Pamela Carter Joern Author Interview + Giveaway

Pamela Carter Joern Author Interview + Giveaway

Pamela is the Minnesota Author in the Spotlight here on Booksnob for the magnificent month of May.  She has written three amazing books.  The floor of the Sky was excellent and now I'm in the midst of her book of short stories called In Reach. Pamela is a masterful storyteller.  I had a chance to ask her some questions about her writing life and her books. Read on to find out more.

Hi Pamela,
 
Tell a Bit About Yourself:

I grew up in western Nebraska, where all my books (so far) are set. The prairie landscape is deeply imprinted on me, as the north woods landscape is for many Minnesotans. I think there’s a yearning in all my books, a little homesickness for a place to belong that reflects my lonesomeness. I’ve lived in Minneapolis a long time, raised our two daughters here, and I love it. Still, even though we are firmly rooted here, there’s something about that childhood place that beckons. My husband recently retired, so we’ve been free to travel more. We have four young grandchildren, and it’s an adventure to see the world new through their eyes. I am a gardener. I quilt. Since my husband retired, I’m no longer teaching at the Loft, but I occasionally read manuscripts.

When did you begin writing?

I’ve always loved to read. In fifth grade, I wrote a story my teacher thought was good, so she had me read it to the class. Still, in the world in which I came of age, no one aspired to be a writer. In my 30’s, I started by writing poems. I went to a writer’s conference to work on poetry, but when I got there, I learned that the poet who was supposed to lead the workshop had died. Instead, I found myself in a drama writing class, which led to my first professional work as a playwright. I wrote six plays that have been produced in the Twin Cities, and I was co-director of a theater company called Role Over Productions. When that venture ended, I decided to pursue writing fiction.

Have you ever been discouraged about your writing? How did you move forward?

Oh, yes. And the discouragement doesn’t stop. After my theater experience, I tried writing a novel. I did write a novel, but I knew it had problems and I didn’t know what to do next. I decided to enroll in Hamline’s MFA program to explore writing prose. I had never taken a writing class, even though I was an English literature major in college. I thought there must be basic skills to learn, and I wanted to be immersed in a writing community. Now, when I’m discouraged, I find that diving into the work is the best antidote.

What is your favorite part about writing?

I have a lot of favorite parts. I love the process of discovery, uncovering some connection or deeper understanding of what it means to be a human navigating this messy and beautiful world. I like words. I like creating an imaginary world and stepping into it, breathing life into it. I even like the solitude—mostly. Once in a while, if you are very lucky, you get to hear that your work has meant something to a reader.

What are your writing habits? Do you work from an outline?

I’ve written plays, short stories, and novels. The form makes a difference in how I approach the work. I start with character, a situation, and curiosity. If I’m writing a story, I don’t want to know the ending when I begin. In something longer, like a novel, you can waste a lot of time going down dead alleys, so at some point, I will sit down and sketch out a very rough path. Even that is subject to change.

What is your favorite spot to write?

I have a second story study in my home with a lot of natural light. Except for the distraction of thinking I should get up and start the laundry, I like working at home. I do enjoy being able to go to my kitchen to make a cup of tea.

What is something you wrote that will never see the light of day?

That first novel I mentioned earlier.

What is the hardest thing about writing?

Believing in the importance of it enough to commit hours of time. There are a lot of other pleasures and obligations in life besides writing.

What inspires you to write?

I am moved by story. Not only fiction, but stories that deepen my compassion and empathy. I’m inspired by everyday encounters. I’m driven to write because that’s the avenue that helps me make sense of human experience.

How many books have you written and which is your favorite?

Three books. The Floor of the Sky (a novel), The Plain Sense of Things (a novel told in stories), and In Reach (a collection of stories). My favorite? All of them.

How do you relate to your characters? Do you see yourself in some?

Some people argue that writers reveal themselves in every character, the same way that dream interpreters say we are all the characters in our dreams. I don’t know about that, but I will say this. I love all my characters, even—maybe especially—the difficult ones. I write to teach myself compassion, so I grope to understand human complications and contradictions.

Thanks Pamela!!

If you would like to win a copy of Pamela's book In Reach, please enter here:
In Reach Giveaway

One Red Eye Giveaway Winners

One Red Eye Giveaway Winners

Kirsten Dierking was the Minnesota Writer in the Spotlight here on BookSnob for the month of April.  She has written 3 collections of poetry and is giving away 2 copies of One Red Eye to Booksnob readers.

Here is the synopsis form Goodreads:
"In reading these poems, we experience beauty-paradoxically-as well as come to understand the complexity of the crime, its aftermath, and the relief and joy of recovery."—Roseann Lloyd

Perhaps the first full-length work of its kind, One Red Eye is an unexpected book, an intimate story of violence and survival, rape and re-birth, told in verse. In concise, candid, and understated poems, Dierking shares the brutal truth of her own rape experience, while at the same time, demonstrating the possibility of spiritual recovery from sexual assault. This is the story of a life brought to a disasterous standstill, and the subsequent acts of common kindness that allow the author to recapture hope, and move into a changed, but salvageable future. Tough and articulate, One Red Eye defies the silence and guilt that so often surrounds the crime of rape.

I Might Have Dreamed This

For a short time after
the rape, I found I could move things. Energy birds
swarmed from my brain. With a witch's sense
of abandoned physics, I set dolls rolling.
Back and forth. Like a breathing sound. Using only my night-powered
eyes, I pushed the lamp to the dresser's edge.
I buried the mirrors in avalanches of freshly
laundered underpants. I never slept. I did all these things
lying down.Kirsten Dierking received a bachelor's degree in International Affairs and History from the University of Colorado, and a Master's degree in Creative Writing from Hamline University. Her writing has appeared in Sing Heavenly Muse, ArtWord Quarterly, Water-Stone, and Xanadu. She lives with her husband in Saint Paul, Minnesota. This is her first published collection.

And the winners are:

Haley S from Iowa
Lyza J from Wisconsin

Congratulations Ladies. Enjoy your new book.

Pamela Carter Joern Guest Post + Giveaway

Pamela Carter Joern Guest Post + Giveaway

Pamela is the Minnesota Author in the Spotlight here on Booksnob for the month of May. She has written a guest post about a question one of her readers asked and it will make you think about what a reader brings to the stories they read.  Read on.

Written by Pamela Carter Joern

One of the best things about writing is the convergence of the writer’s world and the reader’s experience. I was reminded of this last Fall when I spoke at Anoka-Ramsey Community College as part of their Two Rivers Reading Series. The students had read my story collection, In Reach, and after our discussion a young man named Don came up to the podium to ask me a question. Each student had been asked to write about one of the stories, and Don had chosen “Solitary Confinements,” a story about a gay man whose father doesn’t accept him, his mother who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, and a neighbor who sleeps in an iron lung every night. The main character, Ted, works out his frustrations by gardening, and Don asked if I had chosen the flowers in the story because of their symbolism.
“I’m a gardener,” I said. “I know which flowers would be in season and available in western Nebraska, but that’s about it.”
Don seemed disappointed. “I was sure you chose them on purpose. Because geraniums usually mean someone is a fool, but red geraniums mean comfort, and Ted places those red geraniums on Flora’s steps when he leaves town.”
“That’s a lovely thought,” I said. “But I wasn’t aware of the significance of the flowers. I wish I had been.”
Later that day, Don wrote me this email:
“I wanted to say a bit more . . . The reason I thought so much about the flowers was not just the red geraniums, but also the tulips and petunias. Tulips mean love and petunias mean hope. So when Ted pulled tulips from his parents' garden, I thought you were saying the love between he and his parents had died. When he planted petunias, he was saying he hopes to reconnect with them. It made sense because his parents don't like him being gay, yet Ted talked throughout the story of how he wanted his parents to be in his life. I'm really surprised everything was a coincidence because it just fit so perfectly.”
I wrote back to Don and thanked him for his insights and his persistence. He couldn’t believe I didn’t purposely layer my story with this symbolism. This is the beauty of literature! He understood the intention of my story, but he also brought to it his own rich experience, deepening the meaning beyond even what I knew. Now, when I think of Ted and Flora, I also think of Don and the added resonance he brought to the flowers.

If you would like to win a copy of Pamela's book of short stories, In Reach, please click here:  In Reach Giveaway

In Reach by Pamela Carter Joern Giveaway

In Reach by Pamela Carter Joern Giveaway

Pamela Carter Joern is the May Author in the Spotlight here on Booksnob and she is giving away two copies of her book of short stories, In Reach to Booksnob followers who live in the United States or Canada.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

In writing both rich and evocative, Pamela Carter Joern conjures the small plains town of Reach, Nebraska, where residents are stuck tight in the tension between loneliness and the risks of relationships.

 With insight, wry humor, and deep compassion, Joern renders a cast of recurring characters engaged in battles public and private, epic and mundane: a husband and wife find themselves the center of a local scandal; a widow yearns for companionship, but on her own terms; a father and son struggle with their broken relationship; a man longs for escape from a community’s limited view of love; a boy’s misguided attempt to protect his brother results in a senseless tragedy. In the town of Reach, where there is hope and hardship, connections may happen in surprising ways or lie achingly beyond grasp.

Giveaway Rules:

Fill out the form
Open to U.S./Canada residents only
Ends June 14th.
Good Luck!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tether by Kirsten Dierking

Tether by Kirsten Dierking

I start every day with reading a poem in the morning and I end my day the same way, by reading a poem at night. It's a delightful way to begin and end your day and I encourage you to try it as well.

Kirsten Dierking's 3rd book of poetry, Tether, is a delightful and tender collection. Many of the poems have themes related to water and they are gathered into sections, titled, The Ebb Tide, The Visible Current, Body of Water and The Balm of the Sea. The cover of the book really reflects the contents of the book. The poems are calming, like a lazy day on the river.  They are full of nature and wildlife and once in awhile they bite like a big mosquito or hit you like thunder.

Dierking's poems are beautiful and exhibit a quiet strength, with a power hidden deep within.  The poems will make you think of thunder, soup and lilacs in a new way. I love how Dierking's poems look at everyday life and how she turns the mundane into something beautiful.
I felt grounded while reading Tether, connected to the earth and water and life.

I'm going to share one poem, Lilacs.  Lilacs are one of my favorite flowers and I relate to this poem on many levels.  The beauty of poetry is that we can relate to a line, a thought, a concept and be reminded that we are human and connected to each other or we can just find beauty in the words and how they are placed next to each other and how that affects meaning.

Lilacs

On the day of my birth,
I bury my face in purple flowers
and breath a scent so familiar,

I can't remember a childhood house
with lilac bushes, maybe it was
my mother who held the baby up

to the dense blossoms, maybe it was
my first pleasure, my mother whispering
breathe deep, it goes so fast.

by
Kirsten Dierking

Announcing the May Author in the Spotlight

Announcing the May Author in the Spotlight

Happy May!!  Happy BEA to those attending.

There is only one month of school left and then I can sleep and relax a little bit before my trip to Spain and Morocco in June.  Life is crazy busy in an awesome way. My son turns 18 this month and is super close to attaining his the rank of Eagle in BoyScouts.  My daughter has joined the a team competition for the Worlds here in October and she will be skating on the same ice as Gracie Gold for a day. So cool.  I'm probably more excited than she is.  My students are in the midst of two awesome projects.  My Hart class is painting a mural with acclaimed muralist Gustavo Lira.  My college class is done next week.  Phew! My 9th grade class is working on a Ripple effect project.  My trips for the summer are being finalized and fundraising is pretty much done.  Thank goodness for May! I'm exhausted.

I have an awesome author in store for you this month.  Her name is Pamela Carter Joern and she has written 3 awesome books.

Here are the three books she has written and their synopsis from Goodreads:

In Reach 

In writing both rich and evocative, Pamela Carter Joern conjures the small plains town of Reach, Nebraska, where residents are stuck tight in the tension between loneliness and the risks of relationships.

 With insight, wry humor, and deep compassion, Joern renders a cast of recurring characters engaged in battles public and private, epic and mundane: a husband and wife find themselves the center of a local scandal; a widow yearns for companionship, but on her own terms; a father and son struggle with their broken relationship; a man longs for escape from a community’s limited view of love; a boy’s misguided attempt to protect his brother results in a senseless tragedy. In the town of Reach, where there is hope and hardship, connections may happen in surprising ways or lie achingly beyond grasp.

The Plain Sense of Things

In prose as clean and beautiful as the stark prairie setting, The Plain Sense of Things tells the stories of three generations of a western Nebraska family. These tales of sorrow and hope are connected by the sinews of need and flawed love that keep families together. A farm wife struggles to support her children after the death of her second husband; a young woman grapples with the shift from girlhood to motherhood; World War II wreaks havoc on those left behind; and a failing farmstead breaks a family’s heart. Amid hardship and change, these interwoven stories illuminate the resilience and dignity—and the subtle sweetness—of a life lived in clear view of the plain sense of things.

The Floor of the Sky

In the Nebraska Sandhills, nothing is more sacred than the bond of family and land—and nothing is more capable of causing deep wounds. In Pamela Carter Joern's riveting novel The Floor of the Sky, Toby Jenkins, an aging widow, is on the verge of losing her family's ranch when her granddaughter Lila—a city girl, sixteen and pregnant—shows up for the summer. While facing painful decisions about her future, Lila uncovers festering secrets about her grandmother's past—discoveries that spur Toby to reconsider the ambiguous ties she holds to her embittered sister Gertie, her loyal ranch hand George, her not-so-sympathetic daughter Nola Jean, and ultimately, herself. Propelled by stark realism in breakneck prose, The Floor of the Sky reveals the inner worlds of characters isolated by geography and habit. Set against the sweeping changes in rural America—from the onslaught of corporate agribusiness to the pressures exerted by superstores on small towns—Joern's compelling story bears witness to the fortitude and hard-won wisdom of people whose lives have been forged by devotion to the land.

This month you can expect a giveaway, a book review, an author interview and hopefully a guest post.  Please check out Pamela's website at http://pamelacarterjoern.com/

Happy Reading
Hope the sun shines down on you and warms your days.