Linda Ford

I got invited to join someone on a trip to Victoria, BC in mid-Feb. According to the official city web site, Victoria is located in sub-Mediterranean zone, and enjoys some of the most moderate weather in all of Canada. Victoria boasts an average of 2,183 hours of sunshine yearly, and an eight month frost free season. Average annual rainfall is 26.2 inches (compared to over 50 inches in New York). The average monthly rainfall in winter is 5 cm (2 inches) and in the summer is less than 2.5 cm (1 inch).

Victoria has a very low humidity ratio, and almost constant offshore breezes which keep summer days from becoming too hot, yet summer evenings can cool off; therefore a sweater or a light jacket is recommended. Although winters are mild and rarely include snow, warmer clothing is recommended between the months of November and March.

Starting Feb. 24th or thereabouts, Victoria has an official count of blooms. Blooms in Feb.? (Over 21 billion counted last year.) I have to look in my photo archives to enjoy blooms.

Then there’s the museums, the shops, the book store, the inner harbor with sunshine, people, activities and cherry trees in blossom. 

I really need to go and get some better pictures taken with a digital camera.

However, deadlines and people needing care make it impossible for me to go at this time. So I’ve decided to bloom where I’m planted by enjoying the good things of my life. I can go to a quilt store and see color in the swatches of fabric. I can go to the library and enjoy the books. I can walk when the weather allows and dream of spring.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else.” So I’m looking for what I’ve gained by enduring the rest of winter without a break.

One would think writing a story meant sitting before the computer and creating words on the screen. Well, yes it does. but there is so much more.

For instance, this week I had to come up with title suggestions for a new series slated for release in 2012. My working title for the series was Wanted: A Few Good Men and I named each story after the hero and heroine. Not very original but I don’t get married to titles. After some back and forth the title for the miniseries is Three Brides for Three Cowboys and the first book is The Cowboy Tutor.

Then there is coming up with art fact information that goes to the art department for the creation of a cover. The cover has to reach out and grab a reader. It has to portray the theme and feeling of the story but not necessarily the exact details. The more precise information I can provide, the better the cover. Maybe. Though I’ve had no complaints about the Love Inspired Historical covers. I think they are great.

So my January book, Dakota Father, shows the little girl with the hero and heroine on the Dakota prairie. 

My March release shows a farmer/rancher and his little girl. It’s a very nice cover and does show the spirit of the story–an independent little girl and a father who loves her.

I’ve been asked to do a Thanksgiving novella to be released Oct. 2011. First I do a proposal–synopsis and first chapter. When it’s approved I can submit the complete manuscript. Again, you’d think it simply meant writing the story and sending it. Sort of. But first I do all the editing I can do. Make sure the story is sound. Try to eliminate repetition. Make sure I haven’t started something I didn’t finish. Then the boring stuff. I use a program called Autocrits that analyzes repeated words, poor sentence structure, etc.

I get a chart something like this:

Overused Words       Found       Suggestion

Could                        9               Remove about 3 occurrences

It’s an excellent process for me and makes me tighten my writing but oh, it is tedious.   My last step is Textaloud–a program that reads my story to me in a boring flat tone. It takes a great deal of concentration to follow word by word. But I always find things to change…sentences that need tightening, explanations that need fixing, etc. I have to make myself do it.

Then I print out the manuscript and take it to the courier. It is sitting at my elbow waiting for the trip tomorrow. That is if I can get out after the winter storm we are in the grip of.

I just came back from a walk where I was thinking of things I remember about Christmas. I realize some of my best memories are based on things/events one might not consider positive.

I remember one Christmas or was it two? when my brothers and I were confined to bed with one of those childhood illnesses that used to be common. I think it was red measles. We had to stay in bed, avoid bright lights and eat light meals. But my mother decided not to let it ruin the holidays. She set up three cots for us in the living room where we were warm and could see the tree. And we opened our gifts in bed. I’m not sure how the boys felt about it but being in bed surrounded by my new doll and books didn’t seem like a hardship. In fact, I remember thinking it was rather special.

I’m guessing the boys would have rather been outside playing in the snow.  Here we are one snowy winter.

Another Christmas which could have ended in sadness was the year there were no Christmas trees available. I can’t say why. My mother again came to the rescue. She fashioned a tree from clothes hangers and green tissue paper and hung lights on it. It wasn’t a real tree but it was pretty. And not at all a Charlie Brown tree.

Then there was the Christmas I got a doll my mother made. It had moveable limbs and a face that looked almost real. It was big enough to wear REAL baby clothes. I wish I still had it but we were taught to share our toys with the less fortunate so I hope some underprivileged little girl somewhere got as much enjoyment from it as I did.

I guess it all boils down to the things that make Christmas special are not the big price items. It’s making the best of what we have, sharing simple things, enjoying the moment.

May everyone enjoy the best Christmas present ever–Jesus–Deity wrapped in human flesh. A gift beyond compare.

What is joy? How do we find it and keep it? These are questions I’ve considered lately. And here are my conclusions. (I warn you they are not profound but simply what I’ve found.)

Sometimes joy is a bubbling song bursting from my heart, my mind, my lips. Sometimes I have to search for a sign of it and nurture it into existence.

A Chinese proverb says: Once joy scatters a hundred griefs. (I might insert a hundred sadnesses.)William Shakespeare says ‘Joy delights in joy.’ Perhaps these two statements provide the key. I need to find the joys, nurture them so grief is banished (or at least reduced to size) and let joy beget joy.

Here are some of the joys I found lately.

Joy is a phone call or visit from an old, dear friend.

It is a beautiful sunrise and a big window to enjoy it.

Joy is a child’s smile.

It is a good book.

A hot cup of coffee.   

A flower.

Henry Ward Beecher:
The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.

The Bible says:  A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.

So find joy today and always.