For the four of us, it was definitely McDonald's only a few blocks down the street in Alton, Illinois darkness. Safety in numbers with more laughs to boot. Lloyd--noted professor and author. George--doctor with creativity to burn in all the arts. Liz--a brave woman who is no stranger to fighting for miners' rights because she's been in the mines herself. And me.

The question of the night was: "How do you tell the truth in memoir?"

Here's what we figured out. Don't think that the readers will think what you think they will think. Projection, yes. Also, "responsibility entanglement." As in "Oh, my mother would just die if she found out that..." This isn't your fault or your look-out. Fret not.

Surrender to the work. Let the work lead you. It's not about it. It's a larger story. It's about the work and making it the best it can be.

You have to own your dance, as a friend taking Tango told me. You have to own your life and how you write it.

At the Missouri Writers Guild Conference I presented a variation called: "Prose? Poetry? Who knows?"

I enjoy exploring the line between the two genres. We toggle back and forth and learn lots.

There are several fun writing prompts at the end of each post.

Thus began my afternoon adventure. Not at all what I'd planned. The index finger on my left hand bled like a stuck pig soaking through cotton ball after cotton ball. For 1 1/2 hours it bled even elevating it and applying pressure--first directly on the cut and later pressing on either side of the finger at the base to cut off arterial blood supply.

Was it deep? Did I need stitches? Hard to know with all that blood. Not to neglect those possibilities, I drove myself to the Barnes Jewish Hospital emergency room only a few blocks away.

I checked in. I got my vitals mapped and interviewed. I got registered. I waited, and waited and waited. There ought to be a law against showing medical shows in an emergency room. I learned more about my fellow waiters. Did you know you can have a full-scale argument just short of a knife fight...right there in front of God and the waiting public? It's true. I met a man with AIDS, slid my feet to let wheelchairs pass...and read. Finished my book, too.

By the time I finally got to the exam room, the bleeding had stopped. It wasn't too deep. I told Kenny, my nurse that I was embarrassed to be here. It just wasn't that bad. So, I slid out and went on home. Door to door elapsed time? Four hours.

Thanks to my book "Return to Laughter" (Bowen, Elenor Smith, 1964, Return to Laughter: an anthropological novel. New York: Anchor Books) the four hours flew by.

In Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist, Sharman Apt Russell invites the reader on a quest to resolve the tensions inevitable to one who proposes to live consciously: living in the nature of the beautiful Gila Valley, New Mexico versus maintaining a job and children’s activities in Silver City; being a good Quaker when Quaker Meeting is on Sunday morning, one of two days left to be outside town; the pantheist belief that the universe as a whole is sacred and the existence of evil ; and the comfort of a personal god compared to possible “ontological loneliness” experienced by the pantheist.

Sharman Apt Russell does not offer any pat answers. What she does is a weave of topics from her life history with a chronicle of one year, November 2005-November 2006, the definition of pantheism and its 2500 year old history, biographies and philosophies of a number of historical figures in the tradition (many persecuted for their thought and lifestyles), bird banding in the Gila Valley, ecological activism, Quakerism, its history and her own current group, her friends in the ecological movement and those in the Sanctuary Movement, and more.

She moves so seamlessly that the reader hardly needs transitions. Discussing Marcus Aurelius’ conclusion that evil is just a name for something misunderstood she cuts to herself and her daughter talking a walk in the Gila Valley at the end of college winter break. Her daughter will be graduating, and Sharman Apt Russell writes of her parental concerns for her daughter who will be going out into the dark streets where there may be real evil. Despite the double space between the sections signaling the changing in time and characters, clearly there is no change in topic, and the questions the author ponders aren’t just intellectual games.

Nearing the midpoint of the book, Sharman Apt Russell recounts a long hiking expedition that helps her clarify her goals. “I want rapture and living communion. I want to play like a child. Above all, like everyone else, I want to find my compassionate heart.” Though she allows no simplistic answers to the questions she poses or to the goals she sets, the books ends with her rapturous witnessing of the dance of the sand hill cranes, a rare sight that early in the memoir she mentions hoping to see.

The year that she is chronicling seems to be a transition point in her and her husband’s life. Early in their marriage they lived “in nature,” but family needs occasioned the move into town. Now they have bought another plot of land and anticipate the time when they can return to more permanent residence there. She says she will be better prepared this time and will take her “friends,” books.

I received the publisher’s postcard announcing Sharman Apt Russell's book, and when colleagues gave me a gift certificate to our local independent book store as a retirement present, this was the first book I purchased to take on my journey. I was not disappointed.

A Coming of Age Story of a Girl and a Country

While set in Botswana and praised by Alexander McCall Smith as a "striking portrait of one of the world's most beguiling countries," the deeper subject of Twenty Chickens for a Saddle turns out not to be Africa at all. Rather, Robyn Scott has written a searching portrait of the limits of individualism and an exploration of education in its several forms.

Ordinarily, the problem with being idiosyncratic is that there you are, all by yourself. In this story, however, there's an entire clan of stark, raving individuals who totally delight one another and somehow come together as a family of eccentrics. I knew a family much like them when I lived in Botswana for three years in the 1970s, learning to speak Setswana.

What constitutes a good education? What makes a family, a culture, a nation? How does the individual fit into these gathering units? What is the trajectory of a marriage? What are the limits of change? How is the dignity of a human being colored one way or another? Searching for Robyn Scott's views on these basic questions kept me reading. Clearly, this is more than an exotic memoir of a faraway country and people having nothing to do with the rest of us except to entertain.

It is with a sense of homecoming that I enter Robyn Scott's Twenty Chicken world. Her family is one of a maverick breed of outlanders that has loved this country and contributed to Botswana's peaceful and harmonious development.

Seven-year-old Robyn came to Botswana in 1988, about 11 years after I returned to the United States. She was homeschooled by her mother until 1995, when her formal education began. A successful adult, she appears to have suffered in no way from her early fluid education of learning by doing, by observing, and by being read to.

Graceful asides define Botswana's history, culture, and challenges, including the AIDS crisis, which is told in frank language. Written mostly from the point of view of a child, this is a coming-of-age story of the best kind. As Robyn matures, she takes us through Botswana's changing fortunes in the Selebi-Phikwe area of the Limpopo River and later on a game farm closer to South Africa. This is an environment that both embraces her and allows her to grow up on her own terms.

Twenty Chickens is particularly good at describing Botswana's plant life and wildlife and the freedom of the bush land. The narrative is complemented by photos, a rough map, endearingly drawn icons, and glossaries of Setswana and Afrikaans. An index would make the book even more accessible.

One of my favorite sections is Chapter 16, The Whole Family's Half of an Island. Here, more than in other chapters, we are given a direct sense of Botswana culture and relationships and the heartfelt hospitality lavished upon extended family, even if part of that family is white. There is playfulness and ingenuity here, and a demonstration of natural Batswana diplomacy which is wonderfully revealing of this quiet people living in a vast land.

Some time back I phoned in my 6-word memoir:

Country girl roamed.
Home grazing sweetest.

and my 6-word description of "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary"

A downhome family
lovestory beyond death.

for the May Story Circle Network Podcast. Frankly, I'd forgotten all about it. Then, this morning on the Independent Authors Guild listserve, Bobbi Chukran mentioned hearing my voice on the podcast, so I went to check it out, never having heard the podcast before.

My short portion of the May SCN podcast--my own 6-word biography and how it can be applied to book marketing--can be heard towards the end...along with other listener contributions from SCN Internet Chapter e-circle members who responded via the Listener Line as I did.

The main podcast on memoir is also excellent, and I encourage you to enjoy that as well.

Here's the description:
Author Linda Wisniewski talks about her recently published memoir, "Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to peace with scoliosis, her mother, and her Polish heritage." Linda tells us about her experience with writing as healing, and she gives us some great tips on how to pursue
publication.

First off, let me say I consider that the reader section on the Amazon book product pages are, for the most part, best termed as "comments" rather than "reviews"---which usually would be rather over-stating the case.

Secondly, I am frequently appalled by the casual way in which readers in these comment sections reveal their ignorance, not even knowing they are doing so.

If you want to sample the state of literacy and literateness in America today, just turn to the Amazon Jungle of Democratic commentary, complete with voting buttons.

Obviously, I am in a Cultural Curmudgeon mood. What has so twerked me off? I've just come from looking at the Amazon book product page for Wole Soyinka's newest memoir, "You Must Set Forth At Dawn."

Soyinka's newest memoir, "You Must Set Forth At Dawn"

Here is one of the clunkers pucking my last nerve, which can be summarily dismissed as completely missing the point:

1) Craig Kenworthy asks, "Ever have a friend who tells great stories but takes too long to get to the point?" and states: "This is a good book that could have been..a little less self centered, if self-centered can be a fair criticism of a memoir."

2) Jimi Oke responds, "I completely disagree with those who complain that Soyinka is too wordy and dawdles over many unnecessary details before getting to the real thing. What real thing are they searching for, anyway? This, after all, is a memoir. Moreover, every page, every word was an absolute treat. Solidly written, with a plethora of hilarious, as well as sobering anecdotes, and a masterful deployment of literary devices, this, surely is a chef-d'oeuvre. However, this book is not only an autobiography but an excellent historical account of Nigeria's political history since independence in 1960.

Wole Soyinka

"Catapulted right into the middle of the action and intrigue that took hold of the nation, I learned new things and gained a lot of useful insight into how the nation became to be what it is today and the various roles of those involved in shaping its destiny.

"I grabbed this book because I wanted to learn more about the history of my country from the mouth of a seasoned literary figure. I was astounded to discover that he was completely involved in the struggle right from the beginning. What is more, I was rewarded with a distinctive literary style and all the rewards it brings---new vocabulary, new expressions, and more knowledge."

3) Michael Crown, in an otherwise positive review, says, "Mr. Soyinka's style tends to be a little heavy on grammar..." Hello? What could this possibly mean? Heavy on grammar?

4) Maxine Lederman complains that it took her almost 250 pages before she "could really get into the book. It was very wordy and nothing said really kept you wanting to go forward. Our reading group decided to read this and none of us could finish the book and many never started. Our discussion leader was very determined and forced herself to read until the end. She was kind enough to point out some good parts. On pages 436-440, his thoughts were timely as to the world situation today. This is a read for someone who really likes a challenge!"

Maxine...let me just say, Soyinka has my complete and heartfelt attention from the first sentence onward! "Outside myself at moments like this, heading home, I hesitate a moment to check if it is truly a living me." (chapter one :For Those Who Went Before, p. 5) Maxine, honey, I'm in love from the get-go, and his words of wisdom continue with constancy throughout.

5) Hedzoleh is another reader, like Jimi Oke above, who is able to meet Soyinka with informed intelligence:

"Soyinka skilfully offers refreshing glimpses into his life as a humble, honest and courageous individual. He is deeply spiritual but definitely not a holier-than-thou prude. Soyinka's infectious enjoyment of life comes across in his passion for hunting, wine, music, art and, of course, women. It seems that it is this enduring appreciation of the immense possibilities of life that drives his resistance to dictatorship and systems that seek to rob the individual of the opportunity to partake in the sacrament of life. The man, his art and his politics are inseparable."

There, now I feel better. Back to my reading. The next chaper beckons: "The Conquest of Civilian Pride."