Kathleen Shoop - Author of the Last Letter
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Category Archives: The Writing Life

Fashion Shapes and Sleeves!

5 / 30 / 156 / 14 / 15

Woman in a black skirtBefore I researched The Road Home and The Garden Promise I thought I had a better grasp of 19th century fashion than I did. In The Last Letter, fashion wasn’t as important as was survival. Though Jeanie, Lutie, and Katherine may have lamented certain elements of clothing they lacked on the prairie (pretty silken shoes!), minute-to-minute survival took precedence over the dream of a proper bustle to lift one’s skirt to just the right height and angle.

But it wasn’t until I was describing Katherine getting dressed in a particular scene in The Road Home that I realized I had no idea what I was talking about when it came to her underthings. Suddenly I was aware that the hoop wasn’t right for 1891. The pouffy look of the 1830’s differed from the looser early 1800’s appearance and the mutton sleeve look of the 1890’s was vastly different than the billowy shape of 1835.

Three eras of dressIn every era there was a dominant sleeve, bodice, and skirt shape that represented the ideal look of beauty. In my mind I had sort of lumped all the “old-fashioned” looks together and really had to begin the work of sorting through how it was a woman achieved a certain “fashionable” shape. These original prints by Henri Boutet show some of the silhouettes, sleeves and necklines that were popular over time. The first drawing that shows the woman in black is outfitted in a walking costume–the height of 1885 fashion. The next three from left to right depict the fashions of 1808, 1835, and 1892.

As I researched the underpinnings of these clothing styles I also began to consider how these “ideals” of fashion fit into Katherine and Jeanie’s world. Just because these were examples of how women should dress it didn’t mean they had the means to dress that way. And it certainly didn’t mean that a woman who was tasked with tending a farm dressed like the woman with a staff to tend her home…

I think the 1808 dress looks most comfortable… how about you?

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30060 words….

11 / 14 / 05

Moving along…coming soon…Frantic Woman–November Post and Holiday shopping Post

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26,610

11 / 13 / 05

Thanks for all the encouraging thoughts and words! I’m slightly over half way finished!

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17,171 words…

11 / 8 / 05

Play that number, kids.
It might be a winner.
I got an email from the National Novel Writing Month boys today. Everyone who is doing it, got one. It was interesting. A pep-talk that outlined the way the first week of NaNoWriMo everyone’s walking on air, belting out more words than they could have ever imagined.
This week is supposed to be the downer, hit the wall week.
Next week promises to be the “your plot will begin to reveal itself if you’re one of the jackasses who writes without a solid plan.” (I’m paraphrasing and embellishing the pep talk, right there…don’t quote the NaNoWriMo boys on the word jackass–this is just the gist)

Anyway. What a great idea this whole thing is. As long as you’re willing to revise when all is said and done. If you’re one of those perfectionist one draft wonders, then I doubt this is for you.

For all of you who are open to revision but still can’t imagine finding 50,000 words to write in such a short amount of time…I say…they’re there waiting to be written…
Next year, just do it. (Thank you Nike)

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11,843 words done!

11 / 6 / 05

That’s right…I’m plugging away.
Not sure where the story’s going, exactly, but it’s cracking me up.
And for now, that’s good enough.

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2,215 words in the bag

11 / 1 / 05

Hi folks…I’m off to a great start…this is my favorite part of writing–getting it down. I dread the other part–revising, elaborating, cutting–the part that actually makes something good. But without the first part I never get to the third part–book for sale! So for now, I’m totally loving just writing my story, without a care about the teeny details…Anyway…anyone up for this? You can do it, too!

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MY AGENT IS READY TO SELL!!!

10 / 29 / 05

I got an email this morning that said my agent is ready to sell the book. She thought the changes were great and she just needs my bio and eight copies of the manuscript! I can’t believe it…must have been that flying dream…Yea!!! Thanks for all the support from so many of you–those I know and even those I’ve never met!

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Pop Culture Friday

10 / 28 / 05

I’m drowning in a sea of crap and unimportant facts that mean nothing to my life.

I thought you’d want to share in it. Not right to hog all the crap for myself…

While immersed in an article about Nicole Richie and her amazing themed birthday party that was hosted by and written up in OK! magazine I was stunned to read this: “The next project that’s coming out is your novel. Tell us a bit about that.”

Huh? Novel? Nicole Richie? Okay, maybe she’s been secretly aspiring to write her entire life but was sidetracked by shiny bling and famous cohorts…OK! I can buy that…Then I read the following: “Well, I was first approached to do a ‘Big Sisters Guide,” kind of an inspirational book.”

Huh?

“I didn’t feel at liberty to tell other people what to do with their lives, since I was learning so much myself and still am.”

Smart girl. I’m sure the part about her dreaming to be a writer is coming…

“When I declined, HarperCollins asked me if I would like to try writing a novel. At first I wasn’t sure what to write about, but they just said, ‘Write what you know.'”

Cringe. Cringe. Cringe.

“Do you think you’ll write more in the future?” OK! asks. “It will be perfect for me when I’m ready to slow my life down and stay at home with the kids (laughs).” Nicole responds.

Shoulders reaching my ears, face screwed up as though I’ve ingested twelve lemons…Arrrgh!

Why does this bother me? I’m not quite sure. When my book is published and OK! is interviewing me…Scratch that…just another bizzare dream. Along the lines of flying…

Seriously the idea that so many writers who’ve sweat and bled over manuscripts (a little dramatic liscence, please), their souls knowing every word of the story before their heads sort it out and put fingers to the keyboard… have trouble finding agents, I can’t help but get pruny and old-ladyish.

And book deals, etc., waiting for a publisher to offer one sign of interest, let alone to be begged to put fingers to keyboard…makes me pause. Okay, I blacked out for a few moments and the kids lit the house on fire.

Really, I can’t help being a little disgusted. I’m not even opposed to nepotism. And I get the whole business/marketing stuff involved. Of course publishers want a slam dunk.

But I’d like to believe when you do someone a favor it’s because they have shown they can do a certain job or are good at something or have killed themselves working toward a particular goal or SOMETHING other than having been born into a particular family, partied like it’s 1999 wearing almost nothing, having your dramatic weight loss chronicled as though you’re curing cancer…

I’m not bitter. Though I sound it, I know. I don’t begrudge Nic and her ilk their lifestyle… I read about it because something about it fascinates me…and it does seem fun, but at least have the where-with-all to realize that a publisher practically, physically putting your fingers to keyboard for you is too much…at least pretend you have something to say.

Britney Spears…

Yes old Brit is another one with an exciting life where every fart is outlined for its duration, possible food origin and volume…And now she’s a mom…I read in Us magazine, I think it was Us, that she had lost her baby weight in five weeks or something and the mag. presented this as though it was the most shocking news ever to come out…I can do this article in three simple points:

1. first baby
2. she’s in her barely twenties
3. first baby

No puzzle to solve here, folks.

I’m not really bitter. I swear.

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Writing/Agent news

10 / 25 / 05

I’ve got the classic, good news bad news thing going on.
Like fate can’t let me have too much of a good thing at one time because it sees the potential for a huge ego or that’s just life…

Good news: My agent is working her way through my revisions and thinks they look good…hopefully the second half looked as good to her as the first…stay tuned…I’ll let you know as soon as I know…

Bad news: My essay that was to be published has met an untimely death at the hands of the editor who has taken over the paper it was to appear in…it seems like a combination of a mix up and different taste, perhaps…Who knows…I’ll find another home for it I suppose. Really, in light of the novel/agent news the essay stuff is miniscule, but who likes rejection? Uh, yeah, no one.

REally, I’m ecstatic about my agent and novel–happy things are going my way in that arena…the book has to be published, it just has to…there’s that positive thinking for you…It has to happen, it has to, it has to, it has to…It will, it will, it will. Thanks for listening folks.

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Yea Me! Revision Breakthrough

9 / 3 / 05

After four days of ruminating over how to implement the changes my agent wants to see, wasted time staring at the first page of my book like it was a priceless antique vase I was about to break, not being assured I could get the pieces back together again, I did it. I broke it.

Relatively small changes seem big to me when applying them over 400 pages, but there’s no cure for insecurity like plowing ahead as though I actually know what I’m doing. And in the end I do…only 330 pages left to go.

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