I start every January 1st by walking with burning sage through every room in my house, doors open to let the new year in as I clear out the old with my sage. It seems especially poignant this morning because it is an extremely windy day. I live in what is primarily a glass house with sliding glass doors everywhere, which means this morning I have to be careful I don’t create a wind tunnel inside lest things within topple over!
I like the idea of action as ceremony when coupled with good intention. It has something to do with focusing one’s belief and walking around in its center. After all, we choose our attitude on any given day in any given moment. It’s not that the vagaries of life don’t come to us all, it’s about how we consider them.
I like the idea of a clean slate for all its possibilities. It gifts me with a heightened state of expectation, and when put together with good intentions, I can’t help but think something good will come of it.
People have used sage for its cleansing and medicinal properties since the beginning of time. Many believe the smoke purifies a space and clears out negative energy. Sage has a therapeutic aroma when burned, but the scent doesn’t linger if there’s ventilation. It’s a woodsy scent with a sweet high note to the white smoke, and if you prefer, you can chase it with incense.
Happy New Year everyone. May it be your best year yet!
Be willing to be a beginner every single morning. – Meister Eckhart
I’m on a walking path that trails along the cliffs of Leo Carrillo State Beach in Malibu, California. It’s 67 degrees at 8:30 AM, and all is quiet. It seems I’m the only one who has thought to get out this early, and I like it. I have the area to myself, and although I have Groove Music and earphones, I have forfeited that in favor of listening to the rhythm of the waves. There’s something timeless about this area, something constant and steady, and looking to the great beyond, I see the curvature of the earth from America’s last edge before Hawaii.
I am always torn between wanting to stay in the moment to keep it for myself, and capturing it with my camera. I’ve lived in this area for twenty years, yet I’m endlessly awestruck by the uniqueness of each wave. They are ceaseless and arrive with their individual story; each wave a life-force with its own beginning, middle, and end that completes its destination then draws back intuitively to make space for another. The waves draw back to their source to become one with their origin; each wave is itself, yet it’s part of the ocean and I stand and think of unity and wonder where rebirth begins.
I wish this photograph gave an accurate scale of the expanse. Before me and behind me is much the same as you see here. Around the cliff at the right is a long stretch of sand similar to all others in this part of the California coastline. The tide determines how far I can walk; there have been times when I could walk for hours, and times when the tide was too high to walk around the bend.
This photograph is taken from an elevated view along the trail’s decline that ends at the beach. The rock you see at the left is the favorite perch of sea birds that cluster together, spreading their wings in impressive numbers, no matter the time of day. It is their resting point, their sanctuary, and they occupy this rock in harmony. It’s an interesting observation: I’ve seen seabirds on this rock innumerable times, and the thing that strikes me is I’ve never seen them less than accommodating for each other.
A closer view of that rock. If you look closely, you can see the seabirds.
I often take my camera, aim the lens and wait for the perfect moment, which I think is the time immediately before the wave folds and stretches for the sand. I don’t always capture it, but this next photograph comes close:
This photograph is telling of how one wave can break with multiple timing. Always, my aspiration is to find the middle of the dance.
I like this endless view because it gives me proper perspective… on a lot of things, actually, all having to do with time and tide and my place in eternity.
I want to introduce you to two beloved artists who live in Malibu, California. Neel and Virginia Muller divide their time between Malibu and Antibes, France, both incredible artists who live a wonderful, creative life!
Artist Neel Muller is the author of Going to the Dogs: Drawings to Help you Get Through the Day
Wonderful Drawings for Dog Lovers with whimsical captions! One reviewer writes: ” The very essence of doggishness! Neel Muller captures the inner dog. The things about dogs that have made them so special to we humans for thousands of years. If you love dogs, you’ll love this book. Study each drawing and you’ll see exactly what I mean. If you have friends who love dogs as much as you do, do them a favour – send them a copy of this book!”
And This Lovely Book!
A Celebration of Women of All Shapes and Sizes!
And for a Daily Dose of Artistic Inspiration : Daily Drawings of Women. One reviewer writes: “Mr. Muller has a delightfully witty, dry and very understated sense of humor. His approach is simple and direct and in this age where most things are over-the-top, makes this collection of thoughts, unique and beautifully refreshing.”
Neel Muller has loved drawing since he was a little boy. Using his drawing skill in the ad business has helped pay the bills, but he eventually decided to draw much more just for the enjoyment of it. So he promised himself he would do a drawing every day, no matter what. As a result, many have had a great time following his daily drawings. This book is on Neel’s favourite subject to draw: Women. He jokes that most of his drawings are from memory and that is mostly true. The important thing is that he celebrates women of all shapes and sizes in a fun, sometimes tender and sometimes dramatic way.
You can see more of Neel Muller’s art here: Check it out at futuretribal.com
Neel Muller’s FutureTribal artwork is now all over clothes, plates, towels, bags and shoes. Neel was born and raised in South Africa and can’t shake off that African dust. These designs emerge from his colorful, vivid dreams : modern, primitive and graffiti.
More Art by Neel Muller:
Rue Brûlée Antibes by Neel Muller
Below is artist, clothing designer, and etiquette teacher, Virginia Muller. She is the author of The Unforgettable Woman and Aubergine the Glitter Queen!
Neel Muller and Virginia Muller collaborated on the book The Unforgettable Woman, a gorgeous, delightful, whimsical series of drawings with pithy captions pertaining to the attributes of an unforgettable woman! A thought-provoking pleasure with stellar drawings to savor; the ultimate gift for artists and women!
One book reviewer writes: “I loved The Unforgettable Woman because she is in a few words or two manifests such a woman and the drawings are such wit in expressing such an unforgettable lady. I hear music and want to dance with each page.”
Virginia released the genre-crossing book that has something for everyone: Aubergine the Glitter Queen! A children’s story that encourages perseverance in the pursuit of one’s dreams!
Aubergine the Glitter Queen
The lure of having to know what comes next propels you through this one-of-a-kind story. The elegant illustrations have a touch of feminine whimsy and are poignantly placed as emphasis to highlight one Hollywood hopeful’s dream, who has come all the way from Paris with her little dog. An uplifting, gem of a book for children and adults in equal measure, Aubergine The Glitter Queen has an encouraging message that will appeal to those who appreciate a heart-warming story with illustrations that will knock off your socks!
2021 International Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Virtual Online Zoomathon Book Club Convention that we call our Girlfriend Weekend Slumber Party!
From Founder, Kathy Murphy: We really like to roll out the red carpet, or should I say leopard print carpet, for all the authors that grace us with their presence during our annual book club convention that we call Girlfriend Weekend. The books of authors that I select are made either Official Pulpwood Queen Book Club Selections or Bonus Book Club Selections. These authors are invited to attend and be featured at our annual convention always held Martin Luther King Weekend. This year marks our 21st Anniversary and will be the first virtual event in the history of The Pulpwood Queens. I love to treat all our authors royally, and bow to the feet of our author Kings and Queens!
Pulitzer Prize winners, Edward Humes and the late great Doug Marlette, Pat Conroy, Fannie Flagg, John Berendt, Alice Hoffman, Lisa Wingate, and even Supermodel Paulina Porizkova have been featured at our Girlfriend Weekend.
These authors provide a great draw, but our real mission is to include the first time, first book author, and the undiscovered author who we like to help to get discovered in a big way.
We showcase all of them each year, close to 50 authors who always grace our annual book club hosted festival which we call GIRLFRIEND WEEKEND, always held Martin Luther King Weekend in January of each year. The dates for the 2021 online event are:
January 14 – 17, 2021
We will have Keynotes, Marilyn Simon Rothstein, Mary Morris, Caroline Leavitt, and more plus panels of authors with blogger and special moderators for three days of events.
Look into The Pulpwood Queen Girlfriend Weekend information, and how to join us at the online Book Club Event here:
Kathy L. Murphy, whose vision became 800 International Book Club Chapters all under the banner of The Pulpwood Queens Book Club!
Artist/Author/Founder of the Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs and Author of “The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life”
From The Pulpwood Queen Girlfriend Weekend 2020
Author Kathleen Rodgers ( The Flying Cutterbucks) is a 2021 Featured Author
Members of The Pulpwood Queens Book Club Houston, Chapter!Authors being interviewed on stage talking about writing and their books, and afterwards signing their books!Dressed up for the theme: How the West Was Won at the Pulpwood Queens Girlfriend Weekend. At left, author Johnnie Bernhard of Sisters of the Undertow and others; far right, author Susan Cushman, Friends of the Library and others!
I wrote this for Southern Writers Magazine in 2019
For the uninitiated, first I’ll answer the question, “What in the world is meant by the Pulpwood Queens?” Thank you for asking. The Pulpwood Queens is a book club. It is the brain-child of one fabulous woman from Texas, Kathy L. Murphy, a painter and hair stylist who owned a salon in Jefferson, Texas, worked as a publisher’s rep until she lost the job, and, rather than lying down, bounced back by consolidating her talents. She opened Beauty and the Book, the world’s only combined hair salon and bookstore. From there, she founded The Pulpwood Queens of East Texas Book Club, which exploded into a nation-wide success. Today, The Pulpwood Queens has 765 book club chapters comprised of the most enthusiastically dedicated readers under the sun. I know this because many of the book club members showed up last weekend in Jefferson, Texas for the annual Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend. They brought their giddy-up in their get-along, wore tiaras and full costume for 2019’s How the West was Won theme, and, for the first time, I was there as a featured author. I will tell you in no uncertain terms that the weekend was the Mardi Gras of the book world. Three days of back-to-back panels comprised of authors introducing themselves and their latest work to a rapt audience of readers eager to discover new books. And in the middle of it, Kathy Murphy: the hub of the wheel, the Pulpwood Queen herself, her magnanimous heart on her sleeve in the middle of her mother-hen joy.
The Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend was an organized, over-the-top, combined book and love-fest. It’s not so easy to corral unbridled enthusiasm into a manageable space, though we all made the trip to Texas for the same reason. We came to fraternize with each other in an arena without hierarchy. We were there because we love books, the people who write them, and all those who read. All this reported, there was a plan. There was structure, lest the two hundred or more participants melt into a fawning, neck-hugging puddle of ecstasy over meeting a long-admired author in person for the first time, or someone known only through Facebook, now within arm’s reach. For months prior, Kathy Murphy’s right-hand administrator, Tiajuana Anderson Neel, sent notice via social media about what to expect from the weekend and when. She posted a list of recommended lodging, suggested costumes, and shared the weekend’s schedule of events on the Pulpwood Queens Website, where she instructed all authors on how to donate an item pertaining to their book, for silent auction, whose proceeds were to benefit everyone’s favorite non-profit, The Pat Conroy Literary Center, in Beaufort, South Carolina.
On a personal note, I wasn’t going to miss this. No fire, torrential rain, nor threat of mudslide could keep me from leaving Malibu, California and making my way to LAX. I was going to Jefferson, Texas on January 17, if I had to walk, spurred by the fire of anticipation over a three-day book festival aimed at mingling authors and readers. Every second it took to get from Malibu to Atlanta to Shreveport then make the forty-nine- minute drive into Jefferson, Texas was worth it, and I knew it for what it was when I checked into the Excelsior House Hotel.
I’d be hard-pressed to envision a better backdrop for a book festival than Jefferson, Texas. Everything in the historic town was within walking distance to the convention center, where the party was held. Ambling down the spacious sidewalk on my way to the opening ceremony, I passed restaurants, a coffee shop, and the fully-realized General Store, which had a sign out front reading, “Welcome to the Pulpwood Queens.” It seemed the entire town was behind Girlfriends Weekend. So much so, that even Jefferson’s mayor showed up. Local shops contributed discount codes to the weekend’s attendees, and area restaurants remained open long past their closing schedule because word of the weekend’s festivities was all over the streets.
One foot inside the convention center, and the party was in full-swing. People milled about in cowboy hats and tiaras, smiling ear-to-ear, wearing boots. It was like being in a bee-hive holding the reins of a live wire, until the introduction of each featured author ensued, and the eight Southern Writers on Writing panelists took the stage, then the entire room suddenly felt like being in church. The audience was riveted as each of the panelists shared their thoughts on what it means to be a writer—a Southern writer, certainly, yet the breadth and scope of the discussion was also far-reaching, setting the tone for the following two days.
To bare witness to authors, nationally known and otherwise, talking about the premise of their books was a study in the passionate fires that lead a writer to pick up a pen in the first place. Throughout the weekend, there were key-note speakers that brought down the house: Revis Wortham, Paula McClain, Ann Weisgarber, Ann Wertz Garvin, Lisa Wingate, River Jordan, and we were all thrilled by the repeated participation of author Patti Callahan Henry, who appeared wearing a black, bouffant wig as the singer, June Carter Cash. One after another, Kathy Murphy moderated panels, giving a forum to authors who introduced themselves and their books in what seemed an intimate setting. Primarily, the Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend is geared toward readers; it was to them that each author gave their all, before taking a position at a table to shake hands and sign their book.
A highlight of Girlfriends Weekend was the group that came from Beaufort, South Carolina to share the stories about beloved author, Pat Conroy, who was written about in a series of essays assembled in the engaging book, Our Prince of Scribes. Pat Conroy, many knew, was a proponent of and participant in Girlfriends weekend. On the last day of the weekend, the pillars of The Pat Conroy Literary Center gave a talk about Conroy, with an attendant video that touched the hearts of everyone in the room.
Girlfriends Weekend concluded with a party unlike any other. Billed as The Big Hair Ball, it was all that and more. I’ve never seen such thought go into a bevy of costumes aimed at a western theme: cows, Indians, a pioneer woman, Annie Oakley, outrageous wigs, studded cowboy hats, and a mustache to rival actor Sam Elliot’s swirled on the dance floor in a celebratory vortex to the beats ranging from country to disco to pop.
The Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend was simultaneously an education and a blast. I’m thinking I made life-long friends there, in a jury of my peers. Three days in a weekend that felt too short by half, the first thing I did when I got home was mark my calendar for next year’s Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend.
The Official 2021 International Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy Book Club Selections
January Book of the Month: Spellbound Under the Spanish Moss: A Southern Tale of Magic by Connor Judson Garrett and Kevin N. Garrett
January International Book of the Month: King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema by Anupama Chopra
January Bonus Book Club Selections:
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
The Book of Longings: A Novel by Sue Monk Kidd
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
The Exiles: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline
February Book of the Month:
My Pursuit of Beauty: A Cosmetic Chemist Reveals The Glitz, The Glam, and The Batsh*t Crazy by Vince Spinnato and Mickey Goodman
February International Book of the Month:
Think Like A Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Single Day by Jay Shetty
February Bonus Books of the Month:
The Paris Library: A Novel by Janet Skeslien Charles
Her. Vol. 1 and Her. Vol.2 by Pierre Alex Jeanty
What? And Give Up Show Business? by James Hampton
Knock! Knock!: Lessons Learned and Stories Shared—
A Ride-Along with Sales Superstar Doug Thompson by Douglas Thompson and Echo Montgomery Garrett
March Book Club Selection:
The Chanel Sisters: A Novel by Judithe Little
March International Book Club Selection:
Paradise Road: A Memoir by Marilyn Kriete
March Bonus Book Club Selections:
The Mermaid Mahjong Circle: A Fairy Tale for Women by Claudia Grossman
The Lost Spells by Robert MacFarlane
The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman
The Book of Lost Friends: A Novel by Lisa Wingate
April Book Club Selection:
The Flying Cutterbucks: A Novel by Kathleen M. Rogers
April International Book Club Selection:
The Takeaway Men: A Novel by Meryl Ain
April Bonus Book Club Selections:
The Fallen Girls: Book 1 and Her Final Prayer: Book 2 Detective Clara Jefferies by Kathryn Casey
A Child Lost by Michelle Cox
The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger
Cold Reading Murder by R. J. Lee
May Book of the Month: A Boob’s Life: How America’s Obsession Shaped Me…And You by Leslie Lehr
May International Book Club Selection:
Dreaming in a Time of Dragons by G. Claire
May Bonus Book Club Selection:
Temple of Eternity (Bobby Ether Series) by R. Scott Boyer
Greenwood: A Novel of a Family Tree in a Dying Forest by Michael Christie
Crazy Brave: A Memoir by Joy Harjo and An American Sunrise: Poems by Poet Laureate of The United States Joy Harjo
When Stars Go Dark: A Novel by Paula McLain
June Book of the Month:
Pearl River Mansion by Richard Schwartz with Wendy Carter
June International Book of the Month:
Among the Maasai: A Memoir by Juliet Cutler
June Bonus Books of the Month:
The Madwoman of Preacher’s Cove by Joy Ross Davis
The Small Crimes of Tiffany Templeton by Richard Fifield
Sharp as a Serpent’s Tooth: Eva and Other Stories by Mandy Haynes
Outbound Train: A Novel by Renea Winchester
July Book of the Month:
The Gumbeaux Sistahs: A Novel by Jax Frey
July International Book of the Month
Come Sunday: A Novel by Isla Morley
July Bonus Book Club Selections:
A Million Little Lies: A Novel by Bette Lee Crosby
Copper, Iron, and Clay: A Smith’s Journey by Sara Dahmen
What Lies Ahead (Fireside, Texas Book II) by Marci Henna
Crescent City Sin by Nola Nash
August Book Club Selection:
The Last Blue: A Novel by Isla Morley
August International Book Club Selection:
Suspension: A Novel by Andrea Faye Christians
August Bonus Book Club Selections:
The Last of the Moon Girls: A Novel by Barbara Davis
Boop and Eve’s Road Trip: A Novel by Mary Helen Sheriff
A Season in Lights: A Novel in Three Acts by Gregory Erich Phillips
What’s Not Said by Valerie Taylor
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
September Book of the Month:
Bookish Broads: Women Who Wrote Themselves Into History by Lauren Marino
September International Book of the Month
The Ancient Way: Discoveries on the Path of Celtic Christianity by River Jordan
September Bonus Book Club Selections:
Hippie Chick: Coming of Age in the 60’s by Ilene English
Always A Song: Singers, Songwriters, Sinners, and Saints/My Story of the Folk Music Revival by Ellen Harper with Sam Barry
From the Summer of Love to the Valley of the Moon: A Memoir by Nancy J. Martin
Luz: A Novel by Debra Thomas
October Book of the Month:
With or Without You: A Novel by Caroline Leavitt
October International Book of the Month:
All the Way to the Tigers: A Memoir by Mary Morris
October Bonus Books of the Month:
The Illusion of Leaving: A Novel by Jeannette Brown
A Visitation of Angels: A Pluto’s Snitch Mystery #4 by Carolyn Haines
Switchback: A Patrick Flint Novel by Pamela Fagan Hutchins
Champagne Widows: Veuve Clicquot and Napoleon by Rebecca Rosenberg
November Book of the Month:
The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop: A Novel by Fannie Flagg
November International Book of the Month:
The Cowboy and The Indian: A Novel by Joseph M. Marshall III
November Bonus Books of the Month:
Drawing Lessons: A Novel by Patricia Sands
An Unfinished Story: A Novel by Boo Walker
Scattered Lights by Steve Wiegenstein
The Girl in the Tree by Sebnem Isiguzel
December Book of the Month:
The Menu by Steven Manchester
December International Book of the Month:
The Quisling Factor by J. L. Oakley
December Bonus Books of the Month:
Solo in Salento: A Memoir by Donna Keel Armer
The Art of Storykeeping: Saving History—One Family at a Time by Tamra McAnally Bolton
Evening in the Yellow Wood by Laura Kemp
Some of these books have garnered awards and some have already been optioned for film or TV series, but all have won 5 diamonds in the Pulpwood Queen’s tiara and my new official seal of approval.
Once again, here’s where to look into the Pulpwood Queens 2021, online Girlfriend Weekend!
Can you write a 500 WORD ESSAY and share your pandemic story? Scare Your Soul would love to read it!
Lost & Found in 2020 is a project of the Scare Your Soul social-benefit courage movement.
People everywhere are invited to courageously reflect, write, and share some essential story of your life during the pandemic, and to connect people everywhere through shared human experience.
You are invited to reflect on what YOU have learned or discovered about yourself, others, or the world in 2020.
What have you lost and found?
People everywhere are invited to submit stories with their names, initials, or anonymously. We encourage a courageous sharing of real, authentic personal stories. No writing experience is necessary, and the submissions can be a poem, prose, or whatever best expresses your story.
We will design and make available a special free e-book containing as many submissions as possible.
Submissions are due by December 31, 2020. We have prompts and resources to assist you.
And, we have a special contest, too.
The Contest
From the collected story submissions, a team of Scare Your Soul ambassadors will select the most compelling ten to receive top billing in the e-book.
Those top ten will have their submissions read by professional actors to be part of a special free audio book, offered with the e-book.
Finally, each of these top ten writers will be awarded two courage-based life-coaching sessions.Learn More
Critically acclaimed novelist Michael Farris Smith pulls Nick Carraway out of the shadows and into the spotlight in this fascinating look into his life before Gatsby!
Before Nick Carraway moved to West Egg and into Gatsby’s periphery, he was at the center of a very different story-one taking place along the trenches and deep within the tunnels of World War I.
Floundering in the wake of the destruction he witnessed firsthand, Nick delays his return home, hoping to escape the questions he cannot answer about the horrors of war. Instead, he embarks on a transcontinental redemptive journey that takes him from a whirlwind Paris romance-doomed from the very beginning-to the dizzying frenzy of New Orleans, rife with its own flavor of debauchery and violence.
An epic portrait of a truly singular era and a sweeping, romantic story of self-discovery, this rich and imaginative novel breathes new life into a character that many know but few have pondered deeply. Charged with enough alcohol, heartbreak, and profound yearning to paralyze even the heartiest of golden age scribes, Nick reveals the man behind the narrator who has captivated readers for decades
“Anybody who believes that the war is over when the enemy surrenders and the troops come home needs to read Michael Farris Smith’s masterful new novel Nick. Its stark, unvarnished truth will haunt you.”
Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of
Empire Falls and Chances Are…
“An evocative glimpse into life amidst World War I…Smith sculpts Carraway’s life in the most remarkable of ways.”
Southern Living
“Nick is so pitch-perfect, so rich in character and action, so remarkable a combination of elegance and passion, so striking in felt originality that I am almost tempted to say—book gods forgive me—that The Great Gatsby will forever feel like Nick’s splendid but somewhat paler sequel.”
Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain and Paris in the Dark
“Nick is, sentence by sentence, scene by scene, an atmospheric masterpiece of imagination and prose. With scenes that take your breath away and forget to give it back, Smith takes us on an immersive and redemptive journey that travels from the trenches of the Great War, to Paris, to New Orleans and beyond.”
Patti Callahan, New York Times bestselling
author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis
“Nick offers a soul for the ages, one that finally and deftly slips into the canon.”
Jeffrey Lent, New York Times bestselling author
of In the Fall and A Slant of Light
“Stylish, evocative, haunting and wholly original, Michael Farris Smith has paid tribute to a classic and made it his own. Nick is a remarkable achievement.”
Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End
“A dark and often gripping story that imagines the narrator of The Great Gatsby in the years before that book began …The new Nick is a man fully realized, with a mind tormented by the war and by a first love that waned too fast to a fingernail moon of bitter memory…A compelling character study and a thoroughly unconventional prequel.”
Before Nick Carraway moved to West Egg and into Gatsby’s periphery, he was at the center of a very different story-one taking place along the trenches and deep within the tunnels of World War I.
Floundering in the wake of the destruction he witnessed firsthand, Nick delays his return home, hoping to escape the questions he cannot answer about the horrors of war. Instead, he embarks on a transcontinental redemptive journey that takes him from a whirlwind Paris romance-doomed from the very beginning-to the dizzying frenzy of New Orleans, rife with its own flavor of debauchery and violence.
An epic portrait of a truly singular era and a sweeping, romantic story of self-discovery, this rich and imaginative novel breathes new life into a character that many know but few have pondered deeply. Charged with enough alcohol, heartbreak, and profound yearning to paralyze even the heartiest of golden age scribes, Nick reveals the man behind the narrator who has captivated readers for decades.
Michael Farris Smith is an award-winning writer whose novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists with Esquire, Southern Living, Book Riot, and numerous others, and have been named Indie Next List, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month selections. He has been a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, the Gold Dagger Award in the UK, and the Grand Prix des Lectrices in France, and his essays have appeared with The New York Times, Bitter Southerner, Garden & Gun, and more. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife and daughters.
Many of my friends and peers in the book world are all atwitter with the news that River Jordan has a new podcast on Spotify! River Jordan, an eminently applauded author known, paradoxically, for her common-man, every-day appeal and profound esotericism, is both a drink of fresh water and a taste acquired as in the most sophisticated of wines. A no-nonsense, laser-sharp writer of deep fathoms, she has an uncanny knack for bringing the world to its brass tacks in a manner that highlights the ordinary as extraordinary. Her versatility as fiction and non-fiction author has gained her legions of devoted followers, myself among them, and I’m introducing River Jordan here for the uninitiated!
A few endorsements that will make a case in point:
PRAISE FOR RIVER JORDAN
“River Jordan is like Thomas Merton, Patti Smith, and Anne Lamott all rolled up into one compassionate, timely, and bracingly honest gift.” Silas House, author, Southernmost
”River Jordan is the South’s Anne Lamont.” Joy Jordan-Lake, author, A Tangled Mercy
“This author writes with a hard bitten confidence comparable to Ernest Hemingway. And yet, in the Souther tradition of William Faulkner, she can knit together sentences that can take your breath.” Florida Today
”Author River Jordan conjures up the traditions of Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, and Peter Straub.” The Tampa Tribune
Above is one of River Jordan’s books that I highly recommend!
In my book review, I wrote, in part: “Praise for Confessions of a Christian Mystic! This is a writer who asks the big questions for us; who owns a steady faith base yet thinks outside the box. Confessions of a Christian Mystic is devout and dauntless. It is sonorous, beautiful, soul-deep, and fearless.”
A little background about River Jordan:
River Jordan is an author, speaker, teacher and radio host. As a southerner with a global perspective she is a passionate advocate for the power of story.
River’s writing career began as a playwright and she spent over ten years writing and directing. She is the best-selling author of four novels and a three spiritual memoirs. As a critically-acclaimed author her work has been most frequently cast in the company of such writers as Flannery O’Conner, William Faulkner, and Harper Lee.
Ms. Jordan lives on a hill just beyond Nashville city limits surrounded by her wild, southern family. When not on the road you’ll find her on her porch at night watching the moon move through the star-filled sky and contemplating all manner of things human and divine.
Her latest release came out in October:
The Ancient Way, Discoveries On the Path of Celtic Christianity is her most recent book written about her pilgrimage to the Isle of Iona in Scotland.
In first-person, nonfiction narrative readers will think familiar for its intimate, accommodating style, River Jordan combines everything that makes both memoir and travelogue captivating.
More on why so many are thrilled with the news of River Jordan’s Podcast!
I encourage you to listen to River Jordan on Spotify, where she gifts the listener with short, insightful, pithy insights that ring with universal resonance on subjects common to us all. Her offerings are short vignettes I find both delightful and deeply profound. I’ve made listening to Jordan’s podcast, titled Saints in Limbo, a regular practice. They are nothing short of uplifting messages. Saints in Limbo is on Spotify, Monday through Friday. The example below will give you an idea of the podcasts’ soul-stirring depth of field.
“A podcast to help get through these days that seem neither here nor there, before or after, what used to be or what will come after.
A poem, a prayer, a story, a few good words for all good Saints who feel they’ve fallen into a strange new place called limbo.
I’ll add here a lagniappe, as they say in Louisiana:
Another of River Jordan’s wildly popular books:
“River Jordan’s Saints in Limbo is a compelling story of the mysteries of existence and, specially, the mysteries of the human heart.” –Ron Rash, author of Serena and Chemistry and Other Stories
And then there is this!
In Praying for Strangers, River Jordan tells of her amazing personal journey of uncovering the needs of the human heart as she prayed her way through the year for people she had never met before. The discovery that Jordan made along the journey was not simply that her prayers touched the lives of these strangers, but that the unexpected connections she made with other people would be a profound experience that would change her life forever.
And you’ll enjoy this!
One more chance: If you haven’t listened to the 12 minute example yet, here it is again!
See you on Spotify, Monday through Friday at Saints in Limbo!
“a heart-warming story full of charm and optimism; a wonderous journey that transcends the celebration of Christmas with breathtaking illustrations throughout.”
Stars of Wonder: A Children’s Christmas Adventure is delightfully representative of life’s sacred journey as seen through the eager hearts of four royal siblings who live in a land far, far away.
Respectful of their loving parents, princes Jonah, Nathan, and Jacob lie on a blanket beside their parents and sister Phoebe, gazing at the heavens and whispering because “the soft winds and the calls of the owls and the sound of the waves created such beautiful music.” When a bright new star is spotted, the family is intrigued, and when Phoebe overhears her father remark, “I think—no, I believe that this fine bright star is leading the way to a new King, the greatest king the world has ever known,” the royal children conspire to set out on a brave adventure to meet the new king. Enlisting their friend Sumar, who knows about the care and maintenance of camels, the royal siblings set out from their village on a three-day journey but make the tactical error of not telling their parents because they don’t want them to worry.
It is a journey fraught with teachable moments. While resting overnight in the desert, the party is ambushed by three mountain lions and “The princess and Sumar and the three princely brothers all jumped to their feet, filled with both fear and courage, because it is true that fear and courage often happen together.” The lurking mountain lion illustration interjected at this moment is both fearsome and beautiful, with jewel tones encased in rich texture that make the predator something worth petting.
While Jasmine the camel heals from a lion’s scratch, it is decided the three princes will journey on to the palace they spy on the hill to ask about the distance to the new king, while Phoebe and Sumar stay with the camel. When old and wrinkly Nana Anna appears to Phoebe and Sumar, she reveals that she, too, is on a journey to see the new king because “No matter a person’s age, or size, or personality, or where they were from, or what language they spoke, or food they liked, the bright star in the sky was important to everyone.” When Phoebe admires the bracelet on Nana Anna, the wise woman gifts it to her and describes the symbolic meaning of each colorful bead, all of which serve to remind that “life is grand and love is real and beauty is everywhere.”
Separated from Sumar and their sister, the three princes spend the night at the palace of grumpy and cranky King Herod, whom, they suspect, is not trustworthy, though he is hospitable. In describing the king, Prince Nathan says he is nefarious, and the conversation that ensues regarding the word leads to the merits of a good vocabulary. The brothers’ journey on until they come to their final destination, where “The man with the gentle eyes spoke very quietly. This is Mary, and I am Joseph, and this little one we call Jesus.” Mary, upon hearing of nefarious King Herod, counsels, “you definitely do not have to do what a nefarious person tells you to do. If you get that untrustworthy feeling about someone, you must trust your own feelings. They are called instincts.”
After visiting with Mary and Joseph and Jesus, the princes return to the place where they left Phoebe and Sumar to discover their parents, Sumar’s father, and Nana Anna are assembled. As the siblings recount their adventure, Phoebe quotes Nana Anna in saying, “Life is grand, and love is real, and beauty is everywhere!”
“I saw that in our journey together,” said Prince Jonah.
“I saw it in our care for each other,” said Prince Nathan
“I see it now in our parents love and our friendship,” said Sumar.
“I see it everywhere I look!” said Phoebe.
Stars of Wonder: A Children’s Christmas Adventure teaches poignant lessons. Good decisions, perfect love, insecurity, challenging moments, care for animals, and disagreements are brought to the fore, and in perfectly placed prompts, the reader is asked what they’d do. It is a heart-warming story full of charm and optimism; a wonderous journey that transcends the celebration of Christmas with breathtaking illustrations throughout.
Claire Fullerton’s most recent novels are Little Tea and multiple award winner, Mourning Dove. Honors include the Independent Book Publishers Book Award Silver Medal for Regional Fiction, the Reader’s Favorite for Southern Fiction Bronze Medal and various other literary awards.
Some say your novel The Shores Of Our Souls is a romance. Do you consider it such? What genre did you intend it to fall under when you wrote it?
I believe my novel falls on a literary fiction shelf, or an upmarket women’s fiction shelf. I wrote it to open a conversation, so it’s great for book clubs. It’s cross-genre for sure, if you’re trying to label it. It’s about war, love, and international intrigue. It’s a bildungsroman for the female character, and parts of it are historical fiction.
What do reviewers miss about your novel?
My novel is a love story, not a romance in the strict sense of the genre. It’s about why and how we love. It differs from many other love stories in that it’s told from two points of view. It was a risk on my part, but I did it to give my readers a better understanding of Arab culture, religion, experience, and values. That’s what drives any relationship – perspective and values.
It also doesn’t fall into a traditional romance trope of “Happily Ever After.” Instead, it shows what two people, damaged and alone, can do to heal and catalyze each other if they share love, even if it’s short-lived. I don’t like tied-up-with-a-bow finales, although readers who want one may like my sequel better. My sequel A Thousand Flying Things opens a decade later, and my my protagonists Dianna and Qasim have had time and space to heal inside, come into their own, before they reunite again. We’ll see if their love survives the separation. (Hint: There are some surprises that even Dianna doesn’t know about in their decade of separation.)
Call it what you will, love conquers all, especially division. It can also lead to mutual understanding. The connection and empathy it evokes can resolve conflict. Every conflict we face teaches us about each other and the world we live in, but only if we feel enough compassion for others to walk in their shoes. Rarely, love leads to a lifetime partnership. Often, it teaches us who we are.
If there was one thing you’d like to tell your readers about Shores, what would it be?
If people read only the first few scenes, they won’t understand that these two characters have been broken. They want to love, but societal wounds have rendered them incapable of it until they heal. Damaged people don’t make the best decisions. If readers stay with the story, they will watch both characters heal, and heal each other. And as they heal themselves, they widen their hearts.
If they read on, they’ll discover the potential of love to heal and transform. Yet before that point, they’ll also see how secrets lead to distrust, cause love to recede and characters (and real relationships) to backtrack. Miscommunication leads to misunderstanding, but the love endures. And it’s the love that keeps both characters moving on their Life Paths.
Kathy Ramsperger
What themes and questions did you want to explore in your series?
Love conquers all.
How to love during conflict, be it a marital separation or a world war. (A lot of my coaching practice is about resolving conflict.)
How parental love, familial love, friendship love differ from romantic love.
And the questions I pose:
Do we choose who we love, or does love choose us?
Can we love all those who injure us? Can we forgive?
How does fleeting love change us? Catalyze us?
Can unconditional love awaken us to who we really are and thus empower us?
How did you write from a male POV so vividly?
I wrote Qasim’s POV as backstory first, to better understand him. Then my beta readers fell in love with him.
Winner: Multi-cultural Fiction
I realize it’s controversial to write in a POV different from one’s own these days. Yet I think it’s what writers do, put themselves in a situation or a point of view to better understand it, and to show others how to understand. I was trained as a child and as a writing student to put myself in another’s shoes. I may make mistakes, but I tried to portray every character authentically, and especially Qasim, as a full, complex character, who has successes and makes mistakes. Just like we all do, if we are alive.
Yet I didn’t find his voice in a vacuum. I’ve lived and worked in Africa and traveled through the Middle East. And most importantly, I had a relationship with a Middle Eastern man long ago, although the true story, the true human I loved, is nothing like Qasim and his story. Yet that person created a launching place for voice and story.
Do you consider Dianna a strong protagonist, a strong female role model?
Absolutely, although she’s young, naive and head-strong in the first novel. She’s left home and family to go seek a career in order to send money home. She hasn’t rented a brownstone with a bunch of friends and partied every night. She’s on her own. She’s striding forth in a male-dominated world and work force, and she holds her own. She holds her own when Qasim patronizes her. And I believe she evolves into a self-empowered hero, someone who paved the way for the women who came after her.
She, like Qasim, is a woman of her time. Women were just coming into their own. The employment rate for women rose from 38 percent in 1960, to 43 percent in 1970, to 52 percent in 1980, and finally reached 60 percent by 2000. Yet these stats don’t say where the women worked, or their entry annual salaries (mine was $10,600 before taxes), or the challenges they met in the workplace, or how much they earned to a man’s dollar. In 1980, women had a career map, maybe even a role model, but they faced a lot of hurdles. I asked for a raise after two years on the job, and my boss told me that the raise had to go to the man because “his wife had just had a baby.”
I’ve heard readers ask about an audible edition of both your novels? Are those forthcoming?
A strong maybe. Stay tuned.
Your book is full of visual and sensory imagery. Is that how you usually write a scene?
I start with a memory, an interesting person from my life or from history, and a question I want to figure out myself. Then I close my eyes and a story plays out in front of my eyes like a movie. I used to think that most people wrote that way.
And how do you write? Do you ever use an outline?
I write most scenes with incredible speed. Most of my language and voice comes from that very first draft, even if it does have a bad plot.
Then I outline.
Then I make sure I’ve written and approve of my beginning, middle, and end, that both the narrative and character arcs are solid.
Then I revise to the middle, then to the end.
And then revise until someone tells me I have to stop.
How much research did you do for your novels? How much comes from your life experience?
I’m including an informal bibliography in my next novel, because I’ve received this question a lot. I was a researcher for five years for National Geographic, so deep research is part of me. Also, I have a personality like a scientist’s, in that I’m incredibly curious and want to get the heart of things, to as near “truth” as I can. Shores is well-researched. I can provide a bibilography to anyone who requests it. Just sign up for my newsletter at https://shoresofoursouls.com, and I’ll send you a complete bibliography.
Yet I didn’t find the The Shores Of Our Souls story in a library. I was a humanitarian worker for nearly two decades, with a work focus in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe. I spent this time meeting and interviewing immigrants, displaced people, people in war, both civilian and military. I was an international humanitarian law instructor for the Red Cross (ie, Geneva Conventions). I witnessed these people’s life stories and I shared them with the world. I’ve spent time in Beirut, the last time in 2006, six weeks before the last war, with bombing raids already happening up the coast.
So that’s why you chose to write about Lebanon?
Not entirely. My initial protagonist hailed from Alexandria, Egypt. Every country in the world has its unique sensibilities, though. Egypt is completely different than Lebanon. Qasim fit in Lebanon, not Egypt. By the way, the man I dated was not Lebanese. But Qasim just had to be.
Do you have a favorite line in Shores?
The lines most readers love just came to me one day. “We often lose ourselves in love. Rarely do we find ourselves there. Never do we see it coming.” They open the novel.
But my favorite lines are at the book’s end. They’re an homage to E.M. Forster’s A Passage To India. The last lines of all my novels in this series will be a tribute to him. He was one of the first to write about the divide between East and West. I also added a falling feather in the scene because my BFF Laura Schmidt, an amazing writer with an amazing life, passed when I was writing the first draft of this novel. She sends me blue feathers as signs that she’s still with me, and she whispers inspiration in my ear on a regular basis.
Who are your favorite authors? Your favorite children’s authors?
My all-time favorite book is John Steinbeck’s East of Eden.
My all-time favorite books on writing are by Eudora Welty: One Writer’s Beginnings and The Eye of the Story.
I’m an avid reader of fairy tales and myths from all over the world, and my very first book was The Three Little Horses, by Piet Worm, given to me by a neighbor when I was 2 years old. I knew I’d found the man I would marry when he introduced himself as a modern-day Druid, and told me he loved Tolkien.
I also loved C.S. Lewis’ The Narnia Chronicles, and E. L. Konigsberg’s The Crazy Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler changed my life – made me want to write about the world, cultures, history, and how my world related to it all. And it made me start running away from home, much to my mother’s chagrin.
My favorite contemporary authors are Isabelle Allende, Alice Hoffman, and Barbara Kingsolver.
But I almost always fall in love with any book that gets me past the second chapter with its voice and craft. Once I’m immersed in story, it’s tough for me to come out again.
What’s next for author Kathryn Brown Ramsperger?
The sequel to Shores, called A Thousand Flying Things, will be published next year. I’m working on the book cover right now. Then I hope to publish a memoir about adoption, teen suicide, and the mother-daughter bond. I have many books that are still works in progress, including a weird funny memoir on death.
I also host a Facebook Live called Story Hour most every Thursday @ 4 pm EDT on my Facebook Author page, with replays available on You Tube. I also am an intuitive coach at Ground One LLC, and a book coach with my own process. Most of my writing clients are memoirists. My method is called Step Into Your Story! (TM)
I love speaking anywhere, online or off, about story, the writing craft, global citizenship and peace.
Author Bio: Kathryn Ramsperger’s literary voice is rooted in the Southern tradition of storytelling and is informed by her South Carolina lineage. She began her career writing for The Roanoke Times and The Gazette newspapers and later managed publications for the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva, Switzerland. She has contributed articles to National Geographic and Kiplinger magazines.
Writing from a global perspective, her themes are universal yet intensely personal and authentic.
A graduate of Hollins University (Roanoke, Va.), Kathryn studied under several esteemed writers including—Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Eudora Welty; her mentor Richard Henry Wilde Dillard and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Henry Taylor. She holds a graduate degree from George Washington University.
Winner of the Hollins University Fiction Award, Kathryn is also a finalist in novel, novel-in-progress, short story, and poetry categories in the Faulkner-Wisdom literary competition. The Shores of Our Souls won the 2017 Foreword Indies award for multicultural fiction and also won an America’s Best Book Award.
Kathryn is a mezzo-soprano, has dined with artists ranging from author Marita Golden to musician and writer Kinky Friedman, and has traveled to every continent except Antarctica and Australia. She’s worked in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband and two children.
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Claire Fullerton Author 