July 2010.
I'm sitting next to Therese Pautz, a woman in my Madeline Island
book-writing retreat. It's midsummer and outside the fields are
beautiful with grasses and wildflowers. Beyond the fields is the blue
expanse of Lake Superior, where this island is located.
Therese has been for a six-mile bike ride that morning and looks ready for our first class session.
Therese has been for a six-mile bike ride that morning and looks ready for our first class session.
We share a little about ourselves, and I learn she is a lawyer and marathoner, writing her first mystery. I'm impressed by her determination to learn a creative skill she has no experience with. I've read an early draft of her story--it's set in Ireland and has a fiesty young woman as its main character.
There's loads of local color in the narrative--Therese loves Ireland--but the story isn't really holding together.
Therese makes a lot of progress on her storyboard that week, basically rebuilding her book, using the book-writing skills we study each day in our class. By the end of the week, the book shows more promise, and I am curious to see where she'll go with it.
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