Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives -#NewSeries January 2023- ‘Lucky Dip’ and Do You Trust Me??


Since this series began in January 2018 there have been over 1250 Posts from Your Archives where bloggers have taken the opportunity to share posts to a new audience… mine.

The topics have ranged from travel, childhood, recipes, history, family and the most recent series was #PotLuck where I shared a random selection of different topics. This series is along the same lines… but is a ‘Lucky Dip’

In this series I will be sharing posts from the last six months of 2022

It is an opportunity to showcase your writing skill to my readers and also to share on my social media. Which combined is around the 50,000 mark. If you are an author your books will be mentioned too, along with their buy links and your other social media contacts.

How to feature in the series?

  • All I need you to do is give me permission to dive in to your archives and find two posts to share here on Smorgasbord. (sally.cronin@moyhill.com)
  • Rather than a set topic, I will select posts at random of general interest across a number of subjects from the first six months of 2022. (it is helpful if you have a link to your archives in your sidebar by month)
  • As I will be promoting your books as part of the post along with all your information and links so I will not be sharing direct marketing or self- promotional posts in the series.
  • If you are an author I am sure you will have a page on your blog with the details, and an ‘about page’ with your profile and social media links (always a good idea anyway). I will get everything that I need.
  • As a blogger I would assume that you have an ‘about page’ a profile photo and your links to social media.
  • Copyright is yours and I will ©Your name on every post… and you will be named as the author in the URL and subject line.
  • Previous participants are very welcome to take part again.
  • Each post is reformatted for my blog and I don’t cut and paste, this means it might look different from your own post especially if you are using the block editor
  • If I do share a post which contains mainly photographs I will share up to five and link back to the original post for people to view the rest.

N.B – To get the maximum benefit from your archive posts, the only thing I ask is that you respond to comments individually and share on your own social media.. thank you.

To show how your post will look when featured… here is an example from the last series in the latter part of 2022

In this post from the series last year, author and poet Elizabeth Gauffreau took us back to her teen years and a treasured newspaper clipping and her first byline…..

Juvenilia: “They Felt Like Clapping Hands & Jumping Up & Down” 

My First Published Byline

Apparently, this was my first published byline, which appeared in the Enosburg Standard somewhere around 1967-68. I’m the dejected chubby girl in full Girl Scout regalia in the back row.

Worth Preserving?

I’ve often wondered as I consider cleaning out an overstuffed closet whether one’s juvenilia is an important enough record of a writer’s development to preserve. In my own case, common sense would say no, of course not, don’t be silly.

Yet, I refuse to part with any of it, even though these painfully immature little poems and stories tucked into the folders and boxes that clutter my daily existence are of absolutely no use to me and certainly of no use to posterity.

Regardless, this little article from the Enosburg Standard is worth preserving because it tells me how much I was loved as a child, even a chubby and dejected prepubescent child. My mother had clipped the article and mailed it to my grandmother Velma, who saved it with her papers, leaving it behind when she died in 1975. “They Felt Like Clapping Hands & Jumping Up & Down” came full circle back to me in 2016, when as the eldest of the current generation, I became the keeper of The Family Archives.

In Case Anyone Is Interested . . .

On December 6th Girl Scout Troop 185 had their candlelight ceremony to get their pins.

The middle trefoil was lit by three patrol leaders and the other ten candles were lit by the other patrol leader and nine other girls who did not receive pins.

The fourth graders who received pins were: Cindy Carpenter, Lisa Robtoy, Cathy Myott, Kathy Hayes, Patty McDermott, Nancy Green, Linda Fortin, and Cindy Deming.

The fifth and sixth graders were Marlene Hemond and Nancy Laflam.

The four patrol leaders, Debby Patch, Ardell Beaulieu, Colleen Colburn, Cindy Broe, received their leaders cords.

Two girls received badges. Liz Gauffreau earned the collector and Colleen Colburn earned the housekeeper.

On Nov. 15th and 22nd, Mrs. Amlaw taught the troop square dancing.

The girls have taken up as a service project, collecting books for the men in Vietnam.

©Elizabeth Gauffreau 2022

My thanks to Liz for letting me delve into her archives and I definitely believe this is well worth preserving for future generations. Wonderful that it has been treasured all these years. I know Liz would love to receive your thoughts on the subject.

An image posted by the author.

About Elizabeth Gauffreau

Elizabeth Gauffreau writes fiction and poetry with a strong connection to family and place. She holds a B.A. in English from Old Dominion University and an M.A. in English/Fiction Writing from the University of New Hampshire. She is currently the Assistant Dean of Curriculum & Assessment for Champlain College Online, where she is an Associate Professor. Her fiction and poetry have been published in literary magazines and several themed anthologies. Her debut novel, Telling Sonny, was published by Adelaide Books in 2018. Liz lives in Nottingham, New Hampshire with her husband.

Books by Elizabeth Gauffreau

One of the reviews for Grief Songs

D.L. Finn 5.0 out of 5 stars A quick and moving read!  Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2022

A beautiful collection of family history that Ms. Gauffreau paired personal photographs with a tanka poem to bring history to life. “Grief Songs” is a tribute to the author’s parents and brother and their life together. It reads like a memoir that vividly transports the reader to the past through images and words. It is a quick and moving read that shares moments in time. This is a compelling reminder that even though we lose our loved ones, our journey with them is never forgotten. I can easily recommend this book to those who enjoy poetry and memoirs. 

Read the reviews and buy: Amazon US – and : Amazon UK – Read more reviews and follow Elizabeth: Goodreads – Twitter: @LGauffreau

 

Thanks for dropping in today and I hope you will participate in this celebration of blogging. You can accept my invitation in the comments below or email me on sally.cronin@moyhill.com

Smorgasbord Posts from My Archives – Past Book Reviews 2020 – #1920s #Familysaga – Telling Sonny by Elizabeth Gauffreau


I read some amazing books in 2020 and I would like to share them again with you, updated with the authors most recent releases and their biography.

I am delighted to share my review from August 2020 for the novel Telling Sonny by Elizabeth Gauffreau.

About Telling Sonny

At nineteen, pretty, vivacious Faby Gagne is still waiting for her life to begin. The time is 1924, the place Enosburg Falls, Vermont. With school over, her time is now occupied with mundane chores and avoiding the crossfire of resentment between her mother and her grandmother.

As the time approaches for the annual vaudeville show to arrive in the village, Faby watches the posters go up with increasing excitement. She is the best kind of audience for the Small Time: she does not discriminate.

When the show comes to the Opera House at last, Faby catches the eye of charming hoofer Slim White, who sets a course for her life that she never could have imagined.

My review for Telling Sonny 20th August 2020

Elizabeth Gauffreau takes the brief but fateful encounter between Faby, a young and naive small town girl, and a flambouyant vaudeville performer called Slim White (Louis Kittel), and creates a wonderfully engaging family drama.

We are taken on a rail trip around the eastern states of the USA, stopping off at towns and coastal resorts with their playhouses on the established circuits within the small time Vaudeville. Through the eyes of Faby, now locked into an enforced relationship with a virtual stranger, we meet the colourful performers that live out of their suitcases. Usually in dingy digs with little money left over for food or the train fare to their next engagement. A tough life and not for the fainthearted, as Faby was to discover along with the kindness of strangers. The description of life on the circuit and the individuals we discover through Faby’s reflections, was rich in detail and clearly well researched.

Two sets of values are at odds with each other which influences Faby and Louis’s relationship, small town versus the exotic and less restricted Vaudeville lifestyle. Faby is clearly out of her depth, but as she explores the towns and cities on the circuit, in the long hours that Louis is at the theatre, she begins to grow and become more self-reliant. Unfortunately, as you become immersed in the story, you cannot help but sense things are not going to end well, but you hope against hope that there might be a happy ending for this mismatched pair.

The author has created memorable characters both on the home front and on the road, with some lovely surprises as we get to know them better, including one of my favourites; Faby’s grandmother.

This novel is beautifully written with a gentle pace but is still a page turner as the reader becomes fascinated in how the story of this ill-fated relationship is going to end. Thankfully the author provides us with secret revealing final chapters, as the story of Faby, Louis and Sonny the child they share,comes to a close. Highly recommended.

Read the reviews and buy: Amazon US – and : Amazon UK – Read more reviews and follow Elizabeth: Goodreads

About Elizabeth Gauffreau

I have always been drawn to the inner lives of other people–what they care about, what they most desire, what causes them pain, what brings them joy. These inner lives become my characters. I write to tell their stories.

My fiction and poetry have been published in literary magazines, including Rio Grande Review, Serving House Journal, Soundings East, Hospital Drive, Blueline, Evening Street Review, and Adelaide Literary Magazine, as well as several themed anthologies. Telling Sonny is my first published book.

I hold a B.A. in English/Writing from Old Dominion University and an M.A. in English/Fiction Writing from the University of New Hampshire. Currently, I am the Assistant Dean of Curriculum and Assessment at Champlain College Online in Burlington, Vermont.

Connect to ElizabethWebsite/blog: Liz Gauffreau – Family History: Liz Gauffreau – Facebook: Liz Gauffreau – Twitter: @lgauffreau

Thank you for dropping in today and I hope you enjoyed the review of Telling Sonny and will head over to buy and enjoy. Thanks Sally.

 

 

 

Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Author Updates – #Reviews – #Flash Sarah Brentyn, #Family Claire Fullerton, #1920s Elizabeth Gauffreau


Welcome to the first of the Cafe and Bookstore updates for the week with recent reviews for authors on the shelves.

The first author Sarah Brentyn with a recent review for her collection of short fiction Hinting at Shadows

About Hinting at Shadows

No One Escapes Life Unscathed

Delve into the deeper reaches of the human condition and the darkness that lives there.A girl haunted by her sister’s drowning. A boy desperate for his father’s affection. A woman forced to make a devastating decision. A man trapped by his obsessions.

Experience tales of love, loss, murder, and madness through this collection of flash and micro fiction.Take a peek behind the smile of a stranger. Get a glimpse inside the heart of a friend. Scratch the surface and discover what is hidden beneath.

These stories will open your mind, tug at your thoughts, and allow you to explore the possibility that, even in the brightest moments, something is Hinting at Shadows.

One of the recent reviews for the book

Harmony Kent 5.0 out of 5 stars Short and Brilliant   on November 13, 2019

This is a collection of flash fiction broken up into four sections, and it is an easy and quick read.

Having said that, brief as these snippets are, they go deep. I reckon I shall be re-reading this one over and over again. Here are a couple of lines that stood out for me:

‘Till the earth of who I was. From this mangled mass of roots, let something whole and healthy break through. Let something beautiful grow.’ and …

‘My life ebbs away, sailing from the shifting shore of my body like a piece of driftwood floating out to sea.’

And another one, which made me chuckle–I could relate to this one! … ‘The doctors say “insomnia” and prescribe pills. I say “writer” and pick up a pen.’

The writing was that good that I wanted each story to continue, but this is flash and micro fiction, so they don’t. Some of the stories are more like teasers and slice-of-life but brilliant nonetheless.

I read this in one go and couldn’t put it down. It gets a solid five stars from me.

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US

And: Amazon UK

Also by Sarah Brentyn

Read the reviews and buy the Collections: Amazon US

And on: Amazon UK

Read other reviews and follow Sarah: Goodreads

Connect to Sarah via her: Blog

The next author with a recent review for her family saga is Claire Fullerton with Mourning Dove.

About Mourning Dove

The heart has a home when it has an ally.

If Millie Crossan doesn’t know anything else, she knows this one truth simply because her brother Finley grew up beside her. Charismatic Finley, eighteen months her senior, becomes Millie’s guide when their mother Posey leaves their father and moves her children from Minnesota to Memphis shortly after Millie’s tenth birthday.

Memphis is a world foreign to Millie and Finley. This is the 1970s Memphis, the genteel world of their mother’s upbringing and vastly different from anything they’ve ever known. Here they are the outsiders. Here, they only have each other. And here, as the years fold over themselves, they mature in a manicured Southern culture where they learn firsthand that much of what glitters isn’t gold. Nuance, tradition, and Southern eccentrics flavor Millie and Finley’s world as they find their way to belonging.

But what hidden variables take their shared history to leave both brother and sister at such disparate ends?

One of the recent reviews for the book

As a Christian, and as a southern woman, I found this book compelling, engrosing and poignant. Her dialogue is as smooth as silk and reminds me of Pat Conroy in Prince of Tides. . I was simply carried away in her story about a family in peril.

Her characters are believable her dialogue sharp as a tack and her humor reminds me a lot of Barbara Kingsolver in the Poisionwood Bible. This is the first book of Claire Fullerton’s I have read and believe me it will not be the last! Thank you for a lovely read and by reading this book I was momentarily able to relax and get away from today’s world where we are so rushed and harried and so caught up In the News of the day, we fail to notice the subtle beauty all around us and she pointed that out.

Also by Claire Fullerton

Read the reviews and buy the books : Amazon US

and: Amazon UK

Read other reviews and follow Claire on : Goodreads

Connect to Claire via her website: Claire Fullerton

And for the final review today as we step back in time to the 1920’s and American Vaudeville courtesy of Telling Sonny by Elizabeth Gauffreau.

About Telling Sonny

Forty-six-year-old FABY GAUTHIER keeps an abandoned family photograph album in her bottom bureau drawer. Also abandoned is a composition book of vaudeville show reviews, which she wrote when she was nineteen and Slim White, America’s self-proclaimed Favorite Hoofer (given name, LOUIS KITTELL), decided to take her along when he played the Small Time before thinking better of it four months later and sending her back home to Vermont on the train.

Two weeks before the son she had with Louis is to be married, Faby learns that Louis has been killed in a single-car accident, an apparent suicide. Her first thought is that here is one more broken promise: Louis accepted SONNY’s invitation to the wedding readily, even enthusiastically, giving every assurance that he would be there, and now he wouldn’t be coming. An even greater indignity than the broken promise is that Louis’s family did not bother to notify Faby of his death until a week after the funeral took place. She doesn’t know how she can bring herself to tell Sonny he mattered so little in his father’s life he wasn’t even asked to his funeral…

One of the recent reviews for the book

D. W. Peach 5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written  December 10, 2019

This is a beautifully told story. Until the last few chapters of the book, the story belongs to the teenage Faby Gauthier who becomes pregnant in the 1920s and hastily marries the future baby’s father, a hoofer on the vaudeville circuit. For four months, she goes on the road with Louis Kittel aka Slim White. There are moments of kindness, but she is often left alone to rue her choices, and eventually returns home to Vermont to have her baby, Sonny.

Telling Sonny is a biography that reads like fiction with the perfect details to bring Faby’s world – settings, experiences, and emotions – to life. She’s a well-rounded and sympathetic character, and I found her narration engrossing. Secondary characters are equally strong, and though in many ways a sad tale, this is also a story about the strength of family. The book moves along at a moderate pace, and yet I was unable to put it down.

The title and blurb are a little misleading as they refer to the bookends of the story, not the longer tale between. The story begins and ends with Faby as a middle-aged woman fretting over telling Sonny about his father’s death. The meat of the story covers Faby’s short relationship with Louis. The structure makes sense in the end, giving a sense of closure to Faby (and the reader). A highly recommended book for anyone who enjoys biographies, literary fiction, women’s fiction, and well-told tales in general.

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US

And : Amazon UK

Read the reviews and follow Elizabeth: Goodreads

Connect to Elizabeth via her blog: Liz Gauffreau

Thank you for dropping in today and I hope you will be leaving with some books under your arm…thanks Sally.