Linda Collison's Blog, page 10

Stretching Silver Through Blue Haze

Stretching Silver Through Blue Haze
— a marriage of poetry & visual art

 

Stretching Silver through Blue Haze is a collection of 38 poems by Lawrence Gregory and 21 photographs by Birgit Gutsche, of Taos, New Mexico.
82 pages, 21 photographs softbound; Shanti Press, 2017

 

I was first introduced to (and became enamored of) Lawrence Gregory Block’s poems in Steamboat Springs Colorado, where I heard him read Hutterite Strawberries (included in the book), a sensual recollection of an incident one summer in Montana. The newly released book was my first introduction to Birgit Gutsche’s award-winning art — her elemental imagery ranges from beautifully and elegantly stark to playful.

The publication might be classified as an illustrated poetry book but is perhaps better described as a moving juxtaposition of poems and images, a metaphorical dance of observations, a conversation of memories between lovers who have long known each other.

For me, Stretching Silver Through Blue Haze is a way of seeing, of observing, of remembering. Noticing is all that really mattered, Lawrence writes in the poem This November Day (included).  His writing reveal an inner tension, a coupling of desire and regret, a landscape of longing.

I asked Lawrence and Birgit to tell me more about what inspired this book and how their collaborative process worked, as poet and photographer, as partners, as husband and wife.

Lawrence responds:

I didn’t write a single poem to respond to or elaborate on a photo that Birgit had taken. But as I went through the process of choosing poems (and re-working most all of them to one degree or another) I sometimes flashed on one of her images. Indeed, the more I worked on the collection, the more I’d flash on her photos. This was partly to do the fact that Birgit and I were reviewing her portfolio a lot at this time as she worked on her website; submitted work to publications; applied for admission to galleries; etc. She was trying to get herself established in the Taos art scene at the same time I began the book project. So there was a lot of that energy flowing in the household ethers.

So that was part of it. But perhaps a more significant factor leading to the collaboration, is the fact that so many of the poems came out of experiences the two of us shared…experiences I noted in journals and that she recorded with her camera. so I think it’s totally understandable that so many of her photos seem to “fit” with the poems. it may, indeed, be serendipity. But I’ve a hunch there’s more to it. we’re both expressing a certain soulful/visceral response to experiences we shared. Shared experience but processed individually.

I also need to mention many of the poems in this collection are a direct reflection of Birgit as my muse. yeah, she’s definitely my muse. One of them, anyway.

At some point in the process I asked Birgit if she’d be willing to let me use some of her photos; she wholeheartedly agreed. I had some specific images in mind for certain poems; for others, I asked her to suggest a few possibilities…  There were, of course, quite a few poems I did not want associated with an image. Also, there were a couple that I felt begged for an image that did not exist. So I read those poems to Birgit and asked if she’d be willing to go out and make an image that fit. What she came back with was stunning.

What I think is fascinating about this book is the way it illustrates the fact that Birgit tends to think and communicate pictorially. She reveals her soul — dare i use that term in this day and age? — in her images. At the same time, her images invite the viewer to consider something deeply personal…  I am certainly a verbal communicator — with a lot of silence thrown into the mix. We have a strong relationship but we definitely encounter communication difficulties at times. sparks do fly!  I find the whole thing, our life journey together — our travels, our marriage, this book — to be such a rewarding endeavor. Incredibly strenuous, too!.  it’s really rather miraculous, actually.

Lawrence, can you tell me more about your writing process?

Definitely solitary. Messy as hell. For me, a poem can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months. Actually all the poems in the book took my entire life to write. If we are writing honestly, soulfully — there’s that word again — we must bring to the writing desk all of who we are…else, why even bother? And who we are is all we have met in life.

It’s remarkable how seldom I sit down with the idea that i am going to write a poem about a specific idea. In fact, I’m not sure that has ever happened. instead, I often wake in the middle of the night hearing a seemingly random phrase or sentence. often it seems non-sensical. I’ll scribble it down in a small notebook I keep on the bed side table. And then at some point, I’ll sit down at my desk and “write to it.” sometimes the line ends up being the first line of the finished poem (rare), often I’m convinced it will be the last line (that, too, rarely turns out to be the case.). Usually it ends up somewhere in the middle. And then there are the occasions when the initial line, the words that sparked the flame, vaporize…but they served a crucial purpose as a prompt. One thing is certain, as cliche as it sounds, once I’m in that writing zone, the poem does indeed take on a life of its own. And I’ve gotta say, sometimes I’m not at all comfortable with what is coming. It can be hard to lean into that discomfort, but it’s a necessary part of my process. It’s both an engagement with anxiety and a letting go of fear…fear on a couple of different levels.

I crave/use the structure of poetry because it helps in the distillation process. So much of my writing is about coming to terms with something: a complex event; an unsettled state of being; or asking a question for which I have no answer. It can be hard to get to the essence of thoughts, feelings, doubts. but somehow i can get there by creating a boundary of sorts, something to help contain the energy lest it dissipate or overwhelm; so I try to use some kind of poetic structure. Strange as it may sound, it helps me accept and even celebrate the uncertainty, insecurity and equivocal nature of everything.

The process can be maddening. Tapping out the rhythm. Counting beats, arranging stressed and unstressed syllables. Feeling the rhythm. Choosing one word over another; a comma here? Is that really what i mean? Listening. Listening. Listening. Lots of reading out loud to myself. That’s soooo incredibly important for my process: reading what I write out loud…

…I keep a journal pretty religiously…have done so for 30 years. A daily practice from which i occasionally mine a nugget or two. But usually those pages are used to clear out the dross; jettison a bunch of bullshit insecurity, righteous indignation, etc…the kind of shit so many people post up on facebook or twitter these days. I write all that stuff down in my journals…most of which I’ve burned…

Early on in the writing of a poem, I am restless. I’ll take frequent breaks to go outside… cut wood; shovel snow; walk; tinker with one thing or another.  Sometimes I’ll sit at my desk staring out the window for hours. I realize now, after years of doing this, that on those evenings when I say to Birgit in frustration that I didn’t get a single thing written, that I wasted the entire f#*^ing day at my desk…those turn out to be necessary days to my process. Don’t ask me why. But i know it’s so…

I do all the initial work with a number 2 pencil and yellow legal pad. Once I feel like I’m getting close…like the poem is getting close, I’ll sit down at my computer and “finish it.” At that stage, I’ll sometimes sit at my desk for hours and hours…I’m not so restless then. Eventually, I print off the finished draft and read it out loud again. and always I find the first printed version is not finished. But eventually, it’s finished. Abandoned actually.

Linda: Your writing and Birgit’s photography evoke a strong sense of place. How important is geography to your process?

Lawrence : PLACE is crucial. I wither in an urban environment. I slip into a depressive funk the moment I arrive in the midst of traffic-choked “anywhere usa” with all the fast food restaurants, big box franchises, sirens, billboards, etc. nature and open space and silence are essential to my process, to my life. I love the fact that we live in a place without a starbucks, burger king, petsmart, best buy, etc.

Birgit is always the first person see a “finished” draft. actually, she hears it…I always read it to her. I can tell instantly what she thinks; how she feels about it. and from time to time she mentions something that isn’t quite right. And it’s remarkable how often the thing she mentions is the thing i wasn’t quite comfortable with!

I next send the draft to Greg. You know he’s an incredibly talented artist, but he’s also a terrific writer…better than I am. He is wonderfully supportive, but he won’t hesitate to tell me what he thinks. Interestingly, he rarely offers suggestions about craft. Instead, he will not hesitate to call me out on the premise. He’s sometimes incredulous that I feel a certain way or that I have suggested something or other. But that’s fine with me. It’s healthy, in fact. Healthy for my work; healthy for the relationship he and I have.

Linda: Birgit, can you tell me something of your artistic process? How much is “eye” and “soul” and how much is craft?

 


Birgit: Although I used (B & W) film in my very early years, I ​create digital photography now. The principles of film photography still supports my technical approach. The symmetry and proportion of a subject or scene speaks to how an image is eventually composed. Why I might choose one subject over another is personal and often draws upon history, memories, and a sense of irony.


Explaining (my) creative process might be as challenging as describing the circular cycle of creative life and, thereby brings to light another question yet — would I be at all drawn to the same images if not for our specific relationship? Much of what I “see” informs our conversations and indeed the result of much of our conversation actually presents to me images in my environment. Arguably, some I would not otherwise have seen. Lawrence is one of the most well read academics I have known. He has added layers of moral, spiritual, political, economic and social texture to my own thought processes and hence, has affected what I see through a lens. Although there has rarely been a direct intention to facilitate or even imbue the other’s artistic medium, our ethers tend to both collide and intermingle.

 
Linda: Beautifully said Birgit, and worth pondering further: the effect of specific close relationships on our writing and our art. Which photographers do you credit as influences?

Birgit: Sam Abell was my first and most influential artist of photography. His life work of creating thought provoking images remains an inspiration today. Other, but by no means all, notable photographers and spanning a great many photographic statements are Cig Harvey, Fred Herzog, Vivian Maier, Dorothea Lange, Platon, S​e​bastiao Salgado.

 

Linda: To see more of Birgit’s work and for upcoming and past exhibits, please visit her website  www.birgitgutsche.com

Lawrence’s first reading of Stretching Silver Through Blue Haze will be in Taos, New Mexico at the Historic Taos Inn (Friday May 26, 4:30-6:00 pm) where Birgit’s photography is on exhibit.

 

 

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Walking through the words

How we write: Reflections on writing, walking, and words.

I write to discover and I walk to explore. Walking, I’ve found, helps me see things in a new way. Walking generates ideas. Today, Easter Sunday, 2017, I walked with my smart phone and recorded thoughts and observations along with snapshots of what inspired them.

Cairn: a stack of stones purposefully arranged like words in a sentence; a signpost marking the way when the trail is obscure or non-existent. Writer’s block: No trail, no compass, no cairn to guide. Or worse, complacency — no reason to explore.

You can write the truth but you can’t write the whole truth. The very act of writing is one of exclusion, choosing one word over another. A word is an X-Acto knife eliminating the possibility of all other words in that particular place. Sometimes its hard to write because of this exclusion, this leaving behind feels like forgetting. By choosing to tell this story this way, I’ve aborted countless others. Yet if I don’t write, nothing is born, nothing remains. I grieve for the world’s lost memories and all the unborn stories.

 

Each sentence we write, each paragraph, re-creates a past, one of many pasts, saving it from oblivion. But saving it for whom?

Back home, it’s time to start dinner. I’ll put the ideas I’ve collected in a vase of water in hopes of preserving them. Maybe I can work them into a story, an essay, a poem, later tonight…  But I know they won’t last forever, which makes them even more beautiful somehow.  — Linda Collison 4/16/2017

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We Are Pirates

Daniel Handler captures me with barbed sentences followed by a boarder’s slashing and stabbing, and then the takeover is complete. I am in shock, bleeding on the deck. “You got me, Handler, damn you.”  I die a little death.

We Are Pirates is about an American family. This smart, irreverently funny contemporary family story goes slowly adrift, becomes chaotic, disturbing and ultimately sad, like adolescence itself when adulthood is at last discovered for what it is, too late. I can’t go back to my innocent self,  I can only forget the past or change the memory and plunder on.

Piracy is an act of desperation that irrevocably changes life, strips it to bare bones. There is no going back. Like a successful pirate Handler has broken the rules, run up the black flag and taken over the ship. And I willingly went along. There’s no treasure to be found here, but the glint of recognition and the hope of redemption. Nothing to do but keep sailing.

Breathtaking, bloodletting literary fiction by the author known for the Lemony Snicket series.

Coming of Age in Apache America

 

It’s a cold March night in the high desert mountains of the Apacheria. The young Chihenne Victorio prepares for his fourth dihoke mission, the final apprenticeship he must complete to become an Apache warrior. Victorio has just returned from four days and nights on the Sacred Mountain where in a vision he has seen White Painted Woman in the form of an eagle, he has heard her scream.  The young man breaks fast with a single morsel of dried deer meat. He quenches his thirst through a hollow reed so that his lips would not be weakened by contact with the life-giving water.  Like Child of the Water, the first Apache man born of White Painted Woman, young Victorio dares to ask Lightning for power. In the years that follow, he becomes a leader of his people and fights for their way of life.

 

 

Twenty years later, Victorio’s younger sister Lozen dresses for her four-day dihoke rites, the most sacred of Apache ceremonies. Lozen slips into a doeskin dress painted by her own mother’s hand with meaningful symbols,  the sun, moon, and stars. The dress has been blessed by the di-yin, it possess great power. While wearing it Lozen shares the attributes of White Painted Woman, Mother of all Apaches. While wearing it she will reenact her first menses and impregnation, through movement and dance. The ceremony will involve four runs symbolizing the four stages of life and four nights of sacred dancing. There will be a great feast but Lozen can only drink through a hollow reed to keep her lips from touching water.  For the next four nights Lozen, who had begun to bleed, is the embodiment of White Painted Woman.

 

What Lozen becomes as she matures, is something much different. She never marries, she never takes on the traditional female role. Instead, Lozen becomes a Warrior Woman and rides with the men, using her God given power to locate the enemy through upturned palms.

Victorio and Lozen were two Chihenne Apache adolescents who came of age in the 1800’s in what is now the state of New Mexico. Warm Springs was their homeland.

 

Victorio died in Mexico, on October 10, 1880 at Tres Castillos, Mexico, in a massacre that killed seventy-eight Apaches, and took captive the remaining women and children. His sister Lozen died a prisoner of war, in Mobile, Alabama. She was about fifty years old.

 

 

 

 

Coming of age is a critical time in a person’s life. Although maturation takes years, it is often realized in single moment, as if a threshold has been crossed. If a society does not test its youth, its youth will test themselves through means of their own. A right-of-passage ceremony should be something more than a party and a pretty dress. More than a night at the bars when we turn 21. Bar and Bat Mitzahs? Rumspringa? Quinceanera? How do we mark that passage in 21st century America?

 

 

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China’s Mother Road

…”You see,” says Li… “We want to live. Right now we are just shengcun. We are just surviving. We want to shenghuo. We want to live! You know? We want to really live!”  — from China Road pg. 193 Random House trade paperback ed.

China Road; A Journey into the future of a Rising Power, is a fascinating and illuminating travel memoir by NPR correspondent Rob Gifford.  Gifford, who has spent years studying and reporting from China, takes the ultimate Chinese road trip, 3000 miles along Route 312 from Shanghai on the Pacific Coast, west to the border with Kazakhstan. Along the way he engages a cross section of inhabitants, including servers and patrons at Shanghai Hooters, Amway reps in the Gobi, cave dwellers and Tibetan monks, truckers and taxi drivers, prostitutes and karaoke hostesses, yurt dwellers and Christian church ladies…

Although the subtitle suggests a political bent, the book’s focus is much more personal and anecdotal, which makes it immensely readable. The author strikes up conversations with ordinary Chinese, Tibetan, and Uighur people he meets on his journey (It helps that he is fluid in Mandarin). It’s not so much a journey into “the future of a rising power” as a journey through present day China with glimpses into the past and many disturbing questions about the future.

Five thousand years of history is daunting. Gifford interweaves historical references concisely, along with statistics, here and there. (Did you know China has the highest rate of  female suicide in the world?) What comes through most is the author’s curiosity about the people he has spent so much time among — as a student, as a news correspondent, and as a traveler. Less disdainful and opinionated than Theroux (and more current), breezier than Peter Hessler, Rob Gifford writes with understanding, humor and curiosity for his subject — the people of modern day China.

 

“So what is your dream?” I ask Ren.

“My dream is to be like you,” he says…

— from China Road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Adventures in reading: Stories from Nagovisi

 

A Red Woman Was Crying by Don Mitchell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I stumbled upon this collection of linked short stories at a bookstore in Hilo and was immediately absorbed in the Nagovisi way of life and the glimpses of human nature we share. Through the perspective of various narrators the author explores his experience as an anthropologist in the South Pacific Island of Bougainville during the Vietnam era. As such, these short stories form a fictional memoir. Don Mitchell writes with an anthropologist’s eyes and ears, and a writer’s heart. A Red Woman Was Crying is compelling, enduring literary fiction. I highly recommend it!

View all my reviews

A Red Woman Was Crying; Stories from Nagovis by Don Mitchell on Indiebound

 

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No trick-or-treat –it’s the night of the hungry ghosts

October 19, 2016: Here in the U.S. we’re in full Halloween mode with last year’s zombie get-ups and this year’s creepy clown scare. In the Southwest, Dia de Muertos, pays homage to departed ancestors with gaily decorated skulls and adorable skeleton mariache bands. But in my opinion no culture beats the Chinese when it comes to nasty ghouls. The sheer number and diversity is amazing.

Researching my novel Water Ghosts introduced me to the pantheon of malicious demons, devils and minor deities of the collective Chinese imagination. Among them are shui gui — ghosts of the drowned.  According to legend these unfortunates can only escape their watery hell if they find a living person to take their place. For seafaring and maritime people, water ghosts can be particularly troublesome; they’re known for their ability to deceive.

Traditionally, the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival is held on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month; it’s purpose is to appease the spirits of the departed who have been neglected by the living. During this festival the gates of hell are opened for the ravenous spirits to wander the earth in search of comfort — or revenge. On the evening before the festival people light water lanterns and set them afloat to invite the souls of drowned victims to the next day’s feast! The next day people offer food to the neglected dead and burn joss, or ghost money —  a traditional form of ancestor worship that goes back thousands of years. I was astonished to discover a variety of joss sold in Asian markets in Hawaii and California.  In Water Ghosts James burns Monopoly game money as a substitute for ghost money, to appease the dead.

Bob and I recently watched  Seventh Moon (2008), a horror movie directed by Eduardo Sanchez, about two Americans on their honeymoon in China during the Hungry Ghost Festival. Does it compare to Water Ghosts? Some of the supernatural elements are similar, but Water Ghosts takes place in the Pacific Ocean and the main ghost Yu, is a developed and complex character with his own story to tell. Maybe he deserves his own book?

 

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The Notorious Captain Hayes; a conversation with author Joan Druett

The American-born seafarer William “Bully” Hayes was a notorious celebrity in his own lifetime and in the century after his death became the antihero of numerous accounts, novels, secondhand memoirs — and a Hollywood movie starring Tommy Lee Jones and Michael O’Keefe.  At least two Pacific watering holes have called themselves Bully Hayes — one in Hawaii and one in New Zealand.

Much has been written about this 19th century adventurer, accused of countless cons, crimes, swindles and brutalities — some true, some embellished, some pure fiction. Overshadowing his misdeeds, or perhaps driving them, is the portrayal of Captain Hayes as a charismatic and dauntless character —  an enduring, mythical,  antihero.  This image was created largely by the popular media of his time, says maritime historian Joan Druett. Her latest book, The Notorious Captain Hayes; The Remarkable True Story of William ‘Bully’ Hayes, Pirate of the Pacific, is the most definitive biography written about the man, the myth, the legend. The author has spent years reading everything in print about Hayes, studying contemporary newspaper articles, letters, diaries, ship logs and shipping lists in an effort to separate fact from fiction.

The result? An objective but very engaging popular history of a sea captain, trader, showman and blackguard known for his many dupes and crimes — some mere swindles — others abhorrent (rape, coercion, and blackbirding — the transport of poor refugees as cheap labor). Joan likens the mythical Captain Hayes to Hollywood’s Captain Jack Sparrow. The bad guy we love, an enduring archetype.

Joan Druett is an award-winning author of numerous maritime history and nautical novels, and a former Fulbright Scholar. She is married to Ron Druett, a maritime artist who has illustrated many of her histories. They live in New Zealand. Here’s a conversation we had via email which gives some insight into her writing process:

Joan, what was the most surprising discovery you came across in your research for The Notorious Captain Hayes?

“That he was so likeable! One chronicler of the many yarns told about this rogue wrote that he was “as charming a rascal as ever broached a keg or stolen port,” and everything I read about him — no matter how thunderously critical — confirmed this image.  It was little wonder, really, that he became magnified into the Robin Hood of the Pacific Ocean, because he was a-larger-than-life, charismatic figure. And yet the way he cheated people was truly shocking.”

In your preface you say “There was a lot of garbage written about him” Can you elaborate on your process of separating fact from myth?

“By going through the newspapers of the time, including many shipping lists, I was able to build up a detailed timeline, and prove that he had an “alibi” for many of the farfetched yarns.  The first was that he took over the ownership of the clipper bark Canton during her voyage to Singapore in July 1854, but the shipping lists of the San Francisco papers had him in command of another ship on the Californian coast in July 1854. So he was innocent of that particular crime. And there were many other stories that were founded on idle gossip.  As well as this, Bully Hayes loved to tell tall tales about himself, and these were embellished and repeated all over the Pacific.”

You liken the myth of Bully Hayes to the now iconic Disney antihero, Captain Jack Sparrow – a great comparison and one which helps to explain his appeal.   Can you compare Captain Hayes’s him to any real life celebrities?

“It’s the combination of wickedness and likeability that makes Jack Sparrow a fictional version of Bully Hayes — that and the touch of humor.  And it is that combination that makes Bully Hayes stand out from political crooks and Wall Street pirates.  None of them as attractive as he certainly appears to have been.”

Your artist husband Ron has illustrated some of your past work. Did he have an artistic or other role in the making of the Bully Hayes biography?

“No.  The designer, the publisher and I had fun making up the jacket, as we wanted it to look like a “wanted” poster, and Ron had fun watching us at work.”

Joan, I’m an admirer of you work; your nonfiction is lively and your fiction has a sense of realism and historical accuracy. Do you have a preference?

“I used to say that I put on weight when writing nonfiction and lost it when writing novels.  How true that was I am not sure, but historical novels are very hard work.  Enjoyable, but not as easy as researching material, thinking about it, and then using it within a nonfiction framework.”

I’d hardly call researching material and writing a legendary man’s story easy. How long have you been researching Bully Hayes?

“Fifteen years!  I started in 2001, by reading everything in print.  Then I moved to newspapers.  As you can imagine, my eyesight kept on giving up on the job.  Trawling through microfilms isn’t fun. It was digitization that made the job possible.”

While reading Joan’s book this weekend on my e-reader I was reminded of a personal story associated with the myth of Bully Hayes and the long list of boats he became associated with — boats with evocative names such as Otranto, Black Diamond, Ellenita, Shamrock, Lotus, and many others — many of which came to a bad end. When Bob and I moved to Hawaii we bought Topaz, a 20-year-old sloop in need of some work, anchored off Hilo. I well remember closing the deal on the shores of backwater Reeds Bay, Bob writing the check to a scruffy, roguish, charming American sailor named Hayes. (We weren’t bilked: the boat was sound, had clear title, and we enjoyed many years sailing her). Our man Hayes immediately bought another boat named Pumpkin Patch and purportedly sailed to New Zealand with his wife and young daughter.  This was in 1993. After that, we lost track of him… Somehow –unfairly — I associate him with the legendary Captain William “Bully” Hayes, who died more than a hundred years ago but whose name and reputation lives on in the islands of the Pacific.

Follow author Joan Druett on her World of the Written Word blog.  For more information about her books, please visit  her website,  and Old Salt Press.

 

 

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White witches, pirates, and night walkers, oh my!

“To fight pirates, you use a pirate. Acorne will suit very well.”
“And you think you can trust him?”
“I do not trust him in the slightest. Which is why I want you to keep close eye on him. It will stick in your craw like a fish bone, but I want you to see he stays alive, finds me that casket, and…”

— from On The Account by Helen Hollick.

Ever dream of spending a summer at sea? If you missed the boat this year, you can still create your own virtual summer cruise by reading a selection of entertaining nautical-inspired fiction. One of this summer’s best salty beach reads is On the Account, volume 5 in Helen Hollick’s Sea Witch series, a succession of adventures in which the seasoned author spices adult pirate fiction with fantasy and racy romance. White witches, pirates, and night walkers, oh my!

Set in the early 1700s, the Sea Witch stories are grounded in history but Hollick’s make-believe world is charmed with some characters who command varying degrees of supernatural abilities. Jesamiah Acorne is a roguish merchant trader and captain of the Sea Witch. His wife Tiola is a witch; her dear friend Maha’dun, a beguiling night walker with a heightened sense of hearing — and an inherent fear of water. And then there is the murdurous Cara’mina, Lady of the Night Walkers who complicates matters exceedingly.  A lost wife, a casket of diamonds, a bone stone pendant, a past affair, a love child — Acorne’s quest in On The Account leads him out of a Briston gaol and into deep and treacherous waters.  Meanwhile, Tiola has her own troubles staying alive and keeping her husband from being killed.

Hollick writes in an engaging, seemingly effortless style; her characters spring to life through dialogue and plot twists. I like that Tiola has her own adventures (and friendships) apart from her husband and co-protagonist — even though they are trying to reunite. (And what woman hasn’t wished she could send messages telepathically to her mate, and even read his mind? Well, not ALL of his thoughts…) But Jesamiah won’t be subdued, though he loves his Tiola. He’s an anti-hero, an adventurer — and we forgive him his occasional indiscretions. As for the wily night walker Maha’dun, he tries his best to steal the show.

About the author:

Helen Hollick lives on a thirteen-acre farm in Devon, England. She wrote pony stories as a teenager, moved to science-fiction and fantasy, before discovering past lives in historical fiction. Published for over twenty years with her Arthurian Trilogy, she became a ‘USA Today’ bestseller with Forever Queen,  fiction based on the life of Emma of Normandy. Helen is Managing Editor for the Historical Novel Society Indie Reviews. Check out her website  Helen Hollick’s World of Books.  

But it’s the ocean that connects Helen and I. I had the pleasure of meeting her in London; we were both on the nautical historical fiction panel at the 2012 Historical Novel Society Convention — along with authors Margaret Muir, Rick Spilman and David Davies. What I’ve learned from Helen is to have confidence in your characters, be bold in plotting, and take chances — lots of chances. As Helen says, you must write the book you want to read. I admire her ability to capture character with dialogue and her craft at weaving a good story.

On The Account, book 5 of the Sea Witch Series is available on Amazon. I believe I spy a sixth book in the offing…

Captain Jesamiah Acorne is in trouble. Again. Arrested for treason and smuggling, believing his beloved ship, Sea Witch, lies wrecked on England’s North Devon coast, his only hope of escaping the noose is for someone to quash the charges. That someone turns out to be his ex-lover – but there’s a price to pay. He needs to find a boy who has disappeared, and a valuable casket that more than one person wants to get their hands on. When people start getting murdered and Barbary pirates kidnap his wife, Tiola, his priorities rapidly change – but who is lying about what? Is returning to piracy a wise idea? Is Tiola having an affair with her mysterious Night-Walker ‘friend’? Meanwhile, Tiola has her own battle to fight – keeping herself and Jesamiah alive!

 

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How to help a story to fly (without killing it).

When your manuscript stretches its wings for its first flight be careful who you ask to critique it. Well-meaning readers can inadvertently clip the wings and strangle the voice of fledgling writers — in the name of offering constructive criticism.

Feedback is important to the writer; it’s crucial to improving our craft. Ultimately we want others to read and appreciate our work. If the piece falls flat on the pavement we need to rewrite it — perhaps many times until we achieve the desired effect. But beware: Some pre-readers” (a.k.a alpha or beta readers) are short-sighted, self-made critics who want to impose a deadening conformity on our almost-ready-to-fly story.  As a writer it takes experience, vision, and courage to know which suggestions to implement and which to ignore. An osprey doesn’t fly the same way a lark or a  hummingbird flies.

There’s an art to giving feedback; a spirit of creative cooperation is necessary to help someone else’s manuscript fly. An effective critique is objective in nature and supportive in delivery. An effective critique honors the writer’s intention and nurtures her voice. An effective critique is a one-of-a-kind gift.

In offering a supportive critique of another writer’s work we become better writers ourselves. But how to do it without making the story a reflection of our own voice? How do we offer feedback without changing the nature of another writer’s creation?

Here are a few guidelines I try to remember when I’m asked to critique a story’s first flight:

1. Find out what kind of feedback the writer is looking for. Critiquing a manuscript is not the same as editing one and it’s certainly not the same as reviewing a published book. In critiquing a work-in-progress I look at the overall story and how effective it is — I’m not a copy editor.

2. I try to identify what I feel is  the heart of the piece. I point out what works for me, what resonates, what I’d like to read more of.

2.  It’s important to find and praise the manuscript’s strengths as well as its weaknesses.  Identify what I find to be important themes.

3. Point out unclear writing and ask questions of the writer. Never use the words should or shouldn’t when giving feedback.

4. Be a mentor, not a critic. Respect the other person’s experience, their voice, and their creative style. Ultimately it’s their story — not mine.

Every manuscript written for publication will need to be edited for spelling and grammar — though not by pre-readers –and not everything we write is intended for a commercial market. Honor the writer and look for his particular message, his individual voice. Identify fresh writing that you connect with or respond to.  Encourage the writer to keep writing — or to find some other way to express his story or experience.

If you’re looking for feedback for your own writing, watch out for cats lurking in the grass. Online critiques from perfect strangers can be devastating — and totally off base. Instead, seek out supportive readers and, in return, be the supportive reader for others.

Finally, don’t push your fledgling manuscript out of the nest too soon and don’t rewrite your story to suit your all of your critics. Keep reading, imitate what resonates, and most importantly of all, keep writing. It’s a process, learning to fly.

 

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