Christa Avampato's Blog, page 101

In the pause: How the eclipse influenced my writing

Yesterday, Phin and I experienced the solar eclipse at the American Museum of Natural History and in Central Park. The atmosphere was festive. It felt like the entire city had turned out to look up at the sky in wonder at exactly the same time. There was something beautiful and magical about this time, and that beauty and magic activated my writer brain.

Emerson Page, the heroine of my novel, has a special relationship with the stars and they play a large, active part in her story. The series will be 9 books in total, and I realized yesterday that the last day of her written story will be April 8, 2024, the day that the next solar eclipse will happen. Its line of totality will include Emerson’s hometown of New York City, the city where this series of books begins and ends. Emerson will be 20 years old by then. I know where she’s going, and I’m excited to discover and share with you the path she’ll take to get there.

 

Filed under: creativity

In the pause: A walking tour from Soho to the Lower East Side

On my way to brunch yesterday, I did a little self-made walking tour from Soho through Little Italy and Chinatown, and then over to the Lower East Side. It included a tour at the Tenement Museum, which I’ll detail in another post. I don’t get to this neighborhood often. After a long, difficult week in our nation, it felt so good to let sunshine and art take over my senses. Here’s what I saw and loved. Wishing you a creative Monday.

Filed under: creativity

In the pause: Summer Streets 2017

A more hopeful Saturday today than last week. Phin and I enjoyed Summer Streets yesterday as our morning walk. For three Saturdays in August, the city closes Park Ave to cars from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge so that pedestrians, bicyclists, and their pooches can enjoy that stretch of the city traffic free.The quiet is comforting as New Yorkers of all shapes and sizes enjoy our city from different vantage points than we normally have.

Phin and I started at 60th Street and walked down to 34th. Then he decided to close out the walk by hanging a right to Fifth Avenue, marching up the steps of the New York Public Library like he owned it, and then over to Times Square. I guess he wanted to see if those neon lights really are bright on Broadway. (And they are!)

 

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In the pause: Authors, the marketing of your book is on you

Publishers tell authors they need a platform. Here’s what they really mean: the marketing and promotion of your book rests with you. That care and concern can’t be farmed out. No matter who you hire or who publishes the book, you must be your own advocate, cheerleader, and agent. Being an author is a business; thank goodness I have an MBA.

I let myself feel disappointed by this fact for about 5 minutes. It was a rough 5 minutes. And then I picked myself up and went to work executing against the plan I had laid out months ago. It’s a grind and I have to give it everything I have in this last stretch before the November 1st release. I wrote and sent 43 pitches in 36 hours, most of them in the very weeeee hours of the morning.

I also had to come to the frustrating conclusion that the act of writing the second book has to take a backseat while I promote the first book that comes out in November, especially in these last few months before it’s released.

And with every query I just couldn’t get this quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald out of my mind: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Today, what we can dream about for the future rests firmly in our ability to manage what’s already been done.

 

Filed under: creativity

In the pause: How do we build empathy and unity

What unites us and divides us?

As women and men, as adults and children, as different races and creeds and colors, as the haves and the have-nots, as humans.

How can we cross to the other side of the chasm between us, to a new perspective, a new point of view? Is it even possible to generate real understanding? Can we walk in someone else’s shoes and leave ours behind, find and use all their filters and lenses of experience that cannot help but alter the plain truth of seeing and hearing?

I would like to believe it’s possible. I would like to believe that our imaginations can take us anywhere we truly wish to go. I am trying. I am trying.

This is the hardest, most necessary work we ever do. We have to let the rivers of reality and fantasy wash over us in equal amounts. We have to accept where we are if we are to chart the course to where we want to go.

To make the climb. To take the journey. To walk and walk and walk until finally, mercifully, we sink down to the ground of compassion and empathy, letting it cradle and support us, until we find the strength to rise and say, “Now, I understand.”

Filed under: creativity

In the pause: Subway by Billy Collins

Subway

As you fly swiftly underground

with a song in your ears

or lost in the maze of a book,

remember the ones who descended here

into the mire of bedrock

to bore a hole through this granite,

to clear a passage for you

where there was only darkness and stone.

Remember as you come up into the light.

~Billy Collins

New York City’s subways have a program called Poetry in Motion in which they commission works to post on our subway trains. This one by Billy Collins was posted in my subway yesterday and it was a beautiful reminder that there are so many reasons to be grateful.

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In the pause: Creativity Loop from Writers Writing Alone Together

I’m so honored to be part of the second Creativity Loop created by my amazing friend, insanely talented poet, and Penn roommate, KaRyn. Her organization, Writers Writing Alone Together, puts together retreats for writers. This is the gorgeous package I received in the mail. Then I used this poem to inspire a work of my own creation that I sent on to the next person on the list. Excited to see what our loop builds together. In these crazy-ass times we’re living through, being able to express our creativity together is what keeps hope alive. I wish each of you a creative, imaginative day. To learn more about KaRyn’s retreats, check out http://bit.ly/wwatwoodsinterest.

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In the pause: My novel is available on Amazon for pre-order

I am so excited to share with you that my novel, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, is available for pre-order on Amazon in ebook and paperback formats! The book launches on November 1st and it will be shipped to you or made available for download on that date. Thanks so much to everyone who has offered encouragement on this long and winding road. What a ride!

Here’s the link to the Amazon page: Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters pre-order on Amazon.

Quick note that the paperback price will drop to ~$11 by the time the book is published and that’s what you will be charged when it ships even if you order it at the $13.99 price. Amazon just hasn’t updated that adjusted price-point yet but my publisher is working on it. 

 

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In the pause: My promise to Team Human

If fascist, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, sexist extremists think for one second that I’m going to be intimidated by their displays of hate, especially in a town like Charlottesville that has served such an important part in my life, they have another thing coming. I am not ceding a single inch of my country that my ancestors, family members, and friends have fought to secure so that all people can freely and passionately pursue their dreams.

If the events in Charlottesville have done anything, they’ve strengthened my resolve to continue to stand up and fight for justice. I am sick and saddened that people can be so hate-filled and I flat-out refuse to allow anyone to make me feel helpless or hopeless. What happened in Charlottesville can happen anywhere. There are constant intimidations, micro aggressions, and open displays of intolerance across our country and the world every single day in every community.

This is my promise: I will not retreat and I will not be silent. I will continue to rise and speak up with every breath and every ounce of energy I have, in all circumstances, for all people who wish to be a part of Team Human. That’s the side I’m on, the side of goodness.

Filed under: creativity