Breena Clarke's Blog: A Few Whiles - Posts Tagged "angels-make-their-hope-here"
ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE
This is the history of the origin of the people of Russell's Knob as recounted for several generations by the descendents of the founders of the settlement. The earliest written accounts of the history of Russell's Knob are found in the bibles, journals, diaries, business records and wills of the Smoot, Wilhelm, Beaulieu and Van Waganen families as archived by Sarah Jane Smoot.
Four sisters, four young girls - were part of the good-will gesture of a minor head man of the Lenape in the area above the Falls. He gave his daughters to British soldiers who wanted women and hadn’t thought to bring any along — as if they hadn’t meant to stay. The girls were treated like wives, settled near each other and were pleased with their father’s arrangements. Each had children, each had a clever brother, and when the war between patriots and loyalists broke out, these four grandmothers were given title to the lands of their husbands while the war raged in a bold strategy to preserve the lands for His Majesty. At the urging of their clever brother, the four grandmothers signed loyalty oaths to the Patriot cause as soon as their husbands were called up to the service of the war, and thus were not killed or burned out during raids by Patriots. The four grandmothers and their brother kept title to all of the lands that had formerly belonged to His Majesty, and through legal machinations after the war, become recognized by the Government of the State of New Jersey as the legal owners of the lands.
Russell’s Knob then is Grandmother’s town. The oldest inhabitants did, in fact, call it Grandmother's town. But it came to be called Russell’s Knob in the late 18th century when all of the settlers accepted the idea first proposed by Russell Sitton, grandson of one of the Grandmothers, that upon these lands no slave catcher, no slave trader, no bounty hunter or profiteer could pursue a bond person and that no one who reached the town would be forced to return to slavery. Russell Sitton’s band vowed to defend themselves against outside threat and, after several burn-outs, hid themselves and fortified with weapons.
Four sisters, four young girls - were part of the good-will gesture of a minor head man of the Lenape in the area above the Falls. He gave his daughters to British soldiers who wanted women and hadn’t thought to bring any along — as if they hadn’t meant to stay. The girls were treated like wives, settled near each other and were pleased with their father’s arrangements. Each had children, each had a clever brother, and when the war between patriots and loyalists broke out, these four grandmothers were given title to the lands of their husbands while the war raged in a bold strategy to preserve the lands for His Majesty. At the urging of their clever brother, the four grandmothers signed loyalty oaths to the Patriot cause as soon as their husbands were called up to the service of the war, and thus were not killed or burned out during raids by Patriots. The four grandmothers and their brother kept title to all of the lands that had formerly belonged to His Majesty, and through legal machinations after the war, become recognized by the Government of the State of New Jersey as the legal owners of the lands.
Russell’s Knob then is Grandmother’s town. The oldest inhabitants did, in fact, call it Grandmother's town. But it came to be called Russell’s Knob in the late 18th century when all of the settlers accepted the idea first proposed by Russell Sitton, grandson of one of the Grandmothers, that upon these lands no slave catcher, no slave trader, no bounty hunter or profiteer could pursue a bond person and that no one who reached the town would be forced to return to slavery. Russell Sitton’s band vowed to defend themselves against outside threat and, after several burn-outs, hid themselves and fortified with weapons.
Closing the book
I like basketball. Lately I've noticed -- other folks have noticed for me -- that I'm now picking up the game's metaphors. Yeah, I suppose I am. "Putting it all on the floor." I think I did. "Taking it straight to the hole." I hope I did. "Draining it from way outside." Yes, I tried to and now I figure it is safe to say:
"Book it!" Read my blog as I'm musing about the process of walking up to the publication date ( JULY 8) of my latest novel, ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE.
http://angelsmaketheirhopehere.tumblr...
"Book it!" Read my blog as I'm musing about the process of walking up to the publication date ( JULY 8) of my latest novel, ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE.
http://angelsmaketheirhopehere.tumblr...
Brave Women
1812: Cochabamba
Women
“From Cochabamba, many men have fled. Not one woman. On the hillside, a great clamor. Cochabamba’s plebeian women, at bay, fight from the center of a circle of fire.
Surrounded by five thousand Spaniards, they resist with battered tin guns and a few arquebuses: and they fight to the last yell, whose echoes will resound throughout the long war for independence."
- Eduardo Galeano, “Memory of Fire II. Faces And Masks”
Faces and Masks
The American continent is so very often imagined as a thing conquered/tamed by heroic individuals mostly characterized as men – rough, aggressive men who bring a sort of order to this vast expanse.
Many brave women have left their tracks on this continent, too. Read my blog here:
http://angelsmaketheirhopehere.tumblr...
Women
“From Cochabamba, many men have fled. Not one woman. On the hillside, a great clamor. Cochabamba’s plebeian women, at bay, fight from the center of a circle of fire.
Surrounded by five thousand Spaniards, they resist with battered tin guns and a few arquebuses: and they fight to the last yell, whose echoes will resound throughout the long war for independence."
- Eduardo Galeano, “Memory of Fire II. Faces And Masks”
Faces and Masks
The American continent is so very often imagined as a thing conquered/tamed by heroic individuals mostly characterized as men – rough, aggressive men who bring a sort of order to this vast expanse.
Many brave women have left their tracks on this continent, too. Read my blog here:
http://angelsmaketheirhopehere.tumblr...
The Writing Blog Tour
Who started the Writing Blog Tour you ask.
I don’t know.
Who passed the baton to me?
Esther, Esther Cohen, author of BOOK DOCTOR and NO CHARGE FOR LOOKING
Who?
My friend, Esther Cohen, the vivacious, wickedly daring writer who grabs you by the hand and pulls you into some kind of trouble. Check out what she says about writing: http://esthercohen.com/writing/
Oh.
Yes, that Esther Cohen. I met her at A Room Of Her Own Foundation’s Retreat 2011 at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. I’ve admired her and her writing ever since. I invited her to be one of the first participating writers at The Hobart Book Village Festival of Women Writers in 2013. Her reading/performance piece was wonderful. She’s the kind of person and writer that your friends are always glad you introduced them to. She’s been a stalwart for me and my fellow organizers of The Festival and she’ll be back with us this year as a participating writer.
What Am I Working On?
I am working on a novel that, in some ways, will build from the one I’ve just completed, ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE. The exciting part for me is that I’m experimenting with the narrative voice for this novel. I’ll be looking for a nimble contemporary voice that can speak from the soul of this novel. I’m in an outlining stage. Part of the fun is creating the fictional genealogy. Pictured above are a couple of my muses.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I suppose I am in the genre of historical fiction. I won’t pretend to be writing anything other than the kind/type/genre of book that I myself like most to read. I most like to be carried along in the lives of characters — borne along on a carpet of stunning literary turns as in the work of the giants. I don’t say I do this. I say I ASPIRE to do this. I aspire to illuminate the lives of people from “The American Previous” who have been unrecognized especially those of African descent. There is a bit of chippy-ness in it - a bit of wanting to make HIS story MY story and enshrining bits and pinches of the oral legacy of my specific ancestors onto the permanent written record.
Why do I write what I do?
I think, upon reflection, that I write my feelings. Often these are wounded feelings. As my father used to say when I was small and easily tearful, I wear my feelings on my sleeve. I am motivated to elicit emotions when I write. I can name what feelings either drove me or led me into the novels I’ve written. I wanted to capture feelings like those of my mother’s, a young girl growing up in a segregated city wanting opportunities that were denied to her. I wrote RIVER, CROSS MY HEART. I wanted sudden shock, separation, lack of autonomy and the pain of a besieged, oppressed humanity to be felt and I wanted to explore 19th century Washington, DC. I wrote STAND THE STORM. I wanted free rein to imagine a town, a place that I wished was real and possible and viable. I wrote ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE to try on that feeling.
How does my writing process work?
Slowly. I understand myself to be a plodding sort of writer. I am not one to throw everything down on a page in a flash of brilliance. I’m not being falsely modest. I know how I accomplish what I consider my writing. I know how it feels when its done. I have learned over the years to schedule assignments according to my pokey little puppy world view though I have to balance my slow pace with the anxiety of getting everything written within my reasonably conceivable lifetime. I have a very regular, sort of rigid stretch of early morning writing time. When I’ve been at my desk - actually a set of three tablemates because my two so-called desks are less useful and piled with books and papers and office supplies — and I’ve advanced my projects and plumbed my thoughts, I feel accomplished and satisfied.
I venture out to look at material goods in historic houses and museums and libraries. I find that I enjoy constructing characters with insights I glean from work tools and implements, furniture and clothing.
When I had an office job, I felt like this, too because I was lucky enough to work at TIME magazine and later for the corporate administrative side of TIME INC. One of the magazine’s wunderkind writers when I was there was Sophfronia Scott.
So … drum roll … I’m PASSING THE BATON to my new/old buddy, Sophfronia Scott, who was one of the participating writers at the first Hobart Book Village Festival of Women Writers. She’s the author of the novel, ALL I NEED TO GET BY and she’s graduating with an MFA in writing, fiction and creative nonfiction, from Vermont College of Fine Arts in July. Yeah! She’s deep in revisions on her second novel, which is currently titled THE LIGHT LIVES HERE Yeah! Yeah! She’s also working on a collection of essays and is ghostwriting a memoir, Eyes in My Fingertips, for a Harvard classmate who has been blind since birth.
For goodness sake continue this Writing Blog Tour by checking out Sophfronia’s answers to the four questions beginning on May 14, 2014 at www.Sophfronia.com
And continuing my good fortune in discovering friends and colleagues through the slightest little slivers of chance, I became acquainted with Dara Lurie and her writing because someone in someone’s reading group said that reading Dara Lurie’s book, GREAT SPACE OF DESIRE: WRITING FOR PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION, was a transformative experience for them and that she had a Hudson Valley connection and maybe she’d be willing to come to the first Hobart Book Village Festival Of Women Writers and offer her workshop. I contacted her and we met for a lunch in the city and we bonded. Serendipity! Dara has created and conducts workshops that lead other writers to a practice of writing and exploration of their deepest, fullest creative notes. I’m so delighted to have Dara Lurie in my circles and thrilled that she’s agreed to link up on this Writing Blog Tour. She, too, will answer the four Writing Blog Tour questions and will post on May 14, 2014 at http://www.transformative-writing.com She also knows a lot about self-publishing and she shares her insights so then you’ll know what she knows so well.
I don’t know.
Who passed the baton to me?
Esther, Esther Cohen, author of BOOK DOCTOR and NO CHARGE FOR LOOKING
Who?
My friend, Esther Cohen, the vivacious, wickedly daring writer who grabs you by the hand and pulls you into some kind of trouble. Check out what she says about writing: http://esthercohen.com/writing/
Oh.
Yes, that Esther Cohen. I met her at A Room Of Her Own Foundation’s Retreat 2011 at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. I’ve admired her and her writing ever since. I invited her to be one of the first participating writers at The Hobart Book Village Festival of Women Writers in 2013. Her reading/performance piece was wonderful. She’s the kind of person and writer that your friends are always glad you introduced them to. She’s been a stalwart for me and my fellow organizers of The Festival and she’ll be back with us this year as a participating writer.
What Am I Working On?
I am working on a novel that, in some ways, will build from the one I’ve just completed, ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE. The exciting part for me is that I’m experimenting with the narrative voice for this novel. I’ll be looking for a nimble contemporary voice that can speak from the soul of this novel. I’m in an outlining stage. Part of the fun is creating the fictional genealogy. Pictured above are a couple of my muses.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I suppose I am in the genre of historical fiction. I won’t pretend to be writing anything other than the kind/type/genre of book that I myself like most to read. I most like to be carried along in the lives of characters — borne along on a carpet of stunning literary turns as in the work of the giants. I don’t say I do this. I say I ASPIRE to do this. I aspire to illuminate the lives of people from “The American Previous” who have been unrecognized especially those of African descent. There is a bit of chippy-ness in it - a bit of wanting to make HIS story MY story and enshrining bits and pinches of the oral legacy of my specific ancestors onto the permanent written record.
Why do I write what I do?
I think, upon reflection, that I write my feelings. Often these are wounded feelings. As my father used to say when I was small and easily tearful, I wear my feelings on my sleeve. I am motivated to elicit emotions when I write. I can name what feelings either drove me or led me into the novels I’ve written. I wanted to capture feelings like those of my mother’s, a young girl growing up in a segregated city wanting opportunities that were denied to her. I wrote RIVER, CROSS MY HEART. I wanted sudden shock, separation, lack of autonomy and the pain of a besieged, oppressed humanity to be felt and I wanted to explore 19th century Washington, DC. I wrote STAND THE STORM. I wanted free rein to imagine a town, a place that I wished was real and possible and viable. I wrote ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE to try on that feeling.
How does my writing process work?
Slowly. I understand myself to be a plodding sort of writer. I am not one to throw everything down on a page in a flash of brilliance. I’m not being falsely modest. I know how I accomplish what I consider my writing. I know how it feels when its done. I have learned over the years to schedule assignments according to my pokey little puppy world view though I have to balance my slow pace with the anxiety of getting everything written within my reasonably conceivable lifetime. I have a very regular, sort of rigid stretch of early morning writing time. When I’ve been at my desk - actually a set of three tablemates because my two so-called desks are less useful and piled with books and papers and office supplies — and I’ve advanced my projects and plumbed my thoughts, I feel accomplished and satisfied.
I venture out to look at material goods in historic houses and museums and libraries. I find that I enjoy constructing characters with insights I glean from work tools and implements, furniture and clothing.
When I had an office job, I felt like this, too because I was lucky enough to work at TIME magazine and later for the corporate administrative side of TIME INC. One of the magazine’s wunderkind writers when I was there was Sophfronia Scott.
So … drum roll … I’m PASSING THE BATON to my new/old buddy, Sophfronia Scott, who was one of the participating writers at the first Hobart Book Village Festival of Women Writers. She’s the author of the novel, ALL I NEED TO GET BY and she’s graduating with an MFA in writing, fiction and creative nonfiction, from Vermont College of Fine Arts in July. Yeah! She’s deep in revisions on her second novel, which is currently titled THE LIGHT LIVES HERE Yeah! Yeah! She’s also working on a collection of essays and is ghostwriting a memoir, Eyes in My Fingertips, for a Harvard classmate who has been blind since birth.
For goodness sake continue this Writing Blog Tour by checking out Sophfronia’s answers to the four questions beginning on May 14, 2014 at www.Sophfronia.com
And continuing my good fortune in discovering friends and colleagues through the slightest little slivers of chance, I became acquainted with Dara Lurie and her writing because someone in someone’s reading group said that reading Dara Lurie’s book, GREAT SPACE OF DESIRE: WRITING FOR PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION, was a transformative experience for them and that she had a Hudson Valley connection and maybe she’d be willing to come to the first Hobart Book Village Festival Of Women Writers and offer her workshop. I contacted her and we met for a lunch in the city and we bonded. Serendipity! Dara has created and conducts workshops that lead other writers to a practice of writing and exploration of their deepest, fullest creative notes. I’m so delighted to have Dara Lurie in my circles and thrilled that she’s agreed to link up on this Writing Blog Tour. She, too, will answer the four Writing Blog Tour questions and will post on May 14, 2014 at http://www.transformative-writing.com She also knows a lot about self-publishing and she shares her insights so then you’ll know what she knows so well.
Sale! Sale! Sale!
Extra! Extra! Hachette is offering a sale on eBOOK preorders of ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE beginning today( June 26th) through July 8th, Publication Date.
Watch the video trailer at: http://bit.ly/Vp6pac
Helmar Cooper and Breena Clarke read out loud a few tidbits from ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE
Take advantage of this excellent opportunity to suit up your eReader and be ready when the coach calls . . . I mean when pub date comes on July 8th.
Here's a list of links to ebook retailers who are excited to take PREORDERS for ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE:
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/ange...
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/eboo...
Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=te_i...
Ebooks.com: http://www.ebooks.com/1335182/angels-...
Barnes and Noble (ebook): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/angel...
Watch the video trailer at: http://bit.ly/Vp6pac
Helmar Cooper and Breena Clarke read out loud a few tidbits from ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE
Take advantage of this excellent opportunity to suit up your eReader and be ready when the coach calls . . . I mean when pub date comes on July 8th.
Here's a list of links to ebook retailers who are excited to take PREORDERS for ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE:
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/ange...
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/eboo...
Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=te_i...
Ebooks.com: http://www.ebooks.com/1335182/angels-...
Barnes and Noble (ebook): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/angel...
Celebrate Independence Day
Celebrate Independence Day by purchasing your copy of ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE from an independent bookstore in your community. Find a location at Indiebound:
http://bit.ly/VjDy6R
http://bit.ly/VjDy6R
Today's the Day! ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE is on sale!
My latst novel, ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE
is ON-SALE today in all formats.
read an excerpt here: http://on.fb.me/1mTY0Wt
listen to an excerpt of the audiobook: http://bit.ly/UZxal7
is ON-SALE today in all formats.
read an excerpt here: http://on.fb.me/1mTY0Wt
listen to an excerpt of the audiobook: http://bit.ly/UZxal7
Mapping the real and imagined
Robert S. Duncanson (1821 – December 21, 1872) was an African-American painter associated with the Hudson River School. - wikipedia
When I read about Robert S. Duncanson’s intriguing, complex identity and saw photos of the romantic idyllls he painted, I wanted to get an upclose look to see if I could feel inspired by his work. I went to Newark Museum’s American Art collection to see an important Duncanson painting, Mountain Landscape with Cows and Sheep, that is part of the Museum’s permanent collection of American paintings.
go to: http://bit.ly/1pEMKP0 to see several pix of Duncanson's paintings.
link to Placing Literature and check out the locations in ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE I've mapped. http://bit.ly/1llQEqG
Check out this podcast interview. I discuss the creation of Russell's Knob.
When I read about Robert S. Duncanson’s intriguing, complex identity and saw photos of the romantic idyllls he painted, I wanted to get an upclose look to see if I could feel inspired by his work. I went to Newark Museum’s American Art collection to see an important Duncanson painting, Mountain Landscape with Cows and Sheep, that is part of the Museum’s permanent collection of American paintings.
go to: http://bit.ly/1pEMKP0 to see several pix of Duncanson's paintings.
link to Placing Literature and check out the locations in ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE I've mapped. http://bit.ly/1llQEqG
Check out this podcast interview. I discuss the creation of Russell's Knob.
The life of an enslaved child
Angels Make Their Hope Here
"The life of an enslaved child held no guarantee that she would not be involuntarily separated from her mother and father. She might be sold, she might be put to work on another plantation, she may be beaten, she may be raped, she may die of disease or malnutrition. The only certainty in her life is that the people who love her cannot protect her. They can only facilitate her escape. Fear, uncertainty and a certain certainty motivate Dossie’s parents to make a plan and implement it.”
from the interview with Breena Clarke on LATE NIGHT LIBRARY
I was pleased to have the opportunity talk with Anne Rasmussen for Late Night Library and muse on my characters, discuss their roles as parents and offer insights about the tri-racial community of Russell’s Knob. I shared some of the photographs that I use to nourish my creative imagination. Once I’ve “adopted” a soul captured by chemicals and light, I feel as though they’re my own People.
read my entire interview at : http://bit.ly/1vimpLq
"The life of an enslaved child held no guarantee that she would not be involuntarily separated from her mother and father. She might be sold, she might be put to work on another plantation, she may be beaten, she may be raped, she may die of disease or malnutrition. The only certainty in her life is that the people who love her cannot protect her. They can only facilitate her escape. Fear, uncertainty and a certain certainty motivate Dossie’s parents to make a plan and implement it.”
from the interview with Breena Clarke on LATE NIGHT LIBRARY
I was pleased to have the opportunity talk with Anne Rasmussen for Late Night Library and muse on my characters, discuss their roles as parents and offer insights about the tri-racial community of Russell’s Knob. I shared some of the photographs that I use to nourish my creative imagination. Once I’ve “adopted” a soul captured by chemicals and light, I feel as though they’re my own People.
read my entire interview at : http://bit.ly/1vimpLq
A Few Whiles
I knew a boy once who thought that, if there was one while, i.e. a unit – a while of time, then surely there were two whiles and three and so on to several. So, often he would say that he’d be back in
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