Sunday 5 October 2008

Sunday Salon

The Sunday Salon.com

You may be noticing some changes on my blog - the new header,which is a picture I took myself with our digital camera of visitor to my garden this past summer. I have planted a butterfly and bee flower garden deliberately, and this was the first time I saw the Monarch butterfly on the butterfly bush! So I grabbed our camera and this is the result. I was and am so delighted! "If you build it, they will come." No wonder Field of Dreams is such a powerful movie. You have to picture it, imagine it somehow, before it can come into being. And I want to feed the butterflies and bees.

Which all provides me with the next change: Sunday Salon. I have long been admirer and reader of this book forum, and finally took the plunge last week and signed up. So here, as I start my second year of blogging, I'm going to begin writing about books and what I'm reading, on Sundays.

And wouldn't you know it? The very first blog I went to on Sunday Salon, had a post on writing! Exile on 9th Street, a new blogger to me, posted about the writing life and creativity here.
What I want to talk about, from his post, is the book he brings up - Write Free, Attracting the Creative Life, by Rebecca Lawton and Jordan Rosenfeld. It sounds like a feel-good book about living a creative life, as Exile says, new-agey. But what he is discovering in it, has meaning for me: 'What’s the book about, you ask? It’s principally about how to a attract a creative life through positive thinking. But it’s not just thinking you’ll be a writer that the book proposes: it proposes action and resolve. It helps writers, or any creative person for that matter, focus on what they want by writing down their desires and acting on them.' As some of you know, I am a writer also, and I wrote my first draft of a fantasy novel over the last several year, concentrating and finishing the draft by last Christmas. Then I put it away. Last night, at a party for a friend's birthday, I encountered members of my old writing group! I hadn't seen most of them in almost 20 years. So, they asked me what I was doing, and I told them about the book. Today, I made my mind up that it's time to get back to writing. I've had enough time off and away from creating. I copied out the section from Exile's blog because for me, focusing my desires and acting on them has always been fraught with anxiety for me. Not that I can't do it, more that I am afraid to know what I want, because then I would have to go out and get it. And I'm scared of that. Is it just power? Is it the possibility I could have everything I dreamed of? The thing is, I am not far from having a really good life I like. What I don't have is a strong creative section set aside for myself, and that's what I need. I've been seeing this year, I think, if I need to write. and I always come back to yes. Because I enjoy writing, I enjoy creating stories, I like writing about ghosts and magic and people. There is a power for me in writing that, a sense of being connected to a deeper river of life around me. I want my life to have meaning. It's that authentic self stuff again, I know! I think I will get this book and, as I feel some anxiety in answering questions about what I really want, I also know that is where I've hidden away from myself something that I need.

Sadly, I read one Stephen King story in Everthing's Eventual today, I'm trying to finish the book tonight so I can start on Lonely Werewolf Girl tomorrow. I'm enjoying Everything's Eventual, but I can't shake the feeling that I've read all the stories before, yet I can't remember when or where I was! It could be whole deja vu thing, but it doesn't feel like it!

I hope you have had a good Sunday catching up on reading, and whatever else you wanted to do this weekend. If you know any recent good books on writing, please let me know about them. I am going to get Natalie Goldberg's new one soon, as well, which Andi at Andi Lit has been writing from over the past spring and summer and sounds wonderful.

From good writing comes good reading. The best books are written with passion, and so are the best lives lived. That's what I aspire to! (There. I said it!)

by the way, my old writing group did invite me back; I don't know if I am ready, mostly because they write hard science fiction, and I write fantasy, which was the reason my friend Jennifer and I left in the first place! (She writes fantasy also) We actually were part of one other writing group, and then it all fizzled out. This was all in the late 1980's, fresh out of university and starting life..... They are a lovely group of writers, and I might go back for a visit, in which I will let you know how it goes! I think though, that this blog and the blogging writing community functions as my writing group that I need right now. Mostly I just need to sit down and get writing again. Now that I am reading more, it's time to balance with writing again.

11 comments:

chrisa511 said...

That picture is gorgeous Susan! I've been debating joining Sunday Salon as well. It'll give me a reason to post more often and I always really enjoy reading everyone else's SS posts. And way to go on getting back into writing! Have you thought of doing NaNoWriMo this year?

Maree Jones said...

Sunday Salon is great - I've only been a member for a few months but I find it motivates me to read and I always enjoying reading other people's Sunday Salon posts. I think the photo is wonderful too, Susan! I like "new-agey" (one person's "new-agey" is another person's "inspirational") writing books and I've read quite a few. Congratulations on getting back into creating and writing - how exciting. :)

Bybee said...

I didn't know Natalie Goldberg had a new book out! I really love her writing books. Hurry and finish your novel so I can be your first buyer.

? said...

Hello again, I’m tickled by this post! Into photography are you? While not as visually dramatic as birds I think butterflies and bees are among the most beautiful insects on the planet. One of the few insects we desire to see in our flower gardens and I am sure it made you glad. Because you still matter to me, I am hoping that some time soon I will elvove from being red eyes and turn into that beautiful butterfly above so you can write on my wings. You are definitely one of the readers whose comments I desire to read on my blog but do you think we share the same views on satanic verses which I'm currently reading?

In the meantime, I'm checking out the links - Exile on 9th Street...and Andi at Andi Lit.

Hope to see you soon!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the link, and keep writing. Stay inspired.

Ana S. said...

I love the header, Susan! Really gorgeous!

I plan on starting Lonely Werewolf Girl soon too. I got my copy in the mail a few days ago (signed! yay!) and I can't wait to get to it. I will as soon as I finish Lost Boy Lost Girl. It'll be fun to compare notes with you!

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the Salon, Susan. Lovely to have you here. I read that post too and thought about looking out the books that were mentioned. but I'm not really a writer, more an observer of those who write.

Sarah at SmallWorld said...

Welcome to the Salon! Love your header. I was just out taking pictures of monarchs in our flower beds today!
~SmallWorld Reads

Susan said...

chris: I hope you join SS too! What is NaNoWriMo?? and thanks about the picture. I really like how it turned out. And that the butterflies are coming!

beautiful witch: welcome! I'll come check your blog out shortly. thanks about the photo! And I like new age too, I just don't like all the stuff that says we create everything we experience - I rather think now that the universe has some say too. Co-creators. Can yo recommend any writing books you particularly like or turn to? I'm always on the look-out for good ones!

bybee: thanks! and thanks for your support! At least I have one buyer now :-) ! I forget the name of Natalie's book - I've looked at it in the bookstore, but it's expensive and hardcover, so I'm still deciding if I wait for the paperback to come out....

red eyes: I haven't tried Satanic Verses yet. How are you finding it? I'm still stuck in Midnight's Children.

todd: oh, you're welcome! keep writing too!

nymeth: thank you so much! I'll come see if you've read Lonely Werewolf Girl yet. It's such a great read! I loved it! signed copy - from Subterranean Press?

table talk: thank you! I look forward to seeing you there!!

small world: welcome! thanks for coming by! I guess you are farther south of us, since I think most of the butterflies have left by now - we had frost last night. How did your photos turn out? I'll come see you shortly....

Kim L said...

I love the header, its gorgeous! Great post. I have recently been getting back into writing, but its hard to feed two loves... writing and blogging.

Susan said...

kim: I know exactly how you feel. Writing, or blogging, or reading, when you have a family, something has to give....or we don't sleep, eat poorly, call in sick to work.....have no friends....