Carey Jane Clark

Stick with it Saturday: Ups and Downs

January 28, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Earlier in the week I was thinking how good it felt to be exercising again. I finally seemed to be having a week where it all came together. On Sunday, I did 20 minutes of intervals on the mini-trampoline. On Monday, I had an early doctor’s appointment in Toronto, and didn’t have time to exercise in the morning. If I don’t exercise in the morning, it doesn’t happen. On Tuesday, despite another early appointment, I did 20 minutes of intervals on the mini-trampoline. On Wednesday, I did Turbo Jam for 20 minutes then turned it off and cooled down. Wow! It was pretty intense, I thought.

This is where things break down. On Thursday, I woke up feeling every minute of that Turbo Jam workout, and a few muscles I forgot I had. I was aching and had a lot of work to do. On Friday, I woke up feeling worse, and wondering how much of the achiness had to do with exercise, and how much had to do with the fact that I was obviously fighting some kind of head cold, due certainly to a lack of enough sleep this week. I also had this to deal with:

You’re looking at the staging area for THE BIG MOVE. Every possession we brought with us a year and a half ago, as well as everything we’ve accumulated since then must fit into one of those boxes, plus two suitcases. Every homeschool book, every toy, every article of clothing, every bottle of vitamins, every shoe, EVERYTHING. (Did I mention the homeschool books?)

It’s a daunting task. And you’re looking at the good part of the picture. If I were to turn the lens in a different direction (which I won’t), you’d see the rest of the horrifying picture–all the stuff that has yet to fit in. I was doing well until yesterday, when we found an additional bin lurking in a closet and remembered the one we sent on ahead to my parents which has a lot more homeschool things in it.

I wanted to jump back on the exercising this morning, but when I stumbled through the piles in the dark and came downstairs to look at this, I decided I had other priorities.

I’ll stick with it next Saturday.
- Carey Clark

Meet Mary DeMuth

January 27, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Before we left for China, I discovered a great author, but it wasn’t until we returned home I was really able to seriously dig in to her books. She writes with courage. Her stories are fresh, deep and real. The more I’ve learned about writing fiction, the more discriminating I’ve become about what I read, but Mary’s books never disappoint.

After several of her titles published, Mary felt the itch to bring to publication the very first novel she penned. It’s called The Quarryman’s Wife. (I’ll review it here next week.)

Mary graciously agreed to be interviewed here at enCouragement. It’s an honor, as she definitely ranks as one of my favorite authors.

marydemuth — Mary DeMuth, author of The Quarryman's Wife

This novel is based on the story of your great-grandmother. Why did you choose to fictionalize it?

I couldn’t possibly have it be 100% true. This way I could take elements of her story and weave one that made for a little more drama.

Again, the story idea comes from your great-grandmother? How exactly are you related?

She was my father’s grandmother.

How much of the story is true and how much is fiction?

That’s really hard to say. The “truth” is sprinkled throughout the manuscript in historical details and old family stories. But the storyline is mostly my invention.

How was it that you were able to glean so much of your great-grandmother’s story?

I talked to her when I visited her in Ohio. I also had a lot of relatives who sent me information. I had video and audio tapes, and she wrote a lot of poetry which inspired me to make Augusta a poet.

Can you tell more about your relationship with her? What was it about her you most admired and why?

She loved Jesus. I so needed a matriarch like that in my life, so I absorbed her love like a sponge. I didn’t have a close, close relationship because I only visited her in the summer during my weeklong trip to Ohio. (I’m not from Ohio but I vacationed there with my father’s parents nearly every summer).

How did/does your family feel about this book?

I honestly don’t know. I wrote it almost a decade ago and shared it with them then. They liked it. But I haven’t heard recently what they thought.

You said that when you tried to have this novel published, editors said they weren’t interested in Depression-era fiction. How many publishing houses did you try?

It was my agent who shopped the book, not me. Probably 10-15 houses.

You’ve published several novels since then. How did you decide now was the right time for The Quarrymans Wife?

With the “invention” of ebooks, it seemed like an inexpensive way to finally realize the dream of seeing this book in print.

Why did you choose the self-publishing route?

It was an experiment, actually. I hadn’t tried much to re-interest publishers, so I thought I’d just try it on my own.

You made the decision not to edit your original effort, though you feel youve grown as a writer since then. How difficult was that decision? What finally convinced you to leave it as it is?

Well, after I sent the file to Amazon, I re-read it and found several errors. So I did go back and correct those. I had to stop myself from throwing the entire thing away and rewriting it. It truly is me as a new novelist. But if you’ve read my other fiction, it will be interesting for you to see my growth. I’m much less flowery.

How is this book different from your other books?

It’s historical fiction. I will most likely never write that again. I’m a contemporary gal.

Your other books touch on areas of your own personal testimony. Did it take an equal amount of courage to write this story?

Not as much because it was loosely someone else’s story.
What do you hope the reader takes away from reading this book?

That grief is hard on us and we have to find ways to reconnect with life in its aftermath.

Thank you so much, Mary, for chatting with us today.

If you’re interested in The Quarryman’s Wife, you can purchase it here: The Quarryman’s Wife

You may also want to check out Mary’s other books.

- Carey Clark

Writing with Kids: Junior Writer

January 25, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

My enthusiasm for fiction and for writing has worn off on my kids. It didn’t hurt that in 2010, we took part in the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) Young Writer’s Program–something we will definitely do again. The recent release of my novel probably has something to do with the infectious enthusiasm as well.

Sweetpea has always been a story teller. She can tell stories on command–and often does–at the request of her younger sister. Almost all her drawings tell a story, too. As she’s drawing them, many of them morph into little comic strips, complete with speech bubbles.

When my son shows me one of his drawings, he wants me to notice the details, the artistry, the skill. When Sweetpea shows me a drawing, she wants me to notice these things, but she usually wants to launch into the story that inspired the drawing as well. So stories are here to stay in our family, and so is the urge to write them down.

Once upon a long time ago, we discovered Junior Writer. To be perfectly honest, at the time I was seeing a lack in technology to facilitate kids writing their stories and was thinking maybe I could rally some talented software-designing friends to help me write a program that would fit the bill. In searching for available URLs, I tried “Junior Writer” and found that a program already existed at that address that was just what I was looking for.

And so our family began to use Junior Writer.

When you enter Junior Writer, you’ll see this screen. Once your account is set up, all your child needs to do to enter the program is enter his or her own name and your name:

There are also options to enter as a teacher where you can read the stories your child has “sent” to you to read, set up testing and manage your children’s accounts, including options to tailor word lists for their personal dictionaries. You can also add words to their dictionaries here.

Once your child enters her name and teacher’s name, she can open a story she’s already working on, or start a new one. (Note: It’s important to teach your child to save her work, because if it isn’t saved, and the browser window is closed, it’s gone.)

The beauty of Junior Writer is its simplicity. Students log on and can get to work writing right away, from a prompt, or simply by using their own imaginations. While I schedule time for my kids to use Junior Writer, they often ask to use it on their own. What a great way to spend their masterly inactivity time!

On the student screen, kids can begin writing, but if they have difficulty remembering how to spell a word, never fear, they ask the “teacher” to enter the word into their dictionary, and they can continue writing. When they encounter the need to use that word again, if they still can’t remember, they can look it up on the dictionary above their work using the first letter of the word, and then drag and drop it into the story! Isn’t that brilliant? And if you use the program in Mozilla Firefox, a red line will appear under misspelled words, signalling children when they need help. They can use most of the usual functions you’d expect of a word processor as well: changing font size, copying, printing, saving.

When they’re not actually writing their stories, kids can play games using their dictionary words, such as hangman or word search. They can also practice their new words in spelling drills.

Junior Writer has become an essential part of our homeschool–a resource that we found when our children were first beginning to write, and one that will stay with us for some time to come.

A free trial account is available, and a video at the site explains just how the features of the program can benefit your budding writers.

Note: This is my own review offered out of my love for the program. No compensation was offered me.

Thankful in Everything

January 23, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

There are piles of books on the floor, piles of clothes here and there, half-packed boxes mostly all in one place in our house, a host of things I don’t know what to do with, a giant stack of recycling and bags of things designated garbage; there is a to-do list a mile long. On Friday, we will move to my parents’ house, and in a matter of weeks or days, we’re still not sure which, we will board a plane and depart our country once again.

In the midst of it all, I am thankful–for big things and small.

21. sunsets and sunrises
22. my country
23. my adopted country
24. laughter in our home
25. purpose–a reason to get up in the morning
26. peace in the midst of chaos
27. books
28. quiet moments to read those books
29. an end in sight
30. financial blessings
31. progress
32. my husband–who else could I share this journey with?
33. supportive family
34. that I apparently haven’t forgotten too much Mandarin
35. homeschool–it’ a distraction or a retreat from the packing!
36. the satisfaction of ticking one more item off that to-do list
37. early mornings
38. praying friends
39. vision to see a better day than today

For the most part, I’m thankful for the little things–the things we almost overlook. But there is one big thing I need to be thankful for today. Last week, someone called to say they wanted to give me their gently used MacBook Pro. It’s only two years old. My computer died last year, and since then I’ve been using an even older one we had been using for our kids for homeschool. In November, the screen died, and I’ve been chained to a borrowed monitor since then–not exactly a solution that will work to travel abroad with. Enter my benefactor with:

40. a new-to-me MacBook Pro.

Thankfulness in the small things often means your heart is open to receive even bigger blessings. I choose to be grateful–even when it’s not obvious why I should be. But today, it happens to be obvious.

- Carey

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