I did text revisions and changed a lot of book covers beginning a year ago, which had left me with stock on hand for many books with the original covers and pre-tweaking to remove/correct minor flaws and update interior aesthetics...therefore, tomorrow, January 20th, from 3PM to around 5PM I will have cartons full of FREE BOOKS for Wordsmith Members and their friends. I need to clear these out and make room for new projects. Bring a bag....you can take as many as you want.
If you feel guilty about just taking books then kindly make a monetary donation in the amount of your choice to Blue Umbrella Books for their support of the Literary Arts in Westfield.
Friday, January 19, 2018
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Five Stars for The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley!
Last year was the Year of the Three Star Book for me. I read a few really good books and suffered through a few "dog with fleas" publications but the vast majority gravitated towards the mean of 3.0. Don't get me wrong, three stars signifies a solid offering that I enjoyed reading but can leave me unsatiated and longing for more. The Holy Grail of this book lover is the elusive 5.0 star read.
To my great delight, my 2018 reading season has opened to the upside with a magnificent 5 STAR story ... The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti. I highly recommend this emotionally seductive and addictive tale about the life of career criminal Samuel Hawley and his relationship with his teenage daughter Loo as she matures from child to young adult in the north shore town of Olympus, MA and comes to terms with the criminal past of her father and the life and death of her mother. I experienced a few episodes of leaky eyes!
My full review can be found on Goodreads.
To my great delight, my 2018 reading season has opened to the upside with a magnificent 5 STAR story ... The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti. I highly recommend this emotionally seductive and addictive tale about the life of career criminal Samuel Hawley and his relationship with his teenage daughter Loo as she matures from child to young adult in the north shore town of Olympus, MA and comes to terms with the criminal past of her father and the life and death of her mother. I experienced a few episodes of leaky eyes!
My full review can be found on Goodreads.
Friday, January 12, 2018
January Meeting Reminder
Just a reminder that the WhipCity Wordsmiths will be meeting at Blue Umbrella Books at 3PM on Saturday, January 20th. Bring a favorite brief piece of you own writing to share. We'll do a writing prompt and have another PepTalk and share some more of our thoughts on writing, and talk about our projects if anyone s working on something. I have something going on that begins at noon that day, but will be at the meeting, although I might be a few minutes late.
My Muse 2
My muse sits on the patio,
elbows on the glass-topped table, shoulders hunched, a shock of dark hair
streaked with golden sunlight fallen across his brow as he idly pushes the
pieces of a jigsaw puzzle around, occasionally making an attempt to unite two pieces. When he has bent and peered underneath the
table for the hundredth time, craning his neck to look up at the underside of
the table and the pieces thereon I step out into the shadow beneath the eaves
and ask, “What are you looking at?”
He straightens up in his seat, fastens
those piercing eyes upon me and replies, “Sometimes you have to look at things
from both sides in order to understand the thing in its entirety.”
For someone who appears to live like a
bohemian, so casually, he sometimes spouts raw wisdom that can cut you to the
quick. His intelligence comes in slashes
like the flashing blades of too sharp knives and leaves me feeling wounded with
inadequacy for not having had these insights on my own. “I see,” I say.
His grin is quick and infectious. “Don’t lie to me,” he says, “Just tell me how
lucky you are to have me around.”
I capitulate too easily. “I am incredibly
fortunate to have you here tormenting me with your brilliance as you do.”
He picks up a piece of the jigsaw, holds
it up as though it is a glass of wine he is studying. I frown slightly for the piece does seem
opaque as though it has captured some of the light and locked it away deep
within itself. “Here is the heart of the
matter,” he says, winking before he locks the piece in place. “Now go inside and write like the wind.”
“Will you be breathing down my neck?”
“With every period, every semi-colon,
every exclamation point. I really do
adore exclamation points, you know. They’re so cheeky.”
“British today, are we?” He usually prefers French, sometimes Latin,
occasionally Irish as he can be so full of blarney at times.
“Smashing!”
“Cars or pumpkins?” I inquire, turning
away. In my peripheral vision he
shimmers.
“Why not success?”
“Why
not!”
“That’s it, love!” he calls.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Reflections on the Art of Writing
Reflections
on the Art of Writing by Susan Buffum
“Writing
should be a labor of love, not an agony of labor.”
“I
have no clue where this is going, but that is the joy of writing- going on an
adventure, not knowing where the twists and turns will be. It is a journey through
the funhouse that is my imagination.”
Holding
my Minion-shaped USB in my hand this thought strikes me: “This is my minion,
Stuart. When I plug him into my computer’s USB port and the titles of the files
he contains appear on the screen I feel like how Howard Carter must have felt
at his first glimpse into Tutankhamen’s tomb. ‘What do you see?’ he was asked.
‘Wonderful things!” was his reply. Yes, indeed, wonderful things.
“New
characters were whispering in the wings and have now stepped out upon the stage
in the theatre of my imagination. And we, the characters and me as their
appointed scribe, are currently writing tonight.”
“I
am either a writer or I have some high functioning form of insanity.”
“I
never know what I’m actually writing until it’s finished.”
On
writing fiction: “The best thing about writing fiction is tht you construct a
world, populate it with characters from your own imagination, and then
manipulate them within that environment that you have created, also from your
own imagination, and anything can happen in that world. Anything at all.”
“It’s
a powerful and profound experience to be the one in control of an entire world
and its inhabitants.”
“It
is humbling and amazing to be able to draw a reader into that world that you
have created in your novel and to influence their emotions just by the use of
words written ust so on the page.”
“I
suppose writing is like staging a playhouse production- building sets, telling
a story, directing a diverse cast of characters, and making at all come alive
in the theatre of the reader’s imagination.”
“The
thing about writing that constantly amazes me is that the story that I think I
am writing when I begin typing always
morphs and shape shifts seemingly all of its own volition, leading me down
roads that I ordinarily would not have traveled because they are not rutted and
worn by frequent passage, but are rather more mere paths that wend into dark,
shadowed, wild woodland where anything can happen- anything at all.
The
thrill of getting lost is visceral and real. The relief of following that
unblazed trail and discovering something within yourself, within your own
psyche, and forging a story from those shapes and shadows is no small feat for
an author. It is an epic feeling of discovery mixed with the euphoria of
triumph, of victory. You have conquered a world!
But
then follows the soul wrenching anxiety of offering that world to the fickle
caprices of the reader. Hope is so delicate, so fragile, so ethereal a thing…so
easily shattered, so quickly broken. I suppose all writers suffer this duality-
the ecstasy and then the agony when a story they have written is made available
to the real world.”
“Another
thought on being a writer- writing is a creative process, an engine that
constantly runs within me. It thrums alongside the flow of my blood through my
veins. It cohabitates with my ordinary, mundane thought processes but follows
different routes through my brain, separate tracks, if you will. I can be
sitting at my desk paying bills, balancing the household budget, or standing at
the kitchen counter baking a batch of brwnies or preparing dinner, or sorting
laundry, answering the phone, sweeping the floor- just doing normal ever day
tasks or chores- but always on that
other track in my head the little engine of storytelling is chugging along.”
“As
a writer, I only capture a very minute percentage of the stories running through my head on a daily basis. When I sit
down to write, I can only write one story at a time although there are many
more stories pushing and clamoring to be told. It can be discouraging and
defeating to lose so much because I am unable to write everything down. However, it would be even more devastating not to
put down the stories that I do catch, like butterflies in a net, because to
allow them all to flutter free to vanish into the void of lost memories would
be like driving a stake through my own heart. It would be like killing myself,
the stories and I are so closely intertwined.”
“My
muse is the one that constantly stokes the firebox that powers the little
engine of creativity along the track in my mind where inspiration flashes full
steam ahead.! That is how writing is with me.”
Monday, January 8, 2018
Looking For Ideas for Author/Literary Local Events
I'll be attending an Artworks Westfield Board of Directors Brainstorming Retreat and would like your input an ideas on the types of events you'd like to see in Westfield in 2018. There is already an Articulture2018 planned for the end of April that will host artists and authors like the past two years. WhipCity Wordsmiths had a presence at PumpkinFest this past fall when we joined with ArtWorks for an Art&Lit event in the Old Town Hall during PumpkinFest- a truly terrific event that was more than well attended!
What would you like to see this year or in 2019? Let me know and I will pass ideas along so we can continue to make things happen in Westfield. The retreat is the day of our next meeting, so I will be there for several hours before joining everyone at Blue Umbrella Books on January 20th.
What would you like to see this year or in 2019? Let me know and I will pass ideas along so we can continue to make things happen in Westfield. The retreat is the day of our next meeting, so I will be there for several hours before joining everyone at Blue Umbrella Books on January 20th.
Monday, January 1, 2018
Oh That Ending!
How does an author think about the ending of a book?
My inquiry stems from my very first experience with
My inquiry stems from my very first experience with
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