Judith Post's Blog, page 11

August was an icky month

I read horoscopes. I like them, but when I read my August horoscopes from my two favorite astrologers–Oscar Cainer and Susan Miller–neither of them predicted an especially good month for me. I didn’t get discouraged. It’s not like July was all that great. So, I decided to just pull up my girl panties (something my daughters say) and wade through whatever came up. And I have to say, August was like wading through knee-deep mud. Nothing to brag about. And it wore me out and made me grumpy. HH swears that even then, I’m charming and wonderful to live with. There’s a reason I love the man. He doesn’t live in the real world–at least, where it concerns me.

The beginning of September came, and I was almost afraid to read my horoscope. But I’m so glad I did. September, according to the planets, is supposed to be much nicer to me. My ruling planet Venus is moving forward again, not retrograde, as of today, the third. Life is supposed to get easier, happier. And I’m ready. August felt like two steps forward, one step back.

I know my blog is usually about writing, but mood and happiness AFFECT my writing. And August was a struggle. I considered taking some time off, but I’m not good at twiddling my thumbs, so I just chugged along. Slowly. So, I’m writing my blog today to celebrate that August is OVER. Most years, I love the month. This year, not so much. But it wasn’t August’s fault. The planets did their best to mess with almost every sign.

Today, I’m saying WELCOME to September! I hope it’s a good month for all of you!

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Harvesting

In Hidden Magic, on Vella, Allura grows row after row of produce in her massive garden. She sells most of it at her farmstand and to restaurants and the bed-and-breakfast in town. She cans and freezes the rest.

When HH and I first got married, we bought a rototiller and created a decent-sized garden in our backyard. My parents had always had a huge garden, and my mother canned, so that’s what we did, too. For whatever reason, our garden provided more vegetables than we’d ever expected. The soil was sandy and rich, and plants GREW.

We planted green beans and harvested so many of them, I canned 52 pints and 52 quarts a year, then gave the rest away. Our tomato plants grew so tall, and provided so many tomatoes, I canned 52 quarts of tomatoes a year, 52 quarts of spaghetti sauce (that took forever to make), and 52 quarts of tomato juice. And we still gave away tomatoes. I picked and froze brussel sprouts, broccoli, and more zucchini than anyone needed. I grew tons of snap peas but never harvested any of them, because our kids and the neighborhood kids picked and ate them raw when they passed by them. I figured they couldn’t too much healthier than that.

We bought bushels of peaches and pounds of strawberries and blueberries to freeze. I made Dutch Babies every Monday for the girls for breakfast and filled them with fruit and whipped cream. We did this for years until we left one weekend for a vacation and came home to find that our freezer had died, and fruit juice had leaked into the carpet in the basement. We had to throw every bag of fruit away and rip up the carpet and replace it. It was a dry summer, and by the time I watered the garden, it would have been cheaper to buy cans of vegetables at the grocery store. I told HH that I was done, retiring from gardening and storing. He was ready. It was a lot of work.

But Allura loves what she does. And with her witch magic, she can call for rain when she needs it. Her gardens thrive. She never has to weed. I think one of the reasons I enjoy writing her so much is because she brings back memories. I have no idea why HH and I went to so much bother back then. We both had good jobs. We didn’t need to worry about groceries, but we were young and enjoyed gardening, canning, and freezing. Allura never ages. She can enjoy it for centuries. So she was fun to write.

For any writers out there, this whole series gives great advice and examples on how to make your POVs powerful. So good, I thought I’d share.

Point of View (POV) #5: UPOVRs

A poet, I’m not

Sometimes, my brain confounds me.

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I woke up yesterday morning thinking of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Raven. Mind you, I haven’t been reading Poe or thinking about him. So why he was the first thing to spring to mind surprised me. And then, instead of Poe’s words, words came for the paranormal I’m loading on Vella. I NEVER WRITE POETRY. Well, I did once. For a friend. And it was torture. I’m not a natural at it, but Dottie Mack asked me to write one for something she was working on, so I did. And I realized that it’s nothing I’m particularly good at.

Anyway, that morning, I’d push the words away, and the next line would pop into my head. So I finally just gave in and let the words come. They’re not especially brilliant, but they were sort of a miracle–at least, for me. So, I thought I’d share them. And remember, I’m NOT a poet. So don’t expect much.

Once upon a night so bleak

My brain was tired and growing weak

I thought I’d write about a witch

Who could heal without a hitch

She grew a garden to make her brews

And knew which plants and roots to use

Her life was good until the day

A ranger came to lock her away

She proved to him that he was wrong

Then saved his life, she was so strong

Harpies flew to form a flock

Something that he had to block

Dead bodies scattered in their wake

Chase had to stop them for mortals’ sake

The witch and friends came to his aid

A battle fought and humans saved

Love had blossomed, so Chase stayed

To marry the witch, happiness gained.

Okay, not brilliant but fun for me, since poems never happen in my head. I have no clue why this one did.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

In the paranormal story I wrote for Vella, Allura is a witch who makes spells and potions for healing. Her entire backyard is sort of like a small Garden of Eden–a huge vegetable garden, berry patches, and an orchard–along with a chicken coop for eggs and a goat pen for milk and cheese. But her greenhouse and the garden near her house are reserved for plants and herbs that make up a witch’s garden. A young warlock botanist visits her to learn the “old ways.” What’s in a witch’s garden? I don’t have a clue, but I wanted to make it sound real.

I have no idea where I got it, but somehow, I ended up with a book called Country Scrapbook, copyrighted in 1977, by Jerry Mack Johnson. It’s full of country lore and tips. So, in case you ever find yourself unable to go to a pharmacy, I thought I’d share some of what I learned from him.

Early colonists believed in the healing powers of the sassafras tree. Every part of the tree has a spicy taste. Its bark was used to reduce fever and treat dropsy and skin diseases. Its oil was used for candies and medicines.

The maple trees, of course, were used to make sugar and syrup from their sap.

If your cattle were in danger of the evil eye, you’d fasten rowan branches in your cowsheds and stables.

These trees surround Allura’s property, but in her gardens, she grew plants and herbs. Agrimony or sticklewort had many healing properties. It could doctor snake bites. Its flowers in lemonade treated colds. A tea from its leaves treated sore throats, kidney and bladder trouble. Boiling the leaves in wine helped cure the wounds of people and animals. Its seeds were used in salves and balms.

Centaury could cure jaundice, lower fevers, and kill worms.

Blackberries were used to cure loose teeth and protruding eyes.

The Egyptians used thyme in embalming procedures. It was also used to improve circulation and as a scalp tonic to stop hair loss, among many other things.

I don’t list all of these in Hidden Magic, but the research has been fun. Hopefully, modern medicine is a lot more sophisticated, but if you take a home remedy and add witch’s magic to it, like you can in Magic Hills, who knows? You might heal.

Hidden Magic, Part 7, on Vella:

Queries

A writer friend of mine is trying to write a query to send to agents for the book he just finished. He’s had a rough time of it. He’s brought two of his efforts to our writing group, and neither of them quite worked. That’s why I got excited when Staci Troilo wrote a blog for loglines on Story Empire. https://storyempire.com/2023/08/23/loglines/

Staci is a writer and an editor, and she knows her stuff. I always learn something when it’s her turn to submit to Story Empire. But then, I learn from every writer on there. It’s nice to hear what other writers have learned from experience. The thing that I liked most about Staci’s article this time was that she broke down an entire book in a sentence or two. And for query letters, I think that’s a plus.

I haven’t written a query letter in a long time, so I did a search for an article that I hoped might be helpful for a writer who’s doing it now. And I found this: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/how-to-write-query-letter/ I think it has some good advice to think about before you send to an agent.

Staci challenged each of us to come up with a logline for our WIP, and I have to say, it’s not as easy as she makes it sound. But for my 2nd Nick and Laurel novel, I came up with this: When Laurel’s friend asks her to help find who killed a guitar player he knew well, she and her husband Nick, a former crime reporter, start interviewing members of bands in their town and learn that a lead singer of a band in Indianapolis was stabbed to death in a similar fashion two years ago, making them think maybe a stalker might be responsible for the crimes.

I don’t know if you’re looking for an agent or need a query letter, but I have to admit, thinking about what would make my books sell, what might hook a reader, has been interesting. I learned a few things by accident:)

First Draft Done

I finished writing the final chapter for Hidden Magic. I’ve polished enough chapters that I can rewrite as I load them from now on. Which is good. It means I can go back to working on Nick and Laurel again while I load two or three chapters a week onto Vella.

I have to say, my experiment to write two books at the same time was pretty much a failure. But it doesn’t really matter. Hidden Magic filled my mind and wouldn’t let go. I’d finish a chapter and the next one demanded to be put on paper. Now, I know. I’m the author. I could have told Hidden Magic to take a nap and wait its turn, but writing doesn’t always work that way. I’d write one idea, and then the next one started to flow. And the ideas never quit until the story wrapped itself up. It’s short. A little more than 25,000 words, so only a novella. But I’m all right with that.

I don’t have stories “happen” very often. Almost never. So while the ideas came, I put fingers to keys to make them come alive. I’ve had miserable success with paranormals, and I might not have any with Hidden Magic either, but sometimes, my brain just needs something new to keep it inspired. If I don’t break my usual routine once in a while, I start to feel stale.

C.S. Boyack wrote a great blog about that for Story Empire today. https://storyempire.com/2023/08/21/writers-toolbox-revisited/ I’ve learned a lot as a writer from reading that blog. I’ve been writing for a long time, but I still like to read about the mechanics of our craft off and on, just to keep me fresh, to recharge my batteries. And Craig’s right. I like to write shorter pieces when I experiment. Then if I bomb, it’s not the end of the world. I don’t hide under my blankets, suck my thumb, and get depressed.

While I was wrapping up Hidden Magic, more and more ideas started coming to me for Nick and Laurel’s Facing the Music. I’d sort of hit a wall on that one, and more ideas were trickling in but not enough. Taking a break from it has energized me. I’m ready to give it my all again. I came up with an idea for a cover, but it’s so not like anything I’ve done before, I probably won’t use it. Still, covers inspire me, so it works for now. Nick and Laurel are a little darker than my Jazzi mysteries, so it has the right mood.

There was a time that I really wanted to write a Louis Kincaid type mystery, something more serious that readers would take more seriously. When I sat down to plot one out, though, it’s not that I didn’t think I could do. It’s that I decided going that dark wasn’t for me. I’m more satisfied with writing what I write now. I don’t know if that will show in my stories or not, but as long as I’m happy with them, that’s enough.

Chapter 5 went live today

I haven’t played with witches and shifters for a long time, so it’s been fun writing Hidden Magic. I’m not sure any of my usual readers will want to try to it. It’s turned out to be more violent than I expected. It’s still pretty tame by Louis Kincaid standards, but it’s not the type of story that sweeps the violence under the library rug.

Allura, a witch, has lived in Magic Hills for a long time now. Chase Ayre, a shifter, has come to it to track a harpy whose favorite food is mortals. He intends to stay at the town’s bed-and-breakfast, but it’s full. So, Allura tells him that he can use the small, spare bedroom at her bungalow as his base while he tries to find the harpy and stop her. The thing is, Allura’s been alone for decades. She cheered when her husband left her to return to Europe and vowed never to fall for another man. Chase has been alone since his wife died in childbirth. He vowed to never find another mate, convinced no one could make him as happy as Absinthe had. But Allura is beautiful, and Chase is handsome, and they’re both good people. It’s hard not to notice that, day after day.

They’re both determined to fight any attraction. The only thing they’re willing to battle is the rising suspicion that not just one harpy is nesting near them, but a flock might be gathering. And if enough mortals die, they’ll start looking for the cause, and Magic Hills might be discovered after centuries of peace and quiet.

For any writers out there, this is a GREAT example of how much difference filter words make. I love reading Story Empire blogs for writing advice. It keeps me on my toes!

Tightening our Prose: Filter Words

Attraction

In my story, Hidden Magic, for Vella, Chase Ayre feels guilty for bringing trouble to Allura Spell. Allura moved to Magic Hills after her parents and her husband wanted to return to Europe, and she decided to stay in America. It was one of the happiest days of her life when she was free from them. To her parents, nothing could have been more wonderful than having Birk, the son of an old, wealthy European family, fall in love with their daughter. Their fortunes were made. But after Birk went through all of the money he brought with him, and his parents refused to send more unless he returned home, Birk grew frustrated and unhappy, and took it out on Allura. Hit me once, shame on you. Hit me twice, shame on me. Allura packed up and left him, moving to Magic Hills. She warded her entire house and property so that he couldn’t enter it. Neither could her parents. They’d chosen Birk and his family’s money over her, telling her that if she’d be a better wife, Birk wouldn’t have to hit her.

Once in Magic Hills, Allura–a witch–creates her own private Garden of Eden. She lives a simple, happy life. And then Chase arrives. He’s a ranger who’s tracking a harpy that’s leaving the bodies of savaged mortals in her wake. He’d like to use Magic Hills as a base for finding her, but the bed and breakfast is full. Allura offers him a room at her small bungalow. And then, she and two friends insist on accompanying him when he goes out to find the killer, because evidence points to the fact that she might not be alone, that more harpies are banding together.

The attraction between Chase and Allura is strong, but Allura doesn’t want to repeat her earlier mistake. Chase, on the other hand, had a wonderful mate, and he lost her in childbirth. He doesn’t think he’ll ever find love like he had with Absinthe again. So, he stays single. But the more Allura and Chase work together, the harder it is to fight what they feel for each other.