E D Baker's Blog

Hooray! Hoorah! Horoo! (The last isn’t a real word, but if a writer can’t make up a word now and then, who can?) I finally finished the story I’ve been working on and sent it to my editor. She and I both think it’s my best book so far. I had a wonderful time writing it, even though it took me longer than most to get started. It was a new story unrelated to any other book I’ve written so far, and I had to get the feeling of the story right in my head before I could get it on paper (or in my computer.) I rewrote the first chapter four times before I really liked it. (I kept telling the story, not showing it.) Sometimes the beginning of the story is the hardest part to write, even if you know exactly how things are going to progress. This story is a fantasy set in the same world as tales of the Frog Princess, although they aren’t related. It’s about a girl who… ah, but that would be telling. The book is due to come out in the summer of 2010.

I’m doing the pre-writing for my next book which will be the eighth in the tales of the Frog Princess. It’s going to be about Millie, Audun and Millie’s family. After that I’m going to write the sequel to Wings. I’m already thinking about the plot for that. (I had one outline written for it, but neither my editor nor I were crazy about it; I’m starting from scratch with a new outline.) I’m trying to write two books a year, so I’m sorry that I don’t blog or get much of my other writing done as often as I’d like.

I read an article recently that mentioned the old adage telling you to write what you know. That’s fine as far as it goes, but can be very limiting. You should write about the things with which you are familiar when you can, but you should also write about the things in which you are interested. You’ll enjoy the research and broaden your knowledge on a topic you already like. When it comes to writing fiction, your imagination is an invaluable tool. I don’t know anyone who has seen an actual fairy or dragon, but I know a lot of people who find them fascinating. Before I write about a new kind of being or creature, I read as much about it as I can, then use the basic rules about that entity in creating the character for my story. I have such a creature in my newest book and it was fun bringing it into the story.

Now that I have the first draft done for my book and am waiting for my editor’s notes before I start the revisions, I have a few things I want to do around the house. 1. Clean my study. The piles of papers are massive– old manuscript pages, notes for the stories I’ve been working on, catalogs I wanted to order stuff from, but never did… Going through them is like an archeological dig – the deeper you go the farther back you go in history. 2. Clean my bedroom. My Newfoundland sleeps in my room and there’s enough of her fur collected under my dresser to make another dog. 3. Make curtains for my bedroom and the kitchen. I’ve had the fabric for who knows how long now. 4. Plant the shrubs I bought that are waiting to get planted. Every time I walk past them they cry out to me in their little plant voices, “Dig a hole! Stick me in!” Instead I water them and hope they’ll survive until I have the time to plant them when it isn’t either raining or too hot to dig holes. Finding the time on a nice day is sort of like waiting for the right alignment of the moon and the planets. It will happen eventually, but can I afford to wait that long?

Speaking about getting things done – it’s time to feed the horses. If I’m lucky and I finish feeding before it’s too hot, I might even be able to plant a shrub or two. One can only hope.

Spring is always the busiest season here. Aside from all the foalings, we breed mares for the next year, begin getting horses ready for showing and clean up the farm after the ravages of winter. I declared today a writing day - that means I intend to spend most of the day writing, as opposed to those days when I try to fit writing into everything else I have going on. However, I also intend to load branches into the back of the truck to take to the dump where they grind the branches into mulch. Picking up the branches makes mowing easier, of course – just another chore that never seems to end.
I had my first snake sighting of the year the other day. We were walking a mare and foal back to their stall when I passed some taller grass. A gray snake slithered out from the grass in front of me, making me wonder what else is living there.
We moved the goats recently. We have three wethers – neutered male goats –that do a great job of keeping the underbrush, weeds, etc, under control. They are our mobile foliage processing centers. As they clean up one area, we move them on to the next. Before we had goats, I never realized how much fun they are to watch and how much personality they have. Goats are wonderful to have on a horse farm. Horses often befriend goats and they can keep each other company when there is no other horse around. Goats will also eat things that horses won’t, like thistles, poison ivy and wild roses.
We live in an old farm house, which is why we have three cats living inside. We would have mice in the house if we didn’t have cats. We also have barn cats outside; having grain around attracts mice, so we need the cats to keep down the mice population in and around the barn. We knew a woman who didn’t like cats, and so didn’t have any in her barn. She had rats instead.
One of these days we’re going to move the duck pen to a more level spot. We have two ducks, Quackers and Fromage. They are both boys, which we didn’t know until they grew into their full adult plumage. (Boy ducks have curls in their tails, girl ducks do not.) I love watching the ducks and have learned so much about them. Before we had ducks, I didn’t know that they have claws. I especially like watching them run – their webbed feet go slap! slap! slap!
My daughter told me that I should blog about writing, but I enjoy the animals so much that I thought I’d tell you about them, too. And, in a way, I have been telling you about my writing. Living with so many animals around me has taught me so much that I can and do use in my stories. One day soon I intend to write a horse book. I’m already thinking about the plot. In the meantime, I’m almost finished with the book I’m currently writing and will be starting revisions soon. After the first draft, there’s always a lot to do before I feel it’s ready to send to my editor. The story has to have all the loose ends tied up, the ripples caused by changes seen to, and the characters the way I want them. The story has to feel right to me before I want anyone else to read it. I know that a lot of people don’t like doing revisions, but I enjoy it. I think writing the original story is the hard part. Doing the revisions is more like a mental challenge and very satisfying when you feel you’ve finally gotten it right.
One more thing – for those of you who have asked, I like to name animals after characters from my stories, although occasionally it’s the other way around. My frog Eadric (who died a few years ago) was named after the character. Emma the cat was named after Emma the princess. This year we named a colt Audun, after the dragon in The Dragon Princess, Dragon Kiss and the book I will be writing next in the series. (No, my friends from my message board, I’m not revealing the title yet!) I haven’t named any pet Grumble Belly yet, but it’s always a possibility!