis, with a pending ordinance in Jefferson Parrish, Louisiana being the most similar to Nashville's proposal.
Other cities, including Memphis, limit hotel stays at no less than 10 hours.
In addition, Memphis and other cities such as Cincinnati have separate regulations for "adult motels" — a special classification that is not under consideration with Nashville's proposal.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that a 10-hour minimum for hotel stays is constitutional, according to Jameson, if the city has identified a reasonable basis that hourly rates at hotels lead to an increase in crime and other unwanted "secondary effects."
Nashville allows short-term renting via Airbnb and other online hospitality companies, but stays must be at least 24 hours and no less than 30 days.
The homeless in Nashville often use cheap hotels and motels for short-term lodging.
Rachel Hester, executive director of Room In The Inn, a nonprofit that serves the homeless, said she had not reviewed the ordinance but said any measure that could reduce potential illegal activity at such hotels and motels would be a positive.
"Typically, the people I serve aren't looking for one hour of sleep here and there," she said. "They're looking for a good 10 to 12 hours. So, I would think it would make it better for them because maybe it would open up some of those rooms.
"It would also change some stereotypes. If I'm really trying to have a good night sleep, and the room next to me is every hour on the hour running a business, that just plays into that."
Syracuse likened his ordinance to legislation he successfully pushed through the council last year that prohibited so-called "flex loans" from payday lenders in Nashville. The payday industry had used the terminology to get around new Metro rules that restricted where new cash advance and payday loan stores can open.
With his latest bill, Syracuse said his hope isn't to shut down motels but to "clean them up."
He said ideally they can fill a niche in Nashville for affordable lodging, but in a way that doesn't encourage illegal activity.
"Hopefully, it will give these hotel owners an opportunity to rebrand a little bit and perhaps offer a lower cost option for those visiting Nashville that are finding a hard time finding a place that is not so expensive," Syracuse said.
Reach Joey Garrison at jgarrison@tennessean.com, 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.