Guest Blog: Mimi Pockross

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Bonnie McCune

Author of Pulling Harvey Out of Her Hat: The Amazing Story of Mary Coyle Chase

Recently I sat in on a Zoom meeting of aspiring writers of all ages, but mostly young ones. The range in age was twenty to seventy-something and I was the seventy something. I had been invited because I had recently published a book and some were curious as to how I was able to do this. The subject for the evening was a general discussion of writers, playwrights and poets and the frustrations of trying to advance one’s career.

There were about twelve of us and the median age was around 40. The twenty-year old was a student and had to leave in the middle of the meeting to study for exams. Another was struggling to write in between taking care of her ailing spouse. Another was in between jobs after she was let go during the pandemic, and another was a wife and mother of four grown children teaching at several schools while trying to write on the side.

The complaints for all were about gender parity, ageism, writers’ block, rejections and a frustration with why they weren’t making as much money as Danielle Steele or Nora Roberts.

I looked at the shining beautiful faces of these women, and I was not at all upset that I was in my older years even though my books have never yet made the best seller list. I sympathized with their struggles. They are basically mine as well. But there was a certain acceptance on my part of my strengths and weaknesses, my successes and my limitations that I believe only comes with age. And I had very few of their obligations!

Perhaps the reason that I am relatively content is because my latest project, a book about a woman named Mary Chase who in 1945 when women were not a major part of the work force, won a Pulitzer Prize for her play about a six-foot-tall invisible rabbit named Harvey. She was 37 at the time, a wife and a mother as well. She was never able to match or exceed her initial success as a playwright, but she continued to write until she passed away at the age of 74 because she said that she always felt the most content when she was writing.

Unlike most of my peers, who have long since retired and are either on the golf course each day or by the pool, having lunch with the girls or going to book clubs, I feel the same way as Mary Chase even though my achievements are not anywhere near the ones of Mary Chase. In my old age, I still want to keep plodding along. I’m just happy that so far my health has held up and I can take daily walks, enjoy my grandchildren and have fiery political discussions with my husband at breakfast as we read our morning papers.

I shared some of my life stories with these women, and they were actually appreciative even though I was hesitant to offer them. I told them about all of my rejections before I was successful in finding a publisher. I told them about gender disparities I experienced when I was a speech and drama coach and all the sports coaches received extra stipends and I did not. And about the lack of pay for a weekly column I wrote for two and half years and for which my publisher paid me a paltry salary and offered me golf clubs instead. And I talked about the need to balance one’s life with other pleasures rather than spending every moment trying to do better.

To be appreciated for my contributions to the discussion was a great feeling and one I did not expect, the feeling that by sharing my experiences and struggles, they might actually find some comfort. I’m looking forward to hearing more about their accomplishments. And I will not be envious.

About the book: Mary Coyle Chase won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1945 for her play Harvey. She received a record million dollars from RKO Universal for the rights to make the play into a film with Jimmy Stewart that premiered in 1950 and still remains a classic today. Altogether she wrote fourteen plays, three screenplays and two award-winning children’s books. She was a delightful and funny stay-at-home Denver mom who achieved international success as a playwright and author and whose own story is one that is now about to be told. See https://mimipockross.com/books/, pockrossmimi@gmail.com, blog: thelibrafileandstyle.blogspot.com

GUEST POST: AUTHOR SUZANNE YOUNG on WRITING

Posted on July 6, 2021 by Bonnie McCune

A writing career, in my opinion, springs from a love of words and of books. I’ve been an avid reader since about the time I could hold a book and a student of the English language since my earliest school days. I was the fourth of five children in my family and mostly ignored by my older siblings as the “pesky kid sister,” so I had plenty of solitary time to spend exploring people and places between the pages of any book I could get my hands on.

Our weekends, summers and most school holidays were spent at a farm near Hope Valley, Rhode Island. The main house and outbuildings had originally been a stagecoach stop on the New London Turnpike, one of the first interstate highways in the country, built originally to link Providence and New London, Connecticut. In good weather, Mother would say, “It’s too nice a day to be inside. Go out and play.” Often, I’d take a book, find my favorite apple tree and read away the hours. Apple trees are wonderful places to hide out because you don’t have to climb down if you get hungry.

In middle school … known as “junior high” in my day … I was blessed with the most wonderful teacher for both English and History lessons. I credit Walter Blanchard for recognizing and encouraging the writer in me. He gave essay assignments to the class and selected students read their work aloud. I remember him praising one particular piece of mine as reminiscent of excerpts from “Life with Father.”

My love of Rhode Island and U.S. history came from several sources besides our old farm. Again, I am thankful for my middle school teacher who regaled his students with snippets of history that weren’t in our school books … at least not in the 1950’s … like the fact that George Washington had wooden false teeth. My father was another rich source of local history and my mother took us to many local places of interest, like Gilbert Stuart’s birthplace in Saunderstown. During the school year, we lived in an old house on Division Street, a road that divides the towns of Warwick and East Greenwich. The house was built in 1780 by Jeremiah Greene, a favorite uncle of Nathanael Greene, and served as both home and medical office. Although I didn’t appreciate its historic significance when growing up, I did know that the house was drafty with a spooky attic that smelled of dry, dusty wood and an unfinished cellar that always seemed humid and cold. If you’ve ever spent a night in a creaky old house with steam heat emitted through radiators, you can imagine “things that go bump in the night.”

I was in my thirties when I read my first Agatha Christie story and got hooked on the cozy mystery genre. By that time, I had moved to Colorado and, as fate would have it, unintentionally and unwittingly segued from a career in writing to one in computer technology. I began writing programs instead of newsletter articles, but my spare time was filled with mysteries and suspense. Shortly before I retired from the tech industry, I decided to try my hand at writing fiction in the genre I’d come to love and completely different from non-fiction and technical manuals.

I began my new career by taking short story classes and quickly learned that fiction isn’t as much about writing as about telling a story … or spinning a good yarn. Writing was the easy part; plotting a who-dun-it was the challenge.

I have just published my eighth book in the Edna Davies mystery series which is set in Rhode Island. I’ve been pleased to have my protagonist touted as a cross between Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher. My Colorado mystery, starring two elderly widows, may or may not be the beginning of another series. Time and my imagination will decide.

Blurb: Murder by Invite

Edna Davies should be planning a wedding, but when her husband is accused of murder, she drops everything to prove his innocence. With her favorite detective otherwise occupied and her usual confidant in the hospital, Edna has nobody to help her except an old rival. Confusing the situation, a woman shows up who is a dead ringer for Edna’s best friend. Nobody knows who she is or where she came from, but Edna believes she’s the eye-witness who can clear Albert’s name. As she gets ever closer to identifying the doppelganger, Edna begins to wonder if she’s hunting the killer.

Reader reviews for books in the Edna Davies mystery series:

Murder by Mishap: “Loved the characters in this book. Had some good plot twists.”

Murder by Decay: “I shared Murder by Decay with my dentist. We both got a laugh.”

Murder by Exercise:

“Each book in this set seems to be better than the one before.”

“An avid fitness nut, I often think of this book when I leave the gym. Great suspense!”

More about Suzanne Young can be found on her website: SuzanneYoungBooks.com.

Books may be purchased directly on Amazon or by clicking the link found on Young’s website.

(Please do not mistake her for another Suzanne Young who authors a young adult series that, apparently, is futuristic romantic erotica.)

THINKING ABOUT WHAT’S GONE BEFORE

Posted on November 9, 2020 by Bonnie McCune

As we live through our present, whenever that is, we tend to forget what’s gone before. Good, bad, and neutral, our pasts influence our present. Some of our changes are bad, like the COVID-19 pandemic and the major impact it’s had on our lives, our economy, and our very lifestyles. But it didn’t appear out of nowhere, nor is it the first pandemic ever to hit humanity. The plague, various versions of the flu including the 1918 Spanish variety, typhoid fever, cholera, and others were happenings we had to live through and learn from.

So, too, with social change. The recent incidents that led to Black Lives Matter, #metoo, and other movements did not occur instantaneously, like Athena springing from the forehead of Zeus. There always have been precursors leading to the development of change. We may not know of these, but they exist nonetheless.

That’s a major reason why I value fiction. It ushers us to the emotional tangle served up with mere facts. We could read treatise after book after study concerning the Vietnam war, and those numbers wouldn’t carry one-tenth of the impact of The Things They Carried. A volume on the causes and potential cures for COVID wouldn’t ring our chimes like A Year of Wonders, set in 17th century England during a plague.

So when I picked up Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, I knew I’d get a story about the African-American experience, but the actual narrative was much more than a mere tale. Dana, the 20th century protagonist, is thrown back in time to the antebellum South where her white ancestor Rufus is drowning. She saves him but then only returns home when her own life is threatened. So the pattern is set, back and forth more than a century, as Dana learns Rufus is becoming more twisted and damaged by the economic and social system of slavery than Blacks.

Butler’s genius (and she was the first science fiction author to be awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant) was to imbue her characters with true humanity. They jump off the pages and create resonations in the reader’s mind and emotions that remain far after the last page in the book is closed.

It’s strange to me to think Butler passed away years ago, way too early in her career, and now people forget or overlook the strides people like her and other advocates for social justice made. We can’t live in any time other than our own, except through our imaginations. Butler was and remains a guide for our own confused, infuriating, and at times malevolent situations. Through her writerly gifts, we can extract not only a ripping good story but also the awareness and solace of human emotions. If you haven’t sampled Butler, now might be a good time to do so.

BILINGUAL POET LAUNCHES WEBSITE WITH RESOURCES FOR ALL

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Bonnie McCune

(Guest blog by Dr. Ricardo J. Bogaert-Álvarez

I am an engineer and poet with thirty years of experience writing, publishing and teaching poetry. I’d like to introduce to you my bilingual website, . In my website you’ll find several sections: 1) poems, 2) haiku, 3) lessons, 4) publications, 5) blog and 6) about (a short biography).

In the Poems section I show several of my typical poems. Their themes range from the romantic to the political, without forgetting the erotic. Each poem shows the English and Spanish versions. In the Haiku section you’ll find several haiku and senryu I have composed with additional notes about their origins and themes. In the near future I’ll also present articles about haiku and interesting haiku from other poets.

In the Lessons section, I am presenting articles about poetic themes and forms. For example, I’m showing now the way Spanish poets count the number of syllables in their lines for their formal poems. If you ever want to properly study formal Spanish poetry, this information nugget will be very useful to you. In the future I may introduce and discuss poetic works of other poets, especially Dominicans.

In the Publications section, you’ll find the introduction to one of my four poetry books. This month I’m showing the introduction to my romantic chapbook “Not Written in the Stars.” As a matter of fact, you can obtain a free electronic copy of this book by reading this section. In the Blog you can participate with your comments.

SLOAN’S LAKE GEESE(1)
Los Gansos del Lago (2) (Traducción)
1
Lake geese, not afraid
of cars nor snow nor people
such intrepid souls
2
Intrépidos gansos del lago
ni de carros, nieve o gente
tienen miedo

Doctor Ricardo J. Bogaert-Álvarez is a Dominican-American chemical engineer and poet. He was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic and grew up in a hacienda. After he obtained his B.S. at the PCUMM in Santiago and then obtained his chemical engineering masters and PhD at the University of Delaware. He has lived in the United States since 1981 and resides in Denver with his beloved wife Laura. He has published poems in the “El Sol” newspaper, “The New Press,” the Horizons” anthology and the “American Institute of Chemical Engineers” supplement among other publications.

He has published three poetry books: 1) “The Samurai Poet,” 2) “The Mask Behind My Face” (which is available in Amazon Kindle) and more recently “The Dance of the Phoenix.” In the latter book, each poem is in Spanish and English. He presented “The Dance of the Phoenix” in five cities of Colorado and in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2019. This was followed by a tour in Dominican Republic where he presented this book in four cities during the month of March, 2020.

He is the vice president of the Columbine Poets, a poetry club at the state level in Colorado. In poetry contests of this club, he has won a third prize (2019) and an honorable mention (2015) in the formal poetry category and an honorable mention in the category of prose poem (2019). Contact information: drbogaert@gmail.com. Website https://www.drbogaert.com/

STATION ELEVEN: ANOTHER VIEW OF A PANDEMIC AND OUR FUTURE?

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Bonnie McCune

Why do we, well, really me, love apocalyptic novels? Is it because they voice our fears about our so-called civilization? Or is it because we secretly wish our society and all the crazy people and things that happen would get their comeuppance?

In any case, here’s another in the series, but one that’s stunningly well written as well as an attention-grabber. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel, published in 2014 and thrust into best-seller and best-book status, rings so true, every character—and there’s plenty of them, from an eight-year-old girl to a thumping good, evil, self-proclaimed prophet –could be your friends and neighbors.

Mandel’s fourth novel takes place primarily in the Great Lakes region after a fictional swine flu pandemic, known as the “Georgia Flu”, has devastated the world, killing most of the population. It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2015. Although critics praise the understated nature of Mandel’s writing, I think that’s a misnomer. She simply lays out the characters and plot in a realistic, matter-of-fact way, so the 300 survivors in one area who take refuge in an airport function exactly like you’d envision your friends and neighbors would.

There’s lots of action, fighting off bad guys, battling for sheer survival, but also much insightful psychological and thoughtful musings about nature and humans and the earth’s future. Mandel’s talent as a literary author is indisputable. She doesn’t consider herself a “scfi” writer, but “literary.” I hesitate to use that term because it seems to scare people. Believe me, readers will adore both the content and the style.

Perhaps I’m not panicky over our current COVID pandemic because it’s not nearly as extreme as the other dystopian novels I’ve read—Ashfall, A Journal of the Plague Year, Hunger Games, Ship Breaker, Divergent, Rule of Three. When I close the covers of a book, I return to the world in which every one I’m attached to still survives and the culture around me still has unbelievable riches and opportunities. Yet each of these volumes, and most especially Station Eleven, carries a warning not to get too comfortable. For unless we improve our ways, that world could become one I don’t want.