Ellie’s Elephants

A nice start to the New Year

And what to my grateful eyes did I find in my inbox on New Year’s Day? A note from a publisher who is planning another anthology and offered the previous authors a crack at the new one. That is definitely a much better start to a year than a rejection. By that token, I’ve held off on sending rejections (sorry if you get one!) to several submitters. I really do try to treat submitters to r.kv.r.y. Quarterly Literary Journal the way I’d like to be treated and I know I didn’t want to get a rejection on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.

So, I’m concussed. How are you? Seriously, it was such a stupid thing. I took mail out and on the way back, I fell on the icy driveway and smacked my head. And do you know what you can do to help a concussion? Nothing but watch for signs. Modern medicine is come so far…Yes, I’m grateful that it wasn’t worse, like a broken leg or arm or wrist.

I don’t make resolutions since the year many, many years ago to not make resolutions. That one I knew I could keep, and I have. Even when I quit smoking, I quit on 1/7, not the first. However, I’ve been toying with the idea of going a year without drinking. Since New Year’s Eve is a big drinking night, and I shouldn’t be drinking with a brain injury anyway, I decided that I’d start on the first so I’d remember when I began. There are a few caveats. I’m allowed to drink on my birthday, if I sell a book, Husband’s birthday, Thanksgiving and one freebie, but only one. So, this will be my year of not drinking.

Otherwise, nothing has changed much. I’m working on new pieces and enjoying going through the latest book twenty pages at a time with Mary Akers and Gina. I’m so glad to have been asked to joining that novel critiquing group! After the 14^th, I’ll be touching up the query letter, getting ready to send Ellie’s Elephant’s to another group of agents I’ve researched. I’m preparing applications for Breadloaf and NYFA. Same old, same old, but good.

(*These are my creek side reflections. Your experiences may vary.)

Happiness is a Warm Pen

Or laptop. So, hello. I just reached 12125 words in NaNoWriMo this morning. Last night I was working on a synopsis for the novel I wrote during NaNo 2010. I’ve since rewritten it and polished it and it’s been seen by so many first readers–all of whom I appreciate for their help: Chyo, Natalie Condor, Betty Brown, Teresa Tucker, Shirley Reeves, Jim Wood, and Dr. Scott Greene. Each one of you has helped me get the manuscript to here–where an Agent has requested to see thefifty pages. I’m so excited! THANK YOU ALL!!!

And if my mind has forgotten a reader, please let me know so I can add you. All I’ve been doing is reading and writing lately, so it’s possible I’ve forgotten someone. I was asked to join a novel critique group and as I’m joining later in the process, I had eighty pages of their work to read before they sent the new 20 pages for critiquing. Yeah, that’s quite a few words to cover in addition to the stories that have been submitted to r.kv.r.y.

Never before has “writing is my life” been more true. I’m off to post this then talk to Chyo about tweaking the synopsis to Ellie’s Elephants. Then I’ll reread the first fifty pages, print it out and tonight, my Aunt is in Hawaii for a Sweet Adeline’s competition that’s being broadcast at 11:55 p.m. Tomorrow night is Jeff Schober’s book launch at Danny’s South for Boneshaker and Saturday is my normal shift at the West Falls-Colden Community Library.

I am immersed in literature and I love it.

(These are just my Creekside reflections. Your experiences may vary.)

One Trip Leads to Another

This week I feel as though things are returning to what passes for normal. Our regular postal carrier is back, I volunteered at the library on Saturday, a few rejections have rolled in, I read the NY Times on Sunday, etc. but now it’s time to make a list and pack a few bags.

Soon after I arrived in Boston, my brother-in-law suffered a heart attack. It was scary and surreal. I thought my niece and I would be changing plans and leaving for Pennsylvania, but we didn’t. The blockage was removed. A stent was put in. He made it to a medical facility in time…

Rachael drove home this past weekend. Husband and I are going this weekend. We’re going to visit and make sure he’s ok.

I talked to him last week. He called his heart attack a “wake-up call.” I wonder how far he’ll take it. He’s quitting smoking (again) and choosing better foods. I think it’s a great start, but he confessed he had a beer already. I thought it was a bit too soon.

Currently, I’m on the “preachy” side of sobriety where I am well aware of what drinking does–and doesn’t do–for me. I stop drinking every year for Lent. Somehow, it is easy. Then I restart. Searching in old notebooks for notes on Ellie’s Elephants, I came across a thought last year that maybe last year would be the year I just stop drinking for good. I’ve had the same thought this year, too, but I sense the reason I do restart is that it makes life easier.

This realization is a complaint of sorts, but I don’t think I’ve made it before. Being away from home during Lent let me see things in a different way. Yes, Husband is not a neat person. I don’t think it would kill him to help a little more. Nothing drastic–just not rip open the shower curtain so the hooks come off the rod OR hooking them back on when he’s done. Little tiny things. I know I ask him to do these things and occasionally he’ll remember to, then he forgets. I think I go back to drinking so these things bother me but I can block them out, get up the next day, notice more minor irritations, block them out or sleep them off and begin again.

Sad, isn’t it?

Right now, I think it is sad, but, will I turn that realization into a “wake-up call” for my life? I don’t know…

What I do know is that I’ve gotten a milder wake-up call–a nudge really–from a few places about my own poetry. I received a few higher tiers and a personal rejection in the past two weeks. A writer friend wrote “…however, you are a poet; prolific it seems to me, but you don’t let the poet come out very much in your workaday writing…” I had decided to be mad at him for that, but a story I read for r.kv.r.y had me look at something in a way I hadn’t considered before, so maybe being a “poet” is what I’m trying to recover from, or block out or choose not to deal with because poets rarely get respect, let alone paid, and then a poetry submission to r.kv.r.y. from someone I briefly met in Boston came in and showed me beauty and passion with a few words so perhaps–this is just my sobriety speaking–perhaps being a poet wouldn’t be the most tragic thing in the world ever to happen to me if I decided to pursue it. Maybe.

* These are just my creekside reflections. Your epiphanies may vary.

Doing so much I forgot what I was supposed to do

I surprised myself yesterday when I looked at the calendar and noticed I was supposed to have blogged and hadn’t. Oh well. I have put in 5 contest entries this week. There are 5 more I want to enter this month—well one is the NEA Fellowship. I am also looking over reader notes on both “Ellie’s Elephants” and “Campus Crimes.” No time consuming confusion there.

I also “found” an angle for a baseball story. I had the story months ago, I just didn’t have the frame for it. At the library last Saturday, I sat at the return counter and it wrote itself, so I hope to finish up a first draft soon.

I’m reading Gone Girl and The Art of Fielding and several stories for r.kv.r.y

And I made a loaf of bread.

What a week.

(*These are just my Creekside Reflections. Your experience may vary.)

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Many thanks to the incredible Mary Akers for tagging me in this latest writer’s meme.

I am privileged to have attended one of her workshops and now serve as a reader and editor at r.kv.r.y Quarterly Literary Journal. I’m looking forward to reading her forthcoming book Bones of an Inland Sea. In the meantime, Women up on Blocks is available from Press 53.

Now for the questions:

What is your working title of your book?

Ellie’s Elephants

Where did the idea come from for the book?

A few years ago in Buffalo, there were reports of employees at a collection agency that were illegally threatening and harassing people. I wondered what it would be like if a tax collector did that and came across someone who had a deep secret to protect.

What genre does your book fall under?

I think of it as literary fiction but it could appeal to a broader audience.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Interesting question! Casting directors must go insane trying to match up the ages, talents and work schedules for the actors they want. While it’s not a comedy, Lisa Kudrow for Ellie. Her work on “Who Do You Think You Are” is fantastic. For Selin: Colin Firth. If it was cast older, Jodie Foster and Jeff Goldblum. Brad Pitt for Kyle. Reese Witherspoon for Billie. Oh, and please, please, please–Pierce Brosnan for Lionel.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A woman who tries to escape her fame as a poet nearly succeeds until an underhanded tax collector enters her life and then all bets are off as to how far love, fidelity, and loyalty will take a family to protect one of their own.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Ideally, an agency, but I have been looking into different ways of self-publishing.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Happily, I can say that the first draft was a product of NaNoWriMo. 50,000 words in 30 days. The intensity was thrilling.I’m still editing and tweaking it though, usually while sitting here:

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

During my first attempt at NaNoWriMo, I had this image pop into my head: Kyle was wearing boxer shorts, cowboy boots and nothing else. Ellie and Billie were engaged in an intense conversation. A dog came out of nowhere and then a shotgun went off. I needed to know what happened to these people, but having read the pitfalls of NaNo, I knew I couldn’t abandon the work I had already started. That year, I finished a first draft of “Dandelion Dreams.” I thought about those other characters and they grew, changed, and evolved until the next November rolled around and then I felt ready to write the book.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

While the main character is a poet, there is only one poem in the book and it’s by Tanith Lee.

I hereby tag Madeline Claire Franklin.

Preparing for Winter Normalcy

Before I start, I have to say I had an odd thing occur. I heard someone talking about the movie “Gattaca” and I wanted to see it. Though I don’t recall buying it, I own it on DVD, so I am watching it now. Uma’s eyes are awesome, btw.

I’m looking around, thinking “We start a lot of projects at this house.” This year, we came close to finishing a few of them.

The garden shed has a roof and most of the shelves are in place. I’ve been gathering things from the many places the “garden” stuff has been stashed over the years. Now I can be all anal-retentive and put all of the pots and planters in proper order.

The household plants came in last night. A few still need to be taken upstairs, but they are in. The stereo was broken down and resituated. The next steps are the furniture rearrangement, wood stacking, the screens replaced with storm windows and the last of the tomatoes canned. Ah, winter prep…Nothing else like it.

And in case you haven’t heard my awesome news by now, I’ll say it again: Rosebud Magazine, one of the most awesome magazines ever, accepted one of the stories I wrote this summer. “Bess No More” is slated to appear in Issue 54. I am so pleased!

My real-life writer’s group started up again. Shirley Reeves gave me a detailed, wonderful critique of “Ellie’s Elephants.” She made great points and I’m nearly ready to jump back into rewriting. I really had hoped it was “done,” but now with the new flaws exposed, I’m ready to polish it even harder. I love that baby. I want it picked up by a reader and loved just as much… I also want to start a new novel, so I’ll be busy (as if that is something new) for a while.

Remind me sometime to tell you about why you shouldn’t have long, late night chats with a poet–specifically Sundin Richards–unless you can commit to three days of recovery. It was an awesome time though, from what I remember…

May your next two weeks be as awesome as my past two have been!

*These are just my creekside reflections. Your experiences may vary.

Killer Tomatoes, because that’s what I grow.

My trip to Chicago was the best one so far. I spent time with friends and this time I went to the top of the Sears (Willis) Tower and even stepped out into the glass over-hang and had my picture taken. I don’t know what it is about that city–I’m generally scared to death of heights–but while I was there, I was fearless.

Back at home, I was pleased to find that my tomatoes had not all turned red at once. I was even home to pick this killer.

Over three pounds! People who have seen the plants and the harvest so far have asked what I did. I don’t know what to say because I planted my seeds later than normal and I didn’t think I’d have a good crop this year. The peppers I grew from the seeds from the peppers I got from Natalie last year were the ones that survived the slug attack. They are producing like crazy and have the most wonderful heat. I didn’t plant spaghetti squash this year, but the volunteers produced some great specimens that have found homes.

As to my other babies… I wrote–or at least started–30 pieces this summer. (Good Lord I love free-writing!) I’ve been working back through them and have 7 polished and ready to go out during this new season. When I saw that Tin House was looking for submissions with the theme of “this means war,” I smiled. I had one of those.

Queries for “Ellie’s Elephants” are going out to agents again. Having a few more credits and a little more experience is helping, I think. I just re-read the latest query letter and it sounds both more excited and more relaxed–if that makes sense. After so many re-writes and tweakings, I feel like I “know” this book better than I should, and now it’s a matter of finding someone to babysit.

Besides, I think I found my new love. I don’t know what to call it yet, but I’ll be chomping at the bit, waiting to write it. Let’s go NaNo!

Until next time!

*These are just my creekside reflections. Your experiences may vary.

Contests and Acceptances

Right off, I need to mention this: WD 10th Free “Dear Lucky Agent” Contest.

I found this contest on Twitter. Part of the requirement is that a contestant mention this contest on two social networks or in a blog. It’s such an awesome contest, that I’m mentioning it three times. Plus, I think Ellie’s Elephants is such an awesome upmarket novel book that it has a shot of winning. Fingers and knees crossed.

Last night, the sky turned such a strange yellow before and during a thunderstorm that Husband thought it might be a harbinger of a tornado. As far as we know, no tornado occurred. Usually, I’d rely on the local NPR station to tell me, but they are in the middle of a failing pledge drive. Apologies to Mr. Tuttle and Mark Scott, but this recent merge blows. I can no longer support something that I don’t bother to listen to anymore. No blues=no pledge.

On my calendar, I have a notation that the results of something were to be announced on 1 May. I can not figure out what though, so I’ll take it as a “I didn’t win.” I did get an acceptance though after quite a dry spell. I got a holiday! Every Day Fiction is publishing “Pinging” on 28 May 2012–Memorial Day. When I found out, I went to Zoetrope to thank Mary Akers and Kim Chiquee. It was at their workshop where I wrote the piece.

The first game of croquet was played. Husband is sadistic with a course–as bad as, if not worse than Niece’s courses. I mean, going across a ditch to the pole? That’s just sadistic. It was a great, fun weekend though.

I’ve got more submissions to prep and I “ought” to put in some more time on the pilates mat, so I’ll bid you adieu. Have a great two weeks!

*These are just my Creekside Reflections. Your experiences may vary.

Name Dropping & Linking All Over the Place

After posting last time, I went shopping. Upon my return, I found an email from one of the women in my RL writer’s group. There was a writer’s conference in Westfield on Sunday and if I was willing to drive, she’d pay my conference fee. On Saturday, Husband took me to Eden so I’d know my way to her house. We stopped in and had a lovely visit. Then on Sunday, she and I went to the gorgeous Patterson Library.

It was the first time they had done a conference there and kudos to Peter Hamilton for putting it together. Mary Jo and I went to the same sessions. The first was done by James Goertel who tackled the Writer’s Craft . He’d just gotten back from AWP (I was so jealous! He could have heard Roxane Gay give a reading while he was there. I would have!) and even though James was tired, he was a motivated instructor.

We broke to listen to LouAnne Johnson, author of My Posse Don’t Do Homework which turned into the movie Dangerous Minds. She read from Muchacho. It was very entertaining. She sat at the same table as we did for the lunch which was held at the church across the street.

After lunch was Marketing Your Work by Linda Lavid. I thought it was informative and I found out a few things I hadn’t known. Some things I was doing already and it turns out they were the ‘right’ things to do which was gratifying to hear.

Then, the people who signed up drew numbers to choose the order to read their work. I went second and read “Wildflower Wishes.” Mary Jo went fourth and read from her book, “Under Cover.” While the conference had been scheduled to go until after six, we got out of there around 4 p.m. It was a great day all around.

Facebook revealed a chance for women’s essays to be included in an edition of Brevity titled Ceiling or Sky: Female Nonfictions after the VIDA Count and in response to the recently revealed VIDA and its nearly identical pie graph which shows 75% of most magazine’s contributors are male. I sent in “Finding Peers.” An editor of the new cool zine to read, Jumping Blue Gods asked for my submission. (Much appreciation to Jennifer Bridges!)

Robert Tucker at Chrysalis Reader sent the edits he made to “Delaware and the Rip-Off King.” We disagreed on a single line and he agreed to use the one I offered, so that is now wrapped up.

This past Saturday, I happened to see in Gusto that there was a reading being done at the West Falls library. I went and listened to Jeff Schober. Oddly, as he was signing my book, he mentioned the Arcade & Attica Railroad Mystery Train. Turns out, he was writing the script for this year’s production and he had been an actor in the last one with Betty. Tiny little world, isn’t it?

Then, later on this past Saturday, there was the most awesome news: The return of NPR’s Three Minute Fiction! Round Eight was announced. In case you missed it, hit the link above. I heard about it on FB before the show started and didn’t take long to come up with a story and write it. Seriously, maybe an hour tops to write–though I think it was closer to twenty minutes. I’d thought of an ending line, then two characters arrived, and as I wrote toward the end line, the story took me to a different place.

I trimmed it until I could read it in under 3 minutes, then read it to Husband, who–get this–thought it was nice. I sent it in. Usually, I end up with regret when I send things in so soon after they’re written, but the next morning, I still thought it was a good story.

On Monday, I sent it to Chyo, and except for one word choice, she thought it was fantastic. I wound up in a brief email exchange with Long Distance Friend and sent it to him. He not only liked it, but wanted to share it with his Secret Girlfriend. Now, I wait on Guy Roz and the judges at 3MF to decide if they like it, too.

In a teensy tiny way, I’m a bit on edge over the idea of finally having one of my stories chosen by 3MF. I mean I am the self-proclaimed Susan Lucci of this contest. Can I give up that continuing sting of disappointment? Well, it’s out of my hands now. And if it isn’t chosen as the winner, I hope it isn’t chosen as an also ran. I have three magazines I want to submit the story to. Sigh. We’ll see how it goes. In the other rounds, I’d written to win. This story I wrote because it was something I wanted to read.

Speaking of which.. One of the things Chyo said was that the story I wrote was a piece which would cause her to look up other work by the same author. She then told me of series of books she’s bought because of short stories she’d come across in an anthology. So, while I’m waiting on yet another person’s thoughts on Ellie’s Elephants, I’ve opened up the third book of the Dreaming Lettie series, and I think I’m falling in love all over again… How could I forget about the Dreads!

Until next time!

*These are just my creekside reflections. Your experiences may vary.

Short, Sweet and Hopeful

Welcome! I hope this first day of March finds you well. I’m fresh off two writing competition losses, but letting the disappointment fizzle out by plunging back in to Ellie’s Elephants. A friend of mine is going over the last draft and providing detailed notes and a woman I met at the Writer’s Workshop is also offering her insight. Both are picking up on little quirks that need to be altered before I try another go at representation.

None of the notes are huge which I’m taking as a good sign. On top of that, at the end of Chapter Four, I found the following aside from the detailed note provider, “It’s good–I like the way it builds all the way through. I love the humor. Best Seller! I want 1 2/3 %.” Such a comedian…

As to submitting, I’ve been slacking there, though I did get two sent out on Monday.

The boards on Zoetrope were down to less than 50. I freaked and threw Foxes on the Lake on the read page. I’ve gotten two reviews so far. Once again, I got assigned to a newbie. At least this one sounded like he read the story, but the last one taught me an unfortunate lesson: Until they are on there a while, do not speak to them. The last one’s cockiness dripped off the screen and tainted my Zoetrope experience. On the other hand, I was thrilled to find a review from Cezarija Abartis. I was not expecting her to review me, but she offered great advice and I’m so grateful for that. If you want a short story collection that will transport you, I do suggest hers. Nice Girls and Other Stories was fantastic.

Other than that, there’s been a whole lot of not drinking going on here, much reading, several dreams about seedlings and the garden and the occasional nightmare over errant commas. A calm before a storm? Now that I think about it, it has been unusually quiet around here for the last two weeks…

* These are just my reflections. Your experience may vary.