Wandering Wednesday - El Paso, Texas & Campo Bom, Brazil ;)

By Patricia Beal | @bealpat 

Hi! Nice to see the writing world beyond editingville.

For the past four months, all I’ve done is edit Desert Willow (formerly known as The Song of the Desert Willow—I edited the title too).

Today I want to take you to some of the places in the novel.

Desert Willow began as a NaNoWriMo in March project back in 2014 and now finally received a much-needed rewrite and edit. It's been on submission before, but it's new and better. My new agent will be reading it in April and then we will see what we want to do next.

This rewrite and edit-again process is so familiar to me. My debut, A Season to Dance, went through seven years of that. One day I will write a novel the easy way—should there be such a thing.

Without further ado, let's wander :) 

Here's the blurb:

Clara Malone is a new college graduate who puts her job-hunting on hold to travel to Texas and deliver her grandmother’s last love letter before the woman’s impending death. Andrew Lee James is a young Army captain whose first shot at love and marriage imploded on the steps of a West Point chapel during graduation week.

When the letter’s recipient, General Mario Medeiros, is delayed in Germany with a weak heart, Andrew is put in charge of Clara’s well-being. Andrew wants to tell off the woman who left him at the altar but now wants him back. If Clara would look at him with the slightest bit of interest, maybe he could. But three generations of women in her family were betrayed and ruined by Army men. Sure, he is handsome and looks just like Prince Harry. But she didn’t date soldiers—not anymore.

Surrounded by cactus flowers she never thought possible and desert willows that sing with the buzzing of hummingbirds, Clara soon finds herself enjoying her time with Andrew more than she should, and as a delay that was supposed to last a few days turns into weeks, she is offered a temporary job she can’t turn down.

Could it be that her mission at Fort Bliss is what she needs to understand her family’s painful history, learn to love them as they are, and chart a hopeful future? It is possible. But a blast from the past threatens to get her off track.

Behind the scenes:

I enjoy this story so much. It has a lot of my grandma’s history in it—life in the German colonies of the south of Brazil before WWII, the beginning of the shoe industry there (still famous worldwide, with women’s shoes always available at stores like Neiman Marcus), the life of the richest family in town, the most influential man (my great grandfather), his death, loss, change. It’s a fascinating slice of history that I hope to share with readers soon.

And then the contemporary story of Clara is fun to write because I’ve worked for the U.S. Army on-and-off since the nineties and have been an Army wife for more than twelve years. There are tons of neat details of Army life to share. This could easily be book one of a series.

Clara and Andrew are fun to write too because I created them in 2015, so by now, I know them well. And I love the antagonist. I should write her story one day. I think I cried for that woman for five whole chapters toward the end.

Emma Stone would be Clara in the movie version ;) Pinterest image.

And Prince Harry would be U.S. Army Captain Andrew Lee James :) Pinterest image.

But I think that what I enjoy the most is making all the connections, showing how the actions of a distant past affect and inform the modern story so deeply. It’s how life works, I believe. To be able to hold all that history in three hundred plus pages, massaged and shaped, can be astonishing and transformational.

Growing up in New Hamburg, Brazil.

The city of Campo Bom continues to honor my great-grandfather and the families that put the city on the map. Here I am with my mom, grandma and uncle.

The city created a great cultural space in the heart of the city to preserve its history: https://www.guiacampobom.com.br/campo-bom/pontos-turisticos/largo-irmaos-vetter

With my grandma at the top of the monument's chimney. The chimney of her dad's factory was the clock by which city life happened. 

Desert Willow

I hope you enjoyed this slice of family history and this look around my writing desk.

Love y’all. See you next time :)

About Patricia

Patricia Beal has danced ballet her whole life. She is from Brazil and fell in love with the English language while washing dishes at a McDonald's in Indianapolis. She put herself through college working at a BP gas station and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in English Literature. She then worked as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army for seven years.

She now writes contemporary fiction and is represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her debut novel, A Season to Dance, came out in May (Bling! / Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas 2017). A Portuguese translation will be out in her native Brazil in late 2018 via Editora Pandorga. Patricia is a 2015 Genesis semi-finalist and First Impressions finalist. She and her husband live in North Carolina with their two children.


Goodreads - www.goodreads.com/bealpat
Facebook - www.facebook.com/patricia.beal.author
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Web - www.patriciabeal.com

Learning from a marathon runner who hits the wall

I’ve got a mate who runs marathons.  Why is anybody’s guess - I told him the industrial revolution gave us ways to go anywhere in a 42-kilometre radius - and his constant invitations for me to join him are politely left to rush by.

It’s quite an achievement running forty-two kilometres. Pushing through the pain, wringing every ounce of effort out of yourself and doing something very few people achieve.  I do admire him for it. 

One of the most fascinating parts of running a marathon is known as hitting the wall. My mate talks about hitting it just past the halfway mark.  Everything about his experience says to give up; to walk; to even stop.  His legs are screaming for a break from the lactic acid and muscle cramps.  His lungs are screaming for relief. Even though he’s got the ability and the tools – and he’s already run half the race - things happen to him that make the finish line feel like it’s further away than when he started.

And he talks about feeling like he’s running in jelly.  He’s got the movement of running, but doesn’t feel like he’s getting anywhere. 

Writers hit the wall too. Our lactic acid might be family time that encroaches on writing. Our muscle cramps could be the pull of work or church over writing. Or our energy burnout could be when our ideas or storylines just run out of petrol. Or we're over halfway but just can't seem to find a way to finish the book.

It’s happened to me a number of times this year – when everything about my writing experience says to give up and stop. When my brain wants a rest and my bank balance tells me I should be doing extra work that actually pays the bills. When my ideas have run out of petrol and my characters feel like they can’t move on.

And it feels to me like the finish line – holding the final manuscript in my hands – is further away than when I started.

Now, my mate just laughs when I talk about writers hitting the wall, but there are things that he does that I’ve implemented this year.  And they’ve worked.

• Keep moving.  A runner needs their feet to keep moving. That movement is important as stopping the movement makes it 1000 times harder to restart it.  I’ve done that this year, at times I’ve just kept moving. That could be as simple as giving my protagonist another character trait, adding 200 words to the manuscript.  Or editing another chapter or scene. Or simply reformatted one exchange of dialogue.  That movement is important as I can look back and see that I've done something.
• Focussing on the finish line. Marathon runners often disassociate from the pounding beat of their stride and focus on the finish line. It helps break the dawning thought that they're in pain now, and is a reminder of why they're doing what they're doing. At times this year, I’ve just taken a deep breath and visualised typing The End at the tail of my manuscript. That disassociation has been enough to push me on and to spur me into action, because I now have the end goal in frame.
• Breaking the race down into chunks. This is the opposite of the previous point. One things my marathon running friend does is run the next 1km, then the next, then the next. I’ve done that – written the next scene, then the next scene, then the next scene. And when I’ve looked up at the end of the week I’ve written another 3,000 words.
• Enjoying the process. My friend says he tries to breath in sync with his steps or count out as his feet pound away. He enjoys the process of running.  That’s what I’ve tried to do this year.  I’ve written a particularly difficult scene and enjoyed the words as they’ve come, or the plot point as it has unveiled itself. I've gasped in surprise when a character says something I wasn't expecting or smiled when the protagonist got out of a jam even I didn't expect him to get out of. It sounds crazy, but it's FUN!

Writing a piece of work – any work – is hard. Especially if it’s something you’ve drawn from the depths of your experience or character. You’ve pushed through the pain, wrung every ounce of effort out of yourself and done something very few people achieve. 

And, like my friend, I admire you for it.

About David Rawlings

Based in Adelaide, South Australia, I am a sports-mad, married father-of-three with my own copywriting/communication business who reads everything within an arm’s reach. I can see a typo from across the room and always – always – make sure my text messages are grammatically correct.

My manuscripts have finalled in the ACFW's Genesis competitions and the OCW's Cascade Awards.

And now I'm working with the Steve Laube Agency as my agent to find that elusive first publisher.