Tricks of the Trade

I mentioned on Facebook that I wasn't going to blog about ACFW until (at least) tomorrow, and that's still true. I've got, like, 500 photos from the Memphis-Little Rock-St. Louis trip that need to be loaded onto my computer.

It's a job, let's just put it that way.

Anyway, lots of exciting stuff on the horizon and the realization that my year of quiet has come to a close. Once book projects become official, I will have a lot of work to do.  This is good, because it's a little disconcerting to be a writer by trade and not have any official projects on the horizon.

I am a bit overwhelmed at the prospect, though, partly because the writing process for Sara (and Jayne, in some ways) was VERY stressful.  I have to remember that I've learned a lot; every book is a learning experience!

Several of my friends have books releasing soon, so I thought that until I get those 600 or so photos downloaded (which, I have to admit, are largely photos of waterlilies in various botanical gardens. Apparently I have a waterlily photography "issue"), I've definitely got time to share the bits of writer's life wisdom I've discovered along the way...

1.) When the going gets tough, the tough go underwear shopping.  And socks.  Basically, when you're on a deadline/ tight marketing schedule, laundry needs to not be quite so high up on the list. Stock up on undies and socks, and an extra pair of jeans for everyone in the family.

2.) Spruce up your own wardrobe.  The writer's life doesn't lend itself to business wear acquisitions, but you'll appreciate having go-to pieces of clothing for headshots, book events, and conferences.  Take a small chunk off the top of your advance and look for pieces that can be dressed up or down (like a silk blouse in a print) and worn for multiple seasons. I'm a big fan of denim suiting pieces for author events - a denim blazer or trouser pant looks polished without being stuffy.  You're a writer, not a stockbroker. Have some fun with your look!

3.) Set goals and stick to them. It seems basic, but it really is helpful.  Figure out how many words per day you need to crank out, be realistic, and work from there.

4.) When it comes to marketing, now is better.  When you get interview requests with questions, do them right away. It's much easier to get those done and sent off rather than keep track of the interviewer's schedule and have it leave the forefront of your consciousness.  Take a break from writing, set a timer, and answer the questions (however brilliant or inane they happen to be).  Just think back to the days of email forwarded surveys...

5.) Keep your files organized. I strongly recommend keeping your headshot jpg (in a large and small size) and book cover jpg (ditto) in the same folder (mine is labled "promotions"), as well as your press release and whatever interviews you're working on. That way, they're ready to go on a moment's notice whenever you're asked.

6.) Look sharp. Speaking of headshots, it's really best of an author shot to be a true head/shoulders shot. More than that, if it's viewed from far away or printed small, isn't going to read as well (and by "read as well," I mean that the image won't be quite as easy to understand or have the same visual impact). During the conference, there was one author who's photo made us scratch our heads until we figured out what was going on in that image.  Simple really is okay - it's your face we want to see!

7.) Synopsize! I totally made up the word, but you get the picture. Basically, if you're thinking ahead about your story's events and structure, you'll spend less time repaving over plot potholes later on down the road.  Seat-of-the-pants writing is only for people with years of time on their hands to write.

8.) Eat. Just not too much... Maintaining a steady blood sugar is important, so make sure you're feeding your brain as you work.  However, know that the write/snack/write/snack thing will come back to bite you - literally - in the behind.  Typing does not burn calories. Watch the munchies - eat smart.

9.) Take breaks. If you're not spending time with your family/friends/spouse/children/dog/cat/whathaveyou, you will become a hull of a human being and a sucky writer. It's okay to back away from the computer. Boundaries are your friend.

10.) Exercise.  I get through writer's block while walking with my husband (and these days, my dog).  The exercise does a lot for your body and your brain chemistry, so make sure to figure it into your schedule.

Remember, you can get creative with your exercise, as demonstrated here:

Well...it's my bedtime.  What tricks of the trade have you picked up?

ACFW on the Mind

This blog comes to you from the Mid-South again, though a few miles south of Memphis than before (we're staying in Southaven this go-round).  Danny had meetings and further work training to complete in the Memphis branch (though "complete" may be an optimistic term), and with ACFW coming up, we decided to connect the St. Louis trip with the Memphis trip and make it one, giant trip away from home.

Danny's busy in the office and hydraulics shop by day. I've been spending my time getting ready for ACFW.

I confess, my priorities are not as my agent would have them. I need to get together my pitch materials for my conference meetings...but let's be honest. Those (when the author chooses to focus on them) tend to come together quickly. You know what takes more time and effort?

Getting your ensemble for the ACFW Awards Banquet ready.

I've got the dress - it took two tries (the first color I ordered was back-ordered until the day *after* the banquet), but it arrived before we left and it's at an alterations shop as I type. I've got the shoes - picked them up to wear for Easter this last spring.  I've got the handbag - found it at TJ in Richland. Bought a cute little hair-clippy and bracelet yesterday. Still haven't figured out what lipstick to use, and if I'm going to get arty with my accessories and perform some last-minute tweaking, but the essentials are there.

So now that *that's* taken care of, I'm on to the task of getting the pitches ready. This involves creating a title and names for character for a story concept I've loved but hadn't spent time articulating the particulars of. Now, if you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I take my names very, very seriously.

For both Plain Jayne and Simply Sara, the main character names were entirely informed by the titles. This is not typically how I roll.  I research, I think about the character in my head, I write out lists, I wait for the right name to pop out and say that this is the one that fits.

Kind of like trying on shoes.

Also, I used to be pretty good at naming books.  I think that period of my life is over.

Next, I'm going to tidy up the first few chapters of my WIP (work in progress), since the second chapter isn't doing for me what I'd like it to.  Especially in an age when readers decide to purchase books depending on the strength of the sample offered on e-reader, the opening chapter and a half (or so, depending on the publisher) is even more important than ever. The days of easing the reader into a story are over. The days of being lazy about starting a plot are over. Bookselling is a competitive marketplace - edit! Tighten! Rewrite! You'll never sit back and sigh, "If only I hadn't given my book a stronger opening sequence."

Seriously.

In other random ACFW news:

Last year at ACFW was tough for me. I resolved then to do what I'm doing this year, which is arrive early to rest up before the conference begins.

I didn't know until a couple weeks ago that I'd be given two weeks to acclimate to the time change, but we'll still arrive at the hotel a day early to get settled and figure out the lay of the land.

Also, ladies, I highly recommend packing this product - Benefit's Eye Bright pencil. They describe it as a nap in a stick, and I would consider that to be an accurate description. I went searching for something, anything to fix my under-eye issues after our last drive back from Memphis - things had gotten so bad I avoided looking at myself in the mirror in the morning.  You can apply it under your under-eye concealer, on top of your makeup at the corners of your eyes, pretty much wherever you need to banish dark shadows. It really is magic, and I don't travel without it.

I also recommend packing plenty of cardigans as well as comfortable shoes - considering that you're moving from one part of a hotel to another part of a hotel, there's still plenty of time on your feet (especially if you're me and you're running late and you've got to seriously hike it from your room to the elevator, and the elevator takes forever and you'd totally take the stairs if you weren't on the ninth floor, and even after you've caught the elevator you make two or three stops before making a dash to the conference room on the opposite side of the building, down a long hall) *and* you never know how the a/c is going to be tuned. Layers are your friend.

Well, it's back to pitch-work for me. If you're at ACFW in a couple weeks, be sure to track me down!

Birthday Clafoutis and Book Proposals

See, I thought it was appropriate to make a cherry clafouti for my birthday because the word clafouti sounds like a party in and of itself.  Like confetti. It just tastes better.

I've been circling this recipe for a month or two, waiting for the opportune moment (i.e. a loving reunion with my KitchenAid and assorted bake-ware. Oh, and my sieve) to do something really special with a bag of cherries.

Life is a bowl of cherries. Preferably sans pits.

I could be wrong about this. All I know is:

A. There are a lot of cherries here.

B. There seem to be more cherries than back home.

C. Generally, like the dentist situation in Tri-Cities (*never* have I seen so many dentists' offices. Ever.), it means that there's simply more of them.

But I digress.

A few things about this recipe:

It looks great when you put it together, smells even better in the oven.



Also, it's like, *really* bland.

Fresh out of the oven.

I didn't use the kirsch the recipe called for, and my vanilla beans were about a year old and would have needed some TLC to be usable.  I used my good Mexican vanilla extract, and threw a bit of cardamom and ginger into the flan batter.

On the table, sunning itself.

What really needed to go in was another tablespoon of sugar (which is really something, coming from me - I don't like my sweets overly sweet) and a generous tablespoon of lemon zest.  And maybe an additional tablespoon of flour.

It's certainly not an ugly dessert.  Though I will say, once you cut into it, photogenic isn't a word I'd use.  And the cherries tasted really good. I have more left.  They may very well turn into these.

A note on book proposals: I chatted with my agent this morning.  I told her about how I'd gone to my first critique-group meeting here in Tri-Cities, and how I wanted to tweak the sample chapter in my current book proposal.  The group had pointed out some things about my transitions (mainly, there weren't any.  This is a fault of mine that I freely admit).  The chapter itself was written, mostly, three or so years ago, and I hadn't done a whole lot of heavy-duty editing to it.

My reasoning is that while the sample chapter you include with your proposal should be clean, they also shouldn't be over-thought.  Slaving away at that chapter is kind of like naming livestock - an editor may turn around and say, "Hey, we love it, but how do you feel about writing ______ instead?"

This has happened to me several times.  I've learned to put emotional distance between myself and these chapters.  I work on them, and then I move on.  It's a mental health thing.

Now, I want to work on the sample chapter because I want to like it more than I do. It's an easy fix.  But my agent did point out that editors can be wary of über-perfect sample chapters.  Kind of, when you think about it, like guys on first dates who say they love children, small dogs, and Jane Austen.

So don't kill yourself striving for abject perfection when you're including those sample chapters. Make sure they're really, really, good - and then move on with your life.  There are other things to pay attention to.

Like figuring out how to fix a bland clafouti.

Try saying that three times fast.

Reinvent Your Writing

Today's guest-poster, the lovely Lynne Gentry, knows a thing or two about reinvention.  Her debut novel, Reinventing Leona,  is all about making changes for the better.

Also red lipstick.  But I'll let you discover that for yourself.  Here's Lynne!

Writing good stories is like raising good kids, they never happen by accident. Someone has to invest a lot of time and effort in the project to achieve an award-winning result.

How many times have you thought you’d written the next bestseller only to take it to your critique group meeting and have them mop the floor with you? I’ve done it more times than I can count. Yet, every Tuesday night I print out a chapter and set off for another grueling round of iron-sharpening-iron.

Why do I put myself through this torture?

Because these trusted friends have only my best interest at heart. I’d rather hear what’s NOT working with my story in the comfort of someone’s cozy living room than have the flaws plastered all over an Amazon review.

True writing friends are not here to tell me I’m wonderful. They’re job is to make me a better writer. I’ll admit, crits can sting. But I’ve learned to consider their points and to think through why something tripped them up. Their suggestions challenge me to ratchet up the tension here or find a fresh way to drive my point home there.

Are you writing in secret?

Don’t do what I did. I wrote my first 400 page novel without letting anyone take a peek. When I finally summoned enough courage to submit the book to an editor, I received this terse response eight minutes later: I’m sorry, your writing does not measure up to the standards of our publishing house.

Ouch!

What did I learn? Don’t submit another thing until you get some help. I needed a group that would challenge, yet encourage a pleaser like me to continue in this often brutal and solitary calling.

Fortunately, I found a constructive writing group. And humbly submitting to the process reinvented my writing.

When I consider what each of the members of our writing group bring to the table, I’m reminded of how women used to gather around a well or quilting frame. Together, they helped each other raise their families, withstand the hard times, and make the world a better place.

What if writers did the same today? 

About Lynne's novel, Reinventing Leona:

Leona Harper loves being a pastor's wife. Her impressive resumé touts thirty years of coaxing hot water from rusty parsonage plumbing, planning church potlucks, and standing beside her husband while members take potshots at his sermons. Except for the little tiff with her grown children, Leona feels her life is right on track with the wishes of the Almighty...until her husband drops dead in the pulpit.

When the church board decides to fill the Reverend's vacated position Leona is forced to find a paying job, mend her fractured family, and tackle her fears. With life spiraling out of control, Leona might find the church members antics comical if she weren't so completely panicked. Can the faith of an overwhelmed widow withstand the added heartache of two resentful children and several underhanded church members?

If Leona can't trust God, how will she learn to trust herself?

Don't miss it! Full of warmth and wit, I recommend reading with a glass of iced tea.

Synopsis Stuff

After a reply Tweet from a friend, I realized something big has changed:

I'm no longer afraid of writing synopses.

This might be because I've written seven in the last year, at least.  After about two or three, my attitude changed.  I started worrying less and focused more on "knocking it out," telling myself I'd change things later.

You know, like you're supposed to when writing.

So there you go.  My success tip for synopses.  Write them really fast.  Don't overthink them - all you need is to basically sketch out how the book follows a basic three-act structure.  Don't worry about all of the crucial information you're leaving out (hint: you'd be surprised how much you don't really need).  Don't worry about going to long or two short.

And remind yourself that everything - especially the book you're summarizing - can be changed.  Just because something is in your synopsis, doesn't mean it has to be in the book.

The caveat to that is that the synopsis is what your publisher uses to write catalogue copy, possibly before you're done.  So if you change things up, let them know.  I was waffling about whether or not Sara went to visit her sister Rebecca for a while.  The catalogue release sewed that one up.

So there you go. Happy synopsis writing!

Once Upon a Time

When I start a book, I always think it's going to be easier than it really is.

Beginning a story is tricky. Some people start their book before they start their story. They begin with prologues and opening scenes and lay out their groundwork very carefully, like chefs who set out their ingredients ahead of time.

The thing is that, realistically, as writers we don't really have that luxury. Those opening scenes are only good for you, as information about who your characters are. Think about this - if your book doesn't really get going until the fifth chapter, a.) you're banking on a fairly patient reader, and (more importantly) b.) you haven't showcased the best part of your book when it's being looked at by the Powers that Be. Whether it's agents, editors, or a Publishing Committee, remember that even if your readers are willing to settle slowly into a story, it's not likely that anyone in publishing will.

Your first three chapters become more than the beginning of the book - they're your resumé, your proof that you know how to take your readers out for a spin and show them the sights.

Think about your first three chapters as being the pilot episode for a TV series (The pilot for Gilmore Girls is a great example, fyi). You need to give an idea of where you're going and who your principle characters are within those first three chapters. Specifically, introduce the main character, explain her world, set up the main conflict, and introduce the love-interest in the three-chapter time frame.

Bada-bing, bada- boom. You're now ready to write the rest of your novel.

For example: in Nicole Mones The Last Chinese Chef, the main character, Maggie, is an food-writing American widow who goes to China to settle a claim against her late husband's estate. While she's there, she discovers a.) her husband had secrets and b.) the mysterious world of Chinese haute cuisine while writing about chef Sam Liang.

Mones works fast - in the first chapter, she manages to get her protagonist out of her houseboat, onto a plane, in China, and introduced to Sam. All in 17 pages.

The second chapter better establishes Sam as a character and introduces some of the principle supporting cast, Sam's Chinese uncles.

The third chapter showcases Sam's cooking and Maggie's writing. We learn the history of Sam's father, grandfather, and Chinese uncles, as well as several of the tenants of traditional Chinese cuisine.

Likewise, in Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells, Allen has entirely set up the main characters, the love-interest, and the world of magical realism.

In contrast, in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson didn't introduce Mikael Blomkvist to Lisbeth Salander for 18 chapters. EIGHTEEN CHAPTERS. Lisbeth doesn't even make an appearance for the first 38 pages, which would be forgivable (it's still in the second chapter) if she weren't the driving force of the book. Mikael, as a character, is fairly bland. Lisbeth is one of the most interesting characters to be written in the last ten years, at least. When you've got someone that good, putting her in the background is a bad idea.

Yes, I know Girl has been an international success. I know, I know. Just because a book is successful doesn't mean it couldn't have been better written.

I mean, Dan Brown, folks.

Really.

Writing lessons from Eclipse

Writing Lessons Inspired by the Undead and the Furry:

1.) Show, Don't Tell.

Yeah, Jacob says he's in love with Bella. We heard him. Several times, actually, the kid was a broken record. (And honestly, saying you'll love someone until their heart stops beating is...awkward.) But...how does he show it? Actively show it, not just repeat it over and over while inserting insults regarding her boyfriend?

Aside from a bracelet with a wolf charm, there's not much evidence. Dude, buy a vowel. Maybe the reason she's with him and not you is because you won't stop yapping about how you're right and he's wrong. Just saying.

2.) Unless your villain is really, really, interesting, we don't need to spend much time with him/her.

Pretty much, unless your villain is this guy...

...or this gal...

...just assume we're not all that emotionally or intellectually invested in this person. Sure, we respect that he/she needs to be there as a plot device, but given the choice we'd rather be hanging out with the main characters than with the army of baby vampires and their problems that mean less to us than what Alice picks to wear on any given occasion.

3. Be aware of your pacing.

Pretty much, you want lots of rising action, no matter what genre you're writing in. And when you reach your climax, the amount of time you spend in it should be directly proportionate to the amount of time you've spent building it up. So, if (for instance) you've been having issues with a certain redhead for three books/film installations, maybe dispatching her three minutes after she and the protagonist share the same screen is a bit quick. Just a little.

4. Establish your universe perimeters early and stick to them.

I may be missing something, but I don't remember Jasper having a southern accent in either of the two previous films. I don't remember references to a drawl in any of the books. But suddenly, he's so southern he sounds like he's auditioning for a role in True Blood.

Also - when Vampires die they shatter? I don't remember this. Did this happen earlier? Do they splinter? Are there shards?

Are they extra-flammable? Because Victoria seemed to catch fire real quick. The whole thing reminded me a little of the second Hellboy film, the way the Elves turned to ivory or alabaster or something after they died (I couldn't tell which, but it looked cool).

That's what I thought about when I watched Eclipse. What did you think?

Not Dead

Sorry. I know, it's been a while. Turning in the book sucked out my will to blog. Or write, really, much of anything.

To catch up:

1. Robin Hood. Thumbs-down, sadly. Honestly, you don't know how much that breaks my heart. I wanted to love this movie, but it wasn't meant to be. You really do have to have characters to make a story work. More on that later.

2. The Losers. Thumbs-up. Honestly, the trailer made it look like the poorer, potato-sack wearing cousin of this summer's The A-Team. Which I haven't seen yet. But The Losers does, it does well. The characters are drawn broadly with much love and affection. The action sequences are fun. The villain is pitch-perfect. If she could sound feasibly British, I'd nominate Zoe Saldana for the Tomb Raider reboot. I recommend much.

3. Letters to Juliet. Thumbs-up. It's swoony and unapologetically romantic in a take-no-prisoners sort of way. When I am old, I want to look like Vanessa Redgrave.

4. Crazy Heart. The scriptwriter really did go with the "less talk more rock" approach. Literally. And while I won't begrudge Jeff Bridges his Oscar in the slightest, I found the story itself to be lacking. My engineer husband (who spends a lot of time these days with a novelist) summed it up this way: "It's like it was an act and a half, rather than three acts. There was a lot of setup, the climax, some plot, and then it was over. I didn't like it.)

*Note* He'll come home from work and tell me I didn't quote him right. But it's pretty close and true to the intended message.

That's it for movies. We've been watching a lot of Top Gear lately. So much that the phrase "Some Say" followed by a pause will now cause a Pavlovian-type giggle reaction. (This is inconvenient for Ridley Scott, since it happened during Robin Hood while one of the actors was trying to be profound. I don't remember who. I was giggling at the time). But it's really delightful and is the only media-related item I've ever found that can make my frequently stoic husband weep with laughter. WEEP.

And honestly, I can't blame him.

One of the reasons I heart it much is that the three hosts - Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond, are all very good at being characters. And I'm all about characters.

So maybe Ridley Scott needed to watch a little more Top Gear, because the sense of character was missing from a film about one of the most famous literary characters.

Lessons We Can Glean From Robin Hood (2010)

1.) It's important to give the audience a reason to like the main character. If we like the character, we will care about his story. If we don't like him, we won't give a cockroach's tush. The late Blake Snyder wrote about this in his seminal screenwriting book, Save the Cat. Basically, give your protagonist an opportunity to save a cat, or something - anything - that makes us like him. It doesn't have to be much. It doesn't have to be a cat. Russell Crowe could have saved a horse, and it would have helped. This is true for anti-heroes as well. Even if they have issues, the likability has to be there.

2.) Characters have to be consistent. When characters are consistent, we believe they're real people. When they're not, we struggle with the suspension of disbelief. So if you give us a smart, gutsy woman like, say, Marian, and especially if you cast a smart, gutsy woman like Cate Blanchett to play her, do not have this character threaten to remove a man's manhood at knifepoint and then have her light a lamp so she can undress behind a thin curtain, giving the aforementioned man a lengthy opportunity to observe and admire the silhouette of her feminine form.

I mean, really.

3.) No plot development is going to be interesting enough to save your story if your characters are flimsy. In fact, if you don't have characters, it's not a story. It's not. It's a recitation of events. Character make story. Stories make character. You can't have one and not the other, if it's going to work. A lot of plot-driven writers struggle with this, particularly sci-fi/fantasy writers. I've seen it in both published and unpublished work. Political machinations don't mean a thing if we don't care about the characters. The reason why is that if we have nothing invested, the stakes will never be high enough to create the tension necessary for a moving plot. And you need high stakes. You need tension. As Lauri Deason once said, "The original Star Wars movies were about saving the universe. The new ones were about tax reform."

And we all know which ones were the most successful.

4.) Pick your tone. Own it. Films like The Losers, Clash of the Titans, and Letters to Juliet work because they know what they are and they're good with that. They're not trying too hard to be too much. Robin Hood swung around from battle epic to comedy to drama to romance in such an awkward way that it didn't work at any of those. (Note: kissing someone in the midst of battle while blood drips onto that person's face...gross. Not romantic. Not sexy. Gross and awkward. No one wants to kiss a bio-hazard.)

So there you go. I've been reading a lot of British Chick-lit lately. I can't wait for this book to arrive at the library (it's currently out). I have a thing for books in which a woman inherits or manages to land into a large, old, decrepit house and has to make it a home of some sort. I don't know why, but I've had this thing for a long time. It's a big plus if the house has a secret history, or if the heroine makes curtains for it. Books like this, this, and this, and obviously this. I just finished Harriet Evans' A Hopeless Romantic, and that was a lot of fun :-)

Speaking of books, need to get back to Simply Sara edits. More later...in less than two weeks :-)

P.S. The frog pic at the top is one of the ones I shot at the Oregon Garden during out getaway weekend. The rest are in the slideshow - go take a peek.

End Times

...at least where Simply Sara is concerned. I met my base word count yesterday in a workday that saw the completion of a chapter in a single day (which is nothing for a lot of people, but I'm the world's slowest writer, and two days for a chapter is usually the best I can manage).

Anyway, things are wrapping up in Sara land. And that's okay with me, because I don't believe I've ever eaten so much ravioli. Ravioli, different kinds of ravioli, lunch and dinner. The idea of cooking sends me into a panicked state these days (we won't even talk about grocery shopping), so I am deeply grateful for stuffed pasta with sauce.

My deep hope is to have the book completed by this weekend - Monday at the latest - so I can tighten up the prose for a week before turning it in.

And after that, oh, what a celebration there will be...

In other news, Glee is back! Though I have to say, not a huge fan of the Madonna episode. This might have something to do with the fact that I'm not a huge Madonna fan. At this point, though, Glee has gone from the little musical show that could into this merchandising monster that keeps knocking you over the head with reminders that, yes, the songs are available on itunes. As much affection as I have for the show, I hope that Ryan Murphy stays focused on old-fashioned things like plot and character development and not become distracted by the glitz of being Hollywood's baby.

This is the man who was responsible (and I know this is hitting below the belt, but it's true) for Running With Scissors, one of the best-cast, worst movies of all time.

Now that I've said that, I'll end with the fact that my favorite line of Brittney's was "I pulled my hamstring once and had to go to a misogynist." I cannot type this without giggling.

What else...hoping to possibly see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo this weekend at the Bijou. Though Ebert gave The Losers a surprisingly good review, so maybe we'll hit that.

Oh! Radio show follow up. You can listen to the episode here. I did not forget my name. I did not make up any words (as far as I can tell), though i did stumble wildly over defining the term "Urban Amish," which is unfortunate considering that I coined the phrase. But it was a lot of fun, and Suzanne Woods Fisher was so much fun to chat with, I'd do it again.

You know. After practicing a better definition of "Urban Amish."

Ramona and Beezus and Beverly Cleary

I liked The Mouse and the Motorcycle. I liked Muggy Maggie, her handwriting-related trials and stubbornness. I liked Socks the cat and Ribsy the dog.

But I loved Ramona best.

I can't think about hard-boiled eggs without thinking of Ramona cracking a raw egg on her own. Sometimes the phrase "Yard Ape" pops into my head inexplicably.

My favorite of all, though, was Beezus and Ramona. I just found out there's going to be a movie adaptation. I have mixed feelings about this. Not sure about Selena Gomez as Beezus, but the rest of the cast includes Ginnifer Goodwin (!) as Aunt Bea (she is now too hip to be Beatrice, I get it), John Corbett (!!) as Mr. Quimby, and Sandra Oh (!!!) as Mrs. Meachum. Little Joey King will play Ramona. I think she has the right look.

Bridget Moynahan as Mrs. Quimby and Josh Duhamel aren't all that shabby either. And now that I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking that that means Josh and Ginnifer are playing a couple, and how much Ginnifer's character would have loved that in 2004's Win a Date With Tad Hamilton.

But I digress.

Beezus and Ramona first released in 1955. The next Ramona book, Ramona and the Pest, didn't release for another 13 years.

I was always a fan of Beezus. We understood each other; we both liked pretty, we both had oldest-daughter syndrome. I loved the end scenes of Beezus and Ramona that I would find my copy, flip to the back, and read them alone, laughing in bed late at night (late, you know, as in 8:30 or so). Poor Beezus - she just couldn't get that picture-perfect birthday. Not when the house smells like burnt rubber because your younger sister stuck a doll into your baking birthday cake. That's life, but it's tough.

And it's tough trying to get your aunt's attention when your sister is debating what kind of jelly to put on her mashed potatoes. That scene always killed me laughing.

Thinking about the potential film made me think about that scene, how it's a conversation around a table with multiple things going on, interconnected dialog, and rising tension until the protagonist does something really, really memorable.

Thinking about that scene and how much I loved it, I realize how those are my favorite scenes to write. Those are the scenes that make me clap my hands together and think I'm not such a slouch at this writing thing after all. Here I thought I loved them just because, but now I realize how the things I read and loved influenced my work, whether I'm aware of it or not.

Beverly Cleary is 93, according to Wikipedia. She was born in McMinnville, Oregon. She wrote 43 books. Caldecott Award winner Paul O. Zelinsky (whose work I mention here) illustrated a few of them, including Ralph S. Mouse. Mrs. Cleary wrote with a magic touch, a special ability as an adult to write about the childlike in a way that was real and respectful at the same time.

Will the Ramona film be any good? Hard to say. I'm hopeful. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl was wonderful; it is possible to make a female-oriented adaptation and not ruin it. Either way, knowing about it reminded me of things I hadn't thought of for a long while.

For that, I'm thankful.

The *Exciting* life of a writer

Really it's riveting. (type type type)

Nothing but excitement around here. (type-ety-type type)

For the last two weeks, I've been on schedule. Perfectly - so perfect, that I've not written at all on weekend. So perfect that by Friday night, I have the mental capacity of a...

...I can't come up with a good simile. Sorry. But basically, I sit around reading somebody else's book (this week it was Melanie Benjamin's Alice I Have Been) and trying not to self-destruct. Because before then, it's very possible that I only left the house two, maybe three times in the past week, and I've written two chapters. Some days, I don't do my hair or put on makeup. Instead, I spend most of the day staring at a computer screen that doesn't seem to change...

...and then out of nowhere it seems, it does. Seems all of the little nothing words add up to a lot of something, and when I read it back it's not that bad. Sure there's typo and continuity issues (the latter having bitten me in the behind quite often, lately), but it's coming. This puppy's going to end, and I might be alive to see it.

The good news, though, is that...hm. Went searching for an image (cute, no?), came back , and lost my train of thought. Train's gone. However, I can think of some other good things:

1. The Book Signing at Barnes & Noble's. Part book signing event, part "This is Your Life," seeing someone I see everyday (my husband), and someone I haven't seen in YEARS, a teacher from my old elementary school. There were a lot of people in between, enough that we sold out B&N's stock and dipped into the stash in the back of our car, selling enough that Plain Jayne was the store's top seller of the week.

When I found that out, I was like, "Hey, in this one market, I outsold Sarah Palin. Good times."

2. Hopefully, my laptop may be fixable with a $45 (ish) part, which would be nice because if I had to replace the whole thing (which is only three years old), I'd also have to buy a new operating system, update Microsoft Office, and update Photoshop. All of this means major dollar signs, and while I'm all for tax write-offs, I'd just rather not right now. I like my laptop, and the teensy fact that the screen doesn't work doesn't strike me as a good enough reason to part ways at this time. I am thankful for my handy husband, and this is just another example why.

3. We finally bought tickets for Danny's Vermont graduation, and are planning a jaunt to D.C. and farther south to visit the east coast family.

And the BMW museum. Everybody wins here.

Neither of us have been to D.C. for a while, but it's really less that we're going to D.C. and more that we're going to the Smithsonian Museums.

4. We returned the Big Book o' Bridge Codes to the University of Portland, further signifying Danny's completion with school. Sally (our car) started making sounds that one doesn't desire a car to make. Filled her with oil (the handy thing about being in Portland at a time, you can throw a rock in any direction and hit a Fred Meyer's), now she seems better...but definitely keeping an eye on that.

5. Ate the best red pepper I've ever eaten in my life last night. It was also the reddest red pepper - Dior lipstick red I've ever seen. Coincidence? Probably not. Just thought I'd share. It was a really good pepper, roasted(ish) in our toaster oven with olive oil and sea salt.

Well...diverting as the pepper news is, I should return to writing before I tell of my laundry successes (as in, laundry got done last week). It's Chapter 25, and so far, so good. Onward!

Words I Have Strong Feelings About

Words I Hate

1. Escarpment. I hate this word so much I can't even talk about it.

2. Doorjamb. Its cousin, the door post, makes sense. Doorjamb sounds like an unhappy kitchen experiment or a terrible accident. And it just looks weird.

3. Infarction. You hear that one on House a lot. They love infarctions. It always throws me for a loop when they say it seriously, because it sounds like the kind of word that would make a fifth-grade boy giggle and make noises with his armpits.

4. Maintenance. I can never spell it right. Ever. Without spell check. In fact, editing this, I realized I didn't spell it right then either.

5. Orientated. Not a word.

6. Disorientated. Also not a word.

7. Nonplussed. I have yet to meet someone who has 1) pronounced this correctly with 2) the correct meaning. A lot of authors get it wrong too. It means "baffled," but most people think it means "unfazed." I nominate to have it removed from the dictionary for the time being.

8. Blog. Yes, I write one, but it sounds like the name of the Ogre in the Dell. Or something.

9. Scurf. Sounds like it should be a combination between a skirt and a scarf, and what I'm visualizing isn't going to sweep fashion week anytime soon.

10. Scudding. It's like a gerund that has something to do with a missile. But doesn't. And it's always clouds scudding; I guess the action of scudding is limited to clouds. Mystery.

11. Cul-de-Sac. Note to city planners of yore: Were there no other terms available for little circular neighborhoods? No? Really??? Did you check???? You couldn't find one without the awkward plural of "Culs-de-Sac?" No????? Try harder.

12. LOL. Or its cousin, lol. True, not a word, but that's news to some people. And it doesn't look like laughter. It looks like...I don't know. Letter vomit. Hard to say. Again, not laughter.

Words I Love

1. Assuage

2. Indicative (I love it. It's like carbonation on the tongue)

3. Amalgam

4. Lieu, as in "in lieu of"

5. Felicity

6. Poignant

7. Foreseeable. Not only is it a great word, but it looks like the vowels are going to stretch out forever.

8. Lilt. No such thing as an unhappy lilt - it's just happy all around.

9. Happy. Happy gets a bad rap, especially in Christian circles. I think we feel guilty over happiness, since we know that joy is more permanent. But you know what? Happiness happens. It's on of those rare words that makes you feel exactly what it means.

10. Indeterminate. See 2.

11. Lithe. Seeing pattern. I like single-syllable "l" words.

12. Blithely. I really do like it best as an adverb.

13. Triumvirate. I'm not sure that I'll ever learn to say it right, but everyone needs a goal.

14. Twirly.

15. Chocolate. It sounds as wonderful as it is. It's even a good Snow Patrol song.

16. Inexplicable. See 2, again.

17. Foliage. I really do like this word.

18. Fetching. As in pretty or attractive, not the action of chasing after something. Although one can lead to the other, doesn't it? It's an old-fashioned word, but it's fun to say.

I'm probably leaving some out, and that's after working on this post for literally just under a year. What about you? What words are you a little obsessive over?

You know you're a (fiction) writer when...

1. Certain office supplies have the power to bring you to tears. Of joy.

2. You about had an apoplectic fit while viewing Stranger Than Fiction.

3. You've found yourself editing the Bible for run-on sentences.

4. You discuss characters in your book to the point that the person you're conversing with thinks they're real.

5. You see unending possibilities in a blank sheet of paper.

6. You see unending failure in a blank Word document.

7. You own more books than anything else.

8. Though you haven't read all of them.

9. However, none of them are going anywhere. You are a haven for the printed page.

10. The librarians at your library have dirt on you.

11. Good dialog makes you swoon.

12. You collect names the way other people collect recipes.

13. No one in your household has clean socks.

14. You re-plot popular fiction in your head so that it actually, you know, works.

15. You re-plot films and TV shows verbally.

16. Your spouse may not always appreciate this input.

17. You've spent serious time trying to figure out if Irish creeks are frozen in February, or if Amish women wear normal bras.

18. There's a list of words you love - and hate.

19. A lot of good reviews make you happy.

20. One bad review makes you, very, very, very, very sad.

21. Forget review. One negative comment in the middle of a good review, and it's depths of despair, all over again.

23. Your work space used to be clean.

24. You say things like, "That was such a good set-up/pay-off" during a movie.

25. You enjoy crosswords.

26. You know a little about a wide variety of subjects from past book research.

27. You keep track of who knows what in your circle of friends - for future book research.

28. Carpal tunnel is referred to in hushed tones.

29. You fulfill over stereotype concerning writers and chocolate.

30. Like Emma Thompson's character in Stranger Than Fiction, you know that while storyboarding and synopses can be your friends, truly good ideas - like anything worth writing - come inexplicably and without method.

Mood Swings

Best of times...worst of times...who needs artificial hormones when you've got publishing?

The two weeks since my last post have been a wild, wild ride. The signing at Powell's? Good times. And honestly, my favorite part was getting to see people I hadn't seen in a long time. Did not sell many books, but I sold some, a couple to total strangers. But we got to hang out, chat, and catch up while in a bookstore.

I love bookstores.

Funny highlights: on shelves behind where I sat, there were stacks of books from a previous signing, and the title was something suggestive, like, "How to Be a Bad Girl." I really don't remember. My mom probably does, though, because it really, really bugged her. The experiencing of publishing has given me a certain capacity for zen, but my mom took matters into her own hands and covered each Dirty Girl book with a copy of Plain Jayne, thus preserving the photo op.

Also, my friend Janell came, bearing mini pies (one lemon meringue, one apricot raspeberry, ala Jayne). Mind you, we were at the Beaverton Powell's, so she had to walk though quite a lot of mall before reaching the bookstore, and got lots of terrific looks carrying miniature pies through the mall.

But that's what friends do for each other. They carry pies through malls.

Oh, and getting the pies home, Danny went into uber-engineer mode. I saw the look on his face and knew the situation was well in hand. True enough, he stuck one pie under the chocolate bowl, and other some other way...it was all very clever.

I regret I have no pictures of any of this for you. I charged up my camera battery and everything, only to leave the battery in the charger. Problem.

Anyway, signing over, we've been watching a lot of Olympics. More on that later.

Once the signing was done, I got to (briefly) focus on writing, then move on to final preparations for teaching a class at OCW about writing ensemble casts in fiction. The conference was tons of fun - loved seeing friends and meeting new people. Loved hearing from Robin Gunn (I've decided her voice reminds me of Shelley Long. I mean that in a good way. Shelley's very happy to listen to, and so is Robin.) Enjoyed teaching, though I really could have used a microphone - I wound up having to pretty much yell my material. Honestly came home hoarse. But it was fun, and I'd do it over again in a heartbeat.

With a microphone.

That was Saturday. Sunday, we taught 18 four-year-olds, attended service, and came home. At around 4pm, Danny turned in his graduate project. Like, the one that's taken over our lives. It looks like this.

And this:

For the second shot, I layered the bridge into a photo Danny took while doing the planning. Yes, that's me in the black coat.

Anyway, things stayed busy until Monday afternoon, at which point I found myself dead tired and frustrated with the amount of book left to write and an overall feeling of hopelessness...

...which is usually indicative of needing to do more synopsis work. Amazingly enough. I got on the phone with a friend to ask her about concussions, and at her suggestion we got a couple other of my process-readers together and had a planning party.

I don't know if anyone else does this in fiction - in the film and TV industry, it would be referred to as a spit-balling session. Basically, you sit around and throw around ideas. Great fun. In my head I'd decided to use 3x5 cards. Now, I've never used 3x5 cards, but I knew that I needed to get plot points out and then organize them. I came home with a stack dictating the next quarter, easily, of the book, with one random card waiting to find its place.

Wherever I do my writing (be it the couch, desk, or chair), the cards come to. And while, sure, I could write them out onto a computer file, I like the freedom of physical cards and the fact that if I wanted to write words in a circle, I could without some kind of word-processor gymnastics.

If you're stuck, try the note cards. They're great for sequencing. For big-picture stuff, I like sketchbooks without lines. I have a great sketchpad left over from art school with good, heavy paper that I probably shouldn't use for this sort of thing, but I love it. I can map out a plot structure or timeline, or write little snippets and connect them with squiggly arrows.

I love squiggly arrows.

And the great thing is that it's totally non-linear. I've tried to do that kind of work on a computer, but it just doesn't work for me. There's a lot of freedom to be found in a notebook. We took mine out to dinner, Danny and I, and worked at some of the big questions over Red Robin.

So between that and the planning session, things are looking good. I've moved from some very Anne-like depths of despair to complete elation over colored note cards.

A phrase that Robin said last week resonated with me - "fly, little heart." I think I start to feel trapped. I feel like I've lost all courage and hope. It's a scary place to be. But after investing the time away from writing and doing the planning work, I'm hopeful.

Looking forward to flight.

P.S. Hoping to post the cover of Simply Sara soon!

Sara in the Fall

I'm tired. Not talking run of the mill lethargy, but honest to goodness near narcolepsy. But there's big news around here, so I'm going to push through.

If parts of this don't make sense, you've been warned.

I found out last night that the release date for Simply Sara has been shifted from Jan 1, 2011 to September of this year. Which is great, because it means that a few people might remember Plain Jayne when Simply Sara comes out. The trickiness lies in the fact that:

1. Writing Sara has been like typing through molasses. Thick, unsulfered molasses. That's been in the fridge, cold, for some unknown reason (I warned you, I'm tired). Mind you, it's a good book, and those who read and critique the early stuff (who are not the the sort to spare deserved criticism) have thus far agreed, but it has no intention of entering the world at anything resembling speed. So the fact that

2. I'll probably be eyeballing a cover for Sara sometime next week; dealing with early production and likely working on a synopsis so this puppy can go into a retailer catalog while figuring out how to market both books at the same time is

3. Just a bit overwhelming.

4. But everyone needs motivation. And this is the literary version of an extraordinarily sharp object poking in your back.

Did I mention that this release time is really great? Because it really is. One of the (many) reasons is that there's a fair amount of Christmas content in the first third - since SS picks up right after PJ, and that's mid-November, I think. Pretty sure. I'll check later. Anyway, as a reader, I think I'd enjoy reading about Christmas before Christmas, rather than after, when the tree is dried up and the lights need to come down. Before=magic. After=I don't know what. I just know that it was a lot to be writing Christmas scenes after Christmas, because I was really ready for all of the holidays to be over!

Oh. And a fall release means it's so totally available for holiday shoppers. Yay!!!

So, the lesson here is that writers who write for publication truly have at least two jobs. Not talking about what all they do to pay the bills or raise children or clean the house, but the actual process of writing for publication.

The secret is it's not just writing. It's assisting as much as possible with the production process, with marketing, and doing the editing so the book that winds up on shelves (or online retailer's warehouses) is the best possible book. There's a lot of non-writing that goes into this, but it's important. You don't get to sit in a hole and write, not if you want that lovely warehouse space.

In the end, it's a good thing. Because all of the production legwork means you get a lot more exercise.

And you know what exercise means?

That's right. You get to rationalize the cupcake.

P.S. I'm sure there are all sorts of typos in this blog. Don't worry. I'm sure my mom will catch them.

Me, myself, and fairy tales

It's been memory lane in the Lodge home recently. Last week it was all manner of Mermaid nostalgia, and tonight it's princesses. Dancing princesses.

I've gotten hooked (and by "hooked," I mean, "can't put it down, this is kind of embarrassing, haven't been this stuck in a book since the Twilight books, but at least it's much better written" kind of hooked) on Juliet Marillier's books since one of the blogs on Writer Unboxed mentioned her Daughter of the Forest in a lovely blog about fantasy and fairy tale.

My fairy tale addiction has been very, very well observed and documented. In every library I visited, I knew where the fairy tale section was. I loved the pictures, the ethereally beautiful princesses in their gowns, the illustrations of Walter Crane:

Hilary Knight:

Gustave Doré:

Susan Jeffers:

Paul O. Zelinsky:

and K.Y. Craft:

The Twelve Dancing Princesses was one of my favorites. And why not? For a princess fan, you get a lot of bang for your buck. I can't tell you how much I loved this book, every page.

I was still more excited to find that Juliet Marillier had done an adaptation of Twelve in her book Wildwood Dancing. I picked it up at the library today, and looked at the cover. Then really looked at the cover. Because the art looked familiar!

I checked the jacket to find out who did the cover design. Kinuko Y. Craft. Seriously! I was so excited to find that. How perfect could that be?

I'm twenty-six now, and since I've married an engineer, I no longer desire to marry into royalty. Now that I'm a writer, I don't particularly want to be a princess when I grow up (mind you, this was my career goal until I was, like, nine). But there's still something about fairy tales that holds a special place in my heart.

In this blog, Sophie Masson wrote:

"Fairytale is less grand than myth, and less ’serious’ than legend, but it is more romantic than both. More human. And yet more magical. More geared towards not the great ones of this world, but the little people."

It's my hope to one day get to write a fairy tale, or a fairy tale adaptation. Right now I'm writing Amish, but it won't be forever. I won't be a princess, but at least I can write about one.

The Red-Nosed Herald Angels Sing it Twice

I've wanted those refrigerator word magnets for years. Last week, my mom gave me a set of them, all snippets of popular Christmas songs. Here are some of my favorite rearrangements:

Jack Frost walking our reindeer

Deck the halls with chestnuts on the first day of jingle bells

Making a list and checking your nose

Mommy gave to me the nose

(there's a lot of noses in secular Christmas music. Just noticed)

'Tis the season

we don a partridge in a

very shiny town but

Christmas in a pear tree

is coming

to find out who's gonna be

jolly

Santa Claus is frightful

The red-nosed herald angels sing it twice

I saw a one horse open sleigh dashing through a Winter Wonderland

Rudolph nipping at boughs of holly

and my personal favorite:

Hark!

kissing my true love is nice

he's so delightful

since we've

got no place to go

let it snow

outside

And now I'm totally hooked on word magnets, this was so much fun!