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This Week on GVP's Way

This week on GVP's Way--Introducing Reilly's Way!

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GVP's Way is the author's blog including book and movie reviews, thoughts on the craft of writing, perspectives on the business of publishing, and musings on life, politics, and family.

Please enjoy and leave your comments.

He's a walking contradiction                                                                                                                      Partly truth and partly fiction                                                                                                                    Taken every wrong direction                                                                                                                          On his lonely way back home 
And there's a lot of wrong directions 
On that lonely way back home.

The Pilgrim
Kris Kristofferson

Wednesday
10Mar2010

What if the Right got it's Way?

I've been flabbergasted at how, following Obama's win at the polls last year, well-connected, wealthy Republicans have been able to pass themselves off as Washington Outsiders and Good Old Boys to middle and working class Americans. I've been amazed, especially, at how a Right Wing agenda that in no way favors anyone other than the rich and powerful has somehow been passed off as populist. Have people gone blind or gone crazy?

I wonder if any of these Right wing, Tea Party, Conservative converts have really thought through the implications of their positions. What if the Right got its Way? Let's see:

  • Are we willing to nuke Iraq and Afhanistan in lieu of trying to find a way to diplomatically and militarily withdraw from these countries while establishing viable governments in our wake? How does that square with Christian values of treating others with compassion and respect?
  • Are we willing to nuke Iran and North Korea rather than negotiate with them using a carrot and stick approach? If push comes to shove, we may not be willing to tolerate nuclear capabilities in countries without the ability to prevent terrorist access or use by despots, but isn't it the decent thing to do to try every avenue before shutting down talks?

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Tuesday
02Mar2010

On Characterization 

 I've been thinking a lot lately about characters and characterization in fiction. I've been thinking about where characters come from, how they are developed, and what distinguishes a merely interesting character from an unforgettable character.

Beginning writers are often challenged to separate themselves from their protagonists. Their stories are often more about themselves than their characters. The result is usually self-involved, self-indulgent, and boring fiction. The problem is sometimes attributed to writers taking heart in the adage, "write about what you know," which is no doubt good advice. But writing about what one knows differs from knowing what one is writing about. Knowing what one is writing about is probably the better advice.

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Wednesday
24Feb2010

Rainbow Finals for Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize

I am pleased to announce that my story, set largely in a fictional version of Rainbow Lanes in the fictional northern Indiana town of Dunlap, was selected as a finalist (top 10) for the Thomas Wolfe Review Fiction Prize. I wrote this story last fall between Thanksgiving and Christmas and knew I had a pretty good story. It's one of those stories you carry around for years and then finally find a voice for.

I can't post the story, because I don't yet have a publisher (although I expect to eventually, given the fact that the story placed so highly in a national contest). But interested friends and family can read the story by sending me an e-mail at gary@authorgaryvpowell.com. I'll see that you get a manuscript copy.

Thanks to all of you (lurkers and commenters alike) who have encouraged my writing over the years.

I used to hang out at Rainbow. I drove in my '69 VW.

Tuesday
23Feb2010

Willie's Way

I saw Willie Mays play in person near the end of his career. In my opinion, he's the greatest ball player of all time. Sorry, Mickey, Honus, Ted, and Joe. It was in Wrigley Field years ago, when Willie was a pinch hitter with the New York Mets, in the last season of his career, 1973. The game was lost, but the bases were loaded. Willie stepped to the plate, took three mighty swings, and carried that timber back to the dug out, as Dizzy Dean used to say. It was an ignominious end to an otherwise amazing career. The good news is that those whiffs were enough to give the crowd a thrill. We knew what we were witnessing.

My dad loved baseball. He was a damn good ball player. He tried to make it at short, but couldn't. From the greasy-spot in the road of Greenhaw, Arkansas (chew tobacco, chew tobacco spit on the wall, hurrah, hurrah, for old Greenhaw), the St. Louis Cardinals picked him up to play D league at second, because he lacked the arm to make the throw from deep in the hole. He didn't last for long, but he never stopped loving baseball. Some of my earliest memories are of playing catch with my dad. When I was growing up in the sixties, during the Cards' hey day, in the summer, we listened nearly every night out on our patio to KMOX out of St. Louis. The pop of Gibby's fast ball, the quick of Brock's feet, I could picture it all to Harry Carey's voice.

We feared and respected the Giants, with Mays and McCovey and Juan Marichal on the mound.

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Saturday
20Feb2010

Rotten

Is there anything worse than a sinus infection?

Oh, even as I ask that, I know better. Lots of things are worse than a sinus infection. Prostate cancer, heart attacks, bleeding ulcers, hemorrhoids. Hell, even pneumonia is worse than a sinus infection, but when I've got one, it feels like nothing is worse. I've been fighting allergies and colds all winter. Two weeks ago, just when I thought I was about to get better, things actually took a turn for the worse. Last Saturday, we had two other couples over for dinner. Under my direction, the guys drank wine and prepared a five course dinner for the girls. By the time we reached the chocolate, I was in the grip of a full-blown bacterial infection. I felt light headed and completely lost my senses of smell and taste. It only got worse on Sunday. Yellow, green puss flowed from my nostrils, and I started hacking up some stuff that looked like mold.

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Saturday
06Feb2010

2009-2010 IU Hoosiers

Well, it's about time for my annual blog entry on this topic. Overall, I'm very pleased with the play of this group of Hoosiers and their coach Tom Crean. With the exception of the Iowa game and the first half of the Northwestern game earlier this afternoon, in which it looked as if the team had forgotten how to play, this season's Hoosier's have come to each game with energy and focus. Led by Verdell Jones, they have at times played not just well but brilliantly. They gave ranked Ohio State a run. challenged Illinois on the road, and nearly beat 8th ranked Purdue at home. If they hadn't lost Maurice Creek, their hot-shot freshman (31 points against top 5-ranked Kentucky), they'd be battling to be in the top half of the conference standings this year. They'd be knocking on the door of an NCAA bid.

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Wednesday
03Feb2010

Kindle

So, Mary bought me a Kindle for Christmas. I was hot for it. I spend a lot of may day writing articles and stories and novel chapters and training programs on the damn computer. You'd think I'd have had my fill of electronics. But, no, I wanted that Kindle.

Good wife that she is, she bought it for me.

Here's the deal...I love it. It's probably not for everyone, but it's for me.

I read a lot both for business and pleasure. So far  since Christmas, I've read three books on the Kindle--ordered them at the Amazon Kindle store, bought them for about half the price of the print versions, and had them sent to me in a flash. There they are on my little device, not much bigger than a tablet, easy to use, easy on the eyes. The other day, I was on the computer researching an article for a client. I wanted a book from Amazon right that minute. I normally would have had it in two days. I got in in an instant, no shipping costs, half price. That quick. And, if I want, I can synch my Kindle and my computer to make the book easier to reference as I work.

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Monday
25Jan2010

Me and Ray

I just finished reading "Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life" by Carol Sklenicka (on the Kindle I received from Mary for Christmas). I'm still trying to absorb it all, still trying to work it all out. Ray Carver, in so many ways, has been such a big part of my life that reading this biography of him has left me strung out, depleted, hung over with emotion.

I discovered Ray in the early 1980s when I was working as a young lawyer at Northwestern Mutual and raising a young family. I'd decided, at age 30, that if I was ever going to get serious about writing, it was time to do so. I signed up for a creative writing workshop--it was a terrific workshop with a lot of quirky, talented, hard drinking writers--at Marquette. I attended a couple of nights a week for two or three years. I made some great friends, shared some good stories, and had some great times. I started to believe that maybe I had the natural talent and could acquire the skills to be a writer. Some people I respected took me seriously and encouraged me to take myself seriously.

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Tuesday
19Jan2010

Duped!

Evidence of the power and influence of the insurance-pharmaceutical-medical device interests in this country is the fact that the passage of a health reform bill hinges on the Massasschusetts Senate race and the Democrats retaining a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the senate. Even worse, polls show that a majority of Americans don't believe that healthcare needs reforming.

Americans have been duped. Lost in the noise were these simple facts, which alone should have convinced anyone that reform was needed.

  • Despite the fact that real wages have not increased since the 1970s and inflation has been low, healthcare costs and insurance premiums have risen at double digit rates. Our personal insurance, which we pay for out of our business, has increased from about $700/month in 2005 to about $1,300 per month in 2010.
  • Over 44 million Americans are uninsured, but more than twice that many are underinsured--their deductibles and co-insurance (the 20 percent or more they would pay for treatment of major illness or serious injury) is enough to bankrupt them in three to six months. Underinsurance also takes the form of lack of coverage for pre-exisitng conditions. Tens of millions of Americans who lose their jobs also lose coverage from the illnesses or injuries for which they are most likely to need coverage.

The only people making money in an overly-expensive healthcare industry that provides crappy care are insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and providers of medical devices and they carried the day in the rhetoric war.

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Friday
08Jan2010

Waupun

 A local publisher recently announced themes for this years' anthology.

The themes for the 2010 anthology are (1) imaginary worlds and (2) evil and villains.

I've only written one "fantasy" or "sci-fi" story ever, and it was published online last year. It was a pretty good story, and maybe I'll post it here sometime. But speculative fiction is not my forte.

As for evil, as for villains, that's a tough one. I initially attempted a story based on a woman I used to work for. At the time, she struck me as about the coldest, greediest person I'd ever met head on. After I quit working for her, she was disbarred and lost her job. I have to admit, I thought she had it coming. But looking back on it, Carolyn seems less evil to me and more pathetic than anything.

Of course, the obvious story would be about a terrorist or serial killer. But because it's so obvious, there will be hundreds of submissions to Scott's anthology that involve terrorists and serial killers going about their business.

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