Traveling Away from the Ranch

We're off to Greece for three weeks!  Not the usual goings on at the ranch but a trip of a lifetime.  We'll visit Athens and Delphi and hopefully the Acropolis then off to Crete for a week then onto a cruise of the Greek Islands and a short stop in Turkey, even!  Wow!  We are blessed to be able to take the time, to have our kids to stay at the ranch and look after things and to be traveling with friends we love to travel with.
     We'll finish irrigating before the end of the month and pull the pumps and begin readying things for winter.  Already the mornings are cooler and the vine maple (in the mountain passes) has turned red.  No freeze yet though so my roses continue to bloom.  this is a favorite time of year on the ranch.  We'll be missing a bit of it by being in another country but we always come back energized by the richness of this world and its people.
   I hope your autumn is memorable.

In Honor Of...

This is the painting that Loeta McElwee painted for me and Jerry. She called it "In Honor of Jane and Jerry and the John Day River" She gave it to us as a ten year celebration for my helping with fund-raising for Albertina Kerr, an organization that serves children and adults with disabilities in Portland, Oregon. Great work of art!

Our Cows

Yes, Jerry's brought them back into our lives.  But that's all right.  They'll eat the hay we didn't sell last year and keep the weeds down.  We also found a new home for Stan the goat.  He'll be happier with the neighbor's sheep and horses.  It's the same neighbor who took Henry our pony mule in the day after we got Stan as a pal for him.  Unknown to us, Henry didn't like goats so he traveled seven miles, crossed the river and made his way up the ravines to his new home.  Sometimes the best of plans just don't work out and Henry took things into his own hands and found the neighbor with horses.  This time, the neighbor delivered our cows and they took Stan home with them. I called today and he's happy. A fine outcome indeed. But I miss the old goat.  Who would have thought?  Sometimes getting what we wish for is a surprise.

Away

   Being away has its charms.  We're away from the hassles of the pump getting flooded and having to drive it two hours for repairs that weren't to be finished before we headed East.  We're away from taking walks that require vigilance looking out for rattlesnakes.  I keep Caesar on a leash when we walk now instead of letting him run so that he doesn't just jump on top of a snake waaaaay ahead of me.  Bo stays a little closer to when I have Caesar on a leash. (the rhythm of that -- Caesar on a leash -- reminds me of the Minnesota State Fair's motto of everything on a stick:  chocolate on a stick, deep fried butter on a stick...ok, maybe it's just me).  We're also away from the routines:  writing, exercising, paying bills, handling maintenance issues of relationships and living.  Being away introduces us to new people, events, listening to others talk about their lives, seeing family, being reminded of my parents and sister no longer on this earth.  And feeling good about cousins telling me I remind them of my mother.  There might have been a time when I resented that but no more.  I loved my mom and all her roles even if she drove me crazy when I was growing up. Away means new routines with Jerry, my brother and his family (walking through cornfields instead of through sagebrush trails) and meeting a cousin I didn't know I had.
     Being away is also sad at times.  I miss the dogs.  I miss knowing where my stuff is (and not having it in a suitcase).  I miss the time I get up early and write even when I'm struggling with a scene or chapter. I miss the smell of pine and juniper and looking out at the deck with flowers I've planted to see if I can keep them alive.
     Today we'll be away from my brothers farm meeting my nephews half way between Red Wing and Mankato where Clayton attends school and is working.  The other nephew (who came to my event in St . Paul, bless him) will meet us too.  That'll be good.
     Being away for today means we will return.  And tomorrow, we'll return to Oregon refreshed I think for having been exposed to the gifts of being away and having time to appreciate what we leave behind in both places when we go away.

Flooding

Not since 1948 have we seen river flows at this level.  20,000 CFS (cubic feet per second) on Sunday.  It's starting to go down now so we can begin to see the islands that have been underwater.  Fortunately it only seeped against the dikes and wasn't pushing into the fields.  I'm always amazed at the power of water.  I don't even like to take the dogs for a walk when the river is that high for fear they'll decide to jump in after a floating stick and the current will be too strong for them.  So I watch from a distance and am grateful that the flow is slowing.  A very wet spring for us.  But everything is green, green, green!  I don't know what these are but I love the color.  Nice.
     Back to work.

coming to terms with child-less ness

In an earlier post about women in history i mentioned that writing about Jane Sherar (A Sweetness to the Soul) helped me come to terms with my own childless-ness.  Someone commented and asked me to talk about that more.  So here I am, better late than never.
        First, I didn't know that the book would take me there.  Jane Sherar had no children of her own but she'd adopted a girl and taken in another and eventually took in a niece as well.  In the first draft, I remember not being sure whether to write her character as someone who wanted children but couldn't have them; or was she a woman unique for the period of the 1860s and someone who didn't want children in her life.  She'd had a strained relationship with her own mother and three of her siblings had died within a week of each other and she'd seen the grief that a child dying can bring.  My editor said to me at one point "You haven't really decided about the child less issue and I think you need to."  So I went back and in the rewriting, she became a woman who wanted children and couldn't have them.  And suddenly I knew that was true for me too.
   I'd been fearful of being a poor mother; wasn't certain I was self-less enough to give in that way, to put a child's needs above my own which is the absolute requirement for being a good parent i always thought.  When my body presented serious problems and my husband, who had been married before, wanted no more children (he'd had a vasectomy years before) I made the decision to have a hysterectomy at the age of 30.
   But it wasn't until I was nearly 50 before I really dealt with that loss and writing the book helped me go there.
    What I discovered is that we do not always get what we want in life; and that I could still have children in my life if I chose.  They would just be there in a very different way.  For me, it was working in an early childhood center on the reservation, helping families with their kids, letting them open me up as I walked beside them as parents that helped bring children into my life.  I still have some of those kids in my life.  The families too.  Jane Sherar had a relationship with the children of the same tribe I worked for so we walked together in that way.
    Then when the need arose, we took a grandchild in to live with us first when she was seven and then when she was 15.  I discovered that one didn't have to have given birth to a child to fall in love with them, to ache with the smell of their hair after a bath, to hold them in their sorrow.  Jane Sherar adopted a child when she was 13 or so and had to fight her mother over it to do it.  There were custody issues in the care of our grandchild too, all this while I worked on that book.  But Jane's willingness to be happy rather than being right; her willingness to accept what God had given her even though it wasn't all she thought she needed, both those pieces of wisdom entered my blood stream through the writing of that book.  Getting clear about what mattered, identifying what I had control over and what I didn't, that all came through in the writing of that story, too.
    To receive letters from couples and from individual women telling me that reading that book brought them to new places of understanding about their own infertility has been one of the greatest gifts a story can give.  I understand that some have been given the book by their doctors and by their therapists. That the story gives peace where there had been none is a great joy to me.
     That's how writing about Jane Sherar helped me come to terms with my child-less ness.  I'll be forever grateful.  I hope that helps!  Thanks for asking.

Taking Time

Today I never even walked outside.  I opened and closed the door fifty times to let the dogs in and out and each time I inhaled the air, looked at the river deck with the flowers I'd planted, admired the newly mowed lawn and how the green took my eyes to the rose bushes and beyond to the river running through the ranch.  It's high from recent rains.  It's looking bluer than brown though.  And I'm reminded that this is still an amazing place to have put down those "luminous fibers" that Barry Lopez speaks of in Arctic Dreams where he says some of us are not finished at the skin and send out fibers to a soil we've allowed to become a part of us.  I don't have to walk outside to feel the dirt beneath my feet to know I'm connected here.  And yet, all things change.  Even the river.  And our relationships to place.  In the months ahead, there may be new changes to our relationship to this land.  But no matter what happens, we will take with us a few of those luminous fibers with us.  For today, I will let the fibers be my eyes taking in the blessing of a place.

Women in History - what they teach us all

This is women in history month.  How could I not blog just a bit about the many women I've been privileged to write about through the years.  You can also visit a number of bloggers connected with women writing the west www.womenwritingthewest.org who are making March a special time to remember women's history.

Jane Herbert Sherar, who with her husband Joseph, and the help of Wasco, Warm Springs and Paiute people, helped build a bridge across a remote river to open up settlement into Eastern Oregon.  She also helped build a bridge between cultures as this true story unveils how it is possible to live with integrity with your neighbors even when you don't share the same history or religion or even traditions. Jane lived in Central Oregon in the 1860s through 1906 when she died of an infection that today would be treated with antibiotics.  Times have changed.  This was the story that helped me come to terms with my own childless-ness and taught me that if you pursue your goal with strength, flexibility and faith you will find your sweetness to the soul and may touch the lives of others in the process.

Cassie Hendrick Stearns Simpson.  Here was a woman who in the 1890s headed west with her new husband, her mother and her sister.  What a honeymoon that must have been.  Arriving in Hoquiam, Washington, Cassie soon found herself embroiled in poor decisions.  She acts on some of those desires and has to live with the consequences.  What I loved about discovering her life was how she redeemed herself with her daughter and also how she gave back to the community by working tirelessly to raise funds for the refugees in World War I.  Today, we can all visit Shore Acres state park on the Oregon Coast and see the garden her husband developed for her. Five acres of absolute beauty and respite.  Cassie reminded me that we all make mistakes and it's what we do about them that matters.

Emma Wagner Giesy.  The only woman who with 9 male scouts set out in 1853 to find a new site for their religious colony.  They headed to the northwest, Willapa Bay Washington.  Things didn't go so well but she did deliver a baby in October and a in January of 1856, a baby girl was born.  She had two more children after that and when I included her daughters in the novels a descendant said "I loved the book, but you made up the part about the girls, right?  She didn't have girls, only boys."  I shared the information I'd gotten in my search and she recognized the names.  "We never knew they were related to Emma," she said.  "We only heard about the boys."  Maybe that's why Virginia Woolf wrote that "women's history must be invented, both uncovered and made up."  Emma taught me the importance of being clear about what matters in your life and having the courage to act on that.

My own grandmother is a part of this women in history month too.  She was an early photographer at the turn of the century and eventually owned her own studio in Winona, MN.  She was 20 years old.  The year was 1912.  How she got there and what happened afterwards is the rest of the story but I'm hoping people will find the set, A Flickering Light and An Absence so Great worthy reading time.  I'll be participating in One book One Community reading in Sherman County this month, spending a day at the high school hoping to get kids interested in their own family stories but also in the photographs that frame their lives.  Lots of stories inside a photograph.  If you scroll down, you'll see some photographs of my grandmother, Jessie Ann Gaebele.  I wrote about her in part to discover memory DNA, the things we carry with us from ancestors that are more than what's in physical characteristics.

There'll be more!  But most of all, remember your own women in history and write about them.

Three good things toward finding happiness

I won't apologize.
 It seems I'm always saying I'm sorry and really, how often I post doesn't need to be yet one more thing I tell myself I've failed at.
     So instead I'm going to tell you that I've been watching the PBS series called The Emotional Life and found it fascinating and yes, hopeful especially as Jerry and I think about our future, the sort of "what's next" on this ranch or in our lives as he turns 80 this year and we're no longer farming.
      One suggestion in the PBS section on finding happiness was to list three good things that happened yesterday and then see if one can identify what brought about those three good things, the circumstances.  It's a way of gratitude and a part of my prayer life that  I've skipped over of late (which could explain why I haven't been feeling so happy of late either, you think?).
   So here's my three good things from yesterday:
1) I walked on the treadmill for two miles. What led up to that was getting up and doing it; watching the PBS series while I walked which made the time go quickly and getting a good night's sleep the night before (and copying the series rather than staying up late to watch it.
 2)Work went well on my book, I hit 16,000 words!  What led up to that was just doing it, sitting in front of the computer, allowing myself to enter and live the story. It was staying focused, taking a lunch break that included a shower and connecting with Jerry and Matt then returning to work and not paying attention to emails until later in the day.
3) I got the bed made up and the guest room picked up.  What led up to that was knowing our friend is coming to visit and bringing her dog that is a brother to our cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Jerry has finished the door heads and drawers in that room after all these years so the room for the first time looks completed.  I could appreciate his efforts (I did help hang the doors in there :) and that the room looks inviting which is a nice thing to offer a friend when she visits.  I also liked telling Caesar about his brother coming to stay and petting his little body.
   I think it's possible three good things could snowball into many more if I just pay attention and isn't that part of what makes up happiness, paying attention, being grateful for what is.
   I hope you take the time to find your three best things from yesterday and to remember to thank God for the pleasure.  Jane
      

Christmas Past; memories of my grandmother

Jessie Gaebele, right an left

  These are photos of my grandmother.  The one on the left isn't one we used in the sequel to A Flickering Light called An Absence so Great.  It's one I wanted to save for moments like this.  I suspect it might have been her "traveling dress"  after she married.  She looks pretty happy in this photo.  The photo of her in the lovely white dress was used in A Flickering Light (which was named to Library Journal's Best Books of 2009, a lovely honor for my grandmother.  She's a little older in the traveling dress photo, had owned her own studio at this point.  She'd walked through fire, too and been strengthened by the process.

  I'm just thinking of her as I prepare to write my annual Christmas letter, something I didn't do last year because I had atypical pneumonia.

  this year, I'm feeling fine and I'm ready to send Christmas greetings your way.  It seemed appropriate to do that with some pictures of my grandmother where I spent nearly every Christmas during my growing up years, at her big house in Minneapolis.  I miss her.  But that's what the holidays can do for us, remind us to remember.

  May all your memories of Christmas past nourish and transform.

Sites and Stories; a nice recognition

Kathleen Ernst, a writer friend and quilter, too, has posted an interview with me on her blog www.sitesandstories.wordpress.com She lives in Wisconsin and writes fabulous young adult and children's books that have won awards but more, touched the lives of young readers in powerful ways. She brings history alive for kids which isn't easy to do. Check out the interview.

As for my own writing life: today I'm working on finding a map of a railroad route in 1896 and trying not to get distracted from all the interesting historical pieces there are on the web. And I finished my final edits for An Absence so Great. Here's another photo of my grandmother, one we are not using in the sequel to A Flickering Light. That book, btw, was named to Library Journal's Best Books of 2009. Hurrah!

As part of ranch life, we're applying for an easement to put our irrigation pump lines into the river next year. We've been doing it for 25 years (we have water rights) but because the river we live on has been designated a "navigable river" , with the state owning the beds and banks to the high water mark, all owners along the river are now "using" public property when we have irrigation lines going into the river. So an easement (and a fee) is necessary. It's an indication of how things change. I actually think it's good that Oregon has this policy that people can't own the access to such rivers or the ocean beaches so we are all able to walk along the shore lines and appreciate the glorious creation we are blessed to live close to.

What we do hope is that with the increased public land (and our property went from 160 acres to 134 acres with that pen stroke) that there'll also be increased policing as people have a habit sometimes of leaving trash, camping where they aren't supposed to, having camp fires they neglect or just not paying attention to the beauty they drive so far to see and then leave evidence of their disregard behind. So it's the little details of every day life that I'm dealing with today.

Tomorrow it's off to the "valley" what we refer to as the population corridor of Oregon. I'll be making a presentation in Forest Grove home of Pacific University for a PEO fundraiser (they provide scholarships to women returning to school). On Sunday afternoon it's the Audubon wild Arts Festival at Montgomery Park in Portland. Come see artists and craftsmen and me! Signing books along with lots of other authors. Happy traveling if you are! Warmly, Jane

Emma's replica quilt

This past month we gave away the replica of Emma Giesy's quilt (from the Change and Cherish Series) to a woman from the Northwest. Ramona Hugulet of Portland, OR was the lucky recipient. Her name was drawn by the publisher from several thousand entires from around the world. The Aurora colony quilters stitched the work on it! Pendelton Woolen Mills (100 years old this year!) donated the wool. In the photo, I'm on the left, Ramona is in the middle and Kathy Monaghan is on the right. Kathy is the project manager for Pendleton Woollen Mills. Emma's original quilt is on the right too; and the replica of Emma's Running Squares quilt, hangs to the left. The Aurora colony celebrated their 36th annual quilt show and the presentation of Emma's quilt was a part of that event.

We aren't certain when Emma's quilt was made. The plaid is found in quilts at both Bethel, Missouri and at Aurora so it may have been begun before Emma came west in 1853 as the only female scout with nine men sent to find a new site for their colony. The Auorora Colony, 20 miles south of Portland, OR, survived in the west for 20 years, the only utopian society to be successful for that long west of the Mississippi River.

If you're intrigued about utopian societies...my Change and Cherish series might satisfy some of your interest. Even better is Dr. Jim Kopp's new book Eden within Eden which features the more than 300 utopian groups attracted to Oregon over the past 200 years. Great reading!Jane

cousins on the book tour

We've just been on a book tour in Minnesota. What a grand time! Not only did I have a stint on KARE 11 (where I met Bethany Frankl in the green room...a NY Times bestselling author of the Healthy Skinny diet and in the cast of The Real Housewives of New York and I didn't know who she was!) and was interviewed by Euan Kerr of Minnesota Public Broadcasting which aired during Morning Edition (regionally)hour. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/06/16/kirkpatrick/ We had terrific coverage by the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Mary Ann Grossmann wrote the article), but I also got to see relatives. On the left in this photo is my aunt Corinne Kronen, the only child left of my grandmother about whom I've written in A Flickering Light. She and her husband drove us around and even hit a deer in the process! They're all right, thank goodness.

That's me in pink and next to me are the daughter's of my aunt Fern, Corinne's oldest sister. Fern was the writer and an artist...though Corinne is an artist as well. Next to me is Katy Anderson from Stillwater, MN and her sister Lynne Thomas from Minneapolis. I hadn't seen either of them for over 30 years. They joined me at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Roseville, MN. That evening, we also connected with a relative of Winnie's (from the book) who saw the Press article, and realized the book was about her grandmother, too. Everyone had lost touch with Fran so we were pleased to meet her, her daughter and to make sure we didn't lose her again by getting her address!

From Minneapolis we headed to Winona, MN where we filled the Historical society and I told stories and showed pictures and talked about the passion of the book (passion for profession) and desire (the desire to do the right thing) and love (a word that the German poet rilke describes when two solitudes come together to border, protect and salute). We spent time with descendants of Mrs. Bauer (from the book) and with my brother and his wife and got to see my nephews, too and a few other cousins. Roots run deep in the Midwest and I am grateful for a supportive family as I tell this story.

Now I'm home, meeting some new deadlines, heading for book events and working on revisions for An Absence so Great, the sequel. Two books will mark this Portrait of a Heart series. I hope you'll look for it next April.

I also hope you'll visit Bo's blog www.bodaciousbothedog.blogspot.com where you can get a front row seat to what the dog thinks about this writing life.

Oh, and one more thing: consider calling in to OPB's think out loud program on July 2, 9-10 Pacific when I'm the guest author being interviewed. The number to call is 888-665-5865. You can also leave an email before during and after the show that encourages people to, well, think out loud. www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/northwestpassges. And in July, I'll be in Wisconsin. Please check my website schedule for details!

Happy writing or reading. Warmly, Jane

Bo's Blog, Texas Travel and Minnesota, here we come!

This is summer on the homestead. what you can't see are the roses blooming profusely along the deer fence. But you can see the garden troughs, recycled from the cows we no longer have. They're the metal tanks to the left of the house. I'm looking forward to spending more time on the deck this year, just listening to the river and the birds.

I'm back from a book tour in Texas. Great fun and met many new fans and some faithful ones as well. One even drove 150 miles to attend a signing and two others drove nearly the same distance to share a lunch. The new independent store in Plano, TX called Legacy Books hosted my first signing there with wonderful participants who heard me talk about A Flickering Light.

Texans have big hearts and staying with writer friend Irene Sandell (River of the Arms of God and In a Fevered Land) made the time go quickly. I spoke at the Writer's Garret in Dallas and at the Heritage Village in Old City Park where the Aurora presentation was well-received. Seems there was a utopian community called La Reunion in the Dallas area about the same time as Aurora's origin. Small and connecting world.

By the way, Cindy (her nickname) Sandell has a signing this Saturday at Barnes and Noble in Plano, TX from 2a;oo-5:00. Stop by and say hi.

I'm back now, working on what I call my Oprah book. The working title is "Oprah Doesn't Know My Name" and it's about a writer seeking fame in all the wrong places. It's a departure from my historical novels but never fear, the sequel to A Flickering LIght will be out next April and it's been named: An Absence so Great.

Finally, Bo has begun a blog! It's at www.bodaciousbothedog.blogspot.com. I hope you'll visit now and again to get his side of the homestead story.

Happy writing for you out there and for those in Minnesota, we're coming soon! Please check my schedule at the website www.jkbooks.com. Thanks! Jane

Writing about Writing

Christian book Distributors has an interview with me on their site as well as a feature about writing, my advice to aspiring fiction writers. I hope you'll stop by there and say hi.

Writers Corner:
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=2022914&sp=72136

Fiction Homepage:
http://www.christianbook.com/fiction

My Interview:

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=265453&event=67484

I'm also having some website issues so please bear with me...those words of encouragement will be posted soon, I promise. Meanwhile, these words might bring you nurture as well. Warmly, Jane

Release Day!

Today is the official release of A Flickering Light. There's joy and a certain sadness. Now whatever it is I wrote belongs to readers who will make of it what they will. A cousin who I sent an advanced copy wrote to tell me of memories it brought for her about our shared grandmother. A twist of them will make it into the next book due out next year in April.
For today, I just want to say thank you to the readers who find my books and who share them with those they love. Happy reading and may you all have a good book to turn to after you've paid your taxes tomorrow (or are awaiting your return!). It's still bounty counting in my estimation and I feel blessed to be counting readers as a part of my writing wealth. Warmly, Jane

photo therapy, a Flickering Light, family photos

I’ve heard that from several readers who have seen the advanced copies of A Flickering Light about the photographs I included in this biographical novel about my grandmother's life. I've shown a couple in previous posts. I'm glad I held out to include them in the ARC. Initially the publisher didn’t want to add them in the ARC and I thought it would really be missing something if we didn't include them. The main character, based on my grandmother's life, talks in first person about several different shots while the rest of the book is told in third person through the eyes of Jessie, her mentor, FJ Bauer and FJ Bauer's wife, Mrs. Bauer. I’ve added several more shots in the second book because of people’s responses.

The photographs are part of a family collection of glass plates from the 1900s. One blogger who did a review commented on how intriguing it was to read about a photograph from the character's point of view and also about a scene when my grandmother's mentor gives her a photograph he'd taken of her when she hadn't been aware, inserting it in a photographic case. She said she'd been moved by that scene then asked a question about fact and fiction of this book. Here's how I responded to her.

"As for the mix of fiction and fact: It isn’t a fact that he took a photograph of her that he gave to her for her birthday. But it seemed to me that this is how his relationship with her began, a collegial sort of contact, both of them liking photography, having some disagreement about the science of it vs the art, which was a part of the dialogue of the period and then moving toward where he enjoyed her company, could see the beauty in her, wanted to be a good mentor to her and then giving her gifts on the occasion of her birthday, perfectly innocent. Except that each had been denying a very strong attraction and sometimes the reality of those feelings aren’t even noticed but are difficult to hide inside a photograph.

I’m a mental health therapist by training and I took a continuing education class a few years back about photo-therapy, using photographs to help people get “unstuck” as they struggled with issues and patterns in their lives. Part of that project meant looking at photographs of myself and my family. I discovered during that time that in all the photographs of me and my mother, she never touched me, had never put her arms around my shoulder or stood close enough in a family shot to touch me. It had defined our relationship in many ways, this separation.

She was quite ill at the time and I made it a point to touch her, to get photographs of my touching her at least, even if she had difficulty touching me. The next months until her death were the very best between us. It seemed to me she rallied and we were able to do things together without her even carrying her oxygen with her. I have this terrific photograph of us both wearing cowboy hats as we attended an outdoor concert and my leaning into her, my hand on her shoulder, touching. I treasure it and feel strong about the importance of photographs as metaphors for our lives and that if we acknowledge the stories they tell in time, we can make changes.

My husband is a photographer and the best pictures of me have been taken by him; something about the eyes of the beholder bringing love into the picture. I was thinking of that when I wrote that scene you commented about.

The picture of her that is double exposed did get written up in the paper and was quite the invention for the time. I liked how there were two renditions, one with her nearly looking over her own shoulder which I think she did during that part of her life. (I tried to upload that picture today but given the size of it and the wind blowing my satellite dish around....you'll have to come read the book when it comes out next week to see it).'

It's getting exciting....the release is scheduled for April 14, the day before tax day! You can visit the blogger's review at www.thinkinggirlsguide.blogspot.com

Patty Hickman interview and A Flickering Light

Very soon, A Flickering Light will be released. I hope you find it and enjoy reading it. When you do -- if you do -- I'd love to have you visit Good Reads and leave a review http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4916580.A_Flickering_Light. Each kind word helps spread the word so thank you in advance.

I'm also a guest on Patty Hickman's blog this Friday. Patty is known for her fine writing and as a member of the Women of Faith tour over the years. Her blog likes to introduce readers to the authors behind the books so this interview is less about writing than about faith experiences. You might win a book! http://www.wordsunwired.blogspot.com.

I'm nearly finished with the revisions of the first cut of the sequel to A Flickering Light. I keep learning about myself as I write about my grandmother. I think there's something to this theory of emotional DNA being passed down. Jane

Writing Cheerleaders

Twenty-five years ago at this time I was busy moving my husband's shop equipment, packing our household goods into boxes, moving to my parents' home temporarily, finding a place for three mules and a horse (we had no fences to speak of on our property yet) AND trying to hold down my job as the director of the mental health clinic in Bend, Oregon while Jerry and friends came north to build the barn/shop/hangar on our homestead, 160 acres of rattlesnake and rock. I thought I hopped through a lot of hoops that year.
Here we are and I'm still hopping but with a lot more fun.
This week I wrote "The End" to the sequel of A Flickering Light that will be out in April. It's now titled "An Absence so Great;" and my author copies of A Flickering Light arrived on the homestead! Of course, it's not really the end: I have author notes and book group questions to write; there'll be revisions after my editor sees it; I'll be following up on questions raised by copy editors. Still, there is cause to celebrate.
We celebrate these moments (what I call the midwife role in writing) because if we wait until we achieve success -- give final birth -- we miss out on the joy along the way. We writers give our hearts to these stories and we need to find midwives who will cheer with us. My cheerleaders this week were the library staff of our new Sherman County Public School Library that we'll dedicate on Saturday. They've watched each of my books come out and made sure I saw the shelf at the new library where my novels now stretch. Pretty terrific. Books. What would I do without them.
Don't forget to take a look at the trailer for the book based on my grandmother's life as a turn of the century photographer. http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=225666529779c412cad0 Enjoy! And keep writing...

A Flickering Light

My latest novel will be out a little earlier....April 14th is the newest date. Below is the latest review from Publisher's Weekly. It was starred and is always a waited for review. Fortunately, this one is a great review and I'm grateful. Makes working on the sequel that much easier. I hope your day is going well and thank you for being one of my readers/colleagues/friends/relatives :) Jane