Writing

Gardens and Goats

/ Elizabeth Gaucher / 5 Comments

To two West Virginia bloggers who inspire me, I say a bright good morning and big “thank you” for your influence.

W. Va. Fur and Root combines a love of the natural world with a healthy skepticism about people.  The writer is well-read, loves food and wine, and is passionately loyal to her friends and family.  She reminds me of the old saying, “I won’t start a fight, but I’ll finish it.”  She’s willing to be intentionally vulnerable, and as such is always strong.  The humor is righteous, and the world she creates online is magical.

I wrote this of Connie in December 2009 and it still holds:  “I’ve come to believe her personal hideway is a corner of my own mind, a room where I can really go from time to time to both escape my own realities as well as find comfort in our shared human experiences.” 

Where else can you find Faulkner, barns, pop culture and accountability in spades?  Maybe one other place…

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

May I present The Goat Rope.  There is a degree to which it would be a crime to attempt to explain this blog.  One really should experience it on it’s own terms, and I hope you will.  I just popped over there for a visit and saw this line:  “One reason I’ve been strip mining Thoreau’s Walden these days is…..”  This is totally normal talk for Rick, and I love him for it.

On this blog, you will grow to anticipate Quaker theology, marial arts, razor wit and deep mellowness blended with a fierce and bright-burning quest for justice.

It might be a coincidence that both of these writers live on rural land, co-exist with animals and gardens, read like most people breathe, and have not an ounce of pretense or charade.  But I’m paying attention, just in case there is something to it. 

Essays on a West Virginia Childhood

/ Elizabeth Gaucher / 22 Comments

Many thanks to Jason Keeling for his ongoing work to connect West Virginians online and to use our state’s birthday as a day to make our home a better place.

This year at A Better West Virginia the theme is Networking. I want to use this opportunity to connect with other writers in West Virginia who might be interested in collaborating with me on a series of essays about childhood in the mountain state.

The concept is to develop 15-20 personal essays (in total, as a group) about either your own childhood or observations or stories from within your own family.  They need not be all positive, but they should be sincere and honest and come from a place of story-telling and from an interest in expanding the portrait of what growing up in West Virginia is.

When you Google “West Virginia childhood” or “Appalachian children,” let’s just say it’s not exactly a joy-fest.  I’m interested in bringing diversity to the equation through a combination of elements:  the eras of childhood, the age and gender of the children in the stories, humor and seriousness, economic circumstances, surrounding characters, setting, and theme.

We might consider publishing the essays online, or even find a literary journal or other entity interested in our work.  We might start drinking strong coffee and growing our hair, or even buy a farm together and go off the grid, grow our own food, and write by candlelight in the evening.

(Wait…that last part wasn’t supposed be out loud.)

How will we do it?  Why, networking of course!  And figuring it out as we go.

I hope to hear from you via comments here on Esse Diem.  Just let me know if you are interested in being part of the next step and I’ll keep you in the loop.  My plan over the coming week is to set up an email just for the blog so we can get started.  Shall we?