Interview: Lisa  Kovanda Novelist, Screenwriter, Leader.

This month Lisa Kovanda reveals helpful advice not only for writers, but for parents and teachers of children who display interests in the arts. Lisa is the current President of the Nebraska Writer’s Guild. In the very first question I asked Lisa, she reveals her unique history. Throughout this interview, Lisa is teaching in some way about life, writing and leadership. I’ve never been more thrilled to introduce an author on my page than Lisa Kovanda.

Glenda: Lisa, every interview I do has a unique quality and I learn to appreciate each writer’s life experience. As writers we bind together by the common thread of a love for writing. Having support in our ability and to help us pursue our love for the art of words is a lifelong need.

In your biography on your web site at   http://lisakovanda.com/  you mentioned writing your first book at thirteen and you grandmother bound it. You grandmother must have been a great ally. Please give us some family background as it pertains to writing and support.

Lisa: I was actually much, much younger than 13.  I am thinking possibly as early as age 4. I don't think I was in school yet.  Most of the earliest books were my drawings, with her helping me write the words. They evolved into actual story books as my writing and language skills developed.  I was born in Tehran, Iran, to an American mother, and Iranian father, but adopted and raised in Nebraska. My adoptive family did a great job of allowing me to maintain a cultural identity, even though there weren't many Persians in Southeast Nebraska. My grandmother was a wonderful Czech woman, and a superb storyteller. She really was the most influential person in my youth, the person who instilled in me the sense that there was nothing I couldn't accomplish if I put my mind to it.  My family also allowed me to pursue gymnastics, and fostered an interest in art, music, and theatre. 

Glenda: As you’ve developed your talent since childhood, how would you advise parents, teachers and other influences to help children grow their interests/talents?

Lisa: The thing I recall most about those early influences was that sense of not having boundaries where art was concerned. You want to paint? Do it.  Write? Here's a typewriter and some paper. Children are taught to fail. I love the saying, "Dance like no one is watching." If we instill that sense in kids in any of their endeavors, we would be overwhelmed with what talent comes out. 

Glenda: We are usually told by instructors and mentors to write from what you know. Personally, I have some problem with that, but I love research. You've set some of your dark mysteries and romances in places like Seattle, and West Virginia. What is the draw for you to write using varied locations as backdrops for your stories?

Lisa: When I was a gymnast, and even just riding the school bus, I always had a book to keep me company and whisk me away to places I'd never been before. It was a great way to experience the world vicariously through characters on a page. I read anything and everything I could get my hands on. The local library made an exception for me as to how many books they'd let a patron check out at one time, I read so much. But, I spent about a year in Washington State in 1980 (when Mt. St. Helen's erupted, no less) and loved the area, so I've revisited the Pacific Northwest for a couple of my works. Both in "Cedar in Seattle," and my feature script, "Til Death Do Us Part."  I've only passed through West Virginia, but when I was working on "The Hunt," which is set in a fictional Appalachian community, I was honestly thinking of a setting where things would be almost foreign to a minister used to a more progressive urban environment.  Culturally and physically isolated, and almost like stepping back in time a bit. The great thing about the age of the Internet, is that you can research potential settings easily, so it becomes what you know.  I used Google Earth to take a virtual stroll around streets and byways to replicate in my fictional communities. I've set stories in different eras, and in one (still unedited) book, I went from Nebraska, to Chicago, to the Pine Ridge Reservation, and the Hopi Nation. All places I have been, but I certainly did a lot of research to flesh out my memories.

Glenda: You’re a graduate of Lew Hunter’s Screenwriting Colony and have written a couple of screenplays.  Can you give us some short samples from a novel and a screenplay and describe how you change hats between the genres?

Lisa: I've completed seven screenplays, and have actively collaborated on scripts, including the Feature Movie script, "Remission," that is currently in production in Lincoln. Two of my script projects are also going to have novel adaptations. It really is a different thought process between the two mediums. Scripts are succinct. The Point of View is basically the camera.  What you see or hear is all you can put on the page. No motivation or lush sensory detail. I start the process the same, meaning I start with a story paradigm, look at what I want my major plot points to be, then expand that to a 30-45 step outline. I have found writing the script first gives me a great 100-120 page outline to complete a novel.  I make a lot of side notes when I'm doing a script for what I want to flesh out more in the book version. Then I use the script as a detailed outline to fill in the gaps for the book. I'll give an example from my upcoming book, "Modified Flight Plan," co-written with Brian Thomas, who is the main character in this true story of overcoming all odds to pursue your dreams.

  Excerpt from “Modified Flight Plan” screenplay:

EXT. YANKTON AIRPORT – DAY

Brian lands the Cessna at Chan Gurney Municipal Airport, a

small paved airfield, and taxis to near the fuel pumps.

He gets out and looks around. Two FAA Inspectors in dark

suits and ties stand by another plane.

One of the men, RILEY WALLINGFORD (55) a Native American with

a long gray ponytail, sees Brian. He nudges DAN GILBERT

(45), a more standard-issue Caucasian, and the pair walk

toward Brian.

BRIAN

(under his breath)

Shit.

Wallingford pulls his ID badge from inside his jacket.

WALLINGFORD

Inspector Wallingford, FAA. This

your plane?

BRIAN

My Dad’s.

WALLINGFORD

Got a license to fly it?

BRIAN

Student certificate, sir.

WALLINGFORD

Can I see it? And your log book?

Brian pulls his log book from his flight bag inside the plane

and hands it to him.

Wallingford looks through it as Gilbert walks around the

plane.

GILBERT

You wouldn’t be giving rides, now

would you, son?

BRIAN

No sir. Students can’t take

passengers.

Gilbert stands up from near the wheel.

GILBERT

Looks like someone lost their lunch

over here on the passenger side.

Brian flinches.

BRIAN

Damn school tacos. Happened during

pre-flight.

Gilbert grunts and glares at him.

Wallingford writes on a notebook.

WALLINGFORD

Wouldn’t know anything about a

plane taking off from a field near

here, would you?

BRIAN

Wasn’t me.

WALLINGFORD

Uh huh.

TATE BALOUN (35) a wiry flight instructor, joins them, his

flight bag slung over his shoulder.

TATE

Touch and go’s today?

WALLINGFORD

One of your students?

TATE

One of my best students.

Tate gives Brian a hard stare.

Brian grins.

TATE (CONT’D)

(to Brian)

Do your pre-flight.

Tate and the two inspectors walk a few yards away and talk.

Brian eyes them as he readies the plane to fly.

INT. CESSNA - DAY

Tate climbs into the copilot seat. He smacks Brian upside

the head.

TATE

You can’t lie to the FAA.

2.

BRIAN

I didn’t lie. He asked if I took

off from a field.

TATE

We both know that was you.

BRIAN

I took off from the highway, not

the field.

Tate shakes his head and laughs.

3.

Excerpt from “Modified Flight Plan” Novel

In a matter of minutes, he traversed the distance between Tabor and Yankton passing over the Missouri River where boats made an intricate design of white wakes on the rippled surface. He landed the plane at Chan Gurney Municipal Airport, a fairly large, paved airfield for a town of 14,000 people. He taxied to the fuel pumps, shut down the airplane, and hopped out to wait for his instructor.

He noticed two men in black suits and ties near another plane. One of the men was tall, with a gray ponytail half-way down his back. The other seemed like a more standard issue 'man in black.' "Shit." Brian muttered the word half-under his breath. It had to be Federal Aviation Inspectors of some sort. And that couldn't be good.

As if to bring that point home, the man with the ponytail nudged the other suited guy, and pointed in Brian's direction. The pair walked toward him. Just play it cool. He tried to make his face appear calm.

The guy with the ponytail, now apparent as a Native American, pulled a badge out from his breast pocket and showed it to him. "Inspector Riley Wallingford, FAA. My partner, Inspector Dan Gilbert. This your plane son?"

"It's my dad's."

Wallingford's gaze bore into him. "Got a license to fly it?"

Brian swallowed, even though his mouth was suddenly so dry he didn't know if he could answer. "Student certificate, sir."

"Can I see it? And your log book?"

Brian's hands shook as he pulled his flight bag out of the baggage compartment, fished out the log book, and handed it to the inspector. He tried to look nonchalant as he watched the man thumb through it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the other man--Gilbert, he thought that's what Wallingford called him--walk around the plane.

Gilbert crouched near the co-pilot's door. "You wouldn't be giving rides, would you, son?"

Brian swallowed hard. "No sir, students can't give rides."

Gilbert stood up from near the wheel. He pulled his sunglasses off his face and pointed at the airplane. "Looks like someone lost their lunch over here on the passenger side."

Brian tried to cover his flinch with a quick thump to his chest. "Damn school tacos. That happened while I was doing my pre-flight."

Gilbert grunted. His face remained as blank as ever. Brian wondered if they had special classes where they taught them how to make their expressions so unreadable. Maybe a bit like those guards at the Palace in London who never flinch?

He focused his attention on Wallingford, as he jotted in a small notebook. The Native American man didn't even lift his eyes from his work as he spoke. "You wouldn't know anything about a blue and silver airplane taking off from a field near here, now would you?"

That one he could answer. "It wasn't me."

Wallingford dipped his chin so his eyes looked over the top of his sunglasses his steely stare appraised him. "Uhh huhh."

It was all he could do to not break under the intensity of the man's gaze. Luckily, his flight instructor, Tate Baloun, stepped out of the terminal and headed toward them. In fact, he thought the wiry man's gait quickened when he noticed the two men in black suits talking to him.

When Tate reached them, he shifted his flight bag from one shoulder to the other so he could shake hands with the two men. He gave Brian a pointed look. "How about we do some touch and go's today."

Wallingford turned his attention to Tate. "One of your students?"

Tate gave Brian a hard stare. "One of my best students."

Brian couldn't help it. He grinned. To cover, he turned his head. Tate walked near him. "Do your pre-flight."

Tate guided the two inspectors a few yards away on the taxiway. Brian couldn't hear what they were talking about, but there was no doubt in his mind it was him. Wallingford's eyes met his.

They were definitely talking about him.

Once he finished the inspection, he climbed into the pilot's seat and strapped himself in. He debated turning on his CD player, but thought better of it. No need to piss the FAA off even more by looking disrespectful. Instead he pulled his practical flight exam book out and pretended to study the questions.

Before long, Tate climbed into the co-pilot's seat. As he did, he reached out and slapped Brian upside the head. "What are you thinking? You can't lie to the FAA!"

Brian shook his head. "I didn't lie to them. He asked if I took off from a field."

Tate snorted. "We both know that was you. You fly the only blue striped on polished aluminum Cessna 150 in the Midwest."

Brian smiled. “Well, the blue is faded with plenty of yellow primer showing, and it has chipped white stripes.” He tried to put his most innocent look on his face. "Besides I didn't take off from a field. I took off from the highway."

Tate shook his head and even though it was obvious he was fighting it, a smile cracked the corners of his mouth. "We need to get your training done, and soon. Before we get both of our asses kicked."

Brian grinned. He leaned out the door. "Clear." The plane roared to life.

Glenda: This past year, you took on the role of President of the Nebraska Writer’s Guild. It’s not a lot of people who can take on such a leadership role. I am so grateful to those of you who do take the leadership roles and offices. What would you say to others to encourage more leadership in the writing community?

Lisa: When I was first approached about assuming the helm of the Guild, my first reaction was that I did not have enough writing credentials to lead. I look at the membership roster--both past and present--and I am still an awe-struck fan. But, that's not what it takes to be a leader. I've run a small hospital as a nurse. I'm a retail manager. I'm also the Municipal Liaison for the Nebraska: Other, and Nebraska: Lincoln regions for National Novel Writing Month. (and have also successfully completed the 50,000 word challenge every year I've participated) I understand how to make things happen, and hopefully, get other people to want to come along for the ride. What I try to do is put on events I want to go to. What to say to encourage others to take a leadership role... well, I've had to appoint a few people to the Board since I took office in 2011. Only occasionally have I needed to resort to brute-force. I will say for all of the headaches, stress, and general mayhem, I have gained far more than I have put in. If your writing career isn't going anywhere--or not headed in the direction you want it to be headed--I would encourage you to get involved in writing groups like the Nebraska Writers Guild.  Not just belong, get involved. When you're invested in yourself as an author and writer, amazing things happen!   

I find myself wanting to grill Lisa to glean more from her vast experience and knowledge. If I could I would pester these authors until they were so sick of me, they’d call the cops to pull me away. Since I cannot be so brazen, I will continue doing interviews, reading their blogs and what books I can.

As Lisa quotes “Dance as if nobody is watching.” Parents, husbands, children, friends, teachers, encourage any interest you find in a child. Grab a pencil and paper and write whatever comes to your own mind. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing for a child to look at your endeavors and think I can do that?

Interview with Faith A. Colburn Nebraska Author

This month, I have the delight of introducing a Nebraska author with a refreshing style many of us, including myself, seldom feel comfortable with. Faith Colburn is a courageous woman whose book Threshold: A Memoir encompasses generations of her family history. A memoir about oneself is hard to write, but digging into the muddy water of generations past is not an easy undertaking.

Faith tackles this feat by wading through the memories and stories of her family's history, research of the times and by admitting when she must make an assumption. I, for one, would have difficulty writing, let alone facing some of that history. Faith is almost fearless as she doggedly pursues her subjects through the lean and  the mean times.

A journalist and fact checker, Faith brings to life what she sees, hears, smells, and feels through her words, words that count for much. Now she pursues another novel to give readers a closer glimpse into her own story. I feel almost an electric charge at the thought of making those revelations. Possibly by osmosis and researching her work, I may gain some of Faith's courage for searching the souls of myself and my characters.

1. Faith, I started with your Wordpress blog at http://faithanncolburn.wordpress.com/  where I found myself entrenched in your ideas about writing. In the latest entry that I read, you spoke of the amount of truth in memoirs. I am intrigued by your second article about writing in present first person. Your musings on paper allowed me, another author, to glimpse your method.

I love to write in first person, present tense. It’s so immediate. There’s just nothing between me and my reader. It feels like I’m writing directly to her, or him. I just finished reading Megan Chance’s Bone River. Although Chance writes in past tense, the narrative is first person throughout. Wow! I felt I was right there on that river, freezing in the rain, scared to death I would die before I had a chance to live. I started this first­-person love affair when I went to a workshop once in Yellowbay, Montana, where I met Jim Crumley. He suggested that I try one of my stories in first person and I liked the result so much that I’ve written several short stories in first person, present tense.

2. You have a history in journalism with NEBRASKAland Magazine. Do you feel you are more connected with all things Nebraska from your work with NEBRASKAland Magazine? Give a couple of examples.

I suppose you could say I’ve had a couple of careers in journalism. My longest gig was with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission where I wrote for NEBRASKAland magazine and for local newspapers in my district. I took supporting photographs and video for television, as well as news spots for radio. I suppose my two largest projects those years was a centennial history of wildlife and wildlife management in Nebraska called Sportsmen’s Scrapbook.  No one has updated that publication since. My other project was a feature-length film on the trout rearing program that started at Lake McConaughy with the spawner trout, through the hatching and fry stages to the trout hatchery near Parks, Nebraska. My years with the G&PC built upon the conservation education I got from my family, generations of farmers who believed that they didn’t own the land; they were just “give [sic] it to take care of for the next generation.” I got to be in the Platte Valley when the cranes moved through, in the Rainwater Basins when the ducks clamored for space to roost on the tops of muskrat houses. I sat at the edge of the roadside ditch at the Four Corners and watched phalaropes in their twirling dance, stirring up and gobbling grubs from the bottoms of puddles.

My second journalism career was with Martin Luther Home Society, a Lutheran social ministry organization that provided services for people with developmental disabilities. I wrote almost all the copy and illustration for their quarterly, four-color news magazine and provided news releases for agencies located from coast to coast. Working with the clients turned out to be another education of an entirely different kind as I got up close and personal enough to see the humanity in their different ways of thinking and behaving. 

3. Tell us how you came into writing, was it an interest from childhood, or did you develop your devotion to the art form in some other way?

I don’t think I could say I “came into” writing. It’s just always been there, starting with lo-o-o-ong letters to friends, particularly boyfriends when I got old enough to have them. I remember my mother told me that Dad wrote the most romantic letters, so I thought I must have come by it honestly. Doc Hall was the director of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln School of Journalism when I started, and he taught the first introductory session of my first introductory journalism class. I’ll never forget how, in one hour, he made me believe that words matter and that I needed to do a better job of observing my environment. Everything else has been pretty much a reiteration of that.

4. As a magazine writer, you stated in one of your blog entries that it requires research based facts and that seems to have been a challenge for you when wrote Threshold. Would you mind giving the readers a short excerpt and how you justified that it's 'true enough'?

Oh my gosh, this memoir encompasses eight generations. One of the stories deals with race relations between Whites and Indians. One of the stories skirts around a lawsuit and a gag order. Another of the stories involves sexual abuse by a trusted professional. All of them are about members of my family. So I definitely wanted to get it right.  

A number of the people I’ve written about in Threshold are still living and I like most of them, so I never want to misrepresent them. Nor do I want to misrepresent my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. All of these people have had an enormous positive influence in my life, despite the craziness that came out of some of the horrors they lived through. Sometimes, information simply wasn’t available, so I had to give my own interpretations. Whenever that happened, I was very careful to say so, to let my reader know that “this is what I think happened.”

I suppose the most difficult part of the memoir, was my father’s story. By the time I began writing, he’d been dead for more than thirty-five years. He couldn’t speak for himself, yet his story was central to everything that happened, not only in his own generation, but in my life as well. So here’s an example from one of the chapters when I was treading on eggs:

“I never heard even pieces of my Dad’s story from him, only from the two women who loved and abandoned him. I’m reduced to reconstructing Dad’s struggle from the stories of those women and my grandmother, who was there when the others were gone, and the letters, and pieces of letters, Margo shared with me almost forty years after Dad wrote them to her. But I have an idea of how it must have been for him. I grew up in his country with his people. And I grew up with him -- at least until I was sixteen years old.”

5. Threshold: A Memoir is about your family over generations of good and bad, as you said above. I can relate to how hard it is to find factual material from generations past. Research is a must. Do you enjoy the research that goes with finding history and facts? What do you like about it?

Threshold  includes stories about my parents, but also my grandparents and several generations before, as well as my sister and my nephew.  I’ve written it as a nonfiction memoir. It started with Grandma’s stories. She told them all my life, but it occurred to me when she was 98 that I ought to do something to save them. So we made an appointment every Wednesday so I could sit down with her and a tape recorder. I recorded 30 hours of interviews. That’s the core of Threshold.  After that I had the luck of the Irish (a good share of my genetic makeup) as I stumbled across the most interesting stories about the generations before Grandma’s time.

 6. You are working on a new novel currently named Gravy based on your parent's struggles and your own. You speak about some hardships and about your mother's experience with a doctor. In a sense I can understand you saying it is like gravy. I mean isn't gravy something that improves the flavor or texture of potatoes, meat or whatever you wish to put it on? What did, or do you find most fascinating about your families past that made you want to write your book?

My second book is a novel based on my mother’s and dad’s lives. The working title is Gravy.  I call it that because I wasn’t supposed to live -- and if I did, I was supposed to live in a vegetative state for a very short time. So my whole life has been gravy. My birth and my father’s combat fatigue were central to the hardships my parents endured. I suppose I’m writing it, at least partly, as a tribute to my parents and their courage. Maybe it’s my way of thanking both of them for being the best parents they had the means to be.

I’m writing it as a novel, as I said in the blog post you mentioned, because there’s just so much I don’t know. For example, in my novel I just broke my grandfather’s leg a few days ago because I had to have him completely incapacitated so modern audiences could believe that my mother had to quit school when she was fifteen in order to support her family by singing in nightclubs and bars. I suspect the real reason she had to support the family was because neither parent could get a job. It was 1937.

7. I'm leaving this kind of open. That's something I don't generally do. But, I feel that Faith Colburn has much more to say about herself as a person. You like speaking in the first person and connecting that way with your reader. Take the space below and tell us whatever it is you'd like to say.

About me as a person, wow! You’re right. I love to write in first person, present tense. It’s so immediate. And yet, I’m also aware of hiding behind my words. My oldest son asked me a couple of years ago why I hadn’t become a singer and I just froze. If I’d become a singer, I’d have had to stand in front of an audience and sing my words. That’s just a frightening thought. In fact, I’m pretty nervous about giving readings as I try to market my book. And when I do my mother’s story (Gravy) I’ll need to sing a few lines from some of her songs. Terrifying, but I couldn’t possibly represent her without music. Mom told me once that there was never a moment that some melody didn’t pour through her head. She sang when she did the dishes; she sang when she raked the hay; she sang when she diapered her babies. So, if I’m to tell her story, I’ll have to gather up just a bit of her courage.

A friend of mine said that you don’t know what you think until you write it down. That’s true for me. I write to bring clarity to the chaos in my head. I find hot summer afternoons in there, lying in the grass and listening to insects buzzing and chirping. There are prickly pear cacti with bugs crawling in their blossoms, there are elk whistling and prairie dogs barking, bees buzzing and the heavy, sweet scent of a plum thicket. I find quantum physics concepts like entangled particles all mixed up with matter awareness studies I read years ago. I find my father’s mother’s gentle stories all mixed up with my mother’s grandmother’s paranoid schizophrenia. It’s a maze in there.

Faith's book Threshold: A Memoir is available at http://www.amazon.com/Threshold-A-Memoir-ebook/dp/B009ZIJPV8/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357769777&sr=1-2&keywords=Threshold%3A+a+memoir

I feel like almost anything I say after Faith's words will be less than gravy. I admire her tenacity for pursuing long and often dark family history and the ability to put it in words. Like the book Roots by Alex Haley nobody but a family member can dig as deeply into their own history as the author. However, doing so may often reveal things that are painful and would be unthinkable in today's world.

I can tell from the descriptive words that Faith learned to be so important, she has the ability to make words come alive for her reader.

"I think it's my father's DNA that makes me look at the land-forms and imagine the prairie without houses and trees, without fences and fields. In my mind's eye, I see it covered only with rippling grasses that run before the wind." Faith Colburn  Threshold: A Memoir

Hollywood Screenwriter Lew Hunter

Excerpt of Interview with Lew Hunter 

Lew is one of the successful Nebraska authors included in my upcoming book with working title Successful Living Nebraska Authors.

Lew and Pamela’s hospitality welcomes new talent into their Victorian home to aspiring screenwriters. Lew’s best selling book at the center of his teaching style continues as a textbook for screenwriting classes at UCLA and internationally. Lew himself has traveled to many countries teaching his method. Lew's students hold innumerable national and international awards. Lew defines his book and technique as a ‘how to’ approach.

Pamela’s work as host to their guests at their Superior Victorian homes glues the experience for participants into a complete package.

Lew Hunter’s career in media began in the mid 1950’s while still attending Nebraska Wesleyan College in Lincoln, NE. His resume’ in TV and film from writing for television, screenwriting, producing, directing and other publications pale next to the man’s zest for life and the Lew who is Lew.

In early correspondence through email and over the telephone, I warned Lew that I don’t interview as most other interviewers he may be used to. I work on the premise that no work is without the person behind it, inside of it and who puts it out in front of the world.

With a few pre-interview chats and research of Lew’s website, Lew Hunter’s Screenwriting 434, and reading an article by Leo Adam Biga, I sent four questions to Lew and Pamela. We agreed to a telephone interview to take place on May 3, 2012 at 3:00 pm based on four questions. 

Lew, you seem to have a strong sense of hospitality and friendship. Where does that come from?

I figured out a way to answer this question by repeating to you the Ten Commandments of Screenwriting by Tom Shadyec, a big comedy director with Evan Almighty and The Nutty Professor with Eddy Murphy. The first thing he did was Ace Ventura Pet Detective that he also co-wrote.

He was in my class, and he was the youngest writer on Bob Hope’s staff. I asked the class to write their impression of Lajos Egri. He came back with Lajos Egri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing. He sent me this, which wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but turned out to be better than what I was looking for. He starts out,

            One late night as writer’s block set in, my savior Lajos Egri spoke to me from a burning box of erasable bond so that I might know his laws.

·        1. The following commandments shall be carved in stone to discourage any revision. Thou shall love the lord thy god Conflict as thyself.

·        2. Thou shall not have false gods: plot, dialogue, or storyline before character.

·        3. Thou shall not steal, but thou may borrow and make it thine own.

·        4. Thou shall not kill character with stereotypes, shallowness, or two-dimensionality

·        5. Thou shall not commit adulltry sic, for as the great Prophet Lew Hunterious has said after me “the greatest sin of art it dullness.”

·        6. Thou shall not lie. That’s what agents are for.

·        7. Thou shall keep thy premise wholly.

·        8. Thou shall honor thy father and mother for it is from them that one learns about oneself that from oneself all art emanates.

·        9. Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself or this will cause conflict, the source of all drama, with thy neighbor’s husband.

·        10. Thou shall keep the Sabbath unless thou has a deadline.

Boy, oh boy, those are all in their own way total truths, the ten truths in terms of screenwriting, and storytelling.

“Thou shall honor thy father and mother for it is from them that one learns about oneself that from oneself all art emanates.” It’s certainly, in answer to your question, I have to give that to my parents. My father, known as the nicest and the strongest man in Webster County, Nebraska; I thought it would be a hell of a burden for me to bear as I am an only child. It wasn’t any problem, he was just so adorable and such a tremendous role model.

My mother, on the other hand, was hell on wheels. She turned out to be the most powerful person in Nebraska in the late forties or early fifties. She was the chairperson of the Republican Central Committee, which picked all the senators, governors, congressmen and so forth, in her day.

She was a musician and graduated when very few women graduated from the University of Nebraska. She graduated with a major in music an emphasis on the violin; then went on to the New England Conservatory of Music to get what today we know as a Master’s degree.

When she came back, my father proposed to her. She said; “I’ll be your bride if I can get two things. One, I want running water in the house,” which meant she wanted indoor plumbing as he was a farmer. Number two, she didn’t want to have to raise chickens because she didn’t want to step in whatever chickens leave behind. He said that would be fine. She spent her life as a not so simple farmwoman who taught music to probably everybody in the area, piano specifically and of course violin. 

Interview - Valerie Vierk, Nebraska Author

This month I have the privilege to interview Valerie Vierk author of five books, three of which revisit events people from and Ravenna's history: Gold Stars and Purple Hearts—the War Dead of the Ravenna, NE Area, Sailing the Troubled Sea—A Nebraska Boy Goes to War, and Winter of Death: Victims of the 1918 - 1919 Influenza Epidemic in the Ravenna, Nebraska Area. Gold Stars and Purple Hearts contains the biographies of 36 veterans from Ravenna, and Sailing the Troubled Sea is a biography of Valerie’s father’s World War II Coast Guard experiences. In Winter of Death she gives biographies of the 32 victims of the influenza epidemic. Strangely, Ravenna suffered a much higher death rate than neighboring towns.

     Valerie’s fourth book, A Sister of My Own is a fiction novel centered on a girl in small town Nebraska. Her fifth book, Christmas of the Dolls and Other Stories of the Season is a collection of Christmas short stories, reminiscences, and accounts from Ravenna.

Valerie revealed some of herself to me in the following paragraph.

Ravenna is very much home but Kearney is my second home. I've been commuting for 35 years now; sixty miles round trip. I live in Ravenna because I love nature and in Dec. 2003 my dream of living along the South Loup River came true. I'd owned the three acres for several years but couldn't afford to build out there. Then the interest rates dropped and I decided "Now or never" so I took the leap. One day while I was standing on the high bank overlooking the river I suddenly saw a fawn appear on the sandbar. Then his twin appeared. I watched them bucking and frolicking, and that was the deciding factor. I decided if I could live that close to nature I'd better do it. I haven't regretted it. My house sits only 100 feet from the bank.

Glenda: Your attachment to your roots seems very strong. Why don't you tell us some of your favorite moments or events over the years?

Valerie:  My mother’s side of the family came to the Ravenna area around 1886 so yes, my roots are deep. I was fortunate to always live very close to my parents. I was one of those kids who didn’t move away and now that both parents are deceased my life is different.  Where I live along the river is only about 100 yards from where my great grandparents lived for a while when my great grandfather was the agent on the Union Pacific Railroad. When I moved out to my new place, Mom said, “It seems like you are meant to be here.”

Glenda: Writing biographies about other people can be a task of love and very difficult. Often people who have been in war don't like to speak about their experiences. How did this affect your pursuit for the biographies included in Gold Stars and Purple Hearts?

Valerie: Sadly, most of the men I was writing about were already deceased. My parents were both living then and they knew most of the men. That helped me feel that I knew them. I also contacted all the relatives I could find and they were very helpful.

     Concerning my dad’s book, he was initially reluctant because he thought it would sound like he was bragging. (He was in the D-Day invasion and was wounded.) I said it wasn’t bragging because I was asking him to do it. I didn’t have to delve too deep with him because I knew it was awful.  He summed it up in the book, “It was carnage.”  (The day on Omaha Beach) Even in war though, there were humorous scenes with Dad and his young crew members, which I included in the book.

Glenda: Article writing was one of my first professional pursuits.  You mentioned to me that you were asked to write some articles for the Buffalo County Historical Society and that's how you started writing non-fiction books. Now you've branched into your first choice - fiction. Do you think that authors often get started through a chain of genres and mixed genres?

Valerie: Yes, sometimes life throws us an unexpected curve, and sometimes it is a good thing. That’s how I got started writing historical articles. The editor was desperate for something to put in that month’s newsletter and he knew me and asked. It went from there. Many writers write in various genres I’ve noticed from the Nebraska Writers Guild information.

Glenda: We don't always directly refer to something or someone in a story, but we find bits and pieces of a personality that intrigue us. Maybe it's just a statement someone made, or a movement. Are you a people watcher in the sense that you will often take mental notes that will later turn up in your writing, even if it's just a mannerism?

Valerie: Yes. It’s fun to observe people. I think people who read our work are always looking for someone they know. For instance, after reading my novel, my son asked, “Is that woman you describe as having a face like a doll the wife of Mike?” I was surprised and said no, that wasn’t the woman I had in mind but was surprised he remembered me saying that about Mike’s wife from years before. I enjoy hearing how people interpret my books. Often they see something totally different than what we had in mind!

Glenda: Finally, you related a beautiful scene that helped you make the decision to finally place a home on your Ravenna property. Tell me and my readers about your love of nature and achieving that dream.

Valerie: Mom was a farm girl, and her dad leased a section of “school land” that is only a half mile from where I now live. Grandpa held the lease for about forty years so it seemed like family land. When I was a child Mom would take my brother, sister and me on fall nature walks on this land by the river. I cherish those memories and I still walk on that land frequently. Mom instilled the love of nature in me. For forty years I’ve maintained a bluebird trail and have about 85 houses up now.

   Only about a hundred yards north of my house is a slough, and in 2009 a rare trumpeter swan showed up there! The next summer he brought a mate, and the next summer they hatched one cygnet. Last summer they hatched four but the slough was drying up and the swan family evacuated to the river on the 4^th of July. I am sorry to say the cygnets all perished from predators, but I saw the parents at our little lake east of town in September. We hope for better luck next summer. It has been an incredible thrill to observe and photograph these rare birds to our area and I see it as a gift from God. I plan to write a book about them soon and will title it “The Gift of Swans.” The huge birds made an awesome sound when they fly over. It sounds kind of like a French horn. It is so thrilling and I am so fortunate to live where I can closely observe them!

    I am also writing a nature journal, separate from the swan book.

    Valerie Vierk's interests haven't been reduced by being a hometown girl. This being the month of Thanksgiving and to remember our veterans, it is fitting that Valerie, who has devoted two of her books to war heroes, is my featured author. She is a woman who puts a high value on family and has one son and a daughter-in-law. I imagine she extends that family sentiment to the wildlife around her. I'm sure Val will have special treats out for the birds that stay and winter near her home. She's taken on a special task greeting the things of nature as a part of her family heritage and continued labor of love.

   Valerie, I hope your trumpeter swans will return to the slough near your home. Your commitment and care for the people and things around you touches life in ways many will never notice, except as they read you books or have the privilege of being your family and friends.  Thank you Valerie for sharing with us about your life and it's influence on your writing.

   I wish Valerie Vierk and all who read this a very Happy Holidays.

Interview by E. Kaiser

Interview

Dear readers, I had the privilege this month of being the feature interview for author Elizabeth Kaiser also from Nebraska. Her thoughtful questions investigate the places of my childhood and the family that influences much of my world and writing. Please go to the link by clicking  Interview above.

G. K. Fralin

Poetry Analysis: The World is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth

I forever consider myself a student of literature as well as an author. By treking through the history of poets and poetry, I begin to feel a connection. I feel a connection to the poets and history. The evolving of the science and etheral natures of the art inspire.

William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland England’s lake district. Wordsworth developed a great love of nature. The English industrial revolution was in its prime. The political climate in France and between France and Britain became hostile and he had to return to England.

 

He had traveled in his youth to France and fell in love with a French girl Annette Vallon whom he impregnated.   It was at this time he had to return to England leaving Annette behind. He never met his daughter Anne Caroline until ten years later. He never married Annette but did support her and Anne Caroline throughout his life.

 

Wordsworth was one of several “romantic” poets of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries known today as English Romantic Poets.  He worked and published extensively with Samuel Taylor Coleridge who wrote “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”   The two were also known as the “lake poets”.

 

The term romantic was applied to Wordsworth and his fellows much later by scholars.  Wordsworth defined his work as experimental because they were devoted to nature and the free flow of emotion and what he called the “real language of men.” This began a deviation from the language style of the Jacobean poets.  “The World is Too Much With Us” is a great example of Wordsworth’s devotion to writing lyric sonnets. He also wrote a work called “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” later known as the “manifest” of English Romantic poetry.   It is interesting that he wrote many of his sonnets, not in the traditional Shakespearian style, but in the Italian style. 

 

 

In “The World is Too Much With Us” Wordsworth is lamenting societies need and greed for money and things.  The industrial age was bringing in steam locomotives, machines and factories. He’d lost both parents when he was young and remained close to his sister. He was caught in the middle of political upheavals of France and between France and England. His life by this time must have seemed very noisy and out of control.

 

The World Is Too Much With Us

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune,
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

In the first lines we immediately see his complaint.   The world if often used in writing to refer to the ‘ways of the world’ or ‘worldly’. The words “late and soon” are part of a list continuing in the next line “getting and spending.”   The line break is for the purpose of the structure of the sonnet. Late and soon refers to the fast pace of the age. “I’m always late but it’s much too soon for me” is how I interpret these two words. I much prefer his brevity.

“Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”

Here he makes a statement that has been the cry of many over the centuries.   We let our progress take away the wonders of nature to the point we don’t notice it. This does sound like a country boy. The word ‘boon’ means advantage, or benefit. By putting the words sordid and boon together, he is plainly saying that it is a disgusting or distasteful benefit. These two words cancel out each other in a division which puts our hearts at risk of losing our love for the simple and natural.

“This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune,”

The above four lines emphasize his point. Up-gathered like sleeping flowers is an image he uses to make the point of how the “winds that will be howling at all hours” are internal noises, or the noise of industry at all hours. The noise could be either internal or external, but the simile of the up-gathered flowers indicates that the hours (changes and fast pace) are stealing away harmonious unity with nature.

“It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;”

This is like an expletive. The above two lines are the venting of his anger. He’d rather be like a pagan, for instance believing in ancient Greek gods celebrating nature, than part of a world that is destroying nature’s beauty and calling itself Christian.

He is not saying he doesn’t believe in God. Instead he expresses his anger at the world to God and possibly even at God.

 

“So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.”

 

 

 

I can picture Wordsworth yelling these lines angrily standing on the shore and shaking a fist. He feels it would be so much simpler to go back the pagan beliefs of the Greeks of giving a sense of divine to all things of nature. Proteus was one of the mythological Greek gods of the sea, and Triton was the son of Poseidon and Aphrodite whose horn was a conch shell for calming or stirring the waters. 

 

Even though Wordsworth felt the need for letting powerful emotions flow

spontaneously on to the page, he also held that poetry needed to have a poetic tone and form. The body of William Wordsworth’s works is vast. Many of his poems were published after his death; however, he did publish much during his life as well. He was well educated, traveled extensively, and often dedicated his poetry to people, places and events.

Wordsworth was not the first poet or author to lament man’s disrespect for nature. He appreciated the pastoral poem and introduced the age of the Romantic poets along with his friend and mentor Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth and Coleridge shared many ideas on poetry, nature, and published together. Wordsworth’s reputation grew in England throughout his life because of his many works and their quality. After Robert Southey died in 1846 Wordsworth was named poet Laureate of England, a high honor.This analysis is also available on Author's Den along with some of my other writing.