Creative Collecting

 

                                                  my publisher's website

Do you like to collect? Author Paula Chaffee Scardamalia, (Divine Musings)  recent excellent newsletter delt with the subject. It got me thinking about links from our world of collecting to our creative lives. 

I fully admit to being a collector. Living in an old house with a big attic has made it easy for me to say "yes" to a neighbor who was in the process of moving and would I find a good home for her now excess flower pots, side table, mystery collection? 

My attic seemed to expand to provide!

Do you go antiquing? Attend estate sales? It's a good way to discover what colors, textures art styles appeal to you. How you decorate your home shows your own aesthetic, your own style.

Paula suggests that "collecting first of all stimulates the brain, especially through the senses.. Look at any collection of items you have and see which of your senses respond to those items."

Here's something else I hadn't realized about collecting...

"Beyond that sensory effect, collecting while traveling anchors memories of new experiences, new understandings and insights."

Haven't we all looked at a piece of blown glass, a travel brochure, an old long-out-of-print cookbook and remember what adventure we were on when we discovered our treasure? I still lovingly iron a now well-worn embroidered blouse I bought from a vendor in the shadow of a Mayan pyramid, and I think with wonder and gratitude that I was able to experience that moment in my travels.

One of my favorite collections is fellow writer friends, old and new, that I've made over the years. We even get to see each other while on book tours and conferences. Here are my friend Liz and David at a memorable moment... We like collecting those book awards, too!

I hope what you collect inspires your life and fuels your creativity!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maple Sugar Moon

                                                                   My BWL page

Here in Vermont, we are into Sogalikas, the Sugar Maker Moon, fourth in the lunar year. The Abenaki people say that they learned of a delicious treat from the red squirrel nation. Squirrels nip off the end bud of a maple twig and drink the sap flow from the tip at this time of year. The Abenaki were quick to imitate Brother Squirrel!

Now we boil down the sap in sugar houses all over Vermont. It’s a festive time of visiting and telling stories around the fires.

March is also the month to celebrate all things Irish— literature, song, dance and history, myth and legend. What rich heritage we can draw on from both the first peoples and the many immigrants, rich with their own stories, who came to our shores!

Beginnings

 

My novel Ursula's Inheritance was just short-listed for  Laramie Award
honoring Americana fiction.

My novel Missing At Harmony Festival was just short-listed for an MM Mystery Award.

                                                   find my BWL books here!

        Bring all your intelligence to bear on your beginning. --Elizabeth Bowen

January is a month for new beginnings. For writers, it may mean the start of a new novel. Here are some thoughts on beginnings...

Beginnings hold the promise of what's to come in the rest of the novel: the promise of being worth a reader's time and the engagement of her attention and imagination.

I advise my writing students to not worry too much about where a novel begins.  Find a point that interests you and plunge in. But after the first draft is complete, take another look at the beginning, and ask:

1. Does your beginning introduce the story, characters and establish a dramatic premise (what the major conflicts are)?

2. Does your beginning establish what kind of story this is (science fiction, mystery, romance, YA)?

3. Does it plant the reader firmly in time and place?

4. Does it contain conflict?

5. Does it set your tone and style?

6. Does it show your choice of viewpoint?

7. And always, always, always: is it essential?

Based on the answers to these questions, it may be wiser to start the book in another place, or perhaps work on that first chapter until it answers all seven questions, and of course...sings!

Remember dear writers: In literature as in life, no one gets a second chance to make a good first impression!