3 Min read
On military service
On publishing — April 21st Launch
On writing craft
10,000 hours
Apprentice, journeyman, master
Toolbox, ages 9 to 99
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And I love Vermont, but it’s the season of the sticks.
— Noah Kahan
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I look out the window and it still feels like stick season in Connecticut.
I love Noah Kahan–his acoustic guitar and vivid storytelling–and I’m grateful for a term that describes the trees so well. The song Stick Season has 1.7 billion listens and counting.
After listening to it last year, I began to see tree branches in autumn this way–leaves gone and winter ahead. He didn’t coin the term. Vermont folks say it’s been around decades, but Kahan did make it popular.
The melting of the snow and the jump in temperatures last week have a similar look to stick season. The heavy feeling is gone, with spring ahead.
Up the lane from my house, the buds have shot up in spots where the snow has cleared. I am hopeful as I round the corner on what has been eight years in the making.
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My first book launches April 21st. The venue is the Athena’s Arena conference at West Point–a historic gathering marking fifty years of women at the federal service academies. Publishers launch books on Tuesdays to give the book a full week of ratings data.
I’ve been thinking about stick season and the idea of growth–fall and spring–how a writer develops and hones her craft. And I want to tell you a little bit about this humbling and educational journey toward publication, especially for new writers and those whose souls live for story and words.
I began writing in earnest in 2005 when I won a contest among 800 or so applicants. The Tampa Tribune–now gone–chose a dozen of us to write a local column. They hired me a year later to take over a weekly military feature.
For more than two decades I’ve been writing. In 2017 when my oldest child left home, I went to graduate school to work with writing mentors I admired and to hone my craft. I wanted to understand what makes writing good.
This book evolved from a year of writing and a search for answers. Call that year a period of discovery. Then came research and interviews. Then came the rewriting.
What is the book about? What is the thesis? What is the structure? Why does this sentence, scene, or chapter belong?
I’ve lost count of the number of rewrites. Four, likely five. Here’s what I’ve figured out about what I wrote. Believe me, I didn’t know at the time–I just had to get it down and uncover the meaning behind the words.
Turns out, the conceit is original but the story is not.
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What compels a woman — and then her daughter — to answer the call to serve?
It’s a new military tradition, passed from mother to daughter. Military parents have carried this burden since the nation’s founding, and I had to tell my version, along with my daughter’s.
A writer’s path looks the same as any trade: apprentice, journeyman, master.
I’ve logged 10,000 hours. I’ve written for publications, posted a decade of letters and blogs, and racked up thousands of podcast streams. I experimented publicly and failed usefully. Somewhere along the way I found my voice.
Thank you readers and listeners of TreeHouseLetter.
And a huge shout-out to mentors, beta readers, editors, agents, fellow writers, and workshop critics.
The stars aligned. I figured out what the book is about and why I had to write it.
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Book available on April 21st
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FOOTNOTES
- Progression in the trade of cabinetmaker and writer illustrates the time and skills at each stage.
**The career progression for a writer resembles that of the cabinetmaker, and both create original work. The professional or established writer masters long-form writing, such as books. With artificial intelligence and large language models (LLM), the publishing and writing industry is undergoing seismic change. Writers will need to provide and offer content that is voice-driven and unique. Much of the mundane–local sports coverage or events– will be covered through LLM, which is already happening.
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