I am grateful to Lanette Sweeney, a fellow Finishing Line Press author, for highlighting my new book, Touch My Head Softly, on Facebook. Take a look:
Here is the link to my book:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
A piece of writing begins with a germ of an idea, an inspiration, a straw dog. Some people use their journals to spark ideas.
I have been journaling for many years. I used to use pen and a notebook. Now I journal on my Microsoft Word App on my iPhone. I just find that while I may not always have my notebook, I tend to always have my phone. I journal snippets of ideas that I may later develop into a writing piece or poem. Do you journal? When? How?
I have a new collection of poetry out that started with my journal. It will be out soon from Finishing Line Press:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
Or you can find it on Goodreads:
Straw Dog Writers Guild, the largest group of writers in the Pioneer Valley, has featured my new book, Touch My Head Softly, on their Facebook Page. Take a look:
https://www.facebook.com/strawdogwriters/
The book will be out shortly from Finishing Line Press:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
I am a writer and a swimmer and really related to this quote from Mary Oliver, the great Pulitzer-Prize winning poet. During this dark pandemic period, I find both writing and swimming have sustained me. I’m grateful I get to reserve a lane at my gym and swim six days a week (never on Sunday.) I have also been writing through this pandemic and I feel like it has been a lifesaver. It gives me purpose.
I wrote a collection of poems about my experiences with my partner, who died of Alzheimer’s in his sixties. I feel grateful that Finishing Line is publishing this work and it will be out in the world. The work around the publication, particularly, has sustained me during this dark time.
This is the link to my book at Finishing Line:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
This is the link to my book on Goodreads:
For any of you who have practiced Elbow’s freewriting technique, “speaking onto the page,” is it a useful method? Whenever I get stuck, I do this. I’ve done it in writing groups, speaking into a recorder, or just reading aloud for myself. It seldom fails to produce some piece of writing. The writing may not be my best, or may wind up unused, but it’s a way of getting started and perhaps generating something that eventually will be used.
Elbow also recommends this for editing, for writing that winds up ‘correct.’ You can do this while keeping those virtues of natural speech, and getting rid of what’s not suitable for the genre you’re writing in. This can also add a new infusion to your old writing, by speaking it onto the page, reading it out loud, and hearing what sounds easy. Sometimes when you hear it, it just sounds different than when you read it. I used this technique in developing my new collection of poetry, Touch My Head Softly.
This is the link to my new collection at Finishing Line Press:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
This is the link to my new collection on Goodreads:
By this, I think he meant that we shouldn’t judge our own work, but let it go out in the world. Others will judge it. If you think of it that way, it frees us, as writers, from nagging insecurities. There’s always someone who has one a prize for their work or gotten public recognition, and it’s easy to be envious. But if we just keep our sights on our own work, and trying to make it the best we can, we can gently return to ourselves.
I have a new book coming out soon, a collection of poetry called Touch My Head Softly from Finishing Line Press. It is about my experiences with my partner’s having Alzheimer’s. I try not to think about how other people will judge my very personal poems. I wanted to do it and now the poems are out in the world: abandoned.
Here is the link to my book at Finishing Line Press:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
Here is the link to my book on Goodreads:
Store/Fiction ISBN eBook: 978-1-005-23640-3
ISBN Paperback: 978-1-716-4666
Set in the Santa Clara Valley during the turbulent sixties and seventies, REAL ESTATE is the story of how a bucolic agricultural valley is transformed into the iconic Silicon Valley.
As acres of apricot orchards are converted into suburban subdivisions, families flock to the area. Air Force pilot Joe Jackson moves his family to Sunnyvale soon after the Hopkins build their dream house. Harriet Jackson, her father’s eyes and ears, finds herself living next door to Bobby Hopkins, aspiring circus performer and math whiz. They share a side-yard fence, but the worlds they live in differ radically. A shared love of the Beatles and the loss of the inspiring young President Kennedy bring them together in an unlikely friendship, but their family’s differences soon tear them apart. While Harriet struggles to fulfill her family obligations. Bobby builds a computer in his garage.
They meet again as adults, but by then everything has changed. In the electric valley, both Harriet and Bobby learn that family is not always destiny and houses are sometimes more than a home.
eBook: ISBN: 978-1-005-23640-3
Print ISBN:978-1-716-46618-2
6″ x 9″, 186 pages. Printed on archival quality paper.
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For any of us who watched the insurrection of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. last week, the words of Amanda Gorman, the inaugural poet, rings true. This poem was, ultimately, optimistic, portending a better future. Poetry can speak to us like nothing else when times are dark.
I wrote a collection of poetry after my partner died of Alzheimer’s Disease. It was a very dark time in my life. My partner, a brilliant mathematician, deteriorated quickly, leaving me in darkness. The writing of the poetry helped me to process what happened. I have been working on Touch My Head Softly with my publisher, Finishing Line Press, to finish the process. It has given me purpose through the pandemic.
Here is the link to the book at Finishing Line:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
Here is the link to the book on Goodreads:
Locked away in the seclusion of the Terem Apartments, the Romanov Tsarevnas were no threat to the crown. Yet the same Romanov blood flowed through their veins, and they weren’t so easily forgotten – one of them ruled Russia for seven years. Maria Alekseyevna writes her deepest thoughts in her diary, hides away to read, and has a forbidden love that lives in her secret script.
Natalya Alekseyevna has dedicated her life to her sister, Anna Alekseyevna, who suffers from a condition that claimed her brother, Tsar Feodor Alexeyevich. She fills her days by creating her own versions of the ancient poems sung to the Romanov children. Fyodora Alexseyevna, the youngest, is nurtured by Maria, who hopes for a better life for her youngest sister. Sofia Alekseyevna fights tradition and rules the terem and eventually the country.
Covered from view, rare excursions outside the Kremlin enhance their lives and the discovery of a secret passageway – changes everything. Sofia’s absences from the terem are explained when Maria follows Sofia and learns her secret.
The author, Shirley Forrest Nomakeo received a B.S. in Graphic Design. She worked
in the printing industry for twenty years. Before turning to writing
full-time, she was a partner in a Golf Marketing and Promoting business
in western Massachusetts.
Currently, she is a published author. As an Independent author,
audiobook producer, editor, and APA member, she writes full-time. She
edits manuscripts for new authors and reviews audiobooks.
She lives in MA with her husband and two children.
The Tea Room can be found at:
I can’t listen to music with words, as it interferes with my word process, but wordless music, classic or jazz, can sometimes enhance my writing. A Bach piece with choral work or John Coltrane’s horn can bring me there.
I guess combining art forms is usually a good thing. I’ve happily done readings of my poetry in art galleries. I think the art enhances the reading. How do you use the arts to enhance your writing?
My upcoming book, Touch My Head Softly is due out in early 2021;
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
Add me to your Bookshelf on Goodreads:
Eileen P. Kennedy Author 