Linda K. Sienkiewicz's Blog, page 41

What, Why, How: Elaine Mcintosh

What:

I am currently working on a collection of poems I may submit for chapbook publication. I seem to have consistent themes in my writing: nature, family/neighbor/community, and grief/loss.

Why:

Writing poetry enables me to live fully in the moment; feel it, smell it, hear it, see it. That moment may be in the past or in the present and finding the words to make that moment live again is what keeps me attentive to the writing on the page.

How:

I still don’t write every day. Rather...

A Corgi Halloween

I admit it — I like to dress myWelsh Pembroke corgi for Halloween. My husband looks at our dog,shakes his head andsays to her, “Clementine, have some pride.” lol! I think she enjoys dressing up because she gets a treat and lots of attention from trick-or-treaters who come to our door.

I don’t get crazy. Nothing constricting or uncomfortable and I always consider her well-being before I dress her in anything. After all, her comfort comes before my need to make her cuter than she already is! If...

Fall colors biking on Paint Creek Trail

Couldn’t ask for a better day

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, 64 degrees, the sound of fall leaves crunching under the tires of my bicycle, the crisp smell of pine and autumn in the air, and my best friend alongside me.

The husband and Ibiked 16.5 miles on the Paint Creek Trail, wondering if this would be the last warm day before the weather turned too cold to bike.

We’d hoped to get donuts at the cider mill on the way back (because it’s really hard to pass by when you smell those fresh donu...

What women want when speaking about sexual assault

Nearly every woman I know has told me about one or moretimes in which she was sexually assaulted, molested, threatened or raped, or they personally know someone who was sexually assaulted, molested, threatened or raped.I was molested as a child, most vividly by a total stranger in Woolworth’s in the 60s, and I am also a victim of date rape. I never told anyone until recently. Very few of the women I know told anyone or wentto the police. This is hardly surprising when you look at what often...

Meeting Readers at Books By the Banks

We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
— Ursula K. Le Guin

The best part of the Books by the Banksbook festival at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati, Ohio was meeting so many engaging and interestedreaders!

EngagedReaders

Nearly every visitor who passed my table stopped to say,“Tell me about your book.” One woman wasriveted when I told her about Ang...

What a writers’ retreat can do

I came home feeling recharged and inspired from Springfed Arts’ First Annual Lost Lake Writers’ Retreat. Poet Jack Ridl helped me realize I’m wastingmy time when I procrastinate when I could be writing. He shook his head and joked that, when it comes to poets, “Chemists think we’reblowing off our lives while they’re out creating a better toothpaste.” Jack obviously feelswriting is the better pursuit.

I need to stop giving into distractions and blowing off my writing life. My next novel isn’...

Birthdays After You Lose a Child

I vividly remember the moment Derek was born. The doctor laid him across my chest and there he was, my first baby — his round face like a pale moon, his eyes open and unblinking, his little body warm and wet, his heart beatingagainst my bare skin. I won’t ever forget his first smile, his first word (It was butterfly, and I have a witness), and his first steps in the wooded acre behind our house in Ohio.

September 29th, 2016 would be Derek’s 37th birthday.

On October 26th, it will be five yea...

What, Why, How: Nadia Ibrashi

What:

I’m editing my novel The Secret of Maimonides. It’s a thriller set in modern times, yet digs deep in the past to discover secrets of the Middle East. The story developed as an act of creative empathy, written from the points of views of characters of various faith traditions, and I spent years researching it. And I’m always working on poetry, and short stories. I’m also compiling memoir stories about my experience of having practiced medicine in Egypt and in the States.

Why:

I have an i...

What, Why, How: Colleen Nye

What?

I am a fiction writer, biographer as well as owner of Blue Deco Publishing. Eventually, I hope to have a regular, syndicated column, but I’m pretty happy being a novelist as well. I can not stick with one genre – having published works in dystopian, tech thriller, romcom, romance, crime drama, paranormal and sci-fi. And honestly, I prefer it that way. My interests are spread about, so why limit my creativity?

Why?

I write fiction because I have a LOT of worlds swimming around in my m...

How to Make a Book Purse

Years ago, while working on the early drafts of my novel, I had a business making books into purses. I no longer have my Etsy shop, but occasionally I findaninterestingbook that I think will make a great clutch purse, or a friend asks me to make onefor them.I recently made this book purse with a button and loop closure for my friend from hermemoir:

Searching for Nannie B by Nancy Owen Nelson

“Tell us how you did this!” Nancy’s friendsaid. So here’s how:

How to make a book purse

Making a book...