Valentine's Day and The Stars and Stripes U.S. Flag

Continental Navy USS Ranger

On 14 February 1778, the national flag of the United States, The Stars and Stripes, was formally recognized for the first time (by a foreign naval vessel).

French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a 9-gun salute-- given by the French fleet at Quiberon Bay-- to the Continental USS Ranger under the flag hoisted via revered U.S. Naval Captain John Paul Jones.

It's believed that the timing of this scenario was coincidental to Valentine's Day; still, no doubt that a lot of love for fellow man, family and country took place in spirit on that day shortly after recognition of U.S. independence by-- and Treaty of Alliance with-- France.

As homeland battles for freedom continued, USS Ranger was captured in Charleston by the British in 1780, brought into the Royal Navy as HMS Halifax, and later decommissioned (1781).

Ref:

Wikipedia contributors. "February 14." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 14 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

NHHC. "French, American Alliance Hastened End of Revolutionary War." Naval History Blog. U.S. Naval Institute, 08 Jun. 2015. Web. https://www.navalhistory.org/2015/06/08/french-american-alliance-hastened-end-of-revolutionary-war. 14 Feb. 2017. 

Edward Moran. First Reception of the American Flag by a Foreign Government. 1898. Gary Priolo. Navsource. http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86293.htm Web. 2017 Feb 14.

Intense girlhood friendships are “excellent practice for surviving the heartbreak … of future love affairs” - Salon.com

Via Salon, a double-author interview with Miranda Beverly-Whittemore and Robin Wasserman, authors of June and Girls on Fire, that every mom and dad should read and pass along to their children:

Intense girlhood friendships are “excellent practice for surviving the heartbreak … of future love affairs” - Salon.com

Learning to Write, and Beyond- Consider Audience and Write with Purpose

Successful writers have learned, the old adage is true: good style is in the eye of the beholder. Writers do well to always remember their audience, which can vary. Our audience may be as broad as an open sea, or like the narrowest stream of water. 

Students and committed writers should take instruction and feedback with a grain of salt. 

Is your audience, in fact, a teacher? Then write for that audience . . . provide them what they need and you'll pass your course. This has nothing to do with the style you want to exhibit in your own writing, and learning to follow set guidelines will help you later with your personal endeavors.

The appeal of our writing to any other audience may not be as straightforward as in a classroom scenario. Under many circumstances, there will be no direction given for a writing assignment. Capacity to deliver appropriately will be assumed!

The biggest factor that works toward a successful writing project is in minding the congregation of any meeting or audience. Big or small, private or public . . . consider the qualities of the audience. Determine whether they're professional, laypersons, hobbyists, community. Also, why are you writing? Do you need to appeal to a particular crowd in order to get them to do something? Are you entertaining for for a few laughs, or do you need follow-through after the event?

Maybe you're writing for yourself, from a position of interest in organic attraction to your message. Whatever the answer, when you figure all the factors, your method becomes more clear. Above all, it's important to remember: never be discouraged from a craft you care about because of a critic or detractor along the way. Something can be learned from almost any critic, if only about them. It's quite possible that you were never writing for them! Your teacher, though . . . you're definitely writing for that critic. Do what you need to do in order to get that grade, and you might just learn something that you'll appreciate later. 

A small group presentation

When you think about it, you may be surprised at the potential critics of a project. Don't let it overwhelm you. Just do the work and be prepared for anything.

During February, we'll take a look at some solid examples of author styles that have been heavily criticized, yet have also been wildly successful in finding audience.

Meanwhile . . . who are you writing for this week?

Reviving the Journals of Sylvia Plath - The British Library

Sylvia Plath

Whatever brought you here, whoever you are, you're likely to recognize the name of Sylvia Plath. Her 1963 novel The Bell Jar has been a companion of many students whose writing, language or literature class syllabi required it. Beyond this, Plath was a renowned artist of her time, known for her early and prolific stabs at production and successful publication.¹

As a young girl, Plath authored local pieces and experimented with painting, but was first a writer and succeeded in being nationally published soon after high school. Students and fans of Plath will recall her personalized, get-to-know-me style of revelational writing and may remember some of the unfortunate details of her life experience, including her suicide-- only one month after the publication of her first and only novel.

The Bell Jar would eventually be adapted for film, in the 1979 production of the same name.² While popular, the film was criticized for it's lack of insight into the life of the young woman whose productive mind would eventually disintegrate to the precarious state which invited and ultimately assured her demise.

See images of some of Sylvia Plath's typewritten journal pages and enjoy Karen Kukil's retrospective of Plath's style and motivations, via the British Library project Discovering Literature: Reviving the Journals of Sylvia Plath - The British Library

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1 Website Author(s). Poets.org. Poets. Sylvia Plath. https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/sylvia-plath Retrieved Jan 2017.^↩

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2 Wikipedia Authors. The Bell Jar (Film). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Jar_(film). Retrieved Jan 2017.^↩

January - Don't Forget, It's National Hobby Month

If you needed an excuse or reminder, January is National Hobby Month. We're reminded during the month of January to carve out our schedule and fit into it the things we enjoy. More, to reflect on the activities that engage our most passionate, positive and rewarding responses.

Forming attachments into hobbies (at least one) can be one of the most challenging things we do. Life is full of distraction, and it's not all positive.

To maintain commitment to activities that don't necessarily feed us, or that can be associated with negative feedback, can be too daunting at times. Under the worst circumstances, people often lose their most cherished activities to things like grief or economy.

January's annual hobby reflection prompts us back into the self-awareness we may have lost, gradually or suddenly, during the past year. Any loss of something we enjoyed should be evaluated. It could be that we ultimately learn certain activities weren't the best use of our time and energy, so we move on to another interest. More important than any loss of interest in one activity is the recall, or discovery, of another activity's spark to our creativity and personal satisfaction. It's a good thing!

Which hobby will you bring into greater focus during the new year? Will you also try out a new activity? List one hobby in comments, with which you'd like to be more involved!

Lit Genre Focus: The Biographical Novel

Q: What's one way to learn more about a period in time and some of the experiences of those who lived in that time?

A: We can read an historical fiction novel.

Read more literature!

What about getting to know specific historical figures with whom we're familiar, yet curious about their actual lives, including their personal experiences other than the usual textbook primers?

In such a case, we need to find a biographical novel about them.¹ Often, a biographical novel will present us with multiple familiar 'faces', depending on theme and settings. They key to understanding what should be taken away from a book of this genre is in remembering that it is in fact a subgenre, under the fiction heading. Yet, the biographical novel isn't to be taken lightly or disregarded in terms of our ability to gain information.

While some scenes (sometimes, most of them) are quite made up, we're nonetheless offered a deeper view into the fabric of those societies that were known by the characters of a story. Although a scene may be fictionalized, this doesn't mean that something very similar didn't happen. The takeaway for a reader is in their perception of life experiences leading to the actions of the story and its characters.

Notable figures of today-- and throughout history-- tend to be either luminaries of their time or something of the opposite . . . troubled nobodies, perhaps. They share a basic commonality: their celebrated or infamous personae, as depicted by popular popular perception and based on snippets of history that have since been translated into textbooks and other media.

We often read their poetry, watch their stage performances, learn their politics . . . but as far as their lives . . .

The biographical novel presents us with opportunity to see a little further into the lives and circumstances of those figures. By placing those characters into the plots of novels, writers are able to apply some artistic license to help readers better conceptualize the times and events that directly, and indirectly, influenced them. Stories are spun around known historical facts-- the biographical elements of these works.

In this way, the biographical novel offers a window through which we might identify with or, at least understand, our heroes, our figureheads, our most memorable predecessors.

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1 Writer's Digest Authors. Definitions of Fiction Categories and Genres. Writer's Digest University. http://resources.writersonlineworkshops.com/resources/definitions-of-fiction-categories-and-genres/ Retreived Jan 2017.^↩

Who Knew - Bigelow Gave Us Dafoe in the Movie "The Loveless"

Meet 26-year-old Willem Dafoe, in a role that seems to have been designed for his future of ruffian character portrayals. A countenance that has stood the test of time, the face of Dafoe has long been assurance of film-making to see.

A test of Amazon Prime was the key that opened the door to this introduction of Dafoe-- actor, producer, writer-- as a much younger man than previously known, in a movie that surely helped to set his brand as key to his success.

The Loveless (1981-82) follows Vance (Willem Dafoe) around town as he and gang cut up and make scenes as outlaw leathers.

Before The Loveless, Dafoe had snagged a role in the 1979-80 production Heaven's Gate. According to a short bio on Dafoe at IMDB, he was released without credit for that one. His role was cut, and Heaven's Gate became a figment of the then-wiser man's past.

Ultimately, Dafoe continued his chosen career in film undeterred . . . beginning with The Loveless and its now-famous director Kathryn Bigelow!

You may recognize her as a fairly recent contender for-- and winner of-- an Academy Award for her role as director of The Hurt Locker. Bigelow impressed everyone when she became the first woman to win that award as Best Director (2008). But, Bigelow's been around since well before Dafoe's portrayal of biker Vance (his first credited film).

Having started with a local art institute in California, Bigelow produced and sold works of art before winning her first scholarship to an independent art program and continuing on the arts track until winning a film scholarship. Her way thus paved, Bigelow then directed a student film entitled The Set-Up in 1978, a nod to the affects of violence in film. This way, she effectively established her interest in and capacity to make film.¹ As far as film credits go, it appears that 1980 was Bigelow's first credited foray into the field, as a script supervisor for the movie Union City.

It's unclear when Bigelow and Dafoe met, but not long after each of their initial successes, they were working together on the set of The Loveless. 

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1 Skully, Home. IMDB. Kathryn Bigelow Bio. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941. Retreived Jan 2017. <sup>↩

Affiliate - ref. "About"</sup>