6-16-13 RMB America

6-16-13 RMB America

Dear Rita Mae Brown,

My family reunion vacation is wrapping up. A sister and her husband drive out early to prepare her for missionary work in Nicaragua. A nephew is slotted to go home with his grandparents to help with the yard, another type of missionary work, lending a hand where it is needed.

Even the dog, Cleo, knows when it is time to go home, she carefully monitors the packing, sniffs the suitcases and steps aside. I guess it all met her approval.

Another sister flies out early for New Mexico. Two brothers, with wives and kids and kid’s kid all travel by car to their Alabama homes.

I fly with two sisters, a brother-in-law and one niece back to California. Everyone has something or someone waiting for them, work, housework, loved ones, pets.

I face a re-structuring at work, a new employee, possibly an intern too. Change. Have I mentioned I don’t like change? I know I have. Thank you for your patience with me.

I escaped all the change around me on this vacation by combining over 20,000 words to tell a story. I thought it complete. Then my friends and family reviewed it. After taking their advice, now it is at 41,000 words and climbing. They say it still needs more “filler”, more background, more detail and finally…more sex. I fear it is growing too big. But then I’ve never written a book before.

Side thought, my RMB letter file contains 55,710 words. Hmm, is it “filled” enough?

So I “fill” in background, details and add sex. I fear I have added too much in all three areas.”How much is too much sex?” I ask a friend.

“Oh I doubt that you would add too much sex. Go for it.” She knows me. She knows I’ve never written a sex scene. She knows how much I fretted over the only kissing scene in the story.

This was her response after reading the first draft of the story with added sex:

“Wow. Um...yeah, you have the knack all right...it doesn't work as the end of the book, but it works in every other way. Jeez.”

Another friend reads it and simply responds with a smiley face. Both tell me to write more; continue the story. They say it is publish-able. I have doubts, but then I am not done yet. Maybe time and “filler” and more description, possibly even more sex, will rise me above my doubts.

If it does come to pass, you will know the story I am talking about by the character named America, which is also the working title at this point. This endeavor has solidified my respect for you and any writer that has sewn together a book’s worth of words, let alone fifty of them. My cap goes off to you RMB.

Time to get back to writing,

Loraine