Between Winter and Spring

March 10, 2017 and here in south central Pennsylvania it is snowing. More peculiar than that is the fact that yesterday we had a clear blue sky, brilliant sunshine and a high of sixty-four degrees Fahrenheit. I went to bed last night with a window partially open listening to the peepers at the pond and woke to the flutter of falling snow. Within less than eighteen hours the temperature dropped thirty degrees and the ground is covered with snow.

Have you ever heard of the 'onion snow?' Around here, it is not really considered Spring until after the onion grass starts growing. Why? Because there is almost always one last snow sometime in April after the onion grass grows. It's aptly named, Onion Snow. I like to tell people we have five seasons in Pennsylvania: spring, summer, fall, winter, and mud. Welcome to the mud season around here.

The thing is, if I wanted to put yesterday and today into a novel, I might be discouraged. I've been told many times over fiction must be both possible and believable. Around here, we expect the changeable weather, presence of five not four seasons, the humidity of our summers and extreme cold or crazy mild of winter, and forecasters who are frequently clueless. But, for those not from around here, these weather patterns are hard to believe.

Are you reading a book right now with some rather unbelievable situations? Before you toss the book, remember reality is often hard to fathom. After all, I just walked outside and took photos of my forsythia blooming in the snow!

Things the Reader Never Sees

You're in your favorite chair, in a cone of light from the only lamp on in the house. The rest of your family went to bed hours ago, but you were too lost in the world of story to go to bed. It's the last fifty pages and you absolutely positively cannot sleep until you read 'the end.' What readers don't know is the battle that happened long before they ever bought the book. Those last fifty pages you stayed up way too late reading may have caused the author many hours of lost sleep.

In May of this year I will finally become more than a writer. I enter the realms of the published! This is an exciting time for me. I have written't 'the end' on many manuscripts. It is certainly my prayer you will one day have the chance to read them each. But this manuscript came with a deadline and more of a plan than any I have written.

In August, 2016 I accepted a challenge to only write with God. By that I mean, I pray before I write and seek to only write when and what I am sure He would have me write. Shortly after accepting the challenge I was offered the chance to write a novella for what we call The Tiny House Collection. The idea, seven novellas in one book. The thing the books have in common is the main character must live in a tiny house. I jumped at the opportunity. I had no idea the task would be so huge and never expected the number of days my prayer "what am I writing with You God today?" would be "not writing today."

But I digress. Back to the last fifty pages. What most readers do not know is how we authors get to those last pages. This week I have not typed much, but my brain has been busy. There's a blizzard. And a bad guy. And a lady with her dog in danger. And a hero stuck at work because of the blizzard. And there's no power, no landlines or cell phone service. And it's late at night. And faith is a thin thread right now for them. And, somehow I have to get them back to the coffee shop by the lake.

 I sit at my desk and ponder. I walk outside and wish there was snow on the ground so I could experiment with movement. I close my eyes and envision every movement, every interaction, every sound, smell, sight, to be sure they are believable and accurate. What an exciting adventure I am on as I write my characters' adventures. And, if I have done my job well, sometime in the middle of May you may lose sleep late one night because you have to help them get through the blizzard too. Maybe you will share your reader's journey with me over a cup of coffee.

Chandra Lynn Smith
2016 Genesis Semi-Finalist, Romantic Suspense
2015 Genesis Winner, Novella
2014 Genesis Semi-Finalist, Novella
2013 Genesis Semi-Finalist, Contemporary

. . .Take a chapter break that lasts until you finish the book! . . .

Look for "Coming Home; A Tiny House Collection" in May 2017.