bacon and books
  • Bacon and Books
  • About
  • Self-Publishing for Authors
  • Contact
Picture

Letting Go Isn't the Same as Giving Up

1/8/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

Reading through our next title - Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts - you learn pretty quickly that letting go doesn't mean giving up. It doesn't mean selling out. And it doesn't necessarily mean reducing clutter by tidying up. Though followers of Marie Kondo's best seller will be the first to understand that relinquishing anything, even an old T-shirt, deserves a ceremonial farewell. These true stories by 30 authors from seven countries provide that.

While you might identify with many of the authors' struggles, you won't find a formula for how to do it. 

When M. E. Hughes put out a call for stories for this anthology, she says,
"I asked people to write about the process of letting go; I didn’t care if they were successful; I was more interested in how they went about trying, rather than the result  I emphasized that this book was not a “how to.” Instead, it was designed as a collection of essays in which readers could explore the very real—sometimes funny, sometimes painful—efforts we all make throughout our lives to let go."

Full disclosure: I'm a fan and friend of M.E. Hughes (isn't it nice when your friends produce terrific work so you can honestly praise them?). Her first novel, Precious In His Sight is a long-time favorite. She has guided and edited a small army of writers in her nonprofit Peripatetic Writing Workshops, Inc., fiction workshops at NYU, and as private book doctor/editor. . 

For years, her focus has been on fiction. Why then put together a nonfiction anthology?

"Selfishness is the answer," Hughes says. "I don't know how to let go of anything. Not of people, places and things. I come by it naturally, still having a gunny sack full of my great-grandfather’s desk contents—old letters, pieces of string, rubber bands, broken pens, newspaper clippings, address books, pencils, a political button from a forgotten, local race—emptied out in 1939 on the day he died. No one, including myself, ever had the heart to throw them away."

"The question in the air," Hughes says, "is: Does the inability to let go of ideas, people, places and things sometimes drag one down? After all, we are no longer in the Post-Depression Era; most of us don’t really need to save brown bags any more."

When Letting Go_ is released at the end of January (or beginning of February), you'll find dozens of different answers to that question. Until then, you can find excerpts here.


The delightful cover is designed by Al Pranke
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Bacon Press Courses &
    Bacon Press Books

    News about our courses, our books, our authors, indie publishing, and maybe bacon.

      Subscribe for updates

    Join our mailing list

    Archives

    September 2023
    June 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    July 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Bacon and Books
  • About
  • Self-Publishing for Authors
  • Contact