I Hope This Is A Four-Act Play!

I’ve reached that stage in life—the ‘Third Act’ (a term attributed to Jane Fonda)—where one spends as much time looking back at what has been as one spends looking forward to what might be. It's a time of reinvention and re-creation.

Becoming a woman is an amazing journey. We have all kinds of markers we assign to it—a girl gets her first period, she’s a woman; a young woman sets out on her own for the first time, she’s a woman; a young woman becomes a wife and starts a family, she’s a woman. Well, you get the idea.

Life has been separated into stages: infancy, childhood, youth, young adulthood, adulthood, middle age, and old age. This seems way too complicated and involves too many transitions for me. But I do think there’s a missing piece in here. It can be ever so brief, but it’s there. It’s that transition between middle age and old age. I don’t have a name for it, but I know it. I reached that stage at somewhere around fifty and I truly believe that’s when I became a woman, when I embraced womanhood. I orchestrated my own fiftieth birthday party down to the dinner napkins. I was determined to make it a true celebration of what had been and what was to come and I was the only one who knew me well enough to do it, much to the dismay of my friends who wanted to plan a party.

I found a great old photo of my parents probably taken around the time I was a toddler. I transferred my favorite baby picture onto the front of a tee-shirt with my birth date and, on the back, transferred the photo of my parents with a heading: Brought to you by…. It meant much more to me than those in attendance at my celebration could have realized. I was owning who I was and where I came from as I prepared to move forward. A lot changed that year. I not only turned fifty, I packed up and moved nine hundred miles away from home and took on a new job. I had a wonderful, spacious new apartment all to myself. I lived with ME. I took a step into that next invisible stage that was no longer middle age (let’s be honest, fifty is only the middle if you’re sure you’ll make it to one hundred) and not yet old age.

The following few years were a time not unlike adolescence but without all the raging hormones. (Okay, maybe not ALL.) It was a time of uncertainty, searching, trial and error, alternately loving and hating myself, discovering new truths and passions. It was a time of anticipation, knowing something new and exciting and fresh was just ahead. I only had to keep moving forward and keep my eyes (and heart and mind) open. It was a time of falling in love. With me. With the woman I was becoming. She was stronger, more perceptive, more certain in her opinions and quicker to express them. If I’d become panty hose, I’d have been called No Nonsense. My tolerance for nonsense was depleted. Every moment has purpose, meaning. Now that’s not to say there’s no fun. I became my own best source of laughter, much freer to see the humor in my own attitudes and actions and foibles. I stopped taking myself so seriously. I stopped worrying so much about what other people think or how they perceived me. I stopped being afraid to just be me.

We can focus on the changes that come with aging that are hard to look at and accept—our bodies shift and droop and sag (well, some of ours do), our memory might not be the steel trap it once was, we endure losses we never imagined in our families and friends. We sometimes fail to see the changes that should be celebrated and embraced—what some call the wisdom that comes with maturing.

I finally embraced my passion for writing. I’d always been drawn to some form of creativity—writing poetry and music, drawing and painting, photography, performing music. The gift that came to me when I slowed down, breathed in and let the gift come to me was that of writing. Serious writing. My love for books and the desire to write. I knew the instant I began that first book that THIS was my passion. It unearthed and released joy in me that had been too long dormant. Everyone’s passion is different and each of us will discover it in our own way and time. If we’re open. See, I believe that’s the purpose of this in-between stage of life. To stand in the middle and re-evaluate and pack up those things we truly need that will carry us forward, shed the things we’ve carried and that no longer serve us. Now every day dawns brand new. It always did, but who knew? Really.

Sometimes a sunrise and a sunset look remarkably the same.

I was recently asked in an interview what I would like to say to my younger self. It’s the same thing I say now at this stage as I enter the Third Act of my life: Trust yourself more, worry less about what others think, and do not let fear hold you back. I would also add to that—know who your friends are and cherish them. We need each other on this magnificent, sometimes scary, always awesome journey.

I hope this is a four-act play because I’m just getting my speed up and ready to sail into 

Act Three.

Happy sailing, Linda

Linda Rettstatt--Writing for Women

www.lindarettstatt.com

Life's an adventure, wear comfortable shoes.

Ten Years A Writer

Ten years ago this week, I sat at a computer and stared at the blank screen, wondering where to begin. I had a title—And The Truth Will Set You Free. I had a character—Kate Reynolds. Kate because I’ve always like the name and Reynolds because it’s an old family name on my paternal grandmother’s side of the family.

I sat and stared because I wondered what story lay within this title and this character. And, then, I began to write:

Prologue

“Every journey begins with one step...”

Kate read the words beneath a calendar picture of footprints on a path that ran alongside a narrow river and disappeared into a pristine wood. The trees glowed in varying shades of orange, yellow and red, and a covered bridge spanning a creek was visible in the distance. Even though it was March, Kate had, for some reason, kept this picture from October hanging on the wall behind her desk. She took a minute every morning, with the cup of Starbucks she picked up on her way into the State Office Building, and reflected upon the picture and the words beneath it. She envisioned herself stepping onto this path and into the footprints. Where would they take her? What journey awaited her step?

~ * ~

I had no idea at the time how writing these words would impact my life, would open a door in my own soul and allow the passion I’d so long held hostage to escape. I had no idea I was taking that first step into what has been an amazing ten year journey.

All I knew when I began to write And The Truth Will Set You Free is that I wanted to see if I could write a book. I didn’t know there were actual rules for writing. I was pretty much clueless about the parameters for various genres. I just knew I had this story I wanted to tell. Kate’s story. In a way, my story. During the writing of this first book, I often found myself laughing out loud, weeping, feeling frustrated and unsure. I thought I was writing the story Kate was telling me about her journey. Two years after the first writing while I was buried in edits—my first experience working with a real editor—I came to realize that my story and Kate’s story were irrevocably intertwined. Kate’s journey was my dream. And she graciously allowed me to ride along and take notes.

I ventured into this world of writing and graduated from writer to author completely clueless. I thank God for the generous writers and publishers (Wings ePress, Champagne Books, Turquoise Morning Press) and editors who were kind enough to turn me and point me in the right direction time and time again. I was stunned when this first book published in 2007 finaled for an EPIC eBook Award in 2008 in Mainstream Fiction. I knew the joy and energy I felt through following my passion for writing. I think you know something is right when it gives back far more than it demands. This is what writing does for me. I could no more stop writing than I could stop breathing.

I sometimes think I waited far too long to set off on this amazing, demanding, rewarding venture as a writer. But I’m also a believer that things happen in their own time or when the time is right. I’m not announcing my age when I began writing, let’s just say I came into the profession well-seasoned.

With twenty books written, seventeen of those already published and a file of ‘to-be-written’ ideas that, if printed on paper would stack from floor to ceiling, I can only say I think I’m onto something here. I love writing women’s fiction because I think we women can be so simple and at once so deeply complicated. I love the way women will stand up for one another and call each other out in the name of truth. I love the honesty in women’s fiction. But I’m also a romantic at heart and why fight it? I tried to blame my romance author critique partners, but I have to admit that writing romance is just so darned much fun. This past year I even delved into the paranormal realm, a place I never thought I’d go. But with a likable ghost (think Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle), it wasn’t nearly as scary as I anticipated. Who knows where I’ll go next? I do love a challenge.

I was recently asked what I would say to my younger self. Without giving it much thought at all, the following words came to mind: Trust yourself more, worry less about what others think, and do not let fear hold you back.

I could look back with regret and wish I’d known this many years earlier, or I can embrace these words now and live in them, every single moment. A friend gave me a cross-stitched wall hanging that says: The past cannot be changed; the future is whatever you want it to be. I intend for my future to be grounded in trusting myself, letting the opinions of others bear no weight, and running headlong into and through the fears that hold me back. My image for this is of a ‘well-seasoned’ woman flying along on a bicycle with hands raised, head back, laughing. Hang on with me, ‘cause it’s going to be a wild ride!

Now, the fun part. To thank all of my readers and faithful followers and those of you who took the time to read this post and offer a comment, I'll be drawing a name to give away a signed copy of any of my print books (or an ebook, if preferred). It's easy, just post a comment, then click here EMAIL and send me an email with 'I commented' in the subject line. I'll announce a winner on Sunday, January 19. (The email just lets me know how to contact you.)

                                                                                                                              Linda

A New Year Dawns

   It's that time again when we celebrate the passing of the old and the dawning of the New Year. 2013 was a great year in many ways. My sister visited for a week and we had a wonderful time. I had five books published between January and November and one book became a bestseller at All Romance eBooks. I wrote my very first paranormal--In the Spirit--a genre I never thought I'd write (and had so much fun writing). My book, Unconditional, received a quote from one of my favorite bestselling authors, Kris Radish. That was a big highlight for me. I flew to Arizona and traveled with two of my best friends for a week to Las Vegas, Sedona (my favorite place in the U.S.) and back to Tucson. I still have a job, which is a blessing in itself. I had some health issues present themselves, but with determination and care have gotten things under control--and lost a whole size in the process. I finished three more books and have two of them under contract for the coming year. I broke off my long-term relationship with Lady Clairol and went au naturale--and I like it. I still have Binky in my life, and that is pure gift every day.

   It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the start of 2013. Wow, time is moving so fast. Frighteningly fast. Rather than think about regrets from 2013 or make 'resolutions', I prefer to think about the things I want to accomplish in 2014. Resolutions sound too absolute, too much like things I MUST do. I prefers plans, things I HOPE for.

   I plan to self-publish a novel in the spring and see how that goes. I've started to organize a Street Team (lots of room if you'd like to join. Just email me.) I'll be changing the focus of this blog in 2014. For the past two years, the focus was on presenting authors on various aspects of writing. In 2014, the focus will be on women and women's issues, though I'll tie that all into my writing and the women who carry my stories. I might introduce you to a new author here or there, as well.

   I'm already planning a late spring trip to Pennsylvania to visit family and friends and hopefully have a book signing or two. I've already begun plans for a trip to Florida for the fall. It will hopefully be a chance to see old friends and meet new ones. In any case, it will be an adventure. I want to attend at least one writer's conference and a writer's retreat during 2014. I need to rub elbows with fellow writers.

   When time seems to pass so quickly, I think it's important to embrace every experience and opportunity and to live each moment fully and with intention. I intend for 2014 to be a year filled with life, with love and laughter and truth and honesty and friends and family and energy and fun and hope. I wish the same for you.

                                                                                                                     Linda

   

A Christmas Message From Binky

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house

Linda vacuumed and dusted while Binky did grouse.

The bathroom and kitchen were gleaming and clean.

The tables and desk held a bright, shiny sheen.

Even the litterbox got a good scrub,

Linda stopping a moment to give Binky a belly rub.

Tomorrow Binky's Auntie Sue Ann will arrive

She's not a cat lover, but they both will survive.

With Sue Ann in the bedroom and I on the blow up

Binky will fret with confusion and eventually throw up.

But then she'll adjust and curl up at my side 

In time for Santa's magical ride.

The morning brings presents and surprises for all,

Even she who disrupts my sleep with cat calls.

She'll check out the tree, sniff her toys, play with paper.

That about sums it up--Binky's big Christmas caper.

Binky suggests that if you need a little break from the holiday preparations or a way to unwind, settle down with a nice cup of cocoa and your very own copy of

Reinventing Christmas, a sweet Christmas romance.

Available at Amazon.com

and in Trade Paperback at 

Champagne Books

Jeanne Arnold - How I Became A Writer

I'm very pleased to round out my series on How I Became A Writer by introducing author Jeanne Arnold.

~ * ~

Up until a few years ago, writing a book was not a factor of my reality. Barring college art history papers on the Baths of Caracalla and Roman Art and Architecture, or a resume, I had not typed a word of nonfiction, plot or anything resembling a chapter since high school. Yet it has recently occurred to me that I’ve always been a writer. I started life with a crayon in my hand. I drew everything that came to mind. I drew stories. I drew characters. I drew scenery and events and themes and emotions. As a first grader, I declared I was going to be a picture book illustrator and imitated all of my favorite book artists. I grew older and became let down by middle grade novels with sparse pen and ink illustrations. I wanted to be the artist, the creative hand who drew on the pages what I imagined in my mind.  In high school and college, my writing emptied out of a paintbrush in watercolor illustrations. Detailed faces and landscapes came out of colored pencils and charcoal. I spent a good portion of my adulthood doing portraits and random freelance design. Until one day my characters demanded voices, conversation and personalities. Now they grace the pages of my stories. 

It was a chilly winter day in 2010 when I first set my laptop on the kitchen table and watched the white backyard become striped with sled tracks and footprints. After a stretch of reminiscing and daydreaming, I began typing the story of how my husband and I met in high school. My tale of a seventeen-year-old girl blindfolded for a psychology experiment, being teased by her secret admirer in the art room, morphed into a young adult novel full of magical realism and teen romance. There was no method to my writing and I found myself pouring the words onto the pages. Something wonderful overcame me and in a handful of weeks I finished my first novel. Within a year I wrote a handful of books and signed with the Belcastro Agency where I began my journey to publication. I’ve penned several young adult novels and there are many waiting for their turn inside me. My upcoming young adult romance STUBBORN is available from Champagne Books on January 6^th followed by THE HAUNT OF THIRTEEN CURVES in June. My writing gives me the most creative satisfaction, an outlet, completeness. So for now, the paintbrushes are stashed away and the laptop is my canvas.

Bio:

Jeanne Arnold is an author of young adult romance. At a young age she found her creative outlet in art, and for years her fictional characters came to life in drawings and paintings, until they demanded a voice. Now they grace the pages of her stories. Jeanne shares her time with her fictional teenage counterparts and her human family in Central New York.

STUBBORN blurb:

With a train ticket, a bad attitude, and an unfortunate scribbling of obscenities across her forehead, seventeen-year-old Avery Ross is tossed out of the frying pan and into the fire when she’s sent from New York to the vast oil field region of North Dakota.  When a green-eyed boy with a sultry Texan accent comes to her defense, Avery has no clue that his actions will lead her into a passion-charged summer, full of temptation and loss.

Defiant and relegated to work at her aunt’s boarding house, Avery discovers a connection between her aunt and the striking boy. He and his brothers are seeking revenge for the wrongful death of their sibling, and Avery becomes entangled in their battle over oil rights, loyalty, and love.  Avery falls for the brooding, younger brother, Gabriel Halden, against her aunt’s forewarnings and creates more tribulations than any of them could anticipate.

STUBBORN will be available in e-format on January 6th, 2014 at all major online retailers. You can follow Jeanne Arnold online at:

Website: www.jeannearnoldbooks.com

Blog: www.jeannearnoldbooks.com/blog

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Jeanne-Arnold-Books

Twitter: twitter.com/jeannesbooks

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/jeannesbooks

Tumblr: jeannesbooks.tumblr.com

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/jeannesbooks/boards/

Meet Author Elizabeth Fountain

“A Villain Named Angel”

For National Novel Writing Month this year, I’m writing a sequel to the tale I began last year, a young girl’s quest to prove she’s not a little kid anymore by joining her grandfather’s group of math and computer geeks seeking the pure mathematical formula for forgiveness. In the new story, this young girl (now a teenager) and her friends have to continue her grandpa’s work after he was killed in a car accident. And they’re looking for something more mysterious than forgiveness: they’re trying to find the way back from death. Unlike past years, this time around I had only the scantest idea of the story before I began to write. That’s okay, because I adore the adventure of a completely “pantsed” first draft. And it turns out, the most fun so far involves creating a brand new villain.

He came from nowhere, this villain; I hadn’t set out to find him. I thought the one from the first book would do just fine. Then, in the middle of the first week of NaNo, I sat down at a blank computer screen and began to describe Percival Langston Troy the Third. Yes, he’s the third man in his family saddled with that name, and in a way, that’s where his villainy begins. As a youngster, his name prompted other boys to torment him. He decided to change it. He wanted to call himself “Angel.” As he says: It was still odd, but I figured I might as well choose the oddity I’d become.

Angel’s determination to craft his own fate leads his father to disown him in the most humiliating way. It also provides the impetus for his career as the CEO of a high tech company. From the moment Angel’s father tells the young boy how “sickened” he is by his choice to discard the family name, Angel begins to turn into the villain who will turn fear loose in the world.

Where did all this come from? I’ve no idea, really. I didn’t know there was a physically imposing, fifty-something, treacherously snake-like corporate CEO lodged in my imagination. But then again, I didn’t know my imagination held any of the characters in my story until they showed up, sometimes in dreams, sometimes in reveries, and every once in a while, like Angel Troy, right on the computer screen. They seem to collect the words I’ll use to describe them, drawing these words around them like mist swirling around the pine trees on a cold, clear morning in our upper valley. Angel Troy is big, articulate, well-dressed, quiet, and entirely fearsome to those around him.

It should be fun to see how he stacks up against the protagonist, a fifteen year old girl with one quest already under her belt, a three-legged black Lab at her side, and all the determination born of her love for her grandpa taken too early from her. Creating these characters means I get to hang out with villains, heroines, dogs, and a lot more interesting people. At times like this, writing stories feels like the best job in the world.

Web site:

http://lizfountain.wordpress.com

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethFountainAuthor

Buy links:

An Alien’s Guide to World Domination on Amazon and on BURST Books, and most e-book retailers

Author bio:

Elizabeth Fountain left a demanding job as a university administrator in Seattle to move to the small town of Ellensburg, Washington, and pursue her dream of writing novels.  Her first book, An Alien’s Guide to World Domination, was released by BURST Books in 2013; and You, Jane, her second novel, will be published in 2014. On her breaks from writing, Liz teaches university courses, gives workshops on writing, spends time with family and friends, and takes long walks in the diabolical Kittitas Valley wind. Her quirkily humorous view of humanity is well-suited to tales of aliens and angels, love and death, friendship and dogs.

Julie Eberhart Painter - How I Became A Writer

I'm so happy to welcome Julie Eberhart Painter who shares her story of becoming a writer.

~ * ~

From Slush to Mush, how I became a writer:

 All my life, I was a writer. But I poised on the precipice for fifty years before letting go of the Zip Line and slipping from writer into author. Before that, I was the one who took the minutes, wrote the newsletter, and composed the PSAs.

Some other responsibility always seemed to come between me and my author chair. I will give myself one pat on the back: I never went to a party and said, “I could write a book.”

Then with the encouragement of a dear friend, I “got writing.”

My first long effort was called “Full Circle”—isn’t almost everybody’s? When I walked into a book store to see where my genius might someday be displayed, I saw that in the Romance section alone, there were three Full Circlers that quarter. My first reaction was “Ah, a title that sells.” Fifteen years later, my much more sophisticated version, Mortal Coil, was accepted by Champagne Books.

The journey between writer and author is a long cinder trail: two steps up, one slide back. Long stories were forming. Soon I was not only reading about the craft, but taking courses from mainstream writers and going to Romance, Mystery and Florida Writers Association conferences.

While on that uncertain path, I wrote about writing. When I learned something important, I shared it. Later I branched out to favorite and familiar subjects such as nursing home abuse, hospice, and after a search for my birth mother, adoption.

My issues of fraud, abuse, longing, humor, and card playing senior citizens combined to jell my Brand.

Mortal Coil uses the nursing home setting because to murder a helpless old woman in her bed, cut off her hair and repeat that crime is the antipathy of what nursing homes are supposed to be about. The subplot is driven by a behind-the-scenes scandal of greed and neglect. (Lots of articles on this subject preceded my debut novel.)

Tangled Web includes my adoption search and speculation about my Welsh family. The non-identifying information is a word-for-word replica of a part of my documented information. My search generated many articles before I took it over the top to the emotional level with fiction.

Kill Fee shows that even a friendly duplicate bridge game can lead to murder. (Although bridge players have been known to feel the urge.) Without my years as a director for the ACBL (American Contract Bridge League), I could not have shown the game unfolding in the room with map-like accuracy.

Medium Rare takes our heroine from Kill Fee and turns her into the perfect sleuth to find the murderer who killed the medium who “saw all” among the crazy and motivated office staff in a medical setting.

Daughters of the Sea, The legends of the South Pacific create the impetus for the book and set me up to also write travel articles. Legends make good blurbs describing visual scenes without disorienting the readers.

In January, Morning After Midnight visits the family dynamics of a shattered white southern family and our hero’s relatively upwardly mobile black friend in the midst of social unrest. 

Bio:

Julie Eberhart Painter, a Pennsylvania transplant now living in Central Florida, is the author of ten books. A frequent contributor to blogs, Julie is a regular columnist at Cocktails, Fiction and Gossip Magazine, an online slick where she talks about fun stuff, such as families, books, art, music, travel and dance.

  

Visit Julie’s Web site at www.books-jepainter.com

http://bit.ly/17GtxDh for Bewildering Stories, my bio

Blog for  The Writers Vineyard, every fourth Monday, See Nov. 4 and Dec. 2

Link:  thewritersvineyard.com

http://cocktailsmagazine.wix.com/fictionandgossip 

Link: http://issuu.com/romancealley/docs/cm-issue16_100bbd77b3282b