Hello ,
Happy Friday! Congratulations to recent subscriber Lisa Taylor and winner of a PURE GRIT Author Visit (via Skype) for your school or book club. E-mail me, Lisa, and we'll schedule it.
We've had beautiful sunny weather this week in Spokane. A little hail and showers
thrown in, but that's spring in the Inland Northwest. I had hoped to get out in my garden and plant some lettuce seed this week, but did not make it. But I do have lettuce. Don't they look great? A gift my generous, green-thumbed neighbor. Am I lucky or what?
Turn Your Fear into Wisdom |
When I click open the document of my novel that I mean to start revising, my heart beat goes-fight or
flight- fight or flight- fight or flight! I jump up and go to the kitchen to microwave my cup off coffee. Even though it hasn't cooled. In the moment of facing the page, I am like a mouse bolting from the swoop of a hawk. My amygdala (reptilian brain) fires a message to my sympathetic nervous system telling it that my body is in acute danger. This message is so commanding, I jump up
and leave the room. I wrote about this fear a few months ago when I asked the question: What would you do, if you weren't afraid. I'm exploring it
more deeply today and asking: Why does part of my brain think revising a novel is a threat to my life? And what the heck am I going to do about it? First, I'm going to remind myself it's not me. "Sometimes I think the difference between what we want and what we're afraid of is about the width of an eyelash." ― Jay McInerney "What I want is risk.
What I fear is failing. What I want is fresh air, currents, and mountains. What I'm afraid of is heights, drowning, and change." - Lakin Easterling Fear of failure is part of the human condition, so I accept it. But acceptance isn't standing on the doorstep,
neither in nor out...Continued...
News and Links You Might Like |
Hands-on-Books is a blog that offers fun, kid-friendly activities that tie into the subject of nonfiction books. They graciously invited me to guest post this past week and I shared how to make decoupage soaps. I confess I am not a craft-type person, but these soaps are easy, practical and I like making them. I made one as a gift for my sixth grade teacher. Click here for complete instructions for making decoupage soaps.
I was thrilled that The Horn Book Magazine reviewed PURE GRIT in their March/April issue. Especially since they said nice things about it.
"There are many books written about young people enlisting in the military, being unprepared for the horrors of battle or tortures of capture, serving bravely, and coming home.
But women? In
direct fire? In POW camps? During World War II? Not so many, a void Farrell admirably fills with this account of the more than one hundred army and navy nurses who served in the Philippines during the bombing and evacuation of Manila, the Battle of Bataan...Read more
Reporter Brenda Starr interviewed me for the show Through the Eyes of Women Radio on KHSU FM. Wednesday, April 9thOn this day 77-years ago, Philippine-American forces on Bataan were surrendered to the Japanese. Army nurses were ordered to leave their patients in their beds and escape to Corrigidor. I'll have more details on Kababayan TODAY at 4p-4:30p on
LA18 in Southern California and 3:30p-4p on Kiku in Hawaii.
Saturday, April 12th, 1:45-3pm I'll be at Eastern Washington University's Get Lit! Festival at the Spokane Convention Center sharing deep, dark secrets about
publishing nonfiction. Join me for a panel including Jack Nisbet whose works include David Douglas: A Naturalist at Work and The Collector, named Pacific Northwest Booksellers Book of the Year 2010 and Paul Lindholdt, PhD, whose In Earshot of Water: Notes from the Columbia Plateau won the 2012 Washington State Book Award in Memoir/Biography. Click here for more info on From Spark to Fire:Four Non-fiction Writers Share How to Keep the Process Burning.
Saturday, April 19th, 11am-1pm I'll be signing copies of PURE GRIT at Barnes & Noble in Spokane Valley, WA. Stop by the Valley Mall (15310 E. Indiana Ave) and say hello. Have a great weekend. Thanks for reading! Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends who might enjoy it. If you'd like to get your hands on a copy of PURE GRIT, here's the place! If you'd like a signed copy and I'm not coming to your neighborhood soon, e-mail me and I will send you a personally signed bookplate. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teacher and librarians, visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. My best, Mary Questions? Comments? Contact me at MaryCronkFarrell@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. |
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