Happy New Year

I'm working on my to do list/timeline to get the new year off on the right foot. In the meantime, I thought I'd tell you about a couple more books to check out.

Good Grief by Lolly Winston: An amazing story about a young widow (she's only 36) and all that she suffers trying to get her life back together after her husband's death. It's not as depressing as it sounds -- in fact, it's funnier than you can imagine in several parts. The book, for being about grief and death, strikes me as saying an awful lot about life and how important, beautiful and fragile it is, so take it all in and enjoy it. What I liked best about this book was that the deceased husband wasn't perfect. The narrator remembered his flaws; among them, a messy car. But she also acknowledged the fact that dead people become these perfect iconographic representations of their true selves after death. We try remember only the good things, diminishing the bad. Except that isn't being true to the person, nor does it make it very easy for anyone else to live up to that perfection.

It's good writing and a deeply touching and funny story. Read the first paragraph and see if you want to put it down -- here's the link to the sample on bn.com.

Twilight by Meg Cabot, Book six in the Mediator series: This is my favorite Meg Cabot series, for YA or A *grin*, so I'm sorry to see it go, but it was so wonderful to see everything all wrapped up. *Hint* for those of you that know me, you already know how the story ends if I'm recommending it to you : ) As for the story, it goes something like this. Suze Simon is a mediator, one who mediates with ghosts in an effort to take care of their last requests and move them along to the next plane of existence. In this last book, Suze has a problem because she's fallen in love with a ghost, Jesse, and another mediator, Paul, who wants to date Suze is jealous. Paul wants Jesse gone for good. Suze will do almost anything to stop him...but will that be enough?

Unfortunately, no excerpt for this one. But I highly encourage you to check out the series. It starts with Shadowland.

Okay, I also got a whole bunch of books for Christmas, not to mention some gift certificates, so I'm sure I'll have at least a few more recommendations soon. My goal is to get them put together in a GalaxSHE newsletter and send that out too.

I'll have to add it to my to do list : )

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

"Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?"

The title of today's blog comes from another of the t-shirts in the catalogue that my parents used to order the t-shirt I got for Christmas (see yesterday's entry). But it pretty much sums up what's going on. I need to get organized. I've been sloughing off lately, I think just the let down of so much activity all at once in the fall. I don't have anything out there to agents or publishers and yet I have three, count them three, manuscripts sitting at home. None of them are the final, finished product, but close enough that I should be thinking about making final edits and getting them out there!!! If I'm going to make this my career, I need to start treating certain aspects of it in a more career-like way. Like setting actual deadlines. I don't do that for writing. That stresses me out. But for sending out queries and such. Otherwise, because I don't like that aspect of the business, I tend to put it off and do the fun stuff instead, writing!

So, my goal for tomorrow is to come up with a list of activities outside of writing but associated with it and get some deadlines set for them. Doing this is actually the only way I ever got motivated to start sending out letters for The Silver Spoon. My husband, tired of hearing me talk about how the book wasn't ready yet, suggested that I set a date and try to reach it. And yeah, there was a bet involved. I won : ) The Silver Spoon went out to my first readers in October of that year.

Okay, whew. Deep breath. I have a feeling I'm going to have to talk myself through this one : )

I'd forgotten how much it sucks to be at work this week.

Yes, I am at work. *sigh* I've done this to myself several times now. I think, "Hey, it'll be kind of cool because no one will be here, so why waste the vacation day?" But here's the thing: I'm always, always WRONG when I think this. There are just enough people to call/email you with questions and set up meetings. Just enough people to annoy you by trying to shove difficult projects through before the end of the year. ARRRGGHH! Kick me next year, if I say that I'm going to work this week.

So, the end of another year. I'm always very anxious round about this time. I liked this current year, wouldn't mind doing it over again, especially with the foreknowledge of events to make it even better. 2005 looms unknown, unpredictable and SCARY. However, this year my age is an odd number so that usually seems to work out okay for me. Don't ask. I don't know why I think this. Actually, maybe I do. I was seventeen the year that the torture known as high school ended. I met some of my dearest friends when I was seventeen. Met my husband and had the best year of college when I was nineteen. I completed four of them, years of college, I mean. My sophomore year was just the best one. When I turned twenty one, I got to go to bars legally and I got a job (okay, so maybe not such a hot year that one). Twenty three, I got married : ) Twenty five...I can't even remember. Isn't that sad? Twenty seven, I started sending out The Silver Spoon to agents and publishers. Getting published (year 28) was a whole separate dream coming true. Just getting it to the point where I felt brave enough to send out was huge for me.

It's weird for me to think that just last year at this time, I was on pins and needles because two, count them two, publishers had asked for a full of my manuscript. One of them even emailing me on New Year's Eve to ask for it. : ) Wow. How much has happened in a year!

No such luck this year. I don't have any queries out there as I don't have anything that's quite ready yet. Mainly because instead of going back and fixing things, I keep starting new stuff. Yeah, not the brightest thing to do. But I'm working on it -- trying to figure out how to revise Bitter Pill and writing the outline/synopsis for the sequel to The Silver Spoon.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Among my gifts, a book about debunking linguistic urban legends (so cool!), a t-shirt that says, "So many books, so little time" (so true!) and a beautiful, engraved picture frame with my name and "author" beneath it for book signings and such (so needed!)

Query letter, part two

As they say, no good deed goes unpunished! You guys were so helpful to me on my query question the other day, I’m going to ask for more help. Stacy G., in reviewing the letter, brought up a really good point.

She said, “One observation -- is saying that Rennie is a ‘real woman with real problems’ a bit too harsh of a condemnation of all the women out there who bake and knit but may still be pill popping psychopaths dealing with abusive ex-boyfriends? ...I just want to make sure you don't alienate women (esp. editors & publishers) who may take that one quote personally : )”

Here’s the thing. She’s totally right. And it is something I thought about when writing the letter. I’m definitely NOT intending to imply that if you like knitting or sewing, you’re not a real woman with real problems. That would be like someone saying the reverse to me, that because I don’t like either of these things that I can’t call myself a real woman. Eeesh. Totally not at all what I meant. So, I’ve got to figure out a way to get across what I mean accurately.

In my experience, most cozy mysteries are targeted toward women readers. As such, they frequently revolve around what people would stereotypically consider female-specific hobbies or jobs. Knitting, sewing, cooking, antiquing, baking, etc. The publishers purchase these books because they, the books, are perceived to have an appeal to a specific part of the audience. Books where the main character knits and belongs to a knitting group will likely appeal to women who knit. Books where the main character owns her own catering business appeal to people who like to cook. The principle behind this is that people enjoy books where they can see some reflection of themselves, where it’s easy for them to relate to the main character and even imagine being that main character.

The problem comes in when you have people like me. I love cozies. There’s never too much blood or angst over preserving fingerprints or worrying about the police. But by and large, most of the cozies are written for these specialty groups, so you get mysteries about knitting, sewing or being a chaperone on granny’s trips to the Alps. I can’t imagine myself doing any of those things, so it’s hard for me to enjoy the books.

When I sat down to write Bitter Pill, I wanted to write the kind of cozy mystery that I would enjoy. A funny (I hope) main character who always finds herself in trouble, trouble that mainly seems to involve the sheriff and a dead body. She has problems in her life -- a marriage that didn’t work out, a sick mother, a miscarriage, a love interest that’s already married. She’s doing what she can to get by, living her life, trying to do the right thing and also be happy. She is essentially one of “us.” She works and enjoys the freedom of having money, but she’s not obsessed with a career – at least not anymore.

She has a soft heart, always looking to take in the unwanted, whether it’s dogs or children. She has a keen sense of justice (a requirement for a mystery heroine) and seeing the “right” thing happen is important to her, even as she struggles to apply it to her own life (she knows that being in love with a married man is wrong, but she can’t seem to stop it.)

In short (too late!), I wanted Rennie to be someone we would know and recognize, someone we might be friends with, despite her flaws.

So, how to encapsulate that in a selling tool, which is essentially what a query letter is. I’ve been thinking more and more that this sounds like a blend of two different genres, chicklit and cozy mystery. Arrrggh. I was trying so hard not to blur genres this time around – makes a book harder to sell.

The term “Chicklit” is typically applied to stories where the plot or subplot involves a woman becoming more comfortable with herself and her love life, or lack thereof. It doesn’t always end with the woman getting married or even ending up with the guy. It’s more about the trials and tribulations of finding love and loving yourself for who you are instead of who you want to be. I would say that definitely applies to Rennie, though that’s the area that probably needs more fleshing out. The mystery part is self-evident. Dead body plus investigation equals mystery.

So, I can change my query letter to say a “chicklit mystery.” That’s not a problem. But I’m still struggling with how to get across the lack of a niche, like knitting or sewing or baking, and how that’s not a problem but instead an advantage. A way to tap into a hidden segment of the book-buying market. I could describe the readers as modern women who are not interested in the stereotypical female activities. But that's not very catchy at all. Women who are redefining what it means to be a woman -- eh...catchier but a little too ambiguous. I think I'm missing something here. I'm going to have to sit down and think about this some more.

But if you have questions/comments/suggestions, please give them to me. I need them all!!!! : )

And I just want to repeat, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a good mystery involving knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, etc. It just doesn't work for me. I'm looking to get a book out there that appeals to me and others like me (assuming there are others!)

Also, I won’t likely be posting until next week, so have a very Merry Christmas everyone and safe travel : )

New words for the dictionary

First, I want to say thank you to everyone who gave me suggestions on my proposed query letter -- you guys are awesome!

Second, as a word person, I've taken note of a few pseudo-words over the last few months that have fascinated me. Ones that I hope they add to the dictionary, so I can say I was there at the birth of "tivo" as a verb. However, as I started listing all the pseudo-words that I've encountered, I realized that I'm not entirely sure of the exact definition of some of these words. So, if you see one that you know or one that I've got wrong -- let me know. For that matter, what other cool pseudo-words should be added to this list?

Pseudo-words for 2004
snark (verb and noun): I believe this to be a combination of snotty and sarcastic. Television Without Pity, one of my very favorite websites dispenses snark on a regular basis on their recaps of some of my favorite shows. For usage examples of the word "snark," visit their site.
snarky (adjective): As in, "Don't be all snarky about it." See definition of "snark" above.

TiVo (verb): As in, "I didn't watch Desperate Housewives, but I TiVo'd it." The essential part of this is spelling. It's not TiVoed because that just looks weird. And to be correct, you have to cap the V in the middle of the word. Brand-wise, that's the correct way to spell it. And yes, I actually googled it to find out -- incidentally, over two and a half million results to a "tivo" search.

Google (verb): As in, "I googled TiVo to find out the correct spelling." And if you need me to tell you what Google is, I'd suggest looking for different living arrangments -- it must be rather damp and cold for you under that rock. (hey, that could probably be considered "snarky!")

Swiffer (verb): As in, "I Swiffered my floors yesterday because we had tumble weeds of dog hair blowing around the house every time we opened the front door." Swiffer, the ubiquitous household cleaning device, a cross between a broom and a stick with a paper towel on the end.

Asshat (noun): As in, "He's being such an asshat." My friend, Ed, suggests that the etymology of this word can be traced to the idea of having one's head up in one's nether regions. In other words, wearing your ass as a hat. I wondered if had something to do with a typing error for the A-word.

Squicked out or squicky (adjective, I think?): Credit to this word or phrase has to go to Television Without Pity forum posters. It means, I think, being grossed out. Probably a combination of "icky" with something else, I just don't know what. As in, "If I find out that Boone and Shannon on Lost are involved in some kind of Flowers in the Attic brother/sister/incest thing, I'm going to be totally squicked out."

ganked or gakked (verb?): I've seen this on LiveJournal a lot. From context, I take it to mean, taken or stolen. As in, "I ganked this idea from another journal."

meme (noun?): Again, livejournal. I think this typically is some kind of questionnaire type thing (what are your three favorite foods? What are the three things you're most ashamed of? etc.) that we used to pass around as notes in high school but are now posted online in people's journal. They're actually really fun to read because something about being online causes people to be way more honest than they would with you nearby. That, or just the fact that this isn't high school is enough to bring that about : ) As in, "I ganked this meme from another journal."

minty (adjective): I'm guessing this means "fresh," but honestly, I have no clue. I've heard it repeatedly on The O.C. and am desperately afraid that it will slip into my vocabulary without me knowing what it means and therefore not using it correctly. Trees have been described as "minty" on this show, as have clothing and abstract ideas. So, I'm no longer hip to the lingo (ack!)
As in, "Minty sweater, Summer."

Whatever (noun, verb, adjective, who the hell knows?): Used for everything, much like "like." Whatever, said in an even tone, indicates no opinion what so ever on the topic being discussed. "Pizza or steak for dinner?" *Shrug* "Whatever." It can also be used as dismissive retort to something you disagree with. "I don't care what you say. The O.C. does not suck this year." "Whatever" in a clearly dismissive, you're-crazy-but-I'm-not-going-to-bother-going-over-it-with-you-again-crazy-person tone. There's also WhatEVER. The emphasis changes the meaning dramatically. This is usually used in an angry or annoyed way, generally when someone has stated something that you believe to be impossible or a lie. As in, "I do too take out the trash." "WhatEVER. Like once a month. That doesn't count." And yes, I know "whatever" is in the dictionary (just like "dude") but the meanings need to be updated, like now! : )

And of course, the many meanings of dude, which can be used to show sympathy, disbelief, excitement, anger, depending on the tone. "I got fired." "Dude."

And so, in the spirit of all of this, I'd like to propose a new word. Let's use it and see if it catches on. Then we can claim we started the word revolution here, much like the guilty party at a sporting event always trying to get the disinterested people around him to do the wave.

Here's my word: squeamy. It's that hard to define feeling in your chest/stomach area when encountering a situation that is both embarrassing, uncomfortable and possibly slightly gross. When you feel squeamy, you will feel like you should take action but you can't. As in, "I felt all squeamy when I noticed my boss's zipper was down before s/he went up to do his/her presentation, but I couldn't tell him because how awful would it be to let him/her know that I accidentally looked there." It's a combination of squirmy and squeamish.

What do you guys think? : )

Frustrating~!!!!!

Okay, I had this whole post written and it was such a fun little story, but blogger ate it. Damnit.

So instead, I'll post this. This is query letter I've been working on for my mystery. What do you think? Is it too much of a slam against traditional cozy mysteries? Would this make youwant to read the book? Let me know. Also, note that I changed some names to protect people who may not want their names plastered all over the internet or my website.

Dear Ms. Jane Doe:
Rennie Harlow is not your typical female cozy sleuth. She doesn’t own a cute little herb shop or a catering business. In fact, she can’t even cook--her idea of a recipe starts with “remove plastic overwrap.” She doesn’t scrapbook, cross-stitch, knit or sew either. Rennie Harlow is a real woman with some real problems.

She’s a former small town girl, trying to get used to simple living again after 11 years in the big city. Her ex-husband (a lawyer who cheated on her with his exotic Puerto Rican paralegal and now wants out of his alimony payment) is a walking clichè. Her mother, with whom Rennie now lives, believes herself to have every disease known to man. She’s falling for her high school crush all over again, except now he’s the local sheriff and married. Oh yeah, and she has an uncanny talent for finding trouble, usually in the form of a dead body.

This time, it’s Doc Hallacy. Rennie finds the pharmacist bludgeoned behind the counter early one morning when she comes in to have yet another of her mother’s prescriptions filled. As the resident starving freelance writer, Rennie takes on the assignment to cover Doc’s death. As Rennie starts to dig into Doc’s life, she discovers that pharmacists know all our dirty secrets, and the question becomes, which one killed him? And will trying to find out get her killed, too?

Ms. XYZ of the XYZ Agency has called me a “solid writer” with “a nice narrative voice.” RuneStone Publishing recently released my first novel, The Silver Spoon, a sci-fi romance, in trade paperback and e-book. I’m currently working on the second book in the Rennie Harlow series (approx. 75,000 words).

I’m including the first page of the manuscript to give you an idea of my writing style. Please let me know if you’re interested in receiving the entire manuscript of Bitter Pill (approx. 55,000 words).

Sincerely,


Stacey Klemstein

We closed the library...

Last night was truly fantastic! There were probably fifteen or twenty people last night to attend the session at the Bloomingdale Library. How exciting! We got some really good discussion going and people asked some very insightful questions.

Can I just tell you that I love doing this? I love talking with people about writing. I also really like being able to share what I've learned, maybe keep people from making the same mistakes I've made, maybe help them reach their dreams just a little bit faster by giving them the information they need instead of them having to go out and search for it themselves. I'm telling you, if I could teach writing (with a class or two on publishing), I'd drop my day job in a heartbeat and do that instead. Unfortunately, they usually want a Master's degree and/or a Ph.D to teach writing at university or community college level. I could probably teach younger kids, but I'm guessing there isn't much budget for creative writing and it would probably come with teaching gym too, or something. Plus, I really want to be able to teach people who are there to learn because they're interested, not required to be there.

Yes, yes, I know. I have a lot of requirements. : )

Thank you to Karen from Bloomingdale Library, who organized and advertised the event. And a huge thank you to everyone who came out last night. The session was originally supposed to end after an hour, but instead, we had such a good thing going, we kept on until the library closed at nine!!!

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In other news...I, of course, haven't given up on Bitter Pill. But I may be trying something new with it. Stay tuned to see if my plans actually materialize. It will take a lot of work on my part to get this to happen. But it would totally be worth it, if it works...

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List, in no particular order, of television/movie writers (alive today) that I'd looove to interview and ask pressing writing questions:
1. George Lucas
2. J.J. Abrams -- the genius behind Lost and Alias.
3. Joss Whedon -- Buffy!
4. Rob Thomas -- the creator of Veronica Mars, the best show that most people are not watching (watch it, darn you!)
5. M. Night Shyamalan -- The Sixth Sense, Signs, etc.
6. Barbara Hill -- Joan of Arcadia
7. Jason Katims -- Roswell, but mostly because of one episode that still makes me cry ever time I see it. I can't remember the name of it, but it's the one with Future Max in it.

Okay, who else am I missing? I know I'm missing some cool writers. Let me know. If you don't know the writer's name, that's okay, just send me the show and/or movie.

Tomorrow...

I'll be at the Bloomingdale Library to talk about writing and publishing at 6:30 p.m. My contact at the library called yesterday to let me know that 25 people are signed up to come -- yea!!! And, oh, so very scary : ( But I'm putting together handouts and having a good old time figuring out all the things that we can talk about. Writing is one of my favorite subjects *grin* It's hard to choose certain topics and leave other things out, so I might take a poll tomorrow and see what people are most interested in hearing.

Here are the details for the program tomorrow, if you're interested:

Write On (the name of my presentation) at 6:30 p.m.
Bloomingdale Public Library
101 Fairfield Way
Bloomingdale, IL 60108 DirectionsPhone (630) 529-3120
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In other news...two rejections on Bitter Pill. Which sucks. You'd think it would get easier, but it doesn't. *sigh* Oh, well. Persistence is key. : )

Less than two weeks till Christmas...

I don't have my shopping done yet. By "done yet," I mean that I haven't started. Eeek. If I don't do something soon, I might have to actually venture into a real store instead of shopping online as is my preference. Some of it, I think, is just that I'm having trouble getting into the spirit of the season this year. I don't know why. All the holiday plans were worked out with relatively little angst. I'm excited to see everyone, so I know that's not it. I don't know. I just feel kind of blah this year. Which sucks.

Christmas is usually my favorite time of year. People are nicer to one another (except when fighting to get the last whatever-the-popular-gift-is-this-year off the shelf). A woman actually gave me her parking space, a total primo one, at the mall this weekend. She saw me waiting in a line of cars to drive down yet another packed full row of parking, and she smiled at me, gestured at her car. I smiled, nodded and gave her the effusive thank you -- mouthed very widely-- so she wouldn't think I was just singing along to a song or something. Incidentally, I was at the mall -- also known as one of the circles of hell-- this weekend to buy a birthday present, not a Christmas present, in case you wondering if I was lying about not having started shopping yet. I'm not lying, unfortunately.

We had friends and family over on Saturday for a great dinner (NOT cooked by yours truly) and I broke out my traditional Christmas cookies -- the one thing I do actually make from scratch. I hope they had fun -- we had a wonderful time seeing all of them. Our friends and family, I mean, not the cookies. Though, I was happy to see them too. : )

I don't know -- does having children in your home make Christmas more Christmas-y? Most of the time, I'm pretty okay with our two person and two dog household, but Christmas always makes me wish there was a little kid who'd be excited and running around on Christmas morning.

Some of my favorite Christmas memories:
-All of us gathered around the tree, trying to determine the source of the mysterious popping noises emanating from the Christmas tree. The answer turned out to be something very logical; pinecones were reacting to the heat inside the house and opening up. It was not the sound of a light string shorting out and threatening to set the house on fire, as my mother and I were probably prone to believing. She and I are both worse case scenario junkies.

-Swiping un-iced Christmas cookies -- it's a long process over several days to make the cookies and there was usually one night in which the cookies were baked but un-iced and therefore vulnerable to swiping because once they were iced they were stored in a covered tin of some kind. I took a whole bunch of them, the little circle cookies that were actually the pieces of dough that came out of the middle of the wreath cookies, and stored them under my bed. Yuck. What can I say? I was nine and not so much worried about the cleanliness of this particular getaway.

-Walking into the living room, maybe even the same year as the Christmas cookie stealing, to see a Cabbage Patch doll preemie under the tree. Now, you have to understand that at the time, these things were plastic and fabric gold. You couldn't get one in the stores and there was no such thing as the internet yet. Except maybe at Al Gore's house. I'm not even sure I asked for the doll, knowing how impossible it was to get one. I'm unclear about my level of belief in Santa at this point, but at the time, it seemed like he came through for me, despite whatever doubts I had. Yea, Mom and Dad : ) That must suck sometimes that Santa gets all the credit for the gifts you so carefully picked out and worked hard to pay for.

-Going to my Grandma and Grandpa B.'s house. This happened a whole bunch of times. But among my favorites was the year my dad and uncles built this huge snowman in the backyard. It was like nine feet tall, or it seemed like it to me. I was, of course, sick that year. I always get sick around Christmas. So, I wasn't allowed to go out and join the fun, but I remember seeing it from inside the house, from Grandma's kitchen window. I also remember the year that my Grandpa got this game with these two tiny basketball hoops that attached to the table with suction cups. You had to bounce a ping pong ball into the hoop from the opposite end of the table to score points. Again, it was funny to see my uncles and my dad acting like kids, playing games. My grandpa always liked the games too, another reason it was fun. He so clearly got a kick out of playing and watching us play. I miss him a lot all the time, but especially around this time of year.

Okay, now that I have thoroughly saddened myself. I'm going home. : )

Good news!!!

I've been asked to participate on a panel at my very favorite writing conference -- Writers' Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison! I'm so excited. I look forward to this conference all year. I learn so much good stuff there every year. Now, I get to be a part of it -- how cool is that?!? The panel I'm on will be made up of conference participants who've gotten published. I think we'll be giving tips on what made the difference between being published and unpublished.

Yea! I can't wait. If anyone out there is looking for a good writers' conference, this is a fabulous one to check out.

We have a strange dog...

Actually, we have two strange dogs, but Snowy has taken to doing a very weird thing lately. She has always needed to know where we are in the house. If we're in another room with the door even partially shut, she barges in, just to make sure we're in there and then turns around and goes back to whatever she was doing, usually sleeping.

In the new house, we have a shower with clear glass doors. In the old house, it was a tub with mirrored doors (the mirrors were on the outside, for all the dirty thinkers out there). So, Snostorm has taken to coming in the bathroom and standing outside the shower while we shower. I don't think she's quite got it figured out what goes in there. She knows there's water, but she can see now whoever happens to be showering, and she seems quite baffled by this development. I always imagine the little thoughts in her doggie mind go something like this. "Is she in the glass box again? Why?" Or "There goes Mom again getting in the glass box. She stands in there for a few minutes and then comes out. What's the point of that?"

She just has this quizzical look on her face when she stands there, ears cocked forward, head tilted, like, "What is going on here?" It totally cracks me up.

So, I'm actually leaving...

Well, I'm trying to leave. I decided I needed to get out of here at a decent hour tonight. And, of course, I stopped to blog on my way out : ) Probably not a good sign, in terms of leaving in the immediate future. I always start these things with this little idea that I think will only take me a few minutes...forty-five minutes later, I'm still here. Oh, well.

The end of the year is sneaking up on me quickly. I told my publisher that I would try to have a synopsis of Zara Book II by that time. Of course, my editor knows how I am (anal and perfectionistic -- is that a word?) so there's no pressure from her or anything. Which is cool. But I'd really like to meet that goal because if possible, I'd like to have Book II out in 2005, assuming that RuneStone likes what they see in the outline. I have two drafts already done, but now I'm in the difficult stage, or at least the difficult stage for me. Going through the story, making sure it makes sense. Which can also mean second-guessing myself horribly and trying to change things mid-stream. Fun. Plot points remain the same, but pretty much everything between them can be radically different. Frightening, really.

I haven't heard anything on the tentative queries on sent out for Bitter Pill a couple of months ago. I'm trying not to read anything into that : ) Everyone in the publishing business is extremely overwhelmed with the volume of manuscripts and with the holidays approaching, I'm sure it's only getting worse. But still, in this waiting period, your imagination tends to wander toward the extremes.

Some good news...I found out today that someone is giving my books as Christmas presents. How cool is that?!?

Okay, I have to run now. I haven't done any Christmas shopping, and I've only baked one batch of cookies (yes, it is my one claim to the so-called feminine arts, though personally, I think there's nothing sexier than a man who can cook and does so willingly for his wife and family.)

Time to shop! (And bake.)

I find that I'm in need of a new sign-off line. Something that adds a little closure to these otherwise random collections of thoughts that I call a blog..any suggestions?!? I'm not great at coming up with witty little lines for occasions such as this. So, please help!

It's worse than Hallmark...

My day job is in marketing, so you'd think I'd be more attuned and immune to the way companies use advertising to manipulate emotions. Right. Every single time I hear an OnStar commercial on the radio, I get all teary and choked up. Thank goodness for the OnStar people who will call to check on you if your airbags deploy, send an ambulance for the woman and her children who are trapped inside a crashed car and remotely unlock your doors for you. *sniff*

I swear, if I wasn't so creeped out by the fact that with the GPS component of OnStar someone knows where you are at all times--hello, Big Brother?--I'd totally buy one in my next car.

But I bet those OnStar answering service people have some interesting stories to tell. Not that sappy ones they turn into commercials, but the "I'm a moron and I expect you to help me with something so ridiculous that you should be frightened I have the legal license to operate machinery such as this car" type calls they receive. Or maybe better yet, the same people calling in, over and over, getting to know certain customers without ever meeting them face to face. Think about it. You'll call for directions to a restaurant and later that evening when you call back to tell them you have a flat and need help, the operator asks you how the sushi was. Weird, huh?

Headlines

My favorite part of the Tonight Show is when they show real headlines that have unintended double meanings. My friend and web advisor extraordinaire, Ed, provided me with this today, which made me laugh. Out loud. At work. Oh, yes, people are staring, but it was worth it!

The snow is beautiful.

As mentioned in previous posts, I'm not a big fan of winter weather when driving, but I love waking up and seeing a fresh coat of snow over everything. It's a fresh start. Hard to imagine anything bad going on in houses that look so pristine and peaceful.

It was still snowing when I went to bed last night. It was really neat to be able to look out of my windows to see the snow falling in the squares of light that other people's windows were projecting out onto the snow. Like snow falling in front of a spotlight. It made everything all cozy.

This morning, I woke up with the bedroom brighter than normal. We don't have blinds in there yet (which results in a very interesting dilemma when you realize that you've forgotten to bring an important piece of clothing with you into the bathroom before you got undressed and showered) so it's always fairly bright in there, which helps me wake up. But this was fabulous! The reflection of the sun on the snow (it's called albedo-- see, I paid attention in meterology class) creates this marvelous white glow that beams back into the house, lighting everything up. Even on the sunniest of days in summer, the light in the house is not like this. I love it, this pale, white, glow that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. It's so cozy.

All the houses in my neighborhood are new, so there aren't a lot of trees or landscaping to get in the way of the snow. All you have are these pale houses (white, light yellow, light blue) blending into the drifts of snow on the ground, their darker roofs covered with snow, so it looks almost like the houses are a product of the snow. Like there's snow here year round and we have created houses to reflect that. Like we live on the ice planet Hoth, which weirdly enough, sounds like it should be a warm planet.

I came downstairs to make some breakfast and found that the snow had blown onto the windows, creating this very cool, hey-we're-snowbound kind of feel to the house. The house is an isolated warm sanctuary, further insulated by this blanket of snow, in this cold, Hoth-like world. The house behind me, a new one with no one living it yet, has this shiny metal pipe sticking off the roof, really bright in the morning sun. This morning it was releasing trails of heated air into the sky, just like a chimney puts out smoke. I'm guessing I have one of the shiny metal pipes on my roof too, something to do with the furnace probably. And I imagine that it's puffing away this morning, making the house look lived in and welcome-y. A sign that people live there and are cozy and warm inside.

Snow is isolating. It makes me feel like we're trapped on some kind of science station on a new planet, an ice planet, the way it wipes out or alters all the familiar sights you're used to seeing. It's both dangerous and beautiful as so many of the most interesting things in life are. It is not a kind and gentle beauty like flowers or new grass. It's beautiful in this cold, callous kind of way. Snow, after all, can kill you, even though it's just this little small thing. It will still be beautiful even if you kill yourself shoveling it or your car slides into a ditch on it. Yet, when we're safe and warm inside, it's all good.

*sigh* I love it when it snows. That's probably the big flaw in my plan to packing our house up and moving us to Hawaii. Not a lot of snow there. But then again, check in with me in a couple of months after we've shoveled out the driveway seventeen times and the roads are so bad that I'm already late for work the next day before I even make it home the previous night. A slight exaggeration...but not much of one, really.

Yes, I am a freaking moron...

Actually, I think I'm probably a victim of inertia instead. For whatever reason, when I'm at work, I stay at work, long past when I could reasonably go home. Sometimes it's because there's stuff to do. Sometimes it's just because I know my husband's not home yet and whatever I'm reading on the internet has me hooked enough that I don't want to go home to empty house. How lame is that?!?

Wait, it gets worse.

Yesterday morning, all they could talk about is how it was going to snow last night. Somewhere between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Now, I'm a late starter at work. I work on my stuff in the morning first, so I don't get into the office very early, which means I stay later to put in the correct amount of time. And yet, yesterday I could have left at 6:00 and beaten the storm. DidI? Oh, no. I found another online blog place and was checking out various entries until ten minutes to seven. Hello, morons, your bus is leaving? (Points to you if you can identify the movie that quote is from!)

I got outside and found out to my great relief that it was only raining outside. I was a little concerned about how the trip home would be in the snow because I now live like 30 miles north of work instead of south and my house is way out in the middle of BFE (does anyone even say that anymore? I remember it from high school and like "dude" it has stuck with me, to my chagrin.) Of course, as you might imagine, as I started heading north, the rain turned into snow and traffic slowed down to a molasses crawl. In fact, the farther north I got, the harder it got to see. It was almost dizzying, the snowflakes were so huge. I kind of felt like I was driving through a starfield. You know, like that one screensaver? It was hard to focus on the road with all the snow catching my attention.

I would be a sucky starship pilot. I'd run myself into a star because I was too busy going ga-ga over the way it looked. That, plus I realized last night, I'm not so good with the multitasking while driving in dangerous conditions. I'm not talking about cell phones or anything, but little things, like turning on the defroster and adjusting the heater while driving and trying not to get mesmerized by the snow. *sigh* Oh well.

Needless to say, I made it home safely, if not quickly, and I'm grateful for that. I got to see Veronica Mars last night, too, just before the snow wiped out our satellite connection. Talk about good timing. : ) I would have been seriously miffed then, no matter how pretty the snow is.

A disappearing act...

Sorry, I kind of vanished last week. After the big hoopla of the reading on Monday and with the holiday on Thursday, I went into stealth mode ; ) My inner hermit needed time to recooperate.

This week, I've got the Local Author Book Fair in Pekin, Illinois. I'll be at the Pekin library on Friday and Saturday. I'm not entirely sure what time on Friday, but pretty much all day in Saturday. If you're in the area, please be sure to stop by!

I've been reading voraciously the last couple of weeks. I go through periods like that now. I used to read constantly. I'd feel bereft if there wasn't a book waiting for me after I finished the one I was currently reading. But with writing as much as I do (though, never enough!), I find that I go through phases where I can't read enough and other times when my brain is so full with what I'm writing, I don't seem to have time or inclination to read. : ) But here's a list of some terrific books I've discovered in the last month or so...

Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong -- another book in the Otherworld series. Narrated first person by a witch. Witches, werewolves, vampires, necromancers, oh my! It's a terrific series and this is one of my favorites.

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey -- I picked this one up after hearing much discussion on the Paranormal Romance Listserv. I typically do not like fantasy novels, but this one is terrific! The true story of how fairy godmothers get their jobs and how all those fairy tales keep happening : )

Flashpoint by Suzanne Brockmann -- Suzanne Brockmann is one of the few contemporary romance novelists that I really enjoy, even without so much as a hint of paranormal in her stories. Exotic and dangerous locales and honorable military men...*sigh* my knees are weak!

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine -- A MUCH better book than the movie. A young woman is cursed by her fairy godmother. She is given the "gift" of obedience. She has to do whatever someone commands. Throw in an apathetic father, evil stepmother and stepsisters, and a handsome prince who loves her for her humor but doesn't understand why she behaves the way she does, and you've got a great story! This is a young adult book. It is a Newberry Award finalist, I believe.

Wives and Sisters by Natalie R. Collins -- Fabulous, fabulous suspense story. A young woman raised in the strict Mormon church struggles to find the truth behind the disappearance of a childhood friend and the connection between that and all the bad stuff that keeps happening to her now. I haven't cried at a suspense novel in...well, I don't know if I've ever cried at a suspense novel, except this one. Truly, you will run the gamut of emotions with this book. Also, a fascinating look at the Mormon tradition/religion from a thoroughly disenchanted narrator.

And finally...
The Taken by Dean Koontz -- I used to read Mr. Koontz's books all the time as a kid...I must have had a much stronger constitution. This one kept scaring me! This one follows the adventure (if you can call a desperate bid for survival an adventure) of a couple in the midst of what appears to be first alien contact. But there is so much more to it that what it appears to be at first...

Also, make sure you check out Meg Cabot's blog today. She has a hysterical entry about what NOT to say to the writer(s) in your life!

Murphy's Law...

I've noticed that the things that I worry about intensely, you know lose sleep and twist my stomach into unrecognizable knots over, those are the things that usually turn out okay. Like dreading that horrible confrontation with a friend or boss and then when you finally do it, the person is just like, "Yeah, okay, no big deal." And they stare at you, like why are you sweating so profusely while discussing this? But it's the other things--the events that you think are going to be great or the ones that you don't even really think of at all--that always blow up in your face in a rather dramatic fashion.

Fortunately, I nearly worried myself into a breakdown over the reading last night, so, of course, it was great! Okay, I was really, really nervous and probably was not the best reader ever. But I did not fall down, although I did almost fall out of the chair a couple times -- overvarnished chair and slippery cotton/lycra blend pants are a bad combination, just in case you were wondering. My legs were totally aching this morning from pushing against the chair rung to hold myself in place, I kid you not. But I didn't throw up -- yea me! And there weren't too many people there, nor were there too few -- just perfect : )

So here's how it went down. I took the train in because I'm a big city driving sissy, which means I won't drive in the city except in dire circumstances, and even then my first vote will be for public transportation. I went to my husband's building, which was kind of fun. It's always weird to see someone familiar to you in a work setting. He's so responsible there, you know? At home this is the man who...never mind, I better not finish that sentence : ) It'll get me in trouble, even though I'm only teasing!(Love you, sweetie *grin*) I met a lot of fun people who wanted to talk about writing and books, which was great.

At around 6:30, Alisa, the reviewer who'd put me in touch with Twilight Tales for the reading came by to pick me up and drive me over to the reading -- so very nice of her!! I'd mentioned that I'd be taking a cab (my husband had to finish up work and would meet us later) and she volunteered to get me instead : )

Twilight Tales, a weekly reading series, is held in the upstairs room of the Red Lion Pub. The Red Lion is this really cool, old-looking, authentic (to me, anyway) English pub. Plus, the upstairs room is rumored to be haunted. Though, I have to say, I didn't see or hear anything unusual while we were there, for which I'm very grateful. I really enjoy the paranormal...just from a distance.

As soon as we walked in, I saw my friends, Karen and Sanjay. I was so excited! Karen hadn't told me they were coming, so it was this great surprise!!! We decided to eat together, so we placed our orders at the bar and went upstairs. The upstairs is kind of dim and pub-like, or what I imagine pubs to look like, never having been in a real one, you know, in England or Ireland. Dark heavy furniture, beams on the wall, low lighting, pleasant levels of low conversation and the murmur from the television below. It smelled of old building, smoke and beer, but not in that gross way. Just in that comforting sort of familiar way.

The crowd grew to include my husband, my brother, several of my husband's co-workers and his friends from volleyball -- all of whom were nice enough to come out and listen to someone they'd never even met before!

Twilight Tales always has two readers, and when asked my preference, I said I wanted to go second. Yes, I'd be nervous longer, but I'd get to see how the first person did it. There were lots of questions inherent in this that I'd never thought about before. Like, could you stop whenever you wanted to get a sip of water? If you messed up in reading, do you acknowledge it and correct it? Do you announce new chapters as you're reading?

The answers to those questions, near as I can tell are, Yes. Yes, but only if you can do so unobtrusively. And, yes. At least, I did.

The other writer, Jim Doherty, I think his name was -- I don't have his book here in front of me-- was a police officer who'd published short stories and articles and was working on his first book. So, he read one of his articles, a short story and an excerpt from his novel. I enjoyed hearing him read, and I really liked his short story, a different take on Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." Of course, being the pretty sheltered person that I am, I was also fascinated that he wore his gun and his badge on his belt during the reading. I mean, he had them on the whole time, it's just that when he sat down to read, I noticed them because I was sitting pretty close to the front. There's a line in The Silver Spoon, where Zara sees Nevan with a gun and realizes how much bigger it looks when it's pointed at her. That was based on a startling moment when I passed in close proximity to one of the armed guards here changing out the trays in our ATM. Not that the guard pointed it at me or anything, but just that guns always seem bigger and scarier to me when they're near me versus on television.

Anyway, once Jim was done reading, it was my turn. The great thing about this venue was that it was small and cozy. I was still nervous, but there weren't more people there than could have fit in my living room and dining room. That helped me relax. Plus, they had this really bright light over the reading chair, so while that was scary at first, it actually helped. Made it harder to see anyone in the darkness watching me.

I started off, highly conscious of where I was and what I was doing. But after a few minutes, I got into the flow, felt the familiar words passing over through me and got into it enough that sometimes I'd forget to be self-conscious. So much so that a couple times when people laughed, it actually startled me. That was another interesting thing. People found different things funny than I did as the writer. Not to say that they were laughing at the wrong places, or anything. Just not the places I would have picked if someone said, "Find me a funny line in your book." But that was great. Because one of the cool things about writing is that you discover different people get different things out of it, often something on a level entirely other than what you intended. How cool is that?!?

Once I got going, the only time I felt weird up there was when I stopped for a chapter break and took a sip of water. Because then you can feel this sort of hushed silence and all this attention bearing down on you -- they're waiting for you to start again. I never realized that you could feel that kind of attention directed at you, but you can. Almost like a weight against your skin. It was really interesting and flattering too, I think, that people would listen that closely. Though, I can tell you now very clearly that I would never want to be an actor or performer. *shudder*

Afterward, I signed a few more books, then we packed up and went home. Overall, a very satisfying and happy evening. Thank you to everyone who came out last night, and to Alisa and Eric for getting this set up for me! I had fun and I really appreciate the support of everyone who bought a book or came to listen : )

Tomorrow...

So tomorrow is the big day. I have my book reading in the city. And I'm scared to death : ) I've always talked too quickly, especially when I'm nervous. My dad was forever telling me (and still does) "Slow down, Stace, take a breath." Well, I'm not very good at that, I guess. I practiced the reading today, the first three chapters of The Silver Spoon, and it came out to be anywhere between 45 and 50 minutes of reading, which works out perfectly. Of course, that was a practice run in my house. Alone.

I just want to do a good job. I like the first three chapters. I grew very fond of them as they were always the chapters I sent out to everyone under the sun when I was looking for an agent and a publishing company. So, I don't want to blow it. Read too fast or too monotone or choke on my own spit (you know how that happens when you're nervous and speaking?) That kind of thing always happens to me. Solos, speaking parts, anything that involves getting up in front of people. Except at work. I mean, I'm nervous then too, but I can do it because...well, because I have to. Weird, huh? I don't even really worry about it too much anymore when I speak up in meetings with 50 or more people around me, listening.

Some of that I'm sure is because at work I'm being paid to care and to do a good job. This writing is part of me, part of who I am. I could rant and rave about how it sucks that as a writer I have to get out there in front of people. I could say that writers are supposed to write, not perform. A lot of writers feel this way. But the thing is, maybe I should think about this more as an opportunity to introduce my book, my story, to people who might not have otherwise found it. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I like my story. I love it --flaws and all. It's my baby. And I'm proud to have had whatever limited role I had in bringing it out into the world, I guess. Writing to me is something bigger than an individual writer. It comes from somewhere else...at least for me. Writing and all the tasks associated with it, like readings, are a privilege, a gift.

I guess maybe I want more than just to do a good job. I guess I want to enjoy it. I want to have fun, relish the words and having someone to listen to them, if that makes sense.

Well, I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm not sure what time I'll be back tomorrow night, so I probably won't write about it here until Tuesday. But, please, think of me tomorrow! : )

Eeeeeeeeee....

Okay, I was trying to do that cool thing that where the title of the entry is the lyric of the song that's playing right at the moment. Unfortunately, my IPod selected one of my many Celtic songs and I think this one's in Gaelic. Or, barely discernible English. Either way, the only thing I'm getting out of it is "Eeeeee." Whether that's the first syllable of the word or the last or something in the middle...I have no idea.

I know that my daily diatribe has not been much with the "daily" bit this week. I was home sick on Tuesday with that weird stress stomach thing that happens to me sometimes. Every time I describe it to someone, everyone says it sounds like an ulcer. But it only acts up a couple times a year, much less since I cut out caffeinated beverages, and I've been having it since I was nine (the one and only time I ever pleaded to go to the hospital, shocking myself and my parents).

Course, that first time, I'd eaten an entire bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. One of the big bags. Oh yeah, thank goodness for the metabolism of a nine year old! So, for awhile, there was a belief that it was a food allergy, triggered by something in the chips. But I've had them lots of times since then and few problems. The only cure for this seems to be to lie in bed in the fetal position after drinking so much milk (it's basic instead of acidic and seems to do something to help) that your stomach is cold until the pain stops. The point of this was not to make you feel sorry for me (though, did it work?) but instead to say that there was a good reason why I wasn't blogging.

Funny thing that happened to me today. I'm working away, more or less, on two projects simultaneously, and sort of working on revising two others. The revising part is usually the part that's hardest on me. Because by the time I have gotten to the end of a book, I'm ready to put it aside. Even if I like it, I'm just...done with it. But unfortunately for me, that's not the way it works. At least for me. So, I have to give myself some time away from it, one, to work up enthusiasm for it again, and two, to give myself time to see the gaping holes in plot, etc. (per Stephen King's method.)

[Tangent -- I love how people are so quick to rip into Stephen King for being "a commercial writer," basically slamming him for his ability to create a good story and have people want to buy it, but the people saying this about how he's so popular for no good reason continue to spell his name "Steven." I mean, obviously, he's not popular enough if seeing his name in the front window of every book store still hasn't taught you how to spell his name correctly! *wicked grin*]

Back to my point, I've been giving myself time away from those two projects that still need to be revised, expecting not to be ready for that yet. But just today, as I was commuting and thinking about nothing in particular, someone from one of those projects showed up, though I guess he's never that far away, and I couldn't believe how much I'd missed this person. I mean, my heart ached. (Though, I think some of this is because I will always feel this way about this person, just one of those favoritism things that shouldn't probably be, but you can't help it nonetheless. I wonder if other writers experience this -- the favoritism thing, I mean.) I love it when visits like this happen. Sometimes moments like these actually show up in the finished project, and that's the best, to be able to share these moments in the fullest detail you can render them.

Yes, I am aware that it sounds like crazy central around here again. But I wanted to write about the moment because they are rare and beautiful when they happen. This is what you look forward to as a writer, and it always seems to happen when you're not expecting it. And yes, I'm deliberately being vague in identifying who came to visit. For those who are not aware, I actually have a whole myriad of people in my head. It's just that only one collection of them has been released upon the public in The Silver Spoon. (Still it wouldn't be hard to figure out who I'm talking about, particularly those of you who read my interview with GottaWriteNetwork a few months ago *grin*)

Time for me to go home and watch The O.C.! Yeah, I'd probably get a lot more revising done if I watched less television, but I can't help it...I'm addicted.

One week.../Weekend Writing

Next week at this time, I'll be about an hour and a half away from starting my reading. Eeeek! On the up side, I did go out and buy a new outfit this weekend, so that's taken care of at least. A really cool pink sweater (Yes, now that I've been told it's no longer forbidden for me to wear it, I am officially addicted to the color -- plus, I guess it's really "in" right now) and yet another pair of black pants. You can never have too many pairs of black pants. I'll go on record right now saying that.

However, I still need to actually read aloud the pages that I'll be reading next week. I've done that already once before the book was published. Reading aloud can help you hear your dialogue and find the clunky spots. But this time, I'll need to read it and revise, or at least note, any places where I stumble in reading. A sentence that's an inadvertent tongue twister or something. Here's the funny thing...I need to do this but I find myself reluctant to do it when my husband is in the house. Duh, Stacey. You're going to have to read aloud in front of a bunch of strangers who don't love you (necessarily) next week. Better learn to deal and fast.

I also worked on a query letter for my mystery this weekend. I took sort of a different approach to that. The more I'm reading about how genres are blending together, the more I think that my mystery could be a chicklit mystery instead of a cozy. The heroine is a young woman trying to get her life back on track and oh yeah, she happens to stumble across a dead body or two. The voice is first person and kind of fiesty (in my opinion). However, length is still an issue, so I may have to work on that. Go another round, create another draft. Oddly enough, this book is only on its second draft and my first readers have already read it. With The Silver Spoon, I lost count how many drafts I went through before I considered it remotely presentable. Maybe one more draft will help in this case.

And I worked on my outline for the sequel to The Silver Spoon. The part that I'm finding difficult about this is that most of my subplot, Zara discovering who and what she is, went into The Silver Spoon. It was originally supposed to be in Book Two. The subplot for Book Three was originally supposed to be more about accepting who she is and the consequences and the way it shapes her as a person. But because it was all the way out there in Book Three, I hadn't thought about this part of it as much. Now that it's in Book Two instead, I'm having to work a little harder at it than I'd like. Plus, as much as I hate to, I find myself trying to compare The Silver Spoon to Book Two. And they're just...different. Shocking revelations abound, never fear. But it's less about creating the world and more about the details of the world or explaining how we got to where we are, instead of dumping you off in the midst of chaos. Which is pretty much how the first book worked. Although, there is definitely more than a fair share of being dumped in chaos in this book too. Ah, well, we'll just have to see what the first readers think of it. But first, I have to finish the outline, so I can revise the draft accordingly. I also think any book in a series other than the first has two big jobs ahead of it. Living up to the first one (which might also explain why I'm brooding over this so much -- writers are always convinced that whatever they're working on currently sucks and their previous stuff was way better than this dreck) and further drawing out the world sketched out in the first book. I hope I've done that, though at this point, I've lost all ability to look at this thing with any hope of objectivity : ) But that is where my lovely, unpaid and very courageous first readers come in... *grin*

Photos from my last booksigning

I think these will eventually go in the photo gallery on my site, but in the meantime, I thought I'd post them here... Also, because my friend and web technical genius is now a new daddy (Congratulations, Ed and Deb!!!) and I'm not confident in my ability to update my website unsupervised.



My dad and mom are hanging out with me here...The first booksigning with my whole family (my brother, sister and husband are hiding out of view here).




Yes, I think my eyes are closed. But at least my mouth isn't hanging open. The awesome sign with my book cover (on the right side of the photo) was created by my friend, Donna. Thanks, Donna!





Me (again with the eyes almost closed, that's just how I smile), my sister and part of my husband in this picture. And that's Chris on the right, the superhelpful Borders guy who helped get everything ready for my signing. Yea! Thanks, Chris!!





One of my furry babies, Joe. No, this is not at a book signing, but it was the same weekend, so I couldn't resist. Hey...I think that's my foot in the picture.





My other furry baby, Snostorm. All hail the Snow Queen!


And finally, just because it's fun...




The birthday people. Oh yeah, I'm adopted...right. It's freaky sometimes how much my sister and I look like each other. I once glanced at a photo of her and thought it was me for a second! Course, she's thinner and younger...so it was only for a second : )

Aaaack!

My reading at the Red Lion pub is in just over a week (Chicago, November 22 at 7:30 p.m.)...and I'm worried. Worried about what, you ask?

How about:
--Tripping and falling in front of all those people on my way to the microphone.

--Being so nervous that I speedread the entire time and no one understands a word of what I'm saying and I run out of reading material less than half way through.

--Being such a boring reader that no one is interested in what I'm reading even though a building blows up in the first chapter. Do i do voices?!? Do I just read it the way I hear it in my head? With inflections and everything? Will that seem too much like I'm trying to be something I'm not, namely an actress? Thank goodness no one in my book has an accent! I just read a whole bunch of online stuff about how people hate going to readings only to find the writer that they liked wasn't too hot at reading out loud. Eeek.

And of course, my favorite...
--Being so nervous that I have to flee the stage for fearing of throwing up on myself or someone else.

The funny thing is I'm actually an attention hog. I like being in front of people, talking to them, telling stories, making presentations, etc. But reading to them is a different animal. In meetings at Corporate America where someone is reading to me from a document, I always think, "I can read this myself, thank you."

You'd think reading would be the easiest thing, right? You don't even have to think. Just read. But aaack. I'd much rather improvise off the top of my head than read something aloud. Some of this could also be fallout from a really bad Valpo experience in which I had to read aloud something I'd written. At the last minute, the instructor told me I needed to "act" more. There are very good reasons why I'm not an actress. And of course, the class was full of unfriendlies -- one in particular. Eeesh. I shudder just remembering it.

Plus there's the whole "what do I wear" dilemma. I have my bohemian, all black outfit, probably appropriate "in the city" clothing. But the sweater is, uh, snug. And that's the last thing I want to be thinking about when I'm reading. So, I'm thinking this may call for a new outfit. Too bad my brother's girlfriend isn't going to come to town in the next week. She and my husband picked out the pink outfit that I wore to several of my summer book signings. I liked it because it was trendy but comfy as well. Plus, it was pink!!! As a redhead, it was verboten for me to wear pink growing up. "It clashes with your hair!" But this was a nice soft pink that apparently did NOT clash with my hair. So, I'll probably have to do some shopping in the next week -- which I HATE doing -- especially alone. (BTW, Red-heads don't wear pink! is totally the title of my memoir -- I'm claiming it now.)

I'm also debating about what to do for the reading. I told them I would read The Silver Spoon and I will. But there's a natural break after the first three chapters, where it would be good to stop a reading. However, that may not be enough material for 40 to 60 minutes of reading. So, I'm thinking of taking Bitter Pill and reading a chapter or two of that. But Bitter Pill has not been published, which makes me feel a little squeamy about reading it. Like publishing is a seal of approval. Which, in some ways, is true. Publishing is sort of a seal of approval, a sign that someone else finds the book acceptable or entertaining. But everyone who has read Bitter Pill (Stacy G., Becky D., Deb, and Susan) seems to like it.

***Those of you who've read Bitter Pill, please write me or comment below and let me know what you think of this idea***

Stay tuned for more event induced anxiety. I'm going to need help from you guys. Particularly in the joke arena. You know, something to warm the audience up a bit? But I'll save that for another gargantuan entry : )

Thanks for sticking with me. I appreciate it.

The dangers of IPod...

Oh, yeah, I'm singing out loud or at least lip syncing and looking like a complete idiot. Oh, well. I downloaded Annie Lennox's Little Bird, Alanis Morrissette's Eight Easy Steps,The Killers' Somebody Told Me, Switchfoot's Dare you to Move, and Jem's Maybe I'm Amazed (a remake, obviously). I love this.

Sometimes I'm so impressed with song lyrics. Just how they can get across so much emotion or a provocative thought with such an economy of words. I suck at that. My friend Stacy G. and I often go back and forth because I don't know how she creates such powerful poetry (I mean usually 100 words or less for some fairly heavy ideas) and she says she can't imagine writing something of longer length, like a book (though she'd totally be good at it.)

Some of my favorite lyrics (major bonus points if you can identify all the artists who sing these lyrics! Almost all of them have been on the radio at one point or another):

--"I've been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding." (Hee. My brother and I both agree on this one. And if you think it's harsh, trying driving anywhere in the Chicago area when you have to be somewhere in a very short amount of time. The use of a turn signal to actually indicate a turn -- versus purely decorative purposes as the car travels miles and miles without actually turning -- is a foreign concept here.)

--"I'm standing in the middle of the desert, waiting for my ship to come in." (I love this one because I know that feeling.)

--"It's such a muddy line between the things you want and the things you have to do."

--"I wasn't looking for a lifetime with you. I never thought it would hurt just to hear 'I do' and 'I do.'" (I tear up every time I hear this song)

--"Come to me now, and lay your hands over me, even if it's a lie, say it will be all right, and I shall believe." (Yep, another tear jerker for me.)

--"But I fear I have nothing to give, I have so much to lose here in this lonely place, tangled up in our embrace, there's nothing I'd like better than to fall." (I love the words to almost all of her songs. I think she's an amazing writer.)

--"It doesn't matter what I want. It doesn't matter what I need. It doesn't matter if I cry. Don't matter if I bleed. " (Words for anyone who has the experienced the ending of relationship and realized that there's nothing that can be done about it.)

--"Oh, you speak to me in riddles and you speak to me in rhymes. My body aches to breathe your breath. Your words keep me alive."

--"How to sabotage your fantasies by fears of success" and "How to keep smiling when you're thinking of killing yourself."

Funny story about song lyrics -- I love to sing along to songs, even when I don't know the words, but I work hard, listening to the song over and over again, trying to get the words right. Sometimes, though, I cannot get it right, no matter how hard I try. For years, I mean years, I though the lyrics to one of Cher's songs were, "Words are like whalebones. They move you sometimes." It made sense to me. It was the one with the video where she was dancing around on a ship. And whalebones would be rather sad and moving. However, the real lyrics are, "Words are like weapons. They wound you sometimes."

Okay, so yeah, that makes more sense : )

Yes, I am a big sci-fi geek.

I've already watched the trailer for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith at least five times already. Aside from the fact that this is the part of the story that I've been waiting and waiting for (what pushes Anakin to become Vader, how do Luke and Leia get separated, how is it that Vader knows he has a son but not a daughter when said children are twins, what *gulp* exactly happens to their mother and how can Leia have memories of her [see dialogue between Luke and Leia in RotJ] when Leia had to have been hidden with Bail Organa's family on Alderaan [side note: I always want to type that as Oregano...] since birth in order for her father not to have known about her, right?), I was over the moon to see and hear Alec Guiness as Obi Wan again, explaning everything to Luke while we got to see visuals of everything he was talking about. I get chills every time I watch it. Seriously.

Plus, it's all coming together. I think I caught a glimpse of Chewbacca and if it wasn't him, other wookies. C3PO and R2-D2 look like themselves. And whew, that Anakin kid went from looking too teen angsty (We can clearly see where Luke got his whining ability--"I was going to the Tashi station to pick up some power converters"-- Hee.) to bad mojo evil-vibe looking guy. I'm impressed. I wouldn't even have recognized him had I not know the actor was the same.

What is it about Star Wars? Princess Leia is the first character I ever remember wanting to be in real life. (Though, in all honesty, there may also have been a Wonder Woman or Laura Ingalls Wilder moment in there too). I loved her snappy comebacks to everything Han Solo said ("I am not a committee!"). She was smart AND pretty, and hello? royalty. But you know, some part of me wanted to be like Luke too. Starting off on that adventure. Fighting the good fight. Coming through in the clutch to save everyone. What is it about this setting and these characters that pull at so many people? And it definitely has a lot to do with characters. Yes, the special effects are/were unbelievable for their time, but it's the characters that bring people back time and again (and again and again).

-Luke feels trapped by his current situation, obligated by familial bonds to be something/someone he's not. That's probably something we've all felt at one time or another.
-Leia is kind of a control freak. She doesn't even break down when Alderaan and her adoptive family is blown up. She holds everything together like the weight of the world, and the fate of the rebellion, rests on her shoulders. And hey, to some extent, it probably does.
-Han (probably my second crush, my first one was on Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk), a troublemaker looking for someplace to belong. He doesn't want to admit it, would rather not belong anywhere because it's easier, but it seems he can't help that impulse within him. And Princess Leia's probably not a small factor in there either : )

When you look at them this way, at least for me, it's easier to see the appeal. Everyone has been or felt like one of these characters at one time or another in their lives. Maybe more than one at at time. I think that's the key to creating a good story of any kind, on film, paper, etc. You have to have characters that people can relate to in a personal way. Something in those characters that makes people sit up and go, "Yeah, I know that feeling." Because I think one of the gifts of any good story is making people feel that they're not alone, even if they don't realize that's what's happening. Why else do characters like Bridget Jones strike such a chord? Women read that and go, "I am that girl." Or, "I was that girl." In the case of Star Wars, I think it's probably relating more to the dilemmas of each character rather than the character as a whole. People probably don't look at Luke and go, "Hey, I am that guy." But they nod their heads when they see his frustration about wanting to get out and see the universe, to do something grander than moisture farming.

I've blathered on about this long enough. Can you tell I love Star Wars yet? : ) I love Star Trek too for anyone who thinks I'm landing only on one side of that rivalry. I put the DVD of Star Trek IV on my Christmas list. "I think he had a little too much LDS." "LDS?!?" Hee!

By the way, if anyone has any theories (not actual spoilers, though) about any of my Star Wars questions listed at the top of this entry, please share them with me!

*Sigh*

Yesterday was a perfect day. It's the kind of day I always imagine when I think longingly about being able to write at home full-time. I got up sort of late (9:30) and the sun was just pouring into my writing room, making these big happy rectangles of warm carpeting. I love that. Snowy loves that too. It's just like one of those "aaaahhh" moments. Ah -- in this case indicates satisfaction, not a fall from some place high up.

I came in with my tea and graham crackers, which is breakfast these days and sat down behind the computer. I got a couple more pages on my current project, which is excellent! Then I decided to get dressed and take the dogs out to potty. I got dressed in my favorite lounge-around-the-house flannel pants and a Valpo sweatshirt that's probably seven years old and showing its age (still my absolute favorite sweatshirt though) -- I love it when I get to dress like this. It doesn't happen nearly enough. I took the dogs outside and enjoyed the relatively mild weather (as well as the newly tidied garage, my Saturday project -- No, we still can't get cars in there yet, but we're a lot closer *grin*).

I brought the dogs back in and decided to be brave. I'd had bits of dialogue, scenes and characters floating around in my head for weeks now on a particular idea. But I'd been struggling with it. A lot of it for me is being afraid. Being afraid that it will be crap. Being afraid that I can't do it. But yesterday, something moved me to try. So, I went back into my sunny, happy writing room, settled myself into my big comfy desk chair and wrote for about three more hours. And it was fun! I loved it. This is what I love about writing. Sitting down and enjoying it. Having fun with it. This is what makes everything else worth it. I'm trying to decide how to describe it. It's sort of like that second when you walk into the living room on Christmas morning and see all the gifts piled up. Or, having this great, wonderful happy secret that just fills you up inside.

I love it. And I'm so grateful every time I get to experience it.

Starting on page 15?

This new project, the one I'm sort of working on in the sly, is driving me crazy. I don't know the opening scene. I know all kinds of other things, all kinds of other stuff that happens in the story, but not the darn opening scene. It's like pushing a boulder up hill and then letting roll down the other side. I know what kicks off the action in the story, but I can't figure out what gets us to that point. I'm actually contemplating something rather radical....not starting with the first page. I want to write this thing so badly that I'm thinking about just writing what I know so far. Out of order and everything! The sad/ironic/funny part is that I've often advised people to do the just this same exact thing. But I'm finding it hard to put my own advice in practice. I've always been a "start at the beginning" kind of writer. That's the rigid, detail-obsessed part of me showing through!

The funny thing is I bet writing out of order would keep me from worrying too much about the quality of the draft. I mean, how can you obsess over making something perfect when you know that you're writing things out of order, scenes that aren't even connected to one another?

I don't know. It might be a little too radical for me. I'll have to think about it some more. Maybe try it and see if it works for me. The whole problem would be solved if *someone* would just speak up and how it all starts. But that's not happening...which means I'm probably doing something wrong. *Sigh* Oh, well, it will work itself out eventually.

Talk to you tomorrow.

A whole bunch of stuff...

The good news I was talking about last week is this...Twilight Tales, a weekly fiction series, has invited me to come and do a reading at the Red Lion Pub in Chicago. Yea!!! I'm so excited and horribly nervous. Basically, it's just me, my book and the audience for 40 to 60 minutes. Here's the information about the event. If you live in the Chicago area, please try to come. I'd love to see some friendly, non-threatening faces in the crowd.

November 22 at 7:30 p.m.

Twilight Tales

Red Lion Pub

2446 N. Lincoln Avenue

Chicago, IL

$4.00

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Another good review...

Paranormal Romance posted a review of The Silver Spoon. Sophie Murphy says, "If you like sci-fi you'll love this book. For those not into science fiction this book is still a great book to read!! I highly recommend it." Click here to read the entire review.

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Schaumburg Library has my book!

I don't know about you, but I never used to think about HOW libraries got their books. I honestly never thought about it. Turns out libraries buy their books. Which means with the limited funding, as most libraries have, it's a huge deal when they decide to invest some of those funds in a book by a new, unknown author.

So, thank you very much Schaumburg Library *grin* I couldn't be more thrilled to know that my book is in such great company! I'm totally tempted to go and visit it, just so I can see it on the shelves. That's what I used to do when I was struggling with staying motivated to write. I would go into libraries and bookstores and find the spot on the shelves where my book would go. Most of the time, if it was the sci-fi/horror/fantasy section, I ended up between Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Not bad, not bad at all, I say. : )

So, if you live in the northwest suburbs and want to check my book out, visit the Schaumburg Library on Roselle Road. Also, if anyone happens to find my book in another library, please let me know! I'll post it here and give you credit for finding it : )

One last thing...Huge thanks to my mom and sister who were in Barnes and Noble this weekend and decided to see if they could find my book on the shelf. I left one copy with the Peoria store when I signed there a couple of months ago. The copy had sold, which is excellent and when they asked one of the staff members to look it up, they found out that two more copies were on order! Woo-hoo!!! And they also visited with a woman who happened to be in the sci-fi section and told her about my book. My mom gave her a bookmark. Yea, Mom! Thanks!!! Nobody loves you (or your book) like your family : ) Best book promotion team out there.

Talk to you tomorrow!!!

Sometimes I just don't get it...

I have my freaky traditions with writing. I would say superstitions but there is usually logic behind them. For example, I can't talk about a writing project while I'm working on it. If I tell the story or even the idea of the story, the desire to write it goes away. Also, the whole thing about facing west...which turns out is not about the direction but about getting good doses of sunlight into the room where I'm writing. There are very good reasons for that too.

But I'm baffled by this one. I have a terrible time writing, full out writing, long hand or on anything other than my computer. I write on my computer, a laptop in the morning, on whatever project I'm working on. Once, before The Silver Spoon was published and I was working on yet another draft and feeling very frustrated, I started writing at night in bed on my AlphaSmart (a portable word processor). I felt like I was really sneaking too, as I'd never worked on two projects simultaneously before. [total sidenote: I thought I was being really sneaky, waiting until my husband came to bed and went to sleep before I even started typing. He never said anything about it. Until one night he woke up while I was still at it and said, "Oh, no, not the typing again!" So much for sneaky!] The weird thing was, it helped me concentrate because I wouldn't get so freaked out about one or the other. I'd worry alternately about one or the other instead of concentrating all that worry power on one project. I wrote the entire first draft of Bitter Pill at night on the AlphaSmart in like a month. No joke.

But here's the thing -- every time since that I've tried to use the AlphaSmart for writing (instead of just keeping notes), I bottom out miserably. I hate everything that I write, not that I always love it any other time, but it seems worse than usual. But I really WANT to use the AlphaSmart to write. It's light, sturdy and can go with me anywhere without all the equipment that a laptop seems to require. Plus, it's pretty inexpensive so I don't freak out every time I bang the carrying case into the wall accidentally (yes, I am a klutz) as I do when it's the laptop.

Lately, based on some advice from one of my online writing groups, I've started taking it to work with me so I can squeeze in writing time over lunch and on breaks. So, I really, really want to write with it. I mean, really write so I can use my time more efficiently. Since joining one of the online writing groups, I've found out that people who truly want to write will find time to do it. They won't make excuses about not having the right equipment or peace and quiet or even a desk. So many of them write at kids' soccer practices or waiting the doctor's office for an appointment. I want to be one of those writers. I mean, I take notes all the time. Jot down bits of dialogue here and there. But I want to be able to make progress on a project, regardless of circumstances. Otherwise, it's going to take me forever to get to the place I want to be (an author first, then whatever else I do to support myself financially). Plus, I worry that if I can't do this now with relatively minimal distractions, how will I ever do this when/if I have kids?

Maybe it's just one of those things that you can't do until you have to. Maybe my subconscious is sabotaging me because it knows that I don't *have* to squeeze in extra writing time, I just want to. Maybe NaNoWriMo would be good for curing this ill. Maybe not.

Sometimes I just do not understand myself at all : ) But I want to be clear. I'm not complaining. I love writing and I will take it anyway I can get it. And there are far worse things than not being to use a laptop word processor to be more effective. I'm just confused. And wondering if I'm doing it to myself or if I should just accept it and let it go...

Talk to you tomorrow.

What's going on?

I love my ipod. It's like being able to escape some place else...where they only play the music I like! I'm listening to it as I ponder what to write about today.

• The Silver Spoon has been out for almost two months already, hard to believe! So far, reviews have been really good and I'm unbelievably thrilled. Plus, I just got word of a promotional opportunity that I am both excited and nervous about. It's not final yet, by any means, so I don't want to share it until I know for sure. Next up...entering contests. Yep, published books are entered into a variety of contests so that they can gain, what else?, the attention of potential readers. I've got a few in mind, but I need to get organized so I can get the books in the mail.

• As readers of my newsletter, GalaxSHE, already know (and they already know the working title -- see? Incentive to sign up for the newsletter, right?), I've finished a second draft of book two. I had a first draft done before I sold The Silver Spoon. The second draft is very different, perhaps too different, so I need to work on pulling it all together. Once I've got a rough idea of how the drafts will come together (what parts stay and which parts go), I'll be able to put together an outline for book two, which RuneStone has been so patiently waiting for : )

• I have a project that I'm working on, specifically for all of you out there who come here to read this blog on a regular basis. But it's taking longer than I thought it would. Which is fine, except that means my original plan of posting it here in a month or so is definitely going to have to change. It's a longer project than I anticipated, which is sort of interesting for me. Usually, when I write, I'm always worried about it being too short!

• NaNoWriMo: I still haven't made up my mind whether I'm participating or not. But I've got an idea tumbling around in the back of my brain that I want to start on. This is the one with slightly pushy (she prefers "pleasantly determined") character I mentioned last week or so. But that would mean working on two new projects at the same time and revising book two. I've never done that much all at once. But it might be kind of fun...as some of you know, I always end up with way too much to do at once. It's difficult sometimes, but for whatever reason, that tends to be my standard mode of operation.

Okay, that's enough for now, I'd say : )

Talk to you tomorrow!

Contest!

I forgot to mention...I'm giving away an ebook copy of The Silver Spoon in a contest. If you know the answer to the following question:

"What is unique about the Observers' eye color?"

email me at sklemstein@msn.com with the answer by 10/28 and you'll be entered in a drawing to win the ebook of The Silver Spoon. An ebook, for those who might not know, is basically an electronic version of the book that can be emailed to you. It can be read on your computer, palm pilot or ebook reader.

If you need help answering the question, you can read the excerpt that's posted on my site, www.staceyklemstein.com for help (hint: the answer is actually in the excerpt, so check it out!)

Sorry for the short notice! I posted the info elsewhere but forgot to mention it here : ) Yeah, I'm having one of those weeks...

more later...

Next year...

Do you ever wonder about where you'll be this time next year? I could never have imagined at this point last year that I'd have a book out there. Kind of makes me wonder what will be going on at this time next year. All good things, I hope! Sometimes I get this huge urge to go and shake things up a bit. And that's actually kind of weird thing for me. As most people who know me will tell you, I like things to stay the same. I used to blame that on moving so much as a kid. But now, I think I would have been like that anyway. I like routine, sameness. It's comforting to me. Heck, I order the same meals at the same restaurants every time we go. But sometimes I do get this almost irresistable urge to change things up.

For example...a few months ago, a family member brought to my husband's attention that a bed and breakfast that the family member had stayed in was for sale. The B&B is in Hawaii. I LOVE Hawaii (though I protested intensely the vacation there last year -- I am so not good with change, even the really wonderful kind that I enjoyed once I let myself). Though we didn't seriously consider it at the time, I've often wondered what that would be like. To pick up and move and start a new life some place where you've always wanted to live, instead of where your job or life demands. I'm sure that running a b&b is a LOT of hard work. But can you imagine? Waking up every morning to tropical birds sqwauking. The sound of the ocean nearby. 75 degrees and sunny all year round. The worst you'd have to do is deal with cranky customers. Couldn't be any worse than some of the other people I've dealt with in the years I've been working. But can you just imagine...trading it all in, not for a perfect life, but a different life? I can see myself sitting in a cabana (spelling?), writing on my AlphaSmart...*sigh*.

But we'll never do it. At least not that way. If we move someplace far away, it will be both a planned and measured move. Which is the best way to to do it. I'd probably hate the change anyway, at least until I got used to it. Real life is never as perfect as fantasy. And moving sucks, no matter how cool the location you're going to. But still...can you imagine? The freedom of doing something just because you want to. And it's not a completely foolish idea, but not an entirely practical one either. Sometimes I think we fill our lives so full with the practical and pragmatic, we slowly edge the fun out of our lives. It's all about being responsible adults. Shoot, I'd rather be a B&B owner in Hawaii, I think. : )

Talk to you tomorrow!

I'm a big giant hypocrite...maybe

Okay, I have to be fair and tell the truth. I'm encouraging everyone to participate in NaNoWriMo (see yesterday's blog). But I'm still trying to make up my mind whether it's something I'm going to do. I'll still write during November, definitely, but whether I'll actually sign up for NaNoWriMo is what I'm wrestling with. See, I'm not sure that I'm one of those people who functions well under pressure. I get writing done, usually, because I've forced myself to sit down every day and do it. Sometimes I get a page, sometimes I get a paragraph, sometimes on a really good Saturday or Sunday I get more like seven pages, yea!!! But part of the reason I can do that is I tell myself that there are no expectations for sitting down in that chair, although I have a goal of at least (!) one page a day on weekdays before work. So, I'm worried that if I put the expectation of 1,500 or so words a day on my shoulders, I'll work myself into a tizzy stressing over it. On other hand, I think I sometimes lose a lot of time because I allow myself to digress or worry about what's already been written instead of moving forward and making progress, which is what NaNoWriMo is all about.

Plus, and I know this sounds stupid, if I get all freaked out and frustrated because I can't meet the deadline (I am so a Type A, if there's a deadline, I MUST meet it. Except when it comes to being anywhere on time. That I can never do as many of you will testify), I won't be able to enjoy writing. Enjoying it, even when it's hard work, is essential for me. I'm thinking of all those college papers that I had to write on deadline and hated them intensely while I was writing them.

So, while I still think NaNoWriMo is an excellent event, especially for those who need a kick in the pants *grin* to start writing or keep writing, I'm not sure I'm going to do it. I'm still thinking about it...

Okay, whew, now that I've got that off my chest...complete and bizarre conversation change. How about that show Lost? Best hour on television in my opinion. Fabulous character development, intriguing backstory. It's one of the few shows where I'm actively wishing for more at the end. I wish they'd put television shows out like they do DVDs, all the episodes at once, so you can watch them all when you have time or want to. This week to week thing is killing me.

Also, Veronica Mars? Close second to Lost for best new show. If you haven't seen it, you are truly missing out. Again, excellent character development. I heard that Veronica was originally developed as a character for a novel, which helps explain some of her depth. If that's the case, then all tv characters should be book characters first!!!

Okay, I'm done now. : )

Talk to you tomorrow!

NaNoWriMo...and no, that's not gibberish.

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I kid you not, it is an actual celebrated thing. And it's a cool thing on top of it. Basically, the idea behind NaNoWriMo is that a lot of people have the dream of writing a book. But the problem is life interferes. Everyone has jobs, family commitments, school, soccer games, dinners to cook, laundry to wash, etc. (Just as a quick aside -- even once you've written a book, that stuff still pops up. I think before I got published I thought if I could just get my book out there then somehow all this other stuff would fall into place and make writing the next one so much easier. It doesn't. And a good thing too. As Stephen King points out, art should revolve around life, not the other way around. Or he says something like that. I'm wildly paraphrasing again. Basically that writing should be a reflection of life, so life has to come first. And he's right.)

So, the good folks at NaNoWriMo have come up with a solution. You want to write a book? Give yourself thirty days. Starting November 1 at midnight, join thousands of other writers in writing their novels. The goal? 50,000 words by November 30 at midnight.

Frankly, what stops most writers is fear. Fear that it won't be good enough, fear that it's a waste of time or energy because you won't be able to accomplish the goal of an entire book. NaNoWriMo doesn't allow time for fear. You have a deadline to meet!

No assertions of quality are made. You don't have to write a great book in 30 days, just a book. Actually, more likely a draft. I believe that this program ascribes to Anne Lamott's theory of "Write a shitty first draft." Which basically means, don't let fear stop you. Put it all down on the page, revel in the crappiness of it. Because it's only once you've got it all down there that you can see what you have and what's worth keeping and what's not. (Read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. I love it. It is quite simply the most helpful book on writing that I have ever read.)

And once you have 50,000 words on the page, are you going to put it aside? Heck no, that's a lot of effort. And 50,000 is technically long enough to be a novel and if you find you still have more story to tell when you reach that point, all the better. Participants can register at NaNoWriMo and if they reach their goal, they will be put in some kind of Hall of Fame, I believe. But here's my thought -- even if you don't quite reach 50,000, it's still probably more progress on your novel in a month that you normally would have made, right?

Blogger is adding a new twist this year by encouraging participants to set up novel blogs, where they can post progress on their novels. There's an article about it here. If you can't read it (I'm not sure if it's for registered blog owners only or not), let me know. You don't have to use Blogger to participate in NaNoWriMo. I couldn't because I'm uncomfortable with sharing my writing before it reaches a certain stage. I like being able to wallow in the mess of it until I can figure out what's going on. But with NaNoWriMo, you don't have to show your writing to anyone. Progress is updated on the honor system. And if you reach the goal of 50,000, they have some kind of method to check without reading your stuff.

I think NaNoWriMo is a great program. Sometimes all you need is a reason to start and keep going. Anybody out there who's thinking about or has thought about writing a book, consider NaNoWriMo. It's just one month out of your life to achieve a huge, wonderful goal. Think about it : ) By the way, you are allowed to create notes and outlines ahead of time, just no actual writing on the book until November 1 at midnight, for those who were wondering...

Talk to you tomorrow!