Summer Rag

I’m beginning to believe that Jupiter has, in fact, aligned with Mars and that perhaps the moon has taken up residence in the seventh house.

Ooops, sorry. I appear to have spent too much time on the oldies station.

What I meant to say was, the school year is rapidly drawing to a close! There are fourteen – count ‘em – 14, school days left until summer arrives in all its resplendent glory.

For me, that means lots more time to write. I’ve been waiting months for this. During the school year I have to steal time to write. Evenings, Saturdays, the odd Sunday morning. But during the summer I can write EVERY DAY!

I’d swoon with excitement, but I’ve lost my hanky and there isn’t a fainting couch handy.

For those of you rolling your eyes and/or giggling at my geekiness, ease up. You know you are not that different. Just like me, you have things you love to do, but which the pressures of everyday life (you know, that pesky business of earning a living?) prevent you from enjoying as often as you would like.

So I am unapologetic. Someday soon I hope that I won’t have to wait until summer to write every day. I’m certainly working toward that goal, but in the meantime, summer is coming and I am ready to do my happy dance.

How about you…what are you doing this summer?

Late Pic

Just realized we haven’t posted in FOUR DAYS! Yikes! In our defense it has been a crazy week (more on that later). However, I don’t want to go any further without mentioning the latest tool in my box: The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression.

This handy guide provides unique insights into conveying your character’s emotions in a believable manner without being maudlin. There is a short instructive preface and then, the thesaurus arranged alphabetically by emotion. Each entry is divided into physical, internal and mental responses, along with a definition and more in depth details such as what a basic emotion may escalate into and how individuals may react when dealing with this emotion in an acute or long term manner.

Though originally clued in by my friend, Susan Kiernan-Lewis, it was when I needed some physical displays of bitterness in a character that I decided to look up the entire book. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi to the rescue!

This is a great tool for writers and I hope you will take a moment to look it over. Meanwhile, its my bedtime, so – sweet dreams and happy writing.

 

Assumption Rag

My daughter’s new obsession is Winnie the Pooh. We have all the episodes of the series from the nineties, and she would happily watch every episode over and over again.

While she’s watching the show, enjoying every minute, all I can focus on is that EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM on this show is caused by one of the characters seeing something and jumping to the wrongest possible conclusion. Literally every time. Usually this is followed by them needing to move away and never come back.

For real. You’re stuffed animals. Calm down.

I was being annoyed at the show when I realized that we do the exact same thing. It’s so easy to see something and make our own decision about what we are seeing. For some reason, we love to be upset; we love a reason for our feelings to be hurt; we love to be a victim. I still can’t figure out exactly why that is, I just know that I am as guilty of it as anyone else. 

It’s amazing, though, how it can escalate. We receive a piece of information that strikes us wrong. Instead of seeking out the original source, we let it seep into our heads, building, growing, sometimes festering, while we build a story of circumstances around it. Suddenly minor annoyance turns into real anger, and we still don’t have all of the information!

Come on, I can’t be the only person that does this. If I am, don’t tell me. That would be horrifying.

Maybe life would be a little sweeter if we set aside our own desire to be wronged. And maybe we should all watch a little more Winnie the Pooh. Tigger is hilarious.

Publishing Block

I have recently made the decision to take the fork in the publication path marked, “INDEPENDENT.” Publishing that is. Long for “Indie,” you see.

There are a lot of steps on this path that you won’t see when taking the Traditional route. Or at least you’ll see less of them. Editing, formatting, cover design and marketing are four areas traditional publishers usually handle, or at least help with. The writer has input, and in many cases a good deal of control, but the actual work is often done by someone else. And the House pays the bill. They may take it out of your royalties, but they pay the upfront costs. Indie authors, on the other hand, either do the work themselves or pay out of pocket to have it done.

Bohemian Take

Synopsis:

“When young Gastien Beauchamp flees the farm for Paris, the late nineteenth century bohemian era is in full swing. Color has always called to him, beseeching him to capture it on canvas and show people a new way of seeing things. However, the city of Paris has a ruthless agenda. Unless a man has money and connections, Paris unfeelingly crushes dreams and destroys souls. Left with only his dreams, Gastien stubbornly pushes on. Sometimes the “impossible” is possible – but the cost can be extremely high.”

Review:

Gastien, by Caddy Rowland, is an interesting story set in an era and a nation that I haven’t read much about before. The writing style resembles that of F.Scott Fitzgerald, though it lacks his poetry and lyricism.

The positives: fully developed, relateable characters involved in a tightly written, character driven plot. One grows to sympathize with, but not pity, Gastien even as you mentally plead with him to see the dangers he courts and walk away from them.

The negatives: Rowland has a tendency to psychoanalyze her protagonist on the page instead of trusting the reader to understand what she has already clearly shown by his actions and thoughts. This aspect of the novel was an unnecessary distraction, which had the effect of pulling me out of the story.

That said, I had no trouble finishing the book. I wanted to find out what happened to Gastien. I wished him well and hoped throughout that he would realize his dream and be able to accept and handle the cost he chose to pay, as well as the unforseen costs life often surprises us with.  There is darkness here, as there is in life, but essentially this story is one of triumph over adversity in the face of terrible odds

Author

Caddy Rowland lives in Minnesota with her husband, who was her high school sweetheart. They are owned by two parrots. Besides being a writer, she is an artist. One can often find her “makin’ love to the color” (painting) with loud music blaring. Her goal as an author is to make readers laugh, cry, think, and become intimately connected with her main characters. She writes dramatic novels showcasing the sublime joy and bitter tragedy of being human.

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