Adventures At The Midwest Writers Workshop

“The world isn’t discovered in books and maps, it’s discovered out there,” Gandalf, The Lord of The Rings

I’ve never learned this lesson more than at the Midwest Writers Workshop. While it’s definitely a good thing to read writing books and blogs, nothing compares with sitting down with an agent or a best-selling author in a class or at lunch, and listening to them talk about their personal experience and share their best tips. It was mind blowing.

Day 1- getting ready to head "out there" to the Midwest Writers Workshop

I’ve always thought of writing as a solitary activity, and spend a lot of time writing by myself, but after a weekend at the Midwest Writers Workshop, I realized I’ve been missing out!

The conference made me see how important it is to connect with other writers. There is something to be said when you walk into a room and other people have pens tucked behind their ears, and way too many notebooks stuffed into their bags too!

The picture above is from buttonhole the experts. They set up thirty different tables with experts who discuss all sorts topics applicable to writers . Some of these included; The Young Adult Market, Writing the Series, The Writer's Life, Ask An Agent Anything, and What's A Comp Title, just to name a few! They gave us two, one hour sessions with the experts, and after twenty minutes at the table, they rung a bell, and you had to run to another table. It was so hard to decide which tables to go to!The blurry picture above was fitting, because I was on the run!

These are some of the buttonhole topics. There was so much to learn from all of the experts, but my favorite was tips on self-promotion for the shy, introverted writer with expert author Lori Radar-Day. She was so fantastic that I  signed up to receive her e-mails and even bought her book.

Day 2- Taking a breath before I headed in to eat breakfast, listen to the "Ask an Agent" panel and do my first pitch session.

They had us running around from 8:00AM (if you wanted coffee and doughnuts) to 9:00PM (if you stayed for the activities after the dinner break) doing workshops, activities, and one-on-one sessions with the faculty. They offered classes about EVERYTHING! A few of the workshops I did were writing middle grade, editing, social media, and taxes for writers.

These are the schedules for the agents and authors. They kept us writers busy, but they kept the faculty even busier! I'm really thankful for how much time they put into the writers at the conference. What made this conference were the people. The staff was incredible. They were friendly and helpful, and more than willing to give me directions every time I got lost. I had imagined sitting in a huge lecture hall with one hundred other people and listening to an agent speak up front… not even close. There were only twenty or so in most of the workshops I took, and the agents, authors, and faculty were completely accessible. I had an agent sit next to me and ask me a question, and I was so star struck that I could barely get any words out of my mouth! They were all so down to earth and friendly, and genuinely wanted to help the writers there be successful.

I loved the workshops with the authors, because so many of them explained what it was really like once we signed a contract. It was so nice to have a heads up about what to look out for, tips on how to handle different situations, and what to expect once you sign with an agent and a publisher.

The picture above is from the social media workshop taught by agent, Lauren MacLeod. I needed this class in the worst way. She did a fantastic job explaining the ins and outs of social media. I tend to ignore social media, but she did an amazing job explaining why it’s such an important avenue for writers to use, and is the reason why you will see more blog posts coming from me in the future. I've always seen social media as daunting, but her tips were helpful, funny, and took the intimidation out of using it.

They offered one on one pitch sessions, query critiques, and manuscript critiques with the agents, editors, and authors!

I look all smiles, but I was SUPER nervous as I waited to do my query critique.

Day 3-This is me with Lisa Wheeler, who sponsors two scholarships for the Midwest Writers Workshop. What a privilege it was to meet her! Without her, I would have never had this opportunity and I am so grateful that she wanted to invest in the lives of writers. I love what she had to say about sponsoring the scholarships. She explained that she sponsors the scholarships to give someone else the opportunity to write and contribute to the good of writing in the world.

Mudlavia Pages Win Scholarship Contest!

In June, I was at McDonald's with my two girls. We’d spent twenty minutes scrounging up enough change to buy them each an ice cream cone, so I could use McDonald's free Wi-Fi without feeling guilty. At the end of a long day, the last thing I wanted to do was drive somewhere to use my email, and I was praying their internet would work well enough to send off my soccer documents and get on my way. I opened my e-mail and caught the subject line, “Congratulations Carrie” out of the corner of my eye. The sender… Midwest Writers. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even click to open the e-mail.

I’d entered the scholarship contest back in May, submitting a letter and the first five pages of my Mudlavia novel. This wasn’t the usual friendly e-mail that said to try again next year, but to let me know they had chosen me as one of the scholarship recipients. In my day to day life, my car won’t always start, I don’t have internet access, I scrounge for nickels to buy my kids ice cream, and I surely can’t afford to attend a writing conference. Their e-mail changed my life, filling my summer with a little extra hope, excitement, and gratefulness.

It’s an honor to be chosen as a recipient, but an even bigger honor that it had to do with my Mudlavia novel. It’s a tribute to my grandparents, and it represents the people who have worked hard to preserve Mudlavia’s history. So many of them have welcomed me into their homes to share their knowledge and their Mudlavia collections with me. It represents a rich part of Indiana’s history that would be extinct without their stories, memories, and assortment of newspaper clippings, postcards, and artifacts. It represents the hard working and friendly people of Warren County, a place with Mayberry-like charm that’s never been lost over time. Some people have grossly misrepresented it on the internet, leaving people with a glum story about a crumbled building filled with ghosts. The Mudlavia Hotel deserves to be represented with its fascinating history, Titanic-like extravagance, and healing mud.

I was still in “pinch me” mode until I walked up to the registration table and they handed me my nametag. The nametag was my pass to the Midwest Writers Workshop in Muncie. Lots of writers blog about the importance of attending writing conferences, and they’re right. The conference was full of all kinds of writers with all kinds of stories, who were eager to share, learn, and network. Agents, editors, and best-selling authors attended the conference to teach us how to perfect our craft, market ourselves, and even handle taxes. If you have a chance to go to a conference, do it! There’s so much you can learn from talking to experts in person that you can’t learn from a book or a blog. If you can’t afford to go, see if they have some sort of scholarship contest and go for it… you might just get a surprising e-mail in your inbox!

The Mudlavia Project- Pine Village Football Team

If you’re driving through Pine Village, Indiana, don’t blink, or you might just miss it! Outsiders might think there’s not much to the town; a small post office, a little restaurant called The Windy Mill where the old farmers meet up to drink coffee, and a gas station where there’s no option to pay at the pump. It’s a charming place where the men wear overalls and everybody waves. And as you enter town, there’s a few curious signs claiming that Pine Village is where pro football got its start.

Side 1

If you were like me when I first moved to Pine Village six years ago, you might look at the surrounding corn fields and the county with no stoplights, and think, “Yeah right! This place couldn’t have any connection to the multibillion dollar football league we know today!”

Side 2

 I’m a pretty big football fan (although I don’t know if I’ll enjoy it as much this year now that Peyton Manning and Calvin Johnson are retired) and a history buff, so I became fascinated with these signs. Were they really true or were we just a small town trying to find our claim to fame?

I asked around and the common answer was, “Haven’t you read the signs?”

I was finally able to find good information on the Pine Village football team in a local publication called, The Good Ol’ Days, that was put together by Mary Ann Akers, and in the book, Pine Village Football The Inside “Dope” written by Doris Holtman Cottingham.

The first Pine Village team was founded by high school principal, Clint Beckett, in 1989. He was called the “father of Pine Village football” and it was his enthusiasm that turned the small town of Pine Village into football fanatics for over twenty years.

 The team played at the Pine Creek bottom on a cow pasture, where they hired young boys to pick up the cow pies before the games. From 1900 to 1914 the team was considered an amateur team, and the cost to get in was twenty-five cents. From 1915 to 1919, the team became pro and charged one dollar to get into games. Depending on the weather, they could expect anywhere from 300 to 4000 people pulled alongside the cow pasture in their buggies, and later on in their Oldsmobiles and Model T Fords.

The team was made up mostly of locals who worked on their farms during the week and then played in the games on Sunday afternoons. They were considered a “history-making bunch” because in twenty years, they only had six losses. They were not scored against during seven of those years, and went undefeated for eleven of those years!

The Pine Village team officially became a pro team when it was agreed upon that every player on the team would be paid $40 for each game they played in. Their first pro game was played on October 17, 1915, against the Marion Athletic Club. Pine Village was a town of 300 playing against Marion, a town of 10,000. Pine Village beat them 17-0.

In an interview written by Robert Carr, his uncle John Carr, who played on the Pine Village team, says , “That first game as professionals convinced us of one thing, we had to practice more and leave less to brute strength. What we did was start practicing three times a week in the main square at Pine Village. The area wasn’t actually large enough, but we had three 100-watt lightbulbs hanging from wires, so we really had it made.”

Sources say that famous athlete, Jim Thorpe, played at least one, but maybe even three games with the Pine Village team for a price of $250 per game. Newspapers record that Thorpe played in the Thanksgiving Day football game on November 25, 1915. Pine Village played the Wabash team made up of All-Americans from Notre Dame, University of Michigan, and Illinois. Pine Village beat them 29-0. In the article by Carr, he also interviewed Pine Village player, James Hooker, who said, “After that bruising game, Thorpe said he’d never seen anything like this in all his life. ‘Players from a tiny village playing like All-Americans against official All-Americans.’ ”

The Pine Village Football team is such an awesome part of Warren County’s history, and I’m really excited that they played games during the time that my Mudlavia novel is set. Although my focus is on Mudlavia, I love including other pieces of Warren County history into my novel, like my characters going to cheer on their Pine Village team!

Giving credit where credit is due:

Pine Village Football The Inside “Dope”, Doris Holtman Cottingham, Williamsport, IN 2001

Good Ol’ Days, “Game In Progress”, Mary Ann Akers, October 1988 (this contains the interview between Robert Carr and his uncle, John Carr)

The Mudlavia Project: Testing Recipes

Some of my favorite books are the ones that make you feel like you can almost taste and smell the food. I can't read anything by Beverly Lewis without feeling like I need a warm cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll. Harry Potter wouldn't be the same without its famous butterbeer, pumpkin pasties, and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans! And of course, we can't forget the hobbits who love all food and eat at least six meals a day; breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, and afternoon tea just to name a few!

When I write stories, it's really important to me to make the food come to life, and one of the best ways to do this is to test recipes. Not only is it a fun bonus to find a recipe from the story tucked in at the end of a book, but as an author is also helps me to make my story more real.

I have a special chef in my novel, who is based off a story told to me about a chef who used to work there. I have yet to find any information about this particular chef or any other chefs that were employed there, so its up to my imagination to determine what happens in the Mudlavia kitchen.

This is where testing recipes comes in. Not only can a I dream up some of the food they serve in my story, but by testing it, I get an idea of what problems they would have faced as they were trying to cook for so many guests! There were 250 guestrooms at Mudlavia, as well as day visitors, and the staff (in 1903, they had around 90 staff members working there), so there were a lot of mouths to feed!

I was testing a fancy apple recipe that is not pictured because it bombed. There was a very specific way to cut the apple and I cannot tell you how frustrated I was trying to get it just right. James even tried to help me and we had slippery apples flying all over our kitchen. As frustrated as I was with our apple fiasco, I realized later on how funny it would be to have the kitchen staff in my story going through bushels of apples and trying to get them just right for the evening dessert.

 I've come across a few different menus from Mudlavia that gave me a place to start, and I've been researching old-time recipes from the turn of the century. One recipe I found was a Lemon Pepper Cake recipe. Since lemons and pepper are cheap, it gave me a good place to start creating recipes!

Don't let those dark specks fool you! They look like flecks of vanilla bean, but they are actually specks of black pepper for an old fashioned style lemon pepper scone. I was wary of trying to put lemon and pepper in something sweet, but they turned out surprisingly good. The black pepper gives the sweet lemony scones a subtle note of heat.

While it was hard to wrap my mind around lemon pepper anything in something sweet, it was easier to pair the two in something more savory, like a biscuit. I found an old fashioned recipe for a cream biscuit, and since Mudlavia had their own creamery, it seemed very fitting to use a biscuit recipe with butter and cream! I then tinkered with it by adjusting the liquids and adding lemon and pepper to give it a distinct flavor.

This last recipe doesn't have anything to do with lemon or pepper (thank goodness- we were getting a little tired of that combination)! I came across an old cookie recipe that was similar to one my grandma and mom always made around Christmas time. Pictured above is the original recipe, but it has been the base for many other ideas, including the Old Fashioned Lemonade cookies I wrote about in my last post.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy!

Mudlavia Project Update

I haven't posted any Mudlavia posts lately because I had deadlines for two contests this week. I started getting everything ready for them two weeks ago, and they took up a lot of my time.

The first one was to win a scholarship to attend a writing conference this summer. I had to submit the first five pages of my manuscript. I spent several hours editing those few pages, as well as double checking all my research to make sure it was right!

The second one was for a baking contest. You are probably wondering what this has to do with Mudlavia! For this book, I've had to research everything; clothes, trains, cars, medicine, and yes, food! I am fascinated by old Mudlavia menus, and anything I can learn about the kitchen and gardens there. The old menus have inspired me to recreate old recipes from the turn of the century.

Food Network had an ad for a baking contest, and I thought it would be fun to enter one of the recipes I made up. Pictured below are what I am calling Old Fashioned Lemonade Cookies. They were inspired by an old time recipe that was similar to a pecan cookie recipe my grandma and mom used to make at Christmas time. Once I had that recipe down, I turned it into a lemon cookie; partly because I've found several recipes from the turn of the century featuring lemon, and partly because of my dad, who adores anything with lemon in it.

You would never believe the complications with changing a few ingredients around in a recipe. People aren't joking when they say baking is a science- it took two to get the frosting right and five tries to get the dough right!

My book is coming along well. I have about 90,000 words written and I have started editing my first draft. My goal is to have it edited by the end of May before my girls are out of school. I still have a long way to go with the research to help fill in gaps in my story, but am really excited about how it is coming along. More posts to come soon! Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 





The Mudlavia Project: The Ditch

The story of Mudlavia begins in the humblest of places; it begins with a ditch.

(The picture above shows a ditch my Grandpa drove me by- he says this is where it all began)

In August of 1884, a young man named Samuel Story leased some farmland, but to his dismay, there was a fast-flowing natural spring on the property that made the conditions more like a swamp than a field.

If you’re a gardener or a farmer of any type, then you know that plants like drainage. Samuel Story’s rented field wasn’t draining, and there was no hope of it ever drying out. Story’s only solution was to dig a ditch across the field.

Now Samuel Story was a Civil War veteran, and he had “the rheumatiz”, or what we call arthritis today.

Nowadays we have all kinds of tools to make digging easier, but the only thing Samuel Story had was a shovel.

I can just picture the sun creeping over the tops of the trees as Samuel stood there, shovel in hand, staring forlornly at his flooded field, joints aching, and dreading the hard work of digging a ditch in the hot August weather.

Little did he know that the ditch he was about to start would not only change his life, but would change the history of Warren County.

Story toiled away, shoveling load after load of thick black mud. As the sun beat down on him, he sipped the cool, sweet spring water. He worked day in, day out; back-breaking work in the August heat, trying desperately to make his field "plantable".

Soon Story realized something. The back-breaking work wasn’t as back-breaking as he thought it would be, in fact, he was feeling pretty good- the best he’d felt in years!

As he pondered what had changed, he thought of the cool spring water he’d been drinking, and the hot mud he’d been standing in for weeks. They’d cured him!



(The picture above shows Samuel Story in his older years. This is from my Grandpa's collection)

If you’ve ever known the agony of your body not working the way it’s supposed to, of extreme pain, then you know to find health, stamina, and energy again is a miracle. To be able to wake up and feel normal is a gift from God, and that’s exactly how Samuel Story felt!

Now if our story ended here, with a humble, hard-working, war veteran finding healing and health, I think that’s an amazing story in itself, but it continues…

Story was so excited about his healing that he told everyone! Soon the word spread, and others who were suffering and desperate for relief came to Samuel Story’s ditch to try the magic mud.

At first they showed up with buckets and bottles to capture the healing mud and water, but soon they were camping out in tents on either side of the ditch.

They did whatever they could to get the mud. They used buckets, barrels, and bottles, and even rolled it up in their clothes. There were so many people camping out on the land and yearning for the magic mud, that William “Uncle Billy” and Matilda Cameron bought the property and constructed a small bathhouse and hotel, and named it Cameron Springs. The buildings were crude, and the people were treated while they sat on stumps and rested their feet in tobacco buckets full of the heated mud.

In 1889, a young entrepreneur named Henry Kramer traveled to Cameron Springs and listened to the stories of the magic mud. The tales sent his bright mind reeling, and thus began the creation of one of the most magnificent mud baths in the United States.

*Giving credit where credit is due- a special thanks to my grandpa, Bill Ringer, for sharing all his Mudlavia information with me, to Matt Akers for sharing copies of his mother’s publications of the Good Ol’ Days with me, to Sara Johnston for sharing her copy of Traces with me, and to Teri Morris for helping me so much with my research over the last several months

Good Ol’ Days, Mudlavia Edition, June/July 1989

Traces, “The Right Water, The Right Mud, and the Right Place”, Winter 1992

*Various sources talk about Samuel Story’s life after Mudlavia was built. In an account written by his great granddaughter in Good Ol’ Days, she says that he continued to live in what would become the town of Kramer. Although he was the discoverer of the famous mud, he never received any riches from it, but lived a humble, honest, god-fearing life. He loved his family and he was a fiddler, often requested to play at various events. Other sources say that Story could often be found telling the story of the ditch and the magic mud on the porches of the Mudlavia Hotel, and one source even claims that he drove the coaches back and forth to the train station from Mudlavia and entertained the guests with his stories. There are some discrepancies in sources about  the tents that were erected and details about Cameron Springs, so the above information could change as I continue my research.

The Mudlavia Project: The Ghostbuster

James and I were at a party and someone asked me what I did for a living. James immediately jumped in and said, "She's a writer." This led to, "Oh, what do you write?" I explained that I was currently working on a historical fiction about Mudlavia.

Another person said, "Wait, isn't that the haunted hotel in the middle of nowhere?"

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard about the "haunted hotel in the middle of nowhere," I would probably be able to pay off my student loans.

Even in the age of the "great and powerful" internet, it's hard to find good and reliable information on Mudlavia, and there's many a tale of ghost sightings and séances associated with it.

The structure of Mudlavia is rotting and falling apart, but the crying shame is that the rich and magnificent history is fading and being lost to a bunch of ghost stories.

Before I write any other posts about Mudlavia, I want to set something straight... I am not writing a ghost story. In fact, I'd like to consider myself a ghost buster.

Here are a few claims on the internet I'd like to bust-

1) One ghost account mentions that there are thirteen trees that line the road that leads to Mudlavia...

Out of curiosity, I parked along the side of the road and walked it, counting each and every one of those big trees. I'd like to inform you that there are twenty-one trees that line the road, and that does not include the ones that are rotted and tipped over. Thank you very much.

2) The ghosts of the people that died in the fire haunt the hotel

All it takes is a little research to bust this one. The Historical Society has primary resources that specifically say that NO ONE died in the Mudlavia fire.

3) It's an old building, so it MUST be haunted!

Just because it's an old building doesn't mean it's haunted. I took pictures from the road (as James said, "How brave of you." But I didn't go onto the property because I hadn't asked the owners for permission yet) on Friday the 13th... If there's ever a good time for ghosts to show up, Friday the 13th would be a good day, wouldn't you say? Anyhow, there was nothing except a slight breeze and warm sunshine.

My goal with my novel is to restore Mudlavia's glory, not brick by brick, but word by word. I hope that instead of seeing rubble or hearing ghosts, that people will be able to imagine the elegance and romance of the era that Mudlavia once thrived in. Mudlavia springs operated at the turn of the century and held the magnificence, beauty and romance that Titanic and The Great Gatsby offer.

I hope someday instead of knowing it as just a haunted hotel in the middle of nowhere, people will know that it had stunning gardens, a striking marble fountain bubbling in the hotel lobby, a wishing well, elaborate farm to table menus, and a Queen Anne-style chapel where worship services, concerts, and weddings took place. It was a place nestled in what people called "Peaceful Valley" and it claimed to restore ones life and soul through it's magic mud and beautiful surroundings.

So let's begin the tale of Mudlavia, of its rich history and beauty...

The Mudlavia Project: It Started With Grandpa

        Every Christmas, spring, and summer break my mom would load us six Ringer girls into our red suburban, Ida Red, (and later, our fifteen passenger van, El Ghosto) and take us down to Indiana to visit family. It was about a five hour drive to our Grandma and Grandpa Ringer’s house, and you can just imagine all the hair-pulling, drink-spilling, and yelling of “I have to go potty” from the back seat! I’m sure people could hear the Ringers coming from a mile away! But my mom loved music, so there was also a lot of crazy dancing and singing all the way from Michigan to Indiana too! Two of my favorites that we used to sing were Crocodile Rock and Rama Lama Ding Dong. All six of us went through a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen stage, and to this day my parents still moan and groan about the torture of listening to the Olsen twins for hours on end. Brother For Sale, anyone?

        As we rocked the car along 41 south, my mom would turn down the music and always ask us if we wanted to take the normal way or the hilly way to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house. There was no argument- we always wanted to go the hilly way! She would lurch the suburban down Moores Hill Road and we would scream and squeal with delight like we were on a roller coaster!

        As a kid, it felt like it took hours to get around the hills and curves, and up to our grandparent’s house, but when we came to a long stretch of trees, lined up like soldiers along the side of the road, we knew we were finally close. We’d drive by the trees, one after another, until we came to another sharp turn and steep hill. My mom would sometimes pretend that the hill was so steep that we wouldn’t be able to get the car up it!

The base of the hill

 

 

The hill my mom used to pretend she couldn't get up! We ran down it, but walked back up it!

 

        At the base of this curve and hill, was a little overgrown road that led to an abandoned building, missing several walls and crumbling with age. I would press my face against the window, staring at it as we went by.

The view of Mudlavia as we drove up the hill

        My grandparents lived close enough to that old building that us girls would sometimes run or bike by it, and whether you’re a kid or an adult, you can’t go by it without wondering about its story.

        When we’d ask grandpa to tell us a story about it, he would get all excited and tell us a tale about the great hotel, Mudlavia and its magic healing mud. My ten-year-old imagination took his stories about Mudlavia and turned it into a magical castle with lords and ladies, and of course, horses!

        When my husband and I moved back to Warren County a few years ago, just a few miles from Mudlavia, I could still remember bits and pieces of my grandpa’s stories. We’d drive by the remains of Mudlavia and I’d try to recall Mudlavia’s story to my husband. It still captivated me. The writer in me had all kinds of questions and was dying to know the story of the great hotel. I asked my grandpa about it, and his stories were fascinating and his excitement uncontainable. He passed the wonder of this once magnificent hotel on to me, and that’s where the idea for my Mudlavia novel started.