In the last installment of The King of Dogwood Street, (a comedy of good, evil, and home improvement), Billy Joe had a day of reckoning when the police showed up to put an end to his drunken property destruction.
In chapter three, he and his dimwitted buddy, Travis, are in the town lockup trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Will they escape? What charges might they face? Will they drive their arresting officer crazy? And will Billy ever overcome his hangover? Read on to find out!
I was at the Morgan Library and Museum this week and wanted to give a brief reflection on their current exhibits, and how much I enjoyed them. We are lucky to have this museum in New York, and I can’t recommend a visit highly enough. Originally, it was J.P. Morgan’s personal library, and later became a public institution. There are always different exhibitions there; over the years, I’ve seen things ranging from Blake engravings, to Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, to Tolkien, to Dickens, among others. If you live in or near New York, by all means go for a visit. They also have lectures and concerts regularly, and every Friday evening is free admission from 5-8. Educators and students also receive a discount.
Franz Kafka
I made this recent trip for the Franz Kafka exhibition, which was every bit as wonderful as I’d hoped. There were many of his handwritten manuscripts, journals, letters, photographs, and other personal effects on display. Anyone with an interest in him and his work should definitely go. It gave me a more intimate look into his life and work, and I found something quite haunting about it. Such a tragedy that he died so young, and it made me wonder what else he might have accomplished had he lived longer.
Kafka’s work has meant quite a lot to me, especially when I was a young man, and so I was very pleased to see him celebrated at the library. I still recall the chills I got reading The Metamorphosis as an undergraduate, and the feeling of urgency I had in finding the rest of his stories and books and reading those, too. I was so inspired that at one point I wrote my own little comical story about a superintelligent, powerful cockroach, which won an award from my college’s literary magazine. I am sure it was embarrassingly bad, but I had so much fun writing it.
I particularly enjoyed the handwritten copy of the Metamorphosis that was on display, and which was accompanied by contemporary textbooks of insect larvae and roaches. I had not thought of the Darwinian connection before seeing it laid out in this way, but as the display suggested, these were somewhat new fields of study at the time, with which Kafka would have been acquainted, and may have inspired him to write the story. Kafka is, of course, a towering figure in modern literature and his influence on contemporary fiction and culture is hard to overstate. This exhibit did a lot to help me appreciate him more as a human being and an artist. Photos of him and his fiancee, as well as details of his ill health, lent a very personal touch to a writer who sometimes can seem very remote and cryptic.
Belle da Costa Greene
After having seen the effective, thought provoking Kafka exhibit, I moved back to the first floor to see the other exhibition, about which I knew nothing. But what an experience visitors will have in learning about the life of Belle da Costa Greene, the first director of the Morgan. She was an amazing person who built the Morgan’s collection of rare books and manuscripts, and was a well known authority on these treasures. In the process of creating the library, she traveled the world to make acquisitions, and shaped it into a world class institution.
Belle’s father was the first black graduate of Harvard, and Belle and her family passed as white in segregated America. Much of the exhibit explores this part of her life, and it’s a breathtaking biography. She was a brilliant scholar and a cultural force at the Morgan, but a lot of her life was tinged with tragedy. The details about her her nephew were quite moving; he was a soldier in World War II who committed suicide when his fiancée learned he was not white and broke off their engagement. The exhibit gave other harrowing examples of stories like this, of ‘passing’ blacks in a segregated country.
I appreciated the display of Belle’s own collection of books and cultural treasures. She had exquisite tastes and collected illuminated manuscripts, paintings, sculpture, and other artifacts. It was an interesting window into her personal life.
This exhibit also included many examples of illuminated manuscripts, for which Belle had a passion and much expertise. It’s a bit overwhelming seeing all of these ancient books laid out for perusal, and it’s best to take your time and look at the intricate detail of things like the Crusader’s Bible, among other medieval treasures.
I also learned that the NYPL used to have a library school, and at one point there was a course in rare books taught at the Morgan, using their resources. There was a syllabus on display that was a really fascinating look at library education from the 1920s. I’d love to take a course like this, incidentally. (I took a couple of rare books courses while doing my MLS and loved them, but to do it at a library like the Morgan would be a lifelong dream for any bibliophile.)
Belle’s life seems quite ripe for a film or a biography. And her life’s story should cause anyone to reflect on this country’s shameful past. These pernicious evils–racial segregation, passing, and other injustices–were not so long ago, and we have a long way to go to become a world that treats everyone equally. Belle’s remarkable life is a testament to what an exceptional person and scholar she was, and I was happy to see so many people learning about her. I can’t recommend the exhibit highly enough. Everyone should go.
I hope Belle would be pleased by the legacy she left at the Morgan. Her hard work and dedication live on through the collections and the stories they tell us about our culture and history.
I’d been hesitant to post anything since election day. What can anyone say about this situation that hasn’t already been said? In my opinion, all you need to do is look at the decline of reading and critical thinking skills to understand the second rise of the sexual assaulting felon. When an entire electorate stares at screens 80 hours a week, don’t or can’t read anything challenging, and believe all kinds of disinformation and nonsense, guess what happens?
During his last term, I read more American history than is usual for me, hoping to see some similarities to our current times in our past. We have seen much worse days than this, and survived as a nation. In some of our most tumultuous eras, it was never certain that we would make it through, but somehow, we did.
I don’t know what the next few years will bring, exactly, but I will be surprised if the great dictator doesn’t try to suspend elections. He’s already talked about doing that, as well as rounding up millions of immigrants. His proposed cabinet members are a farce and a disgrace, unqualified people who hate the government agencies they’ll be running, just like last time. His voters wanted this, and we’re all about to get it.
One thing I heard a lot of from 2016-2020 are variations of ‘this is not who we are—we’re better than this.” No, we aren’t. This is exactly who America is and what we want. We can take a little solace in the millions who voted against him, but that’s cold comfort. A man as mendacious and vile as this should have been thoroughly repudiated.
My job is to just try and make sure my children are safe and happy. There is little else we can do. Locally, you can try and make your community better. You can volunteer and try and make your corner of the world a little more humane. Make your voice heard to your elected representatives. Beyond that, we can just hope for the best.
My wife and I don’t talk politics around our children, since that would be a crazy thing to do, and we want to let them enjoy their childhoods. We did look at an electoral map together, and they are aware who won. My nine-year-old daughter, who is a brilliant artist and incredibly smart and perceptive in ways that I was not at her age, summed things up perfectly afterward. “Bruh—it was a girl’s turn after all this time. And that guy is so dumb, and such a mean bully. Just look at him.”
Children intuitively understand things, no matter what adults might say. She knows a lying creep when she sees one. I have never seen a picture of this man where he is smiling and it looks natural, because he is a deeply miserable human being who hates himself and continues to take it out on the entire world. As soon as he starts talking, this is self-evident.
The religious people who voted for him could be the topic for an entire book. All I can say about them is that they ought to be deeply ashamed of themselves, but I’m sure they are not. He’s an imperfect vessel on a mission from Jesus, after all.
And that’s enough about elections. I refuse to follow news cycles for years on end. I’m turning it all off. It will be hard to miss the worst of what he’ll do, but there is little point in following it week after week with every new outrage.
In other news, I have a few writing projects I’m working on, and a deadline I have to meet in a few weeks. I’ll have plenty to keep me busy through the end of the year and the start of next.
As promised, here is chapter two of my novel, The King of Dogwood Street, a neighborly comedy of good, evil, and home improvement.
When we last saw our heroes, they were in conflict with a drunken neighbor Billy Joe, who was challenged by Rex, a strange newcomer. Enraged by his defeat, Billy sought vengeance in the form of petty vandalism.
In Chapter two, the police arrive to the scene of the crime, and Billy must fight both his own stupidity and his hangover to avoid charges. The rest of he neighborhood happily watches the drama unfold. Read on!
If you missed the first chapter, it’s also uploaded on the blog for your reading enjoyment– please see the links below. If you enjoy it please share and let me and others know what you think.
The end of summer is upon us. Sigh. I had a wonderful time, but it is always too short. I got to see some old friends, and spent plenty of time with my children, which is always endless fun. My oldest and I took a few long hikes in the Catskills, which is something I love to do more than almost anything in the world. We had family camping trips in Watkins Glen and in the Catskills and in Cooperstown, and all of them were memorable times we’ll always recall with fondness.
I got some reading and writing done, but not as much as I’d hoped or planned, and now with the semester beginning again there will be less time to do those things, unfortunately. I’ll be posting some reviews of things I read, including David Lindsay’s unique fantasy novel A Voyage to Arcturus, which was odd and engaging in the best ways. Played some great boardgames with my children, too.
I saw a few movies with my children, and also made the decision to cancel every streaming service I have. The only one that survived was PBS, and Amazon Video, which is included with Prime anyway. These things add up so quickly that our streaming bills were as bad as our cable box used to be, once upon a time. With all of the dvds and videos I own, plus all the free content out there, we’ll never lack for something to watch, and anyway I should spend any time I was watching television working on my book.
Speaking of which, there was also a near miss with a couple of publishers, but my new book is still without a home. I’ll keep at it in the querying trenches. One hybrid publisher seemed like a possibility but after my last experience with a small press I got cold feet at some of the contract details, and will just continue looking for representation or a publisher. This is no easy task, as everyone knows, and as authors I know are quick to tell me. But so it goes.
In the meantime, I’ll continue posting chapters of the new book here.
I’ll leave off with two photos of my son, Forest, a thoughtful, curious and all around wonderful lad, who has brought me nothing but pride and happiness. The first photo was ten years ago, and the second was a couple of weeks back. Both are at the same spot on a trail I love to hike as often as possible. It’s one of those magical, gorgeous places in the Catskills where I would live, if it were an option.
Time flies. Forest is a keen observer of nature, and on both hikes, as a one year old and as an eleven year old, he remarked often on all the beauty and natural drama we witnessed, from deer to eagles to bees and flowers. Remarkable boy, and I’m a lucky guy.
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour” –Blake, from Auguries of Innocence, 1803
In the opening of my new story, we met the denizens of Dogwood Street, a suburban neighborhood, including:
Billy Joe, a drunken reprobate
Simon, a professor
Rex, a strange newcomer who has moved into an abandoned house
Rex has arrived in the midst of Billy Joe’s noisy, drunken stupor, and put an end to it. In the next part of the story, the conflict is ramped up…read on!
Here’s the start of something I’ve been working on for awhile. It was supposed to be out this fall, but my plans fell through, and I’ve been looking for a new publisher.
This one is a dark fantasy/comedy about a neighborhood gone bad. Think ‘The ‘Burbs’ meets Haunting of Hill House, with a touch of Something Wicked This Way Comes. I’ll be sharing chapters of it here in the coming weeks.
If you enjoyed what you read, please comment and let me know, and share it.
At times, sending out stories and manuscripts and getting no response can get frustrating. But that’s the way it is, and complaining about it doesn’t do any good. It is maddening when you see some of the awful things that become bestsellers, that get all kinds of attention and large publishing deals. Unfair, maybe, but that’s how it goes. First, you must write a great book, and then you must either know someone, or be in the right place at the right time. Some writers will beat the odds, so I keep plugging away, and in any case, I write for myself and won’t stop no matter what happens.
Which brings me to the subject of criticism, and gatekeepers. There are many of these that writers need to ignore. I was thinking of that curious thing, the writing workshop. In my experience, most of these were not at all a supportive environment; in fact, they were quite the opposite, in most cases, with students attacking each other’s work in an effort, I guess, to impress the instructor, a person who had published something and whose approval many in the class usually craved.
The comments on my stories were sometimes helpful, sometimes not, occasionally rude and off putting, and I listened to almost none of it except those written honestly. And yet, even an honest critic might be wrong. Gatekeepers at publishing houses, as well as literary agents, are quite often wrong about a great many things. Just check out the mountains of rejection letters received by people like Ursula LeGuin, Stephen King, Frank Herbert, and plenty of others.
Last night, I couldn’t sleep and was listening to Led Zeppelin, one of my favorite bands. As I sometimes do with artists I admire, I went and looked up contemporary reviews of their groundbreaking records, which have sold over a hundred million copies. One snob said Robert Plant’s lyrics were awful. Rolling Stone wrote that the whole office laughed in mockery at “In Through the Out Door,” the band’s final album, recorded in the terrible wake of the death of Plant’s son. Quite hilarious, you bunch of hipster morons, was all I could think. What a terrible record that brought nothing but happiness and sold tens of millions of copies. Yep, Zeppelin sure were a laughingstock.
I’m now fifty, and I don’t do reviews of new books very often anymore. I used to years ago, for a couple of online sites, but I found that unless I want to spend a lot of time digesting a book, and can say something thoughtful and supportive, there is little point. These things are so subjective, and a random critic has as much to say on the topic of a new book as any thoughtful reader, of which there are a great many. Instead, I’ll do goodreads reviews of books I enjoy, sometimes. And I’ll let my friends and contacts know which books I’m reading. Major outlets like the New York Times and other venues might help a reader decide whether to buy something, I suppose, but more often it is a badge of honor that the author of the book can proudly wear. It may help boost sales. Or if it’s a negative review, they may never live it down.
As the years pass, I’ve realized that apart from a very few trusted book critics, I’d rather just read a book and make up my own mind. The opinions of editors and agents and others in the publishing business are meaningless. In the end, there are your words, your story, and you tell it as best you can. You hope someone likes it, but whether they do or not hardly matters at all. You’re left with your honesty and your effort, and that’s about all you can do. Anything less is not enough, no matter what accolades other people might want to give you. And if you stick to your own vision and work, you can never lose, no matter what any critic says.
Here’s a photo of yours truly at the Barnes and Noble. I met a number of readers and signed some books, it was a great day. Hoping to do more events like this when the next book is released.
Christopher Tuthill 