IWSG - Books - Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:  Patricia Lynne, Lisa Buie-Collard, Kim Lajevardi, and Fundy Blue!

This month's question is: What are your favorite and least favorite questions people ask you about your writing?

(Personally I'm glad the question isn't about goals and resolutions.)

Favorite question: Where/how did you get your idea? Those are stories in themselves and I'm always glad to share them.

Least Favorite question: Can you tell me how to publish/write/edit, etc.? My answer is always the same. I direct the person to IWSG, and to other writerly sites, and tell them that writing, to be good, is very hard work. 

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Books Read in 2018

I read 31 of my usual 40 books in 2018 the reason being that quite a few of them were quite long and since I'm a slow reader they took longer to get through. I like going over my list and seeing what I read. Last year it included many books in the historical fiction and non-fiction genre.

Lost in Shagri-La - Michael Zuckoff - nonfic
The Royal Physician's Visit - Per Olov Enquist - historical fic
Some Very Messy Medieval Magic - C. Lee McKenzie - MG fantasy
Two Old Women - Velma Willis - Native American myth
Secrets of the Savanna - Mark and Delia Owens - nonfic
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan - fic
Hunger - Donna Jo Napoli - MG historical fic
The Inquisitor's Tale - Adam Gidwitsz - MG fantasy
The Wright Brothers - David McCullough - nonfic
Forty Years a Slave, Three Yeas in the White House - Elizabeth Hobbs Kechley - bio
Watership Down - Richard Adams - fic
Lilack Girls - Martha Hall Kelly - historical fic
The Green Song - Doris T. Plenn - MG
The Cow-Tail Switch and Other West African Stories - Harold Courlander - MG
News of the World - Paulette Jiles - historica fic - excellent
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell - scifi
Children of God - Mary Doria Russell - scifi
Caliban's Shore - Stephen Taylor - nonfic
Sing Down the Moon - Scott O'Dell - MG - historical fic
Water Buffalo Summer - Huyhn Quang Nhuong - MG bio
Dragon of the Lost Sea - Laurence Yep - MG
Sand Dollar Summer - Kimberly K. Jones - MG
Grass - Sheri S. Tepper - scifi
The Gate to Women's Country - Sheri S. Tepper - scifi
Freud's Mistress - Karen Mack - historical fic
The Queen's Captive - Barbara Kyle - historical fic
Diggers - Terry Pratchette - MG
The Chilbury Ladies Choir - Jennifer Ryan - fic with a little history thrown in
The House with Chicken Legs - Sophia Anderson - MG
The Boy, the Boat, and the Beast - Samantha M. Clark - MG
Blended - Sharon M. Draper - MG

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Being Thankful

I'm thankful it's a new year and that there are more books to read and,
that I get to wear these cool socks my sweetie gave me for Christmas.

What are you thankful for? What's your favorite/least favorite question people ask you about your writing? Read any of the books I've read?

It's Not the Quantity...

...it's the quality

Yes, there are plenty of authors who are/were prolific, who have written volumes and left their mark. But what about those who haven't written volumes? My point is, one doesn't necessarily need to write a ton a books. What one needs to do is write what you want because you want to. Even if you have only one book in you, it may well be enough.

So, let's take a look at some authors who wrote only one novel.  I have linked each book back to a Goodreads page.

Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird (Read - has anyone not read it?)


Boris Pasternak: Dr. Zhivago (Not read - Would like to read)













Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (Read)













Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind (Read)


Ann Swell: Black Beauty (Read)


Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Read)


John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces (Not read - Would like to read)

Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar (Read)


Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things (Not read - Would like to read)













Austin Tappan Wright: Islandia (Read - a BIG favorite and one I reread every ten years or so.)


Isaac Rosenfeld: Passage from Home (Not read -Would like to read)


Randall Jerrell: Pictures from an Institute (Not read - Would like to read - I have read his children's book, The Bat-Poet)


Lionel Trilling: The Middle of the Journey (Not read - Would like to read)


John Okada: No-No Boy (Not read - Would like to read)


Norman Fruchter: Coat Upon a Stick (Not read)


Daniel James (Danny Santiago): Famous All Over Town (Not read - Would like to read)


Walter Miller, Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz (Read - fabulous)


And here are a few authors who wrote other novels but are remembered for just one.

Ralph Ellison: The Invisible Man (Read)

J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye (Read)

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (Read)


Herman Melville: Moby-Dick (Tried to read)


Jack Kerouac: On the Road (Read)


William Golding: Lord of the Flies (Read)


Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre (Read)


Antoine de Saint-Exupery: The Little Prince (Read - of course!)
=

Joseph Heller: Catch-22 (Read)


Kathleen Windsor: Forever Amber (Not read - Would like to read)


Grace Metalious: Payton Place (Not read)


Richard Hooker: M. A. S. H. (Not read)


Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckcoo's Nest (Read - though some people prefer Sometimes A Great Notion.)



Kenneth Graham: The Wind in the Willows (Read - Wish I had my original copy...)


Michael Ende: The Neverending Story (Read - Absolutely MUCH better than the movie!)


Peter S. Beagle: The Last Unicorn (Read - a favorite)


Kurk Wagner: The Book of the Dun Cow (Read - Excellent!)


A. Merritt: The Moon Pool (Not read - Would like to read)


Bram Stoker: Dracula (Not read)


Mordecai Roshwald: Level 7 (Read)



Richard Adams: Watership Down (Read)


James Barrie: Peter Pan (Read - of course!)


Mary Shelly: Frankenstein (Read)


Miguel Cervantes: Don Quixote (Read)


John Knowles: A Separate Peace (Read)


Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (Read)


How many of these books have your read? Which of these haven't you read but would like to? 

Thanks... An Offer... and... Clockwise

Yes, these pretty flowers are for all of you who follow my blog.

Thank you.

If you haven't noticed, I have added a page to my header. Take a look, scroll  up... just a little bit more. There. See it? It's called Books by Bloggers.

As a measure of my appreciation, as a small way of giving back to this marvelous writerly and bloggerly community, I have begun a list of those of you who have published books.

The list includes a link to your blog and link(s) to your book(s). It is by no means a complete list. If you don't see your name and would like to be added, let me know. Don't be shy, it's another place to list your book, linked to where it can be purchased. It's a little free advertising and something I'm pleased to do. If you would like to include the genre you write, please do.

All I ask in return is, if you want your book listed, that you be a follower. That isn't so hard is it? I also have to reserve the right to refuse to list a book if I feel it is inappropriate for my blog.

Thanks everyone! And spread the word. Got a book? Let me know!

Speaking of books, check out CLOCKWISE by Elle Strauss!

It has a new cover!

Praise for Clockwise: 

 "Readers who 'trip' back in time with Casey will wish they could stay longer in her strangely relatable place." - Kirkus Review

 "I loved Clockwise! A great read, and I love your Casey/Cassandra. Congratulations."
 - Wendy Orr, author of Nim's Island


Tagline: A teenage time traveler accidentally takes her secret crush back in time. Awkward.

Casey Donovan has issues: hair, height and uncontrollable trips to the 19th century! And now this --she’s accidentally taken Nate Mackenzie, the cutest boy in the school, back in time. Awkward.

Protocol pressures her to tell their 1860 hosts that he is her brother and when Casey finds she has a handsome, wealthy (and unwanted) suitor, something changes in Nate. Are those romantic sparks or is it just “brotherly” protectiveness?

When they return to the present, things go back to the way they were before: Casey parked on the bottom of the rung of the social ladder and Nate perched high on the very the top. Except this time her heart is broken. Plus, her best friend is mad, her parents are split up, and her younger brother gets escorted home by the police. The only thing that could make life worse is if, by some strange twist of fate, she took Nate back to the past again.
Which of course, she does.

 Buy for Kindle. And to read the first chapter, click HERE.

Last but certainly not least, Happy Birthday, Erva!

Charlotte's Books (and good news)

Charlotte and Gus on their deck with an expansive view of ocean.

I've written about Charlotte before (click here) and will no doubt write about her again. She was a person who left deep and loving imprints on my life.

Her husband Gus was equally memorable, but it is memories of Charlotte I keep going back to.

Besides being a Suffragette, she was part of the famous Algonquin Round Table, having lunch with the likes of Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley. She also wrote editorials for the New York Times.

It seems only natural then, that once she and Gus settled on St. John, she would write about the island. She wrote two books.

I've been on the hunt for them for a long time, but it was difficult as  neither my sister, Erva, or I could remember the titles! Just a year or so ago Googling her name hadn't produced anything except what I had written about her in my blogs. But the internet is an amazing thing. While I was doing a little research for last Monday's blog on Reef Bay, I came across a quote from one of her books. OH JOY! I had a title. I Googled it. And there it was, staring me in face. Not just the one book, but BOTH of them!

From the Foreword: "Charlotte Dean Stark and her husband first visited the Virgin Islands as the result of reading  Desmond Holdridge's Escape to the Tropics. The moment they set foot on St. John, they wanted to stay there forever, but business in New York and Connecticut took them back to the States.

"Mrs Stark worked for the New York Times, writing editorials and selecting the poem appearing daily on the editorial page."

In the Acknowledgments she wrote: that Harper editors said they "admire the observation and the writing." And Little Brown & Company said, "It's all warm and intimate." These were rejections. Charlotte went on to self-publish Souvenir of St. John in 1958!

Some True Tales and Legends,  self-published in 1960, is more like a pamphlet or chapbook.

I often spent week-ends with Gus and Charlotte and many were the mornings when I'd be curled up on the couch reading a book like The Secret Garden or A Doorway in Fairyland while Charlotte clacked away on her typewriter.

I am absolutely delighted to have these little volumes in my collection of books about the Virgin Islands.

Good News!
Back in December I got an email from Andrea Milam, editor of Five Quarters, the St. John Historical Society's newsletter. She asked if I'd be interested in contributing an article. It seems someone from the SJHS is/was/had been reading my blog, for she wanted me to work up an article based on THIS blog about our Mobile Gas Station. After a little reworking I sent it off. I'm thrilled to announce "The Little Pre-Fab that Could," is in the February issue. I'd love to be able to throw up a link, but one has to be a member of the St. John Historical to get the newsletter. Thanks Andrea.

Has anything from your past been returned to you? Have you gotten any writing requests through your blog?