Novels in the Making

I kind of hated to leave the warm house yesterday afternoon. The weather was perfect for the Canada geese at river -- not so much for driving.

But I soldiered on into Asheville, wipers slapping, defroster roaring, to be there for the final meeting of my fall fiction workshop. There were five separate first or second chapters awaiting the class's attention. Obviously I had no choice.

After a quick stop at Accent on Books to pick up another box of Christmas cards (I always forget how many friends we exchange cards with,) I called on my friend Josie to chat and have a cup of tea in our usual pre-class ritual. And while I was comfortably ensconced on her love seat, outside the window the sky began to clear and do wonderful things.

Speaking of wonderful things (note clever transition,) this has been an especially talented class. And wildly diverse in their choice of subject matter too. We've got women's fiction, alternative history (Revolutionary War,) cozy mystery, drug cartel thriller, paranormalish thriller, past life regression story, straight mystery, historical fiction (pirates Mary Read and Ann Bonney and the foppish Captain Jack Rackham, for whom someone in class came up with the term swishbuckler. Which cracked us all up. Then I found out, courtesy Mr. Google, that it's a known term and there's a movie of that name coming out soon. We thought we were so clever.)

Once again, the class has been fun. I feel privileged to share what little I know about this baffling business and hope that I help my students some and pray that I don't discourage them any.

Except for the money part -- I do always warn them that they better not quit their day jobs.