Tag Archives: Writing

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NaNoWriMo and the month of November

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Welcome to NaNoWriMo – the month of November in which writers feverishly write and upload 1,700 words each day in order to push themselves to finish the rough of a novel in 30 days. Just the type of motivation that would set me up for stress and failure. The type of project that goes against the grain with me because I edit and correct as I go rather than roughing out 50,000 words. Besides, I have three novels in print and two in process on the back burner. Nevertheless, strengthened by the success of my daughter who drew 21 works of art during the 31 days of Inktober and was encouraged and polished by it; spurred on by my efforts in a Monthly class of immersive a cappella arranging under the tutelage of Pentatonix during September and October; I will greet November.

I will not sign up. I will answer to no one but myself, yet, I will answer! I will challenge myself to write something each day in November. Why? Because that is what I want to do.

By the way; what is done and in the past is now on sale! Limited time, November 1 – December 1, 2021; Only at cherryodelbergbooks.com each of the following select items $10.00! Complete your shopping now!

You Shop! I’ll Write!

Emotional Health, Spiritual Well Being

A thirst for writing

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You know that feeling when you think you are hungry and you eat something – and then something more – only to find you were really thirsty and a glass of water would have sufficed ?

She rose with the sun in a remote motel, brewed a cup of tea, started some oatmeal in the microwave. It was still a few hours before work. She tried to check her email by laptop. Not enough bandwidth. She tried to open it by phone. Fluctuating bars. She ate a few bites of oatmeal and tried Instagram by phone. The image remained frozen. She sipped her tea, polished off the oatmeal, experimented with a hotspot for laptop. Tried Facebook via hotspot. Wondered what the rest of the world was up to. Tried every alternative. Email by phone. Instagram by hotspot. Facebook by phone. Nothing.

So she gave up on finding out what the rest of the world was doing, filled her water reservoir, strapped on her sandals and headed out to explore the landscape.

But what she really craved was her leather journal and pen.

Emotional Health

The Best Coffee Shop / Bookstore in Page, Arizona

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I have often joked to my boss, in all seriousness, that I get more work done on the road than when I am in the office. When I travel – for work or for pleasure – I like to rise on my own schedule (5:00 am, if you must know), open my Mac Pro and knock out a few lines of work or of story while still in my pajamas, then ruminate edits while I shower and dress. After a morning hike and morning chores, my favorite haunt is a bookstore or coffee shop with wifi. There I can sit for hours and create a manuscript or spell-check or research an idea if I am on my own time, or complete merchandise orders if I am on the clock.

My studio apartment is much like a motel room; windows only on one side. If I spend an entire day off at home, I am likely to grow morose and lonely and useless as the day progresses. It is too hot to hike, too dark to be cheerful. In addition; my internet is irritating – sometimes non-existent.

Heretofore, I had not found an obliging and comfortable internet café in Page, AZ, nevertheless, I rose this Saturday morning determined to carry the vacation habits learned earlier this week right on into my weekend.

I rose.

I walked.

I wrote.

I showered.

I dressed.

I ruminated.

And then I recollected;

Hallelujah! There is a bookstore / coffee shop in Page, Arizona!

It is my very own bookstore! It has a fabulous, hand-finished, hardwood coffee bar and great music and amazing ambience, and coffee with a story, and hot water for tea, and a window for people watching, and international visitors coming in and out the door, and knowledgeable sales staff.

So. It is Saturday morning and I have come home from vacation – home to a place that is better than I first found it more than two years ago -and I have been a part of making it that way.

This happy camper has been writing and drinking tea for two hours. At the office, but out of the office, on Saturday!

P.S. Those are not my pajamas – they are my vacation clothes.

IMG_3487standingatcoffeebar

 

Character, Emotional Health, Fiction is Truth

Writer’s Lament

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DSCN4766journalsHe was always going to make an appearance in my book.  At first, the text was largely about him. But, people change over the years. With all the water under the bridge;  by the time I had scribbled my way through hundreds of pages, I had grown as thinker and writer.  He had morphed from hero to villain.  And She was still alone.

 

(Inspired in part by the writer button: Careful, or you’ll end up in my novel)

Books and other Soul Food, Fiction is Truth, Spiritual Well Being, Uncategorized

Ah, It’s a Book!

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When my younger two children were growing up, our entire family loved books.  We waited in anticipation at birthdays and holidays for the packages that arrived from my brother and sister-in-law; Phd Book-lovers who frequented the best bookstores. Whether delivered by UPS or US Mail, we sighed in contentment when the box was opened and we could tell by the unmistakable shape of the package inside, “Ah, it’s a book!”

 You will understand my delight last fall, when a representative of WaterBrook Press contacted me via facebook.  In return for my mailing address, she promised to send me a book. I was happy to make the trade.  I trust Waterbrook. I know the propensity of publishers to move out overstock of good, but less popular, authors via giving promo books away.

When the book arrived at my Colorado home of record, I was in transition to the Northwest, living in one room at my cousin’s home in Shoreline, WA.  Having in my possession only such essentials as I could fit into a 1994 Subaru Legacy, my daily pilgrimage became the Richmond Beach Library two blocks away. There I conducted my internet errands and became a regular on the waiting lists for the best books.

 My mother dutifully contacted me when she received the package from WaterBrook Press.  Since I am an aspiring writer, she treats packets from publishers as priorities.  “Open it,” I directed, “I think it is a book that I won.  If so, go ahead and read it and keep it there in storage.  I’ll pick it up later with the rest of my belongings.”

 Ah, it was a book! It would have to wait until I retrieved my belongings from storage.

 Life is short: re-read only the best books

 The best books are books you re-read over and over again.  I adopted this description of a good book from Sheldon Vanauken, acquaintance of C.S. Lewis, after reading his book, A Severe Mercy.

 I have a handful of books that I re-read often, for various reasons:

1) Laughter, entertainment, a well-turned phrase

2) Daily recreation and restoration, encouragement

3) Knowledge and instruction, clarity

4) Insight into human nature, understanding

5) Vicarious adventure, travel, history

One box of such books came with me in the over laden Subaru.  The box was marked, “Essentials,” and it included all my books by C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Tolkien; Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; Blue Like Jazz; The Shack,  and five DVDs that have marked my life (also for the reasons listed above). The book I return to over and over again for comfort and clarity is George MacDonald’s, The Marquis’ Secret.  In it I find a portrait of courage, confidence and assurance of destiny, which I aim to emulate.

I have a relationship with a book

Susan Meissner’s latest book, “Lady in Waiting,” moved to my essential, must re-read, list at precisely page 96. That was the page at which I reached for a pen to underline a descriptive phrase and remembered just in time that my book belonged to the library. I didn’t want to return the book.  I wanted to have a relationship with that book.  Although I am a fast reader and the book is a page turner, I kept it for the full three weeks; re-reading chapters every night. My need was so great, it never occurred to me to return it quickly for the benefit of those other readers on the waiting list (I waited three months for my turn).

I deposited Lady in Waiting in the library drop box while in route to my new apartment with my first load of belongings. Since I commute to a full time job five days a week, it took several days for me to settle in.  As my second weekend approached, I began to long for a reliably good book.  Several times I headed to my computer to place an online order; an order for a book I could read and underline and have a relationship with.   Repeatedly, I was distracted by some other detail to attend to in preparation for my parents’ short notice arrival that weekend. 

After a weekend full of relatives, when my parents had gone to their lodging for the night on Sunday, I was in need of re-centering and refreshment for the upcoming week. I once again cast about for just the right thing to read, regretting that I had not visited a bookstore or carried through with my online ordering.

 My eyes fell on the basket of collected miscellaneous mail Mom brought with her.  Tucked between the junk mail and magazines that I had not asked for was a padded envelope from WaterBrook Press. “It’s a book,” I thought with joy.

Imagine my, more wonderful than fiction, amazement and gratitude when the book that slid from the packet was Susan Meissner’s Lady in Waiting.

Thank you, Susan; and thank you, WaterBrook; for facilitating this reminder that God cares about the very little details of my life; that we always have choices; that God gives the desire of our hearts.

Character, co-dependence, Goals and Dreams, Religion, Spiritual Well Being, Uncategorized

A Maverick, and Alone

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Have you ever come to a place in your thought life, where you felt like a maverick adventurer; going forward to places those around you had never been, nor ever thought of going?  Or did you find yourself, with a bit of trepidation, thinking thoughts, toying with philosophies you had been trained were dangerously wrong, maybe evil? And you felt like you were all alone; yet, you had no choice but to press forward?  Then, wonder of wonders, by chance, a book falls into your hands and in the pages you find much of your biography, your musings, attributed to a fictional character by some author halfway across the continent whom you have never met. At once you realize, with joy, that you are not alone.  That is the kind of book I want to write. This has happened to me frequently enough in my life that I want to-not return the favor, but – pass it on.

I am two chapters in to a book by Brian D McLaren, The Story We Find Ourselves In. I am finding myself in this book. I hope to go on finding myself the rest of my life. Sometime around Christmas a good friend and confidant gave me a copy of McLaren’s, A New Kind of Christian, which I thoroughly devoured and passed on to another friend. While ordering an additional copy to keep on hand, I decided to order the sequel also. I must admit, I am not a fan of sequels.  I could have been perfectly content after the first Pirates of the Caribbean, or the first National Treasure. But this second in the series by McLaren?  This is a page turner for me. I am not alone.  I have never been alone, just tardy.  I am behind the pack, somewhat due to my own late blooming characteristic, and much to the fault of those who dutifully discipled me with harangue and shame. I am an adult now, and it is time for me to mentor others and encourage them along. Many writers and scholars are ahead of me-but as fast as I read and think, I should catch them soon- even while going back to rescue breathe for others who are languishing like I was. Someday, we can all party together.

Here are some books that changed my life:  1) The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas; 2) Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, The Great Divorce, Surprised By Joy – all by C.S. Lewis; 3) A New Kind of Christian and The Story We Find Ourselves In, by Brian McLaren.

What books have changed your life? Blown off the ceiling for your dreams and philosophies?

Goals and Dreams, Uncategorized

The Tortoise and the NaNoWrimo Writers

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The Pancake Cat is the story of a wild cat that would not be owned, but finally chooses a family.  Meet the family and learn something of contemporary American history and multi-culture in the pages.  Nine year old Andrea is thoughtful and vivacious.  She has always wanted a cat and aspires to own and run an orphanage when she grows up.  Her little brother Philip is cute as a gifted four year old can be.  Mom and Dad provide time honored nurture and upbringing, and give their best effort to squeeze fun and teaching moments out of daily life.

 So, while all my friends are crowing about winning NaNoWrimo and writing 50,000 words in 30 days; I present to you my latest offering, “The Pancake Cat,” which was written and published at tortoise speed.

Thirteen years ago I received the inspiration to write about a stray cat that enjoyed pancakes. I added to the narrative and submitted the manuscript as an Institute of Children’s Literature project for which I eventually received 6 hours of college credit.  In 2004, I researched and added several more chapters in my bid to win $10,000 in scholarship funds to finish my college education. I did not win the scholarship, but I did finish my education-and the book.  In December of 2006, I had several copies printed and tape bound at a local photo copier establishment and these I gave as Christmas gifts.

Those first books are sure to be valuable someday.  Only 20 copies contain the “Fact or Fiction” endnotes that explain how I came up with the story.

In 2009 I discovered that my book was “out of print.”  Because the information is still relevant, and because gifting with a book never goes out of style, I present to you, dear reader, The Pancake Cat.  Newly released from Xlibris and available by special order at Barnes Noble or Amazon; The Pancake Cat is suitable for accomplished readers ages 8 to 10 (and it won’t bore the grownups either).