Tag Archives: dolls

by Luanne | March 9, 2015 · 5:20 am

Follow MaryGold to a Free Book! #bookgiveaway

I thought it would be fun to let MaryGold off the shelf where she lives. She is going to participate in a little social media quiz fun.

MaryGold with Isabella Rose

If you don’t know who MaryGold is, she is the doll on the cover of my book. I held a vote here for her name.

Every Friday and every Tuesday I will post on my Facebook page and on Twitter a new adventure that MaryGold has taken (March 13, 17, 20, and 24). After four adventures, I will post a quiz on here on March 26 related to the adventures. The first three persons who email me the correct answer will each win a free signed copy of Doll God. My email is writersite.wordpress[at]gmail.com.

While you’re checking out Facebook and Twitter, feel free to “like” the page or “follow” writersitetweet, if you haven’t already. Also, I will watch for your Twitter follow and follow you back.

First adventure begins Friday, March 13!

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If you already have a copy of Doll God, I have a different quiz for you. This one is easy peasy. Be the first person to email me the quiz answer at writersite.wordpress[at]gmail.com to win a copy of James Arthur’s poetry collection Charms Against Lightning.

Here’s the quiz question: MaryGold shows up in a poem in Doll God. Don’t think it’s THAT easy haha! She doesn’t go by the name MaryGold in the poem. But she is the doll on the cover of the book and is found in a poem. What is the name of the poem and what page is it on?

Please do not enter both contests. One or the other . . . .

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Filed under Book Giveaway, Books, Doll God, Dolls, Photographs, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Writing

Tagged as book giveaway, Doll God, dolls, how to win, Poem, poems about dolls, Poet, Poetry, poetry collection, where's MaryGold

by Luanne | February 26, 2015 · 5:20 am

The Gift of Doll God – Ellen Morris Prewitt

I wish I could figure out a way to reblog Ellen Morris Prewitt’s beautifully written and heartfelt review of Doll God. But I could not figure it out.

The Press This function is supposed to pick up part of the post, but of course it only shares the link. But here it is: a story of Ellen, dolls, poetry, and Doll God.

CLICK THERE—->The Gift of Doll God – Ellen Morris Prewitt.

Thank you, Ellen!

Please check out Ellen’s fabulous writing, accessible by her website. Bonus: she’s hilarious–and you can see that even by the review quotes she posts: from an internet stranger and from her mother. That’s the kind of sneaky humor you get by reading and listening to Ellen’s stories.

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Dad is chomping at the bit at the short-term care nursing home. He doesn’t like that they won’t let him move around by himself. I told him he’s like me–doesn’t want to follow institutional rules. He said that is true. Of course, it’s more than that. He’s in an extremely frustrating position. But I like to cheer him up by joking with him.

The kitties were great last night and say hi to everyone!

Nakana is my new favorite! She loves petting!

29 Comments

Filed under Blogging, Book Review, Books, Doll God, Dolls, Essay, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Writing

Tagged as book review, Doll God, dolls, Ellen Morris Prewitt, Madame Alexander Scarlett O'Hara, Poem, poems about dolls, Poet, Poetry, The Gift of Doll God, Writing

by Luanne | January 20, 2015 · 10:05 am

Vote for a Name

Here are the names that you suggested for the doll-that-needs-a-name. Please vote for one name. We’ll see what happens!!

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Filed under Books, Doll God, Dolls, Nonfiction, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Publishing

Tagged as Doll God, dolls, names for girls, Poem, Poet, Poetry, poetry collection

by Luanne | October 24, 2013 · 5:20 am

The Historical Factor of Dolls

I wasn’t going to post until next week because I’m trying to concentrate on my manuscripts. But I just got a notification from WordPress that it’s the one year anniversary of this blog. So I thought I’d pop on here for a moment to say Happy Anniversary to me, um, Writer Site.

While I’m on here, I thought I’d make a few more points about dolls. This time it’s history, not creepiness.

The word doll may come from the Greek word for idol: eidolon. This reminds us that one of the purposes of early dolls was in religion.
Most ancient and modern cultures have had dolls, although they were not always children’s toys.
Dolls have been made from every material you can imagine.
No dolls have survived from prehistoric times, but there are museum examples from the major ancient cultures, such as Egyptian, Greek, etc.
Any model of a human being can be viewed as a doll of sorts.
Technically, stuffed animals are not dolls, but when I realized that Koko the Gorilla views stuffed gorillas as dolls, I saw how human-centric our thinking is.
Dolls look as different from each other as people do from each other.
Here’s a link to a basic history of dolls.

Ming Ming by the Quan Quan Company

Mattel’s Ken and wardrobe in Ken doll case

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Filed under Books, Creative Nonfiction, Dolls, Essay, Nonfiction, Poetry, Writing

Tagged as Creative Nonfiction, doll, doll collection, doll history, dolls, Essay, history of dolls, poems about dolls, Poetry, poetry manuscript

by Luanne | October 21, 2013 · 5:20 am

The Creep Factor of Dolls

Since I was very young, dolls have fascinated me. And I don’t mean that in a creepy I’ll-rip-your-head-off-pretty-dolly kind of way. I was one of those good kids who put clothes on their dolls. I felt uncomfortable if my doll wore a dress and had no underpants underneath.

I have a very large and fairly traditional doll collection, and I store them in my guest room. Many guests are completely creeped out by dolls. You should see the looks they give me when I show them the bed they have to sleep on–with a big wall of dolls staring at them all night long! For me, though, most of them are beautiful and not so very creepy.

But as an adult I realize that dolls have a lot more potential than I had credited them with before. They can mean all kinds of things to us: good, bad, creative, destructive.

My poetry manuscript contains a surprising amount of poems about dolls. I wrote one and then I wrote another and then the doll voices and stories kept coming at me. Through writing the poems I’ve uncovered a lot I didn’t know about dolls. As I wrote the poems, I began to realize the creep factor of dolls, as well as all the different ways dolls speak to me. It’s impossible, though, to sum up here what is shown with more vividness in the poems.

Since I’m working on the manuscript now and in honor of Halloween, I’ll share a few creepy doll images with you.

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A few years ago I found this wonderful doll art on the internet. They apparently were created by Kelley Richardson. Her out-of-date blog is found here.

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One of those doll dioramas is the subject of a poem I am including in my manuscript. Can you guess which doll/shadowbox I wrote about?

The other day, one of my Facebook friends shared a collection of creepy doll photos which spoke volumes about how dolls can get under your skin.

Here is the link or just click the photo above.

As a nod to tradition, here is a photo taken by my grandfather’s uncle over 100 years ago of some children, presumed to be relatives. The two girls are clutching their dolls.