Every year, I require my students to enter writing contests. Mine have entered three so far this year. In every contest, I’ll have at least one or two students who will win money and receive recognition for their writing ability. This year, the’ve entered a writing contest sponsored by Coca-Cola, by Wellspring (a community-family organization), Northeast Louisiana’s Young Author Contest.  I have at least three more ahead of us. I require them to enter every category: nonfiction (essay) fiction, and poetry.  Sometimes they really surprise me, and I’ve found that placing in a contest inspires them to focus on their writing even more.

One upcoming contest allows flash-fiction (short-short) entries. I found this page on the Net that will help you as a teacher to teach them this technique. Go here: http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/flashfiction.html

In addition to raising their confidence, administrators and parents seem impressed at the students’ sucesses as well.  Winning contests also looks good on a student’s resume and college application. Maybe these contests will help make the brutal work of writing more enjoyable to my young scholars.

I discovered Confucianism a few years ago, studying the background of one of my favorite poems by Ezra Pound, Canto XIII. (I would love to have a year to just study all of the Cantos). I was raised a conservative Christian, became more conservative, then ran to the other side as fast as I could go. Though not what you’d call religious in the conservative sense of my past, I’m sure I teach more Bible through literature (the many allusions, etc) than most modern preachers do. I think that because all my kids are pretty much churchgoing, but none of them know the Bible.

I hope to see Qufu, his homeplace someday.

Though I also classify myself as an existentialist, I guess I live by the teachings of Confucius more than I do anything else. I had heard Confucian doctrines criticized all my life, and it was presented as a false religion. It is not a religion, but a code of conduct, a philosophy, a system of ethics. And I like what I’ve found in it. Here is a summary of what I see as its basic points.  I found this information in a a National Geographic and a couple of other sources (which I have lost) years ago, synthesized it, and have used it ever since.

1. Devotion to family and friends

2. Love and benevolence for humanity

3. Reverence and respect for ancestors. (This is described negatively by Westerners as “Ancestor Worship.” I hope to have a whole entry in the future on each of these points.)

4. Education, cultivation, and discipline of the mind.

5. Government should be the servant not the master of the people.

6. Men should think for themselves and stand up for what is right.

7. The elderly should be treated with honor and respect.

8. Men should be gentlemen, civilized, and demonstrate integrity.

I think my students in this apathetic age need these qualities. I can see why emperors after him and the Communists feared and  forbade his teachings and tried to erase his memory. As long as the censors don’t take Ezra Pound away, I can teach them.

I’ve long placed any movie connected to Mel Gibson on my “must see” list. I can hardly wait to see this one. I’ve wondered myself for many years, “What happened to the Maya?” I just thought it was another example of my eccentric and ecletic interests surfacing, but now I see that I am not alone in my interests. We have a smaller version of the Maya Vanishing story in Northeast Louisiana at a place called Poverty Point. I love to go out there. All those mound builders just vanishing. Must be a story in that for me.

Other movies of Gibson’s I’ve especially enjoyed were Mad Max, We Were Soldiers, The Patriot, and Braveheart. I have not yet seen the Passion of Christ, perhaps because I’ve been haunted by religion for too many years of my life already and don’t need any more trauma in that area.  I’ll let you know my thoughts about Apocalypto after I see it.

I just finished the reading of my first novel of the year, Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. The novel was a Pulitzer Prize winner in 2003 (Pulitzers are always a good choice of a read I think). My best friend in the whole world gave it to me for a Christmas present, and I thoroughly enjoyed the read. It was a long read, some 529 pages, but I learned so much. As usual, I marked, underlined and commented on words, wonderfully crafted phrases, and historical items for future study. It is one of those novels you will never forget. If you want to gain some insights into the Greek culture or the Greek Orthodox religion, this is a fine book. Eugenides also wrote the Virgin Suicides, which I am now determined to read as well. I love the discovery of a good author.

As for other news, I’ve been very busy writing poetry, working on marketing my Stories of the Confederate South and the very soon to be published children’s book with Pelican, Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House. As usual, too much to do, and not enough time to do it.

Happy New Year, E. B.

The two week holiday is now over, and we teachers return to the salt mine of teaching high school on Monday, January 8. Tomorrow, Saturday, is January 6, Russian Christmas Eve. I never hear it mentioned here, though when I lived in Berwick, PA, I did. In fact, there was an Orthodox church right down the street from me. Here, the trees and decorations go down quickly, like the day after New Year’s. Ironically, the decorations, music, and such are appearing as early as the day after Halloween. I enjoyed the longer time devoted to the season in Pennsylvania. Anyway, if you want to learn something about Russian Christmas, go to this link: http://tinymce.moxiecode.cp/mce_temp_url

I feel I used the holidays well, though, as usual, the guilt-ridden demon side of me cries out I squandered the time. However, objectively, I must say the break did me some good. I did some serious marketing for my books, spent time with friends, played some music, and did a good bit of reading. I also accomplished a lot of work that my publisher, Pelican, required for my children’s book, Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House. I was so excited to see it already posted on Amazon! I look forward to presenting this story in schools.

The school year, like the seasons, turns on its soltices, the next major one being the GEE in March. (Graduate Exit Exam.) The god of the standardized test speaks once again and bids us submit to the rituals of his religion. Administrators are his priests (The GEE must be a man, as I do not think a woman could be stupid and cruel enough to design such a thing), the students are the initiates, and we teachers, well, maybe we are the sacrificial lambs? In the upcoming weeks, many teachers will work themselves into a state of exhaustion and a near nervous breakdown as they worry about how well their students will do. I’ve found that no matter how well you teach test-taking skills, if the students don’t have information stored in them, they’re still not going to do well on the test. They know how to take the test, but there’s nothing you can test them on. I must ponder this topic some more, though I fear if I worry too much about it, I’ll drive myself mad. After all, it seems no one notices a teacher when he or she thinks these days. It’s getting the students through the tests that matters.

My daughter’s neighborhood had a block party last night, so I spent New Year’s Eve there. It was the first New Year’s in my memory that I can remember not working with a band in some way. Thankfully, the weather here in NE Louisiana was great, there was lots of food and drink, my son-in-law and his brothers put together a spectacular fireworks display, and I was able to play with my grandson. All in all, a fine night.

So now, on this first day of 2007, I must reflect on my past year. Like other years, it was a mixture of the good and bad. About the bad: I have always had a knack of getting the dumb ass, skilled enough at bloopers and faux pas to earn my own episode on Tales of the Crypt. I’ll keep those details to myself.

About the good: I’ve met some of the coolest people this past year, added some of them as close friends (one as my now best friend) and I’ve had some wonderful life-changing experiences. I’ve had some writing victories and successes. Later, I’ll post more on each of these items in this paragraph I’m sure.

I had wanted to read 52 books this year. I only read 40, though that is a few more than what I had read in 2005. I started keeping a list of the movies I watched, but abandoned it. I may try that again, but I haven’t made up my mind.

Regarding resolutions:
1) To read 52 books and record author, title, date of completion in my book reading diary.
2) To do at least one reading, speech, or book signing per week to promote my writing. I intend to spend this whole summer (including a trip to Florida) promoting my writing, so I’ll be on the road a great deal.
*According to Amazon, my children’s book is coming out in Februrary! Go to Amazon.com and search for “Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House.” I hope to have some other books accepted for publication this year as well.
3) I will camp out in Alabama at Roaring Winds State Park near the cave where my Confederate ancestor, William Warren Keel, worked in the militia making gunpowder. I’ll get a story out of that I know. I put off going to Grand Isle before Katrina, and boy, am I sorry for that! I won’t make the same mistake this year.
4) I intend to enter one writing contest or make one fiction submission per week.
5) I fell behind in my reading of magazines (my main two being the Oxford American and Writer’s Chronicle) so I will be be disciplined and read articles every week.
6) I will update and redo my website and market myself shamelessly through queries, proposals, and hard work generally. I intend to get myself in print in as many ways as possible.
7) I will smoke and drink less to save money and get more work done. (There are other personal resolutions and goals that I cannot share at this time on this blog).
8) I will cull, organize, and file papers and books. This madness of random piles of papers must stop! I wasted too much time last year looking for particular items.

While visiting my parents, I borrowed a book, one of those Reader’s Digest Today’s Best Nonfiction–you know, with four book-length selections in it. I began one and just finished reading it. It’s called By Way of Deception: Inside Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence Agency by Victory Ostrovsky and Claire Hoy, originally published by St. Martin’s. The book is a memoir of Ostrovsky’s days in the Mossad. He paints an illuminating, albeit unflattering portrait of this most secret of government organizations. The book will certainly be a valuable resource, not only about the Mossad specifically, but for pieces I might write that touch on crime, assasination, spying, government propoganda, manipulation of people (which the Mossad are experts at), and human nature generally. The memoir also reveals how the American public has been shielded from the true news behind the sanitized and often inaccurate news we are fed through the government and the news media. I gained some insights into the dynamic tension between Israel and the Arab world. I also learned the Mossad are not accountable, somewhat cultish, extremely brutal, and have access to almost unlimited resources. I must confess, when I read of the money they spend and pay people, I tried to think of a way I could be useful to them, but I failed to come up with anything other than suggesting a few rednecks I’d like for them to interrogate. Pitch it as knowing they are spies for Iran, perhaps?

There were many quotations I could have used, but I settled on this one, as a reminder of how my characters must be sufficiently motivated. It concerns Mossad recruitment: “The idea of recruitment is like rolling a rock down a hill. You take somebody and gradually get him to do something illegal or immoral. You push him down the hill. The whole purpose is to use people. But in order to use them, you have to mold them. If you have a guy who doesn’t drink, doesn’t want sex, doesn’t need money, has no political problems, and is happy with life, you can’t recruit him” (61).

As I reflected upon that last sentence, I tried to think of people I knew who were unrecruitable. I’m still trying to think of someone.

Averno: The Poetry of Louise Glück

My best friend recently introduced me to the poetry of Louise Glück and gave me a copy of her tenth collection, Averno. Averno is a small crater lake near Naples, Italy, that the Romans regarded as the entrance to the underworld. An oversimplification perhaps, but I thought the collection to be another haunting look at the myth of Persephone, who according to my friend, is featured in several other Glück poems. The book’s jacket says “Averno proceeds as a sequence. It is an extended lamentation, its long, restless poems no less spellbinding for being without conventional resolution or consolation, no less ravishing for being savage, grief-stricken.” The language in this poetry is indeed strong and forceful.

I enjoyed the read and determined to study Glück and her poetry more thoroughly in the future, and I will certainly include a few of her poems in the next ENG 102 class I teach in college. I’m also thinking of tying her work to the mythology unit I teach my gifted students.

As an example of Glück’s writing for this blog that might be food for writing thought, I selected this quotation from poem number 6 on page 18: “Scholars tell us / that there is no point in knowing what you want / when the forces contending over you / could kill you.”

12/24/06 It’s Christmas Eve as I’m writing this, and I’m in an I-HOP (God bless them for having wireless) Denison, Texas. I’ll be visiting with my parents (who live in Kemp, Oklahoma, where I set Red River Fever) until the day after Christmas. It is the first Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I’ve not shared with my children. I’m here because of the duties of progeny, me being the firstborn and all. Last week, my father was taken to the emergency room at the VA hospital in Bonham. They sent him by ambulance to Dallas. Had a nasty virus that nearly did him in. My mother was very sick too—too sick to drive to DalIas, so after he stabilized, I picked him up at the VA in Dallas yesterday and brought him back to his Red River Valley home in Kemp, Oklahoma. The night before I had worked a DJ job with my friend and fellow musician Tom McClandlish, and I didn’t get home until 3:30 A.M. I rose at 6:00 A.M. and hit Interstate 20. After I worked through the initial sense of exhaustion, the adrenalin kicked in, and I ran on that until I went to sleep last night around 11:00 P. M. I finally found my father’s room and arranged for his discharge. Thankfully, both parents are much better today. I just couldn’t leave them alone, sick, during Christmas. Some events and crises teach you things. This trip has tutored me, but I feel as I though I’ve been schooled by a heavy-handed Irish schoolmaster who pounds his students until they pay attention and get it right. Perhaps I’ll write my thoughts concerning those lessons in another entry.

I intend to use my time well—not only to fulfill my sonly duties, but to read, do some writing I’ve put off, and some much-needed thinking.

12/24 I just completed The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. I discovered this book serendipitously. I think I first came upon the title in a small review of the book in one of those book review magazines you can get at Books a Million. Then, a friend told me of her love of Black Orchid perfume, and I thought the imagery might lead to a good poem or story, so I researched the perfume, then black orchids, then orchids, then orchid hunters. I kept coming upon the title of this book, so I read some more reviews and then ordered it.

I was not disappointed. The book is a wonderful example of creative nonfiction.
Of course, Susan Orlean is a fascinating writer, passionate for and dedicated to her craft. You can read a good bio and review of her writing here: http://www.bookpage.com/0101bp/susan_orlean.html or at her personal website:
http://www.susanorlean.com/

The book is captivating. In fact, if I were to ever teach a course in creative nonfiction, I would use this book. There is a prologue with Susan Orlean’s comments on the movie Adaptation and a helpful appendix containing an interview with Susan Orlean, reading group questions, and topics for discussion.
There are other books I would use in this course as well, but I’ll list those in a future entry.

The Orchid Thief is a record of a journey into the history and world of orchid lovers, and into the world of South Florida. Having lived in Naples myself for two years (1980-1982), it was intriguing to revisit so many places through her writing and through her very sharp reporter’s eyes. It is an informative read. Orlean says, “There is a part of me that likes the pedagogical part of writing. I like that challenge of bringing knowledge to readers, material they didn’t know they would actually want to know.” She succeeded. I furiously marked up this book in admiration for her prose and to mark subjects for my own future research.

Often, I have so many regrets as I look back over the years and think about the thirteen different cities I’ve lived in. I regret not seeing things, experiencing more, meeting more people and gathering their stories. I also realized that many of those lost opportunities were due to my ignorance, to my not knowing the facts that would have driven my curiosity to see or experience or take an adventure. Some missed opportunities were due to a tight budget or timing. Some adventures require money, and many require time that work and family responsibilities may prohibit. Some appear with small windows of time that can clamp shut very quickly. If you miss the window, you’ve missed the adventure.

Having said this, the reading of The Orchid Thief reminded me that I did have many adventures in South Florida. I fished in the waters around Key West, visited museums and small menageries, learned about chickee huts, hunted and fished in Golden Gate and the Everglades, killed and skinned my first rattlesnake, saw an alligator wrestler, swam in the ocean and baked on the beach, worked part-time for a plant nursery, learned Spanish, saw Naples’ famous swamp buggie races, gathered stories from Cuban immigrants (some were from the Mariel boat lift—heartbreaking stories), and sampled foods—common there, but I haven’t eaten them since. Perhaps I’ll develop and write about some of these in the future. There were some things I missed though, and one especially bothers me: When I lived there, I never remember looking at a single orchid.

I realize that living in South Florida changed me. I’ve returned there a few times—1990 when I was selling books, 1998 when I won the Ernest Hemingway Short Story competition, and 2000 when I met one of my best friends, Michael, for a wild weekend. Each time I returned, I realized I love everything about the region—including the heat. Susan Orlean says she is not a hot weather person, but I am. I could live there again in a minute. Why don’t I? I’ll have to give that question some thought. I do know that when the Hemingway conference was over in 1998, I almost didn’t get on the plane to return to Monroe.

I would recommend you read The Orchid Thief. Here is the correct bibliographical entry for the book in MLA style in case you ever need it:

Orlean, Susan. The Orchid Thief. New York: Ballantine, 2002.