by Sarah | Oct 1, 2010 | 100 Words, General, Writing
My heart pounds in my ears. Shaking hands check my watch again. What is taking her so long today? Did she know? How could she know? I still have twenty minutes before they’d call.
There. Her car’s pulling out of the driveway, and I duck back behind the neighbor’s house. Wait just two minutes now. Make certain she is gone. I won’t get caught. I haven’t yet.
The minute it’s clear I head back inside the house. I make the requisite phone call, grab a book and settle in for a day without torment. They’ll never know I’ve ditched school.
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~~Disclaimer: My entry for this week’s 100 words may or may not be based on true events. The image may or may not be of the real school involved in the alleged event. The perpetrator may or may not have been caught after 4 successful alleged ditchings. The perpetrator may or may not have been me. The alleged ditching’s may or may not have occurred because of regular torment by classmates. Middle School kids + one geekish girl w/ braces and bad acne = combustible situations.
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Please, visit Velvet’s site to check out other more worthy entries…
by Sarah | Sep 19, 2010 | Books, General, Writing
To this day if you ask my dad he’ll tell you that at the ripe young age of 3 years old I was reading the reader’s digest cover to cover. That’s not entirely true – there were still a few words I didn’t understand, but I did love to read. I would pick it up and look through it. I would read my picture books but I was hungry for more.
My brother, on the other hand, was not. He didn’t care to read, still doesn’t. Even now he will most likely only read a book if it’s on tape.
When I was still 3 years old I remember sneaking into my brother’s room. On his sparse book shelf, on the very bottom shelf sat a blue box with 9 blue books inside. I grabbed one and saw the picture of a little girl on the cover.
Then I started reading.
For weeks I would sneak into his room and read pages of this fascinating book until finally I got the courage to say “He won’t read this. It’s for GIRLS,” and took that box of books right out of his room.
Until I graduated high school I read those 9 books over and over again (It was 18 times from the time I stole them until the day I graduated).
Laura Ingalls story fascinated me. All of it.
The way they lived. Traveled. What they ate. What they sang. What they WORE. Oh, what they wore kept me even more enthralled (still does, but that’s another post).
I wanted to live it, breathe it, learn it.
The first thing I really wrote was a play based on Plum Creek, which I performed with my best friend and several other friends in 6th grade. I wrote papers about Laura in high school. I read biographies.
I branched out. I learned more about the late 1800’s. Read up on the Old West. The people, the way of speech, the way of life.
Rich folk, poor folk, everyone in between. I couldn’t get enough.
I watched Dr. Quinn with rapt attention, noting historical inconsistencies, but enjoying the setting anyway. Long after that was gone Deadwood came along. Once it was out on DVD and we had netflix, I watched every episode of that as well.
Once I started to write, I tried to write other genres, time periods, but every time it fell flat. When they say to write what you know, they mean it.
I’m certain I’m not the only one inspired, or enthralled by, Laura’s books. Even now if I’m feeling uninspired or just need a “comfort book” (the way some people need comfort food), these are the first things I grab. I love to be By the Shores of Silver Lake, or see The Happy Golden Years again. My first box of these books are very dogeared and worn down – so they reside in a place untouched by human hands now and I’ve got a new set to read to my girls…but I will never toss the old ones out. They are my first real books – ones I will always hold dear to my heart.
by Sarah | Sep 7, 2010 | Changing Tracks, General, Train To Nowhere, Writing
I like to blame it on Mercury being in retrograde. Messing up my writer’s brain and functions.
It sounds so much better than “in a funk” or “writer’s block”.
Either way, that’s where I’ve been. The only thing that has been written are the 100-words pieces.
A few weeks ago I got a rejection from a mid-size pub that was helpful. It had plenty of notes, and it really got me even more wedged into my ‘stuck’ place. Once that came, not a word was written for the third book in the series (which I’m only 1/3 done with).
The past few days I’ve begun to find a bit of hope underneath all the negative ‘blah’ energy.
I’ve been playing with some alterations for Train to Nowhere and have been working on a mock-up cover (which I always love to do). The characters are changing just a little, and every time they do it excites me even more.
I took Changing Tracks back out of it’s nap. Started a new file and edited the first few chapters according to the notes I received. I’ve set a tentative schedule of 2-3 chapters a day of actual focused editing. I’m changing the font and trying to catch what I missed. There are some things I won’t get after all the edits I’ve done – but I’m hoping to make it just a little tighter and nicer. The good thing is that the first 3 chapters now sound much more like the rest of the books, I didn’t have to change much so the difference was not as tremendous as I thought.
On Thursday I’m pleased to say that I’ll be posting an interview with Sandra Worth. I’ve been privileged enough to get a chance to review the last two novels she’s had published. With a new novel coming out in February 2011, she was kind enough to agree to an interview now – and a review at the release! So keep an eye out for that Thursday.
Either Friday or Saturday I hope to post the net 100 words – but as the word this week is ‘Rotten’, I’m not sure if the muse will grant me such cooperation.
On a side note – my L key keeps skipping. That’s way too many typos for my liking. I need to fix it fast.
by Sarah | Aug 12, 2010 | General, Train To Nowhere, Writing
We all know what it’s like.
You have an inkling of an idea. Just the slightest hint of what something might become, what it could be come. We’re at point A, but point B is FAR away. The road to it is winding and crazy and we’re not sure how to get there.
We get mired down in details. Questions. Plots. Characters. Devices.
The How’s, What’s, Where’s, When’s, Why’s and Who’s.
We get stuck.
I had a story idea. A small little niggle. It had developed into two characters. I had the basics of who they were. Their names, their brief back story. Then I got stuck. Where was I going with it? How would it develop? I knew a basic conflict, but in the end it didn’t seem enough. I needed more.
I set it aside. I worked on other things totally un-writing related. I even left my Jane Doe series to linger on the vine (I have out queries/contest submissions, book 3 is started, moving slowly, I’m not in a huge rush). I pulled out knitting to distract me. Watched TV to distract me.
Then for some reason I kept getting stuck on the location. I knew what state I wanted it in. The approximate year. For some reason my muse wanted me to find out WHERE. I didn’t understand why I was stuck on this detail, but I was.
Then it happened.
By researching the WHERE, by studying the state I planned to set this in. By learning the history of the land I’d chosen the story formed before my eyes.
The light bulb clicked on and now my story was forming.
Train to Nowhere was getting somewhere.
So now I officially have my new story idea. I’ve been fleshing out some details, working on some characters. I’m letting it continue to stew a little. I am eager to write this story – but I also want to finish my Jane Doe series, because it feels wrong to leave it ‘unfinished’ (Yes, I have a first draft complete, but it’s a very weak outline that I want to make sure is properly plumped and finished).
So, I continue on. I also have a couple of other little ideas starting to form, but nothing solid yet.
In the mean time – my husband is writing now too. I have to say I’m jealous – so far I love what I’ve read from him.
Off to ponder the word of the week for 100 words. Hoping I can get something good for it. It’s a powerful word.
by Sarah | May 31, 2010 | General
In a fluke accident my old webpage is gone. I couldn’t revive the subdomain, even though I have tried on several occasions. So this new page will suffice. I’m still working on transferring over all of the pages and the info on them. This post is a placeholder until I can get a real post up.
