The Results

Okay, the rejection letter from the publishing company on Christmas Eve so long ago did have a profound effect upon me. I have been rejected before, but never strung along for over a year and told I was the most likely winner and then had the cord slashed the day before Christmas. Thank goodness I had the wonderful gift of my family around me to make the moment less important than it has become. 

I think until now I have denied what that rejection meant. I continued to write, just not my stories from my own imagination. I took classes to improve. I joined writers groups who have helped me see my failings, but when I most often would have sat at my computer and joined my characters for a cup of tea or a glass of wine, I have instead played mindless video games. Those games seemed to take me away from the pain of not being enough, a constant and ever playing song in my head for my entire life.

What I have been able to do is write about my experiences at Haywood Street Congregation. Maybe that was more important than my tales anyway, but not finishing the tasks of taking the books to their completion has left me feeling even more inadequate. So today, I will reembark on putting my thoughts and imaginings to paper. We'll see if Deep Well Books is real or not.

String Weavers re-edited

On Christmas Eve I received a letter from River City Publishing Company. STRING WEAVERS was not the winner of the Fred Bonnie Award. I had waited over a year to get that verdict. I entered STRING WEAVERS in the Young Adult Division of Amazon's Create Space Breakthrough Novel Contest in January. It made it to the second cutting. After Peg and Tawney read the middle section for me, they zeroed in  on the problem --- the voice of the narrator is an adult, not a young adult. I thought long and hard about the book and have decided it never should have been put in first person. The story needs to be told from the perspective of the omniscient third party. Granbecca needs to tell some of Michael's story. Michael needs to tell most of it, but there needs to be some distance in the telling. I am in the midst of a major rewrite again. This time I'll send it out to maybe 15 carefully chosen agents and then self-publish if it doesn't find a publishing house home.

Where did a year go?

It is December 11, 2012 and I just realized I lost a year on the Blog. It has been a busy time and although I've been away from the Blog I have continued to write. I am working on a mystery set in Williamsburg, VA with a working title of HISTORIC ACTS and I continue to hone RIGHTEOUS ACTS. Also, I have started on a sequel to STRING WEAVERS called WHITE HAIR. I find that working on multiple projects right now keeps me fresh in all of them. Eventually, I'll center on one as the characters take over the story.

Our children and grandchildren have had my attention recently. Lucy had an author's tea at school last Friday. She is excited about my book and I am anxious for her to be old enough to read it. Eight is a too young for a Young Adult book. STRING WEAVERS is a little dark for her. Jack happens to prefer Dr. Seuss because of his rhymes so I am going to have to practice my poetry and write a story for him.

In Touch with the Spirits

Yes, it is only a week until Halloween. I attended Bouchercon and have had a continuing stream of guests since then. Hence there has been no entries to my blog.

The mystery conference was thought provoking and fun. The company who came were even more enjoyable. Many of them were friends of many years, one we've known since our college years, and the reunions were special. It always amazes me how you can pick up where you left off with long time friends, even if you haven't been together for years. Such were the visits with these people.

Now I am back to writing, full of stories in need of telling. The spirits of the muses are presenting themselves in large numbers. You'd think it was All Hallows Eve today.

STRING WEAVERS, which has been with a publisher for nearly five months for review, was recently rejected. Perhaps it is time to retire this book, but before I do, I am sending it to a writing competition in Alabama.

I continue to work on a new mystery in the Rorschach series. I hope to pitch it at the Northwest Carolina Writers' Conference in November.


I continue to be hopeful.

Getting ready for Bouchercon

I am so excited about going to St. Louis for Bouchercon, a mystery readers/writers' conference, next week. I love hearing other writers discuss their books and the writing process, but I also like being able to meet and discuss the publishing process with agents and editors. I am going with three other writers and we will discuss our books as we travel. It is an energizing time. I'll come back ready to write more and better.
In that vein, I have been rereading DON'T MURDER YOUR MYSTERY by Chris Roerden. It is the quintessential writer's Bible on how to write better. The wonderful thing about Chris's book is that it gives good examples to model. The right way to write becomes embedded in your subconscious. This is a great teaching technique and Chris uses it with acumen. 

End of the Month/End of the Summer

I know that summer officially ends on September 21 or there about, but really it ends the day after Labor Day. Labor Day is a week from today so we are unofficially at the end of summer. It has been a busy one, a good one. We attended a sweet wedding in Birmingham, I traveled and was with friends and all four of our children, not all at once. Mandy and Lucy and Jack came to see us as did James and Rawlins. The only more a mom could ask for would have been visits from Katie and Kenn.
The garden is getting tired of producing and Ken and I are both tired of picking and canning and freezing, but the harvest has been bountiful and we will be so grateful come winter.
I am making progress in Righteous Acts and have entered String Weavers in a competition. The winner gets a publication contract. Persistence pays, so I am told, in publishing. I am persistent and I work at improving everyday.
I am glad to have this blog to talk to. It clears the mind and gets me ready for the day to come. Off to exercise, meditate, pray for our world, and write. Oh, and I have a friend coming for lunch, a treat.

Harvest Bounty

Ken's garden has produced far more than we can use. He has enjoyed giving away the extra, to our children, to our neighbors, to the church, and to the food pantry in the county. That is wonderful! I am glad his labors have brought him such pleasure and pride. However, I have not been such a willing participant in using the bounty. I have canned and frozen my part and I'll enjoy it next winter, but I want to be writing. I want to dance and sew and organize and visit and entertain company. This is what I am supposed to be doing. This is living my life, not living Ken's which is what I have done all our married life, except for a few brief years in Dothan and a year or two before we moved here. It is frustrating to have to bump against his expectations for me, frustrating for him and for me. I am a pleaser, but the time has come to please God and me, not necessarily anyone else. Back to rereading DON'T MURDER YOUR MYSTERY and rewriting RIGHTEOUS ACTS.