Out of the Blue

Believe it or not, I'm still here.

Believe it or not, I'm hoping to release my fifth novel this year.

Both of those might seem surprising to you, considering the fact that I haven't released a novel for three years or written a blog for three months, but that should tell you something about me. (You can't get rid of me!)

Some of the blogs I wrote last year dealt with writer's block (I admit that I had to go reread some of them because it had been so long), which really explains why I haven't written blogs or a novel. Behind the writer's block, there's another story.

And I choose not to tell it.

By now, you should know that I don't do things just because "everyone does it." I still have a flip phone. I don't have Netflix. I haven't invested in Bitcoin. Call me slow, call me old-fashioned, call me whatever you want. I'm fine with that. But one of the things I absolutely don't do is put my whole life out in front of the world. (Yes, I realize that this blog does NOT reach the whole world, but you get the idea.)

There are several reasons for this. Probably the biggest is that I grew up in a time without social media, where people kept things to themselves because they had no choice. But I think that along the way, I realized the value of that. When I met someone, I could get to know that person by talking to them, not reading something online. We could have a real conversation and learn about each other that way.

Another big reason is family privacy. I could bare my soul here and cry words about what happened to me, but I don't think it's fair to them.

Also, I've always liked to have a slight air of mystery. Once you know everything about me, I'm kind of boring. But if you don't know everything about me, you can always imagine there's something interesting in there that you just haven't been allowed to know yet.

So this leads me to keep a part of my life private. The events I mentioned had been going on for a few years and they came to an abrupt, painful end last year. It was a family event, one that brought us closer together while it tore our insides apart, and now we're rebuilding.

While this was happening, I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for my novel. A bunch of fictional characters seemed unimportant next to real people in pain and trouble.

I'm starting to recover (it took a while) and aspects of my life are starting to return to almost-normal. Once I was able to do that, I took another look at the novel. It has some themes that come uncomfortably close to what happened to us (all of which were written well before the actual events happened), so that made it both difficult and important for me. Also, I thought that since I'd taken the trouble to write the novel, it made sense to release it.

I've started to format it. A reader has given me feedback. A second reader will look at it soon. I'm in contact with an artist about the cover art.

Amazingly enough, after all that time, this might actually happen.

I apologize for my long absence. If you've moved on, I can't blame you.

If not, thanks for your patience! I'll try to bring you updates when I can and see if I can't get a new title on Amazon sometime this year.

Have a good year and thanks for reading!

(By the way, blue is my favorite color.)

Farewell to Google Plus

When I published my first novel, I read a lot of advice online about the best way to publicize it. Several people/sites said it was imperative for me to put myself out there on social media so that any potential reader could find out more about me and might be inspired to buy my novels.

As a result, I opened accounts with Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon Author Central, Blogger, iAuthor, Youtube, and Google+. I soon realized that each of these needed to be somewhat different since no one wants to read the same information over and over.

I decided that Blogger would have snippets of my fiction, in addition to actual updates and my thoughts on the world, while Facebook would be more about the novels and general space news.

iAuthor, Goodreads and Youtube are sites where I mostly posted items (names & information about the novels, videos about the novels) and then left them alone. Amazon Author Central was the place to post general information about me as an author, with a picture or two.

Then there was Google+. I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first. All of my blogs automatically show up there, but that seemed a little boring. I did some exploring and found out that a lot of people use Google+ for photos, especially collections of photos, so I decided to do the same. At first, I simply shared photos from others that I thought were noteworthy. After a while, though, I posted a few of my own photos. Eventually I posted a few collections. It was always a good place to find amazing photos of birds, wildlife, nature, beautiful things, etc. I liked how easy it was to explore and find others’ collections. And I had around 42 followers!

Now comes the news that Google+ will no longer be available for non-commercial users like me. This makes me sad. It was one place where I could post little items about something cool I’d seen in Wilderness Park or on the flowers out front or while I was traveling. I wasn’t really an author there; I was just one person among many wanting to share some photos.

There weren’t a lot of ads. If I followed someone, I saw ALL of their posts, not just some. If I wanted to explore, it was simple. If I wanted to share my photos with someone, that was simple, too. Google+ never seemed overbearing or difficult; it just seemed like a nice place to hang out once in a while.

I guess those of us hanging out together weren’t generating enough revenue. Also, Google apparently had a data breach and decided it wasn’t worth it to revise Google+ for added security. Whatever the reason, they’ve decided to end the Google+ product, except for business owners.

I’m not the only one who will miss Google+. I’ve read several posts there as people try to figure out where to move their photos and how to notify their followers (sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands). They’re scattering to the wind; I guess it’s a lot like when you leave high school or college in the “real world”: you realize you won’t be with that particular set of people anymore and won’t see some of them ever again.

I suppose it’s for the best. I’ve met a lot of good people since college. I’m sure I’ll find somewhere else to share and enjoy photos.

But I’ll miss this one. Goodbye, Google+.

Mountains in the Rearview

I recently returned from a trip to Colorado, and ever since then, I've noticed something different. Mostly about myself: I'm calmer. I'm not so scattered or anxious. Why is this?

First of all, let me highly recommend a trip to Colorado whenever you get a chance. There is so much variety in that state, there are so many things to do, that you will always find something there to enjoy.

My personal favorite is Rocky Mountain National Park. You start with sweeping meadows ringed by pine trees. Then you drive up Trail Ridge Road along switchbacks and past craggy rocks. Finally you emerge above the treeline to another world: the alpine world. Here everything is short and tough, designed to withstand the high winds and cold temperatures. And the views are breath-taking, everywhere you look. "Purple mountains' majesty" starts to make sense.

Throughout the park, there is abundant wildlife to be seen: elk, moose, deer, marmots, chipmunks, ground squirrels, untold species of birds, and much more.

Among all of this, however, I have found one thing that I enjoy more than anything else: the mountain stream.

When I was a child, I loved to throw rocks or sticks into the stream: rocks for the satisfying 'sploosh' and sticks because I could run alongside and track where the current took them.

Now, however, I'm content to sit beside the stream and listen to what it has to tell me.

Then something happens: when I listen to the stream, my head goes silent. All those random thoughts, all those worries, all the planning and plotting that fills my head—it all goes away. I'm left with only the sound of water tumbling over rocks ... and a peace that is rare for me.

I sat beside such streams several times during my trip. Each time, there was only the stream and nothing else mattered. It was the ultimate form of meditation.

Don't get me wrong: I drank in the mountain views, the wildlife and the wildflowers, which were everywhere. I cried when I had to leave ... and I stared at the rearview mirror for as long as the mountains were visible there.

But now I feel a stillness that I couldn't achieve before this trip.

I don't know how long it will last, but for now I'm holding onto it. I like the calmness, the peace, the feeling that things will be all right.

I'm trying to keep the mountain stream in my heart.

Stream at Hidden Valley, Rocky Mountain National Park

Trust Your Readers

Part of your job as a writer is to set the scene, to explain to the reader what is happening, but you need to be careful: unnecessary information can be distracting … and sometimes annoying!

For example, if I wrote that Hawkins went to the starboard side of Penumbra and then I added an explanation that the starboard side is the right side of the ship, my readers would roll their eyes and sigh. Yes, Diane, we already know that. If they didn’t know that, I apologize, but they can certainly look it up. That’s what Google is for, right?

How many times have you read a story and wondered why the writer insisted on telling you things you already know? It’s simple: the writer doesn’t trust you.

This includes the distracting facts that tell you the writer is simply showing off: how fast light travels, how many bones are in the human body, what the square root of 3,472 is. Most of the time, the reader doesn’t need to know these facts to appreciate the story. Only if it is directly relevant—for example, the forensic scientist found 202 adult bones, so four are missing—should these little tidbits be included. It’s never a bad thing for a writer to know these facts, but it’s in bad form to include them in the story when they’re not needed.

It’s also bad when you tell the reader things that he/she should be able to figure out from what’s happening in the scene.

For example:

    Bobby kicked open the door and hurled his keys across the

room. He muttered under his breath as he slammed the door

shut and flung himself into a chair.

    Katrina appeared in the bedroom doorway. “What—?”

    “Shut up. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Now let me ask you this: what is Bobby’s mood at this point? Do I need to tell you or can you figure it out for yourself?

How about this?

Bobby slammed the door. He was angrier than he’d ever been.

Katrina appeared in the bedroom doorway. “What—?”

“I’m so mad at Joe!” Bobby shouted.

In this case, I’d be a little ticked off myself, mostly because the writer doesn’t trust me enough to figure out Bobby is mad on my own. As a reader, I never appreciate it when the writer decides to spell out the obvious for me.

I admit that it’s a fine line. Sometimes you’ll need to step back and pretend you’ve never seen this scene before; then decide if everything you’ve included needs to be there. You could also have someone else read the scene and tell you what can stay and what should go.

When in doubt, though, trust your readers.

Silence

I'm like the Grinch in one respect. No, I don't hate the Whos. I don't hate Christmas. I don't yell at Max. But I do hate the noise, noise, noise.
Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky. I know that part of it is because I have tinnitus. If you don't know what that is, have you ever had your ears ring after a particularly loud sound or a noisy concert? If you were to have that sound in your ear(s) all the time, without relief, that's tinnitus. It can be different sounds for different people. Mine is a high-pitched shrieking sound, like a tea kettle whistle. Tinnitus is apparently supposed to make a person more sensitive to sound, and I am proof of that.
What I don't understand is that people around me seem to require sound/noise all the time. I listen to the radio, I watch TV, but there are times when I like to sit in relative silence, a thought that would make many of my co-workers recoil in terror. "Silence? How can you stand it??"
When I was growing up, nobody thought silence was bad. As a kid, I played outside without a radio to listen to or videos to watch. My family traveled to the mountains and went on long hikes where all we heard was occasional wind and the birds. I don't remember considering that torture (well, except for the tough hiking part). We might even spend an evening reading, with no sound except pages turning.
Now everybody's got to have ear buds or a radio or a phone or a TV or something. It puzzles me.
People ask me, "How do you come up with all those ideas for your novels?"
Here's the answer: silence. Almost all of my ideas come when I'm walking in nature or staring at a computer monitor, in silence. Silence lets my mind settle down, roam at will and make connections that it could never make with constant outside stimulation. It needs that breathing space to get creative.
I don't hate music or TV or whatever. These things are entertaining and have an important place in anyone's life. But don't let them rule your life.
Give yourself a break once in a while to let your mind wander. You'll be surprised by what you might come up with.

On the Verge

I missed writing a blog in January. Sorry about that! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Happy 2018!

My January was full of upheaval, especially at work. A lot of things changed, some for the better and some yet to be seen. We were put into different groups, we were given different supervisors, we were physically moved around the room. It took everyone a while to get used to it.

I was one of them. I don't mind some change, but we got a lot thrown at us all at the same time. My team changed, my original group's title disappeared, I had to get used to a new location with a few challenges. I'll admit that I had a little trouble with it.

I think I'm getting more used to it, though. That's what happens, isn't it? You grumble and complain, you wonder why this had to happen ... and then you turn around and it all seems normal. It's happened before. I'm sure it will happen again.

Nevertheless, I was glad to have a few weekends to process things. It's nice to have some quiet time to put things in perspective.

This weekend was no exception. I'm on the verge of a decision regarding work and I needed some time away to think about it.

So why on earth did I find myself driving to work and parking in the lot on a Saturday?

By now, you should know that I'm a birder, so this next bit won't surprise you.

For several weeks at work, I've been walking in the hallway to get some exercise when something outside caught my eye. I've stopped by windows and doors to squint out at the field north of our building because there was movement in an otherwise empty space. As you might have guessed, it had two wings. It was a Northern Harrier. I wasn't sure at first, but then I glimpsed the white patch at the base of its tail and I knew.

Several times I've stood still to watch its aerial acrobatics as it glides, stoops and banks over the field, searching for some unlucky rodent to make its meal. I've had more than one person ask me what I'm staring at out there. Nobody seems surprised when I saw it's a hawk.

Without binoculars, though, I couldn't see the bird very well. It's a big field and the harrier seemed good at keeping its distance. As a result, I drove over there with binoculars this afternoon to see if I could get a better look.

It was chilly, with a brisk wind, and my heart fell as I pulled into the lot. The field looked empty. I put on some gloves and earmuffs before I stepped out of the car. Still no sign of hawks. Resigned, I decided I might as well walk a little before the drive home.

I walked around the building and stopped. There in the EAST field were two harriers! They hopped around, spreading their wings over the ground as if protecting something, although they didn't appear to have caught anything. Then one took flight and soared over to the north field. I followed and was rewarded with twenty minutes of watching a beautiful hawk gliding over a field. Every time the hawk turned, I got a good look at the striking patterns and colors on its chest and tail. Its long yellow legs hung down and then tucked up against its body. The wings were masterful at propelling the hawk through impressive maneuvers. In short, it was breathtaking. I forgot the chill in the air, the craziness at work, pretty much everything as I watched in awe.

Now I'm back at home, where it's warm, but I can still see that hawk. I don't think it ever saw me because it was concentrating on the field. I'm sure it wouldn't have admired me like I admired it!

As usual, Nature provided me with some time to leave behind my cares and worries, to enjoy something with a clear mind and open heart. I think I'm ready to make a decision.

Don't forget the Great Backyard Bird Count this month! Here's where to find more information: http://gbbc.birdcount.org/  I encourage you to give it a try and turn in your counts. You never know what you will see.

Photos of Fall

Back in October, I posted that I was glad it wasn't autumn yet because there was a lot to be seen in Wilderness Park. This month it is definitely autumn, but there's still a lot to be seen. Since the weather is fantastic, I decided to take advantage of it and slung my Canon over my shoulder for a long walk.

True, some of the park looks mostly brown, but it can still be pretty:

  

There were things to see when I looked up:

and when I looked down:

Some things I almost stumbled over or missed, but were worth a second look:

Some of the colors surprised me:

                  

I'm glad I paused on the bridge over the stream.

As I was leaving, a woman asked me, "Did you see anything?" I pondered for a moment, spread my arms and said, "Just general beauty." She smiled and continued on her walk. I hope she saw as much as I did.

Thanks for joining me on a walk through the park!