It’s hard to know what to say or do at time like this. I believe with all my heart and soul that as Martin Luther King Jr. said:
The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.
But it doesn’t take a very close look at history to see that evil is always an active player, and even when it’s beaten back, it’s always waiting in the wings. Without constant vigilance, it takes the stage.
This election was on an historic razor’s edge. And, funded and enabled by billionaires who do not give a flying f**k about anyone but themselves, we are entering a very dark time.
So what now?
I expect that most people who follow this newsletter/site are in deep mourning. Of course we are.
Please do what you need to do to take care of yourselves.
I hope that writing is part of that self-care. For me, writing is profoundly meditative. I can spend most of my day in places I choose, losing myself in fascinating characters, leaving my own worries and fears far behind.
The Redwood Highway, California
Further, I believe that narrative is more important that ever. This election was the result of many factors, but one of them was the dangerous ignorance of a gullible and easily manipulated public. Writing is one of the most powerful of the antidotes, tools, and weapons we have.
If you’ve committed to Nanowrimo and you’re still able to focus, great. Here’s an
Act I Checklist.
And here’s the section linking to posts for
All Four Acts
You might not be able to concentrate on writing yet. But when you do feel able, it would be valuable to spend some time thinking about what writing goals you have, and write out in detail how you can use your writing both for your own mental stability and to bring more light into the world.
It’s a good time to do this reflection, because as the activist journalist/historians I follow here on Substack have said, we have some breathing time before the real resistance has to start.
Personally I am committing to:
· Finishing our new book by the end of the year.
· Restructuring my historical newsletter
· Writing Book 7 in the Huntress Moon series
· Continuing weekly posts in this newsletter.
#1 – The new book.
I took myself seriously back in July when I laid out a plan to finish a book by the end of the year.
Craig and I are on track to finish Book 2 in our new Lost Highway series by the New Year. I love this part of the writing, when ideas are crackling and connections are being made and suddenly there is room to get in all the cool things we weren’t sure we could fit in, and it all makes a crazy kind of sense that is already very exciting to read. It’s also so encompassing that it doesn’t give me much time to think of anything else, which right now is lifesaving.
If you’re also on track to finish your book by the end of the year, let me know if there’s anything in particular I can help with, here!
And if you didn’t commit to a book by the end of the year— How about committing to a book by the end (or sooner) of next year? It’s always a good time to start a book, or finish one. I’m here to help.
#2: My historical newsletter, After the Gold Rush
In between doing all kinds of theater and dance at Berkeley, I studied history, especially California history. During the pandemic I went down a rabbit hole of historical research and started putting together a massive novelization of California history, featuring people who usually get left out of white male dominated history books. Everyone sort of knows the Gold Rush part of California history, so I started right after the Gold Rush — with the rush toward Civil War (from a seldom-seen California perspective). That very dark time period has just about everything to do with what’s going on in the US right now. And with right wing groups trying harder than ever to censor and whitewash history, banning books that tell non-patriarchal stories, pushing to substitute a cultish religious indoctrination for education — it’s more important than ever to tell our whole history.
I’m thinking that as I return to active posting, I’ll write some posts out of order, to make more parallels between now and then.
You can subscribe to the free After the Gold Rush newsletter here.
#3: The next Huntress Moon book.
I’ve had the seventh book in my Huntress Moon thriller series simmering on a back burner, because I knew the election would have a profound influence on the motivations and actions of my characters. Now I know what the fight will be. And when we finish the new Lost Highway book, I know what I need to do with the new Huntress book.
I base all the crimes, predators, social and legal failings I depict in the Huntress series on real-life crimes, real-life predators, and real-life laws and failings of the legal and social services system.
I wrote this series to spark a dialogue about the atrocity of rape culture, how it affects women, children, and men - and to ask readers to think about real life solutions to this horrific social, legal and spiritual problem.
At the same time, readers usually find the books extremely cathartic, as predators don’t fare well. At all. In this book you can bet those boys and men who are going around shouting “Your body, my choice” at schoolgirls are going to regret that.
Check out the series here – all six books are free on Kindle Unlimited.
#4 - This newsletter will carry on, with weekly posts as usual.
If you have the emotional bandwidth to do Nanowrimo, here is a Week 1 Checklist.
As always, let me know what topics/movies/whatever would be most useful to you.
I got a request like this last week that I want to address: a subscriber asked if I could break down the movie Now and Then because she’s working on a dual timeline book.
I love requests like this and would love to be able to do that — unfortunately I discovered Now and Then is not available to stream or rent in the UK!
It’s not just that finding the movie will be difficult for me. I really try to use examples that are easily to find and stream for most of my subscribers —ideally for free — or are so well-known that you can follow along with most of my points even if you don’t have the movie right in front of you.
But the Dual Timeline Structure is a great subject for a post, so I’m going to do one anyway. For me the first step in analyzing a story pattern is to make a Master List of movies and books with this pattern, and I’d like to ask Barb – can you give me examples of some other dual timeline movies that are similar to your own book?
I’ve done this past/present timeline before, in Bitter Moon and Shadow Moon, and it’s an exciting challenge. Some of the books and movies I looked at as touchstones for those books were:
· Stephen King’s It — the book, the TV series and the two movies (It Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 based on it.
· The TV series Yellowjackets
· Greta Gerwig’s film of Little Women
· Anne Rivers Siddons’ novel Outer Banks
I’ll think on some other useful examples — would love to hear suggestions on this one!
Whatever story pattern/s you’re working with, immersing yourself in this kind of intensive reading/movie watching/structure work is exactly the kind of fascinating and productive focus that might be the lifeline you need right now.
Please everyone take care, and let me know what I can do.
—Alex
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Stealing Hollywood ebook, $4.99, also available as print workbook
Writing Love ebook, $2.99
Thanks for this, I know how tough it has been for you anticipating the result. And I really like what you say about the power of narrative....in my day job, I feel like the challenge is very much to stay curious - not slump into comfortable binaries - to pursue the grey areas, and I suppose those are good aims for my story too. Hope you are looking after yourself too.
Thank you for your healing words. The suggestion to take a trip through a redwood forest -- either literally or simply sitting in front of our computers imagining it -- is very wise. I always appreciate your guiding spirit!