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my novel, ECHOLOCATION, available for pre-order!

12 Sep

Absolutely thrilled and delighted to announce that my novel, Echolocation, is available for pre-order here: Echolocation

here’s the first beautiful blurb:

“Fearless, elegant, and accessible, Echolocation is literary fiction at its best. With heartbreakingly beautiful prose, Myfanwy Collins tells a gripping and tender tale of broken souls yearning for wholeness. These are characters who will stay with you long after you turn the last page. It’s a dazzling debut!”—Ellen Meister, author of The Other Life

20 years ago and today

10 Aug

20 years ago, I was finishing up my first summer out of college. I was teaching summer school (a miserable experience for both the students and me) and I had much to look forward to. I had finished writing my first novel and my agent at the time was sending it out to publishers. I had a handful of stories upon which my creative writing professor had written, “If you keep writing, you will get published. I promise.” I had a double degree in Secondary Education and English and I was on my way to grad school. I had a plan. Things were happening.

Then: Things happened. I left grad school degreeless. I stopped writing for a while. I went within. People loved me. People fell out of love with me. I fell out of love with people. I fell in love with people. I moved in. I moved out. I worked at this job. I left that job. People told me secrets. People stopped talking to me. I stopped talking to people. People moved away. People stayed close. People got sick. People died.

I pulled myself back up. I kept writing. I got published once and twice and a bunch of times. People believed in me and kept believing in me. I began to believe in myself. I took a chance. I put my work out there. Some people liked it. Some didn’t. There was much rejection and some success. Those who would have broken me, did not break me. I kept writing and people who mattered to me said yes to me and to my words.

Now: in less than a month I begin back at grad school. I will not leave again until I have my Master’s degree.

Now: in March 2012 a novel of mine will be published. Thank you for saying yes to my words, Engine Books!

Now: In August 2012 my short fiction collection will be published. Thank you for saying yes to my words, PANK Little Books!

As for you: don’t you ever give up on yourself. Keep going. You, keep going. Don’t stop. Do not stop.

Sorta Like A Rock Star, by Matthew Quick

19 May

This one is for all of the kids who live outside the edge of normal, all of the kids who have secrets behind what their faces show at school each day, all of the kids who have been picked on, and especially for all of the kids who when faced with the worst, offer up their best.

This one is for all of you who are rock stars of hope, just like Amber Appleton the winning heroine of Matthew Quick’s charmingly heartbreaking YA novel Sorta Like a Rock Star.

I’ve been a fan of Quick’s writing for a while now and I expect a lot from his work. I expect honesty and humor and a wacky set of characters doing interesting things: and, boy, does this book deliver all of those things in spades. Most importantly, this book delivers a great big heart, all packaged within the body of Amber Appleton–who is one part Dorothy in Oz, one part Alice in Wonderland, and one part all her own. She’s a girl who has been pushed down into a dark place due to circumstances beyond her control and when life deals her an unfair and devastating hand, even though she wants to give up, she refuses to.

Partly she keeps going because Amber is not alone in her hardships; through her dark times she has her friends (a group of misfit kids, a haiku writing war vet, a Nietzsche quoting nursing home villain, and a Catholic priest among others). In her darkest hour when all she wants to do is be alone, they will not give up on her. They fight for her in the way no one else ever has–not even her parents.

Amber teaches us to never give up yearning for a better future. She teaches us what it means to survive. Most importantly, she gives us hope.

Buy this book for your favorite high school kid. Buy this book for your mother and father. Buy this book for a complete stranger who looks like he is having a crappy day and needs a reason to believe. Buy this book.

Newburyport Literary Festival, April 23-34, 2010

17 Apr

The Newburyport Literary Festival is next weekend. It’s a great event and I’m honored to be on a panel in support of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction.

Hope to see you there!

Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.

13 Jul

I worried through the entirety of my pregnancy. How, I fretted, could I bring a child into this world? How could I protect him? What did he have to look forward to but melting ice caps, tsunamis, wild fires, genocide, floods, hurricanes, drought, war, war, war, serial killers, crazed gunmen in schools, bullies, etc. Now that I am a parent, I realize I can’t protect him from these things. I can only protect him from what I can control, and even then I am often left powerless.

We will do as we wish, we humans.

Ron Currie’s daring, humorous, poignant, heart-wrenching, and, ultimately, joyful second novel, Everything Matters! also addresses the question of how can one bring a child into a troubled world. Most importantly, though, it follows the life of Junior, who not only knows how he will end, but knows how the world will end as well.

It is from there, his foreknowledge, that we witness the choices he makes in his life–when does he choose to give up and when does he choose to push beyond his limits. When does he choose to live and accept all of the beauty that life has to offer him even though he knows it will one day be taken away.

Yes, on the surface this is a book about mass destruction, but it’s not about hopelessness. Rather, it’s about what we wake up and choose to do each day–put one foot ahead of the other and move forward even though we know that one day we will cease to be. We are all brave to live, to choose to live.

Some books you read to be entertained, others to learn something, and some you read to change your life. Everything Matters! was all of these books for me. I finished it just as my two-year-old was waking up from his nap. I was crying as I picked him up from his crib, not because I was sad, but because I was so happy and grateful that he was alive in this beautiful world where everything matters.

A real deal — Make A Scene

26 Feb

Jordan Rosenfeld has posted an awesome offer on her blog–here are the details:

I’ll ship you up to three copies with no shipping charge, at only $12/copy. They’re regularly $14.95 plus tax and shipping.

My book is good for the beginner or intermediate writer, since it offers not only refreshers on simple scene architecture, but detailed information on scene types.

To take advantage of this deal–I’ve only got 22 copies left–email me: jordansmuse (at) gmail (dot) com with the subject “Make a Scene deal” and tell me how many you want. We can work out the mailing/payment details from there.

BONUS DEAL: Add a copy of my book with Rebecca Lawton, Write Free: Attracting the Creative Life, and I’ll send you both books for $20, plus FREE shipping.

read Pia Z. Ehrhardt at fivechapters.com

23 Jun

Pia Z. Ehrhardt is one of my favorite writers and human beings and her excellent story “Closer, Still” is serialized on fivechapters.com this week. Here’s part I. Read it!

Make a Scene!

28 Nov

Writers: run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore and get yourself a copy of this fabulous new book by the one and only, Jordan Rosenfeld–Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time:

You’ve felt the pulse-pounding drama of a good story, turning pages at a furious clip, caught up in a book so real, you feel as though it is happening to you. What makes that story, book or essay come to life? Strong, powerful scenes. Make A Scene is a guide for writers on how to write a strong narrative—story or novel—one scene at a time.

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