The Emotional Wound Thesaurus + Three Stories of Perseverance

Today I have a special post as part of the Writers Persevere event that authors Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are running for the next few days to celebrate their newest book, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma. This book looks at the difficult experiences embedded in our character’s backstory which will shape their motivation and behavior afterward. 

To help them celebrate this release, many of us are posting stories about some of the obstacles we’ve overcome as writers. As we all know, this isn’t an easy path. Writing is hard and as writers we tend to struggle with doubt. Sometimes too, we don’t always get the support we need to follow our passion, or we have added challenges that make writing more difficult. Because people are sharing how they worked through challenges to keep writing, I decided to share three friends' stories. I trust their perseverance, in the light of discouragement, pain, and rejections, will encourage you as much as they've encouraged me.

 

Kathy Wiechman

I started writing when I was five. I loved putting words on the page. My mother, a published poet, encouraged me.

When I was an adult, I decided to try to get published. I had no idea how difficult that would be. Or how long it would take me. Novels were my passion, but I also wrote poems.

I submitted my writing. And I received rejections. I took classes, went to conferences and workshops, wrote, and submitted. Many people encouraged me, told me I had talent, but publishers kept turning me down. Some of my friends thought I was “out of my mind” to keep trying.

I finally sold a poem in 2002, but my mother did not live to see that success. She died in 1998.

I struggled with health issues, and the older I got, the more often I felt discouraged, thinking I wouldn’t live long enough to achieve my dream of a published novel. My sister advised me to think about how much I enjoyed writing and how many friends I had met along my journey. If I had to decide between being published or having the friends I had made, I would choose the friends in a heartbeat. That realization changed my attitude.

I changed my focus from the drive to get published to loving the process. My new attitude made me a happier writer. I don’t know if my change in attitude improved my work, but my dream came true.

I had written and submitted novels for 39 years before my first success in that genre. I was offered a contract for what was the eleventh novel I’d completed. I still focus on enjoying the work, and now I am a happy—and published—writer. 

Kathy Cannon Wiechman is a former Language Arts tutor and teacher. Her debut novel, Like a River, was honored with the inaugural Grateful American Book Prize. Both Like a River and her second novel, Empty Places, are frequently used in classrooms. Not on Fifth Street is her third book. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband.

Linda Phillips

My high school counselor told me I’d never make it as a writer.  I’ve come to determine she really meant to say, “be sure you keep your day job” not, “you stink as a writer.”  But I heard the latter, and thus delayed my writing career until well into my adult years as wife and mother.  Up to that point my writing life consisted of a growing stack of journals, desperate attempts to make sense out of growing up with a mother suffering from bipolar disorder. The unresolved questions from my formative years began surfacing in the form of poems, and to my delight and surprise, a number of them were published in adult literary journals. That was the beginning.  It took a dear friend’s suggestion that the scattering of poems seemed destined for a novel, and it took another seven years for the refining fires of editing to produce a publishable book. Today, I am thankful for all the bumps in the road that led to Crazy, and for the doors it has opened to encourage persons whose lives have been touched by mental illness.  

Linda Vigen Phillips is the author of Crazy (Eerdmans/2014), a YA novel in verse about a teenage girl coming to terms with her mother’s mental illness. While she awaits the release of her second book, Heart Behind These Hands (October 2018), she volunteers at NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and counts the days between grandkid visits.   

Kathleen Burkinshaw

The Last Cherry Blossom’s writing journey began in 2009.  My daughter asked me to speak to her seventh-grade class about the people under the famous mushroom clouds on August 6^th- like her grandmother. I had never spoken publicly about my mom surviving the atomic bombing. I had only learned details of that day 8 years earlier. I was seriously ill, hospitalized for a month, and diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy(RSD).  RSD is a neurological disorder of the sympathetic nerves causing debilitating, chronic, burning pain.  I couldn’t walk on my own and had to endure grueling physical therapy.  During that time, my mom shared her heart-breaking memories of August 6^th.  I now realize that she didn’t tell me, just so I would know; but to encourage me because as bad as things were, I shouldn’t give up hope.   All along I thought it was therapeutic for her, yet it ended up also being therapeutic for me. 

My mom agreed that I could discuss her experience in Hiroshima because she felt that the seventh-grade students might relate to her story since they were the same age that she was that horrific day. I started writing about life in Hiroshima during the last year of WWII through the eyes of a 12-year-old girl. Finding information about daily life in Japan written in English, took time and patience. Every step on this journey doubled in difficulty because of my RSD pain. There were days my hands hurt so much I couldn’t type, but I was blessed with wonderful friends and family who typed for and encouraged me. Shortly after I received my publishing contract, my mom passed away, overshadowing any other obstacle I had or would encounter. I became determined to honor her by creating through my pain and writing her story.

Kathleen Burkinshaw is a Japanese American author residing in Charlotte, NC.The Last Cherry Blossom, is a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award Finalist (southeast region), 2016 Scholastic WNDB Reading Club selection, and recently nominated for the NC Sir Walter Raleigh Fiction Award. 

Want to add more depth to your stories? Check out The Emotional Wound Thesaurus here. And here's a link to a sample entry. Want all the thesauri at your fingertips? Check out One Stop for Writers. It's my go-to writing resource for checklists, tips, and timelines. It should be yours too!

Do you have a story to share, or some advice for others? You can join Becca and Angela at Writers Helping Writers from October 25-27^th, where they are celebrating writers and their stories of perseverance. Stop in, and tell them about a challenge or struggle your faced, or if you like, write a post on your own blog and share it using the hashtag #writerspersevere.  Let’s fill social media with your strength and let other writers know that it’s okay to question and have doubts but we shouldn’t let that stop us. 

GIVEAWAY ALERT!

There’s a prize vault filled with items that can give your writing career a boost at Writers Helping Writers.

The giveaway is only from October 25-27^th, so enter asap. And don’t forget to share this using the #writerspersevere hashtag so more prizes will be awarded!

Shared WIP Tag- Part II: Meet My Cast of Characters

Congratulations to Connie Saunders who won Blood Brothers from my last blog.

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Thanks to all of you for leaving comments two weeks ago on Part I. In Part II, I answer several thought-provoking questions about the Half-Truths cast. At the end you'll find a list of my blogging colleague's posts. Check them out--these are young adult writers with limitless imaginations!

1. Who is the main character?

Anna Katherine Dinsmore. Her friends call her Kate; her best friends call her Katie. She turns 14 in Half-Truths and recently moved from a tobacco farm in eastern NC (where this picture "was taken"--well, sort of, truth is, I found it on Pinterest) to ritzy, Myers Park, NC (a part of Charlotte).

I imagine Kate was about 10 when this picture was taken.
That's Speckles next to her. 

2. What is the goal of the protagonist?  

   After moving from Crossroads, she wants to find a place where she fits in.

2a. The antagonist? 
     
   - Ginny, a friend she used to play Civil War with when she visited her grandparents in Myers Park. Ginny wants to keep Kate away from her crush, Robert. 
     - Kate's grandmother, Cecelia Dinsmore, who wants to make Kate into a debutante. 

3. Is there a possession or memory the MC keeps close?
    The marble her granddaddy made and gave her. 

4. What is the protagonist's greatest fear?
    That her daddy will get injured in the Korean conflict. Or worse.

5.  Who is your favorite character?
     Like many of the other bloggers in this tag, I like them all. Sometimes I even like Kate's uppity grandmother, Cecelia, who drives Kate crazy.

6. List some of the more prominent characters, and then provide a line that describes them.

Eileen: Even though I’ve had the whole summer to get used to the idea of moving to Charlotte I’m still not ready to leave. “I still don’t see why we can't stay." I say, tugging on my goat’s rope to get her to hop up on the truck. Why can Eileen jump over the chicken coop but when I want her to do something she digs her heels in and refuses to budge?

Eileen is a Nubian goat.
Random fact: Carl Sandburg had Nubian goats
in his mountain home in Flat Rock, NC.
They're from African descent.

Lillian: As I duck under the clothes line, I smile at the maid and wrap Eileen’s rope around my wrist. Her skin is the color of sand and up close I see her hair is nappy at the roots and her nose is flared. If a body’s not looking close, she’d pass for white. I’ve never seen a colored gal with green eyes like mine.

I've been studying pictures on Pinterest until my eyes blur. Here are two contenders for Lillian, although neither are quite right. The first is the correct time period, and I'm thinking the young woman at the top right has Lillian's skin tone, but I picture her hair to be longer, like one of the two young women on the bottom. 

Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalban with civil rights heroine Daisy Bates and the “Little Rock Nine,” at New York’s Imperial Theater on June 13, 1958. Horne and Montalban were starring in the musical, Jamaica at the theater.

Wrong time period, but this is Anita Florence Hemmings
who passed for white in order to attend
Vasser in 1893.

Ginny: In Journalism the next day, I’m hoping that Ginny figured out that I’m not a good gossip gal and that I’d be re-assigned back to the News staff. No such luck. She simply smiles sweetly and tells me I can have another chance by reporting on the fall festival. “Make sure you write up all the booths real well,” she says. Her sweeter than honey smile doesn’t fool me. “By any chance has your grandmother talked to Mrs. Tillett since your luncheon? I do hope she doesn’t forget to visit my booth!”

The girl seated on the left could
be Ginny. As long as her hair is red.

Robert: Robert is still avoiding me. Boys! If he didn’t keep slicking down his cow lick in that dang cute way he has—I’d write him out of my life too.

If the boy sitting down with the football had a cow lick,
this would be a great picture of Robert.
(Ad is dated 1952. Perfect!)

7. Who is the funniest character? 
Maggie, Kate's younger sister:

I stare at great-grandfather Jeremiah’s portrait over the fireplace and Maggie follows my gaze. “I’ll be flabberdoozled! Look it, Frank. That’s you!”

“Flabberdoozled?” Granddaddy repeats. He bites his bottom lip but his laughing eyes gives him away. 

“You know, Granddaddy!” Maggie looks at him impatiently. “Flabbergasted and bamboozled. Flabberdoozled!”

Smartest character? Lillian.

Quirkiest character? Eileen.

8. How do you come up with names?

I flip through books like these:

as well as websites like this one on civil war names. 


9. Are any characters influenced by someone in your life?

Lots. But I'd prefer to keep their identities secret. (You never know when someone will come up to you and say, "You really didn't write about me, did you?")

Here are my fellow bloggers in this Shared WIP Tag. I hope you'll check out their characters too. You'll find some doozies!

Ivie

Sarah

Jem

Lila

Faith

Lisa
Evangeline

Blood Brothers: A Review and Audio CD giveaway

The forward of Blood Brothers makes clear Elias Chacour’s purpose in telling his personal story to author David Hazard: he wanted to show an unappreciated side of the Arab-Israeli conflict. First published in 1984, Chacour’s dedication to portray both Palestinian and Jewish prejudices is evident throughout the biography. Another theme is Chacour’s question, “What does it mean to love our enemies and be a peacemaker?” (Note: I listened to this book courtesy of Tantor Media. As a result, quotes might not be exact.)

Beginning with his childhood in the hills of Galilee, Chacour’s faith and life’s work is grounded in his mother’s Bible stories and his father’s recounting the history of the Melkite church. Chacour pictured Jesus walking and working in the hills of Galilee—perhaps even in his own village of Bir’im since after all, the Mount of Beatitudes, was close to their home. He was attracted to Jesus’ fiery nature and the way in which He helped the poor. His father taught him two things: “We should love and respect our Galilean soil. Second, our lives are bonded together with the Jews--our blood brothers from Father Abraham.”

Mount of Beatitudes as
seen from Capernaum.

Even when the Zionist soldiers invaded and took their village, Chacour’s father said, “We do not use violence, even if someone hurts us… The Jews have been hurt by being exiled. They have lived in poverty and fear. They’re afraid. They’re weak because they’ve lost peace within.” Chacour was 8 in 1947 when Palestine was portioned and the armed Zionist solders frightened him. One million Palestinians who had lived there since Christ became refugees and targets of “purification.”  In a moment of painful irony, three years after they were expelled from their village they were hired back to care for their own, beloved olive trees. The army, the Haganah, not the government, ruled Israel. 

By Fred Csasznik - Benny Morris, "Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem." ISBN 0 521 33028 9. 1987., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7179966

After the Zionists bombed their village, Chacour was sent away to schools in Haifa and Nazareth. He felt a growing hopelessness and questioned his faith. How could there be peace like Jesus talked about in the Beatitudes? Eventually he was sent to a seminary in Paris to study for the priesthood. In explaining himself to others he attempted to counter public opinion. “We were not terrorists, we were terrorized.” During a visit to Germany he realized the similarity between Hitler’s persecution of the Jews and the persecution against his own people. He hurt for the Jewish people and recognized their need for a homeland but wondered why the persecuted had become persecutors. As he studied the roots of Zionism, he uncovered the political maneuverings behind Israel becoming the Jewish homeland.

His search for a life ministry took Chacour to the small village of Ibillin. He realized that the community was divided between Christian and Arab and that the only answer was forgiveness. He thought about Jesus as the peacemaker and wondered how he could emulate Him. As his work to promote peace grew in notoriety, he was a frequent advocate for bridge building between different people groups. The community center he started in Ibillin grew into a K-12 school of 2,750 of Muslims, Christians, and Druze. Today, Chacour is retired under the charges of sexual harassment and mismanagement. 

Clearly narrated by Jonathan Davis, Blood Brothers--a book for adults and serious-minded teens--provides political and sociological insights into a country that has passed through many hands. But, unfortunately, it doesn’t provide the spiritual solution that is most necessary. 

As a Jewish Christian, I found his Palestinian perspective to be interesting. From childhood, I was taught that Israel was the Promised Land that belonged to the Jews and had never seen Zionism from another angle. Hearing about how Arabs were forced out of their homeland was an eye-opener. Although I applaud Chacour’s wok to build bridges and seek forgiveness between people groups, I found that his work stopped short of the greatest need—forgiveness of sin with God. 

Chacour often quoted Jesus’s words in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matt 4:9). But he never mentioned what else Jesus said, “Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.” (Matt 4:4) Most Biblical scholars agree: Jesus was teaching about our need to mourn our sin. Although Chacour said we must “remember the gospel of Christ” he never once mentioned that the gospel can be summarized with, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” (Romans 10: 9, Acts 16:31).

Chacour said he was looking for peace. I’d submit that the only lasting, true peace comes when we find peace with God. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5: 1. 

I’m giving away my copy of this audio book. Please leave a comment by October 20 if you’d like to be included in the drawing. Make sure you leave me your email address if you are new to my blog. 

Shared WIP Blog Tag- Part I

Congratulations to Linda Phillips who won the audio CD of "Indigo Girl" from last week's blog.

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Recently I have met several young writers and bloggers.  One of them who goes by the pen name of Julian Daventry, asked for volunteers to be part of her Shared-WIP four-part tag. Each blogger answers four sets of ten questions that will be geared to four different aspects of their current WIP – the story itself, the characters, the storyworld, and general writing.  You'll find links to the other blogs at the bottom of this post; I hope you'll check them out.

My long time blog followers will know answers to some of the questions, but hang in there--there are some surprises too! 

What is the title, genre, and current status of your WIP?

Half-Truths is historical middle grade (after years of flip-flopping between YA and MG. Here's my post about this recent decision.). I just passed the mid-point of what I hope is the last draft--of at least ten (to be honest, I've lost track of how many times I started over!)

What makes your story unique?

Although there are other friendship books between a white girl and a black girl, no others take place in a southern city just before the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision to integrate the schools. 

Titled "Isolation." 1960's, Michigan

Where did the title come from?

Generational secrets (i.e., half-truths) that influence the present fascinate me. 

Pictures like these from Pinterest inform my story.

How long have you been working on your WIP?

Ten years. (not counting a few years spent on a picture book and early chapter book that laid the ground work for Half-Truths. Yes, a picture book. Really.)

Some of the books I've read while researching and writing. 

What do you think people will enjoy most about your WIP?

I'm hoping they'll enjoy the girls' friendship and what Kate and Lillian learn from one another. I also hope they'll become more aware of their own half-truths (We all have them!).

Describe your WIP in ten short phrases.

Segregation; Charlotte, NC; civil rights; passing; family secrets; rambunctious goat; debutantes; journalism; unexpected friendship; Korean War. 


Provide a snippet (long or brief) of a favorite scene.

Dear Katie,

Sorry for not writing sooner. Lola Mae told me you were waiting on me to write.

Ever since Daddy folded the Shaw’s place into ours, we’ve had more tobacco to pick than you can shake a stick at. Them sorry coloreds were all standing around boo-hooing when the sheriff served them papers. Hey, it’s not our fault that they didn’t pay their taxes.

I put the letter down and stare out the window. Mr. Davis didn’t buy the Shaw’s property.

He stole it. 

My eyes blur as I continue reading. With all the cutting and drying we gotta do, I’d just as soon as not finish school. That would be fine by Daddy, but Mama won’t hear of it. I just got me a few more years ’til I’m sixteen. Then she can’t say nothin’ more about it. 

I really gotta run. Don’t worry about not being my dance partner no more. Ain’t nobody gonna ever shag like you, baby.

Baby? I crumple up Mack’s letter and throw it into the trashcan. What did I ever see in him? The big oaf!

It would serve him right if he flunks out of school.

What is the hardest thing to write with this story?  What is the easiest?

Hard: Getting the African American story right.
Easy: Writing off the page. (I write Kate's poems in long-hand first. These seem to come out easier.)

A line where the tension builds.

"My anger balloons bigger than my questions about the mysterious object. No one should be forced to dig up their ancestors."

Explain the plot in one line.

In 1952, fourteen-year-old Kate Dinsmore's world is shaken when she discovers that the Negro teenager working in her grandmother's house is her second cousin.

Please visit Sarah, Ivie, Lisa, Julian, Jem, Faith, Lila and Evangeline to see their answers to these questions. You'll be impressed with these young writers enthusiastic dedication to story creation!

Stay tuned for Part II in a few weeks.

Indigo Girl: An Audio CD Review and Giveaway

Congratulations to Connie Saunders for winning REFUGEE. I haven't added it up, but I believe Connie gets the prize for winning the most books off my blog. Her secret? She always shares my posts on Twitter!

I love finding a book which make a setting so real to me that I look it up on a map. Couple that with a Southern young woman who impacted history and a book written with captivating, beautiful language, and I’m hooked. (Caveat: I listened to this as an audio book courtesy of Blackstone Audio so quotations might not be 100% accurate.)

REVIEW

INDIGO GIRL by Natasha Boyd is the story of 16-year-old Eliza Lucas, who lived outside of Charles Town (Charleston), SC in 1739. A British subject, she spent her formative years in Antigua where her father was governor. He moved his family to South Carolina only to decide that he needed to return to Antigua to ensure his political career. With her older brother studying in England, Eliza’s father turns over the responsibility of running the planation to Eliza. 

Eliza is smart, unconventional, and botanical. During a time when young women were groomed for marriage and nothing else, Eliza refuses to be boxed into conventional expectations. Despite her mother’s disapproval and the ridicule of her father’s overseer and neighboring planters, Eliza is determined to not allow her father’s debts to ruin their family.

As the manager of her father’s three tracts of land, Eliza is also in charge of their slaves. Eliza is predisposed not to treat them harshly but her understanding of their situation matures. Early in the book she thanks Quash, the black man who oversees the slaves. Then she thinks, “It's odd to be thanking someone who has no choice."

She dreams of being able to afford to pay her workers rather than be dependent on enslaved workers. This radical thought comes when a suitor confesses he wants to enslave Native Americans to work for him; she realizes he could never be her life companion. She feels small and powerless when her closest friend says Negroes are uneducated savages. 

Her best friend in Antigua was a Negro named Ben. She taught him how to read and he passed along a love for plants that he learned from his grandmother. When Eliza decides that the plantation needs a cash crop to keep the family afloat, she picks indigo, a plant she saw in Antigua. But growing, harvesting, and converting indigo into a dye is a complicated process that no other coastal South Carolina planter has had success with. Eliza’s first crops fail and she desperately needs help. She knows Ben has the expertise she needs, but how is she going to find him?

Her father sends her a man to help her and to her shock and surprise, the man brings Ben too. Now a grown man with the promise of freedom dangling over his head, Ben remains aloof from Eliza. She’s crushed, confused, and stuck between childhood and womanhood. She wants to run back to be a child with her best friend. But she can’t. He is an educated slave who longs to be free.

Ben challenges her in ways no one else can. “Why have you not taught your slaves to read and write?”  “Why do you want indigo?” She’s angered at the blurring between master and slave and then realizes that if her indigo is successful it will be because of Ben’s knowledge. She’ll get rich but he’ll get nothing—not even his longed for freedom. Along the way Eliza learns of The Negro Act but faced with Ben’s challenge, she decides to teach the slave children how to read the Bible—something even her mother can’t object to.

Eliza’s dilemmas drive the book. By managing her father’s estate, she is seen as not very marriage-able. Without a husband, she feels as if she is chattel like her slaves. She bemoans her rashness when she speaks her mind to men--like to her father’s employee who tells her she is too intelligent to be a woman. Yet her need to ensure the indigo’s success to secure her family’s financial future and be a source of revenue for her if she never marries--as well as the nation’s need for a stable export--propels her forward. 

A comprehensive author’s note shows the author’s inspiration for this well-researched book, including what was fact and what was fiction. Boyd’s desire to bring this forgotten pre-revolutionary figure to light is admirable and makes this a great book for both teens and adults. Beautifully narrated by Saskia Maaleveld, this audio book will captivate your imagination and keep you company for many hours. 

GIVEAWAY

Leave me a comment by October 5 for a chance to win this audio book. Share this on social media or start following my blog and I'll put your name in twice--just make sure you tell me what you do or tag me. You can find me on Twitter here, and on Facebook here. PLEASE leave your email address if I don't have it!

Author Signing and Article

Celebrate Indigo Girl's book birthday tomorrow by meeting Natasha at Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC on October 5. Check out Natasha's schedule for a signing near you--including Charlotte, Savannah, and Charleston.

And one last tidbit: Natasha writes about the compulsion she felt to write Indigo Girl here.