CD Review

I hope you enjoy this review of a story performance CD by my friend and teller, Linda Goodman Bobby Pins A CD by Linda Goodman Available at www.lindagoodmantstoryteller.com or http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/lindagoodman Review by Joan Leotta This is the chocolate fudge sundae of storytelling CDs, except that it is even better than my favorite forbidden treat. You can listen to it without guilt. No added fat, just food for thought. Linda shares stories from her heart, and her western Virginia mountain roots. Three of these stories were new to me. "Pearl" is adapted from one of the stories in Linda's book, Daughters of the Appalachians. The three personal tales delve deeply into Linda's own childhood. She says they are recalled "through the dim smoky haze of my mind's eye." "Nickels and Dimes" explores the relationship with a younger sister. Mustard Seed shows us the truth of the great powers of faith as Linda lived it in her childhood in the mountains. The last, "Bobby Pins" shows us Linda and her own mother in a relationship and leaves us on the positive thought of the positive effect that the little things we do have on others, especially those we love. Linda’s lilting presentation is flavored expertly with the cadence and laconic rhythms of her mountain origins. She delivers each tale through the ears directly to the listener's soul. Linda is as fine a writer as she is a teller. The arc of each tale flawlessly rolls to a fully satisfying end bolstered by superb choices of word dialect and the use of classic literary devices such as repetition, and parallelism. Listen to it for the pure pleasure of the experience or use it to teach yourself about story, Appalachia, people, families, dialect. This tape is appropriate for all ages and for men as well as women. Use it in schools if you want to tell of life in Appalachia or just explore family relationships. At the finish, I was tempted to shake the CD case to see if more stories would fall out. I suppose I will have to wait for Linda to open more of her heart to us. Joan Leotta is a published author and an accomplished storyteller in her own right. Her new ebook, Guilia Goes to War, will be available in July. Visit her blog at www.joanleotta.blogspot.com or mail her at joanleotta@atmc.net.

Recipes for Success

Hope to connect with more readers soon--how about these tips on cooking? A new recipe is a lot like writing. We follow the guidelines but adapt to make the product our own.

Back at Home

It's Mother's Day and my Mother's Day resolution is to write on the blog at least once a week. Afternoon delight--maybe Sundays, it will be! Today I would like to send a shout out to all Mom's, and anyone who has ever had a Mom--that should include everyone! I want the blog to be useful to others, writers especially, and everyone who reads as well. Writers are like motehrs in that they give birth--usually with a longer than nine-month gestation period.

Six Weeks

What have you done in the past six weeks? A lot of that time was probably devoted to daily chores. For me, those daily activities were suspended as I babysat my daughter's kitchen renovation in Northern Virginia, went to Pittsburgh for a weekend to see my Aunt and help my cousin with various financial issues for our Aunt. My husband is here to pick me up. Tomorrow I head for home. Besides simply missing my husband --a lot, I found that I missed the daily routine of life in my own house. I was able to work from here on my laptop--editing my book for Desrt Breeze, completing two articles, doing the reserach for another and the interviews! But it was not the same. I am slower now at writing since I am older but being away means, for me, work a turtle pace. Technology is great, but the comforts of home are even better. Countdown to the new book release will begin on June 1--I need to do yet another edit on it today before I leave the DC area.