NaNoWriMo 2009

UPDATE: I will be keeping a sort of journal here, updating what's going on NaNo-wise and otherwise to see where exactly my writing time (or lack thereof) was in November. Plus, I can sort of bury some tidbits that I am hesitant to write an actual article about in case of libel. So there. Consider yourself warned. :)

November 1, 2009. Day One. Up at 5:15 with small child who can't tell time and couldn't begin to understand "sleep in" if he wanted to. Had 5 and a half hour wine-tasting and lunch planned (pre-NaNo plunge) to celebrate my husband's and my best friend's recent birthdays... did it, had fun, and didn't regret a second away from the laptop! (Maybe because I still managed to get some writing in, between breakfast, shower, and hustling out the door!!) Total so far: 2, 474 words.

November 2, Day Two. Up at 4:freaking:thirty with same small child. I may have to put him out with the recycling if this continues... consider yourself warned, buddy. I got in some writing between picking up my daughter (minimum days all this week, because of conferences... or some crazy plot to prevent words being written, you be the judge!) and having my son dropped off, then added another hour and a half piecemeal through the afternoon and evening. I'm too tired to keep typing, so tonight's final word count brings me to 5,204 words.

P.S. Don't hate me because I write fast. I checked the calendar, and in addition to conferences I also have Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving WEEK to contend with! If I don't get ahead I'll be a blubbering mess and I have already maxxed out the kids' therapy funds, so I can't afford to add to THAT account.

November 3, Day Three. Both my coworkers were out sick; the two subs and I wrangled all seven kids for four hours, and I raced to pick up my daughter on her minimum day. Then I got a phone call: Thomas had been kicked off the special ed bus for the second time, and would I please drive to the school to have a meeting with the bus company's director, the director of the school, and Thomas's teacher? Why, yes, yes I will. (Note: the first time he got kicked off was last week, for singing Happy Birthday too loudly. This time he was crying because another student hit him and he was told to be quiet and sit down.) I got home and fought off a crying spell for an hour or two. Added a few hundred words to NaNo, but didn't update on site. New word count: 5,639.

November 4, Day Four. Another two sub day. Had to pick up Thomas, but Grandpa got Megan. Choir, dinner, one and a half hour long Girl Scout Service Unit meeting, bed. No words.

November 5, Day Five. Teacher is back at school -- yea! Aide still out, but we got a good sub -- yea! The bus director called -- my home, the classroom, and over the special ed bus radio as I was loading on my preschool students -- to say he'd be riding the bus home to "observe behaviors and assist the driver." Final result to observation: it's not Thomas, it's more a combo of multiple students (all with autism) and a driver who needs some more skills. (I worked to make that nonjudgmental. How'd I do?) Made a phone call and an email to another parent who'd gone through the exact same scenario with her child last year; picked up Meg for minimum day. Supposed to pick up 450 nut containers, but our order got shorted at the delivery site. Rearranged for tomorrow, time to be determined. Nano= no words.

November 6, Day Six. No cleaning at preschool today -- monthly parent meeting, so the aides provide childcare. Did the laminating and prep for next week. Conference for Megan. Thomas arrived on the bus with a good report, save the throwing of a squishy plastic Winnie the Pooh book (the kind that infants teethe on and can take into the bath) when offered it by the driver. (His reward -- based on five days of good bus behavior -- was a non-specific surprise. We announced with excitement that he could spend the night downstairs on the fold out couch -- whoo hoo, yippee, can I get  my pillow now??? It's good to have simple wants, isn't it?) We got a phone call that the nuts were again delayed, so I made several phone calls to let the girls know. We went to my father in law's (originally planning to drop his nut order off, and pick up a table, but going with just getting table) and had dinner. Returned home to set up sleepover downstairs -- whoo hoo! -- and collapse into bed. Nano = no words.

What Have I Done?

Gulp.

I just did it.

I had no intention of doing it, but then I sort of went there and sort of went through the steps and what the hurdygurdy... I'm signed up for another year of NaNoWriMo.

Holy 50K, Batman!!

Now to get a plot... or a character... or a genre... or I don't know, several dozen spare hours...

Right.

What was I thinking???

Hmmm... what if I write about a mom who accidentally started writing a novel, and it unfolded around her?

Looking for a Sweet Read?

Have you ever read a book and just felt happy?

 Philip Gulley's Harmony series is an entire set of books that take you to a small town in Indiana and give you a glimpse into the lives of a Quaker minister, his family, his church family, and his town full of characters.

Philip Gulley is a talented writer, and a talented observer of human nature. He lets the character's quirks be quirky without being kitschy, and he likes them -- the people ring true as Middle America at its finest.

In Harmony novels there's no complicated plot to follow; the story takes you along in gentle steps as events take place, unfolding as life does, with the characters acting and reacting as real people. The books aren't preachy or overly religious, but the author writes about faith and works and the inner workings of a church family with honesty and love, leaving a peaceful feeling in the soul of his readers.

Pick up a Harmony novel and see if you feel transported back to a time and place where people felt comfortable sitting on their porches, doors are left unlocked, and the biggest problem of the day is how to get along with a crotchety old librarian who threatens to publish names in the local paper if your library books are overdue. (Hint: return the book when Miss Rudy is having her supper, between 5:00 and 5:30 each day.)

Breakthrough

I've written before about NaNoWriMo, which is short for National Novel Writing Month -- a "contest" where you commit to writing 50,000 words in the month of November, "winning" the bragging rights and a cool certificate at the end. I love NaNo; the intensity, the goal, the community of other crazy writers all striving to spend as many hours in front of a glowing screen as possible. I've taken part in three NaNos, writing a young adult novel (four teenagers, a car crash, and the aftermath); a henlit novel (a group of women who find themselves connected via motherhood and the suburbs); and a mystery novel (a vile woman is killed and there's no end of suspects -- but a yard duty mom figures out the real killer). The finished manuscripts are of course not truly finished -- they need editing and fleshing out, revising and tightening -- but you have a hefty stack of pages to work with, and the exercise of writing quickly seems to produce some great work.

My last attempt was the mystery, and while I've been toying with working on it some more, the exact voice has eluded me... I know what happens, and why, but I can't tell the story properly. The characters speak to me in the shower, and during driving time, and when I'm taking walks... but when I get in front of the computer they shut up and refuse to cooperate.

I hesitate to call this "writer's block," because I can write other things just fine... my PNN posts, my humor column, etc. It's just this (or any other) work of fiction that eludes me.

I was talking about this one day to my best friend, and to her credit she GOT IT. She didn't spout off about "just get writing," or some other well-meaning advice... she understood that no matter how much I worked on it, it WOULDN'T WORK until the muse had reappeared. The hours spent would be largely wasted. I'm sure some writers push through by just writing, but in my experience the best stuff needs to be spontaneous. I consider myself a scribe, a midwife to the words, rather than an inventor...

The morning after I turned in paperwork to possibly take on a job that would effectively take all my "free" time (instead of an hour and a half or so with the yard duty job, it would be six hours each day) -- of course the characters began hollering away: "Write!"

I suddenly knew what my main character's mom was like, and her in-laws, too. The mother-in-law's dog was a surprise -- he just suddenly appeared, his apricot hair and shivering disagreeableness perfectly captured. (Who knew? LOL) I had a great reason for my amateur sleuth to take on the mystery, and a solid grasp of how she thinks, talks, and conducts herself. I was rolling, people, rolling!! The entire first chapter flew out of my fingers, appearing on the screen with alarming speed. Months of nothing were erased in a single morning!

I'm eager to get back to my little town of characters and find out what happens today... because I'm by-gosh gonna sit down and let the muse have her say whenever she wants to talk, let me tell ya!

Inspiration for Writers!

Do you need a kick in the pants to get writing? Check out Kristi Holl's blog here!

http://institutechildrenslit.net/Writers-First-Aid-blog/

"New" Discovery

My best friend teaches middle school (I know! shudder!!) and she reads YA novels to keep up with her students' reading. For some time now she's been raving about a book called "The Lightning Thief," which she was willing to say was her new favorite book...ever!! And, even better, there's a whole series of them!

The "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series is by Rick Riordan, and his main character is young Percy Jackson, who happens to be a demigod. Percy's dad is the Greek god Poseidon, and his mom is a human... so Percy is super good with water and mythical strength, but he's also dyslexic. He gets to go to on quests with  mythical creatures and demigods, but first he has to survive middle school! The writing is so good, you'll willingly suspend disbelief and go along for the ride -- and accidentally learn about some Greek mythology along the way!

 Last week I stumbled on Book 2 of the series -- "The Sea of Monsters" -- and now I can see why she was so doggone excited. All the components come into place perfectly -- plot, characters, writing, dialogue, tension, humor, adventure -- and it reads quickly. Based on just that one book I am determined to buy the entire series and read them all back to back, as a treat to myself this summer.

Do yourself a favor and check out one of the books... no prior Greek myth knowlege is necessary! Enjoy!! :)

Book List for 2009

January   (* = Y/A novels)

The Program by Stephen White

Beach Road by James Patterson

The Valley of the Moon by Jack London

*On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck

*Snow Treasure by Marie Mc Swigen

*Kit Learns a Lesson; *Kit Saves the Day; *Changes for Kit by Valerie Tripp

*The Key is Lost by Ida Vos

*A Sea So Far by Jean Thesman

*The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill

*Alt Ed by Catherine Atkins

Update on Agent Goal

As of this morning, I have queried thirteen agents between the two books... so I'm an agent and a week-and-a-bit ahead of my goal! :)

I've gotten a few rejections so far, but they don't faze me; I read somewhere that rejections are part of the price we pay, and I resolved to get busy paying that price. Rejections are sort of like gray hairs... that first one shocks and stuns you, with a blow to the solar plexus. The next one surprises you, and the one after that is merely a resigned afterthought. Then the day comes where you look in the mirror and realize a small army of gray has taken over, but you feel sort of proud, like it's an accomplishment of sorts: Look! I've earned wisdom! See the testament to my persistance! (Really, think about it: if you have gray hair, you're still alive. That's got to count for something!)

Sending out queries is one of those huge big deals the first several times, and then it gets a little easier. You still get a wave of hope, a tide of certainty that this one will be The One, but you are more at ease with the whole process. It's become a short checklist of things to do or not do, like make sure you sign the cover/query letter, and make sure the contact information is there, and make sure if you've copied and pasted the text that the salutation is correct. Then it's only a matter of making sure the package is exactly to this particular agent's specifications (so as not to offend their sensiblities) and add enough postage, or double check the email address. Now send!

There's all sorts of advice on how to query, but one bit seems to be constant: Never give up, and never sit back and do nothing. Always, always keep moving forward, writing more, researching new agents, formulating new queries. To that I add and keep hoping!

I DID IT, PART 2!

I hadn't heard back from the first agent I queried, so according to the submission guidelines I can assume they're not interested.

Sigh.

I sent out three more queries today while the children were at school -- and it took ALL that time, because each agent wants just that little something different! One wants one chapter, a synopsis, and a query letter; another wants a paragraph about me, a paragraph about the project, and my publishing history; the third has an elaborate online uploading submission system that asks for all the information and the first three chapters, plus a bunch of random questions like "what is one of your favorite sentences in this project?" and "what was the last book you read?"

When I got home with the first grader, there was a reply from one agent -- out of the office until January 5th. There was a reply from a second agent -- a form rejection. And there was a "reciept" for the uploaded submission, with a reminder that it may take up to three months to hear back from them.

Sigh.

I'm crossing fingers and toes on the two agents still in the game... and I'm going to go find that little snippet that says how many times great works were rejected before they got published. I don't want to tie for the most, but I'm sure seeing that JK Rowling suffered a "no thanks" form or two might cheer me up.

I DID IT!

I'm not sure if I'm more excited or terrified, but I've hit the send button on my first query to an actual, real live agent.

Whoo hoo!

I had originally intended to send queries to five, via email. I did my homework and selected several prospects, sorting them by a mixture of what they represented (children's, obviously, but then sub-categories of humor, adventure, and middle-grade novels), what they wanted (synopsis, query, pages or chapters of novel, etc.), what kind of gut reaction I had to the name of the agent, agency, or where it was located (I am from California, after all -- we are bound by law to be touchy-feely that way), and finally, whether they required email submissions or snail mail.

Today I began trying to format the first email and ran into all sorts of bugaboos, which is a technical term for the universe trying to stop me from going forward. I slapped the bugaboos down and sent the first email, very pleased with how it finally turned out, and as soon as I had hit send realized I hadn't included that tiny bit of information that let the agent know this was a multiple submission.

Sigh.

Okay, so my options are 1) send another follow up email and look totally amateurish right from the get-go (which is so much a no-no I can't even legally consider it and still call myself a writer); 2) go ahead and send out submissions 2-5, telling THEM that it is multiple; 3) don't send out the remaining letters until I hear from agent #1.

Crumb.

I have to go for #3, letting the power of positive thinking rule the day. This agent is going to love, love, love my book, and offer to represent me immediately. She's going to call before I chicken out and send out the other emails, gloomily assuming I'll rack up several rejections, so I might as well get it over with in bulk...

For now, I'm going to celebrate my successful completion of a major goal, even if it is only a part of what I had set out to do. I shot for the moon, but look at this beautiful star I landed on!

Book Journal

How many books have you read this year? What was the name of that author you really liked, and wanted to see if she had written any more books? When did you read that funny memoir that your best friend should totally read?

If you have a book journal, you would know the answer to these!

I started writing down the titles and authors, along with the date I finished the book, about fifteen years ago. I average about 120 books a year -- everything from Young Adult novels to  mysteries to memoirs to historical fiction to non-fiction -- and over the years I've even re-read several series of books, several times. (Harry Potter, Narnia, Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Avonlea, and the Janet Evanovich numbers series, to name a few.)

Flipping through the book journal is in itself a little like reading a condensed version of my life. At a glance I can see periods of time where I clearly chose books from one section of the library -- authors' last names all within a 4-letter range, or a glut of memoirs or biographies, or mystery after mystery after mystery. Usually this meant I had small people along for the trip, and I had to do a fast glance-and-snatch, going by an intriguing title, an interesting author, or something else -- art, an odd font, something in the way it stood out against the others nearby -- that grabbed me in that split-second it caught my eye as I frantically scanned the rows of books. When I was nursing, I chose books that would lay open flat next to me on the couch, and I'd drink in the words as my babies drank in my milk. There are no "icky" books during that time; I read more light-hearted fare, as if making sure that even the words going into me were wholesome and nurturing.

Sometimes the titles remind me a little of what was going on around me -- the wildly diverse titles from one two-month period when I was on bed rest with an "irritable uterus," chosen for me by friends who understood my need to read my way through the long days of confinement -- The Poisonwood Bible stacked next to time-travel bodice-ripping romances, Sue Grafton next to J.K. Rowling, Little Women next to The Shipping News; the glut of non-fiction and fiction all centered on autism, right after the diagnosis; the books about writing, as I got serious about approaching my art with more dedication.

This morning I added the last of the library books from June, and counted up my half-year mark for 2009: 78... 79, if you add in today's finished title.

Right now I have three books going -- four if you count the book I'm reading aloud to Megan. I grab one according to mood, or location -- one is in the car, at all times, because I'd sooner be without food than without a book -- and within seconds I'm transported into a magical world. Luckily, I have a travelogue of places I've been... all in the lined pages of my Book Journal!

Fourth Grade Compliments

Friday I got to participate in Read Across America Day by reading to classes at both my children's schools.

I started at Megan's school, and found myself scheduled to read in three classes, for about fifteen minutes per class. I had brought a story to read, but I changed to a classic Dr. Seuss when I saw the time constraints.

I read to Mrs. Katz' class first, and they very politely listened to The Cat in the Hat, read with voices and passion and not a little humor. It's one of my favorites, and I've honed the reading aloud thing to a little one-woman show. At the end, the teacher invited the class to show their appreciation, and several kids paid me compliments.

"I liked how you used different voices for all the different characters."

"I liked how you read so fluently!"

"I liked how you didn't miss any words!"

"I like your necklace."