Inspiration – Page 9 – Andi Marquette

Sunday Readin’ Tip

Hi, kids. This weekend has been crazy bizzy and I haven’t been the lovely blog hostess that I tend to be (HA HA!).

I’m finally able to sit down and give you a reading tip.

As some of you know, I read a lot of nonfiction and different magazines. I came across this essay in High Country News, a bimonthly western-based news magazine, called “Ghosts, Walking” by author Craig Childs.

It’s a painfully beautiful essay about a walk across the Navajo Nation. Here’s a taste of Childs’ absolutely delicious prose:

We change the way we move, try to make ourselves invisible, traveling away from animal trails through a busted topography of fallen cliffs and deeper canyons. In the evening, I walk by myself along a canyon made of soaring rock and massive columns of fir. It is last light, and the forest looks pointillist, nothing solid enough to seem real. I reach a water hole, punch through the ice, fill my bottles. Loping back to camp with fresh supplies, shadows grow thick and I move faster. Everything has eyes.

Here’s the link to “Ghosts, Walking.”

The essay garnered some controversy.

This author was not happy that Childs trespassed across Navajo land. You’ll see that letter plus Childs’ response at the link.

Writers like Childs collapse boundaries between built world and wild, between human and nonhuman, and allow us to feel the sting of wind, hear the eerie hoot of an owl echo off canyon walls, and feel the weight of time and history. And he makes us think about land and how we define it. So get a taste of Childs with this essay, and then maybe try some of his book-length works. Reading him is a sensory experience.

Happy reading, happy writing, happy Sunday!

May 1, 2011 by Andi Marquette Categories: Cool articles, Cool stuff to read, Inspiration, Things that make you thinkTags: Craig Childs, Ghost Walking, High Country News

Pensive Friday: those you love

Hi, friends. Today, for some people, is “Good Friday,” which generally means they reflect on things that have meaning in their lives, and that’s always a good thing. For others, it’s “Earth Day,” and that involves reflecting on human relationships with the rock on which we live. Some people celebrate/acknowledge both. And still others try to reflect on things more often, and make changes or deal with what life throws at them.

I bring this up because this morning on NPR I heard an episode of “Story Corps” that just warmed my heart. Story Corps, for those of you who don’t know, is a series of oral interviews conducted by people like you and me with friends and family members. It’s oral history, and it’s kept on file in an archive. Every day people, talking about what’s happening in their lives.

Today’s episode featured Steven Wells, talking to his 27-year-old daughter about how he felt when he brought her home from the hospital just after she was born, and what she means to him.

And then I started thinking about a good friend of mine who is losing her father to Alzheimer’s, and how difficult and heart-rending that journey has been for her and her family and, in ways we don’t understand, for her father, who is no longer the man he was throughout my friend’s life, though there are still glimmers of that within him. My friend has been keeping a blog/journal about her family’s experience with Alzheimer’s, and how it affects not only her father, but his friends and family. It’s a moving, wrenching, transcendently human story about life and what we make of it. This is not easy or comfortable reading. Alzheimer’s is not pretty or kind. It isn’t gentle with the people it affects, or on the family and friends, or on the medical personnel who are called in to help as the disease’s grip tightens.

But it is necessary reading, because my friend reminds us that even in the midst of a terrible disease like this, there are very human, loving moments that affect us all. So no matter where you stand in these crazy times, no matter your views on anything, we are all, ultimately human, part of the human family, and we all make the trip from birth to death. Remember to tell your friends and family that you love them (no matter how crazy they sometimes make you), and remember that even people you might not like have friends and family, too.

Happy Easter for those of you who celebrate it, happy Earth Day for those of you who celebrate that, and Happy Passover to those of you who are engaged in that celebration.

Peace.

April 22, 2011April 22, 2011 by Andi Marquette Categories: Inspiration, Things that might make you thinkTags: Alzheimer's Disease 2 Comments

Fun (I hope) stuff: some interviews with my characters

Hey, folks. I’m working a few different writing projects at once, so I’m running around like a freak at the moment. For those of you who are not familiar with my work, you can check the “books” section of my site here and the “stories” section to get a taste of it. I offer excerpts from my novels and a few freebie short stories. Sort of a “try before you buy” thing.

And, at the blogsite Women and Words, where I spend a lot of time (this month, we’re blogging the alphabet and tomorrow I’ll be posting the entry for S), I talk about the publishing business and about my work and some other things. So, with that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to a couple of my characters, who I had the good fortune of sitting down and chatting with. One, K.C. Fontero, is the main character in the first and third books of my New Mexico mystery series. The first is Land of Entrapment and the third is The Ties that Bind. Sage Crandall is K.C.’s love interest, but she has a rep as being a force unto herself. In a good way. 🙂

So here are the links to those interviews, for funsies.

K.C. Fontero

Sage Crandall

I do chats with my characters because it helps me work some stuff out with regard to that aspect of writing. So, for writers, give it a try and for readers, hope you find it at least interesting.

Happy writing, happy reading!

April 21, 2011 by Andi Marquette Categories: Books, Inspiration, Writing tipsTags: characterization, writing craft, writing tips 2 Comments

Secrets revealed…

Hi, kids!

Today is TMI day. Wait! Come back! No, I’m just going to tell you a bit about my own writing process. Sometimes people who read my stuff like to know how I write. That is, if I’m like a superstitious baseball player and I have to go through all kinds of rituals and stuff like that.

Um, no. Although I do have a few rituals, but not many. Anyway. So let’s get to it. Click it!

Continue reading →

April 15, 2011April 15, 2011 by Andi Marquette Categories: Inspiration, Writing tipsTags: writing craft, writing tips 2 Comments

Paranormal reality bites

Dammit, sucked in again. Wednesday nights I turn on the SyFy Channel because there are ghosthunting shows on. Ghost Hunters (TAPS) in particular.

Do these folks actually scare up ghosts? Do they actually document strange happenings? My feeling is a big, fat, no (and if you Google whether TAPS is faked or not, you’ll come across some debates about it), but so? I like the people who are involved, and I like the cool places they go. One show took them to the Birmingham, AL old steelworks and I learned a bit of history with that, which was cool. Anyway, they’re all so totally earnest about their hunting, and they get into these deep discussions about what they might or might not actually be hearing:

Ghost Hunter 1: “Did you hear that?”
Ghost Hunter 2: “Shh…”
1: “Dude, it sounded like footsteps.”
2: “Yeah, it did. But a certain kind.”
1: “Yeah, not sneakers.”
2: “No, more like hard soles.”
1: “Definitely hard-soled shoes in the hallway.”
2: “That’s it, yeah. Hard-soled shoes out there in the hallway.”
1: “And it went on for a few seconds.”
2: “Wow.”

And then, of course, the skewed camera angles to give extra weird effect, especially if they’re sneaking around a museum or library or something that features displays. Oh, and my fave is when one of ’em says “Oh, my God. Did you see that?” And BOOM cut to commercial and then when it comes back to the show, it has to backtrack a little and then with the “Oh, my God. Did you see that?” you find out it’s actually just some weird shadow that’s from outside or something kind of lame like that.

BUT SO?

Who DOESN’T like a good ghost story? Who DOESN’T like to try to creep their friends out with a ghostly story they heard or something weird that happened to them one night (embellished for extra super special scary effect)?

I enjoy a good ghost story, and I think that’s why I watch shows like this. I like thinking there’re things out there I can’t explain, and that maybe there are conduits to other worlds. Plus, they provide some nice inspiration for even more stories. Nothing wrong with a bit of skepticism, but there’s also nothing wrong with a bit of “what if…?” either.

And that’s what writing’s all about. 🙂

April 14, 2011 by Andi Marquette Categories: Inspiration, Paranormal, Random WTF stuffTags: Ghost Hunters, ghost stories, ghosts 1 Comment

I love coffee

And writing can help you love it more and even sell it!

Hiya, readers. As some of you know, I’m a coffee nut. I like dark, rich, smoky brews, and when I was living in a tiny town on Colorado’s Western Slope, I found this organo-nature-woo woo food store that carried a variety of coffees from a variety of independent roasting companies. One of those was Raven’s Brew, based in Alaska (but now with a roasting base in Washington state).

Anyway, I discovered “Deadman’s Reach” blend, which is a seriously dark, roasty, smoky blend that Raven’s Brew created that gets the dead up and walking, friends. Look:

How can you NOT want to grind some of these beans right up and brew yourself a cup RIGHT NOW?

But the reason I bring all this up is not necessarily to get you to buy some of the fab coffee from Raven’s Brew (though please, do so if you are so inclined), but to direct your attention to a novelette — a murder mystery — written in honor of Deadman’s Reach coffee. Here’s the first little bit of it:

Chapter One
No More For Me, I’m Dead
“I never thought death would be like this,” Allen thought to himself as he swung his feet out of his body. “It’s like watching a cheap TV with bad reception, only I can still smell the coffee.”

The rain fell like dried beans on his tin roof as it had done in life, and the mold grew in roach-like splotches on the grout around his bathtub as it always had. He was lying on his back in the tub and the slick sliver of green hand soap was safely cupped in its scummy chrome holder. The ring of chalky grime on the porcelain surface was the same as it ever was.

“Man…,” he thought, “I’ve got to clean this place up.”

It was then he noticed that he was standing next to his body looking down at himself and there was blood tracked across the floor. “But first I’ve got to have a cup of that coffee. I’m sure it will make things look better.”
—
Clever, that novelette. A cool little marketing tool that ended up being kind of fun, kind of macabre, and it involved a yummy coffee. I’m always on the lookout for stuff like that. Fun, quirky, and that ends with the convergence of things I like. So thanks, Raven’s Brew! And yes, I did just order some Deadman’s Reach.

Happy reading, happy writing, happy coffee!

April 13, 2011April 13, 2011 by Andi Marquette Categories: Coolness, Inspiration, Random WTF stuff, The AwesomeTags: Deadman's Reach Coffee, Raven's Brew Coffee 1 Comment

Random Slot Canyon Slideshows

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a Southwesterner born n’ bred, and some of my absolute fave landscapes are red rock canyon lands. If you read the first book in my NM series (hint: “Land of Entrapment”), see if you notice the slot canyon reference. I derive endless hours of inspiration from visiting canyon lands and from just looking at photos of them.

And that’s why I’m sharing some slideshows I found with you. Because there’s just not enough beauty going around the world at the moment, and I think there’s always time for a zen moment.

source