What I've Learned this Year in My Novel Freshman Experience

I finished glazing all my pieces over the weekend.  That left me reflecting on my first year back to school.

I'll confess, I was a bit nervous on my first day of school last fall.  It's been mumble, mumble years since I was in school.  And I knew I'd be one of the older students.  That first day I realized I was not just older...I was the oldest student in my class.

I rarely get nervous in public.  Here at home, I'm amongst family and I know where I fit.  When I'm giving a workshop or going to a conference, I know who I am—I'm Holly Jacobs...the writer.  In a book I'm whoever I'm writing.  I'm a mom or an artist or a party crasher...  I'm a Hungarian grandmother or an adopted daughter or a...  I'm always someone new, but I always know who they are or at least figure it out as I write.

But at school?  Who was I going to be other than the oldest student amongst teens?

Turns out, I was indeed the oldest in class, but it also turned out that the kids didn't seem to mind.  They accepted me as one of them.  A few of them thought my age meant I knew more than they did, but they quickly realized it didn't. LOL  Still, they talked to me and hung out with me...on purpose.  They treated me with respect and kindness.

I tried to keep my morning Glee to a minimum, especially since class was so early.  I didn't want to annoy my younger classmates who might not find 8 am as gleeful as I did.  But after worrying that my Hobbit Hole project would blow up in the kiln and finding it hadn't...my glee spilled over.  Yes, I spewed glee all over.   I said that most days I tried to contain it and one of the girls said, "You don't do a very good job," with a smile. That smile said she was teasing me.  After that, I still tried to rein in my glee, but not quite as hard.

So the first thing I learned is...I can't completely contain my glee.  It just oozes through the cracks.

That led to the second thing I learned...this generation of young adults are sweet.  Not just the kids I was in class with, but across the campus.  First term there was a mens team that walked out of the building as I walked in.  And every single day someone held the door for me.  I don't think it was that they felt I was infirm (LOL) but just that they were polite.  

I would remiss if I didn't mention my professor as well as my classmates..  I suspect I asked a few more questions (by few I mean a lot) than most students.  And when he said we needed to make a ten minute presentation on an artist, he allowed me a few extra minutes for computer issues.   (And he didn't even groan when I told him I had twelve single-spaced pages of research.  That was very sweet!)  Professor H. really was amazing!

Next, I thought I wasn't going to care about grades.  I mean, I'm taking the classes for fun. I don't need the degree...I don't even know what degree I'd be trying for.  So, I told myself that I was just going to have fun and not care.  But when my first test came back with an A, my glee showed me that indeed I cared. So, I think that showed me that tigers don't change their stripes. I may learn new things and move myself in new directions, but I'm still a girl who cares about grades and likes to know what role I play in situations. There's something to be said for understanding your own particular stripes.  And while I do like A's, I think I've learned to appreciate the actual learning more than the grade.  So the stripe is still there...but it's faded a bit. 

Those are not inconsequential things, but on a deeper level, I think I'm learning to look at the world in a new way.  That new point of view actually started the year before.  I'd had a bad day (yes, I have them sometimes) and gave myself my first official Day of Beauty.  I discovered I could literally become a part of the art that day.  My ceramics classes have built on that.  I am absolutely not an artist, like Lexi in Just One Thing, I think of myself as crafter. But craft has enriched me.  I look at the world in a new way.  I see everything as a possibility.  

That new world-view is balanced by learning how my past can influence my present.  I've been putting together a family tree for years and I've found some very deep mountain roots. My family came from the Appalachian Mountains.  As I dug into that history, I came across Face Jugs.  I know, people think they're ugly, but to be honest, I find them so ugly they're cute.  I've made two so far, a shoutout to that part of my family history.  I suspect I'll be making more in the future.  For a long time, I had entire swatches of my family tree shrouded in mystery.  As I uncover layers of my past, I think they've truly enriched my present and who knows where they'll take me in the future.

But here's the biggest lesson I've learned...to be honest, it's something I've known for a long time, but my classes really drove the idea home.  Learning something new, at any age, enriches me.  (I've vlogged about it.)  

As a writer, I collect information like a stamp collector collects...stamps.  You'll find these weird little gems sprinkled throughout my fiction.  So learning something new isn't new for me.  But those little-bits don't compare to how much I've taken in about ceramics this year.  And while I know a lot more than I knew in September, I am very aware of how much more there is to learn!  And I'm anxious to get at it!  

I can sign up for the fall term at the end of the week...keep your fingers crossed I get into my wheel throwing class!  And as soon as those glazed pieces come out of the kiln, I'll post pictures.  Oh, that's something else I've learned.  Glazing is like magic.  You may think you know what it's going to do but every time you fire is unique.  Even the professor says he's still surprised by what a glaze will do in the kiln.  So I'm waiting to see what magic occurs when he starts that gas kiln this week!  

Maybe that's a lesson, too.  You can do everything in your power to impact an outcome, but sometimes stuff just happens.

Wow, I've learned a lot this year!

After I post those glazed and fired pieces, we're probably done with My Novel Freshman Experience posts until fall.  But I'll still be posting Book Stories posts, On Writing posts, Days of Beauty posts and cottage updates.  Plus all the other random posts.  If you have any other suggestions of things you'd like to talk about...holler!

I just want to say thank you to all my new readers (both book readers and blog readers)!  

Holly

PS Looking for a book to try?  These are all on sale this month:
Hold Her Heart
Just One Thing
Everything But...series

Fairly Human
Pickup Lines

Book Stories: Fairly Human

I grew up in Tolkien's Middle Earth and riding on Heinlein's spaceship Dora with Lazarus Long.  I rode Anne McCaffrey's dragons and picked up a sword in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover stories.  I found out I had powers with Zenna Henderson's The People.

Maybe that's why I thought I'd write fantasy when I started writing.

I tried my hand at a lot of types of writing.  From literary fiction to poetry.  I made $4 on a poem and decided maybe my calling was something else.

Then I discovered the romance genre.  Two people, overcoming odds and finding a happily-ever-after.  This, my heart whispered.  This was what I wanted to write.

And I did.  I discovered I adored writing these relationship focused stories.  And then I realized that I could still write fantasy.

Mad About Max

 Heinlein had a theory that well loved universes exist in some dimension.  What if a bestselling fairy godmother romance author wasn't having any luck at romance?  What if her fictional fairies became real?

Magic for Joy

These were early stories, written with more glee than know-how.  But they struck a note with readers.  I have a collection of fairies they sent me over the years.  I wrote the first three books about the fairies and the Aaronson family and thought I was done with fairies.

Miracles for Nick

But readers kept asking for more.  So I wrote three novellas in which all the fairies get their own happily-ever-after.  The publisher asked me to turn them into a book...and so I blended those three shorter stories into one book.

Fairly Human

One of the things I loved about fairies was in my own way it was an homage to Heinlein.  But one of the other things that gave me glee was the opening scene in Fairly Human when the three old lady fairies find themselves sentenced to losing their magic.  And without their magic, they reverted to their true forms...beautiful young women.  Yes, since fairies are immortal, why were they old ladies?  Because all the heroes kept falling in love with them.  So they started wearing old lady bodies.  They did it for so long, that's how they saw themselves.

But looks can be deceiving and love can be tricky...with or without magic.

I was thrilled when a while back the publisher told me the fairies were getting new covers and being rereleased!  I adored the new artwork and I love that readers are re-meeting Fern, Myrtle and Blossom!  The fourth book, Fairly Human, is on sale for $.99 this week.   I hope you'll check the fairies out!  They might be older books, but they hold a special place in my heart!

Holly

Life Inspires: My Novel Freshman Experience

When I write, I draw from my life.  If you hang out with me here, or on social media, you might recognize tidbits from my life in my books.  Just One Thing was set primarily on Mondays and most weeks start with me wishing social media friends Monday Glee.  Carry Her Heart's heroine is a writer and a kindergarten story lady...yep, on both counts for me.  One of my early books, Fairly Human, is the last book in a series about a writer's fairy godmother characters coming to life.  If you ever read Heinlein, you might recognize his idea that well-loved characters really exist.  That book that I grew up in inspired my own twist on that theory.

Briar Hill Road was probably the most autobiographical book to date.  Oh, it's fiction, but we lost my mother-in-law to breast cancer, and in so many ways this book was an homage to her as well as me finding my way through that loss.

My life also is inspiring my ceramics class.  My father-in-law carved wooden Santas.  When I started the term, I gave myself the theme, Folk Art. (No, that was required in Ceramics II.  You just had to come up with seven projects.  Go ahead and roll your eyes that I added an element on to the requirement...my kids did. LOL) And of course, his Santas became an inspiration for me.  He was truly an artist...a folk artist. I told myself I could come close.  And the first few I made were directly inspired by what he did.  But now I'm branching out and doing some of my own design (that one in the top picture).  But he inspired them. 

I also made two face jugs.  Someone told me they were ugly, and they are. But that's the point....

"In the early part of the 19th century the form was adopted by white potters. The practice of making face jugs spread thoughout South Carolina and into Georgia, North Carolina and other states...The purpose of the jugs also evolved. The face jug became known as ugly jugs in the 1920's and was often used to store alcohol. The jugs became uglier in an attempt to identify the contents and frighten children." Chattanooga State Education

I've talked about finding out and exploring my Appalachian family history.  I loved doing these jugs...it helped me feel connected to these generations of people I never met. 

My FIL's Santa

I don't think we can disconnect from our life and our past.  It inspires us in so many ways. As I work in the studio, I love taking what my father-in-law did and adapting it to what I'm doing, or exploring family I've never known and learning their past through my pottery. As I write, I love adding small tidbits of my real life in my fiction.  My past inspires my present which leads me to my future...I love that continuity!  And if you've been following my Novel Freshman Experience posts you're going to see a direct inspiration in my new work-in-progress.  Stay tuned.

If you have a moment, I hope you'll check out one of my books.  There are a bunch on sale this month.  And you can see if you can find any of my real-life inspirations in them!

Holly

Another one of my FIL's Santas

Hold Her Heart
Just One Thing
Everything But...series
Fairly Human
Pickup Lines

Confessions of a Party Crasher

Confessions of a Party Crasher is on sale today!

Fans of Holly Jacobs’ I Waxed My Legs for This? will love this story of love…and accidental party crashing!

Morgan Miller is out of work and out of luck. She’s moved back home to Pittsburgh to try and put her life back in order. When she agrees to attend wedding reception with her mom for she's appalled to learn her mother’s invitation is far from legitimate. Her mom has turned her into an inadvertent party crasher.

When her friends agree that party crashing is a great way to meet men, Morgan's life goes from crazy to completely crazy. Wedding photographer Conner Danning keeps shooting her swoon-worthy glances and Morgan's ex is trying to de-ex himself.

Coming home and falling in love might just be the one party Morgan doesn’t want to miss.

Reviews:
"...a funny tale of falling in love when you least expect it, best friends, and off-beat mothers..." We Write Romance

"...a sweet, entertaining romance..." ~RT Bookclub

"Hilarious situations, deep emotions, and lots of love make this one party you won't want to miss." ~Cat Cody, Romance Junkies

"Confession of a Party Crasher is an entertaining frolic. I know whenever I see Holly Jacobs name on a book I can be guarantee that I am are going to have one laugh after another..." Lydia Funneman, Writers Unlimited

"Confessions of a Party Crasher is a book about relationships and life. As always, Holly Jacobs uses plenty of zany humor to enhance the story and make it dazzle." ~© Kelley A. Hartsell, May 2006. All rights reserved. 

"CONFESSIONS OF A PARTY CRASHER is a charming romantic story, where love is made even more special with laughter." Amelia Richard, cataromance.com 

National Library Week!

National Library Week!

Growing up, we lived out in the county and my biggest contact with the Erie Library was the bookmobile.  It parked around the corner of our dirt road (later tar and chipped) at the auction house.  I remember taking my youngest brother with me sometimes.  But what I remember the most was the feeling of coming home.  The smell of books, the shelves and shelves filled with them...  That was home to me...the books.

The staff learned my tastes in reading (sci fi and fantasy) and frequently had something tucked behind the desk for me.  

Later, I made trips to Erie's Main Library and it gave me that same feeling of coming home. At the time, the library was on Perry Square.  It's a Federal Courthouse now and the main library building moved down on the bay, next to the maritime museum.  You can look out the back window and see the Brig Niagara.  If you're ever visiting Erie, it's worth the trip to visit both.

Over the years, I've spoke at a lot of libraries and each and every one of them felt like coming home.

That makes sense.  I grew up in books.  When I realized I might need a grownup job, I thought about all the jobs in the world and realized the one I really wanted to try was writing.  But saying those words—I want to be a writer—was one of the scariest things I ever did.  I mean, what if I tried and failed?  But I told Himself (my husband) and he jumped on board.  When I was having doubts, he never did.  One of the moments that stands out to me was my daughter casually saying, "When you sell a book..." I don't remember what she wanted, I just remember she believed in me as well.

I had a speaking last weekend in Philly and realized, once again, that I'm living my dream.  I've got to write my stories and have been so fortunate that you all have supported me by reading them!  And that libraries have supported me by putting my books on their shelves.  

Lucky.  I'm so very lucky.  

So on Library Week, I want to say thank you to all those librarians who brought me books.  I want to say thank you to "Miss Kitty" who was the storytime lady at that Main Library when my kids were little and really served as an inspiration for me when I volunteered as a Kindergarten Story Lady and later Pip who did the same in Carry Her Heart.  I want to say thank you to all the other librarians who work so hard to inspire a love of reading in kids and support that love in adults.

For me, I still remember walking into that bookmobile and that feeling of coming home.  And now I have books living in libraries all over the country.  I think that's one of my proudest accomplishments.  

I hope you all "come home" to the library this week.  And when you do, I hope you'll look for me—okay one of my books—on the shelves!

Holly

Book Stories: Confessions of a Party Crasher

Mothers and daughters.  It's a dynamic that's always fascinated me.  In Maid in LA Quincy and her mother have a rocky relationship...one that's really fueled by misunderstanding.  They love each other, but they don't understand each other at all.  I had five books (well four right now for you, and five in June when Polished Off is released!) to not only explore their story, but let it develop.

I know you're scratching your head say, I thought this Book Story was about Confessions of a Party Crasher.  LOL It is.  I was just setting the MOM stage.  Quincy's mother was a physician and all business...at least from Quincy's point-of-view.  Party Crasher's mom, Annabelle...is not.  She's in trouble frequently.  

Oh, I had so much fun with Annabelle and Morgan.  Morgan was a complex character to write.  She knows what she wants.  She makes plans.  She works hard.  I admire all those traits.  But this book was in a way a reminder to myself that things change and goals can change with them.  (I remind myself about many things in the books I write.  Really, writers don't need therapists, we just need to write another book.)  As much as I loved writing Annabelle and Morgan's relationship development, it was Morgan's journey that really fascinated me.  Finding what she REALLY wanted, not just what she thought she wanted—what she'd planned on wanting—was the big journey of the book.
 
I think that's the big lesson for me...and hopefully for readers.  Life changes...and we change along with it.  Plans and goals are all well and good (I love lists and plans) but sometimes they're worth reassessing.  It's worth it to channel your inner-Annabelle and remind yourself that sometimes what you think you want isn't what you want at all.  And like Morgan, maybe you'll find you are exactly where you want to be.

Oh, I know, I didn't blog at all about the romance in this book.  And really it is a romance.  The hero's journey is actually similar to Morgan's.  He needs to discover that sometimes what you think you want isn't what you want at all.  Maybe that's another lesson of the book...we all are always on a journey of finding where we should be and what we should be.

I hope you'll check out Confessions of a Party Crasher if you haven't already.  I set this one in Pittsburgh, PA.  My daughter was in school down there and helped with all the descriptions. I know most of my books are set in Erie, but occasionally I take a trip.  Speaking of which, I'm leaving today for Philadelphia.  I'm giving a talk tomorrow for the Valley Forge Romance Writers.  My handouts are printed, my bags are packed...yes, I put grownup clothes in the suitcase.  I'm ready to drive across this state I love.  I'm sure you'll hear all about it next week!  

Have a great weekend!

Holly

Reviews for Confession of a Party Crasher:

"...a funny tale of falling in love when you least expect it, best friends, and off-beat mothers..." We Write Romance

"...a sweet, entertaining romance..." ~RT Bookclub

"Hilarious situations, deep emotions, and lots of love make this one party you won't want to miss." ~Cat Cody, Romance Junkies

"Confession of a Party Crasher is an entertaining frolic. I know whenever I see Holly Jacobs name on a book I can be guarantee that I am are going to have one laugh after another..." Lydia Funneman, Writers Unlimited

"Confessions of a Party Crasher is a book about relationships and life. As always, Holly Jacobs uses plenty of zany humor to enhance the story and make it dazzle." ~© Kelley A. Hartsell, May 2006. All rights reserved. 

"CONFESSIONS OF A PARTY CRASHER is a charming romantic story, where love is made even more special with laughter." Amelia Richard, cataromance.com 

On Writing: Writing Lengths

A video version of last week's Family: Ties that Bind post.

It's like a novel going to a movie...it changes things.

For a long time, I've used that analogy to compare the books I write.  

When I write a short story, it's like a music video.  I try to encapsulate a complete beginning, middle and end in a handful of pages.  

When I write a novella it's a movie of the week.  Again, there's a beginning, middle and end, but I have more room to flesh things out.

Finally, when I write a full novel, it's a in-the-theater movie.  No commercials and even more room to drill down to the heart of the story.

That's why I still write all three...I like the variety and the different way of looking at a story.  

I was in the studio one day, working on some ceramic wooden spoons and had the idea for a story.  It was short and to the point...I named it Spoons: A Love Story.  LOL (Those are my ceramic wooden spoons on the cover.)  Then there was the day I bought a book and found the inside was carved out....it became The Book.  I blogged about it a couple months ago here.  As a writer, my focus in a short story is focused on a couple and generally one pivotal moment. I don't have time for any peripheral incidents or people...there's just not room.

I hope when a reader picks up a short, it's a quick break from the real world.  I'll confess, sometimes reading a short story is all the time I have.  I put a collection together in Short Stories for the Overworked and Under-Read.  I think that title says it all! LOL  Speaking of which, there's one novella in that collection which segues into...

Novellas.  Like a short, I'm still focused on one couple.  If there are other characters, they don't get much word-time.  And I'm still looking at a tight time-line.  That novella in Short Stories for the Overworked and Under-Read was a very specific timeline...the title is 13 Weeks.  LOL I guess that says it all.  After I wrote Christmas in Cupid Falls, I had an idea for another story for one of the Amish Cupid Falls' characters.  I had sketched in another full book, and this one nagged at me...it became A Simple Heart and carried on the Cupid Falls legend from the book.

When I'm writing an entire novel, I have a lot more time to play with secondary characters and world building.  Well, I don't build worlds...I build towns, or neighborhoods, but I love fleshing those out.  I'm working on another cozy mystery right now, and the community my heroine lives in is almost a character in its own right.  There's a few of those on sale this month:

Hold Her Heart
Just One Thing
Everything But...series
Fairly Human
Pickup Lines

That's how I look at what I write.  I think it's a good explanation.  If you're a writer, I hope this gives you something to think about.  I'd love to know what you think.  And if you're a reader...I hope you'll check out one of my  shorts, novellas and novels (or more) and get back to me with your thoughts!

Thank you to all my new followers!  If you just dropped in, you can look at the top right of this blog and find a subscription button.  I hope you'll subscribe or just drop in from time to time.  I talk about books, writing, going back to school, renovating the cottage (I'm putting pictures up next week) and...just my crazy life in general. 

Holly

Book Stories: Hold Her Heart

Book Stories: Hold Her Heart

After I wrote my bestselling Just One Thing, my editor said, "Write me something like that.  The same, but different."  I did.  I wrote Carry Her Heart.  It was the story of Pip...a teenage mother who gave her daughter up for adoption and then built a life around that child she didn't have.  Pip was a writer.  That quote up above is hers...but it could be mine.  I have never written War and Peace.  I have never wanted to.  I try to write "little" stories of real people.  And, like Pip, I hope they make readers laugh and maybe even cry.

After Carry Her Heart, I wrote These Three Words.  It was loosely tied to CHH.  But even I was surprised when Pip's daughter, the one she gave away and never met, showed up.  I'll confess, I cried as I wrote that scene.

That's how I knew there was another book.  Siobhan's (Amanda's) book.  I needed to know what had happened since book one ended.  And I'll confess, I cried when I wrote the opening scene to Siobhan's story.  It was a short scene.  It left more questions than answers.  But Ned, Pip's husband, did me in...

Prologue

Ned Chesterfield was done waiting.

He stood on the front porch of the unfamiliar house, in an unfamiliar town, feeling uncharacteristically uncertain as his hand froze mere inches from the door.

He knew that once he knocked, Pandora’s box would open wide. There’d be no undoing it.

He also knew this was not what Pip wanted. More than that, she’d specifically told him not to come here. Ned also knew Pip could forgive him almost anything, although he wasn’t sure she’d forgive him this.

But he’d decided that was okay.

If Pip never forgave him—if she carried a grudge for the rest of her life—he could live with that.

What he couldn’t live with was a world without Pip in it.

He didn’t hesitate any longer. His hand came down on the door. He prayed Pip would be mad at him for a very, very long time.

I talked yesterday in this blog about writing series.  And I'll confess, this is why so many of my books, even though they're all stand-alone, turn into series.  What happened after Carry Her Heart ended?  I knew that Ned and Pip had indeed found a happily-ever-after together, but since I try to write real stories, I realized that sometimes life happens.  Sometimes we're hit with obstacles.  And we're lucky if we have someone to go through those hard times with. 

That's why Hold Her Heart is a story I needed to tell.  And I hope that's why readers of Carry Her Heart and These Three Words needed to read it!  

Holly

PS. There's a fourth book in the Words of the Heart series this fall!  Between the Words. You can sign up for my newsletter if you want a heads up!

PPS. Hold Her Heart is on sale this week!  I hope you'll check it out!

PPS. (darn that's a lot of PS's this time) These books are first person and told in the heroine's point of view, but Ned not only got that prologue in Hold Her Heart..he had a little say in Carry Her Heart that made me cry.  (Yeah, Ned is one of those characters who can get me every time!)

Sometimes home isn’t just a place . . .

I am not your birth father, nor am I the father who raised you, but you are part of me. And when you find Pip, you’ll find me.

You’ll find us.

And when you do, there will be no shock of recognition; there will only be a welcome home.

For wherever we are, you have a home with us . . . you are part of both of us.

And we’ll be waiting for you.

—From Carry Her Heart by Holly Jacobs

On Writing: Series

On Writing: Series

I'm not teaching a workshop on writing series next weekend at Valley Forge RWA (I keep typing Valley Ridge...that was one of my series which actually does fit into this blog post LOL), but I have in the past.  It turns out that I've written a lot of series.  And most of them weren't intentional.

Yes, I'm an accidental series writer.

It all started with the first book I sold to Silhouette Romance.  Do You Hear What I Hear? was the story of a mother with a hearing impaired daughter.  I set it on Perry Square...a real area in Erie.  Only I added my own businesses to it (the real ones are lovely).  When I finished, I wondered what happened to everyone else on the Square and...well, I started thinking about a designer who needed legal help and a lawyer who needed a fiancé fast...and discovered A Day Late and a Bride Short.  Then...  Well, my Perry Square series ended up with eight books in it.  Erie even got their own royalty in that series. (I think my town has everything...except maybe royalty, so I gave us that! LOL)

That need to know what happens next...it's a writer's curse.  But it's a reader thing, too.  I can't tell you how many times a reader has asked for another book in a series.  More than that, specific character's stories.  It's one of the biggest compliments a writer can get.

I wrote Pip's story, Carry Her Heart, then I wrote another book, These Three Words, set in that same "world."  And then, in the middle of the book, I found Pip's daughter come into the chapel and cry and I realized that after I left Pip and Ned in their happily-ever-after, something happened.  I needed to know what...so I wrote Hold Her Heart.

I work to make every book can stand alone, but readers can frequently tell that there's another book in the series.  I love when someone discovers there are more books and feel glee. 

So about writing....One of the biggest writing tools an author has is the question, What If?  Those two words have become every book I've written.  But in addition to that question, another questions that fuels my writing is What Next? That's the question that fuels my series.

Back to Pip...here's the thing, every book I write has held the promise of the happily-ever-after.  Even when something hard happens in their life.  I like to think in that way, my fiction represents real life.  Bad things happen...but we can find our way back to happy.

I think that's why I can move from Romantic Comedy to my more emotional Romance + stories, to Cozy Mysteries.  All of them answer that What If question and many answer What Next.  And every single one of them has a happily-ever-after.

Holly

PS I have a handy-dandy list of series in order on my website here Holly's Series.

PS It's a sales palooza week.  (Publishers just send me notices...I have no control most of the time and just like to pass them on.)

Hold Her Heart
Just One Thing
Everything But...series
Fairly Human

On Writing: Partners

I'm heading to Philadelphia next weekend to do a workshop for the Valley Forge RWA.  It has me thinking about writing this week.

What does a writer want you to feel when you read their book?  What do they want you to take away from a story?  What was their point of telling that story?

If you've ever sat through an English Lit class, you've been asked questions like this.  And those questions have validity.  The author always had a point in telling the story.  Sometimes it's blatant and as a reader you know their take away. Good triumphs over evil.  Love wins out.  But sometimes their point is more obscure.  Maybe Love Wins Out is the point. But maybe there's something smaller and less tangible to the reader...something that drove the author to tell that story. 

When I wrote Briar Hill Road, Love Wins Out is easily my big theme...it's the theme that truly works for any book I've written.  But Briar Hill Road was also an exploration of what makes a family (most of my books are that, too).  Yet even more than that, for me as the writer, it was a cathartic book.  It was my way of saying goodbye to my mother-in-law.  

Here's the thing...you don't need to know that to read the book.  When I finish a book, when I've said what I wanted to say in it, I let it go.  My ownership of that story is done.  I hand it over to you...the reader.  And maybe you'll see the same thing in it that I saw as I wrote it.  Maybe you'll see that love always wins out.  Maybe you'll recognize that family isn't always born...sometimes it's discovered.  Maybe you'll realize, if only for a moment, that life is a journey and there are ups and downs.  Maybe you'll even see shades of my mother-in-law in Kathleen and think, I would have loved to be this character's friend.  (Trust me, you would have.)

Writing and reading...they are a codependent partnership.  I tell a story and then I set it free.  You get to pick it up and (hopefully) when you read it, you bring your own point-of-view, your own history to the story and you see it through a different lens than I wrote it.  You see it through your own personal lens.  Maybe you take away something I never imagined from it. And that's okay.  That's my hope.  That is my intent.  

Writer and reader are partners.  You and me...we're a team!

Holly

PS It's a sales palooza week.  (Publishers just send me notices...I have no control most of the time and just like to pass them on.)

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