Audience−I'm Reaching Out to You!

Hello!

Welcome back to all of us.

It's been a while since I've posted to my own blog. Now, I'm back--not with a vengeance--but with determination to reach out to the audience for my writing and to connect you with my work. This lapse in blog upkeep has been very productive. As a result, Oaktown Writers Collective (OWC) was co-created with Dr. Lesa Hammond and Colette Winlock. You're invited to visit our website:

Oaktown Writers Collective

I've finished my fifth book, Listening Out Loud: A Friend to the Serious Writer and have scheduled three local workshops presenting this approach toward creative writing. Find out details on my website, tannerblue.com.

OWC held our first meetup yesterday; it was a wonderful mix of fellow writers. Dr. Hammond shared with us valuable information from her book, Achieve in 5! How to Transform Your Life in Just Five Minutes a Day. Explore the book for yourselves, but we did a freewrite about dreams and finish lines that inspired me to revive this blog. My big brother Ken was one of the participants, which made all the difference in the world. My husband's continuous support and attentiveness also nudged me toward spending this time with you, right now. Why? Because you're my audience and I want what's best for you.

Listening Out Loud: A Friend to the Serious Writer is my first nonfiction title. Here's the list of the three novels and collection of short stories that preceded it:

Tanner Blue

Painted Deserts

Members

Music for the Dream--Seven Short Stories

I'm off to do our weekly show on Blog Talk Radio. I want to stay in much closer touch with you.

Best wishes,
Valerie

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.

Seeking

I'm reading Aleph by Paulo Coelho and appreciate the quote about how what we seek is also seeking us. I believe that.