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Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life
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Dear Reader,
Writing is a magical elixir for me. I learn things about myself I didn't know. Sometimes I'm impressed, other times, not so much. But it's a journey I'm happy to sign up for every day.
Today's guest columnist, author Tanis Rideout, shares her own personal writing journey. Please welcome her to the book club. Send an email and when you do, you'll be entered in the drawing for an advanced reading copy of her upcoming book, Above All Things. You can reach Tanis at: [email protected]
Take it away, Tanis Rideout...
In the last six months or so a number of readers have asked if I'm a climber. It makes sense. My first novel is about mountain climbing, and writers often draw on their own experiences for their novels. And while there are definitely moments and words in Above All Things that are stolen from my own life, climbing isn't one of them. For me, art imitates some of my life. But, perhaps more interestingly, my life has started to imitate art.
When I began writing Above All Things I was pretty out of shape. I've never been terribly athletic, preferring to sit around and read than run around the block and break a sweat.... Part of what interested me in Everest, George Mallory and climbing, was the pure physicality of climbing.
As part of my "research" I took myself to the climbing gym. But I also started challenging myself by running and when I get bored halfway through a 5km run, I think about George and Sandy, slogging away on Everest in their tweeds and leather boots after twelve hours of climbing.
Now, I've set my sights on some bigger challenges. I have a trip coming up on which I'm aiming to summit a 13,000 peak.
People sometimes compare writing a novel--the commitment to sitting there day after day--to the commitment and pacing of running a marathon, or climbing a mountain. And maybe there's some discipline that bleeds over: you don't decide to run a marathon once. You decide day after day while you're training, and step after step while you're running. It's the same with writing a book. So in some ways I've begun to look at this new found part of me--the part that craves going for a run some mornings, that wants the challenge of seeing what the world looks like from the top of something I climbed on my own--as a kind of cross training. Here's hoping that the training feeds back on each other, making me stronger both on that 13,000 foot climb and on the page.
I often find when I'm writing that things I learn and experience in other parts of my life creep in and make me a better writer; and often what I'm writing can make me re-examine other aspects of my life and relationships. Is there something you've learned in one part of your life that has helped you in another? Has something at work made you a better partner, or something you read made you better at your job?
Let me know and email at [email protected] for a chance to win an Advanced Reader's Copy of Above All Things.
Warmly,
Tanis
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com
AUTHORBUZZ: LULU (Fiction) by Nancy Friday
Ever since my #1 non-fiction best seller, My Mother My Self was published, I've wanted to write a work of fiction that was a logical extension of it. Fall in love with Lulu as she makes her way from a four year old to a young woman in college, dealing with parental loss, motherly neglect, first love and independence.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on LULU to read more and to email author Nancy Friday, you'll get a reply.
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