SMALL NOVELS, DEAD HUSBANDS AND THE JULY POEM

LIFE OF A BOOKMAN

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi that's me!!

Lovely Little Thing: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan did so much in so few pages. It follows a family man and coal merchant, Bill Furlong, during one of the busiest times of his year – Christmas. When Furlong stumbles on a discovery that he can't unsee, (but if he acknowledges he saw it, his future and that of his daughters is in terrible jeopardy). He's thrown into a crisis of heart, duty, and faith. I loved this story, which was recommended to me by a new bookshop in Savannah The Stacks Bookstore (visit them! Buy this book from them!). My heart was on the heavy side the day I read this book, and it reminded me of the good in the world...even when history is bleak. One of the many reasons I love to read :)

What I'm writing: I presented my main character's misbelief of That Second Novel to my coach and everything clicked!!! We loved it. And I was able to even sketch out seven key scenes using that misbelief: the opening, inciting incident, midpoint, all-is-lost moment, dark night of the soul, climax, and resolution. When I look at the arc of these scenes I can see the faint outline of a story, which is very exciting – and helps take my focus off the fact That (first) Novel is still in the gap of unknown.

WOMEN’S STUDIES

What gets passed down becomes our history. A few for the canon:

I finished listening to Happily Never After: Dan and Nancy. This podcast series follows one woman Nancy, a romance writer whose romantic betrayals hit a little too close to home. It was interesting – the way a writer's inner world got mixed up and lost with her outter world, with devastating consequences. I'd call this series “very listenable”, as in I finished it. but a few times I caught myself remembering that...this isn't just an alleged “did she write a book about a crime and then commit that crime”...an innocent man died.

Although it's totally different, this led me to think about the author of Where the Crawdads Sing (which I loved!) who was wanted for questioning in a murder in Zambia, which took place 30 years ago and had uncomfortable similarities to her book. It brings up something I always wonder when reading anything painful, dark, or criminal: what part of someone's imagination, research and/or lived experiences did this materialize from?

PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here's one of mine:

I spent the Fourth of July weekend in a pool when I wasn't in my very sexy plastic boot contraption – And it felt good. But what felt even better than the weightlessness of my broken ankle was the renewed realization of how much of this life we can't control, predict, or strategize. I had a very different month planned than the one I'm living, but I also am having a hell of a time with what's showing up: pool time with people I love, unexpected late-night gab-sessions, Target galpal dates, summer salads, and half a pan-banging chocolate-chip recipe that shoulda been a full one. Oh, and this delightful poem texted to me from a heartbeat I adore.

Let July be July. Woman on xx