BJ Hoff's GRACE NOTES

What Worked for Me This Week ... and What Didn't

This week can end any time now. Really. Not that it hasn't had its moments, but I'm ready to be finished with it.

The bad news: For starters, my husband took a bad fall on a concrete patio and consequently has a cracked rib, a badly inflamed and messed-up rotator cuff, along with several other contusions and "sore spots." He begins physical therapy tomorrow. He calls it a three-point landing, but I'd describe it as a six-point crash. All because of a misplaced garden hose .

The good news: He's going to be all right ... eventually.

The bad news: The election-campaigns-and-conventions-gone Hollywood. I am so sick of the snarky commercials, the done-t0-death interviews that tell us absolutely nothing, the prophecying and analyzing and circus acts that these days pass for "election coverage," when in truth the entire process is aimed at being the Greatest Show on Earth. The Broadway productions and American Idol showmanship make me want to run screaming from any room with a tv set on the premises. And then we have the Hollywood celebrities rushing to be seen--and heard ... over and over and over again, as if their opinions on the political process are in any way constructive or enlightening. 

Indeed. Just about as constructive and enlightening as my views on brain surgery and rocket science might be.

The good news: On rare occasion, someone notices that what Americans would really like to hear about are the issues that concern us. (I think I've heard the word "issues" mentioned at least twice this week.) But there's still the unlikely celebrity voice who seems to realize that folks aren't sitting around, holding their collective breath until he shares his views (at great length) about his political opinions. Take Kid-Rock--he actually said this: "I truly believe that people like myself, in a position of entertainers in the limelight, should keep their mouth shut on politics because, at the end of the day, I'm good at writing songs and singing. What I'm not educated in is the field of political science ..."

Imagine that. 

The bad news: This week's convention doesn't end the madness. We still have next week to go.

The good news: Some of the pain will end in November. Maybe. We can bear anything for two months. Can't we? 

The bad news: The situation with Russia/Georgia hums with an increasingly ominous tone. There's a new hurricane striking fear into New Orleans and other cities. Panic is on the rise--and understandably so. Rogue nations are still beating their threatening drums and spewing the invective of hatred and nuclear cataclysm in the direction of the United States and their own neighbors.

The good news: God is bigger than fear and catastrophe and still cares about His people and His creation. Despite seeming evidence to the contrary, He's in control. Truth is, God Himself is--the Good News.

And so there's every chance that next week will be better.

BJ     

Q & A

Being away from Grace Notes while I finished the manuscript for Rachel's Secret allowed quite a number of questions to accumulate. I'll tackle a few at a time, so be patient with me ...

Q. What kind of background music do you play while you're writing?

A. I can't have any kind of music playing while I'm actually writing. I learned years ago, to my frustration, that because I become so deeply involved in the writing itself--and because I also become equally involved in whatever music might be playing--I have to make a choice. It's one or the other. The good news is that music is almost always on around here at any other time, including when I'm just thinking about the story.

Even then I have to be careful. When I'm working out a plot segment or a scene that involves an Irish character, I don't dare listen to Italian music--and vice versa. If I'm thinking about a scene that involves action, I choose a different kind of music than if I were writing a quieter, contemplative scene. I suppose it's because music influences my emotions and my thoughts to such a degree that it can also influence my writing voice, even when I'm simply thinking through a scene and not actively writing it.

Now that I think about it, I suppose the only time my house is genuinely quiet is when I'm writing.

Q. Do publishers seek your input for the covers of your books, or is that left totally up to the artist?

A. Depends on the publisher, but most try to get the covers to align closely with the stories. They invite character descriptions, scene ideas, and anything else that will help the artists and designers develop a cover that's appropriate for the story and appealing to the reader. Naturally, there's no way they can read my mind and come up with the exact images as I "see" them, but they make an effort to produce covers that at least reflect the stories. I've been particularly happy with the way Harvest House seems to catch my vision and respond to it.

Q. I'm working on my first novel, which I'm writing in first person POV.  Have you ever written in first person? 

A. No, I haven't, other than on an experimental basis. My primary reason is that there are so many traps a writer can fall into with first person (in case anyone reading this doesn't know what "first person POV" is, it's writing in the "I" point of view--"I hid the letter.") Third person POV is writing in the "he" or "she" point of view ("He hid the letter," "Sam hid the letter," etc. )

I've read too many novels in which authors well-experienced in first-person POV fell into some of those traps, diverting me from the story. If an author who writes almost entirely in first-person POV--and who has written several books in it--can still get caught up in those problem areas, it's probably safe to assume that I'll have some of the same difficulties.  

My favorite POV for writing--and for reading--is a very close third-person. I like to be inside the characters' heads, in tune with their emotions, but have the freedom to change POV with appropriate breaks. First-person does work well for some suspense and mystery novels, and also for some coming-of-age stories, but I don't write in those genres, so I stick to close third POV. 

Q. On a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of the writing and story quality, where would you rate the current bestseller, The Shack?

A. I haven't read it. If you'd see my to-be-read stack, you'd understand why a bestseller is no longer a bestseller by the time I get to it--if I ever do!

Q. Do you read poetry? Who's your favorite poet?

A. I do. In fact, I think reading poetry is a must for a fiction writer or an aspiring novelist. My favorite? W. B. Yeats.

BJ  

The End

Hear that long, tired sigh of relief?

Rachel's Secret is now on its way to the printer's. The mauscript has been submitted, the galleys have been read, and I've even managed to shovel out at least half of my office. Soon I'll start tending to all the items on the to-be-done list that were put off during those crazy deadline days. And it's a long list.

Among my author-friends, endings are celebrated in different ways. Some shout  "Hallelujah," some dance around the house, others run away for a well-deserved vacation or long weekend. I'm usually too tired to run away or dance, though the long weekend is going to come later. I don't want to sound pious here, but the first thing I do is pray a wholehearted, much-relieved prayer of thanks. Honest. So many things can go wrong throughout the extended time it takes to complete a book project (and many of them do go wrong),  so  many obstacles and problems and detours seem to arise, that during those last few weeks and especially the last few days I sometimes feel as though I'm walking a tightrope with a suicide bomb strapped on. And no matter how many books I've written or how familiar the process is by now, the dreadful deadline days never seem to change.

Anyway--after I pray, I make certain my long-suffering husband and my daughters hear the news. They're always happy to know I'm out of my cage again for a time so we can do a few normal family things before the next deadline crush. 

Rachel's Secret is a little different for me, and I've already been asked why I chose to set a story in an Amish community. Not to worry: I haven't forsaken my roots. There's a rascal of an Irish-American riverboat captain on board, and I provided him with a worthy opponent in a British physician, who's a friend as well as a doctor to the Riverhaven Amish. 

I live fairly close to one of the largest Amish communities in the country (Holmes County, Ohio), and even closer to another order. And quite frankly, I've received a lot of reader correspondence over the past few years from folks who leave little doubt that they yearn to get back to a simpler time, a more basic kind of life. The Amish faith and Plain lifestyle have long interested me as well as my readers, and after several discussions with my editor and agent--and a great deal of research--the idea for the new series was born. The series title, by the way, is The Riverhaven Years, and Rachel's Secret, just completed, is the first title--to be released October 1.

For now, the weekend beckons, and first on the list is a very long, leisurely dinner with my husband. Steak, shrimp, and chocolate ice cream. Ah, decadence.

BJ