Book Hoarders, Unite!

Tonight, I am packing. Packing books, and more books, and more books.

Before my last interstate move, I was ruthless about weeding books from my collection. I gave away everything that I would be able to find at a public library, including most of my classic works of literature. I've never missed them. As long as I can get them at a library, all is good.

Here's my problem with this move: I still have the books I couldn't stand to give up in my last move: the landmark scholarly works I read for my dissertation that I can't get outside of a university library.   But in addition to these, I have a ton (maybe literally) of books that I acquired for my historical novel research. These books also cannot be found in most libraries: the only way you get them outside of academia is to buy them. There's no way I'm letting them go.

I own a number of books about faith, and living out one's faith in various ways. These need to stay in my home as references. Then there are the gargantuan works like my beautiful, deluxe edition of the Odyssey, my Collected Works of Shakespeare, or my excellent book of New York Times Front Pages collected from over one hundred years, a phenomenally good gift from my sister-in-law Laura. Each of these books probably weighs five to ten pounds!

So here I am in the age of the e-book, about to move hundreds of pounds of paper books to my new home.

And I am not sorry. :-)

Book hoarders, unite! Tell me the titles of your most treasured paper books: which are the ones you could never give away?

Going Home

My family and I will be making an interstate move soon.

We're moving much closer to our extended family--within a day's drive of everyone. We'll be able to see our aging parents more frequently, and my daughter will be able to see her beloved cousins too. I won't say specifically where we're moving for privacy reasons, but I want to talk about the internal journey that accompanies our move.

This is a very turbulent time, emotionally, but in the best way ever!

Only after this move was finalized did I realize that we've been living in limbo for over ten years, spending  a couple of years in Atlanta,  four years in Ohio, then five years here in the southwest..

Don't get me wrong: we have loved our time in the southwest, where we've made many close friendships that will not end just because we move.

But here's the huge difference about this move: in 2012, we are going somewhere to STAY.

When we moved here, we never knew if we would stay in the southwest. My husband took a job opportunity, and we were happy to come explore a sunny, warm climate. Whether we would stay was always an open question, because we love it here, but our family is very far away.

But for our upcoming move, we know that we're about to  put down roots, God willing, for a long time, Maybe decades. Maybe the rest of our lives. Having grown up in an Air Force family, I've never lived anywhere longer than five years in my whole life.

Tomorrow, we'll close on our new house. It's beautiful. We'll have land and horses. I've never owned my own horse, though I've worked with many other people's horses over the course of my life, and learned a fair amount in several equestrian disciplines--plus a lot about horse care. Getting our own horses is the fulfillment of a lifetime dream.

Our life already feels different, because we're going to a home, not another way station. We're energized, making long-term plans. We haven't made long-term plans like this for our whole marriage. It's exciting--it feels great. It's funny to think this is how many other people have lived for a long time, with roots, community ideals, networks of local friends made over decades. Now, we're going to be able to really settle into our community without wondering if we're going to make another move in five years.

I'll miss our friends here very much. For the past few weeks, I've been emotionally-stirred whenever I sit in church on Sundays. It has been the only time when I can sit still and reflect, and so I find myself processing the move, the ups and downs of our time here, the sadness of leaving. (I am paying some attention to what's going on in church. :-) It's just that everything in the worship taps into spiritual issues related to our current situation.)

I've been a stranger in a strange land all my life. This move to a permanent home feels a little bit like heaven.

How is your moving status? Are you rooted down and loving it? Rooted down and restless? Or a nomad, as I have been for my whole life? What represents 'home' to you in this earthly life?

Hollywood Pitches for Your Novels

I'm back! I feel as if I've been underground for a year, but really it was only three weeks while I worked on the rewrites for Lovelier than Daylight.

I'm thrilled to be almost finished with this contract! Just tweaking and line edits left.

So, I had the fun realization tonight, now that the novel is close to its final form, that I KNOW the Hollywood pitch for it.

Here are the Hollywood pitches for my previous two novels:



Fairer than Morning -

Nicholas Nickelby meets Uncle Tom's Cabin











Sweeter than Birdsong -

Amazing Grace meets The King's Speech








And...drum roll...here's the pitch for Lovelier than Daylight -





Much Ado About Nothing meets Our Town...with bombs.

:-)

What are your novels' Hollywood pitches?