No Rest for the Writer

I can think of nothing more relaxing than spending a beautiful, summer evening sitting in a graveyard. That’s right. A graveyard. On Sunday evenings, the Yorktown Summer Music Series features music performed in the cemetery of Grace Episcopal Church. Last night we took a picnic supper, a bottle of wine, and folding chairs to enjoy the music of one of our favorite local bands, Poisoned Dwarf.

The cemetery was nestled under a canopy of trees that surely must be as old as some of the departed who have rested beneath them for two hundred years or more. Many of the tombstones were broken or so worn you couldn’t read the inscriptions. I found myself thinking about the lives of the people buried there. I started imagining stories about them, wondering whether they had lived during the Revolutionary War or perhaps died because of the war. Had some of them fought on the nearby battlefields or traversed the river down the hill from the cemetery? Had they been active members of the Episcopal church that served as a backdrop for the concert? 

I tried to imagine the life of one woman whose husband had died many years before she did. Was she left to raise a brood of children on her own? One tombstone reminded me that infant mortality was high in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Losing children to disease was a common occurrence in the generations before vaccinations and good medical care. But the heartfelt inscriptions indicated the loss was no less painful for those parents.

As I sipped my wine from a plastic flute, my imagination soared. I found myself assigning faces, personalities, and settings to both the deceased and their survivors. I started making up stories in my head and wishing I had taken my laptop to the concert.

I began to glance around at the other concertgoers and wondered about their lives and their stories. Where had they lived, traveled, worshipped, worked, and raised their families? Who might be dealing with chronic illness, a cancer diagnosis, divorce or the recent death of a loved one? When they laid their heads on their pillows each night, what was on their minds just before going to sleep?

I went to the concert to relax and take a break from writing. But my mind wouldn’t shut down and let me simply enjoy the music and the pleasant breeze. I’ve heard other authors of fiction mention this sometimes-frustrating phenomenon. Every situation we encounter and every person we meet inspires us to write. Fortunately, retirement affords me time to do just that every day.

Cindy L. Freeman is the author of two award-winning short stories, a novella, Diary in the Attic, and three published novels: Unrevealed, The Dark Room, and I Want to Go Home. Website: www.cindylfreeman.com; Facebook page: Cindy Loomis Freeman. Her books are available through amazon.com or hightidepublications.com

Life is a Song

My whole life has been centered around music. Music saved me from a lonely childhood, and music was a tool for healing my broken spirit during a difficult period of adulthood. God bestowed on me a musical gift which was recognized early. Both my grandmother and mother encouraged me to use it and develop it.

When I was a child, every family gathering centered around music. After dinner, the family would assemble near the piano where my sister and I would sing and play duets. The session usually ended with all of us singing a favorite hymn like "Amazing Grace" or "The Old Rugged Cross."

Often during road trips, we would sing to pass the time. Songs like “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad” and “You are My Sunshine” lent themselves to our own arrangements in three-part harmony.

I got a lot of practice in my small, country church where I sang solos and played the piano while my sister played the organ. School also provided many opportunities to perform. My high school choral director was an unpleasant man who didn’t seem to like teaching or kids. However, he selected me for county and state chorus every year of high school, which meant I had the privilege of working with some excellent choral directors who inspired me.

Determined to make a career of music, I majored in music education in college which led me to a forty-five-year career in that field. It included teaching middle school general music and maintaining a private piano studio. I also directed church choirs and a community chorus. Finally, in 1989, I established a music school where I taught Musikgarten to hundreds of children, ages four through twelve and group piano for adults. What a rich, satisfying career it was! How grateful and blessed I was with such varied opportunities to share my love of music!

When I retired in 2016, I assumed my working days were over. I never could have envisioned a whole second career as an author. But once again, God blessed me, this time with opportunities to share my love of writing. On September 23rd, I’ll be launching my third novel, I Want to Go Home.

Both careers have involved a lot of hard work, but each has been fulfilling. I am grateful for the opportunity to engage in and share both my passions: music and writing. Whether I choose to express myself through music or writing, life is a song.

Cindy L. Freeman is the author of two award-winning short stories, a novella, Diary in the Attic, and three published novels: Unrevealed, The Dark Room, and I Want to Go Home. Website: www.cindylfreeman.com; Facebook page: Cindy Loomis Freeman. Her books are available through amazon.com or hightidepublications.com

My Third Baby is Due in September

Okay, it’s not a real baby. That would require a miracle… in my case, more than one miracle. But I can’t help comparing the launch of a new novel to the birth of a baby.

Crafting a book requires approximately the same gestation period as growing a fetus, often longer. During this period, an author conceives an idea and begins the exciting process of developing its plot, scenes, and characters. She gives it a working title, names its characters, shapes their personalities, and chooses carefully just the right words and phrases to paint a mental picture for the reader.

She carries her “baby” close to her heart, day after day, nurturing it with research, consultation, and advice. She pictures it in her mind, walks with it, sleeps with it, talks to it, analyzes it, brings it to a satisfying conclusion, then rests for a while. There is still much to do to prepare for the birth.

As the due date draws near, the author reads, edits, re-reads and re-edits. Now the real work begins. That’s why it’s called labor. The pains start when the author must write a synopsis and a query letter to submit to an agent or publisher. She risks rejection but pushes through the pain, sometimes again and again.

Enough of the birth analogy. Writing a novel is satisfying. Publishing a novel is risky. Marketing a novel is plain hard work. It starts with the launch. I have written and submitted my third novel to High Tide Publications. I Want to Go Home will be in print and ready to launch next month. As soon as I get a publication date from High Tide, I’ll set a launch date and location. I hope you can come. If not, please order I Want to Go Home from Amazon.com or hightidepublications.com. I think you’ll enjoy reading it.

Here’s an advance review by Sharon Dorsey, Author of Daughter of the Mountains, Tapestry, and two children’s books, Herman the Hermit Crab and Revolt of the Teacups: 

“I WANT TO GO HOME is an inspiring story for and about the times in which we live. It chronicles the struggles of an ordinary family that goes from middle class to homeless due to a chain of events that could affect any one of us. It illustrates the strong bonds between siblings and the part that faith can play in overcoming seemingly impossible obstacles. The characters are so well-drawn, they come alive on the pages. We ache with them in their low moments and cheer them on as they battle the situations in which they find themselves. Throughout, I found myself asking the question – could I have walked in their shoes and successfully emerged on the other side of the problems, defiant in my self-worth and stronger in my faith? This is a must-read you won’t be able to put down until the triumphant, heart-warming conclusion.”

Cindy L. Freeman is the author of two award-winning short stories, a novella, Diary in the Attic, and three published novels: Unrevealed, The Dark Room, and I Want to Go Home. Website: www.cindylfreeman.com; Facebook page: Cindy Loomis Freeman. Her books are available through amazon.com or hightidepublications.com

A Mountaintop Experience

Yesterday, during our annual stay in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I gazed beyond our balcony, across the valley, into the ever-changing vista and asked the question: what is it about the mountains that draws us back year after year? In August, the obvious answer is cooler temperatures. My husband and I enjoy getting away from the day-after-day, ninety-degree inferno and high humidity that characterize summers in Coastal Virginia. Here in the mountains we can hike and play tennis without suffering heat exhaustion. We can sleep with the windows open and eat our meals al fresco on the balcony. But my attraction to the mountains is so much more than the pleasant weather.

Now that the fog has lifted, and the deluge of rain has ceased, I contemplate the majesty of God’s creation. Yes, if I look to my right and my left, I see condominiums lining the ridge. At night I can spot the lights of Charlottesville, reminding me that civilization with all its stresses and complications is but a few miles away. Occasionally in the valley below, I hear indications of human interference like traffic and construction noise. But, if I focus on the splendor of God’s handiwork, I find myself filled with mouth-open awe.

The Blue Ridge with its mountains of varying sizes is painted myriad shades of blue, green, or purple depending on the time of day. The view, with its azure sky, evolving cloud formations, and periodic sightings of native creatures like hawks, butterflies, groundhogs, and rabbits, is never static or stagnant. As I follow the setting sun pulling shadows across the landscape, then disappearing below the horizon, I’m reminded of God's power and majesty.

In contrast to the vast expanse of peaks and valleys, I become aware of my own insignificance in the grand scheme of the cosmos. Yet, as I remember that the Creator of the universe loves me, even me, I am humbled and grateful. It is this spiritual reset that draws me to the mountains. As long as I’m able, I’ll return next year and the year after that.

Cindy L. Freeman is the author of two award-winning short stories and three published novels: Diary in the Attic, Unrevealed and The Dark Room. Coming soon from High Tide Publications: I Want to Go Home. Website: www.cindylfreeman.com; Facebook page: Cindy Loomis Freeman. Her books are available through amazon.com or hightidepublications.com