Beware

"Watch out for men who are on speaking terms with the Almighty." Rule 34 in the SOUTHERN BELLE'S HANDBOOK.

And now that Michelle Bachman is blaming natural phenomena on people who disagree with her politics, I'd say we'd better watch out for women, too.

Lots of Laughs in London

Just got back from Europe. My first stop was the Soho Comedy Club, the friendliest, hippest, most intelligent comedy club in London.

In the top photo Kate Smurthwaite one of the best MCs on the comedy circuit is introducing the acts. They call MCs compairs (compeer compare--I have no idea how they spell it. It's a British thing.) Anyway, she's a genius in warming up the crowd, because the relationship between the audience and the stand-up comic is key. Kate makes it easy for everyone to have a good time. In the second photo is David Mulholland, stand-up extraordinaire. David was a military-econimics journalist before giving it up to do stand-up. So he's smart and funny. He also runs the club.

Okay, full disclosure. I'm related to David and Kate's his wife. But I'm also a tough judge of talent. And I wouldn't be writing this if I was proud of them both.

Travel

Put a Poem In your Pocket

The wonderful writers on SheWrites have a great suggestion--put a poem in your pocket and carry it around with you today. Click on this link and be sure to read the beautiful and moving poem by Borges entitled INSTANTS. It begins, "If I could live again my life..." http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/paper-the-world-with-poetry.

I would reprint it here, but I don't have the rights and literary rights are important to me.

BRAVE STUDENTS--CREATIVE WRITING

Actress-writer Deborah Pratt and I have signed on to teach a 5 week creative writing workshop for high school students in Pacoima, CA.

The kids are all good looking and brave. And they each have more responsibility than any teenager should. Some are caring for sick parents. Others have little children of their own. We see them shoulder their responsibilities with courage and grace. Each has a story to tell. It’s our job to help them tell it.

We meet every Tuesday in Pacoima, CA with their independent-studies teacher Barrie Becker and a caring social worker from El Nido Family Centers, one of California’s leading non-profit agencies, dedicated to helping kids flourish and achieve their goals.

Women's Day and Beyond

I received an email from actress Leslie Easterbrook whom I’ve recently met and whom you’ve undoubtedly seen in films, TV, or on Broadway. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0247579/

In keeping with the injunction—don’t hide your light under a bushel, I’m publishing it here:

Just finished Belle and I can't stop thinking about her. My eye has taken a few nasty turns, so reading a book overnight was not without sacrifice -- but, I couldn't put it down. I know she's a fictional character, but without real women like her, we would still be living in the dark ages -- and dying in back rooms. As I write this, I'm listening to Ed Schutz, in WI on MSNBC, and realizing that keeping our rights, not only as women, is a constant battle… Unless we continually stay on target, the great real feminists, like fictional Belle, who stood up to abuse, discrimination and prejudice in the past, will have suffered in vain. You can tell I'm psyched...

Ps I don't have a favorite, but Bad Belle was more...enlightening.

Snow Among the Palm Trees

We live in the hills above Beverly Hills.

Today, my roses are starting to bloom. But the weather has been so weird, that a week ago we had snow among the palms. Here are some actual photos taken with my husband's phone.

 
 
 
 


A

What Girls Really Want

Filmmakers, advertisers, publishers, and music producers are obsessed with the "youth market" and especially by that very special demographic teenage girls. What do they want? How do they think? What's going on in those beautiful heads?

You can find out in the new book, BEYOND WORDS the creative voices of more than 150 teen girls and the professional women who mentor them. They share their stories about family, friendship, love, loss, music and so much more. You'll find poignant poems, break-up lyrics, and an essay on discovering meaning in a shag carpet. The book concludes with a full chapter of writing activities and advice for aspiring writers of any level.

BEYOND WORDS is the Winner, London Book Festival, Anthologies and National Best Book Awards, USA BookNews, Poetry Anthology. It's published by WriteGirl a non-profit organization for high school girls, centered on creative writing and empowerment through self-expression. To find out more simply click on: http://www.writegirl.org/publications.html.

Hateful Speech

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me." went the nursery rhyme of my youth. Reeling from the tragedy in Arizona we know, of course, that names can and do hurt. They can also inspire people to unspeakable acts. And those snarky, disparaging, mean-girl words whether voiced by the mean girl herself or her coterie of parrots who are now crying tyranny at the suggestion that their words could have inspired any action are being heard around the world.

Today, I received this quotation from a German friend. I especially like: "

Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic: they are swallowed unnoticed, appear to have no effect, and then after a little time the toxic reaction sets in after all."

Victor Klemperer on Nazi propaganda:

How "the language of a clique became the language of a people"

"No, the most powerful influence was exerted neither by individual speeches nor by articles or flyers, posters or flags; it was not achieved by things which one had to absorb by conscious thought or conscious emotions.

Instead Nazism permeated the flesh and blood of the people through single words, idioms and sentence structures which were imposed on them in a million repetitions and taken on board mechanically and unconsciously. . . language does not simply write and think for me, it also increasingly dictates my feelings and governs my entire spiritual being the more unquestioningly and unconsciously I abandon myself to it.

And what happens if the cultivated language is made up of poisonous elements or has been made the bearer of poisons? Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic: they are swallowed unnoticed, appear to have no effect, and then after a little time the toxic reaction sets in after all.

The Third Reich coined only a very small number of the words in its language, perhaps - indeed probably - none at all. . . But it changes the value of words and the frequency of their occurrence, it makes common property out of what was previously the preserve of an individual or a tiny group, it commandeers for the party that which was previously common property and in the process steeps words and groups of words and sentence structures with its poison.

Victor Klemperer, The Language of the Third Reich: A Philologist's Notebook, trans. Martin Brady, London: Continuum, 2002, pp. 15–16

FOR THE LOVE

I want to recommend a wonderful blog for readers: FOR THE LOVE: http://forthelove-mb.blogspot.com/ Melissa, lawyer, homemaker, and avid reader lists her favorites for 2010.

I love that she said: "I've read by the pool, at the gym, in bed at night and in the hammock in the yard. I read the books I wanted to read. Not the book that would make me look like a cultured smarty-pants to passers-by at the hotel pool or the latest novel to receive a glowing review from the New York Times so I could chat about it at a cocktail party. (We've all done this, right?)"

A book is an investment of time. And that's all we have. How do you choose a book? Where do you like to read?

Boxing the Octopus

The excellent publishing blog: BOXING THE OCTOPUS posted a #BuyThisBook blog and the book they chose was The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc. http://www.boxocto.com/2010/12/buythisbook-scandalous-summer-of-sissy.html

What intelligent readers. I added a new quote to the Southern Belle's Handbook:

"Writing is easy. Only writing well is hard."

Cliff Hangers

Pop Eaters just published my post on cliff hangers. And the summer I wrote the episode that solved the greatest cliff hanger of all time: Who Shot J.R.?.

Check it out: http://www.popeater.com/2010/11/25/who-shot-JR-writer-reflects/

Cliff Hangers

A Literary Feast

Last week Carl and I went to New Orleans for the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Literary Festival Words and Music. There we danced and ate and listened to many learned discussions. I gave a master class on Creating Great Characters in the historic Cabildo in the center of the French Quarter. Carl was on a panel on translation and introduced classist Stanley Lombardo at a yummy lunch at Muriel's resterant.

I took the picture at left with my little cell phone, so the quality leaves something to be desired, but there are two National Book Award winners Tim O'Brien in the hat and Julia Glass sitting next to him talking to Stewart O'Nan. That's Simon Mawer laughing. He was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Attending to his lunch is moderator Randy Fertel whose foundation created the Truth Teller Awards.

Words and Music. On the dias at left is Rosemary James the organizer extraordinaire of the festival which this year was held in conjunction with the National World War II Museum.

But it wasn't all books and conversation. We found time to go to the gorgeous sculpture garden in City Park. Here I am with Julia Glass and short-story writer Maurice Ruffin. And at bottom Julie and I surround Botero's amazing scupture of a mother holding her child while standing on the prone body of the father.

The Southern Belle Sounds Off: Creating Great Characters for Film and Fiction

http://www.wordsandmusic.org/schedule.html

Creating Great Characters for Film and Fiction

Next week I'll be in New Orleans where I'm giving a master class on Creating Great Characters in Film and Fiction at the fabulous Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society's great literary festival: Word's and Music. http://www.wordsandmusic.org/schedule.html. Y'all come.

The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass

I just finished reading Julia Glass' new book and you should too. Here's the review I posted at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Shelfari, and Good Reads.

A TALE TOLD BY A MASTER

Open Julie Glass’ book The Widower’s Tale anywhere and you know you’re in good hands. The prose is always pitch perfect, from the description of a moonlit night as experienced by Robert, a Harvard student on cross country skis: “The moon stood out from the sky like a medal. It cruised along beside them, calm and vigilant, passing behind tree after tree as their skis hissed through snow on the path that skirted the pond and then branched away into acres of trails winding through Matlock’s fairy-tale forest.” Or the wonderful description of his female friends as seen by Ira, a gay nursery-school teacher: “The women around Ira were losing it. Their grip, their composure, their stamina, their footing—each falling out of balance in some essential way.” Julie Glass spins a sprawling tale of family and relationships with characters so true you feel you know them. This is a book you will take to your heart.

Musical Week

What a week. Thursday night we heard Dr. John at a free concert on the Santa Monica pier. We were jammed together, standing, dancing outside under the stars. The sweet smell of flannel cake and marajuana filling the air.

Then Friday night Randy Bachman scored a great box at the Hollywood Bowl for the Earth, Wind, and Fire concert. It was sold out for mere mortals. Didn't have my camera but snapped this photo with my trusty Droid. That's Randy and Denise McCann Bachman as the concert began. He's in town promoting his new Bachman Turner recording which is fabulous.

The Southern Belle says: Might as well have fun while you're on top of the ground. It'll be too late once you're under it.

Last Photos of Summer Party

"It's okay for a woman to know her place.
She just shouldn't stay there." Rule 59
The Southern Belle's Handbook

My wish for the beautiful and talented women who attended the Northwestern Council of 100 and NUEA summer party is they all find their place and carve out a brilliant future.