Door to Door 78

Steve Altens Domain was reviewed by ScribesWorld.com4/12 stars-- (see p. 12) &
Internet Bookwatch (p. 6).
AEI deal closed: with McGraw-Hill for Gary Buffone's The Myth of Tomorrow, to appear
in Spring 2002. Sanandreas@aol.com
AEI deal closed: with Forge, 2 April Christofferson thrillers (1st: Moratorium). Aprils
Patent to Kill appears from Forge; see p. 8).
AEI deal closed: for Russian rights to Lois Gilberts Without Mercy has been sold to
Toymania LLC for publication in February, 2002.
Gary & Joy Lundbergs Married for Better, Not Worse appears from Viking (p. 16).
Kim & Alison McMillens When I Loved Myself Enough appears from SMP (see. P. 10).
AEI deal closed: with Mira, for 2 Shirley Palmer thrillers (The Danger Zone, The Trade).
AEI has made a co-production deal with Laurence Mark for Danger.
Booklist (2/15/2001) called James Michael Pratt's Ticket Home, "another heartrending
tale of loss, love, and redemption from a master of moral fiction" (see p. 6).
AEI deal closed: for 3 novels by John Scott Shepherd, Henrys List of Wrongs, Eulogy for
Joseph Way, and Layover, with Rugged Land; mid-six figures. Hardcover publication of
Henrys in April, 2002. Shepherd will script Julia Roberts/Adam Sandlers new movie.
Stephen Herek will direct John Scott Shepherds Henrys List of Wrongs (see p. 4).
Photography completed on Life, or Something Like It (Angelina Jolie & Ed Burns; see
pp. 2, 16) and Joe Somebody (Tim Allen, Julie Bowen, Jim Belushi & AEI client
Governor Jesse Ventura; see pp. 6, 19, 20).
I would have made a good
John Robert Marlows screenplays Nano and Dispatch are AMPAS Nicholls Quarterfinals.
Pope.Richard
AEI-Titans first novel, Tom Sterns Gold Fever, was kicked off Nixon, viawhere
in Manila, Stevefilm
Alten, Goliath
financing is being raised, and San Francisco (see pp. 21-22). MS
AEI deal closed by Felippe Marques: with Three Rivers (Random House) for Mary
Taylors The Art of Seduction. A professional writer is an
Ken Atchity gave the keynote address, What amateur
is literary who
management & why do you need
didnt quit.
it today? (see thewriterslifeline.com/news) at the Austin Writers League Conference,
Richard Bach [wl daily]
and will give a workshop on "Writing Treatments That Sell," July 21-22, 2001.
KJA and John Scott Shepherd have formed Sanctuary (see p. 4).
Andrea McKeown replaces Vincent Atchity as president of The Writers Lifeline, Inc.
Rica Kuwahara has signed on as AEI Associate Manager in Tokyo.
Chi-Li Wong has been appointed president of AEI.
Krip Yuson has signed on as AEI Associate Manager in Manila.

Time flies when youre dying.David
Freeman, chez Angsten, 7/4/01
Yolanda S.: Your head looks swollen.
KJA: You know what they say in Manila: A
swollen head is better than no head at all.
6/14/01, Shangri-La Makati, Manila
You should carry a mailbox on your back.
K.M. 6/27/01, NYC
Have you met the Posse? They make
Warren look like Fonzi.Jeff F., 5/15/01
KJA: Weve got to get out of here. This hotel
could be condemned at any moment.
Solvang, 6/5/01
JSS: Hes loved his idea for ten years.

1 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com aeionline.com

KJA: I think thats known as ferment in the civets stomach, and
development heaven.streets of then are collected from its droppings.
Vancouver, 5/16/01 The price: $300 per pound.
Newsweek 6/25/01
Well, thats happened.State and
Main
Didnt I look like a
professional, just around the
neck area?K.M. 6/29/01,
Lincoln Center Swing

I try not to make weird noises if I

dont have to.Valarie P., 07/19/01
telcon
A one-man Menendez brothers.re
Nepal murders
KJA to V.P.: Most buildings are held up
by pillars. With this one, it seems to be
by your ex-assistants.Paradigm
7/14/01

You underestimate my
ignorance.Paul Grangaard,
5/30/01 telcon
You should know what you want, want
it a lot and youll get it. You should know
how to make the most of yourself, take
all you can and never economize with
life. It never gives anything back.
Maurice Druon, A Matter of Time

Its easier when I shut up, isnt

it?K.M. 6/10/01
Valarie P.: Youre looking so thin.
CLW: Thank you.
KJA: I notice you had to look around me
to say that.
VP: Youre feeling insecure.7/14/01
Paradigm
And tastes are continuing to get
more rarefied. One coffee retailer in
Atlanta sells something called
luwak coffee, which it claims is
picked by a civet, an Indonesian
bobcat-like animal. The beans
Your sense of humor never fails to
abuse me.Sassoo, The Lion King
Pantages 7/21/01
Myrza A: She should come visit for a few
days.
KJA: That way she can get out of my hair?
Myrza A: What hair? 5/21/01 telcon
Hes one of those people who dont breathe
between sentences. He breathes even less than
my mother does.A. S.

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The Apocalypse may have happened. I live in
NYwe have no idea.Tim B., Austin
Writers League Conference, 7/22/01
Soon, perhaps within Christophers
lifetime, evolution would permit only
two classesAssassins and their
victims. If you had to ask yourself
which side you were on, Christopher
thought, then you might as well put a
sprig of parsley on your head.
Henrys List of Wrongs, John Scott
Shepherd, MS
dominators possess uncommon
emotional control and unlimited
reservoirs of passion. You want to
know what its like to face someone
like Tiger? Make a fist. Now punch
yourself in the face. Because
dominators dont just beat you; they
make you beat you.Newsweek, June
18, 2001
I even like the fact that they give us
free eggs.K.M., Osteria al Doge,
6/28/01
His nails were well kept, his cheeks
slightly pink, and his face had the
unwrinkled smoothness of someone who
had never done a great deal of
thinking.Druon
D.Adashek (to Susan Mc): Youre
carrying a gun?
KJA: Have you shot any fairly-
intelligent Jewish men?
Susan Mc: Nah. Too much
paperwork.4/28/01 Leawood Country
Club
Make em laugh; make em cry; make
em wait.Charles Reade [via WL
daily inspiration]
Ivonne S.: It teaches you to share.
3 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com
KJA: That doesnt seem fair.7/18/01,
chez KM
"Sit down and put down everything
that comes into your head and then
youre a writer. But an author is one
who can judge his own stuffs worth,
without pity, and destroy most of it."
-- Colette [via thewriterslifeline.com]
KING: (holding up a book) Weve
been talking to Adolf Hitler, the book
is
HITLER: Is it over already?
KING: Im afraid so.
HITLER: Wow, that was fast. I
thought I was the one who had ways
of making you talk. (Both laugh.) But
seriously, the book is called Mein
Comfortable Shoesget it?
KING: I do.
HITLER: Its about an angry man
who learns to appreciate the little
things in life. Its about acceptance.
KING: And its a terrific read. Folks,
if you read no other book this
summer, make it Mein Comfortable
Shoes.
HITLER: Thank you, Larry.
KING: And whats next for Adolf
Hitler?
HITLER: Ill be doing Politically
Incorrect next Thursday, and as
always you can see my old work on
the A&E network, every night
following Bud Friedmans An Evening
at the Improv.Adolf Hitler: The
Larry King Interview, Jon Stewart,
Naked Pictures of Famous People
KM: If we keep silent, everyone will
feed us.
aeionline.com
KJA: Thats why I never saw a word.
The Pelican, Eunice, 7/24/01

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5 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com aeionline.com

She had somehow succeeded, against
all the rules of a hypocritical if not
virtuous society, in imposing her
personality on the very frontier
between society and gallantry. To
women of easy virtue she was the
inaccessible ideal, for there was in her
something of the true aristocrat. To
aristocrats she was the latest,
although they did not know exactly
what this term signified, or to what
vague lineage they were attaching her.
The scandal of her life she
turned to ornament. People dreaded
her eccentricities but they would have
been disappointed if she had not
committed them.Princes asked to be
introduced to Lucrezia, musicians
whom she invited to play in her house
were assured of success, poets were
among her intimates. A famous signer,
having refused to perform in her
salon, saying: If you want to hear me,
Signora, you must come to my recital
at the Fenice, had an unpleasant
surprise when he found the Fenice
empty and La Sanziani alone in the
third row of the stalls. She had hired
the whole theatre. Now, sir, will you
sing for me? she demanded.
She chose her lovers well and
seldom missed a famous man within
her reach without bequeathing him a
memory. Her lover was glory and her
bed a pantheon.To have had an
affair with her, or even a brief
adventure, attracted to the favoured
the curiosity of other women, and
made them ask, in the stealth of the
night: Tell me the secret of her
charm? And the men did not know
how to answer. Could they say that
she not only possessed a beauty of
6 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com
form and face that never failed at any
moment of love, a science of lips and
fingers, a compliancy and a depth of
passion seldom found, but also that
she had the gift of recognizing
instinctively what would raise each
mans emotion to its highest peak?
Every new body was like a musical
instrument for which, in a few
caresses, she found the right key to
make it respond with its highest
resonance. In every desire she divined
the unavowed and answered it with
silent accord or the poetry of
immodesty, making the fulfilment
glide into the miraculous.
The importance she arrogated
to herself made her magnify the man
to whom she briefly belonged. She
lifted her lover together with herself
into those luminous regions where
pride and self-awareness are blended
together. Each man in her arms felt
endowed with more power, more
intelligence, more genius. He felt
unique and divine. Could there be any
talk of deceit or delusion in so subtle a
realm? Men, when they left her room,
felt they were falling from heaven
back into the clay. And for a long time
they remembered her with proud
nostalgia.--Druon
You adults need to control yourselves.
Monty S. 6/15/01, Guernica, Manila Bay
"If you are a writer you locate
yourself behind a wall of silence
and no matter what you are
doing, driving a car or walking or
doing housework you can still
be writing, because you have
that space."
Joyce Carol Oates [twl daily]
aeionline.com
7 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com aeionline.com
KJA: Those lips!
JSS: She has lips all over her
face.Vancouver, 5/18/01
The first organized firehouse was
on the border of Dalmatia and
Sardinia in 1642.
Thats why a Dalmatian?
It was either that or a sardine.
State and Main
KJA: This is what writers do,
though.
JSS: I know. Ive read about it. But
its killin me.6/28/01, telcon
And then there are those passing
pains, those little ailments, those
twinges of no consequence but
always returning to the same place
in the same way, as though death
with remarkable foresight were
preparing his targets long in
advance.--Druon
She does seem to have a minimalist
approach to observing herself.
David A. 7/3/01
You wanted to be just like me,
right? Henry asked, forcing
himself to meet Christophers
haunted eyes. Well, I want you to
know the devils a used car
salesman and you never get blue
book for your soul.Henrys
For women who were not born to be
queens, to be a courtesan is the only
way to reign.--Druon
8 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com
I think weve just delved into
depths deeper than my mind can
delve.Simone L., chez KM,
7/18/01
We are what we think. All that we
are arises with our thoughts. With
our thoughts we make the
world.The Dhammapada [via
John Robinson, Gods Compass,
MS]
You need to know you can be
happy by yourself before you can
be happy with anyone else.
6/12/01 International Dateline
But the presence of evil, once
scented, tends to bring out all that is
most irrational and uncontrollable in
the public imagination. It is a
catalyst for pea-brained theories,
gimcrack scholarship, and the
credulous cosmologies of
hysteria.Michael Chabon, The
God of Dark Laughter, New
Yorker 4/9/2001
The librarian, Lucy Brand, returned my
greeting with the circumspect air of one
who hopes to be rewarded for her
forbearance with a wealth of juicy
tidbits.Chabon
aeionline.com
9 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com aeionline.com
 been, once it has been lived it becomes
Our bodies are our garden; to the
terrifyingly flimsy Druon
which our wills are gardeners.
Shakespeare, via Sasha Lauren
KJA: Its raining.
There must be one central JSS: Youre crazy.
character. One. Everybody write KJA: Raise your hand.
that down. Just one. And he or JSS: Thatll make me look less
she must want something. And by crazy?NYC 5/22/01
the end of the play he or she must
either get it or not. Period. No
exceptions.--Marsha Norman
(daily thewriterslifeline.com
inspiration, 4/19/01)
KJA: Heres 12 Cohibas, to cover
the two days we watched you
shoot.

Stephen H.: Thank you!

KJA: If we do Henry together,

well take care of the entire
production period.

Stephen H.: Well, fuck me!

KJA: Well, that would certainly be

cheaper.5/17/01, Vancouver
Your body is not a temple, its an
amusement park. Enjoy the ride.
Anthony Bourdain, chef and author of
Kitchen Confidential.
The days, Cesare, are beginning
to unroll with tragic speed. They go
much quicker; theyre much shorter than
the old days. They seem to be rolling
over each other, as though from the top
of a slope. Its terrible to say to
oneself: Its my turn. I feel I shall
never again have more than Ive had, nor
even as much. From now on days will
break without a dawn. However rich,
lavish and wonderful our past may have
I might have to go to jail.
Ill knit you a sweater.
I might be there for a long time.
Ill knit you a jumpsuit.State and
Main
"Take a drop from the ocean and
you will find that it contains the
same elements that constitute all
oceans. The same principle holds
true for human beings--and for the
drama. The shortest scene
contains all the elements of a
three-act play." --Lajos Egri,
thewriterslifeline.com, Daily
Inspiration
For every failure, there is an alternative
course of action. You just have to find it.

10 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com aeionline.com

When you come to a roadblock, take a
detour.Mary Kay Ash, via Alten

11 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com aeionline.com

KJA: Heres where they plant the
electrodes in our brains.
JSS: Now Carla Hacken will know
where we are all the time.5/16/01,
Banana Republic, Vancouver
According to the scholar or charlatan
Friedrich von Junzt, the regions around
what is now northern Armenia had
spawned, along with an entire
cosmology, two competing cults of
incalculable antiquity, which survived to
the present day: that of Ye-Heh, the God
of Dark Laughter, and that of Ai, the
God of Unbearable and Ubiquitous
Sorrow. The Ye-Hehists viewed the
universe as a cosmic hoax, perpetrated
by the father-god Yrrh for unknowable
purposes: a place of calamity and cruel
irony so overwhelming that the only
possible response was a malevolent
laughter like that, presumably, of Yrrh
himself.Chabon
KJA: You used to be a lot wittier than
this.
David A.: I dont know what happened.
KJA: The wit has hit the fan.6/21/01,
telcon
Take a picture, please. Ive never seen
John Scott Shepherd walking.Susan
S., by telcon, streets of Vancouver,
5/18/01
12 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com
The grand aim of all science is to cover
the greatest number of empirical facts by
logical deduction from the smallest
number of hypotheses or axioms.
Albert Einstein {via Steve Alten,
Goliath, MS)
JSS: Geez, youre covered with
noodles.
KJA: Then I must have had a good
time, right?5/22/01 NYC
My mother, whenever she was
confronted by calamity or personal
sorrow, invoked cosmic emanations,
invisible empires, ancient prophecies,
and intrigues; it has been the business of
my life to reject such folderol and seek
the simpler explanation. But we were
fools, she and I, arrant blockheads, each
of us bind to or heedless of the readiest
explanation: that he world is an
ungettable joke, and our human need to
explain its wonders and horrors, our
appalling genius for devising such
explanations, is nothing more than the
rim shot that accompanies the punch
line.Chabon
Amy A.: Dick me up. What does that
mean?
Matt A.: Pick me up.
Amy A.: Oh.4/15/01 Palm Desert
Accept the challenge, so you
may feel the exhilaration of
victory.General George S.
Patton, via Steve Alten, Goliath,
MS
aeionline.com
KJA: Gods punishing me for my
evil ways.
Amy A.: So youre getting off
easy then.4 /29/01, Leawood
Country Club
Read my lip.Matt G., Target Center,
Minneapolis, 4/5/01
The most important thing in a work
of art is that it should have a kind of
focus, i.e., there should be some
place where all the rays meet or
from which they issue. And this
focus must not be able to be
completely explained in words. This
indeed is one of the significant facts
about a true work of art--that its
content in its entirety can be
expressed only by itself. --Leo
Tolstoytwl 4/26/01
4 Stars
DOMAIN
Steve Alten
Forge
ISBN: 0-312-87476-6
Science Fiction
Who is crazy? The man locked up in a
hospital for the criminally insane or the
intern who believes his tale of
Armageddon? For ten years, Mick
Gabriel has been incarcerated for
attacking the man who publicly
humiliated his father, archeologist Julius
Gabriel. Studying the Mayan calendar for
32 years, Julius predicted the end of
humanity. For his efforts to save
humanity
from itself, Julius was so degraded by
his nemesis that he had a fatal heart
attack. Mick blames the man who led the
laughter.
When psychology intern Dominique
Vasquez is assigned to the paranoid
schizophrenic patient, she is torn
between believing her superior and the
highly intelligent, often lucid, Mick
Gabriel. Mick must escape the hospital to
13 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com
prevent the end of civilization which,
according to his father's journal, will
occur in four months-December 21, 2012.
Dominique is both intrigued and
frightened by this charming man whose
ravings are those of a madman. Until
she starts reading his father's journal.
Then, she begins to doubt her superior.
Maybe Mick isn't crazy. Could the
Mayans actually predict the end of
humanity? Will an evil being from outer
space descend upon Earth and destroy
the inhabitants? Will Mick be able to
prevent the end of life on this
planet? Will she help him?
It's a little slow going at the beginning
as author Steve Alten sets the stage.
Hang in there and, then, don't pick up
DOMAIN in the evening if you plan to
sleep that night. Alten takes the reader
on a roller coaster ride where you aren't
sure who are the good guys and who
aren't. The author's use of the present
tense lends immediacy to the action-as if
the reader is experiencing it along with
the characters. DOMAIN has all the
ingredients of a thriller: ticking clock,
government conspiracy, a lone voice
crying in the wilderness who alone can
save the world.
Reviewed by:
Diane Burton
LITERATURE ABUSE:
AMERICA'S HIDDEN PROBLEM
SELF-TEST FOR LITERATURE
ABUSERS
How many of these apply to you?
1. I have read fiction when I was
depressed, or to cheer myself up.
2. I have gone on reading binges of an
entire book or more in a day.
3. I read rapidly, often 'gulping'
chapters.
4. I have sometimes read early in the
morning or before work.
aeionline.com
 5. I have hidden books in different
places to sneak a chapter without
being seen.
6. Sometimes I avoid friends or family
obligations in order to read novels.
7. Sometimes I rewrite film or
television dialog as the characters speak.
8. I am unable to enjoy myself with
others unless there is a book nearby.
9. At a party, I will often slip off
unnoticed to read.
10. Reading has made me seek haunts
and companions which I would
otherwise avoid.
11. I have neglected personal hygiene or
household chores until I have finished a
novel.
12. I have spent money meant for
necessities on books instead.
13. I have attempted to check out more
library books than permitted.
14. Most of my friends are heavy fiction
readers.
15. I have sometimes passed out from a
night of heavy reading.
16. I have suffered 'blackouts' or
memory loss from a bout of reading.
17. I have wept, become angry or
irrational because of something I read.
18. I have sometimes wished I did not
read so much.
14 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com
19. Sometimes I think my reading is
out of control.
If you answered 'yes' to three or more of
these questions, you may be a literature
abuser. Affirmative responses to five or
more indicates a serious problem. Once
a relatively rare disorder, Literature
Abuse, or LA, has risen to new levels
due to the accessibility of higher
education and increased college
enrollment since the end of the Second
World War. The Number of literature
abusers is currently at record levels.
SOCIAL COSTS OF LITERARY
ABUSE
Abusers become withdrawn,
uninterested in society or normal
relationships. They fantasize, creating
alternative worlds to occupy, to the
neglect of friends and family. In severe
cases they develop bad posture from
reading in awkward positions or carrying
heavy book bags.
In the worst instances, they
become cranky reference librarians in
small towns.
Excessive reading during
pregnancy is perhaps the number one
cause of moral deformity among the
children of Librarians, English
professors, Creative Writing teachers
and Literacy and ESL tutors. Known as
Fetal Fiction Syndrome, this disease
also leaves its victims prone to a lifetime
of nearsightedness, daydreaming and
emotional instability.
HEREDITY
Recent Harvard studies have
established that heredity plays a
considerable role in determining whether
a person will become an abuser of
literature. Most abusers have at least one
aeionline.com
OTHER PREDISPOSING FACTORS
Fathers or mothers who are
English teachers, librarians, professors,
or heavy fiction readers; parents who do
not encourage children to play games,
participate in healthy sports, or watch
television in the evening.
PREVENTION
Premarital screening and
counseling, referral to adoption agencies
in order to break the chain of abuse.
Librarians and English teachers in
particular should seek partners active in
other fields. Children should be
encouraged to seek physical activity and
to avoid isolation and morbid
introspection.
DECLINE AND FALL: THE
ENGLISH MAJOR
Within the sordid world of
literature abuse, the lowest circle
belongs to those sufferers who have
thrown their lives and hopes away to
study literature in our colleges. Parents
should look for signs that their children
are taking the wrong path--don't expect
your teenager to approach you and say,
"I can't stop reading Spenser." By the
time you visit his dorm room and find
the secret stash of the Paris Review, it
may already be too late.
What to do if you suspect your
child is becoming an English major:
1. Talk to your child in a loving way.
Show your concern. Let her know you
won't abandon her--but that you aren't
spending a hundred grand to put her
through Stanford so she can clerk at
Waldenbooks, either. But remember that
she may not be able to make a decision
without help; perhaps she has just
finished Madame Bovary and is dying of
arsenic poisoning.
2. Face the issue: Tell her what you
know, and how: "I found this book in
your purse. How long has this been
15 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com
going on?" Ask the hard question--Who
is this Count Vronsky?
3. Show her another way. Move the
television set into her room. Introduce
her to frat boys.
4. Do what you have to do. Tear up her
library card. Make her stop signing her
letters as 'Emma.' Force her to take a
math class, or minor in Spanish. Transfer
her to a Florida college. You may be
dealing with a life-threatening problem
if one or more of the following applies:
o She can tell you how and when
Thomas Chatterton died.
o She names one or more of her
cats after a Romantic poet.
o Next to her bed is a picture of:
Lord Byron, Virginia Woolf,
Faulkner or any scene from the
Lake District.
Most importantly, remember, you are
not alone. To seek help for yourself
or someone you love, contact the nearest
chapter of the American Literature
Abuse Society, or look under ALAS in
your telephone directory.
The first rule of style is to have
something to say. The second rule of
style is to control yourself when, by
chance, you have two things to say;
say first one, then the other, not both at
the same time.---George Polya
John P.: Cut!
Tim A.: Phhhhhhhhhhhhhht.
--Target Center, Minneapolis, 4/5/01
aeionline.com
Attendant: In the Marines, they give
you sixty seconds to take a shower.
KJA: What do you need sixty
seconds for?Yale Club locker
room, 4/2/01
Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and George
W. Bush were set to face a firing squad
in a small Central American country.
Bill Clinton was the first one
placed against the wall and just before
the order was given he yelled out,
"Earthquake!" The firing squad fell into a
panic and Bill jumped over the wall and
escaped in the confusion.
Al Gore was the second one
placed against the wall. The squad was
reassembled and Al pondered what he
had just witnessed. Again before the
order was given Al yelled out, Tornado!"
Again the squad fell apart and Al slipped
over the wall.
The last person, George W.
Bush, was placed against the wall. He
was thinking "I see the pattern here, just
scream out something about a
disaster and hop over the wall." He
confidently refused the blindfold as
the firing squad was reassembled. As
the rifles were raised in his direction he
grinned from ear to ear and yelled,
"Fire"!via VDA
What are you so upset about, Dad,
you dont even believe in God.
That doesnt mean I stopped being a
good Catholic.Shes the One
The mind is the palace, able to imagine
beyond what the physical is capable of.
The mind imagines perfection, but is
dragged down by the bodys mundane
needs, the dungeon of desire. Shackled
together like convicts on a chain gang,
they grudgingly shuffle through life, each
yanking the other in opposite directions.
But the force of their movements
propels them in a third direction neither
can control.Anatomy Lesson, MS,
Raymond Obstfeldt
16 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com
The average pencil is seven inches
long, with just a half-inch eraser -
in case you thought optimism was
dead. - Robert Brault [via Michael
Simpson]
Writing is not like painting where you
add. It is not what you put on the
canvas that the reader sees. Writing is
more like a sculpture where you
remove, you eliminate in order to make
the work visible. Even those pages
you remove somehow remain.
--Elie Wiesel
Were all alike, all imprisoned in the
price of living as in a besieged castle.
Only two ways out are offered to us:
the resigned acceptance of an
incomprehensible fatality, or the
transfer of happiness to an unproved
beyond. Socratic resignation or
Christian hope. A choice between
two kinds of cowardice! If you refuse
to capitulate, you end your days cut
off from the rest of the universe, you
end up mad.--Druon
On the way to study law at Rhodes,
young Caesar was captured by pirates
and held for ransom. When they
demanded 20 talents, he protested that
he was worth at least 50. Caesar
treated the cutthroats holding him as if
they were a personal bodyguard: he
would order them to keep quiet
whenever he was ready for his siesta,
commandeer an audience whenever he
wanted to practice his oratory, and
dress them down whenever he felt they
failed to appreciate the finer points of his
style and delivery. After release,
however, hunted them down and had
them crucified, although for their
kindness to him he ordered their throats
cut first.Keith Roberts, Origins of
Business in the Ancient World, MS
Eccentricity is tolerable only in its
first freshness. Cherished until it has
gone stale, it becomes unbearably
aeionline.com
17 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com aeionline.com
INQUISITOR: Are you a Jew?
JEW: No.
INQUISITOR: Are you sure youre not
a Jew?
JEW: Yes.
INQUISITOR: Oh, well, sorry to
trouble you. Would you like to stay
for cake?
JEW: Is it chocolate? Im
allergic to chocolate.
INQUISITOR: Its an out-of-this-world
lemon pound cake.
JEW: Well, maybe just a
nosh
The Inquisitor smiles a sinister smile.
JEW: Damn.
--Jon Stewart, Naked Pictures of
Famous People
A Marine colonel on his way home from
work at the Pentagon came to a dead
halt in traffic and thought to himself,
"Wow, this traffic seems worse than
usual. Nothing's even moving." He
notices a police officer walking back
and forth between the lines of cars, so
he rolls down his window and asks,
"Officer, what's the hold up?" The
Officer replies, "The EX-President is just
so depressed about the thought of
moving with Hillary to New York that he
stopped his motorcade in the middle of
the Beltway and he's threatening to
douse himself in gasoline and set
himself on fire. Says his family hates
him and he doesn't have the money to
pay for the new house. I'm walking
around taking up a collection for him.
"Oh really? How much have you
collected so far?" "So far about three
hundred gallons, but a lot of folks are
still siphoning."via Danny Aguillard
Character and thought are merely
obscured by diction that is
over-brilliant. --Aristotle via
thewriterslifeline.com daily
inspiration
18 Door to Door 78 Summer-Fall 2001 thewriterslifeline.com
You write a hit the same way
you write a flop.--William
Saroyan
Don t compromise yourself. You are all
youve got.Betty Ford, via
Steve Alten, Goliath, MS
You have just received the Amish virus.
Sine we Amish have no electricity
or computers, you are on the honor
system. Please delete all of your files
on your hard drive, and forward this
message to everyone in your address
book.
Thank thee.
Good dialogue is dialogue that
illuminates what characters
are NOT saying.
--Lew Hunter the
KJA: Id be better if no one spoke to me
at all.
D.A.: Youre heading in that direction
KJA: Can I quote you on that, asshole.
D.A.: No, you can quote me on that
comment.
3/19
There is no use writing anything that
has been written before unless you
can beat it. What a writer in our time
has to do is write what hasn't been
written before or beat dead men at
what they have done." --
Ernest Hemingway via twl.com
Matt G.: Youre leaming, to the left.
KJA: Its your brain, Matt.
3-21-01 Minneapolis
Our chief want in life is somebody
who will make us do what we
can.Ralph Waldo Emerson, via
Steve Alten, Goliath
aeionline.com
 Jeff F.: Joels in the bathroom
having group sex.
Joel: Yeah, theres safety in
number.
--Rumanian Hilton, Solvang,
6/2/01

Someday, when the sands of time

"In life, things happen one after the
other. In structure, one thing happens
because of the other. Structure is that
simple and that hard." --Lew Hunter [via
thewriterslifeline.com daily inspiration]
Invert, may you find perfect rest
As a new born nurses from
The hourglass of your breast.
--Mary Jo Salter, Lullaby for
Daughter, Poetry in Motion (New
York subway, 4/3/01)

Mans mind, once stretched by a new "I like a view but I like to sit
idea, never regains its original with my back turned to it." --
dimensions.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Gertrude Stein [via twl.com]
via Alten

What day is it? he asked,

feeling like hed fallen off the edge of
something. Like his life.Henrys List of
Wrongs, John Scott Shepherd

It was late afternoon when

they hung a left on Sixth and drove
the short block right at Mills brick
bungalow, and dusk was absorbing
the neighborhood.Henrys List

Youre the Captain Nemo of self-

awareness.KJA to JSS 3/14/01

Im getting heartburn, Tony. Do

something terrible.--Snatch

D. Adashek: Have you ever gotten into

an elevator and thought, Im a fuckin
dwarf?
KJA: No Ive never.
D. A.: Well, open your eyes, man.
4/4/01, telcon

Theres a huge mist that rolls

over before anyone says what
they mean.JSS, 5/17/01, telcon

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