Shaking Things Up – Writing Journey #12
You never say never. There’s always a chance to do things in the future. ~Nick Cummins
Have you ever said you are never going to do something and then never shows up and pokes fun at you? I’m not sure I ever actually thought never but close to it. But wait, let me start at the starting point.
Last post you read about how excited I was to finally be in the publishing business again with Scent of Lilacs, Orchard of Hope, and Summer of Joy on the way out to readers. I was feeling as though maybe I had found my niche even after thinking that I might not be able to write for the inspirational market. Those books proved I could.
Not long before Scent of Lilacs was released, my editor was passing through Kentucky on the way to a meeting and wanted to come by my house. I’m not sure she realized that I lived out in the country. It doesn’t seem too far out to me, but I do live on a little lane (gravel at the time) off of a windy country road. She said she could find me. And she did after a few wrong turns. You can imagine how nervous I was. I had never been face to face with an editor. But Lonnie was great. I didn’t say anything too stupid as best I can remember. We chatted a little while and then she said she had to be on to her scheduled meeting in Tennessee, a few more hours of driving.
As she stood at the door with us saying our goodbyes, she mentioned that she loved the history of the Shakers and wished she had time to visit the restored Shaker village not far from where I live. I threw out in a casual way that I had once written a novel about the Shakers. You remember that novel I wrote after my first two books were published that had found a home on my rejection shelf after my agent sent it to numerous editors who said it was too religious, too whatever. Lonnie said she’d like to read it if I’d send it to her. I hadn’t expected that, but an editor says she’d like to read one of your stories, you are ready for her to read one of your stories.
After she left, I hunted up that manuscript and gave it a look. I had written it years before I came into the electronic age. So, all I had was a box of typed pages. If you’ve ever taken a writing class or even had to write papers in an English class, you may have heard the advice to put whatever you wrote aside for a few days or a week and then when you pick it back up to do edits, you’ll have fresh eyes to find ways to improve your writing. Well, you put a manuscript away for twenty years and then pick it back up, you can find plenty of things to improve.
First I realized I had gotten a little too deep into the history of the War of 1812 that is part of that Shaker story. I had found the history so fascinating that I guess I was sure readers would too. I also had done a lot of writing practice in those years and had improved my writing skills. So, it was time for major editing. I had to type the story into the computer, since I had left the typewriter behind and moved into the word processing world by then. I was in between my second and third Hollyhill books when I took time to rework the Shaker story.
In between that time I had written the life testimony of a friend, Jerry Shepherd, who spent time in prison. With the help of many people along his path, he turned his life around, got released from prison, and began sharing his story in hopes that he could keep other young men from making the mistakes with alcohol and other drugs that he had. Angels at the Crossroads is a powerful redemptive story and the only nonfiction book I’ve written. My agent tried to find a publisher for the story, but memoirs are hard to place if the person isn’t well known. Eventually we self-published the story that is still available from me or Jerry and online at Amazon.
But back to my editor’s visit and her interest in my Shaker story. I jumped in and did major edits before I sent it off to her. She liked the story but had reservations about my character who had visions. Visions were common in Shaker history, but she said their readers didn’t like visions and could I take them out of the story. I said I could write a different story, but the visions were too central to this story to be able to do that. If you’ve read the story, you’ll understand. We eventually came to a compromise solution and Revell decided to publish The Outsider.
I had finished my third Hollyhill book, Summer of Joy, and it was scheduled for release. Once you’ve written three books about the same characters, with a few new characters each book, set in the same place, you keep hearing their voices in your head. Now I needed to shove them aside and come up with a new idea.
I had picked the Hollyhill idea partly or maybe mostly because the setting was my small town and I remembered how things were in the Sixties. I decided to move farther back in time to my mom’s young days of growing up during the Great Depression. My mom had three sisters and when they got together they loved nothing more than talking about their growing up years. Often they would laugh and laugh as they shared their memories. I decided to pick some of the odd characters they talked about and then base my main characters on mom and her sisters, and a little on the circumstances of their family. My grandfather was a blacksmith. I made the father in the Rosey Corner stories a blacksmith. My grandfather was shipped out to France to fight in WW I. The father in the story served in France. My grandfather had a drinking problem when he came home from the war. The father in my book had a drinking problem. My mother, the second child, was the one who always took care of everyone else. Kate in the story, also the second daughter, had that same can-do attitude.
It took me a while to separate my characters from Mom and her sisters. I wanted to use some of their characteristics, but the story was fiction. Their memories whispered through the story’s background, but it wasn’t their lives. It was my Merritt sisters’ lives. I titled the book, Angel Sister, due to the little girl deserted on the church steps who hoped for an angel to take care of her. Eventually I packed up the story and sent it off to my agent who liked the story and sent it off to my editor. I loved the story and had high hopes for it. Weeks went by. Then a couple of months with no news. You can’t imagine how hard it is to wait for news about a book that’s being read, you think, by an editor.
The phone rings. It is Lonnie. I’m absolutely sure she’s calling about Angel Sister. I was absolutely wrong. While I was writing this new story, my Shaker book The Outsider, had been released. At that time, and still today, books about the Amish were very popular. My book wasn’t about the Amish, but the Amish wear bonnets. The woman on the cover of my book wore a bonnet. That caught the eyes of the Amish book readers who gave my story a try. My Shaker book was selling so well in the early weeks of its release that Lonnie was calling to ask me to write more Shaker books. I told her I had written one book about Shakers but had no plans to write another. She said I should make new plans. I asked her about Angel Sister. She hadn’t had time to read it yet, she said. All my nervous worry had been for nothing. Eventually she convinced me that I could write more Shaker stories and that I could write two of them in one year. I had never written a book that fast. But never say never. Sometimes you don’t know what you can do until you try. And so I began down a Shaker story road.
I know I said I was ready to wrap up this Writing Journey, but I keep thinking of new things to share. Maybe one more?? Or two. Or just tell me if you’ve had enough.
The Winners are:
My book giveaway ended on Saturday. My two winners who get their pick of one of my books are Judi T and Janice W. I’ve sent both of them emails and Judi has already responded. She said the Rosey Corner books were favorites of hers and she picked Small Town Girl. I look forward to hearing from Janice soon.
But because I’m still hoping you’ll keep reading these Writing Journey posts for another week, I’m adding on a chance for someone else to win one of my books. If you are already entered, you still have those entries in this new giveaway. If you haven’t already entered, you can get an entry by commenting on this post, and if you have, you can get another entry with a comment. Deadline for entries will be September 6, 2025 at midnight EST. And you do have to at least 18 years old to enter.
Have you ever said never about something and then had to change your mind and give a different answer?
