About the Book
From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life is Charlene L. Edge's most recent book-a delightful multi-genre collection with something for every reader and writer.
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. At the heart of the collection are more than thirty short essays, containing insights into the writing craft, practical exercises, marketing tips, self-publishing advice, and recommendations of books on topics to nourish the emotional and intellectual lives of writers.
As well as exploring beloved authors and poets, Edge includes her own work to illustrate and enrich her essays: short-short stories about a character, Melanie Craven, who falls into sticky but enlightening predicaments; poems on themes of growth, love, loss, nature, travel, and being a writer; and a short story about her cult experience in her award-winning, book-length memoir Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International.
Beginning with "Readers Become Writers" and ending with "If You Want to Keep Writing," Edge's encouraging and gentle book guides us on a journey from porches to pages, as she highlights the vistas, detours, and delights on the writing path, along with truths we can all apply to poetry, prose, and life.
About the Author :
Charlene Edge's most recent book is From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life-a delightful multi-genre collection with something for every reader and writer.Charlene Edge is also the author of the award-winning memoir, Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International.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 in 1987, she earned a BA in English Literature from Rollins College, graduating summa cum laude, and worked for more than a decade as a technical writer and proposal 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.Charlene lives in Florida with her husband, Dr. Hoyt L. Edge, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Rollins College. On her website, she blogs about their world travels, the writing life, fundamentalism, cults, and whatever catches her imagination. She loves to walk, swim, and read as many books as she can. Visit her at https: //charleneedge.com. Alice Peck has more than twenty years of experience working with authors, and has guided dozens of first-time novelists and nonfiction writers at every stage-concept, proposal, first draft, publisher's revisions, or final draft-to completed and submission-ready manuscripts. These authors have been published by Atria, Avon, Ballantine, Berkeley, Broadway Books, Citadel, Crown, Da Capo, HarperCollins, Hyperion, MIT, McGraw-Hill, NAL, NYU, Permanent Press, Praeger, and Random House, as well as numerous small presses and independent publishers.Alice Peck is an editor for the transformational website RewireMe.com, where she focuses on books, psychology, and spirituality. She is also the author and editor of two anthologies published by SkyLight Paths. Before focusing exclusively on publishing, Alice acquired books and developed scripts for film and television, including A Few Good Men by Aaron Sorkin (TriStar), Dune by Frank Herbert (SciFi Channel), A Season in Purgatory by Dominick Dunne (CBS), and JFK: Reckless Youth by Nigel Hamilton (ABC). She also story-produced documentary and reality series for AMC, Bravo, and MTV. Duane Stapp has more than two decades of experience in book and magazine publishing, both as Art Director and Design Production Manager. His typographic skills were honed with years of work at Martha Stewart Omnimedia, perfecting type in magazines and books. He was Art Director at two publishing companies, Walker & Company, and Facts On File. He is also an exhibiting fine artist and has written art criticism.
Review :
"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. Author of Frog Hollow: Stories from an American Neighborhood, 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.
