Archive for June, 2009

June 24th, 2009 by admin
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RED LINE ROBINS: Life Imitating Literature

I have always felt lucky that my life is boring from a literary perspective. However, as I delve deeper and deeper into the craft of fiction writing, I’m finding literary drama all around me.

Today’s topic: Foreshadow.

Monday morning the sun shined bright – the first time in a week. My kids slept in, enjoying the first day of summer vacation. As I sat at the breakfast table, checking email and enjoying the silence with a cup of java, Slam! A thundering thud of two birds crashing into the window interrupted my quiet moment. I jumped to my feet, ran to the window, and found two robins scattered on the patio. I stood, looking out, hoping they would get up and fly away. But the one on the left didn’t move a feather. The right-hand bird, stayed down, but breathed hard.

I grabbed a kitchen towel and approached the injured birds on the patio. The bird with labored breathing looked up at me. I gently wrapped the towel around it and tried to help it up. Her legs supported her but she remained as still as if she had been stuffed by a taxidermist. I left her alone and observed from the window, feeling shaken and helpless.

I was encouraged when she began to swivel her head left and right, observing her surroundings. After about a half-hour, she hopped to the edge of the patio. Soon, she explored the garden in my back yard. I quietly returned to the patio, wrapped the unlucky, dead robin in the towel and placed him in the woods behind my house.
My children awakened, wanting breakfast, rides to see friends, and all of the ordinary summer-vacation kind of attention. I spent the day, enjoying their company and trying to forget about the little trauma that visited in the morning.

Late that afternoon, it happened. Just miles away from me, a Red Line Metrorail train crashed into a stationary train between Ft. Totten and Takoma stations. Nine people died, including one train operator, and more than 70 people were injured in the accident – an unprecedented tragedy here in the DC area. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

While the National Transportation Safety Board continues investigations to determine the cause of the crash, something nags me. If this were a fiction, instead of real life, the birds should have prepared me for the tragedy to follow later in the day. Like the fire and the mad dog foreshadowing the Tom Robinson’s trial and tragic death in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird.

In real life, nothing can prepare us for an unthinkable tragedy like the Red Line Metro crash. I’m not a believer of omens or signs. But, the events of earlier this week are crying out to me in literary-speak. If only this were fiction. Then, I could re-write a happy ending.

PHOTO credit: Firefighters and Emergency Services personnel work on the accident scene. (Hans Charles / The Washington Post)

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June 21st, 2009 by admin
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FATHER’S DAY: Hoping It’s the Thought That Counts.

Hoping it’s the thought that counts…

Happy Father’s Day to my loving husband.
I had high hopes for showing my husband how much I appreciate what a great father he is to our children. Unfortunately, everything I planned this year played out as if a fiction writer was throwing in every obstacle she could think of to stop me from achieving my goal.
Several weeks ago, I entered a shop to order a special gift that my husband could enjoy with family and friends—a fire pit-table and Adirondack chairs to go on our patio. I could picture it. The furniture would be delivered and waiting for him when he got home from work on Friday and we could spend Father’s Day cooking out and making s’mores over the fire. Guess what? The warehouse messed up and the furniture won’t be delivered until next week! So, no wonderful gift for hubby! Ugh!
Next, I had theater tickets for a matinee on Sunday. Thinking that would be a nice way to spend the afternoon. However, with all of the rain we’ve had lately, my oldest son’s baseball team scheduled a makeup game. After discussing the best way to handle it, we decided hubby would take my oldest to his game and I would take the twins to the theater. Fine, right? Not the end of the world. Well, I drove into D.C., stupidly forgetting to listen to traffic reports. I had no idea that police had blocked the cross-streets to Pennsylvania Avenue from Constitution Avenue for a race being held today. Ugh!

I detoured all of the way around (from 7th Street around to Independence, all the way back to 21st Street). We made it to the theater five minutes after curtain. We discovered that we could not be seated until intermission, and opted to leave, instead. What a wasted day! Ugh!

Thanks for listening to my rant, today. I only hope my husband knows how much I love him. I tried. I really tried.
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June 17th, 2009 by admin
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Judging My Book By Its Cover

The past two weeks have been filled with working with my line editor and my cover artist. The manuscript is almost ready to be formatted and taken out of my hands. This will be a relief, because I think there’s something wrong with me — I could keep tinkering with the text forever.

As for the cover for Double Out and Back, I’m thrilled with it. I hope you think it looks great, too! It was exciting to have some input on its look. Most authors I’ve heard speak of their book covers have said they had no say on the matter. I guess it’s one of the “perks” of working with a small press.

Thanks for sharing this journey with me.

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