Illiteracy, Red Stairs, And A New Hashtag

Hello, chaps and chapesses! I wanted to pop in for a few reasons. First and foremost is to let you know that yes, I have been writing and yes, it is going well and the reason I've been so incognito on the blog is that our home wifi is null and void and has been for the past two months and by the time I get to Starbucks or another wifi'd place, work for my food + fashion blog has stacked up so much, all my time is spent playing catch-up for that. So this is going to be a fun post because I have twenty minutes to cover a multitude of sins and I'm going to go at it at a running pace.

Teaching:

Tuesday, September 8th, was International Literacy Day! It baffles me to think there are, by some accounts, 757 million adults in the world who cannot read. When I stop to consider how different my life...heck...how different I would be had I never learned to read, it it almost too much to handle. As the primary teacher of two little girls, one of whom is on that precarious brinking of reading-but-not-quite, I feel like I'm up close and personal with the subject of literacy and "can we read," or "can we not read." The following infographic (brought to my attention by Grammarly) gives you a little more insight into the problem if illiteracy and where the highest problem-areas are.

Please don't take for the granted the fact that you can read and write and all the worlds that have opened up to you because of it. And if you ever get the chance to teach a child to read...do it. It brings the subject into such a different point of view!

Reading:

I'm working through Cocktail Hour by P.G. Wodehouse as well as slowly tromping through the rest of Schindler's List (it's so heart-rending I find I can only take very small doses), and reading through (over breakfast each morning) Julia Child's Mastering The Art of French Cooking. I heard this past weekend that Rooglewood Press is officially and permanently offering one of its author's stories as a free download, and Hayden Wand's The Wulver's Rose (from their Five Enchanted Roses collection) as chosen as the featured title! So definitely go download that and see if it tempts you into buying the whole collection.

September has also been a great month for another friend of mine, author Rachelle Rea, whose second novel, The Sound of Silver, Whitefire Press releases on October 15th! She's been busy all month sending out e-ARC copies to fellow authors and I just know it will be as huge a success as the first title.

Writing:

My untitled Sleeping Beauty story. I'm still not sure whether I will enter Rooglewood's Spindles contest with this story, but I am writing it to that end. If the story wants to stretch itself and get bigger than the allotted word-count, I'm not going to cramp it and make it fit. I have a good feeling about this story and if it wants to become a full novel (though I'm not saying it will) I want to give it its freedom. Also, Cottleston Pie, which is being conducted on paper, has been locked in my trunk for two weeks. But it is so much almost finished I keep forgetting I need to actually do the deed.

Just now, as they mounted the red stairs again, the Queen weighed the cost of asking the one question to which she already guessed the answer: “When our sweet Mariechen died, did you swear to never again love anyone, even her mother?" But, as always, she hesitated. Already so strained, what might honesty add to the turmoil? No, far better to accept the coolness in place of warmer emotions and, philosopher-like, remark that the weather was pleasant enough to require only a light wrap. She placed her arm in his, reminded him of their evening engagements and, at the door to his study, parted from him with a sensation like frostbite pulsing in her throat

Changing:

The hashtag for #wordplaywednesday! I know I've trained all of you to hashtag your weekly posts with that, but apparently we share it with something entirely different. So from now on, #wednesdaywordshare is the name of the game, okay? If you think of it, please share the news around so that we can all get grouped up again! :)

I will be back as soon as I can with a full snippets post, but I wanted to pop in while in the presence of wifi and say that I hadn't died, rotted, or abandoned ship. The Inkpen Authoress is still alive. Somewhat more stressed, busy, and wifi-deprived than of yore, but as full of words as she ever has been. Cheers, darlings!

The Nameless Vanish

You would think that after all this time, I would have learned. I would have learned to name my files before saving them. That being said, I'm here to announce that I finished the pressing chapter of Cottleston Pie which pretty nearly completes the draft. I'm going to consult with my notebook tomorrow and see if there are any pieces and stories I left dangling that want to be included, but otherwise I'm only going to smooth over a few things and touch up the synopsis before beginning to send it off. Excitement! I know that it won't be accepted probably for a very long time, but you never can tell. I also feel that I have a better pulse on what makes good children's fiction than I do on how to tap into the mystery market, or the historical romance market. Not that I couldn't get into those, but I feel it might be easier (and I will probably be eating crow, presently) to get into this market of children's fiction. We'll see.

What I mean by complaining about not naming files is this: I began a (very good) story for Rooglewood Press's  Five Enchanted Spindles contest and forgot to name it. At least, if I did begin it on Google Drive as I suppose, I forgot to name it. If I began it on my laptop, that is a whole different problem because guess what? My laptop died and with it, everything on it. Children, always back up your hard drive. I am not off to open every untitled document in Google Drive (because I had planned to work on this Very Good Story next, after finishing Cottleston Pie) and if I can't find it there...watch me weep. Here's hoping! Are any of you planning a story for Five Enchanted Spindles? I would love to hear about your story. :)

C'est la LIFE

Writing-Wise

My MERCY, life flies by. It's July and I have the most baffing feeling that I've been some sort of hideous fake this whole spring, calling myself a writer. The truth is, what I've written this spring wouldn't fill a wide-ruled, spiral-bound notebook. I have not logged into my publishing account in four months. My Twitter is a ghost-house. I'm doing horribly with self-promotion. I'm not sure I should even be telling you this, but PR has never been my strong suit. Actually, scratch-that. Public Relations are where I am GOOD. Selling books is where I don't give a horse-fly, even when I ought, which is why I still work as a nanny rather than a full-time writer. Life has been giving me a workout and in a fist-fight between my family and my books, family wins out. That is not to say I haven't wished to write and even written a (very) little. I've started a secret thing that I can't whisper about yet because I don't want to announce my lipstick-taser before firing. I've worked a (very) little bit on Scotch'd the Snakes. I've worked on a few pieces of worthless flash fiction to keep my mind limber, and have plans to write a very quick piece of humorous fiction in honor of something I misheard a couple of weeks ago while in church. Cottleston Pie is marinating. I am not sure what to do with it yet, but murmurings of a rewrite are in the nearest corners of my mind when I stop to think about it. Historically, just about forty or fifty percent of the reading populace, after reading one of my novels, suggest I write a children's book. I have never quite decided how I feel about this reaction. Did they not enjoy my novel, but find my tone amusing and therefore feel I should tackle something of less import? Or did they like my story and/or tone so much they want it in short-order form? Or do they think I am entirely on the wrong tack and ought to pin my sails and try for something that will harm no one if it flops miserably? I cannot tell. But I love Cottleston Pie and I think I'm on the right track with it and when I take it out, it is always so much a better project that I remember it being. This is my update on personal writing. I was vicariously thrilled with my friends, like Mirriam Neal, who managed to do JuNoWriMo. Brava!

Reading-Wise

I've had a little more success. Suzannah Rowntree's Pendragon's Heir is marvelously well-written but a little too brocade for summer wear. I find it slow but pleasant going. I picked up Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally after going on a blitzkreig-speed tour through DC's Holocaust Museum. I want to go back and spend more than fifteen minutes on each floor, but what I saw was enough to convict, impress, and sober me. So far, Keneally's book is thoughtfully researched and reads much more like an interesting history than a novel, which is rather the point. Lurking behind-hand in the book-wings are a book about the children of the Holocaust (also a Museum purchase), The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers, two cookbooks, and a book about the history of maps. No, it's not The Island of Lost Maps which I read earlier this year...I just have a strange fascination with cartography since the day I first watched National Treasure. The influx of reading material happened when I made the trip to our dinky library which is hardly ever open to renew my card which had expired at least a year ago. What do you know? They have books at libraries. And I'm terrible at resisting a book.

Listening-Wise

I don't listen to music while writing, generally, but I do have a list of songs that have been in my heart and head recently and here is as good a place as any to share them! :)

1. "Geronimo" - The Sheppherds
2. "Bright" - Echosmith
3. "You Belong With Me" - Taylor Swift (Come on, it isn't summer till you've had some T-Swizzle)
4. "Almost Like Being In Love" - Nat King Cole
5. "Out of an Orange-Colored Sky" - Nat King Cole
6. "Shut Up And Dance With Me" - Walk The Moon (unashamed)
7. "Budapest" - George Ezra (heard the most beautiful female-vocals version of this done by two sisters I know.)
8. "Take Your Time" - Sam Hunt
9. "Lay Me Down" - Chris Tomlin
10. "I'm a Believer" - The Monkees
11. "Christ Be All Around Me" - Leeland (my prayer, always)

My taste is eclectic, as you can see and ranges up and down the scale from standard pop to country, to big-band, to Christian contemporary. I love having varied tastes. Keeps things interesting.

Eating-Wise

Lavender Soda. It's a beautiful thing. Like drinking a vase of flowers steeped in Sprite...only less perfume-y. Also, anything boysenberry. After three years, our patch is doing prolifically well and my hands and lips are stained with the sun-soaked gems. York Peppermint Patties. I bought a bag to share around my wing at a camp...and ended up taking the whole thing home. Now I really, really want to try making s'mores with York instead of normal chocolate. Parmesan from the block. MmmHMMMM. You heard that right. Cheese is bae. If I talked that way. And I don't. Moving onnnnnn. Cherries. Dark, sweet cherries. Divinity right there. And whenever I eat cherries I am reminded of an anecdote about Oswald Chambers which you probably don't have time to hear, so I will refrain from sharing it.

I'm off to bury my nose in one of my neglected writing projects. Ciao, darlings!

BOO.

Hello, poor lost readers of mine! Well, I suppose you aren't the ones lost now, are you? I certainly did not mean to leave the country for two weeks without warning you, but The Fox Went Out was keeping you so happy, I felt I left you in good hands.

A hundred thanks to each of you who read this unusual story and liked it and furthermore left me a comment to tell me so. You make a writer's world go round. Especially when said writer has been in a bit of a bog writing-wise out of which the only thing to come so far has been a whack-a-do story such as The Fox Went Out. We hope that upon our return to America and the banishment of jetlag, we shall soon be up to our elbows in Scotch'd the Snakes and making real progress forward.

If I haven't worked on any of my novels, I have been writing. I believe I made it through ninety-seven pages in my travel journal in two weeks. I haven't the foggiest how many words that represents, but it felt good to write something definite every single day. During our ten-hour layover in Moscow I sat near a young man with red hair and freckles who was reading Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. This immediately made me feel friendly toward him, even though he looked like the red-haired boy from Pleasure Island in Pinocchio who turns into a donkey. If I was not quite so "ick" from having been traveling for so long already with a ten-hour flight ahead of me, I would have tried to strike up conversation. As it was, we discussed the flavor of purple Skittles in Romania and that was that. Not exactly kindred spirits despite the book. His friend leaned over to him:
"You're a fast reader."
Redhead looks up. "Huh?"
"You read fast."
"Oh, yeah." He stirs as if he was personally jolted out of a Japanese prison camp and air-dropped in Hawaii. "Yeah, I started this book on the train from Prague."
"Mmm," the friend says.
I sit back and smirk. Well 'scuse me, Mr. Hoighty-Toighty. We've resorted to nation name-dropping, have we?

Anyway, I have so much to tell you. I have a lecture prepared on Doing Research Before Entering Things, I could share excerpts from my travel journal, we could discuss your reaction to The Fox Went Out and why it worked (or didn't) according to your current feeling. We could discuss the new Rooglewood Press contest with its GORGEOUS cover (Five Magic Spindles, anyone?), the fact that it is author Clara Diane Thompson's birthday ("Give her a drink! I...I mean a hand!"), or that I was entranced by a piece of flash fiction I read on the side of my Chipolte's cup which could have been jetlag or really good writing.

There are many things. I have missed you, dear creatures. So glad to be back, so glad to catch up. May the wordcount ever be in your favor and may I soon forge a way through the slough that is my current WIP.

For Your Inconvenience...

Dear Everyone:

     So sorry for the under-construction look and the awkwardness of redirecting! I am working on switching The Inkpen Authoress to its own home at www.theinkpenauthoress.com and am still working out the finer points of the change. Currently it asks people to redirect from the old blogspot address here, but there are a couple little glitches as there always are with web-changes. I hope to have it up and fully working very soon, though, so thanks for your patience! Same old site, just a new home.

        Cheers!
              Rachel

Play with me, won't you?

This evening, we will be playing a guessing game! I have finally had some time to throw my back into writing. January was pluperfect CRAZY with several acquaintances dying, my own grandmother in the hospital with possible cancer (thank God they are slowly ruling that out), a visit to North Carolina, and plain old LIFE tossed in there. But as I have said, we are playing a guessing game. I have had my finger in no less than three pies this week. I want to see if you can guess what sort of stories I'm writing. I will number the batches of pictures and include one quote and you may leave a comment with your guesses below. Commenter with the closest guess wins, and Winners get Glory! You have previously heard news of at least one of these stories. Hurrah. So here it goes:

#1: "John O'Grady is a man of his word. If, in a fit of the tempers, John says he's going to kill you, why he just does."

#2: "There is a reason Australia is fit for nothing but a penal colony. If it isn't the heat, it's the snakes. If it isn't snakes it is death by shark or mauling by koala."

#3: "Last week it’d been Mackenzie Traver, week before that Brandon Keith. All her best boys showing up after she’d been stood up. Wasn’t fair. Fellow decides he doesn’t want to marry a girl, shouldn’t pop up at the very moment she was trying--and failing--to get a life of her own."

All right! Guess away!

(And congratulations to the winners of Rooglewood Press's Five Enchanted Roses contest, among whom are our dear Hayden and Kaycee! The collections sounds absolutely intriguing. :)

"A Gentleman Arrives by Carriage."

Hey-low, people!

    This is just a very quick note to let you know that I am absent from home (and therefore absent from the blogosphere) for eleven days, starting today. That means that The Inkpen Authoress will probably be rather a quiet spot during the interim. I'm off working at Generation Joshua's iGovern East camp where, among my other responsibilities, I will be acting as the journalist and writing the daily newspaper, leading a tour of kids through Washington D.C. and spending my July 4th in the same, going to the Spy Museum. Confession time: I have wanted to be a spy since the age of ten or twelve and to go to this museum is an unofficial bucket-list item. :) So happy about this.

Can't wait to get back in town and to you, but I'm also super blessed to be a part of the GenJ Leadership Corps and working in the lives of these high-school students. God always blesses the week beyond our dreams and though we're technically there to teach them the inner workings of America's political system, shining the light of Christ into their lives is the actual goal.

So. See you in a week-and-a-bit and until then, take gobs of care and if you're American, have a blast on Independence Day. (I'm also a pyromaniac. I love fireworks.)

"You and I Remember Budapest Very Differently."

Hello everyone! I am home in America in one piece with another hundred pages of travel notes with which to bolster my inspiration in the days to come. After not having written terribly much, it felt good to sit down and write and draw every single day. I was able to meet quite a few people (and observe quite a few others) who will someday elbow their places into my writing. There is an especially embarrassing story connected with one of the men which has now probably given him the impression I'm the most determined flirt who every made her family ridiculous. The ordeal has certainly cemented in my mind the fact that I would never forget him ... I could never. ;)

A grand hello and welcome to my several new followers! I am always excited to have new blood on the blog and you are quite welcome here. I hope you find your stay enjoyable.

In the days to come, I will share a little more about my trip to Romania, the two real live castles I met, and the fact that Jennifer Freitag is self-publishing Plenilune. Good heavens, people. You are in a for a cattywampus. For now, I would only like to say cheers, thanks for the prayers and good wishes for my travel, and that watching pedestrians in the middle of a summer storm is a terrific way to get a laugh and heaps of character notes. Ceau!

Hanging out with a Roman head on the Danube.

Guess What the Cat Just Let Outta the Bag?

Last Friday, I got my first paycheck. Could it be that I am finally moving out of perpetual Micawberism to something a bit more...pocket-moneyish? Seems like. The first week of nannying went quite well and my two wards and I even wrote and illustrated bed-time books for them. That was, after all, Lila's (5) first condition upon hearing I was an author: "Can Miss Rachel help me write a book? She can write the words and I'll draw the pictures." And so we did. This masterpiece is entitled: The Princess And Her Dragon and is about a royal who is afraid of the dark and the brave and "huge-big" dragon named William who is given to her as a gift to puff fire all night so she won't be without light. Lila dictated to me and most of the words were her own. (Including the rather pithy line: "And she was no longer afraid because she had the moon and the stars and fire and she knew that light was on her side.") In case you were wondering, for Lila, this was rather autobiographical. All except the dragon part. She specifically asked to write a book to read before bed so she would not be afraid.

I am excited for two reasons:

#1: I ought to be getting Elisabeth Grace Foley's Mrs. Meade Mysteries Vol. I today and I am looking forward to being able to read these stories in paperback edition. I am in the middle of three books right now so I can't start straight away, but I shall soon!

#2: Anne Elisabeth emailed me this morning and we have an official release date for Five Glass Slippers! Not certain whether it was meant to be public but I tweeted and spilled the proverbial beans before giving it much thought so, you will all be able to purchase this amazing collection of stories on

June 14th, 2014

And you know what's even cooler about this news? You can officially pre-order Five Glass Slippers on Amazon.com! Also, go add it on Goodreads too! I know it's an amazing book because I let myself read the first chapter or two of each story and not only are the stories rather wonderful, but the book itself is precious in terms of interior design. You'll simply have to wait to find out what's what because I obviously cannot show you the galley-proof I also received in my inbox. If I've been a bit in regards to my own writing, it is only because I'm still editing Anon, Sir, Anon and it's going slowly because of work and on top of this, I'm about to start formatting a friend's debut novel and I'm in the depths of reading a certain amazing epic that, for all its virtues, must be read on the computer and is undoubtedly long (Wonderfully long, but length means time). So all that means that even if I knew what my next project was going to be, I have no time for it yet. So there. If you are interested to learn more about the various Cinderellas in Five Glass Slippers, you must head over to the blog dedicated to just such things and check it out! I cannot wait for June to come around so you can all read The Windy Side of Care...truly, I have a feeling you're going to like Alis... And now for some entirely random items on the list of things that you didn't need to know but will probably be interesting all the same:

Hand massages feel divine

Someone actually made the scones from my last post 

 If I was a character from LotR, I would be Sam, evidently

Agents of SHIELD's latest episode just about killed me

I am apparently a good public speaker

I am fonder than ever of Wodehouse

Our team is officially over 100% funded for our trip to Romania!

Globe-Trotter: In Which I Leave American Soil {Again}

The spring is always a time for new beginnings, goals for the rest of the year, and impossible projects. But nothing is entirely impossible, is it? Especially when God's hand is in it. :) Some of you will remember that I went to Romania on a missions trip last year. If you want to read more about that mind-boggling trip, click on this link and it'll take you to the posts about it on my other blog!

I kept a meticulous travel journal while there which has proved to be amazing to look back on...

This year we are going back! Our tickets are purchased, and I will be leaving for Romania on May 12th for another two-weeks' trip! Absolutely cannot wait... Last year, I was full of the excitement of a first trip out of the country. This year, I am filled with the tremulous excitement  of going back to a place my heart loves well...

This year, we are leaving most of the cities behind and forging deeper into the mountains to more churches, more villages. We're going to TRANSyLVANIA, people! And I have it on good authority that we are stopping by two castles on the way, including the one wherein lived Count Dracula. (The man. I don't think he was a vampire. :P)

As I said above, we have bought the tickets, but our team still needs to raise over the half the funds needed (about $1800 total per person) by the time of our departure. I know God will provide as He did last year with just the right amount of funds at just the right time, but I would really appreciate your prayer for wisdom as to how to raise the money. 

This year we are pairing up with our friends' church to go. I think it's such a cool thing that two American churches are able to pair up and travel to a couple dozen Romanian churches. The world-wide body of Christ is such a beautiful thing. I will be keeping you updated as to what fund-raising schemes we are up to (if any of you have ideas, by all means pass them on!) and for now, if you would like more information on the trip, how you can pray, and any other information, please head to The Missions Trip Blog for more! I know God will provide...I look forward to seeing His hand. :) Cannot wait to set foot on Romanian soil and again see these beautiful beautiful people. <3

Pace, darlings. 

The Final Scene (plus cheesecake)

Hey luvs! I am quite busy this week and am currently drafting a stats sheet for all things Fly Away Home to be used at my book-debut party tomorrow night! We are having a Starbuck's-style coffee night and I'm making three cheesecakes and celebrating my debut as a professional author. It's going to be fun! Today, I'm making decorations (Wait till you see what I have planned for "Beyond the Sea") and cheesecakes and cleaning. Somewhere in there I want to finish Anon, Sir, Anon because I am so close to the end. Like...final scene close. We will see. Right now I'm madly scribbling stats and printing off Western Union telegrams and all sorts of jolly things. I will see you later!

Icing on my Cake

"You are the icing on my cake, you are the smile I can't replace,

You are, you are.

The way you smile, the way you laugh,

The way I can't help but catch your joy, your joy..."

//icing by charity vance//

Today I made 3096 words. Not as much as yesterday, but then again, I woke up early and my computer monitor would not work. For like...half an hour... I sat on the floor plugging and unplugging it and hoping it would work before I finally escaped to the downstairs and a very messy Dad's Office to write my dose. Also, it was some tough material (mystery endings and the like.) I picked up my contacts from Walmart (good heavens, that has been a heck of a mess) and they're still not quite right...but almost. They are wearable. Then my cousin Matthew, who is a photographer, took me to the Cultural Arts center where we shot some photos of my new pink trench-coat so I can do a review for eShakti on my other blog. Matthew is the guy with whom it always appears I'm flirting,. He's a cousin. We are close. I'm not always writing, darlings. That picture above pretty much encapsulates me. You have my permission to study it. Also, I have discovered that my spy-face (made up of laughter, sass, and my cousin staring at me with his camera) pretty much looks exactly like a winky emoticon:

;)

-And-

Likeness? I think so.

Also, I have rearranged the pages so that they are clickable. Thanks for all the input on the new design. I like making things comfy for my readership. Well, my eyes are tired from staring at my computer screen with these banged contacts, so I'm off. Cheers and may tomorrow be a productive day of writing as well!

Whistlecreig Fun

Well, it's two o'clock and I'm clocking in today with 4,096 new words in Anon, Sir, Anon. I am not exactly certain whether I will manage to get more in or not. This is already four times my usual daily dose and the plot is moving along at a rate that encourages me to think I will accomplish my goal. I got up early and managed to workout, have quiet time, and write over 2,000 words by shortly after 9 AM. Pretty good. We have some gardening work to do because the weather turned warm, so I may not try to fit any more words into the day and save my willingness to write for tomorrow.

Overview:

Highlights of my writing binge so far have been:

• Getting to the part in the story where the title makes an appearance.
• Re-installing Allen as Farnham's confidante-caretaker, loyal servant.
• Sending Vivi out in the company of two murder suspects; a complication which no one thought to disapprove of before it happened.
• Writing a fencing scene.
• Writing a scene involving toast. The little things.

I added 4,096 words which takes the total to 48,875 words, and likely to add at least another ten-thousand before things are finished to my approval.

I have consumed some chocolate (Ghirardelli Seas-Salt Seranade) so far, and not enough real food. Also, I've drunk an entire quart of ice-water which doesn't seem like much till you realize how many times you need to get up to use the bathroom. Golly. I am still feeling game for the fight, so I suppose that is a good sign. Also, I got a magenta trench-coat today which will certainly make an appearance in a fashion post on my other blog. And magenta trench coats are always a happy happy thing. I put it right on over-top my jeans and t-shirt but I was so excited, I cared little whether I looked ridiculous or not. I love you, mail-man. I also got to spend some time perusing a list of fencing terms and trying to comprehend them so I could fit them together into a feasible fight sequence. I think I managed it rather well:

“That was bang neat of you,” Farnham said. “I didn’t know you could move so fast.”

As for the characters, I've reached a certain level of complexity of which I am rather proud. I've purposely kept all of them from being much like me at all, which means I get to fathom their depths (or try, anyway) and write what I see. It's a good exercise and I'm looking forward to seeing what's what in editing rounds. I should also say that I'm going to up my four-person beta-reading team to five people, because I realized I need a British Contact to correct all my Britishness in this book. Looking forward to sending the manuscript through her and getting her take and on this particular aspect of the story. I feel blessed to have been brought in contact with someone who lives roughly near the general area of England in which Whistlecreig is thought to lay! (More or less. Probably less, but it's nearer than if she lived in Yorkshire.)

In other news, I never did find the map I made, which bothers me. Where on God's green earth could it have gone? It disappeared. It is probably a very good map which someone stole, thinking it led to treasure. I will nod sagely over that possibility and try to forget that I actually will need to redraw one. And on that note, since I am intending to include a map in the front of the book upon publication, how much does it cost to get someone to do it for you? Well, Regency Buck and lunch (which I haven't had yet--it's 2:40 PM and I've only had scrambled eggs and chocolate all day) are calling my name, and I've still got to put the baby to bed so I'm off. Thanks to all you lovely people who have supported me in the March Madcapness so far! I look forward to updating you tomorrow!

His butler’s offer of service disarmed Farnham. That any man would voluntarily cross swords with a furious Heir of Whistlecreig showed a sort of fealty he must commend. With a low grumble that was neither denial, nor assent, he turned his backsword basket-first to Allen and chose another for himself.

Pre-Orders Open Now!

Happy Day-After-Tomorrow-Is-The-Big-One Day! Many of you are just as excited as I am about being able to purchase/hold/own/enjoy Fly Away Home and all I can say is: just a couple more days! 

I wanted to announce something that may or may not influence you in your buying decisions:

I earn more per copy if you buy directly from me and not Amazon.com. Yes, I know this sounds like avarice, but I just thought I would let you know that copies will be available from me personally. If you would like to purchase from me, you will get an autographed copy of Fly Away Home which is something you would not get buying off of Amazon. I know that some of you already wanted copies that were autographed (really, it's a little embarrassing) so I thought I would let you know! You may order/pre-order copies starting today! Just click on the Ruby Elixir Press page and follow instructions.

Re-cap:

• If you buy a book directly from me, you will get it autographed with a personal note!
• If you order from me, you may start pre-ordering today!

I misunderstood a bit of the instructions on Createspace's proofing system which means that when I approved the proof today, it told me that it might take a few days to show up on Amazon which could possibly delay your ability to purchase it on Amazon right on Valentine's Day. I am most seriously displeased I didn't realize that before. Prayers that they'd be speedier than they say would be most appreciated! For now, orders can come to me and we shall see what happens come Valentine's day!

In Order to Know Fewer

"We read a good novel not in order to know more people, but in order to know fewer. Instead of the humming swarm of human beings, relatives, customers, servants, postmen, afternoon callers, tradesmen, strangers who tell us the time, strangers who remark on the weather, beggars, waiters, and telegraph-boys--instead of this bewildering human swarm which passes us every day, fiction asks us to follow one figure (say the postman) consistently through his ecstasies and agonies. That is what makes one impatient with that type of pessimistic rebel who is always complaining of the narrowness of his life and demanding a larger sphere. Life is too large for us as it is: we have all too many things to attend to. All true romance is an attempt to simplify it, to cut it down to plainer and more pictorial proportions. What dullness there is in our life arises mostly from its rapidity; people pass us too quickly to show us their interesting side. By the end of the week we have talked to a hundred bores; whereas, if we had stuck to one of them, we might have found ourselves talking to a new friend, or a humorist, or a murderer, or a man who had seen a ghost."

~G.K. Chesterton: 'The Inside of Life.'

 Just thought you might be able to use a little Chesterton in your lives today. This week I've had the privilege to put my writing skills to good use up at my brother's organization. I've had honest-to-goodness real writing jobs to do. Not that I'm getting paid for it, but it is excellent practice and was actually assigned by the director of the organization who told the fellow in charge of the project, "She's a writer. A good one."  Not to put any pressure on me or anything. ;) Anyway, my words have been full of North Korea, South Korea, and Japan (not in Mirriam Neal's way ;) and I've been having fun. We took off after work last night and went into DC which never fails to inspire and delight. I wrote a little something this morning that may end up here after a little polishing. If you remember "Small Sight," that short-story I wrote last year, that was inspired by DC as well. 

On another note, my eye is twitching which feels awful.

December's Chatterbox and I Survived The Silence-Month

I am almost done with this blogging break. I shall be back round here for good starting Friday. In some ways a month seems too short--I had not realized how stressed I was until I actually took a load of things out of my life (Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest). My goal this month was to get back in touch with real life enough that my first impulse upon experiencing a thing wasn't: "This will make a great blog post!" or "Let me Instagram this!" Ridiculous as it sounds, I had been living life with an unconsciously materialistic viewpoint so that each little bit of life only served to be ground into flour with which to make my writing pancakes. I started the month with an eye to get a lot of writing done in the interim. What happened instead is that I lived a creative month, but from the writing standpoint, it was unproductive. And you know what? I am okay with that. I had sapped so much creativity for so long without putting anything back into the fund that my well was running dry.

I took a rest month and I'm sure my brain is the better for it.

What did that month look like? Well, in pictures, it went something like this:

Filling a quote-book with favorites

Experiments in cookery: pomegranate-orange cheesecake with a gingersnap crust, anyone?

Making jewelry. You can buy this neat poetry-ring in The Warren!

breaking my brain over geometry to enlarge by hand a 5x5 photo of Audrey onto four different 12x12 canvases

Having fun with celery as a stamp. :)

A sweet friend gifted me with an UNDERWOOD TYPEWRITER. Guys. This is the brand Callie uses. I may or may not have legitimately freaked out and bounced up and down and made excited noises and yelled when the "ding" went off.

started over with my 1000 Gifts list

Made a batch of cuties. <3

So yeah. My life has been touched by a bit of drama. I have led a quiet, peaceable, gentle life this month and I feel refreshed, relaxed, and loved. God is good, whether or not I am on a brilliant roll with my writing. That being said, I have been hard at work this month applying the final edits I made a couple months back for Fly Away Home and I will have some exciting news forthcoming about that novel. Secondly, I feel like I know Vivi and Farnham pretty well at this point which comes from just thinking about these characters for a month, reading up on Northamptonshire, and a goodly dose of James Herriot. I look forward to digging into the story with a concentrated effort soon. And speaking of The Warren, if you are looking for Christmas gifts for any of your writing/reading/word-smashing friends, check out the 20% off sale! Everything in The Warren is 20% off until Christmas and I will be continuing to add new products all month so stay tuned. :)

The main purpose of this post, though, was to announce December's Chatterbox! You know the ropes, and if you somehow missed what this Chatterbox thing is about, just click on the label below and read all about it. It's a barrel of fun. This month's topic?

Mythology

I can't wait to read all your posts on this topic! Mythology in any society is an interesting thing. I want to see your characters talking about it! Maybe some of them swear by the myths of their world, maybe others are skeptical, maybe others are creators or participators in those myths. Whatever the case may be, I want to hear about it! Sorry this challenge is late this month! I have (obviously) been away. I have missed all of you and look forward to catching up about the things I have missed this month. 

"We're glad the Dauphine is so pleasant with us."

"Letters of business...how odious I should think them."

-Caroline Bingley

But letters of business sometimes do fall our way, and in its own fashion, this post is halfway a letter of business.

-Ransomed Giveaway- 

I want to remind all of you that you still have a few days left in which to enter the giveaway from Elizabeth Ender's book Ransomed. If you *have* entered, remember that the mandatory entry is to leave your name and email address in a comment below. Spread the word! You all love free books, I know. I mean, who *doesn't* love a free book? Also, Ransomed appears to be an exceptionally good book and you will not regret taking the time to enter. Thirdly, I made this giveaway disgustingly easy which means that if you don't enter, you're a wee bit lazy.

-Chatterbox-

You are all wonderful; Chatterbox (in its very first week of its very first month) already has 10 entries! If you missed out on what exactly Chatterbox is, do go to the post and give it a read!

-Writing-

 I hope to be able to dig down deep this next week and get quite a lot of writing done. Most of my feedback for The Windy Side of Care is home and the expected changes must be made before I can polish it up for the final time and send it off to Anne Elisabeth Stengl. The Baby is going through mental agonies. Like Jenny with her Gingerune, Baby is requiring a feat of mental strength that I have not quite found yet. I may shelf The Baby for a few months and work on the other projects that are rendering me ineffectual.We shall see. As far as those "other projects" go, all I can say right now is, "Anon, sir, Anon".

A regular bachelor’s pad, Whistlecreig was, and though Farnham prided himself on feeling little but physical pain, a faint, resentful twinge cropped up toward this unknown female barreling toward him on the 12:55 out of Darlington.

 You will get an explanation sooner than later because certain people (Meghan. Ahem.) have been smiling knowingly and if there's one thing I can't stand it's the be patted on the head paternally. Though I don't mind so much when it comes to people excited about my Projects. :)

-Listening To-

Andrew Peterson. A close family friend died very unexpectedly this Monday. Thank God he knew Jesus and loved Him dearly, but that doesn't make it hurt much the less for the wife and seven children he leaves behind. There are so many of Peterson's songs that fit the situation...truly a blessed man.

The Scarlet Pimpernel Musical. This is something I am purposely exploring because you know how much I love TSP, and how much I bet I'll love the musical. When getting into new shows, there is always that awkward moment of "I don't know ANY of these songs!" but then you sit long enough and are suddenly singing along - I'm in that stage.

-Discovering-

Charity Klicka's blog. This is a gal that works in the same building as my brother and I've met her once or twice. For a long time I've followed her on Pinterest and loved the things she pinned, and today I found her blog. She is having an autumn reading challenge as well as giveaways of various books & book-lover packages each week; this week is The Wind in The Willows. Check it out - it is well worth your time! :)

And now for the un-business part of this post: favorite quotes from everywhere. I am a sucker for beautifully-worded things and I've come across many in recent days. I thought I'd dump them here for you to enjoy alongside me. :) 

“We shall creep out quietly into the butler's pantry--" cried the Mole.
"--with out pistols and swords and sticks--" shouted ther Rat.
"--and rush in upon them," said Badger.
"--and whack 'em, and whack 'em, and whack 'em!" cried the Toad in ecstasy, running round and round the room, and jupming over the chairs.”  

-The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

“Secrets had an immense attraction to him, because he never could keep one, and he enjoyed the sort of unhallowed thrill he experienced when he went and told another animal, after having faithfully promised not to.”-The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

“It'll be all right, my fine fellow," said the Otter. "I'm coming along with you, and I know every path blindfold; and if there's a head that needs to be punched, you can confidently rely upon me to punch it.” 

-The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

"Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no panic terror - indeed he felt wonderfully at peace and happy - but it was an awe that smote and held him and, without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august presence was very, very near.”

-The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

 “If God made everything, did He make the Devil?' This is the kind of embarrassing question which any child can ask before breakfast, and for which no neat and handy formula is provided in the Parents' Manual…Later in life, however, the problem of time and the problem of evil become desperately urgent, and it is useless to tell us to run away and play and that we shall understand when we are older. The world has grown hoary, and the questions are still unanswered.” 

-The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers

“To complain that man measures God by his own experience is a waste of time; man measures everything by his own experience; he has no other yardstick.”  

-The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers

“The adult must seem to mislead the child, and the Master the dog. They misread the signs. Their ignorance and their wishes twist everything. You are so sure you know what the promise promised! And the danger is that when what He means by ‘wind’ appears you will ignore it because it is not what you thought it would be—as He Himself was rejected because He was not like the Messiah the Jews had in mind.” 

-A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken

“Between the probable and proved there yawns
A gap. Afraid to jump, we stand absurd,
Then see behind us sink the ground and, worse,
Our very standpoint crumbling. Desperate dawns
Our only hope: to leap into the Word
That opens up the shuttered universe.” 

-A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken

“His jest shall savour but a shallow wit, when thousands more weep than did laugh it.”

-William Shakespeare's Henry V

“Cheerily to sea; the signs of war advance:
No king of England, if not king of France” 

-William Shakespeare's Henry V 

“We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
His present and your pains we thank you for:
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard."

-William Shakespeare's Henry V  

I am in love with Henry V right now. Honestly. Have you ever read such rousing words? The play is full of them and by golly it's marvelous. In the past month I have watched both the Kenneth Branagh version and the Tom Hiddleston version. Both are beautiful productions and I love it. Which have you seen? Which do you prefer?

“Oh, it has all the modern conveniences: mice, mold, damp, draughts. You name it, Farnham has sent off for the latest patented model.”

Who needs the bare necessities?

Our camping trip was a darned wash-out. That isn't to say we didn't stay out camping; we did. We are a hearty race, we Heffingtons, and take a Post Office-ian view of our scraped-together vacation time: "neither snow nor hail nor wind nor rain shall keep us from our rounds." So we dripped and moisted and generally made slippery nuisances of ourselves. In the worst parts of the day we ferried across to Williamsburg and inhabited the outlet stores and shops. Funny, because I didn't have any money to spend so I was strictly window-shopping.
The second day I got to spend quite some time hovering in the College of William & Mary's B&N bookstore. That was a lovely thing. I came in at a brisk trot from dodging rain and was quite wet but once inside, the store was just the thing to minister to a mind diseased by overmuch standing out in the elements. I made myself laugh with various P.G. Wodehouse novels in the aisle. I hunted up Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. I picked up a biography of Audrey Hepburn which I very much wanted to have money to buy, and Mama thunked a huge tome of The Letters of P.G. Wodehouse into my hands. Darn her mushrooms, it was $35.00. When I actually have an income, my expenditure will be equally divided between Books and Starbucks. Who needs food, shelter, and clothing? I ask you! Benjamin found a volume of the entire script from Downton Abbey S 1. This would be devastating for our family as we are all fair hands at British accents and love to act. You'd never see us outside of that tome did it ever set leaf in our house. In addition to all these finds, I found the most curious book: excerpts and photos of drawings from the travel journals of the rich & famous. Such a converstaion-piece; wish I'd had funds to buy that too. I perused the youth section and made up my mind to buy one something for a certain comrade's gift come Christmastime as well as deciding I want a copy of The Hobbit with the pretty green/blue/black symmetrical cover. You know the one. I also decided that I haven't read enough Lois Lowry, so we'll have to remedy that soon.

As far as what I've been actually reading (versus yearning over in the bookstore), that runs rather scapegrace:
The Sacrifice by Beverly Lewis (not too keen on Amish romances but I promised the sister-in-law-ish.)
The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers (almost done)
The Mystery of the Blue Train by Dorothy Sayers (good fun. I never suspected the culprit but then...I never do.)
Ella Enchanted (I keep finding kid-novels I somehow neglected to read and therefore one of my favorite treats is to bundle myself off with a thoughtless read like that and pretend I'm eleven again.)

Autumn is reluctant in coming temperature-wise but I fixed that by wearing dark-wash jeans, a golden-rode colored shirt and a deep blue cardigan. Take that, thermometer. Well, my cinnamon scones are calling and I've got to make a latte to accompany them. Cheers and all that.