At this point NaNoWriMo 2022 has been in full swing for a little over 24 hours. I am a couple of thousand words into my story for the year, and enjoying the process immensely. But that means that I have little time for a long, detailed blog post. That being said…
The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for November 2022 is:
November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?
This is my tenth year participating in NaNoWriMo, and I have loved the experience throughout, even in those years where I didn’t get to 50,000 words. I recommend that everyone try it at least once.
This was the month I finally made it to the bottom of my stack of back issues of The Paris Review. It was a wondrous, wild ride full of some of the best writing I have experienced in my adult life, but I feel a sense of relief now that I am done.
This was also the month in which I passed 200 pieces of short prose read, which means 2022, for all its chaos and uncertainty, was a stellar year for reading.
As we move into the last few Bottom of the Top posts, where I consider the songs which were at #40 on the Billboard charts during this week in various years, I have decided that one year was enough, and I will not be continuing these posts into 2023. It was fun, and a BIG nostalgia trip, but it isn’t the kind of project I want to continue indefinitely. I will still offer up occasional music posts, but they will be more centered around a single song, or artist, or topic, or memory.
Oh yeah, this song. I probably heard it when it first came out, and on the radio first on contemporary, and then (and now) classical stations. That opening guitar riff. The opening “ooOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOoooo” hits me right in the nostalgias and I don’t recall a time when “Swingtown” was not part of my life. My strongest association is riding the bus, which means it was still on heavy rotation in the years that followed, as in 1977 I was a walk-three-blocks-to-school latchkey kid in our little town of Parma.
“Shadows of the Night” received a lot of radio play, and I heard it a lot while milking cows, Sunday mornings and afternoons. Also probably on the bus on the way to and from eights grade. However, being thirteen at the time, I was probably so wrapped up in hormone-fed angst that I didn’t pay a lot of attention. Plus at the time, for comfort, I spent a lot of time listening to the local country station and its rotation of about thirty songs.
I never really got into Michael Bolton. I acknowledge his talent, but there is something about his voice and general vibe, at least when it comes to easy-listening music, which grates on my nerves. Or maybe I just associate him with unsuccessful attempts at romance in my late teens. Yeah, that’s probably it.
I first saw this video when putting together this post. I say that with confidence because I certainly would have remembered the dude in the armor. I have no specific memory of “How About That” but I probably heard it somewhere. I get some definite “If You Needed Somebody” vibes, but that’s probably just because Bad Company has such a distinct sound.
November is nigh. It is not quite here, but it looms, casting the shadow of NaNoWriMo backward in time from a couple of days in the future.
This was another excellent week for new arrivals at the Library of Winkelman Abbey.
The first three are publications from Lakeshore Literary, a new-ish local literary concern which grew, in a sense, out of the demise of Caffeinated Press. Owner Jason Gillikin has done a stellar job in launching this new company, and I was happy to support them by purchasing their anthology Surface Reflections, as well as issues one and two of The Lakeshore Review.
Next up is the Fall 2022 edition of Peninsula Poets, from the Poetry Society of Michigan. This is probably the only subscription I will continue into the new year.
And next is a long awaited reward from a Kickstarter run by Neil Clarke at Clarkesworld Magazine: A Summer Beyond Your Reach, a collection of short fiction from Chinese author Xia Jia. This project has suffered some significant slings and arrows, including COVID, difficulties coordinating between persons in the USA and China, one of the principles of the project suffering some serious health problems, and ongoing supply chain disruptions. It was originally scheduled to be published in November of 2019, and given the events of the past few years it is a small miracle that the book made it to print at all. But it is here now, and it is absolutely beautiful, and everyone involved should be proud of the accomplishment.
In reading news, I took a break from periodicals to dive into some of the recent book acquisitions, including Marissa Lingen‘s collection of short stories Monstrous Bonds, and the new collection of Jim Harrison’s nonfiction, The Search for the Genuine. Now I’m back at the magazines again, with the recent issue of Poetry in front of me, and possibly one more issue of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet before the end of the month, which happens at, er, midnight tomorrow.
In writing news, I am about as ready as possible for NaNoWriMo, and counting the hours until November 1.
I had an interesting writer experience a couple of days ago. I was eating lunch at work and reading the new issue of Poetry, when I read a line in Troy Osaki‘s poem “Despedida for the Last Despedida,” and a short story suddenly appeared in my head, set in the world I assembled for the previous two NaNoWriMo stories, fully plotted and partially written. Being at work, I didn’t have time to do more than write down a couple of evocative lines in my journal which will, hopefully, serve to keep the story in my memory long enough to put together a first draft.
This experience is a good reminder that while we should “read well”, as Karen Lord advised her audience at ConFusion 2015, we should also read broadly, as inspiration can come from anywhere, and ideas can be triggered by anything.
Late October means football games, cider, picking apples, sleet, Halloween, and angst. Sometimes all in the same day.
1977: The Carpenters, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”
This is just a weird song, which I don’t think I have heard before. I had not heard it until putting together this post and, having heard it, I don’t like it.
“I’m So Excited” was all over the radio in the early eighties, and it was strange to listen to it while down in the pit in the milking parlor, trying to coax milkers onto cows which had never been milked before, getting kicked and covered in manure as fun, happy songs like this one taunted us from our crappy little radio.
I remember exactly when I first heard this song – fall semester of 1988, a year after Big Generator was released, and I picked up the cassette tape version at the urging of a young woman upon whom I was sweet at the time, several weeks into my sophomore year at GVSU. I like it, and I like Big Generator, though the previous studio album 90125 caused such a huge splash in my life that most other Yes songs kind of get drowned out.
I think I heard this one back in its day, but anything from the Pump Up the Jam album is almost completely drowned out in my memory by, well, “Pump Up the Jam.”
I am pretty sure I have not heard “Sock It 2 Me” before now, and I certainly would have remembered the video, had I seen it before. It’s just weird and wonderful, and considering it came out in 1997, feels a little ahead of its time, in a nostalgic retro-futurism sort of way. Come to think of it, I wonder if Missy Elliott and company were the occupants of the interplanetary craft who The Carpenters were trying to contact back in 1977..?
My partner was out of town for a few days, so I had the house to myself. Well, not entirely to myself. Better to say that Poe and Pepper had the house to themselves, with me furtively creeping around, making sure they stayed fed and feted, so they wouldn’t stage a coup. Not that much would change if they did so successfully.
October continues to be a stellar month for additions to the library, with several new titles arriving in the past week.
First up, fresh from a successful Kickstarter campaign, is Chokepoint Capitalism by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow.
Next is the latest issue of Poetry, probably my second-to-last as my subscription winds down.
Next is Legacy of Bronze by T.L. Greylock and Bryce O’Connor. This is the sequel to Shadows of Ivory, which I picked up at the beginning of the year and read about a month ago.
Next is one I have been awaiting for a very long time. The Herbalist’s Primer, published by Exalted Funeral, was part of a Kickstarter which I backed in September of last year. Thanks to *gestures at everything* printing was delayed many times, but the Kickstarter rewards finally arrived, and the book is beautiful!
In reading news, I am quite enjoying my journey through the pages of my stack of back issues of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. Such good writing in here!
In writing news, I am still plotting out the story I will write for NaNoWriMo which starts in a little over a week (!).
Moving past mid- and into late October, the next big concern is, of course, Halloween. Unfortunately I don’t remember what I did for Halloween on any of the following dates. Probably Spider-Man or Batman in 1977, but after that? No idea.
“You Make Loving Fun” is, for me, the Fleetwood Mac song, and though it was many years before I knew to listen to music closely enough to suss out the lyrics, the bits I could pick out, about “magic” and “miracles” made this one stick in my head even at a young age. Later on it stuck in my head for other reasons. I don’t have any specific memory of the first time I head this one, nor do I associate it with any particular memories, other than that of being young and optimistic.
I don’t know if I heard this song first as itself or as the jingle for Close Up toothpaste. As a 13-year-old stuck on a farm in the middle of nowhere (or so it felt at the time), I was a TV addict and so certainly heard this one, eventually, in addition to 15-second snippets in between episodes of whatever was on in the fall of 1982. Interesting that Ronstadt’s “Blue Bayou” was in a post a month ago, in the 1977 slot. Things do tend to come back around.
“Don’t You Want Me” has that mid-1980s song. I don’t remember hearing it before but it could simply have been lost in the crowd of other poppy dance songs, and of course overshadowed by her huge hit “Lookin’ for a New Love.” I associate her voice and general sound with, well, college. And MTV. And simultaneously freezing and roasting in the marching band as a second-trombone freshman.
Hard to say if I had ever heard this one. 1992 was such a strange year for me when it came to pop culture. I was working my ass off in several capstone classes, learning a new language, getting into the martial arts classes, working long late hours at Jose Babusha’s and generally didn’t have time to do anything fun or relax and enjoy songs like this one, pleasant as it is.
I don’t know if I have ever heard Rimes’ version of “You Light Up My Life,” because the Debbie Boone version was ubiquitous throughout my life. Rimes’ version is good, but Boone’s is baked into my DNA.
Rumor has it that this winter will be long and cold, thanks to a weaker El Nino system out west. It isn’t apparent at the moment, as this whole week, the middle of October, was in the sixties and seventies during the day, with one night warm enough to sleep with the bedroom window open a crack. Still, even in the sunniest of afternoons, standing in the shadows reminds me that the days are indeed shorter than the nights.
Several new books arrived at the house in the past week.
First up is Planet On3, recently released by superb artist (and my good friend!) Ryan Lee. He has been working on it for some time, and the character designs go back to doodles he has been working on for many years, so I am overjoyed to see this book in print.
Next is Look Again: A Memoir, by Elizabeth A. Trembley. I met Trembley years ago at at the informal open studio hosted by poet Jack Ridl. When Caffeinated Press was still around, I published some of her artwork in The 3288 Review. I knew she was drawing comics, but we fell out of touch and I didn’t know she was working on a book until Jack announced that Look Again had just been released.
Next is the new issue of Salvage which will join the small stack of unread issues which I will get to probably sometime in the spring of 2023.
Next, fresh from a successful Kickstarter campaign, is That Which Cannot Be Undone: An Ohio Horror Anthology, which arrived just in time for the Halloween season.
In reading news, at long last I have reached the end of my stack of The Paris Review. As I mentioned last week, reading so much literature in a compressed time-span can lead to some interesting coincidences. The most recent instance was with issue #239, which contained an excerpt from the journals of Annie Ernaux, who just won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
I had never before read Ernaux, and indeed was barely aware of her existence before the Nobel, so to read these journal entries (which were exquisite, by the way, and exquisitely translated from the French by Alison L. Strayer) so recently after having heard of her Nobel win, felt kind of like the universe was telling me something; like I was, to crib from John Constantine, riding the synchronicity highway.
Relatedly, Ernaux’s journal excerpts, which I believe were pulled from her book Getting Lost, reminded me of Emmanuelle Pagano‘s beautiful Trysting, which I read several years ago.
Now that I am done with The Paris Review (barring a possible last issue which might appear at the end of the year), I have moved on to my small stack of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, a small magazine of genre fiction published by Small Beer Press. So far, a couple of issues in, the stories and poems are delightful! I might even renew my subscription to LCRW after I clean out my back-log of other unread periodicals.
In writing news, NaNoWriMo looms on the horizon, and I have yet to complete, or even seriously start, my preliminary notes. The next two weeks will pass quickly.
No matter what year contains it, October always seems to move quickly as the days grow noticeably shorter and the weather transitions from warm to cold, and the trees change colors from the unity of green through the wondrous variety of autumn to the unity of brown at the end of the season.
“Do Your Dance” is way too cool for me to have heard it when it was first released, or indeed at any time where I was living in rural southern Michigan. That said, there is something about the song, particularly the double-clap in the intro, which brings up a faint memory of shag carpet and cigarette smoke, so I probably heard it at my cool aunt’s house, or maybe while visiting friends whose sense of musical adventure went far beyond e.g. James Taylor.
I LOVE this song, and I am sad to say that I don’t think I had heard “Hourglass” before putting together this post. It is joyful and bouncy and wow, what a great video. I am familiar with Squeeze, mostly due to their more well-known songs “Black Coffee in Bed” and “Cool for Cats.” Then again, there is something familiar about “Hourglass,” so maybe I caught it in passing on MTV. Again, this would have been during my first semester at Grand Valley State University, which was for me a sustained state of sensory overload.
I had to listen to this song over and Over and OVER while working at Jose Babushka’s on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns.
Next is Marissa Lingen‘s chapbook of short stories, Monstrous Bonds. I met Marissa at ConFusion back in 2015, and have enjoyed her fiction, poetry and book reviews for several years.
Next is Duncan Hannah‘s memoir 20th Century Boy. As I wrote back in August, I had not heard of Hannah until reading excerpts from this book in The Paris Review, and when I searched for more info discovered that he had died this past June. How’s that for timing?
Next is Jim C. Hines‘ newest entry in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series, Terminal Peace. I see Jim every year at ConFusion, so I hope to run into him again and, with a little luck, get this book signed.
Last but not least, and fresh from a successful Kickstarter campaign, is Michael J. Sullivan‘s Fairlane, the sequel to Nolyn and the second book of the Rise and Fall series.
In reading news, I have two more issues of The Paris Review left on my stack, and should be finished with them in short order.
In writing news, I have completed nothing cohesive, but am making good progress on the worldbuilding for my NaNoWriMo project. So even if I don’t write 50,000 words in November, I will have a good base to finish the book, no matter how long it takes.
