Civil Peace

America has been engaged in nonmilitary civil war, coincidentally, since President Barack Obama campaigned for a first term. Blue states, red states, colliding into one great bruise. Great nation that we are, let us commit to Civil Peace. Change we can believe in.

Richard Wright

Name three books written by Richard Wright. Black Boy, Native Son, and....The Outsider. Right. Now, name 17 more. They're listed in the front matter of his novel, Savage Holiday, which is every bit as intense and brilliant as The Outsider. American Hunger, the continuation of his autobiographical work, Black Boy, is equally impressive. I found it quite eye opening to learn that a writer of Wright's stature was not connected to a much broader audience for his entire body of work for any number of reasons.

Writers and Readers: HOME by Toni Morrison

Writers and Readers: HOME by Toni Morrison

HOME by Toni Morrison

Definition 3a of home in Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition reads as follows: 

A familiar or usual setting. 

Often, comfort and coziness are associated with the word. At second study, “familiar” and “usual” circumstances can readily be quite challenging, indeed. Home embodies all of the elements that avid readers of Toni Morrison would expect—brilliantly evocative syntax composed of five- and ten-dollar words; fully developed characters; and ample opportunities to choose between humanity and morality on the one hand—oppression and brutality on the other. Ms. Morrison tells the story from different points of view though the main voice is that of Frank Money. More so than her previous novels, there is an immediate sense of the story flowing directly through Ms. Morrison from The Source(s) that appear to have guided her work from the very beginning.

Sense, Intuit, Act

Eat, Pray, Love is an example of a simple and effective way to create something so much larger than three one-syllable words. The concept launched a whole spell of wannabes with less support than a feature film starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, but impressive efforts, nonetheless. As I step into this fray more firmly, I'm intent on making sense of the infinite opportunities to seek, find, and perhaps in the process create an extensive audience for my writing. Perhaps, with the necessity of disintegrating any box to think outside of, the whole idea of applying logic to such a thing is a waste of precious time--if you happen to believe in that construct despite Paulo Coelho's philosophy offered in Aleph. Intuition is always at our service--paying attention and connecting inner dots with outer ones to draw a solid line to meaningful results. It is all an act.

I'm paying attention to Allison Bliss Consulting, Seth Godin (The Domino Project), Kathleen Gage, D'vorah Lansky (Virtual Book Tours), and self-publishing experts, Andrea Constantine and Lisa Shultz (Friday Author Interview Series). Promoting my three self-published books is my goal, getting the fourth one out there, and launching into number five. Details are on my website, tannerblue.com.