Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Archive for the category “reflections”

27 Dec 2016
2 Comments

Throw, THORoh,ThRow–that is the question



image: pintrest (this expression is no doubt related to the tolerance and forebearance he withstands of mispronouncing his name)

It’s more than embarrassing to realize the mangling of pronouncing a word, let alone it’s the name of a significant author. Authoritative responsibility is lacking. Students expect me to know how to say it if I’m teaching it. It’s one thing is mispronounce a word from time to time (can’t quite get synecdoche to come out right–it always sounds like a city of the Jersey state) and try as I might I still mangle words from time to time, but I do need to be better prepared when it comes to introducing writers to my students. For starters, this author list is definitely helping me to reestablish my reputation for literary name dropping. 

NOTE: my first list inconveniently vanished–this is from  www.pegasusbookexchange.com

Chinua Achebe (CHIN-wah uh-CHEH-beh)

Isabel Allende (ah-YEN-day)

Maya Angelou (MY-uh AN-juh-loo)

Avi (AH-vee)

Albert Camus (ahl-BEHR kah-MOO)

Paulo Coelho (POW-loo KWEH-lyoo)

Michael Crichton (KRY-tun)

Junot Diaz (JOO-no DEE-as)

Cory Doctorow (DOC-tuh-roh)

John Donne (dun)

Ken Follett (rhymes with “wallet”)

Neil Gaiman (GAY-mun, rhymes with “Cayman” as in the islands)

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (YO-hahn VULF-gahng GUH-tuh)

Seamus Heaney (SHAY-muss HEE-nee)

Brian Jacques (like “jake”)

Jack Kerouac (like “care uh wack”)

John Le Carré (luh kah-RAY)

Vladimir Nabokov (vlah-DEE-mir nuh-BOH-koff)

Samuel Pepys (peeps)

Ayn Rand (first name rhymes with “mine”)

Rainer Maria Rilke (RY-nur mah-REE-uh RILL-kuh)

J. K. Rowling (like “rolling”)

Louis Sachar (rhymes with “cracker”)

Jon Scieszka (SHES-kuh)

Shel Silverstein (SIL-ver-steen)

Donald J. Sobol (SO-bull)

Henry David Thoreau (like “thorough”)

Paul Theroux (thuh-ROO)

J. R. R. Tolkein (TOLL-keen)

Evelyn Waugh (EVE-lin wah)

Elie Wiesel (elly vee-ZELL)

P. G. Wodehouse (like “woodhouse”): Merriam-Webster

Herman Wouk (like “woke”) 
If there are any other writerly pronunciations that are tricky, oh please send them my way. 

Posted in authors, reflections and tagged
22 Dec 2016
3 Comments

Literary Book Boosters


I am a professed Book Booster, and most, if not all of you, reading my musings enjoy reading as well. Glad you’re here, and thanks for dropping by.

As I close out the  year, I wanted to give more than a  nod to Book Boosters found in literature. These are characters whose love of reading defines them and is central to the plot.

1. Scout Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird

Image result for scout of to kill a mockingbird

image: Houston Chronicle

Her love of reading gets her in trouble with the teacher on the first day of school because a first grader isn’t supposed to read yet–according to Miss Caroline. That’s the teacher’s job, as Scout finds out. Scout and Jem are always referring to books, often they become the object of bets made. The novel ends with Atticus and Scout reading The Grey Ghost (a definite correlation to Boo) as they wait for Jem to recover.

2. Jo March of Little Women

Image result for Jo March reading

image: Pintrest

Jo’s love of stories, both reading and writing them, propel her towards her goal if becoming an author.

3. Guy Montag of Fahrenheit 451

Image result for Guy Montag reading

image: lecinemadreams.blogspot.com

Guy Montag goes from book burner to book booster as he discovers the powerful message of allowing one’s imagination to roam unfettered. Reading books has him questioning the government’s oppressive rule over people’s freedom. He is willing to die for his love of books.

3. Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey

Image result for catherine morland northanger abbey reading

image: Pintresst

Catherine’s fascination with Gothic romances fuels her imagination to the point of her concocting a horrible family secret that brings shame and ridicule upon her and jeopardizes her future. Jane Austen obviously had some fun poking fun at the Gothic romance trend of her day.

4.  Liesel Meminger of The Book Thief

Image result for Liesel Meminger of The Book Thief

image: Wiki

Liesel’s hunger for books leads her to steal them from a private library. The need to read becomes life-threatening when Hitler locks down on Germany’s freedom of expression during WWII. Liesel’s love of reading becomes her solace during the horrendous experiences of the war.

5. Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables

 

Image result for Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables reading

image: anneofgreengables.com

Fiery-haired and a fiery disposition fuels Anne towards her goal of taking her imagination and putting her ideas to paper. This beloved series captures the natural relationship between reading and writing.

BOOK BOOSTER CALL OUT…
I know there are more literature loving characters out there. This is where you chime in: who do you nominate needing a nod as a Literary Book Booster?

Posted in authors, Literature, reflections and tagged ,
15 Dec 2016

The Woeful Tale of Beowulf 


Great story–

Everything going pretty well for a king and his village and then out of nowhere this monster reeks destruction (a smelly monster because it lives in a swamp) killing all the strongest and best warriors.  For fourteen years!

The hero arrives. 

Not just any hero. Not only is he an amazing hero–he is epic.

Briefly put, he not only fights the monster but does so naked of weapon (a bit of literary humor). AND he takes on and defeats the monster’s mama who is twice as monsterish.

The king and village are saved. Our hero is more epic than ever. He returns to his homeland and eventually becomes king. He rules for fifty years over a peaceful kingdom. Goes out fighting a dragon. His people love him so much they create a barrow (think–round grassy pyramid).

Our hero’s tale becomes one of the most popular hero tales out there. He’s right up there with ancient epic heroes like Odysseus and Achilles.

Yup–we’re talking Beowulf.

You’d think someone could make a decent film adaptation.

This is the woe of Beowulf. His story has yet to be told.

Adaptation: 2005

Image: pintrest


This has promise. Gerard Butler. Nordic ponies. A troll. Epic setting. Frightening kelta. Everyone looks sufficiently cold and miserable. Then it gets R-rated. Not classroom watchable.

Adaptation: 2007


image: Wikipedia 

English teachers were so excited about this version that a field trip was arranged to the Imax. Bus loads of seniors traveled an hour riding in their preferred mode of cheeswagon to watch a cartoon that so strangely twisted the tale of Beowulf that it is not worth discussing. Most people went to see Angie dressed up as a golden dragon who wears high heels. Truth.

Adaptation : 2015

Image:tvspoiler.com

This is Beowulf in an alternate universe. That’s the only explanation I have. Not much is even close to the original story except they have named the main guy Beowulf and there are some monsters running around. A short-lived TV series. There’s a reason for that.

Beowulf is a really amazing story and no one can get it right. Maybe Marvel can get a greenlight and make it a go.

Oh–I do have one version worth showing. Kind of. It’s also animated but no famous actors were present unless you count the narrrator, Derek Jacobi, and other assorted worthwhile Brit actors lending their voice talents such as Joseph Fiennes.

Adaptation: 1998


This faithfully follows the story. The only strange part is the monster, Grendel, is rendered as a furry green Jello creature instead of a troll. There is also a trippy interlude of Beowulf fighting the dragon.

Film folk–open challenge: 

Bring Beowulf to the screen so there is no more woe when watching Beowulf.

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09 Dec 2016
5 Comments

November Reading Round Up


I’m closing in on my Good Reads goal of 101 books!

Here are my November highlights:

Empty Places by Kathy Cannon Wiechman


Adabel Cutler is wanting to remember her mother, yet there are empty places in her memory and she can’t quiet the need to find the answer to why her mama left the family seven years ago.

Set in the Kentucky mining area of Harlan County during the lean times of The Depression, author Kathy Cannon Wiechman provides a rich portrait of a young teenage girl and her family struggling against hard times and poverty. 

Adabel’s voice and her persistence to find the truth is strong and aptly presented in the dialect of the area. The author’s research adds to the realism of the story and provides insights about the coal mining community that is beneficial to students studying The Great Depression.

The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett


Boy meets girl. Once. Twice. Three times. The typical romance story takes a turn of shoulda, woulda, and coulda. A girl and a boy meet in their young twenties, and readers follow three possibilities of their romance into their seventies.

It’s a bit like a choose-your-own adventure book, yet reading this type of format is not for one looking for a leisurely read. Just as one gets involved in version one, it changes to version two, and then goes to version three. And so goes the tempo. 

Personally, I gave up and followed version three and decided one read was enough, and did not go back and read the other two versions. 

It’s a clever idea, and I have tried other books that try this multiple plot device. They don’t work for me. I want it to work, but I don’t want to work that hard when I settle down for my leisure reading sessions.

The Alchemist by Paul Coelho


I experienced The Alchemist as an audio read the first time on a long drive a few years ago. I think having Jeremy Irons read the book to me enhanced the magical of the read. I highly recommend the audio version.

The second time I read it in one sitting, appreciative of the full color illustrations which complemented the story. Overall? I preferred the audio version. Jeremy Irons knows how to tell a story.

For those who disliked the book, and some of the reader reactions were intense, I suggest listening to the book, for it truly is like a long endearing bedtime story. Set aside apathetic notions and listen to a story of a boy seeking his heart’s desire. There’s still a bit of the child in all of us ( I hope).

And I continue reading…

With only a couple of more weeks until my December deadline I am trying to squeeze reading time in when I can: at the gym while I pedal in my mile or walk off my 💯 calorie warm up; decompressing after a long day trying to interest sophomores in how to analyze a short story; a few minutes before going to bed (and getting smacked in the face as I succumb to sleep).

A stack of books taunts me on my side table. I shall find time to finish strong. I shall. I shall.

Anyone else have a reading goal for the year?

Posted in reflections
25 Nov 2016
1 Comment

Grrs and Grreats: Round Two


A while back I posted a list of things that irritated me. Wanting to balance that negativity, I found a positive for that irritant, turning a “grrumble” into a “grreat.” I hoped to change my attitude of complaint into a more joyful outlook.

Well–life does continue, and old habits are often difficult to break. A running account of grrumbles has been creeping into my thoughts, and today, a day of Thanksgiving, seemed an appropriate time to get the balance sheet out.

Grrumble:

  • People who don’t turn on their headlights, especially when they drive a dark car on a dark day.

Ggreat:

  • People who courteously flick their lights to remind me I have forgotten to turn my lights on.

Grrumble:

  • The books that I have marked to read from my review newsletters aren’t carried at my library.

Grreat:

  • When I request the title as an inter-library loan, often the library buys it for their collection.

Grrumble:

  • It takes three months to lose two pounds, but I can gain four pounds over one weekend.

Grreat:

  • I got a good deal at the local gym by paying in advance six months.

Grrumble:

  • Students who don’t care about their learning experience and create havoc with their grades and attitude.

Grreat:

  • Those students who give back to school with participation in academics and extra-curricular efforts.

Grrumble:

  • Commercial Christmas emphasis before Thanksgiving. Especially before Halloween.

Grreat:

  • Colossians 3:12-17

Grrumble:

  • Daylight Saving Time.

Grreat:

  • Still working on that one. Oh–Happy Lights!

Finding a bit of light when it’s gloomy is not always easy, yet I have to remind myself a rainbow is the result of rain mixed with sun and this reminds me to be thankful and find a way to have an attitude of gratitude no matter how grrumbly I might be feeling.

Posted in reflections and tagged
18 Nov 2016

DST PTSD


Simon and Garfunkel may have considered darkness their old friend, but I am daylight oriented. When  we roll into Daylight Saving Time each year I get feeling a bit bruised– afternoons disappearing into instant inky black evenings leaves me blue.

This definitely affects my writerly creativity as I mainly want to curl up in my lounger with a cup of cocoa and a book, hibernating until spring returns with its fair portions of sunlight. Good thing I have lots of editing to do because new ideas are hibernating.

As I write this I’ve got my Happy Light on and my vitamin D waiting in the cupboard. I should play George Harrison’s ditty in the morning as my wake up time tune. The positive belief that the sun is soon to come along might pep me up. Winter is not my season. 

No, I’m not a fan of snow either–that’s a whole nother post.

Anyone else having Daylight Saving Time Post Trauma?

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12 Nov 2016
10 Comments

Author Spotlight: Mary Stewart


Mary Stewart remains one of my go to authors when I’m caught short of good page-turning reading. Her plots usually crackle with suspense, interesting characters, and often have an unexpected plot twist. The biggest problem with this author choice is that I’ve run out of her books and there are no fresh titles forthcoming since she past away in 2014.

 image:marystewartblogspot

Born in 1916 as Mary Florence Elinor Rainbow, she began writing stories at a the tender age of seven and published her first novel Madame, Will You Talk? in 1954. Critics received her efforts warmly, praising her capable, intelligent heroines and clever plots. 

She met and married her husband, Frederick Stewart, three months after meeting him at a VE dance in 1945. They remained married till his death in 2001. He was knighted in 1974, yet she never referred to herself as Lady Stewart. She was a university lecturer in English Language and Literature, which explains her ease  and ability with storytelling.

Her trademark style involves placing a young intelligent English woman in a foreign setting, such as Greece, Spain, or Austria. The heroine finds herself caught up in a mystery with mysterious men, who are suspect of their intentions. Her prose and attention to details and dialogue placed her novels beyond the usual fare of romantic suspense.

With the success of White’s novel about King Arthur, and taking advantage of the interest in the Kennedy Camelot years, Stewart produced her memorable five part Arthurian series, known as the Merlin Chronicles. This is actually how I first met her.

In college, I became smitten with science fantasy and King Arthur. I spent many pleasurable hours reading about Arthur through Merlin’s point of view. I later moved on to her other titles having hopes, I suppose, she would return to Arthur some day.

One of her novels, The Moon-Spinners became a Disney movie starring Hayley Mills. While it didn’t do well at the box office (due to a darker tone than most Disney movies because of violence) it is a crackerjack of a film because it captures the suspense of Stewart’s novel so well. Yes, some of the plot elrments were changed, but overall Stewart’s plot transferred well to screen.

Stewart’s popularity stayed strong during her writing years through the seventies and eighties, and she produced twenty novels, poetry, and a couple of children’s books.

She retired to Scotland and lived to a well-earned 97 years.

I hope to hunt down the titles I have yet to read through my library’s wonderful inter-library loan service.

Any other Mary Stewart fans in the house?

Posted in authors, reflections and tagged
05 Nov 2016
5 Comments

Words of Wonder: first set


As a confessed word nerd my thoughts on subscribing to a word-a-day service shouldn’t be too surprising. I know you all have been waiting patiently for my list of words of wonder, words I’ve just learned.


A little background first. As a teacher of Advanced Placement English I know how important finding just the right word can be, and how the essay readers do delight in the right diction. 

With this in mind I polished up a vocabulary system for my students, both Language and Literature, and have enjoyed their weekly sentences. This means my word-a-day segment has slipped to the wayside in our routine. Yet, these words are so delightful I cannot allow them to languish. I have harvested an abundance of verbiage, and like those extra apples on the tree, I feel compelled to share my bounty with my neighbors. 

SET ONE

1. quotidian: usual or customary; everyday: quotidian needs.

Sarah languished in her quotidian routine living on her family’s Kansas farm, and longed for the glamour of New York that she read about in her subscription magazines.

2. obdurate: stubbornly resistant to moral influence; persistently impenitent; unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings; stubborn; unyielding.

Franklin and Giselle valiantly attempted to persuade Uncle Max from wearing the garish lavender tie inset with tropical fishes to the awards banquet, and the more they pleaded with him, the more obdurate he remained in his refusal to wear the selected navy tie.

3. galimatias: confused or unintelligible talk.

Mrs Lignise sighed as she unfailingly attempted to tune out the loud, annoying galimatias surrounding her, chiding herself for her decision to chaperone the seventh graders on their bus trip to the museum.

Fave Pick of the Week: galimatias

It’s almost onomatopoeic: gal-uh-MEY-shee-uh s

It sounds all garbly and confused. A delicious word.

I’m hoping to interject a shortened version, thus creating a new word adoption.

I introduce “gali” as in: 

She just went on and on about the importance of prepositions. Honestly, it was just gali after the first two minutes.

Hoping your day has been brightened through these wonderful words.

Remember: Avoid lapsing into becoming obdurate about including new words in your quotidian outings.

Posted in reflections and tagged
24 Oct 2016

Why We Say #26:rolling and ruling


Two quick “r”s before moving on to the S section:

As a teacher I must adhere to a couple of musts and one of those is taking attendance. I still find myself referring to it as “taking roll” which brings to mind me in a drill sergeant uniform and yelling out last names of my students as they stand at attention at their desks before sitting down to receive instruction. Now there’s a movie in the making, I know there is. Kind of a GI Jane meets Dead Poets Society. Wait a minute–I think Michelle Pfeiffer did it already. Never mind.

Seriously, taking attendance or taking roll, is a must-do within the first ten minutes of class. I have to scamper over to my desk computer and make sure all my darlings are in plus before dishing out my lesson du jour. So where did roll call come from?

Back in the day before books were bound, important documents were rolled up sheets of parchment, eventually become rolled paper. When a group assembled and the need to know who was present and who was not, the one taking attendance would unroll the paper and call out the names. Aah–so attendance and roll taking are in cahoots. I have a role in taking roll. I’ll take mine with cinnamon, thank you.

Image result for cinnamon roll

image: livestrong.com (I wouldn’t mind attending to these rolls…)

Teachers make judgments all the time. Sometimes I have time to make a quantitative decision based on fact and experience, no science involved at all, while other times I take a rule of thumb measurement and hope for the best. Seat of the pants decision making–but that term is somewhere in the S zone coming up.

Rule of thumb–an odd little expression that harkens back to the days when people measured not with accurate tools but with their body parts. Yes, the ark was built with elbow power (check out cubit sometime). In this case thumbs and fingers measured a given unit. It probably wasn’t as accurate as a measuring tape or a ruler, but if those are invented yet a person improvises. Yes, improvised decisions are called rule of thumb.

Image result for rule of thumb

You know something–why we say these sayings do make more than sense. Although putting a crown on my thumb would be kind of weird.

Posted in reflections, sayings and tagged | Leave a comment
19 Oct 2016
7 Comments

Historically speaking, dancing, writing…


When I received my manuscript comments  I was a bit taken by one particular sentence from the agent. She seemed to hesitate at reading about a family who had traditional roles: women in the kitchen, menfolk working outside. She didn’t think it would be readily accepted. Maybe I hadn’t emphasized in my pitch that the setting is 1860s gold rush era or maybe she missed that point. Back then, women and men did function in traditional roles. Yes, we like those Annie Oakley stories, where someone steps out and does some gender bending, yet history is chock full of regular people in regularly expected roles.

I shelf my manuscript comments, but then another historical noticeable comes up on my radar.

Instead of deleting the email, I decide to take up the offer of teaching a trial rhetorical analysis lesson with Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams”–yes, it was indeed a hit with my students. What proved interesting was the backlash Swift received for marketing a perceived colonialism video since the cast and crew were about 99% white on location in Africa. And here I thought she was channeling Elizabeth Taylor ala 1950s.

Once again historically the setting details were correct in that whites dominated the fifties Hollywood scene and the video would not look quite right having a multi-ethnic set.

Another recent creative endeavor got me thinking that we are becoming either enlightened to the point of oversensitivity or we’re becoming very confused. I refer to Hamilton the musical. The cast is anything goes in terms of ethnicity. And I have no problem with casting for ability rather than color, yet I see this reluctance towards accepting history as it really was. Are we uncomfortable with defined roles as they were set down in the history books?

 

This loose interpretation of roles has even drifted into ballroom dancing, very traditionally gender coded: men lead, women follow. A recent TedTalk revealed this is changing into what is called “liquid lead,” which I can relate to since I never know what I’m doing when dancing and end up inadvertently leading. The most fascinating implications at stake as women now have the option of taking the lead when on the floor. Except–I don’t think scenes like this would be the same…

 

 

As a writer I am aware of trends and it’s worrisome that to write a story set in a time period where men were men and the women women, makes the publishing powers uncomfortable. Do I have to ignore history to radically shape it to fit modern audiences? Does a character have to chose an alternate path to deserve notice?

What are your thoughts, readers? Are we dissatisfied with history enough to change it to reflect our contemporary concerns in all artistic endeavors–from stories to musicals to even dancing?

Posted in reflections, Writing and tagged ,

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