(R.H. Herron)
Live from Venice, Rachael talks about her writing retreat, both the one she led for sixteen writers, and the private writing retreat she had alone after they left. (No guest on this episode.)
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John Gaspard is the author of the Eli Marks mystery series The Ambitious Card, The Bullet Catch, The Miser’s Dream and The Linking Rings, from Henery Press.
He has also written two popular books on low-budget filmmaking: Fast Cheap and Under Control and Fast, Cheap and Written That Way.
In real life, John is not a magician, but he has directed six low-budget features that cost very little and made even less – no small trick. His blog, “Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts” has been named “One of the 50 Best Blogs for Moviemakers” and “One of The 100 Best Blogs For Film and Theater Students.” He’s also written for TV and the stage.
John lives in Minnesota and shares his home with his lovely wife, several dogs, a few cats and a handful of pet allergies.
Free e-book of “The Invisible Assistant” (an Eli Marks short story)
Free audiobook of “The Invisible Assistant” (an Eli Marks short story)
Listen above or subscribe on:
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Sign up for Rachael’s FREE weekly email in which she encourages you to do the thing you want most in the world. You’ll also get her Stop Stalling and Write PDF with helpful tips you can use now to get some writing done (free).
Hello darling readers,
The Songbird Sisters, the final installment in the Darling Songbirds trilogy, comes out TODAY! Now, you know me. This day is an exciting one! I will probably wake at the crack of dawn and think to myself, “My book is winging its way out into the world!” Then I’ll spring out of bed and do my new-book dance which looks a lot like this (minus the blowtorch, usually):
Then I’ll just get up and do Very Writerly Things like feed the animals and do yoga and work on a new synopsis that needs to be wrestled while throwing Trader Joe’s mochi snacks in my mouth as fast as I can shovel them.
But in the back of mind all day (and all month!) I’ll be wondering if Lana Darling’s story is in your hands, and even better, in your hearts.
See, Lana’s back in town after a long time away. She’s not sure if she can repair the relationship between her and her sisters, and to make everything worse, she’s failed in her biggest goal: to become a successful singer-songwriter. But in Darling Bay, she can start again, and hopefully do a better job with fixing the old hotel than she did out on the road with her guitar.
Then megastar Taft Hill, the one she sold her most important song to, shows up. He needs more songs from her.
Or that’s his excuse, anyway.
BUY LINKS:
Amazon | Kobo | iBooks | Nook | GooglePlay | Australia/NZ
(For another couple of days, the first book, The Darling Songbirds, is only $1.99 in US/UK/CAN in eversion – grab it now if you haven’t already.)
EARLY REVIEWS OF THE SONGBIRD SISTERS:
This is quite possibly my favorite Rachael Herron book since the ones (set in Cypress Hollow) that drew me to her work as an author. – Fate’s Lady, Goodreads
Maybe it’s because I’m the baby in my own family, but I identified with this character. I loved this book. – Tami, Goodreads
One of my favorite returns to Darling Bay! – Karen G, Goodreads
I have to admit to you, this one is my favorite of the three, too. I hope you love Lana and Taft as much as I do. They kept surprising me throughout the book, and I can’t be happier that today, they fly.
Thanks and love always,
Rachael
EXCERPT FROM The Songbird Sisters:
This is when Taft Hill first sees Lana Darling singing at the Bluebird in Nashville:
Charisma.
The real deal, she had it by the truckload. When she was singing, she transformed into something different, something electric. She’d been cute when she walked out, eccentric and kind of adorable in her plain black shirt and black jeans. But when she sang, she was beautiful. Her eyes went darker brown, smokier. Her voice seemed to hold up her spine, and her whole body sang to the crowd.
The ungrateful crowd full of sons of bitches who didn’t have the courtesy to even watch her. They were too busy texting and taking selfies. They were in a historic room, with someone in front of them making damn history itself, and they couldn’t see it.
As Lana Darling’s first song ended, Taft stood. He walked to the front table, where a man and woman were involved in a heated discussion about the jalapeño poppers they’d ordered that afternoon.
“I’m telling you, they used light cream cheese.”
The woman shook her head. “It was probably full fat. You’re not allergic, anyway. Just shut up.”
Taft rapped the tabletop with his knuckles so hard he made their Long Island iced teas jump. “Hi. Why aren’t you clapping?”
Startled, the couple clapped.
Taft could feel Lana’s stare on the back of his neck.
The man’s mouth dropped open. “You’re … wait, are you –?”
“That I am. You mind if I sit down here with y’all?”
The woman stuttered. “Taft Hill, my God. Of course, sit with us.”
Taft pulled out the chair, straddling it backward. “Great.”
Both scrambled for their phones, but Taft raised a hand, palm down. “Put ’em away. Enjoy the show.”
“Can you just – one picture with me?”
“After.” Taft raised a finger to his lips. “You’re in the presence of a legend.”
“Sorry,” the woman said. “Sorry. Of course. You are a legend, I know.”
Taft blew out a sharp breath. “Not me. Her.”
Lana, only six feet away, snorted. It wasn’t a giggle, and it wasn’t a chuckle. It wasn’t ladylike. It was a snort of derision. It was loud and held no apology. She fiddled with her C-string and started the next song.
Taft fell a little bit in love.
The couple left four songs later, and they missed the best part.
Lana sang “Blame Me.”
BUY LINKS:
Amazon | Kobo | iBooks | Nook | GooglePlay | Australia/NZ
A Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, Sheree L. Greer founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of ancestor, elder, and contemporary women writers of color. The author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms, and the short story collection, Once and Future lovers, Sheree recently published a writing guide for student writers, Stop Writing Wack Essays. She is a VONA alumn with work featured on Very Smart Brothas, AutoStraddle, Ms. Fit Magazine, and Hypertext. Sheree teaches composition, creative writing, fiction workshop, and African American literature at St. Petersburg College in Florida.
Craft Tip: Journal as your character–become your character–whether you use it or not.
Listen above or subscribe on:
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Sign up for Rachael’s FREE weekly email in which she encourages you to do the thing you want most in the world. You’ll also get her Stop Stalling and Write PDF with helpful tips you can use now to get some writing done (free).
Hi makers,
I wrote this for my writer’s list this week, but it applies to all makers, not just writers.
I had a bad virus this past week. Okay, I say bad, but it wasn’t the stomach flu, and it didn’t come with a high, terrible fever.
It just enervated me, leaving me spent and mostly useless. I lay around like a Victorian damsel on a fainting couch. I groaned intermittently, pleased with the hoarseness of my voice. I sighed a lot and blew my nose like the trumpets at the gates of Zion.
Then, when I started to feel better, I stayed down. (Okay, this is a lie. Friday night, I went to see Kate Tempest at a club and passed out after mainlining Gobstoppers, my first processed sugar in 3 months. Seriously. I didn’t even have a drink. Just. Passed. Out. I have to tell you, fainting is not as cool as it’s cracked up to be. In a moment that is funny in retrospect, I knew it was coming and apparently told my wife I thought I was going to faint — I barely remember this — so she had time to tell a stranger “Here, hold my drink,” as she caught me, which is why she still had her Manhattan after they carted me outside for air.)
So for the weekend, I kept resting.
Even though I felt guilty about it.
You might feel me on this one.
On Saturday, while resting, I made great cheese (coconut cheese that is healthy and tastes like the best/worst kind of nacho cheese ever – it is AMAZING) and terrible muffins, and besides that, I stayed in bed and watched The Americans on my phone.
It was okay that I stayed in bed, because I could look to an accomplishment. I had cooked. I had baked. That made me worthwhile, as a person.
On Sunday, I was almost better. I could have powered through almost anything, given the right dose of DayQuil and liberal distribution of hoarse groans.
But instead, I didn’t.
I just stayed down. I watched TV on my phone. I read. I napped a bit. I groaned pleasantly and petted the animals that piled happily on top of me.
I got NOTHING done. Not one single thing.
I was feeling awful about this, until I saw a tweet in my timeline. Bethany D. Lipka said, “If all you do today is take care of yourself, your day has been productive.”
This blew my mind.
Did she mean that lying in bed was actually a Thing To Do? A thing I could be proud of?
Yes, she certainly did.
So it got me thinking. Everyone is inherently worthy, with or without being productive.
This is something I’ve always believed.
For me to be worthy, I have to make. (Many creative people feel this way. You might.) I have to sew a dress or bake bread or write a book or make a podcast.
Otherwise, how will my worth be tangible? How will I prove it?
This is what I realized this weekend: I need to work on loosening my grasp on this belief.
I am worthy when I write books.
I am also equally worthy when I do absolutely nothing.
We could dive into the field-lying-fallow metaphor, but that one has always rung hollow to me. Yo, have you met me? I AM NEVER GOING TO LET A FIELD LIE FALLOW. I will add fertilizer (organic!) to that shit (get it?) and get back in there as soon as possible.
So let’s use the sleep metaphor. Our brains and bodies need sleep. We have to rest. And sometimes, we need more rest than we’re used to giving ourselves.
I’m my own boss. (As of one year today! Today is my first anniversary of self-employment! This is a huge, happy, exciting thing to me!)
And I’m also my only full-time employee.
I’ve got to take care of the boss and the employee residing in this body. Sometimes I need a vacation even without going out of town. Sometimes I need an extra hour of sleep, or a whole weekend in bed.
Sometimes accomplishing nothing is the absolute best thing for me To Do.
I am worthy, no matter what I make or don’t make. No matter what I do or don’t accomplish. No matter what I write or don’t write.
So are you.
Rest, if you need it.
Then rest some more.
(Of course, ask yourself honestly if you’re resting or procrastinating. You’ll know the answer, deep in your heart. And depression is a different beast entirely. Good lord, if you’re fighting depressing and taking care of yourself by resting? GOOD FOR YOU. Don’t have a second of regret about that.)
If all you do today is take care of yourself, you’re being productive.
I believe this. And I’m going to try to remember it, too.
Take care of yourselves, dear ones.
love,
Rachael
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PS – There will be no writer’s email next weekend – it’s my eleven-year wedding anniversary, and we’re leaving the dogs with a sitter and going up the coast. To rest. And to soak in the hot tub. To read books and dance by moonlight and celebrate each other.
PPS – The weeks after that might be sporadic, too, since I’ll be in Venice for two weeks, on retreat. OH YEAH. That will be less restful, since I’m leading the retreat, but I’ve built in time afterward for a retreat of my own, in which there will be much writing and even more napping.
Antonia Crane is a writer, Moth Slam winner, and writing instructor in Los Angeles. She is the author of the memoir, Spent (Barnacle Books, Rare Bird, 2014). She has written for The New York Times, Quartz: Atlantic Media, The Toast, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, Salon, and lots of other places. Her screenplay, “The Lusty” co-written with Silas Howard about the Exotic Dancers Union is a recipient of the San Francisco Film Society/ Kenneth Rainin Foundation Screenwriter’s Grant, 2015. She is at work on an essay collection and a memoir.
Craft Tip:When you learn how to be a writer who reads, you’ve reached a different level.
Listen above or subscribe on:
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Sign up for Rachael’s FREE weekly email in which she encourages you to do the thing you want most in the world. You’ll also get her Stop Stalling and Write PDF with helpful tips you can use now to get some writing done (free).