tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80675333244960743862024-02-07T22:34:59.486-08:00"The Sutler"A blog detailing the development of a first novelLena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-91290806627190965512011-02-23T08:56:00.000-08:002013-07-14T18:13:23.204-07:00Coming Clean<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFg5uIR2KhtCXFnQmVXL2KH9euK5Z_bHb2upbMDXTpW2UVO0O83yNYAqNFOy6P_6sfEc5s3IOb8KuY_Dtb2VeEMGARgdJAvbaDFckma5kviWsfoLKYD2R__SGVYYv5dmID6XEgENUHI-oS/s1600/rv-twain07_ph_0501414730%255B1%255D.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576933463480883010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFg5uIR2KhtCXFnQmVXL2KH9euK5Z_bHb2upbMDXTpW2UVO0O83yNYAqNFOy6P_6sfEc5s3IOb8KuY_Dtb2VeEMGARgdJAvbaDFckma5kviWsfoLKYD2R__SGVYYv5dmID6XEgENUHI-oS/s200/rv-twain07_ph_0501414730%255B1%255D.jpg" style="float: right; height: 200px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 164px;" /></a><br />
It wouldn't be the first time it's happened.<br />
<br />
A pen name taken in order to write anonymously to enact social or political change. Think of Mark Twain and Samuel Clemmons.<br />
<br />
So, I'm coming clean - I am the author of the article I posted here earlier and published elsewhere, harnessing the power of social media and the net. Though some change has been managed, we are not out of the woods yet:<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thesutler.blogspot.com/2011/01/starting-to-cook-all-part-of-post.html">http://thesutler.blogspot.com/2011/01/starting-to-cook-all-part-of-post.html</a><br />
<br />
<br />
The surprising thing I find is that both (honest) conservatives and liberals agree upon is the idea of locality...even if they differ on the details and means to achieve effect. Extreme ego seems to be the real enemy.Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-25925557131762060352011-01-28T18:53:00.000-08:002011-01-28T19:16:11.997-08:00An Initial OutlineI am something of an organization freak when I write long prose. Shaping something visually (perhaps because I am also an artist) always helps me to contain verbal affluence. I imagine--and actually know--that most writers have these little tricks to help them to write. Mine may not be writing in bed (forget who that was), or using three sharpened #2 pencils, or a special ancient typewriter, but it is an eccentric trick, too, of a sort.<br /><br />Thus, I have created an initial outline, which I may or may not alter as I go (oddly, when I have written other things, I have followed my initial outline to the finish line):<br /><br /><br />Dedication<br /><br />Preface<br /><br />Approximately 10-12 chapters<br /><br />Chapter 1: New York/East Coast - William and Charles<br />Chapter 2: Ireland/Ellis Island - Sylvie & her brother<br />Chapter 3: Skull Valley/first peoples<br />Chapter 4: Camp Verde - The Sutler Store<br />Chapter 5: Jerome/Sylvie/brothels - the mining rush<br />Chapter 6: The minister<br />Chapter 7: Prescott/family relations<br />Chapter 8: The ghost<br />Chapter 9: The US Senate<br />Chapter 10: San Francisco<br />Chapter 11: The House & legacyLena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-19442730827986781632011-01-26T22:24:00.000-08:002011-01-26T22:29:20.512-08:00Moody historical fiction gives life to filles du roi banished to French colonies<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqayEm0e_Ir29EXtBIQk717l6Njngukybu5JhlofCFOHyfkgDisW00ym7r9wje0Su7ZUncWC2IoOFnEggbrzZb8mYpbzZq4jHORcvQxJSTVGcfhcGDGfFilF5bK7a2rOvf8zTap0wEMVzX/s1600/produitPuzzl1%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 216px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 195px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566748654202208562" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqayEm0e_Ir29EXtBIQk717l6Njngukybu5JhlofCFOHyfkgDisW00ym7r9wje0Su7ZUncWC2IoOFnEggbrzZb8mYpbzZq4jHORcvQxJSTVGcfhcGDGfFilF5bK7a2rOvf8zTap0wEMVzX/s320/produitPuzzl1%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a><br />Bride of New France<br /><br />By Suzanne Desrochers<br /><br />Penguin Canada, 224 pages, $25<br /><br /><br />This is a moody, beautiful piece of historical fiction, casting Louis XIV's Paris as a grey and Gothic city, pitiless toward its poor and dark with imperial desires.<br /><br />The novel opens with a swift and frightening prologue, in which Parisian archers seize the protagonist, Laure Beauséjour, as they implement the 1656 decree to clear the streets of beggars. It then shifts to the gloomy setting of the notorious Salpêtrière Hospital, where Laure finds herself imprisoned.<br /><br />She can hear the murmurs of madwomen through the walls of her dormitory, as well as the weak cries of infants and orphans. The place is truly ghastly in its muffled expressions of sorrow -- as bad as the mysterious attic in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and just as symbolic of the secrets at an empire's centre.<br /><br />These are the shadows within the Sun King's dominion, the dark recesses containing the history of the women whom Louis XIV tried to banish from his sight: the destitute and delinquent, 800 of whom were sent to marry the men stationed in the French colonies. It is into the world of these so-called filles du roi that French Canadian Suzanne Desrochers tries to bring some light.<br /><br />As she notes in her afterword, Desrochers grew up on stories of the filles du roi, despite the sparse historical record about them. Unaware of their origins in the Salpêtrière, she had also romanticized the women's lives and their voyages across the sea, until research for her MA thesis in history quickly set her straight.<br /><br />With this novel, her first, Desrochers returns to that research in an attempt to imagine the flesh-and-blood women in the archives of the Salpêtrière's workshops.<br /><br />Like the best of historical fiction, the novel rewards us with knowledgeable and intriguing details, this time about late 17th-century Paris and Quebec. And it is through Laure's skepticism and ambition that Desrochers casts a stern eye upon the ways in which the Salpêtrière women were used, starved and shipped across the Atlantic to marry the fur traders and expand the empire.<br /><br />The characters are interesting, if a bit flat at times, and the settings compelling. The chapters describing the ship that carries the filles du roi to Canada offer moments of great writing and insight, and the scene in which Laure views a slave ship from her own hold is particularly breathtaking.<br /><br />Desrochers' writing sustains a good pace: it is at once melancholic and engaging, consistently delivering skilful turns of phrase. But it is not flawless, mostly because Laure often functions as the vehicle through which the world is observed. "Laure enquires," "Laure walks over," "Laure sits on the bed": too many sentences open like this, and they weigh things down.<br /><br />There's also a repetitive quality to the characters' fears of the New World "savages," as if we're being entreated to shake our heads from our enlightened position in the present.<br /><br />One of the novel's key strengths lies in its brevity, not because you want it to end quickly but because it seems to keep its distance from what it cannot know. In the three distinct settings of the hospital, the ship and the colony, it confers a sense of what it might have felt like to be someone in Laure's position in the 1660s, and then it backs off.<br /><br />It pairs well with Toni Morrison's most recent novel A Mercy, high praise indeed. For, as Morrison's characters journey to Maryland in the same period, Desrochers' go north, past the icebergs to a place where "they cannot imagine what the rest of their lives will be."<br /><br /><br />Dana Medoro is a professor in the department of English, film and theatre at the University of Manitoba.<br /><br /><br />Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 22, 2011 H8Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-44327236699984292572011-01-22T09:57:00.000-08:002013-07-14T18:13:23.183-07:00Starting to Cook; All Part of the Post-Colonial Batter:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vGpk7ROgPJEUSLWYiCzPQegjWTYWfLP6WAi98VqFd51UOVogdwkardspGZ3-2alKRvoZPdp_6cN2gdlZa0DsvvK9r1c3Vat1OSPIU_RIRcezPQr7Su8XRdJ1iFqmBx7AItIrRhn7w5K7/s1600/iny2132p%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 220px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565073466168954482" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9vGpk7ROgPJEUSLWYiCzPQegjWTYWfLP6WAi98VqFd51UOVogdwkardspGZ3-2alKRvoZPdp_6cN2gdlZa0DsvvK9r1c3Vat1OSPIU_RIRcezPQr7Su8XRdJ1iFqmBx7AItIrRhn7w5K7/s320/iny2132p%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a> by Lita Sorensen<br /><br /><em>The personal is political. </em><br /><br />An old saw from the 70’s that nonetheless rings true today. This is especially notable as businesses, families and individuals all over Camp Verde and the greater Verde Valley area are suffering, the same as many localities throughout the nation, in our current economic climate.<br /><br />Walking in downtown Camp Verde feels more like trekking through a film set for an old Western ghost town than walking through a vibrant small town. Nearly every other building stands empty, with restaurants, shops and other professional service providers abandoning the town one after the other.<br /><br />And that is why the current management tone and actions of Camp Verde’s largest employer, Cliff Castle Casino, must be questioned.<br /><br />To some, the “lay-offs” of some 12-20 employees (with rumors that more will be laid off, in search of greater ‘efficiencies’) at Cliff Castle Casino, some of them 10-15 year career veterans, plus the outsourcing of virtually all casino marketing creative functions to an out-of-state agency seems like a necessary part of the landscape in a tough economy.<br /><br />However, all actions have long term consequences as well as personal and community repercussions.<br /><br />Businesses succeed because they produce products and/or services that are superior to their competitors—something which Cliff Castle Casino has excelled at. It has been voted the top casino in Arizona for over a decade by Arizona Business Magazine—and in this case Cliff Castle’s model has always been supportive of local communities and even of families (counting among its venues a Kids Quest child care facility, family friendly restaurants and a bowling alley popular with area teenagers).<br /><br />The abrupt terminations of long term, loyal career employees and the outsourcing of core business functions necessary to the casino without concern for anything but the so-called “bottom line” and without offering alternatives to the effected employees can be called nothing but bad business.<br /><br />Research also supports this.<br /><br />In 2005, a study by Deloitte revealed that a majority of firms surveyed had long term negative experiences with outsourcing. Among the experiences detailed was dissatisfaction with cost savings—which failed to materialize, as the entire process was found to be far more complex than initially anticipated. The results included a loss of organizational and communication flexibility, plus expenses not lifted, but shifted from one area to another to another.<br /><br />According to the study, outsourcing experiences have ruined more businesses reputations that they have built.<br /><br />The elimination of loyal, locally based staff members and the outsourcing of core job functions sends a message to employees, to the community and to governing bodies that management cannot handle existing human resources and business systems in a productive fashion and that outsiders are needed to develop new ideas and innovative solutions.<br /><br />More telling is what research says about these certain kinds of business models. Namely, that there is no research and no proof that this works.<br /><br />There is nothing but anecdotal evidence to support the fact that these practices produce real results. If all these ‘hard-core business decisions’ worked as well as advocates say they do, there would be an abundance of data available to demonstrate their effectiveness. In fact, the opposite is true, so this runs counter to logic.<br /><br />Social responsibility in the wake of such actions also cannot be overlooked.<br /><br />Long term local business success and growth in any community is built on attracting and maintaining an essential middle class with the disposable income necessary to keep the economic ball in motion. Short term solutions—scrimping on quality and integrity in the business arena and creating a bigger human and community impact than may be realized— is simply bad business.Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-91282308029695612442010-12-12T14:17:00.000-08:002010-12-12T14:25:18.080-08:00A former co-worker's book is ready for purchase:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp5IsQHMsUldb3RUr2aBi6UBh5gsawlSXezpPKzwvulZ_tryDiV-p_Rr3Yl7fxGFM0yJ5WlLrxcePa_6bFc8Z-64kJohyJovOofBSRcp6ynD7UZD-KuxTUaMES8-pwqudCZgiIDQAVReNI/s1600/28221a%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 205px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 182px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549924843929228626" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp5IsQHMsUldb3RUr2aBi6UBh5gsawlSXezpPKzwvulZ_tryDiV-p_Rr3Yl7fxGFM0yJ5WlLrxcePa_6bFc8Z-64kJohyJovOofBSRcp6ynD7UZD-KuxTUaMES8-pwqudCZgiIDQAVReNI/s320/28221a%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a><br /><div><strong>New book chronicles Camp Verde history in photos<br /></strong>Sales benefit local historical society<br /><br />By Raquel Hendrickson<br />Bugle Managing Editor<br /><br /><br />CAMP VERDE - Jerome has a book, and so does Sedona. But Arcadia Publishing felt there was a gap in the Verde Valley section of its "Images of America" history series.<br /><br />When the Camp Verde Historical Society was contacted by Arcadia's acquisitions editor about putting something together, members thought a brief pictorial history of Camp Verde was a great idea. The CVHS had all of the photos and turned over the task of writing explanatory captions to board member Steve Ayers.<br /><br />"I thought it would be much easier than it turned out to be," said Ayers, who is also a reporter for The Bugle. "We had lots of photos and little information."<br /><br />The book "Camp Verde," which will be available during Fort Verde Days, is not officially released until a week later. It was five months in the making, and that only came after a requested extension. The historical society not only had to piece together a coherent story but also had to decide what had to be left out due to Arcadia's restraints.<br /><br />Part of the difficulty, according to Ayers, was a dearth of information on the community in the first half of the 20th century. There was lots of information and material on Fort Verde, but once the fort disappeared so did real record keeping.<br /><br />"There was a great void from the end of the fort to about 1960," Ayers said.<br /><br />So the CVHS set about telling that story of the transformation of the community from a military fort to a town. In the process, the historical society discovered a few things itself. A discovered hand-drawn map by Dr. Edward Palmer from around 1903 completed much of the puzzle of what Main Street looked like.<br /><br />"We had to triage what information to use," Ayers said. "Which settlers, which families played a major role. The Wingfields, for instance, played a big part in the continuation of the town and the growth of the town."<br /><br />The Yavapai-Apache Nation was brought into the process to proof information for accuracy as well. The historical society has always had pits and pieces of local lore, but the book is the first real history of the town, though it is primarily historic photographs.<br /><br />"Fort Verde could stand a separate book," Ayers said.<br /><br />During Fort Verde Days this weekend, the Camp Verde Historical Society will sell the book for $20. If copies run out, new orders can be placed. All proceeds go to the CVHS for the research and archives department in order to grow the collection of maps, photos and documents. </div>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-61519176515784970432010-07-18T18:18:00.000-07:002010-07-18T21:32:07.312-07:00Houses are Made of Dreams<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWp1WWHHEN2Z96H8AHq83Kn-a8Jew8LGFrdRSTipKcINjFLrNUXQNyBYwTEZuczgF_XzNTZ1PJD59XH6NmPqv8LCBdX8HMKXXqC0pwmZSlNm90xdfM8hQVRM05nqqVx-46R38pBnMbLzDZ/s1600/olson_Dreamhouse%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 175px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 230px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495422628339848866" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWp1WWHHEN2Z96H8AHq83Kn-a8Jew8LGFrdRSTipKcINjFLrNUXQNyBYwTEZuczgF_XzNTZ1PJD59XH6NmPqv8LCBdX8HMKXXqC0pwmZSlNm90xdfM8hQVRM05nqqVx-46R38pBnMbLzDZ/s320/olson_Dreamhouse%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">What is it about a house that makes it so much the stuff of dreams?<br /><br />I recently got back from a trip back to to the Midwest--Kansas City--on a search for investment houses in the there. Of course, I want to keep this house I plan to buy for personal use, possibly, too, in the future. This makes it a more difficult buy by far. So many qualities must go into a place that you might want to live. As in, how does the place make you feel? Is there air and light? Movement from room to room?</span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">And each place, if one notices, has a certain smell...maybe old and musty, maybe of cheap new linoleum, maybe like the pine trees outside in the lawn.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">And there are artists, such as Karyn Olson, whose work, left, draws on the house as a visual motif, drawing on our ancient sense of shelter, of sanctuary or emotional connection to place.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">The best use of a house as a motif yet in literature has got to be in the novel <em>The Shipping News</em> by Annie Proulx, where the weight of this old house, tied down by ropes on an island in the wind finally is torn apart by the elements (both in mother nature and the forces within the family) that have whipped at it for decades.</span></div><div></div>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-59944161501410314892010-06-27T10:39:00.000-07:002010-06-27T10:49:12.082-07:00Connected Categories & Relativity<span style="font-size:85%;">I've been neglecting this blog and my book aspirations, mainly because other aspirations get in the way or must take precendence. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Then I came across this:</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><a href="http://www.michenermuseum.org/exhibits/ellis.php"><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.michenermuseum.org/exhibits/ellis.php</span></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Where one of my favorite photo exhibits shown in Santa Fe, James A. Michener and Ellis Island all meet, all tied together with a string of freedom and a sense of place.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Life, not just geometry and mathematical field theory, is strange like that.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-40144462642890159252010-05-30T13:44:00.001-07:002010-05-30T14:46:10.306-07:00The Reasons I Want to Write This Book<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5HpNeNVu1SqpSJT_BizC0jru9K8KVX8hLit4khUssS0IxoW3Mifz2_9tn_jFLoIhvSfLMIVg3mR8AXQUysKi_sDAc_MKMVx-LfzyEDgIIQYWjjEtKBFtYYGWja1lmS1HCqIoMnY2wAGJ/s1600/arizona_sandstone%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 396px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477174190504954194" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5HpNeNVu1SqpSJT_BizC0jru9K8KVX8hLit4khUssS0IxoW3Mifz2_9tn_jFLoIhvSfLMIVg3mR8AXQUysKi_sDAc_MKMVx-LfzyEDgIIQYWjjEtKBFtYYGWja1lmS1HCqIoMnY2wAGJ/s400/arizona_sandstone%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">It seeps like fingers of rain<br />Soaking parched valleys in winter.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">Whatever field we must cross, it<br />was crossed; whatever melody we<br />hear, it was heard.<br /><br />Say that you don't seek these<br />notes distant like snow in the canyons...<br /><br /><br />One of the main reasons is that I've been taken, in one way or another, by this crazy wild land. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">In painting and literature circles, it's common to say a that the landscape you are creating in effects the landscape of the mind. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">And so, perhaps, it is.</span> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div></div><div></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">But I do not mean that in a sugared, all-things-beautiful way at all. For there are many things here that are quite frankly, ugly. I begin to wonder, as a South African hotel concierge I met in San Diego a few years ago--who was working as such because this was one of the hotels his family owned--whether desert and tropical environments cause a lack of planning in the develpment of human beings. Whereas, I am almost sure he would theorize this is only inherent in dark skinned people, I would extend that to all people, and maybe especially some whites in this area and in those who initially settled this area.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">I have never seen such poverty and wealth living side by side. The cities don't have it beat--not for the sheer disparity. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">Down the road from me, this house which has been here for over 150 years, is a housing development with horse 'ranchettes,' all literally yards and yards of white picket fences mixed in with custom designed adobe mini-mansions. All of them--or most of them--looking uncomfortable and far too cavernous. A few miles a way, near a local high school, there are people living in old camper tops with lean to's built on to them with goats tied out in the front 'yard.' </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">People who live in the East or the Midwest, although they may be used to the inner city, have never seen such things, and never great poverty and great wealth spaced so close together.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">And the place is truly what one would term 'Post-colonial,' with a mishmash of cultures and outlooks competing with each other and surviving into the millenium. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span> </div><div> </div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;">Indian art shops displaying artifacts abound. Oddly enough, it is mainly the Anglos who are interested in these cultural items. Or maybe we just like to institutionalize things. And the Indians--a numbered some--Yavapai, Apache, Navajo--are strangely more interested in the acutrements of traditional (our) status symbols than they are in any art.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">This is the first time in my life, even though the term has gone Hollywood, that I have ever heard the term "Redneck" used on almost a daily basis. Also competitions as to which little hamlet has residents with the fewest teeth.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">But then there is the land.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:85%;">Inspiring greats such as D.H. Lawrence and Ansel Adams to record their impressions. And much to see, take in, digest. It has taken me a few years to understand the weather patterns and the micro-climates produced by the different elevations. How some little valleys can be alight in fall color while in other areas winter has already made its reach. What violent upheavals formed much of the texture of the rock walls of canyons, how steady and slow forces carved and continue to carve the largest canyon on earth--and how all that may be used in metaphor; in a story.</span></div>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-67274809959240484582010-05-26T07:05:00.000-07:002010-05-26T07:14:16.414-07:00Random Thoughts<span style="font-size:85%;">I was just thinking how in the Verde Valley her in AZ, Sedona is the now the little playground of a few wealthy and makes its money off the tourists who come to the big spas here. And all the little towns around it basically serve it with workers in this day and age. <br /><br />In the 1800's, however, due to the need for an adjacent water source and reliance on local agriculture, the areas near the River Verde(Camp Verde) or Oak Creek were obviously the most valued properties.<br /><br />It strikes me that the current situation is absolutely about the power of myth. Similar to the real estate in Manhattan, which is valuable not on to itself, but because many have ascribed value to it, and the rest follow like lemmings. And I wonder if those initiators of any real estate over-valuation believe their own myths.<br /><br />Really a very current question, as well, to be asking.</span>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-81100451440150646912010-05-23T09:59:00.000-07:002010-05-23T10:17:46.348-07:00Historical Facts<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuZ3DNnGjgF2-GxY_DZxPECSumCiAni_CmQfKGV7T-GIzfPPqV0b48M16m4fsbIEousEXHd7vGq2g4QCkkhyLq2PWUtzRpiVDLsx4FC0a3WV4EPNO-5_j8ivGFVmGjzvE_9upsmnePAug2/s1600/poem.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 184px; height: 228px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuZ3DNnGjgF2-GxY_DZxPECSumCiAni_CmQfKGV7T-GIzfPPqV0b48M16m4fsbIEousEXHd7vGq2g4QCkkhyLq2PWUtzRpiVDLsx4FC0a3WV4EPNO-5_j8ivGFVmGjzvE_9upsmnePAug2/s320/poem.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474515339836722242" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Stuff I dug up at Sharlot Hall (historical society in Prescott, Yavapai County seat) and the historical society at Fort Verde:<br /><br />5 EARLY SETTLERS<br />FARMERS 1100: A cliff dwelling, six miles north of Camp Verde, c. 1100 supports prehistory evi-dence of early farming. Assumed to be descendents of today’s Hopis, the Sinagua Indians lived in this area about 300 years before disappearing or assimilating into other tribes. Today, the site is a tourist attraction known as Montezuma Castle National Monument. Earlier agricultural influence<br />(c. 700 A.D.) suggest Anasazi influence.<br /><br />SPANISH INFLUENCE 1500-1583: Time period that five conquistadores, considered the first Europeans in the Verde Valley, came looking for silver.<br /><br />MOUNTAIN MEN 1821-1848: Scoured southwestern rivers searching for beaver during the Mexican period—the first to reach the Verde Valley was Ewing Young in 1826. Like predecessors, the Spanish, they did not stay.<br /><br />APACHE and YAVAPAI (dates unknown): Two tribes of pre-anglo residents lived in the Verde Valley, in and around Camp Verde. The Apache have an Athapaskan background, and the Yavapai are Yuman-speaking people-the Pai. Rounded up by the military in 1875 (Exodus), they were forced collectively into exile until 1900. The two tribes were formed into one, the Yavapai-Apache Nation in 1934. Today with 665 acres of reservation land in Camp Verde, Rimrock, and Clarkdale, they are successful entrepreneurs and owners of the popular Cliff Castle Casino located at I-17 and Montezuma Castle Highway.<br /><br />ANGLO FARMERS, late 1800s: In January 1865, a party of nine - James Parrish, Dr. J. M. Swetnam, William L. Osborn, Clayton M. Ralston, Henry D. Morse, Jake Ramstein, Thomas Ruff, Edward A. Boblett, and James Robinson traveled to what is now Camp Verde to find land suitable to establish a farming colony. Later, they would return from Prescott with a party of 19, six oxen-drawn wagons on a journey that took four days settling near the Verde River and Clear Fork. It was reported that the Swetnam party built a 60 x 40 foot stone fort, well, and ditch. Prior to this, around 1864, hay cutters from Prescott harvested lush grasses to sell to Fort Whipple in Prescott, but did not stake land.<br />Camp Verde’s Pioneer Legacy<br /><br />Feature 5<br />Incorporated December 8, 1986<br />5 EARLY MILITARY<br />Lt. Antonio Abeytia headed a small detachment from Prescott’s Fort Whipple. In early May of 1865, the small homestead fort was attacked by Indians (no human casualties, but there was a loss of crops and livestock which threatened the outpost). Settlers demanded protection from the military.<br /><br />Lt. William McNeil replaced Abeytia. The military encampment near the settler’s fort was relocated near the Verde’s junction with the Beaver Creek. In December 1865, it was named Camp Lincoln. There would be base changes and name changes, eventually it would become Fort Verde in today’s downtown area.<br /><br />General George Crook became commanding office of the Department of Arizona and used Camp Verde as one of his main bases. His name is associated with Geronimo’s surrender.<br />Fort Verde: Built in 1871, successor to Camp Lincoln and Camp Verde.<br /><br />Cap’t Smylie,: Indian Scout, born in 1833, a/k/a Chief Yellow Whiskers, was head of the Indian scouts and later the Indian police. It has been reported that he received a medal of honor for his part in the surrender of Geronimo under General Crook’s command in southern Arizona.<br /><br />5 EARLY RETAILERS<br />Horn Saloon: Located on the western fringes of Fort Verde in Copper Canyon, this local establish-ment catered to fort residents near what is today the intersection of Oasis Drive and Salt Mine Road, adjacent to the Copper Canyon trailhead. Only a pile of rocks remain.<br />Wales Arnold: A former Army scout, he was first post trader, a “sutler” to the early military personnel.<br /><br />William Sanford “Boss” Head: Purchased the sutler’s store in 1872 , built by Hugo Richards in 1871. It is the adobe wing located on the south side of today’s Wingfield Plaza. He expanded his business to include sales to civilians throughout the Verde Valley. Included inside was a post office and a club room. A hay-and-grain barn was north of the store. Mr. Head contracted to supply grain to military posts throughout the territory.<br /><br />Stage Stop and Boarding House: Located on today’s Main Street, across from the Sutler Store, this building served as a stay-over for soldiers and freighters transporting by stage. This building still stands and is now a restaurant.<br /><br />Clint Wingfield & Mack Rogers (tale of a fatal hold-up): Subsequent owners of the Sutler Store. On a late Sunday evening in 1899, a stranger entered the porch and ordered Rogers inside. Rogers grabbed for his gun and was shot. Clint came to see what happened and was also shot. Both died in this robbery-gone-bad incident. Black Jack Ketcham, who was reported to have been the culprit guilty of these horrific acts, would hang a year later for a different crime in New Mexico.<br /><br />2<br />5 EARLY PREACHERS, TEACHERS, DOCTORS<br />Rev. R. A. Windes: A pioneer preacher of the Verde Valley, a missionary type who established churches.<br />Parson Bristow: Started the Old Tree Baptist meetings in Middle Verde around 1875. With help from Rev. Windes, Parson Bristow organized a Sunday school, the first church and was pastor until 1905.<br />Dr. E. B. Keycherside: c 1890s, doctor who also founded a church in Camp Verde<br />Dr. M. A. Carrier: c 1880s, early Verde Valley doctor<br />Professor John H. Hicks: Likely the first school teacher in the Lower Verde area.<br /><br />5 EARLY POLITIC FIGURES<br />Dr. Swetnam: Helped head the original “19” who colonized Camp Verde in 1865. The Swetnam party built a stone fort. Dr. Swetnam, however, left for Phoenix to become a surgeon around 1866.<br /><br />William Sanford “Boss” Head: In 1878, he was named to the Arizona Territorial Legislature.<br />Judge George Hance: Considered by many to be the area’s unofficial mayor who was held in high esteem throughout the Verde Valley. First official postmaster, a longtime notary public, territorial census marshal (1880) and most notable, elected justice of the peace for 30 years.<br />Norman Fain: Norman Fain served three terms in the Arizona State Senate (1941-1946) and was instrumental in the Arizona Right-to-Work Bill. He was actually born in Camp Verde in 1907. He ran his father’s Diamond S Allotment between Camp Verde and Cottonwood after buying an interest in an outfit near Sedona. The Fain family is well-known in the Prescott and Prescott Valley area for its major ranching operations and Arizona political history with early roots in Camp Verde.<br /><br />Wingfield: The name Wingfield had a strong political presence in Camp Verde. In 1914, Robert Wingfield organized the Verde Valley Telephone Association. Later he headed a resident’s group that built the Camp Verde State Bank.<br /><br /><br /></span>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-34033641634158733252010-05-22T11:11:00.000-07:002010-05-22T11:21:00.916-07:00The Power of Stories<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbsUuGBZ_ZxwSRIgnufimSOs2kNq8f2NWtVG2LD_t0z5Tgtlyoc0yr-aEDz3RaJcO9HTUVbYymkgtSH1KbZqOByPRhnG6FH4ppsKv-tpzzx-fKRMJNZVJE0P7QOwXUKnjFTW-LrfzF33f5/s1600/images.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 122px; height: 164px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbsUuGBZ_ZxwSRIgnufimSOs2kNq8f2NWtVG2LD_t0z5Tgtlyoc0yr-aEDz3RaJcO9HTUVbYymkgtSH1KbZqOByPRhnG6FH4ppsKv-tpzzx-fKRMJNZVJE0P7QOwXUKnjFTW-LrfzF33f5/s320/images.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474161054478216562" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceRP8rSwlMc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceRP8rSwlMc</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">This was originally posted by Pam Grundy on FB, but it is worth re-posting. Especially in regards to the discussion of myth, how we believe in our 'modern' society, we have none; our machine oriented culture, and just the power of narrative to shape world views...only most people listen to a few others' ideas, to their possible detriment.<br /><br />Why don't people write more of their own stories? The question I'm asking.<br /><br /></span>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-43516865060831848412010-05-20T19:39:00.000-07:002010-05-20T19:44:45.425-07:00Researching Historical Facts and Stories<span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><a href="http://www.thebigmoney.com/blogs/goodnight-gutenberg/2010/05/19/want-write-historical-fiction-now-you-can">http://www.thebigmoney.com/blogs/goodnight-gutenberg/2010/05/19/want-write-historical-fiction-now-you-can</a><br /><br />This is cool. Unfortunately, it will be a long time, I reckon, ;), before the historical societies in Northern Arizona's Verde Valley are open more than 1-2 days a week, let alone commit their documents to the internet.<br /><br />Which makes this book all the more authentic, doesn't it, in a sort of very direct way?</span>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-32214656666765025192010-05-19T07:34:00.000-07:002010-05-20T19:49:43.785-07:00What I Always Liked About Michener<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYjHnzIYTft-Bpj8mKk0NppR7HksJq10B8BSrHQ5GscFyI4D_iQ7HJkunGjE_mJRGzHslo_2qia3dp3IG9UmSyFBeqHbC5OIYSbt7wGLffRUSB_tNeWvP5yZYg92egy8DrYmsTVJ2jCWfI/s1600/1.1259675552.tuscany-living.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 143px; height: 107px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYjHnzIYTft-Bpj8mKk0NppR7HksJq10B8BSrHQ5GscFyI4D_iQ7HJkunGjE_mJRGzHslo_2qia3dp3IG9UmSyFBeqHbC5OIYSbt7wGLffRUSB_tNeWvP5yZYg92egy8DrYmsTVJ2jCWfI/s320/1.1259675552.tuscany-living.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472993009096873138" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />The fact that he creates an almost complete world within his books. Not the least of which each book is a tome, truly. I read my first when I was about 12 years old, and I remember being impressed with my self that I could sustain 500 pages or more!<br /><br />The writing was always rich, rich in detail and I think that is important in an historical novel. I see Michener as basically analogous to the director Ridley Scott in that the atmosphere both create feels lived in.</span>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-16957411108021620462010-05-17T22:34:00.000-07:002010-05-20T19:53:05.740-07:00Inertia and Self Doubt<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">As I told 'an interested party,' this blog is primarily for myself. To get me writing and to get me thinking of issues that I want to bring out in this novel, about structure, about influences, about character, and even, yes, about marketing or creating a buzz about this thing if it ever does near completion and any interest is shown in it.<br /><br />I've found through experience that as far as I am concerned, plain old inertia and exhaustion--also self doubt and talking yourself out of sticking to a creative work--are by far my worst issues. Talent, usually--check. Structure and understanding all that--check. Time and other needs or fulfilling other peoples' 'needs,' or image issues, or what others want to pigeon hole you with, can also be a problem.<br /><br />And then there is jealousy. Strange thing with that, though, is that only you can produce what you want and need to produce, regardless of any fame or notoriety deserved or undeserved, making the whole thing a moot point in reality. Something for the lazy.<br /><br />And I'm feeling lazy.<br /><br />Maybe ideas of plot structure are in order after all. This is like building a house or cutting up firewood and stacking it--innately practical and delivers and instant and obvious evidence of having produced something immediately. </span></span><br /></span></span>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-1966843987585155612010-05-16T08:55:00.000-07:002010-05-20T19:50:26.451-07:00On Character Development<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQJL9vp_4htZ3yHj1gk2rOewv7l4PxHu61zKrlGBsr4n9PeCsyR8Couye0hLoRjvwp4_ibKk8jRusmIKTLtQTlENUkxxJH5k35gy4mOQKO0JlyRCwO4k_bhPTZcTFOR3Hd50rpfBLXkIZ9/s1600/906736_f520.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 188px; height: 142px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQJL9vp_4htZ3yHj1gk2rOewv7l4PxHu61zKrlGBsr4n9PeCsyR8Couye0hLoRjvwp4_ibKk8jRusmIKTLtQTlENUkxxJH5k35gy4mOQKO0JlyRCwO4k_bhPTZcTFOR3Hd50rpfBLXkIZ9/s320/906736_f520.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471905073896386866" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-family:georgia,bookman old style,palatino linotype,book antiqua,palatino,trebuchet ms,helvetica,garamond,sans-serif,arial,verdana,avante garde,century gothic,comic sans ms,times,times new roman,serif;font-size:85%;" ><br />You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.<br />~Ray Bradbury</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-family:georgia,bookman old style,palatino linotype,book antiqua,palatino,trebuchet ms,helvetica,garamond,sans-serif,arial,verdana,avante garde,century gothic,comic sans ms,times,times new roman,serif;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br />Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.<br />~Anton Chekhov</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >The characters are evolving as I think of the history of the house and the stories behind it. I'm also drawing on personalities (in a general way) I've known and witnessed in real life. Of course, this is all a work of fiction, and these characters are not meant to represent any real person, living or dead.</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="UIStory_Message" ><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Silvie '</span><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Sil</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">' </span><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Houlihan</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span></span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="UIStory_Message" ><br /><br />A prostitute that has made her way from Ireland to the mining towns of Arizona. She is the victim of a disease acquired aboard an immigrant ship that left her face scarred. However, this doesn't seem to stop her at all from her profession, which she plies with great manipulation and skill.</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >I keep thinking of this character in a way as Shakespeare's Caliban in the Tempest. I want to portray her in a sympathetic yet clear-eyed way. one of the things i wonder about is how ordinary evil occurs...and it does occur in all of our lives, no pretending. </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" ><br /><br />I'm</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > also, I know, strongly influenced by Annie </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" >Pollux's</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > story and characters </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" >in</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > 'the Shipping News,' which I feel is as strong a work of fiction as I have ever come across.</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >There has to be a fundamentalist preacher in this book, too:</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" >Sil's</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > father, probably. I spent a lot of time on </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" >Hubpages</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >' (a writing site) forums, watching a ludicrous religious spectacle. </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" >I'm</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > interested in fundamentalism as a source, frankly, of every day evil and why not seeing the forest for the trees begets evil. Or is it greed and avarice that underscores </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="text_exposed_show" >what the 'evangelical' really do? Do they believe there own crap...or just expect others too? When they achieve the $$ they are after, and squander them, is it like an addiction? What feeds it?<br /><br />White-haired, silver-tongued in a crude sort of way, absolutely at the core of things knowing what he is worth, alcoholic. </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="UIStory_Message" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">William S. 'Boss' Head:</span><br /><br />A young man of about 30 from a upper middle class New York family, a lawyer by profession, who comes west to Arizona with his brother to try his fortune in mining or other prospects. Bent on adventure and very capable, the two brothers settle around the min<span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">ing</span> towns prevalent in Arizona during the mid 1800's.</span></span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >This character...as it is shaping up...is based on Steinbeck's conception of the one brother in East of Eden, only I see William as a much stronger person. </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" >I've</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > also been influenced by a couple people </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" >I've</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > known in life.</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /></span><div id="text_expose_id_4bf014f378b50707f83ed" class="comment_actual_text"><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >I think </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" >I'm</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > going to make the two brothers that of a single character study. sort of a split duo character. So that </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" >William</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >, the younger of the two, has the strength and the innocence. The older brother will be image oriented, greedy, too full of propriety, conservative and politically motivated in a bad way...he also is one of </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" >Sil's</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > biggest customers, ;).</span><br /></div>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-56225380659767707092010-05-15T17:21:00.000-07:002010-05-20T19:50:46.679-07:00First Thoughts<div style="text-align: right;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijlJQyuBWiYGDcdoIPdwEK3rr55O8xQCbZpy8ZvJTQxCh59XReqcI-dy8vji9EUzjN_W49ooGxKSbFAHjaLaZNBCDxrZ52G6gXtyvZcSPz86YPziW05K0Uv40ZCN3YfawTDC1aX6xyGqQm/s1600/SW_EllisIsland_Book.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 121px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijlJQyuBWiYGDcdoIPdwEK3rr55O8xQCbZpy8ZvJTQxCh59XReqcI-dy8vji9EUzjN_W49ooGxKSbFAHjaLaZNBCDxrZ52G6gXtyvZcSPz86YPziW05K0Uv40ZCN3YfawTDC1aX6xyGqQm/s320/SW_EllisIsland_Book.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471657433031159794" border="0" /></a><br /></div><h3 class="UIIntentionalStory_Message" ft="{"type":"msg"}"><br /></h3><h3 class="UIIntentionalStory_Message" ft="{"type":"msg"}"><br /></h3><h3 style="font-weight: normal; color: rgb(153, 51, 0);font-family:times new roman;" class="UIIntentionalStory_Message" ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="UIStory_Message" style="font-size:85%;">The first thoughts I've had on the structure of my novel- which is way weird, because with my other books that is the first thing I thought of - mapping out the structure. But they were nonfiction, and that is a totally different thing. I mean, it doesn't have to be, but if you want your book to be a literary work...<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">a true slice of thoughts, feelings and the things important to you, I think it does have to perhaps come in pieces. at least for me.<br /><br />So, I'm thinking I have to set part of the novel back east in New York, and the part with the character Silvie maybe before Ellis island, on an immigrant ship. wow...and I'm just remembering these incredible photos of the interior of the buildings I saw in Santa Fe by Stephen Wilkes in one of the galleries there.</span></span></h3>Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8067533324496074386.post-70363142081952686132010-05-15T16:25:00.000-07:002013-07-14T18:13:23.185-07:00A blog detailing the development of a first novel<br />Lena Severinsenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08936522554960410036noreply@blogger.com0