Dennis Kucinich - new advertisement

Though Illinois doesn't vote until next month, early voting has started today.

Congressman Kucinich is the candidate.

The government we have is what we earn. We can change the future. People have the power - Patti Smith.

A Video from My Friends, "Leave"

Here's a video from my friends, "Leave". They include Mike Murphy (guitar and vocals), Jimmy Latsis (lead guitar and vocals), and Joe Herrmann (bass guitar), Mike and Jimmy write the songs that make the whole world sing (well, at least Chicago, New York, and London). The guys will be playing as their alternate identity "Joe V." (covers and some "Leave" classics) next week at Gilhooley's Grande Saloon on December 21 and Quigley's Irish Pub on December 22. Terry Keating plays drums when the guys perform as Joe V. Check them out.

Why haven't these guys been signed yet? Shame on you music world. I mean, it's not like Britney or the American Idles are doing anything productive.

Why I Am for Kucinich.

My fellow writer and good friend Tami's website

My good friend, fellow writer, and former college roommate Tami has a new web site. Check it out at www.tamaraplamer.com. This a photo of us "adding it up" before heading out for the night in college. Tequila and Mountain Dew - a very central Illinois cocktail as my husband commented. Yes . . . I've looked better.

Back to the bloggersphere

First it was teaching and writing and then I got sick with a horrid cold during my holiday break. To quote John Lennon, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." All this writing I had planned to do during my holiday break. . . oh well. At least I always work better under deadline.

Consumed!

Egad! I haven't posted in almost a month. DePaul is winding down, and I am eager to write more and post more.

How have you been?

Exhausted. Artists Are Stronger - We Have To Be.

I have hit the wall. Around 4 p.m. today (CST) I collapsed. I can't do any more work - my novel's outline, grade student work, you name it. Here is a letter I clipped from the New York Times over thirteen years ago. I've reproduced it below from my yellow, dog-eared clipping:

Artists Are Tougher Than Other People

To the Editor:

Dr. Joseph J. Schildkraut describes a link between mental instability and creativity in "Depression and Art" (letter, April 18). But he misses what I believe is a crucial point: the extraordinary day-to-day stresses most artists face. These are caused by, first, the essentially subjective criteria for judging the merit of art, influenced (particularly today) by the whims of fashion; and, second, the virtual absence of the usual rewards, financial or otherwise.

Despite considerable industry and sacrifice (most artists work very hard at what they do), the artist faces continuous blows to the ego by one of another dealer or critic. These criticisms can be difficult to refute because of the relative absence of objective criteria for judging art. They lead even the strongest to self-doubt.

Most of us must look to other sources of income, requiring that we accept low-level, part-time work or a full-time job that leaves no time to make art -- unless we sacrifice relationships with family and friends, so important to all humans for a sense of fulfillment and self-worth.

Barring family resources, the artist is preoccupied with financial worries on a very basic level. Should the artist desire, as most of us do, the marry and have a child, the stresses of work with little or no financial reward increase, and he or she faces the choice of who or what to sacrifice -- children? friends? art?

Society treats artists very poorly -- poorly enough to dissolve the hardiest among humans. One might make a case for the opposite of Dr. Schildkraut's hypothesis -- to put up with all this and still get by, the artist may actually be in some way more stable, mentally or emotionally, than the norm.

Cynthia Eardley
New York, April 25, 1994

The "Good" War uncensored - Ken Burns and George Roder, Jr., PhD

Tonight my husband and I will watch The War on PBS by the amazing documentarian Ken Burns. In it he will show uncensored footage from World War II along with interviews by survivors who sacrificed overseas and in America. Fourteen years ago a School of the Art Institute professor by the name of George Roeder, Jr. wrote about and published many graphic images that the U.S. government censored during World War II. In 1998 I was blessed to work as a teaching assistant for Doctor Roeder, a gentle, enthusiastic, and intelligent man who soon became my friend and mentor. He died in 2004, but he leaves a legacy in print and with his students, colleagues, and friends.

The name of Doctor Roeder's book is The Censored War: American Visual Experience During World War Two. A link to order it is provided below.

Link

Outlining a novel.

After my best friend, who is also an amazing writer and honest critic, got on my back about finally writing my novel several years ago, I have embarked on this genre. So far I have struggled with my efforts. I wrote to just write. There was no structure. No story. To quote Janet Desaulniers, my graduate school adviser, I was telling myself the story.

In 2005 I attended an amazing week-long seminar called The Art of the Story led by Tom Jenks. Tom is the editor of Narrative and a former fiction editor at The Paris Review, Esquire, GQ, and Scribners. Through his teaching, I am now outlining and am finding it very helpful as well as laborious.

Back in June I attended the Printer's Row Book Fair with my friend Vesna. One of the writers we saw was Joyce Carol Oates. Oates said that the first six weeks of planning a novel is the hardest, and I agree. Tom did tell me that it makes the writing of it more fruitful. Perhaps that is another reason she is so prolific.

I am curious how many of you writers outline your work?

Agent and Author

My friend Tami sent me this. Oh so true - and not only with a literary agent.