Inviting Readers to Rewrite My Stories

This post first appeared as a guest blog on the site of mystery writer, Camille Minichino, "The Real Me."  I am happy now to bring it home for my readers here to share.

As an author of fiction who writes for publication, I hold my stories lightly when I share them with my readers. I try not to be too possessive or caught up in “will they get it?” It has taken time, but I have come to understand that no two persons reading the same book will read it the same way, let alone imbibe the author’s precise intent. The same is true of film and the performing arts. No two movie goers interpret the same film in exactly the same way.

I’ve known this all my life as a reader and film lover. Now that I am on the other side of the artistic process, I am aware that I must let readers ‘rewrite’ my novels, find their own interpretation, and apply them to their own lives. I am no longer caught up in whether they “get” my story. Once out of my hands, it becomes their story.

The following “Aha!” passage in Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman made this insight click for me: “Once readers put a text in other words, they have changed the words. This is not optional when reading; it is not something you can choose not to do when you peruse a text. The only way to make sense of a text is to read it, and the only way to read it is by putting it in other words, and the only way to put it in other words is by having words to put it into, and the only way you have other words to put it into is to have a life, and the only way to have a life is by being filled with desires, longings, needs, wants, beliefs, perspectives, worldviews, opinions, likes, dislikes—and all the other things that make humans human. And so to read a text is, necessarily, to change a text”(the underline is mine).

Now, I look forward to readers’ interpretations of my stories. I  especially enjoy having someone discover a level of meaning beyond my conscious intent. Recently, I received this message in an e-mail from a reader: “The value of The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story is in it’s real life application to modern-day sainthood. In their day, all of our martyred saints’ lives (and deaths) would have been every bit as gruesome. In a sense, not to die and to live through it, may be even more brutal to the human spirit. Yet these two saints do survive.” That’s more than I had in mind when I wrote the book, and I am grateful to this reader—and others—for helping me to better understand my own stories.

(c) 2012 by Alfred J. Garrotto

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The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story is available in paperback and all e-book formats.

Guest Blogging at "Camille Minichino--The Real Me"

Today I have the privilege of guest blogging at "Camille Minichino--The Real Me." I hope you'll visit as I muse about the need for authors to let go of their stories once they share their creations with the universe. My understanding is that every reader becomes a co-author with the original writer. I hope you'll take a moment to read my short reflection and comment with how you see this process working--as a writer and/or reader.

Alfred J. Garrotto

The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story

Guest Blogger: Mystery Writer Camille Minichino

I am pleased to welcome my friend, colleague, and renowned mystery writer Camille Minichino, who today launches her third series with, The Probability of Murder. Writing as Ada Madison, she introduces her latest sleuth, college professor Sophie Knowles. 


It's an honor to have Ada Madison stop by at "The Wisdom of Les Miserables" as she continues her whirlwind launch-day blog tour. Get the full scoop about Camille/Ada, her noms de plume, and her crime solving protagonists on her website.

Small Truths, Great Truths

Where do you go when you need wisdom and a good quote? To a Nobel physicist, of course. Niels Bohr, born the year Victor Hugo died, and a pioneer in atomic structure, kept me up all night wondering about this observation. 

I thought blogging about it might help, or at least spark a good debate:

“There are two kinds of truth, small truth and great truth. You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth.”

 It's clear how this works for a small truth. It's Monday, March 12, 2012 is a small truth. "It's not Monday, March 12, 2012," is clearly false, at least for a day. Small truths are simple, and often temporary, it seems: He's tall. I'm hungry. It's freezing outside.

What about the great truths? Say, one of the great truths of the Bible? In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

What would be its opposite? That the heaven and the earth created God, for example?

Now I get it. This fits in with my understanding of Alfred North Whitehead (Process and Reality, 1929): "It is as true to say that God is permanent and the World fluent, as that the World is permanent and God is fluent."

Who's to say which of these statements is the truer? They're both great truths. We can live wisely by either one.

 I'm reminded of an old cartoon where the dialogue goes like this:

Character 1: "Do you think humans on earth are the only intelligent life in the universe?"

Character 2: "Either way, it's a sobering thought."

I'll have to admit, for words of wisdom, cartoons are a close second to physics.

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Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of the suspense novel, The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story.

The Wisdom of Being Woman

My ongoing search for wisdom has led me to a welcome an important discovery. Meditation on Woman by Aline Soules is a book of poetic essays that represent some of the deepest wisdom and insight I have ever encountered. I first read these meditations in draft form as part of a critique group of professional writers. I knew right off that I was in the presence of a marvelous, deep-spirited writer. I also realized that I stood at the door of a human mystery that I would never fully comprehend. When Aline invited me to write a cover blurb for the book, I accepted the task with humility and great pleasure; also with a measure of self-doubt about my ability to put into words feelings that seemed to defy adequate expression. 


I've learned that unworthiness can slow my response, but rarely has it stopped me from plowing ahead. So I wrote:
“Discovering Aline Soules’s Meditation on Woman is like chancing upon a long-hidden, primal road map for exploring the profound mystery that is the female spirit. How awesome it is to be invited into the raw complexity of woman’s aspirations, failures, and triumphs. Every man who cares about a woman at any level of relationship will come away enriched and grateful.” 


This is a beautiful book overflowing with joy, pain, and great compassion. Page after page from beginning to end, it speaks truth to the human spirit. I recommend it for all women, young and old--and for the men who love them.

*  *  *

Author-poet Aline Soules blogs at "My Creative World" 


Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story.

Guest Blog: The Wisdom of Journaling

I am pleased to welcome B. Lynn Goodwin to my blog. Lynn is the author of You Want Me To Do What? – Journaling for Caregivers. With more and more mid-lifers and retirees involved in the care of aging and ailing family members, we  find ourselves needing to pay attention to our own mental and spiritual well-being. Lynn has helped many caregivers grow in wisdom through journaling and gain thereby a greater measure of healthy equilibrium.

Why Would a Caregiver Journal?

Journaling saves lives. It allows writers to vent, process, discover, and sometimes rejoice. It provides a safe place to examine your life. It’s especially helpful for anyone caring for a parent, spouse, or special needs child. 


If you are a caregiver, you spend every spare minute driving to medical appointments, stopping at the pharmacy, cooking, answering questions, paying bills, and probably helping with matters that used to be private. Journals give you a place to analyze, finish a thought without interruptions, and celebrate.

I was a caregiver for my mother. Then and now my journals have always been

o       A record

o       A place to say how I really feel

o       A place to explore what I truly mean to say

o       A place to find story ideas

o       A place to resolve dilemmas

o       A place to make lists and cross off what I accomplish

o       A place to acknowledge what’s right and gain perspective

o       And more…

Sometimes I journal online, but more often I write my journals in longhand. I like the smooth flow of a pen on paper. I like the progress of moving from left to right, line after line, traveling down one page and on to the next. The rhythm of longhand soothes me. 


Not sure why you’d journal? Not sure what to say? Look around the room for a sensory detail—the way the sun makes a path on the carpet, the way steam rises off a cup of coffee, carrying the aroma of morning with it. Let one sentence lead to another. 


Send your judgment gremlins out on the patio. You can pick them up later if you want them back. 

Journaling eliminates mental toxins and deepens awareness. It lets the strong, sane, safe, healthy, hopeful parts of you emerge. Do not underestimate its power. 

B. Lynn Goodwin’s stories and articles have been published many places including Voices of Caregivers; Hip Mama; the Oakland Tribune; the Contra Costa Times; the Danville Weekly; Staying Sane When You’re Dieting; Small Press Review; Dramatics Magazine; Career; We Care; and The Sun.

A former teacher, she’s conducted workshops and written reviews for Story Circle Network, www.storycircle.org. She also writes for Caregiver Village, www.caregivervillage.com and InspireMeToday.com, www.inspiremetoday.com/.  She facilitates writing workshops and publishes Writer Advice, www.writeradvice.com. 


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Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of the suspense novel,

The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story.

Some YA Wisdom

What's an old guy like me doing reading a futuristic YA novel? 


I knew going in what a magnificent writer my friend and former critique partner Veronica Rossi is. Even so, Under the Never Sky exceeded my highest expectations. I found it stunningly beautiful both in concept and execution. The two "star" characters, Aria and Peregrine (Perry), immediately won my heart with their core strength and fragile hold on life in a wildly threatening world environment (the book cover doesn't exaggerate: "A million ways to die"). The supporting characters are wonderful and richly textured, each in their own unique way. 


As an older reader, what I appreciated most was Rossi's emphasis on the senses of sight, hearing, taste, and smell, plus the clear intuition of others' feelings--be they friends or enemies. In an age when we get more and more of our information and social experience digitally (as Aria does, before venturing out in search of her lost mother), it's hopeful to think that our distant future might see a return of humanity to reliance on gifts genetically inherited. Having said all that, I've barely touched on the multiple layers of meaning and insight this tale offers.


I read a lot of novels every year. Many are R-and-F stories (read-and-forget). I classify Under the Never Sky as R-and-P (read-and-ponder). Young adults picking up this book--the first in a trilogy--will get more than a good read. Rossi has provided a compass for honorable living and loving. As the full cover blurb puts it: "A million ways to die. One way to live." I can't wait to see the Warner Brothers film version.


Five Stars!! Read it.
______________________
Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of the suspense novel,
The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story.

Epiphany--The Gift I Hide Apart

My friend Tom Savignano is a wise and gifted poet. This being the week of Epiphany and the gifts of the magi in Christian communities, I am pleased to share the following with Tom's permission.

THE GIFT

 by

Tom Savignano

Gold I’m happy

to buy and give ---

would you fancy a ring, a coin,

a 24 carat star?

Myrrh, perhaps?

The stores are stocked

with scent,

candles, soap,

imported incense.

“No,” you smile

and smiling ask

the very thing I hoard,

I hide apart ---

tarnished,

flawed ---

You win, Sir.

Take my heart.

Tom is the author of several books of poetry, including Way Stations: A Journal of Prayers, Songs and Psalms and Prayers and Reminscences.

______________________

Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of the suspense novel,

The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story.

Transcendent Moments

Still writing (and driving) in her 90s, my mentor and friend Muriel James, is one of the wisest persons I have known. She is a psychotherapist and an ordained minister.  Over the past 20 years,  she has also been the  #1 fan of all my books. We still meet occasionally at California Writers Club meetings (Mt. Diablo Branch). She is currently reading my latest novel, The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story. Can't wait to hear her reaction to the story of an American priest and a Belgian nun who are kidnapped and tortured in Bruges, Belgium.

The following quote is from a 1992 book she co-authored with her son. It contains remarkable human and spiritual insight, especially in light of the rapid emergence of Evolutionary Christianity.

“Occasionally we experience transcendent moments when there is a merging of the cosmic, holy, and human spirits. Everything seems united. These are mystical experiences in which, for the moment, we forget ourselves and feel at one with all that is. There are no boundaries, no distinctions of time and space. Transcendent moments such as these, when everything seems to be one, can happen at any time, in any place—perhaps when we stand in awe of the magnificence of the ocean waves, the wind blowing across a wheat field . . . At times like these, we may awaken to the sense that we are merging with some form of spirit beyond ourselves, a cosmic spirit.”—Muriel James and John James, Passion for Life: Psychology and the Human Spirit

______________________

Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of the suspense novel,

The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story.

Cosmology Is the New Mythology

[Ever on the prowl for modern wisdom, I came across the following article by Bruce Tallman. I hope you'll find it as interesting as I did. I see it as a companion post to my entry of Monday, July 25, "A Lot of 'Big Bang' For the Buck."]

Dear Friends,

On November 26 the London Free Press  published my article "Cosmology Is the New Mythology" with the same title I sent them! It's only 600 words, so why not print it off and, when you have 2 minutes, give it a quick read?

Blessings,
Bruce Tallman, Dr. Min.
Spiritual Director and Marriage Coach
"Helping people grow in faith and love since 1983"
website: www.brucetallman.com

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The mysteries science is coming across are getting bigger and bigger. On both the smallest and greatest scale, science is completely stumped. String theory, the most promising theory of physics of the past thirty years, since it was meant to explain everything, cannot be tested or proven. Basically, the theory is that underlying all particles discovered in cyclotrons like the Large Hadron Collider, there are infinitely tiny particles called "strings" whose vibrations at different rates produces all other particles. However to test string theory, according to Dr. David Goldberg, a leading astrophysicist, you would need a cyclotron the size of our solar system. It can’t be done.

Goldberg was speaking at Starfest, the annual gathering of about 800 professional and amateur astronomers north of Mount Forest which I’ve attended for the past four years. Another famous astronomer said telescopes are time machines. When we observe the Andromeda galaxy, we are seeing it as it was two million years ago, because it is two million light years away and it took that long for the light we are presently seeing to reach us.

If you looked back far enough, beyond the furthest galaxies, you would eventually see nothing in every direction except the cosmic fireball produced by the Big Bang, the explosion that began everything. There is no seeing beyond this. Scientists cannot say what caused the Big Bang. Physicists tell us that at the quantum, subatomic level the universe operates in unexplainable, irrational ways. No one knows how the same particle can be in two locations at once, how light can be both a wave and a particle at the same time, or how particles come out of a complete void.

Similarly, at the largest level, Goldberg told us that astrophysicists have "no clue what the universe is expanding into, why there is more matter than antimatter, or why there is anything at all." They also have no idea what "dark matter" and "dark energy" are, even though scientists know they make up 95% of the universe. Only 5% of the universe is visible.

At a previous Starfest an astronomer said "when scientists have no clue, they give things a name and that makes everyone feel better." For example, scientists have no idea why there was 380,000 years of complete darkness after the Big Bang, but they called the first appearance of photons "First Dawn" and that calmed everyone down.

Also, when they have no clue, they start theorizing, and if there is no way to test their pure theories they call it "cosmology." Cosmologists have theorized that the Big Bang was caused by "branes" colliding, but they have no way of testing this, and it just pushes the problem back another step. Where did the branes come from? A native Canadian who had become a professional astronomer told us that, according to aboriginal lore, the universe is floating on the back of a giant turtle. They also believed this in ancient China, which gives added weight to the argument. It seems to me to be as valid a myth as the theory of branes.

More science equals more mystery. Still more science equals still more mystery. Projecting down the road, further science will result in even more incomprehensible mysteries, ad infinitum.

Astronomy has completely blown apart many peoples’ former belief in God. They had to find a much bigger, more mysterious, more glorious God if they wanted to keep believing. So, believers are indebted to science for helping us to know God more fully.

However, since some scientists think all religion is mythology, and since their smallest and greatest theories can’t be proven, it would help if they realized cosmologists are really doing mythology under the guise of scientific explanation, and if some scientists say science proves there is no God, they are really doing theology disguised as scientific authority.

(Bruce Tallman is a London spiritual director. www.brucetallman.com ; btallman@rogers.com )

______________________

Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of the suspense novel,

The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story.

Wisdom: A Reflection

"Wisdom is luminous and never tarnished; she willingly lets herself be seen by those who love her, and known by those who look for her. She hastens to meet those who long for her. Seek her in the morning and you will not be disappointed; you will find her sitting at your door. To meditate on Wisdom is understanding fully grown; whoever is on the watch for her will be free of anxiety. She goes in search of those who are worthy of her, graciously meets them on the way and is present in their every thought."

The Book of Wisdom (6:12-16)

Wisdom.

It has become the quest of the past decade of my life, triggered by my re-reading and meditation on Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. The above passage from the Hebrew Scripture reminds me that it is not I who seek Wisdom. She comes looking for me. 

The fruits of meditation on Wisdom include:

• deepening maturity ("understanding fully grown")

•  reduction of anxiety

•  the presence of Wisdom to me and its influence on my every thought, decision, and action.

Perhaps the height of Wisdom is knowing that I am not all-wise, all-knowing, nor fully mature. Instead I am a traveler who encounters Wisdom "on the way" (on my personal and shared camino). It is  in this real world that we bump into and recognize each other. And enjoy each other's company as we walk.

Photo by Alfred J. Garrotto, Los Arcos, Cabo San Lucas (2011)