by jphilo | Jun 29, 2015 | Mystery Update
For years now, you’ve heard progress reports about my wannabe mystery novel featuring Jane was moving at a slow crawl, not progressing at all, or temporarily shelved because of other book commitments.
But today–and this really should be accompanied by young men in Henry the Eighth era costumes that include tights standing on either side of the castle door blowing trumpets–the news is quite different. I am happy to announce…
cue the trumpets
..that the first draft of Run, Jane, Run is done, and…
cue the trumpets again
…so is the first revision, and…
cue the trumpets yet again
…so is the second revision, as well as proofreading…
cue the trumpets one last time
Therefore, I am about to send both my agent and my daughter the manuscript for their feedback.
That, dear readers, is a terrifying thought. As I told some former teaching colleagues who are also parents, sending off a novel is like going to parent-teacher conferences, at which you know you will be told that the child you have poured your life and soul into is not perfect.
Hearing those words is like a knife wound to the heart.
Even though you know your child–or your novel–is not perfect. Even thought the weaknesses of your child–or novel–are glaringly obvious to you. Even though the only way to rectify those weaknesses is by asking for help.
Even so, hearing those words is still like a knife wound to the heart.
So if I seem extra needy in a few weeks, you can assume that feedback has been received, that it was not all good, that I am dealing with it, and am spending the few hours of each day I’m not in therapy furiously reworking the novel and/or writing a book proposal.
Just in case my agent believes a publisher might just want to publish it.
In other words, stay tuned. Because as so many of us learned in elementary school, the fun with Dick and Jane just never ends!
by jphilo | May 11, 2015 | Mystery Update
Yes, you read the title right. No more pity parties for poor, poor Jane. After months of languishing while her creator dealt with silly things like greeting beautiful new grandchildren into the world and meeting non-fiction book contract deadlines, Jane is once again up and running.
More than running.
Actually, Jane is galloping toward the finish line. Only the final scene remains to be written before THE END will conclude the first draft. Of course, when an author strings out the writing of a novel over more than 2 years, substantial time needs to be spent on rewrites and edits. Because the author did the writing when she was in her late 50s. Which means her memory’s not so good any more, and her chances of remembering what she wrote more than 2 years ago are about the same as blizzard on Mother’s Day in western South Dakota where dear Jane lives. Which really, truly happened yesterday.
As it has happened before.
The author knows this because she experienced a Mother’s Day blizzard in Jane’s stomping grounds in either May of 1984 or 1985. 18 inches of snow. Wind and drifting. 3 day blizzard. School cancelled. Water pipes frozen. Dead lambs and calves everywhere.
The kind of thing even authors in their late 50s can’t forget.
The kind of juicy real life event that could become a bang up scene in a mystery novel. Except that this mystery is set in the fall of Jane’s first year teaching country school, ending just after first quarter parent-teacher conferences and just before the Halloween party. And Jane’s former school teacher creator can’t imagine a final resolution scene encompassing more than 6 months, 3 more grading periods, and enough art projects to placate the imaginary students in Jane’s class until school’s out in May. Just thinking about that much tempera paint, glitter, and construction paper is exhausting.
So Jane’s creator will stick to the ending already planned.
But, she will tuck the Mother’s Day blizzard idea into her idea file. Just in case the first book in the Dick and Jane series gets published. Just in case it does well enough to warrant a second book. And just in case a writer in her late 50s with memory issues can remember where the idea file is, find the idea in the file, and recall why in the world she scribbled “Mother’s Day blizzard” on a piece of paper and stuck it in the file. The chances of all those things happening are about the same as the chance of a Mother’s Day blizzard in western South Dakota.
You know, it just could happen!
by jphilo | Jul 14, 2014 | Mystery Update
This mystery novel update contains some good news and some bad news. Let’s start with the good news. This update comes only a little over a month after the last one. Since they previously came every two months, the pace has picked up considerably.
Too bad the same can’t be said for the progress of the novel itself.
Which is, as you may have guessed, the bad news. If only the lack of progress could be blamed on the June 19 EF–3 tornado that hit southeastern Montana, just a few miles west of the fictional setting of the novel. But since the novel is set in 1977 and the tornado hit just a few weeks ago, that excuse doesn’t quite work. In reality, the lack of progress is due to a great deal of summer fun: visits to and from family members, family weddings, class reunions, and the like. Activities of which Jane heartily approves.
You remember Jane?
She’s the elementary school teacher protagonist of our story. In the last update, she’d been too busy mastering the arts of cow milking, chicken feeding, aiding and abetting criminals across state lines, and outrunning bulls to complete report cards or prepare for parent–teacher conferences.
Since then, she’s straightened out her priorities.
The report cards are done, though the “deportment” section led to a great deal of head-scratching and the realization that her own marks in that department have been and continue to be less than stellar.
Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane.
The sad state of affairs between Jane and her fellow teacher, Liv, have been resolved. The sad state of Jane’s relationship with the grumpy school janitor have come to a head. And the sad state of Jane’s love life, due to the consequences of some choices she’s made and her inability to light the pilot light on her stove, lead to a couple realization. First, elementary safety scissors don’t lend themselves to self-defense.
Second, glitter can be a woman’s best friend.
Jane’s way too busy to explain the glitter thing. She and the whole town are gearing up for the Methodist Church Bazaar. The church’ll be filled to bursting with a huge crowd, good food, a country store, a big auction, and Jane working the fishing booth.
A perfect recipe for disaster.
And a recipe that may have to wait a few weeks to be tested. Because the priority for July and August is writing the rough draft of a contracted book about PTSD in Children. Unless I meet those weekly goals before noon on Fridays. In which case, Jane will become my Friday afternoon priority, and we will ride off together into a glittery western sunset.
With absolutely no tornadoes allowed.
by jphilo | Jun 9, 2014 | Mystery Update
Oh, my! Can it possibly be nearly 2 months since the last Run, Jane, Run! mystery novel update? According to this blog’s archives, the answer is yes…and it’s about time you do something about it, sluggard. To be clear, I’m the sluggard, not you, dear reader. Even so, would you please accept the picture of the school above, in a town much like the fictional town of Little Missouri, as consolation?
First, a confession.
As you may remember, Jane and I have a standing date to work on the manuscript every Friday afternoon. But, because of travel to a special needs ministry conference and an Easter visit to see relatives, I stood up Jane twice in April. Thankfully, she was most understanding and forgiving.
Because I wrote her that way.
And, she’s such an interesting character, it was impossible to stay away from her more than that. Which means Run, Jane, Run! is trotting along at a fine pace. The rough draft sits at 54,000 and is about 3/4 complete. The reason for the bachelor rancher’s disappearance is unfolding with startling fury.
The plot thickens…like water and cornstarch coming to a boil.
Jane has been sticking her nose in places a school teacher’s nose has no right to be. She learned to milk a cow, process it in a cream separator, feed chickens, and gather eggs. She flirted with one rancher on to lead him on, argued with another to put him in his place, stole from the neighbors, won a footrace with a bull, and aided and abbetted a transporting a criminal across state lines and over the border.
How’s she gonna get out of a mess like that?
I’m not quite sure, but she’s a resourceful woman and will make it happen in a most spectacular way. Even though the leg she skewered on a barbed wire fence and the arm she held steady for the tetanus shot is killing her. Even though she has no idea how to slip the stolen goods to their rightful owners. Even though parent-teacher conferences are a week away, and she hasn’t averaged grades or completed a single report card. She’ll make it happen because she’s a school teacher, and you know what they say: the life of a school teacher is a succession of spectacular moments.
Ain’t that the truth!
by jphilo | Mar 14, 2014 | Mystery Update
What an excellent question! For those who are interested in the progress of my Fun with Dick and Jane mystery series, the answer to that question is long overdue. In fact, the last report was in January, almost 2 months ago–but who’s counting–in which I reported being back in the riding saddle again. I have not fallen out of the saddle. For the past nine Friday afternoons–now look who’s counting–my to do list has been limited to one item: work on mystery novel.
And I have.
The first draft of the novel now sits at 38,500 words and is about 2/3 complete. At the end of this afternoon’s Friday session, the word count could top 40,000. Of course, more words written = more ideas for revising what’s been written.
And I have plenty of those ideas.
The protagonist needs to become less whiny and more sensitive. The crank phones and the switchboard operator, both replaced a year before we moved to the real Harding County upon which the fictional Tipperary County is based, need to become part of the story. More people suspects need to enter the mix. Some chapters have to be moved. Several must be rewritten.
And I have to give a few scenes the axe.
Hard to do to my precious babies. Almost as hard as waiting until the entire first draft is completed before going back to fix what’s already written. But not nearly as hard as writing new scenes and chapters and dialogues.
And I have plenty left to write.
So far Jane, the protagonist, has driven her VW bug down countless miles of gravel roads, and she’s ridden with cowboys in pick up trucks. She’s made it through her first month as a country school teacher and gotten her first grown-up-job pay check. She’s kissed a rancher named Rick, charmed another one named Rich, cleaned up vomit, and found bulls in the playground. She keeps a spade handy in case a rattlesnake makes an appearance.
And I have barely scratched the surface of life where Jane lives.
Which means that once the first draft is done and the revisions are completed and a book proposal gets written and my agent starts schlepping it to publishers, plenty of good stuff will remain for a second book of fun with Dick and Jane.
And I have no doubt I’ll be back in the saddle again.
Photo Source: www.nobigdill.com
by jphilo | Jan 17, 2014 | Mystery Update
Can it be that 4 months have passed since my wonderful September visit to Harding County? In my mind, those days of beautiful weather when the sun shone through the gold-tipped leaves of the cottonwood trees seem like only a week or 2 in the past.
But the calendar doesn’t lie. And it says 4 months.
Much has happened in those months. A work trip to Michigan. The first draft of Every Child Welcome written. Thanksgiving at our house. Oktoberfest and Black Friday editions of Camp Dorothy, helping our kids move, conducting a special needs ministry workshop in Nebraska with Katie Wetherbee, and Christmas, Christmas, and more Christmas celebrations from hither to yon.
All that jocularity–and recovering from it–meant the mystery novel was neglected for 4 months.
But not any more! Thanks to a couple weeks back in the saddle, Jane, the novel’s protagonist, and her story world saw the light of day again. Opening the file took a lot of guts, because during the 4 months just passed, I’d convinced myself the novel was no good. I was ready to scrap the whole manuscript and start from scratch.
But the main thing that changed while I read through the story was my mind.
Most of the manuscript actually held together, and the necessary changes can wait to be made until the first draft is complete. With a few exceptions. Two students, whose back stories have been lovingly prepared, from Jane’s primary class have to age 2 years and move into the intermediate classroom. And two intermediate students, who are presently strangers to Jane and me, must become 2 years younger and join her K–3 classroom.
This kind of change makes my former teacher’s heart–and Jane’s new teacher’s heart–cringe.
After all, Jane and I have gotten attached to those students! But the switch has to be made to simplify the cast of characters so people like you, dear reader, will be able to follow the plot line more easily. Therefore, once today’s quota of research for a newly contracted non-fiction book is reached and I’ve cleaned the bathrooms*, I’ll be writing back story for Beau and Beck, Jane’s new students. As well as back story for their grandparents and guardians, Burt and Verna Kelly. Now, if you’re wondering why Beau and Beck live with their grandparents, you’re getting close to the heart of the mystery.
My resolve to not provide any further enlightenment about that remains unchanged.
As does the purpose of this post. Which is to keep the project in the forefront of your consciousness, even when the author goes AWAL for 4 months, and to provide tantalizing hints that will compel you to purchase the book if and when it is published.
In the meantime, stay tuned for changes to come!
*Yes, an author’s life is really that glamorous.
