Summer Brennan

Author, investigative journalist, former UN consultant and lapsed painter. Ostreaphile and wilderness wanderer. My first book: THE OYSTER WAR: THE TRUE STORY OF A SMALL FARM, BIG POLITICS AND THE FUTURE OF WILDERNESS IN AMERICA is on sale now from Counterpoint Press

[depressionhope]

What do you choose? 

[thecolorblockcurator]

Monica Rohan

[summerbrennan]

writing is like this

[millionsmillions]

You can’t be worrying how you sound. You can’t wonder whether you or your characters are likable or smart or interesting. You have to be inside the scene—the tactile world of tables and chairs and sunlight—attending to your characters, people who exist for you in nonvirtual reality.

Paris Review editor Lorin Stein writes for The New York Times about solitude in the age of the Internet and the future of the book. (via millionsmillions)

[poetsandwriters]

You must read everything, and you must let it all the way into your life, all the way into the part of you that makes writing, and you must let every good thing in—none of this reading a few lines of so-and-so with the hope that you might write something that sounds like it. My least favorite received idea about writing is that one must find one’s voice, as if it’s there inside you, fully formed and ready to turn on like a player piano. A voice is what emerges from an informed intelligence as it reaches toward accurate perception.

Sarah Manguso (New York Times, 2016)

[summerbrennan]

Folisumbration

Here is a new word:

folis·umbra·tion

/fōlisˈumbrāSHən/

noun

singular: folisumbra

1. The shadows created by light shining through overlapping leaves, as seen from below.

“the shifting folisumbration of the leaves at golden hour”

adjective: folisumbrous

/fōlisˈumbrəs/

“she stared up at the folisumbrous canopy of green”

[summerbrennan]

Hello! I interviewed writer Gennifer Hutchison and actor Rhea Seehorn and wrote about how the female creators behind the scenes of Better Call Saul are making a show about men that still feels feminist. For Buzzfeed Reader.

Read eeeeet.

 https://www.buzzfeed.com/summerbrennan2/better-call-kim?utm_term=.dxOEEkOPXk#.gcX99Owm8O

[summerbrennan]

Hello! I interviewed writer Gennifer Hutchison and actor Rhea Seehorn and wrote about how the female creators behind the scenes of Better Call Saul are making a show about men that still feels feminist. For Buzzfeed Reader.

Read eeeeet.

 https://www.buzzfeed.com/summerbrennan2/better-call-kim?utm_term=.dxOEEkOPXk#.gcX99Owm8O

[npr]

With One Large Breath, Dandelion Is Blown Out Of Crayola's 24 Pack

The time has come to say goodbye to Dandelion, one of two yellow crayons in Crayola's 24-count pack. It will go into retirement and the Crayola Hall of Fame.

Crayola, the supplier of colorful art materials, was set to announce the retirement of one of its classic colors in the popular 24-count pack of crayons. The company planned to do the big reveal during a live broadcast on Facebook Friday morning in New York’s Times Square.

Instead, on Thursday, the colorful company announced that Dandelion — that bright yellow hue — is the crayon retiring to the Crayola Hall of Fame, calling the color “an adventurous spirit” with “a case of wanderlust.”

[summerbrennan]

“No more happy yellow for you!

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

i had to pause netflix and straight up cackle for a solid minute

[summerbrennan]

The Parisian Sphinx

Hi there. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything on this blog. My social media mental bandwidth is mostly taken up with Twitter. But that is going to change, and I wanted to share some exciting news. I’m getting ready to launch a crowdfunding campaign for my book The Parisian Sphinx, which will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2018.

The Parisian Sphinx

is the true story of the scandalous life of Victorine Meurent, forgotten art star of 19th century Paris, and the modern search for her lost paintings. A tribute to the creative spirit and the search for truth, it uncovers the remarkable tale of a woman written out of history for daring to live life on her own terms.

Now Indieigogo has invited me to have a Coming Soon page for a campaign to raise funds for the book.

I’ll be pre-selling books and offering other perks, like writing classes, to help cover the costs of my reporting and research, which has been exciting but also expensive. For example, there is a 19th century diary in Saint Petersburg that I need to go read, and a box of photographs in a Paris basement that I have to see that wasn’t available the last time I was there. It’s a long story.

I hope that if you enjoy my writing you will consider contributing to the campaign by pre-ordering a signed copy of The Parisian Sphinx or one of my other books. You can go to Indiegogo now to sign up for updates on the Coming Soon page. There will be some give-aways and deals for those first on the scene.

Thank you so much!

XO

Summer

[summerbrennan]

The Parisian Sphinx

Hi there. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything on this blog. My social media mental bandwidth is mostly taken up with Twitter. But that is going to change, and I wanted to share some exciting news. I’m getting ready to launch a crowdfunding campaign for my book The Parisian Sphinx, which will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2018.

The Parisian Sphinx

is the true story of the scandalous life of Victorine Meurent, forgotten art star of 19th century Paris, and the modern search for her lost paintings. A tribute to the creative spirit and the search for truth, it uncovers the remarkable tale of a woman written out of history for daring to live life on her own terms.

Now Indieigogo has invited me to have a Coming Soon page for a campaign to raise funds for the book.

I’ll be pre-selling books and offering other perks, like writing classes, to help cover the costs of my reporting and research, which has been exciting but also expensive. For example, there is a 19th century diary in Saint Petersburg that I need to go read, and a box of photographs in a Paris basement that I have to see that wasn’t available the last time I was there. It’s a long story.

I hope that if you enjoy my writing you will consider contributing to the campaign by pre-ordering a signed copy of The Parisian Sphinx or one of my other books. You can go to Indiegogo now to sign up for updates on the Coming Soon page. There will be some give-aways and deals for those first on the scene.

Thank you so much!

XO

Summer

[npr]

General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.

Former Trump National Security Advisor Flynn’s attorney Robert Kelner said in a statement  (via npr)

[jennwitte-deactivated20260419]

Top ten bestselling books at Skylight Books for March!

[millionsmillions]

As close are you are to people you love, you will never think their thoughts or feel their feelings. That’s something the novel does that other forms cannot.

Thinking Another Person’s Thoughts: The Millions Interviews Brit Bennett (via millionsmillions)

[bookriot]

Far more books are published by men than by women, perhaps because publishers feel that books by men are a safer bet. We can affect this by making a choice when it comes to the books we buy, since how we chose to spend our money is the most effective weapon we have.

from Lessons From a Month of Reading Only Books By Women (via bookriot)

[the59thstreetbridge]

Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you’re 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn’t go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It’s going to break your heart. Don’t let this happen.

Anne Lamott (via the59thstreetbridge)

[npr]

Putin Ordered 'Influence Campaign' To Help Trump, U.S. Intelligence Report Says

The public version of the intelligence report on the investigation into Russia's interference in the U.S. elections concludes that Russia "aspired to help" Trump's election chances when possible.