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Blog
Status Update
It’s spring, which for me generally means poetry. I don’t know why, but I tend to write more poetry as the weather changes over from winter to spring than at any other time of the year. Today is the first day of spring. It’s also been nearly a week of social distancing and grocery hoarding and constant talk of Covid-19 on social media. I was on Twitter briefly today and felt that “I should post something” feeling. I second later, I closed Twitter and wrote this.
Status Update
I have nothing to say
yet I must say it—
that I have nothing to say—
nothing interesting
nothing clever
nothing controversial
(whether intended or otherwise)
I have nothing to say
to any of you
but I must say something
because you are out there
scrolling
wanting to see
what people have to say
(not me, necessarily)
just anyone
anything to fill the silence
I must somehow say nothing
so it seems like something
to you
I must fill in your space
and you must fill in mine
as far as the character count
will allow, as far as
meaning can be stretched—
spread over barren lives
like white paint
over white canvas
adding up to so much
nothing
filling an emptiness
that was not there
until the possibility of filling it was
A Prayer for the Current Crisis
Hunkered down at home
my mind reaches out
to friends, yes, but more so
to their parents, my parents—
that generation the younger
set so despises, so blames
for all our planet’s woes
as though every generation
hasn’t done something (many things)
they couldn’t see the end of
things they would take back if they could
as though their own generation
will never make mistakes
I think of the moms and dads
who fed me during sleepovers
who took me to plays
who coached me in summer-dry fields
who taught me that, yes, defeat may come
but that should never mean I didn’t try
every second of every game
I call them to mind, one by one
and pray for closed doors
for stocked pantries
for clear lungs
And I pray for that younger set as well
who live from paycheck to paycheck
who have small children at home
who just started a business
whose product just launched
whose education has stalled
whose future is uncertain
I call them to mind
and pray for patience
and perseverance
and peace
I especially pray
that we would all get off the internet
and find ways of being
really
truly
present
Revising a Painting
Last night I reworked an older painting of mine using new skills developed over the past year.
Here’s what has been over my fireplace mantel for about a year or perhaps a bit longer:
I’ve always been unhappy with the water and felt the sand and sky were too yellow, though I liked the clouds. Then I got better at water through practice. And the lovely thing about oil paints is that you can paint over what you already have to fix it, unlike watercolor. Here’s the new and improved painting:
I didn’t paint over the whole sky, just near the horizon. The truer color is in the second photo.
What I was really lacking in the water in the first iteration was light, shadow, and definition. Everything was basically one color. Actual water registers as many colors, which change depending on the light, reflections, water clarity, and what’s at the bottom of it.
This painting still isn’t perfect. I have to get better about light sources. But it’s probably as good as I’m going to make it.
For a while now I have had an Etsy store called Erin’s Artful Life, but it’s been quiet of late. I don’t have much extra time to update it. So I am going to be moving my artwork over to my website. Soon you’ll see a new page (creatively named Artwork) where I’ll put pictures of my paintings and whatever else I may decide to create in the future. Some of it will be available for purchase. Some of it won’t.
Hopefully I will get to that in the early part of 2020. All part of simplifying my online presence so it feels less overwhelming. As this year closes out, that’s what’s on my mind.
First Real Snow
Last night it began to snow and it is still snowing now. Monday morning. Veteran’s day. There are still leaves on the big Norway Maples in the back yard. Still yellow leaves scattered across the back gardens that I didn’t have the energy to deal with after my son and I raked up the elm and ash leaves in the front, the refuse of two doomed trees.
The ash is one of the last standing around here, but the emerald ash borers did finally get to it and it is slowly dying, shrinking back each year so that only the middle of it gets leaves at all while the extremities are dead and brittle and break off in high winds or under heavy snow and ice. It is marked with a big red circle of spray paint, like a bullet wound seeping blood, and will be taken down by the city some time in the next year or so. In the meantime, I wouldn’t park under it if I were you.
The elm was an accidental planting, the result of using free mulch several years back. As far as I can work out, someone else was losing an elm tree to some sort of bacteria or fungus and had it cut down and chipped up and that is what the city brought me to mulch with when I inquired about free wood chips the year after the big ice storm took down so many limbs. I’d been expecting chips from dead trees, but this one still had some life in it (and seeds, apparently). So now its progeny grows at the confluence of three property lines and no one took it down when it was a sapling and manageable. At some point in the next five or ten years, it will start to die and we’ll all have to chip in to remove it. Though I’m pretty sure it’s my fault to begin with.
This spring I planted some trees on purpose. Three varieties of Japanese maple, a Japanese cherry, and one little redbud that was just a weed on the other side of the fence, which I transplanted to my garden and watched carefully all summer (they do not like to be moved). And now all those little baby trees are gathering snow in their bare arms, saving it to drink later when we have a warm-up. Which we will. The ten-day forecast includes several days that reach 40 degrees. Rain is predicted. I may yet get all those yellow maple leaves up, even if they are wet.
There are still a few other chores to do. I must wrap my new sky pencil holly in burlap. I must remove the bamboo fountain and the water pump, which I meant to do this weekend but forgot in my exhaustion and my desire to finish reading a book. I did manage to remember to get the cover on the outdoor furniture.
As we enter the season of cold and snow and ice and clouds I am content. I feel a release of breath. A busy season is ending. A shivering, staying-put-and-reading-and-writing one has begun. I have a few more events this month to support the release of The Words between Us, but nothing scheduled until March of next year (and no intention to put anything on the calendar before that month). I have a book that has steadily made its way from my brain into the tips of my fingers over the past year and is ready to be written. I have cozy slippers and a wood-burning fireplace and a small dog that lives to cuddle.
So yeah, I’m ready for winter. Even if the yard’s not.
It’s an honor just to be nominated…
Yesterday I received some pretty exciting news.
We Hope for Better Things is a finalist for the 2019 Christy Award in the General Fiction category! That’s amazing!
I don’t think I have a chance of winning (and that’s not false modesty–if it were in the First Book category, I would think it had a chance) because it is up against books from some pretty hard hitters in the Inspirational Fiction world, people who have already won multiple Christy Awards, are bestselling authors, and who’ve even had a novel made into a movie. But to even be a finalist is incredible.
Winners will be announced November 6th in Nashville.
Just stopping in so John Steinbeck can say…
My second novel, The Words between Us, is coming out September 3rd!
You may be wondering how you can get the book, support me as an author, or see me in person, so each day for the next four weeks on my Facebook page some literary luminaries from the past are going to make it easy for you. The first is John Steinbeck. Head on over to Facebook and like my author page so you don’t miss any of the rest of them!
And without further ado, here are some ways you can be part of this next book launch!
*****
Join me at one of my book launch events:
Sept. 3 @ 7pm at Baker Book House on East Paris in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Sept. 5 @ 7pm at Schuler Books & Music in the Meridian Mall in Okemos, Michigan
*****
Preorder at your local indie bookstore or online:
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780800734923
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-words-between-us-erin-bartels/1130543157#/
https://www.amazon.com/Words-between-Us-Erin-Bartels/dp/0800734920/
https://www.christianbook.com/the-words-between-us/erin-bartels/9780800734923/pd/73492X
*****
Add it to your to-read shelf on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43838303-the-words-between-us?ac=1&from_search=true
*****
Rate and review the book on Goodreads, Bookbub, or Amazon:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43838303-the-words-between-us?ac=1&from_search=true
https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-words-between-us-by-erin-bartels?bookstory=3196583
https://www.amazon.com/Words-between-Us-Erin-Bartels/dp/0800734920/
*****
Join my email newsletter list:
https://erinbartels.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=2d2e97b860f739e577bc95eeb&id=c3578997bb
Retiring the Blog
Hello there, blog. Remember me?
I’ve been spending a lot of time so far this year over on other people’s blogs talking about my debut novel, We Hope for Better Things. And other people have been spending time over here on my blog as I’ve shared interviews with other debut authors. And, of course, I’ve been sharing my new podcast episodes here. And if you get my email newsletter, you know I’ve been spending a fair amount of time on that for about two or three years.
All of this has added up to a lot less time and brainpower spent on blog posts. Perhaps that’s all well and good. People aren’t reading blogs as voraciously as they used to. They’re spending more time on Instagram and Twitter and podcasts. And those who are still reading blogs are less interactive than they used to be, because we’re all reading on our phones far more than on our computers, and that’s less conducive to typing out comments.
I must say, I miss the time I used to spend in this space. It has been, in one form or another, a part of my life for more than a decade. A decade during which I struggled to decide what it was I wanted to say and what I wanted to do with my time. It used to go by other names: Stuff No One Would Publish, The Consummate Amateur, A Beautiful Fiction. It had several different faces and two different web platforms. I’ve written about nature, gardening, seasons, travel, Michigan, family, sewing, quilting, and my long and determined trudge toward publication.
And now, here I am. All of that practice and all of that striving has paid off. And that means that I have less time than ever to muse in this space. Most free moments must be put to use in the creation and promotion of my novels (and there are more coming). I’ve set myself a rather punishing schedule with a weekly podcast and a monthly newsletter, one which I feel I must pull back from a little in order to give myself more time for novel writing.
All of this to say, I think it’s time to retire the blog, or at least put it on hiatus. I won’t delete the content. But it will be moving to a less prominent place on my website in the near future. Sort of a digital spring cleaning, if you will.
So if you like hearing from me now and again, may I suggest signing up for my at-the-moment monthly (though likely to become quarterly) email newsletter? And if you like more frequent glimpses into my life and mind you can follow me on Facebook or Instagram.
Just as the seasons change, life changes. What we once valued and took time for falls by the wayside, replaced by something better. And that’s just the point I am in my creative life right now. I hope you’ll join me in one of those other spots. Until then, I’ll be writing my next novel.
Thanks for reading. Really. My sincerest thanks.
Debut Author Interview: Martine Fournier Watson
Meet Martine Fournier Watson, author of the literary historical novel The Dream Peddler, which releases today from Penguin Books
Martine Fournier Watson is originally from Montreal, Canada, where she earned her master’s degree in art history after a year in Chicago as a Fulbright scholar. She currently lives in Michigan with her husband and two children. The Dream Peddler is her first novel.
Welcome, Martine!
Tell us about your book.
Traveling salesmen like Robert Owens have passed through Evie Dawson’s town before, but none of them offered anything like what he has to sell: dreams, made to order, with satisfaction guaranteed.
Soon after he arrives, the community is shocked by the disappearance of Evie’s young son. The townspeople, shaken by the Dawson family’s tragedy and captivated by Robert’s subversive magic, begin to experiment with his dreams. And Evie, devastated by grief, turns to Robert for a comfort only he can sell her. But the dream peddler’s wares awaken in his customers their most carefully buried desires, and despite all his good intentions, some of them will lead to disaster.
Where did you get the idea?
I was a huge fan of L. M. Montgomery growing up, and my favorite heroine was Emily of New Moon. Emily wants to be a writer, and in the final book of the trilogy she writes her first novel but is unable to sell it, so she burns it. All the reader ever knows about this book is that it was a modern-day fairy tale called A Seller of Dreams. Since I could never know any more than this, my curiosity about the burned book eventually led me to write my own version.
Are your characters based on real people, or do they come from your imagination?
It’s a bit of a mixture. Characters come to me already formed, and I get to know them better as I write, so they’re not based on anyone I know. But I often throw in little bits and pieces from real people when I’m rounding them out, either as personality traits or backstory. For instance, Evie Dawson, my protagonist in The Dream Peddler, hates to be laughed at, and that’s modeled on my own mother’s feelings.
How long did you take to write this book?
The first draft took about six months, and then I spent maybe another eight months or so getting feedback from beta readers and revising. Finding an agent took a long time! Over eighteen months and a grand total of one hundred and nine queries. Once on submission, it didn’t take dreadfully long to sell—maybe about five months.
What kind of research did you do for this book?
My research was in two parts. I wanted to know as much as I could about the dreaming process and what kinds of things are possible in terms of influencing our dreams and remembering them. This was fascinating, because I discovered all the things I’d written that felt far-fetched to me are actually quite plausible!
The other branch of the research was understanding farming communities and how they operated during the early part of the twentieth century. Not quite as scintillating, but in order to make the characters and their way of life tangible, I really needed to have all the details, even down to what crops would have been planted or harvested at which time.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
I am a pantser all the way. The process of discovery is what makes writing so joyous for me. I think if I always knew exactly where my plot was going, I would grow bored.
What is your favorite part of your writing process, and why?
Definitely the drafting, although it wasn’t always that way. I was in my thirties before someone enlightened me about how first drafts are supposed to stink. Once I started drafting more quickly instead of stewing over every word, it became my favorite part of the process. I love the feeling of a great idea for a scene popping into my head and rushing to get it all down.
What is the most challenging part of your writing process, and why?
It depends on the book, but editing is always hard for me. Once I’ve written the book, I’m afraid to look at it again, to be overwhelmed by the mess, and I really have to talk myself into it. With my current project, I also did myself the great disservice of writing it out of order as scene ideas popped into my head, having only a vague idea of how they’d fit into the storyline. Organizing that jumble of scenes into a coherent narrative, linking them up with new writing, is the hardest thing I’ve ever done as a writer.
Can you share your writing routine?
I don’t have a routine, and I write anywhere and everywhere. I have to keep paper and pen handy everywhere I go! I love best to write outside, usually sitting on our back porch, but if it’s too cold you’ll usually find me on the living room sofa.
Do you have any writing quirks?
I don’t know if this counts as a quirk, but I detest typing. I draft everything longhand in notebooks and then transcribe. There’s something about typing that deadens the writing for me—I don’t know how else to describe it. Everything feels more vivid when I’m putting pen to paper and scribbling furiously to try and keep up with my mind.
Which book influenced you the most?
I’m not sure I can narrow it down to just one, but certainly one of my all-time favorite books is one that I happened to be reading around the time I was writing The Dream Peddler: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. His writing is everything I could hope mine to be, and his agent was one of the first I queried. I also read everything by Donna Tartt—she is brilliant.
What are you working on right now?
I recently finished a readable draft of my second book, so I’m waiting to get feedback from a few kind writers who have agreed to critique for me. It’s another adult literary effort, this time about two eighth-graders who become friends without realizing that one of them has found something precious the other recently lost.
What’s your favorite writing advice?
Ignore all the advice and trust your instincts.
What are you currently reading?
Right now I’m reading The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker and loving it! I wanted to read it because it’s about a small town overtaken by a mysterious sleeping sickness that seems to cause powerful dreams, and I was curious about what it might have in common with my own book. I’m so glad I discovered it, because the writing is beautiful and the story completely absorbing.
Where can we find your book?
Amazon
B&N
PRH
Where can we find you?
Website
Twitter
Instagram
Goodreads
Thanks for chatting, Martine! We wish you success with your debut!
Observations at the Author Fair
Saturday I attended my first author fair, not quite knowing what to expect. Was it worth the trip? Hmmm…
Erin Bartels 
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