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The Power of Sharing

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Finding the right balance between humor and appropriateness is a challenge in morning radio, especially when driving my fifteen-year-old daughter to school. I really enjoy listening to Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, but sometimes their conversation gets too graphic. So the other day I quickly changed it to my other regular morning show, Tom Joyner Morning Show and happened on a conversation about African-American programming in television. The commentator suggested African-Americans support the shows that are out rather than complaining about Hollywood’s limited representation of minorities. He used Alicia Keys’s directorial debut in the Lifetime movie Five as an example. The movie is an anthology of five short films directed by five different women: Demi Moore, Jennifer Aniston, Alicia Keys, Penelope Spheeris, Patty Jenkins, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Each film chronicles the impact of breast cancer.

I don’t watch a lot of television, so I hadn’t heard about the movie prior to the spot on the radio. Nothing against Lifetime (well maybe a little), but I stopped watching their movies a long time ago. I found them too melodramatic. But I wanted to see Alicia Keys as well as Demi Moore and Jennifer Aniston in the role of director, so I watched it. I was also intrigued by the idea of an anthology of five short films. Well, let me tell you. The movie was amazing. I came away from it resolved to do two things: schedule a mammogram (I haven’t had one in two years) and get more active in the cause. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch Five online. I highly recommend it!!!

What I find most interesting about this experience is that if the commentator hadn’t shared his thoughts, I would have missed the movie. He promoted the film as a way to support Alicia Keys and her work. As writers, we have to promote other writers by sharing their work in our area of influence. Generally speaking, people are more willing to try something when someone they trust recommends it.

Though it may sound self-serving, I think this is particularly true in the blogging world. There is so many out there that it’s hard to sift through them all. I find myself much more likely to read a blog if a friend or a blogger I like recommends it. This has long been true with books. There are several things I would have never picked up if they hadn’t been recommended to me.  So in the spirit of promoting fellow writers here are a few things that I recommend you check out:

Witty Word is a blog written by Christi McGuire. I happened on it one day when I was looking for examples of writing blogs. She writes about her faith by sharing tidbits from her everyday life. I enjoy her passion for grammar (She’s an editor). And I’m particularly fond of her Wordless Weekend. Those pictures are sometimes just the break I need on a busy Saturday.

Helensadornmentblog is a blog written by a friend of mine, Helen Kemp. Helen is an artist who works with fused glass and lampwork glass. Her blog has beautiful pictures of her work as well as a description of her technique. Helen also writes post where she breaks down craft projects and scores them from 1 (you need Martha Stewart and her staff) to 5 (great fun). If I were more crafty, I would have tried a few of them myself.

I also want to recommend Home For Christmas written by my friend Deborah Grace Staley. Debbie writes the Angel Ridge Southern romance series, set in a small town in Tennessee. She won the Holt Medallion for Excellence in Mainstream Romance. It is currently available on Kindle as a free download.

These are just a few of the writers that I respect and admire. I will be sharing others. Leave a comment promoting writers, artist and films you admire so that I can add to my list.

Until next time.

Books

Hemingway – A Moveable Feast

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Lately I’ve been obsessed with reading novels that fictionalize famous authors. I read The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare (about Shakespeare’s wife) and Becoming Jane Eyre (about the inner life of Charlotte Bronte). Part of the obsession is my love of history. I would have been a history major had it not been for Professor Tennyson’s Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation Europe class freshman year. The other part comes from a curiosity as to how contemporary writers fictionalize famous authors from other time periods. I just finished writing a novel about a woman in 1928 who has a correspondence with Langston Hughes. Reading similar novels gives me insight as to how I might improve my own novel.

I just recently finished reading The Paris Wife , by Paula McLain. McLain (fellow University of Michigan alum) writes about Ernest Hemingway’s time in Paris during the early 1920s from the perspective of his first wife, Hadley. Throughout the novel there are references to Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast.  So much so  I felt the need to re-read Hemingway’s novel.

I’m not a Hemingway fan. I tend to prefer stories written about women. His subjects are too manly, and well chauvinistic for my taste. And yet I love his style. The short declarative sentences and precise word choice really turns me on (as a writer). Prior to going back to grad school, I read one of his novels at least once a year for medicinal purposes.  When I read his work, I write better.  A Moveable Feast is by far my favorite. I loved the idea of moving around the world feasting on experiences to feed your writing so much that I modeled a class around the concept when I taught writing at North Central College in Naperville, IL. Every morning, for two weeks, we meet in a different coffee shop or cafe around town. We did various writing exercises and shared our work with one another. It was amazing how much the environment enriched everyone’s writing, including my own. I can only imagine what would happen if I could spend time in Paris, experiencing the culture, drinking wine in the cafes and writing. But unfortunately that isn’t realistic for my life. I’m a wife and mother whose sophomore in high school needs to be picked up at 3:40 whether or not I’ve written my “one true sentence” for the day.

Nonetheless, there is still much we can learn as writers from Hemingway’s memoir.  For example when I read: “After writing a story I was always empty and both sad and happy, as though I had made love . . .” (6), I suddenly understand why I have been unable to look at my manuscript. So much went into crafting it. I have nothing else to give.  And yet I miss the constant interaction. I doubt I would have ever connected that experience to making love, but Hemingway did. And his directness enables me to understand my craft. It helps me to be a more confident writer.

So the next few post will be dedicated to lessons we can learn from Hemingway, the writer.

Until next time . . .

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The Vine of Negativity

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Last Thursday had an artist date. I got the idea from The Artist Way by Julia Cameron, where she suggest we go on an excursion once a week to nurture our inner artist, similar to dating your partner. You get to know yourself again and fill your creative tank by spending time alone doing things you enjoy.

My creative tank was feeling pretty low. So I wandered around my community looking for something inspiring to photograph. Unfortunately, the fall in Georgia isn’t very picturesque. The flowers are droopy from the hot weather and lack of rain. The trees are either green or turning a brownish-yellow. Nothing at all like the vibrant reds and oranges back in Illinois.

I ended up at the community Visual Arts Gallery. I walked around admiring the paintings. I stopped and pondered a few. One particular painting reminded me of Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh. I wanted to purchase it, but the $700 price tag dissuaded me. So I left the gallery empty-handed and uninspired.

I thought my artist date had bombed. I figured I’d try again next week. But as I headed out of the parking lot a tree caught my eye. I have been fascinated with the kudzu and english ivy growing on the trees since we moved here last summer. The way the vines encircle the tree, slowly feeding off it and eventually killing it reminds me of the movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

I wasn’t quite sure how this tree would inspire me, but I snapped several shots nonetheless.

The way the vines climb up the trunk creeps me out.

As I drove off, I wondered why I would want to have a photograph of something that gives me the heebie jeebies. But then it occurred to me those vines are a lot like negative thinking. It starts out small, slowly feeding on thoughts, until we are overpowered by doubt and fear. And much like the tree, we begin to depend on the negativity. It becomes a part of who we are. Deep, huh?

Well, the next day I went on a date-date with my husband. We were enjoying a lovely bottle of French Chardonnay on the patio when I noticed a tree that had been overcome by a vine. It struck me that if negative thinking is like this vine we had better take it seriously.

As writers, it is easy to doubt ourselves and our abilities. There are so many other good writers out there. The publishing industry is hard to break into. We face repeated rejection. But we can’t let that stop us. We have to remember our desire to write comes from the Lord.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

Our writing fits into a larger picture than what we can see or understand. We can’t let those vines of negativity prevent us from telling the stories only we can tell. There is someone who needs to read it. So what are you putting off that you need to do today?

Vow this week to cut away any thought that doesn’t serve you.

Until next time . . .