Philippa Ballantine - Author

Award-winning Author of fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk

Guest posts

Guest Post – A Small Poem

As part of the Write by the Rails Endless Possibilities Blogtour, I’m happy to welcome Katherine Gotthardt to my blog with a little taster of poetry.

A Small Poem

Fruit fly on a slice of thin toast,
hard-to-read font (Times, I think),
a puppy’s eyelash,
the one-inch Buddha on my desk—
we’re operating in small today.

The freckle on my knuckle,
the blanket lint on my pants,
the birds’ distant dialogue,
and politics.
It’s all small.

It’s all in the eye of the beholden:
the crumb, the text, the hair, the silver statue,
the pigment, the bedding,
the sparrows, Congress.
It’s all small.

The willing squint to see,
reach to touch,
strain to hear—
or not to hear.
Maybe they just close their eyes
and keep their hands to themselves.

Not me.
I move in closer.

Katherine M. Gotthardt
Copyright Oct. 26, 2013
Originally published by Dagda Publishing, 2013

Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt is a poetry and prose writer residing in Western Prince William County, VA, where she enjoys exploring history, art, culture and nature.  An advocate for preservation, conservation, education and civic engagement, Katherine volunteers for several non-profit organizations.  A former community writer for the regional News & Messenger newspaper, Katherine has taught college English composition online and English as a Second Language (ESOL) at an adult detention center.  She currently freelances as a writer and editor, sets up websites and blogs, teaches blogging and writing and reports for Haymarket Beat.

Katherine’s poetry and prose have appeared in various online and text journals.  Poems from the Battlefield, a collection of her Civil War themed poetry, original and archival photos and period quotes, was published in 2009.  Katherine’s children’s book, Furbily-Furld Takes on the World, was published in 2010.  Approaching Felonias Park, a novel focusing on predatory lending, was released in November, 2011.  Weaker Than Water, a second collection of Katherine’s poetry, came out in April, 2013.

Guest Post – Twitterpated

As part of the Write by the Rails Endless Possibilities Blogtour, I’m happy to welcome chapter president Cindy Brookshire to my blog with some novice tips on spring cleaning Twitter.

steampunk twitterMarch is about to roar in like a lion, so before the big blustery cat moves in, it’s time to preempt him with a quick spring cleaning of our platforms and social messaging tools.

Ugh, call the char woman or the chimney sweep. I’m too busy plotting.

I’m not asking you to do an overhaul – just a spit-and-polish.  Take Twitter for example.  I went to a local Chamber of Commerce small business roundtable yesterday, and these are five tips I picked up for maximizing “my presence as a thought leader” on Twitter:

  1. Make sure my profile description has an updated photo and key words that help people find me.
  2. Clean off the spammers that are following me and block them. They are easy to identify – “rapid weight loss” is one.
  3. Maximize your audience during prime tweet times: a. lunch b. quittin’ time c. 3 pm to 9 pm on a Monday or a Friday d. during any live event.
  4. Check out my competition and position my accordingly.
  5. Don’t use phrases like “thought leader” (oops, that was my own tip).

Ah, spring. Add some romance to those plots, and have a great day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXBbgzQmpJw

Cindy tweets as @cindybrookshire and @writebythe rails.

 

 

Guest Post – Consider a Memoir

As part of the Write By the Rails Endless Possibilities Blogtour, I’m happy to welcome Jan Rayl to my blog with tips on how to get your memoir done.

They say everyone has a book in them, and I believe it. I want to encourage some of you that have been toying with the idea of writing a book to consider a memoir. There are many stories about families lost to the passage of time. Generations of family history are lost. With the advent of self-publishing it is easier than ever to publish a book for a smaller audience like your relatives.

My father, Al Rayl, did just what I am talking about. He wrote a book, “Beyond my Wildest Dreams,” about his life for our family. I learned that I am related to Silas Vance, once Secretary of State for the United States. If that is not enough claim to fame I also learned I am related to Don Knotts aka Barney Fife. He was on, The Andy Griffith Show, a popular television show when I was growing up. These and many other family memories might have been lost had it not been for the book my father wrote.

Where to start? Start at the beginning, where you were born, and grew up. What memories do you have of specifics from “back in the day.” Were there family traditions for holidays?  What can you tell about parents, grandparents, great-grand parents? Include those family legends and tales that you have been told as part of your family tradition.  Interview your parents and grandparents and other relatives with open ended questions; “tell me about growing up in..,” or “what is the most unusual thing you know about our family,” or “do you know anything or anyone famous in our family?” Make a list of ten questions to ask and more will come to you as you start the process.

Start asking those relatives older than you their story, before their stories die with them.  Some you may know as fact and can be stated as such and some are legend. For example, my Grandmother tells me she believes we are part Choctaw Indian because she recalls her Grandmother told her this. At this point it is still family legend; however she recently gave me a name to work with. So now I am in the process of verifying this information. This is one example I wish I had known when I was paying for college had I been able to confirm it back then it could have helped financially with my education. You never know what gems your relatives may tell you if you interview them for your family history book.

Chances are your family book will probably never win you a Pulitzer or make you a millionaire but it does leave the legacy of your family story for generations to come. You might find some hidden gems out there that can be shared for generations to come.

Once you have all your information garnered write it down.  Each chapter can tell about a different aspect or time period of your family. You can do this in Microsoft word or Apple pages or any other word processing program. Once you have the story down on paper edit, edit, edit. I cannot say this enough. Have someone read and proof your story. Someone in the family that has good command of grammar and spelling can proof for you. Give them a free copy of your book and a thank-you in the acknowledgments. Spell check will not catch all the mistakes. Nothing is worse than trying to read a poorly written book with mistakes on every page.

Once the book is done you are ready to get it printed. You can use a vast number of publishers. For something like this for the family I strongly urge you to use a publisher that only charges for your book. You do not need to pay them to publish your book.  You do not need to pay for marketing services. This is a family heirloom it is not a New York Times best seller. One such publisher I recommend is Lulu. You can search on line for other independent (indie) publishers that publish on demand. By looking for “on demand printing” you can get small press runs of a few books and do not have to get more copies made than you janactually want.

If you are in the Prince William County are feel free to come to a Write by the Rails meeting and be encouraged in your quest to write your family treasure.  If you live in another are find your local writers group they are a great source of encouragement and inspiration. For more information on Write by the Rails

Jan is a travel and book review blogger. Jan is also a multi-media artist. Other fascinating travel facts, recommendations, adventures and reviews of the ever important vacation book can be found on Jan’s Blog  or on Facebook  drop by and leave her a comment. Jan is a member of her local writing group Write by the Rails 

Guest Post – Sometimes the Wolf Howls

EdgelandersToday I’m happy to welcome to my blog, Jennifer Meltzer the author of Edgelanders.

There is something primal inside us all, something feral and dark that relishes in the notion of freeing itself from the chains that bind us.

Whenever I think of that primal essence, of the inner-beast, I am reminded of the werewolf archetype, and of Fenrir of Norse mythology.

Son of Loki and the wolf mother, Angrboda, Fenrir was the very embodiment of destruction. When allowed to rampage, he destroyed and devoured everything in sight, simply because he could. By the time he reached adulthood, he’d grown so powerful the gods asked the dwarves to forge a golden chain strengthened by six impossible elements he would never be able to break: the nerves of a bear, the roots of a mountain, the steps of a cat, the beard of a woman, the spit of a bird and the breath of a fish. And with this impossible chain, they imprisoned Fenrir in a cave beneath the mountain, where he bides his time until Ragnarok, when it is prophesied that he will slay many a god, including the Allfather, Odin, during the final battle of this world.

On a symbolic level, the primal nature that resides in us all is so powerful, it must be chained in the deepest part of ourselves to ensure it does not overrun our lives.

But what if the beast was just as much a part of the man, as the man himself?

The beauty of the werewolf archetype, beyond the fact that there’s something intriguing about a beast who can also compose himself and with rational thought at times, is that he is driven by his own dual nature. He is fierce, powerful and just a little bit unhinged, and while there’s nothing sexy about someone so unhinged you’re worried he’ll start stalking you like prey, there is something appealing about a potential mate who’s not afraid to be reckless or take risks to ensure the survival of that which he holds dear.

Historically, wolves have a rather bad reputation. The “Big Bad” ate Red’s granny. He preyed on the three little pigs, huffing and puffing and blowing their houses down. His presence in the untamed woods filled Peter’s grandfather with so much fear he locked the boy inside the house and forbid him to go outside.

Predatory by nature, our fear of this primal beast has seen the wolf population dwindle over the centuries. This topic inspired me while writing Edgelanders, the first novel in my epic fantasy series, Serpent of Time. Centered around the U’lfer, a race of men with the ability to shape-shift into wolves and embrace their primal nature, they are a people all but extinct, and with so few mated pairs left among them, they can’t reproduce enough offspring to ensure their survival in the world.

Despite the negative image history presents us with, wolves are very protective of their own. They are pack and family oriented and it has been said they mate for life (so long as their mating is producing enough offspring to ensure the survival of the species.)

Writing about werewolves has given me the opportunity to explore the most primal aspects of man, the facets we often find dangerous and frightening. With just the right spin on the struggle between man and his inner-beast, the werewolf becomes a sympathetic character we can all relate to on some level we might not like to admit.

We are all subject to our primal nature from time to time, to the unforgivable urges of the beast within; most of us have just learned to ignore those urges and carry on as though they don’t exist. We keep that part of ourselves chained in the cavern of our soul, bound by impossible things like a fish’s breath and the roots of a mountain.

But sometimes the wolf howls strong, and in those moments we remember and know that one day we must answer the call, embrace the beast and let go our inhibitions.

 

Jennifer MelzerBio: Jennifer Melzer spent the majority of her life as a writer denying she actually liked to write romance, only to wake up one morning and discover every single tale she’d ever written somehow revolved around the heart. She has since given into the whim.

She resides in northeastern Pennsylvania with her husband, daughter, a bunch of dragons and a dog who thinks he’s a wolf. She dreams nightly of laying on the beach and watching stars fall over the Atlantic Ocean.

Website: jennifermelzer.com

Twitter: jennybeanses

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifermelzerauthor

Literary Time Travel

Hope and HardshipToday as part of the Write by the Rails Endless Possibilities Blogtour, I’m happy to introduce Linda D Johnston to you all.

I believe in the importance of the written word and its role in our history, whether the author is a famous statesman, a poet, or a woman inviting her sister to a birthday celebration.

This past June I had a chance to see an example of such a birthday invitation, written in Latin, found at Vindolanda, the site of a Roman fort just south of Hadrian’s Wall. The fort, first settled in 80 A.D., guarded the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire in England and housed soldiers and their families.

When Claudia Severa wrote the words, “I shall expect you sister. Farewell, sister my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper, and hail,” to Suplicia Lepidina, she could never have imagined that 1900 years later so many people would see them and learn so much from the tiny wooden tablet they were written on. Historians have gained a much better understanding of how the people at Vindolanda lived from the hundreds of additional tablets they found at this site that predates Hadrian’s Wall by about forty years.

Whether written on wood or paper, words from everyday individuals become part of the human story, a touchstone to the past. In my own research, I have many opportunities to read personal diaries and letters from the past.  Each document has sent me on an adventure where I encountered someone new in a place I might otherwise not have discovered. Will electronic documents have the same impact as something tactile like wood or paper? I am not sure.  But one thing is certain, whatever medium we use, we must choose our words carefully, as Claudia did. Who knows who might see them hundreds of years from now?

Linda Johnston

 

Thank you, Pip, for letting me be a guest today!

Writer and artist Linda S. Johnston enjoys combining history, art, and nature in her writing.  Her first book, Hope Amid Hardship: Pioneer Voices from Kansas Territory, is a collection of pioneer writings on the happy side of life in early Kansas and includes watercolor sketches throughout. To learn more about Linda and her writing, please visit www.lindasjohnston.com