Ruth Thompson's Extraordinary "Quickwater Oracles"

Ruth Thompson's extraordinary Quickwater Oracles (out Dec. 4 from Saddle Road Press) is a unique and ultimately joyful exploration of life's challenges and triumphs. Her channeling calls forth delightful and in many ways prescient voices providing wisdom and advice to Ruth and to all of us. They belong to her sweet pup Duffy, long departed, but still with Ruth every moment; the Dolphins, who gently remind Ruth not to take life too seriously; Bear and Crow, the Singers, the Faeries, the Dragons and other beings who converse with her. They talk of life, of love, of fear, of joy, and offer advice that rings true throughout.

Read the rest of the review on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4357713972

A Great Review of Face on Brevity!

Many thanks to the incredible Lisa Rizzo for this beautiful review on the Brevity magazine blog. And thanks, too, to Dinty Moore and reviews editor Debbie Hagan. Here’s an excerpt:

“Many of the book’s chapters open with epigraphs using excerpts from the surgeon’s notes of her procedures. In much the same way that Joan Didion returns again and again to her husband’s heart attack in her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, these notes create a circular pattern, returning to the little girl in her hospital bed before spiraling into future events. The repetition of medical terms reminds the reader of the terror Meier as a child must have endured, even as she deals with how that suffering influenced the adult she became.”

You can read the entire review here.

Happy news!

I received amazingly good news this week, as those of you on Facebook may have seen. My memoir, Face, was shortlisted for the 2021 Eric Hoffer Book Award grand prize, and won honorable mention in the memoir category.

This is a wonderful honor, and I’m so grateful to all who have contributed to the success of this book, especially Editor Ruth Thompson and designer Don Mitchell of Saddle Road Press.

And in other good news, my essay “Skin Craft," which is derived from Face, was shortlisted for the 2021 Fish Publishing Short Memoir Prize and appears this month in Reed Magazine.

If you’d like to read Face, you can find it online and through your independent local bookstore. I also recommend that if you buy it online, you purchase it from bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores.

If you have a book club and would like to read Face and talk with me about it, please reach out. I’d love to chat with you and you book friends! I’m also available to talk to groups interested in overcoming trauma. Thanks for all your support and encouragement!

A New Vista

This is the view from my new home in Santa Fe, NM. I moved here a week ago and I am thrilled to be in the land of perpetual sun, Georgia O’Keefe, and artists and writers of all stripes. Santa Barbara was home for 35 years, and home base for even longer, since I moved there with my parents when I was in high school in 1974.

But it was time to move on to a new life, and I have loved (and visited) Santa Fe for many years, and have many wonderful friends here. I feel like I am finally home. So, here’s to a new adventure! If you’re ever in The City Different, let me know. Happy new life to me! (And my kitty, Cleo, who is finally relaxing after a three-day trip across the country).

Get Started on Your Memoir this Saturday!

Last call for my new two-hour, Zoom-based workshop, Get Started on Your Memoir! It’s this Saturday, June 6, from 10:30 - 12:30 p.m. Pacific. Link to register is below. Here’s the description:

You've always wanted to write a memoir, but you just aren't sure how to get started. This two-hour workshop on Zoom will give you the tools to begin, with step-by-step instruction that will provide the motivation and oomph you need to move from idea to book. Includes a detailed handout and list of resources to keep you focused and on track long after the workshop ends. Cost is $75.

Let me know if you have any questions.

You can sign up here.

Exciting News!

My memoir, Face, will be published by Saddle Road Press early in 2021! As many of you know, I have been writing this book for almost 15 years. It was the reason I decided to go back to school in 2010 to get my MFA in creative writing from Antioch University in Los Angeles, and it has been revised many, many times over the past four years (version 5,397?).

Anyway, I am thrilled, and want to thank Ruth Thompson, publisher and editor of Saddle Road Press, for offering encouragement and exceptionally helpful editing suggestions over the past year. Thanks, too, to A Room of Her Own Foundation, which is where I met Ruth and many other wonderful and supportive women writer friends in 2011.

I can’t wait to see this book in print! Here’s the tentative cover. You can find out more about the book here and here.