Chicago North RWA Spring Fling Booksigning: A lot of fun and a winner in the drawing of a free eBook of TRUE blue

Susan Rae at Spring Fling 2014 Book Signing

The book signing event at Chicago North RWA’s 2014 Spring Fling was a lot of fun.  I was able to meet some new authors and fans. Chicago North always puts on a great conference for both multi-published authors and those just starting their writing career. And, there is a winner in my drawing for a free eBook of TRUE blue: DeLuca Family 3.  Cathleen Hays, you will be one of the first to get a copy when it is released on May 16th.  Thank you to all of you who stopped by and to my fellow authors who I had a chance to visit with, and to all of the coordinators and volunteers at the conference. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay as long as I would have liked, but by all accounts, it was another great conference!

The Spirit–And Making Sense Of It All

Diane McCowan Shogren

Authors write about life, love, heartache, turmoil, joy, hardship, and death; and in doing so, we try to make sense of it all. Sometimes, though, especially when terrible, random events happen resulting in a tragic death, it is difficult to find the sense involved. So it would seem with the untimely death of my sister-in-law, Diane. I am not an especially religious person–I attend church only occasionally, but I do believe in God and a purpose for everyone on Earth. Do I believe he has some master plan, though, and that he took Diane from us as a part of that plan? My first reaction is no, that horrible things just happen, and it is through his strength that we find our own strength to deal with such loss.

However, these days I find myself waffling on that score.  If God did, indeed, need a kind, compassionate, loving soul to care for troubled souls in Heaven, Diane would be his girl. Years ago I wrote the following poem.  Originally titled Autumn, I have retitled it, The Spirit, in honor of Diane as I try to make sense out of it all.

The Spirit

Light illumines through the leaves,

The Sun, golden, shines through,

Like…the bright light when dying.

Is it God, or is it you?

Now when I glimpse the sunlight shining through the leaves as I play on the golf course, or sit beneath a tree, pondering the lives, joys, hardships, and yes, tragic deaths of the characters in my novels, I will think of Diane and recall her loving, caring spirit and believe that her soul is still working for good. Diane, we miss you, but I consider you one of our guardian angels. You were on Earth; I have to believe you are even more of one in Heaven.

It seems like your work is not done, my friend.

Wishing You All A Very Merry Chistmas!

Christmas came early to our house this year.  How fun it was to have the daughters, son-in-laws, and grandchildren for the day.  The only one missing was the number one son, but he was totally in our hearts.  The hubby and I are looking forward to visiting him sometime in the next couple of months.  So now, with Christmas Eve upon us, we are wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas.  May your hearts be filled with love and joy, may all those you hold dear be safe, and may the new year be replete with hopes and dreams fulfilled.

Until Next Year,

Susan Rae

Number of Stitches vs. Number of Words

Which is more?  The number of stitches in this afghan, or the number of words in one of my novels?

I have been crocheting this afghan for one of my grandsons.  I owe him as I did not crochet him a baby blanket like I did for my granddaughters.  Mind you, I didn’t mean to slight him, really, I just never thought of crocheting him one at the time because I was crazy busy. Actually, it’s turning out to be a great deal for him, because this one is much larger than any baby afghan I might have given him and the colors aren’t babyish at all. He’ll be able to use it right through grade school and high school and maybe even onto college and even after that.  Practical, right?  Of course, I realize I’ve set myself up now.  I’m going to have to do new ones for the girls when they are older, so they have them as they move forward in life, too.

But that’s okay. I enjoy crocheting the afghans, especially when I need a break from writing.  You see, crocheting an afghan is so the opposite of writing a novel. With a novel, I have to think about every word.  With the afghan, I barely have to think at all. Once I figure out the pattern, it’s just a matter of counting, and counting, and counting, one stitch after the other.  It’s quite mind numbing, which is great.

But it does seem to take me forever to finish one (actually three to four months—just like working on a novel, it’s impossible to crochet non-stop), so I was wondering the other day, how does the number of stitches in an afghan compare to the number of words in one of my novels?

Let’s see, ten stitches up, three in one, ten stitches down, skip two, times eight for eight points, two slip stitches, turn—times six rows, times thirteen sections, plus the original one-hundred-eighty-five slip stitches to begin with equals—wait for it—14,693 stitches. Oh my! That seems like a lot of stitches. But the fact is, I would have to crochet six afghans to equal the number of words in one of my books!  Six afghans of non-thinking stitches.  Wow!

I don’t feel so bad now about taking five to six months to write a book.

Which I really have to get back to. So, until next time…

Happy Reading,

Susan Rae