I figured what could be better than to start the new year with a guest blog by my great friend and brilliant author, Tanya Egan Gibson. Thank you, Tanya, for helping make 2010 a very interesting year to look forward to. My advice – read my review - then read her book.

On Meta-Memoir 

Halfway into writing an essay about your mother’s carefully crafted thank-you notes–the handwritten and heartfelt kind that seem to have gone the way of the mastodon–you find yourself stuck.  Perhaps you’re worrying that nobody else in the world could possibly care about this story, or that you won’t be able to properly convey the nuances of your mother’s motivations.  Or perhaps you’re finding yourself revealing more emotion or truth than you’re really comfortable with–you actually resented the time she took writing those notes when she could have been helping you with your homework/Home Ec project/boy problems.  As you ruminate about how difficult it is to tell this story, a thought strikes you: Why not tell a story about trying to tell this difficult story? 

It’s Genius, you think. You will write about disconnection–about how hard it is to be a writer who is supposed to make strangers feel things about events and people the aforementioned strangers really have no reason to care about.  Like thank-you notes.  And that velour shirt for Home Ec that was missing a sleeve.

 And wait, there’s more!  Why not go even a step further and comment upon writing this story about not writing a story about your mother, narrating every moment of your writing the not-story, employing a Twitter-esque present-tense hyperconsciousness?  As in, I keep looking back at the last paragraph, the dangling preposition taunting me, but I force myself to type onward.

 Clever you.  Meta- you.  Are you feeling the heart of your story?

 By meta-, I mean writing does not encourage the reader to experience a waking dream–in fact, it keeps telling the reader, “This is just a dream.”  The writer may wax self-referential (”I am writing about writing about writing”).  He or she may employ devices normally reserved for non-narrative nonfiction (e.g., footnotes which themselves extend the narrative or even take over the narrative).  He or she might play with the structure of the narrative to make the form of the narrative as important as/more an important than its content. (Imagine the thank-you note essay structured as a thank-you note to mom.)

 It’s cool.  It’s fun.  It can be stunning, when pulled off subtly, rather than like the hyperbolic examples I gave above.  As a reader and writer of meta-fiction, however, I have a love/hate relationship with the stuff–because it can also be an excuse for heartlessness.

 Though I don’t write memoir, I do read it.  I read for emotional reasons as much as for intellectual ones.  Perhaps, to be honest, even more so.  I read to feel like I’m not alone in the world.  I read to understand what goes in the heads of people I might never meet, or I might be afraid to meet, or I might be afraid wouldn’t like me if we did meet.  I read to connect.

 Good writing is honest and brave (and by “honest and brave,” I don’t mean you tell-all).  To be brave, I think, is to embrace emotion rather than skirting it.  When I’m reading something self-referential, I hope to find a “self” nurtured by meta-devices rather than obscured by them–as in Dave Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, whose manifold footnotes seek to engage the heart instead of distance it, or Stephen Elliott’s highly acclaimed The Adderall Diaries (which I put on my wish list). 

It is lovely to be clever, and it is lovely to behold cleverness.  But as Egger’s work implies, genius and heart are often at odds, even as they inhabit the same ironic title.  And in the end, I’ll take “heartbreaking” over “genius.”

 Bio: Tanya Egan Gibson is the author of How To Buy a Love of Reading– a novel that may or may not be considered meta-fiction (and that may or may not satirize meta-fiction)–about nouveau riche parents who try to cure their teenage daughter’s hatred of books by commissioning a custom-written novel for her.  She’d love if you visited the book’s site at http://www.howtobuyaloveofreading.com and shared your own story about how reading changed (or even saved) your life.

This little turkey is taking a good look at all the reasons I have for GivingThanks. I won’t subject you to my thankfulness list, but I’m asking you to gather your thoughts about your loved ones and thank them for all they’ve given you throughout the years. Maybe you’ll thank them openly around the bountiful Thanksgiving table; better yet, put your thanks in writing.

 WRITING MEMOIRS THAT CAPTURE THE CHARACTER & SPIRIT OF LOVED ONES IS THE ULTIMATE WAY TO SAY THANK YOU.

Will you let your “loved ones” simply be forgotten? Will you make sure that doesn’t happen? “If you don’t write it down, it will be gone. Wouldn’t that be a shame?” Writing memoirs about significant people in your life will be one of the most exhilarating encounters you’ll ever experience. And what writing a memoir will be for you is absolutely unique. There is no one else who has your particular memories, your familiarity or understanding of the people, places, incidents, and events that you will portray in writing. Most importantly, there is not a soul on earth who has your voice – let it ring clear and true.

HONOR, REMEMBER, RESPECT, & RECOGNIZE OTHERS. The focus of TellTale Souls memoirs will be people who hold significant places in your life. Have you ever actually stopped to think about who they really are as individuals, as people unto themselves? What aspect of their being, what quality, action, or anecdote could you draw upon to bring the essence of their character to light in a short memoir, a bio-vignette, which would give someone reading your story a pretty good idea of what they are/were like as seen through your eyes?

At times they are mysterious, other times transparent. But of this you can be sure, they are not the same people to anyone other than you. For our purposes here, we’re not going to get philosophical, and we’ll leave the psychoanalysis to the docs. Their characters are multifaceted, their inner make up complex, but for you there are certain aspects of their spirit that stand out, those qualities through which their character comes to life.

What do you most want remembered about significant people in your life so that generations from now others will get a glimpse of them through the memoir you write now? Which significant parts of their character seem to be theirs and theirs alone?  Seize that little gem you’ve conjured up in your mind’s eye. Take hold of it, round it out, and polish it as you develop it into a true story that captures their character and spirit.    

Capturing the essence of the character of significant people can be daunting, but another way to think of it is that this is your opportunity to let them know that you find it valuable to take the time to look at them as individuals – there’s no better gift or no better way for you to honor them than to write a true tale capturing their character and spirit on the written page.

Give the Gift of Story to preserve the spirits of people you want remembered for generations to come. How will your great grandchildren get a glimpse of the treasures or mysteries you know and feel about them if you don’t safeguard them with a bio-vignette that only you can write?

4 Reasons to Tap Memory & Write Memoir: Give the Gift of Story

1.  Keep spirits alive. There is nothing like paying tribute to a loved one with a simple written record. A photograph captures a look at best, whereas a bio-vignette captures character and spirit. 

2.  Discover the secrets of men and women from different walks of life. Possibilities for embracing life unfold before us when we read true stories about people from a background different from our own. Shared wisdom compels compassion, understanding, and unity. 

3.  Create catharsis. The outcome of writing a short, true story about loved ones often results in emotional or psychological healing, when the relationship between the you and this significant person was at times difficult or rocky. 

4.  Become richer from the experience of actually writing a bio-vignette. Those of us who have embarked on this journey reach the other side more thoughtful, more knowing, and   more satisfied.

The Story Woman asks you to write a bio-vignette in Thanksgiving to show you remember the reasons you’re thankful for a significant person touching your life.

We may not need a “study” to tell us we will be healthier and happier if we surround ourselves with family and friends who are happy, but the following article is a good reminder.

Remember when we were kids and we sang, “If you’re happy and you know, then your face will surely show it?”

Smile and read on…

Good health can be both the cause and consequence of being happy. That’s why two pioneering scientists wanted to see if they could actually measure how happiness works in groups. What they discovered took everyone by happy surprise — the happiness of others, even those you don’t know, has a direct influence on your happiness.

The coauthor of this novel study on happiness, James Fowler, PhD, told me how the research was done. First his team combed through the records of 5,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study, many of whom had identified one another as spouses, friends or neighbors. His team established a happiness baseline for these participants by checking their periodic answers to questions regarding their happiness over the past 20 years (1983 to 2003). Then they used a sophisticated statistical analysis tool to create a map of social connections among the initial 5,000 and other participants within the Framingham study. It showed how one person’s happiness rippled like a network, creating a cascade of happiness that increased the likelihood of others being happy too.

They discovered that there were various degrees of influence depending on the degree of social connection and that it was quite predictable. For example, within your social network, the happiness of someone with whom you have frequent and regular personal contact, called an immediate social contact (for instance, your spouse or closest nearby friend), increases the likelihood of your happiness by an average of 15%. The happiness of a second-degree contact (for instance, your closest friend’s spouse) increases your chances for happiness by 10%, while the happiness of a third-degree contact (your closest friend’s friend’s friend) increases it by 6%. In other words, your happiness is directly influenced by strangers.

MORE SPECIFIC LEARNINGS FROM THE HAPPINESS STUDY

• Proximity is key. The closer your happy friends and family live to you, the greater the probability that their happiness will affect you. For example, the happiness of your next door neighbor is more influential than the happiness of a neighbor who lives down the street.

• More social connections adds to your happiness. The bigger your social network of nearby happy friends and family, the greater the likelihood of your happiness.

• Unhappy people cluster together in unhappy networks. As the saying goes, misery loves company.

• Whether or not you were happy in the past and whether your social contacts are happy are more important predictors of happiness than your income, gender or education.

• Happiness is more powerful than unhappiness. The happiness of a friend increases the probability of your happiness by 9%… while his unhappiness decreases the chances of your happiness by only 7%.

• It’s not fleeting. The impact of another’s happiness on your happiness lasts about a year, on average, before fading.

HAPPINESS 2.0: ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Dr. Fowler and his coauthor Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, are now looking at the question of whether happiness spreads the same way via the Internet, specifically using the Facebook network. They assumed that those who posted smiling pictures of themselves with smiling friends were happy. Since Facebook automatically tags or uploads your photos to those registered as your “friends,” they were able to trace the paths of these happy pictures. They found that smiling friends had photos of other smiling friends and so on and so on. (People who didn’t smile in their photos, didn’t have photos with friends who smiled, who in turn also didn’t have photos of smiling friends.) Again — happiness begets happiness and the same goes for unhappiness. Next they’ll study how contagious online happiness turns out to be.

REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE

Dr. Fowler himself has been moved by his findings. “I think our study shows that the best thing we can do for ourselves is to connect to friends and family,” says Dr. Fowler. “I have been personally affected by the study — I have now seen the evidence that my happiness potentially ripples out and touches the lives of dozens or even hundreds of other people. In this very challenging time, creating a ripple of happiness can result in a tidal wave of change.”

Source: 

James H. Fowler, PhD, professor of political science, University of California-San Diego.

The Story Woman says writing memoir makes TellTale Souls happier people for having taken the time to look an important person square in the face and write a bio-vignette capturing their character and spirit..

The Story Woman stirs the cauldron.

A friend called asking me if I were giving my “Tap Memoir & Write Memoir” workshop at Book Passage on November 1^st because it was All Saints Day. Well, no. That timing had never occurred to me, but it’s an interesting tie, and it provoked a good chuckle between us.

Many people are dwelling on Halloween this weekend: witches on broomsticks silhouetted by the moon – black cat, as faithful companion, along for the ride; monsters and superheroes; and ghouls, werewolves, and vampires. I know Macbeth doesn’t have anything to do with Halloween, but ever since I was one of the three Witches, just a ‘few’ years ago in our high school rendition of this Shakespearean tragedy, I find myself each Halloween reciting,

“Double, double, toil and trouble,

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing –

For a charm of pow’rful trouble

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”

Back to All Saints Day: My passion in encouraging and teaching folks to Give the Gift of Story by “Keeping Spirits Alive One Story at a Time” is all about writing a short, true tale that captures the character and spirit of their mothers’ or another person significant in their lives, as no photograph could ever do.

It is not about memorializing our mothers or others as “saints,” by any stretch of the imagination. The main characters in our bio-vignettes often come with warts and wrinkles rather than haloes and wings.  I’ve listened to and read many a story where, from the daughters’ memories, one would think their mothers vamped the blood right out of them. However, 90% of the bio-vignettes in my TellTale Souls collection are heartfelt slices of life. Anyway you look at it, through the dark, the light, and the gray shades, memoirs connect us with the truth about what it means to be human.

Here is a portion of the Wikipedia article on All Saints Day: The feast of All Saints achieved great prominence in the ninth century, in the reign of the Byzantine Emperor, Leo VI “the Wise” (886–911). His wife, Empress Theophano—commemorated on December 16—lived a devout life. After her death, her husband built a church, intending to dedicate it to her. When he was forbidden to do so, he decided to dedicate it to “All Saints,” so that if his wife were in fact one of the righteous, she would also be honored whenever the feast was celebrated.

Now is the time to remember and recognize, with a Gift of Story, a significant person in your life: Tap Memory & Write Memoir.

All Saints Day workshop at Book Passage with The Story Witch.

You may also purchase Give the Gift of Story: TellTale Souls’ Essential Guide to Tap Memory & Write Memoir at Book Passage, Corte Madera.

Sign up for the class at Book Passage

Book Passage to host three outstanding

Women’s National Book Association authors

C.W. Gortner, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, and Tanya Egan Gibson

for our 3^rd annual National Reading Group Month Event

The San Francisco chapter of Women’s National Book Association is proud to announce a special event at Book Passage’s Corte Madera location, celebrating National Reading Group Month this October. Please join us for this exceptional reading group of three authors, all local members of Women’s National Book Association: C.W. Gortner (The Last Queen), Kathi Kamen Goldmark (And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You), and Tanya Egan Gibson (How to Buy a Love of Reading).

C.W. Gortner will bring insight into his intriguing and highly adventurous historical novel, The Last Queen, and what’s next from him. Kathi will read about one fabulous character (her health-food-obsessed mom, Betty) from both a fictional and a nonfiction perspective. Kathi warns, “Bring your own wheat grass juice.” Tanya will read and talk about writing her critically acclaimed debut novel, How to Buy a Love of Reading, where you’re sure to fall in love with reading all over again. We aren’t suggesting the love of reading is something to be bought, but we know you’ll be inspired to buy these authors’ praise-worthy books.

The Women’s National Book Association launched National Reading Group Month in October of 2007 to celebrate the organization’s ninetieth birthday. This year, WNBA will continue its tradition of promoting women and the book and literacy in general by hosting events in their chapter cities: Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

WNBA-SF is a non-profit organization that fosters professional development and exposure of our members through a variety of book-related programs, workshops, and hands-on opportunities to make valuable contacts and connections that are beneficial at any stage of one’s career. WNBA-SF is part of a National network promoting the value of books and reading since 1917 throughout ten chapters stretching from coast to coast. Annual Membership is $45.

Many thanks to our partner for this event, Whole Foods Market, for providing specialty foods.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Kathi Kamen Goldmark is the author of And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, a novel; co-author of The Great Rock & Roll Joke Book, and Mid-Life Confidential: the Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude; and has contributed essays to several anthologies—including Feed Me! (edited by Harriet Brown). With her husband, Sam Barry, she writes a monthly aspiring-writer-advice column in BookPage called “The Author Enablers.” A 2007 San Francisco Library Laureate and winner of the 2008 National Women’s Book Association award, Kathi is the founder and a member of the all-author rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders, president and janitor of “Don’t Quit Your Day Job” Records, Author Liaison for many high-profile literary events—including Book Group Expo and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library annual Laureates Dinner—and the producer of the nationally-distributed radio show West Coast Live.

Tanya Egan Gibson was born and raised on Long Island’s south shore, the“Egg”-less side of the island Fitzgerald didn’t write about. She earned a B.A. in English from Cornell University and an M.A. from the University of Washington. She began writing How to Buy a Love of Reading ten years ago, while teaching high school English. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children.

C. W. Gortner is the author of The Last Queen (Ballantine Books). This book takes a look at the life of Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country’s throne, and it is highly praised by Publisher’s Weekly. Half-Spanish by birth, Gortner holds an M.F.A. in writing, with an emphasis on historical studies, from the New College of California and has taught university courses on women of power in the Renaissance. He was raised in Málaga, Spain, and now lives in California. He is currently at work on his next book, which is about Catherine de Medici and will be released by Ballantine Books in 2010.

Kathi Kamen Goldmark

Tanya Egan Gibson

CW Gortner

Women’s National Book Association – San Francisco

National Reading Group Month

The Story Woman asks you to write a bio-vignette capturing the character and spirit of a significant person in your life and become a TellTale Soul.

Today I’m posting a guest blog by Laura McHale Holland because she has so much to share with us. Suicide is something hard for most of us to talk about. We don’t want to even go there – especially when it involves the mother of young children. I appreciate Laura’s honesty, and I am sorry for her pain, although I cannot know what she feels. Her poignant mother memoir speaks for itself. 

 I was a two year old waddling behind my sisters when we came home from a neighbor’s Halloween party and found our mother hanging from a basement beam. Several decades later, I wrote a memoir, Reversible Skirt, about my formative years. Except for the epilogue, the book is written from a child’s point of view. My objectives were to give voice to a little girl whose very identity was stolen by events following my mother’s demise and to enable readers to experience what it was like to grow up in the shadow of such a tragedy.

 Except for my sisters, I don’t know women whose mothers committed suicide, leaving a gaggle of preschoolers behind to grow up with a void where a mother’s love should have been. But I’m sure I’ve met a number of them over the course of my life. I may even be acquainted with such a woman right now.

 And therein lies the rub.

 We who share this terrible sisterhood tend to keep it hidden. The subject of suicide brings up strong feelings not just for the person who broaches the subject, but also for those listening. To merely tell the truth about my mother means I have to consider not just my own emotions, but also the discomfort it stirs up in those I tell. As a child, this was not something I could handle. Being secretive became habitual.

 Which brings me to my silent mother, Mary Agnes, whom I knew throughout my childhood as a black and white photograph on top of my grandfather’s bedroom dresser. With her suicide, she slammed an impenetrable door in my face. On this side are questions without answers reverberating endlessly, leaving slivers in my soul, festering too far beneath the surface to reach. Suicide. What a cowardly act, I think, but then I reproach myself for my lack of compassion. I know not the extent of my mother’s misery; I cannot judge; she left no note, no clues.

 Some wise people say we should be grateful for all the experiences life has brought us—good and bad. I am grateful that my mother gave me life and that she didn’t decide to take my sisters and me with her into death. But the fact of her leaving with such force and permanence, no, that’s still not cool with me.

 And I fear that when my book is published, I’ll be doing a meet and greet in a bookstore someday, or visiting a book group, and I’ll feel off key as a read a passage or two and answer questions. Why dredge all this up when life in the present is so good? I’ll wonder. I hope that when those feelings hit me I’ll remember how writing that book set the lost girl inside of me free, and it is her mission to speak to the hearts of those kind enough to listen to the story of one long-ago abandoned child.

 Maybe her story will help some future parent discard the thought of suicide should it come to mind during a particularly trying time. And who knows? Maybe on the other side of that door, my mother will be listening too, for, you see, I know the door will never open, but I will forever be longing to connect.

 Thank you, Lynn, for asking me to join the conversation at The Story Woman blog. 

Laura McHale Holland is a writer, editor and occasional storyteller living and working amid the beauty of Sonoma County, Calif. Her memoir, Reversible Skirt, is under contract with RockWay Press. For more information, please visit http://lauramchaleholland.com.

The Story Woman encourages all daughters and sons to write a “Mother Memoir” to become TellTale Souls.

Update: Some people are emailing their comments, so that works, too, if you’d rather: lynn(at)telltalesouls(dot)com.

Tell me how Using COMMON SENSE Makes Perfect Sense

THE STORY WOMAN’S TWO-PART COMMON SENSE CONTEST 

Social, Intellectual, Religious, Political– you name it!

Winner of Part 1 receives my “how-to” book, Give the Gift of Story: TellTale Souls’ Essential Guide to Tap Memory & Write Memoir in Five Acts, since learning to capture the character of a loved one in story makes Perfect Sense.

Winner of Part 2 receives $25 USD from The Story Woman™, since my Common Sense tells me people like cash; it’s as simple as that.

Threads of Common Sense run throughout the Mother Memoirs of TellTale Souls, but collecting pieces, examples, or bits of Common Sense is not the purpose of the bio-vignettes that daughters and sons write about their mothers.   However, the purpose of this contest is to do just that.

This is a very simple contest with very simple rules because it’s all about Common Sense. What could be simpler than to use Common Sense when going about our daily lives? When interacting with others, employing critical thinking, finding solutions to problems, figuring out which path to take, teaching children right from wrong, or deciding to spend money or save it using Common Sense makes Perfect Sense.

 EXAMPLES OF COMMON SENSE, some of which have become cliché:

• Borrowing money from a friend could end the friendship
• If you don’t want a speeding ticket, don’t drive over the speed limit
• Stay alive, don’t drink and drive
• If you don’t have the money to pay for something, don’t charge it
• What you show or tell on the internet will follow you forever
• Wear layers of clothing if you’re visiting San Francisco any time of year
• Don’t be duped by politicians, think for yourself
• Don’t jump off a bridge just because your friends are jumping off

And don’t think too hard about what is meant by the term Common Sense; we’re not going to get philosophical, scientific, or psychological here. This contest is to have fun by sharing our Common Sense.

Rules for Common Sense Contest Part 1 & 2 are easy:

Part 1   Send the best piece or most interesting bit of Common Sense you have. Simply enter your comment below.

Part 2   For a chance to win $25 USD you’ll have to work a little harder.  Write an essay of no more than 500 words using your interesting bit on Common Sense combined with the 5-Ws:

1. Who gave you that piece of Common Sense
2. What good has come from using Common Sense
3. When did you last use Common Sense
4. Where could we use more Common Sense in today’s world
5. Why is it important/valuable to use Common Sense

Simply enter your essay in comments below.

I know the value of collect and using Common Sense, so this contest will run until we have 50 legitimate responses. After the 50 are in, the entries will be judged by The Story Woman and friends, the winners will be announced, and the prizes sent.

More thoughts:

• You can also write about what you wish you’d been taught about Common Sense AND why it would have benefitted you
• Where did you get your common sense (mother, father, teach, etc.)
• Essays on importance of common sense
• Essays on positive examples of using common sense
• Ethnicity & common sense
• Age & common sense
• Do our politicians use common sense
• Consequences of not having/using common sense
• Do we use common sense today, if not, why not
• Does our educational system encourage common sense – or just the opposite
• More ideas from you…

NOTE: By commenting and/or sending replies to this contest, you automatically give The Story Woman™ Blog and Lynn Henriksen the right to use what you say for publication, promotion, or as she sees fit. If you don’t want your name to be used, say so. We respect your privacy: your email address will not be sold or given away.

I was lured into Blair Kilpatrick’s memoir, Accordion Dreams: A Journey into Cajun and Creole Music, the moment I saw the charming cover depicting a happy little girl holding her accordion, although I was surprisingly unprepared for the extent of the adventure she’d lead me on in this extraordinary musical memoir.

Before I even opened the book, a small voice in the recesses of my mind encouraged me to find my BeauSoleil album, Bayou Cadillac, which I hadn’t listened to for ages. Find it I did, and as the first beats of Bon Temps Rouler resounded,  I settled back in a comfortable chair and darn near didn’t get up until I’d read this entire, enchanting book.

To my delight, within the first dozen pages, Kilpatrick talked about how she had excitedly ripped the plastic from her newly purchased BeauSoleil cassette, which shows off the battered red Cadillac convertible, upended in a swamp. Now the hook in me worked itself deeper and deeper. Her compelling, obsessive journey into Cajun-Creole music progressed with her quest to learn to play the accordion, and pay it well, after she fell in love with all things relating to Louisiana’s famous folksingers and musicians, whose French lyrics tell stories through song and melodies merge souls through accordion, fiddle, guitar, and triangle.

In, what I consider a love story, Kilpatrick shares the secrets she learned from the fathers of this genre from learning to play “by ear” to knowing you must practice a tune 100,000 times, if you want to succeed.  From her illuminating prose, I now understood more of the nuances of this music I love. I learned to hear the fiddles talk in their call-and-response style and to feel the easy contracting and expanding bellows of the accordions, as those who played their pearly keys lead the tunes.  Moreover, the commanding personalities of the giants of Cajun-Creole music came to life as Kilpatrick peeled back the layers of developing friendships with her friendly, though passionate, conversational style of writing.

Kilpatrick had me “vibrating in some kind of universal rhythm lock” by the end of the book; and by then, too, I wanted to play in her band, Sauce Piquante, even though I know how to play not a one of those beckoning instruments.  She has a way of expressing in writing exactly what I think I’d feel if I had been so fortunate as to have taken this journey into the heart of Cajun-Creole music.

She even includes a ‘mother memoir’ within her Accordion Dreams memoir, when in chapter fifteen she gives us a look at the women in her Eastern European family, as her “mother laughed and cried as the memories came back.” For me, that’s the beauty of writing ‘mother memoir’ because you can’t help but be taken back to your beginnings, just as Kilpatrick couldn’t help but be taken back to the roots of Cajun music. “And you find yourself back at the beginning, at the place where you began.”

I fell in love completely with the “laughter and tears, love and loss.  Holding on and letting go. The mysterious dance of memory linking past and present – and carrying us forward, into the days ahead.”  The resonance of Accordion Dreams: A Journey into Cajun and Creole Music will stay with me for a lifetime.

Link to Blair Kilpatrick

The Story Woman asks men and women to write  bio-vigettes capturing the character and spirit of their mothers to join the ranks of TellTale Souls.

I’m posting this book review on an historical novel by C.W. Gortner because I think The Last Queen is a great read and highlights the difficulties women have had throughout history attempting to be taken seriously whether they are royalty or not.  Gortner will be honored this October 15th at an event for National Reading Group Month by Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter. See links below for more information.

Juana’s courage, strength, and passion amazed me as The Last Queen came of age so vividly under C.W. Gortner’s admirable pen. This historical novel is fraught with crushing battles of power and chilling intrigue throughout the courts of her parents, Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, and of her husband, Philip of Flanders, as the Infanta of Spain attempts to take her rightful place on the thrown she inherited from her mother.

My soul was struck as I witnessed, through Gortner’s well paced story, the agony Juana endured as her faithless husband raped her night after night, as she was forced to leave her first born behind in Flanders and another child taken from her breast by her father to raise as his own, and as she ultimately succumbed to the captivity that often befell women of royalty in those times. Had she been driven mad by her treacherous husband and her scheming, duplicitous father as they vied for her position or had Juana la Loca, as she came to be known, been wrongly labeled and shut away by the two men she learned to loathe?

That question is one for which we don’t have an answer, but I felt compelled to honor her sanity and believe she would overcome the perils in her path to rule over the people of her beloved Spain.  Her fate was sealed in loneliness and sorrow with no escape. I felt her loss as well as my own.

Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco October 15th event. Our partner, Whole Foods Mill Valley, is graciously supplying specialty foods to promote “Shared Reading.”

C. W. Gornter

Two other fabulous authors will also be reading for this event: Tanya Egan Gibson, How to Buy a Love of Reading, and Kathi Kamen Goldmark, And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You.

The Story Woman asks men and women to write a bio-vignette about a loved one to become a TellTale Soul.