Linda K. Sienkiewicz's Blog, page 20

My mini book tour

Recently Don and I took a trip along the Outer Banks of N. Carolina to promote Gordy and the Ghost Crab to book stores and gift shops.

A fellow author asked me for details, so I thought I’d share what I did on my blog.

Let me first say that selling doesn’t come easily to me. The fear of rejection is real. In fact, I was reeling after the response from the very first independent book store I went in to cold. Luckily, after that initial snub, things went smoother, and now Gordy and the ...

Traveling post-vaccination

Lawbreakers?

My husband and I had just finished our lunch of a falafel sandwich and shrimp and grits in a small outdoor courtyard at Helio’s Hideaway in Ocracoke, North Carolina. A party of three adults, only one of whom was wearing a face mask, stepped up to the window of the restaurant to place an order. The older man, tall and fair haired, in his late fifties I’d guess, took a seat at a nearby table. He nodded at me and said “You’re breaking the law, you know.”

Astonished, I asked,...

Jigsaw Puzzle Love

Rare Book Store, by White MountainPassion for Puzzles in a Pandemic

Last March, 2020, during the stay-at-home order, my husband Don and I put together a puzzle we’d saved for our next beach vacation, since we weren’t sure if we’d be traveling anywhere that summer. After that, we finished another saved puzzle. Then we bought a few we saw in the window at Lytle’s Pharmacy– you could browse the tagged puzzles and games on display, phone in your order, pay with a credit card, and pick it up a...

Sparrows and Dust: Zilka Joseph

New Poetry Chapbook

I’ve known poet Zilka Joseph for many years from the Metro Detroit literary community, having taken workshops and attended readings with her. She is a kind and generous soul, and a marvelous writer with a unique voice and perspective. I’m pleased to share the good news about her newest poetry collection, Sparrows and Dust with you!

Is this the bird way? Where is home? What is the fate of wanderers? Have we all been “elsewhere”? Will truths be revealed to us in the...

What, Why, How: Arnold Johnston

What: 

I write in all forms–poetry, fiction, drama, non-fiction, and translation. My most recent individual works are Swept Away (due for release May 1 from Atmosphere Press), a contemporary novel set in Detroit, and Where We’re Going, Where We’ve Been (2020, FutureCycle Press), a poetry collection. I’m fortunate to work collaboratively with my very talented wife, Deborah Ann Percy (Johnston), on plays, which have been widely published and produced. 

Swept Away focuses on writer Dennis...

Glow little glow worm: for Mom

Glimmer, glimmer:

When cleaning out the basement, I found my son’s Glo Friends collection from the 80s. They were so gosh darn cute. I’m glad I saved them. Best of all, those “crazy aeronautical boll weevils” still “illuminate yon woods primeval!”

Glo Friends!

Funny how some things stick with you, like songs, scents and old phone numbers. My late mother used to sing “The Glow Worm” to me when I was a girl. I remember the tune well enough to sing it, but not all the words, so I looke...

What, Why, How: Gina Troisi

What:

While my focus in graduate school was creative nonfiction, these days I am mostly writing fiction. I am currently working on two novels-in-stories.

My debut memoir, The Angle of Flickering Light, is forthcoming from Vine Leaves Press on April 6, 2021. It is available for preorder now. Many chapters within the book have been published as stand-alone pieces in literary journals and anthologies over a period of several years.

Why:

I have wanted to be a writer since third grade...

The meaning of homemade love

My grandson with his Pout Pout Fish mask Staying safe:

Last year at the start of the pandemic, I remember hurrying to the grocery to “stock up.” Lord knows what I needed, or thought I needed: cans of soup, cough medicine, hand sanitizer, Gatorade (in case we got COVID-19, as if that would have helped). Other shoppers, crowded in the store and rushing all around, seemed to be thinking the same thing. We all looked a little panic-stricken. No one knew exactly how the illness spread. And no ...

What, Why, How: Sadira Stone

What:

I write steamy contemporary romance set in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. What does steamy mean? In my case, it means following one couple through the twists and turns of falling in love, including the juicy bedroom bits—not that my couples restrict themselves to bedrooms. Doug and Laurel found bliss in the woods; Elmer and Margot steamed up the cab of his ancient pickup; Clara and Nick had a naughty picnic in the back room of her bookshop; Danielle and Matteo made each other see star...

Why We Write

“Fiction is supposed to be, forgive me, less shitty than life. Better than life. It is supposed to make more sense than life. That’s one of the reasons we read, one of the reasons we write. We want to feel we are forgiven and that there is hope…. Redemption is and always has been a staple of American fiction.” ~Author Molly Giles, in Odds on Ends, “The Writer’s Chronicle”

Noble Reasons?

When I posed the question “Why do you write” on Twitter, Facebook and this blog, reasons similar to the one...