Books

After hitting some snags with our previous publisher, the Southshire Pepper-Pot has been released again with Lions Mark Press. It has some awesome features, such as a real ISBN number now!!!

The Pepper-Pot is a collection of fantastic short stories and recipes by a group of Vermont writers. I was lucky enough to join them and pitch my story into the mix called “A Bittersweet Land.”

And if you aren’t convinced by one of the contributors saying you should check it out, have a gander at a few reviws from Amazon.com:

“Southshire Pepper-Pot is a tasty book, filled with delicious stories to be munched on slowly with a glass of wine. This is just the kind of book I love to discover and savor with recipes that top off a full-course meal of literary victuals”

Bill Morgan, Beat Chronicler and author of I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Alllen Ginsberg and Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression –Bill Morgan, author

“Southshire Roundtable has given us a tasty literary treat, a rich menu of deliciously seasoned prose and poetry that will satisfy the appetite of all who enjoy a good read. The short stories are delicious tales inhabited by people we immediately empathize with as well as by unique characters who appeal to our fascination with the strange and mysterious. The essays too are remarkably diverse nostalgic pieces about local places served side by side with insightful accounts of such faraway locations as the Middle East and Key West. The talented writers represented here are proof positive that literature of the first order is alive and well in our area.”

Lea Newman, Bennington, Vermont; Professor Emerita, MCLA and author of Robert Frost: the People, Places and Stories behind his New England Poetry and Growing Up Italian in Chicago –Lea Newman, Professor Emerita, MCLA

Barbara Ehrenreich brings the world of writing down from the clouds into the hard earth of reality. Her best advice: start small. For example:

“More to the point, most books don’t start as books. They evolve from humbler efforts such as magazine articles, doctoral dissertations, even op-eds or blogs. If you find yourself saying “I could write about a book about it,” start by writing something far shorter. If you can’t get that published — as an op-ed, for example — you’re not ready for a book. Correction: you may be ready, but an agent or editor isn’t going to pay much attention to an entirely unpublished writer.”

I have been pleasantly surprised by Stephen King’s book On Writing. At first I just dismissed it. What does a horror writer have to teach someone who writes about theology, fiction that reads like a Wodehouse novel, and other little memoir-ish pieces?

Well, a lot actually. For one thing, Stephen King is not limited to horror. He’s a very, very funny writer. I began reading this book in bed on Tuesday night and soon found that I was on page 60 without even realizing it. The candid stories of his childhood adventures are laugh-out-loud funny. I also see myself in a lot of the awkward writing and school newspaper stuff that he was involved in.

The most important thing I’ve learned from King is optimism and persistence. He simply loved to write, and that is enough. He worked all kinds of jobs and still kept at his writing. The nail on the wall that held all of his rejection letters soon was replaced with a large stake. And still he wrote novels, novellas, and short stories.

It’s also fascinating to learn about another writer’s habits and where he finds his stories and characters. If anything, I have learned from other writers, including King, to observe people closely.

For example, I had a waitress today who has to be perfect for a book some day. She joked with customers, shared that she double-majored in theater and physics, and someone brought up SM with some French folks at the table next to mine. Then she dropped their brownie.

Ah, the old adage: truth is stranger than fiction. You just can’t make up stuff like that.

Originally published at www.inamirrordimly.com.

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