#and the writers specifically wanted eric so i can see them being inspired in theme by his works

[franzthemeerkat]

Having Armand still dating Louis during the interview is a major departure from the book and I've been thinking about why they would choose to do that. I'd love to hear what other people think about that decision making process, but I've managed to convince myself it's, in part, evidence that they're planning on doing a 70s devil minion reveal.

After you decide to age up Daniel and do a second interview, the question of his relationship with Armand is one of the big decisions you have to make next. Do you include that relationship after the first interview, like the book, or take it out/do it out of the second interview? If you include the relationship in the 70s that does present a pretty big problem to the idea of a second interview. Daniel would know a lot about vampires, and probably a lot about Louis's story too, and you have the fact that Armand turned him while they were together. It's pretty easy to punt Armand turning him, and I can see Armand's powers expanding pretty naturally to memory alteration (or maybe he does do that in the books? Idk I'm only on the second book). Then, the question is why did they break up, and why would he remove Daniel's memories? Armand still being with Louis seems like a pretty good way of tying up all of those, and it also gives you a neat way to set up the fact that Armand can take away memories.

[avauntus]

Supernatural - a retrospective

This is super self-indulgent, and I have so much else I’ve promised-- I owe a long-fic rec post, and ao3 comments, wip work, and that’s just my fandom stuff I’m behind on. *sigh*

But it’s late on a Saturday and now I’ve finished Supernatural, I want to share what I think are my top few eps, and a few other comments. I promise some of this will be different from the “greatest hits” you probably usually see, and I’ll try to make it worth your time. *wry smile*

Look, we have to have categories like: “Most Likely to Live in My Head Rent-Free for the Rest of my Life” and “Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction” that are different from “Favorites,” because that’s just the cursed energy this show has. ;-)

My top five

#5 - 13.01 - “Lost and Found”

Written by: Andrew Dabb | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia

In fandom, this is most often referred to as the start of the “Grieving Widower” arc, tongue-in-cheek. Also has Alexander Calvert (Jack) walking around completely in the nude for the first third of the ep. (Neither of these are why this is in my top 5, but he has a good story about wardrobe for his ‘first day.’) 

I didn’t expect much out of this episode the first time I watched it, but I’ve gone over this ‘section’ of the show maybe 3-4 times in my Netflix catch-up, and I watch this one in full every time. From Jack being...not at all what anyone expected and an unsteady vindication, to the stunning cinematography (there’s a post that compares shots to Brokeback Mountain, but I think the shots here might be better), to the sheriff who takes the time to remind her deputy that “...there’s no such thing as ‘weird.’ Everyone’s normal in their own way,” to the slow reveal of exactly how hard the events of the previous night (12x23 - All Along the Watchtower) are hitting Dean and Sam and in different ways...(how long the episode takes to reveal to you how Dean fucked up his hand, and what he was saying when he did. Augh!) The Winchesters are trying to rally, but they have been taking hits for a long time, and the cracks are showing.

 #4 - 15.06 - “Golden Time”

Written by: Meredith Glynn | Directed by: John F. Showalter

Supernatural  has a terrible track record with representation in all stripes. It is infamously consistent in killing off anyone minority, female, or non-White. One of the interesting things about the chaotic meta-narrative of season 15 is you can see the lack of fucks some of the writer’s room had to give about not even being subtle about tearing down that type of ‘White-male-hero-journey” now that they were in a literal “what will they do, fire me?” situation.

I’m a Cas fan, and this episode, which gives him an actual, ‘case-of-the-week’ hunter’s narrative where he gets to save the day on his own, successfully, was wonderful. I love that for him! But more than that, for me, this episode is emotional to me for other reasons-- the way Dean and Cas circle around each other on their angry phone call (with the body language! They are broadcasting so LOUD and neither can see because they’re on the phone!), Sam’s story here, where he’s inheriting things from Rowena that allow him in turn to save Eileen, to Cas’ speech and quick anger at the lake when you reflect on his entire journey of self-realization from a soldier of blind faith to an agent of free will... “You selfish little men in your positions of authority...” I just... *clears throat, grabs tissue* 

#3 -  6.20 - “The Man Who Would Be King”

Written & Directed by: Ben Edlund

Speaking of Cas’ journey... I know some folks don’t like the angst and drama of the ‘Heaven and Hell’ plots of Supernatural, but I am here for it. Oh, did we need another reason to include this episode? This has some of the most metal quotes I have heard from any TV show. Ever.

I mean, look at this:

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have said: Freedom is a length of rope. God wants you to hang yourself with it.”

“Explaining freedom to angels is a bit like explaining poetry to fish.”

The delivery of: “It's not too late. Damn it, Cas! We can fix this!” “Dean, it’s not broken!” is one of those Supernatural bits that will live in my head until the end of time. All of Edlund’s episodes are among my favorites, but this (along with “5.04 - The End”) was on another level. 

#2 - 5.16 - “Dark Side of the Moon”

Written by: Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin | Directed by: Jeff Wollnough

I think of this episode every time  I hear Bob Dylan sing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” This is kinda a giant montage episode, but the connecting concepts are so...satisfying. 

“Heaven is your favorite memories.” “ It’s called the axis mundi. It’s a path that runs through heaven. Different people see it as different things. For you, it’s two-lane asphalt.” “This is your idea of heaven? Wow, this was one of the worst nights of my life.” “I don’t think I realized how long you’ve been cleaning up Dad’s messes.” “It’s awesome to finally have an application—a practical application—for string theory.” “Everyone leaves you, Dean. You noticed?” “Why is God talking to me? Gardner-to-gardener, and between us, I think he gets lonely.” “You son of a bitch, I believed in... ” Whoosh.

#1 - 4.01 - “Lazarus Rising”

Written by: Eric Kripke | Directed by: Kim Manners

So...this is the episode where Castiel, angel of thee Lord, shows up. And that’s primarily why it earns the no. 1 spot, because 80% of my enjoyment of Supernatural from this point on was Cas-adjacent. Plus this entire episode just hits. ALL OF IT. Dean’s homecoming. Ruby, my darling. Bobby’s entire vibe. Pamela Barnes, easily one of the most interesting women Supernatural ever introduced. Cas being so hot to say “Hi” to Dean he forgets he wounds people. 

But beyond that-- the way the show writes their ‘oh, by the way, angels’ narrative! If you haven’t seen this episode, would you believe me if I told you that THIS EPISODE, the episode where Supernatural said “canonically, Judeo-Christian Heaven is real, btw” involves no churches but does involve a séance, a soulmark handprint brand, and a himbo angel that “gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition”...but they were all “no homo, guys” for years?

Truly no one was out here doing it like Supernatural even back in 2008.

Others--

15.18 - “Despair” 

“Most Likely to Live Rent-Free in My Head for the Rest of my Life”

Written by: Robert Berens | Directed by: Richard Speight, Jr.

You know why this episode is here. It broke reality. I could be wrong-- but I’d put good money on this episode being the subject of academic theses in the future. That doesn’t automatically make for interesting story, but...

Has there ever been a case, in a mainstream US TV show where a major lead character (Cas) came out as queer so late in the game in a narratively-important way? I’m not aware of it, but I might just be behind on my television.

This episode has great writing, and (blessedly) amazing direction and blocking anyway. Check out the above gif - that is some next level foreshadowing going on in the cinematography, and this isn’t even the most remarked upon shot in this episode. (Seriously, I had to search for 40 minutes for this gif, please respect my game, lol.) Everyone who was involved in 15x18 is giddy talking about their investment, from the costume designer to the actors to the director to the writer...

...And then a bunch of them steadfastly have avoided posting much Supernatural-related since. So that’s...loud. There is a bunch of subtext in this episode that is screamingly loud; there is a bunch of text in this episode that makes several things clear fandom has been chattering over for years and years. The meta-commentary around this episode continues, months later. There are over 700 fics on AO3 with this episode tag.

I have more to say about the themes of ‘free will’ and ‘love’ and ‘identity’ tied to this episode, but seriously-- you’ve probably read 17 versions of it on Tumblr already, so.

This is the last time we see Cas, and the last time Supernatural can claim anything close to narrative consistency. For that alone, it’d earn free head-space.

Runners-up: “4.20 - The Rapture”; “5.04 - The End”; “7.21 - Reading is Fundamental”; “8.21 - The Great Escapist”; “9.06 - Heaven Can’t Wait”; “12.19 - The Future”; “14.08 - Byzantium”

6.17 - “My Heart Will Go On”/8.07 - “A Little Slice of Kevin”

“Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction”

Written by: Eric Charmelo & Nicole Snyder (6.17); Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia (6.17); Charlie Carner (8.07)

Usually the show kills off it’s “one-episode” female characters, but do you know one time it didn’t? When the Moirai (the Fates - specifically Atropos, the shearer of the Threads of Fate) showed up in canon in 6.17. She was posited to have “two older sisters that were bigger than her- in every sense of the word,” ...and Castiel had to back down when she challenged him to a cosmic game of chicken over the Winchester’s lives.

Then they never returned to that idea again. 

“A Little Slice of Kevin” is on here for the opposite reason -- an amazing idea that was really underwritten in the episode it showed up in. Dean Winchester has been dragging himself across the fabric of universes; the literal Word of God is in play in a warehouse in Middle America; Cas is back from Purgatory, but what does that mean, micro and macro? As a person on the street, what would it mean, or feel like, to learn you were a Prophet of the Lord, uncalled? That what you are, everything you are, is a cosmic contingency?

Maybe Fate has an opinion on all these shenanigans?

Perhaps all that doesn’t make sense, but it certainly made an impression on ~2012 me. To this day, it remains the WIP I can open up and fool myself with the ‘twist.’ I wish I remembered where I was going with it so I could finish it.

Runners Up: “2.20 - What Is and What Should Never Be”; “5.04 - The End”; “6.15 - The French Mistake”; 12.12 - “Stuck in the Middle (with you)”; “13.05 - Advanced Thanatology” “14.03 - The Scar”; “14.10 - Nihilism”; “15.15 - Gimme Shelter” ... and “15.20 - Carry On” (obviously)

Fifteen seasons. There were plenty of other episodes I loved that didn’t make these limited lists. But overall -- thank you, Supernatural, for the run. Even if I’m upset at the ending, I can appreciate the game. If you watch the show, what were your favorite episodes?

[beliamh-its-me]

Performance overview & Research

The overarching theme of My Country is inspired by the question, ‘How united is the United Kingdom?’. The idea behind the theme derived from the contrasting verbatim scripted opinions surrounding Brexit. Through acknowledging the vast amount of opinions and stories, we compared each region to the referendum results. Not only did this support our theme, it helped to structure the fictional manifestations of regional characters. For example, Caledonia’s persona has been based off the Scottish remain vote totalling 62.0% (BBC, 2016). So, in order to amplify this, Caledonia is extremely defensive and angry in a way to foreshadow the verbatim lines. Brexit links to the exploitation of corruption within the UK’s patriotism, something amplified in the script. A poignant line, to support the theme comes from Theresa May, ‘...a vision that works not for the privileged few’. The message shows the government promoting the UK as a satisfied minority, proposing changes are needed. This idea finishes the play, leaving the audience questioning the current political climate. We aspire to start a conversation, about politics and its importance. May, quickly became the Conservative party leader. Offering an idea that Brexit was a distant idea, until it was not, accompanied with unsettling optimism. Another issue that arises is the name ‘Brexit’. Broken-down it means ‘Britain’ and ‘Exit’. This means Northern Ireland is excluded from the branding, linking to a long history of division within the UK, and is played on in the script. The major element, being the lack of spoken lines from NI through verbatim, to create the sense of lesser respect for NI’s opinions. The theme of delight breaks tension in the performance. During the fictional scenes, there is shared food, facts and laughter! This is important in remaining partial, but mostly to celebrate the UK for individuality. The constant return of the characters throughout the verbatim sections, create a sense of familiarity. The creative vision is synonymous with the medium, Zoom. The Guardian (2019) reported that Farage’s party accounted for 51% of all shared content on Facebook and Twitter during the campaign. Meaning that Brexit was a social media operation. We used this to incorporate the fictional characters. This is shown through using Facebook inspired videos that indicate joining a ‘Pub Chat’ group call. This implies the characters oversee the verbatim characters, and join the audience in watching the performance. Further, creating a sense of realism as the audience form a relationship with the fictional characters. Both parties are learning about the Brexit repercussions, however the voices of the nation’s get drunk instead resolving the issues within the discussion. This imitates life, as Brexit was unclear.

The creative vision started with explicit use of the Facebook page however, due to complications of practicality, we decided to use the page as an implied structure, through ‘Pub chat’ videos. This was determined after wanting to use a link to the page, to display images alongside monologues. The page distracted the words being spoken, so we refrained. Click here for rehearsal footage

In two ways we have portrayed to the audience the right atmosphere. First, creating a sense of urgency through breaking up scenes with movement and digital influence. This mirrors the masses of campaigning prevalent at the time, and allows information to form in an unbiased way. The second aspect is placing the audience vote before the ‘vote’ scene. This immerses the audience and clarifies a timeline of the performance.

We discussed other avenues to separate the fictional characters from verbatim. Through development of the first scene, we determined that costume would support our intentions. All fictional scenes have Union Jack hats and tops. This is so we can physically change our aesthetic to make transitions easier for the audience. Click here for rehearsal footage.

Research:

My Country- a work in progress, is a verbatim play created by Carol Ann Duffy and Rufus Norris (2017). Duffy is an award-winning writer for her work writing raw and expressive poetry and plays. Duffy’s work includes Take My Husband (1982) and Standing Female Nude (1985). Rufus Norris has acted, written and directed numerous plays/operas such as, Market Boy (2006), Cabaret(2007) (BBC, 2013). Together these playwrights have been able to create an enticing piece surrounding the Brexit debate, with views from numerous angles of the leave/remain spectrum. Verbatim interviews promise direct access to actual lived experiences and make them authentic (Fisher, 2011). To convey Brexit and the volume of controversy surrounding it, verbatim is one of the best ways to express the UK’s concerns fairly. The final vote was 51.9% Leave, 48.1% remain (BBC, 2016). This shows that it is almost impossible to depict the UK’s opinions without using both sides, especially when looking at regions such as Northern Ireland and Scotland who have a troubled history with England. Summerskill (2021) see’s verbatim as ‘Documenting aspects of historical material which tend to be missing from other sources relating to lived experience (p. 24). With the combination of media, technology can thicken participant’s experience, through building different versions of reality, or spaces (Burnett, 2019). This supports our intentions to blend education with theatrics. It also justifies our ideas to improve audience connection. Our audience, typically, were under the voting age during the referendum. This means that, although the effects of Brexit will deeply govern their lives, they had no say in the matter. With the use of verbatim we can transfer the thoughts, feelings and facts from the UK to give the audience an education. Although Brexit has happened, the British Youth Council (2020) are still fighting for young people to be ‘stakeholders in [their] future’. Through reminding them of the past we could motivate them to work on their future in this country. The challenges of creating a political performance entail removing any bias, to allow a genuine response from audience members. If it is done correctly, the abstract creation of political theatre can initiate enquiry and evaluation instead of negative confrontation (Kritzer, 2008).

When looking at companies to influence ideas throughout the creative process, I wanted to draw on two avenues:

The first, being movement to enhance the digital platform. As the creator of the ‘Feast’ and ‘Europe’ sequences, I wanted to make sure that we were utilising the ability to make smaller gestures, whilst still adding abstract and full-bodied movement. I drew inspiration from DV8, a physical theatre company. DV8’s published work of Can We Talk About This?, depict a woman talking in verbatim whilst holding a tea cup. The movement around her is abstract and exciting. The idea to have a focus whilst also conveying deeper dramaturgical control is powerful and I wanted it to be seen within the above-mentioned scenes.

The second, the incorporation of portraying political information. I have drawn on a slightly abstract perspective for this influence. This American Life (2020) by Ross Gay explores delight, which is one of our themes, in this there is a podcast of a boy getting the bus for the first time. Although he is surrounded by the excitement of childhood, he still speaks of death and anxiety. This is something echoed in our piece, a lot of the audience members have been treated like children in the eye of Brexit, but are being given the platform to learn it as they maybe should have at the time. We use our polls to give the audience the chance to express this.

The link below will take you to a specific research document for this performance, containing sources for performance material and references.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X5ibI5xWIoWm3bK9W6aAgplQtarR-Hq5gq8m9uGf1u4/edit

The link below will take you to the social media page:

https://www.facebook.com/RuleBritannia1922

Bibliography

Afflick, R.  (2020). ‘British Youth Council urge Government to consult young people on Brexit’. British Youth Council, 31 January. Available at: https://www.byc.org.uk/news/2020/british-youth-council-urge-government-to-consult-young-people-on-brexit (Accessed: 12 March 2021).

‌BBC (2015). ‘EU Referendum Results’. BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results (Accessed: 2 March 2021).

Burnett, C. et al. (2019) ‘Conceptualising Digital Technology Integration in Participatory Theatre from a Sociomaterialist Perspective: Ways Forward for Research’, Research Papers in Education, 34(6), pp. 680–700. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1229827&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 12 March 2021).

DV8 (2021). DV8 Physical Theatre. Dv8.co.uk. Available at: https://www.dv8.co.uk/media-portal (Accessed: 8 May 2021).

DV8 (2021). DV8 Physical Theatre. Dv8.co.uk. Available at: https://www.dv8.co.uk/projects/can-we-talk-about-this/foreword-by-lloyd-newson (Accessed: 12 May 2021).

Fisher, A. (2011) ‘Trauma, Authenticity and the Limits of Verbatim’, Performance Research, 16(1), pp. 112–122. doi: 10.1080/13528165.2011.561683

Gay, R.. (2020). The Show of Delights - This American Life. Available at: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/692/the-show-of-delights (Accessed: 12 May 2021).

Kritzer, A. (2008) Political Theatre in Post-Thatcher Britain: New Writing, 1995-2005.  Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

My Country: A Work In Progress by C.A. Duffy (2017)

Savage, M. (2019). ‘How Brexit party won Euro elections on social media – simple, negative messages to older voters’. The Guardian, 29 June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/29/how-brexit-party-won-euro-elections-on-social-media (Accessed: 26 April 2021).

Smith, N. (2013). ‘Rufus Norris: Who is the new National Theatre director?’ BBC News, 15 October.  Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24532470 (Accessed: 10 March 2021).

Summerskill, C. (2021) Creating verbatim theatre from oral histories. Routledge: New York. 

[mercerislandbooks]

Girls With Bright Futures: A Conversation

You’ll be seeing a book on the Island Books new paperback fiction table February 2nd, if you haven’t already spied it on several most anticipated releases of 2021 lists, including Newsweek, Refinery29 and Popsugar. With an eye catching cover, a local setting and an instantly intriguing premise, Girls With Bright Futures is the book everyone is going to be talking about. Taking place in Seattle at the fictional Elliott Bay Academy, and told from three alternating points of view, we get an inside look into the cutthroat world of college admissions and the unrelenting pressure on both the kids applying for college and the parents trying to ensure their success.

I was hooked from the very first page, plunged into the high stakes of vying for the last early admission spot at Stanford, and thankful that my college application days are now in the distant past! Seattle residents and co-authors, Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman, were kind enough to answer a few of my questions about their book and the writing process. And be sure to check out the details for their book launch at Island Books at the end of the blog!

Welcome Tracy and Wendy! How did you two decide to write a book together?

We’ve been friends for more than 20 years. In fact, Wendy’s husband and Tracy first met when they were right out of college living in Washington, DC. We all ended up in Seattle in the mid-1990s and connected when our oldest kids were toddlers, and the two of us became instant friends. Over the years, we’ve supported each other through careers, motherhood, community volunteer work, and many life events—some wonderful, others terrifying. Throughout it all, we bonded over our deep reliance on humor and our tremendous mutual respect. It’s not an exaggeration to say that we always felt a collaboration on something was inevitable. But for years, the perfect idea eluded us. On long, angsty walks, we batted around book ideas (always non-fiction in those early days), business ideas, and even an idea for a board game. But at the bottom of it all was a desire to better understand the culture of motherhood today—all its rewards and privileges, and on the flip side, the judgment and toxic self-doubt that plague so many of us.

Finally, just when we were starting to launch our kids from the nest, we read two books that really set us off on this path, but for very different reasons. The first was Modern Romance which was a collaboration between the comedian Aziz Anzari and Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist from Columbia, in which they looked at how romance and courtship rituals have evolved over the last 100 years or so. Something about that the way that book took on a culturally relevant topic, combining humor and research really resonated with us and got us thinking about whether we could do something similar with modern motherhood and friendship. But we quickly realized we were neither stand-up comedians nor sociologists, so we were still casting about for an idea.

And then we read another amazing book—Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. We were so inspired. For years, we’d been telling our kids that it’s OK to try new stuff even if it means failing sometimes, and yet we’d been unwilling to take that kind of risk ourselves. And so we thought: If we were going to “go big” and really risk being vulnerable, what would we do? All of the sudden we realized we wanted to write fiction (and please believe us: writing a novel and sharing it with the world is an excruciating exercise in vulnerability!). We wanted to create something, to be free to dream up characters and stories and worlds. The only flaw in this plan was that neither of us had ever written a word of fiction. If only we could figure out how to write a novel, we believed our work ethic and willingness to hold ourselves accountable to each other would get us the rest of the way there. So what did we do? We kid you not...we pulled out our computers and googled: “How do you write a novel?” That was at the end of February, 2016—and the rest is history!

What was the inspiration for Girls With Bright Futures?

Because our book is launching in the wake of the Operation Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, most people assume that salacious news story was our inspiration, but that’s actually not the case. In fact, prior to Girls with Bright Futures, we had already written an entire manuscript featuring college admissions mania as a major theme, but that manuscript was submitted to publishers in 2018 without success. Forced to go back to the drawing board, we ultimately conceived of Girls with Bright Futures in late 2018 and had not only plotted out the entire book but had nearly completed our first draft when the scandal first broke in March 2019!

As far as why we chose this topic in particular, it's kind of a long story! But in a nutshell, when our older boys were in the midst of the college admissions process, each of our husbands suffered a life-threatening health crisis. Thankfully (knock on wood), our guys are alright, but it was such a bizarre coincidence that we both experienced such intense brushes with mortality during the high anxiety of the college admissions process—it felt like a sign we couldn’t ignore. Initially, our writing was more therapy than anything, enabling us to try to make sense of all our feelings. At the same time, we became fascinated by what seemed to be an increasingly competitive and anxiety provoking college admissions process for our kids. We wanted to explore the impacts of all this on families, friendships, students, and school communities.  

The pacing is so good in your narrative, what was your writing process like to make that happen?

Well first, thank you for saying that! We’re staring at each other over Zoom right now trying to remember how it all came together! Before we start writing, we work out every scene—e.g., whose point of view, where the scene starts and ends, and what we need to accomplish. Every scene has a specific purpose to keep the plot unfolding. In addition, we really wanted our story to illustrate and mirror the real-life phenomenon of how an anxiety-fueled action by one character can provoke escalating responses in others. Some of our pacing derives from this tension. Finally, we intentionally juxtaposed humorous or satirical scenes against more serious ones, and dialogue-heavy scenes with more expository-laden scenes. After all, variety is the spice of life (ugh—and cliches are the bane of a writer’s existence!).

How did you decide what kind of representation you wanted in your characters?

Our overarching goal was to write a compelling (even shocking!) fictional depiction of the toxicity of the college admissions process for parents, families, friendships, and communities. There were many different approaches we could have taken and we considered all of these, including race, ethnicity, and income/class. As two white women, we were conscious of not wanting to misappropriate any stories, but we did want to find a way to show how racism rears its head in this setting. We decided to make our three main characters white women of varying socioeconomic levels while incorporating plot twists (no spoilers here) and a whole roster of women whose races and ethnicities are intentionally ambiguous to expose some common racist assumptions in many high school communities. Telling this story through a lens of extreme income inequality allowed us to shine a light on the role of that particular trend as a major driver of anxiety and bad behavior in many school communities. Our hope is that we’ve constructed a story that will stimulate discussion on a range of social justice issues.

What was surprising to you about writing your first book?

Writing and publishing a book are two totally different endeavors. On the writing front, we had no idea how little time we’d spend actually writing our book versus planning it on the front end and revising/editing it on the back end. In terms of publishing, we were initially surprised to learn how much marketing is involved and that the majority of that marketing involves social media (even more so now because we’re launching in a pandemic). As neither of us were remotely active on social media before our publishing journey, we had to push ourselves to overcome our discomfort and there has also been a (very) steep learning curve (like what the heck is an Instagram story for and why do we have to do it?). We’ve been fortunate to have digital natives (i.e., our children) who owe us big-time for all the years we spent raising them. Check out our social media game on Instagram @katzndobs.

What are you working on now?

While we can no longer sit side-by-side at Tracy’s house, we’ve continued working together over Zoom. Our next novel isn’t a sequel to Girls with Bright Futures, but it’s set in a similar world with more parents behaving badly. That’s about all we can say right now!!

And last but not least, at Island Books the staff is always asked about what we’re reading. What are the two of you reading and recommending now?

Tracy: My favorite read over the holidays was The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, and I am currently reading Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour.

Wendy: Eliza Starts a Rumor by Jane Rosen was my favorite read over the holidays, and His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie is my current read.

Photo by  @KristenSycamorePhotography

Tracy and Wendy will be at Island Books on Saturday, February 6th from 10am to 2:30 pm for a Covid-era signing of Girls With Bright Futures. A free custom Hello Robin cookie is their special gift to you with purchase of their book, while supplies last! So put on your mask and stop by to support these lovely debut authors and their fantastic book. Hope to see you there! 

-- Lori

[theconservativebrief]

Erica Goldsmith and Kate Dunlop were friends the way lots of moms are friends with parents in their child’s class: peripherally. That is, until they realized they were both reading My Brilliant Friend, the first of Elena Ferrante’s quartet of books called the Neapolitan novels.

The books, Erica says, gave the Seattle friends a shorthand for each other and a launch pad for a deeper connection that wouldn’t have existed had they not both been reading the same book. “When you talk about the books with other women in particular, you find out which parts resonated with that person. You’re like, ‘Oh tell me more, why did that appeal to you and that appeal to me?’ And you learn something in that,” she says.

Now, every time Erica writes Kate a note — on a gift or in a card — she addresses it to “my brilliant friend, Kate.”

Eric and Kate are just two of the millions of readers who have caught “Ferrante fever.” Written by an alluringly anonymous author who goes by the pseudonym Elena Ferrante, the series has collectively sold more than 10 million copies in 40 countries. Last year, the novels were adapted into a play, and this Sunday an HBO series based on the books is premiering.

While many books experience sweeping popularity, Ferrante’s novels are part of a subgroup of pop culture that compels people to travel. Tour groups like Looking for Lila and Ferrante Fever Naples have popped up across Naples, where the series is set, and travelers report being amazed and delighted by their experiences. Unlike Rome, Florence, or Venice, Naples’s crime-ridden reputation has kept it from being in the rotation of cities that tourist frequent. But the Ferrante books are changing that.

In 2015, Erica and Kate took a Ferrante-inspired tour of Naples, where they not only saw specific sites mentioned in the books, but were entrenched in the history and culture of the city. Neither traveler had ever taken a guided tour before, and they worried that this was too “book nerdy,” but decided to go for it.

Even in this subgroup, the novels stand out. Unlike a Lord of the Rings–inspired trip to New Zealand, where travelers are eager to see a land of fictitious hobbits and orcs, or even Eat, Pray, Love, where readers were romanced by Liz Gilbert’s journey of renewal, Ferrante’s novels, though fictional, are not glamorous. They portray a class-divided Italy through the lifelong relationship of two women who have a searingly realistic friendship of love, gratitude, competition, and betrayal.

The book’s portrayal of friendship and Naples can be described in one word: authentic. And authenticity is something travelers are seeking out more and more. In a time when people want to travel but not be tourists, the Neapolitan novels offer a window into a gritty yet beautiful town that aligns with the most recent travel trends.

In 2016, Ann Mah wrote for the New York Times about her Ferrante-inspired journey to Naples, saying that using the books as a window helped her to “view Naples like a native.”

“I had come to Naples without a guidebook or even a map,” she wrote, “in search of a disheveled neighborhood of ‘flaking walls’ and ‘scratched doors,’ where the ‘wretched grey’ of the buildings clashed with the passion and repression of the characters of the writer Elena Ferrante.”

Those characters, namely Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo, friends from childhood who grow from intelligent young girls to resourceful older women over the course of the four novels, are a touchstone for readers. They feel real, and the very real place where they live their lives takes on a special quality.

To Mah, visiting Naples was more like meeting a person rather than seeing a setting, so familiar were the books. “Naples was was like an abusive boyfriend that the girls kept coming back to,” Mah tells me.

Although Mah guided herself through the city, many readers are purchasing prepackaged guided tours that showcase Naples through the Ferrante lens.

When I talk to tour guides and tour-goers, like Erica, they say traveling to Naples feels like a natural extension of reading the novels because of how large the region loomed. “Naples plays such a giant character, much like New York plays such a role in Sex in the City,” Erica says. “To see the place you’ve seen in your mind in reality, it changes things.”

Erica says that it was the books’ nuance that made them resonate with her so deeply. “It really struck me, as a mother, what they go through when they first have their children and that sense of not knowing who you are and what your place in the world is,” she says. “They also capture the friendship of women in a way you don’t see frequently. As one person gets successful, you are so excited and grateful for your friend, but you also have that sense of ‘why not me?’ And I think those are things not written about and not talked about.”

Erica and Kate took their Ferrante-inspired trip with Danielle Oteri, author of Ferrante Fever: A Naples Travel Guide Inspired by Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels and an expert in art history.

Oteri’s Ferrante Fever Naples Tours cost $1,500 (not including airfare, accommodations, or most meals). Recognizing the tours may be cost-prohibitive, she wrote her book so others could explore the city independently.

Oteri’s desire to guide people through Naples was partially due to her love of the novels, but also due to her adoration of the city, which sometimes has a less-than-spotless reputation, thanks to a long history with organized crime. As an art historian with family roots in Naples, she often writes about the city for publications and has been asked to discuss the dangerous side of the city. “I’ve pitched stories about Naples where editors have asked me, ‘Can you talk about the mafia?’”

But with Ferrante Fever putting Naples in the spotlight, she saw an opportunity to educate travelers on the city she already loved. “The books have become an excuse,” she says. “Now you’re interested in Naples, now let me show you this really extraordinary place that isn’t like anything else.”

On her tours, she extrapolates themes from the novels and puzzles them into their place in Neapolitan history and geography. My Brilliant Friend opens with the two main characters dropping their dolls into a cellar where they vanish below the city, and Oteri shows how the the underground plays a role in Naples history by guiding travelers through the layers of city beneath the present day congestion: Roman roads and markets, World War II bomb shelters, and fading mosaics.

“I say, ‘Here’s this metaphor from this book, this is why it resonates and makes sense in Naples, this is why it’s in the book and [why] the book couldn’t take place in any other city,’” Oteri says.

Because the book deals with universal themes like class division, friendship, and motherhood, the tours appeal to a wide demographic of readers. Danielle’s tour-goers are mainly women, but there are some men as well. They come from all over the world, including Sweden, America, and India (but not Italy).

These tours marry two trends, one being book- and film-based travel. When Crazy Rich Asians premiered in August, searches for flights to Singapore spiked on Kayak and Orbitz. New Zealand capitalized on Lord of the Rings mania by making hobbit-themed planes on Air New Zealand and a Lord of the Rings–inspired airplane safety video. Eat, Pray, Love drove travelers not only to the infamous Napoli pizza place, but to Bali, where the number of tourists swelled.

The larger trend these tours embody is an increased desire for authenticity. To combat appearing like ridiculous tourists, travelers have ditched the modern, downtown hotel room for the teeny apartment rental in a seedy neighborhood. They comb through hundreds of bar and restaurant reviews, not to find where the best stuff is, but where the locals go.

Professor Stephanie Malia Hom is a scholar of Italian tourism and says that the stereotypes about Italy — that it is full of art, slow food, family, and evening strolls — has long facilitated an interest in the region. It’s the perfect synthesis of romance, history, and carefree living, which work together to orchestrate what people believe their lives should be like. “It’s tourism jazz,” Hom says.

For years, according to Hom, film tourism has been rampant in Italy, with people visiting Julia Roberts’s apartment from Eat, Pray, Love and seeing where the house in Under the Tuscan Sun was built. But today, travelers want something less idealized.

“The Ferrante tours are a current manifestation of that attraction to this idea of ‘Destination Italy’,” Hom says. “There’s a long literary tradition and film tradition of Italy being this land, this beautiful land, that is this more authentic place that has the power to change its visitors.”

The books compel visitors to visit Naples because they align the region with those Italian stereotypes that are so attractive, but also with a more somber reality. “As scholars of tourism, it’s a well-held theory that the search for authenticity is the driver of modern tourism,” Hom says. “In our day and age, we become disillusioned with the modern world.”

Hom adds that Naples is also a desirable place to begin with. “It’s an earthy, seductive place,” she says. “Sophia Loren represents it. There is a long tradition of music and folklore.” And even the seedy reputation Naples suffers of being mafia-run and crime-ridden, Hom says, just adds a layer of danger and off-the-beaten-path excitement to the whole experience.

And, of course, visiting Naples serves as an extension of the books. Rabid readers want to see something they’ve already digested, brought to life. “Tourists go places to confirm their own expectations rather than to discover something new,” Hom says. “Part of tourists going on these tours is to confirm what they’ve read in the books and get a sense of place that they already have in their own imaginations.”

Sophia Seymour offers Ferrante-inspired tours called Looking for Lila. On her site, you find two options: one more general Neapolitan tour for 250 euros ($280), and one of the neighborhoods featured in Ferrante’s novels for 270 euros ($300). Sophia says her tours are popular with women in their mid-thirties, book groups, and the odd, straggling husband.

Sophia’s interest in Naples started in 2012, during her time studying abroad for her third year at University College London. Her friends warned against it, telling her she would be robbed. “I pushed forward, because when people say that stuff, it usually means that’s someplace interesting,” she says.

Sophia became obsessed with the city, and her friend recommended the Neapolitan novels when she returned to London. Being a woman who lived in Naples, Sophia says, the books struck a chord with her because she could imagine where everything was taking place. A couple years after graduation, she moved back to Naples and started to explore the city and meet locals, all the time mentally building out a map of where the Neapolitan novels took place.

She explored large housing projects, talked to the local pastry shop owner and shoemaker. No one in the neighborhood, she says, had heard of Ferrante’s novels. Soon, she started giving out copies one by one, and decided that she wanted to show people this side of Naples.

“No one was doing tours in the neighborhood because it has this reputation that the political mafia had its hold on it,” she says. “But when you go during the day, it’s kind of this sleepy, quiet neighborhood with a bakery and bar. To me, having made friends with people, I wanted to raise up this community that Ferrante had so vividly described.”

Sophia believes that sense of community is exactly what people taking her tours want to experience. It’s a value and a way of life prevalent in the novel, but rare in a society today. In the world of sprawling suburbs and gentrification, many of us don’t know our neighbors, and they don’t care to know us. To Sophia, that is the focus of Ferrante’s novels. “She raises up the things that Naples has a bad reputation of being dangerous, dirty, crime-infested, and poor, things that put people off for so many years,” she says. “And Elena raises up those exact things and puts it on the map.”

Today, the neighborhood is crowdfunding a mural of Elena and Lila, the two girls from Ferrante’s novels.

Talking to Erica, the images she was enthralled by on her tour with Oteri were things that wouldn’t demand attention otherwise. “We all jumped out of the van and were taking pictures of this overpass, which looms so large in the book as a physical manifestation of a barrier between neighborhoods,” she says. “When you see it, you’re like, ‘Oh, my god!’”

But to Erica, the tour not only deepened her understanding of the books; it also gave her a deeper understanding of herself as an Italian American. “It was so cool to see the Neapolitans living their lives and then identify things in my own world,” she says.

And, of course, it made her and Kate’s relationship even stronger. The two are planning a trip to Naples this April with their daughters.

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Original Source -> Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend doesn’t just compel people to read, but to travel

via The Conservative Brief

[longdaypress]

No Endpoint - An Interview with Eric A. Cline

Long Day Press: What’s the longest day you’ve ever had?

Cline: Probably the day we first found out my mom had cancer. Six or seven hours sitting alone in an early morning waiting room before even beginning to get news and information, and then starting the constant bustle of hospital rooms, car-rides, etc. that would define the next month before she came back home.

LDP: When initially discussing your new book, something further across the ocean, with Throwback Books, you described the collection as if the poems were sent as a message in a bottle. The editors decided to take that literally, and published the collection in a bottle. How do you think the container of your work effects how your poems are read?

Cline: I think it makes things less traditionally rigid. There's more room for reading things in whatever order you want, for the manuscript to lack a set beginning and ending. What happens first or second? Given that the contents are just snapshots of the constant barrage of bigotry, shame, hatred, etc. that make up a gay life, does it matter? Homophobia has no end-point. Neither does the ocean, really. I'd like to think the format contributes to a sense of intimacy as well.

LDP: What would you want to read if something floated up to the shore of your island?

Cline: Something (at least semi-) autobiographical by someone whose life experiences are different from my own. I love writing and reading most as vehicles through which different people can come to know each other, even without meeting. I would want to catch a glimpse of someone I never would have come to know in my everyday life.

LDP: There are repeated images of water in the collection. How are you inspired by aquatic imagery in your art?

Cline: Of all the four classical elements, I think water is the most simple yet potent symbolically. It gives life and ends life. It symbolizes nature, and the very places where we believe life originated. It's intrinsic to life as we currently understand it—just as, I would argue, homosexuality and other non-heterosexual/cisgender experiences are. Water inspires me because it, more than maybe anything else, invokes the natural world and things as they most purely are. When so much of my work revolves around not fitting into societal molds but still being every bit as natural as everyone else, water is a reliable go-to for imagery that matches my thematic concerns.

LDP: The poem “Seahorse” plays with the idea that male seahorses are the ones to birth children. This strikes me as a Proustian technique of destructing gender through nature imagery. Can you speak to the natural elements in your poetry?

Cline: I began to touch on this in the previous question, but to expand on the point, nature is inseparable from my thematic and content concerns. Much of the dehumanization of homosexuals and other non-straight/cis people comes from the idea that they are unnatural, that they are a perversion, alternative, or chosen lifestyle. People buy their infants ugly, ironic clothes with phrases like "lady's man" but when confronted with the idea of a young person not being straight, they act like that's impossible, because they think that being gay is a detour, not a natural default setting for many people.

This is significant due to our cultural insistence that things being natural equates to things being moral. Of course, all these concepts are dealt with rather illogically in society, but my use of nature imagery can basically be summed up as a linguistic "up yours" to the idea that gay people don't actually exist, that they're just a bastardization of some purer, straighter setting. Whether its through images of the ocean, air, vegetation, or other non-human elements, I integrate gay themes into the natural world because that is how they actually exist, regardless of if people want to acknowledge it or not.

LDP: I love the way things and people are contained in your work. From male seahorses carrying their young, to the poem “Matryoshka” (Russian nesting dolls), to the poem “Diffi(loveyou)culty” where the narrator sees himself within his lover, everything feels contained within another vessel, and constantly evolves while contained. This isn’t a question, but it’s such an interesting way to look at the world. I’m hoping you can talk about this.

Cline: Thank you! I think there's a certain conception or sense of containment that's inherent to the way a lot of people experience life as a sexual minority. We talk about gay people as first being contained within closets, but once they come out they're still not really free, are they? Every person is contained by geopolitical boundaries and their respective cultural norms. I would argue that the pressure these norms and boundaries create are both mental and physical. We talk about freedom but each of us is limited by lifespan, and the various circumstances of where, when, and who we are. I think there's something to be gained from an awareness of how we are defined by things outside of ourselves, and how what we see within our bubble isn't all there is to see.

LDP: These poems carry a lot of weight of vulnerability during formative years. How did where you grow up effect how these poems were written?

Cline: I would say that where I grew up impacted the way I was treated and thus my emotional state. Art, of course, reflects the artist. With that said, I'm not particularly inclined toward long, detailed descriptions of physical geography and locations in my poems. I'm more concerned with the emotional truth of a moment that giving a reader a vivid image of where the moment took place. On the other hand, I've spent most of my life in places that were fairly rural or suburban, so nature has always been right at my fingertips. That may have had an influence.

LDP: How was writing these poems different from the poems in your previous chapbook his strange boy eve? Did you write them at the same time, or did the poems from something further across the ocean come about independently? Did you know you were writing a collection when you started, or did these come together as such later?

Cline: In both cases, I wrote each poem individually, with my main concern being that they were strong enough to stand on their own. I knew I wanted to publish collections, though, and when deciding what pieces to include, I looked for common themes and cohesion. Having already gone through the selection process once with his strange boy eve, I felt more like I knew what I was doing with something further across the ocean. I had seen what my first chapbook looked like and read like, so I was able to use it as a reference point for what I wanted to do again, while also distinguishing the new book from the first. I think this new collection is more cohesive; it focuses in on more specific aspects of my life rather than trying to touch base with a little of everything. It's very much a statement specifically on the way gay people are treated and experience life differently from other people.

LDP: You’re the editor-in-chief of Calamus Journal. What’s your mission statement with Calamus? Who are you looking to publish? Do you have plans for the future of Calamus?

Cline: I want to publish great work by great people. I want said work to be diverse in its content and style, and for the body of submitters to be diverse as well. There are so many different ways of living and thinking, and I want Calamus to provide room for things that need to be heard, to be known.

We've got a nice rhythm going where we publish 9-12 people each month, which I think is a good amount. We update frequently enough to be active, but we don't put out so much content that one would struggle to keep up. We did recently start publishing visual art submissions, which lets us showcase another type of art besides just writing. I'm happy with what we've been doing, so my plan for the foreseeable future is to keep up our pace publishing talented writers and artists who's work can remind people why they love poetry and art in the first place.

LDP: What album would you pick to be the soundtrack to something further across the ocean?

Cline: "Nude" by the Irrepressibles. They're one of my favorite groups, and their music is loudly, naturally queer, emotive and close to the bone. For lack of a better word, they tug at the heartstrings by touching on the everyday, which is one of my main goals with my collection.

Eric A. Cline’s new collection something further across the ocean is out from Throwback Books.