Behind Our Eyes Book Launch Presents Author/Artist Lynda McKinney Lambert Presenter April 13, 2023 Readers Note: If you have found this transcript to be helpful, please take a moment to let us know by sending a brief message to Marlene Mesot at: Marl.Mesot@gmail.com. You may also contact someone you know in our writers’ group. Thank you very much. Ann Chiappetta: Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Behind Our Eyes Book Launch program for April thirteenth, twenty twenty-three. This evening we will hear from poet and artist Lynda McKinney Lambert. This is Annie, your host, and we have Abbie Taylor, who is my co-host. Okay, Carol, take it away. Carol Farnsworth: Hello! Greetings to BOE members and guests. This is Carol Farnsworth. I am the Vice President of Behind Our Eyes, and your host, for this evening. We have pleasure to have Lynda Lambert, a poet, artist, and essay person extraordinaire, and she will be talking to us about her new book, Songs for the Pilgrimage. It is a thirty three year work in progress, as she said, because the journey, or the pilgrimage continues. Lynda will be. Talk to. This is a little different this evening, because there are five presenters, and they will be doing different sections of Lynda's book. The five sections will be done by two men and two women, so that we have a variety of voices to hear. After the last presenter, which is Lynda, we will have it open for questions. And at the end Lynda will be doing a comment to end the show. With that, Lynda, welcome. And what would you like to tell us about your book? Lynda Lambert: Thank you so much. Carol. It's such a big to be here, and I'm gonna thank everybody who has come to hear the program. I'm super excited, and I wanna thank you, Carol, for leading me through this process, too. I want to thank the readers that are going to be reading, and that's kind of a secret sort of until they start to read. And Carol will be introducing them. I think that the first thing I need to say is what my mission statement is for writing because it took me a long time to be able to put into just a few words what I do. You know how that is. It's hard to distill things down, but as poets we do that all the time. It does come naturally to us. My mission statement is that I reveal what is forgotten; things that are lost, and things that are invisible. That's basically what I do in a nutshell. My driving passion in life has been art for quite a few years, and my background is in art. So it only is natural that when I come to writing, I'm coming to writing for that lens of being an artist. I wanted first to tell you just a little bit about my background. I married my husband when I was seventeen years old, and he was twenty, and tomorrow it will mark sixty-two years of our marriage. My husband's name is Bob, and we have five children, and we live in a small village in Western Pennsylvania, and everybody always hears me say I'm from the village of Wurttemberg and Western Pennsylvania. Our life was just a very normal life, like most people our age at the time. Our life centered around community service. Bob was always involved with Jayce's. I was a junior women and our church, of course. So between community things and our church, and in raising the children together, we had a really busy life. I began making art at the ripe old age of thirty-six years old. It wasn't anything I was very familiar with at all, but a friend from church was an artist, and one day, when she was at my house, and we were planning a session for our jet cadet troop, she made a comment to me after she looked around in my house and you know was in the house for a while, and she said, “You're an artist.” I really didn't even know what that meant, and I said to her, “Well, I would like to take art classes, but I kind of would like to go with somebody. I don't wanna do it by myself. So I never did it.” And she said, “Well, I teach classes, and you could come to my house and take classes with me.” So that felt very comfortable. But she didn't know that she opened the door for a lifetime career for me with that invitation. I went on through the years. Once I started making art, I was making art every single day. I would attend, she taught two classes on Monday, one in the afternoon, and one at night, so I would go to the afternoon class, rush home, get my family all seated, get the meal on the table. Get that over with, and then by seven o'clock I was back for the night class. So it was from the very first time that I picked up the paint brush that I was absolutely hooked, and I could never thank Donna Boots enough for the life that she opened up for me that day when she told me that I could come to her house and learn how to paint. As it would happen, I continued painting like I said. I started at age thirty-six, and when I was, I guess it was about forty-two years old, I had been painting, you know, really, every day all these years, and was showing my work all over the country, and you know, had work in New York shows and things like that. So I wanted to go on and take the academic path. I wanted to go and work for a degree so at the age of forty-two I walked into Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania with students all around me that we're my children's age. It was a scary first day when I went there, but I did it, and it really turned out to be just a wonderful four years at that university. After I was there for a little while, I realized that I wanted to go all the way, and I told my husband one day, I said, “I'm gonna go all the way with this.” He said, “What do you mean by that?” And I said, “Oh, I'm going for my M.F.A. degree.” Well, he thought I was crazy at the time, but I did. I went then to West Virginia University. In ninety-one I received the M.F.A. from West Virginia, but at the same time I was also working on an M.A. degree in English at Slippery Rock U, because I really fell in love with poetry, and I just had a passion for poetry the same as I did for painting, and so, I was actually working on both degrees at two different universities in two different states. So, and I finally finished the M.A. in English. It took me the whole six years to do it. So I finished that in ninety-four, and then from there I ended up at Geneva College, teaching English. I was in the humanities department. Did the art history lectures in humanities and taught studio art classes. I was actually in the English department, and then did these other things through other channels there at the school. And that's actually because I had the M.A. in English, is really what gave me the cutting edge when I was up for consideration for the position. Had I not gone and had the M.A. degree? Yeah, I think it would have been harder for me to find a job in my field, but that really opened the door for me that I could be useful to this Christian college on three different levels, and I loved it, because that's what I have prepared myself for. At one point I was walking across campus, I had been there five years at the time, and I remember you have this little voice in you that sometimes tells you wait, I’m here. And I just remember saying I've been here five years, you know. I was used to really moving around a lot, and I've been there for five years, and I thought; This is great. I've been here for five years. I love this so. It was a really good experience. I went into writing, I always say by the back door, because the whole time I was working on my B.F.A. I was taking art history classes. I took far more than what was required. In fact, I took every one that the University offered, and so art history is a tremendous amount of memorization work. And it's also continuous paper writings and research which I absolutely love. And then, when I went on to grad school at West Virginia, I did the same thing there. I took every art history course they taught eventhough I was there as a painter and printmaker, so I think you know that was my, that was my entry into writing, but it was it was academic writing, and it was all research based. So I still have that in me, and that's still how I look at a lot of things that way. And I think that's what gives my writing a different quality. So, I'm here tonight because Songs for the Pilgrimage has been published, and the one thing I want to say initially about that is that my first book was published when I was working for my tenure at Geneva College and it was called Concerte Psalms for the Pilgrimage. When that book was finished, I never thought I'd ever write another book. That you know just didn't enter my mind I would ever write another book, because I wrote that book for that purpose for my tenure project. But I always had this feeling that I wished I could have done a whole lot more with that book, and so, when the opportunity came, a couple of years ago, the book was out of print at that time, and I thought, now's my time so that led me then, to re-aline the book, and I had thirty-three years of writing then, to select from, to really make that book what I would have wanted it to be back in the early days when it couldn't have existed back then. So that's where we are now with that book being released. Carol: Oh, Lynda, let's start, then, at the beginning, with your start of the pilgrimage, and we have the first reader is Christina Ender. She is a friend, I believe she's also a writer, and she will do the first section of the book, and then, Lynda, you may have a couple comments afterwards. Christina. Christina Ender: Thank you. The first selection is from page thirty, Songs for the Pilgrimage, by Lynda Mckinney Lambert. She titled it, “May I Serve You?” Here are the stacks of paintings for you to look at tonight. I carefully brought them out of storage closets arranged them here in the kitchen— where my children used to play games around a square oak table. Once, food to nourish the body was prepared here, by my hands. Tonight, there is an abundance of food for your soul. Come into my kitchen and taste the world, prepared by my hands. Christina: The second of the third is from a journal entry, and this journal entry came from July eighth, nineteen ninety-nine Grödig, Austria. We hold up our umbrellas and weep together for joy in the presence of Austria. Have we come home at last? I begin to draw once again. Draw for my life. Draw to create a memory to stay with me when long winter days try to make me forget summer and Austria. But for now, begin to make a list—things that will be the beginnings of a poem—many poems. We remember today that we have lost our fathers, and the orange fields remind us of our loss. I will return alone after dark and close the rose curtains. Christina: The final selection is from page fifty, in Songs from the Pilgrimage, called “Art Underground”. I’ve been working on a plan to put art back into life. The plan includes a gallery yet, when I looked, all I could see was lots of rooms for musicians and a very big stage. I will continue to make my pictures in the basement— Art Underground. Lynda: Thank you, Christina. You read those so well. There's an underlying current there, and all of those things of constantly failing about making art constantly thinking about drawing. And it's just something that is in the core of an artist. That anything else we're doing, we have this sense that we need to be drawing. We need to be painting. We need to be making art so. And then the poem I'm about from the Journal entry. I think that was the second year that I took students from Geneva College. Lynda: I created a program at Geneva College my first year there to take students to Germanic countries, and for month long studies with me. While we were there, we went to other countries on weekends as well. So that's really just me, writing in my journal about what we were doing. You know we came back to the room and it had rose curtains, and we pulled the rose curtains shut. My writing is usually about place. I'm writing about the place where I am, but then it's always intermingled with other things that overlay and underlie the place. Thanks, so much! Carol: Moving them on. We have our Second Reader, who is Andrew Lambert, the son of Lynda. He is a high school counselor and a writer. Andrew. Andrew Lambert: Hello! It's a pleasure to be with you all tonight. I'm going to read two selections from Part Two: Drawing, Writing and Dreaming. The first, “A Moment of Calm: Homage to Max Ernst”. A crooked blue sun in a wide sky tumbles through blue, green, yellow Impaled on spiky green stems. Blackbirds squat low shout at the alligator resting in the dark corner watching for more pinks and reds in the middle. A lone dragonfly passes through a painted arch relaxing a moment of calm. Andrew: The next selection, “Another Dream”. Dreaming with my eyes closed alert to sounds around me— I wonder about the difference awake or asleep and how can I know which one is now? Paintings are born when the dreamer reports to work on time. Lynda: Thank you so much. I'm so proud of you. I was just so thankful that for everybody that's come to read a poem or two from my book, really appreciate you all. What I'm doing in these two poems is I'm looking at paintings. I'm in a gallery, and I'm, I always carried my sketchbook everywhere I went, I mean everywhere, I was always, you know, my pencil or my pen on that sketchbook. Everywhere I went, either I was sketching what I was seeing, or both writing descriptions and words that would come to my mind, because to me writing is the same as painting. I'm putting strokes down on the page the same as if I'd be putting paint down on a canvas. And so you see that when I'm looking at the work of other artists, I'm talking about the work of other artists. I'm talking about the colors I see and what they're doing and the feeling that I'm getting as I stand there looking at the paintings. Thank you. Carol: Thank you. Our Third Reader is recorded. It is Ilsa Berry, and which is Lynda's daughter, and, Abbie, take it away. Abbie Taylor: Alright! Here we go! Ilsa Barry: Hello, everyone! My name is Ila Ferry, and I am Melinda Lambert's daughter, and I am very happy to be here this evening. Unfortunately, I could not be here in person, because of a prior engagement, but I definitely didn't want to miss the opportunity to participate in such a wonderful thing. So I am going to go ahead and begin. I chose three poems from the Singing and Dancing chapter of Part Three. The first one I chose is called “Canticle”. This song begins in silence a list of words with no voice. Listen for the cadence of a house wren’s trembling wings. Begin with a noun—a psalm put it with a confident symmetrical adjective. Gathering stars are flaming candles sparkling like red slivers of light transplanted in sapphire darkness extolled in psalms. Night music is spiritual holy prayers for dancing feet metrical expressions of praise poetical compositions. Begin with a verb Put it with a brilliantly written adverb flying swiftly through a storm. Hum and chant, stamp your feet psalming the words organizing the chaos. Take a chance with sacred texts, grab some words, and sing in non–metrical rhythm. Heed the house wren’s beating wings. Ilsa: The second poem I chose is “Concert in the Fortress”. Red fluted pillars black ruffles on a swinging skirt golden metal stars. Flags of red and white bouquets of flowers and music arches frame night skies. Stone paths, shields, blazons singing and chess in the town square Salzburg in July. The final poem I chose is “Folk Dancing”. This was my absolute favorite. Toe, Toe, Heel, Hop Tricky little steps! Move it along Swing, Swing– Give it your best shot Quicken the pace— Faster. Faster. FASTER Frantic, hop step, step. STEP. Toe, Toe, Step Toe, Toe Step Toe, Step Toe, HOP Criss–cross, Twirl about Burst forth in laughter. Fall back, trip me up Trip, glide, move it in squares– Emotions, Check your step Jump and hop. Step. Burst forth in laughter and end with a SHOUT! Ilsa: When I was asked to do this, I looked through the Songs for the Pilgrimage, and had to make some decisions on what I would like to read, and from what part, and I chose the singing and dancing, because growing up my mother always made sure there was a lot of singing and dancing going on in the house, and a lot of fun was had by all of us marching and singing around the house. So I thought these really spoke to me as to who my mother really is. And to my upbringing, and some of my favorite memories. I am so glad that I got to participate, even if I couldn't be here in person. Thank you, everybody. Good night. Lynda: Thank you. Ilsa. Wow! What can I say? Yeah, we had fun at our house. One of our neighbors is a doctor, but she grew up, you know, with my kids. Her family grew up with my kids, and she told me not too long ago, “Oh, I remember being at your house, and we would go marching through your house and singing. We were saying gospel hymns and things like that, like, you know, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful?” Things like that. We would go through the house praising God. I was so tickled that she picked the folk dancing one to do that again. Lynda: When we had our classes in Austria, we had a certain time when we would break. Everybody would. We had regular classrooms there. We had a school in the village that we use, and so during the break all kinds of things went on, and one of them was folk dancing classes. Wow! I thought that I would get in the back row and sort of learn to do some folk dancing. Oh! Let me tell you, it's so grueling and I ended up just plopping down on the floor with my sketchbook and laughing. But while I'm sitting here, I'm writing down all the instructions for the phot dancing. No, that I'm going to make that into a. Carol: Okay. Our Fourth Reader is one of our own, Wes Sims from Behind Our Eyes. Wes Sims: The first poem I'm going to read is entitled “Talisman” page one twenty-seven. Visualize a talisman— precious stones and crystals woven in bold patterns plenty of Japanese glass seed beads tiny drops of perfect symmetry. I select flawless beads stab them onto steel needles hundreds of stitches. thrust them one at a time upwards into the heavens endlessly. I plunge my thin needle deep through layers of stiff cloth make my stitches sure hold tight. I’m a warrior woman thumping my spirit–drum made of dappled starlight. I measure timeless days counting beads in a mystical circle held together with a bronze toggle clasp. A talisman brings protection from evil healing for weary spirits nourishment for aching bodies courage for new directions on a pilgrimage over treacherous pathways guides my dimmed eyes and nervous steps. Black onyx ovals are a vintage fan unfurled with a flourish or a sacred victory flag prepared to cast an invocation. My fingers stroke cold stones glossy–smooth, polished, faceted. My gift for the King Wes: The second one I'll read is on page one thirty-five, titled “After An All-Night Rain”, and I chose this because it represents a connection that Lynda and I have mainly writing about nature, also reminds me of the type of poems I write a lot of. “After an All-Night Rain: Remembering Dante”, Do not forget to mark my passage Watch as I move through tall grass and honeysuckle vines Breathe, breathe as you pass through the woods. Feel the air that thickens with heavy rains Squat low and search for broad plants under sheltering trees Do not forget to mark my passage. Reach out, mingle the poison ivy vines with the strong–scented honeysuckle tangles Breathe, breathe as you pass through the woods. Trace the withering crimson tips of white flowers on the hardened muddy knoll Do not forget to mark my passage. Move your feet quietly this morning past the sleeping dogs on the hillside Breathe, breathe as you pass through the woods. Listen as a small dog barks twice in the darkened room where my mother turns in her sleep Do not forget to mark my passage. Breathe, breathe as you pass through the woods. Lynda: Thank you so much. I love these two poems in the first one I make Talisman's. That's what I do. After I lost my sight I thought I would never be able to make art again. I thought I would never write again. I thought I'd spend the rest of my life sitting in a chair listening to books on cassettes. Then I went to a rehabilitation school for three to four months in Pittsburgh, and it changed my life. I came out of that school, knowing that I can do anything. I can't drive a car, but I can do anything else. I just have to figure out how I will do those things again. The other thing that happened is the eye doctor, that I had, the low vision specialist I had when I first went to see him. He asked me to bring in a piece of my art, to show him what I was working on. I had just started work on a very complex talisman. I had been to New York City with Ilsa and her family, and it was the weekend after. I had lost my sight right after this trip, and while I was there, we were in the garment district, and I was gathering materials to work on this project that I had in my mind, and then I had started working on it just had a very small amount of work done on it when I lost my sight. So when the doctor told me to bring in what I do, that's what I brought in to show him what I was working on, and he looked at me and he said, you will do this again, you will make art again. You won't do it in the way you always did before, but you will do it in a new way, and that's all I needed to hear, was the encouragement of somebody telling me that I could do it again, and then, so that, combined with going to the blind and vision rehabilitation services in Pittsburgh, those two things gave me the courage and they gave me the training gave me the, you know, the heart to go ahead and learn to do things again. Well for the last eight years I've had those works that I have made since I'm blind, I've had those in the Insights Show. Carol and I both do the insights show together, and we both are prize winners, and we both had our work in their calendar, and it's just such a joy to be able to participate like that. And it's a joy to share with Carol that point that we have of making things cause we're makers. Lynda: The other poem. Oh, the other thing about that poem that really strikes me is, I have a favorite set of Bible verses that I repeat every day or every other day. 19:32:56 I mean the apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians six to put on the armor of God every day, and he goes over the different parts of the body that you know metaphorically to put that on every day as a spiritual, just touching with God. So when I make those talisman's, that's what I'm thinking about, the beauty and the exquisite stones that would be in a royal, a breastplate like that. So, yeah, that's what's on my mind when I do this. Carol: Thank you. Wes. Lynda: What? Carol: And just as an aside, Lynda always beats me in the art show. Lynda: Oh! Carol: Except for once. Alright! Our Fifth Reader is, of course, Lynda. Lynda. Lynda: Oh, yeah, I was sitting here with my eyes closed. Hey, everybody! Get on the stick, Lynda, here we go! Okay. I'm going to read one poem from the final section of the book. Each section of the book has a topic like the topic for the fifth section is called People and Places, and that section…Oh, there's some real uncomfortable things there, cause I've seen a lot of real uncomfortable things in my travels, and I've taught a lot of things from history that are hard. But then, as we move toward the conclusion of the book, I put in three poems that I wrote about my mother and my mother had dementia, when she died. She spent the last six years of her life in a home, and so I would like, I said, my sketchbook and my tablet with me, and writing about things. I like to write about things I'm hearing people say. I write about conversations, the human voice is so wonderful to listen to, and I turn those things I hear into poems in a lot of my work. So I'm going to read you a poem about my mother. This is called “A Villanelle for My Mother at Eighty”. I wrote it in two thousand two. I'm going to be eighty myself in August. So this really touches my heart to look at my life and see how I am right now and then think back of what my mother was going through at my age. So, this is “A Villanelle for My Mother at Eighty”. My mother has forgotten what day it is her children’s birthdays have vanished strangers have moved into her house. She’s forgotten about teeth and hair no longer needs to carry a purse— My mother has forgotten what day it is. Her treasured possessions laid out on tables, put up for sale— Strangers have moved into her house. Her drawers emptied of clothing, food removed from her kitchen— My mother has forgotten what day it is. Her long days manoeuvre slowly between rows of walkers— Strangers have moved into her house. Women watch her face from behind the cards she does not know how to win— My mother has forgotten what day it is. Strangers have moved into her house. The end! Carol: Very lovely. Is there anything… Lynda: I have one more poem I'm gonna do. I don't know if you want me to do that now, or as a closing? Carol: However, you want to go. You. It's up to you whether you want to do it now, or you're closing. That's fine. Go ahead! Lynda: Well, I'll just go ahead and do it now. Okay. The inspiration for this next poem came from some different discoveries about classical music. Physicists claim that any given performance or recording of a classical music piece is a kind of audible hologram, an audible hologram, if you can picture that. The hologram, then, is projected into our everyday reality by the true musical work itself, because it vibrates eternally in an ethereal medium. It floats in and around us, at all times, so, after I read that it was enough. I should say something about people that majored in physics. What I learned in grad school is that physics people always hang out with the art people. I mean, there's just a bond between people that are into physics and people that make art, that I would never have suspected. And I do understand that now. But and I found that both in working on my masters in English, and working on my masters in art, so I thought that was interesting. But anyway, I came across that information about this theory of the fifth dimension, and how this music, it never goes away. It's there forever, that we don't see it, but it's there. So that gave me the idea for this poem, and I'll read the poem now. “Beethoven's, Fifth”. Audible holograms remained when Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony ended. Classical music inhabits dark matter exists in fifth-dimensional forms grown in mundane fields How can I fathom invisible forces just beyond the well- kept secrets in the cosmos lyrical, other-worldly music, independent never comprehended outside plausible trajectories. Questions about autonomous reality remains. Spacetime: track it’s position until Beethoven’s notes vibrate eternally Where does such beauty go? Like Xian warriors, it remains hidden Yes! Beethoven’s Fifth lives - somewhere zipped up. fastened tight. The end. Lynda: Here! That poem won first place in the Magnets and Ladders poetry contest for this year. I was absolutely thrilled, and wanted to share that with you. That is not in my book, but it's like the latest big thing that happened to me. So I had to add it to our talk tonight. Thank you. Carol: That is fine, and we would like to open the floor up now for questions for Lynda. And I'll have Annie answer for call on you. Over. Ann: Yup, you can raise your hand, and we will ask you to unmute, and then you can ask your question. Sally Rosenthal: Hi! This is Sally! Ann: Hi Sally. Sally: Lynda, I have a question for you. Lovely presentation. You talk about being drawn to sketching, to always want to sketch, and you pick up the pencil or whatever. And do you approach poetry in the same way? Or do you find that poetry comes to you? Lynda: I do the same thing with poetry. Drawing is about making marks on a page, making marks, mark making and writing is about mark making. To me that's how I see it. So if you would see me writing a poem, I'm all over the page. I don't like…I never start with, almost never start with, an idea of what the poem’s going to be called. It's like an architectural site, or like a dig that I go on. And I'm searching and digging down into places to find what's there, and bring to the poem. The poem is a surprise to me. I do not know. Like when I read that article for the poem that I just read it never entered my mind that that was going to be a poem, but I just couldn't forget that idea that something exists forever, that it's invisible, and it can't be seen. And it's eternal like music. And so, I just was so mesmerized by that. And what I did to write that poem is I laid out an Abecedarian format for it. And then, as ideas came to me, I started putting them in the sequence. Okay. And then I move things all around. You know, when I'm working, I don't just shut something down. And I mean almost never do I. They're like my poems are usually very labor intensive, because I think about so many things. I guess it's because, just like this chaos that I began with, that's a good word for it. I begin with chaos, and then I'm a very ordered person, so I must begin to order this chaos, and that's how the poem takes place, and I also see the poem the same as I do art. A piece of art as a time capsule. When I say art, I'm also talking about the poem because to me they're the same thing. I do not see a difference between them at all. In the way I work, and in the way I think about them they are an object on a page. Sally: That's very interesting. Lynda: Thanks. Okay, that's how I do it. Ann: Ready for the next question, Linda? Lynda: Thank you. Ann: Thank you, Sally. Sally: Thank you. Ann: Suzanne Coutrell. You can go. Suzanne Coutrell: Thank you. First I wanted to say I have never met Lynda personally, but we've been in touch, you know, through email. And I've never met a more genuine, generous individual who has helped me on my writing journey. So I'm just so grateful for the friendship. But I wanted to ask Lynda what her favorite poetry form is, and why. Lynda: Thank you, Suzanne. I'm so glad you're here. I just feel that you are all such dear friends, and Suzanne and I met through a magazine that we both contributed to, and that's how Wes and I met as well. And so it's just wonderful, you know, to have these friendships, of people we've never met face to face. But we know so much about each other, and we celebrate all kinds of things together, you know, in our conversations. So my favorite form of poetry, my favorite form of poetry, would be free form, and I like to take, and I learned this from you, Suzanne. I have to say, I've looked at her work a lot when I first met her, and I could see things that she was doing in her work that I really liked. She goes in and takes out, and I don't know how you work, but when I'm reading your work there's not a lot of articles in your work, you know, little short words, just like to, and that and like that. That really resonated with me, and that made my own work much stronger. After I started seeing your work cause we borrow ideas from each other. We all help each other grow when we read another person's work. If we admire that work, we look for the things that make it work, and if we can apply those things to ourselves in our own work, we do. But, and I met Wes the same way. I read his haikus. I think this is haikus that he writes, and they just blew me away. They were just so beautiful. So, I sent him a note saying how much I liked them. So that's how I've met so many people, and it's really, really nice to have other friends. But yeah, free form, I like a lot. Ann: Okay, Alice, you can unmute and ask your question, and I think that might be the last question before Marilyn comes on and gives us our closing remarks. So, Lynda, anything you want to say after Alice's question about yourself, about your books, how you would like to share them. Lynda: I'll just say, Ann: Yeah, okay, thank you. But right after Alice. Lynda: Okay. Ann: Yup. Alice: Well, thank you, Annie and Lynda. I wanted to ask you to please describe for us the cover of your book, and then also I so enjoyed listening to your book via my Echo Dot, Songs for the Pilgrimage, but I wanted you to let everyone know where your book is available also. Lynda: Oh, I'd be glad to share that. My book was edited and designed by D L D Books, and they've done three books of my five. They've done three of them, and I love their work, and I just think that the covers they put together are just so beautiful. They work hand in hand with you as the writer, to create a book that fits the vision that you have. There's a number of poems in my book that I wrote in Venice, or I made notes for. I was in Venice every summer. Actually, one summer I was there a couple of times. But so there's so I have a love for Venice. It's just the beauty of it when you arrive at the train station, and you step down you're in Venice, you know. When you get off the train it's almost like you've landed in heaven. There's just this beautiful atmosphere, and the colors are so nice. So I wanted that for my cover. And what Leonore found for me was a wonderful photograph by a Czech photographer, and that made me happy too cause I always had students in Czeck Republic every year. But it's just a picture of, I would say, the sun coming up in the early morning, and you see a row of gondolas. They have been parked for the night, and they're covered like they always are. And in the background, you see beautiful Venetian buildings, and this picture is so realistic that it looks like it was painted but it's a photograph that looks like a photograph of a painting. But it’s not. So that's the cover. Lynda: It's available everywhere books are sold. It's going to be on BARD after the first of the year. They told me that it was just almost ready that it was actually done. They were going through and, you know, correcting any errors and things like that. So any day I expected it to be on BARD, and I will have three books on BARD. Then at that point, and of course Amazon and it's available in hard cover. It's available on Smash Words, which is wonderful. That's ebooks. All my books are there. And yeah, so really, any of the book sellers. But Amazon's, most of my checks come from Amazon. Any finishing thoughts you want me to say at this point? Ann: Yeah, this is Annie. Do you have any of your books on Audible? Lynda: Oh, yes, I do. Yes, I have Star Signs is on Audible, and then the first book I wrote after I lost my sight is Walking by Inner Vision, and that is on Audible. So that's two. Let me think. Do I have another one on Audable. No, I think that's it. Yeah, that's it. Ann: Alrighty! Lynda: I just wanna thank everybody for coming out. Thank the readers, for we're answering my call. Would you please do this? And they said, Yes, and it was just wonderful. And I really enjoyed having you all here, and wanna thank you all very much for coming. Thanks. Ann: Thanks to you for all the writing and all the creativity you bring to the world. Lynda: Oh, thank you, Annie. Carol: Lynda. Ann: You're welcome. Carol, do you have any last words? And who is going to close out for the Behind Our Eyes message? Carol: Yes, Lynda, next year I'm beating you. That's my last word. Lynda: We'll see about that, Carol. Carol: And Marilyn, would you like to close with something about joining Behind Our Eyes? Marilyn Smith: Sure, I want to say what a wonderful presentation Lynda. It's just, you bring so much when you write about, from your literary background, your travels and just your focus on art in your life, and what you bring to others. It's just remarkable, and, thanks to all the readers, it's unique to have all the family and friendship connections. Some new voices we haven't heard before. And that's very welcome, you know. The variety and the connection with the author, bring something special to it, I think, and everyone who's here tonight, and who will see this book's launch program on our website or find it in some other way, we're glad you're here, and we hope you keep up and come to see all of our book launches and authors bringing new books to us. Marilyn: Most everybody here probably knows that Behind Our Eyes is a nonprofit international. We have some folks in Canada and our mission or goal, or whatever you want to call it, has expanded over the last seventeen years so much from being just, I don't mean to say just a list, because our list is very creative and very interactive. We have lots of friendships and mentorships that spring up because of our list, but we have grown in so many other ways. Marilyn: We have a magazine, Magnets and Ladders, which Lynda mentioned, and that is open not only to members, but to non-members as well, and you can find out about guidelines and all that at magnets and ladders dot org and if you want to join or recommend someone else to join go to behind our eyes dot org, and you'll find a link that will take you to a membership form of sorts. But you can also ask questions if you're not real sure yet. Just put on that form, you know, that you want more information, or we also have classes and an opportunity to practice reading, just all kinds of things that we've grown into. From a group of probably less than twenty of us who started it to over a hundred now, so give us a look see. Watch our website and see what's coming up. Our calendar is up there behind our eyes dot org, and that's all I have for tonight. But I just have to say, thanks to everybody, Carol, Annie, Lynda, all the readers and everyone who's here. Andrew: It was a pleasure to be here. Carol: It was a team effort. Thank you all. Ann: Okay. Good night, everyone. We had a wonderful time. Thank you for joining us tonight, everyone. Have a good night. Marlene Mesot: Perfect. Very good. Readers Note: If you have found this transcript to be helpful, please take a moment to let us know by sending a brief message to Marlene Mesot at: Marl.Mesot@gmail.com. You may also contact someone you know in our writers’ group. Thank you very much.