(adoring Sail)

Did anyone watch Bruce Springsteen on Storytellers, last night (I think it's a VH-1 show)?

I've never watched Storytellers before, but if Bruce more or less followed their usual format, it seems to be a show where the musician(s) will talk about a song, sometimes in the middle of performing it.

He opened by saying something like, "Talking about music is like talking about sex--can you describe it--are you supposed to?"

For a few of the songs, his explanations got rather detailed. At one point, after giving quite a bit of deep insight, he said, "Now, was I thinking all of that when I was writing? No. But I was feeling it. And it is all in there."

He's quite a writer. If there were no music involved, I would still read his poems. If you have an hour and VH-1 re-runs it, it is probably worth watching from a writer's perspective. He has a lot of respect for both the craft and the magic therein. If you're a Springsteen fan, it most certainly is worth watching.

eta...

I found this write up of Bruce's episode of Storytellers. It has a few quotes (I suppose these would be considered spoilers). [link]

Another "this isn't really how the industry works, is it?" question for AmyLiz or anyone else who knows.

Susan, I've been told - by two of my editors past and present, and by my agent - that nothing gets done in publishing in August or December.

Just got back from the kick-ass wedding of one of my best childhood friends. There was much dancing and much drinking. I now have a headache.

Susan, I think it's what you said -- trying to find a way to control the incontrollable. I know in the summer everything slows down -- July and August -- between vacations, RWA, and summer hours. And yeah, the week before Christmas is bad because no one wants to work, and usually the week between Christmas and New Year's everyone is closed. But I don't believe anyone simply clears the decks via rejection letters. You're just looking at a longer wait time than usual since mail is going to pile up.

I do know after conferences it's the same way -- you see all these authors during appointments, and then they all send stuff in right away. It just means the stack of mail is bigger for a few weeks.

I hated hated hated all the "never do this" and "never do that" rumors and superstitions that floated around while I was acquiring. The truth is, if your manuscript is well-written and marketable, someone may buy it if there's room in the schedule, and s/he likes your voice and thinks you have what it takes to be more than a one-shot.

But I will say this -- authors who send cover letters on kittycat stationery and list all the reasons their book is better than anything Nora Roberts ever wrote and will "make us both lots of money!" and email daily while waiting for an answer, are not bound to be published, unless they really are romance's answer to the Second Coming. There's a human element in all of this, and editors don't want to build a relationship with someone who is a) patently insane, b) irritating as hell, or c) certified egomaniacs who will likely argue about every comma, every line of cover copy, and every possible permutation of the cover. When it comes to things like series romance, or lines where editors are looking for a specific kind of product rather than a break-out single-title author, it's usually a good bet that that s/he can find someone just as talented who *doesn't* behave that way.

t /my two cents

Deb, your Renaissance Weekend invite is fabulous! How exciting. If you figure out who nominated you, you have to share!

Skimmed everything else because we're off to see Sin City before we have to pick up the brood from my parents.

Cindy, Storytellers is a superb show, with a brilliant and very accessible format. It's one of my favourites; Bruce's is in the queue.

You'll notice he mentioned not thinking about it as he wrote it; he felt it. His cerebrality (that can't possibly be a word, can it?) is automatic, and goes into gear when he's putting the words together to scan, to make sense, to follow a line that can be set to music. But the passion isn't parsed as he's doing it. The title of the show says it all. "Once upon a time, there was a [state trooper/hooker/small brown mouse/demolition derby specialist/insert] and this is the road he travelled."

Ray Davies did a beautiful set for the show. So did Billy Joel. I would expect Bruce's to be among the best, because he understands that the craft comes from the head but the impetus to tell it comes from the soul or the heart or the spirit, and that if he can't get them to meld, he's going to have a train wreck, not a song about a train wreck. That, for me, is exactly what a storyteller is.

There's a human element in all of this, and editors don't want to build a relationship with someone who is a) patently insane, b) irritating as hell, or c) certified egomaniacs who will likely argue about every comma, every line of cover copy, and every possible permutation of the cover. When it comes to things like series romance, or lines where editors are looking for a specific kind of product rather than a break-out single-title author, it's usually a good bet that that s/he can find someone just as talented who *doesn't* behave that way.

Sing it, sister! Hello, professionalism...

You'll notice he mentioned not thinking about it as he wrote it; he felt it. His cerebrality (that can't possibly be a word, can it?) is automatic, and goes into gear when he's putting the words together to scan, to make sense, to follow a line that can be set to music. But the passion isn't parsed as he's doing it.

I smiled and said to myself, "Hello, deb" as he was speaking about it.

Deb, you could talk about song writing.

I smiled and said to myself, "Hello, deb" as he was speaking about it.

Cindy, you just put me into some stellar company, there.

Mart, if we pull the cash together and can do this, I'll likely suggest taking a session with the teenagers in the group and having a round robin on creativity: basically a short talk and then, ok, I'm going to start with "once upon a time" and begin a spoken story. Then, after a few sentences, pass it along to the kid at my left and say, your turn: embellish this, take the story down the road, add characters of your own, hang a hard left or start scrambling over a mountain, you have two minutes, then on to the person next to you. Let's see what we can write here, with no prior confab. And for heaven's sake, don't consider it too much, what you're going to add - spend that mental energy listening to what comes before, so you know the terrain under these characters' shoes.

It's pure storytelling.

Dang, I wish I had seen that. Bruce got my puberty started. We go back a ways. And I love the way he writes...more now that I'm older and less inclined to turn off "Nebraska" for being a downer.(Still a downer, but now? Part of its charm.)

erika, the real downer, I think, is "Tom Joad". Could it get any bleaker?

Also, they're reshowing it at least twice this week. If you get VH1, check your listings.

Yeah, but bonus points for the allusion....I've always liked the brainy ones. But, yeah... We definitely get it...the last ST I saw were those twirpy"Green Day" guys...definitely a "You're making our side look stupid. Get off our side." moment for me.