tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53710281827097543662024-03-17T23:03:51.119-04:00Lisa Romeo Writes (the blog)Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.comBlogger873125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-16822063160481376892022-02-08T11:14:00.000-05:002022-02-08T11:14:32.648-05:00Winter, Walking Casts, Writing Books. Going on...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJckw-i1mncHCv6qkn5KqnpTq6jp3bZPrzc-OuX1eZe6sY2EYquuI0BOKseG14igUNT2XnFqW05zmxIN-Q06Y8RZe0ivv6Bh7vFIDJAaO4i6iHSdamAeMcMm2AAYlcpQ8MmX_09gkeI_A3zgVRcyo6Q-MU-4w1JMLig1aV41H1Y1V09L07yfMs3zQw/s4032/track in winter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJckw-i1mncHCv6qkn5KqnpTq6jp3bZPrzc-OuX1eZe6sY2EYquuI0BOKseG14igUNT2XnFqW05zmxIN-Q06Y8RZe0ivv6Bh7vFIDJAaO4i6iHSdamAeMcMm2AAYlcpQ8MmX_09gkeI_A3zgVRcyo6Q-MU-4w1JMLig1aV41H1Y1V09L07yfMs3zQw/s320/track in winter.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">At the nearby track where I walk when the
roads are icy or I’m recovering from yet another injury, or have time only for a quick two miles, on many mornings on the inside field, a freelance soccer coach takes groups of youngsters through what to
me seem like advanced skill drills. A blur of motion, legs, soccer balls. I have
almost no interest in the game, but what I love is that no matter where on the
track I am, or even how windy it may be, I hear the lilt of the coach’s rich voice, his island
accent, urging his players on.</p><p class="MsoNormal">When he first appeared, I noticed that no matter what mistake a player may make,
no matter how much one of the kids may be struggling, what comes out of this
man’s mouth is: <i>“And, we go on.”</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>At first, I couldn’t decipher it, thinking I’d
heard: “andweeego own…” But then I got it, and realized he was encouraging his charges, constantly—and more, suggesting that errors, small or large missteps, don’t matter
as much as going on, without pausing to worry or feel sorry.</p><p class="MsoNormal">I learned to love hearing him, and some days when I
was driving to the track, hoped fervently the coach would be there, boosting those hopeful, keep-on-trying kids. When I hear him encouraging them,
especially on days when I’m considering cutting my walk short, that small push
is enough.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDkxkReGDLQ9WE9_CFRmYIxvecFaKbLcIA8EhhcN9UR-kJ8_RMF2-JMLqLLRmQJFqlHD_1AwZnMS7iORRoCeJKAqC-gOiRa6ATBHwj2a7HGcRhoE-kknl7-iDPtLfhTTRKKBIgRZ9LvKEKA3soiIKUjrCJNYp-poC65zxZ45I3KQIlsuioo1OZQbwC/s4032/boot on foot winter 2022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDkxkReGDLQ9WE9_CFRmYIxvecFaKbLcIA8EhhcN9UR-kJ8_RMF2-JMLqLLRmQJFqlHD_1AwZnMS7iORRoCeJKAqC-gOiRa6ATBHwj2a7HGcRhoE-kknl7-iDPtLfhTTRKKBIgRZ9LvKEKA3soiIKUjrCJNYp-poC65zxZ45I3KQIlsuioo1OZQbwC/w150-h200/boot on foot winter 2022.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><o:p> </o:p><i>And, we go on.</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>And so, I do.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Like now. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Middle of winter in New Jersey. And though I’ve lived here all but a half-dozen years of my life, I’m always and inexplicably a bit surprised at what happens (snow, ice, bone rattling cold), and also a little dismayed (Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise known as the daily gray day doldrums). Toss in two new broken bones in my foot, and here we are indeed: February, slightly depressed, too much forced sedentary-ness, staying home far too much.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><i><b>And, we go on.</b></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Keeping me going just now, as I clump around in an awkward walking boot: teaching (this semester, an MFA course, “Reading
as a Writer,” which I developed several years ago); writing (barely trudging
around the track, but showing up); editing and coaching (absolutely nothing
better than helping writers polish their drafts, manuscripts, and skills).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yet, some days, when it all gets to me—like the gray and icy
13-degree day last week when my foot ached and I ran out of British crime
dramas to watch—it’s my non-writer, <i>feeling crummy but determined to do
something </i>activities that keep me going on. That is, I organize. Cull
closets and shelves, then toss, sell, or find ways to give away. I’ve culled my office, notably my bulging bookshelves, three
times recently. A neighborhood social media page ensures the
novels and memoirs and biographies I part with find new
readers nearby.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAfyWhfolMRn5KX4wZUEERJbOQmToLf3YBYihFPDRV4E5_vet9FdwzHgdz0M4-4bH9aODvbARIf3baL_b3ewe4Eb_y8tVa97A9DI2iV8REFkHyo07upgbgsEDdmWpV0SIgSspeGrCQbgDnxBxjkV7SHlM8sbZ2RmVnqgvxRhjkGhgALzyDvb-XrD9w/s4032/Writing books Feb 2022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAfyWhfolMRn5KX4wZUEERJbOQmToLf3YBYihFPDRV4E5_vet9FdwzHgdz0M4-4bH9aODvbARIf3baL_b3ewe4Eb_y8tVa97A9DI2iV8REFkHyo07upgbgsEDdmWpV0SIgSspeGrCQbgDnxBxjkV7SHlM8sbZ2RmVnqgvxRhjkGhgALzyDvb-XrD9w/s320/Writing books Feb 2022.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">Most recently, I’ve been thinning my writing craft bookshevles.
This group (pictured) is ready to go. (I've either got a duplicate copy, or read it and got what I needed from it, or for some reason it didn't speak to me but may be just what another writer needs.) And I’d love to give them to you, my blog readers
and writing and reading friends. Want one? <a href="http://www.lisaromeo.net/connect/" target="_blank">Email me </a>with your U.S.
postal address and I’ll send it via media mail at my cost. (If you
can make good use of several, and are willing to share mailing expenses, we
can do that too.) That’s it. Books to a new home where they can maybe inspire
another writer.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here’s hoping your winter/pandemic/getting-back-to-normal/whatever
projects and activities are feeding you.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>And, we go on <i>together</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>P.S. I have two open editing slots for winter and three for spring,
to take on full manuscripts, and room for a few new coaching clients. And of course,
editing/feedback for shorter works is available almost anytime. <a href="http://www.lisaromeo.net/work-with-lisa/" target="_blank">Get started here</a> or email me. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><script>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-11947486330481456702021-11-11T09:19:00.005-05:002021-11-11T16:02:52.497-05:00I'm Good at Titles. But this time, I'll defer to the Queen.<div class="separator"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgShn2Ssx0eGNk-iX_Gc7qLDQZPlydtMBEmx5FNkXBZiDiQtBe18cc98eAUj4TmQEdTuMU1jghr6wbcHxtKiB9sR724iAYb5YFHcf8zBtyB3ne3e8qGPiME8av-j64rAFCf_dnHsbzhmy8/s800/Queen+Elizabeth+cake+topper+CC.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgShn2Ssx0eGNk-iX_Gc7qLDQZPlydtMBEmx5FNkXBZiDiQtBe18cc98eAUj4TmQEdTuMU1jghr6wbcHxtKiB9sR724iAYb5YFHcf8zBtyB3ne3e8qGPiME8av-j64rAFCf_dnHsbzhmy8/w214-h320/Queen+Elizabeth+cake+topper+CC.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>In a 1992 speech, England’s Queen Elizabeth II characterized
a year filled with turmoil for her and her family: “…it <span style="letter-spacing: 0.3pt;">has turned out to be an 'Annus Horribilis'.</span>” <br /></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Can I just say, about the last 12 months for me and my family:
<b><i>Ditto</i></b>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let’s get this over with quickly: One year ago this month, we
lost my mother-in-law (at age 100). Later that day—Friday the 13<sup>th</sup>
if anyone is keeping track—something quite upsetting befell one of my kids, who
was 200 miles from home, alone. (It’s not my story to tell, so I won’t, except
to say: who mistreats a person when they’ve just confided they lost a beloved grandmother
that morning?). That Monday, I landed in the hospital for five days with a nasty
case of pancreatitis, Zoom-watched the funeral, and had gall bladder removal surgery.
A few days after I arrived back home, my other kid spent Thanksgiving Day in
the hospital, 100 miles from home, alone. The next day his car died on the NJ
Turnpike.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My husband Frank and I have been married for 33 years, and I had never seen him more beaten down and frightened as when he dropped me at the
door to the Emergency Room. This was eight months into the Covid pandemic; we
live in crowded New Jersey, in the county with, at the time, the highest Covid
infection rate. Alone was the watchword for every family experience that month:
grief, fear, pain, the unknown. Alone in the ER, the hospital rooms, alone
without a wake or normal funeral, our kids alone far away dealing with their
problems alone.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNlzTqbb78U94t5hJpY_vutSw-bqJZ6FNqX4ICYpiP8DeAoodi2rG0QaMr8mGs9haQHz1P7qOiB9Nipd6_3mTuW2tHoY8gsjM7mssxflu4cj4PPzwcv_2cfaDLIM6xpRH11toyONrNdCc/s599/oh+dear+what+a+year+%25282%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="599" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNlzTqbb78U94t5hJpY_vutSw-bqJZ6FNqX4ICYpiP8DeAoodi2rG0QaMr8mGs9haQHz1P7qOiB9Nipd6_3mTuW2tHoY8gsjM7mssxflu4cj4PPzwcv_2cfaDLIM6xpRH11toyONrNdCc/w200-h177/oh+dear+what+a+year+%25282%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Last week over dinner, the four of us (three at home, one
via Skype), recalled how difficult last November was for us individually and as
a family—and that the difficulties didn’t end then. From last December through this
October—individually and/or collectively—we’ve weathered break-ups, college career
derailments. Jobs were lost, teaching gigs disappeared. Clients, facing their
own difficulties, cancelled. My husband’s business wobbled; our finances
strained. For more than one of us, there have been more/other surgeries and
health challenges and injuries.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Have you noticed yet that this blog post—my first in more than a year when I haven't featured a guest blogger—is <i>not</i> about writing?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Or maybe it’s <i>all</i> about writing. In the middle of all
that muck, I reluctantly, and probably permanently, put aside a developing memoir
manuscript on a beloved topic. I sadly turned down some memoir manuscript editing
projects I knew would require more of me emotionally than I could, at the time,
give them.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB9UJntk1kEE8R7D3FutYasaU2AGSEEm0euKDfcIY7qxaZaF2zBE7gZZHUVJgJ9Xp_tMviJN2RcVHYeVYyOVDLAX_RIDvK551g6dRyj2D9Xlgxm6SZ3e-pgTKndpTrnj8_aG4Wf6hmzEA/s799/Hurricane+FCC.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="799" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB9UJntk1kEE8R7D3FutYasaU2AGSEEm0euKDfcIY7qxaZaF2zBE7gZZHUVJgJ9Xp_tMviJN2RcVHYeVYyOVDLAX_RIDvK551g6dRyj2D9Xlgxm6SZ3e-pgTKndpTrnj8_aG4Wf6hmzEA/w200-h133/Hurricane+FCC.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I nearly stopped writing altogether. I did stop writing for
a long while.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And me, the writing coach, editor, and writing teacher who
typically counsels any clients and students who are worried they’ll never
write again, “Be kind to yourself,” could only hear a mental loop about what a
lazy writer I was—for not writing as my life lurched from one crisis or
emotionally, physically, and financially debilitating situation to the next.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am trying now to be kind to myself. It’s not easy. Yes, the
writing is there, waiting, and yes, I’m making eyes at it again.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The easy analysis would be, as Nora Ephron, once advised,
for those of us who write nonfiction about real life: “It’s all copy someday.”
Maybe. But it’s not easy copy. At least not yet.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yet, we’ve all come through. Me, my beloved husband of 33
years, our two adult sons—we are all okay, together, close, healthy (or nearly
so). Frank <a href="https://shoeandbootaccessories4u.com/">reinvented his
business</a>. My ankle is healing, finally and very slowly, after the worst injury
in a life already plagued with constant ankle injuries. Hearts are whole,
bodies (mostly) healed. Sometimes, money solves problems: a new car relieves worry,
new (ankle-friendly) shoes make everyday routines secure. Sometimes (more
often), people do: a wondrous new physical therapist, a son who realized what
Frank’s business needed and then did it, everyone focusing on doing rather than
complaining.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_xJ8J4iSM16SgSFLdWKpV13UUJLSFWX5ZAY03dck1rnxkadWYqOrO5DvDSuUUbN-4UbA5pBJpKwEuNqTbxT70d-hpE5XWBT-u3IOJ68mR53HWHJ7N6oLPNuBHPVpN6qX17OFGscQIgg/s583/Sunrise+FCC+Andre+W+%25282%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="583" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_xJ8J4iSM16SgSFLdWKpV13UUJLSFWX5ZAY03dck1rnxkadWYqOrO5DvDSuUUbN-4UbA5pBJpKwEuNqTbxT70d-hpE5XWBT-u3IOJ68mR53HWHJ7N6oLPNuBHPVpN6qX17OFGscQIgg/w200-h190/Sunrise+FCC+Andre+W+%25282%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sometimes, the old chestnut proves itself: time heals, or at
least allows us the time needed to move along, move on, move toward or away from
people, situations, emotions.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I may never write about any of it beyond this <i>back-to-the-blog</i>
post. I may, like the Queen, simply slap the <i>annus horribilis</i> label on
it and watch as it moves away in the rearview mirror, as I, we move… </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Onward…</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Images: Flickr/CreativeCommons - Queen (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mags_eb/" target="_blank">Mags</a>); Jacket (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sajith/" target="_blank">Sajith TS</a>); Hurricane (NASA Goddard Space Flight); Sunrise (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/aragon5/" target="_blank">Andre W</a>).</span></i></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><script>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-82715672011530740322020-08-27T14:13:00.008-04:002020-08-27T14:22:24.416-04:00Guest Blogger Desiree Villena on Lessons Learned from Reading Dozens of Short Stories Every Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd4VlSQoWxjtlqUPjia27OT8DLjvh0sv7AM5WIDInbC7GM6c2JUJrgu0HmWuBAFyBvIaK49kfULP-cMn3DgjAYcHx5-Imb9jqx4xaF7YoRu5_ng4OAf2d2XflqXvShD0s40TTvK5Ak9KY/s799/Stack+of+papers+-+green+background+Flckr+Philip+Wong.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="799" data-original-width="533" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd4VlSQoWxjtlqUPjia27OT8DLjvh0sv7AM5WIDInbC7GM6c2JUJrgu0HmWuBAFyBvIaK49kfULP-cMn3DgjAYcHx5-Imb9jqx4xaF7YoRu5_ng4OAf2d2XflqXvShD0s40TTvK5Ak9KY/w274-h410/Stack+of+papers+-+green+background+Flckr+Philip+Wong.jpg" width="274" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Desiree
Villena is a writer with Reedsy, which connects authors with self-publishing
resources and professionals. She also writes her own short stories.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span face="">Please welcome Desiree Villenna.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span face="">I’m more of a novel
person at heart, but I read dozens of short stories every week. My consumption
is varied, ranging from space operas set in Alpha Centauri to domestic realism
confined to a tiny kitchen. Some of these stories are ideally suited to my interests,
touching on the themes and tropes I tend to seek out in novels. Others, though,
feel dropped into my lap like unexpected gifts — the kind you end up loving
even though you’d never pick them out yourself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">Where do I find all these
stories? I’m a judge for </span><a href="https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">Reedsy’s
writing contest</span></a><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">. Every week, short story writers from
around the world send 1000 to 3000 words of fiction in response to a set of
prompts. That’s where judges like me come in. Together, we assess entries for
everything from plot to prose, until the best story of the group emerges to
take the crown.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">Few of us judges are
professional editors, but judging stories every week has honed our instincts
when it comes to evaluating short fiction. I think I speak for all my fellow
judges when I say this process has also sharpened our senses for craft, giving
us all eagle eyes for what makes short stories work.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">Here are five lessons
I’ve taken from this experience.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><a name="_ri2vf0ww4sby"></a><b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">1.
The most important part of any story is the beginning. </span></b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">In
literature, as in life, first impressions can be hard to shake. If you’re a
short fiction writer, the onus is on you to dazzle readers right from that
outset — you can’t rely on a mesmerizing cover design (or worse, have to
overcome a possibly misleading image). And that means crafting a compelling
opening.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span face="">I’ve found that the best
indicator of a stories overall quality isn’t its climax or conclusion — it’s
the beginning. A strong start activates the reader’s instinct for narrative,
exactly the way a mouthwatering aroma triggers the appetite. Those enticing
opening lines say: Pay attention. You’re in for something good.</span><span face=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><a name="_ssyj0pj952vl"></a><b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">2.
Strong beginnings can sometimes save misshapen stories.</span></b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;"> Unfortunately,
writers sometimes squander the potential of a gorgeous opening. But in my
experience, that initial intrigue can buy them quite a bit of readerly
goodwill, even if the story starts to unravel a bit. At its most extreme, the
halo cast by a perfect beginning can blanch away all kinds of flaws, making
unsatisfying endings seem sophisticated in their ambiguity and reframing
rambling passages as nuanced and philosophical.</span><span face=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">Of course, you should
strive to make your story uniformly strong. But if you want to pour a little
more effort into one particular part of it, invest in the beginning.</span><span face=""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWGHfgmJqcbSORT7_ovgJlFbO2e7l5b0rKKZoTfksDtZxeefKoR3b6-IQiXlgFfCRadFI8BeTy8l4ebSqM2437hCLXSGxYqcDZNbfUo7UAVkXRYELyXslRwSD5Zi23NNEhI19YabsRDpE/s400/hand+written+pages+-+flckr.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWGHfgmJqcbSORT7_ovgJlFbO2e7l5b0rKKZoTfksDtZxeefKoR3b6-IQiXlgFfCRadFI8BeTy8l4ebSqM2437hCLXSGxYqcDZNbfUo7UAVkXRYELyXslRwSD5Zi23NNEhI19YabsRDpE/s0/hand+written+pages+-+flckr.jpg" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><a name="_swevsb3cd62t"></a><b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">3.
Style matters more in short fiction. </span></b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">When it comes to novels,
I tend to be somewhat style-agnostic. As long as the writer’s voice doesn’t
strain understanding, what they say is far more important to me than how they
say it. Even flat, colorless prose can be an effective vehicle for a dazzling
plot or an unforgettable protagonist.</span><span face=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">As a short fiction
reader, I’ve grown more and more attuned to the importance of distinctive,
aesthetically pleasing treatment of language. In </span><a href="http://lisaromeo.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-blogger-david-galef-on-one.html"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">a
form as compressed</span></a><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;"> as a thousand-word story, the boundaries
between style and substance feel blurred — there’s no room for carelessness in
the writer’s expression.</span><span face=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><a name="_qo7323hx4syj"></a><b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">4.
But good style is genre-dependent. </span></b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Know</span><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">
that “good” style doesn’t have to mean Nabokovian gorgeousness or Hemingway-esque
minimalism. It just means that the prose conveying the writer’s ideas
complements them in a way that seems thoughtful and intentional. Different
types of stories naturally demand different treatments.</span><span face=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">A story aimed at young
readers can be zippy and cute, full of short sentences, snappy </span><a href="http://lisaromeo.blogspot.com/2012/04/guest-blogger-jenn-brisendine-on.html"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">dialogue</span></a><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">,
and delightful onomatopoeias. Meanwhile, a piece of mature historical fiction
might be staid and restrained in its language, filigreed with period phrases
that give it an air of authenticity. As different as they are, these are both
examples of thoughtfully crafted, appropriate literary styles. </span><span face=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><a name="_gesqpyw7ayiv"></a><b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">5.
Short form makes it easier (and more rewarding) to take stylistic risks. </span></b><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">The
formal restrictions imposed on short fiction writers might amplify stylistic
problems, but they also make it easier to take big risks. </span><span face=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">Some of the strongest
entries I’ve encountered as a judge make a point of flouting established
writing guidelines. I’ve seen second-person stories, stories written entirely
in future tense, and even stories that, on balance, do far more telling than
showing. Somehow, they’ve all worked, and not just worked — they won. </span><span face=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face="" style="line-height: 150%;">If you want to gamble on
a controversial narrative choice, your next short story is the perfect chance.
Even less adventurous readers will find unusual storytelling techniques more
palatable in short form. Meanwhile, those with avant-garde sensibilities will
applaud you for your daring. Even after all the stories I’ve read, there’s
nothing I admire more than a stylistically ambitious story told with conviction
and verve.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face="" style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://reedsy.com/">Visit Reedsy</a>
to learn more about their contests and other resources.</span><o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face="" style="font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;">Images: Flickr/CreativeCommons - Stack of Papers, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tetracarbon/" target="_blank">Philip Wong</a>; Handwritten Pages, Julio <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/26010466@N07/" target="_blank">Garciah</a>.</span></i></p><script>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-28073011793201127492020-06-16T09:40:00.000-04:002020-06-17T01:08:38.525-04:00Guest Blogger Shelley Blanton-Stroud on Fact and Truth, Fiction and Nonfiction<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKji0qi398zH9QGUNkKf_93B_wpj8740ihk-fAEmbkdRRg7ioaleyBQ2rTQJIErKnb9Z3mXo4NkysXFrZ1nYee6Yhxx3DQ6s3elv2UFV4ml98WW_NzEnqr9fNIvZhiFR1PXARrAE5e23g/s1600/Shelly+B-S+head+shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1000" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKji0qi398zH9QGUNkKf_93B_wpj8740ihk-fAEmbkdRRg7ioaleyBQ2rTQJIErKnb9Z3mXo4NkysXFrZ1nYee6Yhxx3DQ6s3elv2UFV4ml98WW_NzEnqr9fNIvZhiFR1PXARrAE5e23g/s320/Shelly+B-S+head+shot.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shelley
Blanton-Stroud grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust
Bowl immigrants. She teaches college writing in Northern California, consults
with writers in the energy industry, co-directs Stories on Stage
Sacramento, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative
writing nonprofit for children. </span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Copy Boy<i> is her first novel.
She also writes and publishes flash fiction and nonfiction, including pieces at </i>Brevity<i> and </i>Cleaver<i>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Please
welcome Shelley Blanton-Stroud.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">It took me
quite a while to figure out what my book, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Copy Boy</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">, would be, my trouble
mostly arising from the gap between fact and truth. Facts are verifiable
things. Truth is the meaning an individual makes of the facts we choose to
consider.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I first began
to write ten years ago by focusing on my own family’s history of moving west to
California from Texas and Oklahoma in the Dust Bowl exodus of Okies looking for
work in the Great Depression. I was thinking about a memoir because I had
access to the facts. My father, especially, had dramatic stories to tell, one
of which now sets my book in motion. But it soon became obvious that the “facts”
changed in his every retelling—how old he was, exactly where the incident took
place. And the facts really changed when my father’s siblings shared their versions
of the family story. That’s what happens with memory and with storytelling.
Though I knew my father was telling his truth, I was unsure of what the facts really
were. I didn’t think I could get a memoir right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So, I decided
to turn to traditional historical references—books and newspapers about the
Dust Bowl/Great Depression period in California—for a more-complete context on
my family’s life. But there was often so much missing in these sources—the <i>feel</i>
of the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I turned to
more subjective, artistic, personal work from the period—the photographs and
biography of WPA photographer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange">Dorothea Lange</a>, the
essays of the iconic columnist<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Caen">
Herb Caen</a>, the biographies of folk roots musician Woody Guthrie and SF
Chronicle editor in chief, Paul C. Smith. There was a lot in these sources to
use.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I decided.
I was going to write a historical novel. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiovqIJDFknCiHt1WV77ZO_VjQjxj4EUZQLisdfl5fQvRB2yeCB2OjdMXFqIkN5fCJEJJPH9YsjZOXhDK48upCehFZE3EuNcEjVKnsWaUowWVzLTicNn6c4Zl5JLHSvH5mJ0NMhN2FfgxY/s1600/Shelly+B-S+-+book+cover+image.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiovqIJDFknCiHt1WV77ZO_VjQjxj4EUZQLisdfl5fQvRB2yeCB2OjdMXFqIkN5fCJEJJPH9YsjZOXhDK48upCehFZE3EuNcEjVKnsWaUowWVzLTicNn6c4Zl5JLHSvH5mJ0NMhN2FfgxY/s320/Shelly+B-S+-+book+cover+image.png" width="203" /></a></div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But I soon
learned the problem with doing so is the way fact and truth conflict, every
scene requiring a negotiation between the two. Could I use the names of
real-life people in my fiction? Many authors do this, to great effect. And I
have done so, on the periphery—most notably, letting J. R. Oppenheimer wax
philosophic and bed an important character. But I didn’t feel I could do so
with the major characters. I couldn’t take the risk of getting their lives
wrong, factually, in order to create what was my truth about these lives. I couldn’t
limit the story to what “really happened.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet, even
though a person might think authors of straight historical nonfiction would have
an absolute obligation to only rely on facts, many such authors turn to fictive
techniques—creating composite characters, recreating conversations the writer
never heard or read, creating interior thought based on speculation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At any rate,
for me, it doesn’t make sense to expect a big fat line between fact and fiction;
because scholars have by now established that all memory is a kind of fiction. We
never remember things objectively. Such nonfiction is less like fact than it is
like what we call “truth”—a mix of verifiable facts and one person’s impressions
and reflections about those facts, arrived at via memory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even when
the nonfiction historical writer has zero intention to use fictive strategies,
if they collect ten facts but use only nine, the elimination of that ninth
fact, the choice of the writer to focus here, but not there, in favor of their
sense of the truth, introduces the potential for inaccuracy. When you collect
verified facts and then choose which of those you will write about, you are subjectively
creating a particular truth the reader will perceive, and perhaps believe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">This is a
moral weight that historical novelists must bear.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In <i>Copy
Boy</i>, I found early inspiration for my protagonist in the life of iconic San
Francisco columnist, Herb Caen. I never considered using his name (even when my
protagonist was a boy, before I turned him into a cross-dressing girl), not
just because it would be too hard to get everything “right” but because I
wanted the freedom to make my protagonist behave very badly. I wanted to let her
run to the edges of what the real-life writer might have been tempted to do. I
wanted the freedom of letting her do awful things, without the guilt of
attaching a real person’s name to that behavior.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This was
doubly important to me about my father’s stories, which inspired so much in the
book. But those scenes in the novel are not the same as his stories. The facts
aren’t the same. And my truth in using those stories is different than his
truth in telling them in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Still, I
breathed in relief at his comment after he read my final version of the first
chapter based on his story—<i>Good job. That’s not what really happened.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Connect
with Shelley via </span></i><a href="https://shelleyblantonstroud.com/"><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">her
website</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,</span></i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/blantonstroudauthor/"><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Facebook</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
</span></i><a href="https://twitter.com/blantonstroud"><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Twitter</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
or </span></i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/blantonstroud/"><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Instagram</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.
Find all links</span></i><a href="https://shelleyblantonstroud.com/copy-boy/"><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
to purchase Copy Boy here</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, including major online retailers
as well as independent bookstores. Join her online for the book’s launch. <o:p></o:p></span></i><a href="https://www.crowdcast.io/e/copy-boy-launch-party/register" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" target="_blank">Register at Crowdcast.</a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">All images courtesy Shelly Blanton-Stroud</span></i></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-69903140028084415052020-05-26T10:12:00.000-04:002020-05-26T10:12:11.120-04:00Guest Blogger Christin Geall on Insta-prose: Developing an Audience Through Images<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaGyglZu44HATQMi3A1Y3w3NlXmaPKH6VMXmO9wwFetye1-bf7C2hO0TAEwEx_NZO877wNFNia0r0DFkPghuuE7DX-ksJm8d2YYbyvdCaSW7e3jt2ZNFSMSMugFhWFAcF6BpgLkElq-A/s1600/Cultivated+COVER_hi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1154" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaGyglZu44HATQMi3A1Y3w3NlXmaPKH6VMXmO9wwFetye1-bf7C2hO0TAEwEx_NZO877wNFNia0r0DFkPghuuE7DX-ksJm8d2YYbyvdCaSW7e3jt2ZNFSMSMugFhWFAcF6BpgLkElq-A/s320/Cultivated+COVER_hi.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Christin
Geall is a Canadian writer, designer, photographer, and author of <i>Cultivated: Elements of Floral Style</i>
(Princeton Architectural Press, 2020). Her writing and floral work focuses on
the intersections of nature, culture, and horticulture, and she teaches internationally.
Trained in horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, she completed a BA
in Environmental Studies & Anthropology and a MFA in Writing (at the
Stonecoast Program in Maine, which is where we met), and has been a writing
professor and gardening columnist for <i>Gardenista</i>. <i>Architectural
Digest</i> called her book “<span style="background: white; color: #262323;">delightfully
vibrant” and the <i>Seattle Times</i> recently quipped </span></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">"Geall
might just be the M.F.K. Fisher (American grande dame of food writing) of
flowers." </span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Please
welcome Christin Geall<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Flash
nonfiction? The segmented memoir? The prose poem? When I was in graduate school
studying creative nonfiction, I mastered none of these forms. Despite a
background as a lifestyle columnist and editor, I couldn’t write both
poetically<i> and</i> short. But I yearned to, so I studied stylists like
Abigail Thomas, MFK Fisher, and Annie Dillard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">To
get one thing straight right away: I’m a terrible storyteller. And not a great
consumer of aural nonfiction stories, either. At dinner parties I’d sooner
listen to someone tell a tale as watch them pick their teeth. I like ideas,
conversation, and a bit of banter, yes, but I didn’t think myself ironic enough,
clever enough, or frankly even online enough, for Twitter. And Facebook, well,
I found it either too political or too congenial for decent exchange of thought,
much less story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Enter
the image as a writing prompt. A subject for discussion, and suddenly all my storytelling
and audience problems were solved. Looking back on how I accumulated 97,000 </span><span lang="EN-CA"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/cultivatedbychristin/?hl=en"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Instagram</span></a></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> followers, and the
success of my recent book </span><span lang="EN-CA"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cultivated-Elements-Floral-Christin-Geall/dp/1616898208"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Cultivated: The Elements of Floral
Style</span></a></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">
(Princeton Architectural Press, 2020), I see now how my training in the
micro-essay changed my career as well as my relationship to nonfiction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I
had evolved into a personal essayist, memoirist, and an academic by the time I
joined Instagram in 2015, yet I had always struggled to write the longform
pieces that my career required. I did possess a deep knowledge and love for
plants, so I had thirty years of passion to write about, in addition to a
fascination with the ideas and language of the fine arts. Creativity is
universal—what I’d learned in grad school about the process of writing,
workshopping and critique, I applied to my work with flowers – and then to how
I’d tell short stories around them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">On
Instagram, where a post is driven by one image, you are limited to 2,200
characters, or roughly about 350 words. Given I’m more sprinter than
marathoner, the platform fit. Those 350-ish words, I found, are ample space for
a concept to be explained, an idea explored, or even a bit of narration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">As
I lobbed ideas to a hash-tagged audience and reflected on their comments, I
found my thinking (and opinions) refined. As I encountered friction, or
clarification, I entered into conversation. I made friends, of course, learned,
networked, and steadily over the past few years, became a sought-after voice in
my field. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">When
the speaking invitations arrived, I was ready; I built my talks with multiple
short “stories” about flowers and the ways they connect us with nature, painting,
history, ourselves—just as a good essayist, memoirist, or columnist might do on
the page.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">By
the time the book deal happened—a book combining my photographs with short
essays on style, creativity, and everything from Baroque music to wabi sabi to
the psychology of colour—I not only had an audience who wanted to learn more, but
also 20,000 of the 40,000 words needed for the book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Photography
was not something I’d ever truly wanted to learn, but now that I have, I’m
grateful for its silence and the way it pulls me creatively. At first, I had to
stretch to create images I thought worthy of an Instagram post, let alone a
book, but as I learned to use a camera I found the art itself became another
subject for inquiry, which is of course, always a good thing for an essayist.
Long <i>or </i>short form.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b><u>Note
from Lisa:</u></b> You can connect with Christin at her </span><span lang="EN-CA"><a href="https://cultivated.shop/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">website</span></a></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">, and on </span><span lang="EN-CA"><a href="http://instagram.com/cultivatedbychristin"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Instagram</span></a></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">, </span><span lang="EN-CA"><a href="http://facebook.com/cultivatedbychristin"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Facebook,</span></a></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> or </span><span lang="EN-CA"><a href="http://twitter.com/christingeall"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Twitter</span></a></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">. You can </span><span lang="EN-CA"><a href="http://www.cultivatedbychristin.com/book"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">find
her book,<i> Cultivated</i></span></a></span><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">, </span></i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">at major online retailers, or order
from Indiebound or through your local independent bookstore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-47683519972053188312020-04-07T08:30:00.000-04:002020-04-07T08:30:03.199-04:00Guest Blogger Michelle Cameron on: Launching a Book in the Time of COVID-19: A Personal View<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguqeHxHjNOoAv2_GTxezi4eWGROhn-IhjcnUwUDBOOP0iA45bjfEve98UHsNZu9iimKIZCPyL5AX_NE7qxGmNW1S5Ad3ZSAq3P52dd5UM0B1UDrVcRtXT7PSAJSAxZnwz7v1grm3kG9q8/s1600/Michelle_20206+-%25C2%25AC2015+Peter+Vidor+-+headshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguqeHxHjNOoAv2_GTxezi4eWGROhn-IhjcnUwUDBOOP0iA45bjfEve98UHsNZu9iimKIZCPyL5AX_NE7qxGmNW1S5Ad3ZSAq3P52dd5UM0B1UDrVcRtXT7PSAJSAxZnwz7v1grm3kG9q8/s320/Michelle_20206+-%25C2%25AC2015+Peter+Vidor+-+headshot.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">A
little more than seven years ago, I began teaching with <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://writerscircleworkshops.com/" target="_blank">The Writers Circle</a></span>, a regional New Jersey writing
community, in large part because of Michelle Cameron, an historical fiction
novelist and poet. Since then, we’ve become colleagues in so many ways, and
friends.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Please
welcome Michelle Cameron, whose newest novel launches today.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I’ve
been here before. Sort of.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">My
first novel, <i>The Fruit of Her Hands</i>, was published by Simon &
Schuster’s Pocket Books, during the recession of 2009. My beloved editor was
let go three days before my launch, meaning I was then – using the term for
authors who experience this phenomenon all too often – <i>orphaned</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">No
editor means no advocate in the publishing house, so while I had the foresight to
hire a publicist who knew the Jewish reading market (my novel was a Jewish
historical) and who scheduled many events locally and further afield, I was
largely on my own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The
book – a $25 hardcover – was a tough sell. People were hesitant to spend any
extra money in a recession, and even those who showed up to events and seemed
like the ideal appreciative audience, told me they’d wait for the paperback.
But the publisher decided my numbers weren’t </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">strong
enough for a paperback.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Fast
forward eleven years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">In
that time, I’d written three novels. The first, based on the Babylonian Exile,
was completed during the long wait for <i>Fruit</i> to be published. I loved
the book; I still love the book. My agent did not. After a lukewarm attempt to
place it, it went back in my drawer. The second, based on Jewish emancipation
during the French Revolution, never really gelled. When I finally, reluctantly,
realized the story wasn’t strong enough, I put it aside. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The
third novel launches today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><a href="https://michelle-cameron.com/beyond-the-ghetto-gates/" target="_blank">Beyond the Ghetto Gates</a></i>, a</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> historical
novel set during Napoleon’s first Italian campaign when he liberated the Jews
from their restrictive ghettos, had a long slog to publication – an initially
enthusiastic agent who tried hard, some nice rejections from publishing houses
looking exclusively for the now-pervasive WWII novel. (The trend was for “contemporary
historicals,” a phrase that still makes me shake my head in disbelief.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Finally,
I approached the hybrid publisher <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://shewritespress.com/" target="_blank">She Writes Press</a></span>.
And I loved what they did with the book – the beautiful cover, the care and
attention to production values. After years of writing, revising, and trying to
get published, I wanted to give the novel the best possible chance to find its
audience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">From
the start, my promotional strategy was to secure synagogue events close to my
New Jersey home – hoping that by the time I reached the<a href="https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/" target="_blank"> <span class="MsoHyperlink">Jewish Book Council’s</span></a> presentation to Jewish
organizations nationwide, there’d be enough buzz that I’d be one of the lucky
authors to be invited to present my novel further afield. (JBC covers airfare
and lodging for those authors.) I hired
two publicists – one who worked the media side and a second who by February was
doing a brilliant job, booking me for more than two dozen events during April,
May, and June.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I
was set. I was excited. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Then,
COVID-19 struck. And everything unraveled. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Now,
I know my problem is tiny in the face of this deadly pandemic. I’m home and my
family is healthy. I can continue to teach and work virtually. There’s enough stored
food in the house for weeks. I can walk outside without undue fear. I have so
much to be thankful for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Still
– this stinks. I’ve postponed or canceled most events. Some may be rescheduled when
things return to normal. But I’m not naïve – I know some simply won’t. People
move on. Newer books always seem shinier, more appealing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">And
I realize this is what publishers have always worried about – sudden
catastrophes no one can anticipate or prevent that steal the spotlight from new
books. Julia Alvarez’s first novel in 14 years, <i>Afterlife</i>, is pubbing
today too. Just imagine how the folks at her publishers, Algonquin, must feel!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But
here’s where my bleak story turns positive. Through the generosity of fellow
authors and organizations, I’ve pivoted energetically toward social media,
accepting offers of video placement, podcasts, blog posts, interviews and live book
events on Zoom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I
was featured in a recent <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuNZ9NC3UrM&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">virtual reading presented by Murphy Writing of Stockton University</a></span> and my first chapter will soon be read
aloud online (see link below). My publisher is dramatically boosting one book a
day for all April releases – my day is April 8.
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The
friends I’d tapped for my Street Team are making tremendous efforts on my
behalf – re-posting my teaser passages and blurbs, talking up the novel. I’m
grateful to them all.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Of
course, the essential question remains: will all this virtual activity turn
into book sales? For now, I’ve decided only that it certainly can’t hurt. Maybe
I’ll reach readers that I never would have before. I truly hope my novel can
provide a much-needed escape from this nightmare we’re all living – that my
words can touch someone who would never have heard of the book otherwise. May
it indeed be so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Note
from Lisa:</b> Connect with Michelle on <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/michellecameronauthor/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></span>, <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://twitter.com/mcameron_writer" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span>, and <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/michellecameronwriter/" target="_blank">Instagram</a></span>,
and at <span class="MsoHyperlink">her <a href="https://michelle-cameron.com/" target="_blank">website</a></span>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">You
can catch part of Michelle’s Social Media Tour at the following. (More being
added daily. See the <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://michelle-cameron.com/more-about-workshops-and-events-given-by-michelle-cameron/" target="_blank">Events page</a> on her website</span>.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">April
7 – </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Readers Coffeehouse</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">April
8 – She Writes Press KEEP CALM AND READ ON Spring Virtual Book Tour with </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://thegirlybookclub.com/" target="_blank">Girly Book Club</a></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">April
15, 7:00 pm (Eastern) – She Writes authors Eileen Sanchez and Michelle Cameron
in conversation about <i>Beyond the Ghetto Gates</i> via Zoom;<a href="https://zoom.us/meeting/register/u5IrcOGvrz0jdK_kd32V07y-7NYFvUqfig" target="_blank"> click </a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://zoom.us/meeting/register/u5IrcOGvrz0jdK_kd32V07y-7NYFvUqfig" target="_blank">here to register</a> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">April
23 – </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="about:blank" target="_blank">The Book of Life </a><a href="https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">BOOKS IN THE TIME OF
CORONAVIRUS podcast </a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">April
26 – First Chapter Fun on <span class="MsoHyperlink">Hannah Mary McKinnon’s website</span>
and on her </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/hannahmarymckinnon/"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Instagram Live</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-41245254273715369812020-01-18T08:13:00.003-05:002020-01-18T08:13:29.639-05:00Writers Writing in Rooms in Winter. Sign me up.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A few months ago, while completing details related to teaching a three-day memoir workshop at the <a href="https://wintergetaway.com/" target="_blank">Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway</a> (where I'm at this weekend), I hesitated at the question, <i>Would you like to attend a complimentary master class for faculty, with featured special guest poets<a href="https://wintergetaway.com/getaway-reads-2020-two-poems-by-denise-duhamel/" target="_blank"> Denise Duhamel</a> and <a href="https://wintergetaway.com/getaway-reads-2020-two-poems-yusef-komunyakaa/" target="_blank">Yusef Komunyakaa</a>?</i> </div>
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This would require arriving about five hours earlier than strictly necessary, and on the last full day I'd have to prep for the start of the spring MFA teaching semester, which would begin the morning after my return. Could I really spare three hours? Still, I knew my schedule that day would likely be flexible. Also, the thought of getting out of hectic northern NJ and settling in to a sprawling old world/completely remodeled hotel by the ocean seemed appealing. </div>
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What clinched it was that it occurred to me that I had not sat in the student/writer participant chair for quite a long time. Had not written anything resembling a poem in even longer, but have always loved being in the room with poets, which pushes me to think differently; I usually emerge with something that I later revise into a prose poem, or a piece of flash creative nonfiction (which is how<a href="https://wintergetaway.com/getaway-reads-2020-a-personal-essay-by-lisa-romeo/" target="_blank"> this one </a>got started a few years ago). Or even if not, I leave that kind of room lighter.</div>
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Sign me up.</div>
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A few things conspired to make me late. (You know those dumb scenes in movies where someone's suitcase explodes, spewing contents all over? Picture this, between my back door and garage, at 7:30 a.m., then me going back in the house, into the attic, to fish out the only remaining suitcase, so old there's no rolling wheels or pull handle.) So when I slid into a chair, the several dozen other writer-teachers were discussing intricacies of one of Komunyakaa's poems and it took a bit to settle in and catch up. But then, for the next two-plus hours, my pen moved, my brain slowed down. I was able to look off into space, and think, muse, wonder. Write. Consider.</div>
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Then <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/yusef-komunyakaa#tab-poems" target="_blank">Komunyakaa</a> -- a Pulitzer Prize recipient and eminent voice -- said a few things that stopped me in place, lit me up with that familiar sense, a combination of intuitive understanding and driving curiosity. </div>
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Here's some of what he shared; I'm paraphrasing here, and of course can't even begin to convey the richness of his speaking voice, his quiet wit alternating with gravitas:</div>
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- A poem is a dialogue, a beckoning. It's all about the tone, the music of a phrase.</div>
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- Titles should never be a resolution stuck on top of a poem. Titles are an invitation. The poem is not equal to the title.</div>
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- I always and only revise a draft of a poem from the bottom up, because that's usually where it's needed. I often write right on past the natural ending because I'm trying to explain everything, and I had not left that door ajar, as you must. I may start out with 150 lines, but the final poem is 40 lines. But that original ending is not usually the real ending. It all comes down to the right confluence of images and connections.</div>
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- A prompt can take you anywhere.</div>
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The prompt he gave next was to write an ode in praise of oneself, and I wrote about my love/hate relationship with my legs. Like most workshop-generated rough writing, I loved and hated it! What it may one day be, who knows.</div>
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After a brown bag lunch, <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/denise-duhamel" target="_blank">Denise Duhamel </a>asked us to engage with an excerpt from <i>I Remember</i>, a book-length poem by Joe Brainard in which every line or small paragraph begins with "I remember..." and then to write for 15 minutes in the same way. Since an "I remember" list is one of my go-to writing prompts in memoir classes, I sat up straighter in my chair, and wrote, mostly about what I remember of the two years I spent living in Orange County, California in my 20's, riding horses and competing in shows.</div>
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Next up was to consider three poems which all end on the word "life", to take one of those ending lines and make it the start of something. I went with (from "A Moment" by Ruth Stone), "you do not want to repeat my life," and wrote of how, at various times in my life, I did or did not want to repeat parts of my own life, my sister's life, my mother's life. </div>
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Too soon, it was time to pick up my folder with my roster of writer participants who would be sitting around my workshop table the next morning. But when I got to my hotel room, before I pulled out all my materials and shifted back into teaching mode to prepare, I pulled on layers of clothing, hat, scarf, and gloves, and struck out to walk the paved cart paths of the <a href="https://www.seaviewdolcehotel.com/" target="_blank">golf courses behind the hotel </a>for a chilly but restorative hour (in 34 but "feels like 23" degrees). Walking, and thinking about images, endings, about not explaining so much, about remembering and what we don't remember, and how to write about it all. </div>
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At the opening reception, <a href="https://murphywriting.com/" target="_blank">Peter Murphy,</a> who began the Poetry & Prose Getaway more than two decades ago, reminded the 200-plus in attendance, we are all -- teachers, mentors, workshop leaders, special guest -- just writers together after all, writers writing in rooms, stoking energy and words and more.</div>
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Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-13227979994138705212020-01-13T11:11:00.001-05:002020-01-13T11:32:25.570-05:00Working for a Living, Living Like a Writer, Working with Writing: Not the same as making a living AS a writer. And that's OK.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A young woman writer said this to me at an event recently.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m quick to correct her: No, I don’t.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Because it’s the truth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I make a living, I tell her, <i>because</i> I’m a writer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Each January I calculate how much I earned from each of the
activities I get paid for and in which percentages in the previous year. I want to understand where
the money comes from, where the time goes. <o:p></o:p>(I hate math and I'm bad at it; my husband cannot understand how I was once the statistician for the men's ice hockey team at Syracuse University, but I digress: check out the<a href="https://percentagecalculator.net/" target="_blank"> Percentage Calculator.)</a></div>
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In 2019, some 33 percent of my income came from editing book
manuscripts, essays, and book proposals, and acting as a writing coach. The
largest amount, 40 percent, was earned by teaching in an online MFA program,
and about 23 percent from teaching other writing classes and speaking and leading
workshops at conferences, retreats, and libraries. That leaves just 2 percent
from book sales and royalties and another 3 percent from paid freelance writing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s it. That last figure is how I did <i>not</i> even get
close to making a living as a writer<i>.</i> My income right now comes mostly
from helping others with their writing, their writing life. </div>
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This is fine with me, for now. Many years ago, I did in fact
make a full time living as a full-time freelance writer—back when there were
scads of print magazines and newspapers doling out living wages for articles.
But now, my husband (also self-employed) and I have two kids in college, live
in one of the most expensive areas of the country (northern NJ, 10 miles from
NYC), fund our own health insurance and retirement. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m not complaining. I’ve chosen this. Although often it
feels like I’m cobbling things together with whatever comes my way, I’m also fairly
methodical about seeking opportunities, proposing things, applying for gigs. It’s
good that people notice I’m busy, that I work a lot—mostly because that often
leads to future work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I guess that’s what the young woman above was reacting to—my
busyness, perhaps combined with <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5371028182709754366#editor/target=page;pageID=3750269415661595663;onPublishedMenu=pages;onClosedMenu=pages;postNum=0;src=pagename" target="_blank">getting published enough</a> (in short forms, though
often in unpaid literary journals) so that it appears I spend a lot of my time
on my own writing. I don’t.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Depending on the cycle of the academic semester, and how
much freelance editing/coaching work I have in the house at any one time, my
own writing gets done—much like most writers on the planet, I suspect—<i>in between</i>.
When there’s a lull, some breathing space. Over holiday breaks and on Sundays
and very late at night and occasionally when I need a respite from others’
words and writing problems and editing needs. I like to think this reality helps
make me more understanding of the time management, energy, and brain-drain challenges
my writing clients and adult MFA students deal with daily.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, to the dear lovely young writer above—who I might add said
this to me at a reading/speaking engagement for<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Goodbye-Daughters-Memoir-After/dp/194385968X" target="_blank"> my memoir</a> where I was (a)
getting paid; (b) trolling for prospective clients; and (c) hopefully selling
books: No, I don’t make a living as a writer. But thanks. Right now, it’s
enough that I make a living <i>among </i>writers. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now then. It’s Sunday morning and I have my (abbreviated)
work day mapped out: edit four more essays in the manuscript of a client’s
essay collection; finish the schedule for the three-day memoir workshop I’m
teaching next weekend about 130 miles from home.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then, maybe, if I’m not too tired, and if my husband is still
mainlining playoff football, and if I have anything left in the tank, I want to
work on an essay of my own I’ve been tinkering with for three months…<o:p></o:p><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image, top: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/146269332@N03/" target="_blank">Flickr/CreativeCommons - Trending Topics 2019</a></span></i></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-61493138205146995092020-01-01T12:51:00.000-05:002020-01-18T23:22:34.784-05:00Yep, I Still Did it.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every New Year's Eve, I make two *I Did It Lists* for the year that's ending (one professional, the other personal), I choose my super-secret word for the next year, and I toss out old make-up and expired stuff in the bathroom.<br />
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I won't bore you with make-up and cabinet clear-out. But I would like to say a few (hundred) words about the two lists and one word.<br />
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Some years ago, I wrote the first "I Did It List" blog post, encouraging myself and other writers to look back with acknowledgement of our writing life accomplishments--no matter how small or un-measurable they may appear to anyone else--and be proud that we...stuck with it, wrote, sent work out, learned something, tried, explored, experimented, revised, rewrote, changed, learned.<br />
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Not only the obvious, usual standards of writing accomplishments, like number of pieces published, sold, or finished, agents landed, book deals inked, submissions accepted, freelance checks cashed. Instead, I want to look the other perhaps small yet meaningful things that kept us on course, kept us stimulated, interested, productive, curious writers--at whatever level or frequency our lives, jobs, obligations, hopes, and goals allowed.<br />
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If you did it, and it made some difference in your life as a writer, it qualifies for the list.<br />
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An *I Did It List* shifts focus to what brought us pleasure and pride, and encourages a pause. To say to ourselves: see, you moved ahead as a writer after all. You stayed in the game. You took a few (maybe baby) steps. You didn't quit. You did something. Probably many things...<br />
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Read the rest--and find out the meaning of the word just below, by clicking over to <a href="http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1102712936538&ca=04759b5e-939f-481d-8e54-a5352b9b455d" target="_blank">my newsletter here</a>.<br />
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Happy New Year and wishing you all much success on all of your creative endeavors in 2020!<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Images: Flickr/CreativeCommons</span></i><br />
<br />Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-31611559718493940152019-08-01T12:31:00.002-04:002019-08-01T12:31:39.405-04:00Publication Goals 2019, Mid-Year Report: Numbers and What Really Matters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVb8fafiC0Zp3PZENGwun1HpFxqGkmvo_sO2JO0M6UfTJxXAHsUG1Xv9QgOSIMY3o94or33MxV1Cg-m7cuYC71gk4r_Pb-DYDtYWdSm6VqdWzKPWnkn3WiFnLJpb-4UR0O6RmB6EehNZY/s1600/goals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="600" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVb8fafiC0Zp3PZENGwun1HpFxqGkmvo_sO2JO0M6UfTJxXAHsUG1Xv9QgOSIMY3o94or33MxV1Cg-m7cuYC71gk4r_Pb-DYDtYWdSm6VqdWzKPWnkn3WiFnLJpb-4UR0O6RmB6EehNZY/s320/goals.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Every January, when I think about my upcoming writing year, in addition to working on one big work-in-progress project, I envision
what I’d like to see happen with publication of short pieces of work.
I’m usually pretty consistently writing and sending off short memoir, essay, and nonfiction narratives (in the
100 to 2500-word range) and it’s motivating to have some submission and
publication goals in mind. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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This year, I knew that by early summer, I’d want to begin my
next book—and that is indeed underway…slowly. I’m having fun getting it off the
ground, writing some crappy rough draft pages, making plans. (More on this in a few months, as its still in early infancy, and since it’s an experiential project, I
first have to <i>do </i>the stuff I want to write about!)<o:p></o:p></div>
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In early 2019 I set the goal of getting 12 short pieces
published—roughly one each month—in print or online, in literary journals, mainstream
media/sites, anthologies. Mostly I picked that number/frequency to keep myself motivated
and on track with writing and revision, and to keep filling the submission pipeline.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Now that we’re just past the halfway mark in the calendar,
it’s time for me to evaluate progress. Over the years, I’ve gained a lot
from peeking inside other writers’ goal-setting and progress reports, so I’m
sharing it with you. <o:p></o:p></div>
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First though, I had to ask myself, how do I define “success”
when it comes to this goal? Is it hitting the mark of one piece appearing each
and every calendar month? Or just 12 publications by year’s end? Is it more logical
to measure success as submitting enough work to <i>reasonably attain</i> 12 acceptances?
(Some folks measure submission success in numbers of rejections, figuring
that each rejection brings one closer to an acceptance. They have a point,
but I don’t like measurements based on negativity myself.) Perhaps success is producing,
over the course of the year, enough quality polished short works that are ready
to go, even if, by December 31, they didn’t move all the way through the
pipeline from submission to 12 acceptances <i>yet</i>?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well, all of that matters—or at least a little of each of
those things, I suppose.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The tally for publication (and one acceptance, w/publication
forthcoming) of short pieces in 2019 so far stands at six for creative work, plus one article and one guest post, and looks like this: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJSpW0oj90FSFGA00pEX0Go-qUNo04TNsIWViFkvIRyw0mL9UhpgxqF-1rIx6O7L9L_ZUtLBLvUVJ4N7avTl7NH64meZyTFEL6NvjaLIB4W52UtTLbZXGYAUrC5Fgqp_DVfbaJD9kntK4/s1600/keyboard+with+petals+-+marco+verch+FCC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJSpW0oj90FSFGA00pEX0Go-qUNo04TNsIWViFkvIRyw0mL9UhpgxqF-1rIx6O7L9L_ZUtLBLvUVJ4N7avTl7NH64meZyTFEL6NvjaLIB4W52UtTLbZXGYAUrC5Fgqp_DVfbaJD9kntK4/s320/keyboard+with+petals+-+marco+verch+FCC.jpg" width="320" /></a>-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->An essay on a mainstream website covering couples
and relationships. (February)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->An essay on a website that focuses on
spirituality and mindfulness. (March)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->An essay in one of Medium’s edited publications.
(July)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->A short nonfiction piece in a popular mainstream
print anthology. (August)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->A piece of flash nonfiction in the online
portion of a literary journal. (August)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->Another work of flash nonfiction in a
specialized online literary journal. (September)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> - </span>An invited guest post on memoir craft for an educational venue’s website. (April)<o:p></o:p></div>
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- -A Q&A interview w/a fiction writer about her new book, on a cool literary website (May)</div>
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My (exceedingly exhaustive, multi-page,
bordering-on-obsessive) submission tracker spreadsheet tells me that at the
moment, I have four completed pieces out on submission at a total of 11 venues. That’s not a lot, and a bit short of my usual making-the-rounds total. Twelve publications (not just acceptances) might not happen by year's end.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While the little Post-it list on my desk that lists works still-in-progress
says there are three more almost-ready pieces that <i>should</i> make it into that
submission pipeline over the next few months, with the teaching semester
getting underway in three weeks, that’s perhaps doubtful. (Then of course, there's<i> life</i>, interrupting and insisting on my attention all the damn time!)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Funny thing about writing/publishing goals though, at least for me.
Seems that whether I get close, or achieve the goal, or fall just a little bit or
a long way short, the result is often the same: I usually feel just fine
about it. Because no matter what, I learn something, sometimes
something important—about my writing process, my subject matter, myself. </div>
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<b>And
especially, I learn more about what it means to move personal nonfiction stories out into the world—and how, when, why, and where I want that to happen.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLawSLVv3hTgikzyIj1cz2G-9db9Q8WSmXbS18SzK9hFEs5L818OjNeumTT6vrpTzTFOsaTBLlHuIij96b-oh_Xf8PSD8WBW-kFtZ65eGuQFpSs8vtnUBHizh8OBgnVjiO_yEEJ6SzTlE/s1600/Glassworks+logo+-+pic+August+2019+Grave+Duty.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="852" data-original-width="957" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLawSLVv3hTgikzyIj1cz2G-9db9Q8WSmXbS18SzK9hFEs5L818OjNeumTT6vrpTzTFOsaTBLlHuIij96b-oh_Xf8PSD8WBW-kFtZ65eGuQFpSs8vtnUBHizh8OBgnVjiO_yEEJ6SzTlE/s320/Glassworks+logo+-+pic+August+2019+Grave+Duty.png" width="320" /></a>I’ve learned that by the time a piece is published, it sometimes means something different to me thing than it did when I first wrote it. With some pieces, some stories, simply sharing them with readers is deeply satisfying.
With others, the satisfaction comes from having brought a treasured now-gone relative
or friend back to life on page or screen, or from sharing a cherished
experience with the world, even if that world is a relatively small number of
readers who care about true, personal stories.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And in the end, regardless of numbers and goals and keeping
track, that’s very often enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Did you set a publication goal for this year? How’s it
going?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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You can find some of the above-mentioned pieces via the links in the left margin of this blog. The latest is <a href="http://www.rowanglassworks.org/flash-glass-2019/a-grave-duty-by-lisa-romeo">“A
Grave Duty,” over on Flash Glass</a>, the online home of <i>Glassworks</i>
journal from Rowan University (which, in a cool unrelated but fun twist, is
where one of my sons is now a student!).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image: keyboard with petals - <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/30478819@N08/" target="_blank">Marco Verch at Flickr/Creative Commons</a></span></i></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-21311310843354005652019-06-17T12:52:00.000-04:002019-08-01T12:33:07.387-04:00Spring 2019 Newsletter<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-layout-editor" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; color: black; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold;">It's bird, it's a plane, it's...true spring in New Jersey!</span></div>
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Hello Readers and Friends,</div>
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Something strange and lovely has happened in northern New Jersey this spring: we’re having spring-like weather! Instead of jumping straight from winter chill to days that feel like infernos, it’s actually spring: balmy, breezy, mild. Temps in the 60s. Cool evenings, sleeping with windows open. Days when I don’t dump a gallon of anti-frizz humidity control goop on my hair.</div>
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Hubby and I—novice empty-nesters—are eating on the patio, taking early evening walks without dripping (too much) sweat, leisurely shopping at farmer’s markets instead of grabbing quickly and bolting back to the air-conditioned car. Anyone who has lived in the Garden State knows it won’t last, and so it’s especially sweet.</div>
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These past precious weeks of true spring time have also lured me to stretch into a big new writing project....</div>
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<a href="https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Spring-in-NJ---Notes-from-author-Lisa-Romeo.html?soid=1102712936538&aid=FOLE0akAXHI" target="_blank">Read the rest of this post, plus lots more, at my latest newsletter.</a></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-83382300364577103572019-05-01T10:51:00.001-04:002019-05-01T10:51:49.623-04:00One Year Book Anniversary: Traditional Gift is Paper, the Modern Gift is a Clock. Both make sense to me!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiueDr285fUb7XwWHrNqAIK2kfBzuxNYtGw4Glc_c_udTp9kywpX1IbCUP9dWnp3edHIQxlx1qN30ALQBnYPYGmeBAasp-aRTlz9z9AByYJfL4dI1WVArnh-mjKW4qVAY0TNLWUHVacepU/s1600/for+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1321" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiueDr285fUb7XwWHrNqAIK2kfBzuxNYtGw4Glc_c_udTp9kywpX1IbCUP9dWnp3edHIQxlx1qN30ALQBnYPYGmeBAasp-aRTlz9z9AByYJfL4dI1WVArnh-mjKW4qVAY0TNLWUHVacepU/s400/for+blog.jpg" width="330" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today is my book’s first
birthday, or perhaps the right term is first <i>anniversary</i>. STARTING WITH GOODBYE
was published a year ago by <a href="https://unevadapress.com/books/?isbn=9781943859689" target="_blank">University of Nevada Press.</a> I’m so grateful to everyone who supported the book and me through a busy year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yesterday I had lunch with a lovely student-turned-client who is working hard to make her first book manuscript shine as brightly as possible. She asked the question I don't always know how to answer: So, what has it <i>really</i> been like? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I tried to explain. These past twelve months -- during which I spent a lot of time promoting, marketing, publicizing, interviewing, and making appearances on behalf of <i>the book, the book, the book</i> -- well, they weren't always what I thought they'd be. Sometimes events turned out so much better than I could have hoped; people and organizations surprised me with their welcoming warmth, tangible support, and wonderful moments. Other times, well, let's just say, things played out differently. (As they do in life, not just in publishing!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What I wanted this other writer to know is that it was a year full of extremes: excitement, exhaustion, exhilaration, eye-openers, errors, and enriching experiences. Alternately fun and frustrating, busy and not, a year of learning what to focus on and what to let go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I learned not to watch sales numbers (so much else is crazy-making about the book journey, why find another way to worry?), <a href="https://booksbywomen.org/if-you-give-a-writer-a-book-contract-shes-going-to-wanteverything/" target="_blank">not to compare my book's </a>trajectory with any other authors', and not to assume that everything promised will actually come to pass. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've learned that the very best moments are not about crowds or high number of likes/shares/followers or what BookScan has to say. No, the best moments are when I am talking to a reader, one reader, who has something to tell me, some story that floats in the air between us, something that my book, my words, have invited her to share. I always want to listen. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3pJxxPRmNRGwQk63wNXkxk1gO1DfCo7Sp5GFnX5N-63yKchNQk5xG87sGlb4cKQ_RDxm_AJ7lp0hJhcEv9XVSaq_szh2Sy7jPtmzXtZmn7hT9zBZjke690J0K06AunXEWqby8BHQweEQ/s1600/newtonville+-+with+Kim+A.+-+%2523+2+better.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3pJxxPRmNRGwQk63wNXkxk1gO1DfCo7Sp5GFnX5N-63yKchNQk5xG87sGlb4cKQ_RDxm_AJ7lp0hJhcEv9XVSaq_szh2Sy7jPtmzXtZmn7hT9zBZjke690J0K06AunXEWqby8BHQweEQ/s320/newtonville+-+with+Kim+A.+-+%2523+2+better.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">As a nonfiction writer who mines my own life for story fodder, I can’t think of any better response to what I've written than someone who wants to tell me their story too. It's my belief, or at least my experience, that memoir authors write the things we do, about universal experiences we all have in common, because that is how we find it easiest to connect to other human beings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When I think about how lucky it is that my book has created these connections, I'm still a little bit stunned. There were times when I asked myself (and frankly some people asked me directly!), how readers would react to a memoir like mine. STARTING WITH GOODBYE, after all, is about the<span style="background: white; color: #1d2129;"> unpredictability of grief as it snaked through my life in
the three years following my father’s death.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There were times I worried that readers would not want to engage with this kind of tough stuff, with a book that might seem as if it's all about sadness. I had to trust that readers would give it a chance and along the way find that it’s not all sad, that even a story that pivots on grief can also be about funny, odd, and surprising events, about wacky relatives, about the weird things people say and do around grief that make us laugh
when we shouldn’t but really need to (think <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJny78bpsgo&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">Chuckles the Clown’s funeral episode</a> on the old <i>Mary Tyler
Moore</i> show). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not only are readers embracing all those parts of the book, but I've had remarkable conversations about how those moments are part of grief too, lighter moments that get us through. I've been encouraged and enlightened by readers who get my larger message: that, as much as we might want to deny it, grief has visited
(or will come) to us all at some time, and that if we are curious about grief, embrace it and see what we can discover from the experience, the less scary and more unifying it can be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">When I talk with readers, everything else seems to fall away -- the stress of scheduling book events, the struggle to keep the book in the public eye, the subtle background pressure to keep priming the publicity pump. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What remains is why we write in the first place, why I write. I write because I love to read and the page is the place where I find the stories that help me understand myself and others. Sometimes I read the stories others write, sometimes I write those stories myself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wasn't able to articulate all of this to my client at lunch, but perhaps I didn't have to. If she's lucky and continues to work hard and takes some risks, she will have her own manuscript-to-published-book path to follow one day. I hope it is for her just as exciting</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">, exhausting, exhilarating, eye-opening, and enriching. </span></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-50408174132495242932019-03-21T11:41:00.002-04:002019-03-21T11:41:35.130-04:00The Strength of Your Memory Does Not Determine Whether or Not You Can Write Memoir<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcx12X3z0SQ5vyMXOZ-INcWgAtL7gN7nJrWuTKc5kQTf4dwotIARp9pNo6Tl8lkt55QDEhJZwiqiEQuazz9hxoAFzDt0UYmbI5tRzhsLbbHssyKthpCkfIYNZYTgGjfaPL5PYbndaFWU/s1600/loss-clipart-memory-loss-239456-3508402.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="692" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcx12X3z0SQ5vyMXOZ-INcWgAtL7gN7nJrWuTKc5kQTf4dwotIARp9pNo6Tl8lkt55QDEhJZwiqiEQuazz9hxoAFzDt0UYmbI5tRzhsLbbHssyKthpCkfIYNZYTgGjfaPL5PYbndaFWU/s320/loss-clipart-memory-loss-239456-3508402.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Much of my teaching of writing work is grounded in creative nonfiction, and especially writing memoir. In workshops and classes, we never run out of topics that are worth thinking about, discussing, studying in published works -- and sometimes, complaining or venting about! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Into that last category so often falls the subject of memory and how often we are vexed and perplexed by its unpredictable nature. One day, we sit at the keyboard or notebook, and our fingers fly, fueled by churning, detailed memory that seems almost unstoppable, offering up voluminous details, vivid visuals, sharp and full lines of remembered conversations. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">We recall with certainty the weather on a particular day, the clothing we wore, the way a loved one cocked their head, the inflection in their voice. Without thinking almost at all, we're describing the furnishings of a room down to the smallest bit of bric a brac, what the house smelled like, the lilt of a particular birdsong that drifted in an open window. The way we felt, what we thought, our hopes and fears at that moment in past time are as close and clear as if it all occurred yesterday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">And when that happens, bliss. Memoir seems to write itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Then, there are some other days. Or perhaps I should say, most of other days. The memoir writer's page remains blank, not for lack of ideas, but because those memories float just out of reach. We remember some of the event, but not all. We can't be sure if so-and-so said this-and-that, and if they did, was it in fact, on that day, at that moment? Where, exactly, did the interaction take place after all? And was it before or after some other event?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Elusive, spotty, incomplete memories are something with which every write of creative nonfiction -- memoir, personal essay, nonfiction narrative -- must learn to cope. Recognizing the fallible, hazy, unreliable nature of memory has caused many a memoir writer to push their project to the back burner, or abandon it completely, in the belief that memoir writing is reserved only for those with a stellar memory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">To which I say: nope. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><i>Yes, you can write memoir, even if your memory isn't great.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">In fact, that's the title of <a href="https://www.opencenter.org/yes-you-can-write-memoir-even-if-your-memory-isnt-so-great/" target="_blank">a </a></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="https://www.opencenter.org/yes-you-can-write-memoir-even-if-your-memory-isnt-so-great/" target="_blank">post I wrote this week for the blog of </a>the <a href="https://www.opencenter.org/" target="_blank">New York Open Center</a> on this very topic. I'd love to share it with you. Here's an excerpt: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No one recalls
everything with precision. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">When I wanted to know
more about how memory works, I began researching and studying. Three of the
most profound things I learned and which have significance for the memoir
writer are:</span></i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is impossible for the average human
brain to record with total accuracy even something that happened just minutes
ago</span></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our current memory of a past event is
influenced by the stories we’ve told (and heard) over time about the original
event</span></i> </blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The act of remembering itself often
begets additional pieces of related memory (Great news! The more you write
about a particular memory, the more you might retrieve.)</span> </i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This all suggests
that even if my memory were better, I couldn’t rely on it completely anyway.
Once I understood this, my writing opened up. Without the grinding pressure to
be “right” about every remembered detail, I began to regard my own initial
memories as a starting place for writing memoir, but not as the only resource... </span></i></blockquote>
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You can <a href="https://www.opencenter.org/yes-you-can-write-memoir-even-if-your-memory-isnt-so-great/" target="_blank">read the full article here</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc4vZCO2y3173dRLf2jn1yUTRI-9041dQDrhzqBSSbXSR_41FMvYRsiNUZKIf71wJxm8F5UR6_W_yoNPeVcV_At60G6pXui54DEWYFbru0Cv982pcZ0ZYh-NxTeM7-9AG0zgfYNbKKSt4/s1600/Open+Center+screen+shot.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="1218" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc4vZCO2y3173dRLf2jn1yUTRI-9041dQDrhzqBSSbXSR_41FMvYRsiNUZKIf71wJxm8F5UR6_W_yoNPeVcV_At60G6pXui54DEWYFbru0Cv982pcZ0ZYh-NxTeM7-9AG0zgfYNbKKSt4/s320/Open+Center+screen+shot.png" width="320" /></a>And if exploring the relationship between memory and writing memoir is of interest, I'd love you to consider my <a href="https://www.opencenter.org/memoir-writing" target="_blank">day-long workshop on the subject</a> at the Open Center in Manhattan on Saturday, April 13. <br />
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-71674352984058950812018-12-05T11:53:00.000-05:002018-12-05T11:53:08.257-05:00First-time Author Gratitude that Lingers (plus book giveaways)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqG0UxwAMuI4kAderUCJ-wi41xRBnOT6g1TnewiiQ8DJ_tCkRz1dypYRnMwtag_0lOZtlnRcTuMOxhE0rpcYjmwb3waUQP0j4-QdeBrO1_HzKxcqGVIW59RUZD39D6cFFMuaiN_3DgjkM/s1600/Girl-with-heart+-+clip+art+-+gratitude.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqG0UxwAMuI4kAderUCJ-wi41xRBnOT6g1TnewiiQ8DJ_tCkRz1dypYRnMwtag_0lOZtlnRcTuMOxhE0rpcYjmwb3waUQP0j4-QdeBrO1_HzKxcqGVIW59RUZD39D6cFFMuaiN_3DgjkM/s320/Girl-with-heart+-+clip+art+-+gratitude.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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To say that the first six months after one's debut book is published are a whirlwind would be an understatement. For me, these months have been filled with so many wonderful experiences and events, new people and opportunities, a better understanding about the publishing world, <a href="http://lisaromeo.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-intersection-of-book-pr-and-writing.html" target="_blank">chances to share insights</a>, and much more.</div>
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The feeling which lingers most though when I look back -- as I did recently -- is one of gratitude. Hence, the heading for my recent newsletter: <i>Starting With...Gratitude</i>.</div>
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Since some blog readers may not be on the newsletter mailing list (and you can <a href="https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001KoyZ43z4t0hBv3pjoe4YdohhGvE2Dtvc-RLXJ56KISfP2yEESIwmlIoqp682Pg3EEwxxQijuDfHIgBTE2oOIYLJB_ENBt9Bf5NWEo69qWxmqdVjvEQYcLCTPcD7V8KvECy_FLt4xb53WsZJ4vM4euiHcOU0ZjIXU" target="_blank">fix that here</a>), I wanted to let you know that you can<a href="https://conta.cc/2rbs47G?fbclid=IwAR18owu9XO_QpKN2DasYrM-sBRjnnAJk8yjke4kY7OFMRhvIB-Wr5ZNoPic" target="_blank"> read the newsletter at this link</a>. </div>
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Even better, if you haven't gotten a copy of my book yet, until the end of the day on Dec. 9, there's a giveaway going on (via the newsletter) for a signed copy (AND a separate giveaway for a bundle of writing craft books). <a href="https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Starting-with---Gratitude--.html?soid=1102712936538&aid=zCHhIsfSbZ0" target="_blank">Details are in the newsletter</a> (and since you won't be able to reply there -- as the giveaway instructions state -- you can enter one or both by emailing me directly: LisaRomeoWriter at gmail dot com ).</div>
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I also want to thank all my blog readers and other writing-world friends for putting up with my barrage of book promo, here and all over the place. Perhaps having gotten to this milestone at a somewhat later-than-usual age has made its significance loom larger. So my gratitude extends to everyone who has listened to me go on and on, who read and responded and supported and liked and shared and purchased and in any other way helped me on this journey, even a little bit. Thanksgiving may be over, but gratitude goes on...</div>
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Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-90457944412101135752018-11-19T08:00:00.000-05:002018-11-19T08:00:14.505-05:00Guest Blogger Jane Paffenbarger Butler on: Theme Reading with High School Writers, aka: Pharmacist Dispenses Great Expectations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCuk5jq5WhCmkUihSQG2BdhDv8Labw9m-0QL7lcc2Q3p2-cwPlx-tHbSpH6eTx7afKVekPbV6u7HdmHbSFGSB5ljs8F_CtqbbROXkSo3PQsw9vpy9pH6OIzGBFOLQ0RxAuM3m98mwl2qM/s1600/Jane+B+-+headshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCuk5jq5WhCmkUihSQG2BdhDv8Labw9m-0QL7lcc2Q3p2-cwPlx-tHbSpH6eTx7afKVekPbV6u7HdmHbSFGSB5ljs8F_CtqbbROXkSo3PQsw9vpy9pH6OIzGBFOLQ0RxAuM3m98mwl2qM/s320/Jane+B+-+headshot.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">One of the most enjoyable ways I
meet other writers is at small conferences, often over a meal, and one topic
that often comes up is how we all make a living while chasing writing goals.
That’s how I met Jane Paffenbarger Butler and learned about her unique
job—which I’ve invited her to write about here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jane has degrees in pharmacy and health
systems management and worked in clinical research. While raising three
children, she wrote in fits and starts, but then got serious, joining the
Brandywine Valley Writers Group and Main Line Writers Group. She’s at work on a
memoir, <i>You’ll Get Over It, Jane Ellen.</i>
An excerpt placed second in nonfiction at the 2017 Philadelphia Writers
Conference. Her work has also appeared in the anthology <span class="MsoHyperlink"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Unclaimed-Baggage-Voices-Writers-Group/dp/0989334481">Unclaimed
Baggage</a></i></span>, and in the <i>Philadelphia
Inquirer</i>. She’s the 2016 and 2014 winner of the West Chester Story Slam. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Please welcome Jane Paffenbarger
Butler.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most days, I adore my job. I am
talking about the one where I get to go to my local high school and hang around
the English classes talking to kids about their writing. Today, for example, a
steady stream of students visited me; some wanted to discuss what to write in their
comparative papers on <i>Wuthering Heights</i>
and <i>Dante’s Inferno</i>, others needed
help proving a point made in <i>Merchant of
Venice</i>. It may sound pretty high brow I know, believe me it is not,
especially for someone like me who is a pharmacist by training. But the same
dynamic occurs whether the students and I are talking about Shakespeare or the
Sunday comics. The focus is on art and on the act of responding to it.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Other days, in other classes, I work
my way around the room asking each student to tell me their ideas for assigned
poetry, memoir, or short story projects. I tell them that ideas mellow and age
and do not usually spring to the page fully formed. I tell them that it’s okay,
in fact it’s preferable, to get started by just writing in stream of
consciousness. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My title is Theme Reader, and I
support the work of a high school English teacher by reading and commenting on</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> each student’s
writing assignments. Yes, it is a support role, and it is a peach job for
someone like me, an aspiring author</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This is a teaching job with none of the
strings attached. I meet no parents, give no formal grades, and discipline no
one. Instead I am a writing coach, and my time is </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">spent reading teenage students’
work and talking to them about the craft of writing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
am also paid to sit in on the viewing of classic films and TED talks, and get
to stay in tune with young people who gladly explain to me such mysteries as gifs
and K-pop. And what could be better than sitting in on a discussion of Faulkner’s
<i>As I Lay Dying</i> or Twain’s <i>Huck Finn</i>? Or reading twenty-five papers
from the AP Literature students who each select, from a lengthy list, a
different classic novel to analyze? Often, the students’ detailed breakdown of
each book is so complete, by the time I review and offer comments on their
projects, it feels as if I’ve just read the book myself. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sometimes,
in classes where students are not as motivated, it is my duty to inform them of
the power of words. That words can be a tool by which we get what we want out
of life. I help them see that learning to use words to their advantage could be
a way to get out of bad circumstances, a way to rise above people who make life
difficult, and a way to work through issues that are hard to manage. Words are
power. I love helping them learn how to understand, harness, and wield that
power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
Creative Writing, an elective class, students arrive not as hostages but as
volunteers, open to my crazy suggestion that we daydream a little about what it
means to be human. With the whole world as fodder for topic, I help students
zero in on what their own voice yearns to say. This year I am meeting with an
independent study student weekly to work on her novel. The notes I took recently
on Robert McKee’s <i>Story</i>, Blake
Snyder’s <i>Save the Cat,</i> and Stephen
King’s <i>On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft</i>,
while trying to elevate <i>my own</i>
projects, have become perfect resources for our work together. Sharing such
material conveniently reinforces my personal goals, too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
I was a Clinical Research Monitor at a pharmaceutical company, among my many tasks
were study reports and protocols, and I excelled at ensuring the internal
consistency between tables and charts and between statistical facts and stated
conclusions. I yielded the red pen as editor for a 400-page New Drug
Application Summary submitted to the FDA, based on data from hundreds of
patients. At my interview for the Theme Reader job, I explained that although I
wasn’t a certified teacher and had no degree related to language or English or
anything one might suspect relevant (and which the job specs listed), I love
teaching and students and the English language. I handed over the bound New Drug
Application Summary, the thin manuscript of my memoir, mentioned my membership
in local writing groups and my participation in writing conferences. They hired
me on the spot. That was ten years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfs_lsZMmkDPbnfbpCmCwT_6QYCylWxkIKqF7RSQHyDuykoByudzXF6LTW0lIAw0mvpsNUTYRWHkFuGXuOvp79_arUrsvEP8zZ0R34ed_r6V_OQKg-LuF2SQCoplxxt22UzkUAhVeOsCc/s1600/Jane+-+6+words+pic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="1016" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfs_lsZMmkDPbnfbpCmCwT_6QYCylWxkIKqF7RSQHyDuykoByudzXF6LTW0lIAw0mvpsNUTYRWHkFuGXuOvp79_arUrsvEP8zZ0R34ed_r6V_OQKg-LuF2SQCoplxxt22UzkUAhVeOsCc/s320/Jane+-+6+words+pic.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of Jane's six word memoirs. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
best part about my job is that I must show up every week and pay attention in
class. This time around I am personally interested in what makes for a good
story and what constitutes a rhetorical device. My job requires me to say out
loud the facts I know to be true about writing, to sit alongside students and reconsider
the masters, to teach patience and taking risks on the page, and to learn,
learn, learn. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
top it all off, I even get a paycheck. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Get
to know more about Jane at <a href="http://www.janebutler.org/">her website</a>
and <a href="http://www.myownpersonalsky.wordpress.com/">blog</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-81016241329574986962018-10-11T07:39:00.000-04:002018-10-11T07:39:02.295-04:00The Intersection of Book PR and Writing Advice: A Round-Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGDBqPpg0plFNzDXn3s8hl0AHFSKhSPqnMlwUZv-zWyk2lM179pDX-bg7VYGdCKOQwRKSUr_Eko_hbKtf1q7d8Ab8Cr7sk9rN1wQXx03htntsG4liKcJpVOQwmyqUDpdiyfcl8hhgq1Yc/s1600/clip+art+-+publicity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGDBqPpg0plFNzDXn3s8hl0AHFSKhSPqnMlwUZv-zWyk2lM179pDX-bg7VYGdCKOQwRKSUr_Eko_hbKtf1q7d8Ab8Cr7sk9rN1wQXx03htntsG4liKcJpVOQwmyqUDpdiyfcl8hhgq1Yc/s320/clip+art+-+publicity.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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One task of a new author is to help generate positive online coverage/mentions of one's new book. Some are less within the author's control than others of course, and some are more fun than others.</div>
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Since spring (coinciding with the release of <i><a href="http://www.lisaromeo.net/starting-with-goodbye/order/" target="_blank">Starting with Goodbye</a></i> from University of Nevada Press) I've been writing guest posts and answering interview questions from literary journals, bloggers, reporters and freelancers. Mostly, I've had a great time. I'm still having a good time.</div>
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While the goal is to keep the book in front of people's eyes, one of the more satisfying side benefits for me has been that many of the resulting pieces double as useful tips, advice, and information for other writers. </div>
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The book launch, book tour, and general book promo craziness dominated my days for months, meaning I didn't have time to keep offering writing thoughts here at this blog, so whenever possible, I tried to tie in book publicity with literary citizenship. </div>
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I've meant to share this sooner, but life piled on...Anyway, here's a round-up of some coverage from the last five months -- only the pieces that I think other writers might find useful. (If you want to see everything, check out the <a href="http://www.lisaromeo.net/starting-with-goodbye/media-mentions/" target="_blank">Media Mentions page</a>.)</div>
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<b>Guest posts and articles on writing issues:</b></div>
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<a href="http://litchat.com/lisa-romeo-memoir/" target="_blank">Writing About Friends and Family in Memoir: Nine Key Questions</a> (at LitChat)</div>
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<a href="http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/how-lit-journal-publications-paved-way-publi" target="_blank">How Lit Journal Publications Paved the Way to a Published Memoir </a> (at The Review Review)</div>
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<a href="https://marionroach.com/2018/05/how-to-add-humor-to-a-sad-memoir/" target="_blank">How to Add Humor to a Sad Memoir</a> (at The Memoir Project/Marion Roach Smith)</div>
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<a href="https://nonfictionauthorsassociation.com/publishing-with-a-small-traditional-or-university-press-when-it-might-be-right-for-you-and-your-book/" target="_blank">Publishing with a Small (Traditional) or University Press: When it Might be Right for You and Your Book</a> (at Nonfiction Authors Association blog)</div>
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<a href="https://writerscircleworkshops.com/2018/06/01/writing-about-family-in-memoir-fairness-counts/" target="_blank">Writing About Family in Memoir: Fairness Counts</a> (at The Writers Circle blog)</div>
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<a href="http://booksbywomen.org/if-you-give-a-writer-a-book-contract-shes-going-to-wanteverything/" target="_blank">If You Give a Writer a Book Contract, She's Going to Want...Everything </a>(at Women Writers, Women's Books)</div>
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<a href="https://www.pw.org/writers_recommend/lisa_romeo" target="_blank">Writers Recommend...for Writer's Block</a> (at Poets & Writers)</div>
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<a href="http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com/2018/05/my-first-time-lisa-romeo.html" target="_blank">My First (Disastrous) Writing Retreat</a> (at The Quivering Pen)</div>
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<a href="https://bloom-site.com/2018/05/08/author-interview-initiation-you-want-to-know-what/" target="_blank">Author Interview Initiation: You Want to Know WHAT? </a> (at Bloom)</div>
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<b>Interviews (only those that cover writer advice, tips, insight, how-to's from my writing/publishing experience):</b></div>
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<a href="https://medium.com/no-blank-pages/the-path-to-publishing-choosing-a-university-press-a64ea6d7a0f1" target="_blank">In Search of the Right Structure </a> (at Author Accelerator on Medium/Jennie Nash) </div>
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Author's Notebook: <a href="https://thewholemegillah.wordpress.com/2018/05/08/authors-notebook-9-tips-on-writing-memoir-a-conversation-with-lisa-romeo/" target="_blank">Nine Tips on Writing Memoir</a> (at The Whole Megillah)</div>
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<a href="https://underthesunonline.com/wordpress/2018/ruminations-interview-with-lisa-romeo/" target="_blank">Ruminations Interview</a> (at <i>Under the Sun</i>, which published one of the original essays that became an important chapter in the book)</div>
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<a href="http://www.literarymama.com/profiles/archives/2018/06/a-conversation-with-lisa-romeo.html" target="_blank">A Conversation with Lisa Romeo</a> (at Literary Mama)</div>
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<a href="http://true.proximitymagazine.org/2018/02/22/lisaromeo/" target="_blank">An Interview</a> (at Proximity's True blog)</div>
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<a href="https://carolineleavittville.blogspot.com/2018/05/lisa-romeo-talks-about-grief-healing.html" target="_blank">Author Interview Q/A </a>(at the blog of Caroline Leavitt)</div>
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<a href="https://diymfa.com/community/interview-lisa-romeo" target="_blank">Be Well, Write Well Interview</a> (at DIY MFA)</div>
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Writers in the Trenches: <a href="http://fayerapoportdespres.com/?p=4034" target="_blank">Q/A on how everything before prepared me for the memoir</a> (at Fay Rapaport DesPres's blog)</div>
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<a href="https://www.thesunlightpress.com/2018/06/27/a-conversation-with-lisa-romeo/" target="_blank">A Conversation</a> (at the Sunlight Press)</div>
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<a href="http://christicraig.com/2018/05/16/qa-with-lisa-romeo-author-of-starting-with-goodbye/" target="_blank">Q/A </a> (at the blog of Christi Craig)</div>
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<b>Podcasts (with in-depth dives into nonfiction writing craft):</b></div>
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The Creative Nonfiction podcast (w/Brendan O'Meara) <a href="http://brendanomeara.com/romeo98/" target="_blank">- Episode # 98</a> - Lisa Romeo on the Power of Paper Habits</div>
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<a href="https://writethebook.podbean.com/e/kim-macqueen-interviews-lisa-romeo-interview-508-5718-a/#" target="_blank">Write the Book podcast - # 508</a> (w/Kim MacQueen)</div>
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The Ish podcast (w/Cameron Dezen Hammon) - <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ish/id1287204061?mt=2" target="_blank">Episode # 8 - Grieving-ish Part II</a></div>
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<b>And just for fun...</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/profiles/article/76855-spotlight-on-lisa-romeo.html" target="_blank">Spotlight </a>(at Publishers Weekly)</div>
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<a href="http://www.lisaromeo.net/starting-with-goodbye/media-mentions/" target="_blank">How We Spend Our Days: Lisa Romeo</a> (at Catching Days blog)</div>
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<a href="https://helenetstelian.com/memoirist-lisa-romeo/" target="_blank">Becoming a Published Memoirist at 58</a> (at Empowering Women in Midlife)</div>
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I hope some of these will prove useful for your own writing practice, writing life, writing challenges. As book mania settles down, I hope to be back here at the blog more regularly, with the spotlight once again trained on passing along good writing life advice and lessons learned from experience -- mine and others'. </div>
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Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-24227934722869554002018-08-30T16:24:00.000-04:002018-09-03T16:03:13.613-04:00Notes from the Third Row: Good Stuff from the Hippocamp Conference for Creative Nonfiction Writers, 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE5Zg3hCqzuM4cbEeb02xSy-jxGH04NxPTtRh1QU8c6LGsR4xhyphenhyphenr19q5keJZNUhujyScXxz6qInRaxstsUEnIRT4srL9LP6ku-RKz7RUOwwG-7kwI-mlK49Ecz1WAXFok2OhQ9d3hJrYI/s1600/IMG_20180830_141028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE5Zg3hCqzuM4cbEeb02xSy-jxGH04NxPTtRh1QU8c6LGsR4xhyphenhyphenr19q5keJZNUhujyScXxz6qInRaxstsUEnIRT4srL9LP6ku-RKz7RUOwwG-7kwI-mlK49Ecz1WAXFok2OhQ9d3hJrYI/s400/IMG_20180830_141028.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When this blog was an infant, I ran some posts summing up advice and
insights I’d returned with after attending a writing conference, residency, or similar
gathering. I thought I’d revive the tradition, because this past weekend, for
the fourth year in a row, I was at </span><a href="http://hippocamp2018.hippocampusmagazine.com/" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Hippocamp: A Conference
for Creative Nonfiction Writers</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, in Lancaster, PA.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Since its inception, I’ve been an enthusiastic supporter of Hippocamp, which
is put on by <a href="http://www.hippocampusmagazine.com/">Hippocampus Magazine</a>,
a rather nice and well-respected online literary journal. This smallish conference
continues to be a particularly loved favorite of <a href="https://lisaromeo.blogspot.com/2017/09/home-from-hippocamp-with-bunch-of.html">mine
for so many reasons</a>, checking the important boxes <a href="https://brevity.wordpress.com/2018/02/06/some-thoughts-on-choosing/">I
tick off when deciding on attending a writers’ conference</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As usual, I tried to get to all the breakout sessions, panels, and
special presentations that sounded of particular interest to me. And as usual, I
failed, because with so many promising concurrent offerings, it’s just
impossible. So, I’ll be watching, myself, as post-Hippocamp coverage begins to
emerge, as it usually does on others attendees’ blogs and writerly websites. (<span style="color: purple;"><i>Update</i></span>: like <a href="http://www.workinprogressinprogress.com/2018/08/writing-tip-takeaways-from-2018.html" target="_blank">this one I just found </a>by Joanne Lozar Glenn, and <a href="http://genesispotentia.com/hippocamp-happy-reflections-on-my-first-creative-nonfiction-writing-conference/" target="_blank">this one</a> from Kelly Kandra Hughes, <a href="https://truescrawl.com/2018/08/30/find-your-tribe/" target="_blank">and this</a> from Anne Pinkerton.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Meanwhile, here’s a peek into some of what made it into my notebook, though
much more is rattling around my head, my heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I took a pre-conference workshop with writer and journalism professor <a href="http://wendyfontaine.com/">Wendy Fontaine </a> on “Using Brain Science to Write Memoir.” I teach
a memoir workshop on integrating memories into memoir, and how to transform elusive,
uncooperative memories into nonfiction prose—but this was a terrific chance for
me to learn how and why our brains actually handle memory. I know this will not
only expand what I can share with students in the future, but that it also opened
doors and windows to my own understanding of why humans do and don’t remember,
and how that impacts writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A few tidbits:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. I already knew that smell is the strongest and most powerful memory
trigger (yes, more than music), but now I know why. It’s because the olfactory center
is located in close proximity to the hippocampus, the place in the brain that
files, retrieves and makes connections between memories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. Some things that occurred are never recorded in memory, so even if we
know we were present when X happened, it’s possible our brain never encoded X.
All the <i>trying-to-remember</i> gymnastics
just won’t work. Some would-be memories really are “lost”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. What my husband calls “revisionist” history is a thing. A thing called “memory
source confusion” – when we substitute what makes sense for what we can’t
recall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The opening conference speaker, <a href="http://bethkephartbooks.com/">Beth
Kephart</a> (whose work I’ve admired since reading <i>A Slant of Sun</i> as a newish mother), delivered a beautiful talk on
the job and art of the memoirist—and its limits—and I snatched these juicy
morsels: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. The memoir writer’s job is to tell facts and to confess when we don’t. “As memoirists, we are most trusted when we
acknowledge what we don’t know.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. When James Baldwin wrote, “I realized I didn’t know my father very
well,” he then re-imagined him, but used language to cue the reader: “…he was, <i>I
think</i>…” “I <i>gather this</i> from…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. On the art of knowing what to leave out, and how memoir thrives on what’s
not there: “Truth is messy. Carve your truth from the mess, but leave most of
it off the page.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. Finally, this beauty: “Grace Paley once said, ‘If you find only yourself
interesting, you’re boring.’ Write past yourself and you won’t be bored.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIrewkm2zuw5ig1FEKXWu6RI8JUl4sy0ybxevxHwGdS88W__oyUovM065M03LbDA66LzJQQc7wMFMqNxQMreRgRY1jxs0_pDZIJVefSyh0MTG0VgOfv7olghC1ad31BIUuhZ6Z7R6hexU/s1600/IMG_20180830_141043.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIrewkm2zuw5ig1FEKXWu6RI8JUl4sy0ybxevxHwGdS88W__oyUovM065M03LbDA66LzJQQc7wMFMqNxQMreRgRY1jxs0_pDZIJVefSyh0MTG0VgOfv7olghC1ad31BIUuhZ6Z7R6hexU/s320/IMG_20180830_141043.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">From <a href="https://elanejohnson.com/">Elane Johnson’s </a>session on “Dialogue
that Doesn’t Suck,” – <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. Dialogue must be true, meaning it must match the character,
personality, education, of the person speaking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. Remember to show how a (real) character may talk differently when in
conversation with different people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. Don’t try to score revenge by placing words in someone’s mouth they
wouldn’t have said. “Even if Mom is dead and no one will protest, it makes her
look bad and it will be WRONG for your story and that will show.”<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.writingclasses.com/faculty/profile/kelly-caldwell">Kelly
Caldwell </a> presented a useful session
on “The Art of the Catastrophe Narrative” (and the best ever, whopping 40-page
handout packet!): <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. Keep in mind, the (real life) protagonist(s) has a goal to reach both
during <i>and</i> after the catastrophe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. When writing, remember “Four phases of disaster recovery: Hero phases;
Disillusionment phase; Honeymoon phase; Recovery phase.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">During a freelancing panel, <a href="http://estelleserasmus.com/">Estelle
Erasmus</a> offered this deceptively simple checklist for a pitch: “Why this?
Why now? Why me?” and added that the “Why now” should include some data, stats,
trends or other information that’s brand new.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.stephauteri.com/about/">Steph Auteri</a>, in a flash
talk titled, “How to Pump out an Epic Number of Ideas in One Sitting,” offered
writers looking to publish in mainstream media key article/essay idea prompts: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gNbcMRcFffDXoKCm-gzEoQUs7V2W6g20Vy0cueAeWLx8FWgY5G98JzANCuXAt9gM9mXIEsbMm_trlt96x_-2WyEbEwEEnELdyLHABn3-vACXp37q2ocoolN4YnSY7tie4JIwy2FKtpA/s1600/steph+at+hippo+-+cropped.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="940" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gNbcMRcFffDXoKCm-gzEoQUs7V2W6g20Vy0cueAeWLx8FWgY5G98JzANCuXAt9gM9mXIEsbMm_trlt96x_-2WyEbEwEEnELdyLHABn3-vACXp37q2ocoolN4YnSY7tie4JIwy2FKtpA/s320/steph+at+hippo+-+cropped.png" width="320" /></a><o:p><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. What have I experienced that others might want to know about? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. What do I want to know about? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. What’s in the news that I can comment on? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. What national news/trend can I make local? (and vice versa) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. What new stats or studies can I say something about? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. What in popular culture—movies, TV, books, etc.—am I excited about and
can comment on?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. What else are people talking about (what’s in the zeitgeist?)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">From “The Art of Interviewing” session with <a href="https://mdianemccormick.com/">Diane McCormick</a>: Have a conversation,
not an interrogation. Make a statement, putting yourself in your subject’s
shoes, and see what they say in response: “If that had happened to me, I think
I would have…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">From “The Long and Winding Road: Publishing an Essay Collection,” with <a href="https://randonbillingsnoble.wordpress.com/">Randon Billings Noble</a>:
Sometimes, you get the dream…and also lose it. I admired Randon’s candor in
telling how she landed a hot New York agent (who wooed her over a pricy meal in
a famous Manhattan restaurant), only to part ways when she wasn’t willing to mold
her work to the agent’s vision. (I just pre-ordered her debut collection, <i><a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9781496205049/">Be
With Me Always,<span style="font-style: normal;"> from University of Nebraska
Press</span></a></i>. You might want to also!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Keynoter <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Abigail-Thomas/e/B000APBEHS">Abigail
Thomas</a> shared many truth nuggets which I couldn’t record because I was
either laughing or nodding furiously in agreement, and also I had committed to staying
absorbed in the moment. She’s a literary hero of mine: when I want to try
something on the page that’s a little off, I bolster myself with, “Well if
Abigail Thomas could do X in (insert one of her books here), then I can…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One thing that really stuck with me (and I’m paraphrasing her first
sentence): <i>We worry when writing memoir that
others will say, who cares? <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIl0Z4XB3hwlnaRjAzWyun72obwbVQVt5zrs_TeM2XOkrEBA7e_R1PVV37xJiSmXOtf15sUIdccn1_2lK5rBIe33II0hW4umzsx-yyHrspSk-aqcTbhGkAkJWlePOMvlDnw6AwpZHb0kQ/s1600/hippocamp+reading.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIl0Z4XB3hwlnaRjAzWyun72obwbVQVt5zrs_TeM2XOkrEBA7e_R1PVV37xJiSmXOtf15sUIdccn1_2lK5rBIe33II0hW4umzsx-yyHrspSk-aqcTbhGkAkJWlePOMvlDnw6AwpZHb0kQ/s320/hippocamp+reading.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Thomas continues: “Who cares who
cares? YOU care.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">That’s it in a nutshell, no?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">[I was fortunate to be involved in Hippocamp 2018 as a reader and
panelist (Debut Authors Night), and presented a breakout session, “Reconstruction:
Transforming (Related) Essays into a Narrative Memoir.” More on the latter in a
future post.]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Meanwhile, what have you been inspired by, intrigued by, captivated by
recently at a writer gathering? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-56560861116799890242018-06-14T12:50:00.000-04:002018-06-14T12:51:23.132-04:00What's Next: An Excerpt from Starting with Goodbye, a Jersey Shore Visit Tonight (6/14)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheg1EaAb8QPmKZ4fle1VTxzZ4Z8Tf9bP1Eb0VSuyOJ7xrVoMHKKtQDdLDH2Vg_uPltvpFJu1__WSnDriPJY7mEn9sSykq6hRRhKBRZLFX8ACZdWDiWy_fyC_UpaxWdPvEU5izGPnGR83s/s1600/Next+Avenue+-+cropped+from+screen+shot+6.14.18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="791" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheg1EaAb8QPmKZ4fle1VTxzZ4Z8Tf9bP1Eb0VSuyOJ7xrVoMHKKtQDdLDH2Vg_uPltvpFJu1__WSnDriPJY7mEn9sSykq6hRRhKBRZLFX8ACZdWDiWy_fyC_UpaxWdPvEU5izGPnGR83s/s400/Next+Avenue+-+cropped+from+screen+shot+6.14.18.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
Today I'm celebrating a little, as the terrific website <a href="https://www.nextavenue.org/writing-eulogy-father/" target="_blank"><i>Next Avenue</i> (a PBS venture), has published an excerpt</a> from<i> Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter's Memoir of Love after Loss. </i></div>
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I don't know if I'm more thrilled about the excerpt or the photo of me and Dad, taken on the morning of my wedding. You can't quite see it, but he's joking around by handing me a wad of cash. How I miss that sense of humor!</div>
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The excerpt is from an early chapter in the book, and I'm so happy that <i>Next Avenue</i> -- whose tagline is <i>where grown-ups keep growing</i> -- wanted to share this with their readers in the days just before Father's Day, a time when memories of gone fathers might be both comforting as well as painful. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqpw01DcKBYOawRpXil-IUDEQMPflOFMggJrdLn9qkyYEVmKvl6ZlAzcBSZUJFIW9_O_bUo5RHXHErvlvKlo-aQnI5ohyr_rGGyzyOGcOUg0J8cCDxfIxTnxBpQ1BrH99xheWV7ySRlto/s1600/booktowne+event+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqpw01DcKBYOawRpXil-IUDEQMPflOFMggJrdLn9qkyYEVmKvl6ZlAzcBSZUJFIW9_O_bUo5RHXHErvlvKlo-aQnI5ohyr_rGGyzyOGcOUg0J8cCDxfIxTnxBpQ1BrH99xheWV7ySRlto/s400/booktowne+event+image.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
Meanwhile, it's time for me to hit the road (again), heading down the shore to an <a href="https://www.booktowne.com/event/lisa-romeo-conversation-laurel-davis-huber" target="_blank">event tonight at BookTowne in lovely Manasquan, NJ </a>-- the place I was when I got the call about my father's stroke (that's in Chapter 2 of the book). There, I'll be in conversation with another NJ author I've recently come to know,<a href="http://www.laureldavishuber.com/" target="_blank"> Laurel Davis Huber. </a>Her book,<i> The Velveteen Daughter,</i> is a work of historical fiction about the artist prodigy daughter of the women who penned <i>The Velveteen Rabbit. </i>I read it last weekend when I needed to relax not only from the busy book promo schedule but because my wonky knee insisted on it. I couldn't have asked for a more absorbing, unusual story to have for company.</div>
Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-70607069481196330272018-06-04T08:30:00.000-04:002018-06-04T08:30:02.006-04:00Guest Blogger Ele Pawelski on the Value of the Ubiquitous Writing Group<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqTJX_x1qabZaLcdMUfQQbxzoy72NOuLS_uPKRK_lliW-g4AGpVDZO-qkMJaKo2W3zUisat4OtndLGEoCjVvlZqkzQ4xCKPoKh7wxR5I9UV9ZpqVbDnGjfo1PvwFH5KEwGwmIN9nu8SM/s1600/Ele+P+Headshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqTJX_x1qabZaLcdMUfQQbxzoy72NOuLS_uPKRK_lliW-g4AGpVDZO-qkMJaKo2W3zUisat4OtndLGEoCjVvlZqkzQ4xCKPoKh7wxR5I9UV9ZpqVbDnGjfo1PvwFH5KEwGwmIN9nu8SM/s320/Ele+P+Headshot.jpg" width="256" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Ele
Pawelski’s novella, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="http://quattrobooks.ca/books/the-finest-supermarket-in-kabul/">The Finest
Supermarket in Kabul<span style="font-style: normal;">,</span></a></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> was
published by Quattro Books in December 2017. Her short stories have appeared in
the </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Nashwaak Review</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> and </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Flash Fiction Magazine</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">. A ten-year
Toronto resident, this avid adventurer has also lived and managed human rights
projects in Afghanistan, South Sudan, Bosnia, Kenya, Uzbekistan, and Kosovo. Ele
teaches International Development Law and is writing her next book, a novel featuring
parallel stories about a German mother and son trying to find each other after
becoming separated during World War II.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Please welcome Ele Pawelski.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">I
found Moosemeat Writing Group long before I became a fiction author.
Thankfully. Otherwise I’d probably still be a struggling memoirist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">In
2010, when I joined Moosemeat, I sought to expand my circle of friends and find
a group of like-minded artists willing to help shape my ideas into something
readable. The year before, I’d moved to Toronto after working overseas on
development projects for twelve years and was still trying to find my footing back
at “home.” I liked writing and a few friends suggested I put my experiences of
life in post-conflict environments like Afghanistan and Bosnia into a book. I
knew how to write academically, but creative writing was a different beast.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">So
I did what everyone with a problem does: searched online. Moosemeat’s website
called out for writers of any ilk. I was in!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Moosemeat’s
history goes back to circa 1995, when a group of committed writers wanted to
continue meeting up after having taken a writing course together. The name was
provoked by an animated debate over a story in which the main character has 10
pounds of moosemeat in a freezer. At least that’s what I’ve heard; Moosemeat membership
has completely turned and the originators are long gone. Certainly the moniker gets
a laugh, especially when we call ourselves </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">meese
</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">or </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">the herd</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Eventually,
Moosemeat would become the foundation of my writing accomplishments. But first,
I had to get up the confidence to submit a story! I remember that meeting very
well. I’d submitted a satirical narrative entitled, “Where Taxis Go To Die,”
which poked fun at the poor quality of taxis in war-ravaged countries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Moosemeat’s
format is straightforward: in advance of every meeting, two writers submit
pieces of less than 6,000 words, either a stand-alone short story or part of
something longer. Generally, attendance is between four and fifteen individuals
who provide feedback one by one. The writer also has a chance to speak at the
end. In addition to regular meetings, once a year, the group collaborates on a
chapbook of flash fiction stories and hosts a public reading for
contributors.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">I
could feel sweat gathering under my armpits. The critiques came fast and
furious – it was overly funny, not enough of a story line, too little
information about my work colleagues, not enough depth…I got sweatier. When it
was my turn to talk, I barely said anything, crushed that my story didn’t seem
to work for most members. Upon reflection, the earnestness of the reviewers was
obvious; they wanted to help. And a lot of their comments were useful, if only
to point me in new directions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">It
got easier. Two more similar stories later, I was far less sweaty, and had determined
that writing a funny memoir in the style of </span><a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/bill-bryson/1017933/" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Bill Bryson</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> was not going to work as I had
envisioned. In the process, I read and critiqued a lot of short stories, and listened
to the critiques of others. I started to see what worked and what didn’t work on
the page. Notably, there isn’t always agreement amongst the meese, which confirms
the absolute subjectivity as to how much and why a reader enjoys a certain story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">For
example, during a recent critique, half of us thought a short story that ended
with no character development was fine as it indicated the protagonist stuck to
his guns, while the other half wanted to see some learnings. This kind of
diversity signals it is crucial to write to a target audience. But more
importantly, it hooked me on the value of other people’s opinions and how those
could enrich my own writing.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3Yb7LFV4x8PW9u1Hx_XG_iup9hAaJkal7sEyL8qDo3YFG5duzLop-gr9vPoaIw1JKHHb9fV6nrqsmfxe157iaeYo2RlZgc6NrFPdPxv29pbQUz1qCqXAky7eWUAyNNQZrPH1-rkSuvI/s1600/Ele+P+-+book+cover+image+Supermarket+in+Kabul.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="397" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3Yb7LFV4x8PW9u1Hx_XG_iup9hAaJkal7sEyL8qDo3YFG5duzLop-gr9vPoaIw1JKHHb9fV6nrqsmfxe157iaeYo2RlZgc6NrFPdPxv29pbQUz1qCqXAky7eWUAyNNQZrPH1-rkSuvI/s320/Ele+P+-+book+cover+image+Supermarket+in+Kabul.jpg" width="203" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">About
a year after being in Moosemeat, I sent out the first chapter of </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">The Finest Supermarket in Kabul</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">. I received
an immediate, and very encouraging response via email: “Let me just say “wow!”
The verbal feedback at the meeting was also quite positive, but in addition,
the previous twelve months had prepped me to take </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">all</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> comments constructively. Over the following three years, I presented
the middle and last chapters. Again, the critiques were affirming and helpful, and
motivated me to dig deep in terms of a generous re-write when I put the story
all together. While I could have submitted the rewritten chapters for further
critique – no problems in doing this if a writer chooses – at this point, I
felt the story was ready for more directed suggestions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">In
exchange for wine, two meese agreed to look over the entire draft novella before
I submitted to my publisher and give structural and big picture comments. After
I signed on with Quattro Books and incorporated my editor’s suggestions, I
convinced one more moose to give me line edits, and check for typos and verb
agreement as the story had changed from past tense to present. Without this
roster of beta readers, I would have been severely limited as to who I felt
comfortable and confident in asking for this kind of help.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Moosemeat
has no fees, and membership is fluid, ranging from authors with more than one
book under their belt to aspiring novelists to writers who enjoy putting pen to
paper but are not looking to publish. The only criteria are the willingness to
give honest feedback and periodically submit a story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Being
part of a writing group has spurred my writing to evolve in ways I could not
have imagined eight years ago: I’m confident writing in the third person and
have tried out the second; I can fashion a decent story arc; I get that a twist
at the end doesn’t always make for good reading; and finally, I treat writing
more like a job than a hobby. The fact that meese are also excellent cheerleaders
means I’m unlikely to drop out anytime soon. We each email the group with any good
writing news, attend each other’s writing events, and go out for beers from
time to time. What’s more to want from a bunch of random creatives!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Connect with Ele via her</span><a href="http://elepawelski.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> website</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">,</span><a href="https://twitter.com/eleinthecity"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Twitter</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">, or </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/thefinestsupermarketinkabul/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Facebook</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">. Find </span><a href="http://www.moosemeat.org/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Moosemeat here.</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-36585675211985341132018-06-01T14:32:00.002-04:002018-06-01T14:32:21.818-04:00Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers -- June 1, 2018 Edition<script>
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<div>
> How much can you imagine winning in a writing contest? <a href="http://www.drew.edu/news/2018/04/26/drew-professor-scores-worlds-richest-short-story-prize" target="_blank">A New Jersey writing professor won </a>the Sunday (London) Times EFG short story contest -- a cool <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">£ 30,000 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">(around $40K).</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.6667px;"><br /></span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
> Have a hankering to transform your prose to a play? Nancy Davidoff Kelton, whose memoir <i>Finding Mr. Rightstein, </i>is heading to the stage, explains <a href="http://www2.asja.org/theword/2018/05/09/from-the-page-to-the-stage/" target="_blank">"five ways playwriting is similar to essay writing."</a></div>
<div>
<br />> In the category of <i>hey-why-didn't-I-think-of-that,</i> Andrea Askowitz has <a href="https://medium.com/@andrea.askowitz/happy-birthday-163be3a1659e" target="_blank">challenged herself to write 50 essays in 50 weeks</a>. </div>
<div>
<br />> Oh, the things I'm learning as a new author...Did you know there's a website where you can see a list of libraries <i>around the world</i> where your book is in circulation? Check out <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/" target="_blank">WorldCat</a>. </div>
<div>
<br />> At The Millions, novelist Tom McAllister asks, <a href="https://themillions.com/2018/05/will-buy-book.html" target="_blank">"Who Will Buy Your Book?" </a>The answers are sobering (and sometimes, a little comical).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
> I haven't looked into it deeply yet, but the new-to-me online reader/book social site <a href="https://www.goread.com/" target="_blank">GoRead</a>, seems promising. And<i> they promise</i> to donate a book for every one bought there.</div>
<div>
<br />> A few weeks ago, The Quivering Pen (David Abrams' blog) ran my post, <a href="http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com/2018/05/my-first-time-lisa-romeo.html" target="_blank">"My First (Disastrous) Writing Retreat)"</a> as part of their My First Time column. The same day, Brevity's blog featured a post by Laura Rink, <a href="https://brevity.wordpress.com/2018/05/14/real-life-vs-the-failed-writing-retreat/" target="_blank">about her failed writing retreat</a>. Both of us wrote about what we learned about ourselves as writers via the experience...which means, I suppose, they were a kind of success. (Great minds and all that, I guess.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
> Finally, feast your eyes and find out why "<a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/finland-mind-building-libraries-venice-biennale/index.html?platform=hootsuite" target="_blank">Finland is Home to the World's Most Radical Libraries"!</a><br /></div>
Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-48747831128355043982018-05-26T08:00:00.000-04:002018-05-26T11:02:50.770-04:00Guest Blogger Debra Borden on Switching from Fiction to Fact<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXQf1kjzeMEcDy3rkJZr1Hi37lXrerCUMKzotkLeNB7VnGzefk7YQGAHHXlIGNUXrywDCQhly8iGTVptvqzXxj3I35Lwio1vZNZSzGPqhE0JF_8qvOOb_LYjy9NozPjaYG3kGkxD4d44/s1600/borden+book+cover+image+--+cook+yourself+happy.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="217" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXQf1kjzeMEcDy3rkJZr1Hi37lXrerCUMKzotkLeNB7VnGzefk7YQGAHHXlIGNUXrywDCQhly8iGTVptvqzXxj3I35Lwio1vZNZSzGPqhE0JF_8qvOOb_LYjy9NozPjaYG3kGkxD4d44/s400/borden+book+cover+image+--+cook+yourself+happy.jpeg" width="271" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">When I
began featuring guest bloggers, Debra Borden was one of the first I invited,
after meeting at an event for writers in northern New Jersey. In addition to writing,
<span class="s1">Debra works as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in New York and
New Jersey, helping clients in a variety of settings, including as a “Sous
Therapist” in their homes. <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cook-Your-Marriage-Happy-Yourself-ebook/dp/B079Y9KMV8" target="_blank">Cook YourMarriage Happy</a>,</i> the first in her planned Cook Yourself Happy® series, is
her third book, following the novels </span></span><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/little-bit-married-debra-borden/1100266739?ean=9781400082247"><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">A
Little Bit Married</span></i></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">
and </span></span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400082226/ref=cm_sw_su_dp"><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Lucky
Me</span></i></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">.</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Please welcome Debra Borden.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The ultimate
moment of joy and validation in my life came on a morning in January 2006. I
know this is where I’m supposed to say that was the day I gave birth to my
first or second child. Of course, those <i>were</i> momentous events, but I never felt as
validated <i>giving </i>birth as I did
getting published. I’m sorry but it’s true. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">When the
doctor said, ‘you have a little girl’ and three years later, ‘a boy’, I held
those babies close and then asked my husband to get me a cheese Danish. When
the call came from my agent announcing that my first novel had sold, I sank to
my knees and cried. And cried some more. For about an hour. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">When the
second novel was published, I finally began to believe that I was a writer. And
I was sure that fiction was my game. But with the confidence came not more
fiction, but instead light-hearted essays --spilling out as if I was born to
write humorous truths. In retrospect, the essays weren’t all that different
from my novels, which were both told in first person and made liberal use of my
personal history—events and feelings, miscues and fantasies. A type of <i>faction.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">At the
time, I didn’t realize that the essays might also be transitional. But as an
LCSW I know something about the word<i>
compulsion</i>. I’ve used it to describe clinical features as well as what
writing is to me; with a nod to Descartes, <i>I
write, therefore I am</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">So, it’s
not so surprising that I transitioned from fiction to memoir and self-help. I
often say that my work as a former school social worker informed my fiction. After
all, when doing an evaluation or assessment, I was exploring family dynamics,
human development, cultural norms, and home situations: essentially, a job
that’s an inadvertent master class in character development and plot. Later, when
working with challenging adult clients and I stumbled upon an amazing
experiential therapy through cooking, naturally I was compelled to write about
it, this time in article, essay, and self-help forms<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But when
writing novels, I was used to writing in stream-of-consciousness, a method I
encourage. My mandate is to get the story down while it’s coming. If I stop too
long to edit or correct I fall into the black hole of perfecting the language
and I end up with five sentences, all with perfect grammar but no music at all.
It seems to me a story or essay is a little word symphony with cadence and
melody that needs to be played first. Create now, edit later. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Except,
this often didn’t work for me with nonfiction. Yes, I still wanted it to have a
snappy beat and the right key, but for me, nonfiction is more linear, more formatted
and defined (sometimes even governed by AP Style). I needed to attend to research,
too. And when I began to shape what I had in mind into a book idea, I realized
I could best present my material in forms that repeat in some chapters, with similar
instructions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnFscWjvgDhfr7kCI-jTg0JlN_eRuAgqeO6CVfHljrV9x7_gwZsfdTGxw8-T4WJd2RD_PJm6oW8AIpTCK1e_eOF0zxn76h54MgB6Joutb4XzvJqNqQwam1vbtFHRiibMAEXFrKn1tIJmE/s1600/borden+-+headshot.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnFscWjvgDhfr7kCI-jTg0JlN_eRuAgqeO6CVfHljrV9x7_gwZsfdTGxw8-T4WJd2RD_PJm6oW8AIpTCK1e_eOF0zxn76h54MgB6Joutb4XzvJqNqQwam1vbtFHRiibMAEXFrKn1tIJmE/s1600/borden+-+headshot.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">My
publisher also was lobbying for some visual and organizational ideas that
rankled: boxes and bullet points. Yikes, bullet points? What fresh hell is this?
In keeping with the music metaphor, I
was discovering that the kind of book I was attempting was not a medley of
hits, but a series of singles. Which is not to say it can’t be entertaining,
anecdotal, or creative. I learned to ‘write within the lines’, and I certainly
hope every page, chapter, and even bullet point is still delightful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">When I write
fiction, I do outline, but it’s loose. I scope out the general arc of the story
before I begin with several blank spaces for my characters to weigh in or solutions
to unfold. Much of my outline happens in my head when I’m doing other things,
like chopping vegetables or not sleeping. But when I tried to write a self-help
book in my usual way, I lost structure and forward motion and it caused
everyone fits, including me. No sooner would I finish one section and start another
that I realized I had to go back and insert or delete from the first. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I was also
finding it difficult to bring the uniformity to the chapters that my original
publisher envisioned. While the steps to treating The Stale Marriage
and The Sexually-Out-Of-Sync Marriage may be similar, the behaviors they mirror,
the recipes I choose, and the reflective processes differ. I’m also a bit
creative with fonts and indentations and spacing. And by creative I of course
mean <i>incompetent</i>. Six copy editors
later (one a famous and expensive New York Times bestselling author) I’ve
learned my lesson. And maybe how to write nonfiction in a way that doesn’t
require my team to need a sabbatical on a remote island to destress. Yes, I
exaggerate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> Writing <i>Cook
Your Marriage Happy,</i> the first in my planned <i>Cook Yourself Happy</i> series was at times frustrating, annoying,
daunting and of course, immensely gratifying. I’m so grateful to be able to
write and to my readers. But also, to learn. I often say I wrote fictional characters
I’d like to emulate, characters that grow and evolve. Going from fiction to
fact has also been an evolution for me, although a year ago ‘evolution’ was not
the word I would have used. This is why the next volume in the series is
called, <i>Cook Your Stressed-Out Self
Happy.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Connect
with Debra at her </span></span><a href="http://www.cookyourselfhappy.com/"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">website</span></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">, or </span></span><a href="mailto:debra@cookyourselfhappy.com"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">email
her</span></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">.
</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</script>Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-72713523135218212892018-05-01T08:30:00.000-04:002018-05-01T08:30:10.676-04:00Book Birthday! Starting with Goodbye makes its official debut. Hello World!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm almost always awake past midnight anyway. But I'm not usually watching the clock to tick into the new day. Maybe it is a bit silly, wanting to drink in the first moments of the first day when my first book is birthed. That's okay. I'll take silly. <script>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGHcREVjQljZS3r0eZW9K6pwVv_g1p3hdEWw-2P9xECaxfsU8Vl-I_cx9P0pJ9RMkMdrFvf6unYdH3xocGlPkOt0ESgKbIt-ys04O-XJHSWY2pecZCbFSo-Ogx5cHsE5_JMWQYjultOo/s1600/Book+birthday+box+%2523+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGHcREVjQljZS3r0eZW9K6pwVv_g1p3hdEWw-2P9xECaxfsU8Vl-I_cx9P0pJ9RMkMdrFvf6unYdH3xocGlPkOt0ESgKbIt-ys04O-XJHSWY2pecZCbFSo-Ogx5cHsE5_JMWQYjultOo/s320/Book+birthday+box+%2523+1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When the FedEx delivery guy pulled up late yesterday afternoon, I met him at the bottom of the front steps with outstretched arms. "This is a pretty heavy box. You sure you want to carry it?" he asked. I was sure!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tucked inside along with my author copies was a beautiful card signed by everyone on the editorial, production, and marketing team at University of Nevada Press, all those I've come to know over the last 14 months, everyone who brought the book to life with such passion. (Everyone who put up with me and my constant questions!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They're the folks who made this gorgeous video trailer. Please take a (36 second) look!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zJENeXCAKbs" width="560"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For those who would like to read the book, you can order online from many retailers, small or large, indie or the big guys. I've gathered <a href="http://www.lisaromeo.net/starting-with-goodbye/order/" target="_blank">all the options, linked for you here</a>. And of course, I'd love nothing more than if you wandered into your own nearby independent bookstore and asked them to stock it (or at least order you one!).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you'd like a signed copy of <i>Starting with Goodbye</i>, you can do so <a href="https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/book/9781943859689" target="_blank">via Watchung Booksellers,</a> my nearest local independent book store. Simply note, "signed please" in the Order Comments box on their Checkout page. (Also specify if you want it personalized or not.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On our way out to a little celebratory dinner tonight, we may stop off at Watchung, where a friend spotted this: </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJyOu4xNNGyveVsvC7FKw4PPSG-xZRAaZ6KfxJFpd71otcb6jCReb3lFPT2kl9VHe5HUAkCc8bhKQkqidBaKJN7T7N99fxsfzo1ha8MsVL7QBrJvClkaPzOPemrvNtptIhyClXLhlW56M/s1600/watchung+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="503" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJyOu4xNNGyveVsvC7FKw4PPSG-xZRAaZ6KfxJFpd71otcb6jCReb3lFPT2kl9VHe5HUAkCc8bhKQkqidBaKJN7T7N99fxsfzo1ha8MsVL7QBrJvClkaPzOPemrvNtptIhyClXLhlW56M/s320/watchung+cropped.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One day soon, I'll head over to <a href="http://store.wordsbookstore.com/book/9781943859689" target="_blank">WORDS Bookstore</a>, a little bit further away, where a friend, out for her morning walk, reports that we're already window dressing! </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHBzhWvuP6eoh1SfV2n6UUdJmZ0P_KCLN4SfIc6bJqqFQi0fmKgo156pnQvNzJUKGpbBP-B6Yj31oLZ70GNXYmua0K_N3pf9rVmMkiqVwJmyp2cfCHJ2WRpFUAMSVXsp0QVTnFlypNi0M/s1600/Words+window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHBzhWvuP6eoh1SfV2n6UUdJmZ0P_KCLN4SfIc6bJqqFQi0fmKgo156pnQvNzJUKGpbBP-B6Yj31oLZ70GNXYmua0K_N3pf9rVmMkiqVwJmyp2cfCHJ2WRpFUAMSVXsp0QVTnFlypNi0M/s320/Words+window.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Readers who are writers, I've learned one thing well. Books take time. They take as long as they take. This one took a long time. But now that its time has come, the time merely seems right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thank you, blog readers, for allowing me to share my excitement with you! For staying interested in what I was doing and had to say over these past 11 years since I started this blog, way before there was any book in sight. You're the best.</span><br />
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<br />Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-40001450951538193802018-04-26T15:12:00.001-04:002018-04-27T09:57:48.028-04:00Taking the Book on the Road (or: Good Thing I Like to Drive)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVT-yxxuRi8ggyvDANM77_j9n8KWm4uM1qlQGG5v4BzHWeapTGD_LIx0LLRIwGUGAUdkokV5aFUj7HsebKN0S49W15-_cNBfx27xYWn_aQB5VtVW3GHKIZ0np9XY_juAvs6TBc3FodZdY/s1600/SWG+Book+Tour+May-June+2018+high+quality.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1397" data-original-width="1600" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVT-yxxuRi8ggyvDANM77_j9n8KWm4uM1qlQGG5v4BzHWeapTGD_LIx0LLRIwGUGAUdkokV5aFUj7HsebKN0S49W15-_cNBfx27xYWn_aQB5VtVW3GHKIZ0np9XY_juAvs6TBc3FodZdY/s400/SWG+Book+Tour+May-June+2018+high+quality.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Before the craziness of publication arrives (<i><a href="http://www.lisaromeo.net/starting-with-goodbye/" target="_blank">Starting with Goodbye</a></i> says hello to the world on Tuesday, May 1), I wanted to let my blog readers know that the first two months of my book tour schedule have been posted (with time, location, links, and other details) <a href="http://www.lisaromeo.net/events1/" target="_blank"> at my website</a>.<br />
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Except for a handful of locations -- Rockville Centre, NY (5/3), Amherst, MA (5/10), Millbrook, NY (5/19), and Kingston, NY (6/3) -- I'm be sticking close to my New Jersey roots for much of May and June. After that, who knows where I may pop up this summer...so much is still *in the works*, so stay tuned. </div>
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Meanwhile, here's a quick peek. If you come to an event, please do say hello and let me know that we're connected through the blog!</div>
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Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-15557858336432974672018-04-20T09:12:00.002-04:002018-04-20T09:12:34.118-04:00Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers -- April 20, 2018 Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD7Witlo8-m9nEwn_AdbbIi0rJ8nlG99K3YjFkqGkjVqFDQ2ZIdwVQwixFy9iwqKIE2QLZS12JEedLE6ZruZv0w4Ci8fPuEKCkaAhmttAckS0g6-SZlsv0DZaziMQH2bm6zBUKA1IqdGU/s1600/vintage+fridge+with+pretty+lady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1172" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD7Witlo8-m9nEwn_AdbbIi0rJ8nlG99K3YjFkqGkjVqFDQ2ZIdwVQwixFy9iwqKIE2QLZS12JEedLE6ZruZv0w4Ci8fPuEKCkaAhmttAckS0g6-SZlsv0DZaziMQH2bm6zBUKA1IqdGU/s400/vintage+fridge+with+pretty+lady.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>
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<i>>Publishers Weekly</i> reports on "<a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/76545-a-new-generation-of-african-american-owned-bookstores.html" target="_blank">A New Generation of African-American-Owned Bookstores."</a></div>
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> In case you missed it, the <a href="http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2018">2018 Pulitzer Prizes</a> were awarded this week. Of note: the novel prize went to <i>Less</i>, by Andrew Sean Greer, which addresses love and growing older in the same breath and with humor. And in general nonfiction,<i> Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder,</i> by Caroline Fraser, the first complete and intricately researched biography of the beloved author.</div>
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> At a workshop I led recently, many memoir writers were working through stories of trauma and grief (as is usual), but at one point we explored why readers also need to experience some happy moments amid the sadness. Then I came across <a href="https://brevity.wordpress.com/2018/04/11/on-a-writers-investments/" target="_blank">Laura Gilkey's post in the Brevity blog</a>, and she said it so well.</div>
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> At The Writers Circle blog, <a href="https://writerscircleworkshops.com/2018/03/21/lack-of-control/" target="_blank">Michelle Cameron's post, "Lack of Control"</a> probably speaks for every writer with a manuscript their agent has sent out on submission to publishers. </div>
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> <i>Funds for Writers</i> has advice for authors on <a href="http://fundsforwriters.com/how-to-connect-with-book-clubs/" target="_blank">how to connect with book clubs</a>.</div>
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> At the <a href="http://frontporchlit.tumblr.com/post/173043884565/my-failed-novel" target="_blank"><i>Front Porch Journal</i> blog,</a> a look at a failed novel and the (fixable) problem of writing what you don't know. </div>
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> Finally, two items for fun. In the maybe-I'm-not-so-odd category: <a href="https://custom-writing.org/#famous-writers" target="_blank">"20 Quirks and Strange Habits: The Weird Side of Famous Writers."</a> <i>Someone</i> opens to a random dictionary page when faced with writing description, then uses word he finds there to complete the task. And, always dependable for a laugh with his reports on humans (not writers) acting strangely, there's <a href="http://drgrumpyinthehouse.blogspot.com/2018/04/breaking-news.html" target="_blank">Dr. Grumpy in the House</a>.</div>
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Have a great weekend!</div>
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Lisa Romeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01522310766694189857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5371028182709754366.post-3835292512662839932018-04-09T08:30:00.000-04:002018-04-09T08:30:26.279-04:00Guest Blogger Rebecca Entel on the Tricks that Helped Her Finish Writing a Full Novel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv8Et6T1dvmiGOQVEuvQQV8f-EoSjmBQ2fnng9EzU9vkxe-xkrSAhzKqf9IdfFTneSYnZTqrzEP1BvzIkf7ur-2geS4o-kphLUtt26XpzO3tGsFBNmCLFyaFsWZbtKyUi12nzLidvdKdQ/s1600/Rebecca+Entel+headshots+by+Elizabeth+McQuern.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv8Et6T1dvmiGOQVEuvQQV8f-EoSjmBQ2fnng9EzU9vkxe-xkrSAhzKqf9IdfFTneSYnZTqrzEP1BvzIkf7ur-2geS4o-kphLUtt26XpzO3tGsFBNmCLFyaFsWZbtKyUi12nzLidvdKdQ/s320/Rebecca+Entel+headshots+by+Elizabeth+McQuern.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="A2">Rebecca Entel’s first novel is </span><a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781944700232"><i>Fingerprints of Previous Owners</i></a><span class="A1"> (Unnamed Press, 2017). </span><span class="A2">Her short
stories and essays have appeared in </span><i><span class="A1">Guernica</span><span class="A2">, </span><span class="A1">Joyland
Magazine</span></i><span class="A2"><i>,</i> <i>Literary Hub,
Electric Literature, Cleaver Magazine,</i> </span><span class="A1"><i>The Madison Review</i></span><span class="A2">,<i> </i>and elsewhere. Rebecca is an Associate
Professor at Cornell College, where she teaches</span><span style="background: white;"> multicultural
American literature, Caribbean literature, creative writing, and the literature
of social justice</span><span class="A2">. </span><span style="background: white;">She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin
and a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania. Rebecca grew up in
Cleveland and currently lives in Iowa City.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Please welcome Rebecca Entel</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe
it’s part of my process to imagine having better writing days than I actually
have. In my mind’s eye, there I am at my desk or on the couch or at a table in
the library, fingers flying as I produce and produce and produce. It’s much
harder to be inside that body I’m imagining watching from afar – to be the one
staring at the screen, resisting the click-away temptation of the internet,
believing in what could come next.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I
had been writing and teaching writing for many years before publishing <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fingerprints-Previous-Owners-Rebecca-Entel/dp/1944700234/">Fingerprints
of Previous Owners</a>.</i> Part of my process in writing that first novel was
seeing if I could, in fact, even finish one. I got to travel many times for
this project, which takes place at a Caribbean resort built over the ruins of a
slave plantation. I even learned how to use a machete to reach those ruins for
my research. But most of my time was spent staring at the screen, feeling
frustrated. I’d spend too much time trying to get the conditions right for
becoming the writer that existed in my mind, and then when I actually sat down
to write, I’d feel fundamentally not up to the task. Those images of watching
myself writing prolifically had become one more weight getting in my way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
only way I seemed to get anything done was when I tricked myself into writing, by
using all the tricks I’d counseled my students to use when they were feeling
stuck. Two of these tricks <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">had a
major impact on the development of the book.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What’s something you know about
that your readers may not? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A
grad professor of mine once recommended we think about this question, finding
something unique to describe that might inject some energy. Posing it to myself, I thought back to learning
how to use that machete. I’d been taught it was a tool of gravity, not of
force. No matter how strong you were, hacking away wouldn’t do much good. You need
a sharp blade and the right angle, then let gravity do its job. I began free-writing
about this and discovered a voice that belonged to Myrna, the book’s main
character, who was secretly excavating the ruins. The machete became
thematically important, too, since Myrna didn’t have much power, physical or
otherwise; she had to be sharp and find the right angle to get where she wanted
to go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>What will you learn if you
free-write from a minor character’s persp</b></span><b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">ective?</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I
advise my students to find multiple ways to jump away from the main thrust of
their stories. This particular exercise isn’t necessarily about writing
material to be included in the text; it’s about the writer discovering new information.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On
the days I felt most stuck, I let myself write short narratives from the
perspectives of minor characters in my protagonist’s community. I learned a ton
about the island’s history, more than my narrator could know, and much of it
allowed me to add texture to the fictional island I was creating, where what
does <i>not</i> get talked about fuels Myrna’s
machete adventures. That secretive aspect of the book hedged me in because I
couldn’t reveal anything beyond Myrna’s perspective, which, combined with the
typical limitation of the first-person narrator, and her intense focus on her
excavations, isolated her character from friends and family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaoayHektQWy3GDIaKy3bIqPhiiBw_NekIdgvq2fB8uqaa3HG5dR4n9EJfPgNEBv1mnhjQDybvM21WdSBSE0vKL2uxNZC8BLjhwyOxK-HxAFYODSIQtmiUVSCEHqkQILuVrQKEI78BEH4/s1600/Rebecca+Entel+-+book+cover+image+Fingerprints_350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaoayHektQWy3GDIaKy3bIqPhiiBw_NekIdgvq2fB8uqaa3HG5dR4n9EJfPgNEBv1mnhjQDybvM21WdSBSE0vKL2uxNZC8BLjhwyOxK-HxAFYODSIQtmiUVSCEHqkQILuVrQKEI78BEH4/s320/Rebecca+Entel+-+book+cover+image+Fingerprints_350.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Some
of these free-writing exercises eventually became parts of the book in which I
let other characters speak. These characters never would have come to life if I
hadn’t let myself experiment with their voices. In talking to readers, I’ve learned
how important these side stories were to their reading experience. They needed
these breaks from Myrna’s perspective. So perhaps my feelings of being mired in
the writing was actually a clue into what my readers might feel, too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I
wouldn’t have finished <i>Fingerprints</i>
if I hadn’t relied on these tricks to help me stop thinking about the
to-be-finished <i>Fingerprints.</i> I hadn’t
thought of the various exercises I offer students as necessarily related before,
but I came to see that many of them focused on relieving writers of the
pressure of writing a book – distracting
writers from that larger aim so they could write <i>something.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In
speaking with other writers, particularly students, I’ve also been reminded how
helpful it is to hear writers speak honestly and practically about what their
processes were before their books were ever books. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Connect with
Rebecca</b> at <a href="http://rebeccaentel.com/">her website</a>,
on <a href="https://twitter.com/rebeccaentel?lang=en">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/rebeccaentel/">Facebook,</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rebeccaentel/">Instagram</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She is teaching
an <a href="https://catapult.co/classes/4-week-online-novel-workshop-first-chapters">online novel writing workshop</a> for Catapult beginning in June.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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