June, 2013
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Story Sparks 

"Stories are the sparks that light our ancestor's lives, the embers we blow on to illuminate our own"

 

Greetings!  

 

 

"When it's over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument."  

From Mary Oliver's "When Death Comes."

 

I met the man, Dean Brooks, in 2006 though I'd heard of him from years before. He and his daughter and friends came to a signing on the Oregon coast where I spoke. I could tell even from his wheel chair that he was a tall man, elderly, white-haired with a sparkle in his eye. He was 89 years old. He told me that he had been introduced to my books and had read them aloud to his wife in the months before her death. She was a great reader, he told me, and she loved the rhythm of my words.

            

Our friendship progressed through the miles. Jerry and I met his family of remarkable daughters and some of their children. India and Jim visited our ranch; we stayed with them on a trip to Everett. When I came to town, Dean and his family would meet for dinner and in the years following Dean would often call to find out how Jerry and I were doing. He loved music. He laughed easily and often. He was a man of faith. He'd fill me in on projects he was devoted to. He'd been the superintendent of the Oregon State Hospital during the years that I was a community mental health director so I knew of him. He'd played himself or rather the superintendent in the film One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest  filmed at the hospital largely because of his efforts and employing patients during the filming, many behind the camera. He never stopped being involved in projects that advanced the cause of the mentally ill.

            

In this new century, Dean's concern led to relieving the suffering of the mentally ill  housed in prisons, horrified, really, that when the large institutions began to close in the 1980s that funding for treatment in the community was diverted to other things. That left many mentally ill without the support to enable them to survive and thrive outside of the institution. Many ended up in other institutions: prisons.

            

Dean never hesitated to reach out to people he felt could make a difference. He'd read a book  (Crazy :A Father's Journey Through America's Mental Health Madness by Pete Earley, for example) and he'd call the author and enlist them in a national effort to change the mental health system. He became friends with screen writers, film directors, legislators, parents, actors and others affected by mental illness themselves or through their families. He tapped mental health advocates around the globe. He helped found the Dorothea Dix Think Tank, a national organization devoted to finding ways to decriminalize mental illness and help people find appropriate treatment. Pete Earley wrote a fine piece about Dean upon his passing at www.peteearley.com.

            

Dean's latest influence on me was his encouragement that I write about Dorothea Dix, an early reformer in mental health. "People have already written about her," I protested. "Not a novel," he reminded me. "Novels are how people get to really know the person, what she might have felt." He'd urge me to work on that novel and finally, in 2011, I said I'd see if my editor would be interested. She was and thus became One Glorious Ambition: the Compassionate Crusade of Dorothea Dix. The book is dedicated to Dean and his three daughters Ulista, Dennie and India, all women passionate about public service and care of the mentally ill.

            

But Dean's support of my writing didn't stop there. He asked Pete Earley if he'd read a draft for possible endorsement. Through his daughter Dennie, he got an endorsement from a board member of the new Mental Health Museum in Salem. He introduced me to award-winning screenwriter Charles Kiselyak who is working on a screenplay about Dorothea Dix.  Dean commissioned a bronze bust of Dorothea from sculptor John S. Houser that sits in a place of honor at the museum. And then he had crafted what we affectionately call "Little DD" made by John Houser so I could take DD with me on book signings or events. The picture you see was taken weeks before Dean's death. He is gifting me with the use of "Little DD" and yet reluctant to let her go.

            

I'm reluctant to let Dean go, too. One day not long after I met him, he sent me a copy of the Mary Oliver poem "When Death Comes." They'd read it at his wife's memorial. The last line of Mary Oliver's poem reads: "I don't want to end up simply having visited this world."

             

Dean did not just visit this world. He passed away on May 30 at the age of 96. He was the epitome of compassion, using his strength and wit and wonder to touch the lives of thousands. I will miss him and the words he always said at the closing of a phone call or a visit:  "I love you." I believe he truly did love me, and everyone he encountered on his journey to improve the lives of the mentally ill. So like Dorothea Dix. Such a model of a man worthy of remembering. 

In This Issue
Article Headline
What's Next?
Jane's Schedule
Word Whisperings: Two May Selections
Article Headline

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Quick Links


Writer's Cruise

I can't think of a better way to learn craft than to take a cruise with writers. That's what I did the first week of June. We were a small crowd of writers but I learned a great deal about ebooks, creating conflict in scenes, about building characters and brainstorming plot and other issues pertinent to craft. And taxes. We had a great accountant giving us insights into writer's tax concerns. One of our members, Judy Baer, is a certified Life Coach and I had a session with her that really opened up my work in progress! Even though I was fighting what it turns out is chronic bronchitis, I still enjoyed the float trip on the Chilkat River through the Eagle Preserve outside of Haines, Alaska. At my book signing in Ketchikan I had a great time with Parnassus Bookstore owner Maggie Freitag who took us to the carving shop where native totems are repaired and created. I signed some cedar strips for bookmarks! Great working fun!

 

Website Renewal

 

My webmaster has been working for months to get just the right look and feel for my new website. I hope you like it and will visit every page! For each book title or collection, you'll see an "author's insight" where with a few words I share something unique about the writing or research of that book. It's a place where I hope you'll find encouragement for your days and also discover where you can find me during the months ahead. Thanks for your patience while we work out a few remaining glitches!

 

Jane's Schedule

    

What's next on my schedule?  

Take a look and see where our paths might cross during upcoming events.

      Be sure to check the website for updated event information!

 

ANNUAL SISTER's QUILT SHOW July 11, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Paulina Springs Books

Jane will tell a patchwork of stories about her latest novel, One Glorious Ambition: The Compassionate Crusade of Dorothea Dix. You don't have to be a quilter to enjoy Jane's presentation at this fine bookstore during Quilt Week.

 

July 22-26 Oregon California Trails Association annual convention http://www.octa-trails.org/  Monarch Hotel in Clackamas County, Oregon.

12566 SE 93rd Avenue, Clackamas, OR  97015.  

 

Author signing Wednesday, July 23rd. Join many Northwest authors and have your books signed. Jane will also co-narrate a trip to Aurora on the 23rd.

 

July 31, Jane and Jerry's 37th Wedding anniversary celebrated in the land of "hard to believe."

 

 

For all event information and updates, please visit 
Jane's website and click on Jane's Calendar.  Or follow this link directly to her calendar.

 

Thanks!   

Word Whisperings 

 

Freeman by Leonard Pitts, Agate Publishing

 

            

Sam chooses his name Freeman when President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation. He leaves his job as an assistant in a Philadelphia library to walk south to Mississippi hoping to find his wife, Tilda, from whom he was sold away 15 years before. At the same time, Prudence Kent, a northern abolitionist, newly widowed, decides to take her considerable wealth south to start a school for black children in Mississippi. The war is over in her mind and she wants the school to be a memorial to both her father and her deceased husband.  She takes with her Bonnie, a free black woman with whom she was raised. As the story unfolds, the author proves to be a master of the writing commandment to "make your little darlings suffer."  And suffer these characters do but in authentic ways that make us care deeply for the journeys they have undertaken in a time of chaos and uncertainty for both southern land and slave owners and for the freed slaves set adrift in a new world. I read this book on the writers cruise and I have to say the story kept me engaged despite the majestic views we sailed past. It's not a happy book but it is a hopeful book that asks readers to look anew at a time in post Civil War when men and women dealt with the conflicts of the human heart. 

 

Recent Honors

 I just learned that my novella as part of Midwife's Legacy, set in my home town of Mondovi, Wisconsin, is a finalist for a Reader's Choice Award http://www.faithhopelove-rwa.org/irc.html "A Mother's Cry" is the title. The winner will be announced in July. This week I learned that Where Lilacs Still Bloom is a finalist for the Carol Award given by American Christian Fiction Authors association in September. It's honestly just nice to be nominated for both of these awards. 

It's been a chilly spring in Central Oregon, a weather condition that followed me to Alaska and back. Back home, I took the dogs on a walk wearing my down vest! In June! Still, it's a solid reminder that while it may be chilly, I have warm clothes to wear when so many do not. The trials of families enduring the tornados, or those whose homes are threatened by wildfires, or those living in refugee camps are living examples of "little darlings, suffering" in real life. So if you are not suffering right now consider making a donation to your favorite charity. And if you are facing trials that threaten to bend you low, let Dorothea Dix be a reminder. We can help relieve our own suffering by relieving the pain of others. Warmly, Jane 

 

 

 

 

Warmly,

 

Jane Kirkpatrick