A Quiet Letter: November 2024
A Quiet Letter: November 2024
The State of the Maple, the state of the novel, a short story, and two good books
Hello, friends and kindred spirits!
When we moved to our house ten years ago, a small but elegant Japanese maple stood near the driveway. We named her Maura. Now she is twenty feet tall and at least as wide and is visible from every window in the front of the house. Stately and magnificent she stands sentinel before our front door. And never is she so magnificent as in the last week of October when all her leaves turn scarlet.
Every year, I look forward to this week of autumn glory when Maura shines like rubies in the sun. Every year, I am astonished by how much more beautiful Maura is than I remember, how no picture I’ve ever taken can do justice to the glory and the beauty of her shimmering scarlet cloak. And every year, I think of Lanier Ivester’s line about “molten maple gladness”—I’m never sure if the gladness is mine or Maura’s. Probably both. The trees clap their hands, after all.
Maura is a bit of mirror or gemstone, reflecting the goodness and glory of her Creator. In the words of Ruth Pitter’s poem, she “shines, listening to the soul, / And the soul replies.”
Friends, the older I get, the more beauty sings to my soul, calling me out of myself and my small problems, beckoning me to step into the wide world of God’s goodness and grace. When I see Maura shine in the sun like a thousand glimmering garnets, my soul replies, Yes. Yes and amen. Yes and hallelujah. Yes and “praise to the Holiest in the heights.” Yes and yes and yes.
Novel Update
I’m still plugging away at revisions. Most of the new scenes are drafted, so now I’m doing the fun part: making those drafts pretty.
Drafting is my least favorite part of writing. Whenever I draft a new scene, I realize anew what a truly terrible writer I am. That doesn’t discourage me nearly as much as it used to. Over the decades I’ve been doing this work, I’ve learned that I’m really good at taking garbage and turning it into gold. Like alchemy, only cooler. :)
This is truly my favorite part of the writing process, this taking of a painful draft and crafting it into delightful prose. It doesn’t happen all at once. It’s more like an accordion—I expand and cut, expand and cut, expand and cut, until I’m quibbling over prepositions. Then I know I need to move on. (Not that I necessarily do. I’ve been known to spend half an hour polishing a single sentence that eventually ends up on the cutting room floor. Ouch. But I sure had fun polishing!)
For those of you who haven’t yet had a chance to read last month’s story, “Memory Work” features the heroine of my novel when she was nine years old. It also introduces her grandmother, Eleanor, whom I hope you’ll love as much as I do.
October in Books
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Y’all, I had to. This is one of my all-time favorite books, and I’ve read it a dozen times at least, but I can always tell when it’s time to read it again—something nudges me, and I just know. Besides, I’m writing a romcom, so of course I had to go back and read the mother of all romcoms. I’m assuming if you’re reading this newsletter that you’ve already read all of Jane Austen’s novels. But if you have somehow managed to make it this far in life and you haven’t read Pride and Prejudice, oh my goodness, stop reading this and go to the nearest bookstore and get your hands on a copy. It’s delicious and delightful and no movie version ever made (not even the 1995 BBC production) can capture the saucy sparkle of Elizabeth Bennet or the nobility of Mr Darcy, much less the wonder of their respective transformations. Love love love love.
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
I’m not usually one for dystopian novels, but the title intrigued me, and I loved Enger’s first novel, Peace Like a River. So I picked this one up, and oh, am I glad I did. It’s the story of the narrator’s quest, along the shores and among the islands of Lake Superior, to be reunited with his wife. Enger’s prose somehow manages to be both spare and evocative, his narrator is loveable and larger than life, and Lake Superior, with is changeful waters, becomes almost a character in its own right (and I am a sucker for novels in which the setting is a character). With echoes of The Odyssey and the myth of Orpheus, Enger’s novel intrigued me from the very first page.
Friends, wherever you find yourself this November day, I pray that you may have eyes to see the beauties that mark your path. May those beauties arrest your attention and draw your gaze back to the One who is beauty itself, who shines in all things and through all things. And may your soul reply yes and amen.
~KC