Otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month. And even though I’m NOT participating this year, I’m completely jealous. I LOVE the sense of excitement and adrenaline that comes with being a part of this community. So, why would I give NaNoWriMo the cold shoulder if it’s such a blast? It’s simply not the right time for me to be drafting something new. I’m deep in another project and that takes precedence at the moment.
But I promise, I’ll be rooting you all on.
Are you planning on tacking NaNoWriMo this year? What’s your favorite part of participating? Did it before, but you’re ditching like me? What’s your reason for skipping it? I’d love to hear what everyone’s doing or not doing.
I LOVE reading YA. But I’m also a fan of not limiting yourself to only one age group or even genre of books. There are things to be learned and pondered out there and they come in all kinds of packages.
For months my husband has been reading THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand and begging me to read it also so he’d have someone to discuss it with.
When it was first published in 1943, The Fountainhead – containing Ayn Rand’s daringly original literary vision with the seeds of her groundbreaking philosophy, Objectivism – won immediate worldwide acclaim.
This instant classic is the story of an intransigent young architect, his violent battle against conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him.
I decided to read the book (I’m attacking it on audiobook) since it’s a very lengthy tome. This way I can listen in the car, on a run or even in the shower LOL! I’m on Track 45/68 so do not spoil it for me. But I can’t contain myself any more. I want to talk to people about this book–the parts I love and the parts I hate. The things that have been illuminated and the things that have been muddied. The hubby and I are a bit obsessed about discussing it and had a hell of a conversation after seeing the Steve Jobs movie. But I want more thoughts and opinions. This book has made me curious in so many ways.
Have you read it? What do you think? Do you want to read it? Do you love it? Do you hate it? What does it mean to you? Talk to me about it–just don’t spoil the ending for me or the book for anyone else.
This past week, my husband and kids spent two days laughing at me. Or rather, my childish delight at being in Universal’s Harry Potter Theme Park of Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and Gringotts. But they were pretty blown away by the awesomeness of the experience too.
We’re all HP fans. <3
But the thing that stuck with me the most was my husband wandering around, continually repeating how amazing it was to get to walk around in someone else’s imagination.
I can’t possibly agree more.
I wish you’d all been there with me too. Maybe we can have an SCBWI event there sometime, right??
But in the meantime, here’s a picture tour of JK Rowling’s imagination come to life…
The Hogwarts Express
Hogsmeade at night
Hogwarts!!!!
Butterbeer
Honey Dukes for Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts’ Every Flavor Beans
The Sorting Hat
Olivander’s Wand Shop…where the wand picks the Wizard.
Then…
I unexpectedly rounded a corner into Diagon Alley. My 12yo is still laughing about the squeal he heard me make before he got inside. <3
The Weasley Twin’s joke shop–Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes
And a fire breathing dragon atop of Gringotts
I applied for an account!
More butterbeer–because I could!
Even the toilets were just right!
There was also the Leaky Caldron
And Flourish & Blotts for school books too.
And there was so much more…
It’s a tiny picture , but it’s all I could upload with a panoramic.
And don’t forget the Knight Bus…
For getting around on the Muggle streets of London LOL!
And King’s Cross Station–Next time I’m going to get to go in. Platform 9 and 3/4 is on my HP Bucket list. <3
Ahhh I miss it already. I can’t wait to go back. What about you?
Have you been inside JK Rowling’s imagination? What was your favorite part? Are you planning to go? What is on top of your HP Bucket List?
Tuesday I wrote a blog post called Working Like a Dog. Actually, I wrote TWO.
Just as I finished…the entire post (except for one dog picture) disappeared. I sucked in a huge breath, but quickly calmed myself, figuring I could < back-up a couple pages to the original post. Or at the very least, I’d get a little computer announcement exclaiming that an earlier version of my writing had been happily saved in cyber space.
Nope.
Nada.
Nothin’.
I wasn’t a happy camper.
At this point (I’ve got other stuff to do, people) so I thought about posting the dog picture with a very long and throaty growl underneath it and letting it be an interpretive piece.
But I’d liked the concept, so I decided to suck it up and plow forward, rewriting as best as a could from memory.
And then something weird happened. I wrote a BETTER post.
The topic was the same. It still had almost all the same points, but it was clearly better.
As I scratched the dog’s ears, I couldn’t help but ponder the situation and what I came up with was…
WE HATE TO KILL OUR DARLINGS!!!!
In the small expanse of time that it took to craft a relatively short blog post, I’d gotten attached and invested in how I’d already started to write my piece. (Even if it wasn’t doing exactly what I wanted it to do.) But, the minute I no longer had that original structure of words, it freed me up to take the more fleshed out concept and roll it out like like a hiker’s sleeping bag at the end of a long day.
I don’t recommend losing blog posts. It’s aids in the loss of tooth enamel as you grind in frustration. But maybe–just maybe–sometimes it isn’t such a bad thing to start at the top.
Lesson accepted.
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever lost on the computer and had to start over?
Traditionally, when writers hear the phrase Working like a Dog, their minds go to coffee fueled, butt-in-chair, word sprints with fingers flying over keys. We picture grabbing a hold of the task at hand and refusing to let go until we find a book on the other end.
But having observed my pup, Riley, walk a half a mile down to the bus stop the other day, I’ve discovered there’s more to working like a dog then one might expect…
There’s exploration.
And it resonated with me. Sometimes part of working like a dog means needing to explore the world around us. When we do some mental meandering, we might find the spark that ignites our next story. Or, if not the actual spark, we may be filling our mind with all kinds of creative kindling. Which is just as important, because when the spark does arrive, it has something to ignite. There must be dots to connect–ideas to set aflame.
Dogs are smart.
It’s as important to give ourselves as much time to fill up, as we give ourselves to empty out between the pages of a book.
This is the balance of art and life.
And naps–don’t forget the importance of naps! Trust me, Riley knows what he’s barking about.
As a thanks for the canine guidance, tell me your favorite dog book. It can be anything from picture book to novel. I think mine is The Art of Racing in the Rain.
When I wrote my first book, TOUCHING THE SURFACE, I was obsessed with my musical playlist. I hardly ever wrote without it playing in the background. When I was brainstorming parts of the novel, I listened to certain songs over and over again. To this day, any of the songs on that list evoke very strong writing/book memories for me.
And then I stopped. Cold turkey.
I haven’t listened to a thing while writing since. And I’ve tried. I’ve made playlists for books I’ve worked on, but they never took on the life of that TTS playlist.
But… There’s always a BUT, isn’t there? Recently I found myself turning off my audiobooks while I’ve been running and listening to my workout music while giving the boys in the basement (my inner creative genius workhorses) time to day dream.
It’s been very helpful. I’ve had things I’ve been stuck on (for a thousand years) come bubbling to the surface. In excitement, I’ve done silly little dances of gratitude mid-run. Luckily I run on back mountain roads where there’s a limited amount of people witnessing my foolishness. Eek!
I’m not sure if these music fueled runs, or something else entirely, piqued my curiosity, but recently something possessed me to pull out the old, hardly been listened to playlist for my work in progress, CHASING ADAPTATION. Part of me wonders if it may have been morbid curiosity that caused me to dust it off. This novel has been written and rewritten so many times and with so many changes, I couldn’t even imagine the playlist being connected to my current scribbles.
But, as I listened, I found myself more than a little surprised at how perfect the songs were for the book I’m writing NOW. It seems a part of me has always known what I’ve been trying to say. The emotions, the questions, the feels and the wonder haven’t changed at all. Perhaps, the truly hard part is finding the RIGHT words to connect the dots between what’s always inside me and what gets printed on the page.
In honor of the boys in the basement, finally finding their groove, I thought I’d share one of the songs from the CHASING ADAPTATION playlist…
FIX YOU by Coldplay
When you try your best but you don’t succeed When you get what you want but not what you need When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep Stuck in reverse
And the tears come streaming down your face When you lose something you can’t replace When you love someone but it goes to waste Could it be worse?
Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you
And high up above or down below When you’re too in love to let it go But if you never try you’ll never know Just what you’re worth
Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you
Tears stream down your face When you lose something you cannot replace Tears stream down your face And I
Tears stream down your face I promise you I will learn from my mistakes Tears stream down your face And I
Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you
Do you have a playlist for your writing or any of your creative ventures. How does it work for you? What ignites your bones?
As I’ve been following the good, bad and ugly at my children’s former school district (lots of families feeling ambushed with an unwelcome and unorganized redistricting) I recently came across a few conversations where one group of people were having a violently strong reaction to ANOTHER negative thing happening in the district. But within these conversations there was debate, a bit of a clash on how this new problem should be emotionally and physically handled.
As someone who is no longer ankle deep in the WCSD do-do, I can absolutely understand the calmer heads who are trying to stay logical and grounded. But as someone who’s had this same school district pile negative things on top of me faster than I could push them off, I also feel a huge amount of sympathy for those who are hurt, frustrated and angry. *A Person’s a Person No Matter How Small In fact, I feel a little bit nuts in my ability to relate to the wide range of emotions people are feeling.
But to step outside of THIS particular situation, the whole thing has gotten me thinking about why some people are filled with an inferno of need to right wrongs. And why some people have the ability to roll over any ups and downs with little to no resistance. I think there are a zillion factors that play into this–especially individual personalities. But one thing that resonates with me is that each person has a TIPPING POINT. I think of this as the spot when everything changes. A tipping point might happen when someone has been asked to carry too much and the weight of a dust bunny might be enough to push them to fight.
But a tipping point can also be something that flips a person into a state of understanding, acceptance or perhaps defeat and exhaustion. As I said, I’m a bit familiar with both kinds of tips *Entangled Roots
Ultimately, it’s complicated. And while tipping points in real life are so stressful, we don’t want to be caught up in the middle of them on a regular basis, as a writer, we want LOTS of tipping points. It’s important for us to digest what we’ve experienced, so we can call upon it later to write relatable words that make people feels real emotions. We want to study other people’s tipping points and add what we’ve learned from them to our writing.
True story–no one wants to see a character that doesn’t struggle and grow. No one falls in love with a book where nothing ever happens.
As you observe yourself growing and changing and you see the people tipping around you, remember it’s more important to call on the universal feelings than the particular details. For me, surviving the WCSD has been a study in tipping points. What tipping points have informed your writing?
PS–sending all my love to my WCSD peeps. I’ve always got you on my mind. <3
Three day weekends mess me up. The rest of the week I’m usually late for everything. Accidentally doing Monday things on a Tuesday can make things interesting too. In order to solve this problem, I really think we should ALWAYS have three day weekends. One day for running errands and working around the house. One day for hauling kids to sports and doing other high octane fun things and then one day to just chill the heck out.
I see you nodding your head in agreement. The person who can make this happens totally gets a cupcake–a really good cupcake.
But in the mean time, while we’re waiting for the implementation of the standardized 3-Day Weekend format, you can give me a round of applause because I didn’t just write this blog post on time (despite the weekend confusion) but also managed to get in today’s YA Outside the Lines Blog written in a timely manner to. If you’re interested (and waiting for 3-day weekends) you can check it out…Getting Schooled is a Mobius Strip
Now I’m off to get some writing done. What would you do if you had an extra day added to your weekends?
ONE WEEK FROM TOMORROW MY KIDS WILL BE BACK IN SCHOOL!!!!!
(Me doing the happy dance)
Please don’t judge my enthusiasm–I really do sympathize with the back-to-school teachers. (((hugs)))
Truly, it’s not because I didn’t love having them home–we had a fabulous summer.
I got some projects done around the house. Cleaned out and organized all my clothes and the closets and drawers that hold them. *fist pump*
Then it was vacation time…
We went to Vancouver on our way to Alaska.
Then on to the Disney Wonder.
Tracey Arm, Alaska
Skagway, Alaska
Juneau, Alaska
And Ketchikan, Alaska too!
We also did some local stuff with visiting family…
The 9/11 Museum.
Summer in NYC
And then it was off to LA SCBWI!!!!
Caught a baby dragon <3
And happily hanging with my tribe. <3
And then a road trip to Lake Placid with my Mom…
Miracle on Ice
AuSable Chasm
And Whiteface Mountain.
But even when I was home, there was lots going on. Camps for the kids and just hanging out and enjoying the gorgeous Hudson Valley.
And while I absolutely did lots of writing over the summer, it was always writing that was done in and around other things. It was moments stolen here and there.
Which sometimes made it feel as if I was trying to type with a wee beastie in my way.
So, as great as the summer was, I’m looking forward to some longer, quieter, uninterrupted stretches of writing time.
And while my boys are moaning and complaining about their impending doom…
I think they’re secretly excited to see their friends again and perhaps to get away from their annoying mother.
(I know–hard to believe *snort*)
And of course, the trade off for that newly acquired work time will be lunches and homework and a never-ending schedule of after school and weekend sports and activities. But that’s okay. Although I have a reputation for hating change, I’m a seasonal girl–always more than ready for the next change of weather after the previous three months. And maybe, since I can’t slow down time (even if I wanted to) it’s a good thing that there’s some change I actually enjoy.
Love the one you’re with.
How do you do with the change of seasons? Back to school? Did you get more writing done over the summer of less? And what’s your favorite season? Mine’s fall–I consider it my own personal new year. <3
A couple weeks ago you may have heard me talking about The Ladies Noir, a group of YA writers who’ve banded together to help each other with the creation and marketing of our stories. Since then, the group realized The Ladies Noir wasn’t the right name to encompass the diverse writing styles of 30 different authors. So…drum roll please…we are now the YA Story Sisters (YASS) which I LOVE!
And to celebrate our, we are kicking off our new group with an epic back to school giveaway that includes 15 books from 11 of our authors…
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