Meeting a Character in Person

Readers make Blogging Fun

One of the best things about blogging is getting to know you readers through your comments. You are such an encouraging community for me. Writers spend a lot of time in "solitary confinement" while digging stories out of their heads. Of course, we're not totally alone. We have all those characters yanking on our imaginations trying to get our attention. 


Conflict Makes a Story

Sunday I wrote about how life can be messy even for fictional characters. I guess in stories, life has to be a little messy because if there's no problem, there's no story. Got to have conflict. Got to have something your characters are trying to defeat or achieve or perhaps simply survive. Once a writer decides what that conflict is going to be, then to make a story really good, the writer needs to keep making it harder and harder for the character to reach whatever goal is out there for him or her. You've got to throw some boulders in his way. That's true even if the story isn't suspense or mystery. In romance, the characters have to overcome whatever obstacles stand in the way of love. In my work in progress, I'm a little worried I have set up some obstacles too big for love to come calling. That's the trouble with writing books set in my Shaker village. The Shakers took many pains to eliminate romance from their society. 

An Encouraging Comment

But back to your encouraging comments. I got one of those Sunday from Lisa. I shared it on my Facebook page on Mailbag Tuesday, but one thing she said set off an idea for tonight's post. Here's her sentence. "We even said if we met one of your characters on the street, we think we would recognize them!"

That's a really nice compliment. It sounds fun to think about meeting my characters. I know I'd be ready to listen to some Jupiter stories from Wes the way Jocie does in the Heart of Hollyhill books. And it wouldn't be so bad to sit in Mount Pleasant Church and hear her dad preach a sermon or two or be there for a Christmas program with Miss Sally directing. Of course, I do sit in a little church on Sundays that is a whole lot like the Mount Pleasant Church. 

Meeting a Character in Real Life

But once, I did meet one of my characters - not on the street but in a restaurant - and I knew her at once. We were in one of those buffet restaurants (my husband's favorite eating places) and in walked Fern. If you've read my Rosey Corner books (Angel Sister and Small Town Girl) you know Fern. She's also hanging around for a big role in my third Rosey Corner book coming in July, Love Comes Home. But in case you haven't read one of the Rosey Corner books, here's the first time we actually see Fern in Angel Sister.

The skin on Fern's face was weathered and mottled with broken red veins on her high cheekbones, and her steel gray hair looked for all the world as if it was trying to escape from her scalp. The blue of her eyes had faded like old work jeans and had an unfocused, almost feral look. She wore a pair of overalls with big holes in the knees she'd probably stolen off somebody's clothesline years ago. Under the overalls was a dirty white slip. She didn't carry any extra weight, but she'd long ago lost her delicate look. She spent her days cutting cedars now to make her cedar houses instead of sipping tea and doing needlework. 

And so, I was in that restaurant eating lunch a couple of years ago when in walks Fern. She had on overalls over a flannel shirt instead of a slip. Her hair was that steel gray and she didn't look as if she cared whether it was combed or not. She was a little heavier than my fictional Fern and she didn't have the little axe Fern carried around with her. At least I don't think she did! 

The book had already been out a couple of years when I spotted this real life Fern, but it was an interesting experience to see somebody I'd created in my imagination have such a near double in real life. That was before I had a phone that took pictures so I couldn't even sneak a picture of her. I might have been afraid to anyway. My Fern in Rosey Corner is nobody to mess with. And that real life Fern looked the same. 

Invite a Character to Lunch?

So, have you read stories where you think you might like to meet the characters on the street or maybe invite them home for lunch to find out pieces of their stories that might not have been in the book?

Chances to Win Summer of Joy

In case you missed out on winning Summer of Joy in my recent giveaways, you've got some more chances this week. You can check out my guest post "Chasing the Writing Dream through Rejection Valley and Beyond" and leave a comment on Charity's Giveaway Lady blog for a chance to win. Deadline the April 9. Then if you're a Book Club Network participant, Revell Books is giving away 5 copies of Summer of Joy. You just have to answer one of my easy questions on the The Book Club Network page. Dealine to enter 03/31. I'll also be a guest post Thursday on Nora's blog Finding Hope through Fiction where I talk all about my small town inspiration for Hollyhill. Last I'm doing a interview about dreaming on Betty Owens' blog Thursday. 

As always, thanks for reading!! 

Grandmothers Matter

A garden of Love grows in a Grandmother's heart. ~ Unknown

Grandmothers do matter. That they matter a lot has certainly been clear from all the wonderful grandmother stories I'm receiving. Even those of you who didn't really have a chance to know your grandmothers, realize you missed out on something special and now you're making up for your loss by being wonderful grandmothers to your own grandchildren. 

The lilac Grandmother's Bible would be so perfect for many of you. It's a big print edition and truly a lovely Bible. And I did find a lilac scented candle to give to the winner of the "never win anything" contest. If you haven't entered yet, you still have time. Just shoot me an e-mail from my website or leave a comment here with a way to get in touch should you win. Four prizes total, counting the runner-up prizes. Get the full details on my events page on my website. Just remember to tell me you never win if you never win!

Also have a few blog visits going with chances to win a copy of Scent of Lilacs. Check out my guest posts. "Dark Valley Roads and Bright Mountain Trails" on A Fictional Life  or "Heart of Hollyhill" on Giveaway Lady.

Now on to a grandmother story. First Margie tells us about her remarkable grandmother.

I was born in the home of my maternal grandmother in 1950. One of my aunts and a cousin’s wife acted as midwives….more than likely delivered me before the doctor could make it the 10 or so miles to her house…since there was no telephone, someone had to be dispatched to fetch him! I spent my first 5 years living in Grandmama’s house with my Dad, Mom, older sister, and 2 younger brothers. How I loved my Grandmama! She was widowed shortly after the end of WWII, finished raising their 10 children on her own, never had a job outside the home, and never learned to drive a car. As a tribute to her, all of her children grew up to become productive members of society. There were 6 boys and 4 girls. At least 4 of the boys served in WWII and all the girls learned to cook, sew, can, and quilt. I have wonderful memories of Sunday gatherings at Grandmama’s when all the children and their children would come. That old house overflowed with people, laughter, and love!! My Grandmama was always the heart of our family and we still have a reunion every May in her honor. She was a redhead and she was strong-willed, tough, and independent…and she followed her heart! Her parents had arranged for her to marry a wealthy member of their close-knit community, but just days before their wedding, she eloped with the man who, though many years her senior, was the love of her life. She bore him 12 children and all but 2 survived. She was a woman with an indomitable spirit who taught me many life lessons sitting on her front porch. She’s been gone home to glory for over 30 years and I still miss her so much. There’s going to be a lot of catching up to do when I get home.

 
This comment I got today from Robin. It's short, but it says so much about grandmothers and something I've heard over and over from so many of you - how your grandmothers were faithful Christian examples to you.

"My grandmother was a very strong influence in my life & brought me to the Lord. She has been gone for 35 years now, I still miss talking with her." 

 

That comment made me remember my husband's mother. She loved the grandkids calling her Mama Chris. She was an example of Christian faithfulness to her children and grandchildren. She moved on up to heaven several years back, but we have many wonderful stories to remember her by. She had dementia and ended up in a nursing home after having her leg amputated due to diabetes. But the Lord blessed her with peace of mind in her forgetfulness and she was never agitated or unhappy the way my mother often is. In ways, it was a blessing that she didn't remember because she had long had a horror of having her legs amputated because of diabetic complications. She never seemed to realize her legs were gone. Another blessing. Before she had to go in the nursing home, she went with me to a lot of Darrell's singings. By then, she was already forgetting what she'd said and tended to say the same things when she saw certain things along the road. I rarely go through where a hill has been blasted away to make a straight road without remembering how she would say, with a hint of awe, "We'd have never known all these rocks were under the ground if it weren't for these roads." Other times she'd look at all the cars on the road and say, "I don't know how the gas holds out." But my favorite was when we'd get to church and it would be raining and I would have forgotten the umbrella. She'd smile and say, "It's okay. We're Baptists. We're not afraid of the water." She was a wonderful mother and mother-in-law who loved her grandchildren and loved to laugh. 

 
If nothing is going well, call your grandmother. -Italian Proverb

Thanks for reading. What fun things did your grandmothers say?