“The Ease of Wind-Filled Wings”: A Review of Luanne Castle’s Rooted and Winged #poetry #bookreview

I always review a book of poetry with some anxiety and exhilaration; anxiety because poetry is in the eye (ear/mind) of the beholder, and exhilaration because poetry is in the eye (ear/mind) of the beholder. I'd argue that I don't know what "good" poetry is, only that if I like it, I like it. That's…

Meet Guest Author, Luanne Castle…

Here’s a little backstory on how Luanne came around to creating her wonderful chapbook, Kin Types.

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

As a child, I loved reading about times past. Biographies of famous women like Lucrezia Borgia and Annie Oakley let me experience life in the periods in which they lived. Historical fiction lent a sense of adventure to realistic depictions of old England or the American colonial period. Time travel became my favorite fantasy.

But I never associated those times with my ancestors. The people who came before me were my three living grandparents, and the oldest person I knew, my grandfather’s aunt. I thought they had always been old.

As I became a teen, my grandfather began to tell me stories about our ancestors, and while they were interesting and I remembered them, I still didn’t put these relatives in my mind’s image of the Gilded Age and before. But then, when I was in college, my grandfather decided to show me his large collection of antique family portraits…

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A Confession and a Book Review: Kin Types by Luanne Castle #bookreview #poetry

First, the confession: I've been away in body as well as in mind. For two years my husband had been planning this road trip. For one year, it's been almost an obsession with him and then with me. And, into the mix, as if it weren't enough to be planning and obsessing over a road…

An Interview with Luanne Castle #MondayBlogs #poetry #flashnonfiction

Hello, everyone, I have a guest today: poet, family historian, and fellow cat hoarder lover, Luanne Castle. Many of you might already know Luanne from her blog, Writer Site, or her website, Luanne Castle, or perhaps you've already read her first book of poetry, Doll God, winner of the 2015 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. I'm…

May Wonders Never Cease to Exist

Although I occasionally write poetry, I don't make a fuss about it because I so rarely do it.  And because I'm never quite sure if I should call it poetry.  My poems don't rhyme.  They don't have a recognizable meter or structure (and I don't even know what I mean by that, either).  They don't…

A Different Kind of Book Review: Doll God by Luanne Castle #MondayBlogs #bookreview #poetry

Mary closed the slim volume of poetry and leaned back against the stiff cushions of her couch.  She never was one to read much poetry, except occasionally Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare, whose works had stayed with her all these years since high school.  What was it Dickinson once wrote in a letter?  "If I feel…

WIP Blog Tour!

Many thanks to Luanne Castle at Writer Site for tagging me to participate in this special blog tour.  It comes at a good time for me because I've been wrestling working on my WIP, Clemency, A Novel.  Before you read my post (or after if you prefer), please do read Luanne's post on her WIP: …