Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Humbled.
CALLIOPE: What brings you to this state of awareness?
JOE: My presence last night in the PEN World Voices presentation.
CALLIOPE: Tell me about it.
JOE: Salman Rushdie and Umberto Eco both read from their works and Joanna Scott hosted a conversation with the two writers. Both inspired me to be the best writer I can be and gave me some ideas about how to do it.
CALLIOPE: Excellent. What did you learn?
JOE: More than I would from one author alone. Joanna Scott did an excellent job facilitating a conversation between the two authors.
CALLIOPE: Specifics please.
JOE: Okay, one insight from each author. Eco sees fiction as inviting the reader to think about how we think. We step back from our practical world and look from a distance at ourselves and how we operate. This is similar to what Eckhart Tolle suggests as awareness in A New Earth.
CALLIOPE: And Rushdie?
JOE: One of my favorite insights he shared was that we often get stuck trying to answer the question why when reading. Concentrating in writing on answering the question how leads to the understanding of why.
CALLIOPE: That sounds rather profound. I'll have to think about it for a while. What's up for today?
JOE: I will continue working on editing Marital Property. I am reading the manuscript first for clarity and consistency. After that I will look at it's musical properties, an insight I gained last night. But more about that tomorrow.
(Polar Bears- Peter Langen)

Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Excited.
CALLIOPE: On what account?
JOE: This afternoon I have the privilege of attending a PEN event in Rochester. Umberto Eco and Salman Rushdie are both reading their work. I happened across the announcement as soon as it was released and was able to get tickets.
CALLIOPE: Are you a big fan of either?
JOE: I tried reading The Satanic Verses a while ago and had trouble making sense of it. Eco's book Name of the Rose was one of my favorites. His more recent book, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana was, well, mysterious. I liked parts of it but other parts eluded me.
CALLIOPE: Why do you think you had the mixed reactions?
JOE: I think I like to read more straightforward work. I like to be able to follow plot and character development rather than having pieces of a jigsaw puzzle laid in front of me which I have to piece together to make sense of a book.
CALLIOPE: Good way to put it. Do you write straightforwardly as well?
JOE: I try to. I must admit a few forays into more speculative fiction such as my short story, A Piecemeal Kingdom.
CALLIOPE: I forgot about that story. Is it posted somewhere.
JOE: You can find it http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?AuthorID=66681&id=29856.
CALLIOPE: Quite a mouthful.
JOE: Not everyone can link directly. So that's the whole ID. It's easier than sending it to everyone who wants to see it.
CALLIOPE: With all your excitement, are you getting some work done?
JOE: Yes. I revised several chapters of Marital Property yesterday and plan to work some more on it today before heading off to Rochester. Talk with you tomorrow.
(Bas relief- Santillana, Spain)