F is for FLOYD COLLINS

Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.

Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from various creative sources. Scroll down this link link to find other wonderful A to Z participants.

Floyd who?

Last Saturday night, at the La Mirada Performing Arts Center, just a touch south of Los Angeles, I had a wholly unique experience with the musical, Floyd Collins. 

Most musicals follow a somewhat predictable format - but in Floyd Collins EVERYTHING was unexpected. It was an original, engaging, absorbing, and heart-wrenching gem of storytelling. Real vs. surreal. Comedy vs. tragedy. A soul-stirring score with bluegrass flavor.

The musical is presented in an intimate setting "Onstage" of the La Mirada Theatre's playhouse. The nooks, passageways, and mysteries of Rich Rose's set make the show a visceral experience for the audience. The design traps you in the cave with Floyd as well as barricading you from him on the outside along with the other characters. 

The musical is based on a true event.

Here's the synopsis from the La Mirada Theatre's website:

In 1925, while chasing a dream of fame and fortune by turning a Kentucky cave into a tourist attraction, Floyd Collins himself became the attraction when he got trapped 200 feet underground. Alone but for sporadic contact with the outside world, Floyd fought for his sanity and ultimately his life as the rescue effort above exploded into the first genuine media circus. Reporters and gawkers from across the country descended on the property, fueling the hysteria and manipulating the nations into holding its collective breath.

 

A young reporter from the Louisville Courier-Journal William "Skeets" Burke Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Floyd's plight.

This production of Floyd Collins is an LA Times critics choice for its excellence. Here is the LA Times review. It is only one rave among many for this brilliant piece of theatre.

If you are anywhere within traveling distance to the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts (near Disneyland), you owe it to yourself to experience this show. It truly is a master class on storytelling. Click the theatre link for tickets. It's playing through April 13th - dark on Monday.

TAKE AWAY - 

Juxtaposition of real vs. surreal elements, with a layering of the right music turns an historical event into captivating art. 

Is there a moment in history that is nudging you to tell its story?

K is for Kentucky

Twenty-Six Days of Creative Inspiration

photo credit

As writers we are constantly being asked, "Where do you get your ideas?"

My number one answer is family. I grew up in a nutty family. Not just my nuclear family, but my extended family is pretty kooky, especially my Kentucky family.

Often in the summer my brothers and I were shipped off to grandmas to live as honorary southerners. Kentucky for me is one of the greenest and most beautiful places on earth. 

 My Kentucky is also full of people who live by the practical joke and invade your personal space both physically and informationally on an hourly basis. 

The goldmine of my Kentucky family isn't just their habit of putting spaghetti in chili or eating every few hours like Hobbits. No these folks are storytellers. Everything is a story, and often not a short one. They can spin an ordinary day into an Arthurian legend.

Above everything else, my Kentucky family gives me a sense of belonging. Yes, I am a part of this wise-cracking, fried food eating, unconditionally loving (even though they will talk about you), clan.

If there is a specific place where I can trace my writerly roots back to, it's the Bluegrass State.

My MS "Over the Deep Fried Rainbow," is an homage to the endless stream of grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, cousins, and uncles who never failed to embarrass me or make me laugh, but always gave nothing less than unconditional love and open arms.

Love y'all.

Click on the Blogging From A to Z Challenge logo in the sidebar to access the links to all the superheroes participating in this blog hop.

Delightful Excesses of a First Draft

On my journey into a frightening, cluttered cabinet in the kitchen, I came across an old recipe book from my childhood called,Southern Cookbook *250 Fine Old Recipes*.  It is filled with pages and pages of deliciousness that would make a Weight Watcher’s coach keel over in shock.

The recipe that caught my eye was for Kentucky Burgoo. It’s a special stew that is traditionally served on the day of the Kentucky Derby. Burgoo is the quintessential definition of excess. (Recipe to follow – brace yourself.)

In a non sequitur way, my writing brain shifted to a first draft where excess rules supreme.

(This is the portion of the post where plotters wring their hands and gnash their teeth, while pantsers dance naked in the forest.)

Where else in our writing process can we toss everything lying around the corners of our brain into the story? The first draft is the “try anything” canvas. We jump from the high dive. The “editor has left the room sign” should be blinking when we pour out our heart and soul into the birth of our manuscript. We should break out into the song “Anything Goes.”

FIRST DRAFT RECIPE

Sprinkle in similes

Mess with metaphors

Align audacious alliteration

Electrify your eloquence

Scintillate the story stakes

Offer up onomatopoeia

Mesmerize your MC 

Quantify your quest

Hold nothing back and fall in love with your story.

There is plenty of time – and necessity - in the revision process for trimming, slashing, rethinking, changing, changing, and changing again.

My wish for you is to taste that wild abandon where you plunge into the garden of excess, writing on the white hot wave of inspiration during your glorious first draft.

KENTUCKY BURGOO

Historically served to huge crowds at political rallies, horse sales, and other outdoor events. (Hmmm – maybe an idea for the SCBWI LA Conference gala?)

600 lbs. lean soup meat (no fat, no bones)

200 lbs. fat hens

2000 lbs. potatoes, peeled and diced

200 lbs. onions

5 bushels of cabbage, chopped

60 10lb. cans of tomatoes

24 10lb. cans puree of tomatoes

24 10lb. cans of carrots

18 10lb. cans of corn

Red pepper and salt to taste (are you laughing yet?)

Season with Worcestershire, Tabasco, or steak sauce

Mix the ingredients, a little at a time, and cook outdoors in huge iron kettles over wood fires from 15 to 20 hours. Use squirrels in season…one dozen squirrels to each 100 gallons. (I did not make up the squirrel part. Who knew there was an actual squirrel season?)

And THAT, my friends, is excess. Happy first drafting.