On a personal note . . .

Things are pretty exciting around here. Our oldest daughter, let’s call her “T”, became engaged last Tuesday. Her finance, “R”, is a wonderful young man from Rochester, New York. I’m so happy for them both. We were just catching our breath from that big news, when on Thursday “R” got a fantastic job offer in Grand Junction Colorado, three and a half hours from Denver, where my husband and I and our youngest daughter live. He gave notice to his employer in Rochester on Monday and starts work in Grand Junction on August 1st.

Life moves pretty fast. In a matter of days I went from “I’m sure going to be traveling to the east coast a lot,” to “Omigosh, they’re going to be living in our home state.” I’m so happy. Of course, they’ll be on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, but still, same state.

It’s all very complicated, as they will be getting married in Milwaukee, the town where they attended school (Marquette University) and met. Milwaukee feels like my daughter’s home town since she was born there and has gone back to visit often. We moved so much, our most recent home towns, Denver and Seattle, have been summer and holiday visiting locations, but places she’s never permanently settled in. We still have plenty of family in the midwest and both of their college friends are there, so Milwaukee will be the perfect spot for the big day. Long distance wedding planning will be the name of game for the most part, but “T” is in Milwaukee, now and will stay there temporarily while she gets things started. Later she’ll move to Denver to live with us until after the wedding, when she’ll go to Grand Junction.

I’m so excited, I've decided to start writing a personal wedding journal. As the year unfolds I'm going to write dated blurbs about what’s going on with the wedding from my “mother of the bride” perspective. I’m going to ask “T” to do the same thing from the bride’s perspective. She’s a gifted writer. It will be interesting to look back later and see our different perspectives as the big day approaches. It’s funny how just about any event can become another topic to write about.

Marriage is a book of which the first chapter is written in poetry and the remaining chapters in prose. Beverly Nichols

The Subconscious Mind is Always at Work

A few months ago, heavy rains and melting snow widened the creek near my home. My dog Charlie and I walk along it’s banks almost everyday. For a week or so I went by unaffected by the creek’s changes, never missing the ducks and geese who had vacated it’s rough surface opting for the calmer lake, never noticing the beaver dam had washed away.

Then one day the changes hit me. I was overwhelmed by the sound of the rushing water, mesmerized by the white foam on the waves and felt a sense of urgency as the creek raced by. I was bombarded with ideas to embellish the flood chapter in my book (something I had considered finished prior to that moment.) I ran home, planted myself at the computer and typed for several hours. I added loads of descriptive details and even a new dangerous flood related plot twist to the story.

The incident got me to thinking about the different roles observation plays in my writing. Here’s the definition of “observe” from my Merriam Webster Dictionary - “to see or sense especially through careful attention.”

I got to thinking about the “careful attention” part and decided that’s really only half of it. Yes, in fiction writing we sometimes make deliberate ‘scientific’ observations. Okay, I’m using the word scientific somewhat loosely here, but what I mean is we do research on a particular aspect of a story to make our writing seem more realistic. I read about flooding before I wrote the first draft of that chapter and it was helpful, but another type of observation evoked my recent changes and it shouldn’t be underestimated.

It’s subconscious observations. We take in details all day long, but are unaware of it. Our minds sort through incoming information, look for patterns and file the knowledge away without our knowing it until our mind perceives a particular file as helpful and it hits us like a lightning bolt and says, “Hey, this relates to what is going on in my life, this is important, I need to use this!” That’s what happened to me with the creek.

I think this subconscious observation process happens to all writers, and all people in general. It’s a gift that improves our perception. Next time you get a fantastic idea that seems to come out of nowhere, thank your subconscious mind.

I am a part of all that I have met. Alfred Lord Tennyson

Market Test: Twelve Year-Old Seventh Grader

I had a great Fourth of July, and so did my manuscript. We had family over to celebrate. When my sister-in-law asked how my writing is going, her friend’s twelve year-old daughter, Molly, whom I’d met for the first time that day, overheard. Molly was taken up with the idea of getting to read a book before it is in print. She asked, “Well if it’s not in a book yet, where is it? Can I read it?” She was so cute I went ahead and printed off the first chapter for her. She read it and came back asking for the second. After the third she asked. “Is this book going to be long enough to make a movie?” When she finished the fourth chapter she said, “If I go play with the kids would you print the rest of the book for me to take with me? If not I won’t play, I’ll finish reading it now. I really want to know what happens.” I agreed to give her a copy to take home.

When I gave it to her later, she spouted out several theories about the villain and about what she thinks is going to happen next. This was my first experience witnessing a reader become emotionally involved with my fictional characters. It felt fantastic and was meaningful to have a non-relative, (family members are too biased) in the target age group read the manuscript and enjoy it so much. Yay! It makes me feel more confident about sending it out to agents. This was a big win!

Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating. Denis Waitley

Details

I’m already excited to attend the SCBWI-RMC’s fall conference. If you don’t know, SCBWI-RMC stands for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators-Rocky Mountain Chapter. Their conference is called Letters and Lines and it’s coming up on September 18th and 19th in Denver. Registration just opened and I’ve already enrolled. Now comes the hard part. I need to send in the first ten pages of my manuscript as part of a Critique/Agent Pitch application. I’m a nervous wreck. There are so many details: no stapling, name on cover page, no name on the manuscript pages, etc. etc. If you overlook any of these procedures your application will be eliminated. Talk about putting on the pressure.

So many rules makes me nervous. I wonder if this is how it feels to be in the military. I’m a wreck, because I’ve messed up with this kind of thing before. Last year, when I attended an SCBWI conference in Seattle I accidentally folded my manuscript. Apparently one of their rules was “no folding.” They were really nice about it and said they would make an exception and allow me to have a critique by a local published author anyway. I learned a lot from the critique so I really want to make sure I get everything right this time. I’m not sure if I’ll be lucky enough to get a reprieve twice in a row.

My fingers are crossed and I’m hoping I get everything right this time.

Excellence is in the details. Give attention to the details and excellence will come. Perry Paxton

An Easy Beginning for Critique Group

I often complain about the difficulties in getting the opening pages of my novel just right. I’m about to re-work it again for the hundredth time. Luckily, the beginning of the critique group six children’s writers are forming in Denver had an easy start. We met on Sunday, strategized, and set up the following tentative guidelines.

~Open enrollment in the beginning. When the group gets to an ideal size we’ll start a waiting list.

~Monthly meetings every third Sunday at 1 p.m. The first gathering will be in the Colorado Mills area, possibly Border Books or at a nearby library if one is open on Sunday afternoon.

~Each person will email their manuscript to the other members a week in advance. If it’s a picture book they can send the entire work, if it’s a novel they’ll send about 10 pages. (I will be sending the new beginning I’m about to write. I can’t wait to get some direction.)

~Members can bring to the meeting copies of the other writers’ work they received by email and their hand written or “tracking and change” comments.

~A timer will be used. Each person will have 25 minutes devoted to their work. They will read it aloud for about 10 minutes and then there will be approximately 15 minutes for discussion.

~We will re-evaluate and improve this process as we go along.

The only thing left to do is think of a name. Maybe we’ll have time to discuss that at our next meeting.

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” Plato

Transitioning into Summer

My high school daughter is off school and my son is home from college. The whole family is working on a landscape project in our yard. These are exciting changes in my typically routine life, but they have distracted me from writing. I didn’t work on my query letter last week. I remember my cousin-in-law Randy Boyagoda telling me he gets up at four o’clock in the morning to write. I decided to try this tactic today.

I got up at five-thirty, (four just wasn’t happening.) My house is quiet and there are no interruptions. Well, the dog did rouse and give me a funny look--he’s a habitual guy and he’s used to me walking him at 7 a.m. Somehow he knew it was too early to get the leash and rolled over and went back to sleep leaving me with an hour and a half of precious writing time all to myself. This just may work.

Oh yeah, I do have some other news. In spite of my time management problems, I did progress in two areas this past week. One, while I was outside raking wood chips I came up with an idea for re-working the first few pages of my novel. I’ve been wanting to improve it and now I’ve got a plan. Two, I made arrangements to start a critique group with some other writers. Our first meeting is on Sunday.

If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got. Lee Iacocca

Query Help

It’s going to be short and sweet today. I’m playing catch-up after a wonderful weekend out of town. I was in Wisconsin attending my daughter Theresa’s graduation ceremony. She graduated from my alma mater, Marquette University. I still have family in Milwaukee and it was great catching up with them this weekend. It was a wonderful experience for her to attend college where we have so many family members. Since I moved away soon after my graduation, Theresa spent little of her childhood there. I’m pleased she chose to go to Marquette, it gave her the opportunity to experience a special place and connect with many wonderful people. Since Wisconsin will always be close to my heart, it is not surprising I chose it for the setting of my book.

Which brings me to some good news for the novel. It so happened my cousin from Toronto was in Milwaukee visiting, too. Her husband, Randy Boyagoda is a gifted author. He’s written “Governor of the Northern Province”and “Race, Immigration, and American Identity in the Fiction of Salman Rushdie, Ralph Ellison, and William Faulkner”. He has a third book due out soon. Randy offered to help me with my query letter. Yay! It will be great to receive guidance from a published author. I’m anxious to get started right away.

As the whole world and the individuals that inhabit it get increasingly cocooned, it is critical that one spends time with one's family. Simran Khurana