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Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life
AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
Dear Reader,
I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I spent hours and hours working on a quilt, using vintage chenille squares I cut from old bedspreads. I don't really have a quilt design in mind, but sewing without a plan is how I've started every quilt I've ever made, so I guess I'm on the right track.
Please welcome author, Shelle Sumners, who's written today's column, "A Word, a Stitch, a Step." Shelle's giving away 10 copies of her debut book, Grace Grows. Send her an email, say hello (she will personally reply) and you'll also be entered in her drawing. Email Shelle at: shelle@shellesumners.com
Thanks for visiting the book clubs, Shelle,
I am drawn to marathon projects that require patience, perseverance, and sustained passion. So, like a lot of people who write novels, I also knit. When I'm not writing (because you do sometimes have to take a break), knitting allows me to talk to my family or watch Game of Thrones while sustaining a rhythm of creation.
I like to knit things with simple patterns that let me keep on for quite a while without having to stop to count stitches or read instructions. Scarves are great for this. I also like to knit hats, because they develop in a long, lovely spiral. I love spirals--they feel like little snippets of infinity. Socks are spirals, too. Right now I'm knitting a spiral that will officially become a sock just as soon as I curve around a few more rows and bind it off with a charming picot frill right above the ankle. Then I will briefly wallow in the satisfaction of completion, eat ice cream, and start knitting--all over again, from the tip of the toe--the companion sock.
Perseverance.
I often knit with multicolored yarn because I like the surprise, the spontaneity of watching a color pattern emerge. This is akin to the way a novel unfolds. When I write, I try to sink completely into this moment, on this page, with these characters, so that I understand their truth and know how to tell it. I think of this as being "in the flow." When I am writing in the flow, my characters astonish and delight me. The story unfolds magically. I laugh, and cry, and feel deeply this complex fabric I am creating.
As a writer and as a knitter, I sit down and do the work, again and again. Time passes, and with the accumulation of time and words, time and stitches, I have created something complex and unique. I have climbed a mountain.
One of my Grace Grows characters demonstrates supreme patience, persistence, and devotion to a person who is sometimes daunting but very, very worthwhile. This is what happens when you deeply love someone or something. You keep trying. You don't give up.
One day I hope to walk the Appalachian Trail, all 2,181 miles of it, one step, one moment at a time. How hard can it be?
Also, we're giving away 10 copies of GRACE GROWS! If you'd like to be considered for a chance to win, simply email your name & mailing address to me at shelle@shellesumners.com and thanks so much for your interest!
Email Shelle at: shelle@shellesumners.com
Shelle Sumners lives, writes, and knits in Bucks County, PA. Her debut novel Grace Grows is a Featured Alternate selection for Doubleday, Literary Guild and Rhapsody book club and is being published internationally. It has a companion soundtrack of phenomenal original songs that appear in the story, written and performed by her husband, singer-songwriter and Broadway actor Lee Morgan.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
www.muffinsandmayhem.com
AUTHORBUZZ: SAVING EACH OTHER (NonFiction) by Victoria Jackson & Ali Guthy
The extraordinary journey of a mother and daughter who demonstrate how the power of love can transcend our greatest fears, while at the same time battling to find a cure for the incurable.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on SAVING EACH OTHER to read more and to email authors Victoria Jackson & Ali Guthy, you'll get a reply.
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