Moose Tracks on the Road To Heaven

We’re Not “Normal”

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imageI don’t know why, but this little wall hanging has always tickled my funny bone. One of my older sisters (I have six of them, for those of you who haven’t been around here long enough to have seen other posts on it) purchased it for me up north around 10 years ago, during one of the years when several sisters, our families, and my parents would rent a great camp for a week up on Fourth Lake in the Adirondack chain of lakes.

We continued to show how “normal” we were as adults when we all were home for one of the reunions we used to have periodically, since several of us are spread around the country; Pa and Ma asked us all to participate in a commemorative family photo session, we shocked the photographer when Pa suggested we do one shot where we were all making crazy, funny faces. So there we all were, in dresses, stockings, and heels, with Pa in a suit and tie, sticking out tongues and making crazy expressions (except for the sisters who were laughing so hard they couldn’t do it). It’s one of my favorite pictures, and if I can scan a copy of it (and get permission from my other sisters to post it publicly, LOL) I’ll share it at some point. 🙂

So I guess that’s part of the reason why the little wooden plaque above just seems to capture the quirkiness and fun of life growing up as part of a pile of rambunctious kids. Being all females only added to the “color” of our lives (and having only one bathroom with the whole house on a well that would run dry periodically made things even more interesting. My father tried to institute really short “Marine”-style showers, but that didn’t fly).

tumblr_m08fgrLNES1qbrsgvI can still remember “counting off” when we got into the van (to be sure we weren’t leaving anyone behind). And I remember in the early 1970’s, watching my older sisters (I was second-to-youngest) in the back room, putting “dippety-do” on their hair and putting in big rollers.

The squabbling about who got the bathroom when was kept hushed and to a minimum, thanks to no one wanting to raise Pa’s wrath and have him institute a “schedule”. He did when necessary, but usually he tried to let us work it out, to learn how to work together. That was sometimes accomplished with talking, but other times it happened with a few well-placed pinches, body-blocks, pointed glares or raised eyebrows, LOL.

There was also an epic water fight, once, that happened when a group of us (all teenagers at the time) were supposed to be cleaning the kitchen but got into some kind of verbal conflict that escalated into physical battle with full-blown spraying of the water nozzle and thrown buckets of water. That particular incident is so amusing for me to remember that I memorialized it in the fiction of Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven. 🙂

I could write a book with all the hundreds of crazy, fun memories of those times to inspire me (oh, wait, I did, LOL).  Maybe I’ll post that scene as the next “sneak peek” from the book.

So how about you – are you from a prim and proper family, or a bit of a rough and tumble one? Any fond memories from family lore? I love hearing them, so please share in the comments!

Brainstorming

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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?

 

 

Cover Reveal: Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven

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FINAL COVER MOOSE TRACKS

As promised in my last post…here it is, the cover art for Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven! If you click the picture it opens to a bigger size, so you can read the print.

I chose the image and concept, and then Bri, (of Bri Bruce Productions), designed the cover and pulled it all together to a finished product.

The e-book will be up for presale soon; I’ll post again when it’s available. The print book, unfortunately, can’t be listed for presale but will be available for purchase February 3, 2015.

I’ll be posting another “sneak peek” from inside the book in the next few weeks as well.

Thoughts?

Work In Progress…

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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

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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

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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

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

Everything happens for a reason.

How Important Are Reviews?

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article-new-ds-photo-getty-article-129-37-92826390_XS-ehowAuthors write for many reasons, but one big reason (presumably) is because we want others to read our novels, stories, poems, or essays.

 

gatekeepersThe publishing world has changed significantly since the days when I was first writing. Back then (and at the risk of aging myself, we’re talking about the first half of the 1990’s, LOL) there was one path to having your work available to readers: traditional publishers. They were the gatekeepers, the “golden ticket” to a tangible, beautiful book on a shelf, distribution, and ultimately, readers.

The publisher handled things like galleys, and securing reviews from reputable reviewers who would then print those reviews in publications or later, online, to entice (provided the review was good), readers to give the story a try. Continue Reading…

Remembrance – and Rhapsody In Blue

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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…

Acknowledgements and Author’s Note

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Blank (thus far) Acknowledgements Page for Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven

I’m in the process of crafting the Acknowledgements Page and Author’s note for Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven. The Dedication for this one was easy for me, since the novel is loosely (very, very loosely) autobiographical in nature. In fact, the only two “characters” who are truly similar to the “real” people they represent are the “Pa” and “Ma” characters – and that is to whom I’ve dedicated the novel (because without them there wouldn’t have been even the germ of the idea to begin with).

But the Acknowledgements and Author’s Note are stumping me.

This is my eighth published novel, so it’s not like I haven’t done this before. imageHere’s the one I wrote for the final book in my Templar Knights trilogy: The Templar’s Seduction.

But I always, always drag my heels at this part of the writing process.

Why? you might wonder. It should be easy to thank the people who have helped you along the way with the manuscript, and not too much effort to provide some background and “fill-in” information for readers in the Author’s Note, right?

Yes, of course.

And no, definitely not.

I’m always worried about leaving someone – or, in the case of the Author’s Note, something – out that should be there. There are so many who overtly or just in my mind and memories lent something to the creation of a book like this; and I always enjoy reading about those in other writers’ books. There is a great deal of background and information that might, with its addition, give readers something useful or enjoyable after they’ve just finished reading the novel; material that might add a bit of extra texture or layered emotion to what they’ve just read (since I tend to put my Author’s Notes at the end of each novel).

And so I put it off, and put it off, until my back is against the wall.

Sigh.

Does anyone else who writes novels – or books of anything – face a similar conundrum? How do you manage it?

For readers out there, do you notice Dedications, Acknowledgements, or Author’s Notes? If you do, is it something you enjoy, or something you just skip over?