This week I got a parcel notice. I hiked myself down to the depot and picked up a package from my publisher. I was not expecting any author copies of a book. My next one won’t be out until April 2010 so it’s way too early for that. Besides, the parcel was small.

I could hardly wait to open it but restrained myself until I was back in the van.  Inside I found this:  

It’s a hard cover copy of my Jan. 09 book published by Thorndike. This company reissues titles with large print and hard cover.  My understanding is they go into libraries.

The cover has nothing to do with the story which is set in the 1930s when the grass would be short and moisture-starved but it is beautiful so I’m not complaining.

I don’t know how they select which stories they will reprint or who decides but this is the third time I’ve been chosen by Thorndike. A few months ago I learned that The Dreams of Hannah Williams had gone to hardcover/large print.

They do nice covers, don’t they?

A few years ago 2 stories from Prairie Brides came out with Thorndike.

As well, The Prairie Romance Collection, which contains  12 short romance stories is hardcover. (Put out by Barbour Publishing)

There is something about a hardcover book. Perhaps the weight of it, the solidness of it that seems to say, ‘Look at me.’

Of course it could be just me…thrilled to see my stories offered in another format.

The IDEA of writing a book is fun.Writing a book is hard work. In fact, ideas are fun. A story starts as an idea. What would happen if…? Who are these people? What are they doing? Then suddenly, the idea turns into work. The people, the activities, the idea all have to form a recognizable shape. We all know the shape of a story. We’ve been taught it since we were infants at our mother’s knees. (Although different cultures have varying story shapes.) For me, the ideas, the people, the events look a lot more like a huge pile of tangled yarn than a neatly knitted scarf. My job is to knit the yarn into a project–scarf or otherwise.

Thinking about this creative process reminded me of a book I once read–Hundreds and Thousands–The Journals of Emily Carr. As a well-known Canadian artist (painter) I was curious about this woman. I’m not keen on some of her later work. I find some of it heavy and dark, almost oppressive feeling. But then there’s the other stuff that has an air of lightness and whimsy. For example, compare these two paintings.

from http://www.gallerieswest.ca

from www.glenbow.org/collections

But I loved reading her book.  Spying on her I suppose. She struggled with her craft, never quite satisfied with what she produced. She said, "My sketches have zip to them but they don’t strike bottom yet. They move some but I want them to swell and roll back and forth into space, pausing here and there to fill out the song, catch the rhythm, to go down into the deep places and pause there and to rise up into the high ones, exulting. Let the movement be slow and savor of solidity at the base and rise quivering to the tree tops and to the sky, always rising to meet it joyously and tremulously. The objects before one are not enough, nor color, nor form, nor design, nor composition. If spirit does not breath through, it is lifeless, dead, voiceless. And the spirit must be felt so intensely that it has power to call others in passing, for it must pass, not stop in the pictures but be perpetually moving through, carrying on and inducing a thirst for more and a desire to rise. " (Page 194 of Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr.)

I love that passage. Perhaps because she has so clearly captured the way many artists– whether authors, painters or other medium–feel about the work they create. What I see in my head, the good idea, the struggling story don’t translate to the page as vividly as I always hope.  I want my stories to ‘go down into the deep laces and pause there and to rise into the high ones, exulting.’

And so I capture ideas, untangle them and try to knit them into a story hoping always to capture the swell, the song, the vigor and the spirit of what God has planted in each story.

Thanksgiving has come and gone. We had lots of kids and grandkids here to visit. The three new babies were here together and we tried to get a picture of the three of them. What a hoot. Have a look. Can’t you just hear their thoughts?

Haedyn: What’s that racket.

Linden: Two girls. Icky. Get me out of here.

Anastasia: Whatever. Just let me sleep.

It was nice to have so much of the family visit. Unfortunately, the weather was too miserable to go outside and play or have a wiener roast.  Snow and arctic temperatures in Oct. Who needs it??

It’s amazing how weather affects us. It’s something to keep in mind when I write. A snow storm can keep people indoors and lead to crankiness. Rain can remind the reader that life can be troublesome. Setting can almost be considered a character. It sets tone and emotion for a scene.

I don’t know if everyone is as affected by setting as I am but I’m sure everyone is touched in some way or other.

"Joy sings in beauty that surrounds us. Joy smiles through loved ones all around us." Barbara Burrow.

As Robert Louis Stevenson said,

"The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings."

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.” Mother Theresa

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all." Cecil Francis Alexander

For fellow authors who want to think more about the power of setting, check out some of these articles.

 http://columbiawritersworkshop.blogspot.com/2009/09/creating-setting.html

http://prairiechickswriteromance.blogspot.com/search/label/Setting

I’ve had a busy summer. Summers are always busy. By fall I am looking forward to a routine. I read a quote the other day that helps me understand why I need some sort of schedule in my life.

‘Be regular and ordinary in your life so that you my be violent and original in your work’ Gustave Flaubert

Now I don’t know anything about Gustave Flauber except he identified a very good reason for living my ordinary life on auto-pilot as much as possible. I don’ t write the sort of stories that have violence in them and perhaps that wasn’t even what he meant. But I do need to have my mind available for creativity.

Now that might mean different things to different people. Perhaps a quiet beach stay.  Or a secluded patio.                            

For others it might mean a regimented schedule with events happening at exactly the same time every day. Or it might mean living life simply.

For me I suppose it means reducing the external demands, trying to be organized about meals and all those other things required in running a household.

At times it can be exhausting. Yet there is a calmness to routine even when it’s hectic. It frees my mind to think about my stories.

Which reminds me, I was asked to be one of two authors in a 2 novella-collection for Christmas 2010. That sounds like a long way off but the story has to be delivered by December of this year. When I was first asked, I wondered if I had time to do it and if I could write a story in half the word length I usually do. But the story exploded from my brain and I am happy with it. I hope the editor likes it too.  It’s a cowboy Christmas story.