Author Archives: Shannon Yarbrough

Tennessee Williams[6]
Feb 15 2012

Returning to Tennessee

January 30th, 2011, J and I finally found Tennessee Williams’ grave site at Calvary Cemetery. I blogged about it here.

In November of 2008, we had visited Calvary and its neighbor Bellefontaine Cemetery (read about that in two blog posts found here and here).  We went there to enjoy the fall colors and to photograph the cemetery, not even knowing at the time that Williams was buried there.

I also was not paying attention to the fact that Williams’ 100th birthday was last year! But I plan to revisit him this year on February 25th – the 29th anniversary of his death.  Williams’ will turn 101 on March 26th.

In my EverNote review from Monday, I mentioned that I had been researching TW for a project I’m currently working on. That project is a sequel to my 2009 book, Stealing Wishes, in which the ghost of Williams will make an appearance and play an important part throughout the book. But more about that later.

Besides obvious researching online, I’ve started reading his biography, Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams, written by Lyle Leverich in 1995. Sadly, I’ve owned a copy of the book since then and really had no desire to read it until this year. I started it just a few days ago. Even sadder, Leverich died just 4 years after the book was released, so his 2nd volume of the bio has never been published (nor possibly even finished).

Next I plan to Read Harry Rasky’s book: Tennessee Williams: A Portrait in Laughter and Lamentation. At just 148 pages, it should be a very quick read compared to the 600 plus pages of Leverich’s book. I landed it as a free copy on BookMooch last year shortly after visiting his grave. Upon looking into it a bit further, I learned Rasky wrote it after filming a bio about Williams called South, a DVD I will surely have to pick up soon.

I also secured a copy of Williams’ own book entitled Memoirs which hasn’t arrived yet, but I’m eager to have a look at it because it’s in his own words.

And I’ve been eager to watch every film that was made based on his plays.  The classic film stars who played in them is quite impressive: Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift…just to name a few!

So what does all this mean for me?  Besides satisfying an odd obsession I seem to be having right now with the playwright, more than likely it means that writing my book will be slow going since I’m writing it as I research.  Oh well, at least I’m having fun doing it, and that’s what matters!

And if you read my blog here, I’m sure you can look forward to lots more posts about TW posts.  Oh, and definitely some pics from the trip on the 25th!

By the way, the portrait above was the cover of a 1962 edition of Time Magazine.

Feb 15 2012

366 of Me: Day 46

Two pictures today! Guess what I got for Valentine’s Day yesterday? In lieu of flowers, J sent a gift basket full of candy, cookies, crackers, and even a smoked salmon.  I was pleasantly surprised and all the girls at work were totally jealous!

J and I will celebrate our 9th year together in July this year…the longest either of us have been with someone.  Here’s to 9 more – if both of us survive eating everything in this gift basket!  We sampled quite a few things last night and they were all quite yummy!  He made me pose for the picture.

Thank you again, J.  I love you, man!

Feb 14 2012

366 of Me: Day 45

It wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without posting something red, right?  No hearts today.

Just our coffee maker.  Yep, we have a red coffee maker.  Second only to J, it’s the one thing I love to see every morning.

Monday through Friday, I set its timer and at ten till six every morning, the cat starts singing the maker’s praises as soon as it wakes up and starts bubbling (the coffee maker, not the cat).  It’s like the coffee maker is the cat’s alarm clock.

It’s red because J likes red in the kitchen, especially appliances and such. More red pics, and more pics from the kitchen to follow this week.

Evernote_Icon_256
Feb 13 2012

Evernote Noted

I admit I haven’t been a big note taker since college. I’m still pretty much a physical pen and paper or post-it kinda guy when it comes to remembering things or jotting down ideas I want to remember.  I often read about my favorite authors who have passed on and how their “notes and letters” became the property of some University or Library archives. This is the case with a recent project of mine involving some extensive research on Tennessee Williams. Williams died in 1983.

I have to remind myself that Williams, and all of my other favorite authors from that era who have passed, had no access to a computer.  The pen and the paper honed their craft, followed by a manual typewriter. It makes since that they would have volumes of material worthy of being archived in a professional setting devoted to preserving such papers.

Today, writers like me are lucky enough to have computers. And though I sentimentalize the idea of note taking longhand on paper, I much prefer an easier and more organized way of doing it on the computer. I was lucky enough to recently discover the App known as Evernote, which is doing just that for me.

I mainly bought this App because it was free on my Kindle Fire so I decided to give it a try. My test run of it was for a fictional writing project I’m currently researching actually about Tennessee Williams, where I’m utilizing both physical books and the web for research.

I started by using Evernote to keep track of quotes or small pieces of information I liked. I have not been able to get it to copy websites or pics for me on the Kindle Fire device, but maybe I’m doing something wrong?  Most tablet devices have a slow interface in that you can’t really multitask or copy information when toggling between screens or applications. Therefore, unless I just haven’t gotten the hang of it, Evernote is really only good for making physical notes on the Kindle Fire.  I’m okay with that though because it’s handy to use for note taking when reading a paperback book.  As for notes from Ebooks I’m reading on the device, I can just highlight them if needed and transfer them later.

To fully utilize the App the way it was intended and for this project, I decided to download it to my desktop PC. Grabbing websites and pics from here is much easier. I pull up the App and literally drag and drop my information into it just like a Windows desktop file. It copies pictures super fast, and I even created a note of web links that I wanted to revisit later.

After syncing all of this information back to my Kindle Fire, I was much more pleased with going back and reviewing my notes and pics that I had collected on the Kindle device.  When viewed as a whole, it’s a nice collage of pictures, quotes, and other small pieces of information that I have found to be very inspiring.

So, for me, it’s good to have on my Kindle device solely for note taking, but I am enjoying it much more on my PC. The collage of information I’ve collected has been very inspiring and I only wish I’d had something like this back when I was in college!As for if it’ll be worthy of being archived on some University computer one day when I’m long gone, only the future will tell.

Feb 13 2012

366 of Me: Day 44

The other side of the windowsill from yesterday’s post.

Two very large vases, also very colorful glass, and a candle.  I love the vibrant colors.

And yes, those are wine corks – J and I have been keeping corks from bottles of wine we drink ever since we’ve been together. Don’t fret…that’s almost 9 years of corks in those vases.

Notice the glass rooster picture in the background?  More roosters to follow!

yoda
Feb 11 2012

Writing a Novel, I Am

This week you might have noticed those funny little bars in the right margin over there on my blog, right above the calendar.  Go ahead, look over there!  (pointing)  I’ll wait.

I got them from a little site called Writertopia. They are word count meters to measure the progress you’ve made on your novel, and yep, as you can see I’m writing two novels at once.  EEK!

No worries.  The one on the bottom, The Piano Maker’s Son, has been in the works for over 5 years.  I’m currently doing a rewrite of it but not devoting as much time to it lately because I just started the other project.

Feeling Himself Forgotten is a sequel to my 2nd book, Stealing Wishes, but more about that later.

So now you can see what progress I’m making on each.  Watch my novels grow!  Just add water and words. Only $19.95 plus S&H, but wait, there’s more…act now and we’ll throw in a second word count meter absolutely free!

I dunno what that means really, but I’m updating the meters about every other day. I hope you enjoy them as much as I seem to be right now.

Feb 10 2012

366 of Me: Day 41

Good-bye Mr. iPad.

Yep, I sold it.  I’ve barely used it at all this year since J got a Kindle Fire for me for Christmas.  So, rather than let it sit, I decided to sell it.

He was fun last year, but takes a one way trip to his new home on Monday.

And for those who might wonder, I like the Kindle Fire more because it is smaller and not as heavy. For reading, the iPad was nice but always hurt my wrists after long periods of time.

Feb 9 2012

366 of Me: Day 40

This is a cool snapshot of my iPod.  I love the way it looks out of focus.

I bought the iPod about 2 years ago as an incentive to get back in the gym.  It didn’t work that year.  But last year, when I started back to the gym in February, the iPod came in real handy while I was working out. I’ve listened to books on it too.

But, I get really bored with the same old routine and the same old music. I’m also cheap, so I’d never buy new music. I would always ask for iTunes gift cards instead for birthdays or Christmas.

I haven’t been going to the gym this year, but the iPod has been getting some good use.  I listen to it while I’m writing, hence why it’s lying on a page of a manuscript.