December 29, 2010
2:16amCynthia Kadohata Hi, Richard. How are you??
12:19amCynthia Kadohata Do you want to edit the book I'm working on?
12:45amRichard Bliwas Yes. I'd love to!
4:29pmCynthia Kadohata wouldn't need as much editing as last time because my editor has a very strong editing personality and wouldn't actually want someone else doing a lot of work on the manuscript. But maybe one go-through? Twenty hours? $$??
5:24pmRichard Bliwas If she doesn't want someone else doing a lot of work on the manuscript why are you starting trouble? I think it's cool though. Our previous work together was unique at least in my creative processes. I was often frustrated reading in the Heart of the Valley of Love that we never talked about it - anyway so yes yes yes ... as Molly Bloom would say and thank you!! I'll try and keep my hands off it and just try and give some musical perspective and maybe if I do a good job your editor can keep an eye out for real work? I love children's books.
December 31, 2010
6:26amCynthia KadohataHappy New Year!! I'm excited that you'll be reading my novel. Thank you!!!
6:19amCynthia Kadohata Amazing lyrics,truly. Magical stuff!
January 3, 2011
8:55pmRichard BliwasThanks for looking at the lyrics. The real beauty in the writing is your narrative! It’s familiar and unique and modern and antithetical to academically processed stuff. I laughed out loud when Katie offered to chew Lynne’s food. I liked that she bathed once in Sammy’s water. I love the sky stuff !!! The thought of stars made of ice and tea from China falling from the sky and feeling good makes me feel good!!! It was fun looking for your editor. kind of like a puzzle. The lists …. use of diary …? I could sort of feel her framing you here and there – but of course I don’t know. I read "your editor's" piece mysterious woman in the black silk robe who lived in the attic about you – and I loved her description of you pacing around the attic in your silk komono and broken glasses. I also remember the low hum of your electric typewriter and that you liked that sound. It’s obvious she loves you! I liked when she said " I wanted to be a writer. This attic roommate was a writer!!" Maybe one day I'll write a piece and refer to this correspondence like a hatsu-yumi. My creative personality is also very very strong – and I'm really stubborn.....I think having the pencil in my hand enabled me to infuse myself in to your manuscript in a way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
January 4, 2011
4:39amCynthia KadohataMaybe you should write a picture book? I mentioned the dog-elephant friendship to my editor and said you were a talented poet, and she would be happy to read a picture book by you if you want to write one.
7:15amRichard BliwasThank you. That was very nice of you! i've thought about picture books . Maybe a bread book or a cook-book...or one about synesthesia ... I think cook-books are kind of like poetry. I met a girl outside of the Duomo in Florence Italy in the mid-90's who started talking to me about an audition she just did for a movie called the Floating World! She said they liked her but thought she was too old .Once in a café, I was sitting next to two guys with a bunch of papers on their table. I didn't pay much attention at first -- but after a while I overheard their conversation. They were english teachers going through papers on a novel called The Floating World.
January 5, 2011
2:34amCynthia KadohataIn the nineties a woman named Kayo Hatta optioned The Floating World. She had won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was looking for her next project. They did do extensive auditions, but then the whole thing fell apart. Kayo died a couple of years ago. She had joined a cult religion that partly centered around ingesting some kind of chemical substance, and while on this substance she drowned in a hot tub. Then a Japanese director named Katsuhide Motoki optioned it, but nothing ever came of it.
3:11am
Richard Bliwas
So a big astral check for that
I won’t make it a red astral check – cause I read Caitlin avoids that color.
I’ll also have to study the proper format for editorial letters ( so I can deviate from it ….)
I remember when you were showing me how to mark stuff in the columns of the galleys in your sublet on 110th street ? 111th….? 112th….???
Was that Caitlin’s idea to keep coming back to elements of writing a school paper about a story in Kira-kira ? That was brilliant !!! and perfect references to Through the Looking Glass. I see your spirit it in so many little gems along the way ..... your descriptive paragraphs are so resonant and deep and natural
.
January 6, 2011
4:10amCynthia Kadohata
I remember you saying you slept in yourbackyard once. I asked you if you were scared, and you said, "We didn't think of our backyard as a dangerous place. I had to stay in Kazakhstan for more than seven weeks.
I love being in touch with you again!
January 11, 2011
6:16am
Cynthia Kadohata
So the book I'm working on now is about a farm girl whose parents want her to give up her dog. Also her best friend's mother is an alcoholic. I want it to be wistful. She's a happy girl but she's learning about things that aren't happy.
6:22am
Cynthia Kadohata
I stayed a couple of days with a farm family in Kansas for a crash course, and I'm going to visit with them again in the spring.
8:06am
Richard Bliwas
George Plimpton actually worked out or pitched in an off season game with the Detroit Tigers before writing about it. I read that book as a kid. Once i saw him riding his bike in central park. He didn't have a helmet.
January 12, 2011
8:24pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Ha ha, great story about the elephant coming after you. I didn't do a lot with elephants. All my editor said was that I had to touch an elephant. I really love your lyrics and your way with words in general. I would love to steal your brain!
8:56pm
Richard Bliwas The copy of Kira - had tons of space / formatting typos – I don't know what you call them
3:20pm
Richard Bliwas
started weedflower
prolific mysterious woman !!!!
5:39pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I think you're much more mysterious than me....
6:18pm
Richard Bliwas
Someone just wrote me this from California who found one of my records used .
I realize it's a bit odd and one-sided, that I should be growing tendrils of appreciation for you, and your expression, simply by listening to your Ghosts...but you see, my 3-year old daughter falls asleep to it...like my son did to Kind of Blue...and I leave it looping in my Blazer...and each time I listen, I hear you. A bit deeper. It's a special experience, because although I am an avid music lover, this kind of appreciation for another artist is once in a decade for me. Last decade it was Jeff Buckley.
What I really like is how original you are.
7:58pm
Cynthia Kadohata
You'd make a great dad.
8:31pm
Richard Bliwas
I like how music and aroma can reconnect the visible with the invisible.
Sometimes I like performing , but it's complex.
6:39am
Cynthia Kadohata
No, I don't write for hours. When I'm writing I have a three-page minimum. So it can take half an hour or three hours but usually somewhere in between. I have total, 100 percent trust in my editor, and last year I didn't manage to write anything she thought was publishable. So the urgency and stress I feel this year is because of that.
I trust you too.
January 18, 2011
8:28pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Did you know Sandra McPherson was the only friend we had in common?
January 20, 2011
7:54pm
Cynthia Kadohata
"Ball-gum machines" is great. I'm going to have to steal that from you someday.
I'm reading only children's books until I finish with my current project. I feel like since The Floating World I've become less into language and more into story, but I'd like to shift that balance slightly for this book, even though kids are more into story than language.
8:54pm
Richard Bliwas
"Ball-gum machines" is great. I'm going to have to steal that from you someday.
I've already published it ! I stole back the part about standing on the sink in my song Rubber Vendor. My mother said out of nowhere once that when she read " washed over with the same water " in Floating World it sounded like me ( it was )
11:09pm
Cynthia Kadohata
The driver assigned to people from my adoption agency in Kaz lost all his money when he tried to start a gum business with someone who scammed him. They were supposed to be selling gum in Pakistan
January 22, 2011
10:51pm
Richard Bliwas
Just finished Cracker. Remarkable!
Life draining from the face like light from the sky…
You have a nice touch with death.
Sound of the waterfall coming from inside like blood rushing
made me think of John Cage who says : even in soundproof room there is the high pitched sound of your blood and the thumping heart.
Wetting broken twigs with dirt – to camouflage the disruption....
You are really good at male point of view!
Rucksacks…!
Give the Solenoid a few taps – what the hell is that ?
I love the way the narration reveals Cracker's inner world and how that weaves and grows…
I’d love to see that kind human animal telepathy outside of the context of a war.
It‘s so interesting in itself –
Daily comic strip ? I used to love Peanuts – that was my favorite .Cracker is actually a dog from outer space ? from the planet ball gum ? ? maybe after the movie launches a tv series and more movies they will open ball gum amusement park in the 22nd century .
Something about the captain coming to chew out the cook sounds funny. Whimsy is rare and liable to be misunderstood nowadays.
4:06am
Cynthia Kadohata
Do you like happy endings better? For the book I'm working on now, I think my editor is expecting a kind of bittersweet ending, but since it involves a dog I only have the heart for a happy ending.
February 4, 2011
1:53pm
Richard Bliwas
Happy or sad ... either way ... so long as it feels organic - you know , not contrived or placed... I like endings that resonate. I’ll keep conscious of those rhythms .. "I'm an errand boy of rhythm" Nat Cole was singing earlier today " and conscious of the contrapuntal rhythms that occur say from the way a sequence of chapters ends -- or a sequence of chapters leading up to an ending.
5:55am
Cynthia Kadohata
I may have to send it to you without an ending. I'm having some problems with it.
I should be sending you the manuscript in the next couple of weeks
4:33am
Cynthia Kadohata
Well, I'm not regretting writing you in the least, by the way.
4:35am
Cynthia Kadohata
I've spent all night working on my ending. I thought I had it, but I changed my mind.
5:24am
Cynthia Kadohata
You have a long big toe.
February 14, 2011
11:03pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Just wanted to let you know I put the manuscript in the mail today.
11:46am
Richard Bliwas
great
February 16, 2011
4:54am
Cynthia Kadohata
Now I'm having second thoughts. Why don't you hold off on reading that manuscript and I'll send you a later version. The last time when my agent read my manuscript before my editor, I feel like I made some changes that kind of went against what my editor wanted. I mean it kind of muddied the waters. So I think my editor should be the first to read it. Can you just send me that manuscript back instead of reading it? Thank you!!
6:53pm
Cynthia Kadohata
No, don't work on the manuscript. You'll prejudice me and make me resent my editor when she tells me what SHE thinks.
6:59pm
Richard Bliwas
You are such a tease!
9:33pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Sorry, I change my mind a lot.
February 22, 2011
7:20pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I love Rising Rose Bakery! It reminds me of New York at night
February 26, 2011
6:32pm
Cynthia Kadohata
No, I was just thinking about how my very smart agent read my last manuscript for me before I submitted to Caitlyn and also during. And Gail (agent) told me great, helpful stuff, but some of it directly contradicted what Caitlyn thought. So I actually ended up kind of resentful of Caitlyn and thinking, Hmmmph, GAIL didn't think that.
And I always say to people that it's better to work with only one person on a manuscript, because even if a second person tells you things that are helpful and correct, if you make those changes the changes somehow don't fit in with what your primary person suggests....if I'm even making sense. It somehow interferes with your razor-sharp focus. On the other hand, focus is something I'm having some troubles with right now for some reason.
Now all of this might not even be relevant because you are a poet and a musician and would probably suggest things that were unrelated to what Caitlyn might say.
I actually think you're a genius, by the way.
6:48pm
Richard Bliwas
I remember that you sent the manuscript that became the Floating World to several people including Caitlyn right before I started working on it. I think you are a mature enough artist to work with more than one voice although I understand. I edited you FIRST Haha!
6:56pm
Richard Bliwas
Now all of this might not even be relevant because you are a poet and a musician and would probably suggest things that were unrelated to what Caitlyn might say.
I think that's probably true -- and I can craft my editorial comments within any particular context that Caitlin designs.
March 1, 2011
5:34pm
Cynthia Kadohata
The manuscript is a mess. I think it would be a waste of your time to read it until I get it closer. I'm worried about it.
5:50pm
Richard Bliwas
Don't mind if manuscript is a mess.
5:54pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I was thinking next time I'm in New York we should have sushi, but then I realized you might not even be there.
5:16pm
Cynthia Kadohata
But it's such a mess. I hope Caitlyn thinks it's good enough for my first draft payment.
I can't remember what draft you first saw of The Floating World. I'm having trouble getting a good first draft together.
5:42pm
Richard Bliwas
Initially there was a question as to whether it would be a short story collection so I always felt happy that everyone seemed to accept it as a novel.
9:38pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I LOVED the Legion of Superheroes! I had a big box of comic books that my mother unfortunately threw away one day.
9:42pm
Richard Bliwas
That's weird - so did I . One day I came home from school in 7th or 8th grade and my mother said she gave them to our neighbors granddaughter.
5:27pm
Cynthia Kadohata
What's wrong with playing for money AND making recordings that come from deep inside you? I actually think you could express your genius in both ways.
10:59pm
Richard Bliwas
A few years ago I was tracking a record that was getting played on a California radio station and came across an interview you did in 89 When they asked if you had help -- you said yes , my friend ( meaning me ... ) and you sounded free of something when you said that. I never thought we'd speak again then although technically we still haven't.
1:50am
Cynthia Kadohata
I usually
don't think of writing as relaxing.
It's very nice to be in touch with you again. I'd forgotten how easy it was to talk to you.
1:53am
Cynthia Kadohata
Walk the Bike is absolutely awesome!!!
5:50pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Since I started writing children's books I don't really read anything by grown-ups anymore. I haven't read David Foster Wallace.
5:53pm
Richard Bliwas
Oscar Wilde wrote some unusual children's books.
I've always loved children’s books
especially the classics
.
1:30am
Cynthia Kadohata
If you put a children's book together, send it to my editor!
1:34am
Richard Bliwas
Do you think she'd like my lyrics illustrated and maybe edited to bring out the children's sensibility ?
March 11, 2011
6:59pm
Cynthia Kadohata
They don't have to be illustrated, since the publisher usually likes to find their own illustrator
7:10pm
Cynthia Kadohata
The lyrics to Moroccan Roll could work for a children's book with some changes. Great CD!
9:56pm
Richard Bliwas
I kind of think of Gorby Block or Forest Story from Was Is or most anything from Astral Prints as New York fairy tales -- and could see them opened up in a book with just a few words a page.
1:49pm
Cynthia Kadohata
The situation with the manuscript is this. I am having to do the whole thing over again because my editor hated my first draft and I wrote some new stuff which she loved. But it will take months to finish a new draft. And this is a little embarrassing, am now in debt and wouldn't even have enough money to pay you. I am on a very, very strict budget. I don't know why I'm being so honest with you. These are things I have told nobody.
2:07pm
Richard Bliwas
I should have read the manuscript before sending it back . I did read the first page.
Don't let your inability to pay me at this moment disrupt the creative process. I don't know how you knew with Floating World that I could do what I did. Thanks for being honest!
3:29pm
Cynthia Kadohata
You're a magical being. Seriously. I'm sure there are many others around, but it so happens I don't recognize them for whatever reason. I happen to recognize it in you for whatever reason.
3:35pm
Richard Bliwas
Food is always telling stories.
1:15am
Cynthia Kadohata
And, yes, I do think it's your long big toe that is the source of your magic.
2:45pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Thank you, I may very well call you one night, though it wouldn't be late because I don't stay up late anymore
3:11pm
Richard Bliwas
Kenneth Koch the ny poet wrote some nice books on teaching poetry to children.
4:27pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Mishugina could be a Japanese word pronounced mee-shoo-gee-na. The Japanese don't really put a strong accent on any particular syllable.
4:32pm
Richard Bliwas
Yiddish is definitely emphatic . I like mee-shoo-gee-na . Looks like a mantra .... or something we could get in addition to the sushi.
5:45pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Manuscript on the way. I'm at a Japanese-American book and artist sale, but hardly anyone is left. It's just us talking to each other.
5:02pm
Richard Bliwas
Got it ! Playing somewhere tonight....
Can I take a few days ....?
May 10, 2011
8:53pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Yes, a few days is fine because my editor is out of town anyway. A mouse you caught back in the eighties worked its way into The Floating World, if you remember.
11:01pm
Richard Bliwas
Paul Caruso played w/ me tonight at the gig . He used to play w/ Jimi Hendrix!!!!!
May 11, 2011
1:57pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Wow, cool!
5:20pm
Richard Bliwas
Maybe a song like that could come on the radio ...
or just make one up
.
I love the idea of superstitions and farm / wheat superstitions in particular -- going to try and research that a little - but either way an interesting element to develop as a counterpoint to the narrative.
5:33pm
Richard Bliwas
It is really wistful !!!! and your shifting the texture between story and language that you were talking about seem totally realized ,although , I'm only about half-way through
5:43pm
Richard Bliwas
In a fantasy world you could call more or less anything bread. The agent of the mouse who worked his way into the Floating World wrote on fb last night and said to tell you that the mouse want's his own novella!
8:27pm
Richard Bliwas
So beautiful ! nothing superfluous .... I love it !!!!
9:58pm
Richard Bliwas
I marked it up a little line by line - mostly me just saying hello to you , or just thinking out - loud .. nothing like what I did with the Floating World. I changed some of the meat stuff to veggie options -- but you can laugh that stuff off -- and other wise – I love the way all the dialogue is smart , not pejorative or condescending I can see the narrative turning somewhere - or going back -- so you have me enthralled --How can they take that dog away ? I guess he did get his nose into things....? I would like to play up some of the Americana -- through music and sound and - nice chord w/ all those beautiful Japanese references --- you sure do know a lot of stuff ....
4:27am
Richard Bliwas
All the great kira kira from Kira Kira is here too !!! Although this seems even more cohesive in many ways .... you are more confident !!! The runaways are the perfect looking glass for any kind of supernatural stuff , visitations , ghosts , what have you ... I don't know --I left a few markers -- maybe in too obvious of places -- but you'll get the idea ...maybe it's more wistful not to develop that and just leave everything levitating - but I thought most of what I read was about perfect and thought maybe to add stuff rather than take anything away -- although I did mark up the manuscript here and there for this and that ... I hope you won't be mad if you aren't mad already --- although at least I know that in another 22 years or whatever you won't still be mad at me for anything that is happening now.
May 12, 2011
12:15pm
Richard Bliwas I'll re-read it again before sending it back. I want this to be your best book !
4:06pm
Cynthia Kadohata
re: the manuscript, you've made me deliriously happy as i SO want this to be my best book. I've said that from the beginning to my editor, and I feel very strongly about it. Thank you so much for reading it, Richard. It means a lot to me because I know you have a musical, genius ear for language.
4:12pm
Richard Bliwas
so Is there more .....? I personally love those floating poems from the tang dynasty and haiku's .... so think it's beautiful form wise - to end where you did -- but I was wondering -- cause the novel could be more complex with a turn / transformation and re-capitulation -- so I wasn't sure .
4:17pm
Cynthia Kadohata
What do you mean a turn/transformation and recapitulation? I can do anything that makes the novel stronger but need to know what you mean.
5:19pm
Richard Bliwas
Say the novel turned to a different time. Maybe an earlier part of thunder's life - or a section more with the parent's ... or Marie going through a few more changes--- I’m still having a hard time accepting that they are just going to let go of the dog ... I'll have to re read .It's perfectly cool to end there - more wistful... Your story telling is lovely and subtle!!
5:58pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Would it help if in the list at the end it said "I might have to give away Thunder," since using "might" would take away the inevitability of it?
10:48pm
Richard Bliwas
unless you want it to be inevitable . kind of pretty that way too crisp as a red winter wheat berry and just like life . The bread connection into our spirit is really interesting -- similar to music and probably other things
May 13, 2011
11:04am
Richard Bliwas
re reading today - (told you I'm slow...) then I guess I'll write some sort of editorial letter -- although I've been marking things line by line. I should be able to send this back tomorrow unless you'd rather I keep it for a while so we could reference specific parts. I hope what I've said already has been helpful .
May 13, 2011
5:43pm
Richard Bliwas
Just finished re-reading . Yes, it's great . Be happy !!!
May 14,
9:19am
Richard Bliwas
Was thinking about sending sase back to you today - unless you wanted to work specifically on anything in particular. Anyway, yeah it's wonderful ! Everything feels effortless. I don’t think the urgency has at all departed you as you feared. In fact it’s folded in with everything else just more invisible and seamless – so just imagine what is possible from this point …..Just about anything …. !!!! You have nothing to fear in any universe…. So long as your inner space stays so balanced, perceptive and intuitive. I’m so happy you asked me to read / edit – or whatever I’m doing. I’m not sure if you have specific questions about it – other than where to place the repeated paragraph about growing up beautiful , breaking hearts, falling in love... I like it earlier – but I also start looking at it as a musical form – and I kind of like that it repeats ….even though I don’t think you actually thought to do that…. Hmmmm . this is something I do when I’m editing my piano takes etc… to just consider what I’m looking at … however it got there ….. and I think I tuned into that process with the Floating World work. A poetic structure could emerge from your questioning where to place that paragraph – and I suggested some sort of variation .I honestly think it’s fine the way it is – but there is room for little ripples here and there- Which I kind of marked in the manuscript – but I don’t want you to think I meant whole sections or even paragraphs --- just an image – or 1 or 2 sentence runaway or variation on a runaway would provide that --- or maybe it’s cleaner without anything further. I just always think there might be room for a ghost or two – especially with all those wheat fields and empty roads --- something to “ chew “ on here and there or hear to bring the Americana somewhat more into the foreground or more clarified inner voice --- would be cool and probably commercial .Maybe even through a song from the radio – the country song already there that get’s turned off could become an actual song with lyrics – or somewhere else , you know.. Demeter was the greek goddess of harvest === there is a lot of mythology about all this --- so you know me=== I would just thread that and crop-circles – and family apparitions together somehow however loosely --- how how ….? The theme of bad luck is blues – so maybe a new kind of Japanese American blues here –that color could probably be illuminated a little more emphatically if you chose to do so with an image ripple runaway apparition motif.
11:35am
Richard Bliwas
mailed back
May 14, 2011
9:16pm
Richard Bliwas
Bhangra is a lively form of folk music and dance that originates from Punjab. People traditionally performed Bhangra when celebrating the harvest. During Bhangra, people sing Punjabi Boliyaan lyrics, at least one person plays the the dhol drum, and other people may play the flute, dholak drum, or other musical instruments. While Bhangra began as a part of harvest festival celebrations,
The up-tempo style of music originating in the Punjab region of Northern India and Pakistan. Origianlly the rhymes and drum songs performed by Wheat Farmers during and after the harvest season. Contemporary interpretations of classic songs have had a large impact on the charts. Can also describe the traditional style of dance performed by the same ethnic group at traditional ceremonies.
May 15, 2011
10:55pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I love the color blue. Definitely my favorite color. I can't wait to get the manuscript back from you.
10:57pm
Cynthia Kadohata
The Americana thing is a great idea. The people in Kansas I spent time with were deeply into country music. And old-fashioned values, or whatever you want to call them.
May 16, 2011
10:34am
Richard Bliwas
I didn't mean specifically the color blue -- I was just thinking that it's a blues ... the themes of bad luck etc... although that's not to say that certain dusty gray gradations of the color blue wouldn't be exactly right.
May 16, 2011
6:50pm
Cynthia Kadohata
George says Kira-Kira is better. Do you think that's true? I want this to be my best book.
7:23pm
Richard Bliwas
I don't think you need to worry about better or best ... just continue to be in the moment.
No it's not true
this one is better
but , kira - kira -- is sentimental in ways that might make it more accessible
.
9:55pm
Richard Bliwas
Sentimental isn't the right word
May 17, 2011
7:54am
Richard Bliwas
Take the last two digits of the year in which you were born - now addthe age you will be this year, The results will be 111 for everyone in whole world !
11:38am
Richard Bliwas
I know you were talking about the glass half-empty endings ...
I do like the ending as it is ! but maybe a variation or two wouldn't be fruitless ... wonder how ending with some sort of runaway would resonate?
The runaway could incorporate the environment and be very realistic
May 17, 2011
4:29pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I do like half empty endings. It's in my nature. But kids love happy endings. Cracker had a happy ending and kids really love that book the most of my books. Now I know I shouldn't tailor my endings for the reader, yet it is something to think about
4:38pm
Cynthia Kadohata
The only half full ending I could think of was if she got to keep the dog.
Maybe I could say she would try to persuade her parents when they got from Japan?
7:04pm
Richard Bliwas
Perhaps -- if that opened up to some other half empty / full area ... but don't think the dog should be the last thought
.
12:26am
Cynthia Kadohata
I thought I messaged this to you but now I don't see it. Do youi find that the ending doesn't quite satisfy you?
12:47am
Richard Bliwas
It actually does satisfy me. I think a lot of the book is very subtle so I like that. Do you find it completely organic ? ... It seems crated within your taste. just not so revelatory maybe -- which could be even nicer --- maybe there are a couple missing beats prior to the ending and not the ending itself .. .don't know I'll have to think about it
9:55am
Richard Bliwas
I meant crafted not crated .... so it works - -maybe it could be more magical .... maybe it shouldn't be so magical.....
Is it so common for kids to be familiar/ comfortable with guns ? That kind of worries me a little ....
9:56am
Richard Bliwas
I was just talking about the ending being crafted ... not the rest of the book -- most of the book doesn't feel like that at all.
May 18, 2011
2:00pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Yes, the place where I stayed all the kids including a 10-year-old had guns. The kids LOVE to hunt.
Thanks for the editorial flower! I'll probably have questions here and there about things you wrote.
2:18pm
Richard Bliwas
Still , it's fiction ... and people will read the book everywhere hopefully forever -- so perhaps just be aware that children aren't usually growing up with guns anymore -- I know you already are
2:21pm
Richard Bliwas
I hope you aren't mad at me for anything I wrote . I was mostly reading it on the futon -- with a pen -- I think the black pen was the 2nd time through -- w/ the Floating World I actually sat down at a table --- although I did take what I was reading to a gig now and then -- so I could work a little on the breaks. I was reading Weeflower at a jazz club in January and it made me think about that
May 18, 2011
12:27am
Cynthia Kadohata
What do you mean by revelatory? It's so cool that you're doing all those gigs, by the way! What a great way to live.
Still looking over your notes, but did get a giggle about the tofu.
Yeah, but the guns show what life is on a farm.
1:21am
Cynthia Kadohata
People who go hunting and pull the guts out of animals don't usually eat tofu.
2:39am
Richard Bliwas
Depends on which farm they are brought up on
May 19, 2011
10:24am
Cynthia Kadohata
I might be going to Texas to watch a harvest.
12:47am
Cynthia Kadohata
By the way, don't you remember what Ben said -- I'm ruthless commercial. I can't just be in the moment. I want each book to be my best...y'all
9:59am
Richard Bliwas
People who go hunting and pull the guts out of animals don't usually eat tofu.
Still the food could reflect the local agriculture infused with the Japanese kitchen a bit more anyway - so both the Japanese and the "Americana" color could developed just from the menu's throughout the book --does anyone there make bread with all that wheat ? You did bring in the umebushi plum paste -- I know the people you stayed with maybe ate chicken all the time.
7:22pm
Richard Bliwas
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/autumn-wheat-harverst-folk-art-country-farm-americana-landscape-oil-painting-walt-curlee.html
Autumn Wheat Harverst-Folk Art Country Farm Americana Landscape Oil Painting Painting by Walt Curlee
fineartamerica.comAutumn Wheat Harverst-Folk Art Country Farm Americana Landscape Oil Painting Painting by Walt Curlee - Autumn Wheat Harverst-Folk Art Country Farm Americana Landscape Oil Painting Fine Art Prints and Posters for Sale
7:34pm
Richard Bliwas
Not such a great painting -- I love the millet photo though ... but I'm just starting to fish around for folklore -- I love the mechanical combine stuff and the importance of a certain percentage of hydration to frame the optimum time to harvest the wheat -- but this is such an old craft that I feel there might be some other maybe older perspective that would be intriguing and warm -- and then I'd like to see it applied somehow to the kitchen -- well , maybe that's me the bread baker talking --but I could still tell you things about vending that nobody in the world would know except a vendor -- ( or want to know .. ) So I imagine -- there is the same stream going through the lineage of wheat farming -- maybe it became commodified after a few generations like everything ... but things sometimes cycle back. I wonder how removing the endosperm and germ after ww2 in American made ( processed ) bread --effected the wheat farmers if at all.
May 22, 2011
11:09am
Richard Bliwas
Farmers labor in the fields, relax with a picnic and have fun in this vast landscape. This is the way wheat was harvested in Europe and this is the way it must have been in Michigan, harvesting wheat before the production of the reapers by McCormick and others at the end of the 1840's.
http://jovialfoods.com/blog/2011/02/wheat-awareness1/
WHEAT AWARENESS-Dwarfing, Biodiversity and Nutrition
jovialfoods.comCompare the Peter Bruegel painting from 1565 of a wheat harvest to the photo of modern wheat harvesting. Wheat has changed! Ancient vari
11:15am
Richard Bliwas
I love the Brueggal paintings!
2:26pm
Cynthia Kadohata
No afternoon picnics anymore. Lunch in the combine.
6:24pm
Richard Bliwas
They didn't just eat they danced and played music at the picnics. I like the emphasis on the " radio " in the farmer's kid's video -- anything can happen with a radio on -- you know they say radio waves go on for infinity.
May 24, 2011
9:47pm
Richard Bliwas
All Sorrows are less with Bread
May 25, 2011
9:34am
Richard Bliwas
The book will be immediately engaging and it seems shorter than your recent work .
May 26, 2011
2:23pm
Richard Bliwas
It's going to be a beautiful beautiful book !!!!!!!!!
3:52pm
Richard Bliwas
I find a thinner book more engaging ...
4:01pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I have to confess that I've never, ever read a really long book. I love the apparition and runaway stuff you suggested . I think that will make the book more mysterious...well, mysterious isn't really the
word I'm looking for.
4:05pm
Richard Bliwas
Probably won't be so humid this time of year ... and no mosquitos yet --- hey , you haven't written a " bug " book yet ....! well , have a good time and enjoy the yellow roses of Texas!
May 26, 2011
8:33pm
Richard Bliwas
A wheat genie from one of Brueggal’s wheat harvest picnic paintings mischievously distracts Summer during a critical moment shortly after a typical lunch in the combine when 13.5 could easily become 15.3.
After King Harvest by the Band got played on the radio – a porthole opened between the physical and cosmic wheat fields enabling king harvest to appear in the shapes of animals and sandwiches with animals in them telling the future in thunder , lightning clouds and decimal points
.
May 28, 2011
3:12pm
Cynthia Kadohata
You can't fool me. There's no such thing as a wheat genie. On the train to Texas. Actually we're already in Texas. It's hot out there.
1:11pm
Cynthia Kadohata
But I think I should stick in the phrase"wheat genie" somewhere.
1:48pm
Richard Bliwas
Once the phrase is in there -- it might actually work as the title
googled it and you are right
there is no such thing
.
2:09pm
Cynthia Kadohata
They call people who harvest "wheaties.". I wonder if I would qualify as a wheatie since I'm doing this book.
2:16pm
Richard Bliwas
I don't see why not . After all, working on a book is a kind of harvesting.
3:52pm
Richard Bliwas
Less chicken more wheaties
June 2, 2011
2:11pm
Richard Bliwas
I remember you telling me that your hairs were like little animals when I mentioned finding them around the apt. I thought about that over the years whenever I would find hairs. I have a bag of my cat's whisker's .. but we are bonded for eternity anyway.
June 21, 2011
3:30pm
Cynthia Kadohata
You could write something whimsical. I never used to likeDr. Seuss, but then when I read his books with Sammy Ithought they were quite clever.
3:38pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I know this is a bad time to ask, but can you think of away to describe wheat when the wind blows or even when it doesn't. My editor just wrote that I should write "a great description." But I think all the beautiful descriptions of wheat have all been used up. Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 08:58:53 -0700
3:42pm
Richard Bliwas
How’s this?: Old fortune tellers sometimes watched wheat blowing in the wind when they were divining
hmmmm , wheat not moving .... kind of a beautiful image
, like Buddah.
3:46pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Hey, that's really cool about the fortune tellers.Can I use that?
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:42:54 -0700
3:48pm
Richard Bliwas
It's kind of a love affair since the moisture in the air is hydrating the wheat. Wheat could also be like the poppies in Wiz of Oz .... you know a doorway into some other world --- Orpheus descending ….
3:51pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Do you mind if I stick it in my book? I'll say itwas something the girl was told. What anamazing mind you have!
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:48:58 -0700
3:52pm
Richard Bliwas
I can see a book called the Wheat Genie on the shelves and the cover practically. It sounds so intriguing and commercial, don't you think?
3:52pm
Cynthia Kadohata
You're such a freaking genius. Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:50:28 -0700
5:22pm
Cynthia Kadohata
That DID come out wrong, for sure. I just mean you cancome up with something like fortune telling from watchingthe wheat blow, and it's great, and it's worth something. It'sworth money and it's worth karma, but it has to be seen inthe right environment. But putting it in the right environmentis your thing. I mean I can take a great detail and stick itin my novel, but in the larger picture it's really all about whatyou do with it.
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:06:40 -0700
5:29pm
Cynthia Kadohata
And what I don't understand is why it hasn't ended upin the environment that, as you put it, is going to changeyour life.
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:06:40 -0700
5:36pm
Richard Bliwas
It's great when my records get played on the radio -- those playlists are gratifying.
7:36pm
Richard Bliwas
Wind blowing wheat to the north in the snow moon indicates a harvest with nutty characteristics. ( popular among the whole- wheat community ...)
Wind blowing wheat to the south in the harvest moon means to approach from the north when shearing and also usually results in a harvest offering citrus undertones ( good for sourdough )
My grandfather was an amateur astronomer as well as a wheat farmer and when he died we found several old journals detailing yearly correlations between shifting constellations and wind patterns illustrated by a sequence of drawings and photographs detailing a narrative of wind – blown – wheat …. !!! with exotic medieval looking month to month schematics!
9:36pm
Richard Bliwas
November wheat with a slight north easterly breeze :
Sissy Spacek
august wheat with a brewing storm blowing up from the south west :
Natalie Portman
april wheat with steady north to south moderate wind :
Mia Farrow
september wheat still as a wolf
June 23, 2011
3:05pm
Cynthia Kadohata
A
breeze rippled over the field. In the light
the wheat was the color of coffee with a lot of milk. Jiichan had once told me that some people
could tell your fortune by looking at the way the wind blew the wheat around
you. A straight layer of storm clouds
stretched across the horizon. Texas had
been dry this year.
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:36:40 -0700
3:16pm
Richard Bliwas
cafe latte
make mine w/ soy milk please
or hemp,almond, coconut, hazelnut
.
4:54pm
Richard Bliwas
How about period after "light" not after" field "? next sentence :
" The wheat was ......
1:25pm
Richard Bliwas
involuntary as in fluid.
1:45pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Synesthetes. I like that. It's like athletes. I don't know where youreport your experiences, but there may be some kind of synestheteorganization, or you could start one when your life calms down. Evenif you were the only person in the organization, it might be interesting.It's probably a useful talent when writing a book for young children.Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:25:14 -0700
1:48pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Do you think stevia is good for you?
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:25:14 -0700
1:55pm
Richard Bliwas It's o k but probably not as a sugar substitute - maple syrup is better ... best to exclude sugar and all it's substitutes from your palette
remember processed flour ( white flour, pasta made with even white unbleached flour ... ) is just more sugar
3:51pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I peered through the back windshield at the highway
curving through the wheat. Someone had built
all that highway, and someone had planted all that wheat. And now it was all out there, like magic. It reminded me the field of poppies in The Wizard
of Oz, a doorway to another world, and I was a part of it.
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:55:57 -0700
3:53pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Whoops, left out an "of".
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:55:57 -0700
4:11pm
Richard Bliwas
The poppy field was created by the witch to keep Dorothy and co. from getting into the city,
but poppies are a doorway flower
.Heroin from poppies and poppy seeds and poppy flower tea,
bread from the wheat
.
4:31pm
Cynthia Kadohata
That's right, isn't it? I haven't seen the movie in forever
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:11:16 -0700
4:52pm
Richard Bliwas
Maybe he is scared of the witch .
making a reference to Oz is one of the best ways to get any one to understand doorways to hidden worlds
.
5:14pm
Richard Bliwas
There was more than one doorway between Kansas and Oz
.
12:04am
Cynthia Kadohata
Is this better?
I peered through the back windshield at the highway
curving through the wheat. Someone had
built all that highway, and someone had planted all that wheat. It reminded me of a field out of The Wizard
of Oz, a doorway to another world, and I was a part of it.
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:14:46 -0700
12:09am
Cynthia Kadohata
Well, I would have to fix that "It"
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:14:46 -0700
I peered through the back windshield at the highway
curving through the wheat. Highway. Wheat. Sky.
It all reminded me of something out of The Wizard
of Oz, like a doorway to another world, and I was a part of it.
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:14:46 -0700
I peered through the
back windshield at the highway curving through the wheat. Highway. Wheat. Sky. So simple. It all looked like a doorway to another world,
and I was a part of it.
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:14:46 -0700
12:22am
Richard Bliwas
Good edit . I was going to re-write -but you beat me to it . I would have made the poppy thing and the wizard of oz reference work . but it's good now
.You can say " that poppy field " from wizard of oz and everybody knows what you are talking about - it's like a dream everybody had together . Was it just a hallucination? A witch after all is just an herbalist . Such a nice confluence with the flower!
11:48am
Richard Bliwas
Cool how the image is stronger without the oz reference - the editing process creates all that resonance . The poppies felt a little like a color clash --- but you could still stick a reference in somewhere else.
June 28, 2011
12:19pm
Richard Bliwas
Yarrow stalks were of course used for divination in china
. I used pixie sticks as a yarrow stalk substitute when I threw the i-ching
. Easy to imagine an Asian fortune teller waking up in North America adapting the craft to the local agronomy
.
1:35pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I was really into the i-ching for a while, around the time I wasadopting Sammy in late 2003 and into 2004. I Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:20:56 -0700
1:59pm
Richard Bliwas
I-ching wants you to transcend
1:19am
Cynthia Kadohata
I love Jung's preface as well -- in fact, I love it as much as the i Ching Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:06:40 -0700
1:46am
Richard Bliwas
Was it about synchronicity? more simultaneity vs. western cause & effect . the quantum physicists are catching up . john cage's books are great . They all talk about the i-ching . but synchronicity in a composed cosmic sort of way .
June 30, 2011
2:16pm
Richard Bliwas
I love that poem :
don't make the mistake of believing that one day all this will be a memory
kiss the mouth that tells you here is the world
Galway is such a bear
3:31pm
Richard Bliwas
yeah , very stark -- like coming out of a dream - the absence of reverb … cry or don’t cry,
don't die or die
4:40pm
Cynthia Kadohata
You have a good memory. I just googled the poem and see that it does have "else" in it. You're more intellectual than me so maybethat's part of it.Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:37:31 -0700
4:29pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I don't know how you format the manuscripts for picturebooks, like if it's all on one page or a different page corresponding to different pages in the actual book. ButI think it's closer to poetry than to a novel. And maybe a short story is in the middle.
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2011 13:21:30 -0700
4:29pm
Richard Bliwas
I love the idea of a short story being in the middle , or an audio recording integrated with the volume in some way or another
.
July 2, 2011
4:34pm
Richard Bliwas Loved your line about the spirit in the paperbacks
. Something more malleable about them , so kind of more like a living entity.
8:45pm
Richard Bliwas
also the way image prints on the paperback cover makes it
3:19am
Richard Bliwas
I told my landlord that my father had a volatile temper and that his tough managing landlord is Tinker-Bell by comparison . I think that made him laugh . In another letter I offered to blind fold the managing landlord and conduct a pizza tasting contest.
3:21am
Cynthia Kadohata
Ha ha on the pizza contest. No wonder he likes you.
3:21am
Cynthia Kadohata
You're so peaceful.
3:26am
Cynthia Kadohata
If you stare at "how so" it starts to seem like another language.
3:28am
Richard Bliwas
Soapy water all over the bathroom floor to slide on. Sounds like fun
.
3:28am
Cynthia Kadohata
I have to go to sleep. He gets up early. I'm glad we're friends again!!
July 7, 2011
10:46pm
Richard Bliwas
I wrote this today :
Frieda might become a giraffe or something weird.
Frieda saw colors when she played the piano.
They weren’t like colors in a box of crayons.
They were inside her head.
Frieda thought about the ocean when she saw colors.
It made her sleepy but sometimes it made her excited.
When she thought about the ocean she could hear the sound of the waves.
Thinking about the sound of the waves made her run her hands over the keyboard.
Sometimes she imagined the white keys were the wings of seagulls.
Everything I’ve ever dreamed about has passed before me she started to sing.
The music blew up like a bubble gum balloon .
July 8, 2011
6:24pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I I'm reading over a print-out of my novel. But I need to take breakssometimes. Sometimes when I read it over, I think it's working andsometimes I read it over, and I can't relate to it at all. Do you feelthat way with your music?.
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2011 12:37:38 -0700
6:35pm
Richard Bliwas
Last few records i have mixed meticulously ...taking breaks / stepping back is essential so it can take a while ... do you want me to read it again ?
July 10, 2011
12:26am
Cynthia Kadohata
I e-mailed it to her again. I'm very anxious about it, though.
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2011 15:50:53 -0700
12
12:56am
Richard Bliwas
you can re-mail it to me if you want . I'll read it right away . any project is a good one. It might not turn out the way you think
.
2:43am
Cynthia Kadohata
Can I send you the Kazakhstan one?
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2011 22:11:19 -0700
3:29am
Richard Bliwas
sure .
July 10, 2011
3:20pm
Richard Bliwas I remember when Oberlin ( Stuart Freibiert) sent you a letter inviting you to apply to be artist in residence in 1989
July 11, 2011
12:09am
Cynthia Kadohata
What does "post-modern" mean, anyway?
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:21:59 -0700
12:16am
Richard Bliwas
after Cassius Clay ... ?
12:52am
Cynthia Kadohata
But still the question doesn't make sense to me. "Where do you placeyourself in the post-modern tradition?" Even if the post-moderntradition is anything after Cassius Clay, where do I place my work in it? Do you ever eat frozen blueberries? It's really good. Aren't you the onewho taught me to freeze my grapes?
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:31:33 -0700
July 13, 2011
3:25am
Cynthia Kadohata
My favorite book jacket of all is the one for Kira-Kira.
Second is Weedflower. Third is Floating World. I also like the upcoming paperback of Million Shades of Gray.
12:29am
Richard Bliwas
I mentioned that Arik ( one of the landlords ) reads from the torah which talks about invisible universes ... fortunately they haven't figured out how to rent them yet .
3:05am
Cynthia Kadohata
So I guess you're a rule-breaker? I know sometimes when I see asign that says not to touch something, it does make me want totouch it. It's kind of an OCD thing, though. I start to feel like I have to touch it.
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2011 21:52:41 -0700
2:48pm
Cynthia Kadohata
. You'd make a good dad.
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 08:03:06 -0700
4:18pm
Richard Bliwas
.
The woman with my baby ( 12 now I think...) will never talk to me again . I believe she left the baby with the father and lives alone somewhere in Manhattan . I did talk to her once a couple years ago and she said she's through with artists.
July 20, 2011
1:35am
Cynthia Kadohata
She's reading the combinenovel now, so I'm not sure if she's pleased with this new draft or not. I addedabout thirty pages. She should be getting back to me shortly
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:23:06 -0700
2:32am
Cynthia Kadohata
I think it would be a waste of time to send the Kazakhstan novel until I get it to a place where it at least resembles what it will bewhen it's finished. I can't even stand to look at it right now, actually. I may just start it from scratch.
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:23:06 -0700
4:54pm
Richard Bliwas
This apt may be some kind of old lower east side spirit meeting ground -- I've had dreams where my room is full of strangers
.
5:21pm
Richard Bliwas
. I think the improvisation of music or even the recreation of music as music is enough of a performance
.
6:29pm
Richard Bliwas
I love finding my songs on playlists I wish people would start downloading my records -- it would be like a musical astral vending machine.
10:57pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Got the last version of my manuscript back with an eleven-pageeditorial letter. So there's a lot of work to do. Caitlyn still doesn'tthink it's coming together. It was kind of depressing to get herletter.Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2011 12:32:29 -0700
11:14pm
Richard Bliwas
Why don't you send me her letter ?
11:23pm
Richard Bliwas She wants it to be great too that's all .
1:06am
Cynthia Kadohata
Here is the letter. Ignore the compliments! She just does that to keep me from getting too sad
August 5, 2011
2:15pm
Richard Bliwas
reading reading reading those notes .
August 5, 2011
8:39pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I didn't know Yoko Ono was still making music. I'm not going to do the YokoOno thing that Caitlyn suggests. When I was growing up, I felt a little defensivebecause people were so negative about her. But I can't shake that feeling thatpeople will have a negative reaction to her name if I write about her..
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2011 16:02:04 -0700
8:58pm
Richard Bliwas
Playing at that Woody Harrelsen place now on break. I’ll write some notes on the notes later.
11:21pm
Richard Bliwas
.
Glad you aren't into the Yoko thing !!!!
August 6, 2011
9:19pm
Richard Bliwas
Thanks for showing me your editor's notes !!! She adores you !!! I don't want to say anything to make you resent her as you feared I would in the winter so I'll start by saying how I love that she loves you and reads and reads reads.
She's dead on most of the time -- and just about all of the time with the line by line notes,in the 2nd half of the editorial letter .
You told me years ago Dan Meneaker had a keen ear for the larger details and I had a keen hear for the smaller ones ... or was it the opposite ? Anyway -- that was very sweet -- I read a few of his books a couple years ago -- and friended him on facebook. Reading his books you immediately see how smart and funny he is. and what a great editor he is . I don't think he could say anything that I would ever have any disagreement about regarding words in a manuscript. I'm just guessing.
Modern or familiar and contextual makes sense in marketing .
That can be done maybe more subtly than Yoko and the Bay of Pigs but it's a totally understandable conceit given the nature of publishing . On the other hand ... I think you could have a body of work with books that deviate in many ways from your other books . Artists develop . In retrospect the value of that change is recognized.
We've got to make her happy !!!! We are both sure it’s going to be an award winning novel! Why not load aboard some social issues --- she's going to push this combine right into the library !!!
Unifying arch
Find devices already organic to the piece (not Yoko)
It’s authorial to suggest that a kid’s focus on a particular period will make it dated --- kids do that all the time !!! That sort of thing can amp up the idiosyncrasies that make a character unforgettable
. Bay of pigs is too strong an element
The social commentary could be cultural --- like I was initially trying to conjure the ghosts of more conventional wheat harvesters
. But you'll get there! I do agree with this – I was trying to accept a less than magnificent kadohata ending – as stylistic …a wheat field ending – magnificence is in some ways immodest. You know like the way a haiku resonates – without the crescendo decrescendo of western forms
Cooking:
I agree with her here
how about recipes as a new liet motif ?
Functions like a list – but unique structure HERE
that can seam together bits of the cooking with runaways and those elusive “ larger elements “
so much time thinking about doing the right thing, and working SO hard, and still end up poor and unglamorous and ignored by many. Is that the kind of life they’d set out to live?
Summer doing homework could be cool . I daydream more than do homework when I’m doing homework .
Daydream, daydream .Without a deep, penetrating, social commentary within the Combine novel, the gravitas that one associates with Cynthia Kadohata is missing.
I don’t agree.
Thunder
I agree.
And her suggestions to pick up earlier threads are very good.
I also agree more farmhouse detailing.
The heart thing could be turned like Caitlin was saying into
More kevetching than life – threatening
.
9:36pm
Richard Bliwas
Combine recipes
kitchen stuff !!
10:26pm
Richard Bliwas
Calculating can go many places and a little tension messing up in the combine or in the kitchen is good.
10:44pm
Cynthia Kadohata
The reason I didn't put in any social commentary is that I don't really see whereto do that. I don't understand the whole immigrant thing, because the Irish guysare young men who are interested in agriculture or have farming backgrounds,plus they want to live in America for a few months and see the sights when timepermits. They're really not downtrodden immigrant labor.
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2011 19:41:40 -0700
10:58pm
Cynthia KadohataMaybe that's part of the problem. I should probably research cooking!
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2011 19:41:40 -0700
10:58pm
Richard Bliwas
add some sprouts or sunflower greens to the cottage cheese and strawberries ? Little orange cherry heirloom
tomatoes? Since it's summer
,arugula would go good with that
.
11:07pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I know this is totally out of context, but does this sound okay to your musical earfor an ending?
I went to the window
and peeked out and could see Mick still sitting on the curb. I watched him a long time. Then I saw him look up at something in the
distance, and I turned to see what it was.
It was a pair of combines driving side by side. He had come across the ocean to drive one of
those and forget about a girl he loved.
Love and crop circles and an Irish brogue. What sense did it all make?
I knew my going out to
talk to Mick now wouldn't help him. I couldn't
help him, just like we couldn't help Jaz to make friends at school, and just like
I couldn't change Zach's life with a "hello." As my dad liked to say, "You do what you can
do."
Lace and cooking
shows. Combines and farmers. And us.
We were all drawn here, right now, to this motel, by the wheat. I guess it had been the center of my life for
as long as I could remember, but I hadn't realized it. Anyway, I needed to get some sleep. I would have another long night tomorrow. I closed my eyes and saw the header,
spinning...spinning...spinning....
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2011 19:41:40 -0700
11:15pm
Richard Bliwas
The first sentence should be 2 sentences don't you think?
Spinning and spinning ? or just spinning .... ?
Then I saw him look up at something in the
distance, X ? ( and I turned to see what it was. )
Find 1 image for all of this ?
He had come across the ocean to drive one of
those and forget about a girl he loved.
Love and crop circles and an Irish brogue. What sense did it all make?
Lace and cooking
shows. Combines and farmers.
I don't know -- this sounds too similar .... in terms of how I hear it ,so maybe don't use " and " twice "?
What sense did it all make? or ask a more specific question
,
or just leave what sense did it all make alone.
12:14am
Cynthia Kadohata
What are some of the secrets about Yoko Ono?
1:04am
Richard Bliwas
Mostly secrets about the premonition the psychic had about John 's murder -- which he told to Yoko about 10 days before it happened . John was furious so he ran down to the psychic's place pounding on his door ! Why would you tell Yoko such horrible thing ? Don't ever call us again ! Something like that – I had to swear never to tell -- but then I read about the story. Also the paintings I saw were secret
.
1:48am
Cynthia Kadohata
Thanks for your help on the manuscript!!!!!.
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2011 22:32:15 -0700
4:24am
Richard Bliwas
You mad ?
August 8, 2011
10:19am
Richard Bliwas
I knew my going out to
talk to Mick now wouldn't help him. I couldn't
help him, just like we couldn't help Jaz to make friends at school, and just like
I couldn't change Zach's life with a "hello."
This recapitulation could be less authorial sounding
Lace and cooking
shows. Combines and farmers.
There might be a nice rhythm hiding in there if you make just one sentence out of it
.
August 8, 2011
5:21pm
Cynthia Kadohata
No, I'm not mad!
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2011 07:38:38 -0700
August 9, 2011
2:25am
Richard Bliwas
after my 1st reading - I did think there might be a turn ahead = t.e.n.s.i.o.n. .... that you hadn't sent me . Something looming around the corner . As for the arches and sub-themes -- sounds a bit like writing school but that doesn't matter . You are the artist !!!! The novel will be great with or without more tension . It's just a creative challenge to flesh out Summer and find some counterpoint to develop and connect . I'm not worried .I think it will just be better after another revision even if you re-imagine all of her suggestions or if you follow them like a recipe . That's just inevitable . Don't feel frustrated !!! We all want the book to be great ! It already is !!!!
3:39am
Cynthia Kadohata
So do you mean you felt it needed more tension? How can you tell I'mfrustrated? I am!!!.
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2011 23:47:44 -0700
August 9, 2011
3:18pm
Richard Bliwas
I think there was something in Jack's Girl about ordering on the early - bird special even if you didn't necessarily want it and my mother recognized that too and was mad at me : I know what your trying to do !!! she said.
6:35pm
Cynthia Kadohata
How about this:
"Listen to story," Jiichan said. He cleared his throat. "One day my brother and me have work to
do. But we decide to run away for just
one day. We get our fishing poles and go
to lake. We catch many fish. Nice day, overcast so we don't get sunburn,
but not cold enough for sweater. Many
day my brother and me fight, but this day we like best friend. Then we go home and say , 'Look at all the
fish we catch!' We excited. But we didn't do our chores that day. My father get the switch and hit our legs
until we cry. My brother more than me
because he older. Altogether, my brother
live almost 70 year -- that equal more than 25,000 day. I with him at bed when he die. He say to me, 'Remember that day we run away
and go fishing?' I tell him I remember
clearly. 'Wasn't that day fun?' he say. I say 'Yes,' and then he die. Oyasumnasai."
"Oyasumnasai, Jiichan," Jaz and I said.
I went to the window
and peeked out and could see Mick still sitting on the curb. I watched him a long time. Then he looked up at something in the
distance, and I turned to see what it was.
It was a pair of combines driving side by side, their headlights
illuminating the night. He had come
across the ocean to drive one of those and forget about a girl he loved.
I knew my going out to
talk to Mick now wouldn't help him. A
young girl didn't mean a hill of beans to him.
It was just like we couldn't help
Jaz to make friends at school, and just like I couldn't change Zach's life with
a "hello." As my dad liked to
say, "You do what you can do."
Lace and cooking
shows. Combines. Farmers.
And us. We were all drawn here,
right now, to this motel, by the wheat. I
guess harvest had been the center of my life for as long as I could remember, but I
hadn't realized it. Anyway, I needed to
get some sleep. I would have another
long night tomorrow. I closed my eyes
and saw the header, spinning...spinning...spinning....
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:04:14 -0700
7:08pm
Richard Bliwas
How about this:
Great !!!
Back in your " genius zone "
hill of beans ?
illuminating the night.
Something specific in the field that is being illuminated might be nice
.
9:46pm
Richard Bliwas
I'm having fun with this ! Not sure I could do it with anybody else . The process is interesting . It's like we are walking in the woods. I say there is a patch of mud and you wave your hands over the patch of mud and behold .... kira - kira .....
for all you know I could be an experimental software program .
10:07pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Well, that made me laugh out loud. I'm pretty sure you're not an experimental software program! Because you sound just like you.
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:03:45 -0700
8:28am
Richard Bliwas
Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
Gentle on My Mind
September 17, 2011
12:14am
Richard Bliwas
My airbnb roommate this weekend is from Belfast . He told me he's a farmer . His family has been farming for hundreds of years . Milk and Wheat . We were talking about wheat farming a little . Did you know those combines as strong as they are become very fragile when moved off center ? True story : an old Irish saying " I know what will fix it " a farmer said after digging his new $300, 000 combine into a ditch --- he went off and shot himself . It's a dark saying . once the steel is bent on the inner part of those combines it can't be fixed. They can't make it heavier cause it would ruin the wheat . In the old days one of the ways they separated the seed from the stalk was to drop everything on a big carpet and take big knives swiping until it was just cut right and then fold the carpet so the seeds would just fall out right .
He was saying they need to spray the pesticides when the wheat is young. The tire marks that are entrenched in order to do this never go away. When you see those marks it's from that period. Apparently wheat farmers feel that spraying when young is the best time to do it -- although I can't imagine how that can be true spiritually even if it does make sense within their process. First there is plowing -- then harrowing which smoothes out the soil then a little fork like attachment digs a little space for the seed
barley is finer and will blow in the wind more than wheat which is more golden but barley seed or wheat seed he said is used interchangeably . I'll talk to him more tomorrow and I think his brother really knows about wheat farming
.
3:06am
Cynthia Kadohata
Wow, that's so cool that he's your roommate. Caitlyn and I were just e-mailingabout how the Irish use "ye" and "ya" for "you." Does your roommate do that?That's crazy about the steel bending. I wonder how much insurance for thosecombines cost!
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:29:58 -0700
2:43am
Cynthia Kadohata
For some reason I feel worried tonight. I don't know about what.
11:46am
Cynthia Kadohata
Nobody is too good for you.
6:07pm
Richard Bliwas
The girl with the travel viola brought in some kind of flea mosquito in the kitchen!
4:16pm
Cynthia Kadohata
"Respiratory genuflection" -- I may need to steal that from you some day!!
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:23:38 -0700
3:35am
Cynthia Kadohata
I had to look up "subito." It's a good word. Not to say that there are bad words....
5:04pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I've been nagging my editor to read my current version of the manuscript, and I just found out that she's been spending nightsin the hospital because her little daughter, Tess, has pneumonia.I'm so sorry and guilty to have been nagging her!!
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2011 10:49:18 -0700
5:07pm
Richard Bliwas
I hope she's fine ! Kids are resilient.
5:10pm
Richard Bliwas
Just read that scotch is just scotch whiskey and whiskey is made from barley -- so it's another wheat product.
5:11pm
Richard Bliwas I guess if you are nagging her you are happy about it
.
6:27pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Ha ha, no, there's no Yoko Ono
2:25am
Cynthia Kadohata
Heidi says India is where lost Caucasian souls go..
October 8, 2011
6:11am
Richard Bliwas I'm thanking the sprits here already -- as I'm walking around . I don't know what we will do without each other.
5:41pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I mostly open my heart to the skyI want you to be satisfied! I want you to be fulfilled! Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2011 09:35:26 -0700
7:42pm
Richard Bliwas I'm not happy about what's going on .... I'm just sort of goofy happy.
8:32pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Goofy happy is good!
8:45pm
Cynthia Kadohata
God, I was so obsessed withThe New Yorker. I was an animal.
8:47pm
Cynthia Kadohata
And you...I liked you because you flow like water.
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2011 17:05:48 -0700
9:09pm
Richard Bliwas
I thought you liked me cause my hair was the color of root-beer candy.
I liked the color of the scotch the Australian girl brought.
3:47am
Cynthia Kadohata
When I won the Newbery is just came out of the blue. It was an unbelievable experience. So I believe things likethat do indeed happen, so why shouldn't it happen to you?
You're really ultra-cool, by the way. You have an amazing mind. You just need to find a way to harness it so you can make some money.Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:55:46 -0700
3:40pm
Richard Bliwas
I was just thinking how much the beginning of the word whiskey sounds like the beginning of the word wheat --- which is more interesting now that I know that it's derived from it.
4:46pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I still love you and think you're an amazing person. Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:37:45 -0700
2:35am
Cynthia Kadohata
But don't be mad at me. You're not mad at me, are you? I hate it when peopleare mad at me You would make a great father and I want that to happen for you.
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:14:20 -0700
1:55am
Cynthia Kadohata
Caitlyn's got my manuscript, and I'm waiting extremely impatiently to hear whatshe has to say. Then she'll say it, and I'll get mad at her for a week or two, andthen I'll have to get back to work.
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:15:09 -0700
2:40pm
Cynthia Kadohata
You have a beautiful, whimsical mind that I think kids would love,but at the same time I think you will need to ground whatever youwrite in story. That is, kids have to be able to follow where yourwhimsy is going.
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:46:47 -0700
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:45:53 -0700
4:05pm
Richard Bliwas
My whimsey turned left on e. 4th street several hours ago -- I can't spend all day following it around that's for sure
.
12:50pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I think sometimes whimsy likes to play jokes.
1:04pm
Richard Bliwas
It's our perception of coincidence and misunderstanding of time that the gods are laughing at
.
Cynthia Kadohata I just have this vague sense of the mysticism of life, but I can never put my finger onanything. Maybe the secret is to NOT try to put your finger on it???
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2011 10:19:03 -0700
3:11pm
Richard Bliwas
It's true about my own reality but I'm not sure that that is what it is, but it's related to introversion cause I started doing that when I was little.
4:23pm
Cynthia Kadohata
No, You haveso many gifts and are so fortunate in that way and are not determinedlymaking the effort to use your gifts. As you write these messages to me, you drop these little words and phrasesthat are like gold. Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 12:38:11 -0700
October 21, 2011
10:38pm
Cynthia Kadohata
So can I pick your brain here? Caitlyn says Summer needs to have a quirk that distinguishes her from other kids. Like for instance, in Weedflower themain character loved seeds and gardening, and in Cracker the main characterloved woodworking. I suggested that Summer be really into penguins, butCaitlyn had a no comment on that. Can you think of some quirky kid thing???
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:49:10 -0700
10:57pm
Cynthia Kadohata
So now I'm thinking prehistoric non-dinosaur animals. Doesthat seem like a good idea to you?
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:49:10 -0700
10:58pm
Richard Bliwas
Summer is a better name . what was it before Marie ? I didn't really like that . I knew a summer one winter
. Summer in winter would make a nice title.
Summer in wonder wheat land….
that sounds too much like wonder bread
11:35pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Whatever happened to Wonder Bread? Do they still sell it? Who wouldbuy it?
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:32:43 -0700
12:49am
Richard Bliwas
Summer in Wonder land.
if Summer married Stevie Wonder she'd be Summer Wonder.
Penguins ?
12:58am
Cynthia Kadohata
They still sell it. "Today, the soft and delicious bread your family loves is more nutritious than ever."
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:32:43 -0700
3:03am
Cynthia Kadohata
I just don't understand who is buying Wonder breadDate: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:28:09 -0700
12:29am
Richard Bliwas
Summer in the sky with diamonds. Harvesting wheat fields forever .....
A Day in The Combine.
It's Getting Better Time to Harvest.
I'm fixing the Combine.
She's leaving school.
With a LIttle Help from Obasan.
Being for the Benefit of Summer.
Sumer is actually an alien from OUTER SPACE
.Maybe summer could be obsessed with John Lennon's first wife Cynthia
.
12:41am
Richard Bliwas
Summer started doing past lives reading after Obasan gave her an old deck of tarot cards.
Summer has a cell phone that can make calls to dead people
. Summer sticks pins in a little wheat scarecrow rag- doll in an attempt to influence her fate
.
1:50am
Cynthia Kadohata
Very funny. Do you know that if you had a children's character seriously giving readingsfrom tarot cards your book would probably be banned in the Bible Belt? Didyou read Kira-Kira? Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 21:58:46 -0700
2:52am
Cynthia Kadohata
Also Cracker was complained about because there was a scene where somesoldiers were looking in a desirous way at some girls.
October 23, 2011
3:25pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Next time I'm in New York with Sammy will you give him a fun littlepiano lesson? Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:11:10 -0700
6:16pm
Richard Bliwas
O , sure ... I'll be happy to teach Sammy.
October 25, 2011
6:46pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Caitlyn says that my girl Summer needs to be into something to DO, likeSumiiko in Weedflower was into seeds, and Rick in Cracker was into woodworking.Something kind of off the beaten path, like not something in the arts because allwriters do that. I suggested having Summer write letters to places like McDonald'swhere they are buying animals that are being severely abused as they are raised,but Caitlyn said no because Summer didn't seem like an animal lover. I honestly don't think the average 12-year-old is into much besides boys. Anyway,I'm depressed.
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:33:02 -0700
6:49pm
Richard Bliwas
She could be into mosquitos! I don't like her writing letters to Mcdonalds either.
She could be into ouija boards.
She could be into aliens which will seguay into your outer- space series. She could be into biology
past life regressions
, David Bowie
, dc comics -- saturn girl ?
She could make radios?
8:06pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Oh...well, I wrote a letter to McDonald's in real life so I guess that wasuppermost on my mind. Mosquitoes are interesting. Anything likeouija boards or past life regressions would get the book banned all over.I know I shouldn't be thinking of things like that as I write, but I do. Let me run mosquitoes by Caitlyn. Thank you!
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:18:39 -0700
8:10pm
Cynthia Kadohata
You're a sweetie!
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:18:39 -0700
9:14pm
Cynthia Kadohata
There have been approximately 100,000,000 young adultbooks about kids who are gay. What about David Bowie? How would she even know whohe is? I still like the mosquitoes best.
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:18:39 -0700
11:16pm
Richard Bliwas
Maybe Bowie from some atypical gig like acting in the Man who fell to Earth -- or the little drummer boy video he did with Bing Crosby -- O , I don't know -- mosquitos are interesting!! You can tune them into whatever you are up to. I don't think you should worry about what people banning books with ouija boards or past life hoodoo or whatever --- you just shouldn't -- I mean look at the bible - look at Homer -- look at bros. Grimmm and Mother Goose --- children's literature is full of witches and spells. Seems silly cause kids love that stuff . It's magical, so why limit?
12:42am
Cynthia Kadohata
Yeah, I know I shouldn't limit myself like that. But people complain so much. Ithurts my feelings. I'm not exaggerating when I say that some people went bonkers when Kira-Kira won. It really made me feel bad. Today I was mostly depressed. I feel like I've worked so hard and I like the novel so much, and Caitlyn thinks it needs a lot of work, especially with developingSummer's character.I'd like to have Summer have an imaginaryfriend. I'd like to call a book The Girl Who Thought She Was a Dog.Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:31:09 -0700
1:12am
Cynthia Kadohata
Ouiji boards never really worked for me and my friends, so that doesn'treally resonate with me. I'm still interested in the mosquitoes, even thoughthey're kind of gross. Maybe moths instead? I used to have an absolutelypathological fear of moths. Now that I have Sammy I stay very calm whena moth is around so as not to alarm him. Constellations? Out in the country Summer would really be able to see the stars.But then, that isn't DOING anything, and Caitlyn stressed that she wanted me tohave Summer DOING something. Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:31:09 -0700
October 26, 2011
9:59am
Richard Bliwas
The soul of the mosquito can take on any shape ....
I know this person a little bit if you want to contact her I think she lives in LA now her relationship with mosquitos was interesting
10:02am
Richard Bliwas
The grossness can be orchestrated.
10:12am
Richard Bliwas They are so metaphorical --- good image to end chapter with -- cause they resonate / ring… ................
October 26, 2011
2:50pm
Richard Bliwas
Wheat harvesting and mosquitos actually create a really nice color . Good music . Mcdonalds or Yoko would be too jarring --- bad composition in a painterly way ... Wheat and bugs on the other hand feels like canvas or hemp texture ... anyway i suggested a bug book months ago.
4:08pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Thank you, I would be extremely interested in speaking with or e-mailing with yourmosquito friend if it's at all possible. Caitlyn thinks the mosquito idea might be interesting if I can integrateit into the story so that it actually affects the story rather than just beinganother detail. Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:24:37 -0700
4:22pm
Richard Bliwas
Of course it will be integrated --- that was already my understanding of what she was looking for ... I've already thought about this and like I was saying -- the mosquitos are already integrated & I have absolutely no doubt that you can write them into the fabric of this story like that's where they've always been. It's like taking a photograph in Paris. The story is already there.
4:26pm
Richard Bliwas I don't know her that well, but she is friendly and will remember me.
I actually think she'd be the perfect person to consult about this -- on the other hand --I think the mosquito element is so organic that you could do handle it without consulting anyone.
4:28pm
Richard Bliwas
I know you would never include a superfluous detail into a story.
4:48pm
Richard Bliwas I can write her first if you want -- but we aren't really in frequent contact . I always found her mosquito thing interesting ... peculiar ... unique ... creative ... I think mosquitos are a much more potent and integratabtle element than moths.
5:28pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Yes, would you mind terribly writing her first? I also need to think ofsome questions to ask her, or should I just call her and we can havea free-form chat? Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:03:36 -0700
5:30pm
Cynthia Kadohata
This is what Caitlyn just e-mailed me: Whatever you choose, it needs to somehow be able to resonate a bit. It
can't feel stuck in. What does a mosquito mean? What does it represent to
Summer? Why is she interested in them? What would it add? THink that
way.
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:03:36 -0700
5:44pm
Richard Bliwas
I'll be happy to write her ...
go to her web site before you call so you can have some informed questions -- I found her to be introspective in an intriguing way -- so she might not easily share her stories with you unless she feels comfortable.
6:15pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Well, her website really seems to be about selling things. There's really nota lot of stuff about mosquitos. Maybe I should read up on mosquitos beforeI contact her?
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:04:48 -0700
6:23pm
Richard Bliwas
She's selling things that are made from mosquitos!!! Did you go to both sites ?
I won't write her if you don't want to talk to her.
There is something mysterious about her. She didn't really want to talk about that spiral muse experience.
I just found that on my own -- but we talked a little about the mosquitos . I was sensitive cause it seemed interesting and unusual
.
6:26pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Why don't you like moths as much as mosquitos for the story?
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:04:48 -0700
6:56pm
Richard Bliwas
yin / yang .... I don't know -- anything can work ... mosquitos have a different more engaging kind of color .... Emily Dickinson wrote a lot of poems about bees
.
7:42pm
Richard Bliwas
Ok , I wrote her
7:53pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I once saw this guy who could lay out his hand in a certainway, and houseflies would walk onto his hand and just kind of hangthere until he shooed them away. Funny, bees were something Caitlyn had mentioned earlier as somethingSummer could be into. I don't understand the website, though. Have you been there? I didgo to both sites. I'd like to talk to this woman about mosquitos, but I'm not sure howto approach it. Should I just read up on mosquitos first? I have thefever -- I want to talk to her about mosquitos. I remember asking you if Emily Dickinson was a great poet, and yousaid she was transcendent. I remember you told me once that I wasn'tmature to understand Frank Sinatra.
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:11:57 -0700
7:54pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I meant to say "mature enough."
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:11:57 -0700
I guess I haven't matured much because I still don't get him.
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:11:57 -0700
8:22pm
Richard Bliwas
Interesting -- the musician lawyer that’s helping me with the escrow and landlord papers doesn't get Sinatra either -- but I can understand people in our generation just got a vibe from him based on his 1960's lifestyle and personality.
Well mosquitos are infinitely more interesting than bees as an element in Summer's story. I think they are weirder. A fascination with them is weirder. Anyway once you get into bees you are getting into a whole language of feminine literary sub-culture - so " bee" careful !!! Sylvia Plath wrote about bees too. The mosquito is fresh blood !!!!
Here's part of what I wrote her as an introduction to you . Hope it helps you figure out how to approach it .
One of the characters will have a fascination with Mosquitos and
of course I thought about you and mentioned your beautiful golden mosquito incarnations . Would it be all right if I passed along your email to her
so she could consult with you about mosquitos and perhaps your relationship with them ? She's very nice and lives in La with her son and 2 dogs.
8:34pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Oh, I see, the site sells mosquito jewelry.
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:11:57 -0700
8:41pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Yes,
Thank you for writing to the mosquito lady. Does she have a name?
9:11pm
Richard Bliwas
Cyrene . Mosquito clothing too!
Both of your names start with cy
9:52pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Yeah, but I'm kind of more Cindy than Cynthia. So is shegoing to write you back about whether I can contact her? In 1987, I started making everyone call me Cynthia insteadof Cindy, and now really it's about half and half what peoplecall me. Don't a lot of people call you Ricky?
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:27:45 -0700
10:01pm
Richard Bliwas
Nobody really calls me Ricky except Bens wife and a couple of my cousins. I don't know what she is going to do . She was mysterious -- but if she's alive she will probably write me back and say if it's ok or not -- you could of course just contact her from her web site -- but my guess is she will write me back and then I'll give you the green mosquito light
.
10:22pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Did I say 1987? It was actually 1985. I announced in my writing workshopthat from now on I wanted everyone to call me Cynthia instead of CindyDate: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:17:50 -0700
3:06am
Cynthia Kadohata
I have been reading about mosquitos all day. I'm pretty sick of mosquitos.
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:20:12 -0700
3:53am
Richard Bliwas
hi richard..... so nice to hear from you!!! thank you for thinking of me and yes, please feel free to give cynthia my email and number …..... i am in oakland now, just moved into an apartment with a roommate october 1st, still working away with my mosquito souls and enjoying the weather....
6:00pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Oh, Richard, Richard, Richard, thank you so much for getting me in touchwith Cyrene. She was FABULOUS and so, so helpful to me, on top of whichshe had a wonderful vibe.
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:09:05 -0700
6:04pm
Richard Bliwas
Mosquito vibe ....... I'd love to know what she told you ...
7:42pm
Richard Bliwas
you've probably seen this already -- the little ones are cute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFfO7f8Vr9c
Mosquito life cycle
www.youtube.comWatch the complete metamorphosis of a mosquito. This is one of 89 videos featured in our interactive educational science software entitled Backyard Bugs. Ava...
10:02pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Well, she really just gave me tremendous insight on how Summer shouldapproach her feelings about mosquitoes. I mean it just totally clicked for me as she was talking..
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:22:29 -0700
10:11pm
Richard Bliwas
So elaborate on the insight --- This mosquito thing is so mysterious ... Fiction and mosquitos. It's soooooooo obvious - Like soup and sandwich
but Cinderella is never going to get over the psychological abuse her sisters dished out castle or not
.
11:21pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Well, I'm still trying to let my mosquito thoughts settle. I told Cyrene I wanted mycharacter to have kind of a love-hate feeling about mosquitoes. And she's sokind, she said she had trouble hating. But so there Cyrene was with extremelypainful malaria -- she could have died. And now she has come to a place whereshe says, "The soul of the mosquito doesn't want to kill you." She finds themelegant and delicate and beautiful. So what clicked for me was that I wouldlike my character to have been nearly killed by a mosquito, but that led herto a place where she didn't hate mosquitoes but instead was fascinated by them.
So to be fascinated by that which almost killed you.Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:32:21 -0700
11:40pm
Richard Bliwas
Yeah that's more Cyrene isn't it ? But there is something just systemically interesting about the mosquito and their ability to infuse itself into poetic narrative . Their sound will be played with in the movie version I'll bet or it could lead in and out of runaways. It could drown out things . Anyway , I like the idea of mosquitos having souls -- so her relationship with mosquitos is basically surviving malaria ? You talked to her on the phone ?
12:12am
Cynthia Kadohata
Yes, we talked on the phone and I liked her immediately..
What do you mean by "there is something just systemically interesting aboutthe mosquito and their ability to infuse itself into poetic narrative"? I'm veryinterested in that sentence though I don't understand it.Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:59:08 -0700
12:14am
Richard Bliwas
Metaphor . Sound.
Something beyond Cyrene's story .........
how long was the interview?
12:46am
Cynthia Kadohata
We talked for only fifteen or twenty minutes. She said I could call back ore-mail if I had further questions. I did e-mail her back about a conversationwith God she had when she was dying. I haven't heard back from her. I couldn't think of more to discuss with her. What do you mean "somethingbeyond Cyrene's story???????
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:33:01 -0700
12:52am
Richard Bliwas
Something about the mosquito
October 29, 2011
12:01pm
Richard Bliwas
You'll see ... once you start writing about it .... it will just come to you
.
1:23am
Cynthia Kadohata
Well, it's like this. A mosquito bites you; you almost die. And then you get fascinated by mosquitoes. But if you were hit by a car and almost died, youwouldn't get fascinated by cars. If you got stung by a bee and almost died,you wouldn't get fascinated by bees, I don't think. If you almost drowned,you wouldn't get obsessed with water. So there's this special somethingabout mosquitoes, but what is it?
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:07:54 -0700
1:50am
Richard Bliwas
If you got abducted by aliens you might become fascinated with aliens
.
6:12pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Caitlyn wrote me a 15-page editorial letter about my manuscript. I'm sodepressed. I was really loving the story, and I thought it was working reallywell.
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:11:23 -0700
6:17pm
Richard Bliwas
15 pages ???
6:37pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Yeah, 15 pages. If she wrote me ten of those over the course of writing thenovel, she could have written the whole novel herself!
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2011 15:32:54 -0700
6:56pm
Richard Bliwas
11 pages just if you put all the uses of wench together so really maybe only 4
…
9:08pm
Richard Bliwas
She just has a particular vision . It is likely informed by her employers ? You can sculpt / craft into it certainly ... I'm not sure why one book needs to be in any way similar with another -- but I think record labels are similar .
10:57pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I kind of accused her of that once, and she said she can only see the way she sees.
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2011 18:23:56 -0700
11:02pm
Richard Bliwas
I'll be happy to read the notes .
15 pages is a passionate letter so she has the highest of aspirations that is for sure.
November 2, 2011
2:41am
Cynthia Kadohata
It wasn't really passionate. It was more practical, pointing out things that neededto be clarified, etc. The edited manuscript is missing. Caitlyn's assistant sent it to the wrong address andthe people at that address said they never saw it.
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2011 20:19:39 -0700
November 2, 2011
4:33pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Cyrene just wrote you that something horrible happened? Like she just wrotethat recently? The manuscript is lost out in the netherland somewhere. S&S is going toscan and e-mail me a PDF copy tomorrow. Getting editorial letters is kind of a low point in being a writer. You think youhave a good manuscript and you get back this letter telling you that you don't.It's pretty depressing.
I don't even know why I write sometimes. It used to be that I felt like I HADto write. Now I don't feel that so much..
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 11:11:23 -0700
4:34pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I mean was it Cyrene the mosquito lady?
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 11:11:23 -0700
4:37pm
Richard Bliwas
Yes Cyrene ! she just wrote this today
10:44pm
Richard Bliwas
I was looking at Cyrenes facebook page (we aren't even fb friends ) and found this :
cynthia kadohata just interviewed me about my mosquito fascination for her new book, can't wait to read it....
Share · October 28 at 6:17pm ·
Richard Fagerstrom likes this.
Sherry Wang-Axelrod What's your mosquito fascination?
October 28 at 6:39pm
Cyrene Puccio i had malaria, so i make jewelry and things inspired by golden mosquito souls www.culturecreates.com
October 28 at 6:43pm
Jessica Davies YAY! Congrats Cyrene!
October 28 at 6:48pm · 1
Cyrene Puccio thanks jessica! i'm so excited to be helping her out! just talking about it is helping me actually...
October 28 at 6:51pm · 1
Sherry Wang-Axelrod Oh, wow. I had no idea. Very cool. Congrats
12:44am
Cynthia Kadohata
I wonder what happened to Cyrene! Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 16:42:41 -0700
12:47am
Cynthia Kadohata
Oh, how cool, I'm glad it wasn't a bother to her!! I liked her so muchduring our short conversation. I felt like I wished I could be just naturally filled with such goodness instead of having to make such aneffort of it.
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 19:59:23 -0700
12:52am
Richard Bliwas
I don't know what happened to her . she said she 'd write tomorrow
1:36am
Cynthia Kadohata
Life is too complicated, it really is. I'm in a profoundly whiny mood.Sammy's asleep, I have time on my hands, I have my long, longeditorial letter, but because of S&S's mistake I don't have the editedmanuscript. I just want to complain a bit if it's okay with you. I feel like I want to do something else for a living. But what couldI do? Be a secretary??
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 22:30:36 -0700
1:39am
Richard Bliwas
You told once you would have considered being a newscaster.
1:51am
Cynthia Kadohata
This is something Caitlyn has told me over and over. What do you think"
Illegal
Workers: Wenchhhhhh. Tell me what I must do to get you to include
the whole level of illegal workers into this novel, beyond the small bit you added in the very beginning, which feels, as yet, quite authorial to me. Is there really no way you can have some illegal workers at one of the farms that Summer has to interact with in some way, and she isn’t as generous as she should be, and that weighs on her? So that’s something additional she has to overcome? I guess I’m still not
understanding your reluctance to explore this, when it’s such a HUGE piece of the farming industry, and a huge dilemma in our country. Please please please give this some serious thought. Please pleasie
please. As George would say, Listen
to Caitlyn. Trust me on this,
Wenchhhhhhhhhhh.
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 22:30:36 -0700
1:52am
Richard Bliwas
Don't worry -- she already likes it from what I read in her first letter She's just being a good coach -- and you are realizing the idea .
1:54am
Cynthia Kadohata
To my knowledge, illegal workers would not come into much contact with wheatharvesters, that's all. And she told me that she thinks adding this level of illegalworkers would add the gravitas that people expect from novels by me. But it'sreally not something I expect from myself at all.
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 22:30:36 -0700
1:54am
Richard Bliwas
I'm not hearing that in there either -- but you know me -- I'm not into politics. If you are an artist first then your audience will see that you are capable of gravitas variances from story to story
.
November 3, 2011
10:19am
Richard Bliwas
Something gravitas ... but therein lies the rub --- seems to me if you just keep writing your heart out -- it shouldn't make any difference if you are in outer-space - or Omaha Nebraska , writing about racism or jelly beans .... It just doesn't matter. What does matter is not letting anything into the story that doesn't belong in the story.
November 4, 2011
3:37pm
Richard Bliwas
Well Cyrenne heard her dog passed away from an ex-boyfriend who was keeping the news from her or something -- I mentioned Shika and your book Cracker . She just wrote :
cynthia's book about the clairvoyant dog sounds so interesting, i'd like to ask her about her experience in grieving for her dog, but also feel hesitant, i often feel that i am bothering people with my problems...
I'll let her know it's ok if you want . After this you two are on your own. ...........................................
November 4, 2011
9:33am
Richard Bliwas
Should I let Cyrene know it's alright to conference you about grieving for dogs ?
4:53pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I sent Cyrene an e-mail about my dogs' deaths. I was crying as I wrote itand remembered my dogs. She might think I'm crazy.
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2011 06:58:52 -0700
5:06pm
Richard Bliwas
Thanks , thats sweet of you . I cry when i think about my cat.
November 6, 2011
2:25am
Cynthia Kadohata
Got this from Caitlyn: But we should talk, Cynthia, as I'm sensing more and more that
you aren't wanting my feedback, you aren't liking my feedback, and maybe I'm
sensing wrong...but we should talk. If you don't trust me as your editor,
that's a problem. We still have no phone or internet at home, but maybe next
week? Anyway, it turns out that I think she was thinking farm novel = illegal farmworkers.Major current issue! But I talked to the farm lady, Wendy, today and she said that illegal farmworkers don't work in grain, they work in feed lots and produce. So that wouldn't really work out anyway.
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2011 06:25:12 -0800
2:58am
Richard Bliwas
Sounds a little more than just feedback ...but I’m sure you could weave the illegal farmeworker theme into the story.
3:49am
Cynthia Kadohata
Well, like the kind of editor Dan Menaker was, he said that as much as he was tempted,he didn't do the writing for the writer. He would say something like, "This doesn'tseem to be working." Caitlyn is more the kind of editor that just writes in a newsentence, and to me the sentence doesn't always sound right. She's insisting on this illegalfarmworker thing, and if I don't see it she thinks I'm not trusting her as an editor.A lot of times I'll make a compromise, just put in what she says because it's not abig deal. But other times I don't make that compromise, because it's just too much. But she has a lot of faith in her beliefs, probably more so than me. I wrote her onee-mail saying, look, when I'm writing what I'm really trying to do is have a spiritualexperience for myself and also give one to the reader. And she said, "I don't even know how to respond to that." Then she said but you have to have the STORY, and of course I know that, I'm totally into the story of it, the story iseverything.
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2011 00:13:49 -0800
4:32am
Richard Bliwas
I like the idea of it being a spiritual experience .
10:10am
Richard Bliwas
It would be interesting if Menaker actually read the manuscript -- because his judgment seems to be infallible - but I don't think it's a good idea or necessary for you to have so many editors . I’m sure Caitlyn loves you like a sister . You could fit that immigrant thing in and do it YOUR way.
10:25am
Richard Bliwas
Maybe one of the immigrants could share Summers unique relationship with mosquitos and some metaphor could develop within an internal story
.
November 10, 2011
5:35pm
Richard Bliwas
Telling a story is a spiritual experience.
Writing a story is a spiritual experience.
Shamanistic experience.
Listening to a story is a spiritual experience
.
November 11, 2011
11:27am
Richard Bliwas
Too many people are posting about this 11/ 11 thing today -- in 1992 it was just me writing about those numbers in a notebook
.
November 11, 2011
2:10am
Cynthia Kadohata
You know, I think that on the basis of this however-long-it's-been exchange of messages neither you nor I would ever be able to get elected president.Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:54:58 -0800
11:38am
Richard Bliwas
I am so preoccupied with keeping enough air in my bike tires,thinking about organic garlic hoarding before it gets cold, making soups and breads that running for president is out of the question right now. I don't know how I can even look for a place because I am so busy just doing nothing every day that I don't have time to move let alone run for president,although we couldn't be much worse ….
3:45pm
Richard Bliwas
Menaker really likes you as a writer and a person - and you used to tell me he had the most incisive editorial eye of anyone . I read all 3 of his novels. They were pretty good.
4:09pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I have had some issues with devout Christians and my books. They don't like them.
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:13:01 -0800
4:14pm
Richard Bliwas
Outside Beauty was very adult book for the president's daughter to be reading .... they seem like an open enough family .... No I didn' see the debates but you've made me curious ... I'll try and find it on you tube .... If the devout Christians did like them you'd have reason to start worrying.
4:16pm
Richard Bliwas
I still haven't put the air in my tiresI don't know how my life is supposed to change in 5 weeks ... I'll have to learn to sex chickens -- but I probably couldn't even get a job like that -- I'd be laughed out of the hatchery!
4:47pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Actually, it's easier to sex chickens now because they've developed chickens wherethe males and females have different colored wings. But I think it's mostly Koreansdoing it. Still, you're a friendly fellow -- why wouldn't they want to work with you? You know, one interesting thing about chick-sexing before they changed the wingcolors was that they used to say that some of the longtime sexers could sex by instinct.They just kind of felt which was female and which was male.
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 13:35:51 -0800
5:11pm
Richard Bliwas
We all experience that 6th sense --- we should think of an actual name for it already. It's kind of like Pluto ... Is it a sense or isn't it. ? One decade it's a planet the next it's not.
6:35pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Sometimes I experience a sixth sense, but it's random and just pops upvery occasionally -- not that often. Caitlyn, on the other hand, has sucha strong sixth sense that she finds it kind of scary and tries to suppressit. Sometimes I wonder if it would be stronger today if she hadn't foundit so scary when she was younger.
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:44:03 -0800
7:34pm
Richard Bliwas
That kind of happened to me when I was reading books on astral projection and the techniques of astral projection when I was about 18 or 19 and became frightened when I started seeing results. It was more than I was ready to deal with. I think I mentioned being delighted to discover an identical parallel mystical level in ancient Judiasm.
November 13, 2011
2:38am
Cynthia Kadohata
Yes, you're very sweet, actually.
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:16:29 -0800
November 13, 2011
9:26pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Yeah, Menaker bought all four stories. "
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:16:29 -0800
12:04am
Richard Bliwas
My father was a gangster for real . The vending was a bit like that. Some stuff I just couldn't tell you ... it would often get violent.
12:10am
Cynthia Kadohata
What do you mean vending would get violent? I was picturing it as kind of a romantic occupation -- driving along the highway, seeing the beautiful landscape.
Tell me more. PLLLLLLLLLLLLELEEEEEEEEEEEEZE!?!!!!
12:12am
Richard Bliwas
That was my experience. I never really got into fixing damaged machines or real trouble plus once the vendors found out it was me doing it and not my father they would have vandalized the machines.
12:13am
Cynthia Kadohata
Would your father have to get in fights?
12:13am
Richard Bliwas
Yes
, he had a reputation . You didn't want to start a fight with him.
12:14am
Cynthia Kadohata
You're making me want to write a vending novel.
12:25am
Richard Bliwas
You said Meneker had a better sense of the larger issues and I had a better sense of the little ones --or was it the other way around? Either way that was sweet thing to say.
12:26am
Cynthia Kadohata
Hmmm, I don't remember which it was. You definitely had a better sense of the beauty of language, but he was very good with grammar.
12:27am
Cynthia Kadohata
I think it was awesome the way you thought of putting the islands within Floating World!
12:28am
Cynthia Kadohata
Well, you did seem to be able to see the whole. Are you still like that?
12:31am
Cynthia Kadohata
Yeah, well, as a professional editor he would have to see the whole, I guess. He was very proud of himself as an editor. I mean he thought he was quite good. but he wasn't obnoxious about it.
1:01am
Richard Bliwas
You mean be like an animal about my career -- which might not really be in my interest
1:02am
Cynthia Kadohata
I've already taken it back.
Love you, hope you had your apartment thing straightened out in a happy fashion. You never know!
2:20am
Cynthia Kadohata
Anyhow, one really interesting thing about your writing is you can do all sorts of it. Like stream of consciousness, business letter, press release, conversational, poetic, etc. I'm more of a straight-ahead writer I think. I can't do it in a lot of ways.
4:39pm
Cynthia Kadohata
You're a talented guy. It seems like you would have more confidence.
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:10:34 -0800
5:04pm
Cynthia Kadohata
You're hilarious, but you have to consider that you may be losing your mind!!
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:59:46 -0800
3:51am
Cynthia Kadohata
I'm more like I love the long instrumental from Walk the Bike. And your lyrics all over are awesome.
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:52:21 -0800
9:34am
Richard Bliwas
Good lyrics are rare . Especially lyrics that don't sound weird or stupid after a few years.
9:17am
Richard Bliwas
I love the alchemy and metamorphous that is provided by introducing fire -- which is physical of course into the cooking process. Kind of like the needle on a record player as opposed to an mp3.
December 21, 2011
4:49am
Cynthia Kadohata
I read The Floating World in Kazakhstan. I don't know why. I never read my booksafter they're published. Did I tell you that it's been optioned twice but, obviously,never made into a movie. The first director who optioned it...I think I did tell you this...drowned in a hot tub while on some drug. The second director was from Japan, buthe wasn't able to get the money to make it. Richard Bliwas, Act II. Do you havea middle name? I sent a short little message to Daniel Menaker and he said he didn'tknow you but that your name "speaks volumes" or something like that. I have no idea what that means. Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:26:38 -0800
December 21, 2011
9:59am
Richard Bliwas
Drowned in a bathtub ? I thought car - crash -- sounds like a whole other movie. Everything Menaker says is a little bit funny.
December 21, 2011
5:57pm
Richard Bliwas
another good name for the combine book --- The Invisible World ..... ?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 21, 2011
3:41am
Cynthia Kadohata
I just now cut out a part of my novel that was about materialism. I'm hoping you and I will be able to find enough common ground to be friends for good.Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:45:24 -0800
9:53am
Richard Bliwas
Yes kind of what I mean by " material " but it is also the physical world which is not the invisible world. The invisible world is what we work and study and pray to see more of. In ancient jewish mysticism the invisible world is divided into 11 parts I believe - and each of these parts is guarded by an angel at entrance and exit. You have to evolve through each level of reality to get to the next one. Even the angels are part of the section they are guarding
.
7:19am
Cynthia Kadohata
I think people like you the way you are.
January 15
1:28pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Yeah, you'll jump through the loops.
2:31pm
Richard Bliwas
I'm sealing up the seams in the loops and insulating the loops surfaces with impenetrable loop seal
.
January 15
9:34am
Richard Bliwas
I don't disagree --- I 'm all for going through hoops ... unless they are bobby traps I was referring to your " tortured writer in pajamas " status
.
10:02am
Cynthia Kadohata
I think it's cool that her real lover is the piano.
10:10am
Cynthia Kadohata
This is good story material, but I don't write stories anymore. It changes my brain and takes me out of novel writing.
10:11am
Richard Bliwas
Novels are full of stories -- what do you mean ?
10:13am
Cynthia Kadohata
Short stories. Writing short stories is so different. It took me many years after leaving New York to learn to write novels.
January 17
11:04am
Richard Bliwas
"Yes, I love to experiment! I think the connection is clear. Writing is a sensual activity, as is cooking.
You wrote me a long letter from Paris once ( before Jack's Girl ) saying how you felt Paris was "sexual ".
Exploration of sensuality in one area seems to heighten perceptions and receptivity in other sensual areas.
Synesthesia.
And at the same time certain less sensual activities and preoccupations fall by the wayside. Memory—the pleasure of memory, and the memory of pleasure—is a large part of the shift. Memory is like gravity -- there are mysteries about it still.
If you are really in the moment you aren't really thinking about extending the actual lifespan -- especially since the moment is infinite.
Indeed, one day can feel like a long time or it can feel as if it went by all too quickly.
partly a consequence of the mysteries of memory.
It's all a desperate fight against an opponent one is guaranteed to lose to,
maybe the opponent is more like a sculptor sculpting us and not so much of an opponent
perhaps a form of addiction, but why not, if it makes you feel good?"So why not write poems about her? Songs?
Well , I probably will one way or another .
January 21
4:17pm
Cynthia Kadohata
I'm pretty sure it was after Jack's Girl. "One always appreciates the extreme brevity of human life, but as one becomes abetter artist, this fact rises above all others as the only one that in the end matters."
I would have agreed with that pre-Sammy. Now I know other things matter too.Still, it matters an awful lot. Love matters most. Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:19:39 -0800
January 21
7:03pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Can you pass me the power of levitation?!
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:38:03 -0800
3:49am
Cynthia Kadohata
For the opening of my book? What do you think?? What do you think of Our Year of Bad Luck for a title?
Chapter One
Kouun is "good luck" in Japanese, and
one year my family had none of it. We
were cursed with bad luck. Bad luck chased
us around, pointing her bony finger.
We got seven flat tires in six weeks. I got malaria, a disease once thought eradicated
in the United States during the 1950s. My
grandmother was falling apart, and the outside of our white house grew dirtier
than our neighbors' houses.
Furthermore,
random bad smells emanated from we knew not where. And my brother, my brother became cursed with
invisibility. Nobody noticed him except
us. His best friend had moved away, and
he did not know a single boy to hang around with. Even our cousins looked the other way when
they saw him at our annual Christmas party.
They didn't even seem to be snubbing my brother; they just didn't see
him.
That year, my parents went to Japan for
the summer to take care of the affairs of three elderly relatives on my
father's side. These relatives were
about to die. They knew it, just like my
Great Aunt Motoyo had known to the hour when she would die. My grandmother and I had been visiting her,
and she announced she was going to bed to die.
We didn’t take her seriously, but an hour later when I went to check on
her, she was gone.
When my parents left for Japan, they
left my brother and me with Obachan and Jiichan, my grandmother and grandfather
on my mother's side, who lived with us.
When harvest season came in May, Jiichan, who was 67, would work as a
combine driver for a custom harvesting company called Parker Harvesting,
Inc. I'll explain about custom
harvesting in a minute. My grandmother
would work as a cook for the same harvester, with me as her helper. We would also be responsible for the laundry of
the hired help. But we shouldn’t have to take the time to iron the help’s clothes.
My mother would have just set the unironed clothes neatly on the
employees’ beds, which is what Mrs. Parker advised us to do. Nobody cared about a few wrinkles when they
were driving tractors and big-rigs and combines.
Nobody, that is, except for Obachan. So I knew she would be making me iron the
laundry. I don't think my grandmother
realized that my mother and I were different people from her. She thought we were just an extension of her,
so if she thought the laundry should be ironed, she assumed I would agree since
I wasn't really me, I was her.
5:23am
Cynthia Kadohata
Or a simpler title like "Wheat"
February 28
10:34am
Richard Bliwas
Well, a title like Our year of Bad Luck could work nicely without being simple - but in this case I prefer Wheat.
February 29
12:18pm
Richard Bliwas
Our Year of Bad Luck is lyrical but I don't love it as a title
March 20
4:09pm
Cynthia Kadohata
HOWEVER, I still like the title!! I let Caitlyn title Outside Beauty, and I've never liked that title. So I'm definitely going to be the one who titles this book.
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:48:18 -0700
March 24
12:38pm
Richard Bliwas
titles :
The End of Sadness,
The Wheat Genie,
Combine Music ,
Combine Blues,
Black Wheat
March 26
6:26pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Thanks for the titles! The End of Sadness is very lovely, it just doesn't really have anything to do with the book. And I think it's much more appropriate for an adult audience, like Ican see it being a title of one of those amazing Alice Munro short stories. Of course she tends to write more about the end of happiness. The Wheat Genie is a real attention-grabber, but again it ultimately doesn't have anything to do with the book. I can see it being a great title of something, though. I would need to change the book to fit the title, and I'm not very keen on doing that as it's a bad, bad reason to change a book.
I like Combine Blues the best and ran it by Caitlyn, but again I wonder if it's the righttitle for a kids' book. Caitlyn hasn't said anything about it. I did talk to her today because the manuscript is *finally* going into copyediting. YAYYY! The two most important things are for the title to make kids want to read the bookand that the title grow out of the book itself. You know, like My Life as a Wheatieor something like that. In fact, I kind of like that -- I'll send it in to Caitlyn as well.Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 10:08:32 -0700
6:42pm
Richard Bliwas
And I think it's much more appropriate for an adult audience,
to me it sounds like a fairy tale ................
I would need to change the book to fit the title, and I'm not very keen on doing that as it's a bad, bad reason to change a book.
The change could be subtle and it would open up new dimensions. The genie sounds like a fairy tale too .They both seem intriguing to me in creative and commercial ways
.
6:43pm
Richard Bliwas I don't think there are necessarily good or bad reasons for doing these things -- it's a creative process.
Title like the Sadness one really casts a counter light on the whole affair -- kind of what a mastering engineer does to a mix -- adding this new perspective.
6:53pm
Richard Bliwas
I was also thinking last night the title could just be the girl's name whatever it is at this point or like :
Summer Wheat
8:54pm
Richard Bliwas
The End of Sadness could be something Obasan would say when things were going bad for instance ... etc... simple as that ... The Wheat Genie could be part of one the old bedtime stories -- or even like we were saying part of a runnaway that reminds Summer of the bedtime story -- or just part of a runnaway -- maybe it could get manifested into a thought about a minor character even ... ......" It reminded Summer of one of the Wheat Genies in the story... " well , that's the idea
March 27
1:57am
Cynthia Kadohata
Well, I don't see it your way....They're great titles and all, but to me theyjust really don't reflect the book. I think Caitlyn and I have already opened up new dimensions. And it's not a fairy tale at all. Fairy tales probably skewa little younger than my target audience. Also there are no more runaways --I cut that out quite awhile ago. Annnnd the titles don't seem like classics tomeOn its own, Charlotte's Web doesn't seem like a particularly good title, but whenyou read the book the title is really perfect. I mean all I have to do is read thefirst few pages of Charlotte's Web and already my eyes are tearing up. Am I making sense? Or Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam. It's not poetic, it tells exactly what the book is -- it's very straightforward. Kids *love* that book. It may sell more copies than Kira-Kira....if I should ever read a royalty statement closely I would know that or sure! And finally, to be honest....it's my fault; I shouldn't have asked you what you thoughtof my titles. But you wrote some great titles, and thank you very much for thinking them up. That was very sweet of you, and I appreciate it!!!
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:24:15 -0700
5:50am
Cynthia Kadohata
I've kind of dewistfulized it. I think it's more concrete than that now.More like rocks than a cloud....I'm happy with it. I'm kind of into rocksright now. They're so pretty.
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:22:55 -0700
March 27
10:13am
Richard Bliwas
And it's not a fairy tale at all..
I don't think the book has to be a fairy tale for the title to have a fairy tale feel In fact a realistic book with a fairy tale kind of title seems kind of nice to me.
dewistfulized? - well that's a good word . I think Charlotte's Webb is a great title !!!!
March 27
4:01pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Ran your titles by Caitlyn for a reality check, and she agrees they aren'tright for my book....
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:43:06 -0700
4:12pm
Richard Bliwas
I took a bunch of books out from the library by authors she has published
.
3:46am
Cynthia Kadohata
It's No, Summer is definitely fascinated by mosquitoes. Cyrene was a huge helpon that. Caitlyn loved the mosquito parts, though she thinks I went overboardmosquito-ing up everything.
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:57:39 -0700
March 29
1:37pm
Richard Bliwas
I'm really happy that book is getting out sooner than later! Congratulations!!! It's important that you feel it's as good as it could be . I do have a friend that sleeps with her iguana if you get stuck again .... just kidding ... I can't believe you de- wistilatized it! but I'll be happy to read it again - or does copy editing mean it's out of your hands?
6:58pm
Cynthia Kadohata
Mark used to have a big iguana.
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:29:06 -0700
3:15am
Cynthia Kadohata
I So are these people really interesting or is it just your mind? Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:09:56 -0700
