Christmastime Carolling

Hello all you jolly people. Get out your song books and join in to the carollers. I have hot chocolate and Baileys waiting for you when you are through. You CBs are great. Lovely voices. I hope I have successfully added a pretty picture to make you smile this Christmas. Sing out now and then we can enjoy a meet at the next blog. Merry Christmas to all.

The Best Laid Plans

It had been my plan to finish NaNoWriMo with a glorious 50+K word count but alas the best laid plan of this personage was down the drain when I developed numbness in both arms and hands to the point of severe swelling and pain. So as a result I only achieved 28+K. I did a lot of research for this book and I guess I should have just written it and then done the research. I wasted time I didn't have but didn't know that.

I have decided to rest my poor hands and spend my time doing something I have neglected shamelessly for the past year when I was doing my other book. I want to read for pleasure. I have a copious amount of books that I have not yet read . Besides those I have here in my To Be Read pile I have all those being recommended to me. I look forward to spending my time doing that as typing, or I should say keyboarding, is causing more pain than I want to deal with. I will get back to you later.

BTW someone asked why I set this WIP in Ohio and I didn't set my book in Canada. I love my country but the target publisher is Harlequin American Romance because of the length of the book. I used what I knew about visiting Dayton and researched the rest.

Going to read now. ;-)

Getting there

Well, it is Nov. 5 and I am at 10,596 words for NaNo. I hope I can keep up the pace. I'm not sure that what I have written is worth too much at this point as I am just putting down what comes into my head. As usual for me I have a lot of dialogs and they are sort of following a story line but there are a lot of breaks included.

I have left spots to fill in for a secondary character who is autistic while I do a lot of research on autism. I am trying to read books and do research on the internet. I may have bitten off more than I can chew but I want to do my best. If I feel I cannot be accurate about this disability then I will change or eliminate that character.

I also am trying to find out about fostering in the United States, in particular Ohio. As well, I am looking into adoption in that state. Maybe I am trying to cover too much territory but this is the way I seem to have gone. My characters tend to take over the keyboard every so often and what I plan to write is not always what comes out. I will keep you informed.

Actually, it has been a hard week. A friend that I have admired for her courage and sense of humour passed away this week. She was not a lady that I had ever met in person,but I felt I knew her well. Margaret has kept all of us laughing on another blog and one of her own for over a year. She will be greatly missed by many.

NaNo Again

Tomorrow, NaNoWriMo starts again and I am not sure I am ready. I have my main characters and I have possible secondary characters but am not sure of my plot outline. Last year I had the plot outline and the characters the day before it started.

I have chosen to have one of the secondary characters have autism so I have been doing research on that. It appears that is an affliction that is becoming more prominent or is it just that people are coming forward about it more? Anyhow I have been given good resources and I am looking at asking a friend for help whose adult son has autism. Another friend had given me the web sites to go to and books to read.

My goal is to post here more often as I go along and to finish the story in 50,000 words as I did last year. Last year's effort is now out at readers and I hope to have that out to Harlequin by the end of November or early December. The November deadline may be pushing it too hard if there are a lot of fixes to make. I will fix it though and then send it in. I really like the end result. Hopefully, I will feel the same way about this NaNo's effort.

Wish me luck!

Help

“It’s a sad situation, Sam. You’re right. There’s a nasty custody battle too, so the boys really are in the midst of it. It’s very hard for them. You seemed to give them some fun though. Do you get a lot of cases like that,” Beth asked?

“Yes, we do. There are so many divorces these days that they’ve become the main source of income for most PIs. Of the ten new cases we got this week eight of them were to follow a spouse suspected of cheating, or to get information for a divorce case. It seems there is very little trust in relationships any more. The first sign of trouble in a marriage and we are called. As I’ve said the worst cases are the ones where children are involved. They can get really nasty. These are my least favorite type of case. It doesn’t say a lot for marriage, does it,” Sam asked.

“I think marriage is what you make it, Sam. It’s like anything else. If you want it to work you have to work at it,” Kate said. “My late husband and I were married for 24 years and we were very happy. Oh, we had our bad days, everyone does, but most of the time we were content with each other. I think that has to count for something.”

“I guess so, Kate but then you were married in the days when marriage was considered forever, whereas now, most couples are lucky if they make it past five years.”

“I think you’ll find a lot of people still work at their marriages, Sam,” Beth said. “But you’re right about the children. It’s too bad there isn’t some way to wrap them in cotton wool and protect them when their parents are at each others throats. I feel for Tony and Terry too.”

A little later in the same scene: A conversation between Stacy and her sister Linda.

When Stacy came back she found her family deep in a discussion about Sam.

“Boy, does he have a jaded view of marriage, Stacy. I think you’d better back off before you get hurt,” Linda advised.

“Neither one of us is discussing marriage Linda. We’re just friends. I’ve only been out with him once, really. You can’t count the day we met so much, or today either for that matter because he was busy with the children. The day we went for the walk was the only time we really had what anyone could loosely call a date.”

This is a scene from my manuscript in which I am trying to show that the hero--Sam-- is dead set against marriage because of what he has seen as a private investigator. I guess I could use some advice from Mallory here. ;) The scene takes place in the kitchen of the heroine's--(Stacy's) sister Beth and is a conversation between Beth, Stacy's Aunt Kate (her guardian when she was younger) and Sam. This is prompted by a conversation Sam has had with little twin brothers who are caught in the middle of a nasty custody battle. The purpose of the scene is to explain why Stacy's family is convinced a relationship for her and Sam will go nowhere as the result of what he has said about marriage.

As you can see I am having trouble showing that so I could use your advice. I don't think I have said enough to show her family how strongly he feels about marriage. In an earlier scene I showed how he felt about commitment. Later I go into his feelings again when they watch a movie but I feel this scene is not strong enough to make her family feel concern for her.

Any assistance you can give will be greatly appreciated.

Under the Big Top

I just finished watching the film "The Greatest Show On Earth which brought back many happy memories for me. When I was a child of about eight my dad was a newspaperman who had to cover a story about the coming of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus to our small city of Hamilton, Ontario. He talked to me the night before and asked if I wanted to go with him and watch them raise the Big Top. My older sister had already said she wanted to go so we got up at 3:30 a.m. to go with him. What excitement. There were men everywhere shouting orders and pulling elephants behind them who had large poles in their trunks. We had to scurry to stay out of their way. I was awe struck. These large beasts were the ones who did most of the work; pulling the lines, carrying the poles, raising the tent. What a huge undertaking it was. Slowly, ever slowly the large white canvas was raised. Then about a hundred men and boys pulled the ropes to make the canvas spread properly. It was a wondrous site for a little girl. We spent the whole day there and were given free tickets to watch the show for some small task we had done but I don't remember what that was. I am sure my pupils were dilated all day as if I had taken a drug. That was what the show was to me...a drug. The sights, sounds, smells and colours were meant to impress a child and they did. I oohed and aahed in all the right places and covered my eyes at the aerial acts and for the lion taming. It was a magical day and one the same circus would give me again many years later.

When I was a teenager (about 16) I bought a book called "Circus Doctor" written by J.Y. Henderson, the veterinarian for Ringling Bros. It was a wonderful book full of stories of the animals and their traumas. I loved it and wished I could hear more. Little did I know that I would get my chance.

Two years later Ringling Bros. came to Toronto as part of the Canadian national Exhibition (CNE) My father was working as part of the Publicity Department of the CNE that summer as he had in the past. I asked him if Dr. Henderson was still the vet for the circus and he suggested that I go over to their area and find out so he gave me a pass. I was a little nervous but I trotted over there as if I belonged and was told indeed Dr. Henderson was there and was immediately taken to him. I was tongue-tied. My first author meeting and I couldn't think of a thing to say. He took over and I was soon put at my ease while J.Y. (he told me I could call him that) took me around and introduced me to the aerialist that did the stunts for Betty Hutton in the movie and showed me the tigers that had gotten into a fight in New York City, as the female was in heat and one of the males had gotten loose and attacked another. He introduced me to many of the acts, including Emmett Kelly, the renowned clown and many other of the performers. It was quite a time. I went racing back to my father's office all excited and told him this man would make a great human interest story. He sent me over to the reporters but I was talking so quickly they had trouble understanding me. Finally they got the news out of me and one did go and interview JY for a story.

I spent the whole week's evenings with Dr. Henderson just walking around the grounds and talking. He had to stay close because he was still treating the tigers injuries. He was indeed a fascinating man and he could have written two or three sequels to his book as I told him. It was a very wonderful week for me. Dr. Henderson had great patience to spend so much time with a fan, telling stories and watching harness racing. As an adult now I can really appreciate his understanding and kindness.

I think it is truly sad that most children now don't have the Ringling Bros. experience. I know there are smaller circus that still travel around. There was one in our town recently but it is not the same grandeur that Ringling Bros has. I understand they are still working but now I don't believe they have the big top tent but use places like Madison Square Gardens. Like so many good things we had as kids it is an experience lost to children now.

On Age and Aging

I have been feeling very melancholy lately. I was talking to my husband tonight about the way we used to turn heads when we dressed up and went out for the evening. Picture a curvy, blue-eyed blonde and her escort with burnished brown hair, bedroom eyes, luscious lips and a military physique. True romance novel figures. :) I was saying that it was too bad that our children were too young to remember us looking like that. They have seen pictures but it isn't the same. I guess I just wanted to revisit my youth. I am not sure what brought this on. Children probably don't want to think of their parents in this light either. Yucky stuff they used to say. I loved the yucky stuff...still do.

Isn't it strange that although I am 66 I still feel 18 in my head, in spite of the fact that I am aware that I cannot do the things that age group can. My daughter and I had this conversation just the other night and she pointed out that she wouldn't be born if I was only 18. I find it really difficult to think of myself as old as I really am. I can't imagine that my husband is that age either so I have a tendency to expect him to act like he is a young man and do work that he should not be doing.

I guess there must come a time when you feel and act your age. I don't know. I have been fortunate that for the past twenty years or so people have always said I looked much younger than I am. That has been quite a compliment and the reverse from when I was 18 or so. Then everyone thought I was older than my age. I would think any woman would be happy to hear these things. It used to "make my day". :)

Edward Henry Bickersteth, Bishop of Exeter (1825-1906) said of Age:

"Our years are like the shadows
The sunny hills that lie,
Or grasses in the meadows
That blossom but to die;
A sleep, a dream, a story
By strangers quickly told
An unremaining glory
Of things that soon are old."

That pretty well says it all, doesn't it?