Page 58 - Sonoma County Gazette 12-2019

Pat Nolan: “You Call This a Poem?”
By Robert Feuer
“I thought I lost my pen but it found me again,” says Pat Nolan in his new
release - Volume II of So Much, a collection of his poems from 1990-2010. The first volume covered the previous twenty years.
Nov 30 ~ Book Signing: Award-Winning Local Author Avanti Centrae - Join Avanti for prizes, goodies and autographs! Free, 4:30p-6p, Capital Books, 1011 K Street, Sacramento, 530-518-7404, avanticentrae.com/events.html, redtailpra@gmail.com
Reading a well-crafted novel can transport you to another time and place. Getting those details correct takes effort and research. Sometimes the only way to get a true sense of place is to travel there and experience it firsthand. Linda C. McCabe, author of the epic historic fantasy Quest of the Warrior Maiden will discuss how she went about researching her novel set in the time of Charlemagne and her trips to France. She will show slides from her trips that helped imbue her narrative with rich detail. 2 p @ Flamingo Resort, Empire Room, 2777 Fourth St, Santa Rosa. INFO: redwoodwriters.org
Thru Dec 10 ~ Do Tell Story Swap ~ Storytelling for teens and adults. Sharing the oral tradition. $3-$5 donation, 7-9p, Do Tell Story Swap, Valley Village mobile home park, 6401 Country Club Dr, Rohnert Park, DoTellStorySwap.org
Thru Dec 31 ~ Shut Up & Write! Drop in for an hour of writing at this weekly session. 9:30a-10:30a, JavAmore Cafe, 10101 Main St,, 10101 Main St,, Nicole R. Zimmerman, nicolerzimmerman.com/, nidazimm@gmail.com
Dec 16 ~ Snoopy’s Writers Monday Meetings ~ Meet with serious, good-natured writers weekly, (except Holidays) Mondays Snoopy’s Home Ice Arena, Warm Puppy Café, 1667 West Steele Lane, Santa Rosa, Georgette G. deBlois, snoopyswriters.com, ggdeb@sonic. net
Writers Helping Writers ~ Redwood Writers ~ Enjoy the support and camaraderie of other writers. Our activities are held in or around Santa Rosa, CA, in beautiful Sonoma County wine country. redwoodwriters.org
Copperfields SAMPLER copperfieldsbooks.com
New York Times bestselling author, returns with a gorgeously illustrated cookbook that will transport you to the Mediterranean coast. Gleeson presents 100 vegetarian recipes for creating effortless, unforgettable meals. Filled with atmospheric images of coastal villages, charming watercolor illustrations, and mouthwatering food photography, The Forest Feast Mediterranean is an irresistible escape from the everyday, no matter where you might live. Feature sfood from the cookbook prepared by a local chef! FREE. 11:30 am, Picayune Cellars, 1329B Lincoln Avenue, Calistoga
Jan 10 ~ Andy Weinberger - An Old Man’s Game. When a controversial celebrity rabbi drops dead over his matzoh ball soup at the famed Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles, retired private eye Amos Parisman-- a sixtyish, no- nonsense Jewish detective who lives with his addled wife in Park La Brea--is hired by the temple’s board to make sure everything is kosher. As he looks into what seems to be a simple, tragic accident, the ante is raised when more people start to die or disappear, and Amos uncovers a world of treachery and hurt that shakes a large L.A. Jewish community to its core. FREE 7 pm Santa Rosa Store, 775 Village Court, Santa Rosa
More than a place to buy books, bookstores provide opportunities to indulge your imagination, to find inspiration, and to get excited about learning. They are a great place for holiday gifts!
Nolan is working with “the mass and mess of my accumulated writing” which once filled boxes and cabinets before being electronically compacted to his computer. He calls the process “the Schumpeterian creative destruction (elsewhere defined as the dismantling of long-standing practices in order to make way for innovation) of the past thirty years.”
Dec 8 ~ Using Travel to Enhance Research for Your Writing with Linda C. McCabe.
Over forty years ago, Nolan
settled in a neighborhood close to the Russian River, almost an island. Peace prevails - “out of the mist, duck call rises from the shrouded river” -except when it doesn’t. - “the ghost of a dead man’s truck circles the block.” – When he’s not glorifying the river’s poetry he’s pumping its waters from his basement. “Drop by drop rain advances until awash the gutters overflow.”
Nolan is a documentarian of “the pops and hisses of white noise” or, as he quotes from William Carlos Williams, “the emphasis on the immediacy of the moment.” Nolan’s observances are taken “in the quiet garden of a morning alone” or “watching the clothes go round in the laundromats
of eternity” - “the moment in which a
Occidental Center for the Arts 3850 Doris Murphy Court, Occidental, 707- 874-9392, occidentalcenterforthearts.org, info@occidentalcenterforthearts.org.
Ongoing ~ Readers Theatre Group ~ Learning, sharing and reading 2-3 short plays, Performers bring the text alive by using voice, facial expressions, and some gestures. 2nd & 4th Tuesdays, at 7p FREE, joanjustjoan@hotmail.com
Ongoing ~ Writers Book Launch Series ~ All genres will be considered: Prose. Send a sampling. Please include brief bio and any writing credits. You can email and/or send in hard copy to us
piece of green glass catches light/can be as large a day.” He’s steeped in the spiritualized imagery which only occurs when time slows down. - “near the tall redwood tiny birds like a flock of moths wheel and dart.”
Philip Whalen, another poet Nolan admires, is quoted here as calling poetry “a picture of the mind moving.” Nolan says, “I feel like I’m chasing my hat in a windstorm” - “how long have I been tripping down the same flight in pursuit of some mocking chimera.”
Nolan frequently muses on the oddities of old age while waiting for a transcendence that’ll free him. “Afternoon fades the sparkling lights are birch leaves caught in a breeze.” His darker side counters with a feeling of being “unprepared unequipped to deal with mysterious forces.”
Dec 1 ~ Erin Gleeson ~ The Forest Feast Mediterranean.
He’s searching for an exit from his complicated mind. “All this self- examination has made me raw set on edge by my own complexity” – seemingly tired of his “brooding obsessive questioning, questioning” -“I want to exchange my beliefs for something simpler longer lasting.”
While reminiscing amid the “echoing timeless myth elbowing the stars” he longs for “nameless silence.”
Against “the placid encroaching gray of the coming storm” Nolan reminisces - “I enjoy singing those old love songs” - “Music in the air settle for that.”
To purchase: nuallainhousepublishers.com/so-much-volume-ii/
SONOMA COUNTY BOOKMOBILE
freebookmobile.org - NEWS on Facebook - 707.520.4536 Donations welcome, Glen Weaver, Director
“The current Free Bookmobile vehicle has run out of allowed mileage so
there will likely be no December service beyond the Forestville Tree Lighting. We are hard at work
building the NEW bookmobile and will put it on the road as soon as possible. Please watch our website
and Facebook pages for updates. And thank you for your continued support!”
~ Glen Weaver, Director
Free Bookmobile of Sonoma County freebookmobile.org, 707.520.4536
58 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 12/19