New projects

Yesterday a new flatbed scanner (Epson V330 Photo, $98 from B&H in New York, free shipping) arrived at the Writer's Lair, and today I'll stop by the hardware store for an X-Acto knife and a slew of sharp blades. Then I'll be all ready to cut apart a copy of my 1997 book Flight of the Gin Fizz: Midlife at 4,500 Feet, then scan the pages and prepare the result for ebook publication this fall.

That won't be the only project for the summer. I've been contemplating the plot for a fifth Steve Martinez novel (the fourth is forthcoming late next year).

It so happens that the short line railroad in these parts of Upper Michigan, the Escanaba & Lake Superior, keeps unused cars in storage on a remote siding deep in the thick-woods boonies. A few of them are pulled out seasonally but others are left to rust, some of them for years, before being sent to the scrappers. Most belong to the E&LS but some are stored for other railroads.

What if an old covered hopper makes its way from the track to the West Coast for cleaning and refurbishing for bulk commodity hauling? What if, in the cleaning process, a set of human bones clatter to the roadbed? What if the bones are those of a young girl?

The cops trace the origin of the car and inform the Michigan State Police. Lieutenant Alex Kolehmainen (yes, the sergeant has been promoted) takes the call and immediately tells his old chum, Porcupine County Sheriff Steve Martinez, to saddle up.

The pair drive out to the siding in the woods. More than a hundred boxcars, gondolas, lumber-rack cars and covered hoppers in varying states of disrepair squat on the tracks. The two LEOs call in reinforcements and begin searching, starting with the oldest covered hoppers, the ones farthest up the siding.

Almost immediately they find the skeleton of a young human and remnants of clothing in one of the hoppers. A few hour later another car yields still another set of bones belonging to an adolescent—and also he skeleton of an adult. The back of the skull belonging to the latter has been pierced by a large-caliber bullet.

I've already floated the idea on a number of Internet forums catering to professional railroaders, and they've offered interesting insights into what happens with old railroad cars in storage.

One confided that the hatches atop stored covered hoppers are almost never locked, enabling a killer to open them and drop in a corpse easily. Another pointed out that the only way to the roof of a covered hopper is up a long vertical ladder, requiring almost superhuman strength to carry an adult body. (That's why the proposed victims will be early adolescents. Or maybe dismembered adults. I'd have to work out the forensics on these.)

Of course plot, suspect and motive, among other things, also need to be created. There's always an enormous gap between an idea and its execution.

But all this seems to be a promising genesis for a new novel.

Workshop

Lately I've been busy at a labor of love: preparing for "Words and the Porkies," the second annual writers workshop the Lady Friend and I will host at the Folk School in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park near White Pine in upper Michigan.

This four-session Saturday workshop, which runs from 10 a.m. to sometime after noon on May 12 and 19, and June 2 and 9, is aimed at purely amateur writers. 

Last summer eleven writers, mostly mature residents of western Upper Michigan, participated in the workshop, and we all had a good time. There was no competition, no grading. The only rivals the students had were themselves. The idea was just to become a better writer, not a world-beater.  Our goals were modest and realistic.

We'd begin each class with a little PowerPoint lecture and readings of each other's work, then set out on an hour-long hike in the woods or on the beach to gather information for the next assignment. After a few days, the students would email me their work, and I'd edit it, make suggestions and printouts, and then we'd read the work in class and talk about it. It was all very informal and relaxed, with lots of coffee and munchies, and so far as I know nobody suffered an emotional breakdown. (We writers are tender souls.)

At the end of the workshop the students contributed their best work to a colorful little paperback book made with the Blurb Booksmart software, and we published it for ourselves. It's also available to the public.

Afterward the students formed a little writers' support group that met a couple of times a month at the Folk School to read their work to each other and exchange ideas. 

One of the students, inspired by a workshop hike to a cabin built in the woods for artists-in-residence, produced a Blurb Booksmart book about it. She had taken many photographs while participating in the building of the cabin, and she also accumulated pictures taken by others.

Another student published in the local weekly paper a long profile of a relative, the founding director of the Porcupine Mountains State Park, that she had begun during the workshop.

If you live anywhere within easy driving distance of the Porkies, you're invited.

Cost? Just $50 for all four sessions, or for one, two or more. That includes the cost of a Blurb Booksmart book containing your work.

If you just want to audit the class, the price is $25 for the whole thing.

Interested? Call Angie Foley at 906-884-4886 by April 30.

The recruiter is in

Starting May 14, I'll be teaching again -- this time a writers' workshop for the Porcupine Mountains Folk School at the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park just east of Silver City in western Upper Michigan. You all are invited, especially if you live in the western UP.

Here's the prospectus:

Words and the Porkies: An informal workshop for writers with the Porcupine Mountains as the backdrop and inspiration

Time: Four Saturdays, May 14 & 21, June 4 & 11, 2011, from 10:00 a.m. to noon.

Cost: $25 includes all four Saturdays. Scholarships are available. Please inquire at registration (906-884-4188)

Description: Students will focus on writing about “The Porkies” in a broad choice of genres, including the travel article, the essay, the journal, memoir, fiction, children's stories and poetry -- whatever is comfortable for each student. There will be readings of short passages about the wilderness by famous writers and poets as well as work by Porcupine Mountains artists-in-residence. Techniques of observation and fact-gathering, including interviewing, will be discussed. Basic assignments on subjects about The Porkies will be made in consultation with the students. Student work will be read and discussed and suggestions made, but no grading will be done.

Lake of the Clouds, the Porkies' most-photographed site.

Requirements: A desire to write and the ability to use a typewriter or a computer. It is hoped that students will have access to them, as well as a printer, but some accommodation can be made for those who do not.

Special notes: A choice among short guided hikes and indoor activities will be offered to provide subjects for writing. Casual clothes and suitable shoes are recommended for the outdoor activities.

The instructor, Henry Kisor, assisted by Deborah Abbott, will be available for private consultations (included in the price) all weekend on those dates, either in person at the Folk School or via e-mail at author@henrykisor.com.

About the instructor: Henry Kisor is a retired literary editor of the Chicago Sun-Times as well as the author of three nonfiction books and four mystery novels. He has been a summer visitor to the Porkies since 1966. He and his wife, the children's book critic and author Deborah Abbott, spend their summers at a cabin on the shore of Lake Superior at Green, Michigan, that her father built in 1947.

Why is this workshop so inexpensive? It's a pilot project for the Friends of the Porkies Folk School, testing the waters to see if such an offering will attract people to the Porkies -- and I'm donating my time and experience.

Come on up and see us.

Falls on the Presque Isle River in the Porkies

Writers' rules to keep for your own

One of the finest, most commonsensical articles on How to Write Fiction I've ever seen appeared last Saturday in the Guardian, one of the United Kingdom's best newspapers. Its editors asked fourteen writers to give their own versions of Elmore Leonard's famous "Ten Rules of Writing," and the result was, at least for me, not only inspiring but also eye-opening.

Here are the rules I'm taking to heart:

1 Read it aloud to yourself because that's the only way to be sure the rhythms of the sentences are OK (prose rhythms are too complex and subtle to be thought out – they can be got right only by ear). Diana Athill

5 Do back exercises. Pain is distracting. Margaret Atwood

6 Do keep a thesaurus, but in the shed at the back of the garden or behind the fridge, somewhere that demands travel or effort. Chances are the words that come into your head will do fine, eg "horse", "ran", "said". Roddy Doyle

2 Listen to what you have written. A dud rhythm in a passage of dialogue may show that you don't yet understand the characters well enough to write in their voices. Helen Dunmore

4 If you use a computer, constantly refine and expand your autocorrect settings. The only reason I stay loyal to my piece-of-shit computer is that I have invested so much ingenuity into building one of the great auto­correct files in literary history. Perfectly formed and spelt words emerge from a few brief keystrokes: "Niet" becomes "Nietzsche", "phoy" becomes ­"photography" and so on. ­Genius! Geoff Dyer

8 It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction. Jonathan Franzen

3 Only bad writers think that their work is really good. Anne Enright

6 Don't drink and write at the same time. Richard Ford

1 Cut out the metaphors and similes. In my first book I promised myself I wouldn't use any and I slipped up ­during a sunset in chapter 11. I still blush when I come across it. Esther Freud

5 Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. Neil Gaiman

9 Never complain of being misunderstood. You can choose to be understood, or you can choose not to. David Hare

6 Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go. AL Kennedy

6 First paragraphs can often be struck out. Are you performing a haka, or just shuffling your feet? Hilary Mantel

8 When I'm deep inside a story, ­living it as I write, I honestly don't know what will happen. I try not to dictate it, not to play God. Michael Morpurgo

6 In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it. Rose Tremain

5 Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it. Zadie Smith

7 Let your work stand before deciding whether or not to serve. Andrew Motion

9 No going to London. 10 No going anywhere else either. Colm Toibin

And, of course, Elmore Leonard's own No. 10: Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them.