So pretty much ever since I started this blog, I have had a book in the works. It was a long journey, made longer by galavanting around the southern United States last summer for field work and then finishing my grad degree, but finally that journey has led to a book. I am so excited to share this book with you because I really love it. It is about two characters that I grew to care about as I wrote, and as the story took on a life of its own, I realized that the topics of memory and loss and living were ones that I felt strongly about because they are so central to what it is to be a human being and to be living in this world.
This whole process made me think a lot about fiction–about what it can do and what it offers us as a place to connect. I decided that with stories that are difficult to both tell and read, fiction wraps itself around the hardest truths so that we can hold them without burning our hearts. While it’s value is not limited to that, the experience of writing this book has taught me that in fiction we can begin to see what is really real, what is true. I think that maybe there are no fiction stories, just fictitious people and settings where characters are living lives and parts of lives that are very real indeed.
A dear friend recently (ok it was probably at least three months ago, but around here we still count that as the other day) gave me a set of pencils. They are fun and silver and along the top of them near the eraser, they say “Words Change Lives.” I hope they do. I really hope they do. And I believe with all my heart that this is true.
The words we use with each other, the words we read, the words we listen to on the radio, the words we let run through our heads–they are powerful. They are a part of who we are. They become us. And in that power, they have the ability to mold and shape and change.
That is why I write. Because I think it matters.
I have taught writing for years, and I have learned that everyone’s words matter. While sometimes we may be tempted to watch a little third grader scrawl a few lines on a page about a dolphin named Moe and then smile politely and discount the creative energy that went into that venture as cute, we would be remiss to do so. Because inside all stories and words, we find truth. They are the channels that we use to tell each other who we are. And in fiction, those channels may be built up out of stones that are drawn from dreams, but the words and truths that flow through them are real. Even though Moe may only be a dolphin we will never meet, whatever he has to say is born out of a little child’s heart. Words matters. Yours, mine, the person’s across the way. And that is part of what makes living life together so beautiful and real.
So here I am…a blogger with a book who believes that words change lives and is so thankful for all the people who have reminded me of that and encouraged me on this journey to publish my book. I hope that in its pages you find life and a place to enjoy what it is to be alive.
I am including my press release here as a way to show you more about the book. If you want to read the first chapter, you can find it at www.hellogoodbyewemeetagain.com The book is currently being sold as pre-orders on Kickstarter as a way to crowd fund this project and launch it into shelves across the country. You can find the Kickstarter campaign at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/747434192/hello-goodbye-we-meet-again-a-novella
Thanks!
Brooke
Author Kickstarts Her Way to Writing about Love and Loss
Harold lives in a quiet town and is an equally quiet guy who has been struggling with his wife’s death for two years. Madison is visiting from the city, and she finds herself spending her days helping to take care of her grandmother who is in hospice. Throughout Hello Goodbye We Meet Again, we watch these two people learn about what it is to really love and lose and live their lives in the middle of heartache, all while navigating their pasts through memories and moving into their futures with more understanding and love than they thought possible.
Hello Goodbye We Meet Again by Brooke Anderson is a rich and textured story about what life looks like when it does not go the way that we thought it would. Through these characters we begin to see that sometimes the very things we thought were the cruelest were indeed moments of true depth and love, and sometimes the moments that we simply took for granted were the ones that were shaping us in ways we never knew. Exploring ideas of memory, friendship, and what it is to live in the middle of the unexpected, Hello Goodbye We Meet Again is now available for pre-order on Kickstarter.
Fiction wraps itself around the hardest truths so that we can hold them without them burning our hearts.–B.A.
Brooke Anderson is a full-time writer who grew up in Lancaster County and now lives in the greater Los Angeles area. After going to school for a very long time, she discovered that what she really loves is spending her days typing away about ideas and people she has never met. Brooke runs a blog at www.themodernreal.com and writes both fiction and nonfiction. She loves watching words come alive on the screen almost as much as she loves her husband, coffee, and time in the wilderness.