Tap into Scrap at Elizabeth (Liz) Gauffreau’s blog! Check out her review of Scrap: Salvaging a Family.
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BLOG TOURS FOR SCRAP:
First up are friend blogs!
Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review
Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review
Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review
John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt
Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap
Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.
Thank you so much, Joy!!!
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I’m looking forward to the blog tours for my new book Scrap: Salvaging a Family, published by ELJ Editions.
First up are friend blogs!
Joy Neal Kidney, March 21, book review
Liz Gauffreau, March 23, book review
Marie Ann Bailey, March 24, book review
John W. Howell, March 25, book excerpt
Miriam Hurdle, March 30, companion story to Scrap
Then there is an April and May tour through Poetic Book Tours, schedule in link.
In addition to it being the Happy Scrappy Scrap Release Day, the book’s STARRED!!!!!!!!!! Kirkus review came in last night. What a surprise that is. Only 10% of Kirkus reviews are starred. (I had no idea, but I looked it up).
Almost twelve years ago, I was blogging about the various patterns that are found in Scrap. And the book already had that title then! I can hardly believe it, although the book did not look anything like it does today. Anyway, one of my posts was about the motif of scrap. Here is the most important part of that post:
Today is one of my non-emotion patterns: SCRAP, which happens to be the title of my book. The motif of scrap(s), trash, theft, salvaging, and re-use runs through many scenes. Scrap represents destruction and chaos until scraps can be salvaged and re-used.
On the more positive side of trash and scrap, when I was a kid, my father sold teepee burners to dumps and then started his own garbage business. When Dad had his own business, he used to find all kinds of usable trash. He brought me boxes of books and costume trunk clothes that had been thrown into dumpsters.
When my grandmother entered the nursing home, she left behind with my parents a Victorian crazy quilt, made of irregular scraps. I think of it as a guiding image for my book. 
Like most crazy quilts [of that era], the scraps are velvet and satin and embroidered with designs. Many of the designs are floral.
My father uses scrap metal to make art:
The metal flowers are my favorites.
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The quilt can be found in Scrap: Salvaging a Family, as can my father’s metal creations.
The official release for Scrap: Salvaging a Family (ELJ Editions) is in two weeks, but you can read about it now. The journal Your Impossible Voice has published an amazing review by Wilma J. Kahn. What a blessing to my eighteen-year project!
A memoir in flash, Scrap focuses on three discrete parts of Castle’s life in relation to her parents, especially her father. “Scrap” is a multivalent word around whose every meaning and nuance Castle fashions poignant—and sometimes horrifying—flash prose and poetry to reveal her family in all its human pain, mystery, and love.
On a related note, the journal Fictive Dream published my flash story, “The Nice Girls.”
LatinosUSA has put Kin Types on its Bookshelf! And MasticadoresUSA has published a poem from that collection: What Lies Inside
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The Sweet Acacias have blossomed! I have such a love-hate relationship with these guys. They are so sweet smelling, but gosh, everybody is “allergic” to them! They bloom at least twice a year.
I’ve mentioned here that I haven’t had time to write in the last few months, but I am trying to write a few tiny drafts now. If I can accomplish first drafts of flash or poems, a few a week, for a few weeks I will feel better. I don’t feel as well when I’m not writing. I feel distinctly WEIRD.
Lately, I’m reading a mystery series by Kate Ellis–the Wesley Peterson books–which feature contemporary murder mysteries with archeology stories. I learned about the Plague Maiden. Have you ever heard of her? She appeared before a community was hit by the Bubonic Plague or Black Death. She was a woman, sometimes a skeleton, dressed in white and carrying a rake or a broom to sweep away all the dead. In the book, she sometimes wears a red scarf.
Do a quick Google search if you want to be creeped out by the variety of depictions of this scary folk character.
I feel like she needs to show up in a story I write, but I have no idea how or when. Maybe you would like to write a story about her? If so, post it so I can read it!
I’m very annoyed with Substack. On Substack in addition to writing posts like on WordPress, you can post quick little notes which have a different feel than a post. But this morning after I posted a note I discovered that I couldn’t comment on other people’s posts and notes. So annoying. I tried a couple of fixes, but I have had so many things interfering with my time lately that I’m at the screw-it stage of social media repairs.
My mom’s financial and medical affairs continue to take up a lot of time, but also both the Gardener and I have had some health stuff going on. And, really, every day something new in the house needs fixing. I can see why my dad always wanted to move to a brand new house after we had been in a home for a few years.
Meesker’s ashes and pawprint came home to us last week. I also ordered a pawprint for my son because Meesker had been his cat to begin with. I still feel some PTSD about Meesker dying at home although I wasn’t here when it happened. Maybe that’s been even worse for me. Not being here with him.
Perry is also hanging out with us more than usual. I think he probably discovered Meesker passed away on the bathroom floor before our pet sitter did. A couple of days after we got home, the gardener and I went out for a few hours and when we got back Perry ran up to us excitedly than looked disappointed when he saw Meesker was not with us.
Here’s what I posted today over at Substack. It has to do with SCRAP that will be officially released on March 20, 18 days from now :).
The collage on the cover of my forthcoming memoir-in-flash, Scrap (ELJ Editions), is by Lorette Luzajic. Every item on the cover shows up in Scrap: Salvaging a Family.
Take a look at that red tomato pincushion, for instance. You’ve probably seen one just like it, especially if anybody in your household has ever sewn. Why are so many pincushions in the shape of tomatoes? Here’s an article that explains.
The Mystery of the Tomato Pincushion has been Solved
(And if your pincushion has a little strawberry attached to the tomato it’s filled with emery so you can sharpen your pins and needles). I had to look up emery. It’s “a dark granular mineral that consists of corundum with iron oxide impurities (such as magnetite) and is used as an abrasive” (merriam-webster.com)
You can still pre-order the book at the publisher’s site (and it might be a couple bucks cheaper than it will be on Amazon):
A couple of days ago I said the pre-order for my new book (ELJ Editions) would be available in a couple of weeks. But: it’s available now!!!! PRE-ORDER SCRAP HERE
This book–flash nonfiction with some reflection pieces, a few poems, a short play script–in other words, very hybrid and an engaging (I think) read–is the end result of my memoir writing for the past SEVENTEEN YEARS. Yeah, no kidding.
If you’d like to purchase a paperback copy ahead of time and be one of the first to get your SCRAP when it comes out in March, please click the link above or the cover image below to get to the pre-order page on the publisher’s website.
For an idea about the book, here is what Kathy Fish, acclaimed flash fiction writer and writing teacher has to say about SCRAP:
Borne of shame and trauma, the secrets uncovered in Luanne Castle’s hybrid memoir reveal her father’s complicated childhood and the impact it had on their relationship. Told in brief, strikingly vivid fragments, and through various perspectives and forms, the book as a whole presents a deeply moving and unforgettable account. We readers are privileged to bear witness to this emotional excavation, one that ultimately reminds us that love is powerful even when it’s painful and that forgiveness is the only way forward. Scrap: Salvaging a Family is a gorgeous and brilliantly original collection. I highly recommend it. ~Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life: Collected Works
Filed under Flash Nonfiction, Memoir, Poetry, Publishing, SCRAP: SALVAGING A FAMILY
I saw that my publisher has the cover for my hybrid flash memoir up on their website! So without further ado here is the cover for my book, due out March 20, by ELJ Editions. Preorders will be available in a couple of weeks!
The artwork and cover design is by collage artist and writer Lorette Luzajic, the EIC of The Ekphrastic Review and The Mackinaw. Typeface by Keith Powell and Lorette Luzajic.
I commissioned the art from her. Every tidbit in the collage is something from the book itself. Lorette did a wonderful job of excavating the images.
Here’s a book description to wet your appetite.
The hybrid flash memoir Scrap: Salvaging a Family explores the stain of childhood fear and anxiety on the adult spirit and the experience of reconciling with an aging or dying parent. A daughter has grown up in a household with an angry and abusive father. He keeps the secret of his biological father’s identity from his daughter for decades. When the elderly man faces his mortality, he finally names his father. The more the daughter learns about her father’s early life and origins, the more she understands him which leads to forgiveness for the past.
I really hope that you’re going to enjoy the structure of the book which is made up of short micro or flash pieces, a longerish (hahaha) central piece, a few poems, and some dedicated glimpses of reflection.
P.S. You might be wondering if there will be a cat in the book. Yes, and there is an image in the collage on the book cover. Look very closely at the bottom right, and you will see a little black cat.
Welcome to 2026! I’m not asking for amazing things for the year; I’d just like it to be gentle with me.
2025 was difficult, although I did have some writing successes in journals, have been working with the small press, ELJ Editions, that will be publishing my flash memoir, and had my manuscript inspired by painter Remedios Varo accepted by Shanti Arts.
*Scrap: Salvaging a Family, a hybrid flash memoir, will be out March 20, 2026
*Hunting the Cosmos, flash fiction and poetry for Remedios Varo, will be out fall 2026
I should have a cover reveal soon for Scrap. Can’t wait to share it with you!!!
The problem with the new year, though, is it springs from the old and all the unresolved issues of 2025 will go on in 2026. My mother’s dementia is one of those things. Taking over her affairs is very stressful and time-consuming, but worse is the dilemmas of communication with my mother. I can still have good conversations with her if I ignore the little idiosyncracies (the “critters” that have taken up residence in her apartment, but can only be seen by her), hearing about her going to a service two hours early and waiting for others to show up, etc.
Both Perry and Meesker have serious health issues. As you may remember, Perry was diagnosed with issues two years ago, but I don’t like to talk about it. All I can say is I am constantly feeding sick cats who need food all day long and cleaning up diarrhea, pee outside the box, and dramatically hurled vomit. And Lily still hates Sloopy Anne. Last night she threw herself violently against the gate we have up to keep them apart, trying to get to Sloops.
2025 was productive for me for writing, up to a point. I haven’t written anything for weeks now. Between grandbaby duty, my mom’s stuff, and these cats (on top of regular work and business), I’ve been too busy and very tired.
I read some good mystery series this year, though, as that’s a good way for me to unwind. Actually, I read far more than I usually do, but then I did have hip replacement surgery in May, so mysteries helped out a lot when I was suffering before the surgery and then during the recovery. Here are the series: Yorkshire Murder Mysteries by J.R. Ellis; Dark Yorkshire, Misty Isle, and Hidden Norfolk by J.M. Dalgliesh; Rev. Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries by Julia Spencer-Fleming; Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mysteries by Deborah Crombie; China Thrillers, Lewis Trilogy, and Enzo Macleod by Peter May; DCI Craig Gillard Mysteries by Nick Louth. (To give you a clue, I am a fan of Louise Penny, Ann Cleeves, and Elly Griffiths, and the series I’ve listed here are more like the Griffiths and possibly the Cleeves than the Penny books. The Spencer-Fleming series is a lot like the Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway books, notably because of the hot love affair in the middle of the mysteries.
In addition, I read some wonderful stand-alone novels and poetry collections. I reviewed just a few of them for this blog. If I reviewed your book in 2025 and didn’t list it, please let me know!
A Gorgeous Collection Combining Genres of Poetry, Genealogy, and History
Book Tour Stop: Book Review of Deborah Brasket’s When Things Go Missing
Just got a call from my son. He miscalculated the days this week and asked if I could watch Hudson again tomorrow. Sure! (Good thing I fell asleep on New Year’s Eve at 8PM). The other night the Gardener put together a tricycle for Hudson. He’s almost two, and his feet barely reach the pedals, but we can work on learning to pedal a bike again tomorrow. 🙂
Let’s work on making 2026 a tender, playful, happy year! If we all puts our heads and hearts together . . . .
Filed under #amreading, #AmWriting, Book Review, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Flash Nonfiction, Memoir, Poetry
Now that the days are not as hot in Phoenix–more like 85 than 105–I started up my daily walks again. I had to stop when my hip got so bad, but now that I’ve had the replacement there is nothing stopping me. I love the smells outside, although the last two days there has been an unfamiliar funky odor (possibly bobcat pee) in the air, as well as the usual perfume of flowers, grass, leaves, and sun-kissed concrete.
The intensely blue sky during my walk
Not being able to “show” you the smells annoys me. I can take photos and write words and even post audio if I want to. But I can’t post scent. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy adding olfactory descriptions in my writing; however, sometimes I’d just like to share how something actually smells. Or smell something my nose can’t reach.
This brings me to what I was thinking when I woke up yesterday. I’ve always loved history and as a kid used to wonder what it would be like to have lived in a different time period. Or to visit, even invisibly. Choose a time period. How about 1515 CE? What would it have stank like? I think even if I arrived in my time shuttle inside a palace that I would be gasping for air. I’d be holding an entire bottle of Gris Dior up to my face. I’d have to keep a little puke bag handy. I’m sure I’d be begging to come back to the present time. And that’s with palace peeps, not inside the hut of a poor person.
Yes, this is the kind of thing I think when I wake up in the morning. Maybe because I’m not writing every day. If I do write daily, then I’m apt to think of a story or poem while I’m still in bed. But I have finished my Remedios Varo-inspired ekphrastic chapbook. Gosh, I hope I can find a publisher for it. It’s hybrid, being both fiction and poetry, so that makes it harder to find publishers to submit to.
And, in other news, my hybrid flash memoir, Scrap: Salvaging a Family, should be available from ELJ Editions in March! Watch for cover reveal and so on in the future. If you are a blogger and would like to participate in a blog tour this spring, send me an email at luanne[dot]castle[at]gmail[dot]com. You can post a review or I can write a companion post to my book for your blog. I can get you a pdf. Here’s a link to publisher’s page: ELJ Editions forthcoming.
On the cat front, it’s been all puke/pee/poo/puke/pee/poo. If you plan to have multiple cats, try to space out their ages a bit so you don’t end up with all seniors at the same time. (just kidding, sort of)
In less than a week my grandson will be 21 months old! I can hardly believe it. He’s such a delight. He went on vacation to the beach and loved every moment.
I’m introducing a new poetry-slash-flash nonfiction book by a debut writer, Kathi Crawford. I had the honor of writing a blurb for the back of the book.
Kathi Crawford’s debut chapbook Consider the Light, hybrid memoir in poetry and flash, shines a beam into the liminal spaces of a woman’s life. The collection examines transition periods and disruptions as Crawford recreates herself and her future at each of these junctions. As the child of working-class parents, she muses, “I need to save my family,” but as she grows older and must deal with her own problems, she takes what she can learn from others, such as self-discipline from her beloved Nanna, while forging a fierce independence. Crawford’s distinctive voice and story take the reader on a unique journey while offering whispers of familiarity to many who have faced similar hurtles. You won’t want to miss this engaging new voice.
Here’s the Amazon link. What a gorgeous cover, am I right? CONSIDER THE LIGHT – AMAZON
The cover artist is Brooke Summers-Perry. Here’s her Instagram:
https://www.
I think you will really enjoy this one, even if you tend not to read poetry. Here’s the book description:
consider the light is a hybrid memoir in poetry and flash nonfiction that traces one woman’s journey from her 1960s Rustbelt upbringing to a life of creative and professional fulfillment in Texas. Born into a working-class family shaped by grit and sacrifice, Kathi Crawford navigates decades of transformation-personal, cultural, and emotional-while forging her own path toward career success and lasting love.
Through moments of grief, reinvention, and unexpected grace, this collection illuminates the resilience required to see the best in each situation and in each other. With language that is spare, evocative, and deeply felt, Crawford invites readers to reflect on what it means to belong, to endure, and to choose light even when the shadows linger.
This debut book speaks to anyone who has wrestled with identity, loss, or longing-and found, in the struggle, a deeper kind of beauty. It’s a testament to the power of memory, the strength of women’s voices, and the healing potential of story. A compelling read for fans of women’s memoirs, personal transformation, and poetry about grief, hope, and resilience.
And you can read a little about Kathi here:
With a career spanning decades in organizational development, Kathi Crawford founded People Possibilities, LLC in 2008. She is an IAC-certified master coach who has worked with hundreds of clients one-on-one through leadership, career, and life transitions.
Alongside her business career, Kathi actively writes poetry and flash creative nonfiction. Her work has been featured online and in print in a variety of literary journals. Her chapbook, consider the light, is available from Finishing Line Press. This mini-memoir invites readers to embrace their flaws, honor resilience, and cultivate empathy for themselves and others, offering yet another avenue for Kathi to foster understanding and connection.
You can find Kathi on Instagram or LinkedIn @kathicrawford and subscribe to her blog @ kathicrawford dot com.
