Day of Babyfingers

So I am living with my Uncle, Aunt, their baby, my maternal Grandfather and maternal Grandmother for the summer (not the ones from the last blog entry). All in one house. I am working as the Art Instructor at a school Monday thru Thursday. I am enjoying it a lot. I'm actually surprised.

Most of all, there is my baby cousin. She is 1 year and one month and I wish I had a recent photo to put up but I don't.

Anyway so tonight at dinner she pinched me! Hard! Her little baby fingers are so sharp and she gives the teeny-est, tiny-est pinches that hurt super bad.

And did I mention her baby kisses? She gives these weird open mouthed kisses that are more like being licked by a puppy than really getting a little kiss. It will be a cute embarrassing story for her future first boyfriend-when she's 30.

In other news, I am only 30 pages away from completing my mystery novel. Let's all raise a cheer! It's weird though. I'm kind of scared that when I give the 2nd half of the revised copy the small publisher won't think its good. And if he does, and we work to get it published, what if I can't write another good story? This novel was fun to write, but it was hard work too. And what's more is that the next novel I want to write is a historical mystery. I've been wanting to write one for a while but it just won't work out right. Tell me, dear reader, do you ever wonder what it's like to see your goal only footsteps away? Do you hesitate or do you bull rush it?

29200 Days and writing well

5 Things I’ve learned from my 80-year-old grandmother:

1.Pray for your husband, even if you don’t have one yet. This woman has been praying that I marry well since I was 15.
2.Accessorize, accessorize, accessorize. She wears the simplest of jewelry but its always something pretty. Plus she's the one that started me on my jewlery box collection.
3.Any time’s a good time to travel. She's gone more places since retiring than most people have in their entire lives.
4.Take each day one at a time, just like the stairs. She may not like being alive or going up flights of stairs, but she certainly doesn't worry about tomorrow.
5.Computers are conquerable, no matter how many wires or buttons they may have! She is 80 and she e-mails. Who does that? And I complain that I can don't footnotes right, shame on me!

*she's the one standing in the picture.

Day of Writer's Block

So last week I sprained my ankle.

It looks like a lame fall right? I mean guys keep on asking me if it was a sports injury and I have to reply, "No, no I'm just short and lame and I fell down 4 stairs when trying to close a window." Meanwhile I wish I could be saying "Yes it was a sports injury, I was training for the next summer Olympics where I will be running the 100 yard dash.

During this time I have written 2 pages in my work-in-progress and I have gotten 2 e-mails from the publisher I am working with asking me for the revised copy of my mystery novel. I'm hyperventilating.

The good news is that I did not have to go into jury duty with my sprained ankle. The bad news is that I did not have to go into jury duty.

My doctor told me no running for a week or two AT LEAST. He stressed that last bit. Now of course you know what I wish I were doing right now? Running.

I need to get back to writing.

Day of Typewriter!

So, I e-mail the 1st half of my mystery manuscript to a certain publisher for him to take a look at. With any luck, I will be published next year.

Thinking about this while straightening my hair this morning made me think of the beginning of my writing asperations.

I first wanted to become a writer in Miss. Murphy's second grade class. My first ever story was about my cat Rainbow.

After this I wrote stories about my school in a black and white composition book. I changed all the names of course (I knew about libel at a young age somehow) and they all pretty much ended in some one being converted to Christianity in a way that John Wesley would die for.

I think my writing got muddled for a while after I spent a couple years reading Sandra Cisneros and Julia Alveraz. I thought hispanic writing ought to look a certain way, so I tried to immitate it. This is also around the time my father found this 1932 Corona typewriter and gave it to me for my 10 birthday. I wrote 4 pretty amazing stories about Maria, Jesus and Theresa living in Spanish Harlem. These are the only stories I like from this era of my writing. And yes, Maria and Jesus are Mary and Jesus. They make a special appearance and convert Theresa's family. I swear some times I should have been a Catholic.

Next up comes stories filled with teen angst. I think its because when I was 12 and 1/2 my grandfather died and then there were all kinds of family drama. My writing reflects that in an amplified way. Characters were being pushed down stairs, disowned, abandoned in diners full of wilting flowers... Actually, I wrote a pretty good stage play from all this. I used The Godfather as a template but the story is entirely my own. Its about a man who marries the wrong woman. Very dramatic.

After this my stories died down a bit, and I spent almost all of college writing poetry. I wrote one story, OK two, but my heart wasn't in them. Then I got into mysteries. Enough said.

Day of Sopping Wet Rain Race

It rained for all of ten minutes about two hours ago and my sister and I were right in the middle of it. We ran all the way from our front door to the truck, and boy were we soaked. Then we went to 7-11 and became even soaked-er. By the time we reached the house and our room we were a sopping mess.

Which reminded me of Jane Austen's book Sense and Sensibility. The part where the girl played by Kate Winslet (and her eyebrows) gets caught in the rain and has to stay at the eligible bachelor's house? Ok, so I didn't read this book, but I do own the movie.

In fact I hate Pride and Predjudice. I never read Persuasion, Northanger Abbey or Mansfield Park. I did read Emma though. I love that book, the BBC verson AND the 1995 movie "Clueless."

Anyway, I just wanted to post and update saying I'm glad to be in the house reading "A Walk with Jane Austen: A Journey into Adventure, Love & Faith" by Lori Smith. I'm thinking of my summer plans. I'm so excited to be doing something different.

And don't worry, I do plan to write while I'm in NJ.

Days of being Hospitable

I was awakened this morning by the cries of a 17yr old boy who is mentally disabled. My mom does therapeutic foster care, and as I still live at home, sometimes this is how I am awakened. Sometimes the children she takes in have anger issues, abandonment issues, mental issues, medical issues, and sometimes none or all of these problems. My parents began this vocation when I was in first grade. After giving birth to my sister and I; Mom, (with Dad's full support) decided to open her home to others, citing James 1:27 as her reasoning. It goes like this: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

I love that Dad and Mom do this. Because of their faith in Jesus Christ, and the love of children God placed in Mom and Dad's hearts, they have taken in 8 girls and just as many boys over the last 16 years. Usually each child lives with us for two years, and either age out of the system, go to live with their relatives, or (in the worst of cases) go to a residential facility. In my life, this has taught me how to be hospitable, selfless, considerate, and patient. Most certainly patient.

My father keeps telling my mother to tell me stories of what she has learned about child-rearing from each kid, and for me to transcribe this into a book of memoirs. He says that it will be a best-seller and will encourage other Americans to be courageous and to open their homes to wards of the state. I smile and think, that is not the type of writing I am used to, but I know it will help other therapeutic foster parents to be encouraged and to keep up the good work. So, when my mom is really, I have a pen and paper at the ready!

I love what my parents do. There are rare moments though when I don't always feel comfortable living at such an open home. The biggest problem I've had over the years has been with boyfriends. These guys either have a problem with my desire to write for a living or my desire to have a big family. These guys are the ones who want a secluded 3 bdrm house with 1.5 kids and a dog, while I know I want 5 kids (mine or the state's, it makes no difference) and a hospitable house. I don't know if any guys at the local pub, or even the church will want so many kids, especially if some of the gang are not from their loins. But I think I'll keep praying. Only God knows what the future holds. ;)

A Day of Chuckles

So chapter 3 is done!

It took multiple hours, and a couple of read-throughs, but its great. The tension between the 2 ex-best friends is going well. The reader is finding out a little bit about why they hate each other, but not everything. I finally created minor character-growing problems for the men in the novel too. And like all small towns I’ve ever been too, it seems like everyone who’s married is related to everyone else in town and new people are looked upon as outsiders. I think it’s a little heavy on the dialogue, but it was necessary to the story, so it works.

So I am working on chapter 4 this week and I am not sure where to go. I have a letter from the past, 2 scared children, a pastor in the hospital, another one on the way and a ticked off fiancé. Some how I have to bring all of these characters together for the murder scene in chapter 5.

Anyway in other news: Aggie and I went to Transformed last night. We are used to going to a church that answers the pastor when he asks questions, one where people are encouraged/allowed to say “amen” when they feel the need. So it was funny last night when the decent looking announcer/jock guy was giving the announcements (and Aggie and I were commenting). I didn't think anyone could hear us, but then I think we actually made him nervous. At one point he was going on about how there is going to be this new relationship-focused Bible study on Thursdays, and I groaned, rolled my eyes and leaned my head on my sister’s shoulder. (I am sick of Christian dating books) He actually looked at us and said, “No! It’s not that bad. . .” We are trying not to be such vocal parishioners, but we aren’t doing so well with that. God made us loud, our parents made us opinionated.

Until next week! Keep writing ladies!

A day of mysteries and haystacks

So yesterday while working out at the Y, I came up with the next chapter of my current story. (Yay me!) And then I proceeded to figure out which character should be my murderer. Because, as you know, in every mystery story the bad guy has to be there from the beginning. I figured out which character would do and it made my day. I just have to write it.

Why didn't I write it when I got home? Well, Aggie and I decided to give away our cats. It was a melancholy day really. And that old R&B song about "every single day. . . I'll be missing you" was playing on the radio when we got to the SPCA. It really made the day kind of literary.

Any way, back to writing. I have this white notebook I write in when I am either plotting, or thinking of new ideas and I am super excited. I just came up with a new Idea for yet another story. It came to me while sleeping. This one will not be part of the mystery series, and all I will say is that in involves liars, haystacks, and makeup. Can't wait to figure that one out huh?

And gals, I am SO looking forward to Writer's Group!

Day of testimony

So I was writing my testimony down today to send to Pastor M.B. because I'm going to be working at my grandparents church over the summer, and it made me remember why I love Jesus and Easter (i.e. Resurrection Sunday).

I became a Christian during the April 1991 Easter Production at my grandparents church. My family and I were sitting in the left gallery, and during the scene where Jesus carried his cross to Mount Calvary, and then died, I cried. My father, seeing my tears, explained to me that Jesus was also God and he came to take the place of us. You see our wrong doing deserves punishment. Jesus took our place of punishment. My father explained that since Jesus died and then resurrected three days later, we can know him as GOD and as friend. All we needed to do was say to Jesus that we we believed that he had taken our place of punishment, and that we wanted to follow him with our whole heart and be his friend. I thought about this and a little later, I prayed.

Since then I have always tried to share my Lord-friend Jesus with others. I'm not sure I'm always the best at evangelizing, (I mean using Barbies at a Bar-B-Q when I was seven may not have been the best way to tell my friends), however I have always wanted those I care about and love to know Jesus as their Savior-friend. This belief has caused me to lead a Bible study in 9th grade, and go on 4 different mission trips.

Sometime during my teen years, I commited myself to reading through the Bible. I wrote a promise to God inbetween the pages of my New and Old Testaments and 6 years later, I finished. I learned a lot about keeping the promises we make.

Actually, in the last year I have learned a lot about my self. I dedicated most of last year to persuing God and what his will is for my life, and I have learned a lot. God created me with certain interests: i.e I like to write, to travel, to go out on the town, and He has given me certain dreams: i.e. I want to be the house on the block that everyone feels at home in. The place where people can have a cup of tea or a bowl of soup and just relax. An OASIS. A safe place for those around me to figure out who they are, what they are about, and how God fits into all of that.

This past year Isaiah 40, Proverbs 31, Psalm 45, and the book of Luke have been key for me.

And I finally feel like I have direction concerning my career. It was there all a long, I just lacked faith. Look for my teen book on amazon.com next December and my mystery novel out next-next summer. I don't know what the book will be called yet, but I'm working on it, and leaving the rest up to God. He is more than able to do above all that we can ask, or imagine!

Day of starting over

Just a mini-post here. I don't really have the strength for a full on post. A lot has been going on in my life recently.

My next writing group meeting is April 23rd at 7 and if not then May 2nd. I am going to Borders tomorrow and hope to find comfort with the company of my sister and my friends.

I saw "Last House on the Left" late last night and I thought it was a good example of characterization.

In my opinion, good writing creates a world for the reader. A place of escape from the world. Jane Austen does a good job of this in all of her novels. My younger sister and I began reading "Sense and Sensibility" and we love it. Can I leave you with a quote?

"He was not an ill-desposed young man, unles to be rather cold-hearted and rather selfish is to be ill-desposed: but he was, in general, respected, for he conducted himself with propriety in the discharge of his ordinary duties." (p2 chapter1)

This is an excellent and witty example of describing a character. I only hope I may one day write as well.

Day of Snow brushed cars

First off, an addendumn to a previous post. Why I typed "and up to this point am still dating him" I in no way mean that in a negative sense. I simply wanted to be acurate when typing because I did not yet know that I would be writing weekly updates about my writing habits.

Secondly the writer's group last night was nice. We talked a great deal about setting. Even mentioning the show "Cold Case" a number of times. Aparantly it is filmed in Philly. I never knew this.

Setting makes a great deal of difference to readers, if the three other ladies in my writing group are any example of the mases. We like to read about places familiar to us, but we also like to read about interesting places. When stressed, perhap exotic places are nice. The ladies in my writing group like real towns as opposed to imagined ones, except for in cases like Twlight. That damnable series is allowed to have an invented town acording to them because its sci-fi for R.L.Stine's readers. My question now: is Stephanie Myers REALLY the new R.L.Stine?

In my own writing, I just made up a town. "Hackberry, Pa" it serves my purposes. Small population, home to a flag factory, and allows me to create a small town feel in my story. Not only that but the names of the places get to be named after my favorite composers or writers....

I think I will be working on Character-development over the next couple of weeks now that I have my setting set up.

A Day of Creation

I have decided to use this blog as an outlet for my writing complaints. My savvy sister says sites seldom disappear from the inter net for ever. You may delete them, but some kind of rug-burn equivalent remains. Any way, I have just finished reading "The Apothecary's Daughter" which reminded me of "Wives and Daughters" however I thought both were equally good. ANYWAY, that and the fact that the writing group I "fascilitate" is a week from today, brings me to my computer, panicky and a little excited.

Before I begin I just wanted to post some insperational quotes from the guys who are mandatory reading in my book, and just good novelists anyway....

The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit - for gallantry in defeat - for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally-flags of hope and of emulation.--John Steinbeck

En cada línea que escribo trato siempre, con mayor o menor fortuna, de invocar los espíritus esquivos de la poesía, y trato de dejar en cada palabra el testimonio de mi devoción por sus virtudes de adivinación, y por su permanente victoria contra los sordos poderes de la muerte.--Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.--Papa Hemingway

When a poet speaks to his own people, the voices of all the poets of other languages who have influenced him are speaking also. And at the same time he himself is speaking to younger poets of other languages, and these poets will convey something of his vision of life and something of the spirit of his people, to their own. --T.S. Eliot


Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.--C.S. Lewis

Ta-da. That my friends is that. Now I want to write chapter 2 of my present story.

Day of nostos

No that is not spelled wrong. Its a greek word.

I haven't written in this blog in 3 years. The last time I wrote in this blog I was preparing to go on a mission trip to Costa Rica. I went. It was a 2 week trip. It was great. Oddly enough I don't keep in touch with anyone from that trip. The people I keep in touch with are from my Germany/Poland trip. After going to Costa Rica in Dec 06; in summer 07 my sister and I went to France and England. Then that Fall 07 I went to Colombia to meet cousins I never knew I had.

I stopped going to my college/career church group soon after that because I was SICK to DEATH of all talk and not action. I guess I have a Martha personaility.

I took 1 year and 2 months off from dating and then I started dating a certain boy, C.A.F. from my college/career group. As of now we are still together.

Oh, and I graduated from college and I am looking for a full-time job. (I wish I could score a publishing gig, but I never interned and aparantly its a rule that you must intern 1st). And reading a lot.

And I'm not sure if I'm going to keep up this blog but we'll see.