One Minor Book and One Great Film

Yesterday was a summer day here and this morning the sun is out bright again. What a day to be outside and what a day to write. The two are related, you know. With your computer, you can create a most desirable type of day, whether you’re into fiction or nonfiction, and if you do a good job at that, you are there in that setting. Of course, you won’t get any Vitamin D by writing inside the house. But you can expect other good things, such as ego satisfaction, making deadlines, and learning something. One time, in this bright yellow room, I wrote a scene of bad weather, with torrential rain and wind that didn’t want to stop. When I finished that writing and went out into the non-yellow other rooms, I was shocked that there was no storm of any kind going on and there hadn’t been. The power of the pen! But I suppose it’s really the power of the brain, right?

My brain has been busy on several fronts lately: much time going into watching the news, but also readying some manuscripts for submission into contests, and a little reading. I got through The Paris Wife by Paula McCain, the subject being the first wife of Ernest Hemingway. It is a novel but, according to the author, based on a good deal of research. I read it to learn more about the writer Hemingway, as I like to read about any writer, but this story almost made me sick. What a life of drinking, infidelity, more drinking, and actually admitting he expected to go to hell when he died. I’m glad the book was only 314 pages. The facts about how to write that came through, I already knew.

There’s another film to add to my list of those that have some important running in them. Remember that blog? I’ll go back and add this one to that list. The new one, an old, old Hitchcock film, now remade, is “The 39 Steps,” shown last Sunday on Masterpiece (PBS). There’s more running in this one than in any of those others. The point made in that blog is that if you want to sell a story to Hollywood (or as in this case, the BBC), put running in it, especially running for your life, not necessarily in sports. Hollywood knows people don’t go to get popcorn during a running scene such as these. Even the back cover of this DVD shows the male lead, Rupert Penry-Jones, running with a small plane, WWI type, trying to run him down and kill him. It’s a movie you don’t fall asleep during. And just think: the Scottish author of the book (which I read in the 1940’s), was more famous for his writing than for his governmental career. He served five years as Governor General of Canada. The name is John Buchan. Back to the DVD a moment: the star’s running is so important, we see him at it in one form or another on the front, back, and spine of the case. Perhaps the best advice for writers is Run, Baby, Run.

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