Posts
Check out my visiting Samantha Redstreake Geary:
http://writerlysam.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/tree-of-life-chimera_remember-the-titans-featuring-author-roland-yeomans/
Tara Tyler:
Here is my contribution:
The ghost of Julie London swayed by on her way to the stage.
She lowered her lashes until they almost cuddled her cheeks and slowly raised them again like a theatre curtain.
The ghost of Raymond Chandler took a sip from his glass.
"I know that trick, kid. That was supposed to make you roll over on your back with all four paws in the air.”
"Woof," I said.
Mark Twain chuckled, "God created women so that Man would learn seeing ain't always believing."
Stephen King smiled, drawing a card. "And why was Man created?"
Roger Zelazny snorted, "So Taylor Swift would have lyrics to her songs when she broke up with one."
Hemingway puffed on his cigar. "My NaNo post did well last November, didn't it?"
Roger nodded. "Surprisingly so since you nay-sayed their dream of slapping a novel together in a month."
Hemingway said, "Dreams alone won't fill libraries."
Roger looked off into the darkness.
“I like libraries. It makes me feel comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me. I always feel better when I can see that there is something to hold back the shadows.”
Mark puffed on his own cigar.
“In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.”
Chandler sighed,
"They are wasting a month hurrying a novel when they should be carefully crafting one. But there is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself.”
Roger nodded, "I always forced myself to sit down and write five pages each morning. Then, each evening I would slash and hack those pages down into three."
He smiled sadly to me. “No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.”
William Faulkner murmured,
"Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders."
Roger Zelazny tapped his cards against his teeth. "Perhaps. Here's a tip for you, Roland.
Occasionally, there arises a writing situation where you see an alternative to what you are doing, a mad, wild gamble of a way for handling something,
which may leave you looking stupid, ridiculous or brilliant -
you just don't know which.
You can play it safe there, too, and proceed along the route you'd mapped out for yourself.
Or you can trust your personal demon who delivered that crazy idea in the first place.
Trust your demon.”
Stephen King laughed softly,
"I always do. "
He turned to me. "Roland, books are the perfect entertainment:
no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent.
What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”
An evil gleam shined in his eyes behind his glasses. "While we're giving tips to you. Here's a few:
“Good books don't give up all their secrets at once. Learn the strip-tease delay of good fiction, revealing as you go along. Great fiction is the truth within the lie."
Chandler took a slow sip of his drink.
"It all boils down to your hero, kid. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man.
He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor --
by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.
He is a relatively poor man, or he would not be a hero at all.
He is a common man or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character, or he would not know his job.
He will take no man's money dishonestly and no man's insolence without due and dispassionate revenge.
He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him. He talks as the man of his age talks -- that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness.
The story is the man's adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure.
He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in.”
"What about women heroes?" I asked. "Ada Lovelace created the first computer program 100 years before the invention of the computer.
Abigail Adams healed the rift between two U.S. Presidents.
Alexandrine Tinne was a Dutch explorer who made the first female attempt to cross the Sahara.
Aletta Jacobs was a Dutch doctor, a feminist, a pacifist, and a human rights activist."
Chandler smiled crooked, "That was then. Now, we have Taylor Swift."
The ghost of William Faulkner shook his head.
"That is your cynicism talking. Roland, always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
Mark Twain lit another cigar. “What would men be without women? Scarce, Roland...mighty scarce.”
Stephen King gently smiled at me. "As with all creation, Roland, it begins with the Word. But it must be the right word in the right way at the right time."
He looked away from me, and his eyes darkened as if he looked within himself.
“The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them --
words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out.
But it's more than that, isn't it?
The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried,
like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away.
And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way,
not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it.
That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.”
All became silence. For a time, my friends and I were lost inside our own secret hearts.
We hope you will join us for a ghostly good time!
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LUCIFER'S ORPHAN:
BATTLEFIELD HELL
You will never see the end coming.
Wouldn't this be great if it were true? (per Mark Twain)
ReplyDelete"In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them"
I'll be sure and visit the other entries in the blogfest, too.
Nice literary poker buddies, Roland. Who won the poker game?
D.G.:
ReplyDeleteMark Twain won the poker game, but Chandler said he was dealing off the bottom! :-)
In a strange way, I feel a bit like Mark Twain in that libraries give me the sense of being surrounded by wisdom.
I think you'll enjoy the other entries. Thanks for visiting!
trust your demon or was it demons?
ReplyDeletegrand post... you make it, like we were there and we were.
Love the way you write Roland, excellent post for the Hop.
ReplyDeleteNoir-esque elements in your piece...
ReplyDeleteLike I could almost see the silhouettes of the poker players in this hazy scenario... the curling smoke from Mark's and Ernest's cigars... feel the brooding atmosphere...
"... complete man... common man... unusual man..." is reminiscent of a Man For All Seasons, (bit of digression here) a story about Sir Thomas More, who is portrayed as the ultimate man of conscience, and as remaining true to his principles and religion under all circumstances and at all times. (The book was made into a film which won 6 Academy Awards)
Great writing Roland. Love it.
Jeremy:
ReplyDeleteThat was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about my prose. Thanks.
Carolyn:
You guys must have sensed I was down -- what a great thing to say. :-)
Michelle:
No, Sir Thomas More fits Chandler's description of a hero. And he fits in with the mood of my piece -- thanks for kind words about my post! :-)
I love Meilori's, Roland. Always such interesting characters there. Makes me want to drink whiskey and smoke cigarettes. LOL! How did you get Stephen King to stop by?
ReplyDeleteGwen:
ReplyDeleteAll I had to tell Stephen King was that Mark Twain's ghost would be there, and he was in! :-)
Try to be better than yourself - wise advice.
ReplyDeleteStill glad I beat the NaNo odds.
Awesome post! Conversation between Stephen King and Roland?
ReplyDeleteFun!
One of my crit partners would love to meet Raymond Chandler. A whole lot. :)
ReplyDelete"Trust your demon." Ah, this is advice is golden. Have to admit, at the moment, it's exactly what I'm doing with a new project. Great post, and I had fun. Thx for helping host, Roland. :)
ReplyDeleteYour opening was AMAZING!!! Fantastic description, Roland.
ReplyDeleteI always love how you set your stages!
Congrats on another novel... GEEZ, I can't keep up with you anymore.
This bloghop was so perfect for you!
Alex:
ReplyDeleteMe, too. Don't take the ghost of Hemingway to heart. He was always a bit of a grouch!
Kelly:
Yes, it's my imagination and I insist on having fun! :-)
Mary:
On Amazon there is a volume called THE SELECTED LETTERS OF RAYMOND CHANDLER -- your crit partner would come as close to a conversation with him in that volume as is possible! :-)
Candilyn:
It was my pleasure to host, and I am glad you enjoyed yourself!!
Michael:
This bloghop was perfect for me, wasn't it? I'm so happy you liked my beginning. I really enjoyed your entry. :-)
You put a lot of thought into this. What can I say but WOW.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sheena-kay:
ReplyDeleteI had fun writing it. I'm glad you had fun reading it. You won the autograph of Colby Summers from THEE AVENGERS, by the way. :-) Give me your address, and I'll send it winging your way!
What a fabulous post and use of the blog hop! Congrats on yet another book launch, too! X
ReplyDeletehttp://shahwharton.com/
Shah:
ReplyDeleteThanks. You know, I kept trying to vote on your Poe post, but each time I tried, your blog would freeze up on me. I tried to comment, but the same thing happened. After 10 tries, I admitted defeat. Sorry. I liked your choice of Poe. I like Poe so much that he is a major character in my THE RIVAL! :-)