Georgia Indie Book Faire

We were invited to attend the Georgia Indie Book Faire in Albany, Georgia March 7. It took me weeks to prepare everything for the Faire. Heber, my husband and the second half of our publishing duo, had no clue what I was doing. I designed and/or printed brochures, business cards, QR code handouts, QR Code stickers, and thank you stickers. On top of that, the videos were time consuming and required new skill sets. I had two or three already done, but had to put together one for each of us that generally introduced all of our work while playing some music in the background. I also designed a trailer for Carrie's Song, my award winning novel on Carrie Crawford Smith. I had to learn how to string those five videos together to play on a loop. In addition, I had to decide which projector and projector screen would work for the space. I did all of that with the help of Gemini and ChatGPT. Some of their advice and guidance was invaluable. Some of it I had to adjust. But it was a real eye opener that I could learn things by asking AI for help. Then, there was all the stuff that had to be ordered besides the electronic equipment -- bags, banners, poster, book stands, projector stand, projector screen, brochure stands, table cloth etc. After we arrived and began setting up, Heber understood everything. He understood even more when we began to get visitors to our table. The video that ran on a loop attracted visitors. I set it up on the wall behind us. I had no idea what the space was like. I was discouraged that we didn't have a screen to hide the crates and bags we used to carry everything inside the building. Next time. But it seemed that visitors weren't too bothered by it. We made several friends while there. I was surprised and heartened by the people who wanted to talk. I wanted to listen. It was so intriguing hearing the various stories from people from different walks of life. One woman said she was rethinking being a white woman with privilege. Another two women told us of their retirement activites. They were so pleasant and engaging. One of them encouraged me to go ahead and cut those squares or stars that I want to use to make a quilt. I've had the material sitting on the shelf in my study, but just can't get up the nerve to make the first cut. Because of her, I'll try. Another man visited and asked me about the different name I had published under. When I first published A Home for Easter, I thought maybe some indigenous family and some African American relatives on my father's side might object to the story. So I used Kate Ayre Campbell. It was a nod to my indigenous ancestry and to my father's Scottish ancestry, but at the same time, kept me out of the history directly. After I'd published it, I realized, no one really cared. I was having a tough time getting people to read the book. So I began to use my real name -- Dale Marie Taylor -- for everything I published under historical fiction. The first set became The Apple Hill series of books. After A Home for Easter, I wrote Hester's Journey, about Easter's daughter. She served as a nurse in the U.S. Civil War; I strove to tear apart stereoptypes about Confederates as well as Union soldiers. I also wrote of women who fought in the Civil War. Though it was not permitted legally, many women dressed as men and fought valiantly. The third book in the Apple Hill series is For the Love of Minnie. I wrote it with no little amount of trepidation as it was getting closer to the time that those who were still alive could remember. (Spoiler alert) Family lore on my father's side had it that her lover killed her. But which lover was it? Was it the white James Rhea or mixed race Henry Dabney. The Rheas would have us believe that it was Henry. I'm dissapointed in the way I developed Henry in this story. My doctoral research was on mixed race people and how the media and society polarizes mixed race individuals as villains or as non persons. Henry is not a bad person, but he is mischievious. I'll do better next time. The next book will be about my grandmother, Nellie. Her husband was murdered tragically. I want to tell her inspirational story of survival. I met her once when I was teenager. My parents separated when I was young, so I did not get to know many of my father's family until I was an adult. Better late than never. Carrie's Song in a separate Flight of the Heart series is about my great grandmother, Carrie Crawford Smith on my mother's side. We had a little bit of tension in my mother's family about how to handle that story. My grand uncle Melvin claimed that Carrie was abused by Edward, her husband. But I did not find evidence of that. I went ahead and began the second book in that series by beginning with Edward's story in The Music They Made. Many people assume that since my stories are named after women that there are no male heros. Edward's role puts that notion to rest. The story opens in Cuba just after Edward has survived the explosion of the USS Maine. Edward's story blends into a story about the two of them making their home in Chicago. Like many other African Americans, they moved from the Nashville, Tennessee area to the north in hopes of a better life. Many non fiction books have been written about the anguish and odyssey that African Americans experienced as they migrated from the south to the north. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns expresses this well. I do so by focusing on the individuals who experienced this migration in a close up and personal manner. It has been a journey telling these stories. Much research goes into the effort. However, I do enjoy the work and the outcome. Peace.

Dalemarietaylorbooks

OK, here is my handy dandy video that introduces my books: https://youtu.be/Geeb_acKROM Hope you can see it.

Our Son

Our son, Micael, has been visiting us lately so that we can watch certain films he deems to be classics of the cinematic world. We started with "Django Unchained." Actually, I thought I'd seen that one before, but in watching it, I realized that I had not seen the entire film. It was difficult to watch. However, that the director, Quinton Tarantino, posited a story where a black man is able to exact revenge for the wrongs done not only against himself on the woman he loves, is a refreshing change. So many films and books assign victim roles to people of African descent that it is difficult to watch them. Also, so many series fail to cast African American men and women as capable of solving problems. I'm thinking of a certain mystery show set in the Carribean where a white male is always the person who solves the mysterious death of a character. It's as if the black people who live on the island have no intelligence to solve the mystery themselves. We know this is not true, but hungry for any representation of African Americans in films and television, we watch anyway. We're always hopeful that there will be someone brave enough to cast a woman or man of African descent in a leading detective role. So when I watched the film, "Django Unchained," I was pleased to see that the director and writer was so ahead of his time. It was written by Terantino in 2012. I remember it coming out and thought I had watched some of it. I could not bear to watch certain parts. It was just too violent. At the time, I was unable to stomach it. However, we see that the director and writer made some important statements about the abilities of African Americans at the time. I'm pleased that lately, there have been women of African descent featured in leading detetive roles. I watched two seasons of a series featuring a woman of African descent who has family on the island where she works as the lead detective. She is paired with a saucy, short woman who gives the bad guys hell and who has a randy appetite for men. After I watched to two seasons, the streaming service insisted I buy the episondes through a streaming service that I did not have, so I gave up on watching it. But if there is anyone out there listeing or reading, that show is really good. It's called "Deadly Tropics," and is produced by the French. I'm so sorry that the distributors are making it difficult for people in the states to watch. It's a great show. I love both the female characters played by Sonia Rolland and Beatrice de la Boulaye. The directors and writers do a good job of casting them in postive roles. The supporting male character, played by Julien Baramis, is excellent as well. Sonia Rolland's character, does a good job at playing a woman with a complicated family life but a compassionate nature.

Trip to Indian Springs State Park

We went to Indian Springs State Park to celebrate the birthday of my husband, who I call, "Mr. Science." He was more excited about the Piedmont Wildlife Refuge than the natural springs at Indian Springs State Park. There were people there filling up bottles of water at a little hut that I suppose was a source for the natural springs. I suppose the trip was also a celebration of our 33rd wedding anniversary. I'm almost finished with the ficitional novel based partly on the life of my great grandmother, Minnie. I'm calling it "For the Love of Minnie." After it's published, it will be one of three novels I've written that are based on partly on patriarchal family memebers. I'll get back to Edward after I finish Minnie's story.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese speaks to the human condition. Its description is deceiving and off putting. Many people would skip a book that describes itself as having a plot involving a 12-year-old married to a 40-year-old. However, the setting is early 1900s Travancore, India, and the facts as laid out by this fiction writer is that there is no consummation until the girl is 16. By today’s standards, many people would find that offensive. Yet, there is so much more to this story than that shallow description. Like many family stories, we learn of tragedies, superstitions, births, deaths, romances, weddings, personal and relationship failures. But, we also see a community of people struggling to survive during war, famine and the confusion of quickly changing exterior worlds. Among it all, the family matriarch hopes for a family member who can shed light on a curious medical condition. For Verghese, one must be patient. He begins the story in India, near Kerala. Then, he jumps to Glasgow, Scotland. There, Digby experiences his own family tragedy. Digby finally arrives in India and we wait to find out what his connection is to the Parambil family. Sadly, Digby and Philipose, two of the major male protagonists, never seem to find happiness with the women in their lives. One of the confusing aspects is character naming. Big Apachen is the family patriarch; Shamuel is his friend and farm manager. It seems the author isn’t making a clear distinction between the two. Perhaps this is intentional as Philipose sees Shamuel as a father figure. Female characters seem to find solace in the company of one another, in work and art. The challenging portion of the story occurs as the author uses a family character named Lenin to explain the volatile political changes of the 1960s and 70s. If you are a discerning reader, you might appreciate the author’s attempt to get his audience to consider how false caste and class structures are. He returns to this theme repeatedly. We see those with land and resources dependent on those who serve them but unable to understand their colleagues. Jabbon’s refusal to take a generous offer of farm management and part ownership from Philipose further demonstrates how little privileged groups understand their relationship to those living and serving in close proximity. Verghese doesn’t challenge the position of serving women. However, he thwarts upper class women who seek an outlet other than servitude. Women are damned in any class they inhabit, he suggests. Still, the book is an engaging read. I was unable to put it down even though I often speed read through other texts. His settings are genuine; his characters are imbued with hubris as well as selflessness. You’ll enjoy the elephant Damodoran, who makes his presence known early in the book. One might consider him symbolic of the spirit of India itself. If you pick up the book, the lushness, the humidity, the monsoons, the diseases, the hopes and dreams of the characters will drive you to read the novel to the end. Dale Marie Taylor daletaylorbooks.com

Travel

We have made two trips to North Georgia since we moved here. The first time was for our anniversary. The second time was for Heber's birthday. We stayed in a cabin in Sautee Nacochee, which is not for from Helen, Georgia. I always get a little anxious when we go to a tourist town that has restaurants. The first time we went, we tried to go to a restaurant in Helen. There were no dogs allowed posted all over the restaurant walls. I think they wanted people to keep their pets off the property. But since Gunter is a service dog, we ordered our food and stayed on the patio. Young people were floating down the river on large green and pink innertubes, laughing and joking with one another. It was quite a sight. We ate our turkey sandwiches and returned to our sight seeing and hiking. On that first trip, we visited Anna Ruby Falls, which is part of the Chatahoochee National Forest. We asked the gateman if we could get national park service lifetime passes, but he said they were only available at other National Forest locations. So when we returned to the Atlanta Metro area we stopped at the Island Ford Chatahoochee River National Preserve and were able to get lifetime passes. The Anna Ruby Falls hike was one for the record books for me. I get altitude sickness when I get too high in the sky and thus half way through the hike, I sat on my stool that doubles as a hiking stick and rested for a while. The hike was worth it. If we didn't do anything else on that trip, Anna Ruby Falls was worth it.

Narrative Writing

This is advice on how to develop narrative writing. Narrative writing is used in the development of short stories and novels, mostly fictional writing. However, it can be used in other areas as well, such as memoirs and journals.