Things are shaking.

So as this is a fiction blog, I suppose I need to eventually spill this information. I now have an agent. (Shhhh) Not sure why I want to say that quietly, but it is a very exciting thing. Also very exciting is that he really understands my novel, and understands the way I write.

This blog may get a lot more busy in the future weeks, months - so I thought I'd let you faithful readers know about this.

More to come.

Much more to come.

Research is Fun

I've been doing background research for my new novel (Fall in One Day), which has the Watergate scandal as a backdrop - not sure how much of a backdrop just yet, but I am loving the research.

For some reason I didn't know that Hillary Clinton (then Rodham) was one of the "hot" young lawyers working for the House Judiciary Committee back then. The above photo makes a person wonder how you get to be Secretary of State. Oh, and that's the Chief Executive next to her.

Wow.

Live it love it

I dunno, that's the phrase that came to me when I think of this weekend.

The Folk Fest was amazing - and the highlight was leaving my table at the beer tent, which incidentally I did often, and going to the front of the stage. The amazing thing about this Fest is how close you can get to the performers. Both the design of the stage and the small venue allow this.

So I'm standing maybe 15 feet from John Prine singing "Blow up your TV...", and the words, the emotion, his presence is just hitting me in the chest. And John has this huge grin on his face - delighting that his tune can bring so much joy and energy to a crowd of Canadians.

This happened quite a few times. I'd be sitting there having a cold one, listening to the music, and thinking, "this is great, but I wonder what it would be like up close." The stand outs were Calexico and Arrested Development. Especially Calexico - since you didn't really feel their energy from faraway. The horns were nice, kind of good Southern California groove was bopping along - but then up close, as Emeril would say, "BAM!" They were living it, and I was loving it.

I love when great art, music, writing whatever, can do that. But sometimes you have to lean in and get close.

Folking Summer

Missed out on the Winnipeg Folk Fest this year (had a pretty good excuse, my daughter got married) - but I am off to that other great prairie fest in Regina.

This year's line up is full of greatness, as usual, but the highlight for me will be John Prine. I've never seen him live, and I heard he can be hit and miss (as in sober or not).

I'm taking some good reading along for the ride, and when things get quiet, slow, or John starts slurring. After much resistance, I picked up The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Well, not that much resistance, but I am kind of wary of books that go viral. So far, nothing has struck me - though, I am early in the book. But I have to say that I leaned in when they started describing the titular character.

Some other quite amazing news is in the wings. But I am not saying anything just yet.

Off to folk it up.

Night Moves

I've heard that great novels (or even short stories) start with an image. John Fowles pictured a woman staring out to sea, and that became the French Lieutenant's Woman. I often think of the above picture, which in a way reminds me of Andrew Wyeth's paintings. There is a certain bleakness that I am drawn to, and I feel that some sort of story will come out of this picture. It helps that the landscape is barren, with surreal trees, and that the woman (my wife actually) is walking away from the viewer.

I've been thinking a lot about imagery and mood - having my own little film festival, rewatching some great pulp neo-noir movies like Point Blank and Night Moves.

Night Moves is one of those films that you know is great (not just me, many critics put it in the top ten of 1975, and the best of the 70's) - but you don't know why it is great. Sure, there is Gene Hackman, an actor I'd pay just to watch him shave.  And he is at the top of his game here. In the early 70's he did French Connection, The Conversation and even Young Frankenstein (best blind hermit in film - wait, I made espresso!) But back to Night Moves - it puts the grit in grit. The movie seems lo-buck, sets, lighting, even some of the acting seems like it was done on the cheap (it was). But it is the writing that cuts deep. I think it would have a real hard time getting made today. too personal, too circular, too subtle even.

But there are images in it that are embroiled in my brain - Hackman driving around in his beat up Mustang, Jennifer Warren's world weary face that asks him where he was when Kennedy died, and of course that last great shot of the boat going in circles, just like the movie, and sort of like life.

A great review by Ebert

Senses of Cinema