Scrawling...

...like a madwoman.

I am writing as much as possible. For one publication or another. For the Independence Day newspaper, and the local magazine that comes out monthly. I write emails and envelopes at work. I write Facebook statuses and text messages. I've been trying to write grocery lists, to eat more fruits and vegetables, but let's face it, the Bountiful Baskets are available, and that's making our lives easier.

Right now, I'm writing emails to my Operations Manager because my second book isn't quite ready...

Oh, hey, guys? I'm starting a publishing company. Are y'all ready for this? I am registering...

Sunflower Press of North Dakota.

It will be beautiful. And I wanted you to know first. It's taking us a little time, because we're swamped, and we have jobs, but it's coming. The important thing is this: Gertie's story is coming. She is fifty years ahead of Sophia, and she will knock your socks off.

You won't have to wait long.

#nowhereeverywhere #northdakota #historicalfiction

Counting on it.

Quiet now, I can still hear the clinking of the seaglass,
Guitar strings winking in my face.
Oceans of blue, green and gold have passed,
My window as the road and the radio met my days.
Airwaves, airlines, and all of the rest...
I have been so blessed.
I have been so blessed. #outofmyhead

Board of Directors

Your Board of Directors. The list of individuals in your life whom you would call together in time of crisis or celebration, to make a decision or plan a party. Who are they? Who shows up on Moving Day and stands in your front yard, willing to send you off to places unknown, and will take you back into their arms and kitchen tables again, whenever you come home?

This week I was blessed to touch base with my Board of Directors, and now, as I breathe in the breezes of spring, and know the trees are budding and the ice will no longer be a fear factor, I am feeling immeasurably blessed. We have made it. We have survived. I feel like I've been sweating it out in a conference room surrounded by ten-foot snowbanks.

Another book is nearing completion, after several years of work and worry, my own cross-country move, and I believe in this character. I almost put her away this week, because I was at a sticking point. No, one of my directors said. She's a role model. She needs to be read. I like her, as a person.

Divinely Inspired

Man, I love going to church.

In addition to the obvious, for the feeding of my soul, I love that bad church coffee. I don't necessarily go to enjoy the flavor of the black liquid. No, it's the coffee hour that caffeinates my being.

Those old folks at church coffee know where it's at, I'm telling you right now. I have been more entertained at church coffee hour than at any movieplex in the nation. The retired officers' wives at the army post taught me everything I ever needed to remember, in case they ever matched me with bachelor brass, and these days, the hometown heroes entertain me with anecdotes that are on the edge of unbelievable.

This precious 83-year-old lady (and she was a lady, let me tell you) looked me square across the table tonight, at the last Wednesday supper before Lent, after making me laugh out loud in the Great Hall, and said, "you may use THAT in one of your stories."

Dotted Lines

The wind is howling, the ground is a treacherous ice rink, and the windchill below the donut would freeze eyeballs in only a few breaths, so it's only natural to be dreaming of summer vacation. 

When I was a kid, we would load up the Oldsmobile and cruise out to the mountains or Lake Superior for two weeks every bloomin' summer. That meant two solid weeks of my brother reaching across the backseat and pounding charley horses into my thigh. The reward was typically an ice cream cone. We're not talkin' soft serve in a drive-thru. Our destinations were always these really cool mountain tourist towns, that smelled of leather and horses, and there would be REAL ICE CREAM there. I vowed that when I grew up, I wanted to live in a tourist town like that. Horse neck is one of my favorite smells. Take a whiff. You'll sense what I mean.

Maybe, while I'm huddled up under three blankets and trying to finish the next book, I just really, irrationally, want ice cream. Perhaps I want to move to some Wild West town that smells of leather. I'm not too worried about the ice. After all, it always gets warmer. Eventually.

#onit

"Get to work!" were my friend's words.

And I obliged. I opened the file, scrolled down, got caught up in my own story for a bit, then... THUD.

Concrete wall. Now what? Well, I shimmied into the kitchen to warm up my coffee, swung by the office to restart the Yanni CD, and threw a napkin in the garbage. Put my hair in a ponytail, applied some balm to my lips, since the air has been so dry, and while I was at it, some lotion to my hands and neck.

Writer's block.

I wondered what was happening in another of my tales? I opened up Book #6? Whoop, sure enough. That heroine needed some attitude, and I had HAD IT. After about 500 words or so, I was ready to return to Book #2, which is still pretty sweet, but has some spark.

There are people who read several things at once, and keep them all straight and separate. I write that way. You'll see. Besides, when one main character needs strength, I like to think she can get it from another, as if they are all friends. I can call up my friends and tell them when I need strength, or coffee, or a prayer, and they will most likely show up at my house with any of these things, and some extra thrown in.

I have the best people on earth within my reach and whisper, it's only fitting some of them make it onto the page.

Out in the Cold.

Today is one of those days I am inspired.

Weather is coming in, so I was inspired to leap out of bed and start the oven early, and mix up something, ANYTHING, to warm up my kitchen. While pineapple cookies were baking (tropical AND my first grade teacher's recipe), I whipped up some Greek Quinoa hotdish. Yummo.

Now that I'm thinking about the islands, my main character's island stay isn't so hard to imagine. Even if the wind is howling and the snow is swirling outside my windows.

She needs to be inspiring. Even if she has to hold onto a tree in a hurricane.

#nowhereandeverywhere