Dear Reader,

Jamie Ogle, today’s guest author, is a predawn writer, a homeschool mom by day, and a reader by night. A Minnesota native, she now lives in Iowa with her husband and their three children. She can usually be found gardening, beekeeping and tromping through the woods.

Jamie’s new novel is ‘Daughter of the Rebellion’: A young woman imprisoned in a Roman gladiator school becomes a legendary warrior. But when not even her fame is enough, she must fight to save herself and those she loves.

Please say “Hello” and welcome Jamie to the book club via, https://www.jamieogle.com/contact

Renovations and Writing

As my husband and I prepare to move for the eighth time in sixteen years, we’ve been spending a lot of time at our “new” house, painting, renovating, planning. We’ve been flipping houses since we were dating, and no one quite believes us when we say we actually enjoy doing projects together. I won’t say it’s easy, or that we’ve never argued or hit waterlines at midnight and flooded a basement. It’s been a long road of growing in skills, learning each other’s strengths, trusting that the other has a vision and a plan to move forward even if one of us isn’t quite catching on. It requires communication, patience, and persistence. A good playlist doesn’t hurt either.

One of my favorite parts of the renovation is the beginning, when the house is at its worst, but we’re fresh and excited, and all we see is the potential of what it could be. We take lots of “before” pictures so when we’re mopping up water at midnight we can look back and see how far we’ve come and not dread how much further we have to go. Did I mention we love this? Because at the end, we’ve created a space that’s functional and inviting, a place we want to linger in and come back to time and again. Until we move again, that is.

I think that’s why I love editing so much. It gives the same satisfaction of a home-renovation project. You start with a bit of a mess, but the bones are good and you can see all it could be with a bit of time and effort. Bonus: you rarely end up with water in the basement. Editing makes the story effective, functional, and beautiful. A story readers want to linger in, think back on, and revisit time and again.

None of this is instant though. It’s easy to look at “before and after” pictures and marvel at the “after,” forgetting the weeks, months, (years, if we’re being honest) that it took to get to that point. The first renovation project looks nothing like the eighth, because carpentry skills take time and practice to grow and improve. It’s the same with writing. No one writes a masterpiece on their first try. Most writers have a file full of old stories that will never see the light of day. Some might look at that as waste, but the beautiful thing about writing is that none of it is ever wasted because every project builds skill. I find that incredibly encouraging both in writing and in life.

— Jamie Ogle
https://www.jamieogle.com/contact

Thanks for reading with me. It’s so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com