I am starting out the new year with pictures from my recent book signing and reading at the Silverdale Barnes & Noble. The Community Coordinator was very nice in setting the stage in the children's book section. Very friendly people there.

 These lovely ladies are from MOPS (Mothers of Pre-schoolers). We are all Mentors helping young moms. Standing next to me is Claire, my granddaughter and muse for my story. Thank you friends for coming.

This is the cover of my book. Illustrated by Dianne Gardner in beautiful watercolors.

My friend Cecelia and yours truly.

Claire and I

Claire and I

Claire was asked to sign some of the books also. This was a memorable event for both of us. She is also an aspiring writer.

An Interview With Dianne Gardner

Today I'd like to treat you to an interview with a marvelous artist and writer. I met Dianne Gardner about the time I began my first children's book. She was working on her first book series then, and we joined with several other writers to form a Children's Book Critique, meeting twice a month. I have been impressed from the beginning with her descriptive powers, the ability to use words like oil paints to construct a picture. She is also a gifted artist, so that should not surprise me. Dianne has written ten or more books in the time I've written half that. When she has a story idea, she is driven to completion. And there is always another idea waiting it's turn to find a place on paper, being sculpted into interesting characters committing daring deeds who save the world. That is an introduction to my friend and illustrator of my first book, Princess to the Rescue.

Carol: Dianne, you are a successful artist. What made you take on writing also?

Dianne: Well, I am a frustrated artist. (Most artist are.) Whereas a lot of people love my oil paintings, and some even "get" that they tell a story or capture the character of the person whose portrait I paint, I feel like after all these years of story telling through my art, the story hasn't been read.

Aside from wanting to write something to spark the interest of young readers who don't ordinarily read (I love a challenge) I also have always loved to write. And one day I decided I had plenty of paintings, but no stories. I used to write poetry when I was young.

Carol: What sparked the idea for Ian's Realm Saga?

Dianne: When I decided to begin telling stories I no longer felt inhibited in what I painted. I've ALWAYS want to paint a dragon, so I did. As I painted I thought, "I know a boy who is going to conquer this dragon?" And so I began to tell the story of Ian.

Carol: You drew from different cultures for names and elements in your stories. What countries did you research and why?

Dianne: I went by geographic elements that I created in the Realm. All of the peninsula from Alcove Forest to Menek is cold country so I chose to gather names and words from Denmark. The Kaemperns are a tribe that were exiled from Menek, so they speak the same language.

Carol: "Altered" and "Pouraka" are different from Ian's Realm. What sent you in other directions?

Dianne: I was waiting for the publisher to continue the Realm and while I waited I thought I'd branch out to other sub genres. Also, both "Altered" and "Pouraka" touch on subjects that I am passionate about. I spent time with the Hopis in Arizona and love their legends and the prophetic value of them. One of their sayings is "All I have is my planting stick and my corn. Come and live peacefully with me." I see in our future, and the future of our crops, a need to get back to the basics. "Altered" touches that need.

"Pouraka," along the same vein, touches on mankind's pollution and destruction of the humble and peaceful beings in this world.

Carol: How did you research mermaids living underwater? Did you incorporate existing fables?

Dianne: Not really. I sort of made it up. I incorporated the mermaid yes, but there are so many different stories of mermaids that nothing is set in stone. I likened the Pouraka mers more to sea creatures and their struggles and reference the dolphin hunts specifically. Those are real.

Carol: What is the favorite of your books and why?

Dianne: Oh that's a difficult question. It's always the one I'm working on or the next! We get better as we go.

Carol: Tell us about the Cassandra Project.

Dianne: Cassandra is Book 5 of the Ian's Realm Saga and we're in the process of negotiating filming. At this moment I can't really tell too much about it. We've been in pre-productions, have a cast and crew, but again, we're back on the negotiation table. I'll let you know more soon.

Carol: What advice would you give to someone just starting out writing?

Dianne: Educate yourself. Learn how to story tell and write. Read books, go to workshops, find mentors, editors, critique groups. Fill your life up with learning the skill and being around other writers, especially those whose work you admire.

Carol: Which do you prefer, traditional publishing, e-publishing, or self-publishing and why?

Dianne: Do you mean small press? I've never been traditionally published, so I can't say whether or not I prefer it. I think I would prefer to have at least one book traditionally published because it is very difficult to get your work read by any other means. Small publishers do not have the funds to market your work to get thousands of readers. And that's really what I would prefer, is to have people read my books.

Between the two small press and self-publishing, I think self-publishing is more beneficial as your profit will be greater so you may be able to break even with the money you use for marketing.

Carol: How important is social media (facebook, blogging, twitter, etc.) to a writer?

Dianne: I don't see how you can sell books without social media. I just doesn't seem possible these days.

Carol: Thank you very much for your time Dianne. If anyone else has questions for Dianne, click on the link above and it will take you to her blog.
 

Today I went to California. Bob and I drove to Silverdale, WA and back, but the beautiful sky, the comfortable air and breeze blowing with just a hint of a nip, all of that opened memories of my younger days growing up in southern California. My guess it was from the 1960s and the air in Inglewood wasn't so polluted. We could still breathe clean and fresh. It felt like a California winter, you know the kind when you go to the beach the day after Christmas.

In my mind we were either driving to Disneyland or San Diego. I closed my eyes and I was there, in the memory. I felt a comfort and an excitement of good things to come. It stayed with me the whole day.

Being able to reach a memory that evokes emotions is an important skill for writers. How can a writer describe what is going on inside of a character in a fit of ecstasy or of anger or of boredom, if the writer hasn't felt the same thing? A writer has to become one with the characters, be empathetic.

In my book Princess to the Rescue, I was inside the mind of Princess Claire as she looked down from her window and saw a boy waiting to see her father the King. Boys never came alone. They were always with their fathers. Why was he there? Wouldn't you be curious if you were Claire? Wouldn't you want to rush down and ask him, "What are you doing here?" Curiosity is the start of many adventures.

Good Books

I’m not an expert on what makes a good book. I’ve learned a lot since I’ve been writing, but I know I still have a mountain more to learn. In the last several years I’ve tried to read as many young adult and children’s books as I can get my hands on. I’ve searched libraries, garage sales, and half price book stores for stories that are different. Of course I have my writer friends to recommend books and even lend them. It occurred to me that I want to tell you about what books I like. Maybe you'll discover something new.

I first discovered The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien as a young mother, a century ago. I think I’ve read the four books twice, and each time I never wanted them to end. I’m a reader that jumps into the story so that it surrounds me, flows in and out of me, and when I’m finished reading for the day, I’m still in Rivendale. What magical elements go into creating a story like this? Is it vocabulary? Is it action verbs? Is it character description and development? Is it plotting twists and turns? I’d say yes, yes, yes, yes, and more. Oh how I would love to write like Tolkien!

I came to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, later in life. I loved it that there were seven books to tell the whole story because it was almost as if it would go on forever. It’s the story of Narnia, a wild and miraculous world where animals talk, the ruler is the lion Aslan, and humans visit. Narnia is a place of growing up. It’s a place of discovery. It’s a place of becoming so much more than you ever thought you could be.

Madeline L’Engle’s books come next. My boys were too old to discover her in school. A friend of mine introduced me to her in A Wrinkle in Time and I was hooked on everything she wrote. I found a set of five books called the “time quintet’ involving the Murray family: A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. What an imagination she had! That reminds me that if I’m going to write children’s stories I need to free my imagination from all confines of convention.

Look for more jewels to come....

Rabbit Trails

It is an inconvenient truth that this blog does not write itself when I'm busy. When I'm creating, I'm writing my book or I'm making fused glass. There has to be another part of me that puts things on this blog. After all, blogs are ways we share ourselves with like-minded people. There isn't enough of me to go around. For instance, my book project is a two part story of a thirteen year old girl who has a passion for horses and is grossly misunderstood by her family. Yes that sounds like a cliche, but it isn't, believe me. I have a working title for the story, which I'm still writing, but it doesn't say much about the story, Mandy & Min. So I stop writing to think of other titles, none of which I'll need until the story is finished. Do you get where I'm going? It's called procrastinating Rabbit Trails.

I consider about the plot elements. Then I look for actual words from the story as possible titles. I Google my ideas to see if others have used them, and cross those out. Here's what is left: Understanding Mandy, Mandy Inside Out, Growing Up Mandy, I'm Not Cinderella, I Can't Believe You'd Do That, Don't Put Me In a Box, Life Is More Than a Box, Then I'll Go Live In the Barn. I haven't found the one that speaks to me yet. What do you, my reader, think? What title would you pick up? I don't know why it should be so hard to name a book. I can call it My Thing and be done.

After I exhaust my title ideas, I wonder how I would use my name as author. Would it be first & last name; first, middle & last name; first, middle & maiden name; first & maiden name? I Google all combinations. Yes, there are lots of Carol Caldwells out there. Then I conclude it doesn't matter. However, when I use my maiden name, I get a number of genealogy hits. (I like genealogy, for the fun of it.) So I am off on  German names sites, leaving behind my as yet undecided book title. I can rabbit trail with the best of internet users.

Foreigners In Our Lives

“The plane’s here. That’s her flight!” Why am I so excited, I wondered. We have hosted three foreign exchange students, so I should be getting used to this by now. It was less than a month since we said good-by to Gudi, our German ‘daughter’. What a horrible day that was. Most of her friends were there. Her parents who came for graduation were leaving with her, and they did not understand why she was crying. Bob had to push Gudi into the gangway because she wasn’t going of her own accord. I’m sure her parents thought we bewitched her or something.  Actually, the opposite was true.  Gudi charmed her way into our hearts and saying “good-bye” was tearing us apart.

            So here we were doing this again, opening our home to a high school student that we would welcome and treat as our own child for a school year. Our close friends thought we were crazy.

            “If it hurts for them to leave, why do it?” they would ask. That’s a good question. Is it because it feels better when you do it again, like a drug fix? Were we addicted to exchange students? Was such a thing possible?

            I was holding the “Welcome Pat” sign and balloons because our son didn’t want anything to do with it. It might threaten his cool. This was the year we were going to host an Italian, but our exchange coordinator had called to say she had a file on a Brazilian girl that she thought would fit well into our family. So much for the Italian.     

            Finally we saw people deplaning, and took a spot by the gate. That was when you could actually go to the gate to meet your party. The excitement was like waiting for a birth; only the result wasn’t a baby, but a teenager. Impatiently we looked at everyone getting off of the plane.

            “Is this her? No, too old; no too young; no she’s with someone.”  Then down the ramp came this smiling, bubbly, dark-haired girl.  We knew her immediately.  You would not know she had been traveling over 24 hours from Sao Paulo. That’s because she’s Brazilian and they have boundless energy! Welcoming hugs and kisses on the cheeks (I think our son shook her hand) and we were off for another adventure.

That was our life from 1985 to 2006. I can't even imagine our lives without our foreign "kids". It wasn't long before Bob and I took on the role of working as  Representatives for an exchange organization, and finally I became a State Coordinator for Washington and Oregon. I don't need a script to give a talk on exchange students...it just flows out of me.

We've had around 22 students live in our home, most have been year long (9 months) students, but some were here a semester and some for the summer. I can honestly say that hosting isn't something everyone should do, but I wish they would. The student may be a stranger when they arrive at the airport, but they don't stay that way. It does take a conscious effort to make them a part of your family. You have to treat them like a son or daughter. Hosting can be compared to taking in a foster child, but exchange students are usually older, come with their own money, don't require intervention by a psychologist, and can be just wonderful. We developed a deep and abiding love for most of our foreign sons and daughters.

The idea of hosting is that you learn about another culture and country. But it's interesting that you learn as much about yourself as you do about them. You learn what is really important to you when the student doesn't know the family rules yet. You learn how much you treasure something when it isn't appreciated or gets broken. And when they leave, if she left the key to her suitcase in her bedroom at your house, you know she wanted to stay. Thinking of that, even now 28 years later, I tear up.

We gave up hosting when grandchildren appeared. There wasn't time for everything, and grandchildren had to come first. But I still miss the excitement of choosing a new student and waiting at the airport for them to arrive.

Horses

Sheba was the name of the horse I learned to ride on. I was in Girl Scouts and a retired Army soldier brought his string of polo ponies for the troop to ride. Sheba was huge, a dapple grey, and I loved her. My parents bought me jodhpurs and riding boots. I already had my leather jacket with fringe on the sleeves and along the bottom. I can't say I learned to ride well, nor have I had a lot of experience on horses. I read and read and read about them. I lived with them in my imagination. I collected postcards with horse pictures on them, and horse figurines. And I watched cowboy movies on TV.  So why shouldn't I write a story about horses?

My story in progress has a horse named Sheba. She's the favorite of the main character Mandy.  I love writing horse scenes. It's like I can be there through Mandy. I check my facts through local people more knowledgeable than I am. Of course every story has to have a crisis. This is a scene that I barely got through because I was crying:

“Come in Mandy,” she said. She was sitting at the kitchen table looking at a photo album. There were pictures of when Mr. Parker was alive and he had the string of polo ponies.

“So what did the vet say?” I asked, a little out of breath.

She looked at me with soft eyes. “He said he thinks Sheba has pleural pneumonia.”

 “How?

“She must have gotten a cold or influenza. You remember I told you that while you were mending your broken leg, my son brought a horse over for me to look at. Well he did buy it and he brought it again to run in the pasture. This time we were more careful with Sheba, but his horse had a runny nose. Colds can be pretty contagious and turn quickly to pneumonia.” She turned her eyes to the album. “These are pictures of when we first got her.”

I looked over and saw a younger and thinner Sheba with Mr. Parker on her back. “So does the vet have medicine to cure her? She will get better, won’t she?” I asked the questions, but I think I already knew the answer by looking at Mrs. Parker’s droopy red eyes. 

 “No honey, medicine can’t cure this. Sheba has to be put down. We need to clean out the stable so Bubbaloo and Scout don’t get sick too.”

“NO!” I screamed as loud as I could, hoping my voice would rise up as far as heaven and make it not so. “She can’t die, not ever!” Tears gushed down my face and I shook all over. I covered my face with my t-shirt and screamed. Mrs. Parker knelt down in front of me. She held me.

After a long time, she stood and grabbed my hands, boosting me up . “Come on Mandy, I’ll take you home.”

 “I…I’ve uh….got ..my um…bike.” I stuttered through “sup-sup” sounds.

“That’s OK. We’ll put it in the trunk. She put an arm around my shoulder and kept hold of one hand. At the back door, we stopped as she lifted her car keys off a hook. I leaned hard on her.                          

Writing is a strange phenomena for me. I live through my characters. They bring new color to my life. This is a way I can express my love of horses when I don't have the means to own one.

Carol