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Cover Reveal & Excerpts: Broad Knowledge,
a new anthology from Upper Rubber Boot Books

Whether you’re a writer or a reader, you know the power of a good book cover.

Authors will spend hours agonizing over the slant of the title’s font or two images almost exactly the same, all in an effort to choose the cover that best sells a story. Readers, in turn, skim the shelves, stopping at the first one that catches their eye.

So, the key? Design a book cover that will, according to Seth Godin, “tee up the reader so the book has maximum impact.” Especially from across the store, or in the mix of twenty others in a row.

The cover of a new anthology on the horizon, Broad Knowledge (Upper Rubber Boot Books), does exactly that: catches the eye, raises the eyebrows, and pretty much demands you fan the pages. I’m partnering with Upper Rubber Boot Books today in hosting the cover reveal for Broad Knowledge. And, you also get the feel of standing in the bookstore with a sneak peek at two excerpts from the 35 collected stories.

Now, for the cover.

(I wish I was tech-savvy enough so I could say, Click and Watch the image turn.

Instead, I make you scroll…)

…. (!)

About the book: Edited by Joanne Merriam, Broad Knowledge: 35 Women Up To No Good is a feminist anthology featuring “35 stories of ‘bad’ women, and ‘good’ women who just haven’t been caught yet.” Thirty-five tales of strange, dark, a hint of horror. But the best part? This isn’t just a collection of stories about women, it’s a collection of stories by women–all taking a bold stance in literature.

Read the excerpts below, then check out the Table of Contents for the entire list of stories and authors. You can also follow publication news of Broad Knowledge at Upper Rubber Boot Books’ website or on Twitter (@upperrubberboot).

EXCERPTS

From “Mary In the Looking Glass” by Laura E. Price

Clara doesn’t remember not knowing about the lady in the mirror. Mary with the bloody eyes. Mary with the long, sharp fingernails. Mary with the pointed teeth. She died in an accident. Her husband killed her. She killed her baby. She’ll tell you your sins, she’ll scratch you, she’ll haunt your house, she’ll kill you if you call her. Why does anyone call her? I’m not scared, I’m sooo drunk, I’ll do it.

I’ll do it. Clara always did it.

Because sometimes the Mary who came was young and bleeding from a cut on her head. Or her eyes were all blood, her hands reaching out to rip and tear. Once she held her head in her own hands. Clara’s breath always caught at the sight of her, even when all she saw was her own face reflected over Mary’s, deep down in the mirror. She was beautiful, bloody and rageful and sad and so, so tempting for it.

The first time Clara touched her, Mary shuddered hard and looked at her from empty, bloody sockets. The other girls crouched, whimpering in the corner of the dormitory bathroom, screams still in the air, as Clara touched Mary’s arm, then gently, carefully, so slowly, put a hand to her face.

Her flesh was cool. The blood was sticky and stayed on Clara’s hand after Mary fled back into the mirror; Clara hated that the girls made her wash it off. None of them talked to her after that, but she didn’t care because now and then, at night, as she walked down the hall, she could see Mary’s translucent face watching her from the window glass.

She left flowers at the windows. Daffodils and Queen Anne’s lace. She left candy near the mirrors; she left poems on pastel paper; soft, rose-scented sachets. And during a school break, her roommate away on a trip and the dorm practically empty, Clara saw Mary in the mirror above her dresser, watching. Smiling. Eyes in sockets but blood on her cheeks nonetheless.

Clara pulled everything off the dresser top and whispered, over and over, I believe in Mary Whales. Mary came closer and closer; Clara’s breath sped up, her belly warmed, and when Mary broke through her mirror and climbed over the dresser, she could barely think for wanting to put her hands and mouth on that cool, sticky skin.

Mary tasted of blood, but just at first, then she tasted of sweat and a little of dirt. She moved uncertainly, but Clara was bold and soon Mary was, too. At the end of the week, everything was back on the dresser, and Clara’s skin was covered in thin red scratches.

From “The Ladies in the Moon” by Xin Niu Zhang

“You know,” Paul begins at length, after I politely refuse a blunt, “before we were born, folks were freaked out about the Earth dying. Overpopulation. Global warming. Planet getting scorched.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I exhale, wishing I had another drink instead of the stench of weed. “But then! The Initiative. Growth. Space colonies. Hallelujah.”

“Hallelujah,” he repeats, wry. “Except not. You know what I think? I think this shithole of a planet is still dying, and all of us with it.”

“Not the biggest news to me, Paul.”

“Well, maybe someone can save it.” He shrugs, ignoring my laugh. “One thing I know, though—I sure as hell am not sticking around to see if this place survives.”

That shocks me out of my bout of cynicism. I meet his gaze, disbelieving. “You’re getting away? To one of the colonies?”

“Boss got his name on the list,” Paul says, maddeningly calm. “Moon. Sector 8. Procured some spots for his family. Me. Roy and the boys.” He directs a smoke ring politely away from my face. “We’re up and ditching this whole city in just two days. Going straight to the Capital HQ, preparing for the summer expedition. None of the other Solars know. Not even Steve and his pop.”

Translation: they’re abandoning us to scramble in their absence. Rival gangs would overtake our turf in days. “Why are you telling me this?”

“You’ve always been a good kid, Fletch.” He smiles wearily at me. “You keep your head down, do good work. Boss thinks you got merit. Could be a great soldier someday. Maybe engineer. Like one of the original smart guys who got us to Mars.”

Merit. All I did today was hassle a stupid kid and collect a paycheck. I don’t see a lot of skill in that, but I sure as hell am not going to correct him.

Paul seems to read my mind. “You don’t understand it, Fletcher, but you got potential. You have a cool head, steady hands. That matters. So… boss thinks he can get you in.”

My heart stops.

I was expecting him to pass me the torch of leading the Solars, a consolation prize. Not this. A ticket off the scorched, dying, cigarette-smoking planet. Cretins like us, Anna had said. Raj, I thought. That boy’s eyes full of stupid hope.

Distantly, I hear Paul saying, “But you gotta decide now. Boss has one spot. You don’t want it, someone else is gonna get it. I told you when we’re leaving.”

I let loose a long, shaky breath. Wait for my heartbeat to come back. “What?” My lips twitch. “The boss won’t reserve the vacancy for me? Thought I was his favorite.”

“You’re his favorite.” Paul grins. “But the moon waits for no one.”

The second in the Women Up To No Good series, Broad Knowledge is forthcoming in spring 2018.

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On #Writing Prompts: Guest post by Maura Fitzgerald

For the last several years, I’ve been the sole teacher for a group of senior citizens in a Creative Writing Class at Harwood Place Retirement Living Center. This year, I invited a fellow writer, Maura Fitzgerald, to join me as co-teacher. She’s taken on the role with enthusiasm and dedication. (It’s tough to get up early on a Saturday morning to talk essays and poetry and “homework for next month.” Ask the seniors, they just requested to push the start time to a half an hour later!). Today, Maura shares a bit about teaching, about students young and old, and about the power and mystery in prompts. And yes, she leaves you with an assignment.

In Praise of Prompts

by Maura Fitzgerald

I once gave a group of 8th graders the prompt, When I am hungry…, and said “No rules. Just write.” Surely this exercise for kids who are almost always hungry would unleash their creative wild child to roam free across the blank page and leave a trail of original thoughts and insights. Instead, hands shot up. “Do you mean what do I eat when I’m hungry?” or “When I’m hungry for what?” and “I’m never hungry.”

Several students responded to the ‘hungry’ prompt by simply writing “I eat,” or they listed favorite foods. (Okay, prompts don’t always work.) But others were surprising and fresh on the page: A brief conversation between a girl and her empty, gurgling stomach; A boy who stuffed himself with fortune cookies for nutrition and wisdom.  Same prompt, very different treks across the vacant space.

Recently, I gave our group of writers at Harwood Place the essay, “The Potato Harvest,” by April Monroe, in which she describes how easily her garden surrenders to the approaching autumn.  After reading the essay, the group’s prompt was “Surrender.” Around the edges of the silence that followed, I sensed discomfort with the prompt. But I let it be. Prompts don’t come with comfort scores. In fact, discomfort can sometimes butt-kick a pen like nothing else. (Try it sometime with a prompt that chafes or confounds and confuses.)

The students—young and old—reacted like many writers do when facing a prompt. We crave directions for traversing the wide-open landscape of empty paper. Give me a destination and show me the landmarks along the way. Please. A compass might help, too.

The thing is, prompts come without instructions. On purpose. That’s why they work. Creativity holes up in unexpected places, so a writer must put pen to paper and follow the prompt to the unexpected.

While many writers don’t use written prompts, we encounter them daily.

A  waitress’s hairy arms or the brick-solid nurse whose name tag says Taffy. Sunday voices spreading salvation through open church doors. Sounds and sights and smells to catalogue for future use. Details that say, “follow me.”

Used items from MECCA, a clearinghouse in Eugene, Oregon that’s filled with scraps and discards for creative use—a clearinghouse of prompts. Newspapers and magazines from the 50s, family photo albums, previously sent greeting cards and letters, unusual postage stamps. I don’t need any of it. And I’m no hoarder. But there are countless items that prey on my curiosity. Who wrote this 1942 letter and what’s with the photo of the man and goat on the porch? I always leave with a bag of treasures competing for Prompt of the Day.

Even the local crime report: “Mints, a phone charger, and a softball were taken from a locked car…”  Who takes mints and a softball? Write about it.

Or park yourself in any airport or Laundromat and scribble away.

Go ahead, grab hold of a prompt and let it pull you in. Relax and enjoy the ride.

I’ll leave you with this prompt, a few lines from Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “I am a Town.”

I’m the language of the natives, I’m a cadence and a drawl
I’m the pines behind the graveyard, and the cool beneath their shade….

Read the full lyrics to the song here. Then, write details of a town from the viewpoint of the town.

Maura Fitzgerald has written nonprofit grant, marketing and communications, annual reports, and campaign appeals. Her nonfiction has appeared in Milwaukee Magazine and her fiction in Pank. Her writing has been featured on Milwaukee Public Radio, and she has done public readings at Fixx Coffee Shop and Woodland Pattern Book Center. She has taught creative writing to 8th and 9th grade students through Pathways Milwaukee, and presently co-leads the Harwood Place Writers Group with Christi.

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Remington Roundup:
Upcoming Events, an Online Course, & Giveaways

1960's photo of woman at Remington typewriterSeptember rolls in with a new season in the air, a new perspective as the sun shifts its angle in the sky, and a new Remington Roundup. This month, find information on a few upcoming events (where we might see each other in person), my next online course (where I hope to get to read your great writing), and two upcoming author interviews and book giveaways!

Upcoming Events

DOORS OPEN MILWAUKEE
When: September 23-24, 2017
Where: Metropolitan Milwaukee

Doors Open Milwaukee is an annual event during which buildings all over the city make their spaces free and open to the public. Explore architecture, the arts, and the outdoors (this year, you can visit 170 buildings…if you have the stamina!).

Inspiration Studios (pictured above and located at 1500 S. 73rd St., West Allis, WI), the creative space that houses my tiny writing space, is open from 12-5pm each day.

Stop by, hear about a bit about the building’s history, check out the theater and the gallery, and be sure to head to my studio on the 2nd floor to say hello! There’ll be treats to nibble on, raffles to enter, and no-pressure writing sprints (F.U.N.). The sprints are scheduled for Saturday @ 1pm & 4pm and Sunday @ 12:30pm & 2pm. So if you stop by and see people scribbling furiously, know you are witnessing stories in the making.

WISCONSIN WRITERS ASSOCIATION FALL CONFERENCE 2017
When: October 6-7, 2017
Where: Riverwalk Hotel in Neenah, WI

If you’re in or near central Wisconsin at the start of October, join me and a host of other writers and authors for a weekend of craft and creativity at the Wisconsin Writers Association Fall Conference.

I’m presenting on Flash Nonfiction: the art of the short essay, but there is a long list of excellent workshops where you might uncover new ideas, critique a few pages, or craft a new poem.

Check out the full list, pack up your pen and paper, and meet me at the Riverwalk!

Online Course

Drawing of online connectionSeptember also kicks off registration for one of my favorite online courses: Principles & Prompts.

I’ve taught this 6-week class for a while now, and I love it every time. It’s a low-stakes learning experience that promises to keep you inspired and connected with writing during a time when holiday planning (and, who are we kidding…eating) takes precedence. You know how it is: you turn your calendar to November, start planning a family festivity (or twenty) and suddenly that writing journal becomes a book of to-do’s.

Each week in Principles & Prompts, you’ll find a link to an inspiring video or text, a tiny lesson on creativity & craft,  and a writing prompt. We also share our work with others, which means this course also connects you to a greater community of writers. In other words, your inspiration and encouragement doesn’t end with the last day of class.

Principles & Prompts runs from November 5th to December 16th. Join us!  REGISTRATION IS OPEN.

#Giveaways

This month, I’m hosting Patricia Ann McNair for a Q&A and giveaway about her new collection of essays, And These Are The Good Times (Side Street Press). I already have her interview in the queue, and you don’t want to miss her thoughts on writing–the questions, the reflections, how we respond–and her love of a city where connection and story are everywhere. Never mind the fact that if you stop by the interview, you could win a copy of her book (but not my copy…I’m not letting this one go!).

In October, Michael Shou-Yung Shum will talk about his debut novel, Queen of Spades (Forest Avenue Press), a book that Frederick Barthelme (Bob the Gambler) calls, “a lovely and complex gambling fairy tale that twists and turns in intriguing ways on its way to a most satisfying conclusion.” I’m loving this read so far. And when you stop by for the giveaway–where you eye up what’s available to win, drop your name into the hat, and cross your fingers your number pops up–it will be *almost* like playing the tables.

These two upcoming interviews mark both the 58th and 59th author Q&A I’ve posted on the blog. That’s an average of 9 books a year since my first Q&A with Beth Hoffman. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much to you, but considering what a sloooow reader I am, it’s a thrill to see that number grow and think of the stacks of stories I’ve had the chance to share.

But none of this happens without you. If you’re a subscriber, thanks for reading. If you found this via some internet search or social media, thanks for making that extra click to get here.