From our house to yours...

Photo by Judt Getch copyrighted

Tis that time of year once again. Hardly seems possible, but here we are... in the midst of holiday shopping, decorating and cooking.  

I'm stealing a bit of writing time as well trying to edit my new novel, The Looking Glass Labyrinth.   I'm listening to Barbra Streisand's Christmas CD.  The song that really hits home is "I Remember" and at this time of year, I do.  

It takes me back to being young and at home... my parent's home, but it will still always be home.  I remember... caroling in the center of town, taking the train through canberry bogs that were decorated with Christmas lights, choosing the tree with my Dad, Christmas dinner in the dining room, candles in the windows, midnight Mass... I remember.  

Make time for youself, sit down with a hot cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate, somewhere away from the maddening crowd, and listen to the holiday music ... it will take you back and you will remember too.  Some are joyous memories, some are tearful, but they are all ours, to be remembered at this time of year.

Enjoy the holidays and I'll be back after New Year and we will talk again.  I'm hoping to submit this novel before Christmas, but who knows.

Till the New Year,

Judi

Successful Book Signing...

The book signing on December 2nd was such a blast.  So many wonderful people related delightful stories about why they were buying Fiona the Firefly - LOST!.  Many had new Fionas recently born into their families;  others had friends who loved fireflies; some even had friends who studied fireflies.  I learned that the fires in Gatlinbugh were destroying the forest in which the fireflies congregated in June each year.  How sad that would be... Fiona's family would have nowhere from which to start their trip north to Maine :-(  

I absolutely enjoyed meeting everyone who came to the Front Street Art Gallery in Scituate Harbor. It was the Harbor Stroll and the street was mobbed with holiday shoppers.  What a fun night.

Thanks again to everyone who stopped in and added to the night's festivities!!

A perfect evening...  As I sat looking out onto the harbor with the lighthouse in the background, the lights reflected on the window appeared to be Fiona's firefly family :-)

Remember to pick up your copy - Amazon has it!

Till,
Judi

Mother and daughter...

Lizbeth and Mama from Fiona - the Lighthouse Firefly (copyrighted 2015)

Today is December 1st.  My mother died ten years ago today.  When I hurt, I write, so here I am.  I remember my sister telling me that when her plane lifted up over the city after my mother's funeral, she cried because she was now an orphan.  And as strange as that sounds for an adult to say, it's true.  My father had died when we were very young.  And so, when my mother was gone, we were truly orphans.

I'm remembering my mother today.  She was not always an easy woman to get along with.  Maybe most mothers and daughters think that... I don't know.  Her mother died when she was only eight years old, so she didn't have a mother figure in her life.  Her father was from the "old country" and was strict with his five girls.  He was gone before I was born.  She and I had many disagreements as I grew up, but in the end, respected each other for who we were.  Our love was always there, sometimes camouflaged, sometimes worn on our sleeves.

My mother was a wonderful cook. Her lemon meringue pie was the best!!!  She made "blond brownies" that the entire family loved.  I had a cousin who was serving overseas and all he wanted was one of my mother's fabulous grilled cheese sandwiches.  When I lived at home, she was up early making breakfast for us all.  When dinner time came, we were all at the table, my Dad and my two sisters.  It was a wonderful time of talking and laughing and eating.  I was the middle child and acted like it.

Christmas was her favorite time of year.  The tree was up and lit.  We were able to decorate it all, but she put the finishing touches on it.  Santa was always generous - as generous as he could be with only my Dad working.  I remember one year when I was young, I wanted a train set... not a little dinky one, but a Lionel train.  She took me to see Santa and when I told him what I wanted, he did his best to convince me that what I really wanted was a doll.  I didn't and so stated.  That year, under the tree on Christmas morning, was my Lionel train that smoked.  Christmas dinner was always eaten formally in the dining room.  Candles glowed on the table and the turkey was browned and filled with her fabulous sausage stuffing.  Christmas afternoon was spent with us all sitting in the living room, watching Christmas shows on TV, with my father's father, my grandfather, snoozing in the chair. When we were older and all gone from the house, she would sit in front of the tree quietly remembering those wonderful Christmases when we were all there.

She made life wonderful for her husband and three girls.

It was almost fitting that she go at Christmas time.  Her funeral recessional was "Angels we have heard on high" allowing for tears and singing as she left the church for the last time,

I miss her and this is my way of keeping her alive in my heart and mind... as they used to say, "I remember Mama..." and I do.

Till,
Judi

Fiona the Firefly - LOST! is now available...

I'm so pleased to announce that my newest children's book, Fiona the Firefly - LOST! has been published and is available on Amazon.

I have a book signing on December 2nd - wish me well!

Back to editing my next novel :-)

Till,
Judi

Fiona the Firefly - LOST! about to be published!

Cover of new children's book

Well, my labor of love has been submitted.  It was a long arduous trip this time, but in she went this morning to the publisher.  And it is a wonderful story with fantastic illustrations by Mary Licata!

I will send out an announcement when the book is available on Amazon!

Yea... I feel so light today :-)

Keep writing!
Till, Judi

"It's my fault... all my fault..."    copyrighted 2016.  Not to be reproduced. 

Staying on schedule...

Above is my favorite spot for showing the changes of the seasons.  The last photo that I posted from here showed tall green corn and green leaves obscuring the view.  Today, fall is almost past.  We have had a hard frost that snuck in one night when we weren't looking.  Yet, this fall has been long and vibrant and warm. By this weekend, those heavy grey clouds will hold our first snow.

Just as the seasons come in on time, our sequel to Fiona - the Lighthouse Firefly will be on schedule as well.  No dark clouds yet.  Mary and I are working hard - I'm editing and she's drawing.  Her illustrations for the sequel, Fiona the Firefly - LOST!, are just spectacular.  How lucky I am to have her working with me.

One thing I'll share with you is that writing my first children's book was almost easy - the sequel has been much more difficult.  My thoughts are that the first story was a simple tale;  the sequel is much more involved.  It has to be since Fiona becomes lost.  But I have edited and edited and edited and I think I'm almost there.  I had to be careful not to fall back into adult language... that was a bit more difficult.  Lizbeth in the first book was easy to portray as a spirited your girl.  Introducing Lucas, an all American boy, was harder.  Lizbeth was sweet and cute and piroqueted and twirled.  Lucas is a hockey playing boy who is transplanted to a new town and a new school.  His fears are a new school, a new class - not being accepted.  He's lovable, sassy, and petulant sometimes.  He learns from his new experiences... I really loved writing this book!!  I hope that you will enjoy reading it as well.

Off I go to continue editing.  Staying on schedule is very important!!

Till,
Judi

Fiona's new tale continues...

Lizbeth praying for Fiona, her friend the beloved firefly.  Copyright 2016

Well as you can see, the illustrations are on the drawing board and are coming out beautifully thanks to my very talented illustrator, Mary Licata.  We are still on schedule... Mary's drawing and I'm editing.

I found this children's book, the sequel to  Fiona - the Lighthouse Firefly,  a bit more challenging to write.  The first one seemed to flow and the wording stayed simple and childlike.  In the sequel, Fiona the Firefly - LOST! I find myself falling back into using longer sentences and more adult language. So I'm editing more and more.  I'm reading it out loud as I would to the children and that helps me develop a rythmn as well as identify places where I would stop to watch a child's reaction..

I loved introducing a young boy, Lucas, into the story.  He's all boy - he plays hockey and baseball.  But he struggles to adjust to his new life in Windy Harbor, as all children do when they move to a new place where they have no friends.

Lucas leaving for school  Copyright 2016

He lives on the other side of the forest from Lizbeth, so his walk to school is through the forest primeval, as Lizbeth calls it.  Weird noises, strange shapes are frightening as he makes his way along. But new animal friends appear to welcome him.

Fiona, on the other hand, becomes lost in a gynormous storm.  You can just imagine Lizbeth's reaction!  Yes, Lizbeth leads the search party.  Is Fiona found?  How and by whom?  I guess you will have to wait and read the story.

Fiona being blown around by the storm.  Copyright 2016

Back to my editing...  we are still on schedule so expect the sequel to be available around November 15th, just in time for the holidays!

More updates later,
Till,
Judi

Remembering 9/11...

15 years ago, I was in the same place that I am today - a small town, Wellfleet, on the northern tip of Cape Cod.  I was sitting on the deck drinking my morning coffee, taking in the shifting tides.  It was a gorgeous late summer morning by the water.   The silence was broken by my husband's call to "come and see this."  As we watched TV, we thought at first that a small plane had mistakenly hit the World Trade tower.  But then, another plane came from the other side of the towers and exploded into the second tower - no accident.  We looked at each other trying to make sense of what we were seeing.  What had just happened?  Were we being invaded?  We tied on our walking shoes and headed up to the village to see if anyone knew what was happening... to be with other people, other Americans.

As we sat in the restaurant, a couple from New York was trying to reach their children and having trouble getting through.  Worry and panic was written all over their faces.  We all talked, consoled, theorized.  And then, our gaze shifted to the TV as the Pentagon was hit.   Now real fear set in... who would be next?  Where?  The South Tower collapses... horror as the huge building crumbles like it's made of cookies... pieces flying, fire fed from plane's fuel soaring into the sky... dust clouds moving like monsters obliterating everything and everybody. How can this be happening?  Why?  Who?

Then, we heard the result of the unbelievably brave passengers who learned by phone what had happened to the flights in New York and Washington DC.  They knew that they weren't going back to the airport as had been reported on the plane.  They surmised that they were heading to DC - the Capital building, the White House, the Washington Monument?  Huddling together, they decided to rush the cockpit.  Their chances of saving themselves and the plane were so small, but the chances of saving hundreds of other Americans in DC were so great. And so the call was heard, "Let's roll."

My husband and I walked back to the beach... arms around each other, still not comprehending what had just happened.  When we returned, we watched the scrolling names and faces of the people who had been killed on the American Airlines flight #11 out of Boston.  One was a friend and associate of mine, Anna Willams Allison.  She was traveling to vist a client in LA - something we all did regularly.  I broke at that point....

Wellfleet and the Cape lost twenty-two people that day - writers, photograghers, producers, and diectors who flock to the Cape because of the solitude and quiet.  Also lost were people who had grown up here, whose parents were still here, who summered here... all gone in a second.

I had to write today to make myself feel what I felt that day, to put my thoughts down....  I hope you take the time to do the same.

Till,
Judi

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"Fiona the Firefly - Lost and Found" is drafted!!

Today is a sad day for me - the anniversary of my father's death.  He died very young and it still hurts on days like this... well it still hurts most days  So, to take my mind off the day, I thought I would write a quick update.

First, remember, all the illustrations by Mary Licata are copyrighted!!  Please don't copy, reproduce in any form without her written permission.

Second, my draft of the new Fiona sequel is finished.  It has gone through editing and now we are awaiting Mary's final set of illustrations.

Finally, I thought you might find it interesting that the story actually took a few unexpected turns.  I had an ending in mind, but the two characters, Lizbeth and Lucas, seemed to have a different ending in mind and since it was their story, I followed their lead.

It always fascinates me when a story I'm writing ends up in a totally different place than I thought it would.  I love that about writing.  Many writers outline the entire book before they start writing.  I can do that and have, but find it too constraining for me!  When i've done it, my story and the characters seem to have a mind of their own and a story they want to tell... so I let them.

So, as I await Mary's gorgeous illustrations, I'm already back editing another novel that I hope to have out by the end of the year!  We shall see.

I'll sign off now.

Till,
Judi

Evoke feelings and emotions...

Well, first, if you look at the last photo I posted, you will see that in the photo above, the corn has grown so high you can no longer see the mountains -- all in a matter of weeks.  Shows how fast the summer is moving!  It is also one of the best corn crops in years... just the right amount of rain and sunshine.

Actually, what I really want to talk about is not corn, but writing emotional scenes.  In the last blog, we discussed how to write scenes that the reader can connect to.  Part of that skill is writing what the character is feeling - love, hate, sadness, even emptiness - and then analyzing what causes those feelings.   It's easy to write the cliches... "her heart skipped a beat when she saw him."  But what about him made her heart skip a beat?

One of the strongest human senses is the sense of smell.  A smell can evoke a memory of a person or place.  I was on a hotel elevator at a conference and the doors opened and a man stepped in.  We nodded and then said nothing and watched the numbers click by.  About half way down, he turned to me and said, "You're wearing X,"  I answered yes - I told him that he was very good at picking that up.  How did he know.   He said, "My girlfriend wears that perfume."  I had made him think of her at that moment.  When my mother died, I was cleaning out her things.  I came across her bottle of perfume.  I kept it.  I take it out sometimes and smell it,  It somehow makes me feel close to her.  I smell the salt air or decaying fish and shells at low tide and I return to my childhood by the ocean.  I feel an overwhelming hurt, wishing I could go back - just for a few moments.  You need to make your readers feel that when they read your words - if only I could go back.

What I'm trying to say is that you have to evoke these memories and feelings in your readers by association to an experience that they have had.  Paint a scene... he enters a room and knows that she was here because her smell lingers.  If you're a man, you will remember a woman in your life who left that lingering scent in your nose, in your head and in your heart.  Maybe it's the aroma of tomatoes, beef, and onions from your mother's beef stew recipe that causes you to picture your family around the kitchen table having dinner, talking and laughing.  Most families have those moments. If you're a woman, how about the smell of his aftershave.  It evokes the first time that you stood in the bathroom doorway watching him shave.  He stood, still glistening from the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist, slowly swiping the razor down his cheek removing the foam.  His eyes connect with yours in the mirror... and?  You can write very sexy scenes with out being explicit... make your readers feel and sense the heat.

Describe what intrigues your character... if male, maybe it's her eyes.  Maybe they are large and fringed with long lashes.  Maybe they change color with what she wears... blue to blue green to even a stormy grey when she's angry.  Maybe it's her hair - blonde and long or red and curly, with a slight scent of flowers.  He smells that flower and remembers...  If female, maybe it's the way he flicks his hair when he's nervous or maybe the way he kisses... slow and soft, or hard and insistent.   His smile that reaches his eyes and let's you know what he's thinking...

You get the picture by now... describe the scene, what the character feels and then let both your character and readers think about it - remember.

All I have for now... keep writing!  I am still making my way through the sequel to Fiona.  I think that I'm at the end point.  I hope I am.

Till,
Judi

This blog continues "A writer's dream..."

Well... it's me!  I am continuing on with my "A writer's dream..." blog under a new blog title, "A writer's dream continues..."  Why would I do that you ask?

A long story short - my computer began to act up, as all old favorite computers do.  I couldn't use Chrome fully, websites would come and go, and the computer would sporadically shut down.  My assessment was that the old Vista Operating System was not being supported by Chrome any more.  Maybe it was time to move up to Windows 10.

Alas and alack, whatever those words mean, I was only half correct.  It was not totally the OS, but also my hard disc was failing - thus the shutting down.

I had no fear of losing my files and photos - they're all backed up - but I had been lackadaisical (love that word) about keeping a current list of all my website sign-in info - email addresses and passwords, as well as many of my email addresses which were stored in an ancient copy of Eudora. Eudora could not be reloaded... so email addresses are gone, but I was able to reconstruct most of my sign-in info except for my blog  - sigh - on Google.

I also have a wonderful new Microsoft Surface Pro computer that I use when I travel, but this old trusty Toshiba is still my favorite... like the old writers with their typewriters :-)

I now have a sold state memory (not a disc) which is faster and Windows 10 which I don't mind, but still couldn't figure out my password for my blog and Google was absolutely NO help!  Even though I couldn't reconstruct the old blog's sights and sounds, the new design fits me well I think.

So we'll continue connecting through this new blog.  You can still find my old blog at http://judigetchwriter.blogspot.com/ and find me on Facebook.

More when I finally finish updating my trusty old companion.

Till,
Judi