Super-sized Serving of Wisdom and Inspiration

It was an action- and inspiration-packed week. And there was even another author event at Portsmouth’s Music Hall with Tracy Kidder, but I didn’t have the presence of mind to snap a photo.

Ann Hood is the visiting author this year at Southern New Hampshire University. I totally loved her novel, The Knitting Circle and am looking forward to her 2010 release, The Red Thread. On top of that, she is a totally fun person with great gusto for laughter. She is also a terrifically prolific writer — fiction, nonfiction and a zillion magazine publications. So this weekend, as I was reading about a blogger-become-book author in “More” mag, I was pleasantly surprised to see her now-familiar name at the byline. But then again, she’s the kind of woman with her keystrokes on a pulse-point. Welcome to SNHU, Ann!

It took two years of planning and committee meetings, but when Sunday, Oct. 25th arrived, the Friends of the Nashua Public Library were ready to host an afternoon with Chris Bohjalian. For those who wanted to chat with the author up-close-and-personal, we offered tickets to a private reception. It was a smashing success, as Chris graciously circulated among clusters of book club members and avid fans, many of whom were clutching copies of his most recent success, Skeletons at the Feast. Personally, I had a difficult time accompanying the characters as they survived the harsh conditions and cruel human acts of the winter of 1945. But Chris is a consummate story teller, both orally and on paper, and he did not disappoint us last Sunday. I was so transfixed during his 45-minute presentation that I barely bothered to adjust myself on the folding chair. Fantastic!

Every third-semester student in the SNHU MFA program is required to write a critical essay. The subject of the essay is to be on one aspect of the writing craft of an author (living or not) who writes in the same genre as the student is working in for their graduate manuscript project. The memoir author I have chosen for my essay is Augusten Burroughs. I am intrigued with his use of humor that has the reader laughing while at the same time choking or crying at the horror of the narrator’s circumstance. My email request for an interview went unanswered. But fortunately, his publicist has put together a tour for his latest book, You Better Not Cry. How lucky for me his tour included Boston! Tickets for his reading and Q&A were only $5, so if I couldn’t get an interview, at least I’d get to see him in action in the flesh. I was not disappointed — the reading was terrific and right in line with my thesis statement. As Augusten was leaving the stage, I mustered up the courage to approach him as he passed my seat. It was a brief but enlightening exchange. “No, I do not give interviews any longer,” he told me.  That’s alright. I think I just had one.

And then this weekend it was time to get back to the keyboard and my own story. In the words of both Ann Hood and Augusten, the yellow post-it note now stuck to my desk reminds me: emotional truth. That’s what will resonate with the reader. Thanks, guys.

Creating the Lovable Life

Last night I needed something to read, a segue between 10 hours of memoir-focused writing (with more than a few email, facebook and snack breaks, I confess) and some shut-eye. I went to my bookshelf and selected Live What You Love by Bob and Melinda Blanchard. If you haven’t read their first book, A Trip to the Beach, it’s a must.

LWYL is the kind of book you can open up at any page and find the narrative refreshing as well as inspirational. A few pages before bed were just what I needed to change mental channels and calm down for sleep. I particularly like the book’s subtitle: “notes from an unusual life”. Speaks to my memoir material, too. This has been an unusual life!

So this morning I decided to check out their web site. Gosh, I’m hooked! They talk a lot about the Big 4: Passion, People, Environment and Money. (Reminds me of the four ice cream scoops of major pursuits I am supposed to keep in my virtual ice cream dish.) Worthy of more pondering. 

 … The memoir project has certainly detracted from my available time for blogging … and I MISS IT!

Until next time,
the joy-capturing shutterbug,

Holding on to summer with a pink passion

With the dinner plate dahlias still rejoicing in the garden, there is the illusion that the calendar pages haven’t yet turned towards the next season. 

Today I’m going on a giant Artist Date: visiting a number of artists’ studios on the Nashua Art Walk. And then there’s a dance lesson.  A delicious day of inspiration and creative refueling.

I hope you have an inspired Sunday, too.

Will Armchair Travel Cure Travel-bug Fever?

Can you find the out-of-towner here?

Between the memoir-writing and new product development (more to come on that soon), not to mention generating an income, my travel bug lust has been left in the drawer. Antsy and neglected, she’s rearing her noisy head and begging for some out-of-town adventure. Preferably to destinations exotic and requiring language skills other than English. But alas, for now, photos must do the trick. … Care to join me for a trip down Memory Lane?

That’s me, in the yellow hat. Standing next to the coral on a dairy farm owned by the gentleman in the white shirt. This was in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil. The story of how I happened to arrive there is fodder for another memoir, which will have to stay on hold, for now. (Although I’m happy to answer any questions you may think of — so feel free to comment!) I spent a month with this family, and during that time acquired enough Portuguese to carry on a brief conversation at the vegetable stand or with a neighbor. Much of the language I learned while hanging out with the women in the family, as we did housekeeping chores: mopping floors, dusting, and the weekly laundry (without a machine!). And cooking. Lots of cooking. I think this would be called learning by immersion. Sometimes scary, but definitely effective!

abandoned outdoor kitchen

One of my favorite things about the lifestyle below the Equator was the integration of the outdoors into everyday life. Typically, the kitchens were located at the back of the house. Provided a patio or yard adjoined, the windows were without glass. In the countryside, windows simply had shutters — often painted in Mediterranean blue — that could be closed at night. But my very favorite kitchens were al fresco, like this one in the photo at the right. This is the kitchen in the farm house owned by my mister-at-the-time. No one had lived here in years. Being a romantic and never short on imagination, the rust and rot inspired fantasies of a rural artist’s studio with meals taken outdoors under the trees.

View from the Farm

This is the view that I spent hours admiring out the front window and door of the little farm house. Where I fell in love with a place so far from home and my loved ones that I had to leave it behind.

creative battery recharge

… from the comfort of my bed. After so many hours and days spent on the computer, I really felt the need to do something with my hands.

And the view from where I sit.

(In another lifetime, I made the stained glass lampshade.)

200 pages down, 4 months to go – a memoir update

Meet the culprit. The reason my blog posts and new photography have been on simmer.

You are looking at the 177 pages of my memoir project I am willing to live with thus far and had to send to my mentor  in advance of the new semester’s first writing packet deadline. My memoir focuses on my teen years, when I was growing up on an island in the 196os. I have organized it by the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years of high school. That’s how I keep my memories in order, so it was the most natural solution. But believe me — I was not popular nor did I attend the same school all four years or graduate in a cap and gown. So there’s a bit of irony.

Yesterday, 30 more pages went out the door to join the others.

This is the last semester dedicated to new writing. In February the edit and rewrite process begins in earnest.

Sunday Night Redefined: it’s a Dance

Last Sunday night a bunch of us gathered in a friend’s basement.  We loaded up the CD player and practiced our salsa, cha cha, rumba, east coast and west coast swing, and even the waltz, which is what ML and I are doing in this photo.

Yes, my friend painted the Cat-in-the-Hat on the wall and the cute paw prints on the floor, too! It’s a really fun space. Dancing with friends on a Sunday night was a whole new way to enjoy the end of a late-summer weekend. … Have you danced in your basement today?!

Artist’s Date with a Peach

I’m celebrating. So I took a coffee break at one of my favorite local farm stands (amazing that the mall is less than 1/2-mile away, through the trees and over a train track).

177 pages of manuscript shipped off to my mentor today. Alle-frickin-lujah. Represents one year of writing and editing. The project still has a ways to go yet. But words cannot convey the measure of accomplishment that that stack of paper, bound with a giant clip (a bit of leftover hardware found in my deceased father’s desk – he loved hardware, and all things b-i-g).

The sounds of toddlers in conversation with their parents over dishes of ice cream, the occasional bit of crying and yowling, and the adorable miniature goats, all had me fast-tracking back to memories of farm field trips with my own little guy.

Wishing you a happy day, too.

Road Trip: Herby Lunch in Mason NH

Summer is the perfect time of year to meander along back-country roads in search of new culinary pleasures. And Pickity Place does not disappoint. The chef changes out the menu just once a month. But you can have your choice between two entrees — one vegetarian and the other not. Every element of the 5-course gourmet luncheon incorporates fresh herbs from their gardens. If you find a flower blossom garnish, guaranteed it’s edible, too. Isn’t the lavendar lemonade a happy shade of pink ? It was a real thirst-quencher on one of the hottest days of the summer.

The dining area is in a darling antique cape-style house that was once the inspiration for the illustrations in the 1948 English edition of Little Red Riding Hood. Across the hall from the dining room is the ‘museum,’ complete with the big-bad-wolf dressed in granny’s bedclothes and nestled beneath the quilt in the four-poster bed. And after lunch, before heading home, a walking tour of the herb gardens …

… and a view through a window in the herb-drying shed. All in all, a quentissential New England summer afternoon.

Artist Date: Audio Style

My Uncle Milton (on the right) and his four-hand piano partner, John, tell us about the Mozart sonata they have been practicing in preparation for a Labor Day concert for their wives. Today I was fortunate enough to sit in on a dress rehearsal. What a treat!

The stars warm up and settle their nerves for the performance.

The sonata had three movements, each with its own distinctive mood. Nothing can compare to the power of live music. As the fellas entertained us with the fruits of their labors, I relaxed into my armchair and allowed my imagination to wander. The notes took me from thoughts about the genius of Mozart to my own humble creative expression, to the admirable vitality and acumen of my uncle. I traveled around the world in 30 minutes, I guess you might say.

I couldn’t help but notice that the flowers that we brought from Parlee Farms  happen to match one of my father’s paintings. John’s shorts round out the red accent in triplicate.

An addendum to the inspirational afternoon: John is currently rehearsing for an opera performance, which involves not only singing but learning the Viennese Waltz, too. Wow!

Julia Cameron’s Artist Dates are prescribed as solo ventures, but I am inclined to soften the guidelines on occasion. Today was one of those exceptions.