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Sunday, February 4, 2018

The Diary of E.A.Provost



Dear Moms of the Earth;

Diary of E.A.Provost is my first full length book of poetry and art and I’m immensely pleased with it. I’ve spent the last five years unhappily fidgeting with various elements, and writing and painting more until it finally all came together in a way that makes me happy. It’s particularly hard to be happy with something so personal. I mean, as the name implies, some of these are the intimate thoughts I jotted down in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep because depression and anxiety were getting the best of me. But being real with people and connecting over those dark memories as well as the fun light memories is what helped me get through those times. Shining a light on those dark places our minds can take us so others can have hope is what makes this book worth publishing. The highs and lows of motherhood are often the greatest extremes of our lives, and they come one after the other like the waves of an unrelenting high tide. Then, the tide slows and begins to ebb and we can do productive things like publish books and shower and sleep again. Yes new mama, read on through to the other side.

As for the art...I don’t think I’ll ever think of myself as a real artist. I’m just playing with paint. When I realized that I’ve been painting for a full decade I was momentarily stunned. Of course, discovering that some of the paintings I wanted to include were lost in storage and no longer hanging on the walls of the people who had asked for them knocked a little of the wind out of my sails. But they bring me joy and the response I’m getting to them in the context of my book has been overwhelming. 

Since the art in this book was meant to evoke an raw emotional counterpoint to the poetry, I’ve left out any history or description of individual works. But, since they were created as “encounter art” during church worship times, they each have a unique history and often many layers of meaning. You can expect many of my future posts to be explanations of those individual works. If there’s one you’re particularly interested in hearing about, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to get to those first. 

In the dedication I mention that one of my daughters was my editor. That would be Ellie Provost, who I finally asked to take a crack at it after years of having no luck finding a good professional poetry editor who could handle meter. It turns out that she inherited my facility for language and her dad the drummer’s sense of rhythm, so she has a keen ability to fix the meter issues that plague me. Though she claims she doesn’t like to write poetry herself, within an hour she managed to make me love four poems I’d almost given up on. When I castigate myself for taking so long to put this book together, I have to remember to factor in the fact that I was raising my own editor. I think the results were worth it. And yes, I paid her too. 

I hope you enjoy my Diary. I’m releasing it on Valentines Day. You should buy it as a Valentine for yourself because loving yourself is essential in order to be able to love others properly. Plus, that will give you time to read it before giving it to your mom for Mother’s Day. You’re definitely going to want to pass it along to other moms, or maybe you’ll just get them their own copy. ;-) Preorder it today anywhere books are sold!

Thank you for being awesome and raising the next generation with purpose and creativity. 

Sincerely,

E.A.Provost

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