(l-r) Wayne English was invited to be guest speaker at the home of Dara Karas and Tom Santos, where self-published authors gathered for a SE CAPA meeting on Monday, June 21st.
story & photo
by Angela Olsen
Have you ever thought you have what it takes to write an interesting book, but don’t know where to begin, or feel intimidated by the entire publishing process? Do you have a unique life experience, or a passion that would make for an interesting read? Look no further; there is help on the third Monday of every month in various locations around Southeastern CT. A not-for-profit organization, called “SE CAPA,” the (Southeast Chapter of Connecticut Authors & Publishers Association) wants you to know that they are here to help!
I had the great privilege to sit-in on a meeting on Monday, June 21st, invited by Tom Santos, who is the Chairman of SE CAPA, held on the new deck of his, and his beautiful partner Dara Karas’, at their lovely home in Pawcatuck. There were roughly 30 people in attendance, all bringing tasty-treats for a pot-luck style buffet held in their gazebo. The majority of the members in attendance are self-published authors.
Says Tom, “Self publishing is an easier way to get your book published, while avoiding the exorbitant cost of large publishing houses & literary agents; and not getting lost in the shuffle. Often when a person goes to great extents to write a book, the books sometimes wind up collecting dust in the giant publishing houses. SE CAPA is a great networking organization for those who have published books, or trying to get published.”
A guest speaker is invited to every meeting, this time it was Wayne English, Coventry, who gave an informational talk about promoting one’s book in the online community. Several members already have their books available for sale on Amazon.com, but he also suggests setting up an account on www.linkedin.com, and starting a website to promote one’s book, so that it may easily be located using search engines like Google.
Tom joined SE CAPA five years ago, and is the proud author of two books, My Son Todd and My Guardian Angels: How I Learned To Cope With the Death of my Only Child and Mystic in the 1950’s: Growing up in a Small Village. He was quickly appointed to be the chairman. The home-base in CT is Avon, but the commute was difficult for many people. After chatting with John Sciarra, Groton, who is the founder of SE CAPA, a Southern location was established and the rest is history.
Tom invites members to bring their spouses, or interested friends. I brought a pal along to the meeting, and he wound up pitching his book to Richard LaPorta, East Lyme, who owns Husky Trail Press, LLC. Most importantly, says Tom, “We are here to help people-helping people in the community”
“I’m fascinated by the power of the written word…” says Janet Squires.
by Roger Zotti
When upcoming writers are ready to revise their manuscript, children’s author Janet Squires has some advice for them. “I read everything out loud,” she says. “Picture book, chapter book – it doesn’t make a difference. If I find myself stumbling through a passage, or subconsciously rephrasing a portion of the text, I know that’s an area that needs more work.”
Janet also suggests putting your manuscript aside for “a couple of weeks. Taking a break gives you a new perspective and a little distance will help you be more objective when it comes to revising your work.”
Janet wrote her latest book, The Gingerbread Cowboy (Laura Geringer Books), because “I’m a writer bursting with ideas. I’m fascinated by the power of the written word and constantly amazed by the possibilities of expression… The book is the classic Gingerbread Man story set in the American Southwest – home of roadrunners, javelinas, coyotes and, of course, cattle and cowboys.” And Janet hopes readers take away from her book “enjoyment certainly” and also a sense of accuracy: “I was factually accurate about the animals, using their correct names – horned lizards rather than horny toad, which is what we called them as children.”
In the book the Gingerbread cowboy has numerous adventures – such as dodging javelinas, long-horned cattle, cowboys, and a roadrunner. Then he meets up with the coyote! I’m not going to spoil what happens by saying anymore but, as Janet points out, life goes on: “If you look at the last page, you’ll note that [the family] is making more cookies. I always tell the children that’s because one cookie is never enough!”
Splendidly illustrated by Holly Berry, the book has received acclaim from various sources. It was “the Governor’s 2007 First Grade Book and a special edition of 100,000 copies was printed for distribution to every first grade student in Arizona,” Janet explains.
Scholastic included it in “its second school catalog. Pearson Education, the global leader in education publishing, was granted rights to use the book in its Open the World of Learning program.” Dr. Peggy Sharpe selected the book for her “What’s New and Best in Children’s Literature” list.
Mark Twain, Janet says, is one of her influences “for his body of work and for her perspective on the craft of writing that you’ll find perfectly relevant for today.”
Ernest Hemingway is another influence. She singles two quotes: “‘All good books have one thing in common – they are truer than if they had really happened’ and ‘when writing a novel a writer should create living people … not characters. A character is a caricature.’ That says a lot about being honest in your writing and really knowing who these people is that you create.”
Written for children between ages 3-6, sentence by delicious sentence Janet’s picture book exquisitely retells a traditional story with zest, skill, and artistry. Kids will find The Gingerbread Cowboy irresistible.
“My book is full of stories that will make the readers laugh, cry and ponder their own lives, as well as, their lives with a pet,”said Sara Krill, author of My Pal Lou: The Story of Me.
by Maren Schober
Those of us who are fortunate enough to have a pet at home, know the numerous benefits that come from this experience. These loving animals help us emotionally, psychologically and even physically, as author Sara Krill, Wauwatosa, WI, found out first hand. In her new book, My Pal Lou: The Story of Me, Sara shares her life with her dog, Lou.
“The truth is I went into the pet store to get a comb for my cat,” Sara explains, “but there I was, face pressed up against the glass, eye to eye with this soulful beagle. I named him right then and there, uttering ‘Hello Lou’, at the same time arguing that I was not going to bring home a dog. Part of me just wanted to get the cat comb and go home, but something changed for me at that moment and I never regretted since.”
Sara will never forget her homecoming from the hospital following surgery. “The day I came home from the hospital, Lou was so happy to see me that he knocked me over when he greeted me.” she says. “As physically painful as that was, my heart was singing that my friend missed me so much! Lou lay next to me in bed, his head up and alert, as if to say he was my guard and he was on the job. The little things he did kept me in good spirits.”
When Lou later developed cancer and required expensive chemotherapy to stay alive, it was Sara who returned the favor and stood by him. “Many pet owners would have simply put him so sleep, but I knew he wanted to live, so I spared no expense to heal him the way he would have healed me if our situations were reversed,” Sara acknowledges. “ It was worth it. When he did pass away, he knew he was loved and cared for as a member of my family.”
Sara learned a lot from Lou. “I learned that animals have an amazing way of filling vacancies within ourselves, even when we’re completely unaware of those places of emptiness. Most of all I learned that all animals are capable of giving and receiving love, and deserve respect.”
“My book is full of stories that will make the readers laugh, cry and ponder their own lives, as well as, their lives with a pet. I like to think my book can touch people by pulling them into my life with my dog. They get to know me and all my faults and trials as a single woman trying to live life the best way I can. It also allows the reader to emotionally and intellectually experience the significant role that Louie, a pet, played in my life.”
It took Betsy Otter Thompson forty years to respect her psychic talent.
by Roger Zotti
Betsy Otter Thompson said she wrote her latest book, Walking Through Illusion (O Books), because she was curious about Jesus and the people who surrounded him. At the same time, she says, “It was the honoring of my psychic gift – which revealed itself when I was five years old. Because of the traumatic circumstances around telling someone in my family I could communicate with spirit, I abandoned the gift until midlife.” It took forty years for Betsy “to respect my particular talent, but I finally did and the books followed.”
Betsy describes her book as “a series of interconnected stories about biblical people who either knew Jesus or knew of him and were influenced by him.” Its technique is Socratic – that is, a question is asked and an answer given. (Note: the questions are as important as the answers.) More, Walking… doesn’t attempt to agree or disagree with the Bible. It is, Betsy says, “an emotional accounting… It’s about people who lived long ago before Christianity began.” Its purpose isn’t to argue about “who is right and who is wrong about what happened then; [its] purpose is to encourage people to live what is right for them now. I believe that when we leave here, we don’t take our beliefs with us anyway – we take the love we found from having them.”
Throughout Betsy’s writing “the principle of action/reaction – or the pulling of energy back to itself – is ever present.” It’s also, she believes, “a force that runs the universe as well as our lives… since I improved my life from using it, I’m trying to help others become aware of the power behind it to improve their own lives.” Early on, she defines reaction/action as “a little like badminton. It isn’t the speed which you swat that wins the game. It is the finesse with which you deliver the shot.” Examples are provided throughout, as in her chapter about Judas: “If Judas betrayed others,” she writes, “he was betrayed by others.” Later, when she writes about Pilate, we learn that “Pilate condemned himself to whatever he condemned others to.”
Betsy’s biggest challenge writing Walking Through Illusion – which is available on Amazon.com and in bookstores – involved the publisher of her earlier book, The Mirror Theory. Initially, her Walking… manuscript was rejected. She edited it and sent it off again, but received no response. She kept editing and emailed it again: Still no reply! Then, she says: “…I heard about a service on the Internet that was helpful in terms of finding publishers and agents and decided to try it: www.publishersandagents.net.”
Later she discovered her previous publisher “was in financial trouble and had been bought out… and probably never even received my emails. Had I not been forced to seek another publisher, I wouldn’t have received the suggestions that made Walking… so much better.” What she learned from the experience “might be helpful to other writers.”
Inspirational and thought-provoking, Walking Through Illusion offers the reader a distinctive way of thinking about life and living it… Learn more by visiting www.betsythompson.com.
Jean-Yves Solinga’s vision, in Landscape of Envies, “is as original, diverse, and perceptive as it was in his previous works…”
by Roger Zotti
Jean-Yves Solinga, in his Preface, explains the title of his latest volume, Landscape of Envies (Little Red Tree), this way: “The title … and indeed the source of this book can better be explained by defining ‘envies’ [as] not only or solely things and people we want or would like to possess, but also things and people we would like to change to our liking: for our own altruistic or selfish needs …”
Landscape of Envies is divided into two parts. Part one deals with “overpopulation, wars and violence,” the Gales Ferry resident says, while “the second half is much more ethereal.” Consider, too, that Jean-Yves poetry is not traditional: “In terms of the number of lines, for instance, I don’t write sonnets. I don’t write in rhymes. Sometimes, though, there is an interior cadence. I’m interested in form, but not in the sense that I try to fashion my lines to fit a certain form. My poetry is a combination of poetry and prose.” And be aware he can be breathtakingly blunt as in “Of Stardust and Morality”: “Corrosive Chemicals in the land. / In our souls. In our veins.”
“Behind the Curtain,” one of my favorite poems, was clearly inspired by Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus. When Jean-Yves writes, “Under the gratuitous absurd warmth of a friendly beach,” we’re reminded of a crucial scene in Camus’ novel The Stranger. Meursault – the narrator and main character whose mother has recently died – is walking on the beach and encounters an Arab who “drew his knife and held it up to me in the sun.” Fearing an attack, he shoots the man. “I had shattered the harmony of the day,” Meursault says, “… of a beach where I’d been happy.” The word “absurd” captures Camus and Jean-Yves’ existential vision of life’s absurdity, where an individual (like Meursault) is, in part, found guilty of murder because he was supposedly insensitive on the day of his mother’s funeral.
Another favorite is “Little by Little.” Written after Jean-Yves saw At First Sight (1999), he writes, “Such was the devastation of the landscape/ That he caught himself renouncing for the first time … / Sight.” In seventeen words he captured the film’s essence, which is the story of a blind man (Val Kilmer) who has an operation that restores his sight – and that’s when his troubles begin. “There’s something wrong,” Kilmer’s character says. “This can’t be seeing.”
In his introduction Jean-Yves writes, “I had feared I would not be able to rekindle that feeling of the first time after my first collection of poetry. I almost felt envious for that person that I was, then … Could I do it again?” The answer is, yes, he has done it again. In “Landscape of Envies” his existentialist/humanist vision is as original, diverse, and discerning as it was in his previous works, Clair-Obscur of the Soul and In the Shade of a Flower.
Visit www.littleredtree.com for information about other Little Red Tree publications.
