A new writing door opens....

Photograph copyrighted Judi Getch 2017

As my mother used to say, "When one door closes, another opens...."  And somehow, as I move through my life, her words always seems to prove true.  But as 2017 started, I decided not to wait for that door to open,  I grabbed that doorknob, yanked on it and opened my own door.

Last year, my writers group never started up and I missed it.  I missed writing pieces that I would never think to write, I wanted to read other's words and learn from them, and finally, I hoped to write with more feeling and sensory information,  A group forces me to put my work out there for other eyes to read and comment on. Sometimes I hold my breath, but for the most part, I'm pretty thick skinned and am looking for feedback that will make my writing stronger.  This year, it again appeared that my usual group was not coming to be.

Well, I wasn't going to have another year of no feedback.  If you remember, one of my posts last year talked about a book that I had read by Heidi Jon Schmidt, "the house on oyster creeke."  I sent her an email and told her how much I enjoyed the book and her writing.  She wrote back and in the course of back and forth conversations, she said that she conducts an on-line writers' group.  My ears went up, my eyes flew open... yup, I was interested.

So....  I'm now entering my second week with this group.  I've never exchanged comments and posted pieces on a blog, but I am now.  Quite interesting in that all communications between the writers and Heidi take place in posts.  There are only a few of us, so reading others' works isn't too time consuming.  We receive writing and reading exercises as well and so far, with one week down, it has been fun.  It's a group of writers so I'm hoping for more than a pat on the head and a good job.  I'm seeing glimpses of ... "What if you..." or "Can you tell me more about... here."  I want my writing to be stronger, express more, evoke the reader's feelings and senses.  And I'm thinking that this group will help me step up to this next level.

So that's what I'll be involved in for the next seven weeks.  What are you doing to improve your writing?  Find a class, find a group, find a way to make your writing better!

More updates as I move through this writers group.

Till,
Judi

On to a new year....

Copyrighted Mary Licata

Well, here we are starting a brand new shiny year, where anything is possible!  I know, it's hard to get motivated after having a wonderful fun filled holiday season, but do we have a choice?  Not if we want to be published this year.  And I certainly have a number of manuscripts that are almost ready to be published.

After Mary Licata, my illustrator, read the draft of "The Looking Glass Labyrinth," she generated a cover drawing - the one above.  The premise of my story is simple yet complex.  It's the tale of two women who lived over two centuries apart yet shared a common loss -- the men that they loved.  One  lost her sea captain in a gunfight inside the walls of her home two centuries ago and the other lost her fiance in a gunfight five years ago in Afghanistan.  Both women protected themselves against suffering the same hurt and heartache  by withdrawing from the world until... but if I told you the next part, it would spoil the surprise wouldn't it?  Is it a dream based on Lady Rachael's diary?  Or....

So, I'm finalizing the manuscript, hoping to have a publisher pick it up soon.  Final editing takes me forever because each time through the document, I find a sentence to smooth out or a paragraph that needs to be clearer.  I actually enjoy editing.  Most writers don't but I find it energizing.  

Okay, enough time spent not editing.  I'll about to start... maybe in a bit :-)

Keep writing... like anything else, if you don't use it, you lose it.

Till,
Judi