Happy Hallowe'en!

"Trick or Treat!" That's what the doctor who scheduled my daughter's first ever colonoscopy for today told her!  I like a doctor with a sense of humor.  It's been a great week so far - other than that.  

We are bearing down on the end of the dreaded process called "copy editing" without too much gnashing of teeth or pulling of hair -- shooting for a publication date of early next year.  Thus far, I've written 15 chapters of the sequel - which really stunk the first time I subbed it!  For now I've had to shelve my favorite project, an historical memoir of my grandparents' pioneering experiences in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Now, let me get to the only reason I intended to blog this morning.  I want to recommend the best free writing workshop you'll ever find.  It's called the Internet Writing Workshop, and it's offered by Penn State University at absolutely no cost to you, except what you're willing to put into it!  I assure you there will be pulling of hair, gnashing of teeth, and the sacrifice of your babies!  I also assure you it is worth well more than the cost.

Trick or treat!
Karen

What is it with me and Sundays?

After last week's blues, I had a terrific week.  The sun shone all week.  We pulled up most of the tomato plants, which are still bearing like a hutch of rabbits, trimmed back the flower beds, and planted a number of perennials, which we - or whoever buys the house - will enjoy next year.  Didn't get as much done as I should have on the book.  Perhaps the weather is accommodating my lifestyle!

We're having another cold, dark, gloomy Sunday.  So far I've managed to send my copy editor fifteen edited chapters.  Looking forward to the week!  May yours be similarly blessed.

Today is Sunday

Today is anything you want it to be: a day in the sunshine, a day to rest, a day to work, a day to worship.  Today was going to be my day to shine and go to church.  I say was.  Today is cloudy, dreary, and rainy here.

Now it is my day to ache and experience the misery of arthritis, shuffling from bed to a rocker in front of the televison, desperately seeking relief from pain.  Knowing today is also a "must go to the grocery store" day, I'm not encouraged.  No sun in the forecast, only more rain,

My options are:  buy food and sink deeper into the blues.  I can't even work on the novel until my editor sends me the next batch of edits.  Oh, woe is me.  Back to bed.

From Walking on Air to the Mundane

Life is really full of exciting moments if you think about it.  Getting the contract was a big exciting moment.  This evening my daughter came in from watering our plants, and announced, "We must have a hundred tomatoes."  Then she conceded it was more like fifty tomatoes and fifty blooms.  Still, that's a lot.  We'll have tomatoes to share when they ripen.  Nothing like the year I did my first big garden .  I've always had flower beds and stuck a few tomato plants or squash plants here and there.  But the year my grandson was born, I finally decided to make use of my overly generous back yard and put in a 25 X40 foot garden.  We had corn, cucumbers, black-eyed peas, squash, bell peppers, sweet potatoes, and 48 tomato plants!  I had no idea they would produce so profusely!  For a while we were giving them to neighbors and co-workers in big, brown grocery bags.  We put up jars and jars of salsa.  Finally, at the end of the season, we were just chucking the surplus into the compost bin since friends were pleading, "No, thank you!"  This year Kristin and I are doing the flower bed method.  Even so, with only three Early Girls, two Marglobes, and what we thought was a Sweet 100 cherry tomato, but turned out to be a Pear tomato, we have more than enough.  We don't know if the Pear tomato is going to be yellow, orange, or red, but it's an heirloom variety that dates from the 1700s.  Kristin still wants a Sweet 100, but I'm looking forward to the Pear tomatoes.  Through the years, both my mom and I have grown antique roses and old varieties of iris and hollyhocks.  I've always intended to grow heirloom veggies, and this is my first year at it.  Although the Marglobe only dates back to 1917, it is still considered an heirloom.  If you love gardening, a tomato can be almost as exciting as a book contract.

A Great Day!

I've been dragging my feet about this for a month, and finally decided to take a leap.  Something special happened on May 10, and for a reason I'm not sure of, I've been dragging my feet about sharing it.  I wasn't sure if it was okay, or I was afraid to jinx the "good luck" - I'm not sure.  As a trained archaeologist, I shouldn't be superstitious, but I'll admit when the chips are down I knock on wood with the best of them.  At any rate, I received (and signed and returned) a contract for my novel Ghost Walk from 4RV Publishing.  I've sent them all the requisite material, photos, bio, etc., and now I'm waiting to be contacted by the editor assigned to me so we can begin the process of copy editing, and then - publication!!!  This is exciting, and I'm looking for the day I can say, "My book is for sale at . . . "

A Good Day

I consider it a good day when I can add a word to my vocabulary or a heretofore unknown (by me) fact to my knowledge base.  This is probably a silly notion, but today a simple article struck three notes in my brain.  While I love reading and writing fiction, I'm most likely to arrive at an epiphany through non-fiction.  For example, few things from fiction have left the impression on me that reading of Watson & Crick's discoveries of RNA and DNA did in the early sixties.

Today I opened the June issue of Nat Geo and discovered an interesting paragraph:
"Few objects seem as familiar as the sun - there it is up in the sky every sunny day - yet few are so strange. Look through a solar telescope, and the quotidian yellow disc is transformed into a dynamic wonderland, where planet-size prominences rise into black space like glowing jellyfish, only to loop and slither back hours or days later, as if enthralled by some unseen force."

First of all, thanks to my friend Ben, quotidian already existed in my vocabulary, a recent addition.  Second, while I didn't take Physics before the fourth state of matter was promulgated, I don't recall it being touched on in my very elemental physics class.  If I read about it when I read Asimov on Quantum Physics, it didn't stick with me, so I did add something knew to my knowledge base today.

Lastly, as writer, I couldn't help noticing two things about the paragraph.  One, for an introduction to a scientific article, it's incredibly poetic. Two, in light of recent discussions on our writing list about lengthy sentences, it is a very long sentence.  I've looked at it several times, several ways, and I see no way in which it would be improved by any abridgement.

A Week Away

My friend, Cindy remarked that daily blogging is not a sustainable hobby, and I must agree with her.  While I have the legit excuse of having been down with the flu, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't have been blogging anyway.  Just didn't have anything to say.

I did finish the Zane Grey memoir about five days ago.  I have to be perfectly honest about it.  He spent two thirds of the book laying background, and, sad to say, much of his prose needed some serious de-purpling, especially as he built up the romance between the heroine and her future husband.  To be totally honest, I wouldn't have kept reading but for two things, my interest in writing a historical memoir because of my own book, and the fact that the foreword promised Betty Zane would perform an act of heroism that would contribute to the winning of the last battle of the American Revolution.  The last nine chapters were exciting, full of action, and very well written.  Betty Zane did indeed live up to her advance publicity.

I'm now slogging through Bluefeather Fellini.  If it doesn't get better soon, I won't finish it.

Right now I have a more important writing problem.  I'm twelve chapters into the sequel to my first novel, and not at all in control of the situation.  I've accused my characters of not liking the plot I constructed.  A very good critique from a friend whose writing I respect brought me up short and made me face the fact that I'm the one who doesn't like the plot.  So now I've got to decide, introduce the action of the original plot about six chapters earlier than planned, or write a new plot. Decisions, decisions, decisions!