St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England

One of the highlights of our trip to London was a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral. Truth be told, the only reason I even knew about St. Paul's was because I watched Mary Poppins many times as a kid. "Feed the Birds" was one of my all time favorite musical numbers and I sang it more times than I care to remember. (I sang a lot of My Fair Lady songs too.) 

Anyway, St. Paul's has a magical place in my memories so it was a natural spot to visit. I had no idea when it was built or why or really anything else about it. I also didn't know they would let you climb the spiraling staircases all the way to the top of the dome. There's a narrow, circular balcony you might be able to make out in the first picture, between the top of the dome and the base of the structure on top.

The entire structure is pretty massive and I had a hard time getting a picture of the entire thing from the street. Here's the front.

You enter the door behind the small, white tent on the left. The giant door in the center weighs a ton and has a special mechanism to operate it. They only open it on special occasions, like royal weddings. We just barely missed the last tour for awhile when we got there, so some of the docents-in-training took us on a tour to practice on us. I think there were three or four of them, which was fun, but also a little crazy because they were all throwing out interesting facts and tid bits about the church. 

One of the most amazing stories that stuck with me was how civilians were stationed on the roof during the air raids in WW II to put out fires so the whole structure didn't go up in flames. There's also a chapel in the end of the church dedicated to the Americans that gave their lives in WW II. The British definitely haven't forgotten those terrible days.

The current cathedral is the last of four constructed on this site, which dates from 604 AD. The one before burned down in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The docents told us about how the Anglican church was purposefully designed without a lot of colors, so that it stood out from the Catholic Westminster Cathedral. Christopher Wren's plans were accepted in 1675 and construction lasted until 1710. The colors inside the dome were added years later. It's apparently the second largest dome in the world.

The docents are also told us about the staircase to the top of the dome. The famous "whispering gallery" was closed, but visitors are still allowed to climb the stairs and look out over the city. It's 530 steps up there. The stairs start off OK, fairly wide and solid concrete, but the further you go, the narrower and narrower it gets. And then you get to the metal spiral staircases. The kind with holes in the steps so you can see through just how high up you are. I lost count how many of those we did: staircase, landing, staircase, landing. Finally you make it to the very top and step outside. The view on the very clear day we were there was spectacular.

 Looking down on St. Paul's matching bell towers and the Thames River

We could have spent a lot more time at St. Paul's and I wish we could have, but we were off to see the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels that afternoon. There's way too much to see in London and it would probably take you an entire lifetime to see it all. So glad we got to see it on this trip~

Well, that sucked! Goodbye 2016!! And good riddance!

It's no secret 2016 sucked for a lot of reasons, but it also sucked for me personally because I was diagnosed with cancer. I feel pretty lucky I'm still here to tell the tale. Last winter/spring was a scary time to be me, but by June my treatment was well underway and I was getting better. I have a lot to be thankful for. Early detection and treatment saved my life. If I'd ignored it, it could have spread and caused me a lot more heartache.

Two other women I love battled cancer this year. One is gone now and the other is still in the midst of the fight. I could easily be there myself one day, but for now, I'm focused on living the best life possible. That means taking my meds and taking care of myself, including eating well and exercising. Did you know that drinking alcohol daily raises your cancer risk? I never drank much before, but now I have even more incentive not to.

But more than that, I have a renewed desire to travel. To see new places I've always heard about. I want to actually go there instead of putting it off to some magical future when I have loads of time and money. There is no such time. We only have today. This is it. This is what we get.

I read a great quote this year - we don't know how we'll die, but we can decide how we will live.

The way I want to live is this: I want the peace in my heart that comes from knowing I did all the things I wanted to and never lost my sense of adventure. I want to be a citizen of the world and I want my children to know that sense of wonder too.

For many years I've blogged about New Year's resolutions, but this year I spent a lot of time giving myself permission not to do a lot of things because I needed to rest and recuperate. For 2017, I only resolve to live. Really, truly live. I hope you do too~

Summer's Last Hurrah on #MondayBlogs

I know I always say go somewhere you've never been before, but this year I went somewhere I haven't been in a long time - Yellowstone.  The last time I was there was 2005, so it's been ten years. It's changed some. Now, three million people visit Yellowstone a year, so it's getting really crowded with people. So much so that the parking lots couldn't even hold everyone's vehicles and folks are parking along the highways, making trails where they aren't supposed to. As a result, we saw a lot less wildlife than usual.  We did see these lazy elk in Gardiner, Montana.

And finally after much searching, we found the bison on the east side of the park. I was starting to wonder where they all went! I almost asked the activists who were demonstrating against hazing of buffalo that leave the park.

Old Faithful was magnificent as always and the hot pools/springs were impressive, although they seemed to have less water than I remembered from years ago. I hope it's not because of the drought.

I'm afraid people are loving Yellowstone to death. It is worth seeing, but wow, there sure are a lot of us.  No trip is complete without checking out the historic lodges. Here's a pic of the inside of the Old Faithful Lodge where we enjoyed huckleberry ice cream. Pretty cool. *apologies to the random people in the pic- you were in my shot! ;)

I took the opportunity to take a break from writing and editing, which I've been doing all summer it feels like!  I have two manuscripts I'm querying and I third I need to get edited for query, not to mention the two books I'm getting ready to self publish. (If anyone is a Microsoft Word format wizard, please help!)

When I got home, I did a bit of editing on Crawdad, mostly just adding dates to the chapter headings. Reading back over it, I realized how much I loved the story. Oh man, it's good stuff. I really want to share it with you. Cross your fingers I get someone to publish it cause it's some of my best and I don't say that lightly. C'mon publishing gods! Bring me some good news!

Feels like summer is coming to an end. My kids go back to school next week, but I'm not ready to let it go. At least I have my pictures to help hold on to the memories~

My Hawaiian Getaway~

Once again, the importance of getting out of one's comfort zone was made clear to me this Spring Break. This time I was lucky enough to go to Hawaii! For this desert dweller, it was like going to a whole 'nother world.

I resolved this year to do something I'd never done before, so I signed up for whale watching and snorkeling. This guy with the ukulele was playing the theme to Gilligan's Island as we boarded the boat...it was indeed a three hour tour! wise guy ;)

 

 

We saw a humpback whale surface a few times, but it was pretty far away. It was still a thrill to know that they're out there. The humpbacks spend the winter in Hawaii before they migrate north for the summer. Pretty smart critters.

 

 

Then we snorkeled off the back of the boat here~

 

 

 

I know that weather looks a bit ominous, but we were on the drier south side of the island of Oahu and it didn't rain while we were there. Turns out, the weather hits the north side of the island first and drops most of it's rain there before it reaches the south side. The result is a continual flow of clouds and sun all day. The trade winds kept the 80 degree temps from ever being too hot. I never even saw a mosquito!  In fact, this was the day I got a little sunburned on my back and shoulders, probably during the snorkeling.

 





I really hoped to attend a yoga class on the beach at the resort, but it just didn't work out as it wasn't offered every day. However, I did manage swim and luau plenty. I also did a treasure hunt with Ryan on the grounds of our resort with a special tablet to give us clues to the secret locations. It sent some kind of a wireless signal to make the "treasures" appear - lighting tiki torches, erupting the volcano, surfacing a turtle in the koi pond. The funniest part was secretly making water squirt the swimmers in the various pools :)  hehe!

 

I hope you enjoyed your spring break too peeps! Now back to the work of writing, renewed and refreshed. :) Peace~

The Resolution Time of Year~

Here I am again, thinking about resolutions. I've accomplished much and would like to do even more. These are just a few of my wishes for 2015~


1. Find the writing/exercise/work balance

I've found over the last couple years it's very hard to all three things equally. If I work hard at the day job, the writing and/or the exercise tends to slip. Being a mother, I'm a natural multi-tasker, but I often feel I'm tasked out some days! When do I fit it all in?? I have to get back on my exercising track. After spending much of 2014 writing, I fear that's the piece that's slipped the most. I have a FitDesk that my son spends more time on than I do. That's going to have to change.

2. Promote my new book

Vessel is coming out from Month9Books in May 2015!  It's been a long wait and I'm excited to have a new book out! I've been plotting a sequel in my mind for this one, reading some scifi to get my head around it. I hope to actually write a draft in 2015, just in case the publisher decides its sequel-worthy. :)

3. Finish what I've started

I wrote two new drafts in 2014 that are both far from finished! 2015 is the year they get done and sent out for query. I would like to resolve to have an new agent in 2015 too. I've had a few nibbles, but it's a lot of waiting to see, which I'm not very good at.  I guess I'll just have to resolve to be more patient, but if I have anything to do with it, 2015 will be the year The Color of Water finds a publishing home.

4. Do something I've never done before

Not sure what this will be, but I'll let you know when I figure it out. It won't be anything crazy like bungee jumping or climbing Mt. Everest, but it will be good. I'm sure an opportunity will present itself.

5. Read more widely

I read a lot of young adult, which I enjoy, but I want to read outside my usual stuff, just to have a better idea of what's out there. The YA I write is not like a lot of other YA out there. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but I like to think it's the result of reading outside my niche and pulling in some unique elements. (all right, cue eye roll.)

 

 

6. Write more stories

 

There are a lot more stories out there I want to write: more steampunk, more gothic, more scifi. Last June I was able to write a complete first draft in a month. It might be a complete wreck, but it can be fixed. A first draft is half the battle and having an outline helps so much. I resolve to have a new outline ready to go for JuNoWriMo again this year and to continue with the monthly writing challenges I've been participating in. It's so nice to know you have buddies out there in cyber-land chasing the same dreams you are and sharing the struggle with a sympathetic ear.

 

How about you? What are your plans for 2015?

Looking back

I realize I said I would blog about my trip to Oregon, but there was so much going on that week, it proved rather impossible.  Now that I've been home a bit, I've had time to reflect on the trip. This might be a bit on the long side, so bear with me. There is a lot to tell.  We got there just in time to see this sunset, best one of the whole week as it turned out.

 

 

 

I ate lots of delicious seafood. If I recall, I had salmon, halibut, shrimp, crab, and clams. Some people pretended to eat seafood, like Ryan with this string of gooseneck barnacles.

And some people, like Hannah, don't like seafood at all, which is too bad.  (Check out Hannah's face when I suggested we could eat this dead crab we found on the beach.)



We made some fun side trips to various places along the coast.  One day, we went to Cape Mears to see the shortest lighthouse I've ever seen and the Octopus Tree, a crazy big Sitka spruce.

 

My favorite trip was the day trip to Cannon Beach, to see all the beautiful flowers and shop at their epic candy store, and visit Ecola State Park, to see the stars! Starfish, that is. Hundreds of them.

 

                                                                          

And of course, I attended the Oregon Coast Children's Book Writer's Conference in Oceanside, Oregon.  I learned a few things that week, some of it in the class from the actual instruction, but also outside the actual class. I've been to a lot of writer's conferences, so I've heard a lot of the course material before. That doesn't mean it isn't useful. It's just that I already knew it, so I started thinking~ what else am I getting out of this?

 

One thing I learned is not everybody can help you. Maybe that doesn't make much sense, so let me explain. There were several editors and agents at the class, but they didn't really work on the kind of material I'm writing right now. They could offer friendly advice, but they weren't my "in" to the publishing industry. On my way to the conference, I received an email from an agent I had recently queried. No, he didn't want to represent me either. It was the second agent rejection I had received on the manuscript. I had a third agent query out, but have never heard back, so I assume that's a 'no' too. An agent at the conference also rejected my offer to query, so that made four. I didn't really feel sad about it though; I'm getting used to it. The way I look at it, none of them could help me. Then, something exciting happened...

On Friday, late in the day after class was over, a publisher emailed and said they wanted to make an offer on the manuscript.  Finally, someone in a position to help me! So maybe it's just a matter of finding the right person?

 

The other thing I learned is this~ in the end, only kindness matters. Of course, you and I already know it, but it's always good to be reminded of this. I came to a class of strangers on Monday morning and left with many new friends on Friday. The kindness of the instructors in their thoughtful critiques was outstanding, a far cry from what I remember in English class. (*Note to self, blog about that!) The kindness of our hosts, David and his lovely family, was a refreshing escape from the rush-rush, 'I don't have time for you' real world. David, in particular, left me with the feeling that I could contact him any time and he would do his utmost to help me if he could. That's pretty impressive for someone who's about to leave for Morocco. :)  And that's a rare thing for anyone these days.

 

So maybe the take away is this~ we leave our footprints everywhere we go, including on the hearts of others~ always remember to tread lightly.

Blog #21 Homeward bound~

As much as I love to travel, I also love going home and it’s time. Dorothy said it best “There’s no place like home.” For me, it’s back to work and the heat of summer. I hope my tomato plants didn’t burn up in the greenhouse. L I guess I’ll know tonight.

I have a pile of manuscripts to critique for a group of people in Boise, due late August. I gotta get crackin’! I don’t have a regular critique group, for a variety of reasons, but I try to take every chance I can to get a critique. 

This last week has been a lot of critiquing for me, by several people. I met with an agent, a writer, or an editor every day of the week, to talk about my writing. Thank you, David Greenberg, for a great conference! I learned some new things and had some old things reinforced. And of course, I was able to meet with agents and editors I would normally never get the chance to meet. I’m always grateful for that opportunity. You are a perfectly delightful, gracious host beyond compare. :)

I’ve had my share of bumps and ego bruising in my years of critique, but they’re usually always pointing me toward something better. I do my best to take the critique in the spirit in which it was intended.  It sucks, but you have to take the experience and learn from it. You’ll know you’re improving when people are having a hard time finding anything negative to say about a piece.  If you keep at, it’ll come; I promise.

Blog #20 Don't Knock it till you try it~

One morning, outside the writer's workshop classroom, I was waiting with some other classmates for the room to open and they were reminiscing about games they played as kids. There was hopscotch, kick the can, jacks, and marbles. And of course baseball. But then the conversation took a funny turn, as conversations often do, toward the comparison to today. “Kids today don't play motor skills games, except with their thumbs.” “Kids don't go outside.” “They're not interested in those things.”

 

And I thought to myself, because I'm not a very outspoken person, “And you people think you want to write books for these kids you don't even respect?” They won't get very far. If there's no respect for the reader, and that's just what this is, there will be no respect for the writer. Judging kids today by your experiences without bothering to understand their experiences and perspectives is a mistake and it will ruin any writing you do for children.

Maybe that’s why they say writing for children is just like writing for adults, but harder. You have to set aside your superior attitudes about the way things should be or your misty-eyed, sugar-coated versions of the past being better than the future to do it well. There is no room for nostalgia in children's literature. Young readers want the best you've got.

Blog #17 On the Edge of Land and Sea

If this blog reaches you on July 17, it means I’ve found a wifi coffee shop here in Oregon and somehow managed to upload a few words. The house we’re staying in is a lovely little cottage, but it has no cell service or wifi. Not even the kind you can steal from your neighbor, not that I ever would. ;) My phone has effectively become an expensive, electric brick.

Oceanside is really just a collection of houses perched on a steep hill beside the ocean. The night we arrived, Ryan and I went down to check out the beach. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so cold on a beach. The wind chill was bone withering. Coming from ninety degree temps to this was a shock. I found myself wishing I had brought more coats, jackets, sweaters, and hoodies! Where I grew up, going to the beach meant shorts and sunburns, so it’s always an adjustment coming to Oregon.

Still, we’ve had fun. It is good to unplug a bit, but I’m not sure I’d say I’ve loved it. I’ve missed refreshing my blog forty times a day and responding to your comments. I’ve missed Twitter because I’m addicted to it. I admit it.  I scheduled several blogs to post in advance of the trip here because I thought I’d be busy, not because I knew I wouldn’t have access! Good thing too, or I’d be way behind on my #31day blog challenge. J

More to come about the writing conference…stay tuned, same Bat channel!

Blog #12 A To Do List a Mile Long~

Ok, so this post is me whining a bit about all the things I’ve gotten myself into this month. You can click past it or you can bear with me and maybe give me a bit of encouragement if you like.

First off, I don’t know why I decided to do the 31 Day Blog Challenge #31dbc this month, I’m so crazy-busy, but I’m glad I did.  It’s been great and I’ve blogged tons more than normal already. I’ve met some cool bloggers, learned some interesting things, and broadened my perspectives by reading the blogs of people I might never have met before. For selfish reasons, I wanted to gain more blog/website traffic and promote my upcoming book. I know of at least one person who discovered my self-published work through the blog, so makes it worth the effort. J

Next, I need to prepare for this writing workshop I’m attending next week. I sorta know what I need to bring, but I sorta don’t.  I figure I’ll take hard copies of two of my works in progress. I have a “consult” set up with an agent there some time during the week, but it’s not like the agent has reviewed my work beforehand. I’m supposed to use the time to pick her brain about any subject I like, but I need to figure out what that is!!  Do I ask for a query critique? A ten page manuscript review?  Maybe help with a synopsis…that could be useful.

This consult is unlike any I’ve ever done; all the others have been a ten page critique. I suppose I could just ask questions about the industry and ask for advice, but isn’t that what the conference is about??  I think part of my problem is I’m torn over whether I even want an agent as this point. For so long, I was operating under the assumption I had to have an agent.  With the ease of self-publishing and small presses that don’t require agented submissions, maybe I don’t?  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want a cheerleader to go out and find me a lucrative contract. That would be wonderful! I would be thrilled!  But I also know if I don’t have an agent, it’s not the end of the world and it’s not the end of my writing journey. I’m still going to write and put it out there.

But honestly, I haven’t given any of this serious thought because I’m so wrapped up in travel logistics – who’s gonna feed the animals? Have I done everything at work that needs done before I’m gone? What do I need to pack? Laundry!  I feel like I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Ack!  Wish me luck~

Blog #8 "Off to Camp” or “The Importance of Travel”

Well, my Hannah bee is off to Sawtooth camp this week.  Her brother Ryan is excited he gets the TV all to himself!

at the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery~

 

When Hannah gets back we’ll be off on our trip to Oregon. After that, she gets a week at home and then she’s on the road to Grandma’s for a week or two. She’s a busy girl.  School starts August 19, so she doesn’t have much time left to fit it all in, but it’s good for her. Travel is good for all of us actually.

Redfish Lake~

I know, you’re saying, “it’s expensive” or “I don’t have the time”, but it doesn’t have to be very far or very long to have a benefit.  Seeing new things and having new, out of the ordinary experiences energizes us.  When we’re little, everything is new and exciting to us. As we get older, we tend to fall into a rut, mostly because of our daily obligations. If we let ourselves stay in that space too long, we get tired and sometimes cynical.  We have to break out of routine every so often to keep ourselves sane.

Sawtooth Valley, Idaho~

My mom came to visit recently and we took several day trips. None of them were more than two hours away, but it was nice to get out of the house and see some new scenery for a change. I want to challenge you this summer to go somewhere you’ve never been.  Then come back and tell me how much you loved it because I know you will ;)