Kelly Dwyer

I've been in Scotland for a week now, living in Dalkeith House, which is a 17th century palace built upon a 12th century castle. It is amazing to be living in a place with so much history. Mary, Queen of Scots stayed here, as did Bonnie Prince Charlie and James IV, who was married here. The attic and top floor held quartered Polish soldiers during World War II. The house has been owned by the Buccleuch family for hundreds of years; the Duke has leased the house to the University of Wisconsin system since 1986, when the first study abroad students arrived, which is what brings me here: I am teaching two classes to undergraduate students, mostly from the UW-system: "Wish You Were Here: The Art and Craft of Travel Writing" and "British Ghost Stories: Landscape as Inspiration." My first class starts tomorrow, and I can't wait!

Yes, the house I'm staying in has its own wikipedia page!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalkeith_Palace

I had a difficult fall semester. I was hit by a car in August, and the attendant concussion made it difficult for me to read, write, think, and speak. Since I make my living by reading, writing, thinking, and speaking, this was a challenging and disturbing time for me, and I spent a few months not feeling at all like myself. My doctor prescribed preventive headache medication, and that, along with time, and rest, helped. By the end of December/early January, I was feeling more like myself again, and by the time the spring semester began again in early February, I was about 80% back to normal. I could speak well during classes. I could read on paper and on screens. I was even able to write a bit again, especially nonfiction/travel stories. And my headaches were just about gone.
On March 20th, I got a severe headache that has ebbed and flowed but has not yet left me completely, as of today, May 4th. I have seen my doctor, and am seeing a chiropractor, getting regular cranial massages, and staying away from the computer for long periods of time, all of which is helping, but is not "curing" my headache.
This is painful, and also, annoying. For a couple of years ago I was delighted to learn that my application to teach in the "Experience Scotland" program for University of Wisconsin-system students had been approved, and I would be teaching "Wish You Were Here: The Art & Craft of Travel Writing" and "Landscape as Inspiration: British Ghost Stories" outside Edinburgh this summer. I leave in about 10 days. I am getting so excited I can hardly sleep! But I am also worried that my headache will accompany me to Scotland.
I am hoping the fresh air will do me good. I have other hopes as well: I am hoping that I am able to share my passion for literature, for travel, for Scotland, and for writing with my students. I am hoping that I'll be able to write some travel stories myself. I am hoping that my students return home transformed, that their world is bigger than it was. I am hoping (knock on wood) that all of us are healthy, that we overcome whatever difficulties we face, and that we learn a lot and have a blast.
Whether or not you travel this summer (and will you? where to?), I wish the same for you!--that you learn a lot and have a blast. Isn't that what summer--and life--are all about?

"Did your Hogwarts acceptance letter get lost in the mail? Mine too. But not to worry, you can still experience all the magic of Harry Potter's world as long as you have a passport...and a few pounds."

Please check out myHarry Potter travel essay on IExplore!

http://www.iexplore.com/destinations/united-kingdom/Harry-Potter-Travel

I read most of Iowa friend Paul Lisicky's memoir The Narrow Door in a day. It's about his long friendship with the writer Denise Gess; Denise and Paul have an intense friendship that includes three hour-long phone calls and months without speaking at all. I am not giving anything away to say that Denise dies of cancer, and Paul is with her right at the end; her death is at the center of the book, which is written in the form of vignettes that move backward and forward in time (smoothly, in a way that is never confusing). And it is around the time of Denise's death that Paul and his husband of many years (16 years?) break up. This relationship and its end is also at the book's center. The book asks, and in many ways answers: How is friendship like and unlike a marriage? How is the death of a relationship like and unlike the death of a person? How do we move on?

Those two subjects--friendship and romantic relationship--are important to the book because they give it a structure, a forward motion, a center. But in some sense the subjects were less important to me than the way Paul observed and experienced and wrote about them. One of our professors at Iowa, James Alan McPherson, used to tell us that good fiction is the account of what it means to be alive. In The Narrow Door, Paul gives us that account; he tells us what it means to be alive, what it feels like to be inside another person's mind. And this mind is really interesting and compassionate and smart and poetic to be inside.

I felt nostalgic the whole time I was reading the memoir. I was friendly with many people in the Workshop, but why didn't I forge more really close friendships? Why did I lose touch with so many people I liked? Why didn't I realize that I would never again spend two years with 119 other writers: why didn't I take the opportunity to get to know my classmates better? Why didn't I become better friends with Paul, whom I always liked (everyone liked Paul; there was no way you could not like Paul!), but whom I did not really get to know until I read this memoir.

The two most important themes that hung above the novel for me were not death and loss--those were just ways to write about the most important things--which were the passing of time and the difficulty and joys in knowing and loving another person. Paul writes this about the end of his relationship with M:

To think that you can love someone so well that he'd forget the dead, forget his pain. To think of love as a laser beam of attention. To think that you could beam that attention toward him in such a way that he wouldn't even know you were doing it. To learn that your attention is doomed. Unwelcome, better having been put to other uses: helping the poor, working for the environment, for animals. To learn that you are only a pale winter sun, when you once thought you could have made the hillsides green. --page 203

I kept wondering, as I read, why don't we say what we are thinking and feeling to each other? Why do we put up these guards, these barriers, instead of just flaying out our insides and letting people have a peek inside? What are we afraid of? Or sometimes we try, but words fail us, so we listen to Joni Mitchell and read Walt Whitman, who approach our intentions and feelings. (Those voices sail throughout the book, moving in an out like repeated notes in a jazz variation...)

Maybe it is through friendship and love that we come closest to being ourselves out in the world, but maybe it is through writing that we can reveal ourselves even more truly and deeply. If so, then The Narrow Door is among the highest forms of self-expression possible: through this book, Paul Lisicky is able to give us his account of being human. It is a gift he gives to the memory of Denise, and of course, it is a gift he gives to the reader.

Dear Paul: Thank you.

My "Guide to Getting Boozy in Scotland" is up on iExplore!

http://www.iexplore.com/experiences/Culinary-Travel/boozy-in-scotland

In 2011, I spent the summer in Scotland living in Dalkeith Palace, outside Edinburgh, teaching "British Ghost Stories: Landscape as Inspiration," to University of Wisconsin students. During that time, I may have had a wee dram or two... This is my story about introducing yourself to "Scotland's National Drink" when you're in Scotland.

Please check it out, share it with your friends, and let me know what you think.

This is my first essay for www.iexplore.com, and I have to tell you, I am loving this site! There are great articles on just about every travel category you can imagine, and the site is interactive, in that you can "save" stories in "bucket lists" you create yourselves.

I don't know about you, but here in Baraboo, near Madison, Wisconsin, when I look out the window and see snow, my mind wanders to summer, and to me, summer means travel....

Luckily, this summer, I'm going back to Scotland to teach "British Ghost Stories..." and "Travel Writing." I will possibly try some Scotch whisky while I'm there...

Cheers!

It's the last day of 2015, and, like most people, I find this day a good time for reflection on the past and dreams for the year ahead. In terms of writing, this past year, I accomplished the following:

I wrote an essay for TueNight, that was picked up by Huffington Post, about how "Black Flag's Henry Rollins Helped Me Become the Coolest Girl in School." That was a fun piece, and I had many of my friends from San Pedro, California, contact me to tell me how well they remembered that day.
I had a short play produced at ActOne's "Fractured FairyTale Festival" in Sommerville, Massachusetts. My script, "Losing It," was one of 9 chosen out of 300 submissions, and the production was fantastic!
I wrote another short play about the Disney Princesses at middle age, "Bad Princesses, Bad Princesses, Whatcha Gonna Do?" which was performed locally at CAB (Creative Alliance of Baraboo) Theatre's production of "MaCABre."
I worked on my third novel. I was hoping to finish this round of revisions by November, but after my car accident in August (which left me dealing with brain fog and near daily headahces), that became impossible.

...which brings me to dreams for 2016. I hope to be well enough to:

Finish my novel and send it to my agent.
Write and publish more travel pieces.
Send out more of my flash fiction that I have sitting around on my computer files.
Finish my full-length play.
Write every day.

What are your proudest accomplishments of 2015? What do you hope to accomplish in 2016? Let me know in the comments--and happy New Year!

Every October a theatre company I'm involved in, CAB (Creative Alliance of Baraboo) Theatre, produces a night of short Halloween-themed plays written by local playwrights. The entries were due last spring. I knew I wanted to write about the Disney princesses again, and I liked the idea of Snow White and Cinderella handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, but I was having a hard time coming up with a conflict. My thirteen year-old daughter Alice suggested that maybe too many Elsas could come to the door, and immediately my wheels started turning. As I wrote, the theme song to "Cops" was playing in my head (not a wholly unusual occurrence, as it was my dad's favorite show, and so the theme song often plays in my head), and those two elements--Elsa and "Cops"--led to my short play, BAD PRINCESSES, BAD PRINCESSES, WHATCHAGONNA DO?

Last night it was performed in the theatre at the University of Wisconsin, Baraboo/Sauk County, to about sixty audience members, in a production that was free and open to the public. And what a thrill it was for me to see it acted out by two incredibly talented actors, Rachel Lizzardo-McPherson as Snow White and Iveta Petkova-Ball as Cinderellas. Plays are blueprints, and they must have strong storylines and interesting characters, but it is the actors and directors who truly bring them to life. I am so fortunate to have had Rachel and Iveta bring my characters to life, under the thoughtful direction of Rhonda Siebecker.

There were a half-dozen other funny and interesting and creepy plays performed last night. I found Scott Rawson's monologue "Children" riveting. Brian Riley's play about Frankenstein and Werewolf meeting on the subway was funny and thought-provoking, and Ben Bromley's play about Sherlock Holmes and the Missing Dipstick was hilarious.

But my play was my favorite. :) Thank you, Princesses! (I'm afraid I didn't quite capture "bad princess" as well as these two. That's why they're on stage.) I am not quite ready (after my accident) to write another play yet, but when I am (when I can think and write creatively, and when I don't get headache-y and nauseated after spending too much time writing or reading...), then, once again, you will be my muses!

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