Betty Jean Steinshouer Books
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Letters to Bolivar
  • Long Road from Red Cloud

Travels with Willa Cather: Poems from the Road newly reissued!

1/19/2012

3 Comments

 
Like revisiting old friends (and in some case, friends with whom I no longer have anything in common), I have recently gone through two volumes of old poems, throwing out what I could not bear to put back in circulation and completely rewriting others.  A few were still good enough to be left intact - a very few.

I think it's called "building a platform," this releasing of old writings to pave the way for new ones.  So far it's been fun, albeit sometimes  poignant to read things written for or about people who were very much alive and now aren't.

I'm writing this from The Villages, where I did Chautauqua last night, combining two of my most popular characters for snowbird season in Florida:  Laura Ingalls Wilder and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.  The Lifelong Learning College actually made money on me, with nearly 200 paying customers.  My groupies were there to fill up the first couple of rows and take me to dinner.  Many thanks to Beth Willoughby and her "On the Go Girls" for always making me feel like a celebrity.  As usual the "cast party" after the show was full of lively conversation and delicious food.

Much appreciation to Dawn Tripp, who has been bringing me to The Villages for years, always with good humor and patience, since I nearly always get lost.  The population up here has grown to 85,000.  It's bigger than Ocala, fronting on three counties.  I can't explain it - all I can say is that people sure seem happy here - not a bad way to sprint into the dying of the light.  Might as well, eh?  (Nice to see some Canadian friends in the audience last night, too.)

Now waiting in my room for a reporter from Sarasota to call for an interview about the world premiere of "Marjory and Marjorie," coming up at the end of the month.  Or is he calling about "America at War," also in Sarasota, next week?  I guess I'll find out.

Life is such a mix, of darkness and light, sunshine and rain.  The drive up here last night was arduous, through slippery rain and winter traffic which produced a couple of serious accidents and made a two-hour drive last closer to five hours - lots of rehearsal time.  I always run lines in the car, glad to no longer get strange looks from other drivers.  I just put my earpiece on and they think I'm talking on the phone.

I've enjoyed having my hair a little longer, especially when I was in Omaha recently for the planning of the Free Land Chautauqua, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Homestead National Monument.  But now it's make way for Gertrude Stein and people calling me "sir" at the checkout.  I must remember to pack the dangling earrings.


3 Comments

Red Cloud to Cross Creek

1/14/2012

0 Comments

 
More Poems from the Road - the new edition -  is now available electronically.  It is exciting to be slowly entering the age of  e-publishing, reaching potential readers in Europe that would have been impossible before amazon.com opened e-markets in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain.

For the first ninety days of publication, the new editions will be trying their wings on Amazon Prime.  This will permit distribution of free review copies and will also allow Prime members to borrow the books free, one at a time, for up to a month.  Authors get $1.74 each time a book is borrowed, so Amazon is sharing at least a portion of the $79 annual fee for Prime memberships.

The original Poems from the Road, Travels with Willa Cather, will soon be re-issued electronically as well.  I look forward to seeing its spiffy new cover, with the photograph of the bridge at Avignon, France, take its place beside the old, rather dated one for Red Cloud to Cross Creek.  Each has its place.
0 Comments
    Picture

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    April 2019
    April 2013
    March 2013
    October 2012
    May 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photo used under Creative Commons from Paul Lowry