Month: November 2014

Appreciation is a Holy Thing

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“I believe that appreciation is a holy thing, that when we look for what’s best in the person we happen to be with at the moment, we’re doing what God does; so in appreciating our neighbor, we’re participating in something truly sacred.” ~Fred Rogers, Commencement Address, Middlebury College May, 2001

I’ve been called a dreamer since I was a little girl with her nose in books, staring off into space daydreaming. It’s true. I was, and I am; but I like to think that my optimism is seeing the world through the lens of the wonder-filled, the magical.

It’s harder some weeks than others, when the world seems horribly off-balance. That’s when I try to remember to look around me, to remember those in my circle, who are close and far, whom I love. They remind me that there are seeds of hope in the small, beautiful moments we spend together–so many shades of love–and I truly believe that love is our greatest experience of the Sacred.

If I have had the honor of spending time with you–sharing a meal, a conversation, a drink, a story, a moment, a memory, thank you. Thank you for the gift of your time and for sharing a part of yourself. Happy Thanksgiving. Cheers.

Blood and Bone and Magic

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Writing at Mary Anne's house, November 2014. (photo by Mary Anne Mohanraj)

Music is important to my writing process, and I usually end up with a collection of songs for most of my stories, long and short. When I’m starting to write, especially a novel, I like to have a song that sets the emotional atmosphere. It’s exciting when I find it—that perfect collection of words and melody and rhythm to capture the energy. I add to the soundtrack as I go, finding a song for a character or a particular place, but that first one remains important, a touchstone. I will go back to it again and again.

This is all to say that I’ve found that song for my next work-in-progress. I’m in love with it—playing it over and over, trying out the words when I’m alone in the car, rereading the lyrics when I take break from writing. The song, “Blood and Bone,” is a by Alt-folk musician Hayley Jane, who currently has a kickstarter campaign to produce her next album. It’s the only song I’ve heard so far, but I was intrigued enough to become a backer. Her campaign is nearly funded after only the first few days, and no matter what else the album holds, I’m grateful for this gem.

I listened to “Blood and Bone“ all morning and on the way to a writing day at Mary Anne Mohanraj’s beautiful Victorian home. Quietly typing away on our laptops atop bellies full of Mary Anne’s always amazing cooking, Mary Robinette Kowal, Kat Tanaka Okopnik, Julie Chyna, Mary Anne, and I spent a few hours writing.

To my delight, “Blood and Bone” had made its way into my imagination, into my creative DNA. When I sat down to work on my opening scene, there it was—a musical-emotional undertow pulling me along, plunging me deeper. I wrote the scene quickly before having to leave to pick the kids up from school, the character and setting still fresh in my mind on the drive home.

I love those moments, when the Muse is in control, when the story washes over me and onto the page in waves. It’s not always like that, but when it is, oh it’s magic! And any day with magic is a very good day, especially on a snowy November Monday in Chicago.

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Congratulations to Louise Glück

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One of my favorite living poets, Louise Glück once called me on my cell phone to discuss permission for using a few lines from one of her poems in my novel, The Silence of Trees. I got the call from her as I was walking to the car after grocery shopping, and I got genuinely weak in the knees hearing her say, “Is this Valya Lupescu? This is Louise Glück.”

Credit: Webb Chappell
Credit: Webb Chappell

I had never before nor since had that kind of a reaction to communicating in any fashion with another writer or artist, but her poetry had been so important to me, and her words had taken root in my heart and imagination so deeply since I first read her work back in college in the early 90s. I managed to sit down in the car and have a conversation, my hands only slightly shaking from excitement.

I’m delighted to hear that she was honored last night. Congratulations to Louise Glück for winning the National Book Award for Poetry! In honor of her award, I’m sharing William Giraldi’s wonderful interview with her in Poets & Writers: http://www.pw.org/content/internal_tapestries

“I believe that. I used to be approached in classes by women who felt they shouldn’t have children because children were too distracting, or would eat up the vital energies from which art comes. But you have to live your life if you’re going to do original work. Your work will come out of an authentic life, and if you suppress all of your most passionate impulses in the service of an art that has not yet declared itself, you’re making a terrible mistake. When I was young I led the life I thought writers were supposed to lead, in which you repudiate the world, ostentatiously consecrating all of your energies to the task of making art. I just sat in Provincetown at a desk and it was ghastly—the more I sat there not writing the more I thought that I just hadn’t given up the world enough. After two years of that, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to be a writer. So I took a teaching job in Vermont, though I had spent my life till that point thinking that real poets don’t teach. But I took this job, and the minute I started teaching—the minute I had obligations in the world—I started to write again.” ~Louise Glück, from “Internal Tapestries: A Q&A With Louise Glück” by William Giraldi, Poets & Writers