Erika Robuck

This is a picture of Erika Robuck in April, 2009.  Taken at the high school we attended, after she read from her self-published novel Receive Me Falling. 

It was the first time I'd seen her in almost a decade and a half.

When we were in Ms. Fouse's English class, back in Catholic School together in the seventh grade, we used to pass one another loose-leaf with stories written on them.  Hand to hand beneath our desks when the teacher wasn't looking.  Hers had willful characters with tortured backgrounds and eloquent names like Victoria.  Mine were loosely veiled recaps of characters based on people we both knew.

Little has changed...as far as our primary interests and passions go, and the enthusiasm which we use all these years later in our continued sharing of the words.  Erika and I decided a month after our re-connection in 2009 to begin what has become three years of story-sharing and more importantly, life-creating with one another.  And I am beyond words now, truly, when attempting to best describe the experience of watching the world welcome her gifts.

What is there to possibly say to cover this amount of awe, and gratitude?

Hemingway's Girl, her first offering from Penguin's NAL hit the shelves today!  Erika writes historical fiction and brings Papa H to life in such a realistic way that I am whole-heartedly certain: she has made him proud. What a ride, and what great fortune I have to continue this relationship of spirit and words and heart and trust, of the ebbs and flows of creating and life.  I am honored, and hope you all will support her and her book.  Go here to read Erika's thoughts on this special day and here to purchase her first of many books.  With love and special thanks to Erika, and the nous, for so touching us both with its mystery and magic on this and all our days ~  To countless more my friend.

BEST NEWS EVER!!

This is Erika Robuck. 

  @Brasserie Brightwell, Easton.  April 2011.

She is my writing partner, the sole reason I am where I am today.   What I mean is I am a writer, a poet, a phoenix.  I create my life, me, over and over and as result my art follows, much as it too leads me through.  There is zero separating out any of this ebb or flow.  I recognize the sync of Life as a whole because of this identity I claim, I recognize the rhythms, the cycles that push and propel and at times stand still, the whole of all of Life itself.   

from the street, Erika Writing.  Annapolis, March 2010.

Erika is the first person to ever wholly commit to this journey with me, as I have undertaken to the same with her.  We call this process Nous.  Well the process, at just the right Time, has paid off...

Erika Robuck has accepted a two-book deal with Penguin books!

Look for Hemingway's Girl, to be released some time in 2012...

And, now that I can finally mention it without crying, I could not be more thrilled, excited, and endlessly honored for my partner, my sister, my teacher and my friend.

Congratulations grl.  You so, so deserve it.  (aaack, tears...!) To Nous, my dear~that it never ends~

 @ our high school, Severn, MD.  Speaking on her first book,
the self-published, Receive Me Falling. May, 2009.

Erika Robuck at Writer Unboxed.

Erika Robuck is a writer of historical fiction, an excellent resource for contemporary literature and the recent guest blogger at Writer Unboxed.  Her recent post considers the process of inspiration.

Nous. The Creative Process, the Light of the Mind...

Erika introduced the term that overlays our 'relationship' which is so much bigger than just two woman who've known one another in one way or other for a very long time.  It is mine with her and it is me as I see her and see me through her, her with me and how she see me and sees her through me, than of course us together and then finally me with her work and her with mine, as well of course as it is Us with the Work. In that, it is all inseparable and so in lay the heart of the significance as I see it of the word--Nous.  To me it has always suggested the creative process.  Derrived from the Greeks, it goes back to that heady philosophical time when it was right and just to discern the big questions of god and life and soul and ethics and such.  It basically means original knowing, what I call the deep wisdom and what the Greeks said was higher mind.  On Liz's table receiving riveting energy and cranial sacral work it came clearly to me: Erika and I's calling to one another was for more than just the words.  It was fabric, essence stuff.  As you create, so too are you created.  The artist's most primal dance, to bend and break, to break bones, to submit, to finesse, to raise up, to create ash, to use the ash as dust the dust as paint and too, to paint again in to being once more.  Nous.  That was February 2009 getting that energy work done when it said how crucial she was to me and I to her spirit, we didn't start submitting til that summer.  She'll be signed soon.  It makes my eyes dance with love.

Nous.  diPrima wrote

intellectus means "light of the mind"
it is not discourse it is not even language
the inner sun

the polis is constellated around the sun
the fire is central

wiki says
Nous (pronounced /ˈnuːs/, Greek: νοῦς or νόος)^[1] is a term from Greek philosophy referring to a particular aspect or faculty of mind that is generally translated into English as intellect (from the Latin word intellectus, which is the Latin translation of nous^[2]). However, nous does not refer to the discursive or reasoning aspect of mind but rather is a faculty of direct 'knowing' that discerns truth directly.

The bigger gift.  Our selves.  That is what it all is, this creative dance.  I am so honored to be in this movement with her.  SO proud, and inspired from deep within the very light of my mind over where she's going, because together we've been defining said steps by fleshing out who we are and where we've been. 

This is on my mind, gestating.  This idea of nous and process, intellectus and light of the mind.   I'm at 21st in the belly of The Grand, it is the most stunning of almost spring days.  I will finish Ch. 8 today thereby completing Part 1 of my book!

ahhhh, Sacred nous....

Stay tuned....