FRIDAY FIVE: 5 Mostly Unrelated Items

Wisteria is in full bloom around here right now. It's marching to and fro upon the earth - seeing whom it can devour. But it smells so sweet!

1. My second day in a row, at home. I feel like I'm in the lap of luxury. Not that my home is so luxurious but it is home and the weather is fantastic! Mowing and planting make me a happy individual. At the moment, I'm listening to an allergy discussion on NPR's Science Friday. Thankfully, I don't have a significant problem with pollen. But backaches? That's another story.

2. A stage production of BLUE is in the works with rehearsals going on right now and shows for 3 weekends in May. You can learn more here.

3. COMFORT is out. My friend and colleague Carol Baldwin noted that although I'm blogging every day in April I have not announced that Comfort is officially released. I am woefully behind on publicity! But in case you didn't know, COMFORT, the sequel to Blue is out!

4. I'm going to conduct a contest here soon to celebrate. Two of them actually. And I'll give away copies of COMFORT.

5. There is a post-polio conference being held in Warm Springs, GA as we speak. Several hundred people are there to connect with other polios. I never had polio but just looking at the program makes me wish I were there. I'd love to hear and meet some of the speakers who helped me with my research!

YESTERDAY IN HISTORY

Around 1:00 in the afternoon on August 12, 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt was working at this card table in his beloved Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. An artist, Elizabeth Shoumatoff was painting his portrait.
A friend and neighbor, Daisy Stuckley was one of several people in the room at the time. Daisy was sitting on the couch (crocheting) when she noticed that something was wrong with Roosevelt. She went to his side to see if she could help.

In an audio recording, Daisy recalls that FDR said, "I'm having such terrific pain in the back of my head".

His doctor was called. Franklin Roosevelt was carried to his bed in the next room.
In her eye witness account, Daisy Suckley said, "We all knew what was going to happen."

The doctor did what he could but there was so little to be done. In just a few hours, at 5:48 pm regular radio programming across the United States was interrupted with this blunt announcement. "We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin from CBS World News. A press association has just announced that President Roosevelt is dead! The president died of a cerebral hemorrhage. All we know so far is that the president died at WS in Georgia."

In BLUE my character Ann Fay did not hear the announcement directly. But she knew the exact moment when it took place.

"It was late in the day when I heard a big commotion at the nurse's station. I was stuck in my bed, but I could tell something important had happened in the world. The nurse at the other end of the ward went rushing out of the room, saying "Oh dear God in heaven. What will America do now?"...

I was sliding out of my bed, fixing to get into that wheelchair, when Harvey stepped into the room. His lips was trembling, but he put his finger over them and we all got quiet. I seen his Adam's apple sliding up and down in his neck and I knew something had really upset him.

Finally Harvey spoke. "It's our president," he said. "Mr Franklin Delano Roosevelt died this afternoon at his polio place in Warm Springs, Georgia."

And then Harvey's face twisted, and he walked away quick before we seen him cry.

It was a day that will live in history...

COMFORT: Kirkus Review

Last week my editor sent me a heads up on this Kirkus review at the Barnes and Noble page for COMFORT.

Ann Fay struggles with polio as her father returns from World War II in this sequel to Blue (2006). The teenager sees his moodiness, depression and anger, and whispers, "What's happening to my daddy?" Despite her concerns, when the town of Hickory, N.C., sponsors a trip to Georgia for treatment, she goes. She loves Warm Springs and is pleased with her progress as "a polio," but her grave family concerns cast a shadow over this. When longtime friend Junior arrives at Warm Springs to tell her that her father's getting worse, she leaves immediately to find her mother bruised and pregnant and her father gone. She finds help for her father in an unlikely source-a lonely misfit veteran who understands postwar trauma. This continuation of Ann Fay's story contains vivid descriptions of postwar rural America, polio treatment, small-town life, the ravages of war and the importance of family, all related in her homespun voice. Helpful appendices provide further information. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

Happy writer here!

SPRING! (And Doors and Windows)

Yesterday I spoke with someone in the book industry whose job has been affected by the economy. So she's taking her carefully honed (and considerable) skills and approaching new fields. Ideally, hard times do that - bring out the creativity in us. And the determination.

This is a perfect time for all of us - writers, artisans, plumbers, and preachers - to look for new opportunities. How can we utilize the skills we've honed to create a new view of our lives and the condition of our world?

Remember The Sound of Music? The mother of the Abbey tells Maria - "When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window." It's one of those statements that has stayed with me after all these years. And I admit, I do sort of live by it.

I count on new opportunities when old ones die. I anticipate that bad things lead to good. And I assume that God is the one who is closing doors and opening windows for me.

I heard a program on NPR in which they said that Americans are looking at work in a new way. We can no longer expect easy benefits. The competition is stiff. The pressure is on to be better. It seems to me that if this recession brings out a new work ethic, then that's a good thing!

As a writer, I feel the competition. I tend to be stuck in history while others are writing edgy contemporary fiction. And of course, some are putting a totally unexpected spin on an old familiar tale! (Sure wish I could think like that!)

What if I can't compete with all that edgy ingenuity?

That nagging question forces me to think more broadly. To dig more deeply. To search for just the right voice for my character-in-progress. And to explore new formats for presenting my story.

One popular bit of writing advice is to put a character into a situation that we don't know how to get them out of. That's scary! But it works. Somehow it brings out the problem solver within the writer.

That's where the US is today. That's where our world is too because - as bad as our economy is here in the US - it's worse elsewhere! We're in a jam. Doors are closing.

But windows are opening.

As of today, it's SPRING!. And spring means hope! Good things are coming. We might have to work harder. We may have a dilemma we don't know how to resolve. But just outside our window is a whole new view.

VALENTINE'S DAY (A Little Late)

Since I posted my love of old newspapers on Valentine's Day, I will remedy the situation by posting a hint of romance from COMFORT which will be released next month.

“Someone’s sweet on – you, Ann Fay.”

Ed Frogge handed me an envelope with only my name on the outside. I didn’t recognize the handwriting. I looked at Ed. His bow tie was just a little bit crooked and his smile was kind of off balance too. There was mischief in his eyes.

“What is it?” I asked him.

“Go ahead. See for yourself.”

I looked in the envelope. There was another, fancier one inside. It had four stamps on it and each one had a drawing of Franklin Roosevelt with the Little White House in the background. And the envelope had his picture too.

I know my mouth fell open with the surprise of it. “Where did this come from?”

The mischief in Ed’s eyes was really acting up now. “State secret,” he said.

I looked all over the envelope, thinking I might find a name. But there wasn’t any. So now I had two envelopes and no letter. “What am I supposed to do with it?”

Ed laughed. “If I were you – I’d put it in a safety – deposit box. See that?” He pointed to some words stamped on the envelope:

FIRST DAY OF ISSUE
AUG 24

1945

“And notice the Warm Springs – postmark with the date. Roosevelt himself would – hang on to that. He was a stamp collector – you know.”

Really? Why hadn’t Sam the Encyclopedia Man told me that? Who was giving me the stamps? And why?

Ed could see I was confused. “I was told it was a – late valentine,” he explained.

“Valentine? From who?”

Ed grinned and straightened his bow tie. “As Mrs. Trotter - would say, ‘We shall see – what we shall see...’”

FRIDAY FRIENDS: FDR, Bob Prater, and Me

I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again. One of the best parts of being an author is the people I meet along the way.

For example Franklin Delano Roosevelt! After we met at Warm Springs, Georgia, FDR sent me this picture. It’s a little out of season to be sure but that’s not his fault. He sent it before Christmas. I just failed to post it then.

His name is Bob Prater, actually. I met him on Labor Day at the historic pools at Roosevelt Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs, GA. We became instant friends – maybe because we both love history. And we have a fondness for Warm Springs.
Bob Prater (aka FDR), Me, Marion Dunn (former push boy and bracemaker at Warm Springs)

Bob does historical interpretations of FDR. I haven’t been so lucky as to experience one yet. But I will. It is just a matter of time. I'm always looking for an opportunity to visit Warm Springs and I intend to get there sometime when he is in character.
FDR and Eleanor at the Little White House in Warm Springs. Eleanor interpreter is Rachel Elliot

UnCOVERing Blue's Sequel

The sequel to BLUE will be published in April '09. Part of it takes place at Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. And the cover includes a vintage photo from the campus pool.

Here's one of Ann Fay's moments in the therapeutic water there.

The first thing she did was start moving my legs to loosen them up. She was so gentle it reminded me of what the attendant had said: “Just relax and let us take care of you.”

And I have to tell you it felt so good after all the bearing up I’d done with my family, and going back to school, and even working for Ruth Whitener. I couldn’t hold on anymore. The tears started slipping out of the corners of my eyes.

Janice was turning my leg in a circular motion, but she stopped. “Did that hurt?”

I shook my head. I kept my eyes shut, but they still leaked and the tears ran off my face and into the Warm Springs pool. It seemed to me like that clean sparkly pool was a good place to let go of my sorrows.

Janice explained everything she was doing to me. She bent my legs in different positions. She rotated them. She rested my feet on her shoulders and massaged my leg muscles with her fingers. I don’t think she missed a single muscle from my belly to my toes. And she worked on my left arm because it had been affected by polio too. “You still have some weakness in your shoulder,” she said.

I think I must have cried the whole time. Not out loud or anything, just to myself. It was like Janice was working loose all the sadness and worry in me. I hoped it would go down the drain without clogging the pool filters.

PEACHY KEEN: THE STATE OF GEORGIA, JIMMY CARTER, AND WORLD PEACE

The copyedits are almost finished on my Blue sequel. While accepting (and occasionally rejecting) my copyeditor's changes, I ran across this paragraph.

In a way I hoped Daddy would go stay with Mamaw and Papaw Honeycutt. Because I knew what it was like down there. I figured if there was any place in the world that could make a sad person feel better, it was the state of Georgia.

In the sequel, Ann Fay travels to Georgia. In fact she even stays for awhile. After all, her grandparents live there. And there's a place called the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, and another known as The Little White House, and a spot in the road called Magic Hill. But mostly there is a softness in the air, a little romance, and a welcome from the people that makes Georgia so peachy keen.

I love that Jimmy Carter is from Georgia. And I love that, after his presidency, he went back to Plains and did powerful things such as write books and get involved with a great organization that changes peoples lives. I especially love that he works for peace around the world.

Assuming that Ann Fay lived to a ripe old age she was a Jimmy Carter fan because she knows first hand the after-effects of war. Here's a glimpse into how war changed things at her house.

“My daddy can’t run the tiller,” I said.

“Is it broke?”

“The sound of it scares him. He did two and a half rows and just quit. You should’ve seen how he was shaking.”

Junior hung his hat on a hook inside the living room door. And his car key beside the hat. Bessie went in the kitchen to get him some cake and milk.

He balanced the dish with the cake on his knee. He ate it without talking to me. He knew good and well I wanted him to come and till that garden for my daddy. But I could see he was going to make me beg. So I did.

“I’m asking you to till the garden for him, Junior. He wants to do right by his family. But loud noises bother him. And you know how loud that tiller is.”

“Your daddy run me off his property and I don’t suppose he’s going to let me come back two days later, now is he?”

“He won’t be home for another hour and a half. You’ve got time before he gets there.”

I knew Junior wanted to turn me down, but of course he couldn’t. And his momma was right there to make sure he didn’t. “Don’t argue. Just go,” she said. “Leroy needs you and you’ll kick yourself later if you don’t help out.”

Junior looked like he wanted to kick something right that minute. He ate one last big bite of cake and drank the rest of the milk. Then he stood and his mother took his dishes from him and carried them into the kitchen.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Lots of people ask me about Junior Bledsoe's involvement in the sequel. Yes he's in the book. And like everything else in Ann Fay's life, their relationship gets complicated. But that's all I'm saying on that subject!

Mostly I am saying that Comfort struggles with the subject of Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder (back then it was known as War Neurosis) At the time of the Civil War it was called Soldier's Heart. I could totally grab that phrase and use it for my book but uh, well the amazing Gary Paulsen has already done it!

In the wake of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan I did not have to go further than my radio to hear stories of post war trauma. In some ways, research has never been easier.

Unless you count the emotional toll. There is nothing light and easy about postwar trauma. Maybe that's why the sequel to Blue is called Comfort.