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.

usefulness

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking God can't use us. That surely says something about our low opinion of Him and what He can and can't do with us, thus excusing ourselves from service. When you take a look at the bestselling book of all time, more than a few useful characters come to life, all of them very flawed - and very encouraging.

Noah was a drunkard, Abraham was too old, Isaac was a daydreamer, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused, Moses was a murderer, Gideon was afraid, Samson had long hair, Rahab was a prostitute, Timothy was too young, David had an illicit affair, Elijah was suicidal, Isaiah preached naked, Job was bankrupt, John the Baptist ran around in a loin cloth and ate locusts, Peter was hot-tempered, John was self-righteous. The disciples fell asleep while praying, Martha fretted about everything, Mary Magadalene was demon-possessed, the boy with the fish and five rolls of bread was too obscure, the Samaritan woman was divorced more than once, Zacchaeus was too small, Paul was too religious, and Lazarus was dead. -author unknown

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8

red river winter

I've spent two hours on Kentucky's Red River this morning only it's autumn in my manuscript and not January. I know the Red River Gorge would be a very cold, inhospitable place about now though still very beautiful. I think I'd like it best in spring when the ground is a garden of hepaticas and trout lilies and trailing arbutus, everything overhung with mist. What would it have looked like in 1777?

I think one of the best things about writing is being there. Writing really is an escape. Writing erases time. If you don't like living in the 21st century you don't have to. All you need is pen and paper and some good research. The little details make it real. Oh, and it helps to have a big imagination. I love this quote by John Bunyan... Who knows better than He how to guide our mind and pen for His design?

Where do these stories come from anyway? Only He knows! I sometimes wonder what it would be like to not be so dreamy all the time, always wondering about that next scene or scrap of dialogue. I sometimes wonder if my boys might like a mom who is more present and not so caught up in the past.

Today I heard that I'll be able to send two advanced copies of TFD to the good folks at the Kentucky Book Fair in hopes I'll be invited to attend in November. If I am I know just where I'll spend the weekend - at that very old, very hospitable inn called The Meeting House in Frankfort. I fell in love with it last August. And I have to return to Louisville for more research on Locust Grove for book 3. But that's far away yet and I have another book deadline before then. Oh joy!

facebook

It's early Monday and I've spent time this morning in Kentucky visiting with friends on Facebook. A month ago I didn't know what Facebook was (my brother set it up for me) and it really is an amazing experience! In a nutshell, Facebook was invented by a sophomore at Harvard a few years ago and is a free social website that connects people worldwide. You can type in the name of a long lost friend and it just might pop up and link you to that person, opening the door to a renewed friendship.

I typed in my maiden name on Facebook a few days ago and started hearing from old Kentucky friends from elementary and high school at Tates Creek in Lexington. I've not seen or heard from these people in 30 years! They've been posting old school pictures of us, etc. The danger is that it's a very fun but very time-consuming distraction. A perpetual party, so to speak. I'm always amazed at what the internet can do. I've discovered some interesting things - one friend lives in London (England, not Ky.), my elementary buddy married my high school crush, most of my friends never left Kentucky, and things like that.

So it's Monday here and I'm thankful for another day. Lots to do like homeschool, practice violin, and continue with that edit. I finished reading Red River Daughter last night and can now bring out the wrecking ball, so to speak. It always hurts a bit to delete scenes and change things even when you know it's better for the book. Writers really do need to develop a thick skin which I've always lacked till now.

Lately I've felt a little overwhelmed with everything. So many things in my life are changing. But I have that wonderful verse Beth Moore posted on her website sitting by my laptop to keep me grounded. It's a big help for a busy Monday.

He is your constant source of stability; He abundantly provides safety and great wisdom; He gives all this to those who fear Him. Isaiah 33:6

the wince factor

January is flying by. I'm down to one Christmas tree on the deck and just a few patches of deep snow. Paul and I leave soon for Old Time Fiddlers down in Sequim at the grange. While we're gone Randy and Wyatt will be bulldozing a chicken coop and other assorted buildings at a neighbor's farm. This is Randy's equivalent of fun so it will be a good Saturday for him. I just want to be writing!

About that Red River edit... Several scenes just don't work so I am noting which to cut. I'm about 75 pages from the end of the manuscript. The trouble lies in the back of the book which is not final draft material anyway. The first 235 pages are solid and almost as polished as I can make them with a few adjustments needed. Mostly missed opportunities to build tension/conflict. You can always tell when a scene doesn't work as it makes you almost wince reading through it. The solid scenes don't have that effect. Just imagine what it would do to a reader if it makes the writer wince - or an editor! So watch that wince factor:)

I never realized that this writing business is really all about rewriting. It takes a tremendous amount of work to make a book readable, and even more to create a good book, and that's why I will never criticize another writer. No one writer does everything well. Well, maybe James Alexander Thom, my hero, but not the rest of us.

I've decided to come out of the woods and join the wireless world. Next week, Lord willing, we'll ditch what I call dinosaur dial-up internet connection for the real deal. A friend of ours has both (dial-up in his office and wireless at home) and says it's kind of like going back to holding hands when you've been kissing. Can't wait!

Happy Saturday.

christmas in january

We're celebrating Christmas with our neighbors today as we haven't been able to get to them with all the snow till now. The news reports about Washington state being afloat are true - lots of road closures and things adrift now that the snow is melting and the winter rains begin in earnest. WET! Great reading and writing weather:)

On the home front, Paul is busy practicing his violin and trying to polish an old Civil War tune - a lively reel - called Soldier's Joy. He thinks he'd like to play banjo next. Wyatt is dreaming about beekeeping and basketball. We go to a high school game tonight for the first time ever. I don't know a basketball from a biscuit so this should be interesting. Hopefully Randy will be home in time. He's been working on a yacht down at the marina and has some interesting tales to tell. Personally, I think yacht-owning is extreme and I wouldn't want to be held accountable for that kind of excess but Port Angeles is noted for these big boats. This particular yacht has a game room below with glass panels in the floor where you can see through to the ocean and all that marine life, etc. If this is the best man can do, I wonder what heaven will be like?

I'm thankful for my humble little house and garden and woods. When Christmas is over today, I have to hurry back to the Red River and start editing again. I'm already dreaming of that next book. Interestingly enough, I just received my copy of the Chronicle from the Kentucky Historical Society and read that they've been given the nation's most significant collection of firearms from the master gunsmith Benjamin Mills. An old-time Kentucky gunsmith! This ties in very nicely for researching that next book.

Hope your day is sunny and dry wherever you are.

reading glasses

I've finally entered the realm of reading glasses. They must be about as comfortable as dentures! I really don't like them as they make me feel my age - and they're a very odd lilac color. But I find I can't do without them, especially in regards to this edit. I'm back in Kentucky on the Red River again and up to page 221 thus far. No major problems yet though we writers are at a decided disadvantage knowing the manuscript so well. Fresh eyes really do detect far more flaws. Maybe that's why editors are so good at what they do!

I am wondering why The Frontiersman's Daughter was so much harder to write than Red River Daughter. Now, TFD was my fifth book, not my first. I wrote my first at age 13 - a novella set in old Sturbridge Village back east. Then I penned (try not to laugh here) Gone With the Wind II, a romantic-suspense novel set in England, then Dances With Wolves II. I may have omitted one or two. I found Dance With Wolves II in the garage recently and hauled it out to have a look. Scary! Fifty pages later I was still on this one jail scene in the middle of the prairie. But I guess if you do anything long enough you will eventually make progress.

I think The Frontiersman's Daughter was difficult because it involved so much research about wildcrafting. I won't say more lest this be considered a spoiler. Also, I have three love interests in this story which I was told is a no-no for a beginning writer. But I've had a 40 year apprenticeship, remember. So maybe it worked:) I hope you think so.

I am learning so much. Maybe the most important thing is that there are as many books out there as readers. My writing won't appeal to everyone. I really write to please myself. And Him. If it spills over and reaches other people, that's a gift.

Anyway, the hard editing of RRD is about to begin. I wish there was no such thing as too long a book. I'm not one of those lean writers. I love words -the more the better.

Till tomorrow!

a miracle

We start homeschooling again today, something I've always loved till now. Writing seems to take precedent over nearly everything and I go to the homeschool closet lately and haul out all those books reluctantly. Last year Paul didn't start reading till he was nearly nine years old - something that makes public school teachers squirm! I was a bit panicked myself as Wyatt was right "on time" if there is such a thing, which there is not. I know several homeschooled kids who learned to read between the ages of 11 and 14 and they are very bright kids.

Now Paul has his head in those little Archie comic books all the time and is learning all sorts of new words like "jughead" and "bozo" and "detention". Wyatt received a treasure trove of Hardy Boys books for Christmas so he'll be immersed in that world for awhile. Yesterday, the kids at church put on their belated Christmas pageant due to all the snow and it was wonderful. Paul played "Silent Night" on the violin, then we had communion and a potluck.

Now for Monday. I get to return to the Red River today and think I will read through the entire manuscript first (after hiding my red pen) to get a feel for the story and see what problems with pacing (and all the rest) leap out at me. I checked the word count which is just over 145,000 words - a whopper. The Frontiersman's Daughter, at the galleys stage, was about 124,000 which equals 420 pages or so in book format. My contract specifies 352 pages. But the quality of the story trumps word count. And I hope you think it is a quality story! This third book will be closer to the contracted amount.

Last night during one of my wake up spells (I seem to have these often) I was thinking what a miracle it is that The Frontiersman's Daughter is at this stage. I began it 11 years ago, writing during Wyatt's naps, stuck it in a drawer for 5 years after Paul was born, got it out and dusted it off and finished it in the next couple of years, threw the first half out and rewrote it, tried to find an agent unsuccessfully, considered quitting many times, etc. In the meantime, we lived in a very small travel trailer, then our garage, built our house, tended cows and pigs and a huge garden, became very involved in our little church, etc. This book is a miracle! And He gets all the credit - for giving me the idea, for allowing me the time, for instilling persistence, for helping me overcome defeat, and finally, for opening locked doors. I'm sure your own story is just as interesting!

Anyway, thank heavens I'm here and not back there. I get tired just thinking about it. That's probably why He, in His wisdom, withholds the future from us. Hope your Monday holds miraculous things:)

a walk in the snow

Today Randy and I took a walk through the woods in the snow. He rarely walks with me so this was a rare treat. The woods are full of huge firs and hemlocks and cedars, so tall they shut out nearly all the light and even the snow. We saw some bare ground for the first time in weeks underneath those colossal trees. But most of the time we walked with snow up to our boot tops. I was okay as long as I followed Randy and stepped exactly in his tracks. Then I could look around and enjoy the waterfall and creek and the stillness.

We walked to a ledge overlooking the creek and Randy turned to see if I was still stepping in his tracks. But we'd come to a place with a sharp drop where you have to squeeze by or risk falling in the water far below. I'm terribly afraid of heights so I ignored his outstretched hand and said I wanted to go a different way. And I did. No amount of coaxing on his part would get me past that one spot. So he had to push me up a little icy cliff where I promptly tore my pants on barbed wire and got ice in my boots!

Immediately I thought of all the times in my life when I've insisted on abandoning my Shepherd and going my own willful way. I've gotten into a lot more trouble than torn pants and icy boots! If I'd just kept following and let Him lead, I think I would have found more green pastures and still waters. Our walk was a good reminder of what happens when I veer off the right path even in the slightest way. I was reminded of the Scripture that says, "...that the Lord your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do." Jeremiah 42:3

Now that the galleys are done I'm not doing much writing but catching up on my reading (and walking). Amazon just delivered a wonderful box of new releases from my publisher and I'll name them here:

Paper Roses by Amanda Cabot
The Edge of Light by Ann Shorey
No Place for a Lady by Maggie Brendan

I'm always amazed by the beautiful covers Baker Books designs. Sure to catch a book buyer's eye. I don't know about you but the cover is often the big reason I pick up a book in the first place. Lots of covers don't work for me but these are just right.

I have to get back to Red River Daughter in a couple of days. I'm beginning to see the value of a critique group which I don't have. It would be nice to run the story by some writer types and see what they'd say about my too long ending and how they'd make cuts. Maybe I'll know when I get back into the manuscript next week. I haven't touched it for 2 months so things are bound to leap out at me. Let's hope I like the Red River as much as when I left! But now I have to set aside book 3 - always a wrench!

Hope you're enjoying a good book with a catchy cover:) And walking down the right path.

happy new year!

Good morning 2009! Here in the woods of Washington we were gifted with a couple of more inches of snow in the new hours. On my new calendar is a very poetic quote by very brainy Al Einstein: Snowflakes are the fairy dust of winter. And you thought he was all about relativity and mass-energy equivalence! Reminds me of another favorite quote by noted Japanese painter and Christian, Mokoto Fujimura, "All gifts of creativity, like the Magi's star, point straight to a stable in Bethlehem."

So on this snowy January 1st, I'm back to all the little domestic details I abandoned during recent days as a galleys slave. Randy gets a chocolate cream pie. I'm cleaning off my desk. The two Christmas trees are begging to be undecorated and burned but I can't bear to part with them yet even though they are stiff as starch and more olive than evergreen:(

Wyatt was the only one who stayed up past midnight as he went to a church party with lots of food and fireworks while the rest of us went to bed. The new year is revving up to be full of challenges. I've already encountered something that is threatening to tie me in knots if I let it but I also have the anecdote - Scripture.

Hop on over to Beth Moore at livingproofministries.blogspot.com and see what this amazing woman has rigged up for this year. Twice a month she's posting Scripture to memorize in the New English Translation. Here's the first:

He is your constant source of stability; He abundantly provides safety and great wisdom; He gives all this to those who fear Him. Isaiah 33:6

Happy New Year!