Tag: trillian stars

Reading in Philadelphia at Robin’s Books on Dec. 11

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Photo by Kyle Cassidy

I’m excited to return to Philadelphia this weekend, this time to do a reading at Robin’s Books Store and Moonstone Arts Center on Saturday, December 11, from 7-9pm. Robin’s Books is the oldest Independent Book Store in Philadelphia, opened by Larry Robin’s grandfather in 1936.

I’m thrilled to join the writers who have appeared at Robin’s Books over the last 40 years. I am also so happy to see the very dear Trillian Stars and Kyle Cassidy again.

Amy Blackthorn

There will be wine and treats. I’ll read from The Silence of Trees, have a Q&A, and sign some books.  I thought it would be fun to have a real life “vorozhka” or fortuneteller at the event since a tarot reading features prominently in the beginning of the novel. The talented Amy Blackthorn will be doing free tarot readings!

The Silence of Trees is magical realism set in WWII Eastern Europe and modern-day Chicago. It’s a story of sacrifice, folklore, friendship, and storytelling. I wrote it to honor my grandmothers and all women who live through war and too often are silenced. You can read more about the story behind the book here.

Cover Art by Madeline Carol Matz

“In The Silence of Trees, Nadya, the astonishing matriarch, war survivor, and narrator, weaves a remarkable life centered on fate, love, luck and choice while honoring the ghosts of her past. Her voice is an important and unforgettable addition to the post-war immigrant experience.” –Irene Zabytko, author of When Luba Leaves Home and The Sky Unwashed

Please help to spread the word. The more the merrier! I look forward to meeting you on Saturday.

Catch up

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I’m so behind with posts.
I keep waiting for the ever elusive "more time" to appear.

It hasn’t. It’s been a good month, however. Full of transitions and reflection and inspiration.

A few months ago, Mark and I made plans to go to Philadelphia for the wedding party of Kyle Cassidy and

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. It was going to be our first weekend away from the kids since our oldest was born, six years now. We didn’t realize then that it would fall on the weekend before our move into Casa del Lobos, or that the weekend would be surrounded by job/family/house chaos..

Mark had to cancel his ticket due to a work conference and house-related responsibilities, but we decided that I would go on alone. Trillian kindly found me lodging with a friend in the neighborhood and off I went to Philadelphia. The happy couple was so generous and gracious, and I felt completely at home surrounded by their friends and cats and art and photography and creative talk and and and…It was wonderful.

I was reminded how much I missed that kind of interaction while in Germany. Outside of the Frankfurt writers group, I had little contact with folks making art or discussing things creative.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home, and so I came armed only with a disposable camera. My camera cowered in the presence of all those powerful professional cameras (Kyle is an amazing photographer who has photographed the Dalai Lama, famous science fiction writers, flying girls, and early black and white film starlets reincarnated as cats.)

I was able to attend a special dress rehearsal of Trillian’s show The Weir, and it (and she) blew me away. It’s the kind of play that I couldn’t shake for days after. The characters and their stories lingered in my imagination; I wanted to join them in the pub for a pint to hear more of their stories and share some of my own. Trillian’s performance was tender and subtle, and when it came to her dramatic monologue toward the end, I completely choked up. I miss theater.

The wedding party was wonderful, a patchwork of friends and family there to celebrate the union of these two passionate, imaginative, thoughtful people. Kyle and Trillian have one of those partnerships that reminds you how much fun love can be. I was so happy to have met them, and I hope that even with the miles between our homes, we continue to find time and space to share food, laughter, and conversation. I met a few ladies on the trip, Trillian included, whom I connected with immediately, and I can foresee future breakfasts and adventures.

I returned home to finish packing up the apartment and then moved into Casa del Lobos (where we still do not have a kitchen or full baths). I’m working on creative crockpot cookery with the kids. So far, so good. Our friend Vince, a talented fine artist and painter, is in the process of painting and faux painting our downstairs. I LOVE it and will try to post pictures soon. He’s fabulous and brings such a good energy to the house.

The renovation is coming along, and I have hope that we’ll be finished with this phase by the winter holidays. In the meantime I am horribly behind with Conclave Journal, as well as my own writing. Hoping to catch up this week while Mark is away at a supercomputing conference and other geeky work shenanigans.

With that, I bid you good night. More to come…

xxo

One in a Trillian

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Kevin’s Between the Lines Blog continues to impress me. This week there is an evocative interview with the lovely

[info]trillian_stars:

This from the site:

We should not be able to say of a man, “He is a mathematician,” or “a preacher,” or “eloquent”; but that he is “a gentleman.” —Pascal

I’m tempted to say of Jennifer Summerfield many things, that she’s like ripening wheat on the plains of Wyoming or a swaying palm in Santa Monica, that she’s an expat in Paris or a bright light in the Big Apple or a West Philly resident and a magic lantern of the stage. Then I’m reminded of Pascal, and stop short. I absolutely refuse to call her a “gentlewoman.” That’s just too 13th century. But I will call her a damn fine reader and a wonderfully sincere and insightful respondent. Jennifer reminds us that, because we’re all magic lanterns, projecting personae and occupying roles, we desire solid footing and permanence: “I read because it makes me feel immortal.” 

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Jennifer Summerfield (AKA Trillian Stars): proof, if proof was ever needed, that people purr, too

Who are you?

I am an actor, model, cat lady, wife/partner, traveler, decaying grammarian, frontier woman, family historian, city dweller but country lover.

What was the last book that you read? How did you like it?

I’ve been reading a great deal for other people recently, having become a member of a book group, and in my off hours trying to stay abreast of my husband’s projects in the science fiction world (which is not my chosen milieu). The last two books I’ve read have fallen into these categories — Coraline read on our way to the Science Fiction convention in Montreal, where Neil Gaiman was the guest of honor. I love the world Gaiman creates in Coraline — he has a knack for writing as a child, seeing the world from the frustrating vantage point of a precocious little girl who longs to be appreciated and challenged. It brought back so many memories of trying to be heard, but being too shy to speak. While I was reading Coraline, I was re-reading Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, which I had read in college when I took a Turgenev seminar, but enjoyed so much more this time around, nearly fifteen years later. I’ve always preferred Turgenev as a personality, and as a student of French language and culture, I was fascinated by his life as an expatriate in Paris, friend and confidant of the likes of Pauline Viardot and George Sand. However, as a 21-year old, I found it impossible to sympathize with any of the characters in Fathers and Sons, preferring his On the Eve with its female protagonist filled with revolutionary thoughts and passions and desires. At 35, I found myself reading it from the perspective of the “fathers”; having lived long enough now to know what it is to lose a loved one, I was filled with compassion for Bazarov’s well-meaning, but suffocating parents. The fascinating thing to me about Turgenev’s writing is that he can write in such minute detail that you can almost smell the tobacco in the air, yet you are merely a spectator, never inhabiting any one character’s skin completely. It’s beautifully scientific.

To read more from Trillian’s interview, click here.