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About Jamie Sheffield
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Blog postI heard from my advisor yesterday... she's happy with my thesis.
{imagine the release of a breath held for months, a breath I'd not been aware of holding}
The collection of stories that I'll be submitting to the archives and archivists at Goddard College went from 27 stories to 15; I think it's a much tighter collection, more in line with what I wanted to serve up to readers, and with the revisions all of my readers helped me to find my way to is very close to the stories I had in my -
Blog postMy thesis will be finished. Not yet, not soon, but someday, and looking at the collection of stories I've put together in the semi-final stages makes me proud, and happy, and excited ... for what's next.
I found my way to Goddard two years ago, hungry to change my approach to writing, eager to improve and professionalize my stories and the way I produced and shared them with the world. My take on me was that I was more storyteller than writer, and what I wanted to get from my time a -
Blog postWhy is a guy who's written and published four novels back in school pursuing an MFA?Why is that same novelist laboring to produce a collection of short stories for his thesis?Where is he in that process ... it's been a long time since he published anything?What's next ... why ... when?Those are all excellent questions, especially the first two, and rather than Sir Edmund Hillary-ing my answer, let me try to think my way through them in this blog entry ... if you promise to read it, I promise to
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Blog postI tell people I'm a writer.
It's possible that I'm lying ... or at least that I think I'm lying.
I'm a student of story. I love the feel and shape of a good story. I've spent my life enjoying watching, listening to, and reading stories that other people tell; after a lifetime in the pursuit of story, I generally know which way a good one will bend and twist before sticking its landing.
It's this gift, or skill, that gave me the courage to write Here Be -
Blog postWriting is a task best done by oneself.
Wait, that's not true ... let me rephrase that to explain how I'm right, as well as how I'm wrong.
Writing your first draft is generally best done in private; what happens before and after that first draft is best done in some form of writing community.
One of the ways in which writing is difficult, at least for me, is that dichotomy, the bi-directional pull of introvert and extrovert.
I love sitting alon -
Blog postI just got back from two weeks in Iceland with my wife and son. We had a spectacular time exploring the fascinating island-nation. It occurred to me on landing back at Logan at sunset the other night, driving home in the dark through legions of Masshole drivers, that we'd been living in the light for two weeks.
Although the sun technically sets for an hour or two out of every 24 at this time of year, the sky never gets darker than a cloudy afternoon. We'd flown in, rented a car, and -
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Blog postI recently returned from an extended trip around the country with my son Ben. We traveled a huge loop around the perimeter of the country, with the help of Amtrak's Railpass. Starting in Albany, we looped to Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, LA, New Orleans, Washington DC, and then home again, after riding about 6,500 miles of train track in varying levels of comfort.
The day we headed out, packing light
Great art Great zoo Great aquariumWe stayed in a wonderful AirBnBIt's a -
Blog postI gave a talk at Landmark College, located in Putney, Vermont, this week, and it was recorded by the local TV station for local broadcast.
The talk was titled: "Neurodiverse Characters in Fiction: Perspectives Beyond the Vanilla"
It was a fun talk to give, and a great place to give the talk for a number of reasons:I love talking about writingI enjoy writing, and reading, neurodiverse characters in fictionLandmark College's student population is largely compris -
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Blog postHe came to live with us about a decade ago, low points in our lives, each for our own reasons, from which we all saved each other in a mutual rebuilding, the kind you only see where dogs are involved.
Miles was back in the isolation section of our favorite Humane Society on earth ... he jumped, he barked, a lot. In one of those cruel feedback loops of confinement, he could never really share his essential Miles-ness in that place, but we saw enough that we knew his weirdness would f -
Blog postI just returned from my second residency at Goddard College, in pursuit of my MFA in Creative Writing; it was mostly perfect, and definitely a magical experience.
It was a frozen and snowglobe-y world up in Plainfield, between buildings and classes on Goddard's pretty campus, exhausting also; once I crunched down my driveway at home, I spent the majority of the MLK weekend couching with my wife and dogs (possibly with my dogs and wife, opinions vary).
I've been thinking a -
Blog postI gave a talk for the "Contemporary Environmental Writers" class at Paul Smith's College yesterday; everyone, myself included, had a great time.
Photo Credit: Deb NayborI love doing this sort of thing, and wish I did them more, so it occurred to me to make the point that might not already be clear:
Ask me ... I'd love to come and give a talk at your school or library or bookclub!
I love talking about my books. I love talking about writing. I love tal -
Blog postOn the morning of September 11, 2001, I was working as a Special Education teacher in Lake Placid, NY. It was the beginning of the school year, and I accompanied the 7th grade, and one student with ASD in particular, to a nearby low-ropes course for a bonding experience to help the kids and teachers get to know each other. The morning began as these things do: awkward sharing activities, jocks excelling at physical challenges while the rest struggle, thrown pinecones, wondering about where
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Blog postI'm a big fan of coffee from way back, long before I started writing books. I drink a fair amount of coffee every day while I'm writing, and believe it's a useful part of my process.
The downside of coffee is that too much can lead to jitters and being hyper, and once you're into that territory, you are (or at least I am) beyond useful writing for a while. It's important to balance coffee/caffeine intake with water (to stay hydrated) and food (so that caffeine is not the only fuel y -
Blog postI got back from my first residency in the MFA Program at Goddard ten days ago, and feel as though my involvement in the program is already contributing to my growth as a writer.
I've been writing and reading daily, and approaching both with a more critical eye. The things I learned working with my fellow students and the teachers at Goddard have already been helpful in pushing me to stretch beyond my comfort-zone.
My focus this semester is in short fiction, so I'm spendin -
Blog postI've started my first residency at Goddard College, in Plainfield, Vermont, in their MFA-Writing program.
My cohort of twenty students will get together, along with other cohorts and the faculty members to read and write, and to share what we read and write; also to attend workshops and lectures, and to design our individual courses of study for the coming semester, once the residency is at an end.
It's a creativity-rich environment, and after days spent talking ab -
Blog postI'm a father, a husband, a brother, a son, a friend, a writer, and, as always ... I'm a
It's been a year since my wife Gail accepted a position at Landmark College, and we kicked around the idea of me writing full-time. Since that miraculous set of life-changing talks for all of us our life has been busy and filled with change and adjustments and joy and love and smiles, and some stress.
I've written somewhere around a quarter of a million words, working on various projects. I' -
Blog postTing
Tunk
Ting, ting
Plonk
The dogs and I watched the old farmer drill holes, tap spiles, then hang buckets this afternoon.
I was eager to go and ask: wasn't it early, how long to fill up, does he have to move them around on the tree.
Puck and Miles were eager to rush out stiff-legged, all barks and sniffing and peeing on stuff.
We didn't.
Later, after the old farmer had disappeared, we checke -
Blog postMy parents have fled the cold and winter storms of the Northeast for a week or two each year for the last dozen or so, and landed somewhere in Florida each time ... this year they invited me, knowing that I had the time and would probably enjoy writing outside in air that doesn't hurt my face.
I flew down the morning after a huge storm in New Hampshire, abandoning Gail and Puck and Miles to the elements, and JetBlued my way down to Fort Myers. The above shows me driving over a lovely cause -
Blog postI'm about ready to start typing.
I've been prepping for writing my next novel, "Oasis" for a while, and it's working. My head is full of story and characters and conflict and the world in which the story will take place.
There's a map of the world (more than one, actually), and some geo-biographies about all of the major and minor provinces. I know the twenty first and second tier characters pretty well. The arc of the story is planned out in some detail (I li -
Blog postMerry Christmas, and glad tidings of whatever seasonal holidays you choose to observe, or celebrate, or ignore!
My favorite concept of giving at this time of year involves an Icelandic tradition:
Now that I've said my bit on that, without having to pronounce it, let's get to the point of this blog ....
Ben is on his Christmas break from school, and together we made a plan to return to our old stomping grounds to visit with friends, and do some skiing. I found what turned -
Blog postSince moving to New Hampshire at the end of July, I've been able to spend more time than ever working on my writing ... planning and crafting and writing and editing stories for what I had presumed was a collection of vignettes and shorts and novellas. I had also been working on a high-fantasy novel, Oasis, that I envision as the first installment in a trilogy about murder and intrigue in a magical world powered by blood. In addition to those two, I've also been doing a bit of work with prelimin
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Blog postBackstory
I had filed the experience away until a writer whose work and work ethic I admire greatly (Jonathan Maberry) posted on FB that he'd had his hand bitten by a dog, and, knowing how much he writes day to day, I replied that he should consider Google Voice Typing.
Having seen my reply, another writer got in touch and asked me some great questions about it, and when I'd answered his questions, it occurred to me that I should share my thoughts here.
Last year, -
Blog postMy son Ben and I drove up to the Adirondacks to spend a week with my parents at Camp. It was the first time in 20 years that they weren't essentially coming to visit me; the first time I didn't live up here, there, in the Adirondacks.
It felt bizarre driving through the woods that I know so well, but it not being my home. A year ago, I would have said that I'd always be here, always be an Adirondacker.
I think I will be ... the connection is too strong to severed by virtue of my mail -
Blog postSummer is racing by, and it occurs to me that I haven't posted to my blog in a while ... so here we go.
Big changes are afoot in my world. Thanks to decades of hard work on her part, and a fantastic job opportunity, my wife will soon be the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Landmark College, in Putney, Vermont. We're selling our house and moving to nearby Westmoreland, NH.
As a natural result of this change, I resigned from my teaching position of nearly 20 years wi -
Blog postThere is a long-standing history, or tradition, possibly even an expectation, of drug use among artists.
Mind-altering substances, and their use by artists in the creative process, are tolerated, sometimes celebrated, by the people who enjoy the art, and by the artists themselves.
I'm no less guilty of either side of that equation than the rest of the world. I have at times guiltily reveled in stories of the excesses of Ernest Hemingway or Dylan Thomas or Willie Nelson or Jacks
Books By Jamie Sheffield
Thunderstruck (Tyler Cunningham Book 4)
Jan 23, 2016
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Between the Carries (Tyler Cunningham Book 3)
Jan 4, 2015
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$12.07
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Here Be Monsters (Tyler Cunningham Book 1)
Dec 31, 2012
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Caretakers (Tyler Cunningham Book 2)
Jan 4, 2014
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by
Rae Ford ,
Rodney Hall ,
C. R. Garmen ,
Michelle Rabe ,
Lindy Spencer ,
Jamie Sheffield ,
Brenda Tetreault ,
L. Bachman
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