Erica here: It is my pleasure to host Delores Topliff today on the blog. Delores and I, beyond being writers, have another connection. Years ago, when my daughter was in high school, she took college classes through University of Northwestern, St. Paul, and Delores was one of her professors!
Welcome, Delores!
Hello everyone. I’m Delores Topliff happy to post on Seekerville today. I appreciate how this site nurtures and inspires writers. Plus, its archives are wonderful!
Before 2021, I had four children’s books published along with many true testimony stories in inspirational compilation books. But gradually the stories in my head grew into fun novels that demanded telling. My first, Books Afloat, published last January, is based on a Japanese submarine that really did enter the Columbia River in mid-June1942 and the fictional idealist young woman on a floating houseboat library taking books to river residents who works with undercover volunteers to stop that invasion. Books Afloat’s publication has given me fresh appreciation for readers and those who review our books. I’m offering an e-book copy of this book in the continental US only to those who comment on this blog. And I’ll appreciate it lots if you post a review on Amazon after reading the book.
I’m picking up writing speed now. Christmas Tree Wars, releasing October 5th, involves two feuding Wisconsin Christmas tree farmers in 1966, one Norwegian and one Swedish. Their son and niece both come home to boost farm finances and compete to grow the White House tree chosen to be decorated by First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson. Their farm rescue and growing romance helps the feuding farmers and town rediscover the reason for the season. There are even Norwegian and Swedish Christmas recipes at the end of the book, just in time for your Christmas baking.
Today lets focus on where story ideas come from. The easy answer is ANYWHERE! Hang on tight to all sparking story ideas. There’s never an inconvenient time for them reach your brain. Like babies, they choose when and where they wish to be born. Moms seldom dictate those dates. My purse holds a notepad and pen for story ideas, but they often gets overlooked. Instead, key ideas often get jotted on the backs of envelopes or even utility bills. These days, I often pick up my ever-present iPhone and dictate enough notes or short text to capture the idea.
While writing a number of stories or poems, I can tell you exact places and times when ideas came. If I paid attention and tuned in, they were mine to keep and watch them grow. If I didn’t, they waved goodbye and visited the next appreciative person who would give them the time and space they needed.
For example, Christmas Tree Wars was born one Sunday morning when I drove along Minnesota farm roads going to church when I took a different road and spotted something interesting. A row of tall, uniformly evergreen trees stood along one side of the road. On the other, one single mid-sized evergreen tree stood by its lonesome self bordering the edge of a hayfield. Instantly the Lord gave me the basic story idea and arc. The owner of the row of trees was to provide a stately evergreen to a public figure. Instead of sacrificing one from his own row, he cut and presented the one belonging to his neighbor, kind of like the O.T. prophet Nathan comes to King David talking about someone stealing someone’s beloved ewe sheep. Of course some details change as stories develop but I’m happy to remember how the story kernel dropped into my heart on that exact stretch of road. I wish it was always that easy, but it helps when we welcome inspiration and tune in.
One of my best poems arrived between our automatic washer’s rinse and spin cycle as I bent over the appliance with a scrap of paper and pencil.
Wilderness Wife, releasing next February, came from appreciating all I’d heard about Dr. John McLoughlin, founder of Fort Vancouver in my home town at the end of the Oregon Trail. Most of us know a fair bit about this famous man. One day I wondered what his wife, Marguerite Wadin MacKay McLoughlin was like and found a gold mine that totally inspires me. For me, an occupational hazard when writing historicals is that so much to inspire, it’s hard to weed out and decide which key parts to keep.
Connect with Delores
Website: www.delorestopliff.com (blogs every 2nd Tuesday)
Email delores@delorestopliff.com
Twitter: @delorestopliff
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DETopliff