new year – Jennifer Lane Books

Are you a writer? Then you’re probably insecure. Join us!

Many thanks to Alex Cavanaugh as well as to this month’s co-hosts: Rebecca Douglass, Beth Camp, Liza @ Middle Passages, and Natalie @ Literary Rambles!

Happy New Year, writers and readers! How is yours starting? I have a sinus infection that has turned me into a phlegm factory (sorry for oversharing). My 88-year-old father was in the hospital with heart problems, and I probably picked up a bug visiting him there. But he’s now in a great acute rehab facility, so I’m hoping he recaptures independent functioning soon.

January 8 question – Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?

I choose two men who I admired as a teenager: my Spanish teacher, Neil Frank, and my college swim coach, Jim Steen. I admire them just as much now as I did then.

Sr. Frank taught four years of high school Spanish to me and other lucky students in Cincinnati, Ohio. His hyper-kinetic approach was so loco that I became endeared with the beautiful language and various cultures of Spanish-speaking countries. I’ve created quite a few Latino characters in my stories. I also strive to add a spice of his mischief to teaching college classes, including “board relay races” in which two teams of students race to the board to scribble the correct answers. I dream about becoming fluent in Spanish, which would help my psychologist career. I recently downloaded Babel, but I haven’t spent much time with the app yet.

Another person I deeply admire is my Kenyon College swim coach. Coach Steen is the NCAA’s most-winning coach (though most don’t know about him since Kenyon is in the small-school Division III.) He innovates and inspires. Jim is so insightful about each swimmer’s psychology, and he balances a challenging yet lighthearted approach that helps unlock his swimmers’ potential. Now that I think about it, he’s rather hyper, too. I guess I admire high-energy male educators with an exuberant sense of humor!

I’ve come up with a tagline for my work-in-progress, Low Water: A swim coach and his psychologist team up to heal from trauma. I’ve written 35K out of about 85K words.

I hope you’re having a clear-sinus start to your New Year!

Happy 2022, insecure writers!! I love our founder Alex Cavanaugh’s inspiring message about the new year:

“We all know it’s been creatively challenging the past two years. Some managed to write like maniacs, but a good portion of us were sidelined by events wrought with turmoil and uncertainty.

But 2022 can be different. We can take control of our own creative future. We need to maintain hope. Without it, we won’t make it. We need to feed that spark of hope. That creative spark! That’s our wheelhouse.

So, we need to believe in ourselves. Believe in the words we write. And believe 2022 is our year!”

Thank you to our competent co-hosts: Erika Beebe, Olga Godim, Sandra Cox, Sarah Foster, and Chemist Ken!

January 5 question – What’s the one thing about your writing career you regret the most? Were you able to overcome it?

I regret not knowing more about the craft of writing before my first novel was published. Though I still feel a fondness for the characters of my first novel, adverb abuse, head-hopping, and bloated prose hurt the writing quality.

I have tried to overcome this regret by learning more about the craft through reading, studying writing, and working with my critique partner and editor. It felt great to edit my debut novel to reduce my cringe reactions.

Cheers to a healthy, happy 2022!