Writeful

a weblog for readers and writers

Thursday, September 29, 2016

York First Fridays Harvest Festivities at the Historic York Inn

TheSmyser-Bair House / Historic York Inn invites you to join us for an evening of homemade food, drinks, palatial tours, live music, original art, and local literature at 30 South Beaver Street as a part of Downtown York’s First Friday festivities from 5 to 9 p.m. on October 7!

Berkshire-Hathaway will offer complete tours of the 1830s mansion, The Smyser-Bair House / Historic York Inn. Step back in time for a tour through history, with hand-carved, gilded Pier mirrors, stained glass, etched glass, hand plasterwork, woodwork, and chandeliers that rival those found in museums. Anchored in the historic district since the 1830s, and belonging to the Smyser-Bair family until 1979 (when it was left to the York Historical Trust before becoming a private inn) this home is a rich part of York's history, recently featured in front page news and on national television for its historic charm.

Limestone Connection, a band from Baltimore made up of Holly Morse-Ellington (on ukulele and vocals) and Jason Tinney (on harmonica), will play live music.

Eric D. Goodman and Nataliya Goodman will sign copies of their books, Flightless Goose, a storybook for children, and Tracks: A Novel in StoriesFlightless Goose was endorsed by one of the founding writers for Sesame Street. Tracks won the Gold Medal for best fiction in the Mid-Atlantic Region from the Independent Publishers Book Awards.

Jason Tinney will sign copies of his novel, Ripple Meets the Deep. Ripple Meets the Deep was named best book of Baltimore by Baltimore Magazine.

A free beer tasting will be offered by Brewery Products.

Snacks, hot food, spiced drinks and spiked drinks will be there for the taking.

Whether you want to enjoy the beer tasting, live music, regional authors autographing books, spiced cider, autumn snacks, a tour of the Smyser-Bair House, or a little bit of everything, join us from 5 to 9 p.m. at 30 South Beaver Street, York, PA 17401 for York First Friday on October 7!

Learn more about the history of the Smyser-Bair House / Historic York Inn at www.YorkInn.info.


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Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Get Cracking with Crack the Spine

Crack the Spine is a weekly online literary journal that publishes it's best work in a quarterly print anthology. Crack the pages of issue 197 and you'll find my short story, "Small Talk" toward the beginning of the issue.

"Small Talk" is one of the stories I wrote during my morning ritual at the Ox-Bow artist colony. On that writing retreat, I was revising Womb: a novel in utero. 

Each morning, I would warm up by sitting on the couch in my studio and reading an entry in John Steinbeck's Journal of a Novel. Then, I'd sit at my desk and write a few pages of flash fiction. Some of those exercises resulted in throwaways. A few, like "America Land," "The Bell," and "Girl 2, 5, or 7" made their way to publication.

So it is with "Small Talk." 

Be sure to leave a comment about the story in the issue's comments section to boost the chances of seeing "The Bell" ring in Crack the Spine's next print anthology!

http://www.crackthespine.com/2016/08/issue-197.html

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Wednesday, September 07, 2016

A Cover is Born

Special delivery! A cover is born! But a good book cover isn’t simply delivered by a stork. A lot goes into the concept, development, and design of a book cover.

For Womb: a novel in utero, there were a lot of ideas floating around. An actual picture of a child in utero? A newborn? A pregnant woman’s torso? Something along the lines of a baby shower invitation with pink and blue?

In the end, the creative team agreed that, given the unique subject matter, abstract worked best. Something that evoked the feeling of a womb, a spark of awareness, and yet was undefined.

I’m very happy with the result! But what father isn’t proud of his baby?

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