Book Review - A Voyage Remembered by Leslie Snow

A Voyage Remembered
Leslie Snow
Hardcover: 220 pages
Publisher: Peter E. Randall Publisher (March 18, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1931807787


BOOK BLURB: This is a story of a man and a woman with vastly different backgrounds who overcame obstacles and created art and living experience. Leslie Snow was a dancer, painter, and poet; Louis Féron was a goldsmith, jeweler, and sculptor. A Voyage Remembered chronicles the fascinating lives of these two distinguished artists, their international journeys, their connections with famed artists, individuals, and patrons, and their thirty-six years of marriage. Louis and Leslie believed the mind and feeling must be united to be free, and to be free is the greatest quality that exists.

Printed on rich paper that is a delight to touch, A Voyage Remembered is one of those books one would keep handy on a coffee table to peruse now and then. It has two sections of pictures - one in color the other black and white - of the art created by Feron who was an amazing sculptor and goldsmith, and I have gone back several times to enjoy them again. The story of the relationship between these two creatively gifted people is is filled with interesting bits of history that shaped the artists they became. For instance, Feron did not have a formal education due to a childhood of poverty, and during World War I he developed his strong work ethic, perhaps because war made him more aware of his mortality.

The book opens with a short memoir of Leslie's early life as she recounts her first introduction to the magic of dance. It is very factual, and a bit more of an emotional response to the situations in her life would have made this more engaging. I did enjoy the poems that she wrote and there the reader does get a sense of what she has felt, especially over the loss of Feron. Her "Song to Louis" recounts in verse how they met and fell in love, and "Passage" touches on her grief. It begins, "My loss remains a desert of shifting sands..."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Leslie Snow grew up in South Orange, New Jersey and spent the years 1950–1963 performing with the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Charles Weidman Dance Company, and the Mime Theater of Étienne Decroux. She has published two other books, Leslie Snow Paintings and Drawings and Poems of Leslie Snow. She currently resides in New Hampshire. LOUIS FÉRON (1901–1998) was a world-class goldsmith, jeweler, and sculptor, trained in Paris as gold and silversmith winning the title “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” in 1933.

Book Review - Restoration by Elaine Walsh

Restoration
Elaine Walsh
Print Length: 333 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0985566337
Publisher: Barks Out Loud (September 15, 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00F82A59G

The tagline for this book reads:  "When your life is shattered you can live damaged or choose to repair it." That is a fitting tagline, and the story tells how Tess Olsen chooses to repair hers, which was broken when her mother abandoned the family to marry a convicted killer. The author made a clever choice in giving Tess a job as an art restorer. There is a parallel between the meticulous care that has to be taken in restoring great works of art and the care it takes to put one's life on the right path.

Tess believes that the execution of Randall Wright will erase him and his influence from her life and then everything will be okay. It is in her reluctant sharing of feelings with Francesca, a co-worker, and Ben, the man she could love if she would allow, that she realizes it is not that simple. She is the one who has to wipe Randall Wright from her life, not the justice system or anyone else.

When the story opens, Tess is working in New York and has just met Ben. She has avoided any contact with her mother and is alarmed when her mother calls. At first the reader does not know why. And Tess's fear of Wright seems a bit off to me. Why is she so afraid of him? That question is answered later in the story, but I would have liked some hint of what he had done to terrorize her a bit earlier. I understood the emotional devastation of having her mother abandon her, but I didn't know why she was hiding from her mother and Randall Wright. He was in prison so he couldn't hurt her. That confusion was cleared up when I found out what he did to the artwork her mother made her create for him when Tess was much younger.

Because of her fear and her pain, Tess keeps herself emotionally detached from her co-workers and others she meets, and there is an emotional detachment to much of the narrative, reflecting that disconnect. Again a nice parallel in the writing; one that worked well on most levels, but I was hoping that when Tess was alone, thinking about all the trauma she had experienced, we might have been privy to whatever emotion she was feeling in private. Since readers and characters connect through emotions, that would have helped me care more about Tess. Not that I didn't care. I just didn't want her to be quite so distant.

Still, those minor issues I had were not significant enough to keep me from enjoying the book. There was much to like, including the supporting cast of characters who were all deftly presented. I particularly liked Francesca, Tess's mentor at the studio. Francesca helps Tess sort out her feelings for Ben, the New York Times art critic, who challenges Tess to step into a real relationship. That prospect scares Tess, as she is more comfortable with men like Kenyon LeMere, an artist who is more interested in sex and isn't afraid to show that preference to the world in his paintings. When Tess first meets him they parry about his rumored affairs and he says, "It's true that I love what I paint, and sometimes I paint who I love."

She counters, "Those with many partners love what they're doing, not who they're doing it with."

That was an interesting observation on her part, since her relationships up to this point involved many partners with no emotional entanglements, but it was a sign that she was starting that emotional shift that needed to happen. The exchange is also an example of some of the terrific dialogue in the book. It was all so real and natural, I enjoyed listening to these people talk.


Overall this is a good read, and I was cheering Tess on as she restored herself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elaine Walsh will be my guest on Wednesday with a post about a visit to McDonald's. Please do come back and make her feel welcome. Maybe we can all get a McCoffee, but don't tell the folks who own the local coffee shop. I do get my latte fix at their place most of the time. (smile)

Monday Morning Musings - Art and Creativity

The weekend was really busy with an art fair on Saturday and a writers club meeting on Sunday. It has been a long time since I have been in a writers group that met face-to-face, and I had forgotten how good it was to be able to do that.

Online groups are terrific. I have met so many wonderful writers who freely share their talent and expertise, and that has helped me over the past ten years to improve my writing and my business skills. Still, there is something special about sitting in the same room and feeling that creative energy surround you. It is also great to be able to have discussions and critiques that happen right now, so you can immediately clarify a point or a comment.

The writers who have come together to form The Hacks of Winnsboro, are a varied lot. Some of us are published, others are not. There are a few visual artists who are blending that form of art with writing, as they develop books to encourage people to do creative journaling. I like that idea, as my mother and I have done a form of that in our letter writing through the years. All of our letters end with some kind of drawing - often reflecting the time of the year or a holiday. Christmas and Easter are always fun, as is autumn when there are pumpkins and colorful leaves.

These are pictures she sent last fall as the leaves were falling in my sister's yard.

There was a great deal of creative energy in the room on Saturday, too. The artists that participated were all gifted in their particular form of artistic expression, working in all kinds of mediums and materials from paints, to stained glass, to wood, to jewelry, and lots of clever hand-crafted items. It as a good thing I sold a number of books so I had money to do some shopping.

My daughter, who frequently goes with me to these art events, also did some shopping. She contacted her siblings and arranged to get a piece of stained glass for me.

This lovely owl was done by Rose Burgin, an artist I met about four years ago when she was only a year or two into doing stained glass. She has emerged from being a hobbyist and has become a true artist. I am so thrilled to have a piece by her. Now she just needs a website to showcase her work online.

A truly gifted photographer could have captured this image and done it justice, but I was just taking a picture to send to the kids to show them where I might hang the glass in one of my office windows. Since I spend so much of my time here, I thought this would be a good place to have the owl. Now I just have to get it hung. Since I didn't want to tempt fate by keeping it perched on the window sill, it is packed between two boxes on the floor so the cats cannot knock it over and break it.

How was your weekend? Did you do things just for fun and get energized for the work week ahead?

No Book Review Today

Since I thoroughly messed up my blogging schedule by posting a review on Friday, I thought I would just skip it for today. Remember, I said "sometimes a review on Sunday." (smile)

Instead, I want to let you know that this coming Wednesday I have a guest coming, the "Retro" guy, Jeremy Hawkins, who is on the "It's Time" tour to introduce his new books and his new site "Being Retro" where he shares all things retro, and may include a zombie now and then. He is a terrific writer, musician, and artist and has promotional materials available for folks who are trying to spread the word about their business, book, film, music, or whatever. Plus he's just a heck of a nice guy.

I first met Jeremy via the annual Blogging From A to Z Challenge, and even though I don't care for zombies, he let me be on his Minion Team last April. It was fun working with him, and I am so excited for his new venture. Plus I like his website better with fewer zombies on it. (smile)

He sent me some pictures from his books, and they are terrific. Not all are my style, but he already knows my taste in art, music and books is more traditional. However, I can appreciate his talent, and he does have some lovely pictures that satisfy this traditional soul. I do love the covers of the first two books. Here is book one, and you can see book two cover on Wednesday. And the book titles, as well as the name of this tour will all make perfect sense. I'll admit I wondered about the titles.

Please do come back on Wednesday to see what he has ready to share with us. In the meantime, you can catch up with his tour schedule on his Being Retro site.

I also wanted to mention a terrific Labor Day sale going on at Untreed Reads. Many of the books and short stories there, including some of mine, are discounted 40% through Monday. No special codes needed. Just go pick out the book of your choice and get it for the lower price. You can get any of my short stories, including the popular retelling of the Goldilocks story, The Visitor.

Meet Author Elizabeth Buhmann

Please welcome Elizabeth Buhmann as today's Wednesday's Guest

Hello, and thank you, Maryann, for inviting me to be a guest here on It’s Not All Gravy. I’m Elizabeth Buhmann, author of Lay Death at Her Door, a murder mystery which has just been released by Red Adept Publishing. I live in Austin, Texas, where I worked for twenty years at the Texas Attorney General’s Office doing research and writing on criminal justice and crime victim issues. Lay Death at Her Door is my first novel.

Hey, we're fellow Texans. 

1. How did you come to write in the genre you chose?

I have always loved the mystery genre. I started reading Nancy Drew when I was a child and graduated to Erle Stanley Gardner as a teenager. From there, I moved on to PD James, Dorothy Sayers, Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, and Ruth Rendell, to name just a few. Among contemporary writers, I love Sue Grafton, Michael Connelly and Gillian Flynn—and others! I would bet that half the books I’ve read in my life have been murder mysteries. I love the intellectual challenge of a good murder mystery, and to me, it’s satisfying when a killer is dragged out into the open and brought to justice.

2. What is a typical writing day like for you?

I get up blindingly early in the morning—often as early as four—while it’s still dark outside. I make a pot of tea and sit in my office with my dog at my feet to tackle the most important and creative work I want to do on that day. I break at about 7:30 to walk, have breakfast, and feed the chickens. I work off and on as the day progresses, shifting to more analytical tasks like editing, revising and polishing, or writing shorter pieces.

Oh, my, I did not realize four in the morning actually existed. So glad you verified that for me. (smile)

3. What is the most unusual or interesting research you have done for your books?

The main character in Lay Death at Her Door—her name is Kate—was born in Africa of expatriate American parents and came to the States as a teenager. I lived in other countries myself as a child, so I know what it’s like to reenter American culture from abroad. But I’ve never been to Kenya, where Kate is from. I loved reading about Kenya! So much so that I got carried away and put too much Kenyan history and politics in the manuscript. (Don’t worry—my editor took it back out.)

Thank goodness we have editors. Mine have been so helpful with the cutting. 

4. What gives you the most pleasure in writing?

I love everything about what I’m doing. I love giving free rein to my imagination, then following out the logic of a story and working within the boundaries of craft. I like working out the details—what year would Kate have been born, and where exactly in Kenya? What was her mother like, and how did that help shape who she is? What sorts of flowers would be growing in Tony’s garden at the house in Sedgewick? How would Max go about trying to find the mysterious missing man that Kate eloped with during a drunken weekend fling twenty years ago?

5. What other creative things do you do?

I draw and paint—you can see some of my watercolors at www.pommelhouse.com. I’ve maintained that large and rambling website for more than ten years—purely for my own entertainment. It’s like an online journal—my virtual home. I’m also a very ambitious gardener—out of control! I have nearly an acre, and the whole thing is planted and bedded and riddled with paths and benches and little rock walls. It’s always changing, never finished, and occupies an inordinate amount of my time.

I, too, love gardening, but mine is much more primitive. I hope my readers visit the website and view your art. Quite nice. 

6. What do you do for fun?

Tai Chi. I have a black sash, and I’m currently learning Chen style.

7. Where do your stories begin? With character or plot?

I love that question. I begin with the major act, the crux of the plot, which to me defines the main character. Every trait and quirk and habit of a character relates, at least in my mind, to what that character will do in the overarching plot of the story. And the actions that make up the plot reveal the truth about the characters. So I would say that for me, character and plot are inseparable and evolve together.

Lay Death at Her Door is built around the character of Kate Cranbrook—a woman who lied on the stand about murder, in order to protect herself. She’s a dark protagonist, and her character is key to understanding the heart of the mystery—what happened and why.

Thank you so much for your candid responses, Elizabeth. Readers, do you have any questions for her? 

While Elizabeth is in the spotlight here, I have cloned myself and am at two sites today. I'm sharing some writing tips from the comics at The Blood Red Pencil and having some fun at The Lightstealers Song.

I'm getting ready to go to the "Take 190 West Art Festival" in Killeen, Texas this weekend. I have never been to the event before, but I've heard it is terrific and I'm really looking forward to it. The festival is free to the public and runs on Saturday, Feb 27th from 10 to 4. I will be signing copies of One Small Victory. Other authors will be there, too, and you can check the Festival Web site for a full list of participants.

In addition, there are lot of talented artists who will be exhibiting their work, and it is always fun to spend time with others in the creative arts. Some people believe that all artists: performers, painters, musicians, writers, sculptors, photographers -- share in one creative consciousness. There is no scientific data to support that theory, but I do know that I am much more productive in my work after I have spent a weekend with others of the creative bent.

If you are near Killeen on February 27th, stop by the Killeen Civic and Conference Center and meet all the artists and authors.

Artistic Expression

We are having a wonderful Fine Arts Market in Winnsboro this weekend and I am signing copies of One Small Victory. Today I was there in the afternoon and will go back tomorrow afternoon from 12 until 4.

One of the neat things about this signing event is that it is at a gallery where a lot of artists are there to greet people. I got to talking to one of the artists and we commented about how one form of art feeds another. That got me to thinking about how important it is to take a break from writing and do something else.

That's probably why I enjoy acting and directing and some of the other artistic pursuits I have. I have always done them because they were fun, but I never really stopped to think about how important they are for my creativity.

The more I thought about that this afternoon, I realized that I know a lot of people who are proficient in several forms of artistic expression.

Writing is my only professional creative endeavor. The acting and directing is all as an amateur, as is my photography, guitar playing, and painting. But they all bring me great pleasure.

What about you? What kinds of artistic expressions do you enjoy? Is one more important than others?