Jeanne Webster's Blog

New blog...first post. One always wonders how to open. As an author you stare all too frequently at the blank page. This blog is about my new book, it's journey and mine through the creative end of it, as well as the publishing and marketing...all the stuff an author really doesnt like to do. My idea of bliss is sitting behind the computer with 1000 words churning in my brain just bursting to get out....unless they aren't, not so blissfull then, but still as passionate an urge.

But it's also about animals and plants, the earth and how we dishonor it, abuse it and ignore it. It's about the purpose of life or rather finding your purpose and giving that purpose meaning. I might even go so far as to touch on Global Warming and 2012 and how we're all the same one thing...the interconnectiveness of it all. Which is all in my new book, Strays. (coming out in October, by the way.

Strays could be pitched as The Shack meets Dr. Doolittle...or is it Dolittle...oh well that's way I have spell check. It's the story of a young woman named Jane, who can't seem to keep her life together and who wants to be sure of her purpose. I chose the name Jane because, in many ways, Jane is every woman and any man. I think we all flounder from time to time...fall off our path and just generally wonder why we're here...what purpose this experiment called life really serves. We're all strays in one way or another...looking from home.

Anyhowsomeever, Jane's been laid off from her job, has a rocky relationship ongoing and going nowhere and she's mad at God for not answering her prayers for guidance. She comes to the mountains of North Carolina from Atlanta, having borrowed a cabin for a month, to take stock of her life so far. Well, as her luck would have it, she falls on some wet stones, hits her head, unlocks a seventh sense in her being and when she wakes up she's able to hear plants and animals speak.

Enter Max, a stray dog, abandoned in the mountains. He volunteers to guide her through what will be a natural education on life and how we create what we live. Max guides her to different characters, like Grandfather Oak, Grandmother Willow, one of the rattlesnake clan and the like, who educate Jane on their purpose in the world. Through these lessons, Jane will come to know her own true nature and how to bring her dreams to life.

This all came from musings on why we aren't born with a handbook, something that guides us in our choices and actions and my real love and connection to the earth. Who knows? Maybe God did leave us a handbook, embedded in the plants and animals, waiting for us to pay attention and give attention to our awarness and what's so abundantly around us.

It's a simple book, (did I mention it comes out in October) and the stories are charming if I must say so myself. I hope to generate some chatter here, garner some followers and readers as well as just generally chat about life and writing.

So stay tuned....until next time