KidLit Quote of the Week #4

"Who's big fat bright idea was it to do a weekly quote feature on this blog?"

—Lisa L. Owens

That's funny, right?

I'm around. Handling some pressing workaday deadlines and spending spare moments prepping for a writers retreat I'm attending in a few short weeks.

Also: The holidays seem to be here already. I know because I just ordered some Christmas lights and have urgently realized I need to book my holiday travel plans A-sap.

And: Work on the big site-blog merger continues!

Does Summer Always Go This Fast?

Of course it does. Faster every year, as we all know.

When summertime was still "coming up" this year, I thought of it as this long, sunshiny stretch of found time to have more fun (in general) and get more personal writing done (in particular). Although I am as predictably shocked as everyone else that mid July is upon us — and mildly panicked that the season will slip through my fingers before I even notice — if I take a truly objective look at my activity schedule and extra, non-work-related writing output, it's clear that I've been succeeding at actually finding a little time . . . and using it, too.

The trick for me on days like this hectic wish-it-was-a-May-Sunday Monday, I think, is to take a moment to deeply appreciate that summer fun has actually happened, fully acknowledge that personal writing HAS progressed (thanks, SRS, for adding some oomph!), and remember to eagerly anticipate whatever may come from any of it.

Bloggy break over. Back to work now.

That's It. I Want My Own Barista.

I sat down at my desk really early today for some reason (why???), and my morning coffee gave me fits . . . and now it's gone. So I thought I'd throw out some useless chatter I'd normally direct at a lucky coworker. You know, if I had one.

I pour myself 2 or 3 nice mugs o' joe each a.m., but while I'm working I get distracted and the coffee gets cold. Yuck. And as time gets away from me, the coffee loses that fresh-brewed taste. Double-yuck. I am, admittedly, finicky about it.

My "solution" has been to TRY to remember to slam the java and make frequent early trips upstairs (I have a basement office) for refills, which I must also drink too quickly for my liking. My entire weekday coffee experience is lacking.

When our old coffeemaker died several months ago, I specifically bought one with a thermal carafe. The idea was that I'd just keep it on my desk on workdays. I thought the coffee would stay fresher (it does by a hair) and I'd naturally get to it faster from not needing to walk anywhere.

Well, this is the first time ever that I've remembered to haul the carafe to my office. (Old habits die hard.)

So far, not so good.

While pouring my first mug this morning, I dripped on my planner and a printed manuscript draft. Fine. It's just paper. With the second, I dripped on the desk and my keyboard (it's protected!) and then left a coffee ring on a library book (I wiped it clean in time!). Looks like I need special conditioning to pour, neatly, from a seated position.

As usual by my second cup, I forgot about the coffee long enough for it to cool way down. So I had to slam it at lukewarm to avoid a wasteful pour-out (and trip to the kitchen). When I wanted a third mug — I kid you not — I got out of my chair and started to walk toward the stairs. So it also looks like I'm more like my dog and my husband (hi honey!) than I realized. Meaning, apparently, I cannot deal with even a small break in routine.

Tomorrow I'll revert to my old unsatisfying coffee routine. Sigh.

Get back to work, people! Yak break over!

Life Happens

I did something strange today: I read a particular ezine for the first time in, oh, about 2 years. I've subscribed to it for a long time, and I used to read it weekly — it was just part of my routine. But, along with keeping up with other kid-lit blogs, implementing concrete plans for growing my business, completing numerous household projects, spending quality time with friends and family, coordinating the final steps of "settling in" to a house/community, reading that leaning tower of adult lit I'm interested in, continually challenging my culinary skills, teaching my now-old dog a few new tricks . . . and so on and on and on . . . I let it slide.

Seems like a small thing, doesn't it? The reading of the newsletter, that is. Yet far more important activities had taken its place. Taken the place of everything for a while. As I hinted a couple of posts ago, I'm ready to stop the "coasting." Ready to move on, as it were. But in the particular life circumstance I'm experiencing, it's hard to know how to move on. All you can really do is work on it until you make it happen (or it happens by sheer dumb luck).

In keeping with my desire to keep most of my non-writing life out of the blog, I'm not going to get specific about the life circumstance I so vaguely mentioned above. Yet it's impossible to NOT have your personal life affect your work on some level, don't you think? It strikes me that this is especially true when you're a writer. For me, anyway, writing full-time takes a greater level of consistent emotional investment than, say, working as a bank teller (something I did in my young adulthood). So when practically ALL of your ever-lovin' emotional energy is being spent on people/situations you consider more important than work, getting said work done becomes difficult. Burdensome, even. So does the simple act of writing for fun. And that's no fun and no fair!

The good news is that I'm back to possessing more available head space. That means I'm slowly getting back to my fully engaged working/writing persona. Not that I ever stopped working or writing — or that I wasn't able to perform for pay as needed. But writing wasn't driving me in the same way it usually does. Instead it was riding in the trunk, stuffed in a duffel bag, waiting for me to pull it out and fluff it up after my long, crazy road trip to Not Entirely Sure Where, Yet.

If any of that makes sense, then you, too, know that Life Happens. And today, I'm going out on a limb to say that I'm glad it does. After all, who among us can't use a little fodder for future fiction?

Good Luck, Fellow Saturday Writers

See this poster and other Demotivators at Despair.com.

It Must Be Time to Write

So far today I have:

Initiated a pancakes-and-sausage breakfast, cleared off some counters, done the dishes, made a grocery list, checked email (twice), visited two discussion boards and added my 2 cents to one, commented on a friend's personal blog, hard-boiled some eggs (?), made 3-bean salad (??), tracked a UPS package, cleared off part of the kitchen island, asked my husband what he wanted to do today that might involve me (this after stressing last night that I'd be writing all weekend), unpacked a Target bag that had been sitting on the ledge since last weekend, stocked the guest bathroom with extra toilet paper, asked my husband whether he had a preference for the orientation of the roll (all these years and we have never discussed that; turns out we don't care), organized the top of my desk, and basically avoided getting down to business.

Time to write . . .

What I'm Reading

On my desk:
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll (new picture book)
No Applause—Just Throw Money by Trav S. D.
And more! (think textbooks, articles, picture books)

Next to my favorite reading chair:
My Antonia by Willa Cather*
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

On the nightstand:
Leonard Maltin's 1997 Movie Guide and Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide (What!)

On deck (ready when I am—I'm looking forward to them):
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
Boom! by Tom Brokaw
Harry Potter Books 4, 5, 6, 7
The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester
Pop Art Painter by Susan Goldman Rubin
Summer Crossing by Truman Capote
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

*My main selection at the moment and my short answer to "What are you reading right now?"

End-of-Year Ramp-Up

Here I sit, in the peaceful glow of my Christmas tree (with some mellow B. B. King holiday tunes playing in the background), checking and re-checking my schedule and task list for the final weeks of 2007. During my short time back to work after an unexpected break, I've managed to sign up for a boatload of toil that's blowing my plans for a slower-paced, recovery-focused year's end. I'm not complaining, though. The financial boost will be worth any December frenzy I've created for myself. And it feels good to fully re-engage the old noggin.

My complete re-entry into the land of the active began last Saturday when I audited the Editorial Freelancers Association book proposal workshop. It was the first time I'd spent more than an hour or two away from home (wearing non-elastic-waisted pants! and cute street shoes!) in 6 weeks. I went partly to represent EFA/assess the day's success and partly to reintroduce myself to normal activity before a busy week. I'm feeling strong and doing great, but I still get sore and definitely experience sensory overload out in the world. Six weeks is a long time to be at home, mostly still, and fairly quiet.

Anyhoo, the workshop went well. I enjoyed being out and being there. The basic content wasn't new for me, but I didn't expect it to be (it definitely did cover the info bases for its intended audience very well). I still got a lot out of it, though. Namely, a full page of strategy notes for a pet personal project I focused on in relation to the course content. My ideas sprang directly from the instructors' many BTDT insights into the adult nonfiction industry (which, see my blog description, is not my niche). Inspiration is always great!

I think I'm ready to face the rest of the workweek now. And, well, I'm sure that the rest of the work year will take care of itself.

New Computer, New Me!

Does that sound too . . . too? Sorry. (Not really.) It's Saturday — hmmm, already afternoon, I see — and I am voluntarily sitting at my desk. This is big for me right now. Firstly, I've been recovering from a surgery and so haven't spent time in my office for a while. I've been back to part-time work for 2 weeks, but before the new machine arrived, I was working on a laptop from bed. Sometimes the couch. To put that in context, I had 5 external abdominal incisions and a couple of internal slices, so part of my recovery has involved regaining my ability to sit upright for good long stretches, whether I want to eat at the dinner table, ride in a car, or prop myself up in front of my desk. (Wouldn't want anyone to think the working-from-bed-thing was just par for a freelancer's cushy course.)

Secondly, I took the plunge and bought a new iMac. I've been setting it up since Wednesday, my first day "back in the office." Still at it, but so far, so good. Nothing like a new toy to rev up a girl's interest in getting back to work. I'm hoping to realize the full productivity potential that having an up-to-date machine will surely bring. I have lots more room to house files/apps (and, let's be real, music), a bigger monitor (I sprang for the 24-incher!), the ability to use a current browser, and wireless communication between the iMac and my still-kicking iBook . . . plus I can easily fit the wireless, small-footprint keyboard and mouse on the smallish keyboard tray attached to my desk.

The keyboard is one of the bigger "whews" to me, believe it or not. It will go a long way toward allowing me to comfortably use my deskptop/office the way I want to. (I like my laptop, but I do prefer to do most of my work in my designated workspace.) I used to use a Datadesk TrackBoard because it fit my tray and worked great for me ergonomically. It happily coexisted for a time with my old G3 before presenting a few minor problems that I lived with. But when I last upgraded my desktop (in 2002 to a 2001 G4), the keyboard was no longer compatible, and neither was the updated Trackboard I bought. Tons of ridiculous glitches. But I kept going back to it every now and then (or begrudgingly working more and more on my laptop) because my right hand would hurt from mousing up high on the desk instead of at the keyboard tray level. I learned all the tricks for stopping the Trackboard's annoying problems, but several weeks ago — after I'd foolishly hooked it up again (my bad judgment, but I took a chance knowing I wanted to upgrade the computer soon) — my G4 suffered a major meltdown just after the Trackboard did. While I was on deadline, natch.

But all that is in the past! Luckily, I keep good backups, and now all necessary items from my G4 live on the iMac. I'm writing this surrounded by all 3 computers, and by Monday I expect to be back down to 1 on the desk with a laptop in the wings. Yay!

The King Lives

I don't know about you, but Elvis Presley's death rocked my little 12-year-old world. At least for that one day, anyway. (Lots of other stuff going on then, too!)

Wait a minute! What does this have to do with children's writing? It is a stretch, but just watch me make a connection.

August 16, 1977: I remember that hot summer day. I'd just gotten home from swimming when I heard the news on the radio. Then I watched the story — and the spectacle — unfold on the evening news. True, the story really only began to unfold that night (and it still has legs).

Thirty is a big milestone, but the import attached always strikes me as odd when the anniversary marks a death. I guess we all like to look back, reminisce, place events in context, rewrite/reframe history . . .

Anyhoo, I remember being very upset — really sad — about not just Elvis's death, but also the way he died. (Who let him do that to himself?!) The details from the loo upset me, as did the corresponding jokes that took hold. And I could not abide Dr. Nick.

Let's see, what else. Oh, I very much wanted people to stop talking about Ginger Alden as though she was Elvis's "love," when clearly Priscilla was It. Like I said, I was 12.

August 16, 1978–2006: I'm no superfan. But I am a music, film, history, and pop culture lover, and the King of Rock and Roll fits into all those areas. As such, I've always paid some attention to the annual parade of Elvis Presley tributes and remembrances.

I enjoy his music and have seen MANY of his formula flicks MANY times. (Elvis movie marathon on AMC? I am there!) I absolutely love watching him in his prime, effortlessly banging out his performances in Same Movie, Different Title time after time after time. I'm in the camp that thinks he had great potential as an actor but forces outside his control (hello, Col. Tom!) sadly, somehow, for some reason, kept Elvis in a creatively unfulfilled place. Can't help drawing a line between whatever "that" was and his apparent need to medicate and self-destruct, either.

August 16, 2007: I'm 42 now. Guess that happened during those 30 years everyone has been counting since Elvis's sad demise. When the early-morning news said EAP would have been 72 today, I gasped a little at the math that makes me the same age he was in '77. To top it off, I see on Ginger Alden's wiki that she is only 50 right this very minute. Holy cow, she was just a girl herself back then.

Time to make that connection I promised.

It's easy, really. The life of any cultural phenomenon can provide countless avenues of inspiration for my own creative work. I don't even have to consciously look to or think about said phenomenon for that to be true. Anything I've read or seen or experienced is part of my makeup and, thus, potentially inspiring and part of my process.

If I wanted to specifically look to Elvis for inspiration, well, that would be easy too. Let's list some ways:

• Research his life, work, and impact on history to help me write a children's biography, magazine article, piece of historical fiction, or contemporary story featuring an Elvis-esque character (or a fan character, or a young girl like Priscilla Presley who gets caught up in a the world of a megastar).
• Use research — and either focus on a narrow portion of it or expand on it — to write about the greater history of rock and roll, teen idols, gospel, the Presleys, the Ed Sullivan Show, the story behind "Blue Suede Shoes," and so on. Any of that could show up in fiction or nonfiction.
• Study the typical story structure of the typical Elvis movie and think of ways to apply elements of it to easy-reading adventure stories. Hey, some formulas work.
• And my favorite: Use my own emotions, perceptions, impressions, and thought-processes from the era in which this event happened to inform my writing for children, whether I apply it to a specific character's actions, a story's tone, or the actual content of whatever I might be writing.

That's it, I think. My little Elvis tribute is over and out. Gotta go TCB!

Bargain Book Bonanza

I made a quick trip to my small neighborhood Barnes & Noble yesterday to pick up a bargain-priced title I'd ordered. I don't do a ton of shopping there because, frankly, I can get better prices and a wider selection online and at my favorite independent bookstores. I do frequently stop in, though, to take a look at books I might want to review (or purchase elsewhere).

Well, B&N apparently knew I was coming. Before I even made it inside, I'd filled my arms with $2 clearance books from the sidewalk carts. I got Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (16th edition; the 17th has been out for years, but I do not anticipate knowing what I'm missing); references on linguistics, the Middle Ages, ancient Egypt, and the Civil War; and a boater's handbook. I can use all of these for work, so that makes me happy.

I went straight to the library after that — again to pick up the one book I had on hold — and I left with two bulging bags of research for a project I'm doing on my own time.

Anyone else have a couple of nice, tall, wobbly book towers on your desk?

Long Time No Blog

It's been a busy April, and I'm just now taking a breath and remembering that I started this blog.

Let's see, since last I blogged, I finished teaching my online Children's Writing Workshop. I posted final feedback for the students just last night. They all did some great work, and I expect to see many published works from them in the future.

EFA sponsored the class, and we used a Yahoo! Groups forum. I coordinate and serve as moderator for all EFA online classes, so I'm pretty familiar with the problems that can arise, either real or perceived, but this season has been a bear in terms of Yahoo!–specific glitches that interfere with messages, Groups access, and so on. To that, I say, "Grrrrrrr." I do appreciate that the service is free and easy to use. But I'm in complaint mode.

Today I started testing the beta version of the new sitebuilder Authors Guild is launching soon. From what I can tell so far, it features some nice upgrades. I'll definitely stick with it for my author site in the short term (what does that mean — through the summer? end of 2007? I don't know). I have 50 pages of content on my author site and 5 (I think? bad not to know off the top of my head) on my editorial services site, so I'm in no huge rush to re-create my wheel. I've started thinking about other options, though, including switching one or both domains to a blog platform like WordPress or TypePad. Um, yeah, or Blogger. Too soon to tell what I'll decide. Comment me if you have thoughts!

Speaking of Lists: Literary A–Z

Have you ever listed your Literary A–Z? I did a couple of years back, and today's earlier post made me remember it. A friend, inspired by a Maureen Dowd column, wrote:

"If you had to come up with an alphabetical list of literary references that hold the secrets of your soul, what would be on it?"

I wrote back with my stream-of-consciousness A-to-Z of well-loved literary works. A few of them may hint to personal soul secrets, but all are simply books that definitely left a lasting impression. I cheated and listed two titles for a few letters, but only when I found it impossible to weigh the relative importance of the competing titles in my life. I had to really think to get X, and that's because it may be the only thing I've ever read whose title begins with that letter. (Plus, I actually read that story for work; so the thing to learn about me there is that I read, a lot, as part of my job. I couldn't tell you one thing about the story now. Nope, not even when I strain to remember it.)

I'm pasting in my list below, exactly as I wrote it in 2005. At the time I remember telling my husband that I wanted to also do the same thing for films and songs and "children's works only." Never did any of 'em, btw, but maybe someday.

I highly recommend writing out your own list, especially if you're a writer or an editor. It really gives you a sense of what types of books stick with you — for me, it was interesting to see that I read most of the titles in my teens and 20s. I read (and enjoy doing so) just as much now, but so much of my reading time is linked with my working time that it just takes longer for me to stumble upon the kinds of works that touch me in a way that would cause me to update my list.

In any case, listing your Literary A–Z is great fun, and it provides you and others with an interesting peek at your personal tastes and, I daresay, your own unique evolution as a thinking, feeling being. Challenge your friends, kids, and loved ones to make a list too.

***********
A - Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
B - The Beautiful and the Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald
C - The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer / The Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press
D - Death at Chappaquiddick, Thomas L. Tedrow
E - The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood
F - Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
G - Goodbye, Columbus, Philip Roth / The Gulag Archipelago, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
H - Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh
I - The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
J - Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
K - King Midas: A Romance, Upton Sinclair
L - Les Miserables, Victor Hugo / Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
M - “The Mask,” Guy de Maupassant / Mysteries of Winterthurn, Joyce Carol Oates
N - Night, Elie Weisel
O - Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Gloria Steinem
P - “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Edgar Allan Poe
Q - The Quiet Man (a cheat; this is a movie based on a short story I have not read)
R - A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf
S - Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
T - To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
U - The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
V - The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
W - The Water-Method Man, John Irving
X - "X-ing a Paragrab," Edgar Allan Poe
Y - The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Z - Zone, The Dead, Stephen King (another cheat, but I stand by it!)
***********

P.S. from 4/3: I just reread the column that inspired the activity and had to laugh. It's called "Love Lit 101," and in it Maureen Dowd talks about crafting such a literary list as a Valentine's Day treat for your sweet. (She actually went out and purchased the books. I guess writing for the New York Times must pay pretty well.) The piece brought back the memory of a college beau placing a strangely goal-oriented call to me in the middle of the night. No, no, no, it wasn't that kind of call. Sheesh.

Said boy, who was very smart but not a big fan o' the books, desperately needed my help, it seemed. He wanted me to list the 10 literary works I thought he — or any well-rounded man about town — should read and be able to reference in reputation-enhancing conversations with potential employers (and, I realized in hindsight, easy-to-impress chicks). Somewhat flattered and entirely enthusiastic about the project and the prospect of him reading some great books, I said something like, "Yay, let me think about it and get back to you in a couple of days with THE BEST LIST EVER."

But he needed the list right then, you see, while we were on the phone. Said something like, "Oh, I really wanted your opinion now. Otherwise I might not think of it again."

"Well, I won't forget," I said. "Just give me a day or so, and I'll hand over a list the next time I see you."

No deal. It was do or die time. Yes, that did seem odd to me. But, nonetheless, I put on my fast-thinking cap to hook him up with his very own emergency lit list. I don't recall what all I mentioned, but I do remember being adamant that, per his man-about-town posing interests, he had to read Of Mice and Men, Catch-22, and at least some Hemingway and Fitzgerald pronto.

Here's the funny part. Our very next meeting was the break-up (which, I must admit, was loooong overdue). The guy made a surprise visit to confess that he'd started dating others (which, I must also admit, did not come as a huge surprise).

He very generously gave me the option of continuing to see him under a "new, non-exclusive plan." But I replied, "No thanks, I'll pass on that."

We said our good-byes, and he expressed his seemingly genuine surprise that I'd chosen to end things. He also chose — as the last thing to say to me after two and a half years — to thank me for the book list. (Nice.) He really appreciated it and knew he would benefit from it.

I felt so used . . . and respected . . . all at the same time. Really, when you think about it, when does THAT emotional combo ever present itself?

As the door closed behind him and I headed for the shower (to wash that man right outta my hair 'n' such), all I could think about was that list. And how I hoped he'd choke on it.

Surely some of those details could work in a YA story! Dontcha think?

Listing

Today has been all about the lists. I outlined the day, identified tasks for the week, prioritized the month's projects by creating a realistic personal schedule, researched and listed likely publishers for the two side projects I'm working on — although, as an aside, is something really a "side project" if I can reasonably expect to get paid for it down the road? — asked my Children's Writing Workshop students to list goals for the remainder of the class, and filled out/passed on one of those "4 things about me" emails. (What, I can't take a 5-minute break to tell friends that I like cheeseburgers?)

Why all the listing? Well, it just seemed like the thing to do. I have several work-related live events this week (e.g., a meeting, a writers group, a speaking engagement, and a schmooze-fest), so today's activities have helped put me in the right frame of mind to step outside the house as a professional. Guess it's a calming thing for me.

Now, I'm not shy, nor do I suffer from any particularly debilitating social anxieties. I enjoy interacting with humans, and I happen to adore leaving the house. In fact, former live-action colleagues have wondered — aloud, and somewhat loudly — how my social self fares in the potentially isolating world of freelancing. The truth is that I do miss many aspects of working in an office environment, not the least of which is the increased opportunity for chit-chat (and lunchtime cheeseburgers).

But — more to the point of the truth — I have gotten used to working for myself, with myself, by myself, and despite myself. Took to it immediately, I must say. When I'm working, my first thought has always been about seeing the end result. If I have a job to do, I want to do it. Working alone gives me the unbelievable gift of whittling away at a task with few interruptions and getting to see things through to the bitter end on (mostly) my own terms. I get to live a working writer's dream. And I like it heaps and bunches.

However, for a work-from-homer, a 2-hour outing where you need to "be" your professional self can seem like a HUGE wrench in the workweek. That it feels that way is laughable, really. But there it is. So list I did today. And list again I will do in the future.

Springing Forward

I've had a terrible time springing forward this year. I do not recall the time change mattering to me in the past, but I have been completely thrown so far with this one. Hope to adjust tomorrow!