The Writing Life

Edie here. Today, marks the beginning of something new here on the blog. Two to three times a month, in place of the usual Social Media Image Saturday, I'll be introducing you to some of my author friends. So without further ado, I'm happy to introduce you my first guest author, Gail Kittleson. I was fortunate to be invited to appear on her blog, Dare to Bloom, back in May and I'm so excited to have her on The Write Conversation. Be sure to give her your usual warm welcome!

The Writing Life
by Gail Kittleson @GailGKittleson

Writing takes confidence. What a comforting thought as I look back over those unproductive years, my “wasted years.” Without believing that our words and unique perspective matter, who finds the courage to write? Yet Virgil wrote, “Fortune favors the brave.”

But if nobody else can create the precise stories that come to us, begging to be penned, then we have a mission. Unless we tell this tale, who will? And if this story remains unwritten, if we hide it under a bushel, who will miss embracing its truth?

Writing means facilitating feelings in our reader. We want them to feel what we’ve felt, what we sense deep within. We avoid words like elated, sad, disappointed, miserable, and hesitant, because we want to evoke emotion in the reader, not tell them how to feel.

      

Memoir writing taught me that even in nonfiction, the goal is the reader’s emotion. The Glass Castle’s startling image of the author’s mother digging in a dumpster stays with me. So does the young heroine's utter terror in To Kill a Mockingbird, and a thousand other emotional responses various authors worked hard to stir up in me.

That’s what it’s about—the connection between writer and reader, the power flow from spirit to spirit, soul to soul. It’s why we speak of “beloved authors.” They’ve moved us in one way or another—to grief, to longing, to ecstasy, to puzzlement or distress. It's why I want to meet Isaiah in heaven—his words have made all the difference in my journey.

As writers, we must believe in ourselves, in our intrinsic value. This was where I got lost on the way to authorship. For shame-based would-be writers, the trek to confidence, fraught with speculation and introspection, seems to take forever.

    

But little by little, step-by-step, I heard my voice—found my voice, as they say. The writing life involved waiting for things to shift into place inside me before confidence gradually slipped in. Oh, I kept busy, but I was merely dabbling in my passion.

Instructing college expository writing helped tremendously. I love cheerleading students who believe they can’t write. They can, of course, and what fun to join in their colossal discovery. The involved process of helping them find their theme, cut unnecessary verbiage, and choose strong verbs to hone their truth honed mine: I needed to write again.

As Mark Twain quipped, “The two more important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.” I would add the day you develop the confidence to answer that call. Now, after years of learning fiction skills, my debut novel has released. No, none of the big names picked it up, but the small company that did assigned it to their Vintage line and classifies it SUPER SWEET. That means the entire book contains nary a reason to blush.

Yet Dottie, the heroine, shares her story with clarity and purpose. After all, she thinks, there must be a purpose—she survived losing her only son to World War II. On top of that, her daughter Cora moved to California straight out of high school to work for the war effort, married a sailor and settled down in the Golden State—another loss.

Dottie contributes to her everyday post-war world in down-to-earth ways—cooking and cleaning, volunteering at her church, and tending her garden. But when troubles arise in Cora’s third pregnancy, old fears inhibit Dottie from traveling across the country to help her and meet those precious grandbabies. And as that elusive, intangible quality of confidence grows in Dottie, so does the interest of the widower next door.

This story links with every woman who’s ever traveled the road from anxiety to confidence. Dottie’s become very real to me—I hope readers will embrace her and cheer her on, while I continue writing and believing.

TWEETABLE
Thoughts on the #Writing Life - via @GailGKittleson on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Blurb: It’s 1946. Dottie Kyle, an everyday Midwestern woman who lost her only son in the war and her husband soon after, takes a cooking/cleaning job at a local boarding house. But when a new employee is hired, complications arise, and when they niggle Dottie’s “justice meter”, she must decide whether to speak up or not. 

At the same time, her daughter's pregnancy goes awry and the little California grandchildren she's never met need her desperately. But an old fear blocks her way. When the widower next door shows Dottie unexpected attention, she has no idea he might hold the clue to unlocking her long-held anxieties.

Gail Kittleson:Our stories are our best gifts, and blooming late has its advantages—the novel fodder never ends. Gail writes from northern Iowa, where she and her husband enjoy gardening and grandchildren. WhiteFire Publishing released Gail’s memoir, Catching Up With Daylight in 2013, and her debut women’s historical fiction, In This Together (Wild Rose Press/Vintage Line) greets the world on November 18, 2015. Please feel free to contact her—meeting new reading friends is the frosting on her cake!

http://www.gailkittleson.com/

www.facebook.com/gail.kittleson

https://www.facebook.com/Gail-Kittleson-author-1799350843625035/timeline/

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/gail-kittleson/43/935/b06

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3459831.Gail_Kittleson