Category: Wivla

Posted on by Fern Brady - 1 Comment on Art Show Excitement

Art Show Excitement

As a publisher, I have the joy of working with amazing creatives in the process of putting together their books. We publish fiction because the world needs a place to escape the harsh realities of life as well as a safe space to explore tough issues.

There is one artist, however, who I have a contract with for producing her art coffee table book, and that’s Violet Jen. When I saw the painting of the bird putting on her make up, I fell in love with Violet Jen’s work. This image spoke to me on so many levels.

Then this amazing artist showed me more of her incredible works. The bird merged into the human form held a fascination to me, as well as to her. We decided to work on a book to bring these images, and the inspiration behind them, to readers. It has been a long road in the making.

First, the artist had to decide on the number of paintings she wanted to produce. As the work continued, she came to realize that the bird series was not going to be finite. That, in fact, it was a subject she would work on for the rest of her life. So, we decided to create a series of books chronicling the time periods of her life as reflected in the birds that populate them.

This concept is incredibly intriguing but not new in the art world. Artists life’s are often chunked up by the works that they produced during certain periods which reflect the influences on them. The first set of paintings has now been determined.

While the actual book is still in the production process and won’t be out until winter of 2025, the paintings that encompass this part of Violet Jen’s life are going to be displayed for the first time in an art gallery show all her own. The show opens tonight and will run until the end of the year.

Here’s where the paintings will be:

I hope you have a chance, if you are in the Houston and Montgomery areas, to drop in and take a look at these amazing paintings. Share with me in the comments what they speak to you, both the images here that I’ve shared and if you see them in person. I’m leaving you with the playlist the artist compiled that she listened to while working on these and which inspired her.

https://music.apple.com/profile/violetwatr

Posted on by Fern Brady - No Comments on A Poetry Sandwich for Authorpalooza

A Poetry Sandwich for Authorpalooza

The Houston Writers Guild will be hosting our Authorpalooza conference the weekend of October 4–6. 2024 at Rice University’s Student Center. We are excited at the line up that is coalescing for this year’s event. It is one of the best parts of my job as head of the Guild.

Last year, we ended the event by hosting a Renga contest. However, the participants were not familiar with creating Renga and we were all very tired at the end of the main conference day. So we just created a single Renga about our conference together. You can see it posted on the HWG website’s Writer’s Room page (www.houstonwritersguild.org).

Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is an award-winning writer, director, performer, critic, and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, TX. Praised by the NY Times as an artist who “defies categorization”, her genre-bending works span from stage to page, and everything in between.

This year, we will kick off the event on Friday night with the incomparable Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton leading participants in a group poetry activity. Friday night is when the Guild celebrates the book launch of the anthology collection of winning entries from the collaborative short story contest we host in conjunction with Women in the Visual and Literary Arts and produced by Inklings Publishing. There will be readings from the authors in the anthology and some light refreshments. But to start the conference weekend off, D.E.E.P will have those present work to create a poem and perform it. 

If you have never met this amazing poet and talented writer, you are in for a treat! Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is an award-winning writer, director, performer, critic, and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, TX. This amazing lady has written and performed poetry but, beyond that, she has written and produced plays and operas including Marian’s Song with the Houston Grand Opera. She has an upcoming children’s picture book and just released her memoir Black Chameleon which examines Black womanhood through afrofuturistic mythology. She is working on various projects including film and stage adaptations of her work and is a former Resident Artist with the American Lyric Theater, Rice University, and the Houston Museum of African American Culture.

The samurai were expected to be fully well-rounded, excelling in the physical as well as mental and spiritual arenas. Most of the earliest Japanese writings were done by samurai authors.

After kicking off the conference with D.E.E.P, we will close the event on Sunday afternoon with a Renga competition. Yes, I’m not giving up on the idea of bringing this ancient Japanese event to life here in Houston! The Renga has a very simple form of alternating stanzas with 3 lines and 5 lines. The triplet stanzas take the form of Haiku with the 5–7‑5 syllable count and the cinquain stanzas use the form of Tanka with 5–7‑5–7‑7 syllable counts.

Traditionally, Japanese samurai poets would meet and compete to form the best Renga by taking turns each adding a new stanza. The poems content would meander from topic to topic as the poets added their verses spring boarding from one idea of the previous stanza. Sadly, most of these poems are lost since it was a game and no one thought of preserving the work. There are Renga in existence and during the final session of the conference on Sunday I will share more about the history of the art form and lead participants in a competition of our own.

If you want to learn more about this year’s conference event visit the HWG’s website at www.houstonwritersguild.org and consider purchasing your ticket to be a part of this exciting event now during the early bird pricing time.

Posted on by Fern Brady - 1 Comment on Writing Kickoff for 2024

Writing Kickoff for 2024

The year of the dragon opens and I’m ready to push forward more of my universe’s stories.

Each year in January, Max Regan hosts two weekends of writing intensives. These four days, with their small and large group sessions, create an opportunity to begin the year focused on your work as a writer. To benefit from the opportunities of these weekends, you need to put aside other things that call your attention and put your identity as a writer up front and center.

The first of the intensives found me with a writing space that was completely topsy-turvy. My mom had all our rugs cleaned and to do so they had to move all my things about and unplug my stuff. They supposedly put everything back ‘where it was,’ but in reality they just moved the heavy objects to more or less the general area of the room where they thought they had originally been. Needless to say, it was a hot mess.

Arya is not happy to see the decorations go down. No more Christmas doggie treats!

So the first session, I took time to re-organize the writing space. I also had the opportunity to share my conundrum. I have one book that needs minor tweaks and is then ready to head out to copyediting — War Rising. I have another book with a significant amount of already written chapters and a clear outline toward finishing — Gortive Offensive. I also have Love’s Flame, the second book in The Dragon and His Kitten Series outlined and needing a first draft. So what should I do first?

Well, as I went through the first weekend, I made some strategic decisions. War Rising, book 2 of Thyrein’s Galactic Wall series, was the one that needed to be on my desk first. Clearly, the gap between book 1, United Vidden, and this one has been too long, even though fans of the universe got a chance to learn about Nichamir and Denipia in Love’s Call last year. That book is not the follow up of United Vidden and so War Rising is essential to move forward.

I am working on a short story for this contest. I think it’s okay to enter since I don’t have too much to do except oversee the process and the judging is blind.

So, when the second intensive weekend came along, in spite of the fact that I had not finished actually re-organizing ALL the space of the room, I decided to use the sitting area section that was open and available and begin the final read through of War Rising. I also had the opportunity to work various short stories in the groups and place them into contests. I even submitted some poetry, though I don’t really think my poetry is that great. But then if you don’t submit, the answer is always no. Maybe I’ll get a yes on some of this?

The book’s preliminary cover is drafted. Of course, tweaks are needed but I am so inspired by Verstandt’s artistry!

Anyway, this month is all about getting War Rising ready to go to copy edits. By the end of the second intensive, I was half way through the novel. Last weekend, I had to stop and put away the Christmas decor before my HOA sent us a lovely letter about it. I’m committed to pushing this book out to the next phase of production by end of January, so this weekend is the final push. Wish me luck!

Posted on by Fern Brady - No Comments on Haunted Holidays is Coming

Haunted Holidays is Coming

Saturday, November 18, starting at 6pm, writers from Houston Writers Guild and Women in the Visual and Literary Arts will be at Brazos Bookstore for the annual Haunted Holidays Short Story Reading. This event began as the brainchild of the amazing ELLEN SEATON.

This year’s flyer, which you can enjoy here, was designed by Melody Locke. Her hauntingly beautiful artwork has given the event a whole new look. The partnership with Brazos Bookstore was originally for Haunted Winter Stories but last year the event was expanded to include any holiday tale with a haunted twist.

If you are a writer and would like to read a story that evening, there are still some spots available. You can register on the information page on the WIVLA website: https://www.wivla.org/calendar-from-mw#!event/2023/11/18/haunted-holiday-readings

The truth is that this year I will be reading a slightly revised version of the first story I ever read aloud for this event. Last year, I made up a whole new holiday for Thyrein’s Galactic Wall because… well I do love world building. But with my new full time job and my second novel waiting for me to finalize the edits from my editors I just didn’t have the time to do a fresh tale.

Original artwork from previous years.

The first year I participated in this event, it was held via zoom because we were mid-pandemic. So it will be nice to see how this winter witchy tale does to a live in person audience. Since I first read it, the characters have, as they often do, taken on a new life of their own. There’s a backstory now of the lady that leaves the cottage to the protagonist of the tale I will read next Saturday at Brazos Bookstore. I am certain that if I’m not careful this could become a whole new series of novellas. Not that I could keep them from blossoming if I sat down in earnest and wrote on it. They might well end up epic novels.

Just because I won’t write again until after the coming Thanksgiving break.

But, I must keep them where they are now — short tales. I have to get the two connected series I already have books published on out before I go off into yet another story line.

Posted on by Fern Brady - No Comments on Nanowrimo 2023

Nanowrimo 2023

On top of everything else I’m doing, I’m still one of the MLs for Nanowrimo Houston.

Well if it isn’t November already. Wow, the year does fly by. So now that we are here, it’s Nanowrimo season. November is National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is 50,000 words in 30 days.

And already, I’m behind. I didn’t start on November 1st as I have in the past. Usually, I wait up until midnight on October 31st and then I start writing my nano project. But not this year. I’m working so I couldn’t stay up that late on a school night.

So I haven’t actually started a project yet. I do have two books outlined and ready to write. Love’s Fire is book two of the Dragon and His Kitten series. I should work on that one as it is the next one that needs to release after War Rising.

This is the outline for Love’s Fire, which will be book 2 of the Dragon and His Kitten series.

Which of course brings me to the fact that War Rising, book two of the Thyrein’s Galactic Wall main line series, is waiting for the final edits. Max Regan, editor extraordinaire, has sent me the feedback and I need to make the final tweaks so it can go off to copy editing. AND I need to start working with my designer on a cover for it.

But that won’t do for Nano. You can’t successfully complete 50,000 words on a revision draft, least of all if it is pretty ready to go. SO, Love’s Fire is waiting for me. Then again so is Gortive Offensive.

Ah, yes. That was supposed to be book 2 for Thyrein’s Galactic Wall and the sequel to United Vidden, but the preparations for war took so many words (nearly 127,000) that we had to cut it off and create War Rising.

Here is the outline for Gortive Offensive. This will be book 3 of Thyrein’s Galactic Wall series of which United Vidden is book one.

I have Gortive Offensive mapped out as well. To be honest, I even have a nice start on it because of the chapters that didn’t make it to War Rising which had already been written and which are being shifted to GO, which is now book three.

So, as this weekend, the first in November, kicks off and I host my first write ins, which book will I work on? I honestly don’t know. I guess when I sit down later tonight during the first write in I’ll see which one decides to speak to me.

All in all, this is a good moment for me. I’ve been so swamped with keeping Inklings going and full time teaching, not to mention Authorpalooza conference and the release of the Journey into Art volume for Houston Writers Guild and Women in the Visual and Literary Arts, that I haven’t written anything since August. It will be lovely to get myself back into my projects and back to my writing soul.