Tag: books

creativity

The galley of my novel, Emerson Page and Where the Light Leads, is finalized

Christa Avampato
From the author page of my book

Buzzing with excitement! The watermarked galley (proof copy) of my novel, Emerson Page and Where the Light Leads, is finalized! The press release and sell sheet are in progress. The manuscript along with the press release, sell sheet, and cover letter comprise the media packet. These will start to go out to media reviewers next week, as well as feature editors, book sellers, podcast hosts, book award competitions, and potential partners.

My website and socials will be updated, as well as my newsletter, in the new year. The next season of my podcast, JoyProject, will focus on the book, writing, and publishing. I want this book to be a bright spot, not a blind spot. I want Emerson’s story to be a respite so everyone who slips into her world for a short time can gather the strength and inspiration they need to keep going. A trip through a magical version of New York City and Ireland can do wonders for the imagination!

Publishing a book is akin to starting a business, marketing and promoting a book is a joint responsibility between the publisher and the author. My experience in business (specifically as an entrepreneur and product developer) is enormously helpful in my work as an author. Because I’m often pitched to as a journalist, I work hard to craft my pitches so they’re personal, relevant, and as interesting as possible. I need to make it easy to want to read and share my book, and I’m grateful to anyone and everyone who takes the time to even consider my pitch. I know how precious time is.

To that end, if you or someone you know would be interested in reviewing or selling the book in any medium or channel, please let me know at christa.avampato@gmail.com. A million thank yous!

creativity

Books are magic

Christa Avampato
One of my favorite bookstores, Books are Magic, in Brooklyn, NY. Photo by bookstore.

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” ~Stephen King

My dog, Phin, and I were enjoying the gorgeous Fall weather on our tree-lined block in Brooklyn, the sweet scent of dried leaves in the air. He’s an old man now – 14 last month – and he doesn’t move as well as he used to.

A young girl was walking toward us, her nose deep in a book—A Wrinkle in Time. I picked up Phin from his sunny spot in the middle of the sidewalk so he wouldn’t be in her way. Her mother walked a few paces behind her and saw me move Phin of her daughter’s way. The girl passed us without taking any notice.

“I’m so sorry,” her mother aid to me. “When she’s reading she’s in another world.”

I smiled. “No apologies needed. I’m the same way,” I said.

That’s the magic of fiction. As a reader and author, books have carried me away to fantastical places. The characters have become my friends and traveling companions. Their adventures are as real to me as my own in this physical world. 

When I finally look up from reading or writing, I’ve lost all track of time. After having been on a book’s journey, my own world looks and feels different. I feel different. Books change us, and our perspective.

Books are sense-making devices. When I don’t know how I feel about something, I read and write. In those acts, things become a little bit clearer. 26 letters arranged in countless ways to create portals across time and space, conveying emotions, sharing thoughts and experiences, connecting us to each other, attempting to make meaning of the messiness of life. There is no more magical invention than a book.

creativity

The book Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks is a masterpiece about storytelling

Christa Avampato
https://matthewdicks.com/storyworthy/

The book Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling by Matthew Dicks is to storytelling what The Elements of Style by Strunk & White is to writing. Reading it immediately improves our craft because the advice is approachable and applicable. For every audience about any topic in any medium, every page of Storyworthy shows us how and why to tell stories, including the behind-the-scenes processes that make stories memorable and vehicles that can change hearts, minds, and behaviors.

When I first picked up Storyworthy, I didn’t expect much. I’ve read dozens of books on storytelling and many of them offer similar advice. When one of my best friends recommended Storyworthy, I was skeptical. However, my friend is a law professor who teaches writing and argument construction, and she is an exceptional storyteller whom I’ve worked with on storytelling shows. With her recommendation, I figured I could spend a few minutes flipping through it. My dissertation at University of Cambridge is centered around storytelling so if nothing else, I figured maybe I’d pick up one or two pointers that might be useful. 

By the time I got to page 2 of the preface, I was completely hooked even though Matt hadn’t yet given a scrap of advice on storytelling. His honesty is what got me. He opens the book with the first time he ever contemplated telling a story live on stage. He’s deeply conflicted about it. He has so much respect for the art form and he’s completely terrified of being judged. The stakes are high. His nervousness becomes my nervousness. I’ve felt that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I feel it every time I tell a story or do any kind of presentation in front of an audience. Terrified, he just goes for it. He takes his shot, and decides if his name gets picked he’ll just tell a story scared. He’s my kind of guy. I love risk-takers. I root for them. 

The book unfolds chapter after chapter with advice, exercises, and samples of Matt’s stories. These aren’t platitudes like “people love an underdog” or “start at the end and work backwards” that I’ve read in other storytelling how-to books multiple times. Both of those ideas are generally true and helpful but Matt goes so much further than that kind of advice. 

He explains exactly why and how he chooses his beginnings, endings, and the arc that connects them. He talks about pacing and timing, content and structure, word selection, story strategy, and storytelling devices to grab and hang onto an audience’s attention. Storyworthy is a playbook and it works for every story by every storyteller. It’s a compass, map, flashlight, and go-bag for everyone who has something to say that someone else needs to hear. It’s for all of us.

At one point, a friend of Matt’s whom I know and have told stories for, grabs his arm and tells him that he absolutely can’t tell anyone his secrets (or hers!) about how to create and tell a story. He laughs, ignores her, and thankfully we have Storyworthy. He’s given us the tools he has and uses every day. 

This might sound counterintuitive. Shouldn’t he keep some of this to himself so he can continue to make money from workshops, consulting, writing, and shows? Shouldn’t he hold back just a little? He’s the real trick: by telling his secrets I can’t wait to take a class with him to show him how I’m using these tools and to get his feedback so I can level up even further. 

Actually, I have to take a class with him. Here’s why: Matt is a lifelong learner. He wrote Storyworthy five years ago. I bet he’s got even more tools, tips, and advice to share now, especially after the pandemic. And I want to know all of them. 

My dissertation about storytelling involves interviewing storytelling experts. I want to interview Matt. My friend who recommended Storyworthy to me said he probably won’t agree to an interview. He’s busy. A man-in-demand. I wrote him an email anyway. Even if he said no or never responded, at least he’d know how much his book means to me and how much it’s helped me become a better storyteller and a better human. 

I’m a big believer in the idea that unexpressed gratitude is a horrible waste of a resource. Imagine what kind of world we’d have if people just said thank you more often.

So I go to Matt’s website. I navigate to his online contact form and put the advice in his book to work to craft my pitch. I was honest to the point of gushing about the book. All of it true. I gave some hints about my life. I told him about my dissertation’s research question and why it’s so important to me. I closed it by saying that this kind of request from someone he doesn’t know may feel a bit out of left field. It may not be of any interest to him, and if that’s the case that’s okay. Again I tell him that if all this message does is explain how much I appreciate the time and effort he took to write Storyworthy, then that’s what matters the most.

I click “submit form” and close my laptop. I take my dog outside for walk. I worry about my dissertation. I have to interview 30 — 40 experts. People are busy. What if they all say no? What if no one wants to talk to me? I better come up with a plan B just in case the worst happens. I should start that plan today because I have no idea how I’m going to explain this to Cambridge and keep my dignity. 

I go back up to my apartment and open my email. A note from Matt. “Well this is the second fastest rejection I’ve ever gotten,” I think. The first was from a literary agent I queried a few years ago when I was shopping my first novel. The response from the agent came back less than a minute after I sent it, and it had just one word. “No.” I should dig it out from my email archive and send it into the Guinness World Records. Fastest rejection ever—what a record to hold. 

I take a deep breath and open up Matt’s message. He says he appreciated my kind words about the book and he’s glad it helped me. Well, at least it’s a nice rejection, I think. 

Then he writes if we can make the timing work, he’d be happy to be interviewed. Hand to heart, I danced around my apartment. We figured out a date in short order and it’s in the calendar. I’ve got a few months to prepare for this interview, and I can’t wait for everything I’ll learn during it. Saying thanks really is an under-rated way to build a connection. 

creativity

Two locations in my second Emerson Page novel: The Dark Hedges and Trinity College Library’s Long Room

Christa Avampato

When I took my book writing research trip to Ireland in 2018, I had two must-see places on my list: the Long Room at Trinity College Library and the Dark Hedges (which is the inspiration for the cover of my second Emerson Page novel). The photos below show me at both locations. They feature prominently in the book.

What I didn’t know before I arrived in Ireland is that so many other places would also find their way into the book. Everywhere I went, from the local pubs to the ancient sites to the natural settings, inspired my imagination and creativity, and filled me with wonder. So much of my trip was completely unplanned. I let the spirits and good people of Ireland direct me and guide me, and not once did I falter (which is a rarity for me, especially while traveling, because I often get myself into trouble that makes for interesting stories later on!) I carried a copy of Emerson’s first book with me everywhere and I often felt her nudge me in certain directions. I was never disappointed to follow her lead. 

Other than New York, Ireland is the only place I’ve ever been that immediately felt like home, as if I’d been there before and was fated to be there at that very moment. Certainly a piece of my heart remains there now. For this reason, New York and Ireland are where Emerson spends all her time in this second book in the trilogy. Her New York and Ireland are filled with mythology, magic, and fantastical beings, experiences, and objects, and in the book I’ve done my best to transport readers into her world of adventure.

Some more fun facts about the Long Room and the Dark Hedges:

1.) The Long Room is 65 metres, nearly 300 years old, and filled with 200,000 of the library’s oldest books as well as gorgeous sculptures and an ancient harp that dates to the 15th century. The harp inspired the coat of arms of Ireland as well as the logo for Guinness beer. The scent in the Long Room is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before or since. Known as Biblichor, from the Greek words, Biblos (meaning book) and Ichor (meaning “fluid that flows in the veins of gods”), it is related to the word Petrichor, a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather. The Irish are serious about a number of things that are dear to me—stories and books, history, music, beer, and nature, not necessarily in that order. No wonder I feel so at home in this country!

It sits above a chamber that holds the Book of Kells, a 9th century handwritten illuminated manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament, filled with ornate Latin text and intricate illustrations, many of them quite cheeky and containing secret messages that the Celtic monks who created it wrote to each other. I love the Irish for so many reasons, and their humor is among my favorite of their attributes.

 

2.) The Dark Hedges (in Irish:Na Fálta Dorcha) is an avenue of beech trees along Bregagh Road between Armoy and Stranocum in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The majority of them are 250 years old, and form a tunnel that from the start seems never-ending. The fields on either side are abandoned cemeteries, lending to the ghostly feeling I had as soon as I arrived. It’s as if the trees whisper to each other through the wind. The trees are rumored to be haunted by many mythological beings—namely the Grey Lady and the Mórrígan (Mór-Ríoghain in modern Irish) who is the fierce Celtic goddess of battle, destiny, fertility, and death (a heavy workload!) and often appear as or is be accompanied by a crow or wolf. They’re badass women who know what they want and don’t tolerate nonsense. Did I mention I felt very at-home here, too?! 😉

Beech trees are linked with time and knowledge, especially written wisdom as thin slices of beech were used to write the very first books. Whatever words were inscribed on beech took on the power and magic of the gods. This is why the beech tree was held in such awe in those early days of books, and still is today. Beech trees were called ‘Boc’ by the Anglo-Saxons, which later became the word ‘book’. I didn’t know any of this until I arrived at the Dark Hedges, and it felt serendipitous since Emerson’s entire journey in the trilogy revolves around finding the first book ever written. 

As a writer, you think you’re leading the story but what I’ve often found is that the story is always leading me to a far better place than I could ever create on my own. The art of writing a novel is a long and winding road, the path meandering but always with purpose. If I just sit as a willing scribe, the story finds me. My job is just to get it down as honestly and vividly as possible. All it takes is time. It’s the great mystery of imagination—I don’t know where the story comes from but I’m honored that it found me and continues to guide me. 

I’m excited to share more behind-the-scenes about the book in future posts leading up to its release in Spring 2024. I’m so excited to be back in Emerson’s world, and revisiting my fond memories of Ireland, a country I hope to return to very soon.

creativity

Cover reveal for my second novel, Emerson Page and Where the Light Leads

Christa Avampato
Emerson Page and Where the Light Leads by Emerson Page

Drumroll please! Here is the book cover for my second novel, Emerson Page and Where the Light Leads. What do you think?! 

Emerson’s joined here by her three best friends: Skylar, Truman, and her service dog, Friday. This scene captures the moment when they arrive at a magical location where they encounter several mythological creatures who never quite reveal themselves as friends or foes. Can you guess the real-life location in Northern Ireland that inspired the cover? Can you guess which mythological creatures they find there and what they reveal to our favorite quartet?

I’ll share the answers tomorrow along with some fun photos and stories. For now, I’d love to hear your reactions to the cover and your guesses to the two questions above.

creativity

My second novel has a publishing date

Christa Avampato
Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters

Breaking news: my second novel, Emerson Page and Where the Light Leads, will be released in Spring 2024!

The publisher is working on the final steps and around the holidays we’ll have a better sense of a set release date along with pre-order links. On Wednesday, September 27th, I’ll post a cover reveal sneak peek on here.

Set in a mgaical version of New York City, and Ireland’s Dublin, the Dark Hedges, and Newgrange, I can’t wait to share this next chapter of Emerson’s adventures with you. Thank you to everyone who has cheered me on these many years in a million different ways. Writing novels is a solo art form that takes a village to bring to life. I’m grateful to be in this village with all of you.

Leading up to publication, I’ll be sharing loads of info on the book, the process of book publication, querying, storytelling and writing, and other behind-the-scenes goodies and giveaways. Book publishing can feel like such a mystery from the outside, so come on inside with me and I’ll show you around this wild and always-changing world!

More details soon and stay tuned on Wednesday for the gorgeous cover. In the meantime, you can read my Medium post titled A Publisher Bought My YA Novel Trilogy—Here’s Everything I Did Wrong and Emerson’s first book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters.

creativity

To write well, we must read well and take a break

Christa Avampato
Look for Me There by Luke Russert
Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

After a two-day break from dissertation literature review writing, I’m back at it today. It’s amazing the clarity we get from stepping back, focusing on other things, and returning with fresh eyes. I would have loved to take a longer break to let the words accumulate a good thick layer of dust but deadlines and NYC Climate Week next week demand otherwise.

I spent the last couple days doing work for clients, reaching out to potential collaborators for interviews, finally hanging up art in my apartment, and reading two beautiful books that I highly recommend: Unreasonable Hospitality by top-notch restauranteur Will Guidara and Look for Me There, Luke Russert‘s stunning memoir about the life he’s built in the wake of the sudden and untimely passing of his larger-than-life dad, Tim Russert, whom I still dearly miss, especially in these trying times of U.S. politics.

Now with a more colorful space, inspired by the writing of others, some items off the to-do list, and my top-tier dream collaborators booked for the project, I’m re-writing, editing, and honing what I hope will be a decent first draft for my supervisor to review. As my first year tutor Angus always said to me, we’ll see how it goes in prose.

Will Guidara so beautifully writes, “Most important, we have an opportunity—a responsibility—to make magic in a world that desperately needs more of it.” I’ll do my best to make good on that opportunity and responsibility in my writing.

creativity

The danger of Texas school libraries becoming “discipline centers”

Christa Avampato
Photo by Joe Ciciarelli on Unsplash

“Libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education, about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information. We need libraries. We need books. We need literate citizens. I hope we can give our children a world in which they will read, and be read to, and imagine, and understand.” ~Neil Gaiman

When I was a kid, the school library was my refuge. I’d go there when I felt bullied, sad, and lost, and I wanted to escape. I would go to books to go into new worlds that weren’t my physical world. Through them I could travel, find adventure, and be anywhere except where I was when my world was not where I wanted to be. I returned stronger, wiser, and braver because of libraries. 

As I got older, I realized I was not alone in finding my haven in books and libraries. So many kids all over the country, and all over the world, did the same thing if they were fortunate enough to have a library. I also learned millions of children didn’t have libraries to escape to, and that broke my heart and opened my wallet to support libraries, books, authors, reading, writing, and creating in every way I could. When I became a journalist, then an essayist, and then a novelist, my dedication to libraries, books, readers, and writers grew even bigger.

So it’s with devastation that I learned last week about the dire state of school libraries in Houston, Texas that are part of the Houston independent school district (HISD). Superintendent Mike Miles will turn the city’s school libraries into “discipline centers”, and librarian and media-specialist positions will be eliminated. Teachers will be able to send “misbehaving students” to these centers to learn remotely. This is a state decision, not a city decision, and Miles was given this post by the Texas Education Agency. He thinks this will improve student performance in Texas’s largest school district and the 8th largest district in the country.

HISD has 276 schools and 196,943 students. 90% of students identify as ethnic minorities, and 59.4% are economically disadvantaged. They are students who need libraries, extra educational support, and places of refuge. I know this because I was an economically disadvantaged student. Libraries, librarians, and books saved me. They helped me dream of a better life than I had as a kid, and it’s largely because of libraries, librarians, and books that I have the life I have now, a life I love where I make a living through my creativity every day. 

I don’t live in Houston, but I care deeply about these students and what happens to them because they will eventually grow into adults who will go out into our shared world on their own. Without libraries and books, and with goodness knows what goes on in a “discipline center”, imagine how angry and deprived they will be. Imagine how deprived every student in these schools will be without libraries and librarians. What message are we sending all students by denying them free access to books, and the ideas and freedom they afford those who face an unjust uphill climb in our current society? 

Here’s my great hope for the HISD and the city of Houston: that the students, administrators, teachers, voters, politicians, and residents will rise up against Mike Miles. I hope they won’t allow students to be deprived of books, reading, and librarians, and I hope all of us outside of Houston will support them in every way they need. The students of HISD deserve better than this policy, and better than Mike Miles. We can’t allow one man to take their books and their futures from them.

creativity

The Joy of Book Clubs with Libby Seiter Nelson

Christa Avampato

Talking about books is one of the greatest joys, and to have a conversation about books with Libby is a treat for all book lovers. In December 2015 Libby was going through a time of intense grief and participating in the POPSUGAR annual reading challenge gave her the joy she needed. To amplify that joy, Libby posted about the challenge on Facebook to see if she could get a few friends to read with her through 2016. That Facebook group, 2022 Reading Challenge, started with a small group of friends and now has grown to almost 500 members in 2022. Anyone and everyone who loves to read books and talk about them is welcome. It’s all online through Facebook with zero pressure and a source of joy for everyone in the group. And yes, you’re invited to join us! We’d love to have you read with us in 2023.

Topics discussed in this episode:

  • The value of meaningful conversations
  • Libby’s coaching work and the work of Dr. Brené Brown – https://brenebrown.com/
  • Introverted extroverts and extroverted introverts
  • How joy helps us survive and heal during grief, sickness, and life’s challenges
  • The love of reading that started for Libby and Christa when they were children
  • Books Libby recommends for listeners
  • Books Christa recommends for listeners
  • Rising through fear
  • The power of storytelling and memoirs
  • Women in science, the stories of women lost to history, and how much we love books where character submerge into a new world and re-emerge transformed by their experiences
  • The books of Anne Lamott, Bill Bryson, Nelson Mandela, John Lewis, John Doerr
  • John Bucher and his love for mythology – https://www.tellingabetterstory.com/
  • How Libby’s book club has helped us discover books we wouldn’t otherwise know about
  • Walking in the shoes of other people through books
  • The work of StoryCorps – https://storycorps.org/

Links to resources:


About Libby:
Libby Seiter Nelson is a highly skilled and extensively trained certified professional coaching. She is an Executive Coach and Facilitator in an innovative coaching program that helps parents with the critical transition to life as a working parent. Her coaching is especially focused on the return to work — an underestimated challenge that impacts gender equity and inclusion. She facilitates courses and group coaching, and teaches seminars focused on the realities of the current work environment, offering tangible solutions for the challenges of being a working parent. Libby is a Certified Daring Way Facilitator™, a program created and run by Dr. Brené Brown. 

creativity

Join me on Literati to talk about Elektra with the Joseph Campbell Foundation

Christa Avampato
Elektra by Jennifer Saint

In November I’m facilitating a month-long discussion about the book Elektra by Jennifer Saint on the Literati app for the Joseph Campbell Foundation Myth & Meaning book club. This will be an exciting reading adventure. 

Authors of new books rooted in mythology are asking fascinating questions of classic stories and providing provocative answers. Jennifer Saint’s glittering retelling of the classic tale Elektra is a brilliant example. 
 
 She showcases forgotten women of Greek mythology, ties that bind them to one another, and betrayals that threaten to sever those ties forever. With alternating chapters from their perspectives, Saint gives us a front row seat to their psyches as they grapple with a family legacy entangled with an ancient curse.

Vivid and evocative descriptions from page one carry us away into their tale of rebellion, revenge, and redemption where no one escapes unscathed and everyone is utterly transformed.

Throughout November, I’ll be posting some thoughts about the book as we read it together over the month. This is a highly interactive experience, and I’m excited to read and learn with all of you. 

I hope you’ll join me. To sign up, hop on over to the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s Myth & Meaning book club on Literati. The cost is $22 / month if billed annually and $26 if you pay monthly. It includes the book shipped to your address.

A special thank you to Torri Yates-Orr and John Bucher for bringing me into the Editorial Advisory Group. I’m honored to join such a fantastic group of thinkers and myth devotees.