One Down; One to Go

Got my edits done for The Blessed. Just sent it off to the editor and got back one of those instant "out of the office" replies. But I got it sent in and that's the big thing for me with everything else going on with my mom. I told my editor I did some of the edits in the middle of the night with a foggy brain so who knows whether I improved the wording or totally messed it up. I guess my editor will know and then I'll know shortly thereafter if she sends it back with some big question marks. No, I think I got the changes made. The thing about editing is that you can always see something else to improve. Always. Lacey's story in The Blessed is a lot different from my other Shaker books, but I'm hoping readers will take to Lacey when the book comes out next summer. I certainly did. She's a no nonsense girl who does what she has to do to keep going.

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Now I get to start on my copy editing of the galleys for Angel Sister. Out of the frying pan into the fire. I haven't even read the comments of the copy editor to see what needs doing. I didn't want to have it worrying me while I was finishing up the other edits. One book at a time.

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It's exciting having two books released in one year. A lot of authors of inspirational fiction release even more than two books a year. I admire their work ethic because writing books takes time. Editing books takes times. Coming up with new ideas takes time. Trying to publicize books takes time. But then everything takes times. The seconds keep ticking by no matter what you're doing or not doing. Watching the hummingbird work through the blooms on the million bell flower on my window sill takes time. Sharing my journal thoughts with you takes time. Hummingbird watching and journaling - that's time well spent.

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And that's the thing with time. We want to spend it well. Do what has to be done, for sure, but also use some spare minutes just being glad for our blessings and glad we are breathing and thankful we're so busy that we feel rushed. I love writing. I love editing to make that writing better. I love hearing from readers and getting to know you. I even like reading reviews - sometimes. The Seeker's blog tour has been interesting. I've been able to respond to some of the bloggers, but due to my nights at Mom's with no internet, I'm running behind on messages and such. I do thank all the bloggers who read my book and wrote their opinions. Most have been good. Some have been great. A few have been... well, we won't talk about them. Accentuate the positive. Right?

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Hope much positive is happening in your life and that you aren't sweltering in the heat wave. It's a bit cooler here today, but yesterday when I got in the car to leave my mother's, the temperature flashed 100 degrees. Definitely the dog days of autumn. My poor dogs don't want to step out of the shade when we go for a walk even at almost sundown. So stay cool. Drink some sweet iced tea or how about an icy grape sno cone and read a good book.

Drifting in Time

My mom is one of the sweetest women anybody could ever want to know. She's had a hard week with maybe a heart attack or stroke and a couple of falls that have left her bruised all over. The worst of it is how confused she's been about how old she is, where she lives and who we are.

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We spent two days at the hospital that seemed more like two weeks to her. She was ready to hire a taxi to get home. The only problem was that she didn't know where home was. She had gone back in time and was ready to go back to the home where she grew up. She kept telling me, when we finally did get released from the hospital and were on the way home, that I wasn't going the right way. She didn't argue with me, but I could tell she thought we were going to end up in a desert somewhere. But she was polite to this strange woman taking her on all the wrong roads. She's better today. Knows I'm her daughter again. That makes us both feel better. I understand about dementia. We dealt with that problem with my mother-in-law. But it's still heart-breaking to see my capable, take charge mama who has always taken care of everybody else having trouble thinking.

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And so I decided yesterday she was drifting in time. Skipping back through the years of her life and stopping here and there. She picked the young years to latch on to. And why not? If you're going to wander through the years of your life, why not pick the good years? The years where you felt strong and able and enjoyed living. So if you are drifting along at thirty-five, there's no way you can think about having children years older than that. It's no wonder she wondered who the heck we were. She knew she had three daughters and what our names were, but her daughters were young. Not way older than she was herself. No way that could be. So maybe her thinking was reasonable and we were the unreasonable ones to keep trying to convince her of the impossible.

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You know that's what I do when I start a book. I drift around in time with my characters and I pick their best, most interesting years. Maybe not the years they enjoyed most, but the ones where the most happened. Like in The Seeker with the Civil War tearing the country apart or in The Believer with Elizabeth's father dying. I have to start my story in the moment of time in my characters' lives that is most dramatic.

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The Seeker is on a blog tour right now. I've been getting alerts of this or that review. It's mostly fun reading what people think about your story. Mostly. Of course this one reviewer said one of my books, and I honestly don't remember which Shaker book but I think it was The Outsider. Anyway the reviewer said my book made her want to - and I quote - "wash windows." I'm sure that was so she could look out on the beautiful world that had been made more beautiful by my enchanting story. Or she needed more light so that she could read every word. Twice. Or reading about the Shakers' desire for cleanliness inspired her to join in their war against dirt. I have to be honest. I've never read a book that made me want to wash windows. The afternoon sun shining through them makes me think about washing windows sometimes, but then the sun goes down.

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Thanks for reading. Hope if you're drifting along with some characters, none of them are making you want to wash windows.

Modern Blog Tours and Old Shaker Buildings

It's been an interesting week so far for me with my new book, The Believer, making a blog tour. That's where lots of bloggers agree to read and then post reviews of a new book. Most of the reviewers have been kind. While one or two haven't embraced the Shaker background, others have been fascinated and have enjoyed learning about the Shakers. And while I've researched and read and tried to keep in my head lots of Shaker traditions, etc., I'm still learning too.

Wendy, Lonnie and I went to the Shaker Village near here on Monday to eat lunch and get a bit of the Shaker atmosphere. And then we talked and chatted so much, we really didn't have a lot of time to look around. But we were fortunate enough to hear a young woman with a beautiful voice give a demonstration of many of the Shaker songs while she gave a brief history of how they worshiped. We also got to take a good look at the Meeting House that figures prominently in all my books. I even climbed up in the attic. It was very hot up there, but seeing the huge beams and rafters was worth a little sweat.

The architecture is amazing. The Shakers cut and prepared those huge beams and rafters about three miles from where the Meeting House now stands. They assembled them there and then marked each beam or rafter with Roman numerals and took the building apart. They hauled the finished logs to the Meeting House's present location and put them back together by numbers the way some log houses are done today. But this was in 1825.

They had to figure out a way to support the wide expanse of roof without support beams in the middle of the floor where they labored their dances. If they'd had support beams in the middle of the floor the way most buildings that size did then, a lot of Shakers would have been banging into those posts when they were taken over by the spirit and began their free spirited whirls and shaking dances. Also the acoustics are amazing. The lady telling us about the songs said you could get on opposite sides of the room and whisper and the sound would carry clearly.

Anyway I enjoyed walking the paths and being in the Meeting House and feeling my characters peeking over my shoulder to see if I'd gotten it right. While I may have taken a bit of poetic license here and there, most of the historical background of my books is very authentic. I took a bunch of pictures and will try to do a page on my website soon so you can share in seeing what I'm seeing when I'm imagining my characters and where they are living and working. I have a few photos of buildings on my gallery of photos on the website now, but I hope to add more soon.
One reason we didn't get to see as much as we would have liked is that we went on the riverboat ride down the river. It was hot and humid, but a breeze blowing off the river kept us from completely melting. We did enjoy seeing the palisades and the birds and turtles. Wendy was a little worried about the winding road down to Shaker Landing, but we made it fine. She might have had reason to worry since a policeman had pulled us over before we got there to warn me that I might have "axle" trouble. Not exactly what you want to hear. Speeding might have been better. More expensive, but less worrisome - especially for my passengers. But we didn't have any trouble. Other than Wendy wanting to bash me on the head after she mentioned the scraped looking lines in the middle of the winding road, and I told her that was probably where somebody's wheel had fallen off. Next time she'll want to drive her car.

But back to the blogging tour - I did a guest blog at http://mybookaddictionandmore.wordpress.com/ if any of you are interested in going out to read it. I asked "Do you dare?" Then I talked about having the courage to write. If you make a comment, you'll get to be in a drawing to win my book.

I'm off tomorrow to talk to about eighty fifth-graders. That should be interesting. I used to do a lot of school visits, but haven't done one for years. But I love talking to kids and seeing their fresh faces. That is as long as the teachers are there to keep them sitting still.

And then Saturday is my local book event for The Believer at the Anderson Public Library here in town at 1 p.m. If you're in the area, come on down and we'll talk. I'll be giving away some doorprizes and a few books. And I'm trying to think of something interesting to say. Maybe I will before then.

As always, thanks for reading. Hope you have a great rest of the week.