During my writing retreat last week, my critique partners and I went to the grocery store to stock up. I was useless because I started taking photos in the produce department.
Fortunately, my friends indulged me. Nothing like spending time with people who understand you!
A very strange and unfamiliar thing happened in my neck of the woods yesterday.
It rained.
This is a thing to celebrate, big time. But I was kicking myself for not taking pictures of the tree blossoms yesterday. Or any day over the last couple weeks since they first appeared.
As I neared the house after driving home from the dentist, a little sun filtered through a thin patch in the clouds making the blossoms on our neighbors’ trees glow. I was surprised by the beauty of the combination light! I parked, dashed inside to get the camera and came back out, stopping to photograph some tangerines:
The delay cost. The light flattened out again as the cloud cover increased. I’d missed the shot.
This disappointment led me to try something new, however– a macro of a branch from a different tree, using the blossoms as a background. Rain drizzled all around my shoulders and droplets marred my lens, but when this photo opened on my computer, I found the lens had captured the very sunlight I craved, glowing off that branch.
The sun is back out this morning! I went out to get you an update and caught a rainbow. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if I hadn’t been trying to catch the trees in the sunlight. I saw it through the camera lens. Needless to say, I shifted focus to capture the rainbow.
You can see a lot of the blossoms fell off the tree. This is what happens to our cherries every year. We get really excited about zillions of cherry blossoms and then it rains and we get about 50 cherries, which the birds eat before they are ripe. One year and one year only, we had hundreds of cherries. I’ll never forget that crop!
I’m not sure what kind of trees these are, but the blossoms remaining after the hard rain are lovely in the fresh washed sunlight.
I know the topic of pursuing your dreams is supposed to be inspiring. But what about this? What about not having dreams at all?
I used to dream of winning the lottery. One time, I was invited to join a group that was trying out meditating to see if you could cause a big lottery win. I bought a ticket. Then a strange thing happened. I thought maybe this technique would work. But that’s not the strange thing. The strange thing was my reaction. I felt dread. I didn’t want to win the lottery! What if we won? I was so relieved when we didn’t win. Of course I dropped out of the group so I wouldn’t mess up their experiment. No, I don’t want to win the lottery. It would change my life too radically, too abruptly. The change is not organic.
I used to have dreams of being a famous writer. I wrote a lot. I’ve always written a lot. Then I stopped writing. A friend asked why. I said I didn’t want to be published. What?! She said, “I don’t know what to do with that.” (She’s incredibly supportive. I just really flummoxed her with that issue!) Okay, I figured out that what that was all about was that I couldn’t handle the extra work that goes with being published on top of a high-pressure job. But I could still just, write.
Recently I had an assignment, an exercise, in which I was to write down my dreams. I couldn’t think of any! I have some goals, but no dreams.
Does that sound awful? It doesn’t feel awful. In fact, it feels great. I like to write. I like to have short term goals about getting things done and I look forward to getting my next book on an internet site near you. And I like not having any dreams about the outcome.
There will be an outcome. People will read it or they won’t. People will like it or they won’t. Regardless, I’m going to keep writing. Writing has nothing to do with dreams.
One time I thought, what would I do if I only had one year to live? The answer was exactly what I’m doing now. Just live. Wake up, write, have some coffee, email, message, Facebook, and blog-chat with friends, have some breakfast with my hubby, more of the above, go for a walk, cook dinner… But here’s the thing. Even when I had the high-stress job I answered the question that way. I wouldn’t change anything. Even when my day looked like get up at 5, first con call at 6:30, lunch at 2, emails, status reports, deadlines, a boss…
So here’s my case against dreams. Be in your life and enjoy it. Enjoy whatever you are doing with no thought as to what will come of it. Having dreams and working toward them takes you out of the present. You just might get your dream that way. And when you do, you’ll be able to enjoy it because it will just be your life and you have plenty of practice enjoying your life.
I have taken a lot of pictures of dead trees because they have their own kind of sculptural beauty. But as we get further along in this drought, I thought I would start appreciating living trees!
I hope they all survive.
I’m very happy to be on a “writer retreat.” One of my critique partners moved away almost 2 years ago and is back for a visit. We’re spending a few days surrounding a Donald Maass workshop (The Fire in Fiction) to talk about our goals, projects and life. While technology has allowed us to continue meeting via Google chat, face-to-face time satisfies a human need for connection on a deeper level, I find. What do you think?
Although we haven’t earned spring or summer in California because we’ve had a long string of days like this (today):
I’m still excited by the first signs of spring. Look at this little visitor who came to our driveway a couple days ago.
I’ve been writing for a long time. I still have so much to learn, but some things are getting easier.
I did not love being a beginner writer. I declared my major English in college during my first English class because I found it so hard to express my ideas and I wanted to be as articulate as the teacher. I sought out writing in all my jobs and ended with an 18 year career in technical writing, and though I’ve been writing and studying fiction for many years, I consider myself about 30 years old (assuming a 100 year lifetime, hopefully). I still have tons to learn (one of the things I love about writing) but am able to write and edit my stories. (A new novel is in the works!)
I’ve been taking photos for a year now. My blog made me do it! Seriously, I love shooting photos and sharing them with you and really love looking at your photos. Then I wanted to do some art and quickly grew frustrated with all the supplies and mess. Although it is fun and I want to do more.
My husband observed this frustration and mess (he took the above photo), knows I love my computer, and bought me a Wacom Bamboo. The digitizer tablet came with Corel Painting Essentials, which I love. After trying digital painting and drawing, I found myself wanting to return to paper for those things, but really enjoying the auto photo painting.
I enjoy being a beginner with art.
Piano is something I spend a little time on every day.
I’m not an absolute beginner, though. I taught myself to read music as a kid and then had lessons. I would say I’m just a tad above beginner. I’m trying to unlearn bad habits and learn the timing carefully in the songs. I find this phase a tad frustrating so I set a modest goal to be able to play 4 songs well by the end of the year. This goal allows me to enjoy the process and not turn it into work.
Since I started skiing so young and grew up on a ski slope, I’m an expert in that realm, though on the bottom level of expert. I am not into extreme skiing and have no desire to improve.
I’m completely happy with my level and skiing for me is just about the joy of nature, the freedom of movement and the satisfying feeling of working my muscles. It’s also about sharing giggles, skiing stories, and good food and grog with friends and family.
With yoga I’m a total beginner. I avoided yoga because I’m stiff and the one time I went to a class everyone was doing amazing things and moving quickly through poses. I couldn’t keep up and it hurt. I hated yoga. But last fall, after getting off a 12 hour flight with an overall stiffness to my body that wouldn’t go away, and finding myself not at all motivated to get back into my weight-lifting routine, really in a state of desperation, I went to a yoga class at my YMCA.
It was called Adaptive Yoga. I figured if the yoga was adapted to people with various physical restrictions, it should work for me! And I stumbled upon an amazing teacher. I started going to all six of her YMCA classes because I love the work (enjoy the journey), want to make progress (a general, wide-open goal), and the classes make me feel well physically and mentally (a constructive, healthy journey). The teacher shares about her yoga journey and encourages us to embrace our own yoga journey while she carefully guides us through various poses.
I enjoy thinking of myself as being at the start of a lifelong journey of working with my muscles, bones, and joints, taking care of them, and increasing my ability to do poses. It should be frustrating to be so stiff. But beginning yoga has really taught me how to pursue an art:
This was the moon last Thursday night:
Flowers are starting to pop up around here in No. Cal. I took these with my Android phone while waiting for my friend to join me for lunch at Krung Thai. These are not up to iPhoneography snuff (what’s with the filmy effect?), but I wanted you to see early signs of Spring and had to use the tool I happened to have on hand.
Lunch was amazing. All I had was a vegetable saute, but the chef made that taste unbelievably good.
Today in honor of Valentine’s Day, I am doing very brief interviews with two romance authors.
Welcome back, Melinda Di Lorenzo! Thank you for joining us today. Can you share with us a bit about your experience with either the Romance genre or romance in life?
Melinda: Sure! On writing romance, until about four years ago, I didn’t even realize that I was writing romance! It came as a big surprise to me when I found the common thread in all of my stories – LOVE. I’m a sucker for it. If it makes your heart pound, or makes you sigh a little breathlessly, I’m hooked.
Nia: You definitely have the hang of this genre. I loved Tattoos and Tangles.
Find Melinda on the web here: http://www.melindadilorenzowrites.blogspot.com, on Twitter: @melindawrites and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelindaDiLorenzo.
Next up we have RoseAnne DeFranco.
I reviewed her book Return to Audubon Springs here. Welcome, RoseAnne! Can you give us a tidbit about romance or Romance from your life?
RoseAnn: Sure! People always ask if the men in the Brothers of Audubon Springs are based on someone I know. While they are not, they all possess some of my husband’s characteristics – a love of nature, fishing and family (See: MAMA’S BOY). Fishing, nature and beach excursions were a large part of how I fell in love with my husband. The series is an expression of that love.
Nia: Thank you, RoseAnn!
Find RoseAnn on the web here: www.radefranco.com, on Twitter: @radefranco, and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/roseanndefrancoauthor
As I shared in Being an occasionarian, I’ve shifted to mostly veg.
There are so many great things to eat that are vegetarian. Perhaps my favorite are the things you can have with afternoon tea. These are Kolaches, which I pulled from one of my favorite old cookbooks:
Here’s a better picture of the English shortbread cookies, which are also from Great Home Cooking in America. (I only have three shapes of cookie cutter, hence the shamrocks… but it is February, so the shape seems appropriate!)
These root vegetables and garlic look so pretty waiting to be prepared:
And then there’s breakfast:
I recently saw the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Vertigo, and ever since, I’ve wanted to have three dimensions in my photos. So I didn’t crop these photos, wanting to leave indicators of the three dimensions in them.
I was very caught up in this story right from the start. The voice of the heroine is young and edgy, yet vulnerable. The hero is very strong. And even though I was right in his head, the twist at the end came as a surprise.
The characters’ life stories were painful and realistic, making for well-motivated actions. This is a romance, and follows the story arcs expected in the genre, but does so in a convincing and natural way. Such organic arcs flow from strong, realistic character motivations.
Along with the characters, the suspense, and the mystery, I enjoyed the author’s light touch with the romance. Feelings grow naturally and realistically while intimate moments are written sparingly. Actually, all the writing is quite spare, making for a strong contemporary fiction feel and fast romantic-suspense pace.
We have the author here today to answer a few questions.
Melinda, welcome! Great book. Tattoos and Tangles is a real page turner. Where did you come up with the idea for this book?
Melinda: A friend said to me one day (half-joking), “You know what the world needs? More tattooed bad boys. That’s what you should write!” So I laughed and replied, “Fine. I can do that.” So I started with the opening scene.
Nia: I was going to ask what came first: the characters, the situation, the plot, the livelihood… Apparently the tattoos. Can you elaborate?
Melinda: The tattoo parlor came first, and Cass’s story. I knew exactly what had happened to her from the first page.
Nia: You wrote in multiple first person. I was excited to see how you handled this point-of-view (POV) choice because my co-author John Holland and I decided to go with this POV for our novel. We went back and forth with POV, sometimes writing in third person but always coming back to first. First just felt right. Why did you choose first person and did you write it another way and change it or decide on first person from the start?
Melinda: I almost always write in first person. It feels natural to me. I wrote Cass’s first two chapters, but knew as soon as I was done with them that John needed to get up close and personal, too.
Nia: Where are you in your writing career? How long have you been writing, what else have you published and where do you hope to go?
Melinda: I feel like I’m just getting started in the part of writing that equals a career, but I’ve been writing for as long as I could hold a pencil. If you ask my parents, they’ll tell you that my room was covered with story notes from the time I was about 8 years old. In addition to Tattoos and Tangles, I have two Indie novels, Snapshots by Laura and Long Way From Home, both available on Amazon. I have a New Adult Romance coming out with Harlequin in the early summer. I’m currently working on another Romantic Suspense and just hope to keep going forever!
Nia: Congratulations. You are off to a great start with the career phase of your writing. Can you tell us why you write?
Melinda: I have a lot of stories in my head. I feel like I have to get them out. Like REALLY have to.
Nia: What do you like to read?
Melinda: Just about everything. I love historical romance and romantic suspense. I also enjoy a good thriller. I decided a while back that I was going to write a Young Adult novel, so most recently I’ve been diving into those. Last year, I read 55 books!
Nia: Thank you for joining us, Melinda. Bloggees, you can find Tattoos and Tangles at the link below, and you can find Melinda on the web at the links below as well.
Tattoos and Tangles, by Melinda DiLorenzo
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MelindaDiLorenzo
Twitter: @melindawrites
Nicci Carrera 