Sally Ember's Blog, page 47

St. Louis Indie Book Fair is TOMORROW! Saturday, May 7, 2016, 10 – 5: FREE!

Come one, come all! St. Louis Indie Book Fair is TOMORROW! Saturday, May 7, 2016, 10 – 5: FREE!

image and all organizational work by Mark Pannebecker

All genres, all ages, fiction and nonfiction, books for children, YA and adult readers!

WHERE? St.Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive Street, St. Louis, MO USA 63103

Author readings are all day! Mine, from Volume I of The Spanners Series, This Changes Everything, is at 11:18 AM or thereabouts for about 10 minutes. Also, discounts/authors’ giveaways, autographs, conversations, food, more!

Join me (and ask for a special Spanners Series‘ paperbacks discount when you see me!) and many other authors, including Debbie Manber Kupfer.

ALSO: Please come me and other authors share from our work at the public reading auditorium.

11:18 AM!

Full list of participants here: http://www.markpannebecker.com/#!itinerary/c9um

For more information: http://www.markpannebecker.com/#!st-louis-indie-book-fair/c1pz

Filed under: Indie or Self-Publishing, Marketing, Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Spanners, Timult Books Tagged: author readings, book fair, books, discounts, indie authors, St. Louis

Happy Birthday to our Son, Merlyn T. Ember!

Today is the anniversary of the birth of our wonderful son, unnamed at the time and for 20 more days, was born. I became a mother and you became an actual human after swimming around in my imagination for many years and in my womb for nine months. SO GLAD!

image from designrshub.com

So, later in May the year of his birth, our son became Merlyn Timli 0 Ember. We gave him in his name the middle figure of “0” (which is a zero, not the letter “O”) to be a placeholder, awaiting the day he might want to choose his own name. True to his independent and somewhat contrarian nature, when he decided what he wanted to do with his name, Merlyn deleted the zero.

“Merlyn” means “Child of the Light,” and “Of the Immortals.” We chose to give him the original Celtic spelling and used those meanings.

Merlyn, with his first initial “M,” is also “named after” two family relatives: his father’s father, Morton Briggs (alive at that time, following Protestant tradition), and my mother’s mother, Mildred Klein Cytron Bright (then deceased, following Jewish tradition).

“Timli” is a name his dad, Christopher R. Briggs Ember (or, now, Ember Briggs) created, and the definition of this invented name is “He who paints in the sky with his fingers.”

“Ember” is the name Christopher and I chose to take on, adding it to our own names so that Merlyn’s surname could be “Ember.” The Ember Days are the days of change, the two or three days before and after every Solstice and Equinox. This name seemed apt since having a child (our first and only) certainly began many days of change for Merlyn’s parents!

Merlyn in the cradleboard Emmy Rainwalker made for him, with his parents, May, 1980

[NOTE: Laws in New Hampshire at the time dictated that unmarried women could only give our children our own surnames, and I had no wish to give Merlyn my birth name. So, we chose a new surname for our new family. Christopher and I were deliberately and consciously unmarried, calling ourselves “Partnered,” for several reasons: lesbians and gays could not marry at that time; women became men’s property in New Hampshire when married in 1980; and, we both were marriage-averse for individual/personal reasons.]

I am so grateful that Merlyn’s birth occurred intentionally (and quite fortunately) at our rented home in Stoddard, NH, attended by three lay midwives: Katie Schwerin, whose family lived as housemates of ours and are still our good friends; Emmy Rainwalker (Ianiello), who was a former housemate and good friend; and, Cindy Dunleavy, the “senior” midwife who had trained Katie and Emmy and became our good friend.

Also in attendance or present soon after Merlyn’s arrival were other housemates and several good friends: Bill Whyte (Katie’s husband; thanks for the great black-and-white photos, Bill!), Mia Mason (six years old and Katie’s daughter), Emily Schwerin-Whyte (Katie and Bill’s daughter, born in the same house four months prior), Tashin and Toqueem Rainwalker Story Talbot (two months and almost five years old, Emmy and Medicine Story’s children), Dana Dunleavy (three years old, Cindy’s son), Nina (a friend of Katie’s whose surname escapes me), Pamela Faith Lerman (our friend and David’s sweetie), David Eisenberg (a current housemate of ours and a friend), and Zea Moore (family friend). Good thing we had a very large bedroom!

Merlyn and I, 1981

We personally knew and/or were related to a total of over twenty children born within one year of Merlyn. He has cousins one year older and one year younger than he is on both sides, and he was born into what felt like an exploding baby boom, a loosely-knit but connected network of families with children around his age. He grew up in collective households with housemates who often included other children and in close connection with several in particular with whom he is still close as adults. We had buying clubs (food co-ops’ predecessors) we belonged to in several towns nearby for collective purchasing of bulk, organic and healthy foods and supplies. We exchanged childcare, kids’ clothes and baby equipment, recipes, chores, tools and handiwork. We celebrated birthdays, weddings, holidays and other occasions at one another’s houses, often ours.

image from handmademusicclubhouse.com

These other families and their children became our extended family which included children who were students at public and Waldorf schools as well as homeschoolers; Merlyn was all three at one point or another.

Many of these adults and children were/are musicians, as Merlyn is. Our diverse community also included storytellers, teachers, woodworkers, roofers, artists, singers, dancers, therapists, the aforementioned midwives, political activists and social change leaders, construction/building tradespeople, office workers, gardeners, writers, herbalists, acupuncturists, massage therapists, composers, actors, directors, nonprofit social service workers, playwrights, spiritual teachers and leaders, computer techies, farmers/maple syrup makers, publishers, business owners, bookkeepers, retail workers, restaurant workers and many more.

Our ethnic and religious origins included Jewish, Sufi, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic, Native American, atheist, British Isles/Western European, Chinese, African, Eastern European, and many more. We were/are lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, questioning, and unknown or unprovided.

Some of the places we lived right before and after Merlyn was born had no electricity or running water (or even walls). We played board and card games, invented and actual sports games. Most of us intentionally had no televisions or war toys. We put the non-TV-watching time to great use.

We READ a lot! We put on plays, played music, talked a lot with each other, rode bikes, ice skated, sledded, swam, cooked and did “kitchen opera,” made costumes, hiked, walked, repaired, recycled and re-used (long before it was required), spent time in Finnish/Dutch-type saunas and Native American sweat lodges, canned and preserved food and herbs, sang and drummed and worked in ever-changing configurations of children and adults together.

Merlyn, you have become an amazing adult: kind, compassionate, intelligent, capable, worthy of and earning respect and admiration from colleagues, employers, bandmates, friends and peers. I am very proud to be your mother!

I hope, on this anniversary of the day of your birth, in your first year since 1999 of living back in the town you spent most of your growing-up years, that you and your sweetie, Lauren, celebrate in multiple ways with friends and your dad. I wish for you to enjoy a great birthday and many more, healthy, happy and prosperous ones to come!

I love you! Thanks, again, for making me a mother!

I, Merlyn and Christopher, 2013

Filed under: Gratitude, Personal stories Tagged: Birthday, community, Merlyn Ember

Johns Hopkins researchers urge black women to avoid weaves, braids and hair extensions — theGrio

Johns Hopkins researchers are urging black women to avoid weaves, braids and hair extensions because of the risks of permanent hair loss. Researchers say that these hair styles, which can pull on the scalp, can contribute to traction alopecia, a form of gradual hair loss, which about one-third of African-American women suffer from. –Read more on…

via Johns Hopkins researchers urge black women to avoid weaves, braids and hair extensions — theGrio

Filed under: Writing

St. Louis Indie Book Fair is Saturday, May 7, 2016, 10 – 5: FREE!

Come one, come all! St. Louis Indie Book Fair is Saturday, May 7, 2016, 10 – 5: FREE!

image and all organizational work by Mark Pannebecker

All genres, all ages, fiction and nonfiction, books for children, YA and adult readers!

WHERE? St.Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive Street, St. Louis, MO USA 63103

Author readings, giveaways, autographs, conversations, food, more!

Join me (and ask for a special Spanners Series‘ paperbacks discount when you see me!) and many other authors, including Debbie Manber Kupfer.

ALSO: Please come me and other authors share from our work at the public reading auditorium.

Mine is scheduled for about 10 minutes, starting at 11:18 AM!

Full list of participants here: http://www.markpannebecker.com/#!itinerary/c9um

For more information: http://www.markpannebecker.com/#!st-louis-indie-book-fair/c1pz

Filed under: Indie or Self-Publishing, Marketing, Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Spanners, Timult Books Tagged: author readings, book fair, books, discounts, indie authors, St. Louis

Bookworks’ Featured Author: Sally Ember, Ed.D., 4/27/16

Interestingly and unexpectedly, Bookworks decided to make me the Featured Author today, 4/27/16, my mom’s 84th birthday! Happy Birthday, Carole Harris!

https://www.bookworks.com/members/sallyember/

Go visit, comment, make purchases, visit other authors’ pages, join! https://www.bookworks.com/

Thanks, Bookworks!

AND…If you’re in St. Louis or southern Illinois on May 7, stop in and visit me and previous guests on CHANGES conversations between authors guests, Deborah Manber Kupfer, George Sirois and many other local authors and hear me do a public reading May 7, 2016, at the St. Louis Indie Book Fair at the downtown St. Louis Public Library on Olive St., 10 – 5 PM Saturday. FREE! I read at 11:18 AM (or thereabouts) for about 10 minutes. http://shoutout.wix.com/so/eLFPj6yY#/main

Filed under: Indie or Self-Publishing, Marketing, Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Spanners, Timult Books, Writing Tagged: Author, Bookworks, Featured Author, Sally Ember Ed.D Author, The Spanners Series

Look who’s featured on 4/16’s Fantasy and Science-Fiction Network (FSFnet)!

Thanks so much, Kasper Beaumont, for featuring me and my Spanners Series books, on April 16th’s #Author Interviews for the Fantasy and Science-Fiction Network (FSFnet)!

Why I #write utopian, #Buddhist-infused, #multiverse #scifi/rom #novels & why you should #read & share them.

Reposted from 10/30/13 and 2/5/15

Writers are often exhorted to write the books we want to read that seem not to exist, yet. I am following that advice with The Spanners Series, especially Volume I, This Changes Everything, which is now PERMAFREE, and also with subsequent volumes (Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, released 6/9/14; look for Volumes III and IV in 2015).

I am an avid reader and have probably read hundreds of thousands of books in my 56 years of reading independently and quickly, sometimes devouring ten books a week. If I say books like mine—a series like The Spanners—don’t yet exist, I’m probably correct.

All buy links, reviews, interviews, readings and more: http://www.sallyember.com/Spanners Look right; scroll down.

Why am I writing #science-fiction/#romance, #Buddhist-infused, #multiverse/#multiple timelines #utopian #novels besides the reason already given? And, why should you read them? Because we live in a deteriorating, or degenerating Age, according to #Tibetan Buddhists (and probably many others I’m not bothering to research right now).

When I first hear this claim, I disbelieve it. Aren’t most things “improving” for humanity? Modern medicine, technology, transportation, knowledge of all types: in the 20th and 21st centuries, we are experiencing incontrovertible advances, mind-blowing progress, right? Plus, that POV is just such a downer!

Why would the Buddha’s followers propose and then Buddhist teachers and scholars maintain such a doom-and-gloom perspective on life? It’s not enough that Buddha focused his teachings on suffering and impermanence? Most Buddhists must be depressed: that’s what I thought.

I could understand why Tibetans, having been living under horrible oppression, genocide and cultural destruction under Chinese rule for decades, would be so pessimistic. But, we’re in the good ole’ USA: things are great here, right?

Not so much. I won’t go into the facts we all know now (even more than ever, thanks to Snodwen and Manning) about how screwed up the USA has been and still is, nor how terrible the economy is here and everywhere. I won’t provide the list. We all know too well the horrors of our modern life. Modern tragedies, however, are actually not even relevant to this discussion.

The “degenerating” part of our Age has little to do with actual external conditions. Our deterioration involves humans’ not being able to learn #dharma, not being able to find qualified and worthy Buddhist teachers, not being able to practice meditation well or at all. The Buddha’s teachings and Buddhists practitioners are what are degenerating, in what is called “The Third Age” or “The Latter Day of the Law.”

You can look this up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Ages_of_Buddhism

My point is, dystopian futures abound. Most sci-fi writers, even those that include romance in their stories, write of increasingly worsening conditions on and around this planet and across the Universe. They pile on the violence, showing increasing discord, more political and social unrest, deaths and destructions even worse than we have now. We already have too much awfulness for me to want to read about even worse futures.

Enough, already: I believe we need some hope, ideas of how else things could go, whether or not I always believe they will take these turns. Since I can’t find this optimism in the daily news or libraries’ and bookstores’ fiction, I decide to create it. I need this in my personal life, for the USA, for the continent, the water, air and land: I am imagining routes for improvement for the planet and the entire universe.

When I #meditate, especially during a #retreat phase in which I was #contemplating lives of beings in the “God Realm,” it occured to me repeatedly that we live in opulence amid squalor, all over the planet. Beauty smack dab in the middle of ugliness, every day. #Yin and #yang. We do have to “take the good with the bad,” but do we have to emphasize the “bad”?

I do not.

In my novels, even when things are “bad,” there is more good than bad. Buddha teaches often that we have to discern between “good” and “bad” even as we know these are illusory. Many teachings expound on how there is NO “good” or “bad,” no “birth” and no “death,” no “coming” and no “going.”

While you puzzle over that, I’m going to continue my utopian illusions in The Spanners Series. In my current and future multiverses, beings, including humans, will have love, better conditions and dharma: they/we have it all!

Furthermore, I’m going to HOPE—even though we are instructed to meditate partly in order to relinquish all hope and all fear—that YOU read my books and enjoy them as much as I enjoy writing them.

Please let me know! Write your comments here on this and other posts, on excerpts from my novel, and whatever else occurs to you. Let’s converse!

Filed under: All Volumes, Buddhism, Mini retreat reports, Personal stories, The Spanners, Themes from The Spanners, This Changes Everything, Tibetan Vajrayana Nyingma, Volume I of The Spanners Tagged: Buddhism, Buddhist, meditation, retreat, romance, Sally Ember, sci-fi, Spanners, The Spanner Series, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Vajrayana, Writers, writing

“Criteria for Selecting Speculative Fiction for Younger Readers: What to Discuss and Why”

First published on the blog of Susan Day, and thanks for inviting me to be a Guest Blogger on your site, Down Under!

Here is a bit of the post, to whet your appetite, from July, 2014…

Criteria for Selecting Speculative Fiction for Younger Readers:

What to Discuss and Why

by Sally Ember, Ed.D.

“Once upon a time…” is the start of many a tale, especially for a younger reader/listener. Add: “in a land far, far away” or “in another time,” and your story falls into the genre of Speculative Fiction, which includes Fantasy and Science Fiction. But, as a life-long feminist (since aged 3; really), I have serious and ongoing problems with many children’s books and movies. Here are some of my issues, topics and criteria for selecting quality children’s literature, particularly in the Speculative Fiction genre.

Confession: I was so anti-fairy- and folk-tales that I returned gifts my well-meaning relatives sent to my then-toddler, 1980-83, because the depictions in the stories were so sexist, racist, and classist I couldn’t restate them fast enough as I read aloud to make the story worth reading. Sure, I could change gender pronouns (almost always moving from masculine to feminine, just to even the score) as I referred to characters in illustrations of impossible-to-classify beings, but when drawings of tiny-waisted, pasty-white mermaids, princesses and downtrodden, victimized, humanoid females were sprinkled throughout a story, it was time to throw the book out…..MORE on Susan’s site!

Here is the link. Please visit, comment, follow, share!

http://www.susandayauthor.com/home/say-hello-to-sally-ember-my-guest-author-for-today

Filed under: Blogging and others' content, Opinions, Science Fiction and Fantasy Tagged: choosing books, fantasy, parents, sci-fi, speculative fiction, younger readers

Gloria Steinem’s New Documentary Series ‘Woman’ Coming to Viceland in May — Flavorwire

Gloria Steinem’s new project, a documentary-style news magazine show called Woman, will premiere on Viceland May 10, the network announced Monday. On the show, Steinem and a team of female journalists report stories on “the problems once marginalized as women’s issues” around the world, including topics such as sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, unacknowledged cases of missing women…

via Gloria Steinem’s New Documentary Series ‘Woman’ Coming to Viceland in May — Flavorwire

Filed under: Writing

How to Get People to Read Your Blog: 5 Savvy Strategies You Can Apply Today — Silver Threading

Here is some great advice on how to build a blog audience.❤ If you build a blog, readers won’t automatically materialize. Follow these steps to grow a healthy blog audience. Source: How to Get People to Read Your Blog: 5 Savvy Strategies You Can Apply Today

via How to Get People to Read Your Blog: 5 Savvy Strategies You Can Apply Today — Silver Threading

Filed under: Writing