#76 Inside The Emotion of Fiction's MONARCHS OF THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM by Chera Hammons Miller

Chris Rice Cooper 

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https://www.facebook.com/car.cooper.7

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****Chera Hammons Miller’s MONARCHS OF THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM  is #76 in the never-ending series called INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION where the Chris Rice Cooper Blog (CRC) focuses on one specific excerpt from a fiction genre and how that fiction writer wrote that specific excerpt.  All INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links are at the end of this piece. 

Name of fiction work? And were there other names you considered that you would like to share with us? The novel is titled Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom. I’m a Texan, but I fell in love with the state of Vermont while attending college there. I knew early on that I wanted the story to take place somewhere in Vermont not far from Canada. I set it in the Northeast Kingdom in particular because it’s the coldest region in the state, and it’s isolated. I started writing under a title of just The Northeast Kingdom, but I knew that it needed something more specific, more in line with the themes. The full title appeared rather quickly when I got a little way into the work.

Fiction genre? Ex science fiction, short story, fantasy novella, romance, drama, crime, plays, flash fiction, historical, comedy, movie script, screenplay, etc. And how many pages long? Monarchs is generally what I would consider to be literary fiction with elements of suspense. It also has a significant concern for / awareness of wilderness, animals, and land management, which is why I submitted it to Torrey House Press. Before I submitted it, I read interviews with the Torrey House editors and felt like we’d be friends in real life. It’s about 76,000 words, or 244 pages as my word processor displays it. (Above Left:  Photo taken in December 2017)

Has this been published? And it is totally fine if the answer is no. If yes, what publisher and what publication date? Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is currently set to be released by Torrey House Press (https://www.
torrey
house.org/) in May of 2020. They’ve been downright wonderful to work with. I’m so happy the book found a home there!

What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction? I have neurological Lyme disease and was homebound for a couple of years; I wrote this book during that time. I was having a lot of cardiac-type issues and felt very immediately like any day could be my last for a long time, and writing a novel was something that was really important to me. I think I started it in the summer of 2017 and finished it around Christmas 2017, but I had been thinking about it for quite a while before I started writing. After working on it for a couple of months, I set a goal of writing 700 words per day. If I went over that goal, I didn’t count it toward the next day’s word count. I started over new every day. I sent the weekly word count to a friend on Facebook so that I had some accountability because I had started many novels before that I never finished. But I did not ever go to bed without having written 700 words.

Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. And can you please include a photo? I did all of the writing in my messy home office surrounded by my three large cats: Butter, Biscuit, and Kevin. (Right) There’s a decent-sized window opposite the door, and on the two parallel walls, my husband Daniel and I each have a desk (they face away from each other). He writes novels, too, though none have been picked up yet (but it’s only a matter of time). So a typical weekend morning sees us in our shared office both typing away on something while the cats go back and forth between us begging for scratches. My preferred method of procrastination or relaxation is to watch horse training videos online, so Daniel bought me headphones so I could do that without distracting him. (I find it mind boggling he doesn’t want to learn all he can about different horse training methods, too!) 

          The office window looks out on a rosebush and a big yucca. Mockingbirds like to sit on the yucca stalks and sing as loud as they can, which is really nice. Once I thought there was a bobwhite outside because I kept hearing it whistle, but when I looked out, I discovered it was actually a mockingbird’s imitation of a bobwhite. I often leave my computer to look out the window at the birds and the grazing horses in order to clear my head.

What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? I started out on my desktop computer every morning with organic coffee in hand. It can take me a long time to fully wake up because of neurological and physical issues caused by the Lyme disease. My brain works best before noon, so I tried to get the writing done between about 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. every day. I can write later than that, but it’s difficult to concentrate and takes much more time to get the word count. No music, because I would end up just singing along and not working, but sometimes I kept the TV on in the background so the space behind me felt smaller. I can’t write if there’s too much space behind me. Weird, I know!

What is the summary of this specific fiction work? When Anna's husband John is murdered in the woods near their Vermont home, she can no longer hide from the secrets they'd been keeping. But she decides to add more of her own. In a landscape where poachers lurk, coyotes roam in packs, bears threaten the livestock, winter starves the wild animals, debilitating sickness is barely kept at bay, and any relationship is a risk, Anna hides John's death in a desperate effort to ensure her own survival. (Left:  Mount Mansfield in Stowe, Vermont)

What scene/excerpt of the book was the most emotional for you to write? I wanted the writing in the book to be beautiful and stark, but relatable. Sometimes this meant putting my emotions into it; sometimes I had to be careful to maintain a distance from Anna and her actions. The scene hardest for me to write was the one in which Anna is wrenched from her comfortable, safe life with John, when she starts to grasp that she is truly alone.

Why is this scene/excerpt so emotional for you to write?  And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt? Anna’s emotions—her shock, her distress, and her feelings of disconnection and unreality after realizing that she has been left to fend for herself in a dangerous landscape—are based on my own in a similar situation. To write the scene and make it believable, I had to revisit what I went through myself. My first marriage ended when my spouse at the time abandoned me in our home in New Mexico, 35 miles from town, after witnessing a murder at work. 

Though he had always been an alcoholic with a temper, the PTSD resulting from that event caused him to spiral out of control. Finally he left, suddenly and indefinitely. I was stranded without money or a usable car, and I was also suffering from the neurological symptoms of my illness, which had not yet been diagnosed. 

          I didn’t tell anyone he’d left for two weeks because I was in such shock, nothing felt real. I spent a lot of my time just waiting to wake up from what felt like a bad dream. The house had no heat because the propane tank was empty, and it was in late fall, so it was cold; my houseplants all froze to death, my shampoo froze. There was no food. My cat and I would just sit on the couch under a blanket and I’d watch the light that fell onto the floors through the windows change and then disappear every day. By the time my parents found out and drove from Texas to pick me up, I’d lost 15 pounds.

It’s still difficult for me to read that scene in the book, because though Anna is strong and pulls herself together much more quickly than I did, it reminds me of those bad days. I hope any readers who have been through something similar will feel less alone when reading that scene, and know they are much more powerful and valuable than they might feel. Anna goes on to do things she never would have believed herself capable of. So have I.

Other works you have published? I’ve spent far more of my life as a poet than a novelist, so I’ve published individual poems in many journals, and I’ve also had several poetry books published. The first was a chapbook, Amaranthine Hour, which won the 2012 Jacar Press Chapbook Competition. It took nearly ten years to find a publisher for that one, and I had just about given up. I feel like winning that contest changed my life. More recently (2017) was The Traveler’s Guide to Bomb City, a book of poems set in my hometown of Amarillo, Texas. I have a poetry book, Maps of Injury, centered around my journey with chronic illness, forthcoming through a beautiful press, Sundress Publications, in 2020, as well. I’m very grateful for all the support my work has found, and I feel like I’ve been truly lucky to experience such generosity.

Anything you would like to add? I wrote Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom in part to subvert expectations, especially for a suspenseful or dark sort of novel. Women aren’t likely to be found murdered in the book, for one. The protagonist is an older, chronically ill woman living alone. When I was researching comps, it was difficult to find other books featuring a chronically ill character, and I wanted to help change that. I didn’t want her to be too conventional nor too well-behaved, either; she sometimes makes bad decisions because of her isolation and inward view of the world, but she is completely herself. And she is far stronger than she thinks. I don’t want to give too much away. But I think readers will be surprised by the book.  (Left:  Painting, "Anne From Monarches of the Northeast Kingdom" attributed to Emily Hinds, a student of Chera Hammons Miller.)

     It’s also very much an animal story, especially a horse story. Horses have been a lifelong passion, and I’ve spent most of my life around them. Particularly horses with little training or with problems, since I’ve never been able to afford to buy the really gentle, well broke ones. (Sometimes I think my idea of heaven, especially on my bad illness days, would be a really well-broke, hard-to-spook horse I could just get on and ride! But I wouldn’t trade my current herd for anything, of course.) It was important to me to portray the animals as characters, also—they aren’t fillers—they have an important place in the book’s plot, they have unique personalities, and the main character, Anna, adjusts her interactions with them according to their individual traits, as I do with my own animals. I hope the real value inherent in these lovely beasts comes through.

Chera Hammons is the Writer-in-Residence at West Texas A&M University. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Foundry, Rattle, Ruminate, Tar River, THRUSH, Tupelo Quarterly, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She is a winner of the 2017 PEN Southwest Book Award for Poetry and nominee for 2018 Best of the Net. Forthcoming books include a volume of poetry through Sundress Publications and a novel through Torrey House Press. She lives in Amarillo, TX, with her husband, five horses, three cats, a dog, a rabbit, and three chickens.

www.cherahammons.com

chera_writes@cherahammons.com  

INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links

001   11 15 2018 Nathaniel Kaine’s

Thriller Novel

John Hunter – The Veteran

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/001-inside-emotion-of-fiction-nathaniel.html

002   11 18 2018 Ed Protzzel’s

Futuristic/Mystery/Thriller

The Antiquities Dealer 

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/002-inside-emotion-of-fiction-ed.html

003   11 23 2018 Janice Seagraves’s

Science Fiction Romance

Exodus Arcon

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/003-inside-emotion-of-fiction-exodus.html

004   11 29 2018 Christian Fennell’s

Literary Fiction Novel

The Fiddler in the Night

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/004-inside-emotion-of-fiction-christian.html

005  12 02 2018 Jessica Mathews’s

Adult Paranormal Romance

Death Adjacent

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/5-inside-emotion-of-fiction-jessica.html

006  12 04 2018 Robin Jansen’s

Literary Fiction Novel

Ruby the Indomitable

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/006-inside-emotion-of-fiction-robin.html

007  12 12 2018  Adair Valerez’s

Literary Fiction Novel

Scrim

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/007-inside-emotion-of-fiction-adair.html

008  12 17 218 Kit Frazier’s

Mystery Novel

Dead Copy

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/008-inside-emotion-of-fiction-kit.html

009 12 21 2019 Robert Craven’s

Noir/Spy Novel

The Road of a Thousand Tigers

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/009-inside-emotion-of-fiction-robert.html

010 01 13 2019 Kristine Goodfellow’s

Contemporary Romantic Fiction

The Other Twin

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/010-inside-emotion-of-fictions-other.html

011 01 17 2019 Nancy J Cohen’s

Cozy Mystery

Trimmed To Death

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/11-inside-emotion-of-fiction-nancy.html

012 01 20 2019 Charles Salzberg’s

Crime Novel

Second Story Man

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/12-inside-emotion-of-fiction-charles.html

013 01 23 2019 Alexis Fancher’s

Flash Fiction

His Full Attention

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/13-inside-emotion-of-fiction-alexis.html

014 01 27 2019 Brian L Tucker’s

Young Adult/Historical

POKEWEED:  AN ILLUSTRATED NOVELLA

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/14-inside-emotion-of-fiction-brian-l.html

015 01 31 2019 Robin Tidwell’s

Dystopian

Reduced

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/15-inside-emotion-of-ficton-reduced-by.html

016 02 07 2019 J.D. Trafford’s

Legal Fiction/Mystery

Little Boy Lost

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/16-inside-emotion-of-fiction-little-boy.html

017 02 08 2019 Paula Shene’s

Young Adult ScieFi/Fantasy/Romance/Adventure

My Quest Begins 

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/017-inside-emotion-of-fiction-my-quest.html

018 02 13 2019 Talia Carner’s

Mainstream Fiction/ Suspense/ Historical

Hotel Moscow

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/18-inside-emotion-of-fiction-talia.html

019 02 15 2019 Rick Robinson’s

Multidimensional Fiction

Alligator Alley

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/19-inside-emotion-of-fiction-rick.html

020 02 21 2019 LaVerne Thompson’s

Urban Fantasy

The Soul Collectors

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/20-inside-emotion-of-fictions-soul.html

021 02 27 2019 Marlon L Fick’s

Post-Colonialist Novel

The Nowhere Man

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/21-inside-emotion-of-fictions-nowhere.html

022 03 02 2019 Carol Johnson’s

Mainstream Novel

Silk And Ashes

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/22-inside-emotion-of-fictions-silk-and.html

023 03 06 2019 Samuel Snoek-Brown’s

Short Story Collection

There Is No Other Way to Worship Them

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/23-inside-emotion-of-fictions-there-is.html

024 03 08 2019 Marlin Barton’s

Short Story Collection

Pasture Art

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/24-inside-emotion-of-fictions-pasture.html

025 03 18 2019 Laura Hunter’s

Historical Fiction

Beloved Mother

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/25-inside-emotion-of-fictions-beloved.html

026 03 21 2019 Maggie Rivers’s

Romance

Magical Mistletoe

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/26-inside-emotion-of-fictions-magical.html

027  03 25 2019 Faith Gibson’s

Paranormal Romance

Rafael

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/27-inside-emotion-of-fictions-rafael-by.html

028 03 27 2019 Valerie Nieman’s

Tall Tale

To The Bones

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/28-inside-emotion-of-fictions-to-bones.html

029 04 04 2019 Betty Bolte’s

Paranormal Romance

Veiled Visions of Love

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/04/29-inside-emotion-of-fictions-veiled.html

030 04 05 2019  Marianne Maili’s

Tragicomedy

Lucy, go see

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/04/30-inside-emotion-of-fictions-lucy-go.html

031 04 10 2019 Gregory Erich Phillips’s

Mainstream Fiction

The Exile

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/04/31-inside-emotion-of-fictions-exile-by.html

032 04 15 2019 Jason Ament’s

Speculative Fiction

Rabid Dogs

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/04/32-inside-emotion-of-fictions-rabid.html

033 04 24 2019 Stephen P. Keirnan’s

Historical Novel

The Baker’s Secret

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/04/33-inside-emotion-of-fictions-bakers.html

034 05 01 2019 George Kramer’s

Fantasy

Arcadis: Prophecy Book

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/34-inside-emotion-of-fictions-arcadis.html

035 05 05 2019 Erika Sams’s

Adventure/Fantasy/Romance

Rose of Dance

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/35-inside-emotion-of-fictions-rose-of.html

036 05 07 2019 Mark Wisniewski’s

Literary Fiction

Watch Me Go

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/36-inside-emotion-of-fictions-watch-me.html

037 05 08 2019 Marci Baun’s

Science Fiction/Horror

The Whispering House

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/37-inside-emotion-of-fictions.html

038 05 10 2019 Suzanne M. Wolfe’s

Historical Fiction

Murder By Any Name

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/38-inside-emotion-of-fictions-murder-by.html

039 05 12 2019 Edward DeVito’s

Historical/Fantasy

The Woodstock Paradox

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/39-inside-emotion-of-fictions-woodstock.html

040 05 14 2019 Gytha Lodge’s

Literary/Crime

She Lies In Wait

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/40-inside-emotion-of-fictions-she-lies.html

041 05 16 2019 Kari Bovee’s

Historical Fiction/Mystery

Peccadillo At The Palace:  An Annie Oakley Mystery

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/41-inside-emotion-of-fictions.html

042 05 20 2019 Annie Seaton’s

Time Travel Romance

Follow Me

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/42-inside-emotion-of-fictions-follow-me.html

043 05 22 2019 Paula Rose Michelson’s

Inspirational Christian Romance

Rosa & Miguel – Love’s Legacy: Prequel to The Naomi

Chronicles

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/43-inside-emotion-of-fictions-rosa.html

044 05 24 2019 Gracie C McKeever’s

BDMS/Interracial Romance

On The Edge

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/05/44-inside-emotion-of-fictions-on-edge.html

045 06 03 2019 Micheal Maxwell’s

Mystery

The Soul of Cole

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/45-inside-emotion-of-fictions-soul-of.html

046 06 04 2019 Jeanne Mackin’s

Historical

The Last Collection:  A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and

Coco Chanel

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/46-inside-emotion-of-fictions-last.html

047 06 07 2019 Philip Shirley’s

Suspense/Thriller

The Graceland Conspiracy

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/47-inside-emotion-of-fictions-graceland.html

048 06 08 2019 Bonnie Kistler’s

Domestic Suspense

The House on Fire

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/48-inside-emotion-of-fictions-house-on.html

049 06 13 2019 Barbara Taylor Sissel’s

Domestic Suspense/Family Drama

Tell No One

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/049-inside-emotion-of-fictions-tell-no.html

050 06 18 2019 Charles Salzberg’s

Short Story/ Crime Fiction

“No Good Deed” from Down to the River

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/50-inside-emotion-of-fictions-no-good.html

051 06 19 2019 Rita Dragonette’s

Historical Fiction

The Fourteenth of September

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/51-inside-emotion-of-fictions.html

052  06 20 2019 Nona Caspers’s

Literary Novel/Collage

The Fifth Woman

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/52-inside-emotion-of-fictions-fifth.html

053 06 26 2019 Jeri Westerson’s

Paranormal Romance

Shadows in the Mist

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/53-inside-emotion-of-fictions-shadows.html

054 06 28 2019 Brian Moreland’s

Horror

The Devil’s Woods

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/54-inside-emotion-of-fictions-devils.html

055 06 29 2019

Epic Fantasy

Wings Unseen

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/06/55-inside-emotion-of-fiction-wings.html

056 07 02 2019 Randee Green’s

Mystery Novel

Criminal Misdeeds

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/07/56-inside-emotion-of-fiction-criminal.html

057 07 03 2019 Saralyn Ricahrd’s

Mystery Novel

Murder In The One Percent

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/07/57-inside-emotion-of-fiction-murder-in.html

#058 07 04 2019 Hannah Mary McKinnon’s

Domestic Suspense

Her Secret Son

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/07/58-inside-emotion-of-fiction-her-secret.html

#059 07 05 2019 Sonia Saikaley’s

Contemporary Women’s Literature

The Allspice Bath

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/07/59-inside-emotion-of-fiction-allspice.html

#060 07 09 2019 Olivia Gaines’s

Romance Suspense Serial

Blind Luck

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/07/60-inside-emotion-of-fiction-blind-luck.html

#061 07 11 2019 Anne Raeff’s

Literary Fiction

Winter Kept Us Warm

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/07/061-inside-emotion-of-fiction-winter.html

#062 07 12 2918 Vic Sizemore’s

Literary Fiction-Short Stories

I Love You I’m Leaving

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/07/62-inside-emotion-of-fiction-i-love-you.html

#063 07 13 2019 Deborah Riley Magnus’s

Dark Paranormal Urban Fantasy

THE ORPHANS BOOK ONE:  THE LOST RACE

TRILOGY

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/07/f063-inside-emotion-of-fiction-orphans.html

#064 07 14 2019 Elizabeth Bell’s

Historical Fiction

NECESSARY SINS

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/07/064-inside-emotion-of-fiction-necessary.html

#065 07 15 2019 Lori Baker Martin’s

Literary Novel

BITTER WATER

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/07/065-inside-emotion-of-fiction-bitter.html

#066 08 01 2019 Sabine Chennault’s

Historical Novel

THE CORPSMAN’S WIFE

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/08/66-inside-emotion-of-fictions-corpsmans.html

#067 08 02 2019 Margaret Porter’s

Historical Biographical Fiction

BEAUTIFUL INVENTION:  A NOVEL OF HEDY LAMARR

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/08/67-inside-emotion-of-fictions-beautiful.html

#068 08 04 2019 Hank Phillippi Ryan’s

Suspense

THE MURDER LIST

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/08/68-inside-emotion-of-fictions-murder.html

069 08 08 2019 Diana Y. Paul’s

Literary Mainstream Fiction

THINGS UNSAID

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/08/69-inside-emotion-of-fictions-things.html

070 08 10 2019 Phyllis H. Moore’s

Women’s Historical Fiction

BIRDIE & JUDE

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/08/70-inside-emotion-of-fiction-birdie.html

071 08 11 2019 Sara Dahmen’s

Historical Fiction

TINSMITH 1865

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/08/71-inside-emotion-of-fiction-tinsmith.html

072  08 19 2019 Carolyn Breckinridge’s

Short Story Collection

KALIEDESCOPE & OTHER STORIES

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/08/72-inside-emotion-of-fictions.html

073 08 21 2019 Alison Ragsdale’s

Emotional Women’s Fiction

THE ART OF REMEMBERING

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/08/73-inside-emotion-of-fiction-art-of.html

074  08 22 2019 Lee Matthew Goldberg’s

Suspense Thriller

THE DESIRE CARD

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/08/74-inside-emotion-of-fictions-desire.html

075 08 23 2019 Jonathan Brown’s

Mystery/Amateur P.I.

THE BIG CRESCENDO

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/08/75-inside-emotion-of-fictions-big.html

076 09 02 2019 Chera Hammons Miller’s

Literary Fiction w/ suspense, concern with animals & land management

Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom

https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/09/76-inside-emotion-of-fictions-monarchs.html

CRC BLOG Analysis on "THE HEART'S NECESSITIES: LIFE IN POETRY by Jane Tyson Clement and Becca Stevens

Chris Rice Cooper 

caccoop@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/car.cooper.7

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CRC BLOG ANALYSIS On:

THE HEART’S NECESSITIES: 

LIFE IN POETRY

by Jane Tyson Clement and Becca Stevens

“Seasonal Interlude Amongst Two Artists”

The heart’s necessities

include the interlude

of frost-constricted peace

on which the sun can brood

--Excerpt from Jane Tyson Clement’s poem “Winter”,

--Excerpt From Becca Stevens’s song “Tillery”

This is the mark of a great artist:  that she can write something as if she’s speaking directly to you at a particular moment, and yet, with the same line, speak just as clearly to you in a different moment.

--Becca Stevens, excerpt from Prelude, The Heart’s Necessities: Life In Poetry

          Jazz musician, singer, and songwriter Becca Stevens was grieving the loss of her dear friend and music collaborator Kenya Tillery (Right), who had succumbed to breast cancer on March 7, 2008. 

         

     She also experienced writer’s block:  she couldn’t find the words to honor Kenya through her own music and lyrics.  Becca came across an unopened book on her own library shelf – the poetry collection No One Can Stem the Tide that her father gave her for Christmas of 2007.  She opened the book and immediately found the two poems “Winter” and “February Thaw” side by side and incorporated phrases from those two poems to complete her eulogy song for Kenya titled “Tillery”.

Not only did they capture the season of loss so perfectly, but they did so with exactly the right rhythm and number of syllables to fit the melody I had already written.

--Becca, The Heart’s Necessities: Life In Poetry

     With the approval and permission from Jane’s original publishers Plough Publishing House and family, Becca has thus far recorded five songs using phrases from Jane’s own poetry: “Tillery”, “105”, “For You the Night is Still”, “Response to Criticism”, and “I Am No Artist”.  The song “Tillery” has been recorded on four different albums in four different settings and is now a band name.  All of the writing for the music and lyrics was done in numerous Brooklyn apartments Becca has lived throughout the past eleven years. And she plans on writing more music and lyrics, using lines from Jane’s own poetry.

Jane Tyson Clement (1917-2000) grew up in Manhattan, New York and always had a love for poetry.  She graduated from Horace Mann High School in 1935 and was awarded the high school’s top poetry prize.  She attended Smith College where she majored in literature and poetry.  She was awarded the Mary Augusta Jordon Prize for her poem “Strange Dominion” which was deemed the “best original literary work” of her 1939 Smith College graduating class.

     Even though she lived a life of privilege she was discouraged by the modern day Christian church’s tolerance of war, nationalism, racism, injustice, and inequality and felt those very things were in direct contradiction to Jesus Christ’s teachings of love and peace and the gospel.  

     She found respite on the ocean when she would vacation in Bay Head, New Jersey.  There she would walk the ocean’s shores and meditate and write poetry. 
     

     Becca also found solace in the ocean where she would vacation in Hilton Head, South Carolina.  When she read Jane’s poems about her experiences with the ocean she felt another connection with Jane.

     Soon Becca was not only incorporating Jane’s poems into her own music but writing conversation pieces in response to Jane’s poems and how those poems affected her life.  

All of this, along with photographs, is detailed in THE HEART’S NECESSITIES:  LIFE IN POETRY by Jane Tyson Clement and Becca Stevens; Edited by Veery Huleatt; jacket cover photo by Tabor Chichakly; and published by Plough Publishing House on April 22, 2019.

https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/poetry/hearts-necessities

      

          Becca felt another connection to Jane with her poem “Into the Dark Which Is Not Dark” specifically when Jane writes these lines:  Into the dark which is not dark/ but only the light we cannot see,/ reluctantly I let you go.

       In The Heart’s Necessities: A Life In Poetry Becca writes about those lines, and her response could also be a description of her relationship with Jane:  Deciding that your creation is complete means it’s no longer in your control.  That can be unsettling, but if you want your hard work to live on beyond yourself, you have to share it.  Only then is it free to move through others, to grow, inspire and live a life of its own.  

          The Heart’s Necessities: Life In Poetry is a 182-page masterpiece of a communion between two artists, both women, both in love with poetry and the belief in its eternal power.  Jane communicates with Becca through her poetry and Becca responds by writing artistic pieces to Jane’s poetry, thus the living language between two women, across two realms of reality, and two time frames, continues – forming its own art form – that will continue
to live on as each page is read.       

          Communications between Jane and Becca continue about the similarities and differences of their relationships with their husbands:  Jane’s Bob (Right Top) and Becca’s Nate (Right Bottom), one of the similarities being that both do not believe in hasty love.

and know the hasty blossom

as swiftly will decay,

while other flowers are waiting

to grace a forward day.

--Jane “TO R.A.C. XVI”

Jane warns that hasty love, love that is rushed or clinging, will not last, while love that is patient and steadfast even through ups and downs or “necessary evils” has the strength to “grace a forward day.”

--Becca, The Heart’s Necessities: Life In Poetry       

The climax of The Heart’s Necessities:  Life In Poetry is when in the Fall of 1952 Jane and her husband Bob listen to a talk by prominent Philadelphia Quaker Florrie Potts about her visit to the Bruderhof, a Christian pacifist movement founded in Germany in 1920 by Eberhard and Emmy Arnold (Left); a movement Jane, her husband Bob, and their seven children embraced.   As a result Jane wrote some of her best poetry, which could be deemed spiritual by other Christian believers.  Becca finds all of Jane's poems, both secular and spiritual, to be inclusive to all people. 

       Every so often I come across a poem like “Out Of A Difficult And Troubled Season”, where Jane’s faith is apparent, but not in a way that seems exclusive, or that pushes away a non-Christian reader.
--Becca, The Heart’s Necessities: Life In Poetry

       To read “Out Of A Difficult And Troubled Season” click on the link below to order The Heart’s Necessities: Life In Poetry

https://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Necessities-Life-Poetry/dp/0874860814/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+heart%27s+necessities&qid=1566945992&s=gateway&sr=8-1