Uh Oh — Catching Up!

If you read through my earlier posts you will quickly discover I am not very good at keeping to a schedule on my blog! There are so many aspects of living the Creative Life that I am easily sidetracked. Oh well - I will try to catch up here and then on to some new and exciting things in my next post.

Most of this past year has been taken up with researching and writing my novel - After The Storm. This is a story of a courageous 19th-century quilter who faces and overcomes many challenges in her life. I have really enjoyed every aspect of working on this book until the last part, where I have been bogged down in the editing and finishing details. Being a complete newbie at writing a novel, I had no idea what to expect, but finishing and letting go of my manuscript has proven SO much harder than I anticipated! I flip-flop between thinking it is a really interesting, well-written story and thinking it is a piece of you know what. By holding onto my manuscript and not allowing it to continue through the publication process, I guess I am holding off on the inevitable - finding out how my book is actually received once published and distributed.

Luckily, I have discovered that almost every new author (and even some that are well established) feels exactly as I do before their books reach the public. Only those who are so self-confident as to verge on arrogance do not shake in their shoes before their book is published. Knowing that makes me feel much better!

At any rate, I have been consumed for much of the year finishing writing and editing my novel. (How do you know when you have really finished writing?? Ideas keep coming, I add a new storyline or more details...) I do hope I can send it off to the publisher for the final steps soon. Will keep you posted.

I am about to embark on a new project - actually two: I am planning a companion book to my novel, which will include quilt projects and complete instructions related to the novel. I am being deliberately vague, since this is still in the early stages of development. Related to this, I volunteered to be in charge of Block of the Month for my guild for 2015-2016, and I am opening up this same BOM to my Facebook friends. It should be a lot of fun - Stay tuned for more details, coming SOON!

As if all of this was not enough, my husband and I are in the midst of planning a major renovation of our house (tearing down and moving walls, a totally new bathroom, and upstairs laundry). One result will be a much larger studio for me! Hooray!

I am bursting with creative energy - just have to learn to channel it better.

Have a lovely fall. I will post again SOON. I promise!

--- Excerpt from January 2, 2014 ---

A few months ago, I began working on a novel that I have been thinking about on and off for years. It is about a young woman growing up in rural NH in the 19th century. She becomes an accomplished quilter and tells the story of her life to one of her granddaughters. I have been interested in my own family's history for years, and this story contains many elements from my family's stories of the past. I have been having fun researching life in the late 1800s in the small town near where my family has been summering since way before I was born.

I love the story and the characters I have created, and whether or not the book ever gets published is kind of beside the point right now. It may take me years to finish, but meanwhile, I am enjoying living with my characters and the process of creating their personalities and the events that help to shape them. The writing part is a bit harder than I thought it would be, but I enjoy that part of the process also.

One of the things I have enjoyed most this past year is visiting Pinterest and collecting images of all kinds. I also post images to share with others. I have almost 2500 pins now, and it is a fabulous collection of everything that interests me, inspires me, makes me feel good, or just provides eye candy! What is not to like about that?

My own quilts are posted of course, along with quilts that other people have made from my designs. I also have lots of pins of quilts that other people have made which I think are wonderful. I have inspirations for updating my home, garden and studio, lots of images of fabulous places in the world I will most likely never visit, not to mention great recipes and food ideas! I have also been collecting photos of antique quilts and 19th-century clothing as research for my book. And of course, I have photos of my canine best friends and other animals who give and receive love as if they were human (oh, go ahead and laugh! I am such a softy).

I guess my point is that inspiration and creative energy can be developed almost anywhere and it helps (at least for me) to have concrete reminders of what some of those inspirations are.