It's bird, it's a plane, it's...true spring in New Jersey!
|
|
Hello Readers and Friends,
Something strange and lovely has happened in northern New Jersey this spring: we’re having spring-like weather! Instead of jumping straight from winter chill to days that feel like infernos, it’s actually spring: balmy, breezy, mild. Temps in the 60s. Cool evenings, sleeping with windows open. Days when I don’t dump a gallon of anti-frizz humidity control goop on my hair.
Hubby and I—novice empty-nesters—are eating on the patio, taking early evening walks without dripping (too much) sweat, leisurely shopping at farmer’s markets instead of grabbing quickly and bolting back to the air-conditioned car. Anyone who has lived in the Garden State knows it won’t last, and so it’s especially sweet.
These past precious weeks of true spring time have also lured me to stretch into a big new writing project. Which means I have an answer to the question that’s been following me since my first book,
Starting With Goodbye, was published last year: “Are you writing another book?”
Now, finally, I can say I know what that book will be about—well, as much as any memoir author truly knows at the start of a manuscript. But more important, I’m excited to be getting back on the horse, so to speak (pun
perhaps intended…).
That’s all I’ll say for now. That new book manuscript—now just a couple of dozen crappy-first-draft-brain-dump pages and a whole lot of hope—will take at least a year or so to write. That’s okay. Being underway matters. Perhaps what I needed was a rare moment—a true, extended, come-hither New Jersey spring—to give me a leg up into the writing saddle once again.
I hope you too have something to look forward to, that you’re in action on a project you love, that a true spring—in whatever form you need—is happening for you too.
Cheers,
Lisa Romeo
|
|
Reading Tips: Worth-your-time Books from Writers I Like
When you work so much of the time at home, as I do, feeling part of a larger community is essential. That’s why I’m happy to be in contact with wonderful fellow writers. It’s fun to pitch in to support their work, too.
|
|
Michigan author Lisa Lenzo and I connected years ago when I was doing some freelance editing for
Brain, Child magazine. I had the chance to interview her recently about her newest short story collection,
Unblinking (now available from Wayne State University Press). You can read the full
Q-and-A conversation over at The Rumpus.
|
|
Perhaps you already know how much I adore a cracking good essay. And two essayists whose work I tend to admire have new collections. I highly recommend both: Randon Billings Noble’s book is
Be With Me Always (University of Nebraska Press)….
|
|
…and Paul Crenshaw’s is
This One Will Hurt (Ohio State University Press). If you’re an essay fan at all, you’ll want these on your shelf.
See a little theme here? All from university presses! Yes, I have a fondness for that part of the publishing world…
|
|
|
|
Since
Starting With Goodbye was published, I’ve visited more than 45 bookstores, book festivals, libraries, writing conferences, book clubs, and civic/social organizations. I’m so grateful to the book-loving folks who host me, the lovely readers I meet and talk with, and other interesting authors I’m fortunate to appear beside.
|
|
|
|
People ask if I’m still doing book appearances in 2019 and beyond. Yes! Besides talking about the book, I also give presentations on: Memoir Writing 101; How to Get Your Book Published; and Writing About Family: Pleasure & Peril. If you’d like to host me, I’d
love to hear from you.
|
|
Let's work on your writing together this summer.
|
I have space for a few more coaching and editing clients this summer. You can read a bit about
my editorial services here
, or
email me
to let me know what you’re working on. To give you an idea of the mixed bag of client writing on my desk right now: a manuscript of historical fiction, a coming-of-age memoir, essays on all sorts of subjects, a contemporary women's novel.
Plus, here's how we can work on your writing
in person:
|
|
|
The Writers Circle in northern NJ:
|
|
Cedar Ridge Writers Series in central NJ:
|
|
Live Free and Write/Peter Murphy Writing
in New Hampshire:
|
|
Finally, I can’t forget it’s Father’s Day and all the special gifts Dad gave me, from show horses to a solid sense of integrity, from fancy trips to a compassionate worldview that honors and includes every kind of human being. And finally, of course, even as
grief still meanders
even 13 years on, he gave me
a book
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
