Women on Writing - WOW and WOW!
Women On Writing is an online magazine and community for women writers. Among major topics are novel writing, indie publishing, author platform, blogging, screenwriting, and more. Lots of contests and general jocularity sans frittering on the part of Earth's most powerful humans.
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Recently, I sent my story around on a critique forum to get feedback, and one piece of feedback I received stopped me in my creative tracks. They accused my story of being boring. Worse, I believed them. I re-read the story and thought, good grief they are right. I almost overhauled the whole thing until I received a rejection letter. My story - yes, the one I planned on changing completely - had been rejected. Yet, something in this rejection made me pause. It made me wonder if that other person had been wrong. You see, the rejection was positive. It said, "It was good; it just wasn’t a perfect fit for the issue." Now, I know from my past experiences that receiving a pe…
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First things first - I am super excited to be able to give you a look into Greenwood Gone: Henry's Story. This book is by one of our own bloggers, Sioux Roslawski. Her publisher is Editor-911 Books with our very own Margo L. Dill. And, this is an amazing book. It tells a story that should be in our schools but isn't. For those of you who don't know about the book, here is part of the review I posted on GoodReads and Amazon: “Some people might hesitate to hand a book on the Tulsa Race Massacre to a young reader. But Sioux Roslawski’s book is perfect for middle grade readers because it is told through the fictional character of 12 year-old Henry Simmons. “Henry wants no…
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Pattie Palmer-Baker is a Portland OR artist and poet. Over the years of exhibiting her artwork—a combination of paste paper collages with her poetry in calligraphic form—she discovered that people, despite what they may believe, do like poetry; in fact, many liked the poems better than the visual art. She now concentrates on writing, both poetry and personal essays. Nominated for the Pushcart Poetry Prize, and published in many journals including, Poeming Pigeons Anthology; Voicecatcher; The Best of Voicecatcher; Ghazal Page; Voices, The Art and Science of Psychotherapy; Calyx; and Phantom Drift. First prize 2016 Timberline Review. First prize 2018 for the Del Sol Press m…
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So, being a writer, I do this thing where whenever I think of an interesting sentence or a line just enters into my head because I’m a writer and odd lines are always coming into my head because, being a writer, I look at the world oddly, I write down these little lines and bits and quirky sentences and whatnots that come to me and later on I’ll use them as prompts. Life gets busy and does its busy life thing, but I make sure that every day I sit down and write something new for at least 10 minutes. If I don’t know what to write about, which usually is the case because I never know what to write about until I start writing, I pull out my list of odd lines, close my eyes, …
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Holly Rae Garcia is an author and photographer. Growing up, she remembers reading her mother’s extensive Stephen King and True Crime collection. A love for dark fiction with sad endings has stayed with her ever since. Her own books include Come Join the Murder, and The Easton Falls Massacre: Bigfoot’s Revenge. Her shorter fiction has been published online and in print for various magazines and anthologies. Holly lives on the Texas Coast with her family and five large dogs. More information can be found on her website and Twitter. ----------interview with Sue Bradford Edwards ---------- WOW: Tell us about the inspiration for “Even the Jellyfish.” Holly: I wrote the story …
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Marketing a picture book is not an easy task. There are some obstacles, like with a lot of children's books, because members of your target audience are not the ones buying the book. So you're appealing to grandparents, parents, teachers, and librarians, for example, instead of to your actual readers, like a romance author might do. Plus, picture books are more expensive to create, so even though most will be under 1000 words, your price might be higher than many novels. But! the good news is that people love picture books. They love to give books as a gift, and they love to share them with the kiddos in their lives. So what are some marketing strategies you can use to s…
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Amadea’s Bio: Amadea Tanner writes predominantly historical fiction, and is interested in using stories to navigate the cycle of time. Partial to noir banter, philosophical musing, and featuring inanimate objects as characters in their own right, she is currently polishing a novel which explores the eternal and the ephemeral through a female correspondent’s journey during WWII. You can find Amadea in the ether @amadea_cadence or amadeatanner.com. If you haven't read Amadea's story, take a moment to click through and read "The Usual Solace" before coming back to learn about her inspiration and her writing process. WOW: What was the inspiration behind your story? Amadea…
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The last time I opined about my writing faults (and tips for correcting them), many of my talented Muffin bloggers admitted that they, too, shared my bad writing habits. One of our bloggers, Sue Bradford Edwards, went so far as to ask: Seriously - don't any of us have unique bad habits? Something quirky but adorable? Never let it be said that Cathy C. Hall would back down from a dare. (Technically, there wasn’t a dare but I definitely felt it was implied.) And so today, allow me to present my quirky but adorably unique bad writing habits: The Folder That’s Stuffed With 87, 567 Non-Fiction Ideas That Are Gathering Dust (And Will Most Likely Never See the Light of Day) …
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When Sioux contacted me a few years ago for developmental editing before I had started Editor-911 Books, like so many Americans, I also hadn't heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre. She told me her big picture idea and bought a novel draft package. With my developmental editor hat on, I read her manuscript (Sioux is a wonderful writer) and knew that she had spent most of the pages skirting around the actual massacre because she was writing a middle-grade novel, and she was thinking of her audience. I think she wondered if she could write about the horrific details of that event for that age group. But my advice was: Kids, teachers, parents, and librarians will want to read abo…
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No, this is not about Sioux's past life as a cheerleader. I can semi-coordinate my legs (sometimes) and can control my arm movements (most of the time) but I can't do both at the same time. No, this about our family and friends who are cheerleaders--the folks who are cheering us on as writers. I read Jeanine DeHoney's moving post, and thought about the sweet way her family encouraged her witing... and I thought I would throw my two cents one and half cents into the conversation. My cheerleaders are a mixed bag. My cheerleaders are 99% over the top... and then, there's my husband. My hubby means well, bless his heart. He doesn't love to read, so that is responsible …
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Now announcing a blog tour featuring two clean and sweet books: Read-Aloud Stories with Fred Collection and Only My Horses Know. Both books are perfect for parents who worry about the material their children are reading or they are reading to them. Both are clean and sweet. Published by Editor-911 Kids, an imprint of Editor-911 Books, a small, independent press owned and operated by Margo L. Dill that publishes books that readers love but aren't traditional. Join us as we interview the authors, share more about the books, and give you the chance to win a copy! Also, by actively participating in this tour, you have the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Read-Aloud S…
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The Greenwood Cultural Center had a fundraising brunch as part of the commemoration of the Tulsa Race Massacre. A friend of mine (Darice) and I went to Tulsa, and reserved two spots at the brunch. I thought the highlight would be hearing Alfre Woodard speak. She did make a lovely and moving (prepared) speech, but Garth Brooks stole my heart. Let me preface the rest of this post with this: I am not was not a real fan of his. There is a popular Garth Brooks bar song that I sang--one time--along with a large group of people (surprise--in a bar), but I’m more into Trisha Yearwood. So, when I heard about this brunch, I squealed about other stars who would be in attendance… bu…
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Interview with Carole Mertz, Author of Color and Line (and poetry collection giveaway!)
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Today, I am excited to introduce you to an incredible author who just released a book of ekphrastic poetry and prose poems. She's here to talk about her new book Color and Line and share her writing journey with us. Color and Line, Carole Mertz’s 2021 poetry collection, presents ekphrastic poems, and other poems of various literary references in formal poetry and free verse. Her ekphrasis treats some well-known paintings, such as Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party,” Van Gogh’s “La Guinguette,” and Pippin’s lesser known “The Domino Players.” Mertz’s prose poems present colorful essays and vignettes, telling little stories that record her deeply emotional responses to …
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Pexels.com I’m about to catapault headfirst into the whirlwind of helping a child apply for colleges in the coming months. I’m not ready for this—but I’m not sure I’ll be ready for this by the time my second child begins the college application process two years from now, either. I am grateful we weren’t experiencing my daughter’s senior year in the 2020-21, when proms, end-of-year-celebrations and so many high school graduations were simply canceled as the world began shutting down and sheltering in place due to COVID-19. About a month ago our school hosted a guest speaker discussing the current trends in writing college essays. My daughter had track practice so she w…
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Congratulations to Cassandra Crossing and A Future, Bright and Free and all the winners of our 2021 Quarter 1 Creative Non-Fiction Essay Contest! Cassandra’s Bio: Cassandra immigrated to the US in hopes of a better life, yet she found heartaches and pain. She changed her name to fit in, yet even after many years, she’s viewed as a foreigner. But as in the movie, “The Cassandra Crossing,” they survived a catastrophe, she’s a survivor. She finds joy in nature and in the little things life offers. She writes from personal experience about love, despair, loss, and hope. Her work includes short stories, creative non-fiction essays, flash fiction, plays, and poetry. She’s als…
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We are excited to announce another reader review event featuring the dystopian fiction book Sins of Our Mothers by Nicole Souza. Join us as we share reviews of this thought-provoking book and interview the author. Don't miss this giveaway where you can also win a copy of this book for yourself! First, here is a little bit about Sins of Our Mothers: It has been fifteen hundred years since the solar flare devastation of the Global Catastrophe. Due to the radioactivity in the harvesting fields, society dismisses its defective children as nothing more than flawed products of the malfunctioned seeds in the field. But Lyratelle, a hyper-observant musical prodigy, believes the…
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by Anne Leigh Parrish My first short story was written on brown paper using a second-hand Underwood typewriter I picked up at antiques store. I felt so writerly, perched on my stool at my kitchen counter, banging away. My husband was studying for the bar exam, and had trouble concentrating with the noise I made. Luckily for him I wrote in spurts, lasting no more than fifteen minutes at a time. Then I’d get up and wander off, overwhelmed with doubt and a growing sense that I had no idea what I was trying to say and why it mattered. I persisted. “Among The Bohemians” was an uneven, heartfelt ramble about a recent party we’d attended which read more like an essay than a pi…
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I didn't realize I was a walking talking ball of encouragement until my husband pointed it out. Well - he didn't say it quite that way. In fact, he began by pointing out how weird I am because I hollered out the car window at an acquaintance. I guess I thought everyone did that kind of thing. I posted about the scenario on social media and learned a lot about myself from the comments made by friends and family. I'll back up a bit. I love coffee and I especially love Starbucks coffee. I fell in love with it decades ago when I was traveling for work. I appreciated the consistency of their product and customer service. No matter where I traveled, I Could count on a Venti Va…
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Susan Moffson has been working in the field of international development for over 20 years, some of that time spent living and working in Africa. For the past 10 years, she has worked for the non-governmental organization, Jhpiego, the leading partner in a consortium implementing the global health project, Momentum Country and Global Leadership. She has written several work-related blogs about the positive impact Jhpiego-led programs have had on many women and children and has realized she is a journalist at heart. Susan loves to write fiction, pulling from her time abroad, to capture the incredibly rich and varied cultures she has been fortunate to experience. If y…
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Late in 2020, I prepped to write a middle grade science fiction novel. Because I read a lot more fantasy than science fiction, I knew I needed to compile a reading list. I found very little for this age group so I asked book fans and writers. I found online lists composed by reviewers and librarians. I requested a dozen recent middle grade novels and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. After I read the first contemporary novel, I examined the others. Every book was a boarding school story on another planet. Harry Potter goes to Mars, etc. Why oh why was the only unique recommendation War of the Worlds? And why didn’t science play a bigger part in these books? I also…
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Gwen Gardner writes clean, cozy, lighthearted mysteries with a strong ghostly element. Since ghosts feature prominently in her books, she has a secret desire to meet one face to face—but will run screaming for the hills if she ever does. Her lifelong love of books and reading transitioned naturally into a love of writing, where adventure can be found around every corner—or down a dark, twisting alley. She thinks there is nothing better than a good mystery (being an excellent armchair detective herself), unless it’s throwing a ghost or two into the mix to “liven” things up. Don’t worry, though. Ghosts may be tricky to keep in line, but it turns out they’re darn good sleut…
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My mother had an oversized black leather handbag she carried everywhere especially as she grew older. Although she had smaller ones in different colors that could coordinate with whatever she was wearing, this one was an appendage on her arm whether she was going to the supermarket, the doctor's office, a family gathering, or special event. It was most likely purchased from Sears, her favorite department store, and it was spacious enough to hold everything but the kitchen sink; from candy she always had on hand for a fidgety child at the doctor's office or her grandchildren at a family gathering, to important documents she never left home without, a pack of Kleenex, one …
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There’s a hierarchy when it comes to landing that first job. Remember your first job as a teenager? Mine was slinging popcorn and sodas at a movie theater and working as a junior employee at a department store in the mall. It’s never too late to earn money with your writing talent. I’m 44 years old and have never published a novel, but I’ve written a few that I hope to put out in the world one day. In the meantime, I’ve been working for more than 20 years writing marketing copy and newspaper, magazine and online articles. In my day job as a magazine editor, I nurture plenty of writers who may have never written articles before for regional publications, but a lot of them …
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There's the saying that everybody knows: It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings. Well, this fat lady is singing... but it ain't over. It ain't done. My book is finished. It's published. It's available for pre-order (on Amazon). And yet there are still changes being made. This is the cover of my book. The art was created by Jessica Esfahani, a truly gifted artist. She imposed newspaper headlines from 1921 onto the silhouette, and hand-drew the ruins of Greenwood. It was a brilliant design, in my opinion. Since I'm not Stephen King or James Patterson or Jodi Picoult, my books are POD (print on demand). There's not a warehouse full of cases of my books (which is what my husb…
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Way back in the olden days, Angela used to tease me about how many ideas I jotted down. Anything and everything could give me an idea for a story, an article, or a title. And it happened every single day. But in the last few years, the ideas slowed down. A good month yielded maybe 10 ideas. I wondered if it was menopause or lockdown or. . . The problem was that I didn’t want something to blame. I wanted a jump start. As you know, I love taking classes. I take history classes and science classes. I sign up for social science classes and classes on the humanities. I also take writing classes, and that’s where I found an answer. When I signed up for Amber Petty’s fre…
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ALGONKIAN SUCCESS STORIES
WTF is Wrong With Stephen King?
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The Usherette (Historical Fiction). Meeting Orson Welles
Scene: Chapter Four. Jo returns to New York from visiting Madeleine in Florida after receiving a telegram from Orson Welles asking to meet. He wants to premiere "Citizen Kane" at the Palace Theater and needs someone to show him around. The scene captures Jo's passions and core decency - and why the movies matter to her. He wanted to meet at midnight.docx -
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Demystifying the Blog Tour: A Powerful Marketing Tool for Your Book Launch and Beyond
A blog tour is a marketing campaign that involves coordinating a series of blog posts and online promotions to create buzz and generate exposure for your book. It typically involves collaborating with bloggers and influencers who have an audience that aligns with your target readership. These bloggers will read your book, write reviews, host author interviews, and feature guest posts or excerpts from your book on their blogs. The goal is to reach a wider audience and generate interest in your book within their established community. The Blog Tour Framework Here's a breakdown of the framework for a typical blog tour: Identify and contact bloggers: Research and compile a list of relevant bloggers who cater to your book's genre or niche. Reach out to them via email or through their website's contact form, expressing interest in collaborating on a blog tour. Provide review copies: Offer a digital or physical copy of your book to the interested bloggers, allowing them time to read and review it before the tour begins. Create tour schedule: Coordinate with the participating bloggers to create a schedule for the tour. Each blogger will have a designated day to feature your book on their blog and share their review, interview, guest post, or any other agreed-upon content. Create content: Prepare author interviews, guest posts, or excerpts that you can provide to the bloggers to publish on their respective blogs. These pieces of content should be engaging and relevant to your book, enticing readers to learn more about it. Promote: As the blog tour progresses, actively promote each blog post across your own social media channels and any other platforms you use. This will help generate more visibility and encourage your existing followers to visit the blogs hosting your content. Engage with readers: Throughout the blog tour, make an effort to engage with readers who leave comments on the blog posts. Responding to their comments and answering their questions will help build a connection and potentially lead to more interest in your book. Blog Tour Benefits The benefits of a blog tour can be significant for your book launch or generating interest long after your book has been released. Some potential advantages include: Increased exposure: By leveraging the established audiences of bloggers and influencers, you can reach a wider audience that may not have been aware of your book otherwise. Social proof: Positive reviews and endorsements from bloggers can lend credibility to your book, encouraging readers to take a chance on it. Networking opportunities: Collaborating with bloggers and influencers can expand your network within the literary community, opening doors to potential future partnerships or opportunities. Enhanced online presence: The blog tour generates online content related to your book, increasing your online presence and searchability, which can have long-term benefits for your author platform. When to Plan a Blog Tour Determining the best time to have a blog tour for your book largely depends on your specific goals, timeline, and the nature of your book. However, there are a few general considerations to keep in mind when planning the timing of your blog tour: Book launch date: Ideally, you'll want to schedule your blog tour around your book's launch date. This ensures that the tour generates maximum buzz and attention during the critical period when your book becomes available to the public; however, a book tour can also help reignite interest in your book long after it’s been published.. Pre-launch promotion: Consider starting your blog tour a few weeks before your book's official launch. This gives bloggers and influencers ample time to read and review your book, and it allows you to generate buzz and anticipation leading up to the release. Pre-launch promotion can help build excitement and generate pre-orders or early sales. Availability of review copies: Ensure that you have review copies of your book available and ready to send out to bloggers well in advance of the blog tour start date. This allows sufficient time for bloggers to read the book and prepare their content for the tour. Consider providing digital copies for ease and quick distribution. Audience availability: Take into account the preferences and availability of your target audience. If your book caters to a specific season, genre, or holiday, it might be beneficial to align your blog tour with that theme or timeframe. For example, a romance novel might benefit from a blog tour around Valentine's Day. Other marketing efforts: Consider coordinating your blog tour with other marketing initiatives you have planned. This could include social media campaigns, advertising, or other promotional activities. A coordinated approach can amplify your book's visibility and impact. Blogger availability: Reach out to bloggers and influencers well in advance to secure their participation and confirm their availability for the tour. Keep in mind that popular bloggers may have busy schedules, so it's beneficial to plan ahead and be flexible with scheduling to accommodate their availability. Ultimately, the best time for a blog tour is when you have everything in place, including review copies, promotional materials, and a solid plan for engaging with bloggers and readers throughout the tour. Take the time to strategically plan and execute your blog tour to maximize its impact on your book launch or relaunch. Did you know WOW! Women on Writing offers blog tours as part of our marketing services? If you're interested in exploring professional assistance for your blog tour and other book marketing endeavors, check out WOW! Women on Writing's book marketing packages. We offer comprehensive and tailored solutions to help authors like you navigate the world of book promotion. Our team of experts can guide you through the process, provide valuable insights, and connect you with influential bloggers and reviewers in your genre. By leveraging the expertise and network of WOW! Women on Writing, you can enhance the effectiveness of your blog tour and ensure your book receives the attention it deserves. Learn more here or contact blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com with questions. (C) Copyright wow-womenonwriting.com Visit WOW! Women On Writing for lively interviews and how-tos. Check out WOW!'s Classroom and learn something new. Enter the Quarterly Writing Contests. Open Now![url={url}]View the full article[/url] -
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Whatcha Reading? May 2023, Part Two
It’s time to wrap up May with our second Whatcha Reading! It’s also Memorial Day weekend in the States, which seems like a perfect excuse to get even more reading done before the month is over. Sneezy: I’m reading Right Wing Women by Andrea Dworkin. She takes no prisoners. Sarah: What’s that? The library has the next Veronica Speedwell audiobook? Don’t mind if I do! Currently listening to A Murderous Relation ( A | BN | K | AB ) and having a splendid time. The audiobook performance by Angele Masters is terrific. A | BN | KShana: I just finished a YA romcom that gave me the biggest book hangover, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert. So much banter and sweetness! I’m now reading The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older, and liking it so far. Elyse: I just finished The Daydreams. ( A | BN | K ) Some of it was how awful tabloids were to young female stars in the aughts (Lindsay, Britney etc), but each of the main characters does something really shitty to another so it’s hard to really like any of leads. It was meh. Lara: Elyse recommended Loreth Anne White’s The Maid’s Diary ( A | BN ) and I’m hooked. No romance, but the suspense is phenomenal so far. Whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments! View the full article -
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Book Lovers: Know Your Tribe
Another fundamental that makes a whole lot of sense, esp marketing wise. -
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Writing Hot Sex Scenes - Saints Preserve Us!
I've been trained. It works! -
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Crucial Self-Editing Techniques - Don't be Hostage to a Line Editor
If you knew how many writers this has positively impacted, you'd say, it's no wonder. Fundamentals like this are too often neglected. -
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Podcast 564, Your Transcript has Bunny Ears
The transcript for Podcast 564. Bunny Aliens in Space: Cover Design with JL Logosz has been posted! This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks. ❤ Click here to subscribe to The Podcast → View the full article -
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Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener Doesn’t See the Forest for the Trees
Master Gardener is the third in Paul Schrader’s “God’s Lonely Men” trilogy, in each film of which a weary middle-aged man who has previously experienced alienation from mainstream society contends with his haunted past and hazy future, reflecting on these things, and his rote daily existence, via diary-keeping—a technique that suffices until his world is challenged by knowledge of something greater, and tested by a newfound bond with a distressed young person. Via these characters, the films in this trilogy tend to pair and interrogate the relationship between two normally unrelated topics: religion and climate change (First Reformed, 2017), gambling and the War on Terror (The Card Counter, 2021), and horticulture and racism (Master Gardener, 2022). Schrader is an accomplished, highly literary storyteller and his interests (particularly the the masculine-coded concepts of destruction and violence) have produced some of film’s most fascinating inquiries into the ills of modern society, from Taxi Driver to Affliction to American Gigolo, to First Reformed and The Card Counter. First a film critic and then a screenwriter (responsible for classics like Raging Bull and Obsession and famous for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma), Schrader’s later work as a director is epitomized by the triad of films about “God’s Lonely Men,” three anti-social anti-heroes in crisis: a self-loathing pastor, a troubled gambler, and a secretive gardener, all reckoning with the sudden collision of themes, lives, selves once kept at a distance. Many of his protagonists, but especially these three, can be read as homages to Alain Delon’s Jef Costello in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 film Le Samouraï: cool, reserved, highly-competent professionals whose whose adherence to rituals and observances leaves them unprepared to confront unforeseen cataclysms. It’s almost never useful to compare films in a director’s oeuvre to one another; despite similarities, each is its own discreet contribution. But Schrader’s films are designed to reference each other—or, really, The Card Counter and Master Gardener are designed to reference First Reformed—so please forgive me while I place them all side-by-side for a moment. In First Reformed, Ethan Hawke plays Ernst Toller (no, not that Ernst Toller), a cheerless reverend at a small antique church upstate who keeps a diary of his own stark life the year he happens to encounter a distraught climate activist who opens his eyes to the ravishment of God’s green earth by greedy corporations, as well as the ways God’s own church is influenced by corporatization to the point of disregarding the stewardship of the planet. That film, a simmering hagiography of a soul in turmoil, provides the blueprint for Schrader’s subsequent two films, not only thematically, but also stylistically, in the terms I mentioned in the opening paragraph. The films are dark, lonely meditations into their protagonists’ natures, told via their floridly-written, allusion-rich journal entries, as they finally confront aspects of their lives and their worlds they have kept at bay for so long. The Card Counter inherits the framework of First Reformed, but reworks it enough for it to feel distinct; Oscar Isaac plays William Tell (no, not that William Tell), a former military interrogator and now card-counter, who carpetbags from casino to casino, living out of austere motels, until he meets a young man who informs him that he knows his true identity, as a soldier who served jailtime for his role in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and asks for his help committing an act of revenge against one of Tell’s military superiors. This film slowly explores the human capacity for both empathy and cruelty, teasing out the relationship between “keeping one’s cool” and “losing it.” I don’t have as conclusive a reading of the forces at work Master Gardener, arguably the film in this trilogy with the toughest conceit. Joel Edgerton plays Narval Roth, a taciturn head gardener of Gracewood Gardens, a privately-owned estate with gardens that are open to the public. Narval manages a team of polo-clad young people, overseeing their work but also instructing them in the history, philosophy, and science of horticulture. He answers to no one, except Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), the wealthy owner of the estate, who throws his carefully cultivated world out of order when she demands he take on an apprentice, her grand-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell). Maya is biracial, the daughter of the “wayward” daughter of Norma’s sister, who left the family and “fell in with a bad crowd,” as Norma purrs. Maya seems to be her only relative left, so she is eager to draw her into the family—but not enough that she doesn’t insist that she work on the family’s land, first. Maya is a curious, intelligent twenty-something, surprisingly accepting of the fact that she’s a minimum wage worker on her great aunt’s estate. Norma wants Narval to educate her, teach her about the maintenance and culture and theories of horticulture, so that she might be able to pursue a career in the field in the future. Maya takes kindly to this earthy finishing school, especially because she appreciates the softspoken and passionate manner of Narval, her teacher. The movie appears to take place in the South (it was filmed in Louisiana), and the house looks like a plantation estate, so it seems like there might be some interesting explorations into contemporary white supremacy, the way Norma insists that Maya be fashioned into a more refined version of herself in order to be welcomed into her family tree, and simultaneously wants this self-improvement to take place as a farm-worker beneath her, and literally in the dirt. But the film wobbles from here on out, mostly because we learn about the haunted, Narval’s past as a soldier of a Neo-Nazi army, before turning state’s evidence against them and going into witness protection. Under his clothes, he is covered in White Pride and Hitler-fandom tattoos, which he looks at disparagingly in the mirror. He likes his current life as a peaceful caretaker of the Gracewood Gardens, is glad to have distanced himself from the silo of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and violence in which (he explains) he was raised. That Maya and Narval form a bond, while he also has flashbacks to things that his proud boy/hillbilly cult leader told him about how his job is to “pull out the weeds,” suggests that Master Gardener will become a thriller about the insidiousness of white supremacy, juxtaposing it with a reading of gardening as a kind of fascism (or at least, a way to disguise it). In other words, perhaps Narval’s solitary salvation in gardening for a racist white lady becomes an outlet for the very impulses that allowed him to thrive in a fascist cult in the first place. Master Gardener doesn’t till this ground, though, which is fine, but it also doesn’t do anything else productive with all of these rich, ripe, and (productively) thorny thematic concerns. What begins as an incredibly fruitful plot soon wilts and shrivels into a wandering love story; and the kind of discipline and restraint that Narvals brings to his gardening becomes, exactly, the element missing from the story itself. Master Gardener quickly forgets its powerful portrayals about white supremacy and racism when it becomes interested in whether or not its protagonist can be redeemed, can be saved, and, in giving him some way to carry this out, represents Maya as needing to be saved by someone, too. If this narrative shoot were to blossom into a meaningful development (unlikely as it is), we would need a clearer understanding of Narval’s life or background, a focused explaining of how he has come to be changed in the first place. But more importantly, this whole angle not only misses out on saying anything thoughtful about race in America, but also robs Maya of the opportunity to be more than a plot device, perhaps (especially in light of Swindell’s elegant performance), the greatest sin of all. What results is a confusing film, overgrown in some areas and under-seeded in others. Instead of becoming as thoughtful and risky an exploration as The Card Counter, Master Gardener becomes like a game of 52-card pickup. It’s as if Schrader has a deck of cards and instead of laying them out strategically, throws them all in the air and lets them come down where they will. Instead of become the focused sermon of First Reformed, Master Gardener becomes one of those themed themed refrigerator poem packs. It has a lot of terms on the table, but shuffles them around until they say almost absolutely nothing. View the full article
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