The Castle of My Dreams

Castle and proprietor. Count on it.
All photos in this post 2019 Jessica Knauss 

In January 2006, I was studying very hard in Salamanca. I was also getting to know the public face of Manolo Garcia as I'd never had the opportunity to before, and loving every new thing I learned, about both Alfonso X el Sabio and Manolo Garcia.

That month, thirteen years ago, I dreamed I lived in a large structure with many staircases and bedrooms. This wonderful dwelling was filled with ten or twelve writers and artists, focusing on their creations and feeling inspired by their distraction-free but gorgeous surroundings. One unassuming but popular guest was Manolo Garcia. He would give impromptu creativity talks in chambers where everyone sat on sumptuous pillows, but mostly he created, like all the other artists. He stopped me on a staircase to thank me for inviting him to my artistically stimulating refuge from the obligations of daily life, saying it had been the best month of his life.

Since then, I've known exactly what I will do with all the money I'll earn from bestselling books and unexpected inheritances. I'm inspired to run an artists' colony where writers and all kinds of creatives can practice their art unencumbered in a spectacular setting.

Fast forward ten years, ten of the best years of my life because they included my marriage to Stanley. Poking around on the internet one day in late 2015, I found a castle for sale. A Spanish castle for sale. The asking price was five million euros, which doesn't seem outlandish to fulfill one's cherished life dream, but was far out out of my prospects.

I showed the listing to my soul mate and he was happy to find out it's in the same region as Frías, a gorgeous medieval wonderland we'd recently seen and where he said many times (jokingly) that we should go and live. The region is called the Merindades, and it's the hardscrabble mountain birth mother of Castile, and thus of Spain as we know it.

Specifically, my castle is located in Lezana de Mena. It's next door to the place where the word "Castile" was written down for the first time (that we know of). The first written notice of the castle is from 1397, and it was built a few years before that for the Angulo family, one of the important landowners in the region. The construction is solid and finished with perfection in every angle. Aside from the tower, which is the only thing visible in my photos here, it has a wall and other towers and some usable one-story buildings. It sits on 22,000 square meters of gardens with fruit trees, a stream, a little forest with three century-old oaks, and a large pond. (Perfect for rhinoceros grazing, but we'll think about that later.)

The price, to me, is further justified because it boasts state-of-the-art central heating; a heated swimming pool with geothermal technology, a wave generator, and spa jets; all new plumbing; double-glazed windows; a centralized vacuum cleaning system; satellite telephone system with Wi-Fi, TV in all rooms, and motion detectors in communal areas; five open fireplaces, three of which have inserted cassettes with hot air impellers with insulated stainless steel flues; solid oak beams and stairways; floors made of oak, chestnut, and northern pine; six bed chambers with on-suite bathrooms, two with walk-in wardrobes; three powder rooms; a library; a large refectory; public rooms; a kitchen; and an elevator!

And now the asking price has been reduced to less than three million euros!

This first week of January 2019, I had the chance to visit my castle for the first time, so of course I seized it! Driving north from Burgos, my friend and I were aghast at the constantly changing countryside. Just looking through the window filled me with gratitude. "If you like Castile," said my friend, "it doesn't get any more authentic than this!"

Passing by innumerable Romanesque churches and other castles I don't currently have plans to buy, weaving through the mountains, we at last came around a bend and my castle presented itself to me like a gift from Spain, the entity I've loved longest and hardest. It was apparent that the castle wasn't open to visits from tourists (But I'm not a tourist! I'm the future owner!) before we even parked.

The town surprised me with its lively atmosphere. It lacked the sense of desolation you get in a lot of towns on the Castilian plain, and felt welcoming. We had tea in the bar across from what looked like the castle's front gate, while I was champing at the bit to get outside and take photos and commune with my castle. The lady who made our tea gave us the low-down: Indeed, no one is allowed in the castle unless they intend to put their visit in a high-visibility publication or have documented ability to buy it. Even so, I didn't feel turned away. I had a strong sense of being in the right place, which is something I haven't felt in my life very often.

The castle passed into the Velasco family in the early fifteenth century, a time full of conflicts between nobles and uprisings at all levels. The Velascos had countless castles all over what is now northern Castile, claiming their territory and warning against any and all transgressions of authority. Wouldn't it be ideal to have an invasion of writers and artists in this beautiful space to encourage the sense of peace that now blankets this valley? 

Generous donations graciously accepted, serious investment queries gladly entertained. 

Seventh Anniversary

The insane happiness of true love 

Today is our seventh wedding anniversary. If I were to write down everything that is wonderful about my husband, no one would ever believe it. It seems impossible that so many cherished qualities could reside in one person. Just take a look at this guest post he wrote about love on the occasion of Valentine's Day, 2014, and you may get some notion of how close he comes to perfection in human form. For the purposes of this blog, it's relevant that he's my biggest fan and proofreads everything I write, from epic novels to correspondence. I couldn't have kept up this blog, written two novels, and had them published without his unflagging support.

I wish I didn't have to report that the love of my life passed away at the end of July.

Forgive my writing if it's less than perfect these days.

I dedicated Awash in Talent to him, and he was very proud to have had a part in my little book. I also wrote a big thanks to him in the back of Seven Noble Knights, but I'm sorry to say I was saving that little gift for "later," so he never got to see it.

He was ill for a long time and we never knew. He always seemed like the picture of health and youthful vigor until that last nightmare week. Even then, covered head to toe in tubes and wires and restraints to keep him in the hospital bed, when doctors would ask how he felt, he responded, "I'm fine." Maybe he was sticking to social convention, but I prefer to think he was responding on the basis of the health of his soul. It was always unencumbered and beautiful. Never had a sick day in its life, even as his body gave out.

I wrote a blog post for each of our anniversaries. Some are all about how great our marriage was and some are more tangential. Some are long and detailed and others are short for lack of adequate words.

2015   2014   2013   2012   2011   2010

As I read these over, I'm struck by how little time was required for our love to become exponentially truer, bigger, and better. The love of your life is the love of your life, no matter how little time you get to spend with him. It's appropriate that time never seemed to touch my husband. He was always as fresh and new as the first bloom of springtime.

Believe me, I appreciate that not everyone gets even a chance at something as great as our marriage. I don't know if it's possible, but I hope the slight inconvenience of death won't stop our love from continuing to grow and improve the world. It is my greatest achievement that I love and am loved by such an extraordinary human being.

A Writer's Space

This is the view from my new study window. I love it because I can see a healthy green tree, stucco, and Spanish roof tiles against a bright blue sky, so it's as if I'm both in Andalusia and in the limitless wonder of the natural world. I look at the blue sky and hope my creativity responds expansively.

The first piece of furniture we got in the new place was this desk, which we scoured the antique stores to find. We had money set aside from selling some furniture in Massachusetts, and as soon as we arrived, two urges—to wait for the best possible desk and to get a stinkin' desk right now!—battled it out. I fell in passionate love with some pieces, antique and new, that were just too big to get into the apartment. I considered for a few days getting one of those inexpensive desks you have to assemble yourself. It was quite the emotional journey. Then my husband and I were walking around a... fragrant... antique mall I had little hope for, going in circles, it seemed. I was busy dismissing another trumped-up table as a possibility when my husband said, "Here's a desk."

It's in better condition than the one I sold in Massachusetts to my unexpectedly sore regret. It has all the storage I was looking for and plenty of space without being so large we couldn't expect the delivery men to bring it up the stairs. It's eclectic. I think it's unique. I've never seen another desk with world maps and steamer trunk stamps on the drawer faces! There are also inspiring words on the top left and right drawers. A Francophile must have designed it, with the Eiffel Towers and the fleurs-de-lis, but I can forgive that, as an enlightened Hispanophile. I walked away from that antique mall with a deep knowing that I'd (my husband had) found what I was looking for.

When I shared the photo of the desk on Facebook, the responses confirmed that it will be impossible to do poor work at this desk.

As you can see in the second photo, I've got the magic desk right at the magic window, so they combine into a creative vortex I hope will also be useful for my editorial work (which is less about creativity than about rules, let's face it).

I've never had such a nice place to work. I've had larger and smaller, intimidating and nonexistent. I wrote the first chapters of Seven Noble Knights on a laptop that teetered atop a borrowed piece of furniture in a room intended for television-viewing. The last chapters were written in an enormous bedroom on a card table. For unknown reasons, in this space and at this time, I'm being honored with a place to work that I could never have dreamed would be so wonderful. I feel immense gratitude.

I've currently got editorial deadlines and need to finish revising Seven Noble Knights as well as strategize its launch, which includes making a real website. For all this, I may need more hours in a day, but at least I don't have excuses about where I'll be doing all this.

World Rhino Day 2014

It’s here! The greatest day of the year!

If you don’t know of any events taking place near you, you can still make a contribution simply by staying informed about rhino problems and also about what makes them so wonderful. 

The Stop Poaching Now! campaign includes practical, on the ground ideas for deterring and catching poachers as well as decreasing demand for horn, which is the only overarching solution. 

On October 4, the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos gives everyone a physical activity to do in support of anti-poaching efforts. There may be a march in a city near you!

My husband and I have supported rhinos every way we can feasibly think of, mainly with small monetary donations. Our up-close experience with two gorgeous white rhinos helped increase the joy quotient in the world, which is no small thing.

Additionally, on this day of concentrated rhinocity, I would like to make a couple of personal pledges.

Currently, I believe there is only one Sumatran rhino in the United States of America. His name is Harapan, and the future of his species may require that he be moved to Indonesia, where the few others of his kind live. If that happens, he’ll be that much less practical for my husband and I to visit. We pledge that we will visit Harapan within the year and tell you all about him. 

Second, I pledge that my next writing project will be for the rhinos. I’m planning it as a sort of thriller (which I’ve never attempted to write before, so we’ll just see how it works out) that will entertain at the same time it informs. When I’m writing a novel, I spend every spare moment thinking about and putting my passion into it. What better way to support the animals I most love than with the activity I most love?

Happy World Rhino Day. Celebrate rhinos today and every day and the world will be richer for it.

Passings

Gabriel García Márquez had a good, long life.

That’s what I tell myself to escape the abysmal sensation that the world lost a great writer one week ago.

I first read One Hundred Years of Solitude in high school, followed by other astounding novels and short stories throughout college, picking up the original Spanish as I was able. I already knew I was a writer by that time, but these stories influenced my work much more profoundly than almost any other book. In spite of my tendency to best appreciate things from 400 years ago or more, one of the most pleasurable things about reading García Márquez’s work was that he was still alive and therefore available to create more of these unique stories. He was unable to write during his final years, but now it’s certain: no other literature or Spanish students will get to enjoy that sensation of more to come.

Such sentiments were already on my mind for more personal reasons. At the end of March, the dear lady who wrote under the name Moonyeen Blakey passed away after a battle with cancer. I edited Moon’s first book, The Assassin’s Wife. Although I knew she wasn’t well, I fully expected her to recover. I still feel unpleasantly surprised. I had hoped someday to visit her in her quaint seaside town in England and it seems impossible that I will now never meet her. As a compliment to her artistry, I also sorely feel the loss of the other great books she didn’t get the chance to write.

Art is eternal, but life is fleeting. We must create, enjoy, and connect with others while we can.

The Evolution of Writing Groups

Most people, I think, realize that writing is a lonely business if you don't have some kind of support group, a magical few people who either read your writing willingly or understand what you're going through because they're writers, too — or, in the best of all possible worlds, both. When the support group does both those things, they're called a writing or critique group.

When I first decided to take fiction writing seriously, back when I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts (sigh!) (I'm not quite back there, but I'm within commuting distance), the first thing I did was dig through my files to see what I had. The close second was to look at Meetup.com and find out whether there were any writers in the area willing to meet.

Of course, now there are plenty of groups to choose from all over New England, and they fill up and get waiting lists. Only five years ago, it was a different scene all together. I had to try running my own Meetup, and it was disastrous. The most I ever got was one other attendee. I didn't know exactly how it should work, so I have to give myself a break on that. How painful to wait in some café and feel like a sore thumb with a Meetup sign, only to be joined by someone who confrontationally wanted me to have a better handle on what the heck I was trying to do. (That was the worst time. The other times I tried were more low-key and vaguely disappointing.)

Then, the moving saga began. I married my husband in September, and in late December, we left Massachusetts during a snowstorm for the middle of nowhere northeastern Pennsylvania. It was so cold, overnight all the tires on our tow trailer deflated. And it got colder and more desolate from there.

I'm sure Pennsylvania is wonderful. Indeed, I love Philadelphia and the beauties of the mountains. But I was trapped in a mountain home, in utter isolation, with no possibility of even the half-hearted attempts at Meetups from before. I would write it off as eleven months of nothing, except that I was in PA when I began getting published in literary magazines and when I began this blog. Reaching out through cyberspace!

And then, Kismet. We moved, against our wishes, to Arizona, but I was determined to build or join a community. That place is chockablock with writers of every age and ilk! I started through Meetup again, and met the founder of Fireship Press, which led to my editing career. Then, another writers Meetup was such a behemoth that smaller groups began splintering off, and that's where I found the critique group I still Skype into today. You know it's working when people willingly add technology into the mix. The group has been a tremendous comfort to me through too many moves and oodles of rejections. What a relief!

Tune in on Wednesday, March 12, for the continuing saga of the writing group!

Writing Process Blog Hop

No, this is not my writing space. But wouldn't it be
 distractingly cool?

Kim Rendfeld, author of sweepingly epic and historically accurate The Cross and the Dragon and The Ashes of Heaven's Pillar (forthcoming), invited me to participate in this blog hop tour and answer four questions about my writing process.

My Writing Process

1) What are you working on?

Currently, I'm in the ideas stage for the third part of my Providence series. 

It started with "Hope & Benevolent," a novellette about a college girl who tries to outdo her sister, who's so talented, she not only moves things with her mind, but also heals wounds and maladies (a great rarity). 

Before I left North Carolina, I completed the first draft of the second part, Waterfire. It's a novella about the terrible school system set up for firestarters and the lengths a group of them have to go to in order to overcome those obstacles. 

The third will deal with issues of psychics in this paranormal Providence, and will tie in with both of the other stories. I'm also trying to decide whether to self publish these strange little stories. Other exciting projects are also in the idea stage.

Providence as seen from the Mall. When it's not iced over,
Waterplace Park is where Waterfire (real and literary) takes place. My characters
Kelly and Brian end their October stroll on the other side of the bluish glass building, foreground. 

2) How does your work differ from others of its genre?

My historical fiction is different already because of its setting: medieval Spain, the most awe-inspiring place and time I've ever come across. I like to write historical fiction so that the reader is immersed in the period, but also sympathizes with the characters as much as they would with any contemporary person. Also, I can't seem to help it — my pacing is ten times faster than other historical fiction I've read. 

The magical realism and/or fantasy I write tends to be much sunnier than what I read. Terrible things happen, of course, otherwise there's no story. But the optimism and enthusiasm with which I consider my real life colors my writing as well. Readers often take this lightness as comedy. That's fine. Laughter is good for the soul.

3) Why do you write what you do?

Whether it's about an incident in medieval Spain I've researched to the rafters or just a collection of my experiences and inspirations, no one else can write the stories I do. Would anyone care if they never got written? My writing is an act of faith that someone would!

4) How does your writing process work?

I seem to thrive on routine, which I sorely lack lately. Weirdly enough, going to bed at the same time and doing the same kinds of things opens up my inspiration so the ideas flow. Of course, when I get an idea, I have to postpone bedtime or get up early to jot it down.

It's essential to have a routine during the actual work of writing, too. I've been most inspired and productive when I've set myself a word count goal and sit down at the same place (whether at my desk or on the hotel couch with a laptop) at the same time each day with no distractions. 

I think this sort of spatial routine trains the body to recall what it's like to inhabit the creative space, so the mind responds to a pattern it recognizes with discipline and the fun part — making all the crazy connections and playing with language — follows naturally. I usually use a playlist of music I've compiled for the specific project and have certain sentimental objects around unless I'm moving — which I'm now certain I'm going to do a lot less of!

If you'd like to hop backwards, visit the blog of Marta Merajver, bilingual author of Just Toss the Ashes and many other fascinating fiction and non-fiction titles.

Coming March 10: Kathleen Rollins, who writes utterly original prehistoric epics, will post about her writing process. It's sure to be unmissable!

Thanks for stopping by! This is my last blog post until March, when I shall discuss critique groups, job hunting, and the publishing world. Your input is always appreciated.

Magic Realism, The Class, Part II

One of the tools we used in the magical realism class I took in December was this video, which answers any questions writers might have about how to proceed and what to do as a writer in one minute and twenty-nine seconds.

We also studied "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut. For me, it still doesn't qualify as magical realism, but it is an astounding story that everyone who likes to write and all people who like to read would do well to read carefully. Notice how it executes all the advice in the video! He practices what he preaches. Admirable, and I hope, inspiring for you all.

Rhinos While They Last

I'd like to share two similar infographics, each with its own point of view and information (click on the sources for better views):

From the Huffington Post:

From Al Jazeera:

Complex, but not hard to understand when you come from the point of view that all such destruction comes from ignorance and greed.

A much-needed dose of sanity about the possibility of legalizing trade comes from Annamiticus.

In a nutshell:

1. Rhino horn is worth nothing to human beings.

2. Rhinos must be saved.

3. It's not too late.

I'll expand on these bits of knowledge next week. Feel free to ask questions and let me know what isn't obvious about the rhino crisis.

Unusual Historicals Feature

Today I'm featured at Unusual Historicals. Find out the three most pressing facts about me, and send me your good wishes for finding a place in the world.

Thanks for stopping by!

Why Spain? My Take

Flamenco in Córdoba

I've been blessed with a love for Spain that transcends logic. I took all of the photos in this post myself. Maybe they don't seem that impressive to anyone else, but I think they're achingly gorgeous simply because they capture some small instant of Spanishness.

The Roman aqueduct in Segovia

My eye has been trained to prefer the colors and shapes of Spain. My ear prefers its languages and music. My mind latches onto its stories and history.

For  the book lovers:
the manuscript library at El Escorial

This taste for Spain drove my extended education through language learning (BA), translation (MFA), medieval culture (MA) and finally medieval literature and all the extras involved in a PhD. I'm a doctor of Hispanofilia. It's been a lifelong passion that's steered me into serious pursuits like research and perfectionism.

The Plaza de España in Sevilla

As mentioned in Monday's post, Spain boasts a history that made it a true crucible of cultures. The good and the bad, the romantic and the disgusting -- I'll never tire of reading about it. Since I'm a writer, I was compelled to write about it.

It's even beautiful in the dark!
Salamanca's Plaza Mayor

Why Spain? Because there is no more awesome location to use for a setting for a novel.

Why Spain? Love needs no reason.

Selling books does, though, and I'm lucky that this abiding passion gives me the energy I need in order to plug away at challenges like editing, finding an agent, and reaching readers. I would not wish the hard work of a writer today on anyone who didn't absolutely adore their subject matter!

Adventures and Journeys, Ancient and Current

Kathleen Flanagan Rollins is the author of  Misfits and Heroes: West from Africa and Past the Last Island, the first two books in the Misfits and Heroes series on ancient explorers. Today she tells us about the epic journey she took in order to create the series and the real journeys she's basing the books on.

The differences between the two books

Actually I wrote most of Past the Last Island before I wrote Misfits and Heroes: West from Africa, but when it came time to publish one of them, I felt Misfits and Heroes: West from Africa was in better shape, so I went with that. Also, I felt it was “meatier,” especially with the African story-telling included.

When I went back to Past the Last Island, I contacted an editor to get her input. That proved to be an interesting and complicated arrangement. Being a hopeless pleaser, I tried to follow all of her advice. That meant no “head-hopping” – jumping from one character’s point of view to another, which I’m frequently guilty of doing, and providing more show and less tell. Also, she hated all adverbs as well as any form of the verb to be, though I argued with the latter. Let’s face it: sometimes there’s nothing like the copulative verb. Consider “To be or not to be.” 

In any case, I rewrote 75% of the book trying to improve it. Then I became addicted to editing. I deleted a whole section (about forty pages), shortened almost every chapter, and moved and reworked other chapters repeatedly, not always for the better. After almost a year of that, I realized the endless editing wasn’t really helping, so one night I declared the book finished, though it still carries traces of edits on top of previous edits. A minor character in the Albert Camus classic The Plague wanders through the novel coming up with different variations of a single sentence describing a girl he saw, but it’s never quite right. I suspect that was a reflection of Camus himself and perhaps every serious writer. However, as my sister, a professional artist, said, “There comes a time when you stop working on it and sign it.”

Emotional and physical misfits

The main characters in Misfits and Heroes: West from Africa are emotionally scarred, some through personal tragedy and some by events they’re forced to witness. Several of the characters in Past the Last Island are physically flawed. Nulo is a dwarf. Aeta is a “short person.” Hao is a hunchback. Half of Sula’s face is crushed in. Each becomes both a gift and a liability to the group. Nulo is a dreamer, useful for warnings of disaster but limited as a fighter. Hao is a navigational genius but emotionally unstable (based on Magellan’s original navigator who was so unstable he wasn’t allowed to join the expedition even though he’d planned out most of the voyage). Aeta is haunted by the belief that she carries death with her, and perhaps she does. 

Despite these flaws, the group becomes as close as family during their impossible journey across the open sea. It’s only after they arrive in the New World, at the end of the book, that the group begins to fall apart. Some readers find their relationship too “nicey-nice,” but I wanted the opposite of The Lord of the Flies. If you found yourself in a world with no wars, no political boundaries, and no other people competing for amazingly abundant resources, how would you react? Wouldn’t each person become more valuable because there were so few? Perhaps that rarity would also color the relationships between men and women. These characters are, in some ways, the innocents.

In the third book of the series, the two groups meet. More accurately, more than the two groups meet, and things get very complicated. In the fourth book, a group from what is now northern Spain joins the others. This group brings the Solutrean Age technology, especially bifacial points and atlatls (spear throwers), eyed needles, painting and textile decoration, as well as a lot of trouble. The two main characters are definitely not too nice.

So that’s the mix so far. 

And what’s the thread that binds all of these?

Despite their differences, which are many, all of these characters want very much to make a new life somewhere else, yet once they get there, they realize it’s not enough; they want to meet others. No one group is large enough to flourish on its own. So they seek out other people, but they bring more than themselves to the meeting. New languages, new cultures, new perspectives, new diseases, new problems are also part of the mix.  The thread that binds them together is that they are all heroes, not because they have super-powers or because they’ve always been applauded as champions but because they rise to each challenge they face, even the ones that require forgiveness. That’s why I like spending time with them.

As it turns out, 14,000 years ago is not that long ago

I find ancient explorers fascinating, but I’m learning that my novels, set 14,000 years ago, couldn’t possibly deal with the oldest explorers. New research shows that people, or at least the ancestors of modern humans, were finding their way to what is now England 500,000 years ago! Hominids were hunting with spears topped with worked points 460,000 years ago! Controlled fire? Over a million years ago. First jewelry? 82,000 years ago. First mixture of paint? 80,000 years ago.  (Check out the Misfits and Heroes blog for more of this, with sources).

Even in the Western Hemisphere, we know that one of the earliest human settlements in the Americas was at Pedra Furado in eastern Brazil, which has been dated between 33,000 and 56,000 years ago. In the layer dated 33,000 years ago, archaeologists found pieces of pottery and examples of rock art. What’s closest to eastern Brazil? West Africa. In fact, in 2012, a young woman rowed from West Africa to South America, solo, in 70 days.  So, with the currents and prevailing winds, the Senegal area seemed like a logical choice for some of the early explorers in Misfits and Heroes: West from Africa. Also, early Olmec art features gigantic basalt sculptures of very African-looking individuals. Perhaps Mesoamerica saw several migrations from West Africa.

However, there is also a very strong Asian and Pacific Island look to Olmec art, so in Past the Last Island, I imagined the greatest open water navigators in the world crossing the Pacific Ocean and ending up in the New World, just across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from the group from West Africa. That combination may well have sown the seeds of the greatest civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica. 

Guest Post Today: Begin at the Beginning (Help!)

What to do? What to do?

Today I'm at the kind and talented Dixon Rice's blog, revealing how I decide to begin my stories. And begging for your help!

I'm stuck over how exactly to begin The Seven Noble Knights of Lara. What would draw you in as a reader? Please comment below or at Dixon's post. Thanks!

And come back here on Wednesday for a really great (if I do say so myself) interview with Patricia Bracewell, author of the historical hit Shadow on the Crown and enter the giveaway!

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?

Target practice by WAVES at Treasure Island, California, Feb. 1943. Note that while four  are practice aiming, one has a different target!

With the amazing new opportunities for writers to reach their audiences faster than ever, more and more  sage advice is being shelled out about how to write well. I recently came across A. M. Schultz's thoughts on the subject, and appreciated his candor.

There really is no other way to become a good writer. Whatever method works best for you, you have to put in the hours.

Luckily for me, I put in most of my training while still a youngling, so I've banked much more than 10,000 hours. I wrote picture books in the third grade and started keeping a diary, probably long before that. In my senior year of high school, my English teacher asked me if I wrote every day. I replied, "Of course!" I was a writer already, and that's that writers do: they write.

"It shows," he told me, beaming.

That wasn't the first compliment I'd received on my writing. All those hours of scribbling began to pay off (in the praise department, which is the most important coin for a beginning writer) fairly quickly. There will always be more to learn, but the world is thankful I got a lot of sketchy writing out of the way when I did.

It's never too late to start, but the bad news is that no one starts out writing Shakespeare-caliber poetry. Good writing must be cultivated, and to do that, you have to write badly for a while. So if your writing leaves something to be desired, the best advice is not to follow some formula or to write at a specific time of day. It's just to keep writing.

And then after you write, rewrite. That's what I'm up to these days.

Memory Lane: Tree/House Version

While I was writing Tree/House, my first big project, I went looking for all the ego-boosters I could among the educated people in my hometown. Going through my junk recently, I found a sheet of their comments. What they had to say is still music to my soul.

My then-boyfriend couldn't get over it when we discovered that I think in English prose, considering and crafting each thought before passing it through my lips or pen.

My high school junior year English teacher noted: "You have a natural and instinctual grace and elegance." My prose is "always well-dressed, finely bred and stately." My poetry "captures a freshness, innocence, and dreaminess." I have "a wonderful ear for conversation and dialogue" and my "characters converse as real, compelling people."

My high school senior year English teacher claimed I was far smarter than he. "I read in your style a passion that was uncommon, saw a tease that was subtle and alluring, felt a tickle that needed to be scratched." He also advised that I should take more risks (though mostly I have failed to undertand what that would mean  to my writing). "If you ever let loose and showed people the passion that is within you, you might cause the wig-tappers to be called out in force to straighten all the wigs you'd flip." (Yes, I used that image in Tree/House -- how could I let that slip away unwritten?)

I could never see these wonderful things in my own writing. It feels weird to type them here. I know only that I had to write. If what they said was ever true, I hope I have only improved with time!

See Tree/House at eTLC.

Memory Lane

Being reunited with all my stuff that was in storage and living in an apartment that cannot possibly hold it all has provoked a lot of digging in boxes to see what things I can live without. In the process, I'm taking quite the trip down memory lane, not a little of it pertinent to my writing career. 

For example, this wonderful thing:

Of course I became a writer after receiving this ribbon! 

There's more to the story, of course. We got these in the sixth grade (and by "we" I mean the whole class) for putting a few pages of our own writing between laminated construction paper covers that were subsequently bound with those black plastic business spirals. While I was enchanted at receiving a physical object that so blatantly recognized my life's path and self-definition, I was confused and disturbed that everyone else got one, too. They weren't authors, I was.

Perhaps the Young Author program achieved its goal and inspired literacy in the children at my school. I will never know, because I was already all about reading and that summit of all intellectual activity, writing. Whether encouraged or discouraged, I would always have ended up here, making up stories and foisting them on unwitting readers.

But I have no doubt that the road was easier, being encouraged. 

Writing, The Profession for Shut-Ins

Since I've arrived in Atlanta, I've had a wrecking service masquerade as our movers, a wasp infestation, several giant scary horrific roaches, two serious crises with the air conditioner in our new apartment while it was over 80 and 100 degrees, and a husband absorbed in his new job. I sympathize with the people at his job who want my husband to be there 24 hours a day (I love him that much, too), but if only we didn't need this job so badly, I would march over there and tell them that I did not marry him so I could spend a precious hour with him before he fell over asleep from pure exhaustion each night.

In spite of these inconveniences -- and, maybe because of the one of them -- I've been keeping up with my writing schedule. I'm finished with a first draft of Chapter 17 of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara and have sketched out the basic moves in the remaining planned chapters, of which there are currently 21. Dare I hope that the first draft of this project, which has been as epic in its writing as it is in its story, could be done by December? Yes, I think I dare! Setting tangible goals with a solid deadlines has been the single most helpful change I've made to my writing in the past two years.

So, unlike constructive criticism, in which you're supposed to sandwich a negative in between two positives, I'm going to sandwich the great news about my writing between two not-so-great ideas. All of these things I've mentioned so far have led to an inability so far to get out and explore Atlanta. I've been busy with a bunch of projects I'll announce later, but they involve my previous contacts from Tucson. And when I say busy, I mean, I've been working nonstop! All from home. I don't know what the people are really like here beyond the waiters in restaurants and I don't know the architecture or atmosphere beyond the road to the grocery store and the movie theatre.

This is temporary. I've been putting out slow tendrils to get to know other writers here, etc., and eventually my husband and I will have a clear weekend in which we can visit the aquarium, Stone Mountain, and any number of other recommended Atlanta activities. But for now, I'm really glad I'm a writer and a publisher. There aren't too many other professions that can be practiced in a completely virtual environment.

Interview with Dave Evardson

For many years Dave and Julie Evardson have earned a following around the country for their special brand of mainly maritime folk song. Dave’s songs touch on several subjects and in particular celebrate Grimsby’s (Lincolnshire, UK) fishing heritage. But as well as creating rhyming lyrics Dave has also been busy writing novels, at last finding success with Fireship Press of Tucson, Arizona.

Fireship specializes in historical and maritime books, but is issuing Dave’s work via its Cortero Publishing imprint, helping reinforce its foothold in the market for thrillers, nineteenth-century classics and fantasy.

The Fenwold Riddle is a dystopian science fiction adventure for young adults, which Dave hopes will also appeal to readers of all ages who enjoy a good story.

Explaining his plot, Dave says, “For centuries the land of Fenwold has been surrounded by a huge, impenetrable concrete wall. No one knows who made it, or why. The people mostly eke out a subsistence living from agriculture, but lately gangs of raiders have thwarted their efforts by stealing their harvests and burning their villages. At last Fenwold’s ruling Council sends out trained marshals to help the villagers fight off the raiders.

“One of these is young Marshal Dominic Bradley. He organises farmers in the south west of Fenwold to combat a local gang led by the vicious outlaw known simply as Red. But Bradley is also charged with another task - to find a way through the Wall and lead his people to whatever lies beyond. He has no idea how to achieve this, until he hears an old woman recite a strange and compelling riddle.

“During his quest he makes astounding discoveries about his country’s past – and his people’s destiny.”

Dave has already started writing a sequel to his book, and also has two other novels "looking for a publisher."

I was able to ask Dave three compelling questions: 

JK: What inspired the plot and characters of The Fenwold Riddle?

DE: I enjoy fiction woven into social history. I also enjoy science fiction. My favourite author who managed expertly to combine the two was John Wyndham (Day Of The Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos, etc). All right, so I’m old-fashioned. And I’m not the first to site a novel behind a wall. I wanted to explore how normal people might react to the inevitable social breakdown as the population expanded. Heroes would emerge, as would villains, but real change would only come about with the cooperation of ordinary people. Add to that the mystery of why Fenwold was enclosed in the first place, and you have the basis of a story that almost tells itself. In terms of characters I chose a hero with imperfections – inexperienced, priggish and misogynistic - plenty of room for improvement there - and a heroine with a physical imperfection who nevertheless succeeds in getting under his skin.

JK: How long have you been writing novels?

DE: Since September 1990 - mid-life crisis time? That was when I had my ‘Road to Damascus’ vision, while on holiday in Northern Italy. I was fairly happy with my work as an industrial accountant, and my social life singing and writing songs. But I wanted a new literary outlet. I had completed editing and publishing (on a shoestring) my Dad’s autobiography A Fitter’s Life which sold about 650 copies locally, and I’d acquired a taste for story telling. But as I suspect many novice writers do, I plunged right in without planning, research or much preparation at all. As a result I’ve only just finished that first comedic thriller. I wonder if twenty-two years is some kind of a record? Apart from The Fenwold Riddle, I’ve now almost concluded a second humorous adventure novel and I’m well into my Fenwold sequel.

JK: I understand you wrote The Fenwold Riddle as a member of a writers' group. Can you explain the benefits of that experience?

DE: Yarborough Writers was absolutely essential. Unless you’re a real "natural," only by exposing your work to honest criticism do you really have a chance of improving. Sometimes you’ll go away feeling hurt by having your composition ripped apart, but you think about what was said, develop the integrity to sift the good advice from mere differences in taste, amend your work accordingly and learn from the experience. Augment this with a few carefully chosen courses, and you should find your writing improves considerably.

JK: I'm leaving a similar great writers' group behind in Arizona and cannot recommend such groups enough. Thank you so much for stopping by, Dave.

The Fenwold Riddle is also available both as hard copy and as an e-book wherever fine books are sold.

See Dave and Julie’s website www.DaveEvardson.com for more about their songs and writing.