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Book Santa Fe - We Help Authors




​Book Santa Fe Blog
​For The Love of Books

​

"Lemons: In an Orchard" by David John Baer McNicholas (Author)

1/29/2022

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Available on Amazon
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​Dear Reader,

I describe myself as a ghost hunting wizard who lives in a bus. I’m also a student at the Institute of American Indian Arts,
where I study creative writing. It’s an emotional education. When I say that I mean that it’s unnatural to try and separate ideas from
the feelings we have about them. I know that scientific/philosophical r
igor claims to do just that, but positionality informs us that
this is impossible. Moreso, that claiming it diminishes the perspectives of the people we other. Enough didactic introductions, let’s
look at the book and the process of writing it.
Writing Lemons: In an Orchard was a deconstruction of my experience as a white man. It was a meditation on a person I
hated, his entire family seemed a train wreck I had to pour-over every scattered piece of bloody shrapnel. I had to feel his pain and
confusion, and get to the root of it. At its most personal this book is a story of an estranged father, himself a broken boy, whose
comforts of success and privilege dissolve in front of our eyes. How he is transformed by the things he thought he’d put to bed
informs the emotional story of the book. At the beginning of the book, the narrator is described as a pile of human remains torn to
pieces by wild animals. By the end of the book, one has to
wonder if he isn’t more alive than that.
I wrote the novel in Santa Fe, NM, as my first fall here became my first winter. I was living in this Thor El Dorado shuttle
bus built on an E-350 cutaway. I woke up every day and wrote. These were the days of the dwindling public assistance money from
New Hampshire. Work was something in transition. I was writing, but not for an income. I was writing more for the outcome. Dr
Bronner washed me in the Santa Fe river everyday from July to December. That river, or an analog of it, made it into the novel. My
body was a mess when I got here. Years of chronic pain and parasomniac episodes, combined with mid-life collapse, unpacking
themselves. I walked everywhere with a gnarled, vine-twisted walking stick. Slowly. As one pedestrian in Arizona remarked to the
back of my head, “in the middle of the damn sidewalk.”
The inspiration for the novel came from a short drive I took out to San Diego and back. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do
with myself. I came out to Santa Fe to study at St. John’s College, but quickly disabused myself of that notion. I was thinking, ‘do I
go back or do I stay?’ I decided to visit the Pacific Ocean. On the way back to Santa Fe, I drove through massive citrus fields in
California. There were just lemons as far as I could see for miles. I thought, there’s a novel in there.
I ruminated on it for a month until I found my narrator. He’s a sick man, a jerk, although he doesn’t think so. He
monopolizes the text with his travails, lost on the lemon farm, peppering his narration with pseudo-intellectual right-wing bigotry
and personal recollections, the meanings of which he seems almost verging on apprehending. And then there are the dreams. The
fever dreams of a man left to exposure, infection, and starvation.
Of course, he meets some other characters, denizens of the lemon grove who guide him on his path to be re-united with his
soul, which has been searching for him for a long time, as he is an old man. In dreams, we often encounter children. Jung tells us that
these children are manifestations of our inner child. Each time I encountered a child in my own dreams, I felt drawn in by
innocence, only to be murdered in some mythical way. I have been given the death touch by a six year old vampire. I’ve been
stabbed in the neck by a toddler driving a tank. This mysterious child figure plays as gentle antagonist to the narrator.
The reality of the story is a warped construction anchored in the concrete voice of the narrator. From the beginning, you
learn not to trust him. As his story becomes more fantastic, his disbelief reads as a credible account. I wanted his truth to be complex,
told in lies and irony. The magical elements of the story, when discredited by the narrator, feel like the most concrete part of the
story. The physical rigors of the lemon orchard itself, an alien terrain. A dream of nudity.
I hope readers pick up on the humor of the story. It was fun to write and I definitely laughed at some of my own bullshit. I
let the world around me be a part of it. The story would have been incomplete without the conversations I had with friends while I
was writing it. I was parked at the Patrick Smith Park on East Alameda when a drum circle showed up and started making rhythms.
I wrote them into the story and then got out of the bus and danced while they drummed, around my cane, like a magic staff. Music is
healing. Stories are healing. The river is healing.
I could not have written this book without Santa Fe. Even though New Mexico is not mentioned once in the text, the
theme of healing which permeates the subtext is one that I found here. I would love to hear from readers of my novel. You can find a
contact page on my website: ghostofamerica.NET Until then, I’ll be in the bus.
Thanks for reading,

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"           The Tearing Apart"  by Luisa Elena Kolker

11/24/2021

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Avalible on Amazon

Luisa Elena Kolker is the author of "The Tearing Apart," an award-winning collection of poems published by Renegade Oracle Press (available on Amazon).

"For me, poetry is a mystical language that bridges the space between my ego consciousness and the unconscious undercurrents of my life. It is a way I commune with the dimensions of aliveness that defy rational containment. I write poetry to visit and receive the healing power of those dimensions.

"Poems usually come to me when I feel deeply moved by the beauty or pain of life. I hear a phrase and it stays with me until I write it down. Sometimes I don’t understand the phrase, but I sense that it has intelligence and power. Once I write it down, the phrase becomes a skeleton key that opens doors into my psyche. I allow the words to flow in the moment and then usually revise, expand, and contract the poem over a period of months or years. Sometimes a poem arrives whole and complete, but that’s the exception rather than the rule. It’s important to me that each word and sentence in my poems convey soul essence."
—Luisa Elena Kolker
​

​
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     Luisa Elena Kolker






​Thank you for stopping by!

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Michael R. French-  Virtual Author Event- Sponsored by George R.R. Martin's  Jean Cocteau Cinema

1/6/2021

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Date: 01/10 Time: 4pm
Link - https://beastlybooks.com/project/virtual-author-event-michael-french/ Tune In To Watch

Michael R. French Book Reading
Michael R. French discusses his latest book.
"Cliff HangerJump Before You Get 
Pushed"

n 2030, viruses, spy drones, terrorism, and joblessness have eroded American optimism.  People want something to believe in.  As demonstrated in a Midwest high school election, politics have taken on the inflexibility and dogma of a new religion.  Only true believers will survive and prosper.  Or so they think.
Go Here to Sign Up for the Presentation
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From Concept to Publication

7/27/2016

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Guest Post by Santa Fe author, Francie Healey
PictureEat To Beat Alzheimer's
"Creating and writing Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s from concept to publication has been a three year long journey that has been full of technical, creative, personal and spiritual growth."'
​- Francie Healey
  


​This book has been an avenue for all kinds of learning: how to deal with obstacles, how to have a strong voice, how to advocate for what really matters to me, how to compromise, how to relate concepts to readers that educate and empower, how to be brave, which is also, how to be vulnerable.

I couldn’t have persevered and succeeded without my team, my family, and the support of friends and mentors.  And even with help, there are some moments that must be walked alone, that really are about the growth we yearn for on a very deep level.  I believe any creative project or risk we take, anything that feels like a leap of faith into the life we hope for, will bring about situations where we need to confront our own shadow.  In other words, taking action towards a meaningful dream will lead us along a path that must address the inner places that had been previously holding us back.  For example, it had been my habit, formed very early on in life, to surrender my voice and defer to another’s authority, even if that other’s viewpoint differed from my perspective or need.  When I was faced with the opportunity to go back into this old habit and sacrifice my own vision for the book, for what another proposed it should be, I had the chance to become more conscious of this temptation and to choose differently.  I am happy to say that I used that opportunity to speak up and advocate for what I wanted for Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s, and was very well received.  Of course that scenario had nothing to do with anyone else, and everything to do with me, and what I personally was learning from this creative process.

From my perspective, addressing this level of psychological and spiritual growth was essential for the writing and publishing of Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s to continue moving forward.  Even as I was refining my writing, researching and organizational skills, I still needed to address the deeper growth opportunity for this experience to be successful in a way that was aligned with my own vision and needs.

​"There were, and are, many levels operating when we pursue a project like a book, and especially I think, a first book.  My experience all the way through was a bit like a juggling act, constantly moving parts that needed tracking and attention, while always holding the whole picture in mind."

Researching for Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s opened up so many paths that it was important to stay focused on what needed to be in this book, versus what would overwhelm it.  I really wanted to have rich research-based content that would ground the premise of the book for readers; so they would know why I used the ingredients and recipes I did and what was happening in their bodies from the foods they were eating.  Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s is based in science and good data.  I want my readers to have access to that information so they feel empowered in their decisions around food.  As we looked into all the research, it became clear that this is an abundant and emerging field, so it was necessary to contain the information we gathered, and bookmark areas for later research and writing projects.  Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s has been an incredible project that has meant a lot to me personally and professionally, and it appears to be just a starting point for more to come.  As I continue to learn and grow, I am inspired to continue sharing what I am discovering about healing and wellness.
And now that Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s is published and in the hands of readers, I am really delighted to have made such an accomplishment that will also serve as a stepping stone to even deeper dives into this area of brain health and overall wellness.  I couldn’t have sustained such a project if it wasn’t a passion of mine: bringing good information to people and helping clients and readers to awaken to the potential they have, right now, to make significant positive changes in their lives.  On the other side of publication, looking back, I am grateful for the process, even the rigorous challenges, which only served to strengthen me as an author.  I trust that Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s will offer readers valuable insight and healing because it certainly did that for me in the writing of it.

There is something very powerful about bringing an idea into form.  To make a concept, that begins somewhat as a fantasy, into a reality is a birthing process.  And like birth, it is hard and messy, and takes a lot longer than we think it is going to take.  Moreover, it is transformational and humbling and very tender to put something that is precious to me (like healing with foods and empowerment with education) into form and out into the world.  At times the pull to protect my idea and keep it safe appeared to be in conflict with completing the book and getting it out there.  So much of the journey has been about surrendering and trusting.  I think that is why Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s feels like a beginning to me, rather than the end of a project.  Writing it has stirred up so much passion, curiosity, and inspiration to continue learning and writing and being a voice for wellness.  I had to constantly surrender any fears that would push me towards perfectionism, control, and worry.  Fear does not serve the creative process.  Instead, invoking trust in the writing, and my life, helped the book take form and become clear.  As much as my vision for Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s was important to me, it was not about controlling the process.  Allowing the book to unfold, and using my vision as an anchor point was the way I was able to move along the trajectory and eventually finish the book for publication.  Writing, for me, is a dynamic process that synthesizes all the points vying for attention and wanting to be heard.  It is important to honor each voice, or each point, allowing room for all, while holding the gestalt so that everything eventually flows within one stream, accentuating the underlying message of the project.  For Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s that is a message of hope and empowerment.  It is a message that I had to live and breathe as I wrote the book.  Infused within the content of Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s, is the grit required to put one’s health as a priority and the courage it takes to awaken to our inner authority, which knows how to take the rein and steer each of us on a path of true vitality and wellness.  Ultimately, disease is not inevitable, though death will come.  We can all continue to awaken to our innate worthiness for health.  Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s offers a lot of tools for turning in this direction, for choosing into life more deeply and honestly, by putting our needs, physiologically and otherwise, first and foremost.

Overall, I think any creative process can be a metaphor for living life.  Bringing forward authentic expression about what we care about, what we love, and who we are is indeed, a recipe for health.  Eat to Beat Alzheimer’s is infused with the many layers of healing and wellness, from the nutritional basics and biochemistry, to creating a mindset of openness and kindness, to instructions for cooking and creating health with foods.  As I move forward as an author and a health and wellness professional I am excited to continue exploring each layer more intimately, and sharing my explorations with the world.   

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Relevance and Relatability

6/15/2016

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Guest Post by Santa Fe author, Michael R. French
I hope readers of the novel can relate to [the characters'] struggles and impulsive judgments, even when we react by thinking,  “no, please don’t do that!”  Their lives twist and turn like ours, and realistically not everything ends up tied in ribbons.  But life lessons are real.
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In Once Upon a Lie, a story of the Eighties, my two principal characters seem as different as the Americas they live in—one in a white and privileged enclave in Los Angeles, the other a Texas town with walls to climb if you’re poor and black and have the ambition and talent to escape.  Their paths cross and a relationship as complex as their differences begins to bloom.   Jaleel and Alexandra (“Alex”) deal with societal problem as well as the personal ones they make for themselves. I hope readers of the novel can relate to their struggles and impulsive judgments, even when we react by thinking,  “no, please don’t do that!”  Their lives twist and turn like ours, and realistically not everything ends up tied in ribbons.  But life lessons are real.  Jaleel and Alex even have their own Facebook pages, their interweaving stories continuing in the present, picking up where the book leaves off. ​

Jaleel Robeson
Alex Baten
Jaleel and Alex even have their own Facebook pages, their interweaving stories continuing in the present, picking up where the book leaves off. I chose Facebook  as a storytelling platform because while a book does end, a story can and should continue if you like the characters.
I’m looking forward to  watching the CNN series on The Eighties, a dissection of an important decade of politics, culture and technology.  I’m sure I will spot parallels to the society and  the challenges we  face today.   Understanding  history, as many of us learned in school, is the first step in not endlessly repeating our blunders.  ​
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