Journaling, Blogging, and other Writing

Okay, my earlier post about Mermaids was not my final post for NaBloPoMo! I was thinking earlier about writing in various forms.

Journaling, for one. The other night our writing group was discussing journaling and keeping journals. It came to light that much of what was journaled by various members came when they were down or going through a difficult period in their lives. They didn't tend to write as much or as consistently when things were good. I joked that perhaps that was why I've never been good at keeping a journal--I'm too happy. (This does not count the reams of terrible poetry I wrote during high school. I think the stuff I wrote during university had improved somewhat, or at least some of it had. But I digress...)

Back to the journaling, it was only a joke, but it does make a kind of sense, especially when you think of Tolstoy's quote,

All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Meaning, I think, that there is a lot more emotional territory to mine for a writer in an unhappy family. Ergo, there's a lot more emotional territory to mine in a journal when times are unhappy.

Blogging, however (while I'm not especially consistent with that, either) seems to broaden the scope of journaling simply because it's a public venue. When we journal, we generally do not have the expectation that it will be widely read. When we blog, we know that many people *may* read it. Thus there's more impetus to make it interesting, to share thoughts we think others might appreciate or understand. The occasional rant or complaint still pops up because we have made this place our personal airing-space, but I think the best blogs offer more than those things. That's why I do better with blogging than I ever did with journaling. Because it's not just about me.

As for writing fiction, I think my feet were really set on that path by my junior high school English teacher, Mr. Patrick Reilly. He made me think that maybe I had something--not necessarily a talent, but an affinity, perhaps?--for storytelling and working with words. And although there have been detours along the way, I'm still on that path many long years later. So he might have had something there. I've just done a quick scan and I see that, not counting works in progress, I've written well over 600,000 words of fiction, poetry and non-fiction since I started writing seriously. I guess perhaps I do have an affinity for words. I sure do seem to like writing them down, at any rate.

I'm a...Mermaid!

You Are a Mermaid

You are a total daydreamer, and people tend to think you're flakier than you actually are. While your head is often in the clouds, you'll always come back to earth to help someone in need. Beyond being a caring person, you are also very intelligent and rational. You understand the connections of the universe better than almost anyone else.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

Rather surprisingly, it does sound like me in many ways...

And...whew!

Well, it was a NaNoWriMo of ups and downs, first time I've ever had to switch projects, first time without my little doggie companion keeping me company, first time I wrote large portions of the novel (most of it, really) on a laptop (and as a corollary to that, probably the most typo-correcting ever). But I swept past the 50k mark tonight as my kids cheered me on. That was pretty cool, as writing is generally such a solitary pursuit.

My daughter still has a few words to go tomorrow, so I'll return the favor then.

I'm not quite ready to type "The End" yet, so I plan to keep going for a few more days.

The Five Most Impressive Sights of My Life

Helen asked on her blog, "What are the five most impressive sights of your life?" Keeping in mind what I said earlier about my long-term memory, here are the things I think of:

1. When I was in university in Halifax I remember one snowy night when a bunch of us decided to go for a walk. The snow was coming down in big soft flakes and it was quite beautiful. Then we came to one of the other universities in the city (it's a big university town) and walked past the chapel there. There were lights on inside, setting a big stained glass window glowing. The window was flanked by two big evergreens, their branches heavily powdered by now with fresh snow. And the big flakes continued to fall past the glowing stained glass. To say it was beautiful is an enormous understatement. It's embedded in my mind.

2. My children just after being born. Now that was impressive! Both times!

3. The multicolored patchwork of the Canadian prairies, as seen when flying over them.

4. The azure/turquoise blue of the water around the Bahamian Islands, also as seen from above.

5. The drawings of Stephen Wiltshire, the "living camera." If you haven't watched this video, you must. It puts me in awe of the mostly untapped power of the human brain.

Time Travel Spreadsheet

I've been using, as usual, a version of the NaNoReportCard to track my noveling progress throughout November. This incarnation of the Report Card is specifically for use in Open Office, but I believe that somewhere along the way a glitch has entered the script. Today it is informing me, as my word count stands at 48563, that at this rate I will finish on November 21st.

While this is more pleasant than all the days it was telling me I wouldn't finish on time, I find it a little hard to believe...

NaNoWriMo Young Writers

I have to include a post this month concerning my group of Young Writers doing National Novel Writing Month this year. They are all so great! They're in junior high and high school, and have set goals ranging from 10k to 50k. I think we'll see a better than 50% success rate among these young participants, some of whom have already crossed their word count finish lines. Compare this to a rate of about 6% for all participants last year. Oh yes, these kids rock!

They're writing about a wide and wonderful range of things; magical schools made of food, coroners in New York City, knights and spies and fantastic worlds.

The high school students have had the support and encouragement of a wonderful English teacher who has really helped to keep them going and understands that they're doing something extraordinary. The world needs more teachers like this!

We're planning to celebrate with food and certificates and readings (although they're a little shy about that). It's been a real pleasure meeting with and supporting these young writers all month. And of course it's been extra motivation for me--I had to set a good example!

Mountains

My mom has one of those "quote-a-day" calendars and the page for November 16th was this:

Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I absconded with the page and have stuck it up beside my computer, because I felt it was a very apt thought for the writing life. It's anything but a straight road. Sometimes some of those winding paths turn out to be dead ends and we make our way back to the beginning. Sometimes they take us to unexpected places and we end up further up the mountain than we expected.

Most of the time we can't see where the path might take us at all. If we look ahead, over the treetops, we can see the mountain rising there in the distance. It's difficult to judge how far away it is, impossible to say what path will get us there the fastest. What's important is to keep walking. One foot in front of the other. One word at a time.

Thanks to Jusben at morguefile.com for the lovely photo.

Lego Star Wars II

I've been playing this game with my son the past couple of days and I have to post a recommendation for it--it's a total blast! The storyline is so similar to the movies it brings a smile to the face of any Star Wars fan. There's no dialogue, but the cutscenes are mimed so well you know what's happening.

One thing I really like about the gameplay is that it's challenging but completely do-able. The number of lives seems to be infinite, so that while there's a penalty to pay for dying, it doesn't involve repeating sections of the game over and over. One can always move ahead. The Lego characters are awfully cute and while it's only a two-player game, it's often the case that a group contains more than two characters, and players can switch between them. There are 99 levels of play, so it's good for lots of hours of fun.

If you like video games with lots of action, a fun storyline, and just enough challenge that it's not frustrating, I highly recommend this one. Oh, and if you're a Star Wars fan, it's just that much better.

Final Week of NaNoWriMo

Heading into the last few days of NaNoWriMo I think I'm in good shape to finish on time. I'm not ahead, as I like to be, but as long as I stay diligent I'll have nothing to worry about.

Last night I had an idea for the story just before I went to bed. I was tired, so I worried that I might not remember it in the morning. I took a sticky note and wrote on it, then stuck it on the kitchen cupboard where I'd be sure to see it this morning. It had just one word: Robots.

It made for some interesting breakfast conversation this morning. Heh. Being a writer is fun.

Tagged! Seven Random/Weird Facts

I've been tagged by amusing to do this meme, but I'm trying to think of seven such things I haven't already revealed about myself in this blog. (The rules, if in turn you find yourself tagged by me, appear below.) Well, here goes:

1. I sometimes get ganglions in my wrist. They are little more than a nuisance but can be tender, and if a person happens to smack one against something (say, for instance, the rim of the washing machine) and cause it to burst, the pain is momentarily blinding but then the ganglion has disappeared entirely.

2. I have read thirty of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels and am currently reading my thirty-first.

3. I have weak joints in my little fingers and sometimes they almost, but not quite, get dislocated. My maternal grandfather was missing this joint on at least one hand so I think it might be hereditary.

4. I have a younger sister who was born on my fifth birthday. If I remember correctly, we both weighed exactly the same at birth.

5. I have a very poor long-term memory but a good short-term one.

6. I'm currently taking bellydancing lessons.

7. I can wiggle my ears.

In turn, I am using the magical NaBloPoMo Randomizer to tag:

Angela
semba08
CynaraJane
Jennifer
Melissa

At this point in the tagging process I had a run of at least seven people who have already done this meme this month. Thus I have added these two not via a random process but just out of sheer orneriness:

Helen
Krista

Interestingly, quite a number of blogs I visited through the Randomizer belong to folks also doing NaNoWriMo.

The aforementioned rules of this meme:
1- Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2- Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.

3- Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

4- Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Your Backup Plan

This morning I came down to my computer and turned it on to look up an email address. It halted halfway through the bootup process, which is very unusual. I restarted it; same thing. Called in my computer technician (that would be my husband). After spending the morning working at it and trying different things, it's working again, although my Christmas list may end up consisting of just one item, a new video card. We'll see what happens over the next few days with it.

While this was disconcerting and annoying, I couldn't stop thinking about how much worse it would be if my NaNoWriMo novel were saved only on this computer. It's not: it's backed up on my flash drive, in my Google documents, and on my laptop, as well as on another computer in the house. Sound like overkill? Maybe, maybe not. All I can say is, it was one less thing to worry about this morning. One big thing.

Coincidentally, Sue Lick's column in the current issue of The Scriptorium is about this very same issue.

If you haven't backed up your NaNo novel or anything else you're working on lately, do it now! As soon as you finish reading this post! You never know when the unexpected will jump up and bite you you-know-where, and the peace of mind is well worth the few minutes of preventive time it will take.

What do you want right now?

A website asked me this question this morning, so I'll attempt to answer it.


Sitting here right now, I want to get ahead on my word count for NaNoWriMo. This year I'm just keeping my head above water every day, when usually I'm floating along on an inflatable raft. So, although one wouldn't know it by the way I'm procrastinating, that's one thing I want right now.

I'd also like to have all my housecleaning done, Christmas shopping finished and presents wrapped. But I'll stick to concentrating on things that are within my grasp.

I'd also like world peace and an end to all the ills of civilization, but again, beyond my abilities. If I start thinking about those things I'll have to go and lie down.

Crows

I was watching some crows out my kitchen window this morning and thinking what interesting creatures they are. We have quite an abundance of them in our neighborhood all year round. In the springtime the woods in back of our house are filled with the year's crop of young crows, trying out their voices. They create a real cacophony that goes on sometimes for days. Some people might not enjoy it but to me, it's a sign of spring, so it's welcome.


The three crows today spent some time foraging around in the grass and in the kids' playground area. I noticed one up in a tree pounding hard on the branch with his beak. I wonder what he was trying to dislodge? One took a bath in some water that had accumulated in a bin cover. The water must have been awfully cold (there was ice on the puddles yesterday morning) but he didn't seem bothered by it. Sometimes they just stand and look around, like they're hanging out. We know that crows sometimes make and use "tools"; I believe that they are quite intelligent. Observing them makes me even more certain of this.

In my 2005 NaNoWriMo novel, The Seventh Crow, the crow of the title was a very important character whom I really enjoyed writing. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining my affinity for crows and why I find them so fascinating. At any rate, watching them go about their business in my yard this morning and trying to figure out what they were thinking was an interesting exercise.

Easy Chocolate Fudge

My kids were begging for a treat so last night I whipped up some fudge. This is not the type you need a candy thermometer for; no long cooking and stirring and beating times. It's super simple and makes a very rich chocolatey fudge. I can't remember where I first found the recipe but I'm going to share it. No pictures because--it didn't last long enough!

Ingredients:
1 500g. package confectioner's sugar
.5 cup cocoa powder
.25 cup milk
.5 cup butter/margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
.5 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Method:
Sift together sugar and cocoa in large bowl (the sifting is important to avoid lumpy fudge). Add milk and butter. Do not stir. Microwave on high until butter is melted (about 2 - 2.5 minutes). Stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla and nuts. Spread in well-greased 8"x8" pan. Refrigerate until set (about an hour).

It's best kept in the refrigerator and served chilled, so not very good for bake sales, etc. But delicious!

Guilty Pleasures

This meme has been doing the NaBloPoMo rounds and I'm all for jumping on the bandwagon when it looks like fun. However, I've had to think quite hard to complete it, and I still haven't done the requisite six for each question. Is this because I have so few guilty pleasures, or so many that are not fit for discussion in polite company? Assuredly the former.

Six guilty pleasures no one would suspect you of having:
1. I love to eat the first spoonful of hot Kraft Dinner straight out of the pot with a spoon. I know it's a nutritional bugaboo and try not to serve it to the kids TOO often, although they like it. I can take it or leave it except for that one spoonful. Mmmmm, so cheesy.

2. Dark chocolate (but not the ridiculously dark stuff that tastes like straight cocoa powder). This is a recurring theme in the blogs I've read so far.

3. Stationery/Office Supply stores. Oh, yes, I can wander those aisles for hours.

4. Drying my clothes in the dryer instead of outside. I really feel guilty about this because I know I should have a clothesline. And I won't be indulging this one past next spring.

5. Eating chocolate chips straight out of the bag (chocolate again?).

6. Dressing the way I want to, not the way anyone else thinks I should.


Six guilty pleasures you wish you had the courage to indulge:

1. I've sometimes thought about getting my hair highlighted, but since I've never had any kind of coloring done to my hair it's a bit daunting.

2. Go on a real writing retreat/intensive workshop. It's not just courage stopping me, it's the money, too, but courage is a part of it.

3. Getting rid of things in the house that I don't like but hold on to out of a sense of obligation.

4. Give myself more "time off" and let someone else worry about my responsibilities.

Six pleasures you once considered guilty but now have made peace with:
1. Spending a whole day reading if the book is just too good to put down.

2. Ordering pizza once in a while.

3. Coffee. Yeah, now it's good for you. And real coffee cream--I can cut the fat/calories somewhere else.

4. Not keeping the house absolutely spic-and-span. I have a certain comfort level now and I don't feel badly about it.

5. Saying "no" sometimes. This is a big problem for others in my family.

6. Sleeping late on the weekends.

Thanks to rosevita at morgeufile.com for the chocolate pic!

30K!

Oh, yeah. Once you hit the 30's during NaNoWriMo, you heave a sigh of relief. Not that it's necessarily going to be a cakewalk from here on in, but there's a really solid feeling to having thirty thousand words behind you...

And a few of them might even be good. ;-)

First Purchase

Today I visited Daydreaming on Paper looking for inspiration. There's a very nice randomizer there that is sure to provide something to inspire you (if you click on it enough times!). Today it asked me "Do you remember the first thing you bought with your own money? With your first paycheck?"

I decided to write about the first thing I bought with money I made from my writing. I wanted it to be something memorable, although I'm sure there were other more practical things I could have chosen. The money was the pay from a short story, "Little Things," I sold to Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine. I decided to buy a piece of art that I could hang in my office.

The picture (this is not the best shot of it--bad lighting and lots of reflections) is of a Victorian-style home, surrounded with lovely gardens. It drew me first because it reminded me of my grandparents' home and also the house where I grew up--neither of course is exactly like this one but they have the same feeling. It also looks like it would be a lovely place to write, at a desk looking out one of the upstairs windows, or perhaps curled up in a chair on the veranda.

I love peacefulness when I write. It's just a commodity that's usually in short supply. ;-) I'm very glad that I invested the pay from that story in this picture. It's a concrete reminder that my writing goals can be achieved.

Christmas Shopping

Today I finally got started on my Christmas shopping. Well, I suppose I actually was started, having ordered a few things online, but this was my first trip to the stores. My sister and I went and managed to get quite a bit accomplished.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a strange memory problem--it's not a short-term memory thing, it's long-term memories that give me trouble. However, I have one early memory that is very vivid and involves Christmas shopping. I remember going to a store in the next town and shopping for a gift for my grandmother. I wasn't very old at the time, maybe seven or eight, and I didn't have much money of my own to spend. But I found a beautiful little changepurse, pink and studded with small crystals, that was perfect. I thought it was beautiful, at least; I don't know for certain what my grandmother thought, although I know she would have told me she loved it regardless. It's strange that this memory is so vivid. I can close my eyes and see the changepurse there in my hands.

I can't say I'm feeling any real Christmas spirit yet, however. The Christmas music playing in the mall sounds oddly out of place to my ears. Perhaps it's the mild-ish weather we've been having, or the fact that my mind is still mostly on NaNoWriMo. It certainly isn't that the malls aren't busy!

I've done more and more shopping online the past few years; I know it's not that great for our local economy, but it's such a time-saver for me that it's difficult not to take advantage of it. This year I've done minimal shopping online so far, and it's starting to get a little late for it--I worry about things not arriving on time. I might have to bite the bullet and put a few more miles on my sneakers this year.

One thing I find depressing about mall shopping is the sheer volume of absolute JUNK that's for sale. When I think about it all ending up in landfills it just makes my heart sink.

Oops, what started out as a fairly lighthearted post has degraded rather horribly. Maybe a rousing chorus of "Jingle Bells" to cheer us all up again...

Thanks to gamerzero at morguefile.com for the money photo.

Well, that's new

I just posted today's entry (A Little Self-Expression) and it posted under yesterday's date. How can this be? It's 8:02 in the evening (and no, it's not my office clock again!). Is Blogger having some kind of meltdown? It will be interesting to see what this one gets dated...

ETA: Okay, I have a guess at what happened. I saved the picture into a post yesterday but didn't write the post until today--but I guess it posted under the date the draft was started? Isn't that kind of a weird setup? What if I started a draft and then didn't finish it for two weeks? Would it still get posted 'way backdated? If anyone has the answers to these questions, I'd love to hear them.

A little self-expression...

I was visiting my friend Nancy's blog the other day and it was sporting a shiny new widget that lets one splash paint around a la Jackson Pollock. Here's the masterpiece I created. I rather like it. My first try, I wasn't keen on the colors I was randomly assigned, but this one attracts me.

I won't get into the "is it art?" debate because in essence, the question doesn't much matter to me. I think what matters is that it's personal expression, which is to be valued for its own sake. Goodness knows there are enough people in society whose outlook on life might be vastly improved if they expressed themselves through the arts once in a while. I also tend to try and take a larger view on these issues--is anyone going to care in a thousand years if it was art or not?

Yes, I am rather opinionated lately, aren't I? I'll blame it on the whole posting every day thing. But maybe both self-expression and posting every day are good for the soul.

The Clothesline Debate

It seems the "clothesline debate" is on again in certain parts of Canada. Ontario's Minister for conservation has made a recommendation that the province move ahead with legislation that would effectively negate all restrictive covenants that disallow clotheslines in subdivisions, condominiums, etc.

Personally, I think this is a good thing. The misguided sense of asthetics or false modesty that prompted these restrictions in the first place is outdated. Conservation has to be the overriding concern, and I think people who would like to save money and energy by drying their clothes naturally should have the option to do so. In a world where we are constantly bombarded by advertising for feminine products and sex-enhancing medications, some people are offended by the sight of clean underwear? Give me a break. People who argue that clotheslines have a negative effect on property values just aren't living in the real world.

To tell the truth, I don't even particularly like line-dried clothes. However, it was my intention to put up a clothesline this summer in order to enhance the green shade of my ecological footprint. I confess I didn't get the job done, but it's still on the list for next spring.

The clothesline was a constant in my childhood. We had one, my grandmother had one; everyone did. In the springtime a man would always come around door-to-door selling new clothespoles, the back of his truck piled with straight, smooth poles, stripped of bark, and nicely notched on one end to hold the line. Sheets and towels would always be flapping and snapping in the breeze, and I do remember the lovely outdoor scent if you buried your (hopefully clean) face in them. I didn't mind hanging out the clothes, but I never liked the chore of bringing them in--having to shake each piece vigorously to dislodge any tenacious spiders!

The radio discussion included one of the authors of a book about clotheslines, which I believe was this one: "The Clothesline" by Andrea VanSteenhouse and Irene Rawlings. I'll have to double-check the CBC website later to make sure I have this right. At any rate, it sounded like an interesting and fun book of reminiscences and photos. I'm thinking I'll check the library for it (when I have time to read again!).

Thanks to cohdra for the lovely clothespins photo!

Today's List

I'm a list-maker. I use lists to keep me on track, to ensure that I'm not forgetting about important things, and I suppose to feel productive. I love crossing things off my lists. Sometimes when I do something that wasn't on the list, I write it on just so I can cross it off. I thought I'd share today's list:

* try to catch up on my word count, currently about 3000 words.
* prepare and send out a partial manuscript to an agent who requested it this week.
* upload photos to an alumni website.
* visit the local high school at lunchtime to speak with my young writers program NaNo'ers.
* send out a Scriptorium note telling subscribers the issue is up and explaining why there's no actual newsletter this month.
* take care of some "real life" paperwork.
* write a blog post.

Of course I haven't included meals, laundry, school chauffeuring...all that goes without saying. I suppose that's a whole other list, one that I don't write down because it would just be too depressing. I suppose I'd have lots to cross off every day, though...

20k!

Thank goodness, I've reached the 20k mark with novel attempt #2. That means I'm only a few thousand words behind, which deficit I think/hope I'll be able to erase by the weekend. I'm having so much more fun with this novel, which I guess is what I really needed right now. The ideas and the words are just flowing. There's an excerpt on my NaNoWriMo profile page, which you can find here.

My desk during NaNoWriMo. Oh yeah, it's a mess.

Annett Wolf

Last Saturday, my daughter and I attended an afternoon "salon" to hear a talk by humanitarian and documentary maker, Annett Wolf. This feisty 70+ lady was born in Copenhagen and has led a very varied and interesting life, working in the television industry in Denmark, spending many years in Hollywood, working with gangs in Los Angeles and single mothers with HIV. She is now the head of The Wolf Foundation, a conservation organization dedicated to preserving the Arctic White Wolf.

The goal of the project is to study the wolves in the Thelon Game Sanctuary in Canada's Northwest Territories and hopefully other wolf packs as well. Wolves would be fitted with tiny microchips and tracked via satellite to better understand how they are coping with climate change and the ever-encroaching presence of humans.

Ms. Wolf is a very inspiring speaker. Part of her message was that with commitment and respect as one's watchwords, anything in life is possible. She also had a very interesting way of looking at the various stages of her own life, segmenting them out according to her focus at the time. Not all of us are going to live the kind of life she has had, but I think that's an intriguing way to think of things, because although there are generally certain constants in our lives, we do go through stages where our focus shifts. I think realizing that could be important in helping us make plans and prioritize our time better.

I feel quite privileged to have heard Ms. Wolf speak, and so does my daughter. Thirteen-year-olds are not necessarily known for being easy to impress, but my daughter enjoyed the entire afternoon and felt quite touched by Ms. Wolf's words. I was very glad we attended.

A NaNoWriMo first...

Well, it's a first for me, anyway. I've decided that I have to abandon my first novel attempt this year and switch to a new story.

The reason is simple enough: the first novel idea simply wasn't working for me. I didn't like it, I wasn't having any fun with it, and it wasn't going anywhere. It may be a novel I will be able to write at some time in the future, but this is not the time. I'm not sure why, although quite possibly the theme was just too serious for me to undertake right now. It's been a busy, stressful, and at times very sad few months, and perhaps my brain just needs something more cheerful to concentrate on.

Thus I've begun working on my second project this November, a humorous fantasy titled, "The Fifth Force." It's an idea I had long ago, and I'm feeling quite delighted to be finally working on it. I have a bit of catching up to do, but I think it is within my grasp.

My friend and fellow NaNo'er Nancy says that each time she does NaNoWriMo, she seems to "remember" how to do it--to get back into the groove of writing that required daily amount, of making the words come even when they don't want to. And yet, every year is also different from every other. I know exactly what she means.

Why NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo really don't mix

So I figured out what happened last night. I'm in my office doing a write in with my daughter and my sister (none of us are having a very good NaNo thus far). I remembered my post, which I'd written earlier in the day but didn't quite have time to finish and post--looked up at the clock, which says 11:30. Hurriedly I open Blogger, finish the post, and upload it, only to have it show as the 11th. I try re-loading, thinking there's a Blogger problem. No luck. After spending another ten minutes trying to figure it out, I realize--my wall clock is stopped. Argh! Who knows how long it's even been like that? Anyway, then I'm mad that I wasted time trying to fix the problem instead of working on my novel. Double argh! So I just edit it and shut down and give up on everything and go to bed. Sigh. Oh well, in my own mind it was still the 10th, so I'm not beating myself up about it.

Book Review: Your Novel Proposal

(Edit: Grrr...I posted this on the 10th but it's saying the 11th--something's messed up! Oh well, anyway...)
(Later Edit: And... now it's fixed, thanks to the fabulous Maricello. Hurray!)

Your Novel Proposal: From Creation to Contract by Blythe Camenson & Marshall J. Cook

Your Novel Proposal is an invaluable tool for anyone who has reached the point in their writing career when it's time to delve into the world of novel submission. Whether you are beginning the search for an agent or going directly to editors and publishers with your manuscript, this book will guide you through the process.

The book is divided into three main sections. In Part One: The Approach, the authors discuss publishing options, how to conduct the search for agents and editors, drafting the all-important query letter, and making your pitch. Part Two: The Package, deals with putting together a professional submission package that will make agents and editors take notice and provide them with exactly the information they require. Part Three: The Result, covers handling wait times and rejections, working with agents and editors through the acceptance and publishing process, and the technical side of having a book published. It closes with an appendix of resources for writers.

The subtitle sums up the meat of this book: "The complete guide to writing query letters, synopses and proposals for agents and editors." The authors present easy-to-understand instruction on what agents and editors are looking for, and, perhaps more importantly, what they are not looking for. There is much good advice in these pages, as well as insights into how the publishing industry works, and thoughts from many authors and industry insiders on the process of publishing.

The real treasures of the book, however, are the sample documents. One can spend any number of words explaining how to write a synopsis, but there is nothing like a real-life example to really drive the points home. The examples provide a starting-point, something one can modify and model on when writing one's own documents.

I can't recommend this book highly enough if you are serious about presenting yourself and your work in a professional manner. It should be on every aspiring novelist's bookshelf.

FreeRice.com

I know I had an idea for a brilliant blog post this morning...but now that I sit down to write it, I have no idea what it was. Sigh. Maybe it will come back to me overnight, perhaps in a dream.

Instead, I'm going to mention www.freerice.com, a site which launched on October 7, 2007. It works like this:

It's a vocabulary-building game--you're presented with a word and four choices of definitions. For every definition choice you get right, a donation of 10 grains of rice is made through the United Nations food program. The rice is paid for by sponsors who place ads on the site.

Now, ten grains of rice may not sound like very much. However, it builds up quickly. I was up to 900 grains after playing for maybe ten minutes. The site totals are impressive: to yesterday's date, 1,008,771,910 grains of rice had been donated. Yes, that's over one billion.

My only worry is that it will be too successful--that sponsors will pull out if the donations get too high. I hope this won't happen. Innovative ideas like this make me think there's hope for the human race yet.

Procrastination with a purpose--two purposes, in fact. I love it. I
think it's already had an efficacious effect on my vocabulary, too.

Spot The Differences

I was musing this morning about my "perfect" weekday morning scenario: I get up a half-hour before I have to wake the kids, have a peaceful shower, eat my breakfast and get dressed. They've done all their homework the night before, packed up their schoolbags, and laid out the clothes they're going to wear today. When I get them up, they don't complain about having to go to school, eat and dress with alacrity, and amuse themselves until it's time to leave. My husband's schedule meshes perfectly with all of this and there are no collisions of shower or bathroom times, lunch preparations, or anything else. I put the coffeemaker on to perk so it will be all ready for me to pour up when I get home from taking them to school. We all head out the door in a good mood.

The closer-to-the-truth version: I'm too tired to get up early and wake the kids when I get up. My daughter immediately informs me she has nothing to wear, it's gym today, and she hates all her gymwear options. My son opens his eyes and groans, "I thought it was the weekend." I head to the bathroom just as my husband is closing the door and the shower starts up. My daughter's friend calls with the awful news that their sheet of math problems is actually due today, not next week as they thought. My son remembers that his book order is due today and he also needs change for the bake sale. My daughter's lunch isn't packed yet and I'm out of ideas for what to put in it. I have ten seconds to get dressed so I can drive them. My son needs a snack for recess. I have to dry my daughter's hair, which I do with one hand while I'm paging through my son's homework scribbler and signing it. My daughter can't find her glasses. The iron leaks on my husband's pants. I notice that the pants my son is wearing are far too short, but it's too late for him to go and change them. We finally get out the door. On the drive to school, they both inform me that they forgot to brush their teeth.

I start to make coffee when I get home and realize we're out of coffee cream.

These are the days I wish for a "reset" button so we could just try again. ;-)

Brief Encounters with Trains

Helen's post about her adventures on the trains got me thinking about my own train encounters. I know she was speaking about commuter trains, but those are in short supply here (read: none). I was thinking of the VIA Rail trains that used to run between here and points west. They're still running, but not where I live. The service was discontinued years ago, which I still think is rather appalling.

When I was in university, passenger trains ran from here to Halifax, so it was an option for us students coming home for a weekend or other holiday to travel by rail. I only travelled that way a few times, but I remember liking it. The seats were acceptably comfortable, there was a canteen for getting snacks, and the trip felt a little like an adventure. The scenes in the Harry Potter movies on the Hogwarts Express reminded me of them a bit; not necessarily the look of the cars but the sound of the train trundling along the tracks, that slight swaying motion, the scenery zipping past outside.

When the trains stopped running we were left with the option of the bus, which fell far short in terms of comfort and general pleasantness. Buses were, by contrast, rather crowded, with less comfortable seats and personal space, and also, at that time, horribly dense with cigarette smoke. I learned to fall asleep pretty much as soon as the bus left Halifax and wake up about ten minutes from home. It wasn't ever a particularly restful sleep, but the time went quickly.

I think it would be a great adventure to travel across Canada by train. However, I don't think I'll be doing it anytime soon. I've just looked it up on the VIA Rail website for fun, and it would cost $2,396.85, just for me, one way. Whew! Perhaps most of my encounters with trains will stay in my past...

123 Meme & NaNoWriMo

I picked up the 123 Meme from Helen's blog and thought I'd combine it with my current NaNo novel. The instructions for the meme are as follows:

Turn to page 123 in your work-in-progress. (If you haven’t gotten to page 123 yet, then turn to page 23. If you haven’t gotten there yet, then get busy and write page 23.) Count down four sentences and then instead of just the fifth sentence, give us the whole paragraph.

As it's early November days yet, I'm doing the page 23 thing. I'll give you two paragraphs, since the one I hit by doing the instructions is only one line long:

She crossed her arms and tilted her head at me. "I know you were just talking to Uncle Lanar. And I know it can't be good--about the Chron."

There was no point in trying to hide it, I supposed. The crew was going to figure things out for themselves anyway, they'd all been on the bridge and seen what had happened. Still, I hated to be the one to tell my daughter that another Chron war could be imminent. "He thinks we may be in for some trouble," I said carefully.

Although the novel got off to a slow start, things have started happening. I don't know what they mean yet, but it's beginning to get interesting. It's another crazy Tuesday when I won't get to write a thing until after about 9:30 tonight. I hope I'll be able to stay awake long enough to make my word count for the day.

"Chew On This" Meme

I'll admit it--I went deliberately looking for a meme to do today. It got kind of funny actually, as I was surfing lists of memes and half of them are out of date or gone altogether...what does this say about the state of memedom on the Internet? But I digress...

I found this interesting meme over at Monday's a Bitch, because well, it is Monday and they're actually up-to-date over there. And I thought a couple of the questions were fun. So...

1. Did you need braces when you were younger?

I may have needed braces, because my bottom teeth are sort of crowded, although not in a really horrible sort of way. However, I don't remember it ever being discussed, and I'm not sure that financially it would have been an option anyway. I don't regret the lack of them, at any rate.

2. If you had to choose between being bitten by a vampire or a werewolf, which would it be?

Now, this is a tough one. I have a deep-seated fear of vampires, likely dating back to some ill-advised vampire-movie-watching when I was in high school, and Stephen King's Salem's Lot. However, the idea of immortality has immense appeal for me. I'd miss the sunlight, of course. As a werewolf, on the other hand, one could conceivably continue to lead a close-to-normal life much of the time, with only occasional lapses into horrible beast-ness. Hmmm...I think the immortality would swing me to the vampire side. Although I'd like to be unconscious when either bite occurs.

3. When was the last time you bit off more than you could chew?

It could quite possibly be this year's NaNoWriMo coupled with NaBloPoMo. I'll have to hold off on that verdict until the end of the month.

4. Have you ever chipped a tooth?

No, I don't believe I have. I had a dentist pull the wrong tooth one time, though. I think it was a perfectly good tooth. Later, another dentist filled and saved the one the first dentist intended to pull.

5. If your smile had a name, what would it be?

This is hard to answer, since I don't know the names of any other smiles for reference.

Therapeutic Housecleaning

I won't say that I enjoy housecleaning. If I could pay someone to come in and do it for me, I'd do it without a second thought. But I've been considering the role of housecleaning as a therapeutic act.

Right now I have a strong urge to give the house a really thorough scrubbing--I'm talking washing down walls, moving all the furniture out, the whole thing. The long-drawn-out construction project of putting in new stairs has made me put off that sort of cleaning for over a year; it's hard to put in that kind of work knowing that next week everything could be coated with sawdust again. However, it's becoming increasingly evident that the job is long overdue.

I think it's losing our dog that has really given me the drive to get going on the project, though. It's not that I want to "wipe out" traces of her. Far from it. I miss her every day. So there's something else going on. I was discussing this feeling with my mother, and she has encountered the same thing at times of loss in her life. My theory is that for some people, cleaning has a threefold effect: one, it simply makes one feel better if things are clean and tidy; two, it gives one something constructive to do; and three, that it is something over which one can exercise control. This becomes especially important at times when we feel helpless or not in control of events.

At times like this I tend to want to be very organized in my housecleaning efforts, but it doesn't usually work out that way. On a day when I'm not intending anything of the sort, I'll suddenly find that I've emptied a closet and am culling out things like crazy. Or out of the blue I'll notice how filthy the windowsill over the sink looks and without second thought I'm hauling out cleaner and cloths and giving the whole area a thorough scrubbing. It's sort of random, but I suppose it gets the job done.

So far I've only scratched the surface, not dug into any of the really heavy jobs. They're coming soon, though. I can feel it in my rubber gloves.

Hard Times in NaNoWriMo Land

This is the first time, in six years of doing NaNoWriMo, that I'm having trouble getting going with my story. It's quite disheartening. I have no idea what's wrong. I've had better luck being both more prepared and less prepared. I know my characters. I have ideas for plotlines. I just can't get up any kind of steam. Tonight I've been contemplating ditching this novel and starting over; it's only a few days into the month and I know I could catch up. It's just that I don't have any ideas waiting in the wings, either.

I guess I'll have to sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning. Suddenly I have new sympathy for those who have not had NaNoWriMo work out for them.

Little Dog Gone

I've been putting this post off for almost a week now, but the time has come. Last weekend we lost our dog, Holly, to an illness we didn't even know she had.

Holly was almost eleven years old, and we'd had her since she was a tiny puppy. She was a mixed breed, part black Lab, part German Shepherd, part terrier. I remember my sister called to tell me that there were puppies at the pet store; when we got there Holly was the last one left. I guess she was waiting for us.

She turned out to be just a great little dog. In the picture you can see her one "sticking-out" ear--that was her trademark. I called it her "begging ear" because she always had it stuck out especially if she was hanging around the kitchen, hoping for a treat. She was always enthusiastic to see visitors, unless she didn't know them, in which case she would bark like crazy, ready to defend us. She loved children and we never had to worry about her around them. She'd put up with any amount of crazy play, from being covered up with blankets to running outdoor obstacle courses. In fact I never worried about the kids being out in the yard playing as long as she was out there--I knew she'd never let a stranger near without alerting me.


She was also my writing companion. Nights when I'd be in my office, working at my computer, she was sure to be lying on the floor behind me, just keeping me company. She hated fireworks and thunderstorms and mail carriers, but loved being petted, and would often shove her nose under your arm to ask for a pat.

The end came suddenly. She seemed just as usual, but collapsed as we were heading to bed last Saturday night; we made an emergency trip to the vet, but there was nothing to be done. She'd had a tumor, probably on the spleen, and it had ruptured. The end came quickly as we patted and talked to her. I suppose we have to be grateful that she was in apparent good health all along, but that only added to our shock when things went wrong without warning.


I'm not what I think of as a "dog person," those folks who treat their dogs like little people and go to what I consider absurd lengths in their treatment of them. But I miss Holly more than I would have thought possible. She had a personality; her absence from the house is a palpable thing. Our lives are different, poorer, without her here. I know many people think a dog is "just" a dog, but that doesn't do them justice.

I'm sure we will have another dog, when the time feels right. I think it's good for the kids to have a dog, and I know now how important it was for me to have one, too. But it won't be Holly. She was a great, irreplaceable, little dog. We miss her terribly.

An Interesting Month Ahead

Well, it was the most difficult start I've made in six years of NaNoWriMo, I will say that. It seemed to take for-ev-er to get past the first two pages. My characters seemed stiff and stilted. I felt like they just didn't want to be here, and neither did I.

However, I did turn things around a bit tonight, made my words for today, and the path seems a bit smoother. I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.

My daughter wrote two day's worth in an early sprint, and my son, after dithering for a month, finally decided that he was going to try and participate. He's seven, by the way. Since they're both in the Young Writer's Program, they get to set their own word count goals. My daughter is aiming for 20000 words, and my son is going for 7500. She's writing fantasy, and he's writing science fiction. The apples don't fall far from the tree, my friends.

Should be a very interesting month in our house.

November is here...

Yes, it's November 1st, the start of National Novel Writing Month (write a 50,000-word novel in November) and also the start of National Blog Posting Month (post to your blog every day in November). Like I haven't got enough to do, I'm going to try both challenges. I've done the novel thing successfully five times now, but I'm notoriously bad at keeping up with my blog. So here we go. Fortunately, doing NaNoWriMo should give me something to talk about in the absence of anything else for NaBloPoMo. Twisted, very twisted.

There's the first blog post done. So far I only have a brief hundred or so words in the prologue of my novel, but I'm hoping things will pick up later.