Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

life changer April 2, 2011

Filed under: Pondering,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:43 am
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prompt # 68. Name a book that changed your life.

Will I sound hopelessly pompous if I say Grace Awakening?  The experience of writing this book, of watching the characters craft themselves around me, was life changing.  People who know about the book are awed that I wrote it.  People who’ve read it are members of an enthusiastic club, who share the information with everyone else.  Strangers come up to me to ask about my book because they’ve heard of it from someone else. 

I have been transformed from a reader to a writer.  Grace changed everything.

 

story: iloveross17 (chapter five) March 25, 2011

Filed under: narrative,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:05 am
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(Chapter five)

Log in

User name: Zara16

Password: watcher

CHAT UPDATE:

Lena- Hey

            How R U?

Zara-  😦

Lena- ?

Zara- Ross + Suzanne

Lena- why?

Zara- ?

Lena- Ross is too cute for her

Zara- ?

Lena- U no it

            Suzanne is a biotch to him

Zara- he loves her!

Lena- no way

            They’d still be together

Zara- unless someone broke them up

            Know anyone?

Lena- Dave?

Zara- Hm

            G2G

            L8r

Lena- bye

Log off

 

story: iloveross17 (Chapter four) March 18, 2011

Filed under: Commentary,narrative — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:02 am
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log in: Lena

password: iloveross

CHAT ALERT

Lena- hi

Ross- hi

Lena- sorry about Suzanne

Ross- ya

Lena- gang is going 2 movie Fri.  Wanna come?

Ross- maybe

           G2G

Lena- C U!

log off

——————————————

 Lena?  wtf?

 

music for my iPod March 13, 2011

Filed under: anecdotes,Grace Awakening,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:12 am
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One of my former students, who was a beta reader for Grace Awakening, wrote me the other day to tell me how she was thinking about downloading some music for her iPod.  She thought, “I should download that song Ben wrote for Grace” and then realised with some chagrin, oh wait.  That doesn’t really exist.

The note has made me smile all week.  I love that my characters are so alive!  I love that Ben is so real that people want to find the music described in the book for their iPod. 

Of course, there was music that inspired all the music Ben writes for Grace.  I don’t think I could have written it without remembering the feeling of listening to a composition created just for me by a musician I adored.  (See the blog entitled “Starry Night of Music” for a general sense of it!)  When I find the missing cassette tape,  I promise to post my Graduation tune (providing the composer gives permission, that is).  Until then, perhaps you can find something inspiring among the demo reels at Bhatia Music?

 

Well met March 12, 2011

Filed under: Grace Awakening,Literature,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:42 am
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Prompt 67 If you could bring one fictional character to life for a day, who would it be?

Wow. What a great question. Since I just finished Inkheart, where fictional characters pop to life all around, my first thought was Meggie, but I quickly shelved that idea recognizing it was only because of her current status as ‘most recent’ that brought her to mind.

The next character to pop into my mind was Jacob from the Twilight series. That idea just made me giggle. I love his sense of humour and strong sense of right, plus his devotion and loyalty. His take is less obsessive than Edward’s: more honest and less obnoxious. My favourite students are these kind of laid back, witty clowns.  Since I see these guys all the time in my class room, I guess I will leave Jacob and his abs in the book.

The next thought was Harry Potter. Such nobility of character!  He had greatness thrust upon him and met the expectations to serve the greater good. I love him as a character, but what would he say to us in the muggle world? He’d better stay in his books.

Grace. Oh yes. I would love to meet my Grace Severin! Like a child, I may have birthed her, but she has taken on her own life. She has her own friends, speaks to other people, and she definitely did what she wanted, despite what I wanted on many occasions. She’s a responsible person though. Hopefully a bit of a mix of all the best things from other characters I’d like to meet. Yes. I’d love to sit down for a heart to heart with Grace. I know a nice Greek restaurant we can go to, and this weekend, they’ve even got a harpist.  I’ll wear Bright’s boots.

 

story: iloveross17 (chapter two) March 4, 2011

Filed under: narrative,Poetry,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:18 am
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Previous chapters: one,

(Chapter two)

user name: suzieq@

password: iloveross18mos

change password: confused1

Status updates:

Bixby- oh yeah man!

Zara- wtf?

Lena- save me from my boredom!

CHAT ALERT!

Zara- R U OK?

SusieQ- Ya

Zara-What happened?

SusieQ- Still trying to figure that out, actually.

Zara- Do u think Ross saw you making out with Dave?

SusieQ- 😦

 and onto chapter three

 

Story: iloveross17 (chapter one) February 26, 2011

Filed under: narrative,Poetry,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:06 am
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Log in
User name: suzieq@
Password: iloveross17mos
Change password: iloveross18mos

Status updates:

Zara- math test! Gonna die.

Bixby- what is the reason to fear what we do not understand?

Ross- is now single.

Lena- have to babysit my little sister, someone text me!

CHAT ALERT!
Zara- Suzanne! OMG! Are you ok?!!!

Log off

.

Deep breath.
Ross…is single??????????

.

 —————————————————————

Next installment: Chapter 2

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Submitted as part of  Monday Poetry Potluck Mar 7, 2011.  If you’re here from the potluck, add the link to your contribution in a comment.

 

Fishtailing February 15, 2011

Filed under: book reviews,Literature,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:06 am
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Wendy Phillip’s YA novel Fishtailing is a collection of poems that tell a painful narrative about teen life. The inner turmoil expressed in the poetry paints the undercurrents that the adults either ignore, misunderstand, or are overwhelmed by. The needs are so great, and the students are so many, the adults’  insensitivity is understandable (survival instinct more than anything) but it’s frustrating as well. You want to shout, “Can’t you tell what’s going on here?”

Wendy is a graduate of the UBC MFA in Creative Writing, and I see their interdisciplinary approach echoed in the way poetry and story have combined in a way that is more profound than a strict narrative would have been.  The masterful way  each persona is crafted delineates a clear voice for each character as the woeful tale unfolds.

Wendy’s years working in high schools is very apparent. This feels real. These kids feel like the complexly burdened teens that stare across their desks at me.

It’s a book that offers a challenge to teachers of teens. The challenge may be too difficult for them to cope with though. Ignorance is bliss.

 

waiting for the other shoe February 12, 2011

Filed under: Grace Awakening,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 2:46 am
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It felt too easy. No one else had a publishing story that went, “finished my book, pitched in to a publisher at a conference, she took it, seven months later she asked for more, two months later she signed it…”

Every other author I’ve met has a long list of rejection letters. I don’t. Grace has charmed everyone who’s ever heard about her. I know she’s loved, because those first beta-readers were ruthless enough to ensure the later beta-readers (delta readers?) loved it right off, without reservation.

But good though it is, publication coming so easily seemed surreal. Where was the challenge? the suffering for the art? the constant re-sending of the manuscript? I asked if perhaps we could move up release to the summer so I could get in a book tour before school started, and the editor was open to look at that, if the editing went well, when he started it in February. Everything was going just too smoothly.

Then the shoe dropped, and January 31st as I read the email that the publishing house was closing down and that the contract was voided, I actually thought, “Ah there we go. That’s what I was expecting would happen!”

Now Grace Awakening is off to meet a new publisher and the waiting game begins again. Hopefully only another week or two before I hear, and hopefully I hear that they love her as much as everyone else loves her, and is eager to have her out in the world representing their publishing house! Wouldn’t it be awesome if they fast tracked, and got her out by July so I can do a really thorough summer book tour?

 

freaky coincidences strike again… February 10, 2011

Click to view full-sized image

All the time I was writing Grace Awakening, I’d look up some myth or fact and there would appear a strange coincidence that made the hair stand up on my arms.

I just had another one. You know that famous picture by Sandro Botticelli- Printemps? I use the close up the Three Graces component of that picture to illustrate the Grace Awakening section of this blog. If you pull out the perspective a bit, standing right beside the Graces in the centre of the  painting is a young woman. I understood that she’s supposed to be Aphrodite/Venus. She’s supervising everything that’s going on.

Guess who Botticelli based this particular image on? Are you sitting down? I’ve just learned that it was Laure de Noves de Sade, muse of Petrarch who is standing there watching the Graces dancing with that beatifical expression.  Apparently Laure beguiled Botticelli as well as Petrarca.

(The source is Mario Fubini, Laure in Dictionnaire des personnages littéraires et dramatiques de tous les temps et de tous les pays , Éd.)

Wow. Creepy.

But oh so cool!!

Grace Beguiling, indeed!

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PS click on the painting and it will enlarge to full screen