Remington Roundup Archives - Page 6 of 8

August 10, 2016August 8, 2016

Remington Roundup: #Read, #Write, #Submit

Summer has been a whirlwind of activity at home and beyond, but in the mix of vacations, retreats, and cleaning out closets to get ready for fall, here is a cluster of literary links to pull you back into the field of reading, writing, & submitting.

#Read

There’s a new literary journal on scene that incorporates both print and audio, and not just for dual sensory enjoyment. The Deaf Poet’s Society, “an online journal of disability literature & art,” publishes poetry, prose, art and more by writers with disabilities and makes the work accessible for anyone and everyone.

…the word “disabled” can encompass a wide variety of experiences. . . . If we’re not writing our lives, then someone else controls our narrative,” [Deaf Poets Society poetry editor Cyree Jarelle Johnson] said.

The first issue is out with beautiful art and prose. Take a look (&/or listen); spread the word.

*Above artwork, “Untitled (hands with gold pigment),” by Stephen Lapthisophon, featured in Issue 1 of The Deaf Poet’s Society.

#Write

For the last several weeks, I’ve been working on a new studio space: painting, hanging art, setting the scene. At times I’ve felt self-indulgent and worried about the fact that I’d spent more hours cultivating the space than using it. But making space for your writing is an important psychological aspect in the journey to create, as Maria Popova says on Brain Pickings:

The room, time of day, or ritual selected for working may enable or even induce intense concentration or a favorable motivational or emotional state.

Set the mood, but don’t stop there:

…despite all these fruitful strategies for optimizing creative flow, the bigger truth — something I wholeheartedly believe — remains: There is no ideal rotation of the chair or perfect position of the desk clock that guarantees a Pulitzer. What counts, ultimately, is putting your backside in the chair….

#Submit

Speaking of putting your backside in the the chair and Johnson’s quote about “writing our lives,” the call for submissions for Hidden Timber Books’ Family Narratives Anthology is still open until September 1st! We’re looking for:

“creative nonfiction, found poetry and other poetry, and essays inspired by diaries and letters, genealogical records…the telling of historical family narratives for present and future generations, both for our own families and for other readers.”

Dig up those old letters from your best friend, dust off that high school journal, put every card you received from your mother in order and uncover the puzzle of your world as seen through her eyes. You have a story; we want to read it.

June 1, 2016June 1, 2016

Remington Roundup: #Curiosity, #Intrigue, & #Perseverance

For the last few weeks, I’ve been deep in story as I work on my novel, taking copious notes like “get rid of Charles” (sorry, friend) and “what does ‘spoiling’ look like” (for me, perhaps, a glass of wine and a foot rub, thank you) and “try not to throw this IN THE GARBAGE” (followed by a few choice words).

So June’s Roundup is all about story with links that incite #Curiosity & #Intrigue, and encourage #Perseverance.

#Curiosity

As a writer, it’s often the strange and abandoned that catches my eye and pulls me into story. Today on a walk just after the break of dawn, it was the image of a house against a yellow sky, the windows dark and the cedar shake peeling, everything tired and worn. Last week it was this article about the Last House on Holland Island, an isolated structure, encroached upon by nature, and fighting a losing battle.

[The owner] built breakwaters out of wood, but the waves devoured them. He and his wife feverishly laid sandbags only to watch them split open in the hot summer sun and dissolve in the high tides. They carried 23 tons of rocks to the island and dropped them at the shoreline, to no avail.

I can’t help but wonder what it means when Mother Nature reclaims her space by swallowing a single home with such history. There’s a story (and probably a lesson) in that image alone.

#Intrigue

I’m sure you’ve heard that saying, there’s no such thing as a new idea. The library is full of stories about family, loss and redemption, love and honor, yet no story is exactly the same. But we might wonder how one person’s work influences (or shadows) another’s. The Forgotten Dust Bowl Novel that Rivals the “Grapes of Wrath” highlights a book first written at the same time Steinbeck wrote his classic. And the article questions how these two different authors and their work might have crossed paths.

Sanora Babb wrote Whose Names Are Unknown at the same time Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, using much of the same research material. While both novels are about displaced farmers coming to California, they’re very different books. . . . One spends more time in Oklahoma, the other spends more time in California. One focuses on individual characters, the other attempts to tell a broader story about America. Liking one novel over the other is a matter of taste….

The first time I read Grapes of Wrath, I couldn’t get past the first chapter; the second time I picked it up, I underlined passages on almost every other page. That coupled with the fact that these books intersect in the slightest of ways makes Babb’s story even more intriguing. Never mind that she held fast to her dream so that she finally saw her book published 65 years after it was written!

#Perseverance

Okay, so speaking of steadfast attention, let’s get back to editing that novel–a daunting task at any stage.

K.M. Weiland offers some great advice for staying ahead of (as she calls it) “the insurmountable Mt. Never Gonna Get There” in 6 Tips for How to Organize Your Novel’s Edits:

Repeat after me: when in doubt, make a list.

Now you’re talking. Wine, foot rubs, and a big to-do list.

May 4, 2016May 2, 2016

Remington Roundup: #Art, #CreativeExpression, & #Bravery

The month of May brings sunshine (hooray!), hints of the lazy days of summer (ahh), and a new roundup of links to #Art, #CreativeExpression, and #Bravery.

Watch, listen, read, and enjoy.

#Art

I love this video of Shantell Martin (via The New Yorker, The Scene), “Follow the Pen,” in which she talks about drawing, letting the pen go where it wants, and creativity being “just like a language unfolding.”

I come to a drawing with intention, a good intention to make something work. . . . I don’t plan…I trust in the pen, and I trust in this experience.

#CreativeExpression

Issue 60 of The Drum Literary Magazine offers four great stories, of fiction and non, for your listening ears and includes Melanie Senn’s essay, “The Art of Drumming Badly.” Senn doesn’t wait until the mood (or inspiration) strikes; she dives in the moment someone says, “Let’s do it.”

I stopped caring what other people thought, and I learned to play with attitude. . . . If I tried to be a perfectionist at this juncture in my life, I’d accomplish nothing. . . . we persist because it is fun and cathartic and makes us feel young.

#Bravery

So, we follow the muse to where she wants to go; we stop caring about what others think; then, we hit send. None of this happens without a stiff shot of courage or without the support of those around us. This month I have an essay up on Hippocampus Magazine, a piece that’s been several years in the making and one I’ve tried tackling in a myriad of ways. Many thanks to those who’ve read (and re-read) this piece in its many draft forms and to Donna Talarico at Hippocampus for finally bringing “At the Fence” to the page.

You love a good rain, the relief after the humidity falls, the way everything outside looks so green and alive. But as you follow your mother through the field, you notice patches of dead grass drowning in puddles and clumps of clover beaten down by the storm. The air is still heavy, and you slip in the mud.