Living the Dream – Liz Fenwick and her Cornish dreamscapes

Today I’d like to introduce you all to wonderful writer, expat expert, wife, mother of three, dreamer turned doer…….I refer, of course, to Liz Fenwick, author of the novels The Cornish House and the just published A Cornish Affair. Having read and loved Liz’s debut novel, The Cornish House, I was eager to learn something about her writing process and how she found her way into the world of words. Liz very graciously agreed to humour me!

1) Can you tell us a little about how you found your way into writing? When did you finally decide to become a full-time writer?

Back on New Year’s Eve 2003, I declared my resolution to write more. I didn’t say that it was actually to write fiction again. I kept that bit to myself but in 2004 despite a move from Dubai to London I wrote a complete romance novel of 50,000. The key word in that last sentence for me was complete. Back when I was doing my degree in English Literature I wrote ¾ of novel for my senior thesis but never finished it. And all those years in between I really wondered if I had the ability to finish. The book written in 2004 proved I could do it. I then sent if out to Mills & Boon and it was duly rejected as it deserved to be. Thanks to that rejection I found the Romantic Novelist Association and I joined their New Writers’ Scheme. That dire book went through the scheme and the reader (a publishered author) said that I could write but maybe Mills & Boon wasn’t the right place for me. For this thank I thank that unknown reader. She set me on a journey to discover my voice as a writer, not just what I thought was manageable (50,000 words). It was this point that I realized again that this was what I truly wanted to do. I then looked on writing as my job and treated it seriously and demanded that my family did as well. I took courses and read books and I networked like mad.

2) Tell us a little bit about your writing process – are you a ‘plotter’ or a ‘pantser’? Do you have a routine? Pen and paper or lap top? Anything else you’d care to share about your process?

In the past I was a total panster. I would know my title, my heroine’s name, the location and roughly the ending and write into the wind. Now with a looming deadline I am learning to plot in broad strokes…I haven’t got the time to write myself in and out of plot holes. It also helps that I have an editor who likes to brain storm and who can see problems that I wouldn’t until I got to that point. So my process is changing. I am also trying Scrivener. I am hopeless with notecards because I lose or they are never in the right country. I can’t live without my notebooks. I jot down ideas, I do mind maps, I keep track of eyes, colours etc in the notebook. The only problem is that it’s not easy to search the notebook to find the info as I put the stuff in there as it happens….I’ll let you know when I’ve finished A Cornish Stranger if this new method has worked for me!

3) Can you describe a typical working/writing day for us? How much time do you devote to daily writing? Do you divide your time between new writing and revising?

I have no typical day. My life is mad. It is divided between Dubai and the UK. I write when I can and spend far more time editing…especially as I write very dirty drafts. In an ideal word I have breakfast with my husband then read emails, check Amazon stats, FB, Twitter and then settle to write. I will then change out of my PJs just before he comes home and wonder what we are going to eat for dinner. That is my ideal writing day!

4) If you were mentoring a new writer what advice would you give her? Any special book recommendations?

You need to write your own book, the book of your heart and not chase the fads. It truly has to be the story you want to tell, it needs that fire, your fire in it. Then enjoy the time pre-publication. It is time to learn all you can about your craft and the industry. It isn’t a race. Finally listen to your work. I have text to voice software that reads the books to me. Listening I can hear things that I would miss on the page. Clunky sentence leap out…

There are so many good writing books out there and I have been lucky enough to find the ones I needed at the right time in my writing. But a short list would include:

Sol Stein’s Solutions for Writers

Donald Maass Writing Breakout Fiction …actually all his books

Save the Cat

Scarlett Thomas Monkeys With Typewriters

5) How long does it take you to write a novel from first idea to last revision?

This is something that is changing. Well it has to because of being published. In the past I would write a dirty draft in three months then put it aside for a long while (months) then rewrite. Now I have got the luxury of time. I have a book due by the end of September so my process is changing. Whereas in the past I used to write a dirty draft I am now writing each scene on the computer, then rewriting it by hand then typing it back into the computer. Fingers crossed that this will cut the time needed to put together a polished novel! I’ll know by the 30^th of September!

6) Where do you get your ideas from? How do you organize them?

My ideas come from life and research. A Cornish Affair began with a title…not that one but August Rock, which is a submerged reef just off the mouth of the Helford River. The Cornish House came from a house I did actually fall in love with and A Cornish Stranger began with a Cornish saying I found when research…Save a stranger from the sea and he’ll turn your enemy.

As I mentioned above I am never without a notebook. I jot ideas and snippets down all the time. If I write something down by hand I can ‘hold’ on to it longer if that makes sense. There is something in the process with brain and hand and pen and paper that works for me. I also mind map in my note books. I’m dyslexic and the process of mind mapping works for me.

7) Tell us about your journey from first novel to publication – the journey from actually sitting down to write your very first novel and how long it took to eventually reach publication!

Well, I wrote my very first novel in high school but never finished it, and the same with The Irish Woman (the one I wrote in university). So when I completed First Love Second Chance in 2004 that was a break through. But as I mentioned above it wasn’t right for me as a writer. So in 2005 I wrote August Rock which is now A Cornish Affair. I was then on my journey to find my voice. After a rewrite I then wrote The Cornish House in 2006 and then went back and rewrote August Rock again then The Cornish House again then wrote another book in 2007. Can you see the pattern beginning? So each year each I would write a new novel and revise an old one. And finally in 2011 I got my agent with The Cornish House and it sold to Orion and also in Holland, Germany, Portugal and Norway.

9) Do you write short stories? I was once given advice to start with short stories for women’s weekly magazines, then progress to writing pocket novels and finally attempt The Novel. Would you recommend this particular course of action?

I don’t often do short stories. In fact the first one I wrote since university was done last year for the Sunday Express. I find them much harder than writing a novel. I think every writer’s journey to publication is unique and I know for me short stories require a completely different set of skills.

10) Do you teach the craft of writing? What is your opinion of writing retreats? Do you ever attend any, either as teacher or student?

I haven’t taught writing courses but have done social media workshops. I’m not sure that with only two published books under my belt I’m truly qualified yet.  I do think there are many things about writing that can be taught through courses and books. But what can’t be taught is being an actual story teller. I know I can learn how to tell the story better by learning structure and other skills but if the gift isn’t there in the first place then it isn’t going to happen. Every year I attend the Romantic Novelists’ Association conference and I try and attend the workshops held at Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature. I also find I learn from listening to other authors when they speak at festivals. I would love to do a writing retreat.

Thank you so very much Liz for agreeing to do this interview. It was lovely to have you here, and I have learned so much from your wonderful answers. What a treat it is to be gifted with a glimpse into the mind of a wonderfully warm writer such as yourself.

Blog: http://lizfenwick.blogspot.ie/

Web site: http://www.lizfenwick.com/

The Cornish House by Liz Fenwick

When artist Maddie inherits a house in Cornwall shortly after the death of her husband, she hopes it will be the fresh start she and her step-daughter Hannah desperately need.

Trevenen is beautiful but neglected, a rambling house steeped in history. Maddie is enchanted by it and determined to learn as much as she can about its past. As she discovers the stories of generations of women who’ve lived there before, Maddie begins to feel her life is somehow intertwined within its walls.

But Maddie’s dream of a calm life in the countryside is far from the reality she faces. Still struggling with her grief and battling with Hannah, Maddie is unable to find inspiration for her painting and realises she may face the prospect of having to sell Trevenen, just as she is coming to love it.

And as Maddie and Hannah pull at the seams of Trevenen’s past, the house reveals secrets that have lain hidden for generations.

This gorgeously sweeping debut from Liz Fenwick is touched with romance and mystery, a perfect summer read.

A Cornish Affair by Liz Fenwick

Running out on your wedding day never goes down well. When the pressure of her forthcoming marriage becomes too much, Jude bolts from the church, leaving a good man at the altar, her mother in a fury, and the guests with enough gossip to last a year.

Guilty and ashamed, Jude flees to Pengarrock, a crumbling cliff-top mansion in Cornwall, where she takes a job cataloguing the Trevillion family’s extensive library. The house is a welcome escape for Jude, full of history and secrets, but when its new owner arrives, it’s clear that Pengarrock is not beloved by everyone.

As Jude falls under the spell of the house, she learns of a family riddle stemming from a terrible tragedy centuries before, hinting at a lost treasure. And when Pengarrock is put up for sale, it seems that time is running out for the house and for Jude.

Following on from her bestselling debut, THE CORNISH HOUSE, Liz Fenwick’s A CORNISH AFFAIR is touched with intrigue and romance, a bewitching, escapist read that is certain to delight readers.

What I live for

- – Today I’m taking part in ‘What I Live For’, an online event organised by author Satya Robyn. People like me all over the world will be sharing what gives their lives meaning. In Satya Robyn’s novel ‘Thaw’, Ruth gives herself three months to decide whether she can find a reason to carry on living. There’s 75% off the kindle version today (99p / $1.49) – read more here:http://www.satyarobyn.com/?page_id=56 – -

There’s a list of people taking part – email satya@writingourwayhome.com if you want to be included (and your blog if you have one). The list is here.

Do invite your friends along – Satya has a Facebook invite here (where you can also share your piece) or forward them the link to this blog: http://www.satyarobyn.com/?p=154. I’m looking forward to reading them all!

I could have written about my precious loved ones, my family, but I chose to keep them and their secrets to myself. Instead I have written about my favourite place on earth, a spot I regularly return to just to remind myself what it is I live for, why I continue to believe. The photograph at the top of my blog was taken in Glendalough some months ago.

There is one sacred place which alone I call the ‘landscape of my soul’, Glendalough – ‘An Gleann Dhá Locha’ [Irish] – the valley of the two lakes. The earth here holds in safe keeping the memory of its distant past in the steep slopes, deep lakes, and dead trees dotting the scrub hill side. A kind of purified expansiveness seems to swirl in the air I breathe in this valley, as if the Spirit still moves through, drifting between the heavenly and earthly realms, promising that I too can be at one with what is.

Returning here always feels like coming home, as if this is where I truly belong, as if I too once walked around and through this ancient monastic site, this place where monks lived and moved and had their being, where they prayed in the night and again at dawn, in the ‘big hours’ and the ‘little hours’ too, shivering in the ever present damp and cold which seeps up from the sodden earth below. They must have stood by the edge of the lake and stared out over the still darkness, reflecting the sky and clouds above, just as I do when I return there, sometimes, but not often enough. Their robes would have blown in the wind which always sweeps down from the gap between the mountains, the valley left behind when the glaciers moved through, sculpting the land aeons ago.

This numinous space, this sacred earth, is part of my blood, its airy molecules flowing through my veins. This land is my land, this land is free. I come here when I need to escape, when the desire to gain perspective arises within, that intuitive call from my soul which impels me to let go, to remember that there is more to life than this and this and this, to find again my way back home.

For ‘home’ is not constant, it shifts and moves in accordance with perceptions and moods, so that where one moment I am at ease, perhaps the next my equanimity has been ruffled and disturbed. Sometimes the home, the house I live in coincides with my inner sense of ‘home’, sometimes not. Sometimes I need to get away from home, to find my way back there.

Then the spare, stark trees, stripped of their bark by the biting east wind, standing like mummified centurions, watch over me and the graves of the monks long gone and the ancient ruins, former cells and chapels, stones still carrying traces of the voices chanting psalms long ago – not even the ravens caw can drown out the memory of what went before.

Perhaps they still remember what it is we live for; perhaps I do too.

Writing Ghost Stories

Though I have yet to write one, ghost stories have long been one of my favourite genres to read. Who doesn’t want to be scared out of their wits?!

My love affair with them began when I was a child, losing myself in the terrifying worlds encapsulated in the Armada series of ghost stories. Do you remember them? That was when I learned the meaning of the term “spine-tingling” and how nightmares could invade your waking hours. Aaahhhh!”

Nowadays when I fancy a little shiver and chill, I turn to authors like Sarah Waters, who penned the incredibly creepy novel The Little Stranger, a story which had me glued to the page until the very last sentence. Highly recommended! All I shall tell you here is that nothing much happens in any given chapter and yet the tension and fear mounts as the story rolls on relentlessly, ones fear growing in tandem with the author’s words, her mastery of the medium evident in every move, every change of scene. Marvellously terrifying! I couldn’t sleep properly for weeks after reading it! What better recommendation can one get for a ghost story?!

 

And, of course, can we mention ghost stories without referring to the contemporary author who has carried the frisson and eery atmospherics of ghost writing to a whole new generation, who else but Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black, The Small Hand and most recently Dolly.

Which brings me to the point of this post! Recently I interviewed the wonderful Kath, blogger supreme over on Womag Writers. [You can read the interview here.] You may remember that Kath has just published her latest book in e-form, Ghost Stories and How to Write Them which is available from Amazon. This lovely book contains ten of Kath’s own spooky ghost stories along with her writerly advice on how to pen one of your own. If you want to learn how to do it right, pick up a copy of Kath’s book!

Then, when you’ve terrified yourself with your own dastardly imagination, enter the following competition The Fiction Desk Ghost Story Competition 2013. Entries should be between 2,000 and 5,000 words. Closing date is 31 May 2013, and there are even prozes for the winning entries – £500 for Fist Prize and £100 for Second. Entry fee is £6 for one story or £9 for two. To find out more, click here.

Happy ghost hunting!

Where do you go to my lovely?

 

Or,where do you go when you want to find a good women’s fiction novel to read?

It’s no surprise to any of my friends that my favourite genre of novels is women’s fiction. And not only do I love the books themselves, but I am totally addicted to blogs and book sites which either devote themselves to this kind of writing, or at the very least, incorporate it somehow into the mix.

With this in mind I’ve been thinking and ‘moodling’ …… wouldn’t it be nice to have a list of blogs and web sites which function as a source of information, reviews and general recommendations for women’s writing? Well I, at least, think it would! And certainly having a list of resources like this in one place (here!) means I no longer need to try and remember the names and links to these aforesaid web spaces.

So, in the interest of sharing, and even perhaps engaging in a little proselytizing of the literary kind, let me introduce to you, all my dear readers, the following positively wonderful and stupendously amazing web sites and blogs.

–Meg Waite Clayton: 1st Books: Reading and Writing with Friends

About 1^st Books: For the blog par excellence on women’s fiction (though I am not certain whether Meg would refer to her blog as such – you shall just have to wait for my upcoming interview with Meg to discover what her thoughts are on this sometimes thorny topic!) Meg Waite Clayton is my first port of call. Here Meg offers brief introductions to female authors who then go on to tell the tale of how they wrote and published their very first novel (hence the name). I cannot count the number of superb novels I have been introduced to through Meg’s inspiring blog. This is definitely a resource not to live without!

–Claire’s Word by Word

About Claire: What can I say about Claire? She is one of the sweetest, most erudite and articulate women on the web, and hers is the blog I turn to when seeking a review of some title I have heard about on the grapevine. It is worth following Claire’s site for the lyrical beauty of her regular reviews, and though she doesn’t confine herself to women’s fiction alone, [ I forgive you Claire for trying to broaden my horizons!! J]I cannot help but allow myself the pleasure of basking in her love of language. Check out her list of books read in recent years here and links to her wonderful reviews. Then try not to rush out and buy a copy of any book she loves!

–Story Circle Network Book Reviews

About SCN Book Reviews: As a sometimes reviewer of books for SCN I have to tell you how wonderful it is (and it is!). Here you will find hundreds of book reviews and recommendations of all kinds of books, ranging from fiction to non-fiction, from memoir to poetry, and every one of them written by women. Now that has to be good! Run, don’t walk! :0

–BookWomen Magazine

About BookWomen: A wonderful bi-monthly magazine which celebrates a life lived in close proximity to books. BookWomen promotes books written by women and explores how books fit into women’s lives. What I love most about this gorgeous little pamphlet style publication is its focus on feminist themes. One of my most eagerly anticipated magazine deliveries. Highly recommended!

–She Reads

About She Reads: This forum is new to me, and I have yet to explore all it has to offer, but certainly its tagline demands that I travel through its many portals/pages as soon as possible! Describing themselves as a book club, they “believe that Story is the shortest distance to the human heart.” Sounds good to me!

Can you add to this list? What have I missed?

Womag Queen, or The Ghost and Mrs Kath

 

I am so excited to welcome Kath,author of the one blog few of us could live without, Womagwriter’s Blog, to my blog today. Womagwriter’s Blog is renowned as the go-to source for information, inspiration and advice on anything and everything to do with writing for women’s magazines, otherwise referred to as ‘womags’.

For the few poor souls who don’t know, Kath has just published her latest book, ‘Ghost Stories and how to write them’, available as a Kindle purchase for less than the price of a cup of coffee! You’d be mad to miss the opportunity of learning from Kath, the mistress of womag short stories. But before Kath tells us a little about her latest book, I asked her to answer a few questions. Take it away Kath!

Thanks Edith! Lovely to be here on your blog under that gorgeous picture of Glendalough.

1) Kath, what inspired you to start writing short stories for women’s magazines? What classes, if any, did you take? What books and other resources did you turn to for help?

Like many writers I’d started and failed at a couple of novels, and then realised that short stories would be quicker to both write and get feedback on, so I decided to give them a go. I’d written a few and had one hit before I began going to weekly classes run by Della Galton. I still go to her classes which I find hugely inspiring. I’ve also been a member of a very supportive online writing group for ten years, and their feedback has always been extremely valuable.

2) How long did it take, and how many stories did you write and submit, before you were published? When did you publish your first story?

Ooh, now I’m going to have to go and look that up! Hold on…

Right, according to my submissions spreadsheet which I have kept religiously since starting writing in 2003, I sent out 15 womag submissions before landing my first hit. (Incidently, that first hit was a ghost story and is included in my book Ghost Stories and How to Write Them.)

But it was another 44 submissions and 2 years (eek!) before I had my next hit. After that they came thick and fast. In the beginning, you just have to keep going and trust that you are getting better with every story you write.

3) Do you have a daily writing routine? Do you set yourself pre-determined writing goals, eg a new story a week?

These days I am not writing womag fiction, but when I was, I generally tried to write a new story every fortnight. I have a full time job and lots of other demands on my time so it is not always possible to get as much writing time as I’d like. When writing novels I try to write a bit every day even if it is only for 15 minutes, and aim for 2-3000 words a week. I will leave the novel document open on my lap top, and often leave it mid-sentence so it is easy to pick up again.

4) I know this is the six-million dollar question, but where do you get your ideas from? How do you organize them?

All over, and I don’t! I just keep a notebook for whatever novel I’m working on, and scribble notes and ideas as they come to me. Ideas for short stories will be written in the back. One new way of generating story ideas is to use a set of Rory’s Story Cubes. It’s supposed to be a game but you can use them for ideas – pick three, roll them, and use the three images to inspire you…

5) Can you tell us a little about what prompted you to start blogging, and the ways in which your blog has grown and developed since you first started it?

I started the blog as a way of keeping all womag guidelines and other thoughts about writing all in one place. It was a bit of a surprise that it took off so much and became so popular. When fiction editors began emailing me with news to put on the blog, I knew it had become mainstream!

6) Finally, what lessons have you learned from publishing your new and wonderful book?

It was great fun writing that book. The idea came to me on a Friday evening and I was so inspired I began planning it immediately and writing it the next day. It all came together really quickly. I’d say, if you get an idea, whether it’s for a story, novel or non-fiction piece, that sets you on fire, then put everything else on hold and run with it. Get that first draft written while you’re still in the first flush of enthusiasm for the project. But then, don’t rush into submitting the piece. Give it some resting time and come back to edit it when the initial excitement has died away and you are able to be more objective.

Thank you Kath for answering all my questions. And now, before I let you go, would you mind please telling us all a little about your book ‘Ghost Stories and how to write them’?

Ghost Stories and How to Write Them contains ten of my ghost stories, most of which have been previously published in women’s magazines. In between, there is discussion of what makes a good womag ghost story. I love a bit of story analysis, and think that understanding good story structure helps you write stories which will sell. I hope people will learn something from my book as well as enjoying reading the stories, and with luck they’ll be inspired to write their own ghost stories.

Thanks so much for having me on this blog, Edith!

Oh it’s for me to thank you Kath! You’ve been wonderful, and so gracious too! I’m so glad we got to spend this time together!

Visit Kath at her amazing blog: http://womagwriter.blogspot.ie/

Buy her book here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00C4H1XAS/ref=oh_d__o04_details_o04__i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Why I Blog, or peering into the rabbit-hole

 

At the end of my interview with Tania Pryputniewicz, Tania asked me a most pertinent question, one she considers worth asking of all women who blog – what impels the blogger to blog, or to turn it on to its subjective head, why do I blog?

Why indeed! What an impossibly heavy question, overloaded with content and musings so deep that it might take a lifetime to reach the bottom, a canyon so deep, dark and perhaps even a little bit (a lot?) menancing that one is almost afraid to even peer over the edge of the precipice, afraid that one might fall into the chasm, hurtling down the hole, whistling past the crevices at break neck speed.

The question, indeed, is more like a Zen koan or a question posed by a Desert Mother or Father to their novice monk seeking a word with which to guide their path, than anything so simple that some closed and definite answer might be assumed.

Why do I blog?

Perhaps I ought to start at the beginning, with ‘why’. Such a small word, only three letters, hardly conspicuous enough on a blank white page to appear to have any more significance than a splodge of ink, a smear, a drop which fell by mistake, requiring only that it be blotted up, obliterated, forgotten. But of course we know that it is still there, try as we might to forget that it fell, like a portent from the sky, heedless of its arrival.

Why?

Though ‘why’ belongs to a family of other, mostly ‘w’ question words, such as where and what and whom, none have quite the import or the significance as ‘why’ [unless of course you are lost in some foreign land, waterless, language-less, bereft, alone, in which case ‘where’ becomes a question about your survival, and ‘why’ belongs to your other life, the one where dalliances in philosophical games and musings are dependent on all your basic needs having been previously fulfilled.]

‘Why’ searches beneath the obvious, it dives under the rippling surface and delves down deep into the murky caves below. ‘Why’ is not interested in facile talk, chit-chat over an espresso coffee or a cup of green tea. ‘Why’ wants to know more than the first answer which pops into your head; it insists itself, persisting, relentlessly asking, over and over again, until you feel as if your brain will burst, that you have said all you can possibly say, that you have plumbed your own depths. But of course ‘why’ is so much wiser than we are – it knows that we can always go deeper. For there is no end to ‘why’.

Three and four year old children have prehensions, intimations, of such wisdom, they are bearers of the truth, albeit unwittingly. They drive their parents mad with constant questioning, refusing to let go of what they hardly even know that they are asking, yet still they keep on demanding that we answer, over and over again, their whys (but never wherefores).

‘Why’ suggests an element of choice too. Why ‘this’ and not ‘that’? Why, to return to our subject matter, blog and not journal? What (ah, a different ‘w’ question – will this take me deeper, or am I side-stepping…) is the difference between writing in a private journal, and writing in a public space, like a blog, like this blog, where anyone and everyone (and preferably no one I know) can read my words, gain access to some of my most private thoughts. And yet not, for I only blog about writing and never about my personal life, or that of my family, though this too raises questions about what constitutes a personal life…what is my most deeply, ‘personal’ life….what constitutes the language of my soul…and I must admit, I am forced to admit even, that it is when I set down my inner most thoughts and musings, such as I am doing here, now, maybe when I blog, or at least when I blog like this, I am exposing myself, peeling back my own layers, displaying my innards at their most raw and fragile, revealing my vulnerability, for this is my ‘truth’.

And maybe this is why I blog. Maybe I want to be heard, maybe I am like a voice crying in the wilderness, hoping that I shall hear an echo of my words calling back to me, but the echo will not be the sound of my voice, but that of another who has seen and heard and witnessed what I have said and done. For blogging offers the opportunity to discover a tribe of like-minded people, individuals who are searching for their truth too, just like me, and who also ask themselves each time they sit at their lap top and write something for their blog – why, why am I doing this?

The only possible answer is that I am hoping that someone like you, dear reader, is asking the same question, and that maybe, just maybe we might both be able to ask the questions together and like Rilke* learn how to live our way into the questions, and not try and foreclose them by jumping in too quickly with facile, easy and ready-made answers, such as we might bat about over our coffee and tea cups.

Why do you blog?

*I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903, Letters to a Young Poet

A Star is Born!

Story Circle Network Star Blogger

Yay!! I have just been awarded a rather coveted blogging award by the ladies from the inimitable women’s memoir writing group, Story Circle Network.

According to the SCN web site:

Each month, we choose one of our SCN bloggers to be featured in our national eletter. The selection is made on the basis of the blog’s outstanding content, visual appeal, and the importance of its contribution to the growing universe of lifestory blogging. We’ve marked these featured bloggers with a

What a surprise I got when I opened my e-mail to discover that I had been nominated for this award!

Thank you SCN ! J

But who, or what, are Story Circle Network? In case you have never heard of them, SCN is a forum dedicated to helping women tell their stories based upon a strong belief and mission in the importance of women sharing their personal her-stories. Originally set up in 1997 by Dr Susan Wittig Albert the group has grown to become an international forum where women all over the United States gather together in local groups, or online for international members, to write, share and encourage one another to keep on telling their stories. Apart from their Internet Chapter [where I facilitate a Mindful Writing group – more about mindful writing in another post!], SCN also offer a fascinating and inspiring selection of online classes, all taught by wonderful teachers and mentors. They also run a mentoring program, publish a quarterly Journal, and a selection of monthly e-newsletters.

Bur perhaps my very favourite section of the ever-growing SCN web site is their Book Review site. Here they offer a marvellous selection of ever-changing, ever new, reviews of books written by women, including memoirs, autobiographies, creative non-fiction, fiction and poetry. You will find a selection of my own reviews there also.

In the words of Story Circle Network themselves,

The Network is for every woman who aims to claim the power of her experience, who wants to map her journey, and who is determined to name herself.

Tania Pryputniewicz on the Art and Craft of Transformative Blogging–Part Two

For those who missed part 1 of this truly inspiring interview with intrepid writer and transformational blogger, Tania Pryputniewicz, see here. And for those waiting in anticipation of more nuggets of gold and words of wisdom, read on!

Me: A suggestion you make in your post entitled “The Oracle at Delphi, Your Blog Subtitle and Three Examples” is to pick a sub-title for the name of your blog “that will consume you with the desire to pass under that metaphorical doorway day after day, or Thursday after Thursday.” My own blog, In a Room of My Own, was named after my desire for just such a place, a space to retreat to, somewhere to escape parental duties and responsibilities. Having given up the hope and dream of finding a real life nook in which to write, I decided to create an online one instead. Each time I sit down to pen a post for my blog I have a little felt sense of letting go of the dailiness, the quotidian which follows me about wherever I go, as if the mere fact of taking this time releases a sigh, the metaphorical breath I’ve been holding inside, afraid almost to release it into the world. Blogging allows me to ask myself who or what I might be if I could be who I am (whatever that might mean). Tell us a little about the stories and ideas behind your blog title, ‘Feral Mom, Feral Writer’.

Tania: I can relate to the process and feelings you describe above—creating a metaphorical room in the absence of a physical one, and especially the inadvertent breath-holding (I wrote a post by that name in fact for Mother Writer Mentor). When I started blogging, I had three children under the age of six and one of them was still nursing. I felt isolated in our house in the redwoods and my identity as a writer had gone subterranean. One day my brother and his fiancée (now his wife) sat me down at the computer, navigated me over to Blogger, and said, pick a title. The phrase Feral Mom, Feral Writer came out of my mouth, we typed it in, and I went with it because it was all I had in those five minutes with them.

But the phrase epitomized for me, as it still does, the intermittent desperation, ferocity, and stamina it takes to be both a mother and a writer. Not pretty, not tame, but capable of going to Hades and back with a sense of humor. And even thriving (if you carry the feral metaphor through: something formerly domesticated gone wild…with potential to restore balance to its environment when reintroduced). The sun comes up—you try again.

Me: In your blog post entitled “By the Spell of the Spin, the Human Calendar, or How to Write a Worthy Holiday Post,” you cite examples of some wonderfully inspiring, while simultaneously entertaining, posts from a selection of worthy/wordy blogs. It occurs to me that writing content at this high a standard requires time, thought and a lot of writing, and re-writing. We’re talking drafts here. How much time do you dedicate to writing for your blog? Since a big part of the reason for choosing to blog rather than, say, write in a journal, is to connect with other like-minded people, or in our case writers, how do you feel when your post goes live and you receive little to no feedback. Where’s the “pay-off” in terms of time and commitment?

Tania: Yes, you are right—drafts. I feel if one puts in the time initially, the post holds its own for now and into the future, so it matters to create a quality post. The posts I’m drawn to giving as examples for the Transformative Blogging tend to be posts where I see evidence of a similar striving. I write for hours—in all the pockets of time around caring for my children and teaching and writing content for the sites where I’ve made commitments. The longing created by not getting to the work as often as I’d like fuels the process. And a beautiful side effect of regular blogging is the inevitable honing of craft along the way.

I have been happy with relative obscurity. I remember feeling shocked the first time comments appeared on my blog. The shock wore off as I came to trust the form, the forum, and the readers. I appreciated having had the time to know where I was heading before comments came in.

The pay-off for me, against the raising of children, remains simply getting to write at all. Now that my three children are all in school, I have more time to notice who is listening. Blogging augments publication of poetry and photo poem montages either on-line or in various zines, so I’m not leaning on the blog for validation as much as for connection and inspiration. One has to nurture relationships to enter the conversation. Which requires time. I’m just now starting to have more of that time. I want to forge genuine connections that I have the time to support.

Me: It seems to me that there must be a deeper reason for blogging than making connections and establishing relationships, and if this is so, then why not stick to journaling? What impels the blogger to blog?

Tania: I have to send readers to a beautiful post on this subject by Barbara Ann Yoder, titled,
“A Pretend Blog Post.” She takes a close look at journal voice vs. blog voice, and arrives at a beautiful conclusion I won’t spoil here.

And I’m thinking of your earlier thoughts on the building of a metaphorical room with your blog. Which makes me flash on the corridor/chamber building that occurs on the computer game Minecraft—my sons are enamored. Or the actual physical forts we built as kids—the magic of a few sheets, alternate lighting, the veto power over where the artwork will hang and who can enter the tunnel. Ultimately don’t we want to show someone around that fort and be able to return to that fort ourselves?

Blogging sets up the conditions for the extension of journaling into the realm of camaraderie and there’s enough of a layer of cloaked sanctuary to go deeper, and enough of a beckoning door one can open to then share. On the blog, that’s all occurring simultaneously, which is why I am loving discovering the ways other bloggers have chosen to structure their blogs, appreciating the varying levels of hide and reveal. I can’t help but think of the writer, artist, blogger you pointed me to, Heather Blakey (web midwife, artistic maven, team blogger are among the ways I’ve seen her identified) and her site, Soul Food Café.

When someone says they blog, it invites all kinds of questions…About what? Where? Why? Maybe you are a journalist, maybe you simply journal, maybe you write poetry or make postcards. But the portal of blog gives everyone a pass to show up. And I think you have landed on a beautiful question I have not answered—how about we turn that question over to visiting women bloggers this year, starting with you, Edith: what impels the blogger to blog?

Me: Ah, what indeed?! I shall take some time to consider your question and offer my answer in the form of a blog post to come.

Thank you Tania for visiting my blog and for taking the time to answer my questions so thoroughly. My time spent perusing your blog, pondering your posts, and engaging with you on these questions, has enlarged my vision of the potentialities in the virtual world of the blogosphere, and has indeed opened my eyes to the myriad possibilities of transformative blogging.

In the meantime if you wish to find out more about Tania’s vision, her dream of the possible, check out her web site here, and her Transformative Blogging blog here.

For information about participating in Tania’s project, see here and scroll down until you find the ‘subscribe’ box.

For details of Tania’s online classes on Transformative Blogging and also on writing poetry, see here.

About Tania:

Recent poetry and prose by Tania Pryputniewicz appeared in print or online at Autumn Sky, Blast Furnace, The Blood Orange Review, Connotations Press, In Her Place, Linebreak, Literary Mama, The Mom Egg, Prairie Wolf Press, Salome Magazine, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Stone Canoe Online, and Tiny Lights.

New collaborations include photo poem montages (poetry paired with the photography of Robyn Beattie and the music of Steve Pryputniewicz), prose poetry and a series of micro-readings at Perhaps, Maybe with Liz Brennan, and the procuring of interviews as part of an interview team for A Room of Her Own Foundation.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Tania is the Managing Poetry Editor and Art Editor at The Fertile Source and co-founder of Mother, Writer, Mentor.  She teaches online workshops including Transformative Blogging, Poetry of Motherhood and Poetry of Fatherhood. She blogs at Feral Mom, Feral Writer and lives in San Diego, California with her husband, three children, blue-eyed Siberian Husky and two tubby housecats with identical sets of stripes.

Tania Pryputniewicz on the Art and Craft of Transformative Blogging

 

I recently had the very good fortune of discovering a woman who has committed herself to exploring the outer limits and capabilities of the blogosphere, or blogging to you and me. Tania Pryputniewicz is a woman with a vision, which amounts to no less than the positive potential capabilities of the internet to connect individuals of like mind, leading eventually to intellectual, emotional and even spiritual transformation for all involved.

Intrigued? I was smitten by Tania’s ideas and concepts, her dreams of what might be possible. As a writer engaged in the daily practice of mindful writing, and thus already well acquainted with the healing properties of writing as a meditative practice, I was especially curious about Tania’s suggestions that this transformation could extend even further than I had previously imagined. Not only that, but it could all happen online, while connecting virtually with other like-minded people.

I was sold. I had to find out more – more about the woman who dreamed up this vision, more about her voyage of discovery and how she got here, and finally more about her message. In my bones I just knew Tania was the woman I had been waiting to meet. Now I would like you to meet Tania too. So without further ado, let me introduce Tania Pryputniewicz to all who read these words, and allow me to invite you all to join me as I put some questions to her.

Why transformative blogging? What is the connection between the spiritual and the personal? How does it impact upon the writer’s blogging voice?

For me, writing and spirituality are intertwined. Writing provides a direct conduit for experiencing the numinous. As we record our experiences in writing, we also listen, just as we might listen while in prayer and meditation, for guidance to find patterns that make life bearable. So it makes sense to me that blogging (which is after all, writing) and spirituality are intertwined.

But not everyone defines spirituality or blogging goals in the same way. After blogging for five years, I realized that the road-like linear structure and time-meted nature of a blog offers bloggers a chance to grow and transform while potentially transforming their readers. Adding that word “transformative” in front of “blogging” invites each blogger to ask, Transform how? And Transform who? I hope the terms together add a layer of playful urgency and excitement to one’s blogging practice.

Your stated aim is to form a community of women bloggers who will support one another as they each work towards building exactly the kind of blog they have dreamed of. How do you envisage this dream materializing?

I started teaching blogging in the summer of 2011 and by the end of 2012, felt drawn to taking the coursework to a new level. Already I’ve felt exhilarated by the process of searching out example posts by women bloggers. It brought you, Edith, into my life last week. I would love for women to converge on my Transformative Blogging site, share their favourite women bloggers, find others of like mind, and make their own connections. I’ve kept the site simple due to the many hats I already wear as teacher, writer and parent of three children.

How has interacting online with other sister bloggers impacted your own relationship to blogging, and indeed to your larger life beyond the blogosphere?

Beautiful question, Edith. Easily I’d say my blogging sisters saved my life. That sounds extreme, but blogging provided pivotal solace when I was a new mother and in thrall to the beautiful and gruelling initiation from private self to shared self (and all that it took to stay connected to my writer core despite hours of breastfeeding and learning how to love and be loved by my mate as each baby arrived).

The women who came and read my first blog entries and commented, and whose work I read—Ethel, Jeannette, and Elizabeth—gave me secret confidence and the joy of a mirror. The list has since grown modestly longer and is rife with women I both see in person regularly and women I aspire to meet in the future: heart sisters, or my wingmen as I like to say.

Can you tell us a little bit about your journey from the private world of personal journaling to the very public forum of online blogging? How do you straddle both spheres? Where do they connect? More importantly where do the dis-connects lie, and how do they fit into, and emerge/diverge from your other professional writing, especially your poetry?

Another set of great questions…I’m still evolving the answers.

I’ve kept a journal and written poetry since early childhood and pursued writing formally (at UC Davis and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop) so I feel I have always had an eye on the public/private line. But let’s face it, blogging immediately exposes one across a potentially extreme radius because of the visibility afforded by the Web. Every time I write a post, I examine the line. Especially for my blog Feral Mom, Feral Writer, where negotiations with my children, my circumstances, and my marriage tinge and charge my emotional lens.

The dilemma is that the two spheres (public and private) sometimes connect right at the most charged junctures where I stand the most to lose and the most to gain by the reveal (the alchemical nature of core subject writing). There’s a way to tap into the private transaction and diffuse the charge in a way that heals, rather than blames, and that for me has been the ongoing challenge. When in doubt, I wait. I run posts by my family and my trusted writing confidantes as well.

You also asked about the public/private line in terms of writing poetry. My poetry teacher Sandra McPherson at UC Davis gave her women poets a fabulous essay she’d written called, “Secrets, Beginning to Writing Them Out,” (available now in A Field Guide to Contemporary Poetry and Poetics) that helped me see how important it is to write the work and later consider when, where and how one might use it or not. Often it isn’t until I’m right on the verge of sending out a manuscript (close enough to imagine public response) that I will decide to pull or add poems in question. I take it poem by poem. A decision weighed by the heart and the gut; an ongoing process for me.

You have called this project “A Year of Inquiry.” Why a year? How do you envisage the year of work evolving?

I wanted to give the project borders, give myself a clear trajectory, and hold to a deadline as well: What could I learn in a year about women’s contributions to the blogosphere as I aggregated that information and passed it on for others to use as inspiration? Which questions might we discover and how might use such questions to push creativity past its former borders? Both my writer self and my “spiritual” self are intensely curious about our current fascination with instant and far-reaching communication (whether we are talking about Twitter or blogging). What might one see from the curve of the collective wave of all these forms? What do these forms have to do with the evolution of consciousness? Goodness? Grace?

For your Transformative Blogging courses, you have designed a series of worksheets which require the blogger to identify their own personal goals and plans for their blog, with a particular focus on problems often experienced by female bloggers, most notably feelings of self-doubt. You take a particular joy in encouraging women bloggers to overcome their fears and work towards achieving their blogging goals. Can you expand a little on the kinds of fears you have witnessed women dealing with? What sort of goals do women bloggers typically seek to achieve? What is the difference between male and female bloggers which you have noticed in your research?

I guess you could say I worked backwards, basing my first course on my own my stumbling blocks and hoping I had something to offer women bloggers. I feared vanishing without getting to my work and yet feared being seen, feared being judged, and noticed I was constantly walking the public/private line we discussed earlier. Eventually the metaphor of the mask took hold for me as a dual means of simultaneous protection and encouragement. This led to the urge to play beyond words with the concept by making three dimensional masks and bringing that concept to the course as well.

I am hesitant to put words in my students’ mouths, but I notice that I share the same fears and goals with my students which revolve around getting the work written and then getting it out there. My favorite part of teaching is what happens in the interactive dialogues we engage in during class. The online forum means we write our way towards our material as we move through exercises.

It is too early in my research to venture generalizations about the difference between male and female bloggers, except for the exposure they receive in existing research. Jill Walker Rettberg, Associate Professor of Digital Culture at the University of Bergen, talks about this in her book, Blogging, pointing to research that looks at the way media charts blogs. Because they track more of the filter blogs which tend to be written by male bloggers, we might assume that men are more actively blogging. In actuality we may have close to even numbers of male and female bloggers participating if you consider participation across all the various kinds of blogs.

I hope to have a stronger answer for you by the end of this year. I’d love for other women to pick up this question and give it a go. And of course, equally important questions follow, such as how do women want to shape the blogosphere, or how could women shape the blogosphere and to what end?

 

–This ends part 1 of the interview. Part 2 will follow on Easter Sunday. Why Easter Sunday? Simple – because it is a symbol of rising from the depths, of being re-born, a promise that transformation is possible. I cannot think of a better and more appropriate time to share Tania’s words with you all than on such an auspicious occasion.

In the meantime if you wish to find out more about Tania’s vision, her dream of the possible, check out her web site here, and her Transformative Blogging blog here.

For information about participating in Tania’s project, see here and scroll down until you find the ‘subscribe’ box.

For details of Tania’s online classes on Transformative Blogging and also on writing poetry, see here.

FIVE FAVOURITE BOOKS OR, TAG, YOU’RE IT!

Fabulous blogger Brenda Moguez tagged me recently to write a little about my five favourite books and then, in turn, to tag another set of bloggers, all writers and purveyors of wonderful words of writerly wisdom. Do check them out and keep an eye out for their personal lists of scintillating novels!

Brenda’s blog can be found here along with her perfectly executed and argued reasons (excuses?!! J)for why she hasn’t posted her list quite yet! But one thing is certain – when Brenda does write it, you won’t want to miss her take on what are sure to be a collection of unmissable titles! And while you’re checking Brenda’s blog out, be sure to scroll back in time and read as many of her posts as you can. I promise that you won’t be disappointed!

And now for my five favourite novels of all time:

-Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: Quite simply the most perfect novel ever written and the litmus test against which I measure all novels……

-Middlemarch by George Eliot: Almost comparable to Anna Karenina, but just not quite; matches Tolstoy for depth and insight in places, but then flings it all away at the end. I wanted to throw the book away when I first read Eliot’s finale; she ought to have been re-written those final chapters!

-The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels [See my review here.]

-The Red Tent by Anita Diamant: The first ‘women’s fiction’ genre novel I ever read which started me off on a whole new reading journey, different from the classics I had been steeped in before. I used to be slagged by my family for never reading anything but ‘old’ books but when I showed them a copy of this novel as proof that I too could read contemporary novels, their response was, ah yes, but look at the time it’s set in….hard to win!

-The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: Oh so atmospheric. Lots of readers found it a bit slow but I felt the slow pace added to the sense of anticipation and mounting anxiety and fear; great ghost story!

Blogs I tagged. Keep a close eye on these wonderful writers and be inspired!

-Judith Newton, Tasting Home

-Tracy Fells, The Literary Pig

-Julie Christine, Chalk the Sun