Chicago and Me in the Time of a Pandemic by Jack Gregus

Chicago and Me In the Time of a Pandemic

Jack Gregus
Art book with poetry, paintings, and photography
October, 2020, 175 pp
 
Buy on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KRHYQPJ
Ebook, $9.99
Print, $14.95
 
About the Book
A work of poetry, paintings, short stories, and photographs made in the time of a pandemic whilst living in Chicago. It holds a light for the lonely. It asks you to think and feel. It wants to be a friend of your heart. Breathe in original passion and invigorating truth. You matter and so does knowledge. The days have been long with doubt and fear, rinse yourself with these written words and feel something more. Feel the independence of love and its many forms. What is presented is for pleasure and guided action so life may continue. A sensual creation awaits your gaze.
 
My Review
Gregus has put together a series of heartfelt, sometimes gut-wrenching queries in reflection of our times. I admit, there is some aspects of the work that I find disturbing, but just because I'm a little old Quaker grandma, I'm not going to decline to share the book. The author approached me for a potential review.
 
“Used patience lulls submission, Is Nobody capable of impossible truth?” he writes in between photos of fanned book pages and the quietude of a lit, peaceful living room with sofa.
 
“Of Slices” and “Of Remnants” show what’s there, and what’s left behind.
 
“I need new plans” and “Please God help me not overreact when things go array” are certainly pleas everyone experiences now more than ever. Gregus shares images of nature and man in poses of praise and repentance, essays with graphic language and adult situations common, I suppose, with the frustrated generation of today. It’s not a book for those looking for clean spiritually-themed stories or reflections.
 
“I need to challenge myself, I need to go past what I know,” he writes. A brutal but thought-provoking story of murder follows. “I have often thought very little about death,” the story concludes in his character Casey’s voice, “the hunger of a man to kill. The unwant to be killed.”
 
Chicago and Me is a collection of Gregus navigating his way through the confusing and frustrating current times, and sharing these observances and reflections through poetry, prose, and visual art. The book is adult-themed and contains profanity and graphic written material.
 
About the Author
When not creating art I tend to ease back and eat delish sustenance in my home of Chicago. I love to listen to music on extreme levels that I can feel the music pass from one ear to the other. I am a movie fan as well. The movies that really touch me are those which involve great feats of emotion. The reason that I write, take photographs, and paint is because the expression is everything. I really respect Basquiat and his constant promotion of the audience to think. Expression is universal and it can tell cliche stories or something more interesting. For me, it's the something more. I dig into euphoria when I can speak for the voiceless and include my faith.

Guest post Psychological History: Putting the Emotional Element Back Into History

 

Photo Credit: Polarity masks, published 7 July 2015: johnhain/Pixabay/ Pixabay License

Fans of my work know that since I began publishing historical fiction with The Specter in 2019, I’ve been talking about how my passion for history lies more in the social and psychological aspects of history than in the events. I wrote not long ago on my blog about what social history is and how I use it in my fiction. Now I’m tackling psychological history and how it plays a role in my fiction.

Social history is essentially putting the human element back into history. Psychological history is, then, putting the emotional element back into history. At first glance, making these distinctions might seem redundant. After all, just as history happens to humans, humans have emotions, so, therefore, emotions are always present in history, right?

Well, yes, but it’s more complicated than that, I think. Just as social history brings in the people that were traditionally left out (like, African Americans, and Native Americans), psychological history tells us how they felt about history --- their own and their ancestors. They react not only physically to what is happening around them (just as we do today) but also emotionally and mentally. History books often tell us what happened in great detail so we get a sense of being in that moment in time, and they also tell us who it happened to. But to complete the picture and really into the past, we have to know how those events made those people feel and how they reacted to them and how they changed their lives (and, by extension, ours).

It’s easy to see why history books can’t give us this. After all, we can’t really know for sure how people felt about what was going on around them, whether those feelings were about the after-effects of World War I, the stock market crash of 1929, or the first exploration of the moon in the 1960s. We can only guess by reading personal and fictional accounts.

I like to take things one step further and go beneath the surface, looking at the psychological reality of my characters as they live and breathe their time. I think it’s especially important that they explore their own past to reveal what’s under the iceberg. Only then, we can really get a sense of how they felt in their own time and find ourselves in their lives.

This is just what I do with the Waxwood Series, which is about not only the historical shifts that happen to the Alderdice family in the last years of the 19^th century but also their more personal journey from blind convention to emotional growth and understanding. The protagonist, Vivian Alderdice, finds herself as a woman during turbulent times in America, discovering truths about her family and herself that she must face. It becomes a rough but satisfying personal journey for her.

My upcoming series works a little differently, as it’s a cozy historical mystery. But the past still leaves its mark on the protagonist, Adele Gossling. As a New Woman of the turn-of-the-century, she both embraces the freedoms that young women were beginning to enjoy at that time while still hesitating, caught in a virtual time warp when she moves from the big city to a small town.

You can read more about my upcoming series, the Paper Chase Mysteries, here.

And here’s a little more about Dandelions, the last book of my Waxwood Series, which came out in December 2020:

She had more in common with her nemesis than she wanted to believe…

For Vivian Alderdice, the 20^th century begins with a new start. Now a working girl and progressive reformer like her friend, Nettie Grace, she has forsaken the Gilded Age opulence of Nob Hill for the humbler surroundings of Waxwood’s commercial district. Rather than whittle away her days with other wealthy young women in gossip, parties, and flirtations, she sells talcum powder and strawberry sodas to customers at Nettie’s Drugstore and helps the poor to read at the Waxwood Women’s Lending Library and Reading Room.

But sometimes the scars of the past leave bitterness behind …

Harland Stevens, the man who ruined her brother’s life two years before, appears like another specter in Vivian’s life and, in spite of herself, Vivian is compelled to help him escape from a hell of his own.

Purchase Dandelions at your favorite online bookstore here.

Interesting in knowing more about the series? You can check out this page.

Tam May started writing when she was fourteen, and writing became her voice. She loves history and wants readers to love it too, so she writes historical fiction that lives and breathes a world of the past. She fell in love with San Francisco and its rich history when she learned about the city’s resilience and rebirth after the 1906 earthquake and fire during a walking tour. She grew up in the United States and earned a B.A. and M.A. in English. She worked as an English college instructor, interesting a class of wary freshmen in Henry James’ fiction. She also worked as an EFL teacher, using literature to teach English to business professionals before she became a full-time writer. 

Her book Lessons From My Mother’s Life debuted at #1 on Amazon in the Historical Fiction Short Stories category. She’s also published a Gilded age family saga titled The Waxwood Series. Set in Northern California at the close of the 19th century, the series tells the story of the Alderdices, a wealthy San Francisco family crumbling amid revolutionary changes and shifting values in America’s Gilded Age. Tam’s current project delves into historical mystery fiction. The Paper Chase Mysteries is set in Northern California at the turn of the 20th century and features amateur sleuth and epistolary expert Adele Gossling, a young, progressive, and independent young woman whose talent for solving crimes comes into direct conflict with her new community, where people are apt to prefer the Victorian women over the new century’s New Woman. 

Tam lives in Texas but calls San Francisco and the Bay Area “home”. When she’s not writing, she’s reading classic literature, watching classic films, cross-stitching, or cooking yummy vegetarian dishes.

For more information about Tam May and her work, check out her website at www.tammayauthor.com. You can also sign up for her newsletter, which offers glimpses into the nooks and crannies of history that aren't in the history books and subscriber-exclusive sneak peeks, giveaways, and polls. plus a free short story.

To connect with Tam May:

Website: https://tammayauthor.com/

Blog: https://tammayauthor.com/category/thedreambookblog

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tammayauthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tammayauthor

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tammayauthor/

Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/tammayauthor/

Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16111197.Tam_May

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Tam-May/e/B01N7BQZ9Y/

BookBub Author Page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tam-may

Write Now Literary tour and giveaway Black White RED all Over

 

Write Now Literary is pleased to be organizing a two-week book tour for Black, White and RED All Over by Deeann D. Mathews. 

The book tour will run February 1-12, 2021.

Genre: Christian Mystery/Suspense

ISBN-13: 978-1735575209

Deeann D. Mathews is an author, musician, and fractal artist, from San Francisco, CA. She is the author of Black, White, and RED All Over, the first in a series of clean Christian mysteries, and also the author of Seasons Siblings' Timeshare Tiff, a fictional take on the famous fall weather of her hometown. She is also the creative director of Praising Pilgrims Music, a small publishing company of music and music-related materials based in San Francisco, California. Ms. Mathews is also actively creating fractal art and other creative works across a variety of disciplines on Peakd.com.

Ironwood Hamilton, new captain of police in Tinyville VA, is put at odds with his regional police colleagues when a new and confrontational Black newspaper hits them all with a demand for public release of records about police brutality in Lofton County. With the help of one loyal lieutenant and a relative with a famous name and suitably dangerous temperament, Captain Hamilton must gather the clues to a plan for rogue police action that will eventuate in blood and fire

 

“It used to be 'what's that black and white and read all over?' was a joke told about the newspaper, but every newspaper in the hands of racist reactionaries in the South has indeed been red all over – soaked with the blood of innocent Black people brutalized and slaughtered over lies in print that continue to this day.

 

“No more will we allow the wholesale placarding of racist tomes about ourselves and our children to pass for news. No more will we not have a voice to raise in challenge. No more shall we, the Black populations of Tinyville, Littleburg, Miniopolis, Smallwood, Shortport, Big Loft, and the rural countryside be passively painted as savages while the real savages sit comfortably in places of law, commerce, and politics. Be it known to all Virginia: those days are over! Hereby understand that the Lofton County Free Voice will roar back at the voices of racist reactionary news, beginning in Tinyville, then across Lofton County, then to the uttermost parts of Virginia!”

 

Captain Ironwood Hamilton and Lieutenant Patrick O'Reilly of Tinyville's two-man police force stood at the nearest public bulletin board nearest the police station, reading what they had been reading, over and over again, on their regular dawn walk through the town. 

 

The lieutenant was 25 years old, medium height and build, with bright red hair, ruddy skin, green eyes, and a shocking Southern drawl (unless you know the Scotch-Irish history of the southeastern United States). 

 

The captain was 45 years old, six feet tall, sinewy, with iron-gray eyes and hair to match. His features looked like something that those Southern artists who loved to carve Confederates out of marble would have adored – classic, strong features, handsome, calm, and resolute. The slight pinch in those features from the sudden headache the captain was experiencing would of course have been glossed over. 

 

“Wow,” said Lieutenant O'Reilly. “Have ever you read such bombast in all your life, Captain?”

 

Captain Ironwood Hamilton shook his head slowly, slowly because of the headache that was increasing every second. 

 

“It's only bombast if the Lofton County Free Voice can't do what it says. I rather think it can, or at least can make a gallant effort.”

 

Lieutenant O'Reilly's green eyes got wide.

 

“Captain, you're not serious! A Black newspaper? In Lofton County? They won't last a week!”

Captain Hamilton shook his head again and restrained his urge to rub his throbbing temples.

 

“It's not 1819, and these are not amateurs we are dealing with. Just from this first issue, I know they have a good chunk of money in hand, dedicated people, and good strategic and tactical sense.”

 

                       TWITTER                      FACEBOOK               WEBSITE                    

                                                           AMAZON

Link to giveaway http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/96d196a635/

Three Ways to Create Believable Characters with Deeann Matthews

 Welcome mystery writer Deeann Mathews.

 How to Make Your Characters Believable

 
My tag line is no joke: I write non-fiction by means of fiction.
 
Readers tell me about their desperate searches to find fictional places that I have created on maps, and about their realizations that my latest novel could fit into the 19^th, 20^th, or 21^st centuries equally well. 
 
Yet the real key to connecting to in a reader's mind is by connecting the reader to real people – characters who are believable, even though they are fictional.  There are three solid steps to achieving this character-building goal:
 
1. First get clear on your story, and that your story and the stories of those in your comfort zone are not the only real and important stories.
 
It is so easy nowadays to be isolated in our thinking except for the echo chamber of like-minded voices, and to substitute caricatures for those outside the echo chamber.  This is a terrible trap for a writer in an increasingly diversifying world of readers and competing authors.  The way to avoid the trap is to get clear on the strengths, limitations, and validity of your story while recognizing it is just the starting place of your character building.  Everyone isn't like you, and that is good: you will have a more successful writing career if you don't have always to write characters that read like you are interacting with yourself.
 
2. Immerse yourself in the stories of others from all walks of life, and in accounts of how people come together and behave in different situations.
 
Step 2 comes after step 1 because in order to do step 2 effectively, you must listen to the stories of the lives of others in the mindset of seeking understanding, not confirmation of your existing viewpoints.  It is not necessary that you agree with everything you hear and every choice that people make, but that you listen without bias so you learn the realities of of the lives, behaviors, and choices of all types of people. 
 
The most authentic way of learning a lot of true stories from real people is to find ways to introduce yourself to random people, invite them to tell their stories, and just listen.  An alternative way to find all kinds of real people doing and experiencing all kinds of real things in all kinds of real places is to go on to YouTube, read biographies and historical accounts, and to take in current events from a variety of news sources and commentaries with the mindset of listening to learn the different kinds of real people there are, how they act, how they behave, what they believe, who and what they love and hate, and why. 
 
Do deeper studies on people you feel are remarkable – good and bad – to find out what they believe, what they value, what they have experienced, things they or others around them might have said about a particular situation.  Find out what makes main characters in real life tick, and tick exactly they way they do in certain situations.  Research the lives of people with similar experiences, beliefs, and values to see if these real-life main characters are remarkable because of or in spite of those they are most similar to.
 
3. Write short stories placing real personalities you have learned about in a fictional situation, and also short stories placing fictional characters in a real situation you have learned about, for practice.
 
You know your starting place and how you would handle any situation X, but after applying yourself to the previous two steps, you will also sense that there are a variety of other ways real character Y and then fictional character Z could behave.  The key, as you learn, is to be writing every day about the people whose stories you learn – just a short story of your own to bounce real knowledge of real people through your imagination of both real and fictional events.  Over time, you will learn to create authentic characters based on this real knowledge for any situation you choose to create, authentic characters guided by the real personalities and experiences you have based them on.
 
AUTHOR

 Deeann D. Mathews is an author, musician, and fractal artist, from San Francisco, CA. She is the author of Black, White, and RED All Over, the first in a series of clean Christian mysteries, and also the author of Seasons Siblings' Timeshare Tiff, a fictional take on the famous fall weather of her hometown. She is also the creative director of Praising Pilgrims Music, a small publishing company of music and music-related materials based in San Francisco, California. Ms. Mathews is also actively creating fractal art and other creative works across a variety of disciplines on Peakd.com. 

Black, White, and RED All Over

Buy on  AMAZON
Kindle $2.99
Paper $20