Valentine's Day teaser

     Saint Valentine's Day features prominently in my novella Broken Buckets. Here is an excerpt.


      Richard parked in front of the school, pulling into a “no parking” area. He reached over and opened the glove box, slowly pulling out the Valentine’s Day card he had bought for Sarah a couple of weeks ago on a whim but had ended up shoving away when the whim had passed. He knew he couldn’t interrupt Sarah at this time of day, but he thought he would quickly drop the card off in the office for her and then make his way up to his lookout bench along the jogging path. He found a pen and opened the card to write something inside. Struggling with the words that he really wanted to say, he scrawled simply, “I’m sorry. Love always, Richard,” his signature almost illegible. He concluded that there really wasn’t much else to say to anyone when you are going to off yourself. He tossed the pen aside and put the card in the envelope.
While raising the open envelope to his lips, he looked through his windshield at the front doors of the school. With his mouth agape and his tongue slightly protruding, he stared as the school door closest to him opened wide. He withdrew his tongue and shut his mouth, his face hardening one micro-movement at a time. His hands froze in front of him, the card dropped in his lap, and moments later, without turning his head, he reached for the gun. Swiftly he removed it from the bag and shoved the bag aside.
      He opened the car door and stepped out into the small space between his car and the car parked beside him. As he did so, he held the gun beside his right leg, in a familiar fashion. He shut the door and he began marching toward the building. With a slow to and fro, the valentine wafted to the pavement.


     Broken Buckets is available from all eBook sellers, and will be delivered free of charge to book reviewers.

Alice Dunbar Nelson

      I will be one of the participating poets in a celebration of Harlem Renaissance poetry to be held in my hometown this spring by The Seacoast African American Cultural Center. (See link below for more information.) Each participating poet will read one or two poems by a specific writer from the period, and then read one or two original works that they have written in response to that writer. I have chosen Alice Dunbar-Nelson. I am now studying her life and work, and would love to hear any thoughts or ideas you might have about how I can best represent her.

      http://www.johnmichaelalbert.com/2013/11/30/what-langston-heard/

      Here she is;

And here is a bit about her...

Alice Dunbar Nelson, writer and critic helped Harlem Renaisannce | African American Registry

Digital Short Story

       Yesterday, inspired by my friend John Herman, I published a little digital picture book as part of a writing contest. The contest was created due to a need for beginning readers that are of interest to those over the age of thirteen, but just beginning to learn to read in English, or any language. Even though I have an extensive background in early literacy I found this to be very challenging. You must limit not just the number of sentences you use to tell a story, but also the length and structure of the sentences themselves. Especially tricky is to rely on the 100 sight words (Fry's) that are first taught and need extensive reinforcement. Ideally too, you are expected to choose an image for each page that helps the reader make sense of the words.
     I ended up writing a little travel story, about my enrollment at A Room of  Her Own's retreat for women writers in New Mexico last August. You can have a little look at my book here if you'd like.

http://tarheelreader.org/2014/02/01/a-long-way-to-go/

www.tarheelreader.org/2014/02/01/a-long-way-to-go/

     For more info about the contest visit www.storysharecontest.com

Fiddling With Images

     Playing one of the viral Facebook games this week I was assigned artist Marc Chagall by my friend Steffanie Antonio. While I like much of his work I chose to post the painting he called The Green Fiddler;

   

      It appealed to me because it reminded me of one of the characters (real people, all) in the novel that I am currently writing. An expert fiddler, by the name of Cuffee Whipple, who was an enslaved African man. He had been owned by Portsmouth's white Whipple family, was emancipated by them around 1780, and made his living as a musician thereafter. He is almost certainly the  musician who provided the entertainment from the balcony at the grand ball held on Vaughn Street in honor of the visit of President George Washington in 1789.
      I don't know why Chagall's fiddler is green in the face, but it isn't hard to imagine why Cuffee might have felt that shade.
     Since there are no images, not a single one, of our town's black residents from the colonial era, we can only imagine what they looked like. I suspect this Chagall painting is going to influence the way I imagine Cuffee looked from now on.

     I have since found this painting Chagall also painted. It has been said that the musical Fiddler on the Roof took its name from this. I really do find them haunting.

Give a listen

http://www.upworthy.com/163-years-ago-a-former-slave-rocked-the-world-with-these-words

In the inbox

     I have a couple of picture books that I am sending out and about unagented. Primarily for fun, but also to keep track of where they have been (I so need a secretary!), I have decided to log by rejection letters on my blog. I am eliminating the name of the sender, but otherwise they will not be fiddled with. Here is the latest;

Dear Ms. Truax,

Thank you for submitting The Three Sisters to Sky Pony Press. After careful deliberation we have decided to pass on your manuscript as we feel it does not quite lend itself well to our list. Best of luck in finding another publishing house for your book.
All the best,

A New Project

     Today I began a new gig that will undoubtedly make 2014 different and memorable.
     The current poet laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Kimberly Cloutier Green, has designed and launched her project to bring poetry to the larger community, which she has named Poetry's HeART.

      I am serving as one of the facilitators of a Creation Circle where, working with a group of women who have signed up for the duration, we will be exploring and stretching the creative process of making poems and other types of art. Kimberly has envisioned that we will all (more than 100 participants) respond to the same initial prompt. It is a fragment of a poem she never finished but that has stayed with her.

     Stranger, orphan, outlaw, beloved... How will we live our lives, so many hungers upon us?

     Today, in the first of six monthly meetings, my group explored poems that touch in some way upon the idea of strangeness; being a stranger, seeing a stranger, being strange, a strange place, seeing something familiar with new eyes, feeling how we do and do not fit in.

     You can hear one of the poems we read and discussed here;


      Reverie in Open Air by Rita Dove : Poetry Magazine


      Over the course of the next thirty days we will see what comes to us creatively in response to thinking about this subject. I invite you to join us from wherever you are. There are no rules, or right or wrong way to respond. Perhaps you will write a poem, a haiku, a short story. Perhaps you will sculpt, paint, draw, photograph, or compose something. Feel free to post a response here.

* I Did It*

     One of my Facebook friends (I'm sorry I don't remember who) posted the following request for writers to document their productivity over the last year.

http://networkedblogs.com/S90gQ

     I thought about it for several days. This kind of public accountability was the very reason I established my writing blog in the first place, and I think that without question 2013 has been the most productive of my ten year writing career. I'm not sure why then, I am hesitant to do this. Something about it makes me nervous ... but here it goes.

    I reviewed all of my blog posts for the year. There were a few accomplishments I had completely forgotten, proving you do need to journal what you are up to in some way.

    Here is what I can say I got done;

~ I wrote more than 75,000 words over the year. Unfortunately I am not well organized enough to say for certain what the number is. I do know I never came anywhere close to that number before. I also feel it is the most important of all that I will discuss next.

~ I birthed two books that I had been working on for years. Both are self-published and I see that as an important part of my platform.

~ Can't possibly say how many hours of research I have done this year or even how many books I read that were research related, but know that the number is very high. I also took a research trip that was an investment in my novel.

~ I attended my first professional writing retreat (AROHO in August). Most of the gifts that come from that are yet to be known. It was a wonderful, life changing experience.

~ I attended AWP for the first time. I did that because it was within driving distance of my home. It was interesting but not at all life changing. The biggest impression I got from it was how many of us there in this country trying to make a go of the same occupation. The size of that conference is overwhelming. The highlight of it for me was having lunch with other poets who will be published along with me in the forthcoming The Widow's Handbook.

~ I attended the annual NH Writer's Day conference as I do every year. I took a class there taught by Paul Harding that has stayed with me. I also pitched my novel to an agent who is interested in it. That felt like a huge achievement, and I'm still excited about it.

~ I can not count how many readings I attended, or even how many I gave. Not because the number is so high but because I am not very good about keeping track of things. Last month I was a featured reader at the monthly poetry hoots in my hometown that I have attended for a decade and even curated for a couple of years, and it was very special to me to have been invited to do so for the very first time.

~ This year I was also nominated to be the local poet laureate which of course is nice.

~ I'm terribly disappointed in myself to say I don't know how many submissions I made, probably about a dozen. I had several poems accepted for publication, but no prose.

~ I submitted one application for a significant fellowship that took a lot of work. (Still waiting to hear about that one.)

~ Can't seem to figure out how many blog posts I made during 2013, but in reviewing my blog for the year it doesn't seem as boring as I thought it was. I usually feel like a slacker regarding my blog.

~ I've started to find my way in the marketing of my work. I do not like this one aspect of being a writer at all. It is so unpleasant, but know that it is necessary. I try to devote a small part of each day to marketing the two books I have released. I have not been successful at this, especially in getting reviews. That seems to be much harder than I had anticipated. I've also failed several times in trying to get a good website up and running, though I made a few attempts.

~ I joined a local writing group that is proving to be helpful in my progress with my novel.

~ As I have for many years, I wrote twelve columns and several articles, for my local newspaper.

~ I curated a book discussion group for the museum where I work.

      I may be forgetting a few things. It has been a busy year, and I am feeling pretty good about what I got done. What this inventory does seem most useful for is in showing me where I can do better. I need to step it up in the marketing department, and in submitting more short stories and my completed children's manuscripts. I need to do better saving and protecting my work. And I need to do a better job in keeping track of what I have accomplished. I need a secretary!





     

Lisa Romeo Writes: Writers: A Year-End Call for *I Did It* Lists. Joi...

Lisa Romeo Writes: Writers: A Year-End Call for *I Did It* Lists. Joi...: Three years ago, I first shared with blog readers an end-of-year list-making activity I'd grown to cherish. Not making a typical New Y...

Indie Shopping

     Just found this photo of me reading at one of my favorite indie book stores. Please support them when doing your holiday shopping. They've got what your loved ones need.

Giveaway Today

    In memory of those lost and those scarred by the Newtown school shooting one year ago today I am gifting a free copy of my eBook, Broken Buckets, a novel traversing the subject of gun violence in schools, to anyone who works with children or in a school setting. Just message me with your email address.

Top Ten Books

     I've been challenged twice in the last couple of days to play a Facebook game where you quickly list ten books that have stayed with you since you've read them. These are the first ten that came to my mind. I've been carrying them with me for years while most of the books I have read have been forgotten. I think most of these (and a few others) have had a powerful influence on my development as a writer. Join in the game. It's fun to think about what your first ten titles all have in common.

1. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
2. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
3. The Diary of Ann Frank by Anne Frank
4. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
5. Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories; And Other Disasters by Jean Shepard
6. Cowboys are My Weakness by Pam Houston
                 

7. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
8. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
9.  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
10. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

      The Facebook game has rules;

      In your status line, list 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don't take more than a few minutes and don't think too hard. They don't have to be "right" or "great" books, just the ones that have touched you. Tag 10+ friends, including your tagger, so he or she will see your list.

A Sort of Snarky Thanksgiving Post

      I have been blogging for years now, and have made it a point not to use my blog for bitching. Who wants to read a rant? But every once in a great while, you've got to give in to the inner whiner, and let it rip. I'm terribly sorry that during this week of gratitude that I'm going to do just that. Maybe by the end of my post I'll see more clearly a way to feel thankful about this state of affairs.
     So ~ in what I thought would be a very exciting week for me I have just released the first (self-published) chap book I have ever created. It isn't my work, but a re-release of Henry Longfellow's poem called Lady Wentworth which tells the tale of something that happened in my hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire long ago. It has been a labor of love really. Love for Longfellow and his poem and my hometown and the whimsical work of a local artist, and I have been working on it for at least eight years, determined to find a way to make it happen.
      I had set the retail price for the little book at $15. That was as low as I could go and stand any hope to break even for just the production costs. By production costs I mean only the cost of printing the book. No pay for me or the illustrator, who worked very hard too, and created just for the book fifteen original drawings. Actually, now that I know what cut the bookstores are getting, it is clear I will probably never see the black.
      As you surely know, this is not an unusual situation in the struggle to get books into the hands of readers. Still, it was suggested to me yesterday, that the price of $15. was too high for the product. Suggested by someone who knows books well. As much as I'd like to lower it, I simply can't.
     I left that bookstore and walked over to a nearby coffee shop needing a post-yoga class smoothie badly. The coffee shop walls were adorned with the work of a visual artist as they always are, and as I usually do I took a few minutes to check out the featured artist's work.
      While I liked the simple oil paintings very much, what I couldn't help but notice, in my freshly dejected mood, was that the artist was asking $180. for small paintings. What's the deal?
     Sure, I realize each work of art is (usually) one-of-a-kind, but the argument still stands. Why as a society do we undervalue the creation of printed works to the degree that we do? We are willing to pay several dollars for a cup of coffee and a couple of hundred dollars for a small work of art by an emerging artist. We are willing to pay a couple of hundred dollars to see a concert or sporting event. The socks I wanted to buy my daughter for Christmas cost $34. per pair. Socks. I just don't understand why something that two artists, (three if you count Longfellow), worked hard on, that was costly to create, that will be of limited production, and is something that will entertain and endure, be so undervalued?
      Well, ... still I am grateful that I am able to bring the poem back to Portsmouth, that was always my goal. And I am grateful that Bob Nilson (a fully emerged artist) agreed to work with me on the project. Below, as a teaser, I share one of his drawings from the book which makes the poem so entertaining for all ages. And below that a link to purchase the eBook version, which of course is much less expensive. Happy Thanksgiving.

http://www.amazon.com/Poets-Tale-Lady-Wentworth-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B00G6R06IC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385559482&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Poets+Tale%2C+Lady+Wentworth

Upcoming Readings

     I have two public readings scheduled in the next week.

     Saturday afternoon November 23rd, starting at 3, I will be reading prose and poetry at the annual Open Studios of the Artists of Salmon Falls Mills at Rollinsford, New Hampshire. I will be up on the third floor of the Upper Mill. I'll be reading from both of my books, the published novella and the novel-in-progress, probably excerpts related to the holidays, as well as holiday related poetry, mine and others. I plan to share a couple of children's books too. I hope to see some of you there. The amazing assortment of artwork for sale will be worth the trip.

    On Wednesday evening December 4th at 7 PM I will be a featuring with Tim Mason from Cambridge, MA at the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Hoot, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. That's a first for me so a bit of a thrill, and I plan to do something of a retrospective of my decade as a hoot attendee that led to this reading. Also, a bit of a thrill for me, I will be making an announcement at the hoot... www.pplp.org

     Right now I'm off to  the local radio station for a quick interview about the novella. Tune into Portsmouth Community Radio WSCA 106.1 LP www.portsmouthcommunityradio.org

Day of the imprisoned writer

Please check out this blog today

http://penusa.org/blogs/mark-program/participate-day-imprisoned-writer

Guest Post by Kate Leigh

Tammi and I watched a movie called Lost Boundaries Saturday night. (Well, you have to take a break from writing now and then....)
Here is my movie review poem:

Passing

The movie Lost Boundaries uses the word Passing

In a context unlike death, at the time of the film

If someone was Passing, they were white not black

In the eyes of their beholders.  They raised families

Who looked white, the secret was treacherous and

Could topple their lives if discovered or spoken.

A great loyalty existed amongst those who knew

The Negros who were passing, it was as if they were clear

They would try to pass, too, if they could, if their

Brown skin was lighter, their hair straighter, their eyes 

Colder, their posture more confident, their bulk of

Experiences less crushing, their futures less predetermined.

Such insecurity, such play-acting, such hollow prominence

Such groundless hope, such double lives, such questionable

Aspirations, to live amidst those who would scorn you,

To care for those who would trample you, to reserve such 

Truth and intimacy from your blood children, to play

At the white man's unbeatable game, to defeat color itself.

Wrongs heaped on wrongs until no one can do right,

A rite of passage for the children of the Passed parents,

Who missed the window in their growth to bond with their

Black ancestors, who now must suddenly atone for sins

They cannot relate to or understand, their family unable

To help them, their bodies, genetics, appearance all awry.

Cry out now for a merciful blindness to overtake our

Fickle sight, to bless us with the inability to judge on

The basis of anything but obvious merit and selfless actions.

Let us earn our ideas about the human community, apply

The law once recommended by a wiser soul, one who

Believed we do unto others as we would have them do us.

(C) 2013 Katherine Leigh all rights reserved

Here is an image of the original movie poster c.1949

Latest Column

My column out this morning;

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20131107-LIFE-311070365

Quick visit to NYC Public Library

     Last month while in New York City I was thrilled to have some time, albeit not enough, to pop into the New York Public Library, and dragged my not-particularly-interested teenage companion through the exhibit now showing there on the history of children's literature. A lifelong passion of mine, and a subject I have taught at the college level, the exhibit was a thrill for me. One could spend a day perusing it; it is that thorough and detailed. There are many wonderful interactive displays as well as priceless ephemera to ponder, though unfortunately photos are prohibited, so I can not share with you any of the treasures I saw. You should go see for yourself. It is really worthwhile. Even though I got to spend very little time with the exhibit, it was enough to learn something new that has inspired my next picture book project (just as soon as I finish this novel)...

http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/abc-it?hspace=216333

     Another little tidbit I learned at the exhibit was that in 1938 Walt Disney made a video of one of my favorite picture book characters, Ferdinand the bull. In case you too have never seen it I offer it here. It is, like the exhibit, delightful.

http://youtu.be/HLXvOcERLAU

Women Called Nig

      Last night I participated in two back-to-back book discussion groups that were a fascinating example of the tried-and-true teachers' assignment of comparing and contrasting two pieces of literature. It was interesting to me, even a little exhilarating, (I'm a geek) that this was all coincidental.
     The first of the two was a book discussion group that I led. It took place at the living history museum where I work and was part of a series I curated on local black history. The book was Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, In A Two-Story White House, North. Showing That Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There, by Harriet E. Wilson (published in 1859). This book is a fusion of genres, primarily the slave narrative and the sentimental novel popular at the time. It is particularly important to the history of American literature as it was the first novel ever published on this continent by an African American.
        Sadly, it has been proven to be autobiographical as well. It is even more important that NH historians be familiar with the story as it is another first person account of the black experience in our state which has, I think since Harriet's life time, been largely ignored. The title brilliantly tells the story in just two syllables.

      Because Harriet's story took place about 65 miles inland I had challenged my co-workers to see if they could identify any connections she may have had to Portsmouth, the harbor town where we interpret history for visitors.
      I had identified three possibilities which we discussed;
   1. Harriet's / Frado's mates went to sea and never returned. A man living in Milford, New Hampshire who went to sea may very well have done so from our neighborhood.
   2. An obituary for Harriet's real biological mother, Mag Smith, has been identified, and it says she was formerly of Portsmouth, a pretty clear indication of Harriet having ties to this town.
   3. There is considerable evidence that Harriet was an itinerant peddler of her hair care products as well as her book, and I propose that it is quite likely that she passed through here on her travels. One extant first edition of Our Nig was from a Hampton, NH home indicating she may have come that close.

      Even if one did not have an interest in NH history Harriet's story is a compelling and riveting read.

  After my group finished our discussion I joined a group at my local indie book store for a discussion of Passing by Nella Larson (published in 1929, seventy years after Our Nig) which just happened to be happening on the same night.The subject matter of this novel is obvious, and it is the story of two women's experiences, and of the color line at the time. It too is a riveting read, and a wonderful snapshot of American history.

      Both of these books are sometimes referred to as stories of the "tragic mulatto" and sometimes dismissed as such. It is an important consideration to keep in mind, but it would be grossly unjust to dismiss these books along with white abolitionist literature that was contrived to proselytize to a white readership. Both of the writers were biracial women, and Larsen in particular, was first and foremost, an artist working with words. Although some other masterpieces of American literature have been categorized as tragic mulatto tales to include Their Eyes Were Watching God and To Kill A Mockingbird so the canon is indisputably well loaded.
     One striking similarity I noted between the two novels was that both of the female protagonists were referred to as Nig. (Larsen could not have known about the other novel which was still lost then.) In the first case it was a diminutive word meant to reference one's property, as in "This is our house and our dog and our nig," without sentimentality of any kind. And an ingenious slam on a society that considered(s) itself above the institution of slavery.
     In the second book it was a diminutive nickname given to a mixed-race woman by her husband in reference to her darkening skin. A joke shared between them, but meant to be insulting just the same.
    Now I wonder if there will be another novel produced by a writer in this century that will  reference a woman as nig, and while I hope that it will not be so, my hope is as superficial as the color of my skin.
    I am excited that I'm  next reading and discussing another work with a strong local connection, that has also been classified as a tragic mulatto tale, though like Our Nig, is based on a true story. It is Lost Boundaries by William L. White. A fellow reader let me borrow a copy of the book and the DVD, a movie made locally that I have been wanting to see for years, so I'm going to pop some corn now...

Poetry Contest

     I was recently asked to serve as the contest coordinator for the Poetry Society of New Hampshire's twice yearly national poetry competitions. I am thrilled that Lauren K Alleyne, Poet-in-Residence and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Dubuque has accepted my offer to serve as judge of the November contest. For more info about Professor Alleyne see http://laurenkalleyne.com/bio.html.

     Here are the guidelines for entering the contest open to all. I look forward to finding your poems in my mailbox on or before November 15th!

 

 

National Contest Coordinator
Tammi Truax
187 Meadow Rd
Portsmouth, NH 03801

Please note limit is forty lines. Name and address must appear in the upper right hand corner of the copy on which they appear. NO identification is to appear anywhere on the second copy.

The Poetry Society of New Hampshire sponsors two National Contests open to all poets, members or not. Judges for the contests are not members of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Prizes are awarded to four places, 1st place, $100, 2nd place, $50, 3rd and 4th places $25 each. Winning poems will be published in our quarterly magazine, The Poets Touchstone, and winning poets will receive one copy of the issue in which their poems appear. Rights revert to the author after publication.

Guidelines

Entries that do not meet the guidelines will not be considered or returned. Poems must be postmarked by the deadline date.

• Subject and form are open.
• Length limited to 40 lines.
• One poem per page.
• Poems must be typed.
• Two copies of each poem, one with NO identification (no name, no address), the other with the name and address in the upper right corner.
• #10 SASE for winners list only. Poems will not be returned.
• Entry fee is $3 for the first poem, and $2 each for others. Entries limited to 5 poems per poet per contest.
• Poems must not be previously published, have won a prize, nor be currently entered in another contest.
• Poems must be postmarked by the deadline date. Deadlines are: May 15th and November 15th.
• Mail poems and check payable to the Poetry Society of New Hampshire (PSNH) to the coordinator at the address above.