Sex and the Signature
March 10, 2008
Have you ever wondered how or why many female authors have written under male or gender-neutral pseudonyms? As it turns out, there are quite a few.
James Tiptree Jr. (1915-1987) was the pen name of Alice Bradley Sheldon, American sci-fi author. According to Tiptree’s biography, she was notable for breaking down the barriers between writing perceived as inherently male or female. In fact, it wasn’t until 1977 that readers knew Tiptree was a woman.
Another interesting example is J. K. Rowling. Having no middle name, her first Harry Potter book was published under the name Joanne Rowling. But before publishing her first book in the U.S., her publisher Bloomsbury was concerned that the target audience (young boys) might not buy books by a female author. The company recommended Rowling use two initials instead of her first name. Rowling chose K. for Kathleen, the name of her paternal grandmother.
The consideridation of pairing genre with pen name spurred me to ask a couple of my favorite contemporary authors why they write under their current nom de plumes.
T.K. Kenyon, author of Rabid and Callous
“I’ve been “T.K.” on and off for years, starting in 6th grade where there were 3 “Terri’s” in my home room and two of us got to choose new names. As I had been tagged with a diminutive (my given name is “Terri,” not even “Teresa,”) I went to initials.
When I graduated from undergrad with a bachelor’s in science (microbiology) and was looking for a job, I was told by friends and older people in science to use my initials on my resume because it was harder to get a job in science if you put a female name on a resume. (This was about 15 years ago, but it’s still true.”
Most of my other women friends in science also used initials. Women who sent out initialed resumes got more interviews and better jobs, both because they had more interviews to pick from and, very probably, because they were perceived as less “girlie.” In the scientific fields that I have worked in, and in the West in general, squeamishness and prissiness do not make a good job candidate.
When I did my PhD in virology, I went to “T.K.” for good, even in my personal life. Close friends and my husband abbreviate my initials to “Teke” if they are too lazy to wrap their lips around two whole letters.
In the writing field, using anonymous initials is less jarring to the reader when I write from both a male and female point of view.”
Rosemary Poole-Carter, author of Women of Magdalene
“For my first novel, WHAT REMAINS, I chose to write under my first initial and last name (though my photo on the back of the book was something of a gender giveaway). I reasoned that my very feminine first name might be associated in readers’ minds with romance fiction. There are some romantic elements in my work, but I don’t write category romances and don’t want to mislead book buyers. I write historical novels with some rather dark Southern gothic touches.
For WOMEN OF MAGDALENE, a novel that deals with misogyny in a 19th century ladies’ lunatic asylum, I decided to brazen things out under my own full name as a woman writing from the point of view of a male protagonist. Time to get past those outdated notions about what male and female authors are allowed to write.
I understand the point of a writer having different non de plumes for different types of books–one for the mystery series and one for the horror or romance or nonfiction. That’s sort of a branding device. But at this point in my life, I don’t really foresee my having the time to write multiple types of books. For now, each book is a piece of my heart, claimed with my own name.”
Other famous female writers and their first or career-long pen names:
Charlotte Bronte Currer Bell
Mary Ann Evans George Eliot
Louisa May Alcott A.M. Barnard
Antonia Susan Duffy A.S. Duffy
Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin George Sand
Lula Carson Smith Carson McCullers
Phyllis Dorothy Jones P.D. Jones
Ann Rule Andy Stack
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY, story of one man’s struggle to understand his wife’s sudden descent into madness. (April 2008) www.karenharringtonbooks.com
Notable Quotables
March 3, 2008
Erica Jong, author
“Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.”
Anne Frank, writer Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
“Parents can only give good advice or put them[children] on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.”
Dolores Huerta, activist
“If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?”
Maya Angelou, poet, educator
“It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself, which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.”
Golda Meir, first female Prime Minister of Israel
“Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.”
Why offer you this selection of quotes on this day?
Through the course of the last two weeks in my run up to the publication date of my novel, I have been reviewed and critiqued, buoyed by some words and bruised by others. Fair enough. These are the accessories that come with putting any writing out into the universe. Or any art. Or any opinion, for that matter. If you are like me, you have learned it takes courage to do so.
So, wherever you happen to be when you read the quotes above, I hope they encourage you as they have done for me as well.
Now, go and create what you are meant to create today. And take strength from all the great women who have gone before you.
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY
Here’s A Riddle For You
February 25, 2008
by Karen Harrington
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many pictures would it take to represent almost 80,000 words?
The answer: Only an artist could say for sure. But in my experience, it takes a powerful 2.54 minutes of heart-pounding video to display a pictoral representation of my novel.
In other words, I now have a book trailer.
A book trailer aims to convey the same hook and lure movie trailers attempt for a film. It is quickly becoming vogue in the world of publishing. Not only do publishers produce print ads to sell books; now they add image, movement and music to the mix and create what this writer believes is one of the most compelling innovations in the publishing industry in decades.
Author Brenda Coulter disagrees however saying that most trailers are simple slideshows with a soundtrack. She also dislikes that so many of the trailers cannot be viewed by a huge percentage of Americans due to slow dial-up connection. Now, to be fair, Ms. Coulter wrote her opinion two years ago. The method has come a long way, baby!
The trailer for Ann Patchett’s latest novel Run shows an aqueous blue background with bubbles continuously floating over images of people, houses on the rich/poor ends of the spectrum and selected descriptive passages from the novel. The singular piano accompaniment to this trailer creates an inviting, if not subtle, undercurrent of mystery and secrets. You could probably view this trailer in a library.
By contrast author Caro Ramsey’s book trailer for Absolution comes at the viewer full stop, with ominous images of knives and crosses bouncing across the screen in a shaky hand-held camera style, all set to an eerie single violin Silence of the Lambs-esque piece that would likely get you summarily shushed by a librarian.
This art form is not limited to fiction. Photojournalist Jim Lo Scalzo’s Evidence of My Existence views like a mini-documentary of the lens through which he photographed the world, with a bend toward the compassion he has for his subjects. I’m not certain if I wouldn’t rather view his book as a PBS special than actually read the book. Still, I am intrigued.
I am intrigued by the very way images, music and ideas come together in less than five minutes to give a potential reader a sense of the book. And this new view into book trailers made me wonder: would we choose books the same way we choose movies – from a two-minute glimpse? Would you rather go into Barnes & Noble and scan several short videos to make your selection? Or do you prefer to scan the New Release table and thumb through the pages in hand?
Much like the current political environment where the key slogan of the day is “You Decide,” you can decide for yourself by viewing the trailers above, or even the one created for Janeology – which is filled with water imagery, dark family secrets, hints at a black sheep legacy, all scored with music that vibrates on a background heartbeat until your neck hairs stand at attention. (Fortunate author that I am, this trailer was created by one of THE inventors of the novel trailer art form, Kam Wai Yu, who has been perfecting this art since the 1980s.)
And if you do view these trailers, I’d like to know what you think. Feel free to reply to this post or drop me a line at kharrin2003@yahoo.com.
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY, the story of one man’s attempt to understand his wife’s sudden descent into madness and murder.
www.karenharringtonbooks.com
What a Good Character Will Do
February 18, 2008
by Karen Harrington
My publication due date is fast approaching. I’m in the final trimester, as it were, with only about six weeks before the ideas and characters that were in my head are printed en masse and clothed inside a hardcover. It’s almost unreal.
So the other day, a friend asked me what Jane, the pivotal character of the book, would say about me if she could. About me?! This struck me as a rather unique idea. I had to pause to consider how she would view the portrait I had drawn of her. In thinking about this, I jotted down several more questions about her and attempted to answer them. Know what I discovered? I thought I had considered Jane from every angle, having known her for almost five years. But some of the answers surprised me. But then, that’s what a good character will do.
Is Jane the heroine of JANEOLOGY?
She is actually an anti-heroine if you consider that she commits the murder that sets the story in motion. But like many stories, you may find that though you cannot excuse her actions, you have sympathy for her because of the life that created her.
Why did you pick that name for her?
I don’t actually recall how it came to be. But when I was thinking up various titles for the book, I remember thinking how I could use Jane for Jane-e-ology (which rhymes with genealogy) as an apt description of the book – the story is the history or study of Jane.
What does Jane look like?
She is from Texas so her hair is always naturally highlighted, especially around her face. Her eyes are blue, clear and confident. In many other ways, she is your typical pretty American mother who looks worn out at Wal-Mart, but who cleans up to a nine if she’s going to a party.
What is her occupation?
She was an ER nurse before she had her kids. Then she had the toughest job in the world: a stay-at-home mom.
Who does she love? Why?
Jane loves her husband, Tom. That is certain. He has drawn out her softer side, which wasn’t really nurtured in her childhood. I think this is why she was attracted to him.
Does this person love her?
Immensely. This is the heartbreak of the story – loving someone whose mind is no longer her own. How do you love someone who doesn’t really exist anymore? This is what her husband grapples with.
Tell us about her family.
This question makes me smile. Why? Because it is the heartbeat of the book. JANEOLOGY is the story of Jane’s family. The chapters alternate through past and present and reveal eight of her ancestors. Who they were, what they did and how they were raised all trickled down into Jane’s DNA. To say anymore is to begin writing the story for you. Suffice to say, ask yourself about your own family. You would have a story about your mother, your father, your grandmother, your grandfather and so forth. These are the stories that make up JANEOLOGY.
Where is she from?
She is from Texas, born and raised. And it shows. There’s a certain can-do moxie about her spirit. This spirit propels her in both good and bad directions.
Does her hometown affect her attitude?
Perhaps. Texans have a certain wide open attitude. That there is enough room – physically and mentally – to do things in a big way. So, yes, I think that living in Texas must have affected her worldview.
What would she say that she wants out of life?
To be known. To have one person really understand her.
What’s her biggest secret?
Like most people, she has two secrets: one from childhood and one from adulthood. Her childhood secret is that her mother once abandoned her at a grocery store. And her adult secret is that she had murderous/post-partum impulses before she acted upon them.
Did you write more than one story about her?
Actually, yes. I wrote Jane from several perspectives and ages. One of those – Jane at age nine – appears in the novel. And it is one my favorite chapters in the entire book because of the way her innocence begins to bend.
How would she describe you?
If she were to describe my day job as a stay-at-home mom she would say, “I completely understand what a tough job it is. Call me if you want to go garage-saling next weekend.”
If she were to describe my job as a novelist she would say, “You are too sympathetic to my husband. Do you realize all the things you DIDN’T see about him? Don’t ever call me.”
What else should readers know about Jane?
Jane is a complex, dark, hurting individual. She surfaced in my writing because of all the tragic stories I have heard about mothers who kill and my quest to understand why and how this was possible. I believe I gleaned a few answers to this question by knowing her.
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY, the story of one man’s struggle to understand his wife Jane’s sudden descent into madness.
www.karenharringtonbooks.com
If Only This Writer Spoke Italian
February 11, 2008
by Karen Harrington
Magari!
Magari (mah-gah-ree) is a common Italian expression meaning If only! Yes, yes, it’s true. I’m still a bit heady about my recent trip to Italy. Can you blame me? The food. The scenery. The language. So to keep the vacation spirit going, I cook, I look at photos and I speak a handful of Italian phrases to my girls during the day. Language is the food every writer loves to devour after all. Learning expressions that convey so much meaning and enthusiasm into a single word, well, that is one of the reasons I love to write.
I don’t know about you, but some sentences, leave me gob-smacked. I study them. I re-read them. I write them in my notebook. And after reading the following gems, I thought, Magari!
“So long as she sat at that machine concentrating on the straights and flushes and jackpots, she didn’t have to think about the money she wasn’t making at the antique mall, the expensive new mahogany bed where she and Lyle slept facing away from each other.”
Will Allison, What You Have Left
“My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t make me innocent.”
Paul, I Corinthians 4:4
“The terrible day dissipates in the pleasurable haze of memory.”
Laura Fraser, An Italian Affair
“Ransom Hill had fallen hopelessly in love with his own wife.”
David Payne, Back to Wando Passo
“It will be years before she begins to feel the shadow of hopelessness falling over her pained attempts to drive her life somewhere interesting; years before she begins to sense time biting at her heels.”
Kelly Braffet, Last Seen Leaving
And here’s a little Valentine’s present for you. More common Italian expressions I find useful in my everyday life with two curious toddlers and two sneaky Labradors.
Il mio tesoro (My darling)
Ti ama (I love you)
Mamma mia! (My goodness!)
Che bello! (How lovely!)
Uffa! (Aargh!)
Mi raccomando! (Please, I beg you!)
Che ne so! (How should I know?)
Ti sta bene! (Serves you right!)
Non te la prendere! (Don’t get so upset!)
Che macello! (What a mess!)
Non mi va! (I don’t feel like it!)
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY (April 2008); the story of one man’s struggle to understand his wife and her sudden descent into madness.
www.karenharringtonbooks.com
Actually, I think I left my heart in Venice
February 4, 2008
by Karen Harrington
Venice is sinking, but that is not the only reason you should rush there at the next possible opportunity. Most women have a sense that
The highlights of the trip were many, but foremost had to be sharing the trip with two of my best girlfriends – an art lover and a photographer.
Why
I was there with my husband last April. I fell in love with the city not only for its place in history, but for its beautiful decay, for its sun-washed colors and watery landscape. No one structure is the same color from canal to roof, but rather, a wonderful blend of shades, cracks and layers. Sort of like your favorite girlfriends. So, I felt my heart ache as the airport shuttle dragged me away from the city. As fate would have it, when I returned home my first ever advance check was in the mailbox. Not wanting this incredible earning to go for anything mundane, I searched for a trip that would match both the joy I felt at becoming published and the amount of the check itself. Okay, so I had more joy than money. Still, I found I could afford a celebration. What I found was four nights in off season, cold and foggy
While there we three walked for hours each day without any real goal in mind. Sure, we wanted to visit St. Mark’s Basillica, feed scores of fat pigeons and have a bellini at Harry’s Bar (a five ounce bellini that will cost you your entire Starbuck’s budget for a week and have you exclaiming “Euro-kidding me!” when you get the bill). Alas, we left the rest of our walking to our sense of wanderlust. Okay, so this strategy gets you lost again and again. We searched for the Rialto Market for a ridiculously long amount of time, asking directions of countless kind Venetians and one Frenchman who merely said, “Don’t you have a map?!”. So you can understand it when I tell you we felt like we’d hit the Holy Grail when we finally stumbled upon the not so lovely fish stench permeating the market.
But we were there. We found it. We walked through its maze of multi-colored produce stands and seafood. After finding it, the city seemed to acknowledge our perseverance and directed us along its uncrowded, foggy streets with greater patience. (Or maybe we just stopped trying to find anything on purpose.)
We found other great places to leave behind our Euros. We ate the best bruschetta and pasta aglio lio e peperoncino (spaghetti with olive oil and peppers). We discovered Limoncello. We saw the same painter twice in one day as he moved his easel from one part of the city to another presumably to take advantage of the light. We spent an hour inside a mask shop trying on tens of sublime and sexy masks, leaving our faces glittery for the rest of the day. And in a nod to
So women, go with your girlfriends! Men, take your women! Let me be your blogeteering ambassador. Allow me to share my photo album until you do have the opportunity to visit La Serenissima yourself.
Ciao!
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY, a debut novel Booklist calls a fascinating mix of legal thriller and compelling character study.
Be a Hero. Help a Mother. It Might Just Save a Life.
January 28, 2008
by Karen Harrington
I am the unfortunate recipient of news articles about mothers who kill. Why? At one time, when I was learning about infanticide and its causes for my book, this was depressing research. Now it is merely depressing. The story is almost always the same. Only names and dates are changed.
A mother killed her x-month old child today.Relatives were stunned and shocked.
Her spouse/boyfriend said he noticed she seemed more withdrawn lately but attributed it to “hormones.”
This is the xth tragedy of its kind in the U.S. this year.
According to the American Anthropological Association, more than 200 women kill their children in the United States each year.
Homicide is the leading cause of death for children under four.
Eleven women are on death row in the United States for killing their children.
Today, someone forwarded an article to me that included one exception: a solution. A solution for those family members who feel helpless about ways to care for a new mother in crisis.
The solution: Crisis Nursery Centers
Here’s what the Sacramento Crisis Nursery center featured in this story says of its organization:
“The Sacramento Crisis Nursery offers a safe haven for children 5 years old and under whose families are facing a crisis. The nursery provides both emergency daytime care and overnight stays for up to 30 days.
Many of the clients who utilize the crisis nursery’s services do not have extended family in the region and feel isolated in their situation … “We think a parent is a hero to children when they can identify that they need support and help,” Roy Alexander [Chief Financial Officer of the Sacramento Children’s Home] said.The crisis nursery would like to reach out to new mothers and groups that deal with postpartum depression. “We encourage mothers if they feel like they really have the blues and they’re concerned about their ability to continue to take care of their child that they’ll call us very quickly,” said Alexander.
Can I get an Amen?
Amen!
For me, I am thrilled today to not merely report to you about this growing concern and the need for families to be vigilante in observing and helping mothers suffering from post-partum depression or other illnesses that might cause a mother to harm her child. Today, I can also offer information that might save a life.
Here’s a link to a list of all known centers nationwide. Keep it. Share it. Use it.
http://www.wku.edu/~darbi.haynes-lawrence/crisis_nursery.htm
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY: the story of one man’s attempt to understand his wife and her sudden descent into madness.
www.karenharringtonbooks.com
Writers Take Heart. You Have Your Own Saint
January 21, 2008
What if I told you there was a writer so determined to draw attention to his writing he posted it on walls, slipped it under doors and handed pages to anyone he could? Crazy? Some might say so. But it’s also a model of persistence, courage and faith. And as it happens, the man nailing those pages onto walls was writing, in fact, about faith. He was Francis De Sales, a writer so prolific and powerful he was proclaimed the Patron Saint of Writers and Journalists in 1665 by Pope Alexander VII. And his Saints’ Day is celebrated this week on January 24.
Writers at all stages can take heart!
De Sales wrote his whole life without ever being formally published. But his books, as we know them today, have not gone out of print in almost four centuries. (And they all enjoy an Amazon sales rank any writer would envy.)
De Sales was born in 1567, the eldest child in an aristocratic French family. His father had ambitions that his son should study law and theology, for which he eventually received doctorate degrees. After his studies were complete, he was expected to marry and take a position in the Senate. But De Sales refused and turned his attentions to his truest passion – a ministerial life.
He became a bishop of the Catholic Diocese in Geneva at a time when Calvinism was spreading. De Sales determined to lead an expedition to convert the 60,000 Calvinists back to the Catholic Church. In this regard, he developed a reputation as an exceptionally patient man. For years, no one would listen to him. No one would open the door when he knocked. So he found a way to get under the door. He wrote out his sermons and slipped them under the door.
His most famous book, Introduction to the Devout Life, is a collection of many of those letters and passages.
Today, the weary or discouraged writer, or anyone in need of encouragement, can look to St. Francis’ example of persistence in the face of rejection. So if you are waiting for that agent or publisher to call, perhaps a nod heavenward to St. Francis on January 24th wouldn’t hurt.
Following are some wonderful passages I discovered within his writings.
“True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice.”
“Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.”
“Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.”
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY: the story of one man’s attempt to understand his wife and her sudden descent into madness. Follow this new author’s writing journey here at HerCircle Ezine throughout 2008.
Five Great Sentences
January 14, 2008
One of novelist Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing is this: “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” That’s good advice. Clear prose is not supposed to allow anything to distract the reader from the story, conflict or character. If the reader pauses and notices the author even for a moment, it can break the tension. And when that happens, she might put the book down for good. Many a good tome has suffered this fate.
But on occasion, there are those great sentences that make you dog-ear a page, perhaps for the insight the author offers; perhaps so you can share it with a book-loving friend; or, perhaps so you can tape it to your refrigerator and study it. Leonard might disagree with me, but I think there are writers who can both sustain a novel’s forward motion AND write sentences that insist on being noticed.
Following are five sentences that forced me to dog-ear book pages and pause to consider the author – not for pulling me out of the story, but for giving me writer envy. Yes, when I read the following, I couldn’t help but say, “I wish I’d written that!”
“An incidental discovery was that even legendary success brought little happiness, only redoubled restlessness, gnawing ambition.”
Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach
“…..Claire says, turning to the counter to order what sounds like six drinks but turns out to just be a coffee.”
Jonathan Tropper, How To Talk To A Widower
“Until now, Tom and Paula had all their wounds in common. Every hurt was diluted immediately, reduced by half for being shared, reduced again, almost redeemed by the attention that it earned.”
Lynn Hoffman, bang, Bang
“But I was also free, invisible, as if the only evidence of my existence were in the tasks I performed, the services I rendered to others. When I stopped work, I disappeared.”
Rosemary Poole-Carter, The Women of Magdalene
“Now, fifteen years and one mildly gifted son later, they had little to talk about. They were prone to epic silences and kept up their little hostilities like rubbed bronze.”
Dominic Smith, The Beautiful Miscellaneous
What great sentences have you read recently?
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY: the story of one man’s attempt to understand his wife and her sudden descent into madness. Follow this new author’s writing journey here at HerCircle Ezine throughout 2008.
www.karenharringtonbooks.com
A Prayer for Writers
January 10, 2008
Acclaimed novelist Christopher Isherwood once wrote the following prayer for writers that is as relevant for 2008 as it was when he penned it in 1940:“Oh source of my inspiration, teach me to extend toward all living that fascinated, unsentimental, loving and all-pardoning interest which I feel for the characters I create. May I become identified with all humanity, as I identify myself with these imaginary persons. May my life become my art and my art my life.”
As this writer embarks on a particularly ambitious year (publication of my first novel and completion of a new novel), I am especially grateful for Isherwood’s inspiring words.
Happy New Year to one and all.
