Calling on the Muse: A Meditation for Creative Spirits by Mary Sharratt

September 15, 2016September 15, 2016 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

For my writer friends out there. I have blogged about her books before.

mary sharratt The world at large might view artists and writers as free spirits rocking la vie bohème, but creative people know that it’s much more complicated than that, especially if we’re striving to earn even a modest living from our work. As a writer, I often fall into the trap of measuring my success or failure on factors completely beyond my control, such as the ups and downs of a fickle book buying market.

I know that I’ve often wrestled with the feeling that I’ll never be enough. Never be big enough, never be a bestseller. Sometimes it’s hard not to succumb to a flailing sense of helplessness—why are any of us doing all this? Worst of all is my fear of creative dryness—that my inspiration will turn to dust and I’ll never write—let alone publish—another book.

woman_writing

View original post 722 more words

Women Writers and the Story Circle Network

March 24, 2016 / Juliana Lightle / 1 Comment

More than twenty years ago, I coauthored a book with an attorney. Not only did it get published, it was also translated into Spanish. The topic, the momentum for its topic, seems basically gone now. Some technical and business magazines published a few articles I wrote. I wrote some safety manuals, other technical stuff, rather boring, uninspiring. Then I discovered the Story Circle Network.

The Story Circle Network inspired me to write creatively again–once upon a time in high school my poetry was published. Then I quit writing for years. When I started again, it was technical or business writing. If you want to write your stories, read other women’s stories, just explore fiction, poetry, travel writing, you name it, join this organization. It changed not only my writing life, but my life in a broader sense. Through it I met not only other writers, I also became a board member, made new friends who write and share. This inspiring organization not only provides classes, publishes, but also hosts various writing contests and a biannual conference. In the middle of April, I will head to Austin for the conference. The keynote speaker is no other than Brooke Warner, the woman who founded She Writes Press. Go to http://www.storycircle.org to learn more about the conference and the just announced winners of the Sarton Women’s Literary Awards, become inspired, create, publish, grow. Without this organization, I seriously doubt I would have written my book of poetry, published by Uno Mundo Press in April 2014.

10285598_10201564553698114_927164360_o

Because of comments from readers of this book, inspiration from friends, and personal interests, I am now working on another book.

I offer thanks to the Story Circle Network for renewing my writing life.

Rewriting Religion: the radical poetry of Aemilia Bassano Lanier by Mary Sharratt

March 23, 2016March 23, 2016 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

This illustrates how recently in history English speaking women have gained the right to openly display their talents, how hard won these gains have been. These rights can just be as easily be lost unless we remain vigilant.

Sharratt_DarkLady-hi

Aemilia Bassano Lanier (also spelled Lanyer) is the heroine of my new novel The Dark Lady’s Mask. Born in 1569, she was the highly educated daughter of an Italian court musician—a man thought to have been a Marrano, a secret Jew living under the guise of a Christian convert. She may have also been the mysterious, musical Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s sonnets, although most academic scholars dispute this. What we do know for a fact and what really matters is that she was the first woman in England to pursue a career as a published poet.

In Italy women such as Isabella Andreini published plays and poetry on a wide variety of secular subjects, but in England Lanier effectively had only one option—to write devotional Protestant verse. Her English literary predecessors, Anne Locke and Mary Sidney, wrote poetic meditations on the Psalms.

But Lanier turned this…

View original post 636 more words

Brilliant books by brilliant writers

March 7, 2015March 7, 2015 / Juliana Lightle / 1 Comment

In case you are looking for something new to read. I would add any book by Leslie Marmon Silko. My all time favorite book, “Storyteller”, written by her contains a story I must have read 50 times, “Yellow Woman”.

Samuel Snoek-Brown

And all these writers are women.

I spotted this list of 30 books by women in my Facebook newsfeed — the always-glorious Lidia Yuknavitch shared it — and I loved the first line of the intro:

“Let’s be real: You should be reading books, and books by women, every month of the year.”

Amen!

But yes, it’s Women’s History Month here in the states, and while Emily Temple, author of this listicle, claims, “That women have contributed just as much to our literary culture as men doesn’t even need to be said,” I think, sadly, it does. We need to say it again and again, not just this month but every month.

So read a bunch of books by women. And the ones you don’t finish? Well, there’s always next month, and the month after that, and the rest of the year.

Need a hint of where to start? There are a bunch…

View original post 352 more words

The Story Circle Network

January 31, 2014January 31, 2014 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

This month, January 2014, is the anniversary of my becoming a STAR BLOGGER with the Story Circle Network, an organization of women writers from all over the world headquartered in Austin, Texas. This month, I became a member of their board. Every other year they hold a conference in Austin, Texas. This year the conference will be April 11-13 at the Wyndham Hotel in Austin. You do not have to be a writer to attend the conference. I attended for the first time nearly two years ago and it changed my life. Yes, I had published a book previously, a book about preventing sexual harassment, co-authored with an attorney–written years ago when sexual harassment was a particularly “hot” topic in corporate America. It was even translated into Spanish. I had been paid to write technical manuals, paid to speak at a technical conference, that sort of thing. I wanted to write something different, something creative. This conference lead me to a new writing path for which I am very grateful.

The Story Circle Network provides all sorts of classes as well, memoir writing, travel writing, poetry, flash fiction, blogging, as well as editing services and advertising. First, I took a blogging course and started this blog–that anniversary will be next month–two years blogging.

Now to the big news: within the next couple of months my book of poetry, On the Rim of Wonder, will be published. Some of the poems or versions thereof were first published right here on this blog. Do you want to become inspired, change your life, meet fantastic women writers, visit Austin? Attend this conference!!! You will not regret it.