A writer in Italy

Kimberly Sullivan, a talented writer of women's fiction and a great critique partner, tagged me for this Blog Hop hosted by Page after Page. Thank you Kimberly!

According to the rules I should answer a few questions about a novel I am writing. At this time, however, I am writing short stories, essays and book reviews, so I will write, instead, about Kimberly's novel, "In the Shadow of the Appennines".
  Kimberly's story takes place in Italy, in the region of Abruzzo, where she loves to spend time skiing, hiking and exploring medieval towns. Her love for the region inspired her to write a story that takes place in these majestic landscapes.
 Her main character, Samantha, moves to a mountain home in Abruzzo, hoping to start a new life after the break-up of her marriage and a failed university career. Her attempts to become part of the new community are destroyed when the residents discover a blog she wrote about them. Shunned and increasingly isolated in her mountain cottage, Samantha seeks solace in some letters and diaries that had been written by a past tenant in her home - a survivor of the devastating Pescina earthquake.
 Despite the centuries that separate the two women, Samantha feels connected to Elena's life, and discovers startling parallels that allow her to understand herself better. This is a book for readers who enjoy discovering how women can be connected through their hopes and dreams across oceans, economic divides and centuries. I also think that anyody who feels attracted to the italian culture will find this story interesting and fascinating.
 Now I am tagging other writers who are supposed to write about one of their books (published or unpublished) and what inspired them to write them. I can't wait to read you!

Elizabeth Varadan, author of The Fourth Wish . She is a very versatile writer; she writes for adults and kids and is devoted to fantasy, mystery, historical and the literary genre. I'd like to learn what inspired her to write The Fourth Wish and I'd love to read it.

Liz Grace Davis, author of Tangi's Teardrops, a fantasy romance that will carry you away to another world. She recently published Chocolate Aftertaste.

Rick Watson a writer who is also devoted to music and photography. He has a very inspiring blog. He is the author of  a non-fiction book "Remembering Big". I would love to know what his book is about and what motivated him to write it.

J.L Campbell a prolific writer of women's fiction. The author of  "Distraction" and "Don't Get Mad, Get Even". She also has a very useful blog for those who are interested in publishing and promoting their books.

Laurie Elmquist, a writer of memoirs, short stories and poems. She is now working on a new novel. I'd love to learn more about her work.

Richard Hughes, author of "Only The Lonely" and "Battles and other stories". (I have to read Only The Lonely, I enjoyed his short stories from the latter).

Life update and ramblings

 Due to reasons beyond our control, my family and I are relocating to a city in Western Wisconsin, almost five hours away from where we now live. Last week we were busy home hunting and getting to know the area where we intend to settle down.
 I was appalled to witness the consequences of a two-month drought in Western Wisconsin, where temperatures went up to the hundreds. (Mind you, this is not normal for the region). The grass is like straw, crunchy and yellow. Thousands of fish have died in the marshes. Needless to say, the corn harvest is going to be affected by this drought. As we got around the area, I came across a quote by Aldo Leopold, "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." Feel free to change the word land for "planet earth". After all, what we do to it has  consequences that go beyond borders.Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) was an American writer, scientist and environmentalist - I think he was also a visionary.

 Home hunting is a good experience to a writer. Aside from the practical aspects of it, I had the opportunity to imagine the lives of the people who lived in those houses. How can I not acknowledge the secrets harbored in those places? Family memories, broken dreams, conflicts. It's all good stuff to a writer. So my mind is imbibed with all these images and I am now eager to resume the short story I started writing last week. I have so much to catch up with in my writing world...
 What are your writing? What are you working on these days?

The charm of book reviews

 Each book has a life of its own in each reader. Writing a review means sharing that unique view with the world to invite a collective dialogue.
 When we write a review because a book has touched our inner self, we set in motion a set of thoughts, ideas and interpretations. We are inspired to share something that awakened after the read.
  Books can be sources of new ideas; they can ignite our imagination in unpredictable ways and enrich our views on different matters. Reviews allow us to share our unique perspectives. They can  conjure up disagreements and elicit thought-provoking questions. They can become the roots of interesting discussions.They can also help us to fathom that despite our differences we can also have something in common.
  If nobody wrote or read book reviews, we wouldn't have the possibility of sharing our fascination and the enrichment of our minds after the reading experience.
 Writing, reading and discussing book reviews is about celebrating our diversity.

What do you think?

The wonder of beginnings

  In today's fast-paced world our stories compete with a huge variety of entertainments. Hence, our beginnings have an important role in hooking the reader. The words of a first paragraph may determine whether you captivate a certain reader; they may increase your chances of reaching a wider audience or convince an editor to get to the gist of your story. (On the other hand, a first paragraph that is not captivating is not an indicator that the story is not worth reading).
   Powerful beginnings are those that set an emotion or make an interesting statement that kindles our curiosity. They may set a specific situation or a conflict that intrigues the reader. They may throw us into a vivid setting that we want to explore further.
  In my case, writing a compelling first paragraph can become the force that pushes me to write the whole story. It can be the key to unblock the rest of it.
  Let's examine the beginnings of some short stories by well-known writers.

"Thomas withdrew to the side of the window and with his head between the wall and the curtain he looked down on the driveway where the car had stopped. His mother and the little slut were getting out of it. His mother emerged slowly, stolid and awkward, and then the little slut's long slightly bowed legs slid out, the dress pulled above the knees. With a shriek of laughter she ran to meet the dog, who bounded, overjoyed, shaking with pleasure, to welcome her. Rage gathered throughout Thomas's large frame with a silent ominous intensity, like a mob assembling."
Wow. This is a very strong beginning.We see a clear scene and there is conflict. Thomas does not like the woman getting out of the car with his mother. The narrator calls her a "slut" and the tension is intense right from the start because he is very upset, but the slut does not seem to care. What's going on here? We are compelled to read on. This is the first paragraph of the short story  "The Comforts of Home" by Flannery O'Connor.

"My husband gave me a broom one Christmas. This wasn't right. No one can tell me it was meant kindly."

Brief and funny. A woman received a broom as a Christmas gift and, not surprisingly, is offended. We all wonder why her husband did that to her. What was behind his action? Would you keep reading? This is the first paragraph of the short story "An Interest in Life" by Grace Paley


"Miss Adela Strangeworth came daintily along Main Street on her way to the grocery. The sun was shining, the air was fresh and clear after the night's heavy rain, and everything in Miss Strangeworth's little town looked washed and bright. Miss Strangeworth took deep breaths and thought that there was nothing in the world like a fragrant summer day."
 I like this first paragraph because it describes a vivid scene with simple words (sun shining, fresh air, little town, fragrant summer) and it transmits a strong emotion about the character. This is the first paragraph of the short story "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson. It won the Edgar Allan Poe Award and was first published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1965.

"There must be some approach to this, a method, a technique, that's the word I want, it kills germs. Some technique then, a way of thinking about it that would be bloodless and therefore painless; devotion recollected in tranquility. I try to conjure up an image of myself at that time, also one of you, but it's like conjuring the dead. How do I know I'm not inventing both of us, and if I'm not inventing then it really is like conjuring the dead, a dangerous game. Why should I disturb those sleepers, sleepwalkers as they make their automaton rounds through the streets where we once lived, fading from year to year, their voices thinning to the sound of a thumb drawn across a wet window: an insect squeak, transparent as glass, no words. You can never tell with the dead whether it is they who wish to return or the living who want them to. The usual explanation is that they have something to tells us. I'm not sure I believe it; in this case, it's more likely that I have something to tell them."
This beginning enthralls me.The narrator wonders something about those who have died. Do they need to tell us something? The narrator is evoking a memory, an image of herself set in the past. I feel intrigued because I  would like to know how  this matter about those who died connects to her recollection. Her voice is strong too and compels me to read on. This is the first paragraph of the short story "Hair Jewellery" by Margaret Atwood.

What do you think about these beginnings? Let me know about your experience when you write the first paragraphs of your stories.

New tenants over our door

We have new tenants: a family of robins built a nest over our door. I took a picture of their beautiful nest without disturbing them.

 Robins are very cute. The American robin's chest is orange. Its eggs are light blue. Robins hop along the ground after rainstorms, or in freshly overturned soil, looking for worms and insects. As harbingers of spring Robins presage new beginnings.

An uplifting post

A few days ago I enjoyed  the Anthony Petullo's collection at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The artists whose work is shown here are an inspiration to all of us. Their life experience sets the example of what passion and persistence can achieve when they go hand in hand.

-Many of these artists were self-taught.

-Many of them endured economic hardships and/or had mental disorders.

-Many of them started working on their art in their forties and even later.

 I would like to mention some of of my favorite artists from this collection:

Frederick James Lloyd: he grew up on a farm in Cheshire in England and had different jobs before he devoted himself to his art. He worked as a farm laborer, stoker, lamplighter, bus conductor and police officer. At the age of 42 he remarried and fathered nine children. You would not think that was the best time to work on his art, right? Wrong! He worked on something else to support his family during the day, but in the evenings he painted at his kitchen table with his kids running and playing around him. One of the paintings I am showing here (the one with the face) is Lloyd's work. 

Sylvia Levine is another self-taught artist who began painting at the age of 45. The landscape here is one of her many paintings.

Madge Gill is a woman who worked with ink and pencil. Here is a link to some of her interesting work:

http://madgegill.com/Pencil-and-Ink-Drawings

 I cannot finish this post without telling you about Leo Navratil, a psychiatrist and author from Austria who encouraged his patients to draw and paint. While supporting his patients' creativity, he discovered that some of them were very talented. He sent some of the artwork to Jean Dubuffet and they created a group called The Gugging artists. Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) was an artist attracted to the art of children and the mentally ill. He did a lot to promote their work. He attacked "conformism" and mainstream culture which he described as "asphyxiating". Feel free to visit these links about Jean Dubuffet:

https://www.artsy.net/artist/jean-dubuffet

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-dubuffet-jean.htm

If you are close to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, you may appreciate a visit to the Milwaukee Museum of Art to enjoy Anthony Petullo's collection.

Writing dialogue

  Dialogue should have one of these two functions:
1) Reveal character.
2) Move the story forward.
This is what Catherine Ann Jones states in her book "The Way of Story".
 When I edit my stories I keep those functions in my mind. I ask myself, " Do these words have a purpose?" I get rid of unnecessary chatter. I also read the dialogues aloud to know if they sound natural and realistic.

Dialogues can help us  show the reader something about the character. They can also contribute to shed light on the theme in subtle ways. Words sometimes lead to something that is not expressed but can be felt or intuited.
Catherine Ann Jones mentions that we can use dialogue to offer some back story about the characters. She sets Shakespeare as an example of this. Interestingly, I'd read some advice against using dialogue to reveal back story. I don't take this piece of advice seriously. The best lessons in writing are always learned by reading other writers' work.
  What are the challenges you face when you write or edit dialogues in your stories?