Hot Off the Press

by Ramona DeFelice Long

Ramona DeFelice Long Awarded Fellowship by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

(Amherst, VA) – Ramona DeFelice Long of Newark, DE, has been awarded a Creative Fellowship to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA). The fellowship is made possible by a grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation as part of its ongoing efforts on behalf of working artists.

The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts is located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in rural Virginia. Ramona DeFelice Long will be in residence with approximately 25 other artists focusing on their own creative projects at this working retreat for visual artists, writers and composers.

A typical residency ranges from two weeks to two months. An artist is provided with a comfortable private bedroom, a private studio and three prepared meals a day. Beyond the breakfast hour and the dinner hour, there are no schedules or obligations. This distraction-free atmosphere, as well as the energy that results from having 25 artists, writers and composers gathered in one place, enables artists to be highly productive.

Serving more than 350 artists a year (more than 4,000 since its inception), the VCCA is one of the nation’s largest year-round artists’ communities. VCCA Fellows have received worldwide attention through publications, exhibitions, compositions, performances, and major awards and accolades, including MacArthur grants, Pulitzer Prizes, Guggenheim fellowships, National Endowment for the Arts awards, Rome Prizes, Pollock-Krasner grants, National Book Awards, Broadway and O!-Broadway productions, and Academy Award nominations.

A nonprofit organization founded in 1971, the VCCA is supported in large part by grants and private donations.

The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation was established in 1979 to promote and support multi-state arts programming. The Foundation serves the states and territories of Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the US Virgin Islands, Virginia, and West Virginia. Additionally, the Foundation engages in national and international work focused on performing arts touring, jazz, and independent filmmakers.

12 Ways to Improve Your Writing in 2012

by Ramona DeFelice Long

Here are some easy actions and activities than can sharpen your skill set. Most are free. All you need is willingness and an open mind.

1.  Attend a live reading! Hearing an author read their prose or poetry aloud is a special treat—and it helps you, a writer, hear emphasis on words or dialogue that’s not possible on a printed page. Many writers like to begin with an anecdote about the story, and that’s an added bonus. In my neck of the woods, we have a 30 year tradition called 2nd Saturday Poets, but we also have library readings, poetry slams, book talks at bookstores, visiting author series at the university. Attending shows your support for the local arts scene. We all want to support the arts, right?

2.  Read your work out loud. This is a follow-up to the above. Reading aloud helps you hear the rhythm of the writing. If you construct short sentence after short sentence, a live read will help you hear if your prose imitates Hemingway’s or if it sounds choppy and monotonous. Reading aloud also helps catch awkward lines and clunky dialogue.

3.  Try out an online class.  There’s a plethora of learning happening in cyberspace, so you never need to leave your house or get out of your jammies to polish your skills in characterization, active scenes, or figuring out what the heck is subtext. Professional organizations (RWA, Sisters in Crime, Pennwriters), writing services and private editors (ahem!) offer courses that run the range from one day to months. Give one a whirl.

4.  Free Write. A free write is an informal gathering of writers who meet to practice their writing, often through guided activities and prompts.  In 2011, I helped to facilitate a monthly free write at the county library. We met for three hours and combined prompts, sharing and quiet writing time. It was great fun to write on the spot, and to see how others responded to the same prompts and guides.

5.  Join a supportive group—a face to face group, an online forum, a Facebook writers group. This is to combat the whole “writing is lonely” thing, but also to give you a peek into how other writers operate. Talking shop or talking out problems can rev your creative engines, or make the struggle seem less isolating. And if there is good news, it’s always nice to have a cheering squad.

6.  Deconstruct movies and TV shows. Learn the meaning of a “cold opening” or a “meet cute.” Watch the clock and see how a TV drama breaks off at commercial (as you would with a chapter ending) or how a 2-hour movie will have a significant plot development every twenty minutes.  Imagine this TV show or movie as a novel and how it would be narrated, plotted, and told.

7.  Choose a favorite author. Think about why you like what this writer does—what in your chosen author’s body of work speaks to you as a reader. Jot down a few memorable scenes or favorite  plot developments.  Analyze—what’s so special about this writer’s work? What pulled you in? What did you admire? What was your emotional reaction?

8.  Challenge yourself and try to write something new: flash, poetry, a memoir piece, a story told in second person. Do this every few months.

9.  Think of a book you hated from school. (Mine would be Wuthering Heights. Blech. What do people see in Heathcliff? I don’t get it.) Read it now, with an open mind.  What did you dislike about it when you were younger? Do you still dislike this now?

10.  Get into the habit of running the Spelling & Grammar function when you shut down your work-in-progress for the day. Notice what pops up—typos? Sentence structure problems? Fragments? Improper word choice? Pay attention to the habitual problems in your work. Sometimes all it takes to repair a bad habit is to recognize that habit exists. Spell & Gram is a free, easy, and readily available resource to help you find those habits. Make using it your new habit.

11.  Read every day.

12.  Write every day.

 Best of luck in your writing endeavors in 2012!

Ramona

The Sacred Writing Time Pledge

by Ramona DeFelice Long

Writers write. Writers who get published complete work and submit that work to agents and editors. It’s how it works.

The way to write for publication is to commit to it. That means nothing–and no one–stands in the way of your writing goals.

For 2012, consider taking this pledge:

I ____________ (<-your name) do solemnly swear to devote _________ amount of time each day to Sacred Writing Time. That means no one and nothing disturbs this time, including myself.

I will work at ___________________ (<-location). When you, the undersigned, see me at this location, you will respect my Sacred Writing Time Pledge and not disturb me unless there is blood flowing from multiple places on someone’s body.

Signatures: __________________(<-yours) _________________________(<-your family’s)

9 Ways to Open a Blog Post

by Ramona DeFelice Long

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated – Mark Twain

If you have spent any time blogging, you’ve heard the news that blogging is dead. It was dead five years ago, and three years ago, and is dead now. Despite the death of blogging, people keeping posting on blogs and other people keep reading them.

I think Mark Twain had the right idea.

What do you do if you’re invited to write a guest post but you never have before? Where do you begin? Here are 9 ways to  open a blog post:

1- The Anecdote – Begin by relating a personal experience–yours or someone else’s. Use real names to make it real and personal. After the short scenario, segue into the broader topic. In this case, the topic is disenfranchised grief.

When my friend Jill’s ex-husband was killed in a car accident, she cried–for a month. This was the man who’d dumped her, who’d destroyed her credit rating and put a permanent dent in her self-esteem. She hadn’t seen him in years. She’d moved on. So why was she bawling in the shower and dreaming about him at night–this person who had ruined her life?

When your heart is broken by the loss of someone you are supposed to hate–or not supposed to love–it can be as confusing as it is painful. Disenfranchised Grief—grieving for an ex-spouse, extra marital affair partner, a lover kept secret because of sexual orientation, or any relationship that is kept private–prevents the person left behind from openly expressing the pain of loss. That makes recovery harder.

2 – Breaking News – Begin with a news story and move into commentary. This works for mysterious disappearances or cold cases that make good fodder for crime  novels. It can  also address real life concerns that aren’t always obvious or comfortable. In this case, a pedophile in a position of trust:

In a small courtroom in Delaware, a one-day trial decided the fate of a man accused of numerous shocking, heinous crimes. Despite the lengthy list of charges against Dr. Earl Bradley, only two Delaware State Police officers testified for the prosecution. No one testified in Dr. Bradley’s defense. No one spoke up to explain why a popular pediatrician would molest his young patients—or how he managed to get away with it for so many years.

3 – Addressing an Issue – Begin with a social or political issue. Briefly give enough background so the reader understands the issue. This one is good for personal opinion/editorial. Here, the topic is forced charitable giving:

There’s been some interesting PR lately about the group of billionaires who’ve pledged to give away at least half of their personal fortunes before they die. The list of pledges includes names like Gates, Rockefeller, Bloomberg, Vanderbilt. I followed this story because I think it’s an admirable and interesting concept. If I had a personal fortune, I think I’d like to see the bulk of it put to good use before I kick the bucket. But, big fortune or small, should I be forced to be generous? Should anyone?

4 – Opening Questions – Start with a list of questions. The queries should be both specific and accessible, so set them in real life. Below, the question lead to the topic of early onset dementia:

We’re all friends here, but pardon me if I get personal for a while and ask: When’s the last time you slept through the night? Do you walk into a room and forget why you’re there? Did you leave your purse right there on that chair, you are positively sure you did, but now it’s nowhere in sight? Do you seem to misplace your car keys all the time? Do you forget a few things—or maybe more than a few things—every day? Several times a day? Do you wonder if this is natural aging, or does some disturbing voice ask if these are really early signs of dementia?

5 – Drama or Conversation – Open with a pretend scene. It can be humorous or not, but the short scene leads up to a punch line that leads into the topic. This one is, does your promise to drive a drunk friend home anytime, any night, make you a real pal–or an enabler?

Ring, ring, ring!

Me: (knocking around bedside table because I’m dead asleep): Um, hello?

Maria: Hey, girl! Did I wake you up? Never mind, guess where I am?

Me: (struggling to sit up) Um, where?

Maria: On the phone with you! (cackles hysterically)

Me: Very funny. (wide awake now) So, how many have you had?

6 – The Surprise/Shocker – A true confession or a surprising fact as an opening. It works best if what follows is unusual and not a cheap hook. This one is about a personal connection to a killer:

I went to my high school Prom with a murderer. He wasn’t a murderer then, of course. Then, he was the cute guy who sat across from me in Chemistry, the second string tailback on the football team who worked at the Piggly Wiggly on weekends. Ten years later, this guy who posed next to me on Prom Night in his baby blue tuxedo, his head tipped down to touch mine as we smiled at the camera, was put away for life.

7 – The Spoof  – A fake letter or news story. Good for something outrageous or humorous, because bloggers want to have fun, too. I used this one to express my undying support for my pretend boyfriend, Blond Bond:

Dear Daniel Craig: I apologize for contacting you via this impersonal public format. There’s been some communication glitch, as my letters to you are returned unopened, my emails bounce back as undeliverable, my texts don’t land, my flowers don’t arrive, and you don’t respond to telepathic messages. Even the wind blows away my smoke signals…

 8 – Survey – A vote or poll on some issue (real, imagined, or joking) is the start. You are opening the floor for return opinions, so be prepared. In this one, you’d get to tell me what you think about reality television.

Let’s take a vote. If you HAD to choose one of the following, would you prefer to be:

A} Trampled to death by elephants; B} Mauled to death by a bear; C} Eaten to bits by piranhas; D} Forced to watch Jersey Shore 20 hours out of every day for the rest of your life.

The first three made me cringe in horror, but D’s the one that’s really scary–to me. Obviously, there are fans of the nutty crew out of Jersey, but I don’t get it. Do you?

9 – The Quote – Look above. Mark Twain fired off this zinger after his obituary appeared in the newspaper. Using a quote, particularly a zingy one, can set the tone and the topic for what’s to follow.

So, here are nine ways to get started. Maybe next time I’ll come up with ways to end them.

Ramona

It’s Been a Ball, TLC!

by Ramona DeFelice Long

On Saturday, my little world was rocked by the announcement that the Lipstick Chronicles blog will be closing its doors on January 1.

I’ve been along for the TLC ride since its inception in 2005. Back then, the bloggers–all  mystery writers–focused the posts on their books and the craft of writing. Then the posts broadened to families and social issues and world affairs.  Not many subjects were skipped over by TLC–or the cadre of daily commentors, the back-bloggers, who happily provided opinions and insights from outside perspectives.

This announcement will change up my morning routine of enjoying the daily post with my opening cup of coffee. A true community evolved among the bloggers and the back-bloggers. I will miss them all.

I had the pleasure of guest blogging at TLC on several occasions. To preserve my own little spot in TLC history, here are some of my contributions to the Lipstick discussion:

The Vending Machine is about language, food, and sensuous art: http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/the_lipstick_chronicles/2005/10/vending_machine.html

The Bad Boyfriend Talk  discusses a mother’s attempt to teach her son how to treat girls right: http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/the_lipstick_chronicles/2006/06/the_bad_boyfrie.html

Who Would You Voodoo?  ponders the lure of black, or white, magic: http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/the_lipstick_chronicles/2007/10/who-would-you-v.html

An Open Letter to Craig, Daniel Craig invites you into the Blond Bond sisterhood: http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/the_lipstick_chronicles/2008/11/an-open-letter-to-daniel-craig.html

Everybody’s Doing It  is my helpful (and yes, self-serving) testimonial in support of independent editors: http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/the_lipstick_chronicles/2009/11/everybodys-doing-it.html

To my friends at the Lipstick Chronicles: It was a pleasure. Every darn minute of it.

xoxo~

Ramona

Get Me to a Colony!

by Ramona DeFelice Long

Sacred writing time. A private work space. Down time with other artists. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Do you fantasize about doing time at an artists colony?

Today is my monthly guest blog gig at the Working Stiffs. “The Gift of Time…and a Boxed Lunch” is a post about my upcoming residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

A New Look

by Ramona DeFelice Long

Conventional wisdom says a person working in publishing should develop a recognizable look–a brand–that ties the person to the product. That is wise advice. That’s why I adopted this Fleur de Lis as a gravatar and personal symbol. It represents my Louisiana French heritage.

But when it comes to keeping one look forever and ever, my fickle French nature cries mais non! I like to mix it up a little here, hence the new look.

Change is good, and so is adapting to it, but there is value in the tried and true, too.

This past month, I tried something new: teaching an online workshop on Story Planning. I am grateful to my class of eager and talented students from the Mary Roberts Rinehart Chapter of Sisters in Crime out of Pittsburgh for their patience and generosity as we worked together throughout the course. I hope to offer the same class to other writing groups next year. Interested? Contact me for details.

I will also be offering my day-long course on Mastering the Art of Self-Editing next year. My editing calendar includes work on a couple of story anthologies, alongside novels and stories of all kinds. Somewhere in there I hope to facilitate more Free Writes and continue to promote the work and programs of my fellow artists here in Delaware.

And I will continue to write.

Bon chance to my writing friends and peers who are in the midst of change or happy with the status quo. Whatever works…work it!

Ramona


Get Out of the Kitchen!

by Ramona DeFelice Long

It’s ironic to write this a week before Thanksgiving. It’s more ironic that I—who had my first cup of café au lait before the age of five—should create a post advising writers to grab their characters and drag them away from the coffee pot.

In real life, many things happen in the kitchen. It’s the hub of activity. It’s where our bodies go for sustenance and where families bond while breaking bread. How many days do you not enter your home kitchen?  Probably none.

Writers are advised to create stories that reflect and explore real life.  This is good advice–but it does not mean your characters need to hang around the kitchen, even though in real life, real people do.

Let me put this another way. I read a lot of published books. I also read a lot of unpublished manuscripts. Guess which ones have FEWER scenes in the kitchen.

When you’re planning a story, you select interesting places for the big scenes: the opening, the point of no return, the climactic battle. Those locations are certainly important, and they certainly need to be intriguing–but those scenes don’t fill the bulk of your manuscript. You’ll devote more pages to lesser dramatic scenes and lesser dramatic locations.

Where do you send your characters for these important, but not as drama-filled, scenes?

Please don’t say the kitchen.

The kitchen is the fallback location, the comfort zone for comfort writing. After a while, comfort food gets boring and makes us fat. The same thing applies to writing scene after scene in your character’s kitchen.  One of my favorite sayings about writing is that characters sleep and go to the bathroom, but I don’t want to have to read about it. I’d like to add this to that axiom: I love coffee, but I want to drink it, not read about it.

If you leave the kitchen, where do you go? No place exotic, necessarily. Think about the places we go in everyday life:

Home….Job….Restaurants….School….Gym….Parents’ home…Friends’ homes….Grocery story….Doctor’s office….The mall….Swimming pool…..Back yard….Neighborhood….City park….The beach….Bars….Cinema….Casino….Sporting events….Dance recitals….Police station…Hospital

Next, think about the particular setting of your story: Are you writing about a real town/area? Are there historical or significant sites there? Are you creating a fictional town for your story? If so, what’s it like? Where do inhabitants go?

If you are using a real setting, consider the available historical and significant locales. For instance, if your story is set in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, how long can you go without mentioning the flood or the flood sites? Not long. They are in the residents’ faces every day, and you’d be cheating the reader by omitting them. It would be like writing a Pittsburgh story and never mentioning a bridge!

Second, think about your character’s life and world. Where, specifically, does your protagonist go every day, and why? Are those places dull? Are her days repetitive? What can you do to change them up? What can these places show about your character?

If your character likes to read, she goes to a library—or a bookstore—or a used bookstore—or a friend’s house to borrow a book—or a monthly book group. This may show her economic status and/or her social habits.

If a character has a back problem, he goes to a doctor—or a chiropractor—or an acupuncturist—or a faith healer—or a massage therapist—or ignore it until he has to go to the Emergency Room—or buy muscle relaxants from a high school kid on the street corner. These place choices can show if the character is a traditional thinker or a non-traditionalist.

Where you send your characters says something around them, so use those surroundings or locations to perform double—or triple—duty: Advance the action. Teach something new. Show something about the character.

Let’s try an exercise. Choose a generic setting location, like an apartment building. What spaces are available in this apartment building for a lesser dramatic scene?

Apartment: Hallway. Elevator. Foyer. Neighbor’s apartments. Manager’s office. Laundry room. Garden. Bench in front of apartment. Front door. Mailbox area. Roof. Balcony. Fire escape. Enclosed yard. Play area. Pool. Exercise room.

What about a farmhouse in the country?  House. Front porch. Back porch. Driveway. Barn. Garage. Garden. Fields. Swing area. Flower beds. Tool shed. Deck. Yard. On a ladder fixing the roof. On the lawnmower mowing the lawn.

See? No kitchen.

What about work? Let’s say your character is a drone who works in a cubicle making unwanted telemarketing calls to people all day. Dullest of the dull, right?  

Not if you get them out of the cubicle. Try it. Make a list of all the places your drone can go, just within the office building.

Then take your drone out for lunch, and think of all the places available for a meal. Then end the work day, and think of the various means of transportation to leave an office. Then think of all the places your drone can go to after work, rather than going directly home.

Then, when your drone is exhausted because she’s been to the board room at work, a cute little deli/bodega for lunch, a hop in a taxi, a Zumba class, a hitched ride with a friend because her car’s in the shop–let her arrive home. Where she’ll have to check her mail, cross the foyer, ride the elevator, walk down the hall, pass her neighbors’ apartments, and get to her door—all before she ever reaches the kitchen.

She’ll probably need a cup of coffee, in the kitchen, but she’s earned it. Look at everywhere she’s been today!

Over Here

by Ramona DeFelice Long

Today I am guest blogging at the Working Stiffs.

“Over Here” offers some Veterans Day thoughts and history on the War to End All Wars, Dover Air Force Base, and the Bonus Army of 1932.

The Soldier

by Ramona DeFelice Long

THE SOLDIER by Rupert Brooke

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less                                      
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.                                          

This weekend I received an unexpected email from a young girl asking about a local literary event. In it, she said she was “awfully inspired by poetry.” It was a sweet note, and it touched me. How often in this cynical, crazy, increasingly chaotic world of publishing do we remember what it was like to be young and moved by words?

I’m grateful to this young lady for reminding me.

I am not a poet, but today I want to share my favorite poem: Rupert Brooke’s The Soldier. Rupert Brooke was a gifted artist best known for the war sonnets he wrote during World War 1. He was also so physically beautiful, he was once called “the handsomest young man in England.” You can judge for yourself.

Rupert Brooke was 27 when he was commissioned into the Royal Navy. He served less than a year, from August 1914 to April 1915, when he succumbed to sepsis after an insect bite became infected. He died on a hospital ship moored in the Aegean Sea and was buried in Greece.  His gravesite remains there to this day, but he is included in the World War 1 poets honored on a memorial slab in Westminster Abbey.

Why am I offering a crash course on Rupert Brooke this morning? Because Friday is Armistice Day—Veterans Day in the U.S, Remembrance Day in other countries—a holiday commemorating the end of the first world war.

It has been said that the world lost its innocence during World War 1. I believe this. In February of this year, the last remaining U.S. World War 1 veteran died. Frank Buckles served as an ambulance driver near the front lines in Europe. In World War 2, he spent three years as a civilian POW in the Japanese-held Philippines.

In his latter years, he advocated for the establishment of a World War 1 memorial in Washington, D.C. Frank Buckles was 105 when he died. He was buried at Arlington Cemetery with full military honors.

World War I brought modern warfare to the world. With it came words and phrases that added to our historical and cultural language: No Man’s Land. Big Bertha. Over There. “Lafayette, we are here.” Doughboy. Trench warfare. Blimp. Shell shock. Mustard gas. Flanders Field. The Great War. Whiz-bang. Joystick. Pillbox. Storm trooper. Tank. The Big Push. Tommy. Flying Ace. Eleventh Hour. The War to End All Wars.

It also brought a body of artistic work that, in my mind, has never been fully appreciated. That may change. This past year, the play War Horse, based on a children’s novel about a horse drafted into service during the Great War, blew away audiences with its moving story and creative use of puppetry. A movie by the same name will be release in the spring.

So in addition to the poetry of Rupert Brooke, I’d like to recommend the following works set during or about World War I. These are some of my favorites. Please add your own:

After the Dancing Days by Margaret Rostkowski

War Horse by Michael Murpurgo

All Quiet on the Western Front  by Erich Maria Remarque

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

The Inspector Ian Rutledge novels by Charles Todd

A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot

Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington

War Game by Michael Foreman

Lord of the Nutcracker Men by Iain Lawrence

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo