Tag: Memoir
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How One Phone Call in 1996 Led to a Life of Self-Publishing
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts I started my business, Words by Jen, in 1993. It was a part-time effort at first, offering writing and “desktop publishing” services to a small-but-growing list of local businesses, artists, and non-profits. By 1996, I had moved my office from the second bedroom of an apartment to commercial…
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The Importance of Retreat
If the world were a sound, it would be flipping through all of the channels on a radio really fast. Announcers and DJs, commercials and music genres overlapping in the same way our 21st-century tasks seem to layer upon themselves. We’re always busy, there’s always something else to be managed, and the To Do list…
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Listening to Your Ghosts
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him… — Plato Ghosts, Muses, Inspiration, Universe, God. Call it what you…
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About the Ghosts in Sleeping with Ghosts
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts I am a part of all that I have met;Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fadesFor ever and forever when I move.How dull it is to pause, to make an end,To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!As tho’ to breathe were…
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The Importance of Storytelling
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts My mother, who is easily insulted, often remembers the time a therapist called her a storyteller. Mom recounts the comment as one might an injustice, and she twists and elongates the word “storyteller” to make it sound as painful as it felt for her. What’s the old saying?…
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The Artwork of Sleeping with Ghosts
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts People often comment about the visual nature of my creative work, and how my writing is usually accompanied by photography or artwork. As a graphic designer, artist, and writer, I firmly believe that partnering visuals and words layers the intentions of my work and makes the communication more…
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Time to Write
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts Did you know that Picasso created more than 50,000 works of art, but only about 100 of those are considered masterpieces? That’s less than 1% of his work! I think about that little fact every April, when I attempt to write a poem a month for NaPoWriMo (National…
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WOW! Women on Writing Interview with Jen Payne
by Jodi Webb WOW: Jen, welcome back to WOW! Women on Writing with your fifth book Sleeping with Ghosts. What inspired you to write about past relationships? JEN: Hi Jodi. Thanks for welcoming me back to WOW! I loved working with all of you for Evidence of Flossing and am happy to be back for…
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US Review of Books: Sleeping with Ghosts
US Review of Books, Book Review by Mari Carlson(Read the Original Review) “If one…is blessed with the gift,of the most perfect balloon,…one must make all accommodationsto hold fast…else that perfect thingmight slip from a grasp….” Payne’s latest collection of poems, musings, and artwork is a bouquet of balloons—lovers, friends, and moments she could let slip…
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How to Read Like a Writer
by Jen Payne, author, Sleeping with Ghosts Some of my all-time favorite books on writing are classics, like Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott, Poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, or Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg. Those were the must-read books when I was…
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BOOK REVIEW: Say Yes! to Your Creative Self
Reader Views book review blog had some nice things to say about Mary O’Connor’s book Say Yes! to Your Creative Self… Mary O’Connor’s Say Yes! to Your Creative Self is an inspiring book for anyone seeking to unlock their creative potential, whether they are seasoned artists or individuals who have doubted their artistic abilities. This…
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INTERVIEW: Jen Payne and Charity Howard
Today, I’m talking with more Charity Howard at Chit Chat with Charity. JEN: Hi Charity. Thank you for being part of the WOW! Women on Writing blog tour for my book Sleeping with Ghosts, and for taking the time to ask some good questions! What is your favorite part of your book and why? JEN:…
Three Chairs Publishing 