Food for Thought - To Keep You Munching While I'm Away

I'm headed to the mountains of Alberta for a few days. So there won't be any posts until next week. Unavoidable - one of those "must do" annual things. I certainly don't resent the mountain scenery, the time alone with hubby, the rarefied air, BUT. . .

I'm sort of in the middle of something.

Like a deadline.

I'm sure every manuscript is different, and every writer who, head down, fingers flying works on rewrites has his/her own story - Here's a taste of mine:

I am on the crazy side of blessed to have Nicci Hubert as my editor. I don't know if it's considered proper etiquette to name one's editor outside of the acknowledgement on the book jacket, but since she and I are writing all over each others Facebook walls, I suppose it isn't much of a national secret anyway. As I was saying, I'm blessed. She has such a creative instinct and feel for authors.

So, one day she e-mails and sets up a time when we can talk on the phone. I had been thinking we would be going back and forth on e-mail over the book, changes to be made here, things to change there - that's what I thought. But, instead, we just had a phone call about the ms. Cool!

What needs a-changing? The answer is: everything and nothing. I'm actually adding about 30,000 words - which, interestingly, won't change the plot, rather they will intensify it. The additions will take what's there and ramp it all up into a more extraordinary read.

That is the benefit of having an extraordinary editor - she's sees the big picture in fresh ways and then helps you to focus sharply on the details involved.

Speaking of reading - someone asked me recently what my goal as a writer is.

It's a good question. And, I suppose, when one writes for the Christian market, as I do, one might feel compelled to answer in a spiritual way. But, as I thought about, the thing that came to mind was: My goal is to create the best reading experience possible for the reader.

That's what matters most to me as a writer. You. Your experience as you read. I picture you in my head finishing Talking to the Dead, closing the book, tossing it in air, hands over head and hollering "Yipee! That was FUN!"

Is that shallow of me? Should I not pursue loftier goals? Shouldn't my REAL goal be sharing Jesus with the world? World peace? Highlighting social injustice?

All good stuff. Great stuff. But, tell me, who will read it if it's not a wonderful reading experience? I'm not writing textbooks here. I don't expect my books to appear on high school required reading lists. People don't read novels because they HAVE to. They read them because the WANT to.

Honestly, I can't think of a higher goal than to create something people will enjoy.

So, when you are writing, remember: People first. Not your agenda, your message, your great ideas first. People first.

I bid you good writing.

Welcome Ruth Meyer - Not Easily Broken

Welcome Ruth to the blog. Ruth is a respected member of The Word Guild. I'm happy to have her here today, sharing this deeply personal book. Grab a cuppa and join Ruth as she shares her book, and some of her heart with us all.

Title
Not Easily Broken - ISBN 1-897373-10-4

Genre
Inspirational Fiction

My reason for writing inspirational fiction: All though my life I have learned a lot about life and living through reading good quality fiction and biography or autobiography. As a person prone to making mistakes, I found that living through various life experiences with the characters in a story, often keeps me from having to make my own mistakes. They also often give me a perspective outside my own experiences. It’s like a spoon full of sugar to help the medicine go down!
I guess that gave me a real impetus to let others learn through some of my own or at least those of the characters in my stories. My books and stories are just about always based on true life stories of the many seniors with whom I have worked and who became friends. Their lives are so rich with experiences that are often stranger than fiction. It would be a shame to let those stories be lost when they are gone.

A synopsis of Not Easily Broken: In the time when women often died in childbirth and men remarried to have someone to care for the house and children, new mothers sometimes cut off relationship with the maternal grandparents. Ellie is a strong young woman faced with circumstances that are not her choice. When Ellie’s older sister Regina dies at the birth of her third child, her parents request that Ellie break off her engagement to the man she loves and marry their son-in-law, John, so the children will stay in the family.
Ellie reluctantly agrees but determines in her heart to give it her all to make it a good marriage. She and John begin life with a somewhat contrived feeling to their relationship, but love grows because they are both committed to it.
Preposterous as it may seem, Ellie’s story is based on a real-life situation as told by Rina, Ellie’s own daughter. The story begins and ends with Rina and gives evidence that the mother’s strength has been passed on to her daughter. Readers having experienced the death of a spouse will find immediate rapport with John, then Ellie, as they face the waves of grief that come at unexpected times, and perhaps find ways of dealing with their own. Those who have yet to experience this will come to a deeper understanding of the process of grief while they live through the joys and sorrows of the characters in “Not Easily Broken.”


My reason for writing this book: As Creative Director at an Adult Day Centre, I interviewed each client for a “This is my Life” book that helped the seniors know more about each other’s lives. In my interview with Freda Litt, she told me the story of her mother. I was so fascinated with the courage and faith of that woman that I asked Freda, if I ever got to write a novel, could I use her mother’s story as the basis for it. That story just kept percolating in my mind in the coming years. After the death from cancer, of my 63 year-old husband, I was ready to write. I began and the story just kept flowing almost day and night until it was done. Dealing with death and grief in an honest, forthright manner and helping others to do so, had become a passion for me. I was convinced the book could become that “spoon full of sugar” for others experiencing this journey. However, the benefit in this book will not be felt only by those experiencing grief, for I hope the message will come through that even situations in life that seem impossibly hard and absolutely unreasonable can become stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks if one sets the mind toward that direction and asks for God’s help.

A significant moment for me during the writing: While writing one of the death scenes in the book, I found some of my own feelings bubbling up. Many times in that chapter, then in the grief that followed, I had to stop because tears blinded my eyes. I would have a good cry and then go on. The song “He washed my eyes in tears that I might see..” became a reality to me, for healing flowed into my heart and life as I relived my own journey through the characters in the book. It is those genuine emotions that seeped into the book that, I believe, are the portions that connect so deeply with the readers.

Coming Soon
Not Far from the Tree, Rina’s Story, sequel to Not Easily Broken: Freda (RIna’s) family were so pleased with the story of their grandmother, they asked for a sequel about their own mother’s remarkable life. Having already had the desire to do so, I have had the pleasure of working closely with Freda’s daughters to garner the fascinating incidents in the life of the woman I knew between ages 95-99. A precocious and spunky child, those traits could still be seen at the end of her life. Living beyond the norms of her society and through the depression years, the hardships she endured with a feisty spirit and positive attitude provides plenty of inspiration in this new novel.

Tyson’s Sad, Bad Day: A children’s book dealing with the death of a beloved aunty, seen through the eyes of six year-old Tyson. Written in verse, this book will provide soothing, healing and hope for young children who experience loss .

NotEasilyBroken.book@gmail.com
www.inscribe.org/ruthsmithmeyer

Books available at:
amazon.ca
barnesandnoble.com
WordAlive.ca
e-mail Ruth @ NotEasilyBroken.book@gmail.com