Fini -- for now

       Finally! I sent the copy for Full Moon Friday to my editor today.
        It's a long process from concept to release party , as any writer will tell you. But Full Moon Friday has a built-in deadline.  It takes place on a full moon Friday the 13th, which doesn't happen that often. The next one is June 13, 2014. There won't be another one until 2049.
          So if I want to release the  book on the obvious best possible date I need to stay on schedule. I finished my rough draft on January 1 as planned. But the rewrite process didn't go exactly as planned. A few more plot glitches than usual. And mysterious misspellings such as using "lead" when I meant "led." Don't remember that problem before.
           This book has been fun to write. It's all about the things that go wrong when the full moon coincides with Friday the 13th. The staff of the Jordan Daily News is back with lots of fast-paced action.  Many of the strange phone calls and events are based on true tales gleaned from journalists, cops, nurses and others. Truth is stranger than fiction!

Disorder in Key West

  

It must be something in the water.
    Ever since Ernest Hemingway lived here in the the '30s, people have associated Key West with writing and writers. They're more plentiful than six-toed cats, especially in January during the annual Key West Literary Seminar. The list of authors participating this year is mind boggling: Carl Hiaassen, Sara Paretsky, Elizabeth George, Michael Connelly...practically everyone on my bookshelf.
      Most of the seminar sessions are sold out, but on Sundays they have free events open to the public.  It was my great pleasure today to attend the public session and hear poet laureate Billy Collins, Gillian Flynn (author of the very dark and twisted Gone Girl) and the absolutely delightful, kilt-wearing, Alexander McCall Smith.
       Smith -- who is best known for The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series set in Botswana --  just can't help being entertaining. Instead of a speech, he wrote a story set in Key West -- a little mystery of the Apple Mac Bandit -- which he read to the crowd. He got such a kick out of the jokes he'd worked into the story that he would always start laughing at the set up until he could barely read the punchline. Once again he reminds us that a plot needn't be complex or dark to be entertaining. A good story is all in the telling.
        I just finished reading Gone Girl and was amazed that such warped characters come out of the mind of such a personable, attractive young woman. She told us she wrote her first short story in third grade. The heroine was a little girl who gets attacked and eaten by wolves. She's definitely not afraid of the dark side. Her characters in Gone Girl exhibit the horrors of the mind rather than simple blood and gore. There's actually very little violence in the book, but I found it horrifying -- especially the resolution at the end.
        The seminar was particularly inspiring to me as this month I am working on rewrites of my third novel -- Full Moon Friday, the latest chapter in the Jordan Daily News Series.Flynn said she enjoys the rewriting process, writing whole chapters she knows will never be in the book just to see how well she knows what her characters will do in any given situation.
         So, as I return to my rewriting process I'll hear Flynn telling me to know my characters and Alexander McCall Smith encouraging me to have a good time telling the story..

Have you seen this tree?

     

Somebody stole my Christmas decorations!
        I know that sounds like a poor imitation of a great Dr. Seuss classic, but evidently the Grinch is alive and well in the Florida Keys.
        The land of scraggly pine, leafy palms and plentiful poisonwood seems an unlikely setting for a holiday hooligan. I doubt the The Keys have ever seen snow. Even in the last ice age. That's what makes it so attractive to Michigan snowbirds. This is our third winter in The Keys, and our second year renting the same house. Since we knew we were returning, and the owner only rents to a limited number of friends and family, we decided to leave some bulky items -- a kayak and a  bait freezer -- as well as a small box of Christmas decorations. The kayak and freezer were waiting for us, but the Christmas decorations disappeared.
         This wasn't a box of rare German glass ornaments or crystal. Just a plaid tablecloth, a fake flower centerpiece, a lighted table decoration and a small wooden tree  I miss that tree. It was only a foot tall, but I purchased it at a craft fair 25 years ago when my son was just a little kid. It's a puzzle tree, made of carved pieces that fit together in several different tree-shape configurations.It was a conversation piece at many holiday celebrations. And now it's gone.
         Losing the Christmas decorations won't spoil my holiday. I learned the lesson of the Dr. Seuss story. Christmas isn't about stuff; it's about friends, family and faith. If someone out there is so deprived (depraved?) that they need my decorations to be happy, then I donate them gladly. I have my health, my guy and faith in God. And thanks to The Keys, I'll probably be enjoying beautiful weather on Christmas, too.
          So, enjoy my decorations, Mr. Grinch.
        

Lucky 13

I know Friday the 13th is supposed to be bad luck, but  this one has been pretty fantastic so far. We're enroute to our winter home in the Florida Keys. We left Wednesday morning in a go-back-to-bed blizzard. But Steve was determined to get on the road. Barely a half hour east of Grand Rapids the blizzard waned. We still had a little snow off and on all though Ohio and into Kentucky. When we got up Thursday morning it was a bone chilling 6 degrees. It was only a little better when we awoke this morning in Macon, Ga. A whopping 22. But as the day progressed, the sun came out and the frost disappeared. We visited with a friend in Jacksonville, Fla,where shirt sleeves were adequate. Steve changed into shorts and sandals for a tour trolley in St. Augustine. It feels so good to be warm again.

I am hopeful we've seen the last of frost, at least until April Fools when we return to Michigan!

And hopefully this Friday the 13th will be a lucky inspiration for me to finish the final chapters of Full Moon Friday, my next book in the Jordan Daily News series. It is set on a Friday the 13th that coincides with the full moon. I plan to release the book next June when the full moon will once again coincide with Friday the 13th.

Natalie times four

       

Excellent. Extraordinarily entertaining evening.
        I just can't say enough good things about the Natalie MacMaster/Donnell Leahy show I saw last night at the City Opera House in Traverse City.

         The very pregnant MacMaster -- baby #6 is due in April -- presented her usual high energy, fast fiddlin' of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, complete with interludes of her high stepping jigs and her amazing knee spins. She was joined by her husband of 11 years, Donnell Leahy, whose fiddling style is more classical, with showy, broad strokes and long, lingering notes. Then for a real treat, three of their children came out and played their little violins and danced some pretty fancy steps. The oldest daughter is following the MacMaster tradition, and will be giving her mother competition before long.
          Add outstanding piano accompaniment and guitar picking by the members of their band, and it was a footstompin' fanfare of music as good or better than any I have ever seen. All this in the beautiful, intimate setting of the City Opera House. Extraordinary evening. 

50 Shades of Gray

OK. Maybe 50 is an exaggeration. But you can expect to see lots of shades of gray in the costumes and sets of Grand Rapids Civic Theatre's upcoming production "The Giver," which opens Friday, Oct. 18. Based on Lois Lowry's Newberry Award-winning book, "The Giver" is about a utopian world without pain or fear (and probably no wrangling Congress to shut down the government.) But there's also no real joy ...and no realization of color. It's kind of like an old black and white movie, infinite shades of gray, long before that title took on such a sexy implication.

Don't expect Civic's production to be as shocking as "Fifty Shades of Gray," but expect a story with surprising depth about the choices one must make when facing adulthood. Director Pamela Steers recommends the show for middle school and older. She is pictured above with Jim Chervenka in the title role and Jake T. Goldberg, who portrays Jonas, the young man chosen to learn The Giver's secrets.

Can't stop singing those songs

   

I never claimed to be a singer, but when I'm alone in my own home -- watch out. Doing the housework Wednesday it was an off-key "Sherry, Sherry baby, Sherry." Loading the car in the garage Thursday  it was "Oh, pretty baby! Now that I've found you stay. Oh, Pretty Baby, Forgive me when I say..." at the top of my lungs. And petting my  cat, a quiet "As long as love can survive, I thank God I'm alive..."
    It's all because of "Jersey Boys." I saw the show Tuesday at DeVos Performance Hall and it won't let me go. I had seen it once before in Chicago, but if anything this touring show was even better. More electric.
     I sang a couple bars of  "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Walk Like a Man" for my mom on Skype and it was good enough that she quickly remembered the songs of The Four Seasons. "Oh, yeah, I know those songs," she said.
     Last night I woke up at 3 a.m. and all I could think of was "Late December back in '63, what a special time for me, as I remember, what a night."
     If you didn't catch this show, the good news is you have five more chances this weekend: tonight and double performances both Saturday and Sunday. But be warned, the music will follow you home.