Ep165: Story Retellings with Guest Jeannie Blasberg

Main Topic: Jeanne Blasberg, Story Retellings (Starts on video at 21:39)
Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates):
• (Accidental Stranger Book 2 out)
• SWWC and Write in the Harbor (Erick teaching.) (Valerie will be at Write in the Harbor in Gig Harbor, WA this year, too! And also speaking at Alaska Writers Guild conference in Anchorage in October.)
• Host of Ghost Story Weekend for Wordcrafters. (Erick)
• writing, working on print version of Accidental Stranger, rewriting next Strange Air novel, client biz. (Erick)
• client work, getting ready for conference next weekend. (Valerie)
What are you reading?
• Valerie: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman; The Horse (Willy Vlautin); We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman's Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power (Rachel Rodgers)
• Erick: The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters (J.W. Ocker)
Jeanne Blasberg's reads:
Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family's Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer (Brian Reisinger)
Entitlement (Rumaan Alam)
Segment 2 (Resources/Tips/Tidbits):
Tidbit #1: Six-Week Writing From Your Body workshop (author Anna Willman)--starts September 28 -- $40 per session or discounted rate for all six. They always work with individuals to make their workshops accessible to all. Focusinginternational.org Writing from your body FII workshop
Tidbit #2: Squibler (new writing organizer); Knowing what your boundaries are is key. I get to say what I do.
Tidbit #3: Chris Frizzell (Frizz Lit) Book club of the classic, chapter by chapter, funny host
Segment 3 (Mindset-Craft-Biz Check):
Segment 4 (Main Topic): Jeanne Blasberg is an award-winning and bestselling author and essayist. Her novel The Nine (SWP 2019) was honored with the 2019 Foreword Indies Gold Award in Thriller & Suspense and the Gold Medal and Juror’s Choice in the 2019 National Indie Excellence Awards. Eden (SWP 2017), her debut, won the Benjamin Franklin Silver Award for Best New Voice in Fiction and was a finalist for the Sarton Women’s Book Award for Historical Fiction. Her forthcoming novel, Daughter of a Promise (SWP, April 2, 2024) is a modern retelling of the legend of David and Bathsheba, completing the thematic trilogy she began with Eden and The Nine.
Jeanne cochairs the board of the Boston Book Festival and serves on the Executive Committee of GrubStreet, one of the country’s preeminent creative writing centers. Jeanne was named a Southampton Writer’s Conference BookEnds Fellow in April 2021. She reviews contemporary fiction for the New York Journal of Books, When not in New England, she splits her time between Park City, UT, and growing organic vegetables in Verona, Wisconsin.
Jeanne Blasberg
Daughter of a Promise
Retellings: def -- not side story (that's its own genre) -- have the events from the original tellings (same or parallel); reimagined in different setting; make things contemporary and relevant. Not a 'diss' on the original. Opportunity to retell is a fun journey for reader and author. Plots are familiar (off-beat romance, forbidden relationship, etc), can insert or end story at a different point. In conversation with other works.
Only so many plots, we process our lives with story. Not derivative.
Our human struggle has really never changed. The setting has, but universal truths haven't. As a species, have we really made much progress?
Take plot, make modern day, explore the relationships.
Do the research of retellings (all) already written first. Find what hasn't been said. Why are you telling this version? What questions exist? Why are you driven to write about it?
Follow your why's? What story has you still thinking about it? Follow your curiosity. This is the ultimate fan fiction. What are you obsessed with?
What are you wanting to say with this retelling?
"Inspired by" -- have permission to make these stories our own.
Insert our own thoughts and conversation with this art.
Art evolves this way. Museums hold many variations of the Virgin Mary. For instance.
License to play with it.
What about exposing yourself to the "scholars" and experts response?
Interest and curiosity is the response. Tip: Don't feel like anything is out of bounds for you. Just do it well. You are allowed to do it. If it lights you up, I think you should do it.
If you've triggered someone, clearly you've done it right.
@jeanneblasbergauthor
Constantly Curating on Substack (writing and farming)
Sonic Branding (link TBD)
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