I confess I didn’t always feel museums were high on my list of things to do. I remember groaning when my father would interrupt our travels in order to visit one. But I have since learned to enjoy them in part because I usually visit them with a quest in mind or several. I want to discover things about certain time periods, the settlers of the area, the specifics of the area.

I my travels I have discovered lots of great museums.

In Whitehorse, Yukon there was the Log Church Museum. To a large extent this museum traced the history of missionaries and the church. It was very well laid out with audio clips and great displays.

The  The story I liked best was of the Bishop who ate his boots. Lost in the dead of winter, out of food, he boiled his boots for soup. He managed to get out alive though in bad shape physically. A Mountie patrol who later got lost in the same fashion did not fare as well.

Also in Whitehorse is the  MacBride museum. Besides the main building there are several smaller buildings.

A NWMP outpost and Sam McGee’s cabin.

I discovered another wonderful museum in Haines, Alaska. The Sheldon Museum

Besides being in one of the prettiest places I have ever seen, it was full of information.  I was especially impressed with the description of the Tlingit way of life. ..from the layout of the houses to showing how they weaved their robes.

Skagway, Alaska also had a beautiful museum especially the house.

Inside were many displays and a great assortment of books for purchase.

Have you ever heard of seal gut parkas? They’re waterproof which is about the only reason I can think of considering them.

But I think hands down the museum everyone enjoyed the most on our trip to Alaska and Yukon was the SS Klondike in Whitehorse.

We were given a guided tour that was very informational.

The ship traveled up and down the Yukon river taking gold prospectors to Dawson City. It had a beautiful lounge for first class passengers and less attractive accommodations for the others.

This is where second class male passengers slept.

If you ever get to Whitehorse I thoroughly recommend this tour for your consideration.

Museums.

They’re everywhere and they are full of interesting things.

This week I read a book by one of my favorite authors– Madeleine L’Engle. I confess I don’t like her most famous book, A Wrinkle in Time. But I read Meet the Austins and enjoyed it. This is a story about four children growing up in a big, old, drafty house. I think it is the same house we learn to love/hate in her journals–The Crosswicks Journals.

There are four of these journals and I like A Circle of Quiet the best.

Here is a quote that gives you a taste of the sort of thing she talks about. “Cooking is the only part of housekeeping I manage with any grace; it’s something like writing a book: you look in the refrigerator and see what’s there, choose all the ingredients you need, and a few your husband thinks you don’t need, and put them all together to concoct a dish. Vacuum cleaners are simply something more for me to trip over; and a kitchen floor, no matter how grubby, looks better before I wax it.”

Madeleine was born in New York City in 1918. Her mother was a pianist, her father, a writer, a critic and an foreign correspondent. She said he suffered lung damage from exposure to mustard gas during WWI. Others claim his illness was due to alcoholism.

She wrote her first story at age 5 and began keeping a journal at age 8. I think she wrote 102 books in all from journals to children’s stories to books of poetry.

The family moved to a 22-year-old farmhouse called Crosswicks in rural Connecticut in 1952.

I think what I really enjoy about her journal writings is how they reveal her character and give her life meaning.

She also has some lovely quotes.

• Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.

• We can’t take any credit for our talents. It’s how we use them that counts.

• Artistic temperament sometimes seems a battleground, a dark angel of destruction and a bright angel of creativity wrestling.

• A book comes and says, “Write me.” My job is to try to serve it to the best of my ability, which is never good enough, but all I can do is listen to it, do what it tells me and collaborate.

• That’s the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they’ve been all along.

• We tend to think things are new because we’ve just discovered them.

• We tend to defend vigorously things that in our deepest hearts we are not quite certain about. If we are certain of something we know, it doesn’t need defending.

• I share Einstein’s affirmation that anyone who is not lost on the rapturous awe at the power and glory of the mind behind the universe “is as good as a burnt out candle.”

Do you, or have you, read Madeleine L’Engle’s books? Which ones did you enjoy and why? What other books about writers and their writing do you enjoy?

I grew up in the boonies. We didn’t even have a bookstore. As far as I knew one got books at the library or in the mail. But every year we went to a conference at the Prairie Bible Instituted a couple hours drive away. (A long way in those long gone days.) Wonder of wonders, they had a book store. I loved to wander the store. Row after row of books and Bibles. Shelves of writing material–pens, pencils, notebooks. It was the highlight of the trip in my opinion. I particularly liked turning the pages on a Bible that had a concordance/dictionary in the back complete with illustrations. Fine black leather cover. India paper pages…gold trimmed. I wanted it.

I was twelve years old and babysat at 35c/hour. The Bible was, as nearly as I recall, $35. You do the math. I save my money from babysitting and bought the Bible.

It is still the King James Version that I use for Bible references when writing historical stories.

The cover is now worn until it is closer to brown than black.

The gold has long been gone from the edges of the pages.

There are a few loose pages and one or two pages taped together. There are notes in the margin. In fact, it is quite dog- eared. But in my affections this is a Bible full of memories of spiritual times growing up. I can trace my struggles and hopes and growth on its pages.

The other day as I was looking for a verse to use in the story I am working on, I found another treasure. It is a tiny clipping I cut out many years ago–soon after I got my Bible. I knew I had stuck it in the pages but haven’t been able to find it in year so assumed it had fallen out and was lost. I was thrilled to connect with this lesson from the past.

The clipping is a quote from Marcel Achard, a French playwright. “When I think of how little it takes every monrning to put me in a bad mood, I tell myself that is doesn’t eally take any more effort to be in a good mood.”

I remember reading that and thinking how true. How surprising to think it was that simple. I decided I might as well make the effort to be in a good mood. Of course, I haven’t always succeeded but I try.

I love finding the clipping that made me acknowledge this truth.

I’d love to hear stories about the first Bible that was meaningful for you and why. There might be a free book to at least one of those who respond.

My research trip took me to Yellowstone National Park.  It’s a beautiful place but visitors be warned. The roads are narrow and clogged with traffic. Drivers stop suddenly in the middle of the road to look at buffalo or elk or moose or the strange formations created by the hot springs.  This picture is of Mammoth Springs on the north side of the park and shows the white deposits.

The most famous attraction is Old Faithful and we were fortunate enough to arrive just before it blew up a fountain of steam.   

There must have been a thousand people circling the geyser and the oohs and aahs were the same as if they were watching fireworks. The show was as impressive!                            

But there were other sights (and long, curvy roads) to see.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the falls were stunning. My wheelchair client was able to see them from the rim but couldn’t take the long stairs down which didn’t bother me in the least.

Yes, the picture on the right shows a long, steep stairway. Half an hour down, I was told, more than two hours back.

It is a park worth visiting and does have historical significance. The natives called in Yellow Rock. The Yellow Rock River has some famous tributaries–Bighorn, Rosebud, Powder. Many of the Indian Battles that we are familiar with occurred around these places, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

I recently returned from another research trip aka taking client on a holiday. We went into Montana to look around. I got lots of pictures and would have gotten more… except for this:  a speed limit of 70mph on a narrow road.                                    

No, I didn’t have to maintain the speed and most times I didn’t but there was no place to pull over to take pictures. This is the result:

Many pictures taken out the window as we drive down the road. Of course, most of the pics don’t end up of a quality that can be saved in an album but provide research details nonetheless.

Speaking of albums… I tried a new program that creates photo albums from my pictures. http://www.photoinpress.ca/ It worked really well and I’ve ordered two books–one that is more scenic for my client and one that is more detailed and full of historical information for myself. When I get these books I will decide if it is how I want to do my pictures in the future.

By the way, do any of you save your pictures this way? If so, what program or site do you recommend?

My point about the speed limit is I missed so much because I had to concentrate on driving which is fine if your goal is to get from Point A to Point B. But it wasn’t until I parked the van and got out that I discovered some wonderful little things.

The flowers:

  Beautiful churches:                                                               

And behind the white church…a pretty little stream.                                                                           

At one stop, I discovered a little shop with all sorts of unique creations. I liked this one.

And only by slowing down and getting out of the vehicle to use my zoom did  I capture this beauty.

It make me wonder how much I miss every day by living too fast.

Gen. 1:31. God saw all that he had created and it was very good.

Let’s not forget to slow down and enjoy the beauty around us.

You probably can’t get a group of writers together with the topic of critique groups and/or partners coming up. There are all sorts of articles on-line about critquing–what it is, how to do it, etc. http://www.writing-world.com/links/critique.shtml

I’m guessing that it means different things to different people. Some groups meet every week or two and read over every word their members write then offer feed back. At the other end of the spectrum are those who do more brainstorming than actual critiquing. That would be where my friend, Carolyne Aarsen, and I fit.

I met Carolyne at a romance writers’ conference in Calgary. Neither of us were published. Both of us wrote inspirational romance. The next time I met her was at a Christian writer’s conference. Both of us had just published our first book with different publishers and were ecstatic about having crossed that invisible line.

We soon discovered we had lots more in common. Both of us  live in a rural area. Both of us have fostered children. Our friendship grew slowly but steadily over the next few years. Soon we were doing more than sharing news of new contracts. We were sharing fears and frustrations. Then we began to appeal to each other for help on our stories. I consider her help invaluable. Even more, we’ve attended numerous conferences together and gone on a similar learning journey so we have a common language and understanding of story.  Here we are in a conference in Calgary with Michelle Beaty from Edmonton.

  Here is Carolyne at a workshop we attended a couple of winters ago in Vancouver. It was a pleasant break from Alberta winter. Yes, we both live in Alberta but about 4 hours apart. Thank goodness for the telephone and email.

I have never counted the number of workshops and conferences we have attended together and been roommates at. It would be interesting and challenging to see if I could.

With Carolyne working at her desk while I am, many miles to the south, working at mine, makes me feel connected to a larger world than that within my office walls.

I was thrilled to pick up her latest book the other day. 

I remember her struggles to get this story right. We often tore ideas apart and rebuilt them. So it is a real pleasure to read the finished product and see how beautifully it turned out.

This is what the back cover says: Reunited with The Rancher. Veterinarian Cara Morrison is planning another walk down the aisle with her ex-fiance–except she isn’t the bride and rancher Nicholas Chapman isn’t the groom. With their best friends’ wedding looming, the last thing maid of honor Cara wants is to rekindle a romance with best man Nicholas. But when he needs her help to unravel the illness that’s descending on his herd, she discovers that the sparks between her and Nicholas still burn bright. Is it possible to heal the wounds of the past and start over with the cattleman she never stopped loving?

This story is a very good read. Pick it up while it’s still on the shelves or buy it on-line at www.eharlequin.com

I’m presently doing research on Sitting Bull, the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Indian Wars of the Great Plains.

I have visited the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn and saw the graves scattered across the prairie. (The white markers in the first photo indicate graves. In the second photo, Custer’s grave marker is the black one.)

It’s hard to find truly accurate information on the war over the western plains. Although many of the native tribes kept pictorial records they were mostly destroyed when their homes were burned. 

Yet some of the survivors gave us an account from their point of view. The picture to the left is a native depiction.

I found a book that did a fine job of showing the struggle for domination of the plains.  Sitting Bull and His World is written by Albert Marrin who has done his best to portray the events from both sides of the dispute. He especially looks at the life of Sitting Bull, the great Sioux chief. From a Lakota tribe of Hunkpapa, Sitting Bull lead is people wisely and bravely. He was a leader in out smarting General Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He escaped to Canada to save the remnants of his people. However, the systematic destruction of the buffalo left him watching his people die of starvation. He returned to America and submitted to living on a reservation. He toured with Buffalo Bill and they were good friends. Eventually, the government wanted Sitting Bull arrested and brought in dead or alvie. They blamed him for continued resistance from the natives. In a scrimmage with Metal Breasts (Indians with tin stars on their chest and authority to act as lawmen), Sitting Bull was killed in Dec., 1890. A short time later, the Indian Wars ended with the Battle of Wounded Knee.

It was a dark time in history especially for Native Americans.

My research has been interesting and full of fresh insights that I hope I can use in a future series. It also makes me think another trip to Montana for more research is in the future.

This week I enjoyed a couple of days with my 10-month old granddaughter. She’s at a really fun stage–responsive to words and games. Now she plays pat-a-cake. Her little hands are so plump and her fingers straighten so far that only her palms touch. Sweet.  Pat, pat and look at grandma to say the words. Again and again. Repetition is so much fun.

Repetition is a form of patterning that teaches our brain to do something instinctively. You might ask if repetition creates familiarity which consequently breeds contempt? But it doesn’t seem to be so. It seems familiarity gives us a sense of comfort and satisfaction and perhaps to understanding.

I find all of this fascinating in regards to story writing because all stories have a familiar shape (which might be affected by culture but in the western world culture the shape is consistently the same.) Most of us recognize Aristotle’s incline form of story which can be reduced in simplest terms to beginning, middle and end.

We seem to instinctively know when the structure is there. Maybe we can’t see it but if it is missing we leave the book or the theatre with an unsatisfied feeling.

I wish story structure was that simple but the longer I write the more I discover there is to know. There’s the hero’s journey, the inner journey, the wound, the lie, the W shaped plot, beats, and so much more. 

Is it any wonder I get confused??

I have loved books all my life. I remember going to the old-fashioned library in our small town…oiled floors, big pot-bellied stove, musty-dusty smell. I loved roaming the rows and rows of books. Just seeing them filled me with excitement.

I haven’t changed much except now I visit modern, clean libraries. I laugh when I am traveling with a certain good friend. She knows where all the best women’s-wear shops are in all the towns around us. I know where the library is.

Blogs and pictures about books about books are equally fascinating. I thought I’d share a few.

A still life with books is so much better than a still life with fruit in my opinion. If I had room I would have still lifes with books all over my house

According to this interesting site there are more ways to shelve books than there are books.

http://weburbanist.com/2008/06/24/more-unique-creative-bookcases-and-bookshelves/

Here’s a sample of bookshelves that I like. There is something about seeing books, being surrounded by books that stirs my imagination.

Visiting Shakespeare and Co. in Paris was an overload to my book senses. Every little nook and cranny was crowded with books from floor to ceiling.

I love this idea for a book-reading and storage area. It is one of may featured on this blog.

http://theblogonthebookshelf.blogspot.com/

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Here is an idea that appeals–a book-vending machine

It’s true. There’s can’t be too many books. Yes, people are now reading them on all sorts of hand-held devises but that will never replace the sheer impact and pleasure of shelved books.

So go enjoy your books. Read them, shelf them, surround yourself with them.

“A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them.” Horace Mann

Let’s talk about writing. My writing seeing as it’s my blog.

This week I am working on developing story synopsis (or treatments or outlines whatever you wish to call them for three stories that I hope will become a three book series. It sounds simple enough. Right? But in reality, not so much.

I start with an idea. 

People often ask where I get my ideas. My answer: everywhere. I can be driving along minding my own business and be attached by one.

Like wouldn’t it be fun to have a woman (or a man) who got dropped into the middle of nowhere and had to survive? 

Or I’m reading a book and my imagination starts to ‘live’ in the fictional world and I can see people apart from the characters in the book.

Or I’m doing research and I start to imagine how people lived and loved in those circumstances.

I see a beautiful setting and I want to put two people in love there to enjoy it.

However, ideas do not make a story. They are just that and only that. Ideas. They are not characters. They are not structure. So I have spent countless hours trying to turn my ideas into characters and structure. I wish I could report resounding success. However, all I can say is I think I have the first two stories figured out. The third is coming.

I am encouraged to know that most of my stories have started with ideas that took a lot of work to turn into story structure. And yet somehow I did it. Just to prove the point here is the cover of the Christmas anthology I have a story in along with Anna Schmidt. The cover is on the Home page but to save you having to go look, here it is.

Watch for it in November or December. I’m not exactly sure of the release date. And watch for Dakota Cowboy to hit the stands in about 3 weeks.