Back From Paradise

On September 10, 2012

In Books, Interviews, Pop Culture, travel

My panel: Topic – “Women Who Can Do It All”

I spent a week in Honolulu, Hawaii, presenting at the Spellbinders Conference held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. I’m including some candid shots of the gorgeous surroundings, and the remarks made by 1992 Pulitzer-prize-winning Jane Smiley (“1,000 Acres”) and a quintet of Hollywood screenwriters who spoke of their work on such films as “Golden Eye” (the James Bond reboot), “The Book of Eli,” “The Hulk,” “The Punisher,” and many, many others, including many television shows.

1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley (“1,000 Acres”) lives in Carmel, California, now, with her husband Jack Canning, but there was a time when she was an Iowa (Ames) professor of writing and there was a time before that when she was a student at the acclaimed University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Connie Wilson and Pulitzer-prize winning Iowa grad Jane Smiley.

After “1,000 Acres,” a retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear story set on an Iowa farm was made into a movie with Jessica Lange, Jason Robards and Sam Shepherd, Jane Smiley moved on to write “Moo,” a humorous tale that dealt with politics at the university level. She told a charming story that went this way: “I was flying from Monterey to New York via San Francisco and I fell asleep on the flight. One hour into the flight, I woke up to the sound of laughter. My seatmate was reading “Moo.” I said, “That’s my book.” She said, “No, it isn’t. I bought it in the airport.” I said, “No, I mean, that’s MY book. I wrote it.” She looked at me and said, “No, you didn’t.” Her laughter was the best compliment I ever got.

Author Smiley reads from her book “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel.”

When asked if she would ever consider teaching writing again, Smiley responded, “If I could do it MY way, I’d teach again.”

When asked how it felt to learn she had won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature (in 1992) she said: “My 14-year-old daughter was staying home that day. She was at that age where it is absolutely impossible to have any positive impression of her mom. A reporter from the Ames ‘Tribune’ called up and said, ‘What would you say if you were told that you’d won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.’ I gave her some response. About 2 p.m. the phone rang and some guy from the Washington ‘Post’ called to tell me I had actually won. I said, to my daughter, ‘Honey, I think I won the Pulitzer Prize’ and she said, ‘Hmmmm. Cool.’ Later, in the hallway outside my office at the University, I heard someone screaming, and it was the stringer for the Ames Tribune. They (the Ames Tribune) had scooped the Des Moines Register, who had always scooped them. But, after you win, you go from being a wannabe to a has-been. You are no longer cool—although I never was. I was 16 weeks pregnant at the time, so I didn’t have to run around and go to a lot of things, because I was throwing up all the time, anyway.”

Opening Night Luau.

On writing, in general: “You can be the kind of person who enjoys the process, or you can be the kind of person who enjoys the awards. If it enhances your feeling of being alive, of finding things out, remember that there are never enough awards.”

Economy Set to Improve Regardless of Who is President, Says Aug., 2012, “Esquire”

By Connie Wilson

On September 5, 2012

In Editorial, Politics

I’d like to give full credit to the August issue of “Esquire” magazine with Jeremy Renner on the cover for these words about our economy and what we can expect post November, 2012. The original article appeared on page 44, with the title “But, Soft! What Light Through Yonder Widow Breaks!”
The basic contention is that our economy is going to improve no matter what happens this election season. To wit:
“I am convinced that the markets are poised to soar in November, as soon as the uncertainty about the political direction of our country is settled. Regardless of who wins the presidency and whether either house changes hands, regardless of Europe’s woes, the unprecedented amount of cash sitting on corporate sidelines will be deployed and will set in motion a growth spurt unseen since Monica Lewinsky, the peace dividend and the Internet.”
The article goes on to quote Jimmy Lee, a Texan who is the founder of one of the first online brokerages and also the former chairman of the Texas teachers’ pension fund, as administrator of which he invested $100 billion. Another expert quoted was Mickey Gooch, founder and CEO of GFI, a brokerage that trades in credit default swaps (CDs).

Here was Gooch’s argument for the contention above:
“The uncertainty will be taken out of the market (regardless of who wins the presidential election). Investors may not like an Obama re-election, but at least they will know what to anticipate in the tax code and will deal with it. The Bush tax cuts not being renewed is already priced into the market.” Gooch’s only caveat is in regards to Europe blowing up, which he views as having only a 20% likelihood of occurring.
“The bottom line is that capital has been accumulating at corporations at a never-before-seen pace. Companies have been stuffing this cash in the mattress because they don’t trust the government. But that’s an unnatural state of affairs. Companies need to grow like sharks need to swim. Whatever happens in November, expect the American economy to surge to life.”

Legendary Comic Shelley Berman & Wife of 65 Years Still Going Strong

By Connie Wilson

On September 4, 2012

In Books, Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, travel

Shelley Berman and his wife of 65 years in the lobby of the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu on Labor Day, 2012.

As I was working on updating all of you readers (all 2 of you) on the comings and goings of the first Spellbinders Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, and mourning the fact that I did not see Shelley Berman when he visited the lounge last night (although everyone else apparently did), who should stop, this afternoon, but Mr. and Mrs. Berman.

Shelley Berman was probably my favorite comedian of the 60s. I liked him better than Cosby (although I have to admit to listening to Cosby’s comedy albums and loving the “What’s a cubit?” bit re Noah’s Ark). I liked him better than Bob Newhart, although both of them pioneered the “man on the phone” comedy method. (I think Shelley says Bob took it from him, but, then, Bob probably says the same thing in reverse).

My favorite bit had the hassled comic on the phone from a large department store, where a female clerk was on the ledge outside the building and Shelley was calling for help. When asked how she got out there, his response was: “I don’t know how she got out there! Maybe she tried on something and SNAPPED out!”

Last time I saw Shelley at a small comedy club in Davenport, Iowa, which was within the past 10 years (Linda White could help me out here, if she’d “friend” me on Facebook, as it was after her younger daughter’s wedding reception at the Holiday Inn.) My own son (Scott) had gotten married just months prior and we had a reception at our country club, and I had the Big Bright Idea of purchasing a lot of glow-in-the-dark stuff for fun. I remember that one of my then-friends (Linda Davidson) thought it was a stupid idea at the time, but it went over great, and soon became “de rigeur” for weddings. To this day, I think it is. I had the idea because of the Oriental Trading Company stuff I routinely bought for my Sylvan Learning Center.

Anyway, I was wearing several glow-in-the-dark necklaces and bracelets and chose to gift Mrs. Berman with one, saying, “Thank you for sharing Shelley with us all these years.”

At this morning’s breakfast, James Strauss told a story of touring Honolulu to find an electric shaver for Shelley, as he had forgotten his. I could relate, as I forgot my curling iron and my hair looks like it, as a result. Nice guy Jim and wife Mary scoured the island for all-night pharmacies and found Shelley a $29 electric shaver, which he delivered to his room no doubt to the delight of the elderly couple.

When I saw the Bermans enter the lounge, I went over, expressed my admiration for his comedy talents, and asked Mrs. Berman (among other questions, how long the couple has been married? (A: 65 years). Learning that they have 20 years on me, I then asked her if she ever remembered going to a concert with Shelley where a woman came up after the set and gave her some glow-in-the-dark paraphernalia. She claimed to remember this, and even named the town correctly, unprompted.

I said, “I’d like to thank you, again, for sharing Shelley’s comic genius with us all these years and, also, to congratulate you on such a long and happy marriage.” And I gave her a copy of my newest book (“Hellfire & Damnation II”). I only had that one with me. Too bad I didn’t have a copy of “Laughing through Life” in my purse at the time, but maybe tomorrow?

Mr. Strauss, if you’re reading this, shoot me the room number, and I’ll hand deliver a copy. It’s probably more Mr. Berman’s style.

Labor Day in Hawaii at the Spellbinders 2012 Conference

By Connie Wilson

On September 3, 2012

In Books, Pop Culture, travel

Jim Strauss, Conference co-organizer and writer, addresses the brunch crowd in the Rainbow Tower.

A brunch was held for participants at the Spellbinders’ Conference this morning. Co-organizer James Strauss was the keynote speaker and James is always good. Although I try to make it a rule to “be the change I want to see,” and the change I want to see is starting things no earlier than 10 a.m., after blogging till 1:30 a.m. I fell out of bed, did a very bad job of make-up and hair (naturally, some young photographer wanted to take my picture and the lens was literally less than foot from my nose, as I stared into the lens, bleary-eyed and hair in disarray. THAT one will be good—NOT!), and traveled down in the Tapa Tower elevator to join the others in the ballroom where our meals have been being served. Or so I thought.

Nobody was in the room, when I arrived there, and when I tried to take the elevator back to my 18th floor room to check on the location in the program (a) the elevators would take me neither up nor down (b) I remembered I HAD no program, since I lent it to Jon Land, who needed it more than I did and (c) 4 other lost people were trying to find the location of the brunch. Among them were Susan Crawford and Peter Miller, agents present to take pitches. And we also collected some other lost folks along the way.

While Susan made phone calls to various others, we tried to find the Rainbow Tower, where the hotel had apparently moved the brunch without notifying those of us trying to find it. As a result, several of us were very late, but the food was (as usual) good, and Jim Strauss, as always, gave an amusing and interesting talk to the assembled masses.

Authors Jacqueline Mitchard (“The Deep End of the Ocean”), Jon Land (the Caitlin Strong series) and Gary Braver (back to camera) listen to James Strauss’ speech.

Originally, some of the members of the group were to move on to Turtle Bay. I think that idea has been jettisoned in favor of staying on here at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, but what do I know? (Jim also told me that the entire cast of “Hawaii 5-0” was going to substitute for the MIA John Travolta and Garry Marshall, but I think this was his idea of a small joke. I don’t watch “Hawaii 5-0” and Scott Caan is too short for my Favorite Leading Man, so no big loss.)

Meanwhile, we’re checking out the cost to “rent” an umbrella on the beach. Yes, you heard me right. To rent one. They are not free to hotel guests. And the riff-raff from town are no longer allowed to congregate anywhere in front of the hotel–[-if they ever were.]

I love Hawaii and always have, but I can assure vacationers that, if you travel to Cancun and stay where we stay (the Royal Resorts properties), you won’t be charged extra to sit under one of the fixed “palapas” on the beach in front of the Royal Sands or the Royal Islander. I used to call Cancun “the poor man’s Hawaii,” but, of late, it has gotten pricier, as well. Still, charging $6.50 for ONE coke beats Australian prices (gas is cheaper than Illinois, however), and making guests pay for the use of an umbrella is a new twist on gouging the tourist trade, which would probably not cause the tourists to want to repeat the experience, if a similar beach could be experienced, with bluer water and cooler sand, for NO extra expense.

Casual shot of the group as the brunch broke up.

The food has been uniformly great. The presentations have been useful and enjoyable. As usual, I never hear anyone say, “Hey, we’re going to go hang out at ________ after this. Wanna’ come?” but that is probably because I’m a minnow in the literary pool. Still, it would have been nice to have been frequenting the bar where Shelley Berman showed up last night (he has a guest spot on “Hawaii 50,” they say), but why should this be any different than ThrillerFest or HWA or Love Is Murder or the Backspace Writers’ Conference or any other writing thing I have ever attended? I go. I pay my money. I am pleasant to one and all. I attend the functions. I end up in my room watchong TV, because I think you have to reach a certain level of income or popularity or thinness or attractiveness or something-ness to ever be allowed into the “Inner Circle” that gads about. Just the way it is. Unlikely I’ll ever reach that stratosphere. But at least the husband and I are here together, which gives me ONE person who doesn’t blow me off repeatedly and take off with a large group to go socialize and have fun at the “in” places I am not aware of.

Paradise.

Two more days of fun in the sun.

No idea what the deal is with this guy. He is either starting his own religious sect, stretching before or after exercising, mourning the recent death of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon or planting something. He was in that position for a LONG time, though, folks, and it looked extremely uncomfortable.

Hilton Hawaiian Village grounds.

View from the Rainbow Room brunch.

Jim Strauss, the ubiquitous Nadia (not Comanece), Tony and Tori Eldridge (“Lone Tree Productions), after the Spellbinders’ Brunch.

2012 Spellbinders’ Conference in Hawaii Winding Down: Jane Smiley Speaks

By Connie Wilson

On September 3, 2012

In Books, Interviews, Pop Culture, travel

Connie Wilson & Jane Smiley in Honolulu.

If you grew up in Iowa, as I did, or attended either the University of Iowa (Iowa City), as I did, or Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa), you probably remember when Iowa City graduate Jane Smiley, author of “1,000 Acres” won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. She followed up that tragic retelling of the King Lear story, set on an Iowa farm, with “Moo,” a comic piece that poked some fun at the politics of teaching on a university campus.

Jane Smiley has been in residence at the 2012 Spellbinders Writers’ Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, and her workshop on writing, which I attended, had much valuable information to share with less proficient authors—like me!

It was also fun to hear her tell the story of the day she learned she had won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and other stories from the career of someone who is truly a much deeper thinker than Yours Truly. Jane Smiley (“1,000 Acres”) lives in Carmel, California, now, with her husband Jack Canning, but there was a time when she was an Iowa (Ames) professor of writing and there was a time before that when she was a student at the acclaimed University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Pulitzer-prize winning author Jane Smiley with husband Jack Canning at Opening Night luau on August 31, 2012.

It was this kinship over our Iowa roots (although Jane was born in Los Angeles and raised near St. Louis) that led me to ask her questions about her writing process at the first Spellbinders’ Writing Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii at the Hilton Hawaiian Village that is concluding on September 3, 2012.
After “1,000 Acres,” a retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear story set on an Iowa farm, was made into a movie with Jessica Lange, Jason Robards and Sam Shepherd, Jane Smiley moved on to write “Moo,” a humorous tale that dealt with politics at the university level. She told a charming story that went this way: “I was flying from Monterey to New York via San Francisco and I fell asleep on the flight. One hour into the flight, I woke up to the sound of laughter. My seatmate was reading “Moo.” I said, “That’s my book.” She said, “No, it isn’t. I bought it in the airport.” I said, “No, I mean, that’s MY book. I wrote it.” She looked at me and said, “No, you didn’t.” Her laughter was the best compliment I ever got.”

Jane Smiley at luncheon on September 2, 2012.

Asked about her years as a Professor of writing at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, Ms. Smiley said, “I did enjoy it. When we let them in, we explained it was NOT the University of Iowa (in Iowa City’s) world-renowned Writers’ Workshop. About one-fourth of them said, ‘Oh!’ (with disappointment in her voice). But most were engineers and engineers are used to doing their work. I’d give them writing exercises, like, ‘Eavesdrop for 3 days and then come to class and read what you’ve heard.’ That was hilarious! Or, ‘There are 3 beings in the room and something happens.’ Some of them would write about 2 people and a dog. It was really more fun than work.”
When asked if she would ever consider teaching writing again, Smiley responded, “If I could do it MY way, I’d teach again.”
When asked how it felt to learn she had won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature (in 1992) she said: “My 14-year-old daughter was staying home that day. She was at that age where it is absolutely impossible to have any positive impression of her mom. A reporter from the Ames ‘Tribune’ called up and said, ‘What would you say if you were told that you’d won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction?’ I gave her some generic response.

Jane Smiley, reading from her book, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel” during her conference presentation at Spellbinders’ Conference in Hawaii.

About 2 p.m. the phone rang and some guy from the Washington ‘Post’ called to tell me I had actually won. I said, to my daughter, ‘Honey, I think I won the Pulitzer Prize’ and she said, ‘Hmmmm. Cool.’ Later, in the hallway outside my office at the University, I heard someone screaming, and it was the stringer for the Ames Tribune. They (the Ames Tribune) had scooped the Des Moines Register, who had always scooped them. But, after you win, you go from being a wannabe to a has-been. You are no longer cool—although I never was. I was 16 weeks pregnant at the time, so I didn’t have to run around and go to a lot of things, because I was throwing up all the time, anyway.”
On writing, in general: “You can be the kind of person who enjoys the process, or you can be the kind of person who enjoys the awards. If it enhances your feeling of being alive, of finding things out, remember that there are never enough awards.”

Asked to assess her effect on the lives of others, the self-deprecating Smiley said, “I never think that way. I cannot experience myself from outside.”
Truly a class addition to the Spellbinders Writers’ Conference in Honolulu, held from August 31st to September 3rd, 2012.

Spellbinders Writers’ Conference in Hawaii on September 1st, 2012

By Connie Wilson

On September 2, 2012

In Pop Culture, travel

I have come to the lobby of the Hilton Hawaiian Village to reflect on the first day of the Spellbinders Conference in Hawaii.

Gary Braver.

For me, it began with Gary Braver’s presentation on writing genre fiction, a truly excellent one. I had wanted to attend his presentation at the final Hawaii Writers’ Conference, but it filled quickly and this Boston-based college professor and author shared much useful information.
That was followed by a panel with Jon Land (author of the Caitlin Strong series), the author of the Batman graphic novels (I’m down here without my program, so forgive me for being vague), F. Paul Wilson and Gary Braver, again. This was truly a good panel.

Jon Land,author of the Caitlin Strong novel series.

Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of “The Descendants.”

The young woman you see being interviewed during the lunch break (lunch was great!) hit the jackpot with her very first novel, which was made into the film “The Descendants,” starring George Clooney. Kaui Hart Hemmings is currently working on a novel set in Breckenridge, Colorado.
The lunch program said that Tia Carrere was to be interviewed during that period of time. Instead, here is James Strauss interviewing a movie director. Nobody at my table caught the movie director’s name, but that’s immaterial and secondary to the fact that he definitely is not Tia Carrere.

Author Jane Smiley, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for her Novel “1,000 Acres” and me at lunch in Honolulu at Spellbinders Conference.

My lunch table included Jane Smiley and Jack Canning, who met when he was contacted to do some work at her house in Carmel. At the time, Ms. Smiley was going through a divorce. Enter Jack. Later, I attended her panel discussion and she shared some passages from her book “13 Ways of Looking at the Novel” in which she read bezillion great works of literature and analyzed them for such things as, “How much of the novel is taken up by exposition?” (A: 10%). “At what point should the denouement begin?” (A: 90% of the way in.) It was a very interesting and informative panel, and I was glad I was an English major in college, with PhDconcentration, or you could definitely be left in the dust very quickly.

After lunch, the panel on which I presented–all of us basically the “lesser lights.” (It was not well attended)

“Women Who Can Do It All” panel in Hawaii at the Spellbinders Writers’ Conference.

After Ms. Smileys panel, F. Paul Wilson spoke about characterization and point-of-view in genre writing. Author of the Repairman Jack novels, after 15 years of writing the series, he is ending it. I gave him a copy of “Hellfire & Damnation II,” but I fear he will find it lacking. From what comments he made, he is an exacting taskmaster and will be pickiest on those things I do most poorly. Nevertheless, he is in possession of a copy of my newest short story collection, and perhaps he will take pity on a rookie like me. Although I wrote 3 volumes of “Ghostly Tales of Route 66,” they were works for hire and I had little leeway in including language not

F. Paul Wilson.

suitable for a 10-year-old. Plus, I had to lay out the book, which is asking for trouble. Nevertheless, I drove the route in 10 days, wrote each 18,000 page book in a week, and did the best I could under the most adverse circumstances. “Hellfire & Damnation,” the original short story collection, was damaged by an unscrupulous sort who stole 3 of my short stories at the moment of truth, putting them in his own collection without any permission to do so. I had to quickly run in some of the “G-rated” ghost stories, and the collection suffered. “Hellfire & Damnation II” is a better collection, plus it has pictures, although I do admit to liking a few of the original collection’s stories, such as “Confessions of an Apotemnophile.” (Apparently, the Berkeley Fiction Review liked that one, too.)
Next came the luau, which was quite festive. The fire baton twirler deserves kudos. The drinks for the event, however, were outrageous, at $6.50 for 2 Diet Cokes and $22 for one white wine (in a plastic cup) and one beer. It did not appear that the bartender was doing much business, as a result. A light sprinkling of moisture ended the night for most of us, with another full day tomorrow.
It is also the celebration of the Queen’s birthday and Iolani Palace will be open.

The luau crowd watches in amazement.

You can never have enough pictures of a fire dancer.

Fire dancer at Spellbinders’ luau.

What else—? Hula dancers at the luau.

Spellbinders Conference in Hawaii on Aug. 31, 2012

By Connie Wilson

On September 1, 2012

In Books, Pop Culture, travel

Pulitzer-prize winning author Jane Smiley and Jack (her significant other) who live in Carmel, California, now, but Jane is an Iowa graduate and taught at Ames for many years.

I’m here in balmy Hawaii on the 18th floor of the Hilton Hawaiian Village and tonight was the Welcome Cocktail party, which had rumaki, crab cakes, and many other delicacies I was not able to identify. (Drink tickets, too). I enjoy it immensely. Not only did I get to meet the great Jane Smiley, who wrote “1,000 Acres” and won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for same, but I found out about the December 15th New Orleans Writers’ Tour of that great city (a fundraiser, primarily) and met Gary Braver of Boston, whose class I so wanted to take back when the last Hawaii Writers’ Conference under John Tulius was held.
This is a “new, improved” Hawaii Writers’ Conference, with no Mr. Powers (thank the Lord) but Gary Braver is still here and many new and equally gifted writers, including F. Paul Wilson (whom I shall referemce as Cousin Paul henceforth, to his eternal consternation), Jane Smiley, Gary Braver and others. I cannot think of all the names of all the luminaries, but Heather Graham and I talked at length about her wonderful fund-raising efforts to aid New Orleans and how that will go down, again, on Dec. 15th, this year, with Jonathan Maberry and David Morrell in attendance. I hope to be there.

Author Jane Smiley, Writer James Strauss (“House,” “Deadwood,” “John from Cincinnati,” the novel “The Boy”) and his wonderful wife of 44 years, Mary) in Hawaii at the Spellbinders’ Welcoming night cocktail party, which James helped helm.

The weather has been balmy, slighty windy, about 80 degrees and typically Hawaiian. I always wanted to retire to Hawaii, but was soon dispossessed of that delusion after the reading of the will. (“Well, you can RENT a place for a couple of weeks but you can’t LIVE there.”)

Here I am, however, on my 6th or 7th trip to the Islands and scheduled to present (with others) tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. till 2:50 p\.m

A wonderfu; time.

Presenting at the Hawaii Writers’ Conference (aka Spellbinders Conference)

By Connie Wilson

On August 31, 2012

In Books, travel

John Teehan (“The Merry Blacksmith”) and I in Chicago.

We are now in Hawaii, but, before leaving Chicago, I had the distinct pleasure to meet John Teehan (Publisher, “The Merry Blacksmith”), a wonderful layout artist and publisher extraordinaire, who was in Chicago. (He took the train!) John will be attending WorldCon in the Windy City, while I will be taking on the 50th (and newest) state for SpellbindersConference.com . [What a team! “I cover the Heartland” (and all parts hither) and John is East coast-based (Providence, R.I.)] John was also able to save the day in sending a PDF file of “H&D II” to a Virtual Tour participant who had not received the book yet.

Here, you see us on the balcony of my Writer’s Lair in Chicago, with the Chicago skyline in the background. Shortly afterwards, we dined at Scout in my neighborhood, a sports bar in the Central Station District.

Next morning, bright and early (and you all know how much I love early morning risings), we departed for Hawaii, leaving for the airport 2 and 1/2 hours prior to our boarding time of 9:13 a.m. The flight was uneventful, except that the stewardess was very nice and asked why we were going to Hawaii and I got to say I was “presenting at the Hawaii Writers’ Conference,” which is actually true. She asked for my card and said, “I knew there was a reason I liked you.” Nice gal.

Craig enjoys the creatures at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

We arrived at 2 p.m. Hawaii time and wandered around gathering supplies for our lovely ocean-view room. The only problem with the 18th floor ocean view is that there is also a view of the construction on a new swimming pool down below. We ate dinner (pizza) and finally decided we were too tired to do much else. (Despite a 2-hour nap upon arrival).

I tried to sign on to the Internet in our room ($16.95 per day) and it would not work. Therefore, I am now down in the “internet free” courtyard in 80 degree balmy Hawaiian weather, with lovely songs accompanying the sound of buzz saws and building (the construction outside our window). Ah, yes, the sound of a chain saw!

I went down to claim my books, mailed from the East Moline Post Office on August 14 and scheduled to arrive on August 27th. They were not in the business office, but the tracking slip revealed that they had, in fact, arrived as scheduled on August 27th and were now sitting in the post office. Leaving that problem for today, we turned in early and Craig got up early.

A gaggle of Republican turtles discussing the rambling and disrespectful remarks of Dirty Harry at last night’s RNC in Tampa.

I registered and went into the ballroom to sit and chat with Gary Braver of Boston, the presenter at the last conference whose class I badly wanted to take. I told him my sad tale of woe involving the Hawaii Writers’ Conference he last presented at and he told me some more tales of woe regarding it. He said he was going to buy a copy of “It Came from the ’70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now.” I gave a copy of “Hellfire & Damnation II” to blurber Jon Land, who was his usual charming self.

Met at least 2 of the women who will be on the panel with me tomorrow. One of them has it all figured out how many minutes each of us is to get. (?) Not the way the panels at “Love Is Murder” (on which I have served) worked, but maybe she’s right.

I forgot my curling iron, so there will be a definite lack of stylishness to Yours’ Truly’s hair. In fact, I soon have to go try to make the “travel pack” of electric rollers serve, as that is all I have. Cocktail party tonight.

Here are some pictures of the parrot s and the penguin on the grounds and a very young tourist enjoying the penguin at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Spellbinders Conference, 2012.

“Target Audience Magazine” Reviews “Hellfire & Damnation II”

By Connie Wilson

On August 27, 2012

In Books, Pop Culture, Reviews

Review of Hellfire & Damnation II

by Target Audience Magazine on August 27, 2012 with 0 Comments in Book Reviews

Wilson has written a book of short stories that will not only keep you up late nights reading, but might also keep you up long after you have stopped reading.

By Evelyn Smith, author of “City of the Undead” and “Transylvania, Louisiana.”

“Hellfire & Damnation 2” by Connie Corcoran Wilson is all the things any good compilation of short stories of a chilling nature should be. It’s scary, holds one’s interest enough not to want to put down, and at times, a little disturbing. Wilson has written a book of short stories that will not only keep you up late nights reading, but might also keep you up long after you have stopped reading.

In “Cold Corpse Carnival,” Wilson gives voice to a frozen corpse who becomes a tourist attraction. I found this story pleasantly chilling. Most of her stories in fact, should give the reader a slight shudder or two. It is to Wilson’s credit as a writer and her story telling ability that I found “The Shell”, the story of twelve year old Lisa who is abducted, vividly disturbing. In fact, I can’t recall being this disturbed by a writer’s imagination since reading Poppy Z. Brite years ago. So Wilson is in fine company with her ability to evoke certain emotions from the reader.

“Tempis Fugit: Resurrection Cemetery” is a ghost story and a good one at that. If you are a fan of the old “Twilight Zone” television series, you will enjoy her story, “The Champagne Chandelier”, which indeed reminded me of an episode of that series. Wilson is a writer with a sense of humor and it is entirely evident in “M.R.M”, the story of a long suffering husband who tinkers in his basement workshop, attempting to build a new and improved version of his not-so-nice wife of thirty years.

Her sense of humor is also evident in a story called “Room Service,” a tale of homicidal rage. This story is an entirely satisfying read. Especially if one begins to imagine anyone in one’s life who is particularly irritating. While reading “Oxymorons,” I saw it as a movie in my head. It is in the mode of a political thriller, perhaps starring Clint Eastwood as the male character, Howard, who relates the story.

All in all, Wilson’s enjoyably spooky tales will grasp your emotions with a skeletal hand and pull that hitching gasp from your throat. That is the sign of a good writer.

Visit http://www.hellfireanddamnationthebook.com/

“2016: Obama’s America” A Complete Hatchet Job- Read This And Learn the Truth!

By Connie Wilson

On August 26, 2012

In Editorial, Local, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics, Reviews

Mitt Romney spoke with “Time” magazine’s Rick Stengel and Michael Crowley in an interview on August 21st (September 3, 2012) and said, “I will not waste a campaign attacking him (President Obama) as an individual.”

Imagine my surprise, then, to see the movie “2016: Obama’s America,” supposedly a documentary (I use the term loosely), which was playing at my local Cineplex and rated a big notice in our right-leaning newspaper (The Small family which owns the paper, in decades past, contributed the most corrupt Republican Governor in Illinois history, eclipsing even the recent Rod Blagojovic).

Written by an Indian intellectual (Dinesh D’Souza) who is the president of New York City’s Kings’ College and produced by the semi-retired Gerald R. Molen, who divides his time between Montana and Las Vegas now, but once produced movies for Spielberg (and others) such as “Rain Man,” “Days of Thunder,” “Hook,” “Schindler’s List,” “Jurassic Park,” “Twister” and “Minority Report,” Molen is an ardent member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was once denied the opportunity to address high school students in his hometown because the principal of the school pronounced him to be “a right wing conservative” zealot.

That label goes double for D’Souza, who has written many books, served in Reagan’s White House, and had no less an authority than the “Washington Post” (5/1/2010) pronounce his book about 9/11 “The worst nonfiction book about terrorism published by a major house since 9/11.” (Whose fault was 9/11 according to Dinesh D’Souza? Why, liberals, of course! The “New York Times” in reviewing the book called it “a national disgrace.”)

So, how’s the movie/”documentary”?

Well, it’s about what you’d expect from this darling of shows like Hannity & Colmes on Fox News or Glenn Beck’s program. D’Souza has debated other intellectuals (among them the late Christopher Hitchens at Notre Dame) and admitted at the end of an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” that he shares some of the same negative beliefs about liberal Americans as Islamic militants.

The film is a real hatchet job.

For instance, a segment is produced claiming to be an interview with a member of Obama’s distantly related relatives in Kenya (Sarah Obama), but the voice is that of Onekie Smallwood. You actually feel sorry for Obama’s distant relatives (his father was much-married and fathered many children by at least three different women, one of them, son George, not born until 6 months after his death). They obviously didn’t know what D’Souza was really up to when they spoke with the man.
What D’Souza was really up to was to try to use fear (cue the spooky music) and the Karl Rove-generated fear tactics used to elect “W” (“Love him or hate him, you don’t know him”—which can more accurately be claimed of their Republican nominee) technique that drove us into 2 disastrous wars under George W. Bush. This “make up any falsehood/ tell any lie” technique is used to blacken the reputation of the sitting president, who has been kept from helping the country pull out of the mess “W” left us in by what is dubbed “The Party of No” in another of the articles in this issue of “Time.”

As Mitch McConnell, the architect of this obstructionist tactic that would sacrifice the national interest of the United States at the altar of partisan politics designed the Republican tactic, “He wanted everyone to hold the fort. All he cared about was making sure Obama could never have a clean victory. (The words of Ohio Senator George Volnovich in the article, who further said, “If Obama was for it, we had to be against it”, p. 44, “Time,” September 3, 2012).

So, exactly what is D’Souza—whose reputation for fair play is not high—-up to with this “documentary”? (I use the term loosely.)With sweeping shots of Lady Liberty in New York City, D’Souza contrasts that with a journey to the most squalid places and people on earth, it would seem, dwelling on Obama’s trip to Kenya and trying to make the case that Obama “wears a mask” and making a big deal over Obama’s returning a bust of Winston Churchill to Great Britain.

D’Souza would have naive viewers believe it was some sort of repudiation of Churchill, when the reality, checked out by “New York Times” reporter Jake Tapper, is that there are TWO busts of Churchill. One was loaned to “W” as a show of solidarity after 9/11 and was scheduled to be returned before Obama was even elected. However, there is a second bust of Churchill still on the premises. Read about it here
Is the Churchill Bust Controversy a Total Bust? – ABC News abcnews.go.com/…/is-the-churchill-bust-controversy-a-total in an article written on July 27, 2012. There were at least 2 additional articles concerning this tempest-in-a-teapot, and it turned out that there were TWO busts of Churchill, one of which was returned, as previously scheduled, and one of which remains.

But is this really the most important issue this country faces in this day and age? [I didn’t think so.]

George Obama: Half-Brother of Barack Obama

D’Souza seems to think so, as he claims returning the statue shows that President Obama thought colonial countries who settled in far-flung empires like Indonesia or D’Souza’s native India, were simply there for the loot and that he is, therefore, “anti-colonial.” In an interview with Obama’s half-brother several times removed (a man over 21 named George), the obviously intelligent Kenya native expressed his opinion that colonialism was not responsible for Kenya’s bad luck, and that “Maybe if we’d let the whites stay a little while longer” the country would have done better, economically-speaking. George also expressed the opinion that he was “over age” and, when asked if Barack Obama should be helping support him, said, “Go ask him. I think he has a family of his own.” This remark was then shown with side-by-side shots of the White House and the hovel in which young George, [the half-brother who was born 6 months after their mutual father was killed in a car accident], now lives. The message for viewers was quite blatant: Obama doesn’t care about his own family members. D’Souza even made a reference to the Biblical story of Cain and Able. It’s ironic, considering that all articles on the Romney/Ryan ticket suggest (see “Time,” page 40) that the Republican duo’s “budget math is coldhearted towards the poor and the elderly.” It’s no News Flash that Paul Ryan is not Medicare’s friend.

DRINKING:

There were also repeated references to excessive drinking by Obama’s birth father and by Obama’s Indonesian stepfather Lolo Soltoro. (“We drank with him”). More tribal music. More shots of squalor. Cue to old guy with bad teeth (Kogelio Oto). Kogelia tells us he had been drinking with Obama’s father “until 1:30 p.m.” before the senior Obama was killed in an auto accident on November 24, 1982. The narrator even works in lines like, “This father (Soltoro) is an abusive alcoholic. He kills a man in a car accident” and distorts the statements of a former professor of Stanley Ann Dunham’s (stressing that the couple met “in Russian class”). I felt sorry for Dr. Alice Dewey, Professor Emeritus of Hawaii, who obviously was “conned” into making statements that are twisted and misconstrued; it was like a bad version of “Borat.”

So, one message that the movie underhandedly attempts to convey is:

1) Obama doesn’t care about his relatives. Does anybody really believe this? And does anybody really believe he owes a family half a world away, whose relationship to him is tenuous at best (different mothers, never knew each other growing up, etc.) support and assistance when even the young man who is his half-brother says differently?

COLONIALISM:

2) Another message from D’Souza: “Colonialism was good.” (D’Souza is the author of an article with the title “Two Cheers for Colonialism”). We could debate this one for a long time. There certainly is a case to be made for some good things that came out of colonialism. But it is just as true that the colonial countries (England, Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, et. al.) journeyed to far-flung lands to bring back the wealth of those lands. Doesn’t anyone remember why the United States of America fought the Revolutionary War? (Hello?) Does the Boston Tea Party ring any bells? Colonialism may have helped educate and improve the standard of living of some countries (India comes to mind) but it certainly was NOT all “Days of wine and roses” for the countries being stripped of their riches and any high school history class in any classroom in this country touches on that salient fact. So, message number 2 from D’Souza, is that Obama—like his father(s) before him—is anti-colonialism, which seems like a fairly reasonable position in this day and age. [D’Souza uses as his most telling point the fact that Obama supposedly wants to give the Falkland Islands back to Argentina. (Does anybody really care about the Falkland Islands during this election season— except possibly the people who live there? And wasn’t that one-day wonder war fought when Reagan was in office? Sheesh. And is THAT statement even true, since so many of the other “truths” of this documentary are falsehoods? I’ll leave the research on that one to someone else. Let me know.)

3) With statements like this one: “Other presidents were known figures. Obama came out of nowhere,” and “What is Obama’s dream?” and “The son is realizing his father’s dream” D’Souza tries to connect Obama’s hopes/plans for our country to a man Barack Obama only met once in his life and never lived with. It is true that Barack had to deal with an absent father who was, as the movie puts it, “air brushed” in a positive way by his white mother, but it is more true that he never really knew the man. I do believe that Obama probably was driven to achieve so much because he wanted to prove his worth and, possibly, earn the love of his always-absent father, but that just makes me like him and feel empathy for him. It doesn’t make him a bad person, a Communist (implied), a person who hates whites (stated) or a person who wants our country to fail, as the Tea Party Congress seems willing to let happen. The words of Obama’s book about visiting his father’s grave in Kenya are used against him (DId Mitt ever write anything worth reading?). D’Souza quotes from Obama’s book “Dreams From My Father:” “Everything I was doing carried the full weight of my life. I sat between 2 graves and wept. The circle closed.”( Is there any person on the planet who is not a product of his or her parenting and upbringing, including D’Souza?)

Stanley Dunham, Obama’s Grandfather

Even more disgusting, the Grandfather (Stanley Dunham) who provided a positive male role model for Obama in his growing up years in Kansas is slandered in several ways, with statements like, “We got drunk and hammered together” and comments about how he was “on the left,” which, to D’Souza, is a little like saying he is from Hell, since D’Souza is so far to the right he makes Rush Limbaugh seem liberal.

4) Among other things that D’Souza suggests (without a shred of proof) is that Obama “hates whites,” that his plan is to spend the U.S. into oblivion (while cutting our nuclear arsenal), and that he’d like to see us reconcile more with Muslim countries (which, actually, sounds reasonable; do we HAVE to be the “most hated country in the world?”).

“The usual suspects” are trotted out to smear our sitting President, including Bill Ayers (the Weather Underground bomber who became an academic at the University of Chicago); the Reverend Jeremiah Wright (I think we all remember that flap, which ended in total repudiation of the pastor by the president); Frank Marshall Davis, who, because he was a Communist, obviously had to be his best friend (Here, D’Souza uses Paul Kengor to talk abut 22 references to Frank in “Dreams From My Father”), a little-known Brazilian economist and Edward Said of Columbia, who, claims D’Souza, is a leading critic of Israel. (D’Souza is trying very hard to lose Obama the Jewish vote and the votes of those who frown on drinking in any form, as Mormons do.—Mormons don’t even drink coffee or pop, so you can imagine how much support alcohol gets.)

GUANTANAMO

Another statement by D’Souza: Obama is “weirdly sympathetic” to those who want to close down Guantanamo. I’m sympathetic to closing down Guantanamo and it’s not “weird” at all. It would have been a great idea to bring those prisoners to the brand-new prison sitting idle in Illinois. The conditions in Guantanamo should not be visited upon another human being, and their suicide rate is extraordinarily high. (See “Mother Jones” issue for a more full description of the terrible living conditions there and many who were innocents detained for years without due process, from a variety of foreign countries. Apparently, the country from which they were taken used the sweep to get rid of many undesirables, including mental defectives and one person who was actually known as “Halfhead,” as I recall the article. A few were very young boys. Many were guilty and have been found guilty in courts, now, but many were not even involved in the war but were undesirables the country of origin wanted to deport.)

OUT OF CONTEXT

Brokaw at the DNC in Denver in 2008.

There is a brief shot of Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw talking at the familiar round table, where Charlie mentions, “We don’t really know what he stands for, do we?” and Brokaw agrees in a two-second clip. I saw that program. Complete misrepresentation of the entire content of the program. I couldn’t help but think of how little we know about Mitt Romney, who won’t even release his tax returns for any but ONE year. A Brian Williams piece this past Sunday on the Mormon Church certainly showed a denomination that has turned the clock back on equality for women and has some other odd ideas, including equating blacks with “the devil” until quite recently, as was pointed out by comedian Chris Rock when a guest on a late-night talk show. ( And they like to baptize you after you’re dead, as they did with Ann Romney’s atheist father.)

1. The sad thing about a “documentary” like this is that many people believe implicitly what they are told, if it is told skillfully enough, even though most of it is total hogwash. For one thing, the space program was being dismantled by Obama’s predecessor (“W”) before Obama was even elected, because it wasn’t the money-maker that George the second thought it would be. (See article here on NASA, from a visit there: President Obama Vows Support for a New, Improved NASA Space …

voices.yahoo.com/president-obama-vows-support-improved-nasa-58…Cached

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Apr 15, 2010 – “I Am 100% Committed to the Mission of NASA and Its Future…” Connie Wilson, Yahoo! Contributor Network Apr 16, 2010 “Share your voice on …

2. Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Challenger Explosion – Yahoo! Voices

voices.yahoo.com/twenty-fifth-anniversary-challenger-explosion-77…Cached

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Jan 26, 2011 – The next 5 years saw increases in budgeting for NASA. …. Connie Wilson has written for five newspapers and taught writing at six Iowa/Illinois …

When I read the log-line (short for a scriptwriter’s one-line summary of a film’s plot): “Love him or hate him, you don’t know him!” I couldn’t help but think how much more we know about Barack Obama than we do about Mitt Romney, who lives the life of a millionaire member of an unusual religious group not given to openness. The sad truth is that Romney won’t tell us whether he supported the United States with many tax dollars and has absolutely refused to release more than ONE year of his tax returns, despite his own father (Michigan Governor George Romney) pointing out, when he was Governor, that it takes several years to get a good idea of a person’s finances.

At the end of this total hatchet job, which suggests without factual basis that Obama would cut our military superiority and WANTS to spend us into debt, as well as many other misrepresentations about him, this travesty ends with, “The future is in your hands.”

A rather large woman in the audience, as the lights went up, began chanting, “NObama!” I stood up and said, equally loudly, “Let’s not forget who got us into two totally unnecessary wars to spend us into this debt.” This caused the rather large—okay, fat—-woman to say, “Oh, come off it!” and I thought we were going to have an old-fashioned donnybrook right there in the aisle of the Great Escape Theater in Moline, Illinois.

This film is nothing but (more) Karl Rove fear-mongering (see previous article on how Rove has his finger in all Romney pies). It is a disgrace to have an interview statement from Romney in “Time” in which the candidate CLAIMS he is not going to go after Obama personally but then lets the campaign (or the PACS, with their $1.8 BILLION dollars collected!) paint Obama’s biological father (whom he barely knew) as a no-good-nik, and also slam his paternal grandfather, who really raised him, and declare the president (who had a white mother, after all) to be anti-white, anti-colonialism (good for him) and state that he wants to close down Guantanamo (so do I).

It is unfortunate that the REAL important issues are either glossed over or are presented in such a ridiculous and unfair and untruthful light (witness the Winston Churchill bust stupidity).

The final line (“The future is in your hands”) makes me want to point a finger on one of those hands at Dinesh D’Souza and John Sullivan and say, “Shame on BOTH of you!” (And that goes double for the fat Tea Party woman who wanted to hit me.)

I did a piece on “Influential Figures in the Life of Barack Obama” by request for Yahoo. Here is a link to it. It is far more accurate than this smear job. Read it if you want to know the truth about the real influences on Barack Obama’s life. (And, no, I didn’t do it for this election cycle, but I thoroughly researched it and it is the truth, not a smear job like “2016: Obama’s America.”

1. Influential People in Barack Obama’s Life – Yahoo! Voices – voices …

voices.yahoo.com/influential–people–barack–obamas–life-1539933.ht…Cached

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Jun 6, 2008 – Influential People in Barack Obama’s Life. Who Are Some of the People Who Helped Form Barack Obama’s Life and Career? Connie Wilson …