Linda K. Sienkiewicz's Blog, page 34

Public Accidents and the Walk of Shame

At the Detroit Opera House, David Sedaris told a story about the “walk of shame” involving an elderly man who shat himself in an airplane. Apparently everyone within proximity heard the man’s daughter express her outrage; David was seated a few rows behind them. He cringed. The old guy shuffled off to the bathroom never to return his seat, despite the airline attendants attempts to lure him out during landing.

Sedaris wanted to shout at them, “Oh, please, just leave the poor man alone!”

He u...

The Book That Almost Wasn’t – guest post by Allison Maruska

Please welcome author Allison Maruska to my blog!

Playing favorites… for a reason: Almost two weeks ago, my most recent novel  The Seventh Seed  was released to as much fanfare as I could muster. I hosted a Facebook launch party (where Linda contributed as a guest author and was FABULOUS), wrote blog posts, created ads, set up giveaways, and watched great review after great review roll in. And all the while, a little thought nagged the back of my mind. This book is lucky to be alive.    I don...

What, Why, How: John Darryl Winston

What:

I write middle grade and YA sci-fi and YA contemporary. To date, I’ve completed the IA origin story of reluctant superhero, Naz Andersen. The Origin part of the story consists of three novels, part one and two, IA: Initiate and IA: B.O.S.S., which are already published, as well as part three, IA: Union, which will be released Black Friday, November 24th. I’ve also written a novella entitled Invincible Assassin as part of the IA Origin story to be released toward the end of March 2018. I...

What, Why, How: Delores “Bunny” Hipps

 

What:

Although is isn’t my day job, I’m here to talk about my hobby – jewelry making. It has been a part of my life for about eight years and involves such skills as wire wrapping and wire forming. I think I’m mainly a curator – I find stones and charms and other elements and put them together in unique ways – and hope that others will like them too. I sell in an Etsy shop called .

Why:

I started making jewelry as a creative outlet. Even though my day job as a tv producer is...

Almost Home: a Memoir by Hilary Harper

It began with a child’s curiosity:

While innocently snooping through her mother’s bedroom at age twelve, Hilary Harper discovered her parents had adopted her. Insatiably curious, she continued to pry, devouring the letters between her adoptive mother and her sister-in-law, whose younger sister was “in trouble. She is having a baby and needs help.”

Hilary learned her birth mother was this unmarried younger sister, Ann Preston, and she lost her life in a car accident when Hilary was just seven...

You are forever changed – sexual misconduct

If you’ve ever been shown a penis…

Jennifer Wright asked Twitter “Hey women: retweet if you’ve ever been shown a penis you did not want or expect to see” on November 9th, 2017. There are 177,00 retweets and counting.

The responses are staggering. “The first time I was in second grade.” “I was in a park, holding my young son.” “The first time this happened to me I was 6. In a K-Mart toy aisle. I still can’t go into a K-Mart without the smell triggering memories.” “I was in elementary school.”...

What, Why, How: Meg LeDuc

What:

These days, I write short pieces of memoir and creative nonfiction, but in the past, I worked as a journalist, both freelance and as a staff writer. I remain very interested in weaving blood-and-bone journalism, the narratives I collect through interviews, with my own story of recovery from bipolar disorder. I believe that other people’s stories of loss, struggle, hope and recovery can inform and illuminate mine and vice versa. We are all in this together, and none of us should be forc...

Writing the second book – distractions

It’s damning when a fellow writer asks you what you’re working on, especially when the best you can say is you’re getting really good at procrastinating.

That “thing”

“Is what they say really true — that writing the second book is harder than the first?” a friend (and poet) asked me.

Yes, it is.

But not for the reasons you might suppose (at least for me). Many writers feel writing the second book is difficult because of expectations they’ve imposed on themselves. They usually sound something...

What, Why, How: Marcy Dermansky

What:

I write fiction: three novels so far and short stories. I have written the occasional essay but mainly that isn’t what I do. My newest novel The Red Car recently came out in paperback. I am also the author of Bad Marie, which is how Linda first found me, and Twins.

And I keep a journal, which is a combination of the stereotypical what is my life kind of writing, lists of things that I need to do that day, and the occasional sketches. I like the sketching part, which, of course, is not w...

Ladybugs, children and understanding death

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly six years since my son Derek died. Sometimes reminders fly at you from the most unlikely places. One such time was at a recent Poetry at the Farmhouse series.

When pet bugs die:

At the Farmhouse, poet Robert Fanning explained his son, at four, didn’t fully grasp the passing of his aunt until his ladybug friend died. The poem about that incident, from Fanning’s newest book of poems Our Sudden Museum, begins:

A Consideration of Potential Afterlives and the...