Leap Year

On the verge of February 29, I am at long last returning to my blog. Writing is work and within this venue I have a structure to use that can get me back into the practice of doing it. I love the feeling of a day that melts into phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs! I have missed my predictable schedule in the "office" and look forward to starting the next chapter in Elliott Rat, as well as work on another Henry-related story... in other words, getting back to a "predictable schedule!"

Interesting to me is that research for this next project has been rewarding, while creating the dialog, the narrative, and the prose has not. My mind wanders in fiction but stays targeted in non-fiction. So, that is what I have been doing mostly... reading about Concord in 1827, its clock makers, printers, cobblers, farmers, manufacturers, ministers, tradesmen, hat designers, carriage makers, and...of course... its young Henry David Thoreau. There is actually very little about the young boy who would become an admired philosopher and naturalist. But, between the lines of history there is a great deal to suppose. The stuff of good historical fiction. Add a little mystery, the grotesque death of his schoolmaster, and you have a good story. What could have been in his past that caught up with the soft-spoken Mr. Jacoby? Perhaps a little smuggling during the War of 1812? Did someone track him down and avenge a wrong done some 15 years before? Ten-year-old Henry, his older brother John, and their friend Lizzie Hosmer will team together to solve the mystery... I feel like Nancy Drew all over again!

Creating a plot for this new book has been a welcome diversion from THE BOOK. My rat is mired down in transcendental malaise, and it helps to put his story aside and then pull it out about every other day. Writer's block? Not exactly. More like writer's "cramp." With different projects on the table, I can pick up each one with a fresher eye. I hope!

My editors, Bernie and Ollie, are asking for a morning break. So, it's outside into the cold but sunny day we go for squirrel hunts, bird sightings, and springer springs in the garden! I think I'll mitten my hot cup of tea while indulging them in their morning jaunt away from the writer's desk... Then, it will be back to work!

A Loss of Momentum...

The momentum of January, the New Year, and of starting my Blog and Website has been eclipsed these first two weeks of February by emotions too raw and near the surface for a writer such as myself to overcome. So, I've kept away from my computer, shelved my book and outlines for others, and my poetry (until today) for a little while. First, there is the sadness of losing my uncle on the first of February, Mother's only brother, and then seeing Mom grasp the inevitability of her own mortality. Her longevity (now 88) is amazing, and with the loss of Bud she is acutely aware of how little time she may have left here. For me, it is very hard to think about that.

Other clouds have been looming over my writer's pen, too... A friend with breast cancer and impending surgery; a dear friend's brother who faces cancer, just when the two retired siblings were beginning to enjoy the benefits of retirement and trips together to exotic places in the wake of having cared for an aging father; another friend's courage as she supports her sister-in-law whose husband is in the final stages of hospice care after his long struggle with cancer; and, added to her sadness, Emily tends her mother and father as his illness leaves him more and more a shadow of the man he had been... Then, too, we learned at the beginning of the month that Ollie, my four-year-old spaniel has lymphoma. She began chemotherapy last week. Her playful sweet disposition is already altered, and it makes my heart so very sad...

I needed to return to writing, though, before I found that I couldn't do it any more. Before I lost the love of it. In order to re-begin I've shared what is hurting me so very much right now. I hope all this pain will make me stronger, that it will give me empathy and understanding from which to create good stories, real stories about real people (and animals!) with real emotions.

For now, Ray and I send prayers to our friends, and we strive to make each day with Ollie a happy one for her. She has given much happiness to us.

Through tears, I remain,

Ellen