I had always heard that if you are going to write, make sure it's on a topic that you know about. Have you ever read an article or book, and while reading it you wondered where in the world "some of this came from"? I have, and it's so sad as I would really get interested in what was going on and then be blown out of the water by erroneous facts or well meaning intentions that went bad.
I think that's what was my greatest fear in doing the first part of this book, especially the last several chapters. While not growing up in an alcoholic home or being around alcoholism, I had and have NO clue what the homelife is like, let alone knew how to write a storyline around it. While it wasn't really talked about by my grandparents or aunts and uncles, I'm slowly learning about the issues and things my grandmother and her immediate family went through at the hands of her father. As I listened to a cousin, who lived with her father at her grandmother's house (my g-grandmother), I was truly amazed at not only what had gone on, but how a "generational curse" can continue on until someone makes a conscious effort to break the cycle. I remember smiling when hearing that my g-grandmother would always pass the gift of Jesus on to this particular cousin by one simple act. She would hold her granddaughter's face, look her in the eye, and smile before saying, "Remember, Jesus loves you.". As simple as that.
Mamaw had great faith and trusted in Whom she believed in. As I have learned about her from those that remember her best, I truly now can see how the alcoholism ran the lives of those living in the household. How it etched a daily way of life into the lives of those trying to escape the presence of the one who was the alcoholic, not to mention carried over into their own homes and those of their childrens' homes decades later. It really gives a new meaning to, "Train up a child in the way it should go and it will not soon depart from it." If you train a child to be fearful, they will be fearful. If you train up a child to be loving, they will be loving. The longer the training, the more ingrained it will be, thus becoming a part of their very personality long into the adulthood and senior years. These same stories are now what's opening my eyes to snippets of conversations with my grandmother decades ago and her feelings towards drinking and alcohol.
All this to say, Matthew Conner not only is a complex person, but someone with a complex problem that is shoved onto his family as well. They don't want it but are powerless to its effects. Putting all that into words, into a viable working story, when you have never lived it or been a part of such a lifestyle can be almost impossible. Didn't God say, though, "All things are possible with Him"? That's how I viewed it as I wrote on Matthew's story, praying the entire time. As things began to slowly pan out, it became easier and now the whole story is rolling along nicely.
In the next chapter, I believe it's Chapter Nine, will be the introduction of "Alexandria Ford". It took a little bit to figure out a last name as I wanted it to be a regional name but not a family name. Then I remembered the family name of a dear cousin of mine and adopted it as "Alexandria's" last name. As I stated in an earlier blog, "Alexandria" will be based on my distant cousin Lieta. I am so excited to write her story, yet scared at the same time. So, as with Matthew's story, I'll be doing a lot of praying and seeking God's wisdom in what to write and how to write it. Research on Aplastic Anemia, what Lieta died from, has been interesting and will require me to talk to a cousin or two in the medical field to make sure the medical aspect (illness and symptoms) is as accurate as possible. It'll require me to make a few more phone calls to Lieta's siblings to hopefully jar their memories of her last year and what she went through... how they knew she was as sick as she was. As special as it will be to write her story, I pray I do it justice.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sick Puppy update
Well, while I'm ready to crash... the "sick puppy" is bouncing around here and there as if last night never happened. In fact, she's been a little too friendly tonight as she wants ALL my attention while I'm trying to write. I think she finally gave up about ten minutes ago as she's staring at me on the couch... just watching and waiting for the right moment to run over and jump up in the chair with me to "warm" my backside. Thank goodness for fans!
Here's a pic of Baby, affectionately known as "Pookie". This is of her and her Froggie squeak toy. Froggie is the only "flying frog" I know of in the city of Louisville... as when we play, Froggie goes a sailin'! In this pic, it's as if she was daring me not to come get Froggie... saying something like, "Back away and the Frog doesn't get hurt!"
That's my Pookie!
Sick Puppy and Lieta
Well, here I sit at 1:38am in the blessed morning... attending to a sick puppy. She's 8 years old, so not technically a puppy, but she has a puppy face and plays like a puppy... even sleeps like a puppy.
Baby, I call her Pookie, was a blessing in disguise almost two years ago. Not quite two months after my brother's sudden death, my sister calls and tells me of her grandmother-in-law being in bad health (not expected to live) and owning a dog that is half Jack Russell and half Chihuahua. She asks if we might be interested as the dog might help pull mom out of her depression. We talked a little and I called her back, arranging a time to go see the dog. Little did I know that roughly two hours later, this little bundle would come home with me... and a few hours later I'd see my mother smile for the first time since my brother's death.
This was all in January, and come the end of April, mom's depression as well as osteoarthritis got the better of her. She fell, breaking three ribs. A week after taking her into the hospital, she died. While the death certificate says, "pneumonia", it was really "a broken heart complicated by three broken ribs". While my world was spinning beforehand, it went topsy-turvy. This little bundle of a dog, just over 20 lbs., would be my reason to come home at night, my determination to get up in the morning and keep a routine. I think I have as many pics of her on my computer and camera phone as what most parents and grandparents do of their own flesh and blood.
Tonight, though, is the first time she's been sick since we got her. She has sinus problems as well as allergies and while I had the windows open all day, I never once gave it a thought that it might affect her. It hasn't in the past. Evidently today, it did, as I sit here now waiting for her to stop initiating my carpet, sofa, and chair. With not having kids... I guess this is about as close as it gets to "being up all night with a sick kid".
I talked with my cousin, Lovera, Friday night about her sister. Twyla Lieta Lynch was a very special young lady who was cut down in life all too suddenly. One of ten children to Rufus and Katie Mae Minter Lynch, she had a specialness about her. Born in 1925, she learned to play the guitar and sang southern gospel music with some of her cousins as she was growing up. Pictures show Lieta, as she was called by family, most always with a smile or a grin on her face. When she graduated from Irvington High School, she became a teacher, teaching at the one room school house in High Plains in Breckinridge County. It was while she was teaching that she found out she was sick. Today's term would be leukemia. Cancer.
One of her sisters begged to stay in eighth grade another year so she could spend time with her big sister. She was allowed to, and spent the year helping her sister with the other students. In January of 1944 Lieta was taken to St. Joseph's Infirmary in Louisville (there's apartments on the location now). She never came home once she entered the hospital. I can only imagine the devastation her parents felt, but know that their faith in God is what carried them through burying the second of two children that had died by this time.
Lieta is who I am patterning a minor character after in the book I'm presently working on. While I haven't come up with a last name as of yet, I will be drawing from Lieta's experiences and her personality when I write on the character of "Alexandria". The name of Alexandria is of someone dear to my heart and I wanted to save it to use for someone special... and the memory of Lieta and her life is perfect.
Whether a person, or a puppy, you never know when life will throw your a curve you least expect. Sometimes it's just missing hours of sleep. Sometimes it's missing years of a life that should have been.
Baby, I call her Pookie, was a blessing in disguise almost two years ago. Not quite two months after my brother's sudden death, my sister calls and tells me of her grandmother-in-law being in bad health (not expected to live) and owning a dog that is half Jack Russell and half Chihuahua. She asks if we might be interested as the dog might help pull mom out of her depression. We talked a little and I called her back, arranging a time to go see the dog. Little did I know that roughly two hours later, this little bundle would come home with me... and a few hours later I'd see my mother smile for the first time since my brother's death.
This was all in January, and come the end of April, mom's depression as well as osteoarthritis got the better of her. She fell, breaking three ribs. A week after taking her into the hospital, she died. While the death certificate says, "pneumonia", it was really "a broken heart complicated by three broken ribs". While my world was spinning beforehand, it went topsy-turvy. This little bundle of a dog, just over 20 lbs., would be my reason to come home at night, my determination to get up in the morning and keep a routine. I think I have as many pics of her on my computer and camera phone as what most parents and grandparents do of their own flesh and blood.
Tonight, though, is the first time she's been sick since we got her. She has sinus problems as well as allergies and while I had the windows open all day, I never once gave it a thought that it might affect her. It hasn't in the past. Evidently today, it did, as I sit here now waiting for her to stop initiating my carpet, sofa, and chair. With not having kids... I guess this is about as close as it gets to "being up all night with a sick kid".
I talked with my cousin, Lovera, Friday night about her sister. Twyla Lieta Lynch was a very special young lady who was cut down in life all too suddenly. One of ten children to Rufus and Katie Mae Minter Lynch, she had a specialness about her. Born in 1925, she learned to play the guitar and sang southern gospel music with some of her cousins as she was growing up. Pictures show Lieta, as she was called by family, most always with a smile or a grin on her face. When she graduated from Irvington High School, she became a teacher, teaching at the one room school house in High Plains in Breckinridge County. It was while she was teaching that she found out she was sick. Today's term would be leukemia. Cancer.
One of her sisters begged to stay in eighth grade another year so she could spend time with her big sister. She was allowed to, and spent the year helping her sister with the other students. In January of 1944 Lieta was taken to St. Joseph's Infirmary in Louisville (there's apartments on the location now). She never came home once she entered the hospital. I can only imagine the devastation her parents felt, but know that their faith in God is what carried them through burying the second of two children that had died by this time.
Lieta is who I am patterning a minor character after in the book I'm presently working on. While I haven't come up with a last name as of yet, I will be drawing from Lieta's experiences and her personality when I write on the character of "Alexandria". The name of Alexandria is of someone dear to my heart and I wanted to save it to use for someone special... and the memory of Lieta and her life is perfect.
Whether a person, or a puppy, you never know when life will throw your a curve you least expect. Sometimes it's just missing hours of sleep. Sometimes it's missing years of a life that should have been.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
On to the next chapter...
Well, it's on to Chapter 7 now. I had thought about taking Chapter 6 and making it longer than it has actually turned out. In the end, it was so emotional for me to write, I didn't want to do anything but this particular family for the entire chapter. When you read this section, this will make sense. Chapter 7, though, will be the beginning of a budding romance and the return of a beloved character because of events in the previous chapter.
Am now looking in to 1850 probate laws and estate settlement laws for Kentucky. Last thing I need to do is write something and it not be as plausable or "realistic" as possible. Hahahaaa... and the last thing I want to do is be bored out of my mind reading dry material that I barely understand... so THAT little task (reading the laws) should be an interesting turn!
Oh, and Mr. Matthew Conner.... despicable character of the "month".... he took a somewhat humanly turn. A developing mystery into just WHAT the events were that caused him to go mean and seek an escape in alcohol has been introduced. I know in real life there are those that truly are mean just because they want to be mean. I just can't help, though, thinking that there wasn't something somewhere in the past that affected the individual which made them give up on thinking there was good in people.... somewhere deep down. Thing is, some people have their "good" buried so deep within that you really have to search them to find it. That means a lifetime of searching before it's finally found. And then for others... it simple means a visit with Him for it to begin to peek out which saves a lifetime of trying. But back to Matthew. His demons are real people who have hurt him beyond the hurt of losing his mother when he was young. And one in particular not only hurt him, he wanted to drive him from the family home and take away whatever he could to ensure HE had the family inheritence. In the end, while it may seem he succeeded, nothing bad ever succeeds for long! At least, not in my books!
Happy Saturday everyone... should be a good one, so get out and enjoy it while it lasts!
Am now looking in to 1850 probate laws and estate settlement laws for Kentucky. Last thing I need to do is write something and it not be as plausable or "realistic" as possible. Hahahaaa... and the last thing I want to do is be bored out of my mind reading dry material that I barely understand... so THAT little task (reading the laws) should be an interesting turn!
Oh, and Mr. Matthew Conner.... despicable character of the "month".... he took a somewhat humanly turn. A developing mystery into just WHAT the events were that caused him to go mean and seek an escape in alcohol has been introduced. I know in real life there are those that truly are mean just because they want to be mean. I just can't help, though, thinking that there wasn't something somewhere in the past that affected the individual which made them give up on thinking there was good in people.... somewhere deep down. Thing is, some people have their "good" buried so deep within that you really have to search them to find it. That means a lifetime of searching before it's finally found. And then for others... it simple means a visit with Him for it to begin to peek out which saves a lifetime of trying. But back to Matthew. His demons are real people who have hurt him beyond the hurt of losing his mother when he was young. And one in particular not only hurt him, he wanted to drive him from the family home and take away whatever he could to ensure HE had the family inheritence. In the end, while it may seem he succeeded, nothing bad ever succeeds for long! At least, not in my books!
Happy Saturday everyone... should be a good one, so get out and enjoy it while it lasts!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
.... Chapter Five.... Chapter Six
It's the end of another work week and the housework just won't go away. Two loads of laundry in, a trip to the store, and now I'm sitting here waiting for possible rain to hit. I think any rain might put me more in the mood for what I have to write over most of the chapter I'm working on.
I'm now at, and have been working on, Chapter Six over the past two days. While it's been trying, at times, to get down what I want to say... it's actually been coming a little better than I expected. Now that I'm in to Chapter Six, not only is it flowing, but I had to do something I didn't want to do. The whole time I'm thinking... "I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this". Some might say, "Then don't do it.". I wish it were that simple. If I don't do it, then I can't achieve what I need. If I go ahead and do it, then I can continue on with the story like it's suppose to be. Boy am I gonna hear it later on from Lexi! She's one of my kids from church that I took care of in the nursery back about five years ago. God has given her quite a love for reading. At age ten, I think her mom said she's reading on a 7th grade level. So if for no other reason, I write because of the simple ability to give her (and girls like her) the chance to read something that their parents won't have to worry about the content of. Anyone else is gravy on the roast beef sandwich!
Have a great weekend!
I'm now at, and have been working on, Chapter Six over the past two days. While it's been trying, at times, to get down what I want to say... it's actually been coming a little better than I expected. Now that I'm in to Chapter Six, not only is it flowing, but I had to do something I didn't want to do. The whole time I'm thinking... "I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this". Some might say, "Then don't do it.". I wish it were that simple. If I don't do it, then I can't achieve what I need. If I go ahead and do it, then I can continue on with the story like it's suppose to be. Boy am I gonna hear it later on from Lexi! She's one of my kids from church that I took care of in the nursery back about five years ago. God has given her quite a love for reading. At age ten, I think her mom said she's reading on a 7th grade level. So if for no other reason, I write because of the simple ability to give her (and girls like her) the chance to read something that their parents won't have to worry about the content of. Anyone else is gravy on the roast beef sandwich!
Have a great weekend!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
New Purchasing Links on Site
Well, I finally think I'm close to getting down this whole blogging thing. I'm learning, step by step, what to do (and with a LOT of help from the forum section) and now have one more task under my belt.
On the side bar is listed all the books I've written. With one click on the button, they are available for purchase. As book covers are completed and future books written, a preview (when available) of the next book will be seen as well. I just added the new cover for "The Heart Broken".... something I'm especially proud of!
Both my cousins, in doing "The Heart's Desire" and "The Heart Broken" have seemingly jumped into my thoughts and were able to paint/draw a picture of what I was seeing as I wrote/am writing each book. I'm just utterly amazed at the prayer that was answered. I can be a pain in the butt when it comes to doing a project and getting it "just the way I want it"... ask anyone I work with. In short... I'm VERY opinionated (which isn't good all the time). So when I saw both these covers for the first time... I about fell over with excitement... it couldn't have been any closer to what I was envisioning if I would have taken a snapshot of my mental picture and placed it on the covers.
Roberta and Kirstie... you guys are THE best!!
On the side bar is listed all the books I've written. With one click on the button, they are available for purchase. As book covers are completed and future books written, a preview (when available) of the next book will be seen as well. I just added the new cover for "The Heart Broken".... something I'm especially proud of!
Both my cousins, in doing "The Heart's Desire" and "The Heart Broken" have seemingly jumped into my thoughts and were able to paint/draw a picture of what I was seeing as I wrote/am writing each book. I'm just utterly amazed at the prayer that was answered. I can be a pain in the butt when it comes to doing a project and getting it "just the way I want it"... ask anyone I work with. In short... I'm VERY opinionated (which isn't good all the time). So when I saw both these covers for the first time... I about fell over with excitement... it couldn't have been any closer to what I was envisioning if I would have taken a snapshot of my mental picture and placed it on the covers.
Roberta and Kirstie... you guys are THE best!!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Rough Week
Finally Friday is here!
Starting on Tuesday, we said "goodbye" to at least one student every day as they started "big kids' school". Then to top it off, a dear long time friend that I use to go to church with died yesterday morning. Lots of mixed emotions there. While it hurts to say goodbye to one more person (count is now at 8 since Dec., 2007), I've talked with friends and reconnected in ways I haven't in over ten years. Bittersweet doesn't seem to accurately cover it.
Right now I've got the finances to where I can place "The Heart's Desire" in a book writing contest. Still praying for the rest to come in as I really would like to participate at the November book fair I was invited to at the Galt House... only time will tell. For now, though, just taking it one day at a time and waiting for the first residual check to come in. Sometime next week I'll be making a copy of that check so I can place it in a frame and hang it on the wall next to my first book review. Exciting!
Still working on "The Heart Broken". Roberta (my cousin) sent in the painting she did for the book's cover and I was blown away. Just like with Kirstie (another cousin), they were able to capture exactly what was in my head and get it down exactly right! Now to get the words and story to be as good as the cover.
The character of Matthew Conner is causing a little trepidation with me as he's to be a despicable individual in the eyes of just about anyone who is remotely human. I had tried writing the story of my grandmother's father back last year and really struggled to write. Due to possible liable issues, as some individuals were still living and issues were very "touchy", I opted to let it go. It would have been a very "dark" book as my grandmother's father was not a very kind man to his wife or children and loved his alcohol and alcohol making. Matthew Conner is based on him. While I'll be taking dramatic license, there are some instances that I'll be pulling from that are from real life and are difficult for me to visualize and put words to. So with each writing, I have to take a step back, reassess where I'm at and where I'm going, and make sure it jives with what I have in mind for the end of this book. Thankfully I have everything I wrote last year and can pull off of it so as to save on typing... but it's still hard none the less.
Well, off to writing!
Dana
Starting on Tuesday, we said "goodbye" to at least one student every day as they started "big kids' school". Then to top it off, a dear long time friend that I use to go to church with died yesterday morning. Lots of mixed emotions there. While it hurts to say goodbye to one more person (count is now at 8 since Dec., 2007), I've talked with friends and reconnected in ways I haven't in over ten years. Bittersweet doesn't seem to accurately cover it.
Right now I've got the finances to where I can place "The Heart's Desire" in a book writing contest. Still praying for the rest to come in as I really would like to participate at the November book fair I was invited to at the Galt House... only time will tell. For now, though, just taking it one day at a time and waiting for the first residual check to come in. Sometime next week I'll be making a copy of that check so I can place it in a frame and hang it on the wall next to my first book review. Exciting!
Still working on "The Heart Broken". Roberta (my cousin) sent in the painting she did for the book's cover and I was blown away. Just like with Kirstie (another cousin), they were able to capture exactly what was in my head and get it down exactly right! Now to get the words and story to be as good as the cover.
The character of Matthew Conner is causing a little trepidation with me as he's to be a despicable individual in the eyes of just about anyone who is remotely human. I had tried writing the story of my grandmother's father back last year and really struggled to write. Due to possible liable issues, as some individuals were still living and issues were very "touchy", I opted to let it go. It would have been a very "dark" book as my grandmother's father was not a very kind man to his wife or children and loved his alcohol and alcohol making. Matthew Conner is based on him. While I'll be taking dramatic license, there are some instances that I'll be pulling from that are from real life and are difficult for me to visualize and put words to. So with each writing, I have to take a step back, reassess where I'm at and where I'm going, and make sure it jives with what I have in mind for the end of this book. Thankfully I have everything I wrote last year and can pull off of it so as to save on typing... but it's still hard none the less.
Well, off to writing!
Dana
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