Hello, Everyone!

I am throwing out a reminder to followers of this blog that I have launched a new website which I am now maintaining at www.strokingthepen.com/blog.  Here are direct links to a few of my recent articles. 

Pro Bono with Benefits

How to Write or Get Your Writing Done

In The Middle of the Night

Since I have transferred all of my blog material to my website, I will be closing this blog down soon.  I hope all your writing is going well!

New Directions

Hi Everyone,

I have created a new website, https://strokingthepen.com, which I hope you will visit. In fact, I have transferred my entire blog over to my new website https://strokingthepen.com/blog/, and I will soon be retiring this blog. 

Even though I have enjoyed my many years of writing, I feel it is time for me to move on to my own hosted venue.  I am very excited about this new adventure and hope that you can follow me there!

Again, it's https://strokingthepen.com. Please come visit and let me know what you think! 

Everything is a New Perspective

These last seventeen months have been ones of overload leading to renewal and a fresh perspective, and what feels like a new lease on life. My partner recovered well from his heart surgery. Late last spring, I changed law firms and now walk less than sixty seconds to my office. To celebrate all of our good fortunes, my partner and I spent a beautiful week during September 2016 in Rockport, Massachusetts with his family. Sometimes we visited castles, museums and islands, and other times we sat on the front porch eating snacks, sipping beverages and talking about memories and experiences.

I wish I could share that I have gotten plenty of creative writing done this year, when in fact my attention has been focused on writing articles for the Reap Record, the newsletter for Redwood Empire Association on Paralegals. I also, upon invitation, wrote an article on construction defect for our local Bar Association journal. 

My creative writing has been on the back burner for too long, but now I am pushing myself to submit a short story to our local anthology.  I am exactly ten days away from the deadline and about 500 words in, with the story allowed a maximum word count of 2500.  All stories submitted for consideration must be about Sonoma County. Two of my characters are from the late eighteen-hundreds who lived a small town in the northern part of the county, and my main character is from the same town in the mid nineteen-seventies.  In fact, if you were sitting in my office right now, you would see the pictures of my characters pinned to my bulletin board, along with photographs of that small town that burned down years ago.

Now that I am back in action mode, I have decided it's time to set some goals:

• This week I will complete my short story and submit it before the deadline.
• This weekend I will work on my tax returns.
• Next week I will complete my article on family law for the Reap Record.
• During the coming weeks, I will do the necessary footwork for a mutual project in the works.

Finally, it's time to get devote at least an hour a day to sitting in the chair and working on my stories. At some point, I will also decide whether to permanently shelve my novel, or refurbish parts into a new story. 

Happy writing all, and always allow words to empower you.

New Year and Renewed Goals

I always look forward to the New Year because it means Thanksgiving and Christmas are done until the holiday season gives birth again ten months down the road. 

The fall of 2015 was particularly trying for me and my partner of 10 years. First, there were three fires in Lake County California, the Valley Fire being the worst because it rampantly swept through Middletown, Cobb, and Hidden Valley. Three people died and almost 2,000 structures, mostly homes, were destroyed.  We saw our friends' homes destroyed, to where whole communities were desecrated and people lost everything and were forced into evacuation shelters.  While my partner's home survived, he started having breathing problems.

Over the next month or so, my partner's breathing problems intensified.  On October 4, a middle of the night emergency room visit resulted in him having open heart surgery on October 26 for an aortic valve replacement. Thank goodness, he came through with flying colors and was released from all restrictions five weeks later. Now, he is going full speed.

What these experiences were devastating and stressful, they were heart opening and life changing. I felt so much compassion for friends who had lost their homes, but joy that their individual spirit and lust for life continued on.  I experienced the strength of the entire county as people came together in community and helped each other out in all ways imaginable. During our medical crisis, people whose homes had been affected reached out to offer support to us. 

These experiences also put my priorities in place. It was as if my problems were minute in comparison. I began to examine my own mortality and what I really want to do with the rest of my life, and especially how to rekindle my writing.

For several months I had been working too much overtime at work, which took away from my writing. In the fall I cut way back on overtime, and then in late December I decided I would not do any unless absolutely necessary. Finally, in January my boss changed our overtime policy, at which time I decided I would not ask for any further extra work because I wanted to spend that time on my writing. 

I have been working on my novel more and now have a critique partner.  I would like to finish this work and submit it to an agent. I will be looking for freelance assignments and I will start submitting short stories again. I will make time to write every day and work on creating and building my freelance business. All this because writing is my passion.  

I've never had such a dose of reality in life that has put my priorities right where they belong. 

Happy New Year, and happy writing!

Surprise!

And, that's Surprise! in the literal sense.

It all started late last year when I was participating in a book launch at Copperfield's Books for Water, an anthology published by Redwood Writers. After I read my short story, "The Wrong Address," a woman came up to me, asked for my email address, and said if I heard from her, it would be to adapt my story into a play. I was flattered she liked my story, but I forgot about the incident after a few days.

Well, about a month ago, my boss came to me and said he'd received an email from a Hilary Moore asking for my contact information because she wanted to make my short story into a play.  I had been surprised when my story was accepted into the anthology because it had been rejected by several magazines, but the email from Hilary was even more surprising! After she told me the mission of the Off The Page Reader's Theater is to showcase local writers, I accepted with pride.

The last few weeks I have been walking on air.  I have let everyone I know in on this wonderful event taking place on April 24, 25, and 26, 2015. I can't wait!

I am incredibly proud of this accomplishment.  I have shared the news and the even flyer on Facebook, as well as published the information in The Redwood Writer.  Don has told all his family and friends about the play, and many of our friends will be attending.  On April 25, Don and I will go out to dinner with his brother, sister and brother in law, and then enjoy the play together.  I can't wait.

This success truly has taken me by complete Surprise! I feel more inspired to take charge of my writing life and continue putting words onto paper. In fact, just a week ago, I entered a short story, a psychological thriller, into a local writing contest. I am not much on contests, but I thought this might be kind of fun.

I have been able to cut back on the overtime at work and am taking advantage of the time to continue writing my novel in progress. I would also like to write some more short stories, as I believe I write better shorts than I do novels.

Someone suggested that I think about putting together a collection of short stories for publication.  I could do that, but I would want them all to be published elsewhere. I have four short stories that have been published, so that's a good start.

Finally, I want to encourage all my writer friends and acquaintances to be proud of all writing successes and to continue writing.

Happy Writing all!

End of Year Musings

Today I was amazed to discover a new follower of The Write Life, since this blog had been stagnant since April. In fact, I seldom blogged this year, and did not write as much creatively as I usually have in the past, because I often forgot the important concept of BIC.

What is that, you ask?

Butt in chair.

In order to get anything written, I have to pull out the chair, sit down, and write. It doesn't matter if I use a spiral notebook and pen, a typewriter, or word processor on a computer. My job is to construct words into sentences and paragraphs to create scenes for a short story or novel.  

I have to set time aside, or simply decide on a whim that writing is more important than anything else I might want to do at that moment. It's not difficult to set aside time after work to go into my home office, close the door, and write.

In September of this year, I went to Ireland for 14 days with my cousin, Tammy. We stayed in bed and breakfasts most of the time and used public transportation and our feet to get around. We started in Dublin and traveled the coast to Dingle, Galway, Bundoran, and Belfast. After this, she spent a week alone on the Antrim Coast, and I rode the bus back to Dublin to catch a plane home. Our trip was amazing! I spent quality time with Tammy, lived the Irish culture for two weeks, and returned to the United States with plenty of new material for writing.

This last year I also rejoined my old critique group, which has been a godsend. I have been, and still am, motivated to work on my novel. I enjoy reading my writing cohort's work, as well as sharing my perceptions of both the positive and the negatives of their work. Their feedback on my writing is invaluable, and they all have something special to offer in support of my work.  Some of the writers are published, but all of them are excellent critique partners.

Thanksgiving was fun, Halloween was spooky, and Christmas was joyous. The only things missing from the holiday season were the Dicken's Fair in San Francisco and the Christmas Salon for the Redwood Writer's Club, but we could not fit either in this year due to other commitments.

Now, we are days away from 2015 and a fresh start, as it happens every year. What are my New Year's resolutions?

None. Absolutely none, because I don't believe in making resolutions because I never follow through.

Okay, there is one, but it's not a plan, but a reality: I will set aside that time to write, and I will write.

I. Will. Write.

What about you?  What are your plans for 2015?

Happy New Year, all!

Grandma's Coffee Grinder

Krups, who I often called K, was my best friend for twenty some-odd years. From the day we met, we were inseparable. The whir of her bladed heart made me smile as she ground aromatic java beans.  Some evenings when I'd call on her for some much needed Hazelnut or caramel decaf, she would happily comply. K didn't just hand me perfect coffee, but she made sure my flax seed and almonds were finely chopped just the way I liked them.

Then, one day a few months ago, K died. No warning, no goodbye, she just didn't wake up one morning. With tears in my eyes, I broke the news to Don.  In an effort to soothe me, he suggested we ask his friend Cuisinart in the fill K's  now vacant spot.

"I can't," I said, wiping my eyes. "It's too soon."  

The truth was, I had found K dead less than ten minutes earlier and needed time to grieve.

As I wallowed in grief, Don came up with another suggestion.  "Hey, what about your grandmother's old coffee grinder?

"Huh?"  I said, not sure what he was talking about.  

Then, my gaze fell on the old crank coffee mill—Goodwood, or G.W. for short—that had been living on the countertop for several years. G.W. had never moved or made a sound, and he certainly never complained about all the attention K got.  

That same morning after I laid K to rest in the recycling bin—I knew she wanted her parts donated—I put G.W.to the test.  I loaded his portal with fresh coffee beans and cranked the handle, around and around, smiling as he revealed his deep bass voice.  He worked hard to produce a good java.  However, because  he was older and a bit cranky, it took him awhile to get the job done. 

Now, as I sip a cup of café mocha borne from G. W.'s hard work, I smile as I realize he has proven to be a wonderful friend. Over time, his joints have loosened a bit and he is a bit more spry, always eager to grind my beans to perfection. Too bad him and K never noticed each other when she was alive. They would have made perfect companions.  

Goodbye 2013 and Hello 2014!

Even though I believe in reviewing the previous 12 months on the eve of the New Year, I am not big on making resolutions. If there is anything I have learned is that putting off until tomorrow what I can do today leads to nothing but premeditated resentment. Why? Because all I do is put off, put off, and then put off until the end of the year comes and that project remains undone. What do I then do? I beat myself up.  

Lately I have experienced that premeditated resentment when it comes to my writing. I have spent too much time saying I would write that story tomorrow when the plot is clear in my head, or finish the umpteenth draft of my query letter for my novel when I know I can get it prefect. That's plain silliness because these type of resolutions are not based on planning, which is healthy, but on fear that the product of my creative outlet is not, or will not be, good enough. The only way to combat that type of fear is to write the story and get it submitted now and to revise that query and get it out to agents now.   

NOW is the operative word.  

When I was a kid and would come up with excuses not to do homework or chores, my sweet little mother used to say, "there's no time like the present" and her infamous "don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today." Of course, back then I thought those words wee adult nerd-speak, but today they are golden nuggets in my memory. Believe me, there will be no more New Years resolutions for me.  

So, in 2014 I plan to.....

Just kidding.  

Happy New Year everyone! 

Dry Spell

I don't have writer's block, I just have been living a dry spell. I can write if I want to because I have plenty of words inside, but I just haven't been sitting my butt in the chair enough. The bottom line is I have been finding other things to do instead of writing.

Occasionally I have been line editing my novel and I'm almost done, but I'm stalling. Thinking the novel was ready I sent it out on query several times, but then decided that I'd missed too many errors with sentence structure, missing words, and other silly typos. It's definitely time to finish the editing and get it out to agents again.

I still have some short stories out there on submission, but two have been rejected. Ideally, I need to keep submitting my stories to different markets until they are accepted or there is nowhere else to send them.

I love writing but I have not been making the time for it.  The only way to do anything is just to do it and not make excuses. Time to start writing again.

It's Been Awhile

I have not blogged in over two months. Good intentions to write entries once a week have been waylaid by everyday life. In other words, I have been busy over the last few months. 

Busy with life, but also busy with writing.

I have been working on my short stories and submitting them to magazines.  Some encouraging rejections have landed in my inbox, but no acceptances. I'm encouraged enough by the positive feedback in my rejections to keep submitting. 

One short story market asks for a query prior to sending them your short story. I'm stumped with this guideline, except to say a query for a short story must be more compact than a query for a novel. I will give it as try, as I think my story would fit perfectly in this magazine. 

I have finished editing my novel and it is with a beta reader right now.  I'm interested in hearing about what works and what does not.  At this juncture, I am blind to my writing in my novel.  I will soon start the re-query process and continue working on novel number two. 

This is all for now. Happy writing all! 

Research and Imagination

Besides putting the final edits to my novel, I have been writing a short story about a sixteen year old homeless girl and her younger brother surviving in current culture. Amidst all the troubles of these kids living in homeless camps, there are moments of peace and joy. I think I have a good story in the making.

Since I have never been homeless, I have engaged in some local introspection, if you will, of how I might add flavor to my story.

For example, in a neighborhood where I park for work, a box of books has been left on the sidewalk. Everyday I have seen fewer books in the box, as if people have been helping themselves to their favorite read. What if my characters were to come across this free mini-library and find books that can take them to worlds away from the hardships and possible horrors awaiting them on the street?

Another example is a walk I took during my lunch break at work the other day. In the city where I live, there are long paved trails, double decker at some locations, running alongside a flowing creek protected by lush canopies of trees and brush. As I enjoyed the scenery, I began to wonder about the many places that a homeless girl and her brother could camp unseen.

My point is that research is all around you. You don't have to stick to the old adage write what you know, you just need to turn your imagination on and research enough to fill in the details. Most of all, remember to write honestly and from your heart.

Happy writing all.

Don't Let Editing Software Kill Your Writing

The scuttlebutt among some writing circles is that you must hire an editor before sending your work out to agents or publishers. A good freelance editor has a history of editing your type of book, has excellent editing skills, and costs buckets of money.  Many people do not have the money for a good freelance editor, so  they hire someone cheaper who may not have the necessary skills to do a good job.

Other groups of writers say that we must edit our own work. Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King is the often recommended reference guide.  I bought this book years ago, have read it from beginning to end, and it is still part of my writing library.  Browne and King teach writers to polish their work to a high level of professionalism.

Finally, a new group has emerged; those who swear by editing programs.  The process here is to copy your text into a box and run software that checks for numerous grammatical issues. The problem is that some of the software cannot discern a dialogue tag from an action included with dialogue, or it marks was as passive (when it is not), and suggests cutting out every adverb in your document.    

At this juncture in my writing writing adventure, I do whatever it takes to produce the best product I can. Other than just having someone else write your manuscript, I suggest one or a combination of the following:

• Hire an editor, but work with him or her so that you learn to recognize errors in your own work.  
• Use a self edit using a written guide.  Make sure you read and highlight the important points and practice the editing exercises so that you are clear on common grammar errors. 
• Use editing software, but make sure you use one that offers explanations for grammatical errors.  Do not use software that highlights words and phrases but does not give clear explanations.  

If you hire an editor or use editing software, make sure you are well-versed in grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. A self-editing guide is your reference for when your get stumped on grammatical errors. The bottom line is that you must never rely on someone or something else to edit your work for you and just take the result at face value. Editors are human too and computer programs are automated.  You make the final decision as to the editorial changes in your work.

Happy writing all!

Query Time Again

It's query time again for my novel.  I have rewritten, edited and re-edited my work, searched for agents who represent my genre at Query Tracker and Agent Query, completed due diligence via Preditors and Editors and Writers Beware, and honed my query letter and synopsis. Now, I am hopeful that an agent may become excited about the story I have written.

After sending queries out two weeks, ago, I have received one standard rejection out of ten. In my book, that's nine more chances to land one of many fabulous agents.  The glass is always half full, never half empty.

If you are a writer and submit to magazines, agents, and/or publishers, you will get rejected. I doubt any writer has had a one hundred percent acceptance rate.  If you have never gotten rejected, please share how you did it.

At the writing forums I frequent, many writers want to know while they have their work on submission. The best advice I have seen, which I also follow, is to work on something else.

My something else is my second novel.  I started this one about six or seven years ago, but never got past the first chapter until last year.  I now have written twelve chapters and between 20 and 30 thousand words. I keep a running synopsis so I don't forget an important plot point or a thread that needs follow through.

I am also writing some short stories and editing the newsletter for the Redwood Writers Club. This year, I would like to submit some of my short stories as well as look into other areas of writing.

I could be stressing over the what ifs while waiting for agent responses, or beating myself when I receive a rejection, but I am choosing to stay neutral and to work on those other projects. Besides writing, my job is to put my best work out there without expectation of the outcome.

2013: New Beginnings

What does a new year mean to you? For me, it means taking stock of last year's accomplishments and unfinished goals and deciding whether I want to discard any projects or move forward with them, and perhaps even take on some new project.  

We are eight days into 2013 and I have completed my updated query letter and emailed it to two top-notch agents.  When querying, sages advise to start with the best and work your way down the list.  Once you have exhausted agents, start querying publishers.  I am not even close to the end of my query process.  My goal is to continue to submit until I have exhausted all reputable literary agents who accept my genre (psychological thriller).

I have been working on my synopsis, but feel that I need to hone it.  It's choppy and does not adequately represent my writing style.  It’s not that I don’t know what my story is about, because I do, but that I am trying to emulate winning synopses.  Not a bad idea, but I need to apply my unique writing style to create a synopsis that will sell my book.  

As for my writing, I working on my second novel.  I am almost 20,000 words into the story and want it to be submission ready by the completion of my first draft.  This means editing as I go along and making sure that each page is honed to perfection before going to the next page. I have heard of writers who do this well, but I am sure it takes practice.  

I have also been working on some short stories. My goal is to submit to magazines this year.  Just as a reminder to myself to write, finish what I start, refrain from rewriting except to editorial order, get it out on the market and keep it there until it is sold, and start working on something else.  

Happy new year to all, and happy writing! 

The Olive Picking Party

Recently, Don and I attended an olive picking party on Olive Hill in Lake County, California.  People came from as far as Washington state, as wide as Marin County, and as close as Clearlake, to participate in this wondrous event. This is the third year we have participated in this event, where anyone's payment is a bottle of olive oil pressed from the olives.  

If you ever plan on going to an olive picking party, you need to know there are two main methods to pick olives. The first is to position a large tarp below an olive tree, rake the olives from the trees so that they fall onto the tarp, roll the tarp, and then pour the large tube of olives into a bucket.  The second way is to pick the olives by hand and put them in a bucket with straps similar to a baby pouch so that your back is not compromised as the bucket fills with olives.  

Raking olives from the trees was faster, perhaps more efficient, but the sound of the rake against branches was abrasive and distracting.  Hand picking the olives and dropping them into the bucket was contemplative and easy on both the tree branches and human arms.  Hand picking invited conversation, raking required solitude.  Neither method of olive picking was better or worse, and which one you chose was a matter of personal taste. 

Don and I chose to hand pick the olives.  The conversation was good, our hands softened from the natural oil of the olives, and after a few hours we were pleasantly exhausted from the activity.  Later in the day, as we shared lunch with other olive pickers, I was reminded of the importance of community and the strength of helping out without expecting anything in return.  

On the writing front, I completed draft six of my novel and am now working on my synopsis.  Once I have my synopsis polished, I will work on my query letter.  Finally, I will start the query process again.  

I am also working on a short story or two, which I would like to submit to magazines.  Maybe I'll even write a spooky story about what really happens at an olive picking party.  

Happy writing all! 

The Family Search Continues

After finding my grandfather's mother with an incorrect last name, and then finding her father, I was sure I could find any ancestor.  However, when it comes to my grandmother Hazel's father's ancestral line, I have come upon a dead end. Grandma's father was Charles E. Williams born 1892 in Gessie, Indiana.  When he was four years old, he was adopted out to William Spicer and his wife.  Census records show my great-grandfather was classified as a boarder and a roomer, yet his obituary reads that the Spicers treated him as one of their own. 

The story Grandma grew up with is that her grandparents were killed, which is why her own father was adopted out, but his adoption agreement tells a different story.  Charles' father signed the adoption papers, which said that he had the right to visit Charles and to remove him from the Spicer residence if he was mistreated. The adoption papers are signed by Samuel Williams and guardian Thomas J. (or I.)Hines before a Justice of the Peace, but nowhere in the document is Charles' mother mentioned, which means one of two things: (1) his mother had died or, (2) his mother was alive but not in the picture.  If it is the latter, then I can't help but to think a scandal might be involved. 

 

While I have Charles' life well documented from the time he was born in 1892 to when he died in 1924, I have been unable to find information on his parents, other than their names on Charles' marriage and death certificates.  Their names were Samuel Williams and Sarah (Hinds or Hines) Williams; census records show he was born in Indiana, she in Illinois.

I continue to search for my second great-grandparents, to find out what life for them in the mid 1800's might have been like prior to when Charles was born.  I figure if I can find my grandfather's mother and her parents, I can find anybody. I have found out researching family history is a lot of work, but it can also bring many surprises. 

As for my writing, I am still revising my novel and working on a few short stories, as well as editing the newsletter for my writing club, Redwood Writers.  My novel comes first, but I would like to write some short stories about the lives of my ancestors. I've considered calling these stories creative memoir, because the stories are based on fact but with some era spices added in.  

Keep writing and reading, because both are essential to The Write Life. 



Passion and Butt-In-Chair

I have been thinking about passion and what it means to me when it comes to my writing.  My passion is putting words down onto paper, whether it be some massive report at work or a short story to submit to a magazine.  For the lats two months (June and July 2012), I have been editing the Redwood Writer, the newsletter for Redwood Writers. Volunteering as editor for the newsletter has been a real stretch for me as a writer. I am learning how to work with an amazing team to produce a newsletter in a professional organization.  I am using my creativity in ways I never thought possible. 

I am also revising my novel and writing one short story, but I have not been using the BIC (butt in chair" technique as often as I should. I have no excuse for this, not even writer's block.  In fact, the only writer's block I believe in is the one I invent for myself by finding other things to do instead of write: surf the internet, talk on the phone, write on my blog, read, doing laundry, or any other number of things.  Pushing my writing on the back burner is almost like putting my passion on low heat. It's almost like I've made an unconscious agreement to turn that passion up when I get around to it.  

For me, finding that passion again means I need to once again create a writing schedule and stick to it.  I need to raise my own expectations and make my writing a priority and find the life in my creativity.  All it takes is an hour in the evening or on my lunch break or 1,000-2,000 words each day.  BIC is a great motivator to getting stuff done. 

The Next Step

Last month, I attended the Next Step writer's conference, which was hosted by Redwood Writers, our local branch of The California Writing Club. The day was filled with excellent presentations, plenty of schmoozing, and learning about the business side of writing. I left the day feeling invigorated and ready to take some important next steps in my own life. 

One step was volunteering as editor for The Redwood Writer. While the prior editor did an excellent job on the newsletter, I envisioned a new look with a table of contents, columns, submission guidelines, and an editor's section.  After much work with a wonderful team, we finished our first edition for June 2012 and published it on May 25, 2012. So far, I have gotten many emails of kudos and encouragement. 

Another step was to start revising my novel to give my characters more color and life, as well as to rid the plot of too many coincidences. I have been working on the revision for the last couple of weeks now, and I find this process more difficult because I have to make sure the "new breath" is woven throughout the book and is consistent to the end.  Once I am finished, I will start the query process again. 

I am looking forward to more taking many more small steps with regards to my writing. Once I complete my family research, I would like to put the information together into a booklet for my family. Part of the research will involve writing biographies of key characters in our history, and perhaps some fictional tales derived from known facts and what life might have been like for some of my ancestors. 

As for now, I continue to put words onto paper. I am engrossed in How to Write and Sell Historical Fiction, an audio book by my friend Persia Woolley. This book is not just for historical fiction writers, but for anybody who writes fiction. I am about a quarter of the way through already, and I highly recommend this book to anyone.  

What is your next step when it comes to your writing? Whatever it is, just remember to take as many steps as you need to reach your goals.  

Happy writing all!  

It's Research!

In researching my family tree, I have come up with some new and amazing information on my grandfather's mother, Johanna. When Grandpa was three, his mother died. Grandpa and his three siblings were placed into foster care. Grandpa had the memory of his mother, but not much information.  In fact, family members had incorrect information on her maiden name, date and place of birth, and her death date.  When an aunt gave me the correct surname information, I searched census, birth, and death records, as well as old newspaper articles.  I could find nothing.  It was almost like Johanna had faded into a forgotten past. 

Just when I thought I had hit a dead end, I found a website via Rootsweb to a state-by-state death index.  I clicked on Minnesota, put in Johanna's maiden name, and clicked the search button.  Surprise! The first hit was for Johanna, naming the newspaper holding her death notice, along with the newspaper date, page, and column.  Her death notice gave enough information for me to learn who her parents were, as well as a little about her life.  

Her story is this.  Johanna and Charles lived with her father for awhile after her mother's death in 1918, then they moved on to St. Paul.  While they were living in St. Paul, Charles went to a wilderness area near Deer River and got a home ready for his family.  Soon after, Johanna and the children joined Charles at their new home.  She was there less than two weeks when she got diphtheria and died.  

I know from Grandpa's stories that the years following his mother's death were difficult. Our family history has been well documented with Grandpa's accounts of losing his mother, growing up with a cruel foster father, and lessons learned from life circumstances that had had no control over.  My grandfather often said the adversity he experienced while growing up taught him how not to treat people.  

Researching my past has helped me to find a new connection with my family, especially with those who are long gone.  My goal is to write some short stories on family members as I uncover details of their lives.  Often times the best characters are based on real people and real situations.  

I am preparing to send out some more query letters and also working on my second novel.  

Happy writing to all. 

History and Family Records-Part 2

My obsession started in December 2011 while I was on vacation. I decided to compile my grandmother's writings.  The more I read the stories of my grandmother's past, the deeper my passion grew to learn more about my ancestry.  After all, Grandma had already started the research on the Bauman and Williams family lines, compiling notes, copies of census records, and vital documents.  In her research binders were newspaper articles on her parents' marriage and her father's illness and death.  She even went as far to hunt down her parents' marriage certificate, as well as an agreement of adoption for her father when he was a boy.  I could not help but be inspired by how my mother's ancestors survived the trials and tribulations of their time.

After learning more about my mother's side of the family, I started on a quest to discover details about my father's side of the family.  I browsed genealogy sites, conducted general web searches for family trees, and came across some amazing people who helped me find out more. I found a very distant cousin, who put me in touch with Kenneth Haughton, a family descendant who has written an entire book on our family ancestry.  In my genealogy library, I now have a 1200 page book on CD on my family ancestry. Since, I have corresponded with two distant relatives who have sent me family information.

I am still researching and coming up with information on my family tree five generations back.  This evening I found the marriage certificate at ancestry.com of my great-great grandparents.  I mean, what could be better than that?

While there are many triumphs in my family research, there are also false leads.  For example, my mother's great-great grandfather descended from Germany.  In fact my grandfather's father came from there in about 1885 or thereabouts.  I thought I had found the immigration passenger list with him and his young wife.  After tracking down a family history my grandmother (my mother's mother) had tucked away, I realized I had been tricked by the names being the same. Later on, I found more information on his arrival to the United States.

My adventures in family research have led me to wonder what their lives were like back then. Most people didn't have luxuries, and if they did they were not the same kinds of things we have today. Two hundred years ago you might have found wealthy people with a fancy house, fancy clothes, and maybe nice outhouses and a shower house.  

As I continue my research, I look forward to writing some stories about my ancestor's lives..The nice thing about fiction is that you can write about real people, put them in circumstances of their day, and build some great stories.  There is no reason to know the exact details of a person's life, facts and imagination are enough to come up with a good story.

Meanwhile, I have my query letter out to agents and have heard back on a few.  Most are standard rejections, but a few agents have provided compliments on my writing. I will keep querying, writing, and researching family history.

Happy writing!