Story Glimmers

A writer needs time to gather a story. To let the glimmers spark out of that mysterious dark center where stories are sometimes born. But there are times when the glimmers sparkle but are as elusive as a sunbeam. You see it but you can't really grab it. Sometimes the story glimmers tease you and entice you down the wrong story road. And yes, sometimes a writer can't just sit back and wait for the glimmers to settle in her head to light the way to a story. A writer has to grab a flashlight and go hunting in the dark for that story.

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I'm definitely at the glimmer stage with my next story. And about ready to grab that flashlight and venture out into the dark unknown. The glimmers are there, but they aren't very bright. I see a Shaker sister keeping a journal. Perhaps she's sitting at a desk like the one above and dipping her pen into a pot of ink before carefully forming the letters of her words. She doesn't want to make a mistake because she's writing the history of her sisters and brothers. I see another character, a young sister, who is enchanted by the possibilities of life. But I don't yet know when. Or what. Maybe I can't know what until I know when. I think it's time to read some history. That always helps me focus on an idea or even discover an idea.

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And yet I stall. I have to do these other things. I have a deadline to come up with discussion questions for Angel Sister. I have questions to answer for someone to do an article. I need to update my events calendar. I need to copy edit Angels at the Crossroads so I can get copies with the new cover. I need to do this blog entry. All these things are writing related. If I'm doing them, I'm surely working. Surely writing.

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But the truth is, I'm not. Those things are important and need doing. The same as the clothes have to be washed and the meals cooked. My mom has to be taken care of and the grandkids visited. The deck needed a second coat before winter sets in. (And I got that mostly done this afternoon and am paying the price with sore muscles and blisters and too much sun.) But I'm not writing. I have to do all those other things, but I want to be writing. I want to be chasing down those story glimmers. And yet I stall.

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It can be a fearsome thing to write that first word. Will it work? Will the story magic happen again? I've done it many times. I'm confident the words will come. The story will be there if the characters are there. It is time to grab my flashlight and pursue those characters.

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I got the proposed cover for The Blessed, my Shaker novel that will be out next July. I'll post it here soon. And I also got those Blue Monday candy bars so I'll be mailing out the packages to my birthday celebration giveaway winners next week. No mail on Monday. Columbus Day. But Sunday has an interesting date. 10-10-10. Hope you have a day of perfect tens.

Lightning Strikes and Journals

We had a storm last night. The kind of lightning crashes that make a person cringe even when she's safe inside. And that might make a smart person get up and unplug her computer. But the deadline for my edits on Angel Sister loom, so I kept on working through the lightning flashes. Until - and of course, you guessed it - until the lightning popped into my computer somehow and knocked it dead. That's sort of a sick feeling. Pushing that on button on your computer and nothing happening. It's happened to me before. Not lightning hits, but just where the computer decided it had computed long enough and gave up the ghost. The last time that happened, I bought a new computer and a laptop too. I wanted backup. So it wasn't a terrible thing last night. I did have backup. It just took time unconnecting and reconnecting and I kept pushing that button on the new computer thinking surely it just needed a few minutes rest. Not.

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You know that Bible verse that says tribulation worketh patience. I think that's why the Lord gave us computers. He knew we needed more patience. So He gave us computers to drive the less technical of us bonkers. But computers aren't all bad. They also let me talk to you and you talk to me even if some of us have never met face to face. It's fun having reading friends and I appreciate those of you who follow the goings on in my writing life and family life here on One Writer's Journal.

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What would you write in your journal today? A lot of us here in KY and all across the country might start out saying, "Wow, it's hot" or maybe "Record breaking heat." The Shakers loved journal writing. And in their journals many of them talked about the work they were doing or the weather or who had come into or left the Society. I got an e-mail from a lady whose grandparents - maybe great grandparents - had grown up in a Shaker village in Maine. She remembered going with her parents to visit the village. Of course her grandparents left the village or she wouldn't have been born. I talked to another person who said all her great uncles and aunts when to the village and only her great grandfather left. So that family didn't have the continuing spread of second cousins and more. Interesting e-mails. I enjoy hearing from readers and potential readers too.

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Got a busy week ahead. Still staying half the time with Mom who isn't improving a lot. And a couple of my granddaughters are to come for their promised overnight visit with Grandma and Pa before they start school. That's a treat for them and for me. Then Thursday I'm doing a booksigning at the Sam's Grand Opening for their store in Nicholasville. That should be a lot of fun. And a new experience for me. You think they'll let me go in and look around without buying a membership? Then Friday my daughter and son-in-law are back in town for a tennis tournament.

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All that's why I was working late last night during the storm to finish my edits on Angel Sister. I really like my characters in this story and I hope readers will too.

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Stay cool and remember to send me an e-mail or leave a comment if you want to take part in August's giveaways. Details are on the Event page of my website. annhgabhart.com

Journal writing and my first dog, Ollie

I'm figuring out what exactly I want to write about in my blog. I've been a journal writer forever, but that's writing to myself. Now this may be writing to myself too, but it's like leaving my journal open out on the kitchen table where anybody can read it. That might be okay. I've done some of my best writing in journals. How about you? Are you a journal writer? I could never keep one of those daily diaries because as a kid not enough exciting happened EVERY day. When I was a kid, didn't much exciting happen any day. I grew up in the country and we pretty much stayed close to home and had to spend a lot of time doing chores. But I did get to read a lot. Oh, the joys of reading. And thank goodness and the Lord for libraries. Also I loved walking on the farm so it wasn't so bad.

Plus I got to have a dog. I'm a dog lover for sure. I don't want to ever not have a dog. My first dog was a shepherd spitz mix. I named him Ollie after the man who gave him to me. He and my father raised tobacco together and I guess I'd talked about how much I wanted a dog while we were stripping tobacco. I was maybe ten. Without a doubt that was the best present anyone ever gave me, so I thought it was an honor to name the dog after him. I'm not sure he agreed, but he was a good sport about it. Ollie was a good dog, but not overly friendly. When I started dating, I had to run out and chain him up or he tried to bite my dates. Maybe my dad was training him while I was at school.

Dogs are the best friends.

Ann