grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Editing, Punctuation, and Hair belonging to Elvis

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Editing, Punctuation, and hair belonging to ElvisYesterday I worked farmer’s hours editing The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee. 5:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. That’s a long day with 117,822 words. I took a quick break for lunch at my desk, walked the dogs at least twice, and in the afternoon, I raked leaves for thirty minutes to clear my mind. This morning I’m giving a shout out to the editors who have worked on my book—a good editor is more than worth her weight in gold or good bourbon or homemade pizza or whatever deemed valuable. Editors find needle-in-haystack errors, as well as huge problems, like plot nonsense and timeline confusion.

One thing this process has taught me is that my knowledge of punctuation isn’t as strong as I thought. Continue Reading

meet Gracie Lee

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It’s high time you officially met Gracie Lee, the nine-almost-ten-year-old protagonist of The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee. Over the next two months before official book release, I’ll be talking more and more about her. What she likes and says and does.

meet Gracie Lee

So who is she really?

Let me start by saying it’s true, the idea of “writing what you know”. Gracie Lee was born from a compilation of true life stories, what began as memoir. So it’s only natural that we share many memories. But Gracie Lee is her own person apart from me.

She’s precocious and mature beyond her years. And brave when it counts.

She counts the days until her tenth birthday, certain that ten will feel different than nine.

 

Her Momma sees to it that she practices the piano, a complete waste of time in Gracie Lee’s opinion. Instead, she’d much rather learn to speak French, a skill she’s sure will help her someday when she has an important job working somewhere other than in Arkansas.

She still plays with Barbie, but tries to keep this from her Daddy.

As Gracie Lee lies in bed at night, unable to sleep, her mind is chock-full of questions and notions and secrets that churn like the nearby muddy Mississippi.

Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee

The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee is available to purchase via Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Talya Tate Boerner
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:
The Five Stairsteps, Ooh Child

Youtube video

 

Dear October,

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Dear October,

Dear October,

Oh! I rejoice in your spirit, your essence. The memories of things past. The warmth of good things to come. The flavors and colors and aromas you bring, like a friend whose stories never get old, whose laugh is always familiar no matter how much time has passed between visits.Continue Reading

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!