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There is a genre of scene I believe I have read several times in a certain kind of nonfiction book. In this type of scene, the author of the book shows an earlier draft of said book – the very book you are holding in your hands – to a character in the book, or more precisely to a person in the author’s life upon whom one of the characters is based. And this person reacts extremely badly to the manner in which they’ve been portrayed. Which creates a sort of ethical dilemma on the part of the author. Do they remove this character from their book? Or rewrite the character in order to make it more to the liking of the person on whom it is based? Or fictionalize the character even further so as to make it unrecognizable? I have seen different author’s deal with this dilemma in different ways, and it always strikes me as somehow getting to the very heart of the ethical problem of the relationship between fiction and reality.
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February 20, 2023
February 17, 2023
And things started to happen, but none of them were the things we said were going to happen...
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And things started to happen, but none of them were the things we said were going to happen, and none of them were the things anyone else expected either. But at least something had begun. Or so we thought. Were we willing to classify whatever it was that seemed to be happening as “something”? We had no choice: we couldn’t go back and the only way forward was to go with what was happening. What was starting. What we thought. It had something to do with the way one thing followed the next. If we didn’t intervene. All we had done is open the door. It was exhausting.
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And things started to happen, but none of them were the things we said were going to happen, and none of them were the things anyone else expected either. But at least something had begun. Or so we thought. Were we willing to classify whatever it was that seemed to be happening as “something”? We had no choice: we couldn’t go back and the only way forward was to go with what was happening. What was starting. What we thought. It had something to do with the way one thing followed the next. If we didn’t intervene. All we had done is open the door. It was exhausting.
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February 13, 2023
Virtual Coffee Chat with Jacob Wren and Julia Lee Barclay-Morton
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On Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 5pm EST I will be having a Virtual Coffee Chat with Julia Lee Barclay-Morton about her book The Mortality Shot and my book Polyamorous Love Song. Discussing what we share as authors: the crossover between words for performance and for the page and not falling neatly into categories.
The event is online and free but you have to register for it here.
If you haven't already you should definitely check out The Mortality Shot. This is what I had to say about it:
"These stories and essays (plus a stage text) push up against heartfelt questions of life and death in ways that are complex, counter-intuitive, humorous and striking. Writing against the grain, in varying styles and intensities, The Morality Shot goes places that so much current literature wouldn’t dare, demonstrating that real writing is always a risk and a gamble, and that only through taking such risks can we get at the things which truly matter."
And, if you missed it, the Virtual Author Coffee Chat is now online and you can watch it here:
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On Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 5pm EST I will be having a Virtual Coffee Chat with Julia Lee Barclay-Morton about her book The Mortality Shot and my book Polyamorous Love Song. Discussing what we share as authors: the crossover between words for performance and for the page and not falling neatly into categories.
The event is online and free but you have to register for it here.
If you haven't already you should definitely check out The Mortality Shot. This is what I had to say about it:
"These stories and essays (plus a stage text) push up against heartfelt questions of life and death in ways that are complex, counter-intuitive, humorous and striking. Writing against the grain, in varying styles and intensities, The Morality Shot goes places that so much current literature wouldn’t dare, demonstrating that real writing is always a risk and a gamble, and that only through taking such risks can we get at the things which truly matter."
And, if you missed it, the Virtual Author Coffee Chat is now online and you can watch it here:
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February 10, 2023
My life is entangled in theatre but I now know almost no one else who works in theatre...
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My life is entangled in theatre but I now know almost no one else who works in theatre. It is like a place I have almost completely left as that place continues to almost completely rule my inner life. Be careful what you decide to be against. I find myself feeling like I’m stuck in a tunnel of things I don’t want to do. But what exactly is the tunnel? An inability to usefully think what other sorts of things I could be doing. Doing things in reaction to what I’ve previously done, rather than thinking toward what might interest me in the future. This has something to do with the idea of a diary.
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My life is entangled in theatre but I now know almost no one else who works in theatre. It is like a place I have almost completely left as that place continues to almost completely rule my inner life. Be careful what you decide to be against. I find myself feeling like I’m stuck in a tunnel of things I don’t want to do. But what exactly is the tunnel? An inability to usefully think what other sorts of things I could be doing. Doing things in reaction to what I’ve previously done, rather than thinking toward what might interest me in the future. This has something to do with the idea of a diary.
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February 8, 2023
They warned me the soup was extremely hot and I might burn myself...
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They warned me the soup was extremely hot and I might burn myself. I didn’t heed the warning and did indeed burn myself. I couldn’t say that I hadn’t been warned. I retaliated by writing the experience down, an account you are currently reading. A rather boring and predictable account. It has happened before and will happen again.
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They warned me the soup was extremely hot and I might burn myself. I didn’t heed the warning and did indeed burn myself. I couldn’t say that I hadn’t been warned. I retaliated by writing the experience down, an account you are currently reading. A rather boring and predictable account. It has happened before and will happen again.
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