Alternating narratives weave together Feather and Bubbles’ odyssey. The two women travel south from Canada to Mexico where Bubbles’ long-dead mother, grandmother, and grandfather turn up, enlivening the narrative with their hilarious antics.
In Mexico, where reality and magic co-exist, Feather gets a new sense of her mother, and Bubbles’ quest for her mother’s ashes—and a new man—increases her zest for life. Unlike most women her age, fun-loving Bubbles takes risks, believing she’s immortal. She doesn’t hold back in any way, eating heartily and lusting after strangers, exulting in her youthful spirit.
Readers will believe they’ve found the fountain of youth themselves in this character. At ninety, Bubbles comes into her own, coming to age, proving it’s never too late to fulfill one’s dreams.
* from publisher
Lily Iona On Revising
Okay, I’ve been writing for longer than I care to remember, but I still can convince myself (arrogant? yes!) that I don’t need feedback from other writers. This attitude tends to take over when I’ve spent considerable time working on something, as I did with a memoir I’ve written. After all, it’s my story I’m telling. How could someone else help me to improve it? I don’t usually take this approach to fiction I’ve created; I assume it can be made better. But I had persuaded myself that this material was ready to be published.
When I sent parts of it to my on-line critique group, I didn’t expect I’d need to change much of the prose. (Have you ever heard that voice before? This draft is perfect as is?) So when one of the group members commented that it seemed to be an early draft, I felt offended. I’d been working on this collection for some time, and it had gone through several revisions. The remark sounded patronizing to me, like one-upmanship. Then the others in the group began pointing out things that I hadn’t thought about or hadn’t gone far enough with. I had a defense against all of their suggestions. Sound familiar?
Fortunately, after a few days, my senior inner editor gained control and suggested I review the emails I’d received. I took the advice and looked over the draft with the recommendations in mind. Some I didn’t act on. (I’m familiar enough with these readers’ perspective that I know which things to ignore.) But as I began to re-read my piece, line by line, I could see many places that could be improved. I may not have followed some of my critiquers’ suggestions, but just the act of re-entering the material with a critical eye opened it in ways I hadn’t expected. And that’s one great value of having expert readers look over our drafts. As writers (and readers), they were able to notice things I couldn’t because of my myopia. Their varied perspectives gave me several different angles from which to view what I’d written. The process is invaluable.
So here I am, humbled once again by how challenging revising can be. I’m also reminded that even the most experienced writers resist being told their prose can be improved.
More…
| Author: | Lily Iona | ||
| Source: | WOW! Women on Writing | ||
| Publisher & Date: | Pen-L Publishing (July 1, 2015) | ||
| Genre: | Comedy and Family | ||
| ISBN: | 978-1942428299 | ||
| Pages: | 272 | ||
Author Bio:
A Canadian by birth, a high school dropout, and a mother at 17, in her early years, Lily Iona MacKenzie supported herself as a stock girl in the Hudson’s Bay Company, as a long distance operator for the former Alberta Government Telephones, and as a secretary (Bechtel Corp sponsored her into the States). She also was a cocktail waitress at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, briefly broke into the male-dominated world of the docks as a longshoreman (and almost got her legs broken), founded and managed a homeless shelter in Marin County, and eventually earned two Master’s degrees (one in Creative writing and one in the Humanities). She has published reviews, interviews, short fiction, poetry, travel pieces, essays, and memoir in over 140 American and Canadian venues. Fling, one of her novels, will be published in July 2015 by Pen-L Publishing. Bone Songs, another novel, will be published in 2016. Her poetry collection All This was published in 2011. She also teaches writing at the University of San Francisco, is vice-president of USF’s part-time faculty union, paints, and travels widely with her husband.
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Thanks for your post. I look forward to interacting with your readers and hearing their comments on the writing process.
Great!
Thanks for stopping!!