My Latest Obsession

While I continue to tinker with various writing projects, I must admit it is with only half a heart at present. The largest part of my life right now is dealing with the massive amounts of time and decision-making that must go into finalizing our home reno. We are in the last leg of the race. Not that we are anywhere close to moving in - I'd say another two - three months at least. But now is the time when all the decisions on colours and finishes are made as well as furniture shopping. I tell you, I would have gone mad right about now if it hadn't been for my discovery of this fabulous website: www.houzz.com

Oh, my God. I LOVE this site.

You can search by style (traditional, contemporary, eclectic, etc.) and any type of room from kitchen to entranceway. You can specify you want a search done on "mirror over fireplace" or something and literally hundreds if not thousands of pictures in that theme, style, particular search will come up. If you have a specific question on what paint colour or where a piece of furniture was purchased, you can leave a question and a designer will come back and give you the answer. If you're anything like me, you might have a vague idea of the kind of style you might want to have in your space but nothing concrete. With this site, you can create your own ideabooks and start collecting the pictures that will help you to finalize the look you want in your own space. Who knew I would gravitate towards gray walls with white trim? Who knew that I would decide on going with dark kitchen cabinets rather than the more common white? After collecting hundreds of pictures, I kept seeing the same themes/styles emerge. That was so helpful.

It also doesn't hurt when your husband looks at you funny when you say you want a room done a certain way and he scoffs. But when you email him what the room could look like as a finished space (no need to have him sit down with you and flip through home decorating magazines) it makes life so much easier!

Anyway, sorry for this non-writing related post but if you're about to embark on a home reno I have two pieces of advice:
1. Move and buy a house that's already finished.
2. If you still insist on renovating, then go to houzz.com. You'll thank me later.

The Devil is in the Details

I'm in the midst of the reno from hell and, for the most part, my husband has had to deal with stuff. Mechanical, plumbing, HVAC, etc. Not very glamorous (to me anyway) but all those little details add up to a working house that I will one day celebrate and not curse because it doesn't have adequate heating, low water pressure etc. Now that we're getting toward the last third of the reno I now have to become immersed in the details. Lighting, paint colour, tile selection, ack! I know if I screw up on those things that no matter how well my husband has taken care of his details, my details will be out there for everyone to see. So, you might ask, what's your point? What does this have to do with anything - especially writing??

So many writers are doing NaNoWriMo (NaNo for short)this month that I keep reading about the deluge of submissions agents will be inundated with in January. I also keep reading that writers should please, for the love of God, please hold off on submitting. Why? Because it's the details that make your submission stand out. You might have got the bones of the book down this month. Maybe even some flesh and blood. But do you have the right nuances of character? Are your secondary characters fleshed out enough? Like a house that needs the right furniture, have you gone through the book and made sure the setting is solid and evocative and does it contribute to the overall mood of the room ... I mean book! So, so many DETAILS. You get my drift?

Those details - and like a house reno there can be hundreds of details/decisions to attend to - are critical if you want that book (or house) to shine. Even if you get sick of going through every scene (room) to make sure it flows with the rest of the scenes, even if you are sick of looking at lighting fixtures ... I mean descriptions! you need to to make sure your scene is as bright or as dark as you want it to be.

So, yes, the devil is in the details but the beauty will show in the book. And, I hope, my house. Good luck you NaNoWriMo's! Come January our books and houses may not be quite ready but they'll be on their way!

Slow Progress Better than No Progress

I don't know about you but the concept of 'slow' is a real irritant for me. I've grown accustomed to fast-paced city life. I grew up in a rural farming community and, believe me, I know the concept of slow. There is nothing more frustrating than being caught behind a crawling tractor with a wide-load combine taking up most of the space on a rural road when you are running late for an English exam! When I moved to the city I was at first overwhelmed by how fast things sped by - both highway and people! The stereotype of rushing here and there, get 'er done yesterday, no time to waste really is a part of city life. Especially city life with 3 kids, full-time job, dog, and home renovation to contend with! But I adapted - even welcomed - that faster pace.

When I began the journey into book publishing people warned me how slow it could be at times and it's very true - and very frustrating. Weirdly, lately things in this business seem to be changing at the speed of light (e.g. self-publishing, agents getting into that part of the business, etc). But everyone still agrees that publishing slows down over the summer. For once, I'm glad there is slowness. I'll tell you why.

Per my blog post last week, I have a few goals to meet over the summer. And every one of them seems to be going slower than my never-ending house renovation (publishing isn't the only slow business, people. Construction - especially on my house! - is SLOW.) I've only been trying to lose ten pounds for one week and I only managed to lose 2. I wanted to revise a chunk of my wip and I only got through 4 chapters. I wanted to clear out the mess of paper in my office and I only got through one pile. I wanted to organize the stuff in my house for a yard sale and haven't come close. I wanted to get my wonky back straightened out and it's still wonky.

But slow progress is still better than nothing. Going slow has its benefits (as all those proponents of slow cooking will tell you). Losing weight slowly tends to stay off longer. Four chapters of revision is a start and there is no way a quick revision helps a book become better. One pile of paper is one less to go through. And those other two projects - well, a back is a complicated thing and miracles take time. A shot of cortizone is not going to help me in the long run. The yard sale organizing … well, I just have no excuse for that (beyond the fact I hate going through stuff and would just as soon send all of it to Goodwill. I may still end up doing that.)

My point (and I do have one) is that sometimes it's better to take things slowly - especially when that thing is important to you. The care with which we undertake to do something always shows up in the final product. There is a time and place for speed, certainly. But if something matters to you, taking the time to do it right is a hundred times better than a quick fix, get it off my desk, approach. Inevitably, those quick fixes break faster and you'll just have to re-do them later.

So, count this writer as one who is thankful that summertime is slow. The livin' may not exactly be easy but the pressure cooker doesn't need to be on when it's this hot outside!

There's No Place Like Home - Now If I Could Just Stay There

We came home late Friday night from two weeks at the cottage. Great weather, no appointments and quiet time that allows me to read are luxuries I'm not always privvy to and I did enjoy my time there - although there were quite a few things needing to be done so cleaning out a basement, installing a water heater (well, hubby did that but I helped haul and lift the thing), painting a shed, installing a screen door (again, mostly hubby, poor thing) weeding the beach and trimming and stacking lots of brush did take up a bit of time. Still, it was away from the hectic pace of my life in the city and the kids do love not having to get up and rush and come home and rush and just, well, RUSH. But even with the nice feeling a break from the day to day craziness of my normal life it felt wonderful to be home. I don't usually experience that post vacation let down some people have. Usually, by the end of two weeks, I'm itching to get back home. I guess, I am at heart, a homebody. Probably why one of the main themes in my writing has to do with that elusive feeling of what home means to you.

For me, home is very much about establishing a physical home base. Somewhere where I can plant roots and make a safe haven for my family. I love the feeling of driving up my street after a time away, seeing my house and walking in my door, dropping the luggage and just sitting on my favourite leather chair in the living room and letting the feel of my house seep into me. I love my own bed and my own comforter and knowing I have everything I need right here without having to worry about whether I remembered if I brought the toothpaste or bandages. I'm in awe of people who can live like nomads and just roam the world, going where the wind takes them. I don't think I could do that. I read Elizabeth Gilbert's sequel to EAT, PRAY, LOVE titled COMMITTED and she wrote about how her partner was happiest when he had a home base, where he could have his coffee maker and a kitchen where he could cook his own food. She didn't mind going from hotel to hotel for six months while the U.S. Immigration service decided whether he'd be allowed into the country to marry her. He, on the other hand, was miserable. I totally identified. I need to know that after a certain time I have a place to come home to. To me, it's almost as good as being on vacation itself.

Unfortunately, this year, as soon as I've come home, I need to leave again. I have to go take care of my mom for a couple of days after her second surgery. Then I'll be going to Stratford next weekend with my girlfriend to see Evita and spend a couple of days catching up with one of my dearest friends which will be a total destressor if it wasn't for the driving to get there (which Jan is doing, bless her). And then when I get back I'll be busy packing up to move the contents of my home to another, temporary home (which isn't really my home)so that we can renovate my beloved house. This is causing me no end of stress. I know I'll settle in to the other house and my normal routine but I will miss living here - even if the house is old and the kitchen is a 1947 reject and the roof is ready to blow off. I still love my street and my neighbours and my old house. Sigh. There really is no place like home.

What about you? Are you homebodies or travellers?

Limbo and What it Does to Your Head

And I'm not talking about the dance game.

I'm IN limbo. So many things are up in the air, waiting to hear about things, waiting to start things, just a general state of limbo. Not just with writing but with homelife too. And it's seriously messing with my head and my already less than patient attitude.

I've mentioned before that we're on the cusp of a major renovation. We've been on this cusp so long I've worn a groove in it from the pacing. I've also got a few things out there in the writing arena and with the expected summer slow down in publishing I figure I'll be waiting a while on those things too. I swear, some days the groove is quickly becoming a pit. Sometimes it feels like I'll never get out of this limbo. I even looked up the definition of the word to see if it captured this frustrated, helpless, trapped feeling I'm living with:

LIMBO (of limbus limbo, fr. L, border - more at LIMP) 1 often cap: an abode of souls that are according to Roman Catholic theology barred from heaven because of not having received Christian baptism 2 a: a place or state of restraint or confinement b: a place or state of neglect or oblivion (proposal kept in …) c: an intermediate or transitional place or state

Oh, yeah, baby. Captured what I'm feeling times a bazillion.

Sometimes I do actually feel like I am physically constrained and, in my worst moments, believe I am being neglected/obliterated. But what I really should focus on is that Limbo is also that last definition: an intermediate or transitional place or state. In a real life example I can relate to: Limbo is the time you spend in an airport waiting for the flight to get you to that really awesome island vacation destination. I hate airports but they are a necessary evil in order to get me to that ultimate destination. They may be boring, even stressful, maybe downright uncomfortable but they are, above all else, TRANSITIONAL. Which leads me to another definition:

TRANSITION: a passage from one state,stage, subject, or place to another.

Or, better yet:

a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage or style to another).

Yes, I like that. I'm not in Limbo. I'm in Transition - my house will evolve from its old leaking, dysfunctional shape to a beautiful, made for our family work of art. My writing is evolving from one form (submitted proposals) to one day accepted, publishable, real life books.

Now if only someone could tell me how long I'll be in Transition. And what I can do to make this airport more comfortable...