#melanie rae thon

[keepcalmandwritefiction]

Every story presents its own problems. For twenty-two years I’ve done this work, but I’m a beginner every time, searching for a new voice and a path that will lead to territory I haven’t charted.

– Melanie Rae Thon

#fiction #fiction writing #melanie rae thon #quotes #kcawf original #writeblr

[agirlnamedbone]

Melanie Rae Thon, from “Orelia from Ever.” pub. in Lit Hub

#melanie rae thon #op #poem #poetry #prose poetry #transgenre #hybrid-genre #lyrical fiction #trauma #lost children #dolls #decay #apocalypse #orphans #urban gothic

[augment-techs]

Weird questions for authors: Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

*Deep breath* To be haunted, is actually just to resume the traces of memories that brought you some kind of real emotion. As such, yes, I have been haunted. If I were to list all the works that have ever made impressions on me, we'd be here forever, but a short list will do. Books: Kissing the Witch, by Emma Donoghue Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen My Body is a Book of Rules, by Elissa Washuta In This Light, by Melanie Rae Thon The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle White, by Kang Han The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, by Hwang Sun-mi Watership Down, by Richard Adams White Oleander, by Janet Fitch Poetry: almost everything, including her writing advice and memoir, by Francesca Lia Block DOROTHY PARKER Margaret Atwood Rhiannon Mc Gavin Olivia Gatwood Nikita Gill "Howl" by Ginsberg "Shout" by Laurie Halse Anderson Fanfiction: YOURS Dirgewithoutmusic Skyland2704 Blackkat Kieron O'Dubhir Roturier and on and on and on... Something I wrote for my mother, once, before she died haunts me in that I have very little memory of what was written, but remember being disappointed in her for some reason. As for my works... "Twinning" haunts me in that I have ideas backed up and backed logged and quietly waiting for me to get to that hundredth chapter while I prep the fic proper to be transferred over to AO3. All of the SDMI fics I've written haunt me because, apart from one Naruto and one Harry Potter fic, I am constantly bombarded with kudos on most of them, with no understanding of how. The Power Ranger fiction haunts me in that I never in a million-billion years thought I could be so gd COMFORTABLE here. This haunting please me more than it should. But why fix what's not broken?

#ask fill #prompt fill #lovely

[alrederedmixedmedia]

Alredered Remembers novelist and short story writer from Montana, Melanie Rae Thon, on her birthday.

"It is the broken heart that makes us human in the end."

-Melanie Rae Thon

[freakoutgirl]

There were other houses after yours, places where I went alone, but there were none before and none like this. When I want to feel love I remember the dark thrill of it, the bright sound of glass, the sudden size and weight of my own heart in my own chest, how I knew it now, how it was real to me in my body, against the back of my eyes, how nothing mattered anymore because I believed in this, my own heart, its will to live.

“Xmas, Jamaica Plain” by Melanie Rae Thon

#quote #xmas jamaica plain #melanie rae thon #literature

[forsakethesea]

I knew Clare was right; I thought, Yes, everyone is dead: the silent heads in the TV, the boy on the floor, my father who can’t be known. I thought even you might be dead—your husband asleep at the wheel, your little boy asleep in the back, only you awake to see the car split the guardrail and soar. I saw a snow-filled ravine, your car rolling toward the river of thin ice. I thought, You never had a chance. But I felt you. I believed in you. Your family. I heard you going from room to room, saying, Who’s been sleeping in my bed? It took all my will. I wanted to love you. I wanted you to come home. I wanted you to find me kneeling on your floor. I wanted the wings on Emile’s hips to lift him through the skylight. I wanted him to scatter: ash, snow. I wanted the floor dry; the window whole. I swear, you gave me hope. Clare knew I was going to do something stupid. Try to clean this up. Call the police to come for Emile. Not get out. She had to tell me everything. She said again, Turn the water off. In the living room, the tree still twinkled, the angels still hung. I remember how amazed I was they hadn’t thrown themselves to the floor. I remember running, the immaculate cold, the air in me, my lungs hard. I remember thinking, I’m alive, a miracle anyone was. I wondered who had chosen me. I remember trying to list all the decent things I’d ever done. I remember walking till it was light, knowing if I slept, I’d freeze. I never wanted so much not to die. I made promises, I suppose. In the morning, I walked across a bridge, saw the river frozen along the edges, scrambled down. I glided out on it; I walked on water. The snowflakes kept getting bigger and bigger, butterflies that fell apart when they hit the ground, but the sky was mostly clear and there was sun. Later, the cold again, wind and clouds. Snow shrank to ice. Small, hard. I saw a car idling, a child in the back, the driver standing on a porch, knocking at a door. Clare said, It’s open. She said, Think how fast you can go. She told me I could ditch the baby down the road. I didn’t do it. Later I stole lots of things, slashed sofas, pissed on floors. But that day, I passed one thing by; I let one thing go. When I think about this, the child safe and warm, the mother not wailing, not beating her head on the wall to make herself stop, when I think about the snow that day, wings in the bright sky, I forgive myself for everything else.

Melanie Rae Thon, “Xmas, Jamaica Plain”

#none of us having a good day right? #right #anyway i've been sitting here trying to grapple w the ole existential ish that trump reign of terror keeps churning up #u kno #environmental devastation et al #w h a t e v #anyway i had incidentally been thinking about this story earlier today #and found the pdf in my google drive #and read this ending and burst into tears twice #'i passed one thing by; i let one thing go' #nothing is related to anything #idek #just posting this in case anyone else wanna have a feeling #melanie rae thon #xmas jamaica plain

[bizarrowriter]

City Ash and Desert Bones: Laurel Myler: 9781935738879: Amazon.com: Books

"Explosively energetic vision of our dystopian future." -Melanie Rae Thon author of The 7th Man

https://plus.google.com/+JohnLawsonAuthor/posts/PrfsHXXNDUS

[uchinaguchi]

Seeing you, they are not grateful for sight. They think, We did not miss much.

Melanie Rae Thon, Blind Fish

#Melanie Rae Thon #Blind Fish #Flash Fiction Forward

[mockingbirds-and-metaphorplay]

Visiting Writers

Today, my college had Melanie Rae Thon and Meg day visit for a small discussion about the craft of writing and to read some of their works. I only went to the craft talk, but it was really interesting.

What I found interesting was that Melanie Rae Thon compared writing to praying; it's a daily practice (not necessarily religious). She suggested keeping a "Book of Wonders" (I think that's what she called it, I didn't take notes), which is a journal to write daily things that please you or fascinate you. She also called it a "Trash Diary", which is way more accurate to me. She stressed the importance of just writing, even though it may not be a specific project. Just write about what calls your attention about your day because you will learn so much about yourself as a writer.

And then there was Meg Day. She was absolutely and insanely genius. She talked about ASL and disabled poetry, like ASL slam poetry (which go check out, it's amazing) and briefly talked about being gender queer, which was great. But her focus, since she was deaf until a hearing implant (? don't quote me because, like I said, I didn't take notes), was sound and line breaks of poetry. She referenced hip hop and ASL poetry when speaking about the importance of line breaks. She geeked out on it, and it was a little confusing, but I wish I could think like her. I want to be able to hear how the sound of being read out loud interacts with the poem, itself.

The things I took away from this talk were:

1. Write EVERY day, especially if you don't have a project in mind.

2. READ OUT LOUD. Everything: books, gas prices, your writing, texts from friends, everything. Meg Day really stressed this, it helps you understand your voice as a writer and being able to apply your unique sound to your writing.

I highly suggest checking Melanie Rae Thon and Meg Day out. I'm excited to actually start reading their works!

#meg day #melanie rae thon #visiting writers #english writer #poetry #writing

[augment-techs]

and ye shall receive my friend! for the book recs

1, 10, 14, 16, 18, 20, 44, and 62

a book that is close to your heart: Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. I watched the movie first, A LOT, as a pre-teen and teen, and then found out the book was about three times as good--no offense to Kristen Stewart, my first queer crush and still reigning champion of Queer Icons. The writing is so very good to form the pictures in your head, and you can actually feel the girl breathe in those first chapters. a book that got you through something: The Hours, by Michael Cunningham. After my mother died, I fell back on watching the movie repeatedly, until I found the book and started reading that--and then I started writing 'Twinning' for the Batman Beyond fandom~ a book that made you trip on literary acid: In This Light, by Melanie Rae Thon. I knew of stream of consciousness in writing since being introduced to Virginia Woolf after high school, but this is a WHOLE other level. Especially when you consider some of the characters being a war veteran that took pity on an overweight corpse in a morgue and broke his legs as a result; a young southern girl who almost died after leaving an abortion clinic too soon after her appointment and crawling into an open refrigerator in left in a field at the height of summer; an underage sex worker following in the steps of the ghost of her sister and experiencing both tragedy and transcendence; the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who tried and failed to save a girl who simply died swimming in an city pool. a book you’d recommend to your younger self: The Shining, by Stephen King. The movie never scared me, it just made me anxious for Wendy and Danny and PISSED when Halloran was killed. The book was much more eerie, and morally grey, and I fully agree with Mr. King about how the movie is more of a mirror universe to the one he created in print. your least favorite book ever: I have a collective that I've read once and never again. The first three in Tucker Max's self-important party boy memoirs that each had one--count them--precious gem of wisdom in each, usually about the freedom of speech and hypocrisy of Conservative Republicans. His writing is provocative, but his homophobic, borderline-sociopathy makes me want to slam his head in a car door. Especially when you get to him reviewing all the sexual partners he's had and realized he's slept with trans-girls (asshole). a book that got you out of a reading slump: ....I don't technically HAVE reading slumps. I have writing slumps, but not reading. I'm pretty sure the only days I don't read are when I'm too sick to stay awake for more than five hours. But, for the sake of answering the question, let's go with Go Go Power Rangers, the first in the Boom! Buffy comics, anything written by Emma Donoghue, The Novel Cure, 500 Books for Teens, and Film-ol-ogy. your favourite fantasy novel: I...can't...choose. There is a tie between Watership Down, by Richard Adams and The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle. One is the epic journey of rabbits into their new home, being brutalized and prone to getting side-tracked the entire way; and everyone knows what the other is about. a book with a forgettable plot but amazing characters: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, by Tamaki and Valero-O'Connell. The entire time throughout this gorgeous graphic novel, I wanted to shake Freddy for letting Laura Dean back in and forgetting about her best friends that are always there for her, but have their own issues constantly going on in the background. Thankfully, we have Vi cheering her on again and again--even after Freddy introduced herself by puking on Vi's work counter.

#so many books to choose from #but I hope this was useful anyway #ask fill

[mttbll]

Each time I do something different I become a little less vulnerable. If you listen to those voices, you start to wonder what right you have to make any story? Each story is some kind of leap, unless you write only about yourself, exactly as you are at this moment, which is tremendously uninteresting to me... I move into my material intuitively and if I’m paying attention to that, if the things that I’m writing are things I feel I must understand, then I have a right to explore them. I have a need to explore them and ultimately a duty to do so.

Melanie Rae Thon

#Melanie Rae Thon #Writing

[wownoxwow-blog]

you could lose it, your right big toe, leave it here, in this mud, your foot, your leg, and you wonder, how many pieces of yourself can you leave behind and still be called yourself?

Melanie Rae Thon, "First, Body"

#melanie rae thon #first body #quotes

[baldyvoldie]

For more than twenty years I’ve been keeping what I call the Book of Wonders. Life begins here, in joy and astonishment. I see deer up to their ears in snow; a pigeon dying on my porch the day after Christmas; reflections of trees in the river, brilliant fish swimming in the treetops. One tanager swoops tree to tree, gold and orange, black-winged, silent: as I watch him fly, I feel my body rise as if I too have wings, a heart as strong as his to lift me. ...My work as a writer begins here, with strange and miraculous tales, the daily prayer of attention. I’ve filled more than seventy volumes. Making stories is not the goal: I wish only to be more alive, more mindful, more reverent. Keeping The Book of Wonders restores me to the possibility of grace in every moment.

Melanie Rae Thon 

http://fictionwritersreview.com/interviews/the-idea-that-has-entered-the-flesh-melanie-rae-thon-and-the-voice-of-the-river

#melanie rae thon #writers on writing

[uchinaguchi]

They resist change.

Melanie Rae Thon, Blind Fish

#Melanie Rae Thon #Blind Fish #Flash Fiction Forward

[sodas]

From Sweet Hearts by Melanie Rae Thon

Instructions for Exctinction

Sturgeons: Use steamboats. Imagine these lakes and rivers are bottomless. Trawl for the great fish in numbers beyond counting. Smoke their flesh. You and your passengers will find it delightful. Feast on their salty eggs. Use the fat of the fish to fuel your engines. Catch, eat, render — what could be more efficient?

Songbirds: Slash forests, pave highways, build railroads. Expand suburbs. Create the perfect environment for usurpers and vagabonds. Give the cowbirds plenty of space to rove and feed; leave them just enough woodland for breeding. Watch them lay their big eggs in the nests of warblers and vireos. Close your eyes. Count to ten. Finished.

Wolves: Use aircraft to spot them. Hunt them with dogs, their own cousins. Set steel traps, even where these are illegal. Use high-powered rifles with scopes. Follow their movement with heat sensors. Poison the carcass of a deer and leave it in the snow when the winter is hard and the wolves hungry. Lure a nursing female from her den. Shoot her. Crawl down the burrow to find her young. Be quick. The other wolves are hunting and might return soon. Do not be afraid of the pups. They are blind and toothless. You could keep one alive with half a pint of milk a day. Don't do this. Put all five in a burlap bag, twist it tight at the top, sling it over your shoulder. These wolves are not heavy yet, only seven pounds between them. When you reach the bridge, drop three large stones into the bag. Do not be distracted by cries or whimpers. Knot the bag tightly; use a rope if necessary. As you walk to the center of the bridge, take time to enjoy the view. Imagine the long plunge to swirling water. Heave the bag over the side. Drop it.

Variations: If you suspect wolves have killed your livestock, you may prefer more intimate methods. Take the bag to the river's edge. Some find comfort or satisfaction in drowning the pups one at a time. You may wish to feel them struggle. If you live in Montana, if you are a stockman obsessed with the idea that the wolf, that wily thief, takes money from your pocket, you are invited to resort to extreme measures: the state veterinarian will inoculate any wolf you capture with sarcoptic mange. Give him your tired, your poor, your famished wolves, your trap-torn cripples. He will prove the needle full of mange, and his infected wolves will carry new death to all their brothers and sisters.

Advice: Do not be deterred by the knowledge that your precious cow died from disease, that the three wolves you saw at twilight were scavengers, not killers. Do not consider the likely possibility that your sheep was pulled down and gutted by your neighbor's sleek black Labradors, those skillful hunters with strong jaws and powerful haunches. Ignore any blood you see tracked through the house by your own Irish setter.

Remember: The wolf is dangerous. He leaps into your dreams. He steals your children. He disguises himself as your grandmother. Trust me. Your actions are necessary. Small and helpless as the pups are, your rage and your fear are justified.

#sweet hearts #melanie rae thon #book #wolves #birds #extinction #animals #excerpt #fish

[rkb]

I believe storytelling is a human impulse, not a choice, but a necessity. Unlike the old idea that memories are "wired" in the brain, synapses seared for (almost) all time, current research indicates that "reactivating a memory destabilizes it, putting it back into a flexible, vulnerable state." In other words, every time you remember an episode of your life, you are reinventing it: embellishing, deleting, altering it through fusion and imagination. If you cannot imagine, you cannot remember.

Melanie Rae Thon, "The Heart Breaks, and Breaks Open: 7 Reasons to Tell a Story in 2011" in Glimmer Train, via Jane Friedman, whose blog I have to put on my mental must read list (I don't do any RSS readers, just figure whatever blogs I want to remember to visit, I will). Reading blogs like that reminds me that I've let this year waft by and my goals float away along with it.

In light of that, I'm thinking about signing up for a YA novel writing class, though they start next week and I don't know if I'll get a check in time. I have to do big things like that fast, almost before I can really think about them, otherwise I always talk myself out of them, but apparently I need structure like that. I honestly don't know what I need, but it's clearly something I haven't tried yet.

#stories #Melanie Rae Thon