A Trusted Reader's Response to GRACE AT WAR!

...These people (no longer just characters to me) have such intense spirits and they roped me in.  I want to have a beer with Spider and I don't even like beer! ...I was not prepared to see him as the hero second only to Grace.  And Cloud?  She is a gem to this story although I'm worried about her future...but not really I guess because she's more savy than she feels safe to let on.  

The issues that Mason, Doc, Diver,Worth and Spider (and all the others in the demonstrations)... carry around really give the reader a sampling of PTSD... 

This novel doesn't just say war is bad and people suffer.  It tells us about the 2nd, 3rd of 4th levels of suffering.  It educates us about the manners in which people (soldiers, family, community) try to survive through addiction, charity, hostility, denial and devotion.  The book lets you think for yourself...it doesn't make you hate the "enemy" more...it just makes you want to stop the bleeding.  

Worth...breaks my heart...I want him to be okay and I think he will but he'll never "get over it"..impossible.  That's how it is with PTSD, but it looks like he might find a way to co-exist with it.  I'm glad you ended it with him drifting but being loosely in touch.  It gives us hope but doesn't undermine all of the incredible depth you've given us with a fairy-tale ending.    

There are also lessons about helping, loving a person through trauma.  The book shows us to take them exactly where they are, provide safety within the framework of whatever it is they need to do, be ready to listen, give reality checks in strong direct language (commands, if necessary) give unconditional love and expect little because they can't be about giving yet...and then at some point healing begins and they give you the Merc.  

Thank you Susan.  An honor and a pleasure.  These folks will be with me for a long time.  

P.S. Just one more comment for now, this book NEEDS to be published.   

One Voice

Just when things seem to have slowed to a crawl in the muggy heat of yet another 90+ day, an agent asks for 100 pages and I instantly dive into the cool green waters of optimism, refreshed.

War Stories

Incorporating trusted readers'  helpful comments on GRACE and querying YA agents.
The first session of War Stories, a class I conceived and taught at South County Senior Center, is over. Great work by the eight participants. Interesting views about war from non-participants in military, though many had fathers and other relatives who fought in World War II and more recent relatives fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two lived through World War II in Europe, one in England, twice bombed in the blitz, and one in hiding in Czechoslovakia. The rest of us lived through wars in the US.


I am editing a book of the class's writings appropriate for Memorial Day weekend. 

To My Readers

I imagine you all engaged in my book and smile. Whatever the verdict, I appreciate the effort! Some of you are reading GRACE in hard copy and some have e-copies, at least one is reading GRACE on a Kindle (thanks to a Mac app that converts pdfs to Kindle-ese)!

Thank you all for helping me move Grace to the public forum.

Full Ms Sent Out

Wonderful to have Grace at War out in the agent world again. Go, Grace!

2011 The Year of Grace

I'm working on Grace using some great comments from Wendy and my own re-seeing of the book. It is humbling and scary. I feel defenceless and yet armed with the power to make the book sing.

Reminds me of therapy, nothing for it but to give myself over--not to grief this time, but to the power of my own imagination. And of the English language.

Revision, the fresh envisioning of a work of one's own hand and mind and heart, is not for wimps.

Coaching Yourself

A good end-of-year exercise! I will get back to GRACE on January 3, 2011.

Ten-Minute Tip: Coach Yourself

by Charlotte Rains Dixon, WordStrumpet

As a precursor to hiring a coach, spend a little time working with yourself. Answer the following questions:

1. What was your biggest writing success in 2010?
2. Your biggest writing problem?
3. If you were coaching yourself, what suggestions would you make to yourself about your writing problem?
4. How can you put these suggestions into action? When will you put them into action?
5. What are your three most important writing goals for 2011?
6. How will you implement them?
7. If you get stalled on these goals, how will you push forward?

Writer, mentor, and coach Charlotte Rains Dixon is passionate about helping writers, coaches, entrepreneurs, and creative professionals succeed, achieve, and profit in their careers and lives through writing. Visit her for more tips and techniques on writing--and living--at www.wordstrumpet.com.