A Word of Warning...

I spent last weekend enjoying the absolutely beautiful weather and visiting wineries with my bestie, Jessi. One of our scheduled stops was in Seward, NE. I had heard from a fellow Nebraska Writers Guild member that there were writers in abundance speaking in Seward and I talked Jessi into going with me (like it took a lot of convincing).

Our first stop was at Chapter Books bookstore where Joe Starita gave a wonderful talk about his book A Warrior of the People, which is about Susan La Flesche, the first Native American doctor in American history (I'll be talking about it in a later post-I can't wait to read it!).

The second stop was just down the street at the Red Path Gallery & Tasting Room which is an adorable place full of amazing artwork done by local artists-like my former art teacher, Mrs. T (I'm not even going to attempt to spell her last name, it's longer and scarier than mine is-okay I'll give it a shot Tomasevicz... I had to look it up, I wasn't even close) and features many different Nebraska wines to sample. That day's events featured readings by poets Charlene Neeley and Laura Madeline Wiseman who shared both their own poetry and some of their favorites by other poets.

One of the poems Charlene Neely wrote and shared with us reminded me of a fairly well known fact: writers find inspiration everywhere. In this case it was the quote "Poets have been mysteriously silent on subject of cheese" by G.K. Chesteron that lead to a fun poem about cheese.

My family understands why that would stick with me and for the saner ones in the audience who don't know, it involves an article about the great Velveeta shortage of 2014 and subsequent cheese-smothered emails on the topic.

But back to the topic of inspiration, I've talked about it before, but I wanted to revisit it for the non-writers in the group.

And here is where the warning part comes in:

If you spend any time at all around a writer, I can nearly guarantee that something you say, one of your mannerisms, a physical feature you posses, or an event you witness with your writer will end up in one of their pieces.

Who knew the sign my sister gave me for my birthday a
couple of years ago would come in handy for a blog?

You just have to ask them. They'll probably tell you, unless it's embarrassing or they killed you off... or they hate you. In that case, back away slowly throwing chocolate and fancy pens.

Ask my bestie (poor transition, sorry Jessi), more than one of our conversations have ended up in my stories. I usually ask her first, just so she can't sue me someday when she comes to her senses and realizes she doesn't need a crazy-cat-lady-hermit in her life.

Artists, especially writers, are anthropologists by nature if not by education. They study people and everything is fodder for their creative fires.

You may have ended up in somebody's story because of what you ordered in the coffee shop one day, or are the heroine of an epic poem somebody penned because the sun hit you in just the right way and you were wearing your best chain mail-er- green dress.

Now be honest, because if you lie, you'll get stabbed.
#MedievalHumor

Now, I don't say this to make you think that writers are all creepy stalker people hiding in plain sight with their notebooks and pens, furiously scribbling down all the details of your life so they can write you doing anything they want because they thrive on the power of control... okay, not all of us do that... all of the time.

And I'm not telling you this so you know to be on your best behavior around writers so they don't use you in a story. First, they spend time with you because you're interesting. Second, how boring would that be for both you and them?

No, I'm telling you this because for that split second, a second that you probably don't even remember, a writer noticed you and for that one second, you became the most important thing in their universe.

This is one of the things I love most about being a writer, taking those tiny, innocuous moments and turning them into something immortal. Making a split second last an eternity.

That's right. I'm a friggin superhero.

Operation: Nebraska Author- In Cold Storage: Sex and Murder on the Plains

The second installment in my 2017 New Year's resolution, Operation: Nebraska Author, took me about as far out of my comfort zone as I can get (I think political writings or philosophy would be the extreme for me) and while I enjoyed it a lot, I don't know that it is a genre that I will continue reading.

In Cold Storage: Sex and Murder on the Plains by James W. Hewitt is a true crime book about a pair of grisly murders that happened just down the road in McCook, Nebraska in 1973.

Creepy dead hand. I got some strange looks reading 
this in the break room at work.

Just days after Edwin and Wilma Hoyt were reported missing by their family, body parts began washing ashore at a nearby lake. The following investigation delved into the scandalous lives of some of McCook's citizens and revealed the inadequacies of pre-DNA/technology criminal investigating and small-town Nebraska law enforcement.

The investigation, which started with the identification of the body parts using rings that were still on Wilma's hand, quickly turned into an investigation of the Hoyt's daughter, Kay, and her lascivious activities, especially those with Harold Nokes and his wife Ena. What had started as an affair morphed into a mènage á trios, then a violent lover's spat and finally murder.

Harold Nokes eventually confessed to killing Edwin and Wilma Hoyt, dismembering them, and disposing their bodies in Strunk Lake. He swore that his wife, Ena, had nothing to do with the murders besides wrapping the body parts in freezer paper and then helping him throw them from their boat into the lake. With his confession, Harold was convicted and sentenced to life in the penitentiary. Ena was only charged with two counts of wrongful disposal of a dead body.

One thing I really liked about the book was how much time Hewitt spent on the discrepancies between the stories told by Harold (about three different versions between his first confession, his recorded confession, and the interview Hewitt conducted 40 years later) and questions raised by the lack of evidence.

One thing I found frustrating (no doubt from too many years of watching Law & Order and NCIS) was that there was no clear-cut answer to what had happened to the Hoyts. Even with Nokes' confession, there were still too many questions left unanswered. Too many suspicious things left uninvestigated.

I was struck by how lovingly-yet truthfully- he described western Nebraska, McCook specifically.

Hewitt accepting his award at the
Celebration of Nebraska Books.

Rolling hills and weathered canyons eroded by wind and water surround McCook. Too difficult to cultivate, much of the land is used as pasture.

What few trees there are, mostly cottonwoods, line the bakes of the region's streams and rivers. Many of the pastures and canyons are dotted with scruffy red cedars, a tree that most farmers and ranchers view as an invasive pest.

The Republican River, which flows eastward out of Colorado, at McCook is a puny littler water course. Democrates say that it is a toss-up whether the Republican was so named because it was so shallow or so crooked. The water moving down the stream bed past the southern edge of McCook is about thirty feet wide, but it occupies only part of a much wider channel now nearly choked with weeds and grasses.

I discovered In Cold Storage at the Celebration of Nebraska Books where Hewitt was presented with the award for best book in the Nonfiction: True Crime division. I strongly recommend it for any true crime and mystery readers or Nebraska history fans.

Other books by James W. Hewitt:
Slipping Backward: A History of the Nebraska Supreme Court 

You can find Hewitt's books online at University of Nebraska Press, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble in addition to many local bookstores in Nebraska.

Something Slightly Political: the NEA, the NEH, & budget cuts Part II

After posting about the possibility of the presidential administration cutting the budgets of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, I've had a few people ask for more information and what they can do to help save the NEA and the NEH.

The number one thing you can do is contact your congressional representatives and express your concerns. Here is a great link to find out how to contact your respective representatives. From what I have seen, phone calls are best but emails work also.

The second thing you can do is talk about it! Tell your friends about what the NEA and the NEH do and why they should be saved. Share articles on social media about it. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Do whatever you are comfortable doing. Word of mouth is a powerful force. Use it!

Picture from Mrs. Osborn's Class“The arts are essen­tial to any com­plete national life.
The State owes it to itself to sus­tain and encour­age them….
Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the
rev­er­ence and delight which are their due.”
-Winston Churchill,
speech to the Royal Academy, April 30, 1938

Here are some talking points about what the NEA and the NEH do:

• "It was a National Endowment for the Humanities grant that helped pay for the “Treasures of Tutankhamen” exhibition to travel to six American cities from 1976-79. That groundbreaking exhibition, heralded as one of the first museum blockbusters, drew 1.36 million visitors to the Metropolitan Museum alone." (New York Times article from January 30, 2017)

• "The agencies [NEA, NEH, and Public Broadcasting] are particularly proud of programs they run to benefit veterans, such as the National Endowment for the Arts’ creative arts therapy project for military personnel at a hospital at Fort Belvoir in Virginia." (New York Times article from January 30, 2017)

• "Some 40 percent of the arts and humanities agencies’ budgets go directly to state and regional arts councils across the United States." (New York Times article from January 30, 2017)

• "The NEA is the single most important source of institutional support for the nonprofit literary field, which includes independent presses, literary magazines, book festivals, literary centers, service organizations, and reading series." (Elliot Figman, Executive Director Poets & Writers)

• "Each year, the NEA also offers creative writing fellowships to individual writers; since its founding in 1965, the agency has granted over $45 million to more than 3,000 individual writers." (Elliot Figman, Executive Director Poets & Writers)

More talking points- these came in an email I received from Humanities Nebraska Executive Director, Chris Sommerich:

• State humanities councils like Humanities Nebraska play a key role in our local communities through programs that promote literacy and other employment skills, boost local economies and our quality of life, and explore history/culture.

• State humanities councils reach people of all ages and walks of life with programs in libraries, schools, museums, senior centers, cultural centers, and other places.

• State humanities councils are independent nonprofits governed by local boards who determine appropriate programming in each state.

• State humanities councils receive essential funding from the NEH, which enables them to reach rural areas, urban centers, and everything in between.

• Total FY 2016 funding for NEH was $148 million. This is only 0.003% of federal spending, but makes a big difference in the cultural health of our nation.

• Please thank your representatives for their service and support for the humanities!

More places to check out:

• LitNet: The Literary Network
• Humanities Nebraska (or if you don't live in Nebraska, your state humanities organization)
• National Endowment for the Humanities (of course)
• National Endowment for the Arts (this one too)