So, So, So, So Busy

moar funny pictures

26 hours left to get my Book Drum profile of The River Why in shape for the tournament. I can continue to work on it regardless but won't qualify to be considered for prizes if I don't have all six sections of the profile populated by 11PM PST Sunday February 28. Until this morning I'd put all my efforts so far into the Author and Bookmark sections and after a week of work on Bookmarks I'd put up 25 Bookmarks for the first 10 pages. A Bookmark is like a mini blog post in some ways but on a specific topic pertaining to a specified page in the book. The idea is to identify something that could possibly be enhanced for a reader by further information or visual or audio augmentation.

In the case of the River Why a lot of maps, pictures and video of Oregon locales especially the rivers are in order. But I've also added stuff about fly fishing and fly tying, meeschaum and briar smoking pipes, Izaak Walton's The Compleate Angler, Dylan Thomas, Scottish Divine Zach Boyd, British Author and friend of Tolkein and C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Nijinsky, the blues singer Taj Mahal, H2O, St, Augustine, Tweed, Winnebago, the Rover P4, calligraphy, name etymology, Orvis the giant fishing gear retailer, Rattray's Highland Targe pipe tobacco, Glenfiddich, For each of these topics I provided whatever visual or audio item might pertain, wrote a paragraph or two and linked to outside resources for for citation or followup. All of that and more and I still working on chapter two and haven't passed page ten!

It's a bit like creating an informal encyclopedia targeted at whatever is mentioned or alluded to in the story. And David James Duncan likes to pack his paragraphs with mentions and allusions and begin each chapter with epigraphs relevant to it. He also loves puns and other kinds of word play.

When I woke at 5:30 this morning after five hours of sleep and set to work I would not let myself return to making bookmarks until I got the last four sections of the Profile populated so I spent the first several hours of the day working on the glossary section and got 30 some words and definitions input I have more ready to go but I'm leaving it at that until I get all the rest of the sections populated. This afternoon I finished preparing the Settings section. That leaves me with the Summary and the Review. Probably no more than 1500 words total between the two most of which already exist in my notes but need extensive editing.

As soon as I get them done I can return to creating bookmarks. It's going to look rather funny to have only one of the 25 page sections of Bookmarks populated when there are over 300 pages counting the Afterward. I hope to be able to put one bookmark into each of the remaining 12 sections.

And even though I have until 11PM tomorrow, I shouldn't really give all of my time and effort to the Book Drum bookmark project as my other bookmark project deadline hits Monday afternoon when I have an appointment at the local library to set up a display of my crocheted bookmarks in their glass display case. And I'm sooooo not ready for that either. Oh I've got nearly 100 crocheted but only half a dozen are dressed in their ribbons and beads and tassels and nearly half need their tails tucked and nearly all need to be blocked--even those that once were because the way I stored them and fussed with them their edges curled. And even the dressed ones have wrinkled ribbons as most of them were made for myself or Ed and have been in use and the ones that weren't were stored with the naked ones part of the time so their looking bedraggled themselves.

But I'm not good for much in the way of quality work at the moment. Can't keep my eyes open and I've been making two typos for every ten keystrokes for the last two paragraphs. Gotta give into it.

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David James Duncan Part 2

The David James Duncan official web page

It's under construction as of late February 2010 so has only one page which keeps you abreast of recent or near future appearances, links to info on his books and other publications and media he has any involvement in.

Online resources for information about David James Duncan:

The Wikipedia article on David James Duncan

The bing reference page for David James Duncan

The David James Duncan page at Open Directory

An Inventory of his papers: David James Duncan Papers, 1959-2002 and undated, Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

The River Dry -David James Duncan rows through a wheat field to save salmon—and we’ve got pictures - by Sarah K. Burkhalter

Publications:

Books

The River Why - a novel (1983; 2002 20th Anniversary edition: ISBN 1578050847)

The Brothers K - a novel (1996 ISBN 055337849X)

River Teeth - personal essays, stories and writings (1996, ISBN 0553378279)

My Story as Told by Water: Confessions, Druidic Rants, Reflections, Bird-Watchings, Fish-Stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, from Living Rivers, in the age of the Industrial Dark. -- personal essays (2001, ISBN 1578050839)

Citizen's Dissent (co-authored with Wendell Berry) (2003, ISBN 0913098620 )

God Laughs and Plays: Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right (2006, ISBN 0977717003)

Frank Boyden: The Empathies (2007, ISBN 1930957572) (Duncan provided companion prose for some of Boyden's 96 drypoint images)

Essays/Articles/Stories

(David James Duncan has been published in many periodicals and anthologies and many of the pieces were then re-published in one of the collections bearing his name and visa versa. This is a partial list of titles for his short pieces with links when available to read online)

Web Exclusive - When Compassion Becomes Dissent: On the post-9/11 struggle to teach creative writing while awaiting the further annihilation of Iraq

He Sets Me in the Stream: A short story

What Fundamentalists Need for Their Salvation: In defense of truth, stewardship, and neighborly love - adapted from God Laughs and Plays. This adaptation was awarded a 2006 Pushcart Prize

On Salmon and the Soul

Their Bodies are Needles: A Song and a Prayer for the Greatest Travelers of the Pacific Northwest

Of Love and Prayer

"Bird Watching as a Blood Sport" in Harper's Magazine in 1998

The foreword to Thoreau on Water: Reflecting Heaven (2001, ISBN 0395953863)

An essay, "A Mickey Mantle koan: The obstinate grip of an autographed baseball" in Harper's Magazine in 1992.

A number of op-ed pieces supporting the preservation of Montana's Blackfoot River

Other Media

Radio:

A Native Son of Oregon Writes of Heartbreak, Determination - High Country News -- Interview by Adam Burke regarding My Story as Told by Water. (May 26, 2003) -- This is a text recap by Adam Burke with a few excerpts from the radio broadcast in which Duncan discusses his life, art, passions, and activism. The link to the audio archive in this article was dead. But the quotes from Duncan are worth a glance.

Film:

Troutgrass -- a film/documentary about the making of a bamboo fishing pole, following the bamboo from its home in Southern China through its transition into a fly rod in use on a Montana river. Written and narrated by David James Duncan

Stage:

This year, 2010, Repertory Theatre Book-Its world premiere adaptation of "The River Why" plays on the Center House Theatre stage February 9 through March 7. For more information on the show, or to buy tickets, check out

Speeches:

Podcast: "Salmon Worship: Is It Wrong?" Pt. 1

Podcast: "Salmon Worship: Is It Wrong?" Pt. 2

Keynote speech for the Extinction Stops Here rally (September 19, 2006)

Duncan is scheduled to be Keynote speaker for the Cardinal Virtues Conference at Viterbo University WI THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010 7:00pm Fine Arts Center Main Theatre

Interviews:

Activism, Fly Fishing, and Fiction—A Conversation with David James Duncan conducted by David Thomas Sumner:

By Hook and By Book: David James Duncan, author and fly fisher, answers questions

The World's Longest Conversation - Smokebox Interview conducted by mail from June 2002 to September 2004

Pacific Northwest Quarterly: Meeting the Author of The Brothers K -- Interview by Daniel Lamberton

Interview: David James Duncan Author of "The River Why" on water, salmon and the policies that are killing them

A Q&A with David James Duncan, author of 'The River Why' on the occasion of the book-it repertory production in Seattle Feb/Mar 2010

Awards and Honors

Winner of the Dr. O. Marvin Lewis Essay Award for My Advice on Writing Advice

Lannan Fellowship

Honorary Doctorate for Public Service from the University of Portland

American Library Association Best Books Award for The Brothers K

1992 New York Times Notable Book for The Brothers K

Two Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards -- one for The Brothers K, the other for The River Why

1999 Best of the West: The River Why is given 35th spot on the San Francisco’s list of Top 100 Books of the 20th century

2001 Western States Book Award for Nonfiction for My Story as Told by Water

2001 National Book Award nomination for My Story as Told by Water

2003 American Library Association’s Eli Oboler Award (with co-author Wendell Berry) for the Preservation of Intellectual Freedom for Citizen's Dissent

2006 Pushcart Prize

Inclusion in four volumes of Best American Spiritual Writing

The River Why was chosen as one of100 books from the years 1800 to 2000 that exemplify the best of Oregon’s rich literary heritage by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission

[The above is the list of works, awards, and misc portion of the Author section of the Book Profile I'm creating for Book Drum. Yesterday I posted the bio.

I still haven't found an image of Duncan for which attribution and permissions are clear or any contact info for acquiring such permission so I've not yet been able to post a picture of Duncan on the Book Drum Profile. The image I posted above I deemed OK for posting on a personal non-commercial blog as I've seen it posted elsewhere by reputable websites sans attribution which leads me to believe it is an image released for such purposes as in a press kit or promotional package. If anyone seeing this has reason to object to my use of it here please advise me via email at joystory AT gmail]

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David James Duncan Part 1

David James Duncan father of three, fly fisher, novelist, essayist, speaker, activist, teacher, contemplative, and practitioner of what he calls “direct, small-scale compassion/activism,” was born in Portland, Oregon in 1952 and raised in a working-class east Portland neighborhood in a family in which three generations of ardent Seventh Day Adventists (on his mother's side) preceded him. He attended Adventists services and Sabbath School until age 15 when, finally deemed of age to choose, he bowed out having long before discovered there was more of wonder, grace and God Presence in the burble of a trout stream, a stand of Redwood, a leaping Chinook Salmon, or the wide open sky than in any pulpit or cathedral.

His father introduced him to fly fishing while he was still in elementary and over the years his love for it has deepened into a devotion so deep and a practice so devout it seems identical with religion. Later he would imbue his two novels, The River Why and Brothers K, with the images, metaphors and analogies drawn from fly fishing and intimate connection to waterways.

While in Junior High the loss of his brother (just 17) had a profound affect on Duncan, providing an early and sharp lesson in grief and loss. Awareness of this may have prompted his high school teacher to hand him Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks and from that novel he learned the power of story to enlighten and transform, which sparked in him an undying love of the novel. Says Duncan: "This love had nothing to do with desire for fame, money, or even publication. I was simply smitten by the power of the novel to create an atmosphere in which a reader's inner wisdom would sometimes reveal itself, and I yearned to create such atmospheres on paper myself." (David James Duncan from "An Afterward, Twenty Years Later" p296-297)

For the duration of his high school career he read novels voraciously, "an older friend who went off to Stanford University. He started sending me reading lists and books, and my friendship and correspondence with this guy grew so much more interesting than anything in high school that I basically quit studying anything except great novels."(Smokebox Interview)

In the twelve years after graduating from Reynolds High School, he worked as "delivery driver, tenant farmer, factory grunt, lawn mower, Little League baseball umpire, janitor, tree planter, tree pruner, wilderness retreat caretaker, bartender, truck driver, toy-maker, warehouse manager, house painter"(297) and during those same years he also graduated from Portland State University, explored the paths of the inner or contemplative life, visiting Trappist and Buddhist monks, traveling to India, attempting vision quests, read avidly in the wisdom literature of many spiritual traditions, all the while continuing to read and write fiction.

In 1976 he abandoned a 200 page WIP to begin writing The River Why which he started submitting in1980 and which was rejected by over 20 major publishing houses over the next two years (including all the same ones that had rejected Norman Mcclean's A River Runs Through It several year's earlier) before it was picked up by Sierra Club Books in 1982.

Duncan continued to alternate between the Portland area and the Oregon coast for about a decade after the release of The River Why before moving with his wife sculptor/ceramic artist Adrian, and their two daughters, Celia and Ellie, to live on a trout stream at the headwaters of the Columbia/Snake river systems in Lolo, Montana

Duncan has been a sought after teacher and speaker for schools and events. He was the William Kittredge Visiting Writer at the University of Montana for the fall semester of 2002. He gave the Keynote speech for the Extinction Stops Here rally,September 19, 2006. In 2008 he spoke and read from The River Why at Hope College IDS Student/Faculty Retreat. And is scheduled to be Keynote speaker for the Cardinal Virtues Conference at Viterbo University WI, April 15, 2010.

Two of his most passionate concerns have been for the protection of Norman Maclean's river, the Big Blackfoot, in Montana from the river-killing leaching method of gold mining and pressing for removal of the four lower Snake dams which are driving NW Salmon to extinction. For the latter he has teamed up with American Rivers and will be speaking at their NW regional office’s 8th annual dinner and auction in Seattle on March 4 2010.

His essays and stories have appeared in Big Sky Journal, Gray's Sporting Journal, Harper's, Northern Lights, Outside, Orion, The Sun, Sierra, and a myriad of anthologies, forwards for other writers, and other publications.

Duncan told Smokehouse the interviewer in 2004 that he was working on several long fiction projects, a novella collection featuring female protagonists set in the West, a novel with working title Eastern/Western and a second novel, a comedy about reincarnation and human folly he used to call Nijinsky Hosts Saturday Night Live but has since relegated that title to a section of the whole now with working title:

The Reincarnatio

Non-Rhyming, Non-Catholic Western-American-Dialect

Montana-&-New York-Locale

Divine Comedy,

Version 2.

A Novel

[The above is the bio portion of the Author section of the Book Profile I'm creating for Book Drum. Tomorrow I'll post the list of works, awards, and misc.

I still haven't found an image of Duncan for which attribution and permissions are clear or any contact info for acquiring such permission so I've not yet been able to post a picture of Duncan on the Book Drum Profile. The image I posted above I deemed OK for posting on a personal non-commercial blog as I've seen it posted elsewhere by reputable websites sans attribution which leads me to believe it is an image released for such purposes as in a press kit or promotional package. If anyone seeing this has reason to object to my use of it here please advise me via email at joystory AT gmail]

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