On Skipping a Post, Autumn Joys, and Essential Details…

Posted on October 18, 2018 by Gail

Boy, is it tough to get back into a routine, even when I’ve only missed one post. So here we go, after a week in the Deep South. Well, deep for me, anyhow! Being with my friend Patti was a joy, not to mention her family…such CUTE grandchildren! My expectations of the weather were fulfilled, hot and muggy, and that proved true of my time in Columbia as well.

But I mo tell ya, honey, the weatherman lied about the temperature in Nashville. It was nippy down there at the Nashville Book Fair! But getting to meet my publisher at Wordcrafts Press and his wife (Mike and Paula Parker), plus several other authors with this company, was worth it. Making new contacts among those who braved the cold and rain to attend the fair–doesn’t get better than that.

So now, it’s back to Iowa, where it SNOWED while I was gone…not typical for mid-October. Today, though, it’s in the sixties, and the glories of fall are visiting us once again.

A day like this calls for some rich vegetable soup simmering on the stove. OOPS that was before I added the zucchini…

Notice the color difference? This morning our writing group met at South Square here in St. Ansgar, and one discussion point fits here…the difference one small detail can make in our creativity. The addition of zucchini in this pot brightens the whole stew…gives more of texture to the overall dish. I could add some corn, which would also have its effect.

Now that I’m hunkering down with my World War II nurse’s story again, this principle applies. In the first drafts, I may not have taken time to add all of the “small” things…the seemingly insignificant quirks about locale, habits, or sounds and sights. But these elements become vital to the overall picture for a reader.

This type of editing equals fun for me…how can I make each scene stronger, each character more vivid, each challenge more of an obstacle? On Tuesday evening, I traveled to the Nora Springs Library for a book talk, and readers reminded me of some details I’d forgotten I included in the first book of Women of the Heartland. But they remember them…those details make a difference! (Click below for a peek at the series.)

Women of the Heartland

So many readers of In Times Like These agree on one point: Harold, Addie’s recalcitrant husband, should be shot! (His personality must shine through clearly!)

Creating believable characters–that’s what writing fiction is all about, and here I am, happy to be at it again.

Writing and acorns and a new year…

Posted on December 28, 2017 by Gail

Once again, we’ve crossed the Great Plains and wound down through New Mexico and northern Arizona to the Mogollon Rim. Today, Lance tackled some window cleaning, and I texted some friends and family this photo of him at work.

Not to be outdone, he texted this one, with the following caption:

WHAT WRITERS DO.

What can I say? I was having a New Year’s moment, filled with gratitude for being here in the Arizona mountains, and for some potential good news about one of my submitted manuscripts. I’m a writer, so I guess this IS what writers do!

I also heard from WordCrafts Press that A PURPOSE TRUE is on sale now through January 1, 2018, one half off, exclusively at Smashwords.com. You can purchase ebooks in a variety of formats, including .epub for e-readers like Nook, Kobo, iPad, etc., and in .mobi for Kindle. Just go to the site and the discount is already in place.

Later in the day, Lance found time to attend to his hobby…the woodpeckers are still here!

Still eating acorns and leaving the tops behind.

Leaving behind what we don’t need…not a bad philosophy as another year rolls around. Fears, doubts, misgivings, conflicts – moving away from them all and into 2018.

The Adventure of Writing

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Gail

“Fiction is art and art is the triumph over chaos… to celebrate a world that lies spread out around us like a bewildering and stupendous dream.”

― John Cheever

Since I’ve never thought of myself as very organized, it’s interesting to ponder writing fiction as triumphing over chaos. But for any of us who has attempted to control circumstances and people, it makes perfect sense to strive over what T.S. Eliot terms the general mess of imprecision of feeling, Undisciplined squads of emotion.

Isn’t that what wrens do when they set up housekeeping in a world of predators ready to disrupt their nesting?

Ah, yes. That’s what control freaks try to manage–the inner chaos. Of course, our actions spread out to those around us, and we get the sense we’re doing well, even if everyone else is chafing at the bit.

Anyway, writing fiction helps this type of personality by giving us a whole set of characters to manage. To bring to life on the page, with all their secrets and foibles, passions and dreams.

I just read about an author hard at work on a sequel to her first novel. This past year, life has given her more than a full platter of challenges, including grief, but she’s finding joy in working with her characters.