Writing Out Loud: A Guest Post by Cheryl Wilder

My guest today is Cheryl Wilder, author of Anything That Happens, published in March of 2021.  This debut poetry collection tells the story of what happens after a terrible accident that puts her friend in a coma and twenty-year-old Cheryl in jail. 

In this exclusive guest post, Cheryl shares a technique that helps her to write poetry, as well as tips that help her to read her poetry to others with confidence.  This post may boost your own writing and speaking abilities--enjoy! 

 

  

Writing Out Loud: A Guest Post by Cheryl Wilder

 

Writing Out Loud 

as Revision

One piece of advice given to me over the years has been to read my work-in-progress out loud. It’s a revision tool in the writers’ toolbox. At first, I was shy to read out loud to myself.  It’s one thing to construct a poem on paper: decide on stanzas, fret over line breaks, stare at commas. It’s another to hear a poem–my thoughts and emotions–outside my head. Now, reading aloud is integral to my writing process. (I even read my full collection out loud several times before submitting the final draft.) The advice to read out loud during revision is for all poets, whether they write narrative, dramatic, or lyric poems. I primarily write lyric poetry–short, subjective, personal, and song-like. The lyric form helps lighten heavy themes, allows the reader to catch a breath in the white space.  Rhythm adds to the texture of the content, provides another layer of enjoyment.  I want a poem to roll out of the mouth or jar the reader in the right places. To get there, I rely as much on my ear as anything else.  Reading aloud helps me hear what isn’t working rhythmically.  Reading out loud also helps me refine syntax.  As a poet, I rely on images.  Images come first, and then the structure.  I work to blend imagery with syntax.  Saying what I mean in a way that sounds how I want is imperative to the integrity of a poem. But, the poem also needs to make sense. When I read aloud, I walk around my office or, when the house is bustling, the master bathroom. I have paper and pencil in hand and stop to make notes as needed. It requires privacy and quiet. Why do I walk around? It could be that I’m stretching my legs after sitting at the computer.  Maybe it’s more like pacing around the room. But honestly, it’s not a conscious act, so I don’t know.  Once I start reading, I start moving.

as Oration

Practice and preparation are effective ways to become comfortable reading in front of others. But it’s not easy for a lot of people to get started, myself included.  Spending a lot of time alone with my poems felt counter-intuitive to reading them in public to strangers. It felt like sharing my diary.  To help with stage fright, I took two speech classes in college. I practiced at home alone.  When there was a chance to read at an open mic, I took it. I chipped away at my fear over many years.  What’s helped me the most: Reading out loud to revise. Not only does it provide practice, I know the poems backward and forward. Where they once tripped up my tongue and how they taught me to express my heaviest emotions. I’ve learned, with the practice of reading aloud and crying alone in my office, to find the right words. Words that connect me to the poem and, I believe, the poem to readers. When I read in public now, I use emotion to propel my oration–the tears in the rhythm and syntax. No matter how many people are listening, it’s just me and the poem, like it’s always been.

Video link:
Cheryl Wilder reads "Xing" from Anything That Happens

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Since poetry is often read out loud, reading it out loud during the writing process seems like a great idea.  In addition to conveying the intended meaning, how does the work-in-progress sound?  Like music, poetry is an auditory medium, so sound is quite important, especially poetry that's read later to an audience. Many of us dread speaking in front of a group (can I get a witness?), but according to Cheryl ample practice and preparation can help.  

While I read this collection of poems, I felt the poet's pain about the accident acutely.  These heartbreaking, heartfelt poems are poignant and piercing.  They explore many lasting emotions including guilt, suffering, and regret.  These poems tell a difficult story and pose difficult questions. Moving and artistic, Anything That Happens expresses the poet's vulnerability, honesty, and bravery.

 

Many thanks to Cheryl for this guest post, and to Kevin from Press 53 for sending me a copy of the book.  Special thanks to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for inviting me to participate in this tour.  For more reviews of Anything That Happens and other features, please visit the other stops on the tour. 

Thank you for reading! Your comments are welcomed, as always. 

Finding Magic: A Guest Post by Kathy Davis

Please extend a warm welcome to my guest today, poet Kathy Davis, the author of Passiflora, a book of poems published in 2021.  This eclectic debut collection features poems about children, relationships, nature, aging, loss, art, and more, that are unique, intelligent, and even a bit humorous at times.  In the exclusive guest post below, Kathy Davis talks about what led to the creation of some of the poems in the book.  I hope you will find it as inspiring as I did!

Finding Magic:  A Guest Post by Kathy Davis

What do you do when something’s niggling at you? Something you saw or heard that stays in your head for days, weeks or even years as if begging to be dealt with, explored?  For me, I’ve learned the only way it will stop nagging is if I help it find a home in a poem.

Once when I was checking out a book in the small rural library near my home, a woman came in and asked if the library would like a pony. I could tell by the librarian’s face that she, like me, was stunned into imagining what they would do with a pony.  Let it wander the stacks?  Use it to entertain children during story hour?  Turn it out to graze the surrounding lawn?  That momentary flight of fancy was enchanting, but the spell was broken when another woman brought the subject inside.  It was a life-size stuffed toy Shetland pony—a much more manageable donation which found a home in the children’s section. The librarian later shared other remarkable happenings, such as the flock of guinea hens that would occasionally wander over to loudly police the grounds, and the phone calls the front desk received asking them to keep an eye out for a loose cow that might pop by.  She described all of this with sincere delight, the same sense of wonder that stayed with me and turned into the poem “The Shetland.”

Volunteering at my sons’ elementary school, I met a student’s mother who was recovering from chemotherapy treatments for pancreatic cancer.  An artist, she was too weak to paint like she used to but had discovered she could mix her dryer lint with glue and sculpt it into human figures and other forms.  She described how the lint colors varied based on the mix of clothes dried and the various creative possibilities she saw with each shade.  When her neighbors learned about her new passion, they began to collect their own dryer lint and leave it in her mailbox, ensuring she always had a steady supply of material.  I carried her story in my head for years, remembering again and again the resilience of her creative spirit, her community’s support, until a piece of dryer lint sculpture found its way into my poem “Eve: After the Fall.”  

When my husband and I lived in Chicago during the early 80s, Lake Michigan always froze over in late winter, becoming a massive plain of ice and snow.  So, I was shocked when I returned in February a few years ago and saw it as blue and ice-free as during the warmer months.  In fact, the lake had not frozen over for many years—a startling reminder of the damage done by climate change.  Then, on the walk back to where I was staying, I saw a group of teenage boys in the distance playing chicken on the railroad tracks as a train was approaching.  I felt helpless to do anything but watch and hope they’d be OK. The anxiety produced by the change in the lake and the boys’ risky behavior stood out as a sharp contrast with my experience of Chicago as a young newlywed, when I had not yet had much experience with grief and loss and everything good seemed possible.  It made me think about how I had changed over the years and ultimately led to the poem “Freeze.”  

We can’t force inspiration to happen. And if we’re always looking for something big and lofty, supernatural or divine—we may miss the transcendent nature of moments in our day-to-day lives. When something seemingly ordinary keeps niggling at us, I think that’s the universe saying: Look! There’s magic here.

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Photos from Kathy Davis

 

 

Photo notes: The photos of the poet's writing space, where some of the magic of creating poetry occurs, are quite lovely; I'd be inspired to write in this pretty room with the pretty view! The Georgia O'Keeffe art print (on the bright orange wall) depicts clouds, but it reminds the poet of the ice chunks she used to see on Lake Michigan (as mentioned in her guest post). 

Learning about the inspiration of some of the poems in the book, "The Shetland", "Eve: After the Fall",  and "Freeze", added another dimension to this work for me.  All of the poems in Passiflora are lovingly crafted, and capture different moments, moods, and details with beauty and finesse. They tell stories of everyday life in an extraordinary fashion. I didn't read the poems out loud, but I did read some of them, including "The Shetland", more than once.  That's what I do when I really like a poem (unless it's extremely long).  These poems are outstanding, and touched me in various ways.  

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Special thanks to Kathy Davis for this guest post and for graciously sending me a copy of Passiflora, and to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for inviting me to join the tour.  For more reviews of this book and other features, please visit the other stops on the Passiflora tour.  I wanted to do something special for National Poetry Month, and reading this book was the perfect way for me to celebrate. There are still a few more days in April if you're also interested in celebrating by reading, listening to, or writing(!) some poetry, though of course poetry may be enjoyed all year long. 

Thank you very much for reading!  I welcome and appreciate your comments.

Letter to My Daughters Upon the Release of My Grown-up Book: A Guest Post by Elizabeth Kropf

My guest is the author of a new book of poems, What Mothers Withhold: Poems by Elizabeth Kropf, published in January 2021.  I haven't read this book yet, but I've read several reviews of the book, and it's been described as beautiful, honest, and hopeful.  It sounds like my kind of book.  Elizabeth Kropf  has graciously written an exclusive guest post for my blog, a special, sweet letter to her young daughters, infused with joy and love.  Enjoy!

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Letter to my daughters upon the release of my grown-up book
 

By Elizabeth Kropf

My chapbook “what mothers withhold” has just been published from Finishing Line Press. This has presented an interesting paradox as my children are 10 and 5 and the book appropriately includes things that have been withheld from them. For now, neither of them have asked to read it, but some day they might want to. I have written a letter to them for this occasion. The letter refers to chocolate chip cookies, which references one of the poems my oldest daughter has heard.

January 2021

To my delightful, exuberant daughters,

     Someday, you might read my chapbook, or at least have an interest in it beyond chocolate chip cookies and announcing that I am famous while jumping on the couch. You may not understand why there is not more about your adventurous spirits. When that day comes, I hope you do understand how fiercely I love you and how protecting you is my strongest desire.  If, someday, you choose to have children, you will have a deeper understanding of this, as I have a deeper understanding of my parents love for me.

     Someday you may wonder why your dad is not in the book more.  Every poem written, every critique group and workshop was attended while your dad was taking you on all of the adventures you have had. Writing is a way to process hard things, and while I was going through difficult times, your dad was next to me for all of it.

     This book is only the beginning.  I will write more about what each of you have taught me and how each of you will change the world.  I will write about how much I enjoy watching you practice TaeKwonDo and how much I love your confidence.

      What I hope you learn from me publishing a book is that your voice matters, your story matters. Choose who holds your pain and when.  Do not put a deadline on dreams.

Love, Mom

 

                                            
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Special thanks to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for inviting me to participate in this book tour.  Like the poet, I have two daughters (and a son), so I think I this collection of poetry will resonate with me as a mother, and as a daughter.  I look forward to reading it.  Please visit the other stops on this tour for reviews and other related features.  The dazzling photograph above is by Alejandra Alumbaugh Photography.

Thanks for reading! Your comments are welcomed.

The Evolution of a Small Press: A Guest Post by Midge Raymond

Last month, I won the book The Tourist Trail on Serena's blog, Savvy Verse & Wit.  After Midge Raymond, a co-founder and editor of Ashland Creek Press, a vegan-owned boutique publisher in Ashland, Oregon, mailed the book to me, I invited her to write a guest post about Ashland Creek Press (ACP).  One of my daughters is vegan, and I wanted to learn more about ACP in a general sense, too.  I think my readers will truly enjoy this exclusive guest post! 

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This spring, Ashland Creek Press will celebrate its 8th birthday.  John Yunker and I founded ACP in the spring of 2011 when, in the years following the financial crisis, we were seeing many good books go out of print--and some books not finding homes at all.  One of those books was John’s novel The Tourist Trail, which was represented by a literary agent who was told by publishers time and again that they didn’t know where the book would “fit in the marketplace".  This was because there wasn’t--and in fact still isn’t--a designated place for environmental and animal-themed literature in the world of Big Five publishers.

There are, of course, environmental books published by the Big Five houses--many of Barbara Kingsolver’s wonderful books, for example, and my own novel, My Last Continent, published by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.  But in early 2011, there weren’t any publishers we could find that focused on environmental works.  So, we decided to start one.

We began by publishing John’s novel, and then put out a call for submissions for environmental and multicultural manuscripts. Within two years, we published a young adult trilogy (The Lithia Trilogy), an eco-mystery, a short story collection, and three literary novels focused on other cultures, the environment, and endangered species.  Ashland Creek Press books have received rave media reviews as well as national and international prizes--and these are books that may not have been published if ACP didn’t exist. We are thrilled to have had the privilege of bringing them into the world.

In the years since then, we continue to publish one to three books a year, and we’ve also moved beyond books to offer other resources for both readers and writers in this genre.  In 2013, we created EcoLit Books, an online forum featuring book reviews on any books with environmental themes, as well as listing opportunities for environmental writers, from classes to literary magazines. In 2014, we decided there should be a prize for environmental writing, and the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature was born. We also publish several anthologies--the Among Animals series is short fiction focused on animals; Writing for Animals is a collection of articles aimed to help authors write about animals thoughtfully and compassionately.  And we also decided to create something else we wanted but couldn’t find in the world: vintage typewriter notecards and T-shirts for writers.

Theo (1999-2017): ACP General Manager

As animal lovers, of course, we do not discriminate when hiring, which is why our first--and last--General Manager was feline. As you can see in these photos, Theo was passionate about books and helping run the press; he was always in the middle of things. When he passed away at the age of 18, we found him impossible to replace, and the position of General Manager remains open in his memory. We did, however, hire (i.e., adopt) three new rescue cats: Teddy, Harlan, and Gideon. Their roles are as yet undefined; so far they prefer playing and hanging out, and they are often seen napping on the job.

Theo in the office

Theo helping with editing

The Boys! Teddy, Harlan, and Gideon

 
As we continue on into our 9th year, our mission remains the same: to publish good stories--whether a novel about a zookeeper’s love for an endangered Komodo dragon, or a nonfiction narrative about the rarest bears on earth, who live just outside of Rome.  While we are glad that ACP’s titles resonate with environmentally aware readers, as well as professors of literature and animal studies, our books are for any and every reader.

And we’d love for you to learn more by sampling our books!  Or, perhaps you’d like to check out our notecards or a T-shirt instead.  Whatever you prefer, we’re offering Suko’s Notebook readers 20% off your next purchase.  Simply enter the coupon code SUKO20 when you visit our EcoLit Books online store (coupon code good until the end of 2018).

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Thank you for this delightful guest post, Midge, and for offering my readers a special discount code!  It was interesting to learn about how Ashland Creek Press came to be, and about how it has developed over the years.  It looks as if Theo relished his position as general manager.  I haven't read The Tourist Trail yet, but I hope to soon.

Thanks for reading! Your comments are welcomed.

Why I Listen to Audiobooks

Many of my readers are also listeners, who greatly enjoy audiobooks.  Although I do like to listen to audiobooks as well, I don't listen to as many as some of my readers and fellow book bloggers.  When I do listen to them, I mostly listen to brief segments in my car during my short commutes around town.  My guest today, Melissa Chan, owner of  Literary Book Gifts, is an avid listener, and she eloquently describes why she listens to audiobooks in this exclusive guest post. 

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Why I Listen to Audiobooks: A Guest Post by Melissa Chan

It is no secret. I love listening to audiobooks. If you see me with headphones on, I'm probably not listening to music, but in some faraway land listening to a story.  From a very young age I discovered a love for audiobooks and have not stopped since.  From Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, to Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar,  I've experienced some of my favorite novels not by reading or watching them on the screen, but through sound, streaming through my headphones directly into my ears.

There are many benefits to listening, over reading paperbacks, hardcovers, or eBooks.  For one I sometimes do chores such as cooking or gardening.  And I've often fallen asleep to the calming tones of my favorite narrator.  I'll have to rewind a few chapters sometimes, but there really is no other way to read in the dark.  On summer days, I bike through parks, safely of course, all the while in the middle of a story.  I even have fond memories of listening to books during family road trips.  While driving through windy canyon roads in and out of national parks, we were also on adventures with Bilbo Baggins, as J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit came through the dashboard speakers of the minivan.

Audio recordings of books have come a long way since then.  From difficult to manage cassettes, to unfortunately scratched CDs, the preferred listening method of books is now as digital files directly on one's smartphone.  I finally decided to to upgrade my beloved click and spin wheel iPod to a smartphone for the library apps that let you use your library card to check out and stream audiobooks.  Technology has come a long way.

I love audiobooks for not only the story, but often the narrator. A bad narrator can make an amazing novel unreadable, but an amazing narrator can't make a bad novel any better.  Not every narrator is fit for every story.  And I appreciate and value the work of all voice narrators.  I believe, like many mediums, that voice narration is an art.  One of my favorite narrators is Christopher Hurt, who has read to me so many of my favorite books including Walker Percy's The Moviegoer.

Is audio book listening the same as reading?  I certainly have had my fair share of criticisms on the subject.  I don't believe one is superior to the other.  However, I would like to make a note that the sharing of stories, whether over the campfire or the dinner table existed long before the written word. I think it really all comes down to the quality of what you are listening to.

But the main reason I listen to audiobooks is because I love doing so.  

Since I love audiobooks so much, I did not want audiobook readers to be without a unique design for themselves. The headphone design (shown below) is vintage but also retro in style.  It is perfect for anyone who enjoys audiobooks, and it is for that reason that it is one of my favorite designs in the collection.

Tote bag

Women's and Men's T-shirts

Do you listen to audiobooks? Share your favorites below!

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Melissa, thank you for your wonderful guest post, which has inspired me to choose a new audiobook for my car rides.  I love the tote bag. It would be an adorable way to carry around audiobooks and related equipment--or really anything else!  The T-shirt is cute, and is available in several colors, for women and men.  Melissa is offering my readers a generous 20% discount on all items from Literary Book Gifts with the promo code: SUKOSNOTEBOOK20.  On a different note, I think that it would be fun to narrate audiobooks.  I'm sure audiobook narration is a lot of work (right, Mr. Hurt?), but it also seems like it would be enjoyable to act out a book for others to listen to (thinks the dormant voice actor in me). 

Many thanks for reading! Please leave a comment and share your thoughts about audiobooks.

Why Do I Write?: A Guest Post by Rajiv Mittal

Last month, I read a terrific, concise review on Tracy's book blog, Pen and Paper, about a novel with "simple yet powerful language" that's "incredibly rich in human emotions", Brahmahatya by Rajiv Mittal, published in 2017.  Like Tracy, I'm not familiar with Hindu scripture or mythology (I studied Hinduism only briefly in high school), but the book sounds fascinating to me.  Author Rajiv Mittal graciously sent me a copy of his novel, which I hope to read and review before too long.  The author also wrote an exclusive guest post for this blog.  Like me, I think you'll find it strong and compelling.

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Why Do I Write?

A Guest Post by Rajiv Mittal

 

You asked me if I would like to write a guest post.

The first thought that came to my mind is, ‘Why do I write?’

So why do I write?

First of all, a random rant …

Because there are six billion humans in this planet. I cannot handle that number. A novel is a universe which usually contains a manageable population and the main ones are generally interesting.

If I switch on the TV or surf the internet, I read about how mankind is destroying the planet. And the more dramatic of such portrayals show heart-rending photographs of children in great distress. Where on earth are the parents of these children? What made them produce children if they could not offer them lives better than their own? When I write, I feel happy that I am not under pressure to feel outraged at everyone other than the real criminals.

And they are?

‘Produce more children for our vote banks,’ continue to exhort our political people. ‘Consume more,’ continue to exhort our corporate people. The real world now seems to be held to ransom by people with maniacal eyes hysterically expostulating the beauty of their religions. It seems most of these people have spent a great deal of time and effort trying to look ugly. They have succeeded spectacularly. I don’t want to see them, hear them or argue with them. I smell decay and their touch is not healing. What do they do to earn a living? What were their grades in school and college? What qualifies them to be the prophets? Just ugliness, it seems.

What makes for a good story? I am told it is the following:

Theme. A theme is something important the story tries to tell us—something that might help us in our own lives. ...

Plot. Plot is most often about a conflict or struggle that the main character goes through. ...

Story Structure. ...

Characters. ...

Setting. ...

Style and Tone.

The real life story is the worship of fecund reproductive organs and its ending worries me, it is not something that interests me.  Books are the triumphant outcome of the uncontrolled mind.

That is why I prefer to write. I am in control of my universe.

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How Brahmahatya happened:

I would visit my father in his retirement home during his final days. Seeing all the residents, I would wonder – what are their stories? And are they all really who they say they are. Also, spending time at a retirement home made me question a lot of things about life. And the story evolved.

Strange to say, but once I started writing it, the book took on a life of its own. It sounds clichéd but it is a fact. It was almost as if the book got its own aatma (soul) and I became another character in its life journey – the character of the author.

A personal experience related to the book: 

There was time to spare and the tuktuk was chugging past the Theosophical Society en-route to Phoenix Mall in Chennai. I had a suspicion it had no business being there but the tuktuk driver was canny and I was clueless. On an impulse, I asked him to stop near the gate and paid him off.

I had last gone inside the Society gate with my dad. He had wanted to show me some banyan tree - one of the largest in Asia. I was seven years old and I was very happy to be alone with him even though it was only to see some stupid tree. I remember I had then been very scared of it (it was a huge presence with strange limbs). I wanted to see it again now, no... I wanted to relive the memories. I recall (now as an adult) that it was massive, majestic in its silence and even the forces of nature (the waning twilight rays, the gentle sea-breeze and the noisy birds) had fluttered nervously around it, as if seeking permission.

My steps quickened as I reached it. The signboard said, ‘The Great Banyan Tree.’ I looked around, puzzled. A lone security guard walked up to me and said, ‘Sir, the tree fell down in a cyclone many years ago.’ I stared at the vast green space in the center where it had stood, quite uncomprehendingly. I felt very angry. This was very wrong. The tree had no right to die. It was meant to be eternal.

I again looked at the emptiness where the tree had lived. The younger trees, its descendants, stand proud and tall, seeming to preserve and protect the bare space.

When I walked away, I again felt the presence of my dad, very frail in his final days but very strong in my memories.

Some words that echo the philosophy of the book:

        •   Whomsoever you encounter is the right one.
        •   Whatever happened is the only thing that could have happened.
        •   Each moment in which something begins is the right moment.
        •   What is over is over.

                      Author – Unknown


The quiet, unhindered steady chant that treads through the book:

“Brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva. According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe…”

 I hope Brahmahatya will form part of your life journey, however small. Thathasthu. (It will be so).

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"Books are the triumphant outcome of the uncontrolled mind"!  I relish the idea of making order and art out of disorder and chaos.  Your personal story about the Great Banyan tree is very powerful and touching.  Thank you, Rajiv, for sharing your thoughts about writing, and more, in this outstanding guest post.  I am truly looking forward to reading your book.

Your comments are welcomed, as usual. Thanks for reading!

Switching from Mysteries to Historical Fiction: A Guest Post by Glen Ebisch, and a Giveaway

Emerson and Thoreau! I studied their work in school, did you? When I think about Ralph Waldo Emerson and  Henry David Thoreau, I think about nature, about truth, about freedom.  I looked at one of my bookshelves and quickly spotted the Emerson and Thoreau books from my college days, next to each other.  I'm glad I still have these books.

"The sky is the daily bread of the eyes."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The world is but a canvas to our imagination."
~ Henry David Thoreau

The premise of the new historical novel, Dearest David, by author Glen Ebisch, published in 2018, is fascinating to me.  It's the story of a young woman, Abigail Taylor, who leaves her family farm outside of Concord, Massachusetts, to work as a servant in the home of lecturer Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American essayist, philosopher, poet, and leader of the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.  Abigail also meets Henry David Thoreau, who was also an essayist, philosopher, poet, and leading transcendentalist.  Since I haven't read the book yet, more details are in the synopsis from the publisher, Solstice, below.

Seventeen-year-old Abigail only spends a few months during the year 1841 as a kitchen maid and part-time nanny to the Emerson children, but she experiences life in the Emerson household at the peak of both its intellectual and emotional intensity.  She falls in love with the free-spirited but emotionally ambivalent Henry David Thoreau and learns that she must share her fascination with him with both Emerson’s wife, the prophetic and frightening Lidian, and the children’s governess, Ms. Ford. She also meets the charismatic radical journalist, Margaret Fuller. And she learns to respect but also to recognize the limitations of Emerson himself. Eventually, Abigail is forced to leave her employment in the Emerson household, but only after realizing the magical nature of her time in this special place, where discussions about the principles of self-reliance, feminism, and abolitionism flourished.

In this exclusive guest post, New England mystery author Glen Ebisch talks about why he chose to write historical fiction about Emerson and Thoreau.  I think you'll find his pithy post intriguing!

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Switching from Mysteries to Historical Fiction
 A Guest Post by Glen Ebisch, and a Giveaway

                                      

What motivates someone to switch from writing mysteries to deciding to write a work of historical fiction? In my case it came about because, as a philosopher in my day job, I became interested in the philosophical ideas of Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa May. This led me to do research on that period in Concord, Massachusetts, which was an interesting one, with Emerson, Thoreau, and at times Hawthorne, living in the area and frequently socializing. It seemed to me to be an historical period just ripe for a story.

By whatever means these things happen, I came up with the idea of placing a young woman of humble means but with a good basic education in the Emerson household as a servant. I thought it would be valuable to have a young woman’s insight into what was largely a man’s world, while at the same time contrasting her with the very different figures of Lidian Emerson and Margaret Fuller. It also gave me the opportunity to discuss the early growth of the feminist movement, which was developing at that time in the Northeast.

In order to increase the emotional intensity of the story I had this young woman, named Abigail Taylor, fall in love with Henry David Thoreau. Her passion is partly for him as a man, and partly for him as a representative of an intellectual life that she finds exciting but beyond her reach. This is in many ways a coming of age novel, because Abigail learns from her relationship with Thoreau the extremes to which her passion can drive her, while from Emerson she learns the importance of self-reliance in a challenging world. As the end of the story suggests, these contrasting lessons lead her to live an exciting life after she leaves the Emerson household.

To go back to my first question as to why I deviated from mystery writing to try my hand at historical fiction, I think all writing in a sense is delving into the mystery of what motivates people. Not all mysteries, and, perhaps not the most interesting ones, involve a crime, but they all involve an examination of the human heart.

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Thank you, Glen, for your wonderful guest post.  I'm so pleased to learn that Margaret Fuller is also a character in your book. (In 2013, I read and reviewed a brilliant biography about her, Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall.)   Thanks as well for graciously offering a copy of Dearest David as a giveaway (U.S./Canada only).

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment. 
• For another chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower.
• For an additional chance, post about this giveaway on your blog, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. 
• If you've read work by or about Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, or another transcendentalist, mention that for an extra entry.

Enter by 5 PM PDT on Tuesday, March 20 (the first day of spring). One winner will be selected randomly and contacted on Wednesday, March 21.  Good luck to my readers, and as always, thanks for reading!

Why I Write Poetry, not Prose: A Guest Post by Laura Foley

Laura Foley is the author of four collections of poetry: Joy Street, The Glass Tree, Mapping the Fourth Dimension, and Syringa.  As if being a poet isn't enough, she's also a volunteer chaplain, yoga teacher, and creative arts facilitator in hospitals, who resides in Vermont with her partner, Clara, and their three dogs.  In connection with yesterday's review of Joy Street, here is an exclusive guest post by Laura Foley, which includes a poem.

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Laura's workspace

Why I Write Poetry, not Prose: A Guest Post by Laura Foley

For this blog post, I am asking the question why I write poetry, not prose.  Many of the poems in my new chapbook, Joy Street, originated in a writing group for prose writers.  I was the only poet, and I wanted to see what it would be like to try prose.  As it turned out, everything I wrote came out in little bursts of images, emotional explosions.  Some people call them prose poems, some people call them poems, some say it’s flash non-fiction. Whatever the name, writing these small stories is what I most enjoy doing, and feels genuine to my experience.  I love the process of working an image into a shape, to chip at a block of remembered experience until it shines with it’s own essence.  When I was a kid, I liked to collect postage stamps, exotic animals from Africa, a queen from Spain, an Indonesian palm leaf: lovely little worlds.  Also as a child, I had a mineral collection, each one in its own little box.  I’ve written a poem about this which I’ll include here.  Maybe it explains a little about why I write poems?  In any case, whatever I write, I hope it shines.


Little Rooms

In fourth grade I made a box
for stones, twenty little rooms, 
each gem tidy
on its cotton-puff bed: 
limonite, quartz, azurite; 
each name printed neatly on paper labels
in royal blue: garnet, 
muscovite, feldspar. 
Twenty little rooms
equal in comfort, 
labeled with certainty: 
pyrite, gypsum, magnetite; 
each owning definite properties: 
could scratch lines on another, or not, 
shine like gold, streak like chalk, 
or break glass-like
into fragile prismatic shards.


Thank you very much for your guest post and poem, Laura!  I enjoyed reading this "small story", as well as the ones in Joy Street.  Your poems truly are "like crystal: delicate, sharp, clear, full of light", as poet Patricia Fargnoli says, and they emanate joy.

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Special thanks to Serena from Savvy Verse and Wit and to Lisa from TLC for the opportunity to present this guest post.  Please visit the other stops on TLC's book blog tour for Joy Street.  

Your comments are appreciated.  If you'd like an additional entry in my giveaway for Joy Street, please indicate that in your comment here. 

Liesl's Ocean Rescue: Review and Guest Post

The most compelling stories are often based on true stories.  Liesl's Ocean Rescue is a book for children that's based on a true story, written by Barbara Krasner, and illustrated by Avi Katz.  Published in 2014, this picture book tells the story of 10-year-old Liesl Joseph and her family, through expressive prose and charming drawings that complement each other well.

In the book, Liesl's father, Josef Joseph, a lawyer, is arrested in his own home in Rheydt, Germany by Nazi soldiers, and Jewish homes and businesses all over Germany are attacked and destroyed during Kristallnacht, "Night of the Broken Glass".  In order to survive, the Joseph family, and many other Jews, decide to leave Germany.  In May of 1939, along with nearly 1,000 others, they board the MS St. Louis, a luxury ocean liner which was bound for Havana, and then America.

The MS St. Louis, from Wikipedia

The story is from Liesl's perspective, although it's told in the third person, and we see life through the eyes of the young protagonist.  Liesl adores her father.  She has faith that Father will make everything all right, even when she learns they have to leave Germany "forever", on the MS St. Louis.

Liesl enjoys being on the MS St. Louis.  She has more freedom on the ship than she had in Germany.  She can walk around freely, watch movies, and enjoy a variety of foods (in Germany, she only ate rationed bread and eggs).  She makes friends, plays checkers, bangs the gong to communicate with people on the ship, and helps in other ways, too.

The fun of being on the ship lasts for two weeks.  When they reach the harbor in Havana, the passengers are not allowed into Cuba.  They're ordered to go back to Germany, but they refuse because they know they'll be taken to the concentration camps and killed.  Father has been put in charge, and he sends out cablegrams for help.  Eventually, after some more time at sea, they receive good news from the head of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's Paris office, Mr. Morris Troper.  The passengers will be allowed to go to Belgium, Holland, France, and England.  When Liesl meets Mr. Troper on the ship, on her birthday, she has a thank you speech prepared.

Liesl's Ocean Rescue is a good way to introduce elementary school children to this dark part of our history which includes the story of the MS St. Louis and the Holocaust.  The gray and white drawings inside of the book contribute to the underlying tone of the story, which is somber.  Thankfully, the book features some joyful moments.  At the beginning of the book (November 1938), Father's birthday is mentioned, and at the end of the book (June 1939), it's Liesl's eleventh birthday.  Children will enjoy the mentions of the birthdays.  Throughout the pages, they will imagine what it must have been like for Liesl.  The story ends on an optimistic note which is a relief, given the difficult subject matter of the book.

As an adult, I found Liesl's story poignant.  Lovely details in the story made me smile, despite the seriousness of this story.  I was very pleased to read the author's notes at the end of the book and learn that Liesl and her family made it safely to America in 1940, and settled in Philadelphia, PA.  Liesl Joseph Loeb became a graphic designer and artist, and died in August of 2013.

Author Barbara Krasner has written an exclusive guest post for us, which follows this review.

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Something Surprising About Me: A Guest Post by Barbara Krasner

About twenty-five years ago, when my son was born, I was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, landing me in the hospital for more than two weeks.  It was a defining moment for me, as I began to realize my life’s priorities needed to change.  I ultimately became less enamored with my corporate life and wanted to connect to something higher and make more of an impact on the world.

I decided I wanted to leave a legacy to my son and once out of the hospital, I put plans in place to write for children and to research my family’s history.  The skills I learned as a genealogist help me as a historian and as a writer.

Barbara and her son

For example, one of the first steps one takes in researching the family tree is to speak with the eldest members of the family, collecting names, places, and dates, as well as family traditions and stories.  I didn’t know at the time that this would provide me with the foundation to become an oral historian.  I learned how to become a detective, how to put my B.A. in German and Russian to use in reading vital records from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and from Poland/Russia, and how to deal with conflicting information from multiple sources.

I had grown up with the story of the MS St. Louis, the ship the United States turned away, the ship with nearly 1,000 German-Jewish refugees seeking safety from the Nazis in 1939.  With the help of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. I located several survivors who had been children on board.  Using the oral history techniques I’d learned as a genealogist (and as a corporate market researcher), I collected testimonies about experiences on the St. Louis.  These, combined with material culled from the Holocaust Museum and from the archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in New York City, became the foundation for telling Liesl’s story aboard the St. Louis in Liesl’s Ocean Rescue.

I teach creative writing at William Paterson University, where I am also pursuing a master’s in public history, that is, making history accessible to the masses.  That is what I do as a writer.  But now I have even more opportunity to serve as an oral historian.  Currently, I’m helping the National Park Service collect oral histories of Paterson, New Jersey and I’ve collected several for my hometown of Kearny, New Jersey.

Being a genealogist and oral historian, I believe, brings a set of skills to writing and to writing for children that is unique.  It’s important to realize your strengths and to make them even stronger.  I hope that I continue to build on these skills for future books for kids and for adults.

Barbara, thank you for this interesting guest post!  Your work is purposeful and wonderful.  I think listening, intently, to the stories of others is incredibly important for writers, especially writers of history or historical fiction.

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Many thanks to Laura from iRead Book Tours for sending me an advanced readers copy of this book. For more reviews, giveaways, and other features, please stop by iRead's book blog tour for Liesl's Ocean Rescue.  Because this is a children's book, I've added a link to this review to Kid Konnection, hosted by Booking Mama.

 
Thanks for reading!  Your comments are welcomed.

On Surfing: A Guest Post by Holly Peterson, and a Giveaway

Holly Peterson is the author of the best-selling novel The Manny, published in 2007.  Last month, I participated in the cover reveal for her new book, The Idea of Him, and today I'm honored to feature her guest post on an unexpected topic.

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On Surfing: A Guest Post by Holly Peterson

Many people don’t know that I surf.  Or that I started when I was 42 years old.  It’s a pretty crazy story that is very much linked to my writing this book.  I have to go back and tell you in my thirties, like so many women, I was charging ahead at full speed and had very little time to reflect.  Now I understand that was intentional. Three kids, a horrible Manhattan renovation, a job working for a very demanding magazine, and a beautiful sister-in-law who was dying of breast cancer.  All at once.  I had no time to breathe let alone manage the sadness of Meredith being ill.

Instead, I rushed full speed ahead to just tap dance as best I could.  That August when Meredith was really dying and there was no denying it anymore, I got into the Atlantic Ocean on a clear day in Long Island, paddled out for a surf lesson, got pushed into a wave, and actually stood up on my first try.  It was just exhilarating.  I did it again, and again, and again.  And then I started going in every morning and afternoon to feel that rush…always with an instructor pushing me into waves which is fully cheating on a major level…but the point is I was standing on the board for maybe a dozen waves an hour and I didn’t care how I got in them, just that I was doing it.

I started to realize it wasn’t the surfing so much as the slowing down to reflect.  It was also the saltwater.  I believe saltwater heals.  I also think since we all came from water, that there’s something “amniotic” about floating around in water…yes, it feels like the womb somehow and we get very elemental out there in those waves.  Surfers are so nuts about their time in the water and I think it's some kind of magic nirvana out there we feel that is linked maybe 40% to the sport and 60% to the craving for the sloshing of the ocean around us.

In the water that summer, I started coming to terms with some very important things in my life.  How I needed to be on my own, how my marriage, while a great partnership, was not fulfilling either of us, how terrified I was of taking a leap out of it…all those fears and tears I put into a novel called, THE IDEA OF HIM.  It’s out this week and the protagonist Allie is facing a tough marriage, a possible divorce, a soul mate from her past who haunts her and a new sexy guy who taunts her…most of all, she’s dealing with trying to find happiness for herself.

Like so many women, Allie’s trying hard to make things work well for her family, but the stumbling blocks are just huge.  Her swirl of emotions, her escape from her past, her fears of being on her own…are not “mine” per se…but I know I created a relatable, likeable character in Allie that so many women out there will feel for and relate to and laugh and cry with…and root for and she finds strength to make some better choices for herself.  I hope everyone takes some time to reflect through sports or hobbies that they feel passionate about.

Holly, I sometimes kid around and say that I want to be a blond surfer in my next life--it sounds so appealing!  Whenever I spend time in the ocean, (which is not very often, even though I live in CA), I don't want to get out of the water, because it feels so incredible and natural to me (as it did when I was child).  Thank you for this guest post, and best of luck with your new book!

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Thanks to Teddy from Premier Virtual Authors Book Tours for including me on the tour for Holly Peterson's new novel, and to both Teddy and the author for offering a giveaway for one copy of The Idea of Him (U.S./Canada only).

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment. 
• For another chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower.
• For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. 

Enter by 5 PM PDT on Monday, April 21.  One winner will be selected randomly and announced on Tuesday, April 22.  Please visit the other stops on this book tour for The Idea of Him for reviews and other features.  Thanks for reading!