Could this be Lemon Pie cottage in She's Not You??? Maybe ... these Lemon Pie cottages are so wonderful. They sit where Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker, a devote Methodist and philanthropist, placed six of them on Shirttail Point in Wellfleet. It's reported he owned a cottage at the Methodist camp in Yarmouth and around 1900 bought six more, transporting them by train to Milton Hill (which Baker owned).. The hurricane of 1938 knocked many of them over distroying more than half of them. A photo showing two of the cottages, one lying on its side leaning against the other, was labeled “Snug Harbor and its neighbor after a hurricane.” I do love these cottages and their history so how could they not be part of "She's Not You."
"When she returned yesterday, it was sunset, the most beautiful time here on the hill. The bright reds and oranges and purples spread across the sky heralding the end of another day, another one without her parents, and now, without Pita.
The house, dark and abandoned, offered no outside light to greet her. Weeds poked through the cracked white shells in the driveway with Pita not there to yank them out before they took hold. Her bike, basket empty, leaned against the shed. She'd never have left it outside during the winter like that. All summer she could be seen riding around town, her grey hair pulled up in a bun, a bright colored shirt blowing in the breeze, wearing her denim “pedal pushers” as she had called them.
Jamie reconnected the drain pipe that fed Pita’s oak barrel with water that she used for her plants. New crocuses pushed up through the dead dried stalks that Pita would have cleared away last fall.
She'd thought that, with the passage of time, the task of cleaning out Pita’s belongings would become easier, the hurt less, but she was wrong, very wrong."
When I write, it gives me a chance to go back to the places I love - the cottage, the beach. I close my eyes and see and feel Jack - I have the luxury of making him be everything I want him to be!!! LOL... When I write about loss... a death, a spouse or lover who walks away, even the loss of a pet... it's hard to write about it without feeling the pain that I experienced as part of the loss. I lost my Dad when I was young and as I said earlier in a blog, that helped me write the scene where Jamie loses her parents... I cried writing it but I had to revisit how lost I felt and the hurt that never went away to make that scene real to my readers. Maybe you lost a parent too, remember the tears and the pain? The questions of why? Remember the way it changed your life and you? Maybe your loss was a broken marriage... maybe a relationship where he or she cheated on you. How did you feel? Did you cry, throw things, curse God? Maybe you took it out on someone else?In She's Not You, Jamie's clearly affected.
"That day had changed Jamie forever. She had lost her parents, her God and her protection. At sixteen years old, she was alone, an orphan. She felt her heart become hard as a rock as the molten rage that coursed through her cooled and solidified."
I've felt like that way, betrayed by a loss, angry at God, at the person I lost, and so I hardened myself so that I couldn't be hurt again. Doesn't work, does it... someone breaks through that wall. Yet, as difficult as it is, we as writers have to feel that pain over and over again to make our scenes real to the reader. It's one of the perils of being a "good" writer. I'm writing a scene in my current manuscript where the woman is overwhelmed by loss and pain... the words come hard and I feel the tears building as I remember my own pain and sadness in a similar situation. I'm reliving it all again.
And it's not just about loss, but the frightening scenes as well. How did you feel when you were lost? When you fell overboard and knew you couldn't swim well enough to make it to shore? When your car started to skid on ice and the cars infront of you were all stopped?
Anyway, here's some of the feedback that I've received about the last third of "She's Not You"
"It built up in mystery and emotion and certainly was tense at the finish."
"I loved the story, it’s twists and turns and the ending leaving room for book 2 which I will await anxiously!"
"I was engrossed & couldn’t put it down!"
Keep the tissue box next to you. :-) as you write and keep that feeling of sorrow, happiness or fear that you once felt right at your fingertips as you pound away at the keys... bring that scene to life!
And my car radio is still inspiring me with songs like "Cry" by the Beach Boys... and over and over again, "The Warmth of the SUN"!!
Keep those words coming! Writing is like anything else, the more you write, the better you get.
Till,
Judi
PS: Will be sending in my new contract for the next book tomorrow. Then the fun begins! So exciting! Will post the cover when we've settled on one... although I have an idea :-)
