Myth To Me: Songs From the Inner Light

Good Morning to the Land of Pleasant Living. I have been lax about posting about my work until this morning when I read Susan Logan's post on Facebook that says the site is sorting your contacts and if you don't talk to every one of your contacts daily, your posts won't go out to your list. Point taken. Thank you Susan!

Last year, I published either three or four books - depends on how you count... as Vienna Pride didn't see print until just recently. Also published last year was Chesapeake Visions, Drama Queen Rules and Myth to Me.

Myth to Me was a special project in which I brought together a volume of poetry - some collected over the years, others written brand new for a new online friend who also helped subsidize the publishing costs for a print-on-demand publisher. I can't tell you how fulfilling it was to see this book in print and my thanks go out to Bill who encouraged me daily. Thanks as well to Claudia Conlon who took the beautiful cover photo of one of the sea walks at Fire Island.

Myth to Me is a collection of poetry that reaches into the legends we create from out own dreams when nights are long and winds grow cold into the very soul. The inner light reflects love, sorrow, pain and delight, reaching out to touch the searching heart with compassion and understanding. Here's a sample.

A.M.

I’d nearly forgotten how good morning could taste,
There are birds out there, celebrating – or gossiping!
Or, maybe they just tend to business straightaway
So the rest of their day is free.
To fly would certainly make me lose my concentration!

Hey! Maybe they have the idea they can
Hustle the sun up sooner or something.
But the sun moves by its own lights.
See how gently it handles spring
Coaxing each leaf to unfurl its banner –
Green canapés and coupolas for spring.

It did rain, but it isn’t now.
The car tires shlusch through the puddles --
Where red maple flowers float through the night --
First one, then more,
Armored for the day in steel, on rubber wheels.

I still have time for my rich black cup,
To smell its hot perfume,
And watch the morning waken up –

I had nearly forgotten how good it could taste.


I think you might like the book, and invite you to check it out at ebooktime.com or Amazon and Kindle. In the meantime, keep on the sunny side. Love, Terry

Does Anybody Read Any More?

I have been a writer for most of my life and the handwriting is surely on the wall for what we have come to know and love as 'books' will be a thing of the past in some not so distant future. The time has come to welcome e-books to the masses, but will they read our stories?

Today, millions of writers are struggling to get one of thousands of print-on-demand publishers to put their work between shiny paper covers. These publishers will set up your work for any of thousands of book printers scattered across the literary landscape.

But here comes the clincher: After a great deal of research, I have learned that the authors who come out of the pack tend to be those who pay through the nose for publicity packages that get their books noticed at e-book stores and online catalogs. I have an idea that some of these authors may not be too happy about the amount of sales they got for their investment, but at least they were doing something positive.

It seems to me that the problem is no longer learning how to best tell a story - but how to get noticed in the greater scheme of things. We are constantly reminded to find our bliss and the promise is that good fortune will find us, but the queue is getting pretty long and I am getting a bit long in the tooth for fame, so I don't know. The tree has fallen, but is there anyone left in the forest to hear it and read the stories.

If any of you know how to break through the publishing barrier, maybe you can give me a thought... and keep on the sunny side!

Love, Terry

Vienna Pride Available at Amazon and Kindle

Constant Reader

I'm writing today to introduce my latest novel Vienna Pride, which is now available at Amazon.com and Kindle, Barnes and Noble, www.writewordsinc.com and other outlets on the Internet.

Vienna Pride visits the new 20th century on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where canned foods from the lush area farms literally fed the world. The history of the area is fascinating and intricate, following indentured servants and German prisoners of war, farmers, trappers, watermen and all of their women. Vienna Pride is the name of a food label that never existed - but which pretty much explain how people felt about their work and what that work produced.

In this story, Mary Elliott, descended from the indentured Mary Charles met in the first of my Chesapeake novels: Chesapeake Harvest, goes to work at a cannery in spite of her parent's protest. Stubborn and set on what she sees as her destiny, Mary inadvertently puts herself in harm's way while a stalker haunts the cannery for his victims.

Set in 1918, the story picks up on world issues such as WW1 and the Spanish Influenza. I hope you like it and that you keep on the sunny side. Thanks,

Terry L. White

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1594318743/ref=si_aps_sup?p=random&ie=UTF8&qid=1301759742#reader_1594318743

A Recent Questionnaire

Recently this article about me was in our Cambridge newspaper. Thought you might like to get to know me better.


TERRY L. WHITE


1. Tell us about yourself.
a. Where do you live? I have lived in Cambridge for 18 years.

b. Where are you from? I was born in Schenectady, NY. I was raised in the Appalachian mountains of northern Pennsylvania.

c. Anything noteworthy about your family that we should know? Mom died when I was five and I was the eldest child so I had to grow up fast. My father told me on his deathbed that we were Mohawk Indians. It was a big family secret. The native culture fascinates me, and it may be a factor in my fascination with beads and beading.

d. In what medium do you work? Life. I will try anything. Probably I am best known as a writer, but I have been a musician and worked in string and square dance bands on bass, rhythm guitar and vocalist. I make bead, sea glass and wire jewelry, and soft sculpture dolls. I paint a little.

e. What is important about you that people may not know? I grew up in Appalachia, the eldest of eight children. We were pretty poor and learned not to waste anything that came to hand. I think that sort of situation allows one to see the potentialities in leftovers, throwaways and natural materials. Dad wanted us to succeed – he bought Encyclopedia Britannica when I was about 12. I think I read all of it.

2. Tell us about your work.

a. What brought you to recognize your artistic talent? I found an essay I wrote in my grandfather’s wallet after he died. I believe he wanted me to see that I had some talent for writing. He left me a Hogarth print of a stack of books and a violin, all of which became elements in my life as the years went on – I always thought it was a message. He was a very spiritual person.

b. What were you doing when you first realized that you could paint/sculpt/etc. My father would paste our drawings on masonite board and cut them up into jigsaw puzzles for us to play with. He saw our work as valuable, so it was.

c. What life experience(s) have most affected your art? Everything in my life contributes to my writing. I have supported the craft for many years through various sorts of employment. The rest of my artistic output is busy work: things I do when not working at my writing. I have published 17 books and always have a couple of projects in the works. Everything that happens is interesting. The way people speak is music.

d. Do you still have some early work that you keep as reminders of the past? There are some old manuscripts hanging around. Some of the work was pretty bad, but I guess I got enough encouragement to keep going on. I collected and burned a huge stack of rejection letters and have come to believe they did not mean ‘no.’ They meant ‘not now.’

e. What is your favorite piece and what does it mean to you? I think my Chesapeake Heritage books are my best work to date – there are five novels in the series. They follow the settlement of the Eastern Shore and Dorchester County from colonization to the end of World War 1 – the history of one plantation and the woman who lived on it, offering a more feminine view of the events and people who shaped the Chesapeake area. (Also of note is Runaway Hearts, a series of long poems based on the history of the area in verse. People seem to like that one – even though most will say they don’t like poetry. It was read on Radio for the Blind.)

f. What inspires you? What keeps you motivated? I have no idea. There seem to be triggers that set off a project. I hope I am awake when the call comes and then I just sort of hang on for the ride.

g. How do you see your work in the world around you? I think my novels hold a lot of truth. Most people won’t buy a history book, but they will read novels and they identify with people who struggle for one reason or another. I know I learned a lot about people, history, and life from the novels I read, especially when I was a child.

h. What about your work benefits others? All of my heroines are strong women who did not give up under adverse situations. They all find happy endings, but not until they realize they must shape their own history and world and that the wine and roses scenario is often not what love is in expression.

3. Tell us about the future.

a. What are your artistic goals? I just want to keep writing and see what happens next. Of course, I would like to be noticed, but the world is full of writers hooked into technology. Anyone can get published without doing much work – especially if they have the funds to pay for promotion. “Paying your dues” is a whole new story for the publishing industry these days.

b. What do you expect to be happening in your “art life” x number of years from now? I try to live in the now – the future is a flighty bitch.

c. Tell us about your relationship with your community and/or with other artists? I belong to the Wednesday Morning Artists and have belonged to various writers’ groups, but I am not sure they are helpful. The immortal storytellers pretty much all worked alone.

a. How would you like to see things progress art-wise in Cambridge/Dorchester County? I would like to see the area be a destination where people can come to see and purchase art. I would like to see more diversity in the populations offering art.

b. Do you have any advice for aspiring artists? Do the work! Editors do not check spelling and punctuation these days. There really are not any free rides. Support your art until your art can support you.


d. I have won awards for my journalism and for short fiction, but like any competition, it is not so much the excellence of your game but rather who shows up!



Thanks for reading and keep on the sunny side! Terry

On Other Poets

On Other Poets

I sometimes sit and read other poets’ verse
And it occurs to me that there are as many
Views of the sunset as there are eyes to see.

I do not speak of the funny lines
That celebrate the child within, but instead of
The daffodil in the forest, a souvenir of
Some pioneer’s woman who wasted space
In the yard for that which her children could not eat.

I do not speak of the alphabet rhymes
Crafted to teach her child his letters one by one,
I do not call up the dance in giddy sunshowers
Waiting for true love to come.

I want the words that carve the stone of poverty,
The rock of war, the pangs of birth
And the joy of watching the sun emerge from
A formless gray blanket of swirling mist.
I want the words that call up the shades of men
Who died to save the world we love.

I want to hear the clang of sledge on iron,
The rasp of saw on redwood flesh,
The sing of line the fishers cast,
The thespian’s song as he works his art,
The plane in the sky, the cop on his beat,
The cook at the grille, the sweeper of streets,
The cry of the newborn, soon silenced at breast
The secret of love kept deep in your chest,
The hope and the fear and a rest in the shade,
The debt and the prize with taxes prepaid,
The chatter of children, the purring of cats…

I want to hear these in the mind’s ear – and more
Recording our time with the splendor of yore,
A ransom of thought, a pathway to freedom –
Hard won and hard fought…

I want to feel rainbows that lodge in the heart
The shifting of dreams that leave with no mark
I want to hear giggles of babies at play
The song of a thrush at the cool break of the day.


The masters of verse have harvested these
In a wealth of lost words that leave us a scene,
A look at the world that they so strongly weaved
In a place lost in warstorm, in dismal dark scenes.

I love the old poems, that tell who we are
The ones that inspire to follow love’s star –
The song of the sachem and the prayer feather beat
The march of time that flows down each street,
The clatter of cans on trash pickup day,
The carillion that rings out and calls us to pray,
The teakettle’s whistle, the somber dark hearse
The snips, and the scraps – all the bones of great verse.

I may not be famous, I may not be known
But I will leave words to show how I’ve grown
In a world not always quite gentle or wise
But a place I have seen through the word weaver’s eyes.
The world that that God gives us to save and to mend
In the hope of sweet rest
When it comes to the end.

I'm working on a new book of poetry these days, spring sunshine always help the creative process. Hope you like this effort and that you keep on the sunny side!

Love, Terry

Will Humanism Rule?

Recently David Brooks wrote a column in the New York Times about the "New Humanism." Basically, he is saying we have been down the garden path once again in the analysis of human interaction by applying 'scientific' method to the measurement of our humanity.

It is my contention that humans are herd animals - and that we need interaction with others in the herd to live happy and productive lives.

This is pretty difficult in a society where individuals grow increasing more isolated through the use of technology. One of our great illusions of our time is that cell phones and other electronic devices actually increase our interaction with others.

Look around you! Everywhere you go individuals are chatting and texting on their pocket phones - and they are all alone. They don't look up and smile at others on the street - or worse still on the road! The worst punishment a parent can render is the loss of a cell phone for an unruly teen - the traditional isolated soul in any family.

The weather has been rough lately and people are traveling to trouble spots in order to help people who are snowed in, flooded out, and otherwise in danger of destruction.

Like every elder, I would like to think the world will be a happy, caring place for the generations that follow. I also would like to think that love for others might be an even stronger trait in our descendants ... just what the great teachers of our race have been trying to tell us for years.

Good luck with that.

In the meantime step outside and look for signs of spring - and keep on the sunny side! Love, Terry

The War on Women

Recently (Feb. 25) the New York Times published an editorial: about Republican intent to cut government programs for women and children - including insurance coverage for abortion, contraception, and nutrition for women and children.

One wonders how our legislators think they can balance the budget by creating situations where there will be ever more people dependent on the government. I am not sure any man who goes to work in a suit every day can even fathom the sort of life low income females have to endure. The sad part is that women have been conditioned for centuries to step back when it comes to their reproductive health.

What would happen if each female in Congress voted to help her female constituents? Would that come under the heading of 'charity begins at home?' Might. Probably wouldn't be cost-efficient, though.

Male and Female have always had different roles.

It seems to me that from the beginning of time men have been looking for a scrap and just to make sure the enemy stayed down, they raped the enemy's women so the next generation would be theirs to control.

Women had to bear the winner's children and protect the babies - no matter who the father was. The ladies had one asset, however - they could take care of each other but there was many a wise woman killed for her secrets - remedies for the elimination of an unwanted baby (or product of rape) and help in childbirth. With the wise women gone, the men invented the title of 'doctor' and proceeded to complicate the issues - often to his profit.

My novels deal with women's issues because I feel any little bit that raises consciousness is good for the species. If I could, I would love to see my work on supermarket book racks where poor women go to shop because they are intended to plant the seeds of autonomy - they are stories about women who succeed - despite whatever males have done to them; and I know they are true stories - lived by women every day -even here in America.

This is not to say all men are bad. Lord knows I love the good ones and there are many. I would just like to see the others develop a conscience concerning the role of women in our society and the way they are treated. I want to see the children nurtured, protected and educated so that they do not have to depend on government programs to survive. It can't be done in a couple of years, but I do believe that part of our human journey is to grow and right the wrongs that have plagued our species for years.

Charity should begin at home and women and children deserve to be protected.

Think about it and keep on the sunny side, Terry