Notes from Dry Creek Farm

Maybe your intentions are good or maybe you just don’t understand how very fragile and pathetic is the writer’s ego, but some things should NOT be said to a writer. You may get a bland smile and mumbled semi-gracious reply, but what the writer says and what the writer thinks … ah! vast gap between those two.

1. Are you still writing your little books?

Writer thinks: Yes. And thanks for reminding me that I need to buy more crayons so I can finish the illustrations.

2. Have you been published?

Unpublished writer thinks: I’ve been recognized as a fraud! I can never face the world again.

Published writer thinks: You’ve never hear of me? I’m a failure! I can never face the world again.

3. What name do you write under?

Writer thinks: My own, but if you don’t know that, I’m a failure! I can never face the world again.

4. I have an idea for a book. You write it and we’ll split the profits.

Writer thinks: I have an idea for an organ donation program. You climb up on the table and I’ll get out my pocketknife.

5. Where do you get your ideas?

Writer thinks: Where do you get YOUR ideas? Or maybe you never have any….

6. I’ll have to buy one of your books someday.

Writer thinks: How about right now, while we’re in this bookstore and I’m standing in front of you?

7. Give me your agent’s phone number so I can send him my manuscript.

Writer thinks: Give me your credit card number so I can use it to buy a plane ticket to Tibet, because when my agent learns I’m handing out his phone number there’ll be a hitman coming after me.

8. There’s a mistake on page 84 of your book.

Writer thinks: Thanks for alerting me to that. I’m sure the publisher will want to recall every single copy, including those that have been sold, so it can be corrected.

9. I’m going to write a book someday … when I have a little spare time.

Writer thinks: I’m going to perform brain surgery someday … when I have a little spare time.

10. I like to read mysteries (or other genre) when I’m just too tired to think.

Writer thinks (two years later, when the commenter’s first published book — a mystery– is released): Bless your heart. I guess you just weren’t thinking when you wrote it.

A while back I ran across this quote:

“After you’ve done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over.” – Alfred Edward Perlman

I’ve been posting on this blog for well over two years and most of the posts are rants about the need for all of us to follow the path of sanity. Enough already, I hear you saying. I agree. So I’m going to switch gears and stop nagging people about their eating habits and lifestyles.

Several people have urged me to post about writing, but there are more than enough blogs and websites where you can find out how to plot your novel, develop your characters, and find your voice. Instead of duplicating that, I’ve decided to post about writers. We are so far from the path of sanity that you couldn’t find us with a bloodhound and a GPS.

Here’s the first thing you need to know about writers: we’ll do anything to avoid writing.

I used to have a self-imposed rule that I couldn’t start work on the book in progress until I’d won a game of computer Solitaire without turning the cards over more than once. Thank goodness for Facebook, Twitter, and really useful websites! These days writers can put off actual work for hours with the legitimate excuse that they have to check social media, HuffPost, Salon.com, and Daily Zen.

Another thing you should know about writers is that we enjoy research. We enjoy it so much, in fact, that we’ll spend years researching something that we’ll never need to know. For example, I’ve spent the better part of a decade trying to find out whether vampires sneeze.

A certain writer of comedic mysteries was once obsessed with learning the names of the individual parts of the chain lock.

Another spent countless hours pondering the many ways in which Superglue could be used to create havoc in an ex-spouse’s house — strictly for the purpose of fiction, mind you.

I know that many people think writers sit in ivory towers contemplating the meaning of life, or at least the meaning of Ulysses. We’d all appreciate it if you’d continue to believe that we are truly that evolved. But honesty compels me to admit that, if you spot a group of writers with their heads together, furiously taking notes, and looking very, very intense, they are probably sharing information about some new weight-loss plan that includes chocolate and booze.

Apparently I think WWII took place entirely in the months of November and December. In my mind, it’s always freezing as the folks on the homefront bake cookies for their soldiers and stockpile their ration coupons for the big holiday meals. So when the temperature drops and the fireplace is glowing, visions of women knitting socks for the troops start dancing in my head.

In the past, I’ve had to indulge my nostalgia with classic movies from the 1940s. Most of those focus on the battles, which interest me not one little bit. I am far more intrigued by the determination, patriotism, and stamina of the homefront heroes — specifically, the women who held it all together during those dark days. The clothes are nice, too.

I’ve recently read several books that highlight the women who contributed so much to the Allied war effort, and I decided to share information about some of those books with the readers of this blog. (Most of these books have been or will be given to the young women I know who can use a reminder that females are capable of so much more than entering beauty pageants and snagging boyfriends. Honk if you think that’s important.) I’ve linked the titles to amazon.com for your clicking convenience, but I’m sure they are all available –or should be!– from your favorite bookseller.

Escape From Paris by Carolyn Hart – The story of two American sisters in Paris who help downed airmen escape from the Gestapo. Hart really captures the atmosphere of deprivation and terror that burdened the people of France during 1940, and she does a masterful job of showing us how ordinary people put themselves in danger to save others. This is actually one of Hart’s earlier books, but was first published with heavy editing (cut by almost half!). It’s now available in the complete version.

Miss Dimple Disappears by Mignon Ballard -The quiet little town of Elderberry, Georgia is still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor as Thanksgiving 1942 approaches. For the town’s Gold Star mothers, there is little to be thankful for, and for the rest of the town the constant threat of enemy attack and fear for their loved ones serving in the military casts a gloom that has little to do with autumn’s long nights. The war isn’t just over there, either; Elderberry is about to learn that there is just as much danger on the homefront as anywhere.

This is the first in a new series by Ballard, who works her literary magic once again.

Mare’s War by Tanita S Davis – You’ve probably heard of the Tuskeegee Airmen, but have you heard of the 6888^th, the African American battalion of the Women’s Army Corps? Thought not. This young adult novel is so smoothly written and so full of fact-based events and people that I couldn’t stop reading. It’s a perfect book for those snowy days when you want to curl up with cocoa and a great read.

Women Heroes of World War II by Kathryn J. Atwood – This is a nonfiction collection that tells the stories of women who were not part of an organized military effort but fought alongside their male counterparts in the Resistance movement or who simply did the right thing as individuals. From teen girls to world-famous celebrities, these are the women we want our daughters to emulate!

Nella Last’s War by Nella Last – Here’s the cover copy: “Writing each day for the “Mass Observation” project, Nella, a middle-aged housewife from the bombed town of Barrow [England], shows what people really felt during this time. This was the period in which she turned 50, saw her children leave home, and reviewed her life and her marriage – which she eventually compares to slavery. Her growing confidence as a result of her war work makes this a moving (though often comic) testimony, which, covering sex, death and fear of invasion, provides a new, unglamorised, female perspective on the war years.”

Nella doesn’t hold back! Her journal entries for the Mass Observation project are detailed and honest, from the gossip about neighbors and friends to her creative dinner menus. Most of all, it’s the genuine emotion infuses her diary that takes the reader right into the heart of Britain’s nightmare years.

This short list of books is my gift to you who share my fascination with and admiration for the everyday folks who are so often overlooked when we talk about war heroes. I know you’ll enjoy reading them as much as I did, and I hope you’ll pass them along to others who appreciate the spirit and sacrifice of that Greatest Generation.