I’m happy to announce that I have entered my unpublished historical novel, The Spanish Coin, in the 2015 Top of the Mountain Fiction Contest held by the Northern Colorado Writers! Finalists will be notified on or about March 1. I’ll keep you posted.
I submitted the first 20 pages of the manuscript along with a three-page synopsis. The submission fee was $25.
This is the first contest in which I’ve entered my novel manuscript, so it is an exciting step.
Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, was the book discussed last night by Rocky River Readers Book Club. We met at Rocky River Presbyterian Church.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, although I plan to do so. Unbroken is a powerful book! I read it last year and many details from it are still vivid in my mind. Louis Zamperini was an amazing man. His rough and tumble childhood and teenage years set him up for a life of trouble. Track and field gave him discipline and self-confidence. Everything in his early years in some way prepared him for his horrible World War II years.
Many of you have probably seen the movie. I urge you to also read the book. It is another masterpiece by Laura Hillenbrand, who also wrote Seabiscuit.
Yesterday marked the 256th anniversary of the birth of “The Bard” of Scotland, Robert Burns. He is beloved in Scotland and his birthday is still marked there and in Scottish circles around the world with Robert Burns Dinners on his birthday.
I’ve started trying to mark various writers’ birthdays by preparing their favorite foods; however, I did not attempt to make haggis yesterday! I understand Burns’ favorite food were haggis, neeps, and tatties. I’ve eaten haggis in Scotland (“when in Rome…) and it wasn’t too bad as long as I blocked out of my mind what some of the ingredients were. There’s no way I’m going to make it. For starters, where does one purchase a sheep’s stomach?
Last night we dined on mince, neeps, and tatties and remembered Robert Burns. After supper I got out my dulcimer and attempted to play “Call the Yowes to the Knowes.” It’s one of the many Burns poems that has been set to music. I thought I had the dulcimer music for “Auld Lang Syne,” but I couldn’t find it.
Oh – mince is ground beef crumbled and cooked with chopped onions and a small amount of rolled oats. Neeps are turnips. Tatties are potatoes.
Haggis… well, you don’t want to know what that is. A Scottish friend was proud of me for eating haggis when I was over there. He said one must lower his or her voice a couple of octaves when saying, “I’m a haggis eater!” It got to be quite a joke between us. Scots have a great wit about them when you get to know them.
Yesterday my sister and I conducted our fourth (and last) Local and Rocky River Presbyterian Church History Talk and Tour. We had these monthly, September through November, skipped December, and then started again in January. Response has fluctuated. It was worth a try. I spent hours planning the topics. I had enough topics to last two or three years. No doubt, someone who has not attended any of the four talks so far will complain that we are discontinuing the programs. That’s human nature.
Yesterday’s topics were the Rev. Dr. John Makemie Wilson and the Rocky River Academy. Dr. Wilson was the pastor of Rocky River and Philadelphia Presbyterian Churches in Cabarrus and Mecklenburg Counties for 30 years in the early decades of the 19th century. He served as teacher at Rocky River Academy for much of that time. Completing their studies at Rocky River Academy prepared the students for entrance in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Twenty-five of the academy’s students went on to become Presbyterian ministers. One of them, the Rev. Dr. Robert Hall Morrison, was a founder and the first president of Davidson College.
The three-part series of local history columns I wrote about the Rocky River Academy for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper came in handy as I prepared for yesterday’s program.
Last night I spent some time editing the manuscript of my historical novel, The Spanish Coin, in preparation to submit it in a writing competition. More on that later.
The title for today’s blog posting came to me and triggered a question in my mind. Where or how did that saying originate? It seems that dribs dates back to the 17th century in some English, Irish, and Scottish dialects and meant “an inconsiderable quantity” or sort of like “drip.” The origin of drab in conjunction with drib isn’t as clear. It meant a “small debt or sum of money in England in the early part of the 19th century. I must admit, though, that I thought it was “drips and drabs” until I looked it up a few minutes ago. The joke is on me! It just goes to show that sometimes I think I know what I’m talking about but I actually don’t. At least I was using it correctly even though I wasn’t spelling or saying it correctly.
I had hoped to edit my historical novel manuscript, The Spanish Coin, for four hours today. (Anyone remember that Writing Plan of Action I posted about a few days ago?) Instead, a plumber was in the house working in various rooms for a couple of hours. It doesn’t take much to distract me. There was just no way I could settle down and get any uninterrupted time to edit that book between that disruption and then the aftermath of putting things back into cabinets and mopping the kitchen and bathrooms. I did not want to abandon my writing completely, so I did the research for and wrote nine vintage postcard captions in preparation for a possible piedmont North Carolina book for Arcadia Publishing. (My goal was to write two captions today.) I’ll keep you posted.
I finished reading The Escape, by David Baldacci a few days ago. How I wish I could write a thriller like that! I really enjoyed it.
Other books I’ve read lately include Dog On It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery (Book #1), by Spencer Quinn, a light-hearted easy read. Quite a switch from reading Baldacci! I started reading The Map Thief, by Michael Blanding, but didn’t get very far into it before I had to return it to the library. I’ll definitely check it out again. I love maps and this is a fascinating story. I’ve started reading The Fitzgerald Ruse, by Mark de Castrique n preparation for Rocky River Readers Book Club in February. I’m eager to see how that story develops. I like to have several books going at a time.
In the meantime, I have written nearly 2,000 words of a short story today that I hope to enter into one of two contests I’m considering. More on that later.
What are you reading?
I planned to write something to enter in the 23rd Annual Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest. I also planned to write a short piece to enter in the Highlights Fiction Contest. Time was not on my side, but my main road block was a profound lack of story ideas. “Those ships have sailed,” so to speak. The deadlines have passed. I did not pull myself together enough to enter either contest. I am disappointed in myself.
Perhaps I should start a list of story ideas to draw from when I hear about a contest.
It’s not that I am not writing. I write every day. I just have not been able to align my thoughts with any writing contests lately.
To steal a line from Scarlett O’Hara, “Tomorrow is another day.”
I was recently surprised to reconnect with another member of the Queens Writers Group in Charlotte at an unexpected place. It was one of those times when I knew there was something familiar about her but it took me about an hour to figure out that it was Elizabeth Towles.
Elizabeth is working on her second novel. Her first novel was titled The Long Night Moon. Look for it online.
Everyone who completed a writing course at Queens University in Charlotte taught by Judy Simpson was eligible to join the Queens Writers Group. Judy was an excellent teacher and mentor. She led the group and encouraged and supported each of us until the day she died. I think of her often and miss her greatly. I am so grateful I had the privilege of having her teach me how to write fiction.
After not hearing from anyone in the group for about ten years, it was nice to reconnect with Elizabeth.
With my “Writing Plan of Action” in place as of yesterday, today I turn my attention to striking a balance. I have the luxury of not depending upon my income from writing to keep me afloat. I would have drowned a long time ago if that had been the case! My income from writing thus far officially qualifies it as a hobby, according to the Internal Revenue Service. That means it does not matter how much writing puts me “in the red” financially; it’s just a hobby.
Don’t get me wrong; I would love to be able to make a living by writing. That’s what all writers dream of and aspire to, but few of us achieve that level of success. It would be marvelous if my historical novel manuscript, The Spanish Coin turned out to be “the Great American Novel,” but how often does that happen? I certainly won’t gain fame or fortune writing vintage postcard books like The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, but it is a thrill to see my name on a book as the author.
As I jump into my new “Writing Plan of Action” this week, I want to keep all facets of my life in balance. Writing and everyday life tend to leave no time for playing the mountain dulcimer. I’ll never become proficient at playing that lovely stringed musical instrument from the Appalachian Mountains if I don’t practice.
Playing the dulcimer a few minutes each day, studying the Bible, visiting the sick and homebound, walking the dog, quilting, sewing, doing needlework, and reading for pleasure are all things I need to make time to do. Those are the activities that tend to get squeezed out as I get absorbed by the self-imposed demand to write, write, write.
Tomorrow I will make yet another attempt to strike a balance in my life.
This being my 100th blog post, I thought it was a good time to make a “Writing Plan of Action.” I made such a plan a couple of years ago for making items to sell in my craft shop on Etsy.com — Hickory Ridge Crafts. I tend to procrastinate if I don’t have a written list to keep me on task.
My “Plan of Action” for Hickory Ridge Crafts started as a weekly list. I soon found I needed a daily list; otherwise, the end of the week would arrive and half the things on my list had not been finished. What I present today in this post is seven goals and objectives, most of which have no end date or deadline. As I plan each week, I will assign tasks to each day in order to accomplish these goals and objectives:
(1) Schedule book signings/author events (on-going);
(2) Continue to blog every day (on-going);
(3) Continue to research and write captions for a Piedmont NC vintage postcard book so I can propose the book to Arcadia Publishing (on-going);
(4) Spend two hours each week building a list of places that might sell a Piedmont NC vintage postcard book (which must be included in my author proposal – beginning next week;
(5) Continue to search for writing contests to enter or magazine articles to write (on-going);
(6) Set aside one day each week to edit my historical novel manuscript, tentatively titled, The Spanish Coin, (until I get it polished as much as I can); and
(7) If Arcadia Publishing rejects my author proposal for a Piedmont NC vintage postcard book, start in earnest to find a literary agent to represent me and my novel.
Sounds like a plan! I’ll give a progress report occasionally.
Janet's Writing Blog 