Hola!
Well… Welcome here.
This first blog is going to be about Spinning on a Barstool because quite frankly, it’s the reason we’re all here.
It took me nine months to get my thought out on paper and I was very lucky to be gifted a book from my daughter Danielle aka Dani, ‘All The Light We Cannot See’ by Anthony Doerr . I didn’t read it quickly. I savored it. I didn’t want to finish reading how he built a story. The story itself didn’t really matter actually. I just fell in love with how he told it. There are authors like that who have really touched my HOLA… I have no word for it so let’s just HOLA! That inner part of me that sighs and whispers and screams and rejoices “Oh Thank you, God, he/she can write!” Doerr gave me permission to describe! And so I did. When I came to a part that needed color, I simply thought, “WWDD What would Doerr do… and out it came, kissed by God. Sometimes it surprised me. Sometimes I read it and it still does.
While I really enjoyed writing some of these bits I struggled with all of the information in my head. I did have people reading chapters as I went along, they all knew me, some knew the whole story already others didn’t. I kept wondering how the words would resonate with someone who didn’t know me or the situation or even Chilliwack for that matter. So I swam some and I prayed. Just about every turn and curve when I didn’t know where I was to go next, ya that, that was met with, “Okay God, where next?” Inevitably it came usually without much ado, sometimes surprisingly beautiful, other times in tears. Through all of it, I wondered if I was getting enough information out in the right way. It’s hard when you know every little detail. What to pick. What to leave out. A lot was left out. If I put it in the book would have been two thousand pages. I also didn’t want to puke out info, that’s boring. So yes I could have added more info but it would have taken the space of the color and the color highlighted the info. It was a good trade.
While Doerr was my storytelling inspiration, good old Jords was my ability. The book truly was written because of his voice, distinctly Kermit, in distinct Peterson wisdom. “Write one paragraph a day.”
If you’re a writer. If you have a story dancing with your neurons. Open up your laptop, your journal, your whatever, and write one paragraph a day. It works.
At the end of nine months, I had a lot of words on a lot of pages and a lot if insecurities. I had a vision, yes. But right in that vision was the vision of failure. The questions. “Who would want to read this? Why would they pay money to read this?” “Who are you kidding Glenda, you never made it past grade 10, ha, you think you can write a book worth anything? Pfffft, you’re a joke. Who on earth can call themselves an author when they don’t have that education? Surely you must need an English Major or Minor or at the very least English 10. But along with all those voices was my aged one. The one that said. “I’m just a little too old to care what people think I need in order to do what I want to do.”
I pushed the insecurities aside and told them to fuck off ( excuse the language I do live in a trailer 😉 And I sent my book off to a self-publishing company expecting, anticipation, shivering in terror actually at the ‘results’ from the editor. It’s horrifying. This wait. I thought for sure she was going to ream me out, my grammar is terrible, my spelling terriblier…I was getting ready for the instruction to delete mounds of words and rearrange, do whatever it was she needed me to do to make my work understandable to people who don’t know me. Four weeks later, it was ready to download….and her words in the columns beside the chapters…
….brilliant storyteller…
…don’t stop writing…
I sighed.
Relief washed over me, waves and waves and waves of relief.
The story was understood by someone who didn’t know me, or it, or Chilliwack
… and then I told Haney he was married to brilliance and I haven’t stopped, nor do I plan to 😛
Those words though…
To know I successfully conveyed the story that so needed to be told was… I have no words. I’m thankful truly to God… for all those times He responded with ideas in my mind of where to go, and how to write it…
I’m thankful to Kerry and I long to be like her. To be able to deliver a compliment that allows the hearer to move forward with confidence, that’s exactly what she did for me…. because if someone doesn’t happen to like my writing and they voice that, I have ‘brilliant storyteller, don’t stop…’ to bounce it off of, that’s pretty damn powerful!
And all the advertising I needed to get this book out there to be seen, THAT… is built on the back of Kerry’s words. Those words echoed ‘go forth in confidence.’ And so I have.
I also have continued to write. I don’t have the energy for another book at this point but I found short stories. My website has them. I enjoy writing them, I do hope you enjoy reading them!
I leave you with this.
Be like Kerry.
use words like ‘brilliant’
over-the-top words
on the ordinary.
AND
Whatever it is you yearn to do,
bite it off in small chunks every day.
You’ll create something brilliant, one paragraph a day!
Glenda there’s so many thoughts racing in my head. I finished your book this morning and I laid it down, and I cried, and I cried, and I cried. I am heartbroken for you. I know what the betrayal of a good friend needs, and the hurt and the anguish and causes. . I had a hard time in the beginning of the book. Then somewhere your story, caught me in my heart, and I couldn’t put the book down and for the middle 3/4 of the book my heart beat fast I got excited I wanted to come and see you and tell you use me put me to work forever I can be useful.. The people living on the street is a great concern to me. Also, I agonized over them, and I can think of no solution no answer for the problem.. but you have to give me some food for thought to on that subject. When I reach the end of the book, I just want her to come I want to hug you. I want her to hold you I wanted to comfort you in some small way.. I am so terribly terribly sorry what this man did to you. I also understand that God has come from it also. I find it so hard to believe that nothing could be done about him but he’s out there to continue his mission. Continue to live off of the goodness of other people and their hard-earned money. To be at the mountain top and fall to the valley floor in one sentence, would like you have tears everything down my face now just thinking about what I did to you. And it’s wonderful that through your strength and your faith you have found a Positive way of handling the whole situation. I’m in a wheelchair at this time and I have been for a while now and the only time I can get out of my house is when my son comes which is it too often that he gets through town because he’s the only one that can lift my head and wheelchair into the back of the car take me somewhere but next time he’s in town I’m going to be coming to the pub to hug you. You are such an example to people and to me. I was so excited when eroca told me a written a book and then that she bought me a copy and I pray that it will fly off the shelf and you’ll be able to accomplish some of the things you want to accomplish and get that house built it sounds like a little piece of heaven where you have your property.
I should’ve read my comment through before I sent it. I’m sorry there’s a bunch of errors in there but I hope you understand what I’m trying to say.