swopeparente

Is it possible to be both excited and depressed when you have a book coming out? It is for me, I guess. You see, Genilee received the proofs of “<Twist of Fate and has begun the final read. That is not only a great relief to both of us, but a great joy. We are in the last phases of publishing our first ‘baby’.
I understand from talking with other authors that our book has progressed fairly rapidly. But when you are the one waiting, the process seems to take forever. It is especially hard for me, however, because once it is written, my eyes are too bad to do any proofreading or editing. This is the part that depresses me—I would dearly like to be doing more work on polishing the book. I have the time, being fully retired, but am not able physically to do the work.
Hence – I am joyful and depressed all at the same time!
So I keep busy writing. I am working steadily on my fifth book, which is quite different because it is not a mystery. It is a book of short stories centered around different holidays. There are a couple of small mysteries in it, some romance and some fairly religious stories. The variety keeps my mind buzzing with ideas. The stories run through my mind every time I close my eyes. I suspect this is something all authors go through.
Last time I mentioned that I wrote a weekly column for a newspaper. I ended each ‘Apron Strings’’ with a recipe. I am not going to do that on a regular basis here, but I did have a request that I will honor this week. This recipe is special to me because it was always requested by my oldest daughter Monya for the Christmas season. It’s not easy because you have to watch it every minute – and stir constantly. I can’t say it was always a joy to prepare – but like with writing, it is worth the extra trouble!
ENGLISH TOFFEE
1 # sugar (2 cups)
1 block coating chocolate (or 1 bag semi chocolatte chips and 1/4 inch shaved paraffin)
1 #butter (or margarine)
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
¼ tspn salt

Best made in a skillet. Put sugar in skillet; then butter already cut into small pieces. Cook over high heat until melted. Heat to medium and continue cooking until a dark amber color. Stir constantly, scraping the edges to prevent burning. Continue cooking until mixture reaches hard crack stage (290 degrees F).
Pour on shallow cooling tray (cookie sheet) While this is cooling, melt chocolate (or chips and paraffin) in double boiler. When melted, pour half over toffee mixture. Coat with half of the nuts. Refrigerate until chocolate is firm. Take out and turn toffee over. Coat with remaining chocolate mixture and nuts. Refrigerate. Break into small pieces and store until ready to serve. –Sharon Swope

I’d like to share with you another reason why I couldn’t seem to complete a story until I was 82: I had a major stumbling block. 

The block revolved around the main hero Danny Jones in my first book Twist of Fate (soon to be published!). 

When I was about thirteen I had a movie idol; his name was Gene Reynolds.  He always played a certain kind of young, wandering tough guy that became my image of Danny.  The trouble was I couldn’t get him down on paper. I needed him to be uneducated, but at the same time sure of himself, tough on the outside and tender underneath. I discovered early in my story imaginations that centered on him as the main character that it is a lot easier watching someone on the movie screen than putting him down on paper.

My dilemma was: how could he really appeal to a society girl when he had no education, no money and (in my character’s part) no home?  How could he have nothing yet avoid breaking the law?  Why wasn’t he constantly in trouble with the authorities?  How could he be smart but never attend school? In the case of Twist of Fate, he also needed to have the capability to finish school in a hurry despite not having attended public school since he was young. He had to have a means to learn to read and then access to someone who could teach him.

There seemed to be a million questions about Danny that I couldn’t answer to my own satisfaction when I tried to put him down on paper.  Every time I tried, I couldn’t find the answers to my questions.

As I’ve said, when I was 82, I made up my mind that if I was ever going to write, I had better get busy. But once I did, somehow the answers came to all my questions about Danny in the form of the character Gus, with whom I eventually fell deeply in love. Strangely, this gentle man who taught Danny to survive just came to me. Once I sat down and starting to write about Danny and his thoughts, the character of Gus came into the picture.  It was a strange birth for an old man, but one of the characters that I believe is strongest in the book, even though he’s not in most of the plot.

              When I finished the book, I kept Danny in my next three books playing small parts in my Sam Osborne mysteries while new characters were being born. Now, I am working on a book of Holiday Short Stories, my first attempt at writing shorter pieces, and I’m learning how very much fun creating those characters can be.  Once you get past a stumbling block, the process of creation begins to flow naturally.

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