Writing Tip #22 The Reader Bond

The reader’s emotional involvement is held by the glue of empathy. If a writer fails to fuse a bond between reader and protagonist, the reader will soon lose interest and walk away.

Involvement has little to do with altruism or compassion. Readers empathize for very personal reasons. Mostly because they identify with a protagonist and his/her desires in life. When the reader roots for the protag, s/he is in fact, rooting for his/her own desires in life. Through empathy, the reader vicariously links to the fictional character, and tests and stretches his/her humanity. That is the gift of storytelling – to enable others to live beyond their own lives, at all the various depths of their being.

To establish empathy, therefore, is critical, while sympathy is optional. Sympathy means likeable – Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, or Tracy and Hepburn. We like and admire them. But empathy is more powerful. It means: they’re like me.

Many writers go out of their way to make their protagonists likable. But likable is no guarantee of reader involvement. We all know likeable people who are painfully boring. Rather, the reader identifies with deep character traits, with innate qualities revealed through the choices a character makes while under pressure. In this way, even the most unsympathetic characters can become empathetic.

Macbeth is the perfect example. Driven by power-lust and an evil wife, he goes on a killing spree. He’s a ruthless killer, a monster, right? Not so. Shakespeare gave him a conscience – something we all have and can relate to. When Macbeth asks, “What kind of man am I?” the reader/viewer has most likely asked that question of him/her self. The reader understands what it’s like to be guilt-ridden. So this killer transforms into an empathetic hero.

So the key to forge an empathetic bond, is first to put your characters in a series of pressure situations, and the pressure should increase with each one, and then have the character make choices under pressure that reveals deep human character that readers can relate too. I find it best when an author focuses on one or two character traits, loyalty for example, and then continually bombards the character with situations that test that loyalty.
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Book Review: The Lonely War By Alan Chin

Reviewed by Victor J. Banis
Pubished by Zumaya Boundless
Rating 5 stars

One of my favorite authors, Alan Chin invariably manages to combine an intriguing story with the kind of lush romanticism that seizes the reader and keeps him spellbound. I found his first novel, Island Song enchanting, and with The Lonely War, he has clearly matured as a writer.

A couple of problems got in the way of my full enjoyment of this novel, however, and I might as well get them off my chest. First, the author desperately needs another pair of eyes to look out for mistakes. I don’t mean the sort of typos that have become epidemic in today’s publishing and which I have despaired of ever seeing eliminated, but lapses rather more serious. Here, as one example, is a description from page 6: “he inhaled sharply, catching a whiff of Mitchell’s scent; beneath the pleasant odor of talcum powder he discerned the aroma of sweat moistened skin.” Three pages later, on the whaleboat carrying them to their ship, Andrew notices, “the faint scent of talcum powder mixed with sweat-moistened skin.” It is not simply that this jars, though it does. It is the kind of lapse the big-time critics love to pounce upon. Kirkus once speared me for repeating a description a couple of hundred pages later. They’d be all over this.

And since I’m carping, I will add that I felt some of the scenes in the Japanese prisoner of war camp strained my credibility. I’m not saying that they might not have happened as described, I have no real knowledge of life in Japanese war camps –for all I know, the author may be describing events that in fact happened in real life—which, alas, is irrelevant. In fiction, the litmus test is not, is something real, but does the author make it seem real for the reader. The Japanese camp, Changi, was reputed to be a hell-hole, but it comes across here sounding pretty cushy compared to my brother’s experiences as a prisoner of war in a German camp. I never get that sense of horror here that my brother’s tales and those of his fellow prisoners engendered, though in all fairness, horrific is not this author’s forte.

So, I waffled a bit over rating this book, because the flaws do diminish its impact somewhat, but in the end, what is good about it is so extraordinarily good that it simply outweighed any shortcomings. The prose is masterful. The characters are well drawn and believable. The pacing is beautiful and the ending is absolutely note perfect. This author always writes something more than just a story – he touches upon the universal truths, without ever becoming preachy. There is enjoyment to be had here, but there is wisdom to be gleaned from the book as well. Only the best writers manage that without short changing one or the other.

The Lonely War is a lovely read, touching, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, and at all times vivid. Alan Chin remains one of my favorite writers. I always look forward to his next work and he is one of those authors whose work I never hesitate to recommend to others, as I do this one.

September Events - A Different Light bookstore

Tuesday, September 21 @ 7:30pm

Lambda Literary Emerging Voices Retreat Fellows

Meg Day, Chuck Forester, Liz Green, Billie Mandel & Oscar Raymundo

We're proud to bring together the Bay Area-based 2010 Lambda Literary Writers’ Retreat fellows for a special reading and discussion. From slam poets to femme novelists, the diversity of styles and genres highlight the vitality of new queer voices. Be the first to listen to their up-and-coming projects and support their emerging talent.

Saturday, September 25 @ 4pm

Odd Man Out: An Autobiography

Jeff Commings

Jeff Commings was the first African-American to win a gold medal in swimming at the Olympic Festival, but he spent all of his teenage years and young adulthood afraid to live openly as a gay man. Heartbreaking and funny, Odd Man Out is an uncompromising tale of the courage, perseverance, talent and friendships that help bring out the best in you.

Monday, September 27 @ 7:30pm

Citizen, Invert, Queer: Lesbianism & War in Early 20th Century Britain

Deborah Cohler

Incorporating cultural histories of prewar women's suffrage debates, British sexology, women's work on the home front during World War I, and discussions of interwar literary representations of female homosexuality, Cohler maps the emergence of lesbian representations in relation to the decline of empire and the rise of eugenics in England.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact:

Oscar Raymundo
Events Coordinator

A Different Light
489 Castro Street
San Francisco, CA 94114

(415) 431 0891
adlsfevents@gmail.com
adl-books.blogspot.com
twitter.com/adifferentlight

Book Review: Song on the Sand By Ruth Sims

Reviewed by Victor J. Banis
Published by UntreedReads

Rating: 5 Stars

Tony Dalby is 86. Confined to a wheelchair in a nursing home, he lives on memories of an almost career as an actor and dancer, and of his one brief brush with stardom as a stand-in for Zaza in La Cage aux Folles. Angry at the world, he makes life miserable for himself and the staff who look after him.

Tony befriends a handsome young man, Drew, who comes to the nursing home every day to visit his “cousin,” Jesse. “He looks awfully young to be here,” Tony says of Jesse. Drew responds, “He’s twenty-nine today, Mr. Dalby. And he can’t even celebrate.” Tony is horrified. “Boys of twenty-nine didn’t belong in a place like this, a depository for old people with nowhere else to go…”Jesse, blind, deaf and paralyzed as a result of an accident, was an actor too, in community theater. Tony begins to spend more time thinking about Jesse and less about himself, and finds his pent up anger gradually melting.

I can’t tell you much more without spoiling the plot for you. Suffice to say, Song on the Sand is sweet, even sentimental, the kind of story that a writer of lesser talent could make sappy and saccharine, but Ruth Sims is too fine an artist for cheap effects. She paints her canvas with a master’s brush, and it would take a colder heart than mine (which is infamously cold) to read this story without a tear in the eye.

I don’t mean to suggest this is a downer, however. It isn’t. It’s about love - not romantic love, but love of life – and about reaching out, of bridging that vast chasm that separates us from one another. It is written with genuine charm, which is not as easy as one might think, but it is written as well with insight and a gentle sympathy for the human condition. Tony and Jesse and their song on the sand will linger in your thoughts long after you’ve finished reading. Highly recommended, but have a hankie handy.

To read more about his story or author, go to http://ruthsims.com

Match Maker, available at Dreamspinner Press on Sept. 6th

Hello Everyone,

I hope this email finds you doing well.

I’m excited to announce that on Monday, Sept. 6th, Dreamspinner Press will publish my third novel, Match Maker. If you are at all interested in the trials and triumphs of gay tennis players on the Pro Tour, you can read the first 2 chapters at http://tinyurl.com/28n2uh4


In the four years since being forced off the professional tour for being gay, Daniel Bottega has taught tennis at a second-rate country club. He found a sanctuary to hide from an unkind world, while his lover, Jared Stoderling, fought a losing battle with alcohol addiction to cope with his disappointment of not playing on the pro circuit.

Now Daniel has another chance at the tour by coaching tennis prodigy Connor Lin to a Grand Slam championship win. He shares his chance with Jared by convincing him to return to the pro circuit as Connor’s doubles partner.

Competing on the world tour is challenging enough, but Daniel and Jared also face major media attention, political fallout from the pro association, and a shocking amount of hate that threatens Connor’s career in tennis, Jared’s love for Daniel, and Daniel’s very life.

See the video trailer at: http://tinyurl.com/2ev95ds

My Publisher and I want to invite you to a virtual book signing on Monday, Sept. 6th at the Dreamspinner Press website and blog.

Event Description: Would you like a signed, personalized copy of Match Maker? If you buy the paperback at www.dreamspinnerpress.com (week of Sept. 6th) and leave your personalization request on the Dreamspinner blog (http://dreamspinnerpress.com/blog/; there will be a corresponding entry nearer the time), I will personalize and sign the book for you before it is shipped! Also, you can have it shipped anywhere, so you can buy copies as gifts and have them personalized and sent directly to that special person.

Thanks for your support,
Alan Chin

GuyWriters presents "Eat Our Shorts"

Get your tickets now!

Sept 8, 10, 15 & 18 at the SF Fringe festival

After months of planning, casting actors and rehearsing,
GuyWriters is set to present "Eat Our Shorts" at the San Francisco Fringe Festival.

Each of the short plays in the "Eat Our Shorts" line up was written, produced and directed by members of GuyWriters. While the subject matter ranges from the comedic to the existential, each play has a common thread - gay life in San Francisco's iconic neighborhoods. Here are this year's featured short plays:

A View From the Heights (Bob Hayden, playwright). Spying on new neighbors prompts a Pacific Heights couple to assess their marriage.

Going Down? (Tom W. Kelly, playwright). Tourists. Leathermen. Elevator.

The Move In (Rhoda, playwright). Ex-boyfriends try for closure in Hayes Valley.

Balboa Bash (Bob Hayden, playwright). Homophobia amongst teenaged boys in the Sunset circa 1950s.

Don't Toy with Me (Andrew Black, playwright). GI Joe and Ken meet cute at Malibu Barbie's place.

The Pick-Up (Rhoda, playwright). It's all flirting and games until someone gets hurt in the Marina.

Life Is Short (Tom W. Kelly, playwright). A car crash leads to an existential repartee between a bickering couple.

'Tude and Gratitude (Edgar Poma, playwright). A young dancer ruminates the effect of Lady Gaga on his life.

Show times:
Sept. 8 - 7 p.m.
Sept 10 - 10 p.m.
Sept. 15 - 8:30 p.m.
Sept. 18 - 8:30 p.m.

This event will sell out! Get your tickets early!

For tickets, call (800) 838-3006 or visit brownpapertickets.com/event/115539

Graphic Design by Robert Perry
www.chromozoa.com

Counterpoint, Dylan’s Story by Ruth Sims

Reviewed by Alan Chin
Published by Dreamspinner Press
Pages: 314

Near the end of the Nineteenth Century, Dylan Rutledge has two obsessions: composing music and Laurence Northcliff, his history master at the Bede School for Young Gentlemen. When all others turn against Dylan for the wild and unorthodox music he composes, Northcliff is the only one who encourages his dream. The two fall deeply in love, but it is a forbidden love in England, punishable by long prison terms at hard labor.

But Dylan’s passion will not be put down. He alienates himself from family, friends, and country when he moves to Paris to study music and live openly as Northcliff’s lover. Although he finds happiness in the arms of Northcliff, he pays a heavy price being out, even in Paris. At every turn, his career is fraught with disappointment, rejection, and eventually a devastating loss that shreds his soul. Can his music bring him back from the brink? Can the love of a man be the strength he needs to survive?

This book is a joy to read. The story is well structured, the characters are compelling, the prose carries the reader along in a dream. I knew before opening the cover page that Ruth Sims has a gift for storytelling. I found that out in her book, The Phoenix. But Counterpoint is far and away a superior, more thoughtful read. Sims has created something rare, an absorbing read that takes the reader through the entire range of emotions, and then back again.

Does it have flaws? There is the occasional head hopping. There are several opportunities where showing, rather than telling, would strengthened the read. There are other places where the dialog is too on-the-nose. But these minor issues go unnoticed as the reader wraps these characters around himself like a cloak on a cold night, and feels their passion and pain. Upon finishing the last page I wanted to stand, clap my hands and yell, “BRAVO.”

This story was several years coming to print, and well worth the wait. If you’re looking for the kind of hot erotic scenes that have become so cliché in mm fiction today, then keep looking. But for anyone who enjoys passionate characters struggling with basic human needs, alluring prose, and historical detail, then I highly recommend this read.

For more information about this book or its author, go to http://www.ruthsims.com/