Wannaskan Almanac for Saturday, November 17th

Good morning and welcome to another Saturday edition of the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is November 17th and a big, BIG deal/holiday in the Czech Republic.

But first, let me tell you about Kauai! (A hat tip and a high-five to the Kid Writer-in-Residence who held the fort down for me on last Saturday's blog. Well done, bud!)

Kauai Writer's Conference Highlights:

On my first morning in Kauai, I wrote in my journal:

"The rooster crowed.

I just heard a rooster crow. I’m not kidding. It’s not even 6am, I can’t sleep anymore and there’s a rooster crowing. And it’s totally that fairytale-pohadka type of cock-a-doodle-doo, or, in Czech, ki-ki-ri-ki."

By Friday, I lay in bed thinking, "The damn rooster won't stop crowing."

All crowing aside, I had an absolutely fabulous week of learning and meeting people from all walks of life. I started the week with two masterclasses: a screenwriting class with Jeff Arch (aka Jeff 1), the writer for Sleepless in Seattle, and "Writing Your Way to Publication" class with literary agent, Jeff Kleinman (aka Jeff 2.) As students, we tackled our loglines in the morning and tried to improve our writing by workshopping the first ten pages of our manuscripts through the lenses of premise, voice, character, and momentum.

The super sweet CBK

The actual conference kicked off Friday morning, packed with some serious star power including: Alice Hoffman, Christina Baker Kline, Krisitn Hannah, Scott Turow, Jane Smiley, Garth Stein and Sara Gruen. Those are probably some of the biggest names, but some of my best writing experiences came out of workshops with authors Joshua Mohr, Debbie Augenthaler and Laura Lentz. There was a lot of love for authors interested in the entire publishing gamut - from traditional to self-publishing - and experts and agents for everything in between.

Joshua Mohr urging us to be
the garlic sharers of the world. 

I'll be compiling all of my writerly and publishing 411 accrued from the conference in a workshop I'm calling YOU'RE NOT READY: A workshop on the path to publication. I'm already scheduled to be at the Roseau Public Library on January 10th, 2019, 5- 7pm. Warroad date TBD, but most likely in the next few weeks. If you would like me to bring my workshop to YOUR community, email me at kim@redshoeswriting.com or mention your interest (including contact info) in the comments below.

But what I want to share with you TODAY is simply this:

Oh, how small is the world in which we live.

My linguistic expert cousin, Wes, explained to me once that people who live in small communities have a hard time with face recognition when they travel elsewhere. In other words, your brain spins through its Rolodex of people already registered and tries to match new faces with existing ones. I even looked it up and found some research on the subject. In Kauai, this totally happened to me.

Number of times I swore I "recognized' someone: 6

• A new friend from Mauai was the total doppelganger of a college friend from Brazil.
• For a fleeting moment, I thought I recognized a college friend now living in Montana.
• Jeff 2 reminded me of my own brother, with the same hand gestures and facial expressions!
• It took me a week to figure out that Maureen from Hawaii looks like Rita Wilson (Tom Hank's wife.)
• It wasn't until I got back home, I realized that a lady with glasses and pretty bird like lips from the conference reminded me of a realtor who showed us houses when we first came to Warroad.
• There was a lady from San Diego I was SURE I had met before. (Don't worry, I didn't approach her.)

Small world coincidences: 3

Toastmaster peeps!

• My Maui friend, Malia, is the VP of Public Relations for Toastmasters, too! (I represent Star of the North)
• My airBNB flatmate was from the very neighborhood of the latest California shooting. We were together Wednesday morning when the news broke.
• And, my favorite - when I learned one of my Jeff 2 classmates was from Brookfield, Massachusetts, I asked him if he knew our Wannaksan Almanac writer, Chairman Joe. "You mean English teacher Joe?"

Ryan aka former student of Chairman Joe

And the conference wouldn't be complete without bringing it all back to Minnesota.

The number of people I met with a Minnesota connection: 6

• 3 ladies in my screenwriting class
• 1 guy in my manuscript class (in his first chapter, I was SURE he was writing about the Coppertop Church in Duluth)
• 1 literary agent (spouse hailing from Walker)
• 1 former UMD English professor from Emily, MN, a former colleague of Linguistic professor, Mike Linn, whose daughter was my classmate at Duluth East.

Rosa from CA

Non-literary things I learned on my Kauai trip:

• Curling my hair is pointless.
• Benny & the Jets is a karaoke classic that sounds like a good idea when you pick it, but drags on at the end way too long. "Benny! Benny! Benny! Benny!" x 24
• It's good to spend time with people from all walks of life.
• Kauai is full of wild chickens and cats.
• Hawaii has a very relaxed culture.
• New Yorkers are not Hawaiians.

Literary things I learned at the Kauai Writers Conference:

• When I'm working on a book, I need to go into the bubble where I don't care what other people think. Like when I journal. It's got to be a rule. Bubble: Only me; no outside world.
• When an agents says, "Fix this paragraph." Ask yourself if this is the problem or a symptom of a bigger problem."
• The only question a literary agent is asking when they look at your query letter. "Can I sell this book?"
• "Show don't tell" actually means not to reveal all of your character's personality, kind of like not showing your entire poker hand (explanation provided by Scott Turow.)
• Poetry informs prose. Read it. Write it.
• Our job as a writer is to make the reader feel what they themselves do not know they feel.
• Tell the truth. Tell your truth.
• Even with all of the know-how, writing is still a messy, organic process.

Kauai Sunrise

November 17th - Velvet Revolution

On this day in 1989, the Velvet Revolution began, sparked by the violent reaction to a peaceful student demonstration. What started as a communist-sanctioned student rally on International Students Day to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a Czech student (Jan Opletal) murdered by Nazi-occupying forces, morphed into an anti-communist rally. As students proceeded to Wenceslas Square, riot police intervened - and, well, not so peacefully. This act of violence triggered a reaction among the people, thousands of whom demonstrated (peacefully) and protested across the country, demanding the end to Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

Here are some articles if you'd like to read more:
Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution (1989)
Prague History – The Velvet Revolution
Velvet Revolution: Czechs and Slovaks celebrate anniversary of fall of communism and triumph of Vaclav Havel

My father-in-law and his oldest son (my future husband) traveled to Letná in Prague on November 27th to participate in and witness these demonstrations. My husband was only 14 years old.

My husband and I are the same age.

When I was 14 years old, growing up in Duluth, Minnesota, I was dreaming about boys. I was a freshman at Ordean Junior High - the last ninth grade class Ordean would ever have. I had Spanish with Senora Sederberg and was already dreaming of studying abroad. I sang in the choir. I played volleyball. I was more worried about who my date for the 9th Grade Dance was going to be than I was about a revolution half a world away.

Who knew that a revolution would change the course of my life forever.

World events matter. Watch and read the news. Stay informed. You never know when world events will change YOUR life.

Fun Facts from the Kids

- There are only three contrabass flutes in the whole world. (I'm supposed to check that.)
- The banana flavor in candy is from an extinct banana.
- They're remaking the movie Titanic.
- Gum passes normally through the digestive system. (It doesn't stay in your stomach.)
- The claim that gum sits in your stomach for 6 years is false.

On This Day

Historic Highlights (credits)

2003 - Arnold Schwarzenegger sworn in as Californian Governor
The bodybuilder and actor best known for his role as a cyborg in the science fiction movie, The Terminator, replaced then Governor Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger was elected for another term as governor in 2007.

1989 - Velvet Revolution begins
A week after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a demonstration of students commemorating International Students Day in Prague was violently shut down by riot police. The incident led to mass strikes and nonviolence around the country that ended communist rule in erstwhile Czechoslovakia and paved the way for the first democratic elections in the country in 41 years.

1973 - Athens Polytechnic Uprising Ends
The popular protests against the military junta under Georgios Papadopoulos began on November 14 when students at the polytechnic went on a strike. On the morning of November 17, the military crashed into the campus grounds using a tank and put an end of the protests. While no one was thought to have been killed on the polytechnic campus, many people were killed in clashes around the city. Today, all schools and universities are closed on November 17 to commemorate the uprising.

1869 - Construction on Suez Canal finished
The 120 miles (193 kms) long artificial waterway connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea took 10 years to be built and was opened to ships. The canal connected Europe to Asia without ships having to go all the way around Africa.

1858 - The start of Modified Julian Date
Mostly used by astronomers and astrophysicists, the Modified Julian Date (MJD) is a dating method that is defined by subtracting 2,400,000.5 days from the current Julian date (JD), which is calculated by counting the number of days past since Noon January 1, 4713 B.C.E. The MJD gives the number of days past Midnight November 17, 1858. MJD was first used in 1957 by scientists at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to track satellites.

Happy Birthday to You!🎶 

1978 - Rachel McAdams, Canadian actress
My favorite Rachel film? A tie between Wedding Crashers and Game Night.

1964 - Susan Rice, American diplomat, 27th United States Ambassador to the United Nations

1942 - Martin Scorsese, American director, producer, screenwriter, actor
Favorite Scorsese film? Hugo
My favorite Scorcese reference: In The Holiday, Cameron Diaz tells her co-worker to make the red on their newest film trailer "A Christmas red, not a Scorcese red."

1920 - Gemini Ganesan, Indian film actor

1901 - Walter Hallstein, German politician, diplomat, 1st President of the European Commission

Remembering You

1917 - Auguste Rodin, French sculptor, created The Thinker
I visited Musée Rodin and the sculpture gardens in Paris when I was 18. By far, my most favorite experience in all of Paris - I still feel the marvel of all the emotion captured in these beautiful sculptures. My favorite: The Kiss.

1796 - Catherine the Great, Russian wife of Peter III of Russia
You first came to life for me in the novel, The Eight, by Katherine Neville.

1558 - Mary I of England
Again, leave it to fiction to put a face and understanding to your name. (If you haven't seen The Tudors - even though it's very violent and sexually explicit- I still recommend it.)Aka, Bloody Mary, was the only child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (Wife #1) to survive to adulthood. Mary was a devout Catholic, as was her mother, which led to the unfortunate persecution of hundreds of Protestants in an effort to return England to the Catholic Church. Her reign was short and childless which put Elizabeth I on the throne. (Daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn)

Even though the snow has flown, may you carry the warmth of Kauai in your hearts and make it a great Saturday!

Aloha!

-Kim

Kauai Sunset