Where to begin?

I'll try to keep this short, but I'm not sure I'll succeed. Regulars to In My Little World may recall that my hubby, a heavy duty mechanic, worked out of town for several years at the mines. He worked four days away, then was home for four days. In January he began a new job here at home at an automotive dealership. We really hoped this change would work out, though it was obvious from the beginning that it wasn't quite perfect. As time went on, the hours began to shrink a bit here and there and we got nervous. Long story short, he began looking for another job. Not finding anything, he contacted the mines near the beginning of April with the intention of returning to The Great Commute.

As with all large companies, this took a bit of time to arrange and this past week saw us still waiting for the final clearances to come through and an actual start date to be assigned.

Last Monday one of my bosses told me about an unadvertised local HDM job opening a friend of his had told him about (when boss had told him my hubby was heading out again). Hubby zipped over to drop off his resume and then we had two phone calls to wait for.

We got the start date for the mines late in the week--hubby was to be there this coming Monday. Thursday the other company phoned for an interview. After a great deal of discussion, hubby agreed to go in Friday morning to talk, with the understanding that everything would have to be perfect AND they would have to offer him the job that day. At 2:30 they phoned to offer him the position...and he took it...and phoned the mines to say something had come up and he would not be returning.

This new job--man, I hate to get my hopes up, but I can't help it. I'm sure there will be a downside or two, there nearly always is. But honestly, to quote Mary Poppins, it's "practically perfect in every way". Good wages, good benefits, good holidays, good pension, 40 hours a week (some overtime, which is okay), a bit of driving as they have two other plants in the area (hubby loves driving). He'll be working 7-3:30 Tuesday to Saturday with the option of taking some Saturdays off. (I, of course, have the world's BEST bosses who don't know yet that I'll be looking for an occasional Monday off now! :P -- but will be fine with it.) He'll be the one-and-only mechanic on site, also responsible for the millwright position (fixed machines as opposed to wheeled ones). Oh, the position is at a small dolomite mine and stucco manufacturing plant that has been in operation for 45 years. Email me if you want the link to their website.

As with many stressful weeks, something else also happened: our water tank died on Monday. Because it is sits in our bathroom (and is natural gas) it requires special venting and had to be ordered in from Vancouver. It took a few days to arrive. Then hubby discovered that though the tank is rated the same (40 gallons) as the old one, the actual size is larger, due, I suppose, to increased insulation. At any rate, it doesn't fit without modifications, some of which have to be done by a metal-worker. I hear that will be done tomorrow, Monday. Meanwhile, I've been showering at the in-laws' place across the yard, heating water in a kettle for doing dishes, and washing clothes in cold water (which I usually do anyway.) I'm sure you noticed up there hubby's new job starts TUESDAY, which means he'll be able to do the tank tomorrow so long as the part gets manufactured as promised.

Meanwhile, many of you know our son and daughter-in-law spent three months in South America and had a great time except for getting their passports and camera stolen. However, they landed back in Vancouver this week and we'll be seeing them in a few days. Jen has landed a good summer job and Joel is still looking, then back to University of Victoria in September.

Our daughter and son-in-law are also in transition. Craig has landed a summer job HERE and they will be staying kinda with us. By that I mean in their grandparents' motorhome here on the farm, and in and out of our house as well. Hanna still hasn't heard back from the job she applied for here.

(In fact, if you're counting people in my family, you'll see that five out of six of us are starting a new job in the next couple weeks or are still looking! I'm the only one keeping my job...)

Still with me?

This weekend I'm going to Couer d'Alene, Idaho, for a workshop with Randy Ingermanson (aka The Snowflake Guy) put on by the Idaho Writers' League. The workshop is Friday evening and all day Saturday, with a consultation with Randy on Sunday. No, he's not an agent or an editor, but he's a multi-published author who teaches writing at a number of large conferences, so I figure it's worth it! I also get to meet a few people that I've only met online before, so that will be fun.

And then I'm off to Victoria for a week with my kids. The benefit to KEEPING my job? Paid vacation! So there's one week of it.

Worldbuilding

It's been so long since I got down to serious novel planning that I've almost forgotten how. Some writers have ideas jumping up and down, begging to be written. Mine are a little more recalcitrant. I've got several novel ideas that I've worked with a bit on and off for the past couple of years, but every time I've turned my attention to them, they've stood there scuffing their feet and trying to elbow their neighbor forward.

So a couple of weeks ago I reached into their group, grabbed someone by the shirt front, and hauled him over to the examining table. Jhonal from Puppet Prince has been hanging around the longest, actually. A little over two years ago I started dreaming him up for Forward Motion's 2-year-novel program. Then I got busy revising and let him sit back for a bit. I thought I'd pull him out for Nano '06, but another novel jumped forward and grabbed hard.

And you know my tale of revisions ever since then.

So here we are, then. I've read the notes I made two years ago and set them aside. I figure that the parts that are meant to be important to the story will come to mind again.

I've discovered the problems with my initial idea that no doubt led to the story pulling back constantly. The conflict was unbalanced--too much external and not enough internal. Once upon a time Jhonal was a victim of sorts. Things happened TO him. He was a bit too nice. Isn't that sad? Writers...

Anyway I've spent my afternoon researching everything from forms of execution for traitors to the names of God. And I'm finding a new Jhonal, one who acts as well as reacts, and two young women who are complex (or at least getting that way) actors in their own right.

Yes, I think a braiding of three characters. That should be fun.

More confirmation from contests

Monday afternoon I received word that my entry to the Genesis contest (which I'd sent in in late February) is progressing to the final round. First round was judged by an assortment of published authors and experienced unpublished writers, and I got a lot of great feedback--pleasant praise mixed in with solid suggestions for improvement.

New to Genesis this year--the possibility of taking 48 hours to edit based on the feedback and send it back in for second round. I jumped at that option for two reasons. One, the feedback was too valuable not to act on! Two, I had the opportunity to add a one-page synopsis, which I'd been honing in the hope I'd be able to use it. Well, I could have sent it in the first time also, but it wasn't ready and there didn't seem to be much point.

Second round is judged by (in this case) one agent who likes Christian spec fic and one acquisitions editor who buys it for his house. I have spent the past two days poring over my pages with the help of my buddies (thanks, gang!!) and just sent my entry back out to face the firing squad.

I'm not to mention the title of the entry publicly, lest either judge come across it inadvertently. This is the same contest in which Marks of Repentance finaled last year, but did not place in the top three. Those results don't come out until mid-September, so I have plenty of time to ignore that novel and do other things.

Like start writing another one...

Complete list of finalists:

Chick lit/mom lit/lady lit: Annalisa Daughety, Tiffany Kinerson, Sara Richardson, Lynda Schab, Erica Vetsch

Contemporary Fiction: Christina Berry, Dan Case, Lynne Gentry, Jennifer L. Griffith, Jim Rubart

Contemporary Romance: Annalisa Daughety, Kathleen Haynes, Cara Slaughter, Sandra van den Bogerd, Linda Yezak

Historical Fiction: Yvonne Anderson, Lori Benton, Mona Hodgson, Christina Miller, Rachel Moore

Historical Romance: Patty Smith Hall, Myra Johnson, Allison Studer, Erica Vetsch, Karen Witemeyer

Mystery/Suspense/Thriller: Ed J. Horton, Melanie L. Jones, Janice Olson, Donna Alice Patton, Jane Thornton

Romantic Suspense: Dani Pettrey, Kelly Ann Riley, Julie Scudder, Jane Thornton, Jenness Walker

Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Allegory: (there are six finalists because there was a tie for the 5th finalist spot) Lynda K. Arndt, Valerie Comer, John W. Otte, Jim Rubart, Chawna Schroeder, Stuart Stockton

Women's Fiction: (there are six finalists because there was a tie for the 5th finalist spot) Heather Goodman, D'Ann Mateer, Sara Richardson, Linda Rondeau, Cynthia Ruchti, Kristian Tolle

Young Adult: Kasey L. Heinly, Stefanie Morris, Susan Miura, Janet Rubin, Carla Stewart

Book Tour--Amber Morn by Brandilyn Collins

Amber Morn is the fourth--and I believe final--novel in the Kanner Lake series by Brandilyn Collins. As you know, I'm normally not much for suspense--which Brandilyn does well. Her trademark is Seatbelt Suspense, if that's any indication. Still, I've read the first three books and found much to enjoy (so long as I didn't read late into the night!) I've barely started Amber Morn yet. Life has just tipped from crazy to absolutely nuts in the past couple weeks (and even more since yesterday--more on that later or tomorrow), so today it will have to suffice that I'm posting up the links and that I'll be reading the book when I have some daylight hours free!

Party Time!

Late last summer I heard about an upcoming contest hosted by Tosca Lee, whose debut novel Demon: A Memoir was released in June 2007. When announcing the contest, she said that people had begun asking her if she could put in a good word for them with her agent, Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary Agency. Tosca decided to run a contest, and Joyce agreed to look over the winning proposal. The deadline for entry was November 15.

This gave me something to shoot for when completing revisions on Marks of Repentance, which, as you may recall, I spent most of 2007 doing. The deadline pushed me through market analysis, synopsis, pitch, the whole works (thanks to everyone who helped critique these, by the way!!). When it went out my email box, I heaved a sigh of relief and turned my attention to Quest to Be Queen.

Every once in awhile I wondered what was happening with the contest, but I was very busy in early '08 and didn't have a lot of time to dwell on the proposal's fate. In late February I heard from Tosca with the grand news that my proposal was the winner! There were a few things that needed to be ironed out before the official announcement would be made. She has now posted the results on her website.

I've gotten general praise from both Tosca and Joyce, though it's far too early to tell if this win is a major step towards publication or just an entertaining and confirming side trip. Either way, I wanted to share the news with all of you!

Mostly Unstuck

My brain, that is. We haven't had THAT much snow!

The last few months--all of 2008, till recently--I've had things to focus on that pulled my attention away from the revisions of Quest to Be Queen, most notably workshop facilitating and contest things--prepping to submit and then helping to judge a category. I'd made a little progress around all that, outlining the section that needed a total rewrite, but never having time to just dive in and DO IT.

But this past week Forward Motion hosted our annual March Madness event. Entries returned, I finally had the time to focus and write. I've written a little over eight thousand words this past week and am now back into revision mode for the final chapter of the novel. Hopefully by the end of the week I can boot it out to critiquers.

Methinks it is time to write again. I've been revising for way too long now. Two novels, 14 months (shuddering).

Time for the creative juices to flow again. I hope I can remember where I put them.

Oh yeah. That's for next week. I still have a few thousand words left to run the editing eyeballs over.

Weather is something we love to hate

Who's with me on that? Last weekend (Easter), Friday was cold and windy and rainy. Saturday was sunny and fairly warm (8 degrees Celcius) which was a good thing as Hanna was taking outdoor photos at her cousin's wedding. We woke up Easter Sunday to slushy snow, but it mostly melted as it hit the ground.

The whole week has been kind of chilly for late March, but I still wasn't prepared to wake up to about three inches of the white stuff this morning. It kept coming for a few more hours, mostly melted in the afternoon, then started snowing again later.

I've heard rumors of all manner of white stuff sightings across the continent in the last week. Now really, I know *somebody* reads this blog, so if you have white stuff to report, would you pop a note in comments? Just give us a general geographic area. As for me, it's south-eastern British Columbia reporting in.

Book Tour--Betrayed!

Once upon a time a very long time ago now, I attended Prairie Bible College in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada. And in my class was a girl named Jeanette Archer, a missionary kid from Colombia, South America. At the time, she was dating a fellow by the name of Marty Windle, and I later heard that they married and went to Bolivia as missionaries in their own right.

Fast forward a whole bunch of years. My mother-in-law handed me Crossfire, a novel about a naive American girl caught up in the cocaine trade in Bolivia, and I noticed the author's name was Jeanette Windle. "Hey, I used to know this gal!" And being as I'd visited Bolivia for several months in 1980, I also 'knew' the country a little.

Jeanette writes a very tight novel. She's well acquainted with Latin America and did such a good job of writing about the Drug Enforcement Agency's work in the southern hemisphere that she's been questioned about who leaked sensitive information to her (not true). When her most recent novel, Betrayed, this time listed as by J. M. Windle, became available to the book tour, I jumped at the chance to be transported back to the jungle.

Betrayed takes place in Guatemala and deals with the coverup of the American funding of the revolution there since the second world war. Vicki Andrews' parents, photographers and journalists, were massacred along with a Guatemalan village when Vicki was just a young child. Now an adult working with children at risk, Vicki finds her way back to Guatemala just in time to meet her sister before Holly is found dead in the middle of the refuse dump. Trying to determine if Holly's death was an accident leads Vicki down the path towards her own childhood and the memories that had been buried all these years by trauma. Can she figure out what happened? And is her future linked to the country of her birth?

If you like a fast-paced suspense novel about foreign lands, you'll enjoy Jeanette Windle's deep love for Latin America and her sharp writing style.

Book Tour--On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness--Day 2

Not too many folks I know have their own page on Wikipedia. Andrew Peterson does.

Besides being the author of the featured science fiction or fantasy book for this month's tour, Andrew Peterson is a career musician living in Nashville, being both a singer and a songwriter. One of his claims to fame is that of singing several of the songs on one of the Veggie Tales videos, The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's. Knowing that Andrew is...shall we say sympathetic?...to Veggie Tales helps me understand his middle grade novel better!

Okay, so let's talk about novel openings. By now, if you've been with me for long, you know I'm not keen on prologues. What do you do when the prologue isn't one, but three? At least I knew what these prologues were about. The first was entitled A Brief Introduction to the World of Aerwiar (one page). This was followed by A Slightly Less Brief Introduction to the Land of Skree (a page and a half). And finally, An Introduction to the Igiby Cottage (Very Brief) (one page, with sketch). You wouldn't actually need any of the information found in these introductions, but they were mildly amusing.

The first chapter is entitled The Carriage Comes, the Carriage Black:

Janner Igiby lay trembling on his bed with his eyes shut tight, listening to the dreadful sound of the Black Carriage rattling along in the moonlight. His younger brother Tink was snoring in the bunk above him, and he could tell from his little sister Leeli's breathing that she was asleep too. Janner dared to open his eyes and saw the moon, as white as a skull, grinning down on him through the window. As hard as he tried not to think about it, the nursery rhyme that had terrified children in the land of Skree for years sang in his head, and he lay there in the pale moonlight, his lips barely moving.

Lo, beyond the River Blapp
The carriage comes, the Carriage Black
By shadowed steed with shadowed tack
And shadowed driver driving.

Child, pray the Maker let you sleep
When comes the Carriage down the street
Lest all your dreams be dreams of teeth
And Carriages arriving.

To wrest you from your berth and bower
In deepest night and darkest hour
Across the sea to frozen tower
Where Gnag the Nameless pounds you

At Castle Throg across the span,
A world away from kith and clan
You'll weep at how your woes began
The night the shadows bound you

Away, beyond the River Blapp,
The Carriage came, the Carriage Black
By shadowed steed with shadowed tack
The night the Carriage found you

It's no wonder that Janner had a hard time sleeping once he heard the faint thud of hooves and the jangle of chains. (etc)

As you can see, this is a tale made for reading aloud. I don't have anyone to read aloud to these days, but I can feel the rhythm in the nursery rhyme even so. But don't read it to too young a child, or one prone to nightmares!

I'm curious: what do you think of this opening? Is it something that makes you want to read more? If it does, the Amazon link for ordering On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness is here.

Book Tour--On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness is a fantasy novel that I believe to be targeted at middle-grade readers. The story follows the Igiby siblings, Janner, Tink, and Leeli, as they try to stay out of the grasp of the venom-dripping Fangs of Dang. The Fangs doesn't refer to their teeth, either. It's the name of the lizard-like people who have taken over the land of Skree and desperately seek the lost jewels of Anniera. For some reason the Igiby adults (their mama, Nia, and her father, Podo) seem to have something to do with these jewels, but the children are getting rather afraid. They don't think it's worth hanging onto the jewels anymore. Maybe if the Fangs of Dang get what they want, they'll leave the family alone.

Or maybe not.

Andrew Peterson has written a tale filled with strange creatures, but nothing is stranger than the Fangs themselves. They love the grossest things; in fact, Nia bribes the Fang Commander with a promise of delicious maggotloaf. Mmmm, just what we all want for dinner.

Tomorrow we'll have a look at the opening hook of the story, and see if it works or doesn't. Meanwhile, check out what the others are saying: Sally Apokedak, Brandon Barr, Jim Black, Justin Boyer, Jackie Castle, CSFF Blog Tour, Gene Curtis , D. G. D. Davidson, Janey DeMeo, Jeff Draper , April Erwin, Beth Goddard , Marcus Goodyear, Todd Green, Jill Hart, Katie Hart, Michael Heald, Timothy Hicks, Christopher Hopper, Jason Joyner, Kait, Carol Keen, Mike Lynch, Margaret, Rachel Marks, Shannon McNear, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Pamela Morrisson, John W. Otte, Deena Peterson, Rachelle, Steve Rice, Cheryl Russel, Ashley Rutherford, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Donna Swanson, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Robert Treskillard, Jason Waguespac, Laura Williams, Timothy Wise

Geocaching with Jim

LOL, I've sucked my husband onto Blogger! He bought himself a GPS unit a few weeks ago and has started geocaching. He decided that it would be fun to start a blog (all his own idea, really!) to keep track of the geocaches he's located. We found our first on March 16, and he posted up about it tonight to his new blog, Geocaching with Jim. He put up several photos of the area we located it as well.

He'll be posting up his second find sometime soon, because we've already found it!

Book Tour next week

I've been cutting way back on the books I've been accepting to tour, but next week we'll be having a brief look at a middle-grade fantasy novel, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.

Meanwhile, I've been keeping busy with helping judge a contest, participating in a Submission Package Workshop at Forward Motion. I'm running Quest to Be Queen through the process there, and actually making progress in finishing off the last task in the story. A few more solid days and I'll be back into revising the wrap-up. (If you remember, I had to completely rewrite one of the seven tasks in the novel).

In other news, while I have a four-day weekend coming up for Easter, it will be rather busy. Hanna and Craig will be home and there will be a family wedding and therefore lots of out-of-province relatives. Monday it looks like it would be a good time to go visit my mom, being as hubby is back to work that day. Also because the sister that leaves near my mom is in Vancouver, and Mom is getting lonely. So it won't be precisely relaxing.

Joel and Jen called last night from El Bolson, Argentina, and we talked for about an hour. What a treat! They'll be back in BC in about a month and hopefully we'll get to see them a bit before they're back into the swing of their regular life in Victoria the beginning of May.

Kitchen Backsplash!

We've been working on the kitchen renovation again lately. The main things that have gotten done are some electrical work and the tiled backsplash.

We started on the back wall here with a 2x2 mosaic. I really love how mellow it looks, and the undercabinet light provides plenty of lighting under there. This upper cabinet is where baking supplies live, with bowls and mixer (etc) in the drawers below. So having plug-ins and good lighting here will be a big treat!



Then around the corner we got a little more elaborate above the stove by insetting a decorative focus. Originally I'd planned a 2x2 copper tile to use as a border, but it was discontinued before I could order it. This gorgeous piece of slate, cut into strips, makes a lovely accent. At least I think so! This backsplash was hubby's first ever tiling project, and I think he did a great job.



There are still a couple things to do at that end of the kitchen, such as the light rail. But we'll turn our focus to the other end next, I think. More photos someday when we get another chunk done.

Oh, do note my FlyLady style shiny kitchen sink! :) I consider it clean if the only visible dishes are clean and in the dishrack.

1-2-3 Book Meme

Found this over at Tina's blog and decided to play so you'd know I'm still alive! :P

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
Got it - Betrayed by J. M. Windle

Find page 123 (ooh, that's a few pages ahead of where I am not...)

Find the first 5 sentences.
That’s done

Post the next 3 sentences.
Despite a card catalog whose contents were as dusty and dog-eared as the bundles, Vicki could not see how any effective research could be done. Fortunately, several of the larger and more enduring periodicals had been transferred to microfiche. In minutes the clerk had pulled up a front-page spread dated twenty years earlier.

(Hmm, I think I know what she's looking up. I'm on page 110, after all, and have a few clues in place!)

Tag 5 people. Heh. I've seen this one around a bit, so feel free to play along if you want, or pop a pointer into comments to where you already did.

Not Blogging Much (in case you can't tell)

Things have remained really busy. The Effective Viewpoint Workshop has kept me hopping with up to 20 people participating (not everyone made it through to the end), so there have been assignments to critique and discussions to respond to. There are certainly parts that were a stretch for me--anyone who's hung out here for long knows I'm not generally a great fan of omni, for example, so it was interesting to try to teach it! The workshop ended up going deeper into every facet of viewpoint than I'd originally anticipated and I learned a lot during the month as well, as much from the participants as from the study I'd done in preparation.

In March, the baton goes back over to Margaret, who is preparing a workshop on preparing a submission package. As she provided backup for me in February, so I anticipate doing the same for her in March. Besides, I want to work on the package for Quest to be Queen, which I finally pulled out of mothballs yesterday and made a bit of progress on. I really want to finish it up and get it out to critters in March. It's soooooo close to ready; I just need a few days where I can buckle down and focus.

On the home front, hubby's new job is going fairly well. It's good to have him home every evening, and we've started (slowly) making progress on the kitchen again. Electrical takes precedence right now. A few more plug-ins in the *finished* end of the kitchen would be useful, but I'm already enjoying under-cabinet lighting.

It's been good having him home for calving this year. So far we've had six births (and lost one), eight to go. We've had way more snow this winter than average, and that's making the pasture hard for the cows to get around in. If the driveway is any indication, it's not long until the pasture also will become a mud pit. Why does brown season have to come between white season and green season? I'm so very ready for spring, but at least the snowdrops are starting to bloom against the south side of the house. They're hiding behind a snowbank, but they're there!

24 years ago this evening I was nine months pregnant. I recall cooking supper and telling hubby that I was having false labor. He asked, quite reasonably, why I thought it was false. I told him that I had no intention of being in labor for more than six hours and that the baby wouldn't be born until the next day. Hubby is certain to this day that I willed the child to be born on February 29th, but honestly--nine months pg--24 hours--how could I miss?

Sure enough, it went away, only to return in the morning. After about 80 minutes of labor, I gave birth to our second child, a boy, who has carried the dubious honor of being a Leap Year Baby all these years.

Happy Birthday to Joel

who is currently traipsing around South America with his lovely wife, Jen.

Hoar Frost

This brief essay is written in second person pov as a nod to the Effective Viewpoint Workshop we're running this month at Forward Motion



Since you started walking to somewhere, you've been dropping off your husband at work every morning--you start an hour later than he does--and, once you've parked the car behind the shop, you head out for a brisk walk. You pull your knitted headband low over your forehead and ears and tug on your fleece gloves. It's a cold one today, and you're glad you grabbed the coat that goes to your knees. It will help keep your thighs from going numb.

A damp fog settled over the valley last night, and the visibility is still low. It's not dangerous to walk, though, so long as you watch out for patches of ice. Yesterday's temperatures got several degrees above freezing, and the resulting melt-off was shocked to a halt overnight, icing over wherever it happened to be.

The air is crisp, smelling of wood smoke and frost, as you hike north on eleventh avenue, up the hill. Hoar frost graces every strand of nature. The shrub on your right has feathery fronds that reach heavenward, each minute hair delicately crisped with white. The cedar up the block, the pine across from it--each needle accentuated.

This chain link fence is utilitarian and normally slinks in the background. Today you marvel at the precision of the stark white grids, blazoning its presence. The wrought iron on the fence down the block is also covered with white crystals, giving it a fuzzy appearance.

Your cheeks and chin and nose are burning with cold, but when you cover them with your gloved hands, your glasses fog up, rendering you blind. You pause a moment, unsure of your footing until you can see again.

Your attention is caught by birds fluttering and chirping, so you hurry around the corner to see what they're excited about. You stop in awe at the sight of a mountain ash tree**, delicately painted in white frost, every twig, every clump of red berries frosted over. A bird feeder hangs from a branch, and the LBBs* are having the best time swooping from ground to feeder and back again, chittering with each other as they go.

Intended walking route forgotten, you catch a glimpse around the next corner and head over to see what new marvels await. You're so glad you did, for a majestic weeping willow stands streaming with tails of frost, hundreds upon thousands of them, each delicately outlined. In the corner of the yard, a clump of ornamental grasses at least ten feet tall has never looked as festive as it does today.

Beauty is all around you, and even though you can't wait for spring, you can't help but treasure this morning walk.

*LBBs are otherwise known as Little Brown Birds.

**Mountain Ash

Book Tour--The Shadow and Night--Day 2

The reason that the prologue is present in Chris Walley's novel is that the history of all this world matters. For twelve thousand years (can you imagine that time frame? I sure can't!) a barrier has kept Evil away from the Made Worlds.

And we're not just talking major evil here. We're talking teensy tiny baby evil. In the first chapter, Merral has a shocking suspicion about his uncle. It almost seems--though it can't be possible--that his uncle might have told a LIE! Inconceivable! People don't lie any more. They don't do any wrong. They haven't done wrong for twelve thousand years.

I pause a moment while you think about the repercussions of that premise.

Now, let's switch gears and talk about fiction. Fiction pretty much demands good guys and bad guys. We are cautioned, as writers, against making our main characters too perfect. Readers can't identify with flawless characters.

So if the premise of your novel actually DEPENDS upon a perfect world and perfect characters, what's a writer to do? In The Shadow and Night, Chris Walley chose to show the perfection. This sets up a slow beginning. It pretty much has no option at that stage.

So now, by page 485, Merral and company have engaged Evil several times. And the action is getting rolling.

I wrestle with this. I think I would have tried to send this story idea back where it came from as impossible to pull off. I'm not completely sure Chris Walley DID pull it off, but I have to say, hat's off to him for a valiant effort. This is a really tough story to make work.

And honestly, I'm sure I'll finish it in the next few days. Because now I want to. I did get another 50 pages or so read last night.

So, this is a Christian novel, but is the concept of future human perfection (outside of heaven itself) really a Christian idea? Blogger John Otte presented a Millenial Primer on his post Monday.

For folks like me, who don't hold a passionate viewpoint on End Times Theology, it was helpful to be reminded of the various theological positions. It's been a long time since my Bible School Days. My personal opinion on that is God's gonna do it how God's gonna do it. Obviously some folks are going to be wrong in their beliefs because they don't all agree. So I say, we need to be ready for whatever the future holds and let God play it out the way He will do it. (So my personal opinion boils down to...whatever...!)

Is it theologically and physically possible for evil to be banished for twelve thousand years? I don't really think so. But science fiction is all about taking the world as we know it and extrapolating with a specific bias. What if...there was a golden age? As anyone who has read the Bible can attest, it's not laid out in a tidy outline that connects all the dots. There's plenty of room for imagination. And while mine wouldn't have taken me where Chris Walley's took him, there's no reason not to go along for the ride.

Book Tour --The Shadow and Night

It must be a record for me to only have blogged twice in between book tours, but there you have it. It's been crazy busy and it ain't over yet.

So when this fat hardcover novel arrived in my mailbox I wasn't as excited as I would have liked to be. 612 pages. That's a lot of book when your head is barely above water!
Furthermore, the cover to The Shadow and Night looks very old school, like a 60s era science fiction. And yet, in the upper right hand corner it says: A fantasy in the tradition of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkein. Science fiction? Fantasy? Which is it?

The cover copy leans toward science fiction:

Imagine a future that today's generation can only dream of. A trillion people live under the gentle rule of the Assembly on over a thousand Made Worlds. Peace and stability have reigned for nearly twelve thousand years, and war and evil are merely ancient history. But all that is about to change.

On Farholme--a Made World at the edge of the Assembly--strange and troubling things are happening. Slowly, incredulously, a handful of men and women come to recognize the unthinkable: Evil has returned once more and it must be fought. Forester Merral D'Avanos and his friends are entrusted with the daunting task of confronting their world's elusive enemy.

Now isolated from the rest of the Assembly, Farholme must fight its battles alone. It falls to Merral to lead the untried forces of Farholme into war against opponents well-hidden and armed with strange powers. Yet even as he faces extraordinary and terrifying foes, Merral finds he has an unexpected enemy--himself.

Definitely science fiction. So I'm a little confused about why the hat-tip to the fantasy works of Lewis and Tolkein. Sure, lots of us read across both genres, but they aren't really the same thing, though the lines blur at times. This book isn't blurry in that way. It's sf.

I'll be honest. I had trouble getting into this story, and I'm not sure it was only because of how busy my life is. I want to talk about the basic premise of the novel tomorrow, and that's where we'll get into whether or not it could have been written any other way.

The prologue--which I'm rarely fond of--is pretty much a historical data dump from twelve thousand years before the story opens, with an omniscient, active narrator. It starts with:

Listen!

This is the tale of how, at last, evil returned to the Assembly of Worlds, and how one man, Merral Stefan D'Avanos, became caught up in the fight against it.

But to tell Merral's tale we must begin with the Seeding of the planet of Farholme in the year of our Lord 3140...(etc)

And it goes on for five pages with the history of the Assembly. Could the story be done without it? Honestly, I think it could have. I think it would have been stronger to just put us in Merral's world and reveal bits of the history as it became relevant.

That's just me. I do not know yet why I care about Merral, or even if I ever will. So I don't much care--yet--how his world came into being.

So let's skip the prologue! :P Chapter one starts like this:

Merral Stefan D'Avanos crested the snow-flecked ridge in the northeastern corner of Menaya, the vast northern continent of Farholme, and reigned in his mount. The winter's sun had just set in a great stained sphere of orange gold. He stared at the expanse of gray hills and darker, mist-filled valleys stretching northward to the ice-edged needles of the ramparts of the Lannar Crater.

Above the Rim Ranges, layer upon layer of cloud strands gleamed every shade between yellow and purple in the dying sunlight. Merral tried to absorb all he could of the sights, sounds, and smells of dusk. Down below the ridge, away to his right, crows preparing to roost were wheeling noisily around a pine tree. Far to his left, there was a moving, snuffling grayness under the edges of the birch forests that he knew was a herd of deer. Hanging in the cold fresh air was the smell of winter, new trees, and a new earth.

The beauty of it moved Merral's heart, and he raised his head and cried out with joy, "To the Lord of all worlds be praise and honor and glory and power!"

The words echoed briefly and a gust of wind out of the north dragged them away, down through the trees and bare rocks.

Silent in awed worship, he sat there for long minutes until another chill gust made him shiver, as much in anticipation of actual cold. He bent down to his horse. "Now, Graceful," he murmured, "good girl, onward."

This isn't my favorite type of opening, starting with description. And thus began several weeks of reading a bit here and bit there, when I had time because the story didn't rivet me.

NOW I am on page 440 of the aforementioned 612 and yes, I am interested in Merral and his story. It took awhile--almost 150 pages, to be honest, that I wouldn't have got through if it wasn't for the fact of a book tour coming. So tomorrow we'll talk about the book premise and whether or not the story could be told any other way. I'm not sure it could.

Meanwhile, have a look at what some of my tour-mates are saying about this novel by Chris Walley.

Brandon Barr, Jim Black, Justin Boyer, Grace Bridges, Jackie Castle, Carol Bruce Collett , CSFF Blog Tour, Gene Curtis, D. G. D. Davidson, Chris Deanne, Janey DeMeo, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Marcus Goodyear, Rebecca Grabill , Jill Hart, Katie Hart, Michael Heald, Timothy Hicks , Christopher Hopper, Heather R. Hunt, Jason Joyner, Kait, Carol Keen, Mike Lynch, Margaret, Rachel Marks, Shannon McNear, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Mirtika or Mir's Here, Pamela Morrisson, Eve Nielsen, John W. Otte, John Ottinger , Deena Peterson, Rachelle, Steve Rice, Ashley Rutherford, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Rachelle Sperling, Donna Swanson, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Robert Treskillard, Jason Waguespac, Laura Williams, Timothy Wise

Yep. I'm THIS busy!

It's been a crazy week, and I'm suspecting the whole month may look this way.

At the moment the first week of the Effective Viewpoint Workshop is finishing up at Forward Motion. We've got 18 participants getting into hands-on exploration of the tools of point-of-view. So sure, we may still wind up using multiple third person past for most of our writing, but at least we will know how to make it a conscious decision instead of having only a default!

Next month Mar and I are running a workshop on query packages, including the dread synopsis. You have to be a member at FM to join in, but there's no cost.

Aside from the workshop (Monday and Tuesday there was nothing *aside* from the workshop; I practically breathed the darn thing!), I've been working on my opening scenes for the Genesis contest, both The Girl Who Cried Squid and the romance, Joy Comes in the Morning. I've got a working copy of both now and some critiques happening. The contest consists of the first fifteen pages, so that's a reasonable amount of pages to prep up.

Sadly, that's left Teagren and Quest to be Queen sitting on the sidelines. But on my walk this morning I thought through a major issue that I'd seen lurking in the background of the story and discovered a solution I think will work. Once I got to work I popped my insights into a document so that I won't forget. It could easily be a couple weeks yet before I get enough focus to deal with it in the novel itself.

Part of the problem is that the story originally came from a group of random exercises looped together. When I decided there was enough plot linking them to create a novel, I kept a few too many of the old parts. Worked great in the linked exercises, but didn't quite pull through at novel length. If I get rid of one major holdover, it frees up the ending to being something more logical. The previous version came a little forced. So now I'm looking forward to getting back to it. The cool thing is that even though I've finished revising most of the novel, it will only take a few lines tucked in here and there to twist towards the new ending.

But first I have to get my contest entries finalized and out, and keep the workshops humming. First things first!

Juggling

Things are pretty busy right now. I'm juggling crits for friends and crit partners, pokes at opening pages for contests, honing the Effective Viewpoint Workshop for Forward Motion in February (aack, just a few days till I have to have these ready!)...and wishing I had time to actually WRITE the seventh task for Quest to be Queen. Maybe next week. This one is zinging on by.