It was a week to celebrate! For starters it was the 2nd Anniversary of the publication of Veronica’s Grave. These past three years, including that leading up to publication, have been an amazing learning experience with a steep learning curve. Every bit as difficult as, say, earning a doctoral degree. So, you want to write a book? As the late Joan Rivers would say: Can we talk?
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21st century life continues to dazzle. To think that here I am in Manhattan and my publishers are in hip Berkeley and trending Toronto; my website manager in Austin TX; my PR team in Nashville TN; and that the 'Writer of the Week' interview with Universal by Design in Oslo, Norway. There was a time when we thought a ten-inch black-and-white Emerson TV the last word. The times they are still a-changing. But for the last word today from your trusty blogger, click on the video. It was a wonderful experience. I learned a great deal about what to do and what not to do. Listen carefully for the New York 'ambiance.' I hope you enjoy it.
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Last week I had the great pleasure of serving on a panel discussing publishing options today -- from self-publishing and vanity productions, to small independent presses and traditional Big Five publishing. For those of you who have been bopping around town with me for some time, you, undoubtedly, have heard my story. For those new to the blog, Veronica's Grave: A Daughter's Memoir, was published first by She Writes Press, an independent publisher dedicated to women's writing, before being picked up by Harper Collins Canada and brought out as Missing Mother. As someone who has experienced two very different publishing models, I was invited to share my publishing journey.
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Would you like to hang your hat in Paris? Stay not for a week, but for a month, a year or a lifetime? Many of us have fallen in love with the beauty and culture of the city, and some have stayed love enough to understand the charms of the lifestyle enjoyed by the French. One who did just that, living on a houseboat on the Seine, is my friend Roni Beth Tower, a She Writes Press author, whose recently published article follows. Read on and enjoy!
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Hello Guys and Gals!
When I signed off for summer a week or so ago, I had not anticipated so much good news coming my way. First there was the selection of Veronica's Grave as a New York Public Library TOP PICK for Summer 2017, followed days later by the breath-catching news that Missing Mother, the Canadian version of Veronica's Grave, had made the Bestseller List in Canada during its first week in the stores. When I asked my editor at HarperCollins Canada if that entitled me to call myself a 'best-selling International author,' his response was: Absolutely!
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I'm honored that Veronica's Grave: A Daughter's Memoir made the 2017 summertime reading list of none other than the New York Public Library! The list is comprised of the top picks of librarians throughout the library system. That my memoir was selected by the head librarian at the exciting new Bronx Library Center seems most fitting as I was born in the heart of the once Beautiful Bronx where "the best people live."
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There's great news this week, but let me start with a fantastic sale. It's hard to believe, but on May 9th Veronica's Grave: A Daughter's Memoir will be celebrating its First Birthday.
To honor all books published by She Writes Press in Spring 2016, the publisher is running a one week sale of those books. Starting now. There are 36 books to choose from, and each can be downloaded for pennies! To be exact for 99 cents each.
If you're feeling reflective, there are a number of memoirs to check out. If you're looking for historical fiction or a riveting mystery, you will find them on the list. All you need do is click here
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On my last three trips to Paris, I’ve chosen to stay in the Marais, not because of its international clientele, lovely art galleries, and trendy boutiques, but for the glimpses it offers of the history of Paris, dating to the 13th century.
Opening the Travel section of today’s New York Times (Sunday, February 5, 2017), I was delighted to find “My Paris: Seduced by the Past,” by Liz Alderman, the Paris-based chief European business correspondent for The New York Times. Liz has lived in the Marais for fifteen years, and, as you might expect, her choices are personal, well-informed, and dear to her heart. Read on!
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I did not want to pass up this opportunity to, once again, wish you good luck and fortune in the new year. But since the Chinese New Year is something my dear friend Diana Paul knows more about than I do, I am forwarding her insights on what we can expect in the Year of the Rooster.
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After dipping a madeleine in a cup of verbena-infused tea, Proust’s boyhood memories played out before his very eyes. After a few more sips and a few more dips, he transformed his entire life — all that he knew about history, cultural mores, social privilege, art, science, and human nature—into what is arguably the greatest novel of the 20th century. If not a memoir, it’s an autobiographical treatise in the guise of a novel. Dipping the madeleine proved an antidote to the much-dreaded writer’s block.
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Never having been a vendor at a book festival, I jumped at the chance to share a booth at the Brooklyn Book Festival with two other She Writes Press authors, Sande Boritz Berger, author of The Sweetness, A Novel and Liz Gelb O’Connor, author of The Angelorum Chronicles and Caught Up in Raine—romantic women’s fiction.
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Not only did this week find Veronica's Grave winning the Readers' Choice Silver Medal, it also has been named one of Women Writers, Women's Books recommended reads for September.
Here is what they had to say about Veronica's Grave:
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One of the great joys of Paris has to be the scores of specialty museums, each with its own focus, each with its own charms. Some of the museums mentioned in the following article will be familiar to the readers of ‘Desperately Seeking Paris,’ in that I’ve blogged on them: le musée Picasso in the exquisite Hotel Salé; the musée D’Orsay in the magnificently reconstructed train station; and the challenging musée du Quail Branly, a veritable vertical garden, its walls cloaked in greenery.
What intrigued me about the article was how, if you planned well, you could save yourself a bundle of euros, enough to splurge on a lovely lunch with a glass of vin rouge between the morning and afternoon visits.
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Happy Father's Day! The following quote, which says it all, comes from T. D. Jakes, an American author, pastor and filmmaker:
I want to congratulate all the men out there
who are working diligently to be good fathers
whether they are stepfathers, or biological fathers
or just spiritual fathers.
And what follows is an article that appeared about Veronica's Grave in the Independent Journal Review.
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In the 1940s, when Barbara Bracht Donsky was 3 years old, her mother vanished from her life. At first, her father told Barbara only that his wife had gone away for a while, and the little girl distracted herself with her grandmother, brand-new baby brother, and the various relatives and friends who regularly gathered at their lively apartment. When, five years later, her father announced they were moving and asked Barbara to call a pretty new woman “Mom” and never mention her “real” mother again, she knew something was really wrong.
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If a biography or an autobiography tells the story of a life, a memoir tells of the turning points in that life that help to answer the question: How did I become who I am? What I’ve come to realize is that — and this may be due to my youthful attachment to that inveterate gumshoe, Nancy Drew—I’m drawn to literature set in foreign locales. Growing up in a quiet neighborhood where nothing exciting ever happened, I counted on Nancy’s exploits to spark my imagination and brighten my days. Nancy loved to travel; so did I—even vicariously. So, if a trip abroad is not in your immediate future, here are a few transporting recommendations.
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Coming soon is the Barbara Donsky Author website. We’re stepping into a whole new world, but the devil is still in the details. Under construction and nearing completion, there are a few snags that need to be ironed out. I’ve become quite fond of this website, as have a number of you, but after two years, it was time for a change. We’re hoping to launch next week. Stay tuned.
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