November Butterfly Review Up at The Mom Egg

What more could a writer ask for than to wake up on her birthday to her first formal book review? And a beautiful one at that? Up today at The Mom Egg is November Butterfly’s first formal review by Anne Marie Fowler. Thanks are due to both Marjorie Tesser for The Mom Egg and her years of publishing work by writing mothers and thanks are also due to reviewer and writer Anne Marie Fowler.

In this lush exploration, Pryputniewicz observes the lives of numerous iconic women—women who navigate the world with impeccable courage and daring. It is through these observations that the speaker reveals her own struggles, as though she were dancing with the looking glass.

Read the entire review here.

I am also swilling in deep gratitude for the amazing web of connections both virtual and in-person I am lucky to draw upon as I enter 2015 with visions for new work in tow. I’m still questing with a dynamic group of creatives at #livethequest on my main site (a quest any and all are welcome to join). In honor of the Fool card in the Tarot, sacred joy, and questing, you’ll find my latest post posing questions such as:

What if I trusted the noir fairytale?

I mean the noir fairytale I’ve lived to get here. I mean the gritty, real, Bluebeard and Red Shoes fairytales we all live, that braid of what we go through to grow….

Read the rest of Trusting the Noir Fairytale here.

Additional Links:

Longtime writer friend and Tarot companion Mary Allen and I launched our Tarot For Two blog last week in order to share some of our Tarot Writing Practice exercises and in hopes of inspiring other pairs of friends to travel the Royal Road together. I would love your feedback about our new blog.

November Butterfly comes to Northern California

Goddesses, fairytale queens, and legendary heroines: these are the stuff of fantasy. Aren't they? But November Butterfly introduces them in the vivid colors of now...Tania Pryputniewicz remolds these characters: they batter down your door, rush into your living room and unapologetically take all the most comfortable chairs. In return, they offer clear and often cold-eyed views of their worlds dominated by the men and circumstances they are steered by...I read and re-read sections, astonished by the fresh and dynamic beauty in the writing that opened a door for these characters to step into our time: utterly captivating and overwhelmingly relevant...--Excerpt from first Amazon page review to go up for November Butterfly, with gratitude for Sandra Hunter (LosingTouch)

As a newbie author, I have to share the unexpected joy of walking into the public library here in downtown Coronado to see November Butterfly in the local author display. True, I had turned in the book to the librarian when the call came out, but I had forgotten about it until I walked in last night with my daughter. What a rush! 

The most recent poem in the collection to be featured online, Guinevere Braves High Noon in My Backyard, can be read here, at The Mom Egg: Author Note: Tania Pryputniewicz on November Butterfly (poem follows the Author Note). 

I'll be in Sonoma County next week--come out and play with me! I'd love it if you pre-registered for the workshop so I know how many strings of paper dolls to make for us--use my Contact page to email me regarding payment. Certainly I will not turn anyone away at the door; feel free to just show up for the reading portion if that's what's in the cards.

Monday November 10th, 2014:

Sonoma County Book Launch Event: "Writing Past Fear: Free Your Butterfly" Workshop and Reading

Sonoma County’s Coffee Catz holds a special place in my heart; not only did I get to spend Friday mornings for a few hours writing when my children were babies (Grandpa and Grandma took over every week so I could sneak away), but we even hosted the baby shower for my firstborn in the back room behind the velvet curtain. Owner Debbie chatted me sweetly all through my first pregnancy and the next.  I am so thrilled to return to use that back room to celebrate November Butterfly’s release. Come out and write with me for an hour; we will follow our writing workshop with a reading and book signing. No prior writing or art experience needed.

Workshop description: What story have you kept in the cocoon? What would happen if you wrote it out, just for you? In this dual focus workshop, we’ll consider our heroes, both famous and family, who have inspired us. Using them as inspiration, we’ll write our cocooned core stories. We’ll also explore the butterfly and hero metaphors via colored pencils and paper cutouts. Art supplies provided.

Coffee Catz

6761 Sebastopol Ave

Sebastopol, CA  95472

2:00-3:00: Writing workshop (Free Your Butterfly, description above); $30 includes hour long workshop and a copy of the poetry collection, November Butterfly. Please contact me to pre-register. Or sign up at the door.

3:00-4:00: Reading and book signing (free of charge)

Tuesday November 11, 2014:

Bay Area Reading and Book Signing for the poetry collection, November Butterfly

I’ll be reading with Saddle Road Press sisters Ruth Thompson (Woman with Crows) and Michelle Wing (Body on the Wall).

Moe’s Books, Berkeley

2476 Telegraph Ave

Berkeley, CA 94704

7:30 p.m. (free of charge)

Photo Poem Montage She Dressed in a Hurry, for Lady Di Live at The Mom Egg

I’m really proud of this latest venture in technology (set to music--my father Stephen Pryputniewicz on piano, playing the music of Scriabin, and Robyn Beattie behind the lens for over 30 gorgeous photos). The poem, She Dressed in a Hurry, for Lady Di originally appeared at Salome Magazin. For text only visit:
http://www.salomemagazine.com/chamber.php?id=301

For the Photo Poem Montage, visit: the Mom Egg, where it is due to be posted on Mother's Day: http://www.themomegg.com/themomegg/Blog/Entries/2010/5/8_Guest_Blogger__Tania_Pryputniewicz.html

Our first recording attempt was conducted at my father’s house, where we spent half an hour moving the computer with an attached microphone we’d borrowed from my brother back and forth on a stool in the hallway…trying to get the right balance of piano to voice. Then we discovered we were picking up the hum of the heater in the hallway, and tried sticking the computer in the bathroom, closing the door, where the voice took on a sharp tile echo and Dad had to count seconds and guess when to start the piano to time it with the poetry. We had some eerie moments when the wire of the mic became somehow attenuated (overheated?) during the recording of a second poem (Nefertiti on the Astral) and in playback we heard a long drawn out garbled voice, as if we were channeling The Queen of Egypt direct. Once the hairs aligned in their usual horizontal positions along the backs of our necks and arms, we decided to call it a day and consider the recordings working drafts

Fortunately, during one of those fortuitous family, kids, and technology woe swapping lunch visits, my friend Lori offered her husband’s recording studio services, and with his excellent mixing skills, my brother’s help transferring the file to its final form for viewing, we came up with a much stronger version. I hope you enjoy this bouquet of sorts…for Mother’s Day, for mother’s everywhere.



Thanks to The Mom Egg for hosting the montage, Salome Magazine for originally publishing the text of the poem, and Michael and Lori for the studio opportunity. And of course, my co-collaborators Stephen Pryputniewicz and Robyn Beattie (http://www.robynbeattie.com).

"Rising Sign" and "Thoughtloops of a Breastfeeding Mom" Live

Paired with the photo of an escargot begonia taken by Robyn Beattie, "Rising Sign" is our second photo/writing collaboration to date: www.themomegg.com/. The Mom Egg’s online zine appears as a PDF—our poem/photo displays on page 45. Also check out 4 prose poems by my writing cohort Liz Brennan on page 18, as well as the other fine work featured there. Liz's blog: numberthepages.blogspot.com/ and Robyn's photo portfolio: www.robynbeattie.com/ .

On the light/humor side of life, “Thought-loops of a Breastfeeding Mom” www.fertilesource.com/ raises questions regarding the division of labor (house, marriage) when the first newborn arrives and shakes up the routine-- permanently!