In exactly one month, December 21, 2012, th so-called Mayan Apocalypse, the End of Days, the obliteration of the modern world, the ... oh, you get the idea. The world's gone as of December 22nd. Do I sound flippant? Nay, Nay! as John Pinnette might say (very funny comedian. Look him up.) I'm not flippant at all about the upcoming disaster. My standard response to someone commenting on this disaster is: Of course the world's ending on December 21st! My birthday's the next day and it's one I don't want to face (it ends in a zero, in case you all were curious).
Alas, my un-concern over the destruction of the world did not go over well with The Boy. When he first heard about this so-called Prophecy last year he got very anxious. He tends to believe in things mystical and there was so much coverage of this event in the news that it seemed like quite a real thing to him. My making jokes about being quite happy not to face the day when I turn ... ugh. That number. ... he did not find funny. So, to make him feel better I said,
"Well, December 21st is a Friday. Last day of school before the holidays. If it really will be the last day of the world do you want to spend it in school?"
He shook his head. Of course not.
"Okay," I responded. "Then here's the plan. For that day and that day only I will take a day off work, let you skip school and we can spend the whole day at the movie theatre watching one movie after another. That way, if the world does end, we can ignore most of it since we'll be busy watching some good movies. Does that make you feel better?"
He was totally on board with that.
So, for the last year that's been our plan. We're actually looking forward to it. Daughter One wants to join us now too. She's suggesting we sneak into as many movies as we can on one ticket. I'm not so brazen. Even if no one's around to check, I'll still feel guilty for not paying for a ticket. Not even the end of the world can stop my innate guilt-ridden personality!
So, what are your plans for the Apocalypse?
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
The Need to Withdraw
I have been feeling distinctly social media unfriendly lately. Not that I don’t check in occasionally. I do. I always check Verla Kay’s Blueboards. I read my Twitter stream. I sometimes pop into Facebook (not my favourite site). But I have been an unenthusiastic poster (and blogger!) lately. I’m not sure why that is. It’s not so much social media fatigue, everyone gets that these days. It’s more, I think, to do with my writing. Or, should I say, my lack of writing. And if I’m not writing then I’m feeling a bit … unfocussed. And ticked off with myself. Which makes me feel less like interacting within the community of writers. All because I’m not writing!
Part of the problem lies with the fact that no particular story is calling to me right now. I have three different stories in progress. One is on the brink of being finished (has been that way for years) and two others that are just babies with only a few chapters in. I’ve hopped from one to the other to the other, writing a few thousand words here and there but I’m not feeling the compulsion to finish them. Is it because I’m not loving their stories? I think they’re good ideas. Is it their characters? Maybe. I have to love my characters with a passion that borders on obsession. Maybe it’s all the chatter out there about what makes a book sell in this tough market. I’ve completed two books this last year with which I’ve tried to entice agents and editors and neither was enough. Both have paranormal elements and I know the fatigue in paranormal is huge right now. But I loved (still love) both of them so very much. So, I should just stop wallowing and move onward right? Just write another story. And if there is more interest in contemporary and all three of my WIPs are contemporary, then why not finish those?
Maybe it’s because now, after ten years of slogging through the trenches, finally getting published, I know how difficult it is to sell a book. The knowledge about the business side of publishing is creeping in more and more and affecting the artistic side of the process. I keep wondering whether I should focus on this story or that one? Which will entice an agent more? Which one will be more likely to sell?
Well, I finally figured it out. I’ve been asking the wrong questions. I have to stop thinking about the business and think about the story. The questions I should be asking aren’t about what will sell. The questions are, and always should be,
What story do I need to tell?
What characters do I need to find out more about?
What excites me the most?
But if I’m constantly hearing/reading about agent searches, publishing deals, what’s selling, what’s not, how tough it is out there, how saturated the YA market is right now, it pulls me away from what I used to do, every day for years: writing in my little notebook the story of a few people and their lives that may interest only me. I need to get caught up in my characters lives – not get caught up in the life of the publishing industry (as fascinating as it may be).
That means I have to withdraw a little. Not completely but enough to center myself again and see if I can get caught up in a story that consumes me more than the idea of selling it does. So, I’ll be a sporadic blogger, twitter, facebook checker for the next while. I hope withdrawing from that side of things means I can find a story I’m passionate about writing again. Because that’s the reason I started writing in the first place. Like one of my favourite quotes says:
Follow your passion. You never know where it will lead you.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Seasonal Writing
Have you ever wondered what ‘season’ of writer you are? No, I’m not talking about when you wax poetic in your writing about the spectacular fall colours, the bitingly cold winter season, the fragrance of blooming spring flowers or the hot, sticky dog days of summer. I’m wondering whether there are certain times of year whether you feel more or less productive or inspired as a writer?
Fall has always been my favourite season. No humidity, blazing colours, crisp, cool, earth-scented air. Back to school, back to routine, boots, scarves, sweaters. Ahh, I love fall. And, for some reason, it has also been one of my most productive writing times. Maybe it’s that ‘back to routine’ business – a remnant from prepping to go back to school. That little surge of adrenaline about the school year to come. When I’m getting the kids organized for school and getting my house organized (well, trying to, anyway) after a summer of outside busy-ness it makes my mind sharper. Maybe it’s the cool days and nights where I want to curl up with a good book or, better yet, curl up and write MY good book! Whatever it is, I just feel this particular season helps me to focus better as a writer.
Winter isn’t far behind as my favourite writing season, mostly because I’m indoors a lot. No surprise, but I’m not a big winter sports fan. Yes, I have to schlep The Boy around to hockey arenas and that does take time but, for the most part, I can carve out some writing hours throughout the winter months much easier than I can in spring or summer mostly due to the weather outside being ‘frightful’.
So, what about those last two “S” seasons? What is it about Spring and Summer that makes it harder for me to write? It’s not that I don’t write at all during those times. In fact, I just finished my last wip this past June. But the spring fever does hit me hard and I want to be outside, planting flowers, taking in the warmer air and feeling like I deserve a bit of a break from my writing hibernation over the winter. And, with the winters we sometimes get up here, I am pretty much stir crazy by the time April hits. I NEED to be outdoors. Then, in summer, when kids are home, vacations are taken, life just gets more, not less, hectic.
I know many writers stick to their schedule of daily writing rain or shine, fall, winter, spring, summer, without fail. And I admire those who can do that. But, for me, it’s not that simple. So, I accept that I’m primarily a fall and winter writer and I try and make up for my lack of writerly output, especially in the summer months, by writing as much as I can in the two seasons that I find most productive for me as a writer. I ‘yam what I ‘yam.
How about you? Do the seasons affect your writing? Or do you shut everything off to write, even the weather outside?
Fall has always been my favourite season. No humidity, blazing colours, crisp, cool, earth-scented air. Back to school, back to routine, boots, scarves, sweaters. Ahh, I love fall. And, for some reason, it has also been one of my most productive writing times. Maybe it’s that ‘back to routine’ business – a remnant from prepping to go back to school. That little surge of adrenaline about the school year to come. When I’m getting the kids organized for school and getting my house organized (well, trying to, anyway) after a summer of outside busy-ness it makes my mind sharper. Maybe it’s the cool days and nights where I want to curl up with a good book or, better yet, curl up and write MY good book! Whatever it is, I just feel this particular season helps me to focus better as a writer.
Winter isn’t far behind as my favourite writing season, mostly because I’m indoors a lot. No surprise, but I’m not a big winter sports fan. Yes, I have to schlep The Boy around to hockey arenas and that does take time but, for the most part, I can carve out some writing hours throughout the winter months much easier than I can in spring or summer mostly due to the weather outside being ‘frightful’.
So, what about those last two “S” seasons? What is it about Spring and Summer that makes it harder for me to write? It’s not that I don’t write at all during those times. In fact, I just finished my last wip this past June. But the spring fever does hit me hard and I want to be outside, planting flowers, taking in the warmer air and feeling like I deserve a bit of a break from my writing hibernation over the winter. And, with the winters we sometimes get up here, I am pretty much stir crazy by the time April hits. I NEED to be outdoors. Then, in summer, when kids are home, vacations are taken, life just gets more, not less, hectic.
I know many writers stick to their schedule of daily writing rain or shine, fall, winter, spring, summer, without fail. And I admire those who can do that. But, for me, it’s not that simple. So, I accept that I’m primarily a fall and winter writer and I try and make up for my lack of writerly output, especially in the summer months, by writing as much as I can in the two seasons that I find most productive for me as a writer. I ‘yam what I ‘yam.
How about you? Do the seasons affect your writing? Or do you shut everything off to write, even the weather outside?
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Like versus Love
“I liked it but I didn’t fall in love with it.”
Writers have heard this phrase so many times it’s become one of the lexicons of the publishing language. Variations of this phrase have come across in rejections for eons and, intellectually, I know what agents and editors mean when they say this but I hadn’t really understood it myself, in my own writing, until recently.
I’ve now published two books and I love both of them. I have reread them countless times through the editorial process and did not get vomitously sick of them. That is love. I loved the idea of them before they were written. I loved their characters. I loved how they ended. The love has, and always will be, solid.
However, during the last few years while my two published works were put out into the world, I also wrote and completed four other books. Some have gotten the “like but not love” from editors and agents. One I haven’t even sent out to get rejected yet and another one has only been slightly submitted. Out of those four books, there is one that I still, absolutely, unequivocally, love. But it is a YA supernatural and the market is so, so tight and saturated I don’t know if it will ever be published. But I don’t, I can’t, give up on it. I may self-publish it. I may keep trying to sell it as different imprints open up (many of the major publishers are trying digital only imprints and who knows, it may find a home there. Hope springs eternal!). But I know what agents mean now when they say they must love a book to take it on because then you don’t want to – you CAN’T – give up on it because that love is so strong. They need that love to sell that book and face the rejection when it comes in. And when it doesn’t sell, you can’t understand why.
But those other three books sitting on my hard drive? Well, I think I just may be in like with them.
I have had critiquers who have indicated their love for some of them and I appreciate that so much. But while I see the books qualities, I also see their weaknesses. Two of them may have the potential to go from like to love. But they need to change. In some way. But here is the dilemma. Do I spend hours of limited writing time trying to change the like to love? Or do I start fresh, with no baggage, on a fresh shiny idea that has a strong potential for Love? I used to think that if enough revision happened on a 'like' book then the passion would explode. Bam! Love! But I now believe that you can’t manipulate that love. It has to be there from the get go. That excitement and passion must be strong enough to sustain you through the long, hard slog of the writing. And I truly believe that the writer’s interest and passion shines through in the words.
I have also heard that some writers have no clue sometimes what will sell. That the work they are passionate about and are sure will sell doesn’t and that quirky little weird book that they didn’t think had a hope in heck of interesting anybody is the one that succeeds.
I don’t know what’s right but I do know that with all the demands on a writers life that if he/she is not writing something that is bringing him/her some strong measure of satisfaction/excitement/pleasure/interest then there is no point in working on it. It’s okay to shelve it for a while. It’s okay to go back to what you once thought was a love and see if the spark reignites. If it doesn’t, don’t beat a dead manuscript. There is passion to be found in many places, in many stories. Keep looking. And, as a good writer friend told me recently, “Just don’t stop writing.”
Writers have heard this phrase so many times it’s become one of the lexicons of the publishing language. Variations of this phrase have come across in rejections for eons and, intellectually, I know what agents and editors mean when they say this but I hadn’t really understood it myself, in my own writing, until recently.
I’ve now published two books and I love both of them. I have reread them countless times through the editorial process and did not get vomitously sick of them. That is love. I loved the idea of them before they were written. I loved their characters. I loved how they ended. The love has, and always will be, solid.
However, during the last few years while my two published works were put out into the world, I also wrote and completed four other books. Some have gotten the “like but not love” from editors and agents. One I haven’t even sent out to get rejected yet and another one has only been slightly submitted. Out of those four books, there is one that I still, absolutely, unequivocally, love. But it is a YA supernatural and the market is so, so tight and saturated I don’t know if it will ever be published. But I don’t, I can’t, give up on it. I may self-publish it. I may keep trying to sell it as different imprints open up (many of the major publishers are trying digital only imprints and who knows, it may find a home there. Hope springs eternal!). But I know what agents mean now when they say they must love a book to take it on because then you don’t want to – you CAN’T – give up on it because that love is so strong. They need that love to sell that book and face the rejection when it comes in. And when it doesn’t sell, you can’t understand why.
But those other three books sitting on my hard drive? Well, I think I just may be in like with them.
I have had critiquers who have indicated their love for some of them and I appreciate that so much. But while I see the books qualities, I also see their weaknesses. Two of them may have the potential to go from like to love. But they need to change. In some way. But here is the dilemma. Do I spend hours of limited writing time trying to change the like to love? Or do I start fresh, with no baggage, on a fresh shiny idea that has a strong potential for Love? I used to think that if enough revision happened on a 'like' book then the passion would explode. Bam! Love! But I now believe that you can’t manipulate that love. It has to be there from the get go. That excitement and passion must be strong enough to sustain you through the long, hard slog of the writing. And I truly believe that the writer’s interest and passion shines through in the words.
I have also heard that some writers have no clue sometimes what will sell. That the work they are passionate about and are sure will sell doesn’t and that quirky little weird book that they didn’t think had a hope in heck of interesting anybody is the one that succeeds.
I don’t know what’s right but I do know that with all the demands on a writers life that if he/she is not writing something that is bringing him/her some strong measure of satisfaction/excitement/pleasure/interest then there is no point in working on it. It’s okay to shelve it for a while. It’s okay to go back to what you once thought was a love and see if the spark reignites. If it doesn’t, don’t beat a dead manuscript. There is passion to be found in many places, in many stories. Keep looking. And, as a good writer friend told me recently, “Just don’t stop writing.”
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
My Hockey Mom Prayer
Fall has not quite officially started but hockey season for The Boy already has. Opening game of the season is tonight and as I prepare for the onslaught of games, practices, tournaments, traffic, bad coffee, stressed parents, dinner in the van and other crazy that is the hockey parent/child life, I wrote a little prayer to get me (and any other hockey mom's and dad's!) through the next eight months.
My Hockey Mom Prayer
May I find the best route to the hockey arena in rush hour traffic. May there not be any road closures, beginner drivers or other stressed out hockey parents in my path.
May The Boy have remembered all his equipment. May I hold my incredulous yell of frustration back when we're running late and he tells me that he MIGHT have left his hockey gloves on the floor back home.
May I find the grace not to scream at an opposing player who has just elbowed my son in the head.
May I find a spot in the arena that is actually under a working heater.
May I not get sick of Tim Horton's coffee, bagels, sandwiches and Timbits in the next eight months.
May I try, for once, to just enjoy the game and not get stressed out and embarrass my son by screaming in the third period "Jesus, Mary and Joseph! SKATE!!!!!!!"
May I have the right words to comfort and encourage him when he has a bad game and the exuberance to celebrate with him when he has a good one.
May I remember that he loves this freezing, time-consuming, money-sucking sport and that he is a thing of beauty when he skates.
And, most of all, may I remember that his childhood is passing all too quickly and that, one day, I will actually miss the all the time we spent in the van hustling back and forth between arenas. One day I will wish for that time back so let me hold it in my memory as long as I can because it is flying away from me, faster than my son on hockey skates.
My Hockey Mom Prayer
May I find the best route to the hockey arena in rush hour traffic. May there not be any road closures, beginner drivers or other stressed out hockey parents in my path.
May The Boy have remembered all his equipment. May I hold my incredulous yell of frustration back when we're running late and he tells me that he MIGHT have left his hockey gloves on the floor back home.
May I find the grace not to scream at an opposing player who has just elbowed my son in the head.
May I find a spot in the arena that is actually under a working heater.
May I not get sick of Tim Horton's coffee, bagels, sandwiches and Timbits in the next eight months.
May I try, for once, to just enjoy the game and not get stressed out and embarrass my son by screaming in the third period "Jesus, Mary and Joseph! SKATE!!!!!!!"
May I have the right words to comfort and encourage him when he has a bad game and the exuberance to celebrate with him when he has a good one.
May I remember that he loves this freezing, time-consuming, money-sucking sport and that he is a thing of beauty when he skates.
And, most of all, may I remember that his childhood is passing all too quickly and that, one day, I will actually miss the all the time we spent in the van hustling back and forth between arenas. One day I will wish for that time back so let me hold it in my memory as long as I can because it is flying away from me, faster than my son on hockey skates.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Guest Blog Post – Why Doubting Your Writing Can Be a Good Thing!
Just a quick note to let y'all know that I'm guest posting on Cheryl Rainfield’s blog (http://cherylrainfield.com/blog/) where she was kind enough to let me muse on something all writers go through – doubting their writing. Do you doubt yourself/your writing sometime? Let me know how you deal with it.
Hope you can drop by for a visit!
Hope you can drop by for a visit!
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
September 4th - Celebration Day!
Hello poor neglected blog! It has been a summer of de-stressing and recovery after a year (and more!) of house reno madness so the poor neglected blog has been, well, poor and neglected!
But September has arrived and with it a hint of fall (my favourite season) and so many things to celebrate.
First, my little baby, whom I fondly refer to as THE BOY, turns 13 today. No longer a boy, not quite a man, still, always and forever my baby. Though my baby is taller than me now! Here we are at the cottage this summer. Happy Birthday, baby!
Next thing to celebrate? Two of the nicest writers on the planet have their book birthdays today too!
Debbie Ohi's 'I'M BORED' releases today!
Debbie illustrated this book with Michael Ian Black writing and I'm SO looking forward to the launch at Type books later this month. Debbie is one of the friendliest, loveliest writers (and illustrators!) I've had the pleasure of meeting. She was the one who got me on Twitter (she's SUCH a convincing speaker! :) and has been one of the guiding lights of Torkidlit. She deserves all the accolades this book is getting so what are y'all waiting for? Go order a copy now!
Speaking of lovely writers, one of the first people I met on Twitter was the lovely Linda Grimes. She is nothing short of HILARIOUS. And kind. And sweet. And wicked funny. Her book IN A FIX comes out today too! Yay for Virgo birthdays! Here's the cover
With an endorsement by one of my favourite authors Diana Galbadon! Not too shabby for a debut, eh?
Go forth and order now!
September is shaping up to be one birth-tastic month! Now ... where're the cakes?
But September has arrived and with it a hint of fall (my favourite season) and so many things to celebrate.
First, my little baby, whom I fondly refer to as THE BOY, turns 13 today. No longer a boy, not quite a man, still, always and forever my baby. Though my baby is taller than me now! Here we are at the cottage this summer. Happy Birthday, baby!
Next thing to celebrate? Two of the nicest writers on the planet have their book birthdays today too!
Debbie Ohi's 'I'M BORED' releases today!
Debbie illustrated this book with Michael Ian Black writing and I'm SO looking forward to the launch at Type books later this month. Debbie is one of the friendliest, loveliest writers (and illustrators!) I've had the pleasure of meeting. She was the one who got me on Twitter (she's SUCH a convincing speaker! :) and has been one of the guiding lights of Torkidlit. She deserves all the accolades this book is getting so what are y'all waiting for? Go order a copy now!
Speaking of lovely writers, one of the first people I met on Twitter was the lovely Linda Grimes. She is nothing short of HILARIOUS. And kind. And sweet. And wicked funny. Her book IN A FIX comes out today too! Yay for Virgo birthdays! Here's the cover
With an endorsement by one of my favourite authors Diana Galbadon! Not too shabby for a debut, eh?
Go forth and order now!
September is shaping up to be one birth-tastic month! Now ... where're the cakes?
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