The Week The World Stopped by Debra H. Goldstein

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The Week
The World Stopped by Debra H. Goldstein

The bug
that’s going around finally caught me. I coughed, but didn’t think anything of
it. Then, I coughed again. Within hours, I felt my chest tightening as the
cough became more pronounced and other symptoms crept upon me. I cursed.

My
cursing wasn’t directed at the bug, but at two women. One of them sat behind me
at a conference the day before coughing non-stop. Mid-day, she confided to her
seat mate she’d been diagnosed with the flu earlier in the week, but having
paid, didn’t want to miss this special speaker. The other was a friend I hadn’t
seen for a few weeks who came up, hugged and kissed me, and in bringing me up
to date on her family mentioned her daughter had a bad case of the flu last week,
but she’d started Tamiflu immediately, so she was sure that was why she’d only
felt a little ill the past few days.

I
cursed because considering my calendar for the upcoming weeks, the last thing I
needed to be was sick. But, I was.

My
calendar always is booked, but with out-of-state travel coming up in the next
few weeks, I’d squeezed extra things into that week. Within hours, I knew days
of plans were going to be a non-go. I cancelled my next day’s activities, which
would have brought me in contact with friends and family, and crawled into bed.
Instead of the next day’s meetings and a fun lunch and dinner, I used part of
that day clearing my calendar for the rest of the week. Plans juggled on my
calendar were ruined. I felt bad about that and I felt bad in general.

After a
day or two, I wasn’t fit for interaction with other humans, but I could focus
on my computer. I wrote. I knocked out a short story and the end of a novel. The
quiet was nice. I attacked our tax papers. The solitude felt good. I wrote some
more. Nothing interrupted my concentration. I read.

I got
well. Life went back to its normal craziness. It’s nice to be back in my regular
groove of insanity, but there was something to be said about stopping the world
for a few days.

Juliana Aragón Fatula 2018 Crestone Poetry Festival

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 Storyteller, poet, performance artist.

Juliana Aragón Fatula as Carmen Miranda

My first visit to Crestone, Colorado I attended a poetry festival and met some incredible people. I read for thirty minutes and performed the best set I’ve ever done. An American Poet, Art Goodtimes, wrote a review of my performance as “the wildly, irreverently and wonderfully funny standup Chicana
poet and wise woman from Cañon City. She had us all cheering and crying.”
When I read that review I thought, now I can die happy. When I was a little girl I watched Carol Burnett on TV and told myself, someday, I’m going to be a comedienne. Well, apparently my poem, My Homegirl Don’t Eat Pork was so funny the audience cheered. I also read my poem The Hat a tribute to my father and made the audience cry they were so moved by my words.
Who knew? So, now I’m thinking maybe I should brush off my one woman show and hit the road. People tell me I”m funny. But memorizing a thirty minute set of comedy scares me to death. As I’ve grown older, I’ve turned down parts offered to me by well wishing directors because I’m afraid I won’t be able to remember my lines. But in Crestone I was able to improv because who knows my stories better than me, no one that’s who. 
I was on fire that night and I’ll tell you why. The two women who performed before me, Eutemia and Ester, were phenomenal. They made me rethink going last and in order to be successful I had to pull out all the stops and give 150%, so I did. Afterwards the audience circled around me and asked me to sign copies of my book they bought. It was total chaos. Someone handed me a book, someone else handed me money, and a third person tried to hold a conversation with me while I tried to sign books and shove money in my pockets. The only thing, there was no one with me to witness my magnificence. I was flying solo. My husband was at the room with our two dogs, Bear and Yogi.
It was so much fun and so stimulating, it took me two days of rest to recuperate from the performance. Two people emailed me and wanted to book me in Salida and Telluride, CO. I’m going to Salida March 18th and I hope I bring it because I have a reputation of being “the wildly, irreverently and wonderfully funny standup Chicana
poet and wise woman from Cañon City.” People will be expecting me to make them laugh and cry simultaneously. Wish me luck. And if you are in Salida on Sunday March 18th stop by the Salida Steamplant and say hello. 
I stumbled into writing like I stumbled into being a performer. It was in my stars, it was meant to be. Thank you, Carol Burnett, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilda Radner, Charo, and thank you mom and dad for gifting me with the funny gene.  

Clicking Our Heels: Who Influenced Us to Become Writers

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Clicking Our Heels: People Who Influenced Us
to Become Writers

Writers often say they write because they
must and observe that writing is a solitary activity, but we wondered if
somewhere along the line, who, if any person, played a large role in the
various Stiletto Gang members becoming writers.

Sparkle Abbey:

Mary Lee Woods: My mother was my
greatest influence in my becoming a writer. She read often and widely and
instilled a love of reading in me. When I picture her, from when I was small until
just before her death at 92, she was often curled up with a book. And most
likely a mystery. She was an Agatha Christie fan, but also loved many
contemporary mystery authors and always looked forward to a new book from Dick
Francis. One of my favorite childhood memories is our weekly trips to the
public library to browse the stacks and to pick up books for the week. It was
there that I discovered Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, and ultimately Mary Stewart
and Phyllis Whitney. The love of a good story eventually led me to the desire
to try my had at writing.

Anita Carter: Probably my husband. He
pushed me and encouraged me to do it. He’s my biggest cheerleader.

Kay Kendall: I cannot point to one
person who influenced me to become a writer—of fiction, that is. I can tell you
who I should’ve paid attention to much sooner, and that is my own mother.
Because she said writing was my gift, she kept wanting me to study journalism
in college. I wouldn’t listen to her, and probably her pushing kept me away
from that major. But I wanted to learn so much in the liberal arts curriculum,
so I don’t regret doing that, but I do regret coming so late to a fiction
writing career. The book world was so much healthier earlier.

Juliana Aragon Fatula: Mrs. Durbin my
junior high English teacher. I learned from her because I

respected her. She
gave me the gift of loving reading.

J.M. Phillippe: Mrs. Smisko, my fifth
and sixth grade teacher, who used to always nominate me for writing rewards. I
had vague ideas of wanting to be a writer before tha, but my time with her
really cemented the idea in my head.

Linda Rodriguez: Probably Charles
Dickens. I read A Tale of Two Cities
when I was eight years old and fell in love with the way a writer could bring a
whole world to life. I knew I wanted to do that myself.

Dru Ann Love: As I’m not a writer, my mother
showed me the love of reading.

A.B. Plum: Miss Adah E. Peckenpaugh, my
high school English teacher for four years. She taught me grammar and vocabulary
and instilled the idea that I could write well – including everything from
essays, to short stories, and personal letters. 
Remember those?

T.K. Thorne: Definitely my Granny. She
read to me as a child, introducing me to the wonder of words and stories.

Shari Randall: So many teachers have
been wonderfully supportive of my writing, but there was a moment when I was
working at my hometown newspaper that really turned a lightbulb on for me and
made me think of myself as a writer. I started out as the newsroom assistant,
typing articles for some of the reporters (yes, it was eons ago) and writing
wedding announcements (“Grace Episcopal was the setting for the afternoon
wedding of …” you get the drift). A few weeks after I started, the owner of the
paper needed someone to write a feature about modern weddings for an
advertising supplement. After my story ran, several of those hardboiled
reporters came over, shook my hand, and said it was the best thing that had
ever run in the paper. I remember being stunned. These guys lived to bust each
others’ chops and they’d busted mine plenty, so their words struck a chord.

Bethany Maines: My college roommate and
long-time friend (and fellow Stiletto Blogger) J.M. Phillippe really inspired
me to actually turn my hobby into a serious passion. She walked me through the idea
of writing long form and has constantly helped me improve skills. Her impact on
my writing cannot be overestimated.

Judy Penz Sheluk: My husband, Mike. He
bought me a creative writing course for my birthday about 15 years ago and
said, “It’s time for you to follow your dream.” He’s still my first beta
reader, and biggest believer.

Debra H. Goldstein: My father taught me
to love words and the beauty of expression.

Advanced Generalist

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by J.M. Phillippe

I am a know-it-all. This is not a confession I make likely, because being called a know-it-all when I was growing up was not a positive experience.

And yet, I couldn’t help myself. I liked knowing things. I still like knowing things. It goes deeper than needing something to feel superior about (I know something you don’t!). Knowing things was how I held on to an objective reality when my personal reality was constantly being challenged when I was growing up. 
Feelings, I learned early on, lied. They did such a good job of lying they could rewrite the past, shape the present, and make the future seem like destiny. If things were good, they had always been good and would always be good. More often than not, if things were bad, they had always been bad and always would be bad. I needed something I could depend on to hold on to. And that’s when I discovered facts — things that were undeniably true. Things that surpassed emotions. Things that I could use as anchors so that my life could make some sort of sense.
My hunger to know things, really know things, also meant a huge reluctance to accept that the things I knew were wrong. My family had invested in a set of encyclopedias when I was a child, and I went to them on a regular basis. These days I use the Internet to verify that I do in fact know what I know (and that it is knowable), using skills garnered in my years as a journalist to test sources and information. Fact-checking, once a part of my job as a reporter, has become part of my daily life. To this day, I go into an emotional tail spin if a fact I have held on to is questioned — how could I get something wrong? What is actually knowable? Will life ever make sense?
It is with old-fashioned journalistic confidence — the confidence of someone who has done the fact checking — that I can say that when I know something, I know something. I have spent more time than is probably healthy looking it up and verifying its veracity, or else I will be light in my presentation of said fact, using “I think I read somewhere that…” instead of stating it as something actually true. Being a know-it-all is not something I take lightly — I try very hard to accurately share what I know. 
I have also had a lot of different jobs. In my years attempting to be a freelance journalist (which I was never great at because selling my writing was always harder than doing the writing), I took a lot of day jobs, and in fact, spent a great deal of time being a temporary employee. Being a temp suited me since I have always been able to learn fairly quickly, and because I like being helpful. And since I was a temp, there was only so much filing I would have to do before getting (or asking for) a new assignment. Eventually, I became one of those people who knew at least a little bit about a lot of different things. I was a generalist, in the old terminology.
So it greatly amused me when I found out that one of the methods I could study in social work was “advanced generalist.” An advanced generalist social worker can work in multiple systems and at multiple levels, from direct services to policy. Advanced generalists are considered part of the mezzo or middle level of social workers (with strictly clinical social workers at the micro level, and those working on policy or high admin levels considered more macro level workers). As such they get training both in clinical work and in administrative work, learning how to diagnose individual clients as well as assess communities and organizations. 
It matches my know-it-all spirit to be an advanced generalist. I have worked in various jobs in various fields, including journalism, public relations, marketing, administrative work, English and math tutoring, teaching, office management, case manager, social worker, and now, therapist. And I have learned a ton of different things both formally and informally (including that time I took a class called “acting for the nonprofessional” and that other time I learned how to waltz). In fact, lacking any other language to describe my particular brand of know-it-all-ness (I know at least a little bit about a really large number of subjects), I often refer to myself as an advanced generalist outside of the field of social work.
So I was very pleased to discover that my particular brand of know-it-all-ness is not something unique to me, and in fact has a (relatively) brand new name: multipotentialite. According to Wikipedia, In 1972, R.H. Frederickson described a multipotentialed person as people who: 

“When provided with appropriate environments, can select and develop a number of competencies to a high level.”

Emilie Wapnick coined the term multipotentialite to help unite folks who fall under this general definition into a single community. Essentially, it’s a fancy term for generalist, which Wapnick talks about in a TED Talk about why not everyone has “one true calling.” Which would explain my multiple jobs, two distinct careers, and constant need to learn new things. 
I have never been the best at anything, but I have managed to pull off “pretty darn good” in a lot of areas. 
The only time I get use use all my know-it-all-ness — without penalty — is when I engage in writing, particularly creative writing. I suspect every author I know is in some way a multipotentialite, and certainly every one has done a ton of research on a variety of subjects (including various ways to kill people or cover up having killed someone). In a way, I think every creative writer is — or is forced to become — an advanced generalist. 
Which puts a whole new spin on the old adage: “write what you know.” If you don’t know it, learn it, and then write about it.
***
J.M. Phillippe is the author of the novel Perfect Likeness, Aurora One and the short stories, The Sight and Plane Signals. She has lived in the deserts of California, the suburbs of Seattle, and the mad rush of New York City. She works as a clinical social worker in Brooklyn, New York and spends her free time binge-watching quality TV, drinking cider with amazing friends, and learning the art of radical self-acceptance, one day at a time.

Creating a Cover

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by Judy Penz Sheluk

Did you ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to creating a cover? While I expect the process varies by publisher, Barking Rain Press, the press behind my Glass Dolphin Mystery series, offers a collaborative approach between artist, author, editor, and proofreader. Here’s a look at the various incarnations behind A HOLE IN ONE, which, as luck would have it, is being released in trade paperback and eBook tomorrow. (All links at the bottom of this post, should you be so kind as to pre-order/order it for your library).

In this first version, the artist, Stephanie Bibbs Flint, tried to mirror the Treasontini (Blueberry Martini) from THE HANGED MAN’S NOOSE. While the drink was important to the plot of NOOSE, there were no martinis in A HOLE IN ONE. Besides, I really, really, hate the taste of olives.

We all liked the window overlooking the golf course, but the dark splotch in the right hand corner didn’t work for any of us, and that darned drink was still in the picture. But we were getting closer. As for the title, could we, I asked, make the O in ONE look like a bullet hole?

A cornice was added to the window…a good concept, but a bit too busy. We liked the text placement, though, and I liked the addition of the score card. The gun and the drawing on the napkin are also important to the story. And we have our bullet hole!

The final cover, front and back, before the text.

AND FINALLY…THE BIG REVEAL! 

The final front cover: A dark green cornice, a view of the golf course, our bullet hole in ONE, and a brighter pink font for my name, to pull from the fuchsia flowers outside the window.

The back cover design, with text.
SaveSave

A HOLE IN ONE is currently available for pre-order and will be released in print and eBook on March 6, 2018 at all the usual suspects, including:

AMAZON

BARNES &NOBLE

KOBO

iTUNES

GOOGLEPLAY

And

BARKING RAIN PRESS

American Literature’s Love/Hate Relationship with Success

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by Linda Rodriguez
All my life I’ve been a voracious
reader and writers have been important to me. They’ve helped me to
grow and mature. They’ve broadened my mind and my outlook. They’ve
inspired me to keep going when things looked grim and to aim for ever
loftier goals. Sometimes when I’ve been sick or in physical pain or
grief-stricken, they have taken me out of my situation for a few
hours and given me respite and relief. In so many ways, writers and
the books they wrote have been important to me and my life.

Still, I’ve noticed an odd thing—some
writers, who may have been hugely successful and famous, disappear
from view. It seems that some writers become so successful that the
critics and professors who set the canon of literature decide they
must not be any good because they’re too successful. Who ever hears
or sees the name Edna Ferber now? Yet she was world-famous several
decades ago for her large novels telling the stories of states or
sections of America, such as Cimarron (Oklahoma), Ice
Palace (Alaska), So Big (Chicago), Come and Get It
(Wisconsin), Giant (Texas), and Showboat (the deep
South). Ferber won major awards for her books, which were always
bestsellers. Hollywood made huge, successful movies from many of
them, and Showboat was also a hit as a Broadway play, and her
movies and plays also often won major awards.

Ahead of her time and with a sure eye
for the plight of the underdog, Ferber often dealt with controversial
issues in her work, such as racism and miscegenation laws,
immigration, political corruption, the treatment of women and
minorities, issues that you wouldn’t expect to be at the center of
such popular books. Millions have found themselves mesmerized by her
portrayals of the people, places, and times she portrays, as I have
many times. She did extensive research for each book and was, in my
opinion, the unsung precursor of James Michener’s research-heavy
tomes about states in the US and hot-spot areas of the world and the
better writer. Ferber wrote real characters the reader could care
about, rather than mouthpieces for the various aspects of history or
area controversies as Michener did.

Kenneth Roberts is another writer whose
books have vanished into the out-of-print bins at used bookstores and friends of library sales. His bestselling books, such as Northwest
Passage, Lydia Bailey, The Lively Lady, Captain
Caution, Arundel, Rabble in Arms, and Oliver
Wiswell, focus on the periods of American history before and
during the American Revolution, and many of them were made into
successful films and TV series.



Roberts was famous for his meticulous
research into his period, and he told the stories of heroes and
mavericks on both sides of that struggle. I think he was the first
popular writer to offer the sympathetic portrayals of the Loyalist
(usually called Tory) families who had to go into exile once the
United States was independent, as well as the families and soldiers
who fought for independence. Roberts wrote about the founding fathers
and the soldiers who fought for the American Revolution, warts and
all, as very real human beings with often conflicting motives and
with families and other entanglements that complicated their efforts.
When I finish one of his books, I always feel as if I have lived
through the period that book covers in a complete immersion
experience.

Pearl Buck is one of these once-great
and now-forgotten authors who’s getting a new lease on life through
the influence of Oprah Winfrey. I know it’s fashionable in literary
circles to criticize Oprah, but I believe she provides America, in
general, and literary culture, in particular, a real service in
encouraging reading and in bringing recognition to forgotten or
overlooked works. Look at what happened to Pearl Buck. Even though
Buck was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for
Literature, her bestselling and award-winning books, such as The
Good Earth, Sons, A House Divided, Other Gods,
China Sky, Dragon Seed, Pavilion of Women,
Peony, The Big Wave, and Imperial Woman, had
mostly been out of print. The gatekeepers of American literature,
professors and critics, had pretty much consigned her books to the
ash heap as “not literary enough” until Oprah pointed a spotlight
back on her Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, The Good Earth.

I love what Buck said in her Nobel
acceptance speech. She pointed out that, in

China, “the novelist
did not have the task of creating art but of speaking to the people.”
“Like the Chinese novelist,” she said, “I have been taught to
want to write for these people. If they are reading their magazines
by the million, then I want my stories there rather than in magazines
read only by a few.” Perhaps this is why her stories of people’s
lives, especially women’s, are so enthralling. I know they have
helped me through times of great physical and emotional pain.


What authors of the past have been
favorites of yours and helped you make it through times of illness or
boredom or other difficulty? What writers who are out of fashion now
would you like to see back in print and in active circulation?
Linda Rodriguez’s Dark Sister: Poems
has just been released. Plotting the Character-Driven Novel,
based on her popular workshop, and The World Is One Place: Native
American Poets Visit the Middle East, an anthology she co-edited,
were published to high praise in 2017. Every Family Doubt,
her fourth mystery novel featuring Cherokee campus police chief,
Skeet Bannion, will appear in August, 2018, and Revising the
Character-Driven Novel will be published in November, 2018. Her
three earlier Skeet novels—Every Hidden Fear, Every
Broken Trust, and Every Last Secret—and
her books of poetry—Skin Hunger
and Heart’s Migration—have
received critical recognition and awards, such as St. Martin’s
Press/Malice Domestic Best First Novel, International
Latino Book Award, Latina Book Club Best Book of 2014, Midwest Voices
& Visions, Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, Thorpe Menn Award, and
Ragdale and Macondo fellowships. Her short story, “The Good
Neighbor,” published in the anthology, Kansas City Noir, has
been optioned for film.
Rodriguez is past chair of the AWP
Indigenous Writer’s Caucus, past president of Border Crimes chapter
of Sisters in Crime, founding board member of Latino Writers
Collective and The Writers Place, and a member of International
Thriller Writers, Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and
Storytellers, and Kansas City Cherokee Community. Visit her at
http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com

A Character to Remember

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By Sparkle Abbey


“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.” Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

No matter the genre, no matter that wonderful twisty plot, no matter the well-drawn setting, when it comes down to it, we find that what we really remember from a good book are the characters.
Some characters like Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Eyre, Anne of Green Gables, and Jo Marsh stand the test of time and have stayed with us a very long time.

What makes a character memorable?

There are a lot of opinions and great lists out there about what makes a character memorable, but here’s ours:

1. Relatable – They may be quite different from us in terms of background, physical appearance, education or income bracket, but there must be something about them we can relate to. We enjoy Miss Marple because of her curiosity and interest in what makes people tick. We can relate!
2. Unique – Though we want to connect and relate we also want them to be unique. Not a stereotype or a cookie-cutter personality. Characters are more interesting when they stand out from the crowd. Think Monk and his unique phobias and unusual view of the world.
3. Talented – They’re not only unique they are good at something. Perhaps they are a virtuoso in some area, perhaps not. Maybe their talent is standing their ground, or telling it like it is, or taking care of details. Memorable characters do brave things and to do that they need to have a gift to share with the world.
4. Rootability – Okay, that’s probably not a word. But what we really mean is give us someone we can root for. Not someone who is perfect. Not someone who always has the answer or doesn’t get into jams. We want a character who we can care about, worry about, and cheer on as they work their way through the ups and downs of the story.

So that’s our list. What do you think makes a memorable character? Have you read a book recently where a character stayed with you long after you finished the book?

Sparkle Abbey
Sparkle Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series. They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. (But don’t tell the neighbors.) They love to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. Also, if you want to make sure you get updates, sign up for their newsletter via the SparkleAbbey.com website.