Conversations with Kathy: Summer Camp at Highlights Part II

"Great story, Carol! Honestly, I have very little to say except can I read more?? It sounds very polished, the writing is excellent, and I love the characters. It sounds from the synopsis that you have a very well thought out book and an interesting story. 

GREAT first line! Love it. You've gotten into the action right away, which is also great. We're swept away with the story from the very beginning."

Who wouldn't love to receive those comments on their first twenty pages? 

It took awhile for my heart to return to normal after I read Kathy Erskine's comments. And that was just the beginning of working with my amazing and award-winning summer camp mentor.  

When Kathy isn't writing, speaking
or mentoring, she is known to sniff flowers.
Fox Hill Farm

Since my first pages had been critiqued a lot, Kathy graciously agreed to read an additional 25 pages--and then she read several more chapters during the week. (Note: if you are considering attending a Highlights Foundation workshop, do it! The faculty bend over backwards to provide you with a quality learning experience.) 

We met for 30 minutes five times during the week to discuss my work. She got picky--which is exactly what I need as I enter this "tightening/heightening" stage. (term courtesy Joyce Hostetter--the master tweaker!)

Kathy's Comments

Here are a few of her comments on Half-Truths:

• Eliminate vague language. 

 Example: On the first day of school Lillie's principal references an incident from the previous year when the football team had gotten into trouble. Kathy recommended spelling this out and showing the difference between how the white and black students were treated afterwards. Here's the new version:

My brother Sam and some of the other football players almost started a fight while waiting to use Harding High’s football field. The Harding guys had called them names and made fun of their blue and white hand-me-down uniforms from Central High. We all hate that we don’t have our own colors.
      No one laid a hand on anyone but tempers got hot, and angry threats were thrown back and forth. The coaches stepped in just in time. I bet the white coach just slapped his boys on their backs and told them they'd take care of those colored boys another time. Our guys were suspended from playing the next two games. 

• Deepen a character's reaction to an event.

Example: The principal challenges the students to be a credit to their race. Kathy suggested Lillie might feel bothered by his subtle insinuation that blacks have to prove themselves. So I added the last two sentences to this paragraph:

I catch Mr. Grigsby’s drift because it’s been hammered into me since I was little. White people don’t expect Negroes to be smart or successful. It’s up to us to show them they’re wrong. If we do, we’ll be a credit to our race. Of course, it doesn’t matter if white folk think we’re not as good as them. The burden of proof is always on us. 


• Build tension and strengthen character motivation.


Example: Kate's goat, Eileen, has a suspicious skin disease. Lillie is in need of a science fair project and in my original manuscript, she sees Eileen and decides right away that finding a cure could be her project. In the new version, this realization develops over two chapters. Kate's act of kindness towards Lillie serves as Lillie's motivation:

Miss Anna Katherine put herself out for me. The least I can
 do is help figure out how to treat her goat. 
Then a thought crashes into my brain. Maybe I’ll use
 Eileen for my science experiment!  It’s not exactly what I 
thought I’d do, but since it's about disease and infection,
 I bet Mr. Levi will approve it.
(Note: This also strengthens the girls' connection to one another. Which is exactly what Rebecca Petruck advised me to do.)

More Suggestions

• Cut to the chase in each chapter. Have I said the same thing more than once in a scene? Am I explaining more than showing?
• Cut out backstory which removes reader from the story. Move forward.
• Put character or setting descriptions when the character first meets or enters the setting. 

Word Garden at the Barn
Highlights Foundation 

Kathy's Keynote

Kathy also delivered a keynote on "Making Your Writing Feel Authentic." Here are some of her points:

• Post a one-sentence description of your work on top of your computer to keep you focused
• Keep a talisman or picture--something which reminds you of your work--close at hand. (Pictures on Pinterest work. Here is my Half-Truths board, one on fashion in the 50's, one just of images of people, and one related to African Americans.
• You are not just writing about a person or a place. Experience that particular character in that particular place. Her novel, THE BADGER KNIGHT takes place in medieval England. Kathy visited castles, felt the trees, and imagined what her character might have seen, smelled or heard there. She even stepped in sheep poop and touched the standing stone
• Walk, talk, act, dress, and eat the same food your character eats. These details are shorthand about your character
• Use dialect with a light touch. Don't be distracting.
• Your climax should be unexpected, but not unbelievable. Set up well so that it is not trite and predictable. Knowing your character and portraying him or authentically will enable you to set this stage.
• And finally, a quote from Patti Gauch: “You know your ending is right when you’re crying at your keyboard.” 

One happy writer + one generous mentor=
a fantastic Summer Camp experience
Fox Hill Farm
Photo by Theresa Milstein

Stay tuned. In Part III of this series I'll share Jan Cheripko's insights into secondary characters and transitional scenes.

An Interview with Darcy Pattison and a Giveaway: 30 Days to a Stronger Novel

As a blogger and former attendee at a Highlights Writing workshop, I received an email assessing my interest in hosting one of their instructors. Always on the lookout for interesting blog material, I checked out The Highlights Foundation schedule and contacted Darcy Pattison. Darcy is not only a prolific author, but also the instructor for the upcoming Highlights "Master Class in Novel Writing." Read on to find out more about this workshop and about her book she's giving away. 

1. What are your goals for your students for this workshop? What are you hoping they will leave with? 

Since 1999, I’ve traveled and taught The Novel Revision Retreat, one of the first whole-novel retreats. It targets beginning writers who needed to understand their craft better, as well as intermediate writers who are close to breaking into publication, but just need a small boost. I’m pleased that the retreats have helped dozens of writers find acceptance for a debut novel.

But I’ve always had a passion for the intermediate to advanced writer, the target audience for the Master Class in Novel Writing 2016.

In every craft, the top artists say that they are constantly learning new things, even after they’ve achieved a level of success. Yet in writing, it seems we find fewer ways to do this than in other crafts. I want to challenge successful writers to try something different, to see a technique a different way, to stretch their craft, to go home excited and hopeful that they can at last try the novel they scares them silly, scares them because they worry that they can’t do the story justice.

This isn’t a workshop for the faint at heart! We’ll be looking at The Rules and challenging them—for good reasons—and finding times when breaking The Rules better serves the story. We’ll role-play the editor’s and reader’s roles and how you might answer objections. We’ll talk and argue and laugh and pour words onto the page. I hope we’ll have writers with different strengths, opinions and challenges because it will force us out of our comfort zone.

Cynthia Oznick once said, “Writing is an act of courage.” We’ll find the courage to tell our stories—our way. That’s my goal: for writers to find the courage necessary to write their stories, their way. And in learning to control their voice, they’ll find a wider acceptance for their stories.

2. Looks to me as if you have a mixture of fiction, nonfiction, and writing resources under your belt. That’s very cool! Do your different projects feed one another? Which came first—nonfiction or fiction? (I’m asking because I started with nonfiction and am moseying over to fiction now. :) 

For me, fiction came first. Nonfiction came along because I wanted to be like Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you look at Arnold’s career, he had successful action movies that alternated with successful comedies. From “Terminator” to “Kindergarten Cop,” it seems like a big stretch. I admired his ability to find a very different second genre in which to work. It widened his career, and it stretched him as an actor.

I thought about what sorts of books I could write as an alternate career and decided to try science/nature picture books for kids. It’s been a happy place for me. Wisdom, the Midway Albatross received a Starred Publisher’s Weekly review, and Abayomi, the Brazilian Puma was named a 2015 NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book. But my first love is still fiction.

3. Pretend you are talking to a perspective workshop student. How would you sell him or her on taking your class? 

Are you complacent with your career and the direction it’s going? Then this workshop isn’t for you. This is for the brave-at-heart who wants to be challenged to go beyond their best, to surprise even themselves.

4. Can you give some details about the morning lectures or activities?  

I’m excited with the two topics we’ll discuss this summer, plot and point of view. The topics will be interwoven with alternating activities that challenge writers to reach beyond their present understanding. Articles that challenge the traditional understanding of point of view and its implications for stories should stimulate discussion and experimentation. Tight plots, loose plots, plot twists, subplots, three-act structure, four-act structure—we’ll attack plotting from many directions until writers find a unique way through the maze of connecting scenes in meaningful ways. We won’t find one answer, but many answers to the question of how to plot. One of those answers, though, will feed a particular story for each writer in unexpected ways. I’m planning readings, discussions, role-playing, writing, sharing writing, lively and interactive group activities. It should be fun, exciting and challenging. I expect the writers to challenge ME to think and to write something new. And that makes me very excited.

5. What is your current project and how does it feed your teaching?

My current novel is a science fiction trilogy with this high concept as a starting point:

Earth finally gets a message from space. “You only live on the land; allow us to live in the seas.”

This story is challenging me in new ways as I connect a plot across a trilogy and experiment to find the right point-of-views for each scene. I often say that the only reason I can teach writing is that I’m in the trenches myself, struggling to tell a compelling story that won’t leave me alone. In spite of many family upheavals, I come back and come back to this story. It won’t leave me alone. That struggle—even if I ultimately fail—is what allows me to reach out and encourage other writers with the stories that haunt them.

I hope you take a minute to visit Darcy's website and blog. The Highlights description says that attendees for her workshop "must have either attended one of her previous Novel Revision Retreats or be a published novelist to attend. Our aim is to challenge the established writer to step out and take new risks, to work in a new direction. Some advance reading required before the workshop." 

I asked Darcy if writers who like myself have not previously attended her workshop or published a novel may attend. She said, "I'm glad to consider anyone's writing. If you've been seriously working for a couple years on your craft, you'll be a good candidate."

*******

As I mentioned, Darcy is generously giving away a copy of her book, 30 Days to a Stronger Novel, which she uses in her video course.

To enter this giveaway, please leave me a comment by noon on Thursday, March 10. If you are new to this blog, make sure you leave me your email address. If you decide to follow my blog, or share this giveaway on social media, I'll enter your name twice. Just make sure you tell me what you do.

You Can Read it Here First: Giving Away CRAZY by Linda Phillips

The winner of my my most popular giveaway contest to date, is Laura Kay who blogs at A Novel Review, and who won a copy of Necessary Lies. Thanks to all 21 of you who left me comments. I hope the rest of you will find Diane's book at your library or buy it from your local indie bookstore. Now here is your chance to win a personally autographed ARC of Linda Phillips' debut novel, CRAZY.

As some of you know, I have been chronicling my good friend, Linda Phillips', path to publication. In my last blog about her in March,  Linda shared some of that journey as well as information about bipolar disease; the mental illness that afflicts the protagonist's mother in CRAZY. 

It has been my great joy and privilege to walk alongside of Linda  over the last fifteen years as she has crafted her debut YA novel. From reading the first twenty poems in which Linda poured out her anguish as a teen struggling with her own mother's mental illness; through watching Linda add, subtract, and organize these poems into a story arc at the 2009 Chautauqua Highlights Writing Workshop we attended together; through hearing the up's and down's of finding her agent and publisher; to now actually turning the pages and savoring the poems--it's almost as amazing as watching the birth of a child!

Now I have the opportunity to share with you some of my favorite poems and parts of this book. I've read some of these phrases several times and they still catch my breath for their simple beauty and sensory imagery; others surprise me as if I've just discovered a new treasure. Without further ado, here are some gems from CRAZY. 

In the opening poem, the protagonist, Laura, is humiliated in home ec when the class decides that her best color is brown. This poem not only foreshadows much of Laura's conflicts, but also provides the subtext for the cover of the book:

So the class decided on brown
for my basic color, 
as in mud
rats
rotten bananas
swamp water
and dirty anything.

I ran out the side door after school,
thank heavens home ec was last period,
thinking my cheeks were so hot they must be leaving a trail of smoke.
I stopped by the canal,
swarming with hungry pelicans
and screeching gulls,
and I wondered,
just wondered and wondered
for I don't know how long,
what it would fee like
not to sit and dangle my feet through the slats
and daydream and watch
like I usually do
but instead to climb up on the railing,
and let myself just slip off and down
and down
and down.

I decided against it because, 
of course,
I'm not the crazy one
in our family.  (pp.14-15)

Laura's artistic talents are admired throughout her school. She sees the same talent--now unexpressed--in her mother. Laura wonders how her mother "had drifted from/creating brilliant oil paintings/to slapping paint on molded figurines." (p. 23) She asks,

"Why don't you take up painting again?"
I ask her one day,
admiring the pleasing arrangement she created when she was fourteen.

"Oh, I could never get back to that,"
she says, slamming a window
against the rising storm. (p.24)

Her mother's behavior becomes more erratic, irrational, and bizarre. One day Laura comes home from school and finds:

First thing inside the door
I smell turpentine.
I nearly trip over a wet canvas
propped against the door frame.
I follow a trail of smudgy rags
and scattered paint tubes
into the living room
where I find Mama,
her back to me,
kneeling
muttering
crossing herself
before a dripping canvas.
She's been painting again!

"Hail Mary, Other of God…."

A sickening sense of panic begins
crawling up my spine.
"What's going on, Mama?" I ask 
…………………..
She passes grubby hands absently
through her disheveled hair,
leaving multicolored streaks 
and smudges on her face,
and she begins crawling on the floor,
agitated, frantic,
looking for the missing paint
or who knows what.
……
Then it hits me.
This is my fault.
I caused this.
I pushed her over the edge,
oh my God,
I did this.
It was my suggestion,
"Take up painting again," I'd said--
oh my God….. 

I clean up the mess as best I can,
finally getting Mama to sit down in her rocker.
Still paint-splattered,
she rocks
back and forth 
humming
muttering,
staring past me
without recognition.
I watch her rock
almost in rhythm 
with the ticking wall clock
and I take deep breaths
trying to match the rhythm,
trying to beat down
the panic
surging through
my body.  (pp.65-68)

Here is Linda reading one of the next poems, "Nervous Breakdown."


As the book progresses, Laura wrestles with her own demon: her fear of being as crazy as her mother. With the encouragement of two new friends--a local gift shop owner who "stands out like an art piece herself/in a shift dress full of helter-skelter bright colors,/dangly earrings,/and the most beautiful long gray hair/I have ever seen" (p. 148); and her crush, Dennis, who pushes Laura to "dig for answers/don't run, dig"(p.272);  Laura discovers the work she must do to discover the truth about herself and her family.

**********

There are two things this review of CRAZY cannot do. First, I can't communicate how proud I am of Linda's accomplishment and how wonderful it is to see this book in print. In a previous blog I compared myself to a mid-wife but that's not quite accurate. Linda is like a sister to me. Since CRAZY is her baby, I guess that makes me a proud aunt. 

Second, I can't begin to tell you how Linda's poetry touched a place deep inside of me. When I finished reading her final poem in which Laura asks her mother for forgiveness, I was in tears:

In her typical way,

she brushes it off,

says I don't have need for forgiveness

but of course she forgives me,

and she understands my confusion and frustration

and she doesn't hold anything against me,

and she loves me very much.

I'm not sure if she gets it at all,

what I am trying to say,

but the important thing is

I get it 

and I did what

I needed to do

and it feels as good

as anything I have ever done.

I wouldn't want to say it,

but I think there has been some healing 

in our family

after all.  (p.314)

************

CRAZY's official release date is not until October 20, but you can read the ARC now! There are two ways you can win a copy. Leave me a comment and I'll enter your name for my gently used copy; the drawing will be held on Friday night, June 13. You can also go to Goodreads and enter the giveaway contest there which will run from midnight on 6/10 to midnight on 6/17.  And of course, if you don't win, you can support Linda by pre-ordering her book through Eerdmans or Amazon.

Hill Hawk Hattie and a Giveaway!

Hill Hawk Hattie by Clara Gillow Clark, fiction for upper elementary school girls, tells the beautiful story of 11-year-old Hattie Belle in the late 1800's. With her mother dead, Hattie is left alone with her father, a rough logger who makes his living by rafting the logs down the Delaware River. 

One day her father comes home and announces that Hattie is going to pass as his son and join him on the river. Concerned that she's no longer "his girl," Hattie still settles into the logging routines and befriends 13-year-old Jasper, another logger's son. 

Clara Clark describes the trip down the Delaware in vivid detail. The reader gets to experience the perils of riding through rapids on a raft that can break apart any minute and how fearful Hattie is that the other men will discover her identity and turn against her father. 

Towards the end of the book Clark uses the metaphor of Hattie's journey to show Hattie's inner life. In reflecting on her mother's death Hattie confides to Jasper, "I think my ma got stuck in her mind somewhere between her fine home in Kingston and our hills. Somehow, I think it just pulled her apart, like a raft breaking apart on rocks you can't see." (p. 146)  

After they get off the river, Hattie discovers that her father has a different plan for her life.  A river of thought spun around in my head, floated together, fit into a pattern like logs and lash poles, pieces that shaped the story of our journey, mine and Pa's. "You taking me to Kingston, Pa?"

Young and old enjoy Hattie's adventures! This is
the infamous Uncle Bob devouring the novel in
two days. 

When I received this book several years ago I thought I'd give it away on this blog. But after my husband's uncle read it and recommended it, I fell in love with it too. Now I have a 7-year-old granddaughter who I think will also love it. Fortunately, Clara is willing to give away an autographed copy herself.  

Clara also now makes felt dolls of her characters! This set of Hattie and Jasper dolls, plus the teaching guide sells for $19.95 plus postage.

And last, but not least, Clara, who is presently teaching at several Highlights workshops, also offers critique services at reasonable rates. You can best reach her at this email address.  

**********

To enter this contest, just leave me a comment and your email address if I don't have it. Clara and I would love it if you shared this on Facebook or Twitter too.  And since my blog followers now number 99, if you become a new follower, I'll enter your name twice, and I'll reach the 3-digit mark! 

I'll draw a winner on Friday, October 25th. Thanks in advance for entering!

You Heard it Here First!

Two years ago I was pleased to share my friend Linda Phillips' news of signing with an agent. Today, I am even more excited to share her announcement of signing with a publisher! And you know that I'll be the first to offer an ARC or off-the-presses copy of her debut young adult novel when it is released.

Carol: Tell us about CRAZY. What were your significant milestones along your path to publication? How did you mine your own life experiences to write it?

Linda: CRAZY (my working title) actually began as a collection of 20 poems that were loosely centered on the theme of my mother’s bipolar disorder and took about 15 years to write. It was largely a cathartic exercise on my part to work through years of angst and unanswered questions of my teen years.

If you remember, you read it and said,  “This needs to be a book.” (Carol grins.)

I teach full time, I am the mother of teenage twin boys, and I fully participate in my husband’s parish ministry.  I’ll get right on it……from 4:00 to 6:00 a.m. weekdays or all that spare time on Saturday after groceries, cleaning, lesson plans and school activities with my boys. 

But the idea felt right, and I was hooked. 

By the summer of 2009 I had a much-edited manuscript I took to the Highlights Foundation Writer’s Workshop in Chautauqua, NY. Patti Gauch, former senior editor of Philomel, was my designated mentor, and she graciously went the extra mile with me.  The biggest thing she did was point out that my YA book had an adult voice, and a mother that dominated the scene.   

My comfort zone collapsed. 

I spent the next year (still teaching) writing a revision based on Patti’s invaluable critiquing.  In addition to her input, I began to step out of the protagonist position, to put necessary distance between the story and myself.

The following summer vacation was a marathon agent query and in October, 2010 I signed with Julia Kenny at Markson Thoma Agency in New York.  She has the patience of Job, both in dealing with all my “nervous Nelly” emails, and the two years it took to land a deal with William B. Eerdmans. 

At this point, we have a tentative release date of August, 2014.  As my pals, the Beatles said, “It’s been a long and winding road” and I can’t wait to see what lies around the bend. 

Carol: Why did you use free verse to write your story?

Linda: My father passed along his love of poetry to me, and I’ve dabbled in it since high school. I have used it to think things through, both the good and the bad.  It has been like a best friend to me all these years, and the most effective way I knew of understanding life experiences.

Carol: What do you hope that your readers will gain from reading your book?

Linda: When the book opens, Laura is a nervous, frightened, and depressed teenager. She is obsessed with hating her artist mother who appears to be mentally disintegrating before her eyes. She worries everyone in her small mill town is aware that her mother is crazy. When her mother has a nervous breakdown, Laura becomes frightened that she will suffer the same consequence if she pursues her own passion for art. 

She sets out to find where she fits in the art world, and ultimately, to get to the bottom of what has caused her mother’s illness.  In the process, she discovers an inner strength that enables her to ask her mother for forgiveness and to begin a new relationship with her. 

This is a story of hope, born out of Laura’s determination to find the truth and to understand and accept it.  According to the National Institute of Mental Health, bipolar disorder affects 5.7 million adults 18 and older in the U.S. population annually. Millions of adults with the disorder are in the process of raising children.  I hope that my book may serve as a support, a conversation starter, or perhaps a catalyst leading to medical help for teenage or adult readers affected by this disorder. 

Thank you, Linda, for this insider's look into your book and your path to publication!

When she’s not writing, Linda can be found walking or bicycling the greenways near her home in Charlotte, trying out a new vegan recipe, or settling in for a stretch with her Nook.  In between, she might be found walking, praying, or exchanging writing ideas with her appreciative writing buddy, me. 

Guest Blog: A Fresh Perspective by Judy Beglau

Judy, hard at work on her new laptop computer. 

I met Judy at a Highlights Writers Workshop two years ago. When I saw on Facebook that she was attending an editing workshop with Stephen Roxburgh, I asked her to be my guest blogger. I hope you enjoy these reflections on her experience.

*******************

Writing is a solitary pursuit, no doubt about it. We sit alone with our thoughts, tapping away at a keyboard for hours on end. And when we have finished our story, we turn away from our quiet effort and risk a “show and tell.” We let others in. A critique group, a generous friend, a family member. And sometimes, we take our words to a workshop where we lay our printed offspring bare to strangers.

At the beginning of November I took my newly completed YA fantasy novel to an editing workshop run by the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. It was a three day editing workshop led by editor and publisher Stephen Roxburgh, who I met at a Highlights Workshop in Chautauqua, NY.

There were six of us writers and Stephen. Our time was divided between group sessions and one-on-one meetings. The group sessions were informative, as Stephen is a very good teacher. He led us through the nitty-gritty of plot development, explaining the difference between plot and story. He taught us about writing revisions. About the difference between copy editing and re-visioning our work. About the difference between “fiddling” with the book and examining the big issues. I had a feeling as he was leading this group session that many of the warning signs Stephen mentioned in the class pertained to my book. I was not in error.

It was quite amazing that a publisher like Stephen Roxburgh would take the time to read six novels before he arrived then take us through our works in detail. Labor intensive and time consuming, it is an effort that results in something many authors never, never get from an expert: personal attention to every aspect of a novel.

I would love to say my novel was so good I had no revising to do and I could just get on with the sequel. But I got something more valuable: I got direction in revising my story. I got kudos for the good aspects and blunt force trauma to the weak parts. And the strangest thing, the part I can’t explain to anyone, is the fact that I am happy to keep the three pages out of two hundred plus that will be included in my revision.  I am happy to be starting over with a clearer vision of exactly what matters in my story. I am not starting from scratch. I am starting from inspiration. 

Judy Beglau lives half the year in Austin, TX and half in the mountains of New Mexico. She started out writing children's musicals, and now is writing picture books, a young adult novel, and write-for-hire projects for Augsburg Fortress Press including hymns and adult devotionals.

What Drives You as a Writer?

"What motivates you as a writer?" my pastor, Rob McCurley, recently asked me. "Are you fascinated with the characters? Do you like delving into the plot? Playing with the words?" His questions got me thinking.  

Image courtesy of Google images

As a child I enjoyed putting together jigsaw puzzles. On many levels, writing Half-Truths is like assembling one huge puzzle. I visit neighborhoods, bike along streets, and talk to people--all the time thinking about what life in Charlotte, NC was like in 1950. I imagine local readers discovering history hidden under the sidewalks which they walk on.  As Harold Underdown said when I worked with him at an Highlights Writers Workshop, this setting creates the backdrop of my story. It's fun to dream up a story that didn't really take place here, but could have. 


Here's an example. Two months ago I discovered the location of an African American slave cemetery from the 19th century. No tombstones remain, but it is a short walk from the Barnes & Noble store where my writer's group meets. The cemetery itself will probably not be in my book, but its location contributes to my understanding of local history.

St. Lloyd's Presbyterian Church Cemetery
courtesy of Historic Landmarks Commission

Puzzle pieces come together through my interviews with"experts"--folks who lived in Charlotte during this time period. This city is a lot larger now than it was in 1950, but there are still people who are connected to one another and to this time period. One interviewee's mother served as help in another interviewee's home. Another interviewee's grandfather was the founder of the local Coca Cola company and became the prototype for the grandfather in my story. When I interviewed his grandson I discovered that he used to be a dental patient of my husband's. 

Image courtesy of Google images

A third interviewee was a nurse in Good Samaritan Hospital- a place which will play a key role at the end of my story.  It served the African American community for many years before it was torn down. Now, the ground on which it stood shakes with the vibrations of the Panther's football team--the Bank of America stadium was built on that land. Here is a video about the transition from hospital to stadium: 



The characters in my story are more puzzle pieces.   I enjoy creating their genealogies, back stories, motivations, and relationships with one another.  Two months ago an editor challenged me to write this story from both protagonists' points of view. As I dig into what both a white and black teenage girl experienced at that time period, the bigger picture of my story emerges. 


If I happen to write a sentence which delights me or if I find an image, verb, or noun that sparkles, these are more pieces for the puzzle. Last week I wrote:  Lillie knew Grandma needed her help. She just wished that the help wasn’t her. I didn't plan on playing on the word "help," it just appeared on the screen. 


Finally, I imagine that the border of this puzzle is the over-arching theme of speaking the truth. Both Kate and Lillie, my main characters, will face their own half-truths as well as the deeper deceptions which pervade their families.  

Image courtesy of Google images

Making all those pieces fit together really excites me. Thanks Rob, for asking. 

Image courtesy of Google images