Victor Volkman is the publisher of the U.P. Reader, senior editor at Modern History Press based in Ann Arbor, and president of the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association.
The U.P. Reader is the brainchild of author Mikel Classen. Volkman said he can’t be a Yooper because Yoopers are born, not made. The hefty publication features thirty to 50 contributing writers, most are members of the UPPAA.
“People who live in the U.P are great writers, the U.P. Reader exposes their writings for other people to explore,” said Volkman.
Volkman said he’s especially proud of the inclusion of Cottage Dandelion winners, young writers who receive a traveling trophy for their school, kind of like the Stanley Cup.
“We’re making the next generation of writers,” he said. “We provide training wheels for young writers. We’re able to accept 90 percent of writing.”
The all-inclusive publication, which is distributed to all the libraries in the U.P., features contemporary fiction, short stories, humor, history, memoir, poetry, and much more.
“I am a publisher, and this helped me build a relationship with writers,” he said. “We work hard to keep the price reasonable.”
Some of the highlights of the UPPAA are the spring conference in Marquette in June and the picnic on the first Saturday after Labor Day in Marquette.
Submissions for the U.P. Reader Volume 7 will be accepted until November.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I love the sense of community in the U.P.”
The twenties are delivering suprises with twists and turns
“You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.”
Indira Gandhi
By Emma Palova
The predictions for 2022 are taking shape and form just like in an irregular pentagon. So far, it has been full of surprises, twists, and turns with discoveries along the journey. I will list the first 10 discoveries of the year, followed by a list of more discoveries, less sensational.
Later, I take a step back to gain perspective and shake off negativity and criticism after being in the public eye and scrutiny. The balancing act is important to me. At times, like on this sunny day, my psychic reaches out to me which I am grateful for, and then I know I am loved and embrace all the cosmic energies. Thank you Diana Plopa for bringing sunshine into my day. Yes, I am lucky enough to have a personal adviser, because we’re all in this together.
Be careful what you wish for because you might get it.
Zoom interview with poet Donny Winter
The blitz and downfalls of podcasting
I wanted to have a podcast show, and I got it with all its blitz and downfalls. First the blitz. The podcast “For the Love of Books” hosted and produced by Emma Palova, co-produced by author Colleen Nye and sponsored by Doc Chavent immediately garnered attention, both from the authors and the public. Not too many authors have podcast shows. Why? Because it is a technological and scheduling nightmare for one person including a whole new layer added to already a full stack of tasks. I had to close down the Sigh Up Genius because it was flooded with requests and start sorting through the authors.
2. Discoveries and insights
Discoveries and secrets
Author Luba Lesychyn
Secrets should just stay secrets regardless of what they are. They shift around like the loose grains in the sand. They evolve like the characters in our books. All secrets have their own hidden energy behind them. Once uncovered, they’re not secrets anymore with different energy attached to them causing havoc and chaos in everything. And then comes another secret that needs to be hidden. And it’s a chain reaction of secrets and hiding them under the mask of goodness and sweetness. Like the Russian nesting dolls, inside one secret is hidden another one and so on.
3. Insights
Insights versus secrets
Why do we do the things we do? Are we troubled, unhappy, not motivated enough? Or just unappreciated. Maybe we don’t want to lead a normal life bored to death. So we start acting out like the Lansing killer Steve Miller. I totally enjoyed the interview with true crime author Rod Sadler.
At the end of the interview, I asked him, “Would you like to read to us?”
“I thought you would read to me,” Sadler said.
I chuckled. Luckily I had Sadler’s book Killing Women so I did read to him although not his horoscope or like a psychic from his hand.
4. The unrelenting quest for money
Money is like poison
Money or the quest for it poisons everything including relationships. This one covers a wide spectrum from partners, families to neighbors. You can chase after money and never have it, or you have it and don’t know what to do with it because you are bored and unappreciated.
5. The pretense of kindness and sweetness
Kindness and sweetness get results
You can get almost anything under the pretense of kindness and sweetness including a slice of bread. You can even have both, the icing and cake. But you can’t have peace.
6. Beyond anger
Anger manifesto
Former Lowell police chief Steve Bukala
Anger follows the act of getting caught doing evil and denying it or standing behind your citizens’ rights. It manifests on daily basis in your actions and reactions, as well as in the behavior of people around you.
7. Cheating on tests
Cheating on tests
So your notes written in the palm of your hand didn’t help you or the three geniuses sitting in the back of the classroom during a calculus exam, because a stupid Canadian ass turned around to confirm the insecurity of her own results. And you spend the summer studying for a make-up exam instead of being with your family. Some celebrities went to jail for cheating bribing and casting on the couch. But you never pay the price. You just blow it off into the wind and someone else catches it for you.
8. The polygon effect
The Polygon Effect using characters in plots
A pentagon-shaped circus tent
A classic circus tent is an example of an irregular pentagon, not to be confused with the most famous pentagon of all, the government building in Washington D.C. A regular pentagon is a five-sided polygon with five sides and angles in geometry. It can rotate into a concave resembling a crown, turned upside down it is the shape of a baseball field, it can change angles and sides. Sometimes stars shape pentagons or other polygons. When combined with vectors they become constellations.
In the Polygon Effect plotting, the characters rotate positions. You never know who is going to be at the top or flipped to the home base in the baseball field at the bottom. The sides too are not equal in an irregular pentagon, and the angles or positions change, just like politicians in the government, clowns in the circus, or royalty in the court.
10. The lightness of being
The Unbereable Lightness of Being II from Czech Republic to the U.S.
Apartment complex Jizni Svahy in Zlin
And it all started here inside the somber apartments of the mega-complex where there was nothing else to do but watch hockey, drink beer or just get creative about how you achieve your goals, any goals you wish to accomplish. That’s when I started writing……a diary.
Check out Kundera’s “Unbearable Lightness of Being,” a novel based in Prague made into a movie. The plot uses the polygon method of four characters.
To be continued……a downscaled version.
Copyright (c) 2022. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Author Jared Morningstar takes on different aspects of the great American experience ranging from fake patriotism as reflected in the title of the first collection of poems and short stories- “American Fries” to fear in “American Reality.”
“American Reality captures the darkness of 2020,” Morningstar said. “The fear of politics and our health concerns, but it’s not just about Covid.”
For a chance to win both books listen in to the episode.
I ‘ve been getting in my inbox selected poetry from the Knopf Doubleday Publishing.
I chose to do that, once I found out that April showers not only bring May flowers, but also some of the best poems. So, I get a poem-a-day.
Today, “Louie Lies” poem by Philip Levine arrived.
I was so enchanted by it, that I bought the book “The Last Shift.”
Now, poetry has always inspired me; everything from French poet Charles Baudelaire, Czech poet Jiri Wolker, American poet Stanley Kunitz to my Rumanian friend Valeriu Dg Barbu.
And now this delight by Levine came just in time to further inspire my writing video shoot tomorrow @LowellArts.
I am finalizing the script for the video today. I want to have it on hand when I talk about my writings at various events.
Whenever I explain the creative process from idea to final product; whether a book, a screenplay, video or movie, I start with the empty room analogy.
This originates in Picasso’s: “Give me a museum, and I will fill it.”
authoremmapalova 