Oct 18, 2008
5:00-6ish A.M.: Hands are numb. Painful. Carpal tunnel alert. Get up. Brush down hair, which looks like I’ve been electrocuted by John in the night. Potty. Pills.
In the kitchen: Boil water for tea. Toast toast. Butter. Honey or jam. Carry this gourmet treat to writing room.
Writing room: Power up the Dell. Check two e-mail accounts. Respond when necessary. Read New York Times, Bangor Daily News and Lewiston Sun Journal online. Depressed now. Check MRMR and Vauxhall Vixens. Romance Writer’s Revenge. Romance Vagabonds. Several other romance/writing blogs. (Hey, Tessa! Originals! Links on sidebar.) Cheer up. Look at weather. Wonder what to wear for work. Read some political sites, which make me grateful I took my blood pressure meds. Pray. Open up Mistress by Mistake. Stare. Read back a few pages. Sometimes type something.
9ish: How the hell did it get so late? Bathe, dress, leave for work by ten.
And these are the first 4 or 5 hours of my day. It takes that long before I’m fit to join the madding crowd.
How do you get yourself started in the morning? When’s your writing time?
I’ll tell you how the sun rose a ribbon at a time. ~Emily Dickinson
Oct 11, 2008
Things have changed a great deal since I was in school, or even when I taught school. Columbus Day is now not the shiny happy day off it once was. Historians have discovered many unpleasant truths about Chris and his impact on the new world. But I’m not here to argue national pride or genocide. I’m going to talk about my own exploration as a writer. This post was inspired by Pirate Sin over at the
Romance Writer’s Revenge. Believe me, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria have met their match with Captain Hellion’s crew.
Although I dabbled as an English major who wrote bad poetry and indifferent short stories, it wasn’t until five years ago I was compelled to wake up in the middle of the night and write. (See? Two examples of bad poetry in this post already.) I believe I’ve gone on record that my first “book” was 23,000 words. Who knew Word had a word-count feature? You must remember I grew up typing term papers on an old Royal upright that my father bought at the Salvation Army and I would have to hand-count each and every word. The ‘e’ key stuck. (Any idea how often you type the ‘e?’ You watch Wheel of Fortune, I’m sure. ) It was a huge deal when Dad went to the Salvation Army again and found an electric typewriter when I was in college. Welcome to the 20th century! My adult jobs did not require much computer literacy. Exploring the computer has been a challenge but I’ve finally figured out how to get 25 lines per page and turn off the widows and orphans feature.
It took a good three years and three books for me to follow the map without running aground. The last two years have been buffeted by strong, favorable winds and better friends, who’ve shared their expertise, hopes, dreams, frustrations and support. I’ve discovered I’m not alone, bobbing in circles in the middle of the ocean. I may not ever reach my destination, but the trip itself has been worthwhile.
So thanks to all of you in the flotilla with me. Godspeed and safe harbor.
How long have you been on your writing journey? Do you navigate by stars or compass? Ever feel like throwing yourself overboard? What New World have you accidentally discovered?
One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. ~André Gide
Oct 4, 2008
“I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair….”
I don’t know about you, but it drives me crazy when I run out of cream rinse when I’ve still got plenty of shampoo left. I mean, I went to a lot of trouble buying two plastic bottles of cheap shampoo/conditioner that smell alike (this round it’s Tropical Coconut, in attempt to imagine I’m on a beach somewhere with a pina colada. Or two.) So because I was a writing recluse this summer (see post somewhere below), I decided to skip using cream rinse so that eventually the bottles would match up. I was on vacation and the only people I saw regularly were an eleven-month-old baby, the postmistress, the lady at the library (who should really cruise the Miss Clairol aisle), and my husband, who doesn’t care what my hair looks like as long as it’s not too short.
I’m just grateful I have some hair left. It’s a lot thinner than it used to be (I blame having four children), and bends funny. The strangest thing—it’s actually looking better since I’m not ‘replenish[ing] the natural beauty of [my] hair with this special formula combining humectants and vitamin E’ with cream rinse. What is a humectant anyway? So I’m making do with the cheap shampoo and a dollop of styling cream, which has fruit micro-waxes. Umm, Delicious.
Hair is such a funny thing. Here are dead cells which somehow bring us to life when they’re looking good. Hair in fiction is important, too. In the historicals I read and write, hair fanned across the pillow or cascading in satiny curls is de rigueur. Long hair does seem to have power over men. I wear my hair in a longish bob with bangs, so my power is limited, LOL.
What’s your style? Do you have preferences when it comes to the hero’s/heroine’s hair color? What have you given up that you thought you couldn’t live without? What do you absolutely have to have to write?
Sep 27, 2008
Summer has been officially over for days. As much as I enjoy two months off from work, fall is my favorite season. This probably stems from the fact I always liked school. (The new clothes! The new notebooks and pencils! Turning over a new leaf, ha ha.) Plus, my birthday’s coming up. While it no longer holds quite the excitement it used to, I am grateful for every new year.
Here in Maine, the leaves are indeed turning. And falling. The nights are cold enough to crank the heat up. I’m still stubbornly clinging to capri pants and sandals for work, but pretty soon I’ll have to find matching socks.
What’s your favorite season? Does the time of year play any part in your books? The trilogy I’m working on starts in the late spring/summer of 1820. I’m going to see if I can’t get the last book into the fall and crunch some leaves underfoot!
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus
Sep 20, 2008
I just finished putting up the display in the library for Banned Books Week, which is September 27-October 4 this year. “Closing books shuts out ideas” is the theme. I found several other quotes—“Free people read freely,” for example. Here’s a list of the ten most challenged books of 2007:
1) “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
2) The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence
3) “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language
4) “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman Reasons: Religious Viewpoint
5) “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain Reasons: Racism
6) “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language
7) “TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
8) “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou Reasons: Sexually Explicit
9) “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit
10) “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
We have eight of them in our high school library, and lots more that hit the Top 100 Banned Books list year after year. To see them, click
here.Locally, a woman recently stole a sex-education book from a Maine public library, claiming it was pornographic. She refused to return it or pay for its replacement, so her pastor did. Interestingly enough, several library patrons replaced the book and there are about six copies now instead of one. With the revelation that the Republican vice-presidential candidate asked her town’s librarian the “rhetorical question” (I believe she meant hypothetical question) on how one went about banning books, Banned Books Week has taken on an even greater interest to me.
The image of a librarian is a conservative one—the glasses, the bun, the sensible shoes so one can creep up behind miscreants who are defacing books. But beneath that veneer lies the wildly beating heart of a libertarian. I don’t have a Masters in Library Science, but I believe I have the right to make my own decisions as to what I read, or , when they were younger, what my children read. I agree with Granville Hicks who said “A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to.” I’ll leave you with some other thoughts to ponder.
“I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.”– Thomas Jefferson
“Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been and always be the last resort of the boob and the bigot.”– Eugene O’Neill
“Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose.”– George Orwell
“Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.”– Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart
Getting off the soapbox now. Go read a banned book!
