Scouting Trip

Looks like Sir Knavely, up to his old tricks again, right?

Wrong.

That's my nephew's cat in North Canton, Ohio.  She's the spitting image -- okay, so she's tinier -- of Sir Knavely.

Who would have thunk it?

                         *     *     *

Tomorrow, I see my students for the first time.

I'm ready.

I've missed the classroom.

Tonight was parent orientation.  Good time.

                         *     *     *

A producer and friend of mine has arrived from Ohio with his daughter for several days. 

The two of us are leaving on Friday afternoon for Phoenix, AZ.  We're doing a scouting trip to ensure that the locations Steven and I created in the first draft of the screenplay are feasible, geographically.

My friend has done his homework.  He's already contacted the film office in Phoenix.

A woman there has read our treatment and has made suggestions of possible locations where we can set each scene.

Nice work, Dick Gotschall!

"The Secret of Hurricanes"

See that grin on my face?  I've just finished a novel by Theresa Williams, The Secret of Hurricanes.

Sir Knavely, of course, is still trying to decide.

All right, I admit it.  He's a slow reader.

                    *     *     *

I received Theresa Williams's The Secret of Hurricanes yesterday afternoon from Powells.com.  A friend of mine decided to give me an early birthday present.

I scarfed the entire novel in one sitting over coffee at the 50s Cafe in Santa Monica.

Poetic.  Lyrical.  Understated.  Evocative.  Moving.  Memorable.

                    *     *     *

A Southern author, Williams is drawn to the eccentric in this coming-of-age novel.

Her main character, 45-year-old Pearl Starling (even her name contrasts exquisite beauty with butt-ugliness), is driven through her adolescent memories by two religious missionaries, a Greek chorus determined to discover the identity of the father of her child.

On the way, she discovers what she can tell her soon-to-be-born daughter about love.

It's going to take me more than one reading to understand Williams' narrator (a-mature-woman-still-trying-to-be-not-a-young-girl-any-more) both destroyed by her crush on an older man, yet perverted by her obsession with his authoritarian behavior.

This is a story of pain energized by the hope of recovery.  A journey across an emotional and geographical landscape scarred by the Vietnam War.  A narrative recounted through a poetic prism.

The book's most clear predecessor is Dorothy Allison's novel Bastard out of Carolina, another powerful story that links incest, sexual abuse, and corporal punishment.

I'm eager to read Williams's follow-up novel (no pressure, Theresa!).  In the meantime, this is one book I shall reread more than once.  There's a lot that I didn't get first time around.

March of the Penguins

I've just returned from seeing March of the Penguins.

What an amazing film.

You'd think a film sponsored by National Geographic would be just a nature film.  But director Luc Jacquet was far too clever for that. 

He tells a story.  Gives his hero, the Emperor Penguin, a clear desire to survive and propagate, then confronts his hero with the worst that Mother Nature can hurl in her most ruthless moods.

What kept going through my head as I watched the film was this:  how the heck did the photographers ever get these pictures?  And as the credits roll, you find out how they did it.

What really gives the film magic, however, is the narrator, Morgan Freeman.  Think Shawshank Redemption.  Freeman is at his finest in Penguins, his dry, expressive voice delivering a wry, minimalist script.

Absolutely beautiful.  If you haven't seen it, do.  You'll be moved.

                        *     *     *

One of my blog readers asked me what I thought of Agape.  Well, I can finally tell you, since I attended this past Sunday with my friend Sandra.

The place was packed with enthusiastic worshipers.  The sanctuary is a deconstructed warehouse-type building that looked like the inside of a nightclub I once visited in Pittsburgh.  Very cool.

Very similar to the Pentecostal services I've visited and enjoyed in the past.  But also incredibly inclusive and transdenominational.  My friend is Jewish, and she finds it inspiring.  'Nuff said.  Apparently, you must have a modeling contract with CAA in order to attend there (just kidding), or at least it looks that way.  LOL!

I felt very welcome -- the fact that they have you stand while everyone shows you their palms while praying a prayer of welcome might have something to do with that.  I wish I had had a chance to visit afterwards, but my friend was bolting out the door before they finished with the last song.

My home church in Hartville was particularly good at welcoming people and talking about the meaning of life after every service; there were times we didn't get home from church for almost an hour, simply because people liked to catch up on each other's lives after church.

This place felt a lot like that.  People seem to care about each other.  Very warm, emotionally.

My friend was apparently tired -- she slept through the rather long sermon by a noted spiritual author.  Her sermon was "Well, Well, Well:  Part Two."  She was as funny as Whoopi Goldberg (okay, not quite).

She used quips and anecdotes to work through a rather extensive explanation.  Simply put, we grow in the midst of three types of wells:  dug wells, which we've created for ourselves; drilled wells, created by others; and driven wells, created by God. 

Her rhetorical rhythms were entertaining.  They made the sermon memorable.

The music was brilliant and emotional, if you like contemporary.  Just for fun, one of the announcers rapped out two pieces in the style of 50 Cent and Tina Turner.  I'll be back.

                        *     *     *

In order to prepare for the school year, I'm zipping through the reading list I gave my students at the beginning of the summer.  Some wonderful reads. 

Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl, which I devoured in a single sitting, more or less.  Garth Nix's Sabriel, another delight.

For me, there are few pleasures more sweet than sitting down in a coffee shop -- and Los Angeles has some delightful coffee bars -- and simply reading for the sheer pleasure of it.  Dorky, I know.  But that's me.

Some people like to curl up in bed to read -- not me.  I like to read in the midst of a crowd of people.  I know, go ahead and analyze that.  But I'll bet I'm not the only one who feels that way.

                        *     *     *

Since I finished my screenplay, I've been working on two other projects.

                        *     *     *

The first book -- probably a distant relative to Chicken Soup for the Soul -- is one that will examine the principles of coaching, using the extracurricular activity I coach now as a case study.

I think the book will fill a distinct gap in education courses:  how to run any extracurricular activity in a way that will develop character in students.  I am packing it full of meaningful anecdotes from two decades of teaching.

It's the book I wish I could have read before I started advising newspaper, yearbook, drama, and student store.  It wouldn't have taken me so long to learn how to develop leadership in students.

                        *     *     *

I'm also in the development stage of a novel, Mennonite Prince -- aka Scars of the Wind -- a coming-of-age story.

I started writing this story while working on my MA at Oxford University in 1996.  Then I set it aside.  It's never been far from my mind since.  Now I'm finally picking it up again.

Hey, at least I'm not bored with my time.

                        *     *     *

I'm so grateful for the new friends I've begun to make through this blog.  Writers are a different breed, and it's good to meet so many good ones.

Please drop me a line if you're reading my blog.  Let me know the location of your own blog.  Let's talk.

Favorite books challenge

I have been tagged by blogger and novelist Theresa Williams.

 

She challenged me to list my favorite books.

 

I'm not sure how to do that.  Can a teacher name his favorite student?

 

What I will give you is a list of memorable books.

No particular order here. 

Not an exhaustive list.  Many left off. 

And my eclectic taste ensures some disturbing juxtapositions.

                         *     *     *

CURRENTLY READING:  The Secrets of Hurricanes, by Theresa Williams.  A Step from Heaven, by An Na.  Vernon God Little, by DBC Pierre.  Family Matters, by Robert Evans.  An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser.

                         *     *     *

GREAT STORIES: Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank.  Happy As the Grass Was Green, by Merle Good.  The Princess Bride, by William Goldman.  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis.  The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood.  The Class, by Erich Segal.  Marjorie Morningstar, by Herman Wouk.  Hans Brinker, by Mary Mapes Dodge.  The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, by John Fox, Jr.  Jeremy Pepper, by Frances Rogers and Alice Beard.  The His Dark Materials trilogy, by Phillip Pullman.  For My Lady's Heart, by Laura Kinsale.  The Devil's Bargain, by Xenia Navarre (not yet published).   Dark Debts, by Karen Hall. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, by Anne Rice.  Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown. The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy.  The Godfather, by Mario Puzo. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkein.  Wild Orchids, by Jude Deveraux. The Damnation of Theron Ware, by Harold Frederic. Thy Brother's Wife, by Andrew M. Greeley.  The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett.  Belinda, by Anne Rampling. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler. The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum.  The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris.  The French Lieutenant's Woman, by John Fowles.  A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean.  Wonder Boys, by Michael Chabon. 

                         *     *     *

CLASSICS: The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Emmuska Orczy.  A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy. Murder in the Cathedral, by T.S. Eliot. Romeo and Juliet,by William Shakespeare.  Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce.  Huck Finn, by Mark Twain.  Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman.  Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw.  Othello, by Shakespeare.  Angels in America, by Tony Kushner.  The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton.  The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams.  The Bostonians, by Henry James.  A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.  Paradise Lost, by  John Milton.  Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.  A Midsummer Night's Dream, by Shakespeare. 

                         *     *     *

TEXTBOOKS ON ACTING, WRITING, DIRECTING: Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters, by Michael Tierno. Secrets of Film Writing, by Tom Lazarus. Screenplay: Writing the Picture, by Russin and Downs. The Autobiography of Peter Hall, by Peter Hall. Year of the King, by Antony Sher. Story, by Bob McKee. The Great Movies, by Roger Ebert. Disney War, by James B. Stewart. On Directing, by Harold Clurman. The Empty Space, by Peter Brook.  A Sense of Direction, by William Ball.  Rebels on the Backlot, by Sharon Waxman.

                         *     *     *

BOOKS ON SPIRITUALITY:  My Personal Best, by John Wooden.  The Way of the Superior Man, by David Deida.  Traditional Catholic Prayers, by Charles J. Dollen.  Escape from Reason, by Francis Schaeffer.  The Mark of  a Christian, by Francis Schaeffer.  The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff.  My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potak. A Man Called Peter, by Catherine Marshall.  Dude, Where’s My Country? by Michael Moore.  Highroad to the Stake, by Michael Kunze. Celebration of Discipline, by Richard J. Foster. The Bible.  The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera.  Kingdoms in Conflict, by Chuck Colson.  The Riddle of Amish Culture, by Donald B.Kraybill.  The Closing of the American Mind,by Allan Bloom.  Goddesses in Older Women, by Jean Shinoda Bolen.  King, Warrior, Magician, Lover, by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette.  Genius, by Harold Bloom.

The Work Has Begun

I have about a month now before Steven's done with his rewrite of our screenplay The French Inquisitor.

What to do?

                        *     *     *

So I've begun the book on teaching that I've wanted to do for quite some time.

A primer on coaching extracurricular activities (as opposed to merely coaching sports).  There isn't much literature on the subject.

Honestly?  I'm writing the book I wanted to read 20 years ago.  Back before I advised my first yearbook staff.  Back in September 1983 at the tender age of 20.

                         *     *     *

I should be sleeping.  In less than five hours, I have to get up for coffee with one of my mentors (11:00 AM date).  And I haven't had a wink of sleep yet.

I'm wide awake.  Perhaps it's because I just spent half an hour talking to a good friend from Ohio about what I'm writing.

Funny how the book -- which is nonfiction, as opposed to the screenplay I just wrote -- is shaping itself as it goes along.

I'm trying to find a style that is easy to read, yet can carry a significant level of insight.  A style that draws people into my subject.  Not a scholastic tome.  I want something hands-on.  Practical.

My co-writer for this book (not Steven this time, but instead, Shelby, a Ph.D) is currently editing material I've already written over the past four years.  These will deal with structuring the extracurricular activity, in this case, the Student Store (Part Two), and giving a coach practical handouts (Part Three).

I'm writing Section One, which will present the basic principles of coaching.

As of now, I'm planning twenty chapters in this first section.  The chapters will be short and loaded with personal stories.

Between each chapter will be short stories or sidebars that I'm tentatively calling Interpolary Moments.  Student testimonials, memories, and letters.

                         *     *     *

I have several goals in writing this book.

First, I'd like to give back to the field of education.  I love my job.  I'd like to infect others with my passion for teaching.

Second, I've had a lot of first-rate mentors.  Now, those mentors have retired, and I'm the one mentoring the new crop of young teachers.  What I teach them -- I'm putting into this book.

Third, I intend to become a head of school for some lucky independent school.  I think this book, when published, will prove that I can bring a lot to that kind of position.

                         *     *     *

Our audience?

Any teacher who runs an extracurricular activity.  That would be about 85% of all teachers.  This will be a primer that any principal can hand to his or her beginning teachers.  Or experienced ones.

If this book is of use to teachers, I will have succeeded.

                         *     *     *

Why am I considering administration?

First, because I love running an organization and seeing it work smoothly.  (Of course, I tend to love everything I do, because I see the glass as half-full, always.)

Second, because parents don't scare me.  Once I figured out the secret to a successful parent conference (another chapter in my book), I began to look forward to meeting parents, either in conference or in the parking lot.

I'm not joking.

Finally, I believe that heading up a school is very similar to heading up a theatre production (and I've done a lot of those).  Okay, that's a bit simplistic, but the principle is the same (no pun intended).  You cast the best people you can, and then you support the hell out of them as they work.

I'm not afraid of anything in the world of education.

After all, I've had twenty years to work with some really fine administrators, and also some not-so-successful administrators. 

Don't bother asking which is which.  My lips are sealed.

Being an administrator doesn't take rocket science skills:  administrators rely on the same basic communication skills that everyone else does.

Just a lotmore so.

                         *     *     *

How would becoming an administrator affect my plans to write and direct?

Good question.  Let me speculate.

                         *     *     *

My work as a writer shouldn't suffer.  The job I have right now demands that I oversee eight other adults and motivate over 50 kids.  That's the size of a small school.

I think I'll have just as much fun being an administrator and writer as I've had working as a teacher and writer.  Maybe more so.  I suspect I'll write just as effectively while running a school as I do right now teaching full time and running one of the largest extracurricular activities on campus.  Perhaps more so.

I have a friend who ran a major government post.  All while managing to write a full-length novel in her spare time.

It's all about what you want.

One's writing output has little to do with the job one is doing.  Writing regularly is about discipline, determination, and focus.  Not about what you're doing in your real life.

No matter how many people tell you they can't write and work another job, don't believe them.  If I've learned anything over the last four years in LA, it's that you can do whatever you want to do if you really want to.

Realistically speaking, I probably have over ten years left in my educational career, more or less.  Why not spend that time as head of a school, rather than as a teacher?  Both expend about the same level of energy.  If anything, a teacher's job demands more creativity.

So.  We'll see.  Meanwhile, I'm loving the work I'm doing on this new book.