Of Plot, Nouns and Verbs…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, Musings
According to plot guru, Martha Alderson, plot can be viewed as either a noun or verb. She states: “Plot as noun encompasses every element of a story. Plot as verb allows conscious development of those elements.”
I invite you to visit her blog, and to follow her on Twitter. Her daily Tweets are gems of gold. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: author, beginning, Blockbuster plots, end, guru, Martha Alderson, middle, nouns, novel, plot, scenes, structure, The Writing Salon, Tweets, Twitter, verbs, writer
Why Do I Write & What Is My Process–by Emily Kennedy
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Why Do I Write & What Is My Process, anjuellefloyd.com
I come from a family of writers, though none of them knew it. They hid their thoughts, so eloquently expressed in letters packed carelessly in cardboard boxes and stashed in a hot and dusty attic. I found these letters from the twenties, forties, fifties when I was settling my aunt’s estate. They were there with my own, the ones I sent her throughout my childhood. I was faithful if not completely in command of my words then. I can tell that I tried to sound literary, even when describing a trip to the movies or a problem with my sister. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: attic, computer, Emily Kennedy, letters, Monet, Muses, writers, writing
Radio Show | Eric Jerome Brown
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Author, producer, and documentary film maker, Eric Jerome Brown, discusses his novella, Miss Sue Lucky’s Fishin’ Secrets.
Tags: author, documentary film maker, Eric Jerome Brown, Miss Sue's Lucky Fishin Secrets, novella, producer
…the writing life… | “Bollywood, The Hijinks of Thrillers, and Definition…”
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under ...the writing life..., Musings
I am always amazed how much screen time Bollywood movies donate to establishing and clarifying family relations of the film’s protagonist compared to the nil to absent mention of family connections in American movies.
The protagonist of an American made movie can be undergoing the direst and most despairing of circumstances and the screenplay makes no mention of mother, father, sister, or brother. Often very little time or explanation is given to the ex-spouse or ex-significant other, unless she or he is central to the plot.
Where Bollywood movies perhaps overdramatize the gifts and goodness of family, American theater emphasizes the need to break away and discover who one truly is. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: ambition, america, American cinema, Antonya Nelson, Bollywood, children, dreams, family, fantasy, hope, human relationships, individual, life, marriage, meaning, movies, plot, protagonist, purpose, spouse, story, thriller, wishes
Katherine Harms–writer aboard S/Y No Boundaries
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Why Do I Write & What Is My Process, anjuellefloyd.com
When I first began writing, I wanted to write, because I wanted to have published something.
In 2000, I started writing, because I had something to say.
In 2000, during Lent I studied the life of Hannah, the mother of Samuel as a model for making sacrifices.
By the autumn, I was working on a novel about Hannah.
I had discovered that her faith journey in ancient Israel had many parallels with the faith journey of a woman in the twenty-first century, despite the three millennia that separated Hannah and me. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: Bible, catechism, character development, Christian Writers Guild, commentary, contest, craft, dialogue, Ecclesiastes, faith, fiction, God, Hannah, Hannah's Journal, hobby, Israel, Joseph, journal, journaling, journey, Katherine Harms, Kindle, Lord's Prayer, meditations, millennia, non-fiction, novel, plot character, publish, relationship, revelation, setting
Radio Show | Rinda Hahn
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Rinda Hahn discusses her debut novel, “Unspeakable Journey“.
Tags: debut novel, Rinda Hahn, Unspeakable Journey
Radio Interview | Anjuelle Floyd on “Red River Writers”
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Interview
Join me with Brian Cohen, author of “The Life O’Reilly, on Red River Writers, as I discuss “Keeper of Secrets…Translations of an Incident” with host, book reviewer, and author, Fran Lewis.
Tags: author, book reviewer, Brian Cohen, Fran Lewis, Keeper of Secrets...Translations of an Incident, Red River Writers, The Life O'Reilly
…Married Life-why i write… | “Antonya Nelson, Escapism, and The New Frontier…”
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under ...married life | why i write...
During a recent interview for The Writer Magazine, short story writer, Antonya Nelson, also dubbed, “…master of domestic drama…” received the received the statement, “...your work focuses on family-centered problems. Sue Miller has said men used to light out for the territories, but that ‘home’ is the new frontier.”
To the interviewer, Sarah Anne Johnson’s question, “Do you agree?” Nelson responded, “I write about families because that’s what I know. I’m very glad other writers are writing about other things and places, adventures abroad, wars and plagues and science and zombies. But what I know intimately, what I can report on honestly, what I think about endlessly, is the relations among people who are attached to one another helplessly by faithfulness and need, as well as wrestling a contrary urge to be individuals. Family dramas are always positing the self vs. community, private vs. the public, and most importantly, the head vs. the heart.”
–A Gift for the Short Form, by Sarah Anne Johnson, The Writer Magazine, September 2010
Reading this I knew immediately that Antonya Nelson was someone whose work I needed to start reading, not simply and so much from my perspective as a writer, but as a person who loves reading about families working it out, trying to work it out, sometimes, and oftentimes failing to work it out.
I am also a writer, who as a wife of 28 years and mother of 3, ages 11, 18, and 23, continually ponders and explores the nature of the marriage relationship, connections that spin and sprout from this union and how ripples in this union spread to those interactions of family members surrounding them. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: A Gift for the Short Story Form, ambition, america, American cinema, Antonya Nelson, children, dreams, escapism, family, fantasy, hope, human relationships, individual, life, marriage, meaning, New Frontier, purpose, Sarah Anne Johnson, spouse, story, Sue Miller, The Writer Magazine, thriller, wishes
Why Do I Write & What Is My Process? | What Makes Me Tick?–Fran Lewis
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, Why Do I Write & What Is My Process
Teaching in the NYC Public Schools was not only gratifying but also meaningful. Working with students in grades one through six for the first part of my career.
My Principal felt that I had a special talent and expertise when working with students in learning difficulties and encouraged me to get my second Master’s in Reading and Learning Disabilities. I am glad that I did. The next 19 years I worked as the Reading Specialist and then Staff Developer in both reading and writing.
The best part is I worked in the same school all of those years and the children and parents became part of my extended family.
I taught children from other countries and helped them learn to read, understand our language and excel in school. Before leaving, my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I was the Dean of Discipline and helped create a Peer Mediation Program in my school.
Freedom of expression is important, and after retiring from teaching, I realized that there were many new things I could learn to do. I love writing because it allows me to express my true feelings about any subject I choose. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: author, Bertha Fights Back, Bertha Series, Fran Lewis, Fran Speaks
Of Dreams, Making them Real and What We Are Willing to Pay…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, anjuellefloyd.com
I recently read two articles on acclaimed mystery author, Janet Evanovich, the first stating that she had requested $50 million from her then publisher St. Martin’s Press to renew her contract, the second, published some weeks later, announcing that in response to St. Martin’s had refusing the requested amount, Evanovich had subsequently returned to Ballantine Bantam Dell Publishers where she first began her career.
While the first article had ended with ponderings of whether Evanovich would receive her request from St. Martin’s, particularly in this poor economy, the second article carefully stated that no one privy to the proceedings had released details of what Evanovich would receive from Ballantine Bantam Dell.
My husband, on hearing the details of the articles, responded with, “$50 million dollars? You must have your numbers wrong. Are you sure you read the article correctly?”
Questioning the figure myself, or rather my ability to remember what I saw, I returned to the website where I had read the articles then announced to him that I was indeed correct. “Wow!” He shook his head, adding, “She must sell an awful lot of books,” referring to Evanovich.
And she has done that. But obviously not enough for St. Martins to grant her request. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: artist, author, Ballantine Bantam Dell, dreams, fans, Janet Evanovich, Katherine Heigl, LIfetime, One For the Money, publisher, publishing, publishing contracts, sacrifice, St. Martins Press, Stephanie Plum, TNT, writing
Radio Show | Breena Clarke
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Acclaimed author of Stand the Storm and River, Cross My Heart , an Oprah Book Club Selection, Breena Clarke, will discuss her life as a writer, her process for crafting fiction and what keeps her writing.
Tags: author, Breena Clarke, Oprah Book Club Selection, process, River Cross My Heart, Stand the Storm, writing
Contract Negotiations, Cyril Connolly, and Vivekananda…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under ...the writing life..., Musings
What caught my attention in a recent article on author Janet Evanovich, more specifically her asking price for the rights to publish her next 4 novels–$50 million from St. Martin’s Press–were the complaints and criticism concerning the quality of Evanovich’s recent novels launched by many who described themselves as loyal fans.
In toto, most stated that recent installments of her Stephanie Plum Series , the latest installment being, Sizzling Sixteen, had grown flat with the protagonist, Stephanie Plum, growing stagnant and not evolving.
Some even stated that it was clear to them she had been writing with her focus on fulfilling her contract obligation rather than providing fans with an engaging and entertaining story.
This all brings me to the point of where does one, more specifically the writer/author, draw the line between meeting the demands of their contract and providing readers with what they have come to expect and you, as well as they know you can achieve?
Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: Ballantine Bantam Dell, contract, Cyril Connolly, Janet Evanovich, negotiations, protagonist, publishing, Random House, Sizzling Sixteen, St. Martins Press, Stephanie Plum, Stephanie Plum Series, Swami Vivekananda
Why Do I Write & What Is My Process… | Breena Clarke
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, Why Do I Write & What Is My Process
–by Breena Clarke
Breena at home in Jersey City with my bamboo plants
When I’m asked to answer the queries — what is your process? — why do you write? I begin by saying that I come to writing as a reader. I believe it is important for me to claim that because it does explain why and how I write. I also admit that I answer this way to reinforce the notion that I am studious, scholarly, serious.
I think writing long fiction is good for me because this is what I like to read. So– when I say I’m reading, seventy-five percent of the time I am reading a novel.
But you know what? There is another bit of it.
There is something I am less eager to mention — an aspect of my personality that isn’t always desirable. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: author, Breena Clarke, process, River Cross My Heart, Stand the Storm, writing
Of Sword Fights, The Himalayas, And so on… And so on…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, anjuellefloyd.com
Have you ever watched a scene from a movie where two sword fighters are going at it?
And then they begin to move up the stairs, one sword fighter, moving in reverse up the incline of the steps, danger closing in, his back against the wall of conflict?
Remember how you felt? Your chest growing tighter, you engaged with what was happening rooting for one or the other swordsmen.
It goes the same with writing fiction. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: action, causal, cause-and-effect, conflict, dilemma, episodic, fiction, goal, Himalayas, Jeanette Winterson, novel, obstacles, plot, problem, question, rise and fall, roller coaster, sword fight, The Passion, writer
Moses – a Man of Emotions in “The Known World” by Edward P. Jones
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
“ The evening his master died he worked again well after he ended the day for the other adults, his own wife among them, and sent them back with hunger and tiredness to their cabins… When he, Moses, finally freed himself of the ancient and brittle harness that connected him to the oldest mule his master owned, all that was left of the sun was a five-inch-long memory of red orange laid out in still waves across the horizon between two mountains on the left and one on the right. He had been in the fields for all of fifteen hours. ” (p. 1)
“His wife knew enough now not to wait for him to come and eat with them…He went straight ahead, to the farthest edge of the cornfields…Well into the forest the rain came in torrents through the trees and their mighty summer leaves…after a bit Moses stopped and held out his hands and collected water that he hashed over his face. Then he undressed down to his nakedness and lay down. To keep the rain out of his nose, he rolled up his shirt and placed under his head so that it tilted just enough for the rain to flow down about his face. When he was an old man and rheumatism chained up his body, he would look back and blame the chains on evenings such as these, and on nights when he lost himself completely and fell asleep and didn’t come t until morning, covered with dew…The ground was almost soaked. The leaves seemed to soften the hard rain as it fell and it hit his body and face with no more power than the gentle tapping of fingers. He opened his mouth; it was rare for him and the rain to meet up like this. His eyes had remained open, and after taking in all the he could without turning his head he took up his thing and did it. When he was done, after a few strokes, he closed his eyes, turned on his side and dozed. After a half hour or so the rain stopped abruptly and plunged everything into silence, and that silence woke him. He came to his feet with the usual reluctance. All about his body were mud and leaves and debris for the rain had sent a wind through the woods. He wiped himself with his pants and remembered that the last time he had been there in the rain, the rain had lasted long enough to wash him clean. He had been seized then by an even greater happiness and had laughed and twirled himself around and around in what someone watching him might have called a dance. He did not know it, but Alice a woman people said had lost her mind, was watching him now, only the first time in her six months of wandering about in the night that she had come upon him. Had he known she was there, he would not have thought she had sense enough to know to know what was going on…Moses walked out of the forest and into the darkness toward the quarters, needing no moon to light his way. He was thirty-five years old and for every moment of those years he had been someone’s slave, a white man’s slave and then another white man’s slave and now, for nearly ten years, the overseer slave for a black master…” (p. 2-4)
“… Moses had been [Henry Townsend's] slave for six months …” when Henry’s former owner, William Robbins, found Henry interacting with Moses in a congenial manner. Robbins rode approached them on his horse and demanded to speak with Henry. When the two had moved some distance away, Henry having to run “…to keep up…” Robbins exhorted, “… the law expects you to know what is master and what is slave…if you roll around and be a playmate to your property, the law will come to you, but it will not come with the full heart and all the deliberate speed that you will need. You will have failed your part of the bargain…Robbins spurred his horse and said nothing more. Henry watched him, the man and the horse, and then looked over at Moses, who waved, ready to return to work. Henry went to him…We ain’t workin no more today… ‘But why not? …We got good light here.’ [Moses. He and Henry had been building Henry's first house.] Henry stepped to him, took the saw and slapped him once, and when the pain begin to set into Moses’s face, he slapped him again. ‘Why don’t you never do what I tell you…Why is that, Moses?
‘I do. I always do…Massa.’
‘Nigger you don’t…never do.’
Moses felt himself beginning to sink in the dirt. He lifted on foot and placed it elsewhere, hoping that would be better, but it wasn’t. He wanted to move the other foot, but that would have been too much—as it was, moving the first foot was done without permission …” (pp. 122-124)
“ That evening he changed and washed at the well and put on his new shirt and britches to report to Caldonia. The work of another day had gone well, he told her. He sat back in the chair and she asked him for the first time if he too, wanted coffee. He said, yes and Lorretta [Caldonia's maid] brought him coffee in a cup that was identical to the one Caldonia had .
“… near the end of the meeting …” Moses explained “…‘ I worry about this Alice traipsing off every night. She need lockin’ up so them patrollers don’t do something to her.… ‘
‘ How long has she been doin’ this ?” [Caldonia]
‘ Since Marse Henry bought her …”
‘ Then maybe she’s as insane as she will ever ge t…” [Caldonia] “… She set her cup on the little table beside her and leaned her head back and closed her eyes and was silent. He thought she was asleep but she unfolded her arms after several moments and rested her open hands on either side of her body. He followed her neck as it went down from her chin and disappeared into her b louse. She was still but her bosom rose and fell and he watched her for so long that he fell into the pattern of her bosom rising and falling. She had put on weight over the years. Head stood at his cabin door that first night she and Henry were married, had looked up at the house with only mild curiosity. Now he was only the distance of one jackrabbit hop from her, from al that Henry had been able to have any night of their life together …” (p. 269-270)
You can access a copy of this article/essay at Scribd.com
Tags: character analysis, Edward-P-Jones, Moses
Event | Anita’s Desk Interviews author and psychotherapist, Anjuelle Floyd
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview
Anita’s Desk interviews Anjuelle about her life as an author, psychotherapist, wife, mother, and painter; and the challenges that go along with it. Anjuelle is the author of a collection of 8 interconnected short stories, KEEPER of SECRETS…TRANSLATIONS of an INCIDENT. She is presently editing her first novel, THE HOUSE, which is due out September 2009
So tune in!
Tags: Anjuelle Floyd, mother, novels, painter, psychotherapist, secrets, short stories, The House, wife, writing
Blogging Can Improve Your Writing–Even Your Fiction
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, The House
I recently ran across an article at problogger.net–Six Very Official Ways to Improve Your Writing.
While the article aims at helping the blogger improve her/his craft, the suggestions hearken to what we know delivers exciting and engaging language.
More importantly, Darren Rowse, encourages us to shift our attitude and approach towards blogging in a way that fiction writers can also benefit from:
Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: blogging, editing, fiction, writing
Radio Show | A Literary Interview Gone Awry: The End of Christian America
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Don’t let the title frighten you. Today’s broadcast was everything but horrible.
William Cooper, author or There’s Always a Reason, and Tyrell DeVon Floyd mesmerized me with their quick wit, sincere humor and substantive and unconditional honesty. What started out as a discussion of their contributions to the anthology, The Soul of a Man (June 2009/ Peace in the Storm Press), evolved into a reviving and uplifting sharing of ideas about where Christianity can go in serving its followers–those who have been faithful throughout the years and remain so.
Tags: A Hoop & A Holler, African America, Christianity, cynical insecurity, faith, fiction, males, No Regrets, obsession, psychology, publishing, resurrection, Six Days in January, soul, spirituality, struggle, The End of Christian America, the soul of a man, There's Always a Reason, Tyrell DeVon Floyd, writing
2009 Orange Prize novel offered as a Free Download
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
A novel that was yesterday shortlisted for the Orange Prize will be made available as a free download for a day.
Burnt Shadows is being offered to anyone who wishes to download it by the publisher Bloomsbury.
The book by Kamila Shamsie, a Pakistani-born author who now lives in London, concerns Hiroko Tanaka, a survivor of the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki, whose attempts to build a new life outside Japan are interrupted by new conflicts.
The work is one of two by British authors shortlisted for the women-only prize.
Orange Prize novel Burnt Shadows to be offered as a free download
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6141046.ece
Well, what do you make of this? Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: A Mercy, Bloomsbury, Britain, Broken Verses, Burnt Shadows, City By the Sea, digital download, Hamilton College, J. K. Rowling, Jack Malvern, Kamila Shamsie, Kartography, Khaled Hosseini, Orange Prize, Salt and Saffron, Samantha Harvey, Times, Toni Morrison, U Mass Amherts, UK
The Need to Keep Things the Same: Monica Ali and “In The Kitchen”
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
…Ali has taken the action out of the home and into the high-octane kitchen of the executive chef Gabriel Lightfoot, whose restaurant at the Imperial Hotel gives her a wider, more public space in which to continue her exploration of the modern immigrant experience.
In changing her setting, she almost manages to change her tone, but instead of the wide-eyed innocence of Nazneen we are given a deeply unlikeable, sexist, racist, weary-eyed chef who so bores himself, and is so fond of explaining his own boredom and weariness, that it becomes almost impossible for the reader to get a hold of him,”
London Times critic, Natalie Sandison, writes this and more of Monica Ali’s latest work, In the Kitchen.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article6161381.ece
Why is it that critics are always measuring a writer by her or his previous work? Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: art, book critics, book reviews, Brick Lane, craft, critiques, Gabriel Lightfoot, In the Kitchen, London Times, Monica Ali, Natalie Sandison, Nazneen, writing
Radio Show | Father’s Day Discussion of “The Soul of a Man”
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
The contributors to Peace in the Storm Publishing’s publication, “The Soul of a Man“, come together and discuss their experiences of working on the anthology.
http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200904/1240755887.html
http://aalbc.com/authors/fredrick.htm
http://www.theurbanbooksource.com/contributors/joey-pinkney.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Joey_Pinkney
http://www.myspace.com/joeyreviews
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joey-Pinkney/1639102478
http://www.klthewriter.com/page/page/5575465.ht
http://www.holdonbestrong.com/jaroldimes.html
http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Ganges/1040878311
http://www.myspace.com/writethevisionmg
http://www.mauricemgrayjr.com/
http://theromerreview.com/trr/?page_id=3
http://www.myspace.com/alvincromerthejackal
Tags: Alvin Romer, anthology, Baba Simba Mollack, elissa gabrielle, Father's Day, fiction, God, Jarold Imes, Jihad, Joey Pinkney, K. L. Belvin, Marc Lacy, maurice gray jr., men, peace in the storm publishing, soul, spirituality, the soul of a man, William Fredrick Cooper
Ayelet Waldman, Bad Mother Anxiety and How We Come to Writing
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
Ayelet Waldman, wife of author Michael Chabon, mother of four and author in her own right, discusses on NPR’s Fresh Air, her trials of feeling that she’s not measuring up to what a “good mother” as defined by the late 20th early 21st century ideals. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, and Occasional Moments of Grace, Ayelet Waldman, Bad Mother, Bad Mother Anxiety, family, fiction, Fresh Aire, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, marriage, memoir, Michael Chabon, Minor Calamities, Mommy-Track Detective Series, motherhood, NPR interview, Radio Show, writing
Radio Show | Author, Lisa Unger, and Writing the Literary Thriller
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Author, Lisa Unger, discusses her new release, “Die for You,” and the complexities of writing the literary thriller. Lisa is the author of “Sliver of Truth,” Black Out,” and “Beautiful Lies“.
http://www.lisaunger.com/index.htm
http://www.myspace.com/authorlisaunger
http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=1304
http://www.librarything.com/author/ungerlisa
http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=689
Tags: author, Beautiful Lies, Black Out, Die for You, Lisa Unger, literary thriller, Sliver of Truth, writing
Literary Agents on Barnes & Noble and the State of Publishing
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
I think if Barnes & Noble folds, or something like that, it might be so devastating that we can’t get around it. If Barnes & Noble were to fold, what would happen to all of us? I mean, there’s no way that publishing could really continue. We’ve put too many eggs in one basket.
This was Peter Steinberg commenting on what he is “… most worried about with regard to the industry…” the industry being the publishing industry.
As a writer I appreciate Peter’s honesty along with that of his colleagues, Anna Stein, Jim Rutman and Maria Massie. I encourage all writers/authors to read the article written by Jofie Ferrari-Adler, and entitled, Agents and Editors: A Q & A With Four Literary Agents Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: Anna Stein, Barnes & Noble, Jim Rutman, Keeper of Secrets...Translations of an Incident, literary agents, Maria Massie, Peter Steinberg, Poets and Writers Magazine, The House
A Writer’s Voice
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
Hearing the words you’ve written and read in your own voice develops voice. It also awakens you, the writer, to your style of putting words together.
You hear when your words fall away from that established cadence and rhythm, and when they come together. You come to see the endless possibilities of music your words can and in so doing are made able to recognize when due to awkward phrasing the sounds clash from dissonance.
Tags: eye, hearing, reading, rhythm, voice, writer
Commitment to The “Word”
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
Commit yourself to the ‘word.’
Write your story. Don’t worry about who will publish it.
–author, educator, Shon Bacon
Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: ...the writing life..., author, committment, creativity, editing, educator, fiction, publishing, Shon Bacon, the blank page, word, words, writing
Inhabiting Your Character: Journeying to the Ends of the Earth
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
Crafting a novel requires a major character with whom the author is willing to spend at least the next year. Much of the time spent with that character requires inhabiting her or his skin, living inside their situation that we have created.
As writers we expend a significant part of the energy of our imagination towards creating a living, breathing experience of the character and the problem they face, and then finding various ways to inhabit that world. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: character, character development, conflict, faith, fiction, novel, tension, transformation, writing
Writing and Egolessness
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
Crafting stories is the perfect opportunity, offers a wonderful experience, to practice egolessness.
The words our characters speak, our prose that describes their actions and feelings are but soldiers in the army of our thoughts.
How fleeting. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: action, ambition, autobiographical, characters, Chogyam Trungp, craft, ego, egolessness, evolve, feelings, fiction, I, imagination, me, novels, real, refine, separateness, stories, The Myth of Freedom, thoughts, unreal, write, writer
The Hare and The Tortoise," Internet Technology, and Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Musings
The economy is languishing.
Concern and doubt fill our emotions if not swarm around us.
For writers this can be either a perilous time or one for heightened creativity.
Those of us who write for money and recognition are asking many questions.
Will I get that agent?
And if so, how?
Will the publishers like my work?
Those whose hopes for the future rest on crafting a book that will make giant sales wonder about the state of publishing.
Where is it going?
And then there are the daily concerns of paying the bills, never mind if one has chosen the road to self-publication as the way to make our work public. To be sure, this route comes with costs also.
But what about just writing? Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: eyes on the prize, Internet technology, The House, The Tortoise and The Hare
Loving Our Characters
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
American Buddhist nun, Pema Chödrön, writes in “Comfortable with Uncertainty” that, “…When we start to meditate or work with any kind of spiritual discipline, we often think that somehow we’re going to improve [ourselves], which is a subtle kind of aggression against who we are…Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about trying to befriend who we are.”
Tags: acceptance, actions, behavior, Buddhist, characters, Comfortable wi, craft, fiction, frustration, love, nun, obstacles, Pema Chodron, personality, protagonist, skill, spiritual practice, struggle, thoughts, writing
Radio Show | Miki Starr Martin
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Radio Show
On Book Talk, Creativity & Family Matters, my guest is Miki Starr Martin, author of “Zella Dora: A Fictitious Memoir”.
Our discussion today will examine how the work of some authors starts out good, but over time loses thrill and excitement.
So tune in! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/anjuellefloyd/
To learn more about my guest, Miki Starr Martin, visit: http://www.mikistarr.com
Tags: Anjuelle Floyd, Interview, memoir, Miki Starr, novelist, Radio Show
Event | Anita’s Desk Interviews Anjuelle Floyd: The Reality & Stigma of Abuse and How We Cope – Part II
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
There are varying types and degrees of abuse, and not only do we define it differently, but we also deal with it differently. Please join me as I welcome Anjuelle Floyd, psychotherapist and author, as we discuss the effects of abuse and how we cope.
Tags: abuse, betrayal, cope, safe, stigma, survive
Radio Show | The Soul of a Man: Joey Pinkney and Alvin Romer
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Authors, Joey Pinkney and Alvin Romer, will join me in discussing their works, “Like Father, Like Son” (Joey Pinkney) and “What Lies in the Soul of a Black Man” (Alvin Romer), in the anthology, The Soul of a Man, published by Peace in the Storm Press, and due for release in June 2009.
So tune in!
Connect with Joey Pinkney online at:
Connect with Alvin Romer online at:
http://www.theromerreview.com/
Tags: books, elissa gabrielle, father, fiction, God, Joey Pinkney, Like Father, Like Son, men, Peace in the publishing, sons, soul, spirituality, the soul of a man, writers
Radio Show | Author Druzelle Cederquist on the Life and Times of Baha’ullah
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
A dash of science easily relates to writer practices, creativity as a learning process, and the qualities–like patience and perseverance–we need to develop in acquiring the craft of writing.
–Druzelle Cederquist
Author Druzelle Cederquist discusses her book, The Story of Baha’u'llah: Promised One of All Religions.
http://luminousrealities.blogspot.com/2009/03/does-it-make-you-want-to-write
http://luminousrealities.blogspot.com/2008/06/race-writers.html
http://www.plaxo.com/directory/profile/30065537050/c69b2a23/Druzelle/Cederquisthttp://browse.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ath=Druzelle+Cederquist
Tags: Baha'i Faith, Baha'u'llah: Promised One of All Religons, creative process, Druzelle Cederquist, growing a brain, Luminous Realities blogspot, patience, perserverance, writers
Radio Show | Author, Vincent Alexandria
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Author Vincent Alexandria discusses his mystery novels, “Postal Blues,” “If Walls Could Talk,” and “Black Rain,” and his upcoming children’s book, “Marvelous Marvin. He will also share his plans for participating in the California Book Summit, September 10-13, 2009 in San Ramon California.
Tags: 2009, Black Rain, books, California, California Book Summit, children, If Walls Could Talk, Marvelous Marvin, mystery novels, Postal Blues, San Ramon, September, Vincent Alexandria
The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Authors, Kathy Briccetti, Jasmine Dawson, and Meilan Carter, discuss their contributions to the anthology, “Who’s Your Mama?: The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers“.
Kathy, Jasmine and Meilan will be reading from their contributions to the anthology at 3pm, Sunday, September 20, 2009, at Diesel Book Story, Oakland, CA.
Tags: blog talk radio, CA anthology, Diesel Book Store, Jasmine Dawson, Kathy Briccetti, Meilan Carter, Oakland, reading, The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers, Who's Your Mama?
Writing and Cyberspace
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
As the economy languishes in limbo and many of us wonder what comes next, I have made several observations as an author, one of which is that the Internet has become an important meeting ground for both industry and consumers.
That I am an author makes me part of the publishing industry. The Internet offers a matrix wherein for me to connect with readers. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: 21st century, artistry, author, business, challenges, consumer, craft, cyberspace, economy, entertainment, industry, information, Internet, publishing, research, writer, writing
Questions
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Musings
Every novel seeks to answer a question. The question could arise from the premise, What if______meets_____, to which the plot of your story delivers the answer in showing what ensues when X meets Y.
On another level your novel could raise a question that plumbs the depths of human personality and consciousness. Why is it that we humans tend to inflict the greatest pain upon the ones whom we profess to most love? Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: author, consciousness, craft, crest, discussion, drama, Himalayas, human, interaction, Mt. Everest, narrative, novel, peak experience, plot, premise, question, story, writer, writing
Radio Show | Author, Adrienna Turner
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Adrienna Turner discusses her latest book, “The Day Begins with Christ“. Adrienna is the author of “Half of the Battle is to Surrender All I Have,” “From the Depths of My Soul: Collection of Poetry and Songs,” and “The Mystery Lies Within“. Adrienna reviews books for the African Americans on the Move Book Club (AAMBC), and Dream 4 More Book Reviews. She is also writes a column for Heavenly Magazine .
Tags: AAMBC, Adrienna Turner, African Americans on the Move Book Club, author, book, Dream 4 More Reviews, From the Depths of My Soul: Collection of Poetry and Songs, Half of the Battle is to Surrender All I Have, Heavenly Magazine, reviewer, The Mystery Lies Within
Loves and Hates
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Musings
What a character hates or despises says much about what she or he loves, adores, and that for which she or he yearns.
The adage, “You can’t hate what you don’t love,” is as true for our characters as it is for us.
A protagonist who hates their mother or father, most likely yearns for acceptance and love from that parent they so loathe, and whom they fear does not approve of them. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: condescension, crave, despise, fail, flaw, hate, love adore, obnoxious, protagonist, quality, tribulation, yearn
Magic and Craft
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
Author of literary thrillers,” Lisa Unger, was my guest on Saturday’s broadcast (September 26, 2009) of Book Talk, Creativity and Family Matters.
“Die for You,” her latest release, and the other books she has penned (8 total), were among the many things we discussed, along with working to find balance between her work as a career author, mother and wife. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: art, blessings, craft, Die for You, discipline, drafts, gifts, gods, Lisa Unger, magic, revision, story, transformation, writing novel
Calamity, Crime and Suspense
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
My interview with Lisa Unger renewed within me the desire to just write, and see what happens. During my interview of her on Saturday, September 26, 2009, she talked about how her novels hold, “…a strong thread of domestic danger.”
Lisa then discussed a concept: “We don’t truly know the people we love an trust,” that spirals within her novels. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: calamity, convention, crime, domestic danger, hero, heroine, human heart, Interview, Lisa Unger, love, suspense, trust
On Writing, and Exploring the Human Heart
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
“I didn’t pick my area of writing anymore than I chose to become a writer. …I love classic literature. And I’ve always had this dark imagination. I was the weird kid who was interested in that form in the window, or what lay under the stairs. I also have this ferocious curiosity about the human heart…. There’s no more an effective way to explore the depths of the human heart, than in the extreme circumstances of crime fiction.”
–Lisa Unger on how she came to write literary thrillers Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: cause-and-effect, classic literature, conventions, crime fiction, dark, dark curiosty, dark imagination, dark side, ferocious curiosity, human heart, life, Lisa Unger, lost, mystery, piece-by-piece, step-by-step, story, suspense, terrain, the unknown, thriller, weird kid, writer's block
The Business of Writing
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
“It’s way harder to establish a career as a working writer than to get published by a traditional New York publishing house.”
–Lisa Unger on the Business of Writing
Whether the author achieves publication of their work through traditional means, or chooses to self-publish, she or he must play an active role in the promoting, and marketing of her or his work.
In that Lisa Unger had worked in publishing for over a decade before gaining publication of her first novel, she held no preconceived notions of glory or fame on becoming a published author. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: author, business, character, fame, family business, film, form and structure, glory, husband, Lisa Unger, market, New York publishing house, non-fiction, novel, platform, plays, poetry, promote, Random House, reading, self-publish, traditional publishing, writing
The Writer/Mother
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
“I’m a better writer and certainly a better person because I am a mother,” says author, Lisa Unger. “My best times for writing and creativity are between 5 am to noon. Afternoons are devoted to my daughter when she returns home from school.”
The role of mother and writer is a taxing one for those of us who have chosen to give ourselves to the two paths of writing and mothering in whatever order they came to us. For Lisa Unger, who has penned 8 literary thrillers, nothing has rivaled her commitment and love of writing, more than her love and adoration for her daughter. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: adoration, author, balance, commitment, creativity, daughter, fan base, Fragile, Internet, Lisa Unger, literary thrillers, love, mother, publishing industry, readers, striving to improve, working mothers, writer, writing
Picture and Story
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
The face is an organic mask. It can’t hold falsehood forever. Eventually there is an unguarded moment when the muscles relax. And you see the true face of the person.”
–Lisa Book, sister of Isabel Raine in Die for Me, by Lisa Unger
Isabel Raine, the protagonist in Unger’s latest suspense thriller, Die for You, experiences the dark or shadow side of life when her husband, Marcus Raine, leaves for work one morning, and never returns. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: craft, crazy imagination, dark side, Die for You, disappearance, end, faith, form, go with the flow, husband, imagination, Isabel Raine, Linda Book, line of poetry, Lisa Unger, Marcus Raine, news, novel, patience, photographer, picture, Shadow, sister, story, supporting characters, suspense, thriller, universe, willingness, writing
Shadow, Self, and The Other
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
“A vast majority of our [violent] crimes [that take place within the United States] occur within the home. Chances are the greatest threat to [your] life comes from family. My novels explore what it means to be family, how each [family] member defines family, and what happens when someone decides to re-write the script.”
–Lisa Unger speaking on the statistics of domestic crime and that influence her novels.
All novels are about change. Lisa Unger’s literary thrillers, explore the dark side of families, those like yours and mine, which makes for tight suspense, and eventful reading. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: betrayal, crime, crime in the United States, dark side of family, deeply held feelings, domestic disputes, families, human psyche, identity, illusion, law, law and order, law enforcement, Lisa Unger, literary thrillers, old feelings, police officer, self, self-delusion, Shadow, suspense, tense feelings, the other, trust, violent crimes
I’m taking questions…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview
…on THE HOT SEAT at The Writer’s Box.
November 9-13, 2009
Join The Writer’s Box, leave your questions, and see what happening.
Tags: 2009, November 9-13, questions, THE HOT SEAT, The Writer's Box
Radio Show | Author and Psychotherapist, Brett R. Williams
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Author and Marriage and Family Counselor, Brett R. Williams discusses his book, “You Can Be Right or You Can Be Married: Love-Based Solutions for Couples“.
Tags: author, Brett R. Williams, marriage, marriage and family counselor, psychotherapist, You Can Be Right or You Can Be Married: Love-Based Solutions for Couples
Of Identity, Persona and Naïveté…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, Musings
Like Adam and Eve whom God warned not to eat of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, the protagonists of our stories often encounter box they are to leave closed, lovers whose lips theirs are not to touch, forests in which they are encouraged not to wander alone, galas and balls that on attending they must exit by the stroke of midnight, and alas sea witches with whom they should strike no bargains.
And yet our central characters push the envelope open creating a second upheaval. But this chaos caused by the hand of the protagonist delivers direct transformation that reveals whom she or he is. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: Adam, Eve, Garden of Eden, God, nakedness, persona, transformation, tree of good and evil
Of Borderlands, Willingness and Shifts in Consciousness…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, Musings
Leaving the world as it is, and entering the border between the world as it was, and presently exists in the newly leveraged chaos of change requires courage and faith. It also asks for willingness to acknowledge that one has entered the unknown.
Like our protagonists, each time we venture to write a new story or novel we exit the comfort zone of what we have accomplished, and depart once more into that land of yearning and desire. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: aggravation, author, beginning, borderland, central characters, change, chaos, comfort zone, consciousness, courage, craft, desire, faith, frustration, Kindle, middle, Nook, novel, obstacles, protagonist, rival, shift, story, transformation, unknown, willingness, writer, writing, yearning
Radio | Interview with Anjuelle Floyd, “Finding Joy in the Process”
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Interview, Radio Show
Listen to my interview, Finding Joy in the Process, with Catherine VanWetter.
Enjoy.
Tags: Anjuelle Floyd, Catherine VanWetter, Finding Joy in the Process, Interview, To the Heart of the Matter
Radio Show | Adrienna Turner
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Author of “The Day Begins With Christ,” and book reviewer, Adrienna Turner discusses her new book club, Dream Your Reality Book Club.
Tags: Adrienna Turner, books, Dream 4 More, Dream Your Reality Book Club, reviews, The Day Begins With Christ
Of Dark Places, Irrevocable Decisions, and Transubstantiation…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
The pull to reach the summit of action in a novel, or story requires the writer to look within.
More than that we must reach down into those dark places where fears, and hidden joys lurk.
It is here when connecting with those aspects of life that frighten us that we uncover the yearnings and desires that motivate and drive our protagonists and supporting cast. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: altar, climax, denouement, desires, dividends, drive, emotional, energy, Eucharist, irrevocable, journey, memory, physical, protagonist, resolution, sacrifice, spiritual, summit, supporting cast, time, transformation, transubstantiation, writing, yearning
Radio Show | Shon Hyneman
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
CEO, Marriage & Family Facilitator, author, and public speaker of Never Again Ministries, and Project Consciousness, Shon Hyneman, discusses his book, It’s the Woman You Gave Me.
Tags: author, CEO, It's the Woman You Gave Me, Marriage & Family Facilitator, public Speaker, Shon Hyneman
Of Crises, Experience and Goals…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
Surviving a crisis bestows special knowledge garnered, and held by few.
It also grants admittance into various orders of wisdom yielded by experience.
Every novel or story a writer crafts tells the life of a certain crisis, and chronicles a central character’s survival of that crisis. The process of writing that novel flows out of an upheaval, the completion of which involves many obstacles that reach a crescendo of conflict and tension. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: action, agent, arch enemy, author, battle, central character, character, conflict, crescendo, crisis, cure, dilemma, external, goals, internal, major character, mind, narrative line, novel, obstacles, pain, problem, protagonist, publishing contract, purpose, resolution, scenes, situation, story, struggle, suffering, surgeon, survival, tension, thrive, wisdom, writer
Of Illusions, Diamonds, and The Imago Dei…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
Crises consist of many obstacles, the least of which include illusions, and deceptions. Illusions held about life, and deceptions by others, and self fiercely clung to often comprise the nets limiting awareness.
Reaching the peak of crisis, and fighting the battle that awaits requires perseverance and remaining focused on the task at hand.
Doing so generates the strength and acuity to cut through the gales of misconceptions and shatter intricate pillars supporting half-truths, and lies of omission.
To the degree these inconsistencies are destroyed the protagonist gains a depth of insight nearly parallel or akin to prophecy.
In reality their vision to does not extend into the future.
Rather they are more able to behold the events and consequences of actions that stand before them.
Climbing the summit of one’s dilemma’s and problems, meeting the physical obstacles tied to inner demons and slaying the monsters of betrayal, and self-delusions grants clearer vision, both within and around one.
Experience and knowledge sows seeds from which sprout the gifts of truth and honesty wrapped in a bow of fortitude to remain committed to what is, and not turn away, when our wishes are not immediately granted. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: antagonist, arrogance, awareness, betrayal, death, diamond, epiphany, fear, fortitude, half-truths, honesty, illusions, life, perseverance, protagonist, rebirth, self-deception, survival, vulerability, willingness
Of Drama, Definitions, and Leaving Our Mark on the World…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
“People comment that there is so little drama in my books. …Even though drama sells, and it makes good press. Most people are not living dramatic lives. …”
–Angelia Menchan, author of “Ramblings,” “Schae’s Story,” “Is No Not Clear Enough for You?, as well as publisher and author of Women’s Writes.
Tags: Angelia Menchan, celebrity status, definition, drama, Is No Not Clear Enough for You?, leaving our mark on the world, Ramblings, Schae's Story, Women's Writes
Radio Show | Rinda Hahn
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Rinda Hahn discusses her debut novel, “Unspeakable Journey“.
Tags: debut novel, Rinda Hahn, Unspeakable Journey
…the writing life…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under ...the writing life..., Musings
Check out my new post @ …the writing life…
Adobe’s Design CS4, Intoxication and Zen and the Art of Writing…
Tags: Adobe Design CS4, Intoxication, Ray Bradbury, Zen and the Art of Writing
Commitment, The Number 8, and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under ...the writing life..., Musings
A novel, the first draft of which I wrote 8 years ago, has come together.
Wow!
It hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m so excited and obsessed with this revision, like with none other.
It’s such a wonderful feeling to have something that you’ve been holding, and for such a long time, on which you’ve worked so hard, and then realizing it just wasn’t right, you laid aside.
I logged 6 revisions during this time. Yet always at the end, the pieces didn’t fit. I had yet to display my best work on this story.
Sometimes the universe delivers us the idea for a creation for which, despite our fervor and commitment to carrying out, we lack the skills to bring the creation into greatest illumination.
And so we wait. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: and the Search for Hidden Universes, commitment, Einstein, fervor, Freud, Goddard College, imagination, infinity, revisision, Richard Panek, story, The Invisible Century: Einstein, theory of relativity, waiting, writing
Dear John, A Daughter’s Wish and Moments of Awakening…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Musings
My daughter recently stated that she hopes that my husband and I live to a ripe old age and that we die together, much like Noah and Allie in the movie based on The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks. My daughter had just finished reading Spark’s novel, now a movie, Dear John.
That’s the great thing about reading books. They awaken us to parts of ourselves, hopes dreams and wishes, and those held for us by loved ones.
That my daughter, not yet 25, could offer me such a gift I find astounding. Most children, and rightfully so, want their parents alive for as long as possible.
Saying this to my daughter, she responded with, “I can handle my life, take care of myself as long as I know that you and Daddy are together somewhere in the universe, even if I’m not with you.” Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: child, climax, daughter, Dear John, dilemma, dreams, epiphany, family, fiction, hopes, husband, incarnation, life, meaning, memoir, Nicholas Sparks, novel, parent, reading, redemption, resurrection, salvation, story, The Notebook, transformation, wish, writing
The Genuine, Truth and Liberation..
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Musings
There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.–
Howard Thurman, African American mystic
So much of what we do as writers extends from, if not flows out of the voice of our genuine and authentic self.
The genuine of which Thurman speaks holds both the key to what we write, and our ability and commitment to writing the words of our hearts as delivered to us through the various dimensions of life that channel into and through us.
At a time when so much about and within our society seeks to silence the genuine, what is honest, unfettered and pure, writers of today stand upon the threshold of a new day.
It is a dawning, not unlike times and past eras where old paradigms shifted and some fell in the wake of new ones arising. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: African American mystic, authentic self, author, children, Howard Thurman, insanity, liberation, mind, parents, peace, psychotherapist, truth, writer
African Bushmen, God, and Reality in Writing…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Musings
There is a Dream dreaming us.
–African Bushman
(The Mystic Vision–Daily Encounters with the Divine, Compiled by Andrew Harvey and Anne Baring)
How often do I create characters, work with them in uncovering their stories and personalities as I put write them on the page only to then meet a person who within seconds I recognize as one of my characters in a novel?
Very.
Of course these people have most often been around since long before I wrote or even conceived of the story to my novel, and its characters. I have not breathed them into life. And yet a connection exists between what we write and the life around us.
Let’s say for instance that the people I meet who remind me of characters I have created or who have emerged in my stories, have risen in some sense, from my novels.
What would that mean, that we as writers create characters whom we will then encounter in the physical form of human individuals through engagements and interactions and life?
And let’s say these people do not know, have no understanding or awareness that we are their creator. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: African Bushmen, Andrew Harvey, Anne Baring, art, characters, consciousness, dream, God, imaginative, novel, personality, protagonist, reality, story, The Mystic Vision, writing
"Dancing Siva" from Keeper of Secrets…Translations of an Incident and The House
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Novel, Story
Read Dancing Siva from “Keeper of Secrets…Translations of an Incident”
and “The House“
Tags: Dancing Siva, Keeper of Secrets...Translations of an Incident, read, The House
Writing, Transformation, and The Unadulterated Truth…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Musings
Of how Nella’s Down’s Syndrome has changed her, Kelle Hampton writes, “I’ve learned how “pain” shapes you as a person and propels you to new depths and how “perfection” is not the glossy magazine cover that Hollywood portrays. I’m learning to shed off the shallow parts of my character I’ve adopted over the years and replace them with love and appreciation for real, painful, beautiful life.”
I can’t say that I have mastered the ability to write to my core in such an eloquent way. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: Baby Boom Generation, daughters, Down's Syndrome, Kelle Hampton, Nella, Southerner, transformation, truth, unobliterated, writing
Writer’s Block, Travel and Encountering Ourselves…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Musings
It’s really hard to write. I’m traveling with my youngest.
I hated leaving home. And yet I felt stuck.
Stuck.
Not a good place to be as a writer.
And yet it happens.
I don’t experience writer’s block, as much as encountering periods wherein it is just hard to write. I lack the stamina to even get started.
I feel no excitement.
Ideas for a new story, ever how short, evade me.
Perhaps this is writer’s block. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: comfort zone, compulsion, constancy, encountering ourselves, history, honest, painful, personality, stamina, travel, writer, writer's block
Radio Show | Joylene Nowell Butler
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Event, Interview, Radio Show
Joylene Nowell Butler discusses her novel, Dead Witness and her work.
Tags: author, Dead Witness, Joylene Nowell Butler
Why Do I Write & What Is My Process? | What Makes Me Tick?–Fran Lewis
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Why Do I Write & What Is My Process
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, Why Do I Write & What Is My Process
Teaching in the NYC Public Schools was not only gratifying but also meaningful. Working with students in grades one through six for the first part of my career.
My Principal felt that I had a special talent and expertise when working with students in learning difficulties and encouraged me to get my second Master’s in Reading and Learning Disabilities. I am glad that I did. The next 19 years I worked as the Reading Specialist and then Staff Developer in both reading and writing.
The best part is I worked in the same school all of those years and the children and parents became part of my extended family.
I taught children from other countries and helped them learn to read, understand our language and excel in school. Before leaving, my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I was the Dean of Discipline and helped create a Peer Mediation Program in my school.
Freedom of expression is important, and after retiring from teaching, I realized that there were many new things I could learn to do. I love writing because it allows me to express my true feelings about any subject I choose. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: author, Bertha Fights Back, Bertha Series, Fran Lewis, Fran Speaks
Of Sword Fights, The Himalayas, And so on… And so on…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles & Essays
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, anjuellefloyd.com
Have you ever watched a scene from a movie where two sword fighters are going at it?
And then they begin to move up the stairs, one sword fighter, moving in reverse up the incline of the steps, danger closing in, his back against the wall of conflict?
Remember how you felt? Your chest growing tighter, you engaged with what was happening rooting for one or the other swordsmen.
It goes the same with writing fiction. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: action, causal, cause-and-effect, conflict, dilemma, episodic, fiction, goal, Himalayas, Jeanette Winterson, novel, obstacles, plot, problem, question, rise and fall, roller coaster, sword fight, The Passion, writer
Change, Challenge and Seasons of Growth…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Musings
I’ve been gone most of the summer, first to Brussels, then to Maui where vacation each year.
As the opening of the new school year approaches I am amazed at how it seems that just yesterday I was bidding a enjoyable and safe travels to fellow parents and their daughters and sons who attend the same school as my children.
Now nearly 2 and half months later I have received the first in a line of requests from the service that provides lunches at the school our youngest child attends the choices of entrées our child desires. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: Brussels, challenge, change, child, children, conflict, daily round, desires, emotions, evolution, growth, human development, journey, life, Maui, meaning, narrative, pattern, plot, pre-teen, protagonist, purpose, season, stories, structure, symbol, talisman, transformation, travel, vacation, writing
…Married Life–why I write…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under ...married life | why i write...
Loving, Impermanence and The Illusion of Self…
August 1, 2010 by Anjuelle Floyd
I recently read he 20th century Tibetan Buddhist master, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s commentary on Lama Mipham’s The Wheel of Investigation and Meditation That Thoroughly Purifies Mental Activity.
Khyentse Rinpoche writes in the commentary, “Instead of being convinced that there is a self-entity, we realize that self is a mere concept.“
His words immediately drew me in.
A psychotherapist, I am forever pondering notions of self and other, phenomena, as Khyentse Rinpoche urges are but constructions of the mind in it, and our feeble efforts to understand and navigate the world, life and loving.
But there I go again, linking the mind, my thoughts and feelings to me, and who I really am.
Khyentse’s commentary, listed in the Summer 2010 Issue of the Buddhist Review, Tricycle, followed a brief article by Jakob Leschly, wherein Leschly describes his 16-year experience, starting in 1975, of studying with Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche along with many others who were students of the meditation master. Continue Reading »
Tags: Buddhism, Buddhist Review, change, death, ego, impermanence, Jakob Leschly, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Lama Mipham, life, living real, love, marriage, meditation, other, self, substantive, The Wheel of Investigation and Meditation That Thoroughly Purifies the Mind, Tibetan master, transitory, Tricycle, world
Loving, Impermanence and The Illusion of Self…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under ...married life | why i write...
I recently read he 20th century Tibetan Buddhist master, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s commentary on Lama Mipham’s The Wheel of Investigation and Meditation That Thoroughly Purifies Mental Activity.
Khyentse Rinpoche writes in the commentary, “Instead of being convinced that there is a self-entity, we realize that self is a mere concept.”
His words immediately drew me in.
A psychotherapist, I am forever pondering notions of self and other, phenomena, as Khyentse Rinpoche urges are but constructions of the mind in it, and our feeble efforts to understand and navigate the world, life and loving.
But there I go again, linking the mind, my thoughts and feelings to me, and who I really am.
Khyentse’s commentary, listed in the Summer 2010 Issue of the Buddhist Review, Tricycle, followed a brief article by Jakob Leschly, wherein Leschly describes his 16-year experience, starting in 1975, of studying with Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche along with many others who were students of the meditation master. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: Buddhism, Buddhist Review, change, death, ego, impermanence, Jakob Leschly, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Lama Mipham, life, living real, love, marriage, meditation, other, self, substantive, The Wheel of Investigation and Meditation That Thoroughly Purifies the Mind, Tibetan master, transitory, Tricycle, world
Of Pacing, Tension and the All-Important Artistry of Holding the Reader’s Attention…a
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays, anjuellefloyd.com
Author, Ken Follett, writes, “There is a rule which says that the story should turn about every four to six pages. A story turn is anything that changes the basic dramatic situation. It can change it in a little way or change it in a big way. …You can’t go longer than about six pages without a story turn, otherwise the reader will get bored. … Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, follows the same rule. In Dickens it’s the same; something happens about every four to six pages.”
The author of at least 20 novels, many of which are thrillers that have achieved international success, this list includes Follett’s well-received historical works, The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, the latter of which made the New York Times Best Seller List.
Adapted for film, The Pillars of the Earth debuted July 23, 2010 on Starz as a mini-series.
When it comes to pacing, Follett’s admonishments are well taken. But what is he really talking about?
Pacing. Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: action, arc, attention, build, causality, cause-and-effect, character development, Charles Dickens, conflict, engagement, Jane Austen, Ken Follet, pacing, plot, Pride and Prejudice, protagonist, reaction, reader, tension, The Pillars of the Earth, thriller, timing, transformation, World Without End, writer
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