CP Spotlight: Codie Leonsch-Hartwig

C: Ok, to start, what is your drive in writing, (and in film writing especially), or whence your interest in the arts?

B: Oh my oh dear okay um...Well, the short answer is my drive comes from wanting to spare the people I know from having to listen to me talk all the myriad ideas I have marshaling themselves through my mind (ask Tamara). The real answer is I feel a great affection, really, in seeing words tumbled out and over each other and line up and build on each other to create meaning: create feelings, motivation, ideas, epiphanies, joy, courage, understanding, unity, all manner of things (sadly, words can create destructive feelings, ideas, motivations and all the rest of it, too, but I prefer to go for those that built-up and edify--I hope I succeed more often than I fail). And the more precision in this tumbling and lining and creating, the better, hence my current study of English Linguistics. Which leads to the aside that it is imperative that I not post articles on AC or on my own site at 2 and 3 AM. Ohmygosh. What a mistake to post at 3 AM. Better to be a day or two later with a posting than do one at 3 AM. (End of aside.)

As to film writing, that is a funny story, really, of happenstance and serendipity or, to put it differently, of propitious Providential provision. Fact one: I recently completed my long, long, long neglected BA degree but first needed one more class in Fine Arts. So I reluctantly took a History of Film class. I was surprised to find it interesting and challenging: It was hard to learn to think in a new vocabulary and within new analytical skills. And two instructors encouraged me to begin reviewing movies professionally (easier said than done). Fact Two: My son, temporarily home after four years in the US Coast Guard, started insisting on my watching movies (I've never been a big movie fan). Fact 3: Just before leaving to finish his BA in an art college, he brought home Master and Commander; I was mesmerized and wanted a place to publish a review of it.

That's when I started a publication in association with the University I was still attending. And once I started reading some of the many, many reviews that are written these days, I was surprised at the sheer quantity of individuals who misjudge movies, either making them worse than they in fact are or making them better than they in fact are, and some seeming determined to miss the meaning and value. After questioning random people at movies I went to see, I became convinced that very many people had the same notion of movies reviews: the are generally derogatory and generally miss the point. So my aim became to provide reviews that would aid individuals in picking movies that would truly add to their enjoyment, even though, for example, the plot was not wholly original. Later, when I opened my new Web site, that aim was changed to providing more objective reviews than can be found anywhere else based on intelligent and insightful analysis.

You know, visual, auditory, tactile, written stimuli are so powerful; we sometimes underestimate that power. For example, the Swing music of the Mills Brothers, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, with its upbeat, cheerful, optimism added to the underlying emotional fabric of Americans, and indeed to citizens of the whole world and because of that, can truly be called a force that was instrumental in helping to win World War II, as extreme as that may sound. There is much data to confirm that attitude and morale are critical in times of war, or even personal tragedy. About a year ago Dr. Peter D. Kramer published Against Depression in which he presents state of the art evidence linking certain stimuli with specific brain pathologies that result in depression. His conclusion is that we need to come to a new understanding of and definition of art, beauty and love. He made this call for a new way to think of and enjoy the arts--and love--because we have long underestimated the power of these stimuli. And, you know, it is a greatly rejuvenating stimuli to read masterfully written literature, like Spenser's Epithalamion or Muiopotmos or Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility or to listen to a chorale sing Kyrie Elaison or Si Cut Cervus. Thus, my interest in the arts is in their power to rebuild, restore, redirect, up-lift, encourage, energize, enthrall, enlighten and enliven.

B: When did your writing begin, and under what circumstances?

C: Originally? When I was 10 because "I want to be a writer!", but I gave that up because I couldn't think what to write: I wanted some form and structure and "Write whatever you want" just didn't help me any. Secondarily? When my children were babies, while they were taking their naps (except Tamara never would nap; she just stared wide-eyed at the world around her while pulling minute threads from her blanket with her little finger-tips). I was employed by a missionary corporation and was attempting to write Bible Studies, particularly of the Gospel of John, but, not having finished my college education (Big Mistake!) I couldn't make much progress past the difficulties of organization and confidence. Tertiarily? About a year ago. The professor of European Literature at my alma mater was always on about what a good thing it is for students to write romance novels to help support themselves during college and to lead into careers in literature. So I finally accepted the bait, looked up a few Web sites, found one with Christian imprints (Harlequin, the Steeple Hill series) and began my second novel (I withdrew the first from my agent because I decided I didn't want to start my career in the true-life story genre). This novel is now two-thirds or thee-quarters completed. At the same time, I also began and finished a children's story about a deer's misadventures prompted by the river wind, and it is called Tulip and the River Wind (inspired because I hit a deer with my car one night). Pending revision, I'll be looking for an agent for that story.

B: Tell me as much as you want about your family.

C: Not much to tell about my family. I have two cousins who are 10 and 12 years older than me and live in Los Angeles and Wisconsin. None of my aunts or uncles are still living. My mother's parents, people of significant social standing, immigrated to California in 1907 from the Volga, from a politically and religiously autonomous German community in Saratov. They had had seven children but only three survived and made the trip. My mother was the middle one of three more born in California, only two of whom survived, and so was a natural citizen, although she didn't learn to speak English until she started school at age seven. She was petite and beautiful and of delicate and refined deportment; my daughter is like her even to the naturally curly hair. Her greatest sorrow was that with the War and all, she never had the chance to go to university; she was brilliant and talented and would have been terrific at whatever she would have chosen to undertake--probably literature or philosophy. There is a surprisingly strong family resemblance going back to my great grandfather and his bride.

My father's father immigrated from Ireland in 1907, also, brining stories of Leprechauns with him. My father's mother says that the family line goes back to the Norman conquest of the British isles when some of the landed French incorporated themselves into Ireland; that would make a mix of Celtic and Gallic ancestry. His greatest regret was that he couldn't devote himself full-time to writing, although he did always have a column in his local San Diego newspaper.
And I have two wonderful children of my own, ages 30 and 28. And a lovely Maine Coon mix kitty named Jingle Bell, who is name in tribute to our former family kitty who was named Cozy and grew up with the children and always wore a collar with a jingling bell attached.

B: What are your favorite foods?

C: Spaghetti, stews, soups, lasagna, tacos, beef Wellington, Chicken Cordon Bleu, my mom's favorite: tomato sandwich with cucumber, avocado, salt and pepper, ice cream with whipped cream, Moo Goo Gai Pan, baked potato with sour cream and chives and a New York cut steak, barbecue sauce, chocolate fudge cake with chocolate fudge frosting and raspberry icing filling, lemon creme and chocolate creme and coconut creme pies, my World Famous apple pie from a 1952 Gourmet magazine recipe that my mom loved, tamales, duck ala orange, Peking Duck San Fransisco-style, French bread, French bread with garlic butter, and salads, Swiss sausages, Swiss-style salads, quiche, Raclette, and my world famous macaroni and cheese with white sauce, and can't forget chocolate. [[You're right. This is fun.]]

B: Where do you live and what is your favorite thing or quality or place in your home or region?

C: My two children and I all currently live in Maine: my son in Portland finishing his degree in graphic design after taking time off from studying to spend four years in the Coast Guard; my daughter temporarily here with me while she writes her first book after earning her Master of Theology degree. Though we're originally natives of California, we've been here for nine years. The thing that drew me to Maine and has thus far kept me here is the air: you can breathe in Maine--although it has an unusual frozen smell; the soil seems to have been depleted of all minerals somehow....

B: How and where will you celebrate Thanksgiving this year?

C: My daughter and I will probably spend it quietly together, unless she goes down to North Carolina to visit friends. My son usually works holidays--he's a cook at a 4star French restaurant. But it is possible he and his lovely girlfriend--who is Miss Portland, by the way--may manage to come up this year.

B: What are the advantages and disadvantages of AC in comparison with other publications?

C: Instant money and ready publication. There is no negotiation about a piece being accepted, fitting narrow guidelines, being suited to the current trends of a publication, waiting six weeks to be read. So even though the pay is really token payment, it is dependable and it is quickly received. Also publication is virtually guaranteed so the beginning professional writer has lots of opportunity to practice and polish up a professional style. I was surprised in June, when I started writing, to see how far from professional quality my writing was. I believe it is closer now, except for when I post articles at 3 AM, a practice which I have recently sworn off doing.

B: Name three of your favorite adjectives..

C: You know, I think I don't use pointedly use adjectives, so I can't say I have favorites. I tend to let the nouns and verbs speak for themselves, as they are inarguably eloquent when well chosen to express precise (adjective) meaning. My favorite tool is my dictionary. Here's a fun exercise: in a large dictionary, with many entries per page, on twenty pages, count all the words you actually use in speech or writing, then multiply that number by 100 to get an estimate of your working vocabulary.

B: What is your LEAST favorite genre?

C: Two are equally least favorite genres: Horror because of the horrific acts of violence in all categories that it lends itself to and cultural literature because it is so depressing and takes such liberties with sexual and violent metaphor. My least favorite devices (I suppose you would call them) are scenes of graphic physical brutality or sexual acts; these are part of what Dr. Peter D. Kramer identifies as creating cellular pathologies which produce the illness of depression. And, in my estimate, they spoil perfectly good stories. It is interesting to note that there is a small movement toward more veiled and suggestive presentation of these two categories of acts, for example in the movie I Spy, all we see are bullet holes and spiraling death-falls, but no blood and maiming and Maid in Manhattan the camera stays focused on the window as fully clothed Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes slip out of camera range: it is assuredly a small movement, but, still, a movement.

B: Who is someone you admire?

C: A solar physicist I happened to meet one summer. You know, we can pretty much know what is carried around in the minds of most people we meet: a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer, a priest. This is because we have some exposure to each of these fields all our lives. But a solar physicist...? What is it that is in a solar physicist's mind? I had no idea, and because this man intrigued me because of his incredibly piercing intellect--a mind trained to the highest degree--I had to know what was it that was in his mind from day to day. So I read solar and general quantum physics (and up to Proposition 13 of Newton's Principia). I never would have had enough confidence in my intellect to simply read physics for my own amusement or edification, but because I had an external motivation and an interesting question to answer, I did read physics; and it truly open a new understanding of the world to me. A good way to understand what I experienced is to read The Conscious Universe. Prior to my reading in solar and general quantum physics, I would have thought the book so much fantasy and wishful thinking. But after studying quantum physics, I see that there are deeper explanations to the our universe than many of us care to entertain. I owe this expansion of my abilities and vision to this solar physicist whom I met one day by chance.
Other people whom I greatly admire are Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jane Austen, Edmund Spenser, Geoffrey Chaucer, Goethe (even though these last ones are no longer living), Hillary Clinton, Madelaine Allbright.

B: thanks, --bobby

C:You're welcome, Karen.