Dear readers,
I hope you've enjoyed these quotations from Ardyth Kennelly's works old and new (the yet-to-be-published ones) and the excerpts from the journal of Ardyth's husband, Egon Ullman. This last week or two I've quoted from the chapter in The Peaceable Kingdom about Linnea's Christmas at the Orbits' home, a chapter that so many of her fans seem to love.
At this point, I'm going to take an indefinite break from posting new items, but please feel free to comment on the blog or on any of your favorite quotations. I welcome any comments or questions!
If you're already an Ardyth Kennelly fan, you will love reading her new book, Variation West, and her memoirs when they are all published next year. Her storytelling genius only expanded during 1977-94, the period when she wrote the new novel, and her memoirs are delightful as well as revealing.
If you're new to "Ardyth's world" (as an exhibit of her collage art was called), be prepared for something very unusual. If you like long stories, short stories, and lots of them--especially stories of times past in the West--you'll love her writing.
Nancy Trotic
(Ardyth's step-great-niece)
This is the best news of the year (or the century--so far)!! I'd love to see her collages. My son created collages and got me into it, but we both stopped. He's a jazz musician in Chicago; I'm a novelist getting ready to publish. "Good Morning Young Lady" is the only novel I've read more than 3 times. Indeed, I lost count after the first ten times I read it. Why the deep hook, when so many people I loaned the people to would hand it back, unfinished? Sure, the novels are long and discursive, rich with historical detail and incredibly well developed minor characters, but those are strengths in 19thC fiction (and early 20th). Today's readers are so impatient. I'm here to help you launch a 21stC Ardyth Kennelly fan club!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Carol! I'm so happy that fans of her previous books remain so ardent. Yes, you have it exactly right, her novels are "long and discursive, rich with historical detail and incredibly well developed minor characters," and "Variation West" is just the same. It won't appeal to readers without a taste for that kind of writing, but those who like it will have struck gold!
ReplyDeleteI hope that eventually, some photos of her collages, or some of the collages themselves, will be available on the Internet, but I don't know yet what will happen with them. I'm just publishing her books. Best of luck with your novel! What's it about?