We're excited to announce the blog tour for Sleeping with Ghosts by Jen Payne. If you appreciate poetry, memoir or the thought that we are all living with our ghosts of memory, let us introduce you to the ghosts on this tour. Join us as we meet author Jen Payne in an interview and enter to win a copy of her latest book Sleeping with Ghosts.
About the Book
“Beautifully crafted and luminous, these poems take the reader on an intimate and unforgettable journey of love found and lost, the joys of creativity, and the power of memory.” — Judith Liebmann, Ph.D., Poet Laureate of Branford, CT
“Sleeping with Ghosts is not an ordinary ghost tale. Jen's latest collection of writings is a poignant meditation on a life of love confronted.” — Mary O'Connor, author of Say Yes! to Your Creative Self
Known for her meditations and musings about our outside world, Jen Payne takes readers inside this time…into the heart and mind of a poet, where memories wander, hearts break, and ghosts appear in dreams. Those ghosts — her lovers, soulmates, and muses — reveal themselves slowly, one at a time, chapter by chapter, in this wistfully reflective, time-traveling memoir.
Publisher: Three Chairs Publishing
ISBN-13: 979-8990152311
ASIN: B0DDYSK5XM
Print Length: 182 pages
You can purchase a copy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and Etsy. Be sure to add Sleeping with Ghosts to your GoodReads reading list.
About the Author, Jen Payne
Jen Payne is inspired by those life moments that move us most — love and loss, joy and disappointment, milestones and turning points. When she is not exploring our connections with one another, she enjoys contemplating our relationships with nature, creativity, and spirituality. Ultimately, she believes it is the alchemy of those things that helps us find balance in this frenetic, spinning world.
Jen Payne is inspired by those life moments that move us most — love and loss, joy and disappointment, milestones and turning points. When she is not exploring our connections with one another, she enjoys contemplating our relationships with nature, creativity, and spirituality. Ultimately, she believes it is the alchemy of those things that helps us find balance in this frenetic, spinning world.
In addition to Sleeping with Ghosts, Jen has published four books: LOOK UP! Musings on the Nature of Mindfulness, Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind, Waiting Out the Storm, and Water Under The Bridge: A Sort-of Love Story.
Her work has been featured in numerous publications including the international anthology Coffee Poems: Reflections on Life with Coffee, the Guilford Poets Guild 20th Anniversary Anthology, Waking Up to the Earth: Connecticut Poets in a Time of Global Climate Crisis, the 2024 Connecticut Literary Anthology, and The Perch, a publication by the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health.
Jen is the owner of Words by Jen, a graphic design and creative services company she started in 1993, based in Connecticut — where she keeps house with a cat named Molly.
You can find her online at:
Jen's blog: https://randomactsofwriting.net/
3 Chairs Publishing: https://3chairspublishing.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/threechairspub
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3chairsbooks/
---Interview by Jodi Webb
WOW: Jen, welcome back to WOW! Women on Writing with your fifth book Sleeping with Ghosts. What inspired you to write about past relationships?
Jen: Hi Jodi. Thanks for welcoming me back to WOW! I loved working with all of you for Evidence of Flossing and am happy to be back for Sleeping with Ghosts.
What inspired this new book and its focus on past relationships? Good question. I have always had an acute ability to recall moments in time—I call them “defining moments.” You know, the point in time when something shifts or that you bookmark to remember later? As a writer, those “defining moments” are a pretty fertile source of inspiration for all of my work, most especially when it comes to writing memoir and poetry.
I think it’s called autobiographical memory—like photographic memory, but related to people, conversations, emotions, and interactions. I can easily find and settle down into memories and re- experience them in order to write about them. Sometimes I consciously rummage around to find something interesting, but often, the memories just show up—like ghosts—and ask to be written about.
I’m also a storyteller by nature. I frequently use analogy and story not only to talk about my own experiences, but to say, “I understand yours, too. Let’s talk about it.”
WOW: This book of poetry if so personal. Have you ever found it difficult to write about relationships featured in your poetry?
Jen: Some of these poems were definitely a challenge to write. There’s often sadness or grief knotted up in a memory. So when I untangle it to tell the story, those emotions resurface. But it’s more cathartic than difficult.
Other poems come more easily, welcoming the chance to reconnect with a love story, or remember moments with a dear friend, or find counsel from cherished mentors.
Have you read Brené Brown’s book Rising Strong? It’s one of my most dogeared books. She talks about being brave, showing up, telling our stories. It ends with her “Manifesto of the Brave and Brokenhearted”:
We are the authors of our lives.
We write our own daring endings.
We craft love from heartbreak,
compassion from shame,
grace from disappointment,
courage from failure.
Showing up is our power.
Story is our way home. Truth is our song.
We are the brave and broken hearted.
We are rising strong.
I love that!
I have to tell you…a side story…that the process of revisiting the ghosts in this book was fascinating. I had two amazing editors who read and critiqued every chapter, poem by poem. I spent hours with each of them, reviewing and reconsidering. It gave me the chance to dive deep into those past stories and live with the ghosts again for a while. That was an incredible experience—to be steeped in memory like that—it was visceral. Heartbreaking and beautiful all at once.
The insights and time from these two women were a true gift. The book is enormously more powerful as a result.
WOW: I am in awe of poets because I simply don’t have that lyrical talent. Tell us a little about how a poem is born. Does it come out in a rush of words or do you have to fight to create each line?
Jen: I know that some poets anguish over poems for weeks and months. To be honest? I don’t have that kind of patience. On the rare occasion when I do anguish, I end up with an over-kneaded poem that’s too tough and lost its original flavor.
I always say the poems “show up,” which is what it really feels like. Something will trigger a memory or offer up the first line…and whoosh…there’s the poem!
Ok, it’s not that quick of a process. I probably spend at least an hour or two on a poem—write, rework, read it out loud a few times, rework some more, repeat. Sometimes I go back later and edit, but not much and not often.
The poem that took the longest to write in Sleeping with Ghosts was probably “Under His Spell.” That took a few days, mostly because it’s a rhyming poem, and I don’t often rhyme. (In general, I resist writing to [poetic] form…though I’ve been challenged recently to give it a try.)
“Dear Jenny,” one of my favorites, took almost no time at all. That one showed up as if I was channeling the ghost himself and just transcribing his words. Like magic!
Poetry always kind of feels like magic to me.
WOW: A magic that is out of reach for so many of us. So tell us, how do you curate a poetry book? Do you select a topic and write poems, do you look at poems you’ve already written and perceive a common thread or is it some combination of the two?
Jen: Would you believe I’ve had the title of this book in my mind for more than 10 years? I even saved the cover art and artist’s name in a file for safekeeping!
The poems span about 20 years of work. The curating of them was fairly straightforward when it came to the ghost chapters—the seven ghosts are seven of those defining moments for me, with plenty of poems written over the years. But there were other poems—like the small pieces of stories you find in the Ephemera chapter, or the ghosts that reappear in Dreamwork—that needed to be included.
My favorite chapter to put together was Muses—these are the women who have shaped and continue to shape my life. It felt important to include them.
Most of the poems were already written, but about a dozen of them are new, written specifically for the book or because of the book. The very last poem I wrote for Ghosts is called “The Poet at Midnight,” which describes, in a sense, what the curating often feels like—a wandering through old memories and the discovery of which ones we hold onto.
WOW: Fascinating! I love the idea that you saved that image, knowing that someday there would be a book to go with it. Let's take a peek at your life beyond poetry. In addition to a poetry and prose writer, you are also an artist, photographer, graphic designer (let me know if I’ve forgotten anything). Do you have a favorite creative outlet?
Jen: Writer, artist, photographer, graphic designer, yes. Also blogger and zinester…business owner (Words by Jen) and publisher (Three Chairs Publishing).
I don’t think I see them as individual roles, so much as tools I use for my Creativity. And I don’t have a favorite, really. Sometimes I love poetry—like in April when I write a poem a day for NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month), and sometimes I’m all about creating the next zine. It’s more like whichever burner is fired up is the one I’m cooking on today—LOL!
I need to create. It’s my raison d'être—who I am and how I move around in this world.
I’m just lucky that I get to participate in the creative process all day long, either for my clients or with my own various ideas and projects.
WOW: What a lovely life to lead. You mentioned being a zinester. Could you tell us a little more about MANIFEST (zine)?
Jen: The zine is like storytelling lite!
I had always dreamed of doing installation art—in my “spare time.” LOL!—like large spaces filled with words and visuals that visitors could walk through and experience. As an alternative, I came up with the idea of doing a zine that could hold the same ideas on a much smaller scale.
I had published another zine back in the early 90s, so I was familiar with the format and the (fabulous) zine community. It just felt like the perfect venue for my essays and poetry, and my other creative pursuits, like collage and photography.
MANIFEST comes out quarterly with a different theme for each issue. It has covered topics like change and transition, solitude, the pandemic, time and time travel—sometimes politics, like gun control and women’s rights. I just mailed issue #15 called Write, about finding inspiration.
WOW: So where are you finding inspiration? What are you working on now?
Jen: Mostly, right now, I’m working on shepherding Sleeping with Ghosts out into the world. So there’s a lot of publicity work and events to prepare for, including my blog tour with you!
But I also have the next issue of MANIFEST (zine) in process, and I’m trying to decide if I should resurrect an old manuscript or start fresh with a new project of essays and poems. Maybe also a podcast?
I guess we’ll have to wait to find out, right? Folks can follow along on my blog and social media for all of the latest HERE.
Thank you for your time, Jodi. It’s been great to talk with you!
WOW: And you. I'll let you get back to your being creative and your WOW blog tour with Sleeping with Ghosts.
---Blog Tour Calendar
October 14th @ The Muffin
Join us as we celebrate the launch of Jen Payne's memoir through verse Sleeping with Ghosts. Read an interview with the author and enter to win a copy of her book.
October 16th @ Create Write Now!
Today Jen Payne writes about the Importance of Retreat.
October 17th @ Words by Webb
Jodi shares her thoughts on Jen Payne's latest book of poetry: Sleeping with Ghosts.
October 19th @ Boys' Mom Reads
Today's spotlight is on poetry and the book Sleeping with Ghosts by Jen Payne.
October 20th @ Chit Chat with Charity
Charity will be reviewing Jen Payne's newest book of poetry: Sleeping with Ghosts and sharing a poem from the book.
October 21st @ Tracey Lampley
Poet Jen Payne shares How One Phone Call in 1996 Led to a Life of Self-Publishing.
October 24th @ The Faerie Review
Ready to dive into something new? Try a book of poetry that captures the ghosts of Jen Payne's past.
October 24th @ Some Thoughts - Everything Creativity
Kaecey will be interviewing Jen Payne about writing and her latest book of poetry Sleeping with Ghosts.
October 26th @ Anthony Avina
Curious about the ghosts in Sleeping with Ghosts? Author Jen Payne writes about them today while Anthony gives his review of her new book.
October 27th @ Chit Chat with Charity
Hear from poet Jen Payne about the Importance of Storytelling. Second chance to win Jen's latest book, Sleeping with Ghosts.
October 27th @ Shoe's Seeds and Stories
Read a review of Jen Payne's latest book, Sleeping with Ghosts
October 30th @ Beverly Baird
Jen Payne writes about Listening to Your Ghosts and shares one of her poems. Beverly also tells us her thoughts on Jen's new book, Sleeping with Ghosts.
October 31st @ Some Thoughts - Everything Creativity
Kaecey reviews the latest poetry collection by Jen Payne: Sleeping with Ghosts.
November 1st @ Hook of a Book
Stop by for a guest post on How to Read Like a Writer by Jen Payne, author of Sleeping with Ghosts and enjoy one of her poems.
November 2nd @ A Wonderful World of Books
Last giveaway of Jen Payne's Sleeping with Ghosts! Also, learn the story behind the book's amazing artwork.
November 5th @ Choices
Never seem to have enough time to write? Learn a few secrets from poet Jen Payne.
November 8th @ Jill Sheets
Learn more about poet Jen Payne in today's interview.
***** BOOK GIVEAWAY *****
Enter to win a print copy of Sleeping with Ghosts by Jen Payne! Fill out the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win. The giveaway ends October 27th at 11:59 pm CT. We will randomly draw a winner the next day via Rafflecopter and follow up via email. Good luck!
