Life

Brainstorming

5 Comments

Even though Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven isn’t out yet, I’m in the midst of what most writers I know are doing all the time anyway: brainstorming for my next book.

stock-photo-21657846-the-pressure-of-fame photoshoppedIt’s going to be a sequel to Moose Tracks 1, centering on a secondary character…one of Elena’s (the protagonist) sisters. This sister’s story is going to be really interesting for me to tell, because she happens to be a bona fide movie star.

200496241-011So I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and image-gathering, which I tend to do with any new book. For this protagonist so far in my mind, the images are all about the glamor, the paparazzi…and a pretty huge fall from grace.

I’m not completely sure what that’s going to look like yet, but I’m getting there.

Brainstorming for me comes in very visually. I actually see characters and scenes, sometimes, running like a movie in my mind. Once in a while I’ll hear snippets of dialog inside my head (yes, I know that sounds a little scary…but it’s really kind of thrilling when it happens).

At this stage of the work, music is huge for me, and hearing a particular song can trigger an entire scene in my mind…but more often it triggers some kind of insight about my character.dT7z99ync

I listen and brainstorm best when I’m driving. It’s a 30 minute commute each way for me, which is some good time for thinking; the driving itself takes up my external attention, so the thoughts come light and swiftly, since I can’t get too deep into them. I also like to brainstorm while I’m using the elliptical at the gym, though, and piping nice, loud music right into my brain. I have to be careful there though. If I get too engrossed in what I’m thinking, I forget what I’m doing, and I’ve almost taken a header off the equipment a couple times. 🙂

I’m a percolator. I need to think and think and stew and stew about a story idea for quite a long time before it feels “ready” to begin putting on paper. Different things can trigger ideas: songs, tv shows, a picture etc…it’s different all the time.

So that’s a little about my process. Any other writers out there that have brainstorming processes?  What do you do to get the juices flowing?

 

 

Work In Progress…

3 Comments

masterpiece-book-box-set-of-10I’m sorry I’ve been quiet here for a few days.

imageThe Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful,  joyful (and food-filled! That’s my plate before I dug in and finished every last bite 🙂 ), and between all the celebrating I’ve been working with my cover designer as she puts the finishing touches on the official cover for Moose Tracks on the Road To Heaven. It’s looking gorgeous, and the cover reveal should be in the next day or so. Very excited about that!

The novel is also still on track to go up for presale (in ebook) mid-December, with official hard release in print and ebook on February 3rd.

c2bd9218d57733427d4d0618d9888bdeGetting a book out into the world is indeed a bit like giving birth…there are stages and transitions, some painful moments, and ultimately joy. I’m getting close to the joyful part now, and I’m looking forward to sharing the process with all of you.

I hope you all have a wonderful remainder of the weekend, and I’ll be checking in again soon.

Getting Ready For Thanksgiving

5 Comments
image

A practice run, with a Thanksgiving-style lunch

Some of you who have been here a while have probably figured out that I like to get into the various seasons. This often includes decorating.

Since Thanksgiving (and autumn in general) is my favorite holiday, I tend to do almost as much in-house decorating as I do for Christmas (I’m sure some posts about that will be forthcoming in the next month). 🙂

The picture above is from a week and a half ago, when my sister -in-law and her friend, my older daughter and her fiancé, and myself and my husband had lunch before my younger daughter’s performance as Ursula in The Little Mermaid at our local community theater.

Because I won’t see my sister-in-law on the actual holiday, and she was feeling down, as this will be her first year without her husband, who passed away unexpectedly in May, I decided to throw an impromptu “Thanksgiving luncheon” and do a little decorating. A kind of “special occasion” meal.

imageA couple years ago, I purchased these plates (because they were on sale, and I was finally getting a chance to host thanksgiving dinner for the first time, after years of traveling to either my parent’s home or my in-law’s home for the celebration).

 

 

The way I will always remember Pa 2 and family dinnersIn fact, this picture is of the last Thanksgiving I celebrated at the homestead, with my father at the head of the table. It was the year before he died, and this happy scene is one of the ways I will always fondly remember him. This is pretty much what our table looked like most nights, in terms of people around it, when I was growing up, and my father was always the warm, steady, strong center of our large and lively family of girls (with a few males thrown in, eventually, as we brought home beaus or married). Another picture similar to this one is featured in Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven (which has  around 20 photos that are related to and sometimes inspired the novel’s scenes sprinkled throughout), so if any of you end up getting a copy of the book when it comes out, you can see if you find it. 🙂

Anyway, back to the reason for this post. Is there anyone else out there who just enjoys putting on a fancy meal once in a while – not where the food is necessarily fancy, but where you like to set a pretty table, or have things just look extra nice?

I’m hoping that maybe there are a few of you out in blog-land who have opinions about this one way or the other. So please share in the comments.

I’ll be sharing about something else that many find a little weird, in regards to how I prepare my turkey, in a future post, so stay-tuned! 🙂

Try

3 Comments

Posted @ QUOTEZ.COThis has resonated a great deal with me, lately. There have been a lot of changes going on in my life, personally and professionally. It also feels like I’m always juggling at least four and sometimes five or six different things that all need my attention, my energy, and my time, and it’s difficult. Often I feel like I’m failing at one or another.

Some are for my day job.

Some are for my husband and children.

Some are for my extended family or my friends.

TryResized_1And some are for my writing career…which is part of what comprises the things in my life that are “for me”, even though it doesn’t always feel like it’s something anyone in his/her right (write?) mind would undertake.

And there are times I think about just letting some things go (usually the “for me” things) and trying to settle into a life that is somehow more ordinary and therefore less stressful.

Except I’m not certain that’s even possible. We are who we are for a reason.

What drives us will do so and still be there, gnawing beneath the surface, whether we feed it with action and time or not.

life-is-trying-things-to-see-if-they-work-quote-of-this-day-political-quotes-about-life-936x621So the only thing we can do, I suppose, is to keep trying. Even when it’s frustrating. Even when my energy is drained.

Because it is part of who I am, and if it truly is, then I can no more easily cut out effort or energy toward it than I can cut off my own limb.

If my life hangs in the balance, then yes. If not, then I guess the only choice is to keep trying!

Trust the Process

4 Comments

processNo matter how devastating or upsetting or bewildering…trust the process.

Everything happens for a reason.

Remembrance – and Rhapsody In Blue

2 Comments
Pa edited

Pa in 2005

Today would have been my father, ” Pa’s”, 85th birthday.

Pa, around 3 years old

Pa, around three years old in the early 1930’s

Pa was a wonderful man who had a difficult childhood with a loving mother (who hailed from Germany), but an alcoholic father. He spent his first decade growing up during the Great Depression. Life was difficult, and he was forced to drop out of school before graduating…but he valued education, and so he completed his diploma and became the first and only person in his family of origin to earn a Bachelor’s degree. He was almost forty years old when he achieved that goal, but he never gave up. Continue Reading…

Gobble, Gobble!

Leave a comment
snow-and-bluster-turkeys-art-by-persis-clayton-weirs-1925798120

painting called “Snow and Bluster Turkeys” by Persis Clayton Weirs

tdaytable_satevepost_normanrockwell

Thanksgiving by Norman Rockwell

I love turkeys…I like seeing them on my drive to work, where they will often be in a field, like pictured above, gathered in a flock and pecking for leftover grains in the farmer’s harvested fields.

They’re taking the spotlight in today’s blog post, since  we’re fast coming up on the quintessentially American holiday of Thanksgiving. It’s a time of family gatherings, reminiscing, stories, laughter, and, of course, eating. 🙂 Turkeys are often at the center of that part of the celebration for most.

 

image

“turkey” flower arrangement

Last weekend, my sister-in-law drove the two hour distance between our houses to go to one of the community theater performances of the “Little Mermaid” musical my daughter has a lead role in, as Ursula, The Sea Witch. Because we’re getting near to Thanksgiving, she brought with her a little gift for our mantel – a floral arrangement that looks to me (and looked to her when she purchased it) like a cross between an adorable, plump hedge hog and a turkey. It’s really cute…a little turkey whose body is make from a fat, round flower, with added fluffy  “pipe-cleaners for the tail and beak, a fuzzy foam ball for the head, and glued on “eyes”.

Clever, don’t you think?

 

The Snowman: The Only Constant is Change

Leave a comment

imageAs I mentioned in my last post, it’s begun to snow in Upstate New York. It’s very pretty in many ways, if a little early and a little cold, and some of the scenes I encounter in my travels recall a few bittersweet memories for me.

But first, let me say that I know the snow isn’t technically early for this area (I’ve lived within 150 miles of my hometown for most of my life), but I prefer if it holds off until after December 1, when I can more suitably get into the holiday spirit (of course I wouldn’t mind if it drifted away by February and spring would arrive, but that doesn’t usually happen until April or May)

Anyway, as I was driving into work after this first, several-inch snow,  it called to mind images from one of my favorite holiday books/movies, The Snowman by Raymond Briggs.v2-CD7662962Peacock%20Theatre%20Sa

This story – which I associate primarily with the film version, because of my at-the-time very young daughters’ insistence that we purchase it on VHS and play it several times each holiday season – makes me feel bittersweet (as I think it was intended to do for readers/viewers anyway).

For me, now, however, the bittersweet feelings the film and music (a lovely score with “Walking in the Air” by Peter Auty) engender in me are compounded by the fact that my daughters are no longer little girls. That time has passed and exists only in my memories now. Awareness of this creates a little catch in my throat sometimes…a sense of nostalgia and longing that burns for a second or can even make me tear up a bit.

imageThat’s what happened as I saw these scenes of snow-covered farm land and fields. It made me long for the days when my daughters were little and reveled in the simple, innocent pleasures of snuggling up on the couch with me, holding warm cups of cocoa as we watched The Snowman together.image

It is the way of the world, I suppose: The only constant in life is change.

Here’s the full video of the film version of The Snowman for those of you who haven’t seen it before (or just want to watch it again). It’s definitely Christmas-oriented, so if you’re like me, and try to hold off until December to indulge in such festive material, then feel free to bookmark and come back to watch later! Or just do a search on YouTube and you can find it there. 😉

 

 

Talent

9 Comments

UrsulaSo, I’m going to do a little shameless bragging here. It’s not about me, but about my 14 year old daughter, who was unaccountably blessed with a full singing voice and an actor’s soul. She’s featured as “Ursula the Sea Witch” in a Community Theater production of The Little Mermaid Jr…and she did well enough in the role that the directors added in a song from the normal “Broadway” version of the musical for her to sing (“The Good Times Back”… the 1 minute, 38 second video of it is posted below). It’s not the greatest quality since it was from my phone, but I think she did a bang up job with a pretty tricky, jazzy song. Have a listen if you’re so inclined. 🙂