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The new edition of BOHO is hot off the press. The featured artist is Mallory Steele. It features a new serial by Pete Herbert, along with your favorites from past issues.
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In a stroke of good luck, I found a book to read at Dollar General. It was well priced and has been one of the better paranormal novels I have read in a while.
The novel, The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones is a story of a family’s struggle with an immortal that can turn himself into anyone he chooses.
The storyline so far has been great, but the thing that struck me was in the first part of the book where one of the initial main characters, Charles Meredith, is a college professor at Balliol College on a book deadline.
Charles describes in detail where and why he likes to do his work in a certain portion of the college library.
He describes “his table,” near the statue of St. Catherine, where surrounded by books on the shelves he could look out the windows to the front quad. He was near the portrait of George Abbot, one of the former Canterbury Archbishops, and a translator of the King James Version of the Bible.
He told himself that it was the atmosphere at that particular table that made him so possessive of it, but later learned that it was a lie he had told himself. He couldn’t do any real work anywhere else.
Was it a just an OCD thing?
Maybe, but it is very possible that it is a writer’s thing too.
I find that I have particular places where I can be more productive than at others and I am rather possessive of any certain table that I like.
I prefer either of two of the larger chain bread cafes.
I need a place near the drink station, and the bathrooms. (This is probably due to my addiction to unsweet iced tea and lemon.) I prefer a booth and it must have an electric hook up for my laptop.
Of course, by its nature, the café has delicious sandwiches and pastries. These selections tend to help me along as I create whatever I am working on at the time, whether it is a short story, one of my two novels in progress or my literary magazine, Bohemian Renaissance.
Since I have moved to an area that does not feature either of these two cafes, I am somewhat at a loss.
I have a spacious office and I am trying to make it a productive area, but even with drinks and snacks, it is not the same.
I suppose that in a place somewhat far from home, it is easier to imagine and live inside my head, as many writers and artists tend to do.
The cafes provide a dual solution to my needs.
I get away from home and escape to a world of my creation.
I have a place to pass time when I am bored, giving me the feeling that I am doing something, plus I can turn out a great many words.
I believe that the mentality of the creative force needs a special space that will nurture the product of any genre of literature or art.
I wonder where J.R. R Tolkien did most of his writing. For if anyone ever lived splendidly in his own head, it had to be Tolkien.
The second quarter issue will arrive by the last of August. The magazine was late processed, but right on track with some great material and the next chapter in your favorite serial. It will post to the website before it hits the press.
Good reading to one and all.
Now that the election and all its vulgar, backbiting whoopla is no longer domnating the news, now is a good time to bring up something very important, and much more pleasant.
The Arts in the United States, and the programs that support them, is an integral part of our culture as a people.
Those who create leave a legacy. They make a mark on an otherwise barren work a day world.
Civilizations are remembered for the beautiful things that they leave behind. Has anyone ever said, “Wow, the Egyptians really had it going on with their profit and loss sheets, and talk about that gross national product?” “The Greeks, they really had some ideas about industry and the bottom line!”
No, it is not these things that make a civilization memorable. Potsherds, paintings on cave walls, or on pyramid walls, architecture and wordsmiths, those things make the list of intrigue. Who were these people? What inspired them to create? What was it about their culture that they have left behind?
If arts are so vitally important in defining a culture or region, why are the programs that support those who create waning? http://www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/17397-the-arts-thrive-only-if-we-support-them
What is support of the arts, or patronage, as it is often called? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage
A patron of the arts in the Renaissance period included the powerful de Medici family. They were known to give monetary aid to those who had the muse and made beautiful paintings, sculptures, etc. In ancient times, often the powerful used their patronage to further their political aims.
Today, there are programs to support artists in various forms.
The NEA or National Endowment for the Arts is a federal entity that gives grants, (sums of money that doesn’t have to be repaid,) to artists or nonprofit groups of various genres.
The individual states, offer grants to various genres, some are more supportive than others, but there is some offerings for the creative, if you meet the guidelines. Usually the grant is given to those who have already reached some notoriety! Or as Samuel Johnson, renowed English writer pointed out while describing patrons, which can be applied to governmental grant and arts assistance as well, “A patron is one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help.”
Support for those who struggle to create and live at the same time is in short supply and has been waning for quite a long while in the United States.
Western North Carolina, a vast treasure trove of artists and all of the genres that they follow has experienced a lack in the availability of funding. Buncombe County, one of North Carolina’s most talent endowed areas, totally excluded the arts when drawing up an economic plan for economic development and job creation.
Denise Drury, director of the Fine Arts Musein WNC was quoted as saying, “The arts in WNC are at a tipping point. Our reputation for being an art, music and craft nexus is growing on a national scale. It is time for us to come together and make a plan on how we can capitalize on our collective successes and how we can train and grow our current organizations and nurture our next generation of artists.”
The bottom line is this:
Unless more people realize how very important the arts are to our culture and be willing to support them, with both time and money, the less likely it will be to have a sustainable community of artists of any and all genres.
This is a national shame.
Give today to the Arts. Search out and gift your support to an artist, a writer, a sculptor, a poet or any form of creative expression.
A monetary, often tax deductible, gift is the very breath of life to those who create and their creations.
Might I suggest:
Bohemian Literary Project Inc, dba Bohemian Renaissance – a free literary magazine.
For more details, visit BohemianRenaissance.com.
Writing is the natural extension of my favorite pastime, reading.
My Mother, and English literature teacher, taught me to read by the age of four. I believe she did this because I would hound her to read the same books over and over until I had them memorized. When she was busy, I would look at my favorite books and turn the pages. She would hear me reciting the dialog and story to myself. I believe this led me to a semi eidetic memory.
My maternal Grandmother, also an English teacher, spent many an hour correcting my grammar and speech.
When I was in school, I was not one of the “in” crowd. I was teased and bullied.
Reading was a way for me to escape the hurts of the day and have adventures where I was the heroine.
I write because it gives me the opportunity to go to my own world where the accommodations are better and everyone knows me by name.
Every story I create is me, off from the mundane to the exciting. I am the one who discovers buried treasure, has a love affair or saves the planet.
I am an accountant by trade. There is little deviation or diversion with the numbers. When I get bogged down in the routine, I use my imagination.
This is one of the ways I get ideas for stories or continuation of a story line I have already begun.
My poetry often springs up while I am doing some journal entries or other task. I keep a notebook with me to jot these ideas down for future reference.
This is the way I keep going. When life gets me down, I fight back by creating a character that can change the world.
I have recently started writing nonfiction essays and journalistic articles. I love researching the topic, finding quotes and drawing the overall point together. The first one I finished gave me such a feeling of satisfaction. I felt like I had really accomplished something.
Writing is the light at the end of the tunnel for me. For the last three years, I couldn’t really see it. I was afraid that I would never find my way out.
My goal of being a self-sufficient writer has given my life a new purpose and new beginning I thought was beyond me.
I am on the path of success again, and it is a glorious feeling.
Photo by Sarah Dallaire
Bohemian Renaissance has arrived! The newest venue for the emerging writer and artist is celebrating its first issue. The magazine will put out an issue every quarter featuring the works of the freshest and brightest artists and writers!
Be part of the movement!!!! Submit your work to the email address on the web page to the attention of the editor!
