Life spins,
sometimes slowly and sometimes fast, or so it seems. I dragged a lot
this summer, longing for summer fun. I haven't visited a beach, yet.
I don't believe I got to Presque Isle in Erie, Pennsylvania last year
either. I hate to blame everything on a job, but nursing home world
and the afternoon shift and working many weekends began to take its
toll. I change jobs the Tuesday after Labor Day. I'm returning to the
road of home health.
I started journaling
again in April and suddenly the need to write in a blog lessened. I
spend too much time on Facebook, as it tends to lull me in a trance,
maybe. I love to see what is happening all over the world. I suppose
that is the excitement of Facebook. I always thrilled at live TV,
too, like the Kentucky Derby, Times Square on New Year's Eve, the
parades and the Academy Awards. I feel like I'm part of the action,
but on my comfortable seat.
A topic I wanted to
write about as I read this summer concerned scenes or words I wish I
could use. John Steinbeck wrote of June in The Winter of Our
Discontent. The words exactly
described the sensation of June I want to convey in Last
Free Exit. I giggled that I
could just say- read these paragraphs and see how June feels.
I'm
still reading Pasadena
by David Ebershoff. A scene with a horse could be modified for Main
Street, if I told it from the
oldest boy, Tommy's point of view. The time setting is the same as
Main Street and Country.
In fact, Linda, in Pasadena is born the same year as Christina in
Country. I love the
detail in Pasadena,
the long explanations, the history lessons. I read the reviews and
some didn't like the “rambling,” felt it lacked a good editor, and
was one hundred pages too long. I sensed the long hours of research
and crave to have that background in my writing. When I wrote
Main Street, just knowing the
details, even if I didn't include them in the writing, enabled me to
tell the story. I need the background in my head.
I
decided to go to the West Virginia Book Festival to hear Homer Hickam
speak. One of his interviews, I heard this past winter, lifted me
from a slump in my publishing dream. He had a story to tell and then
some. He also had to find the seventeen year old boy's voice to tell
Rocket Boys. Writing is more than words, it shows a picture with a voice.
As
I perused the web site for the festival, I noted the other speakers.
Neil Gaiman has a spot on Friday evening. We have a few of his books,
as my oldest daughter liked his writing. In preparation for this
event in October, I grabbed his anthology, fragile things,
from downstairs. I read all the
introduction on Sunday and in the back of the paperback, my favorite,
the interview. I love to hear about the writing process. My favorite
quote makes me want to write short stories, “The joy of the short
story for me is you can have an idea and it can fall into place
enough that you're excited about beginning it. You can settle down
and a few hours later, or a weekend later, or a week later, you're
done.”
Now,
I think, I need to write short stories. I laugh at how I am
influenced by voice. I read the beginning of a few stories in this
book and two poems, as I dried after swimming yesterday- oh, remember
doing that for hours? Now, just too busy, it seems. As I left the
pool, words fell at me, but I recognized them as Neil's. The long
wait at Sheetz for all the oil guys to get their food chased those
words away, as I stood there in damp outline of my swimsuit on my
clothes and flat wet hair, glasses and no makeup. At ninety degree
weather, I guess I didn't care. Still I made no eye contact with the
head teacher from my daughters' high school as he coolly strove in
with his preppy shorts and shirt, in pastel colors.
Yes,
I should write short stories, too. But not in anyone's voice, but my
own. I remain with the novels, as well. Outside of Time
sits under the editor's gaze. I
never heard back from the photographer of the picture I would love to
use, so I elect another avenue for the cover. To go with my
philosophy of using local businesses, I will contact my photographer
friend for some pictures for the cover and use another young college
grad with a film degree working home repair for my cover design.
Dreams
take work and they fail without enterprise.
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