I’ve been lining up book signings and speaking gigs lately, and some of the same questions come up. As promised, here’s a roundup of the answers.
How long did it take to write Dakota Blues?
Ten years (gasp!) In the early years, my part-time job would intrude, or some kind of life challenge like surgery, and I’d stop writing for months at a time. Also, I was learning to write as I wrote, so a lot of it went in the trash. Picture a potter’s wheel, and a grey lump of clay getting fat, then skinny, then fat again as the wheel spins. That was Dakota Blues in the early days.
Another trial-and-error aspect that ate up a lot of time: I did not have a good idea of how a novel should be structured, or how (and whether) to outline it. I went through several different systems and ended up using the one by Larry Brooks (StoryFix.com) called “Story Structure.” I recommend that if you’re inclined to outlining.
Do you write every day? What’s your schedule?
I write as many days in sequence as I can, because if I skip a day or two, I forget details. But I had to find that out the hard way.
DAKOTA BLUES is a love letter to North Dakota before the oil boom
Your descriptions seem so real. Are they fictional?
Mostly real. When I visited Dickinson, North Dakota with Mom in 2008, I knew in my heart it had to be based there. As we drove from Denver to Dickinson and back again, and all during the visit, I recorded my observations into an audio recorder. I also took pictures. It was the trip of a lifetime. Mom and I still talk about it, and I had a photo album printed for her as a memoir.
This was the farm’s chicken house, where Mom as a 5-year-old collected eggs.
Much of my story is really Mom’s story. The anecdotes about the ancestors coming to America, and the hardships they faced to give their children a better life, are all true. So is this quote from my people, Germans from the Banat region of Europe:
To the first generation is death, to the second generation is suffering, to the third, success.
North Dakota yard art
Dakota Blues describes Dickinson before the oil boom hit. That lovely small town has changed, with the building of new hotels and houses, and big rigs rumbling through town 24/7. Also, the house where my main character, “Karen,” grew up was actually that of my grandmother’s. Mom took us four kids back to Dickinson every summer on the Union Pacific out of Los Angeles. We stayed at Grandma’s house at 119 First Ave. SW. Which is now gone. Only the trees remain on a vacant lot, but some of the planks, partly buried now, remain from her vegetable garden out back.
This is all that remains of my Grandmother’s property in Dickinson. The house burned down in the early 2000s.
Are you going to write a sequel?
I don’t think so. I’m not sure I could do justice to Karen’s dream life, where she **SPOILER ALERT** goes off to live life on her own terms. I have so many other stories in my head! But Dakota Blues will always be more to me than just a novel and first book. It’s a record of my family’s history and my love for North Dakota.
I see that, having included pictures, I don’t have room for more Q & A, but this was a fun reminiscence. Thanks for asking, and we’ll come back to it another time. Enjoy your summer.
Your blog this week makes me want to read it again! I am visiting WA for the summer and the granddaughters are keeping me plenty busy, but I think it will be my next read! Thanks for the reminder!
Awww, thanks, Pennie! And you are smart to be in WA, where I imagine it will NOT reach triple digits this weekend.
I enjoyed your Q&A and beautiful photos, and you know I loved DAKOTA BLUES. I’m looking forward to your next story.
Thanks, Sandy, it’s good to hear from you.
Good luck with your book tour! Coming to NC?
I would on the thinnest of excuses! In what city should I try to convince them to host me?
I’m in Greensboro, but it could be Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill. Charlotte is a little too far away. Raleigh and Chapel Hill (and maybe Durham) have locally owned bookstores. Greensboro has Barnes and Noble. Sigh.
Food for thought!
Thanks again for this great book and family memories. As I read it, I was right there in my hometown. The descriptions were so vivid! I was going down memory lane. Many visits were made to your grandmother’s house(my aunt’s) during my lifetime. I enjoyed seeing the picture of the chicken house….thank you. It was so special to visit with you in 2008 and learn of your book journey. I’ll be reading this book over again and again.
Coral, it’s you! Hey, everybody, Coral is my cousin who lives in Fargo! As you can see she and I share a love of family history, and of North Dakota. Coral, I am so happy that you liked it. For the family to feel drawn to my descriptions, or share my love of our childhood memories in North Dakota, is very moving to me. Thanks so much for writing today. I miss you and wish I could come out. I would love to bring Mom but I’m afraid if she saw how things have changed due to the drilling, it might break her heart. On the other hand, she hasn’t been back to see Dad’s grave in Lefor in the almost 5 years since he died. I’m torn, but I’d love to see you and the rest of my family.
Hi everybody! I want to enjoy answering your comments one by one – I love our conversations – but we’re checking out of a Las Vegas hotel right now, hubby is already downstairs waiting at the valet, and I’m still typing!!! Gotta run, see you this afternoon! XOXOXOXO
Okay, I’m back. Amazing that a person can travel from Vegas to So Cal in 4 hours. Do you ever think about how long things would have taken if you had to go on horseback or in a wagon? Or Model T?
Lynne, The story behind your story is as rich as the book itself. I loved Dakota Blues not only for its message of midlife renewal but also for the vivid scenic details that brought the people and places alive to me. What a memorable trip for you and your Mom to take. Thanks for inviting me along. Your novel is as close to being memoir while still being fictitious as I’ve ever seen. Delightful! 🙂
It IS very memoir-ish, isn’t it, Kathy? My mom said, “You didn’t use our real names, did you? I don’t want them to be able to track us.” I said, “Why, what are we hiding?” I was all excited, hoping for something really juicy, but she said it was just a natural desire for privacy. BTW, I DID switch her name with her sister’s. Does that cover the privacy issue? 🙂
Thanks for the link to storyfix, Lynne. I’m drowning in details with my latest project and looking for help!
Another question for you: so you’re not going to write a sequel but do you have plans for another book? (She asks with her fingers crossed hoping for an affirmative response.)
Awww, thanks, Linda! Yes I am. It’ll take me until next summer, soonest, to get it done, but it’s a collection of short stories called Boomer Love: Stories of Middle-age and Beyond. This summer I’m going to publish a bundle of my best blog posts over the past 3 years, and I have 2 more books in me, at the least. One is about an empty nester Boomer who needs to rent out rooms in her McMansion to make the mortgage payment, and another is about a woman who lives in a stuffy, affluent retirement community near Palm Springs. She receives a surprise grandbaby to raise, and has to do it in secret or be kicked out of the community. After that my magnum opus is going to be about several women who all have Stockholm Syndrome…but I don’t want to say more. So thank you, yes, I am hot on the trail of new fiction after this summer’s product.
Thanks for the writing tips. I’ve debated back and forth whether to tell my Dad’s story as fiction or non-fiction. I’m going to look for your book. I hope it’s on Kindle.
It sure is. See that little icon in the upper left corner of your screen? Click on that and it’ll take you to the Kindle version. And re your Dad, I’ve been debating the same thing with my husband’s family – so intriguing! But I’d HAVE to make up some things, because there’s no way I can know exactly what was said on the third Tuesday in March of 1938. (I made up the date, too!) I think in any case, memoir has to be fictionalized to make it readable. If you’re interested in all things memoir, check out my friend Kathy Pooler’s blog, here: http://krpooler.com/
Your book is on my wish list, Lynne. Thanks so much for sharing your process with us.
hugs,
Laura
My pleasure, Laura.
Loved Dakota Blues! Interesting to see pictures of the area, but your rich description is even better. It brings the scenes of the past into focus like a high powered Minolta. Have fun on your tour…will you be speaking at all in the Twin Cities or farther East? Would love to meet you.
Pat, the farthest on my schedule is next month I’ll be in Indianapolis and also St. Louis, Missouri, but that’s pretty far south from you 🙁
But if you knew of interest in that area, I’d surely love to come!
I’ve got your book in my Kindle queue and can’t wait to read it…
I hope you enjoy it, Mimi. It’s getting lots of stars on Amazon.