Granny Does It Vol I: As Time Permits
Seashell Books, USA.
May 13, 2022. Buy it here.
My head is full of words; I spend a lot of time rolling around in my thoughts. All the same, whereas electronic and print venues willingly host my books and shorter works, none of my poems, stories, essays, novels, live lectures, or telecasts ever excused (and ought not to have excused) me from making soup for Sabbath, engaging in weekday laundry, or being responsible for the concepts I express.
See, my imaginative sharing’s not limited to tales of fantastic critters or shimmery skies. Sometimes, (gasp!) I write about cultural veracities, which, though important, are ordinarily less “entertaining” than narratives about gelatinous wildebeests. Still and all, by portioning out relatively staider gleanings, whether those assemblages shed light on careers, religion, family, or femininity, I endeavor to be helpful—communications remain more powerful than apparatuses and more precious than serums in impacting lives.
Writers owe readers accountability apart from the extent to which readers get invested in published materials, specifically, or in community principles, more generally. Authors’ yields, wittingly or not, sanction other people’s promotions of collective efforts and unblock their attempts to resolve private kerfuffles. By extending protective or even “decorative” perimeters, originators gift publics with all manner of attributions that can be affixed to experienced events.
So, wordsmiths’ obligation to address amazing as well as pedestrian deeds is endless. What’s more, wordies to a certain extent, are answerable when society’s wardens employ their scribblings to back actions that auteurs might never embrace.
Accordingly, in this volume, I caution word players about our communal duties. As a confrère skilled in expanding upon goings-on plus as a gal skilled in stating fine points, I’m taking charge of the rhetorical results of my productivity and asking readers to do the same. It’s my hope that this book, plus the other parts of Granny Does It, improve lives by dispeling social myths and by laying out alternatives to some of the unease experienced in the status quo.
Fasten your seatbelt; we’re going to journey through many truth paradigms. The scenery might be remarkable but the ride will be turbulent.
Preface
Introduction: Not a Panacea or Leisure
1. Granny and Intrapersonal Goings-On
1.1 Saggy Skin’s Beauty Queen Prose
1.2 An Alias’ Utility
1.3 Chocolate Ice Cream’s Alleged Exacerbation of Anxiety
1.4 Cranky Grandma Writer
1.5 Writers’ Questionable Reactions to Moral Responsibilities
1.6 Audaciously Writing for Self
1.7 Getting Older
1.8 Dissing, Phishing and Fishing: Protecting Grandma’s Name
1.9 Bleary-Eyed while Fired Up
1.10 Sleep, the Final Frontier
1.11 Ye Ole Watering Hole
1.12 Nothing’s Something, Sometimes
1.13 Email Folders
1.14 Another Vista
1.15 Pain
1.16 Endorsements and Explorations
1.17 I Think I Can, I Think I Can
2. Writing and Intrapersonal Goings-On
2.1 The Quiet of Words
2.2 Writing as a Means to Stretch and to Create Artifacts
2.3 Turtledoves and Topics
2.4 Intertextuality
2.5 Intentionally Not Changing
2.6 Words and Things
2.7 A Day in the Life
2.8 Storyteller
2.9 Transformations Near and Far
2.10 A Few Reactions to Signing Contracts
2.11 Writing Books
2.12 A Personal History of Book Publishing
2.13 Fumes
2.14 More Writing to Sell to Readers
2.15 Today, I Put Soap in the Bathroom
2.16 Little Smiles of Writing
2.17 Focusing on Thanks
3. Granny and Interpersonal Goings-On
3.1 Making Friends: Adventures in Interpersonal Communication
3.2 Being Friends with a Writer
3.3 Old, New World Friends and New, Old World Friends
3.4 A Friend’s Evolved Identity
3.5 Bat Bayit
3.6 Younger Friend
3.7 Jeans
3.8 Letters of Support
3.9 A Letter from a Former Student
3.10 A Letter from Another Student
3.11 Letter to My Dissertation Advisor
3.12 Trying to Teach the World’s New Writing “Experts”
3.13 Choosing a Topic and Other Writing Realities
3.14 So Much “Talent”
3.15 Cocky Oboe Player
3.16 Entitlement
3.17 Beauty and the Best Granny
4. Writing and Interpersonal Goings-On
4.1 Told Ya Not to be a Writer
4.2 Nefesh B’Nefesh’s Bloggers’ Convention
4.3 The Impact of Poetry
4.4 On Retreats
4.5 Acceptance Letters
4.6 Unworthy Invitations
4.7 Too Jewish
4.8 Mussar with Love: Fantasies about Getting Published
4.9 Bites of an Elephant: Books’ Inceptions, Contracts, and Sales
4.10 The Business of Writing
4.11 Pitching Books
4.12 The Baseball of Writing
4.13 To Market, To Market
4.14 The Marketing Process
4.15 Better Sales from Additional Interventions
4.16 The Value of Offering Insights into the World of Writing and Publishing
Conclusion: Some Musings on Granny Writers
Glossary
Credits
Acknowledgements and About the Author
KJ Hannah Greenberg’s Other Books