#natalie serber

[agalmacoppelia]

Cream of the craft - part 1, work on dolls 1. Abbey Chase repaint 2. reroots of Vitamin C and Blue Summer Steffie 3. Two Deer Friends - kiss 4. doll body photo for Shout Her Lovely Name

To celebrate 1,000 posts, I've decided to list some of my projects of which I am most proud, the cream of the crop. I could go on and on about the stuff I haven't finished or haven't yet started, but I want to focus on what I've achieved.

Abbey came to me, from Andrea (dollsahoy) in January 2010, without any hair. The 1st repaint was in April 2011, the 2nd in June 2011, and the 3rd and final in May 2012.

Vitamin C was a simple project, just replacing her hair. (I bought the hair at the end of 2012 and finished the reroot sometime in August 2013.) "Blue Summer Steffie", for lack of a better name, was inspired by model Raquel Reed's blue hair back in the fall of 2009. I didn't start rerooting until March 2011, then finished in August 2011. I sometimes consider redoing it, because the rooting is so dense, but I'm still really pleased with how it turned out.

"Two Deer Friends" is a photo of Desiree the deer girl and a vintage deer from my grandmother. I have a framed print of this image in my house, and I gave a framed print of another in the series to my counselor, as thanks for her help. I can't quite explain my pride in this, but it at least seems like an image that people would buy prints of.

Natalie Serber contacted me in the summer of 2011 and asked if she could use one of my doll photos to go with a short story in her upcoming book. I offered to take new photos to better suit the story, took several shots, narrowed it down to three choices, and she chose this one. Natalie's book Shout Her Lovely Name was published in the summer of 2012, and she seems to have done quite well with it. I still haven't bought a copy of it yet, but you can see the image on Amazon's preview (page 8).

Of these projects, I have the most personal pride in Abbey's repaint. For "professional" pride, regarding the chance that I could someday make a living with my work, I have the most pride in the doll bodies photo. I'm lucky that Natalie Serber found my photo, but I haven't taken the next step in associating my work with a proper portfolio and my real name.

[fritfilter]

>Somehow, during this time, when I was skipping classes, sunbathing topless on J’s boat, struggling to keep my checkbook balanced and reading Salinger, I managed to apply and be accepted to a five week summer writing program in a distant city. I can’t recall what I submitted to get in, but I know they offered me a little bit of money and I was terrified. I wanted to go. But I didn’t want to be away from J. I was afraid he would stop loving me. I didn’t want to lose the comfort of belonging, of being part of a couple. Plus and really, I was deeply afraid I wouldn’t measure up to the other students, and my secret love, writing, would become tainted by my mediocrity. I think J too had some fears about me going because he conjured a job delivering a racing sailboat back from Hawaii during the exact dates of my program and he invited me to join him. I turned down the writing program to sail across the Pacific with a man. Hmm. Sometimes something seems like a risk, but is actually the boring, safe choice.

[therumpus]

I’d been screwing around in community college for two years—signing up for classes, quitting midway—retaking the same classes.  It took me three attempts to complete Cultural Anthropology, a class I loved.  My best friend and I were renting a tiny clapboard house 5 blocks from the beach.  Blue hydrangeas flanked our front door.  Tapestry bedspreads billowed from the ceilings. Matisse posters crowded the walls.  We’d bought a set of dishes at K-Mart and a cast iron pan at the flea market.  I worked as an aerobic instructor and as a hostess at Golden West Pancakes.  I made ends meet by collecting food stamps which we once used to throw an extravagant “C” dinner party—crab, cookies, and Chablis—for the rest of that month we survived on top ramen.  I had no five-year plan, no dogged ambition.  I enjoyed writing, stories mostly.  I imagined I’d someday transfer to a university, become an elementary school teacher like my mom.  I liked kids, I liked the idea of college, and nothing else tugged at me.  But, in order for that low-grade ambition to take root, I would actually have to develop some drive beyond throwing a “D” party—dogs, daiquiris, and ding-dongs.

The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Adrift by Natalie Serber

[coverspy]

Shout Her Lovely Name, Natalie Serber (F, 40s, blue purse, put on lipstick, then pulled out book, A train) http://bit.ly/11UyQbv

[distantheartbeats]

Time evapourated like a puddle, so slow you didn't notice till you looked up and all of a sudden it was gone.

Natalie Serber, Ruby Jewel in Shout Her Lovely Name

[the-fairy-library]

This weeks class is . . .

Nothing new, were reading the rest of Shout Her Lovely Name. To follow-up last weeks edition of our class material I would like to reiterate what these short stories are about. For the most part they are about Ruby (I say Ruby because we were introduced to her first even though Nora becomes the main character) and little glimpses of her life. Mostly revolving around the mother daughter dynamic her and Nora share. The stories, although fiction, aren't really my cup of tea so as well written as they are, it's hard for me to concentrate on them.

I guess I'm a bit of a child in that way, I never grew out of the young adult/fantasy section of the literary genre wheel.

[millionsmillions]

"There are certain arts which even the most seasoned practitioners swear remain a mystery to them. Motherhood is one. Arranging a short story collection is another. In her debut collection, Shout Her Lovely Name, Natalie Serber grapples with both, and the result is a clear-eyed case study of what’s necessary and unsolvable in each. The mothers and daughters in these stories are working out how to hold on to one another even as they scramble to get out of each other’s way."

-- Kate Peterson

[elizabethplaid]

Shout Her Lovely Name by Natalie Serber and the original photo Nearly a year ago, I was contacted to have one of my photos featured in Serber's collection of short stories. I kept quiet about it back then and sorta forgot about it, and I've still kept quiet about it in the month since it went on the market. I've shown the screencap to a couple people, and I finally emailed it to my dad last night. He said the book has been getting positive reviews, as it should. While I only read one of the stories from the collection, it was very powerful. I guess this makes me a published photographer. I want to ditch my middle initial for future publications, though. My last name (not "Plaid", yet) is unique enough to distinguish me. If not, my photograph ought to be. Just checked my book swap site to see if I remembered to add this book to my wishlist. I'm at #18 of 22 people wishing for it.