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Blog Celebrations - Week 6
A two-tone celebration
with 2 very different books
by Melinda Szymanik
to giveaway!
THE HALF LIFE OF RYAN DAVIS
‘Hitchcock with hormones’ - a contemporary psychological mystery/thriller for young teens
Playing second fiddle to a 'missing, presumed dead' sister is soul-sucking for fifteen year old Ryan. As he tries to move on with his life he begins to appreciate just how difficult growing up can be. And now there's a stranger watching him.Will his family ever be whole again? Or did Mallory light the fuse that will blow it apart forever...You can read a tall tales & short stories review of The Half Life of Ryan Davis here MADE WITH LOVE
A charming bittersweet tale of how a mother's love creates a little magic bringing a gingerbread woman and snowman to life. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Melinda Szymanik talks about her two latest titles
and why she just can’t turn a good story away
At a recent event where I was speaking I was introduced as a diverse writer. A writer for children, I’ve had novels for older children and teens published, but also short stories and picture books aimed at a variety of ages. Recently a writer friend said of my two latest titles -
“I'm quite amazed that you can write two books as different as 'Made with Love' and 'The Half Life of Ryan Davis
They are so professional! Of course, I did have a little chuckle at the “unsolicited manuscript submission” part. It kind of gave me the idea that maybe I should have used an agent?
Oh well! I’m excited that I submitted it, and they’re working on reviewing it, and some day, I’ll hear!
I’m not worrying about it though. Or thinking about it. Really. At all.
We’re moving this summer! I’ve got plenty else to think about! Mr. Fabulous got a job teaching Spanish in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at the elementary school! Fun! And crazy! It’s my job lately to find us a new home… and that’s not easy to find a home for a family of five in Jackson Hole. Have you ever heard of that place? It’s pricey! So, we’ll be living an hour away… :/
What else? Mr. Fabulous was on a curriculum review committee for the state of Idaho this summer! Check out what they gave him to take home and give to his wife use.
Books! Teaching materials! Posters! Tons of Awesome stuff!!! It made me want to teach so bad! Some day….
Meanwhile, Here’s what I got in the mail and I’m working on reading for a review. It’s so cute! (Just another thing that makes me want to do something I can’t right now! This time it makes me want to direct a children’s play! Or teach a children’s theatre group with my mom!)
Another illustration drawn with the ink dropper.
As regular readers of this blog know, I’m a big fan of Glee.
I like the storylines.
I like the songs.
I like the underdog factor.
I like the romance.
In fact, this may be the first time I’ve ever said anything critical about the show. So pardon me, but …
I just don’t see the point of Sugar Motta.
I’ve got nothing against actress Vanessa Lengies, who portrays Sugar. She seems very likable. And Sugar herself could have been a pivotal character.
So, I guess my complaint is more directed to the writers. Because here’s how it played out:
- Sugar Motta shows up after a food fight, says she’s the best singer in the school.
- She auditions and is hideously horrible.
- Mr. Shuester tries to let her down easily.
- She doesn’t buy it, saying, “I worked that song like a hooker pole.”
- Her wealthy father pays to create a glee club molded around Sugar to tramble New Directions.
- But then, Santana, Brittany and Mercedes defect to the new club and Sugar disappears.
Sure, she’s still technically around.
You’d see her for a millisecond here or there when the camera panned the second glee club. And then, when the two clubs merged, as you knew they would, Sugar came along. And there was no mention about her wanting to be the star, no word on whether she had suddenly somehow learned to sing, no complaints from her father, no anything. Just the occasional brief appearance in background of the choir room. (It was enough to make you wonder why Glee even kept Lengies under contract to do essentially nothing.)
Until Valentine’s Day where Sugar got her own episode and had Artie and Rory unexpectedly fight for the right to date her. And then, after that, she basically disappeared again and the storyline was dropped.
I have no idea if Sugar Motta will grace the halls of William McKinley High in Season 4 of Glee. But a good librarian is always prepared, and just in case she does, I have the book I’d recommend she read — Harmonic Feedback (Henry Holt and Company, 2010) by Tara Kelly.
Why? Because of a few comments Sugar made in her first episode.
She’d say something rude and then say, “Sorry! Self-diagnosed Asperger’s!” This seemed like a reference to Asperger’s Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. People with Asperger’s sometimes have difficulty with social interaction. Sugar, however, seemed to feel that saying she might have this condition gave her license to say whatever she wanted with no repercussions.
So I think Sugar might benefit from meeting Drea, the main character of this book. Drea, who’s 16, has been officially diagnosed with “a touch of Asperger’s.” Drea knows she’s different than other people and tries to blend in and lurk in the background. She’s wary of making friends because she hasn’t always interpreted their behavior correctly and history has taught her that once other teens discover she’s different, they don’t hang around her anymore.
And while Drea would like to have friends, she’s not always sure they’re worth the effort.
Drea has a hard life in other ways, too.
Her mom has just moved her to yet another town for a new beginning. Money is tight, so they’re sta
By: Shannon Hale,
on 7/3/2012
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squeetus blog
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Chapter 2
Physical description: We start off with Enrik, the trader. I’ve never been able to follow detailed physical descriptions in a book, e.g., “He had a wide forehead, aquiline nose, cheeks wrinkled from the wind, a mouth made for pursing, a shovel for a chin...” I can’t visualize all that. The face described seems surreal, cubist. As a reader, I prefer one or two distinguishing physical features or a general overall impression. Also, I find it more important for minor characters than main characters. A reader knows the main character by what they do, not how they look. It's a minor character who doesn't do enough to stay in the reader's mind who needs more physical description.
Length: A very short chapter! The first chapter was so important to me, I wanted to end it just right. This is a bridge chapter, and as a reader I often feel like short chapters are a kind of reward, a promise that the plot is moving forward.
So let’s move onto...
Chapter 3 (long chapter!)
The song: Some have thought that “Tomorrow’s a black BUSH in the middle night” but it’s actually HUSH. Darn that italic script!
Opening: Miri waking to trumpeting this time, instead of to goats, as she did in the first chapter. A little parallel construction to denote change.
Large cast: We have a village full of people. If I tried to describe them all, no reader could keep track. I generally only name the characters who will be of the most significance to the story--that is, to Miri herself. The named characters are given almost all of the action. On page 31 we meet Os, Gerti’s father and head of the village council, one of only three village adults who get names (I think).
Miri’s pa: The scene on page 33 is important to me. The relationship between Miri and her father was a subplot that I discovered in later drafts. Now it feels essential. It takes me many drafts to find all the layers of a story. I can't imagine this book now without that subplot. I love hearing of a father who has read this book to his daughter. (Even cooler: to his daughter AND son.)
The tutor: Trivia! Originally there were two tutors. I looked up the first draft to remember her name--Ingir. Here was her description:
“The second woman was the only person Miri had ever met who looked to have eaten more than she needed. She had large, dark eyes and long lashes, and Miri thought that perhaps some boys might think her pretty. She hoped Pider never met her.”
Peder was Pider at first, apparently. I think it was my editor’s suggestion to cut Ingir. At first I couldn’t imagine losing her, then once I cut her, I could see she was entirely unnecessary and in fact Olana worked much better as a character alone. Upped the tension and the stakes, I think.
Favorite line: The very last one. “Her pulse clicked in her jaw, and she held onto that noise, tried to take comfort from it, as if the quarry and home were as near as her heart.”
I skipped over a ton! Any questions? Here are a few from last post.
Ali: "When you were editing, would you stay on one chapter until you thought it was right, or go back later on as you edited the whole book?" Both. I mostly wrote the book from beginning to end, trying not to edit as I go. During rewrites, I might work over a chapter 2-3 times in one draft, 1 time in the next draft, 2 times in the next, etc.
Heather: "I was wondering how you came up with the names of the characters." Stole them from lists of Scan
By: Cynthea Liu,
on 7/3/2012
Blog:
It's a Spin Thing
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I am pleased to announce I will be speaking for the Hyatt Regency Chicago for a charity reading event on Friday, July 13, 2012 from 3p.m.-5p.m. at Hyatt Regency Chicago. The presentation is designed for children ages 9+, and we’ll be acting out a scene from “Paris Pan Takes the Dare.” The event is free to the public and guests are encouraged to bring a new or gently used book to donate to Open Books. Proceeds from the sale of these books will be used for Open Book literacy programs within the Chicagoland area and beyond.
Children will enjoy healthy snacks as they watch the story unfold before their eyes. I will take a hands-on approach, using one of my Reader’s Theater style presentations where the kids will act out a scene from the book. The presentations are designed to inform, engage and inspire.
Complimentary valet parking is available for the event from 3p.m.-5p.m. I will be available for autographs after the presentation. For groups of 10 or more, please contact Patricia Kanke, Marketing Manager at 312-239-4556 for more information.
About Hyatt Regency Chicago
Hyatt Regency Chicago, the largest hotel in the Midwest and Hyatt property in the world, features 2,019 guest rooms, 228,000 square feet of meeting and event space, and six restaurants and lounges. The hotel is located at 151 East Wacker Drive in the heart of downtown. Hyatt Regency Chicago borders the Magnificent Mile and is only blocks away from Chicago’s premier theatre, cultural, shopping and dining districts. For reservations, visit http://www.chicagohyatt.com or call (800) 233-1234.
About Open Books
Open Books is an award winning non-profit social venture that operates an extraordinary bookstore, provides community programs, and mobilizes passionate volunteers to promote literacy in Chicago and beyond.
Cover Shot! is a regular feature here at the Café. I love discovering new covers, and when I find them, I like to share. More than anything else, I am consumed with the mystery that each new discovery represents. There is an allure to a beautiful cover. Will the story contained under the pages live up to promise of the gorgeous cover art?
I loved Storybound by Marissa Burt. It is one of the best books I’ve read this year, so I am all aflutter with anticipation to get my hands on Story’s End, the next book in the series. I love the cover for this one!
In stores 2013.
No synopsis yet
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One of my writer buddies, Diane Marty, believes in building a child's library from birth. That's why she gives books as baby gifts. Brilliant! With those gifts, she includes the lovely sentiments below and gave me permission to share.
FOR A FIRST CHILD:I am giving you and your child what I treasure most. Words. Stories. Books.
Long after a neighbor inherits the baby bottles, the gifts from showers become donations, and the high chair begins its lonely wait for the next generation in the basement, your child will recall the stories embedded in his youth.
My most enduring memories are of reading to my daughters. I can still close my eyes and feel their weight in my arms and smell their freshly washed hair as they took turns opening to the first pages. The instant that cover opened, earthly boundaries evaporated. We traveled through times, across distances, into other worlds unfettered and mesmerized.
The day I overheard my oldest grandson chanting the refrain from a familiar fable, I realized that some of these childhood stories have become part of our family legacy—they had been transformed into an inheritance as precious as grandma’s afghan, dad’s headboard or the fading photos in our closet.
So, you see, these volumes are much more than the sum total of their components—mere paper and ink. They are passports. To dreams. To wisdom. To adventures. So, indulge yourselves with abandon. Explore new terrains ceaselessly. Share the laughter, love and longing along the way. And return when you will……
Bon voyage!
FOR A SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH ...Your second child! The wash has not doubled, but mysteriously quadrupled. The term “multi-task” has taken on new meaning as you answer the phone, feed the baby and fold laundry at the same time. And—perhaps, the most significant change of all—your home, your heart and your hopes burst with a new fullness.
Even as the pockets of silence shrink, your day expands to match the demands and the attitude of a person who weighs just slightly more than a bowling ball. You’re in a magical zone. And time’s irretrievable nature ensures an end to that zone.
So, spend it wisely. Peanut butter sandwiches will replace meatloaf and mashed potatoes in a pinch. You can wash the sheets tomorrow. And organizing the family photos will be a great project for your retirement years.
But no matter how scarce white space on your calendar becomes, sacrifice reading with your children only in the most dire of conditions. The opportunity to share stories is highly perishable, the expiration date always imminent.
Life will unfold for this new soul, yielding its promise, purpose and potential. An environment wild with words, lush with language, saturated with stories, will ensure the colorful present unfurls to meet a vibrant future. Happy reading!
Do you give books as gifts? If you decide to give one of mine, let me know, and I'll send an autographed book sticker to go along with it!
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By: Melinda Meister,
on 7/3/2012
Blog:
The Paper Wait
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This weekend the Wall St. Journal filled us in on the possibilities offered by E books; authors will soon be able to track their readers' choices: the color of men's eyes, the length of sex scenes, the endings of stories. Will economist Milton Friedman's famous maxim, "let the market decide" be the new rallying cry of novelists? Will creativity and artistic decisions yield to the demands of those turning the page? But in Sunday's NYT Book Review we find hope: Sarah Towers' review of Christopher Beha's "What Happened to Sophie Wilder" describes the book as a "meditation of why and for whom we write." Might be worth reading. I get into big trouble when I worry about pleasing those who might read what I write. Clarity and good writing are all important, and rewriting is essential. But what I want to say is mine alone. I can't let the "market" decide for me.
A few months ago, Lorie Ann Grover, a dear friend, talented writer, and founding partner in Readergirlz, introduced me, via email, to Shirin Subhani, the co-creator of Flying Chickadee and the quite original and lovely zine,
Courageous Creativity. Shirin was wondering if I might write a poem on courage for her next issue, and I, thinking about my son's graduation and the uncertain nature of life ahead, said yes.
Within the last few days, this new issue of the magazine has launched, and it is, as I hope you'll see by going to
this site, big in both heart and execution. Important stories are here, and so is hope.
Introducing, then,
Courageous Creativity, and a poem about a certain boy, called "The Graduate." With thanks to Lorie Ann and Shirin.
From my house to yours: 1. I’ve decided that summer in the south is God’s way of reminding that I do NOT want to go to “H. E. double hockey sticks”. 2. I’ve also decided I could live off of watermelon, spaghetti squash and grilled chicken all summer long. 3. 2. I wrote another pitch today. I won’t [...]
By
Cynthia Leitich Smithfor
CynsationsA Ph.D. in Economics (
The Ohio State University, 1974),
J. Patrick Lewis (“Pat”) turned to children’s poetry at age forty.
He has since published 80 children’s poetry and picture books to date with Creative Editions, Knopf, Atheneum, Dial, Harcourt, Little, Brown, National Geographic, Chronicle Books, Candlewick, Sleeping Bear Press, Scholastic Teaching Resources, and others.
Over one hundred of his adult poems have appeared in small magazines and journals. His first book of adult poems,
Gulls Hold Up the Sky, was published by Laughing Fire Press in 2010.
Pat has made nearly 500 school visits all over the world, and he has collected a T-shirt with logo at every school. He was recently given the 2010-2011 NCTE Excellence in Children’s Poetry Award, announced every two years.
In May 2011, he was named the third
U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate (2011-2013).
Would you describe your career as a hike up a mountain, a winding road, a path of hills and valleys or hop-scotching from rock to rock across the rapids? Why?Never having had that electrifying teacher or librarian who turned me to poetry as a kid, I came to it very late in a career that was already “Over there — Behind the shelf” (teaching college economics).
Poetry, once discovered, led to three years of poring over untold numbers of poetry volumes and texts, though I was hardly able to quit my day job.
 |
| Included in the multi-book giveaway! |
Self-teaching is a bracing experience. The best metaphor to describe my circumstances is the rapids. But there was no “hop-scotching” about it, unless you define the occasional poem accepted in a small journal a success.
I raced down those roiling rapids for seven years, passing hundreds of signs that from the shore that shouted
“No!” Rejection followed rejection with the rapidity of tracer bullets.
But my message to schoolchildren is advice that I have always taken myself: Nothing succeeds like failure. Make failure your friend. Ignore the Muse, who is usually on vacation at
Richard Wilbur’s.
A sweet whisper from the Muse—inspiration—is overrated anyway. Poetry is mostly dedicated hard work. Create your own Muse by reading, reading, reading. Then and only then are you ready to take up arms against the beast. If you consider yourself a writer, giving up does not enter the conversation.
How have you grown as a writer? What skills have you seen improve over time? What did you d
Happy Tuesday!
While us blogger gals, Susan Mannix, Larissa Graham, and I have been doing tons of interviews over at As The Eraser Burns, SCBWI MD/DE/WV's regional blog, (check it out if you want to,) I think it's high time I got back to having Shop Talk Tuesday here!
So I'm super excited to welcome Janet Fox, author of the young adult novels FORGIVEN and FAITHFUL, into the shop talk chair!
Kula Baker never expected to find herself on the streets of San Francisco in 1906. The daughter of an outlaw, Kula is soon swept up in a world of art and elegance – a world she hardly dared dream of back in Montana. She meets the handsome David Wong, whose smiling eyes and soft-spoken manner have an uncanny way of breaking through Kula’s carefully crafted reserve. Yet when a mighty earthquake strikes and the wreckage threatens all she holds dear, Kula realizes that only by unlocking her heart can she begin to carve a new future for herself.
“A new century lay open before us, where all things could be made clean and shiny, even a man’s soul. Why, if it was true as I’d heard tell, that men could get up in the air in flying machines – imagine! Men flying like birds! – why, then, anything was possible.
Wasn’t it? Couldn’t I lift out of here until I was wrapped in the blue bowl of the sky, free? Couldn’t I fly like a swallow out over these thick-timbered woods, these braided rivers and steaming rocks and sullen springs and hulking peaks?”
“Fox is a skilled writer who creates a multifaceted heroine surviving in the early 1900s… she proves she’s a heroine worth reading about.”--Romance Times
“Kula Baker, who had a small role in Fox’s engaging Faithful (2010), takes center stage as she journeys from Yellowstone to San Francisco…Slowly and at great peril, she uncovers secrets of the past. The San Francisco earthquake and acute class consciousness of Kula’s Native American roots feature hugely in this gripping tale.”--Booklist
“Fox manages to weave the many strings of the plot together nicely, with everything reaching a climax during the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake that leveled the city. Kula’s story comes to a heartbreaking, bittersweet conclusion that will leave readers satisfied.”--School Library Journal
In 1904 Margaret Bennet has it all – money, position, and an elegant family home in Newport, Rhode Island. But just as she is to enter society, her mother ruins everything, first with public displays, and then by disappearing. Maggie’s confusion and loss are compounded when her father drags her to Yellowstone National Park, where he informs her that they will remain. At first Maggie’s only desire is to return to Newport. But the mystical beauty of the Yellowstone landscape, and the presence of young Tom Rowland, a boy unlike the others she has known, conspire to change Maggie from a spoiled girl willing to be constrained by society to a free-thinking and brave young woman li
By: Karen Maxwell,
on 7/3/2012
Blog:
Write From Karen
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That’s assuming we can shoot off fireworks. It’s been so hot and dry here that Nixa has a burn ban. Which means, they are not allowing people to shoot off fireworks for fear a spark will start a city-wide fire.
We usually go to my in-laws’ house for 4th of July. They live on the outskirts of Nixa, so I’m hoping the burn ban does not apply to them. My MIL said she would water down her grass, but you know how fireworks are – you can’t exactly control where they’re going to go and HELLO NEIGHBORS! Meet our sparks.
We bought our fireworks this way, this year, because last year, when we were over at my in-laws, we noticed that we had a lot of the same fireworks and believe it or not, watching two boxes full of the same fireworks over and over again, gets boring. So. My MIL suggested we collaborate this year and we all met at a firework’s tent in Ozark and instead of debating over which ones we thought would be the best for our money, Kevin simply asked the heavily tattooed woman behind the boxes, “Which ones do you recommend?” Which sort of morphed into, “here’s how much we want to pay, just fill a box with your recommendations and we’ll be good to go.”
Excuse me??
Normally, the thought of someone else spending our money annoys me, but honestly? They’re fireworks. They all explode and go BOOM. I didn’t care. PLUS? If you haven’t heard, we are having one hell of a hot/dry summer and it was a “cool” (seriously, it FELT cool because we’ve been so used to temps over 100 this past week) 92 degrees and I was having a hot flash that only compounded my misery so I was ready to get the hell out of dodge.
(I’ve been saying hell a lot – my apologizes. I go through spurts).
So, the heavily tattooed (and sort of scary-looking woman) filled our box up with all sorts of large-ish containers and the boys filled an arm basket full of smaller stuff and we split the cost with my in-laws and I’m quite convinced this will likely be the best 4th of July fireworks display we’ve ever had.
Because who knows fireworks better than a heavily-tattooed woman who works/owns a fireworks tent?
Exactly.
I was going to take a picture of the fireworks box that was put together for us, but it was quickly loaded into the back of my in-laws’ car and I won’t see it again until the fourth.
If I remember, I’ll try and take pictures of whatever the scary heavily-tattooed woman chose for us and give you a brief critique … don’t even deny you’re not excited about this.
One thing I’M excited about? We bought some of those funky Sky Lantern things that float FOREVER and look like UFO’s in the sky.
Sweet. Nothing like freaking people out now and again.
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With the July 4th holiday,
Harts Pass gets an early release. Fireworks baby! (But not in the Methow, please!!!)
...my third book of cats!
INCOMING!!!
My desk is already covered in ink.
HOORAY!
By: Karen Maxwell,
on 7/3/2012
Blog:
Write From Karen
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Love Monkey Baa Theatre
Love Duncan Ball’s ‘Emily Eyefinger’
Love the brilliant new theatre at Darling Harbour.
July 3 – 15th Emily is being performed.
I caught a couple of the mapcap ‘criminals’ from Emily Eyefinger running around Darling Harbour.
Duncan Ball’s Emily Eyefinger is a joy with madcap antics as the girl with the eye on her finger embarks on the wacky story of solving the mystery of the Ancient Caves of Tutenkamouse.
Emily Eyefinger, with her Great Aunt Olympia, Emily heads into a deep dark jungle where she rescues Malcolm and his father Professor Mousefinder, foils a kidnapping attempt by the evil Arthur Crim – it’s mad and hilarious with animation and special effects that make it all the more hilarious.
See it for the School holidays at Lend Lease Darling Quarter Theatre, (opposte the Darling Quarter Playgorund) from 3-15th july. Book 1300 131 556
or www.monkeybaa.com.au
How to tell whether a literary contest is legit or just out to take your money.
http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2010/12/some-tips-on-evaluating-literary.html
Three's such a nice number. (Note today's date!) Would we still be reading a story about the two Billy Goats Gruff? The two little pigs? Imagine being granted only two wishes! Three is a number that just rocks.
I have found that when I introduce a minor motif or plot point, it serves the story best if I tap on it (at least) three times. For example, in the forthcoming sequel to Hattie Big Sky, feathers play a minor role. So, as I revised the manuscript, I made sure Hattie found a feather or feathers on three different occasions in the story. For me, those three taps give the readers a sense of a motif's significance.
And if I've done a really good job, I've left room for those same wonderful readers to ascertain the meaning of that motif for themselves.
WHAT is going on here?, you may ask!
You'd never think that Tales on Moon Lane in London's Herne Hill, such a lovely, orderly little bookshop could turn into a den of TOTAL CARNAGE.
Well, unless you unleash this crew on it. Under the destructive influence of David Maybury from Children's Books Ireland at The Sun Comes Out on Moon Lane festival, illustrators Gary Northfield</a>, Chris Haughton, Alex Milway, Chris Judge, Bruce Ingman and I wreaked havoc on this place. ...I mean, we turned the whole shop into a picture book with the aid of 50 children. Well, that was the brief anyway.
Here's the lull before the storm, when we were broken into groups. I brought along my neighbour friend, who did a great job reading a couple of my books to the 7- and 8-year-olds while we illustrators put out heads together and figured out exactly how we'd attack the project.
Each illustrator picked a character from his or her book. I chose Morris, 'cos I figured that if everything turned into a sea of muddy brown paint, we could still add flies and it wouldn't be entirely inaccurate. Here's my group, giving their best manky monster growls.
The first page (or possibly the cover) of our picture book was the front window, and Chris Haughton started with George the dog, from his book, Oh No, George! He broke the job up into segments, and each kid painted a bit of the dog.
Then Bruce Ingman joined in with his pencil character and a sausage. I can't quite remember how they interacted with George the dog, but somehow they did.
Oh, the sausage's name is Melvin.
When they moved over to Alex Milway's section of the wall, the kids were plunged into yeti territory. I can't recall if the yeti were coming to save the sausage or eat it. There were also a king and queen spider that entered the story and played a fairly major role on that page.
When Morris jumped into the story, the kids and I decided to show Morris dunking the sausage head-first into the toilet, with George clamping firmly onto its backside.
There's a reason the lower half of the wall has much more complexity than the upper half.
Ah, and the yeti has arrived, and is pretty put out by the proceedings. The queen spider finds it fairly
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By: Aaron Polson,
on 7/3/2012
Blog:
The Other Aaron
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I haven't written a word of fiction in more than three months. Not. One. Word.
Do I have your attention? Good.
I've used writing as therapy over the past six years. I started a year after Max was born, one of the hardest years of my life. Aimee spent two stints in the hospital that year and we struggled with balancing medication and therapy and workload and home life... When I started writing, I wasn't sure what direction it might take.
Monsters started appearing in my stories. Monsters and strange situations and Twilight Zone-esque plots. I embraced the weirdness, wrote stories about hotels with shifting rooms, doors to "other places" in the basements of a small Kansas town, a wife who morphed into a new person every morning...
Therapy.
I never called it therapy--it just became therapy. I wrote through my demons, my fears and anxieties about what had happened/was happening with my wife and family. With fiction, I controlled a little sliver of reality--the sliver I invented. I never called it therapy and I never really thought about it, either. It just was.
I haven't written a word of fiction in more than three months. I haven't wanted to--
On Sunday night, a good friend said, "You might not want to revisit those demons."
That sounds true. I hadn't thought about writing just like that--demons I hadn't wanted to revisit. My stories gave words to so many doubts and fears, and now I'm living in a different world, a world with different demons. I'm using "demon" as a metaphor--and we all have them. Doubts. Fears. I've learned different demons need a different kind of exorcism. I've always used creative pursuits to wrestle with mine. My summer screen printing and book binding classes have been very therapeutic. Once upon a time, I wanted to be an art therapist. I know why. I know why...
As for writing, I hope it's not gone, but I'm not going to seek out trouble just to stir those creative juices. Let it come as it comes.
Yes, I found this in a fortune cookie last week. Best. Fortune. Ever.
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I'd like to win The Half Life of Ryan Davis.
Thanks
jay(and I'd like the print copy)
jay.uppal@gmail.com
I'd love to win MADE WITH LOVE thank you.
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
I would like to win The Half Life of Ryan Davis. I would like the print edition. julierupert@gmail.com
Thanks
I'd love a chance to win Made with Love! Thanks!
AmandaSue
unforgetable_dreamer_always (at) hotmail (dot) com
Thanks for the giveaway!!! I would love to win The Half Life of Ryan Davis!!!
ennapenglin@sbcglobal.net
Awesome giveaway! I would love to win The Half Life of Ryan Davis! I love thrillers!!
booksahoy15@gmail.com
I would love the print version! :)