The Real Writer

Sort of a Book Review or I Don't Want to Get Over this Reading Hangover for Austenland

Dear Shannon Hale -

You did it. You wrote the book that filled the gap between us and him; the gap we couldn't articulate for ourselves. I'm still reeling from finishing this book. I read from 11 pm to 3:00 am for the last two nights (I work during the day and teach in the evenings) because I couldn't put it down. I read the book at stoplights on the way to and from work and my classes. I haven't read while driving since....well, ever, really. Unless you count notes for an exam I didn't study for on the way to the exam itself.

Initially, I was excited to find this novel. Then I was pissed that I didn't write it first. Then, to narrow that down, I was so envious of you. How did it feel that moment when you thought of Austenland and knew it could be a book and that you were going to write it? That's just between you and the idea and the writing and it's better than any romance, hands down. I'm positively green.

I have already referred the book to 10 people today, and counting. There better be a movie.

I admit, I wanted to hate you as a fellow writer. I wanted to find bad things about the book to balance my envy, so I would feel better about not having been its author. I thought I had you when there were several back to back Jane-Martin scenes and the rest of the 'cast' fell by the wayside, but then you did what you were supposed to in the next chapter--brought her back around to her purpose and brought Mr. Nobley to the fore.

So, instead, I had to grudgingly admit that you write really well. The structure of the book is tight (the motif of listing past boyfriends is terrific), your metaphors felt like a cool breeze in my mind, your descriptions of the house and gardens and the characterizations were all fresh and bright, the way the world looks after a strong summer shower. Sparkling. I am a happy reader again. I believe in good books again.

And let me tell you, I've been making a real effort, reading Booker Prize this and Orange Prize that. (Yawn.) Not a lot out there with some Zing, if I may borrow from your heroine, Jane Hayes.

I can also admit that I'm one of those women that watches the BBC P&P often. Definitely on New Year's Eve with the party bag of M&Ms and a phone, which I use to call my best friend in LA so we can talk about our favorite parts and she can listen in while giving her kids a bath. My fave - the night after the house party at Pemberley, where he's unable to sleep and comes downstairs, disheveled, with a candle, to the drawing room where he and Elizabeth locked eyes over the piano, and stands quietly, remembering the scene and smiling shyly, as if he, just at that moment, isn't thinking about pride, money, or class. He really understands that he loves her. Simply. Humbly. No B.S. Yes, the lake scene is good; he looks delicious in the wet shirt, but the pond was really scummy, wasn't it? I just couldn't get past that...My OCD kicking in, I guess.

Here's the big confession: Jane is me. You sort of freed me, in a way, from any remnants of my own very un-Darcyesque ex-boyfriends. I'm tempted to write each a little paragraph as Jane did, just for fun. Then burn them of course. Don't have a wok to use, like she did, but I'll improvise. When she says to herself, 'I'm burying the wishful part of me...I'm real now,' inside I heard, Me too. You saved me months of therapy!

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks. I'm going to be carrying the book in my bag for a long time. It's perfect for a rainy Saturday, or a long plane ride. To England, perhaps?

Could you write Green Gables Land now?

With admiration,
Chris Stewart

The Book of Hopes and Dreams

Today I received this email and am passing it on to you:

I'm writing to let you know about The Book Of Hopes And Dreams. It's a charity, poetry anthology, published to raise money for the Medical Aid (Afghanistan) appeal of the Glasgow-based charity Spirit Aid, (an entirely volunteer run organisation, headed by Scottish actor and director, David Hayman).

As a volunteer organisation, Spirit Aid are able to ensure that 90% of all the funds they raise go straight to the projects they are involved in (unlike most of the bigger charities whose admin and advertising budgets swallow huge percentages of all donations).

The Book Of Hopes And Dreams, which is a celebration of the human spirit (even in times of great adversity) has captured the imagination and hearts of some of the greatest living poets of our times; all of whom have freely contributed work to this anthology.

There are contributions from Margaret Atwood, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Heath-Stubbs, Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage, Tony Harrison, Alasdair Gray, Edwin Morgan, Penelope Shuttle, Anne Stevenson, Jon Stallworthy, Alan Brownjohn, Ruth Fainlight, David Constantine, Moniza Alvi, Cyril Dabydeen, Elaine Feinstein, Vicki Feaver, Michael Horovitz, Tom Leonard, Robert Mezey, Lawrence Sail, Jay Ramsay, Charles Ades Fishman, Geoffrey Godbert and Ian Duhig, amongst others.

The book costs £9.99 ($20 US) and can be ordered in all high street bookstores in the UK. It can also be bought outside the UK via the publisher, Bluechrome or from UK Amazon.

We truly believe it is one of the best anthologies to have been published this century. Not only is it brimming over with the work of award winning poets, it's message is resoundingly positive and optimistic in outlook, which many will find refreshing, given the zeitgeist for poet-modern irony, ennui and despair.

More importantly, royalties from every copy sold will go towards providing mobile clinics, doctors, nurses and medicines for the people of the far flung, mountainous region of Baglan in North East Afghanistan, where the population hadn't received any medical care whatsoever for 25 years, until Spirit Aid raised funds for their first mobile clinic.

In reality, at least six mobile clinics are needed to provide even basic medical care for the people of Baglan. With your help Spirit Aid will get closer to making that a reality.

I hope you will consider buying this book, because it really will help to save lives. It will also help to improve the quality of peoples' lives. And who knows, with its uplifting tone, it may even improve the quality of your life or inspire your own writing endeavours. Mike Matthews, one of the contributors wrote me recently and said: "The anthology is fantastic, and it has served as a major inspiration for me to continue to write every single day, for the poetry in it is genuinely high quality and uplifting. I have not been able to stop writing since it came out, and I carry it around with me everywhere, opening it before every writing session."

I also hope that you will help spread the word about the book. If you are inspired to do so I have several suggestions of ways you might do so, all of them simple, and none too time consuming:

Give the book a mention or a review in your blog

BUY THE BOOK and add a hotlink to http://www.rimbaud.org.uk/bookofhope.html on your website and/or blog.

Thanks very much for all your support.

All the best,

Dee Rimbaud

ps: You can find out more about Spirit Aid by checking out their website at http://www.spiritaid.org.uk

You can read David Hayman's account of his involvement in distributing medical aid to villages in Baglan province by clicking on The Book Of Hopes And Dreams section of my website, which is at http://www.thunderburst.co.uk

Books on Craft - Poetry

(* means the book is a 'must have')

TheTriggering Town (Richard Hugo)

The "Best of" Series on American poetry (edited each year by differ. poet)

(I suggest the Best of 2000 and The Best of the Best American Poetry edited by Harold Bloom to start)

Hammer and Blaze

(edited by Ellen Bryant Voight and Heather McHugh)

Contemporary American Poetry

(edited by A. Poulin, Jr.)

The BreadLoaf Anthology

(edited by Stanley Plumly and Michael Collier)

The Norton Anthology of Poetry

Introduction to Poetry

(edit. J. Paul Hunter)

On Poetry and Craft

(Theodore Roethke) *

Making Your Own Days

(Kenneth Koch)

How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry

(Edward Hirsch) *

Poems, Poets and Poetry

(Helen Vendler) *

Western Wind

(John Frederick Nims) *

The Poet's Handbook

(Judson Jerome)

Writing Poems

(Robert Wallace/Michelle Boisseau)

To Read a Poem

(Donald Hall) *

The Sounds of Poetry

(Robert Pinsky)

A Poet's Guide to Poetry

(Mary Kinzie)

Poetic Meter and Poetic Form

(Paul Fussell) *

The New Book of Forms

(Louis Turco) *

Poetry Handbook: A Dictionary of Terms

(Babette Deutsch)