150 Year Legacy

This weekend Adrian College will be celebrating its 150th anniversary. Quite a feat. Its roots go back to the civil war. In fact, Adrian College itself was involved in the abolitionist movement. So it has a rich and storied history.

A lot has changed since its inception in 1850. Hell, a lot has changed since I graduated in 2007. Resident halls have been redone (Pellowe has had a complete overhaul), apartments have been bought and built. There is now a skating rink and AC no longer has to share a football field with the local high school thanks to the completion of a stadium in 2006.

When I entered Adrian College in 2003, enrollment was down. A lot of people that I came in with didn't even make it past the first semester, or their first year. Now, enrollment is up and Adrian College has been ranked by US News & World Report as the #1Up-and-Coming Baccalaureate College in the Midwest for the 2nd year in a row.

So it is with even more enthusiasm that this 150 year anniversary is celebrated. Unfortunately, I can't make it to the festivities, but it promises to be a blast. Well, the part I will miss will be getting together with my former English professors, but I have plans to go to Adrian sometime in October.

A Proud Moment

Back in either my sophomore or junior year at Adrian College a group of fellow students and I decided we wanted a place where we could write and receive feedback without worrying about creating a portfolio for a grade, thus our idea of establishing a writing club was born. A few of my friends thought it was too much of a hassle to go through the process of becoming an officially recognized organization, but I went through the tiring process of paperwork, research, and building a constitution, along with my close friend Sassy.

After going through the paperwork approval and then the official approval by the board, The Pen & Ink Society was created. Membership was low, we didn’t advertise and initially decided to forgo any fees, probably not the best idea, but all we really wanted was a comfortable environment where fellow student writers could come for workshops and I think the initial generation did a good job with what we had.

Now, the creation of this club in and of itself was a proud moment, but that is not what I am so happy about today. While doing some research for work, I stumbled across one of the winning essays from Eastern Michigan University’s Education First Essay Contest.  I was shocked/proud to see one of the winners was Adrian College’s own Angie Palaian.

I met her just as my stint as the Pen & Ink Society’s acting president was over, but I remember her work as strong and powerful and I am happy to know that the club meant something to her and am glad to see her go on to bigger and better things, such as pursuing a career as a college professor.

Rock on!

Wake-Up Call for "Writers"

This amuses me. Not because it isn't the truth, but because I know of people who have this attitude about writing that is described in this edition of the Funds for Writers Newsletter. So enjoy the lovely realistic advice!

EDITOR'S THOUGHTS

Read newsletter online at: http://www.fundsforwriters.com/FFW.htm

Read past
issues at: http://www.aweber.com/z/article/?fundsforwriters
=====
I NEED A GRANT TO WRITE
Those of you who've been around me a few years must bear withthis message. I deliver these words in one shape or another about once a year, but always as a result of a flurry of emails from new readers. Folks see FUNDS for writers and believe I will swoop down with some stimulus package and fix all sorts of writing ills. I'm afraid I'm still unable to:
1. Find you an instant publisher.2. Find you a grant to complete your first book.3. Find you a grant to allow you to quit the job you hate.4. Find you a grant that allows you time to write that novel.5. Find funds to pay your bills while you write.
Honestly, I wish I could do all those things.
Let me solve some myths for you:
1. Almost all writers write while performing another job or chasing the kids. A tiny minutiae percentage of writers rises in the morning without worrying about day work or the bills. You write through the life handed to you, often making you a better writer thanks to the struggle.
2. Grants for writers go to those who've established themselves as writers. It's this comment that often makes people mad with me. How dare I accuse someone of not being a writer? After all, this person has written since the third grade or this other one has penned fourteen short stories and three journals of poetry over five years. How dare I? Actually, I'm not the one drawing the line in the sand. Look at this quote from the Mississippi Arts Commission about the definition of a writer - a quote representative of all the arts agencies: "...a professional artist producing work of high artisticquality, Individuals are considered to be professional ifthey: earn at least part of their annual income in their artistic work; consider their artistic endeavors as acareer; maintain a high level of artistic quality; andmake a significant time investment in their artisticdisciplines though practice, performance or production."
Some characteristics of a "professional" writer include:
== Writing income appearing on your tax return.== A calendar noting regular work, appearances, training undertaken as a writer.== A chronological list of submissions and copies of acceptances and rejections.== Receipts of expenses.== An active website/blog committed to writing.
3. Completing a book also does not make you a writer. You've written the words on the page, but are they edited to a fine sheen? Have you found a strong voice and claimed it as your own? Can someone pick up the work and tell from the style that it's yours? THE END does not mean you've arrived. Writing takes serious practice over multiple projects over several years. People do not pick up a pen and write bestsellers without personal development and lots of sweat.
Granted, you have a story to tell. But you have to becomea writer in order to tell it well and do it justice. Youdo not need a grant to write. You don't have a deadline topublish.
Harper Lee wrote one novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Do youwant to be remembered for one brilliant story or notremembered after writing twenty-seven pieces over three years?
Put in the time and effort, and not only will you finda grant to help you financially, but you'll find credibility, too.

Another Tangled Google Mess

So I can’t explain this really well and I know it confuses the hell out of people who are actually dealing with it right now, so I am just going to post the link here:

http://beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/guild-responds-to-second-wme-letter-on.html

Nothing like copyright issues and settlement cases, but this is what people were concerned about long before Google was firmly cemented in their archive.

**A side note that has nothing to do with the Authors Guild/Google settlement, but I thought I would bring it up because it is irritating to an extent is that Facebook is now featured in Google searches. So, let’s say you want to Google a specific person, well if there are several people with that name in Facebook, those people will come up first, which, let’s face it, can be really annoying.  However, I don’t think I’ll switch my search engine to Bing just yet, their interface annoys they hell out of me.

G.I. Joe

I used to love watching the cartoon when I was a child so I was excited yet worried that they were making a live action. I guess I can’t be too disappointed granted that I can’t remember too much about the series as it has been close to 20 years since I have watched it.

The action sequences were decent. The CGI, well, you could tell whatever was CGI was indeed all computerized. It is interesting how some CGI you can hardly tell at all that it is computer generated and others you can tell and you seriously wonder if they actually tried to make it look realistic.

I did enjoy the movie. I loved Ray Park as Snake Eyes. It is funny how this martial artist actor always seems to play characters where you can’t see his face, i.e. Toad from X-men, Darth Maul from the Phantom Menace. I loved his fighting with his nemesis from Ninja school.

Speaking of his arch nemesis. Ok, there are many Japanese actors out there, they exist, so why was a Korean playing a Japanese ninja? I am just curious. The actor did a great job, if I didn’t know better, I suppose a person wouldn’t even know that he wasn’t Japanese, but I do, so I found it amusing. And, totally off topic, another Japanese Ninja movie will be coming out sometime later this year or next year and the main star is indeed another Korean, Rain. Is the reasoning behind this that all Asians supposedly “look alike” (which is not true, you can tell the difference between Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese, etc – if you know what you are looking for)? Just an interesting question to contemplate.

Back to the topic at hand. Yes, I liked G.I. Joe. Yes, it had cheesy acting and more action than anything else, but it was at least enjoyable, which is hard to say for some of the more recent movies I have seen.