It’s now in stock, so get back in the tub, with your paperback Three Spaces, Rub-a-dub-dub!
USA, Canada: http://amzn.com/0986945897
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0986945897
Germany, Denmark: http://www.amazon.de/dp/0986945897
Italy: http://www.amazon.it/dp/0986945897
Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00BG2EJ9Y
Hey there. I’m not sure how many of you regular readers of WHERE THE BUTTERFLIES GO actually live in the Montreal area, but I’m doing a few special events for National Poetry Month and wanted you to know about them in case you can attend. Click on the photos to reach the event pages!
If you do attend either the Three Spaces book launch at Chapters Bookstore or the Herbs Café: A Night of Poetry & Music, please come say hi and let me know you follow my blog!
Best wishes, thanks so much for reading,
Heather
Yup, you read that right. I love giving my books away, especially when I can sign them and ship them right to your door. If you live in Canada, the US, the UK or Australia, this is your chance to sign up for a free copy of Three Spaces AND, included in the package, a free copy of my 2012 collection, Carry On Dancing. Hey, when I do things, I don’t do ‘em small 
I’m really excited about this giveaway. Please do share about it – let’s give thousands of people who think they don’t like poetry a chance for me to prove them wrong!
My Goodreads Giveaway:
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/49443-carry-on-dancing
Please don’t forget to add my books to your “To Read” shelf if you sign up for this giveaway. Thanks!
Love,
Heather
My talented author pal Elisa Lorello tagged me in a blog hop, and I thought it would be a fun way for you to learn more about her, more about me (in the interview below), and to ‘meet’ some of my other talented author friends.
Elisa Lorello is a best-selling novelist and the author of four books: Faking It, Ordinary World, Why I Love Singlehood (co-authored with Sarah Girrell), and her latest, Adulation. Currently on sabbatical from teaching, Elisa recently returned to the northeast from North Carolina, where she is busy developing new projects (she’s superstitious and never talks about her works in progress!) and getting re-acquainted with snow. Elisa’s blog post will be about Adulation–perfect for Oscar season! Please visit Elisa at I’ll Have What She’s Having.
I am tagging the following authors in this ‘blog hop.’ Could you please visit them this week? I think you’ll love getting to know them and their work.
Arianna Merritt: Author, M.Ed., Learning and Development Specialist
Website:
http://ariannasrandomthoughts.com
Nate Hendley: Author & Freelance Writer
Blog:
http://crimestory.wordpress.com/
Website: www.natehendley.com
Mark Stratton: Poet/writer – poetry collection “Tender Mercies” available here: (
http://radio-nowhere.org/nb/?page_id=766
) and website here:
http://radio-nowhere.org/nb
BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW…
AN INTERVIEW WITH HEATHER GRACE STEWART
Tell me about your writing process. Do you plan out what you’re writing or sit down and do it? What was the greatest surprise about this writing process for you?
I plan to write, but I don’t always plan what I’m going to write. Unless I have a magazine deadline or I’m writing a presentation, I set aside time, usually 7:30 in the morning to noon, to write creatively. I try to avoid distractions like the Net and the phone until noon. As far as plot, poems just come to me and I go with the feel of the poem and then edit later. I’m working on a novella right now, and I did plot a little down on paper, including character sketches, but I find what works better for me is to just sit and write for a few weeks without any rules. Just stream of consciousness, every morning.
That’s been the biggest surprise to me. I didn’t realize plotting out can sometimes strain my writing. The Friends I’ve Never Met. was a story that just woke me up like an alarm clock at 4 a.m. every morning for several weeks, without fail, and I found I just had to go write this story down. After a few weeks I went back and made sure the plot and characters were working, and then I fattened everything up, and did many, many edits.
Ideas come to me in the shower, and especially while I’m driving alone, so I have learned to use a small tape recorder whenever I go on a road trip. I used to try to write on a yellow sticky note at the stop lights, but I could never read my writing later. I’m going to try texting myself, too!
What was your worst job ever? (doesn’t have to be about writing) and why? What did you learn from it?
When I was 16 I worked at a Rifle Range. I had to sweep up barracks and clean the toilets. That wasn’t so bad, but the army officer in charge was weird and made me put up heavy tents in the blazing July heat, and then take them down as soon as they’d been put up, as if I were in the army too. I experienced a lot of harassment and sexism that summer. I think it made me ballsier. I didn’t take crap from a boss ever again after that. Ha ha, maybe that’s why I work for myself!
If you knew tonight was your last meal for a week, what would you eat?
Probably many many slices of pineapple cheese pizza with green olives. And a pint of beer – Heineken or Tsing Tao- mabye even a Hoegaarden. And vanilla ice cream for dessert, with Smucker’s hot fudge on top. Okay this interview is making me hungry.
How do you feel about frogs?
I have a special relationship with frogs. I truly love them! Besides being fascinated by the biology, like how they get oxygen through their skin, since I was very young, I’ve been able to catch them easily ( the other kids coined me the Green Lake Frog Catcher) and get them to stay on my palm for over 10 minutes with out hopping off. I rub their temples and pat them and they stay. I’m the Frog Whisperer.
Where’s your favourite place to chill out, and why?
There’s a private beach on Cape Cod ~ it’s actually the cover of my latest book, Three Spaces, and it’s so quiet and full of fascinating aquatic life. My daughter and husband love exploring it after the tide goes out late afternoon. We try to save crabs and starfish by throwing them in deeper. The private beach belongs to a small motel, and compared to other places we’ve vacationed, it isn’t expensive to stay there, but if I tell you any more it won’t be my favourite place to chill out any more.
Thank you for reaching out and making space on your Kindles for THREE SPACES. I has been out two weeks tomorrow. And guess what? In two weeks, I’ve sold more Kindle copies of THREE SPACES than any of my other poetry ebooks. In fact, it has already outsold the Kindle copies I sold of Carry On Dancing (mind you, as of end of December 2012 - I’ve just learned from my publisher – I have sold 242 copies of that book, print and ebook totaled, realizing my goal to sell 200 copies before its 1st anniversary mid-March! I am SO thankful to my publisher, several Chapters bookstores, Kingston’s Novel Idea, and The League of Canadian Poets for your help selling those copies. And of course to you readers for buying & telling others about my work. Please keep spreading the word…
Still haven’t sold as many ebook copies of THREE SPACES as THE FRIENDS I’VE NEVER MET – that one blew me away! I keep thinking about writing another screenplay, because I never imagined I’d sell so many copies of a SCREENPLAY on the Kindle! (don’t forget it’s also on many other ereaders like Kobo, Nook, Sony, and iBooks).
Since you are my most loyal readers, my dear blog-following friends, you can be the first to know I’m working on a romantic-comedy novella. I say novella because the thought of coming up with 60,000 words when I have 1,000 so far frightens me to death. But I am not giving up! The plan is to write it as a novella, see if it has promise as a novel, and then write it as a screenplay too! Ask me again about this in 2014, because for me, this is a huge project and I’m taking baby steps with it for now.
Amid all this writing, I’m going to be giving a workshop on the wild new world of e-publishing (There’s An App for That: YOU!) at Queen’s University next week, March 9th, and I’ll be the panel of journalists on March 10th. I’m also going to be signing books & reading at Chapters Pointe Claire Quebec on Sunday, April 14th, to celebrate National Poetry Month, and I’m planning a reading & signing at a beautiful garden in Hudson, Quebec this July.
THREE SPACES will be available on Kobo , Nook and iBooks shortly. Sorry for the delay, hang in there !
Limited First Edition, signed, printed colour copies of THREE SPACES are available for $36 plus shipping. (Yeah, it’s not cheap, but they are in full-eye-popping colour). Just contact me via this page for details. At this point there are nine copies left up for grabs. Second edition copies with a colour cover and black and white interior will be for sale online (at Amazon stores around the world) at $14.99 by the end of April.
Speaking of April – here is a little inspiration for those of you living anywhere with snow and sleet in your line of vision every day (like me). These purple tulips are $6 of bliss that keep me going when it’s miserable outside. Hang in there!
Hey there!
Just a thank you to all you Kindle readers for picking up Three Spaces in THREE countries!
I am thrilled that it has been sold in the Canadian Kindle store (Amazon.ca), the US store (Amazon.com), and the UK (Amazon.co.uk) It has ‘charted’ as #1 in Kindle Books>Canadian Poetry on Amazon.ca and also hit #7 in Bestselling Canadian Poetry Books!
Yesterday was a very good day. Three Spaces was on best-selling charts in all three countries! #82 on Amazon.com in Bestselling Poetry; #84 on Amazon.co.uk in Bestselling Poetry Books (just above Milton- wow- made me laugh!) ; #7 in Bestselling Canadian Poetry Books on Amazon.ca.
While I try to take rankings lightly, as it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m selling a ton of books but just out-selling others in that category, I do try to compete with myself every time I bring out a new book.
I’m thrilled to say that this is my best-selling poetry ebook yet! And the first one to hit three bestselling Amazon charts at once!
Three Spaces will be out on Kobo, iBooks, Nook Books, Sony Reader and more soon.
Please do tell your friends about Three Spaces (share this post!). It’s got prose as well as poetry this time, and full colour photography for those nifty colour e-readers.
Thanks again so much for buying & sharing!
Heather
Full disclosure: Heather Grace Stewart is my friend. She also happens to be one of my favorite poets. And her poetry collections only get better over time. Her latest, Three Spaces, is proof.
Stewart introduces the collection by informing us: “We are living in an age of three spaces: public space, personal space, and cyberspace. This book is my attempt to connect, take apart, and examine those three spaces that co-exist in our society.” That she does, and more. As always, Heather Grace Stewart integrates verbal and visual by using photographs that splash simplicity and delicate beauty and partnering them with words that evoke the same. Every poem, every picture, every part of this book tells a story.
She also intersperses poems with short prose chock full of depth and introspection. “Everyday Heroes” is an intimate portrait of an early male figure in her life. “To Infinity, and the Bus” is a slice of childhood; and although the child is hers, we can’t help but re-live a moment from our own. Additionally, Stewart uses dialogue and lyrics to tell her stories, and we’re more than happy to join the conversation.
“Cyberspace” offers the most humor, I think. “A Twittertine” is a 25-word love letter that would’ve melted me on the spot, had I been the recipient. Stewart also examines the silent personal connections authors make with readers, one that can’t be measured or detected by analytics or metadata. As an author, I could relate, and it reminded me of just how important those face-to-face interactions still are.
Above all, this collection is a reflection of Heather Grace Stewart’s radiant spirit. She is both a witness and a participant of life. She embraces her inner child as much as she does her daughter. She appreciates and celebrates the little things. She loves and lives out loud.
Buy this book. Get hooked. Add it to your space. You won’t be disappointed.
~ ~ ~
Elisa Lorello is the author of the Amazon best-selling books Faking It, Ordinary World, Why I Love Singlehood and Adulation. Find her books here
Three Spaces is available in Kindle stores worldwide and coming soon to Kobo, iBooks, Nook, & Sony Reader.
I’ve begun my very first book tour, and guess what I like most so far?
Is it the signing books with a fancy silver pen? No. That’s cool, but no.
Is it the applause after my readings? No. I always feel a little silly about that.
Is it getting to try out new heels? Well, yeah! Of course! But that’s besides the point…
You can stop guessing now ~ I’ll tell you.
In this hyper-networked world, where we Tweet and Like and Google one another, but, at times, don’t actually engage with one another, it’s comforting to be able to greet people the way I was first taught to say hello.
Looking someone in the eyes. Shaking their hand. (My daughter’s first hello to another human being was sticking her fingers in their ear at 4 months old, but let’s ignore this fact for now).
Friday night, I was listening to the talented jazz singer Kimberely Beyea perform at Herbs Cafe in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, and she and the cafe owners kindly asked me to read a few poems from Carry On Dancing. The audience was attentive and kind ~ I even got a few laughs. A couple of ladies asked where I’d be reading next. I didn’t really expect to see them the next afternoon, but sure enough, Marnie and Ann showed up to see me at my first official Carry On Dancing reading at Librarie Boyer in Pincourt Saturday afternoon.
Ladies, this meant the world to me! I’ll never forget it. It was wonderful to look you in the eyes and thank you for coming, Marnie and Ann, and it was also wonderful doing so with old friends and new friends who came by to hear me read. Thank you so much for coming by to say hello.
Please come say hello at one of my upcoming events. I may poke, Tweet or LIKE you later. But let’s try the old fashioned way first, shall we?
Here’s my upcoming events schedule!
CARRY ON DANCING: THE BOOK TOUR
Meet the Author (book signing) Chapters Pointe Claire, Quebec: Saturday April 28th, noon- 4 p.m.
Meet the Author (book signing & reading) Chapters Kanata Centrum, Kanata, Ontario: Sunday, April 29th, 1-3 p.m.
Carry On Dancing Launch Party! (party party party) Casa Del Poplo, 4873 St. Laurent Street: Tuesday, May 8th, 8:30 p.m. Featuring Music by Kimberley Beyea & Barry Turner
PWAC (Professional Writers Asssociation of Canada) Literary Night Reading, NOW Lounge, Toronto, Ont., Wed., May 23rd, 7 pm..
Wine & Cheese & Reading & Book Signing, Novel Idea, 156 Princess Street, Kingston, Ontario: Friday, May 25th, 7:30 – 9 p.m.
* I wish to acknowledge the kind support of the League of Canadian Poets and The Canada Council*
Carry On Dancing: The Book Tour Begins! April 21, 2012.
In the introduction to her latest book, Canadian poet Heather Grace Stewart describes what follows as ‘my small adventure’. In many ways, that’s a fair enough opening gambit. As she’s shown in Leap and Where The Butterflies Go, Heather is an accomplished and supple lyricist of the everyday and of the small miracles and telling moments which interrupt its routines (that some of these moments are also recorded in the poet’s own photographs is a bonus).
In this new collection, ‘Bookmarks’ is a finely honed example: a guitar sitting against a wall becomes ‘a bright reminder of/easier days’, but this souvenir of a personal belle époque is set against ordinary household chores – leaves being raked up outdoors, ‘the laundry,/left to fold’ – before the mood shifts and, outside, the sound of ‘laughter is the song/that fills/our sunlit yard.’ It’s a poem of only seventeen short lines, but it unpacks its momentary domestic occasion with the simplicity, precision and resonances of a pointillist interior. Similarly, ‘No Matter’ rises from its kitchen occasion to a dance ‘through the rainstorms/in this beautiful mess of a home’; while ‘Marilyn’ plays out a ‘little silly’ fantasy between ‘her Knight with Shining Briefcase’ coming home from work and ‘his spaghetti-stained/pinup girl gone wrong’ amongst ‘overpriced groceries, bills long overdue’ and ‘dinner thawing like their days’.
However, as the declaration of independence in opening poem ‘Enough’ puts it, ‘I am not my Facebook, my blog, or any of my Tweets,/I am not my purse, my shoes or my unmade bed’, and Heather’s palette extends way beyond these well-wrought vignettes. For a start, many of these poems are themselves shadowed by darker thoughts and suggestions, an often unspecified ‘dark matter’ – as in ‘I Melt’ with its plea to ‘let’s hold onto this picture’; in ‘On Days Like This’ with its admission ‘Sometimes I hold on/too tight’; or, more openly, in the first couplet of the William Carlos Williams-echoing ‘Maybe It’s Your Love’: ‘Maybe it’s your love/and all this death around us.’ Death haunts other poems, too – poignantly in poems about her daughter like ‘She Drew Me a Sky’ and ‘The Present’, and in the beautifully simple aubade and love poem which ends – and in many ways draws together – the themes of the whole collection, ‘Longer’:
just beneath
our breathing,
the humming fridge,
morning traffic –
The dead, they whisper:
No work that will not wait
till tomorrow.
Perhaps more so even than her previous collections, however, Carry On Dancing expands into poetry which addresses issues ranging from bullying (‘Words’) to gun law (‘Guns’: ‘the laughable laws/the ones that get made/and unmade/like an antique bed’) and war (‘Unrest’), whilst also demonstrating both Heather’s playful wit – ‘Kindlus Interruptus’, ‘Twaiku’ and a number of snappy ‘he said/she said’ dialogue poems – and fashioning of longer, more overtly performance-y style humorous and/or satirical pieces like ‘Boobies’ and ‘Should I Ever Become THAT Poet’.
All told, in fact, Carry On Dancing reveals Heather to be a poet who has very much come into her stride, leaving images and moments to speak (more than) themselves, but also confidently deploying a repertoire of styles and forms, from haiku and sometimes acerbic, sometimes aphoristic apercus to polished lyric, and deftly building ambiguities and embedded puns into the most seemingly direct turns of phrase: ‘with wired words they will write/my legacy, and get it wrong’; ‘she said yes,/no hesitation’. Perhaps Carry On Dancing doesn’t represent quite such a small adventure after all. (Tom Phillips)
Heather Grace Stewart & Carry On Dancing, March 2012
