Page Readers Interview

To hear my recorded December 7 interview on Page Readers (Blog Talk Radio) go here

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/page-readers/2009/12/07/page-readers-talks-with-janice-clark-author-of-mou

I had a good time talking with Nanci Arvisu about my books and writing in general.

Good news from the publisher: Orchard House Press tells me that The Door in the Sky is at the top of the queue for layout. I'm not sure what that translates to as far as a projected publishing date, as editor and almost-everything-else Cris is treading water as fast as she can just to keep up with day-to-day operations. But I'm confidant that they'll continue to keep their heads above water and sufficient distance ahead of the sharks, and eventually things will get better.

New Book

I've finished writing book four of the Hall of Doors series. It's tentatively called The Secret Door. In this one, Sammy and her mother are going to move away from the house where Sammy has lived most of her life, away from the place from which she (with the help of the cats) has been able to "climb a moonbeam" to Princess Selena's castle. Naturally, she's upset. But Peaches the cat takes her up the moonbeam path for another adventure.

I won't give you all the details, but the story includes unicorns, as requested by granddaughter Maggie. It also includes the "wild and dangerous teddy bears" she wanted, except that these are more like bandit koalas. I did have to pass on the space aliens--I couldn't see any way to work them in:) There are some tense moments, but Sammy makes it safely home again with the possibility that she may be able to return.

For a brief synopsis of the first three books of the series, see my website at www.janiceclark.net

Catching Up

Looking over my old posts, which are few and far between, I see I left out a lot of important stuff. I had mentioned Joyce, my Chinese daughter-in-law-to-be. I'm happy to report that she FINALLY (!!) got her visa in June. She and Jeff were married on the fourth of July.

Later that month, brother Richard and I traveled to Colorado to visit my daughter Sarah and family. They recently moved from Fairbanks, AK to Fort Collins, CO. We got to help out a little while Sarah was in the hospital giving birth to Winter Rose.

Also in July, Anita Donihue and I finished editing our "Bless This Home" book and sent it off to the first publisher on our list. No response yet--I'm hoping no news is good news. Anita went on to work on another book, and I've been copy-editing for her.

September included a "visiting author" appearance at Oakville Library, as well as a Christian women's retreat in Easton, WA.

In between I tended the garden, and gave away or processed for storage a lot of food. Lots of peas and green beans went in the freezer. We were blessed with an abundance of tomatoes, which I finally picked green and brought inside to finish ripening. The cupboard is full of canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato jam, and dried tomatoes. Love that dehydrator. We'll eat well this winter.

Author Interview

Tomorrow, November 13, I'll be featured in an author interview on Hank Quense's blog. http://hankquense.com/blog
Hank has a couple of books to his credit as well as many short stories, and also writes articles on writing. Feel free to pass this on to as many people as possible.

Starting over

I really intended to keep up this blog, but there were always other things clamoring for attention. So I'm starting over, and will endeavor to do better.

Today I updated the home page of my writing web site and followed up with announcements on Facebook, Myspace, and LiveJournal. I think I could easily spend all my time communicating and not get anything else done. How do people manage? Maybe they think and type faster than I do.

I'm looking for suggestion on jazzing up all my sites, the better to publicize my books. Suggestions would be welcome, keeping in mind that I'm not a teenager and feel a bit intimidated by modern communication methods. I want a family-friendly site that will attract more kids and their parents.

The latest news on books: The Door in the Sky should be out next month, The Mirror Door is at the publishers, and book four in The Hall of Doors series is underway. Anita and I finished the "Bless This Home" book and we're starting to look for a publisher.

The publisher said yes!!

The publisher (Windstorm Creative) got back to me in record time, with an affirmative answer. The Door in the Sky has been accepted!!! Not only that, but they want my son, fantasy artist JW Kalin, to illustrate this book as he did The Mountains of the Moon. Needless to say, I'm excited.

I won't give away all the details, but the magic door they go though this time is the one featured on the cover of The Mountains of the Moon, and they'll be traveling by dragon.

I guess I'll have to forgive them for cancelling my Christian Daily Scheduler that I worked so hard on. Publisher's are on a very tight profit margin, and the current economic trends are taking their toll. So what do I do with 365 short, uplifting thoughts for the day? I can't believe how hard it was to come up with so many, with a 30-word maximum for each. As you may have noticed, writing "short" is not my easiest mode.

Book three of The Hall of Doors is in progress, and will include a tribute to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. I remember helping my younger sister learn her lines for a short play based on a scene from Looking Glass, and driving her nuts for years afterward, quoting the lines which I had memorized in the process of prompting her. I thought it would be fun to have Sammy and her friend Kerri in a similar situation.

In other authorly news, my future daughter-in-law who lives in China says she likes my stories, and that they are helping her to improve her understanding of English. I've been sending her a story, poem or essay nearly every day by email. And my five-year-old granddaughter in Alaska wants to have her pictures in a book, like her cousins who posed for the illustrations in The Mountains of the Moon, so her Mom is going to send me photos and I'll make her a picture book. Maybe I'll self-publish:-)

How cool is it when your kids and grandkids are also fans? I feel so blessed.

Mother's Day Poems

For many years, I wrote a poem for my mom every Mother's Day. A lot of them wound up in a little work-for-hire gift book I put together for Barbour Publishing. I was supposed to be mostly compiling quotes, so I figured I might as well quote myself. Mom was drifting into the haze of Alzheimer's, but she still was proud of what she felt was "her" book.

My friend, Anita Donihue, recently asked for a copy of one poem, as she had misplaced it. She discovered several years ago, that the poem could be sung to the tune of "Jesus Loves Me," and uses it annually with her Sunday School class at Algona-Pacific Church of God in Washington. So I get my annual dose of "fifteen minute of fame." Actually, most of my Mother's Day poems have been read at least once in one church or another, and several have been published as well. Since I still hold the copyrights, I decided to share a few. Feel welcome to pass them on.

This is the one Anita wanted. She added as a chorus, "Yes, we love Mom (3 times) and Jesus loves her too."

Moms

Wife, companion, sweetheart, friend,
One on whom we all depend,
Chauffeur, laundress, cook and baker,
Casserole and cookie maker,
Seamstress, skilled in many arts,
Mending clothes and broken hearts,
Girl Scout leader, Sunday School teacher,
Confidante, advisor, preacher,
Bargain hunter, tutor, nurse,
Keeper of the family purse,
Neighbor, cousin, daughter, niece,
Making beds and making peace,
Always smiling, always giving,
What a busy life they're living,
Feeding children, dogs and cats,
How do they wear so many hats?

Janice Lewis Clark May, 2000

Actually, I think this one is my favorite.

Life: With Safety Net

Life is an ocean the sailor must cross
In a boat with threadbare sails:
Riding the billows from trough to crest,
Braving the fearsome gales.
And the waves roll up, and the waves roll down,
And the breakers roar and foam,
But the beacon light of a mother’s love
Will guide the sailor home.

Life is a journey to faraway lands,
On a road fraught with perils and care,
Where many a beckoning dead-end trail
Awaits, the unwary to snare.
And the road climbs up, and the road slides down,
Over rocks and through valleys gray,
But my mother set me upon the path
With a map to guide my way.

Life is an acrobat’s balancing act
On a narrow, raveling rope,
In a gusty wind, with slippery shoes,
And a tattered net for hope.
And the rope sways left, and the rope sways right,
And the watchers hoot and call,
But my mother’s waiting with open arms
To catch me if I fall.

Though the sea is wide, and the road is long,
And the dancing tightrope sways,
Still I carry inside my mother’s song,
That will last me all my days.

Janice Lewis Clark, 2001

This is my most requested, and a favorite for baby showers:

Motherhood

Smiles and dimples, sweet delights;
Diapers, teething, sleepless nights.

Creeping, crawling, growing strong;
Into everything ere long.

Toddling, tripping down the halls;
Crayon murals on the walls.

“Mama”, “Papa”, happy laughter;
“No”, “I hate you” follows after.

Bedtime stories, magic rings;
Skinned-up knees from slides and swings.

Halfway grown and off to school;
Teacher’s smart but Mom’s a fool.

Race through lessons, out the doors;
Messy room and half-done chores.

Plans and day-dreams, fits and starts;
Broken bones and broken hearts.

Hitch your wagon to a star;
Need new clothes, some cash, the car.

Graduation, running wild;
All grown up but still a child.

Taste a bit of life and then,
Funny thing, Mom’s smart again.

It’s a calling like no other;
What a joy to be a mother!

Janice Lewis Clark 1996

One more for now, another popular one:

Laundry Musings

Little boys' pockets, full of odd things:
Bubble gum wrappers and butterfly wings
Nails, screws, and washers, a Crackerjack ring,
Pencils and pebbles and pieces of string.

The whole world is changing, each day something new
Cell phones and faxes and microwave stew,
Video movies and games on the set;
Grandma sends e-mail and cruises the net.

Satellites orbit, the shuttle's routine.
Holograms shimmer from each magazine.
Lasers for surgery, robot-built cars,
Telecommuting and photos from mars.

Washers and dryers grow more automatic;
Glass fiber lines give us phones with less static.
Life is confusing, amusing but strange.
Isn't it grand that some things never change.

Little boys' pockets, full of odd things:
Bubble gum wrappers and butterfly wings
Nails, screws, and washers, a Crackerjack ring,
Pencils and pebbles and pieces of string.

Janice Lewis Clark 1998

Enough for now. It's time to tend to other chores. I finally finished my latest review for The Fix, an anthology called The Return of the Sword. I also finished tweaking the manuscript for The Door in the Sky, which is the sequel to The Mountains of the Moon for the Hall of Doors series. Now I need to write a couple of critiques for Critters and then get back to book three for the series. Maybe I'll steal a few moments to get out and enjoy the rare sunshine.