About Me

My photo
Maine&NY, United States
Ronna Lambiasi DeLoe is an author, writer, photographer, professional musician and NY attorney living in Maine and New York. She has an office in NY and is still actively doing appeals. She also play keys, synth & organ in a 7-piece band. Ms. DeLoe's poetry website provides custom poems or personalized poetry for every occasion. The new site is at: https://www.facebook.com/PoetandWriter/?fref=ts. Her photography website is: www.mainestreamphotography.com (live but under construction). Ms. DeLoe's first book of poetry is Serenity at Two Lights and Other Social Issues. It can be found on www.Amazon.com. Her children's book, Goodbye Monsters, can be found at: http://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Monsters-Ronna-Lambiasi-DeLoe/dp/1633810011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436384727&sr=8-1&keywords=ronna+lambiasi+deloe. Contact her at ronnadeloe@gmail.com and view her webpage at www.ronnalambiasideloe.com.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

WHEN WILL THIS STOP -- THE AFTERMATH OF AURORA, COLORADO: WRITERS' & MEDIA RESPONSIBILITY, GUN CONTROL & MENTAL ILLNESS

This post is being written in the aftermath of yet another mass murder in Colorado -- the theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado. For all intents and purposes, this could have been in your state, or your country, or your town.

As writers, we have a forum. People can either choose to read what we write or choose to not to, but we have a platform. We need to use that platform responsibly. Instead of writing about how wonderful life is -- not that there's anything wrong with that, but vary the topic occasionally -- write about what is wrong with the world and how we need to fix it.

I wrote a short story recently, which is not my usual form of writing. I usually write poetry or articles about anything and everything. I also write about legal topics and write legal briefs. In any event, the short story criticized the health care industry. It was tough, and it was meant to be. It was part of a contest, which I almost never enter, about America. I noticed that approximately 95% of the entrants wrote about the wonderful country we have, and I agree with that point of view. However, we were also allowed to write about the negative side, and only a handful of us did that. The winning entry was upbeat and painted a surreal portrait of an everyday Joe American helping to build a mosque. Not going to happen, even though it's nice to believe it might. I garnered a lot of compliments about my health care story and I was just happy that people were paying attention. Some of the compliments included words that said "bravo" for using this platform to inform people of a social "ill" -- yes, the health care industry is sick and it needs to be fixed and healed.

If we, as writers, do not seize upon the opportunity to write about social ills and problems, we are missing a huge chance to do something good and useful with our writing. It's great if you make people happy with your writing. It's another thing altogether if you get your readers to think. Let them think; let them be angry and let them sort things out. Let them even have a call to action to do something about your topic.

In that vein, let's use our writing to discuss the problem of violence in this society and instead of writing about violence for the sake of glorification, let's write about how it affects us as a nation or as a global community.

Mass media is also guilty, on a much larger scale, of ignoring real social ills. Instead of make movies about social issues such as health care or violence or poverty, movie makers are making movies that they believe people want to see, which is a problem in and of itself. More Batman movies mean more $$$. It also depicts violence for the sake of violence.

I am not blaming a movie for the tragic and senseless deaths of people in Colorado. What I'm saying is that instead of making Batman 49, why not make a movie that will appeal to the public as a good story, in a realistic setting, about the average American family who is doing everything they can to cope during hard economic times? Let's cater to a higher intelligence, not like what television is doing -- they're catering to C and D students and loving it all the way to the bank. But that has diminished the quality of programs on TV. You can have 500 channels and find nothing to watch because it's all garbage.

All media -- wake up! It's time to be responsible. If you want to have people who are in dire need of psychiatric care copy your villain, be careful! That goes for mystery writers too. Too many times a mystery is made gorier and gorier just for sales and glorification. People are reading your mystery or thriller. A good mystery doesn't have to mean "the gorier the better," nor does a good movie. Many good mystery writers use their mysteries as platforms for other subjects, such as violence, man's inhumanity to man, politics, etc.

Let's be responsible as writers and not waste the opportunities we are afforded to get our message out there. I love my poetry about nature, but my poetry about human suffering or the human condition has a much bigger impact on my audiences. It gets them thinking and maybe it may hit someone with the idea of acting upon what they've heard -- that is, acutally doing something about social issues.

Let's not lose our fifteen or more minutes of fame. Instead, let's send out tough, responsible messages, in an entertaining way --which can, of course, be done -- and let's make sure our writing actually means something. Fluff is nice. So is writing and making movies about nature, teen culture, etc. I'm also a photographer so trust me when I say I have nothing against nature. I'm a nature and landscape photographer. But my photos are one thing. My writing has, I believe, a higher purpose, and I'm going to see to it that I deliver.

I was asked recently to write about the topic of food. I wrote three poems on the subject. While one of them was funny, one was whimsical, the first poem I wrote was about the exorbitant amount of food found at a party or function and how it all goes to waste. I hoped, in the poem, that the excess food, which was a ridiculous amount, went to a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter. I complained about the gluttons who subsisted on such lavish affairs regularly and about those who provided such an abundance of food.

We need to take responsibility as writers, and the "keepers of all media" need to do the same. Enough is enough. Write about gun control. Make movies about gun control. Talk about random acts of violence. Write about it. Make movies about it without glorifying it.

As I told my brother, a psychologist, we need more psychologists, counselors and psychiatrists than we need white collar Wall Street-types. There are too many undiagnosed or unmedicated mentally ill people with whom we have to share this planet. Not a comforting thought. Okay. Now write about it; make a movie about it.

Amen. My prayers go to the fatally injured, the injured, and the families of these people. I will do my part to "keep it Green" as they say in AA -- let us never forget and let's take the next step and let's tell society all about it and what we can do to stop it.

Thanks for reading. Write on,

Ronna

Friday, July 6, 2012

Time to Write and Read Your Poetry or Prose

I've discovered something new about writing. It's about reading your work, whether it's poetry or prose. There are a lot of poetry readings in the State of Maine, and I'm excited about getting involved in the "poetry circuit." Whatever state you're in, if you write, why not get out there and make a name for yourself? I did a poetry reading last week and I really enjoyed it.

I had excellent advice given to me by a famous author, Gerry Boyle. If you want to read a great mystery, pick up one of his books from Barnes and Noble. Anyway, my family goes to see Gerry talk about and read his books every chance we get. Gerry advised me to take it slow -- read slowly, savor it and enjoy it. That's what I did. I didn't read it at a snail's pace -- someone else did and I won't mention what I thought of it. But I read it slow enough to be understood but not slow enough to make a performance piece of it. There's a big difference, and unless you're really great at doing performance pieces, I would suggest you don't do it! There was one woman who was indeed a perfomance artist and it showed -- she was great. Reading slowly without having the right presence is just not fun for the audience.

Anyway, the bottom line is this: Google literature events in your state, including poetry and prose readings and put your state in the search line. If you're lucky, there will be something within an hour of where you live, or maybe even closer. Take advantage of it. If you're planning on making a name for yourself, there's no better time than now.