Category: Uncategorized

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week around here. My parents came up for several days, and they brought one of my nephews (who’s going to college near their house) with them. The flaming flamingo visited. My sister & her family, along with my brother-in-law, joined us for Thanksgiving afternoon and dinner. We relaxed, read, worked on hobbies, visited The Mystery Spot, and–oh, yeah–ate. (I highly recommend the Key Lime cheesecake my son baked.)

Weeks like this are a strange mix of calm and chaos, I think, of sort of being transplanted to a different world, even when you’re based at your own house. I wanted to take this break, to have everybody here and together, but it’s a definite shift to get myself out of the writing, editing, and networking that make up so much of my regular daily routine.

And then comes the shift back in.

Saturday, honestly, I slept. I read, too, and I tidied a bit, but then I’d nod off and wake up to find another hour had passed. Last night, I slept great and long, and this morning I got a few productive things done–getting ready for the upcoming week. I definitely needed the transition–as much as I needed the break.

I come out of weeks like this, often, wanting something different from what I was experiencing when I went in. For me, a pretty tight single-focus is necessary–I am on holiday, and I am doing the holiday, and that’s it. And it’s fun. There’s a certain amount of calm, because I need it to be calm. At the end, though, when I look ahead to the multi-tasking and juggling that’s my norm, I find myself tempted to back away, step back into the one-task world, even if there’s no writing or productivity in that small circle. Which, of course, is not really a place I want to stay.

So instead, I’m striving for is a calm that includes writing, a calm that lets me relax into my work, into my craft, rather than jumping like a caffeinated grasshopper from project to project. It’s times like these I reconsider meditating and tell myself that–oh, come on–I can learn to do it and to benefit from it. It’s also times like these that I determine to exercise more, to keep the house from becoming one big pile of stuff, to dig deeply into my fictional worlds and gain understanding–not just word count.

Yes, in other words–just when I’ve discovered calm, I’m ready to add back in a gazillion goals at once. Irony? Oh, yeah.

What I’m learning to do, as I get older, is breathe just a little more consciously and a little more slowly. If I don’t keep a gratitude journal, I do try to spend a little time at night filling my brain with the good from the day, and a little time the next morning reminding myself  about what I want to spend time on that day. It’s when I try to remember that life takes time and—almost always—small, clear steps will move me forward.

Here’s hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and wishing you calm productivity, at least between now and your next holiday!

The flaming flamingo!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, tomorrow there will be a turkey on my table and a flaming, with flames, on my blog. Today, you just get one more tiny piece of the whole picture.

I hope this isn’t feeling too tedious or irritating, but otherwise, this week at the blog would have been a lot like the old test-pattern screen you’d find on your TV in the old days, when nothing was on the air.

Here’s your teaser:

Just a few more days until Thansgiving and the flames…

One more piece of the puzzle.

Happy Monday, everyone! I’m off to buy the other bird.

When I casually mentioned that my house would contain flaming flamingos next Thursday (no,we’re not eating them–still going with turkey), I’ve had a few demands requests that I post a picture of them next week.

Never say I don’t listen.

For today, just a little piece to get you interested. In fact, I’m pretty sure that, with the craziness of the upcoming week, you will be getting no writing or critiquing content here for many days. So let’s just say the whole week will be tiny, tantalizing pieces of the puzzle, and on Thursday–the big reveal. The whole enchilada flaming flamingo!

Artist: My son. (Any of you who were expecting art from me have obviously not been reading this blog for long. My drawing talent stops before stick figures.)

Piece One:

Now…house-cleaning.

What have I been working on the past week or so? Getting started on another branch of my writing path, that’s what.

I haven’t talked about it here, because it’s one of those I-might-jinx-it-if-I-say-it-out-loud things. Or maybe one of those once-I-put-it-in-print-I’ll-look-pretty-foolish-if-it-doesn’t-go-anywhere things. Or a goals-are-just-something-that-don’t-happen things. Yeah. One of those.

But if this blog is about the writing path, and if I’m exploring a new curve in the path, well–I’m supposed to post about it, right.

So, saying it out loud: In the next few months, I will query about and/or write several nonfiction articles for children’s magazines and get them out the door.

One of the things I really want to add to my repertoire is more nonfiction for children. I had a great time writing The Everything Kids’ Grow Up to Be a Police Officer Book with Lee Lofland, even if the economy crash did cause the publisher to pull it from the publishing list, and I’m also happy with Cool Cash Adventure, a guide to finance that I wrote for middle-grade kids. As I do more research, I’m learning lots of stuff that won’t fit into my novels, and I still want to use it–to share it. Plus, let’s face it, I want to write for kids.

So those are the main reasons for the goal, and I think they’re pretty good. Which means the next step is to do something about getting there. I’ve looked around at publishers of nonfiction books, and I’ve sent off samples that I do have to some job postings. Realistically,though, I’m pretty sure I need more samples and better ones–more targeted at the kind of writing these publishers want to see. Which means, I think, kids’ magazines.

So I’ve got a stack, and I’m collecting a few more. I’ve downloaded writers’ guidelines and editorial calendars. The last couple of days, I’ve skimmed through the magazines, looking for the types of articles I’d like to write. I’ve got a growing list of ideas with notes about which magazine they might fit best, and whether I’m supposed to query first or just send the article. The next step, I’m pretty sure, is to pick an idea and target the magazine (or two) for an article (or two). Then I find a similar article and really read it, breaking it down in terms of content, structure, and voice.

Then I write.

The challenge? It’s not really the dissecting or writing–I’m pretty good at both of those, and–if I’m honest with myself–this is something I can do and do well. The challenge is reminding myself of that, keeping up my level of confidence for something new, for venturing into a place in the writing world where they don’t know me yet, where I have to prove myself. Yes, I do this every day in my fiction, but–as you all know–that’s long-term proof. I have a heckuva lot of writing on this novel before I submit it for judgment. And the other challenge is doing it. Putting the nonfiction writing on my calendar, showing up at the computer, writing & revising, and following through on all that with actual submissions. Juggling this writing with my fiction, with my editing, with…oh, life.

Commitment.

Is this important to me? Yes. Is it something I will enjoy? Yes. Will this route be a good addition to my writing path, bringing a smattering of daisies and maybe a four-leaf clover or two? Yes.

So…time to get started.

What about you? Is there something you’re exploring that you haven’t yet (quite) committed to, that you’ve been skating around? Can you see the first step or two ahead of you, waiting for you to put them on your to-do list? What’s coming next for you on your writing path?

You got it…

It’s so Monday.

I will imbibe some caffeine (so much for cutting it out completely!)

I will pick a project that requires more specific check-off tasks, less random creativity.

I will resist the call from the couch.

I will play loud music.

I will get something done.

What do you do when the sleepies hit? (Note: Exercise has been tried already!)

I try not to whine TOO much out here, but just for random fun this week:

Five of my pet peeves are:

1. Drugstores with card sections in which 99.99999999% of the cards are tacky and crude with cover art I could, honestly, skip altogether.

2. Packs of sticky notes that spend too much space on the yellow/orange spectrum and not enough on pinks and purples.

3. Raccoons that loiter around my house and, when I stomp and/or yell at them to take off, instead stay put and stare back at me with a “What??!!” expression on their faces.

4. Hummers.

5. Those wonderful, handy-dandy, revolutionary, newfangled ziplock bags in which so many groceries now come prepackaged and which, of course, DON’T ZIP.

What about you? Need a quick vent? Keep it light and not too mean and toss a peeve into the comments. 🙂