Rebirth

Photo of Grosbeak by Laura J. Bear, 2010

What a beautiful spring day! Birds and peepers exploded in song all along our bike ride today. It seems that all the creatures rejoiced in the end of winter this fine warm day. Green is sprouting everywhere with the yellow of daffodils and multi-colored crocuses dotted throughout the landscape. Ahhhh, yes.

Robert Frost was right, "Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold." I know all this will go away again, but the wonderful fact that spring keeps coming back year after year, reminds me that there is life after the long, cold winter. Life after death. Spring wouldn't be as glorious without the cold grip of winter (although, I have to admit, I could do with a much shorter version of the frigid gray season).

The characters in my story WHERE THE HEART LANDS go through their own catharsis. Lucy has to figure out how to reinvent her life after her unfulfilling marriage ends abruptly. Young Addie changed her name and then her life, in order to escape an abusive family. People don't change and grow without the help of others, though. Here are a few more morsels to share from the book:

Lucy's Aunt Jay was an eccentric influence on Lucy as a young girl:

"To Aunt Jay, none of this mattered. She allowed me to be myself and explore every side of my creativity that I wished. Growing up, I spent many summers at her apartment in Manhattan. The city was so exciting, huge, and mysterious. Aunt Jay was a little scary, too. She was tall and stick-thin, with a beak for a nose. She dressed in black, filmy layers, except for a purple shawl or red scarf sometimes pinned together with a huge brooch shaped like a face. It was easy to imagine that brooch coming alive after dark. Many times during my visits, I would lie awake in Aunt Jay's big, old brownstone with the high ceilings and heavy drapes, waiting for that face to float into my room. I'm happy to report it never did."

After Lucy meets Addie for the first time:

"I couldn't get my new neighbor out of my head. I was excited about having such a sweet, pretty friend next door. She was nothing like the nipped and tucked women I knew back in suburbia. I seemed to have a bit of a girl-crush on her and felt a little wicked thinking about her in that way. what was the big deal, though? I wasn't with anyone any more. No one was here to judge me except me, right?"

And let's not forget Tom Anderson, another important friend in Lucy's recovery:

"The man wore stained overalls and his hat almost covered his eyes. His skin looked like rawhide. A cigarette dangeld from his mouth. He was clean-shaven, but a long ponytail trailed down his back. His face had creases that deepened when he spoke.
     'Hello, I'm Tom Anderson.'" ...

..."Tom Anderson put out his cigarette on a little wooden box he pulled from his pocket, slipping the stub inside it. 'I know just a bit about almost everything.'"

That's all for tonight. Have the best night you can make.

Where the Heart Lands

Photo by Kevin Tomasello c.2014

A couple more excerpts from my novel WHERE THE HEART LANDS:

"The wind blew strong across the prairie, dissipating the smoke and flapping the clothes on the line. Tom appeared in his truck.

     'What happened?' he asked.

I showed him the pot on the stove. the walls were oily with soot.

     'Looks like Addie had a little spill over with her peyote tea,' he said, scraping at the hardened substance on the burner with his nail. 'She all right?'"

From a different chapter:

"There are times in my life when the picture stops and the film flaps against the reel. An old image, I suppose, but apropos. Everything happened so quickly, yet each piece was slow motion, rewinding over and over in my mind. If only life had a reset button."


If only...

Where the Heart Lands released March 14th through Unsolicited Press

A couple excerpts:

"I'm not sure why I thought I should get a cat, just that a kitten might outlive me."

"As she passed by the slow-moving train, a ragged man with a beard and dark, oily skin jumped off one of the open train cars. He waved at her, but she pretended to ignore him. She kept walking, not thinking too much about him until he appeared right in front of her."

"'Lucy,' Tom took a long inhale from his pipe,' Sometimes a question is the answer.'"





Available from Unsolicited Press http://www.unsolicitedpress.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Where-Heart-Lands-Laura-Bear-ebook/dp/B00TQUXPZW/ref=la_B00UGHOKQM_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428969951&sr=1-1
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/where-the-heart-lands?store=allproducts&keyword=where+the+heart+lands

A Dinghy in a Sea of Yachts

photo of dinghy in Stonington, Maine harbor by author

I was thinking about all this writing business--so much so that I was dreaming about walking 20 miles in the rain with two dogs and an awkward load upon my back...in the dark--and I have found that I have trepidation about the business of this writing business. Okay, I hate it--the part about selling stuff, promoting stuff, trying to get people to buy stuff. I don't like doing it and I'm not good at it.

Writers are generally introverted people. This is probably not a shock to anyone, but it needs to be repeated: most writers (never say "always" for anything or you may be disappointed or insane) are quiet "misfits" who spend a good part of their day inside their heads. It's not necessarily comfortable in there (I speak only for myself, but feel free to relate if it strikes a nerve). In fact, the mind of a writer/creative person can be a dangerous place for the less than timid. (I say less than timid because TIMID is often the fetus-form of the future toddler-monster SELF-DOUBT). So, let me touch upon the imagery of the little boat afloat on the water. Our little vessel is happy, floating there in the calm water unnoticed, serene. Ripples in the water begin to rock the boat, gently at first, but then become stronger and more urgent. The boat responds by riding over each ripple, buoyed by the rhythm of the waves. There is a nice creaking of the wood hull as it rocks on the fluid beneath. Suddenly, a huge cruise ship sails by. There is no danger of collision because the big ship is far away from the harbor, but the wake of that big boat travels fast and hard through the water toward the little boat. As the sea wall rolls into the shore, the little boat braces itself, pointing its bow into the wave. Maybe it gets knocked around, or loses an oar. Water splashes into the little dinghy as the wake overtakes it, but the vessel stays strong and upright. The scene repeats every time another bigger or faster boat goes by, but the dinghy stays the course.

Row, row, row your...sorry, I was daydreaming about floating on the water...where was I? Oh yes, I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if you're a little dinghy, don't let anyone call you crazy for following your dreams. Keep rowing, bail out the bad stuff, and stay afloat.

Hope to see some of you tomorrow (April 4th) at 2:00 at Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, N.Y.

Spring Into Action

Photo by Kevin Tomasello c. April, 2010

The photograph on the right was taken at Cornell Plantations by my husband several years ago when spring had actually started to bloom in April. I just can't face another picture of snow, especially when it's eternally white or slate-colored outside my window. It is officially spring now, Mother Nature. Get on schedule, lady! I know March is pushing it in this part of the country, but we're all quite tired of winter; so, if you wouldn't mind, please may we have some green? That would be nice.

All this gray gloom makes for dark story lines. It was the dead of winter when I wrote the opening line of my just-released novel WHERE THE HEART LANDS beginning with Lucy's proclamation:

"I wasn't sure why I thought I should get a cat, just that a kitten might outlive me."

Dark, but hopeful, too, right? I'll let you decide when you read the book. No spoilers here, folks. Don't be surprised if the next novel starts out a little moody due to the influence of this long, cold winter. My friend, Mari, keeps torturing me with photos of the splashing, sparkling waves and warm radiant beaches of southern California, where she lives. She always seemed like such a nice person, but this definitely shows her evil side. We get a little cranky here in the northeast by March, beware.

Spring is indeed on the way, however, and this means we in the colder climates are dreaming of new work: pouring over seed catalogs as we plan our flower and vegetable gardens; getting the meat written into the new novel (and, perhaps, adding some cheer to the darker elements); cleaning out the dust and grunge from the closed-up house; burning (storing away) the yards of winter clothing; celebrating the wedding of two young people deepening their lives together (my son and my almost daughter-in-law); and the feeding and handling of my newly hatched book. It's time to throw off the heavy afghan and spring into action! Damn the snow and cold! That faint, hesitant light will soon burn away all the shiver and paint the color back into the landscape. I may not be good at patience, but I can wait if I feel like I'm taking some sort of action. Call it a working meditation, if you will. Busy hands, quiet mind, perhaps.

Let me know how you're doing! My next book event is a reading and signing at Buffalo Street Books www.buffalostreetbooks.com in Ithaca, NY on Saturday, April 4th at 2:00 pm. I would love to chat with you!

The Next Leg of the Journey

RiverRead Books in Binghamton, NY March 14, 2015/photo  K. Tomasello

March 14, 2015 Book Launch/photo K. Tomasello

Author Laura J. Bear at Book Release Event March 14, 2015/photo K. Tomasello

Successful launch for WHERE THE HEART LANDS at RiverRead Books in Binghamton, NY www.riverreadbooks.com.

Where the Heart Lands Cake with matching book! March 14, 2015/photo K. Tomasello

Thank you to everyone who came out to listen, buy books, and show support. I had such a great time meeting and talking with everyone. Thank you to Connie at RiverRead for your glowing introduction and for providing such a wonderful place to launch my novel. Thank you to Donna Kordula from Cakes for Every Occasion  http://binghamtoncakes.com/contact.html for the beautiful and delicious cake that looked just like my book cover!

Thank you to my family and friends who traveled from near and far (Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ithaca, to name a few places). I am truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.
I could not have done any of this without the love and support of my spouse Kevin Tomasello. He took all these pictures, kept everything together, hauled books, and so many more things. My talented son remembered to take video and his lovely bride-to-be helped me navigate the quagmire of social media conundrums I have been struggling with for a while.

So, this is a love letter to all of you: readers, writers, fellow life-troupers: believe in yourselves! Follow your dreams; take in the world around you; listen; pay attention; care deeply; and most important, keep going, because the next corner you turn may be the best one yet!

Train Ride

by Laura Bear 2013

"It was a long trip from Swamp Lick, Louisiana to Far Away, but that's where Horatio promised to take her. The wind blew past the wide openings in the box cars then curled back in to touch her. The cold leaked through Rebeccah's thin jacket, making her shiver. Why aren't there actual boxes in the boxcars? She wondered, wishing she could curl up in one and stay warm. Horatio tried to put his arm around her when he saw her teeth chattering, but she pulled away. Flashes of Uncle Frank blinded Rebeccah's need for warmth."
from WHERE THE HEART LANDS by Laura J. Bear through Unsolicited Press www.unsolicitedpress.com.

In Rebeccah's case, running away may be her only chance for survival. We are almost never told to run away. We are encouraged to stay the course--to fight! But, what if your life is in danger? Or your soul? What if you're a young girl with nothing to lose?

"Engine sounds purred behind her as she whirled her head around. Blinded by headlights, she ducked behind the neighbor's front hedge as the car drove past. Her heart pounding in her chest, Rebeccah waited until the vehicle was out of sight before leaving her hiding place."  from WHERE THE HEART LANDS. Sometimes the unknown is less daunting than the familiar. "Her coat thumped against her thighs, heavy with the coins sewn into it." from WHERE THE HEART LANDS.

A taste of the book to come. March 14th, 3:00 pm RiverRead Books www.riverreadbooks.com in Binghamton, New York.