Susan Buffum's Blog: Welcome to My World, page 23

Taking a Breath

Life gets crazy sometimes. I finished a new novel last week, then did some redesigning of the interior layout, putting inserted events into chronological order. Next, I printed out a hard copy because I know I'm going to have to write notes in the margins as I proofread and edit the manuscript. I also will need to add some more background info here and there to make it all more cohesive.

Meanwhile, I approved Talon:The Familiarity of it All (Third in the Talon Series) and it's now available on Amazon.com, BN.com and other sites (gold cover). I received the proof copy of book 4 which happened to be partially written and was finished just after book three which had also been partially written for awhile was finished. I'm giving that a final proofreading and editing between doing other things, like watching westerns with my husband (High Plains Drifter, McClintock), reading a new book I picked up (The Truth About Death and other stories by Robert Hellenga), doing housework and psyching myself up for another work week.

I started a new story Friday night.

John's father is in the hospital again being treated for an infection in ICU and then once it clears up sufficiently he'll receive a pacemaker. He's 94.5 years old so John has been stressed about this because we just lost his mother at the end of January.

John's still not found a job, but he had two phone interviews scheduled for Friday, and of course that was the day the local Gas & Electric decided to come and replace the telephone pole with the transformer at the end of our driveway. Fortunately John emailed his cellphone number to the first HR person because the phone cut out during the interview even though no one was working on the pole, but they were further up the street working on another pole. So, at least the interviews took place. we'll see what happens.

This week I have some medical tests scheduled on Wednesday requiring sedation-so that will pretty much wipe me out for the entire day! I tend to get silly when I'm knocked out like that- it just hits me in that part of my brain where comedy lurks. I hate medical tests but everybody laughs when I wake up which makes the whole thing more bearable.

Recently, California State Button Society editor visited my virtual charmstring museum online and wrote asking permission to use an article and photograph from my collection, so Kelly's been okaying that for me as she's that blog site manager for me.

Lastly- had a nice email from the author I sat next to at the recent Articulture event here in town, Marcy Heath Robitaille, Wish You a Goode Journey. Hopefully I'll be seeing her again in June at the Agawam Public Library for their READlocal event where she'll be signing her book and I'll be signing copies of My Magical Life. I need to return her lunchbox she left behind in Westfield first and foremost, and then we'll catch up on what's been going on in our lives. She feels like an old friend even though we've only just met.

Along the paths we walk through life we meet certain people. They are placed there for a reason. Some stay, some are passing acquaintances but they all have a reason for being in that particular place at that particular time so we should all take the time to meet and greet them, listen to their stories and share our own. They learn from us, we learn from them and we move on along our individual paths with a lighter heart, a better insight, a renewed sense of purpose, a new idea, a clearer picture, a revived dream...this is what it means to be human, to share this planet with one another and to grow.

The Darkness Lurking Within

I have a novel in progress based on a short story previously written that takes the characters further into their story. I am near the end of the novel and there is darkness within the two lead characters due to circumstances in their lives that is going to lead to a shocking conclusion to this novel but it is the only conclusion for them...and I am dragging my heels about writing that ending.

I read that J. K. Rowling killed off a Harry Potter character and it was a difficult decision, a difficult thing to write.

I can believe it. For a writer it is as if we give birth to these characters, breathe life into them, direct their steps, give them moral fiber and a good conscience...but sometimes they are fatally flawed and we are helpless to save them no matter how hard it wrenches our hearts to end their suffering.

I've had a few sleepless nights thinking about the conclusion of this book, and I'm still not psychologically prepared to write that ending...maybe one day, but not right now.

Post Book Signing Event

It was a wonderful day yesterday being a part of Westfield's first Articulture event here in my home town. This was my first appearance here on my own turf and I think people may have been a bit overwhelmed by how much I have done while flying below the radar (I mainly think of myself as a medical secretary and a hobby author, but maybe I need to realign my thinking after this event and put who I actually am ahead of the work I do to help support my family, at least when it comes to events like this.) I was thrilled to meet the other four local authors and enjoyed talking to them and learning about their publishing experiences and how they've promoted their work. I also met an artist I'd been facebook friends with for two years through a mutual friend but had never met in person, Richard Cowles, and it was as if we had known one another forever. Another local artists, Steve Cook, an Afghanistan War vet who paints as post traumatic stress and anxiety therapy had some amazing images. I brought home a print of his gorgeous slightly abstracted rooster to inspire me as I write, and my friend Darlene who sat with me for a couple hours in the morning, took home the matted print for her farm. I also brought home Marcy Heath Robitaille's book Wish You A Goode Journey, about the loss of her daughter at age 17 in a MVA and how her daughter's desire to be an organ donor helped six others to continue living their lives. The other book I snagged was Judith Foard's Senior Year, a romance set in the late 1940's about a girl's relationship with the new boy in town. His name is Rex. I sold her The Subtlety of Light and Shadow in which my main character is a man named Rex Royce. She was reading my book and I was reading her book during lulls. And she came over t tell me that her maiden name had been Palmer. My Rex's love interest is a girl named Lucie Palmer.

The music upstairs could be heard downstairs so we had entertainment during the whole event. I made some valuable local contacts and quickly discussed holiday book signing events in the fall and winter and exchanged contact info with Westfield on Weekends people because I have Haunting Tales books and Holiday books that will fit right in. I also obtained info on a new bookstore opening in town that is very big on promoting local authors and holding author events. I was also able to pass along the READlocal info to the authors because Agawam is practically next door to Westfield.

I came home exhausted but overall with a positive feeling about the whole day. My family and friends were there throughout the day providing me opportunities to take brief breaks, bringing me lunch, providing support and making me laugh! (My brother was a riot sitting at the vacated table beside me after Marcy left at 4PM telling people he was promoting his new book The Emperor's New Book, it really was NOTHING much but he'd be happy to sign it, although is pen held INVISIBLE ink! He was just too much! Had people laughing though- he's such a clown!

Great time! Hope they can do this again in the future!

Articulture Westfield Nearly Here!

It's getting down to the wire now! Articulture Westfield is quickly approaching (April 30th) and I've been busy working full time (my job) and preparing for this event after work every day- and I'm almost ready! Tonight I bought tablecloths tonight- black to cover the table and a smaller red one to lay on top at an angle- not only my former high school colors but the prominent colors in Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume 1 which is one of the books to be featured. I have some chocolate brown crates to stack at one end of the table (two high) to tuck some books into. And then I applied my creative skills to make a JUST WRITE sign to go with the Just Write flyers I made to encourage young people to write. The poster has shiny letters (red, blue and gold) on black foam board with a glittery silver star that flashes red polka dots dotting the letter 'i' in the word write- that ought to be eye catching! My co-worker, Leandra, made me a gorgeous name sign with pink roses in the corners. She's made something else that she's surprising me with tomorrow! It's all coming together! The huge task will be hauling all of this into the Women's Club and downstairs...it's an old building with stairs, and books are...well, heavy when in quantity! I also remembered to buy a padded folding chair because sitting for any length of time is not good when one had rheumatoid arthritis. I plan on alternating sitting and standing throughout the day so I don't stiffen up. Otherwise- I'm psyched about this event and looking forward to it! It'll be interesting to meet the readers in this town where I've lived since 1973.

Abandonned Posts

I am titling this the same as the blog entry I just wrote on my official author blog. I'd started a new post earlier tonight but before I was done I'd realized it might be hurtful to several people I truly care about; that I'd just been feeling frustrated and a little angry. Therefore, I'd scraped that post, abandoned it, and it left me with an Untitled Post.

Going back to it hours later it made me think about all the writing I've done that has been abandoned as more exciting projects have arisen. My house is full of abandoned bits and pieces of writing, and my facebook page probably hides hundreds of abandoned posts that I've begun and then deleted.

Where do all these abandoned words go, and what made them not up to my usual high standards? What would I find if I could squeeze through the gates of the abandoned posts scrap yard and started picking and poking through half form notions, good ideas gone bad, sentences fragments, unfinished paragraphs., etc. Maybe there are two half ideas that when strung together might make an intriguing whole? Maybe a half formed notion would become a full blown idea if turned and looked at from another angle? Maybe a handful of sentences might coalesce into a paragraph that might spark the bonfire of imagination!

You never know.

This is how my mind works after an early morning, a long day and a late night.

A Nice Surprise from a Co-worker

A co-worker of mine is a doodler. I've snagged a few of her nice little 3x3" Post-It note drawings to pin up in my cubicle- a toothy, grinning shark, a beautiful blossoming flower and a psychedelic Love and Peace design that reminded me of my childhood in the 60's. This young lady is in her early 20's so I was surprised by the retro 60's style of that little piece of art!

She's drawn chalkboard art for the coffee station for patient's in the waiting room, and flowers on the Medical Assistant's memo board. So, when I realized I needed a sign with my name on it for my table at the Articulture event this coming weekend I bought a 9x12 piece of whiteboard, a bunch of Crayola markers and a fat Sharpie pen and asked if she would put my name on a sign and decorate it for me. I offered to pay her for her time and talent.

Last Thursday she took the materials home and today she brought me my author sign- and I was totally blown away! She'd used the Sharpie to elegantly print my name and then a silver glitter pen to outline one side of the letters to make them really stand out. Then in the top right hand and lower left hand corners she painted full blown pink roses with swirls of deeper pint and white highlights that are breathtaking! She painted green leaves and vines and then used a green glitter pen to add highlights to the edges of the leaves. The sign is a work of art! I absolutely LOVE it! It is totally nothing like what I thought she would do- it's a thousand times more amazing!

And she refused payment...so, I'll get her a gift card and give it to her next week to thank her for her artwork.

New Vampire Novel Nearly Witten

I've been working on a new vampire novel with a rather unique angle for a couple of months now. It's mostly written. Last night I started reading through it, adding the little sections I've been working on separately, editing the main novel, and checking continuity since I write primarily out of my head and never work with an outline. I've got five chapters done so far. It's a pretty big project and I know I need to make a few changes toward the end, so I'll be busy with this one for about another month.

Meanwhile, I'm about finished with the final proofreading and edits of the third Talon novel- then I need to go into the computer and make all the changes to the file there, upload the final version, proof it one more time and then it'll be released. I'm waiting for the printed proof copies of the fourth novel in the series to arrive and then that will be done. There will be one more novel in that series eventually but it's being developed in my head at the moment. I have other things I want to do first such as finish the fourth volume of Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, and I have another short story collection put together that needs attention. And then there are the first and second novels in the Ghost Chasers-Amberton Paranormal Investigation Society series to deal with- these were actually written before any of the currently available novels so I feel like I've really neglected them in the whole scheme of things! In the first novel, which was written after the second novel was written, I fictionalized two of the people I work with and made them characters in the novel for fun. The only other real person I've fictionalized and written into a few stories is my late dear friend Pauline Johnson who passed away at age 92 in September 2014. I still remember the day after I left a short story called The Weeping Angel at her house after one of our usual Sunday visits. She called me Monday night and during our conversation she sort of hesitantly asked, "Is that me in your story?" When I said, "Yes, it is," she was very emotional- teary and laughing, so tickled, so touched that I'd immortalized her in print like that. I am so glad that before she passed away I wrote a fictional story with us as characters in which a writer visits her elderly friend who is on hospice. The friend has always been generous and loving but has never wanted anything in return from the writer, so the writer has been wracking her brain to think of something she can give to her friend before she's gone. In the story she tells the woman that she will write her into future stories whenever she is missing her and she'll hear her voice through the character and that way she will live on for as long as the writer is able to write. The woman replies, "Are you saying you think I'm a real character?" with a twinkle in her eye. Yes- Pauline was a real character and she is in several stories as various characters, but most recognizable in a holiday story called Christmas Cakes (Together for the Holidays) written after her passing. The story is set in her house although in a fictional town. Mrs. James is exactly like my late friend- my tribute to a wonderful woman whose loss I still feel today. But, after she read An Intangible Gift, the story in which we are the characters, she called me that night, again very emotional, to thank me and tell me that she was going to put a copy of that story in her safe deposit box. I'm glad I was able to give her that intangible gift of immortality through my writing because it really meant so much to her. I just wish she had lived a little longer so she could have held one of my books in her hands instead of manuscript copies, but I think she knew one day it would happen. I feel blessed for having had her in my life as a surrogate Mom for thirteen years.

Phone Calls & Misunderstandings

So, I asked my sister and my brother if they would volunteer at the Articulture event on the 30th when they were here for my birthday. I gave my sister the email of the woman coordinating the volunteers. Here is what happened- my sister emailed the woman and wrote the message in such a way that it totally confused the lady. My brother never empties his voice mail on his phone and doesn't take calls from anyone but family. My sister doesn't have an answering machine, and evidently only answers her phone when she recognizes the name on the caller ID- so she gives the poor woman MY home phone number, which I don't really like to give out because WE don't usually answer our home phone because of all the annoying spammers out there, unwanted political calls, calls about solar energy, etc. So the woman called my house while I was at work and left a message sounding totally befuddled, and don't blame her. She thought I was the one looking to volunteer at this event. So when I got home I tried calling her and had to leave a message explaining that no, I am one of the authors at the event and I asked my siblings to volunteer and somehow they ended up giving her my name and phone number! Then, while John and I were out collecting Riley-Beans from the vet after his dental surgery today I missed another call from this woman. She had tried calling my sister and hadn't gotten an answer and understood that my brother doesn't have voice mail...needless to say I called my sister and told her never to give my phone number to anyone again, and to answer her phone when people call- she had the woman's full name and should have recognized her last name! So, I gave her the two phone numbers the woman had left on my answering machine, because here we do have an answering machine and we return calls ASAP if you leave a message...so, hopefully my sister will call and straighten all of this volunteering out because I know we need volunteers, but really- it shouldn't be like phone tag and unraveling knots to reach the volunteers to schedule their time slots!!
I guess once the middle child, always the middle child, and the middle woman, in this case, when it comes to anything to do with my big sister and my little brother!
All I can say is...if you call me, I might not know what you're talking about, but if you mention my sister or brother by name, I'll more than likely figure it out and straighten things out...so, thanks for calling the organized one in the family!
I'm still sitting here shaking my head though, and hoping that she got the two volunteers I recruited for her! (Although I don't know if they really want all three of us in one place at one time!!)

Recovering & Keeping Busy

I hadn't been feeling so great for the past two days but thought it was just sort of a withdrawal from my rheumatoid arthritis medication that I was told to stop last Friday when I was put on an antibiotic I'd used in the past to treat an infection. I had a bad time with chronic leg cramps and muscle spasms last night being off the medication and was tired this morning, but also felt woozy and shaky, and my face was bright red and my skin had blotchy red patches. I went in to work as scheduled for 1PM but immediately booked an appointment with the office doctor today because I was not feeling well. He walked into the examination room, looked at me and said, "Uh-oh!" I quickly gave him the nutshell version of what had been happening and he had a diagnosis for me immediately. Being a D.O. he treats the whole body and is familiar with the type of arthritis I have, so understood I was having a flare-up being off my medication. He also knew I was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic so ordered a shot of Benadryl be administered. Then he said the antibiotic can cause tendonitis...which I have been struggling with for the past few days. I had to call John to come get me. I went home, fell into bed and took a three hour nap with Revere who curled up beside me with his paw in my hand. Woke up when Kelly got home from work, ate dinner and then John drove me back to work to get my car.

I thought the whole day would be a total waste but when we got home this evening with my car I had three cartons of books waiting at the garage door to sort out for the Articulture event here in town on the 30th where I'll be one of the local authors offering my books and talking about self-publishing if anyone is interested in pursuing that route. I got them all sorted out into their proper boxes in the basement. Then I came upstairs and went into CreateSpace where my cover design had crashed last night. I was able to delete it and re-do it tonight, so now the fourth Talon novel is in their review process which is done before I'm able to order a printed proof copy. I should be able to order that tomorrow. It'll be in shades of purple. Book three is shades of gold. (One is red, two is blue and the fifth book when written will be green).

I missed a call from the Archway/Simon Schuster consultant this morning, but sent him an email to reschedule our next chat for the first week of May. I was too sick this morning to take his call.

And now, I'm going to bed and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

So John Suggests An Audio Book...

The little boy I babysat for when I was sixteen through twenty is now a grown man with two kids of his own. He lives in Vermont and is a truck driver. I live in the neighborhood we grew up in, although I live in a different house than I did back then. His name is John.

Tonight he suggested I do an audio book...and that I narrate it!

Nice idea, an audio book, so he can listen as he drives.

Bad idea me narrating one of my own books. I would be like Holden Caulfield, constantly digressing, veering off on a tangent to explain a character's motivation, or insert a new facet into their character profile, or even totally jumping the track and telling another story before meandering back to the story I'm supposed to be narrating.

Back in the 70's they had 8-track tapes. I will steal the term 8-track and use it in another context. My brain has a minimum of 8-tracks. No matter what I am doing, like typing this blog, another track in my brain is thinking about work tomorrow, another is planning my morning since its my half-day and I have some errands to run, a third track is hoping something comes of my husband's phone interview this coming Friday, while another is telling me I should get to bed and get some sleep and yet another is unraveling the thorny knot that will reveal the basic idea for another story. I'm also putting together a little reader for young readers with stories I wrote for Kelly when she was young.

So-you see how I digress?

I would never be able to narrate one of my own books...thanks, John, for the suggestion...I'd love to tell you a story like I did when you were a little boy, but, it's just not going to happen!