Linda Collison's Blog, page 7

On the road to Taos

Some of the most helpful critiques I’ve ever received on my prose have been from a poet. This particular poet — Lawrence Gregory.

Lawrence has a real ear for voice — that particular vibration of words, sound,emotion and intent–that identifies us as individuals as surely as a fingerprint. According to linguists we can identify a friend’s voice after just four spoken syllables. Readers can distinguish our characters’ voices on the page nearly as well. Listening to our characters’ voices and being true to them brings them to life.

Lawrence helped me recognize the charmingly disparate voices of Chas, Ramie, and LaRoux, the three runaway teens in my 2013 novel, Looking for Redfeather. It was Lawrence who encouraged me to give the kids the reins and let them tell their own story in their own unique voices.

A good poet is a master of voice and a good poem read aloud is a song, a shared dream.

If your spring road trip is leading you into Northern New Mexico, Lawrence Gregory will be reading at SOMOS Salon & Bookshop in Taos on Thursday, May 2, 2019 from 07:00 pm to 08:30 pm. He’ll be reading from Stretching Silver Through Blue Haze, as well as new poems from his work in progress. There’s no charge for the event.  You can read more about the poet’s work and life on his website

 

 

Women Aboard!

Women have always been aboard ship. As passengers, girlfriends, and wives. As sailors, surgeons, nurses, helmsmen, and shipmasters.

Women aboard — I got caught up in the history back in 1999, while serving as a voyage crewmember aboard the HM Bark Endeavour, a replica of James Cook’s 18th century ship, which was circumnavigating that year.  On my three-week passage from Vancouver to Kealakekua, Hawaii I worked alongside 53 officers and men (one of whom I was married to) to sail, steer, and maintain the ship.  Eight of us were female.  On this passage of a lifetime, I became intrigued with the idea of a woman dressing like a sailor and doing a man’s job aboard a ship – because that’s exactly what I was doing!  I figured if a middle-aged woman could do the work, surely a much younger girl would have no problem.

In spite of the persistent, old husbands’ tale that women are bad luck at sea, women have long been going to sea, luck be damned.  Some of them had to resort to disguise.

 

For some, it ended badly.  From the St. James Gazette, supplement to the Manchester Courier on July 5, 1890 we hear this snippet of a story:

The case of the poor little sea apprentice “Hans Brandt” who the other day fell into the hold of the barque Ida of Pensacola, at West Hartlpool and was killed, adds one more name to the long list of women who, for one reason or another, have put aside the garments of their sex and have donned the habits and imitated the ways of men.  Not until “Hans Brandt’s” body was being prepared for burial was it discovered that the Ida’s apprentice was a girl…  (Thanks to historians Lesley and Roy Adkins who passed that tidbit my way.)

Yes, Jack Tar was sometimes female. And the Adkins’ nonfiction books, including Jack Tar, have been very useful to me in researching my novels. I might write historical fiction — but I don’t make this stuff up!

From the Renaissance through the Victorian age there are many accounts of women in disguise working aboard ship as sailors, servants, skilled craftsmen, marines –and even a few officers, such as Anne Chamberlyne, twenty-three year old daughter of a lawyer, who served aboard the Grifffin Fireship, commanded by her brother Clifford, during the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690 (See Dr. David Davies’ guest post on Hoydens & Firebrands)  Most of these femmes fared better than poor Hans Brandt who fell into the hold.  Some went on to write their memoirs.  Some became immortalized in folk songs.  And some, like Anne Chamberlyne, had memorials erected in their honor.But most were likely forgotten. Living in disguise, you don’t want to bring attention to yourself. I’ll wager a number were successful at their masquerade, hence we’ve never heard of them.

Women in breeches, disguised as men, were few in comparison to the number of women who went to sea as women. Dr. Jo Stanley has written a much-needed survey of such women in her book From Cabin Boys to Captains: 250 Years of Women at Sea (History Press, 2016). Stanley’s book broadens the scope of related works by Suzanne Stark, Joan Druett, David Cordingly, and Margaret Lincoln and other maritime historians who have written about sea-going women or naval wives and mistresses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Writers’ Conferences — why I go.

Some go for the inspiration. Some, to improve their craft. Some go in hopes of finding an agent who will get them a six-figure advance and a three-book deal while others go in sheer desperation, not really knowing why.

Recently, I was one of many authors invited to speak at the 2018 Historical Novel Society Convention in Cumbernauld, Scotland. Old Salt Press authors Alaric Bond, Antoine Vanner and I were asked by author and conference co-organizer Margaret Skea to lead the breakout session, Getting it Right in Nautical Fiction.  The writers who chose our presentation had lots of questions and comments, making it a very lively workshop. I connected with one writer in particular whose work-in-progress interests me and we exchanged contacts as well as research information.  This sort of interaction is why I go to writers conferences, sometimes as a presenter but more often as an attendee.

In the past, when I went to conferences I attended every presentation, hung on the words of every speaker.  After all, I wanted to get everything I could out of the experience.  Things have changed for me over the years. Like my writer friends below (Alaric Bond, Antoine Vanner, David Davies and myself at the recent HNS conference in Scotland) I go for the social connections. To catch up with old friends and build relationships with new writers. To hear about what everyone else is working on and how they’re surviving. Building these friendships is both pleasurable and rewarding.  Bit by bit it can further your writing career. It’s BD — business development for creatives.

The hottest spot, the place to get the most bang for your buck at the conference isn’t the auditorium where the famous author is on stage giving the key note address, nor in the booksellers room where the famous author is signing her latest bestseller. Instead, the hottest spot at any writers conference might be the morning coffee bar where you happen to run into a lesser known writer whose work you admire. It might be at the hotel bar or a local tavern where you talk and laugh with new friends and old while sampling the local brew. The tavern atmosphere (and the local brew)  is important and you won’t find it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

I always come back from writing conferences newly inspired and reconnected with colleagues whose opinion I value. Writers who will give me feedback on a chapter I’m working on or a new series idea. Writers who will collaborate or commiserate with me. Writers who might blurb my book. And I will do the same for them.

Go ahead and sign up for a pitch session or two, it’s good practice. But sign up to interview THEM, not to hard sell your baby. I learned long ago that book deals aren’t made during a frantic ten-minute one-to-one with a stranger in a crowded room that sounds like a telephone call center. Introductions through other authors and well-targeted, killer query letters are more usually more productive when it comes to getting your foot in the door. It goes without saying you have a fresh, well-written, compelling manuscript. And resolve. You can’t underestimate the importance of resolve, it’s far more important than luck.

If you’re looking for an agent, here’s a hot tip for targeting the right one for your project : Browse the web for writers conferences in order to find out which agents will be there.  Go to their websites and their twitter feeds to see what it is they’re looking for.  If any of them seem like a fit for you and your novel, write a personalized query, perhaps mentioning the conferences they’ve recently attended. Your query is your pitch. By targeting agents in this way you save time and avoid collateral damage from the shotgun method of mass mailings.  Every year there are many writers conferences. Check out   New Pages  to keep abreast of upcoming conferences. You don’t need to attend the conference to pitch the agents.

You don’t need an agent to self publish, but you do need freelance editors, beta readers, proof readers. You need a printer. You need other authors to blurb your books. You need a marketing plan. You need reviewers. Maybe you’ll meet them face-to-face at a writers conference.

If you can’t afford to go to a conference try forming your own.  Find one other writer in your area. Meet at a local coffee house or tavern and commiserate over the local brew.

 

 

 

 

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Nautical Historical Fiction — Getting it Right

Nautical readers and historical fiction writers, I’m pleased to be in good company with Alaric Bond and Antoine Vanner presenting a breakout session  at the Historical Novel Society Conference next month in Scotland (HNS Conference August 24-26, 2018).Our topic is Getting it Right with Nautical Fiction (session 4 on Sunday morning) and we’re prepared to answer your questions about our writing process — from story development and research to publication options.

How to create a sense of verisimilitude? How to get the nautical details right? How much is too much information? What’s the market like? How do we reach potential readers?

There are more nautical geeks out there than you might imagine — but you don’t have to be writing hardcore naval or pirate fiction to benefit from our presentation and discussion. Getting it right in nautical fiction goes beyond naval evolutions and sea battles. Nautical fiction has a broad reach (nautical term, pun intended.) If you write historical stories set in almost any place and time chances are good that ships, boats, port towns, rivers and waterways play a role in the setting, and that nautical tradesmen and women are characters in your story. Don’t let the fear of nautical detail and language keep your characters and plot ashore; dive in and get wet!  We’re here to help.

If you’re attending the conference do consider joining our breakout session on Sunday, August 26 at 10:10 AM. Alaric Bond is an expert in life aboard a British age-of-sail vessel while Antoine Vanner specializes in the Victorian “age of fighting steam.” Both authors have loyal followings for their nautical fiction series. I’m more of a generalist, a maritime jack-of-all-trades writer with a good deal of actual sailing experience, some of it aboard historic sailing vessels and many blue water miles aboard a 36-foot sloop with my husband.  I have an ongoing interest in the historical significance of women aboard ships and their contributions. I also write YA and female protagonist fiction.

The nautical literature niche is alive and well, it appears, despite the fact that most agents don’t seem to be seeking tradition nautical historicals.  But yes, there is a market. We’re glad to share our knowledge and our writing and publishing experiences with you.  Connect with us via our websites or on the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NauticalWritingSociety/ 

The surface of the Earth is mostly water and water connects us all. Think of all the stories that have taken place at sea!

The speakers at this year’s nautical breakout session are:

Alaric Bond, author of the Fighting Sail Series, and other books

Antoine Vanner, author of the Nicholas Dawlish Chronicles

Linda Collison, author of the Patricia MacPherson Nautical Adventures, and other books

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Ariana Fraval is Patricia/Patrick MacPherson

Ariana Fraval is Patricia/Patrick MacPherson

Announcing the release of the audiobook

Barbados Bound
Book 1 in the Patricia MacPherson Nautical Adventures
performed and produced by Ariana Fraval
Available for download exclusively from Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes

complementary promo codes for reviewers upon request

https://www.lindacollison.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Barbados-Bound-Introduction.mp3

 

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Charleston — an inspiration for Keogh’s historical fiction

How We Write: The importance of place and time in storytelling

Sometimes I think I could live on the road.  For me, travel is inspiring, invigorating, instructive, and necessary.  Particular places — their histories, their inhabitants, their natural histories, their ghosts —  compel me to connect on a deeper level.

The setting is the story’s womb, its incubator. Place and time shape character and influence plot.  When I travel I immerse myself in the place, absorbing sounds, colors, tastes, the feel of the air on my skin, the way it smells, the slant of light — all the while getting a feel for the invisible past.  Meanwhile, characters quicken in my imagination, becoming entirely real to me.

Apparently I’m not alone in my obsession.  What places do you feel a connection with? What books have you read that have vivid settings?

Susan Keogh is my guest author today, to talk about historical Charleston, South Carolina — the setting of her lastest novel, The Driver’s Wife.

“This book is a gem. Its descriptions of the colonial south are lush and vivid, which enhances the whole, but the extraordinary depth of characterization is what makes this story something special.” —  Tinney S. Heath, author of A Thing Done

 

 

NOT RHETT BUTLER’S CHARLESTON

S.K.Keogh

One of America’s greatest historic cities is Charleston, South Carolina. When you visit there, you will be struck by its beauty, its historic architecture, its food, its friendly people, its culture, and its area beaches. There is always something special going on, like the annual Spoleto Festival in early summer, a celebration of the performing arts like no other. In 2016, Travel and Leisure ranked Charleston as the “World’s Best City.”

The Spoleto Festival’s finale is always held on the grounds of Middleton Place plantation.

Before writing my historical novels, I was most familiar with Charleston through its part played during the American Civil War. I think it’s safe to say that era in Charleston’s history is also most familiar to other Americans, as much for Gone with the Wind and the iconic Charlestonian character, Rhett Butler, as anything else. But once I began researching piracy in the late 17th century and early 18th century for my Jack Mallory trilogy of action/adventure novels, I read more and more about the early history of the city, known then as Charles Town, named after King Charles II of England. It would not be called Charleston until 1783.

Charles Town was a well-known pirate haunt. The sea marauders traded with and sold their pillaged goods to the British subjects of the town, who were happy to pay the lower prices the pirates charged compared to the more-expensive imported goods. It’s believed that even some of the province’s politicians were complicit in the trade.

One of the most famous pirate-related incidents was in 1718 when Blackbeard besieged the city and held hostages. Eventually the hostages were exchanged for a chest of medicine, supposedly to treat venereal disease among Blackbeard’s crew. But Blackbeard’s connection with Charleston intrigued me. In fact, he was the inspiration behind my James Logan character in my Jack Mallory trilogy—both men led double lives as civilized men ashore but murderous brigands at sea.

Charleston is known as the lowcountry because of the many rivers and swamps that dominate the landscape. It was this topography that made it possible for rice to flourish and eventually make the city one of the wealthiest in the Colonies. Tourists today can visit area plantations that have survived from that era, including Drayton Hall, pictured below. I had this photo incorporated into the cover design of my most recent novel, The Driver’s Wife.

It is that Colonial-era plantation rice culture that provides the setting for The Driver’s Wife. The story is told from the points of view of two characters—a white man and a mulatto slave. I wanted to show life from both sides of the enslaver/slave culture, to illustrate the good and bad on both sides.

Rice may have made Charleston into a rich, flourishing city for families like Rhett Butler’s, but that wealth was garnered only through the backbreaking toil of countless numbers of African slaves, like my character Isabelle. Historic sites, like Middleton Place plantation up the Ashley River from Charleston, educate the public on rice culture, plantation life, and the slaves who lived and died on the countless plantations that hugged the rivers of the region.

I hope you can visit Charleston sometime, and perhaps its history will get into your blood the way it got into mine and provided a fully-realized world for the characters in my books.

 

Susan, writing as S.K.Keogh, is the author of the Jack Mallory Chronicles
Prodigal, Alliance, and Fortune.

If you’d like to learn more about S.K. Keogh and her novels, please visit her website: skkeogh.com ,
or follow her on social media

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Saturday Night Knife & Gun Club

Saturday Night Knife & Gun Club: America’s New Wild West
A Kit Carson Knife & Gun Club story

or

My fictional dystopian memoirs

 

Episide 2, Saturday Night Knife & Gun Club, now available as a electronic short story from Amazon. More drama & trauma on the night shift in America’s new wild west. Gun up and download, cowgirls & boys. Cheap thrills for only 99 cents.

A total of seven short stories are planned.

 

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Kit Carson’s Knife & Gun Club – serialized pulp fiction for the night shift

Kit Carson, RN, is a hard-working nurse in America’s New Wild West.  Kit Carson’s Knife & Gun Club is a pastiche of a dime novel unfolding in connected short stories of drama and trauma on the night shift.  I’m told that serialized novels fell out of favor decades ago —  but I think it’s high time we bring them back.

Henry James, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, and other American literary renowneds published stories on the installment plan in magazines and periodicals — “pulp” fiction. The advantage, from my point of view, is that the stories are as fresh as morning coffee, not processed, edited, and aged to death. You can read or listen to an entire episode on your way to work or on your lunch break — with the promise of more to come.  Like life, serialized fiction is one episode after another, with the hope of more to come.

My serialized fiction started with Friday Night Knife & Gun Club, written as a biting social commentary after the Newtown school shootings. After Friday Night, I continued writing –I’m still writing — what feels like an absurd noir memoir set in a dystopian American West via a series of connected short stories caricaturizing our culture, our priorities, and our values.

“Linda Collison’s Friday Night Knife and Gun Club is a wry commentary on the casual violence that seems so often to occupy the news. Her depiction of hospital night work is in the tradition of Paddy Chayefsky’s absurdist and scalding screenplay for the film The Hospital. Gun-toting nurses and doctors do their best to make it through a wild, snowy night shift in an under-staffed hospital in the American heartland. This is a well-written, funny book filled with sharply observed detail that entertains even as it touches deeper issues of disconnection and alienation in modern society. Highly recommended!”  — Tim Queeney

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Night, the first story in the series, is available as an e-book, a paperback, and as an audio performance narrated by Annika Connor.

 

 

Get Ready for more drama and trauma on the night shift in America’s New Wild West
Introducing
Saturday Night Knife & Gun Club; Kit Carson’s Knife & Gun Club
Book 2 

 

and the delightfully lurid cover…

 

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MFA at 65? Mary B. Kurtz tells us why

Writing is a lifelong practice. Well, for some of us, it is.  We spend our whole lives trying to capture something — many things –everything — in stories, novels, poems, essays, letters…  Whether we write for a living, or write of our living — we’re always striving to get closer to that elusive truth.

The more we write, the better our writing becomes –or, at least, the easier it becomes. The words tumble forth less painfully. We begin to recognize and develop our own voice. But after a time it can feel like we’re cruising along, just skimming the surface on a fresh breeze. We’ve learned the ropes of wordsmithing, but we long to explore the deeper undercurrents of our existence — that vast unexplored ocean of possibility beneath us.

How do we learn to write better? By reading more and writing more, yes. By getting feedback from readers and editors, yes. But for some writers that doesn’t cut it. Some writers want a deeper understanding of the art and craft. Those writers take the plunge, the deep dive. They go back to school to study from the keepers of the craft.

Yes, but it’s too late for me, some writers (me?) may be thinking.  Maybe if I were younger… 

Allow me to introduce Mary B. Kurtz, a 2019 MFA candidate in Creative Writing at Regis University. Mary is the author of At Home in the Elk River Valley; Reflections on Family, Place, and the West,  which won recognition as a National Indie Excellence Awards finalist.  Her essays also appears in an anthology, Ankle High and Knee Deep; Women Reflect on Western Rural Life.

I’ve long admired Mary’s poetry and essays I’ve had the opportunity to hear on occasion at our writers group.  I asked Mary why, at her age, and in light of her life’s accomplishments, she decided to pursue an MFA.

Why I Pursued an MFA

When I first told family and friends I’d applied to the Regis University Low-Residency MFA Program, I followed up by saying, “But, I’m not sure they’ll take me at this point in my life.” I was sixty-five. But, then I realized that was the primary reason. On the ranch where I live, when time is running out to complete a chore, we say, “What are we waitin’ for? Daylight’s burning.”

More and more I sensed an urgency to get to writing projects that lingered in the wings; and I longed for guidance. I’d directed my own search for the “how to” of writing for thirteen years: participating in our local weekly writers’ group, completing online classes, and attending workshops around the West.

In 2016, I’d come to the end of all I knew. I felt compelled to know more about the craft of writing—how to strengthen and deepen my work. I also desired a more meaningful engagement with my writing, one that would lift me out of bed in the morning, keep me up at night, follow me on the hiking trail and then with deep satisfaction, fill a clean, white page more days than not.

While I’ve enjoyed participating as a student in a classroom, I found the format of the Mile High Low-Residency MFA Program appealing. It provided an opportunity not only to work from home online, but allowed for the seasonality of our life on the ranch. Come fall and winter, when the ranch work slows the requirements of the program pick-up. And in the summer when requisite deadlines ease, I have flexibility. So, throughout the year the demands of the program and our ranch life weave in and out making it possible to attend to both.

My acceptance came by way of an enthusiastic phone call from David Hicks the co-director of the Regis Mile High MFA Program. My first semester began in January 2017 at the winter residency on the Regis campus in Denver, Colorado. I sensed a precipitous jump from the edge of a cliff. But my first semester faculty mentor, David Lazar, suggested I may find in the coming months a soft landing in calm and blue waters. I trusted him but still held my breath.

Now in my third semester, I’m part of a vigorous writing community, filled with the support of faculty mentors and fellow students. I’m fortunate to work one on one each semester with a mentor who is not only a teacher, but an accomplished writer. They have included essayist, David Lazar; novelist, essayist, short story writer and poet, Chip Livingston; and essayist and poet, Kathy Winograd.

I also benefit from in-depth group critiques and ambitious required reading lists. From my experience in our nine-day residency workshops, teachers and fellow students have encouraged my writing by way of insightful critique and nurturing feedback. And my required readings each semester have included books I never imagined picking up: After Montaigne: Contemporary Essayists Cover the Essays edited by David Lazar and Patrick Madden, Descanso for My Father by Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative by Thomas King, and Phantom Canyon: Essays of Reclamation by Kathy Winograd. In the requirement I’ve found new horizons not only in my writing but within the evolution of creative nonfiction, now considered the “fourth genre.”

As I sit at my sturdy old oak teacher’s desk in the quiet office of my son’s bedroom, I write most days with a different view of and commitment to my writing. The landscape of my work has broadened and with it, new possibilities in my revisions; and a new-found perspective when reading and analyzing literature.

Although daylight is burning in my life, my identification as a writer seeps deeper into a way of life, a way of looking at the world, a way of considering the questions that matter and listening for the answers.

I’m grateful David Hicks accepted a sixty-five-year-old into the program. He understood how daylight burns and the urgency with which the acute awareness of time washes over us. As he recently encouraged all MFA students, “No excuses, just write and write. It’s prime time.” And he wasn’t just speaking to a now, sixty-six year old. Daylight burns for us all.

— Mary B. Kurtz

Mary, I’m inspired.  And I’m guessing life experience (age) has only enriched your imagination and strengthened your intent.  Age isn’t an excuse, it’s a motivator.  My very best wishes for your success — I look forward to reading your new work!

 

If you’re interested in learning more about Mary’s work and life, check out her website Mary B. Kurtz  

Click here for more information about the Steamboat Writers Group.

Click here for more information about the low residency MFA program at Regis.

 

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Writers Wanted

 

Writing for a Cause

Emerging and experienced writers alike, we’re all wanting our work to gain exposure and recognition (and yes, a good living from our craft would be appreciated!) I have been a freelance writer since my school days, penning articles, essays, short stories and poetry for publication.

I received my first payment for words when I was in nursing school; I wrote an article on spec for a newsletter geared to nurses’ aides for which I received a check for $15.00. “Chump change”, as we used to say. Still, that small reimbursement was the beginning of a composite career for me. I wrote nursing and healthcare related articles, I wrote travel essays, I wrote skydiving and sailing articles and stories. Whatever I did I wrote about it. If I could sell what I had written, or if I could wrangle an assignment, then so much the better. My long term goal was to publish a novel. This finally happened when Alfred A. Knopf published my historical YA novel Star-Crossed in 2006. More novels would follow.

Becoming a writer can be a lifelong process. As journeymen, we’re looking for exposure, even as we dream of becoming the next J.K. Rowling.

The question is, what do I have to say that has value? Who needs my thoughts, my philosophies, my stories, my experiences, my words?

One answer is community associations and nonprofit organizations. Whether you’re an emerging writer or a seasoned freelancer you’ll benefit from volunteering your word-smithing skills for a cause you care about. You won’t earn a paycheck but you will make a difference and you will develop relationships that matter. You’ll sharpen your research know-how and your editing skills as you write for a specific market. You may go on to write a best-seller but I’ll wager your most important words will be the ones you gave to your cause.

For me, the cause was 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome — the most common genetic deletion no one’s ever heard of — until recently. Because of the large array of disorders that can arise from this random deletion of a gene on the q arm of the twenty-second chromosome, a child born with it encounters acute health problems as well as lifelong challenges. Cardiac, vascular, and palate malformations are common. So are are immune deficiencies, endocrine, renal, musculoskeletal abnormalities, autism-like symptoms, anxiety, and other emotional disorders. People with the 22q deletion are much more likely to develop schizophrenia.

My lovely granddaughter was born with 22q Deletion Syndrome. Her mother — my daughter, Melinda Taylor — helped to start a specialty clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado, to coordinate the many disciplines involved in the care of children born with 22q. The 22q Specialty Clinic also works to raise awareness among the medical profession and the general public, and helps educate and support families dealing with it. Melinda Taylor also serves on the board of The International 22q Foundation Inc.

Since my granddaughter’s diagnosis and my daughter’s involvement with the clinic and the international foundation, I have helped out editing brochures, administering a 22q Colorado Facebook group, writing letters to the state legislature and developing website content for which I receive no monetary reimbursement or by-line. Far more valuable rewards have come my way knowing my efforts for this cause matter.

Writers, if you’re seeking an audience for your words, if you’re looking to expand your knowledge and develop friendships as well as meaningful professional connections, my advice is to write for a Cause. Those words will likely be the most important ones you’ll ever write.