Second Proof

Who knew this whole publishing thing would be so complicated? Well, ok. I should have known it wouldn’t be a walk in the park, else it wouldn’t be special and a big occasion. The second proof looks much better than the first, even if I ignore all of the correction marks I wrote on Proof 1.

I’m feeling quite lucky today to have a talented artist friend Cathy who was not only willing to read an earlier draft but also sketched the cover art for ‘Farley Bend’. No other book cover is quite like it… though Volume II will likely have a similar feel.

National Novel Writing Month

In the end of October 2013 I was reminded that November is National Novel Writing Month. Hearing about it with a whole week to figure out where to begin and what to write about – amazing! Since I drive nearly an hour to work each morning I have time alone to ponder such things. What if part of the story was a young woman with nightmares? What is she dreaming about? And why? Can she figure out how to make the nightmares stop? And where does she live?

Farley Bend was born. Following the classic ‘write what you know’ advice, I decided to set the story in a small town in Maine. Then began the adventure of populating my small town. Who lives there? How did they get there? Who is important to the story I’m telling right now? That’s when I suspected that Farley Bend was a lot more than one novel worth of material. I could spend the first book finding out about the nightmares, then decide whose story to learn about in Volume 2. What fun!

Why write about November in June?  Because the older I get, the faster time flies.  November is just around the corner.  Have you figured out what you’d like to write about?  Check this out for inspiration:  http://nanowrimo.org/

Welcome to Farley Bend

In November 2013 I started writing about an imaginary town called Farley Bend.  Inspired by the idea of National Novel Writing Month, I wrote more than 50,000 words about Farley Bend during the month of November.  Good thing I had Thanksgiving Week off to work on my masterpiece.

I’ve had a lot of fun meeting the residents of Farley Bend.  Originally I thought writing a book meant following an outline and laying out the story I had in my head.  Imagine my surprise when the inhabitants of Farley Bend started taking off on their own tangents!

Farley Bend is an old fashioned small town where the pace is measured and people take the time to know their neighbors.  Perhaps it is also a place of healing, a place where people can come to terms with the past and prepare for a brighter future.