Adding it up with J.D. Smith

I met J.D. Smith, author of the children’s picture book The Best Mariachi in the World (Raven Tree Press), at the Poetry Conference at West Chester University. He’s currently circulating two collections of poetry, one each in formal and free verse, and another children’s manuscript. His essay collection, Dowsing and Science, is scheduled for publication by Texas Review Press in 2010. He agreed to answer a few probing questions here at Treated & Released, in spite of the fact that I never can tell whether he’s joking or being completely serious.

—Robin

 

 

 

 

Treated & Released:

J.D. Smith 

 

Who is Rob Omura, and why are you and I friends with him on Facebook?

I only know about Rob through Facebook, and it seems we have a lot of mutual writer friends. Like myself, he seems to have interests in several different genres. I think his range also includes crime fiction and poetry, and there may be more. Some people can only be described as champion Facebook networkers. The Greek poet Dimitri Kraniotis and Suzanne Vega have both filled up their maximum of 5,000 friends and are, I think, on to their “B” profiles for more friends.

OK. Tracked him down. It appears Rob Omura is a lawyer in Calgary (environmental law, we’re happy to discover) and an editor for Goldfish Press in Eustis, Florida. You and Rob have had stories published in Bad Things. It’s all starting to make sense to me now.

I presume you’ve never tried your hand at screenwriting, or have you?

As a matter of fact, I have. In the 1990s I wrote the first draft of a screenplay, not really knowing what I was doing—and it shows. Right now I am using that text as the outline of a crime novel, my first novel of any kind. I should also note that the story of my one-act play “Dig” has been optioned for adaptation by Meydenbauer Entertainment, and director Joshua Caldwell and a collaborator have been at work on this. I should also note that “Dig” will be produced in London by the organization CurvingRoad in June of 2010. As of December 3, we are starting to work on revisions of the script.

I additionally have a very particular idea for a character-driven screenplay I would like to write, and I have ideas for two full-length plays as well.

I’ve read some of your poetry, your noir fiction, and the children’s picture book. What motivates you to write in such diverse styles?

In large part I am driven by curiosity and an appetite for novelty. I try to answer the question of “Can I do this?” Sometimes the answer is no, and sometimes it’s a much different “this” than I could have imagined. In addition, I seem to have creative wells that fill and go dry at different times, so working in several genres gives me the opportunity to feel that I am always working on something. By temperament I am also an eclectic “fox” rather than a specialized “hedgehog,” so I have a great many moods and interests. I have also learned the hard way that I cannot say everything I would like to say in only one genre, so branching out represents a necessity.

What other forms does your writing appear in, and where can I see excerpts?

Other forms I’ve tried include literary fiction, humorous erotica (I’m not sure there’s really any other kind), essays, commentary, and humor. Some of these overlap. I’ve pasted below a variety of links, which range from high to low culture.

Los Angeles Times: “Pop a pill and save a rhino”

The Barcelona Review: “Reading as Vacation”

Clean Sheets Erotica Magazine: “Exceptions”

Exquisite Corpse: “From the Management”

Ducts.org, the webzine of personal stories: “Diary Excerpt”

Grist: “How a little blue pill could get big results—in species conservation, we mean”

McSweeney’s: “Food, Drink, and Condiment Names That May Also Serve As Names of Ecdysiasts and/or Adult Film Stars” and
“Plant-Animal Hybrids That May Result from Genetic Engineering”

The Big Jewel: “Proclamation and Manifesto of the ADLF”

Yankee Pot Roast: “A Field Guide to Selected Western Artists”

Salt: “Reasons for Not Wearing Black”

FLYMF: “My Fetishist Things,” “As a Matter of Fact, I Am the Person You Have to Blow to Get a Table Around Here,” and “The Great Tuvalu Liquidation Sale”

Big Muddy: “My Coronation”

Connecticut Review: “Icons and Idols”

The Laurel Review: “The News”

MiPOesias: “The Interview”

Gee, thanks, J.D. That only took me 45 minutes to link up. I kept the list in order, which reminds me—I always read things literally, so at first I thought you meant you’d arranged your credits in order from high to low. That would be riskier than a career in the financial sector. Speaking of which, can you tell the truth about your day job in the financial sector?

I can indeed reveal the truth about my day job, as I am not any sort of Beltway player. I sometimes describe myself as a Washington outsider. By day I work as the assistant editor for the research department of the Inter-American Development Bank—one of those polysyllabic only-in-DC kind of jobs. What all that means is that I help to clarify the prose of economists who generally do not have English as their first language.

If you could choose anyone alive today, which famous person would you want to record the audiobook version of The Best Mariachi in the World?

The name that comes to mind is Edward James Olmos. He could give the text a weight and depth that few others would provide.

The jargon barrier

The following sentence is from a 1996 Smithsonian magazine article written by David Roberts:

Then as now, the pastime was so arcane that it had its own vocabulary, opaque to outsiders, and its own esoteric codex of ethical behavior.

Think about it. What could Roberts have been describing? I don’t recall, so I’m going to do some research. I’ll post the answer in the comments section when I find it.

Actually, it doesn’t matter what Roberts was discussing. We all experience the exclusionary effects of jargon and are occasionally mystified by others’ justification for doing things the way they’ve always been done in their unfamiliar territory. It feels safer to be among the insiders, so if we really want to get past the barriers, we learn the standard operating procedures, the peculiar language, and the secret handshake.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to recall what we thought before we conformed, because language can have strange effects on our beliefs.

Some exceptionally talented and popular authors are appreciated for their ability to decipher the “esoteric codex” so the outsiders can understand the insiders. Which of these writers do you rely on and recommend to others?

Masters of the modern short story

Writers searching for succinct reminders for improving their short stories will appreciate the efforts of Alan Mahar, director of Tindal Street Press in Birmingham, West Midlands, UK. Mahar asked some of his authors to describe exactly how their favorite short-story writers mastered techniques of the form. Their answers—go get ‘em—are available as free downloads on the publisher’s website.

In a lesson titled “Be Indirect,” Alan Beard explains how the technique of being surreptitious is used by the writer William Trevor in a story about a mother who remains unaware that her daughter has been molested:

‘Good News’ in fact is a perfect example of the oblique approach. The child abuse is central but is never referred to directly. This makes it all the more powerful because it suggests how such things can slip by unnoticed in real life, also the reader is left with the horrible task of thinking about what might have happened.

The 10 downloadable lessons focus on concepts that should be familiar to the point of being instinctive for fiction writers. If not, there’s work to be done—and a nice long weekend ahead in which to do it.

Athens’ wayward comic book artist

Publishers’ catalogs can be as interesting to read as the books they describe. Paper catalogs are a guilty pleasure, but even the electronic versions are cool. I admired Mr. Misdiagnosed & Admitted’s Ohio University Press & Swallow Press catalogs long before I met him. Which, I suppose, means catalog copy can be a hen magnet. Be careful what you wish for and all that, but we women are the majority of book buyers after all.

The Ohio University Press & Swallow Press list for 2010 includes a title I can’t wait to buy—Sandy Plunkett’s The World of a Wayward Comic Book Artist. Sorry, the The publisher’s catalog is not yet available, but grab a copy later this year on Scribd.

Documentary producer Sandra Sleight-Brennan’s nonprofit Trillium Media studio put together a video of Plunkett describing his life and art. The video is a sample of what the book will be. About halfway through, you can catch a glimpse of the bound galley as Plunkett talks about being influenced by illustrators of the early decades of the twentieth century. In the background you can hear the music of singer-songwriter Bruce Dalzell.

It’s a bit of a surprise to those who’ve never visited that Athens County, Ohio, is a peaceful enclave of performing and visual artists. Somehow, the Appalachian foothills and culture have defended the place from the darker aspect of our urges toward celebrity, acquisitiveness, and a continually accelerated pace of daily life. I can only assume that’s why Sandy Plunkett and others like him have made their homes here. Maybe I should have protected the secret. I’m probably in for it now.

Public images

Blogs give me a quick and easy view of writers’, editors’, workshop instructors’, and publicists’ personalities. The sensibilities that come across in their posts are fascinating. Certainly the impressions I get from reading people’s blogs affect my decisions about working with them and following the advice they offer.

Also interesting is the niggling frustration of trying to communicate with someone I’ve never met face-to-face, when the person doesn’t have an online presence. Only recently have I noticed how the absence of a public image detracts from my ability to form a useful opinion of the person. An online presence is, I must admit, reassuring—even when all it does is reassure me that I’ll never agree with someone.

I encourage authors to blog or participate in online social networks, and I’ve been hoping for two years now that Mr. Misdiagnosed & Admitted would join me in the blogosphere. Shortly before midnight, he did just that. I can’t stop smiling. If you have a free moment, please take the detour to his newborn blog, “Not goin’ home anymore,” and leave a perplexing comment. They’re the best kind.

The warranty clause in a book contract

A publisher’s contract with a book author contains a clause referred to as the warranty. The warranty clause requires the author to affirm that the book to which the publisher is acquiring rights is:

• An original work
• Not previously published
• Not in the public domain
• Owned by the author, who has not otherwise encumbered or transferred the rights being granted to the publisher
• Not libelous or unlawful
• Not a violation of anyone’s right to privacy
• True, or based on accepted standards for professional research, when the book claims to be factual
• Not an infringement of copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, or other rights
• Not a means of instruction that might create harm or injury

The standard warranty in a book contract places full responsibility for all of these matters on the author and releases the publisher from liability. Furthermore, the warranty survives the book contract. In other words, even after publication rights have reverted to the author, the warranty remains in effect, protecting the publisher from future claims involving the book it sold and from the expense of a legal defense against any such claims.

Naturally, the stipulations of the warranty in the publisher’s contract with the author are negotiable—to some extent. However, book publishers considering manuscripts they suspect don’t comply with the terms of a warranty clause usually will have other manuscripts to choose from and can simply reject anything remotely problematic. An almost undetectable flicker of a red flag can be enough to discourage an acquiring editor from giving an author’s work more than a moment’s consideration before rejecting it.

Libel and privacy

Novelists write about what they know and experience. They incorporate in their stories the characteristics and actions of people they have loved, hated, observed, and been deeply affected by. Often, creative writers compile the traits of several fascinating personalities into a single character in a story or novel. The process of fabrication typically overcomes any suggestion that the fictional character actually exists to be harmed by either defamation or the exposure of private matters.

When a writer fails to take the appropriate precautions, the Web can make swift work of corroborating readers’ suspicions that a character in a work of fiction is based on a real person. Entertainment attorney Mark Litwak warns writers that “if there is a chance that the public could mistake your imaginary characters for real people, you could be liable if you have thereby infringed their rights.” Litwak’s summary of the applicable laws was written for filmmakers, but it’s also relevant to fiction writers.

Libel and privacy are complex areas of litigation. To some provocateurs, legally risky writing is a deliberate marketing strategy. Laws that prohibit defamation and invasion of privacy are designed to protect individual’s reputations, social standing, and careers from writers who recklessly disregard the rights of others. Unfortunately, it’s too easy for the amiable author who means no harm to overlook the potential consequences of merging truth and fiction.

Three decades ago, novelist, poet, and playwright Gwen Davis was sued by a psychologist who claimed she defamed him by fictionalizing actual events in which he’d participated. The ensuing controversy was later described in an article in New York magazine.

Know the laws

Writers, regardless of publication medium (including bloggers), who want to avoid lawsuits can consult the following resources to educate themselves. Being unaware of the laws is never a defense for violating them.

Copyright.gov

Electronic Frontier Foundation

HG.org Worldwide Legal Directories Guide to Copyright Law

International Libel & Privacy Handbook
(2nd edition) by Charles J. Glasser, Jr.

The Writer’s Legal Guide: An Authors Guild Desk Reference
(3rd edition) by Tad Crawford & Kay Murray

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The Authors Guild offers its members media liability insurance underwritten by Axis Pro.