Thursday Review—Rumors of Water

by Lynn H Blackburn

Right after the first of the year, I suffered a painful injury.

I sliced the tip of my thumb. 

Off.

I won’t share the photos. Trust me, it wasn’t pretty and it seriously messed up my writing plans.

There was an upside—the injury also resulted in several weeks away from ironing, cleaning, and anything else I could use my overactive imagination to describe as “potentially painful.” Care to guess the one thing that was not off limits?

Reading.

So I turned to my “to-be-read” list on Goodreads. Do you have one of those? I love mine. Anytime I come across a book that someone has recommended or that sounds interesting, I add it to my list.

It works great, except for one thing.

Sometimes, I can’t remember why I added it. Not that I let that stop me. If it’s on the list, I’m sure there’s a reason, and sometimes, it’s fun to discover a book without a lot of preconceived notions.

That’s what happened with Rumors of Water by L.L.Barkat.

I picked it up and was surprised to discover not chapters, but brief essays filled with stories of Barkat’s daughters, gardens, and relationships, each highlighting an essential truth about writing. With a gentle, poetic voice, Barkat takes a story about Japanese beans and infuses it with guidance on writing with what you have. She turns a tale of Big Bird teaching Tai Chi into a lesson on caring for your writing, and uses a garden of beets and basil as an example of having realistic expectations.

While there are solid writing tips and publishing advice found on these pages, Rumors of Water isn’t a craft book in the traditional sense.

It’s more like a quiet conversation on a screened porch with an experienced writer, editor, and publisher, who knows the best writers are those who have full lives, for they are the ones who have something to write about.

Now, it’s your turn to add to my to-be-read list. I review a lot of books here at The Write Conversation, so I’m always looking for something new. I read everything, but for our purposes here, I’m interested in books on writing, the writing life, productivity, and anything that includes tips for keeping my fingers safe from flying knives.

Don’t forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Lynn

Lynn Huggins Blackburn has been telling herself stories since she was five and finally started writing them down. She blogs about faith, family, and her writing journey on her blog Out of the Boat. Lynn is a member of the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild and the Word Weavers, Greenville. She lives in South Carolina where she hangs out with three lively children, one fabulous man, and a cast of imaginary characters who find their way onto the pages of her still unpublished novels. She drinks a lot of coffee.