April 2005 Archives

It's been a long time since I reported a cultural experience in my home town. It says more about my hermit nature and empty pocketbook than what goes on in Edmonton.

Last night, I attended the opening night performance of My One and Only at Workshop West. The production was pretty cool. The story was about a young man's relationship with Marilyn Monroe while she was filming River of No Return in Banff. It's a pretty trippy play (I won't spoil it). The performances were great. Glenn Nelson stole the show with his cop character. However, there is some nudity in the play, so it's not a show for the kids. Still the show's worth catching. It runs at the TransAlta Arts Barns until May 8. I'd recommend going on Friday night. There's a food fund raiser that follows the performance. You can sample food from various restaurants.

The coolest thing of the opening night reception were several paintings that were completed while the show was on. About 6 artists started with blank canvasses and had finished paintings by the time the show let out. They'll be on display in the lobby through the run.

Just came back from Ponoka, where I spoke to the grade six students at Diamond Willow. In the morning, I chatted about the origins of The Mystery of the Frozen Brains and fielded questions. Later in the morning and in the early afternoon, I taught writing workshops.

I have to say that I was really impressed with the students' exercises. There are some keen writers in Ponoka. A lot of the stories were very specific and descriptive, but still moved the story forward. I know that it was hard for some of the students to read their work aloud, but they shouldn't feel alone. I'm always like that before I go out and read my stuff. In fact, I'm always scared that I'll blank and not have anything to say in the first five minutes. I've had nightmares about freezing in public. The only way to get over the fear is to keep doing it (that's what I tell myself and maybe I'll even believe it one day).

Anyway, I just wanted to congratulate all the grade six students for their wonderful work. I hope you all keep writing! Way to go!

Oh, and a special hello to the boy who came to lunch just to meet me. I'm flattered that you liked the book and I hope you look out for the sequel.

Hmmm, this is interesting. Now that I've boiled down the elements of the play back to the basics, I see that my original premise (an innocent man seeking vengeance) is butting right up against the new premise (a guilty man refuses to accept accountability). The plot is structured primarily on Dantes revenge fantasy. If he were a guilty man trying to claim innocence, wouldn't he be going into the past to explain his side of the story?

The revenge plot is way more active, but I'm still having trouble buying the convenience of his escape, which is why I wanted it all to be a fiction. At this point, the play is crumbling apart like a handful of sand. I have to go back to the premise and build up from there. I was told in one of my writing classes that from the premise the script will come. I'm starting to wish I paid more attention to how that happened. Okay, back to the drawing board.

With The Forbidden Phoenix revisions done and a workshop coming up in a week, I thought I'd switch gears and tackle the revisions on my adaptation of the Count of Monte Cristo. It's been about six months since I last read the script, and after reading over the draft, I realize that there's some serious focus issues. The play wanders from one scene to another without a dramatic thruline. My original concept was to adapt the novel's structure, but the book is too vast to capture in a two hour play. My follow-up strategy was to create my own structure based on what I thought was the novel's premise.

However, I now realize that an innocent man who seeks vengeance is a little undramatic for theatre, because I have to show that Edmond Dante is innocent, then frame him, then have him suffer enough to want revenge. It's all back story stuff. The real dramatic stuff is his search for vengeance, but without the backstory, the play has no real impact. Also, I've never been able to completely buy into the coincidences that allowed Dante to escape and exact revenge.

So strategy number three is to propose a new premise on top of the novel. I want Edmond Dante to be a guilty man who convinces himself that he's innocent. His quest for revenge becomes a journey toward the truth and leads Dante to admit his guilt. My inspiration is O.J. Simpson. I think he actually convinced himself that he didn't commit murder.

Currently, the draft walks between the original premise of the novel and my new premise. I have to focus on the new premise and see where that takes me. That means yet another draft of the script. Hmm, that makes draft number four. Creating is easy; it's the revising that's hard.

Today, I finished the last two library readings (Tsawwassen & Ladner). There weren't a lot of students at the first reading, because of a Pro D day and a traffic accident, but the kids were pretty enthusiastic and had lots of great ideas for my next book. In fact, I'm thinking of writing about the haunted fourth floor of my school for the third book. Thanks for the suggestion.

At Ladner, the kids were pretty cool and had good questions about the book. There were a couple of water spillages during the reading (the kids had walked and got glasses of water for the start of the reading), but everything went smoothly.

Overall, I loved my tour of the Fraser Valley, especially the South Delta region wiht the windmill palm trees and beautiful climate. Curious about the U.S. border, I even drove along the row of houses that run along the border, trying to sneak a peek at the U.S.

Anyway, I hope to return next year to read Graffiti Ghouls to the kids in the Fraser Valley region. Until then, have a great year!

Wow, today, my voice is tired. I talked to two groups of students. One group was at the Maple Ridge Library and the other was at the Terry Fox Library. I'm so amazed at how thorough the students are with their questions. A couple of them really impressed me with their knowledge. One girl knew the book forwards and backwards. Both groups were incredibly enthusiastic and full of energy. I started to play around with demonstrations of conflict, and I had two fine actors in the afternoon who played their parts very well. My thanks to both of them for their help. In the morning session, I picked on a teacher who was also great in her role.

I think it's safe to say that everyone is waiting for Graffiti Ghouls now. I can't believe so many kids could identify with clothes shopping with their parents. I think we've all be humiliated in public by our moms and dads. While the corduroy pants may have changed, the feelings haven't.

Okay, I have to get off the computer now. Tomorrow, I have two final readings in South Delta and Ladner. I can't believe the week has gone by so fast. I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer. The staff at all the libraries and the students and teachers have been so great and welcoming. I hope I get a chance to come back again.

More fun at three libraries. Yesterday afternoon, I read at George Mackie Library and met face to face with the librarian who made all this possible. Ada, thanks for everything. It's been a blast. The kids at George Mackie were full of cool questions. In fact, overall the questions I've been getting out here have been pretty insightful. The kids really read the book thoroughly, and I suspect they now know it better than I do.

This morning, I read at the Clearbrook Library, and was amazed again at the great questions. The kids were fantastic and I was able to sign autographs for them before the presentation. One group walked to the library, which apparently took them an hour. Wow, those kids are going to be fit by the end of the day.

In the afternoon, I had the pleasure of reading to students fresh off the Reading Link Challenge, which happened in the morning. Congratulations to the Swifts for their victory. For the first time, I was asked to sign T-shirts. I kept thinking of angry parents demanding to know who wrote on their children's shirts, but the shirts were school outfits for the Reading Link challenge. Again, the students had great questions. I hope everyone enjoyed the book and that they'll look out for Graffiti Ghouls.

BC students are the best!

I'm having a wonderful time in BC, reading at libraries. The Mystery of the Frozen Brains was part of the Reading Link Challenge, sponsored by ULS and the Fraser Valley Regional Library System. Yesterday, I read at the Coquitlam City Hall for various schools, and the kids were great. They had all read the book already and were excited to find out the inspiration for the book. I had lots of good questions, and I was so thrilled to meet everyone. I'm sorry that I couldn't sign autographs, but people had to get back to their schools. Next time, I promise.

Today, I spoke at the Langley Public Library, and had a cool group of kids. Several boys expressed interest in becoming writers too, and that made me feel really good. I hope they all continue writing and reading. I'm having a blast out here. I have to go now and do another reading. I'll try to report when I get to a computer again. Later.

I had the pleasure to be the keynote speaker at the volunteer appreciation night in Morinville. The organizers hosted the event in the hockey arena and went with a 50s theme. What a blast. All the male Councillors were in full Elvis gear. Where the heck did they find all the white jump suits?

The thrill of the evening is that an old friend of mine received Silent Hero of the Year. I had no idea he was getting the award, and I was thrilled for him when he received the accolade. In a weird way, I started to think the award was a signal that all the "kids" from my graduating class had grown up. I'm really proud of Jim. He's a great guy with a big heart.

Anyway, the event was fabulous and I was glad to share some stories with an arena full of Morinville and area volunteers.

The polish on my Peking Opera/North American musical hybrid is finished. I just sent copies to my dramaturge and composer. Some of the old songs have stayed in this draft, but a lot had to go by the wayside, along with some plot points. I'm totally happy with this draft. I read aloud the last scene with the music, and I had a hard lump in my chest by the end. There's something incredibly powerful about the Phoenix Song, and now the context for the song makes it even more emotional.

I can't wait to workshop the play again and hear it all read aloud. I'm pretty confident that the plot structure is right. Now all I have to do is kick around the individual scenes. They may all be going in the right direction, but I just want to tune them up so that they work internally. Then it's back to songwriting with my composer over the summer. The work is not done yet, but I've got the hard part behind me.

This makes draft four of the musical on top of the seven play drafts that existed before I started expanding the play into a musical. Some of the previous drafts made the story better and some made it worse, but that's all a part of the writing process. I wish I could say that I could write a perfect script on the first try, but that's just not way this business works. Writers who claim success on their first draft are being too easy on themselves.

Yesterday, I went bowling with some friends. I figured all the working out that I had done in the last six months would help me, but no way. I was a complete spaz, trying to get the ball just to roll straight down the alley. The pins taunted me, begged me to knock them down, and gave me a pity wobble whenever the bowling ball nudged past them. Oh well, bowling isn't about winning. It's about guessing the fungus that is growing in your hideous bowling shoes.

Always listen to that little "what if" voice that pops up every now and then. As I was polishing The Forbidden Phoenix, I suddenly had this idea about the Phoenix having a past relationship with Horne. Until now, the two were representations of nature and progress, but giving them a real relationship suddenly made them see more human and interesting, and also allowed me to make points about how society's industrialization has killed nature without making the play seem like a lecture. I'm not sure where the idea came from. It just kind of popped into my head as I was reworking the scene between the two characters, and instead of dismissing it, I decided to experiment. I think I have to do more exploring with my scripts. Lately, they've been seeming very straight on, with no real twists and turns. I have to push myself outside my comfort zone and see what happens.

In an effort to get in the right head space for the polish on The Forbidden Phoenix revisions, I've been listening to Chinese music for the last six hours!!!! I'm going insane. Right now I'll listen to anything else to get a break from the rocking erhus and pipas. Ashlee Simpson. Jessica Simpson. Heck, I'll even listen to Marge Simpson sing the blues!

I've finished a first pass of the revisions to the Forbidden Phoenix. I just have to polish a few scenes and then I'm sending the script off to my dramaturge and composer. There's a workshop in the first week of May, but the focus is more on exploring Peking Opera than music development. I hope to have the summer to rebuild the songs. This time I'm going to be a bit more active in lyric writing. What rhymes with astrological?

I just realised today that the hardest thing about writing isn't coming up with an idea; it's cutting the ideas I love. The revisions to The Forbidden Phoenix are clearing up the story and strengthening the connection between father and son. However, they are also killing some of the cool things that existed in the first draft, most notably a moment where the son sings this beautiful reprise of The Phoenix Song. While it marginally worked in the first draft, the reprise now makes no sense in this incarnation of the script, because the story is much more about a father trying to win back the love of his son. So most of my day was spent trying to find ways to preserve what I originally had, only to come to the sad conclusion that I had to let go of my first idea. A moment of silence for a good idea that has gone past its time.

I'm revising the second act of the play today, and I hope to have the rough changes done by the weekend. I've made some radical changes to the plot, but the story is still intact. The play is about what a father must sacrifice for the sake of his son.

As always, the toughest part is to get to the halfway point. Now that I'm there, the rest should come easily... famous last words. Okay, back to work.

I had a blast talking to the students and staff at St. Angela School. Wow, is that a big elementary school. The students had tons of questions about the book and about my cat Jake. I'm glad that they enjoyed the reading, and I hope they pick up the book to read. By the way, a teacher had mentioned that one person wanted to know when I started to wear glasses. I started wearing glasses in grade two. The first pair were ugly thick black frames, but my doctor said I would only have to wear them for a couple of weeks. Well, it's many years later and I'm still wearing glasses (thankfully not the same ugly pair that I started wearing).

All the best to the students at St. Angela. You guys were great!

I made a cool discovery yesterday about overcoming a block. I couldn't find any momentum for a scene in my revisions of the Forbidden Phoenix. I had to write a new scene with the Laosan character, but he couldn't talk to anyone, because he was alone on stage. The play's villain, the Empress Dowager, would come on later, but I had to establish Laosan first. I didn't want him to be delivering a monologue, because it just seemed to static for his character. Instead, I introduced a prop that he could play with and talk to. When that happened, the scene started to unfold very quickly. I have to remember to introduce props if I'm ever stuck. I don't think talking to a prop would work every time, but introducing something new to the scene forced me to deal with it and pushed me to carry the scene forward. Okay, back to work.

Great news! I just found out last night that The Mystery of the Frozen Brains was short-listed for the City of Edmonton Book Prize. The winner will be announced at the Writers Guild of Alberta Gala on May 14, 2005. Please keep your fingers crossed.