Read my guest post today at 10 Minute Novelists, What 10 Minute Novelists Means to Me. Writing time was—and is—whenever I can grab it amid diaper…
Leave a CommentRelevant Fiction for Body & Soul
Author: CAstfalk
Carolyn Astfalk is a wife, mother, and author of contemporary Catholic romances, including her latest, All in Good Time. She formerly worked as a communications director and now works just to keep her head above water. Find her books on Amazon and her other words scattered around the blogosphere and social media.
Why small success? Because that’s the only kind I know! Even the big ones come in small steps. Here’s my paltry offering for the week.
- Cleaned the high chair. If you have one of those modern, plastic, easily-wipeable high chairs, right now you’re thinking, “This lady is really pathetic. That’s not a small success, that’s a nano success easily accomplished by trained monkeys.” We do not, however, own an easily-wipeable high chair. (Nor any trained monkeys. Ours are strictly untrained.) We chose a high chair that would blend with our dining room furniture. (If you’ve seen our dining room, you can stop laughing now. There IS furniture beneath the toys and mess.) Our lovely, ornate, Amish-built high chair is ridiculously difficult to clean. After weeks of scraping with cloths, tooth picks, and other dangerous devices, it is sufficiently clean to be stored. Or almost. I’m going to go at it with a mild baking soda solution and hope that takes care of the last bits.
Two-hundred words based on this photo prompt at Sunday Photo Fiction:
Kiyara sprinted down the sidewalk, shouldering past old ladies lugging shopping bags, kids dodging cracks in the pavement, and business men preoccupied by their cell phones. Oblivious to all but her escape route, she ignored the commotion in the street, where a Hummer had rear-ended a compact sedan.
This week I interview Jessica White, fellow member of 10 Minute Novelists. Although I haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting Jessica in person, I know that she is a diligent, generous, and devout woman with a passion for historical fiction. She published her debut novel, Surviving the Stillness, late last year. You can read my review here.
Surviving the Stillness is Book 1 in The Seasons of Healing Series. It takes place in rural 1920’s Montana. How did you pick the time period and the setting for this series, and what kind of research has it required?
My methodology of coming up with a time and place was at best happenstance. This story actually originated from a manuscript I wrote in the seventh grade about the renovation of an old house with an attached school. The Queen Anne Victorian style was specific to the late 1880’s-1890’s (although it was replicated among the middle class as late as the 1910’s). I spent so much time creating the story of the house and its previous owners, that I kept coming back to it over the years. Originally, I needed the house to be abandoned in the 1930’s during the Great Depression, so I came up with what became the deaths of Abigail and Samuel Morgan’s parents. When I picked up the manuscript again about ten years ago, it was Abigail’s story that I focused in on. Her mother’s death in the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 was the catalyst for her coming of age, so the 1920’s became the setting when I picked up the manuscript again in 2013.
I signed up for the 10 Minute Novelists 365K Club, which means I’m striving to write an average of 1,000 words a day every day this year. This has forced me to find a variety of ways to add to my tally of words written. I offer this list not only for self-proclaimed writers, but for anyone looking to stretch his creativity, to increase his command of the written word, and reap all the other benefits associated with the tasks and accomplishments listed below.
- Blog. I approached this one with great trepidation, but it’s gone well. Not only do I have self-imposed writing requirements and deadlines, but it has helped me to crystallize my thinking.
- Write a letter. More and more, this is becoming a lost art. Texts and emails are nice, but nothing beats a hand-written note on paper. Make it a love letter to your significant other, to your children, a friend with whom you’ve lost touch, or maybe an elderly person who’s been left out of the loop in your life because she doesn’t use a computer or electronic devices. (Bonus points for use of cursive.)
Pencil to the paper.
The Equally High Price of Low Expectations
I wrote recently about the dangers of setting your goals out of reach. (Have You Set Yourself Up For Failure?) One commenter correctly noted the “delicate balance” between over-reaching and “not pushing yourself hard enough.”
The flip-side of lofty, unattainable goals that do little more than discourage is setting the bar so low you stifle growth.
I studied classical ballet throughout most of my childhood, but classes were typically contained to the school year. One year, my mother signed me up for summer classes. Due to the smaller number of students, the class to which I was assigned was more advanced than my skill level.
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Partners In Crime
Patience has been in short supply lately. (A natural byproduct of having babies in your 40s?) I’ve caught myself speaking to my kids in an irritated tone or tending to their needs in a begrudging manner.
Our children are a huge blessing, and I’m making a greater effort to be fully-present to them and remind myself how privileged I am to be their momma. So, I’ve spent more time making them smile and laugh, which is a beautifully simple thing at their ages. When they aren’t destroying things, whining, or pitching fits, they are easy to love.
2 CommentsBack for the fourth and final week, I’m taking part in Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge. (To recap, every person posts a 1,000 word story beginning. Each week, another writer builds on the story culminating in a four-part tale written by four different authors.) I’ve written Part Four of The Time Keeper.
The Time Keeper
