When writers collide (and a FARB sighting)

I have to confess that I don’t know a lot about the Algonquin Round Table or the group of twenty-plus individuals who were part of it. (I still haven’t seen Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.) The first big names that come to mind if I think of the Round Table are Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, and Tallulah Bankhead. In fact, until a few minutes ago when I was researching Edna Ferber, I didn’t realize she was one of the Algonquin regulars. I know this is a gap in my literary history, but there’s just never enough time to catch up on the trillions of things I don’t know.

The reason I was researching Edna Ferber was because of my recent trip to New Orleans. I have no idea which of Ferber’s novels are remembered these days–if any–or which plays and musicals based on her books people know. I suspect Showboat and Giant would be the top two, if for no other reason than most people have heard the wonderful songs “Old Man River”* and “Can’t Help Loving That Man” from Showboat, and of course, Giant was James Dean’s last film and also featured Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.

*(Every time we cross over the Mississippi River, I prompt Tim to sing a bit of “Old Man River” for me. He always humors me, and I always laugh like it’s the first time, because I’m just goofy that way.)

When I think of Edna Ferber, one book and one movie prevail: Saratoga Trunk. When my sister and I were girls, having this movie show up on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon was like a big gift from the cosmos. We were spellbound by the love story between Clint (Gary Cooper) and Clio (Ingrid Bergman). It was a BIG MOVIE, with romance, intrigue, history, setting, and the heartstopping fear that this time, Clio might make the WRONG CHOICE and break our hearts.

The movie also gave me my first perceptions of a BIG CITY, one with…well, romance, intrigue, and history. That city was New Orleans, most particularly the French Quarter, and Clio’s trip to the French Market, where she and Clint lay eyes on each other for the first time, has forever fixed a certain image of New Orleans in my mind. Of course, today’s French Market is nothing like the one in the movie–which may have been totally inaccurate and built on a Hollywood lot for all I know–don’t tell me!! When I sit at Cafe Du Monde and look down the way, I can still visualize Clio, followed by her mysterious servants Angelique and Cupidon, as she sees, hears, tastes, and inhales the magic of this city she’s experiencing for the first time as an adult.

They say a good book makes a bad movie, but in this case I have to disagree. I love both versions of Saratoga Trunk, and when Marika first moved to New Orleans, I remember hoping that she was having a little of Clio’s experience of the city. When I got to meet her this past weekend, I saw that my hope had been realized. Marika is a person who has come home to a place she’s never lived. She’s learning her city and its inhabitants, and never was this more apparent than when we all sat around a couple of round tables of our own: one in Cafe Du Monde, the other next to the hotel pool. Marika may not be writing New Orleans yet, but she is surely articulating it in the most magical of ways for her new friends. Alas, I’m too honorable to steal her stories because one day I hope she’ll use them herself.

Marika also makes me think of the wonderful ways creative people nourish one another. Through Greg, she has met her literary mentor who will make her a stronger and more confident writer. That kind of symbiosis helped shape my own writing career, and I saw it mirrored so many times over the weekend.

Something has bothered me for a while, and I don’t know that I will ever fully address it anywhere, but I will mention it now. A couple of comments have been made here and there that Tim and I put our “friends” in our forthcoming anthology from Haworth, Moonlight and Roses: Men Romancing Men. That does a huge disservice to the writers, because their stories are gems that didn’t need any favoritism to find a home in the collection. It’s also an insult to Tim’s and my integrity. I would never publish a bad story as a favor to anyone. I might help a friend make a story better if I could, but I’ve got more respect for all writers as well as for myself than to let some kind of literary nepotism mandate my choices.

It’s also inaccurate, as I’ve only met five of the fourteen writers whose stories are in the collection. Some of us are developing friendships, but that’s been since their stories were accepted. The writers are people we either knew through their other published work, or their blogs, or we met them last year at Saints & Sinners. There was no open call for submissions because it was our first time out as editors, and we opted to make it as easy as we could on ourselves. I was writing not one but TWO novels while we were working on Moonlight and Roses. There was no way I could have read dozens of short stories to choose a handful, so we approached people or responded to people who had written to us in the past about their work. Some people who submitted didn’t get accepted. Some people hoped to submit work but didn’t have time. Some writers had to turn us down for various other reasons. And some had only previously published stories to offer us, and we wanted all new work.

As someone who has been writing for nearly ten years with people who are my friends, I have a keen grasp of how the personal and professional can merge. These days, apart from my writing partners, I like to think that the group of us who are getting to know and encourage and support one another artistically are like many creative groups–past, present, and future–who feed one another’s creative energies. We may not be the Round Table or the Violet Quill or the Bloomsbury Group, but the most alone of acts–artistic creation–doesn’t always have to be a lonely one.

From the parties to the panels to the rich moments with friends–thank you to everyone who made Saints & Sinners a place where my own flicker of creativity could be fanned into big fire. I’ll be reading you–and I hope you’ll be reading more of me.

Oh, and speaking of Cafe Du Monde? I think Tim mentioned that Famous Author Rob Byrnes was spotted there–moonlighting as a waiter! Even Famous Authors need a little extra cash now and then, I guess. A savvy, photo-snapping Saints & Sinners attendee was able to get a shot of him.