A Tribute to My Co-Authors

Since tomorrow is #NationalAuthorsDay, I thought I'd use today's post to celebrate the various co-authors I've worked with over the years. I love them all dearly, and I treasure the time we've spent working together.

Co-writing a book is such a unique and amazing process. There are brainstorming sessions and a-ha moments, there are scenes that fall together seamlessly and scenes that take all of our effort and energy—but there is nothing quite like sharing this journey with someone else. The book launch, the events, the interactions with readers...it truly is a blessing to experience all of that with a writing partner.

So in no particular order, here are all of my wonderful co-authors and the projects we've worked on together.

LESLIE GOULD

Mindy and Leslie take a break from brainstorming in 2014

Books written together: 
The Amish Midwife 
The Amish Nanny
The Amish Bride
The Amish Seamstress
The Amish Quilter
My Brother's Crown
My Sister's Prayer
My Daughter's Legacy

Media together: Author interview.

Find Leslie on Facebook.

Visit her website.

SUSAN MEISSNER

Mindy and Susan on a research trip in Lancaster County

Books written together: 
The Amish Groom 
The Amish Blacksmith
The Amish Clockmaker

Media together: Interview.

Find Susan on Facebook.

Visit her website.

JOHN CAMPBELL CLARK

John and Mindy: Riding–and writing–partners for life!

Book written together: 
Echoes of Titanic

Media together: Articles about collaboration here and here. 
Audio interview.

Visit John's webpage.

KIM ALEXIS

Kim and Mindy at a radio interview in Orlando, FL

Book written together: 
Beauty to Die For

Media together: Interview.

Find Kim on Facebook.

Visit Kim's website.

EMILY CLARK

Mother and daughter at Emily's wedding in August

Book written together: 
Amish Christmas at North Star. 

Other authors that appeared in this collection were Cindy Woodsmall, Amanda Flower, and Katie Ganshert.

Visit Emily's web page.

Blessed with the Best

Co-writing isn’t for every author, but it sure has worked for me—mostly because I’ve been blessed with such an extraordinary group of partners. I know that these books are better and I'm a better writer (and person!) because of each of my co-authors and the things I've learned from them along the way. 

The Mind Warp of Writing and Weather

My dog, Belle, coming in from the snow

Last week marked the first day of Spring—but try telling that to the foot of snow that fell here in Eastern Pennsylvania! Considering that I’m currently working on a novel that’s set in the sweltering heat of a Louisiana summer, it takes more than a little imagination to write a story set there while there’s a veritable blizzard going on just outside the window here. But it can be done, through sheer force of will, a couple of tricks, and lots of imagination.

The Fictive Dream

When reading, have you ever been so transported into a story that you’re a little startled when you come back out of it again? For just a brief second, you’re actually surprised to realize that the heroine isn’t real and right there with you, the setting doesn’t exist, and you’re not in peril or in trouble or in the midst of exchanging witty banter with someone. Instead, you’re simply…you, you’re probably in your bed, and you need to get on to sleep now or you’ll never wake up in the morning!

That trance-like state from which you’ve emerged is what’s called the “fictive dream,” and it’s a wonderful thing, for sure. It’s what makes reading so magical.

It’s also what makes writing so possible, because for an author to transport you to a whole other place, she first has to transport herself there—and then build it up, make it work, and pave the way for others to get there as well. 

I like this quote about achieving the fictive dream, from John Gardner in The Art of Fiction:

"This and nothing else is the desperately sought and tragically fragile writer's process: in his imagination, he sees made-up people doing things—sees them clearly—and in the act of wondering what they will do next he sees what they will do next, and all this he writes down in the best, most accurate words he can find..."

When It Works

Once you get the hang of it, achieving the fictive dream as a writer is usually not all that hard to do. It just takes a quiet and comfortable space, some deep breathing, and a little mind play. As Gardner says, “…when the dream flags [the author] can reread what he’s written and find the dream starting up again.”

That’s how it works for me. When I settle down to get started for the day, I’ll usually pause and reflect on my story and characters, then I’ll just back up a few pages and start reading, to get into the flow.

After that, I’m off again, far away in some distant land or time, somehow actually feeling that splintery wood under my bare feet, tasting that delicious bite of peach cobbler, or smelling that gently blowing grass in that meadow as I write. 

When It Doesn’t Work

Sometimes, however, it’s not that simple. For some reason, it occasionally takes a far greater effort just to get back in the flow. I wouldn’t exactly call it writer’s block, it’s more like a sensory deficit, where your mind is willing to churn along with the story, but your imagination for some reason refuses to join in.

This can happen thanks to a variety of issues, such as personal matters that are tugging at your mind, some sort of physical pain that keeps bringing you back to reality, or even just constant interruptions by the world around you. Sometimes it's as simple as a bad night’s sleep, which can wreak havoc with a writer’s ability to enter the fictive dream the next day.

For me personally, the biggest barrier I face is weather—or seasons, rather, as in when it’s summer in one world but winter in the other. This can be so confusing to my psyche, in fact, that I have to go to all sorts of lengths to overcome my actual situation and fully immerse in my imagination.

Here’s a short video I made last week when it was snowing, just to elaborate a bit on this phenomenon…

Sensing the Problem

As you can imagine, my solution to this issue involves tricking my senses. For example, if I’m writing about summer in the midst of winter, I may do one or all of the following…

• Put on some music that evokes the fictional location, such as steel drums and reggae for the Caribbean or Zydeco for Louisiana.

• Make myself a location-related snack—such as a pineapple-mango smoothie or some boiled peanuts and an RC cola—to nibble on as I work.

• Surround myself with photos of the location. 

Once I’ve done all of the above, I just try to relax and let my senses lead the way. I may go back a little further than usual with my reading, perhaps by a whole chapter or two, and then get started. Usually by the time I reach the end of the words I’ve written thus far, my fingers are ready to fly. I’m back in that magical place in my brain, the one where the real world goes away and I'm moving around in a reality all my own.

Hopefully, by achieving the writer's fictive dream on my end, I'm able to send you into the reader's fictive dream on your end. That's always the goal, anyway, to send you to  a place in your mind that actually feels more real than the world around you.

Happy reading!

Deadline Disasters

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you’re familiar with my occasional ”deadline disasters,” i.e., the various household calamities that seem to befall me whenever I’m deep in the throes of a book deadline and in such a writing fog that I do stupid things with calamitous results. For example, one time I somehow accidentally washed an entire box of trash bags along with a load of laundry. What a pain!

Anyway, now that I’ve made it through yet another deadline, it’s time to add not just one but two more such incidents to the pantheon.  Both of the following happened just two weeks ago as the clock was ticking down and my brain was somewhere off in a fictional world rather than paying attention to the physical one.

The Soup Curse

Note to self: The next time you’re on a deadline, don’t make soup! That’s the lesson I’ve learned as once again I had an incident that ended in despair. The last time, I accidentally left the fridge door open all night—and ended up spoiling everything inside including a huge batch of soup I’d just made.

This time, I also destroyed an entire batch of freshly-made soup, albeit in a different way. Here’s how it went…

As you can see from the above photo, I decided to cook up some homemade “bone broth”, which is done by combining a big beef bone with chopped veggies, water, and various herbs and spices then simmering the whole thing for about 48 hours.  It was a lot of work, especially considering I had to go to a special butcher to get the bone, but I knew it would pay off in the end. Ah, the best laid plans…

After the first 24 hours, it was time to add some more spices to the mix, but as I reached into the cabinet, my head was off in the clouds so I wasn’t really paying attention, and I accidentally knocked over a big jar of bouillon cubes. As if in slow motion, the jar tumbled from the cabinet and struck the edge of my favorite glass serving bowl, shattering part of it to pieces, the largest of which then shot sideways and struck the edge of the crock pot, causing a big chip in its rim and a crack that ran all the way down the side.  

It happened so quickly and within such a small space that there was no way to know whether any of the broken glass from the bowl or shards from the chip had ended up in the soup or not. So after a brief period of denial followed by a pity party, I scrapped the entire thing. Final score? Mindy-0, trash can-1, including the soup, the broken serving dish, and the crock pot itself.

Insult to Injury

Later, I was washing the items I’d used in my broth-making venture—cutting board, utensils, etc.—and was once again lost in thought when a second calamity occurred…

I think this one was just a case of a worn out hose finally losing its grip rather than a result of anything I did. However, thanks to my absentminded state, it took a good 15 or 20 seconds before I even comprehended what was happening. In the photo, I’ve got the water barely turned on, just for demonstration purposes. But during that 15-20 second gap, the water was running hard enough to shoot straight up into the air in a giant arc, landing on the kitchen bar behind me—about a foot away from my open laptop! Talk about panic!!!

When I finally grasped the situation, I turned off the water, grabbed my laptop, and flipped it upside down.  Then I toweled it dry and left it upside down for the rest of the day. (Fortunately, I had a printed copy of the manuscript, so I was able to keep working even without the computer.) The next morning, prayers said and fingers crossed, I turned the machine right side up and tried it out. Praise the Lord, there were no residual problems. Big exhale, but boy, that was a close one!

Not Again

Whenever I have one of these incidents, I tell myself it won’t happen again, but inevitably it does. Maybe the next time I’m on a deadline, when things get really bad, I should considering hiring a babysitter—for myself. J

For now, I’m just going to put these incidents out of my mind, sit back, and enjoy the fact that I managed to get the manuscript done and in on time regardless. My mind is already gearing up for my next project, but hopefully I won’t have any disasters like this again—or at least not until the next deadline rolls around! 

Surely I’m not the only one who goes through this. What’s something dumb you’ve done when your mind was on something else?

Calling on the Info Crew

God is in the details, or so the saying goes, and never is that more true than when writing a novel. Not even a great plot and wonderful characters can make up for shoddy research, which is why diligent writers must always go the extra mile to get things right.

One of the details I always try to pay attention to is the type of cars my characters drive. It may sound silly given that these people—shhh, don’t let them hear me say this—aren’t real. But it is a fact that most of us choose vehicles that reflect not just our needs and economic status but also our personalities and our values.  The right car in a novel can convey all sorts of information about a character, while the wrong one can give off a totally inaccurate impression. 

You probably know what I mean. The sort of person who owns a Jeep Wrangler will be quite different from the one who owns a Volvo station wagon or the one who owns a Porsche 911. Most people buy cars that reflect who they are—or at least who they wish they were—whether that’s an adventurer, a safety-conscious parent, a successful executive, or something else.

Cars in My Daughter’s Legacy

Cars come up several times in My Daughter's Legacy, including in this exchange between the protagonist, Nicole, and her sister, Maddee, as they greet each other with a hug when Nicole gets home from college for the summer.

“Where’d this come from?” Maddee asked as we pulled apart, eying my new vehicle.

“One guess.” Suddenly I felt embarrassed that I’d been the beneficiary of such generosity. But before I could say anything else, my sister flashed a knowing grin. “Ah, yes. The Nana graduation car.”

My embarrassment turned to relief. “You got one too?”

“Oh yeah. And Renee and Danielle when they graduated. Looks like yours came early, probably because she’s so proud of how well you’ve been doing.”

I shrugged, but on the inside I was beaming. “I always wondered why you drove a Mustang.”

Maddee laughed. “I know, right? She tries to choose something appropriate, and I guess because I’m so into fashion she thought I’d want something sleek and sporty, but that car wasn’t me at all. I was so happy when I finally got to trade it in for the Prius, which is so much more—”

“Boring?”

She raised an eyebrow. “I was going to say sensible.”

It’s not an important scene in the overall scheme of things, but it comes along early in the book and helps to establish these characters—both how they see themselves and how others see them.  Of course, before I could write the scene, I had to know what car best fit Maddee’s personality. And that meant calling on a member of my “info crew.”

Help Wanted

What’s an info crew? That’s my term for the people behind the scenes who help me out with my writing whenever I have a book question that requires some particular area of expertise. At any given time, my group might include a fashionista (for my more fashion-conscious characters’ clothing), an antiques expert (for the furniture in my wealthier characters’ homes), a cop (for procedural accuracy), a equine expert (for horse-related questions), and so on. Were you to read through the acknowledgements in my various books, you’d see certain names pop up repeatedly. That probably means they’re in my info crew and somehow came to my aid during the writing of that book.

In this particular case, I called on my brother-in-law, David Clark, who happens to be my expert in all things automotive.  Here’s a screen shot of our exchange about this particular scene:

As you can see, it takes a certain type of person to be in an info crew. They have to be available/interruptible without warning, they have to be able to play “what if” with your story, and they have to be kind and patient enough to answer all manner of questions without making you feel stupid. I’m lucky to have David in my life for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with my writing. But I’m also deeply grateful for his invaluable ability to help choose the cars for my casts of characters. 

If God is in the details, then surely He blesses those who help us writers get our details right!

******

If one of your favorite literary character’s stories was taking place in 2017, what car would best suit their personality?  

Announcing the New My Daughter's Legacy Book Club

It's official! My publisher will be doing a book club for my next book, My Daughter's Legacy.

They did a similar club for the launch of My Sister's Prayer, and I was lucky enough to be a part of it—what fun we had! This online book club gave readers the opportunity to meet one another, discuss their favorite things in the world (books!), and get insider information straight from the authors.

Needless to say, I'm thrilled that we'll be doing another.

If you participated in the My Sister's Prayer book club, then you are automatically part of the My Daughter's Legacy club! Simply check the My Sister's Prayer Facebook group for updates.

If you didn't participate in the My Sister's Prayer book club but would like to be considered for the My Daughter's Legacy club, then click here to get more info and fill out an application to join.

The club will run June 12–July 1. Hope to see you there!

LIFE HACK FOR WRITERS ... or for Anyone Who Does Their Best Thinking in the Shower

Take a look at this photo and see if you can guess what the blue thing is on the top shelf, next to the shampoo.

Think you got it? It’s one of a pack of…

…bathtub markers.

So why do I keep a bathtub marker in the shower? Because inevitably that’s where I happen to be when some of my best story-related solutions come to me—but if I don’t write them down, I tend to forget them by the time the shower is done.

Thus, a few years ago I bought a pack of bathtub markers, and I keep one in the shower at all times, for when inspiration strikes. That usually looks something like this:

A few tips if you decide to give this a try:

• There has to be one wall in your shower that doesn’t get hit directly with water from the shower head, otherwise it might rinse off as you’re writing it.

• Once your shower’s done, either take a photo of your notes or jot them down, then go ahead and rinse the marker off the shower wall right away. (Not sure but it might stain if you left it there too long.) 

• Of course, follow directions on the package to prevent other kinds of staining, such as with grout.

The best part about this little hack is that by writing down your thoughts, you don’t have to focus on remembering them, and thus your brain is free to keep rolling around some more—and keep coming up with other great ideas.

One caveat, when I shared this idea with a friend, she told me about this:

Sorry the image is so small!

which looks like it might be an even better solution, I’m not sure. Either way, if you’re a “shower genius”, then I highly recommend you try one method or the other, just to make your life a little easier.