Sara Donati's Blog, page 7

Bubble-gum pink vanity, and karma

The one thing about menopause I did not anticipate was a bald spot. Yes. I have a small bald spot at the top of my head. Imagine a day-glow pink island surrounded by white hair. Keeping the damn thing out of sight requires finagling, and I often fail. It’s a little bigger than a nickel. It’s as big as the continent of Asia. If I mention this to other women my age, I don’t get the empathy I’m hoping for. They say “but you’ve got so much hair” and “only you notice it” and “wear a hat” or th...

In which I embrace and celebrate my historical-geographical nerdiness

It’s amazing sometimes what you come across. For anyone interested in France, the history of France (or Europe), and maps, this is pretty wonderful. Bless the Wikipedians, say I.

Watch this dynamic map and it will show you how the borders of France changed over time, lands lost and gained. It would be even more interesting if they had links to the wars that were responsible for the shifts, but that would be a fun little project at some point when I’m bored.

I embrace and celebrate my historic...

lend a hand to authors (young and old)

Like everybody else I have to limit the amount of time I spend wandering around in the ether. There are so many things to read and keep track of, I could easily spend the entire day doing nothing else. In these difficult times especially it feels like there’s an emergency every hour on the hour, so getting stuff doneis even harder. Add depression and anger (also about recent events) and it’s takes some real willpower to persevere.

And yet, here I am asking you to read something new.

Young wr...

Writers Resist

You may have heard about Writers Resist, and if not, here’s the skinny, from their website:

Our democracy is at risk. Growing public cynicism and an alarming disdain for truthfulnessis eroding our most dearly held democratic ideals. As writers we have tremendous powerto bypass empty political discourse and focus public attention on the ideals of a free, just, and compassionate society….

Throughout the US and in other countries, writers are organizing their own Writers Resist events on Martin...

Cranky Pants: The Chef

If you are a novelist and you live in a small town you run into people who have read your novels now and then, at the grocery store, at signings, when you stop by the neighbor’s place to ask about the missing newspaper delivery boy, at parties, on the bus.

It makes sense to be polite andrespectful, no matter who you are. No matter what kind of questions they ask you. But sometimes it’s really hard. Now, every profession has a list of questions they fear. For physicians I assume it goes like t...

Wise Women

I would guess that most writers are interested in what other writers have to say about the process of writing. Everyone needs validation, after all. So when I come across something an author said that strikes me as especially relevant or interesting (or funny, or inspiring), I add it to the quotes collection for this weblog. They show up in the right hand column under wise guys.

Of course many of the quotes are by women authors, but somehow I can’t give up on wise guys as a title. There are...

Crowdsourcing your Novel

fighting tooth and snail fromThe Marginalized Art of Snail-Fighting in Medieval Europe; because publishing has always been crazy

Two years ago Mick Rooney at The Independent Publishing Magazine revieweda British publishing outfit called Unbound, which is a newapproach based on crowd-sourcing. That is: you go to their site, read about an author and a book that authoris proposing to write, and if you really want to read it, you pony up some money. When the funding goal is met and the book is wr...

Here in one small image: the end of publishing

Or at least, the end of publishing as we understand it. Consider this fact:In one month there were more than 100,000 new book releases on Amazon Kindle.I took this screen capture last week and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Two extreme ways of looking at this:

One: Electronicself-publishing hasdemocratizedthe book industry. It’s an embarrassment of riches.

Two: We are caught up in a tidal wave with no refuge in sight. It’s an embarrassment.

There’s a weird disconnect in the mind of m...

revealing words on words

There are many things to admire about Barbara Kingsolver’s work. She has written some novels that I think about all the time, even years after first reading them. Her people and their stories crawl into my head and make a permanent home for themselves there, settling in between Aunt Helen’s overgrown garden at sunrise in the hottest days of summer and the sound of chalk squeaking in Sister Peter Joseph’s fourth grade classroom. What more could any author ask for?

Then today I came across this...

The Gilded Hour sequel: NOT YET.

Not done, but making progress. I can offer you the image I’m using for a writing prompt. The cover design will be out of my hands — as ever — so this is just temporary. It’s from a painting by Whistler, and was painted at the right time.

The title is a fragment from a poem by Rumi: “The wound is the place where the light enters.”