Christi, Author at Christi Craig

November 20, 2013November 19, 2013

Writers at the Table: The Big Event

It rained on Saturday, poured really, and I didn’t carry an umbrella. But as I parked my car, turned off the engine, and ran inside, I thought little about getting wet and more about the Anthology reading that afternoon. I’d arrived half an hour early, and I was nervous, unsure what to expect but hoping for a fun and well-attended event for the Seniors whose work was printed in the book.

I wasn’t the only one anxious and eager. When I walked into the lobby, Betty, one of the writers, was there as well. She had her story in hand and a frustrated look and said the room wasn’t set up yet. What we discovered upon talking with the manager was that the room had been prepared, but for a tiny audience of five. The manager asked me how many people I anticipated, and I looked to Betty. We both shrugged. I said at least ten. Betty said fifteen. We were both wrong. The room filled up with at least thirty.

The majority of those in the audience were fellow residents of Harwood Place, which added to the energy (and maybe the nerves) of the readers. I love the Seniors’ stories from the perspective of a writer and someone interested in the experience of past generations. The other residents, though, seem to appreciate them on a deeper, more personal level, breaking out in a laughter that was clearly from a place of total understanding and falling into quiet during a serious moment of shared experience.

It was then I knew that all the work in the past months, weeks, and days, was worth it, and this event was exactly as is should be.

Valerie Reynolds reading Good Neighbors.

Richard Borchers reading And Then It Happened.

Me reading The Political Kettle for Clyde Rusk, that distinguished fellow in the red sweater.

Betty Sydow, our flash fiction writer, reading The Storm.

What happened after the reading came to a close made the event even more special. Those audience members? They lingered well past the applause. Not just for the coffee and cookies either. They sat in circles and visited with each other, and the writers worked the room. Clyde, who has lived at Harwood Place for several years, said to me, “Look at everyone still here! This is unheard of. We’ve hit a hot button, I tell you.”

He’s right, as every bit of this experience–the writing class, these stories, the reading–speaks of the importance in gathering at the table.

In Community.

I’m so grateful to be a part of such a wonderful group.

IMG_20131116_150009_598 — Just look at those smiles!

You don’t have anything / if you don’t have the stories.
~ from CEREMONY, Leslie Marmon Silko

November 13, 2013November 12, 2013

Writers at the Table: The Anthology

It’s always a thrill (and a relief) to see a writing project come to completion. For the last year and a half, I’ve led a creative writing class once a month with a group of Senior Citizens. They bring wonderful stories to the table, two of which you can read here: Old Hat by Toshio Ninomiya and My Mother by Ted Johnson.

We talked of publishing a small anthology of their work, so, after several months of compiling and editing essays and stories written by hand or on typewriters, their words are now in print in a lovely little book.

During this process, I learned that 1) their stories do not grow old, no matter how many times I read them, and 2) the absence of technology makes pushing this kind of a project forward a bit more challenging.

The majority of my contact with the writers, including edits and reminders of due dates, happened through snail mail, as only one contributor dabbles in email. I love sending and receiving hand-written letters, always, but I’ve grown accustomed to working with other writers and editors online. In quick exchange. Incorporating the extra time to relay information via mail trucks and foot traffic made me appreciate how publishing worked back in the early days, and made the end result all the more sweet.

This Saturday, November 16th, at 2pm, the writers will give an official reading at Harwood Place in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. If you come, you’ll hear essays and short fiction–tales of community and relationship and even fashion–by Richard Borchers, Ted Johnson, Valerie Reynolds, Clyde Rusk, and Betty Sydow. There’ll be coffee and cookies and smiling faces. And, beautiful blue books.

November 6, 2013November 4, 2013

Writing is Taking Risks: Guest Post by Leesa Freeman

Lessa Freeman and I share several things in common: we are misplaced Texans and lovers of Dr. Pepper (though it’s off the menu for both of us…pure torture), and we both have a fire to write. Today, Leesa talks about her journey to publication–about finding courage. As a bonus, she’s giving away an autographed copy of her novel, THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE. Just drop your name in the comments. It’s that easy.

Take the Risk to Blossom

Leesa Freeman

Writing saved my life.

Yes, I realize that’s a rather audacious statement, but follow me on this for a moment. Before I discovered I’m a writer, I kind of drifted, lost. I thought it would be “really cool” to write a book, but more or less in the same way I thought it would be “really cool” to learn to play the guitar or scale Mt. Everest or go skydiving. (Have I mentioned I’m desperately afraid of heights?) But I kept myself from doing it with all the usual excuses: I don’t have time, what the heck do you talk about for 200 pages, and who would give a rat’s hat what I have to say, anyway?

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~ Anaïs Nin

Several years ago I had a dream that I couldn’t quite get out of my head, and I sat down at my computer with equal parts curiosity and desperation. In my dream, a girl was in a hospital waiting room waiting for her friend to get out of surgery so she could tell him for the first time she loved him. It was surreal, it was vivid, and I had to know why she hadn’t told him before.

And so I began writing just for me. Just to move on. Once I was done with this piddly little short story, it was gonna go somewhere on my hard drive and that would be that, right?

Wrong.

The more I wrote, the more I had to write, until I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t wait to get home when I was out, and was generally obsessed with this whole thing. And somewhere in that process, I became a writer.

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” ~ Anaïs Nin

There’s something magical in discovering what you are truly good at. Not that I knew everything when I began, not that I know everything now, but that moment when you not only realize not only have you found your gift, but you have the courage to embrace it, call it forth, and make it your own is an Angels-singing-on-high feeling.

And that’s what saved my life, because I was able to see myself differently. I was able to become who I’d always wanted to be, but was too afraid of rejection, or being vulnerable, or whatever crazy excuse I’d come up with that really boiled down to one thing: if I didn’t try, I couldn’t fail.

Once I realized I couldn’t fail because I had already succeeded, it became easier to take on all the other challenges I had rejected out of fear. I found the courage to embrace the things that had previously scared me. Since then, not only have I published my first book, THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE, I’ve written a second for which I’m currently looking for an agent, and I’m working on a third. That in and of itself is huge, but as I write this, I’ve also lost almost 100 pounds – I couldn’t keep becoming Who I’m Meant to Be while feeling bad about who I was.

“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.” ~ Anaïs Nin

Writing is, for me, therapy. Through it I have spent hours at my computer opening my heart and my emotions, trying to immerse myself into my character’s lives to tell their stories as fully and deeply as I possibly can, and it has been those moments of laughing with them, crying with them, and rejoicing in them that has given me myself.

Maybe writing didn’t save my life in the “traditional” sense. You could argue that I wasn’t technically dying, and I would agree with you. I wasn’t. But I would also argue that without embracing the gifts we are each given and finding the courage to use them unapologetically are we really living?

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” ~ Anais Nin

A native Texan, Leesa Freeman enjoys escaping the chill of New England, if only in her imagination, often setting her stories in the places she loved growing up. Some of her favorite moments are the ones where it’s just her, her Mac, and simply conversing with the people who live inside her head, and sharing their lives with those who take the time to read her stories. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two daughters, where she is also an artist, avid baker, a self-proclaimed music snob, and recovering Dr. Pepper addict. Visit her website and follow her on Facebook.

About the book:

Todd Randall spent his life pushing the limits: stealing a pack of cigarettes and a beer and coming home smelling like tobacco and cheap bear; “borrowing” his father’s car, usually to pick up girls; snorting lines of OxyContin after a knee injury on the football field, eventually landing in rehab at the age of seventeen. Now he works in his uncle’s auto body shop, struggling to stay clean, and refusing to get close to anyone because he fears he is unfit for human consumption. When he meets Shawn Clifton, for the first time begins to see himself differently, and even though it scares the hell out of him, he feels compelled to reach for the life she offers.

THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE is the story of one man’s desire to accept his mistakes, find the courage to allow himself to truly love, and finally become the person he so wants to be. Read an excerpt HERE.

Drop your name in the comments for a chance to win a copy of THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE or purchase your own copy on Amazon. Random.org will choose the winner of Leesa’s autographed copy on Tuesday, November 12th.