"The Creative Process of Writing
is a Liberating and Therapeutic Experience"
www.virtualwritingcoach.com
March, 2009
In This Issue:
1. Preview
2. Publisher's Note
3. Best American Short Stories:
2008
4. Helpful Hints
1. Preview
The Writer's Connection explores the creative process
of writing and the interplay between thoughts, feelings,
and actions. We are an interactive community of authors
and readers who share ideas to enhance our knowledge,
skills, and experiences in writing fiction in any genre,
but our emphasis remains mystery and suspense thrillers.
Published monthly, the Newsletter offers writing tips
for authors, coaching suggestions, editing, and marketing
information.
Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton
and represent only his ideas on producing your first manuscript,
and are provided to the general public. Because we are
an interactive community of writers, other viewpoints
are welcomed and may be printed in future monthly newsletters
with permission from Keith Barton.
2. Publisher's Note
March, 2009
Dear Writer's Connection Subscriber,
This month's newsletter features: Best American Short
Stories: 2008
3. Best American Short Stories:
2008
Salman Rushdie is the editor for the annual picks of the
best American short stories for 2008, drawn from magazines
such as
The New Yorker,
The Atlantic,
Harpers Magazine, and others. Heidi Pitlor, the
series editor selects a literary writer each year to pick
their favorite short stories, a tradition that dates back
to 1978. The criteria for this year's selections included:
1) original publication in a nationally distributed American
or Canadian periodical; 2) publication in English by writers
who are American or Canadian; and 3) original publication
as short stories.
Obviously, Rushdie is not a native-born American, but
is a British-Indian novelist and essayist having spent
more than half his life in India writing about Muslim
atrocities with a death warrant on him. But he is uniquely
qualified as a religious writer and reader. From 120 stories
submitted to Rushdie by Heidi Pitlor, Rushdie selected
20 stories that meet the above criteria. Naturalism was
the dominant theme of Rushdie's selections because of
his belief that "the human being is a storytelling animal"
in the grand narrative tradition of nation, race, and
faith. Here is a sampling of Rushdie's selections (credit
to Heidi Pitlor, series editor and Salman Rushdie).
The first story, "Admiral," by T.C. Boyle from
Harpers
Magazine is the story about an Afghan hound named
Admiral after the name for the yacht owned by the Strikers.
Nisha, Admiral's owner is reliving her youth through her
dog, who represents her past youthful innocence against
a back story of unemotional, disengaged parents. The animal's
freedom is the antithesis of Nisha's lack of freedom in
an elite society of dog owners who parade their dogs around
like prized trophies. Nisha yearns for the day when she,
too, can run free like Admiral.
"Child's Play" by Alice Munroe from
Harper's Magazine
is another story about youthful innocence between two
girls who discover each other's sexuality while ducking
underwater at the beach. Ten-year-old girls are full of
stories, fantasy, confidences, and child's play. Charlene
and Marlene meet a special needs girl, Verna, who is an
enigma for every student who fears someone different than
themselves, at this critical age when prejudices are born
from ignorance. These aliens were nicknamed "The
Specials" by the other girls at the summer camp.
The story fast-forwards to the author's graduate college
years at St. Hilda's where Marlene majored in anthropology.
After two more pages, her childhood friend is old, feeble,
and dying from lung cancer. Marlene goes to visit Charlene
after receiving a letter from her. Marlene, now retired
from teaching college, goes to Princess Margaret's Hospital
in Toronto to visit Charlene who makes a most unusual
request -- that Marlene go to Church of Our Lady the Immaculate
Catholic church in Guelph to request absolution for Charlene's
sins before her death. Marlene never speaks on her dear
childhood friend's behalf because of her ambivalence and
guilt about letting Verna drown one summer. Rather than
save Verna, Marlene and Charlene chose to discover each
other's private parts under the water, a secret Charlene
wanted absolution from before her death, but never received,
a thought that continued to haunt Marlene for the rest
of her life.
A third short story from the 2008 collection, entitled
"Buying Lenin" written by Miroslav Penkov from
The
Southern Review, is a love story between grandson
and grandpa. The grandpa returns to his native Leningrad,
after the demise of Communism in 1991. Sinko, the grandson,
is a young college student in Arkansas. He writes to his
grandpa about the capitalist way of life in America and
his new-found freedom of expression. Life in America is
good for Sinko, who is introduced to BMWs, girls, alcohol
and sexual exploration. Grandpa's last wish before his
death is to have a miniature statue of Lenin, which Sinko
buys for $1.99 on eBay. For Sinko, buying Lenin was merely
a purchase, but for Grandpa the statue means much more.
During the 1991 war between Bulgaria and the Soviet Union,
Grandpa discovers the remains of fifteen Bulgarian refugees
in a dugout in the forest, their makeshift sanctuary and
now a grave for three years. The refugees did not have
the courage to walk out and starved to death. Sinko receives
a letter from his grandpa written in his own hand before
his death. In the letter, his grandpa gives sage advice
to his grandson: "Fight only the fights that are worthy;
let all others pass you. Sinko, I love you".
Helpful Hints:
- What is your favorite short story and why?
- Lasting literary expressions touch on basic human
emotions of love, fear, anger, and forgiveness. Were
these attributes found in your favorite short story?
- Storytelling is part of our heritage. It is as old
as the hieroglyphics on Egyptian walls and the Dead
Sea Scrolls. The art of storytelling is fast becoming
a lost art in our electronic age of Kindles and computers.
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About Keith Barton, Ph.D.
Dr. Barton received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University
of Texas at Austin and has been a practicing therapist
for over thirty years. He is currently enrolled in MentorCoach
and is accepting new clients.
He has been an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina,
consultant to Fortune 500 companies in executive development, founded
and managed Texas Community Living Ventures, Inc., in 1986 for providing
group home services to persons with mental retardation. Keith founded
and has been running a clinical practice in Northwest Houston since 1990.
He writes part-time with the goal of completing one novel
a year. His desire to coach others derives from his passionate
interest in helping others become attuned to their creative
powers of storytelling.
Dr. Barton has training in coaching, cognitive and family
therapy and health psychology. He has published articles,
made presentations and conducted workshops about:
Anxiety and achievement
Stress management
Self-esteem
Communication skills
Marital/relationship enrichment
Wellness issues
The relationship between psychology and spirituality
