Wednesday, June 22, 2011

HER NAME IS BETH...

I'd like to introduce you to a special woman who has become a good friend and an important part of my life over the past few years. Her name is Beth.

She's middle-aged, but still struggling with a tragic past that haunts her. Growing up on a wilderness island on a lake along the U.S./Canadian international border, she was just a young girl when her mother mysteriously drowned in the big lake. Her mother was gone. She had no father -just her grandmother who did her best to raise her right.

Barely grown, Beth fell in love - with the wrong man - and suffered through an abusive marriage for twenty years. Finally, she escaped, and went home to her family's island. Her grandmother had just passed on. Once again, Beth was alone with the demons from her past.

Embarking upon a journey of self-discovery, she found her mother's old diaries which held shocking long-held family secrets...including the identity of her father. Spirits of the past emerged as she struggled through a complex web of emotions and shifting relationships.

She doubted that she'd ever be able to forgive and put the past behind her, much less learn to love again.

While I tried to help her work through her shifting emotions, to gently nudge her along the road to healing,she had a mind of her own. She was intent on creating her own reality, her own destiny...perhaps a good sign that she was, in fact, learning and growing. I'm proud of my friend.

And now,
the rest of the story...
WHO is this special woman exactly? Well, she happens to be the main character in my novel, WATERS OF THE DANCING SKY!She's also become a good friend who has taught me a lot as "we" wrote this novel together. I hope you are able to meet her someday in the pages of this novel - and the sequel that I plan to do in response to reader requests.

Stay tuned and please stay in touch!

Janet Kay
www.watersofthedancingsky.com

Thursday, June 16, 2011

"Writing is a journey...not a destination"

I was sitting at my computer, hammering away, trying to meet another self-imposed deadline. Now that I had my first novel out (Waters of the Dancing Sky)my readers were anxious for a sequel. I'm honored! But lately they've been asking how soon it will be available in the bookstores or on Amazon.com. Meanwhile, I'm struggling to complete another novel which will be set in the old western ghost town of Virginia City, Montana. So much to do...so little time. Wasn't publication, after all, my ultimate destination? Isn't that why we all write?

Maybe...maybe not. I belong to a wonderful writers group, The St. Croix Writers, and am learning a great deal from the members. Publication isn't necessarily the goal for many of my writer friends. It's the writing that counts - the sharing of thoughts and memories. It's a matter of tapping into one's creativity, looking at the world in a new way, learning and growing. If publication occurs, that's great. But,it's really more about the process of writing itself and the sense of satisfaction that results.

Yes, "writing is a journey, not a destination." We need to take time to enjoy the trip. Along the way, some of us chose to stop at destination points, islands of publication, before we embark again. But we need to take time to enjoy the journey, I think, instead of obsessing over publication and deadlines.

Today the loons are calling to me as gentle waves lap against the shore outside my window. Diamonds of sunlight glisten and dance across the waves. I think my computer needs a break from me today!

Stay tuned and please stay in touch!

Janet Kay
www.watersofthedancingsky.com