The Sounds of Silence

I am fluent in silence. It's one of the things I learned from my big sisters. With four of us, and me being the youngest, I always had older, more experienced competition.

I remember when we were kids and my grandmother died. We went up for the funeral--I think I was ten years old at the time--and my aunt and uncle were there. Someone, I don't remember who, it might have been one of my sisters, made an observation about the "youngest sibling." My uncle, the "baby of the family," didn't say much. In fact, he rarely spoke in a group setting, but he was very conversant away from the crowd.

Likewise, I'm more likely to have a meaningful conversation with someone one-on-one than I am in a group. Conditioned response. This is something I had to overcome in my professional career. I had a dear friend who would recommend me for committees because I had such good ideas, but when I went to the committee, I didn't speak up. She called me out on that, saying nobody would ever hear me if I didn't say anything. So I fought against years of listening and observing and made a conscious effort to contribute to the group conversation. Guess what? They promoted me. And you know what they told me? Make sure you listen to what other people have to say when you're developing talent. In other words, don't speak. Go figure. Yes, I learned how to balance when to speak and when to stay silent. For the most part. Funny thing about using your voice, once you speak up, sometimes its hard to stop!

There are many days where I don't say much. I don't feel the need to hear my voice in every conversation. It makes some people uneasy, people who don't know me well, but as my daughter once observed, that's just my way. There are days when you can't shut me up, especially if I've been silent for days in a row.

I greatly value the conversations I have with my family and friends, but in the silence, I hear what people say. There is time to reflect. Time to appreciate someone else's point of view.

As the titled song says, I write my books in silence. If I don't share them (according to the song), that makes me a fool. If you read my words, I might teach you. I might reach you. Like my dear friend said, if I don't say anything, nobody will ever hear me, and I speak best "on paper." At the very least, my books give us something to talk about to break the silence once in a while.

Life is frittered away by detail

I remember a Shirley MacLaine movie where every man she married died a tragic death and left her lots of money. She started looking for poor men in hopes they wouldn't die. It's the first time I became acquainted with Walden Pond.

At the beginning of every year, I evaluate what my goals for the year are. It's more of a wish list, but it helps give me direction. What do I hope to accomplish? How do I plan to achieve those goals? What's the end game?

This year, my plan is for simplicity. Do what moves me.

I'm expecting to release Epitaph 2: The Twins as an audiobook this spring. I began a new series with my release of FAMILY ALCHEMY in January, along the lines of Practical Magic, Karla Style. In anticipation of continuing that series, I finished Book 2 this week (or at least the first draft of book 2). Moving on to the hard part now, filling in the blanks, fixing the mistakes, stuff like that. Overall, I'm pleased with the way it looks, and hope to be sharing it with readers late Spring.

And then what?

I'm seldom without a story running around inside my head. At this point of writing a book, I'm usually already looking ahead to the next one, but for right now, I'm taking a breath while I decide if I should move on to Book 3 in the Hillendale series or take a break from the alchemists and write a romance. I'll be honest, I miss my happily ever afters, the sigh-worthy heroes and misguided heroines. As Spring approaches, is love in the air?

Stay tuned.

Feel free to share your opinions. Inspiration often comes in the form of a kind word.

Happy Valentines Day

I'm a romance author. I believe in happily ever after. When people tell me how they met their spouses, I listen with rapt attention. If we don't have love, what's left? This is a question I'm hearing with increasing frequency, and not just as pertains to romance.

Most of us have had "practice" relationships, people we thought we loved but didn't. Some of us have "the one that got away." And some of us found the loves of our lives the first time out of the gate (I'm looking at you, Scott and Kathy.) 

In the course of research, I follow a "love guru" by the name of Matthew Hussey, and I have to tell you, he has some spot-on advice. In hindsight, I wish I'd run across him years ago, but we all have our own lessons to learn. While I didn't always make the best decisions, I wouldn't change any of them.

Well, maybe one.

So as we approach this "Hallmark holiday," and maybe it is just a made up thing, but if you think of it as "Happy I Love You Day" instead of "Valentines Day," then maybe it won't seem so commercial. Then again, Happy I Love You Day doesn't have to be restricted to February 14. I know I've celebrated more than one of those days every year. On this February 14, share the love. It doesn't have to be romantic love. Instead of pointing fingers and calling people names, set your differences aside and look for commonalities. We weren't always this divided as a country. Once upon a time, we exercised human kindness with one another. Let's see if we can do that again, starting with Valentines Day. And then maybe the day after that, and one more day, until it becomes a habit again.

In a world full of angst...

I've reached that part of my current work in progress - the climax. I ALWAYS struggle with "when all hope is lost" moments in my books, partly because I tend to be an optimist, and partly because I hate acknowledging the worst in people.

A few years ago, I was called to jury duty. I lived a sheltered life growing up, and while I've acquired a lot of world experience during the course of my life, there is still a darker side to humanity that I'm fortunate I don't have to deal with on a regular basis. In the trial I was chosen for, the bad guy stole something out of a vehicle. The owner of the vehicle saw him and chased him down the street, and the thief then slashed the guy with a box cutter. Pretty serious stuff. The thief on trial used the "I found it" defense, and the subsequent slashing as self defense from the guy who was chasing him. Enter my naivete. They'd dressed the defendant up nice for court. I don't have a lot of experience with this level of bad guy. In the jury room, one of my fellow jurors pointed out some key parts of the case which clearly pointed to the defendant's guilt, points I never would have understood unless someone with firsthand knowledge was there to point them out. I like to think the best of people, see the good in everyone, many times to my own detriment. I wanted to believe this guy was innocent. Sometimes you have to take off the Polllyanna glasses. With my fellow juror's knowledge and other folks in the jury room in agreement, I felt compelled to join them in convicting the defendant. When it was over, the judge came into the jury room and told us we'd done the right thing, that the defendant had a long rap sheet and there was little doubt of his guilt.

I've been called for jury duty again this month. It's a very interesting, eye-opening experience, but I'd be lying if I told you I hoped to be selected for a jury again. What I'm hoping is to take along a book to read and be dismissed - unneeded - at the end of the day. (fingers crossed)

Which brings me back to the bad guy in my book. That jury duty experience reminds me that there are bad guys in the world (and yes, some of them live VERY close by), but I don't write urban fiction. Nor do I want to. Still, I have to find a way for my villain to act villainously. That means taking a walk on the dark side.

In a world where I'm not sure we aren't heading toward Armageddon, when the end days feel like they're right around the corner with fires in Australia and locusts in Kenya and other disasters too numerous to dwell on here, Anyone see Noah? Is he building that ark yet?

I REALLY hate stepping into the dark side, but the thing about evil is that good always wins. There's this thing called Karma. By stepping into the dark side, I want to give my readers hope for a brighter tomorrow. No, these books aren’t romances, but I’m going to slip back into #MyLifeIsAMusical, because this song says it all.