Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 220

Opening Lines

Thanks to Bill Carito for letting us use this Star Trek themed photo!

Jessie: Cynthia paced nervously as she waited for the number 49 bus. Every morning the twins at the house across the street made her wish the bus stop was further down the block.

Edith: The creepy part after the new owners, a family of grandmother, mother, and daughter, moved into the yellow house wasn’t the dualing posters in the windows. It was the real-life man who appeared behind them at twilight – but never left the house.

Sherry: At first she thought they were both posters but then the Captain James T. Kirk on the left waved and beamed up.

Julie: She was a Picard girl, always had been, so she just kept walking.

Barb: Heading up the front walk, I began to worry about what, exactly, my girlfriend Ginger had meant by a “double date.”

Liz: I should’ve known – when a house has such cheap rent, there’s gotta be some sort of weirdness involved.

Readers: Add your opening line for the photo above.

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Filed under: Opening Lines Tagged: Captain Kirk, opening lines, Star Trek

It’s the Great Cozy Pumpkin, Wicked Friends

Susannah/Sadie/Jane here, studiously avoiding the piles of New England leaves that await raking…

It’s October, Wicked Friends, and who doesn’t love this time of year? Costumes. Scary Movies. Candy. And of course, the Great Pumpkin.

Last January, on Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday, Wickeds Barb Ross, Sherry Harris, and Edith Maxwell, and Accomplices Sheila Connolly and Yours Truly released a collection of short stories based on some of Poe’s work: Edgar Allan Cozy. We had such fun coming up with our own twists on the classics.

Now,of course the Wicked Cozy Authors have the Most Sincere Blog around. And because you’ve all been extra good (not wicked at all), the Great Cozy Pumpkin has a gift for you, but only for a few days.

From today through October 31, just like trick-or-treat candy, Edgar Allan Cozy is free. So please, download your copy from Amazon, tell all your friends, read and enjoy. And if you’re inclined to leave a review, we’d appreciate it.

Let us know what you think, and thanks for reading!

 

Filed under: cozies, Jane's posts, Sadie's Posts, Short Stories, Susannah's posts Tagged: Edgar Allan Cozy, Free book, Great Pumpkin, Poe, short stories

Wicked Wednesday — Holiday Disasters

We are celebrating the release of Eggnog Murder and are so happy for Barb who has a novella in this book. Hers is titled Nogged Off, and it appears with novellas by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis. Here’s the blurb for the collection: With the fireplace crackling, the tree twinkling, and the carols humming, few things in life are as picture perfect as Christmas in Maine—until murder dampens the holiday spirit. It must be something in the eggnog . . .

EGGNOG MURDER by LESLIE MEIER

When a gift-wrapped bottle of eggnog—allegedly from the Real Beard Santa Club—proves to be a killer concoction for a Tinker’s Cove local, all Lucy Stone wants for Christmas is to find the murdering mixologist who’s stirring up trouble.

DEATH BY EGGNOG by LEE HOLLIS

Food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell has never cared much for Bar Harbor’s grouchy town librarian, Agatha Farnsworth. But after the Scroogy senior has a fatal—and suspicious—allergic reaction to supposedly non-dairy eggnog, it’s up to Hayley to ladle out some justice.

NOGGED OFF by BARBARA ROSS

Julia Snowden’s tenant Imogen Geinkes seems to be jinxed. First, her poorly named “Killer Eggnog” gives all her co-workers food poisoning at the holiday party, then her boyfriend’s body shows up in Julia’s moving truck as she’s headed back to Busman’s Harbor. Now Julia has to get moving to catch the cold-hearted culprit.Cozy up with a glass of eggnog and enjoy the spirit of murder and mystery in a Yuletide treat perfect for those winter holidays . . .

Wickeds, have you ever had a holiday disaster, or do you know of one that happened to a friend?

Edith: Nothing as disastrous as those eggnog mishaps, but once we didn’t give the turkey enough time to defrost. It took forever to roast, so long that we went ahead and ate all the side dishes and were too full for the  meat when it was done! At least nobody died from eating it, though…

Sherry: That’s funny Edith! We have Christmas Eve traditions that we usually follow, early church service, pizza for dinner, followed by going out for a drive to look at Christmas tree lights. One year when we were living in Florida, we’d just returned from our Christmas drive, and Bob built a fire. I was watching the flames and noticed them reflecting in the door. Then I realized it wasn’t a reflection but actual flames outside. Before we left on the drive Bob had put ashes in a paper bag and set them outside by a bush. You can figure it out the ashes were still hot (no he was never a Boy Scout) and set the bag on fire which set a bush on fire. We quickly put it out and fortunately nothing worse than a scorched bush and a bruised ego (Bob’s).

Liz: I’ve always been a klutz. It’s been a ongoing joke in my family forever. Once when I was about 10 or so my mother gave me the very important task of giving me the honors of carrying the dessert down the stairs to where we were having one of our bigger celebrations. Of course I tripped, and a ginormous bowl of strawberries went flying down the stairs, leaving red smears on the walls and ceilings. Of course, I fell too, but the major concern was for the strawberries.

Barb: When my son was three and my daughter six months, we were traveling out the Mass Pike toward my parents’ house in Pennsylvania. Between all the baby equipment and the Christmas presents we had a soft vinyl carrier on the car’s roof. Around Auburn, MA, I said to Bill, “What is that strap flapping next to your window?” He pulled over, and I will never forget the look on his face when he inspected the roof, looked back at me, and said, “It’s gone!” It was the era of He-Man and all my son wanted for Christmas was Castle Grayskull. He had a new baby sister who he’d been excellent about and we really wanted to grant his one fervent wish. Castle Grayskull was in that roof carrier and I knew there wouldn’t be another to be found before Christmas for love or money.

At the direction of a kindly state police trooper we went to the highway maintenance building, where the four of us huddled like the most pathetic little family ever. The guys heard our sad story and went out to look, and lo and behold, word came back, they had found it by the side of the highway! They soon brought it back to us. Castle Grayskull was wrapped in clothes and unharmed. We were so relieved we hadn’t caused an accident. I remember it as one of our best Christmases ever. Castle Grayskull is still in my basement, along with all the He-men, waiting for my granddaughter.

Julie: Who can top the Castle Grayskull story? After my grandfather died, Thanksgiving became my holiday with my grandmother. We went to Maryland the first year, but the traffic was hideous, so we started the tradition of celebrating together. The first year I tried to cook dinner for her the turkey wasn’t completely defrosted. Grandma was due at 2. My roommate panicky called her mother, who talked us through getting the bird defrosted. Dinner was served by 4. My uncle had sent along a bottle of wine, and Grandma was thrilled to not have to cook, so all was good.

Jessie: Once when one of my sisters was first married she invited my husband and me to dinner at her new apartment during the holiday season. She had gone to a great deal of trouble and even went so far as to make eggnog from scratch. She knew how much I loved it and she poured me a large serving in a tall, clear glass. The taste of it was delicious but my attention kept being drawn to the strange way the contents seemed to be being squeegeed down the inside of the glass. It was not something I had ever noticed in a glass of eggnog before and when I reached the last swallow the reason became clear. The recipe had called for the egg yolks to be separated from the whites and while she had thoroughly blended the yolks into the cream, the entire quantity of whites had manged to remain a seaprate and distinct mass; first acting as an invisible, floating glob in my glass and then, most unfortunately, in my mouth. To this day, I never pour a glass of eggnog without a shudder of suspicion.

Readers: Have you ever had a holiday disaster?

Filed under: Book Birthday, Group posts, Wicked Wednesday Tagged: 1958 Thunderbird, astral twin, Castle Grayskull, eggnog, Eggnog Murder, fires, state troopers

Writing Novellas–Introducing Eggnog Murder

by Barb, slipping into a holiday mood early this year

Today is release day for Eggnog Murder in hardcover, ebook and audiobook. The large print edition is coming in early December. Eggnog Murder is getting some great reviews, including a starred review from Publishers Weekly!

The book is a collection of three holiday novellas set in Maine. The other stories are by well-known cozy authors Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis. So, while yes, my story is about Julia Snowden, and it does take place chronologically between Fogged Inn and Iced Under; it’s a novella, not a novel.

What is a novella? Kensington defines them as between 25,000 and 35,000 words, or one third to half the length of a typical cozy. I thought it might be fun today to ask the authors what writing a novella was like and how they approached the task.

Leslie Meier is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty Lucy Stone mysteries and has also written for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. She is currently at work on the next Lucy Stone mystery. Readers can visit her website at www.LeslieMeier.com. Leslie’s novella is titled “Eggnog Murder.”

Leslie: Because I tend to write short, I enjoy writing novellas. They’re more satisfying than a short story, because you can do more with character development and plot, and because they’re shorter than novels, you can move things along at a brisk pace. You can pack a lot into a novella, and you don’t have to muck about with all those descriptions of people and settings. In fact, it’s almost as if you can leave out the stuff that most readers just skip anyway!

I don’t really have any advice for writing a novella, but I can tell you what I do. I always outline my books, and for a novel I build my outline with 20 chapters. For a novella, the outline is for 10 chapters. That said, I can’t say that they actually take much less time to write, because the shorter work needs to be tighter and often needs some heavy revision. So if I have any advice, it’s to take time to revise and polish up that novella and make every word work.

Lee Hollis is the pen name for a brother and sister writing team. Rick Copp is a veteran film and television writer/producer and also the author of two other mystery novel series. He lives in Palm Springs, California. Holly Simason is an award-winning food and cocktails columnist living in North Carolina. You may visit their website at www.LeeHollisMysteries.com. Lee’s story is titled, “Death by Eggnog.”

Holly (one half of the team behind author Lee Hollis): Writing a novella for Eggnog Murder was great fun in my opinion. First of all we were so excited to be asked to contribute a story to Eggnog Murder with Leslie Meier and Barbara Ross that I’m not even sure that I knew what we were writing for a couple of days!

We love using the holidays in our books so this was already a great beginning for us. We basically used the same process writing the novella as we do writing our Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mystery series except this time we were given the murder weapon “eggnog” so we checked that off our list.

Rick is always thinking ahead and when he knows what the title will be he already has an idea forming in his head about how the story will go. Then my favorite part is when we decide who will be murdered and who the murderer will be. Rick has the best imagination and comes up with great murder plots. I, on the other hand, am so food and cocktail obsessed that as soon as we have our plot I start scouring my recipes because we like the recipes to go along with our storyline or the season that it is set in.

I found that writing a novella was a bit easier than writing novel length because it was just a shorter version of the stories we all ready write. I have a tendency to go on and on when I write so writing a novella helped me choose my words more carefully and try to come to the point a bit quicker then usual.

This was a wonderful opportunity for us and I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that we can do another holiday novella with these two authors again very soon. Hey, Easter is right around the corner and I love chocolate and have some wonderful chocolate recipes.

Barbara Ross: My story is titled, “Nogged Off.” I was excited about writing a novella because my novels are always too short and my short stories are always too long. I realized right away that I needed to think about structure. Was I going with a traditional mystery novel structure, with a victim, a pool of suspects and an investigation, or was I going more with a short story structure–a setup and a twist? I decided on short story structure because I thought it would be more fun.

Because it was the holidays, I wanted to tale to be a little lighter and wackier than my Clambake mysteries tend to be, but nonetheless to include a murder and its consequences. I don’t outline, but I had a great starting point, a fabulous eggnog story someone had told me years ago. (More on this in a future blog post.) I started writing and hoped the length would be right. In the end it was and I really loved writing a novella.

Readers: How about you? Do you like novellas and the prospect of sampling multiple authors in one collection, or do you prefer to stick to novels?

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Filed under: Barb's posts, Book Birthday Tagged: Death by Eggnog, Eggnog Murder, Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries, Lee Hollis, leslie meier, Lucy Stone Mysteries, maine clambake mysteries, Nogged Off

Polish, Deepen, Hone

Edith here, writing from north of Boston, gearing up to ignore the short days and darkness of the coming month.

I’m doing that by keeping really, really busy. Today I’m incorporating all the red ink I added over the last week during my last (I hope…I truly hope) paper read-through of Turning the Tide, Quaker Midwife Mystery #3.



Some of my comments to myself are edits with a goal of polishing the language. Split the long sentence into two. Divide that paragraph in a different place, because the last sentence really belongs with the next para. Make sure all the senses play a role.

Some are plot related: on page 94 one scribble says, “Why didn’t she think of this when she found the body?” – which happens on page 6. Oops, but fixable.

Of course there are also the missing periods, redundant words, and unclear wording to fix. Other bits to sharpen and hone.

A few of my remarks relate to research for this book, which is set during presidential election week in 1888 (I know – great timing!). For example, I described a road covered with planks, not cobblestones, which was a method of temporary paving back then. But I realized during the read-through that I don’t know if the planks go crosswise or lengthwise and I need to check on that.

I read a great craft post last week over on Inkspot, the Midnight Ink writers’ blog (where I blog every second Thursday of the month) that really made me think.  Lisa Alber wrote about sense of place. She says, “You know when you hear readers say that they skip the descriptions? I would bet in most cases, those descriptions are static — just the author describing the environment around the character rather than describing the environment through the character.”

That’s so true! I’m sure I’ve thought about it in the past, and been taught it, but imbuing setting with my character is something I have to learn over and over. Lisa gives a few great examples of the same setting – sunshine streaming in a kitchen window and illuminating a spider web – as seen through different characters’ eyes. Go read the post. You’ll see what I mean.

So as I move through my manuscript, I’m also going to take a look at every single place description and deepen it. I’m going to make sure it has a reason to exist: showing us how midwife Rose Carroll is feeling. I can show another character’s reaction to place, too, as long as it’s through dialog or physical reaction, since this story is told exclusively from Rose’s point of view.

Thanks, Lisa, for pushing the end of my revision process a little further away. I know checking for sense of place will improve the book in the end, and that’s what counts.

Readers: What do you do with a beautiful description of setting that is only that? Skip it or enjoy the rich language? Writers, is making sure that setting is filtered through your character’s eyes already part of your revision list? Do you ever slip up?

Filed under: Craft, Edith's posts, Uncategorized Tagged: Lisa Alber, Midnight Ink, Revising, sense of place

Wicked New England — Favorite Place For A Fall Walk

It’s hard to beat fall in New England! Warm days, cool nights, vivid oranges, reds, and yellows abound in the woods — it’s weather that just begs you to go outside and take a walk. So Wickeds where do you like to go when you head our for a walk in the fall?

Edith: My favorite place to walk year round is always Maudslay State Park in Newburyport. It has the dual advantage of being in the next town and I have my lifetime free Senior pass to state parks, so I can leave my car for free. Since it’s the former Mosley estate, it features winding walking trails, views of the Merrimack River, and lane after lane of century-old rhododendron and bay laurel hedges. There are open fields and wooded paths. Flat walking and hilly walking. Fresh air and nesting eagles. I cross-country ski there in winter and take brilliant-colored fall walks, too.

Jessie: My favorite walk any time of the year is the beach in Old Orchard. By autumn it is almost deserted and there are miles of open sand to wander and to think. There is nothing like the salt air to clear the head!

Sherry: My favorite place in Massachusetts was the Minute Man National Historical Park that runs through Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord. It’s a walk through history that shouldn’t be missed. The picture above is of the Old North Bridge where “The Shot Heard Round The World” occurred.

In Virginia I just have to walk out my front door and head for one of the many paths in our neighborhood.

Barb: There are so many lovely New England walks, but I have to go with the bike path that runs behind the houses on the other side of my Somerville, MA street. It’s a classic urban pathway filled with commuters, kids in stollers, bikers, seniors, and students. It leads to Davis Square where you can take in a movie, have a meal, do errands, or jump on the T to Harvard Square or Boston. Or you can just meander, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of a New England fall.

Julie: New England is an abundance of wonderful fall walks. It’s embarrassing, really. I work in Boston and commute by T, so walking is a huge part of my life. Fall in Boston is so lovely that I tend to get off a stop early, or choose to walk to a meeting rather than take the bus. But other favorite places? The beach in the fall is beyond stunning. The colors are crisp, and the temperature is perfect for bundling up, and taking long, long walks.

Liz: Unoriginal for me but the town green. It’s so pretty with the fall colors and the leaves. 

Readers: Where is your favorite place to take a walk in the fall?

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Filed under: Wicked New England Tagged: Autumn walks, bike path, Concord Massachusetts, fall walks, Lexington Massachusetts, Lincoln Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Maudslay state park, Minute Man National Historic Park, Old North Bridge, old orchard beach, somerville ma, Virginia

Pick Yourself Up — Guest Barbara Early

Welcome, Barbara Early! I’m so excited about Barbara’s new Vintage Toyshop Mystery series! Thanks for joining us today!

Now that I’m writing a series set in a vintage toyshop, I find myself using a lot of toy and game analogies. I was recently tasked with making a board game analogy to the writing business.

Now, I wish it were more like Candy Land, skipping from one sweet place to the next, until you arrive safely at the Candy Castle.

And although there’s a lot of being sent back to the start, the writing game doesn’t resemble Sorry. At least when those setbacks happen, it’s not usually caused by fellow writers, who tend to be a fairly supportive group.

Nor does it most resemble Monopoly, where one person gets rich and the rest go bankrupt. Although…

But the crazy ups and downs of the writing game, to me, most resemble…Chutes and Ladders.

I must confess, it was never my favorite game.

Oh, the ladders are okay. Exhilarating, even. Sometimes the writing life feels like you’re just slogging along, and all of a sudden, you get a big break: An agent asks for a partial. Or maybe offers representation. Or that first book deal. And you go climbing up the ladder, clicking your heels on every rung, so that everyone can hear you. You are on our way up!

I remember feeling that way when I got my first series deal—for the Bridal Bouquet Shop mysteries (written as Beverly Allen). After all those frustrating years of writing and rewriting and learning the craft, climbing those steps felt like the validation of all that effort. And it was followed by a few more ladders. Good reviews. Fan mail. They even put a label that said “national bestselling author” above my name on the bottom of the books.

And then the floor caved in, and down I went. See, for every ladder, there’s a chute. Theoretically, you know they can happen and probably will. But there’s little you can do to prepare yourself for the long ride down, and even less you can do to prevent it from happening. By the time my series was up for renewal, there were a lot of hushed whispers about market saturation and cutbacks. I wasn’t the only author left, sitting at the bottom of that long chute, wondering what, if anything, was coming next.

Sometimes you want to just flip over the board, send all the playing pieces flying, and walk away.

But since I’m an adult, at least according to my birth certificate, temper tantrums and dips into the pool of self-pity are rather frowned upon. And it’s nearly impossible for a writer to give up writing. Here’s a little fun advice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGUsRGuZb6k

So what do you do, Readers? You pick yourself up. Start something new. Redefine yourself, yet again?

And you never know. Maybe you’ll come across a ladder one more time.

Bio: The first book in Barbara Early’s Vintage Toyshop Mystery series, DEATH OF A

TOY SOLDIER, released on October 11th. She also wrote the Bridal Bouquet

Shop Mysteries (as Beverly Allen).

Barbara Early earned an engineering degree, but after four years of doing

nothing but math, developed a sudden allergy to the subject and decided to

choose another occupation. Before she settled on murdering fictional people,

she was a secretary, a school teacher, a pastor’s wife, and an amateur

puppeteer. She and her husband live in her native Western New York State,

where she enjoys cooking, crafts, classic movies and campy seventies

television, board games, and posting pictures of her four cats on Facebook. barbaraearly.com

 

Filed under: Guest posts Tagged: Barbara Early, Beverly Allen, board games, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, monopoly, vintage toys

The Scariest Movie I Watched

Last week we talked about the first scary movie we remembered watching. This week we are talking about the scariest movie we watched. Where were you and who were you with? Do you still watch scary movies or do you avoid them at all costs?

Barb: The Haunting of Hill House–hands down. Wikipedia tells me the movie was actually called The Haunting and was made in 1963. I saw it much later, in a theater, when I was in college. Amazing performances by both Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. I don’t remember who I as with, but I do remember screaming out loud. I don’t like the horror genre per se, but I do like that rush of adrenaline that comes with a great reveal or twist. I just watched the third and fourth seasons of the TV show Luther, which is a procedural, but the crimes are shot as they occur, like great horror movies, and they actually did get me to scream.

Liz: I have to go with the original Halloween. Michael Myers completely freaked me out – still does, to this day. But the first one was the best.

Edith: I avoid scary movies entirely these days. But I’ll go with The Shining. I saw it with a friend in the summer of 1980. Nicholson’s eyes. The maze. The weird twins. RED RUM. RED RUM… Still gives me shivers. I’m sure the new date I was with left the theater with big bruises on his arm from me clenching it so hard. And of course I screamed.

Julie: Watched is a relative term, isn’t it? I saw Halloween through eyes that were squeezed shut for the most part, with fingers in my ears part long stretches. I went with college friends–the same friends who took me to a drive in that summer to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I remember that movie being a sea of pink–I put my sweater over my head. But the scariest? Poltergeist. Same college friends. Played on every fear we had as kids, and then some. Those folks are still my friends, but no more scary movies for me.

Sherry: Since I scare easily, it’s kind of hard to choose. But I’ll go with The Exorcist (I have to agree with Edith about The Shining though!). I saw it in college we had to drive 90 miles to go see it because our small college town wouldn’t play it. We went with a group of guys and the one driving our car home kept shutting off the headlights and turning his head. Even worse our dorm was old with radiators that banged and groaned all night. I slept with the lights on for at least a week.

Readers: What is the scariest movie you watched? Who were you with? Do you watch them anymore?

Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: Halloween, scary movies, The Haunting of Hill House, The Shining

The Detective’s Daughter — Making Halloween Costumes

Kim in Baltimore admiring the big moon.

Halloween is only a few weeks away and I’m not ready. The decorations are still packed, the candy has yet to be bought and the pumpkins I planted didn’t even get a chance to ripen before becoming a delicious snack for the squirrels. At least I have no costumes to worry with this year. My children are grown and are quite capable of putting together their own disguises.

When I was a child, my mom made every costume I ever wore. Now that I think about it, she made quite a few for me when I was an adult, too. Mom has always been an excellent seamstress. She made a lot of her own formal wear as well as many of my outfits and my Barbie clothes. Halloween costumes were her specialty.

Every year I could count on a beautiful gown to be either a princess, or a bride. One year she actually used a pair of lavender Priscilla curtains to make a gown and hat for me to be a Southern Belle. I won first place at the recreation center’s Halloween party that year.

The year Dad became involved in the costume making, he decided I would be a devil. My mom sewed the suit and Dad made my horns, tail and pitchfork.  I was not amused. He made another attempt a few years later, but fortunately it was the year of my curtain dress. My sister was not so lucky. He dressed her as a turtle.

I had high expectations of myself when it came to making my own children’s costumes. The problem was I didn’t know how to sew. I solved that by investing in a glue gun and one of those super-duper staplers. My kids could only wear the costume once because it had to be pulled  apart to get them out of it. By the time they were old enough for school they were begging me for store bought costumes. I must admit, I was a bit broken-hearted and felt like a failure. They were so excited, though, to pick out the costumes that I soon realized what the costumes meant.

It wasn’t really what I wore that I remembered so vividly, it was the time I had spent with my mom, times where I had her undivided attention. I can still picture how she looked as I stood on the ottoman in our living room as she hemmed my dress, or the nights I sat with her while she sewed and listened to Connie Francis records. I couldn’t sew a beautiful costume, but I could give my children my undivided attention.

Every year it was a special event to buy just the right costume. We always ended up with an extra mask…just in case, and ended our shopping trip with lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. On the way home, my kids liked to wear their masks to see the reactions they would get from the people we passed.

This year I’ll admire all the costumes of the children who come to my door, store bought or homemade, each one has a special story.

Readers: What are your favorite Halloween memories? Which costume was your favorite or which was the most embarrassing?

Filed under: The Detective's Daughter Tagged: Halloween costumes

Critical Eyes

Jessie: On retreat in Maine.

Lately, I’ve been feeling restless. Life has been changing for my family, mostly for the good, but it makes me see my world with a different view. Especially my physical environment. I’ve been looking at my possessions with a critical eye and wondering which of them I’d keep if I were to move into a home one third the size of my current one. Which things really are the best choices for my changing life?

When my first child was a baby, my husband and I bought a big, old colonial home in a tiny village and set about renovating it. We were on a meager budget and it took a long time to accomplish all we set out to do. More children joined the family and all the rooms became full to bursting. Twenty-two years later the house is mostly renovated. Two of the kids are out on their own and the house feels overstuffed and very quiet. The space and tranquility have given me a chance to ask myself how much of what has accumulated is what I want to take into the next twenty years. I’ve come to recognize there are many things that don’t make the cut.

The question has fascinated me and has felt strangely familiar. Unitl I realized that the process is surprisingly like revising a novel. I tend to write bloated first drafts with a shocking excess of words. I meander and sauter and rarely get straight to the point in the early work. But under all the layers of what isn’t needed, or even wanted, is the truth of the story. By turning a critical eye to the work, I am able to excavate and lift up only that which best serves what I am trying to accomplish. I enjoy that part of the writing process. I love unearthing treasures from amongst the rubble.

It seems writing has permeated all aspects of my life, even my decorating. That same critical eye now can’t stand bloat in my possessions. It doesn’t want unneeded things in my physical world any more than it likes unnecessary words in my work. I wasn’t expecting it, but I am grateful. As a matter of fact, I think I’m going to go revise my laundry room right now!

Readers, do you find a need to change your physical environment as your life circumstances alter? Writers, does your work leak into the rest of your life in surprising ways?

Filed under: Jessie's posts Tagged: Decluttering, Jessica Estevao, Jessie Cockett, renovating, Revising