Blogger Awards

So… I’ve been nominated for a few blogger awards, and I have really slacked on responding to any of them. I apologize. I have been tagged for the Beautiful Blogger award, the Candlelighter Award, and the Creative Blogger award. All of these require that I tell a few things about myself, and tag other bloggers. Since I’m combining, I’m going to do things a little bit differently. You can always count on me to break rules.

7 things about me:

1. I get overwhelmed easily. Like, having to do this post feels huge and crushing to me. Of course, once it’s done, I’ll ask myself why I got so worked up about it.

2. I have no respect for people who ignore basic parking laws. Like parking in the fire zone to drop your kids off in the morning. Not OK.

3. I like terrible SciFi, like Mansquito. Have you seen it? You should. It’s awesome. Or try Sharktopus.

4. My husband asked me to our High  School prom and I turned him down. That’s his excuse for never officially asking me to marry him.

5. I am much more shy than people think.

6. If you want me to go into instant hysterics, show me any picture of David Hasselhoff. Preferably one of him on a motorcycle, or showing man-cleavage.

7. If I wasn’t always working so friggin’ hard, I think I could be the laziest person ever.

Blogs I read and LOVE:

Anne Chaconas – fellow writer and mom, and she has a worse potty mouth than me. Anne nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger award yesterday.

Amelia Curzon – the author of Mungai and the Goa Constrictor, and a very generous writer/blogger. Amelia nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger award today.

Lena’s Lit Life – the author of Edges, and a super cool person.

Mainely Hopeful — a fellow cancer survivor blogs about her treatment, with an always optimistic attitude. Go girl!

The Monster’s Ink – forever snarky and political, Alyson Miers says the things that need to be said.

The Sweaty Knitter — Karen’s a fellow yarn whore, though she’s much more prolific than I.

The Writing Sisters — Laurie Myers and Betsy Duffey are the daughters of Betsy Byars and have an inspirational blog that I can’t wait to read every day.

Moving on to the next book…

“If next year nobody can remember my name, I can still work hard. Because I know how to work hard. If nobody likes my next book, I’ll put it in the drawer and I’ll write the next book.” — Tama Janowitz

I have found myself in this  situation. No one seems to like my latest book… at least, not well enough. So I have some choices. I can choose to self-publish, I can choose to soldier on to smaller houses, or I can choose to move on to the next book.

Writing ambition

From Cynthia Ozick:

“One must avoid ambition in order to write. Otherwise something else is the goal: some kind of power beyond the power of language. And the power of language, it seems to me, is the only kind of power a writer is entitled to.”

It’s hard to avoid ambition, isn’t it? We all  aspire to be something more–and that’s a good thing. But to be something specific, best-selling author, for instance. Wanting to be that, desiring only that, well, that’ll eat you alive.

When does inspiration come?

I hear a lot of young (and by young, I mean “new” not necessarily their age) say that they don’t get inspired to write. Well, there are a lot of good quotes about not waiting around for inspiration, but this is one that I haven’t shared before, from Dave Barry.

I write for a couple of hours every day, even if I only get a couple of sentences. I put in that time. You to that  every day, and inspiration will come along. I don’t allow myself not to keep trying. It’s not fun, but if you wait until you want to write, you’ll never do it.

There are lots of days when you don’t feel like you WANT to write. But that’s the job. You sit in the chair and you just do it. The inspiration will come, or it won’t, and that doesn’t matter, because you are doing what you need to be doing: writing. Come what may.

Ma Laja… the beginning

This week, I am guest blogging over at Amelia Curzon’s blog. She is the author of Mungai and the Goa Constrictor, a modern fable that plays out in the rainforest. She’s also quite fabulous for allowing several bloggers to guest blog on her page. Thanks Amelia!

You may also remember that my friend Lois challenged me to write a new La Diabless story, and that is what I have up on Amelia’s blog this week. It is a TOTAL departure from anything I’ve ever written, and I’d love your feedback. Here’s an excerpt:

As soon as she put her foot in the shoe, she feel like Cinderella. Oh! It feel good. But there was still the matter of the other one. She lean up against the wall, and push the hoof in gingerly, afraid for the shoe, and she own hoof. But there. It fit. Just like the other one. Now she stand in front the mirror and watch sheself. Is the first time she could ever lif’ up she skirt them and look at two foot. She whole life, she had to hide. How many years is that now? So many she stop counting. She take a little walk in front of the mirror to see how the shoes fit. She smile. No more: one foot down, drag the cow heel. Now she was walking regular like other women. Who would know what she was? And then these days, people didn’t look so hard at you. They was too busy wrap up in they own business to pay anybody else any mind. Not that it didn’t have plenty maco spreading gossip around, but even the maco them was busy with they own thing. It was the t.v. that did it. As soon as that box come in everybody house, people stop looking out they windows. That make Ma Laja happy. She didn’t need anybody watching she. Staying in the shadows by the edge of the road was how she survived all this time. Now the road them paved, and all them fellas driving on it fast.

As she stand there admiring the new shoes, the warm blood spread almost reach she foot.

“Lord, no!” Ma Laja said aloud. “Not mih new shoes!”

She quick-stepped out of the way of the spreading pool, and toward the door of the shoe store. She took one more look back inside the store, at the boxes of shoes that other customers had tried on during the day, the closed blinds that meant the store was closing up, the manager’s blood soaking up the carpet, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling fan that rotated slowly, whoop, whoop, whoop over their heads, and her own self in the mirror, so pretty, the manager couldn’t resist letting she try on that one pair of shoes even though he was already locking up.

Read the rest of this story on Amelia’s blog.

This week in writing… Shakespeare edition

To commemorate The Bard, I thought I’d do this post in iambic pentameter. And then I remembered who I was… and who I wasn’t.

First things first. You know that  Pottermore is up and running, right? Good.

Next up, we recently celebrated the Bard’s birthday #448, and still looking good! Mark Ravenhill wrote a new sonnet to commemorate the great playwright. There’s also a meme circulating the interwebs of all the words that we use today because Shakespeare made them popular. Haven’t seen it? Here you go.

Also, big news, the world of Children’s Literature has “exploded.” (Um. I think we already  knew that.)

On the SCBWI blog, Malcolm Gladwell (of Blink and The Tipping Point) talks about the future of publishing and why editors are “king.” Over at Horn  Book, Stephen Roxburgh also takes a look at the future of publishing in this very, very, VERY lengthy article. (The upshot: authors and illustrators are OK but publishers are screwed.)

Speaking of publishers, Forbes discusses Amazon and Apple’s effect on  publishing, and how big publishers who are now shunning Amazon are probably going to come crawling back. Yowza.

The Hunger Games is doing for North Carolina, what Twilight did for Forks, W.A. Readers are flocking to the destinations of their favorite books. And speaking of Hunger Games, last weekend it got knocked off the top spot for movie-goers, replaced by Think Like A Man.

At the LA festival of books, some YA authors talk about inspiration, and some interesting hate mail.

For newbies, a list and definitions of basic publishing terms from Jane Friedman. You may need to know those if you’re going to query Capstone’s new trade publishing division for young readers.

As for our future writers… is there any hope to develop good writing when a computer robo-reads kids essays? I’ll tell you right now that I’ve been teaching my older kid that there are two ways to write: the right way, and the way that will get you points on a test.

That news may make you grumpy as a parent, but know who’s really grumpy? These 10 writers, courtesy of Flavorwire. #1 Franzen. #2 Sendak. Awesome. What do they have to be so grumpy about? Sheesh! (On the list is my fellow Trinidadian, V.S. Naipaul, who seriously, seriously needs a kick in the ass. He should move back to T’dad. You can’t be grumpy on a tropical island.)

And, you’re going to want to see this documentary: Library of the Early Mind. Here’s the trailer. Enjoy!

[Shakespeare image via Wikipedia]

The Thought-Crystallizing Idea-Finding Word-Harnesser

Every night as we writers drift off to sleep
Thousands of ideas suddenly creep
Into our heads and rattle around
Each one is pure genius, fantastic, hands down

But the maddening fact that plagues every writer
In this weakened state it’s not easy to muster
The energy to rouse and pin those thoughts down
So they’re fleeting, and “poof!” can never to be found

Oh the woe of losing those precious creations
It’s enough to drive one to procrastination
As writers bemoan the loss of their words
Lost genius, lost characters, those brilliant lost worlds

But now there is a miraculous invention
It’s a writer’s best friend, a wordsmith’s salvation
It suctions pre-slumber ideas from your conscience
And protects them from the tragedy of non-existence

The thought-crystallizing idea-finding word-harnesser
Will be an essential tool for every creator
Just strap on the suction cups, put your hand in the loop
And every dreamy idea will be forever recouped

Never waste your creativity a moment longer
Those beautiful ideas won’t elude you forever
No more loss of genius to fuzzy confusion
Boost your novel’s word count with this sleep revolution

When you wake in the morning your prose will be prepped
Perfectly spelled, formatted and grammar-checked
Only $995 for this digital dream-catcher
Get your own thought-crystallizing idea-finding word-harnesser

Enter the skeletons

Writing is hard. Not because of the awful mechanics of finding just the right word to affect the reader in just the right way, but because it is often painful. We are tasked with telling the truth, and a lot of the time, the truth ain’t pretty. Telling the truth takes more than courage. It’s down and dirtier than that. It takes balls. It’s about ripping away everything and standing naked for all the world to see. Worse. It’s about revealing your darkest secrets.

If you have a skeleton in your closet, take it out and dance with it.

– Carolyn MacKenzie.

Do you have the balls?

[Image from wikimedia commons]

Challenge accepted!

My friend Lois posted this picture on Facebook recently. And as I’ve been writing a story that includes a La Diabless (La Jah-BLESS: a woman from Caribbean folklore who preys on men and has a cow hoof) she challenged me to write one where “Ma Laja” as she dubbed her, needs to wear these. OK, Lois. It’s on.

The write mindset

Kids building their own cupcake toppings at the Lego party. Can you see the Lego brick candy and minifigure candy that my husband made himself? I hope you can cuz it was awesome!

A friend invited me to join her at the gym this morning. I usually workout at home (and by workout I mean stare at my stepper and eat a cookie) so I figured I’d be social and get in an actual workout at the same time. The thing about knowing that you’re going to the gym right after dropping off the kids is:

1) After making 2 chocolate milks for the kids, you do not make a 3rd for yourself for your morning beverage.

2) You do not eat the last cupcake form your son’s birthday party for breakfast.

3) You get dressed appropriately and don’t bother to put on makeup.

So here’s the thing. While prepping for going to the gym, I started to feel energized about doing something good for my body. I read somewhere once that just getting dressed to workout, because your mind is already in that mode, you start to burn calories. (No, you can’t just get dressed for the gym and then go eat a cookie. It doesn’t work that way. Nice thought though!)

Getting in the right mindset for going to the gym made different choices necessary for me this morning. The choices affected me both physically and mentally. Just as knowing that I’m going to write makes certain choices necessary, like clearing off my desk, making sure the phone is nowhere near me, ensuring the kids are otherwise occupied, wearing something that resembles real work clothes (I don’t write in sweats… well I am right now, but I just came from the gym!) and turning my mind on to the work ahead.

Every day, you’ve got to get ready to work, and in getting ready, you get energized for it.

How do you get prepped?