12 Truths About Life

I came across this TED talk by writer Anne Lamott while I was doing some research on reading and literacy for my work as an instructional coach. The author I was reading had mentioned it in conjunction with making sure we give students enough time and room to DO instead of just passively sit and absorb. However, in listening to Lamott, I discovered a treasure trove of fantastic information that applies to each of us.

Her comments about writers--why and how we do what we do--really touched a nerve. In addition to the gems I can hold for my own writing, there's a wealth of wisdom we could apply to helping students find their voice and the freedom to develop it.

So, I'll quit pontificating and simply give you the link to watch and listen on your own. 

Let me know what you think!

From Writing to Gardening: The "Blessings" of Abundance

In my spare time, when I’m not working or writing (which lately seems to be work), my family and I are growing a garden. Like many projects around our place, the garden has gotten much, much larger than I ever envisioned. In fact, I believe we could probably feed our entire neighborhood. If you’ve ever grown a garden, then you know that vegetables have a bad habit of ripening all at once. (Next year I plan to plant one seed per day to avoid this thoughtlessness on the part of my plants.) The net effect is that I’ve eaten and frozen broccoli to the point I don’t think I can look at another stalk anytime soon. Kale is my new best friend because it keeps doing its thing for weeks and weeks without bolting. Bonus: it’s good for you too. The problem now is cucumbers.

Over the past two days, Harvey and I have canned 24 quarts of dill pickles. We’ve had sliced cucumbers for lunch and dinner. And… We haven’t even made a dent in what’s coming in the door. Don’t get me wrong. I like pickles. However, our household can only consume so many pickles in a year. Now we face the inevitable question: what can we do with all these cucumbers? You see, our two rows (80 foot long rows!) of cucumbers have just gotten cranked. So I decided to find out if there were any non-food related things for which cucumbers could be used. Turns out, there’s quite a lot. Here’s some of the things I plan on trying: 1. Ant control – I checked three different web sites that recommend spreading cucumber peelings, the bitterer the better, around the places where you believe ants might be entering your home. I’m going to assume for cucumber usage purposes that the little pests are entering via the entire circumference of my house. With generously peeled peelings, I believe I can use about 352 cucumbers for this project. 2. Reduce swelling – we all know the cucumber slices on the eyes trick from all those spa scenes in chick flicks. I like this idea, but there are two problems: my son and husband aren’t keen on a spa day, and this isn’t going to use nearly enough cucumber. However, curing eye swelling is just one trick. Apparently cucumbers are good at dealing with another “swelling”: cellulite. Again, my expert web sites recommend rubbing slices of cucumber on cellulite to help tighten skin. If rubbing works…why not a bath? That should use bushels of cucumbers, and I might be able to fit back into my skinny swimsuit. 3. Cucumber will clean stainless steel sinks and faucets. What do you know, I have a stainless steel kitchen sink…and dishwasher…and cookware. Yep, mass cucumber usage here. 4. Squeak eliminator – toss out the WD40 and rub a cucumber slice on that noisy hinge. I wonder if it works on knee joints? 5. Shoe polish – I don’t see much mileage in this one. I think I’m down to about two pairs of shoes that actually need polishing. 6. Sunburn relief – if you don’t have aloe, use cucumber. Now, I might be able to use this since I’m fair-complexioned, but hubby and the kid have that olive insta-tan skin…damn them.

There are several more uses along with plenty of reasons to consume cucumber. It boosts your energy, cures a hangover, gets rid of bad breath, and lowers blood pressure. I think it might be able to bring about world peace too, but I haven’t seen that use…yet. There is one thing that gardening does add, whether it's cucumbers or the other vegetables we have coming on: it's a wonderful stress reliever and a great way to take a break from spending so much time in front of the computer either writing or promoting my books. Check out my website at www.laurabrowningbooks.com I've got a series out that I'm sure you'll enjoy.

Life's Little Blessings

As I sit here at the computer this Christmas Eve, unable to really concentrate on serious writing, bored with reading, and unwilling to do anymore work around the house, I have spent some time thinking back on 2014, only a week away from coming to an end.

It has been a year filled with change for our family.

My husband lost his job in February. While it has forced us to live on my income as a teacher and the royalties I make as a writer (not yet where I wish them to be!), I considered it to be a blessing. For the past six years, he had worked at a job far enough from our home that he had to live there during the week and was only home for weekends. Maintaining a family life long distance is never easy. It also brings with it enough increased expenses in maintaining a second household (even though his lodgings were rent-free) that I often questioned whether we were really better off.

Adjusting our lifestyle to such a cut in income has had its ups and downs, sometimes like the most insane roller coaster ride you can ever imagine. Yet each time that I have grown concerned that we couldn’t possibly make it through a month, somehow we did. Royalty checks, big and small, arrived just in the nick of time, or my husband picked up some freelance work that helped to tide us over. A litter of puppies brought in additional income.

We planted a garden, then added a watermelon and cantaloupe patch in a different location on our mini-farm. Plentiful rain and moderate temperatures provided us with an abundance of fresh vegetables and incredibly flavorful melons. A neighbor killed and butchered one of his steers and brought us a box of beef. Just before Thanksgiving, my husband expressed the wish that he could add a deer ham to our smoker, and less than an hour later we were hauling an eight point buck home in the back of our truck.

In May, I earned my masters in education. Thanks to a gift from two very good friends, we had gas money so we could attend commencement in Virginia Beach. The pomp and ceremony had a wonderful bonus effect: my son, who was not at all excited about his own upcoming high school graduation ceremony, suddenly looked forward to the event. The smile on his face after that ceremony will live in my memory forever. School was not the easy academic ride for him that it had been for me and his father.

With the change in his employment, my husband decided to take a hard look at what he wanted to do. He had already completed a course in fixing small engines, which—to my thinking—paid for itself when he was able to fix our riding lawnmower himself.  He is now back in school and has completed his first semester of a very fine gunsmithing program.

My career as a writer has continued to grow and expand this year. I had a book release under a different pen name in July, which has done very well. My next release as Laura Browning, Special Delivery, will come out May 12, 2015, and is already available for pre-order.

Just this week, my husband finally secured a part-time job that he can fit around his schedule as a student and as the coach of a high school fencing team. My son has matured during this year, now holding down two part-time jobs as he continues to explore what he would like to do for a career.

In all, though this year has been filled with tremendous change, it has also been filled with such timely blessings, I can’t help but believe in the divine hand of providence at work. Through the many adventures and misadventures during my life, I have always felt I must have a very special guardian angel. Now I am sure of it.

I don’t wear my faith on my sleeve. Maybe that’s a function of being a Lutheran, maybe it’s just my personality. However, I have spent many moments this year thanking God for his assistance in so many little ways. So this holiday season, when we think about the miracle of faith embodied in the birth of God’s son, remember that miracles occur every day in many little ways. It might be the garden blessed with good weather or a timely gift from a friend. It might even be that longer than usual wait in a checkout line that put you two cars behind the impaired driver instead of right next to him when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed.

As Walt Whitman says, “Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”

So as 2014 winds down and 2015 begins, remember to look for the best in every situation. Find those little blessings that can brighten your day and help you brighten the day of someone else. 

All I can say is Wow!

At the risk of sounding like the wide-eyed newbie author...I am attending my first Romance Writers of America convention. After finishing my first full day here, I've had the chance to gawk at some of my favorite authors -- Kristan Higgins, Robyn Carr, and Jayne Anne Krentz. I listened to a really powerful and motivational speech by Cathy Maxwell at our keynote luncheon and left it really uplifted. It was great to find out that even authors I consider to be "Super-authors" have some of the same jitters I do. It's humbling to see so many men and women who've come here not only to hone their craft, but help others do the same. So a big thank you to all the people who are taking time out of their lives to help the rest of us figure out how to work our way through the world of a writing career. The sessions I've attended have already helped me get a better handle on who I am as a writer...and where I want to go. As Angela James said this morning in the spotlight on Carina Press "There is no one right way" to publish. What we should be looking for is the best way for us...and that means matching our strengths and weaknesses to find the right fit with a publisher. In the end, we all come away winners. I think Robyn Carr had the right idea too when she told writers in the contemporary chat audience that rather than planning a series arc too far in advance, writers should concentrate on making the book they're working on the best book it can be. And to my husband who wondered if we should really spend the money on this...oh yeah...definitely!

Hey, Mom, I'm Finally Learning Grammar!

Teaching has taught me a couple of very valuable lessons: how much I still don’t know, and how fortunate I was in the circumstances in which I grew up.

One of the facts every teacher understands is that to own knowledge, you must be able to impart that knowledge to another person. That’s what teachers do every day, but it’s also an excellent tool in observing whether students truly own what you’ve taught them. When they can teach that knowledge to a classmate—it’s theirs forever.

That’s been my experience with grammar, and that’s also where the second part of my valuable learning has come in. You see, I grew up in a household where writing and speaking correctly were simply facts of life. My father, who was a high school dropout, rose to become a top executive in a television broadcasting company. He did it in the way many self-taught people do, by emulating those he admired and by grasping firmly onto any knowledge he could. He read voraciously and had an extensive active vocabulary. While my father devoured a lot of non-fiction and bestsellers, my mother gravitated toward the classics (although she does read what I write – thanks, Mom!). In addition to plenty of time spent reading or locating books in the library to read, we were also a family of debaters. We loved to argue and prove points and learned to do so in a friendly way.

All of this is simply to say that what I learned of the English language was largely through osmosis. I understood the principles of good grammar because that was what we used in our home on a daily basis. Utilizing an extensive vocabulary was second nature, and if I encountered a word I didn’t know, I was either given a definition or synonym, or directed to the dictionary.

Did I pay attention to grammar instruction in school? Oh no. I yawned through it and relied on my innate ability to slide through—like many other students, I’m sure. It wasn’t until I began learning German that I finally discovered the disadvantages of not having learned the difference between indirect and direct objects, of understanding the parts of speech and how each word functions in a sentence. If I could go back (lol) I swear I would pay more attention to that sentence diagramming we did in 5th grade.

Life has handed me a second chance, though, to learn the technical aspects of grammar that I ignored during my education. That’s one of the great aspects of being a teacher. States require continuing education in order to renew teaching licenses. So right now, I am in the midst of an online grammar course offered by one of the state universities. This time—I’m paying attention because I expect it to pay off in two ways. First of all, a better understanding of the mechanics of the English language should help me improve my instruction to my own students. There is also the payoff in my writing career. I hope, and I’m sure my editors do too, that it will make editing and revising a much less laborious endeavor. We’ll see.

Sometimes It's Good to Kick Back and Relax

In my real life, I teach. Some days are rewarding, Some days are frustrating and some are both. They are always busy. When I worked in television news, each day built to a crescendo that culminated in a newscast, but then the day was over. One thing I can tell you about being an English teacher, the pile of "to be graded" papers constantly renews itself. Rarely is there an occasion when I leave feeling my work is "done."
But I do leave it. Unless it is the direst of emergencies, I do not bring school work home.

Home is for my other work--being a writer. Somewhere in there, I sometimes manage to squeeze mom and wife. Okay, so my son's dinner came from the place with the golden arches tonight, but it was payday, and that was his request.

The one thing I have come to realize is babies and puppies have the right idea. Sometimes you just have to kick back, relax and let it all hang out. LOL.

It's a Book not a Baby!

Just try telling that to an author. So, here are the top ten ways in which having a book published is like having a baby.
#10. Coming up with a title is almost as involved as naming a child.
#9. And you thought getting a due date from the OB was hard...
#8. Creating a book idea is nearly as fun as creating a kid. (Yes, honey, just nearly.)
#7. Edits and Revisions are like the last miserable month of pregnancy.
#6. You're just as excited showing off your cover art as you were those first ultrasound pictures.
#5. Creating an author website's a lot like decorating the nursery.
#4. Like diapers, promotional items never come in just the right sized package for the right price.
#3. Spending hours and hours sitting glued to a computer is just as devastating to your figure as pregnancy.
#2. Your spouse and children will complain you're spending too much time with the book and ignoring them.
and #1. When the release date arrives, the book's coming whether you're ready or not.

But you know what, when it's all said and done, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world. So I guess it really is like having a child.

Confessions of a Pantser

Okay, for those of you who don't know what a pantser is (and I'd been doing it for years before I had a label for it), we're the writers who shudder at the idea of plot charts, detailed character sketches and reams of paper devoted to mapping out your story. My stomach's starting to knot just thinking about it. I prefer to let things flow. Unfortunately, life sometimes intrudes on that free flow of creative juices. It can be as simple as needing to stop to fix dinner, or more complicated -- like when an idea is really cooking and you also have information to complete and email back to two editors from two different publishing houses regarding stories that are not the current WIP.

Yes, that's a good problem to have. But it's still an issue for a pantser. Just look in my files at the stories that stalled. But if I'm ever going to get my write-it-while-it's-hot mentality wrapped around the business of making money writing books, then I have to figure this out. I actually believe I've hit on the correct way to approach this. Unfortunately the lure of the "want to" is still outstripping the call of the "need to."

I think (because I haven't actually tested it yet) it boils down to -- God forbid -- organizing my time. Whoo...I'm getting that knot in my stomach again. I need to put the needs as the first thing I get out of the way before the characters in the WIP demand my attention. Easier said than done.

But I'm open for ideas from any fellow pantsers out there who suffer from this dilemma.

The Importance of Being Flexible

My mother just sent me a cartoon by Dave Coverly that reminded me very humorously what it means to be a writer, not just of fiction, but in any sense of the word. It shows a poor, hapless author sitting across the desk of an editor who is obviously reviewing her work. He says, "We loved all the words in your manuscript, but we were wondering if you could maybe put them in a completely different order."

Whether it is a news story, a script for a corporate video, or a manuscript, it isn't easy to have someone make changes to what I've written. After all, I labored and sweated and agonized over whatever it is that I wrote. It should be perfect. I want it to be perfect. I want my editor, reader or viewer to find it equally perfect.

And that so often is not the case.

Many years ago, when I began in television news with my cocky "I'm a Mizzou Journalism Grad" tattooed all over my ego, it led to some explosive outbursts of artistic temperament. (Translate that into kicked trash cans and arm cleared desktops and you'll get the picture.) My first lesson in biting my tongue and making changes was in writing to please a client when I worked on my first corporate video. I believe it was draft 10 of the script that finally gained approval... After all, if I didn't please them, I didn't get paid. Starvation is an incredible motivator in the art of flexibility.

In television news, deadlines often inhibit just how much perfection can be attained. "Just crank it out" is a common refrain. But working under deadlines did teach me to write fast and write right, if not always as poetically as I would like. Having the opportunity over the years to write and produce several specials and documentaries was the dessert after a steady diet of meat and vegetables.

Now, writing fiction, I have that luxury to take my time, to find just the right word, to rework a sentence or a scene until it flows as I like it. And guess what? It's still not perfect. But I now know that I can change what I've written. I am capable of it, and I'm willing to do it. And God bless the technology that now makes that infinitely easier than the days of typewriters and carbons!

But can flexibility go too far? Yes. The cartoon is a prime example of that. While I like to take the attitude that I can make almost any change for which an editor asks, there are times when I believe I must stand up for my characters. (Okay, yes, they are make believe people I have created from my own imagination, but they do take on a life and personality of their own). If I feel that a change is fundamentally in opposition to how a reader would expect this character to act, then I must defend my writing. Flexibility should work both ways. It is the give and take between an editor and an author that I believe results in the best product possible.

So ultimately, the important thing to remember is to be flexible, but not breakable.