tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43400131894164029352024-03-13T04:54:37.203-03:00InkSpotting: Writing, life and the writing lifeAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-28588172238239402972012-01-14T18:48:00.000-04:002012-01-14T18:48:53.700-04:00Final Poll Results - Preditors & Editors 2012<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The official results are in, and InkSpotter Publishing has three Top Ten finishers in this year's Preditors & Editors Readers Poll:</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXq7aPXSRWhh_O94wWgSdJOEEag6D40SJT-oBbZsWsYr-EqeeRUrbMlptd-tgcE5-WZfJxfjQ3XME_gVRo3QtX5vDhEYizrFz11As1HVrTssnroxfeLhll3hTSdnmn5dYnabelzzc0pk/s1600/Lifelines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXq7aPXSRWhh_O94wWgSdJOEEag6D40SJT-oBbZsWsYr-EqeeRUrbMlptd-tgcE5-WZfJxfjQ3XME_gVRo3QtX5vDhEYizrFz11As1HVrTssnroxfeLhll3hTSdnmn5dYnabelzzc0pk/s200/Lifelines.jpg" width="134" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Anthologies - <em>Lifelines</em> - #10</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Book/Ebook Cover Artwork - <em>Lifelines</em> by Lin Neiswender - #3</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Poets - The Poetic Muselings - #3</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Poetic Muselings, by the way, wrote <em><a href="http://inkspotter.com/publications/books/lifelines.htm" target="_blank">Lifelines</a></em>, so they've made a great showing overall.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Thanks again, Muselings, for being part of the InkSpotter family.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-6531989168940268352012-01-04T19:50:00.000-04:002012-01-04T19:50:54.807-04:00Preditors & Editors Readers' Poll (Dec 25-Jan 10)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Rijw6WHBink/TwThtx19pXI/AAAAAAAAAq0/fR4Ay1R7xjE/s1600/predlogo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Rijw6WHBink/TwThtx19pXI/AAAAAAAAAq0/fR4Ay1R7xjE/s200/predlogo.gif" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The annual Preditors & Editors Readers' Poll is now under way, and InkSpotter Publishing has a few nominations for your consideration.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.critters.org/predpoll/antho.shtml" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Anthologies</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> - <em>Wait a Minute, I Have to Take Off My Bra</em></span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.critters.org/predpoll/bookart.shtml" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Book/E-Book Cover Artwork</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> - <em>Lifelines</em>, Lin Neiswender</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.critters.org/predpoll/bookeditor.shtml" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Book/E-Book Editors</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> - Betty Dobson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<a href="http://www.critters.org/predpoll/ebookpublisher.shtml" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Print/Electronic Book Publishers</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> - InkSpotter Publishing</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As I write this, <em>Lifelines</em> is holding on to the top spot in its category! But we're struggling in all other categories.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Please cast your votes for us. The polls stay open until January 10th.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-5559807233188416992011-11-14T10:00:00.000-04:002011-11-14T10:00:01.848-04:00Interview with Author Michael Sortomme<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWUK6EPmWnBsAljOrwqrlUD8kTbPti5H2E-NcYwJ6pYUvEVqolkkLvi6wJgaWauMYmcngSre7nTWF6GjHgWlnZKUMgQo3uQqvPNiGhEMeKto30s0pgJ9DCWTcb964exhgTsa4CNIbLdE/s1600/sortomme.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWUK6EPmWnBsAljOrwqrlUD8kTbPti5H2E-NcYwJ6pYUvEVqolkkLvi6wJgaWauMYmcngSre7nTWF6GjHgWlnZKUMgQo3uQqvPNiGhEMeKto30s0pgJ9DCWTcb964exhgTsa4CNIbLdE/s200/sortomme.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Michael Sortomme</span></td></tr>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Michael Sortomme </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">is an author, artist and
retired teacher of metaphysics, the occult arts and Active Indigenous
Shamanism. Educated in anthropology and modern literature, she has journeyed in pursuit of truth that she translates into vivid paintings and equally compelling stories. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A Reincarnationist, her prodigious past-life memory has motivated passions
in Genetic Genealogy, Herstory and the Levant. The Pacific Northwest is
home—the Oregon wine country—her piece of heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may contact her through her main
<a href="http://www.michaelsortomme.com/">website</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What motivated
you to start writing?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Lost in grief, I plunged head-first into poetry, prose and free writing
after my baby sister died. The surrender changed me, opened me to words in a new
way, using them to vent anger, sort through despair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is the
primary source of inspiration for you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">My major inspirational subjects are the rise and fall of ancient and
current civilizations, reincarnation, creative self-empowerment, the need for social
justice, the human genome and evolution in all of its forms. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Do you write
when the muse strikes, or do you follow a writing schedule?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When I saw myself as a starving, ill-fated poet, I waited for the
Universe to hit me over the head with revelation and inspiration. But lesson
plans, lectures and speeches broke me of that habit, to my benefit. It’s all about
the schedule now, else I am lured away from the job at hand far too easily.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Please describe
your process.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">My body learned to listen to the demands of creative process, applying
flow and trust to words as well as multi-media art. The process was almost
sexual at first; it lured me to be better and bolder, taught me to pay attention.
When a subject or happening stimulated my body, my brain learned to ignite and ideas
sparked, words flew, paintings were visualized. When I combined the right mix
of stimulation and a schedule, magick began to happen. I have always depended
on my passion to keep me motivated.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It’s not mysterious in
reality, if a schedule is properly kept, writing at least one “keeper” page per
day, a year goes by and you have a book. The challenge is to stay plugged-in
and focused, inspired to give it every last drop of energy available. Flexibility
helps, regarding what constitutes a full work day—it takes the sting out of a
seven day work week. When dealing with a painful or cathartic subject, I give
myself permission to stop and regroup whenever the need arises. Sometimes I go
back to it, sometimes not. Short but consistent work-blocks keep me from
burning out and getting lost in my own dramas. Illustrating my books helps the
process stay fresh; no time is ever wasted, including staring out a window. No
embarrassment or waste of energy exists; I am free to take mental license in
order to expand space and time—my meaning of a bard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I live large in my office—the
hub of my world—always a legend in the making. I embrace my work as worthy, use
expletives at forces that try to lead me astray and, the struggle of all time:
I try NOT to be a people-pleaser! My keyboard is well dusted—a tea cup on my
right and pens on my left, a line of painted miniature horses and fairies face
me—ready for action on my terms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What have you
done to promote yourself as a writer? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Website creation, social networking, befriending other authors wherever
and whenever possible, entering awards, whatever I can do without making myself
a total pest and an enemy of all. A creative person cannot hide, only if one
wants a life as a miserably lonely, forgotten outcast. I don’t dig the whole
Sylvia Plath thing; I want my words to heal, inspire, reinvigorate, so I
navigate promotional land mines daily. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What's left to
do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So much to do—there’s never enough time! I am frazzled at present,
getting two titles to market in a year. After a few months in the studio
painting and another month or so working on our enormous family tree, I’ll be
ready to hit the keyboard with a non-fiction occult overview for 2013. You
never know until the very moment you sit down to write what’s going to come out—if
you are not paid up front, that is. What needs and wants to be written will, as
obtuse as that sounds. Another mystery featuring <em>Emancipation</em>’s hero, Sophie
St. Cloud, might surface at any time though; the world needs more bad-ass women,
in my worldview.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When did you
discover your unique voice? <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How long did the process take?<o:p></o:p></span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Language was second nature for me, reading, writing and speaking before I
could understand the meaning of the word vocabulary. My parents were artists
and my mother had been, for periods of time, a serious poet. Paper and pencils,
drawing boards and rulers found me, props for classes taught to invisible
audiences. My head thought <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">out-of-the-box</i>
from the beginning.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> Outer-world success frightened me; several career choices further
confused my way. People, including professors, complained my writing was
embarrassingly autobiographical, they doubted anyone would ever relate.
Withering for a time after college, I abandoned written words for a spiritual
career. Several decades later, as a teacher too busy to keep up with her own
concepts, I was forced to return to writing, producing several volumes of guidebooks
for in-house use. Since retiring from private practice and teaching, I have
rediscovered my passion for words. Putting other people’s work aside allowed me
to confront my demons head-on, make priorities and follow through with rough
choices, by and for myself, my sanity and success. That’s when I became a real writer.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2eN3l8mzFRP3Y_CoMHQ8BrgPqBOlZUq6NsS5Vu2NBa_AQRqe3ho9pctfD_IaJQSjiPmXAn1mKUjMSW74P_A3EvJr3LWJFwq7F7DC7e7Z8SK43j-ET5sgCh5sUYhMg1SZ4UJgkwN1KzXM/s1600/emancipation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2eN3l8mzFRP3Y_CoMHQ8BrgPqBOlZUq6NsS5Vu2NBa_AQRqe3ho9pctfD_IaJQSjiPmXAn1mKUjMSW74P_A3EvJr3LWJFwq7F7DC7e7Z8SK43j-ET5sgCh5sUYhMg1SZ4UJgkwN1KzXM/s200/emancipation.jpg" width="132" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>The Emancipation</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>of Giles Corey</em></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What do you
consider your greatest achievement as a writer?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Thus far, <em>The Emancipation of Giles Corey</em>, my first historical novel, is
my crown. It won the Indie Excellence Award for Best Historical Fiction of
2011, Honourable Mention for the Hoffer Award and finalist for the Montaigne
Medal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What's the most
recent book you read?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><em>Fires in the Dark</em> by Louise Doughty<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Who are the
writers you admire most?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The trailblazing women that have moulded literature in all forms and
genres in the last century are my heroes; my limited list would never do them
justice. Fiction, spirituality, feminist culture, social action, anthropology
and the natural sciences, fine art or good read—all important, all valuable,
all changing and fine-tuning the art as we know it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: currentColor; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Margaret Atwood<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></td><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Margaret Meade<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Ruth Benedict<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Patricia Monaghan</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Geraldine Brooks<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Alice Munro</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Rita Mae Brown</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></td><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Anne Rice</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Zusanna Budapest</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></td><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Dalia Sofer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Tatiana de Rosnay</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></td><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">StarHawk<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Anita Diamant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Gertrude Stein<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Louise Erdrich<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></td><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Gloria Steinem<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Alice Hoffman<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></td><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Kathryn Stockett<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 9;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Marija Gimbutus<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></td><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Susan Vreeland<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 10;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Erica Jong<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></td><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Alice Walker<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 11;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Stephanie Kallos<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></td><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Barbara G. Walker<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 12;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Sue Monk Kid<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></td><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Sarah Waters<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 13; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Shirley Maclaine<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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</span><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></o:p></span><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What's your
best piece of advice for novice writers?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Be authentic</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">. Write
what you know to be true and what you feel is right. It makes no difference
whether you write fiction or non, write from a place of experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Risk disapproval</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">.
Regardless of how talented you are, not everybody will embrace the work you
produce. Accept that fact and let it set you free. Write what you need to
communicate, what you are driven to expose. Those who are inspired by your concepts
will find you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Don’t be shy!</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> Artists
of all disciplines must believe in the work that is being created to have a
successful outcome. It takes a strong ego to propel one into the spotlight;
even a pale glimmer needs work and follow through to interest an audience.
However, building one’s ego up enough to put a work of art on the chopping
block of public opinion can lead to extremes: arrogance and its complement, low
self-esteem. Temper your methods to avoid overt aggressiveness, but be strong
enough to make a positive impression.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Have a day job.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> Admit it,
being an accepted published author takes time, energy, determination, luck,
money, connections, Karma, and most probably, lots of gifts of expensive dark
chocolate sprinkled throughout the publishing world on a regular basis. Not
everybody has the magickal combination to get noticed, but everybody needs to
pay the rent. Be smart, get a job and pay your bills, including college loans. Eating,
drinking, having proper supplies and a working lamp are necessary ingredients for
this work; wrap your head around the concept early, it will make your life more
productive and a hell of a lot more secure. Poverty is over rated!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Is there
anything else you'd like to add?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I would like to thank Betty Dobson for the opportunity to share my thoughts,
hopes and experiences with her blog audience. Her invitation to appear in
written form for InkSpotter Publishing was generous and the support for my work
is greatly appreciated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new world of publishing appears,
to the untrained eye, open, accessible, affordable—yours for the taking. For
those of us in the publishing trenches, the pitfalls of today’s industry are
apparent and it’s tough out there for everybody—maybe not for Stephen King,
but he’s a rare success story. No matter how stubborn, jaded, irritatingly
isolationist and grizzled a creative person may be, to be truly successful one
must reach out and be accepted on some level by others. Understanding, support
and greater-world encouragement for the creative process must be had for the
artistic temperament to produce consistently. Without it, it is far too emotionally
paralyzing to be chronically misunderstood and rejected. An artist needs an
audience, one that is hopeful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> The world is ripe for talent, new and old—there's room for all genres and personalities as long as quality rules. We need a talent driven market instead of a celebrity showcase. The hard part is convincing large publishing houses, distributors and the people who still buy books that the world is much richer with diversity and subsequent choice. Large conglomerates are dictating intellectual future in streamlined catalogues. Have creative people devoted their lives for naught, unique ideas replaced by episodic reruns? It is my hope that independent thinkers and the small presses that print their work will flourish like never before because of the support of people unafraid to use their voices. Let us keep a growing library of ideas in circulation, not settle for a top five hundred playlist of someone else's choosing.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Welcome 2012—let the drama
continue—write on,</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">my companeros!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-21603390328186280112011-10-28T10:00:00.000-03:002011-10-30T06:33:59.458-03:00Anthology Author: Julene Tripp Weaver<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NQPc9ZHgjg-H0JWYbBaygTB417MTF1CCkuO25XcsdoUfisAejVi__YzFUUxk6WmuRTwSgZ5_H-1njU9qxcBDa4F_Enqn9h3dhi9NYKzKBRpBbyoenx1HQ1NB-Fz9yI-2_LfjWDmMW7A/s1600/Book+photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NQPc9ZHgjg-H0JWYbBaygTB417MTF1CCkuO25XcsdoUfisAejVi__YzFUUxk6WmuRTwSgZ5_H-1njU9qxcBDa4F_Enqn9h3dhi9NYKzKBRpBbyoenx1HQ1NB-Fz9yI-2_LfjWDmMW7A/s200/Book+photo.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Julene Tripp Weaver</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Julene Tripp Weaver lives in Seattle where she
has a counselling practice. Her first full-size poetry book, <i>No Father Can
Save Her</i>, was published this year by Plain
View Press. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing from the City
University of New York and a Masters in Counseling. Her first chapbook, <i>Case
Walking: An AIDS Case Manager Wails Her Blues</i>, has a selection of her poems
written during her 18 years working in HIV services. She is widely
published in journals and anthologies. She does wordplay on Twitter
@trippweavepoet and has a <a href="http://www.julenetrippweaver.com/">website</a> where you can read more of her writing.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 17pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"></span><strong>What motivated you to start
writing?</strong></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As a young teen I wanted to write poetry. Now I
understand my desire to write was from my grief. My father had a long slow
illness, and he died from Hodgkin’s cancer when I was almost 12. Left with an
unstable mother, who I never related to, I had to make sense of the world.
Writing was a way to save myself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">My books have to do with
the aftermath of grief, one personal, the other from a major epidemic that has
transformed our world. In both I sought a way to understand, to come to peace,
to leave a legacy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My poetry book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No
Father Can Save Her</i> (Plain View Press, 2011) is biographical, mostly
narrative poems about coming of age after my father’s death. This book has been
in process since I started writing. In this biographical poetry book, I’ve
explored issues of sexuality through the time of the sexual revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My first chapbook, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Case
Walking: An AIDS Case Manager Wails Her Blues</i> (Finishing Line Press, 2007)
is dedicated to all who have died from AIDS and all who continue to survive. In
this book from my work in an urban AIDS Service Organization I’ve documented
lives of the bereft with elegies and used the writing as a way to address the
secondary trauma one experiences doing social work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I wasn’t exposed to poetry as a child, but I believed
I could write. At 15 I signed up for an evening poetry class at a local
college. My uncle had to drive me, and he did not approve. I went prepared with
a poem, but I was young and intimidated by a room full of poets; I never went
back. Perhaps if my uncle had been supportive, or if I weren't so dependent on
him to commute, I might have continued. But the timing wasn’t right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most of my early writing was in journals. Later in my
teens my uncle read my diary, a violation that stopped me from writing for
years. It took me till I was in my mid-20s living in NYC to start writing
again. I joined a poetry critique group, volunteered at a writing program, and
joined the Feminist Writers Guild. This involvement inspired me to go back to
school for my undergraduate in Creative Writing at the City University of New
York. My main school was Hunter College, which I picked because Audre Lorde
taught there, and I could take a course at Brooklyn College with Joan Larkin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What is the primary source
of inspiration for you?</span></b><br />
<br />
<table 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/AVvXsEh2GFeQgb0nldnlLsyFQCCufC24cvt9Wz2ycuKMsuRcZHkx_ioIF2bYhMWxmCxMnNSFqmLmOwDYVGtsrJUnSgzJLQ6yQIO8MSkFusw0W1NIXRDo83gYJlHg1x3FVd6lK-9ykfSNM-oWjGM/s1600/WaitAMinute%2528final%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2GFeQgb0nldnlLsyFQCCufC24cvt9Wz2ycuKMsuRcZHkx_ioIF2bYhMWxmCxMnNSFqmLmOwDYVGtsrJUnSgzJLQ6yQIO8MSkFusw0W1NIXRDo83gYJlHg1x3FVd6lK-9ykfSNM-oWjGM/s200/WaitAMinute%2528final%2529.jpg" width="131" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Wait a Minute, I Have</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>to Take Off My Bra</em></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Reading other poets and hearing them read their own
work. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Internal emotions stirring inside me. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A yearning to understand more about a situation or my
past or my present state. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A deep desire to honor the dead. My poem in the
anthology, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Minute-Have-Take-Off/dp/0981333516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319835718&sr=8-1">Wait a Minute, I Have to TakeOff My Bra</a></i>, is to honor Negesti, a poet who was a warm and welcoming person.
She supported and encouraged many writers.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A desire to make a difference in the world.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A desire to leave a legacy for myself and others.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Do you write when the muse
strikes, or do you follow a writing schedule?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I write in my journal. I do
not keep a regular schedule. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Writing waxes and wanes;
I’ve gone through long periods where I’ve not focused on writing and long
periods where I’ve been obsessed to write. Now that I’ve had the good fortune
to have two books accepted and published, I’ve discovered when I’m promoting a
book it is difficult to focus on writing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I’ve learned to respect the
energy flow, learned to make room for writing when it comes. To write requires
living in a space that accepts and honors imperfection. Much like dreams where
if you acknowledge what comes more will unfold. It is important to welcome the
words when they arrive, because that will evoke more words. Since it is
impossible to get what is in our minds onto the page, because our minds travel
so much faster, we must take what comes and then work to improve it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Please describe your
process.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I love William Stafford’s writing about writing. In
one book he describes his process: waking early, lying on the couch, and in
that semi awake space he picks a string from the air and follows it. I start
writing this way. Follow what is in front of me to where it leads. Or start
internally and bring it out like a tread on a needle. Reading books about the
writing process is inspiring: books by William Stafford, Richard Hugo, Charles
Simic, Anne Lamott’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bird By Bird</i>.
Years ago I read Peter Elbow and Natalie Goldberg’s books.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve worked with movement and writing through
Continuum Movement, one of the early bodywork practices. Emilie Conrad, the
founder, runs a writing and movement group with writer Rebecca Mark; it was
called Poetry in Motion for years, now it’s called Writing the Waves. My first
Continuum Movement intensive was in 1988; in 1996 I experienced my first Poetry
in Motion. It was there the first seed of my first book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Case Walking</i>, started. This work creates a cauldron of writing
energy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Soon after this workshop I started running classes I
called Muse to Write. A Tombow brush stroke marker is used, it has a near brush
stroke at its point. As our writing comes through our nervous system every mark
on a page carries our imprint. This work is hand-to-page exploration that
allows art to evolve from basic marks into images into words from our very
cells. It is ancient.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Group writing is amazing, it is a way to witness and
be witnessed, a place to hear your words read out loud, expressed from
different angles and different places in the body. When we read back, we sound not
only the words but the marks and lines on the page.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve come to learn the work I’ve taught falls into the
realm of Transformative Language Arts, a course of study developed by Caryn
Mirriam-Goldberg at Goddard College. It brings writing to people who may never
go the route of the professional writer but who do it for purposes such as
healing or self-knowledge. There are many reasons people write. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve taken many classes. In Seattle we have the
Richard Hugo House, a rich resource for writers. Teachers like Deborah Woodard
or Elizabeth Austen provide assignments to read writers and write. With Deborah
I’ve worked with the writings of Gertrude Stein, Allen Ginsberg, Elizabeth
Bishop, Emily Dickinson. Elizabeth Austen did a three-year monthly series where
we read and responded to a new book each month. I also did Elizabeth’s revision
class and a title class. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Getting words to the page
is a first step. If you want to publish then revising is important to capture
and keep the reader’s attention. We must make our words sing, so I’ve sought
out writers to form peer critique groups. Doing a combination of classes,
readings, attending poetry events, fostering continual improvement is my
process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What have you done to
promote yourself as a writer?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As a writer it is important
to learn the business of writing. This includes sending your work out to
journals and anthologies, starting a mailing list to develop a following,
crafting groups of poems into manuscripts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A list of internet
resources I’ve joined:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Women’s Poetry Listserv:
WOMPO<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Facebook: Julene Tripp
Weaver (Link: www.facebook.com/jtweaver)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Twitter: @trippweavepoet<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Poetry Speaks, where one of
my poems is available on MP3<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Goodreads author page<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Website:
www.julenetrippweaver.com<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Listed on Poets and Writers<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">She Writes webpage<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Wiki listing through Wompo
to advertise availability for readings <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Blog Talk Radio (have done
an interview/reading for each book)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Featured on a variety of
blogs<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I post notices on Facebook
and Twitter when I am published. Attend and read at open mikes, schedule
feature readings. Network with local poets. Make MP3s of my poems using music
and sound effects.</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What's left to do?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Continue writing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Develop new obsessions to
feed my writing. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Form my next book. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Expand into new forms. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Develop my fiction writing.
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Do a broader public reading
circuit.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When did you discover your
unique voice? How long did the process take?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Voice changes through time—it is a growth process. My
voice as a teen trying to write was small. I became an outraged voice for
feminism in my 20s. I became a confessional-exposing-secrets voice, which is in
my book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No Father Can Save Her</i>. I’ve
been a voice for the oppressed and for those who suffer, as in my book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Case Walking</i>. The voices brew and churn
and circulate. I wait and watch and listen to what voice comes. We change. I
don’t believe we have one voice; I believe we have many.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What do you consider your
greatest achievement as a writer?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Having two books chosen and published by editors who
believed in my writing.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Having great cover art on both of my books. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Case Walking</i> has a photo that I found in
NYC at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No Father Can Save Her</i> the artwork is a perfect match for the
poems, and there is a photo of my Dad and me inside the cover.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Having a circle of friends who love my work. The new
famous is having 15 fans, and I easily have 15 wonderful fans.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Having a poem from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Case
Walking</i> featured on Garrison Keillor’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Writers Almanac</i> and having it published in his newest <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Good Poems American Places</i> volume.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What's the most recent book
you read?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jeremy Halinen’s book of
poetry released this year, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What Other
Choice</i>, and Judy Allen’s first novel, also released this year, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Looking Through Water</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Who are the writers you
admire most?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There are so many. Some of
my strongest inspiration came from poets I read when I was deeply immersed in
the feminist movement in New York City in the 1980s: June Jordan, Nikki
Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Judy Grahn, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Pat Parker,
Lucille Clifton, Joan Larkin, Sharon Olds, Faye Kicknosway, and Wanda Coleman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s hard to name people because someone is always
left out, but others include: Eileen Miles, Jan Beatty, Penelope Scambly
Schott, Lana Hechtman Ayers, Patricia Smith, Camille T. Dungy, Elizabeth
Austen, Pat Fargnoli, Belle Waring, Dorianne Laux, Eloise Klein Healy, Deborah
Woodard, Tory Dent, Tim Seibles, Afaa Michael Weaver, Reginald Shephard, Major
Jackson, Brooks Haxton, Tom Gunn, Philip Levine, Jericho Brown, Terrance Hayes,
Mark Strand, Michael Ryan, William Stafford, Russell Edison, Marie-Elizabeth
Mali, and her husband Taylor Mali.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As for fiction my favorite
writer is Tom Spanbauer; I’ve immersed in his Dangerous Writers groups. I’m a
huge fan of Kate Braverman, Raymond Carver, Mary Robison, and Ellen Douglas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I also have been reading
the series “The Art of…” on the craft of writing published by Graywolf Press. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What's your best piece of
advice for novice writers?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Go to the page, become
fluid. Then edit, edit, edit. Find writers you trust to give you honest
feedback. Find writers who are supportive to work with. Work your poems or
stories till they are honed. Read them out loud! Record them to hear yourself
read them. Try reading them in different voice tones, edit as you read, see
what your rhythm is. Immerse yourself in the poetry world. Meet other poets, be
a sharing, collaborative connector.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguQzeIlwGgN-2HCisyHBxr0BhQjAHleWsgpwf3fovnzEc6vCNWzLXDt0kh92mzE0-l-LQ-jLsFmbnpTawTSviUxnb3UoL5i2Ymgow1v1NiLRgQ3rmSAULNOop6GzY9z0QDIAVKUwduQcw/s1600/NF+Front+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguQzeIlwGgN-2HCisyHBxr0BhQjAHleWsgpwf3fovnzEc6vCNWzLXDt0kh92mzE0-l-LQ-jLsFmbnpTawTSviUxnb3UoL5i2Ymgow1v1NiLRgQ3rmSAULNOop6GzY9z0QDIAVKUwduQcw/s200/NF+Front+Cover.jpg" width="137" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: x-small;">No Father Can Save Her</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Is there anything else
you'd like to add?<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Please visit my website;
under the Links dropdown you’ll see a page “Julene’s Poems” with links to my
online published poetry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My two books are available
on Amazon. I’d love to hear from you, and I have review copies available for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No Father Can Save Her</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-6330044540020025962011-10-26T23:36:00.001-03:002011-10-28T14:31:47.248-03:00InkSpotter Publishing releases new breast-themed anthology<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2GFeQgb0nldnlLsyFQCCufC24cvt9Wz2ycuKMsuRcZHkx_ioIF2bYhMWxmCxMnNSFqmLmOwDYVGtsrJUnSgzJLQ6yQIO8MSkFusw0W1NIXRDo83gYJlHg1x3FVd6lK-9ykfSNM-oWjGM/s1600/WaitAMinute%2528final%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2GFeQgb0nldnlLsyFQCCufC24cvt9Wz2ycuKMsuRcZHkx_ioIF2bYhMWxmCxMnNSFqmLmOwDYVGtsrJUnSgzJLQ6yQIO8MSkFusw0W1NIXRDo83gYJlHg1x3FVd6lK-9ykfSNM-oWjGM/s200/WaitAMinute%2528final%2529.jpg" width="131" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Robert R. Sanders adds his photo-</span><br />
<span style="color: #f4cccc;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">graphic vision to the </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">breast anthology</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">InkSpotter Publishing is proud to announce to release of its latest anthology, <em>Wait a Minute, I Have to Take Off My Bra.</em></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #f4cccc;">Our anthology celebrates the most female of body parts, the breasts, and features a stunning photographic cover by Robert R. Sanders. From light-hearted memories of the first buds of puberty to heart wrenching accounts of breast cancer, these stories and poems run the gamut of experiences and</span> emotions.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Currently available through </span><a href="https://www.createspace.com/3710724"><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">CreateSpace</span></a><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Minute-Have-Take-Off/dp/0981333516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319821396&sr=8-1">Amazon</a> <em>Wait a Minute, I Have to Take Off My Bra</em> will soon be available to multiple brick ’n mortar and online stores.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A portion of all profits will be donated to the Breast Cancer Society of Canada.</span></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-77612406941660834492011-10-18T10:00:00.000-03:002011-10-28T18:06:40.572-03:00Anthology Author: Christina Pacosz<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrIpiLq3Ql3cLrwQek6kqFVGg6I_9O5C5294Ky3iML8uGzfxJ38csJtLEmEhHjoaVaqkqEiOy_OroBtQpx3baBndjqjwXnQBxArq_tccfQnL4fUoIbo9vaKXR5Y4EVxS3uCUrwTraijF4/s1600/Christina+Pacosz+Montserrat+Missouri+May+3+2009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrIpiLq3Ql3cLrwQek6kqFVGg6I_9O5C5294Ky3iML8uGzfxJ38csJtLEmEhHjoaVaqkqEiOy_OroBtQpx3baBndjqjwXnQBxArq_tccfQnL4fUoIbo9vaKXR5Y4EVxS3uCUrwTraijF4/s200/Christina+Pacosz+Montserrat+Missouri+May+3+2009.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Christina Pacosz</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Christina
Pacosz was born and raised in Detroit by working-class Polish-American parents.
Her poetry/writing has appeared in literary magazines and online journals for
almost half a century. A poet-in-the-schools and a North Carolina Visiting
Artist, she has published several books of poetry, including <i>Greatest Hits,
1975-2001</i> (Pudding House, 2002), a by-invitation-only series. Her chapbook,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Notes from the Red Zone</i>, originally
published by Seal Press in 1983, was selected as the inaugural winner of the
ReBound Series by Seven Kitchens Press in 2009. Seven Kitchens will feature her
chapbook <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How to Measure the Darkness</i>
as the initial offering in their Summer 2012 Series. She lives in Kansas City,
Missouri.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Her poem "For a Small Girl Staring" appears in InkSpotter Publishing's upcoming breast-themed anthology <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Minute-Have-Take-Off/dp/0981333516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319835718&sr=8-1">Wait a Minute, I Have to Take Off My Bra</a></em>.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What
motivated you to start writing?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: My
mother wrote down my stories [when I was] a child and my father told me
stories, so I was impressed with the power of words early on. My mother wrote
letters to the editor protesting nuclear war, so that was another influence
about speaking up in writing for a cause.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What
is the primary source of inspiration for you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: My
intersection as a human with the natural world, especially as it is destroyed
and diminished. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Learning
to love the sewer stench” is how I put it in a poem.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: Do you
write when the muse strikes, or do you follow a writing schedule?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: When I
was writing several books of prose -– only published in bits and pieces -- I
kept a schedule. I write in a journal almost daily. All work begins in that
fermented compost. I am reluctant to enter into any lengthy prose effort unless
I am certain of publication. I can't know when something might work into a
poem, so I approach journaling with a sense of wonder as often as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: Please
describe your process.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: The
journal first and then, depending on if anything is ripe or ready for the next
step, I begin a series of rough drafts, initially in the journal then
eventually into the computer. Sometimes work begins in a dream but my health
has impacted REM sleep, to my sorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What
have you done to promote yourself as a writer? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: Just
about everything possible over the decades –- readings, conferences, interviews
on TV, radio, and in print. News articles featuring me and my efforts,
particularly when I was working as a North Carolina Visiting Artist and in
South Carolina as a poet-in-the-schools. But I have always known that good
press is important. Unfortunately, I wanted to be a journalist at a time when
women only covered the society page.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I send out
promos now to an e-mail list and to my Facebook friends. I will turn 65 in
mid-October. I have been writing almost 60 years. When my chapbook <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Notes from the Red Zone</i> (originally
published by Seal Press in 1983 as a part of their anti-nuclear series) was
selected by Ron Mohring of Seven Kitchens Press as the inaugural winner of the
Rebound Award in 2008 and published in 2009, it received scant reviews. That's
always been a problem for my writing. I haven't ever really had any mentors in
high places. Or they've only been there briefly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My
journals and all my published works are available at the University of
Michigan, Bentley Collection in Ann Arbor, Michigan and online.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What's
left to do?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: "Die"
immediately came to mind as I read this question, though I don't have any plans,
but I have been told I am the kind of poet for the ages discovered and
appreciated more after I die. (Smile.) I have unpublished work, poetry and
prose, I would really like to see in print. There is a Polish greeting for a
birthday celebrant, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sto lat</i>, a wish
for him or her to live to be a hundred. That's certainly a goal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: When
did you discover your unique voice? How long did the process take?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: My
voice was there early on, already evident in high school. I won National
Scholastic honorable mentions for my poetry and I was feature editor of my high
school paper as well. I graduated in 1964 from Cass Technical High School in
Detroit. I had a public education impossible to attain now. I went silent
running while getting my BS degree, though. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What do
you consider your greatest achievement as a writer?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: Somehow
I have managed to keep my poetry in particular out there in the public eye
against all the odds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And my
work as a writer will be there for researchers if there are any when I am gone.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What's
the most recent book you read?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bieganski: The Brute Polak Stereotype in
Polish-Jewish Relations and American Popular Culture.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: Who
are the writers you admire most?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: Edwidge
Danticat, Stephen Vincent Benet, W.B. Yeats, Margaret Atwood (I studied with
her two summers in the early 80s at Centrum in Washington state), Doris
Lessing, Nadine Gordimer, Wislawa Szymborska, Blaga Dimitrova, May Sarton,
Audre Lorde, Adrienne Riche, Marge Piercy, and several others over the decades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sophocles
is at the top of any list of my favorite writers. On certain days I maintain
that no other books needed writing after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Antigone</i>,
but then I calm down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What's
your best piece of advice for novice writers?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: Spend
your time wisely. Read omnivorously. Avoid MFA programs. Don't expect
everything to land in your lap at once. Be prepared when it doesn't to earn
your living in other ways. Don't fall into the trap of drinking too much. Your
muse doesn't need it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: Is
there anything else you'd like to add?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CP: The
old adage: When there's time, there's no money, when there's money, there's no
time, a poet's lament. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And Yeats'
statement: In dreams begin responsibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-5080639948813901242011-10-01T10:00:00.000-03:002011-10-01T10:00:09.449-03:00Things to Love and Hate About Collaboration<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIe4rANRag3A68L-0FZxppBSAeHQCUY2xXCg6-0S2NNfxg7YmO4vuWLGJ69oMghuKT25-m4TH1hc1xKTArZ53p3C-8ulVPGyLggS7rG4h3N8_15tTgmdpmvezgDAvg8iGJAQFpfiCg0Oc/s1600/karina106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIe4rANRag3A68L-0FZxppBSAeHQCUY2xXCg6-0S2NNfxg7YmO4vuWLGJ69oMghuKT25-m4TH1hc1xKTArZ53p3C-8ulVPGyLggS7rG4h3N8_15tTgmdpmvezgDAvg8iGJAQFpfiCg0Oc/s200/karina106.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Karian Fabian</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Returning guest blogger </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><a href="http://fabianspace.com/">Karina Fabian</a> writes fantasy and science
fiction, with the occasional foray into the world of horror. Her first novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magic, Mensa and Mayhem</i>, the 2010 INDIE
Award for best fantasy. Her latest book, the comedic horror, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator</i>, was a
top ten in the Preditor and Editor reader’s polls and winner of the Global
E-Book Award for best horror</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik1wmiGHAD2KmHApUfnFHTWRCRH1fxJBbgw_bjXjnjLv9yVOUs4BY2oDTRp1dyzRLdHenLtg7-gTIs5fqQ4HAUptCxEonU7iHfNlNteeD32IjjfYIdueCQzTVPTCtfhtE3h9z7YgkGSWM/s1600/colleen1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik1wmiGHAD2KmHApUfnFHTWRCRH1fxJBbgw_bjXjnjLv9yVOUs4BY2oDTRp1dyzRLdHenLtg7-gTIs5fqQ4HAUptCxEonU7iHfNlNteeD32IjjfYIdueCQzTVPTCtfhtE3h9z7YgkGSWM/s200/colleen1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Colleen Drippe</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Colleen
Drippe (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">her co-author on “Frightliner”)
</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">has
been writing since age six and has had a lot of science fiction, a moderate
amount of horror and fantasy, and assorted nonfiction scattered throughout the
small press and online. She also writes for children and has had three
children's books published so far (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Little Blue House, Christmas at the Little Blue House</i>, and Mystery at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Miners’ Creek</i>) and another one (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Growing with the Little Blue House</i>) due
out any day. She has had one sf book published (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Godcountry</i>) and another (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gelen!</i>)
coming out this year. She is the former editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hereditas</i> (of happy memory but dried up funding) and is currently
working on another sf book along with various other projects.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Things to Love and Hate About Collaboration<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">by Karina Fabian</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZEAx70LD1cUf9JztcqrNyOdBDgg4diRHFLZulGe5PnD4s1fzO52vPMk1beebHjuVn1STxizofZ40GvO9TC41zYRlDN1CE3NUKD1SmXUICDt-Nawh0psXMdnqpjcw4ADY8Uqd-CTXJ-Sg/s1600/FlightlinerCoverWeb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZEAx70LD1cUf9JztcqrNyOdBDgg4diRHFLZulGe5PnD4s1fzO52vPMk1beebHjuVn1STxizofZ40GvO9TC41zYRlDN1CE3NUKD1SmXUICDt-Nawh0psXMdnqpjcw4ADY8Uqd-CTXJ-Sg/s200/FlightlinerCoverWeb.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: x-small;">Frightliner: and Other</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: x-small;">Tales of the Undead</span></em></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Colleen Drippe and I
collaborated on “Frightliner,” the novella in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00506U7WA/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=inkspotfindin-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B00506U7WA">Frightliner: and Other Tales of the Undead</a></i>. We enjoyed it so much,
we are now collaborating on a fantasy. I thought I’d share what I love about
collaborating and what I don’t like as much.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Five Things to Love:</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">1. Twice the idea power.
Colleen added characters to the story that I would never have thought of, and
it made the entire story richer.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">2. You’ll find the story
going in directions you would not have imagined. When Colleen sent me the first
scene, in which Reba gets attacked, I realized she had a tone totally different
from mine. I got to stretch as a writer to match that in my scenes.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">3. You have someone to hold
you accountable, so you produce. Let’s face it: when you don’t have a contract,
it’s easy to put off writing, but knowing someone is waiting eagerly to see
what you’ve written can make all the difference.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">4. You can catch each other’s
mistakes. Two sets of eyes. ’Nuff said.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">5. It’s fun to share ideas
with someone else.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Five Things that Challenge:</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">1. You have to negotiate on
everything. After all, it’s not just your story. We actually didn’t have much
of that in “Frightliner,” but this new story has already led to each of us
rewriting scenes the other did.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">2. You need to be patient
waiting for your partner to come back with his or her part of the story. Life
can now get in the way of writing twice as much.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">3. You may have to
backtrack, rewrite scenes, re-imagine characters in order to make the story
flow. This really is a natural part of any editing process, but it’s even more
important if you want to have a smoothly reading story.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">4. You MUST put ego aside.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">5. Splitting royalties is a
pain if the publisher won’t do it for you. It’s a nit, but it’s a
consideration, especially if neither of you is particularly financially-minded.
(I don’t know if Colleen is, frankly, but since I was the one taking the lead
in finding a publisher, I made it a condition in the contract.)</span><br />
<br /><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-45488213025644451762011-09-25T11:00:00.000-03:002011-10-28T18:07:09.346-03:00Anthology Author: Ann Cefola<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupKybkdF9bfi7a5_htj-LJU_DIwJhlbdw06LbdpzvPEDkJ2hXTOK1a5XehrpywI3hK5H8JddFwJ6CKP1QApY61pzhp1gACG8wyBuKPoKKYY-g_b6Th84VVoi8WlYPulo5SRvYJMHH_aI/s1600/ann+photo+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupKybkdF9bfi7a5_htj-LJU_DIwJhlbdw06LbdpzvPEDkJ2hXTOK1a5XehrpywI3hK5H8JddFwJ6CKP1QApY61pzhp1gACG8wyBuKPoKKYY-g_b6Th84VVoi8WlYPulo5SRvYJMHH_aI/s200/ann+photo+2.jpg" width="125" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ann Cefola</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
<a href="http://www.anncefola.com/">Ann Cefola</a> is today's featured writer from InkSpotter Publishing's upcoming anthology <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Minute-Have-Take-Off/dp/0981333516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319835718&sr=8-1">Wait a Minute, I Have to Take Off My Bra</a></em>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">She is the author of <em><a href="http://kattywompuspress.com/content/st-agnes-pink-slipped">St. Agnes, Pink-Slipped</a></em> (Kattywompus Press), <em><a href="http://www.dancinggirlpress.com/sugaring.html">Sugaring</a></em> (Dancing Girl Press) and the translation <a href="http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9780975592472/hence-this-cradle.aspx"><em>Hence</em> <em>this cradle</em></a> (Seismicity Editions). A 2007 <a href="http://www.bynnerfoundation.org/">Witter Bynner</a> Poetry Translation Residency recipient, she also received the 2001 Robert Penn Warren Award judged by John Ashbery. Ann lives with her husband Michael in the New York suburbs. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: What motivated you to start writing?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: I can’t recall—writing began early. My second-grade teacher sent a note home to my parents, saying, “Your daughter speaks in poetry.” I’d been writing well before then, inventing stories and drawing pictures.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtqoy6bHMsJPOMmSMDBDYP-l1liEkU8HEf4mNQ8mSvAbVc1NcZc4-If5Yc3KdJEHFwHJEuVifxpT_C7gyofv5sa3RgjIBUTkWdufQ-1SCcanrsHU3vez6V8hNqXYtRRhyphenhyphenkm8-2V4txBNo/s1600/sugaring+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtqoy6bHMsJPOMmSMDBDYP-l1liEkU8HEf4mNQ8mSvAbVc1NcZc4-If5Yc3KdJEHFwHJEuVifxpT_C7gyofv5sa3RgjIBUTkWdufQ-1SCcanrsHU3vez6V8hNqXYtRRhyphenhyphenkm8-2V4txBNo/s200/sugaring+cover.jpg" width="136" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Sugaring</em></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: What is the primary source of inspiration for you?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: I don’t have one source; instead, certain subjects appeal to me depending on what’s happening in my life. When I began visiting Vermont years ago, that landscape worked its subtle green influence on me and culminated in my first poetry chapbook, <em>Sugaring</em>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: Do you write when the muse strikes, or do you follow a writing schedule?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: Both! I hear rumblings of a poem and write them down. It’s like a sculptor seeing a block of marble and intuiting that a beautiful shape waits inside. What also helps is having a deadline: for years, I have set a date to review new poems with dear friends and award-winning poets Linda Simone and Terry Dugan.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: Please describe your process.</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: I write in journals, identify intriguing themes and maybe scribble more on them. When a certain shape or integrity seems evident, the poems go into the computer. From there, I edit and then show them to my poet friends.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9NxxNM691OAyC4nk6MsndqnAc3Tr8hqBxEaDoAk_mv0X88gAoykyCB35b1HEdwQW5uZj2Q2W3deugJXaIVitFR5y3nJtd63fEetwtf0EDRAeGLPW68Y_b-4MngTZ-Pp5XcvvGHblWt8g/s1600/st.+agnes+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9NxxNM691OAyC4nk6MsndqnAc3Tr8hqBxEaDoAk_mv0X88gAoykyCB35b1HEdwQW5uZj2Q2W3deugJXaIVitFR5y3nJtd63fEetwtf0EDRAeGLPW68Y_b-4MngTZ-Pp5XcvvGHblWt8g/s200/st.+agnes+cover.jpg" width="128" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>St. Agnes, Pink-Slipped</em></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: What have you done to promote yourself as a writer?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: I write my monthly e-newsletter, <em><a href="http://www.annogram.blogspot.com/">annogram</a></em>, which goes to 200+ poets, writers, editors, artists and architects worldwide. Then I publish it on my blog. I am updating my poetry website and have created an extensive literary community on <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=14995269&trk=tab_pro">LinkedIn</a>. To promote my new chapbook, <em>St. Agnes, Pink-Slipped</em>, I am doing interviews, arranging reviews and having a book launch party.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: What's left to do?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: Probably to book some readings in New York City—which I will be able to do thanks to poets Jackie Sheeler and Cindy Hochman, who both host popular reading series.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: When did you discover your unique voice? How long did the process take?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: I don’t know if I have one. When people hear my work, they always comment on my “range.” I write in many styles—from compact lyric narrative to expansive long lines, not to mention experimental poetry translated from French.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: What do you consider your greatest achievement as a writer?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: Recently I wrote a small poem that brought together two divergent subjects in a way that deepened the resonance and meaning of each—for me, it was a moment of realizing, on a deeper level, how poetry works.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: What's the most recent book you read?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: <em>Now in November</em>, a 1934 Pulitzer Prize winner, by Josephine Johnson. If you want to know what would have happened to the Joads if they’d stayed home, this is the book to read! The consistently lyrical language provides a startling contrast to the harrowing storyline.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: Who are the writers you admire most?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: I love inventive or outrageous poets, like John Ashbery, John Berryman, CD Wright and the French poet I translate, Hélène Sanguinetti. Along these same lines, my favorite book is James Agee’s <em>Let Us Now Praise Famous Men</em>, which combines journalism, memoir and poetry as well as Walker Evans’ renowned photos. In novels, I prefer dense lyric narrative that sounds like poetry—such as <em>Tinkers</em> by Paul Harding or <em>The English Patient</em> by Michael Ondaatje.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: What's your best piece of advice for novice writers?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: Twenty years ago, Stephen Dunn told me, “The secrets of any art do not reveal themselves until you live with them.” This means you have to jump in and write: commit to writing the way doctors commit to medicine, deacons commit to priesthood, pilots commit to flying. However, unlike those vocations, it’s a calling without a map—equally terrifying and freeing. As Terry Dugan likes to quote, “You make the path by walking.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: Is there anything else you'd like to add?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AC: I appreciate the opportunity to spend some time with your blog audience. Anyone who would like to receive my free poetry e-newsletter can let me know by e-mailing </span><a href="mailto:ann@anncefola.com"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">ann@anncefola.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">. Thank you, Betty!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-73047786563536736672011-09-23T11:00:00.000-03:002011-10-28T18:07:28.858-03:00Anthology Author: Amy Thompson<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB2ei-eeUZ1VypRvaq7UAnd0tA1_nvaWowZ_QLUyyGyQjRkr8T2AvtUjCQUAl-_3u_xFlROYDyTD0BLnbayyyAc8PxPtJRrrxZWoPlQXH3G1j_ZvAzG2wSqcyyAR25ZBcypSjDgCM8QwE/s1600/amy13+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB2ei-eeUZ1VypRvaq7UAnd0tA1_nvaWowZ_QLUyyGyQjRkr8T2AvtUjCQUAl-_3u_xFlROYDyTD0BLnbayyyAc8PxPtJRrrxZWoPlQXH3G1j_ZvAzG2wSqcyyAR25ZBcypSjDgCM8QwE/s200/amy13+small.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Amy Thompson taught English and writing before becoming a freelance writer. Her poetry, fiction and non-fiction have been published in many journals and magazines, and she is one of writers contributing to InkSpotter Publishing's upcoming anthology <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Minute-Have-Take-Off/dp/0981333516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319835718&sr=8-1">Wait a Minute, I Have to Take Off My Bra</a></em>. She currently resides in South Dakota with her family and owns Prairie Fire Gallery and Studio, her own art gallery.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">IS: What motivated you to start writing? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: At a very early age I knew pain. I knew what it was like to
not have a voice, to hold everything inside. So, when I was about 11, when I
discovered I could write what I couldn’t say, it was a release of this
monstrous power that I never knew I had. Writing has always been confessional
for me.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: </strong></span></o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">What is the primary source of inspiration for you? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: My life experiences, whether my own living or what I have
seen others experience, have been my choice of content. Whenever I have tried
to write about something I do not know or have not felt, it’s always been a
disaster.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: </strong></span></o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Do you write when the muse strikes, or do you follow a
writing schedule?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: I was taught that you need to set a daily schedule and write
no matter what you write about. I’ve tried that—it’s miserable for me. I’ve now
chosen to write when I feel like writing—when a feeling or scene hits me. I no
longer push myself. I can sit on a poem for years before I go back to it for
revision. That lack of process or schedule doesn’t bother me anymore.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: </strong></span></o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Please describe your process.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: I’m a big believer in freewriting, even when writing poetry.
My process of writing begins by writing it all out of my head. I then “cut my
darlings.” That’s it. I’m not one for processes anymore.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: </strong></span></o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">What have you done to promote yourself as a writer? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: My main promotion as a writer is entering individual works
into a few contests and publications. It hasn’t been until recently that I have
put together two manuscripts, <em>Twisted Apples</em> and <em>Giving Up My Ghosts: The
Women I Carry</em>. I am just now entering into the world of book publishing. It is
a whole new world of publication that I need to get used to.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: </strong></span></o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">What's left to do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: In my life, I have much to do. I’m relatively young. I have
a young family. I have a lot left to tell the world about the world.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: </strong></span></o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">When did you discover your unique voice? How long did the
process take?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: I was about 11 when I discovered writing in general, but I’d
say it was in high school that I discovered what I later learned was
confessional poetry. It wasn’t a process—I just wrote that way. I didn’t want
to write about anyone else, about a tree—I wanted to write my life—so I did.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: </strong></span></o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">What do you consider your greatest achievement as a
writer?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: This is a tough one. I have this narcissistic dream of
having a book published. It hasn’t happened. That would be my greatest
achievement. But, right now it’s every time I am published. I get as excited as
the first.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: </strong></span></o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">What's the most recent book you read?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: I just went back and reread <em>Ariel</em> (Sylvia Plath). It was fun
to read the notes I had made in the margins.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: </strong></span></o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Who are the writers you admire most?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: The Confessional poets; most certainly Sylvia Plath, Anne
Sexton and Elizabeth Bishop.</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IS: </strong></span></o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">What's your best piece of advice for novice writers?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">AT: Don’t take rejection and criticism as devastation. Take each
person’s opinion/advice with a grain of salt. What one person likes, another
won’t. When I first started letting others read my work, I took every criticism
to heart, I doubted myself, my writing; thought I should give up. But with each
criticism, my skin grew thicker, I honed my voice, my eye and soon I was picking
up on my own mistakes and could call bullshit on some comments from others.
Confidence, ego, patience, vulnerability, craziness, sense of humour and
narcissism are what you need. Writing, I believe, is one of the hardest gigs.
Sometimes I don’t know why we do it!</span></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-18081409454622326222011-09-19T11:00:00.000-03:002011-10-28T18:07:47.401-03:00Anthology Author: J.M. Cornwell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGd2CjZsJkbQ-eFTZ2gZq21sXJx5NdoxNcNwjGgzriJ-eAK2MxaC67pJCxgsxnrIxg1bIpwXcylASdVrbKlAHD2lRveqlZdRSxg8m0meNFxl2zBc8gWFsj0nIaFnQ1-P7TAjQp2XbQF0U/s1600/Among+Women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGd2CjZsJkbQ-eFTZ2gZq21sXJx5NdoxNcNwjGgzriJ-eAK2MxaC67pJCxgsxnrIxg1bIpwXcylASdVrbKlAHD2lRveqlZdRSxg8m0meNFxl2zBc8gWFsj0nIaFnQ1-P7TAjQp2XbQF0U/s200/Among+Women.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The spotlight continues to shine on contributors to InkSpotter Publishing's upcoming anthology <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Minute-Have-Take-Off/dp/0981333516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319835718&sr=8-1">Wait a Minute, I Have to Take Off My Bra</a></em>.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Next up is J.
M. Cornwell, who began writing at the age of eight while living in Panama. Under the
influence of Homer and Edgar Rice Burroughs, she wrote her first book about a girl
who, while lost in the jungles of Central America, finds an ancient civilization. Since
then, Ms. Cornwell has written articles and won awards, raised a family,
divorced and moved around the country with the Air Force and on her own, always
coming back to her first love—writing.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
the shadow of Pikes Peak, she spins stories about relationships and secrets. Stories
have been included in several anthologies, including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Cup of Comfort</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chicken
Soup for the Soul</i>. She also writes book reviews for Authorlink, has ghost
written eight nonfiction books, and her debut novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Past Imperfect</i>, was published by L&L Dreamspell in 2009. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Among Women</i> is her second novel, the
first of two connected stories that take place in New Orleans (view the video book trailer at the end of the interview).</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: What motivated
you to start writing? <o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span>I
began writing at the age of eight after reading Homer's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Iliad</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Odyssey</i>, Edgar
Rice Burroughs and Greek mythology. I wanted to create my own stories. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>What is the
primary source of inspiration for you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span>Life.
Everything that happens, everything I read, everything I hear starts a spark
that eventually grows into a story. Good things, bad things, anything inspires
me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>Do you write
when the muse strikes, or do you follow a writing schedule?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span>I
do both. I write when the muse strikes, as long as I'm not working my day job,
and I follow a schedule that begins around 4 a.m. every day. I find that I am
more productive and creative first thing in the morning, which is a turnaround
from when I was younger and nighttime was the best time to write, usually after
I had my homework done, bath taken, and was getting ready for bed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>Please
describe your process.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span>I
don't have a specific process, other than getting an idea, taking notes, and
letting the story germinate. Sometimes an idea will strike hot and I sit down
and write it immediately. Other times, a story has to germinate for a while
until all the characters, motives, themes and plot settle. That's when I write.
I go with the flow—whatever the flow happens to be on a given day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>What have you
done to promote yourself as a writer? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span>I've
done interviews, written articles, blogs and stories, do a little social
networking (I'm pretty inept at that since I spend most of my time working,
reading and writing) and talk about and teach other writers about the process.
This interview is one of those promotion techniques. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>What's left to
do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span>Keep
writing. The one thing about writing is that there is no age limit and even
physical limits can be modified or overcome to continue writing. I'll keep
writing stories, articles and books until I take my last breath. It would be
nice, however, to get a few books on the bestsellers lists or at least be
circulated around a few thousand book clubs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>When did you
discover your unique voice? How long did the process take?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span>From
my journals. I've been keeping paper journals for years and writing a lot of
nonfiction. Fiction eluded me. The dialogue was wooden, the characters not yet
three-dimensional, and I tended to overwrite. Then a writing colleague told me
I should write the way I wrote in my journals. I thought he was crazy and then
I tried it. I'd have to say that I was born with my unique voice and didn't
realize I didn't have to have a separate voice for nonfiction and fiction, and
the best way to write a story is just to get out of the characters' ways. The
process is ongoing. Writing more refines my voice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>What do you
consider your greatest achievement as a writer?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span>Every
book, every story placed in an anthology is the greatest achievement. The best
achievement of all will be when I can fully support myself as a writer. I'm
still waiting on that one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>What's the
most recent book you read?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span><em>The Traitor's
Emblem </em>by
Juan Gómez-Jurado.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>Who are the
writers you admire most?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span>I
have a lot of old favorites: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Andre Norton, Anne
McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Algis Budrys, Julian May. Most of those
writers taught me how to write and what I wanted to achieve. I also have a few
new favorites: Jasper Fforde, Salman Rushdie, Brian Keene, Stephen King, Ted
Dekker, Douglas Kennedy, Laura Ann Gilman, Maynard & Sims, David Baldacci,
to name a few. I enjoy Dan Brown's stories, but his books are not well written.
Still, he is a great storyteller despite his technical and grammatical flaws.
I'm always discovering new writers and the list continues to grow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>What's your
best piece of advice for novice writers?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: </span>Read
everything, not just in your favorite genre, but in every genre, nonfiction and
fiction. Stretch yourself as a reader and the writing will stretch along with
it. Write. Write all the time, write when you don't feel like it, write
especially when you do, and don't worry about the mistakes. You can correct
those when you edit and rewrite. Get the story down in a white heat and edit
with a cool head. Whatever else you may think or have been told, mistakes do
count. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IS: </span>Is there
anything else you'd like to add?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">JMC: The
best thing any writer can do is venture outside the comfort zone frequently, in
reading and writing. I began writing fiction and stopped because it was hard
for me. Nonfiction came as easily to me as breathing, but I didn't give up on
fiction. I kept reading and found a story that wrote itself. Once the first one
was done, the rest came easier and I learned to write better dialogue, plot
good stories, write fully fleshed characters, and had a lot of fun doing it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Writing
is fun, but it is also work, hard work, and it is worth the effort and the time
even without publication. Publication just helps me keep score and lets me know
that most of the time I hit the mark and reach readers the way intended.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx6oKpoGdYKtMGv7aV_KzM3K9ompNFNQLJdwiDf6TN5BR8lPdMk6kxNQXffRkQRSG3Leh7trw9xEhEsEPqcow' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-52120740444774497912011-09-17T11:00:00.000-03:002011-10-28T18:08:17.759-03:00Anthology Author: Patricia Wellingham-Jones<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5U4x0GrSA6DS9zoiiWfANZJiS7q5XQ8JSHXq_hOPErbRHK6yPoivmCrnZrlm_vrQrlw1dvHT4gq4EZq6jsTOCDwcrSEXavluLHJ2kaUw73qFmyPVxH9QfqfFmbD_oP1vuS90m6iH4T7o/s1600/Patricia+Wellingham-Jones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5U4x0GrSA6DS9zoiiWfANZJiS7q5XQ8JSHXq_hOPErbRHK6yPoivmCrnZrlm_vrQrlw1dvHT4gq4EZq6jsTOCDwcrSEXavluLHJ2kaUw73qFmyPVxH9QfqfFmbD_oP1vuS90m6iH4T7o/s200/Patricia+Wellingham-Jones.jpg" width="168" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Patricia Wellingham-Jones</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Welcome to the first in
a series of author interviews with contributors to InkSpotter Publishing's
upcoming anthology, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Minute-Have-Take-Off/dp/0981333516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319835718&sr=8-1">Wait a Minute, I Have to Take Off My Bra</a></i>.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Patricia
Wellingham-Jones is a former psychology researcher and nurse, also a writer and
editor, published widely in journals, anthologies and Internet magazines,
including <i>HazMat Review, Ibbetson Street, Edgz </i>and <i>Wicked Alice.</i>She
has a special interest in healing writing and leads the “Telling Our Stories”
writing group at EnloeCancer Center. Her poetry column appears monthly in the
Palo Cedro <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">East Valley Times</i>. She
writes for the review department of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Recovering
the Self: a journal of hope and healing.</i> Among her ten chapbooks are <i>Don’t
Turn Away: poems about breast cancer,</i> <i>End-Cycle: poems about caregiving,
Apple Blossoms at Eye Level, Voices on the Land</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> </span>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hormone Stew<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">.</span></i></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What motivated you to
start writing?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: I’ve written all my life, from age 10 when I
couldn’t find any more horse stories in the library and wrote my own. In my
professional life, I wrote articles, essays, scientific and academic papers on
a variety of subjects, including my own research in health and handwriting.
Twenty years ago, in the throes of severe pain and eventual cervical spine
surgery, that life collapsed but opened the gate for creative writing. Since
then I’ve written poetry, short fiction, essays and articles; now I also write book
and movie reviews for the healing journal <i>Recovering the Self</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What is the primary
source of inspiration for you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: When the creative juices started bubbling, I
told myself I’d write poems to capture the happenings around me, strictly for
my own pleasure and to hold the memories of small as well as large events. That
still holds true; what I see going on around me is mostly what I write about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: Do you write when the
muse strikes, or do you follow a writing schedule?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: I write only when something demands to be
written, which means lots of fallow spells, too. Not very convenient when she
wants to be heard in the middle of the night, of course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: Please describe your
process.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: I’m intrigued to learn that I can write
directly on the keyboard for articles, essays, even short stories. But poems
demand a more physical approach—mind to fingers to pen to paper. That tactile
sense seems necessary. So I keep a notebook with me most of the time, just in
case a poem springs into view. Probably most creative writers carry one tucked
away in purse or pocket.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What have you done to
promote yourself as a writer? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: In earlier years, I was quite active. Had a
publishing house for 23 years, produced my own niche market books in health and
handwriting then, later, poetry for myself and selected others. I had a website
(no longer), did readings and talks, ran workshops/seminars, sent work out for
contests and publication (thousands of poems eventually were published; some
continue to be), the whole gamut a working writer does to become known. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What's left to do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: Not much in the writing world, truthfully.
I’ve done more than I ever dreamed and seem to have lost the drive to keep
pushing forward. Health issues are part of that, losing my husband a few years
ago plays a role. I don’t seem to have as much to say as I used to, though the
pen does like to keep moving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: When did you discover
your unique voice? How long did the process take?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: Everybody has his/her own voice, as you know,
and mine was apparent in the nonfiction writing I did originally. The creative
side took awhile to become established because I’d never had any writing
classes and had to learn some technique before the voice became confident.
Still, within a year I suspect that voice was clear. Like it or not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What do you consider
your greatest achievement as a writer?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd03Oz9n508XqMe59WSNxajjYRNtB7xE_c0xSdi3rncPIg-3dqHGvOSFa3O8xYBX_jcDpduhtiqSz4F5fJNtVoP2QUHvumprMdK74Fgt3GtrsMnk0UDoRFaa_mPEXNshbU3f4hdkzmLro/s1600/Don%2527t+Turn+Away.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd03Oz9n508XqMe59WSNxajjYRNtB7xE_c0xSdi3rncPIg-3dqHGvOSFa3O8xYBX_jcDpduhtiqSz4F5fJNtVoP2QUHvumprMdK74Fgt3GtrsMnk0UDoRFaa_mPEXNshbU3f4hdkzmLro/s200/Don%2527t+Turn+Away.jpg" width="129" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Don't Turn Away</em></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: Just being able to do it. To get the thoughts
in my head out on paper the way I want them to be, unlike drawing or painting,
which was frustrating because the image on paper was never what I saw in my
head. As for must useful—and I do like to have my words be useful—probably <i>Don’t
Turn Away: Poems about breast cancer</i> is the chapbook that fits the bill; it
has resonated with many, many women and had three printings to date. My primary
interest these days is healing writing, which reflects my background as R.N.
and psychologist, no doubt. I lead a healing writing group at our regional
cancer center, do that review column I mentioned earlier, and have done talks,
workshops and readings along those lines for several years. I like harnessing
the healing aspects of writing with the creative joy that comes along with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What's the most recent
book you read?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: I just finished for the second time <i>Lake of
Sorrows</i>, about the bog country of Ireland, by Erin Hart, and, even better,
next week I go there with her and a few other people to explore the region she
writes about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: Who are the writers you
admire most?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: There are too many to mention, especially if I
included novels among the poems(I’m a mystery buff). I like stories, realistic
not abstract writing, and read eclectically. Not sure it matters what or who
you read, you learn from all of it, and grow if you let yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: What's your best piece
of advice for novice writers?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: Write, write, write. Revise, revise, revise.
Read, read, read. Keep doing it, don’t get discouraged, learn craft as you go,
keep writing. Do it for the joy of the writing, not with thoughts of becoming
rich and/or famous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IS: Is there anything else
you'd like to add?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PWJ: Thank you for inviting my thoughts. It’s a
great pleasure to be invited and to organize my thinking along these lines.
Although any major career in writing seems to be ebbing, the joy of putting my
words on paper remains. I hope and expect this will be a lifetime endeavor.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-5067983787080793622011-09-16T17:18:00.000-03:002011-09-16T17:18:01.896-03:00Scoliosis Handbook Now Available for Kindle<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>Dangerous Curves: A Scoliosis Handbook</em> is now available in Amazon.com's Kindle Store.</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-70296182662604535682011-09-14T11:00:00.000-03:002011-09-14T11:00:08.937-03:00Prioritizing Tips: or Making the Mountain into a Molehill<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIe4rANRag3A68L-0FZxppBSAeHQCUY2xXCg6-0S2NNfxg7YmO4vuWLGJ69oMghuKT25-m4TH1hc1xKTArZ53p3C-8ulVPGyLggS7rG4h3N8_15tTgmdpmvezgDAvg8iGJAQFpfiCg0Oc/s1600/karina106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIe4rANRag3A68L-0FZxppBSAeHQCUY2xXCg6-0S2NNfxg7YmO4vuWLGJ69oMghuKT25-m4TH1hc1xKTArZ53p3C-8ulVPGyLggS7rG4h3N8_15tTgmdpmvezgDAvg8iGJAQFpfiCg0Oc/s200/karina106.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Karina Fabian</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Guest blogger Karina Fabian shares her advice on juggling multiple priorities, along with a video book trailer for her new release, <em>Mind Over Mind</em>.</span><br />
<br />
<br /><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Even though
it's been a hot summer, I've had this impression for months that I'm staring up
at an impending avalanche.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No snow is
involved, however; just a pile of tasks that could daunt the most skilled
organizer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On days I feel more like
running for my life than tackling my to-do list, I have to remember that only
two things will save me from my self-imposed danger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prioritizing and getting to work.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Prioritizing
is what gets the important things done first; think of it as helping you get
the worst of that snowdrift out of the danger zone so you can pick at the
icicles later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do you do this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Decide before you look at your list what is
most important to you and why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since I'm
a professional writer--meaning I sometimes get paid for my work--I prioritize
my tasks this way:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What do I have a contractual obligation
for?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I have a contract for a book or
story, it gets done before anything else.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What can I get paid for?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If my publisher might like the next book on
my mind, I put it higher on the list than one I've got no market for yet.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What will support my other books?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes, I will stop and write a short
story in one of the universes I have novels in to submit to magazines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is both writing and marketing!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there an opportunity I need to jump at?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">5. What's
going to further my dream?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes,
this might have to force itself higher on the chain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, I have a trilogy I think has a
good chance with one of the Big Six.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I've not had time to write it yet, however, so I've earmarked several
months in 2012 for it.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Here is my
avalanche:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My publisher
is interested in a second <em>Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator</em> book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another publisher has the first in my <em>Mind
Over Mind</em> trilogy, which came out in August.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I had the chance to pitch a book I've been working on to my ideal
publisher for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had three
anthologies I want to write for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
a book coming out in April (<em>Live and Let Fly</em>), and I have an idea for a book
that I think could get me an agent.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It sounds like
a huge, impossible mass of work--and avalanche ready to happen, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, because I have it prioritized, I could
handle these in sequence:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">--<em>Mind Over
Psyche</em>, the second in the trilogy, went out in March</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">--April-June,
I worked on <em>Neeta Lyffe II</em>, putting it aside in June to finish <em>Discovery</em> to
pitch to Ignatius</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">--in July,
while finishing <em>Discovery</em>, I also wrote a story with the main character from
<em>Mind Over Mind</em> to send to the anthology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The other stories will wait until October</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">--in August, I
am alternating between <em>Discovery</em>'s polish and <em>Live and Let Fly</em>'s edits</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">--I will
finish <em>Neeta II</em> in September</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">--I start the
serial stories in November (and they will be pretty automatic once I finish the
set-up)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">--I will write
<em>Damsels and Knights</em> Jan-April</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I conquer each
task by priority, and while other things may pop up, they will get put in their
proper spot (or disregarded if they don't make the priority list).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sometimes as
writers, we're tempted to give in to the stereotype that as creative people, we
cannot bind ourselves to a particular task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That attitude gets you buried under the avalanche.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can identify your priorities, so before
you take on the tasks, figure out what's important to you, set priorities,
assign tasks and go!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">###</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="254" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Wvr5ZicV2xs" width="416"></iframe>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-75542072453217084302011-09-07T22:11:00.000-03:002011-09-07T22:11:51.372-03:00Interview with Author Karina Fabian<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIe4rANRag3A68L-0FZxppBSAeHQCUY2xXCg6-0S2NNfxg7YmO4vuWLGJ69oMghuKT25-m4TH1hc1xKTArZ53p3C-8ulVPGyLggS7rG4h3N8_15tTgmdpmvezgDAvg8iGJAQFpfiCg0Oc/s1600/karina106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIe4rANRag3A68L-0FZxppBSAeHQCUY2xXCg6-0S2NNfxg7YmO4vuWLGJ69oMghuKT25-m4TH1hc1xKTArZ53p3C-8ulVPGyLggS7rG4h3N8_15tTgmdpmvezgDAvg8iGJAQFpfiCg0Oc/s200/karina106.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Karina Fabian</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Karina Fabian is hard at work promoting her latest release, <em>Mind Over Mind</em>. As part of a month-long blog tour, she's making three stop here at InkSpotting. First up is my interview with her. She'll also be my guest blogger next week, and you can expect my review of <em>Mind Over Mind</em> later in the month.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: What motivated you to start writing?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: The need to do something other than play with toddlers and clean house! I've always loved writing and telling stories, so when the kids were very young, I took it up after a long hiatus of college and career.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: </span>What is the primary source of inspiration for you?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: </span>Ack! Tough question, because different things inspire different ideas. However, I think talking with friends is probably my best source for ideas that turn into stories. That's why I love my writing friends, like Ann Lewis, Grace Bridges, Fred Warren, Walt Staples... And the <a href="http://writerschatroom.com/">WritersChat Room</a> is an excellent way to meet a group of writers. In fact, TWC helped me come up with the title for the Mind Over Mind books.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: </span>Do you write when the muse strikes, or do you follow a writing schedule?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: </span>I don't believe in waiting for the muse. I start writing, and she usually comes over to see what's up. So I write, not necessarily on a schedule, but each day for as much as I can--stories, novels, marketing, interviews, blogs... In the Fall, I have set word count goals for my work-in-progress, but in the summer, I just do the best I can with what I have.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: </span>Please describe your process.</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: </span>Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard. From there, it differs by book. Usually, I'm a pantster, which means I know the beginning, the ending and a couple of points on the way, and I let the characters do the rest. If I get stuck, I might put ideas on Post-It notes and play with them until the next scene comes to mind, or I chat with a friend. This summer, however, I had to do the plotter method to revise a manuscript that refused to work. Even then, the story threw a curve ball--in this case, an asteroid-sized curve ball--so part of the outline went out the window. Made for a better story, though.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">People can usually see my process on my Thursday <a href="http://fabianspace.blogspot.com/">blog</a> posts, "My Novel's Journey." I usually write about whatever manuscript I'm working on.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: </span>What have you done to promote yourself as a writer?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: </span>What haven't I done other than a nationwide tour? I've done everything from magazine ads to tweeting.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: </span>What's left to do?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: </span>Make enough money to hire someone to do it for me.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: When did you discover your unique voice? How long did the process take?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: I don't know that I ever "discovered" my voice. It's grown over time and practice. I don't think it took a million words, but it did take learning to be comfortable with who I am and what I like. I also think (hope) my "voice" changes with the story. My quirky humor of Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator, would be totally out of place in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mind Over Mind</i>, a fantasy, for example.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: </span>What do you consider your greatest achievement as a writer?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: </span>In 2006, I started a novel for <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>. I loved the characters and the basic idea, but I couldn't finish it. For five years, I've struggled to finish it. I realized the plot was too small; then that I needed to make the story more sci-fi. Then the case got HUGE--31 named characters--and I'd never done that before. The computer ate the manuscript twice (yes, even the backups; I cannot explain that). Other things, from family to new assignments, got in the way just as I was getting my groove...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">This summer, I set aside my novel I was working on and determined to revise <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Discovery</i>. The first feedback I got from my beta reader was, "Wow. Just...Wow." I knew at last I'd achieved what this story wanted to be.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: </span>What's the most recent book you read?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">K<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">F: [As of July,] <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jabberwocky-Daniel-Coleman/dp/1461047374/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311434548&sr=1-1">Jabberwocky</a></i> by Daniel Coleman. A very fun little book based on Lewis Carroll's famous poem. Looking forward to his next book.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"></span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: </span>Who are the writers you admire most?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: </span>Terry Pratchett for his humor. Madeleine L'Engle for bringing in spirituality to her fiction. Dean Wesley Smith for his extreme prolificness.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: </span>What's your best piece of advice for novice writers?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: </span>Don't make excuses. Write. Learn. Submit. Accept rejection and write some more. Otherwise, find something else to make you happy and clear the field for those of us who love to do this.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">IS: </span>Is there anything else you'd like to add?</span></b><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">KF: </span>I have several exciting things coming up over the next six months, including more books coming out, serial stories on my website, classes and more. Please visit my <a href="http://fabianspace.com/">website</a> or register for my <a href="http://eepurl.com/dc-8M">newsletter</a> to get more info.</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=inkspotfindin-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1897492367&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe></div><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-89921644273790319122011-08-31T12:00:00.007-03:002011-08-31T12:00:11.270-03:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s1600/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s200/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This is the end of daily blogging (at least for now). It's been fun coming up with content every day, but I need to cut down for a little while and replenish my stock. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">But good things are coming in September, including weekly visits from Karina Fabian as part of her blog tour for <em>Mind Over Mind</em>. There will also be more advice, book reviews and whatever craziness I figure isn't too crazy to share.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Want to try daily blogging? Sign up at <a href="http://nablopomo.blogher.com/">National Blog Posting Month</a> and let loose. By participating throughout August, I saw an increase in subscribers and traffic. </span><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-21592653165189133762011-08-30T21:11:00.000-03:002011-08-30T21:11:18.658-03:00How Networking Works…and Doesn’t<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s1600/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s200/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Successful networking is not like winning the lottery but more akin to a long-term investment strategy. If you start networking to find clients and make money, you don’t understand what networking means.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Four successful businesswomen—Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Dotsie Bregel, Tracy Lynn Repchuk and Viveca A. Stone—share their networking experiences and insights. Be sure to take plenty of notes along the way. There won’t be a quiz, but no doubt you will be tested.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">WHAT ARE YOUR REASONS FOR NETWORKING? HOW HAVE THEY CHANGED OVER THE YEARS?</span></strong><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Dotsie Bregel, founder of BoomerWomenSpeak.com and the National Association of Baby Boomer Women: “I am a networker by nature and really don’t know how to go about life without it. I’m forever connecting people whom I believe can be of some type of encouragement/help to one another.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Tracy Repchuk, President of the Canadian Federation of Poets and author of <i>The Poetry of Business</i>: “Originally my reasons for networking were to meet people I could sell to. Over the years I realized this was one sided. Now I network to find out what other people are doing, are they happy, do they need help, maybe I can provide them with what they need. I listen to their needs, care about them, and hope that I am someone they would like to get to know better, and let me assist in any way possible.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Viveca A. Stone, founder of GetReadyForLove.com: “Networking is the fastest, easiest, and most satisfying way to be successful and get ‘the job’ done. In school collaboration is generally considered ‘cheating.’ As the youngest child I grew up feeling the need to ‘prove myself.’ These two experiences stood between me and my networking success for many years. Originally I found myself in a job for which I was completely unqualified. It was technical, aggressive, and fast paced. To succeed I had to network and build a team. It took six grueling months for me to combine the right mix of buyers with the right mix of sellers. I plunked myself in the middle and treated them well. From there the business exploded. Now when I find myself returning to my comfort zone of going it alone—which also corresponds to overworking and an empty bank account—I recall that experience and refocus on what matters most—networking and building successful teams. Success is sweeter when shared and obstacles are so much easier to overcome when shared with a team.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of <i>The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t</i> and founder of the Authors’ Coalition: “Networking equates with success. I once thought that if someone else gave me a hand that somehow diminished my own accomplishments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now the process of giving others a boost and allowing (yes, even sometimes asking!) others to give me a boost is the way I do business. By the way, business equates with life. It is part of one's life, after all.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT NETWORKING?</span></strong><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Carolyn Howard-Johnson: “See above.”</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Dotsie Bregel: “People will say no. I’ve yet to experience this.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Tracy Repchuk: “Misconceptions include: waste of time, boring, not the type of people for my product/services, things such as this.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Viveca A. Stone: “Networking kind of sounds phony to me. It makes me think of all those ‘networking’ events I attended in my twenties for which I was ill prepared. Was just listening into an interview yesterday about ‘Testosterone Free Marketing’ and the difference between men and women. Maybe those events felt phony to me because they seemed like distasteful social events—I didn’t go into them with the right frame of mind or objectives, i.e. I want to meet so and so and discuss such and such.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">HOW HAS YOUR CAREER BENEFITED FROM NETWORKING?</span></strong><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Viveca A. Stone: “I’ve made great friends and colleagues to work and play with. We all have different talents—some of us gather and build great networks—some of us inspire success ‘wind beneath the wings’—some of us are great at starting projects—some at ending them. My career would be nowhere without my friends, colleagues, and networks.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Carolyn Howard-Johnson: “There isn't a way that it hasn't. We may be captains of our own barks, but we always need a compass and a sail.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Dotsie Bregel: “I’ve grown two wonderful Web sites and met tons of incredible women who are willing to go the extra mile for one another. My approach is always ‘what can I do for you’ because I like to help others.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Tracy Repchuk: “Without people/networking, you don't have anyone to communicate to, work with, find out about, and help. Getting together with others is a healthy way to enjoy what you do, let others know about it, and meet some fantastic and interesting people along the way.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-14480207078861980382011-08-29T17:00:00.002-03:002011-08-29T17:00:03.687-03:00Writing in Absentia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s1600/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s200/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Many things keep us from writing. Family. Friends. Work. Play. Distractions abound.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">When it comes to blogging, we also have to contend with unexpected power outages from time to time. Such may (or may not) be the case today. Hurricane Irene (a doozy of a storm regardless of current classification) is making its way through eastern Canada. As such, I may (or may not) be without power right now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Not one to let a little Act of God interfere with my commitment to daily blogging this months, especially with August so close to ending, I'm writing this on Sunday and scheduling it for Monday. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Does your blog service have a scheduling feature? Besides stormy weather, it's great for vacations, business trips and other absences. If your blog service doesn't sllow for scheduled posts, find a different provider.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">PS: Now back to Carole Lombard in <em>Twentieth Century</em> (1934). John Barrymore already stuck his finger up his nose. I can't wait to see what happens next!</span><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-83312426951288524312011-08-28T17:52:00.000-03:002011-08-28T17:52:43.688-03:00Off the Shelf: William B. Hamilton's At the Crossroads <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRYpKOtX5kbYhYXitLjAR9ialfrGgOgdl6THrGiPXHuHbdlYM1wj3KOz0uD05lztDBmLE3JWfW-3jo_gKqmc6xP2hergP_N8tJYWNNH0IUSnbO0bcI5emwVZ4V-ClNXN6p8FRxQiqOdF4/s1600/At+the+Crossroads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRYpKOtX5kbYhYXitLjAR9ialfrGgOgdl6THrGiPXHuHbdlYM1wj3KOz0uD05lztDBmLE3JWfW-3jo_gKqmc6xP2hergP_N8tJYWNNH0IUSnbO0bcI5emwVZ4V-ClNXN6p8FRxQiqOdF4/s1600/At+the+Crossroads.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">William B. Hamilton loves to talk--about history in general and his books in particular.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I had the pleasure of speaking with him in 2004, in conjunction with the release of <em>At the Crossroads: A History of Sackville, New Brunswick</em>. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We no sooner settled in at one of the Waverley Inn</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">'s breakfast room tables than he launched into a lengthy account of the background behind his book. By the time he finished, he already answered most of my main questions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Hamilton's interest in history stretches back decades. Through teaching and writing, he believes in a "backward into history" approach that he first introduces in his 1974 book <i>Local History in Atlantic Canada</i>. In essence, one must "start with the local community then work out in concentric circles to the province, the region, the nation, the world" in order to gain a personal perspective on broader issues.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">That approach is evident in <i>At the Crossroads</i>. The smallest of dots on the world map, Sackville</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> nonetheless reflects numerous global events through its story. Hamilton deftly weaves accounts from the Age of Sail and two World Wars, among others, but he's the first to admit the task wasn't easy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">"How do you cover almost four centuries of European settlement, before that eons of Mi'kmaq inhabitation, and get it all in readable fashion and in form that the average person can muster?" he asks before diving into the answer. "Very early on I decided that I would not try to write a comprehensive history of Sackville. People try to tell too much. You've got to be brutally selective. So I hit upon the idea of three basic themes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">"One was the crossroads analogy beginning with the Mi'kmaq, the century of French/English conflict for the isthmus because of its strategic location, then you move into the later period with the establishment of the Post Road, the railways.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">"Theme two is the marshlands and the impact of the marshlands. That's what brought the first Acadian/European settlers. By the beginning of the 19th century--I'm borrowing a phrase here from Harry Thurston--you have the largest hayfield in the world.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">"The third theme starts in 1839 and it's the founding of the Mount Allison</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> institutions. They came to Sackville for two reasons: one was location [and the other] was the Yorkshire Methodists. They were interested in education, they were literate, [and] they wanted to make sure that their future generations had an education. They also wanted a Methodist clergy."</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s1600/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s200/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Hamilton also believes that Canadians, contrary to popular opinion, <i>are</i> interested in their own history--you just have to put it in front of them. So he writes. From textbooks and guidebooks to columns and lectures, Hamilton puts our history before us and asks only that we read and understand.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Other books by William B. Hamilton:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Local History in Atlantic Canada</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> (1974)<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Macmillan Book of Canadian Place Names</i> (1978; revised 1983)<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Nova Scotia Traveller: A Maritimer's Guide to His Home Province</i> (1981)<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Quest for a Regional Identity</i> (1984)<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">One County One World</i> (1992)<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Place Names of Atlantic Canada</i> (1996)</span><o:p></o:p></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-44657029941574933392011-08-27T22:30:00.000-03:002011-08-27T22:30:20.193-03:00Unicorns & Roosters: The Good Old Days of Canadian TV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s1600/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s200/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">There was just something so Canadian about growing up in Canada in the 60s and 70s, before cable TV became part of our landscape. Sure, we had <em>Sesame Street</em></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">, just like the Americans, but we also had non-Henson puppets on <em>Mr. Dressup</em></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> and <em>The Friendly Ghost</em></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">. No one was cooler than Jerome the Giraffe grooving on his mouth organ.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em><span></span>The Forest Rangers</em> provided plenty of adventure to balance out more educational fare. So what if the show propagated the myth that Canada was one big wilderness stretch? We tuned in each week to see what kind of trouble those brave kids would get into.<br />
<br />
<span></span>We heard plenty of music, too, thanks to Tommy Hunter</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">, Don Messer</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> and The Carlton Show Band</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">. Whenever the Irish Rovers</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">, "Them unicorns looked up from the rocks and they cried", I cried, too. No matter how many times I heard "The Unicorn Song," I prayed for a different ending.<br />
<br />
<span><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=inkspotfindin-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0978027507&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe></span>Over the past few years, we've started seeing a resurgence of Canadian programming. <em>Da Vinci's Inquest</em></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> proved that a successful Canadian show could be set in Canada, and <em>Flashpoint</em> has continued that premise and gained a strong following south of the border. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">That's good. But none of the new shows can recapture the magic of watching Rusty the Rooster pull a library out of his bag.</span><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-46012247084278823472011-08-26T22:18:00.000-03:002011-08-26T22:18:06.340-03:00Becoming a Writer <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s1600/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s200/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I became a writer when my thoughts became too personal for a diary. No surprise, since my parents did not believe in privacy for children. And they saw me as a child, even in high school. Instead of acting out like so many my age, I learned to craft the illusion of fiction. <br />
<br />
My early poetry read like encoded diary entries. I could write anything and, if questioned, claim I made it all up. Blooming crushes and broken hearts echoed inside me, growing to such a cacophony that I had no choice but to release them. Disjointed thoughts turned to rhyme, and the din to rhythm. The world made a bit more sense against a white backdrop. <br />
<br />
Not that I really thought of myself as a writer back then. That distinction belonged to the professionals. I assumed that making a living at writing took all the fun out of it. <br />
<br />
So I plodded ahead, untrained and untried, churning out one insipid poem after another. My friends got hooked, coming back for regular doses of Harlequinesque poetry. But I knew I could do better. At least I hoped so. <br />
<br />
Maybe that's when I truly became a writer--the moment when I thought to reach beyond my limited experience and into the unknown. It wasn't enough that I should learn to write. I had to learn about everything. A dollop of psychology. A smattering of sociology. And plenty of field work. <br />
<br />
I discovered a fascinating world outside my imagination, full of fabulous characters just waiting to be penned. Like the man on the bus who shook out his hat every three minutes. And the woman with pencils sticking out of her coifed hair. I dubbed her the street geisha. A few of my silent friends found their voices in poetry, like the swarthy man in black who loped past my appointed spot at the coffee shop. Others spoke out through fiction. "Sweetapple" was my favorite, another patron of the Metro Transit system. He looked worn out by living. I wanted to know why, so I invented his biography. <br />
<br />
A different sort of reality hampered my creativity several years ago. Faced with corporate downsizing, I chose to make the leap to a new employer and more challenging work. Climbing the learning curve left little energy for writing. But the words inside my head wouldn't stay bottled up for long. I returned to my first love, poetry, then branched out to short essays, knowing that fiction would return in its own time. <br />
<br />
When did I become a writer? It's been an ongoing process, full of fresh insights and challenged perceptions. Writing is a lifelong education. If I ever think I've mastered the craft, then I'll know I missed a step along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-hyphenate: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 0in;"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-44971882947386912612011-08-25T04:23:00.000-03:002011-08-25T04:23:57.492-03:00Build Your Next Website with Promo Divas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s1600/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s200/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> I wanted to let you know about my friend Lori's new business. <a href="http://www.promodivas.com/">Promo Divas</a> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">offers web design with promotion. The Promo Divas will work with you to get your website set up and you can participate in regular promotions through the site for no additional charge. The rates are quite reasonable, and they've sweetened the deal with introductory discounts.<o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Promo Divas does websites for:<o:p> </o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">No adult-oriented or rated-R sites, please.<o:p> </o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I can earn $10 if you sign up and use my name and e-mail. (Even better, you can pass on the word and earn $10 as well.) Just go to promodivas.com and check out the packages. Sign up and, during the checkout process, put the following information in the "notes" field:<o:p> </o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Betty Dobson</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">bettydobson(at)eastlink(dot)ca<o:p> </o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">After nearly 10 years with the same web host, I'm planning to make the switch to Promo Divas myself. The features are appealing, and the price is right!</span><o:p> </o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">If you have questions, you can e-mail Lori through the <a href="http://www.promodivas.com/">website</a>. Thanks so much!</span><br />
<br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-68235533823682902242011-08-24T21:28:00.000-03:002011-08-24T21:28:42.282-03:00Cooking Up a New Career<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s1600/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s200/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">The secret to happiness, it seems, lies in finding your passion. But sometimes, if you're lucky, your passion finds you.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I'd like to say there was a certain air of expectation hovering over the boardroom table that day in 1998, but I'd be painting the past with false colours. As the fund-raising committee geared up for another year of activities, I had no way of knowing that one of those activities would trigger a major change in my career aspirations.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">At that point I'd been working for the same employer for more than thirteen years and had contributed my efforts to raising money for one of the company's preferred charities, the local children's hospital. That usually meant selling fifty-fifty tickets and co-ordinating weekly jean days. The cause was worthwhile, but the activities were starting to lose their appeal--at least for me. But I stayed because I'd been a patient at that same hospital in my youth and felt I owed them something in return.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Volunteering also helped break the monotony of what had become an unsatisfying work life. I spent my days sending form letters in response to unsolicited job applications and managing internal transfer lists. My nights were devoted to pursuing a university degree in English and Creative Writing. Of course I dreamed of getting published someday, but I had no illusions about earning a living that way.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">"Most people spend their lives working at jobs they don't enjoy," my mother once said. "What makes you think you deserve better?"</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I wanted to scream, "Because I know what else I want to do!" But that would have been rude, I suppose. And I was never one to be rude. I didn't stand up for myself or cut in line or ask for seconds. I always waited to see what might be offered or left over after everyone else had a turn.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0spB5dryDtMeLtkHkL2JGHykBv2o5m8-JIjT7CmG-kxy9k9bj2SeifkipmvUAEZsIvBU2CP7pB5lyAY3ysXIbBWrgRte4GHYujKQp64jrF24bYZpuNWf3S4vwkoU_liMBOC-PATefk6k/s1600/foodsthat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0spB5dryDtMeLtkHkL2JGHykBv2o5m8-JIjT7CmG-kxy9k9bj2SeifkipmvUAEZsIvBU2CP7pB5lyAY3ysXIbBWrgRte4GHYujKQp64jrF24bYZpuNWf3S4vwkoU_liMBOC-PATefk6k/s200/foodsthat.jpg" width="136" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Foods That Make You Go<br />
...MMMMMMMMMMM!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">That day in 1998, after all the usual moneymaking ideas had been discussed and assigned, something wonderful and unexpected happened. Two of the committee members pitched the notion of publishing an employee cookbook.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I don't remember much of what was said after that. I do, however, remember that I fairly flew across the boardroom table to offer my services. Finally, someone had come up with a fund-raising idea about which I could get excited. Not that I could have expressed my reasons then. I'd never really considered publishing as a career option. But there was just something about the words "publish a cookbook" that made my brain ignite like a Canada Day fireworks display. "This is what I want to do," I told a friend right after the meeting. "I'm going to be a publisher."</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Jii6gpiUVHxvJSdn_UXXhrAesRXoQXneUVjH1J0RDPSMrdFJBv13WfQELU-p-8NemnHfSs_FttLvya3xBNlWRmnFw4UfGybeV3QWAgbB239aXYEAhQrCYhhgXE2_wOZjabLES7soOSU/s1600/Tastes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Jii6gpiUVHxvJSdn_UXXhrAesRXoQXneUVjH1J0RDPSMrdFJBv13WfQELU-p-8NemnHfSs_FttLvya3xBNlWRmnFw4UfGybeV3QWAgbB239aXYEAhQrCYhhgXE2_wOZjabLES7soOSU/s200/Tastes.jpg" width="131" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tastes of the Tantramar</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">That humble little cookbook--complete with clipart graphics and sorely lacking an ISBN--led to another, somewhat more refined cookbook later that year. Buoyed by those early experiences, I started my own publishing company. And I waited. And I learned. And, little by little, I worked. I worked for experience. I worked for exposure. I even worked for varying degrees of money! I tackled anything that might lend itself to making me a better publisher.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">Now I have a few books in my company catalogue, with many more planned for the future. I'm still writing, of course, and my own work has appeared in a handful of books from other publishers. They each hold a place of pride in my personal library alongside my own publications. First and most prized among them will always be that unexpected little cookbook that brought my passion to me.</span></div></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-2485429183347439192011-08-23T22:43:00.000-03:002011-08-23T22:43:24.124-03:00Acts of Creation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s1600/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s200/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">NOTE: I wrote "Acts of Creation" in 2002 during a fellowship at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. The essay was later published in <em>Bylines 2005 Writer's Desk Calendar</em> (I have a few extra copies, if anyone's interested).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">I see the first glow of morning over the flat roof of my neighbor's cottage and the trees that lie beyond. The world is still and half formed at this time of day. Magpies warm up for their morning aria. The odd car passes by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the wind still sleeps.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">I've been up all night again, giving the tranquil hours over to acts of creation. Only now do I pull back the curtains and let the world creep inside.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">My desk lamp shines on, confident that I can't yet live without its light. The computer groans, being far less resilient, and would yawn if it could. The phone sulks on the corner of the desk, a muted instrument whose only connection to the outside world answered to a higher purpose. It sits next to the tissue box, at least.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">A borrowed dictionary has become fast friends with my travel-weary pocket diary. Between the two, I'm sure to find the right words at the right time.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">If ever fatigue threatens the creative urge, I have my bottomless coffee mug and two bottles of water standing guard nearby. Muscle relaxants linger for moments when my body seizes over the page, and Wite-Out for moments when the words follow suit.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">When all the night's work is behind me, yet my mind continues on, I have only to clip and file my nails while awaiting my next inspiration.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-59213999561045580652011-08-22T22:44:00.000-03:002011-08-22T22:44:49.307-03:00Canada's National Bird: The Common Loon<span style="color: #f1c232;"> </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvUbTP2c-QqRgo1dh4M2g84o9uUM-9l4C1PkmFkgZooFzVzBQ6BbPR8tjeyS5enVgnsMrdGZUxN8jYSFdEjPXSuCWI2gaD8Wz_IzKTV18hO1YguC8ilazfwjnMLvK6W-dwca5SSGHiww/s1600/common_loon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #f1c232;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvUbTP2c-QqRgo1dh4M2g84o9uUM-9l4C1PkmFkgZooFzVzBQ6BbPR8tjeyS5enVgnsMrdGZUxN8jYSFdEjPXSuCWI2gaD8Wz_IzKTV18hO1YguC8ilazfwjnMLvK6W-dwca5SSGHiww/s200/common_loon.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><span style="color: #f1c232;">For most Canadians, the haunting cry of the Common Loon is a familiar sound, heard at lakefronts and on our television sets. The unmistakable sound is often compared to a yodel or a laugh.<br />
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The loon is equally striking in appearance: an elongated black bill, red eyes, shiny black head, white throat band, black and white checkered back and wings (the latter are white underneath), and white underbelly. The may also be distinguished by the way they ride low in the water and by their hunchbacked profiles while in flight.<br />
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Loons generally live 15-30 years in the wild. They nest across most of Canada and migrate to coastal regions throughout North America during the winter. One pair will dominate a small- or medium-sized lake and share a large lake with few others, each pair maintaining dominion in distinct area such as a bay.<br />
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Contrary to popular belief, loons do not always mate for life. New pairings occur when the original pair cannot breed successfully.<br />
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Beginning in the 1960s, </span><a href="http://www.ffdp.ca/index_e.asp"><span style="color: #f1c232;">Hinterland Who's Who</span></a><span style="color: #f1c232;"> broadcast 60-second Public Service Announcements featuring a fascinating variety of Canadian wildlife--including such classics as Beaver, Moose, and Woodchuck--but none stuck in my mind more than the PSA on Loons. Today, the PSAs are back in abbreviated form (30 seconds each) but the originals are still available for viewing in the Vintage section of the organization's </span><a href="http://www.ffdp.ca/media.asp?mcid=1"><span style="color: #f1c232;">Video and Sound Clips Library</span></a><span style="color: #f1c232;">. If you want to take a trip down memory lane--or simply learn more about the loon--why not take a few minutes and pay them a visit?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="color: #f1c232;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><span style="color: #f1c232;"> </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6b9o1t-FEUl85MXbeeHbj6HXAntFR6CWudtN6t9GPWFK5Rj-ImeYZccxDqimWZVbzhM0ljKgOZItwWtIkRpps2wXuHYGwx0DA88ZxDTjvvjYT63biDUajG6IbzdsPxgNqMIx7rxXoSfY/s1600/220px-Loonie_reverse_view.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #f1c232;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6b9o1t-FEUl85MXbeeHbj6HXAntFR6CWudtN6t9GPWFK5Rj-ImeYZccxDqimWZVbzhM0ljKgOZItwWtIkRpps2wXuHYGwx0DA88ZxDTjvvjYT63biDUajG6IbzdsPxgNqMIx7rxXoSfY/s200/220px-Loonie_reverse_view.png" width="200" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><span style="color: #f1c232;">In 1987, the </span><a href="http://www.rcmint.ca/"><span style="color: #f1c232;">Royal Canadian Mint</span></a><span style="color: #f1c232;"> introduced the new one-dollar coin, the back of which featured a finely rendered image of the Common Loon. The image, combined with initial public resistance to the idea of replacing the paper dollar, led to the coin being called a "loonie." The public soon embraced the coin, however, and the "loonie" became a lasting tribute to a national symbol.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="color: #f1c232;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><span style="color: #f1c232;"> </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340013189416402935.post-66532073290423215372011-08-21T22:10:00.000-03:002011-08-21T22:10:58.564-03:00Opening a Seasonal Branch Office<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s1600/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpuuERHzKzrvNPuQxnqdhg9Fx-3eg1SA5LAQmfcZcHV3wRKBXCryAN6xXk4u_68aqo_by8cMMqb-skFpqg4N1HSNBYLlpydWy28fCSpItzK_CrTCDHwruvOCPp1w-7o2kbjnsshwrQyk/s200/August2011BadgeSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If you're running a home based business, summer is a great time to set up a branch office -- in your back yard.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I take advantage of having wireless Internet and work on my deck when the weather is nice. The change of scenery is nothing less than refreshing. After all, wouldn't you rather look at blue skies and listen to bird songs (or even an irate squirrel) than be stuck inside?</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If you don't have wireless capabilities, you can still "branch out" this summer. All you have to do is schedule your outdoor work around tasks that don't require internet access. In my case, I could read submissions and edit manuscripts, saving things like email and web searches for evening hours and rainy days.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Summer's way too short (and, in many locales, just getting started), so make the most of every outdoor moment -- even when work can't wait.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15111132672536111177noreply@blogger.com1