Cold, Cold Day 4
It poured rain all night while the wind blew so hard at times I thought the trailer would fall off it’s jacks. So what do you do when it’s cold and rainy? Get in the car and drive to La Sal.
Why La Sal? Fifteen years ago my husband and I honeymooned in La Sal. Yes, it’s true. We stayed on the Sunny Redd working cattle ranch. At the time she had several little two bedroom houses she rented to guests. One of those little houses was our homebase for our Southern Utah adventures. (Now she has a lodge and one other house for guests.)
My husband had recently returned from a year long student exchange program at the Siberian State Aerospace University in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Coincidentally, the Redds had recently returned from Siberia as well and loaned my husband a book on the history of Siberia they had especially enjoyed. This day–fifteen years, five children with one more on the way later–we were returning that book. So glad we hadn’t borrowed it from the library; can you imagine the overdue fees?
La Sal greeted us with 3 inches of SNOW! We had a good visit with Sunny (and returned the book). Back in the car with wind blowing and more snow threatening, we turned the car towards Mesa Verde National Park. The freezing temperatures and falling snow made spending a couple more hours in the car appealing.
Not much is open this time of year at Mesa Verde, but we only had a few hours to spend so it worked out perfectly. We took the one hike open this time of year, toured the museum, and stopped all along the mesa top 6 mile loop to view various ruins. My second daughter will be studying the Pueblo Indians in school next year so these memories will make the lessons come alive for her. It was 22° when we drove down the mesa just before sunset!
Even with the cold, snowy weather we enjoyed another great day of spring break.
Hi. I just made a bunch of anonymous comments about including the End in the Beginning of the first chapter on Julie (what is her last name) post over at six lds writers and a frog. Do you know that website?
Anyway, it looks like I got her all riled up. I was wondering, what do you think of the stuff I wrote. And…can you tell which posts are mine?
I even gave some adivce to a beginning writer who wanted us to dumb down the conversation so she could understand it. I hope I wasn’t too assertive by telling her to buck up. You don’t want anything dumbed down. You want it all. You want to swim in deep waters if you’re going to write a deep novel.
Let me know what you think. I’m a little nervous that I went OVER THE TOP. Which I really never do. I simply follow the princicples of developing a good voice for my characters and writing good novels in general, which is: be clear, be understood, don’t write tentative pros, don’t use apoligetic language, don’t almost write well, simply write well. Don’t nearly like the color green, like green. Don’t sometimes enjoy chocolate milk. Love it. Or hate it. But don’t sometimes it. Clarity is the mark of a professional.
I have been criticized, by those I’ve never met, for some sort of odd arrogance. If these people actually knew who I was, they would likely not make that comment. What they are criticizing is my clarity. A certain amounty of CERTAINTY comes through when you write clearly. Succinctly. That isn’t arrogant. That’s professional. And it makes your fiction SO MUCH BETTER, to boot.
Anyway, go over there to six writers and then let me know what you think.
Hi It’sMeAgain! Yes I know of that blog though I don’t keep up on it as frequently as some others. Anyway, I took a look and spotted your comments right away.
The beginning writer just needs to read a little more and the comments will start making sense. He/She must be really beginning as in never read a how to write book. There weren’t even any abbreviations. Anyway, everyone is very kind, helpful, and eager to explain everything so I think your comments were fine. That anon will be understanding soon enough if they do a little studying and keep at it.
About your first chapter comments. Yeah, you got Julie riled up. Her lists were right on and so were your comments. I liked how you detailed what made the first chapter different from the others: the END in the BEGINNING. I don’t think she was focusing on why the first chapter is different from the rest of the book, but I’m glad you brought it up.
Wow! When you first told me that (the END in the BEGINNING) about my writing, it was an AHA! moment. I think many of the commenters misunderstood what you meant there–not understanding the SUBTLE foreshadowing of that technique. It doesn’t give away the ending AT ALL, just deepens it. OSC (Orson Scott Card) teaches that you can’t even write the real opening until you know the ending. It just hit me how powerful a tool the END in the BEGINNING is. It’s what makes a book re-readable!