Remembering Those We Have Lost

 

As we take time today to honor those we lost on September 11, 2001, I have been thinking about how grief affects everyone in a different way. And as a writer, I naturally turn to my writing to help me work through my grief.

 

In an article I wrote on Medium called “Writing to Remember,” I talk about how I have written songs and poems to remember those we have lost. I have written poems in memory of people I did not even know.

 

It’s not just poems and songs I have written in memory of people who have passed away, though. Sometime after my mother passed away, I was inspired to write a children’s book called Wolf Whispers. In this story, a young character loses her mother, and she discovers a wolf who comforts her during her time of grief.

 

I also wrote a collection of poems about grief. The book is called Poems for the Grieving Heart and all of the poems are written objectively because they are meant for the person experiencing grief. These poems are meant to provide comfort and the book was dedicated to my aunt and uncle, who lost their son in a car accident.

 

As far as poems remembering those I knew who have passed away, I am also writing another collection of poetry with these kinds of poems. However, this collection also contains poems written in memory of people lost who I did not know. (It is still a work in progress.)

 

As far as 9/11 goes, I did write a poem in memory of the lives lost that day. The poem is called “They Were Our Neighbors” and it was read at a ceremony in New York when a bench was dedicated to the memory of those lost. You can read more about what other kind of influence this poem had on a reader here.

 

If you feel compelled to write something after experiencing loss, then take the time to put to use your talent with words in a way that helps you with your grief. Some people even find comfort in writing in a journal after they have lost a loved one.

 

Grief has a very strong effect on people, but for writers, we may feel compelled to write something to honor someone who passed away. Or we write it in their memory or as a tribute to them. (I have read some very beautiful tributes written for lost loved ones on Facebook.) Writing through our grief can be very therapeutic and help us to cope with the pain of loss. Sometimes it can be hard to share with others the pain we are feeling because of grief, but when we turn to our writing, we end up finding the right words to say.

My Next Big Thing, Take 2

I was tagged by Charlene A. Wilson in the “My Next Big Thing” blog hop.

The Rules: Answer some questions about the book I'm currently working on. Since I have recently dug out an old manuscript I wrote years ago and am now in the process of fixing up for submission, I have chosen this novel to talk about for the blog hop.

Next, I must tag authors to keep the hop going around the web so that everyone can read about The Next Big Thing.  I listed them below.

The Questions:

What is your working title of your book?

 “Faded Reflection.” Not sure if it’s a title I would want to keep but it works for now.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Two things actually inspired the idea for this novel. When I was a college student, my sister and I lived together. I was going to college and she was going to high school. We kept getting strange calls from this guy who demanded to speak to someone named “Betty.” This guy was calling us every day, sometimes several times a day and at odd hours of the night. No matter how much we tried to convince him there was no Betty living there, he thought we were lying and kept yelling at us over the phone to let him speak to her. The other thing that inspired the idea for this story was a song. I often played the song “Gloria” by Laura Branigan and something about the words to that song plus our creepy caller had me putting this story idea together. (I knew the song well before I lost my hearing and I still had some of my hearing when I was able to wear hearing aids so I was able to enjoy songs I knew before becoming deaf until the rest of my hearing was gone and hearing aids became useless.)

What genre does your book fall under?

 Suspense.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I’m going to select people based on how closely they match how my characters look.


Laura Williams: Laura is a redhead in her early thirties so I think Laura Prepon (she played Donna on That 70s Show) is a good choice. I know she's gone blonde now but she really has my character's face, especially the eyes. And she's also really a "Laura"!

Jeff Carson: I think Ryan Gosling would do well playing the hero of the story. He is a little younger than my character (who is 38) but he has Jeff’s face and I’m sure Hollywood can touch him up to look older.

 Carl Gunderson:  The best match for the bad guy in this story would be Brandon Routh.

 Sandy Dollarhide: This character is a Latin American nurse who is Laura’s co-worker, so I think Sofia Vergara would be a good choice because she looks like my character Sandy.

Karen McAvery: Laura’s best friend should be played by Jodi Lyn O'Keefe. She looks a lot like Karen.

 

 

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

 
Looking exactly like someone else can be dangerous … especially if that someone else is supposed to be dead.

Will your book be self-published or published by an agency?

 I am submitting this manuscript to one of my publishers.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I have no idea! I wrote the first draft of this book in 1994 and it sort of languished away when I focused on a different novel.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

A Thin Dark Line by Tami Hoag

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

See above.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

One very big issue with this story is that it addresses stalkers and stalking. My antagonist stalks my protagonist in this story. A character in this story is secretly a part of an organization that helps stalking victims. I hope this story will emphasize how dangerous stalking is for a lot of people, and not just for women.

Now I must tag authors:

Lee-Ann Graff-Vinson

Aubrie Dionne

Kathleen S. Allen

Note: I incorrectly noted that I wrote the first draft of my novel in 2004. That is not correct and I fixed the mistake. I completed the first draft in 1994, then picked it up again in 2004 to revise. The manuscript remained with the editor of a publishing company for 5 years before it was again forgotten about then I just recently went back to it again, as of yesterday. I just realized that in the event this novel is published next year, that will make it a book that finally sees print 20 years after I started writing it!

Song titles in writing

Shortly after my newest poetry book came out, I Googled the title to see if it was on any other sites. It was still too early for any reviews of this book to be up, but I just wanted to see where else it was uploaded or discussed. Aside from my own mentions of the book on my sites, it was not anywhere else, but like I said, it was still too early to expect that. All the same, my search led me to a surprising discovery.

The first part of the title, “Love is Like a Rainbow,” is what I Googled. And I come to find out that there is a song with that same title! Very cool. I read the lyrics and liked how the song uses imagery to evoke the idea of a rainbow.

I didn’t know there was a song called “Love is Like a Rainbow.” The title is from a poem included in the collection, one which I wrote several years ago. I decided to use it as the title poem because it really spoke so strongly of how multi-layered and forgiving love can be. Rainbows symbolize a promise, just as love does.

What’s interesting is that I found out that there is a song with this title only after I had this book published. Usually, it’s the other way around. I usually get ideas for titles from songs, or I’ll go through songs to see if anything grabs me. My current writing book, which I am getting ready to submit, has the title WIP It. I decided on this after several brainstorming sessions. Those who know might recognize it as the same kind of title of a song called “Whip It.” I decided on this one because “WIP” stands for “work-in-progress” and because this is a book about revising your WIP’s, I felt it was the perfect fit.

With songs, it could be just one line that will inspire a writer to use it as their title, or it could be the title itself. Also, a writer may play with song titles, changing words or making their title similar to a song title. (This is common for humorous writing. For example, many spoof songs have been written that mimic actual songs, such as “We Didn’t Start Out Tired” based on Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” or Weird Al Yankovic’s “Like a Surgeon” spoofing Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.”)

It’s a great way to come up with ideas for stories or other things to write. It often happens with the writer seeking out that inspiration from songs or music, but the opposite can happen, as well. In my case, that’s exactly what happened with my poetry book. I can only wonder if I’ll come across songs that have the same title, or a line in the lyrics, that is the same as one of my future book or short story titles.