Follow Your Dreams...and Carry Bandages

People say, "Follow your dreams" all the time.  They say it with regret, as if speaking of something they wish they had done themselves.  Sometimes they say it hopefully, speaking of something they intend to do.

What they generally don't tell you is that this pursuit is not a joyous romp through Candyland.  They leave out the part about a desperate chase through nettle patches and bog-water, when your dream speeds by you so quickly that you're lucky if you're able to catch it by the tail and hold on for dear life.  They leave out the part about the road rash, the torn fingernails, the aching hunger for the thing that is always just out of your reach.

So here you go:

Follow your dreams.  It will be hard and painful.  You'll end up bruised, scarred, and exhausted.  But you have to trust that the chase is worth it.  You have to do it for love, so that when you're getting battered and bruised you can laugh through the pain because you'd rather be there in that place battling away than sitting on a cotton candy cloud somewhere eating Danish.  But do sometimes keep chocolate in your pocket.  It helps.

Take it from someone who's in the midst of the bruising process.

On a side note, Violet Shadows is free today on Kindle.  Whee...and also Ouch!

Violet Shadows!

I only have time for a quick little post to say that my novella, Violet Shadows, is officially available.  The Amazon link is on the top right of this page.  Coming soon for Nook as well!  More later.  I promise.

Celebrating Ten Years in June

This is it.  I've been thinking and planning, and now it's happening.  This month I'm officially celebrating my 10th anniversary of being cancer-free, and for all sales of Ashford reported this month I will be donating 75% of my proceeds to the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).  


UICC is a global cancer-fighting organization, and they work with smaller member organizations throughout the world, including the American Cancer Society.  I am truly impressed by their scope and the work they have done, particularly with their efforts to provide treatment and pain medication in developing countries.  I am thoroughly aware of the fact that I would not be alive today if I had not had the good fortune to live in a place where treatment was readily available.  Whatever my thoughts on our health care system (and most of you know what those are) I am very grateful for the care I received.  I have been blessed, and I would like to share that.  To learn more about UICC and what they do, follow the nifty link on the upper right side of this page.  Look at their website, sign the declaration, watch some of their videos...


This goes for paperback, Kindle, sales online through Amazon, or sales through a physical bookstore.  For those of you who live near me, Ashford is in stock at Flowery Trail Coffeehouse and Valley Drug in Chewelah, or Coffee and Books in Town Center in Colville.  It is also available by request wherever books are sold, and the Amazon.com link is to the right of this page, right under the UICC link.


For obvious reasons this is a cause which is very dear to me, and I would appreciate any assistance in spreading the word, whether you tell your friends verbally, share this link on your Facebook pages, tweet it, etc...  


I am also planning to shave my head the second week in July, and my sister is coming to cover it in henna tattoos.  Expect pictures.


Thank you all for reading my blog, and for the support you have already given me.  I would have loved to have Violet Shadows ready in time for this, but it was not to be.  Maybe a teaser in July?  Cheers!

A Question of Intent

First of all, Ashford is free on Kindle today.  Happy Friday the thirteenth!


Lately I have started writing study guides for a curriculum program.  It's a great side job, as I get to reread some of my favorite children's classics (and young adult) and write about them.  The study guides focus on story structure, character, theme, literary devices, etc...


One thing that constantly comes up is the question of symbolism, and for every children's classic written there are hundreds of people willing to tell you all about what the author intended in that department.  My most recent experience was with The Velveteen Rabbit, and I heard so many different ideas concerning the possibly symbolic nature of certain passages (even one claiming that the fact that Skin Horse and the Rabbit are made Real but the mechanical toys are not is symbolic of salvation not being for everyone) that it boggled the mind.


In study guides, certainly, the question is always, "what did the author intend?" and you go from there.  And that brings me to Tolkien.


I must confess, I am a Tolkien nerd.  Always have been, since I was old enough to read the books the first time, and always will be, until I'm blind and senile.  Twice in the last year I have been present at writing-related seminars or workshops where statements were made, as fact, concerning Tolkien's supposed intent of comparing Sauron to Hitler, Mordor to Nazi Germany, etc...  Both were phrased as, "Tolkien created Mordor to represent..."  This bothers me extremely, because Tolkien stated very clearly in his lifetime that he intended no such comparison.  In the preface to the (I believe second) edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, he says:

"As for any inner meaning or "message", it has in the intention of the author none.  It is neither allegorical nor topical.  As the story grew it put down roots (into the past) and threw out unexpected branches; but its main theme was settled from the outset by the inevitable choice of the Ring as the link between it and The Hobbit.  The crucial chapter, "The Shadow of the Past", is one of the oldest parts of the tale.  It was written long before the foreshadow of 1939 had yet become a threat of inevitable disaster, and from that point the story would have developed along essentially the same lines, if that disaster had been averted.  Its sources are things long before in mind, or in some cases already written, and little or nothing in it was modified by the war that began in 1939 or its sequels.

"The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion.  If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dur would not have been destroyed but occupied.  Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth.  In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in hatred and contempt: they would not long have survived even as slaves.

"Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference.  But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.  I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers.  I think that many confuse "applicability" with "allegory"; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."

That seems fairly definite.


Of course, a good, well-concieved and well-written book will present different ideas to each person who reads it.  Some will agree with the author and some won't.  That is how it should be, and I'm thoroughly honored by anyone who sees my work as relevant to their life in a particular way.  Just don't say I wrote it to say exactly that...because I probably didn't.  Thus the "applicability" vs. "allegory" reasoning.  Thank you Tolkien.

A Mishmash of News

I am just home from spending the weekend in Portland.  The daffodils were blooming, and the flowering trees.  Two days of gloriously sunny spring weather, and two days of rainy spring weather.  Balance.  Balance is good.  Yesterday, my first day home, we had a blizzard.


I left my characters in a rather uncomfortable position when I went to Portland, and now I have to jerk myself back out of vacation mode and write them out of it.  I know where I need them to go, but I got out of the right mindset and must work my way back into it with the aid of coffee and solitude.  The poor things need to be rescued.


I made the move recently and joined KDP Select, so Ashford is available now for Amazon Prime members through the Kindle Lending Library, and I will have periodic free promotion days, of which today is the first.  So far today I've given away over five hundred copies for the promotion and Ashford is #7 in free historical fiction.  I'm just pleased that it's getting out to so many people.


We're starting rehearsals next week for our June show, and I've been commissioned to create several costumes for it.  I also have to finish choreographing my solo.  It's the first dance I've choreographed for a show, so I'm rather excited and nervous about that.  Of course, Ann is helping me polish it up.  I wouldn't dream of just throwing it on stage without the sort of polishing only Ann can give.  We'll see how that goes.


I'm planning a summer book promotion to coincide with my ten-year celebration of being cancer-free.  The plan is to donate all proceeds from Kindle sales for a certain time range to the Union for International Cancer Control, http://www.uicc.org/ and then finish it off with a head-shaving party.  I'll post updates on here and on Facebook once I know more details, and I may be asking for help spreading the word, if anyone's interested.


And now...back to the novel!

It has been a very busy week here, full of new things for me as I explore new territory in the realm of self-promotion.  I find myself grateful that the golf season is over, even though that means I'm currently unemployed, because it's been giving me time and energy to devote to Ashford which I would not have otherwise.  Yesterday was probably the most frustrating, as I spent the morning re-formatting the novel for Kindle.  I nearly threw my computer out the window in a violent rage.  However, it is now available on Kindle, and it is also available on Amazon.com as a paperback.  I'm attaching the link below, for the paperback version.  So far the one for Kindle is easier to find in a search for some reason.  I've also been setting up a book launch at the local coffeehouse where I used to work.  This is more my thing.  I'm not a Kindle person.  Never will be, I fear.  I like the feel of paper, and the book smell.  And the launch combines two of my favorite things.  Books, and coffee.  My husband will also be providing live music for the launch.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1466371730/sr=1-13/qid=1319056178/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1319056178&sr=1-13&seller=