Flash Fiction is supposed to encourage us to write fast and well. Still spending too much time on it!
Look forward to my next post, again considering the Hamilton family of Danbury CT.
A few years ago, I found a half dozen letters written on school lined paper (Remember Indian tablets?), Yes, that paper - and it looked brand new.
​When I read one letter there in the Connecticut State library, I wanted to cry.
Look forward to another Hamilton resident as he is memorialized by his father in my next Spot Writers flash fiction.

When you live in the past, as I do, many of the interesting events happened in war. My new  Spot Writers Page will feature short glimpses of my family history, but a different family and a different war.

1777 involved my  Hamilton family, who seem to have wised up by the Civil War and remained as far away as they could get.

The Trowbridges went in for that event whole hog.
In 1777, the only Trowbridge mentioned (John) is away at war while his tavern forms a mancave for rebels. Many Trowbridges to come would live in Danbury and were always ready to support their colony or state, or whatever skirmish came along ... 

        All you have to do is know a little bit of what happened .... 
                      Then you do a little research....
                               Then welcome to 1863!

I went to Montana. I meant to return and then we would move somewhere that was not Virginia (unless it was Richmond, which seemed like a good idea). I desired a move to somewhere "not the fastest-growing prices, uh, county in the world."
Yeah.
Then a mega bicycle accident to my partner.
All of a sudden we were not moving, not buying the house we were living in and not living in my own house because I had rented it to a Fauquier County teacher.
Hmm.
Then the all-consuming search began. At the same time, my equestrian help business dragged me along by the hair (especially until I made the rule of only two different barns per day).
We had only looked at one place, a town house the size of my best purse. The thing about townhouses is the HOA - better-known as "the gift that keeps on taking." (In LoudounWorld there are other fees, similar to the famous "fee fee" of commercial fame.) Only the HOA fee shows in the real estate ad. Those other monthly fees show up later.
Then I found the rehab townhouse in the rabbit warren.
Now how on earth could a person who wrote a book about the Hamilton family NOT move to Hamilton VA?

Everything in my reading-and-audio-book-listening life was fine until I learned that adverbs had become tools of the devil. While I religiously avoid using adverbs now, I listen to many audiobooks during the week. Many are supposed to be fine literature. But, like the finned autos of the 1950s, these stellar works com garishly outfitted with adverbs.
I do not know why I allowed myself to listen to Donna Tartt's The Secret History, other than it was flowing words while I pulled weeds. But every adverb hit like a concrete block. My not-so-favorite turned out to be "ruminatively."
​

So it's decided: I'm on my very last editor. But some things do go a little against the grain.

The thought exists out there that too much description of emotion prevents the reader from identifying with the character. The reader's personality might react differently to the circumstances presented by the plot occurrences. If something scary happens, one person might be terrified and another only fascinated to see what happens next.
Is it good or bad to emphasize the fear reaction during dangerous situations? Once someone told me that his wife was very good in an emergency room setting because she just acted and never considered consequences. I wanted a hero like that.

I have also had people tell me that children do not empathize too much when adults are caught in bad situations, unless there is visible pain or damage (i.e. moral or political dilemmas). I don't remember doing so. Yet I received much advice to the contrary.

Some persons may be too involved in their own problems and emotions to want to intertwine psyches  with their children. I have received advice from several editors to make my book's parents more understandable and lovable. But my intent was not to have parents like that because of their own internal emotional wars.
My main character tries get out from under their dark cloud, which accidentally results in new opportunities for the parents to regain self-respect and family ties.

So what should an author feel when editors advise contrary to main premises in plot and character?
​We'll see where it all ends up....

Wow, was I ever lucky....
Val Muller agreed to be the very, very last editor I would ever need.
A Pennwriters member and author of multiple books of her own, Val's knowledge of the industry and of young people's reading is invaluable. Visit her at http://www.valmuller.com/www.valmuller.com/

Goodness, here I am again after coming to a dead stop in 2015. 

Imagine my joy to take up a conversation with Diane Hassen of the Danbury Museum, just as if we had spoken last week. But we did.

Imagine my shock when Diane said that a new book had appeared on the Hamilton family and that it disagreed with my interpretation of the Hamilton genealogy in the book!
Yikes!
How wonderful that she contacted the book's author for me, so we shall see what we shall see.... He responded that he would respond....
(But I'm pretty sure I'm right....)

So 1777 has been through many more hands since we spoke last.
o my utter shock, March 2016 found that my dear friend and editor Linda Wirkner had died. Then what to do.... 
Different people have helped me with the book, Ann Westrick, Edie Hemingway, but one must never use the same pair of eyes twice, they say.

A filmscript editor I engaged asked if we could send young Joe Hamilton on a journey.
Not so much, since the book is about Danbury.
Then he wanted to know if we could blow something up.
Alas, the book is about burning! (And there was a little powder shortage issue....)
I gave up. Guess they'll make the movie when they make it.

Then 1777 journeyed to Thalia Newland and had a good romp with her. Thalia is great, but in Australia. I needed an American editor.
So best choice was everybody's favorite, Ramona deFelice Long, who had met my book before in a Pennwriter's Area 7 seminar. Definitely got good value from her!!
But still, something was missing! Or someone. Stay tuned!
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