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Anne R. Williams

Anne R. Williams

About

Anne Richardson Williams graduated in 1969 from Vanderbilt University/Peabody College with a BFA in printmaking and painting. While owning and running a conservation framers/art gallery in Nashville, Tennessee, she continued to experiment and work with many different painting and drawing media. 

Watercolor is her painting medium of choice, because—to paraphrase J.S. Sargent—she loves the thrill of creating art in an emergency situation. She also enjoys (and teaches) Book Arts, that is, using the book as an art form and as a medium for combining interests in expressing through both visual art and the written word.

Anne’s love of writing began with a college creative writing course she took by coincidence to fulfill a graduation requirement. During this class she first dreamed of writing stories and illustrating her writing. Her love of storytelling has been nurtured through the pleasure of years of reading aloud to her son and also of learning and appreciating the cultural stories of many different aboriginal oral traditions. 

Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under is for Anne literally a dream come true, an opportunity in her own life to experience “…the movement from dream to action that creates the world.” 

The Sons of Godwine: Part Two of The Last Great Saxon Earls

The Sons of Godwine: Part Two of The Last Great Saxon Earls

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<p>Emerging from the long shadow cast by his formidable father, Harold Godwineson showed himself to be a worthy successor to the Earldom of Wessex. In the following twelve years, he became the King's most trusted advisor, practically taking the reins of government into his own hands. And on Edward the Confessor's death, Harold Godwineson mounted the throne—the first king of England not of royal blood. Yet Harold was only a man, and his rise in fortune was not blameless. Like any person aspiring to power, he made choices he wasn't particularly proud of. Unfortunately, those closest to him sometimes paid the price of his fame.<br /><br />This is a story of Godwine's family as told from the viewpoint of Harold and his younger brothers. Queen Editha, known for her Vita Ædwardi Regis, originally commissioned a work to memorialize the deeds of her family, but after the Conquest historians tell us she abandoned this project and concentrated on her husband, the less dangerous subject. In THE SONS OF GODWINE and FATAL RIVALRY, I am telling the story as it might have survived had she collected and passed on the memoirs of her tragic brothers.<br /><br />This book is part two of The Last Great Saxon Earls series. Book one, GODWINE KINGMAKER, depicted the rise and fall of the first Earl of Wessex who came to power under Canute and rose to preeminence at the beginning of Edward the Confessor's reign. Unfortunately, Godwine's misguided efforts to champion his eldest son Swegn recoiled on the whole family, contributing to their outlawry and Queen Editha's disgrace. Their exile only lasted one year and they returned victorious to London, though it was obvious that Harold's career was just beginning as his father's journey was coming to an end.<br /><br />Harold's siblings were all overshadowed by their famous brother; in their memoirs we see remarks tinged sometimes with admiration, sometimes with skepticism, and in Tostig's case, with jealousy. We see a Harold who is ambitious, self-assured, sometimes egocentric, imperfect, yet heroic. His own story is all about Harold, but his brothers see things a little differently. Throughout, their observations are purely subjective, and witnessing events through their eyes gives us an insider’s perspective.<br /><br />Harold was his mother's favorite, confident enough to rise above petty sibling rivalry but Tostig, next in line, was not so lucky. Harold would have been surprised by Tostig's vindictiveness, if he had ever given his brother a second thought. And that was the problem. Tostig's love/hate relationship with Harold would eventually destroy everything they worked for, leaving the country open to foreign conquest. This subplot comes to a crisis in book three of the series, FATAL RIVALRY.</p>

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&quot;<strong>Anne Williams</strong> has written an intelligent, lyrical and inspirational tale about her excursion into the outbacks of Australia and of her soul. The true story of her pilgrimage is beautifully and directly told, creating a literary roadmap of trust that readers might learn how one soul navigated unconventional -- but vital -- pathways forward.&quot;<br /><br /><strong>Steven McFadden<br /></strong>author, <strong><em>Legend of the Rainbow Warriors</em></strong><br />Director, <strong>Chiron Communications</strong><br /><br /><strong>A Great Read!</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong>&quot;<strong>Anne Richardson Williams</strong> crafts a beautiful memoir and invites the reader to accompany her as she embarks upon an extraordinary journey that takes her both to Australia and her own inner knowing. In her quest to meet <strong>Lorraine Mafi-Williams</strong>, an Aboriginal Elder with whom she's never met yet feels a deep connection, Anne Williams relies on her heart and her inner wisdom as a guiding compass and is rewarded with finding not only the Australian woman she seeks and the stories she carries, but also with a fuller sense of coming home to herself. A wonderful and inspiring story!&quot;<br /><br /><strong>Ellen Frankel</strong><em><br /></em>Aurhor of <br /><em><strong>Beyond Measure: A Memoir About Short Stature &amp; Inner Growth</strong></em><br /><br /><strong>A beautiful word picture by a true artist</strong><br /><br />&quot;When you were a little girl, did you ever dream of traveling to a place you read about in a book? <strong>Anne Richardson Williams</strong> did exactly that. When she was sixteen, she read <strong><em>A Town Like Alice</em> </strong>by <strong>Nevil Shute</strong>. She was grieving her father's suicide at the time and books were her refuge. She wrote in her diary that one day she would like to visit Alice Springs, Australia, the town where the novel takes place.<br /><br />&quot;Twenty-six years later, in 1989, she found her old journal and contemplated her girlish dream, as yet unrealized. By then, Williams had been an artist and a successful businesswoman. After her divorce, she began to explore her spirituality and to meditate. One day she saw a calendar picture of Ayers Rock in the Australian desert and discovered &quot;the closest town of any size, across two hundred miles of desert, is Alice Springs.&quot; This is just the first of many serendipitous and mysterious events that bring Williams on her journey. While reading <strong>Steven McFadden</strong>'s <em><strong>Ancient Vioices, Current Affairs: The Legend of the Rainbow Warriors</strong>, </em>she sees a photograph of <strong>Lorraine Mafi-Williams</strong>, an Aboriginal elder, and believes she looks like her; she feels her a sister, even with the same last name, and decides to meet the woman. And that's where the book takes us down a path quite different from the typical woman's 'journey'....<br /><br />&quot;For anyone who is curious about Australia, this easy-to-read travel journal will be a treat. The author paints with her words a fascinating country, one most will never see....<br /><br />&quot;The author includes a bibliography and glossary of terms for those who want to investigate further this intriguing place and 'unconventional means' of following one's spiritual path.'&quot;<br /><br /><strong>Linda C. Wisniewski</strong><br />Author of<br /><strong><em>Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, &amp; Her Polish Heritage</em></strong>