Family Trees

What do a Florida horse thief, a Dutch dressmaker who can speak seven languages, and an Austrian dairy farmer living in Brazil have in common?

Each one can be found on the family tree of the friend I had lunch with today at Fat Boys ("where the locals go"). One branch of Joy's family traces its Georgia/Florida roots back as far as the 1700s. Another vines its way back in time to pre-World War I Austria and Holland (with that detour to Brazil).

I'm emerald green with jealousy. Sure, my mom's paternal ancestors go in a straight trunkline back to the late 1700s in Ohio. But I'm not sure how they got there or where they came from. And what about their wives' ancestors? They are lost in the mists of history.

My kids know that one of their dad's Irish ancestors probably married a shipwrecked sailor from the Spanish Armada. There's also a chance they have a drop or two of Native American blood. But my husband's genealogical record is even more sparse than mine.

So, yes! I'm envious that my friend has treasured keepsakes from her Dutch dressmaker maternal ancestor.

And I'm thinking I want to learn more about this woman's long-ago life. Her intriguing "fact" may inspire fascinating fiction.

And I'm thinking it's past time to seek out the mysterious women in my own family tree.

Florida Christian Writers Conference After Hours

With less than three weeks before the FCWC,  my writing pals and I are hunched over laptops getting our projects ready for editors and publishers. And that's not all -- we're also getting ready for After Hours presentations.

Conference After Hours, held after the evening general session, are informal workshops. Here's what we're doing:

• On behalf of the Kindred Heart Writers, Clella Camp will present tips on forming an online critique group from our booklet, The Write Team. You'll get ideas for starting a group, finding new members, and critiquing.
• Jeanie Wise and Melinda Means are presenting Blogging Tips from the Trenches: Lessons Learned by Two First-Year Bloggers. These ladies are steadily building their readership and want to share their ideas with you.
• I'm presenting Novice Novelist Novel Notes, the lessons learned about creativity, theme, characters, and plot while finishing a manuscript.

If you're coming to conference, please join us for our After Hour workshops. We hope to see you there.

Quotable Quotes

A child's hand in yours -- what tenderness and power it arouses.

You are instantly the very touchstone of wisdom and strength.

Marjorie Holmes


Line by line, moment by moment,
special times are etched into our memories in the permanent ink
of everlasting love in our relationships.

Gloria Gaither

Among the Chosen

"Becoming a writer is not a 'career decision' like becoming a doctor or a policeman. You don't choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accept the fact that you're not fit for anything else, you have to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days."

"I don't know why I do what I do. If I did know, I probably wouldn't feel the need to do it. ... Surely it is an odd way to spend your life — sitting alone in a room with a pen in your hand, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, struggling to put words on pieces of paper in order to give birth to what does not exist — except in your head. Why on earth would anyone want to do such a thing? The only answer I have ever been able to come up with is: because you have to, because you have no choice."

Happy birthday (a day late) to author Paul Auster.

Motivating Weaver or Weaving Motivator? Who am I?

I'm a Motivator and a Weaver.

I'm not sure exactly what that means.

You can find out the role you were born to play by taking the fun and easy Strong Life Test for Women.

Several women I know who took the quiz came up with results that fit them to a tee.

And, in a way, so did I. As a Motivator, I'm naturally optimistic and can step into a leadership vacuum. As a Weaver, I'm genuinely curious and trust my friends.

But the rest of the story is that these are people-oriented roles. And I'm an introspective introvert who spends long hours either reading a book or writing (rewriting) one. How do these roles fit into my mostly stay-at-home-with-only-the-dog-for-company life?

So I did the natural thing -- I got on my local library's website and requested Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham. Still waiting for the call to go pick it up.

Special thanks to social media expert Laura Christianson, Blogging Bistro, for showcasing the quiz.

Late Bloomers

My priority project with the most priority? One more revision of what I hope will be my debut novel. I also hope, as a mom old enough to have three adult children, it isn't too late to begin a fiction-writing career.

Though I make no claims to latent genius, I'm encouraged by Malcolm Gladwell's essay, “Late Bloomers: Why Do We Equate Genius with Precocity?” We may think that creative genius “requires the freshness and exuberance and energy of youth,” but that's not necessarily true.

Prodigies are conceptual, says economist David Galenson, “in the sense that they start with a clear idea of where they want to go, and then they execute it.” Late bloomers take more of an experimental approach, “revising and despairing and changing course” on the long journey to recognition and acclaim.

I'm not sure that the reasons are always as complex as Twain's and Cezanne's experiences indicate. I probably could have written that debut novel in an earlier season of my life. But at what cost to my family? After all, I was already juggling a full-time job and, for several years, working toward a graduate degree.

Just another reason the empty nest days are dazzlin' days -- late bloomers we may be, but our blossoms can be just as lovely!