So we are now in November and the end of the year is drawing close. A second wave of Covid19 infections is on it way, so we really are in a new normal, Covidtide life.
So Halloween came, but there isn’t much trick-or-treating around here anyway. The bigger thing for me has been to remember (Protestant) Reformation Day, October 31. I remember the 500th anniversary was a few years ago in 2017. A lot of books got published commemorating it. Thus, more books to read this time of year. I’ve been reading one of Diarmaid MacCullough’s books: link. He talks about all the reformations of the period.
Then All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day as we remembered all those who have died. There is a song that I always remember during this time, I sing a song of the saints: link.
In honor of Reformation Day, I was thinking my characters in both my works in progress need to reference faith in some way that reaffirms their sense of Protestant identity.
So how has the writing been coming along? As I’ve been making progress with my critique group, I’ve been thinking about how much I’ve revised so far and the “saggy middle” in novel-writing. It’s referred to as a point in the writing process when things slow down because there might be less tension before things pick up again: link.
Gwen Hayes notwithstanding–link, beat sheets can be tough–I’m too much of a pantser as compared to a plotter, but I think I can avoid the problems of the “sagginess” if i think about the manuscript in one third segments. I want to make sure I have strong tensions in each of the three.
I’ll have to miss some writers’ group meetings this month. It’s a major conflict that’s keeping me away, a church conference for my district, and I have to be there. Zoom can only handle one call at a time, and so it goes.
What else is going on? My altar ego, “bookish” me (as per my twitter bio) is reading, of course. Not only the inspirational romances I mentioned last month, but a number of other ones.
Susan Wiggs’ book was great as a women’s fiction novel with strong romantic elements. A woman loses her mother and fiance in the same plane crash just as her grandfather, her last surviving relative, develops dementia. A real tear-jerker. She finds a happily ever after with the contractor determined to help her save the house and bookstore that has been in her family for generations: link.
The applications are in for RWA Academic Grants Committee. I look forward to reading the proposals.
What about the other books? The guys with swords? My husband likes military historical fiction, so we read the two books by Ben Kane. The one with the stained glass window, I’m thinking of reading it for December: link. Advent takes place the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I see it as the real beginning of the Christmas season.
And yet, I’m on the verge of finishing my Reformation book, so what will I read until then? I was thinking that in honor of All Saints Day, I might read A Great Cloud of Witnesses for the entire month: link!
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Barbara James 