Starting Thursday, June 30 through Saturday, July 2

Both my novels will be on sale on amazon.com

The House on 4th Street and Timing’s Everything

Good time to mention it to a friend or gift it!  It’s so easy to gift a book on Amazon. Check it out if you haven’t before. An inexpensive and thoughtful purchase for a buddy who reads!

I’ve been neglecting this blog page as I dig through mounds of research on Oklahoma in the 1930’s for my sequel to The House on 4th Street. I’ve lived on the computer – googling away diligently – and watched dozens of videos and what I found is fascinating. I get so caught up in researching, I sort of forget to write… Ha  I came across these the other day -newspaper headlines in Oklahoma. I had no idea!

Here’s a sampling:

“Mexican Arrested here for selling Marihuana Plants” – Sept. 9, 1929 (Tulsa Tribune)

“Silly Weed Price Jumps to High Mark” – March 7, 1930  (Daily Oklahoman)

“State Law Will Be Sought To Stop Sales of Marijuana” –Peddlers Around High Schools and Dance Halls Menace to City Youth,” Huston says. – Sept 25, 1932 (Daily Oklahoman)

“Marijuana smokers sought at Kansas U.”- March 8, 1932 – (Miami, OK)

“Narcotic Officers Make Two Arrests” – April 30, 1937 (Daily Oklahoman)

Apparently in the 1920’s, 30’s and early ’40’s, Marijuana use was rampant. And here we thought we had a new issue about legalizing pot. There really is nothing new under the sun. Try reading some political headlines from those eras if you want further proof!!

Happiness is a topic long considered by great theologians, orators, poets and philosophers. I do not consider myself in those elite groups.

Last week I read an article in the New York Times that reported all of the progress our country has made in the past few years. It reported progress in medicine, the economy, even our environment. We are moving in the direction of optimism and have been for some time. The question the Times presented was “why can’t we be happy anymore?” (NYT, May 15, 1026, page 4)

They place blame on the press, social media, and current political candidates who prefer to talk gloom and doom and to proselytize the end of American society as we know it. None of which is actually occurring according to the Times.

I found it sad but enlightening. I had to mostly agree. I, too, find myself constantly moaning about the price of bread, the state of our economy, the stupid things we do in our country, our lack of medical care, our rising health costs, the number of gun inflicted injuries and deaths each day, the ignorance of our politicians and congress. I, too, tend to spout negativity on a daily basis. I am quick to admit that, although equally ashamed to do so.

I thought about putting up a smiley face in each and every room. I thought about fining myself each time I say something critical. My jar would quickly fill I’m afraid, for I have also taken up the death knoll for our country and the world. I, too, have begun to see gray skies and the blackness of violence and death instead of focusing on the blue skies above me.

I complain about the heat of the intense Arizona sun instead of being happy for sunshine. I complain about my irrigation system being broken instead of being thankful that I can afford to have one. It is so easy to slide into negativity and so difficult to pull oneself back to happiness.

But it is a challenge I want to take on. I want to feel happy like I did when I was a kid. I want to feel naïve and excited about life and playful and joyful and plain old Happy! Can we do that in the midst of all the noise each day? I’d like to think we can.

Pharrell’s hit song Happy hit the top of the charts because it is a word so seldom used these days. Happy. A feeling of joy and contentment. It’s on my iTunes fave list. Now to just listen and follow suit.

If you Google Children’s Day, it will tell you that George W. Bush declared a Children’s Day and that is now celebrated on the second Sunday in June. One site mentions a Kid’s Day. However, these days are to encourage parents and society to help raise our children well. But I think we need a national holiday to honor Adult Children! And here is why …

I never thought about needing my kids as I grew older. I was the chief cook and bottle washer, the full-time working single mother. I kissed the boo-boos, raced to the E.R., nursed and protected and supported. I was the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny and Santa Clause. I was the tutor, the editor and the enforcer of home work. Shoe laces, buttons, zippers – I watched with pride as they accomplished these necessary skills. Dance, gymnastics, t ball, soccer, tennis, ice skating, skate boarding filled my days. For 23 years I nourished and loved and supported and dried tears and apologized for yelling, and felt guilty that I hadn’t done more. (this still happens on occasion!)

Gradually things began to change – so gradually, I didn’t notice. Computers and technology required their explanations and instruction. GPS, Nav, Blue tooth, USB ports and fancy stereos and smart TV’s required their expertise. Arthritis required help with things I’d always done. My aging body lost the assuredness I’d always had about climbing tall ladders, reaching high to put up Christmas lights around the roofline, lifting and moving and hauling … heavy bags of soil or sand or salt for the water softener. I try to shorten the lists. I try to do it myself at least three times before I give in and text for help.

But each year it seems there are a few more things I rely on them to do for me. I assembled two faux rattan chairs out of four, a loveseat and table for the patio. Two out of four isn’t bad. I sat on the ground and bent my old bones to plant my flower gardens. I can still change light bulbs and AC ceiling filters.

But every week or two I’m on the phone to ask for help, and they are always there. Always eager to come over and complete my running list of household tasks. Always kind when they walk me through the steps needed for the TV to work. Always happy to meet me for lunch or a movie or just a drop-in visit at their houses.

Each day is Mother’s Day for me so celebrating just one day seems rather silly, actually. Yes, I need to create an Adult Kids’ Day to celebrate them. To tell them thank you for everything they do for me.

I refuse to think about how much I will rely on them between 70 and 80 or 90. I hope and pray it doesn’t get any worse than it already is – but we never know what’s ahead.

But for now – I thank God and my lucky stars for the best two adult children on the planet!

I could not love them more!

I’ve been writing for weeks now on a sequel to The House on 4th Street. Yesterday, I knew it was time for the “not fun” part. This is the part I hate. I love research. I am up to my eyeballs in research of Edmond and Oklahoma in the early to mid-1920’s. I found out about the KKK, about the impeachment of a governor, about the oil boom and the depression. I’m still researching. I never stop researching.

But yesterday, I began the process of going through each and every scene and plotting it on my large drawing pad. I’m now up to 23 pages of plot lines, errors, notes to remind me to check facts, notes to remind me that something is out of sequence, notes to remind me I’ve gotten something horribly wrong!

I go page by page through my writing, summarize each scene, make notations, and prepare for upcoming edits. Many writers plot before they write. They have the story in their head and they plan and plot before they sit down at the computer. I’m like Anne Lamott who lets the characters lead her to the story.

I sit and write and the characters and scenes simply flow from my brain through my fingertips and onto the computer screen or onto a notebook if I’m writing by hand. So at some point, I have to see if anything makes sense. That’s when I get out the extra large art pad and begin to look closely. How many pages did I give to scene 1? to scene 32? Should scene 15 be before scene 11? How can I make the dialogue stronger? Did I say she was home when he called in the last chapter?

It is at this stage I begin to see flaws. I hate flaws. I hate fixing flaws. But it has to be done! And so here I am plugging away with my pages of notes, adding, deleting, changing. The next step is to take all of these notes, go back to the original and start making required edits. That leads me back to writing again which I prefer. I will re-write and edit for another three months. But right now, I simply have to look at sequencing, whether I need to delete a few pages in one scene or add a dozen pages to pad another. It ain’t fun! But as my favorite “how to book” by Anne Lamott says, “Bird by Bird”.  (one word at a time). She also says it is required you have a “shitty first draft”. and that’s where I sit today — in the midst of my S.F.D.

Timing’s Everything by Connie Wesala  (yes, there is a similar title) is available as an e book on Amazon for free all day Monday May 2!  Pass the word!  It goes back to $2.99 on Tuesday. Seeking readers and reviews. Thanks for the support of my friends and family!

Remember, you can download e books off Amazon for any digital reader – Nook, or any other. There is simply an app download on the Amazon page.

Interesting fact posted by Desert Botanical Gardens: the source of the smell of rain in the desert is Creosote!  Hmm. Interesting. I’ve always complained about the smell of rain here. I was used to the smell of freshness after a rain – wet grass, trees, flowers. When we moved here all I could smell was wet dirt. It is a harsh dirt smell – nothing like ‘home.’

Just last weekend I wrote a poem about the smell of wet dirt. How it made me want to close windows instead of opening them. How it hits the nostrils as a bad odor. I thought perhaps we didn’t get rain hard enough to completely remove the dust from the leaves of the trees, from the flower beds, from my windowsills. Then I read about creosote. It doesn’t make it any more appealing. It simply explains the reason behind it.

When I’m in northern Arizona we get rains throughout monsoon season. Up north the rain is followed by the strong smell of pine and cedar … still not the rain smells I’m accustomed to in the Midwest and the plains, but better than wet dirt.

I miss the smell of wet grass and the cool freshness of the outdoors after a cleansing rain. I miss Oklahoma and Minnesota rain. I wish I could have a bottle of it. Would that mean sending me a jar of wet grass? Of elm and oak tree leaves? Of rose petals or gladioli? If I figure it out, I’ll shoot out an e mail to my friends and family. Until then, you guys enjoy the smell of spring rain outside your windows!

Meanwhile — here is the result of our recent spring rain and I have to admit, it is beautiful!

Timing’s Everything

Published December, 2015

Available on Amazon as an e book

Description:

Amy Crawford is a strong, independent 55-year-old divorce’ and an author who is headed to Oxford, England for a five-week writing seminar. Her eight-year romance with a difficult man named Luke ended a year and a half ago. She is not looking for love, but it begins to find its way to her anyway, in the shape of a fellow Oxford student named Roger.

If you like stories with a strong setting and well written characters, you will find them in this novel. In addition, there is mystery and intrigue and several difficult decisions Amy will have to make. Though there seems to be a clear conclusion to the story … is there a sequel in the making? Perhaps.

I spent last Monday evening with some wonderful people. I caught up on the past (??) years with a couple of Sigma Kappa sorority sisters, then signed books and attended  a Best of Books book club with twenty well-read and delightful women. What an honor to be asked to attend. But I had to laugh. Each time they mentioned the “author”, I turned to see who they were talking about! Thanks, ladies, for that acknowledgement and the praise that The House on 4th Street has received in Oklahoma. A big thank-you to the impressive independent book store, Best of Books. I keep tabs on their weekly events and am truly amazed at the talent they bring to Edmond. I appreciate being included in that group. So thanks to Joe and Nan and their staff. Happy reading!

Can’t wait to visit with family, enjoy a lovely Easter and attend a book signing and book club meeting at Best of Books in Edmond on Monday evening! What a great week back home! Hoping the Redbuds will be in full bloom. See you all later today….