On Finishing a Good Book…

When Things Get Quiet

Yes, quiet can mean a whole lotta things.  A) She’s busy.  B) She’s preoccupied.  C) She couldn’t care less.

• A) True.  
• B) True.  
• C) Umm, an eensie teensie bit true.  

No, no, don’t click away in a huff.  The reason blogging is taking a decidedly back seat is that I AM WRITING.  Yes, that kind of writing.  I’m drafting away on a new work-in-progress that I’ve been researching for the past five months.  

To help me stay on track, I teamed up with a group of writers I pal around with on Twitter at #wipmadness.  This month, we set goals and check in daily regarding our progress.  It’s called March Madness.  My goal is words, words, and more words for the months ahead until I type THE END, possibly for the third or fourth time after I’ve revised it to death.

So, please be understanding if things go a bit quiet.  I plan to post a “Beautiful Words” post monthly and to share some fun photos.  I am also keeping up-to-day the fundraising blog, My Cancer Hat, regarding Anna’s fight against brain cancer.

But otherwise, I gotta make hay while the sun shines, as the saying goes.  

Or, more accurately, I gotta write while Uncle Sam still sends me wee unemployment checks.  After that, we’re facing life in the van by the river or death by soul-draining desk job.

The clock is ticking. 

 

Beautiful Words: Beth Hoffman

How do you show a reader that your pre-teen character is alone, especially when she is not alone physically?  How do you show emotional strength in a precarious situation?

And, more importantly, how do you keep the reader involved because there’s something familiar about the scene?  something that keeps us nodding and saying, “Yep, I could see that,” while we’re Oh-So-Glad it never happened to us?

Here is a perfect example, dear readers.  Beautiful words.

Author:  Beth Hoffman

Novel:  Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Setting:  CeeCee is twelve.  Her mother is losing touch with reality and lives only in the past and her father is absent most of the time.

Passage:  While the tub was filling, I returned to her bedroom. One by one, I pried her fingers from the scrapbook, helped her out of bed, and led her into the bathroom.  Why, I don’t know, but Momma refused to take off her bra and slip.  I didn’t have the energy to argue, so after I gathered a wad of tissue and wiped bubbles of snot from her nose, I let her sink into the tub while I sat on the toilet lid and began reading aloud from one of my Nancy Drew books.

When Momma’s tears finally subsided, she looked at me with swollen, red-rimmed eyes.  “Is Nancy Drew a friend of yours?  I don’t recall.”

Thank you, Beth!!  

PS:  She has a new book coming out on May 28, 2013.  WOOT!! (Aren’t I super eloquent?)

Note:  This blog is mine and no one pays me for it’s content.  If you’d like to pay me, feel free.  I like money.  However, Ms. Hoffman doesn’t know me from Adam, except for the occasional “hello” on Twitter.  Yes, she’s nice enough to encourage a beginner/wannabe writer like me, as if there aren’t thousands more like me out there.  But that’s the sum total of our relationship.  Just so we’re clear.

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For updates regarding my friend, Anna, and her battle with brain cancer, please visit us at My Cancer Hat, where you will find such fun ramblings as “Calories with Friends, a Love Story,” and “Anna Speaks.”  We sure appreciate all your support and loving comments.