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10/02/2024 08:30 AMIn this season of hauntings, a lively conversation with shoreline author Jen Payne will extricate the spirit of her newest book, Sleeping with Ghosts: Poems & Musings, at Guilford’s Breakwater Books. On Sunday, Oct. 13 at 5 p.m., Jen will explore the “ghosts” and stories in her new book with Guilford performer and poet Julie Fitzpatrick, during an Authors in Conversation event at Breakwater Books, 81 Whitfield Street.
Guests may register now (required, as space is limited), to enjoy poetry, creative conversation, and sweet treats during the author event and book signing. Copies of Sleeping with Ghosts will be available for purchase on the night of the event. Registration, $5.50, can be completed online at “Events” at breakwaterbooks.net. Registered guests will receive a $5 Breakwater Bucks store credit to use any time.
Jen’s looking forward to a great conversation with Julie. The two recently collaborated on Julie’s book, Church on the Screen. Jen’s expecting the talk will expand to include their takes on the creative process and the experience of making books.
Jen’s quite familiar with the process, not only as an author but also as the founder of Three Chairs Publishing. The imprint published Sleeping with Ghosts, Jen’s fifth book, as well as her previous books, Look Up! Musings on the Nature of Mindfulness, Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind, Waiting Out the Storm, and Water Under the Bridge: A Sort-of Love Story.
Additionally, this talented Branford resident, who is also a graphic designer, is the founder of Words by Jen. In business now for 30 years, Words by Jen clients have always included “...creative professionals, like artists and writers” as well as several local nonprofits, Jen notes.
At her blog, randomactsofwriting.net, Jen recently posted a story that connects her early days of starting Words by Jen with her work, now publishing her own books (and helping others to publish, too). For a great read, check out her post, “How One Phone Call in 1996 Led to a Life of Self-Publishing.” The article is Jen’s ode to the early professional support and encouragement she received from Dale Carlson, a well-known New York City author-turned-shoreline resident, who started her own publishing company, Bick Publishing House. Together, they went on to create more than 30 books.
As a poet and author, Jen says her writing often seeks to connect the dots between “...our relationship with nature, creativity, spirituality, and the bravery of storytelling.” Her work has been highlighted in the 2024 Connecticut Literary Anthology; the Guilford Poets Guild 20th Anniversary Anthology; Waking Up to the Earth: Connecticut Poets in a Time of Global Climate Crisis; Sunspot Literary Journal; and The Perch (a Yale Program for Recovery & Community Health publication).
In gathering her musings to create and present the poems of Sleeping with Ghosts, Jen’s talent as a storyteller is evident in the way she’s woven together the book’s chapters to gradually reveal each of her “ghosts” (memories) of “...family, and friends, lovers, soulmates and muses,” Jen says.
She explains that her intent in writing Sleeping with Ghosts was to go “...into the heart and mind of a poet, where memories wander, hearts break, and ghosts appear in dreams.”
“I have a very acute memory for visuals and for details,” says Jen. “As a writer, I’m able to put myself in situations; and go back in time into situations, and write from that place. When I write a poem or a piece of creative nonfiction like a memoir, I can set myself into a particular situation and write as if I was re-living that experience. It’s very visceral. I have a physical response to being in that place and time as I’m writing,” ”
Jen says there are defining moments in life that change your trajectory, who you are, and how you look at things.
“That’s a lot of what this book is about. A lot of the ghosts in this book are these moments where I had to make a decision to move forward, to not move forward, to make a change, to go on a trip, or to have a conversation with someone,” Jen says. “I think people will recognize in themselves those moments that are in the book.”
She says many of the stories she shares in her creative writing process are those first encountered as poetry in her mind.
“They come in as poetry. If there’s a little more meat to them, they end up as an essay. I also do a lot of 100-word stories which are fun and a little more narrative than poetry. But for the most part, I hear the stories as poetry,” says Jen.
At the Breakwater Books event, Jen expects to be sharing poems from Sleeping with Ghosts which will find their way into her conversation with Julie.
“There are so many ways into this book. I could read poems about ghosts, I could read poems that are more storytelling, or poems about writing. There’s a lot of overlap between the ghosts of memory and how they provide fodder for the poems,“ says Jen.
Jen is thrilled that Breakwater Books is supporting local authors with events such as this one. She also notes the Oct. 13 talk is the first in a series of events involving the launch of Sleeping with Ghosts this fall.
Jen’s coordinating a series featuring four local authors, Authors in the Shop at Guilford Art Center in November, in collaboration with Three Chairs Publishing. Jen will be one of the four authors at the talk. Additionally, Jen will be part of a national WOW! Women on Writing Blog Tour beginning Oct. 14. Jen will be posting information on these upcoming events at randomactsofwriting.net
Copies of Sleeping with Ghosts: Poems & Musings by Jen Payne can be purchased at Breakwater Books, at Guilford Art Center (beginning mid-October), on Amazon, and at the Three Chairs Publishing’s website (3ChairsPublishing.com)