Another Snow Post...

The weather plays a starring role in many of my memories of teaching first grade; the children especially loved the fearful delight of a thunderstorm (they loved it even more if the electricity happened to fail, and would respond with enthusiastic screams of mostly feigned terror).  However their chief delight, weather-wise, was snow.

The weather became almost a character unto itself in The Children Are Tender, and the current state of our recent snowfalls from winter storms Q and Rocky remind me of this passage: 

Our January snow was briefly lovely but quickly disintegrated into a brown slush that did nothing to enhance the colorless landscape. The sun remained hidden behind sullen, low- hanging clouds that produced neither rain nor snow but only an intermittent, freezing drizzle. Bob was grouchily engaged in a losing battle to keep the outdoor walkways free of ice, and each morning he could be seen puffing furiously on his pipe as he scraped and salted the treacherous glaze that had formed overnight. (The Children Are Tender, p. 148)

However, in the country it is still possible to find expanses of snow that has not been touched either by the warmth of the sun or the county snowplow.   The pathway below is just across the road from our house and is steeper than it looks. 

From the bottom of the hill looking up...

Lydia, the lead character in The Children Are Tender, is often unable to resist a quick walk through the countryside near her home, even when she is on her way to work.  I think she would have tromped right up this hill in her new winter boots, just as I did!  

From the top of the hill looking down.

However, because of her youth, Lydia would have fared better than I managed to do--I was thoroughly winded after trudging up this hill in snow that was over a foot deep! 

This year's snows were pretty but I confess I'm ready for spring! 

Snow!

An underlying theme in The Children Are Tender is the beauty of the countryside and the wide variety of Kansas weather patterns.  One of my favorite scenes in the book describes Lydia's class playing in the snow, a scene recorded nearly verbatim from my own days of teaching first grade: 

"We donned coats and hats in record time. As I went out the door, I pulled my old black sweater from its hook. I chose four children to hold the sweater taut under the leaden gray sky. “See how many flakes you can catch! You can take a really close look if you’ll hold your breath so you don’t melt them. Find out how many sides they have!” Every few minutes I called a new group to hold the sweater while the rest of the children danced with outspread arms, throwing back their heads to catch flakes on their tongues. As I watched, tears stung my eyes, and the intensity of joy I felt caused all other concerns to recede into the background. Mundane issues such as math assessments or the fact that I was pretty sure I was getting a cold myself no longer seemed so troublesome in light of the magic of watching small children reaching out to catch snowflakes."

This afternoon I sat on my front porch, watching the beginning of a storm that is predicted to add twelve more inches to the snow cover already on the ground by tomorrow morning.  Even though I retired from teaching nearly two years ago, I could hear the echoes of childish voices, and nearly see little faces turned upwards to catch flakes of snow.  I shot this 30 second video of a Kansas snowstorm.  Snow is magical, probably because it is rare.  Enjoy!  

35 (or so) Years Later...

My grandma used to talk about how quickly time passes, and only now am I beginning to understand what she meant.

A misconception we have when we are young is that older people are somehow inherently different from us.  Turns out, not so much.  I'm older, and admittedly I look quite a bit different than I did many years ago, but essentially, I'm still me.  And I'd think that fact would comfort young folks; you aren't going to morph into some old codgerly thing.  You will still be you!  And you really won't feel so differently about yourself than you do now...except maybe you'll become a little more comfortable in your own skin.  Funny how that happens when the skin is definitely beginning to sag...

Farmer John and Lydia are the lead characters in my book, The Children Are Tender, and they are based on my husband and me as we were during our first few years of marriage more than 35 years ago. Now that our nest is empty the real life Farmer John and I have rekindled some of the romance we felt during those early years.  We are having fun driving around the farm in the old red pickup doing chores together each morning and we laugh a lot.  If that doesn't sound romantic to you it must be because you haven't yet learned that having fun together is essential to romance at any age. 

Yesterday our part of Kansas received 12 inches of snow.  Farmer John and I had fun--and no cardiac events--shoveling, throwing snowballs, and I made a snow angel.  I think the the younger version of ourselves as I wrote them in The Children Are Tender would be proud. 

Like my hot pink John Deere gloves? 

Follow Me?

My agent along with the publisher, editor, and even the graphic designer at my publishing company  have all told me that I need a platform, a package, and a plan.  I need to be knowledgeable about social networking, and most of all, I need followers.  

Yes, followers.  

I was hesitant.  In my view there is only one Person who has the credentials and the backing to say, "Follow Me," and I'm not Him.  

But, I've come to understand that in the social networking sense, the request to "follow me" is really a euphemism for "help me out." Following someone is a way of being kind and of accepting an invitation to community.  It can also be a first step in  joining a network of human interaction that can have great power of influence in our world.  

Sally Stuart, who for years published an annual volume entitled "The Christian Writers Market Guide," wants Christian writers to have confidence in the Lord in them.  She says, "...each of you has been given a specific mission in the field of writing. You and I often feel inadequate to the task, but I learned a long time ago that the writing assignments God has given me cannot be written quite as well by anyone else." This perspective helps me to lose my hesitation to ask folks to follow me.  My caregiving book contains information that saved my sanity during my transition into the role of caregiver, and I have an urgency to share this with others suffering the same kinds of challenges.  And my novel about teaching little kids in a rural community during a time of budget cuts to education has important implications for our world today as well as great, clean entertainment value.  

So (she says confidently) please follow me on Twitter or Facebook or  Pinterest.  If you read one of my books and like it please retweet, repin, write a comment at Amazon, or share on Facebook.  "Like" my Amazon listing, or Youtube video, or posts on my books' Facebook pages. If you are able to do even one of those things it will be a great help! In this way the people who need (or will enjoy) the things the Lord's given me to write can gain benefit, and you will have had a hand in this effort.  Thank you, bless you, and I'll be glad to follow your sites...just ask!  

Book Introduction

Here is the Youtube video uploaded today as a book intro to The Children Are Tender! Be sure to adjust the resolution if you want to watch it big...HD loads slowly for many of us but 480p isn't bad.  This particular version has more of sentiment than humor, and the book contains both...hope it does the job needed.  Ambassador International will post the link on their site. 

Longing to Hear: "It's a Bouncing Baby Book!"

In many ways, writing a book mirrors the labor required to carry and bring forth a child.

The work of writing really is more difficult than one might think.  At a recent book signing an older man said, "It must be nice to earn your living sitting behind a computer writing all day long."

Now, he was suffering a couple of misconceptions--not the least of which is the idea I am earning a living--but I didn't choose to address the financial aspect of writing books just then.  I replied testily,  "Well, if you call composing what is essentially a 300 page term paper and then being forced to revise it multiple times 'easy,' then yes, I guess it is."

I am usually nicer to the people I meet at book signings. 

Anyway...

I happened to write The Children Are Tender at the same time my daughter was pregnant with her second son, and so I was especially aware of the correlations between her labor to bring forth a baby boy and my work to produce a baby book.  Strengthening the parallels between these experiences, the book coincidentally has forty chapters and human gestation lasts forty weeks. 

At the end of the process of writing (carrying the child), editing (heading into labor), and design (what will this child look like?) there is a breathless pause as the book goes to print.  Here the two experiences begin to differ markedly, because while a laboring mother is very much a part of the birthing process, editors, publishers, and art directors don't particularly welcome an over-anxious author's pushy inquiries into how the process is going.  "PUSH!" is a not a command ever given to an author by the professionals overseeing the birth of a new book. 

And so I wait, my role in this process mostly done.  There will be a couple more proof-readings once the corrections to the injuries (I mean, format changes) that occurred during the birthing process (I mean, from the layout software) are corrected.  And then I will have the opportunity to approve the cover art (wondering what happens if I should disapprove???).  I'm anticipating one last bout of discussion over the baby's name (I mean, the book's title).

And then at long last I should be the proud parent of a bouncing baby book!  Watch for the birth announcement here. 

Farmer John Gets Creative

It may come as a surprise to some that authors are not typically the ones who select the titles for their books.  Once an author signs on the dotted line of a publishing contract, creative control is, if not lost, certainly diminished.

I shouldn't have been surprised that my current editor does not want to call my new book The Children Are Tender.  I've prayed about this and feel led to stand firm, for now.  That the title is an apt one for my book and reflects God's heart for children is not the point; publishers need to assure that a book is given a catchy title that will sell.

Awhile ago my husband, Farmer John, came home in the middle of the day and went to bed, chilling and groaning.  This is unprecedented; and I fear a case of influenza.  He knows of my title woes, and while I was putting a second cover over his shaking frame he began muttering.  I leaned as close as I dared, given that he is probably contagious, and heard him mutter, "A Teacher's Diary."

"What, Honey, what did you say?"

"Title for your book.  Teacher's Diary."

I was touched.  "Thank you Sweetheart, but you'd better go to sleep now."

A few minutes later he called out, "The Children Are Innocent!" And awhile after that, "Lighting the Way!"

That was a couple of hours ago, and every ten minutes or so since then, like the Old Faithful he is, another prospective title erupts from his lips:

"In the School Yard."

"Turning the Light On."

"Schooldays at Karola."

"Management, Staff, and Children"

"Joys and Tears of Teaching"

I don't know how to tell him that the publishers have wished me a Merry Christmas and have said they won't be in contact again until after the first of the year.  Meantime I'd better get out a pad and pencil to record Farmer John's fever-induced thoughts. He just might come up with a title that will please both his wife and the publisher.

Lydia and Linda, Born and Birn

At a book signing a couple of weeks ago a fellow author said jovially, "Well I see the main character in your new book is named Lydia Birn."

He leaned forward and winked at me several times.  "Soooo--do you think anyone will figure out the similarity between your name and the lead character's? OH let me see...who MIGHT Lydia be modeled after in real life???"

I attempted to explain to him that at this stage of my life I bear a much closer resemblance to the character I named Abby than to Lydia, but he was still wagging his head and winking and I decided to ignore him.

Naming book characters carries with it a similar weight of responsibility to that of naming one's children, and I blush with the realization that giving my lead character a similar name to my own echoes past naming patterns. My husband's name is John, our son is Jonathan.  My name is Linda, our daughter is Melinda.  Since my husband is John Born IV I actually feel I was quite the rebel to call our son Jonathan rather than John, and I have lengthy explanations as to why Melinda's name has nothing to do with my own.  No one ever believes me so I've stopped trying to correct the idea that I named my daughter after myself.  You would think I'd have learned something from all the years of teasing I've endured for naming my daughter so that her name sounds as though I was literally trying to create a mini me:  ME---Linda.

I've always had the name "Lydia" in the back of my mind as a name for the lead character in my novel and that was that, to have changed her name would have been like learning to call my best friend by a different name.  I chose the last name Birn because I once had a child who called me "Mrs. Boin."  I thought this so sweet that I wanted to include her darling foible in my book with no changes, and giving Lydia a similar last name to my own accomplished this.  I needed a German surname, and Birn has Germanic roots.  And so Lydia and John Birn are the lead characters in my book.

That's all the explanation I have.  Lydia Birn is who she is and I can't change her now at this late date (unless my editor says I have to that is...).

If you'd like to see a brief characterization of the lead characters in The Children Are Tender, click here.

Hope for the Future

John walks across a newly rebuilt pond dam, the bare dirt cracked and dry beneath his feet. 

 When I was writing The Children Are Tender, I carried a camera as I did chores with my husband, the real life Farmer John ("Farmer John" is one of the main characters in the book).  As we drove from field to pasture, I captured Kansas beauty frame by frame, and then spent the afternoon hours at my word processor working hard to paint word pictures that conveyed the blessings of our rural life. These descriptions provided a setting that I think brings the story into sharper focus. 

This pond was twice the size it is now just a couple of years ago.  That's our dog, Annie, stopping by for a drink. 

 Now, however, the countryside reveals a different ambiance.  Two years of drought have caused ponds to shrink in size or to disappear completely.  Grasses are parched and break with an audible crunch when I tromp across the pasture above our house on my evening stroll.  Dust grits between my teeth if my walk takes me down our gravel road.

I find myself wondering what Lydia would make of such stark surroundings. Lydia is the main character in The Children Are Tender, and one of her defining characteristics is a deep love for nature. A recurrent theme throughout the book is her habit of stopping along the road to enjoy God's creation.  Would she be able to find refreshment from the nature scenes I'm photographing now?  Even the trees seem weighted by a burden of suffering; much earlier in the season than normal they began to cast down their leaves like dry teardrops. 

I  believe Lydia would still find beauty.  I don't want to provide a spoiler here, but the story's ending does show that Lydia is a woman of faith, able to hold to hope when circumstances offer little reason to trust. 

It will rain again.  When the rains come we will lift thanks and begin to take blessings such as green grass and growing crops for granted once more.  Meantime, like Lydia, we can find beauty in unexpected places and trust God for the future.  

Through a haze of dust the stark outline of a sunflower reveals sculptural beauty.

Edgar and Mrs. Birn

The characters in The Children Are Tender came to life for me with such clarity that I began to feel I was writing a story that already existed rather than creating something new.  I was afraid this phenomenon was simply my own almost-maternal feeling toward my book, but then I had a dear friend read the manuscript. Toward the end of the tale she found herself praying for a character who was preparing to make a speech before the school board: "Dear Lord please be with Ruth..."

My friend said she jerked to reality with a start as she realized she didn't need to spend intercessory energy on a book character, and then looked quickly around her as though to check whether anyone noticed...

I found myself similarly connected to a little guy named Edgar who appears in chapter ten. He is an emotionally damaged child who finally lets down his guard and runs across the playground into his teacher's arms. This vignette was so clear in my mind that the night before my pre-publication checklist was due, I had my daughter and conveniently first-grade-sized grandson re-inact the scene. It was a blustery October day, the sun was under a cloud, and we didn't have time or energy to go to the playground at the school. I couldn't find my old teacher's whistle to use as a prop; the scene was so clear in my mind that the impact of the child's body into the teacher's arms flings her whistle back over her shoulder. Nevertheless, I used my phone camera to snap a few hasty shots, and somehow the results elicit the emotion of that moment in chapter ten. The boy's fists are clenched shut, the curve of his cheek and shape of his head elicit empathy, and the teacher's comforting arms offer hope for this child. I sent the photo off to the publisher along with my author bio and back cover copy.

I'm looking forward to seeing the publisher's design!

To Design We Go...

I received an email yesterday telling me my book project has been sent to the design team.  We'll see how many elements of my cover design survive when a Real Designer who is a Real Artist goes to work. The publisher tells me first round edit completion is scheduled for December 3.  On that day of reckoning the edits will be shared with me...prayers appreciated.