November 12

Birthdays: George Dillon (1906), Roland Barthes (1915), Marjorie Shamat (1928), Michael Ende (1929), John McGahern (1934), Janette Turner Hospital (1942), Tracy Kidder (1945), Michael Bishop (1945), Katharine Weber (1955), Neal Shusterman (1962), Naomi Wolf (1962), Damon Galgut (1963), Richelle Mead (1976), 

George Dillon won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Marjorie Shamat is best known for her “Nate the Great” series

Michael Ende is best known for his epic fantasy “The Neverending Story”

Tracy Kidder won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for “The Soul of a New Machine”

Quote: “Even the most brilliant natural writer needs to know rules of grammar and punctuation before she breaks them.” – Katharine Weber

Tip: Onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like what it means: crunch, roar, pop, tick-tock. They can make your writing stronger when used correctly.

Jumpstart: I stood and took my place in line, my stomach flipping like crazy. Ahead, they opened the door to the…

November 11

Birthdays: Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821), Isaac Bashevis Singer (1903?), Howard Fast (1914), Kalle Paatalo (1919), Kurt Vonnegut (1922), Carlos Fuentes (1928), Miriam Tlali (1933), Diane Wolkstein (1942), Mary Gaitskill (1954), Kathy Lette (1958), Nicola Morgan (1961), 

Quote: “When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer.” – Isaac Bashevis Singer

Tip: A hyperbole is an exaggerated phrase that’s not meant to be taken literally (I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse).

Jumpstart: I stumbled through the trees, completely lost, with no clue where the trail was. As I parted the branches of a tree, I saw staring down at me…

November 10

Birthdays: Oliver Goldsmith (1728), Friedrich von Schiller (1759), Winston Churchill (1871), J. P. Marquand (1893), James Broughton (1913), Karl Shapiro (1913), W.E.B. Griffin (1929), J. California Cooper (1931), Mark E. Neely Jr. (1944), Jack Ketchum (1946), Marlene van Niekerk (1954), Neil Gaiman (1960), Fernanda Eberstadt (1960), Holly Black (1971), Caroline Kepnes (1976), 

Holly Black is best known for “The Spiderwick Chronicles”. Her 2013 novel “Doll Bones” was awarded a Newbery Medal Honor.

J. California Cooper won the 1978 Black Playwright of the Year. 

Jack Ketchum won four Bram Stoker Awards for his horror novels.

Neil Gaiman was the first author to win the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same novel – “The Graveyard Book”

Winston Churchill (the novelist, not the statesman) was one of the best selling authors of the early 20th century.

J.P. Marquand won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “the Late George Apley”

Karl Shapiro won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and was a US Poet Laureate

Mark Neely Jr. won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Fate of Liberty”

Quote: “May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.” – Neil Gaiman

“Librarians are hot. They have knowledge and power over their domain…It is no coincidence how many librarians are portrayed as having a passionate interior, hidden by a cool layer of reserve. Aren’t books like that? On the shelf, their calm covers belie the intense experience of reading one. Reading inflames the soul. Now, what sort of person would be the keeper of such books?” – Holly Black

Tip: An interjection is a word used to express a sudden feeling: Yikes! Ow! Yay! They usually use exclamation points when used alone, but not when in a sentence.

Jumpstart: It’s lonely at the top. I’d heard that, but never believed it until now…

November 9

Birthdays: Ivan Turgenev (1818), Maud Howe Elliott (1854), James Schuyler (1923), Anne Sexton (1928), Imre Kertesz (1929), Lois Ehlert (1934), Carl Sagan (1934), Janet Fitch (1955), Bryan Gruley (1957), C.J. Box (1958), Michael Robotham (1960), Tahereh Mafi (1988)

Maud Howe Elliott was the co-winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for her mother Julia Ward Howe.

James Schuyler won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Anne Sexton won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for “Live or Die”.

Imre Kertesz won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Lois Ehlert won a Caldecott Honor for “Color Zoo”

Bryan Gruley shared a Pulitzer Prize for Journalism for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Carl Sagan won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Dragons of Eden”

Quote: “Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.” – Carl Sagan

“If you’re stuck, try not to fight your way through it. Be kind to yourself. If you feel like you’re coming up on something that’s immobile, just stop. Leave it. It’s not worth it. Do an exercise. Write something else. Play music and write to the music. Irritating music works better than music I like, because it’s more stimulating; it doesn’t lull you. Find an interesting photo and write your way into the photograph. Often doing little things takes the pressure off, until you feel comfortable writing what you want to write.” – Janet Fitch

Tip: Use of singular “they” – “they” (also them, their) is usually used to refer to a group, but it can also be used as a singular to avoid gender confusion and is often used by gender fluid persons instead of he/she.

Jumpstart: All it took was a five-minute lapse of judgement and someone with a camera…

November 8

Birthdays: Sarah Fielding (1710), Bram Stoker (1847), Margaret Mitchell (1900), Margaret Gelhorn (1908), Ben Bova (1932), Timothy Egan (1954), Kazuo Ishiguro (1954), Jeffrey Ford (1955), Joshua Ferris (1974), Lauren Oliver (1982), Samantha Shannon (1991)

Sarah Fielding was responsible for the first English language novel written specifically for children (The Governess).

Bram Stoker was an Irish novelist best known for the 1897 novel “Dracula”

Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for her novel “Gone With the Wind”

Timothy Egan won the 2006 National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for his “The Worst Hard Time”

Quote: “A fanatic who is willing to die for his cause thinks nothing of killing you for his cause.” ― Ben Bova, The Return

“What is difficult is the promotion, balancing the public side of a writer’s life with the writing. I think that’s something a lot of writers are having to face. Writers have become much more public now.” – Kazuo Ishiguro

Tip: A compound adjective (two or more adjectives in a row) is hyphenated if it’s in front of a noun (an up-to-date calendar) but not when they follow the noun (the calendar is up to date).

Jumpstart: It came in a small box. A small blue box. With a ribbon…

November 7

Birthdays: Leonora Speyer (1872), Leon Trotsky (1879), Margaret Leech (1893), Armstrong Sperry (1897), Albert Camus (1913), R.A. Lafferty (1914), Mary Daheim (1937), Tom Peters (1942), Helen Garner (1942), Stephen Greenblatt (1943), Guy Gavriel Kay (1954)

Leonora Speyer won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for “Fiddler’s Farewell”

Margaret Leech was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner in History

Armstrong Sperry won the 1941 Newbery Award for “Call it Courage”

Albert Camus won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature

Stephen Greenblatt won the Pulitzer and National Book Award for his 2011 book “The Swerve”

Quote: “There are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for.” – Albert Camus

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” – Stephen King

Tip: When an adverb ends in “ly” – do not hyphenate it with the word that follows as in: happily married couple (not: happily-married)

Jumpstart: There it sat, on the shelf in the back of my closet. Never to be brought out into the light of day. And yet…

Spotlight: Liz Flaherty

A New Season by Liz Flaherty

Although I like series and have enjoyed writing the ones I have, they’re not my chosen…I don’t even know what the word is for it…subgenre? I don’t know if anyone else still likes reading one-and-done books, but I do. I like writing them, too. It’s not the first time I’ve been out of step with publishing. As a matter of fact, since my first book was published in 1999, I’ve pretty much mastered the art.

Yes, indeed, being out of step with trends and whatever else is the oh, yes! of the moment is an art. I’m nowhere near the only one who’s good at it, but every time I walk off the dance floor with the intent of getting better at the step of the day, I…well…I don’t.

Feeling the say I do, it shouldn’t have been a huge surprise when a series I wrote released to…very few sales, very little attention, and huge disappointment on my part. However, maybe I was looking at it wrong. Instead of thinking of what has now been changed to A New Season as a series, I need to just think—and talk about—them as Syd’s, Riley’s, and Dinah’s stories. Because that’s what they are. That they all take place in the same small town on the same lake is incidental. They can be read in order, but they don’t have to. The third book isn’t even out yet.

While it would thrill me if you bought and read all of these, I hope you just start with one. Thanks to Vicky for having me here today and thank you for stopping by!

Book 1 A Year of Firsts: “I’m Sydney Cavanaugh. Just passing through.”
Widow Syd Cavanaugh is beginning a “year of firsts” with the road trip she’d promised her husband she’d take after his death. An unplanned detour lands her in Fallen Soldier, Pennsylvania, where she meets the interesting and intelligent editor of the local paper.

Television journalist Clay McAlister’s life took an unexpected turn when a heart attack forced him to give up his hectic lifestyle. He’s still learning how to live in a small town when meeting a pretty traveler in the local coffee shop suddenly makes it all much more interesting.

While neither of them is interested in a romantic relationship, their serious case of being “in like” seems to push them that way. However, Clay’s heart condition doesn’t harbinger a very secure future, and Syd’s already lost one man she loved to a devastating illness—she isn’t about to lose another. Where can this relationship possibly go?

https://books2read.com/u/b5w1NR

Book 2: Reinventing Riley: He’s afraid a second time at love wouldn’t live up to his first. She’s afraid a second round would be exactly like her first.

Pastor Jake McAlister and businesswoman Riley Winters are in their forties and widowed. Neither is interested in a relationship. They both love Fallen Soldier, the small Pennsylvania town where they met, even though Rye plans to move to Chicago, and Jake sees a change in pastorates not too far down the road. Enjoying a few-weeks friendship is something they both look forward to.

However, there is an indisputable attraction between the green-eyed pastor and the woman with a shining sweep of chestnut hair. Then there’s the Culp, an old downtown building that calls unrelentingly to Rye’s entrepreneurial soul. And when a young man named Griff visits Jake, life changes in the blink of a dark green eye.

https://books2read.com/u/4jBnV5

Book 3 The Summer of Sorrow and Dance: In the midst of a summer of change, they’re both searching for an anchor.
Dinah is a mom, a giver, and a doer, so she’s used to change, but this summer is kind of overdoing that. The diner where she’s worked for half her life is closing, her college-age kids aren’t coming home for the summer, and a property on nearby Cooper Lake is calling her name, bringing long-held dreams of owning a B & B to the fore. Newcomer Zach Applegate is entering into her dreams, too.

Divorced dad, contractor, and recovering alcoholic Zach is in Fallen Soldier, Pennsylvania, to visit his brother and to decide what’s coming next in his life. He doesn’t like change much, yet it seems to be everywhere. But he finds an affinity for remodeling and restoration, is overjoyed when his teenage sons join him for the summer, and he likes Dinah Tyler, too. A lot.

Dinah and Zach each experience sorrow and tumult, but go on to dance in the kitchen. Together, they have something, but is it enough?

Coming soon!

Bio:

Retired from the post office, Liz Flaherty spends non-writing time sewing, quilting, and wanting to travel. The author of 20-some books and her husband Duane share an old farmhouse in North Central Indiana.

Liz thinks one of the things that keeps you young when you quite obviously aren’t anymore is the constant chances you have to reinvent yourself. Her latest professional incarnation is as a fledgling women’s fiction author and she is enjoying every minute that she’s not scared to death.  

She can be reached at lizkflaherty@gmail.com or please find her at any of the places listed in Linktree at https://linktr.ee/LizFlaherty

November 5

Birthdays: Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850), Eugene Debs (1855), Will Durant (1885), John Berger (1926), Christopher Wood (1935), Sam Shepard (1943), Carole Nelson Douglas (1944), Richard Holmes (1945), Joyce Maynard (1953), Andrew Sean Greer (1970), Uzodinma Iweala (1982)

Andrew Greer won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “Less”

Sam Shepard won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “Buried Child”

Quote: “When you hit a wall – of your own imagined limitations – just kick it in.” – Sam Shepard

From Eugene V. Debs: I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.

I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.

In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.

Tip: Not everything you create will sell. Every author has those manuscripts they thought were amazing but are gathering dust in a drawer. And that’s okay. Move on and write the next one!

Jumpstart: I got lost. I had my phone, the GPS, and even a paper map. And I got lost. What would I do? What could I do? Not matter what I did, I ended up wrong…

November 4

Birthdays: Eden Phillpotts (1862), Sterling North (1906), C.K. Williams (1936), Gail E. Haley (1939), Charles Frazier (1950), Stephen Jones (1953), M.T. Anderson (1968), Yiyun Li (1972)

Sterling North is best known for his book “Rascal”

C.K. Williams won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Gail Haley won the 1971 Caldecott Medal for her book “A Story A Story”

M.T. Anderson won the 2006 National Book Award for Young Adult Literature for “The Pox Party”

Charles Frazier won the 1997 National Book Award for Fiction for “Cold Mountain”

Quote: “Sometimes reading other writers helps. You learn some little technique that turns out to be useful, or simply are re-inspired by the amazing things others do.” – M.T. Anderson

“We do not own the land we abuse, or the lakes and streams we pollute or the raccoons and the otters we persecute. Those who play God in destroying any form of life are tampering with a master plan too intricate for any of us to understand. All that we can do is to aid that great plan and to keep part of our planet habitable. The greatest predator on earth is man himself, and we must look inward to destroy the killer instinct which may yet atomize the human race. Our morality must be extended to every living thing upon our globe, and we must amend the Gold Rule to read: ’ Do unto other creatures as you would have them do unto you!” ― Sterling North

Tip: I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: do NOT compare yourself and your career to other writers. No two writers follow the same arc. Just because your best friend made the NY Times Best Seller list and you still haven’t found the right publisher doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. Keep going. Keep trying. And believe in yourself.

Jumpstart: “Give me a whiskey,” I said.

My friend stared at me. “You don’t drink.”

“I do now.”

November 3

Birthdays: William Cullen Bryant (1794), Andre Malraux (1901), Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920), Terrence McNally (1938), Martin Cruz Smith (1942), Anne Scott (1965)

Quote: :” Can anything be imagined more abhorrent to every sentiment of generosity and justice, than the law which arms the rich with the legal right to fix, by assize, the wages of the poor? If this is not slavery, we have forgotten its definition.” – William Cullen Bryant

“I don’t reread a book of mine after it’s been published. All I see is shortcomings and errors. The gap between what I intended to accomplish and what I settled for is a yawning abyss.” – Martin Cruz Smith

Tip: Are you ready for a virtual (or real) assistant? Someone who can do the social media, mailings, etc.? Research for what services they will provide and the costs.

Jumpstart: Sometimes I just stand on the bridge, mesmerized by the water flowing below, and I wonder…