Category: books

Persevere

Once in my past I would have thought that if I’d been confined to my house, for whatever reason, that I would easily write that great novel that is inside of me.  Alas, that is not  true. I am flummoxed and astonished at the difficulty I am having in composing one sentence, let alone enough for a novel.

The circumstances of this confinement are not good.

Finally, I heard or read, that I am suffering from grief. And from expectations that far outweigh my strength right now. Because I am sad, not sleeping well, like many people in this world, I feel worn out.

The help is to be kinder to myself. That may not cure everything but it will help.

Quit demanding too much of your self. Understand that you are grieving. Rest, watch a sunset, read a book, walk the dog (Maxx would agree to that), but take care of yourself.

We will get through this. It will not be quick and painless, but we will survive and laugh and love again.

Blog versus Novel

Have I told you that I’m writing on the new Nightingale book, but writing in  a blog regularly is difficult?

I have great admiration for folks who publish regular blogs. If I split the discipline I use for working on the novel with writing a blog, my problem should be solved.  Not really.

I think I would only accomplish giving myself some guilt and not getting much done  on the novel. The novel is fiction. It’s a story that I love to work on because I make it up. My blog really comes from my day to day observations and joys and worries. It’s nonfiction with a big non on the front.

I’ve been told that meditation would help. We’ll see. I’m not making resolutions, so we’ll see.

New Nightingale

The book is out in paperback and I would love to have reviews. I’m almost over the euphoria of getting it finished. Does that excitement ever fade? I need to ask someone who has published many books if the joy goes away.

I am enjoying reading other books and catching a movie or two. But I’m also getting into the next novel, which will be a prequel to these first two. Not so much political intrigue, but still a lot of conflict.

 

Breathtaking

Just when I think I’ve sort of got a handle on finding out what is really important in life, someone, in this case Maxx, makes me see that I don’t have a clue.

I’ve been rushing around trying to finish the next book and Mother Nature hits us with a winter freeze. Now, what those two things have in common (the book and frigid weather) is that many people are affected by this weather, and no one is affected if my book doesn’t make it to Amazon immediately.

The result is I have slowed to consider front and back matter in the book. I actually meditated today. And Maxx has chased the ball a lot but will do more tomorrow.

What happened—it’s those big brown eyes that shows a dog does have empathy, and he does need attention, and he gives big returns on love.

Off to the Wizard

Finally, Not An Ordinary Death is off to the editor for the second edit. This is for polish only but the last third of the manuscript is rewritten, so quite a bit of work remains.

The first day after sending it, I was depressed. And then I decided, “Just move forward. What will the next book be about?” After that decision, I’ve been walking around doing chores like mopping the floor while trying to  visualize what is in store for Ranger Nightingale.

Photo from Unsplash by Annie Spratt

And I’ve been going over things I’ve learned.  I have a great editor. She holds nothing back and gives me reasons for choices as she goes through the manuscript.

Isn’t it odd that I want this book to be amazing, just like I wanted the last one to be amazing? And of course, I’ll want the next one to be amazing. I’m not kidding myself–I am no Mark Twain or John Grisham. But, it is part of the human condition (I think) to want your creations to continue to be better.

 

Editing Nightingale

I am in the midst of the second edit of the next Nightingale book. For me this is emotional because I didn’t realize how much work was left to be done on this book. So many times I am in the book (literally) and moving with the character when my editor says “You’ve left me hanging in town—how did we get to Broken Rock?”  In other words, the reader has no idea how the hero got to Broken Rock because I didn’t tell the reader. I correct it.

I’m disappointed in myself and in my book. Is this going to be worth reading? Is this going to make sense? Will a reader enjoy this book?  Will these characters be memorable?Photo from Unsplash

I want this book to be better than the first one.  I guess every writer wishes to keep improving. I keep trying for the magic.

“A writer who hates the actual writing, who gets no joy out of the creation of magic by words, to me is simply not a writer at all… How can you hate the magic which make a paragraph or sentence or a line of dialogue or a description something in the nature of a new creation?” -Letter to Hamish Hamilton, September 19, 1951 by Raymond Chandler

 

Librarians

Just because I love books…..

I just re-read about the horsewomen of Kentucky who worked for the WPA delivering library books on horseback to remote towns and homes. Part of the article from Atlas Obscura (8/31/17) follows:

“They were known as the “book women.” They would saddle up, usually at dawn, to pick their way along snowy hillsides and through muddy creeks with a simple goal: to deliver reading material to Kentucky’s isolated mountain communities.

The Pack Horse Library initiative was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created to help lift America out of the Great Depression, during which, by 1933, unemployment had risen to 40 percent in Appalachia. Roving horseback libraries weren’t entirely new to Kentucky, but this initiative was an opportunity to boost both employment and literacy at the same time.”

The article is amazing.

New Nightingale

The second book (Not An Ordinary Death) is with the editor, so I drug out an older manuscript to work on as I wait.

This older manuscript also has Nightingale as the protagonist, but he’s not the same law man that I have written about in the other two books. What I’m trying to say is:  Nightingale has grown and become a much better hero–not a goody-two-shoes, but a man with a conscience and a soul. Thus is exciting to me because I can see him as a “baby” personality in the first work.

The first mss is going to need tons of work. But Nightingale is nagging me, so cross your fingers that all goes well.

The photo of white hats is from Unsplash by Megan Markham

Edits

I’m working on edits of the next Nightingale novel. I hesitate to mention this because there will be many, many, more go rounds of this process because I want it to be done well, to be professional, and enjoyable for a reader.  I strive to have no errors in the final book.

In a workshop this past week one of the attendees said she was really disappointed in the errors in the books she had bought on line. That’s what I want to avoid. That’s why I pay an editor and proofreader and cover designer. Why would anyone ever buy another book with my name on it if the first one he/she bought is full of errors?

So, that’s my story. . . it’s in progress, but Nightingale and Garrick are restless to get busy. Stay tuned.

 

Songs

I’ve been shuffling papers lately, working on the new manuscript, throwing out old bills, re-stacking some stacks of items I want to re-read. It seems the bane of my existence is reading. Of course, I mean that in a good way. Reading has always sheltered me from some storms and delivered me from others.

One of the things I’ve found was a copy of the lyrics of “Make Someone Happy.” Essentially, the song says, “Make just one heart the heart you sing to.” And, if you devote yourself to that one person, you’ll make someone happy, “And you will be happy too.”

Reading those lyrics made me smile—in the midst of taxes, rainy days, and a stubborn manuscript—I smiled. Look the song up, it might make you smile too.