The Daily News
On Baseball, Babies, Brief Relief, and a
Wonderfully Amusing Interview With
the Great John Steinbeck!
Have Fun With This One!

"I have written a great many stories and I still

don't know how to go about it except to write it and take my chances."
                                            ---John Steinbeck

1   What a game!!! Incredible contest between two great teams! I reserved the first six items for talkin' baseball. I did this yesterday before the game. 

2   So. How about those Giants?

3   Secret weapons.

4   I LOVED it. I'm not an idiot (well, I'm quite certain there are those out there who beg to differ); I do know the odds, but the Dodgers have spent a LOT of time this year trying to give games away. 

5   And the Giants looked like World Champs. Wait a minute. They ARE World Champs. And they have miles and miles of heart!

6   Moving On, Part One: Once again I find myself time-traveling to yesterday afternoon; well, you might say early evening. What is 6:06 considered?

7   Night, in about a month or two. 

8   I found myself visiting the babies, when Maren screamed louder than I had ever heard her scream. Isla chimed in, but Maren damn near blew out every light bulb in Sacramento.

9   I'm pretty sure both had dirty diapers, as some sort of switch on the harmonic convergence stuff I slew out on this thing yesterday. Little savages.

10  Anybody lookin'?

11 Talk about Rage Against the Machine.

12  Ah.

13  Well, it's like they say:

14  Shit happens. 

15  I decided I could do one of two things: a) boil towels, or b) look around the net to see if I could find a good Steinbeck piece on writing. It never occurred to me to do that because I taught American Lit just one time in my entire career.

16   I didn't have to go far. I found this web sight that had the quote at the top of the page. 

17  The words "...except to write it and take my chances" jumped out at me. 

18  I found it interesting that both Stephen King and Steinbeck associated writing with fear. 

19  I get it. I never realized when I began this series that I was putting myself out there. The idea was to offer free writing tips to everyone. I didn't think people might judge. Duh. People do, pretty sure, or those two fellows wouldn't have brought the word "fear" up so often. I get it now. 

20   I find myself starting this earlier and earlier each day. It requires a tremendous amount of effort. Each sentence needs to work. I find myself poring over each item, changing things, goosing awkwardness, and pulling back abruptly when I see an astounding mistake. 

21   Yesterday I used "there" as a possessive. I wanted to jump off the hood of a Buick. It looked as though a cat had left a curly turd on my masterpiece. 

22  I never used to edit that carefully because part of the challenge of getting the DN out each day used to be getting it launched before I had to leave for work. 

23  Over the years I began these at different times of the day, but rarely at 6 p.m. 

24   9 p.m. yes, but 6 p.m. was usually a staunch no. 6 p.m was time to fire up the barbecue, put on some music, and enjoy a beverage or three. 

25  Ah, things change, probably for the better. 

26   I was on this for just a half hour last night and already had found errors. They seem to fall off the sink and onto the page like counter crumbs. 

27   Happens, but it now happens with a lot of fear. 

28   The piece posted below came from the following link. It is a great piece brought to you courtesy of the Paris Review. At first it looks challenging, but climb into it as you would a warm bath. You should find it soothing and calm. It even makes reference to the great E.B. White, in keeping with the spirit and consistency of this writing series. And it contains some great advice, as well as some wonderful anecdotes. Enjoy! As always, click on the link and not the pic:

Interviews John Steinbeck, The Art of Fiction No. 45 (Continued) Interviewed by George Plimpton and Frank Crowther

29  Told you it was long, but what a great read!

30   I discovered quite a few Steinbeck sites while cruising the net last night, but this one rose straight to the top. Some tried posting passages by Steinbeck, but displayed horrific editing. 

31  Others looked good, but were overtly sophomoric. 

32  Trusting sources becomes its own art. 

33   I won't go too much further today, as I've thrown a lot out there.

34   I'm also scared to death of looking stupid.

35   Hope you enjoyed, or will enjoy the Interview. 

36   Right now I gottago. I'm sitting around and there are all sorts of people who could use an extra hand.

37   Thanks for listening.

38   See you again.

39   Peace. 

~H~

fin.