Flying With Mary Poppins

Flying with Mary Poppins by Debra H. Goldstein

Last night, I saw a community production of Mary Poppins that blew my socks off. I can’t say enough about the acting, singing, dancing, or sets, but it was during the instances when Mary Poppins took flight that I felt a surge of “practically perfect” happiness. The only thing that made me fly higher was watching the face of a four-year-old child sitting in the row in front of me.

The little girl was the youngest of three sisters.  Seated in the third row, directly behind the family, I was concerned when I realized her parents placed her between her sisters rather than next to them. Was she the buffer to keep the older children from fighting?  How could the parents possibly reach and control her if she became bored?

I had my answer during the overture when she crawled over one sister and plopped into her mother’s lap. For the remainder of the performance, she quietly was shuffled between her mother and father. In the comfort of their arms, her attention was glued to the stage for the first act, but she became restless after intermission.  That is, until she sensed the actress playing Mary Poppins positioning herself on the edge of the stage, in the semi-darkness, a few feet from our seats. A moment later, when a now spotlighted Mary Poppins rose and flew over the audience – pausing for a second to smile down from directly above the little girl’s seat – the child’s eyes grew wide with wonder, awe, and the making of a permanent memory for both of us.

Hopefully, she will always remember the night she saw Mary Poppins fly. May I, as a writer, cling to the memory of how a child became engaged by the magic of storytelling.

Chart Watching

by Bethany Maines

He looked at the chart but he look in vain
Heavy cloud but no rain
Originally, this was a post about publishing.  I’ve been singing this song for the better
part of a month feeling that it related to my efforts in self-publishing. Having
the ability to have live updated sales results is not really as fun as it
sounds. Or at least it’s not good for ongoing peace of mind. The world of
publishing has changed. Now every author must do the work that previously was
performed by publishing houses – namely, marketing. And the secret thing about
marketing that every marketing professional would prefer you not know, is that
you can never quite tell what’s going to work. So with every fresh effort, I
flip back to the chart to see if there’s rain or not. Some sprinkles, some
gushers, some droughts – and that is the way of the writing life now.  But there’s more to that song, and the rest
of the lyrics are more applicable to the real world right now than they are to any personal
concerns I have about my writing and sales.
Turned on the weather man just after the news
I needed sweet rain to wash away my blues
He looked at the chart but he look in vain
Heavy cloud but no rain
Much of the state of Washington, my state, is on fire. This
song isn’t much of a metaphor; it’s what we’re all doing. We’re literally out
of firefighters and the ones that are on the line are working days in a row
with little to no sleep. Firefighters from Australian and New Zealand arrived on
Monday to help and we couldn’t be happier to see them. We literally need all
the help we can get.
There is a line of mountains between the fires and my house
and still the sky is frequently a hazy yellow from smoke. Yesterday, I could
look at the sun directly because there was so much smog that it was only a
burning circle of orange in the sky.
Sometimes my state feels culturally divided by that chain of
mountains, but this fire has turned us all into obsessed weather forecast
watchers. My facebook feed is filled with pictures of rain – a virtual rain
dance for our home and our friends. Weather forecasting has taken a giant step
forward due to computing speeds and modeling, but Washington is still one of
the toughest places to forecast. All the data in the world can’t entirely
predict if rain is going to fall. We all watch the chart, but so far, heavy
cloud, no rain.

So, if you’re a praying person, pray for some rain. If you’re
a donating person, you can view this article from local reporter Jesse Jones, for where to send donations. Washington thanks you.
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries
, Tales from the City of
Destiny
and An Unseen Current.
 
You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

I May Have Put a Curse on Someone


by

Linda Rodriguez

By sheer accident, I overheard an interaction between two
strangers a while back that may have led me to inadvertently put on a curse on
one of them.

The last time I went to see my oncologist, who’s at a
hospital in a suburb an hour’s drive from my house, was the first time I’d
driven so far by myself in months (after the whole broken-right-wrist thing).
When I came out of the cancer clinic, I decided I’d go to the Barnes &
Noble in the shopping center across the street to see if I couldn’t get my
wrist and knees to hurt less before beginning the long trip home.

Getting out of my car in one of the handicapped spaces (I
have a placard), I saw a lean guy in shorts, late-thirties or early-forties, confront
a very heavy woman who’d left B&N and was opening the door of her car in a
handicap space several cars up from mine. He yelled at her, “You fat, lazy
bitch. Getting your doctor to give you a placard just because you’re too lazy
to walk and too undisciplined to curb your urges to stuff candy in your mouth
all day. You’re running up everyone else’s health expenses. We’re having to pay
for your lazy gluttony.” The woman stared at him with wide eyes like a deer
caught in the headlights, began to cry, got in her car, and roared off, while
the guy stood there watching, satisfied.

As I said, these two were both strangers to me. I knew
neither one’s name. But I recognized the woman. She goes to the same cancer
clinic I do. As happens in such places, I’ve overheard bits of conversation
between her and other patients she knows or the nursing staff in the chemo infusion
lab or between rooms (I’m a novelist—I observe and eavesdrop—shoot me), so I
knew that she had a different kind of cancer from mine, that it had been very
advanced when it was found, that she’s been battling it for years now and gone
through surgery, radiation, and five or six bouts of chemo already. I knew she
had gone through years more of pain, nausea, fatigue, depression, you name it, than
I have. I knew she had dealt with pain in joints and muscles so intense that it
brought tears to your eyes walking from one part of the house to the other. I
knew she had probably had long periods where she only got a couple of hours of
sleep at night. I knew she had dealt with fatigue so overwhelming that she
would have days when just getting out of bed was a triumph, when she couldn’t
summon energy to talk or would nod off sometimes in the middle of a
conversation. I knew she took meds that did all kinds of horrible things to
your body, like eat your bones or put on pounds, no matter what you eat or how
you try to exercise, or cause swelling in your face and body.

My feeling was that if she’d consoled herself during one of
these times with more chocolate than she should have, so be it. Not anyone else’s
business. Because take it from someone who’s dealing with just a little of what
she’s had to deal with for years—there is no amount of chocolate that’s too
much when you’re facing that kind of shit
.

I’m on a cane and moving very slowly—because of those meds
that cause so much joint/muscle pain, fatigue, and weakness—so I wasn’t able to
get over there before she was in her car heading out, but when I did, I turned
to this guy who looked so swollen with self-righteous indignation and found
myself pointing my finger at him, something I never do because my grandmother
warned me against it as a child. I may have yelled, but since this med makes me
weaker in all my muscles, my voice is not as strong as it once was. “I hope you
someday truly understand what it’s like to have physical problems that make you
sedentary and gain weight, to have lupus and fibromyalgia and rheumatoid
arthritis and multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s and all the other things
people have to deal with every day. May you someday understand what it’s really
like to deal with cancer.” A couple of people had stopped walking through the
parking lot and were staring, so he just shook his head and took off running,
yelling, “Another fat, lazy bitch.”

This is the most egregious case I’ve encountered of what I’ve
started to call “health bullying,” that I’m seeing more and more often lately.
Whether it’s gluten-free, vegan, nightshade-free, or various supplements or
special diets or special kinds of exercise, some people seem to feel the need
to prescribe for people they know or even don’t know. I remember when my
youngest was a teenager and recently diagnosed with ulcerative colitis that had
almost killed him from internal bleeding. They pumped blood into him round the
clock for over a week and powerful IV steroids that put him into induced
diabetes that left him injecting insulin for a year. Once he got out of the
hospital, he had to continue taking steroids that puffed him up like the
Michelin Man. Someone tried to say he just needed to walk a little and eat more
fresh fruits and vegetables. Common sense, yes? He had no car and already
walked more miles a day than they probably did in a week, even including the
treadmill. He had a long list of foods he was forbidden to eat because they
would cause the internal bleeding to start again, and at the top were those
fresh fruits and vegetables. I won’t even start on all the folks who think they
know how to cure cancer, and I have to tell them that my doctors and I are
working on that, thank you very much.

I decided a tough broad like me didn’t need to rest before
driving home and made it fine. Could hardly walk to get inside my house, but I
made it. I started to feel bad about what I’d said to the guy. I just wanted
him to think outside his selfish box for a minute and understand what others
might be going through, but I began to realize that, instead, I’d probably
placed a curse on him. Because this guy was totally deficient in empathy, and
empathy is the only way to understand how someone else might feel—unless you
experience the exact same thing. I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to do it. I
hope he’s only going to get one of those diseases and not all of them.

Linda Rodriguez’s Skeet Bannion mystery novels,
Every Hidden Fear, Every Broken Trust, and Every Last Secret, and books of poetry, Skin Hunger and Heart’s Migration, have received many awards, such as St. Martin’s/Malice
Domestic Best First Novel, Latina Book Club Best Books 2014, Midwest Voices
& Visions Award, Thorpe Menn Award, Ragdale and Macondo fellowships, among
others. She is Chair of the AWP Indigenous/ Aboriginal American Writers Caucus.

Twitter handle—@rodriguez_linda

REPLY TO COMMENTS (because Blogger still hates me):

Sorry I’m so late getting back to everyone, but today was another doctor’s appointment, so I’ve been gone all afternoon.

Pam, thank you for the hugs and prayers. I can always use them.

Thank you, Kathy and Marilyn!

Judith, I really didn’t mean to.

Kathy, both of them did. Yay!

Ritter, you are so right about all three.

Doward, I try to avoid physical violence because the cancer meds increase irritability and I might accidentally kill someone.

Thank you, Alice!

Thanks, Mary. I know allergies must be awful. That’s one load I don’t have to carry, and for that, I’m very grateful.

Why Reading Is Good for Us

By Kay Kendall

This is the
second of two installments about reading. Previously I described how much I
enjoy reading and tried to figure out how that came to pass. I am guessing most
of you also feel reading is enjoyable. For many people, however, reading is not
a pleasurable pastime.

Reading is
similar to chocolate. It tastes luscious to most people, but not to all. These
days,
however, we know through research that chocolate is a healthy thing to
eat.

Scientific
researchers have likewise come up with reasons why we should read. Here is a curated list of reasons scientists say
reading should be done—not only for our enjoyment and increased knowledge, but
for our mental and physical well-being.

 1.
Reading is an effective way to overcome stress.

Researchers at the University of Sussex found that reading relaxed the heart
rate and muscle tension faster than other activities often said to be
de-stressors—for example taking a walk, listening to music, and drinking tea.
Note that the research was done in England, a bastion of tea drinkers, so this
is really saying something shocking.

 2. Reading exercises our
brains.
As our bodies need movement to be strong, our brains need a
work out too. Reading is a more complex activity than watching television and
actually helps establish new neural pathways.

 3.
Reading helps maintain our brains’ sharpness.
Neurologists
who studied brains of those who died around age 89 saw signs of a third less
decline among those who stayed mentally active with reading, writing, and other
modes of mental stimulation like puzzles, as compared to those who did little
or none of those activities.

 4. Reading may even ward off Alzheimer’s disease. Adults who pursue activities like reading or puzzles that involve the brain
are less likely to have Alzheimer’s disease. Intellectual activity not only
grows our brain power but also strengthens brain against disease.

5. Reading may help us sleep better. Reading before bed is a good
de-stressing habit, unlike watching flashing electronic devices or television
that cue the brain to wake up.

6. Reading self-help books can ease
depression.
Reading
books that encourage people to take charge of their own lives can promote the
idea that positive change is possible. A control group that had “bibliotherapy”
combined with talk therapy was less depressed than another group that did not
read self-help literature.

7. Reading helps people become more empathetic.
Spending time exploring an author’s imagination helps people understand other
people’s points of view and problems. Researchers in the Netherlands performed
experiments showing that people who were “emotionally transported” by
a work of fiction experienced boosts in empathy.

8.
Reading can develop and improve a good self-image.
Poor readers or non-readers often have
low opinions of themselves and their abilities. Reading helps people understand
their own strength and abilities, hence growing better self-images.

So next time you feel remorse when
you’ve spent all day reading a new book, just remember these eight
reasons–and then your guilt should vanish. Getting swept away by a compelling
story line or character in a wonderful book is not only entertaining but also
is actually good for you.

Which of these reasons resonates
most with you? From the list above, I picked two favorites. I’ll tell
you mine if you’ll tell me yours! How about it?

*******


Kay Kendall is a long-time fan of historical novels and writes atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit and turbulence of the sixties. She is a reformed PR executive who lives in Texas with her husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to her bunnies, she loves them anyway! Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too. RAINY DAY WOMEN published on July 7–the second in her Austin Starr Mystery series. The audio-book will debut soon. 

http://www.amazon.com/Rainy-Day-Women-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00W2X5SCS

August is a Busy Month

We have lots of family events to celebrate in August.

First one of come up is my eldest daughter’s wedding anniversary. She married her high school sweetheart who was going into the Army right away. (As it turned out, the Army discharged him honorable after discovering all his old motorcycle racing injuries.) They were married in the chapel on the Seabee base (Hubby was still active in the Seabees). Daughter made her wedding dress and some of the bridesmaids dresses. We had the reception in our family room and backyard and I prepared all the food. (Something I went on to do for all of my kids’ weddings.)

Next is the daughter’s birthday. She is now a grandmother of five. (Can’t believe it.)

My granddaughter’s hubby celebrated his 27th birhday a few days ago by going to the river (just up the hill where there’s a natural water slide) with his family to play, then back to our house for dinner and cake.

Next up is that granddaughter’s youngest turning one. The party was in the grands’ backyard–and yes, we went.

My birthday is this month too. No, I’m not going to tell you which one–I have trouble remembering which it is anyway. Don’t have anything special planned–they come around too quickly.

I’m also going to have the birth of a new book at the end of the month.

Not as it Seems is the latest in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series. It’s set on the Central Coast of California–Morro Bay, Los Osos, San Luis Obispo, Pismo, Nipomo, Tempe and her husband have gone to celebrat their son Blair’s wedding. Yes, there is a murder, and spirits, or course. It wouldn’t be a Tempe Crabtree mystery if spirits didn’t make an appearance.

Marilyn Meredith

State of Hope



Phyllis A. Whitney

I am
constantly looking for a writing craft book or article, organized notebook,
online class, or writing conference that will bring all the elements together
to make me the writer I want to be. I search the computer and scope out the
writing sections of bookstores and libraries, certain the magical resource is
out there if only I can locate it.

Perhaps this
continuing optimism comes from the memory of discovering Phyllis A. Whitney’s
books that gave me a step-by-step writing process and helped me to focus on the
craft of creating a story. I will never forget my aunt giving me a copy of
Whitney’s Guide to Fiction Writing (Boston,
MA: The Writer, Inc., 1982) (which she bought as a selection from her book-of-the-month
club). I consider it a prized possession. That gift let me know my aunt shared
my vision, believed in me as an author, and supported my dream.

While some of
Whitney’s advice doesn’t match the current publishing industry, other pearls of
wisdom are timeless:
(1)   
On why she does not need to apologize for
following a “formula” for mystery writing: “Having found my niche, I’ve worked
out a pattern that enables me to venture within its broad boundaries and never
find myself bored.” (p. ix)

(2)   
“Perhaps opportunity is like a train on an
endless track. Now and then it makes a stop at your station, often without
fanfare and without warning.” (p. 4)

(3)   
“What you do now
counts. . . . Work and wait and learn, and that train will come by. If you give
up, you’ll never have a chance to climb aboard.” (p. 9)

(4)   
“[W]e all write somehow – making time – and habit grows strong with practice. The challenge
is always the same: How much do you
want to write? Not just to be a writer, but to
write
.” (p. 12)

(5)   
“[Y]ou must develop your own writing pattern.”
(p. 12)

(6)   
“[Y]ou’ll learn to use what comes, good and bad,
and it will become part of whatever you are, and find its way under many
disguises into your work.” (p. 13)

(7)   
“[D]evelop the habit of observation and
analysis.” (p. 13)

Maybe my
favorite part of the book is Chapters 3 and 4, where Whitney explains how she
sets up her own notebook for writing a novel. Chapter 3 covers “the
Preliminaries” and proposes the following divisions for the writer’s notebook: a
calendar (to measure progress); a list of potential titles; a chronology in two
parts, the first listing a chapter-by-chapter summary and the second providing
information about characters and story events; and a section to explore theme
and situation.
In Chapter 4,
she gets to “the Heart of the Matter.” The notebook sections described are for:
plotting, characters, an outline, material to be checked (including matters for
research as well as details to be verified), a bibliography of sources
consulted, research notes, background unique and perhaps created for the novel,
and a collection of potential names.

Some of the
sections in Whitney’s notebook are specific for a single work while others may
be continued through several works. She offers her method as a system that
works for her and may be adapted by other writers to suit their practice.


The second
part of Whitney’s book is about structuring a story and has chapters explaining
how to deal with the beginning, middle, and end; add suspense and emotion;
create intriguing characters; deal appropriately with time, transitions, and
flashbacks; and revise. The shortest chapter provides advice on getting the
book published.

At the end,
Whitney says, “This is a book about writing.
I hope it’s a book you will mark up and use – as I do my collected books on
writing. I hope as well that you’ve found in it some of the encouragement we
all need to keep us going.” (p. 140)

How amazing
that Whitney’s voice continues to humbly reach out to future generations
seeking the same type of career she achieved through hard work, persistence,
and taking advantage of any luck that came her way. No wonder Whitney has been
viewed not only as a grand master of the craft, but also a great supporter of
the profession. She’s an incredible role model.

Have you
found the “perfect” method? Are you willing to share it? Who’s your role model?

Go Set a Watchman – a Draft Not a Sequel

Go Set A Watchman – a Draft Not a Sequel by Debra H. Goldstein

Once upon a time, a book by Harper Lee titled To Kill a Mockingbird was published.  The book was tightly written, had beautiful descriptions of the people living in a small southern town, and provided a moral compass for generations of readers. Despite the awards the book won and the adoration of the public, Ms. Lee said she wouldn’t publish another book and she held true to her word until 2015 when, after the death of her sister, who also was her personal lawyer, a manuscript “discovered” in Harper Lee’s sister’s lockbox was published.

The found manuscript, Go Set A Watchman, was explained as being the original Harper Lee version that after a year of rewriting under the guidance of her editor became the To Kill a Mockingbird published in 1960. Supposedly, her then editor felt the draft manuscript was flawed but believed the parts dealing with the main character as a child with the story told from the child’s perspective were strong enough to build a book around.

The editor was right.

My disclaimer at this point:  since I began writing novels and short stories, I read differently.  Rather than reading simply for enjoyment, I can’t help taking books apart structurally.  Although Go Set A Watchman deals with events and characters after the time of To Kill a Mockingbird with flashbacks to the main character’s childhood, it is not a sequel.  It is a draft.

Repetitive passages, instances of showing not telling, point of view shifts, and even a nickname reference without establishing a set-up for it are problematic – especially since readers are so familiar with To Kill a Mockingbird.  The book isn’t bad, but it isn’t the story or even the characters associated with Mockingbird unless it is a passage dealing with the children.  Those passages are engaging. A careful reader will find many full paragraphs and partial references made to events or actions that are fleshed out in the final To Kill a Mockingbird manuscript.  Some characters are left out, others added and there are major differences between the arthritic Atticus of Watchman and his dignified characterization in Mockingbird.  Most importantly, some of the points that Harper Lee subtlety made in lines readers recall after closing the last page of To Kill a Mockingbird can only be found in long speeches or between the lines in Go Set A Watchman.

If there had been no To Kill a Mockingbird, Watchman would have been read as a first novel with little to no lasting impact.  Although Scout is a young woman in this book, to call it a sequel is a shame.  It should be read and perhaps even taught in schools as what it is — a draft that with revision eventually became a masterpiece.

When Characters Withhold Information

by Marjorie Brody

I usually know my characters well before I begin to write. Certainly I know what they want, what they fear, what their major flaw is, and what changes they
will make in the life of the story, i.e., their character arc. But recently, I met a very stubborn protagonist. I should probably capitalize that word
Stubborn. I could probably capitalize every letter of that word. STUBBORN.

I’d been working with this character for some time now and yet, it seemed she was avoiding me. I knew the secret that kicked off her adventure and kept her
driven, but it seemed as if something was missing. That there was something deeper going on—the secret beneath the secret—and for the life of me, I
couldn’t figure it out. And I needed to figure it out in order to create the emotional impact I desired with the story.

I decided to interview her.

Interviewing characters is not an uncommon practice for authors. The author asks the character questions about his or her personality, and/or desires,
and/or anything story related—or not story related. The process allows the author’s subconscious to surface and reveal important information not previously
known. It’s not a technique I’ve had to use often, but I was tired of this particular character giving me the slip. She knew something I didn’t and, by
heaven, I was going to force it out of her. After all, didn’t I have a right to know her deepest, darkest, most self-protected secret if I was going to
write her story? Didn’t she owe me an explanation? I was her creator, for crying out loud.

So, I asked her what she really wanted, really, really wanted and pushed her to go beneath the surface. I confronted her about why she was not allowing me
to understand her at the level I needed in order to complete the story. What happened surprised me.

She accused me of probing where I had no business probing and challenged me with, “You ever think maybe I don’t want my story made public?” Which
naturally had me ask why she didn’t want people to know her story, what was she afraid of? To which she went on the attack stating she wanted to forget her
past and I had no right to force her to remember.

Standoff time.

I’d invested so much time on this character. How dare she. I mean, the story was powerful as it was, but I wanted to move it to another, more profound,
level. And this character was holding out on me, I just knew it.

I threatened to get a new protagonist if she didn’t cooperate.

She attacked my goal for writing this story. Then attacked my most vulnerable writing insecurity.

I accused her of being mean and hitting below the belt.

She accused me of not facing the fact that maybe she was mean. Deep-down. A lot meaner than I’d ever imagined. “You willing to write about me now?”

To prove her point, she tossed out a grenade that blew me off my feet: somebody else killed the antagonist.

For those of you who are writers, you understand the implication of this revelation. The protagonist, and only the protagonist, is allowed to defeat the
antagonist.

My character was forcing me to rewrite the entire story.

I told my character that I’d get back to her in the morning, but I let a week of passive-aggressive avoidance go by. I simmered with her revelation. And
then I understood. My character did give me what I asked of her. The secret under her secret was that she believed someone else killed the
protagonist. So whoa, baby. Do I have a surprise for her. Let her think what she wants. I’ll show her who’s the story master.

So, lessons learned. My characters can help me write their stories. And, I can be as STUBBORN as they.

What happens when characters hold out on you? In what ways do you allow your characters to tap into your subconscious?

Marjorie Brody is an award-winning author and Pushcart Prize Nominee. Her short stories appear in literary magazines and the Short Story America Anthology, Vols. I, II and III. Her debut psychological suspense novel, TWISTED, was awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2013 Great Midwest Book Festival and won the Texas Association of Authors 2014 Best Young Adult Fiction Book Award. TWISTED is available in digital and print at http://tinyurl.com/cvl5why or http://tinyurl.com/bqcgywlMarjorie invites you to visit her at www.marjoriespages.com.

That 70s Vibe…

Is it research or inspiration? Things I’ve found ‘researching’ the seventies for the Country
Club Murders:
This quote: A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle –
attributed to both Gloria Steinem and Irina Dunn. Because my books are set in
the United States, if I use it (when I use it) I’ll give Steinem credit.
This advertisement: 
There are so many things wrong. As a mother I
object to the cigarette, the lack of brassiere and a young girl seeing Last
Tango in Paris (a movie in which a young woman enters into an abusive, anonymous
relationship with a broken man twice her age is not really the best thing for a
girl to watch). That said, there are worse ads…
There are no words…
This carpet: 
Apparently it needed to be raked. *shudder*
This website: The Jewel Box.  Given all the discussion of transgender
living of late, I thought it was fascinating.

This song: 
A bit of trivia—Janis Ian was the
first musical guest on Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975.
This museum: 
A Kansas City treasure. Corinthian Hall was built as a private home.
This dress: 

Introduced in 1974, Diane Von Furstenberg’s wrap dress has stood the test of time.
Feeling nostalgic? The Deep End is available now. Guaranteed to Bleed will release October 13, 2015. Clouds in my Coffee will be available in 2016.
Julie Mulhern is a Kansas City native who grew up on a steady diet of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her family, working out at the gym and finding new ways to keep her house spotlessly clean–and she’s got an active imagination. Truth is–she’s an expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog and the dust bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions. 

Her first romance was a finalist in the 2014 Golden Heart® contest. That book, A Haunting Desire, released July 28, 2015.

Julie also writes mysteries. The Deep End (available now) is her first mystery and is the winner of The Sheila Award. Look for book two, Guaranteed to Bleed, October 13, 2015.

Visit her at www.juliemulhern.com.

How We Spend Our Time

Sparkle Abbey welcomes Lori Rader-Day

Today we’re thrilled to welcome our friend, the brilliant, talented, and award-winning author, Lori Rader-Day who shares her thoughts on how we spend our time. 


Take it away, Lori…

Big news. I have all the time there is. I’m newly out on my own as a full-time writer for a while and now I’m considering the ways in which a break from the 9-to-5 grind might be used to its fullest potential.

Do I set off on a multi-state bookstore tour?

Do I offer to visit every library in the state?

Do I visit all the friends I haven’t seen in two or more years, ever since I’ve had to start using all my day-job vacation time for book conferences and such?

*deep breath*

There’s a certain itching panic involved in realizing you could do WHATEVER THE HECK YOU WANT. That you have, for possibly the first time ever, the time to focus on making your dreams come true.

I should be doing. I should be going. I should teach here, speak there, offer this, volunteer that.

And yet—what did I want from this time so much that I made the leap in the first place? What was so important to me?

I wanted the time from my time. And not time for more promotions or more blog posts (with apologies to Sparkle Abbey, for hosting me today). Time for writing.

So. Writers retreats. Should I apply for a two-week residency somewhere? I’ve never had two weeks to rub together before. It’s attractive—coming off two years without a vacation, though, I wonder if I would panic at that vast amount of alone time.

A few of my friends have taken mini-retreats to write. Book a hotel room, get away for a day or two, scribble. That sounds pretty good, too, and less of a commitment. But am I the only person who’s stayed in a hotel recently? They don’t exactly inspire me, and sometimes you get neighbors who have booked a hotel room for distinctly different pleasures than silence. Ahem.

What I want to do is create a daily retreat practice at home, based in reality and therefore perhaps more sustainable over the time I have off work and into whatever I do in the future. I know it’s crazy, but I like my husband and dog. I don’t want to spend two weeks away from them. I want to do the morning dog walk and then take my husband away from his desk for dinner. Instead of escaping from my life, what I want to do is escape into it—live it deeply and with an attention that I haven’t had in a while. Instead of retreating, actually, I want to charge forward.

So? No solutions here. Only thoughts that haven’t quite coalesced into a plan. If anyone has ideas on how to make the best use of time—golden, precious time—leave a comment. I’d love to know how you used your time best or would spend a few months of freedom if you got the chance.

By the way, thanks for spending the time you have on this post. Anne Dillard said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” We all just want to spend our days, our hours, our minutes on things that matter. I wish that for everyone.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, Lori. And readers, please be sure to check out Lori’s latest book Little Pretty Things. Kirkus Reviews says: “Rader-Day…writes absorbingly.” 


We agree!

Lori Rader-Day’s debut mystery, The Black Hour (Seventh Street Books, 2014), received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal and was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her second mystery, Little Pretty Things, is out now. Her short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Time Out Chicago, Good Housekeeping, and others. She lives in Chicago with her husband and spoiled dog and is active in the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter and a member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers.