From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life
Greetings, readers. Welcome to my new blog, "Charlene Lamy Edge Speaks about Writing."
This is the first official post. Today, I want to be sure you know I published a guidebook for the writing life. It came out in 2022, five years after I published my first book, Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International.
From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life is not only about the writing life and craft, it also offers some of my original work, such as 25 of my poems.
I've nicknamed this book PORCH. It's available at major online booksellers in paperback and eBook. It can be ordered by Indie bookstores and public libraries, too, just like Undertow can.
What is PORCH all about?
Beginning with “Readers Become Writers” and ending with “If You Want to Keep Writing,” Edge’s encouraging and gentle book highlights the vistas, detours, and delights on the writing path, along with truths we can all apply to poetry, prose, and life. The book includes:
- More
than thirty essays on the writing life and craft
- Charlene’s
short stories and poems illustrating essay topics
- Nourishing
insights from well-known authors and poets
- Recommended
books for writing memoir, poetry, fiction, and travel stories
Edge’s prose is crisp and to the point, her voice discerning yet collegial, speaking friend to friend, as she shares stories, realizations, and moments of beauty.
Porch on YouTube
The book launch for PORCH was held at the Winter Park Library in Winter Park, FL, in the spring of 2022. Check it out on YouTube here.
Praise for From the Porch to the Page
“Charlene L. Edge writes from the intersection of love,
life, and loss, and she does so in the front window, where readers and writers
can see how she works her craft. I highly recommend this guidebook for
writers.” —Susan Campbell, MS, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist,
Distinguished Lecturer of Journalism at University of New Haven. Author
of Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American
Girl, and other books.
“This guidebook for writers is an absolute treat—with clean,
lovely writing that draws you into vivid stories and meditations on family and
on the natural world. Edge, a generous writer, weaves those stories—and
illustrative poems—with writing advice that is both practical and reverent. As
a writer and a reader, I came away inspired.” —Lyn Millner, MFA, Professor,
Founder of Florida Gulf Coast University’s Journalism Program. Author of The
Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade
Prophet
“There’s something for everyone in this mixed-genre
guidebook for the writing life: short-short stories, poetry, essays on writing,
and memoir. Throughout the book, Charlene Edge draws us into worlds both real
and imagined, with the remarkable ability to capture the past in almost
photographic detail. The selves in these pages absorb death and loss,
contemplate religion in all its trappings, and find beauty and pathos in
subjects ranging from the imagined life of earthly objects (an antique iron) to
the stars (“rolling jewels in heaven’s palm”). The spine that holds the stories
and poems together is the series of short essays about writing that highlight
Edge’s creative process and offer useful advice on topics ranging from
self-publishing to writing exercises.”—Rachel Newcomb, PhD, Rollins
College Professor of Anthropology. Author of The Gift; Women of Fez;
and Encountering Morocco: Fieldwork and Cultural Understanding
Thanks for reading!
Charlene Lamy Edge
Bio
Charlene grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in a Roman Catholic family. In college, students recruited her into The Way International, a Bible-based cult; she gave it the next seventeen years of her life.
After escaping The Way International™ headquarters in New Knoxville, Ohio, in 1987, she earned a BA in English Literature from Rollins College in Florida, graduating summa cum laude, and worked for more than a decade as a writer in the software industry.
She is a published short-short story writer, an award-winning poet, and a member of the Florida Writers Association, The Authors Guild, and the International Cultic Studies Association. Edge also serves on the FWA Speakers Bureau.
Charlene lives in Florida with her husband, Dr. Hoyt L. Edge, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Rollins College.
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