Happy August!
Do you remember when I mentioned my potted vegetable plants growing out on my deck? Well, sorry to say, I’ve lost several more. The remaining and healthy ones—a few sightings of green peppers and the hanging-on cherry tomato plants. That’s it. So, what if I don’t have a particularly green thumb? Next year, I’ll buy my tomato and pepper plants at Home Depot or Pikes. In spite of this sad effort, I did enjoy watching the little plants grow to maturity, which reminds me of my work in progress, currently titled Lies in The River. Though I’m stuck in my own writing limbo, I still enjoy the process. I put the manuscript aside for a while and then picked up an old one to work on trying to kick start my brain. Sometimes a story takes so many twists and turns that it’s difficult to find the right fork in the road to go down. However, I know from experience, the story will eventually come together.
“Nothing’s a better cure for writer’s block than to eat ice cream right out of the carton.”
—Don Roff
Writing about strong characters requires authors to do massive amounts of research even if you’re drafting a narrative that takes place in the modern-day era. Going back in time requires even more categorical digging–clothing, music, news, etc. The more knowledge you have, the better equipped you are to create. Research keeps the author honest. Although I have done quite a bit of research already, there’s more out there waiting for my shovel.
In Lies in The River, the strong female protagonist, Vikki Campbell, must struggle and fight her way through her family’s mess before she finds contentment. Her adventure is full of ups and downs, and it’s one that gives her the opportunity to become someone’s hero.
Introducing My Guest Author, Donna Keel Armer
Donna is the author of Solo in Salento: A Memoir which has been translated into Italian as Un’americana in Salento. She recently completed a book tour of Southern Italy. She is a photojournalist and has published essays for travel anthologies and magazine articles with accompanying photographs on travel, food and wine, home and garden and various other topics. When she’s on the road, she writes a private travelogue. Contact her at donnakeelarmer@gmail.com to be added to her email list. She graduated with honors from Mississippi University for Women with a double major in psychology and social sciences as well as graduate studies in theology. Her first job during high school was a gofer for a furniture company and her last position before turning to writing was president of the hospitality business owned by Donna and her husband Ray. In-between she’s been in senior management in both the insurance and airline industries. She is a former board member of Friends of the Library, a member of Sea Island Spirit Writers, and a docent at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. Donna and Ray split their time between their forever home in the South Carolina Lowcountry and their beloved Italy.
Grazie mille (Thank you very much), Jody Herpin for inviting me to be part of your strong women blog. You mentioned procrastination in your last blog and that struck home. To say that from time-to-time writers procrastinate is probably an understatement. Sometimes I’m so overwhelmed by my “to do” list that I simply stop and do nothing. Of course, nothing means a day at Hunting Island where I can feel the rush of the wind in my hair, the salt on my face, and the sand between my toes. The ebb and flow of the Atlantic recharges my batteries and once more I can face the world. I highly recommend it whether it be the ocean or the mountains or the flowers in your yard. Some days are just meant for procrastination.
I grew up in the south with the prevailing attitude of marriage and kids as the goal. Although I attempted marriage several times, I never managed to have the white picket fence, the yard full of kids, and I certainly didn’t wait for my man to come home so I could feed him a home cooked meal and rub his feet and back before he retired. I grew up out of step with my generation.
My southernness includes Virginia, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina. All places I’ve called home at one time or another. I’m also a late bloomer. What about you? I didn’t go to college until I was thirty-three. I didn’t start my career until I was thirty-seven. And I certainly didn’t have any ideas about traveling solo other than for business.
But one day the entire world swallowed me up and spit me out. I looked in the mirror and said, “Your life is unraveling. What you need is a major change—a change that will allow you to grow, to be brave and strong and recreate your life as you want it to be instead of listening to and obeying all the voices clamoring in your head.” By then I was on my third marriage. And yes, it did happen to be the lucky number for me. Our past histories were not full of marital bliss but every year for the past forty years we have signed on for another year. But the joy of finding the right person after so many trials and errors resounded when I said, “I need to leave home for a while and travel alone.” He simply gave me a big hug and said, “I love you, I know you’ll come back, and I’ll be waiting for you, so go and search for the self you need to find.”
And I did. And from that adventure—free of stress, responsibility, and my old self—I grew into a person that I admire, that I care about, that I see as courageous, brave, compassionate, and full of joy and grace. During my solo journey, I learned about putting the fragmented pieces of my life back together through a class in mosaics. I learned how a complicated recycling system in Italy taught me to sort through my own personal trash—saving, restoring, or throwing away the burdens I’d been dragging around with me for a lot of years. I met lovely as well as wacky people and found myself in unusual situations that challenged me to be brave.
When I set out on my solo adventure, I had no idea that I would write a memoir and I would be the strong female protagonist in that memoir. From that trip, my first book Solo in Salento was born. It took a few years to write it and when I was finally ready to give birth, covid struck. Every book event was cancelled. But the spirit of Solo in Salento endured as did my spirit. I remembered the moment when I stood before the statue of the warrior woman on the promenade in the small coastal village where I stayed. She spoke to me and said, “Insieme siamo forte.” Together we are strong.” And she was right.
I stepped out in faith, and there was no turning back. Life gave me opportunities, and I held on tight. When the world turned right side up again Solo in Salento was picked up by an Italian publisher and was translated into Italian as Un’americana in Salento and in the fall of 2022, I was invited on a ten-week book tour of Southern Italy.
Now I’m working on a mystery series. Book #1 ~ The Red Starfish will be released on October 7, 2023. And guess what? The protagonist Caterina Maria Lucia Gabbiano aka Cat is a courageous woman. Cat (like me) has one foot planted firmly in the South Carolina Lowcountry and the other in Southern Italy. Her catering business is thriving until her best friend from childhood disappears and Cat’s better angels tell her to drop what she’s doing and find her friend. Mystery, mayhem, and the mafia take Cat into a catastrophic series of events.
Is Cat a strong woman? Sometimes. Is she brave? Sometimes. But more often than not, she’s confused. She blunders and she makes decisions that are not always in her best interest, but her heart is brave, and she reaches for life. She’s like all of us. We take a step forward and fall back into the black hole. But together as we reach out our hands and help each other, we can find the strength to open our hearts, to be full of love and compassion without judgement, to be both soft and powerful, to be a person of value. It is within ourselves to find these gifts and to continue the amazing journey we are on. I invite you to live your life the way it was meant to be lived.
Jody, thank you for giving me this spot in your lovely blog Sensing Southern. It’s an honor to hang out with strong women.
Thank you, Donna. You can find her at:
donnakeelarmer@gmail.com, https://facebook.com/donna.k.armer/, &
www.donnaarmer.com
Don’t forget to grab a copy of my novel, Relative Consequences, available on the following:
BookShop – https://bit.ly/3IMV1Nk
Amazon – https://amzn.to/3GN4l1M
Barnes & Noble – https://bit.ly/35BMdLW
Kobo – https://bit.ly/3IStGKl
BooksAMillion – https://bit.ly/3OifwDp
It’s my pleasure to announce that Author Cara Bertoia will be my next guest in September. Can’t wait for you to meet her.
Thanks for stopping by,
Jody
Jody Herpin 