Oh dear, I have to think of a title

I have spent 1001 nights with Rosamunde Pilcher reading Coming Home. Well, 1001 nights minus about 900. I love that woman. Her hard bound book of 728 pages gave me a good night’s read—usually from 12 to 2 a.m. I loved that I could put it down, go to sleep, and look forward to picking it up the next night. It was an ongoing saga. Wonderful. (I even learned that Rosamunde is the name of a rose.) After that book I went immediately to Fanny Flagg’s, I Still Dream About You—I couldn’t put it down and read it in a couple of nights. (Not 728 pages.) Read that one it will give you an entirely different view of Birmingham Alabama. Two women novelists, both I love. Now I’m lost, no great novel to read. I need to go shopping…


Did you know that more people read non-fiction than fiction? Yet consider the depth, the imagination, the flow of words, and yes the philosophy that manages to seep into the pages of a novel. I have been trying to keep a novel going continually, for I believe it feeds my brain. And here I am writing non-fiction.

Okay guys, after hearing me rant and rave and pull my hair over trying to think of a title for my book I am back to The Frog’s Song.

I would like to be more quirky, not too poetic, something people would remember, short this time, not like my horse book that takes a sentence to write, but I am terrible at titles.

I have updated my website http://www.wishonawhitehorse.com/ “White Orchids and White Horses.”

If you care to take a peek or to read an excerpt of either The Frog’s Song or It’s Hard To Stay On A Horse While You’re Unconscious—or even see some beautiful pictures of Hawaii, check out

http://www.wishonawhitehorse.com/

Over and out,

Joyce

It's a Jungle Out there

I made it up to 85,000 words.

You who have been reading past posts know that I took an agent's advice with my Hawaii book. “Bring it up to the ‘sweet zone,’ of 85,000 to 95,000 words,” she said, “and I will review it.”


Okay, after much head banging and hang wringing, I stood up and took opportunity by the—what shall say? “Nuts?” Too coarse. “Horns?” Too common. “Hand?” Yes, I took opportunity by the hand and she walked with me and told me that now I could write about what I really want to write about.


Throughout this Hawaii experience there has been an undercurrent of motivational thought, of how to have a dream and go for it, of how to be happy, of how to be successful. What is “Being in the Flow? What is living an authentic life? I suppose if there is any theme to this book it would be “The Search for Happiness.” Yes, it is our story of moving to Hawaii, yes, and it is more…


When I read Steve Jobs comment on attempting to get his Apple computer into someone’s hands I thought of the many people who had a dream and went for it. I thought of the people who had faced opposition, but did it anyway. Steve Jobs, the founder of the Apple computer said, “Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you” And they said, “No,” so then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, “Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.” This was in response to his and Steve Wozniak’s attempt to get Atari and HP interested in their personal computer.


Here I am typing on one of those magic little devices people said would never go. Don’t you love it?


I am still running titles through my head for the Hawaii book: The Frog’s Song? Some people like that. Life Beyond the Horizon? No. Running Between the Raindrops? I don’t know. Out of Hawaii? After the book I love so much, Out of Africa? Dream, Believe, Live? Rain, Rain, Rust? Rain, Rain, Sun?—after Oregon, Hawaii, California, the three parts of the book, and in three parts like Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. My latest mind dropping is this: Frog on a Leash.

Last Sunday I attended a seminar in Palm Springs by the book marketer John Kremer (1001 and One Ways to Market Your Books). He said that a book ought to be like a puppy, when you pick it up you want to take it home. I love puppies, but a puppy didn’t seem quite right for this book. A frog, though, does. A frog’s song, so they say, calls the rain that settles the dust for our journey. Our journey began in Oregon, ended in California, but right now I am thinking of those little Coqui frogs of Hawaii, tiny brown frogs who come out at night and sing their little “Ko-ki” song sounding like birds chortling. Coqui’s out in the wild, calling a mate, eating mosquitoes, eating bugs, and through the open window of our little Hawaii house came their song drifting in on the breeze, sounding like a jungle out there, and we slept to the tune of it.


Hey, maybe It’s a Jungle Out There…

Any comments?

Hallelujah

As you can see, the palm tree is back in all its lighted glory—red lights around the apex, an even better display than last year.


Did you have a good Christmas? What did you think of it, was it a happy time, a family time, a nostalgic time, a time of traditions? Is it a celebration of the great high holidays of old? Does it lighten a dark time of winter? Did you once again celebrate the birth of Jesus? Does it seem as though you just took down the tree and are now putting it back up? Are you sick of Santa Claus?

The week before Christmas we were in San Diego attending a concert participated in by two friends we met long ago when we lived in San Diego. Baby Darling got a taste of culture, but about three songs was his limit. They didn’t sing the Halleluiah chorus, though, but then it wasn’t Handel's Messiah.

Later, however, as Husband Dear and I walked the streets of Old Town San Diego, there wafting from the speakers of a Mexican restaurant was the Hallelujah Chorus. All around us the colors of Mexico poured forth from the store windows and the market on the street was festooned with imports, hand crafted and festive. In the window in front of me a lady was patting out tortillas and placing them on an enormous hot grill. I stood there until I heard that high C at the end of the song, and felt the joy of the singers, and the exuberance of the music, and felt complete.

Christmas Eve. 7 a.m. Daughter Darling met her goal of 1,000 Lego listings on eBay. “By Christmas,” she said, and worked all night to do it. Months had gone into this effort. She did it! Congratulations.

I’ve moved to Oregon twice, Oklahoma twice, Hawaii once, California twice. I’m back in California and feeling much better, thank you very much.

I’m thinking of Mary Schimch’s poem, “Sunscreen.”

“Live in New York City once,” she writes, “but leave before it makes you hard, Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.”

We’ll see what Southern California does to a person…

First blog of 2012—let’s make this year the best ever!