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

Vienna Pride - A glimpse of Dorchester's Heritage

I was reading Ann Foley's book about Elliott Island and found the seafood and food packing industry fascinating. When I finished the Chesapeake Heritage series with Chesapeake Visions, it occurred to me that there was still plenty of history left to weave into my tales. So I started Vienna Pride.

Children worked in the canneries here on the Eastern Shore in a era when social consciousness had not yet reached the point when children were schooled before they had to go to work. As I looked at the industry, I found instances where children as young as five or six were employed full time doing tasks like shucking oysters! It is hard to imagine.

The handsome cover of Vienna Pride done by publisher Arline Chase incorporates an image of young Delaware cannery girls from the Library of Congress collection.

My research is not perfect, but life as a cannery worker in one of the dozens of canneries in the area could not have been pleasant, even though I have talked with women who worked in fish houses who remember their crab-picking days with something like pleasure. If nothing else, they treasured the companionship that took the curse off hard work for little pay.

I will admit I created a boss who was not so pleasant - but boss is a four-letter word after all. It wouldn't be much of a story with a lovable boss - but the cannery manager was also an employee who worked for the man who owned the cannery - he was just the person who laid down the bottom line. Cannery workers labored in hard conditions and those who crossed the Chesapeake for summer work lived in shacks with straw for bedding and a shocking lack of sanitation that would never be tolerated today.

Even the farmers suffered because the cannery owners purchased produce for as little as possible in order to achieve maximum profits for their products. By the Depression, farmers struck for better produce prices. It has not always been a pretty or easy history, but today the canneries are gone and the Eastern Shore of Maryland is looking for ways to sustain its population as young people migrate to other places looking for work. Our children no longer work in canneries - the canneries are gone. They no longer have to quit school to help feed their families - social programs monitor child abuse and labor laws and work toward feeding every child.

Today's society would be shocked at what was taken for granted in 1918 when our soldiers were returning from the war in Europe and the Spanish Influenza scoured the Eastern Shore. Life was different and people expected to work hard for the wages they earned.

It was a different time - one not always mentioned in the history of the area. It struck me as a chapter that helped shed some light on the experience of the hardy folks who lived on the Eastern Shore at the turn of the last century. I think the name says it all: Vienna Pride

Vienna Pride is available at Amazon.com and will be posted soon at the Kindle site. I hope you like it and that you stay on the sunny side! Terry L. White

Stories Meant to be Written

Some stories should be written, like the time I fell for the little Italian guy and took a station wagon full of leather goods from Gloversville to Myrtle Beach where you had to get a permit to make a left turn – see what I mean? My life was like some demented sitcom.

I will say one thing, though. It took me to places I never dared look at before – which, according to Arline Chase and Stephen King were necessary to do the big thing, that being a best-selling American author.

To that end, I have written somewhere about a score books: novels, a mystery, a how-to, a series, a knock-off, and more than a few mixed genre books. Is there a genre called Historical Women’s Stories?

There should be.

I wrote a lot of them – because they were stories that had to be written and they didn't leave me alone until I did write them.

We learn all sorts of stories in grade school where George Washington has an amazing resemblance to God and men really did walk on the moon during your father’s lifetime.

These stories were put in books and then more properly called history. If you notice, women are not part of the equation. Who ever heard of Herstory?

I have, because I write history from a woman’s perspective. Men went westering and conquering mountains, but women were the glue that held the family together. Living on the Delmarva Peninsula has suggested a number of stories ask us to look at its history through the eyes of a woman.

If a woman is tending to a child with the croup and has to hold the child over a bowl full of boiling water -- for which she also chopped the wood and carried the pail from the well – that’s a story that wants to be written. Folks have it easy these days. I haven’t carried wood nor water for years, but I knew those chores well enough to help others see what such a life might have been like without running water and electricity.

As such, I have set my Chesapeake Heritage Series the task of showing what the history we know was like for our formothers. Each book casts a light upon a certain period of cultural development on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Mary Charles arrives as an indentured servant. Hannah’s mixed blood has her drummed from the colony. Jane endures the fires of a marriage goes wrong, and Jewel tells us about a world without sight.

A new novel set in the same made-up area called Somerset (but not necessarily within that county) jumps time to the end of World War One and the story of cannery girls puts them in terrifying jeopardy.

Are these the real stories of the women who came before? Not really. The men stuff is important, but a good woman is behind every man… Remember? But hardly anybody wrote that down. That said, I have to honestly want to say they are fiction.

In the end these are the stories that wanted to be written. I hope someday they will also want to be stories you want to read.

Thanks for stopping by,

Love, Terry

PS: Keep on the sunny side!