#(they look very lovely sitting next to Ruth on my art program)

[ashenwinds]

     “ Don't go running now! I've been dying to see how roasted a pirate can become! ”

[just-the-hiddles]

Writer’s Spotlight | Nildespirandum

This week I am spotlighting one of my favorite writers, @nildespirandum​!  She is the Adam writer that made me both scared and brave enough to write Adam myself.  She is the weaver of worlds, the creator of characters so real you think they are sitting next to you.  Smart, funny, and an amazing writer!

Catch all of Nildespirandum’s stories here.

What other names do you want people to call you?

I use Misreall on AO3.

How long have you been writing fic?

I am on this current round for about four years, but I did write before though that was a decade ago.

What fandoms and/or ships do you write?

Tom Hiddleston characters, though not RPF.  Primarily Loki, but I have written for Thomas Sharpe, Adam from Only Lovers Left Alive, and Conrad from Kong: Skull Island.  For all of them I have written OFCs.

How did you get started writing fic?

I had ideas for a fics for a while, but it wasn't until I started commenting and then talking to @caffiend-queen that I decided it was time to do something about it.

Story Recommendations

Which of your stories are your favorite?

I hate this question, but if I had to pick it would be the cycle of stories called Loki and Nora's Infinity Stone Playlist, both because it is my first, and because I think the relationship between the characters - not just Loki and Nora, but the cast that has build up around them - allows me to tell so many tales.

Which story are you most proud of?

Either Perfection - my Crimson Peak AU, or Reigning in Hel - A JotunLoki series.

Which of your stories do you think is the most underrated?

Probably At Hel's Edge, which is a historical mash-up of MCU Loki, with MythLoki.  The people who read it loved, it but it never found much of an audience.  Possibly because of the style I wrote it in, or maybe because the MCULoki character was a bit abstract from his origin.  But I am very, very lucky that it is getting a second life as a Webtoon drawn by @rauko-art, who is incredibly gifted and has worked so hard to make something really beautiful.

Someone is new to reading your stories, which story/stories should they read first?

For Loki, the Infinity Stone Playlist.  Otherwise, maybe Perfection.

Which story did you do the most research for?

Perfection.  I can tell you how much a yard of silk cost in 1910, both in England and the US.  

Which story was the easiest to write?

Probably my Incubus Loki first series.  It was so over the top and goofy that it was effortless.  Rapacity - my vampire Loki story - is also quite easy.  There may be a trend here.

The Writing Process

What is your favorite part of writing?

To quote Dorothy Parker, "I hate writing, but I love having written."  With that said, I love the moment when I am lost in the process, and the characters are narrating and I am taking dictation.  

What is your least favorite part?

Editing, which is probably why I hardly ever do it.  That said, I am fine editing other people's work.  

Describe your style in 1 to 2 sentences.

Breezily conversational when it isn't breaking your heart.

Who are some of your writing idols and/or influences?

I don't have time, and you certainly wouldn't have the patience, for my full list but a few key choices are Jane Austen, Anthony Bourdain, Ian Shoales, Alexander Dumas, the Brothers Grimm, Neil Gaiman, Louisa May Alcott, Balzac, Mary Roach, Bebe Moore Campbell, Douglas Adams.  But all of that said it was probably Howard Pyle, the D'aulaires, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Winifred Madison, and Ruth Chew whose books I read over and over to the point of them falling apart are probably the writers who made me, not only on the page, but in life.

What programs do you use to write and/or edit?

I do all of my writing and editing in Google docs.   I'm a Luddite at heart.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

A pantser.  I might have some of a story in mind when I start, but usually I start with an image and let fly.  The entirety of my Bottom of the Hourglass story came from my seeing a folded bookcase leaning against a basement door.

Do you write RPF or not?

Years ago I wrote an RPF as a gift for a friend. For the future, I never say never.

Who is your favorite character to write and why?

Loki.  Loki is the gift that keeps on giving.  While I could flippantly say that all of that emotional and mental trauma is fic writer catnip - and I wouldn't be lying - there is so much more.  He is a character of such wit and imagination, powerful, funny, wise, and a complete idiot.  The Trickster is such brilliant architype, playing both sides of the fence, fooling and being fooled, capable of great good and true evil.  He is vastly entertaining, and achingly sympathetic.  I can go on, but I will spare you.

What do you think are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, for one.  I am proud that if you read the dialogue alone from my stories you can tell who each character is, that they all have a distinct voice.

What do you struggle with?

Plot.  I get so very bored with plot.  

Favorite Trope?

That's like being asked to pick a favorite anything, I can't do it.  Ok, fine, enemies to lovers.

Favorite word to use?

Delightful.  Or Really.

What is the best piece of writing advice you have heard?

Make time for your writing.  Even when you think you can't.

What would you say to a new fanfic writer starting out?

Don't be afraid, don't shrink and hide and diminish yourself, you have to be your own first, best audience.  Also, always remember, art doesn't apologize and neither should you, as long as you feel you have given the best you can at any given time - which will not always be the same, EVERYONE has off days - then be proud of having written, of having added to the world.

What is a random bit of research you have not managed to work into a fic yet?

I did so much research on boats and ship to ship combat for my pirate story that I will never use all of it.  Generally I am pretty efficient with my research, mostly because I already have a brainful of useless knowledge that I am still trying to make pay off.

What is your favorite random detail from one of your stories?

I love that in the later Infinity Stone Playlist stories Loki's various lounging robes have magical pockets that always produce cookies.  

Any goals or WIPs you want to share?

I am determined to finish both The Frost Queen and The Tales of the Golden Horn this spring, and I have decided I am going to commit to the sequel to Perfection about Thomas and Alice's grandson that I have had in mind since I finished their story.

This or That

Fluff AND Angst

Smut AND Fluff

Reader or OC

One shot or Series

Canon Divergent AND AU

Coffee or Tea

Sweet or Savory

Anything else you want to say or share? 

There is a tendency in fandom these days to see things that do not have a moral dimension as being good or bad, to only look at the most extreme edges of things and pass judgement on the whole.  Life is hard enough, let people enjoy things.  

Until next week!

[artmakescbus-blog]

Weekend Warriors: Nine not-to-be-missed events

By Lacey Luce

11/7/18

I won’t be in Cbus this weekend. I’ll be at a conference, sitting and learning and basically being a responsible adult. In a fit of masochistic self pity, I went to the ColumbusMakesArt.com events calendar to see what all I’ll be missing.

I’m particularly bummed to miss the opening receptions for three exhibitions that I’m excited about.

FLUFF at Gallery 934, Nov. 9, is painting and installation work by German artists Vincent Haynes, Anna Nero and Malte Stiehl— Anna Nero is the current artist in residence via the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s exchange program between Columbus and sister-city Dresden. Nero, Haynes and Stiehl have been working together for several years and organized various joint exhibitions including a show in Detroit in 2016 and an Art Lab in Yangon, Burma earlier this year.

The next Blockfort exhibition is Colorchart. The resident Blockfort artists are creating something in their own style, but the catch is that each piece is based on a color that will be blindly drawn in a lottery format. The works will then be hung in the gallery in a rainbow order and will be available for sale. I love the idea for this exhibition and would urge anyone looking to build their art collection to head over.

Nov. 9 is also the date for the artists reception at the Fort Hayes shot Tower Gallery for Point of Departure a retrospective of works by Ron Anderson, whose paintings I absolutely LOVE. Anderson has also invited Talle Bamazin and Omar Shaheed to participate in this show, which celebrates the Harlem Renaissance.

At least I’ll have a few weeks after I get back to catch these shows. Sadly, the same cannot be said for some of the live music performances coming up, and I was recently reminded (at a Jazz Arts Group event) how uplifting and transformative live music can be.

Speakeasy on the Avenue is Nov. 9  at the King Arts Complex, and this amazing immersive event will feature multiple disciplines celebrating the Harlem Renaissance at 100, including MoJoFlo, Dionne Custer Edwards and BalletMet2.

The Columbus Symphony and Columbus Symphony Chorus are performing Handel’s Messiah on Nov. 9 and 10 at the Ohio Theatre.

On Nov. 10 is Ladies Night: Celebrating Women through Music at the Lincoln Theatre.

A few more events on my radar, On Thursday, Nov. 8, (Not) Sheep Gallery and Writing Wrongs Poetry is hosting their first poetry slam, featuring William Evans, Ruth Awad, Fayce Hammond and a mystery guest poet. Nov. 10 the Cultural Arts Center is throwing a free Absolutely Absurd Science Party, hosted by Colubmus-based painter Amandda Tirey. And, Nov. 10 & 11 the Gateway is Hosting the Columbus Veterans Film Festival.

This is just a handful of arts events that you can go to, but I will miss. Maybe you could do me a solid and go to these events and post photos via #artmakescubs? At least then I can enjoy vicariously.

Lacey Luce is a digital strategist for the Greater Columbus Arts Council who will miss you all very much while she’s away.

[fieldsofplay]

Top Albums of 2019

Top Albums of 2019.

25.  William Tyler – Goes West

For those of you reading along, I want to thank you for sticking with this blog for basically an entire decade at this point. Jeez, where does the time* go? To that end, I’m gonna put out a decade list sometime next week, so to keep my sanity somewhat in check, this years tops list is going to be a little more abbreviated than usual. A few less records, a few less words, but still the same self indulgence you’ve come to know and expect.  To that end, William Tyler.  Tied for my favorite cover art with IGOR.  This is beautiful finger-picked cosmic acoustic guitar music with some nice flourishes added by Brad Cook and the usual suspects.  Perfect for fall days.  I accidentally heckled him at a concert about the Andy Griffith show, but I was only trying to say he shouldn’t be ashamed about liking that program.  The shame still haunts me, much like this music. *A fictional social construct

24.  Floating Points – Crush

Now I’m not going to sit here and pretend to know much about electronic music.  I don’t know the deep history, I don’t know the technical lingo, but like pornography, I know it when I hear it.  Much has been made about the impact opening for the XX and being limited to minimal gear while doing so had on Sam Shephard, and I’ll admit the differences from Elaenia is palpable.  Where that album felt minimal, Crush is maximal, bursting with colors and ideas, not unlike the beautiful painting that adorns its cover.  I never quite knew what the phrase Intelligent Dance Music was supposed to mean, but to me, that’s precisely what this is. You could dance to “LesAlpx” if you wanted, or you could just throw it on headphones and drift away to its unceasing pulse. Find you a man who can do both.

23.  Nerija – Blume

Let me be the first to tell you that jazz is back! Centering largely in London, there is thrilling music being made by the likes of Sons of Kemet, The Comet is Coming, and this year, by Nerija. Breathing new life into a long moribund form (at least until Kendrick Lamar started featuring jazz musicians on his albums), Blume literally does just that, unfurling jazz from a long dormancy.  While I’m not normally a fan of the guitar in jazz, here it keeps the whole thing moving forward, as the horns swirl around in a supportive role and the percussion cooks.  “Riverfest” is the best exemplar, as the guitar chimes with joy while the cymbal-crashes enliven the vibe.

22.  Florist – Emily Alone

A tale as old time (song as old as rhyme): member of ambient-electronic band puts out solo acoustic album, about the sadness of moving to LA and finding oneself.  No one is reinventing the wheel here, but I can’t help but feel little touches of Florist’s electronic full-band output in Emily Sprague’s solo record—the way the words repeat, subtly, but building meaning with each little phrasal repetition. Plus, the ocean is a recurring image, and dear lord do I miss the sea. If you want to listen a sad girl sing sad songs accompanied by acoustic guitar, you aren’t going to do better than Emily Alone this year.

21.  Kevin Morby – Oh My God

Possibly the best Kevin Morby record?  No one else would say that, but I will.  If so, why is it so far down the list? Well, when you consistently put out amazing records year-after-year it becomes difficult for any individual album to make an imprint on the “culture.” I think “Seven Devils” is possibly his finest tune.

20.  Sacred Paws – Run Around the Sun

My friend David turned me on to this band right before I was about to embark on a road trip up north in the middle of the summer, and let me tell you, that was the perfect time to first experience Run Around the Sun.  Noodly guitars burst out of every seam on this record, as bubblegum lyrics tie the whole shebang together.  If you ever wondered what the Shangri-las would sound like if Johnny Marr played lead guitar, I give you Sacred Paws.

19.  Jamila Woods – Legacy! Legacy!  

On Legacy! Legacy! Woods takes the R&B of the excellent Heavn and applies a jazzier sheen, to excellent results.  One need look no further than the track titles (“Frida,” “Miles,” “Basquiat,” “Baldwin,” “Sun Ra” etc.) to see that Woods is consciously engaging with the titans of history, and here, while she doesn’t exactly reach the heights of those innovators, she certainly begins to carve out a legacy of her own as one of the best voices in a currently thriving R&B scene.

18.  Mt. Eerie & Julie Doiron – Lost Wisdom, Pt. 2

On Lost Wisdom, Pt. 2 Phil Elverum (of The Microphones) and Julie Doiron (of Eric’s Trip) recapture the magic they bottled on the first Lost Wisdom back in 2008.  It is hard to imagine sparer music than this, but the duo make so much of a pair of voices and few plucked guitar or banjo lines.  As with all of his music of late (for obvious reasons), loss hangs all over Elverum’s output, but here, the loss is more mood and less of a literal presence (with the exception of the blistering “Widows”).  Few songs I can think of capture a single, specifically odd phenomenon quite like “When I Walk Out of the Museum.”

17.  DIIV – Deceiver

As capital-G guitar music recedes further into irrelevance, it’s good to still have a band like DIIV kicking around, who make shoegaze like it’s still 1991.  And it’s a good thing they are still making their beautiful walls of feedback, as heroine has repeatedly knocked this band off the rails of what appeared to be a very promising career.  This is ominous, portentous music, that swirls with white noise and black despair.  Shoegaze is premised on making beauty out of the squall of overdriven electric guitars, and DIIV make beauty of the squall of 21st century opiate addiction.

16.  Earl Sweatshirt – Feet of Clay

Earl continues the excellent experimentation of Some Rap Songs in the (slightly) more structured Feet of Clay.  Whereas Some Rap Songs felt like fragments, the tracks on Feet of Clay (almost) feel like “songs” proper.  Earl continues to quickly sweep the ground out from underneath you, whether it’s in the form of oddly woozy backing tracks that can’t really be called “beats” or the sub 2-minute run times, but he seems to pack slightly more structure into those abbreviated entrants, even if there are a lot less of them than there were on Some Rap Songs.  Right now no one is pushing the boundaries of hip-hop like Earl, and each new release, even if the total run time is under 15 minutes, is a thrilling event.

15.  Better Oblivion Community Center – S/T

Yes, last year I had Boygenius as my number one record, but if I’m being frank, and I am, this is the better collaborative album put out by Phoebe Bridgers.  At first blush a record between the up-and-coming Bridgers and the largely has-been Conor Oberst seems like a desperate grab at continued relevance by the latter, but having seen them live, I must admit the pairing makes perfect sense.  The energy between the two is infectious, and while they share a common fascination with emo, they really draw the best out of each other.  Bridgers plays the Emmylou Harris role from I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning to perfection, and Oberst plays the Kenny Rodgers in “Islands in the Stream.”  For a period I could not turn on Radio K without hearing a song from this album, which is strange because, as a college radio station, every hour is usually completely different.

14.  Chromatics – Closer to Grey

In a certain way, Chromatics are victims of their own tendency towards self-mythologizing.  Their last two official albums were absolutely perfect slices of Italo-Disco, equal parts late night ennui and seething dancefloor longing.  There was way more guitar on those albums than most anyone would appreciate on first glance, and yet Ruth Radelet’s smoky vocals were unquestionably the star.  In the interim Johnny Jewel (the mastermind behind the band and basically everything on Italians Do it Better) famously destroyed all the copies of the long teased Dear Tommy after a near death experience, provided essential music to Twin Peaks: The Return (which included multiple Chromatics performances at the dear Road House), and then suddenly dropped Closer to Grey out of the sky, with neither warning nor fanfare.  This record is everything you would want a Chromatics record to be, but perhaps that is part of the reason it didn’t really make a major impression. It felt a little Chromatics-by-the-numbers, right down to the cover of “The Sound of Silence” to open it up.  I absolutely love this album, and if it weren’t for the incredible quality of albums put out this year, it would certainly be a top-10 or top-5 in any other year (hell, in the terrible-for-music 2018 it would have been number one by a mile).  Perhaps the biggest frustration is just how fucking good “Light as a Feather” is.  It hints at a version of Chromatics influenced by Portishead, and now that’s all I want more of.

13.  Thom Yorke – ANIMA

Doubt it if you will, you sneering youngsters, but Thom Yorke and his more well-known band are currently making some of the best music of their careers.  Just as A Moon Shaped Pool was a much needed return to form after the completely forgettable King of Limbs, with ANIMA Yorke gets back to what made The Eraser so compelling all the way back in 2006.  While a fondness for Aphex Twin is no longer at all exceptional in rock music in 2019, it was in 2006, and with ANIMA, Yorke gets back to the creepy, clicky, paranoid distrust of modern consumer culture that is solidly his wheelhouse.  Bonus points for using Netflix and a pairing with PTA to make America care about a long form music video again in 2019.

12.  Black Marble – Bigger than Life

I would call black Marble my favorite new band of the year, but the thing is, they aren’t new, just new to me.  Bigger than Life is their third record, and first for Sacred Bones (whose distinctive album art is what first caught my eye).  Because their music is comprised solely of arpeggiated synths, melodic bass, and clinking drum machines, overlaid with melancholicly narrow vocals, it is easy to accuse Black Marble of being a little same-y.  However, if you, like me, worship at the temple of New Order, than this is the band for you.  I have lived with their three extant albums the last couple months (the second, It’s Immaterial, being my favorite), and in reality, this is really the only music I want to listen to.

11.  Big Thief – U.F.O.F. / Two Hands

If you’re reading this than you likely already know how much I love Big Thief, and you might be a little surprised that one, if not both, of the records they put out this year is not sitting atop this list based on how much I’ve professed my love for this band over the course of 2019.  So here’s the thing, the highs on both of these albums--“U.F.O.F.” “Not”--are better than anything else anyone has done this year, but to my ear both records suffer from a flew blah-ish passages that prevent either album, on its own, from achieving top status.  However, if you borrow a few tracks here (Cattails, Contact) and a few tracks there (Shoulders, Two Hands) and made one album out of the highlights of both sessions, you would unquestionably have the album of the year.  That Big Thief gave us two records brimming with amazing folk rock ideas is a blessing.

10.  Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow

Hey, do you remember Sharon Van Etten put out an amazing record in 2019? I bet you don’t.  The culture moves so fast these days that albums from January might as well have been released five years ago, and it seems to me like this record slipped off a few peoples’ radars as the year progressed, which is a shame, considering how damn good it is (her best imho).  There are few runs on an album I’ve enjoyed more this year than “Jupiter 4’s” electro-throb into “Seventeen’s” Springsteen chug into “Malibu’s” comedown.  Bonus points for being my dear friend Hadley’s downstairs neighbor for all those years.  Ah Brooklyn, how I miss thee.

9.  Black Midi – Schlagenheim

Yes, that most reliable of music-critic tropes: the hot young band from London.  Black Midi made waves with a legendary youtube video of their live show, and having seen it in person, let me tell you, even that now infamous video doesn’t do them justice.  Much like its gobldy-gook made up title, Schlagenheim is an amalgamation of strands of music that don’t really fit together but somehow they pull off with aplomb.  At times they play with the hardcore fury of Minor Threat, while at others the proggy interconnectivity of Rush at their most arena-rockish, all with a weird dash of David Byrne wiry energy holding it all together.  If they come to your town, go see them, just don’t stand in the front unless you want to be swept into the maelstrom.

8.  Helado Negro – This is How You Smile

Did you love Little Joy (the Strokes sideproject) but wish it was occasionally electronic and periodically in Spanish? If so, I give you Helado Negro. This is the prettiest record of the year; it never goes above a certain emotional register / decibel range, but it inhabits the spectrum in which it lives like a ghost in its occasional electronic flourishes.  This is a record for someone with a long drive with something to think about. “Seen my Aura” is simultaneously funky and restrained, acoustic and electronic, and emblematic of the joys of This is How You Smile.

7.  Sturgill Simpson – Sound & Fury

Each of Sturgill Simpson’s last three records have been fundamentally different from one another, and each has been excellent, which is almost impossible to accomplish.  Metamodern Sounds in Country Music introduced many, like myself, to a new voice in an often overlooked medium, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth dusted off the horns from Elvis’s stax-era and romped around, and now with Sound & Fury Sturgill looks to the outlaw tradition (and ZZ freakin Top) he’s so-often been associated with, but rarely resembled, to crank out an incredible record that is far more “rock” than it is “country.” Throw on a heaping of 80’s-era Springsteen synths and you have the recipe for a record that makes me very, very happy.  The two halves of “Make Art not Friends” have little business coexisting within a single track (the first half sounds like Tangerine Dream, the second half Arcade Fire) and yet it is precisely in this tenuous cohabitation that Sturgill has produced his best record to date.

6.  Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride

Vampire Weekend started out their career being accused of stealing from Graceland and ended up becoming Paul Simon.  Funny how that works out sometimes.  Modern Vampires of the City has become, next to Sound of Silver, the definitive record about life in New York during my era (2005-2016).  On the follow up, the band, newly shorn of Rostam Batmanglij (whose solo record is also phenomenal, even though he’s maybe one of the worst performers I’ve ever seen), decamped to California, and Father of the Bride revels in both the California sun and a well earned sense of accomplishment.  “Hold You Now” is my favorite song of the year, it is simply stunning.

5.  Bill Callahan – Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest

There is a bit of theme developing here at the top of the list: established artists putting out arguably their best work deep into storied careers, and no one on this list is deeper into a more storied oeuvre than Bill Callahan.  Between Smog and under his own name, Callahan has been releasing consistently great albums since 1992, and to me, Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest is his finest work to date.  Having found domestic bliss, so the press materials state, Callahan is content to sit back and let that world-weary baritone spin out all the comforts of a well-worn chair near a fire in a hearth.  This is the type of record that gives you hope that happiness isn’t the exclusive provenance of the young.

4.  Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains

If I were to really sit and write out all of my thoughts about David Berman this blurb would probably be 10 pages long, at least, so rather than spill a bunch of digital ink lamenting the loss of a true inspiration, I’ll just try and stick to the album itself, which is almost impossible now in the wake of his suicide shortly after its release.  Even on first blush this was a difficult hang, clearly the product of someone who lost their wife to a series of poor decisions / mental difficulties, and who hadn’t come to terms with it.  Understandably so.  Berman remains endlessly quotable, right up to the very end, and “we’re just drinking margaritas at the mall” remains emblematic of his ability to compress the tedium of middle american misery into a single haunting, yet, hilarious, image.  While “Nights that Won’t Happen” lives on as his suicide note directly to the fans (“The dead know what they’re doing when they leave this world behind” ; “all the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind”), and it is hauntingly beautiful, it still makes me cry every time I hear it. As does most of this record. So the song I’ll carry on with me, and can still actually listen to, is “Snow is Falling in Manhattan.” Just a beautiful song from a beautiful man.  

3.  Tyler, the Creator – IGOR

I really don’t have the words (well, clearly I have some) to express just how impressed I am by the arc of Tyler’s career.  The one-time shock-rap flash in the critical pan quickly turned into forgettable homophobe who perfectly fit a description of Eminem’s fan base I once heard: kids who call their mom a bitch to their face.  The first startling change came with Flower Boy, which came right on the heels of his step out of the closet.  Flower Boy is a really great record, but it still largely sounded like Tyler, just a more mature version who stopped saying cringe worthy shit.  IGOR is something entirely different.  I honestly don’t even know what to call it. It’s not a rap record, and there are honestly entire tracks on it where I’m not sure what it is he does on them, but my god, this thing is incredible.  It’s basically a Parliament album for the end of the world, and if the earth is going to burn down around us, we might as well dance our way out, which is precisely the party Tyler has orchestrated here.  I cannot wait to see what he does next.

2.  Angel Olsen – All Mirrors

All Mirrors isn’t just clearly Angel Olsen’s best album by a clear margin, it is the best pop album made by anyone in sometime.  Just like black clothes make anyone a little slimmer, orchestration can make any pop song sound symphonic, but most pop acts don’t have the power of Angel Olson’s voice to match the bombast of the string section and percussion.  It feels like the term Beatlesesque has started to fade from the critical lexicon, but this music is truly akin to the orchestral richness of “I am the Walrus” or “A Day in the Life.”  People celebrate Lana del Ray for her torch songs (and I really liked Norman Fucking Rockwell, even if it didn’t quite make this list in a stacked year) but no one carries a torch like Angel Olsen.  I was initially reticent to catch her live show this tour, it was on a weeknight, it was cold, I had to go downtown, I’d seen her a couple times already, yadda yadda yadda, but I knew deep down I really wanted to see if she could recreate the power of these songs on stage (the inverse of how that equation usually goes).  Reader: she did.

1.  (Sandy) Alex G – House of Sugar

House of Sugar may not be quite as experimental as IGOR, or as pop-perfect as All Mirrors, but it takes those two impulses and melds them together into what is my favorite album of the year, even if strictly speaking it may not be the “best” as measured against the other entrants in this top 3.  “Hope” was actually a “hit” song on the local college radio station, and understandably so; it sounds like Elliott Smith and tells a comprehensible story about a friend who died from an overdose.  But “Hope” is jut one facet of House of Sugar, which is a veritable hall of musical mirrors.  “Walk Away” is hypnotic in its repetitions, “In My Arms” is a legit straightforward acoustic love song, “Sugar” sounds like The Knife (no joke), “Sugarhouse” could have been on The River, and while I already said “Hold You Now” is my favorite song of the year, “Gretel” has something to say about that.  I saw a show right when this album came out, and as the band left the stage for the final time the soundguy cued up “Gretel” not, I’m guessing, because the band requested it, but because it rules and he just wanted to share it with everyone as they receded into night.

[thetagsale]

Kid Fears

I can remember as young as three-years-old, Opal would get overwhelmed by her feelings and just scream. Nerve-racking, soul-shattering yells, high in pitch and sharp-edged enough to bring the house down. I thought it was a tantrum. I thought it was her big emotionality. I wrote my ass off about parenting methods I’d tried based on all the books. So many books. I wanted to share the wisdom of experience, but frankly, I didn’t feel any sort of extra intelligence from my experience of navigating the world of Opal’s emotions. Just heartache and exhaustion. 

She got older, but the bouts of screaming stayed with her like an invisible illness. When her feelings grew even the slightest bit beyond tepid, or plans changed abruptly (which is something I avoid as much as possible, but then, life.), or homework was challenging, or Ruth was too annoying, or what-have-you, I’d find myself reaching to steady the breakable vases as they did in Mary Poppins when the neighbor blew his cannon every hour on the hour. Batten down the hatches. 

Having a sibling certainly complicated things. I always feared the screaming was somehow damaging to the baby in the house. Our first foster daughter, Ericha, came to us because she had birth parents whose main mode of communication was to scream and hit. The last thing I wanted was for her new and safe home to be filled to the edges with the intermittent shriek-fests of her sister.

I can see myself putting the baby in her crib—Ericha, our first, who we had for a year, then Ruthy, who we adopted—and coming upstairs to calm Opal by just holding her. She’d push me away at first but then flop into my lap with a defeated sigh, weeping into my shoulder so much I’d feel like she’d need an IV drip to recover. I saw it in a movie about working in a child psychiatric unit. (I find I am always looking for glimmers of understanding and hope to apply to our situation, like panning for gold from thin air.) In the movie, the staff people would just hold these kids, as if they were squirming puppies in a blanket, firm but loving, to keep the child from hurting herself or anyone else. When I saw that, I cried. The rage and violence of these children eventually dissipated and they were left boneless and vulnerable in the lap of the staff member. 

God, so many years of it. Taking the time now to reflect, I feel a new sense of fatigued humility. It was never constant, her outbursts. There have been enough gaps in the weave not to put her in real therapy. (We’d consider it, reach out, even find someone to talk to, but then we’d have a collection of angst-free days and put that particular approach on the shelf.) 

Also, I had so much therapy as a kid (an older kid, but still) for my big emotions, my staggering ups and downs, that I always felt like I was a broken thing to be fixed. I have zero recollection of anyone trying to give me tools to work my particular disposition. I would have given anything for my parents to sit with me and say, How are things going for you? What’s it like for you in there? I love you just as you are AND we will work through this together. That’s what we’ve been trying to provide for Opal. I never ever in a million years want her to feel like she is a fucked-up thing. The concern of that has certainly guided our choices.

Here we are. Now. She just turned nine. The current method of working with the screaming was most recently to suggest that she go to her room to cool down and regroup. We moved her beloved guinea pig, Lightning, in there. We discussed it at our family meeting—she chose this as the best course of action when she loses control. But when it came down to it, when the emotions kicked in the door, all she wanted to do was talk about it. Her need to examine those emotional parasites piece by piece was all-consuming. She was unable to see how that method unfailingly exports her—almost instantly—to a very deep and dark place. She feels she is being negligent by taking her mind off of it, when in fact, her focus is like voluntarily gripping the anchor as it pulls her to the bottom.

God, I know about that approach all too well. Before children, I used to think journaling about my feelings was what needed to happen to work through my feelings. Perhaps that’s true, but only partly. Once written down, pen-to-paper, I missed the step of what’s next? How can I rise out of this? What can I do for others? And thus, I wound up cultivating a more engaged and deluxe mode of communicating about how fucked up I was. I got really really good at chasing my emotional tail. Having kids was the ultimate teaching in you just ain't got time to dwell in the muck.

It was then that I finally experienced what happens when emotions occur, acknowledged but uncoddled for lack of time. (I’m talking about the everyday emotions, here, not the heavy-hitters that DO need tending.) They PASS. Eureka. 

Even now, my instinct when I’m feeling shitty is to sit down and write about the shitty feeling. Pretty much across the board, that DOES. NOT. HELP. What does help? Connecting with a friend. Walking in the fresh air. Finding some art to linger over. Essentially, raising my gaze so that I can once again view beyond my own, personal, self-serving, survival-based bubble. 

This is all just to say that I have decade-upon-decade of experience with this for myself. 

So now, Opal is no longer given the choice. And as much as I’m not a fan of this is for your own good thinking, Opal’s emotions simply cannot be in charge of steering the ship of our entire household. How did that saying from my time in a twelve-step program go? You can’t fix your thinker with a broken thinker? Something like that.

Now, when the cannonball sounds and the screaming begins, I am quick and clean, tethered and steady in my predetermined course of action.

Honey, when you scream you lose the privilege of being in the same space as we are. Your feelings are welcome. Screaming is not. So it’s time to head up to your room and I will check on you in five minutes and be the one who decides when you are ready to calmly join us again. 

It used to be that she would go to her room to cool off and come back out when she was ready. NOPE. That only prolonged the painful process. She’d think she had calmed down, then come out and start the whole thing right up again and the back-and-forth to and from her room was a grueling and painful dance, leaving us all feeling defeated and assaulted.

So no, now I am in charge of saying when she can come out. And as pissed off as she was, initially, she seemed to see that she can regroup much quicker when she’s not also in charge of gaging if she has re-grouped enough yet. If that makes sense.

As I said, the wailing fits have been an occurrence in our home for at least six years. I remember blogging about them in my second parenting blog which was when Opal was two and three years old. There have been eras where a certain thing we are doing really seems to help quell her inner turmoil (and we go on a kick of feeling like badass parents), but inevitably the humbling and confusing time will come when what we are doing no longer seems to have any effect and the volume-dial on her outbursts is once again off the charts.

But, familiar as her episodes are in our family and our household, and such a major part of her childhood, they have never really had one obvious cause.

Except for the Fluid.

The Fluid is what Opal used to call the stomach Flu when she was younger, Kindergarten. That’s when she got it for the first time. Our entire house, including baby Ericha, got the stomach flu. It was nasty and took weeks before I felt confident that our house was no longer being tormented by the demon-virus. The next year, First Grade, Opal was out sick for a total of 40 days! She had the Fluid for exactly five of those days, the rest were generic viruses. Regardless, a phobia was born.

However, Opal’s Fluid-phobia always had a very different texture than her screaming. On the one hand, she had her regular outbursts which were completely unconcerned with volume and level of destruction. On the other hand was her fear of sickness: it was quiet, helpless, lots of tears, as if she wanted to hide from it all. 

Only now do I realize that they are each a side of the same coin.

It’s all fear. It’s all feeling a lack of control. It’s all having emotions that feel bigger than what her little body can process. The same story told in two very different ways.

Recently, during the last few weeks, Opal’s Flu Phobia (she no longer calls it the Fluid) has grown to a massive, suffocating beast. Most mornings, she will be going along fine and then say something like, “Here comes the fear again.” It’s heart-wrenching. Like the twinge in the back of my neck that tells me I’m about to have a headache; it’s so hard not to brace yourself against it, gritted teeth, white knuckles. Or to simply give up before it even starts, which is often the case with Opal. She sees the beast approaching and she lies down at its feet. Tears, paralysis, panic. 

Jesse and I agreed that something more has to be done. Something bigger than us from someone who is trained to guide us all along this rocky, unpredictable path. I suppose I always thought that since Opal was working with the same things I have worked with —and still occasionally work with—that I could help her through. But no. My experience does not translate. And I say with all the heart I can muster. 

Nov. 13, 2018

[newsever24-blog]

A Madoff Gets a Makeover, by Giving Them

New Post has been published on http://newsever24.com/a-madoff-gets-a-makeover-by-giving-them/

A Madoff Gets a Makeover, by Giving Them

A Madoff Gets a Makeover, by Giving Them

In the TriBeCa neighborhood of Manhattan, several boutiques — the kind frequented by women of not just means, but considerable means — have a stack of thick gold-bordered cards next to the register. A Madoff Gets a Makeover, by Giving Them.

They’re as large as cocktail napkins, but they’re business cards: too big to be slipped into a wallet, though perfectly sized to be slipped into a calfskin shoulder bag that costs over $1,000.

They advertise the services of Stephanie Mack, stylist, a.k.a. Stephanie Madoff, daughter-in-law of Bernard L. Madoff, the financier; and widow of Mark Madoff, who committed suicide in December 2010, on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest.

Ms. Mack recently started a styling business, with a list of clients who are often going through their own dramas. She has a good eye for fashion.

She also has something perhaps more valuable: intimate knowledge of loss, grief and starting over, and a determination to be something other than just a footnote in the Madoff saga.

“I don’t want to get defined by Bernie Madoff and his crimes. I don’t want to be defined by the fact that my husband killed himself,” Ms. Mack, 43, said recently, sitting at the kitchen counter of her apartment in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, where she and her two children, 8 and 10, have lived since 2016. “There are thousands of other stylists and personal shoppers who do the same thing I do, but I wanted to get back out there again.”

She’s not in the market mainly for ball gowns, either. For $200 an hour, with a three-hour minimum, Ms. Mack helps clients choose simple pieces like the best jeans (her own, on this day, were by Mother, worn with a white Hanes T-shirt and black Converse sneakers) and the kicky accessories to go with them. She loves a good beanie. She sits in closets, making notes on Post-its, listening and nodding. Sometimes clients will talk about their recent breakup or divorce.

“That’s when I’m like, ‘Listen. Don’t think that you’re staring at some girl who has it all because let me tell you what happened to me,’” Ms. Mack said. “When you’re in that position, of something bad that’s happened to you, you feel very alone. I felt very alone in my crisis. In my family disaster. You feel like you’re the only person it’s happening to.”

Where Bernard Madoff focused his career on obscuring as much as possible, Ms. Mack’s approach is the opposite.

“I wasn’t going to hide,” she said. “I have nothing to hide.”

The Young Widow

Until December 2008, Ms. Mack’s story read like a spec script for “Sex and the City.”

The oldest of two children, she was raised on the Upper East Side, mostly by her mother, a special-education tutor, and her stepfather, a litigator (both now retired). Her father, a management consultant, died when she was 18. Ms. Mack attended the private school Nightingale-Bamford.

After double-majoring in art and art history at Franklin & Marshall College, she moved back to the old neighborhood. She lived in a tiny studio apartment, working as an assistant photo editor for George, John F. Kennedy Jr.’s magazine, then as a fashion assistant to Narciso Rodriguez, who designed Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s wedding gown.

A blind date with an older, divorced man named Mark Madoff led to a second date, then a third. In 2004, in a Narciso dress of her own, she married him on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket. They lived in an apartment in SoHo, a house in Greenwich, Conn., and in another on Nantucket. They added one child to Mark’s two from his previous marriage, and Stephanie was pregnant with another.

“We had a really, really nice life,” Ms. Mack said. “We had means to have beautiful homes, and do what we want when we wanted.”

In December 2008, the fairy tale took a dark and lurching twist when Bernie Madoff confessed to his sons, Mark and Andrew, that he had spent the better part of his career in finance carrying out a massive Ponzi scheme. His sons, who had worked for their father’s firm for their entire careers, turned him in to authorities, who soon arrested Mr. Madoff.

The fraud devastated families, hedge funds and nonprofits from Manhattan to Palm Beach, Europe and beyond.

Ms. Mack’s mother and stepfather had investments with Mr. Madoff, as did many of her and Mark’s close friends.

In March 2009, Mr. Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 counts, including theft, fraud and money laundering. Mark, Andrew and Ruth, their mother, said they knew nothing of the scheme. Ms. Mack believed them. Others weren’t so sure, including the bankruptcy trustee. But they were never charged, and in June 2009 Mr. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Overnight, Ms. Mack had entered a circus of lawyers, F.B.I. agents, paparazzi and tabloid headlines.

After considering changing her last name to Morgan she decided on Mack, after ACK, the airport code for Nantucket. “I just didn’t want to hear it anymore,” she said, adding that Mark planned to change his name once his lawyers gave the O.K.

But with constant news coverage of the scandal and multiple civil suits, Mark seemed to be spiraling emotionally. In October 2009, he attempted suicide, swallowing pills and landing in a psychiatric ward. Over the next year, he worked on a new business, a real-estate newsletter.

Things seemed to be looking up, Ms. Mack said, but then Mark attempted suicide once again, this time successfully, with his 2-year-old son sleeping in an adjacent bedroom. Ms. Mack was in Walt Disney World with her 4-year old daughter, and awoke to two emails from Mark, one asking her to send someone to care for their son, the other blank, with the subject line: “I love you.”

Her stepfather rushed to the couple’s SoHo apartment, where he found Mark’s body.

Ms. Mack said the months after were a blur of heartbreak, anger, financial uncertainty and shame. “I am somebody who cannot stand waiters singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me in a restaurant. Can you imagine your life being plastered everywhere?” she said. “And then, your husband taking his own life two years later is shameful. It’s just shameful.”

Mark’s suicide, many surmised, was an indication of his guilt.

“I was like, ‘No way. He’s not going down like this. I’m telling the truth,’” Ms. Mack said. In 2011 she published “The End of Normal,” a memoir in which she wrote at length about her steadfast belief that Mark was clueless about his father’s fraud.

She finished a graduate school program at Bank Street College of Education, hoping to work with pediatric patients and their families in hospitals, but found it too much to manage with her two young children.

“That word is a very difficult word to say. To be a widow? You just think of that old lady,” Ms. Mack said. “It just sounds old and depressing and sad to me. Look, I’m not old-old. I’m not 25, but I’m not old. And I’m not depressing.”

She got the idea to become a stylist over dinner with a friend, after starting to date again, tentatively, in 2012 and realizing that a good outfit was a kind of protection. “Somebody gets set up on a date with me, they can find out everything about me,” Ms. Mack said. “Literally everything. To become less nervous, I needed to feel like I looked good.”

She contacted several high-end matchmakers and soon found herself working with people who were also seeking romantic relationships in less than ideal circumstances.

“I learned very quickly that everyone has a story, and a bad story,” Ms. Mack said. “The only difference between me and whomever is that mine was public. It’s loss. It’s the same emotion.”

[touchpointpress]

I interviewed Sharon Yang, author of Bait and Switch (released December 15, 2015) and Letter From a Dead Man (released December 6, 3017.) Are you as excited as I am to hear about what’s happened to Jessica Minton and her friends? Order a copy of her new book here: https://www.amazon.com/Letter-Dead-Jessica-Minton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B07664TYT1/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507496492&sr=1-1&keywords=letter+from+a+dead+man

And while you’re waiting for it to arrive at your doorstep, you can learn more about the author and her books right here.

This is the second book you’ve published with TouchPoint Press. What was different for this book from the last one your published? Have you learned anything?

One interesting difference was that I automatically planned to develop the cover myself with my husband. There had been a holdup on the release of Bait and Switch due to the publisher’s artist not coming through with good material. So when I decided to take the bull by the horns and ask Sheri if I could come up with my own cover, she gave me an enthusiastic green light. The first cover was actually almost exactly what I’d always pictured as the cover. So, as I was editing Dead Man, I was tossing around ideas with my husband for the cover. I’d originally had a different idea, but it didn’t quite seem to fit the style that we’d started with Bait and Switch. Then, re-reading and revising Dead Man, I came across a scene that I thought perfectly captured the spirit of the book and evoked one of the most suspenseful scenes: Jessica hiding from killers behind one of the lions at the New York Public Library. We tested a few poses, in sketches and by having me stand next to one of the actual lions in NYC, before settling on our final choice. So, I learned from my first experience to just go right for my own creation for a cover.

That’s really interesting. I don’t often think about how much time and effort is put into developing a cover design. How did you find and/or choose to work with TouchPoint Press?

The answer to this question is a funny story. My discovering Touchpoint was part serendipity and part luck. I had studied the Writer’s Guides to Publishing and Agents and made up detailed lists of who my best bets would be for my kind of fiction. I came across the Red Writinghood Ink Agency. The book made them seem perfect for a new writer with my ‘40s mystery style, but their website said that they weren’t accepting new writers now. I was disappointed, but decided, “What the heck, I’ll still give them a try, just in case.” So, I sent my query to the agent listed in Writer’s Guide to Agents as my best bet as a contact, Sheri Williams. Well, lo and behold, Sheri had left to start her own publishing company, Touchpoint. She loved Bait and Switch and wanted the whole manuscript. The rest is history! So, my take away is be persistent, take chances; you never know where opportunities will flare up. Hard work and luck pay off!

Do you think of writing as a second/full-time job? Does your time at work and your writing time overlap any?

Right now, writing is clearly a second job. I pay the bills by teaching as a tenured Professor in English at Worcester State University. It’s highly unusual for writers to make enough to support themselves in a comfortable life. So, since my teaching is such a demanding job, I basically only write in the summer, when I’m not teaching. This setup gives me a nice balance. During the school year, I throw myself whole-heartedly into teaching, so I’m exhausted when summer rolls around. Writing, either fiction or my scholarly work, is a nice change of pace for my mind. I exercise my intellectual and creative muscles differently. Then, by the end of summer, I’m so exhausted with writing that I’m ready to switch gears and go back into teaching. Maybe that’s why autumn always seems like the beginning rather than the end of the year to me.

It sounds like having a yearly writing schedule like that would make sure that you stay energized and don’t feel burned out with one task. During the summer, what are your writing must haves or routines?

I definitely can’t write during the school year. I don’t have the concentration or the time. Summer break is the best because I have longer stretches of time without interruptions. On a nice day, I sit on the front porch, with a great view of the hills and the trees, and work away. I do like to have a cup of tea with me. I’m too stirred up with my writing to have coffee. My first draft has to be written with pen on paper. Typing slows me down; the words don’t flow. Later, I type the written draft up, editing as I go. Later drafts are done on the computer. Editing is easier for me with a computer.

What emotions are you trying to draw out of your readers? Do you enjoy making them work for answers?

The emotions I want to draw? Well, definitely suspense and surprise. I love to drop hints and see if they pick up on them. I like to try to bend the generic rules. I love to play with in-jokes. So, I want the readers to be in suspense but have fun. I also want them to care about the characters, to share their feelings of love, doubt, and humor.

Can you tell us about your future writing plans? Are you planning to continue the series? What hints or tidbits can you give your fans? Do you have anything planned besides the series?

I definitely have more adventures planned for Jessica, James, Liz, and Dusty. I actually have a third novel completed called “Always Play the Dark Horse.” This mystery needs more editing, but it’s in good shape. “Dark Horse” takes Jessica and James to a college campus on the beautiful Connecticut coast, where they run into her old college sweetheart, a mysterious veteran who literally rides a dark horse, and the strange disappearance of an art professor – who later turns up to wreak havoc on everyone’s lives. Dusty continues to preside over affairs while honing her mouse-catching skills, and Rose Nyquist from Dead Man reappears as another professor who helps Jessica and James unravel some fatal mysteries.

In addition, I have detailed outlines for a fourth novel in the series, which I’ll probably call “Shadows of a Dark Past.” Here, Jessica and Elizabeth travel to an eerie, isolated manse on the Maine coast where Jessica joins the rest of her radio program comrades to perform several remote broadcasts revolving around the unsolved murder of a beautiful woman at the manse nearly twenty years ago. Of course, Jessica bears a striking resemblance to the woman – something of interest to the woman’s husband, who still lives nearby with their daughter. When Jessica finds herself sleepwalking to the room where the woman was murdered, Liz calls on James to get up to Maine and help her figure out what’s going on with Jess before her unconscious peregrinations end tragically.

I have ideas for at least three other novels in the series, but they are in a less detailed state. I also have ideas for a mystery set outside the Jessica series, as well as a supernatural tale. Either of them might lead to a sequel.

Wow, it looks like you have everything all planned out! You write what you love to read and watch, and you’re good at it, which is so awesome! But if you had to pick another genre to write in, what would it be and why?

You know, I have to say I only write what I like: mysteries, supernatural tales, and scholarly writing in subjects I love. Writing is far too demanding for me to invest that much of myself in something that does not fully capture my heart.

Fair enough. Is writing a solo experience for you? When do you allow people to see your work?

I have a posse of friends who get first crack at what I write. Partly, they just enjoy reading my mysteries, but they also give me great feedback on what works and what doesn’t work. They are honest but tactful. The friend with whom I work the most is Ruth Haber. She usually gets the very first crack. She is an avid reader of mysteries and another English prof, so she knows what is good writing and fits in the genre and what doesn’t. She’s also good at encouraging me to bend the rules of genre to create something original and exciting.

In your opinion, what was the most difficult part of the writing process?

I think trying to figure out what to cut to make your novel read smoothly and keep the suspense going. You don’t want to undermine the development of characters or toss away some evocative descriptions, but you also don’t want to bog down your readers. Striking the balance between keeping up a good pace and giving your readers some prose they will savor is tough.

That’s a great answer. So, what scene or detail did you take out from either book that you wish you had left in?

With Dead Man, there was a part I wish I could have kept, but it would have slowed down the building of suspense. That was a flashback to a scene where James proposes to Jessica. I have considered including it on my website as a little treat. I also had to cut a dramatic scene from Bait and Switch where Jessica almost ends up shoved down an elevator shaft. It worked really well, but it would have dragged out the novel too long. However, I’ve been figuring how I can adapt that vignette to a later novel in the series.

You are all about characters and character-driven plots. You’ve said that you were inspired to write a story with a strong heroine. Did you find it harder to write about male characters?

I don’t really find male characters hard to write. I just think about who this person is and go from there. That usually seems to work. I tend not to enclose people in gender roles, although who that character is might do the enclosing for me.

If you weren’t a writer, what interesting thing would you want to be known for?

I don’t know if this is interesting, but I do want to be known as a teacher who is creative, inspiring, and challenging. I want to be known for not just inspiring students to love literature but to better understand themselves and others through reading. I want to be known for helping them find their voice as writers and to use that voice to help others.

That is interesting! Interesting and inspiring. Would you say that writing energizes or exhausts you?

Writing definitely does both. It’s thrilling to have ideas and to play them out in my mind, then translate them into words to provoke my intended vision in readers. However, I usually kind of collapse after a bout of putting ideas and images down on paper. Writing is hard – but exhilarating – work!

You do a lot of research for your books. You’ve mentioned books and movies and newspapers and interviews…How much time do you think you spend researching versus writing and editing? Have you gone on any “reading/writing pilgrimages”?

I don’t know if I can compare the amount of time I put into editing vs. research. Sometimes one leads into the other. For example, when I was editing various drafts, I realized that I’d written some information that might not be true. As a result, I had to go back and double-check to correct the manuscript. So, yes, it was the AF of L in 1945, not the AFL-CIO and there was no racing at Saratoga the summer of 1944.

In addition, we definitely do “pilgrimages” to check out setting. We went to the NYPL to take photos of the lions so we could see how to set up the cover – and I adjusted my description of two scenes to depict more accurately what the area outside the library looks like. Another time, I wanted to see how a scene I intended to write would play out. We went down the subway by Bryant Park, then I raced up the stairs, down the street, and over to hide behind one of the lions. Nobody even noticed. That’s one of the sneak peeks I have on my website.

I remember reading about that on your blog. That sounds like one crazy adventure! What’s the best money you’ve spent as an author?

As a mystery writer, I would say joining Sister in Crime and Sisters in Crime-New England. These two organizations have provided me with guidance on publishing and promotion. They have helped me to get the word out on my books and sell them through putting me on speakers panels for various libraries, organizations, and book fairs. Even better. They’ve introduced me to other writers who are not only wonderful mentors but good friends. Plus, I get to widen my library of great mystery writing through these connections!

I’ll definitely have to suggest those organizations to other mystery authors. And finally, the golden question: What does literary success look like to you?

When you use the word “literary” to me, there’s an implication we’re discussing the quality of writing rather than “fame and fortune.” I want to create writing that evokes imagery and feeling. I want to inspire readers to interact with my characters as if they were real people. I love to challenge them to figure out “whodunit.” I also want them to have fun getting the in-jokes that connect to high and pop culture. I want to sell enough books to be able to keep writing, but I don’t expect to be making enough to retire on. Of course, I wouldn’t mind if I suddenly was rolling in greenbacks from the profits – as long as I could keep control of my writing and not be forced to cookie-cutter it to what is perceived as popular taste.

  I hope you enjoyed getting to know Sharon Yang a little better. You can follow her on her website, https://sharonhealyyang.com/, and keep checking out our website for more information about her appearances and future works.

Interview with TouchPoint Press Author Sharon Yang I interviewed Sharon Yang, author of Bait and Switch (released December 15, 2015) and Letter From a Dead Man…

[delectablymaximumwitch-blog]

PSY 205 Week 8 Exam 2

Click Link Below To Buy:

 http://hwaid.com/shop/psy-205-week-8-exam-2/

 Course  Life Span Development

Test       Exam 2

Attempt Score  150 out of 150 points  

Time Elapsed     1 hour, 46 minutes out of 2 hours.

Instructions        This exam consist of 50 multiple choice questions that cover the material in Chapters 6 through 10.

•             Question 1

3 out of 3 points

               The WISC measures ________, while achievement tests measure ________.

•             Question 2

3 out of 3 points

               John and Martha have clear rules and expectations. When a child breaks a rule, they listen to their son or daughter's side of the story before deciding on a consequence. According to Baumrind's parenting styles framework, John and Martha are probably:

•             Question 3

3 out of 3 points

               Who is coping with a social clock issue?

•             Question 4

3 out of 3 points

               According to Susan Harter, self-esteem first becomes an important issue for children:

Answer                                                

•             Question 5

3 out of 3 points

               Why did high school make adolescence a defined life stage?

•             Question 6

3 out of 3 points

               Theresa, your best friend, tells you she thinks she is a terrific athlete but hates the way she looks. What might you predict about Theresa's overall self-esteem?

•             Question 7

3 out of 3 points

               Marsha has a new pimple on her chin, and Frank, a boy she finds very attractive, sits down beside her in the cafeteria. Marsha is mortified and tells her mother that she must transfer to another school because she cannot go back to class the next day. Elkind would label Marsha's assumption that Frank noticed her pimple and her reaction as evidence of:

•             Question 8

3 out of 3 points

               Which person is showing prosocial behavior?

•             Question 9

3 out of 3 points

               Dr. Jones is lecturing on college and careers. Pick the statement he should make.

•             Question 10

3 out of 3 points

               A colleague of yours has a child who is regularly in trouble at school, and she is considering sending him to a wilderness program for teens with similar problems. Based on the text discussion of deviancy training, what might you advise?

•             Question 11

3 out of 3 points

               You are a nurse who works with teens with eating issues. Based on the text, pick your main challenge.

•             Question 12

3 out of 3 points

               Children who are temperamentally “at risk” are MOST likely to thrive when:

•             Question 13

3 out of 3 points

               Ruth is artistically talented and would like to be a professional painter but realizes this field is highly competitive and artists rarely make a living wage. After considering several possibilities, she has decided to become an art teacher, since she also really likes children. According to the identity statuses framework, Ruth is in:

•             Question 14

3 out of 3 points

               Corinne's son Josh wants to get heavily involved in his high school drama and voice clubs and she is worried, because her child is not a great scholar. Based on the text research, what might you advise?

•             Question 15

3 out of 3 points

               From an evolutionary point of view, pick the MAIN advantage of teenage risk taking:

•             Question 16

3 out of 3 points

               Which child is apt to recover MOST quickly from his parents' divorce?

•             Question 17

3 out of 3 points

               Give each child the correct “diagnosis” or label in order: “Judy is extremely anxious and depressed.” “Jane acts disruptively and regularly gets into fights.”

•             Question 18

3 out of 3 points

               According to Erikson, our life task during adolescence and emerging adulthood is deciding:

•             Question 19

3 out of 3 points

               Which teen is MOST likely to suffer from depression and poor self-esteem?

•             Question 20

3 out of 3 points

               Your daughter gets an A on her science test. According to the research, your response should be:

•             Question 21

3 out of 3 points

               Bullying-prevention programs focus on:

•             Question 22

3 out of 3 points

               Above all else, what REALLY makes teenagers feel totally loved?

•             Question 23

3 out of 3 points

               Petra is stunted and living in a developing country. Compared to a typical U.S girl, Petra will:

•             Question 24

3 out of 3 points

               Which situation involving an 8-year-old child would you be MOST likely to witness at a toy store?

•             Question 25

3 out of 3 points

               Which response involves induction?

•             Question 26

3 out of 3 points

               If were only “so so” in your school abilities but have become huge success in life because you have terrific street smarts, you would agree MOST with:

•             Question 27

3 out of 3 points

               If John has reached formal operations, pick his UNIQUE NEW talent.

•             Question 28

3 out of 3 points

               Erik Erikson felt that an important task in our twenties is to develop a sense of:

•             Question 29

3 out of 3 points

               Since entering middle school, Julie's grades are dropping, and all she cares about is being in the “popular crowd.” Julie's behavior is:

•             Question 30

3 out of 3 points

               Helene tells you that in the nineteenth century, girls menstruated at an average age of 16. Now some girls reach menarche as early as age 9. Helene is referring to the:

•             Question 31

3 out of 3 points

               Which phrase BEST describes the transition to adulthood among U.S. young people?

•             Question 32

3 out of 3 points

               Pick the earliest VISIBLE sign that a boy is reaching puberty.

•             Question 33

3 out of 3 points

               Pick the core difference between friendships and popularity.

•             Question 34

3 out of 3 points

               Compared to other Western nations, U.S. teenage pregnancy rates are ________.

•             Question 35

3 out of 3 points

               According to Susan Harter, which child is MOST vulnerable to low self-esteem?

•             Question 36

3 out of 3 points

               Teachers in schools that “beat the odds”:

•             Question 37

3 out of 3 points

               You are devising a questionnaire to predict which female elementary schoolers are apt to reach puberty earlier. Which item should NOT be on your list?

•             Question 38

3 out of 3 points

               Pick the MAIN reason why reaching concrete operations tends to produce “self-esteem” issues.

•             Question 39

3 out of 3 points

               Carlo is the MOST aggressive “out of control” child in kindergarten. Predict Carlo's likely fate in elementary school:

•             Question 40

3 out of 3 points

               Which child is MOST likely to be resilient?

•             Question 41

3 out of 3 points

               As you are taking this test, it's so, so easy to look at the next person's answers, but you decide “No.” For each kind of reasoning pick out the correct level of moral development using Kohlberg's categories: (1)“I won't because I might get caught”; (2) “I won't because I believe that cheating is morally wrong”; (3) “I won't because I took a pledge to uphold the school's honor code.”

•             Question 42

3 out of 3 points

               Calista was highly intellectual and self-confident in elementary school. As she travels into high school (in a normal public school) and finds herself in the “brains crowd,” Calista might become:

•             Question 43

3 out of 3 points

               Which baby is MOST vulnerable to maltreatment?

•             Question 44

3 out of 3 points

               Emerging adulthood refers to:

•             Question 45

3 out of 3 points

               According to the research, what kind of adolescent is BEST set up to master the difficult challenges of college?

•             Question 46

3 out of 3 points

               Dale wants a cupcake, so he shoves Tom aside. Tom reacts by bopping Dale over the head. First, label the type of aggression each child is showing and then identify which boy will be MOST angry.

•             Question 47

3 out of 3 points

               If you asked a typical 13-year-old “What is your most important priority?, he would be MOST likely to answer:

•             Question 48

3 out of 3 points

               All of these 23-year-olds fit a CLASSIC emerging adult pattern EXCEPT:

•             Question 49

3 out of 3 points

               The MAIN peer problem for early-maturing girls is having:

•             Question 50

3 out of 3 points

               Nancy, a graphic designer, describes her job this way: “Time flies. I get so absorbed in finding just the right logo to best convey what the customer wants that, before I know it, the day is over. I don't realize that I'm one of the few people left in the office until the janitor comes to empty my trash can.” Nancy is: