Midori Snyder's Blog, page 12

By the Work of Hands, We Heal Ourselves.

I am heading to the desert for a while and bringing new projects along....looking forward to the dry cool nights, and the stars high overhead.

And then I found these fall beauties from Madeleine Tosh! Let's see how fast I can knit while trying to finish preparing a second novel for re-release (Flight of Michael McBride) and spend time up in the mountains of the Mogollon Rim. Forget covid, forget elections, forget strife. Just be a maker....

Hannah's Garden Re-Release March, 2021

I am happy to announce that Hannah's Garden is set to be re-released towards March 2021. It will appear in paperback and a kindle edition. And hopefully, after that LHP is looking to release an audio version. Here are some of the reviews of Hannah's Garden.

���A mystical spiral garden that is also a gateway to another world blooms at the center of Snyder's tightly woven fantasy, a potent blend of faery and family conflicts���Thanks to Snyder's gift for description, readers may feel as if they can hear the music or smell the fragrance of the garden's rare woodland species; the audience will be hooked.��� Publisher���s Weekly

���Like the tales Cassie remembers her mother telling, this is ���filled with wonderment and botany,��� as well as music, deep relationships between generations, and complex, evocative magic-working.��� Kirkus Reviews

���Inventive, beautifully written���Snyder���s use of language is especially poetic in describing nature, including the farm���s flora and fauna and the magical creatures of the Green Clan���a satisfying mix of real life problems and lovingly described magic.��� School Library Journal

���Compelling���This has a power and depth that makes it good for contemporary fantasy of all ages." Locus

Hannah's Garden Re-Release October, 2020

I am happy to announce that Hannah's Garden is set to be re-released towards the end of October. It will appear in paperback and a kindle edition. And hopefully, after that LHP is looking to release an audio version. Here are some of the excellent reviews of Hannah's Garden.

���A mystical spiral garden that is also a gateway to another world blooms at the center of Snyder's tightly woven fantasy, a potent blend of faery and family conflicts���Thanks to Snyder's gift for description, readers may feel as if they can hear the music or smell the fragrance of the garden's rare woodland species; the audience will be hooked.��� Publisher���s Weekly

���Like the tales Cassie remembers her mother telling, this is ���filled with wonderment and botany,��� as well as music, deep relationships between generations, and complex, evocative magic-working.��� Kirkus Reviews

���Inventive, beautifully written���Snyder���s use of language is especially poetic in describing nature, including the farm���s flora and fauna and the magical creatures of the Green Clan���a satisfying mix of real life problems and lovingly described magic.��� School Library Journal

���Compelling���This has a power and depth that makes it good for contemporary fantasy of all ages." Locus

To Hell With Social Distancing...Can We Celebrate How To Be Close Again?

A few photographs have surfaced of my grandfather, Pierre Menager's work. I am always charmed by his informal paintings...they have so life in them, and so little social distancing. A barn dance and a wedding...They make me happy these dark days. 

And another favorite to hell with social distancing moment from "Stray Dog" directed by Akira Kurosawa. A muggy summer, a thief who steals a young officer's gun, a chase, and this scene where a troop of burlesque dancers, exit the stage and throw themselves on the ground backstage in a heaving, sweating jumble.

And these romantic lovers, kissing snails publicly defying social distancing then and now....I found these guys on my morning walk near the lagoon...so romantic!

Basho's Reflection On Marriage: Akechi's Wife

Moon, come down and
come alone. I have to tell you all
about Akechi���s wife. -- Bash��

Yesterday was our anniversary, of many years. I think of all that passion at the beginning, rocking back and forth between joy and fear that it might suddenly prove ephemeral.  But for those of us now long married, that tempest has been transformed into something more reliable. Rituals, that are ordinary, daily, subtle. So how beautiful and exquisite is this reflection by Bash��, the itinerant poet-monk of 17th century Japan, on the love between two people whose relationship is wide and deep -- quietly full of intimate gestures.

"So worn out, not even sure I was on the right road, I forgot myself awhile watching in weary amazement as his wife came and went, the two of them giving the impression of having long perfected some grave and complex dance known only to them, one of accord and the affection of two people moving hand-in-hand in the same direction, both possessed by desire while knowing themselves to be the source of that desire." Bash��, translated by Franz Wright.

Read the entire piece here at Poetry Foundation.

Art: Goyo Hashiguchi. 1920. "Woman in Blue"

How to Be Elegant in a Time of Pandemic....

Because this is so much more beautiful, poised, and calm. Next pandemic, I am going to strive for loveliness...

The Language of Cairns

We hike a lot across the Colorado Front Range as it is something almost every one is compelled to do here; the chance to be so completely surrounded by a magnificent landscape that invites one to enter into its beauty. It doesn't really matter what season it is, we always find a trail and head for it. I have hiked in thigh deep snow in winter and dry, blue skies in the summer, where the summer flowers bloom in brilliant colors even as the grass fades beneath the sun. Higher up, the red tails drift on the winds, magpies, redwings, swallows, blue jays, and crows gather nosily in the trees. I love all of it. 

But this year I become enamored of the random cairns that appear in the fields and mountains -- some the product of nature, stones tumbled together from rain and erosion. Others, created by hand, an impulse when called by a certain stone to bend down and spontaneously make a tower of stones -- multicolored, reds and grays, glittering with mica, marbled with blue veins, and covered in lichens. I have been taking so many pictures of them lately, and when I can, adding a stone here and there. It is a communal offering, a delicate way of saying, I passed this way, I greet you. I never seem to hunt for a stone, one always seems to magically appear beneath my feet, calling to my hand. I receive it and then gift it. 

For more on my family and our life on the Front Range, visit here. The Nature of Family

In a Time of Trial, There Will Be Comfort

#SongsOfComfort: Dvo����k ��� "Going Home���

From Yo-Yo Ma: "In these days of anxiety, I wanted to find a way to continue to share some of the music that gives me comfort. The first of my #SongsOfComfort: Dvo����k ��� "Going Home���

Stay safe.

On this All Saints and All Souls

It seems the right day to read this story again. I am writing in the near dark, just the illumination of candles and a friendly pair of glowing pumpkins looking over my shoulder.  Jack Straw was one of those rare stories that appears instantly and somehow hardwired in my brain. I wrote it all at once, and it was very satisfying. Hope you enjoy it. 

A New Undertaking: Leaping Hart Press

I am happy to announce that I have finally taken the plunge and created my own independent small press, Leaping Hart Press. It has been an exciting process, watching as each requirement for an LLC falls into place (though not without some anxiety and middle of the night worry.) I am now busy re-reading the original manuscripts and revising, editing, and correcting old mistakes as necessary. There is some joy in this process as I rediscover the work anew, and remember who I was at the time of creating the novel. I wrote my first novel when my children were small. Subsequent books were written between driving the children to school, teaching at a high school, researching one magical year-long trip in Italy, and while mourning the death of my father, and later my mother. I see how many moments in the novels echo the events in my life.

But I also am not entirely done writing novels and essays either. Once the back-list is out and published, I look forward to a handful of new projects. Collected short stories (some old, some new), with permission, a collection of my Bordertown Stories, with one or two new ones to join the previously published novellas, and a sequel to at least one my novels, if not two.

Ambitious? Probably, but not unreasonable, especially as I have terrific friends in the publishing community ready to offer assistance -- which is both humbling and helpful to know.