{"id":5813,"date":"2012-05-31T11:23:30","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T15:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=5813"},"modified":"2012-06-01T11:43:28","modified_gmt":"2012-06-01T15:43:28","slug":"well-fed-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2012\/05\/well-fed-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Well-Fed Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>by Vicky Dickson<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"reader.100\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4092\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100-80x80.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFor <strong>Joyce Allen<\/strong>, writing is like breathing. In more ways than one, actually:<!--more--> Writing comes naturally to the longtime Carrboro resident, since her mother was a freelance writer and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been writing herself for as long as she can remember. But Allen also sees writing as fulfilling her need to deal with experience actively, to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153take it in, shape it, return it to the universe with something added of myself \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 like breathing out after you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve breathed in.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a need she thinks all humans have, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to take in the world and do something with it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5814\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5814\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Readery-Joyce-Allen-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Readery-Joyce-Allen-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Readery-Joyce-Allen-2\" width=\"350\" height=\"233\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5814\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Readery-Joyce-Allen-2.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Readery-Joyce-Allen-2-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Readery-Joyce-Allen-2-120x80.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5814\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carrboro resident Joyce Allen wrote her most recent novel, Those Who Hold the Threads, as the first book in a trilogy for young adults based on myths about the Fates. Photo by Alicia Stemper<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nAnd though humans can address that need in a thousand different ways \u00e2\u20ac\u201c by playing music, painting, cooking or growing things \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Allen also sees storytelling as fundamental.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We cannot not tell stories,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says, because stories help us understand the world around us.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps that helps explain why Allen wrote her most recent novel, <em>Those Who Hold the Threads<\/em>, for the young-adult market. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where the stories are,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s her first time writing for that age group. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also her first fantasy novel, though she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been reading the genre for years.<\/p>\n<p><em>Those Who Hold the Threads<\/em> is book one of a trilogy-in-progress. Based on myths about the three (or sometimes four, depending on which tradition you follow) Fates, it has a thoroughly modern young protagonist who must come to terms with a destiny that is both ancient and timeless. In order to write <em>Threads<\/em>, Allen spent a lot of time studying myths, which she then recast, in the way that storytellers have always done. For one of the book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scenes she studied astronomy\u00e2\u20ac\u201c and then found, to her chagrin, that though the stars seem timeless, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s known about them changes significantly from year to year. <\/p>\n<p>As do computers, which gave Allen her hardest challenge, requiring her to seek out answers to scores and scores of technical questions in order to accurately portray her characters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 computer mischief. <\/p>\n<p>Luckily, the writer has been blessed with a long list of friends and relations who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been able to help her, from the four young granddaughters who alerted her to problems with dialogue and school descriptions in the first draft to the tech-savvy colleagues from the job she held for many years as manager of the student program in the Department of Epidemiology at UNC. And the writing student she had years ago, who inspired a couple of the young male computer geeks in her novel.<\/p>\n<p>That particular writing student was just one of many who Allen has taught over the past 20 years, at Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ArtsCenter as well as Duke University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Continuing Studies program. Though her teaching duties mean that she rarely gets a full day just to write, Allen appreciates the way that teaching has enhanced her own writing. It \u00e2\u20ac\u0153feeds everything else,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says. <\/p>\n<p><em>Those Who Hold the Threads<\/em> is evidence that Allen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writing is well fed indeed. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a book that should enthrall young adult readers (and probably their parents as well), and leave them hungry for the next book of the trilogy. Which hopefully will arrive before too long \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Allen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finishing up the first draft right now. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Literary Notes<\/strong><br \/>\nTo learn more about <em>Those Who Hold the Threads<\/em>, come to <strong>The Joyful Jewel<\/strong>, 44-A Hillsboro St., Pittsboro, on June 3 at 3 p.m. Allen will join her daughter <strong>Anna Crawford<\/strong>, the artist who created the book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cover, for a reading and discussion of her novel.<\/p>\n<p>In other young adult news, Hawbridge School freshman <strong>Sierra Bradshaw-Kreimer<\/strong> has won a gold key in this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Bradshaw-Kreimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s essay \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Lexa\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was selected for national recognition in a contest that received 200,000 submissions from high school students across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Bradshaw-Kreimer and approximately 1,500 other young writers and artists will be recognized at a June 1 ceremony at Carnegie Hall and will participate in showcase events at Parsons The New School for Design.<\/p>\n<p>Presented by the Alliance for Young Writers and Artists, the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards date back to 1923. The program has a history of noteworthy past winners, including Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Robert Redford and Joyce Carol Oates. Congratulations, Sierra!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Vicky Dickson For Joyce Allen, writing is like breathing. In more ways than one, actually:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5813"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5829,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813\/revisions\/5829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}