July 2007 Archives

I'm reading Eric Maisel's book, THE ART OF THE BOOK PROPOSAL, which focuses on writing non-fiction. The first chapter is about "thinking" about what you plan to write. One section is called "Thinking as Strain and Terror." I so get it! When I write a novel, fully a third of my time--if not more--is spent thinking. It's hard and it's scary. For example, right now I'm thinking about the sequel to BEFORE THE STORM. What are my themes? What characters are involved? What is the action? Who grows and changes? How and in what ways? Who has points of view? All this involves a great deal of brainstorming, usually with myself, occasionally with a writing friend or my critique group, or with John when I can tear him away from his own creative endeavors. Why is there terror involved? Shudder. It's simple. What if I can't come up with the necessary ideas? What if the ideas turn out to be the "wrong" ones after I've spent weeks developing them? What if I can't make the suspense strong enough or the twists believable? At what point do you begin writing instead of thinking? I believe, as does Maisel, that most writers begin writing too soon, but then I'm a strong advocate of outlines--of knowing what will happen when. But there's a fine balance. Thinking can take the place of writing and the words never get onto the paper at all. Learning when to "think" and when to "write" is a matter of practice, and even after writing seventeen novels, I'm not sure I've mastered the balance. Right now, I have pages and pages of brainstorming notes. I think about the peripheral characters in BEFORE THE STORM and ponder ways they can fit into the current story. I think about what the reader knows at the end of B the S, trying to figure out if what she or he knows is actually The Truth. . . or are there still suprises hidden beneath the surface? I think about the central characters and how I want them to change by the novel's end and what will have to happen to bring about those changes. Through all of this, I feel the terror. I want to think faster. I don't have long to write this book. But thinking is a hard thing to rush. On another subject: I love walking to my mailbox these days! I can do it without glasses via the miracle of my cataract-less left eye. This may seem silly to those of you who have never been totally dependent on glasses, but for me, it's a monumental change in my world. To see the computer screen or to read, I still have to use my old glasses and my right, unoperated eye: I can't see close up well at all with my left eye. And with astigmatism, I don't have sharp distance vision in it and need to wear a contact in my right eye to drive (ugh. contacts have never agreed with my eyes). I have surgery on my right eye in another week and a half. Hope it goes as well. Then, a few weeks after that, I'll get new glasses that will fit my new eyes. Now, I'm off to the mailbox. Yippee!

. . . with your one wild and precious life?" That's one of my favorite lines of poetry. It's from Mary Oliver's poem "The Summer Day." Lines from poetry, lyrics from songs, and thoughtful quotations all get my creative juices flowing, and as I think about the sequel to BEFORE THE STORM, I'm focusing on that Mary Oliver line because it fits the story so well and will keep me on track in terms of theme. It also helps keep me on track from a more personal perspective. It reminds me not to waste a moment of the life I've been given. Words, put together just right, can have such power! What words resonate with you? Inspire you? Keep you grounded?

Well, I've put this off as long as I could. For a number of years before the new drugs were discovered, I had to take prednisone for RA. Prednisone is one of those mixed blessing drugs. It works miracles, but with a price. My price is cataracts. Over the past year, they've gotten much worse, so this Wednesday I'll have my left eye done and two weeks later, the right eye. I am honestly looking forward to this surgery and the improved vision that should follow, but wow. When one is as myopic as I am, there are mega challenges with this whole process. For example, after surgery number 1, when my left eye is much improved (I'll never reach 20/20, but will definitely be better than the 20/million or so I am now), how will I see to drive/read/work at the computer? Great question! The possible solution is to wear a contact in my right eye until the surgery on the right eye. So today I started wearing the right eye contact so that I can begin building wearing time. But this means that for four hours today, I can see with my right eye but not my left. I can drive okay--just tested that. Actually, it went quite well. But although I have three different strength reading glasses to play with, I cannot see the computer well at all. I can tell the next month will be a challenge! I've set the font options to "gigantic," but even that is not much help. Now that I've griped, I'd like to add that I feel incredibly blessed to see as well as I do. There are many people not as fortunate, and I know that in a month or so, I'll be doing much better. Until then, bear with my typos, please!

Yeah, it's about time! I've updated a few things on the website, including adding a more prominent link from the blog to the site (look to the right--> ) I know some of you will be happy to learn that I'm making more of my older titles available to purchase from my private stash (Check the blue box at the bottom of the menu on the website). I hear daily from readers who can't find these books. Someday I hope all my titles will be reissued by my publisher, but until then, I'll try to keep you well-stocked! Now that I've had a couple of weeks away from BEFORE THE STORM, I'm aware of changes I want to make, so it's back to revisions. I'm gathering feedback from my editor and agent--who both love the book, thank goodness--and I'm letting their thoughts roll around in my head along with mine as I decide what needs tweaking. This seems like a never-ending process, doesn't it? Meanwhile, I had an amazing creative nap today, during which I came up with an exciting idea for another book. So after I revise this one, then write the sequel, I'll be off and running on the next. Can't wait to sink my teeth into it. Hope summer's progressing splendidly for all of you!

                    This morning, I went out to get the paper and saw the deer I call Andy (not the fawn above) in the ravine next to my house, so I got my camera. I've been wanting to take a picture of this guy who has destroyed every shred of color in my yard, but he eluded me once again. By the time I got outside with my camera, a doe and her two fawns had taken his place, so I caught this adorable baby who was frolicking in the woods. Then all of a sudden, a stag appeared wearing a magnificent rack of antlers. I raised my camera and he looked straight at me and let out this blood curdling hissing sound! I took off at a run--well a really fast rheumatoid hobble--so the picture below is all I got of the stag. :)                     But let me tell you about Andy. I believe he's really a doe, but I started out calling him a he, and now can't make the shift. I named him Andy after a character in my just-completed novel, BEFORE THE STORM, because like the boy in the book, this deer is a little. . . different. First of all, he's a loner. All the other deer travel together, but this fella is either an outcast or an independent spirit. He has eaten every flower in my yard. Even the ones deer are supposed to hate. Even all the beautiful flowering lily pads in my little pond. We've found him peering in our windows on two occasions. I assume he's looking at his reflection, but it's odd to walk into the living room and find a deer peering in at you! Well, I was pretty angry with this deer. While at the beach, I told my kind-hearted stepdaughter, Caitlin, about Andy. She gently suggested that Andy may be the reincarnation of my beloved, three-legged Bernese Mountain Dog, Bruin, who was, shall we say, odd. He was also very attached to me and wanted to be close to me at all times. I don't think I believe in reincarnation, but I admit this idea has softened my heart toward Andy.  Although Andy is always around, nibbling in my yard night and day and looking in my windows, I've been unable to get a picture of him. I took one a few days ago, but when I looked for it on my disk, the picture was completely blank! This is one spooky deer. I welcome your thoughts from those of you more sophisticated about deer than I am.  

I have so many tasks on my plate now that I've turned in my book that I barely know where to start. First, I would truly like to muck out my office. What a mess. I'm sure I have bills and other important papers under the piles that litter every surface. This really must be done, but it's the least appealing I've all the things I have to do. Second, I need to create the storyline for the sequel to BEFORE THE STORM. My editor jokingly suggested the title AFTER THE STORM, but as I thought about it, I realized it makes sense. I know that one of you dear readers suggested that title back when I was asking for help, and that gave me the idea of BEFORE THE STORM for the current novel. I'll have to dig back through the old posts to see which of you suggested it because I think I promised you a prize! I'm most grateful. I realized as I was thinking about the sequel that I will not be able to share much about the story on the blog, as I did with BEFORE THE STORM, because it will give too much away about B the S. So I'll have to write about it carefully here. I know the themes I plan to deal with and of course I know the main players and the setting, but I don't yet know the action. John gave me a wonderful suggestion that I'm toying with in my mind--it's such a joy to live with another creative person! Third, I need to update my website. The homepage is quite out of date! I spend so much time on my blog now that I've neglected my website. I love the blog, though, because I can add to it myself as opposed to going through my webmaster, and it's so immediate. Plus it's fun to hear from readers and get that back-and-forth exchange going. Fourth, I need to plan some promotion for the release of the trade edition of THE SECRET LIFE OF CEECEE WILKES in late December. I'll be doing mainly an Internet promotion, but it requires a lot of time  to pull materials together. Did you realize that authors are often expected to do (and pay for) the bulk of their promotion these days? It's something none of us signed on for, but a necessary part of the business end of the job. Writers generally tend to be quiet, introspective sorts, so promotion doesn't come easily to most of us. We also dislike taking time away from writing to manage the commercial aspects of our work, but if we don't, then we lose sales, which results in no new contracts, and round and round it goes. Fifth, speaking of promotion, I'm interested in getting a MySpace site as many writers have done. However, I feel like a visitor to another planet when I venture over to MySpace.com. Therefore, I hope to hire someone young from my neighborhood to tutor me. I'll let you know if I ever get it up and running! Sixth, and still speaking of promotion, I'm planning a two or three week tour of the southeast for next June, when BEFORE THE STORM comes out. I'm excited about that! If only the timing didn't coincide with when John will be in France teaching a photography workshop. Finally, I need to get my house ready for my neighborhood book club, which I'm hosting tonight. As I've mentioned before, we read Anne Lamott's TRAVELING MERCIES. We try to serve food mentioned in the book under discussion, so I told them I'd be serving "drugs, alcohol and laxatives." However, I think it best if I actually put together something a little less toxic, so I'm off to bake some of my favorite simple, simple brownies. Here's the recipe: Decadent and Easy Brownies 2 boxes Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Brownie mix and 3 big Hershey's Symphony Bars. Mix the brownie mix according to package directions. Spread half the batter in a 9x11 inch pan. Lay the symphony bars on the batter. Spread the other half of the batter on top. Bake according to package directions. Accept compliments!   

I don't think anyone can take a trip--of any length, to any locale--and come home unchanged in some way. My week at the beach was no exception, and I thought I'd share some of the things I learned. --I packed a huge carry-all full of books, fresh notepads, and stacks of Publishers Weekly magazines, fully intending to read reviews, get through at least three books for pleasure, draft the proposal for my next book and toy with a nonfiction idea. I learned I needed a break from work, period. I managed to read one book (more about that later). That's it. --I learned it takes nearly a week of sleep to make up for a month of late nights and early mornings. --The book I did read, TRAVELING MERCIES by Anne Lamott, was actually a "re-read." I read it years ago, but my neighborhood book club is discussing it this week, so I wanted to refresh my memory. I adore this book. I admit that Lamott is not for everyone--her politics are ultra-liberal, her Christianity is a tad unorthodox, her language is spicy, her life choices are occasionally dubious. All that aside, I do think she is for most people. She is such a brave writer in her honesty, in her willingness to let her warts show. (Or rather "Her Aunties," as she calls her dimpled thighs, with great affection). I laughed on nearly every page, and cried on several more. Ultimately, she left me feeling good about me. So I learned a) that I still love her writing and want to move her latest, GRACE, EVENTUALLY, to the top of my to-be-read pile and b) that I want to be a braver writer. --John and I had twenty-one years on the next oldest couple at our beach house. (There were five couples altogether, and three little kids). I learned that I know absolutely nothing about the slang of the twenty-and thirty-somethings, much less the slang of the twenty-first century teenagers I just wrote about in my Work-in-Progress. That's why I love Young Adult author Scott Westerfield's advice on using (or NOT using) slang when writing from a teen perspective. Among other things, Westerfield cautions against the use of slang because it not only dates a story, but the current slang in San Francisco may not be the current slang in NY. Slang is not important to a story; it's the action and emotion that counts, and in that arena, I feel confident. --I learned it really doesn't matter what bathing suit you wear. The Aunties will be there regardless, and no one really cares. Or if they do care, so what? --I got to know five new people quite well--Michelle, Tom, Meg, Sam and Sadie--and discovered that where there are differences in age and politics and life experiences, there are far greater similarities in loving and caring and belonging. --I learned that, one week after completing my latest novel, I feel really good about it! So what have you all learned on your most recent trips?

                          BEFORE THE STORM is done! I tightened the last scene on Sunday and emailed it (105,000 words, 406 manuscript pages) to my editor and agent. Now I wait for their thoughts on revisions. Meanwhile, it's vacation time! Woo hoo! Actual relaxation. We're having such a great time. I slept almost all day yesterday. It felt soooooooo good after several weeks of sleep deprivation. There are ten adults in this house and three kids, age three and under. It's noisy but lots of fun. We're in a development on Bogue Banks with a pool. I'd forgotten how great it is to putter around in the water, especially with the little ones. Haven't made it to the beach yet--sun phobic--but hope to one morning soon. Today John and I are going to the little town of Beaufort  to explore. One of the cool things about this development is that it has a "private island" out in the intracoastal waterway. There is an incredibly long walkway through the marsh and sweetgrass leading out to a lovely gazebo where we've watched the sunset. I wisely brought my (mobility) scooter, the Rascal, with me. I rarely use it these days, but rheumatoid arthritis and a long walk don't go together very well, so I knew it would be a necessity if I wanted to go to the little island.  Here's a view of the gazebo from the walkway. My grandson, NJ, loved getting a ride back with his wind-blown Grammy Di! I'm starting to think about the sequel to BEFORE THE STORM. It's fun to think about the various possibilities, especially when I'm not feeling any pressure (yet) to produce something concrete. I'm also dabbling with a non-fiction idea. As for what I'm reading: TRAVELING MERCIES, by Anne Lamott. I read it long ago, but am re-reading it for my book club. It's non-fiction, and a wonderful book I  highly recommend about one woman's spiritual journey. Lamott is so funny and irreverent, and yet her epiphanies are profound and could resonate, I think, with just about everyone. I was just instructed it's time to get off the computer and back to the fun, so that's all for now.