Leslie Gould

About Leslie Gould

Welcome!

"Don't you just love words?" a college English professor asked me years ago. She was referring to the sounds, the cadence, and the beat of good writing. I agreed. But what I love most about literature is the emotions words recreate. My fiction is about those emotions--the feelings that flow from our relationships with our families, our friends, and our God.

I hope you'll enjoy reading my novels, Scrap Everything, Garden of Dreams and Beyond the Blue, as much as I treasured sorting and capturing the emotions and words to write them. Please send me an e-mail. I would love to hear from you.

What's Next?

I've been privileged to be part of the writing team for the Home to Heather Creek Series, published by Guidepost. The first two novels, Before the Dawn by Carolyne Aarsen and Sweet September by Tricia Goyer have been released.

My novel, Circle of Grace, comes out next month.

Bob Elmer is writing the fourth novel and Kristin Eckhardt is writing the fifth. I'm currently working on book eight. Visit here to learn about the entire project--and to meet Beth Adams, our editor extroardinaire who pulling the entire series together. She's amazing.

Here's a little marketing info about the series:

Heather Creek Farm, a small family operation in beautiful Bedford, Nebraska, is a peaceful place to live. Charlotte Stevens raised her children on Heather Creek Farm, but when her daughter Denise is killed in a car accident, she gets to try parenthood all over again.

Coincidentally, the three kids in the novel are the same ages as my three youngest. Hmmm. There's never a dull moment in real life or in writing fiction.



 


 

PNCLA + Summer

I had the wonderful privilege of speaking at the Pacific Northwest Association of Church Librarians conference on Friday. I've spoken to the Portland chapter twice before, but this time I was able to meet librarians from Idaho and Washington too. I love librarians. (Hi, Lib...hi, Nancy...just in case anyone is still out there...) Librarians are so interesting and gracious and knowledgeable and just plain fun to talk to.

Most of the rest of the very hot weekend was spent at a soccer tournament. My youngest daughter's team played their hearts out and took second place.

Even though it's the last day of June it felt like the first day of summer because I finally got a good chunk of writing done. 3,000 words in 2.5 hours. You cannot imagine the satisfaction and harmony that I've felt all day. Hopefully I can pull it off tomorrow and the next day and the next day...

Happy writing (and reading),
Leslie

on life and fiction

I spoke at the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers)/Portland meeting on Monday evening. Many of the people there were far more experienced writers than I am. I felt a bit like a poser, but I had a really good time.

I spoke on turning life into fiction--a topic I'm rather fond of. I encouraged anyone writing fiction (or nonfiction) that might humiliate a family member to talk with them about it before the book cmes out, even though I've read and heard you shouldn't do this. I'm not saying you shouldn't publish a book that a family member might be offended by; I'm just saying that it's better to talk with them about it before hand, just so they're prepared.

After I spoke, one of the writers at the meeting asked how one decides how to decide whether to write a story that really happened as fiction or nonfiction. We had nice little discussion about that, covering things like marketability and story arc, etc.

When I got home that evening, I sat down at the dining room table and leafed through the Time Magazine (June 16, 2008 issue) that my friend Kate dropped by (because of the article on "The Military's Secret Weapon" which is--drum roll, please--Prosac...and Zoloft...and Ambien.)

Anyway, I wish that I'd thumbed through the magazine before I spoke at the ACFW meeting because on page 4 is a question/answer segment with David Sedaris. I've only read one of his books--Me Talk Pretty Someday. He writes essays that are brutally honest and laugh-out-loud funny--and his other books are my "to-read" list.

Two of the questions and his answers in Time would have been perfect to share at the meeting. Here they are:

Should your books be shelved in the fiction or nonfiction section of the bookstore?
Reilly Capps
Telluride, Colo.
Nonfiction. I've always been a huge exaggerator, but when I write something, I put it on a scale. And if it's 97% true, I think that's true enough. I'm not going to call it fiction because 3% of it isn't true.

How has your family reacted to having their exploits included in your work?
Beverly Fleischman
Casper, Wyo.
Whenever I write about anyone in my family, I give them the story to read first. And I ask if there's anything they want me to change or get rid of. But you can never anticipate how people are going to read what you've written. You can write something with affection, but that doesn't necessarily mean that people are going to see it.

I love that 97%-3% ratio. Hey, if I could write "97% true" in my journal--that is to myself--I'd be feeling pretty good. If I could think and feel, in general, at the 97% level I'd feel great.

It's a good thing I write fiction.

New book and film recommendation

A couple of weeks ago, the film "Lord Save Us from Your Followers: Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America?" was shown at our church. A Portland filmmaker and author, Dan Merchant, headed the making of the film and also wrote a book by the same title. (Check out the website for a preview or to see the entire film online for only $6.99--or buy the book.)

The film and book are both humorous and insightful and should appeal to everyone--Atheist, Agnostic, and Christian. Here's the back cover copy on the book:

"When did telling others of life-transforming faith turn into a bumper-sticker mentality which allows someone to state an opinion without the inconvenience of listening to another point of view? How did the public perception of Jesus' followers get so far away from His teachings? One man took two years of his life to find out.

"Lord, Save Us from Your Followers chronicles an intellectually daring search for meaningful dialogue. Follow author and film-maker Dan Merchant as he dons a bumper sticker jumpsuit to conduct street interviews in major cities, discusses the culture wars with diverse media players such as Al Franken and Michael Reagan, and experiences what Project Mercy is accomplishing in drought-ravaged Ethiopia.

"Merchant's journey is an insightful, humorous, and objective account that will move you to laughter and tears. But most of all, it will make you think about who Jesus really is and who He encourages all of us to be."

Lord, Save us from Your Followers shows at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland beginning Friday, June 13. I highly recommend both the film and the book. It addresses the current insincerity in both politics and society, and encourages open dialogue, service, and a good sense of humor!

Calling All Jane Kirkpatrick Fans

Jane Kirkpatrick is speaking at the Willamette Writers May 6 meeting. I lifted the following off the WW website:

Tues., May 6 "Enduring Stories"
Jane Kirkpatrick, Author
All Portland meetings of Willamette Writers are held at The Old Church, SW 11th and Clay, near Portland State University in downtown Portland, unless otherwise noted. Doors open at 6:15 pm, with a speaker or panel at 7 pm. Meetings usually run until 8 pm, with opportunities to meet the speakers or panelists after they speak. For more information about meetings, call 503-452-1592. Meetings are free to members of Willamette Writers, $5 for their guests, college students are free, and $10 for non-members.

The Oregonian places Jane's novel A Sweetness to the Soul in the newspaper's list of top-100 Oregon books, and besides being a fantastic writer, she's also an outstanding speaker.

I plan to go after my screenwriting class ends that evening. I'll already have parking! Hope to see you there.

Palindromes

Several months ago when my (grand!) niece Ava was born, my girls and I were talking about palindromes. Ava...Hannah...Racecar...Bob…just to name a few. We’ve been talking about them again after watching this Weird Al video, a parody of Bob Dylan’s "Subterranean Homesick Blues." Isn’t language amazing? (And how about Weird Al? How does he come up with this stuff?!)

Courage

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
--Anais Nin

Spring break...

wasn't really a break, but it was a lot of fun. My husband, daughters, and I went to the beach with eleven other members of the Gould clan (coming and going throughout the week). Our boys stayed in town to work, but then on Monday we got a phone call from our oldest that our youngest "broke his leg." Peter rushed back into town and then to the ER. It turned out to be a torn meniscus--not a break. We're not sure how bad the tear is and won't until after the doc sees it later this week. It had been four years since a visit to the ER for our youngest son--a record. How did it happen? you might be asking. Soccer? Basketball? Football? No. Tripping on his way out the back gate on a 7-11 run with two of his buddies. He landed in the flower bed on a loose rock, turned, twisted, and ended up on the sidewalk, writhing in pain. Poor guy.

Peter came back to the beach the next day, and then I went into to town the day after to check on the boys and pick up my brother-in-law from the airport (on his way home from Colorado/Nebraska/Vietnam), and take him back out to the beach with me. We were all so glad to see him--he'd been gone for over two months.

On Friday, my youngest daughter and I flew to Las Vegas with her soccer team for a tournament. It looked like all we might see of Vegas were the freeways and soccer fields, but then we had a few spare hours and took the girls to New York New York, to the M&M "Factory," and to MGM to see the lions. On the last day, by accident on our way to the airport, we drove down the strip. I took a photo of the "Eiffel Tower" out the window.... I have more to say about that later when I have the time.

The girls took second IN A SHOOTOUT! in their division. They played hard and the final game was one of those intense heartbreaks, which means it was a really good experience for them. The girls are all so much fun and had a great time.

Anyway, we had a lot going on last week, but thankfully, as they always seem to, everything worked out... “All's well that ends well” or en francais: “Tout est bien qui finit bien.”

Lessons in French

What am I learning by taking French? Lots of things. For starters, how frustrating it is not to be able to understand what's going on. It makes me much more empathetic. It makes me regret not being more understanding when my kids didn't get algebra. So this is what it was like for them, I think. Like another language. (Because for some reason, I did get algebra and advanced algebra and physics. Not that it helps me help my kids. I can sometimes get the right answer, now, but when I show them how to do it, it's all wrong. The methods have changed.)

I'm also learning that I can't always be in control. It's hard to be in control when you don't know what's going on! (And besides, I'm not the professor... I'm not supposed to be in control.)

It's also teaching me how hard it is to be accurate when one has a limited vocabulary. When I say what I did over the weekend, I always say the easiest thing. (J'ai regarde le match de football! I refer to my youngest daughter as "ma cadette" because that's easier to say than my youngest daughter--and because she plays a lot of football, um, soccer.) When Madame asks more questions, I find myself omitting important information because I don't have the right words.

I'm also learning to have patience and to even pronounce "patience" in French thanks to the nice, nice TA in our class. Il faut que me aie un peu de patience! It is necessary for me to have a little patience--with myself, with what I don't know, and with what I'm trying to learn.

Having a little patience, to me, dovetails with living by faith. If I'm patient with myself and others, I'm willing to see how things will turn out, how God will intervene. If I don't have patience, I'm pushing and shoving, trying to make things happen and hurting others along the way.

By studying French, I'm also learning to be more understanding of people from other cultures who come to the United States, and I admire them even more. I also encourage my kids to get as far as they can now with a foreign language--while they're young, before the auditory parts of their brains begins to freeze!

Honestly, though, French was hard for me when I was 18, too. So, looking on the bright side, I'm thankful that I was brave enough to tackle it again in middle age and, this time, see it through. I start FR 203 after spring break. One more term to go.

Il faut que me aie un peu de patience!

C'est la vie.

Everything...

"Don't believe everything you think."

I've seen this on a bumper sticker over the past few years, most recently on a black Toyota station wagon over in Southeast Portland. I think that the mom who drives it and I are on the same "schlepping route." Several mornings during the last month, the bumper sticker has appeared in front of me, a gentle reminder to not be dogmatic with my thoughts, especially when it comes to my kids...and my writing...and what I think I know about other people...and what I think that God wants other people to do.

Happy Monday!

Leslie