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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"
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Greetings!
Today I wrote The End of my latest novel. Of course it's not really the end but rather the next stage in the production of a book. When I'm reading from the book at a signing, I'm still editing wondering to myself "why didn't I use a different word there?" Or I skip a line because it didn't really add anything, or so I thought a year after I wrote The End.
It's still a good time to celebrate though. Like a midwife, one can't wait until the end of labor before dancing. A midwife has to be present from the beginning helping the mother-to-be to enjoy and take note of every small success along the way. It's how we celebrate our friend's gains as well. We don't wait until they graduate from college to say "Great job!" We high-five them at achieving that B+ or surviving finals week. Small business owners can't wait (or might not want to) until they've reached the pinnacle of their dream before paying homage to their present successes: meeting a new customer, having enough business demand to expand, participating in a community gathering supporting the local SMART program or cleaning up the beach day. Each of these are moments worthy of celebrating and they all have a stage of "The End."
Personally, I have a hard time celebrating those steps along the way. My dad told a story of a hot August in Wisconsin in the 1920s when he and his brothers brought in seventeen loads of loose hay. At supper, they spread themselves around the harvest table and one brother said, "Ma. We brought in seventeen loads today!" He expected a "Good job" or a "well done!" Instead as his mother fed her five sons she said, "If you'd tried a little harder you could have brought in eighteen."
That story haunts me when I diminish my moments of completion. I frequently tell writing students that perfection doesn't mean "without errors." It means "complete." That I met a deadline ought to be complete enough. Yes, the manuscript will come back with suggestions for changes including structural improvements and ideas to make the story stronger. But taking a few moments to shout "Yippee!" for this stop along the way is worthy effort. Yes, if I'd tried a little harder I might have finished it sooner but for today, I'm happy to say I've written The End to my work in progress known to me as Facing Forward. Which I am!
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Sincerely Yours
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 When was the last time you received a hand-written letter? Didn't it make you feel special? I do my best to write notes when people have written to me or when we've been guests or just because even though my handwriting isn't always the easiest to read. Jerry says he can't read my grocery list. I tell him people compliment my penmanship at book signings. "They're looking at it upside down" he points out.
My latest writing project involves hand-written letters. I'm part of a new novella collection coming out next April but we've just gotten the cover and here it is! The collection is called Sincerely Yours (Revell). Each of the four authors was given the task of creating a story based on a letter received and a life changed. The galleys (pages all designed, just not yet cut for an actual book) arrived for me to make final changes and respond to the editor's queries. Once again I'll be visiting my story set in Olalla, Washington in the early 1900s. We titled it "A Saving Grace." An actual hospital that treated people via an unusual eating program thrived at this remote Puget Sound site. My character, Grace, a music teacher, is drawn there by a letter of a friend's daughter. What happens in Olalla I hope will both surprise you and entertain you as Grace discovers what really fills us up. Now go write a letter to a friend and make his/her day.
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Re-release of A Log Cabin Christmas (Barbour)
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 In a quilt history book some years ago, I saw a photograph of a signature quilt. (Seeing Emma Giesy's quilt in a book by Mary Bywater Cross set me on a path of three novels and a quilt book so I know these quilt stories can lead to surprising things.) What I read is that each of those signature blocks had been created by a woman courted by one man. It was a very large quilt! He courted many women! He eventually married none of those women. His bride wasn't even a quilter but she had the quilt made up for them to use. Perhaps she slept well knowing he'd courted all those women but he was under that quilt with her. That story piqued my creative urge and I wrote about an itinerant salesman helping a widow to keep her log cabin store in business given the competition of two new stores in Brownsville, Oregon in the 1800s. "The Courting Quilt" was then included in what became a New York Times bestselling collection called A Log Cabin Christmas with Wanda Brunstetter as the lead author. It's being re-released. Publishers often do that with a few changes to the cover perhaps and a reduced price. The nine authors are hosting a drawing for a gift basket of many goodies related to their stories just by your stopping by our sites and saying hi. You can get more information about the blog drawing between September 9-15 by visiting my blog http://bit.ly/17YlJuj If you've already read the book, it will also make a great Christmas present and the goody basket has some great surprises you will enjoy and can even give away.
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Poetic Moments
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 | | Nancy James |
"When you hear the call of the wild, run to it." The author of this one line poem is a young Bend writer and musician Adam Gnade. I envy the ability to capture an idea in so few words. A poet friend, Judy Schumacher, came up with the name of my Story Sparks booksection, "word whisperings" which is just right as they're not really reviews, but good words I like to share. Maya Angelou once wrote of music and her childhood that "Music was my refuge. I climbed inside the space between the notes and curled my back to loneliness." Oh to capture so much with so few words.
So imagine my delight when three poets (two from back east and one close to where I live) arrived for a living room poetry reading. Shirley Stevens and Nancy James live in the Pittsburgh area and I met them both while teaching at St. David's Christian Writer's Conference in Pennsylvania a few years back. They vacationed in Central Oregon at Ginny Graham's, another poet, who it turns out lives just down the road. Shirley and Nancy have both won awards and acclaim for their pieces. Nancy's poem was of her sister drifting into dementia, the loss and the changes so beautifully conveyed. Shirley shared lovely words in Shui a poem with images of rivers as distinctive as the Chinese characters that whispered across the page. Ginny read from her daughter's children's book, a place I always find poetry.
For me, sitting in my living room with poets, was a great reminder of how much I'm nurtured by the words of others. I often begin my writing day by reading poetry and I highly recommend the practice to you. If you have a poet friend...invite them in. It will nurture your day.
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Jane's Schedule
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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!
September 6-7 Travel to Douglas County, Oregon for research. Great fun.
September 13, National Hay Association, breakfast speaker. A closed event but know Jane will enjoy telling stories about making hay on Starvation Lane.
September 29, First Presbyterian Church, Bend, OR: Filling in for our pastor on sabbatical. Three services 9:00, 10:45 and 5:01. Jane will talk about parables (stories, of course) and the woman in Luke searching for the lost coin.
For all event information and updates, please visit
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Word Whisperings
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 Out of Red Dirt (And up Cowbell Hill). Sue Nell Street Phillips. Self-published.
Some writers make careers writing about their families.- Patricia Hampl ,The Florist's Daughter for one; Cheryl Strayed's Wild for another. The ability to write a memoir that reaches into the public domain is never easy but when one finds an author with a unique voice, poetic words and with great humor and energy, such works are treasures. Such is Sue Nell Street Phillips book Out of Red Dirt. Sue Nell has been writing much of her life but this is her first book. She gave it to me late last year and I confess I didn't finish it until earlier this week. Boy, did I miss a year of knowing about this fine work. We meet Sue Nell's family, her grandfather, a former Oklahoma politician and her mother (who often picked up extra shoes for a quirky cousin named Wilda), and her four brothers; classmates who could get her into trouble, an entire community, really. I laughed out loud, found myself tearing up and all along marveled at this writer's ability to take her readers in and make us care deeply about this family. That's what I think a good memoir does: helps us discover insights into our own family journey and offers a map for that trip we all take into the unknown. I highly recommend this book. I even wrote an Amazon review which I rarely do, I confess. The book is available as both an ebook and a paperback. If you're considering writing your family story for public consumption you couldn't find a better model than Out of Red Dirt.
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 The summer is coming to The End but a new season approaches. I hope rather than seeing these days as "the end of summer" that you'll celebrate August and cooler mornings of September and the next chapter of wherever you are in your life. Say good-bye to the end but shout hello to that next new beginning.
Warmly,
Jane Kirkpatrick
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