Kurt Cobain Starring as Walrus Pemmican

I’ve been perfectly content here in my little pigpen in the north, gazing out the window at the little robinses pulling their worms and typing away at chapter 38 of the Longest Novel Ever Written, The Syndicate of Eternal Friendship. Trouble is my no good pals from the Twelfth Street Gang keep throwing pebbles at my window. They want me to come out and show them card tricks.

So, in an effort to quench their card trick ardor, I’ve agreed to post a post. And since I can’t think of anything much beyond the Syndicate of Eternal Friendship, here is a bit of casting for the movie version of the novel:

Kurt Cobain as Walrus

Walrus Pemmican (not his real name, of course) is an All-American kid, except he’s Canadian, from Salt Spring Island off the coast of Vancouver. His folks run a little resort up there, and he grew up teaching sailing and sea kayacking to the guests and lifeguarding for them during the summers. Gulf Islands Consolidated High School won the provincial basketball title both years Walrus played forward for them. When he was sixteen, he rebuilt a 1950 500cc Norton and roared up and down the logging roads of the island for something to do. After graduation, his folks sent him to his Dad’s alma mater, Reed College in Portland. He lasted two years before dropping out to thumb back and forth across America seeking the meaning of life. In November of 1964, he landed in San Francisco’s burgeoning Haight-Ashbury district, where he has lived for the last four months with a group of friends known to local freaks as The Syndicate of Eternal Friendship. When you’re 22, four months is plenty long enough to form eternal friendships.

How To Write A Novel Set In The 1920s

1) First, get in the mood by watching this terrific video by Aaron 12…

2) Now listen to a 1920s pop singer like the fabulous Ruth Etting, (she’s the clam’s garters) or the endearing, sweet and lovable Annette Hanshaw until you start to Get Hot!

Lovable and Sweet by Annette Hanshaw

When the music stops sounding quaint and you’re thinking “Hey, I want to go Leona Wilderson’s house party and dance the Charleston (Charleston?) all night with a red hot hopper!” then you’re getting there. You’re almost ready to write.

3) Memorize stories about how much fun your ancestors had in those glory days. Like here’s my Dad in 1924 with a few intimate friends…

and here he is on the way to a costume ball with his incomparable cousin, the reigning princess of Haight-Ashbury radio…the unforgettable…Miss Margaret Hancock.

Now, when your hot tamale is ridin’ the trolley, when your goose is on the loose, your cherry smashes have strawberry rashes and your cuddling cutie’s shouting Rootie Kazootie, start typing! You can’t miss.

Just The Facts, Please

Research for my novel-in progress The Syndicate of Eternal Friendship takes too long. You’re probably thinking I make up all this stuff, but I don’t. Even though I was there, it’s still a historical novel, and I have no idea what program came on after Beverly Hillbillies, what pre-hippie girls thought were hot styles in the spring of 1965, or how much hashish could fit in a carved-out book. I have to look it up.

When Paulie takes apart that old radio he’d better sound like he recognizes the gear inside and knows what it does, so I have to learn enough about old radios to snow you, gentle reader.

Research. Why bother? This is a story about three friends, not a documentary about the Sixties. But it has a few fantasy elements mixed in too, so I want the rest of the story to feel pretty realistic. Besides, it’s interesting and I think it gives a story more flavor.

So I just signed up for a course offered by my local community college called ‘Research For Writers’. I want learn some tricks to find this trivia faster. It’s an on-line course. I will never see the instructor or my fellow students. But it’s still pretty good. I’m learning already.

For instance, I found out that facts change. Funny, but I always figured a fact is a fact is a fact. If it can change then it isn’t really a fact. The composition of a water molecule is two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. That’s a fact. Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. Nothing can ever change it because that’s a fact.

But on the pre-course quiz – I got that answer wrong. The teacher says facts change. What is with this lady? Then I woke up thinking about it and I could see she was right.

I started making a list of facts that used to be true but are no longer:

You can get arrested in this country for drinking whiskey.
The Beatles are the number one pop group in the world.
Yugoslavia is a country in Europe.
Meet my girl friend, Martha Gobblesteen.

You get the picture. They all used to be true, except for the part about Martha. Interesting, huh? Or maybe you already knew that.