March 2007 Archives

I'm in New Jersey for the week, staying with my sister, and my Internet access is limited, so I won't be blogging as much as usual. Right now, I'm typing this in the Madison, NJ Opium Den. I'm also working on the WIP while I'm here, writing in my sister's lovely sunroom with a view of trees and birds and squirrels. I thought I'd share a couple of photos from my speaking engagement at the Page Walker Arts and History Center in Cary. Author/friend Brenda Witchger took the pictures. There was a raffle after the speech, so the top pic is of me pulling winning numbers from a basket held by Karen Kiely, librarian at the Cary Library and event organizer extraordinaire. It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad I had the time to do it in my crazy schedule.  

I was sitting on the porch this afternoon, planning the speech I'm giving tonight (If you're near Cary, NC--stop by the Page Walker Arts and History Center at 7 pm), which got me thinking about my imagination. It's overly active and always has been. I wonder if that's true of all fiction writers? When John and I were watching STRANGER THAN FICTION the other night (a movie in which the character in a novel is a real person who hears his life being narrated in his head), I admitted that I heard my life being narrated in my head when I was a kid. I shouldn't have said anything, because he thought that was really, really scary, while I thought it was kind of normal. For example, at age 9 or 10, I might have gotten out of bed in the morning thinking "Diane stretched her arms over her head as she stood next to the bed. Through the window, she spotted the neighbor's cat chasing a squirrel. Reluctantly, she tore herself away. It was time to get ready for school. . . "  I think this simply came from being a voracious reader. I fear John thinks it came from mental illness. I no longer narrate my life. I do however still possess a ridiculously active imagination. I can't approach a closed door, whether to the laundry room in my house or the restroom at Starbucks, without something like the following flashing through my mind: Maybe there's a body on the other side. I can't pass a young woman standing at a bus stop without thinking something like: Maybe she's waiting for her illicit lover to arrive. You get the idea. So I'm curious. What are your imaginations like? Are you rooted in reality or constantly on the lookout for a dramatic twist of events? Oh, and just for fun, what's your sign. I'm not a believer in astrology, but it might be interesting to see if there's a correlation between astrological sign and imagination. I'm a Pisces.

Would you believe I've rewritten the outline for the work-in-progress yet again? Since I've made a couple of dramatic changes in the story, I wanted my agent to have the most up-to-date outline as she and her co-agents begin selling the book overseas. I don't think I've ever revised an outline this many times, but the story became richer with each re-telling, as stories tend to do. The outline is now fifty pages long. If only the actual book manuscript was so well-polished! Thank goodness I have a couple more months before my deadline.  Which brings me to an update on publication dates for next year. As of today, the plan is for THE SECRET LIFE OF CEECEE WILKES to come out in trade paperback in January '08. Then the current WIP (formerly known as THE SEA TENDER) will be released in June '08 (rather than April. A better month for a beach book, I think). The second book I'll be writing this year will be out in January '09. To link or not to link? I was not planning to write two connected books this year. The book formerly known as THE SEA TENDER didn't lend itself to a sequel. However, when I made those dramatic changes to the story, the idea for the sequel appeared out of nowhere. I'm thrilled, because I like these characters and I want to see how things turn out for the person most in jeopardy at the end of the first book. Those of you who have been following the saga of the title. . . the current top contender is BEFORE THE STORM, thanks to ideas a few of you gave me a couple of weeks ago. We'll see if it sticks.

    A definition of Writer's Block from Wikipedia: Writer's block is a phenomenon involving temporary loss of ability to continue writing, usually due to lack of inspiration or creativity. I think I had true writer's block only once. That was in 1991, when my twenty-year marriage came to a sudden, shocking and abrupt halt brought about by dastardly behavior on the part of my formerly delightful husband. I was working on FIRE AND RAIN. Suddenly, all I was able to write was really terrible, self-pitying poetry. That lasted several months. Then I fell in love again, which was better for the soul, but even worse for the writing, because all I could do was sit around with a goofy smile on my face. Eventually, I was back on an even emotional keel and FIRE AND RAIN was completed--late, but in fairly good form. Since then, I've experienced many periods when I have trouble writing, but I think calling them "Writer's Block" is a cop-out. We writers act as though we have the most grueling job on the face of the planet. Writing a novel takes some talent, some learned skills (how to string words together, structure a book, create fabulous characters) and a whole lot of "just doing it." That's one reason why I write a sh%##y first draft. Then it doesn't matter how bad it is; the important thing is I'm writing. The definition above implies that we need inspiration to write. I know many unpublished writers who write only when the inspiration strikes, and that's fine if they want to stay unpubbed. But the mark of a professional writer is being able to write when uninspired. Some days that's easier than others. This little pep talk was more for me than for you. Every once in a while I need to remind myself how lucky I am to be a working writer. The laundry, the web-sudoku, the phone calls, the blogging and all other distractions can wait. I've got work to do.  

Thanks to those of you who sent me the following item from Publishers' Lunch--the daily online subscription "newsletter" that carries the latest deals made with publishers, among other news of  interest to the professional book community. The title will almost certainly change, but it's nice to see it in print for now. “Author of THE SECRET LIFE OF CEECEE WILKES Diane Chamberlain’s THE SEA TENDER, about a mentally disabled boy who unexpectedly saves local teens from a fire, capturing media attention as an unlikely hero, only to be later accused of the arson itself, to Miranda Stecyk at Mira, for two books, by Susan Ginsburg at Writers House.”

This is non-fiction--not my usual fare--but it was recommended by a friend and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's the spare memoir of a German girl whose family moved to West Papua, New Guinea so her father could study the language and culture of the Fayu tribe. The Fayu was made up of several warring sects, and nearly all disputes were settled by killing, followed by continuous cycle of revenge. The three Kuegler children and their parents earned their welcome to the area and were soon seen as valued members of the tribe. Sabine and her siblings knew little of any other life than that of the jungle. Reading about the unfamiliar culture of the Fayu and how Sabine and her family fit in with them was  fascinating. The real heart of the story to me, though, is how the Fayu changed through contact with the Kueglers. Rather than proselytizing, the Kueglers set an example for the Fayu through their own peaceful resolution of differences--an example that came to be embraced by the tribe over the years. Sabine finally leaves the jungle for boarding school at the age of 17, and her re-introduction to civilization is not smooth. She truly was a young woman who didn't fully belong in either world. In reading interviews with her, it seems she still struggles with this dilemma. My only issue with the book is that it was so spare. I wanted more. I had many questions about Sabine and longed to understand more about her, especially during her adolescence. Having worked on my own memoir, I know that "remembering" is difficult, both cognitively and emotionally, and perhaps that is part of the problem. I highly recommend the book to those of you who enjoy reading about other cultures, told by a sympathetic fish out of water.

Have you seen this lovely movie? I adored it. As a matter of fact, John and I liked it so much that we watched it two nights in a row.  First, it is neither comedy or drama. I guess the word "dramedy" would best describe it. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll simply say that a thoroughly neurotic novelist Karen Eiffel (played brilliantly by Emma Thompson) creates a character, Harold Crick, who actually exists. As Harold lives his boring life as an IRS auditor, he begins to hear Karen's narration of his every move. He seeks the help of a literature professor played by Dustin Hoffman as he tries to find out who is telling his story. During this search, his life becomes rich with meaning, and he falls in love (the least credible part of the movie, but who cares?) with adorable Maggie Gyllenhaal. His search for the novelist grows more desperate as Karen nears the end of her tale. I was NOT a Will Ferrell fan before this movie. If you are a fan of his humor, you might want to skip this film, because the reviews I've seen from people who love Ferrell's comedies were generally negative. They found Stranger Than Fiction boring. But Ferrell plays Harold Crick with understated compassion and makes him a sympathetic and believable character. He moved me to tears at one point. The screenplay is amazing! The underlying themes are both simple and profound:

• live in the moment
• sacrifice your own needs for those of another
• hold on to your integrity
• writing a novel is harder than you think (I added that last one :)  )

The ending will leave you happy, like the endings of my books. Four and a half lighthouses.

Sometimes it seems as though there are only 7 or 8 of us visiting my blog, since we're the chatty ones. I just installed a statistics counter, though, which reported 71 visits to my blog in the last 24 hours! And those 71 people read more than 170 posts between them. So I welcome you quiet ones. Please say "hi" when you're in the mood. I'd love to get to know you.  

Okay, I'm going to be perfectly honest. The book I'm writing is awful. Thank goodness this is the seventeenth book I've written or I'd be worried. Having done this sixteen times before, I know that as I'm nearing the end of the first draft, I always feel this way. ALWAYS. As I've mentioned before, I adhere to the Anne Lamott "sh&##y first draft" approach to writing, and wow, is this one sh&##y. The way I deal with this horrible sense of having created a mess is by picking up one of my older novels and reading a few pages. I can remember how hideous I thought that book to be after the first draft, and that I eventually turned it into something pretty darn good. It reassures me. So that's what I'm doing today:

• writing a bit
• agonizing
• reading a bit
• feeling better
• having a snack
• writing a bit
• and so on

Hope you're all feeling good about your work today!    

I had such fun yesterday. I wrote in the morning, then went to a nearby Borders cafe to meet Emilie Rose and Sally. . . yikes! I didn't get Sally's last name, but will find out. Even though I don't write romance per se, I've always belonged to Romance Writers of America because the pubbed authors in that group are a savvy bunch of ladies (and a couple of men) when it comes to the business side of writing and publishing. So I finally got around to joining the local chapter, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers. Emilie invited me to join her and Sally for coffee and a chat. She didn't need to twist my arm. Emilie is quite an inspiration. She writes about a gazillion category romances a year while raising four (4!) sons. I really liked Sally, too. She has a very calming presence and is in the enviable position of writing whatever she wants without thinking about the market. A couple of hours later, I met up with the crime writers whose company I've come to enjoy. Okay, so I don't write crime either. What DO I write? My books have always defied easy categorization. I usually say they're focused on relationships of all sorts and have a mix of romance, suspense, intrigue and mystery. In the last few books, I do seem to have a hefty dose of criminal behavior, so the crime writers are a good fit. We went out to dinner to celebrate the launch of Sarah Shaber's latest Simon Shaw mystery, after which we tromped in the rain over to Quail Ridge Books to join the crowd waiting to hear Sarah speak. She did a fantastic job and I can't wait to read her book.  Here's a pic of us at dinner, taken by Bren's husband, Bob Witchger. Top row: Bren Witchger aka Brynn Bonner, moi (with my hair looking far redder than it is!), Margaret Maron, Nancy Olsen, the owner of Quail Ridge Books and my favorite bookseller in the universe. Bottom row: Alex Sokoloff, Sarah Shaber and her proud husband Steve.