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| I went to bed last night at nine, woke up at four, wrote until six, slept again until nine, took a walk, showered, then wrote until one, slept until two, wrote until five and now I'm in town hunting and gathering for dinner. That is the precise thing I love about going away to write. There are no demands on my time whatsoever and I can eat, sleep, write whenever and however I want. I feel very fortunate.
Well, I started a new, new project. I had been intending to work on my MG novel, but this other idea just burst forth and had to be written. I wrote an outline this morning, then realized it would work so much better in modern day, rather than traditional fantasy.kingdom type time. It has really given the whole thing the extra twist it needed. And things keep falling into place like puzzle pieces. I've written 4000 words, but have this panicky feeling that if I don't get as much done here as possible it will take forever to finish at home.
I can't believe I'm well into my third novel. I always wondered if I had more than one book in me. Waiting for feedback on the first two and I hope to polish them up. Onward and upward.
K, I'm off to the market for a hungry man...blech, JK. But I really hate putting effort into food prep for myself. Preservatives, here I come. | |
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| I'm pulled up in front of a cute little bookstore in Chester, CA. They're closed, but they have Wi-Fi baby, and Wi-Fi knows no closing time. (Our family pronounces it Wee Fee). I'm about ten minutes from the cabin and thought I'd check email and get my internet fix.
Some notes:
Sad: I just got my first speeding ticket in over 16 years. The last time I got one I was on my way home to tell my mom I was pregnant. Mean hick officer with nothing better to do.
Sad: Went to get my haircut. Stylist forgot our appt and was a half hour late. My hair was below my shoulders, but I thought this would be a good summer do.  Turned out to be a bad summer don't. She went much shorter than the picture. Luckily my hair grows fast. k, sorry I didn't crop the picture.
Happy: I listened to City of Bones on CD on the three hour trip. i'm only about a fourth of the way in. It is excellent.
Sad: I got the ticket because I was listening to the CD and just totally spaced everything else. Like driving 71 in a 55.
I feel totally drained. But soon I will be writing to my little heart's content. Here's hoping some good stuff comes from it.
I'm finding it hard to tear myself away from the Wi-Fi, but it's getting dark, and the small townsfolk are wondering what the kooky lady with the weird hair is doing sitting in a Jaguar typing on a laptop.
Hasta manana. | |
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| I love this discussion about Love You Forever on the Shelftalker blog. Creeped me out, too. A grown man climbing into his old mother's lap? | |
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| I so need to get to bed.
I was treated to a day off for Mother's Day - no cleaning or cooking. Until everyone went to bed at nine. Then I swept and mopped the floor where someone had spilled pop earlier, washed the dishes that have accumulated from the past three days, ironed slacks, folded laundry, made lunches, and picked-up and straightened the house. My Mother's Day ends at the stroke of nine. Then poof, the twinkly Mom-vacation ends and I'm left with the pumpkin of reality. | |
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| My house is talking to me. My bathroom, to be exact. Last night I found four notes taped up in there.
The first, on the tub:
How would you feel if you were unknowingly filmed in the tub? That is exactly what is happening to you.
Stand up for yourself and destroy the film!
Ajax works well on my sensitive skin.
Your friend,
The Tub
The second on the shower:
I get to see you naked every day, but it's been months since you lathered me up and rubbed me down.
How about today??
Forever Yours,
The Shower
The third above the sink:
The tall man keeps getting hair all over me and toothpaste spray. I can't bear to have you see me this way. I need to be cleaned!
I know, I have a "vanity" problem.
Sincerely,
Husband's Side
The fourth on the toilet, where our cat likes to drink:
Have some pitty on your cat and disinfect me please.
If something isn't done soon I am going to get pissed off.
Love,
T. Bowl
Husband amuses himself - says it was just bathroom humor. Ba dum dum. I say he needs to learn how to spell pity. This house ain't big enough for two writers.
Okay, I confess, cleaning the bathroom, especially the shower, and doing dishes are my least favorite chores. Along with mopping. And cleaning up after dinner. And putting laundry away.
I had my husband take the personality test that I posted on here a few days ago. Wow, what an eye opener. The trait that I scored the highest on happened to be the trait he scored the lowest on. Emotionality. He scored a 0, I scored a 91. Hello?! Complete ends of the spectrum. Most of our scores ranged from the 40s to 80s - but those were both practically off the chart for both of us. It means he is not aware of or in touch with his emotions. I on the other hand, obviously am. In touch to the nth degree. How do we survive together?
Full request from one of my all time favorite agents. Trying not to get too pumped if it's not what she's looking for. Someday my prince will come, right? | |
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My blog is threatening to become the repository of all my favorite funny videos. What does a French singing New Zealand folk duo have to do with writing? NOTHING! Is jus funneh. | |
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| I forgot! My sister's trying to get us tickets to see FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS while I'm in L.A. K, so maybe I can't buy a partial request from an agent lately, but life is gooood.
And I love ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) learningtoread, too!
Now I'm really going to bed. After I iron hubby's slacks. And make lunches. Yawn :O - Tags:fotc
- Mood:content
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| OMG!!!!!!1! I can't wait! | |
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| Sent husband to buy laundry detergent. Came home with Costco sized institutional detergent. Our clothes now smell the same as the jumpsuits and sheets in Folsom jail.
Lesson learned: don't send hubby to do my work. Sigh.
Cinco de Mayo is long past. Why does our house still smell of jalapenos?
I haaaaaaate working out, with a capital H. The only thing that gets me through is a podcast of NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me news quiz show. I think it's what nerds listen to for humor. The ladies on the machines next to me give me the funniest looks whenever I snort (unfortunately, I do not have a delicate laugh). I see it as killing two birds with one stone: exercising is bearable and I get happy endorphines from the laughter. I never leave the gym in a bad mood. It's just dragging my sorry butt there that's tough.
Please tell me what planet my brain was vacationing on when I bought a white shag rug for the living room? A WHITE SHAG rug!!!1! It is interesting to see the progression from white to gray on just the one corner that's near the flow of traffic.
The Elephant Walk must be one of the boppiest songs ever made. I cannot help but bounce my head around to that snappy clarinet piece played on my muzak channel.
Okay, enough randomness. The time has come, the walrus said, to write of many things.... | |
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| Is anyone going to Book Expo America in LA at the end of May? I am! Alas, I'm not going to the writer's conference, but my sister, who's a bookseller, is taking me to the show the rest of the weekend. She said she gets so many books she can't carry them all. Yay!!! There are also a few workshops worth attending as an author. So looking forward to being completely immersed in literature for three days!
P.S. Mother's brand Iced Lemonade cookies are soooooo good!
P.P.S. Got rejections from Sarah Davies on Ada and Jessica Regel on Body. :( | |
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| Okay, trying something new today. I'm calling it Monday Morsels. Every Monday I'll post thoughts from my books on the craft of writing that I've found helpful or interesting. First one is from Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg regarding practice writing.
"It's good to go off and write a novel, but don't stop doing writing practice. It is what keeps you in tune, like a dancer who does warmups before dancing or a runner who does stretches before running. Runners don't say, "Oh, I ran yesterday. I'm limber."
Think of writing as loving arms you come to illogically and incoherently. It's our wild forest where we gather energy before going to prune our garden, write our fine books and novels. It's a continual practice."
Okay, it gets a little new age-y sounding there at the end, but I think you get what she's saying. I myself have not been doing this. Which is a shame, because I produced a lot of rich material when I was taking creative writing classes that included lots of writing exercises.
Do you do warm-ups or exercises?
Here's one from the book to get us going:
Begin with "I remember." Write lots of small memories. If you fall into one large memory, write that. Just keep going. Don't be concerned if the memory happened five seconds ago or five years ago. Everything that isn't this moment is memory coming alive again as you write. If you get stuck, just repeat the phrase "I remember" again and keep going. | |
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| Today is our annual Cinco de Mayo party. This is the seventh year we've had it. Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of a battle the Mexicans fought against France and won against great odds. Which is funny, because my husband is half French and Mexican is his favorite type of food. Every year he makes tons of salsa and guac and I clean the house. :(
This was our invitation this year. I try to do something creative and different every year. I thought it would be fun to send the invitations out on seed packets, originally. Great idea, they're like a dime a piece, right? You can see from the picture they're not that cheap these days. So I just created an invitation that looked like one. When you send out 80 invites you have to watch your costs.
 Back to the grind stone...floors won't mop themselves. | |
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| Have you done this? It's hilarious! Type in your first name and "needs" as a search for google and write the first 5 things you find. Here's mine:
Stephanie needs some help. (Amen)
Stephanie needs a behavior modification. ( Oi, now!)
Stephanie needs a soundproof home to protect her. (From what?!1!)
Stephanie needs to get the women together in an alliance. (Yes! Women of the world, unite!)
Stephanie needs the next three weeks to just pass by. (Hmm, if it meant fast forwarding to some good news about my submissions, okay!) | |
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| My Personality| | | Neuroticism | | Extraversion | | Openness to Experience | | Agreeableness | | Conscientiousness | |
| Mostly your emotions are on an even keel and you do not get depressed easily, however you feel strong cravings and urges that you have difficulty resisting. You tend to prefer short-term pleasures and rewards over long-term consequences. You enjoy some excitment and risk taking in your life. You enjoy a certain amount of debate or intellectual thought, but sometimes get bored with too much. You dislike confrontations and are perfectly willing to compromise or to deny your own needs in order to get along with others, however you are mostly a compassionate person, however you prefer to make objective judgments when possible. You are well-organized and like to live according to routines and schedules. Often you will keep lists and make plans.
| Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.
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Look how agreeable I am...I mean, if you want to. Or you can look at it later, that is, if you're interested, and only if you want to. But don't read it on my account. I totally understand if you can't get to it, honestly. Can I get you something to drink? Don't worry about your muddy shoes, it's really not that hard to clean white carpet. In fact, I'm happy to clean it...see, no problem! No problem at all! | |
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| Starbuck's hot chocolate and lemon-poppyseed muffin has gotten my day off to a whoosh. Waiting for the crash; I'll try to get as much writing stuff in before then.
Have you read Editorial Anonymous? There is a great post about unique voices created in the third person (as opposed to first person where it is seemingly easier to achieve this). Also check out Editorial Ass, linked in the sidebar, and the post on author blogging. Verly intelestine.
I am off to do critiquing on a ms I am excited about. Yay for writer friends! (It's the cocoa talking). | |
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| OH YEAH!!!
 I get to go see Death Cab for Cutie June 21 (day before my bday) in Berkley.
I'm STOKED! | |
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|  So this was the prom group that showed up for pictures two Saturdays ago. No, they were not all eating or driving together. For some reason our home just turned out to be the place to get pictures done. Working with 26 giddy kids in heels and tails (respectively) was hilarious. Darling Daughter is the one with the nice legs in the blue dress. Daddy gave her those legs. Thank heavens for natural selection gene propagation ( I made that term up, can you tell?) | |
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| Rejection from Stefanie von Borstel after reading the partial. She said she liked the concept, but felt it needed to be geared more toward teenagers.
This is classic. In college when I wrote the short story that became Ada, my creative writing class asked if it was written for children. Here I was trying to write something that I thought was on an adult level and I get told it's too juvenile. I write Out-of-Body which I thought was written for teenagers and I'm told the voice isn't young enough. But maybe I'm reading it wrong and she thinks it's too young and not written at a teen level. Have I digressed even farther in my writing? Should I be writing picture books?
I'm going to the cabin in two weeks by myself to write. There's no internet, so I will have to go into town to find wi-fi, which should keep me from getting too distracted. I'm going to take all of my work and try to give it that extra something that is obviously lacking.
I am broken, but determined. I can't give up. I know there is something to these stories. I wish I had someone to read my work; a critique partner. I've had the hardest time finding one, that's not virtual, which isn't bad, but it would be nice to have a live person giving me feedback and support.
Maybe I'll have to pay for it. The Editorial Department isn't cheap, but maybe that' s the way I need to go to get some professional criticism. I think I'll wait for Jessica Regel's response, which I already have a bad feeling about, and then make some serious decisions about what it will take to turn these manuscripts into books. It's so hard to be optimistic and realistic at the same time.
What I was planning on blogging about, before I checked my email, was S.A Bodeen's debut YA novel titled The Compound. It comes out in May. I finished my ARC last night, staying up until 2 a.m. to finish it (I'm paying for that now). I kept thinking I'll stop at a slow part, but it never slowed!! There was no point at which I thought I could put it down. I am very impressed. Let me predict the success of this book: it will win lots of awards, grown ups will like it as well as teens - especially teen boys, and Ms. Bodeen will be clamored after for her future novels. Mark my words.
The story is about a man who built a compound to keep his family safe. Weird thing is that after finishing it last night I open the paper to this story of another father who did something similar. This actual story is something you couldn't make up - mostly because you wouldn't want to, it is so horrific. | |
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Prowlers, by Christopher Golden (know nothing about).
Sisters Grimm (NY Times bestseller)
The Beasties by Sleator.
