Reading for Healing

 Being a writer usually means being an avid reader—actually, I can’t imagine a writer who doesn’t and hasn’t read widely…

So…

One of the many perks of the writing life is being able to do something you love—reading—and, call it research; and, sometimes, also call it Healing…

Earlier this month I had a “breakdown”—not psychotic but deeply psychological—not life threatening but emotionally deadly—not cosmic but concerning things not of this earth…

I have two very short posts that speak to it—here and here—and the intro to a re-blog—as well as a partial post that said a bit about a point of stability when I began to aim at returning to normal blogging and story-telling; though, I’m not quite there, yet…

Reading for Healing (while also doing writerly research…)…

There was a book by my favorite novelist, C. J. Cherryh, that I’d read many years ago; though, she’d gone on to write four more in what’s called the “Fortress Series“…

So, I’d fallen into my “dislocation” and needed some deep and high fantasy to live in, to “get away from things”, to ponder in another world…

I’m sure some of you select books to read somewhat intuitively; though I know there are folks who only ask friends and browse online book retailers…

I’ve almost always selected my reading intuitively and rarely has that process failed me; and, even when I ended up reading a book that “went against” my intuitive needs, it still could serve well for my writerly research activities…

So…

As soon as I got into the first book of the Fortress Series, I realized (after I’d gotten about 100 pages in) that I’d remembered very little detail; and, that I was aware the whole series must be read to help me Heal………

It worked, better than I thought it would.

I’m sitting here writing a blog post where, before the books, I could barely get a re-blog out.

Cherryh isn’t for every reader—even her die-hard fans admit it takes work and commitment to appreciate her writing; but, if you can give yourself up to the way she uses words, you can Become her stories—I have no other way to explain the effect on me of her writing…

I have enough years and study to not take Cherryh’s fantasy literally; yet, there are those who would, she’s such a good writer; still, there is much Truth in the books—figurative facts that opened psychological truth, psychological facts opening up literal truths…

If you ever need to heal, to Become a different you, to go away and come back better able to handle this world, read the Fortress Series…

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Stay tuned for another original Tale in the Story Bazaar on February 9th—with some excellent re-blogs until then…
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Interviewing Authors and Sharing Interviews . . .

Regular readers probably read the most recent author interview, detailing efforts to promote and market books…

Image from Michal Zacharzewski, SXC

And, to prep for this post, I counted up all the Author Interviews on this blog (as of this date…)—and, it’s 80.

For various reasons, it’s taken me a bit over six years to gather-up those interviews.

So…

I spend a bit of time on Twitter…

And, because my posts here get pushed out to the TweetVerse, I have folks following me and it only seems fair to consider following them (except for the people who only want to sell me Twitter Followers…).

So…

Not so many days ago, I noticed I’d received a Follow from @ERHardcastle, who turned out to be the author, editor, and literary-innovator, E. Rachael Hardcastle.

It’s only been a few days since I followed back and exchanged a few Tweets with her…

I noticed she works hard at gathering author interviews.

I compared my 80 in 6 years; and, found out she’d gathered over 50 author interviews in 2016!

Plans are for us to swap interviews…

 But who is this author?

Here’s her Bio:

Hi, I’m Rachael.

I’m a dreamer, a deep thinker, a bookworm and grammar nerd.

I write poetry between imaginative high fantasy, post-apocalyptic and science fiction novels.

I believe that through writing we face our darkest fears, explore infinite new worlds and realize our true purpose. I write to entertain and share important morals and values with the world, but above all, I write to be a significant part of something incredible.

All my fantasy and post-apocalyptic books face our planet’s struggles because I believe that together we can build a stronger future for the human race.

I support independent publishing so all my stories are written, edited, formatted and published by me, offering a low-cost, epic adventure and a memorable escape from reality for my readers.

I also discovered she does writing workshops with kids—this is why I called her a literary-innovator up there…

Here’s what one of the teachers said to her:

“Many thanks for your inspirational work with our Year 6 children who have really enjoyed their time with you. You have made them believe that writing is fun and that anyone can be an author if they work hard enough – and made it possible for them to be published authors too! We are very proud of our book and have it in pride of place in the classroom at the moment. Thank you!”

FIONA MEER, DEPUTY HEAD OF LOW ASH PRIMARY SCHOOL, 09/01/2017

And, here’s a video (cute, funny, engaging, revealing) about her preparation for the coverage she received on the Made In Leeds TV show (her segment,in the TV station video, begins at the 4:50 mark):

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