Jean Stringam's Blog
RSS
Feb.08.2013
How Not to Cry in Public: A Novel is inching its way toward publication!
I've had a tremendous response to this title so far, and want to thank all of you who keep checking back to see when the book will be available at the distributors. I just received proofs of the finalized...
Continue Reading »
Dec.31.2012
I write a song for each book I publish, and particularly enjoyed writing the carol for The Wise Men: A Christmas Adventure. In the story, the children of the city sing the lullaby as the caravan leaves on its quest to worship the Messiah.
"Where Is the Newborn Child?" can be sung unison...
Continue Reading »
Dec.28.2012
One of my dear, reliable readers marched out of her study waving my manuscript and announced, "This can't be an adventure tale. There's no map!"
It was true. The Wise Men: A Christmas Adventure had to have a map. No hero or heroine can EVER embark on an adventure unless the...
Continue Reading »
Dec.21.2012
I call my new Christmas novella, The Wise Men: A Christmas Adventure, revisionist history because it tells how an event could have happened. The New Testament gives us very little information, just Matthew 2: 1-12. We don’t know who they were, how many there were, nor where...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Dec.18.2012
It's live in the Kindle Store!
You can read it as revisionist history, as fantasy, as an exploration of the hazards of Utopia, or simply as an adventure tale. I'd love to hear your responses.
Continue Reading »
Dec.06.2012
Coming in just a few days! Here's a sneak peak description:
If you’ve ever wondered where the Wise Men came from, and whether they were kings or magi or prophets or astronomers, or if they had families and friends and hopes and dreams, and how they traversed hundreds or thousands of miles...
Continue Reading »
Nov.22.2012
I am deeply interested in Red Room’s favorite intergenerational story blog challenge because that is what I write. My Cousin Cycle centers on how the events of one year impact the lives of an extended family of cousins. The same events are seen by different eyes as having different...
Continue Reading »
Nov.09.2012
I'm totally excited to bring you the third volume in the Cousin Cycle. So many of my readers have asked for the next . . . and here it is!
Here's a Summary: <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-...
Continue Reading »
Jul.08.2012
I want to float. No house, no car, no suitcase, no connections. Just float.
Retirement didn’t cause this state of mind yet in some way it has exacerbated it. After I taught my last class at the university in December, all winter I buried myself in my writing. I felt little...
Continue Reading »
May.25.2012
I'm in the middle of a book launch for my new YA novel, Solstice Magic: A Calgary Stampede Adventure, and I also moved my household from Missouri to Utah last week. That statement is for fans who wondered why I haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks.
Moving house and...
Continue Reading »
May.07.2012
How many out there have seen Garrison Keillor's one-man show? If you're used to his radio show, you'll have to close your eyes during the stage performance. He has this mannerism of throwing his hair back with his right hand. I wanted to give him some hair clips during...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
May.02.2012
I know I'm supposed to adore the movie The Artist. I know I'm supposed to think of it as an elegant and engaging salute to silent film. I know if I write a review in which I say it is one of the most self-serving, self-congratulatory bits Hollywood has ever created, that I ...
Continue Reading »
Apr.30.2012
The two movies, The Descendants and We Bought a Zoo, feature male actors I admire, George Clooney and Matt Damon, plus a talented cast of supporting actors. Each tells the story of how a man and his two children cope with the death of his wife/their mother, and each had equally compelling...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Apr.27.2012
Why is telling total strangers everything we think, feel, or do viewed as a positive act? Why isn’t it simply undisciplined and needy? Maybe I’m asking, why Facebook? Why do we want the complete and raw goods on anybody—famous, infamous, or obscure?
I suspect that at some level we...
Continue Reading »
Apr.23.2012
Only an art form allows the oxymoron of being private in public.
Have you ever heard of the actor’s exercise called The Private Moment? (I learned it from the late Tad Danielewski’s Actors Workshop.) We performed them individually, without words usually, as a set of actions dependent...
Continue Reading »
So live your life that those who speak ill of you will not be believed.”
—One of the old Greeks -- I'm hunting for the source!
About Jean
Skating, skiing, sisters, horses, music, cats, snow, and books surrounded Jean Stringam as she grew up in Alberta, Canada. She loves swapping stories with her family, making music, and exploring somewhere new. Her road to authorship includes many episodes...
Causes Jean Stringam Supports
NPR