A Thousand Paper Cranes

by Ramona DeFelice LongMarch 13, 2011

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes tells the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a young victim and witness of the bombing of Hiroshima.

A Japanese legend tells that, if a person folds one thousand paper cranes they will be granted a wish. Sadako tried to do this, but she only folded 644 cranes before she became too ill to continue. Her wish to live was not granted.

However, her story lives. A statue of Sadako was built in Hiroshima Peace Park. People visiting it leave paper cranes in her memory and honor, and in the memory and honor of the spirits of their deceased ancestors and relatives.

This is a beautiful, heart-wrenching book. Today, sadly, it is newly relevant.

Please read this story. Share it with a child. Make a paper crane in memory of the people who died in Japan, and to show support for those suffering there now. Hang it from the mirror in your car or place it in a window in your home.

Remember the following quote, which is found on Sadako’s statue: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth.”

Paging the Lorax, via The Working Stiffs

by Ramona DeFelice LongMarch 11, 2011March 11, 2011

On a lonely stretch of Highway 50 in Nevada, a 70 foot tall cottonwood tree became a local landmark and a quirky bit of American humor.

On the campus of a large Southern university, two century+ old oak trees at a spot called Toomer’s Corner are the traditional site of student celebration.

What do these trees have in common? They are crime victims.

They are also the subject of Paging the Lorax, my guest post at The Working Stiffs.

Free Write!

by Ramona DeFelice LongMarch 6, 2011

The next Get Out & Write! Community Free Write will be on Saturday, March 26, 1 – 3 p.m., in the Kirkwood Library Community Room.

All free writes are open to writers at all levels of experience. No RSVP is necessary, and all you need to bring is a willingness to write, and your writing tools: pen and paper, laptop, quill and scroll, papyrus, crayons, marble stone and chisel….

The Free Write sessions are a combination of private writing time and shared activities. Last month, the group did three writing prompts. Some people shared their efforts, some didn’t. The prompts and sharing are optional.

We plan to hold Free Writes on the 4th Saturday of each month, same time, same place. Please join us!

The Pig Ate The Baby!

by Ramona DeFelice LongFebruary 21, 2011January 26, 2012

This past weekend, I was one of five judges for a local literary contest. We met at someone’s home and spent hours discussing the stories and how the dozens of writers had interpreted the contest’s theme. We voted and argued and hashed out our opinions until we agreed on the winning stories.

Post judging, we had dinner. And because we’d talked about stories all afternoon, we talked about stories all evening, too. And somewhere in there, we discussed stories we’d read in high school. Stories we loved. Stories we hated. Stories we loved and everybody else hated. (I’m looking at you, Silas Marner.)

My most loved book in high school was not The Grapes of Wrath, but it was the most memorable. Senior year, I took an American Literature class as an elective. This class was populated by a lot of boys, from a lot of sports teams, because one of the coaches let slip that this particular teacher in this particular elective let students read in class. And she gave open book tests. TAKE HOME open book tests. This was the only class in my high school with a waiting list. I don’t know how I got in, to tell you the truth.

Continue reading “The Pig Ate The Baby!” →

Mastering the Art of Self-Editing

by Ramona DeFelice LongFebruary 20, 2011March 6, 2011

Details on the pre-conference intensive course I will be offering at the May 12-15 Pennwriters Conference are below.

I’ll also be teaching workshops on Story Arcs and Characterization.

For more information, check out the Pennwriters Conference 2011 page.

THURSDAY’S PRE-CONFERENCE SEMINARS:

MASTERING THE ART OF SELF-EDITING with Ramona DeFelice Long

When: May 12, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

For: Novelist and short story artists who wish to view their work with a sharp and critical eye in order to craft marketable and readable stories.

Prerequisites: Writers need a novel opening (3-5 chapters, up to 50 pages) or a completed short story; samples sent in advance by April 25 and an identical copy brought to the seminar; limit 15 students.

Description: Participants in this hands-on seminar will first explore strategies to craft technically perfect stories through sound technique and style. Second, writers will learn revision skills that focus on characterization and consistency; central ideas and story arcs; and the depth and relevance that capture readers.

Instructor: Ramona DeFelice Long is an author and independent editor who works in fiction and non-fiction in multiple genres. She’s been recognized as an Established Artist in Fiction by the Delaware Division of the Arts, as well as the Pennsylvania State Arts Council and the SCBWI.

Guest Blogging at The Working Stiffs

by Ramona DeFelice LongFebruary 11, 2011

Today I am guest blogging at The Working Stiffs. My post, Twelve Average Citizens, discusses the trial involving the death of Patrolman Chad Spicer in Georgetown, Delaware.

Faulkner’s Human Heart

by Ramona DeFelice LongJanuary 31, 2011August 5, 2012

“The world’s gone mad,” was my mother’s response to the news that the heads of two mummies from the King Tut era had been torn off by protestors who broke into the famed Egyptian Museum this past weekend. This was a sad statement from a woman who was born in rural south Louisiana during the Great Depression and who, in the past five years alone, had witnessed her home state get massacred first by a disastrous hurricane and then by a disastrous oil spill.

In times of such madness, it may seem silly to write stories. I spent part of this week going back and forth with a client, discussing theme. Specifically, how a writer makes a story bigger and more meaningful by addressing a big, meaningful theme. What sort of subjects touch and move readers? Continue reading “Faulkner’s Human Heart” →

Advice Among the Accolades

by Ramona DeFelice LongJanuary 24, 2011March 5, 2011

Last week, in jest, I posted about Helena Bonham Carter’s mismatched shoes at the Golden Globe Awards. This week I invoke HBC again, because her daring choices remind me of a nugget of writing advice that has both bothered and benefited me. It came via an anonymous judge for a writing fellowship, and I keep it posted on a yellow sticky note stuck to the side of my desktop:

“This writer should resist clichéd thinking that forces a story into a contained shape.”

Continue reading “Advice Among the Accolades” →

No Fair, Helena Bonham Carter!

by Ramona DeFelice LongJanuary 17, 2011September 9, 2013

If you watched last night’s Golden Globe Awards, you’ll probably agree that Helena Bonham Carter is a character.

What a quirky actress. I remember her as the young Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View; Ophelia in Hamlet and Olivia in Twelfth Night; the naughty Schlegel sister in Howard’s End; and Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove. That’s two Shakespeares, two E.M. Forsters and one Henry James.

Maybe that filled Helena’s quota of the classics, because then her roles got darker: Marla in Fight Club; Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd; and the darkest of them all, Bellatrix Lestrange.

Continue reading “No Fair, Helena Bonham Carter!” →