MasticadoresUSA, thanks to Editor Barbara Harris Leonhard, has published a new nonfiction flash that can be read tangentially to Scrap: Salvaging a Family. There are four end notes so as you read and find the little roman numerals they relate to the notes at the end, thus the title, “End Notes with Photograph.”
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
###
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 haven’t been very available on here in the past few months. A lot of my time has been taken up with my mother’s affairs (financial, medical, moving arrangements). Last week she moved into Memory Care, and it’s been a very difficult journey there–and her adjustment is, as she described, rough. My mom still knows everyone very well, can discuss family news, etc. but she doesn’t know which day of the week it is–or the date. She has hallucinations. It’s a horrible kind of limbo to be in since she understands so much.
Coincidentally, today Editor Barbara Harris Leonhard published a story I wrote before I knew this would happen to my mother. Missing His Birthday This story is dedicated to my mom.
On this double pub day, Editor Nolcha Fox has published three of my poems. Three Poems
The middle poem is another Little Red that I wrote after the publication of Our Wolves.
I’m grateful for my brother who moved my mom and visits her often. We’re a team. I do all the stuff that can be done long distance, and he does the in-person.
###
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hope you enjoy this teeny prose poem/flash published at MasticadoresUSA, thanks to Editor Barbara Harris Leonhard. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
I’m thrilled that Editor Juan Re Crivello has interviewed me for LatinosUSA-English Edition’s. Hope you like it! Here’s a link:
Filed under #AmWriting, #bloggingcommunity, #poetrycommunity, #writerlife, Interview
Thanks to Editor Barbara Leonard, MasticadoresUSA has published my poem “Screaming.” https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2023/05/09/screaming-by-luanne-castle/
Thanks to Editor Barbara Leonard, MasticadoresUSA has published my poem “The Not Sonnet.” Of course, it is a sonnet.
This is the second poem of mine that Barbara has published. And there will be a third next month.
https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2023/04/11/the-not-sonnet-by-luanne-castle/
Cactus blossom season is here. The gardener took this pic. He is a much better gardener than photographer, but you can still see how beautiful the blossoms are.
