A Note From Meadowlark: December 2016

December 2015

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Dear Friend of Meadowlark,

Thank you for your signing up for Meadowlark's next open reading period, and thank you for your patience. Since our inception in the fall of 2014, I am proud to have added four fine books to the Meadowlark collection. I hope you have had a chance to check out a few of our titles.

The primary purpose of this email, however is to invite you to submit to Meadowlark's first collection of essays. We will begin looking for submissions starting January 1, 2016. The details follow in this email.

We've only just begun! Please continue to follow Meadowlark on Facebook, and bookmark our website.

Write Away!

Tracy

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Seeking True Stories ~ Kansas Roots

Open January 1 - March 31, 2016  (deadline extended) April 30, 2016

Whether you were born in Kansas, or transplanted, Meadowlark is seeking true stories about what ties you to this state. We are not looking for the political or the religious, but perhaps open and honest stories about how you navigate these waters with an open heart and mind. Tell us about the people you love and the places that make you feel at home here. A variety of formats will be considered, but all stories must be true. Pieces of any length will be considered; make each word count. Accepted entries for this collection will be offered payment in cash and/or copies of the completed books. Original, unpublished works preferred. Reprints will be considered if author retains right to publish.

Please Read Complete Guidelines before Submitting

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Green Bike, a group novel, by Kevin Rabas, Michael D. Graves, and Tracy Million Simmons

Green Bike began as a writing exercise of the Emporia Writers, an independent meeting group of the Kansas Authors Club. The project started as shared files on the group’s Facebook page. All members of the group were invited to participate using a McGuffin—the green bike—as the symbol that would unite the stories. Entries were posted as they were completed, in the same order as they appear in this book. The project started in September, with the final chapters being completed around March of the following year. “It was a challenge that tested me on many levels,” said Tracy Million Simmons. “To write something and immediately share it with multiple readers, without the usual levels of internal processing—read, rewrite, read, rewrite—that my work usually undergoes, was a big step for me as a writer.” Read more about Green Bike here.

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MoonStain, poetry by Ronda Miller

​A review from James Benger on Goodreads: "Ronda Miller’s "Moonstain" is intense. There is no way to unread this book. It leaves its mark on you. The book is about love and loss, depression and hope. It’s hard to pin down an overarching tone for the entire collection other than to say powerful. In the titular opening poem, the poet says, “I am an open wound.” The claim is reinforced throughout the book as a soul or souls are bared and examined over and again, perhaps helping the reader gain a greater understanding of themselves. There is a cohesiveness to the poems in this book that many collections lack. Every poem is necessary and is placed perfectly for the narrative to remain potent from the first line to the last. For me, "Meeting Noah" was the most powerful poem in the collection. It tells of visiting an infant’s grave with the father of the deceased. What’s unique is that the story is not told in an overly-emotional or sentimental way (which very easily could have happened). Instead, the poem is extremely grounded and ultimately real. Perhaps even painfully so. In summation, Ronda Miller’s "Moonstain" is a triumph of verse. Poetry lovers of all kinds will find enjoyment and insight in this book. Be warned though, you will not be able to put this book down, and even after the final line is read, the poet’s words will remain with you."

MoonStain was selected as a one of seven books by noteworthy Kansas authors by the University Daily Kansan.

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Spirit of the Prairie: The History of the Making of The Medicine Lodge Indian Peace Treaty Pageant, by Marcia Lawrence

Marcia's book was recently reviewed by Stuart Rosenbrook in True West Magazine: "Kansas-historian Lawrence is the perfect author to write the first comprehensive chronicle of the origins and production of the inaugural world-famous pageant. She was born and raised in Barber County, Kansas, not to far from the county seat of Medicine Lodge. Founded in 1873, the town is just north of the confluence of Medicine Lodge River and Elk Creek and close to location of the famous U.S.-Indian peace treaties that were negotiated and signed in October 1867. Lawrence expertly weaves oral interviews, local, regional and Native history into her narrative of the small-town event with national importance that debuted in 1927 after ten years of planning. Her chronicle of the celebration should be considered a model for public historians across the country who recognize the importance of local events to our shared understanding of our nation’s history, both real and imagined."

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To Leave a Shadow, by Michael D. Graves

Meadowlark's newest book, To Leave a Shadow, is now available in print and on Kindle.

"I keep searching for new and different mystery books, and I have found an author that fits the bill!" ~ reviewer on Amazon

Pete Stone hadn’t always been a private eye. He’d lost his dairy business at the toss of a coin when the depression hit. His children grew up, as children do, and his wife left him for a chinchilla farmer. He had learned to like his solitude. When Mrs. Lucille Hamilton walked through his door searching for her missing husband, Pete was the only one who believed her husband’s death hadn’t been a suicide.

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Coming to the Meadowlark Bookshelf in 2016:
Songs for My Father, by Kevin Rabas
"There is something of the kernel of reminiscence in Kevin Rabas's work, a sense that for all its artfulness, the poems are the purest distillation of memory and feeling. At its heart, this collection pays homage not just to a particular feisty father, but to all fathers that we move in their peculiarities and imperfections. The writing is deft and observant, with an understated humor and warmth. At the same time, it is a celebration of 'the lick and needle of fire, song,' that is, to the making of music. Through Rabas's words, we are welcomed to an insider's view of a drummer's realm, where we learn of the timekeeper's measured ticks and splintered drumsticks." ~Donald Levering, author of Coltrane's God.

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About Meadowlark

We live in exciting times for authors and all artists, an era of democratization of the arts. No longer will books/music/artwork be something selected by the few and passed down to the masses. The people--our readers--will choose for themselves.

For all the debate about the state of publishing today, we remain optimistic. Readers will continue to seek out quality stories and writers will have more opportunities than ever before.

Meadowlark is an independent publisher, born of a desire to produce high-quality books for print and electronic delivery. Our goal is to create a network and system of support for today's independent authors. Our service will be professional book design services, assuring that the stories we love and believe in will be presented in a manner that enhances rather than detracts from an author's work.

We look forward to developing a collection of books that focus on a Midwest regional appeal, via author and/or topic. We are open to working with authors of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and mixed media.

Visit Meadowlark online.

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About Green Bike

Green Bike began as a writing exercise of the Emporia Writers, an independent meeting group of the Kansas Authors Club. The project started as shared files on the group’s Facebook page. All members of the group were invited to participate using a McGuffin—the green bike—as the symbol that would unite the stories.

Entries were posted as they were completed, in the same order as they appear in this book. The project started in September, with the final chapters being completed around March of the following year.

“It was a challenge that tested me on many levels,” said Tracy Million Simmons. “To write something and immediately share it with multiple readers, without the usual levels of internal processing—read, rewrite, read, rewrite—that my work usually undergoes, was a big step for me as a writer.”

Rabas a former jazz musician and continuing jazz and Beat literature aficionado said he felt at home with this novel’s improvisatory structure. “Although improvisatory,” Rabas said, “the story hangs together. It’s a cohesive narrative, not just an exercise. A good deal of thought went into the story’s characters, and, although the plot was not predetermined, we knew the strengths and limitations of the characters—what they would do and would not do—and fittingly character drove and determined plot, as did the sensibilities of the three writers. We know each other, and we know what kinds of tales we might be capable of. Beyond that, we pushed ourselves—and our characters. When it felt like something (a scene, an arc in the plot) was going slack, one’s coauthors would turn up the heat and test us all.”

In early guidelines for the project participants, Mike Graves wrote, “We’re using the green bike as a common element, and we’re writing individual stories… This is tentatively titled, “Love Stories.” I think it’s the author’s choice as far as building on the same story/characters, but each author is welcome to do so. I liken this to hitting a baseball. We don’t know if the next pitch is going to be a fastball or a slider. Just grab a bat and take a swing.”

Kevin Rabas and Graves almost immediately began intertwining stories, borrowing each other’s characters and affecting the momentum of each other’s stories. Simmons’s contribution evolved more independently, and became, in her mind, almost a prequel to the story of her co-authors. “At some point I decided I was writing about the origin of the green bike. Where did this classic Schwinn come from, anyway? I was writing the story of the first rider, perhaps, the woman who loved the bike first.”

As for the publishing aspect, Rabas said, “We wrote Green Bike on a shared, private Facebook page. So only a group of about 20 could see it—and cheer us on. It was not open to the public. Later, we scraped the text from Facebook and formatted the novel ourselves using Adobe InDesign. However, scraping from Facebook sometimes introduced daunting formatting errors, which we took days or weeks cleaning up. Later, I shopped the novel, and got a hit. A publisher with arms in KC and Arizona wanted it, edited it, and sent a contract, but, in the end, we fell on aesthetic differences, and decided to pull the novel, reedit it, and publish it ourselves, following our own unique vision. So, the novel’s been around the block. I think we can all say we’re satisfied with it now. Hope you are, too. We love how it turned out.”

Rabas called the novel “a wild campus romp.” He said, “It’s at once a love story, a love triangle, a kunstlerroman (artist’s way novel), coming of age tale, wild college days tale, and tale about losing an aging loved one. How can it be all of these things? Because it’s a novel of parallel tales. We’re not just in one narrative. We’re in three.”

MoonStain, a Noteworthy Book!

The University Daily Kansan made mention of Ronda Miller's book MoonStain, published by Meadowlark-Books May of 2015, as a noteworthy book to read. 

7 books by noteworthy Kansas authors to read this fall and winter, by Mysha Phelps

The Next Meadowlark Book for Your Bookshelf

November 2015

This book is now available for pre-order. See order link in the left sidebar.

Pete Stone hadn’t always been a private eye. He’d lost his dairy business at the toss of a coin when the depression hit. His children grew up, as children do, and his wife left him for a chinchilla farmer. He had learned to like his solitude. When Mrs. Lucille Hamilton walked through his door searching for her missing husband, Pete was the only one who believed her husband’s death hadn’t been a suicide.

“With a clean, detailed, vigorous style, Graves introduces us to Detective Pete Stone, his worldly and lovable gumshoe. Set in 1930’s Wichita, Midwesterners will take particular joy in Graves’s depiction of the city and the jazz age in this compelling mystery.”

 --Kevin Rabas, Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano

A New Poem by Ronda Miller

Still, I Wait

Cries for help heard over excited talk, laughter.
A new home, two small children,
acting grandparents here for the week,
Then, the rescue!
You’d gotten yourself up a tree,
no ladder, perhaps it had fallen away.
Neighborly neighbors performed daring rescue efforts,
nervous chuckles as names were shared
all around with manly handshakes once
your feet touched the ground.

Summer nights, I smelled your pipe tobacco
waft onto my patio as sweet as homemade fudge.
We enjoyed nudging with a joke when we met in public,
a wave across our yards over decades of shared mowing,
kids playing too loudly – then grown, moved on and out.

I didn’t speak to you that last time at the store.
You didn’t see me as you made your way down aisle
number three, so I slipped away. I could tell by your
stooped form and gray complexion that you were not well.

I bypass newspaper obits, too many familiar names
among the list, another just this week.
Neighbors told me of your passing.
I would have come to your funeral you know,
or at least have written you a poem.
Instead, here I sit. Still, I wait.

published 8/9/2015, Lawrence Journal World

Ronda Miller is a Meadlark Author. Read more about her here, or buy her book!

I see these all the time now...

"I see these all the time now..."
Note and photo from Daryl in Michigan, to Green Bike author, Mike Graves.

I never would have thought the world was full of green bikes until I wrote a story about one. Now I see them everywhere. Were they always here?

It's the same with reading. I pick up a new idea or image from a book, a magazine, or newspaper article, and in no time the connections are everywhere. My eyes are open to things I didn't see before.

When people tell me they don't read, I feel sorry for them. I think of all the images and concepts around them that they might be missing simply because they haven't given words a chance to open their eyes and minds.

Tracy Million Simmons

MoonStain, poetry by Ronda Miller, Published by Meadowlark Books

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 25, 2015

MoonStain, poetry by Ronda Miller, Published by Meadowlark Books

“MoonStain describes the blood moon as it shines through tree leaves, marking the long hours of sleepless night as it spreads from one point to another on a young child’s bedroom floor,” says Ronda Miller of the title poem of her collection, published by Meadowlark Books.

In this collection of poetry, Miller weaves stories of life, death, and love through her poetry, primarily narrative in form. From glimpses of her childhood home on her grandparents’ farm to images of a woman’s life, her loves, her losses, we learn of life’s stains, of moments that shape and become a part of one woman’s voice.

The 60 poem collection is divided into sections: New Moon, Moon Shadows, Moonbeams, and Full Moon. The book sells for $12 and will be available at online book retailers, at the Raven Book Store, from the author, and on the Meadowlark website, www.meadowlarkbooks.com. The e-book version of MoonStain will become available in June.

Miller is a district president of the Kansas Authors Club and the state manager (2011-2015) of KAC’s annual poetry contests. Miller is available for poetry readings and workshops and can be reached through info@meadowlark-books.com.

"In MoonStain, verses change as the moon; they sometimes reflect turbulent light, other times small rays of harmonic, poetic rhythms. Ronda Miller becomes one with the moon, channeling and celebrating what is feminine, dark, passion, shadows, desire, and love. Miller channels and celebrates the here and now, every day themes, memories. And within her poetry, sacred word for eternity, she heals herself and is reborn." Xánath Caraza – Award winning author of the International Latino Book Awards and author ofSyllables of Wind / Sílabas de Viento

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Ronda Miller is a Life Coach who works with clients who have lost someone to homicide. She is a graduate of The University of Kansas and lives in Lawrence. She is a Fellow of The Citizen Journalism Academy, World Company, a Certified Life Coach with IPEC (Institute of Professional Empowerment Coaching), and mother of Scott and Apollonia. She created poetic forms loku and ukol. Ronda is the co-chair, along with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, for the Transformative Language Arts Conference to be held at Unity Village September, 2015.

Meadowlark (Emporia, KS) is an independent publisher, born of a desire to produce high-quality books for print and electronic delivery. Meadowlark is developing a collection of books that focus on a Midwest regional appeal, via author and/or topic. Meadowlark is open to working with authors of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and mixed media.

Learn more at www.meadowlark-books.com.

Quotable

A Moment with Ronda Miller, author of MoonStain

Why do you write poetry? 

…because I have no other choice. When I am struck by a poem, I am plagued until it is written. I used to try to ignore poems, particularly if one came to me in the shower or in the middle of the night, but I've learned to give into them. My poems generally come to me in a rush and in a complete form. I rarely change more than a word or two. Poetry can be cathartic for me. Most of the time it encapsulates a core emotion or experience. I don't write poems; they “right” me.

When did you begin writing?

I was fortunate to have had an uncle teach me to read and spell when I was three. I lived with him, my aunt, and my sister following the death of my mom. Unfortunately, he died a couple of years later, but I associate the love of rhyme, reading, and learning with the closeness of being held, feeling loved and cared for during that brief time.

I have always loved short stories. That was predominately what I wrote during my creative writing days at KU. I began writing poetry about nine years ago, after not writing anything for decades. Creativity had to find an escape; the form being short enabled me to utilize it in my time-constrained life. 

Tell us about your writing routine.

I write when the poem strikes. I always have my iPhone within reach. My poems are written on the notebook feature. I've written on a plane, while waiting in a line… no time or place eludes me. I try to get them emailed to someone or typed on my computer relatively soon so they don't get erased by accident along with my grocery list!

Where do you find your inspiration?

In everyday life. 

Often a word or statement will trigger a poem for me. It can also be something I see or hear, a mood or memory. I guess I would have to say the five senses trigger many of my poems. 

Who are your favorite poets to read?

I have never met a poem I didn't like, though I don't claim to understand them all.  

I continue to enjoy the poets I grew up with; William Stafford, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Frost. Poetry doesn't get much better than Walt Whitman. I also adore Sylvia Path and the Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad, a recent find. 

Do you spent much time in the company of other poets?

As a poet/writer, I thought for a long time I was a lone writer. In October of 2010, a friend mentioned a writing convention in Lawrence just around the corner from me. I went. It was The Kansas Authors Club Convention. I became a member and have been actively involved since then. 

I also have discovered there are numerous poetry events ongoing in our creative community. The Red Tail readings are twice monthly and it is a group of amazing female poets in north Lawrence. I went to a reading at The Tap Room for the first time a couple of Sundays ago. The funny thing is that these have all been in existence for years; in the case of Kansas Authors Club, since 1909. 

There are Slam events ongoing now at The Bottleneck. It seems each event introduces me to new poets and readings. The Raven Bookstore has been extremely supportive of local authors and hosts well known authors who come in from elsewhere. 

I'm now expanding my horizons to Topeka and Kansas City. I recently became a member of The Writer's Place. 

I am pleasantly surprised at how many small towns across Kansas have thriving art centers and the many ways they embrace artists of all genres. 

Why should people read poetry?

Poetry unites people, it offers a chance to explore new ideas or experiences that many don't have the language to express. Poets have a responsibility to the world to speak out, to bring about change as well as to share emotion, beauty, horror, inspiration, and understanding.

I've come to realize, on a personal level, that poetry isn't about my life as much as it is allowing myself to have the experiences in which I meet the poems I am meant to write. 

Meadowlark to Publish MoonStain, poetry by Ronda Miller

“MoonStain describes the blood moon as it shines through tree leaves, marking the long hours of a sleepless night as it spreads from one point to another on a young child’s bedroom floor,” says Ronda Miller of the title poem of her collection, to be published by Meadowlark Books in June 2015.

Miller weaves stories of life, death, and love through her poetry, primarily narrative in form. From glimpses of her childhood home on her grandparents’ farm to images of a woman’s life, her loves, her losses, we learn of life’s stains, of moments that shape and become a part of one woman’s voice.

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Ronda Miller is a poet and Life Coach. Born in Ft. Collins, Colorado, she was raised on her grandparents’ farm in the high plateau region of NW Kansas. She holds degrees in Human Development and Creative Writing from the University of Kansas. She is a Fellow of the Citizen Journalism Academy and a district president and current board member of the Kansas Authors Club.

Meadowlark is an independent publisher, born of a desire to produce high-quality books for print and electronic delivery. An imprint of Chasing Tigers Press, Meadowlark is developing a collection of books that focus on a Midwest regional appeal, via author and/or topic. Meadowlark is open to working with authors of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and mixed media.

Learn more at www.meadowlark-books.com.

JAM Online, a publication of Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors, review of Green Bike

"...once I found the rhythm between the three voices and storylines, I read the book in a few sittings. I especially enjoyed the peppering of poetry, mostly written in the voice of Calvin as he tries to woo art therapy student Julie. Green Bike is much more than the writing exercise that prompted its creation, and an enjoyable read for a chilly winter afternoon."

~Emily Atkinson

Read the entire review here.