Isabelle B.L: Guest Post

My Writing Journey

Welcome Isabelle B.L, who tells her story and a bit of mine, too. She’s extraordinarily talented and generous. So, with a salute to Isabelle B.L, here is her essay:

My Writing Journey

Isabelle’s beautiful book.

My writing journey began when my mother died in 2016. I poured my heart out on a writing platform. It came out as a lump of clay, a lump of truth and that’s about it.

Mary L. Tabor helped me sculpt my writing.

I had read Mary’s award-winning work, discovered she teaches privately and was surprised when after reading some of my work, she wanted to work with me. I couldn’t believe it. I said, “Yes!” in March 2018. We worked for months via Zoom as I live in France. She would give me tasks to do. I read and completed the tasks and she would return with a thorough analysis of what I had found.

Mary introduced me to friends (I like to think of them this way) writers past and present that we worked with throughout the course. My short story writing has been enhanced after reading and talking about writers like William Saroyan, Pam Houston, Flannery O’Connor and so many more. Since then, my bookshelf, my writing and quality of life is better—how wonderful to read as a writer and enjoy it!

From Mary I’ve learnt how to read as a writer: Understanding point of view, layering conflict and the big one:  Truth in fiction. I didn’t think it possible to write about my life in any other way but memoir and nonfiction. I knew I was in chains. Dates had to be precise, for example.

And now, thanks to Mary, thanks to fiction, my mother probably comes out as a vase. Full of fragility, cracks, somewhat resilient, powerful, void of stems and petals but holding silence, the untold, the secrets.

Image by Joeyy Lee via Unsplash (not a photo of Isabelle’s mother)

I learnt cutting from Mary. I took her advice. I rewrote a number of times. As a result, some of these significantly cut or pruned (it’s nicer😉) pieces have been accepted in literary magazines.

Mary’s note: I link to some of these at the end of Isabelle’s essay.

I also have read everything on “Write it! How to get started” as a fully subscribed reader and as follow-up to her private one-on-one course. All that’s been invaluable.

Thank you, Mary.

After the one-on-one course, we’ve remained friends and I was thrilled when she offered to write a blurb for my first novel Jeanne The Woman in Red. A novel about a woman, Jeanne Tunica Y Casas, who fell into oblivion after fighting for the rights of exploited workers. I chose to write a book inspired by her life and have Jeanne recognised especially in the English-speaking world. In hindsight, I should have taken my time. A quote that I found from a French journalist, Simone Téry, stuck:

Comme il fallait se depêcher de vivre – One had to hurry to live.

And as Laura Moreno, from The Attic Workshop, recently said so beautifully and poignantly: “We don’t have forever here!”

I did no publicity for my book.

What’s the point of writing then? Fear has stopped me and it’s something I have to work on too. While I don’t think the fear will go away for my next book, a collection of flash fiction pieces, I do hope to do publicity for it.

My experience with literary magazines has been positive. I have met great and generous editors who have given me invaluable direction. I’m forever grateful for both the acceptances and rejections.

Here’s a link to Mary’s essay on why you should consider literary magazines:

With two children likely to enter university within the next two years, it’s not always easy to pay for extra services like editorial help. But it’s an investment for yourself and your writing. Sometimes, it costs a few cups of coffee. Do Mary’s online course and do study with her privately.

She suggests the best books on writing. Join writing communities if resources and time permits and start writing, drafting, deleting and begin again. And the best part: It’s a wonderful community. Maybe a little competitive, but I’ve discovered that other writers and editors are rooting for fellow writers. We’re all in this together and there’s space for us all.

Happy writing and reading to you all.

Isabelle B.L

Isabelle B.L is a writer and teacher based in France. Her work can be found in Five Minutes, The Disappointed Housewife, the Best Microfiction 2022 anthology (available on Amazon), Bluepepper and elsewhere. Her novel Jeanne: The Woman in Red is available on Amazon.

Mary’s review and blurb:

This incredibly well-researched and, yes, beautiful novel tells the story of Jeanne Tunica Y Casas (1894 – 1972), a woman who lived in New Caledonia and who risked her life to change her world and ours.

Isabelle will open your heart and break it with her empathic telling. In her words, we see: “Rain, thunder and gusts of wind agitating the social order. She will not walk out of the painting just yet. She will stay and face the danger.”

But Jeanne will walk out of this novel into your heart with Isabelle’s moving story of Jeanne’s life, her courage and her losses. Read it for its love that Isabelle reveals and for all those who risk their lives to save ours.

–Mary L. Tabor

Love,

With thanks to Isabelle!