November 21, 2009
As a memoir writer I am a big fan of Mary Karr. I’m almost through reading her latest, Lit and as always, she’s given me a lot to think about. In this memoir she writes about her alcoholism, being a mother, recovery and spirituality.
It’s fitting that in this very non-spiritual place in my life, I am being inspired to think about spirituality from a great writer (instead of a church or a minister etc.) I haven’t been to church in a year? longer? and people (in-laws) keep asking me when we are going to get Reid baptized. His brothers have been baptized in the church where my husband and I were married. The church has sent me information about baptism dates and yet I can’t seem to make myself fill out the form…..it feels hypocritical somehow.
But reading Lit, I’m starting to think differently. I’m starting to think that maybe being spiritual doesn’t mean you have to go to church (and dress up and dress the kids up and sing songs and say prayers that I don’t understand and always made me feel like a poser anyway). That maybe all I need to do is kneel down on my own floor and say a prayer, any kind of prayer. And I feel so corny saying that but so did Karr which makes me feel so much better!
I’ll still need to dress up and go to church to get Reid baptized…but maybe that will just be the beginning of something. I still have to finish the book but I’m surprised that its taken me down this path and maybe I’m grateful too.
November 16, 2009
“Asking for Help.” see Literary Mama…
I started running the year I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I was 14 years old and living away from home at a private school. My field hockey coach had been surprised when she saw me running on a Sunday afternoon, our day off. I’d always complained when she made us go for a run around campus, and had been caught taking the shortcut more than once. That year she gave me a “Most Unlikely Runner” gag award at the end of our season, but I could tell that she was proud. I was proud. Running was teaching me to see my body as healthy rather than sick. With my running shoes on I was strong and steady, not the girl with the chronic disease. Running began as a way to tame my blood sugars, but over the years it has become a necessary rhythm in my life. As the mother of three boys under ten, running every morning keeps me calm and steady in the middle of the motherhood storm.
October 24, 2009
I was shopping at TJMaxx this week, and while standing in line was shocked to see Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol for sale at a majorly discounted price. I am not a big fan of Brown’s and had no plans of buying the book but as a long time book buyer/lover, I was startled to see the hardback being sold next to discounted cookbooks and Disney books.I have to admit to buying my copy of Her Fearful Symmetry (thumbs down) from Costco but for some reason TJMaxx struck me as a different scenario.
In her story, Nation’s Retailers Engage In Online Book Pricing Wars, Lynn Neary writes:
Al Greco, a Fordham University professor who studies the publishing business, says this price war could have a serious ripple effect on all booksellers: “This cuts into book buying at retail stores, supermarkets [and] convenience stores. The book store chains especially hit hard will be the independents who are unable to discount to that level.”
I guess what scares me the most is the idea that wandering down the narrow aisles of shelves crowded with books in a family owned bookstore will be a thing of the past. The positive side of discounted books is that maybe it will encourage more people to read, but I still don’t know how I feel about buying books at TJMaxx.
I think it’s time for the whole publishing business to make changes so the Dan Brown’s and Audrey Niffenegger’s won’t be hogging all the press and money, but what direction will it take? What does all this mean for people like me, working toward my MFA, hoping to get my book published and make a little money? Where will this leave people like me?
October 23, 2009
This is the best essay I’ve read on book promotion in a while. I have to say it makes me cringe when I read rants from authors who complain about touring the country to promote their book. At least your book is published, I hiss under my breath.
Well, Stephanie Elizondo Griest gives it to us straight in her Poets&Writers (Nov/Dec) essay, Confessions of an Author Nomad, promoting Your Book At All Costs. Her opening line had me hooked,
“Three years ago I drew the sad conclusion of every writer without a spouse or a trust fund: I could either write or pay rent. Not both.”
I laughed out loud and had to read it, slowly and with emphasis to my husband so he could appreciate that there were others out there like me, willing to go without in order to write! While I have a spouse, we also have 3 children and a mortgage and on and on so maybe she should clarify her statement as a “spouse who makes a lot of money or a trust fund”…..
Griest’s path of promotion is definitely not one I could emulate with 3 kids under 10, but I appreciate her enthusiasm and love of the journey. Her essay about the life of a published author on the road is inspirational instead of depressing, and we can all use more of those tales…..
