Tag Archives: rhode island author expo

Rhode Island Author Expo Spotlight – Victoria Corliss & Leigh Brown #riauthors

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VICTORIA CORLISS (L) AND LEIGH BROWN (R)
VICTORIA CORLISS (L) AND LEIGH BROWN (R)

Rhode Island Author Expo Spotlight – Victoria Corliss & Leigh Brown

This post was originally posted on Martha Reynold’s blog and has been reposted here with author permission, minor revisions have been made.

We’ve all heard the expression, ‘many hands make light work.’ As co-authors, our four-hands and two brains may not make our job of writing novels any easier, but it’s definitely more fun! With a shared love of reading and writing, and respective careers in marketing and finance, we are a balanced blend of creative and business-minded, of friendship and professional partnership.

How do two people write as one voice? If we had a nickel for every time we are asked that question; even we’re not fully certain of the answer, but we do know that it has a lot to do with the respect we have for one another, both as friends and co-authors.

When we are working, there is no such thing as a bad idea. That’s not to say that we love every creative idea or suggestion the other one comes up with, on the contrary. But even when we disagree, we always manage to work through it using skilled persuasion, healthy discussion and debate, and as a last resort, coercion and bribery.

In our case, the pros of being co-authors far outnumber any possible negatives. For one thing, the odds of both of us having writer’s block at the same time are incredibly slim. Thus far at least, when one of us was buried in a fog devoid of creative thinking, the other was there to guide her out of it. We’ve also honed our skills as devil’s advocates, pointing out the absurdities of the other’s ideas with minimal ridicule or insult. More often than not, when it comes to story development, we are literally and figuratively on the same page. When the ideas and words start spilling out of us in a unified clip, Leigh, the official note taker, is hard-pressed to get it all down on paper.

Both of our novels, Second Chances and The Pie Sisters, sprang from infinite pages of notes scribbled onto lined paper like spaghetti thrown against the wall. Not all the ideas stuck, but the ones that did moved onto the next stage of our writing process: the outline. If it’s not in the outline, it’s probably not in the book either; our outlines are so incredibly detailed. Like an inverted pyramid, we begin with a broad story outline, followed by individualized character descriptions, and chapter-by-chapter development. Only after every emotion, every nuance, every plot twist-and-turn has been crafted in full, do we actually sit down to write.

We divvy the chapters between us and write separately from our respective Rhode Island homes. Leigh is a fast-paced visual writer, putting the story into words as she watches it unfold, movie-like in her head. Victoria writes methodically like a farmer, carefully choosing her words and planting them in neatly rowed sentences until the pages are filled. Two people, two different approaches, but together we create seamless, universal-themed stories that all women can enjoy.

In a few short weeks, 2015 will be coming to a close. Hard as that is to believe, we are also excited to welcome in the New Year, for 2016 will find us writing our third novel, together. As co-authors, we’ll be working hard, as friends it will feel like we’re hardly working.

Rhode Island writers Leigh Brown and Victoria (Vikki) Corliss are friends who became co-authors in 2009. Soon after, they published their first novel, Second Chances, followed by The Pie Sisters in 2015.

Active speakers and book event participants, they are often asked: 1) Are they sisters, and 2) How do they write novels together? In fact, they are sisters in spirit only. To learn more about how their collaboration works, visit their website. Invite Leigh and Vikki to speak at your next book club event. Contact them at browncorlissbooks@gmail.com. You can also like them on Facebook.

Rhode Island Author Expo Spotlight – Paul F. Caranci #riauthors

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Rhode Island Author Expo Spotlight – Paul F. Caranci

This post was originally posted on Martha Reynold’s blog and has been reposted here with author permission, minor revisions have been made.

Sculptures, statues, monuments and memorials are Greco-Roman in origin and constitute the many forms of public art that are now scattered throughout the world.  Rhode Island is home to many of these masterpieces and the City of Providence has its fair share that now stand as a testament to the people, places and events that have had a profound impact on the shaping of the history of Rhode Island’s capital city.

Providence is also home to the very first statue installed at a public site in Rhode Island. A statue of Benjamin Franklin cast in zinc by Richard Greenough, depicting Franklin holding a scroll in his hand with a tricorn hat tucked securely under his arm, was positioned in 1855 in front of the Franklin Lyceum building on Westminster Street. The location of the statue today is shrouded in mystery.

Providence sculptor Frances Hoppin remarked during the statue’s impressive ceremony, “This is the first public statue in Rhode Island! Let it be but the beginning of a phalanx of statues! Let our heroes, our poets, our statesmen, our philosophers, and our men of worth, live among us not only in the form of their achievements, but in monuments of iron and bronze and marble, adorning our streets and parks, perpetually preaching their virtues and telling us that they once lived and acted, and were flesh and blood like ourselves.”

Hoppin’s vision speaks to our reality, as hundreds of examples now dot the Rhode Island landscape. Providence leads with its 100-plus samples of monumental fine art. Though most of the great monuments were placed from 1870 to the 1920s, figurative sculpture continues to be in demand.

Some are architectural gems while others evoke wonderment and amazement. Still others defy most logical attempts at discernment. Yet each represents an era past and possibly forgotten by the casual observer if not for this lasting remembrance of what once was.

Perhaps the grandest of all Rhode Island monuments is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Downtown Providence’s Kennedy Plaza. It is programmatically complex, with over a dozen relief plaques, four larger-than-life figures, and one monumental figure. The monument is large in scale – the base alone is 32’ high. And, it was an expensive enterprise for a small state, costing $57,000 in 1871 dollars, exceeding the $50,000 budget by some 14%.

These monuments to the past can be found in many places throughout Providence and take on a plethora of forms. Some honor the men and women who fought our wars for freedom while others memorialize the story of intense love shortened by premature death (Bajnotti Fountain, Carrie Clock Tower, The Spirit of Youth, etc.). Still others pay tribute to mythological figures (Orpheus Ascending, Terpsichore, etc.). Each magnificent piece of art has a story just as breathtaking as the piece itself.

Take the time to notice this magnum opus as you travel throughout the state.  Learn the story that inspired each work.  You will surely gain a new appreciation for Rhode Island’s tour de force!

Paul Caranci co-authored, with his daughter Heather Caranci, Monumental Providence: Legends of History in Sculpture, Statuary, Monuments and Memorials.  The 323 page book describes all 103 piece of public art throughout Providence and includes over 100 photographs.)

Find our more about Paul and his books here

His LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcaranci

His Facebook page: paul.caranci

His Twitter: https://twitter.com/paulcaranci