greetings from baker publishing group!

I love to get anything from my publisher as they always begin with the above greeting which seems like some sort of Biblical exhortation, at least to me! The FedEx truck arrived this morning with the actual pages of The Frontiersman's Daughter so I have a new, delightful deadline:) The end stages of production are so much fun. It is a joy to hold the book in my hands, albeit without its cover and binding, etc. I am bubbling over with thankfulness if you couldn't tell. This is all such a gift! I get to read through the novel one final time, then it is off to the printer to become a bonafide book.

Meanwhile, my poor Kentucky momma is snowed in in North Carolina with those normally snow-deprived southerners who own itty-bitty snow shovels if they own one at all. Mom left Seattle last night on a night flight and arrived in Charlotte this morning to an overflowing airport and planes parked on the tarmac. I don't know when she'll get home to Kentucky. My brother is headed to sunnier climes and leaves for Spain March 18th. Bye, Chris!

And now I'm at home with a sick son, a missing cat, and my pages. Better get busy.

This world belongs to the enthusiastic. -Emerson

To have joy one must share it. -Lord Byron

Find ecstasy in life - the mere sense of living is joy enough. - Emily Dickinson

If you want to be happy, BE. -Tolstoy

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10

a time to dance

I was reading in Ecclesiates this morning that there is a time for everything (Ecc. 3:1-9). A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance... When times are good, we are to be happy. When times are bad we are to consider that He has made the one as well as the other. I'd rather dance!

Life is usually stuffed so full of things I don't remember particular months. But I do recall last February '08 vividly. And I was not dancing. I was waiting to hear if Baker Book's wanted The Frontiersman's Daughter. While I waited the boys came down with the stomach flu (at the same time) and I was sick with a sinus infection, etc. It was raining buckets and it seemed we didn't leave the house for a month. My old computer was having issues which left me wondering if I'd even get the publisher's email telling me I'd been rejected. This was not a fun month - but it sure was memorable!

Fast forward to this February! A time to dance, indeed. I almost hate to move to March as this month has been so much fun. But melancholy as I am, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Just how much fun can one have? It seems I've exceeded maximum capacity and some sort of penalty will soon be exacted. Did you know Moses was a melancholy? He also had anger management issues. But I digress!

I'm thankful for this February. But I'm also thankful for last February. It was miserable and I'd not want to repeat it, but I think I learned a tremendous amount about waiting and endurance and trust. I was a different person come March. Maybe a better one.

I was touched by what I found in the front of Silas House's novel, Clay's Quilt. He wrote this dedication:

For Cheyenne and Olivia
I hope you dance

I'm guessing these are his daughters. And I think I understand the sentiment behind it. Let's dance!

raining again

It's raining and feels like Washington state again instead of cold, snowy Minnesota or North Dakota. My Kentucky kin have a few inches of snow. But spring is coming! And soon we'll gain an extra hour or so of daylight by springing forward in time. And then comes Easter. Gardening. Another birthday. A couple of more deadlines. And then the release of TFD in only 5 more months.

My brother flew south on Friday and we really miss him. He took the boys to town before he left and bought them french fries and onion rings and sling shots. My Kentucky momma is still here for another week. It's been nonstop eating, socializing, fiddling, churching, and such. I feel like crawling into a cave and collapsing! All that fun is very wearing after a while, say a day or so. Try 11 days strong now! I feel very unwriter-like. Book 2 and 3 are still at the bottom of my basket.

I did do something very important this week by switching over from my archaic version of MicrosoftWord 2000 to a new one. Nice! Love that blue background. All those fancy icons and stuff make me feel very editorial though I don't have a clue what most of them do. Guess I'll have fun finding out. Would you believe the very day The Frontiersman's Daughter comes out, Red River Daughter is due? Only 159 more days! I need every one of them.

I truly love this second book. I'm not sure why it has such a hold on me. Perhaps it's the Red River setting. Or the challenge of so much research about the People of the South Wind. Some folks say it's not a good idea to talk about a book in the making so I won't. I've always been reluctant to do so anyway. A book needs to speak for itself.

So on this rainy day I hope you have a good book handy and are anxious to get your hands on mine:) Only 159 days. Hallelujah!

for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come. -Song of Solomon 2:11-12

books and such

I hear you Kentuckians (and others) are very cold today and expecting to get colder. Funny that my mom was hanging clothes out on the line a couple of weeks ago and it was a warm 64' in the bluegrass state. Here it is foggy and 40 degrees with a bitter wind blowing the chimes outside my window. I'm already looking forward to spring which begins about late May here. Thought I'd give a little book update for those who are interested in the writing life.

The Frontiersman's Daughter is moving right along now that the release date is only a few months away. I heard yesterday that the preview copies were just sent out. One Ky. author emailed me to let me know she received hers and has read the first chapter. She's one of my picks for endorsements on the back cover. Hope she likes the book! Now that the galleys are done, TFD is edited again and sent to proofreaders. Soon I will get the "pages" which will be the actual book in page format just like the one you'll (hopefully) want to hold in your hands. I will read the book yet again (I can quote parts of it now!), and check for errors, etc. This process is so very thorough I'll be surprised if I find any at this stage.

Red River Daughter is finished but needs work after page 240. This is not a sequel to The Frontiersman's Daughter but is another stand-alone novel. However, there is one overlapping character that jumps from the first to the second book, albeit briefly. Sort of a cameo appearance in the opening chapter before he disappears completely. I dearly love this second book. It may be my favorite. It's also taking a great deal of work to make it work. I am sad that I can't spend eons on narrative about the wonders of Kentucky's Red River Gorge area. Readers tend to like lots of dialogue these days. I stuff in as much narrative as I can, otherwise I feel cheated and some readers might too.

And now for The Scrivener's Daughter. I'm up to page 221 and when I read it over I wonder who wrote it! It's that different. My writing has changed so much since TFD! I'm also writing from a his/her perspective for the first time and am really enjoying the change. But I've had to put it away while I work on RRD and I am missing it. Some writers balance multiple books at once but I don't like to do this myself. I may get Lael and Morrow and Roxie mixed up.

So after hours and hours in my chair with my laptop on my lap, it is sometimes a relief to just get up and do the dishes. Happy Friday.

365 days

Tomorrow is August 1st and we must kiss July goodbye. If you look at the countdown counter in the margin you'll see that August 1, 2009 is a big day for me. Only it seems like it will never get here.

I don't think anything takes longer than publishing a book - except maybe the nine month wait to have a baby. Giving birth to a book takes far longer. The only similarites are that you are very excited and must think of a good name/title for that baby/book. Fortunately babies don't need any marketing - they just appear and become overnight bestsellers, so to speak. Most books do not. And that is why publishing takes time. Everything has to be just right. You must give a reader every incentive to pick up your book. Beginning with the title. And then the cover, etc. It really boils down to dollars which has nothing to do with why I write. But it's a business, after all.

If I was more ambitious and less busy I would start a support group for writers who are waiting for that first book to come out. But I've never been a groupie so this is not really appealing (I used to cry when I had to go to Brownie meetings as a kid). Lots of writers go to conferences and join critique groups but I'm not sure about this either. However, there is one conference in Hawaii that sounds good to me. But anywhere warm sounds good to me right now as it is 50 degrees here and raining!

So when I get impatient - or you get impatient waiting for something big to happen - it's really helpful to keep our minds on Ecclesiastes 3 - "There is a time appointed for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven - a time to give birth and a time to die ... a time to weep and a time to laugh ... a time to mourn and a time to dance ... a time to be silent and a time to speak ..."

Even a time to publish and a time to wait to be published. I'm finding I like His timetable much better than mine anyway.