All Rileyed Up

13… hours I’ve spent the past two days spent reading Twilight and New Moon

12… hours I’ll likely spend over next two days reading Eclipse and Breaking Dawn

11… dollars spent to acquire the book, Twilight

10… times my teenage niece asked me if I had read the book yet after I bought it

9… pages it took to get me hooked on the first book

8… times I thought to myself “Edward sounds dreamy”

7… times I’ve spotted missing quotation marks – who edited these books?

6… errands I blew off today to finish New Moon

5… times I exasperatedly thought “how could Bella have not yet figured out Jacob’s problem?” while reading New Moon

4… times I have eyed Eclipse, debating on whether or not to start reading it now or this evening

3… position on my Netflix queue for Twilight, even though the DVD won’t be out til the end of the month

2… other books I should be reading instead of these, Loving Frank for book club next week and Song of the Lark which is due back to the library

1… time I will read these books because while the story is quite intriguing, I daresay I won’t gain much more from a second reading.

So what about you? Have you fallen into the trap that is Twilight?

***

This post contributed to Thursday Thirteen.

When was the last time you went to the circus? I haven’t been since I was in third grade and went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® Circus, during which they unveiled a unicorn. A real, live unicorn! I was eight. I was mesmerized. Those unicorn guys are back, this time with two different shows, Zing Zang Zoom and Over the Top. MomCentral has a discount offer for anyone who wants to go, see the end of this post for more details.

It just so happens that exactly one year ago I was thinking about the circus. I had just finished reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, which is about an old man reflecting on the days of his youth when he jumped a circus train and learned what that crazy life was all about. I posted it about it then too, but I figure, Water for Elephants was an interesting read and worth reposting:

Sometimes I think that if I had to choose between an ear of corn or making love to a woman, I’d choose the corn. Not that I wouldn’t love to have a final roll in the hay—I am a man yet, and some things never die—but the thought of those sweet kernels bursting between my teeth sure sets my mouth to watering. It’s fantasy, I know that. Neither will happen. I just like to weigh the options, as though I were standing in front of Solomon: a final roll in the hay or an ear of corn. What a wonderful dilemma. Sometimes I substitute an apple for the corn.

The above paragraph is taken from chapter one. Water for Elephants is quirky and funny, demented and tragic. Such is the circus life, I guess.

I read this book for my book club and tonight is the meeting. I skimmed over the suggested discussion questions at the end of the book and in one of them, Ms. Gruen says she incorporated Jacob’s story from the Bible. Yikes! I did not see that coming. In fact, I was a total lidiot (my own made up word: literary idiot, the reader who JUST DIDN’T GET IT), saying to myself, well, his name is Jacob I can see that connection. But what else?

After giving it more thought, I have come up with these:

There’s the woman Jacob loves, Marlena. You could make the argument that Uncle Al is a sort of Laban, extracting unpaid work from Jacob, although there’s no promise of anyone’s hand in marriage. Also, what does that make August?

Jacob’s ladder. In Water for Elephants, the ladder is important to life on a circus train (as well as bootleg liquor, hey hey). The ladders enable one to jump atop train cars and move from one to another, which happens from time to time when you’re on a train as often as these fine folks. Maybe the circus people are like the angels ascending and descending the ladder.

If Jacob’s Ladder is to signify the Jewish exiles, then you might say the ladder of a circus train is symbolic of the exiles of the circus performers, like Kinko/Walter, who has nowhere else to go because his mother sold him. And really, one might consider the whole circus an exile, given the multiple occasions on which they are run out of town.

Jacob’s Ladder leads from earth to heaven, and since the circus train ladder leads from inside the stock cars to atop them, maybe that means both heaven and earth are the circus train? For these circus performer, life takes place, essentially, on the train. The train only stopped to put on the show, so when they were off the train, they were working to set up, put on, and take down the show. So earth is the insides of the stock cars, these people’s homes and livelihoods. Heaven is looking upon the train from atop the roof, like when Jacob Jankowski ascends the ladder:

I climb to the roof. He moves over and when I sit down next to him he claps a hand on my shoulder. “Turn around. I want you to see something.”
He points down the length of the train. It stretches behind us like a giant snake, the linked cars jiggling and bending as it rounds a curve.
“It’s a beautiful sight, isn’t it, Jacob?” says August.

In the case of the circus performers, I tend to think that heaven could well be the view of the train from above, because it is a home and employment during the Depression when both were scarce.

Camel. Well, the name alone works with the stretching muscle. There were camels in the Bible, right? Camel also has the problem of having done something bad that he hasn’t forgiven himself for, and though we never do find out if Camel’s family forgave him, we know they were willing to take him back. All that forgiveness talks seemed to have “Biblical imagery” written all over it.

I think the best parallel to Biblical Jacob comes when Jacob Jankowski realizes that it is up to him to protect the circus animals from the treatment they receive under Uncle Al and August:

I am their shepherd, their protector. And it’s more than a duty. It’s a covenant with my father.

While I realize that Jacob is referring to his biological father, I think it’s safe to assume this sentence is meant to carry more meaning than just that.

We’ll see how it goes tonight at the book club meeting. In case I’m totally amiss with my interpretation, I’m bringing a copy of one of the books of circus photos that inspired Sara Gruen to write the book. “Wild, Weird, and Wonderful: The American Circus as Seen by F.W. Glasier.” I had to drive to not-my-usual library to check it out. Extra effort like that should count for something, right?

All I know is, parallel to Biblical Jacob? If she says so. Good read? Definitely.

***

So, are you itching to read the book now or go to the circus and see the real deal? Got time for both?

You can visit Ringling’s site here.

The details on the discounts are as follows:

Offer #1: Get 4 tickets for just $44 by entering the discount code “MOM” at select ticketing channels. Offer good on all performances, minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each. Offer not valid on Circus Celebrity Seating, Front Row and VIP seating or combinable with other offers. Other Restrictions May Apply.

Offer #2: A select amount of Front Row and VIP seats have been reserved for you to buy before they go on sale to the public - just enter the code “MOM” when purchasing those seats. Dates and cities where families can use the national MOM discount code this spring are as follows:

Newark/East Rutherford/Uniondale/NYC
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
March 5 - April 13
Offer not valid on performances from April 10 - 13 at Madison Square Garden

Washington D.C./ Fairfax, VA/ Baltimore, MD
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® proudly presents Over The Top
March 18-April 19

Philadelphia
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
May 13-May 25

Phoenix
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
June 24-June 28

Houston
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® proudly presents Over The Top
July 15-July 26

Anaheim/LA/Ontario
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
July 8-August 2

San Francisco
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
August 12-August 23

Dallas/Ft Worth
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® proudly presents Over The Top
July 29-August 16

Sacramento
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® presents ZING ZANG ZOOM
August 27-August 30

Kansas City
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® proudly presents Over The Top
September 16-September 20

Don’t see your city listed? Visit the Ringling site to find it. You can also visit Ticketmaster to use the 4 tickets for $44 code, MOM.

Thanks to Scott Gale, for doing this interview with me about his upcoming book, Your Family Constitution. Sign up on his website to read the first chapter and be notified when the book comes out.

1. What is your book about?

The book is a road map that parents can use to identify their core values and build effective family structure around them.

2. What prompted you to write this book?

I had a Mother’s Day meltdown with my son that culminated with me walking 14 miles homes. It gave me a lot of time to think and made me realize the need for change within my own family. After completing the Family Constitution for my family and living with it for a while, I decided to share it with other parents through this book.

3. Who do you hope will read this book?

Any parents with kids in the home or anyone thinking of becoming a parent.

4. What are the top 3 messages you hope to get across to your readers?

1) Clarity, consistency and commitment are the three keys to effective family management
2) Failure to step back and plan because you are too busy only fuels the fire of frustration and chaos
3) Parenting is what you make of it. You have to make it fun for you and your kids. All the other good stuff will follow.

5. Are your wife and children excited about this book?

My wife is nervous because she feels like I’m airing our dirty laundry to the world; nevertheless, she supports me on this journey. My kids don’t really care, as they don’t sense any impact of the book to their world.

6. What was your writing process for completing this project?

I wrote a complete draft, then submitted to a few close friends for review. After I received feedback, I basically re-wrote the entire thing to provide a more personal voice.

7. Do you have any other writing projects in mind?

Kind of. I want to write a comedy screenplay about competitive eating.

8. How did you decide come up with the title?

I just described the product.

9. What was your favorite part about writing this book?

Even though I basically discarded the first draft, the initial writing process really allowed me to think. It was very therapeutic.

10. Least favorite?

Editing. It is like pulling teeth after you have read through something 100+ times.

11. What advice do you have for other first-time writers out there?

Start with a framework. Define your voice and your audience. Then start writing.

12. Where can readers buy/pre-order your book?

They can go on my website and download the first chapter for free. They can provide their email and I will let them know as soon as it is available for sale.

13. Anything else you’d like to say?

I want to reinforce how much effort it takes to make change in your life. It will always be inconvenient, as the life of a parent is by definition crazy. But, it is so worth the effort.

Go check out his website for more details. Thanks, Scott!

This post contributed to Thursday Thirteen.

A couple weeks ago, I read “12 Star-Powered College Roommates” on Mental Floss, and among the roommate pairings were Frank O’Hara and Edward Gorey.

Gorey was described as a “creepy illustrator” and not knowing who Gorey was, I Googled him because such a description piques the interest, no? Lo and behold, Gorey’s illustrations are indeed creepy, but in a fun way, like Chistina Ricci as Wednesday Addams.

I’m a homicidal maniac, they look just like everyone else.

I checked out The Unstrung Harp at the library and as it turns out, The Unstrung Harp is about the writing process! How serendipitous is that?

I think every writer should read about the hilarious trials and tribulations of Mr. Clavius Frederick Earbrass as he embarks on his latest novel-writing journey. I read it in all of 20 minutes while sitting in the parking lot at my niece’s high school waiting for her cheerleading practice to end, and I laughed so much I bet it would embarrass my niece if anyone saw me and knew we were related.

Mr. Earbrass’ tale sums up the tale of every writer I know (which is a little unnerving, seeing the book came out in 1953) and his visit to the second hand bookstore, the antiques store, and his opening and closing lines for his book are moments to savor in this little story told through pictures. Lovely. Just lovely (In that good creepy/lovely kind of way).

So, for those of you still looking for a good book to buy for your loved ones, here are eleven books by Literary Mama editors and two more that I give the Riley stamp of approval to (it’s kind of a big deal on certain small islands):

1. Mama, PhD: Women Write About Motherhood & Academic Life
Edited by Elrena Evans and Caroline Grant
A literary anthology of deeply-felt personal narratives by women both in and out of the academy, writing about their experiences attempting to reconcile bodies with brains. These essays voice stories of academic women choosing to have, not have, or delay children, and make recommendations on how to make the academy a more family-friendly workplace. Candid, provocative, and sometimes with a wry sense of humor, these essays speak to and offer support for any women attempting to combine work and family.

2. Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined
Edited by Amy Hudock and Andrea J. Buchanan
This unique collection features the best of Literary Mama. It celebrates the voices of the maternally inclined, paves the way for other writer mamas, and honors the difficult and rewarding work women do as they move into motherhood.

3. Peeking Under My Skirt
by Stephanie Hunt
From intimate peeks at marriage to ruminations on candlelight, to an expose of the mayhem surrounding the annual extended family beach trip, Peeking is both lyrical and light-hearted.

4. A Ghost at Heart’s Edge: Stories and Poems of Adoption
Edited by Susan Ito
Fifty short stories and poems reveal the sometimes heartbreaking, often affirming tales of adoption, written by birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees.

5. The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan
Edited by Suzanne Kamata
This collection of short stories is an absorbing look at the Outsider in a nation that does not absorb foreigners easily.

6. Losing Kei
by Suzanne Kamata
Jill Parker is an American painter living in Japan who must choose between freedom and abandoning her child. Told with tenderness, humor, and an insider’s knowledge of Japanese family life; an exceptional expatriate voice.

7. Love You To Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs
Edited by Suzanne Kamata
The first collection of literary writing on raising a child with special needs, Love You to Pieces features families coping with autism, deafness, muscular dystrophy, Down syndrome and more. Here, poets, memoirists, and fiction writers paint beautiful, wrenchingly honest portraits of caring for their children, laying bare the moments of rage, disappointment, and guilt that can color their relationships. Parent-child communication can be a challenge at the best of times, but in this collection we witness the struggles and triumphs of those who speak their own language—or don’t speak at all—and those who love them deeply.

8. Generation
by Sharon Kraus
Generation maps the survival of a traumatic childhood. Kraus masters the toxic fall-out of abusive experiences by rendering them fiercely meaningful, almost as a dance or a biblical drama.

9. Strange Land
by Sharon Kraus
Chronicling the life of a woman embarking on marriage and contemplating motherhood, these poems wrestle with the narrator’s violent childhood and work to reconcile her past with the course of her future.

10. Real Life and Liars
by Kristina Riggle
As a wilted flower child, Mira Zielinski has never been one to follow orders. Not from her husband, not from her boss - not even from her oncologist. Mira has her own idea about handling her newly diagnosed breast cancer, and it does not involve hopping up on the operating table. Her grown children will no doubt object — when she gets around to telling them.

11. The Maternal Is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change
Edited by Shari MacDonald Strong
Exploring the vital connection between motherhood and social change, The Maternal Is Political features forty-four powerful, hard-hitting literary essays by women who are striving to make the world a better place for children and families—both their own and other women’s—in this country and globally.

12. One Bird One Stone: 108 American Zen Stories
By Sean Murphy
Amazing collection of stories and interviews with Zen masters living in America.

13. A Thousand Dollars for a Kiss
by Cindy Bokma
Dark chick lit comedy about what happens when a celeb-obsessed gal ignores everyone in her life to pal around with her favorite music star.

What do you have to do in the next 14 days?

1. Come up with exciting things to keep the kids busy while they’re out of school, like hang gliding off the roof with a couple umbrellas and a baseball bat. Hey, MacGuyver could do it.

2. Send out last minute cards. E-card or otherwise.

3. Buy last minute presents. And keep them hidden from prying eyes.

4. Partake in a White Elephant gift exchange where you wind up with the clown shoes and bow tie that squirts water. Score!

5. Write something for the True North contest.

Whoa, whoa, whoa… wait… what’s the True North contest?

Trust me, you want to enter this (though part of me would prefer it if you didn’t because it would increase my chances of winning).

True North Snacks, nut snacks from Frito-Lay, is sponsoring a contest for everyone to share their True North Story. In 300 words or less. This story should say what keeps you going, what drives you, what you want out of life, that old chest nut (pun intended).

The winning story writer receives twenty-five grand (just imagine how many postcards I could buy with that) and the story will be turned into a 60-minute commercial directed by Helen Hunt and ideally aired during the Oscars 2009 (which will give you TOTAL bragging rights at that Oscar party you usually don’t like attending because all you wind up doing is making fun of the outfits and speculating over movies you haven’t seen).

So what’s My True North Story?

My writing. That really is what I want out of life, to continue to be a writer who pursues her passion with passion, who writes what she loves, who writes words that can change people or move people or, in select instances, cause them to jump up and scream aloud, “Yes, Elvis is the Man!” (or “I’m all shook up”) I am having trouble formulating this story into a compelling string of 300 words, though.

Can you define irony?

Anyhoo, go ahead and check out the site. Seems like a fun thing to enter, and gives you a chance to really ponder the question “What do I want out of life?” and if you ask me, there aren’t enough of us asking ourselves that question these days.

Here’s the list of books I’ll be reading for book club this year. Feel free to join in. I’ll try to post reviews as I read them:

January: “The View From Mount Joy” by Lorna Landvik

February: “Behind The Tortilla Curtain” by T.C. Boyle

March: “Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan

April: “One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd” by Jim Fergus

May: “The Lace Reader” by Brunonia Barry

June: “Ahabs Wife” by Sena Jeter Naslund

July: “The Island” by Victoria Hislop

August: “The Secret Between Us” by Barbara Delinsky

September: “The Life of Freya Stark” by Jane Geniesse

October: “A Gesture Life” by Chang Rae Lee (my choice! I’ll probably read it before October)

*Alternate Books:
“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larson & Reg Keeland
“A Case of Exploding Mangoes” by Mohammed Hamif (also my choice, which I STILL haven’t gotten around to reading)

On another note, look for yours truly in Literary Mama’s Essential Short Story Collection list. Anyone else a Roald Dahl fan?

On a visit to Steph at The Red Clay Diaries today, I was led to this poetry site, Pensieve.

A writer friend of mine says she likes to study and write poetry because it gives her the opportunity to examine words from a completely different persepctive than when you’re writing fiction or nonfiction. I couldn’t agree more. So I decided to participate in Pensieve’s monthly Poetic License. The deadline for submissions was Friday, but it was a fun exercise so I’m posting anyway.

The theme was winter or Christmas and the form was haiku or pensieve. I chose the pensieve, defined as this: “A titled, five-line poem; each line correlates to one of the five senses–sight, sound, scent, taste, touch–and describes the subject (title). The goal is for the reader to take on the poem as his own, being able to ‘experience’ your subject through your words, by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling what you described.”

Tree Decorating

Giggles and gasps as the tree branches receive their wares one by one:
Glittering glass orbs that sparkle in the white lights;
Gingerbread men, baked with vanilla and cinnamon;
Gilded, bumpy angels, a texture little hands can’t resist.
Ghirardelli hot chocolate, to cap the night off.

I just finished reading Second Nature by Alice Hoffman. I was into it at first, then it slowed down for a while, then I just sort of hurried through it to the end. (WARNING: moderate spoilers following)

Second Nature is about Stephen, a man raised by wolves who is found by trappers and turned over to a hospital, and Robin, the woman who introduces him to life among humans. It is about love and all its manifestations, and about the darkness that can exist in any human.

Love exists in so many relationships in this book. Robin and Roy. Robin and Stephen. Stephen and Connor. Old Dick and Ginny. Old Dick and Stephen. Robin and Michelle. Connor and Lydia. Michelle and Lydia. Stuart and Kay. Roy and The Doctor. Erotic love, familial love, adoring love, new love, old love, earned love. There was Michelle, mother of Lydia, who worked as a high school guidance counselor but when she realized her daughter was growing up she found the advice she usually gave to other parents much harder to swallow. There’s Robin and Roy and their teenage son Connor, all of them judging one another for the way they handle their intimate relationships. And then there’s Old Dick, a wonderful character, the grandfather and main caregiver to Robin and Stuart, a man who didn’t seem to give a damn about his family but as you learn more about him you see what he does value — courage and the adventurous spirit. He’s a modern take on early American lit figures, the man who values land and exploration.

Second Nature also takes place on an island, which adds a sense of claustrophobia and inevitability to all this tension, that there is no way to escape love. Or death (no man is an island, anyone? oh, the irony). And this love, this love that has everyone on the island up in arms, thrives off a single unspoken rule here, a rule that drives Stephen crazy as he tries to adjust to living among men vs wolves:

When it comes to love, you mustn’t speak.

Don’t ever say what you’re truly feeling. Don’t ever say what you mean. And those who do pay a price in this book. That is what compelled me the most in this book, the way it always went back to Stephen and his animal tendencies from living amongst the wolves, and one of the best parts was Stephen’s reflection on acting on impulse. To act on impulse AND not be wrong. There is no debate in the woods, no time to question if something is or is not the right move. There is only a moment to do it, and do it right, or suffer the consequences. And entering a world of humans where every move is scrutinized and everything can mean something else, and lo, even the people you least suspect can turn out to be the worst kinds of people anywhere – it’s almost too much for Stephen. He’s gone from living amongst wolves to humans, or is it the other way around?

The reason I continue to read Alice Hoffman, above all, is because I am a fan of magical realism. I’m a fan of believing that a man could be raised by wolves and after a few months of hanging with the humans would simply fit in. I’m also a fan of Hoffman’s descriptive passages, of blood in ice, of cold weather and warm bodies, of our beautiful world.

I leave you with this passage and you can decide for yourself if this book is up your alley:

One afternoon, when the light was cool and bright, Stephen went into the kitchen to fix their lunch, and when he returned he found Old Dick crying. All at once Stephen realized what had been happening during those hours when they didn’t speak: he had been learning to tell what it was Old Dick wanted just by looking at him. That he should ever know a man as well as he knew one of his brothers was disturbing, but it was also a simple fact. Stephen put their plates of soup down on the night table, then bundled Old Dick in a blanket, the heaviest one he could find, and carried him downstairs. It was nothing to carry him. Stephen felt he could have gone on forever, but he stopped in the center of the lawn, where the pile of scarlet leaves was scattered on the grass. This was all Old Dick wanted, to see the sky, not through glass but as it truly was, a blue dome so brilliant it could bring tears to a man’s eyes.

Want to hear my exciting news?

I’m the new E-zine Editor for Literary Mama. You can see me on the masthead (”Jessica DeVoe Riley”). Editor. I feel very official. This must have been what Daniel-San felt like when he did the Crane Kick and won the All Valley Karate Championship.

Get him a bodybag!

Yes, I made a Karate Kid reference. It’s been on mind since reading this uber-hilarious post from Bill Simmons. (props to Lawyer Girl for turning me on to this).

But back to Literary Mama.

I started reading Literary Mama I don’t even know how long ago. It’s wonderful writing by wonderful women. My favorite drink from this well of good writing is Vicki Forman’s retired column, Special Needs Mama. Here’s the archive of it. I recommend reading all of them, from the bottom up, which is the order in which they were published. And you should know, you will probably cry.