#amwriting characters friendships between women memoir memoir essay

Ann Patchett’s Heart-Stopping Memoir of Friendship

Ever since I read Ann Patchett’s novel Bel Canto and her luminous memoir about a friendship, Truth & Beauty, Patchett has been one of my heroes. She has a way of reaching into your heart and wrenching the “truth and beauty” from deep within you. Whether the story is tragic or not, I feel uplifted by the depth and vividness of her characters and the compassion she brings to their stories.

Continue reading

childhood memoir creative nonfiction literary agent memoir memoir essay publication Publishing publishing creative nonfiction publishing memoir books publishing memoir essays

Publishing a Memoir — Strategies & Tricks of Memory

They’re like fallen leaves, memories. They arrange themselves in nature’s beautiful random order beyond our ability to perceive, like weather, like a life until you’re looking back on it and suddenly see an organizational purpose. And are amazed into writing about it. The thing is, who else wants to see it? Why is that mysterious, suddenly perceived arrangement important to anyone but you? That’s the question a memoir essay or book must answer. Answering it…

Continue reading

bipolar Cold War memoir memoir essay rocket rocket scientist

A Kick on the Apogee – by a Rocket Kid

Thinking about being a rocket kid today, growing up in the mushroom shadow of the Cold War and with my father, the bipolar rocket scientist. He used to joke that he blew up rockets for a living. He blew up families, too. But he also created some fantastic art, taught me how to fish and how to be creative, and I still miss the pain-in-the-family factor of his explosive, active, restless, engaging, irritating, fascinating personality.…

Continue reading

bipolar camping fathers Gods of Water and Air memoir essay poetry about the ocean rocket rocket scientist San Pedro

The Land of Totuaba

I’m excited that my memoir essay of camping in Baja California with my bipolar rocket scientist father and family is now published online at Halfway Down the Stairs. This issue of the journal has a rich selection of poetry and prose, and I’m honored to have had my story selected. “The Land of Totuaba” is an excerpt from my memoir of an unusual childhood with a father who blew up rockets for a living and…

Continue reading

ballet book discount memoir essay San Pedro

A taste of GODS OF WATER AND AIR – Eight en Croix (a story)

DISCOUNT — I decided that Midsummer Metaphors discount didn’t go far — or long — enough. I’m lowering the special price for now on my book GODS OF WATER AND AIR through the end of July to just $10. And offering a sample of the memoir and poems in it here — below. Just email me at rachel@dacushome.com if you want to grab one! I love writing in the summer, so the title Midsummer Metaphors…

Continue reading

book discount ekphrastic poetry love poem memoir essay nature poem ocean poem poetry poetry about Alzheimer's

Poetry Book Giveaway and Midsummer Metaphors

Thanks to all who participated in my Great Poetry Book Giveaway this year! I picked names out of the numerical hat and sent a copy of my Gods of Water and Air  to one winner and Stanley Kunitz’s book Passing Through. I noticed we all entered each other’s Poetry Book Giveaways. It was a pleasure to read blogs I hadn’t visited and learn about books I will now buy. In the giving spirit, I’m offering…

Continue reading

fathers Italy memoir essay rocket

Telecommunications and my dad

Digging back into the old memoir, Rocket Lessons (forthcoming from who-knows-where, who-knows-when) to rehab some of the chapters as short essays to submit here and there, I discovered one about my father’s biggest project, the launch of the world’s first telecommunications satellite, Relay I. As it turned out, it was by five months the world’s second telecommunications satellite, but as my father always liked to point out, “It’s still up there and Telstar died in…

Continue reading

book promotion book trailer ekphrastic poetry fathers memoir essay ocean poetry poetry about Alzheimer's poetry about ballet poetry about fathers poetry about the ocean visual art

New video trailer for Gods of Water and Air!

Aldrich Press has created a beautiful new trailer for my book! It’s my reading of “Flight,” the first poem in my book. It’s on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KaXVkL8cac&feature=youtu.be I looked at an interesting array of poetry book trailers, and was most taken with Sandra Beasley’s single poem videos, so I decided on a single poem reading. It was fun to make, finding images and music from royalty-free sources. If I were trying to decide whether to buy…

Continue reading

Alzheimer's ballet book review ekphrastic poetry memoir essay poetry about Alzheimer's poetry about ballet poetry book prayer poems rocket spiritual poems

Review of Gods of Water and Air + four poems up at Pirene’s Fountain!

I’m thrilled to have my new book, Gods of Water and Air, reviewed at Pirene’s Fountain — and in glowing terms! — by publisher/editor/poet Ami Kaye. Ami is the author of What Hands Can Hold and other books. I love the way she summed up my book: “Dacus gives us poetry she has plucked from the fire of her imagination and heart, imparting warmth and sustenance to its readers, reminding us what is sacred in…

Continue reading