Catherine Hackman

So. . .Hieu and I finished the book about two weeks ago. We sent it to our formatter, the wonderful Candace Bowser of Dark Water Arts Designs:
https://www.facebook.com/darkwaterartsdesigns/ . After we received our Author’s Proof Copies (HOORRAY!!!), we read through both the print and Kindle versions, and . . .found about 100 more mistakes. At least NINE drafts, TWO Beta readers, ONE Professional editor, and TWO teachers (Angel (Hieu’s wife) and me) have read over this manuscript, and STILL we found mistakes. I kept saying to Angel, “How could we have missed all of this?”

The three of us, Hieu, Angel, and I, were up until at least 3:00 a.m. (That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.) finding all of the errors. We sent it back to Candace who fixed the errors. (The errors were not on her part; they were my errors in the manuscript.) Hieu received the second Author’s Proof Copy yesterday. It’s as perfect as we can make it.

Although we are not ready to reveal the publication date, I can say this, “I will not read the book again for at least a year,” because I will want to make more changes.

Writing this book with Hieu has been a humbling experience. I am still a little awestruck that he trusted me with writing his life story. I am truly grateful for the experience. It’s hard to believe that our four year journey is almost at an end.

I will make the “BIG ANNOUNCEMENT” on the day our book is released.

I am reading Jane Friedman’s book:

She suggests that I tell people why I write so they will know what to expect when they read my books.

I love to write because I love to read. When I was young, books took me out of my life to other places, to adventures I could experience through the words. Reading gave a relaxing exploration of other peoples’ lives. This was in the ’70’s and ’80’s.

Back in the day, books almost always had a happy ending, or at least one that didn’t leave the reader feeling crummy. Sometime in the ’90’s that changed. Books became about evil twists, about people dying, about horrible things happening to people. More than one writing expert recommends: find the worst thing that can happen to your character, and make that happen. That’s about the time I stopped liking to read. In my opinion, real life has enough real bad without me inviting bad into my life by reading about it.

One book, and one movie rendition of a book, turned me off of reading for several years.

The book was “A Thousand Acres” by Jane Smiley.  Spoiler Alert:  Skip to the next paragraph if you don’t like spoilers. In “A Thousand Acres,” nothing good happens to ANY of the characters.   The entire book is one bad thing after another. One sister tries to poison another sister who eventually dies of breast cancer. That woman’s husband kills himself. On and on. To this day, I regret buying it. The movie that turned me off to reading was “Cold Mountain.” As I remember it, the main love interest survives an explosion, a Civil War battle, being captured by hostile people, a gunshot wound to the neck, and in the end, he and the evil villain kill each other. I still want my money back on that one, too. You can’t make a person invincible and then let the evil person kill him. It just isn’t right.

My stories won’t always have happy endings, but I hope that they will leave you with a sense of completion, peace, and satisfaction at having read a good story. Also, my stories aren’t continual train wrecks. The characters have ups and downs, have a struggle against an opposing force, etc., but my readers shouldn’t feel a sense of despair while reading the book because there is always hope for my characters, even if they die.

I want my books to be satisfying adventures experienced with characters you would like to have as your friends. I want my books to be places you want to go and experiences you want to have. I want my books to transport you to a better place.

If you haven’t “Liked” me on Facebook, please do. Leave me any comments you have below.

See Ya!

I saw a post on Facebook about people who purchase books, read them, then return them, I believe books are like underwear: once a person buys it, it should NEVER be returned. If you can’t afford to buy a book, instead of purchasing and returning, borrow it from your local library. This helps so many people: it supports your local library, it supports the author because the library will purchase the book or inter-library loan it, it gives you guilt- free access to a countless number of books.

I am now ready to revise Chapter 11 of Hieu’s memoir.

I would also like to welcome my newest fan. She signed up for my website notifications AND bought “Until Jerusalem.” I am excited to have her as part of my writing adventure.

My friend has started praying for me to finish Hieu’s memoir by the end of the month. I am praying for that, too. God is answering our prayers. Every time we have a snow day, I work on the memoir. So far this month: two snow days.

God is working in another way, also. He’s opening my mind to how to structure and write the memoir. I had hit a block for a few months. After the first round of edits, the editor suggested a complete restructuring of the memoir. I had arranged it by topics; he told me to arrange it chronologically–which made sense, but entailed hours and hours of rewrites. Also, I had to figure out how to rearrange all of the information. Around Christmas time, the words started flowing, and a logical way to restructure the memoir took shape.

In case you are curious, this draft is taking between 3 and 5 hours of revising per chapter. A few chapters are taking longer because of the work involved in moving around the information.

Even though it is sometimes arduous, I am loving this process.

35 appears to be my number this week.

I have a snow day today, so I have set aside 3 to 5 hours for writing. I will probably get 1 chapter done of Hieu Tran’s memoir.

I have the first draft (actually 4th draft) of Hieu’s memoir completed. We submitted it to a professional editor. I am now working with the editor on the edits. This will be our fifth draft.

I got an email from Kindle Direct Publishing. I am going to get a deposit for Royalties from my Kindle book. I couldn’t wait to find out how many books I had sold. Maybe my story was finally taking off. My deposit total:  $0.35.  That’s right, thirty-five cents. I sold one copy in September. The first copy in over a year.

Speaking of over a year, I haven’t posted for over a year.  It took me at least 30 minutes to remember how to log in. While I was at a Writers’ Round Table at my local library, I was reminded by my author friend Tom Lerczak  ( https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-V.-Lerczak/e/B00ABPFID8 ) that I need to post often so people will read. The problem is, I don’t often feel I have anything new to contribute to all of the information already on the Internet.

My newest author aquaintance, Kent Sanders, ( http://www.kentsanders.net/ ) suggested that I write about writing.  I am going to give it another go. My goal: twice a week. We’ll see if it happens. . .

Oh, Hi! Kim! I haven’t been in touch for a while. I will be emailing, and checking in on your website:  https://alittlelunch.com/ 

Phyllis Dillar once said, “Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.”

Until your youngest child is around 9 years old, don’t focus on how neat the house is. Focus on training your children to pick up after themselves and take care of themselves. Training a child to do household work has to begin at a young age. Although training an older child is possible, the difficulty of doing so rises proportionally with the age of the child.

Here is a guideline. This is only a guideline. I do not attempt to include everything for every age. Also, some children can do some jobs at an earlier age while some children are not ready for certain jobs at the same age. Some children are more independent than others. Tailor the expectations to the individual child.

Age 2:  Can put away toys with A LOT of help. This may mean that the parent puts away most of the toys, and the child puts away one or two toys. When my children were this age, I purchased totes. Dress-up went in one tote, dolls, clothing and accessories went in another tote, cars, ramps, street signs etc., went into a third tote, etc. Don’t waste time trying to sort. Grouping like items together will help your child with organizational skills, which will lead to success in math, English, and science later in life.

Age 3/4: Can put away toys with some help. This means the parent puts away around half the toys and the child puts away half the toys. I want to emphasize that at this age, the parent and child have to do this together. A parent telling a child, “Pick up your toys,” can be overwhelming to a child. Also, you are modeling to the child how to do the task. Other skills the child can work to master: choosing his/her own clothes, folding wash cloths, drying/sorting silverware, measuring ingredients and mixing them in a bowl. Again, these skills will lead to success in school. The key at this age is to be consistent, perform the task with the child, and expect the child to do the task immediately when told to do so.

Age 5/6: At this age, supervision is extremely important. Can put away toys without help. The parent has to say, “Go into the living room and pick up your toys.” At this age, the child is still too young for the parent to say, “After supper, pick up your toys.” The child simply will not remember to do this and does not have the self-discipline to do it even if s/he does remember.  Children at this age can also pick out outfits for school, fold wash clothes/towels, unload the dishwasher (This depends on the storage situation. I, personally, do not recommend for children to stand on chairs to put away dishes.), put his/her own dishes in the dishwasher, follow a simple recipe with help. I do not recommend for a child to put items in the oven at this age. I also do not recommend for children of this age to cook on the stove. I did not allow my children to use the stove until they could reach the pans comfortably while standing in front of it. Also, they had to demonstrate the self-control necessary to avoid injury.

Age 7-9: I want to emphasize, at the age, the child must be supervised by an adult when performing these tasks, but the child should be able to perform the tasks independently. By this age, the child can do all of the above (except put items in the oven/cook on the stove) and should be able to follow a simple routine. The child probably will not be able to unload the dishwasher at five-o’clock, pick up toys at seven-o’clock, and take a bath at seven-thirty. However, the child can be trained to unload the dishwasher when s/he gets home from school, pick up toys immediately after supper, and take a bath after picking up toys. The child can also begin to be responsible for his/her own school supplies. I trained my children to leave their backpacks by the front door when they arrived home. At a certain time, I instructed them to remove any graded papers/letters to home, etc., from their backpacks and place them on the table. Then, they did their homework. After homework was finished, they placed the backpack by the door again. In the morning, all they had to do was grab the backpack on their way out.

With the school year approaching, and my writing becoming more prolific, my husband and I need schedules, not only for ourselves, but also for our children. This post presupposes  a couple of things: first, you, as the parent, have established appropriate authority over your child, and two, that you have already trained your child to do whatever jobs which you schedule them to do.

At the beginning of the summer, my husband and I agreed on a schedule for our children–one adult daughter who just graduated from college and is living at home temporarily, and one teen daughter who will be a senior in high school. Since then, we have been working with our daughters, and each other, to make the schedule fit our needs.

Notice, first and foremost, the schedules for our daughters fit the needs of my husband and me, not the needs of our children. That is important. The parents have to be the first and foremost consideration in the schedule. Of course, you will see that your children’s needs are met, but too often, parents make their schedules revolve around their children, neglecting their own needs.

The schedule is in the form of a chart. Each daughter has her own chart with a rotating schedule of jobs. Here is a sample:

Note: The schedule is flexible. If one daughter has a commitment on the night she is scheduled to make supper, she can change to a different night–as long as she works that out with my husband and me ahead of time.

Once the younger daughter starts extra-curricular activities, the schedule can work around her homework and activities. The older daughter’s schedule can work around her part-time job.

The above schedule assumes a few things. First, my daughters do all of their own laundry. They also clean up their own kitchen messes. They don’t leave books, papers, etc., lying around the house. They also have jobs feeding the animals, etc., which I didn’t list on the chore chart simply because they have been doing those for so long that they are assumed.

If you want to establish a schedule/routine, for your family, I suggest starting now, before school starts, or as soon after school starts as possible. Watch for my next post, “What are age appropriate expectations for children?”

There once were two brothers whose parents amassed a fortune through a series of business ventures and investments. When the youngest turned 21, they turned the entire fortune, including the business ventures and investments, over to the brothers. They gave the older son 2/3 of the fortune and the younger son 1/3 of the fortune because that was just the way they wanted to do it. Both sons respected their wishes.

Before the parents turned the fortune over to their sons, they gave them each a book with guidelines about how to manage the money. Then, they told them about an assisted living home they had built. This facility had hair salons, bus services, restaurants, nursing staff, housekeeping staff, all of the amenities. After they gave their sons the fortune, they planned to move into this home. Each son was to contribute 10% of his yearly wages from the fortune to the upkeep of the home. Any leftover was to be invested for years when their 10% didn’t cover the costs.

The sons also had a sister who was disabled. The parents had established a separate trust for her, but asked the sons to provide for her needs should the trust not cover all of her expenses.

The sons agreed to the above conditions and took over management of the fortune.

The older son looked at all of the money he had, and he spent it on things he and his wife and children wanted, but didn’t need, like fancy homes, expensive vacations, name brand clothes, the latest technology. He didn’t give the 10% as he had agreed to do, but at first that was alright. The amount he gave covered enough of the expenses that the younger brother’s 10% covered the rest. His sister’s caregivers left messages about things she needed, but he erased the messages. As the years went on, the home’s upkeep and sister’s care became more expensive. The man grew to resent even the small amount he was giving. He stopped visiting his parents and sister because he was angry that they wanted some of his money.

The younger son looked at all of the money he had and knew he had to spend it wisely. He read the book carefully, underlining what he felt were the important tips. He decided to live in a nice, but less expensive house. His family took some vacations, but not every year. They didn’t always have all of the latest gadgets, but they had what they needed to live in today’s society. He gave the 10% to his parents’ estate. When the sister’s caregiver called, he always took care of her needs out of a savings he had established. He enjoyed visiting his parents, and often brought them gifts. He was excited to share the wealth they had given him with his parents to make their home nicer and their lives more fulfilling. He also enjoyed visiting his sister and liked to see how she thrived on what he gave her.

Neither brother knew what amount the other gave to the care of the home and sister. Eventually, the home’s expenses drained the 10% the younger brother was contributing and everything he had kept in reserve for the upkeep of the home. He gave even more, but eventually, the income from his 1/3 of the estate couldn’t support his family, the home, and the sister. The home had to be sold, and the parents were put into an inferior place with inadequate care. His contributions also did not meet his sister’s needs, so she had to go into a State home where she was not treated well and lived in bad conditions.

The younger son still visited the parents and sister. He did his best to take care of them. The older brother knew that his parents would know that he spent the money intended for them and his sister, but he didn’t want to give up his money, so he put his parents and sister out of his mind and tried to forget about them.

I probs don’t have to explain it to you, but, the the brothers are the church members (Some have more money than others.), the assisted living home is the church supported by our tithes, and the sister is the mission work–i.e. the people of Mexico, Haiti, Africa, etc.,–which we give to out of what we have left after the tithe. The sister is also the people in our church who fall on hard times and need our help, just as when we are in need we would like others to help us. God has given each of us enough–unless we have to go on welfare or have some tragic circumstance that drains all of our money–that we can donate 10% if we want to. If we have to go on welfare or some tragic circumstance happens to us, He has given other members of the church enough that they can help us through difficult times.

If we don’t give to the church, we won’t be able to afford our pastors and other church staff, our church will fall into disrepair, and when hard times come to the members, we will not have a reserve to fall back upon.

This is not a perfect illustration because God Himself isn’t affected as the parents in the parable are, but our relationship with God is really affected by how much we give. People give 10% because they are excited to share with God out of what He has given them. They also trust Him to provide for them if they fall on hard times. You can decide for yourself what you think of the actions of the older and younger brother.

Please leave any comments below. I will only post the ones which are worded in a respectful manner.

Thank you for reading. See ya!