A Year in the Life

With the end of the year quickly approaching, I want to take a moment and reflect on some of my personal highlights:

• Last January, I traveled to Florida with my youngest daughter to reintroduce her to her step-mother, Chris, and to bring her in touch with some of the her creative heritage. My father spent 35 years as an artist in Delray Beach, and my step-mother, his wife of 25 years, keeps his home much as it was in my childhood. His art work still decks the walls, and his spirit feels strong in his studio twenty-five years after his untimely death. Of all of the grandchildren Jessica, a NY fashion photographer, inherited his artistic eye. You can visit both my father's web site at www.crisdon.com and Jessica's website at www.jtyner.com. Both were designed (as well as my own at www.dgoodrumwhite.com) by Jessica.
• I completed 20 revisions on my first novel, "The Green Chronicles: Saving Dallas." I've only just begun to send it to publishers, and recently have given serious thought to seeking an agent to represent me. Yes, yes I know for children's lit, an agent is usually not recommended--the money just isn't there. However, after seeing the mindblowing imagery of the movie 2012 this month, I realized that "Saving Dallas" would make a fabulous big screen box office blockbuster hit. I need professional help to see this all the way through the multiple processes lurking ahead.


• Last April on the eve of sending "Dallas" out to three publishers, Michael began drafting his idea for our next novel. There were so many green details left out of our future world in "Dallas" that Michael wanted to see another book written to address some of these. He created a contest called the Sixth-Level Competition that would give a platform to six 11-year-old whiz kids of 2084 to address the challenge statement, "This year Oregon celebrates twenty-five years of the Hydrogen Age."


• In June, I was awarded third place in an essay contest hosted by the Winston-Salem Writers for my essay, "My Writing Fulfills Me." Here is a small excerpt basically answering the contest's question of How has writing saved or transformed my life: "My cup runs over. My hard drive’s full. My seawall’s breached. I write to bring order to the chaos in my mind. I write to express the emotion, joy, and trauma of my life."


• This summer, I drove my three grandchildren (9, 11, 15) and daughter (she did some of the driving too) on a 6,000 mile camping trip to a dozen national parks in 17 days. We read "Saving Dallas" out loud during the many hours on the road. I was able to make some more revisions after visiting both Lake Meredith and the Aldolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas.


• When I returned, Michael was ready for me to turn his array of notes into a new novel. It took me three months to write the first five chapters and then...


• I signed up for NaNoWriMo (again). It's the kick in the pants I can use to force my attention upon my computer and the story at hand. In the thirty days of November, I wrote chapters six through fourteen in over 50,200 words. I took "The Green Chronicles: The Runaway and the Sixth-Level Competition" from 26 pages to 189 pages, and thus our second novel took form. Michael was thrilled to see his 6 months of research come together in scene changes, dialog, conflict and resolution, and all of the other wonderful writer's tools that can turn a dry documentary into a juicy adventure novel.

"And now it is Christmas," (think John Lennon) "And what have we done?" Well, baby, we've done a plenty; it's been rip-roaring fun and has set the standard rather high for 2010! If your year was less glorious, ask yourself why. Then, set a new standard for your 2010. Aim high, impossibly high, and then if you fall short it will still be high by most people's standards.

I'm heading out tomorrow to spend Christmas with Jessica and her guy in the New York area. Michael and I will spend the 12 hour drive re-reading and revising "The Runaway and the Sixth-Level Competition." And, I will spend some of the time thinking and talking about these amazing last 12 months, thanking God for my many blessings.

I hope you all have a wonderful winter holiday--whatever you are celebrating; may your joys be many and your sorrows few, and your travels find you eventually safe at home once more.

Love to all, Donalee