Chantepleure Reincarnated

I got a call from a woman at the Huron Valley Council for the Arts. She said she was calling about an author luncheon. Great! Who's the author? Well, you are. There were several more minutes of me questioning whether she had the right Linda Robinson. There is another Linda Robinson who has several books. No, she was pretty sure she wanted me and my book. I told her I could ask a couple of other real authors I know. Did you call because I'm a member of HVCA? Oh, are you? How nice! There may have been more but I'm embarrassed enough already. She named the book (pronounced it correctly) and told me what the word means. At the end of the call, I said sure, I'd be glad to participate. Then I waited for the call telling me their original choice was now back in town and said yes. Then the announcement showed up in my facebook feed, with my mug right in the center. Chantepleure was written during NaNoWriMo in 2007. 60,000 words thrown in a document. For the next year, the Sweetgrass Writers wrestled it into a story. We thought it was two books maybe. Perhaps it still is, but I'm not the dividing this after 10 years. We printed it, handed out chapters and segments to each other to edit, question, clarify and finish. Part of the ongoing endeavor was to figure out best way to get it into the hands of readers. I don't remember if it was submitted to traditional publishers: I doubt it. I'd gone through that years before with children's books I wrote and illustrated, only to find that traditional publishers don't want authors illustrating their books. They want their illustrators. Most authors don't ever meet the people who draw their stories. So, we self-published. Lulu for a printed book (very expensive still) and Smashwords later for an ebook. I filed the book with the Library of Congress, had our local librarian stick it on Ingram (where libraries can order) and then forgot about it. I wrote Chantepleure to bring to life a closed, boarded-up shop in our little town. The Artcraft Shop had lived as a bits and bobs arty store. I still have a couple of packages my mother bought there. The Artcraft Shop was in a series of decrepit storefronts that included the South Lyon Herald offices on one corner. The Herald moved out and Grande Trunke moved in. High end home decorating. Kathleen's was a nice clothing store on the opposite end, and then the whole block was bought and Kathleen was forced out by 200% increase in rent. That became a remodeling company. An auto paint store opened in the middle. Then The Artcraft Shop was rented, renovated and lives now as The Lemon Tree. I also wrote Chantepleure to gather my dead friends in one place, so I could visit with them again. This surprise reincarnation of Chantepleure fits beautifully with the restored Artcraft Shop. My friends are content.

The Artcraft Shop

I'm mesmerized by this building. It captivated me the first time I saw it in downtown South Lyon. My mother bought some items when it was open - wooden beads and eyes for making felt reindeer recently found unused in her sewing box. The shop was an art/craft supply. Great name. Beautiful sign. Charming building. Magical presence. The shop has been abandoned and neglected for years. The city cites the owner, and the owner continues to pay the taxes and ignore the rest. There is a toilet in the middle of a room; the ceiling is falling in at the top of the stairs. The brick just under the roofline needs tucking. I used to stare through the tattered curtains and imagine the shop loved back to life, the bell over the door tinkling as guests arrive and depart. The window I could see through, and daydream around, is now boarded. The Celtic knot plaster work on either side of the recessed doorway is crumbling. My novel, Chantepleure, is about life changing events. And rebirth. The Artcraft Shop is a featured player in the story: I brought it back to life fictionally. It would be wonderful if The Artcraft Shop could truly be reborn. If you'd like to read Chantepleure, write me here and I'll send you a coupon for a free digital book via Smashwords. You might just love The Artcraft Shop back to life for real.

Operation eBook Drop

Edward C. Patterson, an author and Vietnam veteran, has partnered with Smashwords in creating a website called Operation eBook Drop which allows authors to post their free ebooks for download by military personnel. You can upload your book on Smashwords, and become an Operation eBook Drop affiliate with a few clicks. If your book is for sale, you simply create a coupon on the Smashwords site giving 100% discount to our good people in uniform. I did this with my book and then wrote to a friend that young people in the field aren't going to be interested in a book about 60 year old women, but she wrote quickly back "they all have moms." If you have a children's book, this might be a terrific opportunity for a soldier in the field to share a story with their children, even from a great distance. Do some good today, authors and publishers! Share your stories. The words on the digital device in this illustration are from "Four Little Sailors" by Bill Staines, on The Happy Wanderer CD. It's a delightful song about the adventures to be enjoyed in reading. Happy wandering!

Chantepleure Digital 75% Off in July!

Chantepleure is on sale at 75% off in the month of July at Smashwords. Only $2.50. As I am behind myself, as well as beside myself, we're already gobbling up the days in July. There are thousands of books participating in the July sale so do click and browse. Chantepleure (pronounced shant-pluray) means to sing and weep at the same time. It's a lovely word, and although it may not be possible to sing and cry simultaneously, we women manage to pull that off just as we do most impossible things. My new favorite quotation is Rita O'Grady being interviewed in Made in Dagenham. A male reporter asks her (a striking Ford worker who has just declared the 187 women will stay out until equal pay is gained), "how will you cope?" Rita turns her head and raises an eyebrow. "Cope? How will we cope? We are women. Now don't ask such stupid questions." Chantepleure is about three women friends in their 60s who have been friends all their lives. It is fictionalized reality, as friend Rosemary calls it. Only the names have been...well, juggled to celebrate the warriors turning elders. These are my friends, my life; your friends, your life. We sing. We weep. We cope. A woman at one of my book signings laid her hand on the book, looked at me over the top of her reading glasses. "Books today," she announced, "have too much sex." I laid my hand on the book next to the book she touched. "There is, in my book, no sex at all," I said, looking over the top of my glasses, "because quite simply I don't remember how it goes."

Women's History Month: Women Friends

I posted a drawing of my great-grandmother Mariah earlier. She was born in 1876, and I looked for historical context. It was the Victorian Age in Europe. Finland established the first women's gymnastics club. On 4 July, 1876, Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States was published, while the 14th Amendment was passed defining citizens as "male." Were Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton friends? Colleagues of course. Who was Madame Curie's best friend? Did Sofia Brahe have a woman friend? Who were Sojourner Truth's friends? Did my great-grandmother or grandmother have women friends in Finland? Toni Morrison writes that her book "Sula" was the first book about women's friendship - published in 1973. I listened to "Mondays with Marlo" yesterday. Marlo's guest was Gloria Steinem. The two are friends, they looked happy to be together. My women friends are who keep us healthy and in harmony; they are joy sharers, balancers, love practitioners, divas of selective forgetfulness, extraordinary huggers, goddesses of forgiveness. Do my sisters have close women friends? My father's mother, Dinah, lost her best friend Ruth when the Titanic hit an iceberg. She mourned the loss, and with grief and joy, named her firstborn daughter Ruth. I recently read "Let's Take the Long Road Home" by Gail Caldwell about her friendship with Caroline Knapp, and shared it with my friends. "Truth and Beauty: A Friendship" by Ann Patchett is about her friendship with Lucy Grealy. Then I read Lucy Grealy's "Autobiography of a Face," and her years of no friends seared my heart. My book "Chantepleure" is about - and orchestrated by - lifelong women friends; designed and brought to life by my best friend Beckie. We introduced each other to people as "my best friend in the whole wide world." Now we're friends in the cosmos, until we meet in the next wide world of best friends.

Up North Weekend

The Sweetgrass Writers traveled to the Upper Peninsula last weekend, our first trip as a group, and - for many of us - the first Up North With The Girls excursion.

We had a special time. Friday was Sharon's birthday, and everyone but Rosemary forgot. We stopped at a roadside market, and Geri and Nancy had the owner make a birthday bouquet of sunflowers and cosmos that shared the table with us all weekend.

Friday lunch was shared at the park by the Mackinac Bridge under an azure sky with the sound of water slapping the shore, and bridge traffic humming nearby, while the seagulls squawked without success to be thrown some salmon.

We stopped at Timberdoodle Mercantile in Detour, MI and met Jan Kellis, author of "Bookworms Anonymous: A Non-Traditional Book Club for All Readers" and Jan agreed to swap her book for Chantepleure. "Bookworms Anonymous" stayed on the dining room table, and we picked it up, read, laughed and shared through the weekend.

A new fawn greeted us on the road to the cabin on Drummond Island, standing in the road, wondering what strange blue animal was in its path. We waited until she scampered away, off to enjoy her own weekend in the woods.

Saturday was a perfect late summer day, and we wandered around the Island after breakfast, journaled in the sun at Big Shoal Bay, visited the Old Cabin Gift Shop, walked around and took pictures of Uncle Tom's cabin (my grandmother's brother, Toivo). The cabin was constructed with dovetail joins. No nails involved, and it's still standing.

Nancy hadn't had a grilled meal all summer, so we planned to cook out on Saturday night. What luck that the IGA had seafood and steaks on sale. We dined on T-bones, corn on the cob, and crab legs with melted butter. Sharon brought wine from her niece's Michigan winery. Delicious!

Sunday we took turns driving back home, still laughing, relaxed and glad to have this beautiful State and terrific companions to share Up North Weekends.