☀ Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts - M.E. Hughes

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts, a Non-Fiction book on personal transformation, edited by M.E. Hughes (9 February 2016, Bacon Press Books, 251 pages).

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis, trailer and exclusive excerpt below.
Read the Introduction and the three essays in the "Letting Go... Of Shoulds" section with Amazon Look Inside.

Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts is FREE on Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owner's Lending Library.

Bacon Press Books will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.   Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other exclusive excerpts (☀).

Synopsis | Teaser | About the Authors | Giveaway & Tour Stops

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Synopsis

A fascinating collection of life stories told by 30 authors from eight countries.

They write of their attempts to move beyond crippling grief, free themselves of haunting memories, get out from under abusive relationships.

They tell of their struggles – often painful, sometimes funny - to let go of everything from a fear of horses, to old family homes, and piles of books and papers.

      “The question in the air is: Does the inability to let go of ideas, people, places and things sometimes drag one down?
      I believe readers will find answers to that question in the many thoughtful essays in this collection, which show us that freeing oneself by letting go is not only possible but often necessary for enjoying the fullness of life.  
     Via their stories, these fine writers give us valuable food for thought on letting go or, for those still not convinced, permission to stop forcing oneself to try.”
From the Introduction by M. E. Hughes, editor

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Teaser: Exclusive Excerpt

The Paper Room

by Joan Scott
     Relinquishing paper used to fill me with dread. I’m not talking about discarding steak house coupons (I’m vegan), or gourmet dog food coupons (I don’t have a dog), or exotic river cruise coupons (I can’t swim), nor am I talking about re-cycling. I mean, I am never able to let go of paper in all its shapes, formats and colors.
     Paperless office was never in my dictionary. My home office was crammed with pristine pages, in white plus every rainbow color, waiting by the printer. Post-it notes, monogrammed paper and scribbles on the backs of envelopes that never made it to the recycle bin, were always strewn across the desk. And what about the mounds of it on the floor: three grocery bags full of months of pink Financial Times and stacks of outdated New Yorker’s with their award-winning covers and cartoons, which I couldn’t part with. Six years of the quarterly magazine, This England, with its reminiscing and war poems amidst country settings I held close to my heart to remind me of grandparents and home. Bon Appetite editions for all those recipes I meant to try. Travel & Leisure for vacations I could never afford but loved to explore on paper. Vogue, Vanity Fair and Oprah, artistically photographed and full of literary information, gossip and well-being tips too hard to discard, as well as boxes of printed e-mails, because pressing the delete key immobilized me with fear in case I needed the information stored on past e-mails, which elevated my inbox to ten thousand messages (by then the data geek squad threatened to close my account).
     Did I mention the paper in books on writing that took up four bookcases, including John Steinbeck’s journal, Working Days, which he wrote while working on The Grapes of Wrath, which reminded me of the punishing journey toward artistic fulfillment; The Marshall Plan Workbook by Evan Marshall, which showed the steps in starting and finishing my novel; The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri, which gave it life; and Writer’s Digest sourcebooks, complete guides for the writing process, Webster’s and Oxford Dictionaries and Roget’s Thesaurus for spell checking, editing and refining my work, and the 1996 Writer’s Market 75th Anniversary Edition to help me sell it. (After storing it for almost twenty years, perhaps it was time to let go and navigate the digital world).
     I had a vintage collection of “How To” books on endless computer versions, because pressing the help key on the computer only added to my frustrations, so it was better to keep the books, even though they were out of date, but so was the computer sitting in the closet. Someone just might need both if they were into vintage computing, I reasoned.

About The Author:

Joan Scott was born in England.  At fifteen she wrote a prize-winning essay about a trip to Paris.  The newspaper prize paid for a baguette and a croissant.  Years later when the writing life paled and the rent was due, she honed her creative writing skills with London advertising agencies, taught tango to VIPs, marketed wines and left rainy England for a Californian drought, where she became ‘Nanny Joan’ resulting in a non-fiction proposal, We Don’t Just Go Places, We Experience Them, for caregivers and grandparents to bolster children’s creativity.

Moving to Boston, she promoted textiles, wrote poems and articles on beekeepers, burying beetles and ballerinas, then joined corporate America to build a career in international marketing communications. While being paid to travel, she continued writing on sampans, helicopters and hi-speed Japanese trains.  She has let go of paper with her slice-of-life blogs: “When Life Gets in the Way of Writing the Great British Novel,” and is becoming a fearless flyer, navigating social media with her psychological suspense, début novel, Who Is Maxine Ash?

Follow Joan on Twitter.  She can be contacted on joanscott.uk1@gmail.com

Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts
Available NOW!

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About the Editor

M.E. Hughes has guided and edited a small army of writers since receiving her MFA in creative writing from Bennington College. In 1991, she founded the non-profit Peripatetic Writing Workshop, Inc. (www.peripateticwritingandart.org).

She has taught creative writing at New York University for many years and is also a free-lance book doctor/editor. She has published two non-fiction books and the novel, Precious In His Sight (Viking Penguin).

Follow M.E. Hughes:

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Giveaway and Tour Stops

Enter to win a $10 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway
Remember to comment to win!
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Follow Letting Go: An Anthology of Attempts's tour at:

Apr 4: Rogue's Angels (Julie Strong)
Apr 5: Around the World in Books (Roz Kuehn)
Apr 6: Readeropolis (Emily Tsokos Purtill)
Apr 7: BooksChatter (Joan Scott)
Apr 8: Room With Books (Joe Levine)
Apr 8: The Reading Addict (Martha Ellen Hughes)
Apr 11: Laura's Interests - review (George P. Farrell)
Apr 12: It's Raining Books (Marione Malimba Namukuta)
Apr 13: Natural Bri - review (Elizabeth Wohl)
Apr 14: Edgar's Books (Nilo T. Alvarez)
Apr 15: Ali - The Dragon Slayer (Sue Parman)
Apr 15: Deal Sharing Aunt (Evalyn Lee)

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