A Writing Challenge

 

http://www.bookswelove.com/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

A Writing Challenge

It was Wednesday evening, the night of my writing group meeting. As writers do when they gather, we were talking about writing. One of them gave us a writing challenge. We had to write five beginning sentences for five stories. We had ten minutes to do it.
After much thought, I came up with these five:
If you didn’t know your actual age, how old do you think you would be?
The day that my brother blew his hand off is the day that I lost my father to booze.
Whatever the past, the future is spotless.
I don't give a dang, for I have seen the elephant.
The only time I like water is when it is cold and the day is hot.
As each one read hers, we discussed them trying to figure out how the story would go. At the end of the meeting we decided that we should take one of our sentences and build it into a short story, or the beginning of a novel for our next meeting.
I took my second sentence and here is the beginning of the novel I wrote around it.
     The day that my younger brother, Ralph, blew his left hand off, was the day that I lost my father to booze. Not that he hadn’t drank before. He'd have a beer on Saturdays with the neighbours or a drink at family gatherings but it was that day that he began drinking every day as soon as he got home from work.
     And the change was immediate. When he and mom came home from the hospital after leaving Ralph, Dad went to the cupboard and pulled out a half empty bottle of whiskey. He got a glass and poured it almost full. He drank it down. I was watching him as mom told me and my younger brother, Jimmy, that Ralph had lost his hand and would be in the hospital for a few days. Dad took time off work and he and Mom went to see Ralph every day. But every evening Dad drank himself into a stupor.
     When they brought Ralph home from the hospital the only change in Dad's routine was that in the morning instead of going to the hospital he went to work. He got up sober, left the house at his usual time and was sober up until the moment he entered our door after work. It was once that door was closed on the outside world that he'd sit in his chair in the living room and pour his first glass of whiskey or vodka or rum whichever he had on hand at the time. Mom would serve him his supper there while the rest of us ate at the table in the dining room. His evenings varied little. Sometimes he'd stare at the television set, sometimes he'd stare into the corner of the living room. And he continued drinking all evening until he passed out, usually in his chair, sometimes on the couch, occasionally he made it to bed.
     He became, and remained for the rest of his life, a functioning alcoholic.

    So far the story has not been completed but maybe someday.

Some Alberta History

 

http://www.bookswelove.com/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

Some Alberta History

I began my writing career as a travel writer and I drove and camped through all of British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon and Alaska, writing about what there was to see and do in those provinces, and the territory and state. I learned a lot of history, saw a lot of beautiful scenery, and met a lot of wonderful people.

My first mystery (Illegally Dead) of my Travelling Detective Series is set along the Crowsnest Highway in Southern Alberta

The following is about Fort Macleod, along the Crowsnest Highway, from my travel book the Backroads of Southern Alberta. Fort Macleod, coincidently, is the setting for the novel, Illegally Dead, the first book of my Travelling Detective Series boxed set.

After the Hudson's Bay Company sold Rupert's Land to the Canadian Government in 1869, fur traders from Fort Benton in Montana travelled north into present day Alberta and set up illegally trading posts called Whiskey Forts. They brought wagon loads of whiskey and guns to trade for furs with the natives. The watered down whiskey, laced with any or all of Tabasco, red pepper, tobacco, ginger, molasses, tea, sulphuric acid and ink, drove the natives wild and they brutalized and killed their own tribesmen, other bands, and some whitemen. Sir John A Macdonald, prime minister of Canada at the time declared that the area should be safe for settlers moving west and he formed the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1873. The next year they marched west and established Fort Macleod, which is southern Alberta's oldest settlement.

The downtown district, on 24th Street between Second and Third Avenues, was declared Alberta's first provincial historical site on May 14, 1984. There are many wood frame buildings that date back to 1890s and some brick and sandstone ones from the early 1900s.
The Empress Theatre opened in 1912 and was used for vaudeville acts, minstrel shows, silent films, political rallies and talking films. It has been renovated, but the original pressed metal ceiling, double seats in every second row, and the old radiators remain. The Empress Theatre Society presents movies or live performances during the summer.
The present-day Fort Macleod is a reproduction, but some of the log buildings inside the Fort Museum are original and house numerous historical native and North West Mounted Police-Royal Canadian Mounted Police artifacts. A Musical Ride is staged four times a day during July and August. Young men and women dressed in replica North West Mounted Police uniforms present an exhibition of horsemanship and precision, similar to the world famous Musical Ride.

Harry `Kanouse' Taylor, a former whiskey fort owner, set up a hotel in Fort Macleod after the arrival of the NWMP-the original name of the RCMP. Due to the changing times and transient population, there had to be certain rules in his hotel. They were:
1. Guests will be provided with breakfast and dinner,
but must rustle their own lunch.
2. Spiked boots and spurs must be removed at night
before retiring.
3. Dogs are not allowed in bunks, but may sleep
underneath.
4. Towels are changed weekly; insect powder is for sale
at the bar.
5. Special rates for Gospel Grinders and the gambling
profession.
6. The bar will be open day and night. Every known fluid,
except water, for sale. No mixed drinks will be served
except in case of a death in the family. Only
registered guests allowed the privileges of sleeping
on the bar room floor.
7. No kicking regarding the food. Those who do not like
the provender will be put out. When guests find
themselves or their baggage thrown over the fence,
they may consider they have received notice to leave.
8. Baths furnished free down at the river, but bathers
must provide their own soap and towels.
9. Valuables will not be locked in the hotel safe, as
the hotel possesses no such ornament.
10. Guests are expected to rise at 6:00 a.m., as the
sheets are needed for tablecloths.
11. To attract the attention of waiters, shoot through
the door panel. Two shots for ice water, three for
a new deck of cards.
No Jawbone. In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash.

 

Dealing With Rejection Letters

 

Dealing With Rejection Letters from Publishers

 

https://www.bookswelove.com/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

Rejection: the act of rejecting; the state of being rejected; a thing rejected.

Rejection slip: a note from a publisher rejecting the accompanying returned manuscript.

Like most writers I have received form rejection slips and form rejection emails telling me politely that the publishing house is unable to accept my manuscript. An example: Thank you for considering ECW. Unfortunately, Controling (sic) Her Death is not right for us. I wish you every success in finding a home for your book.

However, I have also received emails and letters giving me more details about the rejection and adding a few encouraging words about my manuscript.

Dear Joan,

Thanks for submitting Controlling Her Death: My Mother's Date With Suicide to Coach House Books. Our editors noted that there's both an immediacy and a poignancy to the prose that draws the reader in from the first page.

Sadly, however, we can't offer to take it on for Coach House. We can publish only a few novels each year, and we have a surfeit of exceptional manuscripts. This leaves us in the unfortunate position of being unable to house many of the fine manuscripts we receive. We’re sorry to say that we aren’t able to fit your work on our list. 

We wish you all the very best in finding a good home for it. 

Sincerely,

Coach House Books

Dear Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

Thank you for submitting your manuscript The Nursery to Ronsdale Press for possible publication. Our readers have now made their reports, and I am sorry to inform you that they have recommended against publication.

After reading your excerpt our principal editor noted, "This is well written and has a great opening, but I find that it moves too slowly and that her memories-at least at the beginning-are the sort of thing that has been often written about. There is little sense of excitement or the strange. The Stone Angel does something similar, but with more verve.

We wish you well in finding a publisher for your manuscript.

Yours sincerely,

Publishing Assistant.

But a rejection, however nicely worded, is still a rejection and it is hard to accept. In the beginning of my writing career I went through a three day grieving process each time I received a rejection letter.

On the first day I would feel totally depressed. I would question why I was writing, who did I think I was trying to write a novel? I would decided that this would be the last day that I wrote anything. I would wallow in self-pity, shed a tear in frustration, and even kick a door.
Day two would bring anger. Anger at the publisher for rejecting my manuscript. Anger at the months it had taken me to write the seventy-five thousand words. Anger at myself for not having written a publishable novel. I would try to figure out how to change it to make it better.
Day three brought a realization that maybe a different publisher might like it. There is the saying: right idea, right publisher, right day. With a renewed enthusiasm I would send it out again and again. I would decide that no one could take away the fact that I had written a manuscript, that I had had the nerve to send it to a publisher.

We writers are supposed develop thick skins. We are supposed to detach ourselves from our work. We are supposed to realize that we are not being judged, that our intelligence, our sense of humour, our sex appeal, and our character are not on the line. What is being judged is just that one piece of writing we have done. But it is a piece of writing that we have written, that we have spent hours at producing. Sometimes, it is tough not to take a publisher's rejection personally.
But the point is to carry on. With multiple submissions being allowed if one publisher rejects my manuscript I have the two or three others to look forward to hearing from. Sometimes I can have two manuscripts and two or three short stories out in the 'please publish me' world at one time. And when I finish one novel, I start another so I am engrossed in it to spend much time worring about the previous one.
The difference between being a success or being a failure is quitting too soon. And we all know of famous writers whose works were rejected many times before being accepted and becoming best sellers. Here are a few of the rejections letters:

"We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell."
Stephen Kings first published novel, Carrie, was rejected so many times that King collected the letters on a spike in his bedroom. When finally published in 1974, 30,000 copies were printed. A year later the paperback version sold over a million copies in 12 months.

"You’re welcome to le Carré – he hasn’t got any future."

One publisher sent this to a colleague after turning down The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

"For your own sake, do not publish this book."
A publisher wrote to DH Lawrence about his novel Lady Chatterley's Lover.

Maybe rejection letters make us better writers, maybe they make us better people, or maybe they just annoy us. Whatever our reaction we have to remember that, with publishers receiving thousands of manuscripts each year, being rejected is just one part of the whole writing process.

 

 

A Global Coupon code:

EN45Z

Canadian Historical Brides books, one for each province, one for the Yukon and one for Northwest Territories/Nunavut combined, are on a site wide sale at Smashwords for the summer using the above code. The twelve books fall in the Fiction, Historical, Canadian, and Young Adult categories. The coupon is public so anyone going to the site will see it and get the 50% off price. Below is a list of the novels to choose from. Mine is Romancing the Klondike.

Title

Barkerville Beginnings, Canadian Historical Brides British Columbia

Envy the Wind, Canadian Historical Brides Prince Edward Island

On A Stormy Primeval Shore, Canadian Historical Brides New Brunswick

Romancing the Klondike, Canadian Historical Brides Yukon

Fly Away Snow Goose, Canadian Historical Brides Northwest Territories and Nunavut

Pillars of Avalon, Canadian Historical Brides Newfoundland and Labrador

Where the River Narrows, Canadian Historical Brides Quebec

The Left Behind Bride, Nova Scotia

Landmark Roses, Canadian Historical Brides Manitoba

His Brother's Bride, Canadian Historical Brides Ontario

Fields of Gold Beneath Prairie Skies, Canadian Historical Brides Saskatchewan

Brides of Banff Springs, Canadian Historical Brides Alberta

A Little Explanation About the Month of January

 

The original ten-month Roman solar calendar began in March in order to mark the March equinox. However, that left 61 days in winter without a name so in 700 BC January, along with February, were added as the last months of the year by the Roman king Numa Popilius. In 450 BC January and February were moved to the beginning of the year and in 46 BC January, which initially 30 days, was given another day by Julius Caesar’s astronomers.

In spite of January 1 being considered the first day of the New Year, many religions continued to celebrate March 25 or December 25 as the beginning of their New Year. It wasn’t until 1582 when Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar that most of the religions accepted January 1 as the first day of the New Year. The nations France, Italy, and Spain quickly acknowledged the new calendar while other Protestant and Orthodox countries held off. Finally, in 1752 Britain and its colonies converted to January 1 as the start of a New Year. Eventually, other non-Christian countries switched although some retained their traditional or religious calendars. An example is China that celebrates its new year according to the lunar calendar which is based on the monthly cycles of the moon’s phases. Some, like Ethiopia, never accepted the solar calendar and celebrates its New Year in September.

Some January facts:

The name January comes from Janus the Roman two-faced god, who was the protector of gates, doorways, and transitions and represents new beginning and the door into the New Year.

The birthstone is garnet and the flowers are carnations and snowdrops.

The full moon in January is known by many different names: Wolf Moon after howling wolves; Moon After Yule; Ice Moon; and Old Moon.

In spite of the days getting longer in the Northern Hemisphere January is usually the coldest month and the reverse in true in the Southern Hemisphere where the days are getting shorter but January is the hottest month.

Some famous people born in January include Edgar Allan Poe, Dian Fossey, Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King and his son Martin Luther King Junior, Virginia Wolfe, JRR Tolkien, and A.A. Milne.

During the regular years January starts on the same day of the week as October and ends on the same day of the week as February. In Leap years it starts on the same day as April and starts and ends on the same days as July.

Many people consider January to be the month where they embark on something new in their lives such as starting a hobby, learning a different language, planning a trip, or just relaxing more. While some manage to hold onto their changes through the year, alas most get drawn back into their old habits by February. Fortunately, January always comes around again in a few months.