Author: Anna

Hi, I'm Anna a full time writer, coffee drinker and traveller living in North Carolina near family with Thunder, Thor, Sebastian and Viola.
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REFUSE TO BE DONE 

How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts

Author, Matt Bell

I typed my first three books on my Mac Classic. One was a murder mystery set in a Cambridge museum – something about twin sisters, another Out of the Indian Bingo Maven’s Closet about a gambling casino out west; and another Bootstrap about the impossibility of picking one’s self up by the same. These books are in my files as unpublished training-wheel books.

The best thing that could have happened to me recently was spraining my wrist for it prevented me from being able to write in my favorite writing program Scrivener on my favorite MacBook Pro computer. And I had time to reflect.

Years ago, after the most traumatic events of my entire life, I wrote Primitive Rites of Caucasian Cannibals. And though I’ve been seeking a publisher for my second book Paradise Lies: A Modern Slave Narrative, and am working on Flight to Utopia. When Primitive Rites of Caucasian Cannibals recently resurfaced on my computer, I decided to switch strategies realizing that I have three works I’m fully committed to. So instead of continuing the synopsis of Paradise Lies: A Modern Slave Narrative, having just read Refuse to be Done by Matt Bell, I am now writing and preparing outlines for all three books and abandoning my old “revising/editing” process and repositioning myself in the game for a home run.

Matt Bell’s book is what Courtney Maum, author of Before and After the Book Deal says is “the CrossFit of craft books… A must-have for the writers who are ready to up their writing game.” Well, count me in!

Anna Dunwell is a full-time writer and a lives-on-the-same-block as her grandchildren in Durham North Carolina. She is seeking representation for three books, Primitive Rites of Caucasian Cannibals; Paradise Lies: A Modern Slave Narrative; and, Flight to Utopia.

But after the most traumatic events of my entire life, I wrote Primitive Rites of Caucasian Cannibals which has recently resurfaced on my computer. And though I’ve been seeking a publisher for my second book Paradise Lies: A Modern Slave Narrative, and am working on Flight to Utopia. I’m switching strategies now I have three works I’m fully committed to, instead of continuing the synopsis of Paradise Lies: A Modern Slave Narrative, having just read Refuse to be Done by Matt Bell, I am now writing and preparing outlines and synopses for all three books abandoning what I previously saw as part of the “revising/editing” process and repositioning myself in the game for a home run.

Matt Bell’s book is what Courtney Maum, author of Before and After the Book Deal says is “the CrossFit of craft books… A must-have for the writers who are ready to up their writing game.” Well, count me in! 1st or second week of May 2022.

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God Created Writers

“On the sixth day, God created writers…”
~ Dan Harmon

When covid hit the world in 2020 I was still writing every morning for four hours and posting on #5amwritersclub on Twitter while amassing quantities of survival acquisitions including toilet paper, Clorox wipes, NS 95 masks, shoe booties, plastic gloves, food, litter for my two cats, and toys for the dogs.

I locked my door and began two years of solitary confinement with increasing heart hurt after each successive hundred thousand dead in the USA.

Mostly I walked in the neighborhood and the curb with garbage, talking to neighbors five feet apart, and my daughter, grandchildren, and Amazon delivery men and women through the door. I began a weekly short-lived virtual cocktails email with friends and busied myself with vegetable planting, organizing my screws and nails, color coding my sewing spools, making spinach, blueberry, strawberry, and yogurt shakes, cooking, and posting pictures, and increasing dissatisfaction with the GOP on Facebook.

Then several of my dear friends’ health situations and ailments shifted to include encephalitis, memory loss, Parkinson’s, inability to walk, and cancer reoccurrences. My dog Thor died leaving his brother Thunder behind who was befriended by my two cats Sebastian and Viola who began sleeping with me.

I’ve found Now Church where people are kind and welcoming. I’m scheduled for my fourth covid shot next week. And adjusting to the new normal of the pandemic, and tiptoeing into blogging while my sprained left wrist heals. I’ll be adding a comments section as soon as I figure out how to do that. Until then, Heart Hugs and keep having a fabulous life. Anna

Anna Dunwell is a full-time writer in Durham North Carolina. She is seeking representation for her first book Paradise Lies: A Modern Slave Narrative, working on her second book Flight to Utopia. https://www.newstatesman.com/encounter/2022/04/noam-chomsky-were-approaching-the-most-dangerous-point-in-human-history/embed#?secret=hzOLQfgpIe

More Information.

Join List to be Advised of Availability Date to Pre-Order Book

Downtown Durham Condo is available beginning in June 2022.

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Anna Bio

Born and raised in Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn NY, an integration experiment at a Quaker Prep School. She began writing occasionally after graduation from Hunter College gaining an undergraduate degree in English and American Literature with a minor in Baroque and Rennaissance Art. Afterward, she was certified as a MA teacher, gained an MFA in Textiles traveled, and studied in Peru, Ecuador, and Guatemala, then produced 1/4 of a ton of textiles which she distributed throughout the northeast, also writing articles for Fiberarts Magazine, having a few art shows and editing a history of the New England textile industry.

Anna is a nationally acclaimed Yogic Healer and Health Practioner, and a Kripalu certified yoga instructor. In Newton Center Massachusetts she founded a multicultural resource publishing company providing resources to schools and libraries and producing the first Multicultural Symposium in Massachusetts at Emmanuel College for teachers and others interested in expanding the curriculum.

She taught yoga at Boston Medical Center and in her yoga studio Soul Sanctuary which she built on top of her home where she provided individual counseling for chronic ailments like back pain, depression, high blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety, trauma, and PTSD. She held Annual Yoga and Meditation Retreats. as well as other events including BodyLove®Yoga Women’s Retreats sharing recalibrating from traumatizing experiences; learning to bring their own kitchen practices more in alignment with elemental energies; breathing into a new relationship with the body, easing struggles with eating and body image to connect with the fueling center of the whole woman.

She worked with disparate populations at the Boston Medical Center, Dana Farber Cancer Insitute, and numerous civic organizations to benefit health and wellness in disparate populations including international male and female torture survivors, children who’ve survived many unusual deaths, cancer survivors, and black women in four Boston Health Centers.

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Condo Rentals | 807 West Trinity Avenue, Durham, NC 27701

On airbnb, click here -> : https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/43141236?adults=1&children=0&enable_m3_private_room=true&infants=0&pets=0&check_in=2024-03-10&check_out=2024-03-15&source_impression_id=p3_1709229062_vqDunS7QbDU%2FVQL%2F&previous_page_section_name=1000&federated_search_id=5adf1b7e-1cb0-4745-9210-0e7329d6698e dos

Description

Pearl Mill Flats previously named Duke Towers on the site of a historic Durham cotton mill and is named after the textile mill tower which is all that remains. It is now a peaceful gated community of eighty-two condo apartments surrounding interior gardens and an outdoor central courtyard in a park-like outdoor setting with several areas of outdoor seating, tables, landscaped gardens, a grotto, a fish pond, exterior LED security lighting, security cameras, laundry in the community room, outdoor swimming pool in season. It is convenient to Duke Medical Center, Duke University (2 miles away), 3 miles from Duke Medical Center & Duke West campus, and downtown Durham. Durham Bulls Athletic Park, DPAC, American Tobacco complex; 1.5 miles from historic Carolina Theatre & central downtown attractions & restaurants; A longstanding community with many permanent residents.

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Free Bus service is available in downtown Durham, operates every 17 minutes from 6:30 am – 9: pm on weekdays and 10 am – 9 pm on Saturdays, serving many destinations on Duke’s campus. Answers to frequently asked Transportation questions. http://www.bullcityconnector.org/index.html

York Property Management handles overall exterior site maintenance, repairs, and landscaping. Individual owners are responsible for the condo interiors.

#211 located near the tower patio great for morning coffee, and #222 features a great view, some say the best in the complex. The interiors have been updated with hardwood floors, new furniture, and granite countertops, completely furnished with all essentials provided including a complete kitchen with bar, standard size refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, coffee maker, teapot, all kitchen basics, pots and pans and utensils, dishes and silverware, microwave, toaster, and silverware, towels, bed sheets, pillows, iron, ironing board, vacuum cleaner, large closets with hangers. There is an elevator if needed, as well as locked mailboxes on the ground level. #222 recently updated with sound and light deadening curtains, new dishwasher, and toilet #211 recently updated with new bedroom furniture including Queen size bed, dresser, mirror and side table, new water heater, HVAC air conditioning unit, raised ceiling, and new overhead kitchen light fixture.

Tenant average stay is for the academic or calendar year. Monthly Rental Fee includes free resident parking on premises for one car behind locked gate if desired, Free Wi-Fi Internet and Premium Cable TV, hot and cold water, sewer, trash removal, Heating and Air Conditioning, hot water, sewer, coin-operated washer and dryer in complex with four locked entry gates. Smoking Prohibited.

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Basic Layout of All Condos at 807 West Trinity Avenue, Durham, NC 27701

#211 Bedroom One Queen Bed, Bedside Table, Dresser, Mirror, Lamp #222 Two Beds (At present one on top of the other), Dresser, Lamp.
Prices will be a bit higher if there are two people.

Monthly Rentals

#211 $1,666

Living Room #211

#222 $1,666

Living Room #222
Court Yard View from Livingroom #222
Dining Room Table #222
#222 Full Bed, Lamp, Dresser, Footstool and Travel Poster and sound and light deadening curtains.
#222 and #2111 Bedroom Closets, Hardwood Floors, and mini blinds

#211 and #222 Bathrooms are the same

Pictures to Come: Photos of Kitchens, and #211 Bedroom Coming Soon.

I relocated to North Carolina in 2015 after previously running a bed and breakfast in Massachusetts through airbnb, primarily catering to short term guests, parents and alumni of the many colleges in the area, as well as business people, and visitors from abroad and the rest of the USA.


My guests at Pearl Mill Flats most typically come through the National Humanities Center, Sabbatical Homes, Duke Off Campus Housing and referrals from other condo owners. Unfortunately my years of good reviews in Newton Center in Massachusetts on airbnb didn’t follow me as airbnb ties reviews to locations not hosts.

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Soul Sanctuary

The years of living in my paradise Soul Sanctuary and making the 30,000 decisions that go into a construction renovation project, involving adding another floor to an existing structure and teaching yoga there from 1985 to 2015 in Newton MA were extraordinary. All my life I’d searched for a place to live happily in the world and in my body. And I did it there. I discovered paradise in my own body free of the affliction of asthma. It was the first time in my life that my home became my paradise on earth.

Soul Sanctuary

There I shared the yoga I learned during my certification program at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, and wrote BodyLove®Yoga: A Manual for Bringing Trauma Sensitive Yoga to Diverse Populations (For Teachers, Administrators, Researchers and Grant Writers).

Once I learned that yoga began in Africa and travelled to India where it was codified I felt fully grounded in yoga.

Yoga Studio and Deck

“Here in this body are the sacred rivers: there are the sun and the moon, as well as the pilgrimage places. I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body.”  ~ Saraha (circa 8th century CE) 

Annual Yoga and Meditation Retreat
Indoor Sauna
Outdoor Hot Tub
Moon Gate and Willow Tree

The snowy winter of 2015 from Massachusetts to North Carolina began the next stage of my journey. I became a “pilgrim of love” and moved close to my family because they said: “Come and let us love you. ” And so began writing full time until the present. The final full draft of Paradise Lies: A Modern Slave Narrative will be completed on May 18, 2020 about 103,000 words. I’m now writing the synopsis and moving on to the next stage, working with my editor on submissions to literary agents and publishers.