The Matisse Puzzle, last steps towards affirmation

The Matisse Puzzle has reached Amazon but it’s not visible yet, as the Amazon algorithm is currently processing the submission, as I am sure you know it does. As a consequence of this lack of coordination (for which I am holding myself entirely culpable), I will have to postpone the Facebook launch party reserved for today. It’s not long: only three days, just to give the Amazon machines time to officialize the mobi file.
Please visit my Facebook author page on Saturday 5.00-7.00 pm EST, for two hours of fun in celebration of my first eBook baby.

I am preparing prizes and giveaways and some competitions to get us going smoothly.

The Matisse Puzzle in search for a reading list

I've been thinking about the books that exist without me ever having heard of them. I'm sure many other people have been thinking along the same lines at least once in their life. Every book we read is, unfortunately, another chance missed by all the other books in the world, since the time we spend reading one cannot be given to another.

Simple logic, painful conclusions. But the question that arises is: wouldn't it be easier to have a list of books worth casting our eyes on? It's not just books we don't know, but also books we have forgotten. It happens, doesn't it? Even our dearest favorites get tangled in the dense web of other things we do or think about, and we find ourselves rediscovering a book as if we'd seen it for the first time ever.

Source: Wikipedia

Well, these thoughts have caused me to initiate this experiment in sharing and participation. I would like to ask people who are following me on any of the platforms I am using at the moment to share their favorite readings with me and with others. I am hoping to compose a list of books able to go into the world as a promise of pleasures.
In concrete terms, what I am asking for is not exactly a bare list of names and titles, but rather descriptions, reviews, thoughts centered on books we have read, liked, and considered worth recommending to others. Two or three sentences will suffice. They will show the world that we really care about the book we are talking about; that we've given it a thought; that we've gone beyond the words on the page.

You can come here at any time and post your short recommendation as a comment below this post. The experiment has been announced on Facebook as well, under the event page I've set up in preparation for the launch of my novel, The Matisse Puzzle. If this blog doesn't sound like the right place for you, you can go to this event page, and leave your review there. I am also present on Twitter, where you can find me as @N1ckMarsh. Maybe a 140-character situation is better suited for an experiment of this type. If you feel more comfortable within this limit, then use Twitter to recommend your book.

Yes, I know there are other places where one may feel more motivated to participate in an exercise of this nature. But what I'm inviting you to do is give a little of your time to test the strength of what I like to call "participatory culture": the thing we've all been involved in ever since we've taken the path of Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads etc.
The resulting list will be published on this blog on April 30, the day The Matisse Puzzle is going live. The event page mentioned above will also carry the message of your wonderful contribution, on the same day or (if things go wild - as I hope they will) even beyond April 30.

The Matisse Puzzle in two short stories

Earlier today, I took over A Literary Perusal on Facebook, where, among other things, I offered to give away an Amazon Gift Card to the author of the most interesting short story containing the words "Matisse" and "puzzle.' I did this competition last week as well, if you remember. Jennifer Theriot was the winner that time, and, as a result of her success, she was invited to contribute a material to the present blog. Just like last week, the story was expected to be 100 words in length, or thereabouts. Today's winner, Gabriela Sin, was duly acknowledged as the author of the winning story, but after the end of the contest another story arrived, which also caught my attention. It had been authored by Belle Marie, who was only slightly late.
I decided to publish both stories here, on The Matisse Puzzle blog, where visitors can read them and, if feeling compelled, pass some comments on them.
Without further ado, here are the two stories:

Gabriela Sin

"He was a beautiful Matisse and I a spectator, always learning something new from him. He would never stop being my own unique puzzle to solve, and I his student to teach. No words would need to pass through us, for us to understand what the other wanted. He would always be there for me and I for him. It was at that moment, walking down the aisle in my father's arms, that I knew that the smiling man I saw in front of me would forever be my other half."

Belle Marie

 “You’re impossible!” She threw her hands up in defeat.
“I prefer to think of myself like a puzzle. Put the pieces together.” He trailed off as he wrapped his arms around her and tried to steal a kiss.
“And what? Make a Matisse? Beautifully complicated?” Lily tried to pull away but his warm hold was too much to resist.
“You don’t have to understand art for it to be art,” Luke murmured as he kissed her softly.“I prefer to think of myself like a puzzle. Put the pieces together.” He trailed off as he wrapped his arms around her and tried to steal a kiss.“And what? Make a Matisse? Beautifully complicated?” Lily tried to pull away but his warm hold was too much to resist.“You don’t have to understand art for it to be art,” Luke murmured as he kissed her softly.“Impossible,” she grumbled.“According to you –  beautiful too.”He chuckled as she rolled her eyes. He had won this round. So damn stubborn.

As it's easily noticeable, the two stories are very different. While the first one is narrative in nature, the second one is based almost exclusively on dialogues (and well done too). However, they have something in common: a special clarity and an inclination toward tender sentiments.
Well done both Gabriela Sin and Belle Marie.

Visitors, please leave your comments below. I'm sure our authors would like to hear from you.

The Matisse Puzzle welcomes guest: Jennifer Theriot

Jennifer Theriot, author, so far, of two volumes from the planned Out of the Box series (currently available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Smashwords) has accepted to give us a quick glimpse at her experience as an author. Jennifer's books, Awakening and Regifted, have been hailed by readers as "emotional roller-coasters," "full of true romance," "full of love, redemption, and the never say die attitude." I asked Jennifer to say a few things about the way she started writing, the things that motivate and inspire her, and the writing she has planned for the near future. And here she goes:

I started writing in 2012. I’ve always loved to read and had just finished the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, which I’ll have to admit I had to read twice to get the full gist of the story. 

My youngest son played professional baseball in the minor leagues and had just announced to us that he was retiring. Needless to say, this left an incredible void in my life; we’d been going to baseball games to watch him play for almost 20 years from little league, to college, to the minors. It was like a very bad breakup and I was desperately in need of a remedy for my separation anxiety.

My start

I realized that there weren’t many books out there written about middle-aged lovers, so decided to give it a shot. This was just what I needed to take my mind off of the baseball breakup! I took a couple of my girlfriends who are voracious readers to dinner and told them about what I was thinking of doing. I fully expected them to laugh and tell me how crazy I was, but their response was quite the contrary. They actually challenged me to do it. Never one to turn down a good challenge, I set out to write. These two friends have been incredible throughout this whole process and we’ve spent many nights on my patio (OOBA on the patio as we call it) drinking wine and discussing the book. We’ve even come up with OOBA-isms, which are sayings from the book and I’ve incorporated these into my giveaway items. It’s so much fun and my mind seems to be working 24/7.

My inspiration

Music is a HUGE inspiration in my writing. I love all kinds of music. When I hear a song that I like, immediately a scene from the book will come into my mind. I try and develop a scene around lyrics to a song that inspires me.

As for a message in the book, I would say that life doesn’t stop once you hit 50. Good sex and romance don’t die once you hit mid-life. Life doesn’t stop when someone you love stops loving you. Women need to feel good about themselves and step ‘out of the box’ in order to live and not merely exist. I’ve had several readers’ email me thanking me for giving them hope and I can honestly tell you, that’s the best inspiration!

Following up

After writing the first book, I knew there was more of the story that needed to be told. I’ve just released Out of the Box Regifted and am working on the 3^rd and final in the Out of the Box series entitled Out of the Box Everlasting.  I’ll also write a follow up novella which will be from the POV of a character in the book (Todd).

After I’m finished with these, I have another series planned, also about a middle aged woman who finds love after heartache.

 

I should not forget to mention that Jennifer won the giveaway competition I organized earlier this week at Sexyways of Reading, a Facebook venue for aspiring writers managed by two lovely ladies who will be on this blog soon, with their takes on takeovers.

The competition had asked participants to write a short-short containing the words 'Matisse' and 'Puzzle.' Here is Jennifer's entry:

Our relationship was a complicated puzzle with new pieces emerging every day; magical and colorful like a Matisse painting.

What impressed me in this short text was its simplicity, and also its ability to articulate in a few words a metaphor that can stand alone as a story.

Jennifer Theriot can be found at her personal website, on Facebook, Goodreads, and of course, Twitter.

Three things I learned while writing The Matisse Puzzle

When I started doing creative writing (focusing on The Matisse Puzzle, of course) I found it did not flow very easily. It seemed like hard work because I was trying to be clever, trying to get the plot right, trying to employ figures of speech that were hard to get at – all this, rather than simply going with a flow.

I was thinking too much, you see? But writing, as I found out eventually, needs to be more and better than endless reflection. Maybe it’s a bit like golf, where thinking too much about ‘getting it right’ is a recipe for frustration.  ‘Have I got my feet in the right position? Have I got the right club? Will my swing go through the right arc?’ These are not good questions. These are nightmares. They haunt you and never let you take a single step forward.

Sleep impediments and all, it took me a while to get into the flow. But once there, I started following the best advice any writer could ever get: JUST WRITE. I wrote and I wrote, sometimes like there was no tomorrow. And in the process I learned things only someone who’s written at least one novel would know. To me, the most important things I’ve figured out are the following three. 

You may have a lot of characters in your novel. Which means, you're going
to have to learn a lot of languages, to be able to address them properly.
Source: Character Animation

They were the guiding lines of The Matisse Puzzle, so I’ll mention them with the air of someone who’s reciting a mantra:

• Get to know the characters as if they were real people. Form a relationship with them, get inside their heads, and ask them to tell you what they are thinking, feeling, and doing. Most of the time, they will answer.
• Visualize the characters in the ‘movies’ of their life, scene by scene, and write down what you see, hear, feel. I found that this was a lot easier than asking things like: ‘This character is this kind of person, so what would they be doing? What would be good for them to do to generate or sustain a good plot?’ The point is, they know what they are doing, because the logic of the text is their own logic. So just ask them – yes, ask your characters as if you were asking real people. Don’t try to be brilliant on them, by employing some formulaic plot devices, which, if improperly handled, risk being clunky and inauthentic. Be natural. Be friendly towards your characters.
• Learn how to inhabit a place that exists inside your head. Obviously, it helps if you have spent some quality time there yourself. But I found that many aspects of my trips were hard to recall after a while. And then let us not forget: sooner or later, in most normal of conditions, memory dims. So one obvious approach is to take lots of photos and videos of the place when you are there. Take them with the view of using them as aids for your dimming memory. Take them like an author who wants to see details, specificities, realities.

The Future King and Queen of England visiting my Home Town tomorrow

I live in Cambridge, New Zealand which is a small town on the Waikato River, founded in 1864 and named after the Duke of Cambridge, who was the Commander in Chief of the British Army. The two really famous Cambridges in the World are in Massachussets, home of Harvard and MIT, and in England, home of Cambridge University. But these days it's the Cambridge of New Zealand that's running the ball.

Tomorrow morning (New Zealand time) we shall be honored by a British royal visit which has not happened since Queen Elizabeth visited New Zealand in 1954. The town is very excited because tomorrow’s visitors are the Queen’s grandson, William, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, the heirs to the British throne, who are on a visit to New Zealand with their son, Prince George, who’s only eight months old. George has already become a hit with the NZ public, as this is his first major appearance on the world stage, and he has already put on a show for the cameras.

Today the Duke and Duchess were in Auckland, each captaining an America’s Cup 12 meter yacht and racing each other around the Auckland harbor. The Princess won 2 races to nil, so you can imagine the jokes.

In Cambridge, all the shops have been competing with each other for displays of the funkiest tableaux scenes of England and royalty.

These are all my photos. Cambridge looked pretty prepared for the visit.

So tomorrow is the day for a little bit of history. We will be in the crowds to catch a glimpse of the Royals and get some photos. By coincidence we live in Princes St, Cambridge, which is next to William Street and just along from Victoria and Jubilee St. As is evident, the street names of this village were named after Whitehall, which is just along the road from Buckingham Palace and the home of the Cambridge Royals in Kensington palace.

So your trusty reporter will be on duty tomorrow to bring you the first-hand story of the visit.

The Matisse Puzzle has a cover and a date!

It's finally decided. The Matisse Puzzle will go live on Amazon on the last day of the month: April 30. There will be a giveaway, of course, and - if things go well - a blog tour as well. At the moment we're working on touring, so if any of the readers of these posts are willing to host The Matisse Puzzle for a day, we promise to shower gratifications upon them (in electronic ways, of course).
Insofar as the cover is concerned, we have more or less settled on this one, which is very much within the spirit of the book: enigmatic, clandestine, mysterious.

Another thing we'd love to know is whether anybody is willing to review us. Any interested reviewers are welcome to get in touch with us at any time, and they will be provided with advance copies, around one week prior to the publication date.
In the meantime, don't forget to read our sample, and to give us a little feedback (no matter how small, it will shine some form of light on us: positive or negative).