How did it get to be the end of August? As I prepped for the newsletter I looked back at my last publication on June 20th.
How did it come to this, sunflowers bowing to another summer? Much has happened, and much of it is good.
A client has finished her manuscript and landed with a local publisher for a regional story that takes place in Goshen, Ohio. She and I are excited that the book is in production.
Several months ago, I submitted my brother's obituary/story to a National Public Radio project. In May, I was contacted to do an interview. The finished product is a 2-minute segment that is part of Songs Remembered, which honors people who have died of Covid by interviewing family members and songs that the family members associate with the loved one was recently published. You can give a listen at the link below. It explains why, every time I hear this song by Adele I think of Jeff. Thank you NPR:
Earlier this month, I was due to attend the Vermont College of Fine Arts post-graduate program. Visions of emerald green vistas, rainbows, and maple creamies occupied my headspace until I made the tough decision to cancel for this year. You see, I am managing a reelection campaign for a Kentucky state representative.
Meet Representative Rachel Roberts. Rachel and I have been on the campaign trail since 2018 in Northern Kentucky. We look back on the first race when we flew without instruments and marvel at the last four years. Rachel has run one race for state senate, and four races for the same state house of representative position she now maintains: one special election in 2020, one primary in 2020, one general election in 2020, now a general election in 2022. Rachel has served our community with honesty, integrity, and an ability to work with people on the other side of the aisle. I proudly walk with her, given that the dream is to inspire more people like her to run for offices as local as school board and as broad as U.S. House and Senate races.
Pilgrimage Report: As of this writing we have 27 people who will be traveling to Italy, entrusting our team to guide them through the streets of Roma and Assisi at the beginning of November. I am anxious to get back to a place I fell in love with nearly twenty years ago. Until we leave details and planning ensue to provide the best in information and spiritual guidance.
We will write along the way to capture, not only the magic of the country, but the essence of it. Stories will bubble up and journals will fill in churches where inconspicuous statues sculpted by Michelangelo and Bernini grace the sanctuaries. When the pilgrimage is finished, my best friend and I head on to Florence for a few days, to capture the quiet of November in the Tuscan city.
Looking Back
I just finished yet another workshop with Women Writing for a Change in Cincinnati. Our focus was the art of Memoir. It calls to me but there is much still to be done with my project about World War II.
One to one clients are humming along with their particular projects and I still love working with them.
Each day gets just a bit easier in light of my brother's death. I am defining a new way of living, as the last person in my family to live. I just could never have envisioned this.
Eyes on the Future
I am fortunate to live this life. The variety of work keeps me on my feet, keeps my moving forward. If you want to work with me, I am booking in January 2023.
One Last Word
A young woman and her partner ride home from a date on their bikes in the early hours of Saturday, August 20. The bikes are well-lit, they are in helmets, and respect the road. The pedal up over the horizon of a bridge, and she is struck by a vehicle that leaves the scene. In the aftermath, we who knew Gloria San Miguel realize just what she has meant to the world around her. Mother of Luna, a pre-school aged daughter with such light in her eyes, employees and customers at Roebling Point Books and Coffee in Newport and Covington, Kentucky. The many causes she championed, the music scene where she leant her voice to bluegrass tunes around the region. Gloria will live in my memory as the woman who invited me to read my poetry as a featured poet, the woman who would listen and attempt to answer any question about a book I might want to buy. She was a gift our community and I pray her light will never go out.
