Facing Rejection

Earlier this school year, my seventh grader jumped in the car after practice and saw my jumbled piles of rewritten query letters and lists of agents. She looked at me and asked if I would cry if I got rejected by an agent. She’s thirteen, and to a young teen, rejection is THE.WORST. THING. EVER.

But guess what? Rejection is inevitable. They say that the average writer receives anywhere between fifty and one hundred rejection letters. I’m about ready to send out my query and that means when I open my inbox throughout the next few months, I’m more likely to receive e-mails starting with… “I’m sorry, but…” or “It’s not the right fit,” or “No thanks,” than I am to see, “Love it! Send me your manuscript!” Sounds like an exciting spring for me, right?!

I could curl up in a ball and hide under my bed until next fall, or cry, or tape my rejection letters to the wall and throw darts at them.

I thought about all this as I pulled out of the school parking lot. Someday my daughter will face rejection. I want her to know that rejection doesn’t mean that life is over. I want her to know that you can face rejection and grow from it, you can use it to make yourself better, it can make you stronger, and it can lead to other opportunities.

I told her a few stories of my own rejections, disappointments, and doors that had closed, only to find that God had been faithful and used those rejections to do something greater. I explained that I’ve spent a lot of time not only praying about my book and my writing, but also about the process of finding an agent, and that faith is trusting that God would open the right doors and close the wrong doors.

The querying process comes with a mixture of hope and excitement and, if I’m honest, a little fear, but I keep these words by Shauna Niequest taped to my desk, which are a good reminder of the attitude I want to have.

She says, “I’m practicing believing that God knows more than I know, that he sees what I can’t, that he’s weaving a future that I can’t even imagine from where I sit this morning

Unlocking A Novel- Pine Village Football

When I first started researching Mudlavia, I researched everything that happened in Warren County during 1918 and 1919. My research led me to the Pine Village football team and included reading The Good Ol’ Day’s “Game In Progress” and Doris Cottingham’s book, Pine Village Football The Inside Dope.

I wanted to tell the story of Mudlavia because of my grandpa, but while I was working on it, I discovered so many other fascinating stories about Warren County’s history, and the idea of telling the story of the Pine Village football team took root. There was a line in The Good Ol’ Day’s “Game In Progress” that caught my attention. It said, “The story of this man is a most interesting one and I sincerely hope that someday it will be told in full.” (The man they are referring to is Claire Rhode, the Pine Village football team’s manager.)

For two years now that sentence has been haunting me, and the facts, stories, and headlines about Pine Village’s football team have been rattling around in my head. The problem was that I could not figure out how to put that information together to create a compelling work of historical fiction.

I knew it would be hard to focus on a single player on the team (as well as Claire Rhode), because I don’t have a lot of individual information on the players and didn’t want to make a bunch of things up. There was also the fact that the team ran from 1898 until 1927, which is a huge span of time. Should I start at the beginning? Should I focus on the glory years? Should I try to fit all of it in?

For two years every idea I came up with felt wrong.

This past year I partnered with Simon Herrera from Vintage American Football to try and bring a vintage football game to Pine Village. I presented this idea to various people in our community and we formed a committee to make this game a possibility. Recently we were sitting in a meeting talking through ideas and someone mentioned something we could do and the meeting continued on.

I’ve had all this information in my head, all these ideas, all these facts, and suddenly her words unlocked them. I needed to be in the right place at the right time. A few simple words blew the whole thing wide open, and as I drove home, the storyline came to me.

If you are writing and you are stuck, keep researching and taking notes and writing. Be patient. As all that information gets filed in your head, at some point you’ll hear something or read something or experience something that will unlock your story and turn it into something magical!

The Gift of Nanowrimo

By the stroke of midnight on November 30^th, all wrimos must set their pens (or laptops) down and relish the end of another nanowrimo season.

A few days after nanowrimo ends, I always do something silly. I print off those hard earned pages, tie them up with a piece of ribbon, and wait to open them again when I am ready to start editing.

Some critics say that nanowrimo creates a lot of bad novels, and they’re ushered into the coming New Year due to writers pushing and rushing to get them published. There is some truth to this. If I didn’t go back and edit my novels, I would be left with a crazed, frenzied jumble of words. However, if I go back and refine my story, then the hard work of nanowrimo has left me with a pretty awesome  Christmas gift.

One of the hardest things about writing a novel is getting the words down on paper. You don’t just magically have a 90,000 word story appear, you have to write all those words, and it can be daunting. With nanowrimo, a community of writers from all over the world comes together to write, encourage, rant, and spur one another on to get 50,000 words written down in a month.

Those words may not be beautiful or put together or make much sense, but it takes determination, discipline, and hard work to get that many words written down in such a short period of time. And if you can muster up enough determination and discipline to do that, than you have everything you need to go back and edit, and turn that lump of words into a polished novel.

Nanowrimo has been a rewarding gift to me. Without that month, I wouldn’t have all the novels written that I do now. I may have never taken my time to put my ideas on paper, flesh them out, and make them come alive.

So in the coming New Year, I am looking forward to sitting down on a cold, snowy day and untying that ribbon. I’ll celebrate with a good cup of coffee, congratulate myself on getting another idea down on paper, and then get to work and make something great out of it.

Gather and Wait

I’m coming out of a long season of editing and revising, and now I find myself in a season of gathering and waiting.

I’ve been gathering information on literary agents, following their social media, reading blogs and interviews, and making lists of which ones would be a good fit for me. I’ve been gathering together my other novels, going through them, and preparing myself to talk about them if an agent were to ask about my other book ideas.

And then there’s the waiting. I’m waiting for editorial notes from an agent I did a workshop with. They could show up in my inbox anytime between now and the end of December, and I’ve checked my inbox for what seems like a million times.  

In this strange place of gathering and waiting, how does one just sit and wait?

I’ve been trying to use my time well. November is National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo), so I’ve started a completely new project. I’m also helping with a youth writing club, which is an absolute blast. Those things have been great distractions, but these words from Joanna Gaines from the latest issue of The Magnolia Journal have really helped me to settle down and take in the journey of waiting.

She says, “It (anticipation) makes us wait. It can serve as a bridge between where we stand today and what lies ahead. Our attitude on that journey is surely as important as wherever it is that we’re going. What we make of this time in between, whether it’s two years, two days, or two hours, is every bit as worthy of our attention as the outcome itself… Whatever it is you might be anticipating in this season, here’s to savoring the waiting as much as the outcome.”

Bringing Back Vintage Football

One of the best things about working on my Mudlavia novel has been the people that it’s connected me with. A while ago, Simon Herrera, from Vintage American Football, contacted me after reading my post about the Pine Village Football Team (you can read that post here). He had a simple question, and I laugh now, because that simple question sent me on quite a wild goose chase! 

Simon designs these super cool Vintage American Football jerseys and t-shirts, representing different football teams from the early 1900’s, and he wanted to know the colors for the Pine Village football team to create a shirt for them.

I live in Pine Village, and love the rich history of the Pine Village football team. Pine Village is said to be where NFL football originated. When you read about the Villagers, who played from 1898 through the 1920’s, you can’t help but be drawn in. The team was mostly made up of farmers, who farmed all day, and played football underneath electric bulbs strung across the town square at night. They had a goat for a mascot, though no one knows why, and the fans were absolutely crazy about their Pine Village Eleven.

Pine Village Football Team with their goat!

We have a few local publications and lots of local stories about the Pine Village football team, so even though I didn’t remember reading about their colors from my research, I figured they would be easy to find. They weren’t, but that’s a story for another post!

Photo/Game Promo Credit- Simon Herrera

Like me, Simon was drawn into the history of football as he started researching the Rock Island Independents, one of the original NFL football teams. While he was researching them, he fell in love with the old game and its players.

Not only does he create jerseys and research the old football teams, he also puts on a vintage football game every fall in Rock Island, Illinois. They dress in the old school jerseys (which Simon designs), wear replica leather helmets, and play by the old rules. They do everything they can to make the game and the atmosphere as much like a 1920's football game as they can.

This year the big game between the Rock Island Independents and the Moline Universal Tractors will commence on Sunday, October 14th at Douglas Park in Rock Island, Illinois at 2:00PM. Along with the game there will be 1920’s style jazz music, a car show, and local food. This is a free, family friendly event showcasing 1920’s football. I don’t know about you, but sounds like a blast to me!

You can find Simon's vintage jersey and t-shirts at his Etsy Shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageMerchandiseCo

You can also read more about Simon's research at http://vintageamericanfootball.com/#/ http://rockislandindependents.com/

Mudlavia and Gangsters and Prohibition, Oh My!

 “All the records of the hotel were destroyed and the only means at hand tabulating a list of the patients was the remarkable memory of Harve Jackson, the day clerk of the hotel.” – Attica Ledger, March 5, 1920

Almost 100 years later, I can attest to these words! There aren’t a lot of resources on Mudlavia. After the hotel burnt down in 1920, what survived were mostly memories, stories, rumors, and local lore.

Local newspapers reported that the fire burned down on February 29, 1920, from a fire that started in store room 12. It was discovered by a maid retrieving linens.

What is interesting to me is that there is a Mudlavia ad at the Warren County Historical Society that claims Mudlavia was unburnable! Mudlavia boasted of its technology, which included a state-of-the-art sprinkler system with a steam whistle alarm. Some sources state that this was tested and worked perfectly, but it did not work the day of the fire…

The Attica Ledger also stated that they did not know the cause of the fire, so whenever I talk to people about Mudlavia, I always ask how they think the fire started.

There are two main rumors. The first one is that the maid was smoking in the store room and she left her cigarette on the linens, and they caught fire.

The second rumor is that members of the mob were hiding out at Mudlavia, and members from another mob found them, disabled the sprinkler system, and started the fire.

If the second rumor is true, we have to entertain the idea that gangsters hid out at Mudlavia... And oh, the local lore on Mudlavia's gangsters!!!

Mudlavia was situated in what Henry Kramer called “peaceful valley” in Warren County, Indiana. The hotel was nestled away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, making it the perfect place for the gangsters to flee to when things got “too hot” in Chicago.

Some articles on the internet claim that famous criminals like John Dillinger and Al Capone stayed at Mudlavia. In some ways it makes perfect sense. Mudlavia was hidden away (they definitely would have taken advantage of the secluded area), there was a train that went straight from Chicago to the Attica Station, making for an easy escape, and even though Mudlavia was in farm country, it was still extravagant and would fit the lavish lifestyle of these criminals.

First, let's discuss John Dillinger. He didn’t start his life of crime until 1922, and the original, luxurious hotel burned in 1920. By the time the hotel reopened in October of 1934, Dillinger was already dead. When you study the timeframe, Dillinger is out.

But what about Al Capone? That's a fascinating thought that he might have hid away at the extravagant hotel, possibly in a secret room with a secret tunnel! 

When you study Capone, you'll find that he lived in New York until 1919-1920, depending on what source you read, and then went later to Chicago at the request of mobster Johnny Torrio.

There’s a very small window between his arrival in Chicago and when the hotel burned down. When he came to Chicago he was a twenty-year-old bouncer, not the crime boss we all know him for. He did not take over the Chicago Outfit and become famous until after the original Hotel Mudlavia burned down. 

Okay, so there's a pretty slim chance Capone would have visited the first hotel... but what about the second one? The second very modest hotel was built in 1934, and Capone was prosecuted in 1931 for tax evasion, not looking good for Capone as a guest at Mudlavia.

 The thing is, there are so many rumors about gangsters at Mudlavia... could there be some truth to those tales? And if so, who fits the timeline?

The mob was around during the glory years of the first hotel. Big “Jim” Colosimo is credited to starting the Chicago Outfit, and ran gambling joints, brothels, and drug rings from 1902 until 1920. He was nicknamed “Diamond” Jim, because he wore white suits accented with diamonds. Mudlavia flourished from when it was built in 1890 to when it burned down in 1920, fitting Colosimo's timeframe exactly. He also had proximity to Mudlavia, and very expensive tastes, so it’s plausible to entertain the idea that he could have stayed there.

He brought in his nephew Johnny Torrio from New York, who became his second in command. Torrio was the one who brought in Capone in 1919/1920. When prohibition went into effect, Torrio wanted the Chicago Outfit to get involved in the lucrative bootlegging business, but Colosimo refused to, and was ambushed and murdered shortly after that.

I’ve also heard rumors about speakeasies and bootlegging at Mudlavia, an intriguing thought if I do say so myself. The Wartime Prohibition Act went into effect on June 30, 1919, which stated that liquor stronger than 1.28% could not be sold. The Volstead Act, which went into effect on October 28, 1919 carried out the 18^th amendment, which prohibited the sale, manufacturing, and transport of alcohol. The 18^th amendment went into effect at midnight on January 16, 1920. Considering that Mudlavia prided itself on its fine moral reputation, and didn’t allow vices such as alcohol and gambling, it’s hard to believe that the original hotel had any type of speakeasy, especially since it burned down just a month after the 18^th amendment went into effect.

One of the last things that people love to talk about are the secret tunnels. The rumor is that there was a secret tunnel system for the mob to escape from if they got caught at Mudlavia. Some people say that the tunnel went all the way from Mudlavia to the train station in Attica. That would have been over five miles of underground tunnels! I can’t find any actual evidence that there were tunnels, but it is brought up so often that I have to wonder!

So, are the rumors true? Did the mob hideout at Mudlavia? Did Al Capone walk its halls? Were there tunnels beneath the hotel? Was there illegal alcohol?

Primary sources don’t attest to any of these things, but there are many tales, and as the saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire… especially at Mudlavia.

Menus and Mudlavia- Part 2

The tricky part about piecing together the food, menus, kitchen, and chefs at Mudlavia is the limited amount of information available. There are a handful of menus, a few articles, and some stories from locals, but that’s pretty much it. When the original hotel burned down in 1920, much of its history burned with it. Mudlavia never returned to its former glory, so there isn’t a lot of information that remains today, almost 100 years later.

The lack of information is both frustrating and fun. Frustrating, because I have so many questions without answers, and fun, because it gives me a blank canvas to imagine and create the food and kitchen staff, and how they impacted the hotel. Mudlavia had a 400 acre farm including vegetables, fruit, beef, and poultry. Their farm would have had a huge impact on the menu, and the workers at Mudlavia would have spent an enormous amount of time growing vegetables, caring for the animals, and prepping the food in the kitchen.  Even though I get to create how this all comes together in my novel, I still want to make sure that it is historically accurate.

To do this, I researched other historical places in the United States that focus on historical gardens and the great importance they had on our country. Two places that stood out were George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Both of these places have working gardens that reflect the gardens these two presidents used back in the day. They have tours that emphasize the importance of gardens in U.S. history, they grow the same vegetable, fruit, and flower varieties that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew, and they offer tours of the kitchens where the food was prepared for the presidents, as well as their many guests.

Side entrance to lower vegetable garden at Mount Vernon

Vegetable garden at Monticello

I was blessed to able take a trip to visit Mount Vernon and Monticello last summer with my family, and was amazed by how much I learned from taking tours of the gardens and kitchens at both of these places. 

Our family at Mount Vernon

My husband and I by the garden at Monticello

Peanut variety that Thomas Jefferson grew

Vegetables the kids picked from Thomas Jefferson's garden that the kids picked for a special class

Washington used this building to store the seeds he saved for the next year at Mount Vernon

Washington's vegetable garden- the cisterns captured rain water which he used to water the plants

 Both of these places, like Mudlavia, entertained large numbers of guests and provided elegant food without the conveniences that we have today. Most of the food they ate was grown and raised on their properties.Visiting these places allowed me to fill in the gaps I was missing in my novel and helped me imagine what the food and entertainment at Mudlavia would have been like. It also made me realize that the garden was not just something pretty to have or a hobby, but a way of life that was crucial to keep the hotel running to feed its staff and guests.