Anita Shreve – Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker

11/30/16: I decided to update this post. I made several trips to this shop after I gave them a free copy of One Brave Thing as well as newspaper articles about me publishing my book. On the third trip, I discovered that they didn’t know what they did with it!

I decided to trust the Universe and let this one go.

🙂

Recently, I wrote about attending an author talk given by Anita Shreve. I mentioned that I found out about it at the last-minute from my husband (an avid reader of newspapers). As happens so often in life, this even led me to another happy accident: I discovered a local bookstore that I had somehow missed.

I know, right? Unbelievable!

After Kennebooks (seriously, play the violins-I loved that store) closed, I thought that Kennebunk was now bereft of book stores.

Not true.

The Book Burrow sponsored Anita’s talk. That’s how I found out about it! It was like getting a free gift with purchase! I got to see Anita and I found a new local bookstore to love!

When I visited the The Book Burrow’s website, I was welcomed by a wonderful poem by Adelaide Love. Go to their website and check it out!

One note: I mentioned that I saw Anita Shreve speak years ago. I still have my book that she signed, my favorite book of hers: Fortune’s Rocks. What’s wonderful about this is that she put the date when she signed it! Yay! So I’ve decided to do this when I sign my book as well.

See? This author talk is the gift that keeps on giving. 🙂

I had the great good luck to find out about Anita Shreve‘s talk at RiverTree Center for the Arts last evening in time to actually go. What a good thing that my husband, unlike me, actually reads the newspaper we buy every Thursday.

I have had the opportunity to hear her talk once before, years ago, but this is the first time since I published my own book, so I was especially interested in hearing about her process.
I wasn’t disappointed. She talked about how inspiration for her novels comes together from different areas of her life and then explodes into an idea in her mind. It was fascinating to hear exactly how she turned this into The Weight of Water, perhaps her favorite of her own books. Many of you may know that this book also became a movie, and she told us about how exciting that was for her (even if they did change the ending!).

The experience of The Pilot’s Wife being an Oprah pick (and which also was made into a movie) was also discussed. Anita is very honest in giving her thoughts and feelings about her books and her writing and I’m certain this is just one thing that makes her such a wonderful writer.

But my favorite thing she talked about was how, at various times throughout her writing career, she has worried, “What would my kids think if they read this?” How validating for me to hear that I am in such good writer-ly company! My own book would have been published years ago if I hadn’t had that self-sabotaging thought.

No more worrying about what other people, family included, might think about my writing. I am taking Anita’s advice. I am writing for myself.
Thanks, Anita.

NOTE: Anita Shreve has written (I believe) at least 18 books. Her new book, The Stars are Fire, will be available in April, 2017. I can’t wait!

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