Issue 31

The onset of World War II is when my friends and I grew up. We were in our early teens in 1941, and the war was difficult to grasp until the sadness began to affect our families, neighbors and finally, ourselves.

We didn’t know what real war was like, not like our European counterparts. We had no idea what it would be like to bombed, or to be dragged away from our parents, never to see them again. And of course, we had no idea what it might be like to be one of the children who were told to strip down for a shower, unaware that within a very short time the shower – not water – but deadly gas would end our lives.

We were into a game of touch football when my mother called us. She was crying and told us Pearl Harbor had just been bombed.

“Pearl Harbor? What was Pearl Harbor?” We could not envision the devastation that had engulfed that Naval port. We were anxious to get on with our game. It was different for the older folks who had witnessed war’s sorrow and distress just 24 years before. It wasn’t too long after that when a neighbor named Billy Kuhn, who enlisted in the Navy, was killed in action. That is when the sadness of war really began to sink in.

But within a few years we did get involved – as “Junior Air Raid Wardens.” It was exciting during mock air raids when we would don white helmets and hit the streets to make sure there were no lights to provide imaginary pilots with targets. We took it very seriously and felt well qualified. We had to undergo realistic training sessions as well as thorough Red Cross courses.

Then it all ended; first Germany, then Japan. The end was welcomed and we were older and much wiser than we were at the war’s onset.
However, the saddest part of it all was that within five years, we were right back into another war. And this time I ‘was’ old enough, a Marine, and as I listened to an announcement over our barracks PA system that we were at war with North Korea, I remembered my earlier innocent years and couldn’t help but wonder what the new generation of twelve and thirteen-year-olds thought about this war.

Questions/Comments? Contact Jim at james@jamesfalk.net, or visit www.jamesfalk.net.

James Falk, as a teen-ager, used to dream of being a big-time racketeer. Fortunately, his dream didn't come true. A 10th grade dropout, he finished highschool after four years in the Marines and went on to earn a B.A. in Journalism and an M.A. in Communications.

In writing, we can choose whether or not to begin in medias res—in the middle of things—but in life we’re there all the time, whether we like it or not. Our personal stories, episodes and epiphanies are constantly unfolding—sometimes all at once.

Ever find yourself revising your novel, mentally shopping for holiday gifts, worrying about the economy and brainstorming to-do lists all at the same time? In this scattered state, we waste precious energy, get less done, and tend to reinforce the cycle in a futile rush for denouement. We’re in the middle of the action, but we’re far from centered, and this can leave us feeling anxious, worried and spread too thin.

Conversely, when we achieve a centered presence, we concentrate energy, alleviate stress, function from a place of creativity, and become more effective at everything we do. Use the following exercise, adapted from Eric Maisel’s book Coaching the Artist Within, to center yourself whenever you feel scattered or undertake a task that requires your full attention—especially writing. Practice now, as you read through the steps...

First, take five deep breaths to ditch that scattered feeling. Inhale, and imagine your breath entering through the top of your head and stopping at your hips. Exhale, and imagine it going down through your legs into the ground and wrapping around a root or rock at the center of the earth. Now you’re grounded and ready to CENTER:

C: Come to a complete stop. Inhale while thinking or saying the words, “I am completely…” Exhale while thinking or saying, “Stopping.” Lengthen the statements as necessary to fully occupy the inhale and exhale. Do this for the remaining steps, too.

E: Empty yourself of expectations. Inhale while thinking or saying, “I expect…” Exhale while thinking or saying, “Nothing.”

N: Name your work. Inhale while naming the work at hand. For example, “I’m finishing chapter 26” or “I’m focusing on this exercise.” Exhale and name it again. Your work can be a task you want to accomplish, a quality you want to embody, a plan you want to implement, etc. To make this exercise more efficient next time, have your work in mind before the initial breathing step.

T: Trust your resources. Inhale while thinking or saying, “I trust…” Exhale while thinking or saying, “My resources.”

E: Embrace the present moment. Inhale while thinking or saying, “I embrace…” Exhale while thinking or saying, “This moment…”

R: Return with strength. Inhale while thinking or saying, “I return to the present…” Exhale while thinking or saying, “With strength.”

Once you’ve finished, pause to observe how you feel. Most people report immediate results, everything from feelings of confidence, energy and focus to a sense of connection with something larger than themselves. Adapt the statements in this exercise to suit your personal situation and needs. Practice centering as often as possible, and before you know it, you’ll be living in medias res without feeling lost in the plot.

Have a question for Doug? Click here to submit it to THE WRITE MIND.

Doug Kurtz is a published novelist, certified life coach and the owner of Write Life Coaching (www.writelifecoaching.com). He earned his MA in creative writing at the University of Colorado, where he also taught fiction writing. He currently lives in Boulder, where he’s busy coaching other writers and working on his next novel.

By Amanda Linsmeier

The Next Big Thing by Johanna Edwards is a dishy novel about the realities of reality TV. Kat Larson is a size 18 who would like to be a size 4. That’s what her online boyfriend thinks she is anyway. Kat, in an effort to impress Nick, a British hunk, told him she was thinner than she really is...a lot thinner. And while they’ve never met, Kat entertains the idea that she’s in love. Problem is, Nick wants to meet her, and Kat knows he’d be in for way more than he bargained for. Then inspiration strikes when Kat’s best friend Donna tells her about a new reality TV show. When Kat applies for the show, she is shocked and elated to find out that she’s been chosen. “From Fat to Fabulous” is the answer to Kat’s prayers, right? Not only will she lose weight but she’ll win money. With her new confidence and sexy body, she and Nick can finally meet and start their life together. But Kat is in for a big surprise. Reality TV is not what she thought it would be. Nicknamed “Kat the Brat” by viewers, Kat isn’t sure she’s happy about what she signed up for, but when she gets a surprise guest, things start to look a whole lot worse.

I hate to say it but alright, I admit it, I didn’t like Kat. I thought she really was a brat. And whiny, immature and naive. I thought the premise of the novel was good. It was like looking behind the scenes, and I did enjoy that aspect. I really liked some parts of the book, like the secondary characters and the funny things that happened on the reality show, but overall I found several things wrong. There seemed to be lots of holes in the plot. For example, I got very excited about some of the challenges they had to do such as one contestant posing nude for art students, but that scene wasn’t even written, just briefly talked about. It would have been nice to be included in those sorts of things. Also, Kat finds out one of the girls has been talking about her and she’s upset, but then a few scenes later, they are hugging like nothing ever happened. Kat also suspects a contestant of getting in unfairly but that conspiracy theory is never developed. Besides that, the novel never really gets into the weight loss struggles while they are on the show or how Kat feels, it’s like she loses weight and her issues are over. I thought it would be more like “The Biggest Loser,” but the author really skimmed over the actually weighty stuff like exercise or body image. There was no blood, sweat or tears. Since Kat didn’t seem to really care, I couldn’t bring myself to care either. Stuff like that really bugged me. In the end, I sort of liked this novel, but while I may someday read more by this author, I probably won’t be picking this book up again.

Sandi Shelton is the author of three novels; What Comes After Crazy, A Piece of Normal, and Kissing Games of the World. A humor columnist, she has won numerous journalism awards.

Q: Why do you think readers relate so well to your humorous experiences in parenting?

A: Well, I wrote three non-fiction humor books about parenting because I was stunned to realize that my life had completely derailed around the time I became a parent. Don’t get me wrong: I LOVE being a mother, however, it was undeniably a life changing event, this parenting business. When I started writing my humor column for the newspaper where I am a feature reporter, I honestly did not know that it was a humor column. I thought it was a family life column. It was only when other people started telling me that it made them laugh and made them feel better because such things were also going on in their own houses, that I felt better. I think that people are comforted in knowing that they are not alone; and that we all have this secret anxiety that we are the only ones mismanaging life to such a HUGE extent.

Q: You have been described as a young version of Erma Bombeck? What is your response?

A: Erma Bombeck was the master, pure and simple. I never aspired to be her, but I did like her work. Before she came along NO ONE was admitting that motherhood wasn’t all just roses and sunshine every single minute. These days, I no longer write humor columns, having switched to novels some years ago. Writing novels was always what I wanted to do; the humor column came out of the fact that I wrote for a newspaper to make a living, and started the humor column there because it felt somehow closer to writing fiction than the news writing I was being paid for.

Q: You started writing fiction at six years old. How important is it to foster writing as early as the primary grades in our schools?

A: It’s true that as a child, I always did love writing and I would sit for hours and create stories. Beyond providing children with opportunities to express themselves creatively instead of always giving them multiple choice tests instead of chances to write – school systems aren’t really the ones responsible for creating little writers. I think that falls to the parent. Let their imaginations go and don‘t insist on measuring or judging the outcomes.

Q: How did you turn your columns into a book?

A: Whenever I asked my agent if I could sell a book of columns she said “no,” that publishers weren’t interested in them. But then one day I was contacted by Working Mother magazine which ran my column each month, and told that a publisher had contacted them and wanted to talk to me. I boxed up about 400 columns and sent them to the founder of Bancroft Press in Baltimore and three months later he proposed a book. The newspaper where I work gave it their blessing. It turned out that I actually owned the columns because they weren’t part of my reporting job there.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.