Imagine, for a moment, that you have just died. If you had to look back over the arc of your life as it stands today, what stories would you tell? What lessons would you share, what things might you regret or confess?
Some letters may be specific: a note to the young, or to a child that has yet to be born. Other letters may be larger and more sweeping, choosing instead to address the whole of the world... the rest of us still living. Who you choose to write your letter to, along with what you say, is ultimately up to you.
Whether you're sixteen or sixty, you have a story to tell - some bit of advice or guidance to give. There is someone out there who is waiting to hear from you, someone who can benefit from your experiences and your point of view.
The letters shared here are intended to give us perspective - to help us see our lives and ourselves more clearly. Dead Advice is meant to help keep the big picture a little bigger, and a little more in focus.
You're invited to read some letters, and to learn more about the project. And, if you would like, you're very much invited to write a letter of your very own.
A Novel
by Adrienne McDonnell
It is 1903. Dr. Ravell is a young, Harvard-educated obstetrician whose reputation for helping couples conceive has made him a rising star. He is flattered when a family of illustrious Boston physicians turns to him to treat one of their own members -- a lovely opera singer named Erika von Kessler who has struggled for years to become pregnant. As his attraction to her increases, and his treatments prove ineffectual, the pressure on the young doctor mounts.
By the time she meets Ravell, Erika has lost all hope of becoming a mother. Her extraordinary voice is gathering acclaim, and she is determined to move to Italy to launch her career in earnest. But becoming Dr. Ravell's patient will change Erika's life in ways she never could have imagined, and she has no idea of the lengths to which her husband will go to keep her by his side.
Thursday, July 29
MRS. DALLOWAY'S
2904 College Ave
Berkeley, CA 94705
Talk/Q&A/Signing
7:30 pm
Friday, July 30
BOOK PASSAGE
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA 94925
Panel / Q&A / Signing
Noon
Ticketed event, contact the store for more details
**This is a joint event with Robin Oliveira, MY NAME IS MARY SUTTER
Monday, August 2
KEPLER'S
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Talk/Q&A/Signing
7:30 pm
Tuesday, August 3
M IS FOR MYSTERY
86 E 3rd Ave
San Mateo, CA 94401
Talk/Q&A/Signing
7:00 pm
Friday, August 6
BOOKS INC. IN THE MARINA
2251 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
Talk/Q&A/Signing
7:30 pm
damselfly press, an online literary journal for women is pleased to announce the publication of our twelfth issue and call for submissions for the thirteenth issue. We are seeking electronic submissions of original fiction, poetry, and nonfiction by female writers only slated for online publication in October 2010.
As always, we welcome a myriad of women's voices from new and experienced writers.
The deadline to submit for the thirteenth issue is September 15th.
These are the e-mails per genre editor:
Fiction: jennifer(at)damselflypress.net (replace (at) with @)
Poetry: lesley(at)damselflypress.net (replace (at) with @)
Nonfiction: nonfiction(at)damselflypress.net (replace (at) with @)
Visit the damselfly press website: http://damselflypress.net to read the latest issue and learn more about the journal.
Check out LM's Literary Reflections Editor Kate Hopper's interview with Debra Gwartney, author of Live Through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love, one of 30 finalists for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award.
Juggling career, motherhood and family life is clearly a hot button topic for many women today. This anthology is different from other "motherhood" books out there today in a number of ways:
1) As an anthology of personal essays, this book features the voices of real women, not just snippets from interviews or summaries of other women's experiences.
2) This book is NOT a self-help guide, nor is it a collection of funny, "make me feel good" anecdotal. The essays in this book, while they might be humorous, are thought provoking and deeply personal. They are the caliber of stories published in The New Yorker magazine.
3) This book explores the struggle of women torn between their roles as mothers and career women (or something other than "mother"), and what they have done, or hope to do, to make it work. The stories offer life lessons and, sometimes but not always, solutions.
We are looking for personal stories 1500 to 3000 words in length (approximately 6-12 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins) that explore the challenges women face while raising kids and working a job, or raising kids and staying at home. We also encourage career women who have made the decision not to have children, or who are contemplating having children, to submit their stories. Our focus is not necessarily on success stories (how women manage to "do it all well)." Rather, our focus is on the struggles women encounter as we attempt to live a full life-- balancing career, family and ever elusive personal time.
Our readers will include young college graduates contemplating motherhood; women overwhelmed by the demands of career and family life; stay at home moms and moms trying to "on ramp" back into a career; husbands and fathers trying to better understand the plight of the women in their lives; and anyone wondering how mothers are faring in the professional world today.
The success of this book will lie in the readability of the stories. These are NOT scholarly essays. They are personal memoirs from real women illuminating the triumphs and failures of raising children while maintaining a career, or not. They should be dramatic, funny, emotional, passionate. Other potential issues to explore: equal parenting or not, successful relationships or not,fidelity or not; feeling good about work or not. Your candor, passion and, perhaps, humor are most important. Funny and outrageous anecdotes (e.g. struggling to keep down morning sickness while presenting to a board room of men) are encouraged!
Manuscripts and queries should be typewritten and double-spaced. Please send in in Word or RTF format. Please provide a 3 sentence description of yourself, contact info, including an email address, and day and evening phone numbers. If possible, send writing clips of other work you have published.
** If you do plan to contribute, we would appreciate you sending a short, one-paragraph abstract/proposal about your subject matter as soon as possible. We will do our best to review and provide feedback.
Deadline for submission is April 14, 2010.
If we decide to include your story in the collection, we will contact you directly to discuss the best way to handle the material/assignment. Due to the large volume of queries we have received, we may not be able to include every story received. We will try to notify you within 30
days of receiving your manuscript to let you know whether it will be included in the collection.
All manuscripts and queries should be e-mailed to:
sam@walravens.com
Subject: submission: "I'm No Superwoman"
Samantha Parent Walravens
www.samanthawalravens.com
Motherhood is an ever-present theme in the background of Falling Apart in One Piece: One Optimist's Journey Through the Hell of Divorce, but the most vibrant thread is personal truth. When Stacey Morrison's husband Chris decides to pull out of their marriage, she has a newborn baby, is applying for the job of Editor in Chief of Redbook magazine, and has just purchased a house that will soon prove to be a leaking, broken monstrosity, the perfect allegory for her unsuccessful union with Chris. Morrison carefully describes the path her heart takes as, over the next two years, she does her very best (which is sometimes better than others) to remain open, loving, and teachable while walking through fire. She sees parts of herself that she doesn't want to see, but gradually faces them, and slowly learns to accept that taking control isn't always the best way for her; that seeking her truth is more important that achieving her dreams.
Morrison's style is a little mushy for me at times, but I couldn't put the book down, because this was a hard journey and she took it in such a respectable, honest way. I wanted badly to see her come out the other side, as the title promised, in one piece. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who's facing divorce, afraid of divorce, or divorced. But I also recommend it to people who are staying married, because the union Stacey and Chris achieve in the end -- unmarried, but partnered as parents -- is healthier than many a marriage, and a great example to us all.
Masha Hamilton has been named this year's recipient of the Women's National Book Association WNBA Award, which is presented to "a living American woman who derives part or all of her income from books and allied arts, and who has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation."
Each of Hamilton's books--Staircase of a Thousand Steps, (2001), The Distance Between Us, (2004), The Camel Bookmobile, (2007) --has received recognition, including Booksense picks, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and Library Journal's best book of the year.
After writing The Camel Bookmobile, she, with the help of fellow writers M.J. Rose and Susan Ito (also LM Nonfiction Co-Editor), organized the Camel Book Drive. More than 235 authors participated in the initial effort. In 2009, she founded the Afghan Women's Writing Project "to foster creative and intellectual exchange between Afghan women writers and American women authors and teachers." Currently 83 American writers are involved in the mentoring program.
WNBA has made the award since 1940. Past recipients include former First Lady Barbara Bush, former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, librarian Nancy Pearl, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, and literacy promoter, Dr. Perri Klass.
In 2005, LM readers were treated to this interview with Hamilton. Look for our review of her latest book, 31 Hours, in the near future.
Ever have a day when your writing life and your raising-young-children life don't get along? You write furiously during the kids' naps times but the manuscript doesn't feel right ... You wonder if you'll ever finish ...
Check out LM Fiction Co-Editor Kristina Riggle's newest blog post at the Red Room. Her first novel is a year old; novel #2 is due in August.