More than fifty authors have appeared so far on Open Book with Diana Page Jordan (also available on iTunes). Click either link and listen to your favorites from the shows on PDX.FM! And, please! Let me know your favorite guests! I’ve interviewed bestselling authors from Chuck Palahniuk and Chelsea Cain, to Deepak Chopra and Sylvia Browne. Who would you love to hear on my show?
Diana’s Audition for Oprah
Diana auditioned for her own talk show on the Oprah Network.
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The Hottest Writing Group in Portland!
The pressure is now on to produce. To write. To bring in pages. It’s a great and wonderful pressure. Akin to adrenaline.
Check out Jeff Baker’s fabulous story on Workshop – it’s where I go every Monday night:
Reliving Rape Because of A Brutal News Week
Brutal news week.
I used to draw down a wall between my life and the news. As I anchored the news, reading about others’ pain, I didn’t feel my own. I was inured from the intrusions of decades of sexual abuse. I could focus on WhoWhatWhenWhereWhyHow and script the stories, read my own words, tell the story. That’s over. It’s actually been over for a few years until I could finally break down that inviolate partition. I was healed. I thought.
But this was a brutal news week. Read the rest of this entry »
Gift Books for Martha Stewart Living Show – and For You!
We just wrapped. Betsy and Brian and I – on the Martha Stewart Living show. Asked to prepare a Gift Book segment, I have so many gorgeous, stimulating books that we didn’t get to them all. Hence, the list here!
I’ll begin with Non-Fiction…because that’s where we left off on the show. And, in fact, these are the most perfect of adult books. For the girlfriend with the snappy sense of humor, there’s Thx Thx Thx. For your friend with the warm heart, there’s Unlikely Friendships - about unusual, feel-good pairings, like the kitten and gorilla, and how they came to be. Two magnificent books about John F Kennedy – one, through Jackie’s own words. It’s an historical, first-person view we so seldom get – and it comes with 8 CD’s. Plus, there’s Chris Matthews’ stunningly different portrait of the president. Two of the most amazing books in my gift collection focus on cultural icons – one fantasy (Batman), one real (Marilyn Monroe). Although one might argue that Marilyn Monroe is fantasy, as well as Batman. Both books are evocative, magnificent art, and a complete treasure.
Adult Non-Fiction:
1. Thx Thx Thx: Thank Goodness for Everything by Leah Dieterich; Andrews McMeel
2. Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom by Jennifer Holland; Workman
3. Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F Kennedy by Caroline Kennedy; Hyperion AND Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero by Chris Matthews; Simon & Schuster
4. Marilyn Monroe: Metamorphosis by David Wills and Stephen Schmidt; HarperCollins
5. The Batman Files by Matthew Manning; Andrews McMee
Another great gift idea is calendars. And, Pomegranate is my favorite, especially an artist named Susan Seddon Boulet, whose work is mesmerizing – about Shaman and Goddesses. Another calendar is the Reading Woman Wall Calendar. Give it, along with one of the books on my list.
And here is the rest of the list – the highlights of our discussion on Martha Stewart Living – are The Third Gift for kids, The Hunger Games Trilogy for YA, Damned by my friend Chuck Palahniuk, and Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire.
Kids:
1. The Third Gift by Linda Sue Park; Clarion Books
2. The Happy Elf by Harry Connick, Jr w/CD; HarperCollins
3. Stars by Mary Lyn Ray and Marla Frazee; Simon & Schuster
4. Three Classic Children’s Stories – Drawings by Edward Gorey, Text by James Donnelly; Pomegranate
5. The Wizard of Oz: A Scanimation Book by Rufus butler Seder; Workman
YA:
1. The Hugo Movie Companion by Brian Selznick; Scholastic
2. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg; Houghton Mifflin
3. WonderStruck by Brian Selznick; Scholastic
4. Dearly Departed by Lia Habel; Del Rey
5. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins; Scholastic
Adult Fiction:
- The Christmas Wedding by James Patterson; Little, Brown
- Damned by Chuck Palahniuk; Doubleday
- 11 / 22 / 63 by Stephen King; Simon & Schuster
- The Exorcist: 40th Anniversary Edition by William Peter Blatty; HarperCollins
- Out of Oz: The Final Volume in the Wicked Years by Gregory Maguire; William Morrow
No secret that I love books. They saved my life when I was a kid. They led me outside the abusive world I lived in, to know that there was a greater beauty where I could live instead. What these books have in common – while they’re from all genres – is that connection with that greater gorgeousness. No coincidence that many of the books on my list were sparked by the authors’ insistent dreams.
Enjoy! And, feel free to comment on any of these books.
Love,
Diana
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My Week with Marilyn – Go. Enjoy.
I wasn’t sold at first. The gorgeous opening shot – with the title My Week with Marilyn – of a buxom blonde singing, dancing, seducing. The 23-year old man who would want her – and win her for a week – sat anonymously in the audience. Jaw dropped. Wanting Marilyn. When the film opened, I wanted the real Marilyn on screen, with that natural brilliance. The actress had the description down, but not that wise innocence. Not at first.
But as the film continued, Read the rest of this entry »
FOOTLOOSE – It’s Everyone’s Time
Footloose – the one with Kevin Bacon – was the first movie my older son ever saw. He was weeks old at the time. He smiled and laughed and bounced in the dark theatre. So did I.
The music – Footloose and Let’s Hear It For the Boys– kicked ass then, and it does now, along with the eight new songs on the soundtrack. That baby is now 27-years old, and, with a start in life like Footloose, you bet he can dance.
Suffice it to say I have fond memories of the original, but for someone who never sees a movie or reads a book twice, I am delighted with this remake. I’m easy – give me a fast pace, slices of humor interspersed with tragedy, and dance dance dance. I’m there. And, usually, memorizing the choreography so I can dance it when I get the soundtrack.
But I wanted more dance from this new Footloose. More singing. And, those red boots Ariel wore – oh, yeah, I wanted those, too.
I didn’t miss Kevin Bacon or Lori Singer – the maverick out-of-towner and the preacher’s daughter – from the earlier Footloose, because Kenny Womald as Ren McCormick and Julianne Hough as Ariel, dazzled and crackled. They demonstrated dimension even while dancing.
And I loved the conversion of Ren’s sidekick. Not talking religion here. Though, you may recall Footloose is about a big-city boy, Ren, who gets stuck in a small-town where a three-year ban is instituted by the preacher/councilman (Dennis Quaid in the 2011 film) after his only son is killed in a head-on after a booze-fueled dance. No, we’re talking about the conversion of a slow-talking Southerner to learn how to dance.
Sometimes I wanted Director Craig Brewer to hang onto the scene longer – and more singing and dancing – but, you know what? I would go see Footloose again. And, next time bring my firstborn son.
***
Actually, we just came back from Redbox, and noticed the old Footloose on the display.
He said we should see the new Footloose.
I said I did.
Without me? he asked.
Guess I’m going to see the new Footloose again.
Six Sizzling Summer Reads on Studio Six
While most of the nation swelters, we in the Pacific Northwest are still waiting for summer. I thought, well, hey, if I do a segment on KOIN Studio 6 on summer reads, then summer has to appear sometime. Soon. We hope. In any case, I’ve come up with six sizzling summer reads. Here’s the link to the show Studio 6 which aired Tuesday, July 19th.
Taking Time To Live
Funny thing about taking time to live. More stuff gets done. It’s like pulling your feet off the brakes, and putting them on your handlebars, like you did when you were a kid. And just rolling with it.
And, that process allows for magic. Hey, I’m a journalist, and I observe magic all the time.
I’m at the Oregon Coast. I can’t tell you the last time I broke away from my long list of to-do’s, and my sense of lacking money. Probably three weeks ago, I printed up my 375-page manuscript, pulled out a brand-new red pen to edit the crap out of it, and there it sat. Chelsea Cain, in Workshop, commented that I should just go somewhere where I’d never been, and bring the thing – not try to edit it at home, amid the dings, pings, and stacks of post-it notes with ideas, details, and things-I-must-do-now.
So, I put it out there. Much like a dandelion wish, where you blow, and it’s carried away.
I also, many months ago, wished for an all-expense paid trip to a sunny place, knowing that that would probably have to be a plane trip somewhere.
Well, guess what. 4am Friday morning, I’m on a list of people who gets an email from a friend who happens to have trade at a wonderful hotel on the Oregon coast. Lodging free, and more than enough script to cover my non-alcoholic, sweet-loving ways. She can’t use it. Use it or lose it, she wrote – who wants it? I put in. I got it.
I brought a small bag of clothes; my manuscript; and I remembered when I arrived, after a beautiful sunny drive, that if somehow I needed a bathing suit, I always carry one in my purse. Hey, you never know!
I stayed in flow. Didn’t fight the river. Didn’t set any alarm. Smiled a lot. Laughed even more. Said thank you thank you thank you all day long. Because today was bikini weather! Very warm and sunny, and I sat out on the deck overlooking the ocean, editing my manuscript all day long. Except for a couple of long walks at the ocean’s edge, in bare feet. Heaven. I finished the edits. My skin is sun-kissed. And, those post-it notes didn’t nag me one bit. Relaxing into one of the few sunny days I’ve ever experienced at the coast, it occurred to me that when you put those desires out there, and you don’t worry them, you just let them float aloft like a helium balloon, they get answered so creatively, you could never have imagined it this way.
Stunningly delightful. I love living. And, no, I’m not posting the picture of me in my bikini, editing out on the deck. I ate oysters, burgers, scallops, french fries, creme brulee – too much!
14 Rules for the Little Kid Inside You
For years, I hid it, never spoke about it. Until finally, it pushed up out of me like a beach ball you press down in the water – it pops out. Has to.
And, one day, the gift of that childhood trauma becomes apparent.
First, the damage and danger twists synapses, neural pathways, belief systems, trust, whom you love and who you run from. What does a four-and-a-half year old girl learn from being raped by her mother’s new husband? Handsome guy, her mother head over heels in love with him, her cutting the little girl’s real father out of every photo, changing the girl’s name, and silencing her when she tries to speak it. Mother, an alcoholic, suicidal, schizophrenic. Real father, gone, after the little girl reaches age six, because the stepfather beat him up and told him to never come back. She never saw her dad again.
Little girl escapes Read the rest of this entry »
Dan Millman, Peaceful Warrior
The Four Purposes of Life: Finding Meaning and Direction in a Changing World
By Dan Millman
PublishedApril 14, 2011 (Hardcover) H J Kramer
Dan Millman’s life looked spelled out. A trampoline artist, his next stop was the Olympics. But, weeks before he was to leave, another life plan intervened – Dan was in a motorcycle accident. And it shattered his leg in forty places.
The story is told in his Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and adapted into a feature film Peaceful Warrior, starring Nick Nolte. All that came before our first meeting, when I interviewed Dan about his book Everyday Enlightenment. It was a good ten years ago, but he remembered me, graciously saying that he had enjoyed that interview.
Despite the rain, Dan had walked to the studio where we met. The cameramen still fussing with lighting and gear, Dan and I sat on a bench, reconnecting. There was no hurry to Dan. No rush. Just as in his book The Four Purposes of Life, Dan lives in the moment. That’s the fourth purpose, by the way, a blend of the first three, living in the moment.
The first purpose is learning life’s lessons. Much like his motorcycle accident derailed his Olympic dreams, life often has grander plans for us. Dan is a teacher, sweet and humble, admits he doesn’t always get it right, but, well, that’s what life is for, it’s a classroom. Fortunately, it’s pass/fail, and we get to try again. Let me rephrase that – life will hit us again, harder each time, till we get the lesson. The second purpose is finding your career and your calling – which may not be the same thing! The third purpose is discovering your life path. You can find that on Dan’s website, it is akin to numerology. Mine is 35/8. The three is for expression, the five for freedom, and the eight pertains to recognition.
After editing, the interview will be posted on the Earth2World network – a new venture for me. It’s video – and I’m open to attracting the perfect sponsors for my show, Conquer the Odds: Pursuing Your Passion. After the interview, Dan signed my book “for my respected friend, media angel, Diana.” I may have blushed.
The main takeaway for me? Just enjoy life – whatever comes at you – and realize that it’s all on purpose. It’s a faith thing. One of my lessons.
Random Thoughts About Speaking
It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. And, this is, in part, an apology for not having checked in. I’ve been making my own art, and making a living. I’ve been interviewing and reading – just haven’t written here.
I decided to take tonight “off,” and not produce the 30-minute podcastor, not prep for my next appearance on KOIN-TV’s Studio 6, not rework the last two chapters of my memoir. Instead, my housemate, who is leading me into learning how to “play,” watched with me the Academy Award winning movie, The King’s Speech.
The film struck me deep. Read the rest of this entry »
Open Book Chapter 91: Larry Brooks
This week – April 12, 2011:
Want to learn how to write a book that publishers will buy and people will line up to read? Author Larry Brooks breaks it down for you in his book Story Engineering which he discusses with me on Open Book with Diana Page Jordan.
Open Book with Diana Page Jordan is a weekly interview and talk show broadcast on Cascadia.fm, focusing on interviews with best-selling authors, both local to Portland Oregon and national.
More Open Book Chapters:
