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Author: Marie A Bailey
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I haven’t read much poetry in my life, outside the required English literature classes of my university days. And yet I was grieved to hear that Seamus Heaney had died. Many years ago I had gotten an audio of Heaney reading Beowulf. I had read Beowulf even more years before and fell in love with the story and the music of the language. But nothing had prepared me for Heaney’s rendition. Both of these clips are about an hour long. If you prefer simple audio, click here to go to Audible.com.
And why now? Why not this post in immediate virtual time after the announcement of Heaney’s death? Well, I had to think about it. In writing about Heaney, I am not trying to draw people to me. I don’t need to be the first or the second or even the thousandth to tweet his death.
This post was prompted by an essay in The New York Review of Books, a periodical that we have been subscribing to for years, that I used to read cover to cover upon arrival, that I used to use for research while I was a Lit major. I’ve missed the last few months, the awkwardly large newsprint strewn in piles across my house. And then recently I pulled out one issue at random, Oct. 10, 2013. On page 10 is a one-page essay by Fintan O’Toole, titled Seamus Heaney (1939-2013). This essay is my first introduction to Heaney’s poetry. O’Toole says, “Poetry is language held taut by being stretched between the poles of completing desires.” That alone is reason to read any poetry, but especially that of Seamus Heaney.
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A truly inspirational post about NaNoWriMo and writing in general. I’m going for NaNo again. My first one was in 2007 and I won. I signed up for 2008 and got broadsided by a day job that just demanded too much. In 2012, I completed the November challenge and then the NaNoWriMo camps in April and July of this year, each time signing up for 50K even though I didn’t have to do 50K. And here I go again. My husband asks, “Why?” and I say, “Because NaNo is the only time when I really focus on my writing.” It does that for me. Gives me permission to push everything else aside and write.
Yesterday Jami posted about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and I really hope you guys take her class because she is truly a gifted teacher. Today, I want to talk a little bit about what writers (especially new writers) can gain from NaNo.
NaNo Teaches Endurance
I remember years ago thinking, “Wow, if I could just write a thousand words a day, that would be AMAZING.” When I looked at professional authors, it was like watching a marathon runner—all the while knowing I couldn’t run a flight of stairs without requiring oxygen and possibly a defibrillator to restart my heart. I so struggled to get words on a page, and Lord help me if I saw something shiny.
Of course, after years of practiced discipline, I generally have a thousand words written by breakfast. When I fast-draft (which I do for all my books), my average is abnormally…
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Interesting idea for making it easier for readers to find content in your blog.
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S.K. Nicholl’s great review of Mark Paxson’s novel Weed Therapy!
My husband and I both read this book and talked about it for days. We have already recommended it to a friend who is in a bad relationship. With a “Part Two” added to this book, it has the potential to be a masterpiece in the self-help genre on relationships and I will tell you why:
I loved the craftsmanship in the way this book was written and the author’s writing style. The word pictures created were superb. The beauty of the well written story was magical. The novel really moved me in a deep and spiritual way. Mark Paxon’s insights and intuitions were well woven into this account of a man’s quest for understanding his own unhappiness. It reminded me that men, whom we often regard as the stronger, less emotional sex, really do have feelings, hopes, and desires.
The characters, both primary and ancillary are truly tangible. Kelvin…
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After much discussion, A of The D/A Dialogues and 1WriteWay (yours truly) decided to let their characters, D and Mary, meet for a date. For those readers new to this blog or The D/A Dialogues, Mary is a contemporary woman in a series about three widowed cousins who start a private investigation firm. D is a 1300-year-old Druid.
This is Part 1 of A Date with the Druid.
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Mary stood in front of the dark wooden door. The glass inset was opaque and tinted green so she couldn’t see through to the interior of the pub. She took a deep breath, pulled her mirror out of her Louis Vuitton knock-off wallet purse, and took one last look at herself. The streetlamp behind her set a halo about her short salt-and-pepper hair. Her face was in shadow. She sighed.
“Well, I promised her one date,” she muttered to herself as she clasped the door handle. “One date … with a Druid.” Mary pulled at the door, releasing heat scented with body odor and beer. She wrinkled her nose and walked in.
The pub was lively, with nearly every round table filled with people eating, drinking and talking, seemingly all at once. The bar before her was lined with every manner of backs and butts. Most of those at the bar were focused on the soccer game playing out on a telly stuck high up in a corner. The hazy yellow light of the dirty overhead lamps cast everyone and everything in a dull glow. It seemed that no one had noticed her walking in, and yet she felt eyes on her.
Off to her left, there was a sense of someone watching. She turned and there, in a corner, sitting alone but for a bouquet of red and white roses and a pint of dark ale, was he. The Druid. The … man … that Mary had agreed to meet. He stood up as Mary approached the table. Oh my, she thought, he’s taller than I imagined.
His hair was long and dark and, to her relief, he wore clothes, a long dark coat and pants. Mary had only seen the drawing of the Druid on The D/A Dialogues and had been anxious that he would show up dressed, or undressed rather, pretty much as he was in the drawing.
The Druid looked down at Mary and smiled, his dark eyes peering into her blue. Mary felt her knees ready to buckle.“Hi! You must be D!” Mary knew her voice was a bit too loud as she thrust her hand out in front of her.
The Druid’s smile deepened. He took her hand but instead of shaking it, as he knew Mary expected him to, he gently turned it and kissed the top. Her skin was cool, no doubt from the chilly night air outside the pub, but his lips were warm. Mary shivered slightly with the kiss and firmly but slowly withdrew her hand.
D pulled a chair out for her and, with a slight nervous laugh, Mary sat down. God, I’m acting like a schoolgirl, she thought as the Druid took a seat to her right.
“What would you have to drink, my lady?” He still had that all-knowing smile, as if he could read her thoughts. Mary started to feel annoyed. She was in love with Randy. No Druid, no matter how tall, dark and well-muscled, could interfere with that. Not to mention that he was much too old for her, several centuries too old.
“A glass of Chardonnay, thank you.” She smiled back at him, revealing her perfect white teeth. The Druid snapped his fingers, ordered another pint for himself, the Chardonnay for Mary when the server came. Then he leaned in.
“I’ve heard so much about you. You are more beautiful than my imagination allowed. You remind me of a wench … I mean, a woman I knew, oh, a couple of centuries ago. She was feisty, very independent. But she could not resist me.” He gave her a large smile, revealing his perfect white teeth. Mary bristled.
“Really, I … is that a compliment, somehow?”
“Oh, indeed, my good lady. Ah, here are our drinks.” He paused to attend to the bill, and Mary was relieved that he wasn’t running a tab. She didn’t want to have to deal with a drunk Druid.
“So how is it a compliment? I mean, really, we’ve only just met and yet you imply that I will not be able to resist you.”
The Druid leaned back in his chair, his dark woolen coat falling open, revealing his broad, toned, naked chest. Mary grabbed her Chardonnay and took a big gulp. I love Randy, I love Randy, she started chanting in her head.
“The only woman I know that has so far resisted me is A, and I believe that’s simply because I live in her head. One cannot have an affair with a figment of one’s imagination. However …” The Druid leaned forward and grabbed Mary’s hand. “However, since we are both figments of imagination …”
Mary pulled her hand away so abruptly that she almost knocked her wine over.
“Nevertheless,” she said as she tried to steady her breathing. “I am in love with someone. I am not about to cheat on him.”
The Druid picked up the bouquet of roses and held them out to her. “Has your lover ever given you flowers as beautiful as these? Has his lips burned a kiss onto your hand, as I have? Oh, yes, dear lady, I felt you shiver with that kiss.”
Mary took another gulp of wine. She was going to have to have a long talk with 1WriteWay, her author. She studied her glass, wondering why it was empty so quickly and, more importantly, how to extricate herself from this large, overbearing, egotistical hunk of a man.
To be continued …
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Will Mary yield to the … charms (?) of the Druid? Will the Druid find himself with wilted roses and a glass of Chardonnay thrown in his face? Will either character ever speak to their authors again? Let us know what you think, dear Reader. Where should this story go?
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From Seumas Gallacher: heartfelt post about those behind the success of a self-published author.
…there’s a pivot-point when ye’re writing yer novel… when ye see a wee glimmer at the end of the lo-o-o-o-o-ong tunnel… a sense that the seemingly interminable slog to get to scribble ‘the end’is almost over… it can be reaching a certain WURD count… or having passed through the story building blocks en route to the final down-slope slalom to the finishing line… there’s an exhilaration… an added soupcon of adrenaline in the laptop finger-tapping… it feels GREAT!… I reached that narrative nexus earlier this week, and the effect’s still pumping through my quill-scraper veins… now it occurs to me to do my usual stepping-away-from-what-yeez-expect-an-author-to-do… y’see, most people wait until the book’s published to acknowledge all the good and wonderful people who’ve contributed to the masterpiece… yeez know the kinda stuff… ‘…I’d like to thank my agent, editor, publisher, hairdresser, etcetera…’ …except in these giddy days of…
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Welcome to an interview with S.K. Nicholls, author of Red Clay and Roses. Susan also has a blog at http://redclayandroses1.wordpress.com and is an editor and contributor at The Community Storyboard.
M: Susan, thank you so much for agreeing to be interviewed. I’m excited to be able to talk with you about your current book, Red Clay and Roses, as well as the novel you are currently working on.
SK: I am delighted to be here. What a lovely home, and your new kitchen is fantastic. What a great job!
M: Thank you! Let’s sit out on my porch. Our backyard is kind of like a green jungle with the palms and water oaks and hydrangeas. I thought it might remind you a bit of Georgia. Would you like something to drink?
SK: I love it out here, such a nice habitat. I live on my back porch. Yes, please, a glass of sweet iced tea would be great. The ceiling fans keep a nice breeze, but it is Florida and it is hot.
M: Indeed it is! As I tell everyone who visits, don’t mind the cats. Actually it looks like they are all sacked out.
SK: Oh! You reminded me that I brought presents. I have kitty toys with catnip. The stuffed hamburger is Wendy’s. Nurses always have the best drugs.
M: You are so kind to think of the kitties! They love catnip. Since you mention nursing, before we talk about your writing, would you mind describing your career as an RN? I’ve always been in awe of nurses, having worked with them and also been taken care of by them. Would you say that nursing led to you to writing, either directly or indirectly?
SK: Don’t get me wrong. I love Nurses and have the greatest respect and admiration for most, but I think the level of professionalism seen today has declined. I had to get out of that profession due to stress and the lack of professionalism among certain coworkers. I started out in Med-Surg, ER, and CCU, and always had two jobs in GA working Psychiatry/Forensics simultaneously. When I came to FL, I dialed it down a bit and went into geriatrics and pediatric extended care. It appalls me the changes over the years. I started out with 4 patients at most, and when I retired I had 44 patients. It is no wonder the degree of professionalism has declined. There is so much burn out, overwork, and stress in the field.
SK: As to my writing, it is sort of a given that Nursing influenced Red Clay and Roses. The protagonist is a nurse. When I found the ledger, I was both a Nurse and a student, and the people interviewed were actual patients/people I met in my Nursing career, being a fictionalized true story. I am hoping that having worked so many years in psychiatry, and particularly in forensics with the criminally insane, will lend some insight to my future writing.
M: I’ve read Red Clay and Roses and really enjoyed it. You’ve written on your blog about the difficulty in categorizing it. Much of the book is nonfiction, but some events are fictionalized. When you set out to write it, did you already have a structure in mind? Or did it come to you as you wrote?
SK: I am a linear writer who uses deductive reasoning. I see the big picture and then break it down into parts. I did not have a genre template or lean to any formulaic style of writing with Red Clay and Roses. The novel was sort of an accident. I have always kept journals, and have been attracted to journalism. It was where I wanted to go after high school, but life didn’t work out that way. The novel came about when I was going through old journal notes and decided to compile them. Then, I had the good fortune to reunite with my cousin and receive her related diaries. That it doesn’t fit into an easily recognizable genre results from it not being written to fit into one.
M: One of the many things that impressed me and many others about Red Clay and Roses is how you bring that era of pre-Civil Rights to life and how you also illuminate the political powerlessness of women during that time as well. Did you plan to have that kind of broad impact when you were writing your book? Or were you focused only on telling the stories of Althea and Moses, Sybil and Nathan?
SK: Most writers try to avoid politics and religion when writing. I wrote Red Clay and Roses as personal story documentation, so I didn’t really give its public image much thought. I have strong convictions concerning the value of intercultural acceptance and the 14th Amendment, whether speaking of race or religion, and have always been actively involved with Civil Rights, Planned Parenthood and NOW. Women’s history, reproductive rights and responsibilities, and how they have changed over the past century interest me greatly. Friends, and other Nurses I know through these channels encouraged me to publish the work.
M: You recently released a revised version of Red Clay and Roses. What prompted you to do this? Do you see this as one of the benefits of self-publishing, to be able to revise and republish?
SK: I am most pleased with the control one has over their work with self-publishing, yes. I changed my cover three times. The one my small press publisher wanted was horrible in my not-so-humble opinion. The revision was no big deal actually. I published on feedback from friends, not beta readers, and given some more feedback from readers, I decided that a chapter I had worked by condensing three into one needed a little more work to smooth out rough edges and help the flow as a good read. I did not take it down and republish, but submitted some text changes to include some corrections found necessary with the copyediting done. Again, self-publishing makes that easy to do.
M: Let’s talk about the book you are working on now. I hear that not only is it fiction, but it is genre fiction. It’s a murder mystery or thriller? What inspired you to do something so different from your first book?
SK: I have several WIPs, but you must be referring to my crime novel. I have always loved John Grisham’s legal thrillers, and the works of the Kellermans and Patterson, but lately I have fallen in love with some Florida regional authors, Randy Wayne White, Carl Hiaasen, and Tim Dorsey. I love the very real characters that you can relate to. This is genre specific writing and much more formulaic and imaginatively creative, hence the need for much organization. It is not without some serious research and I am grateful to have Jan C. Garavaglia, ME (Dr. G. from the Discovery channel) right here in town. I am hoping, with your three widowed P. I. ladies, and my future work, we can blaze the trail for some regional female authors in the areas of crime and mystery.
M: Oh, that would be great fun to blaze that trail! Now, what is a typical writing day for you? Do you set yourself goals like word or page counts? What needs to happen for you to say that you’ve had a productive and satisfying writing day?
SK: I have three works that are about 30,000 words each. I have just scrapped my entire crime WIP and am now using it as a reference for another one that is coming together but hasn’t quite gelled. So I sort of feel like I am starting over. It was necessary. Getting onboard with Scrivener and taking that online course to get a practical working knowledge of the use of it has been a Godsend. It is starting to come together now, but I don’t have strict writing frames. I can easily spend a half day writing and might end up with the perfect paragraph or the perfect chapter. Much of what I am doing now is new to me, as I am using Scrivener to outline a series and the first book, so my time is mostly spent in planning for now. I have been working the very opposite way to the NaNoWriMo method in the past. But having Scrivener on hand now is really helping with getting me organized and my methods are changing. I also have a new timeline tool, Wendy’s Story Timeline, which is making this so much easier than it was with my last book, much less of a struggle.
M: You know, publishing, whether it’s self-publishing or traditional publishing, is very competitive. Writers who are coming out with their first novels or short stories may feel overwhelmed or intimidated by the marketplace. Do you have any advice for writers who aspire to be published authors?
SK: I don’t see the competition as much as the camaraderie. For example, as readers, we may read ten books a year or twenty, so the more we, as authors, can produce and promote together…the better off we will all be in the long run. No serious reader is going to read just one book in their genre in a year, (and I know I can’t write but MAYBE one).
SK: I didn’t feel the intimidation with my first book because I had no online presence, but I certainly feel it now. Marketing can be overwhelming. My best advice to aspiring authors is to read and take the ideas of other people’s opinions and glean from them what applies to you specifically…let the rest roll off like water on a duck, else you will go nuts. Also, write, write, and keep writing!
M: That’s so true that there is wonderful camaraderie and that by helping each other, we help ourselves. Susan, it’s truly been my pleasure to talk with you today. Thank you again for taking the time for this interview. I know I am one of many others who are look forward to reading more of your work.
SK: Thank you, Marie, for having me. Dear me…I have rambled on all morning. It is lunch time already. Let me get out of your way so you can get on with your business.
M: No hurry. I’ve enjoyed every minute, as I’m sure our readers have too!
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Well, that’s it, folks! My interview with author, SK Nicholls. Be sure to follow her blog at http://redclayandroses1.wordpress.com and pick up a copy of Red Clay and Roses. Please stay tuned for more interviews by Marie at 1WriteWay.
To get your own copy of Red Clay and Roses, visit any one of these links:
Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/297631
Goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18084912-red-clay-and-roses
Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Red-Clay-and-Roses-ebook/dp/B00C2CNWGS
Barnes & Noble at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/red-clay-and-roses-s-k-nicholls/1114998823?ean=2940044412095
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A truly entertaining guest post by Seumas Gallacher on Chris The Story Reading Ape!
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog
…from neophyte computer Jurassic to Trumpeter Extraordinaire for the SOSYAL NETWURKIN WURLD… what a helluva trip!…
…the mail message looked innocent enuff… the Story Reading Ape’s missive simply asked for a Guest Blog piece to tell people about myself… easy, right?… not so fast, Sherlock… remember the immortal lines from my slightly more famous countryman, the poet, Robert Burns… ‘…O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us, To see oursels as ithers see us…’ …and therein lies the quandary… Auld Rabbie’s WURDS were from his poem,‘To A Louse’ …p’raps some aptness in that… whatever the rest of the planet may think of me and my WURKS, here’s how it’s been of late…
… some 60+ years ago, my Ma birthed me in the same street in Dockside Govan in Glasgow as Sir Alex Ferguson, he of Manchester United fame… he’s older than me by 6 years, has tons…
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Marie at 1 Write Way 