CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

April 21_530 words

Our thoughts and prayes remain with the missing, and  the injured, crew from the oil rig off Venice, Louisiana, which last night exploded and burned, and with the Coast Guard searchers and rescuers striving valiantly to locate the missing men. Just a couple weeks ago was the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster; now this, with 11, possibly 15, crew missing.





http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-naw-oil-rig-explosion-20100422...





Our thoughts and prayers are also with the ongoing situation in Hemet, California, in which the police department seems to have been targeted for assualt and possibly killing, with booby trap weapons. Reports say the police suspect white supremacists, because that department had arrested multiple members of a vicious motorcycle gang.





http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hemet-20100421,0,2674052.story





http://www.latimes.com/news/local/crime/la-me-0422-hemet-hate-20100422,0,6860438...





On the Writing Front:





As I finished Script Frenzy April 1-15, the current month's workshop at

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was slightly postponed until April 15. That, and the fact that I pretty much sorted through three different book concepts before arriving at this point.


As I've mentioned here before, Gentle Readers, I based the Stage Play on a character idea inspired in Spring 2008 by WDC's own excellent author Asherman and I changed the time period from 1750 to 1863-1870 for the Play context. First I thought I would write a novel series using that character (Obax) and her grandmother Yitube (1720-1722) and would call it The Yoruba Series. Book One would be Yoruba to Aruba, 1720-1722, with Yitube the “star,” Book Two would be Aruba to Georgia, 1750 on, with Obax the “star.”





Well, by April 15, I had turned myself upside down and inside out, and decided to write a series that's been maybe 40 years in the making (on the percolator) for me-a Civil War Series.


So, since I am fortunate enough to have the book on which this month's workshop is based:


Karen Wiesner's First Draft in 30 Days beginning April 15 I am working through the book on my own, as well as via the workshop, and making real progress. On Day 6, yesterday, I came up with the title (this is the longest I think it's ever took me for a title). For the first time ever, this “seat of the pants” writer is outlining, and I've become a convert. Outlining by Ms. Wiesner's method is wonderful, and astonishingly productive!





In May I will be writing this novel, and using the techniques in Ms. Wiesner's Chapter Eight to outline a book in progress, which is the twenty chapters of Child Puppets of the Testament Logging Corporation, Book Three of a series, which were written March 23-31, and then postponed for Script Frenzy. Later I will (perhaps June) use the “re-outline” to work on the third book in my Mediumistic Mary series, begun in December but postponed to write Book One of a different series (Dec. 9-March 11) and Book Two of that different series (March 1-22) of which Child Puppets is the third.





But never fear, Gentle Readers: the Civil War Series continues. I project AT LEAST three books-whom am I kidding? There's the War; Reconstruction; the Great Depression; WWII; the Cold War. Yes, it'll be a while before I say goodbye to this series!