Jean Harkin's Blog - Posts Tagged "sunbury-press"
For Diversity's Sake! Readers Wanted
“Diversity” is an often-used word these days, for many reasons and themes from the environment to social culture to literature.
Anthologies are showcases of diversity, containing a variety of writings, genres, writing styles, and authors’ points of view. This month, I draw your attention to three anthologies to tempt you:
The first is brand new, even pre-new. To be released May 18, “Denial Kills” is published by Not a Pipe Publishing and contains the writings of 23 authors from around the world. The book description reads, “There is another sinister threat (besides fear) . . .when if not addressed before it sets in, can be deadly. Denial, when allowed to fester, can have various consequences.” Examples follow in the stories, showing how denial can cost women their happiness, sanity, and even their lives.
Authors from Sweden to Australia, from Pakistan to Zimbabwe are contributors to this collection of stories and poems. Styles are as varied as the writers themselves. Diversity rules even while “Denial Kills.”
Another anthology was published in November 2020 during the pandemic by the Writers’ Mill group during a Zoom meeting (lots of writing, editing, and decision making led up to this.) The group’s eighth volume is “Journeys through Chaos: an Anthology to Bring us Together.” To find this book on Amazon, input both title and subtitle or look under “Writers’ Mill Journal.” It’s the book with the bright pinkish color. And the journeys between front and back covers vary from humorous to serious and are brightly diverse.
An older anthology, but still a goodie (I hope) is my own 2016 anthology of stories, some quirkier than others, titled “Night in Alcatraz and Other Uncanny Tales.”
I’m thrilled that “Alcatraz,” my first publication will soon have a “sibling.” My novel, “Promise Full of Thorns” has been accepted for publication, and I’ve signed a contract with Sunbury Press. When proofreading time comes, I’d like a few readers to give my novel a quick but focused read for typos and goofs. Please let me know if you’re interested. Thanks!
I am sorry to note the passing of John Richards at age 97. He died March 30 in Lincolnshire, England. John, a retired journalist and copy editor, was a grand old warrior for correct punctuation and word usage; together with his son, he founded the Apostrophe Protection Society in 2001 to save a “poor defenseless” punctuation mark. He finally gave up the effort in 2019, stating that “barbarians” and lazy journalism had won out over his efforts to preserve the correct uses of the apostrophe.
Anthologies are showcases of diversity, containing a variety of writings, genres, writing styles, and authors’ points of view. This month, I draw your attention to three anthologies to tempt you:
The first is brand new, even pre-new. To be released May 18, “Denial Kills” is published by Not a Pipe Publishing and contains the writings of 23 authors from around the world. The book description reads, “There is another sinister threat (besides fear) . . .when if not addressed before it sets in, can be deadly. Denial, when allowed to fester, can have various consequences.” Examples follow in the stories, showing how denial can cost women their happiness, sanity, and even their lives.
Authors from Sweden to Australia, from Pakistan to Zimbabwe are contributors to this collection of stories and poems. Styles are as varied as the writers themselves. Diversity rules even while “Denial Kills.”
Another anthology was published in November 2020 during the pandemic by the Writers’ Mill group during a Zoom meeting (lots of writing, editing, and decision making led up to this.) The group’s eighth volume is “Journeys through Chaos: an Anthology to Bring us Together.” To find this book on Amazon, input both title and subtitle or look under “Writers’ Mill Journal.” It’s the book with the bright pinkish color. And the journeys between front and back covers vary from humorous to serious and are brightly diverse.
An older anthology, but still a goodie (I hope) is my own 2016 anthology of stories, some quirkier than others, titled “Night in Alcatraz and Other Uncanny Tales.”
I’m thrilled that “Alcatraz,” my first publication will soon have a “sibling.” My novel, “Promise Full of Thorns” has been accepted for publication, and I’ve signed a contract with Sunbury Press. When proofreading time comes, I’d like a few readers to give my novel a quick but focused read for typos and goofs. Please let me know if you’re interested. Thanks!
I am sorry to note the passing of John Richards at age 97. He died March 30 in Lincolnshire, England. John, a retired journalist and copy editor, was a grand old warrior for correct punctuation and word usage; together with his son, he founded the Apostrophe Protection Society in 2001 to save a “poor defenseless” punctuation mark. He finally gave up the effort in 2019, stating that “barbarians” and lazy journalism had won out over his efforts to preserve the correct uses of the apostrophe.
March--From Violence to Birdsong
In like a lion, out like a lamb, or vice versa, as they say about March. So my book discussion is full of contrasts too—from violence to birdsong.
There is nothing more horribly violent than genocide. I read the first volume of “Maus” by Art Spiegelman, a family’s personal account of the Holocaust. Written in comic book form for adults, the characters are imaged as cats and mice, plus a few pigs. This book was recently banned by a school board in Tennessee that picked up on “inappropriate words” and “nudity” (a tiny image of a bathtub suicide in human form.) But the censoring school board overlooked the vitally important lesson of a horror story that must be told so as to never be repeated.
See my full review of “Maus 1” on Goodreads.
Avoiding violence is the timely theme of a just-released anthology, “There I Was. . . When Nothing Happened.” Jason Brick, of Portland, has gathered stories from forty violence professionals and martial arts enthusiasts who detail a time they came close to, but avoided, violence through skills both physical and language-related.
Now for the birdsong: I enjoyed randomly skipping through the delightfully, artfully, and alphabetically informative pages of “Birdpedia: A Brief Compendium of Avian Lore” by Christopher W. Leahy. This little book nests at my bedside for nightly reading. See my Goodreads review.
And be sure to check out “Bed Stuy” by Portland author Jerry McGill. This novel was nominated for the 2022 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. See my Goodreads 5-star review.
I hope soon to be assigned an editor for my debut novel, “Promise Full of Thorns” under contract at Sunbury Press.
There is nothing more horribly violent than genocide. I read the first volume of “Maus” by Art Spiegelman, a family’s personal account of the Holocaust. Written in comic book form for adults, the characters are imaged as cats and mice, plus a few pigs. This book was recently banned by a school board in Tennessee that picked up on “inappropriate words” and “nudity” (a tiny image of a bathtub suicide in human form.) But the censoring school board overlooked the vitally important lesson of a horror story that must be told so as to never be repeated.
See my full review of “Maus 1” on Goodreads.
Avoiding violence is the timely theme of a just-released anthology, “There I Was. . . When Nothing Happened.” Jason Brick, of Portland, has gathered stories from forty violence professionals and martial arts enthusiasts who detail a time they came close to, but avoided, violence through skills both physical and language-related.
Now for the birdsong: I enjoyed randomly skipping through the delightfully, artfully, and alphabetically informative pages of “Birdpedia: A Brief Compendium of Avian Lore” by Christopher W. Leahy. This little book nests at my bedside for nightly reading. See my Goodreads review.
And be sure to check out “Bed Stuy” by Portland author Jerry McGill. This novel was nominated for the 2022 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. See my Goodreads 5-star review.
I hope soon to be assigned an editor for my debut novel, “Promise Full of Thorns” under contract at Sunbury Press.
Reconsidering Shakespeare
As my college friends and fellow English majors would attest, I was never a Shakespeare fan, even though I once attempted a spoof of “Hamlet” entitled “Omelet.” It must have had a Humpty Dumpty-ish sort of plot.
Now, eons after college and having endured a few of Shakespeare’s plays, I have been introduced to the bard in new ways. Thanks to a new Writers’ Mill friend from England and a book by Mark Forsyth*, I have re-discovered Will Shakespeare as a fellow practicing writer and one with astonishing creative talent.
According to a recent presentation by Lyndsay Docherty, a writer, teacher, artist, musician, and lifelong Shakespeare fan, of Lancashire, England, the young Shakespeare was not much for classical scholarly academics. On the other hand, he was intrigued by the Renaissance studies of Greek rhetorical figures (figures of speech patterns that punctuate written language with style.)
Fascinated with these stylistic patterns, Shakespeare practiced and worked diligently to perfect his craft using figures of speech such as alliteration, irony, antithesis, rhymes, rhetorical questions, and much more. His best plays show his mastery of elegant and eloquent writing. No matter what he wrote, he wrote it with style.
I appreciate a writer who works hard, thinks, contemplates, revises, and revamps to make his writing the best it can be. With the help of Forsyth’s delineations of the figures of rhetoric, I’m trying to consciously incorporate more of these figurative techniques into my own writing.
Lyndsay revealed another of Shakespeare’s talents, one I’d never heard about: He was an inventor of new words! Here, thanks to Lyndsay, are a few of Shakespeare’s 1,705 words he added to the English lexicon and the plays they appeared in: (Not all of his newly minted words caught on, such as “armgaunt” meaning having skinny arms.)
Bandit, “Henry VI” part 2; critic, “Love’s Labor’s Lost”; dauntless, “Henry VI” part 3; dwindle, “Henry IV” part 1; lackluster, “As You Like It”; Elbow (as a verb,) “King Lear.”
In his ability to enliven the English language with new words, I find Will Shakespeare a kindred soul to the late Portland writer, Brian Doyle, whose lively mind also sprinkled made-up words throughout his works.
Some have asked how publication of my novel “Promise Full of Thorns” is proceeding at Sunbury Press. I now have a blurb for my back cover that might see publishing daylight before the end of this year. I’ve exchanged cover blurbs with a fellow Sunbury author, James R. Dubbs, whose novel “Confessions of a Farmers Market Romeo” will be released soon.
More on Jim’s novel in my next blog, along with comparisons of modern publishing with Shakespeare’s publishing concerns.
*Mark Forsyth, “The Elements of Eloquence”
Now, eons after college and having endured a few of Shakespeare’s plays, I have been introduced to the bard in new ways. Thanks to a new Writers’ Mill friend from England and a book by Mark Forsyth*, I have re-discovered Will Shakespeare as a fellow practicing writer and one with astonishing creative talent.
According to a recent presentation by Lyndsay Docherty, a writer, teacher, artist, musician, and lifelong Shakespeare fan, of Lancashire, England, the young Shakespeare was not much for classical scholarly academics. On the other hand, he was intrigued by the Renaissance studies of Greek rhetorical figures (figures of speech patterns that punctuate written language with style.)
Fascinated with these stylistic patterns, Shakespeare practiced and worked diligently to perfect his craft using figures of speech such as alliteration, irony, antithesis, rhymes, rhetorical questions, and much more. His best plays show his mastery of elegant and eloquent writing. No matter what he wrote, he wrote it with style.
I appreciate a writer who works hard, thinks, contemplates, revises, and revamps to make his writing the best it can be. With the help of Forsyth’s delineations of the figures of rhetoric, I’m trying to consciously incorporate more of these figurative techniques into my own writing.
Lyndsay revealed another of Shakespeare’s talents, one I’d never heard about: He was an inventor of new words! Here, thanks to Lyndsay, are a few of Shakespeare’s 1,705 words he added to the English lexicon and the plays they appeared in: (Not all of his newly minted words caught on, such as “armgaunt” meaning having skinny arms.)
Bandit, “Henry VI” part 2; critic, “Love’s Labor’s Lost”; dauntless, “Henry VI” part 3; dwindle, “Henry IV” part 1; lackluster, “As You Like It”; Elbow (as a verb,) “King Lear.”
In his ability to enliven the English language with new words, I find Will Shakespeare a kindred soul to the late Portland writer, Brian Doyle, whose lively mind also sprinkled made-up words throughout his works.
Some have asked how publication of my novel “Promise Full of Thorns” is proceeding at Sunbury Press. I now have a blurb for my back cover that might see publishing daylight before the end of this year. I’ve exchanged cover blurbs with a fellow Sunbury author, James R. Dubbs, whose novel “Confessions of a Farmers Market Romeo” will be released soon.
More on Jim’s novel in my next blog, along with comparisons of modern publishing with Shakespeare’s publishing concerns.
*Mark Forsyth, “The Elements of Eloquence”
