More about Helena Harper

Biography of Helen Harper

Helena Harper is a native of England, but she grew up in a household that did things somewhat differently to other English households, because her mother was German (her mother had met her father in Hamburg at the end of WWII, when as a British soldier he had been stationed there). This mixed background has had a profound influence on Helena and her understanding of so-called national divisions and whom we call an 'enemy' and whom we call a 'friend'.

From an early age she loved to read and write, particularly fantasy stories, and later she enjoyed studying foreign languages. At Surrey University she studied German, Russian and International Relations and spent considerable periods of time in Germany, Austria and Russia as part of the course. After university she went into banking, but soon realised that was a big mistake. “I felt like I was being suffocated,” she says of the experience.

She then spent a year teaching languages at a private school in London, and enjoyed it so much she decided she would get properly trained. She did a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Exeter University and then started her career as a modern languages teacher, a career which has lasted twenty years. During that time she has continued to write, concentrating primarily on fantasy stories for young children. However, in the past few years she has also discovered the joys of writing poetry for adults, and her first two books are poetry collections: It's a Teacher's Life...! and Family and More – Enemies or Friends?, which have been inspired by her professional and personal life.

Helena is now a private tutor and translator. She is continuing to write children's stories, and illustrations for her first children's picture book are now being done. Her aim is to see the book in print before the year is out. Many people ask Helena why she likes to write. She feels she can best express it like this:

The blank page calls,
the heart responds,
imagination spreads wide its wings
and launches into infinity...
Fingers dance,
words flow,
the page fills,
the soul takes flight
and the spirit sings.

Copyright © Helena Harper



Email: webmaster@helenaharper.com

Author's website: http://www.helenaharper.com/

Authorsden website: http://www.authorsden.com/helenaharper

Blog: http://helenaharpersblog.blogspot.com/

Follow her on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/helenaharper

Purchase Family and More-Enemies or Friends?: http://www.eloquentbooks.com/Familyandmore.html

Family and More- Enemies or Friends? by Helena Harper

Family and More: Enemies or Friends? by Helena Harper

Who influences us in our lives? How do they influence us? Whom do we call an enemy? Whom do we call a friend? And why? Why do we have relationships at all?

These are the questions Helena Harper eloquently asks in her collection of poems that examines the relationships in her own life. She has had to rethink her definition of 'enemy', not least because her father was English and her mother German and they met in the aftermath of World War II in Germany. She has also been forced to rethink her definition of 'friend'. If we learn something from someone that helps us to grow and develop as human beings, becoming more understanding and compassionate in the process, then surely most people we meet in life will be our 'friends'?

Through the memories and experiences of the people in Helena's life, others can hopefully reflect on their own and maybe come to understand themselves and their relationships better.

Review of “Family and More – Enemies or Friends?”

Family and More – Enemies or Friends? is more than a collection of poems, it is a story I enjoyed and learned from. As you read this book, it becomes clear that the author put a great deal of time and effort into the choice of every word used. Each poem has a melodic flow that moves smoothly into the next.

Family and More enlightens the reader to the conflicts and confusion that exist in a family divided by war. Being the child of a German mother and English father in the aftermath of WWII, the author delves into her family’s history by examining the lives of several family members as well as other personal relationships. Each poem is an intertwined life. With descriptive imagery these people come alive; you see their struggles and triumphs.
This wonderful poetic story goes beyond a family history; it depicts the futility, frustration and hardship of war, along with the frailties and strengths of the people that make up each of our families.

Family and More – Enemies or Friends? is a beautifully written book. I highly recommend it.

Karen Cioffi, Author and Freelance Writer DKV Writing 4 U (http://dkvwriting4u.com/)
http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com/Co-author of Day’s End Lullaby


Contact details/more info:

Email: webmaster@helenaharper.com
Helena’s website: http://www.helenaharper.com/
Helena’s authorsden website: http://www.authorsden.com/helenaharper
Helena’s blog: http://helenaharpersblog.blogspot.com/
Follow Helena on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/helenaharper

Family and More- Enemies or Friends? is only available was an E-book from the publisher Eloquent Books.

Stay tuned on Monday for more information about Helena!

The Poet in ME?

I sometimes refer to myself as an ex-poet. I've had some people, mostly poets, give me strange looks and say that's not possible. Once you become a poet, you start thinking like a poet, and you can never think differently.

And I guess that's true. I have never stopped looking at the world differently than the average person. I still see the beauty in everything. I guess the difference is, I'm directing those thoughts into different places now. Instead of writing a detailed, descriptive poem about a young boy and his grandma riding a city bus, I work it into a picture book. I tend to focus my attention more on children than adults. I also tend to focus on the outside world, not inside my own head. My poems tend to be self-reflective, but my picture books and novels examine the larger picture. Of course, I still use my own experiences when I write for kids, but they are mixed with things I've seen or heard kids do while out and about in the "real world."

I wonder sometimes if my lack of poetic moments lately is because I'm not living enough. I'm not out doing things and experiencing the world as much as I would like. I spend most of my time teaching or writing.

When I talk about why I pushed poetry aside, a few reasons keep creeping up:

• The need to be someone other than "me" in my work. Persona poems couldn't do it. People still thought I was being me.
• The inability to please myself and an audience at the same time. The audience at that point was mainly professors and other students.
• The feeling of being confined in twelve or so lines. It's odd, I used to never be able to write poems longer than fifteen lines. Now, I can't seem to get away from writing whole novels worth of stuff. It's liberating.
• The realization that I probably will never make money off of, or even publish, a book of poetry. Sad as it is, it's true. Publishing poetry is one of the hardest things to do, and if I couldn't do it "right" then I wasn't going to do it.
• The feeling that I needed to fit a "mold." Poets are picky. As a poetry student, I was told to follow all kinds of unwritten, contradictory rules. It was frustrating, and it sucked creativity out of me. Writing for kids is much more freeing. Just think of all the areas you can experiment with: non-fiction, picture books, rebus stories, poetry, middle grade fiction, YA novels, chick lit, fantasy, povels, the list goes on and on.

So the fact that I haven't finished a poem in over year doesn't really scare me. That I'm moving beyond 6+ years of doing the same thing every day excites me.

Q&A with Margaret Fieland

Q: Tell us about what you write.

A: I'm a professional Computer Software engineer – BA in mathematics, MS in computer science, and it never even occurred to me to be a writer. That said, I've written poetry as far back as I can remember – somehow that didn't “count” -- but not with publication in mind and not with any level of dedication. At present, I'm writing nonfiction ( a monthly column for an ezine, FemmeVip http://www.femmevip.com/ – poetry and stories, especially children's stories. I sort of fell into writing for publication. I'm far from the best organized person going, so though I wrote tons of poetry, I didn't keep it organized in any way. Finally, I wrote a poem I wanted to keep – and wanted to, and did, see published – so I looked around for a way to organize that I could cope with. Since I'm a computer professional, I used more than one computer – and also I'm paranoid about backup – so I put the online. At first I had them in my Yahoo briefcase. Later I switched to Google documents, which I like much better.

Q: Do you have a favorite thing that you’ve ever written?

A: I have a couple of poems that hold a special place in my heart. One is “Booze,” the poem that got me started getting organized. I also have an unpublished story, “Sherwood,” that's making the rounds that I'm very fond of, and my chapter book, “The Ugly Little Boy.”

Q:Do you have a favorite character that you write about? If so, who is it, whatmakes it your favorite and tell us about the character.

A:My current favorite character is a little girl, Heather. I originally wrote a silly piece about my kids and some of the stuff they'd done – sort of flash fiction/prose poetry, and the characters were Which, Why, and Whether. The focus was on Why. The characters were modeled after my sons, now grown. Then I decided I needed to expand the thing and wanted real names, so the first two ended up as “Mitch” and “Wyatt.” I tried to come up with a boy's version of “Whether,” but I kept coming back to “Heather.” I've written some stories about the characters, and plan to do more, perhaps a chapter book, and, well, Heather took over {grin} and she ended up being the focus of the stories. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with Heather and her brothers, but she's on my list of things to do in 2009.

Q: Almost every writer is inspired by someone else. Does anyone inspire you?

A: Lewis Carroll. My all time favorite book is “Alice in Wonderland,” which I reread every exam time when I was in college, as I made it a habit to avoid the library during exams.

Q:How long have you been writing?

A: I've been writing poetry since my teens, but only with publication in mind for the past three or four years. As a story writer I'm pretty much of a novice, as I only started writing stories after I hooked up with Linda Barnett Johnson after the first Muse online writer's conference three years ago and joined her writing forums. I'm 62 now, so that's a lot of years of writing.

Q: What made you want to start writing?

A: Good question – I started and became addicted. I really love writing. I wrote a poem as a thank you for an instructor in an online course I just finished and I realized when I'd finished just how much I just plain enjoy writing poetry. Besides, if I don't write it down it stays stuck in my head.

Q: When did you start writing?

A: Like many teens, I started writing (bad) poetry in my teens as an outlet for my teenage angst. Then later on I started writing poetry for the people I was dating, and after that for family birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, -- basically everything.

Q: What's the strangest thing you've ever written? Why?

A: I don't think anything I write is strange {looks innocently up at ceiling}. I have written several surreal poems, and I have one I really like called “Machine A Ecrire” (French for typewriter), unpublished, in the shape of a typewriter. The sentences are “variations” on the stuff they had us all typing when we were in school.

Q: Some authors have said that their parents were supportive of their efforts whenyoung, and some have said they had to sneak around and hide. What was the case with you?

A: When I was young I was studying music, not writing – I play the flute and the piccolo. My mother was an artist and while she was supportive of my music, her advice was “Always be able to support yourself,” so for that and other reasons I didn't become a professional musician.

Q: Who proofreads and critiques your work?

A: I belong to a couple of (online) critique groups, and I'm going to start looking a writing partner, as my last one had to quit for family reasons.

Q: Where do you get your ideas?

A: Darned if I know. Some of the poetry is “inspired,” some is in response to exercises or prompts I dig up – lots of places.

Q: Where do you write?

A: Wherever I happen to be. I have pads and pens everywhere. I even write in the car. At home, my favorite spot is the dining room table.

Q: When do you write – set times or as the mood moves you?

A: Since I have a full time job, whenever the spirit moves me, and I have (or can make) the time. The nice thing about poetry is that a lot of it is short and taking a couple of minutes to jot down poetry is pretty easy to do. Waiting for appointments is a favorite time to write.

Q: If you could take a character from someone else's book on a date, who wouldit be and where would you take him/her/it?

A: Oh, good question. Some of the characters from Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series come to mind. If I could take them anywhere, I think I'd opt for the San Diego Museum of Science (as opposed to the one here in Boston). I was there once for a conference and fell in love with the place.

Q: If you could invite any other writer to dinner who would ask and why?

A: Lewis Carroll, because I have a soft spot for his poetry, or James M. Barrie, because my favorite book as a kid was Peter Pan.

Q: Do you use the Internet to check facts, or the library?

A: Are you kidding? The internet. I'm an online kind of gal. My favorite resource is http://www.dictionary.com/ , which has an online dictionary and thesaurus. I make heavy use of the thesaurus when writing poetry, even rhymed poetry. Though I do occasionally resort to a rhyming dictionary, I usually generate the rhymes myself.

Q: When you're not writing, what do you like to do?

A: Read, listen to music, play my flute and my piccolo, walk our dogs, do crossword puzzles.

Q: Do you ever have a problem with writer's block?

A: Not so far, thank goodness {pauses to knock wood}.

Q: Who's your favorite author (other than yourself)? Why?

A: My favorite author for a long time was Robert Heinlein. I am a 'way back sci fi fan. I picked out his “Farmer in the Sky” as my tenth birthday present.

Q: What's your favorite book (other than one of your own)? Why?

A: Alice in Wonderland, which I reread every exam time in college.

Q: What's the last book, other than your own, that you read and really enjoyed?

A: I just started reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, about a mountaineer who ends up building schools in Pakistan after the inhabitants of a small mountain village save his life.

Q: Some writers say that they have to write a certain amount of words every day.Do you do this? Why or why not?

A: No – it feels counterproductive to me. The stuff I write isn't long to begin with. I do try to do something every day – write, revise, submit, critique – but I don't hold myself to a certain number of words.

Q: If you could be any character (other than one of your own) from a book or moviewho would it be? Why?

A:I think I'd like to be Magdalene Lorne from Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books. I think she's really neat.

Q: Why did you start writing?

A: I started writing poetry to express teenage angst, and continued for much the same reason. Then I started writing more because it turned my partner on. Then I started writing yet more because it was something special to do for holidays and family birthdays. Then I submitted a poem of mine to a poetry contest on a whim, and it was one of four finalists. So then I felt validated and started working on my poetry and submitting it for publication. I joined online groups, got books on writing poetry and worked through them, started reading more poetry, etc. I like seeing my name in print -- it's a turn-on -- but at bottom, I just plain enjoy writing poetry. Occasionally I am touched by the muse. Then, too, it's a nice, portable occupation, and it's nothing like my day job (computer software engineer), so it's a welcome relief to struggle with a poem or a story instead of why a particular section of code is or isn't working. I also write to get stuff out of my head, where it would otherwise be stuck.

Q: What do you write?

A: I write poetry, stories, and articles. I started writing stories after the first Muse On Writing conference, where I hooked up with Linda Barnett Johnson. I write both rhymed poetry and free verse. I'm 62 and my day job is a computer software engineer {grin}. I have three sons. The youngest is a senior in college, the next one is in the army, and the oldest is computer software engineer. The middle one is the only one who has any writing talent or musical ability. I live with my partner, who has a son (in college, living at home ATM) and a daughter. We have lots of dogs.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Poetry, of course. I'm trying to put together a couple of chapbooks, and a chapter book for 7-9 year olds, The Ugly Little Boy. This book does have significant meaning for me. Many years ago now, friends lost their lives in a fire. Mother and all four children died, leaving the father, who was never the same. Partly I'm writing TULB to make things come out differently. I can't change what happened, but in my story, there's only one child (all I can handle as a writer), and only the mother dies. I'm working on the rewrite and passing the chapters through my critique group. I'm working on the chapbooks party because it's nice to have a goal, and partly because it's something to do, and partly because it would be a tremendous ego boost to actually see one of them in print.

Q: What are your hobbies?

A: I play music (the flute and the piccolo). Up until a year ago, when the late nights got to be a bit much for me, I was a member of a band. I have a strong inner need to create.



Contact Margaret Fieland:
Website: http://www.margaretfieland.com/
E-mail: contact@margaretfieland.com

Meet Poet and Writer Margaret Fieland

Born and raised in New York City, Margaret Fieland has been around art and music all her life. Daughter of a painter, she is the mother of three grown sons and an accomplished flute and piccolo player. She is an avid science fiction fan, and selected Robert A. Heinlein's “Farmer in the Sky” for her tenth birthday, now long past. She lives in the suburbs west of Boston, MA with her partner and seven dogs. Her poems, articles and stories have appeared in journals and anthologies such as Main Channel Voices, Echolocation, and Twisted Tongue. In spite of making her living as a computer software engineer, she turned to one of her sons to format the initial version of her website, a clear illustration of the computer generation gap. You may visit her website, http://www.margaretfieland.com/

Stay tuned for an interview with Margaret Fieland.

Inspiration

Last weekend, I had the pleasure to see and meet two very awesome writers, Jan Beatty and Naomi Shihab Nye. It was my first "literary" weekend in awhile. On Friday night, I attended the Gist St. Reading Series to see Pittsburgh native Jan Beatty read her poetry. I've admired her work for a couple of years now and even own one of her books (which, unfortunately, I forgot to take for her to sign). When I left the reading, I had this strange desire to write poetry again, something I haven't done in months. It was like my brain had opened up and all of this creativity had rushed in again. I was thinking like a poet, seeing things for their hidden meanings once again.

Then, on Sunday, I met Naomi Shihab Nye at the Bridges to New Worlds Literary Festival at Chatham University. Her workshop was amazing! Naomi is such a friendly, down-to-earth, yet wise woman. Naomi is just like me-- a poet at heart turned children's writer. She is probably best known for her poetry, but her YA novel Haibibi is outstanding! I left the workshop on Sunday morning floating on a cloud, my signed copy of A Maze Me: Poems for Girls in my hand and another push to start writing more.

The point of my stories is this: we must live in order to write. When we stop allowing ourselves to commune with other writers, to share our work, to seek out inspiration, that's when we prevent ourselves from being constructive with our work. I feel as if I've allowed myself to get so busy with life that I've prevented myself from truly living the life of a writer. It took a weekend like this past one to remind me how great it feels to have this gift.

Save the Dates- Pittsburgh

Heather McNaugher, Assistant Professor of English at Chatham University's MFA program, will be reading this Sunday, August 17th at 2PM at the Carnegie Library in Oakland.

The Fall Festival of Children's Books will take place Friday October 17th from 9AM-5Pm at the Children's Musuem on the North Side.

My picture book, Angeline Jellybean, comes out in February 2009!

Illustrations! Submissions! Readings! Oh, my!

I got to see some sample illustrations for Angeline Jellybean last night and--wow! I am so thrilled with them I could dance in the streets.

I've been working on a number of projects. My thesis (still not titled with only 10 pages left to go), a couple of picture books (Mr. Beta and You Oughta Like the Otters which desperately needs reworked and a different title), and random other things. I think my next round of submissions might be a picture book called Jason and Jamal. I wrote it around the time I wrote Angeline, so maybe that was when I wrote all of my brilliant work. haha.

I sent some poems out awhile ago. I'm not really expecting any acceptances. Of course it would be awesome, but I rather enjoy collecting rejection letters too. ;-)

Here's good news not about me: My boyfriend, Mark C. Bradley, will be a featured local writer at Ukazoo Books in Towson, MD on September 14th! Yay, Mark!

Getting into Dodge

You know the expression "Get the Hell out of Dodge"? I have no idea what it means, but I wanna get into Dodge. The Dodge Poetry Festival in Stanhope, New Jersey, that is. As an English major in college, it was the coolest place to be at the end of September, and I always wanted to go, but never got to. This year, Ted Kooser is reading on Sunday! So, naturally, I want to go just to see him. And I've asked Mark to go with me and make a weekend out of it. After the last failed attempt, his time I will meet Ted Kooser, come hell or high water.

In other news: I am working on a short story for middle schoolers about a "sixth grade sleuth" with an over-active imagination. When he notices one of his fellow sixth graders going to the nurse's office every day, all kinds of crazy things run through his mind. Like maybe the kid is an alien getting tested by the nurse for the government. Turns out, his friend is not an alien, but a diabetic who must get his sugar level tested daily before lunch. So the "sixth grade sleuth" must learn a thing or two about diabetes and the mysterious box that is attached to his friend's hip.

And now for the official announcement: My picture book Angeline Jellybean will be published by 4RV Publishing in early 2009!! It still doesn't feel real to me; maybe that's why I haven't told anyone but Mark about it. But I secretely love thinking about my name on a book. This will be my very first book in print! Needless to say, I'm excited but overwhelmed with the thought.

Love's Chance?

Anyone know how I can get some recent copies of Love's Chance magazine? Apparently, they're so small that they can't afford to pay for publication in copies. I feel kind of dumb not knowing what kind of quality the magazine is, even after I've been published in it. Especially because it seems like they published me so quickly. I'm going to write a letter, but if anyone knows anything about the publication, could you please let me know? Thanks.

Rectangle

Today in the mail I received my two copies of the Rectangle as payment for publication! For those of you who don't know, the Rectangle is the literary journal of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Major Honor Society. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was among a great group of poets, including Cameron Conaway, former PSU-A classmate, Chatham MFA grad Nimi Finnegan, and current Chatham MFA student Meghan Tutolo. Congratulations to all of you! I'm honored to be listed among your talent. :-)

Povel?

Have you read a povel today?

I know, you're going "Huh? What the heck is a povel?"

I povel is simply a novel written in poetry form. Also known as novels in verse. Many of them are targeted to the YA audience. When I was first told about this form, I couldn't believe that something like it existed. I couldn't understand how anyone could write an entire novel in poetry. I did some research, and I was amazed as just how many novels written in verse are out there.

I am currently reading Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes (not completely written in poetry) and "Make Lemonade" by Virginia Euwer Wolff. Another author that I heard was amazing was Sonya Sones. I've requested some of her books from the library. If you want to read something new, check this genre out!

I'm also strongly considering doing my thesis as a povel. Stay tuned for more.

Come See Me!

Special event at the Birmingham Bridge Tavern (29th and Sarah, Pittsburgh's Southside) November 30th at 8:00 PM-- it's Most Wanted Writer's Half-Aversary Event!

Yup, hard to believe that it's been six months already since myself, Courtney, Matt, Marissa, and Sarah rocked the house at Most Wanted Fine Arts' first ever literary event!

Come see me, Kate Homer, and Courtney Lora Lang read at 8PM Friday, November 30th!

If you can't make it, you could always go on Friday October 26th at 8PM to hear the following readers:

Stephanie Wielkopolan
Nathaniel Fuller
Jane Fishman

They're all great writers and people, too!

After the November event, the Most Wanted Writers will go on hiatus until February 29th. So, PLEASE COME!

The Poet's House

Today, I went with Sarah and the rest of the AmeriCorps people to the North Side of Pittsburgh to visit the Chinese poet Huang Xiang. His house on the North Side is called simply "the Poet's House," and anyone who has been in the area knows why. Mr. Xiang has actually covered his wooden house is his poetry, written in Chinese caligraphy with white paint. To meet Mr. Xiang is a great experience. He has a passion for the spoken word that transcends language barriers, and delivers his poetry with such passion. He performed seven poems for us, and each one blew us away.

Perhaps Mr. Xiang's passion is due to the fact that he was exiled from his own country because of his writing. He was frequently imprisoned in China for writing poetry and advocating human rights. In 2004, Mr. Xiang was invited by the Pittsburgh chapter of the City of Asylum organization to begin his residency in Pittsburgh. He and his wife Zhang Ling now live in Pittsburgh as legal refugees.

Can you imagine a place where one cannot even be a poet in his own house? Where people are forced to flee their country in order to express themselves creatively and pursue their passion? Where one must literally leave his or her home to make a home in a new land, just because they want to write? I can't.