Show & Tell Friday: Fall Festivities & Quotes to Ponder On

I still look like I did last week. But I’m powering through.

Some good stuff to share on this cold October weekend:

1.) Halloweenfest & Osktoberfest in Transylvania County

I live in Transylvania County, North Carolina, and if you haven’t guessed from the name, we are serious about Halloween. This Saturday (Oct. 26th) is the annual Halloween festival. Downtown will be blocked off for food and craft vendors, stages filled with live, local music; there’ll be the annual Pumpkin Roll down the hill from the Courthouse, a hay ride, costume parade and more. After hours Oskar Blues Brewery will kick off Osktoberfest with food, music, and good beer. There truly is something for the whole family here!

The festival will also feature Mountain Mash, an old-time bluegrass competition, to be held at various times during the day.

For more info about Osktoberfest, and all the beers and bands, click here.

2.) Stingy Jack’s Pumpkin Patch

My family and I have been trying to get out to this quirky little blast of a Halloween event for

a couple of years now.  We plan to make it happen before Halloween! Located on a farm in Pisgah Forest, NC, Stingy Jack’s only opens on the weekends and in the evenings, and has a pumpkin carving contest, a spooky trail, enchanted hayride, and something called Stingy’s Ultimate Pumpkin Chunker, which is sure to appeal to the kids and the dads in the crowd, especially.
 

3.) Quotes on my bulletin board

Yes, this is random, and has nothing to do with Fall festivities. Humor me.

This is my bulletin board. It hangs on the wall to the left of my neat-as-a-pin writing desk. Why are you laughing? It’s not my story board–that’s different, and contains all kinds of notes on scrap paper, photographs, and anything inspiring me or having to do with my work-in-progress. The bulletin board holds my calendar, photos, the little reminder cards from the doctor’s office, etc. It also has stuck to it whatever quotes are speaking to me, my life, and my current (often crazy) state of mind.


Here are a few that I’ve lately found to be relevant. Basically, they shout to me from the bulletin board.

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose, and then give your whole heart and soul to it.”
~ attributed to the Buddha

“Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”
~ Confucius

“A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.”
~ John Le Carre

Show & Tell Friday: The Pick-Me-Up Edition

* Part II of my Artist-in-Residency recap will come early next week!

I'm wearing a sweatshirt this morning. It's morning, it's 57 degrees, it's August 16, and I'm wearing a sweatshirt.

It's weird.

Actually, it feels amazing. Does this mean we'll finally get snow again this winter after two years without it?

But I digress:

On this fine chilly August morning, I have some good stuff to share!

1.) Coffee-mate's new Girl Scouts Thin Mints Coffee Creamer

Oh, buddy. This stuff is delicious. I'm drinking it now. It really does taste like a big dollop of liquid thin mint in your coffee. And since we all know that Thin Mints are THE best Girl Scout cookie, you can imagine how good it is.

Yes, it's probably not the healthiest thing to put in your coffee. But life is short. You could do as I do--rabidly health-conscious woman that I am (oops, sorry, laughed too hard and choked on my Thin Mints coffee) and save it for the weekends.
 
 
 
2.) The Newsroom on HBO

Aaron Sorkin, the creator of The Newsroom and of my other favorite TV show of all time, The West Wing, is one of my favorite living writers. The West Wing aired its final season years ago, but my husband and I, when faced with the mediocrity of average television, watch all seven seasons all over again. We do this just about every year or two. So when The Newsroom was announced we decided to order HBO to see what it was all about.

In the beginning, I wasn't a fan. I appreciated the language, the dialogue, the drama (I'm a nut for politics and world news and journalism), but I couldn't get into the characters. They seemed stilted, over-the-top. And yes, some critics would say that "over the top" is par for the course for Sorkin. But as we've continued to watch, I've come to like it more--mainly because of Jeff Daniels and his portrayal of Will McAvoy, who's a big-time news anchor for a big-time news network. He makes it fun.

If you get a chance to see this show, I think it's worth it. It's no West Wing. But if you're a writer, especially, listen quick to the dialogue. It's easy to miss the brilliant asides. But when you catch them, they sing.

3.) A new haircut

Most of you don't know this about me, but I'm a haircut chicken. I've had the same hairstyle since the 8th grade, when my one and only perm finally grew completely out and the mocking laughter stopped. Long, straight hair, no bangs. It's been my go-to for, well, a long time.

I tend to only have my hair cut once per year, and twice over the last 9 years I've chopped quite a bit and donated it to various charities. It's a big deal for a haircut chicken like me.

 

7 inches of my hair. The coffee cup's there for perspective.

Yesterday, I had 7 inches cut off my hair. The very cute and sweet girl in the salon who my regular stylist--and it's really important that I use the word stylist since I'm so stylish ... why are you laughing?--recommended did a great job. I had stalked my regular stylist (quit laughing!) while she was on vacation in Mexico, and she made the appointment for me. I, the haircut chicken (bwok bwok) really do like it. I don't necessarily feel like a new woman. It's hard to feel that way when you've still got a second-child post-pregnancy body and are tired much of the time. But it does feel freeing and light. I feel refreshed.

And it'll grow out.

I couldn't have done it without my amazing

New haircut. Little baby.

parents, one of whom took the 4 year-old to swim at the neighborhood pool while the other took care of an unusually fussy infant, who watched my girls for two whole hours so I could get it done. Yes, I still drive to my hometown to get my hair done. It only happens once a year, after all. No, I am not 70 years old.

My advice: if you need a pick-me-up, go get a haircut. It helps. Seriously.

4.) A few quotes from my "Wild Words from Wild Women" tear-off calendar.

The new haircut has me feeling feisty. And check it out: the "newest" of these was written in the 1800s, and they're still absolutely relevant. Ah, the cyclical nature of history.

"I enjoy vast delight in the folly of mankind; and, God be praised, that is an inexhaustible source of entertainment."
~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, letter writer of the 1700s (and so much more)

"One wants to be something very great, very heroic; or if not that, then at least very stylish and very fashionable. It is this everlasting mediocrity that bores me."
~ Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist author (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

"I was admonished to adopt feminine clothes; I refused, and still refuse. As for other avocations of women, there are plenty of other women to perform them."
~ Joan of Arc, medieval martyr


Have a great weekend, everyone!

It's the Little Things

Many, many years ago, someone gave me one of those calendar flip-books of "Quotes from Great Women."

I have loved it, memorized it, and carried it with me from city to city, state to state, mountains to sea and back again. I think it's possible that the thing is 14 years old. Just this week, I decided that it'd had a good, long life, and was time to meet the recycling bin. But before it was laid to rest, I copied down every quote in a file on my computer.

I did this because those quotes spoke to me, and have (obviously) at different stages in my life. Since I got the calendar when I was in my teens and in college, had it has an early 20s outdoor educator sleeping in a cabin on top of a mountain, had it when I was single and in graduate school (the first time), and now as a married mama... well, the words and their meanings have certainly changed for me.

From imdb.com

Consider this quote by Bette Midler:

"After thirty, a body has a mind of its own."

When I was 19, or, heck--even 28, this would've meant nothing to me. Now, in my early 30s, boy howdy does it!

(I won't elaborate. But if you've seen this scene from the movie The Sweetest Thing, where Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate are in a dressing room discussing the effects of gravity on boobage, you'll know what I mean.)

Or, on a more serious note, this one from one of my favorite American heroines, Abigail Adams:



Abigail Adams
From Gulliver's Nest

"I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature."

The first Gulf War happened when I was in middle and high school, and we've been sucked into the sands of the Middle East ever since. But I never looked at international conflicts then the way I do now. This quote also applies, I think now, to disasters from oil spills to hurricane clean-ups, from a teenager driving while texting to a state deciding to pass a law.

As a mother, so much of what those great ladies said and wrote sings to me. Here's one from Jill Eikenberry. Though I don't have a child this age, I think this could be applied to the two year-old:

"You have a wonderful child. Then, when he's thirteen, gremlins carry him away and leave in his place a stranger who gives you not a moment's peace. You have to hang in there, because two or three years later, the gremlins will return your child, and he'll be wonderful again."

And so, for some Wednesday fun, here are 10 of my favorite quotes from that wonderful, ratty old flip calendar I've finally let go of:  (I wonder if the recycling has gone out yet?)

10 Quotes from Great Women

1. “I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
~ Agatha Christie

2. “All my life through, the new sights of nature made me rejoice like a child.”
~ Marie Curie

3. “Ideological differences are no excuse for rudeness.”
~ Judith Martin

4. “We ought to be able to learn some things second hand. There is not enough time for us to make all the mistakes ourselves.”

~ Harriet Hall

5. “You can take no credit for beauty at 16. But if you are beautiful at 60, it will be your own soul’s doing.”

~ Marie Stopes

6. “Friends and good manners will carry you where money won’t go.”
~ Margaret Walker

7. “Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of happy fat women.”
~ (Sylvia) Nicole Hollander

8. “In the end, what affects your life most deeply are things too simple to talk about.”
~ Nell Blaine

9. “I want real things—music that makes holes in the sky.”
~ Georgia O' Keefe

10. “The true woman is as yet a dream of the future.”
~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

I love quotes, so please share! Has there been a particular quote (by a great man or great woman) that has stuck with you over the years?

Blurbs and Quotes for a First Novel: Or, It's Not All Greek To Me

I'd thought, after my novel was sold and the fairy dust cleared and settled, that the process of finding authors to read my work and offer a blurb or quote I could use to promote the work would be a bit like attempting to get into a sorority.

I don't know how it's done elsewhere, but in the South when a sweet girl goes off to the big university and decides (or others decide for her) that she'd like to be in a sorority, friends of the family who are alums will often write letters for said girl. They send them to the powers-that-be in that sorority, encouraging the powers to take a good, hard look at the girl: that she'd be perfect for their group. (I always imagined perky 21 year-old college seniors sitting around a pink office with Greek letters embroidered on everything--the stationary, the backs of chairs, cross-stitched and hung in pink frames on the walls. But that's not fair, because really, those girls could easily be sitting in a pub having beers, a stack of letters on the table before them.) The point is: I thought it'd be harder than it really is.

The fact is, authors have to work more diligently than ever to promote their own work. The times they are a changin'. So while I've utilized my literary agent and my editor when seeking those quotes and blurbs, I'm doing the bulk of it myself. And what I've found is that most writers are incredibly generous, willing to take the time to help out a first-timer in need. That's not only awesome, it's a relief.

I haven't followed any format. I simply made a list of my favorite authors, whether or not I thought I'd have a chance of getting a quote or blurb from them. I concentrate on (but don't limit myself to) historical fiction authors, because that's the genre of my novel. And then I do my research--entirely online as it turns out--learning the best ways to contact them. Some are easier to reach than others: they've got direct email addresses on their websites. Others insist you go through their literary agents or publishers, and yet others have online forms you can fill out (these concern me the most, for some wierd reason... because I wonder where that information is actually ending up). I also look into their places of business, especially those who also teach for a living, and find email addresses that way.

When writing to these folks, I write from my heart. I give the necessary information--my name, my novel title, my writing background, my publisher/editor's info, the publication date, etc--but I also let them know how much I admire their work. That is, of course, the reason I choose them: I love their stuff. I'm not afraid to admit that I fawn (and yes, it is fawning when you're openly praising a writer whose work you've loved for years), and I'm honest about it. Email is tough: so much meaning can be misconstrued. It's important to be straight-forward. Be yourself. This is my theory.

Authors who offer direct email addresses, I've found, respond the quickest. And they'll tell you, right away and often with regret, that they simply don't have the time to devote to reading your novel. Others will write back immediately, surprising you, and agree. They give a mailing address, I pop a Special Format Review copy of my novel in a big, manilla envelope with a handwritten "thank you" note (because, good Lord am I thankful!), and off it goes.

The worst case scenario is that the author just doesn't respond. But persistence (in every aspect of life, whether you're learning to cook creamy grits, garden successfully, or trying to potty train your dog or your daughter) is key. I'd attempted to contact one of my favorite best-selling historical novelists in every way I could find--via her online form, through Goodreads, through Facebook, through her publisher--but hadn't had any luck. I decided I'd send her one more quick, private Facebook message, and that would be it. By the next day she'd sent me a direct email, apologizing for taking so long at getting back to me, and offering to read my novel. She was honest: She couldn't promise a blurb, but she'd read it.

And that's all any first-time author can ask for. It's a review copy, so it hasn't been edited yet. More than that, I know that my novel won't be every person's "cup of tea." And that's okay.

So far, I've had two wonderful writers read my novel and offer blurbs. One, Darci Hannah (author of The Exile of Sara Stevenson and The Angel of Blythe Hall, two novels I love) I emailed directly using an address she offers on her web site. Another, Philip Lee Williams (a prolific writer in several genres, and the author of The Flower Seeker, The Campfire Boys, etc) I met through a fan letter, me to him. I'd read an essay he'd written about the place where my novel is set, and the essay affected me so deeply I just had to write him. We began a correspondence, and I asked if he'd read my novel. Both of these authors not only agreed, they were gracious, generous, and kind, and I'll be forever thankful for their praise.

I've got other authors currently reading my novel, and it's difficult not to worry on that: to hope like all heck they'll like the story I tried to tell. Some of them will, and some of them won't.

But I'm finding, more and more, that writers are--overwhelmingly--an interesting, generous, quirky, wonderful bunch. When you're a writer, your daily life can be quite solitary. You sit at your desk, staring at a computer screen (or a legal pad, if you're old-school), and you invoke the mystery. You pray for it to visit its magic upon you. You work by yourself, because no one can do it but you. It's easy to forget that you're part of a community--that you can be, if you want to be. You've just got to reach out.

I'm big on tribes. My tribe of friends, especially, is comprised of the coolest cats I know. But it's nice to know that I may just be joining another tribe soon, a tribe of authors I already admire. And as long as the hazing doesn't include zit cream, funneling really bad beer, or eating mystery food while blindfolded, I am all in.

Irish Blessings

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

As has become my tradition, I offer, gentle readers, a multitude of Irish blessings, prayers and quotations for your St. Patrick's Day pleasure. Erin go bragh!

"May the face of every good news and the back of every bad news be toward us."

"May the good Lord take a liking to you... but not too soon!"

"May you always have a clean shirt, a clean conscience, and a guinea in your pocket!"

Deep peace of the running waves to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the smiling stars to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the watching shepherds to you.

Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.

~ Gaelic prayer

"May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all the way to your door."

God bless the poor,

God bless the sick,

God bless our human race;

God bless our food,

God bless our drink

And our homes, O God, embrace.

~ St. Brigid of Kildare, 6th century Irish cleric

Calm be thy sleep as infants' slumbers!

Pure as angel thoughts thy dreams!

May every joy this bright world numbers

Shed o'er thee their mingled beams!

~ Thomas Moore, Irish songwriter (1779-1852)

"May your home always be too small to hold all of your friends."

"Bless you and yours as well as the cottage you live in. May the roof overhead be well hatched and those inside be well matched."

"May there be a generation of children on the children of your children."

Health and a long life to you.

Land without rent to you.

A child every year to you.

And if you can't go to heaven,

May you at least die in Ireland.

If ever I'm a money'd man, I mean, please God, to cast

My golden anchor in the place where youthful years were pass'd

Though heads that bow are black and brown must meanwhile gather grey

New faces rise by every hearth, and old ones drop away--

Yet dearer still that Irish hill than all the world beside;

It's home, sweet home, where'er I roam, through lands and waters wide.

And if the Lord allows me, I surely will return

To my native Ballyshannon, and the winding banks of Erne.

~ William Allingham, Irish poet (1824-1889)

I will rise and go now, for always

Night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low

Sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on

The pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

~ W.B. Yeats, Irish writer and statesman (1865-1939)

"May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go."

Ireland,

it's the one place on earth

that heaven has kissed

with melody, mirth,

and meadow and mist.