Andrea N. Carr's Blog, page 24
November 5, 2014
I found it interesting and ironic that Angel had worked f...
I found it interesting and ironic that Angel had worked for many years in mental health but had such trouble connecting with the therapists and mental health people in jail. I imagine I would feel the same way in her situation…I would want people to actually empathize with me rather than seeing me as someone to manage per their training, or would just not be ready for what they had to say. Can you speak to that aspect of her experience a bit? Did the work you did in that field influence your writing?
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Andrea Carr AUTHOR REPLY
6 days ago Edit
Well, she didn’t feel the psychologist there could help her get the answers she needed. Therapists guide toward one’s own resolve of issues, that wasn’t going to come from anyone around her then. Angel is a mother first, so her first concern was to take care of her son not herself. Angel connected with the jail staff whom she felt could help her get what she needed. To see him, make arrangements for her son’s visit. Jail is a place to be housed, not get therapy. It isn’t prison with a lengthy stay her sentence was only, 45 days. But, still too long to wait to see her son under the circumstances.
My work influenced my decision to write about it, because of my training I knew it could help process my own emotions. I based my story on my own life experience with my sister’s suicide. Also, it’s not so simple of a task to get through it, in jail. No one knows, including Angel, what are the circumstances are or any real particulars about it. Questions have to be asked and processed. A lot of questions about it were unanswered. Angel didn’t know what she needed yet, from anyone.
I chose to tell the story from the perspective of the character Angel, because I felt most comfortable from there. I felt she was the only person, I could think for in the story. Also, to tell from one point of view as in life. Whoever, one identifies with in the story perhaps, can see themselves through Angel’s eyes and be influenced to purge some emotional baggage or have a clearer understanding of family problems. To use as a tool to identify, relatable misunderstandings of the reader if possible. When is it okay, to hold back the truth from someone you love? With the best intentions it can be devastating.
I don’t think I know, enough about life yet to write from any other perspective. I have to like the character for now to be them in my writing. I need to understand them to convey the essence of who they are.
Thank you, for visiting my blog
Filed under: On becoming a writer. Tagged: about, andrea n carr, angie carr, family tree the novel, first novel, literature, on being a writer, writer
October 23, 2014
All or nothing
I am probably, the craziest author I know. I only want to write, I say. I get side tracked with ‘how to” publishing issues such as marketing who, where and why. I have to hope for the best with that. It’s annoying as hell, I don’t want to be annoyed anymore. I write everyday now and I feel better.
Filed under: On becoming a writer.
October 17, 2014
Announcing the 2014 ALSCW Meringoff Writing Awards, Deadline Dec. 1
The Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers announces three awards of $2,000 each, in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Only one entry is accepted from each person. All entries must be previously unpublished. The winning entries will be published in either Literary Imagination or Literary Matters. All entries must be postmarked not later than December 1st 2014. The winners will be announced early in 2015. There is no entry fee for current members of The Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers. For everyone else membership in the ALSCW is required — all members will receive the annual three issues of our literary journal/magazine Literary Imagination, and our newsletter, as well as being able to attend our conferences and local gatherings.
• For the Meringoff Poetry Award, each entry can be one poem, or a group of poems that add up to no more than 150 lines. The Meringoff Poetry Award will be judged by Greg Delanty and David Curzon.
• For the Meringoff Fiction Award, each entry should be one story, or a chapter of a longer work of no more than 25 pages double spaced. The Meringoff Fiction Award will be judged by Lee Oser.
• For the Meringoff Nonfiction Award, each entry should be one nonfiction piece, or a chapter of a longer work of no more than 25 pages double spaced. The Meringoff Nonfiction Award will be judged by Diana Senechal and Ernest Suarez.
All entries will be judged anonymously. Please include THREE COPIES of your entry with your name, email address, postal address and phone number ON ONLY ONE OF THEM. All Submissions should be postmarked not later than December 1, 2014 , to:
Stephen J. Meringoff Writing Awards
Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers
650 Beacon St. Suite 510
Boston MA 02215 United States
October 7, 2014
Am I the only one?
I woke up and the first thing my eyes see is my hand still holding the remote. My computer is talking to me, “Excuse me …” I didn’t tell it to talk. I have the same thought everyday, as soon as my eyes open. “How can I sleep with all this stuff on my bed.” “Thank God, I didn’t kick my laptop onto the floor.”
My head is resting on the pile of books I read recently. I’m a binge reader. Thank God for writers or I would never know anything about life. I’m connected to it, in some way. I don’t watch the news unless someone mentions something, I think I should know about. I watch HBO and BBC documentaries, Nova and “The Wire” over and over again.
I feel guilty when I leave the apt. because, I should be writing. Omg what is this?
Filed under: On becoming a writer.
September 29, 2014
Welcome!
“Author’s large and small” – Publicist services for hire. Reasonable priced pkgs I think; anyway. Click the welcome link go to their website.
Services Offered by Authors, Large and Small
First package, for $200
Read over your work, and conduct an interview with you. If you wish, provide you with the interview transcript for your use.
Generate an email pitch and press release based on your work.
Locate and list relevant bloggers and news media outlets (TV, newspaper, and radio) for your genre.
Send the press release and pitch out to bloggers and media until you receive at least five comprehensive, well-written reviews of your work. Or, at least one radio appearance, or a newspaper calendar mention, or whatever else we determine together makes the most sense to promote your book.
Second package, for 400
All the above services.
Make a list of bookstores and community centers, festivals and events in your area that might host you for a signing or book talk.
Send you the list, and let you screen and approve places you’d like to appear.
Contact each place, schedule as many signings for you as we can, depending on your availability to speak and on the stores’ schedules.
Go through the list two more times, following up on places which asked us to email the owners, call back at a different time, call back a different month, etc. couldn’t be reached, etc. Follow up on emails also.
Create a link on your Facebook fanpage and write a Tweet for you (and tweet from our Authors, Large and Small account, @smallandlarge) to announce your signings. Write a paragraph announcing the signing which you may repost in your blog.
Third package, for $600
All of the above services.
Create and maintain a Facebook fanpage for your book. Write introductory material, post pictures of you and of the cover, invite Facebook friends of your choosing. Respond to basic questions from readers, post updates about new releases, signings, etc. Start discussions among page fans about relevant topics, put something new up twice a week.
Create and maintain a Twitter account for your book, or for you as an author. Follow and welcome your followers, update with news or thoughts twice a week.
Incorporate your books and publications into your LinkedIn account.
Post relevant material for your book on Pinterest, and photos of the cover, of places in your book, etc. Maintain that account.
Create paragraphs introducing you and your book (from the press release, or something separate and jazzier if you wish) that you can paste into blogs, email, etc.
Set up a Blogspot, LiveJournal or other blog account or community for your work.
Fourth package, for $900
All the above services.
Write a query letter for you to send to a publisher or literary agent, should you wish to take your book mainstream.
Write a formal book proposal, to accompany your query letter. This includes a synopsis (fiction), a chapter-by-chapter outline (nonfiction), a list and sentence-long description of each character (fiction), a market analysis, a description of your background as related to the book’s topic and how and to whom we’ll promote the book(can do this for either fiction or nonfiction), and an explanation of how your book is different from similar titles already on the market.
Other services, that can be substituted or included in a custom package
Research the literary agent, editor, and publisher market for your book, and provide you with a list of potential contacts for mainstream publishing.
Submit your query letters and proposals to agents and editors.
Join literary communities online and drop mentions of your book into conversation.
For poets: Explore the literary magazine market, send you a list of literary magazines accepting your genre. Submit your work there.
Write back-cover copy or an endorsement for your book.
Review your book ourselves and send the review to whatever sites you wish, as a guest post.
Ask relevant non-book review, topical blogs to mention your book (i.e. surfing blogs for a book with a character who spends a lot of time catching waves).
Refer you to affordable graphic designers who can create icons and logos and cover art.
Anything else that makes sense, that we work out together in the first consultation. We’re very flexible and would love to think and work creatively to help your book sell!
Please feel free to contact me, Cristina Deptula, general manager, at cedeptula@sbcglobal.net for more information, and if you are interested in our services. You may also call us at 510-589-8252 (we check messages regularly) or find us on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorsLargeAndSmall?fref=ts
Haven’t tried them though, I’m considering doing so; it sounds good.
Filed under: On becoming a writer.
September 28, 2014
September 15, 2014
We do the best we can
Some days, I feel really good about what I’ve done. Trying to raise awareness about my book. Most days I don’t think I’ve done enough or am unsure about what I did. Always searching for insights on how to. One thing, I always feel good about is my writing because it’s better than good. I thank God for it because sometimes I need that feeling to keep going. Soon, everyone will understand I’m an overnight sensation, I think.
Filed under: On becoming a writer.
August 25, 2014
I have to learn
I keep learning new things and last week was no different. I found a group of like-minded people by accident or was it. I was writing diligently, about gut instinct. My story is about not acting on it and what would or can happen if ignored. Anyway, that’s another story. I needed a break from writing and scrolled my FB news feed. I found the MERGE SUMMIT. What is that? I went to their website and it said, merging faith and media. Okay, what is that exactly, do they mean church faith or keep the faith. So, I clicked the video presentation of past summits for a better understanding. What I heard spoke so loudly. I had to go and be there.
Denzel Washington was on the video presentation speaking about gut instinct, I call it. He said, “That it is God’s way of letting you know it is yours already, that itch that desire in the heart for anything good is yours to claim.” I thought, wow a conference on this desire I have, guided by faith. I had wondered does anyone else give up everything they know to follow their heart acting on gut instinct guided by faith. Apparently, people do.
I continue to stumble upon the things I need to hear and find, right when I need them. God works through people if allowed to do so. I’d like to act as his vessel this morning, for someone needing to hear and identify with my message here.
Thank you, MERGE SUMMIT for being the vessel I found. God spoke to me, through you.
Filed under: On becoming a writer. Tagged: faith, family tree the novel about, gut instict, merge summit
July 21, 2014
Reviews
I want to share, with you a favorite review of mine – just out.
Published 7/2014
Written by, Anthony Ewart, Associate Editor
HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY MAGAZINE
You don’t have to like people to be a writer. That’s a fact. Some authors can describe characters brilliantly. You can picture them in your mind, envision them walking down a sidewalk in front of you – but that’s as far as you go. Like strangers you see around you, you can guess what they’re thinking about, but you can never know. Even if you had coffee with some of them and engaged in small talk, what could you glean from such a shallow interaction?
This is not the case with author Andrea Carr and her new novel “Family Tree.” Her characters never leave your side, even after the book is closed. Like ghosts they live with you, haunting you with their pain. What does this prove? It proves Andrea Carr loves people. She loves telling their stories. Only a writer with this level of love can make characters on a page this real…but be warned, this is a blessing and a curse, because the pain these characters endure is raw and sensitive to the touch; their lives the equivalent of an open wound.
Aristotle described the elements in Andrea Carr’s Family Tree in his “Poetics,” where he famously stated that the goal of Greek Tragedies was “to bring about a catharsis of the spectators — to arouse in them sensations of pity and fear, and to purge them of these emotions so that they leave the theater feeling cleansed and uplifted.” Franz Kafka went even further, saying, “What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than we love ourselves.”
These two quotes are what I constantly had to remind myself of while reading Family Tree – I had to experience the lives of these characters; somehow, at the other end of this novel, I would grow as a human being. As Aristotle said, my emotions would be purged. Andrea Carr worked as a Psychiatric Technician for the State of California, and it shows in her literary understanding of the human condition. Family Tree is a first-person narrative, and we’re guided through the branches of this family by Angel Harper, a character who is a testament to the incredible strength of a woman. If you were to condense the townspeople of Grace Metalious’ Peyton Place to one family, you’d have Family Tree.
The story begins with Angel Harper incarcerated, and learning from her estranged mother by phone that her sister, Lady, has hung herself in the backyard. Angel’s son, Malcolm, who Lady was taking care of, is nowhere to be found. I haven’t read an opening scene of a novel this potent since anything James M. Cain ever wrote. Slowly, through the steady hand of a literary surgeon, Andrea Carr reveals the sordid secrets of Angel’s family, and the devastating effect it’s had on her siblings.
Family Tree is a novel that is begging for a sequel. I want to know what happens to these characters. Angel’s relationship with her son, Malcolm, is a saga I want to follow. I want to see Angel confront her mother about more than just the issues tackled in this book. I want to know that Lady didn’t die in vain. Like Grace Metalious’ 1959 follow-up novel “Return to Peyton Place,”
I’m ready to start a campaign for Andrea Carr’s follow-up to Family Tree. May all our emotions be purged…
Anthony Ewart Associate Editor, HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY MAGAZINE
Filed under: Uncategorized
