Veronica Helen Hart's Blog, page 2
April 13, 2014
Husband and Wife - a Writing Team?
It’s been thirty four years since we both decided we preferred writing to volleyball or hiking in the woods.
Writing became our togetherness hobby.
We even received our first checks on the same day, his from Dog World, mine from Readers Digest. Through the years since, we’ve learned a few lessons.
1. The most important lesson of all: critiquing one another’s work is exactly that. In the beginning we had to be careful not to personalize our critiques; we had to focus solely on the written words. It wasn’t always easy. I’d write something I thought brilliant and he would suggest major changes. I took offense. Sometimes he would pout. In time we came to understand that the critiques helped our writing and by understanding they were not personal attacks, helped our relationship to grow.
2. It is still best to have separate writing spaces. I have always had my space close to the center of activity in whatever house we were in. At first we were in the same small office. I’d hear his keyboard clicking away while my mind was blank. Very annoying. Or I’d want to play a game while thinking but felt guilty if he worked assiduously on his story. Our next house gave me an office just off the living room, which worked well as that was our Bed and Breakfast era, so I had to be able to see people arriving at the front door. His office was on the opposite side of the house and then later moved upstairs to an unused bedroom. Now, he uses a spare bedroom and I am in the front room which used to be the dining room.
3.
Because of what we learned in Number 1, we can now compete in the same contests, celebrating each other’s wins. Over the years our books and stories have won or placed well in many competitions. We both enter the Florida Writers annual anthology competition. His stories have been in every issue, mine in three.
Where are we now? We plan to put together a book of our short stories, continue writing our novels and continue to hope for one another’s huge success.
Veronica Helen Hart is an award winning author. Her humorous thriller, The Prince of Keegan Bay, is now part of a series about a group of senior citizens who call themselves The Blenders. Their next adventure, The Swimming Corpse, is scheduled for release in October, 2014. She is currently working on the third book, Safari Stew. These books are published by Champagne Books of Canada. Her publisher, Double Edge Press, Scenery Hill, PA, produces her more serious novels, also award winning, Elena – the Girl with the Piano, now available, and The Reluctant Daughters, being released May 2014. She makes her home in Ormond Beach, Florida with her writer husband, Robert Hart.
Writing became our togetherness hobby.
We even received our first checks on the same day, his from Dog World, mine from Readers Digest. Through the years since, we’ve learned a few lessons.
1. The most important lesson of all: critiquing one another’s work is exactly that. In the beginning we had to be careful not to personalize our critiques; we had to focus solely on the written words. It wasn’t always easy. I’d write something I thought brilliant and he would suggest major changes. I took offense. Sometimes he would pout. In time we came to understand that the critiques helped our writing and by understanding they were not personal attacks, helped our relationship to grow.
2. It is still best to have separate writing spaces. I have always had my space close to the center of activity in whatever house we were in. At first we were in the same small office. I’d hear his keyboard clicking away while my mind was blank. Very annoying. Or I’d want to play a game while thinking but felt guilty if he worked assiduously on his story. Our next house gave me an office just off the living room, which worked well as that was our Bed and Breakfast era, so I had to be able to see people arriving at the front door. His office was on the opposite side of the house and then later moved upstairs to an unused bedroom. Now, he uses a spare bedroom and I am in the front room which used to be the dining room.
3.
Because of what we learned in Number 1, we can now compete in the same contests, celebrating each other’s wins. Over the years our books and stories have won or placed well in many competitions. We both enter the Florida Writers annual anthology competition. His stories have been in every issue, mine in three.
Where are we now? We plan to put together a book of our short stories, continue writing our novels and continue to hope for one another’s huge success.
Veronica Helen Hart is an award winning author. Her humorous thriller, The Prince of Keegan Bay, is now part of a series about a group of senior citizens who call themselves The Blenders. Their next adventure, The Swimming Corpse, is scheduled for release in October, 2014. She is currently working on the third book, Safari Stew. These books are published by Champagne Books of Canada. Her publisher, Double Edge Press, Scenery Hill, PA, produces her more serious novels, also award winning, Elena – the Girl with the Piano, now available, and The Reluctant Daughters, being released May 2014. She makes her home in Ormond Beach, Florida with her writer husband, Robert Hart.
August 5, 2013
Milestones
August 5, 2013
On Tuesday I shall turn seventy-two years old. To some, that may seem old. It does to me too, if I say it—but I don’t feel it. Forgetting the aches and pains, I could be in my early forties embarking on a new career in writing as if it has not taken me all seventy-two years to get to this stage.
At this stage I have two traditionally published books, a musical (produced in Ilion, NY and Daytona Beach, Florida) with original music and lyrics, an award winning young adult book (self published) and three more novels in various stages of publication readiness.
Goodreads is about books, writing and the writing life, a life you can’t experience unless you are living it. I never thought it would take this long to figure out how to live.
In my senior year in high school, my counselor advised me to take a shorthand course. He was smart enough to know I would get no free ride to college – though to his and my surprise I was offered a scholarship based on need. This fell through—my parents didn’t sign the application. In high school I worked from one until five in a BOCES program (my mother desperately needed the money). I got up at 5:30, started classes at seven a.m., left at noon, grabbed lunch at The Shack (Miami Edison Senior High), and walked to work at Financial Displays, the company that made time and temperature bank signs with photos of happy people who borrowed or saved money at their banks.
When I arrived home around seven in the evening, I had little interest in doing shorthand homework, besides I always got an A on our Friday tests. One day prior to report card time, my shorthand teacher asked me why I didn’t turn in my daily homework. I told her I didn’t have time to do it. The rest of my classes were the Academic – hope to go to college level – and I enjoyed that homework.
She said, “So, what are you going to do with your life?”
No one had ever asked me that before. I planned to be a famous actress or dress designer. I told her, “Live until I die, I guess.”
Disgusted with my answer, she told me in front of the entire class my answer was stupid. “Of course everyone lives until they die.”
I have since learned that is not totally true. Observation tells me more people than not exist rather than live up to their potential. Some accept stunted personal and spiritual growth because they do not believe they can achieve a goal. Some accept the advice of a misguided counselor. No one can predict the outcome; it is the journey that is important.
My creative bent surfaced when I was in my twenties, living in Poughkeepsie. Two of my children were in school and the littlest followed me around as I performed with The Children’s Theater. I became the “traveling set” designer. This provided the confidence to take a class in Russian at the community college. Then I added one in creative writing.
As my husband transferred around the U.S. and the Middle East, I took the opportunity to study at whatever university or college was nearby. I added Farsi to my list of languages.
At the ripe old age of thirty-eight I had divorced twice (the same husband), spent a couple of years on my own running an art store and gallery, boarding horses and renting out a cottage on my property.
Then I met Bob whom I eventually married. He asked me what I really wanted to do with my life and I instantly answered, “Write.”
He said, “So why aren’t you?”
I shrugged, thinking of the work it was taking to survive with my three daughters. Not long after, I subscribed to the Children’s Literature Course – the one that used to advertise on matchbook covers. Within the year, I submitted my first story and a week later received a check. This is easy, I thought. Ha! It took many more years and a lot of hard work to get here.
Fourteen plays and seven or eight books later, here I am, on the threshold of being who I want to be – a writer.
P.S. That shorthand teacher always gave me a C in spite of my test scores. I wonder what she would think of all the Outstanding Achievement Awards my musical received, or the literary awards for my books.
Veronica Helen (Ronnie) Hart lives in Ormond Beach, Florida. Her books-in-waiting are a Blenders Story (untitled), sequel to The Prince of Keegan Bay, The Reluctant Daughters, and Silent Autumn – this last one now going through the gauntlet of critique groups.
On Tuesday I shall turn seventy-two years old. To some, that may seem old. It does to me too, if I say it—but I don’t feel it. Forgetting the aches and pains, I could be in my early forties embarking on a new career in writing as if it has not taken me all seventy-two years to get to this stage.
At this stage I have two traditionally published books, a musical (produced in Ilion, NY and Daytona Beach, Florida) with original music and lyrics, an award winning young adult book (self published) and three more novels in various stages of publication readiness.
Goodreads is about books, writing and the writing life, a life you can’t experience unless you are living it. I never thought it would take this long to figure out how to live.
In my senior year in high school, my counselor advised me to take a shorthand course. He was smart enough to know I would get no free ride to college – though to his and my surprise I was offered a scholarship based on need. This fell through—my parents didn’t sign the application. In high school I worked from one until five in a BOCES program (my mother desperately needed the money). I got up at 5:30, started classes at seven a.m., left at noon, grabbed lunch at The Shack (Miami Edison Senior High), and walked to work at Financial Displays, the company that made time and temperature bank signs with photos of happy people who borrowed or saved money at their banks.
When I arrived home around seven in the evening, I had little interest in doing shorthand homework, besides I always got an A on our Friday tests. One day prior to report card time, my shorthand teacher asked me why I didn’t turn in my daily homework. I told her I didn’t have time to do it. The rest of my classes were the Academic – hope to go to college level – and I enjoyed that homework.
She said, “So, what are you going to do with your life?”
No one had ever asked me that before. I planned to be a famous actress or dress designer. I told her, “Live until I die, I guess.”
Disgusted with my answer, she told me in front of the entire class my answer was stupid. “Of course everyone lives until they die.”
I have since learned that is not totally true. Observation tells me more people than not exist rather than live up to their potential. Some accept stunted personal and spiritual growth because they do not believe they can achieve a goal. Some accept the advice of a misguided counselor. No one can predict the outcome; it is the journey that is important.
My creative bent surfaced when I was in my twenties, living in Poughkeepsie. Two of my children were in school and the littlest followed me around as I performed with The Children’s Theater. I became the “traveling set” designer. This provided the confidence to take a class in Russian at the community college. Then I added one in creative writing.
As my husband transferred around the U.S. and the Middle East, I took the opportunity to study at whatever university or college was nearby. I added Farsi to my list of languages.
At the ripe old age of thirty-eight I had divorced twice (the same husband), spent a couple of years on my own running an art store and gallery, boarding horses and renting out a cottage on my property.
Then I met Bob whom I eventually married. He asked me what I really wanted to do with my life and I instantly answered, “Write.”
He said, “So why aren’t you?”
I shrugged, thinking of the work it was taking to survive with my three daughters. Not long after, I subscribed to the Children’s Literature Course – the one that used to advertise on matchbook covers. Within the year, I submitted my first story and a week later received a check. This is easy, I thought. Ha! It took many more years and a lot of hard work to get here.
Fourteen plays and seven or eight books later, here I am, on the threshold of being who I want to be – a writer.
P.S. That shorthand teacher always gave me a C in spite of my test scores. I wonder what she would think of all the Outstanding Achievement Awards my musical received, or the literary awards for my books.
Veronica Helen (Ronnie) Hart lives in Ormond Beach, Florida. Her books-in-waiting are a Blenders Story (untitled), sequel to The Prince of Keegan Bay, The Reluctant Daughters, and Silent Autumn – this last one now going through the gauntlet of critique groups.
