Heather's ring

On January 9, my cousin threw an engagement party for her daughter. We had to drive over an hour to get there, but we like these people, like parties in general, and hoped there would be dancing. The invitation said "semi-formal," however, so that called for a new, fancy dress. I work at a fabric store, got some advice from my coworkers, and finally chose a deep blue satin. As I worked on it, I started thinking about a fancy necklace to go with it. I have always been a "gold" person and surprised to find myself thinking so quickly of silver. Brian likes to make jewelry and has some equipment. We shopped carefully, and he crafted a beautiful two-strand silver and blue necklace. It was a debut for me -- satin instead of work clothes and silver instead of gold -- and I looked and felt great.

Yes, there was dancing, and the engagement party was a surprise wedding!

What does all this have to do with my novel or Heather's ring? Read on.

Our writers' group met again this morning. Brian, my husband, again accompanied me, and I submitted another chapter. Remember, last week I received a lot of what I perceived as criticism. In fact, one man asked me this morning if all of my bruises had healed. I was able to tell him honestly that I was glad for the feedback because it helped me craft the current chapter, about Heather's ring. I didn't know if I would be read today or not, but I was (the THIRD week in a row), and the group's comments were almost all positive.

My past stories have been sweet and happy. No one ever gets anything more than his/her feelings hurt and the man in the white hat handily defeats the one in the black hat (bloodlessly, of course). In this chapter of In An Elephant's Footprint, however, there are definitely bad guys who want to hurt my young heroine, Heather, for their own gain. This is a new and exciting genre for me.

Imagine -- two debuts in the first month of 2010! And all without a resolution.