It’s been a discombobulated day. I seem to be having lots of those lately. I think the universe is trying to see how dedicated I am to finishing my audiobook and my second novel, Time’s Echo.
Even though unexpected things keep getting thrown in my way, I have managed to do some work on Jenna’s story in Time’s Echo. It’s interesting how ideas come at unexpected times. Thank heaven for them. It’s a terrible feeling to be stuck.
Autumn is always a difficult time because I’ve had to suspend my personal work to prepare the classes and then get used to the new routine of teaching them. We’re in our third week of classes and I’m still getting used to the new schedule.
But this feeling of disorientation is more than just having to do the work that teaching requires.
The other day after I meditated, I was writing in my journal asking if there were any beliefs, attitudes, or habits that I needed to clean up and clear out and something rather nettlesome came out my pen. I had to acknowledge that this idea was correct. I tend to get bored in the middle of a project and all kinds of tantalizing new project ideas come to my mind. They’re shiny, new, and enticing and I’m tempted to drop what I’m doing and chase these new ideas. However, the message in my journal was, “stay the course.”
I’ve been thinking a great deal about that ever since. In one way, I have learned to keep slogging along even though I feel bogged down at some point along the way and not sure where my novel is headed. One completed novel has taught me the joys of continuing to put one word behind the others until I get a rough draft completed. Then the fun begins. Well, I think it’s fun, shaping the various elements I’ve written and arranging them into an interesting plot form. I tend to write in scene segments which then must be revised and assembled later.
As with The Space Between Time, I’ve had a more difficult time hooking into Jenna’s story in the present than I’ve had with Morgan’s in the past. I wish I knew why that was, but this week, new ideas have come to me. I feel renewed interest in what’s going to happen to her, which makes me more determined than ever to keep writing.
Something fun happened this week, which might have something to do with the new ideas for my novel. Barry and I watched the movie The Bookshop on Amazon Prime. We’d never heard of it before, but it had some British actors in it we like and so we took a chance.
The story takes place in the 1950s and is about a widow, Florence Green, with a small inheritance who moves to a small town on the British coast and proceeds to make her dream of opening a bookshop come true. She does this in spite of the objections of the townspeople led by Violet Gamart who has decided the town needs to use the old run down building Florence has spent six months purchasing and renovating, for an arts center instead.
The shop is a great success at first, which annoys Violet so much that she makes plans to be rid of Florence and the bookshop. She uses various legal tactics, but in addition she poisons everyone in the town against Florence, all except Christine, the young girl who comes to work in the shop in the afternoons. The very first day at work, Christine declares she hates reading, but as her friendship with Florence grows, she changes her mind.
Florence has another ally an older reclusive man, supposedly widowed, named Edmund Brundish. He’s the only great reader in the town. He sends requests via a young boy for Florence to choose books for him to read. The first one she sends him is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This begins their friendship, as Edmund asks for more books by Bradbury.
The thing that I found compelling about this story is how even in the worst of times, love can be shared with lasting positive effects. This is another one of those movie – book connections for me. The Bookshop is on my night stand waiting to be read. If I love the book, Penelope Fitzgerald may be one of my new favorite authors.
Thanks for reading, liking, and commenting. If you are so inclined, invite a friend to read my posts.
Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2019
Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a little bit like Outlander in that it’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, novel. Except that Jenna’s life is shattered. When she finds old journals, she joins consciousness with her three-times great-grandmother, Morgan, rather than traveling physically. She is able to come back at intervals and apply what she’s learned to her own life situations.
The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.
Sage Woman Chronicles 