SMOKE AND MIRRORS

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     One of the definitions the dictionary assigns to the word Medium is—an intervening substance through which something is transmitted or carried on. Another is—An Agency by which something is accomplished, conveyed or transferred. As writers we fit that description as we summon events from the past or gaze into the future, ask long-gone friends about their life in another sphere and transform their words, their history, their period into a happening that transports the reader into another time and place.

     Some Mediums claim to be taken over by spirits who use their voice. We listen to our characters who often change the way we first envisioned them. A hero may turn into a villain and the plot we’ve worked so hard on will be altered as the people that inhabit the pages of our short stories or novels choose a different path.

     Near the beginning of history attempts were made to communicate with spirits and mentioned in the Old Testament. In 19^th century England and America Mediums gave lectures and became authors. Some even wrote best-sellers. A Medium will do a reading for a particular client known as a “sitter.” We read our manuscripts aloud to ourselves and support groups who sit around a table waiting to offer suggestions that will help us to see if the manuscript is ready to be submitted to publishers.

     Then there is the Trance Medium where a spirit uses the Medium’s mind to communicate and said to center attention on the thoughts being conveyed. When we sit down at our computers or tablets or pick up a pad and pencil, we focus our attention on the words that we write. We do without trumpets, cabinets, levitation tables, darkened rooms and smoke but we do employ mirrors.

When you tell your story, do you ever think of yourself as a Medium?

Bests,

Elise

WALLANDER

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     Wallander and his Masterpiece Mystery! Series III began last Sunday evening on our public television station. The landscape and his new home on lush land—complete with lover and her young son and dog are destined to be immersed in gloom and doom. Wallander—his jaw marked with the stubble of an unshaved face and his sad tired eyes won’t be getting a much deserved rest—he finds a corpse on his property. And will soon find two more—all related to his case. Usually, I like my mysteries spiked with a touch of humor but played by the magnificent Kenneth Branagh, Wallander’s story—though I guessed the villain—hooked me and I look forward to episode number two. I’m sure the body count will grow during this four part series.

    What television mystery series are your favorites?

Bests,

Elise

CHAPLIN THE MUSICAL

    
     Had the pleasure of seeing a preview yesterday of an engrossing new musical about the life of Charlie Chaplin. One of two sons of English Music Hall performers. He survived his father's desertion and his mother's mental illness to become a comedian for Fred Karno. While playing in NYC, he was discovered by Mack Sennett who was a major silent film producer and offered the then grand sum of $150.00 to come to Hollywood. The musical traces his life from his early childhood, to his exile from America, partially due to the vindictivness of a Hollywood gossip columnist, and his late life welcome back to the hearts of the public with an honorary Academy Award.
     The play is well done and Chaplin performed by Rob McClure--new to most theatre-goers is a multi- talent that we'll be seeing and hearing a lot about. Chaplin would be stirred by his portrayal. His rendition of what is sometimes called an 11:00 o'clock number--titled Where Are All the People? brought the house down. The vido/projection design by Jon Driscoll is one of the best I've ever seen.

     If you're in or coming to NYC, buy yourself a ticket to a great evening.

     Bests,
   
     Elise

A SENSE OF PLACE

    

     While straightening out my files, I came across an article I had written about the Holy Meteora in Greece on the north-west border of Thessaly where clusters of surreal, rugged black masses of rock stand guard over the villages of Kalambaka and Kastraki. On their giant pinnacles, disciplined communities of monks and nuns live in isolated monasteries known as the Holy Meteora. By the end of the 15th century there were 24 monasteries that served as a repository for Greek culture. A system of ladders, nets, ropes and pulleys, in a winching tower suspended over an abyss, transported food, bulding materials and the monks. Religious faith (or a sense of humor) would be needed--the ropes--the story goes--were only replaced when they frayed and snapped. Seems like the perfect place for a mystery. Agia Tridada, the monastery of the Holy Trinity, located on a narrow spire, was the site for the James bond film, For Your Eyes Only with Roger Moore.
     I began thinking about how place affects the mystery and my first thought was about Ellis Peters and her books about Cadfael, a monk who lived in the 1100s in Shrewsbury, England in the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul. Could Cadfael have lived anywhere else?
     Then there's Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti who lives in Venice, well respected and well-fed by a loving wife. Where else but Venice?
     Tony Hillerman's mysteries take place in the southwest amongst the Navajo tribes. Here Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee solve crimes and keep criminal behavior in check. the land was made for Hillerman's mysteries.
     Mention Oxford, England--the fictional Oxford England and the reader is enthralled with Inspector Morse and his fictional heir, Inspector Lewis. Walk around Oxford and you'll find fans of the series wandering around looking for the places where they solved crimes usually committed by Professors and students.
     What mysteries and authors and places can you suggest?

     Bests,

     Elise

ROMANTICIZED MYTHS

    
     I'm a great fan of WQXR and though I'm just a kid on the inside, I love listening to Naomi Lewin's program created for youngsters and broadcast on Saturday mornings. Last Saturday, Zoltan Kodaly's opera Hary Janos was featured. The opera begins with a musical sneeze. In Hungry, where Kodaly grew up there is a superstition that says, If you sneeze while telling a story that makes it true. That superstition made me think of writing.
     Novels have the disclaimer that states that the characters are fictional and any resemblence to real people--living or dead--is purely coincidental. But what if one of our characters rising from our subconscious? A forgotton relative, friend or enemy who made an impression--good or bad--that emerges when we sit down at our computers and begin a novel. Does the story stem from a forgotton childhood trauma? A lover the writer was determined to forget? Perhaps it's an urban legend handed down from generation to generation and transformed by an author into a contemporary tale or gossip overheard and made real between the covers of a book. Do we begin our fiction with a sneeze?

Bests,

Elise

YOU CAME TO ME FROM OUT OF NOWHERE

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     Sometimes I awake in the middle of the night with an idea for a short story, a novel or an article that cries out to be written. I reach for the pad and pen on my bedside table while trying not to wake my husband and--in the dark--scrawl down the idea in what will turn out to be partially unreadable. In the  morning, it will either be torn out off the pad or, if the thought holds up in the light of day, carried to my computer
     Then, sometimes, an image of the school bully may appear--and she's perfect for the antagonist in a novel I'm planning to write. A photograph of my grandmother inspires the elderly lady in a short story. Art and sculpture in theMetropolitan Museum of Art lets me travel back in time to another place and other beliefs. Travel frees my mind and opens it to the world's pleasures and pain. Discussions and disagreements make me think and sometimes change and broaden my opinions and misconceptions leading to another piece, another story, another novel.

Where do you discover and mine your ideas?

Bests,
Elise

AN UNOFFICIAL POLL

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     Political polls, polls about health insurance, education, the economy, polls here, polls there, polls everywhere. For awhile, I've had the feeling that most writers are addicted to chocolate. We choose a bar of our favorite after working at our computer and celebrate with a few bonbons, a slice of  chocolate cream pie, a dish of double chocolate ice cream with Oreo cookies or fudge brownies when a book, article or short story is published, and often console ourselves with a handful of chocolate covered nuts or raisins when we receive a note of rejection.
     So I'd like to take a poll of my own and ask you...are you addicted to chocolate?

Bests,

Elise