Author: Libby Sommer

A Poem: That’s all you can do

~ Libby Sommer ~ Leave a comment

fire in the bush

The news reports:

at watch and act today  total fire ban

smoke haze  poor air quality  asthma sufferers

and other respiratory problems stay indoors.

 

Hot north westerly winds

west and southwest of Sydney

properties cleared and prepared

an anxious night    distant sirens  confusion

to leave or to go?

Springwood, Yarramundi.

 

Residents report:

rescue our animals  and get out of here

a new fire break

it’s always your family  that’s more important

pack up your photos  that’s all you can do

temporary accommodation

photos are what you’ve seen and experienced.

 

On amber watch today

200 houses destroyed so far

hoping and praying for the best

containment lines  will they hold?

 

Exhausted fire fighters

people’s lives are the most important

fire crews keep back-burning

what else can you do?

 

Despite ember attacks on homes

Rural Fire Service to link up bushfires as winds drop.

 

Today has started off cool.

 

First published in First Refuge Poems on social justice

Ginninderra Press 2016

Copyright © Libby Sommer

Header Image:  Creative Commons

Update: The Crystal Ballroom

~ Libby Sommer ~ 9 Comments

the legs of a man and a woman dancing tango

I’ve posted the corrected first proofs of ‘The Crystal Ballroom’ back to Adelaide publisher, Ginninderra Press. Final proofs next step in the publication process. In the meantime, we are putting together reviews for the back cover.

 

I love this one received recently from Jan Cornall, Writer’s Journey:

“Libby Sommer lays bare the foibles of human nature in her finely observed stories of love and loss in the singles dance scene. Brilliantly drawn with wit, compassion and poignancy, the characters you meet in the Crystal Ballroom are sure to remind you of someone -maybe even yourself.”

Jan’s quote gives a good description of the contents of the book. Such a hard thing to do in just a couple of sentences.

Would you, or someone you know, be interested in reading a book about this topic? 

p.s. this picture is not the book cover.

Header image: Creative Commons

Writing Tip: Use the Senses

~ Libby Sommer ~ 5 Comments

using all five senses quote on green board

 

Sounds, sights, and smells are all part of  creating an atmosphere.

‘The creation of the physical world is as crucial to your story as action and dialogue. If your readers can be made to see the glove without fingers or the crumpled yellow tissue, the scene becomes vivid. Readers become present. Touch, sound, taste and smell make readers feel as if their own fingers are pressing the sticky windowsill.

‘If you don’t create evocative settings, your characters seem to have their conversations in vacuums or in some beige nowhere-in-particular. Some writers love description too much. They go on and on as if they were setting places at the table for an elaborate dinner that will begin later on. Beautiful language or detailed scenery does not generate momentum. Long descriptions can dissipate tension or seem self-indulgent. Don’t paint pictures. Paint action.’ – Jerome Stern, Making Shapely Fiction

Bringing in sensory detail is a way to enrich a story with texture to create the fullness of experience, to make the reader be there.

What about you? Do you use the senses, apart from sight, to create atmosphere?

A Poem: Her Amber Necklace

~ Libby Sommer ~ 2 Comments

amber stones that form the shape of a necklace

Her Amber Necklace

 

my mothers dead

my mothers dead my brother said

he jumped in the air and

clicked his heels together

 

her children and grandchildren

and great grandchildren all came

jumping and bouncing

on forbidden chairs

 

we all laughed

 

now

distant lights scatter black night

a bus rumbles up Bondi Road

clock ticks in the empty kitchen

only the ticking

then

a dog barks outside

 

her woollen jumper warms me

her amber necklace hugs my neck

 

Copyright © Libby Sommer

First published ‘The Thirteenth Floor’ XIV UTS Writers Anthology

Header Image:  Creative Commons

 

 

 

 

 

First Proofs

~ Libby Sommer ~ 14 Comments

book cover of Dancing Backwards in High Heels by Christine DarcasFirst proofs and mock-up of the cover of my second book, ‘The Crystal Ballroom’ have arrived. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t looking forward to rereading the manuscript. It had been rejected by publishers so many times I’d lost confidence in the story. That is, until Ginninderra Press, a small but prestigious Australian publisher said ‘yes’ in April, 2016. Anyway, I sat myself down yesterday to quietly reread the story and, surprisingly, I liked what I had written. I could see what I was trying to say and the themes I’d woven through it.

The mock-up cover looks great. As good as (or even better than) ‘Dancing Backwards in High Heels’ (pictured here) by Australian author, Christine Darcas published by Hachette in 2009.

La La Land movie poster

And now that the movie ‘La La Land’ has won so many awards, there is a renewed interest in dancing. So my new book may be timely:  the story of the hopes and dreams of the characters who dance at a fictional dance hall in western Sydney.

A couple more months till publication of ‘The Crystal Ballroom’.

Looking good 🙂

The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.

~ Libby Sommer ~ 9 Comments

A quote: the bigger the issue, the smaller you write - Richard Price

A fantastic example of this writing advice is Kurt Vonnegut’s  Slaughterhouse-Five.

Poignant and hilarious, threaded with compassion and, behind everything, the cataract of a thundering moral statement. – The Boston Globe

book cover of Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse-Five'

Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut’s) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Don’t let the ease of reading fool you – Vonnegut’s isn’t a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, “There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.”

Slaughterhouse-Five is not only Vonnegut’s most powerful book, it is also as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author’s experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut’s other works, but the book’s basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy – and humor. – Goodreads

Highly recommended. A masterpiece.

 

Fortnightly Story: Jean-Pierre

~ Libby Sommer ~ 8 Comments

buildings and Town Clock of Villefranche sur Mer

This was in a far distant land.  There were Pilates classes but no surfing beaches or vegan restaurants.  People said to hell with low-fat diets and tiny portions.  Charles, who had wanted her to hire his friend Jean-Pierre as tour guide, had encouraged her in yoga class.    ‘Look, Zina, you’re a facilitator—you’ve been running those groups—for what—thirty years?’

‘Only twenty, for goodness sake.’  She had turned forty-nine and frowned at him upside down between the legs of a downward facing dog.  She had a face marked by the sun, a face left to wrinkle and form crevasses by years of smoking, a face made shiny by the application of six drops of jojoba oil, although the shop girl had recommended she use only three.  ‘I love that word facilitator.  It says so much.’

‘Twenty.  All right.  This guy’s not at all your type.  He’s a numbers man.  He shows tourists around in between Engineering contracts.  He can show you how to buy a bus or a train ticket, how to withdraw money out of the wall—get your bearings.  You can hire him for half a day.  Or, in your case, half a day and half the night.’

‘Very funny,’ she said, stifling a laugh.  Now they were on all fours arching their backs like cats, then flattening their spines to warm up the discs.  Indian chanting music took your mind off the fact that the person behind you was confronted with your broad derriere. ‘So what’s the story with Jean-Pierre?’ Continue reading →

Publication of my new poem

~ Libby Sommer ~ 16 Comments

Quadrant cover January-February 2017

I returned home to Sydney from my Writing-Retreat-For-One on the Cote d’Azur this week to some very good news. There in the mail was my contributor’s copy of Quadrant and a very much appreciated cheque. This is the first time Quadrant has accepted one of my poems for publication. The poem is titled Lying on a Harbour Beach at Noon. I feel honored to be included as a poet in this prestigious Australian literary magazine.