A Pause for Remembering

Hello World!

Your pardon, please.  I must pause in the story of creating my novel. Today I must share a familial story instead. It is the tale of this past year.

A year ago, I discovered an article on the Internet about Mom’s brother, my Uncle Don, now living in a retirement home in Florida. It gave the family an emotional lift, as Don had lost his ability to communicate verbally, and had barely kept in touch for some time. A well-beloved, soft-hearted joker of a man it showed Don with an adoring younger woman who remembered a good turn he had done her 60 years or so in the past. A flurry of communication among Mom’s family members ensued, and I printed the picture from the article on our Christmas card last year.

 In May, my husband Tom and I took a long-planned trip to upper New York State, where my mother was born. I wanted her to go with me and point out the Medina, NY sites she recognized. She could see her sister Jan and cousin Flo as well. But she felt the trip would be too difficult for her, so Tom and I went instead.  Mom’s cousin Ben was nearby for his granddaughter’s birthday which sweetened the trip. He had lived with us briefly when I was growing up, and we still felt a strong bond.

The trip was a success. Medina lived for me through Mom's tales. Ben and wife Elizabeth accompanied us, recapturing our long relationship. We visited Flo, pushing 90 years old, who enjoyed the occasion as much as any birthday. She was amazed at pictures of Mother -- how had she grown so old! Tom took a photo of us laughing together that portrayed the day perfectly.

We visited Aunt Jan and her husband Pete on another precious day. Needing a walker, she rarely left her little condo. But except for her shocking white hair, she was the same woman I had known as a child. Her voice and mannerisms reminded me of Mom, and she was pleased to see my pictures and hear about the day in Medina.  Jan was 90, and her husband 94.

Two months after the trip, in July, Mom heard that Flo had passed away. I was sad, but more for Mom, whose generation was dwindling, than for myself or the delightful woman I had met on my visit.  Yesterday, Mom’s call signaled a deeper loss. Just before Thanksgiving, Aunt Jan had been diagnosed with cancer, and she passed away yesterday morning – about six months after my visit.

Then Mom described how she had attempted to reach Uncle Don, only to find that he, too, had passed away earlier this year. Neither she nor Jan had been contacted. She had effectively lost her sister and brother in the same day.  He had been 91.

So now there is just my mom and Ben left of her generation. The five have become two – all too quickly. My sister and I are quickly becoming the older generation. How can such a thing be?

But I am blessed to have had that long-delayed visit. I grieve, but I am lucky to have known Mom’s family. As the pain fades, I'll revisit the memories, all tied up in a Christmas card and the photo of a laughing woman I met only once.

Part 2: WOTS Conference Discoveries and Amazon.com Links

Hello World!

In my last blog entry, I started telling you about the Write on the Sound Conference. I'm nowhere near finished. I learned so much.

The keynoter was Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones and other books. With a gentle voice and excellent humor she gave a wonderful talk on how she discovered who she was. As her journey continued, she started writing and discovered she liked it. She became an author.

Writing Down the Bones was 17 years in the writing (and 4 in the publishing), the result of long meditation on the writing process and the way of life. She tells people to practice, practice, practice.  Translated, that means write, write, write -- even if it's sh#t. We all need to keep reminding each other to keep going. Keep our mechanism oiled and ready. If you read the comments on my last blog entry, you'll see that another writer who heard Natalie speak reminded me of that fact recently! (Thank you!)

Natalie had three main bits of wisdom for writers. 

1. Never stop writing. Write daily, even if you have nothing to write. "It’s a deep practice," she said.
2. "Don’t be tossed away," she said. Every time you're put down, after each fall, get up again. And again -- write.
3. "Make positive effort for the good," she told us. As with any good habit like just picking up the toothbrush and brushing your teeth, "just pick up the pen and write."

I first heard about two other books at WOTS that interest me. One is Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King. Self editing is something I want to learn well.  I've been an editor for others for years, but editing my own work is harder. So it's on my list, and I'll tell you more about it once I've read it. The other one -- as my writer friend reminded me in that comment I mentioned above -- is a current popular YA book called Hunger Games. She (and I) hope it will help inform the game in my own book-to-be, The Game. I have it on reserve at my public library.

If you are interested in the Amazon.com info on these books, I've added a look-up link and a display at the bottom of this page. All the books in the display are my picks -- only the books I've discussed on this blog. I'm a great supporter of the library system, but occasionally I buy books to use over and over again. If you would like to purchase these (or other) books, and do so here, I get a little kickback. Seems like a benefit all around to have the link available. Hope you don't mind.

A Book Report and a Favor

Hello World!

Today I have a book report to share and a favor to ask.

I know several of you follow my blog. I’d like to ask a favor of you. Would you please share with my readers and me one or both of the following?

• sources that you find helpful when you write
• the author you would emulate if you were to write a novel

My responses follow.

I mentioned before that my favorite book on writing is Martha Alderson's Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple. See my April 1st 2010 post for more about why it is my favorite.

The author I would emulate in my novel is Mary Doria Russell. Her first book, Sparrow, completely blew me away. It is a tale of difficulties, beyond language, that keep Earth scientists and clerics from communicating clearly with two intelligent species coexisting on another planet. The expedition occurs because the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) finally picks up signals alien signals. Scientists and the Roman Catholic Church plan and fund the space trip together.

My book, The Game, also looks at the differences between cultures, a foreign communal group that has recently relocated to Eastern Washington and the local people they meet. My two groups are not different as those in Sparrow, but I hope I can make them both as similar and as distinct.

It’s not that Ms. Russell’s three cultures cannot understand each other. Problems arise when the conclusions they draw from facts and observations are incomplete or incorrect. Assumptions based on those findings bring about totally unexpected results, though everyone is certain relations are caring and peaceful between the people of Earth and the two new cultures.

As a person who learns more from fiction than non-fiction, I appreciate how well Ms. Russell presents the fallacy of believing quantitative information is truth. Not only do facts tell only part of the story, they are necessarily viewed through our cultural sieve, something I want readers of The Game to experience.

Ms. Russell’s story continues in Children of God. The two books excel in creating complex cultures containing complex characters. Hers is not a tale of good and bad guys. Instead, each character has strengths and weaknesses and creates success or chaos depending on the situation. How I would enjoy creating characters as 3-D as hers!

Hopefully I can present your writing and fiction choices in a later blog.