Why I Won’t Publish Nellie Bly’s Racist Novel
When I found the treasure trove of novels by Nellie Bly hidden in the pages of the London Story Paper, I did not start transcribing them in their chronological order. Instead I farmed out the most legible ones to friends while reserving the hardest to discern to myself, postponing the transcribing of the middle-ground ones, neither illegible or perfectly clear.
This was fortunate, because it left her seventh novel, for the end of the queue.
I had finished nine of her novels when I started transcribing and editing Dolly. Instantly, I knew I had a problem on my hands.
Why Superhero Movies Matter
I think I'm a bad party guest. Last night I attended my first post-vaccinated dinner party. It was the birthday of one of my wife's high school friends, so it was mostly people I'd never met. Like you do, conversation seeks common ground, and at one point we start...
“Iron-Nerved Young Women” – Nellie Bly Visits Female Medical Students
Phew! But it was horrible. I mean that it was horrible to see pretty, bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked young women busily engaged in dissecting. I saw some of these young medical students at work the other day picking, picking, picking, and so learning the beginning, the end and the object of the veins, arteries, nerves and muscles, and I haven’t had much liking for my dinner since.
It came about this way. I had been told that a dissecting-room was connected with the Woman’s Medical College, at 128 Second avenue. This naturally gave me a desire to see the creatures, whom men claim faint at the sight of a mouse, engaged in dissecting. Of course I thought it over for some time, and I wondered if the students ever fainted at the sight of the work before them. More than all I wondered if I could view them at their work unmoved.
Recent Posts
Notes to the Sun-Times piece
I just put up the Sun-Times piece, and I didn't want to clutter it with my notes, so this is a brief follow-up. Firstly, I was pleasantly shocked to see how much space the story was given - nearly a full page in their Books section (9B if you want to find a copy)....
Sun-Times Interview
From the Chicago Sun-Times - Sunday, 11/4/07'MASTER' CLASS Chicago actor gives readers a delightful romp through the backstory of 'Romeo & Juliet' BY MARY WISNIEWSKISo what really caused the Montague-Capulet feud that made so much trouble for a couple of teens in...
School’s back in session!
How can I tell? Because I'm getting a load of hits based on variations of two basic searches: 1) Capulet-Montague feud 2) Macbeth "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" Speech I'm highly amused that my rather unconventional ideas for both of these are being used by...
Busy Week
I seem to blog in cycles - in a day I'll write entries that will carry me through two weeks, then nothing much for another two weeks. Sorry about that, but I can't promise to change. Especially since most of my time is being spent on writing-writing, not blog-writing....
Table Work and Insecurity
From the earliest reviews, people have been praising my plotting. While gratifying, it’s quite ironic because the gift that allows me to see the connections between the plays or ferret out a backstory to a single line also makes me a real nuisance in rehearsals,...
Backstory
MJ Rose is an astonishingly successful and prolific author. Her latest novel, The Reincarnationist, is garnering her huge kudos from all over the place. But even as busy as she must be, she's also interested in promoting other authors. She has a couple of sites...
Wooster, Release Dates, and 69
Having spent this week writing chapters 2 & 3 of Fortune's Fool, I've not paid much attention to the blog. Apologies. But it means there's loads of stuff to talk about. Firstly, I'm off Friday to Wooster Ohio for a lecture, a signing, and a combat workshop. I'll...
Overkill
This is me around page 517, in a delicate moment of suspense, hitting the reader over the head again and again. Needless to say, it's not in the final version: Opening his eyes, Pietro tried to look for a gap in the falling clods of ground above. There was none. If he...
More Interrogations
Again, Katerina and the Count of San Bonifacio, somewhere between pages 495 and 499: Not in mood to rise to the old man’s bait, Katerina asked, “Why did you want him? What use was he to you?” Vinciguerra’s laugh was weak. “I had a hope – a slim one, I confess – that I...
Interrogation Scene
There was originally quite a bit to the interrogation of the Count in the later chapters, while Cesco and Pietro are sitting in the cave. Most of it had to do with verbal sparring between Vinciguerra and Katerina. This is one of those exchanges: “What about the...
