Q: How long did it take to finish Satan’s Chamber?

A: Satan’s Chamber takes place in Washington, DC, and Sudan. While we are both intimately familiar with the former location, the latter location called for a great deal of research. Sudan was once a patchwork of independent kingdoms. Its modern borders were arbitrarily defined by colonial invaders in the nineteenth century. The resulting geographical and cultural diversity has spelled political chaos ever since, especially after the discovery of oil further inflamed the volatile situation. At the same time, the ancient history of the region is rich and complex. It took us two and one half years to get to know this extraordinary land, then create the story that occurs there.

Q: What was the toughest part in writing your book?

A: Cross-country collaboration was our biggest challenge. Regular phone calls and constant email transmissions can’t compare to face to face discussion. (We had only four, fabulous day-long brainstorming sessions in those two and a half years.) Still the rewards of collaboration far outweighed the difficulties posed by distance. When it comes to figuring out the next plot twist, or the next layer in a character, again and again, two heads were better than one! And we both shared the same commitment to crafting a riveting story of survival, courage and redemption.

Q: How did you settle on the title Satan’s Chamber?

A: Satan’s Chamber is a metaphor for the geo-political circumstances mirrored in our story, soul-destroying circumstances dictated by ruthlessness and greed. To say more might give away too much of the story. Yet among those trapped in this hellish situation, there are those who fight back, survive, and pursue salvation for all.

Q: Is the National Identity Movement a real movement in Sudan?

A: The NIM is not a real movement, but the issue of national identity must be foremost in any plan to resolve the chaos of Sudan. Home to many tribes, languages, and ethnicities, the country has been at war with itself for three-quarters of its existence.

Q: Are Tory and Wilkins going to hook up?

A: The chemistry is certainly there. But they are both independent spirits, and we have to get further into our second Tory book before we will know for sure how their relationship will play out. Stay tuned — the next book promises to be an even more thrilling ride for Tory.

Q: Why did you decide to write TRUST: Short-Circuit the Hardwiring?
A: As a lawyer, I litigated a lot of employment disputes. In the process, I realized many complaints and grievances stemmed from a failure to integrate employment law and EEO diversity issues. When I retired, I decided to teach supervisors a more integrated approach that included building trust with employees–getting to know them better; understanding their diversity. The response from supervisors was overwhelming and they asked me to teach the class to their employees. Then participants also started saying, “You should write a book!” So here it is.

Q: Why does the title refer to “Short-Circuit the Hardwiring”?

A: Strangely enough, the worlds of neuroscience and psychology tell us that as human beings, we are “hardwired” to mishandle conflict in at least two important ways. We are biologically and psychologically “hardwired” to do all the wrong things when conflict arises!

Q: What is the difference between “Biological Hardwiring” and “Psychological Hardwiring?”

A: Using MRI technology researchers observed biological hardwiring when a person is challenged or attacked. In other words, his/her belief system might be questioned, or his/her standing in the group might be challenged. The rational brain shuts down! Its blood supply is reduced, and the most primitive portion of the brain, the portion that controls the fear response, takes over. The person responds with a mild “fight or flight” response that typically presents as aggressive behavior–sarcasm, ridicule abuse. The recipient of this behavior typically reacts in mild “fight or flight,” returning the sarcastic, ridiculing, or abusive behavior, or becomes silent or frozen. We’ve all witnessed this; we’ve all been a part of it. Few of us recognize what is happening. We think that this is the way arguments or conflict have to be. It seems perfectly natural, and it rarely dawns on us that there could be a different way of disagreeing with someone using our rational brain.

Psychological hardwiring is more complicated. Suffice it to say that I have borrowed a concept from the worlds of psychology and organizational development. Each of these fields has its own terminology for describing how we as humans take information in and process that information and then react to it. The concept teaches that our reaction to the event is not based on the event, but rather on the way one interprets the event.

I call this concept the “Story” process. It explains why people in conflict are so certain that the other person is wrong and they are right: their “Story” is telling them this at a deep subconscious level. The fact that we make “Stories” is also a key to turning conflict into a positive, relationship building, problem-solving moment – if we know how to use it correctly.

Q: Who is your intended audience for TRUST?

A: Originally, it was for supervisors in the workplace. However, readers are showing me that the trust-building skills in the book are useful for everyone – employees in the workplace; couples in disagreement; parents and teens in disagreement; neighbors in disagreement. You name it! Any two people in disagreement about anything can use the skills taught in TRUST to resolve the conflict, and turn the experience from a negative, relationship damaging moment to a positive, problem-solving, relationship-building moment.

Q: What is the most important lesson you would like your readers to learn after reading TRUST?

A: I want people to recognize that conflict does not have to be a powerful negative experience to be avoided at all costs–because the costs of avoidance are very high. Once they realize that, then, with the other tools in the book, they can begin to take charge of conflict and transform it to a positive, problem-solving, relationship-building experience.

Many readers enjoyed our Satan’s ChamberYouTube trailer, and now you can help us spread the word! Please go to YouTube athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZvxulpapkY, and share it with your friends on Facebook by clicking on the “share” button below the video (Once you click share, the web address pops into the square, then you are asked to write a comment, then click on Facebook, and voila! The link and your comment are on your page).

Molly is happy to announce that she has survived the nine-day Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive in Washington, DC, and come away inspired, her sleeve full of technical tricks she can’t wait to to deploy not only in her plays, but also in the sequel-in-progress to Satan’s Chamber. Theatre is a supremely collaborative art, and thus the daily workshops and discussions were led by theatre professionals of all sorts–Broadway playwrights, costume designers, directors, and dramaturgs.  A company of superb actors lent its talents as well.  The repeated theme of the conference echoed Fuze’s mission statement: how can we tell our stories as powerfully as possible?

The Playwriting Intensive selected 60 participants from 300 applications and was held in the Theatre Lab and rehearsal rooms of the Kennedy Center, along with a coffee shop across the street called Cup’a Cup’a, where Molly caught several sightings of a mouse-in-residence (not the computer kind).  There were on-the-spot writing exercises, and nightly homework assignments based on actors’ improvisations, stage directions, selected photos, and design challenges.  As a former professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, Molly called it “plebe summer for playwrights.”

Fuze is pleased to announce that Molly Best Tinsley has been accepted at the prestigious ten-day playwriting intensive at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Participants include university students, faculty and professionals from across the country.

Led by Gary Garrison, Executive Director for Creative Affairs, The Dramatists Guild, “the program consists of rigorous writing workshops and discussions of the art, craft and business of playwriting with the Program’s Director and a wide range of distinguished guest artists. Informal concert readings of participants’ work will be scheduled in the evening during the ten-day period.”

Molly will discuss her experiences in next week’s newsletter.

Fuze intern Jenny Dunnington crafted our Satan’s Chamber trailer that is posted on both YouTube and the Fuze website. James MacIndoe narrates the exciting description of the story. If you haven’t read Satan’s Chamber yet we think you will after you view this video! Please take a look.

The Satan’s Chamber trailer:

Planning your fall book club list?  Kick your book club experience up a notch with one author–or two! For Satan’s Chamber, both Molly and Karetta are available to speak personally with book clubs in the Pacific Northwest and Mid-Atlantic region. Want Molly and Karetta to visit your book club, but don’t live anywhere near Washington, DC or Oregon? It’s still possible! Both co-authors are available to attend meetings via Skype.

Interested in learning about The Gift of El Tio? Larry Buchanan and Karen Gans are also available to visit your book club in the Pacific Northwest or by Skype anywhere in the country.  Emailfuzepublishing@gmail.com for more details.

Publishers Weekly reports (May 24, 2010) that ebook sales continue to expand, far outstripping the increase in trade paper book sales (23.5%) in the first quarter of 2010.   In fact, ebook sales rose nearly 252% in the first quarter of 2010, to $91 million.  Clearly ebook gains were the largest in the industry for the quarter, boding well for the future of ebooks.

MAKING A SCENE – When and How

The ability to summarize comes in handy when a writer needs to move quickly over an unimportant expanse of time.  But summary can’t do justice to the crucial hotspots, those epicenters of tension when an old pattern is disturbed, a conflict surfaces, and/or something changes.

“She moved to Houston, and I didn’t see her or hear a word from her for ten years.”  That’s summary.  But when the narrator does meet up with “her” again after that long disappearance, the reader will expect more than, “I felt chilly toward her at first, but after a while I decided to let bygones be bygones.”  This event cries out for a fully developed scene, from first glimpse, through awkward conversation with hostile undertones, to blurted accusations, to tears or laughter.  Notice that with summary, years are made to pass for the reader in less than a second, whereas scenes often take as much time to read as they might to unfold in real life.  That’s because when we write a scene, we come down and ground ourselves in the world we’re creating.  We live it minute by minute with our five senses.

To begin making a scene, imagine yourself with a video camera and pan your remembered or imagined location—the layout and décor of a room, the buildings on a street, the weather.  Record the concrete details.  Place your characters on your “set” and get them speaking and reacting to each other’s words.  This process involves venturing guesses as to what they might say and building on them.  It’s a little like brainstorming—you accept uncritically whatever comes.  You write much more than you will finally use as you prod each character to reveal what s/he wants and how s/he’s going to get it.

Try writing in the present tense.  It may make it easier for you to stay inside the world you are creating.  It may help you let go of outcomes and be receptive to all the surprises in store.

Next time:  some principles of dialogue.

Why did you decide to write the book about your experiences in Bolivia?

LB: Karen and I view the world differently.  Where she saw a picturesque village, I saw only poverty.  Where she saw spirituality and ancient customs, I saw a belief system that kept the people poor.  She was horrified that a mine would be built, leading to the destruction of the village; I was proud that I could make new wealth for the world and provide well-paying jobs for people who had never had more than two nickels to rub together.   As you may imagine, our differences led to heated arguments and many a cold night on the couch, so to resolve our differences, Karen demanded that we live in the village to find out the truth.   I figured she would last a couple of weeks then beg to go home, but she was so much stronger than I had assumed.  The book is the result of that ten-year experience, documenting how neither Karen’s nor my views of the world were correct.

KG: I was horrified when my husband, an exploration geologist, told me that a remote Quechua village would have to be moved because it sat upon a silver deposit he discovered.  Usually exploration geologists have nothing more to do with their discovery; their job is to find the ore and then move on to explore other areas.  I felt that if the town were to be moved, we had a moral responsibility  not to leave, but to follow the people over time and document their changes. I also felt that my husband and I were examples of the liberal-conservative polarization so common in the United States, and a book reflecting our own growth might be helpful to others. We learned to accept that there is truth on both sides.

How did you decide on the title?

KG: The Gift of El Tio is a natural title for our story because the villagers referred to the silver as el regalo de El Tio, a gift from El Tio, who is the god of the underground.

LB: This is the phrase that time and again people out in the bush used when describing our discovery of this gift from their most angry, dangerous, and hungry god.

Who is your intended audience for this book?

KG: We believe this book will appeal to anyone who loves travel and anyone who has an interest in cultural anthropology, geology and mining, education and/or economic development of third world countries.

LB: Our book shows clearly that resistance to economic development in the third-world is not a final answer, while at the same time change in such poor communities isn’t always for the better.   If people can read The Gift of El Tio and appreciate how our polarized views on development are culturally myopic, then the effort we took to write it will be well worthwhile.

What would you most like for the reader to remember?

KG: Often we think we know what is best for another country, but economic development of third world countries is very complicated.  Each situation is unique and requires careful study and an open mind.

LB: A community without change is one that is slowly dying. But even though change is necessary for life to grow and expand, nobody ever said it is pleasant.

What was the most important lesson(s) you learned from this experience?

KG: a. I had very strong, biased opinions regarding mining and development in third world countries before I even visited Bolivia.  Once I lived there, I acquired a different perspective – one which allowed me to see that reality may not be black or white, good or bad.   International companies do not just go in and rape the land (at least not the company Larry was working for). They are required by international law and the loans from world banks to follow environmental laws and to protect anthropologically, archeologically, and historically significant aspects of a town they will destroy.  This particular company received recognition for its socially conscious endeavors. They offered priority jobs and training so that the majority of the town had some kind of work.  They also provided seed money for the development of businesses and other money-making ventures, so that once the mine closes, the people won’t be reduced to poverty again.

b. People all over the world deserve opportunities to escape poverty, though I wish those presenting the opportunities would also educate the people as to possible outcomes of development, such as the loss of culture and customs. I think we’re seeing a lot of evidence of culture loss because people work twelve hours a day and because the mine can’t shut down, certain celebrations and rituals can’t take place.

c. That even staunch conservatives like my husband can change – and I love him for it!

LB: Two lessons:

a. Never again will I sneer at what I used to call “primitive myths” or “irrational spirituality,” as I found out that such beliefs are critical to the survival of remote, isolated communities.

b. Karen is one tough human being.