Forum Transcripts

Internal Narrative: A Sprinkle of Salt 9/1/06

Event start time:

Fri Sep 01 19:05:05 2006

Event end time:

Fri Sep 01 20:32:16 2006



Legend:
Questions from the Audience are presented in red.
Answers by the Speaker are in black.
The Moderator's comments are in blue.

mary rosenblum

Hello all!

mary rosenblum

I hope you all had a good week!

mary rosenblum

I wasn't sure I was going to make it. We're having a lot of east wind and I had a power outage this morning...

mary rosenblum

fortunately they got the lights back on and the wind is finally dying down.

mary rosenblum

So we'll hope that I manage to make it through the next 90 minutes!

mary rosenblum

This is our After Hours Forum, with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about the balance of internal narrative and action here. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into the regular send bar if that works better for you

xana

All the hurricanes moved to the Pacific when I moved to FL

mary rosenblum

Ah, our east winds come from Idaho and eastern Oregon, Xana...no storm involved, just wind.

mary rosenblum

But LOTS of wind.

xana

Mexico is getting the storms

mary rosenblum

Surely you got some rain from Ernesto.

mary rosenblum

At least one of my students got pretty well pounded.

mary rosenblum

I wanted to talk about internal monologue versus action because long internal monologues are something I see a lot in novice manuscripts.

mary rosenblum

It's a quick and easy way to feed the reader backstory.

mary rosenblum

And it is indeed quick and easy.

mary rosenblum

But it has a price.

mary rosenblum

Everything has a price.

mary rosenblum

The price here is that the forward momentum of the story grinds to a halt.

mary rosenblum

It's still 'telling'. Yes the POV character is doing the telling, but telling it is.

mary rosenblum

And sometimes quite necessary....I am NOT saying don't do it.

mary rosenblum

What I am saying is that you need to minimize it, and work hard at revealing the information through dialogue and action if you possibly can.

mary rosenblum

Sometimes you have no other way to get that information to the reader, and that internal narrative is fine.

geezer

If it is minimized, how does one decrease distance?

mary rosenblum

Narrative distance you mean, geeze?

mary rosenblum

YOur narrative distance...the distance between the main character and where you have to be standing in the scene to see and hear everything that is going on...

mary rosenblum

will still be close to zero as long as you're filtering everything through your POV.

mary rosenblum

If every action and bit of description is described through the POV's senses, your narrative distance is zero.

mary rosenblum

We are located inside the POV character's head.

janecj333

I was just trying to distinguish between internal narrative and omniscient narrator, esp when I want to write a scene purposely with no pov.

mary rosenblum

Well, if you have no POV for a scene you have a lot of narrative distance.

mary rosenblum

If you're not telling us what is going on in character heads, but instead are simply describing action, then you are using a cinematic POV.

mary rosenblum

If you are dipping into character thoughts indiscriminately, then you're using omniscient POV.

andi

i have a character who came from the future and sees differences in somethings from where she came from. when she thinks of the future how do you write it.

mary rosenblum

Well, here you're going to need that internal narrative and a lot of it.

mary rosenblum

This is a story where, were it mine, I would try it as a first person piece...

mary rosenblum

and let the character comment all the time on how things compare to her future world.

andi

like you write past tense or future or what

mary rosenblum

Well, I suggest that past tense works best in fiction unless you're doing literary form...

mary rosenblum

and if she's thinking about how this present compares to the future world she came from...

mary rosenblum

you're not going to have any real tense change...other than she might refer to how things will be rather than are.

mary rosenblum

Internal narrative is a very powerful tool of characterization that offers insights into what a character is thinking.

mary rosenblum

YOu do not want to avoid it.

mary rosenblum

BUT...where it gets overused is when, say, a writer begins a story with the POV character...

mary rosenblum

driving somewhere and thinking about her past two years of life in excruciating details.

mary rosenblum

How often do you DO that?

mary rosenblum

Occasionally yeah. You might be sitting at your aunt's funeral and thinking about the family vacations you shared with her family...

mary rosenblum

but you have a reason to be reviewing those vacations in detail.

mary rosenblum

However it s not a good way to begin a short story. :-) It's not really a good way to begin a novel either.

mary rosenblum

This is our After Hours Forum, with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about the balance of internal narrative and action here. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into the regular send bar if that works better for you

info

Is it easier to have one mc to have the narrative going through or two? If two, how do you deal with the reader having to go between two mc's without getting frustrated and mad?

mary rosenblum

In short fiction, you will have a much stronger story, most of the time, if you stick with a single POV.

mary rosenblum

Every time your reader changes POV, that reader is distanced from the story until he/she reconnects with this new POV.

mary rosenblum

And if you do it too often, as you generally will in a short story, the reader can be eternally distanced from both characters.

mary rosenblum

In a novel, it is a very good idea if you can, to switch POVs at the chapter breaks.

mary rosenblum

But often, you can show the same information that your character is doggedly reviewing as action and dialogue.

mary rosenblum

Lets say that you currently have your character driving to Mom's house for Thanksgiving...

mary rosenblum

and you want the reader to know that she has been at college for two years now...

mary rosenblum

she is the only kid in the family to go to college...

mary rosenblum

and her father doesn't really approve of this.

mary rosenblum

She can be thinking about all this as she drives...which is kind of a slow start.

mary rosenblum

Or you can start with her knock on the door.

mary rosenblum

By the time mom gets done hugging her and complaining that she's skinny as a rail and they don't feed her right and her father...

mary rosenblum

makes a couple of acerbic comments about 'college kids' and her brother shocks her because he's grown a foot in the last two years...

mary rosenblum

we'll know everything she was going to 'think' to us.

mary rosenblum

So here, the internal narrative is not necessary. We can show the same info just as effectively.

mary rosenblum

But that is not always the case.

xana

Isn't there a risk of the dialogue sounding phony and stilted?

mary rosenblum

In what case, Xana?

xana

When a POV is describing a scene from the past to someone

mary rosenblum

Well, it will sound phony if that character has no real reason to be saying this to someone.

mary rosenblum

But at the aunt's funeral, for example, that nephew might not say a word.

mary rosenblum

He might be remembering the picnics, the time his cousin Errol put a frog in the potato salad and Aunt Gert threw him into the river.

mary rosenblum

and it's all in his head.

mary rosenblum

That's internal narrative.

mary rosenblum

He's not talking out loud.

xana

Exactly. You want the reader to know about this scene, but dialogue doesn't work.

mary rosenblum

Yep. That's when internal narrative is very necessary.

mary rosenblum

When it's just a 'lazy way out' as in our family reunion example, it weakens the story.

mary rosenblum

This is our After Hours Forum, with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about the balance of internal narrative and action here. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into the regular send bar if that works better for you

charie'

Isn't internal narrative mostly worry about possible future events or consequences of past events in the MC's present?

mary rosenblum

Sometimes not.

mary rosenblum

Sometimes it's a POV character's reaction to another character's actions or dialogue...

mary rosenblum

and if we don't understand that internal reaction, we might misinterpret that character's actions or dialogue.

mary rosenblum

For example, if one character says something, and our POV agrees, then we assume that the POV is really in agreement.

mary rosenblum

But if that character says something, our POV thinks 'he's lying' and then agrees...

mary rosenblum

we now know that he doesn't really agree at all. He's just saying that for whatever reason.

mary rosenblum

It adds character insight in this case.

megger

I've been using internal narrative for my MC reactions without another character present.

mary rosenblum

That's an excellent use for it.

mary rosenblum

Again...it's not that internal narrative is BAD...it's highly valuable when used in the right way...

mary rosenblum

but it can become 'telling' when used to replace action/dialogue.

charie'

I see. Many romances show the misinterpretation of another's dialogue creating tension between the MC's.

mary rosenblum

Yes, exactly.

mary rosenblum

As I recall...I'm not a big romance reader...internal narrative is used quite a bit there.

geezer

"Yes, Mom, she didn't mena it." It was a lie. She knew her sister very well.

mary rosenblum

Exactly, geeze.

mary rosenblum

This is our After Hours Forum, with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about the balance of internal narrative and action here. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into the regular send bar if that works better for you

grayalien

In my story, the MC is actually killed during a scene, and then brought back to life in the next scene. This necessitates a brief switch into cinematic third-person POV in order to hear and see the actions of the villians. Think I can pull this off?

mary rosenblum

Sure gray. I sure don't know any way you're going to be able to stay in his POV in that one! :-)

mary rosenblum

Remember 'rules' of writing are not inviolable engravings on stone tablets!

mary rosenblum

They simply tell you that 'this is the easiest way to do it'..

mary rosenblum

and you can break every rule out there ....as long as the story works.

mary rosenblum

That, of course, is the challenge.

mary rosenblum

You can switch out of his POV, gray, use cinematic POV so we see the scene, but we're not inside any other character's POV...

mary rosenblum

and slip back into his POV in the next scene when he's ressurected.

mary rosenblum

That shouldn't jolt readers too much.

xana

Ceteris paribus, it is harder to make th estory work if you break the rules

mary rosenblum

It is.

mary rosenblum

They've become 'rules' because they mostly work best this way...

mary rosenblum

but you CAN do otherwise. It's just a lot harder.

charie'

The narrative behind "What's wrong, dear?" and "Nothing." has infinite possiblities.

mary rosenblum

Oh yeah. :-)

mary rosenblum

But that's also one that can often be shown best by action.

mary rosenblum

Action is harder because you have to give readers enough clues that they figure out what you want 'em to figure out.

mary rosenblum

But if you CAN do it, then do it with action rather than internal narrative.

tory

Also a lot harder to sell our work when we're yet unpublixhed. :-)

mary rosenblum

Well, yes and no. The key is 'works'...

mary rosenblum

but yeah, if you're doing something that isn't usual, you'll get more rejection slips as you break in.

mary rosenblum

The publishing industry does like 'new voices'...

mary rosenblum

and they usually come into view through the short fiction and small press publishers...

mary rosenblum

But if they succeed they do come to the notice of the big fish. :-)

mary rosenblum

Where a lot of novice writers run into trouble is that they simply don't realize how much you can reveal..

mary rosenblum

through action and dialogue and how few clues readers need to jump to more or less the right conclusion.

mary rosenblum

Everyone wants to be really really sure that the reader 'gets it' when they start out.

mary rosenblum

Actually, a lovely example at my own expense...

mary rosenblum

is how much internal narrative I've been stripping out of my reedit of my first novel.

mary rosenblum

I didn't think I was using a lot at the time.

mary rosenblum

I'm using a WHOLE lot less now. :-)

mary rosenblum

That was my first novel, and like everyone else, I was working too hard to make sure the reader 'got it'.

mary rosenblum

Remember that in the real world...

mary rosenblum

we learn things mostly through our senses. :-)

mary rosenblum

The more you stick with the senses, reserving internal narrative for character insights when needed, rather than for backstory...

mary rosenblum

the more real your story will seem.

writermom

I'm struggling with a lot of dream sequences and internal monologue how much is too much

mary rosenblum

Dream sequences tend to be more effective when we and the sleeper 'live' the dream.

mary rosenblum

That is, you describe the action as if it is happening now to the sleeper, as if it is reality, rather than a dream.

writermom

the dreams are definately full of action

mary rosenblum

That's good. :-)

mary rosenblum

Then you're not really using internal narrative...rather you're doing something like a flashback.

mary rosenblum

Only instead of reliving the past, you're living the dream.

mary rosenblum

One of the reasons novice writers use that 'think about the past' start...

mary rosenblum

is a belief that the reader has to know everything before the story starts. Who this person is, where we are, how we have gotten here...and so forth.

mary rosenblum

And actually you don't need to set the stage at all.

mary rosenblum

You can drop your characters into an ongoing scene and weave in just enough clues...

mary rosenblum

taht your readers can keep their heads above water. :-) Then you start dropping in backstory details and slowly the entire picture emerges...

mary rosenblum

but the immediate action sucked the readers into the story.

xana

How do you handle backstory in a sequel when some, but not all, readers have read the first book?

mary rosenblum

That's tough, xana!

mary rosenblum

You do need to ground new readers, but you can't reinvent your main character...

mary rosenblum

or rehash history that your loyal readers know.

mary rosenblum

You have to invent scenes that will reveal enough backstory about your MC that new readers will have enough...

mary rosenblum

but not bore the loyals.

dwkav

For me, stories are like relationships and the fun part of new relationships is learning about the person over a period of time.

dwkav

If someone tells me his/her life story the first day, I run for the hills.

mary rosenblum

Well put, dwkav.

mary rosenblum

And that's exactly the issue with too much backstory right up front.

mary rosenblum

If Melinda drives up and she thinks about how her friend broke up her relationship with Jacob and ever since, all through her ...

mary rosenblum

college years away from home, she couldn't forget him, and even now, engaged to Robert, she still dreams of him...

mary rosenblum

and she pulls up into the front yard and Jacob is out watering the cows...

mary rosenblum

well we know most of what is going to happen over the next few chapters!

mary rosenblum

why bother to read on?

xana

Has anyone ever tried a Chapter Zero for readers who have not read the previous books?

mary rosenblum

Yes, some people do that, xana.

mary rosenblum

Marion Zimmer Bradly had a one page synopsis of her MC that she used in all of the novels featuring that person...

mary rosenblum

She said the regulars could just skip it. The new readers would be introduced to her.

mary rosenblum

It worked for her.

mary rosenblum

It always occured in the first scene and was an up-front expository lump. A narrative intrusion as she recounted the woman's history.

geezer

How would that differ from a prologue?

mary rosenblum

It was part of the first scene always, geeze, but I've seen it done as a prologue, too...

mary rosenblum

to catch up readers who haven't read books one and two, for example.

xana

It beats having to read the same background stuff over and over and over...

mary rosenblum

yeah, but you don't have to do that.

mary rosenblum

I had a mystery series with the same main character.

mary rosenblum

Drove me NUTS figuring out how to give enough backstory without boring the many loyal mystery readers...

mary rosenblum

who read all books in the series.

mary rosenblum

What I did was to give her something to do that revealed her profession and through dialogue, an encounter with someone, what have you...

mary rosenblum

reveal a bit about her backstory.

mary rosenblum

You didn't know as much about her as the regulars did, but you'd know enough to enjoy the story.

mary rosenblum

And the regulars didn't notice it as 'backstory insert here'.

mary rosenblum

At least none of them ever complained...and readers DO complain, believe me.

charie'

A page of vocabulary for a sci-fi story can give clues too.

mary rosenblum

That's something to REALLY avoid, charie.

mary rosenblum

It's an admission that you can't make the meaning of your words clear. And many many readers never look at it.

writermom

I've been reading the Left Behind series and they put the last few pages of the previous book in the new book to bring the reader up to speed

mary rosenblum

I haven't read the series, but it sounds as if one leads directly into the next. So that could work there.

info

Even if the regulars did recall reading it, don't they usually look at it as a reminder?

mary rosenblum

Oh yes, as long as it's woven into a scene that's going somewhere.

mary rosenblum

where you run into trouble is when you ONLY give the readers backstory and nothing much is moving the plot forward.

writermom

yes it does especially in the later books they also list the characters and their positions in the book

mary rosenblum

So this sounds like a 'slice of sausage' series, where it's really one loooong story. :-)

grayalien

I must comment on Cherie's question. Some authors DO insert a vocabulary page - this actually does work well for techo-thrillers that involve a lot of military jargon and/or technical acronyms

mary rosenblum

I know they do, gray.

mary rosenblum

I'

mary rosenblum

I'm just saying it's not a good idea.

mary rosenblum

You the author are supposed to make those words clear from context.

mary rosenblum

And even in a techo thriller you CAN do that.

mary rosenblum

You forget, I routinely create universes that are full of things that are totally invented. :-)

mary rosenblum

It just takes brain sweat is all.

charie'

If you made the words clear in book one, isn't it boring to have to make them clear in ALL the following books?

mary rosenblum

Well it shouldn't be boring to the reader, it should be invisible.

mary rosenblum

To YOU it's going to be work.

mary rosenblum

Writing is work. :-)

queenbee

Is it okay to change a assignment after sending initial idea

mary rosenblum

It has always been fine with me, queen. I want my students to send me whatever is working for them...and change is part of writing.

mary rosenblum

But I can't speak for your instructor.

mary rosenblum

If I"m your instructor, you're fine. :-)

mary rosenblum

I would send in the changed assignment and tell your instructor why you changed it. I don't think it will be an issue at all.

mary rosenblum

This is our After Hours Forum, with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about the balance of internal narrative and action here. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into the regular send bar if that works better for you

geezer

How about pronounciation though? How is that done without a Glossary?

mary rosenblum

Well, you can do that.

mary rosenblum

Some historical writers using unusual names include a pronunciation glossary.

mary rosenblum

(with Welsh you REALLY need it! Gallic, too!)

mary rosenblum

For made up names in SF, fantasy, etc, I really suggest you create names readers can pronounce.

andi

that was a good idea and i'm going to try it. but at the start page i have the woman falling off the cliff and going back in time. should i show who it is if i'm going to write first person. at the start i don't until the one chasing her yells her first name

mary rosenblum

If you're writing first person, she has no reason to think of her name unless you give her one. Just wait until someone yells her name. that's fine.

mary rosenblum

We don't need to know her name at all if we're falling through space with her! That's exciting enough! We're going to worry about where we're going to land, not who she is.

charie'

Use some internal narrative to react to the weird sound of the name.

mary rosenblum

That's a good way, Charie. Or let the character pronounce it, because obviously everyone mispronounces it.

mary rosenblum

"My name is Cer-id-i-wynn' Ceridwyn pronounced the syllables carefully

andi

i don't put her thoughts there

mary rosenblum

We don't need to know her name right away, andi.

mary rosenblum

Sometime in the first scene eventually is soon enough.

charie'

Can't she hear her name echoing as the last sound before everything goes haywire? "Marguerite!"

mary rosenblum

She could, but you'd have to be careful you didn't break the tension of falling...

mary rosenblum

Creating the sense of drama is always a delicate balancing act.

mary rosenblum

This is our After Hours Forum, with me, Mary Rosenblum, your web editor and we're talking about the balance of internal narrative and action here. I've published seven novels (number eight will be out in November) , more than 60 short stories, and will do my best to answer any questions you have. If you're new here, remember that you need to click on the 'Ask a Question' button or the 'word bubble' next to the red question mark at the top of the screen in order to ask a question. Your regular 'send' bar won't reach me! Or you can use /ask and type your question into the regular send bar if that works better for you

mary rosenblum

Do beware of using internal narrative in scenes of high drama.

mary rosenblum

If someone is fighting for his/her life, running from danger, struggling in a flooding rive...

mary rosenblum

river...

mary rosenblum

they're not likely to be doing a lot of coherent thinking.

mary rosenblum

Any time you use internal narrative it stops the forward momentum of the scene.

mary rosenblum

Now you can make it work by inserting it in very short snatches.

mary rosenblum

As someone runs from danger, they might think in short fragments of sentences.

mary rosenblum

And interspersed with vivid action it won't slow the scene down.

mary rosenblum

But a long stretch...several sentences worth...will drastically reduce the dramatic tension of the scene.

mary rosenblum

I love the fight scenes I've seen where Our Hero parries a thrust and then thinks about how grateful he is to his old master...

mary rosenblum

who took him in when he was eight and taught him sword craft and how he would never have survived...

mary rosenblum

this long without the old guy's tutelage. And by this time I'm rolling my eyes because his opponent has had time to cut off his head and go have a beer.

mary rosenblum

Editors love scenes like this. They pass them around to other editors. :-)

mary rosenblum

The main thing to remember about internal narrative is that it is a very powerful tool, but like salt, it's easy to over use it...

mary rosenblum

and when you do it can ruin the dish.

mary rosenblum

Do NOT use it to convey backstory.

mary rosenblum

Find a way to do that through action and dialogue and realize you can get away with a lot less backstory than you think you need.

mary rosenblum

But DO use it to give us valuable character insights...

mary rosenblum

that add a rich layer of meaning to the character's words or actions that would otherwise seem to mean something else.

mary rosenblum

Use it to add another layer to dialogue.

mary rosenblum

What your character says plus what she is thinking may add up to a very powerful bit of information.

mary rosenblum

And less is more.

mary rosenblum

Readers are very good at taking a clue or two and running with it.

mary rosenblum

Those readers really don't have to get everything right...

mary rosenblum

as long as they're more or less on the same page with you.

mary rosenblum

dim writer, I caught your question.

mary rosenblum

What did you mean by 'what if they're not the same thing'?

mary rosenblum

You mean the thought and the spoken dialogue?

mary rosenblum

Try typing /ask in your regular send bar.

mary rosenblum

And then type your question.

mary rosenblum

Okay...

mary rosenblum

that's when internal narrative is very necessary.

mary rosenblum

If your character says 'no' but is thinking 'yes' we know a lot more about what is going on...

mary rosenblum

than if we merely hear that 'no'.

mary rosenblum

For example,

mary rosenblum

One character might say 'Go to bed. Everything is just fine."

mary rosenblum

And our POV says 'Okay'. But she's thinking, 'It's far from all right."

mary rosenblum

So when she goes back to her room and immediately climbs out the window, we'll understand why.

mary rosenblum

She didn't believe the speaker.

mary rosenblum

She said one thing and thought the opposite.

xana

"Your casserole is delicious, Sarah," Steven said, reaching for the salt.

mary rosenblum

And that's a lovely example of using action instead of internal narrative.

mary rosenblum

Nice job, xana.

mary rosenblum

You could have done this: "Your casserole is delicious, Sarah,"

mary rosenblum

Steven said. It needs salt, he thought.

mary rosenblum

And that's much more clunky than reaching for the salt.

mary rosenblum

This is one of those times action is more effective than internal narrative.

mary rosenblum

Always try to use action first or dialogue.

mary rosenblum

And if you can't...then use the internal narrative.

xana

he hoped the meat in the casserole wasn't spoiled.

mary rosenblum

LOL

mary rosenblum

It tasted spoiled. He hoped he was wrong.

mary rosenblum

So internal narrative is salt for us writers.

mary rosenblum

A sprinkle makes all the difference between bland and delicious...

mary rosenblum

but too much and you can't eat it.

mary rosenblum

Don't use it for backstory.

mary rosenblum

Do use it to reveal character, but use action and dialogue first if you can.

charie'

But the salt won't help if the meat's spoiled. LOL.

mary rosenblum

True. :-)

mary rosenblum

And internal narrative sure won't fix everything!

mary rosenblum

Well, I hope you'll all join us Sunday evening for our casual chat.

mary rosenblum

I can tell you all about the World SF conference. I'm STILL tired!

mary rosenblum

We get together on Sundays about this time -- 5 pm Pacific, 6 Mt, 7 central, 8 east coast.

andi

at this time Sunday?

grayalien

Will you be there Sunday, Mary?

mary rosenblum

Yep I will.

mary rosenblum

I got home way too late, last Sunday.

mary rosenblum

A couple of small presses in SF are really taking off -- challenging the big names.

mary rosenblum

Got all kinds of good insights and saw lots of friends in the biz.

mary rosenblum

See you all on Sunday.

mary rosenblum

Have a fun holiday weekend!

mary rosenblum

I'll post the transcript in the usual place.

mary rosenblum

Writing Craft Forum Transcripts.

mary rosenblum