See you Under the Sitka…

 

When you enter the world of serious writing, you leave behind your social life. The closest you’ll get to interacting with the outside world is if you pack up your laptop and head to a nearby coffee shop. At least there you can look like you’re social, even if you’re in the corner, in the back… with headphones on. ~ NY Book Editors

In the summer of 2021, my novel, “Under the Sitka Tree,” was printed. Several months later, as the fallen leaves bathed the earth with nature’s honey, crimson, and lime hues…my novel is now in its third edition and ready to print for the holidays.

 This week, after pouring over every page and going back and forth with my formatter, Leon Oldale @ Still Creek Press… I understood how vulnerable this process is. Now complete are the ‘tweaks’ needed for the Third Edition of ,”Under the Sitka Tree.” While the storyline remains the very same… Leon’s keen eye for details that matter, have made all the difference to my novel! His dedication to the written word has provided “Sitka” with the platform of revelation she truly deserves!

As Adele has re-emerged from the waters, she spent her hands washing in…I have re-surfaced with a hunger for the written word.

 If I go back to myself as a woman, writing by the river, surrounded by a grove of Sitka’s…I can hear the characters shout out my name- wanting to be released from the pages-where I bore them.

 In my twenty -five years as a dedicated writer, I have learned a great deal about the craft of writing. I have understood the passion needed to enrich the novelist’s quest and the realization of fulfillment for one’s story; is to allow the skills of others… inside your writer’s soul.

“ As a writer, I needed to learn that this often difficult, ever so rewarding process, was not mine alone to claim. For if I am to be true to my story, I must acknowledge the caverns I have explored, the humbleness I have found and the truth is…without a skilled editor, without the brilliance of a formatter and the bindings of your book in print…then your story is merely words on a page…yearning to be discovered.” ~ TL Alton

The fire that is inside my writer’s spirit still burns strong within, for every day I have this need to supply the fever with an array of words, passages, and stories so as to quench the epitome of what a ‘starving writer’ truly is.

 As a writer, I have been blessed with a fireball of talented editors, formatters and a printing company that understood my vision. In between the layered pages of my book that is bound, contains the finished version that I am greatly satisfied with!

In spite of my perfectionism, I now understand the importance of ‘letting go' of all things- especially ones that needed to be fully completed... 

Every customer, who either bought my book or someone whose been gifted a copy of my novel, has returned to me amazing feedback; kind responses that have truly warmed my heart. 

There are those who have also provided helpful insight and shared things that are reflective of the light.

I am always humbled by the responses of others, as it means they took the time to share their reaction to something I have written.

While writing “Sitka”, I also immersed myself in the remarkable pairings of Lawrence and Karen Hill exploring mental wellness in Café Babanussa, the rawness of Alzheimer’s and beauty of everlasting love of The Notebook,  and the exploration of grief intertwined with hypersexuality in Cheryl Strayed's WILD.

I grew as a writer, with every word of these brilliant authors, coupled with my own immeasurable loss.

There was also a void in me, a hole so dark and toxic that pulled from a thread of shame, which saw my dignity unravel. A need to be loved at all costs that I was willing to risk every part of me… to return to dust.

Then one night, a spark pierced through the darkness, lighting up the shadows and helping me to see, the source of my murky ways - is connected to the past.

The light that shone in my place of solitude came to say she knew…how badly I wanted to show her the promise had been fulfilled in its dazzling form…within the bindings of my book.

 That night, I wasn’t simply a writer…I was a bereaved mother, who had to sit with my own words wrapped around me, in order to truly honour a promise made to my daughter.

 In return, I could feel her gentle hands upon mine let go, as she said…

 “See you under the Sitka momma…”

Author TL Alton and her daughter Shayla (who passed away at 21). 

Birdy - Wings (Official Video)

https://youtu.be/WJTXDCh2YiA

Just like any other type of art, writing is pain and pleasure at the same time. There’s a lot of sacrifice when it comes to writing, but it’s all more than worth it at the end. ~ NY Book Editors

 By

TL Alton