In this Issue

• Read a Poem to a Child Day
  
• Ritual of the Holy Nail
• Playing by Heart Cover Update and 2nd Anniversary Giveaway
  
• A Different Sort of "Studio"
  

Read a Poem to a Child Day 

     As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I've been recapturing my love of poetry as part of working on my current work-in-progress. I've been reading more poetry, both in print and online, and that's how I came across a blog post from children's author, Laura Shovan mentioning the second annual "Read a Poem to a Child Day" this month. I accepted Laura's invitation to participate by recording a video of myself reading a poem and posting it on social media the week of Sept. 23-28. You may have seen my video if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter. If not, you can watch it on YouTube here. Below is a picture of the poem I read for the video. "Acorn" is the first poem in the stunning book The Lost Words written by Robert Macfarlane and illustrated by Jackie Morris. The book, which is a collection of acrostic poems, was inspired, in part, by the revisions to the Oxford Junior Dictionary that removed everyday nature words like acorn, bluebell, and kingfisher, to include instead, technology-related words such as attachment, broadband, and voice mail. If you're interested, the book has an amazing companion website that includes posters, articles, and a terrific Teacher’s Guide here .    

Ritual of the Holy Nail    

     If you've read Playing by Heart, you may recall the scene in Chapter 29: The Nivola, when Emilia and her family attend the Ritual of the Holy Nail in Milan's cathedral--the Duomo. The chapter is named for the cloud-shaped "lift" used in the ancient ritual. As I mention in the book's Author's Note, the ritual continues to be performed annually in Milan to this day. Below is a photograph of the Nivola, the same one used during the time in which Playing by Heart is set. This year's Ritual of the Holy Nail took place on September 14. You can read the history of the Ritual and see stunning photos of it on the Duomo website.    

Playing by Heart Cover Update and 2nd Anniversary Giveaway

     My publisher recently updated the back cover of Playing by Heart to include images of some of the book's award medals, as you can see below. Since today, September 30, happens to be the second anniversary of the novel's release, I'm celebrating by giving away TWO autographed copies of the revised paperback. You can enter the giveaway on my website. The current odds of winning are quite good, since I've had very few entries so far. 😊

A Different Sort of "Studio"

     The creativity tip in my last newsletter encouraged you to: Practice pressure-free creativity. If you're struggling with a project, put it aside and spend time falling in love again with your creative outlet. Write, paint, compose, or whatever, for the simple joy of the process, without a care for what the outcome will be. 

     I've continued doing this myself, writing poetry just for the fun of it. I've been trying new poetry forms, too, including several I discovered in the book Writing Poetry from the Inside Out: Finding Your Voice through the Craft of Poetry by Sandford Lyne. If you're a writer, artist, or other creative, I suggest you check out Lyne's book, even if you don't write poetry. I think much of what he says applies to all sorts of creative work.

    For example, Lyne recommends keeping a special type of writer's journal that he calls "the writer's studio."  He says:

Writing is a process of collecting and combining various elements
of language--some intentional, some accidental--over time.
Things written down on one page want to get together with things
on another page. Words, images, phrases, sentences, and sentence fragments need time to sort themselves out, to free themselves
from our thought pollution. To encourage this process, your workplace, your journal, should be one that you enjoy getting back to.

     Lyne explains that he began seeing his journal as a "writer's studio" while working on a combined poetry and art residency with an artist. After spending time in that artist's studio, he realized that:

". . . an artist's studio is a welcoming workplace, a place
that awakens the creative spirit, a place
that invigorates the mind and nourishes the soul.

A writer's studio--the journal--should be nothing less.
And so I see its pages not only as spaces for writing,
but as walls to be decorated and windows to be opened. " 

     A "writer's studio," then, goes beyond the "jot journal" I wrote about last March. Lyne describes his journal as a place that "awakens your creative spirit the moment you enter it."   

     So, for this month's creativity tip, I encourage you to: Create your own writer's studio type of journal. If you already have a journal, consider either expanding it or starting a separate "studio" journal. What could you include that would make your journal more inviting or useful? As an example, here are some things Lyne includes in his: 

• drafts and unfinished poems
• other writing work
• pasted in photographs
• cartoons
• his own drawings
• handwritten copies of poems written by others
• quotes or passages from books he reads
• his nighttime dreams and daydreams
• his hopes, memories, ideas, etc.

I've been including very rough drafts of my poems-in-progress in my "writer's studio," along with copied lines from poems I admire and quotes from Lyne's book. It's been fun and inspiring to go back and look through the pages periodically.

     If you try this creativity tip, do let me know how it works for you.

Watch for my next Creativity Newsletter at the end of November.
Until then, happy creating!

Carmela

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Copyright © 2019 Carmela A. Martino. All rights reserved.

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