Matisse in a new book

It's been only two weeks since the publication of the book/catalogue Henri Matisse: The Cut Outs. I haven't seen the book, but its description sounds mouth-watering: original archival photographs of the artist, copies of his cutout works, articles by leading authorities. All this to accompany the extended exhibition of Matisse's cutouts, which started last month at Tate Modern and will last till early September, to be then moved to New York, for more display and more glory.

"Taking the form of a 'studio diary', the catalogue re-examines the cut-outs in terms of the methods and materials that Matisse used, and looks at the tensions in the works between finish and process; fine art and decoration; contemplation and utility; and drawing and colour."

The book has been edited by a group of very talented curators: Karl Buchberg (Senior Conservator, Museum of Modern Art, New York), Nicholas Cullinan (Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Jodi Hauptman (Curator, Department of Drawings, Museum of Modern Art, New York). Their work has done a lot to promote Matisse in the greatest museums of the world.

My Matisse, whose never-seen-before work occupies the nucleus of my novel, The Matisse Puzzle, is placed, chronologically, slightly earlier than his turn to the paper cutout technique. The action of my novel grows around rumors of this original painting executed in 1930, when Matisse spent a short time in Tahiti. The existence of a hidden masterpiece of this importance kindles fires that go well beyond the work of art.
But that's just me. For a specialist perspective on this incredible artistic journey which was Matisse's series of paper cutouts, the book I have just mentioned is an invaluable piece of art history. Worth all the money in the world.

The Matisse Puzzle promises never to doubt Amazon again

Wow! The amount of surprise...
It took Amazon mere hours to make my book available online. I was very skeptical about the whole thing, knowing I had uploaded the file at the very last moment, and the stories people were telling me made me panic a little. But little did I know Amazon was not a thing to fear - well, not in this case, of course.
Now, The Matisse Puzzle is live. I can see it, I can touch it - well, in the virtual sense of the word, of course. Now I have a real object to talk about when talking about my novel. It's no longer a promise; it is a fact

The way it looks, it makes my heart rate go berserk. There are little flaws I can see, like text lines running their own show and breaking where they shouldn't. But I remember having seen that in books professionally handled by recognized publishers. So all in all I'm happy. As happy as anyone can be when their first book has appeared.
Now I can invite all my followers and friends to please click on the link above or go straight to Amazon and purchase the book. You may be in for a pleasant reading surprise.

The Matisse Puzzle, last steps towards affirmation

The Matisse Puzzle has reached Amazon but it’s not visible yet, as the Amazon algorithm is currently processing the submission, as I am sure you know it does. As a consequence of this lack of coordination (for which I am holding myself entirely culpable), I will have to postpone the Facebook launch party reserved for today. It’s not long: only three days, just to give the Amazon machines time to officialize the mobi file.
Please visit my Facebook author page on Saturday 5.00-7.00 pm EST, for two hours of fun in celebration of my first eBook baby.

I am preparing prizes and giveaways and some competitions to get us going smoothly.

The Matisse Puzzle in search for a reading list

I've been thinking about the books that exist without me ever having heard of them. I'm sure many other people have been thinking along the same lines at least once in their life. Every book we read is, unfortunately, another chance missed by all the other books in the world, since the time we spend reading one cannot be given to another.

Simple logic, painful conclusions. But the question that arises is: wouldn't it be easier to have a list of books worth casting our eyes on? It's not just books we don't know, but also books we have forgotten. It happens, doesn't it? Even our dearest favorites get tangled in the dense web of other things we do or think about, and we find ourselves rediscovering a book as if we'd seen it for the first time ever.

Source: Wikipedia

Well, these thoughts have caused me to initiate this experiment in sharing and participation. I would like to ask people who are following me on any of the platforms I am using at the moment to share their favorite readings with me and with others. I am hoping to compose a list of books able to go into the world as a promise of pleasures.
In concrete terms, what I am asking for is not exactly a bare list of names and titles, but rather descriptions, reviews, thoughts centered on books we have read, liked, and considered worth recommending to others. Two or three sentences will suffice. They will show the world that we really care about the book we are talking about; that we've given it a thought; that we've gone beyond the words on the page.

You can come here at any time and post your short recommendation as a comment below this post. The experiment has been announced on Facebook as well, under the event page I've set up in preparation for the launch of my novel, The Matisse Puzzle. If this blog doesn't sound like the right place for you, you can go to this event page, and leave your review there. I am also present on Twitter, where you can find me as @N1ckMarsh. Maybe a 140-character situation is better suited for an experiment of this type. If you feel more comfortable within this limit, then use Twitter to recommend your book.

Yes, I know there are other places where one may feel more motivated to participate in an exercise of this nature. But what I'm inviting you to do is give a little of your time to test the strength of what I like to call "participatory culture": the thing we've all been involved in ever since we've taken the path of Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads etc.
The resulting list will be published on this blog on April 30, the day The Matisse Puzzle is going live. The event page mentioned above will also carry the message of your wonderful contribution, on the same day or (if things go wild - as I hope they will) even beyond April 30.

The Matisse Puzzle in two short stories

Earlier today, I took over A Literary Perusal on Facebook, where, among other things, I offered to give away an Amazon Gift Card to the author of the most interesting short story containing the words "Matisse" and "puzzle.' I did this competition last week as well, if you remember. Jennifer Theriot was the winner that time, and, as a result of her success, she was invited to contribute a material to the present blog. Just like last week, the story was expected to be 100 words in length, or thereabouts. Today's winner, Gabriela Sin, was duly acknowledged as the author of the winning story, but after the end of the contest another story arrived, which also caught my attention. It had been authored by Belle Marie, who was only slightly late.
I decided to publish both stories here, on The Matisse Puzzle blog, where visitors can read them and, if feeling compelled, pass some comments on them.
Without further ado, here are the two stories:

Gabriela Sin

"He was a beautiful Matisse and I a spectator, always learning something new from him. He would never stop being my own unique puzzle to solve, and I his student to teach. No words would need to pass through us, for us to understand what the other wanted. He would always be there for me and I for him. It was at that moment, walking down the aisle in my father's arms, that I knew that the smiling man I saw in front of me would forever be my other half."

Belle Marie

 “You’re impossible!” She threw her hands up in defeat.
“I prefer to think of myself like a puzzle. Put the pieces together.” He trailed off as he wrapped his arms around her and tried to steal a kiss.
“And what? Make a Matisse? Beautifully complicated?” Lily tried to pull away but his warm hold was too much to resist.
“You don’t have to understand art for it to be art,” Luke murmured as he kissed her softly.“I prefer to think of myself like a puzzle. Put the pieces together.” He trailed off as he wrapped his arms around her and tried to steal a kiss.“And what? Make a Matisse? Beautifully complicated?” Lily tried to pull away but his warm hold was too much to resist.“You don’t have to understand art for it to be art,” Luke murmured as he kissed her softly.“Impossible,” she grumbled.“According to you –  beautiful too.”He chuckled as she rolled her eyes. He had won this round. So damn stubborn.

As it's easily noticeable, the two stories are very different. While the first one is narrative in nature, the second one is based almost exclusively on dialogues (and well done too). However, they have something in common: a special clarity and an inclination toward tender sentiments.
Well done both Gabriela Sin and Belle Marie.

Visitors, please leave your comments below. I'm sure our authors would like to hear from you.

The Matisse Puzzle welcomes guest: Jennifer Theriot

Jennifer Theriot, author, so far, of two volumes from the planned Out of the Box series (currently available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Smashwords) has accepted to give us a quick glimpse at her experience as an author. Jennifer's books, Awakening and Regifted, have been hailed by readers as "emotional roller-coasters," "full of true romance," "full of love, redemption, and the never say die attitude." I asked Jennifer to say a few things about the way she started writing, the things that motivate and inspire her, and the writing she has planned for the near future. And here she goes:

I started writing in 2012. I’ve always loved to read and had just finished the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, which I’ll have to admit I had to read twice to get the full gist of the story. 

My youngest son played professional baseball in the minor leagues and had just announced to us that he was retiring. Needless to say, this left an incredible void in my life; we’d been going to baseball games to watch him play for almost 20 years from little league, to college, to the minors. It was like a very bad breakup and I was desperately in need of a remedy for my separation anxiety.

My start

I realized that there weren’t many books out there written about middle-aged lovers, so decided to give it a shot. This was just what I needed to take my mind off of the baseball breakup! I took a couple of my girlfriends who are voracious readers to dinner and told them about what I was thinking of doing. I fully expected them to laugh and tell me how crazy I was, but their response was quite the contrary. They actually challenged me to do it. Never one to turn down a good challenge, I set out to write. These two friends have been incredible throughout this whole process and we’ve spent many nights on my patio (OOBA on the patio as we call it) drinking wine and discussing the book. We’ve even come up with OOBA-isms, which are sayings from the book and I’ve incorporated these into my giveaway items. It’s so much fun and my mind seems to be working 24/7.

My inspiration

Music is a HUGE inspiration in my writing. I love all kinds of music. When I hear a song that I like, immediately a scene from the book will come into my mind. I try and develop a scene around lyrics to a song that inspires me.

As for a message in the book, I would say that life doesn’t stop once you hit 50. Good sex and romance don’t die once you hit mid-life. Life doesn’t stop when someone you love stops loving you. Women need to feel good about themselves and step ‘out of the box’ in order to live and not merely exist. I’ve had several readers’ email me thanking me for giving them hope and I can honestly tell you, that’s the best inspiration!

Following up

After writing the first book, I knew there was more of the story that needed to be told. I’ve just released Out of the Box Regifted and am working on the 3^rd and final in the Out of the Box series entitled Out of the Box Everlasting.  I’ll also write a follow up novella which will be from the POV of a character in the book (Todd).

After I’m finished with these, I have another series planned, also about a middle aged woman who finds love after heartache.

 

I should not forget to mention that Jennifer won the giveaway competition I organized earlier this week at Sexyways of Reading, a Facebook venue for aspiring writers managed by two lovely ladies who will be on this blog soon, with their takes on takeovers.

The competition had asked participants to write a short-short containing the words 'Matisse' and 'Puzzle.' Here is Jennifer's entry:

Our relationship was a complicated puzzle with new pieces emerging every day; magical and colorful like a Matisse painting.

What impressed me in this short text was its simplicity, and also its ability to articulate in a few words a metaphor that can stand alone as a story.

Jennifer Theriot can be found at her personal website, on Facebook, Goodreads, and of course, Twitter.

Three things I learned while writing The Matisse Puzzle

When I started doing creative writing (focusing on The Matisse Puzzle, of course) I found it did not flow very easily. It seemed like hard work because I was trying to be clever, trying to get the plot right, trying to employ figures of speech that were hard to get at – all this, rather than simply going with a flow.

I was thinking too much, you see? But writing, as I found out eventually, needs to be more and better than endless reflection. Maybe it’s a bit like golf, where thinking too much about ‘getting it right’ is a recipe for frustration.  ‘Have I got my feet in the right position? Have I got the right club? Will my swing go through the right arc?’ These are not good questions. These are nightmares. They haunt you and never let you take a single step forward.

Sleep impediments and all, it took me a while to get into the flow. But once there, I started following the best advice any writer could ever get: JUST WRITE. I wrote and I wrote, sometimes like there was no tomorrow. And in the process I learned things only someone who’s written at least one novel would know. To me, the most important things I’ve figured out are the following three. 

You may have a lot of characters in your novel. Which means, you're going
to have to learn a lot of languages, to be able to address them properly.
Source: Character Animation

They were the guiding lines of The Matisse Puzzle, so I’ll mention them with the air of someone who’s reciting a mantra:

• Get to know the characters as if they were real people. Form a relationship with them, get inside their heads, and ask them to tell you what they are thinking, feeling, and doing. Most of the time, they will answer.
• Visualize the characters in the ‘movies’ of their life, scene by scene, and write down what you see, hear, feel. I found that this was a lot easier than asking things like: ‘This character is this kind of person, so what would they be doing? What would be good for them to do to generate or sustain a good plot?’ The point is, they know what they are doing, because the logic of the text is their own logic. So just ask them – yes, ask your characters as if you were asking real people. Don’t try to be brilliant on them, by employing some formulaic plot devices, which, if improperly handled, risk being clunky and inauthentic. Be natural. Be friendly towards your characters.
• Learn how to inhabit a place that exists inside your head. Obviously, it helps if you have spent some quality time there yourself. But I found that many aspects of my trips were hard to recall after a while. And then let us not forget: sooner or later, in most normal of conditions, memory dims. So one obvious approach is to take lots of photos and videos of the place when you are there. Take them with the view of using them as aids for your dimming memory. Take them like an author who wants to see details, specificities, realities.