Writing with New Resolve

Happy New Year, Friends!

I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and are getting off to a good start in 2024.

When I promised a “Part II” to my last book update, little did I know I would be ill the following week… and again shortly after Thanksgiving.

After recovering each time, there was quite a bit of catch-up to be done, and I was happy to squeeze in what little writing I did.

So, thank you for bearing with me as I regrouped! Now, plunging headlong into 2024, I’m feeling healthy and hopeful.

My mom and I both have August birthdays, and a number of years ago we decided that to celebrate, we would pick an activity in August for us to enjoy together. There is usually a cultural aspect to it—For example, last year’s activity was visiting the Fiberart International exhibit at Brew House Association and Contemporary Craft.

This year, we chose The Ruins Project, which I had learned about indirectly through my volunteer work with the Beaver County Industrial Museum. The Ruins Project is an outdoor mosaic art installation on the property of a former coal mine in Fayette County, now privately owned by Rachel Sager of Sager Mosaics. It is situated along the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.

We thoroughly enjoyed the tour and appreciated the detailed work that goes into creating mosaic art. And with its connection to the coal mining industry in Fayette County, this tour served my book research well! The tour guide, Erika, shared many insightful and fascinating stories behind the different mosaic designs.

One of my favorite examples is the Beehive Coke Oven by Jennifer Case. At this point in the tour, Erika noted that Monday was laundry day in the coal towns and continues to be for many current residents.

Erika explained that each day, 5 tons—metric tons—of coal would be piled into a giant oven (nicknamed beehive for its shape) to produce 3 tons of “coke” for steelmaking.

What happened to the remaining 2 tons? It burned off and spewed into the air through the hole in the top of the hive and eventually settled in the form of black dust onto anything and everything it could find. Multiply that by the 46,000 ovens that were burning 6 days per week and 24 hours per day, and you can almost see the air crust to black in front of your eyes.

The ovens did not run on Sundays, so by the time they would be in full swing on Mondays, laundry could be done and indoors before all the soot landed.

Incidentally, Monday is my laundry day. I thought I chose that day because of my work schedule, but perhaps it is rooted in coal.

Have you inherited a laundry day or other ways of doing things?

In any case, if you’re like me and love stories and insights that make history come alive, I recommend booking a tour!

You can also learn more about The Ruins Project and Rachel Sager—the artist at the center of it all—from the website, a recent article in Pittsburgh Quarterly, and Rachel Sager’s Substack (free and paid editions available).

Adam (my husband) and I have been following the traditional gift calendar for each of our wedding anniversaries, starting with paper for our first anniversary. We were supposed to give crystal for our 15th anniversary in October, but we decided to go a different way.

Through The Ruins Project, I learned about the Touchstone Center for the Arts and their “date nights” on Friday nights, where they hold two-hour workshops for couples (or friends or relatives) to try their hands at ceramics, drawing/painting, glass, metals/jewelry, or blacksmithing. Adam and I chose blacksmithing!

Within 15 minutes of starting our project, fine soot was all over my shoulders. I thought back to The Ruins Project tour and the tons of soot that would have been in the air or on every surface (including people and animals) with those coke ovens going, and it finally sank in just how dirty it must have been during that time.

I also gained a new appreciation for the eye, the planning, the strength, and the patience of real blacksmiths.

Our instructor took a chance on our group by having us create a complicated candlestick holder. We began with three pieces of plain, flat metal and heated and sculpted and heated and sculpted until the pieces were ready to be assembled into our finished product. In addition to the tongs, hammer, and anvil, we (Adam) used a belt sander and drill press and shoveled coal into an oven to get the metal white-hot. It was a challenging project, and we’re glad we did it—surprisingly burn free with hair and skin left intact.

In other news, I recently enrolled in Susan DeFreitas’s “Workshops Against Empire: Alternative MFA” program. This year-long program includes four online courses, as well as membership in Susan’s “Story Medicine” Facebook group and the ability to approach her directly with questions.

Susan taught a couple of the online writing courses I took in 2023 and wrote a blog article which I found to be particularly helpful. Only two lessons in, I can sense the improvement in my plotting and writing.

In my last update, I talked about my decision to try starting my book in a spot seven or eight years further into Rose’s life than I had originally planned. But I hesitated because that would mean “killing my darlings”—potentially giving up scenes I had spent many hours crafting.

As a newbie novel-writer, I don’t always trust my own instincts.

I need to give a shoutout here to Pastor Dave Snyder, one of the pastors I met through my work with Lutheran SeniorLife. Every time I feel “paralysis by analysis” setting in, his words of encouragement from an email several months ago chime in my head. He helped to re-center my thinking on why I am writing my book, and knowing that I am a praying woman, he encouraged me to rely more on my “spiritual gut.”

Of course, it certainly doesn’t hurt to get affirmation from a seasoned book coach, so I briefly described to Susan this decision with summaries of the two plot scenarios: one that starts off earlier in Rose’s life, and the other not long before Rose elopes with her first love. Susan very confidently assured me that my idea to start with the latter scenario is the way to go!

So, as I mourn the losses of my little darlings (not to mention my former word count), I’m further resolved in my decision to charge full steam ahead with the new beginning to my novel.

After being under the weather so much lately, I couldn’t help but share a healthcare-related cartoon for this edition of my book update. Special thanks go to my father-in-law, Ken Davidson, who provided some consultation on this one.

Thank you for reading! Here’s to a happy and healthy year ahead!

Patty

P.S. If you use a smartphone but you’re not a huge fan of email, the Substack app might be for you. My mom receives hundreds of emails on a daily basis, so it is too easy for her to miss my little book update. We decided to test the Substack app together, and it’s a winner!

I don’t normally recommend apps, but I have been very happy with how this one notifies you (if you choose) when new posts or notes are available from me—or any of your favorite Substack creators. Get the app on your phone or tablet, and you can join Mom and me on the cutting edge of what might become the next big social media trend.😉