Telling Herstories: The Broad View

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The Review Team Has Outdone Themselves!

Oh my, do we have a lot to share! Scroll on down!

I know you’re going to find one or many books you wish to read. Further insight can be gleaned from the fabulous reviews by clicking on the highlighted titles. Have fun!

Follow us on Twitter to keep up with the latest reviews. Purchase through SCN and help support SCN’s many programs and women’s life-writing work.

TRIO, by Eve LaSalle Caram, explores the lives of three members of a Texas/Louisiana family. (Reviewed by Judith Helburn) 

THE WRITING WARRIOR by Laraine Herring, portrays a way of thinking as much or more than a way of writing. (Reviewed by Sharon Lippincott)

GROWING UP LAUGHING by Marlo Thomas, is a memoir and love story, and a thank-you to family. (Reviewed by Laura S. Hulka) 

HARD GRASS, by Mary Zeiss Stange, is about life in the immense expanses of arid grasslands of the western Great Plains. (Reviewed by Susan J. Tweit)

BREAST CANCER: NO ONE CHOSE THIS JOURNEY, by Fran Padgett, resounds with love, hope and sharing. (Reviewed by Trilla Pando)

WHEN THE SNOW FLIES, by Laurie Alice Eakes is a story about the determined Audrey Sinclair Vanderleyden, a woman physician, who was born before the time women were doctors. (Reviewed by Lee Ambrose)

Understand history and the development of artificial sweeteners in EMPTY PLEASURES, by Carolyn de la Peña. (Reviewed by Susan Wittig Albert)

Amazing recipes, accompanied by color photos, fill THE AMISH COOKS' ANNIVERSARY BOOK, by Lovina Eichel. (Reviewed by Judy Alter)

TALES OF A TITMOUSE, by Pamela Barrett, is an inspiring "depths-of-despair-to-redemption" story. (Reviewed by Jennifer Melville)

J: THE WOMAN WHO WROTE THE BIBLE, by Mary F. Burns, is thought-provoking and mesmerizing. An original. (Reviewed by Jennifer Melville)

FINDING THE DEEP RIVER WITHIN, by Abby Seixas, shares solid, concrete ways to recover balance and meaning. (Reviewed by Laura Strathman Hulka)

THE CREATIVE LIFE, by Julia Cameron, dismantles “the mythology that tells us art is made by loners and made with heroic ease.” (Reviewed by Becky Lane)

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE, by Supriya Bhatnagar, portrays the enduring complexities of India. (Reviewed by Carol Smallwood)

Lisa Shannon’s memoir, A THOUSAND SISTERS, makes the stories of the brutal atrocities against women in the Congo compelling. She invites us all to help, to make a difference. (Reviewed by Lynn Goodwin)

The very moving THE SPIRIT OF A WOMAN, edited by Terry Laszlo-Gopadze, is an anthology of authentic stories of courage, compassion and discovery. (Reviewed by Mary Ann Moore)

Debra Monroe’s ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF NORMAL chronicles how she and her daughter, a white mother and black daughter,”grew and learned together.” (Reviewed by Judy Alter)

Reviewer Sherry Wachter says that I WANT TO BE LEFT BEHIND, by Brenda Peterson, is “a reminder that the earth and its inhabitants are a joy as well as a responsibility.”

AS A FARM WOMAN THINKS, by Nellie Witt Spikes, edited by Geoff Cunfer, is a history, as ordinary rural folk lived it. (Reviewed by Susan Wittig Albert)

Puppies, Divorce and Memoir...There is a Connection

Kendra Bonnett--Getting Read #23

I'm in Connecticut this week doing a favor for two very dear friends. They had an opportunity to go to Mexico for a week but couldn't find anyone local to take care of their puppy, cat and two horses. So, I'm house, dog, cat and horse sitting.

Quinn, the puppy is a beautiful English Setter with a heart of gold. He's about eight months old and brimming with youthful energy. In short, he's into everything and driving me crazy. Yesterday he broke into the special area where we put out the cat's food. When I discovered what he'd done, it was too late. He'd eaten the cat's food...and since I couldn't find the bowl anywhere I began to think he'd eaten that too! I found the bowl about six hours later...after checking every room and under every piece of furniture. Twice. I'd forgotten how much attention a puppy requires.

Quinn likes to run into the woods where he picks up ticks. He transferred one onto me yesterday. I'm paranoid of Lyme Disease so I freaked. Today, I walked him on a leash. He chases the neighbor cat that ventures into the yard, steals my slippers and follows me wherever I go (including the bathroom). You haven't lived until you've been puppy slimed as you step out of the shower.

But what does this have to do with memoir writing and divorce? Don't worry, I'll explain. It took me awhile to see the connection too. I watch this dog all day and realize that every day he confronts something new in his life...the leaf that flutters by and scares him...the little calico cat next door who comes up to the slider and peers nose to nose at Quinn...the pumpkin on the doorstep that needed to be told off with a good barking...the stairs leading to the dark, forbidden basement.

Someone going through divorce for the first time must feel a lot like Quinn with new and frightening experiences cropping up almost daily...lawyers, settlements, custody, single parenting...and so much more. That's where DivorcedWomenOnline.com (DWO) comes in to my story. DWO is an online magazine for “women of all ages (20s-60s) who are contemplating, moving through or beyond divorce.”

Founding editor Delaine Moore contacted me last week to tell me about the site's success to date and her plans for its future. Currently, DWO gets about 25,000 views per week and reaches some 100,000 women overall. What this means is Delaine is looking for writers on a wide range of topics, including stories, health tips, fashion advice and more. Read my post "A Call for Writers: Large Online Magazine Offers You Publishing, Publicity and Platform Building Opportunities" for all the details. I posted this yesterday and already we've been able to direct one writer to DWO. If you think you have something to say to women contemplating, facing or getting over divorce, you just might find a good platform for yourself that will give your work exposure to a large audience of women. Matilda and I will be doing a monthly writing column.

And speaking of writing, I'd like to point aspiring memoir writers to my Friday column on tips for memoir writing. Women just starting to write may find themselves facing a world of scary unknowns...just like Quinn. I'm hoping this list of links will be a good place to start. You can click here for "Lists for Writers: 10 Tips for Writing Your Memoir." I've even embedded the first part of Susan Albert's and Susan Tweit's delightful reading and conversation sponsored by The Wittliff Collections.

 

Aloha, Mahalo, and Other Words from Hawaii

ABC's of Writing, Matilda Butler, Post #6

 

I missed my scheduled posting on Monday -- my regular day to write on SCN’s Telling HerStories. The brief five minute video that I thought I’d finish on Sunday took me all day Monday to complete. “Don’t worry,” I told Kendra. “I’ll have the video on YouTube on Monday.” Well, at 11:58 PM California time, that statement became true. By then, it was too late to post here. If I had run into additional complications with the video, I might have had to rely on Hawaii time where I still had three more hours before midnight.

 

The notion was relevant because I was creating the first of four videos I'm calling Postcards from Hawaii. These are writing prompts that occurred to me while I was on the Big Island earlier this month for a combined celebration of my husband’s birthday and our 40th wedding anniversary. Although part of each day was spent working on one of my final chapters for Writing Alchemy, I still had a relaxing time.

When I travel, my mind often causes me to focus on just one or two elements. But Hawaii is a place that engages all the senses -- the sweet scent of plumeria, the growling sound of the ocean grabbing fistfuls of sand, the dramatic sight of ancient black lava flows, the taste of plant-ripened pineapple--juices running down my arm, and the rough feel of coral beneath my feet as I wade in the shallow waters. 

Hawaii replenishes my creative well. Do you have a place that provides you with new ideas? In my video, I discuss one special place on the Big Island and it’s meaning. I hope you’ll go take a look and then leave me a comment. I’d like to know what you think about my writing prompt and discussion.

Aloha and Mahalo. When I say these two Hawaiian words, the state of calm that I feel while on the Big Island returns. As writers, we know that words are the only tool we have to express our lives. Aloha is used for hello and good bye, but can also mean love. Visitors often read that saying Aloha opens one to the awareness of a sacred space and that Mahalo is an expression of gratitude and has the potential to transform your life. I offer you these words today with the hope that they help you give life to your writing and enable you to feel the blessing of gratitude for what you write.

Enjoy the first Postcards from Hawaii by clicking here.

 

 

 

 

Reading Out Loud

My ears ache from wearing head phones and I'm getting tired of listening to my own voice. What am I doing? I'm narrating my memoir, Walking Nature Home, for the audio version to be released late this year. So far, I've read three chapters. Each one takes about a day, even though the finished length of each chapter is only somewhere between 40 and 45 minutes. With nine chapters total, I figure I need six more good reading days to finish.

What takes so long? Getting it right. The actual read of a chapter takes somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours. When I stumble over a word, or get the tone or emphasis wrong, or make another error--or a loud motorcycle goes by outside--I start the sentence over again. Sometimes I go back to the beginning of a paragraph if that makes a "cleaner" break to make sure I haven't changed the tone or volume of my voice.

I could record at a real studio, but I'd rather spend those hours in the comfort of my own office, sitting at a microphone table designed and made out of scraps by my sculptor husband, Richard. My office isn't soundproof, but by using a homemade foam baffle (thank you for that too, Richard!) and a directional mike (a Blue Yeti USB mike that plugs right into my Mac laptop, for those who want to know the technical stuff), it does pretty well, except for the occasional passing ya-hoo with a loud vehicle. That round black screen in front of the mike in the photo above, by the way, is to soften the explosion of sound that comes with 'P's and other hard consonants. It looks weird, but is very effective.

The rough edit takes about twice times as long as the read time, which means three to four hours of careful listening, deleting each bad or duplicate part of the soundtrack and pasting the two cut edges together, just the way we used to do with real tape and a razor blade back in the days before recordings went digital, listening carefully to the mend, and then moving on... I do the rough edit myself using Garageband, Apple's nifty--and surprisingly powerful--audio editing program that came free with my Macintosh. It works just like the sound boards I've used in real studios. (That's Garageband above, with me reading the opening of Chapter Three on the sound track.)

What does this have to do with writing? These hours at the mike and listening with the headphones remind me of why reading your work aloud is one of the best editing techniques around. I'm hearing Walking Nature Home anew: the tone of the words, the cadence and rhythm of the sentences and paragraphs, the flow of the story itself. And even after editing it dozens and dozens of times, even after the editors at University of Texas Press went over it with their careful eyes, even though it's in print, I hear things I could do to improve the writing.

That's the magic of hearing your work, of reading it out loud and listening crically. Looking at your writing on paper or on screen is useful; hearing it is entirely different. It sounds new, and thus you notice things you otherwise wouldn't.

You don't need my quick-and-dirty home recording studio to do it. All you need is a quiet space--a room with a door that shuts, or a time when no one else is around to interrupt you. Pick up your writing, put on your best storytelling or reading voice, clear your throat, sit up straight, and read. Don't rush it and don't dramatize, just read your words with the respect they deserve. And listen. When you notice something that doesn't sound right, stop and make a note. Then pick up your writing and start reading again. You'll be surprised at what you hear.

P.S. What is surprising me as I record Walking Nature Home? It's pretty darn good!

Hunting for Treasure

 Since the choice of what we curl up with is often crucial for our solace and sanity, we need to learn how to nurture the talent of selection. Book browsing is a meditative art...Books are as essential as breathing. —Sarah Ban Breathnach

I mentioned in a previous post that we editors at SCBR do what we call “book sleuthing”—locating and requesting the best in new women’s literature for our team of reviewers. We have different resources we use—internet searches, publisher and publicist contacts, blogs, newsletters, social media contacts like Facebook and Twitter, and so forth. Each of us, I’m sure, has our own favorite way of sleuthing. I love it. It’s a bit like a treasure hunt, with the prize being a great new book!

How do YOU find your next read?

One of my favorite ways to find a new book for my personal pleasure?--the advice of a good friend. I value the opinion of another avid reader like myself. I love discussing books and authors—and a friend’s opinion of the same.

Here are a few more "clues" for your personal treasure hunting:

• The New York Times has a weekly book section on Sundays and sends out an email newsletter on Fridays—find this at NYTimes.com if you’re interested.
• If you do a lot of business with Amazon, they will begin to send you emails with predictions on new items that might match your interests. If, like me, you use their advanced search options often, they send out emails on new and upcoming books in the genres of interest. Other booksellers may do the same—I just happen to have been a loyal Amazon shopper almost since they first began selling online. Now there is the added incentive that our purchases from Amazon benefit SCN.
• On Thursdays, USA Today will send you a book newsletter via email, or you could follow them on Facebook.
• GoodReads newsletters contain info on many new releases.
• Oprah, who garners a lot of attention for her book club picks, sends out email book newsletters each week—current and upcoming books are featured.
• Libraries and bookstores often set up displays of new arrivals and often staff recommendations.

There are even sites online that might help you find new authors similar to those you’ve already read. One is what should I read next? . Plug in the title, author or ISBN number of something you’ve read, and you’ll be given a list of suggestions to consider. Some might seem obvious, some not, but it’s fun to see what comes up. You’ll have to judge how accurate they are.

In this day and age, there are so many ways to find books. The resources are unlimited. I know I could spend hours just looking and looking—if I had hours to spend. Alas, I don’t and I suspect the same is true for you.

Which brings me to this… When you’re looking for something new to read, we hope you’ll take advantage of the many (1000+) reviews at SCBR. You’ll find enough suggestions to suit any mood or any genre preference. (We don’t feature blockbusters from authors who already have mass followings, or a lot of cozies, romances or what is known as chick lit. These certainly have their place, but they don’t need more press, so we concentrate on what does.) In addition to some bestsellers in fiction and nonfiction, we’ll always feature some new and perhaps lesser known women authors who may publish with smaller presses--we want you to know they’re out there, and to support their efforts.

The next time you need a book idea for yourself or for a gift, give us a try. After all, what’s better than the recommendation of a friend?

 

6.5 Multi-talented? Ask the Creative Catalyst.

Saraswati: Hindu Goddess of music, knowlege, and the arts.

Notice her four arms--typical of artist-writers-musicians-performers. The doubled images tell the story. Can we be in two places at the same time? Maybe. See the conversation below between "Swamped" and the Creative Catalyst. --Janet Riehl

__________________

Dear Creative Catalyst: It’s only the first week of the school year, and I’m feeling swamped already! Is dancing and leading workshops in addition to teaching a dodge from my main work as a poet? Is it a secret wish for failure?

Swamped in Savannah

Dear Swamped: That depends on your motivation and how you manage time and energy. Does fear not being enough lead you toward distraction? More practically, are you over-booked?

Swamped: I think I’m in search of something, but I don’t know what.

Creative Catalyst: Wholeness, as I see it. But there is only so much of you to go around. Your quest leads to fragmentation rather than wholeness.

Swamped: I want to feel that expressing myself as a poet is enough. I want to feel worthy without having to add another layer—say, becoming a nature mystic before I can be a worthy poet.

Creative Catalyst: It’s a bitch to be an artist in our linear world! Be careful not to internalize judgments from family and friends. Sure, it’s okay to be the poet you are without another layer. You don’t have to prove yourself to feel worthy.

Layering springs from a creative impulse and is a quest for richness. Simpler is easier. But now all the richness, wholeness, and layering is a part of you and your poetry. Do not renounce an iota of the richness yet continue to focus. Do what you can without going crazy.

Swamped: How can I know if I’m sidestepping commitment?

Creative Catalyst: Ask yourself if some fear leads toward your seeking distraction.

Swamped: If were truly committed to my writing, wouldn’t I do something like go on a month-long writer's retreat and dive deep into myself?

Creative Catalyst: Not necessarily. You don’t have to prove yourself by undertaking extraordinary steps. Staying home and doing your work is enough. 

However, I love the self-guided writing retreat idea! You could even dance during your retreat! Does dancing, your secondary interest, feed your primary writing interest? If so, you’re on a path that will serve your work.

Swamped: Oh, yes. For me, the rhythms and music of dance embody the rhythms and musicality of language. I know that dance helps reduce my stress. It makes me feel alive and healthy. Plus, it’s fun to be in community with women. Even when we speak different languages, dance unites us.

Creative Catalyst: It’s rejuvenating— your personal Fountain of Youth.

Swamped: How can I tell when studying with a teacher will help me, and when it’s hiding from what I know? This is so not people-speak :)

Creative Catalyst: Take stock of what you know now. Do you need to know more in order to go further? Claim your authority, and give it a go. Perhaps later you’ll benefit from taking another class.

Swamped: My new resolution is to focus on my poetry collection in the coming months Instead of spinning off in so many different directions.

Creative Catalyst: Focusing your prodigious talent and energies makes perfect sense. Go easy on yourself, and let your work flow.

_______________

Pose questions about practical creativity; give ideas for future cycle themes; and join in the dialog. See the Creative Catalyst archive at http://bit.ly/9z1BQv.  Learn more about our audio book “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music”at http://bit.ly/aZVd1e. Become a Riehlife Villager www.riehlife.com.