Writers Write Blog
|
Midnight
|
Fairchild
Fairchild and Midnight are my two writer buddies. They supply inspiration. The Muse likes them.
Fairchild
|
8/29/2024 0 Comments Wings to SoarI changed the title of my latest work in progress which is now out to a few Beta readers for comments. Wings to Soar seemed more fitting for the story. I might have this one published by the end of the year. Stand by.
Here's the dust jacket copy: Wings to Soar A historical novel of women’s struggle to gain their rights which continues today In 1868 two friends, Nicole Stuart and Mercedes LaFitte, reunite in San Francisco after eighteen years. One lives in Boston and one in San Francisco. Their journeys bring them together again over the women’s rights movement after fighting for abolition of slavery. Mercedes, accompanied by her husband, Andre, comes to San Francisco not only to see her old friend again, but also to see her brother, Jamie, who now heads up the family business – New World Shipping – on the west coast. Mercedes, a prominent leader in the women’s rights movement, will speak and help organize the effort in San Francisco. Nicole and her husband, Reese, have built a thriving hotel business since their arrival in San Francisco in 1853 after travelling overland on the California trail. But Nicole has vowed to help others attain their freedom as she has, which brought her into the women’s rights movement and before that abolition. A new challenge arrives in the person of Angela Flowers, a native American, who wants to help the Indians of California gain their rights as they have been persecuted by white settlers, gold miners, and militia. Angela comes to San Francisco to learn from Nicole and Mercedes and in doing so hopes to help her people develop wings to soar again.
0 Comments
7/30/2024 0 Comments Wings to FlyFans, I am now polishing the third book in the Wings series. Dust jacket copy will be ready soon. Then it goes to a couple of my readers and then the final polish. More soon.
3/11/2024 0 Comments Back in the saddleWe've settled in to our condo in the suburbs, a long way from nowhere. I like it. Husband still complains but is getting used to it. It's nice being back in civilization. Cultural events! Everything close by. New friends. Relatives! And I'm back in my writing groove. Amen.
10/3/2023 0 Comments Moving to PAMy husband and I have decided to return to my land of birth. Lots of relations there, easier living than in the middle of nowhere. I continue to work on my 12th book, working title Wings to Fly. It's been slow going with all the packing. But after we're settled in, I'll get back into the groove.
Happy Fall, y'all 3/15/2023 0 Comments Third Book in Wings SeriesThis winter I've had time to write the next book in the Wings series which is going well. I still have too much plot and too many characters. Yesterday I added another plot point and that is the earthquakes in the San Francisco bay area. It turns out there was the earthquake of the century in October, 1868 along the Hayward Fault in the east bay area. It was a 6.8. It caused considerable damage, as big earthquakes do. It was the largest quake until the 1906 one. That fault averages movement every 150 years so the Hayward fault is overdo. Makes me wonder what any sane person would live in the bay area. There are three notorious faults running through the area.
At any rate now I have to decide if I should move the time frame from spring 1868 to fall 1868. It would make the plot even more interesting, wouldn't it? So far I have the women's suffrage movement, the transcontinental railroad, the aftermath of the civil war, and indigenous people of California in the plot besides the characters from the first two Wings books. It is entertaining me, which is the first requisite of writing any novel - it has to entertain me. Stay tuned. 8/30/2022 2 Comments Book No. 12I'm writing my next historical fiction which involves an incredible amount of research. Right now it is set in San Francisco and Sacramento CA in 1868. In doing the research I got interested in the women's suffrage movement, the transcontinental railroad, and the indigenous peoples of California. It's about 25 pages in and I got too much plot. I'm using characters from the first two Wings books - Wings of the Wind and Wings of the Dawn - and I got too many characters. But it's fun and keeps me off the streets and out of trouble. I need another Wings title. Hmmmm???
8/30/2022 0 Comments A 2022 Summer StoryA highlight of a hot, dry summer was my brief friendship with a baby magpie who fell out of the nest. I found her one June Sunday morning prostrate on the ground under the nest twenty feet up. I didn't expect her to live so I put her in a small box lined with fresh grass and put her on a limb under the nest and thought she'd expire peacefully, not terrorized by cats. But she lived and later on that day started moving and opening her mouth for food. I figured out what baby magpies might eat besides bugs from an internet bird rescue site. I fixed her hard boiled egg, cooked oatmeal and water soaked cat food. I got a big cage from a neighbor and John fastened it under the branch of the tree. So I'd feed her every hour or two. She grew and feathered out. To make the story short. After about a week she was strong enough to join her five other siblings. And one morning they were all gone, flown off to the hills where it is cooler. Maybe she'll come back next spring. Her name is Bubbi, if you see her around.
5/9/2022 0 Comments Where is spring?It's May 9 and we've had the same forecast for days - cloudy, chance or snow or rain, windy. Rain might help the extreme drought we're in, but a good snow pack would help more, which we didn't have this winter. I'm still trying to write poetry, mostly about awakening. Someday I'll post some more of my poems on this web site. I thought I'd try writing another book in the Wings series. I had an idea for the character, Jamie, who was a teenager in Wings of the Wind. I thought he might go west from Boston after serving in the navy during the civil war. I'm interested in indigenous culture now and then so I've been doing some reading. I thought Jamie could go to California and he could meet some indigenous people. This would be about 1870. In my research I found out that the US Military and vigilantes did a good job of exterminating about 80% of the indigenous peoples of California between 1846 and 1877. It is a terrible history. I don't want to write about that. So I'm casting about for Jamie's story, still researching. Not much interested in white people's history. I can't write about indigenous, because it's not my story. But I am still reading indigenous authors, history, and culture. I read Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss. She has a wonderful indigenous perspective on the science of plants and today's world. I heartily recommend both books. And she is online in videos and is a wonderful lecturer. Very calming and thoughtful.
1/19/2022 0 Comments Here we areHere it is 2022 and we are in the middle of winter in southeastern Oregon. We experience exciting weather like freezing fog. We're still in a COVID pandemic going on two years. Life is different and appears to be the new normal. COVID has shaken up life as we used to know it. Some is for the better, some not. We muddle on. I have backed away from the four or five organizations I used to volunteer in. I don't miss the deadlines and the work or the insanity. I am still not working on a novel. I've written some poetry with a poetry group I zoom with in Houston, TX. I don't consider myself a poet but it is interesting to experiment with short form and structure. I've been reading about fungi and microbes and always about awakening. Here's my newest favorite Rumi poem: The Guest House This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whatever comes. Because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. -- Rumi Wishing you all a lovely, meaningful, and peaceful 2022.  |
AuthorI'm a serious writer, meaning I have a regular daily writing habit, and I'm interested in sharing my work through publication. My favorite literary form is the novel. I write to entertain myself and my readers. Archives
August 2024
|
RSS Feed