Embrace the Season of Change

We’re coming up on “real” spring now (finally—talk about a brutal winter, at least here in New Jersey!). As much as most people hate change, I’d wager that THIS change—from slushy streets and frozen toes to sunny skies and blooming flowers—is one most of us can get on board with.

Now, I’ll admit that, in general, I prefer the colder months—fall and winter—to the warm ones.

The cool, crisp air makes my brain feel speedier than a racehorse and makes everything seem clean and fresh and full of possibility. The heat (and humidity), on the other hand, make me feel stupid and slow and sluggish.

But that’s not the point.

The point is, right now, we’re in a time of change (at least, those of us who live in geographical locations with actual seasons are). And there’s nothing better than change to get the writing (or reading) juices flowing.

For those of us who are writers, t’s all too easy when we’re working on a piece of writing to get mired down in the slow-moving slog, to lose sight of how much we love the writing process and simply go through the motions.

Yes, I’m always suggesting that writers try to write every day (#OneSentenceADay), even if it’s just a single sentence to keep your work in progress fresh in your mind, but I know from experience that sometimes you get so sick of the book, so sick of waiting for inspiration, so sick of being alone with your thoughts, that you need a blast of fresh air to wake you up from your self-induced writing coma.

And that’s what the change of seasons can do—literally, yes, if you get out there in the cool spring breeze, but figuratively, too.
So, use it. Use the changing seasons to help yourself fall back in love with writing.

Go for a walk. Look around. Record it all and write about it:

The green buds on the trees—so pale, they’re practically yellow. The birds arguing over the best nesting materials. The pink and purple and white blossoms popping up everywhere.

Hell, even the cheesy Easter Bunny decorations left over on your neighbor’s lawn can be a spark of inspiration for a new story or book.

Embrace the changing seasons, use the images and the scents and the sounds you encounter, and then get back to the writing, this time with a whole new attitude.

Free Submissions Workshop

 

If you’re a writer who’s sending out work to agents and publishers (and receiving more rejections than you expected), join us via Zoom on May 1 for a free workshop: The Bitter Truth About Submissions. We’ll cover some of the most common mistakes we see in writers’ work and tell you how to avoid them!

Blydyn Square Book Club

 

This month in Book Club, we read The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. In case you missed it, you can check out the video from our meeting here.

Next time, we’ll be reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, and our meeting will be on May 13, 2021. For more details, visit our Events page. We’re always happy to have new members. And we have a great time, even when we hate the book!

 

 

 

 

Blydyn Square Happy Hour

 

Don’t forget to join us next week, on April 15, for our monthly Blydyn Square Happy Hour. Join us to chat about our current and future titles, and whatever else comes to mind—as long as it has to do with books! Get the inside scoop on what it’s like to work for (and be published by) a small press. You bring the drinks and we’ll bring the book talk. Here’s the Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/99430295241

Quote of the Month

“For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading.”
—Audrey Hepburn

Brain Teaser of the Month

Congratulations to last month’s trivia winner, Wini Tomczyk (yes, my mom won AGAIN, but since she was the only one who bothered to answer, it was a pretty easy contest!). She won yet another Amazon gift card. The question was:

Since Dorothea Benton Frank made an appearance in this month’s newsletter, what was the title of her first novel?

The answer: Sullivan’s Island

Now, answer this:

 

This one has nothing to do with books, but since we’ve been talking about spring: When was Botticelli’s Primavera painted?

That’s it for this month. See you next time!

Tara Tomczyk
Editor in Chief
Blydyn Square Books
www.blydynsquarebooks.com