A Novel Tea

"Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things." ~Chaim Potok

 And what's more fun to talk about while you're drinking that cup of tea than books? That's what I got to do today at a "Novel Tea." I was excited when I got my first e-mail from Lisa Jones, the librarian in Grayson County, KY, saying they were planning to have a book event and it was going to be a tea and would I like to come speak. Since I'm a tea lover and a book lover, I was on board at once. Now if they'd had a dog show on the side, the day would have been perfect. Just teasing. Those dogs would have wanted all the treats. (grin)

Of course, after the lady said they were going to sell tickets, I told her I hoped the tea would be good because I couldn't imagine anybody buying a ticket to hear me talk. I don't think they did. I think they bought the tickets to enjoy the tea and scones. Aren't those teapots in the picture at the top cute? Each one had a different flavor or type tea. I went for the English breakfast tea because I like my tea strong without added flavor.

They also had wonderful desserts and the caterer was a woman after my own heart. She put the desserts at the start of the table so you picked up your plate and could load up with the sweet things before you got to the healthy relish tray and sandwiches, etc. After all, life is short and the plates were small. This way you got to allot the proper space to the best part of any tea - the sweet concoctions.

Actually, the best part for me was meeting so many new reading friends and getting to tell them about my books. After I talked about my writing life, we had time for questions. That's always my favorite part of any talk if the people aren't too shy to ask whatever they're curious about regarding writers or writing. Grade school kids do the best job asking questions. They want to know everything! Adults are sometimes slower to raise their hands. But a question I got today that I nearly always get is how long does it take me to write a book. My stock answer is about a year, but I have written books in six months and this summer I'm going to need to write a story in two months. Thank goodness it's a Christmas story that will only be about half as long as most of my stories.

Another question was about whether I work regular hours or wait until I feel a creative burst coming on. Some people may be able to wait for their muse to show up, but most of those muses are onery creatures who dillydally and don't come knocking on your door that often. You have to go out and grab that rascal and wrestle him into your office or workplace. How I do that is by spending a lot of hours with my fingers on the keyboard. That way your muse will realize you're serious about this writing stuff and reluctantly begin showing up more often. 

What question do you wish you could ask a writer? My answer and other writers' answers might be very different since writing is such an individual pursuit with many ways to write a story. But it's still fun to ask questions and I enjoy answering them too.

Thanks for reading. Maybe we can all have tea together someday and talk about books!

What Questions Would You Ask?

~~I enjoyed a night with the Southeast Christian Book Club in Louisville on Monday. Here I am with a few of the ladies who got together with me for some extra book talk and fun before the meeting. I was so busy talking during the meeting that I didn't get any other pictures, but we're a happy looking bunch, aren't we? Talking about books makes me smile for sure. Especially when so many people are saying so many nice things about my book.

~~I told the book club members I was excited because I had fresh ears. I could tell all my old stories about how I got started as a writer and they'd all be new to them. It was fun giving them a glimpse of one writer's journey toward publication and beyond. And then it was even more fun when we got to the question and answer time. That's always my favorite part of any talk because I don't have to prepare for that. There's no way to prepare for that, and that's why it's fun. You never know what people might ask and you have to be ready with an answer. I usually have some kind of answer, but of course, I don't mind saying "I don't know." That's always an answer that will work.

~~A popular question is how do you work. Every day or just when you're feeling inspired? Half my books, maybe all of them would have never gotten written if I had to wait for my Muse to kick in. He's an onery sucker who most of the time refuses to show up until I make myself go on and start hitting computer keys even when I don't know what I want to write. But I have to write something. Anything. And then I hope part of it will be my story talking or happening might be a better word.

~~Somebody usually asks if I know what's going to happen in the story before I start. Some writers do, I think, but not me. I might have an idea of where my characters are going to go, by I often don't know how they're going to get there. It happens as I write. Then Monday night someone wanted to know how I knew when it was the end. A good question. And I didn't have a very good answer for her. Usually I just know. Once all the major problems are resolved, the loose ends tied up then - as I read once - it's time to get out of Dodge. When the story's over, ride off into the sunset. Don't linger describing the beautiful hues. Readers have imaginations and they enjoy using them. I want to let them.

~~At book clubs, there are usually more questions about what happens to the characters in the years ahead. Those are good questions to hear because it means my characters came to life for the readers. They want them to live on past the story. So it's sort of fun to speculate on what happens after that final page in the book.

~~That's some of the questions from the other night. What question would you like to ask your favorite author? I might think up a few dozen for a few dozen favorite writers. But first I need to ask that stubborn Muse a few questions about this story I'm writing. That's who needs to be giving me answers. So guess I'd better put my fingers on the keyboard and start working on Lacey's story. Thanks for reading.

A Chocolate Eating Writer's Muse

We're still deep in winter here in Kentucky although we had a beautiful sunshiny day on Friday with the temps rising to near sixty. All of us started dreaming of spring to come. That's the way it is here in this border state between north and south. Days and sometimes weeks of warmer weather can come to call, but then winter always returns. Sometimes even in the spring when the cold should be gone and the flowers and trees are ready to burst into bloom, winter will sneak back a nasty finger of cold that freezes the blooms and steals our summer fruit. In January we don't have to worry about that. We just have to hope for snow instead of ice.

I'm several chapters into my new story and trying to keep to my page allotment each day. As always the way I thought I saw everything going so clearly is meandering into some alleyways I didn't notice at all. But I'm trying to trust my characters and my muse.

Bobbi's comment on my last entry got me to thinking about the writer's muse. Here is a Ray Bradbury quote about the Muse. "What is The Subconscious to every other man, in its creative aspect becomes, for writers, The Muse."

I've had people ask me if I waited for my muse before I started writing. Or wanted to know how I corralled the slippery little sucker. Actually I've never given my muse a lot of consideration. Maybe not enough. I've always wanted to write so much that I may have taken it for granted that if I sat down and started writing a story would come. Gee, I hope my muse isn't listening and goes off to hide in a closet to pout where I'll never be able to find her again. I wish I hadn't thought about that! :o(

In Stephen King's book On Writing, he describes his muse as a cigar-smoking guy with wings. But he warns us our muse is not going to come fluttering down into our rooms and sprinkle creative fairy dust all over our computers. King is of the opinion that the writer has to do all the work while the muse just sits around and pretends to ignore you. His all the while smoking those cigars. I don't think I want my muse to smoke cigars. I'll let her eat chocolates. But then King adds that the muse has the inspiration, the bag of magic a writer needs.

And it does sometimes feel like magic when you've sat in front of the computer screen and fed in words on top of words that maybe didn't seem like anywhere close to the right words, but then somehow the story comes. Perhaps a character jumps into the story out of nowhere or you suddenly see what really happened instead of what you thought might happen. Not because you waited for your muse to show up, but because you chased her down. And maybe bought her a new box of those imaginary inspirational chocolates.

I'm ready to do a new give-away. Any of you have one of my books you'd like to have in the give-away more than any of the others, let me know. I'll probably add an autographed copy of a different author's book, too. I'll let you know which books on Wednesday. Before I head up to WV to babysit the twins for a few days. They're five and a half months old already. I'll get my baby holding tank filled up to the brim with two babies to spoil.

Hope winter is being kind to you all. And spring is coming.