So, I just finished presenting at KySTE the Kentucky Society for Technology in Education Conference- and it's also the end of the grading period. Now I can take a deep breath. I...think I've lost my twitter password, so I'm trying to decide if I should just delete it. Just realized in looking at twitter from my website (why would I click from my website, I don't need to follow myself) that there are a few more posts hanging out from like 5 years ago from when I was hacked...this seemed stupid because seriously, five years ago...I can't even find a twitter post from 5 minutes ago, but...of course it's showing up on MY website and it takes twitter 3 days to do anything about it, and I can't modify my website until Monday, because even though I maintain other websites, I don't do this one, and never have, It's always been done by a web designer. I can't seem to do everything in the world, but I'm trying hard. In the case of not doing everything, social media is something I've let fall by the wayside. I keep thinking I will start being interested in twitter again. I like people and connecting with people, I just don't always like the energy of the short tweet...and having to keep up with things. I have an instagram I need to use to at least keep tabs on my teenagers...So, I will perhaps be deleting this blog, and my connection to twitter, as soon as I can get in touch with my web designer. One less thing to keep up with in an already hectic life...
New email address- I will update this officially, but if you need to contact me, please email at bethanygriffinwriter@gmail.com Thanks!
Writing during a pandemic is hard. Writing through grief is hard. I've continued writing through hard times, because creativity is part of me and helps me, but after a difficult experience (this year, it was the loss of a close family member, on top of other experiences) you feel like your brain is operating without all of its cylinders, and like you are swimming through jello. Previously, working during the pandemic-- you (or at least I) was dealing with a constant feeling of uncertainty and fear-- fear as a parent, and the daughter responsible for a disabled mother. In some ways, my kids and I truly enjoyed the beginning of quarantine, but even that level of increased closeness slowed my creativity. On the other hand, I think I wrote some of my best material ever during the last two years. Only time will tell how publication views the project(s), but I am proud of them. I've grown as a writer, and as a parent/human. I often think how odd it is, to have lived through such times.
Next weekend, Friday September 18, I'll be with some awesome authors signing books in Franklin (just outside of Nashville) TN.
Friday, September 18. Embassy Suites Hotel and Convention Center, Cool Springs/Franklin TN, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. in the Chestnut Ballroom. Come purchase books from the loveliest of lovelies, Parnassus Books, and get it signed by one of these amazing participating authors: David Arnold, Tracy Barrett, Colette Ballard, Wendy Brotherlin, Shellie Braeuner, Sharon Cameron, Kelly Creagh, Julie Danielson, Amanda Driscoll, Susan Eaddy, Bethany Griffin, Sarah Frances Hardy, Jen Malone, Moriah McStay, Amanda Morgan, Gail Nall, John Rocco, Courtney C. Stevens, Kimberly Cross Teter, Kristin O’Donnell Tubb, Mary Uhles, Jessica Young
When you read The Fall, you enter Madeline Usher’s mind.
Madeline Usher is mad, she’s confused, she’s prone to fits, her entire life is
a centered around the struggle to make sense of what’s going on around her,
both in the house of Usher and in her head. From first draft, my goal in the
Fall is for the reader to feel off-balanced, to experience life as Madeline
sees it.
Don’t expect her story to be an easy read. If you feel
confused, then you’ve felt a little, a fraction, of what Madeline experiences.
The story is told in bursts of memory. Madeline is in the
coffin. Her life is flashing before her eyes. In each scene there is a memory
trigger, so in one scene there might be a mention of the pocket watch, in the
next, whether it goes forward in time or back, if the pocket watch is the
trigger, it will be in the next scene, the connection between that scene and
the next might be a room, or a person, a comment, or another object, but each
scene is connected in Madeline’s mind.
Each age does proceed chronologically, so once you read
something in Madeline’s 9th year, you will not read something that
happened previously when she was 9 years old. I have a very detailed calendar,
which includes each year of the story, and when WITHIN that year the events
take place, to be sure that the time of year details (leaves falling, spring,
etc) is correct. I also have a chronological and color coded version of the
book to be sure that every event happens chronologically, even though their
introduction (in the book version) may not be chronological. In reading the book the reader should be off balance, things should be
odd, and later you realize where they came from or what significance they have.
If you try to impose logic on Madeline’s world, you may end
up as frustrated as she is. There are rules to Madeline’s world, but she
doesn’t fully understand them, so it’s possible the reader won’t understand,
either. The book was very carefully planned and organized, over several years,
and dozens of drafts. That doesn’t mean that all readers will
like it, or even that they should, every reader is different and comes to each
book with different expectations and desires.
Oh, and one last thing, there are no chapters in The Fall.
There are scenes, and each one is numbered and starts with Madeline’s age. I’m
sorry that Kindle and other e-readers choose to label the scenes as chapters,
but that isn’t something I have any control over. J
Book Birthday Party!
Just so everyone knows, I'll be celebrating the Fall's birthday at North Bullitt High School's library on November 6, at 6:30 pm.
There will be cake and punch, and books!
Hope to see you there!
Here's the Facebook event posting
https://www.facebook.com/events/655637997888201/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
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