I’m happy to announce the publication of my eighth poetry book, I Will Dance.
I Will Dance is a tribute to the free form dance community worldwide, and especially in Seattle. This community has been of great value to me in bringing out a vital aspect of my being, and these poems reflect what I have gained from dancing. The book is illustrated with photographs of dancers in Seattle’s free form dance community. It is available from the author or on CreateSpace.com, or on Amazon.com.
Today I hit the approve button and published my first novel.
I wrote the novel in 2009, at the strong urging of my daughter Heather to join her in that year’s National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, as it’s affectionately called. Participants sign up to write 50,000 words in the month of November, which divides into 1667 words per day.
At that time I had rediscovered that I am a writer, but not yet discovered that I am a poet. (There were many signs which could have been clear to me, but which I believe I missed because “Poet” was not on the shelf of my set of societally approved occupations.) I didn’t know if I could do fiction; I felt I lacked what I now call an engine — a powerful idea that demands expression in a novel. However, I had, earlier that year, written two poems which had given me quite a bit of satisfaction. I asked Heather if she thought there might be an idea within them that could become a novel. She thought there was, and gave me some suggestions about how.
So I wrote the book, Muse, based on the ideas in Muse and Muse II, the poems. After that, I put the novel through a few revisions, which I think helped it a lot.
The book fits into the category of New Adult, which sort of means it addresses themes most relevant to people starting out their “life as adults”, however they might define that. There is another genre called Young Adult, but that is mostly read by teenagers and even pre-teens, mostly girls, and has come to be dominated by certain themes, such as the paranormal, dystopian futures, and highly sex-filled (but not too graphic) edgy contemporary stories. New Adult emerges for the reader who has outgrown such fare but still wants a good book.
I’ve written two more novels since then, in the NaNoWriMos of 2010 and 2011. The latest one I may still revise and publish; the second one, I currently think, would take more of an overhaul than I feel willing to handle, my sensibilities being, as it turns out, more of a poet than a novelist.
Anyway, if you’d like to read it, you can buy it on CreateSpace or Amazon. Or you can contact me and I’ll lend you a copy. Here’s the blurb that’s on the back:
Melissa and Aaron, geeky, innocent, and introverted, independently invoke muses to help them navigate the puzzling world of career, identity, and relationships. When they meet in an acrylics class, Melissa notices that Aaron resembles the muse she conjured writing a poem—the muse that led her to take the class. Aaron, exploring his tortured internal landscape, keeps seeing Melissa there. As they strive to follow their own muses, they wonder, more and more, what that might mean with regard to each other.
My seventh book of poems, The Law of Life, is now available.
I struggle with words for this one. All the enthusiastic phrases that come to mind sound like so much advertising, and I want some way to say, no, really — this one IS special. Here’s the description that comes up on CreateSpace’s online store and on Amazon:
These poems reflect a synthesis of experience and inspiration, of love and an insatiable desire to understand. They express many dimensions of the author’s perception of the Law of Life — the primal order seen in everything. Paired with photographs taken by the author and her family members, these poems offer delightful insights into life’s intricate wonder, and the hope that comes from close observation.
All of which, I feel, is true. Somewhere in the space between the modesty my social upbringing encourages and the hype that our shopping-as-worship society demands, I commend to you my newest book. I hope you’ll read it. I hope you’ll write a review of it. I hope you’ll want to give it to all your friends.
(Clicking the image will connect you to where you can buy the book on CreateSpace. You can also buy it on Amazon, but CreateSpace gives me a better deal. If you then are motivated to go to Amazon and write a review, that would be wonderful.)
I’m eager to publish my upcoming book, The Law of Life. It delineates, poetically, what I am coming to understand, and am in awe of, about the natural laws that govern the cosmos on all scales, from stars to quarks. The book is illustrated with compelling black and white photographs taken by me, my husband, and my daughter, and it is beautiful. I keep picking it up and reading through it when I have many other things to do. It draws me in.
I’m excited to announce the publication of my newest book, Being One, Being Two — love poems. These poems make me happy because they express the quantum leaps in my experience of love that have occurred in the past few years. So I am eager to share them.
Being One, Being Two is actually two collections. Being One shares my experience of love for and in community, and Being Two shares the love in my enduring partnership with my husband.
You can see it on Amazon by clicking on the picture. Or contact me to order a signed copy directly.
I look forward to hearing from you, and sharing my new collection of poems!
Coming out soon! My sixth poetry book:
Being One, Being Two contains two collections of poetry. The first collection, Being One—love poems for community, is an extension of the exploration begun in Infinite Permission—a healing journey home. Infinite Permission chronicles the author’s journey to personal wholeness and grace; Being One is about the learning of wholeness and grace with regard to community — the practice of open-hearted love. Being Two—love poems of an enduring partnership is an extension of the topic of Capture Rapture—notes from the romance adventure. It offers glimpses into the author’s thirty-plus year relationship with her husband, with the deepening intimacy and trust that comes from a long-term commitment. Both Being One and Being Two illustrate the life-giving power of love.
Also coming soon — my first novel: Muse — Book design courtesy of my daughter Heather:
Melissa and Aaron, geeky, innocent, and introverted, independently invoke muses to help them navigate the puzzling world of career, identity, and relationships. When they meet in an acrylics class, Melissa notices that Aaron resembles the muse she conjured writing a poem—the muse that led her to take the class. Aaron, exploring his tortured internal landscape, keeps seeing Melissa there. As they strive to follow their own muses, they wonder, more and more, what that might mean with regard to each other.
And somewhat remotely in the works:
I Will Dance — a spiritual journey
Throughout human existence, dance has been an essential expression – of self, of community, of spirit. In our modern world, dance has come to mean several very different things — an art form for spectators to view; a dating activity; a venue of competition. But its elemental nature, bringing out the human spirit and bringing us together, can still be found in some places. These poems outline the author’s experience of dance as a vehicle for spiritual liberation —a way to become free of inhibitions and to become connected, through music, to the harmony of the universe and the common beating of hearts.
The line is a little bit fuzzy, but I have crossed the threshold. Yesterday I published my 1001st post. Which adds up to a few over 1000 poems posted on my blog, since its inception in January 2011.
I feel I should have a celebration of some sort. Days fall softly like blossom petals, laying down a pale and shifting carpet. Poems fall like days, in this discipline of mine. It’s easy enough to not notice a milestone.
I do at times enjoy going back through poems I’ve written, kicking them up like fallen blossoms, finding, often, that they still delight me. And periodically I collect some of them to put into a book.
I’m thinking of having a gathering to celebrate the unnoticed accumulation of a body of work that comes with consistent creative effort — of inviting everyone to stop for a moment and notice what they’ve created, and have us celebrate together. Contact me if you think it’s a good idea . . .
Wishing you all much joy in your creative endeavors —
—Wendy
Today I went into East West Bookshop to see if they would carry my books. And yes! Their book buyer, a very personable man named Pete, sat with me and looked at my collection of books. He agreed to start out with two of them, Capture Rapture and Cuddle Your Curmudgeons, because he was drawn to their artwork and their themes. The one drawback they have is that they’re not thick enough to have names on the spines, which makes them harder to display. However, Pete said he might do something with them at first to display them more visibly, especially since they could be good to feature for Valentine’s Day (my suggestion). If he sells some, he’ll get more. This will be a wonderful thing for everyone — sales for me and for the bookshop, the book and the clear conscience of buying local for you who buy. So please, my friends and supporters, go in and ask to see my books. And buy them! Thank you very much.
When I published Capture Rapture on December 30, 2012, I thought it could be a good Valentine’s gift, but I didn’t do anything to promote it as such — too involved with the learning curve around my early efforts to promote my first book, Infinite Permission, which came out in October that year.
But Valentine’s Day is coming up again, and look what a perfect gift it would be:
It’s pink. It’s about love. It’s not fattening but it is satisfying. It’s colorful and it won’t wilt. It is a good present for yourself, or for anyone who might want encouragement in their quest for romance. It could even be a good Valentine’s gift for a sweetheart, but look at it before you get it for that purpose. These are not sappy love poems. They’re poems about all aspects of the romance experience. Including rapturous union, but also including the soothing and regrouping necessary when romance is confusing. (Clicking the picture at left will take you to Amazon, where you can look at some of the poems and illustrations.)
I hope you will take a look, and let me know what you think!
I noticed that almost a year ago I said I would write something about the process I was involved in — illustrating my third book, Revolution.
Having successfully illustrated Capture Rapture (my second book), I was eager to take a break and find a collaborator for the next one. I approached Shannon Noel, a painter who also does faux walls — wonderful scenes that draw you into landscapes of the imagination. While she ended up not having time to do the illustrations for me, she sold me on the idea of giving the illustrations a story arc of their own, which would illustrate the progression of the poems more than each poem itself. This was very useful because of the nature of the poems in Revolution, many of which didn’t lend themselves to literal illustration. Also, in our talks, she keyed me in to some concepts that are basic to artists but weren’t to me — the idea of making thumbnail sketches for all the pictures, the selection of a palette of colors, the composition of a piece based on light and dark, how to create luminescence in a picture, how to study pictures to learn how to do all these things.
For Revolution, I chose the metaphor of how living things overcome manufactured structures. My set was a wall and a corner of pavement below it, and the sky above it. My characters were the things that grew up in the space over time. My medium was watercolor, cut, torn, and collaged. Here are some of the pictures:
So far in each of my three illustrating projects, I have started out feeling very daunted. Then I’ve gotten some hope and made some progress, then lurched to a stop, then overcome the hurdles and forged onward. In the end I’m satisfied with my work.