Everyone has a story to tell, no matter where you grew up, no matter what your background, you have a story hiding deep down within you. Countless numbers of magazines are sold that describe what is happening in “celebrities” lives. They’re not so much about the films, books, or plays the celebrity is in, but more about the person’s “real life. There is a good reason for this. It is simply because real life experiences make the most interesting tales.

In every novel, the author leaves an imprint of themselves behind. My life did leave its imprint within the pages of Moon Dance. As I wrote, I incorporated what I knew best into the story line. I struggled with many ideas, trying to make my novel as historically accurate as possible. Then late in May, as the school year was coming to a close, my sister called and told me our favorite author, Mary Higgins Clark, was coming to speak at Bass Hall in Fort Worth. My daughter, my sister, my niece and I quickly sent in for tickets, and we were fortunate enough to get excellent seats for the program. I loved listening to her story. She described how she struggled to become a published author, and how she discovered that writing what you know is the key to writing a successful novel. There were many other highlights that night, but that single sentence ignited a spark within me.

I reread what I had written so far and discovered there just wasn’t enough life in the story. It needed more flavor. I grew up in East Texas and if you’ve lived there or have visited the area, you know East Texans their own particular way of speaking. This is what I knew, so this is what I incorporated into the dialect of Moon Dance. I have also always loved descriptive writing that paints a picture in your mind that is so real you feel like you can actually see it, taste it, or feel as if you’re a part of the story or song. I also incorporated this sensory writing into the pages of Moon Dance

Have I experienced dark days in my life? Have I had moments of deep passion and love? Yes. Did these experiences impact what I wrote in the pages of Moon Dance? Yes, again. Did incorporating what I had experienced into my writing make Moon Dance a more interesting read? I truly believe so.

Throughout the summer, I wrote, rewrote, and revised. Each session, I tried to inflict the true feelings and emotions that my characters were experiencing into the text. In late September, I thought I was ready to have my novel read by others. I had read it myself many, many times, and self-edited copious times, but I also wanted other eyes to read over, edit, and give me their opinions. It is very easy to overlook grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors because the brain sometimes reads what is not there or overlooks mistakes and reads it as it was intended to be written. At this point, I hired three friends/colleagues to read, comment, and edit my manuscript. This was probably the best thing I did for myself. Each person had their take on the novel, their own opinions, and great advice for me. When we met to go over their thoughts and ideas, the one thing I did notice was everyone had very strong opinions about the characters. The characters had come alive to them. This was extremely important to me. As the night unfolded, one friend injected that she felt one part of the story needed to be filled out more, and I agreed with her, another one thought the dialect was a little too “woodsy”, so I did somewhat adjust it. Another wanted to learn more about what happened to a pair of secondary characters that Joe met on his travels in Oklahoma, so I wrote another chapter into the book, just for her, and promised that later I would write a whole book just about these characters for her. They all loved the characters of Maggie and Joe, and they all despised Papa. During this review time, I added more to the story, rewrote and corrected parts we felt were still not quite right, and then I reread, rewrote, and reread again. During the course of writing Moon Dance, I saved parts and various versions to at least fifty CD’s. All of which I will probably save forever. Some of the early versions have various titles because it took a while before the perfect title was interjected into my mind. My title, Moon Dance, actually clicked into place as I was listening to a collection of Van Morrison songs. “Can I just have one more moon dance with you, my love?” This song lingered in my mind. It truly depicted the attraction, the passion, the love between the characters of Maggie and Joe. And so, my novel was named.

What can I say about how to write a novel? Well, every novel has to have a believable storyline, a protagonist and an antagonist, a plot that flows smoothly from chapter to chapter, and characters that endear themselves into the hearts of readers. You have to understand and research the time frame, the setting, the evidence of truth you are conveying to your audience. Writing Moon Dance was a lot of work, a lot of hours, and a treasure I will always cherish. I will impart to you the words that helped me most: “Write What You Know”.