Tuesday, June 2, 2009

It is the Dawning.....

....well, maybe not of the Age of Aquarius -- but then again, maybe it is.

While there are still ten days of the "official prescribed"period of Mourning, I'm ready to Resume. Resume almost all, if not actually ALL, of my daily round. I still have minor meltdowns. I knew she'd die, and I sort of figured it might be before I did what with her dialysis and all. But goldamnit, I was not READY to lose her. But I've told her all that, and she's moving into the place where are loved ones to whom I talk occasionally, rant periodically, and complain to.

I have another cherished friend, Toutee Gens du Bois (that was his historical reenactment name/character, a noble Shawnee warrior). He is over there too, seated at the great Council Fire, and he's been in that place for some time. I talk to him a lot when I'm in the car - I have a beautiful soft deerskin thong with a feather on each end which hangs over my rearview mirror; I've put a tear-shaped crystal on one of the feathers and it reminds me of him. So a dialogue might go something like this:

Toutee, did you see that @$)@*# cut in front of me? He's on his %#)*@(&$ CELLPHONE for petessakesalive. Aren't you glad you never saw crap like that? Or...

Toutee, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Too much to do and no good sense to organize it in a manageable fashion. Yes, yes - I know what you're telling me, as you used to: "settle your mind, imagine your things to do laying in front of you in a semicircle, and arrange them to your satisfaction. Then act." Yeah - you're right, as usual. Thanks.

So now, I have another companion, my "sister" Sunawa, and a chat with her might go like this:

Soooooo.....it's been almost a month. Are you having a good time there? 'Cause I saw something funny today and thought "I'm going over to Dialysis tomorrow and tell Sunawa about this because she won't believe it either......." Oh. No, wait - you're not going to BE at Dialysis tomorrow, or ever again, and HOT DAMN but that makes me SAD! Well, I didn't come here to berate you, but I'm saving up all these funny stories, so when I get there prepare to be regaled. That's all I can say. Over and out.

I'll never NOT do that, talk to those friends. And when I go to the Spiritualist Camp (some time this summer) it's going to be VERY tempting to arrange a session with a medium and see if either of them has anything to tell me via that route. But I don't know as I will. (IF I do, you'll be the first to know, more or less.)

OK, having established that my overweening wordiness hasn't apparently suffered, I can report what I came here to report.

I had my Writers' Group today, and I took along the first revision of the story I laid on them last time. It's about a girl named "Endear" who lives some time around the end of the 18th century in some place settled (Ohio?) on a farm. The deal is, Endear is keenly aware that she's a disappointment to her mother, who is a mistress of the finer needle arts, and in spite of now being a farmwife, is fully possessed of those qualities thought most desireable in a well-bred and genteel lady.

NOTE: for years I've written short children's stories, and I've considered myself a Writer of Short Stories for Children. Until VERY recently (since joining this group, really) I had NEVER done any rewrites or revisions, virtually. I might change a phrase or polish a bit here and there, but actual revision? Nope, hadn't done that.

Well, OK, so I've been giving these short stories, but my colleagues in the group write novels, so I thought I'd start this story in mind of something a little longer - I guess I'm thinking "YA". So today, as I said, I took my first revision, based on their recommendations and suggestions from their first reading last month.

And Patty said, "You've NAILED it!" (They've been telling me there has to be conflict, and it has to appear near the start as a hook.) Then Joan, my first-and-ONLY writing class teacher, said, "Here's your assignment - STICK WITH THIS." Of course, the writing class was two winters ago, but it was she who invited me to join this august group.

Boils down to - I have a novel in the works, apparently. A real, genuine, work-on-it writing job. I'm surprised, a little intimidated, and very excited. How's it going to come out? What's at the end? Couldn't begin to tell you.

I'm thinking a rough, skeletal Outline might not be amiss.