Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day!

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Jen Payne

Did you know there are more than 550 independent bookstores in 49 states celebrating Independent Bookstore Day with parties, author readings, in-store events, and exclusive day-of merchandise?

Independent Bookstore Day marks its fifth year of celebrating independent bookstores nationwide on Saturday, April 27th, with literary parties around the country.

The fifth annual National Independent Bookstore Day is sponsored in part by Penguin Random House, Ingram, and The American Booksellers Association. Last year participating bookstores saw an average increase in sales of 200% on Independent Bookstore Day, with some stores up as much as 1000% over their average Saturday sales in April. In just five years, Independent Bookstore Day has become a book-buying holiday, increasing book sales on a national level.

The 2019 IBD author ambassador Tayari Jones says, “Indie stores stock books by hand and sell them the same way. They know what we want and need to read because they know us, as people. A writer is not a machine. A reader is not an app. We are human beings and so are the independent bookstore workers who show up each day and place books in our hands.”

VISIT the 3 CHAIRS ONLINE BOOKSTORE TODAY!

OR LOOK FOR OUR BOOKS…
at the following independent bookstores and local retailers!

CONNECTICUT

Bank Square Books
53 West Main Street
Mystic, CT 06355

Clinton Art Gallery
Poetry Place
20 E Main St
Clinton, CT 06413

Martha Link Walsh Gallery
188 North Main Street
Branford, CT 06405

Rock Garden
17 South Main Street
Branford, CT 06405

The Shop at Guilford Art Center
411 Church Street
Guilford, CT 06437

MASSACHUSETTS

The Brewster Book Store
2648 Main Street
Brewster, MA 02631

Titcomb’s Bookshop
432 MA-6A
East Sandwich, MA 02537

Gina Macdonald & Jen Payne: A Creative Collaboration

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Jen Payne

Branford entrepreneurs Gina Macdonald and Jen Payne speak on their individual passions for their work, and how their creative interests in writing, art and mindfulness led to a collaborative effort on Gina’s new book Mind Your Own Body: A Body Image Handbook.

Wednesday, February 6
7:00 p.m. at Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library
146 Thimble Island Road, Stony Creek, CT

Copies of the Mind Your Own Body will be available for purchase and signing after the presentation.

Gina Macdonald MA,LPC,CEDS has more than 25 years of experience working with the eating disorder population addressing body image issues. A Certified International Eating Disorder Specialist/Supervisor and Licensed Professional Counselor with an Expressive Art Therapy Graduate Degree, she regularly lectures on college and university campuses to both staff and students.

Jen Payne is the owner of Words by Jen, a graphic design and creative services company founded in 1993. She is the author of two books, Look Up! Musings on the Nature of Mindfulness and Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind, published by her publishing company Three Chairs Publishing.

The Salvation of Reading

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Jen Payne

“Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds.” – Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

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Blogging as a Creative Tool

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Jen Payne

REPRINTED FOR THE 8th ANNIVERSARY
OF OUR WRITING BLOG
RANDOM ACTS OF WRITING

One of the most inspiring art exhibits I’ve seen in recent years was called “Suddenly This Overview.” On display at the Guggenheim in New York, it featured 250 small sculptures by artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss. The sculptures were made of a pale gray, unfired clay, and were presented individually on white pedestals around the curving spiral ramp of the museum. Clean, Times New Roman captions explained Pythagoras Marveling at His Theorem, Jesus Walks on Water, the Fish Are Amazed, and (my favorite) Mr. Spock Looks at His Home Planet Vulcanus and Is a Bit Sad That He Can’t Have Any Feelings.

At the time, I was in the middle of a blogging challenge to write a poem a day for the month of April – National Poetry Month. A friend asked what it felt like to write a blog post every day, and I couldn’t help but think of the Fischli/Weiss exhibit.

In an interview with Artspace, Weiss explained “The intention was to accumulate various important and unimportant events in the history of mankind and of the planet—moments in the fields of technology, fairy tales, civilization, film, sports, commerce, education, sex, biblical history, nature, and entertainment.”

That’s a sweeping, broad source of inspiration for them—and for us! (Aren’t those the very things WE write about, think about, create about?)

One of the Fischli/Weiss sculptures was a plain block of clay entitled Without Words. Their starting point, perhaps — a blank page of clay onto which they were challenged to put their thoughts and ideas. It’s that place we all start when we first listen to our own inspirations—what will we create today?

Blogging is like that block of clay. It gives us a place to start and a medium to shape into whatever our Muse suggests — a poem a day, for example. A book review. A photo essay. Random musings about mankind and the planet.

A blog can no more sit idle than that block of clay. It’s very nature is to be used, shaped, molded. To be a vessel for our creative efforts is its raison d’être.

All we need to do is show up…and shape it.

Photos of Without Words and A Copy of Jack Kerouac’s Typewriter by Jen Payne from “Suddenly This Overview,” by Peter Fischli and David Weiss at the Guggenheim Museum, April 2016. David Weiss quote from “The Pleasures of Misuse: An Interview With the Irreverent Swiss Artist Duo Fischli/Weiss,” Artspace, February 2016. (https://tinyurl.com/yc6cz5yh)

In addition to blogging, Jen Payne is the author of LOOK UP! Musings on the Nature of Mindfulness, and the new book Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind. Both books are available for purchase from Three Chairs Publishing.