Guilty much too often of this...

...not of blowing up cars. That would be illegal. And probably dangerous.

But I am guilty of what this writer refers to as "bore-geous" writing. Writers, and whoever else works with words, read this. Now.

Ayelet Waldman discusses the importance of avoiding pointless beautiful writing. She emphasizes how important it is to move the plot forward with each scene, each sentence, each word, and when it doesn't, cut it. It's hard to let go of my "babies"--those favorite scenes, characters, stories, whatever that don't really do much of anything.

It's so true! Let's get some action happenin!

Other sources of inspiration

My pets always inspire me--this is Penny

...and Lucy on Lake Michigan

Places inspire me--this is sunset at Lake Michigan

And Colorado, my home state is always inspiring

Colorado, near Buena Vista

Surprising places inspire me--this is the beautiful ceiling of Macy's in Chicago

My family inspires me

The gorgeous Colorado scenery inspires me

In Colorado - Rocky Mountain National Park

My place of inspiration

 This is my sunroom where I love to work and write. Where do you like to write?

A Shout-Out to My Sisters!

So, as a virtual **hug** to all the women in my life who inspire or support me, I want to give a shout out this Friday. Yes, this reads a bit like a book dedication, but hey, let's face it, I'm never going to write a book long enough to actually include a dedication longer than one sentence. :) So, indulge me...

To my mom who can remember every detail, including all state capitols as well as my dog's birthday, and who has given support to me every day of my life; who taught me to sing every day and bloom where I'm planted.

To my sister-in-law, Jennifer, whose grace and love and understanding is always just a phone call away.

To my mother-in-law Jody who is always so supportive of my writing.

To my niece Allie, who is growing to be a lovely young woman.

To Jean who is like a big sister to me and we can always pick up where we left off, just like I saw you yesterday.

To Carol whose creativity and understanding never ceases to amaze me (and I don't think you even realize how brilliant you are).

To Pam and Sara and Rachele and Lori who always keep in touch thought we live far apart (and I'm so bad at staying in contact).

To my adopted "moms" Shirley, DiDi and Barb who help to take care of me.
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To Peggy Kuethe whose work helps so many and who has been such a wonderful mentor to me.

To all of you and so many more...hugs!!

P.S. Sometimes, I have recently realized, I don't take enough time to thank those who mentored me or helped me through the years. I encourage you all to "pay it forward" and give your own shout-outs!

Haiku: moments in time

 Today, I'm going to be reading and working through the book, "Haiku: Learn to Express Yourself by Writing Poetry in the Japanese Tradition" by Patricia Donegan. Haiku, according to Donegan, is the most popular form of poetry today. Perhaps that's because it's such a brief snapshot in time which anyone can observe. But haiku takes that brief moment a step further. It can create a moment of realization or connection to nature or to others.

Here are her seven keys to writing haiku:

1. Form: Your haiku should have three lines with or without a seven syllable count. It should be one breath long.

2. Image: Your haiku should have a descriptive image--for example, not "a flower," but instead "a purple iris in the sun."

3. Kigo (season word): Your haiku should refer to nature and hint at the day's season or weather.

4. Here and Now: You should write from real experience or memory, not imagination; record the present moment.

5. Feeling: Your haiku should not explain or tell, but instead show the feeling through your image.

6. Surprise: Your haiku should have an "ah!" moment that wakes us up.

7. Compassion: Your haiku should express openheartedness toward nature.

This looks like a terrific book--not only informational, but it also gives the reader an opportunity to create poetry while moving through the book. I think I'm going to have to add this one to my Christmas list!

Our birdbath bit the dust

So sad...in the high winds today in Chicago, a big branch fell on our birdbath and broke it in two. You know it's a big branch when it breaks concrete! Maybe I'll just have to replace it with a cool one like this:

Why I Write

Did you know that yesterday was National Day on Writing? This is one that I appreciate someone inventing because it gives me a reason to talk about my favorite thing: writing!

This morning while I was drying my hair (always my best thinking time), I was pondering why I do what I do. I often joke that I have about 4 jobs. That is literally true. I am an online writing instructor. I tutor ESL students at a local high school. I write picture books, and I write materials that are assigned to me (curricular, etc.). And, occasionally, like this weekend, I speak and present materials to school groups or other groups. But...in all of those jobs, I basically have one role: to communicate ideas.

When my son was a toddler, I often felt like I was a translator. First, I was my son's translator because when he was learning to speak,  he could usually only be understood by me and my husband. But it was my translating for him that I did most often. I explained concepts to him in his language, with words he understood. From that was born my first book, Things I See in Church. This little book, showed in very simple language what was happening in church. "Bells -- Jesus calls us." "People -- Jesus gathers us." The concepts were simple (tied to a tangible object), but the "lesson" was deeper. But through simple words and pictures (hopefully), the child could learn a little bit.

When I teach or tutor English as a Second Language, I encourage students not to use a translating device, but rather, to listen to an explanation of the concept in simpler language. So, the other day, I was helping a student understand the concept of the electoral college from her U.S. History class. Tough stuff, but I think we succeeded in the end.

A writer is all about making those connections--taking an idea and telling it in ways that the audience can understand. So, I'll take a concept, like counting, and turn it into a silly story (like Gobble-Gobble-Crash). Kids count while reading the story, but also just enjoy some goofy turkeys flailing around a barnyard.

That's how I see what I do: I communicate ideas to people and make connections that bring us together...and maybe publish a few books along the way. :)

Katie Luther Presentation: What I'm doing this weekend

This weekend, I am traveling to Grand Rapids, Michigan for two presentations on Katie Luther, the wife of Martin Luther of the Protestant Reformation. I find Katie Luther, more technically called Katharina Von Bora, to be an immensely interesting woman of faith. She was placed in a convent at age 6, lived there and took her vows, and then began hearing of the reforms of Martin Luther. At age 21, she and some other nuns decided to escape their vows and their cloistered lives.

The escape story is dramatic. On Easter Eve, 1523, Katie and several other nuns escaped in empty herring barrels with the assistance of Leonard Koppe, a local merchant. They shimmied down into the barrels, tucked away out of sight, as Koppe's wagon rolled away in the middle of the night, away from the convent, to freedom.

After two years, Luther finally proposed to Katie, and they married. He was 42, she was 26. She had 6 children in the span of 8 years.

What I find incredible about her was her energy, her devotion to the people around her, and her ardent faith. She and Luther were given an abandoned monastery, the Black Cloister, as their home. She whipped this place into shape and prepared not only a peaceful and hospitable home for her family but also for the many theological students, royalty, and the downtrodden in Wittenberg.

There is so much I could say about Katie, but this just gives a taste of what I'll be presenting this weekend on Friday at Our Savior Lutheran School, and on Saturday at an LWML zone rally in Grand Rapids.

Do Men and Women Write Differently?

Here's an interesting article from the New York Times suggesting that it's not the subject matter or the style or content that shows that men and women write differently, but actually the linguistic choices we make between words like "among" or "myself." Intriguing, eh?

Then, you can go to this website to plug in your text and the algorithm will determine whether you are a male or female writer.

When Someone Dies: Find Comfort in Jesus

Whew! It's been a looong time since I've posted. I hope to get back to regular blogging, but for now, I'll just announce my other new release for 2010, When Someone Dies: Find Comfort in Jesus. This is a book for children on the subject of grief, published by Concordia Publishing House. Through the text, I tried to show that children may be comforted by the love of Christ in times of loss. The illustrations are gorgeous, and a lot of people are responding to the beautiful cover showing the reflection of the boy and his dog with Jesus alongside him. What a wonderful pictorial interpretation of this scriptural truth. Thank you so much to Peggy Kuethe at Concordia for her wonderful editorial guidance. She is awesome!

Seven Little Bunnies!

This new book, published by Marshall Cavendish, is a prime story (pun intended) of how wonderfully the revision process can produce a great result! This book began with a set of 10 mice and ended up featuring seven sweet bunnies, illustrated by Laura J. Bryant.

Here's the book description from the publisher: About the Book
It’s bedtime for seven little bunnies, but each bunny is busy having fun! Will they stop? One by one, each bunny gets . . . cozy, then dozy, then drowsy, then . . . drops into bed! Soft illustrations rendered in watercolor by Laura J. Bryant bring this bedtime readaloud to a quiet ending. Count the bunnies as they fall asleep.


Enjoy your little bunnies!

The Creative Process and Matisse

Last month, I went with some new friends to the Art Institute of Chicago to see the new Matisse exhibit. The exhibit focuses on a short period of his work, from around 1914-1919. It was a fascinating exhibit which highlighted the influences on his art and an extremely creative and prolific period in his life. A few things stood out for me.

First, I loved how the exhibit spotlighted how he revised his paintings and sculptures. The audio recording which accompanied the exhibit (which you must use if you go--it's worth the money) pointed out how he left sketches in his paintings which showed multiple outlines for the arm, for example. These lines blended into the background, but showed how he changed the shapes for his finished studies. In earlier times, as I believe was the point, he would scrap the canvas and begin again. But he learned to make revision part of his work. It was also fascinating to see four "drafts" of the same sculpture (I believe this was entitled "Back" or something like that. It was a roughly chiseled torso of a man).

Whenever I talk about writing, I always focus on the writing process and how revision is absolutely essential to any decent work that will be published. A rough draft is rarely--if ever--publishable. It is the spark, the promise of what the work can evolve into. But it is the layering effect of draft upon draft which strengthens and solidifies the work into something that not only communicates effectively but makes it complete. 

Second, the exhibit showed that this was an extremely creative and prolific period in his life. As I am learning, writers, as well as painters and sculptors, go through periods in life which are more prolific than others. During this time for Matisse, influences of Cubism appeared in his work (which makes his portraits appear geometric and slightly unsettling) but he forged through those influences to create his own unique style.

This also has direct application to writing. There are times in a writer's life when ideas dry up, desert-like. Creative writing, like all arts, reveals something of the self, some inner thoughts or feelings which rise to the surface through the story. And at times, we, as writers, pull back, unsure if we want to reveal that inner core. We hide away for a time. And then there are others times when ideas flow fast and furious and, creatively speaking, we are prolific and uninhibited.

But it's all part of the process, and I am very grateful for all of the writing opportunities I have--even in a time when book publishing is almost exclusively focused on YA vampire novels. As my family has often told me, I need more zombies in my stories. Maybe I should take the hint.

10 Things Everyone Needs When They're Moving

So, here's a list of 10 things everybody needs when a move is imminent. These things could be given as a goodbye gift for the person moving. If you're the one moving, make your own moving kit.

1. A box cutter. You thought I was going to say tape, right? No. Having many, many box cutters (preferably one that can be attached to one's body) is absolutely necessary. Many times during this move, I packed boxes which then I had to open before they were actually transported to the new house. For example, I needed a lampshade the night before we moved because I absolutely could NOT stand the idea of reading my novel by the light of a naked bulb before I went to sleep. But I had no box cutter, so I was using kid scissors and a pen to try to get into a box. Not pretty.

2. Packing Tape. Don't get that wimpy yellow-y kind. Get the super thick durable kind. The scotch clear tape is about $2 at Walmart. That's the best.

3. Many writing utensils and notepads, preferably sticky notes (again, having these items on a key chain is a good idea, if possible).

4. A cell phone charger.

5. A flashlight and extra batteries. These are necessary in the old empty house and in the new empty house. There are no nightlights left.

6. Dare I say it? Instant coffee or tea bags and a tea kettle (preferably borrowed from the neighbor).

7. The dog's leash and kitty crates, along with dog food, cat food, kitty litter, and a litter box. Some sort of bowl is handy too. Oh, and tuna in case your cat decides to go under the foundation of the house and you're trying to lure her out.

8. Many cleaning supplies. These are again necessary in the old and new houses, so bring all types along. Throw in some tp and paper towel while you're at it.

9. Air mattresses (again, for old and new houses) on those weird nights when you're camping out indoors.

10. Beer, wine, or Xanax. No further explanation needed.

Palate Pleasers

I've had a new idea for my blog. Since moving here to Chicago, I have been slowly getting to know some of the people in our new congregation, Redeemer Lutheran Church.

In the spirit of a "getting to know you" project, I've decided to start with some cooking. I was given the newest church cookbook on the day of my husband's installation. It is called "Palate Pleasers." What better way to get to know some of the cooks in the congregation than by using their recipes?

So, I pulled the book out today, and decided I could try some recipes. This all may sound very "Julie and Julia"-like, and I guess I mean it to. I read the book, Julie and Julia by Julie Powell several years ago, and loved the concept. She decided to make all of Julia Child's recipes (in her Joy of Cooking book) over the course of a year and write about it on her blog.

However, my version will use the church cookbook for my inspiration. Tonight's recipe: Savory Beef Strudel.

Any time a main dish recipe has a dessert term in the name, it's going to be made in my kitchen. I have a terrible sweet tooth. I don't dive head-first into a bag of Doritos, but Oreos at 4 pm sound like a terrific addition to my diet. (Sad, I know.) One of my other favorite main dishes is the classic Bisquick recipe called cheeseburger pie. I mean, burgers, cheese, and pie--how can it get any better?

So tonight's recipe involves strudel. Interestingly, the word "strudel" comes from the German word for whirlpool, apparently because if you take a cross-section of a strudel you can see a sort of spiral shape. Apple strudel is the most common recipe consisting of layers of strudel dough and filling. The strudel dough is very labor-intensive to make, and my recipe, while it still took about 45 minutes to prepare, saved me the labor of making the dough. Instead, it called for phyllo dough (puff pastry dough).

The first time I used phyllo dough in a recipe, I thought the dough itself was the packaging. The sheets are so paper-like that I kept picking up layer after layer trying to get to the good stuff. Alas, the "good stuff" was what I was ripping through and tearing to shreds.

Tonight I knew better, remembering that foray into phyllo dough in my younger years. This recipe is sort of like lasagne. I made a meat mixture with ground beef, celery, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, and layered that between buttered layers of the phyllo. Over the top of the layers went a milk and egg mixture. The whole thing is now in the oven cooking.

Well, the timer's about to ding, so I'd better sign off. I'll let you know how the recipe turned out!

My flowers are in bloom

As promised, here are some photos! Everything is a work in progress, but I do feel like we're MAKING progress, so that is good. Here is a photo of our "icon wall"--the idea we got from Dr. D. Scaer. These are our hand-painted and favorite icons from various places: Ethiopia, Greece, and one commissioned by us by a Russian icon painter. That was pretty awesome (it's the one to the left of the cross of St. Nicholas).







This is my Jasmine plant that I bought at Trader Joes. It's now in bloom. Love it!













Here is a photo of our new living room furniture (which, of course, Lucy just HAD to sit on).









Next are some odd ceiling pictures, but let me explain. The first is our ceiling fan which we now have put up in the kitchen, in place of the green pool-table-esque light fixture.







The second photo shows a much more reasonable placement of our dining room fixture (and I haven't hit my head on it once since it is now over the center of the table).








Next, we have the non-racing stripes in the bottom of the bathtub. Again, this may seem an odd photo, but when we moved in there were these stick-on white non-skid stripes in a zig zag pattern. It took me some elbow grease, but I got rid of those, and now the coral bathroom looks a tad bit better. Also, our wonderful handymen installed a bath fan yesterday, so now it's much better.


This is a photo of our new carpet on the stairs. Love it! We're also getting runners for the upstairs hallway and the area in the living room from the front door to the kitchen.












We also had a really plush shag carpet put in the master bathroom. I could sleep on it: it's that soft and wonderful!










Next, is the new fabulous kitchen sink faucet. The older one was gold/brass and was leaking and not looking all that great. This is the new update! I'm going to switch all of the cabinet pulls to silver/chrome and see how that works.






This is the fabulous table/chairs I found on Craigslist.

Finally a few pictures

Admittedly, these are not the best photos, and I have many more to add, but they capture at least a couple of things.

1. The installation of the new dishwasher. Yay! This day we also had a garbage disposal put in. Much needed upgrades, and I am so thankful for them (those can be my Valentine's gift). :)

2. Below are some pictures of the recent snowstorm that hit Chicago. It pretty much snowed for 36 hours straight. We don't have it nearly as bad as farther east, but still, it is up to Lucy's belly. Also, I've added a photo of our sunroom (still very much in transition, as you can tell). The sun is streaming in the window, brightening up the room. It's not captured well on film, but it looks cheery this morning.

The fun part of unpacking

One of the best (only?) things about unpacking is the decorating. We've gotten to the point where much of the house is unpacked. The bedrooms are finished, the linen closet is filled, the laundry room is organized, the kitchen is mostly done, and my work space is functional--oh, and the family room (maybe most important!) is comfy and cozy. Today I was working on the the living room. In every new space, the decor fits in a little differently. I'm trying to use what we have in a new way. Which candles fit where? Where should we hang the tulip picture? etc. It all takes time, but it's nice to see things coming together.

February already?

I can't believe how quickly the last few weeks have passed during our relocation process. Each day, each hour, something else gets unpacked and put away in our new house, so things are definitely settling down as the house gets in shape.

Scott's installation and dinner reception were last Sunday. It was a lovely service, and the dinner was magnificent. Wow--what an incredibly warm welcome! We are just so thrilled to be here. We know that moving is a roller coaster, and we'll have up and down days, but we've been so pleased and thankful for all of the warm and generous gifts the people of Redeemer have given us. Thank you!

The lost and the found

So here are things I've found in the last couple of days:

1. my wedding ring (yay! -- I had put it in a "safe" place so it wouldn't get ruined up with all the messiness of the move, but then couldn't find it right away).

2. my jeans!

3. my speakers for my office (so right now I'm listening to Pandora, and my speakers are working!).

4. the bus stop for Jacob--his first bus ride to school ever today.

The missing:

1. most of our drinking glasses...I haven't gotten back to unpacking more of the kitchen yet. Most of everything else for the kitchen is unpacked, however.

2. The batteries (AA and AAA type). So for now my clock is just going to say 4:00.

3. My extra chapsticks and lotion. Ooh! I need those!

Okay, will try to post photos later...

Another update

So, this morning I've been grading (for my online course), filling up the crawl space with storage stuff, and cleaning the upstairs bathroom and emptying boxes for the linen closet. I think we'll be okay as far as storage goes, but I'm still early in the unpacking process. It's a good house; it just needs some TLC and some replacement "parts."

Jacob got off to school today (his first day) and then called to say it's an early dismissal day. So, that's probably good. He had a peer "ambassador" meet him for the day, so hopefully that will help acclimate him to the school.

Cool news! Scott is featured in this article in what looks like a local edition of the Chicago Sun-Times.