Me, again: I wanted to appeal to the readers
Book clubs, pleasure reads, podcasts, movies and television, and public readings and their influence
Last week, it took me so long to finish my newsletter that it spilled into this week, and now I’m full of ideas and drafting words early. So, as we head into Holy Week, hopefully I’ll be quiet.
But so much has me thinking, and maybe it’s the shifting weather of sun meets cold.
There are so many ideas to explore.
For instance, I’ve had book clubs on my mind.
Book Clubs
Last week, I attended my local public library’s monthly book club where we had a local author as a guest. That guest was Rebecca Price Janney.
Rebecca writes historical fiction, but she asked us to read Easton at Sunset, which is the final volume of the Easton series, which happens to be based on the history of the town our town seceded from more than 100 years ago.
Elk Lake Publishing, a Christian book publisher, publishes her work. This particular series has two storylines in every book, one of a modern woman (Erin Miles Bassett) who, after speaking with Janney at the book club, seems to represent Janney herself to some extent. The other is her ancestor, both of Erin and of Rebecca, a grandfather from the colonial era.
Janney has clean writing, but the dual storylines, for me, created a conflict in that they came from different genres. Peter Kichline’s story presents the fictionalized version of his (and Janney’s) family history, while Erin Miles Bassett gives the reader a story that is simple contemporary fiction driven entirely by internal struggles and no external conflict.
I keep asking myself why she chose to bring the book club the last book in a completed series, versus an earlier volume. But it was interesting to see her discuss how she approached this unique, genre-defying concept.
We all need to spend more time making ideas into reality and not caring if they conform to mainstream expectations.
In other book club news:
Larry Sceurman, author of The Death of Big Butch, has recently accepted an invitation to speak to a library book club in Benson, Arizona in April about his short story collection, Coffee in the Morning.
And not that it is a book club selection, but I finally got Jonathan Maberry’s Ink which he listed as one of his favorite novels that he has written during his recent chat with the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group. The chat promoted the Write Stuff Conference hosted by GLVWG in Bethlehem, Pa., April 11-13.
Weekend Events
This weekend the Lehigh Valley is supposed to get a lot of rain. If you are looking for a way to keep yourself entertained and out of the weather, allow me to recommend The Lehigh Valley Book Festival where our own Echo City Capers duo will be attending the Author Expo at the Bethlehem Area Public Library on Church Street tomorrow from 1:30 to 4 p.m. along with another favorite author of mine, although she is not one of mine, Jess Rinker.
Also tomorrow, Thurston Gill will be at the Barnes & Noble in the Southmount Shopping Center from 1 to 4 p.m. promoting The Phulasso Devotional and the emergency preparedness seminars he does through Worldwide Academy Training Services. He plans to have CPR mannequins on hand representing people and pets so you might have the chance to learn something new.
Meanwhile… on Grey’s Anatomy
So, I’m slightly embarrassed to say this, but if you want an interesting exercise in dissecting story, you might want to use this rainy weekend to revisit Grey’s Anatomy. (Or check it out for the first time… maybe…) And here’s why: The bulk of the series is available on Netflix and that’s 20 seasons of some of the most horrible but popular characters and situations on television.
I started this whole endeavor by skipping ahead to the most recent season on Netflix to find that Meredith is, of course, still around, still annoying and still unattractive. Dr. Webber still has not retired. And Dr. Bailey may or may not be practicing medicine and she has a preschool child in a stroller that I hope is not the same child she had at the hospital in the early seasons. Then, I met Meredith’s black daughter, Zola, which left me so many questions because even though I’m not there yet I know Derek eventually dies…
That’s when I decided to start over from the beginning. I am a big believer that a good television show can keep you grounded even if you watch it out-of-order. But, you may already hear that I do not think Grey’s Anatomy is a good television show.
Why would I recommend something I don’t like?
I’m in the tail end of season eight right now. And because I want nothing more than to see Meredith get hit by a bus— when sadly it was George who gets hit by a bus— I spend a lot of time watching the show while cooking or folding laundry or after my daughter makes a cocktail with “wine” and Fresca that was actually vodka, a good five ounces of vodka.
I’m fascinated by the work the writers do to keep this monstrosity going. So far we’ve seen two sets of conjoined twins (one adult, one toddler), multiple marriages that burnt out faster than my charcoal grill in a rain storm, doctors fighting their own cancer and infertility, not to mention each character’s battle with the patient that died but shouldn’t have… or the operations in the elevator… or various incarnations of emergency amputations.
In the midst of all of this, we see some twists on traditional Point A to Point B storytelling.
In Season 6 Episode 15, “The Time Warp,” the writers present several stories without chronological order, weaving in and out of each with no allegiance to time and space.
In Season 7 Episode 18, “Song Beneath the Song,” the cast worked around the writer’s strike by singing songs from the soundtrack pieced together with footage of the repercussions of a potentially catastrophic car accident.
In Season 8 Episode 13, “What If/Then,” Meredith dreams what her life might have been like if her mother had left her father and married Richard Webber. This one feels very random, and additionally, she never wakes up from the dream nor does she ever reference it or digest it. Her having “a happy childhood” changes everyone in the hospital. Many of the changes don’t even make sense.
Two episodes later, in “Have You Seen Me Lately,” which I am not done with yet, one of the side plots includes Christina Yang and Owen Hunt in couples counseling. What I find compelling about this is that we only ever see the two of them and never see an actor or actress as the therapist. That leads me to examine how can we convey an idea without being overly detailed or explicit.
Poetry
As we approach Poetry Month and Poet Pallooza II, let’s take a minute to highlight poetry:
Last week, Eva Parry, author of the tarot journal, Shuffling and Scribbling, had her poetry reading debut as a feature at Noble Quills at the Barnes & Noble in the Southmont Shopping Center in Bethlehem Township, Pa. You can see that on YouTube here.
This week, Darrell Parry, poet behind Twists: Gathered Ephemera, appeared on the podcast, My Bad Poetry, his episode entitled “World, Ambiance & Making Love with Lady Death.”
I hope I gave you some chewable nuggets for the weekend.
As always—
Angel
Enjoyed your thoughts on "Grey's Anatomy" and loved this line - "multiple marriages that burnt out faster than my charcoal grill in a rain storm" (I use a charcoal grill and appreciate the reference ). I used to watch the show with my daughters in its early years and found it entertaining as a prime time soap opera but not great TV.
Geez! You need an administrative assistant
😯