English Exposure

Writing a book is an act of faith. Faith that your work has value. Trust that the work can touch someone's lives and hope the book will find its audience. You write for love and never for money. \nTo make the money so they can continue to do what they love, some writers turn to teaching. Professors Manuel Martinez and Jonathan Ames now balance the jobs of teaching students to create fiction and developing their own creations. Martinez says the payoff of writing fiction is receiving the letter saying the book is going to be published.\n"You feel ecstatic, a kind of euphoria. That's the real pay-off," he says. "When you get that letter you feel successful. Every writer writes to be understood, and the letter means someone has finally heard you."\nMartinez and Ames are just two IU writers who have been successful enough to get paid for the process they love. The New York Times Book Review has covered books by both writers in its pages. In the book review, reviewer David Murray praised Martinez for "convincingly" creating a fictional story around a true-life event. Reviewer Elise Harris has praised Ames for "an unusual ability to take crack-smoking, balding and Oedipal fixation and whip them up into an elegant comic meringue." \nFinding a publisher is just one step in a long process of writing, editing and waiting. When the process is done and the book hits the shelves the writer keeps going, beginning the cycle again and again.\nPortrait of the writer in the coffee shop\nYellow, purple and orange floors clash and complement the red and paisley booths of Soma coffee shop. Old posters of children dressed in '70s-era clothing demonstrating good health and safety habits advertise the merits of such advice as "Wash Carefully" and "Stay Neat" from the coffee shop's back wall.\nMen and women dressed in similarly diverse clothing relax on the couches at the front of the store. Magazines with titles such as New Age sit in a rack near the door and a giant plastic candy corn sits against a wall.\nA few minutes late, Ames, a professor of creative writing, enters the store and slams the door against the cold. Meeting at Soma was his idea and, as the bass and saxophone-heavy jazz continues to play over the speakers, Ames relaxes amid the eclectic atmosphere and further explains the inspirations for his four published books -- two novels, a memoir and a screenplay novelization.\n"I write about the agony and the ecstasy," Ames says. "About loneliness and love and sex and comedy. I write about screwballs and nuts and dreamers, who I like to put in comic and perverse situations. I guess that relates to real life -- all the people I like are nuts and lunatics, including myself."\nBecoming a writer was a childhood dream for Ames -- that is, after he stopped wanting to be a professional athlete. He didn't actually begin writing until high school. During his senior year, he wrote a novella and was able to sell it to a publisher who had him expand the work to a full-length novel.\nTo finish a project, Ames says his "life has to revolve around writing," although not in the 9 to 5 sense. He wakes up in the morning to write, takes a break and continues in the afternoon. He usually writes in silence.\n"I don't need a pretty window and I'm happy without much outside stimulation," he says. "I don't mind if the phone rings, although sometimes it sure rings too much."\nBoth of Ames' novels and his memoir were written in the first person because he likes to speak directly through the character. In the future, he's interested in exploring new territory by writing in the voice of a female narrator. \n"I thought about actually writing a book under a woman's name with a female narrator," he says. "I'd try to sell the book using my girlfriend's picture."\nAlthough that plan might be extreme, many of Ames' friends and acquaintances show up in his writing eventually. These real experiences and inspiration from other books play off each other to bring his stories together.\n"I want to somehow create the same effects of the way jazz music is played -- all the factors play off each other," he says.\n"I draw upon people I know but never in a way that is mean. The people are always somehow always shown admirably because I find that person fascinating. Most people get a kick out of it."\nAll of Ames' experiences are useful to him in the classroom. He tries to share with his students any experiences that can be helpful. Occasionally, he learns his lunatics, screwballs and dreamers have made an impact before a student walks into class.\n"I taught a course this summer and I asked the students why they signed up for the class. I was shocked and embarrassed when one student said she had read my books and thought I was one of the great writers in America."\nAnother interview, another late writer\nPacing the hallway of Ballantine Hall's fifth floor is an exercise in intimidation. Book reviews from amazon.com, The New York Times and others are taped on the doors of several closed offices. Cartoons, newspaper clippings and other papers bearing literary comments or criticism adorn the doors of a few others.\nDespite having a 2 p.m. appointment, Martinez's door is shut and his office is dark. Black and white postcards and a mini-poster for some type of opera are taped to the frosted windows. The hallway is quiet except for the pacing of a nervous reporter. Martinez, award-winning author of the book "Crossing," was supposed to arrive 15 minutes ago.\nSuddenly an additional pair of feet hurries down the hallway. All intimidation flies away as Martinez apologizes, smiles and opens up his office door. The office is somewhat in a state of disarray. Martinez is on leave, so the desk is clear of essays and other student papers. There is no computer in the room; only a crowded bookshelf. A poster of Cesar Chavez stares at the room from one wall.\nThis semester, Martinez is taking a break from teaching to work on his second book, tentatively titled "Drift." Finding ideas for his work come from anywhere and everywhere. People often come up to Martinez and share great ideas for a book.\n"I always tell them I've already got 10 ideas," he says. "You never run out of ideas. The problem is sitting down and writing about them. People think writing is this mystical process, that you're suddenly hit by the light or under the spell of a muse. What you really do is sit down every day and write."\nWhen he is writing something, Martinez sets up a rule for himself. He sits down and doesn't get up until a certain number of pages are completed. Martinez thinks this is what separates people who want to be writers from writers themselves.\n"It really is one percent inspiration and 99 percent discipline," he says. "You never really begin to be a writer until you begin writing pages and force yourself to do what it is you do."\nWhile "Crossing" was inspired by a true story, "Drift" is more closely mirrored on events in Martinez's own life. In the book, a boy runs away from home in order to deal with his unstable mother. Through themes of leaving home, loss and holding on to what is valuable, Martinez tells the story of what his life is and what it could have been.\n"You invent this persona of yourself," he says. "But the severity is different. This kid gets really involved in violence whereas I by the grace of God escaped any real damage."\nWorking with details of his own life give Martinez a chance to see how he became who he is today and how he still reacts to the events of his past.\n"One of the subconscious things that occurs is you write about feelings you think are in retrospect but when you re-read you find there are a lot of issues still unresolved," he says.\nSo far, Martinez has used his work to explore being a Chicano male. He thinks it is possible to write from another perspective but not without a purpose in mind. Perspective aside, Martinez touches his readers by writing his emotions.\n"You always write what you know," he says. "Although 'Crossing,' in some ways, had nothing to do with me, it's still ultimately about my own experience. I breathe life into the situation. Even if you're writing about something in science fiction, you still revolve the characters around who you are. What you know is central to the fiction. It dictates the action and the meaning."\nWhen the work pays off\nBefore a book hits the shelves for others to read, the writer gets a few finished copies in the mail. Martinez was in his office at IU when he got a package in the mail. He checked his mailbox and found a few copies of "Crossing." He was surrounded by friends from the IU faculty as he looked at the book and examined the cover for the first time.\n"I checked the mail and there it was in a little box," he says. "It was really bizarre. It feels almost surreal."\nWhen Ames received two copies of his first book via Federal Express, he says the most exciting part was to hold the book in his hands. \n"It was a wonderful moment," he says.