Musings & Meanderings: Christy Warren talks about writing in coffee shops–and being displaced–also PTSD, letting others see us in moments of tenderness; plus a revision workshop, another on obsessions, a big book of summer, recently published poetry, more
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By Leslie Lindsay
A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more
Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book
~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~
Welcome June!
What does it mean to be a witness? Is it the same as observation?
Writers are an observant group. We notice things. How people move, act, look. We see light and color in unique ways. We probably also overthink things, read into interactions more than maybe typical…I don’t know…do you agree with that assessment?
What if we allow ourselves to be witnessed by others?
That’s something I’m interested in lately. Allowing myself to be vulnerable around others. Letting my guard down. It’s not always easy. And it almost always results in transformation. For us and the other person.
What does this look like?
Unbridled joy. A special occasion? An accomplishment? Maybe it’s sorrow. When we allow ourselves to experience and be seen in an intimate way, we are are allowing others to bear witness in an intimate way. We’re allowing the space between humans to grow smaller, and let ourselves be seen as we truly are in that moment and that’s really a tender, beautiful thing.
Others–friends and family–can stand as a witness for us. But we must be brave enough to let them, which isn’t ‘easy.’
It might be about safety, vulnerability, acceptance. Openness.
All of that comes from a place of trust and respect, right?
If we were to apply this to the page, we can be assured readers are able to fully witness our words, emotions, imagery. Of course, we can’t enter our published work as a blubbering mess; no one wants to read that!
Be sure to scroll down for more information and a mini-interview with memoirist Christy Warren about her forthcoming FLASHPOINT (June 20 2023). She allows us into her world as a former firefighter dealing with shame and PTSD.
As we move into summer, I urge you to think about how the sights, sounds, colors, sun light, and nature seem to explode. You’re witnessing all of that, right?
Let’s let summer color our writing.
When you allow yourself to be witnessed, you are inviting others into your intimate space, while sharing that they also matter. How beautiful–validating–is that?
Question:
How will you let yourself be seen on a deeper level this summer? What might you list or observe or catalog in a closer examination?
This issue of Musings & Meanderings is jam-packed with some really great stuff to get your [writing and reading] summer off on the right foot. Coaching, book recommendations, where to submit, reading recommendations, author interviews, recently published prose, and a quick 4 questions insights interview with Christy Warren on her memoir, FLASHPOINT: A Firefighter’s Journey Through PTSD (SWP, June 20 2023), and more.
By the way, I do not get any ‘kick-backs’ or other kind of payment (in-kind, or otherwise) for mentioning these classes/workshops/books/individuals. Sharing because if helps me, maybe it’ll speak to you, too.
Some Writerly Things:
What will satisfy you…as a writer? Michelle Dotter, editor of Dzanc Books talks to P&W about this…maybe you will only be happy if your work reaches the NYT bestseller list? Is picked up by a Big 5 Publisher? On display at Target. Maybe you just want it published, period. read more HERE.
Small Harbor Publishing is looking for work for their October 2024 anthology, Forms. From their submission guidelines, “We want your villanelles, sestinas, duplexes, ghazals, pantoums, erasures (black out poems), centos, sonnets, rondels, golden shovels, odes, and prose poems. Impress us with your strictest use of the form, but also dazzle us with broken form. One of our goals is to provide a wide variety of examples of each form, from those that adhere strictly to the parameters to those that turn the form on its nose.” SUBMIT HERE.
Obsessions can fuel our writing life. Of course they can! Learn more about how in this 1-Day Zoom intensive taught by poet Lauren Davis, author of the forthcoming THE MILK OF DEAD MOTHERS. (Great title, right?!) In the meantime, you can check out WHEN I DROWNED: Poetry. To learn more about the webinar popHERE.
Historically, revision has been one of my pet-peeves. Maybe yours, too? (I’m getting better at liking it!). The Lafayette Writer’s Studio is hosting this webinar July 6. Check it out HERE, fee-based with Melissa Fraterrigo.
Some Readerly Things:
Oprah chose THE COVENANT OF WATER (Grove Press, May 2023) by Abraham Verghese as her 101st Books Club Pick. Read more about WHY.
Definitely intrigued by this new novel, LITTLE MONSTERS (Avid Reader Press/S&S, June 27) by Adrienne Brodeur, the author of WILD GAME: A Memoir. It touches on lots of things that really intrigue: family, mental illness, artists, the ocean, and more. I think it will be reminiscent ofMary Beth Keane’s ASK AGAIN, YESmeets the work of J. Courtney Sullivan.
GoodReads is GIVING AWAY 20 copies of Maud Newton’s ANCESTOR TROUBLE in honor of the paperback release. Enter the giveaway HERE thru June 13. Check out my 2022 interview with Maud in HippocampusMagazineHERE.
New! Featured Author|Insights
Christy Warren
FLASHPOINT: A Firefighter’s Journey Through PTSD
Sig Wallen, San Francisco Fire Department
“Christy captures the constant exposure to exigent calls a firefighter faces. Over time it takes a toll on our brains.”
Despite focusing on harrowing subjects, Warren maintains an approachable style that has an endearing buoyancy . . . The result is a well-balanced, courageously candid memoir that moves toward a note of hope, reassuring others that the grip of PTSD need not last forever. An honest, informative, emotionally stirring memoir.
–Kirkus Reviews
Leslie Lindsay:
Without responding in complete sentences, what would you say FLASH POINT is about?
Christy Warren :
The weight of shame and the liberating force of vulnerability.
The construction of hope and self-worth. (Wait, is that a complete sentence ?)
Firefighters!
Leslie Lindsay:
Where did you write FLASH POINT? Do you have any special writing routines or rituals? Do they change with each project, or remain constant over time?
Christy Warren :
I spent quite a bit of time writing this memoir in three different coffee shops. I first wrote in Peet’s, but then found The Coffee Shop that had beautiful natural wood tables and a space I could focus in. They closed, so I then headed to Philz. Their coffee is fantastically strong and seems to be the only coffee that actually keeps me awake. I always sit at the end of the long, solid wood, community table. The background music changes daily yet always seems to fit my mood perfectly. I love writing there.
If I am really excited about what I am writing, I can write anywhere, under any conditions.
Leslie Lindsay:
If you weren’t writing, you would be…
Christy Warren :
Wishing I was writing.
Leslie Lindsay:
What book did you recently read that you can’t stop thinking about?
Christy Warren :
Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
Photo courtesy of the authorImage designed & photographed byL.Lindsay
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bio: Christy Warren is a retired fire captain from the Berkeley Fire Department in California. She has twenty-five years of service as a professional paramedic and eighteen years as a professional firefighter/paramedic. After being diagnosed with PTSD in 2014, she retired from the fire service; since then, she has become a triathlete, completed the Escape from Alcatraz swim five times, and earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Washington State University. She is a volunteer Peer at the West Coast Post-trauma Retreat and hosts the podcast The Firefighter Deconstructed. She lives in Pleasant Hill, CA with her wife, Lisa, and dog, Harriet.
For more information, to purchase a copy of FLASHPOINT
I had the honor and priviledge of chatting with Priscilla Gilman, author of the memoir, THE CRITIC’S DAUGHTER (W.W. Norton, February 2023 for The North American Review. We talk about Guess jeans (with ankle zippers!), being the responsible older sister, challenging parents, and more. Gilman is the daughter of renown literary agent Lynn Nesbit and Richard Gilman, Yale School of Drama professor and theater critic.
This poem, CLOTHES ON THE LINE was published in Abandoned Mine and was inspired by my fascination with ancestors. It’s speaker is a young girl in a dreamy, almost flow-of-conscious voice.
A hybrid piece, AMERSAND & EPHEMERA was published in the latest print issue (vol. 16) of DASH Literary: Futurisms, and it’s a gorgeous issue all around. It’s a bit of a centro in which I cobbled together titles from spines of books on a shelf into a cohesive memoir-poetry-catalog.
This piece, MODEL HOME: A Study Under Compression, in On the Seawall, is something I am so proud of. It was conceived in a craft store when I wandered down the model train aisle. At home, I already had the moss and tiny house and vials. I wanted to depict something with words and photography that would spotlight my family falling into disarray…my mother’s mental illness, the ‘perfect’ home, the family divided. This was my answer. It’s my first text + image publication. Here’s a sampling:
Image designed & photographed by L.LindsayImage designed & photographed by L.Lindsay
I am bowled over by the reception my poem, CREVASSE, received by Luke Johnson in the Spring 2023 issue of Ballast. Check out our dialogue about one another’s work HERE. Also, that landing page! Swooning.
Two pieces of poetry, TRUNDLE and HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS were published in Neologism Poetry Journal and both have to do with mental illness, one is particularly emotional; it has to do with my mother’s first psychotic episode when I was ten and Dad had to lock me in my room for safety.
You can find some of my other poetry atEmpyrean Literary Journal. This piece was conceived in a workshop at StoryStudio Chicago in which the prompt was to combine two totally different things with one’s childhood street. I chose my grandfather’s profession as stained-glass artist and the year 1989. The resulting piece is COLLAPSE.
Thrilled to have this byline in LitHub! Here, I chat with 82-year-old poet Pattiann Rogers about her new collection, THE FLICKERING (Penguin Poets, April 2023).
Family. The emotional labor involved. Intergenerational weirdness, valuing one’s growth and development.
How to effectively market books. Pre-planning. Stationery. Calling cards.
Dogs & Babies.
Graphic Literature and this graphic anthology coming in July 2023 by Rose Metal Press.
Planning this darned graduation party, the one I really didn’t really want to have, but am doing because I love my daughter like mad.
Travel. Where to go, what to do. Trips are lining up and that’s great, but also, I’m kind of a homebody who enjoys the comfort of routine while simultaneously getting out in the world. Is that even possible?!
Writing residencies and how I love both: writing and homes. How residencies are often (always?) located in amazing old houses. Like…it’s meant to be?!
Ragdale, spring 2023.
You are reading Musings & Meanderings, a consistently inconsistent weekly newsletter about the literary life from Leslie Lindsay, and home of an archive of bestselling and debutauthor interviews. I’m also on twitterandinstagram. I try to answer comments as best I can. Feel free to find my book suggestions onbookshop.org, and also check out the authors I’ve hosted in in-depth interviews HERE.
Some of you have been reading my reviews, interviews, and meanderings for more than a decade now. That’s huge and I am so humbled. Thanks for being here.
Created by Leslie Lindsay. I’m a proudbook nerd. Let’s connect on Instagram, and Twitter. See what I’m reading on Bookshop.org. Find my reviews & ratings on GoodReads. I’m also a Zibby Books Ambassador, part of the Riverherd with Riverhead Books, a proud supporter of the Between the Covers podcast hosted by David Naimon and produced thru Tin House, and an early reviewer of Penguin Random House titles. My book, SPEAKING OF APRAXIA: A Parents’ Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech (2021), is available in audio only by PRHaudio.
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Leslie A. Lindsay 
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