Aquinnah Excerpt and Becky Povich's Memoir

I'm at Cathrina Constantine's site today sharing an excerpt from The Ghosts of Aquinnah. Cathrina is the author of Wickedly They Come, and if you haven't read that yet I highly recommend picking up a copy. If you'd like to read a short excerpt involving my character Stella Winslow please visit me at Cathrina's place! Thanks, Cathrina for hosting me.

It's also my pleasure to be able to share the new release from Becky Povich, From Pigtails to Chin Hairs: A Memoir and More.

Becky was one of the first people I met after I started blogging back at the start of 2011 and I honestly can't even remember now how I met her. But I've certainly enjoyed her friendship ever since and I couldn't be happier for her that her memoir is now out in the world. Becky went through some twists and turns on the road to publication but it's here now and I've no doubt it is wonderful. Kudos and huge congratulations to you, Becky!

About the book:

In From Pigtails to Chin Hairs: A Memoir & More, Becky Lewellen Povich takes us from her young Midwest childhood in the 1950s to present day near St. Louis, Missouri. Each chapter is a scene from everyday life and/or unexpected events written in the way only Povich can, with humor and poignancy woven into them. She relates tales of Christmases, summertime fun, selling homemade potholders, and putting on parades. Also, the kids next door, classmates, her fear of the dentist and her parents' scheme to help, plus long car rides visiting her grandparents in small town Iowa.

She willingly shares the bittersweet times, too, which include her parents' divorce, major disappointments, preteen and teenage angst, a whack on her head from a falling crowbar, and her ill-fated first marriage, spent mostly in Germany. She also comically writes about her happy second marriage, cell phones, dishwashers, and how she was born with a klutz gene.

"Becky Povich has a light and whimsical way with words, and a knack for making the everyday seem a bit more special." - Philip Gulley, bestselling author of Porch Talk Series, Harmony Series, Hometown Tales, I Love You Miss Huddleston, and more.

"This beautifully written memoir is funny, poignant, and life-affirming. Becky Povich is an American treasure." - Michael Lee West, bestselling author of Crazy Ladies, Mad Girls in Love, Gone With a Handsomer Man, and more.

Becky Lewellen Povich has numerous publications, including stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul books and other anthologies. Becky is currently working on her sequel due out in 2015, which contains more memories and anecdotes.

Bylines Calendar, and A.A. Milne's Birthday

Thanks to my friend Becky Povich, I learned of a fantastic resource for writers called the Bylines Calendar which, as stated on its website, is "by, for, and about writers."

After Becky posted about this great calendar on her blog, I ordered my copy, and was thrilled to receive it last week. In addition to features such as tools for developing monthly and yearly goals, a submission tracker, and a listing of great writing-related books and websites, the calendar also lists "literary" holidays and famous writers' birthdays. The writers' birthdays feature has turned out to be one of my favorite things about the calendar, and I thought I would try focusing on one or two of the authors listed each week here on the blog.

Today is the birthday of A.A. Milne, who was born on January 18, 1882. As Winnie The Pooh was one of my favorite childhood friends, and I love the Pooh stories to this day, I couldn't resist selecting Mr. Milne as my first birthday celebration post.

I was quite an Anglophile as a child, as my favorite books were Winnie The Pooh, Paddington Bear, and the Beatrice Potter stories, such as Peter Rabbit. I adored them all, but none as much as Winnie The Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. One of my most cherished possessions was a stuffed Pooh Bear that I still have wrapped gingerly in my storage closet, and I was also thrilled to have his friends Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore in my collection.

I so admire Mr. Milne for creating a world that was so enchanting to children all over the world. When reading the Pooh books, children everywhere could feel as if they too were in England's Ashdown Forest, where Milne used to take his son Christopher Robin to play, and which was the inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood.

Milne wrote about Ashdown, "In that enchanted place on the top of the forest a little boy and his bear will always be playing."

I was delighted to discover that Christopher Robin Milne donated his original stuffed animals to the New York Public Library before his death in 1996. I love this photo of the inspirations for Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga, and little Roo on display:

Finally, as anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows, I love quotes. While preparing for this post, I came upon this quote from Mr. Milne that I found so touching and bittersweet I couldn't resist sharing.

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." ~ A.A. Milne

I was lucky that my childhood was enhanced by the charming world of Mr. Milne's Hundred Acre Wood. So it's my pleasure to have the opportunity to celebrate how much this author's work brought to children everywhere. Even now, 56 years after his death, children and their bears are still playing in his enchanted forest, just as he predicted.

If you haven't already heard of the Bylines Calendar, I can't recommend it enough. This will be an annual purchase for me from now on, and I look forward to years of writing inspiration. Thanks again to Becky for the recommendation!