(00:00:00) Broadcast of the pen pals lecture series is supported by the bookcase on Lake Street in Wayzata announcing a book signing with Persian pickle Club author Sandra Dallas October 31st 7 p.m. Information at bookcase of (00:00:12) Wayzata.com six minutes past noon. Good afternoon. Welcome back to midday on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary. Eichten. Rebecca. Wells says it's time to get busy start writing it all down right now. It's your duty. She says Rebecca Wells has already done her duty. Of course. She's the award-winning author of divine secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood. The two million copies seller that tells the story of four lifelong friends in their provocative lives. It's prequel little altars everywhere has already sold nearly a million copies. Rebecca Wells is also an actress Storyteller playwright and currently writing a novel based on her solo play splittin hairs Rebecca Wells knows about writing and she discussed writing last month at the pen pals lecture series sponsored by the library Foundation of Hennepin County. She shared her rules for writing and tips on how to be a healthy writer somebody who keeps on writing despite the fear of criticism. And that little voice inside of you that says you just can't do it right here from Rebecca Wells today. (00:01:27) I'd like to talk to you a little bit about how I think about writing and give you some stories and don't be afraid to let your mind roam about your own creativity. When you think about these questions that are to come later (00:01:45) quote. (00:01:48) There are three basic rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately. No one knows what they (00:01:58) are. Somerset Mall (00:02:05) I used to think that writing was something done. Honestly only by people who lived in New (00:02:12) York (00:02:15) who had glamorous lives and who were invariably taller and thinner than I (00:02:21) was. (00:02:24) I have (00:02:24) learned. (00:02:28) That's not what writing. Is it all I've learned that writing involves giving yourself permission to think the thoughts you (00:02:39) think. (00:02:42) And then to write them down. Anyway, you (00:02:46) wish. (00:02:48) I'm learning that writing is about trusting my own mind my own heart and my own body. We right through the body and the more involved we keep from the neck down in our writing the More Alive it is I come to this from being trained as an actress. So this comes naturally for me. It also means it's exquisitely painful and cruel and usually cruel to have to sit still in that seat in front of a Commuter for so long. I never have understood how people did it now. I set a timer so that every 30 minutes I get up put on some music Boogie with my dog and then sit back down and invariably something has broken loose and I can go back and finish something that had me talked (00:03:45) before. (00:03:48) Writing is not about perfection. It's about learning to love the flaws and about learning. to Value how yeasty the imperfections are and how fertile they are for drama. Looking at the world like a writer (00:04:18) means (00:04:19) letting everything that's going on in front of you. (00:04:25) imprint upon you (00:04:29) as deeply and as completely as you can bear. Loving it and knowing that the moment is passing and it will never be here (00:04:41) again. (00:04:46) Looking at life like a writer is taking it all in and not judging how you feel about it. Virginia Woolf said far more difficult than the art of communicating Who You Are is the art of discovering Who You Are I know there are writers. Who very easily and graciously without one Shard of anxiety write their books. I just have never met (00:05:24) one. for me (00:05:30) writing can be pretty scary. Because you're always sitting down with a blank page. And being asked to face the part of yourself that says you don't have anything worth writing. That means a lot of anxiety comes up at least for me. And I'm beginning to think that the main Mark of character for a writer indeed perhaps for any person is not the level of their success, but how graciously and how gracefully they are in managing this (00:06:13) anxiety (00:06:16) being a healthy writer. Means learning to love yourself. I have a poster next to the computer in my study that my mother-in-law gave me and it has the following list written in very bright primary kindergarten colors. It's called How To Love Yourself. one Stop all (00:06:43) criticism. To (00:06:46) don't scare (00:06:47) yourself. (00:06:49) I have trouble with this one. So I've kind of cut a deal with myself where even though I can't stop telling myself the scary stories. I have to tell myself at least one. Happy Glory story for each scary gory story. So they got a little split screen focusrite scary story. Happy Glory story. And then sometimes it balances (00:07:15) out. For (00:07:18) be kind to your mind our minds are so mistreated. Especially by the outside world where we are exhorted to be exquisitely good consumers and believe wholeheartedly that only celebrities and professionals are creative and we have nothing to give so we must consume. I happen to believe the opposite and I think that's what this list is (00:07:41) about (00:07:42) five. Praise (00:07:44) yourself six support yourself (00:07:50) seven. Be willing to love the parts of yourself that humiliate yourself the (00:08:00) most. (00:08:04) That's what can make for some really good (00:08:07) writing (00:08:10) a take care of your body 9 do it (00:08:15) now. Now (00:08:21) I want to take you back to the early 60s and Central Louisiana on a hot summer night. It's the introduction to my novel little altars everywhere and it begins with the 40 year-old siddalee Walker and New York City remembering a moment from her (00:08:40) childhood? (00:08:45) It's called. Oh, oh my soul. Told my silly and (00:08:51) 1991. in my (00:08:57) dream I'm 5 years old again. And it's a summer night at our camp at Spring Creek mama and all us kids. Me little chef Baylor and Lulu around the bonfire Mama's best friends of Yaya's and the Petit has they're all there (00:09:23) to (00:09:26) and Mama goes inside and she puts Little Richard on the record player. Then she comes back takes my hand and says alright (00:09:39) silly. (00:09:41) Let's dance. Oh my soul Little Richard begins shouting out a warning for the weak of heart and Mama. She's shaking. She's boogying. She's joking. She is-- slapping her thighs and rolling her hips. Like I have never seen her done before baby baby baby, baby, baby. Don't you know that my love is true honey, honey, honey, honey, honey. Get up off of that money. Oh, that man sings nasty those horns blow nasty my body takes over and I'm moving sunburned legs Shuffle across the ground my head rolls around I turn in circles and I face my mama and I shake my shoulders and my hips faster than the human eye can see I shake so hard that freckles they fly off my face. Baby, baby, baby baby, baby bad. Don't you know my love's true honey, honey, honey, honey, honey, get up all that money. Oh my hair flies in my face. It flies in my mouth Mama Stomps the Earth with her feet and I can see her rich girl red toenails against the dirt. I laugh and I spend almost tumble over all the other kids. But when I do they help me up and I keep on dancing and Richard Little Richard He's the hottest thing in the Louisiana night sky, he hollers right down into my 4-foot frame. He Wales and horns blow. Oh those horns blow love love love love love. Oh my soul. Arms and legs have new lives are their own every single Part of Me dances in the 45 RPM. It just plays over and over and we are singing with Little Richard now, I'll hunt wear blue and saxophones. And if Daddy was to drive up right now in his pickup truck and see us dancing like this white women, you know, he would get upset and Yale, you know, he would but my daddy does not drive up and all the Yaya's and the rest of the kids. They're yelling and clapping for us over there yelling and hooting and clapping and (00:12:15) hollering. and I know and you can't tell me different something sweet. (00:12:26) Something strong (00:12:28) is shooting (00:12:30) up from the earth straight into my body making my limbs quiver making me crazy dance all over the place right there in my orange and white sun (00:12:40) suit (00:12:46) when I wake from my (00:12:47) dream. I'm laughing and my face is streaked with tears. (00:12:57) My body feels (00:12:58) relaxed good. And for just a minute. I swear I feel mom in the room feel her (00:13:11) Jergens lotion hands touching mine the way I used to when I was little and she said come here darling. I've rubbed on way too much. Let me give you some more (00:13:25) Strasse. (00:13:31) I roll over in my bed. And I'm 33 years older than in my dream. And I still want to hold Mama's hands. I'm crying and I'm laughing (00:13:50) and I still want my mother to come and take me in her arms. Thank (00:14:08) you. When I sit down to write a first draft of (00:14:17) something (00:14:19) I've found that the most important thing is for me to write fast and run fast away from the (00:14:29) sensor. (00:14:32) Do y'all know the (00:14:33) sensor? That (00:14:37) part of yourself. It's always standing on your left shoulder looking down saying you suck. Who do you think you are (00:14:54) anyway? (00:14:56) my (00:14:57) sensor comes from (00:14:59) Boston he wears a Tweed sports coat and has never sweated out a summer in (00:15:10) Louisiana. well (00:15:18) I know things that he does (00:15:20) not (00:15:23) and it's my job at the beginning of a writing adventure to outwit him. And write my first thoughts and feelings and those of my character without criticism. In later on when I get to revisions I unlock him from the closet. You know take off the shackles and to tell him I'm ready for his help. He's not really bad. You know, he just doesn't know his place. But we as writers have to know the sensors place and it's not in the early stages of creativity. In the early stages of writing. These are my rules (00:16:16) one. (00:16:17) Keep your hand moving. Don't lift it up off the page to don't cross out that's editing as you compose three. Don't worry about spelling punctuation grammar are staying within the lines. You can clean it all up later for (00:16:38) lose control (00:16:41) As what I mean lose control V don't think just let your hands right six go for the jugular. If something comes up that scary Dive In if you start crying fine, you start laughing fine. Sometimes writing can make you cry, but I have not heard of one (00:17:08) person. Yet (00:17:11) who has died from (00:17:14) crying? (00:17:18) So don't let it throw (00:17:19) you (00:17:21) in the same way that we all. Learn to live and grieve at the same time since we do not get out of this Vale of Tears without (00:17:32) suffering. We learn (00:17:36) to laugh and right to cry and right just keep going seven-time yourself start out by telling yourself. Okay. Now I'm going to write for 10 minutes without lifting my hand away from the page. Don't stop till 10 minutes are up. And as you develop you can stretch that time to 20 minutes add up to an hour up to 3, but giving yourself time compresses things and creates a good kind of pressure cooker to write fast and outdistance the (00:18:09) sensor. (00:18:12) I think of writing as a (00:18:15) practice. You're right, (00:18:20) whether you want to or not, it's like running our fitness walking are feeding your kids for that matter, you know, just sit around and wait for inspiration. I think I might cook (00:18:32) them. (00:18:33) supper tonight (00:18:39) It's your job. (00:18:41) You just do it. You don't give in to the voice that tells you not to write you instead give yourself full permission to write the worst garbage in the history of the world and then just watch it pour out. It's astounding how awful it can be. We as writers never have to feel like we don't know what to write (00:19:14) about. (00:19:16) If we look at the world with a writer's eyes, the topics are endless. I like to jot topics down in my notebook. Only cheap spiral notebooks. Not good Italian tool leather notebooks that friends. Give me and I am too terrified to ride in You might jot down pieces of conversations you over here recently in my local library. I heard a middle-aged woman in a blue parka say it's true that coax can give you cancer, but the man will not listen to me. Think there might be a story there. I might jot down memory flashes. My grandmother picking figs in the early morning the smell of Noxzema on a sunburn when I was six years old. The little scared pretty girl. I was in fourth grade and my Catholic uniform and saddle (00:20:26) oxfords. all those memories so rich for the mining, (00:20:34) you might just start with a list that says I remember (00:20:41) And watch as the memories just tumble out. (00:20:45) Pretty soon you find yourself moving from actual history about what you remember to that which you wish you could remember and once you create it and put it down you will remember it. You can create an entire lives on the page writing. Like singing like dancing is not something special that only a few people in our culture are allowed to do. Although it seems that way certainly when you look at their teeth. Perfectly straight perfectly why all of them? It's just astonishing you can find yourself thinking. Well, I can't write because of my teeth. And that's just the first reason. No. It's not only a right. It's our responsibility to write down what seems true to us to get closer to the flawed funny touching human midgets Souls that we all (00:22:08) are. so (00:22:15) here are some flawed funny human Souls embodied in for Yaya's. On another hot summer night in Louisiana, but this time many years before the bonfire. That's it was (00:22:31) apart of this back in the (00:22:33) 30s. And it's hot and it's a long anticipated evening for it is the night of the Divine (00:22:45) Yaya naming ceremony. (00:22:50) And Vivy Walker age eight is the self-appointed Mistress of Legend. (00:23:12) the secret history of the Louisiana Yaya (00:23:21) long before the white man arrived the mighty tribe of Yaya's. A band of women strong and bold and true and beautiful roamed the great state of, (00:23:41) Louisiana. (00:23:45) leopards slept with us And bears they fed us honey from their paws and fish. They just jumped up into our hands because they wanted to be our supper. (00:24:02) And the trees were so (00:24:05) thick back then that you could travel from New Orleans to Shreveport on (00:24:10) treetop. And so we did. hundreds of Louisiana Yaya's traveling on the tops of trees (00:24:27) our mother wears a black she a name of Lola. Who found us in a cave at the beginning of time and she raised us like her very own daughters. We loved her like a mother. Folks didn't fool with Lola and the (00:24:50) Yaya's. But (00:24:54) then hurricane bomb drop the hugest hurricane known to man came and ripped up all the trees out by the roots and turned all the streams into rivers and killed everybody including Lola her mother. In only the four of (00:25:18) us survived. In everywhere, we turned evil alligators tried to eat us. (00:25:29) And there was no place to hide because those alligators they could crawl from water to land and be just as mean and either place and we were starving so bad that our bones that were just sticking out our sides and we didn't sleep for 40 days and 40 nights. (00:25:47) And finally, (00:25:49) we were so weak. (00:25:52) At which is gay. And those evil alligators rejoiced and they crawled over to where we lay helpless. And they (00:26:08) crawl so (00:26:10) close that we could look (00:26:13) right into their ugly old (00:26:16) ass. and see the light of the Moon reflected and then (00:26:30) from behind the (00:26:31) moon came this gorgeous lady. She looked (00:26:37) down with her beautiful eyes and her long silver hair and she saw that we were just hanging by an eyelash over the canyon of Doom. And the moon lady shot hot Rays from her eyes. So so hot and mighty that those alligators were burned to a crisp right in there sleazy tracks. Those ugly Critters fried sunny-side up. Right there on the (00:27:17) road. fricassee and the moon lady said y'all are my Divine daughters (00:27:39) in whom I am well (00:27:42) pleased. (00:27:46) I shall always keep my Divine eyes peeled (00:27:52) out for y'all. Oui. Yaya's (00:28:06) had lost our jungle (00:28:08) home. (00:28:11) And our town does not realize that (00:28:14) we are royal. (00:28:19) But we know our history and we will be loyal to our (00:28:23) tribe. forever and ever (00:28:28) His sickness doesn't hail it's what was in the beginning is now and ever shall be (00:28:34) amen. the end Thank you. (00:28:54) Writing is a whole lifetime. I love to think about keeping my body healthy and my mind. Actually having the outrageous thought of being able to do my best writing in my (00:29:11) 90s. (00:29:13) I feel like a baby (00:29:14) writer. I feel That (00:29:24) maintaining a strong body and healthy mind is that the best thing I can do for my career? It's the best thing any of us can do for our crew creativity as we as we (00:29:35) gather as we (00:29:37) gather and experience (00:29:40) Joy playfulness suffering. Writing is not about perfection. It is about loving imperfection. (00:29:58) Our lives are at (00:29:59) once ordinary and mythical (00:30:05) the details of our (00:30:07) lives are worthy to be recorded. (00:30:14) The breathing of my cocker spaniel Lulu napping in her bed next to my desk (00:30:19) the sound of the washing machine downstairs (00:30:22) the light of the Douglas Firs outside my windows. the mustard colored rug beneath my feet (00:30:32) So this is (00:30:34) how I believe a rider looks at the (00:30:36) world. (00:30:39) Details are (00:30:41) worthy. We are here. This is how it is (00:30:51) for us on this fragile (00:30:53) planet spinning in space. (00:30:56) We have lived. Our moments are important. We will record them. We will note there (00:31:07) essential goodness. (00:31:10) We will proclaim a holy yes to the things around us and then we will tell about them and are telling will become essentially a political act because in a world of quick consuming we are watching with open eyes and caring deeply loving deeply the world we have been born into and then we are putting images into words. We are caressing the Divine details and listening to the sounds around us closely and not judging what we hear and that is what it is. Look at the world like a (00:31:50) writer. (00:31:55) one of the responsibilities of (00:31:56) literature is to wake people up. (00:32:03) To invite them to be (00:32:05) present. To be more Fully (00:32:08) Alive to themselves and (00:32:10) others in the world. (00:32:14) The world around us may not support us in our (00:32:18) writing. In fact, it probably won't. (00:32:24) But we just (00:32:24) keep opening our hearts wider (00:32:29) and wider and writing down what we know and we may not end up rich, but we will end up saying and laugh a lot and have friends who gather round and say, oh tell us a story. Give us a story. Come on. We need a good story right (00:32:44) now. So (00:32:51) One More Story before we leave each other (00:32:53) tonight (00:32:57) This is from divine secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood and occurs late in the book. Again, it's a memory of (00:33:05) sillies. (00:33:15) During the Summers of my Louisiana childhood my mother Vivie Abbott Walker. Was a goddess of the creek bank with her gang of (00:33:27) girlfriends the Yaya's (00:33:30) from their spots on the yellow Chenille picnic blanket. They were the pillars who held up the Pinewood Heavens. This is how the Yaya's used to be on a creek bank. They coat their bodies with a baby oil and iodine (00:33:47) mixture, (00:33:49) which they shook up in a big Johnson's baby oil bottle with a big pink screw on top. The mixture was Heavy reddish brown on almost blood like tent and they cut their faces their arms and legs and then take turns rubbing the solution on each other's backs and necks and all the while they would be doing this. They would be (00:34:17) laughing. (00:34:19) I could hear him from the water where I played with my brothers and my sister Lulu and the other Petty ideas as we kids were called I'd plunge into the creek and then I burst back up and I'd hear them still laughing. Karos chortle sounded like a grin doing a polka. Teensies giggle had a bio flavor as if somebody sprinkled Tabasco on it. Nice. He's he that sounded exactly the way that word is spelled. And Mama's head thrown back open throated Roar, which always made people turn around and stare at her when she laughed at the movie (00:35:06) theater. (00:35:10) The Yaya's laughed a lot when they were around each other they would get going and not be able to stop that laugh till big fat tears roll down their cheeks that laugh until one of them would accuse the others of making methi in my pants. I don't know what they left about. I only know that their laughter (00:35:39) was beautiful to hear and to witness. (00:35:47) And that it's something I wish I had more of in my life right now. I like to pride myself on doing many things better than my mother. But she was always better at giggling with her (00:36:04) girlfriends. At least twice (00:36:07) a summer mama would make one of us pretend to be drowning in Spring Creek so she could practice her rescue attempt. Mama learned how to rescue drowning people long for the four of us were born. She got recertified by the Red Cross every three years, but proclaimed it her responsibility to test herself every single summer. Well, we begged and screamed and fought to be the drowning victim. We loved that special attention. Basically, what you had to do was to swim to the deep end and then bob up and down in a panic flailing your arms and screaming like you were about to take your last breath before sinking. (00:36:58) Mama (00:37:00) would be up on the creek Bank as planned. She be wearing her shorts and Camp blouse over her swimsuit. And then as soon as she heard your screams, she raised her hands to her eyes to block the glare. Then she'd scan the Horizon like an Indian princess and Spa Chu even as she was searching she'd be ripping off her blouse and shorts and kicking off her tennis shoes, then she'd run to the edge of the creek and plunge into the water employing one of her famous shallow lifeguard Dives. At the sight of Mama's bleep, you could quiet down a little and watch her swim (00:37:45) fast and sure to the spot where you were drowning (00:37:51) when she reached you she'd shout failed more darling Fillmore. And so you flap your arms harder and kick and scream with increased Vigor and then (00:38:07) with great Assurance mama would hook her hand under your chin (00:38:12) lean your head back against her chest and begin the rescue using her Mighty inverted scissors kick to propel the two of you through the water and short little bursts. Once back on The Sandbar mama would lean over you with her ear to your chest. Then she'd reach into your mouth and feel around with her fingers to make sure there was nothing blocking your Airways. After that began the most dramatic component of the rescue. mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or mouth-to-mouth revivification as we all called it. This was the critical point of the rescue attempt. It could mean the difference between life and death Mama would clap your nostrils together put one hand on your chest. And begin to Breathe (00:39:22) Into You (00:39:24) she breathes and pump your chest with her Palm then breathe and pump again and breathe then pump again. Then when she was satisfied mama would stand up her hands on her hip her hair slicked back sleekly like a mermaid lifeguard unannounced with the proud smile. Oh, (00:39:51) You were almost a (00:39:53) ganna die. But now I think you just might make it. (00:40:16) here (00:40:19) in this cabin on the quenette Quinault peninsula 2,500 miles away from Louisiana and many years from my (00:40:28) childhood. If I close my eyes. and concentrate I can smell mama in the ayahs. (00:40:43) There's sense both individually and communally are more familiar to me than any character in any play I've ever acted or directed it is as though my own (00:40:57) body keeps the sense of the (00:41:00) yaya simmering on some back burner and then At the most unexpected moments. the aroma Rises up and it joins with the fragrance. Of my current life (00:41:21) to make this new old perfume (00:41:26) the soft Roma of old worn cotton from a linen chest. the lingering smell of tobacco on an angora sweater Jergens lotion saute green peppers and onions the sweet nutty smell of peanut butter and bananas the Oaken smell of good bourbon. Always the Oaken smell of good bourbon. A combination of lily-of-the-valley Cedar vanilla and Amber and somewhere the lingering scent of old tea rose. Mama Caro, (00:42:13) Teensy and Niecy (00:42:16) The faces I looked to to learn how to become a woman. Each one of them had their individual sense to be sure but what I'm talking about here is the gumbo of their sins their communal odor. Yeah. The internal vial of perfume I carry with me wherever I go. Mama's perfume was and I imagine still is a scent that was created for her by Claude have a the performing a on French on Front Street in the French Quarter when she was 17 years old. Is a sin that was softly shocking and deeply moving. A scent that Disturbed me and delighted me. It contained the aroma (00:43:09) of pears (00:43:13) vet Iver of Oris. I think a bit of violet and something else something spicy something almost biting and (00:43:22) exotic. Once the sent caught me (00:43:31) and the street in Greenwich Village. I had passed a clothing store on West 14th. The door was open. It was early spring and the unnamed mystery scent of Mama. (00:43:46) Drifted out across the air and entered me. (00:43:51) I stopped in my tracks and I looked around. Where was it coming from the shop the trees a (00:43:56) passerby? I couldn't tell. I didn't know. (00:44:05) I only know the smell made me cry. I stood on the sidewalk on the island of Manhattan 39 years old as people brushed by me and I (00:44:17) felt Suddenly, yeah. terribly open his if I were waiting for something (00:44:32) I live in an (00:44:34) ocean of smell. And the ocean is my mother. Thank you, Rebecca, Wells the award-winning best-selling author of divine secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood and little altars everywhere. She spoke last month at the pen pals lecture series sponsored by the library Foundation of Hennepin County after her talk. She took some questions from the audience the Q&A was moderated by Minnesota Public Radio producer and host Brian Newhouse to your list of advice to writers having grown up in the Upper Midwest my whole life. I would imagine you would say something like have the Good Fortune of being born in, (00:45:19) Louisiana. You have (00:45:22) stories. the intensity of which and the I'll say this in the best way the craziness of which in a sense don't exist up here. (00:45:43) Oh, I think you understand yourself. I suspect you have as my friends in the South Collett just as many dysfunction Junctions in this state as exist in the state of Louisiana. The flavor is different. The accent is different the food rhythms music is different. But the drama of we imperfect human souls and bodies on this Earth continues every morning that we choose to get out of the bed and there's even a lot of drama that happens when you decide to stay in bed. I think what writing is about is listening and watching with a none jaundiced eye. To capture the spirit of the place and the people who surround us wherever we're from. So I'd say I don't know I like the title Minnesota crazy that your next (00:47:08) book. You're obviously a busy successful person with many demands on your time. Why do you give talks like the one tonight? the question (00:47:24) I think I do it because writing is very isolating and I come from the theater, which is a collaborative art form. I write plays sometimes and yes, you write them in solitude like you do a novel but not really because it's soon as you have even the roughest architecture of the play down you're doing a staged reading with actors your with some lighting people. You're with a director you're with the collaboration of many different Souls. So I think I do it first of all to have that kind of communal experience that I am used to and long for now that my career has moved more into writing. I think I do it because I am an actress and there would just be some terribly unhealthy history Onyx around my house if I didn't have a chance to act I think those are the two main reasons in addition. When I am writing. I sometimes like to use Chances with an audience to try out the new material that I'm working on with little altars everywhere. That's very much how I edited that book. I would do readings. You name it Lander Wyoming Kodiak Alaska and I try out new stories, but I mean all the big spots. Okay, and I try out stories and I was invariably alone and I'd head back to the motel and I'd go. Oh that's a third time that line didn't work (00:49:10) who wrote this. (00:49:12) Because she's not getting it and invariably you find out as a performer body that if something doesn't get a laugh or if something doesn't get a certain kind of quiet feeling that something's landed on an audience. You don't read that (00:49:28) right (00:49:30) so that the actor part of me with an audience helps give me feedback as what I'm sure as to what I'm shaping as a writer. So I'd say those are the three main reasons (00:49:42) does your family still speak to you? (00:49:47) Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. My family is a very funny large lat and they definitely speak to me. My parents just got back from a cruise to the Mediterranean where they've just discovered gods and goddesses and mythology something. I never thought I'd see happen. I'm very close to my sibs. The thing that I miss the most about not living down there is really watching my sibs children grow up. I've really would love to to be there like every Tuesday and Thursday night to just hang with a nieces and nephews, you know, so yeah short list of author favorites (00:50:43) Oh boy. (00:50:49) I come from the theater as I've told you and I remain great fans of playwrights. I'm a great fan of the playwright August Wilson of the Irish. Playwright. Yes. August has a history here. Yeah, he lives in Seattle. Now. I'm a great fan of the Irish. Playwright Brian Friel. I stand in awe of the writing of the South African playwright Athol Fugard. I love Billy Collins poetry. I love Mark dodi's poetry. I love Mary Oliver's poetry. I probably when I'm riding read so much more poetry and creative nonfiction than I do fiction. When I'm kind of coasting and not writing is when I read fiction and I find that that I'm going back to pick up things that I may have read in college and was just too dumb and young to appreciate Anna Karenina for instance. I also love JD Salinger. I think that his short story Teddy and Nine Stories is just pure American English Zen. So I read him and reread him. I have read the southern writers and I Look to them and I realized that I stand on their shoulders. So those are a few thoughts on (00:52:36) them Rebecca Wells the award-winning best-selling author of divine secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood and little altars everywhere. She spoke last month at the pen pals lecture series sponsored by the library Foundation of Hennepin County. We should note that Scott turow who's been called by some the father of the legal thriller is going to be speaking tomorrow and Thursday as part of the pen pals series. That's it for midday today Gary eichten here. Thanks for tuning in. (00:53:05) Broadcast of the pen pals lecture series is supported by the bookcase on.