SUDDENLY I'm Wordless

This is my first post during the transition phase of A Good Blog Is Hard To Find. Karin Gillespie did such an incredible job founding the blog, promoting it, collecting authors, and trying to herd us. Now she has passed on the herding to the Great Pulpwood Queen Kathy Patrick who has taken the helm so that the blog would not die and writers everywhere would be forced to go to the page and write something instead of just watch reruns of The Price is Right. Kathy's first request has been for each of us to introduce ourselves anew so that new writers and readers will discover us for the first time or the thousandth time with a tad more insight. Which has brought me to the point of staring at the page with an a Mick Jagger lyric echoing in my head. Just that one line over and over. What I'm thinking is everybody in the territory of this good blog knows me. And like most misfit children (*see destined to grow up and become writers in small print) I could still look out the window on a rainy day and say - No one really knows me. Or just get lost in though between the raindrops and pretty much not have words to say.

But I'm here now and it's my day - bless those blog ladies who enforce deadlines - so I must do what writers do, I better go dig some words up worth your time and mine.
Let me see - what's in this box of me right now . . .

Well, right on top are the words I wrote for my last post that generated comments but also a lot of private direct emails about some of the obstacles we overcome as writers. It's still right here if you'd like to backtrack and find out a whole lot of details about the 'stuff' I've endured on the path to publication.   And here's the thing - if you think the following about introducing myself again - or talking 'bout myself  - is a tad too much. Seriously, check out that obstacles post again. Years of drought, hard knocks, and whole lot of lamenting have gone into this thing we call The Writer's Life that can look so glorious sometimes from the outside looking in.

Next up - the only superstition I have in this whole, entire world is about talking about a story, a novel, a character, a piece of dialogue before it is written down or when it is in process. That comes from my days of being an understudy, an apprentice, a student - of Dr. Yolanda Reed of the Loblolly Theatre fame. Don't talk it - write it. That being said, I've had the strangest character show up in my mind. She's an old rascal and keeps asking me in a none too pleasant voice, "Now, what do you want?"  As if I'm the one intruding on her world. (That's also a nod to my good friend the great author Charles McNair who said writing was a lot like controlled schizophrenia.)  So this woman is in my mind and she's watching me. She has a tendency to do that sometimes with one eye closed. I have a funny feeling if I don't talk about her that she will tell me some things to write down. I'll keep you posted on that.

I have two new novels brewing and words from each actually down on the page. Okay, make that three but that 3rd one I think better sit back and peculate for awhile before moving closer to the top of the pile. I'm running my fingers through those worlds, one set in Georgia and one in Tennessee. Both in timeless times you couldn't swear a date to. I'm determined in the midst of all manner of life happenings to commit to one of those stories and begin the completion of that novel on September 1, 2010 in a few days. You won't hear much more from me about those stories until one of them is completed besides a potential working title. Except this - no, I don't have a contract for that novel. No, I'm not submitting portions and trying to sell it in advance. No, I don't have time to write something big and full of wonder. And yes, I'm wild and crazy enough to lock myself in a room for hours and do it anyway. It's what we do. We are story people. This is our tribe. We write.

Speaking of tribe - I have the pleasure of attending the SIBA convention in Daytona in September and also presenting with buddy author Shellie Rushing Tomlinson. If you're attending please don't get away or lost in the busy without connecting or saying hello. Then it's only a few weeks before the tribe will descend on my hometown of Nashville for the Southern Festival of the Book including Ms. Tomlinson and the Pulpwood Queen herself Kathy Patrick who will be hosting not one but two panels during he festival.

I have the grand pleasure of having a new novel debut on my youngest son's birthday (which wasn't planned) September 7, 2010. The Miracle of Mercy Land will debut on 9/7/10 at 7pm at Davis Kidd in Nashville. It's a southern, mystical work that catches our main character Mercy Land in 1938 on the southern coast of Alabama. For a sneak peek at the first chapter check it out here.  I do so hope that you can join me for a little storytelling and a lot of fun if you are in the neighborhood. SNEAK PEEK



In other news a new non-fiction work, Praying for Strangers, An Adventure of the Human Spirit, will be published by Penguin/Berkley April 5, 2011. It's based on a resolution I had in 2009 to pray for a stranger each day. Funny thing was, it was a private issue and I never meant to tell anyone and I certainly never meant for it to turn into something public like a book or you can check out the blog and comments regarding the ongoing adventure at http://prayingforstrangers.com It really has been an adventure and the stories of the people I met along the way, and the experience of that journey is captured in the stories told. Please visit the website/blog and check in as the project develops a life of it's own.

One of my special labors of love is hosting and producing Clearstory Radio every Friday morning (soon moving to a daily morning slot) from Nashville at 107.1fm  The show features author chats, bits of book news and reviews along with fun musical interludes. (And if you'd like to be on the show please email me at river@clearstoryradio.com ) I've had the pleasure of featuring many of the contributors to A Good Blog Is Hard to Find, and recently featured a special salute to the blog and all that it has accomplished. To the past! To the future! To the now! Also - for those of you who have made it this far - if you know anyone really interested in writing and getting published please click the radio link to listen to last weeks program featuring an interview with author Michael Lister. I love the sage advice this man had to offer to those who dare to dream of having this wonderful, messy, mixed up life we call writing.

Oh - since this is a get to know me better blog post I think the best way you can know someone is by the company they keep and by that I mean what books they are hanging out with. This my real beside table. A strange collection of newly published books by friends, ARC's for review, recommended reads, small discoveries, recent buys and the ever faithful library last minute snatches - : The Improper Life of Bezilla Grove by Susan Greg Gilmore and The Immortals by J.T. Ellison. (Here's a photo where we converged on Susan's signings at DK) Mystics, Visionaries, & Prophets; The Wisdom of Donkeys (a delightful fun find); Counter Clockwise; Wisdom of the Benedictine Elders; Moving Toward Balance;  The Angel's Game; Cutting for Stone; rereading Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding and wading happily through the Sunday NY Times.

God bless you all. It's an honor to be in your company!

River

RIVER JORDAN is a critically acclaimed author, as she keeps telling her Mama who responds by saying 'Show me the Money'. She has managed to publish four novels by the grace of God, her husband's hard work and a touch of madness. She will begin  to complete a new novel Wednesday. She also may respond to an itch to return to the theater to sit quietly in the dark and watch the magic of words come to life on the stage. She still maintains her strange resolution to Pray for a Stranger each day except on Sundays when she takes a day off to rest and give thanks. And oh yes - to read. 

The Rhythm of the Story

A few days ago I had the honor of sitting on a panel with fiction writers Darnell Arnoult and Robert Hicks and Martha Stamps, owner of Martha's at the Plantation restaurant, eatured at the Downtown Nashville Library. The subject was southern literature in all it's glory. Our wonderful moderator, Jeff Jacobs of the Borders Bookstores fame corralled us nicely and made us sound smart and thoughtful. (Okay, Robert and Darnell are smart and thoughtful anyway.) so we did a fine job of sharing stories not hogging the floor as ALL SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS, that being every man, woman, and half-pint child I know born and bred in the South is capable of doing. Shoving an entire crowd of people converging on a plate of fried chicken out of the way so they will hush up and let him tell his story! In the vein of NOT being a floor hog myself on this particular day I let one of the questions put to us go unanswered. Meaning I most likely looking liked an extra bump on a log for no good reason but I swear I was trying to mind my manners (so unlike me) - And so it goes.

Here's the question: "So, why is it with other writers from various points up north and beyond that when their novels or stories begin, they actually BEGIN, where as Southern writers seem to meander a bit and their stories start so SLOW?" (MY PARAPHRASE - FORGIVE ME JEFF)

Robert Hicks responded by telling a great story (as he is apt to do) saying that his stories start slow because he is slow himself (Which is soooo not true. The man's brain is lightning quick!) Darnell Arnoult answered the question with grace and intelligence and foresight. I kept my mouth shut sitting there thinking that was a really funny story and that was a really intelligent answer so what more is there to say?

But being that a few days have gone by and I still have this on my mind, this would have been my answer.

It's the earth. And that lazy old sun that got nothing to do but roll around heaven all day. That rhythm of the planets that sets the seasons in motion is something that Southerners and Southern writers are instinctively keen to. Just as you don't suddenly wake up one winter morning and open your window to discover - Why, it's SPRING! Because that's not the way that the earth rolls out from under us. But little by little, inch by inch, we feel it coming on. We smell the change long before it arrives. We have an awareness, this DNA in our bones, boiling in our blood, bless our hearts awareness of the seasons coming on and changing. Of babies being born and old folks dying. Of our dreams rising like smoke from the ashes. We know that life, and all the glory of it is transitory and bittersweet and breathtaking. We know it so much our hearts could break with the fullness and the loss of it.

So, it's not that our friends up North like New York and other wild exotic places are any less of the writers than we are. They are not. They are just different. We can color most of our 'Yankee' writer friends as down right brilliant in their execution of the written word on page. And yes, Robert Hicks, maybe we are a little special in that our brains just might work a little slower. I know when I read books like The Corrections I think - man, these folks are just so smart. And like I often say, when I read a writer from way up North I can hear their brains ticking. But when I read a Southern writer I can feel their heart beating. Slow, steady pulses that lead me into a deeper shade of life. At a pace that allows me to leave one world and enter into a place word by word, that will hypnotically reveal the glories waiting for me on the next page. Words that will seduce me so softly, or grab me so passionately, that time stops and I'm in the middle of the life my brother or sister has given birth to.

Why is Southern fiction slower, Jeff? Because this dance we call life is something so precious to us that we know the moments must not be rushed but savored. That the glow of a Grandmothers old wedding ring against her coffee cup at sunrise, throwing gold shadows against her well worn face, is worth slowing down to breathe in and take notice. And we help our readers step into a place where they can slow down and take notice, too.

So, we old Southern storytellers are always inviting readers to dance with us but just a little bit slower. Slow enough to hear the music, to feel the air move across their skin as they twirl one time through this earth - and to remember.


River Jordan is a storyteller of the southern variety and has been cast most frequently in the company of Flannery O’Connor and Harper Lee. Jordan’s writing career began as a playwright where she spent over ten years with the Loblolly Theatre group and received productions of her original works for the stage including Mama Jewels: Tales from Mullet Creek; Soul, Rhythm and Blues; and Virga.

Jordan’s novel The Messenger of Magnolia Street, (Harper Collins, Harper One) was published in January 2006. Kirkus Reviews describes the novel as “a beautifully written atmospheric tale.” The Messenger of Magnolia Street was applauded as “a tale of wonder” by Southern Living Magazine who chose The Messenger of Magnolia Street as their Selects feature for March 2006 and by other reviewers as “a riveting, magical mystery” and “a remarkable book.” Her first novel, The Gin Girl, (Livingston Press, 2003) has garnered such high praise as these words from Florida Today, "The Gin Girl is like crossing that deep, languid stream into the land of milk and honey. This author writes with a hard bitten confidence comparable to Ernest Hemingway. And yet, in the Southern tradition of William Faulkner, she can knit together sentences that can take your breath."
Ms. Jordan teaches and speaks on ‘The Power of Story,’ around the country and produces and hosts the radio program, Backstory with River Jordan, on WRFN, 98.9 FM, Nashville every Saturday at 4:00 CST, www.backstoryontheradio.com .

She has just completed a new work of fiction and lives with her husband in Nashville, TN. You may visit the author at www.riverjordan.us