Train

Writer’s Cramp—November 5, 2013  You or your character are taking the subway home. The passenger next to you (who is a stranger) gets off at the stop before yours, and without saying a word, leaves an envelope with your name on it on his seat. Write the STORY or POEM from there.

Train

I couldn’t call him back to say he had left something behind in his hurry to get off the subway train. The action had been too deliberate. I had seen him pull the envelope out of the inside pocket of his jacket, stand and place it on his seat. He tapped it twice as if to indicate that it needed to stay there. He stepped off the train without a backward glance. I watched him walk away until he was just another business suit amid a crowd of commuters. I looked around the train car to see if anyone else had witnessed his strange behavior. The teen slumped in the seat across from me was picking the black polish off his finger nails and bobbing his head to whatever music was being piped through his earphones. An elder lady reached down to pull her shopping bags closer to her. A middle aged man popped his newspaper after turning a page.

                I jumped when someone tapped my arm. A young woman stood in front of the seat the man had just vacated. She held the envelope in her hand as if to offer it to me. I started to raise my hand palm out to let her know, no it did not belong to me, when I saw it. My name was written in bold letters across the front of the envelope.  I noticed a tremble in my hand as I took it from her.

                “Thank you,” slipped off my lips.

                She took the seat next to me.

                “Why is the envelope outlined in black?” she asked.

                “It used to indicate a death notice in the old days,” I answered. The significance of my response struck me. But it made no sense. I cudgeled my brain to try and find one familiar thing about the man who had just gotten off the train but I knew he was a complete stranger.

                “Oh, I’m so sorry,” the girl said.

                Her words seeped into my bones. I wanted to fling the offending envelope away. Angry words echoed through my head, slammed doors, hateful-mean-cruel words to wound, a hastily packed bag. I was stroking the face of the envelope as the memories flooded back. Nights spent on the street, a determination to never look back and then a lifetime of unspeakable things; hunger, desperation, humiliation.

                I was all ready to tell the woman next to me it was a mistake. An envelope left by another commuter. It was pure coincidence that it carried my name, Jane Porter, a name from another time. I screwed up my courage and tore open the envelope. I unfolded the letter.

                “Janie,” it said at the top of the letter. My eyes filled with tears. It was like a soft caress that pet name from so long ago. I brushed my sleeve across my wet cheeks and read on. “I hired a private detective to find you. I instructed him to get this letter to you. We didn’t know it but your mother was sick when you left. Cancer. She fought hard hoping against hope that you would come home. Her last words were ‘tell Janie I’m so sorry and make sure she knows how much I love her. Tell her it doesn’t matter what she has done she will always be welcome home. Find her, oh please dear God, find her.’ There are train tickets and a credit card. Come home Janie. I need you. Love your Dad.”

                I looked in the envelope and found the tickets and the credit card. A shudder passed through me as I suppressed the desire to sob. It felt like a physical weight had been lifted from my shoulders. A small mewling sound interrupted my thoughts. I bent my head and brushed my lips against the tiny head nestled against my chest. I gently adjusted my son in the carrier harnessed to me.

                “We are going home little man. Yes, you and I are going home.”

Two Halves Meet

      I am singing the Hallelujah chorus in my head. No my dears I have not finished the novel but I have joined the two halves. I started writing Heir and after a few chapters (Chapters 1-12) I decided to skip ahead to somewhere near the end of the book and write six chapters (Chapters 23-28). Then I went back and worked on getting the two halves to meet up. Today is the red letter day when I made that happen. I finished Chapter 22. Now I only have Chapters 29-31 to complete and the epilogue and I'll be done. It now has approximately 124,000 words, 460 pages. The finished product should have about 140,000, 500+ pages. I am almost giddy.
      John just asked me after this one is finished how many other books am I working on. I sheepishly told him 9. There are two more books that go along with Heir. Yes that makes it a trilogy. It will be called the Worlds without End series. Then three fairy tale rewrites all with Bear themes. Three Jane Austen era books and one Contemporary Romance. They are all in various stages of progress. From just idea stage to several hundred pages written.

     I just wanted to celebrate!!!!

                             

Journal Writing

I am a journal writer. I have been writing in my journal since I was 21. A journal is different than a diary. Diaries hold your most closely held secrets. Things you hope no one will ever read but that are cathartic to write about.
A journal is something you hope your descendants will read to get to know you and what life put in your path.
I can not say I have been faithful in writing a daily entry. There are some rather glaring holes in the past 35 years, but.....I have written several journals worth. My thought process often goes to the idea that something that has happened is note worthy and should be included in my journal. I'm sad to say not all the things I thought were note worthy got written down.  Unfortunately those moments are now lost to the vagaries of time.
Some events are too painful to write about when they are fresh. It took me two years to be able to write about my father's death and a year and a half to write about my breast cancer diagnosis.
This week I have made it a goal to catch up on and go back and fill in some of those journal holes. It not only has been great to get events recorded but it has also lifted a burden of guilt that I felt every time I tried to write on any of my books.
I haven't filled in all the holes of the past few years but I am getting closer to filling in the gaps.

I also was able to write 1000 words on the Contemporary Romance (Hot Shot). Yeah! Only 2000 words to go till I join the two halves of Heir Apparent. Yeah!

Chapter 21 completed

I have been writing on the Sephina novel now for 20 years. Sometimes more diligently than others. I wrote some chapters at the beginning of the novel and then skipped ahead and wrote Chapters 23-28. Now with the completion of Chapter 21 I only have one chapter to bring the two pieces together and then three chapters to finish. I can feel like I will finally be able to get it finished. I have so many stories in my head and I think about them during my quiet moments. I love when little bits of inspirations come like naming Aleira and Braden's son Derkane and looking forward to the day when Braden and Sephina have a son naming him Ablen. Thus the makings of a story of these two brothers that parallels the story of Cane and Abel. See it just never stops.

A Nathan Story

Pop a Zit

Nathan gripped the handles of the large brown paper bag. It was a very big bag and he was just a small, but careful, boy. The sack held a red shirt, navy shorts and a clean pair of underpants. His favorite blue blanket lay on top of his clothes. He looked up at the six grown-ups standing around him. It was nighttime so Julia and Emily were already in bed. Before they walked out the door he hugged his Dad and Mom goodbye. He felt very excited he was going over to Papa and G-Ju’s house to spend the night. Aunt Cristin buckled him into his car seat then squeezed into the back seat of the car next to him. Uncle Daniel sat in the back seat with them. G-Ju drove and Papa sat up front.

The inside of the car was dark. Only the lights from the occasional street lamps would suddenly send everything into brilliant relief. Daniel reached over and poked Nathan in the ribs.
 “Nathan’s it,” he said.

 Nathan poked Cristin.

“Cristin’s it,” Nathan declared.
 Cristin poked Papa.

“Papa’s it,” she said.
 Papa reached back and poked Nathan.

 “Nathan’s it,” he boasted.

The play became fast and furious the words ringing through the car until the words got slurred. G-Ju started laughing and everyone looked at her because she wasn’t even playing. She was driving. “It sounds like you are saying ‘pop a zit’ when you say ‘Papa’s it’. Everyone else laughed Nathan just shook his head. He didn’t see why that was funny.

As soon as they got to Papa and G-Ju’s house it was time for Nathan to go to bed. His room was downstairs next door to Papa and G-Ju’s room. He slept on the bottom bunk. This was always his bed when he spent the night. A stack of picture books sat on the end-table next to Nathan’s bed. He loved for someone to read him stories before he went to sleep.

In the morning he jumped out of bed and ran into Papa and G-Ju’s room. Papa and G-Ju were snoring like cows but they woke up when Nathan jumped on their bed. Nathan was excited because he and Papa were going to do a special project out in Papa’s workshop in the garage. A week or so ago he and Papa had made a tool box for Nathan just his size. They had carefully picked out tools to put in the box that Nathan could use. Today they were going to make a treasure box for Julia.

He had worried all week that he had gotten a tool box and Julia and Emily didn’t get anything. Nathan loves his sisters and always wants things to be fair. He ate his breakfast and got dressed. Papa was sitting on his favorite big soft leather chair. Nathan climbed up on Papa’s lap.

“When do I get to use my tool box to help make Julia’s treasure box?” Nathan asked.

“Let’s go do that right now.” Papa said.

Nathan loved Papa’s workshop. There were big power tools, stacks of wood, workbenches with drawers full of cords, saw blades and work gloves. Beautiful handmade hand planes and bow saws hung on the wall with a myriad of other tools. Papa had explained to Nathan about how to use a bow saw a year or so before and when Papa made Nathan a bed for his room Nathan called it his bow saw bed.

They cut out the wood for Julia’s box and cut a groove for the lid to slide in. Then they glued and nailed the dado and rabbit joints together to form the box. Nathan tapped in a little piece of dowel into the hole in the lid for a handle.

Nathan was so excited when his mom and dad came with Julia and Emily to pick him up and take him home. He couldn’t wait for Julia to see her new treasure box. Julia loved it because her big brother had help make it for her.

Nathan gathered up all his clothes and blanket and put them back into his large brown paper bag. He hugged Papa and G-Ju and then Uncle Daniel and Aunt Cristin good-bye. He loved to spend the night at Papa and G-Ju’s but he was glad to be going home. He was a very brave boy to come and spend the night at Papa and G-Ju’s all by himself.

July 2011 While Katie, Joe and the kids were living in an apartment in Fort Worth waiting to move to NM.

Favorite Reads for 2012

Shannon Hale one of my favorite authors (she's LDS and writes YA Fantasy) near the end of the year she always posts her favorite books she has read that year. I decided at the beginning of 2012 to keep a reading journal so now I want to share with you some of my favorites for this year.
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson-YA Fiction. Tyler Miller is just part of the furniture at High School until he's caught putting graffiti on the High School. Now after a summer of a growth spurt and hard labor community service he suddenly goes from wallpaper to popular. But when he is wrongly accused of something heinous his life goes from bad to worst. I grumped through the first part of the book and then stayed up all night finishing it. I loved that through it all he did what was right and stood up for himself.
The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman-Four Corners based Indian Reservation Mystery. Officer Chee is investigating several seemingly unrelated cases; pawnshop burglery, John Doe murder and left in the desert and vandalism of a windmill.Then there is a plane crash in the desert. A drug deal gone wrong.
Chee brings in all together.
I love Tony Hillerman. My son-in-law gave this to me last year for Christmas. I consumed it in one gulp.
CROSSED by Ally Condie-YA dystopia. The second in the Trilogy which started with MATCHED. This story is told in the voice of Cassie and Ky. After they are separated Cassie is determined to be reunited with Ky but Ky is in the Outer Reaches and no one out there survives for longer than 6 months. Daniel and Cristin bought this for me for Christmas this year.
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale-YA fantasy, fairy tale rewrite. This was a reread for me I was able to get it on my Kindle for $2.51. She is a wonderful writer!!!
Austenland by Shannon Hale-Light Romance. Another reread. Jane inherits an all expenses paid vacation to Pembrook an Austen based resort. you dress and behave as they did at the time of  Regency England. 33 yr-old Jane is determined to finally put all her Fitzwilliam Darcy/Colin Firth fantasies to rest. Fun! Fun! They made a movie of this book and it was chosen for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Too Cool! I have extra copies if anyone wants to borrow it. If I see it on the discount self of the local book store I buy it.
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead-YA Fiction. Miranda finds a note in a book in her room after their hidden apartment key goes missing. It reads, "I'm coming to save your friend's life and my own, I ask two favors, First you must write me a letter..." Twelve year-old Mirand looses friends gains friends and tries to unravel the mystery of the notes she receives while her mom prepares to appear on $100,000 Pyramind.
The Christmas Homecoming by Anne Perry-Mystery. She is also an LDS author. I love to read anything by her.
Fire by Krisin Cashore-YA Fantasy. A companion novel to Graceling. Fire is the last human "monster" and she tries to right the terrible wrongs done by her father. The writing is well done. I. didn't like the moral message. Great tension throughout the book.
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins-YA Romance. Recommended by Shannon Hale. Fun light read.
Brooklyn by Colm Tolbin-Fiction. Eilis Lacey grows up in small town in Ireland. It soon becomes apparent that she will have to leave her small town to find a good paying job. Her priest knows of job opportunities in America. Eilis gets a job at department store, she lives in boarding house with other working girls. She never really makes any friends but finds romance at a local dance. I didn't love this book. The ending left me deflated. Others really liked it.
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James-Fiction. Isabella inherits, marries against everyone's wishes and advice and lives to regret it. My mom read it out loud to me as we traveled from Texas to Denver and back. A very lovely memory.
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury-Fiction. Doug Spaulding is twelve years old the summer of 1928, his little brother Tom is 10. Their summer is full of all the wonders of pre-world war two small town America. From new tennis shoes to dandelion wine, from the ice house to the ravine. There is death, more death, there is love and near death and all the people who make up Doug and Tom's world. It is very beautifully written. I laughed, I cried. I can't recommend it enough.
Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale-Mystery. Same setting as Austenland. Fun, light, fiction. Shannon has done it again. Taking us back to Penbrook. Some of the original cast members, some new  and murder most foul. She read alot of Agatha Christie to prepare to write this.
The Watsons & Emma Watson by Jane Austen and Joan Aiken-Fiction. Jane Austen's unfinished novel finished by Joan Aiken. It was delightful.
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery(author of Anne of Green Gables)-Fiction. Valancy's life is anything but exciting. She is 29 and lives with her mother and aunts. her life is regimented and colorless until the fateful day it rained. The family picnic was canceled.
Valancy works up enough courage to consult a heart doctor about the pains in her heart. The results change everything for her. Loved it! Loved it!
The Guernesey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer & Anne Barrows-Fiction. Written as a series of letters during post WWII, 1946. It tells the story of the Island of Guernsey's occupation by German troops for five years during the war. It was stunningly done. This book was wonderful, amazing. I chuckled, laughed out loud, and dropped tears on the page.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card-Science Fiction. Ender is a six year old genius. Who is being groomed to save the world. They are making a movie that should come out in 2013. Harrison Ford is starring in it. This is another reread for me. A Classic.
Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card-Science Fiction.The parellel book was written many years after Ender's Game. We see all the events of Ender's Game through Bean's story. Card laces his writing with alot of theology. I wept as Bean gave the final farewell to the soldiers of the final battle against the 'buggers'.
Mistmantle Chronicles: Urchin of the Riding Stars by M. I. McAllister  -YA Fantasy. Urchin is a squirrel who fell from the sky on the night of the Riding Stars. Mistmantle is an island shrouded by mist and populated by hedgehogs, moles, squirrels and otters. Urchin is different from the other squirrels, as a page at court he is in the thick of things.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson-Fantasy. I reread the last half of the book. Wonderful!
Farewell to Summer by Ray Bradbury-Fiction. Douglas Spaulding does not want the summer to end so he declares war. On the old men of the town, the town clock and against growing older. The writing is beautiful and lyrical. Sequel to Dandelion Wine.
Leven Thumps: The Return of Alder (Book 5, finale) by Obert Skye (Robert Smith)-YA Fantasy.
My niece's husband Ben Sowards did the illustrations for these books. I like them sometimes and hated them at other times. Recommended for ages 8-12.
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton-Fiction. A tiny girl is abandoned aboard a ship headed to Austrailia in 1913. The only clue to her identity is a small white suitcase with a book of illustrated fairy tales inside. It's a lovely read.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho-Fiction. A young shepherd boy takes a journey to find his personal legend. The journey shapes him as he learns to recognize the omens he is given and learns the language of all things. Delightful story reminded me a little of Og Mandino's Greatest Salesman.
The Room by Emma Donoghue-Fiction. Told in the voice of a five year old. This story is the final days of captivity for Jack and Ma. Jack was born in Room. Ma was kidnapped seven years earlier and has been living in this 11x11 foot cell. Old Nick makes visits at night. Very heart rending but soften by looking at it through Jack's eyes.
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton-Fiction. In the spirit of Downton Abby and Upstairs Downstairs. This is a mystery told by Grace the ladies maid to an aristocratic woman. This book flows by with an almost languid pace and the ending is the big pay off. I was proud of myself. Usually when a book is moving too slow for me I jump to the end to see if I like how it ends. I forced myself not to do that this time and it paid off.
How to Kill 11 Million People: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Know by Andy Andrews-Non Fiction.
How did the German people let 11 million people be systematically killed during WWII and not do anything about it. They were lied to over and over again and they believed it.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand-Non Fiction Biography of Louis Zamperini. Louie was an Olympic runner, bombardier  survived 40+ days in a rubber life raft and was a POW in a Japanese POW camp. John and I read this out loud together. It was an absolutely wonderful book. Very highly recommended.
The Wednesday Letters by Jason F Wright (author of the Christmas Jar)-Fiction. A story of love, discovery and redemption. Jack has written a letter every Wednesday to his dear wife Laurel. After their deaths their three adult children discover secrets kept as they read the letters. It was a lovely read.
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L Peck-Fiction. This is good old fashioned horror story. Soren Johansen, a Mormon geologist, finds himself across a desk from a demon who is telling him that he is going to hell now that he is dead. The obscure religion in India was the true religion. Soren's hell is trying to find his own story in an endless library of all the books that have been written, all the books that could have been written and every combination of the letters and symbols on the keyboard. I love a good horror story it made me think of some Alfred Hitchcock stories I've enjoyed.

So here's my list for 2012. I didn't post every book. I'm not proud to tell you I read a few (okay a lot) of fluffy Regency Romances (no sex just romance, okay maybe a kiss or two).

Finished Chapter 20..... finally.

It's rough but it's done!!! Until editing. This chapter was a kind of touch base with all the characters chapter. Started with Daman and Tribute and ended with Daman and Ryu. Here is the final scene of this chapter.

Ryu watched Daman’s health deteriorate as his addiction to the candle smoke increased. A covert perusal of the Chief of Security’s room revealed several boxes of the candles. Ryu replaced them with plain wax candles that he had colored to match the tainted ones expecting a total breakdown when the candles had no effect. A small thing to undermined Korat’s hierarchy.

Now Daman stood grasping the doorframe of Ryu’s room. His eyes looked huge in his pallid sweat soaked face. Daman’s weight loss had left him gaunt and lack of sleep left deep bruises under his eyes.

“Sir, can I help you?” Ryu asked the man.

“Come with me to the dungeons,” his voice rasped

“You are ill sir, you should be in bed.”  

“It is unsafe.” His eyes darted up and down the hall. “There are those who would take advantage of my weakened state.”

“I will come, sir,” Ryu could see the man was barely keeping himself standing as he swayed and leaned his head against the doorframe.

They walked as Daman kept one hand trailing the wall. They stopped infrequently as the sick man clutched both arms across his stomach.

“Sir, what can I do?” Ryu would asked as he watched the pain etch itself across the Chief’s face.

“It will pass. I will conquer this,” he grunted.

They made slow progress down to the guard room of the dungeons. Daman pulled a key off the wall and walked down the dim passageway lined with cells. He used the key to open a cell and then stepped inside.

            A shudder wracked his body and then he turned to face the young man.

            “You alone will know of my true whereabouts. I have left orders on my desk you will follow to the letter.”

            He swung the door closed.

            “Lock the door and hand me the key through the grill.”

            “But sir there is no way to unlock the door from inside the cell.”

            “Do it!” Daman rasped.

            “I don’t have a good feeling about this, sir.” Ryu turned the key, pulled it from the lock and handed it through the grill.

            “Come back in week, if I live I will give you the key to open the door if I die this will be my tomb. Now go away!”

            “Yes, sir.” Ryu heard a muffled thud and assumed that Daman’s legs had finally given out.

            So Daman thought to purge the demon. Ryu farely skipped up the stairs Damon’s fate securely in his hands and an open field to wreak havoc on the Empire. He had a week perhaps longer and the list was endless of the mischief the rebellion could accomplish.

            Ryu read the papers on Damon’s desk. He destroyed the page with the official story to explain Damon absence over the next week. He slightly altered orders for rations to recruits newly acquired at the last tribute. He wrote his own order for the care of the new prisoner in the dungeon. There was a chance Damon would get another guard to release him after a few days so everything had to be explainable, but so much could be done in the next week.