writing

Big Projects, Little Pretty Flowers

I usually don’t talk about works in progress, especially the big ones. The genesis of the latest is what perplexes me and drives me forward. I’d been on the fence about joining Camp NaNo when I got a snotty letter from another writer who was pissed that I didn’t answer his questions about my “process” in the manner he was accustomed to being answered or something. I don’t know. In the midst of his bitch, he gave me an insight which I pondered. He said: To my eye, some of your best writing has been in your letters, talking about your past and your personal life. Discuss.

He went on to suggest that I write a book in the first person with the main character having adventures similar to the ones I’ve described to him. Thing is, I’m doing that and it’s taking me to some fearsome places.*Sigh* Christ. I’d rather kiss people with purple splotches and stop writing, but this story is intriguing the hell out of me. I know–I think–how it will end, but the ride is so fun so far I don‘t want it to end. I’m not used to that. When I’ve written novels before, I knew the end and wanted to get there already, but this time, not so much…

I missed taking photos of the first flowers, but I took these to prove I leave the house and think of things other than writing:

Warm, but cool, contemplative, intense but not over powering was what I wanted for the color of the living room wall. I’ve searched, swatched, sampled and waited. I think I found “the” color. Here are a few shots of the bookshelf being denuded of books, my minions, the hell of the hell I’m going to be going through while the books are packed up and windows are changed out and the painters arrive and, well, isn’t that what life is all about? Constant change. I’m nervous about this. What if it’s the wrong color? I’ll be stuck with it for years! So I may not like it. I’ll just keep going on, like I do with submitting. I lose contests and get rejected, but still, I go on. So far

I don’t have pictures of them, but I have a new “amuse me” shoes. With a carpenter for a husband, it’s not safe to walk around in this house without shoes. Therefore I now have these special sneakers that I can match my outfit to by trading out the side colors. I’ve never felt more nerdy/pathetic/coordinated/smart in my life. See you next month when I’m hoping the mayhem in the living room has settled down.

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

Writing so much, I’ll have to catch up on people later…

National Novel Writing Month is over. I wrote 50,000 words, but I certainly don’t have a book. It’s such a mess, and a few short stories ended up in there because they refused to not be written when I sat down to write. I also lost five pounds and can see a difference.

I’ve dabbled with pilates for years now, but for NaNo, I committed to an hour of pilates before I wrote each day. I missed a few days, but otherwise, it felt great. After concentrating on my movements and breath for an hour, the writing fell into place easier than it has in a long time. I blame the messiness of this latest NaNo book on not committing to a single story, as I have in the past. I had two stories that were started but needed more space than 5,000 words, so I thought I’d stretch them both out and add a third to form a “book” of three novellas.

Wrong.

Stupidly, I began to believe that the two stories I had and the new one I came up with could be woven together into a book of three stories entwined. That’s where things went wrong. I started bringing things in to “join” them that other details no longer made sense, and, well, I did mention it was a mess, didn’t I?

Off of NaNo sent me into submission madness. Between 30 November and 3 December, I sent out 22 things–only two of which are simultaneous subs–the rest are individual stories that still haven’t found homes.

The discipline of NaNo is something I adore. I know I tend to let things slide afterwards, but this week, I’ve put in 1000 words each day on each of the “First Lines” for 2013. I wrapped it up today and will let it sit for a week. The tragedy in Kansas City gave me the end for a story I started in June but abandoned because while I had pushed myself, I needed distance to see where it ended, Sadly, now I know.

I also feel like a moronic idiot because I probably blew every chance I had with the agent that contacted me. Instead of saying, hey thanks, but I was about to do another rewrite with a new first chapter, do you mind waiting a bit, I didn’t. I sent the query letter I had and the first ten pages and *sigh* she hasn’t gotten back to me…Ah well. I knew better than to get my hopes up so I didn’t. Well, a little, I did, but NaNo helped block out a lot of thoughts and feeling I could have dwelled upon.

What I did get was a note from the woman running the Buffalo News Short Story contest saying they would select the winner and notify them during the week of 10 December. I only mention this because I’ve entered before and never heard anything from them at all. At least this time I know they received my entry.

So, thanks for checking in. I have more writing to do, including the holiday letter which I’m finding it difficult to write because there is no snow. I live on the other side of the hill where there is a ski lodge. It’s near Buffalo. It’s December. It’s just not right.

[Ha! I just opened last blog entry file to copy the tagline and found the essay I started. Funny! Even more writing to complete!]

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

NaNo is Not to Blame. NaNo is Awesome. NaNo is the Answer to November

Apologies to Alex, and anyone else stopping by here. (Mega Thank yous, by the way, for checking in…) My non-problem is thus: I had an awesome day and writing about it is turning into a viable essay. Without trying, I’m already 771 words in… Did I mention that you look pretty today? Oh, you’re so handsome, too.

My post was going to be late and now it is something else entirely.

Forgiveness on your part would be nice.

In the meantime, google cute cat videos and it should all be good eventually.

(*These are just my future Creekside Reflections. Your experience may have varied by then.)

Counting Down to NaNoWriMo

This week has been filled with social functions: There was writer’s group on Tuesday and I volunteered at the library on Wednesday. Later today I’ll be donating blood because apparently that’s something I do now, and I’ll be back at the library on Saturday for another shift. It seems I either have a million things to do or nothing. *Sigh.*

As a rule, I hate talking about writing projects I haven’t completed a rough draft of yet, but this year I’m thinking of doing things a bit differently for NaNo. I have two stories I’ve been kicking around for a while now. Each began with the idea that they were going to be short stories but they quickly outgrew that form, and since I was certain they didn’t have enough steam to be novels, I gave up both of them for other writing projects. What I’m thinking is to concentrate on these two stories and turn them into novellas. That’s my theory of what I’ll be doing for NaNo, but it’s early yet. I may change my mind.

I had been thinking about a different project, one where “Bess No More,” the story scheduled to appear in Rosebud Issue 54 (still loving the sound of that!) would serve as the first chapter in the novel–and I have a vague story arch I want to explore–but I don’t think I’ve sat with that book long enough to write it, so that’s where the novella idea stepped in to be considered.

And as a cool aside, my daughter-in-law asked me to review her research paper, which is kind of neat–though I quickly remembered why I didn’t like college: Writing research papers. Also, why I didn’t want to become a prof: Reading and grading research papers. Luckily, I didn’t get near the toxic part: Publishing research papers or perishing. *Sigh.* DIL did a good job on her paper; it just needs a few tweaks which I’m happy to provide.

Otherwise, it’s a matter of wrapping up as much as I can and simplifying where it’s possible before the first of November. Putting in 1667 words a day consistently is stressful enough. I don’t need a stack of papers to file staring me in the face while I’m working.

Ah well… Let the writing challenge begin!

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

October. Decoration Time

I love October!

This is the view from the middle of my labyrinth, looking up and to the South. The colors are even better than this picture.

We haven’t had much rain here, so a few weeks ago, when we did, I found a fairy ring in my yard. The long shots don’t really do the ring justice, so imagine a ¾ circle of these:

Too cute!

The Sweet Gum is starting to turn all sorts of colors:

And my marigolds–planted from seed–are still blooming:

Sunday morning, I got out the sailor’s skull that moans and vibrates creepily when the motion sensor is triggered. Husband knew it was out. I even told him where I was going to place it. He reported that he set down his coffee cup gently and it went off, catching him off guard. Too funny.

Yesterday, the flying bat went up. I have more things to hang, but I’m busy writing—NaNo prep!

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

Rigid, yet willing to bend

Hi. I’m tightly bound and anal retentive. How do you do? I’ve kept this blog up and running for a while now. I’ve thought about changing the frequency because sometimes awfully wonderful things happen in my life that I want to write about just as much as the sad things that tend to get the ink.

Ready? Here it is: SHEMEKIA COPELAND ROCKED. Not only was she the most talented vocalist surrounded by incredible musicians, she was kind, too. OMG. Husband and I went to see her at the Armor Inn Tap Room for our twelfth anniversary (seriously–has it been that long? I thought I just met this man.) We were joined by Paul, Kim, Charlie and Rick.

I wrote a thank you note and handed it to Shemekia before her set. I thought she’d toss it. She didn’t. She gave good tidings to me and Husband from the stage. It was awesome. And she was so generous to her fans with the pictures she posed for and the autographs she signed…I could go on (hence the frequency debate.)

I digress… During that excursion, the back of my legs hurt because the day before I held a war on the slugs in my garden. I killed at least two hundred. Retaliation, since I had 16 pepper plants and by the time of the slug war’s end, I was down to 5.

The slug war, I could have blogged about that once I scrubbed the yellow goo off my fingers.

Tuesday was the last meeting of the the Ugly Babies Writer’s Group until September. It’s the third year I’ve conducted it and I am wavering on whether it should continue or not. I probably feel this ambivalence every year. My group is great and the owners, waitresses, prep crew, bakers and the line cooks at Julie’s Pizzeria are so wonderful. I’d miss sitting in the “fish bowl” of the private room once a month. I just wish there was more writing to discuss.

Marko is looking to take a break from doing the Celebration Thread in the short story studio at Zoetrope. I told him I’d consider doing it. My son, his wife and my grandson are coming to visit. They are on the road now. I’m not making any plans until after they leave. I told Marko if I do it, I couldn’t start until 1 July and that worked out perfectly for him. I’m hoping someone else volunteers. It’s rough to be a cheerleader when you only have rejections to report, BUT when I was leading the thread before, I put out a lot more submissions, so there is that to consider.

*Sigh*

Well, off to do the last minute things before they arrive. Until next time!

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

Spent

Alright, I’ll fess up. I didn’t make the NaNo goal this year. I could beat myself up, but I won’t. Part of it was that NaNo changed its notifications and some other bits that worked in the past didn’t work the same way this year. Plus, the two best ever ML’s dropped out and let the Buffalo group be led by N. Seriously, that’s her name. N and I never clicked. Sarah & Madeline were such great ML’s, so ‘spoiled me’ didn’t want to go to the write-ins and midway parties and the kickoffs because they weren’t going to be there. I had myself somewhat convinced to go to Perry to the write-in at Burlingham Books on the 20th, but that didn’t pan out.

On top of that, I went to my first workshop. It was on 5 November and the presenters were Mary Akersand Kim Chinquee. I had the best time! I learned so much! It was SO awesome. I’m beyond grateful to Husband for taking me to The Hodge Podge in North Tonawanda–what a brilliant choice for the workshop location. It was beautiful and inspiring. I’m so grateful I had the chance to attend.

So now you’re thinking I must have been slacking since I wasn’t creating new work? Oh contraire!

I worked my ass off this month. While still piling words into the latest NaNo novel (and had I gotten a fat letter from NEA instead of the thin one, I so would have changed gears since ‘Finding Forest’ was the project I wanted the NEA grant I applied for to fund.) I got my entry form for the Minotaur Books/ First Crime Novel Competition and dug into revising ‘Campus Crimes.’

Did I say revise? Oh, I hacked away. I took that beauty from 101,842 words down to 81,843. As Marko Fong commented, I was doing a reverse NaNo.

It wore me out. Strung me out. Made me hate the person I was when I wrote ‘Campus Crimes’ since I didn’t know squat then. (Not that I know anything now, mind you…)

Anyway, I slashed away, printed it out and sent it to a reader who had it delivered to him on Tuesday. Now, it’s in his hands. Could I have done better? Yes. The point is that I made the revision a priority and reached a deadline.

Goals and deadlines can be interchangeable, but sometimes it takes a person literally sitting themselves down to figure out which actions are most important. That’s what I had to do. That’s what I did. I think I made the right choice.

Neglecting NaNo also allowed me to concentrate on other contests I wanted to enter, and after I wrap this post up, I’m off to tackle the Buffalo News contest, cause you know, I‘m not competitive enough…

Last night, I attended a Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for a bar and be the designated driver in exchange for the drive up to North Tonawanda. Seemed more than fair. It was pretty alien though. Husband turned into chatty Cathy social butterfly and I spent the night mostly alone. I mean, I was sitting at a table with some very nice people, I’m sure, but the band was right there and so conversation wasn’t possible without shouting. I still have traces of a malingering cold/flu. I didn’t want to shout.

I relearned two lessons though. 1) ALWAYS bring a book wherever you go–if I have one I never get to read it, if I don’t I wish I had. 2) Trim Husband’s moustache if eating/drinking will be done in public–self explanatory.

Ah well, I’m sure the experience will find a place in a story somewhere some day…

Speaking of which…I AM SO PSYCHED!!!! The Amazing, Awesome, Incredible Copyeditor Extraordinaire–Teresa Tucker will soon be done with Ellie’s Elephants. I am SO excited to get my baby back. I’ve missed her so much and am eager to see what she looks like now. I bet she’s even prettier than I imagine her to be, and I thought she was a great looking baby when I sent her to the equivalent of ‘finishing’ school. SO PSYCHED!

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