Release day -- Time and Circumstance by Theresa Milstein -- guest post.

Hi all!

This year I've made a commitment to read and review more blogger books and do the occasional host post on bloggers whose books I've read.

Today I'm hosting a blogger I've known for years, fellow teacher Theresa Milstein. She was kind enough to send me a copy of her book, Time & Circumstance for review, which I devoured very quickly, being a huge fan of flash fiction and poetry. And, great news, it's released TODAY!

Here's my very short review, already posted on Goodreads:

Time and Circumstance is especially interesting, as we don't often see a compilation of both flash fiction and poetry. PART ONE - TEMPO ADAGIO is prose, cutting edge slices of life, beautifully written, at times humorous, at times poignant, at times sad. Theresa captured my attention right from the first story - RESOLUTION - told from the POV of an 18 year old college student. The protagonist is torn between the nostalgic TV shows she finds addictive such as Bewitched and her college attendance. I love the lines: 'Who wouldn't perform magic to make their lives better?' Who indeed?

PART TWO - TEMPO ALLEGRO, is the poetry selection. Theresa's love of poetry shines through. I was taken by her (I'm not sure what they're called in the US,) shape poems, especially the PERFECT STATE OF BEING where she writes about Spirit Mind Body. I love the poem and how it appears on the page.

I hope I've given you the tiniest taste of Theresa's excellent book. I hope you'll support her on her blog tour (go HERE for the times/dates/hosts) and be convinced to buy her book.

So, over to you, Theresa!

The ways these stories came about are as varied as the stories themselves. After writing full-length manuscripts for children and teens seriously for five or six years, I finally started writing short stories. I’d heard I would learn to make every word count. Also, I wanted to start being published, and Stephen King started by getting short stories published.

Around the same time I began writing short stories, I wrote some flash fiction based on some blog challenges and I took a poetry workshop series. Then Jessica Bell began Vine Leaves Literary Journal to promote the vignette. Realizing there could be pieces where the main goal wasn’t beginning-middle-end was freeing for me. I enjoyed taking a small space and expanding on mood, setting, character.

The first part of my book, Time and Circumstance, is dedicated to prose. I included “Daisy,” which is the first story I ever submitted and which got published. It was originally in an anthology 100 Stories for Queensland to raise money for flood victims. It was the first piece I’d ever written for adults, and it’s deliciously dark. The original inspiration is from a TV show called L.A. Law. I can’t say which episode, or it will give the ending away! The pieces included in that section were also inspired by picture prompts, blog challenges, and events in my own life.

The second part of the book is dedicated to poetry. There too is the first poem I ever got published, “Dark Days,” which appeared in Vine Leaves Literary Journal. That poem explores a broken family from the perspective of a teen. I often paired the poetry in this section with picture prompts from a now inactive blog called “Magpie Tales.” Sometimes I wrote the poem first, and when a photo or painting posted that seemed to fit, I connected them. Other times the paintings and photos inspired me to write a poem. But many poems are inspired by my own life.

When I began pulling pieces for the collection, written over five years, this theme of the unrelenting passage of time surfaced.  In these last couple of years as my children are growing, it’s been weighing on me what a short gift I had to have this family of four. People we love come into our lives just as easily as they leave it. No matter how much we want to hold onto time, every moment is just a phase. And we are a product of our time, our circumstance. So my favorite quote by James Baldwin became the title to bring these small pieces together.

Theresa Milstein writes middle grade and YA, but poetry is her secret passion. Her vignette collection, TIME and CIRCUMSTANCE, will be published by Vine Leaves Press on March 21, 2017. She lives near Boston Massachusetts with her husband, two children, a dog-like cat, and a cat-like dog. For her day job, she works as a special education teacher in a public school, which gives her ample opportunity to observe teens and tweens in their natural habitat. 

TIME and CIRCUMSTANCE 

$3.99 AUD (eBook)
Kindle AUS
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iBooks | Kobo | Nook

$12.99 AUD (paperback)
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Chapters Indigo

Leave a comment  and you’re eligible to win a prize during my blog tour!

1 $25 Amazon gift card

1 signed paperback copy

1 ebook

Answer the question:

“If you could relive any moment in time, what would it be?”

Extra entries if you share on Facebook or Twitter and link it to me.

@TheresaMilstein on Twitter.

@Theresa Milstein on Facebook

#ReliveMoment or #TimeandCircumstance

Winners will be announced on April 5, 2017

Thanks so much for dropping by and telling us more about yourself, your writing, and your book, Theresa. I wish you happy trails and happy sales! 

I'm especially interested in how many of your stories/poems were the product of participating in blog challenges etc. I can say the same thing happens with me.

Published already in 2012! The Vine Leaves Literary Journal is hot off the press and I'm in it, as are many blogger friends.

STOP PRESS! Vine Leaves Issue #01 is now out and it looks awesome!

One of my goals for 2012 is a challenge I've set for myself - Write It. Submit It. Once a week. Don't go looking to sign up as there's no link - there's a membership of 1, Yours Truly. If you want to join me, fabulous. Let me know in comments! We could get a little group thingy happening!

The first week of January is rushing towards me like a runaway train and I've yet to submit anything this week. But all is not lost. Thanks to the new Vine Leaves Literary Journal I have 2 days to write a submission for their Issue #2. Of course I have lots of other projects on the boil but they demand many, many more words!

Thanks to the amazing efforts of Jessica Bell and Dawn Ius, the Vine Leaves Literary Journal Inaugural Issue is out today! And my little vignette is in it!

What's different about Vine Leaves? Well, it pubishes the 'vignette.' Let Jessica and Dawn speak for themselves:

The vignette.

It’s rare for a literary magazine to accept the "vignette" as a publishable piece of literature. Why? Because it is not a “proper story.” We beg to differ.

So, what is a vignette?

"Vignette" is a word that originally meant "something that may be written on a vine-leaf." It’s a snapshot in words. It differs from flash fiction or a short story in that its aim doesn’t lie within the traditional realms of structure or plot. Instead, the vignette focuses on one element, mood, character, setting or object. It's descriptive, excellent for character or theme exploration and wordplay. Through a vignette, you create an atmosphere.

Vine Leaves, will entwine you in atmosphere; wrap you in a world where literature ferments and then matures … 

I've just got to share my favourite definition:

A vignette stands on its own like an individual piece of chocolate in a box of chocolates, each looking pretty and irresistible in its own tiny compartment. 

(This quote found in the second link at the end of this post.)

Here is my story for the journal:

Emerald Fields and Black Rain

by Denise Covey

Ciara sat on the verandah fanning herself with Pregnancy Today, wilting, weary in the Australian heatwave. She’d just read how being pregnant had raised her body temperature by less than one degree. Pfutt! She’d like that doctor to see her now, every pore oozing!

            She leaned back in the squatter’s chair, feeling snoozy. She guzzled her iced water, dripping cubes over her face.

            No more Doctor Know-It-All!

            She tossed the magazine onto the floor, picked up her latest fantasy novel and scanned a random page. Princess Edane was swooping her away to a cooler, misty clime, when she heard a sharp snap. She sat up, alert. Her book fell from her fingers and clumped beside the chair.

            She heard David’s voice booming all around her with his cautionary tales: You can’t be too careful Ciara. Always be on the lookout Ciara. The Australian bush can be treacherous Ciara.

            Well, the sky had been a washed-out blue all morning, now it was a hazy grey, but otherwise nothing had changed. A koala in the giant eucalyptus perhaps, jumping from branch to branch? On the tree David had wanted to cut down because he thought it was too close to the house. No way. She loved how it shielded the hot corrugated iron roof from the blazing midday sun. He’ll cut it down over my dead body!

            She settled back in her chair, grabbed a cushion and placed it behind her head. Ah, what else can I do but sleep? Too hot to do housework, too hot to bake, too hot to garden. Her eyelids felt heavy, County Armagh’s emerald fields were beckoning … then the rustling began.

            Was it a faery creature come to whisk her home? She stirred and smiled, keeping her eyes shut lest the faery disappear from her dreams. Maybe a breeze was coming up? She lived in hope. God, why did I move here from the mists of Ireland? Hmm. David, that’s why—my darlin’ Aussie bloke…

***

Snap.

Snap.

Snap!

            Ciara woke to the noise. She gasped for breath, but the air had gone away. Her face was wet, her body slick and oily. Pain burned her mouth and chest. Her hair sizzled around her face, an electrified heated cap.

            She pushed herself to her feet and staggered to the verandah rail, one hand clutching her heaving chest and the other holding her swollen stomach.

            God oh God oh God! Dante’s Inferno! A living painting of grey mist, orange dancing fingers and black swirling shapes. She heard the screeching wail of a runaway train coming closer, closer, then the collision.

            A monstrous wall of flame threw her against the wall like she was faery dust.         Her back scorched, cinders scattered the blackened sky and fell onto her body like black rain.

©DeniseCovey2011

Vine Leaves will be downloadable in PDF format, for free, at the following link on Friday January 6th:

http://www.vineleavesliteraryjournal.com/issue-01-jan-2012.html

"We are also looking into making the journal available through Smashwords, so that those who wish to use an e-reader will be able to do so. Stay tuned!"

There is a list of contributors for Issue #1 here.

Vine Leaves Blog is here. Check out Guidelines/Submissions.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vineleaves.literaryjournal

Twitter: @VineLeavesLJ

If you'd like to submit to Vine Leaves, here are the submission periods:

Submission Periods ...

January Issue: October 1st – December 1st 

April Issue: January 1st – March 1st

July Issue: April 1st – June 1st

October Issue: July 1st – September 1st

Any submissions received outside of these dates will be deleted, unread.

Issues go live on the first Friday of every publishing month.

Now if you've never written a vignette before (you probably have, but didn't know it), here are a couple of great links I found:

• http://www.ehow.com/how_2060077_write-vignette.html HOW TO WRITE A VIGNETTE with examples of varying forms.
• http://www.how-to-write-anything.com/vignette.html 

Let's go meet our writing goals.