Litcomm -- A New Genre?

I was reading The Sacramento Bee recently, which featured a piece on Roger McGuinn, the founding member of the folk-rock band The Byrds. I was interested in the story because McGuinn commented that the folk-music establishment in the '60s viewed the Byrds as little more than “barbarians at the gate” because they weren’t purists. McGuinn attributed the folk establishment's attitude to a “kind of snobbishness.” Which got me thinking that this is sometimes how writers of literary fiction view writers of commercial fiction. Which got me thinking about those of us who fall between those categories; who write commercial fiction with literary qualities. Which got me thinking we need a new category for this genre, and that we ought to call it Litcomm.

I Googled “litcomm” to see what was out there, and it appears the term is most often used as an abbreviation for “literary comments” or “liturgy committee” or “liturgical commission.” A search for “genre litcomm” brought up no hits (none!) while “genre litcom” brought up “literary community” and not much more. There was nothing anywhere about a market inhabited by the likes of Larry McMurtry, Pete Fromm, Ron Carlson, Dennis Lehane, and, well, me. (Why should boys have all the fun?)

And get this. Type in www.litcom.com and you’ll find that the domain name is parked, but available for $4,350. (Why stop there? Why not shoot for $5,000?) Oddly, www.litcomm.com has been purchased by a guy in Wappingers Falls, NY, though this name too is parked. Why? Is he a writer? And if not, what’s he’s going to do with it? Type in www.litcom.net however and you’ll see that it is a parking space reserved (gereserveered) for (voor) a Scandinavian company providing “services.” And then there’s www.litcom.org -- which is ahem, best left alone.

I’m curious about other writers’ feelings on this. Is anyone willing to share? Are you a litcomm writer, and if so, should we band together and form a group and maybe march on Washington? Or at the very least, New York City? Let publishers know we’ve got a voice and wish to be heard and that dammit our numbers are huge? Or are there only five of us, one of us unpublished? In the words of Scout Finch, “Shoot me a beet, Pete,” and let’s see where we go.

ReGeneration at Sundance

According to Wikipedia, the “ReGeneration” refers to people of all ages who share a common interest in renewable resources, recycling and other means of sustaining Earth’s natural environment. The prefix ‘Re’ in “Regeneration,” they say, could be interpreted to include environmental practices such as Re-using, Re-cycling, and Re-storing.

Jena Thompson, director of The Conservation Fund’s Go Zero climate initiative (and our first-born sweet pea), wrote from Sundance last weekend that the ReGeneration is “flexing its muscle” at the film festival this year, and that a “more integrated, more sustainable Sundance is emerging.” Here’s a quote from her blog:

“Green is growing – and so is giving back. Festival-goers can join film critics over a martini made with 360 Vodka, the ‘official spirit’ of the Sundance Film festival. The McCormick Distilling Company product is made from locally grown grain, packaged in 85 percent recycled glass with 100 percent recycled labels, and touts a reusable bottle cap that you can ship back for free to the manufacturers so it can be recycled.”

The Conservation Fund was helping festival visitors calculate their carbon footprints and restore native forests via a mobile Go Zero Carbon Kiosk.

Photo: Jena Thompson and Jeremy Meredith, Park City, Utah

Big Bunch of Laughing Coyotes

I was reading DRY RAIN STORIES by Pete Fromm, and had gotten almost through "Sage and Salt," when the protagonist hears the "lunatic yippings and laughings of coyotes" and then realizes he isn't hearing coyotes at all, but shouting and laughing, coming from a park.

About a week after our family moved onto Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in south Texas, Jena (who was 13 at the time), came busting into the house at dusk, complaining that a bunch of partiers were whooping it up at the Overlook, which had closed at sunset and was therefore off-limits to visitors. Steve stepped out of the house and walked down the dirt road to investigate, returning a few minutes later, smiling. Turned out the revelers weren’t trespassers at all, but a bunch of coyotes. We all laughed at that. We still recollect that story sometimes -- how funny it is that coyotes and humans sound so much alike.

Two More Fat Bears Added to the Mix

Maya and crew released two more male bear cubs in Lake Tahoe yesterday, traveling seven miles to an isolated spot, where Cal Fish and Game employees dug dens for the cubs. They tagged them with ear transmitters too, and will be tracking them regularly. This little guy’s head is on Maya’s lap. He’s already begun his snooze.

I Love a Bird with a Topknot

Just returned from south Florida, after spending a week with our daughter, Jena, and her fiance, Jeremy. Great fun – spectacular ocean view, excellent walks on the beach, and a bird I’ve not seen before. Steve got some good shots of royal terns, which are similar in appearance to Caspian terns. Adults have a black crest and head, yellow-orange bill, white body, and black legs. They eat mostly fish but also take marine invertebrates, including shrimp and squid. When they’re not feeding, they loaf on the beach, which is where we found this fellow, along with 30 of his buddies.

Fat Little Bear, Part 2

A couple of readers wrote yesterday to ask about Little Bear's den. (See Jan. 3 post.) Maya sent this picture (taken by Doug Updike), showing its enclosure. It's an igloo, much like the ones available at pet stores, with snow packed on top and hay and pine branches lining the interior floor. Maya is on the left, and Jeff Brown, station manager at UC Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station, is on the right. Little Bear is tucked inside and snoozing through the storm -- as I type this, wind and rain is raging in Northern California. Up to 10 feet of snow is predicted in the Sierra.

Fat Little Bear Tucked Into Bed

Our daughter, Maya, is a full-time student who also works part time for the California Department of Fish and Game. Yesterday, she and her boss (and a truck full of cohorts) drove to Truckee to begin preparations for the release of a bear cub, whose mother was hit by a car and killed. Those preparations included tranquilizing the little fellow (who actually weighs 80 pounds), then snuggling it into a hibernation den – a cozy villa lined with straw and pine boughs – in the hope it will sleep for the rest of the winter. It was tagged with a transmitter, so that biologists can track the bear’s progress when it wakes up.

The cub is the first of five that Fish and Game will return to the wild this winter.

Five Lessons for 2008

“Live your life so when the time comes for the funeral the preacher won’t have to bullshit the peoples.” – African drummer Baba Olatunji

“There’s nothing like getting arrested or winding up in the emergency room at Cedars to make you think you might not be a ‘social’ drinker.” – Ed Begley Jr., Actor

“A critic’s opinion can change. We can even make mistakes. Which is why readers shouldn’t take us too seriously.” – Richard Zoglin, Time magazine critic

“When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion. – Abraham Lincoln

“Believe in what you know to be true and be ready to fight for it.” – Nancy Grace, CNN Headline News anchor