How to be a Thoroughly Classy Bestselling Novelist
It was the look of a person realizing you were not who they thought you were—or more specifically, not who they needed you to be. It seemed to me I had a lifetime of those looks ahead; the world felt that full of endless opportunities to let people down, to break their hearts in little ways, in big ways too, each and every day.
(from Help for the Haunted)
I've been meaning to write about John Searles's Help for the Haunted book launch for the past month and a half! I know John from Yaddo, and he features in many of my fondest memories there. At dinner every night he would (jokingly) ask me how many words I'd written that day, and at the Petty Magic launch another joke of his sparked the best moment of the party.John began Help for the Haunted in earnest during that Yaddo residency. Now that it was his turn again, naturally I had to hop on a bus down to New York to celebrate! 
After a reading from the book and a hilarious intro on becoming a writer, John sat down with another bestselling author, Wally Lamb, to talk about how the book came into being. (I can think of one night at Yaddo in particular that may have inspired him—when an antique record player, which we'd tried to use numerous times to no avail, switched on all by itself!) 
Listening to these two tremendously accomplished writers in conversation, I was really impressed by how humble and down-to-earth they both are. It's the egomaniacal novelists who seem to get most of the press—probably because of the human weakness for gossip—but I'm taking this opportunity to celebrate writers like John Searles and Wally Lamb, who spoke with refreshing candor about the challenges they've faced. Notice I said John began the novel in earnest at Yaddo—as in, there were several attempts before that (though all equally earnest no doubt). Help for the Haunted was nine years in the writing, which feels like an excruciatingly long time when your previous novels have been so successful. "Other people can write a book every ten seconds," John said. "I felt like a loser."Self deprecation is a slippery slope, of course, but John always kept a healthy balance. He's a great role model for aspiring writers: he believed in himself even when people told him they didn't think he had enough talent (don't we all have at least one story like this?), and though he's long since proved it, he continually reminds himself of where he came from. I'm so glad I got to attend the sold-out launch and celebrate his richly deserved success. 
Can you think of other successful writers you love even more for their modesty? (Cheryl Strayed is the first name that comes to mind, but I can come up with more!)
Where We Make: Bonnie Sennott
Bonnie Sennott is an artist and knitwear designer living in Amherst, Massachusetts. She blogs about her creative work at Blue Peninsula. You may recall that I am currently knitting her Pomegranate pullover, and I can't remember the last pattern I found so pleasurable or satisfying to knit. Bonnie has drawn inspiration from Squam Lake (where we met last year) for patterns like Deephaven and Rockywold, and here she describes another beautiful setting that creatively (and literally!) nourishes her.
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Although I have a studio (a spare bedroom), I can’t seem to confine my creative impulses to just one room. There’s work all over the house—sketchbooks on the dinner table, embroidery on the coffee table, knitting projects on the sofa—even on the kitchen counter!
But my home is a private space, so I thought instead I’d write about one of my favorite places to work away from home: the Bookmill in Montague, Massachusetts (population 8,400), a former mill that houses a used bookstore, café, and restaurant, CD store, and artist studios.
My Peppernut shawl artfully draped over a chair as I work on a pattern in the Lady Killigrew Café.
Quirky rooms awash in light pouring through big windows; comfy, well-worn furniture; an ever-changing selection of books and notecards; good WiFi—all this makes the Bookmill a favorite hangout for writers, artists, and other creative folk (and booklovers, too!)
“Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find” is their marketing slogan. But it’s really not that hard to find. And the bookstore? Amazing! Lots of books I do need—I’ve found some great stitch dictionaries there. On sunny fall weekends, the Bookmill can be crowded. But I always find a nook or cranny where I can knit or embroider. When my eyes or hands need a break, I head into the Lady Killigrew Café for an iced tea or fresh salad. I love the view from the café windows and how peaceful and at ease I feel there—so much so I named a scarf pattern after it. As I stitch or knit while listening to the Sawmill River rush by, I find my mind quieting down—sometimes working there is like creating and meditating at the same time. It’s a beautiful place, and since I’ve been going there for seventeen years, it really does feel like a second home.
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Where We Make is a series on creative workspaces. Read the submission guidelines here. If you'd like to contribute a profile of your own space, please email me at cometpartyATgmailDOTcom.
Halloween Psych-Up 2013
On Friday night my friend Ryan and I went on the Harvard Square Ghost Tour, which was really good fun. The tour guide, "Scaly Pete," was all decked out in Victorian garb and face paint, and he told his stories so well it didn't really matter if they were made up or not. He did tell us up front that only a couple of them were 100% true, but stories like the ghosts of an epic food fight are hard to cross-check since everything Google pulls up refers back to the tour! "Scaly Pete" also told us some interesting anecdotes about William James' psychical research I'd never heard before (not in Deborah Blum's Ghost Hunters, nor the other research I did for my children's novel), and I did find corroboration on the pink pajamas story. But I guess that tale of medical students hiding dissected bodies in the walls and renovation workers finding them in 1999 is made up too.We went to Veggie Planet afterward and had one of my all-time favorite pizzas, with rocket and olive tapenade and tofu mashed and seasoned to taste like cheese:
(And a vegan root beer float afterward!)This Halloween I'm dressing up for the first time in yonks. I put on face paint today and got a mixture of alarmed looks and smiles on the T, haha. I'm blogging about my Doctor-Who-themed costume on Thursday, but until then (in case you haven't already seen it), here's THE best zombie story I have ever seen. (Seriously. You will like this even if you don't like zombies. It is that good.) Gorgeous, right? Here's more spooky stuff from the blog archives:
Sheridan Le Fanu's Real-Life Ghost Story
Adam McOmber's The White Forest
Boston Book Festival
I had a wonderful time at the Boston Book Fest on Saturday! I found out about the Writers' Room (there's an open house next month, I'm thinking of applying), got myself a subscription to The Writer magazine (half price! yay!), and sat in on three fascinating panel discussions—Americans Abroad, Historical Fiction: Imagining the Past, and Herstory: Women in History. All the panelists were very thoughtful and articulate, and I took a lot of notes. 
There were two best moments, and both happened at the exhibitors' booths. I stopped by the Grub Street booth (I've been meaning to apply to teach there for four months already, so this was a good kick in the tush) and picked my "literary fate" from a jar of buttons.Which did I choose?Starving artist."No," I said, and dropped it back in the jar. "I'm done with that."Someone at the booth replied, "Really? That was fast." Someone else told me I could choose another one.So I picked this one, which I could live with. 
The other best moment happened at the Small Beer Press booth, where I had the pleasure of meeting Susan Stinson. 
We chatted about how supportive librarians are, and she positively bubbled over as she told me how many people had turned out for her launch event (which was at a library). Here I captured her mid-laugh. I know that giddy feeling, and it was really fun to watch her enjoying the fruits of her accomplishment. I'm excited to read her novel!
@comet_party Really lovely to meet you, too. I hope you like it -- having the book out is like a moveable feast of an extended bday event.— Susan Stinson (@susanstinson) October 20, 2013
I left Copley Square that evening with the sense that I've only just begun to tap into the literary community here. I want to attend more readings and other fun events, and make more writer friends!
Audiobook giveaway winners!
Congrats to Kirsten and Jen—you've won the giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered and took the time to recommend a scary story!
so sad that @comet_party Petty Magic came to and end. What a fun @audible book!! -poignant and sweet, yet totally original and suspenseful!
— Anne Weil (@flaxandtwine) September 12, 2013
Petty Magic audiobook giveaway!
You may remember that the Petty Magic audiobook, narrated by the sublimely talented Kelley Hazen (through Storyteller Productions), came out in August—and I have a free Audible copy to give away!There are several ways to enter:
- You get ONE entry for a Facebook comment
- TWO entries for a share, tweet or retweet
- and THREE entries for leaving a comment on this blog post (I'd love it if you recommended your favorite ghost or scary story!)
And, seeing as it's my little sister's birthday today, I'll give away a second copy if I hit fifty entries before midnight tomorrow (October 15th), when the giveaway closes.More about Kelley and the audiobook production process is coming soon!
"The Coroner's Bride" in print!
Exotic Gothic 5 is out in the world! This is old news, but the books were shipped to me in New Jersey, so I had to wait a few weeks to hold them in my hands.
They are so beautiful. Well worth the wait!
You may recall that this anthology includes my very first published short story, "The Coroner's Bride." Previous posts on EG5 here and here; I mention in the first post that my agent nudged me away from short-story writing six years ago, but I'm happy to report that she really liked it. Someday I'll get to work on a spooky story collection a la In a Glass, Darkly or Sarah Monette's The Bone Key (which is exquisite, by the way; one of my very favorite works of fiction).
McCormick Templeman: Dipping your toes in different realities
To celebrate my new website, I've planned a series of fun and juicy Q&As with some of my favorite creative people. First up is McCormick Templeman, novelist and all-around marvelous being. Her new novel, The Glass Casket, comes out in February! You told us in our first Q&A how you came to study Chinese medicine, and how acupuncture school gave you a healthier sense of perspective about your writing. You've also said that you sometimes use diagnostic techniques from Chinese medicine to organize and revise a manuscript in a more organic way, and that acupuncture treatments can sometimes lead to a breakthrough. Do you feel that studying acupuncture has allowed you to tap into a deeper reserve of creativity?Absolutely. I’ve had many of my biggest breakthroughs while getting an acupuncture treatment. It’s like a plot walk on steroids. Moving the Qi through one’s body clears up physical, mental, and emotional blocks, and I’ve found that in my case it also clears up narrative blocks. It really works wonders.I also think that studying something deeply can do wonders for a person—especially if it’s a jog away from the path you’re already on. Writers spend so much time alone, living in our own fictional worlds, that it’s important to keep a toe dipped into a different reality. I think it has become difficult to do that these days when promotion and social media presence have become such a large part of our job, and while I think social media can serve a purpose, I think it can also prove detrimental to our writing and to our wellbeing. There’s so much noise and so much of it can make you feel bad and is ultimately meaningless. In the immortal words of Le Tigre, “GET OFF THE INTERNET!” Get out into the real world, challenge yourself, try new things, commit yourself to something unfamiliar and difficult. Step out of your comfort zone for a while and when you come back to your writing, it will be all the easier to reconnect with the pleasure, the magic of it. And because you are replenished, you will have that much more to give. 
You're one of the most intuitive people I know. How would you say you use your intuition in the service of your writing?That’s so kind of you to say. I don’t think I’m especially intuitive, but I do think I trust my intuition more than most people do. When I’m drafting, I’m really following a sense of joy, a desire to tell myself a story, and in that stage, there is nothing but intuition for me. I shut out logic and external voices, and just allow myself to wander and play.When it comes to editing, I become much more analytical and rigid in my approach, but even then, I’m still trusting my gut. Usually when I set a manuscript aside and then approach it again, I don’t do close read-through at first. The first thing I do is think about how I feel about the different parts of the book. Is there anything that’s been sitting wrong with me? Is there anything that makes me feel a little queasy when I think about it? That’s the part I start with, and only once I’m sure how I feel about the part that doesn’t work, do I get really rigorous and critical in my approach to how to fix it. Contrary to that popular cliche of the self-destructive artist, the older I get the more I see just how integral a role self care plays in my creative process. Are there any special foods or rituals you find particularly nourishing as you are settling in to write?I wish that I could say I’m always mindful of self-care, but I’m afraid it goes in cycles for me. I don’t write every day—far from it. I think and plot and plan every day, but I only sit down to write once I’m ready to write or revise the whole book. During the phases where I’m not writing, I spend a lot of time daydreaming about a book, letting the world start to form in my mind, getting glimmers of a character or an event, and during that time, I try to enjoy a full, balanced life where I eat well, exercise, enjoy spending time with my family, and get good sleep. It’s like that phase of the cycle is preparing my body and mind for the main event of drafting or revising. But when I’m working, I lose track of the real world. It’s like I’m possessed, and I can’t stop to think about healthy habits, nor do I have any rituals. I just work constantly. I become reliant on the kindness of strangers. (I seem to remember you once sending me an email reminder to eat lunch.) This is the phase where things like coffee and processed foods can become dietary staples. I try to make up for it during the healthy cycle by eating lots of spinach and kale and things like that. And then, of course, there’s the part of life where a book goes out on submission. That’s vodka and Ho Hos for breakfast time.# # #I'm a little afraid to ask if she was joking about the vodka and Ho Hos. Seriously though, I love what McCormick has to say about removing physical blocks to clear creative blocks, and about stepping outside our comfort zones to rediscover the magic in our own work. Do you see why I adore this woman??
I have decided on just the right simile for meeting @MKTempleman on my birthday. It is like ten Christmases rolled into one.— Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) September 19, 2013
Find McCormick on the web at McCormickTempleman.com, and on Twitter at @mktempleman. Preorder The Glass Casket on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Indiebound. And of course, there will be another giveaway come February! (An undead Snow White—I am so jealous I didn't think of it first!)
Where We Make: Yours Truly
Earlier this year I accepted a position as a resident assistant at an ESL school in a Boston suburb, which means I get room and board in exchange for easy part-time work. I've made some very dear friends here and I get to save my advance money (YAY!), but other aspects of life on campus are, needless to say, less than ideal. I am living in a dormitory—not nearly as nice a dorm as those I had at NYU!—and I know many of my friends and colleagues (who are living, y'know, responsible grown up lives) find this state of affairs somewhat horrifying, though they are too polite to say so. Yes, in my private space there are cinderblock walls, chipped linoleum flooring and a long-forgotten flip-flop gathering dust under the window seat. At any given moment, day or night, I might hear teenagers shouting and singing in any of a dozen languages in the commons outside my window. But there's also plenty of built-in shelving, a sufficient number of electrical outlets, and an abundance of sunlight for my maidenhair fern and basil plant to revel in.
I became a writer, a real writer, in a room I shared with three other girls at La Pietra, so life at Pine Manor feels like coming full circle in a way that actually amuses me. I'm reminded on a daily basis of just how little I need in order to do what I do best: I have my own desk, my own chair, my own room, and money to keep me. Virginia Woolf would concur that I am absolutely set.
No matter how temporary, though, I do like to make a space my own. I've crammed the shelves with books for research, pleasure, self improvement, and all combinations thereof. I've put up a bulletin board my dad gave me, and it still sports a Spag's bumper sticker from when my aunt Kathy lived in Shrewsbury in the '80s. Funny thing: when I look at that sticker, I think not of the past, the ersatz golden days of dowdy Christmas sweaters and are we there yet?, but of how right it feels to be living in Massachusetts here and now.
Where We Make will be a weekly series on creative workspaces, appearing each Friday. Read the submission guidelines here. If you'd like to contribute a profile of your own space, please email me at cometpartyATgmailDOTcom.
Where We Make: a new feature!
In 2008 and 2009 the Guardian ran a delightful series called Writers’ Rooms, pairing a photograph of a writer’s study with a brief but reflective essay on how they work in the space and draw inspiration from their surroundings: the pictures and knick-knacks on the wall, the books on the shelf, the particular style of desk chair, and what have you. Entries by or about George Bernard Shaw, Beryl Bainbridge, and Jane Gardam were particular favorites. (“I move around the room when it gets too untidy, like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.” That cracks me up every time.)I was disappointed when the Guardian discontinued the series, and for years I wanted to start my own project to reboot the concept on more inclusive terms. I wanted to see the workspaces of all sorts of artists, emerging as well as established—and from all over the place, too, not just Britain! I know we all like the occasional peek inside other people's notebooks and studios, whether that artist is working in your field or something completely different (like hand-dying! My dear Amy Lou Stein—who dyes yarn and fabric, sews and knits and crochets and has a dedicated workspace I envy every time I visit—will be my very first contributor.)
But I didn’t have a workspace of my own that felt worth featuring (I generally wrote in a nondescript “quiet room” at my local library), so whenever I broached the idea with writers and painters I thought might be interested, they hesitated because I didn’t have any examples to show them. It’s true that I could’ve done my best with the impersonal space I was working in at the time, especially since I am also very interested in temporary workspaces, but maybe the idea was just biding its time.I’m happy to announce that I'm finally ready to launch Where We Make with a profile of my own current workspace. Now that I have a sample profile to point you to, how’s about it? Would you like to write about your own workspace for my weekly feature? Please email me with “Where We Make” in the subject line.Some things to keep in mind (you can consider these "submission guidelines" if you like):
- The format is super simple: one photo of the entire workspace (with or without you at work in it), and a brief essay of around 300 or so words. (One shot will probably suffice for us writers, but if you are an artist or designer and want to include more photos, that would be great!)
- I’m not snooty about the definition of “artist.” ANY sort of creative work qualifies here!
- This isn't just about showing off the scope of your personal library or the handsome prints on the wall above your desk. How you use the space you work in, whether you draw energy from it or zone it out, surround yourself with things that inspire you or sit down in a temporary space as if it's a blank slate—that's what I find really fascinating. So by all means take a picture of your table at the local coffee shop if that's where you work best.
- I will tweet, Facebook, and pin the heck out of your contribution. Yay for free publicity!
- If you are so inclined, please take a moment to leave a comment on a workspace profile, and we’ll both be very grateful.
I can't tell you how excited I am to launch this new feature! Thanks very much in advance for your interest and support.
Find a Way In
It doesn't matter that this is my sixth novel--sometimes I still feel overwhelmed. When I was pushing past it during my retreat with Elizabeth earlier this month, I jotted down a few strategies to share with you.
1. Take dictation.Pretend you are behind a two-way mirror in this imaginary universe of yours. No concern for beats, tags, or description. Just listen and go.2. Run with a juicy tidbit.Take a detail you are particularly pleased with, and spin it out. You might end up with a sentence, a paragraph or a page, and it's progress any way. For example--and you probably won't consider this "juicy," hah--I am a little bit fascinated with the bodies of elderly people. When I picture the shape of my grandfather's face when he isn't wearing his dentures, or how the skin of a very old person sometimes reminds me of twice-used tissue paper, or the remarkable ears of a man I once met at a B&B in County Down, I actually get a little bit excited to describe them. You have to harness that feeling whenever it happens!3. Remember your audience (and cheering section).I have a clear memory of walking down a certain Galway street with my friend Seanan several years ago (Dominick Street, crossing to Ravens Terrace; can't remember where we were headed), telling him about a story I was calling "Apparition Hill." I knew why I needed to tell this particular story, and what it might mean for anyone who chose to read it. When I recall the urgency and excitement I felt in that moment, I remember that I can do this.
The Lost Religion of Jesus
Rosslyn Chapel.And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
(Genesis 1:30)
If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, then you have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
—St. Francis of Assisi
Within Christianity there is not a real consciousness about diet. But someday the Church will wake up and realize that an ethical diet is necessary to a moral way of life.
—Brother Ron Pickarski, OFM
While I was at Hawthornden back in January, I went with a few of my fellow writers to the Sunday service at the 15th-century Rosslyn Chapel. We'd come mostly to soak up the medieval atmosphere; it's been a long time since I set foot in a church hoping to emerge again with any sort of insight or answer.The second time I attended this Church of Scotland service, the minister—a jovial middle-aged man—opened his sermon with a joke about the Findus horse meat scandal. I stared at him in disbelief. As he segued into a second joke about Little Bo Peep finding her sheep on the shelf at Tesco, I took a white-knuckled grip on my seat in the pew, quivering with indignation (and if you know me, you know I'm not exaggerating).I didn't hear another word he said. All I could think was, How can I look to this person for spiritual guidance?Until that moment, I might have made a casual assertion now and then that Jesus was a vegetarian. But when I heard the minister make those jokes about the slaughter of innocent animals, I knew it was true. How could the man who preached "do unto others," a man we sometimes refer to as "the prince of peace," actually sit down to dine on animal flesh?Turns out there's a wealth of evidence to support this intuition, and a trove of interesting books to interpret it. I recently finished The Lost Religion of Jesus: Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity by Keith Akers, and right now I'm reading Rynn Berry's Food for the Gods: Vegetarianism and the World's Religions. You'll recall that Professor Berry gave us an excellent talk on the history of veganism on our last morning at Main Street Vegan Academy; and before we go any further, I should underline the rich historical precedent for vegetarianism. The Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, whom you remember as the guy who came up with a2 + b2 = c2, was also an ethical vegetarian; his many followers (and all who came after) were known as "Pythagoreans" up until the mid 19th century, when the word "vegetarian" was coined.In Food for the Gods, Berry writes:
Evidence for Jesus's vegetarianism in the canonical gospels is circumstantial, but nonetheless compelling. Ethical vegetarians find it inconceivable that such a potent religious figure and moral teacher could have slit the throat of an animal, or have eaten the cooked body parts of an animal. Apart from the moral impropriety of such a diet, flesh (not excluding the flesh of fish) was an extremely scarce commodity in the ancient world and would have been considered a luxurious food; it would have been out of character for a man who stressed simplicity and frugality in living to be eating such opulent food.
Speaking of frugality and simple living, I'll give you just one reason why I feel so uneasy in the religion I inherited, and why I avoid my hometown parish: the pastor built himself a three-car garage to house his Lexus (and two other cars, perhaps?) I'm certainly not saying the man should be living in a hovel and walking two miles to work, but a fancy car and a three-car garage built with parish funds don't qualify as "simple living" by any stretch of the imagination. People like to think of themselves as "good Christians," but how many of them actually live by the principles Jesus espoused?But I'm getting ahead of myself here. How do we know what Jesus really said—and what he actually ate? We must re-examine everything we think we know about him, teasing out the underlying motives of early church leaders. The Bible, as any rational Christian will admit, was written by human beings, each of whom had their own agenda. Nor does the Bible contain every worthy piece of scripture; many documents written by early followers and contemporaries of Jesus were jettisoned (or perhaps "suppressed" is a more accurate term) by Church "fathers." The discovery of the Nag Hammadi gospels in Egypt in 1945 yielded alternative accounts of Jesus's life and message, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Acts of Philip, and the Apocalypse of James. Keith Akers also draws on contemporary sources (like Epiphanius of Salamis), not all of whom were sympathetic toward those Jewish sects who lived by the teachings of Jesus (and if someone who obviously doesn't like or agree with you says nice things about you, we can feel that much more confident that those nice things are true).Akers makes the distinction, first and foremost, between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians. The first group was comprised of several similar sects, many of whom were considered heretical by the Jewish establishment; the Jewish Christians believed that Jesus was the prophet of whom Moses spoke, and that he had come not to establish his own religion, but to correct the false and adulterated parts of their scriptures (directions for animal sacrifice being but one example). Jewish Christian sects like the Ebionites (from the Hebrew ebionim, "the poor") lived in pacifist communities, pooling their resources and eating a vegetarian diet. It is very likely that Jesus lived and preached within just such a community; the apocryphal scriptures indicate that he overturned the money-changers' tables in the temple because he was opposed to the needless slaughter of oxen, sheep, goats, pigeons, and doves—that there was nothing "holy" about it! The priests, who lived on these offerings, were none too pleased of course—and if all this is true, it follows that Jesus would be arrested and crucified on the priests' instigation. (So many things about my religion just didn't make sense to me until I read these books.)As for gentile Christianity, Akers makes a fascinating point: that pacifism was a highly inconvenient principle vis-à-vis Constantine and his army, who converted en masse after the emperor, prompted by a vision, bade his army mark their shields with crosses before a military triumph. It is this faction, of course, which took over the "Christian" message and its dissemination, diluting or overlooking the most basic tenets of nonviolence and simple living. The Jewish Christians remembered and lived by these principles, but they weren't accepted by either orthodox Judaism or gentile Christianity, and as pacifists they suffered tremendously through a series of Jewish revolts against Rome in 66-70, 117, and 132-135 CE. Though contemporary sources tell us they regrouped at Pella after the first revolt around 70 CE, and through geographical description Matthew pinpoints his own location in that vicinity (thus bolstering the case that the Ebionites' version of the gospel was the original), Jewish Christianity was destined to remain on the fringes of this new world religion. Akers writes, "When the larger gentile Christian church drove out Jewish Christianity...it also lost the core of Jesus' teachings." Hugely influential Church fathers like St. Paul, who introduced the concept of "original sin," were instrumental in this adulteration process; contemporary sources tell us that the Jewish Christians were ardently opposed to Paul's methods, believing that he corrupted Jesus's teachings to suit his own ends. Those who came out on top politically were those who established the doctrine—a belief system Jesus himself would not recognize.
While the church rejected the requirement for vegetarianism, it is indisputable that there were very large numbers of vegetarians in early Christianity. In fact, there are hardly any references to any early Christians eating meat. The view that Jesus ate meat creates a paradox: vegetarianism was practiced by the apostles and numerous early followers of Jesus, including Jesus' own brother, but not by Jesus himself! It is as if everyone in the early church understood the message except the messenger. The much more likely explanation is that the original tradition was vegetarian, but that under the pressure of expediency and the popularity of Paul's writings in the second century, vegetarianism was first dropped as a requirement and finally even as a desideratum.
—Keith Akers, The Lost Religion of Jesus
* * *
Regarding Jesus's possible vegetarianism, the first problem that comes to mind is that classic story of the loaves and the fishes. In Food for the Gods, Professor Berry points out that we must revisit the original Greek to find out if there actually were fishes served at that wedding feast:
Now, most translators render opsaria as sardines or little fish, but opsaria which comes from the Greek opson (relish) also meant "relish"; so it's possible to translate it as five loaves and two "relishes," "dainties," or "tidbits."
Professor Berry mentioned in his lecture that "relish" is the primary meaning of the original word used, and "little fish" only the tertiary meaning. Furthermore, bread with some sort of relish was a commonplace meal in first-century Palestine:
In Jesus's time, they dipped their loaf in relish or they tore off pieces of bread from the loaf and dipped it in the opsarion, or relish, which might have consisted of finely chopped olives with spices or ground sesame paste.
In other words, "The Loaves and the Fishes" might rightfully be retranslated as "The Loaves and the Hummus." Of course, Rynn Berry and his colleagues have pointed out other mistranslations; considering man's place among the animals, for instance, "dominion" is very different from "stewardship." It's the difference between a guardian and a slave driver. As the Rev. Andrew Linzey says in his Food for the Gods interview, "The original author [of Genesis] was seeking to describe a relationship—not of egotistical exploitation—but of care for the earth. It's extraordinary that almost 2,000 years of biblical exegesis should so often have overlooked the radical vegetarian message in Genesis I."As I sat through the rest of the sermon that morning, I knew I had a choice to make. I could behave as I always had—i.e., fuming in silence—or I could push past the nervous twisting in my guts to speak my mind in a calm, rational, mature way. I really didn't want to walk to the back of the church when the service was over, and wait in the vestibule doorway while a mother and her young son spoke to the reverend about some ordinary piece of church business—but I knew I had to if I was going to become the person I'd been saying I wanted to grow into. (I'm reminded of something else Rev. Linzey said in his interview: "At particular moments, almost against oneself, one finds the energy to do seemingly impossible things.")So I waited. And once the parishioners had said goodbye, I stepped forward. "Reverend, may I tell you what's on my mind?" He said yes, of course, and I went on, "I was upset by the Little Bo Peep joke you made at the beginning of your sermon. I believe that if we want to see peace in the world we have to start with our own stomachs"—he laughed when I said this, but not unkindly—"and that's why I'm vegan. I'm not going to try to convince you of anything, I just needed to express this to you."The minister replied in a warm and genuinely concerned attitude, apologizing if he had offended me and remarking that he had several colleagues who were vegan. I thanked him for allowing me to "speak my truth" and rejoined my friends in the pew. But I couldn't focus on their conversation; my whole body thrummed with excited energy. I'd been able to turn that knot of frustrated nervous disappointment in my stomach into something constructive, and there is no way I can adequately describe to you just how wonderful it felt.I guess we'll never know for certain that Jesus was a vegetarian, but there is far too much "circumstantial" evidence to overlook the idea. He taught his followers to love God, and love one another—indeed, the entire religion is based upon this simple principle!—and if we are to conduct our lives in this way, it ultimately makes no sense to practice compassion only for our fellow humans.In this blog post I am truly only scratching the surface of this topic; if you are a devout Christian, I highly encourage you to read these books, and think long and critically about what you believe in. I've put together this (non-exhaustive) reading list for myself (drawn from the extensive bibliographies of Berry and Akers), and it includes titles by veg(etari)an theologians:
Is God a Vegetarian?: Christianity, Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights by Richard A. Young
The Vegetarianism of Jesus Christ by Charles Vaclavik
The Birth of Christianity: Reality and Myth by Joel Carmichael
Jewish Christianity: Factional Disputes in the Early Church by Hans-Joachim Schoeps [this one I'll have to find at a good library!]
The Master: His Life and Teachings by John Todd FerrierThe Other Gospels: The Non-Canonical Gospel Texts, edited by Ron Cameron
Animal Theology and Christianity and the Rights of Animals by Rev. Andrew Linzey
Dominion: the Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully
For Love of Animals: Christian Ethics, Consistent Action by Charles Camosy.
I no longer feel comfortable identifying myself as a Christian for reasons outlined above—and yet, as a vegan, I want to follow Jesus's example in a way I never felt inspired to do when I was a card-carrying Catholic.
Three Days in Providence
Last week Elizabeth and I tucked ourselves away and, fridge stocked, settled into making some serious headway on our novels. I'm only just starting mine, but Elizabeth was finishing hers--a HUGE accomplishment. (I am so proud of her!)
1. identify the essential.2. eliminate the rest.-- dana theloverfly ☥ (@theloverfly) August 8, 2013
But first, a trip to the beach with Henry and Daisy. So glad we did, because it turned out to be the only sunny day of my visit!
One is happier and more productive when one is eating (and drinking) healthy delicious things. (Remember what Virginia said?) In the morning Elizabeth made us the most gorgeous fresh juices.It's funny, you'd think that since I already had a complete outline and 10,000 words (from the spring of 2011) under my belt, I would be feeling totally confident and ready to work. Ha! The truth is, you feel these doubts whether you're embarking on your first novel or your sixth--although if it's a subsequent novel you can at least make the logical argument to yourself that "you've done it before, so you can do it again."
From the Sequester. Taken by Camille. Do note the high tech writing equipment including pink beach... http://t.co/uARzW68eGy-- squam (@squamlove) August 9, 2013
And of course, it makes all the difference to have a friend and fellow writer working in the next room; you aren't going to fritter away any time on the internet when you know SHE is working! I highly, highly recommend setting yourself up in a "sequester" situation with a writing partner. Even if you can't go away (to a B&B, or housesitting, or wherever), you can still turn off your cellphone, stock the fridge, unplug the WiFi and get down to business.
Writing in bed, rain pattering, delicious cool breeze through the windows. This retreat with @squamlove has been so nourishing & productive!-- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) August 9, 2013
More Kind Words
I'm delighted to share the second endorsement I've received for Bones & All:
"DeAngelis has invented a fiercely new form of human predator whose powers from birth tread the line between supernatural and realistic in a way readers have never seen. You'll be up all night turning the pages—fans of Dexter will be captivated by this sympathetic female killer who ups the ante in every imaginable way."
And, if you'll allow me a "mutual appreciation society" moment:
The cover is made of VELVET, people. I am so jealous.
Such a Gift
I was going to blog about something else today. Then I came home after lunch, checked my email and found these two photographs.
That's my book on the shelf at Foyle's, thanks to my dear friend Seanan. Recently I mentioned how much it will mean to me to see Bones & All for sale in the biggest bookstore in London, but I never thought it could happen now. I feel SO FULL of happiness and gratitude.When I say this is a gift, though, I don't mean seeing my book on the shelf--I mean having a friend who cares enough to get it there. I wish so kind a friend for each and every one of you!
FAQ: Choosing a POV
QUESTION: How do you decide on which point of view to use in a story?Choosing a point of view is as basic a decision as choosing the sex of your protagonist—perhaps even more so! In my experience, there is one right answer, at which you will arrive relatively early on in the process; and in the meantime, you might enjoy writing a single scene from multiple points of view and comparing their effectiveness.Ask yourself, which point of view best serves the shape of this story? If there are several primary characters and we need to get into the minds of each of them, a traditional first-person narrative isn't going to work. If, on the other hand, the voice of your hero or heroine is particularly crucial—if the story simply can't fulfill its potential without it—then first person is pretty much a no brainer.My first published novel, Mary Modern, has two female protagonists along with two male leads and a small host of important minor characters. I suppose I could have let each character have his or her say—as in novels like Hillary Jordan's Mudbound, Tracy Chevalier's Falling Angels, or Daniel Wallace's Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician—but given that the family home in Mary Modern became something of a character in and of itself, it felt right to use a third-person omniscient point of view...almost as if the house itself were doing the narrating.Third-person narration can, of course, be limited or omniscient, and a limited third-person perspective might feel a bit like first person even though the narration is technically happening outside the protagonist's head. If you want to offer your readers a more objective view of what's going on, but don't need access to other characters' heads, then third-person limited is certainly an option. Frankly—and this is a matter of personal taste—I find omniscient third-person narration a whole lot more fun, probably because I can "play God" within the fictional universe I'm creating. Then again, the claustrophobic potential within a limited third-person perspective might be just what you're looking to achieve.Petty Magic is the "memoir and confession" of a 150-year-old witch, so it had to be written in the first person. The way Eve looks at the world is so unique and fun that had I not allowed her to tell her own story, much of her verve would have been lost, or at least watered down. It's like listening (over your favorite drink, in a cozy corner booth) to a juicy, almost impossible-to-believe anecdote from the person who experienced it, as opposed to just reading the story secondhand over the internet. (This is why young adult novels are generally written in the first-person present tense; to a teenager, everything often feels like it's happening all at once, and it's completely emotionally overwhelming, and the breathless pacing of the first-person present can capture this feeling most effectively.)Aside from voice, the other consideration of first-person narration is that your character's perspective is incomplete by definition. Every narrator is unreliable to a certain extent! As you write, you must leave space for a more objective truth, and decide to what extent your protagonist becomes aware of his or her "blind spots" and emotional limitations as the story progresses. Between her present-day romantic shenanigans and recounting her dangerous adventures of sixty years before, Eve is having so much fun that when the time comes for her rude awakening, she's completely unprepared for it. (At one point she remarks that the word "epiphany" feels like a shard of glass in her mouth.) Eventually Eve does choose to learn from her mistakes, though, and therein lies the payoff for both reader and protagonist.Another thing to consider is that even if you do decide on first-person narration, your narrator might not be the central character, as in The Great Gatsby. In this case, the narrator might have a more reliable view of the protagonist's motives and identity—or he might not.So far I haven't felt much of a desire to experiment with point of view. Second-person narration would be difficult to execute in a way that felt even remotely organic; and, more to the point, I have not yet come up with a story idea best served by second-person narration. Other writers have experimented with point of view quite effectively, as in Joshua Ferris's And Then We Came to the End. I haven't read it, but the critical consensus is that he absolutely pulled off the narration in the first-person plural.Every so often novelists will play it both ways—Diana Gabaldon employs both the first person and third-person omniscient in the thoroughly awesome Outlander series, for instance—but unless you are writing something similarly epic in scope, you probably won't be able to justify this sort of "cheating."The choice of perspective is just as intuitive as the rest of the decisions you'll make in the telling of your story. Each point of view offers its own potential, and if you keep plumbing those possibilities as you write, you'll be able to create a narrative that is more complex, and therefore more satisfying, for your reader.
A Room with a View
(Mr. Forster, wherever you are...I hope you can forgive me.)I've only ever stayed in New York City hotel rooms for my launch parties, but for the Main Street Vegan Academy mini-reunion last weekend, I booked one thinking two out-of-town friends would be joining me. Alas, their travel plans fell through, but I decided to make the best of the situation by turning it into an all-night writing retreat of sorts. Check out wasn't until noon, after all...(You may have noticed my tweets from one night a couple of weeks ago, when I drank too much coffee at the Starbucks down the street and ended up working 'til 6am.)
Five thirty. Colorless sky. Birds a-chirping. I can hear one of our Muslim students singing his prayers.-- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) July 9, 2013
Yup, the hotel is literally at "Ground Zero" (with a Morton's steakhouse downstairs, no less). I was living in an NYU dorm in Chinatown on September 11th, and saw more that day than I care to describe here. I still think about how many people lost their lives, and I bless them, wherever they are, but I've never felt the need to actually visit the memorial. (Now you see why I was in a rather morbid frame of mind.)
After saying goodbye to my MSVA friends, I stopped at the Trader Joe's near Union Square to pick up some "fuel" for the long night ahead. (I would be so deliciously productive! It would be SO WONDERFUL!!!!!)Not long past midnight, though, my energy began to flag. The coffee I'd brewed in my room was really weak (even the decaf I made in the morning had more caffeine in it!), and I suddenly remembered I'd only gotten five hours of sleep the night before. With a couple of iced coffees I was hoping to ease myself into that elusive "sweet spot," the "theta state" or however you like to label it, but it just wasn't happening. I needed some shut-eye. So I promised myself I'd get a good three hours done in the morning, and climbed into the king-size bed.
I used to write until 4 or 5 almost every night when I was in grad school working on Mary Modern. Twenty-four doesn't feel that far from thirty-two, but I gotta face reality here: I'm not that young anymore. I can pull one of those exhilarated all-nighters every now and again—they are still every bit as fun as they were then!—but it's going to take more planning than it used to. At any rate, in the morning I managed to finish a draft of the outline (or "chapter flow") I'd been working toward, which had been my goal for the night anyway.The other take-away from my experience over the weekend is this: you won't be touched by some divine hand of inspiration every time you sit down to write. Much of the time it's just putting one word down after another, and that's perfectly okay. That's how a book gets written.
FAQ: Switching Sexes
...It remains obvious, even in the writing of Proust, that a man is terribly hampered and partial in his knowledge of women, as a woman in her knowledge of men.
Here's a question posed by one of the boys at St. Lawrence: I noticed that the protagonists of both your novels are female. Are you ever going to write a story from a male perspective?One of the best writing compliments I ever received arrived by text message. I still have it saved on my phone nearly six years later.
Hi camille! I'm about 150 pages in & i really like your book! The attention to detail often leads to moments of sublimity in the prose, & your treatment of & insight into the male psyche is surprisingly accurate!! I'm reading every chance i get...
The friend who sent it is, of course, a man—and to be perfectly honest with you, I'm not sure how I pulled it off.Then again, if we define convincing literary "sex switching" in terms of the reader being so engrossed in the story as to forget the sex of the person who wrote it, then maybe I wasn't as successful as my friend would have me think. There's no denying that men and women differ in fundamental ways—physically, biochemically, et cetera.
I thought it would be fun to offer a couple examples of sex switching in literary fiction—one I find successful, one not—and see if anyone else can think of authors who can get inside the minds of the opposite sex particularly well.The first example is a passage chosen at random from Hillary Jordan's Mudbound:
The war broke my brother—in his head, where no one could see it. Never mind all his clever banter, his flirting with Laura and the girls. I could tell he wasn't right the second I saw him. He was thin and jittery, and his eyes had a haunted look I recognized from my own time in the Army. I knew too well what kind of sights they were seeing when he shut them at night.
Jamie was thin-skinned to begin with, had been all his life. He was always looking for praise, then getting his feelings hurt when he didn't get it, or enough of it. And he never knew his own worth, not in his guts where a man needs to know it. Our father was to blame for that. He was always whittling away at Jamie, trying to make him smaller...
It was only after I'd finished Mudbound that I thought, wow, Hillary Jordan knows how to get into the mind of a man. I suppose I should get a man's opinion on this, but I was convinced anyway!Now here's an example of sex switching I found distracting:
Changing the subject abruptly, Ines remarked: There are some really good-looking men. Yes, there are some I find very attractive. There are some I find extremely attractive. Well, me too, if we're going to extremes. But, you know, they can turn out to be bastards. Yeah, of course; that's always happening on TV. But that's fake. Didn't you just say...? No, what I'm saying is they can be bastards. Like they can be anything, Ines added. Oh, OK, all right. But the really important thing, in love, is to find a real man. Not the real men again! exclaimed Patri. That's what mom's always telling me. Well she knows what she's talking about, I promise you. How does she know? Ines shrugged her shoulders...
That's from César Aira's Ghosts. Maybe it's just the company I run in, but I don't know any women who talk about men this way; perhaps I'm discounting cultural differences, but I'm not convinced. At any rate, the whole time I was reading this passage I was acutely conscious of the author's sex. As I said, if he'd actually nailed the tenor of this conversation between a teenage girl and her "hip" young aunt, I wouldn't be thinking of the fact that a woman did not write it. (The novel's complete lack of paragraphs and quotation marks drives me batty too, but that's for a different blog post.)In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf recants her earlier assertion (see epigraph) that writers of both sexes are hindered by the utter inaccessibility of one half of the human experience.
...I went on amateurishly to sketch a plan of the soul so that in each of us two powers preside, one male, one female; and in the man's brain, the man predominates over the woman, and in the woman's brain, the woman predominates over the man. The normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two live in harmony together, spiritually co-operating. If one is a man, still the woman part of the brain must have effect; and a woman also must have intercourse with the man in her. Coleridge perhaps meant this when he said that a great mind is androgynous...
I like the concept of an "androgynous mind." Maybe this matter of writing men (or women) convincingly isn't simply a question of having a big enough imagination—if we can actually tap into a sort of Jungian reservoir of human experience, and funnel that knowledge into an act of creative empathy.And if that sounds like new-age nonsense, is writing a man as a woman all that different from writing about a woman as a woman? You're already seeing through someone else's eyes—someone whose experience differs from yours, even though you made the person up yourself.But to answer the student's question: yes, I am very interested in writing a novel from a male perspective, and excited for the challenge. In 2007 I started what I hoped would be a novel narrated by a man, but I wound up shelving it when Seanan remarked that the first chapter had the pacing of a shorter story. I haven't given up on that one, but in the meantime my second novel for St. Martin's, Immaculate Heart, is narrated by a male journalist. Working on this story is a whole new kind of fun.This was an excellent question, and I'd love to get some input from other readers and writers (especially since I didn't offer a positive example from a male author). Writers, how comfortable do you feel writing from a male point of view as a woman, or vice versa? Readers, what are some of your favorite examples of male writers who've nailed the inner workings of a female character, and vice versa?
@sarahpmiller Thanks for all the great examples/recs! Interesting to me that you're also coming up with more female than male writers...-- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) July 10, 2013
@comet_party I really don't know. I'd be interested to hear what men think about that.-- Sarah P. Miller (@SarahPMiller) July 11, 2013
Treat Yo'self!
Thursday night (of vegan academy week), after a delicious dinner at Candle West with my classmates, I went down to Union Square for dessert and some browsing at one of the world's best bookstores.(That "treat yo'self!" episode of "Parks and Recreation" is the only episode I've actually seen, but I do like to quote it.)
Dairy-free dark chocolate YUM in a pretzel cone at Chloe's Soft Serve Fruit Company.People sometimes have this notion that being vegan means giving up all the fun stuff. Not true at all! I enjoy a treat way more now, because I can feel good about where it came from.
As much as I enjoyed that "soft serve," browsing at the Strand was an even bigger treat. (Here's an example of something awesome I found there on a past visit.)
Delicious books! The Decomposition Notebook was a gift for a friend, but isn't that sort of a treat for myself too?(I'm almost finished with Hardcore Zen, which my friend Mike recommended to me years ago. It's a great book. I'll be blogging about it.)
I don't usually spend much time perusing the clearance books outside the store, although I do like to daydream sometimes that the Strand is still around a hundred years from now, and some NYU student finds one of my books on the dollar cart, reads it and loves it....Is that weird?
(And here is a random window shot of a store called Mantiques Modern. Ha! Love it.)(All Main Street Vegan Academy posts here.)
Petty Magic audiobook coming soon!
On Thursday night I received the Petty Magic audiobook files. EXCITING TIMES!!! The narrator's name is Kelley Hazen, and like I said before, she is astonishingly perfect for this novel. Now I just have to listen through the MP3s and make a note of any little things that need fixing. It'll be available on Audible in the near future!The audiobook cover, designed and adapted by Daniel Rembert:More soon! [Edit: now available!!!]