Always, I'm amazed at how much you pack into so few words.
His commands each day: why would any sane woman comply?
She finds ways to execute each order.
You comment: "all three of his commands could have been requests to harm him in some way" -
Intriguing!
And this biographical gem: "My having once stabbed a heart in just this way appeared. Into the story it went."
Their children write poems and turn them into bookmarks for her.
That small detail really leaps out at me.
Along with the line everyone will gravitate to: children know more about love than we do.
(Sure enough, others have already highlighted it: "Children of seven years know more than adults in any room, don't they? When do we unlearn how to love?")
We readers could speculate and write pages about this story!
Bravo!!!!
I love you Carol!!!
My real life, surreal these days, usually seeps into my freewrites. I imagine most writers use stuff from their experiences, no?
I have two of those bookmarks on the mirror in my bedroom, one from Niko and one from Lily, both written in first grade. The last line of Lily's is "I don't know how to say all my feelings." Niko talked about how when he was in my belly he didn't know what kind of mom he was going to have, and he was a little scared. His last line is "I know you are a good mom." It's very hard for me to read it, even still! When will that poem make me as happy as it did when he first wrote it?
I love your writing, the way your real life slips in between the words like butter adding so much to dry bread, or like the unseen spices that make the difference between a gourmet spaghetti sauce and a sour red tomato paste. Those little vignettes of truth, your truth, your life - maybe these are part of what sets your writing apart, gives it an authenticity (a punch in the gut too!) that so many writers seem to be missing.
Just revisited a book about writing (how many of these can the market support??) -
"Don Quixote Meets The Mob: The Craft of Fiction & The Art of Life" by Susan Taylor Chehak, a graduate of the University of Iowa writing workshop, a former student of John Irving, a teacher.
#ferocious - that may be the word for what you do so well!
Yes! It's so hard to describe where my stories come from. They don't seem to come from me, but rather through me, similar to what I imagine speaking in tongues is like. If only I would not stop them with judgement! Sometimes I can pull that off. I did with this one, and some unusual stuff came out (if you ask me - I was surprised!), for a prompt that could have produced a banal story. I suppose all prompts could do that.
Does Susan Taylor Chehak write poetry? Her prose is certainly poetic.
Your real life slips into your stories too, doesn't it? I don't see how one could write much of anything if they weren't open to allowing that. The personal images that come to my mind are much easier to write than if I am trying to make it all up.
P.S. It goes without saying, but - I LOVE YOU TOO!!!
Your writing (fiction, poetry, essay) always speaks to me :)
You have been my biggest fan for years now! I'm yours!
When am I going to see this steamy novel of yours? I have that early draft of it, but you told me not to read that version, because you were revising it.
Oh dear, I do not deserve to have any "fans" - I abandoned the ghost writing gig.
They have my real name, bio, and photo.
I don't even get to see the cover art, title, author alias, the book (when published) -
That was a deal breaker.
"Sign the contract please so we can proceed" -
um, I can't sign this.
You get to know who I am but you don't trust me with seeing my book and whatever reviews it might get?
No. Just, no
But thank you for believing in me. Now I need to finish this story. :)
That sounds like theivery to me, and I'm glad you abandoned it. I'd have to be quite desperate for money to agree with anything like that, and they were paying little as I recall. How did they find you? I look forward to reading the story!