Red Room the author's website http://www.redroom.com asked us to blog about one of our greatest discoveries. Here's what I wrote. Writing has been a part of my life for a long time. I was a feature editor of my high school newspaper and went on to study journalism in college. And though I didn't pursue a career as Brenda Starr Reporter, I worked most of my professional life as a writer and editor of proposals for the aerospace industry. Later on I started taking writing workshops and even dabbled in poetry though my love of reading poetry that started when I was a child far outweighed my desire to write it. That is until poems just seemed to flow from my pen while I was in an Ellen Bass Writing About Our Lives workshop at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California just a few months after my son Paul died. Poetry seemed to be the only way I could really express my emotions. For a long time my poems were all about Paul, many of which will appear in my memoir about how I've … [Read more...]
Next steps to book launch
I've finished my final review of my book's design and galleys and sent off my notes to my Lucky Press publisher. Next steps are sending out review copies, getting back comments and hopefully some good blurbs for the back of the dust jacket, and then the book's Mother's Day release. Right after that I have my first scheduled book signing - May 12 at our local Manhattan Beach bookstore, Pages. I'll be sending out invites to that soon. http://www.LuckyPress.com/madelinesharples.html So, in the meantime I'll post a few of the poems that are interspersed throughout. Here's "Leaving the Hall Light On," originally published by The Muddy River Poetry Review under the title, "What Is Loss?" Leaving the Hall Light On I lose my keys or sunglasses and find them in my hand all along. I lose my little boy in the department store and he pops out squealing with laughter from under the clothes display, I lose important papers and find them in the stack of other papers on my desk. I … [Read more...]
Learning to write poetry the mechanical way
I learned two techniques for generating poetry material at an all day workshop on Saturday with Jack Grapes and Richard Jones. Both techniques were to ensure that we as writers had no reason to experience writer's block. And, in both cases the techniques are entirely mechanical. Inverted Pyramid Jack Grapes, who teaches method writing in Los Angeles, (http://jackgrapes.com/grapes_approach.php) presented the inverted pyramid method. He told us to write down several unrelated sentences or thoughts the keyword here is unrelated. However, he told us what kind of sentences to write. And if you can visualize an inverted pyramid these sentences would go into the upper wider part. We wrote: two or three images, a couple of pieces of dialogue, a flowery description, a memory or two, a couple of deep thought about ourselves until we had five to eight in total in random order. The next step was to take these entirely unrelated sentences and form them into a cohesive poem so that by the … [Read more...]
Recap of 2010 Events
Before I move on to 2011, I thought I'd recap some of our family's 2010. We sent this list along with our holiday cards. January: Bob recovers from knee surgery Bob publishes Volume 1 of Family History Bob's family story Bob's brother Richard's dies; Madeline and Bob travel to New York February: Ben and Marissa announce intention to marry Madeline takes novel writing workshop at UCLA and begins first novel March: Madeline begins blogging on Red Room, a writers website -http://www.redroom.com/member/madeline40 April: Madeline retires from Northrop Grumman on April 30 May: Madeline has several poems published at Survivor Chronicles, unFold, and Poetsespresso Bob ends 14 years of consulting for TRW/Northrop Grumman on May 7 Madeline and Bob begin five-week vacation with trip to Chicago, Washington, and New York City to see family and friend June: Our five week vacation continues to London, cruise from South Hampton to Scandinavia and … [Read more...]
The Great American Poetry Show Volume 2 – first review!
The Great American Poetry Show Volume 2 Poems by Edited by Larry Ziman, Madeline Sharples, Nicky Selditz The Muse Media West Hollywood, CA Volume 2 Copyright © 2010 by Larry Ziman Hardcover, 157 pages, $35 Review by Zvi A. Sesling This book of poetry really is a show. It is 8x10, hardcover and provides 157 of poetry, followed by a bio of every author. Moreover the authors are presented in alphabetical order which is especially useful if you want to find the poem or author again. As for the poetry, it has some old poetic friends like A.D. Winans, Lyn Lifshin, Alan Catlin, but for the most part I am not familiar with the poets, though their poems are of high quality and belong in the show which is baseball talk for the major leagues. Of the many poems a number caught my eye let me name just three:To My Daughter on a Fine Fall Day, by Carol Carpenter, Big Daddy by Carrie Jerrell, Remembrance by David Parke about a lost love which closes: At night when I stand in the … [Read more...]
The Compassionate Friends ask the right questions
The Compassionate Friends a non-profit organization for bereaved families and the people who care about them, following the death of a child pose a question a day on its Facebook page regarding how we handle the every day issues involved in grieving and surviving our child's death. Questions in the last few weeks included: Have you been able to find meaning in your life since the death of your child, sibling, or grandchild? As the one year mark since our daughter's death is nearing . . . we become nervous and defiantly not anticipating the date. What does one do on the one year "anniversary"? How well do you feel this saying applies to bereaved families after a child dies? "From the outside looking in you can never understand and from the inside looking out you can never explain." ~ author unknown How have you handled your child's room? What did someone do after your child (sibling, grandchild) died that really touched your heart? I have responded to a … [Read more...]
Poetry challenges
In the last couple of years I've entered two April poem-a-day challenges and one last November run by Robert Lee Brewer who writes the poetry column for Writer's Digest. This year I opted out of the November challenge because of my book deadline, but I promised Robert I'd be back in April. However, I haven't stopped writing poems for my self-imposed poem-a-week challenge that I started at the beginning of 2010. My challenge was to write a poem weekly about my thoughts and imaginings about people I don't know. Remember trying to figure out or making up the lives of people sitting at tables near yours when you're out in a restaurant? Well, my challenge is something like that. And in keeping with my belief that there is a poem everywhere, I've found subjects for this challenge at my gym, on the plane, in doctors' waiting rooms, in countries where I've traveled, on the cruise ship we were on last Spring, and of course at tables near mine in restaurants. Now of course I don't … [Read more...]
Live reading dos and don’ts
We held our photography presentation and reading from our book The Emerging Goddess last night, and I think for a first time, it went very well. About a week before I decided that we needed a script so that we'd have no fumbling during the event. And that was the best decision. I picked out a few poems initially, and then Paul, the photographer, came over and together we picked out the images. Since several poems went with the images we picked, we added those poems too. In the end we selected eleven poems some attached to particular images and some not. I had asked our son Ben and his wife Marissa since they are professional actors -- to participate in the reading, and they decided to ask one of their actor friends Tracey to join in. So after I sent them the list of poems and the order of presentation, Ben organized who would read certain poems. I read poems 1 and 10, and they read the rest. The venue for the reading couldn't have been more perfect. I feel so fortunate that … [Read more...]
The Emerging Goddess poetry reading
We're having a poetry reading this Thursday night at Pages: a book store in Manhattan Beach at 7 p.m. Please join us. Here's a sample of the poems we'll read: You Are All to All Walk the path, the street, the world. Plant your seeds on the farm, the hills, in the yards. Offer your healing to the babes and crones alike. You are everywhere, all powerful, all knowing. You are all to all. Show your light, open your heart, extend your arms, to embrace us, touch us, join hands with us. Aging Goddesses The crones our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, old friends, and teachers walk arm in arm in pairs each one supporting the other on the old cobble-stoned streets, They are squat, stout with veiny legs and thick ankles, their bare feet in flat sandals showing jagged toenails or clothed in thick hose and wide oxfords. Some move slowly barely able to walk, clutching each other for support. They are perfectly coifed. Their hair short and bleached hide … [Read more...]
Il Postino, the opera
We saw the world premiere of the opera, Il Postino, based on the book and film about the exiled poet Pablo Neruda and his relationship with a young postman on the Italian island of Cala di Sotto. Though the story about Neruda and the postman is fiction, the portrayal of the power and beauty of poetry resonated with me. Right on stage, Placido Domingo who plays Neruda, gives the young postman and would be poet, Mario, a lesson in the use of metaphor. In fact a flat curtain becomes a blackboard on which the metaphors are displayed. I felt like I was in a classroom a very joyous one at that. As Leann Davis Alspaugh states in LA Opera's Performances Magazine, As figures of speech, metaphor and simile express the unfamiliar in familiar terms the difference is that simile uses like or as to put the comparison across. The metaphor offers more subtle opportunities for expression than the simile, whose code words alert us to its presence. Thus poets tend to favor the metaphor for its … [Read more...]
More about The Emerging Goddess
Some very exciting news about our photography/poetry book, The Emerging Goddess: Paul Blieden, the photographer, and I will be interviewed next week by the arts editor of one of our local newspapers, The Easy Reader, and we expect to see the story in the September 23 or 30 issue. Also Pages, our new independent bookstore downtown Manhattan Beach, will host a book signing and poetry reading in the store on October 21. My job is to get a couple of poetry readers for the event. Well, I have a couple of actors in the family. Perhaps they'll take on the job. And, next summer in June or July, one of our local galleries, Cannery Row, will have an exhibition of Paul's beautiful and original "goddess" photographs and a poetry reading as well. Things keep happening for this book. I think its time has come. … [Read more...]
Pseudonyms or not?
When my Lucky Press LLC publisher and I spoke the other day, I brought up the subject of writing about folks still around and the use of pseudonyms or not. She said the book will have a disclaimer so I shouldn't have to worry. But I decided to have my dear friends Linda, Alice, and Richard approve a piece beforehand because these are the folks besides Bob and Ben whom I still see. These are folks I love very much, and I do not want the risk of their unhappiness about anything I write about them. I don't plan to use pseudomyms for them. That leaves the folks in the book whom I haven't seen since Paul died -- by their choice or mine. I don't plan on using their real names, and I've taken the risk test where they are concerned. As a result, I don't think I need to worry about a privacy or defamation charge as defined by Amy Cook, an attorney who wrote a piece on what every memoir writer needs to know in the July/August 2010 issue of Writer's Digest. Except for her first and last … [Read more...]
Another book revision progress report
It's really coming along. I'm down to the last chapter in my first revision pass. I still have lots of moving around and repetition deletions to do, but I'm feeling more confident that the book has now taken on the right shape. And, my storyboards are a big help. I can see where each chapter best belongs by having the whole book posted. I also have highlighted my problem-child text in yellow, so I can see where I need to go back and revise again. Once this first revision is complete, I'm going to ask Janice to give it a preliminary look about the end of September. Then all I'll have to do once she's finished is get it ready for her final edit and galley prep. Did I say, all I'll have to do? I suspect it won't be that simple. Even when the words are in their proper place I'll still have to put it in the required manuscript form and adhere to the Lucky Press style guide. That alone could take weeks. I also didn't mention that one of my friends is currently editing it as well. She … [Read more...]
A new bucket list focus – my writing projects
Now that I'm a week and a half into my retirement it's time to lay out a plan for my writing projects. I've identified five so far: My novel. First of all I need to begin by opening the files that have laid dormant for over a month and see if I can rejuvenate my interest in it again. Then, I commit to writing 300 words a day. This really doesn't seem like a lot since I can type away for 10 minutes on my journal and I'm already at over 400 words. Two chapbook submissions. My Jazzman and The Emerging Goddess poems. I have a good foundation here. I have the current My Jazzman manuscript. However, I've decided to take out the non-Paul related poems and add some of the earlier and later poems I've written about him. That will take a little work -- deciding which ones to add and then revising as necessary. The goddess poems are what they are. I think they'll make a nice collection for a small chapbook. The memoir revision. This task is more daunting. But, I've already begun the work … [Read more...]
The dreaded envelope arrived
The dreaded big envelope was waiting for me in my mailbox when I returned from doing a morning of errands. The small press publisher sent back my manuscript with the thanks but no thanks message. At least she wrote in long hand what she thought of the book, though she didn't give me any suggestions for how to fix it. She admits that she wouldn't know how to write it another way. She did say she thought the book doesn't know whom it's written for, and that it's written a little too carefully. I'm not sure I know what either means. So, if I am going to continue with this project I need to find an editor who can give me suggestions on how to fix these problems. But not right now. I need to let this rejection sink in for a bit. I really had some high hopes for this one because she sounded so optimistic after reading my query and other material. At least she said she liked the poems in the book. That gives me encouragement to submit them as a chapbook. I'm going to submit "The … [Read more...]
April poetry month again
Here's my first April poem though I don't promise a poem a day like last year. My Friday Prompt writing group suggested we write about seasonings. Old Bay more than covers it. Plus, if you look carefully, you'll find a great recipe. Old Bay One morning minding my own business on the stair stepper the guy stepping next to me started to tell me about the marvelous meat loaf he made for dinner the night before. Marvelous is not the way I'd ever describe meatloaf but since I've always liked it I asked the question he was waiting to hear, How do you make your meatloaf? Well, he said, as he slowed down his step speed, I take two pounds of ground meat and mix it up with an egg, two pieces of torn sour dough bread, 1 jar of salsa, salt and pepper, and lots of Old Bay. Then put it in a loaf pan and bake for 1 hour at 375. That's it. Well, I was intrigued and unbelievably kept the recipe in my head through my entire workout until I got to the store. I bought the … [Read more...]
140 characters (or less)
I've been toying with writing 140 character poems -- the length of a Twitter -- just to keep up with poetry's latest trends. Here are my first attempts (with their character counts). 140 The B swaggers across the room, looking from side to side with a judging pursed-lip smile on her face. Doesn't she know that will cause wrinkles? 138 Wildfire smoke obscures the Santa Monica coast. It dissipates into Georgia O'Keefe clouds that hover over our quiet beach town to the South. 140 Shopping in Beverly Hills for finely tailored Italian clothes after two drought years, good for the economy or just a way to shore up my closet? 140 Swarthy vs blonde Artistic vs scientific Insensitive vs an abundance of tears One birthday is 2/3/1937 The other is 2/4/1937 I married them both. … [Read more...]
Preparing for my poetry writing retreat
I just had a pedicure in preparation for dipping into those wonderful sulfur hot springs at Esalen in Big Sur next week. How could I go in without perfect toes? Actually the toes will have nothing to do with the poems I write, but it's best to be prepared for anything. Here's a piece I wrote many years ago about getting a manicure. It was my first attempt in writing something surreal. Perhaps it was my last as well. Manicure I watched her as she carefully set the implements on the table. The files, in graduating sizes, the picks, the chisels, the sanding paper, the paint brushes and cans of paint all in perfect sanitized rows in front of her. She asked for my index finger. I unscrewed it and gave it to her and she began her work. As she bent over my finger I could see that her head came to a bald point on the top that she covered with a sprig of holly berries, twisted around and around the point like a Christmas tree. The rest of her hair lay in long wisps to the floor … [Read more...]
What keeps us going
I haven't written since Ben and Marissa became officially engaged last Sunday. This is indeed an exciting time and finally there's a chance that Bob and I will someday be grandparents. Of course that's not a given. They don't plan to be married until sometime next year or even after, and she's much more interested in being successful in her career than having babies. For some unknown reason, her clock doesn't seem to be ticking. But still there is a chance. And if they want to be married and not have children, that's okay too. What's so is that I'm very happy for them. They seem to love each other very much. And like Ben and I said the other day during one of our all too infrequent alone times together, there's no point in going on like they are without being married. Of course, there's another way of looking at that. One of the trainers at my gym has been living with a man for over 35 years and they've never married. She jokes about it and forgetting to have children while she's … [Read more...]
More about goddesses
A shopkeeper new in our area is all involved in goddesses and Buddhas -- a woman after my own heart. Every month she has a goddess night in her store -- a way to drum up business and to celebrate the goddess in all women. So, pushy person that I am, I told her about our book, The Emerging Goddess, and after seeing more information about it on the book's website, she agreed to take some to sell at her store. My book partner is researching self-publishing a few for the store, and who knows, maybe some other venues as well. Here's another goddess poem: Aging Goddesses The crones our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, old friends, and teachers walk arm in arm in pairs, each one supporting the other on the old cobble-stoned streets. They are squat, stout with veiny legs and thick ankles, their bare feet in flat sandals showing jagged toenails or clothed in thick hose and wide oxfords. Some move slowly barely able to walk, clutching each other for support. They are … [Read more...]
