Candid

My husband and I love to joke how in the 80s people didn’t care near as much what they looked like as they do today. Just watch 80s TV. Hair was often messy. Junk was stuffed into bookshelves. People didn’t clean and tidy before being captured on film. This is why I love, love, love candid shots. Of others. Of myself. They aren’t posey or some image people want others to have of them. They’re how life actually played out. Or a sliver of it at least.

My latest book, The After Glimpse zooms in on a few significant photographs. These photographs become larger than life to my main characters—and in some ways take on a life of their own. I ached to explore the whole concept of pictures and how we react to them.

Amy Tan, in her memoir, Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir, fleshes out more thoughts on the topic. “I used to think photographs were more accurate than bare memory because they capture moments as they were, making them indisputable. They are like hard facts, whereas aging memory is impressionistic and selective in details, much like fiction is. But now, having gone through the archives, I realize that photos also disorder what is really being captured. To get the best shot, the messiness is shoved to the side, the weedy yard is out of the shot. The images are also missing context . . . what happened before and after, who likes and dislikes whom, if anyone is unhappy to be there. When they heard ‘cheese,’ they uniformly stared at the camera’s mechanical eye, and put on the happy mask . . . I keep in mind the caveat that I should question what I see and what is not seen.”

There’s a twist in my book. There are life-changing events that took place while photographs were taken. Not all is depicted. Then again, more is going on in photographs that could ever logically occur as well. I appreciated toying with this idea of how there’s always more to the story than what’s right in front of us.

Long live candid shots!

*Less than two days to Enter the Goodreads Giveaway for The After Glimpse!
**Happy Thanksgiving! See you on November 27th!

A Book Is Born—THE AFTER GLIMPSE

At book clubs I’m often asked where my ideas come from. The concept for THE AFTER GLIMPSE (available now) was first sparked in an ice cream shop in Wethersfield, Connecticut years ago. The owner takes pictures of her patrons and hangs the Polaroid photographs all over the shop, so even the ceiling is covered. I knew somewhere inside that shop existed a picture from when my mom had visited the ice cream shop with us years earlier. When my family went back to the same store years after my mom’s visit, I spent time hunting among the hundreds of pictures for the one the owner took of my mom and my girls. Suddenly, I was overcome with a stab of nostalgia, thinking how cool it’d be if I found the photograph, and my dad, who’d passed away years before my mom visited, somehow materialized in the picture next to my mom.

I found the picture. My dad wasn’t in it.

…and so a book was born.

In the process of writing this book, and now releasing it, I understand how this book is about grief, but it’s also about so much more.

Our lives—every relationship—every interaction counts for something and as one endorser so profoundly put it . . . “maybe there’s more going on around us than we know.”

The After Glimpse is available in paperback and ebook formats—TODAY.

*If you read & enjoy, please consider writing a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

Book Outings

In the midst of all that’s chaotic out there I’m thrilled to let you know my novel, The After Glimpse, releases in ONE week! Everything leading up to release day has kept me super busy. Here are a few of the many things I’ve been invested in…

The After Glimpse is now on Goodreads. Tell the world you want to read it by clicking that cool green Want to Read button.

While at soccer practice last week, I had the pure joy of Facetiming with an endearing group of women. They discussed my book, The Short & Sincere Life of Ellory James, and asked me thought-provoking questions related to the book. I was greatly encouraged by my interaction with this Florida book group.

In a few days I’m visiting my first Georgia book club! I can’t wait to see what the group thought of Ellory and Pete. Will let you know how it goes. If you’re a member of a book club interested in discussing any of my books, I’d love to know—and participate. Please reach out!

I’ve begun the initial stages of planning a local Book Release Party for The After Glimpse. Cannot wait to share more details about this in coming weeks.

Another women’s fiction manuscript has captivated my focus. I’m deep in the editing stages. Goal is to pitch this one soon.

Finally, if somehow your eyes skimmed over this before, The After Glimpse releases in ONE WEEK, on Monday, October 16^th. I seriously cannot wait for you to get your hands on this one. I’ve been told by more than one person (both have read all of my published works) that this one is their favorite.

Introducing . . . The After Glimpse

Corrine Boulder, Landon Young, and Aria Glynn share something inexplicable in common. They’ve all lost loved ones two years ago to the day. To the second, in fact. But that’s not the only thing connecting these three.

Their loved ones are resurfacing in photographs taken within the past twenty-four months.

A toddler, a murdered sister, and a beloved dog suddenly begin appearing in photos captured after their last day on earth. Desperate for an explanation, Corrine, Landon, and Aria seek out possible reasons as to why this phenomenon might be occurring. Little manages to put their minds at ease as they wrestle with the implausible potential that maybe their loved ones are still alive.

Bereft of answers, the trio begins to understand that perhaps it’s not why this is happening, but to what end that matters most. 

THE AFTER GLIMPSE ~ available this October!

For the Love of…Feathers

I feel it stronger than I have in quite some time—the creative connection between painting and writing. So, I’m entertaining it. I’m witnessing the cranial Pop Rocks sensation that happens whenever I pick up a paintbrush. For the sake of my writing. And, well, because I love how I feel when I paint. I love how it magically disintegrates stress, while simultaneously opens my mind to new possibilities.

In the past week I’ve gravitated toward feathers. Here are some that floated from my head to the brush.

 

Writers write, yes. (I’m still hard at it on the editing and writing side of things.) But we also get intentional about following the creative. And my creative seems to be released with every glide, small stroke, and wisp of a feather lately.

In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing more about the novel I’m releasing this fall, 

THE AFTER GLIMPSE. 

I can’t wait!!!