Pint of Pennies Impressions
Pint of Pennies (POP) Media Notes includes musings from the worlds of art, quilts, history, cooking, writing and children's literature.
Friday, July 18, 2014
A NEW BEGINNING
My publisher has official released the rights for my novel Act of Grace back to me and I am now in the process of independently publishing a new edition both as softcover and ebook.
Act of Grace will be back up for sale by August 15. In the mean time it is still available on Kindle.
I am celebrating this transition because it means continued life for my novel and allows me to better serve my readers.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Spring Gathering
On Saturday, May 24 at 2 pm I will be reading from my new novel, Rooms of Wonder as a part of a new program called A Gathering of Women Writers.
This day of author readings and conversations will be a chance for women in the Ann Arbor area to come together to share their work and talk about the joys and struggles of being a writers.
The program will run about 90 minutes. Refreshments and conversation will follow.
A Gathering of Women Writers
May 24, 2014
2 PM
3222 Angell Hall
435 South State Street, Ann Arbor
Hope to see you there.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
How I Began Writing My First Novel
Keshia Thomas (L) shown with Karen Simpson (R) at the University of Michigan in March, 2013. |
With nothing but a picture and a few paragraphs I started on my writing journey. I used my imagination to contemplate how much courage it would take to shield someone who is full of hate. My novel, Act of Grace developed into a paranormal, speculative fiction taking on race relations in America.
Although my novel departed from the original story, I still often wondered about what happened to Keshia. March of this year I was able to help bring Keshia to the University of Michigan to speak about her experience via the Understanding Race Project. I was over the moon to finally meet her and grateful for the experience.
I was elated this week to see Keshia and the wonderful photographer who took those historic photos, Thomas and Mark Brunner spark positive thoughts about race relations across the globe.
Please take time to read about Keshia and her wonderful act of bravery.
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Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Quilter's Dream
Karen Simpson Horse Quilt., a set on Flickr.
I think one of the earliest religious disappointments as a young girls developed from my unanswered prayer for a horse. In the 1960’s I was an African American girl praying for a dream that from all the evidence only white people could make come true. There were no brown children like me riding horses on the television or on the movie screen. There were no heroes of African descent riding fast horses to victory in any of the books I read. Yet I believed, as only a child can believe, that if I prayed, wished on stars and blew on the fluffy heads of dandelions that one day God would reward my faith.
I have now been a quilter for about 20 years and taught
quilting for over 15. Until last
week the quilted armor I’d created had never been on a horse. I met up with an
old friend who had a pony named
Dancer. On a beautiful sun drenched day Dancer wore my coat, the amazing thing
is that it fit like I’d made it for him.
I think one of the earliest religious disappointments as a young girls developed from my unanswered prayer for a horse. In the 1960’s I was an African American girl praying for a dream that from all the evidence only white people could make come true. There were no brown children like me riding horses on the television or on the movie screen. There were no heroes of African descent riding fast horses to victory in any of the books I read. Yet I believed, as only a child can believe, that if I prayed, wished on stars and blew on the fluffy heads of dandelions that one day God would reward my faith.
Sometimes God says yes. Sometimes God says no. Sometime God
just hands you a slightly wild idea and tells you to run with it. My love of
horses would lead me to a degree in Animal Science, however, what I wanted, but
didn’t have for a long time was an artistic touchstone that connected my
passion for horses to my African American heritage.
Several years ago, as I was flipping through a now defunct
fiber arts magazine I came upon an advertisement for an African textiles
exhibit, which featured pictures of Hausa horsemen in quilted armor. For me the photos were an epiphany, a
flash of the spirit, and an ancestral voice told me that I had to make myself
quilted armor and that it didn’t matter that I didn’t know a thing about
quilting.
I can say now that it was a call to an important artistic
journey; however, my first quilt teacher considered my goal of a quilt for horses
to be down right strange. I went ahead anyway. What I learned in her classes was
not only the basics of quilting but also the courage to ignore criticism and
follow my artistic passions. My first quilt project ended up being a quilted coat for a horse and me.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Go On Girl!! Book Club Awards
Go On Girl!! Book Club Awards, a set on Flickr.
It was wonderful to be honored for my novel Act of Grace by the Go On Girl! Book Club. My Award was a lovely quilt piece and I was so touched by the ceremony and the gift of being able to talk with so many of my readers.
Monday, December 24, 2012
My Favorite Culinary Christmas Tradition
The
Simpson Family Christmas Eve Paella
Not a real Paella in the strict sense of the traditional
recipe. Once upon a time it was a traditional recipe but over the 40 years since
I’ve first prepared it I’ve adjusted the recipe to fit the tastes of my family and
the friends who have attended my family’s Christmas Eve celebration.
This is not a recipe of exact proportion this a more of
how you feel, how many folks are coming over kind of recipe. Experiment with adding seafood and other vegetable your family may like. This is also a great dish to usher in the new year.
Ingredients
1/4 cup of butter
2 large green bell
pepper sliced
Two or three bunches
of green onions sliced
6 large skinless,
boneless chicken breast boiled, then sliced small
4 cups of chicken
broth
2lbs or more of
polish or smoke sausage sliced
1 lb or more of ham sliced into strips
3 cups (16 oz) rice
32 oz uncooked
shrimp, peeled and deveined ( more if you like more sea food)
2 large green bell
pepper, diced.
Preparation
Heat the butter in a pan and saute green pepper and onions
until tender remove and set aside.
Cook sausage until done pour off excess oil and set aside
in large mixing bowl.
Cook ham until done and mix with sausage.
Sautee shimp until done (do not overcook) retain the
juice.
Boil rice in chicken broth until done pour off excess
broth.
In a large pan add rice, shrimp, sausage, ham bell
peppers, onions and mix together well. Season to taste with salt at this point.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Happy Birthday James Baldwin
Happy Birthday James Baldwin
When I was young I use to beg my mother to let me stay up late on a school night so that I could watch him on television. He was the first black writer I had ever seen and he was writing about the things I cared deeply about. I was mesmerized by him and soaked in everything he said. When dad brought home a copy of the Fire Next Time for a class he was taking I snuck that book out of his pile and took it to my room. I know now my dad must of know I had it, he saw me sneaking around and reading it, he never asked for that copy back he just went out and bought a new copy himself:)
In my novel Act of Grace, Mr. Baldwin's book The Fire Next Time show up when Grace's english teacher is trying to reach her restless class:
Up front, Mrs. Watanabe began trying her best to get us to explore the finer points of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. After twenty minutes, she realized she was looking at a whole neighborhood of folks whose lights were on, but who were not home. So with a tiny smile that signaled her surrender, she closed her notebook. Then, for the sake of conversation, she asked what she already knew, “so what is everybody planning to do after graduation?”
~Act of Grace.
Thank you dad for never asking for your book back.
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