The Linen Way — published!

The author:

Read about Melissa here.

 The memoir:

Cover image and design by Claire Beynon.

 The content:

Passionate about poetry and seeking guidance to write her own, Melissa Green embarked on a Masters program at Boston University in 1981 and immediately caught the attention of her teacher, Derek Walcott, and his friend the Russian Joseph Brodsky. Giants of American poetry and Nobel prize winners, they recognized in her a literary peer with an innate and dazzling talent.

In a parallel reality, Melissa was living a knife-edge existence, her life an unpredictable and embattled odyssey between poetry and despair, a pendulum-swing between fervent, luminous writing and sudden, ferocious bouts of suicidal illness. In a black shipwreck of a house, she hid away for years, caring for her demanding and difficult grandmother.

That she survives is our blessing; that she has retrieved poetry from the abyss is a timeless boon. As poet Zireaux writes: … having travelled to the outer reaches of human experience …  with a fine-tuned lyre and Odyssean strength of purpose, Melissa Green reports her discoveries back home, in the language they demand.

In The Linen Way, Melissa walks the reader along the thin, perilous path between poetry’s affirmation of life and the unwelcome ghosts of hope apparently lost; a linen way, perhaps, but wrought also of fire and sulfur and the ironmonger’s hammer.

The rat:

It seems to have swelled Ratty’s head to be modelling the prototype Linen Way t-shirt, never mind the skew-whiff appliqué, or the fact that Lily-the-Pink has mislaid her sewing glasses (several pairs, up and down the country, along with earrings and necklaces) and doesn't necessarily notice loose threads or wonky seams. The newest ratadillo, Kawhia, is full of admiration and has made it her life's ambition to meet Melissa.

The Linen Way is available for 11 USD, in pdf, epub and Kindle-friendly formats, here.

Vegetables, Self-Improvement and Good News.

While Ratty and Lily the Pink do their best to deal with the day's harvest (he a persimmon, she a pear) and the ratadilloes enjoy the soporific effects of lettuce (instructed as they were to eat it up before the frost does), I embark on Day Three of an online course called Work Less, Earn More and Make a Difference. Don't you hate titles with that 'you can have whatever you want this instant' promise? Nonetheless, two Kiwi women have put this course together and I like their infectious enthusiasm. Following their workbook seems like a good way to pin myself down, find new, workable ideas and, potentially, meet other women with small online businesses. I'll let you know how it goes.

Lily perches on a huge Italian pumpkin, a marina di chioggia, often used in the making of gnocchi.

In other news, you may have see that Sue Wootton (The Happiest Music on Earth) won second-equal placing in the Hippocrates Open International Prize for Poetry and Medicine with her poem 'Wild'. Some feat, with 1000 entries received from 29 countries.

The Linen Way is being styled up. An essay by Martin Edmond on the defeats, diversions, and even the delights, of cab driving is being tweaked to make the third in the 10k series. And editing has begun to Fait Maison (subtitle yet to be determined), a cookbook by New Zealander Rachel Panckhurst who lives in Montpellier, presenting recipes and anecdotes in a deliciously French-flavoured international culinary pastiche.

The next 10k and feijoa ice-creams

I was afraid Ratty had scarpered. His relevance has been under question. Anyway, it seems he and Lily-the-Pink have been cooking up a second litter of ratadilloes. These two are only three days old but already they've discovered the joys of feijoa ice-cream, which is a good job since the fragrant fruit are littering the park and garden edges of suburban Auckland where they're spending these first, formative hours of their lives. Sorry about the sunglasses; they don't do much for our PR rat, but his eyes were looking peculiarly raisinesque so covering them seemed kinder.

 

Of far greater pertinence just now is the fact that The Siren is entering its final stages of preparation for publishing. Author Aaron Blaker spoke with Emily Duncan on Arts Hub, Otago Access Radio in Dunedin last week. He spoke about his wander through Spain in the footsteps of Laurie Lee, his writing, his experience of Rosa Mira Books and more. He also read a fine and moving short story, 'Spiral Staircase, Tiger Tea'.  You can listen in here. (Go to 4th April 2013, minutes 23 to 56.)

Tim Jones of Books in Trees has written an enticing piece about The Glass Harmonica in his first 'Book Watch' column for the New Zealand Herald.

A rat, a book, a blessing.

I had to haul him out by the ankle from under the sofa (sweeping out blue cheese wrappers and marmaladey spoons with him) but Ratty insists he's ready for the festive season, greasing up his salesman's patter, sponging his ears clean, and limbering up with the ratadilloes.

Meanwhile I've been working with Caroline Jackson who's come up with a winning cover design for the 10k series — to be unveiled soon. It remains to be seen whether we can put out the first edition, Sue Wootton's three stories in The Happiest Music on Earth, before Christmas. Hope so. Thanks to those who have sent me work to read; I haven't forgotten yours, and mean to be in touch with you all well before the holidays start.

I dipped my toe into Michael Jackson's latest book, newly published by the University of California Press, The Other Shore: Essays on Writers and Writing. From the Preface: '… while many claim that these new [reading] technologies are "disruptive", undermining and transforming the way we work and live, I see them as "sustaining" what we have always sought to do — bearing witness to what we learn of life, struggling to express it adequately, and comparing our findings with the findings of others." Amen to that. It's going to be my prized summer read, I can see.

I started to write something about Christmas . . . but it's only November for goodnessakes so no. But in the meantime, did you know that any buyer of a Rosa Mira eBook receives a delighted and grateful blessing into the bargain? That's how small and personal we are round here. 

Helping make new readers

It's only just warm enough for this, but Ratty feels compelled to lie down as he drinks in the vibrant colours of the beach boxes here on the edge of a large Australian bay. He's pondering ebooks, naturally. He smiles thinking of the favourable review The Glass Harmonica received just the other day, online at Historical Novels.

He recalls, too, how the ratadilloes' eyes light up for their bedtime story session with him or Lily. He wonders when they'll begin to read all by themselves . . .

Learning to read: it's a privilege we more or less take for granted where I come from. It's not so everywhere. In Iowa in 2007, I met author and surgeon Kavery Nambisan who has been instrumental in setting up neighbourhood reading schemes in her native India:

The Nalanda Trust offers basic non-formal education to underprivileged children. Our objective is to reach out to those kids who have no access to a good basic education system. We also hope to motivate the parents to send their kids to school by making them understand that learning will help individuals and families earn a satisfactory living and help improve their quality of life in all spheres. We attempt to make them realise that it will broaden the mind, create awareness and stretch the imagination of their young so that they are better able to draw upon in-built strengths and develop various valuable skills.

We also run libraries for the young in mind without easy or affordable access to books but with the eagerness to know more about the world. 

Rosa Mira Books would like to contribute to work of the Nalanda Trust, which runs on a shoestring and is funded largely by the trustees and 'a few close friends'. Lately it has become a registered charitable trust, so can more easily receive donations from overseas. As yet, RMB hasn't broken even, let alone made the net profit of which it intends to share 10% with Nalanda. However, this month I'm going to send some money anyway, and thought I'd give my blog readers a chance to add to this sum — a couple of dollars, or a handful: any amount will make a difference. If you'd like to, leave a comment or contact me directly and we'll work out how, depending on where you live.

Walking the dog

Ratty's crossed the Tasman, leaving Lily and the ratadilloes camping out while he takes charge of a very large dog whose owners are away. He quite likes the 'don't-mess-with-me' feeling it gives him to step out with Maximus. He carries a tennis ball in a string bag, to throw on the beach. Max ploughs up the sand, chasing the ball, which gives Ratty's tail a few minutes' break.

This week Elena Bossi interviewed Tim Jones about his Slightly Peculiar Love Story 'Said Sheree'. You can read that interview on Elena's blog, Teoría y Crítica Literaria. Yes, it's in Spanish but what do you think a dashboard translator is for?

This week I've made contact with my trans-Tasman counterpart, Really Blue Books, 'Australia's first independent digital-only trade publisher'. Well, we've exchanged emails, one each, but with excitement that we've found someone else to talk with about the journey thus far. Check out the website; I like their attitude.

Slightly Peculiar Love Stories author Coral Atkinson wrote a story for Anzac Day about returning her father's war medal collection to Ireland. It appeared here on Beattie's Book Blog.

I like Dan Blank's blog. He's a generous encourager of authors and independent publishers. Here's his latest exhortation to remember what matters on this creative ride.

Running up the flagpole

Ratty's been a little subdued and thoughtful of late. He was full of confidence when he first became Rosa Mira Books' Sales Department, but for all his panache (and somewhat distracted by fatherhood) he realises he has to find some way to grab the attention of thus-far-unsuspecting thousands of readers of RM's exceptional ebooks. 

However, he woke up this morning with 'a brilliant idea'. He'll erect a flagpole that will soar high above the kerfuffle and hubbub of all other human (or rodent or dasypodidae) endeavour. Creatures great and small will gaze up in wonder as they try to decipher the colourful emblems rippling in the jetstream.

With no abiding confidence in her husband's woodworking skill, Lily deemed it best to take the ratadilloes away to the river for a picnic. She's left Ratty's lunch on a tray, including the last gherkin on the jar, and a tankard of kefir yeast drink.

As he works, Ratty mutters under his breath like a mantra the names of the lovely ebooks he'll hoist into the ethers: The Glass Harmonica. Road Markings. Slightly Peculiar Love Stories.

Isgar and Dasychord

I strode up to the shop today, thinking that the NZ Listener had posted a review of Road Markings . . . Well, it's a big step, that they're planning to review a digital-first book at all. Good on them. However, I had my wires crossed and no review appeared this week. I'll be on tenterhooks on Mondays until it does. Meanwhile, readers have loved the ebook (one wrote yesterday, 'I felt quite bereft when I finished it') and you can read (and hear) more about it, and Michael, in the blog posts preceding this.

And what's become of the Rat? Fatherhood has been a potent distraction, especially since Lily has taken one of the ratadillo twins back to the pampas to show him off to the wider fairy armadillo family, leaving Ratty with the other.

Remember, I asked for names? Congratulations and thanks go to Jayne and Pam who each offered two possibilities, from which Lily has plucked the component parts to make . . .  well, you've read the names in the title. Isgar is in Argentina. Dasychord is alarmingly quick on the uptake and at six weeks of age is thrashing her father at chess. With that strategic little mind sharpening by the day, I hope she might be persuaded to join the Sales Department.

A piquant new year to you, too

Since the New Zealand Listener has just published a story 'The e-book case' that includes two small paragraphs about Rosa Mira Books (with photos of five pioneering males and one female model), I've hoisted the gooseberry flag to signal that Rosa Mira Books is rousing itself from summer somnolence and reviving activity, as of now. I'm going to give the fomatter a poke, to see if he's home from holiday and able to make the very last tweak to Michael Jackson's Road Markings: An Anthropologist in the Antipodes, so that review copies can be sent out forthwith, and the book made available for sale, not as I'd thought on Rosa Mira's first birthday on January 11th, but ten days later.

I hope you're all having the kind of new year start you want. Some of you might even have a new reading device. I've begun to use the iPad for reading at last, but I think that long-term I'll be looking for something lighter on the wrists, something with the weight (and flex, please inventors) of a small paperback.

I'm not sure where the rat is. Rumour has it he and Lily got hitched in Tristan de Cunha.  Ratadillos? That'll stretch my drawing skills. I'll definitely have to sell a book or two to get in the mood for that nest of critters.