Will You Throw Your Hat In?

Writer’s conferences. What do you think about them?  When I began writing, I had never known another writer and didn’t see any particular reason I needed to. Writing was something I did all by myself in a quiet room, not a communal effort that needed a meeting of any sort.

Well, yeah, I was wrong! The first time I entered a room filled with writers I was certain that I was wasting my time, and certain I had nothing in common with them. We all wrote about different topics, after all. Within minutes I knew that I was among my people. That eclectic (and eccentric) group of geeks was exactly like me in too many ways to count. They didn’t mind discussing “where to hide the body” over lunch, and they knew some incredible details about poison, the moon, cowboys, edible insects, and a billion other topics. Seriously, delicious fun!

This past weekend I drove over to Oklahoma City to attend the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc. (OWFI) conference. It was a top-notch conference with talented speakers, reputable agents and publishers, and piles of really awesome writers. In addition to making new friends and suffering from sleep deprivation, I am more motivated than ever to write and write well.

Steven James, who has published over thirty books, was one of the keynote speakers who inspired me. He reinforced one of my life mottos. “Do everything all the way.” Which I usually express by saying, “Go all in” or “Wear the tee-shirt”. He didn’t use gambling or clothing references though, because he is way cooler than me. He told a story about Irishmen running up against a wall too tall for them to climb over. Then they would throw their hat over the wall and climb over to get it. They had to have something at stake to give it their true best. So today I’m throwing my hat over the wall and then scurrying over to get it.

Of course I’m talking about my thriller manuscript. I signed up to go to ThrillerFest in New York this summer. I also signed up to pitch a completed novel to the agents at AgentFest while I’m there. The commitment of time and money for the conference is my hat. The wall?  Obviously, I still have to write the novel. At 60 pages in, I need to average 10 pages a day.

It will be a killer pace, but I’m up for the challenge. If you see me out in public, all pasty white and finger-cramped, tell me to crawl back to my library and write. I have no intention of losing my hat on this adventure.

Cara

Cowardly Writer Turns Tiger

GoingTiger

I had the irreverent thought last week that I should start an anonymous blog that told the whole truth about being a writer. I thought I would make it snappy with wit and tiny things we all try to pretend aren’t true. Then I decided it was ridiculous that I couldn’t do this naturally in my current blog with my name at the top. What a coward!

So here goes….

Writing is difficult. Sometimes I want to give up. It steals away my family time, my sleep, and my social life with little promise of success. I used to whine like that to my best friend (a talented writer) whenever a plot was holding me hostage and making me feel small and weak. I lost my friend this year to cancer, but I still hear his voice.

“Yeah, so quit then. Go ahead. Just stop writing.”

And then we would both have a laugh, because of course I can’t quit. I don’t have any choice at all. I have these words, these stories, and I have to see where they are going, how will they end, how can I bring it all together? What will happen when this person meets that situation? When I’m midway through the writing, I have another idea, and then another. I don’t have any choice at all.

Writers write.

You may have guessed the thriller had me whimpering in pain for about a week. Then I found a half day to kick back in the hammock with an extension cord and a laptop.  Honestly, I growled a little. Then I muscled up and clawed that bad boy into shape. I found a voice and I hope I’ve made a difficult character sympathetic after all. I’m forty pages in and wagging my tail about being a writer.

Writing Behind the Wheel

Writing in the Mini Cooper

This week I’m battling myself as I begin the thriller novel and polishing the previous manuscript. One event is closely related to the other. In both stages I am evaluating why I choose to write a particular book and weighing the value of the investment.

Even though I know it will only be a short delay, I’m avoiding the final edits on my voodoo comedy manuscript in lieu of thriller research. Things left undone are distracting. And a novel written without your full focus is not your best work. Of course this avoidance is in part because the thriller is new and a good deal more exciting than editing, but in the interest of full disclosure…there is more to it than that.

Finishing a manuscript is risky. I’ve invested a huge block of time and energy into that ream of paper. Calling it complete should be a relief. Instead, because it is an unsold manuscript without an agent, it has the weight of an albatross. Finishing is risking rejection and failure and the possibility that I did it all for naught. What writer hasn’t struggled with this? How do we avoid procrastinating to the point of paralysis because of our insecurity? Honestly, if finishing is so frightening, why would I start another book in the first place? Ever?

The answer is surprisingly simple. Well, simple to write anyhow, not always simple to implement. First, discern why you write. (Because you must, most likely) Because no one can answer that voice but you. Now make certain that last manuscript fits with your answer. Mine does. I wrote that novel a voodoo comedy was in me and needed to come out. I also learned a great deal about writing and about myself while penning it. So I’ve already achieved so much that selling it would be a mere bonus… yeah right… selling it is part of the drive, it is part of the ‘I must’ involved in writing a book.  I don’t have a problem admitting that. So now I pledge to complete those edits and send it away.

Week 2 —Research

The onset of the idea and research is a good time to make sure the new book fits into your goals and reasons for writing. If not, it is much easier to drop it at this point than 300 pages from now. The thriller absolutely won’t leave me alone, so I clearly don’t have a choice on this one. But more than that, it is a story that is in line with my personal style of writing and the messages that drive me. It not only something I want to do, I feel confident that I can give the reader a well told story for their dollar. If I don’t feel that way, I must let the muse carry it to a better prepared writer or put it on hold until I develop the proper mindset to write it well.

Last week I outlined the ‘idea’ phase of my novel’s inception. Since then I’ve done enough research to know that the premise of the novel is plausible. The entire plot was conceived around a concept that I had to make certain was medically possible. It is, so I have lined up a couple of interviews with experts in two fields. There is no use in starting without a solid base of fact-based research and real world experience that isn’t covered in Wikipedia.

I’ve also written a half-dozen voice samples—none longer than two pages—to narrow down the point of view character and person. I started with first person and found that I had to invent all sorts of contrived reasons a single person would have all the information needed to tell the story. It took me a few tries to admit that if I had to invent so many scenarios, then it wasn’t a first person story.

All this and I haven’t started writing in earnest yet. Even though I sometimes ache to just jump in, getting things in order before truly beginning is essential. Much of the preliminary ‘writing’ takes place in my head. I turn the radio, podcasts, and audio books off during my commute and think ‘in’ the novel. I’ve planned some great scenes behind the wheel of my car. My head is in the novel when I’m working in the garden, mowing the lawn, walking through the neighborhood. (If you live nearby, this is my explanation/apology for the erratic lawn mowing and walking patterns.)  This is the period when my eyes glaze over during lunch with friends and my kids are exhausted by supper conversations interrupted with, “So, do you think it is realistic for a person to die/cry/lie/or be maimed during….”

If the novel doesn’t survive this early phase of full immersion, then it isn’t something you would want to live in your head or at your fingertips for 6-9 months. This is the time that I am quiet and listening to the voices of characters that only I can hear. In a healthy sort of way I mean. A way that all writers understand.

A Girl’s First Thrill-er

The Idea

Completed Manuscript

I’ve had the idea for a while now that I would record a podcast through the process of writing a novel. After recording a few sample sessions, I tossed the idea aside. To generate top quality recordings I would have to spend years learning to produce a proper, professional podcast. Besides, I enjoy the shape of my voice on paper more than the sound of it post recording.

So naturally, I turned back to my dusty blog to document my process of writing a thriller. The plot of my particular novel is not the subject of this series, though you can expect it to creep in from time to time. The point is to have a record of the process from the inception of an idea, through the doubts, over the frustrations and right until the smooth end. I’m not an expert, and every writer must develop their own process, but many emotions run parallel from one writer to the next. And often the best help of all is to know merely that someone else is suffering for the craft the same as you. If it seems like I’m muddling along at times and making stuff up, that’s because every novel is unique and it is the first time this novel’s story has been told in this unique way. Every creative endeavor takes an occasional backward step, and this will be no exception.

Origin of a Novel — Week 1

Is there a better moment than the first spark of an idea? Writers write because they don’t have a choice, because it is an essential part of who they are, but they also write because the thrill of beginning and then of watching the plot grow into a full, living world is an addictive process. My idea for this thriller came to me after catching up on the news one morning. We don’t have regular TV at my house so my news comes from the internet. It was the order in which I read the news stories peculiar to that day that led to a series of “Oh, what if someone who had that particular medical condition (from news article 1) also had this specific psychological profile (from news article 2) and the story were told from the perspective of a young boy who grew up in a bizarre way (age of boy from a short story I had just read, setting of household from news article 3)

A new idea doesn’t roll around in my head long before I’m rushing to a keyboard. I have to dump out the possibilities early on. This is never a formal outline and I don’t worry about using complete sentences. It is an information dump of the setting, characters, and occasionally a voice sample of the point of view character I imagine at that early stage. This initial document has as many questions as answers. Nearly every statement is followed by several “What if this… or maybe this… or even this… no, not that but maybe this….” What I’m trying to capture is something beyond words, it is the way the story felt in my head when I first imagined the characters interacting through the crisis. I store this document in a file with some 30 friend ideas waiting to be written. As new thoughts come to me, I add them to the file and often add bits of news articles that go along with the story.

That’s where I’m at with my first idea for a thriller. I am gathering information, taking notes, copying news articles and journals, and asking experts about the plausability of my premise. If the idea stands the test of this preliminary research, then I will move on and describe the next phase next week.

Ideally, spectacular combinations would only hit me when I am ready to dive into a new novel. In reality, they come when I’ve just started something else, or can’t start anything because of my job and kids, or worse in the middle of another book. To be truthful, they usually come in the middle of a book… because I’m tired of that one, and it’s difficult, and I want to write something else more exciting and easier, something would require less research. Because starting a new book is always more fun than pushing forward from page 155 of the current project, I even start to wonder if maybe the project I’m working on isn’t very good anyhow.

Gathering 100 good ideas for stories is easy. Writing one through to the end is not. In order to stick with an idea to completion, you have to be committed to it as well as the process. Make certain you are committed and then hold yourself to a schedule. After the schedule is in place, hold yourself accountable to it and don’t allow excuses. If your word count falls below one week, you’d better double up the next. Be a relentless critic of your time spent writing. Write when it is brilliant fun and when it is a layer of hell.

View your own folder filled with ideas for future novels as a dangling carrot rather than room of nagging ghosts. Fill it up, add to past files, but don’t let it derail you until the current project is complete. Now, when I start raving about a fresh idea for a best seller… remind me to file it away and stay the course.

New ePub Release!

ePub Exclusive only .99!

Those Who Walked Before – Now Available as an ePub!

When fifteen year old Jordan Booker’s parents die in an accident, he and his little sister are sent to live with their aunt in the middle of nowhere. He thinks his bizarre aunt and the broken down house are the craziest things that will ever happen to him. Then he discovers a dusty laboratory and an old man’s journal in a hidden shed. They lead him to artifacts that are unlike anything he’s ever seen. While he is still trying to put the pieces together, a time capsule sends him back in time to a world that defies everything he learned in history class. The ancient world looks more like an alien planet than an earth of long ago.

Jordan must learn to survive in a foreign landscape of stinging trees, multi-eyed birds, miniature dinosaurs, and hostile natives. If he doesn’t find his way back home, his little sister Emily will be alone with their cruel aunt forever. Worse, the Oldtimers who built the capsule have brought him into the past so he can save the future, and he has no idea what they want him to do. A young wolf pup becomes his best friend, and together they learn the true value of friendship, acceptance, and family.

All ePub versions now available for only .99!

Buy now on Amazon!

Buy now on Smashwords!

True Blood and Dairy Hollow

Like all writers, I dream of a secret hideaway where I can ignore the day-to-day routine and dramas that pull me away from whichever project is currently screaming the loudest. I would turn off the phones, radios, and televisions. (Yes, the children too.)  I would pile my research around my silent desk and my fingers would take flight. The only thing to worry about would be whether or not my fingers could keep up with the pent-up stories flowing from my liberated imagination.

For me, this fantasy is always in the shape of a small cabin.  A tiny spot in the forest where I would bump into my own ideas morning… well, honestly, not so much in the morning, but definitely in the afternoon, and long into the dark morning hours. It would be a place to nurture my soul.

Several years ago, Laura Castoro, a dear friend and talented writer, took me on a tour of my fantasy writing spot right here in Arkansas. The working writers’ colony at Dairy Hollow is in the beautiful and historic Eureka Springs. It isn’t just for writers. Artists, cooks, musicians, actors, and other creative sorts can apply for a week or even a month to focus on their craft in setting created by like-minded individuals who understand their needs. People from 44 countries have taken up a residency at the colony. Visit the Writers’ Colony website for more details and photos. Visit the colony personally for a life changing stay.

Because Dairy Hollow offers low-cost residencies, they occasionally host events to help fund this haven for artists.  Next month they are having one you won’t want to miss!  Not only is it a beautiful time of year to drive into the Ozarks, but you can also spend a weekend with Charlaine Harris!

Laura is a member of the board, here is a rundown of the weekend in her own words: In fact, we are offering two unique opportunities for you to get up close and personal with one of the hottest writers in the business today. Her “Sookie Stackhouse” series is the basis for HBO’s runaway successful series “TRUE BLOOD.” Charlaine is a lovely person, an entertaining speaker, and well as an inventive and wonderfully creative writer. Come and join us for a two-event weekend. You won’t be disappointed. As an added bonus, it will be autumn in the Ozarks. Make a weekend of it by staying at one of the many B&Bs where you might snuggle up by the fireplace in the evening. Or try one of the many legendary hotels, for instance the Crescent Hotel which boasts its own nightly “Ghost Tours.” There’s plenty of shopping for unique items from the many artists who call Eureka Springs home. I never visit without bringing home a load of goodies. The trip alone will be worth it.

Meet Charlaine Harris

1) Lunch with Charlaine

Saturday, October 1 from  1pm-3pm., The Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, in the Conservatory

Tickets are $50 and include a buffet and cash bar.

The charming, funny and very southern Miss Harris will be speaking on her life at as writer and offering an insiders look at all things Sookie.

2) An Evening with Charlaine

Saturday, October 1, 2011  6:30-10:30pm at The Peel Mansion,  Bentonville, AR

On Saturday night, the Writers Colony will host a fabulous dinner at The Peel Mansion in Bentonville, AR where we will engage Miss Harris in an “Inside the Writers Studio” type interview format (with Laura Castoro as interviewer!) which will include audience participation.

Tickets include a full-course dinner and cocktails and beverages: $125/ single tickets, $200/couple, $750/table of eight.

Special dinner seating at Miss Harris’s table is available for $250/single, $450/couple.

You won’t want to miss this once in a lifetime chance to meet one of the hottest writers of our time!

Space is limited, and filling quickly, so get your tickets now by calling the Writers Colony at 479-253-7444, or emailing director@writerscolony.org

A New Look At Paper Mache!

Father Time and Horse Mask (in progress)

Everyone who has been to my house knows that my den doubles as an art studio. On any table, footstool, or windowsill you are likely to find a paper mache sculpture, a felted ice cream sundae, an acrylic painting, pencil drawings, pipe cleaner sculptures, clay shark teeth, or other projects in various states of completion. We’re as likely to settle into a good movie night with a propane torch and old watch parts as we are to hunker down with a bowl of popcorn. Over the past year, I’ve spent a bit of time playing with paper mache, and the versatility has amazed me. This underrepresented art medium is a lot more fun if you think beyond the balloons, newspaper, and flour of elementary school.

Of all the recipes I’ve experimented with, a toilet tissue recipe is my favorite for finishing a piece with delicate details. For a porcelain finish, smooth the surface with sheet rock mud, then dry and sand. When I use this method, I still begin with the traditional newspaper and glue to build up a strong base layer. Below the recipe, you’ll find some photos of my recent experiments.

Tissue Paper Mache Clay

Ingredients:

1 roll of toilet paper
3/4 cup of white glue (Elmer’s)
1 cup of joint compound
1/2 cup white flour
2 tablespoons linseed oil

Tools:

You’ll need a large bowl with high sides so you don’t splatter clay on your cupboards, an electric mixer, a measuring cup and a tablespoon. To keep the finished clay from drying out, you’ll need an air-tight container. The recipe makes approximately 1 quart of paper mache clay.

Since toilet tissue brands differ, the first time you make this recipe you should take a few minutes to find out how much paper is in the first roll. Then adjust the recipe if your brand doesn’t contain about 1 1/4 cup of paper. Fortunately, this is not a chemistry experiment or rocket science–if your mixture contains a little more paper than
mine, or a little less, your sculptures will still be stunning. Angel Soft works well!

Step 1. Fill a high-sided bowl with warm water. Remove the toilet paper from the roll and throw it into the water. Push down on the paper to make sure all of it gets wet.

Step 2. Then pick up the paper and squeeze out as much water as you can. Pour the water out of the bowl and put your paper mass back in.

Step 3. You will want to break the paper into chunks about 1″across. This will allow your mixer to move around the pieces and break them apart.

Step 4. Add all the ingredients to the bowl and mix, using an electric mixer. The mixer will pull the fibers of the toilet paper apart and turn it into pulp. Continue to mix for at least 3 minutes to make sure all the paper has been mixed in with the other ingredients. If you still see some lumps, use a fork or your fingers (with the mixer turned off!) to break them apart, and then mix some more.

Your paper mache clay is now ready to use. It will look a bit like cookie dough—but don’t eat it!

If you don’t plan to use your clay right away, place it in an airtight container to keep it from drying out. The clay should stay usable for 5 days or more, if you keep it covered. The recipe makes about 1 quart.

Mask before skim coat of sheetrock mud

Indiana Jones Idol, newspaper clay (in Progress)

Indiana Jones Idol

Dragon Body Parts with wire armature

Dragon pieced together, but without her head.

 

Dragon with head attached and strips of fabric started for stomach ridges.

Fabric/glue draping complete and painting begins.

 

Cave system for legos and super hero figures.

 

Paper Mache with newspaper and glue then covered with brown bag paper mache and glue.

 

I’m a Podcast sort of girl

We all know that in order to be a good writer, or a well rounded individual, extensive reading and writing are essential, but I’m going to argue  that extensive listening should be added to the list. I’ve never been content to do only one thing at a time. Even as young as six I would knit while watching TV and fold the church bulletins into origami nightmares during a sermon. Today, our den, kitchen, garage, and backyard double as project zones, and the kids and I multitask like champs.

Years ago, I realized that my reading list was longer than my allotted time on this earth, so I also became a big fan of audio books. I listen to them on long drives, work days when I’m doing brainless office tasks, or midnight housecleaning binges. But even with our library’s large collection, I made my way through the bulk of them in no time.

Imagine my delight when I discovered Podcasts. Because of our project load, TV programs are really just flashy radio programs to my family anyhow. We listen, and occasionally glance at the screen during silent moments or high action events with limited dialog. As much as I love foreign films, the idea of having to stare at the screen continuously through an entire movie to read the text makes me feel frantic. But with several hundred Podcasts loaded on my phone, I can weed the garden, stack firewood, solder a pair of computer chip earrings, feed the cat, and cook supper without missing a beat.

My kids are addicted too. Podcasts are available on any passion or curiosity imaginable. They are FREE. The production values are as varied as the topics, but for the most part, they are high quality entertainment with a great deal of knowledge packaged (sometimes discreetly) into the mix. Even preschool age stories are available. And Podibooks are becoming increasingly available. I feel an electric thrill just thinking of the piles of Podcasts I’ve yet to discover. And yes, I’m geeky enough to admit it.

Enough reading. Go Listen!

Here are some of my favorites:

RadioLab
Stuff Mom Never Told You
This American Life
Art Scene
BrainStuff
The Chopra Center
CraftSanity
Etsy
Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips
Public Radio Selected Shorts
Stuff You Missed in History Class
Stuff You Should Know
The Writing Show
Tales From the South
All the Podcasts at HowStuffWorks.com

Preserving Tomatoes

This year started with floods of rain that created a swamp in garden. The swamp eventually shrunk into puddles and finally dried up completely. Now we’re into a full drought with burn bans causing brush to pile on the edges of property and barbeques to be conducted with caution. Because I have a thick pile of leaf/grass mulch on my vegetable  garden, I’ve managed to grow a decent crop of vegetables despite the lack of water. My tomatoes have been lumpier than usual and some succumb to dry rot before they warm from green to orange.  I won’t have enough to can, but I will freeze enough for a mid-winter treat.

If I’m going to use the tomatoes right away, I chop them with the skins on and make a quick sauce with basil, chopped bacon, garlic, onions, and ripe olives.  For the freezer
bound tomatoes, I blanch and peel them like this:

First, cut out the stem ‘core’ and any spots. Leave peel. Boil a large pot of water. Be careful to allow room for the tomatoes without causing an overflow.  As soon as the water comes to a boil, or even just before, drop the tomatoes into the hot water. Leave them only long enough to split the skins and cause small wrinkles. Drain the tomatoes and allow them to cool.  The peelings will slip right off and you can bag the stewed tomatoes for a chilly winter day when you want a pot of chilly, spaghetti, or lasagna with the deep flavor of home-grown tomatoes.

Early Tomato Preparation

Scalded Tomatoes

Tomatoes ready for the Freezer

Jo McDougall – Poet and Memoirist

Early this spring, I met Jo McDougall at an Arkansas Literary Festival event. She is one of those rare, dear people who welcomes a new acquaintance with the comfort and ease of a lifelong friend. I was disappointed to miss her reading during the festival, but I have learned this week that we all have another opportunity to hear the story of her new memoir, Daddy’s Money: A Memoir of Farm and Family. I hope

Learn more about Jo, her poetry, her memoir, and where you can meet her in person on her website.

Jo McDougall’s latest

by Rod Lorenzen

(Reprinted with permission from the author.)

Better known as an accomplished poet, Jo McDougall has turned her considerable talent to writing a memoir about the vibrant rice farm where she grew up in Southeast Arkansas. While “Daddy’s Money: A Memoir of Farm and Family” (The University of Arkansas Press, $19.95, paperback) may look like a tribute to rural America, don’t bet the farm on it. McDougall writes eloquently about her early life, but it includes a sad refrain, about the fate of the family farm and her own trouble with her younger sister, over control of the family estate.

In between, however, McDougall serves up some tantalizing homegrown memories of the farm community around DeWitt, where she grew up with the rituals of early rising, working until dark and knowing all the neighbors for miles around. She recalls the inescapable sounds of a huge pump near her house that ran non-stop to keep the rice fields irrigated and the way the dirt smelled as it was churned up each spring.

The homeplace was built in 1910 by her paternal grandfather, Peter Garot, an immigrant of Belgium. Her father, Leon Garot, later took over the 1,110 acres when Peter Garot as lured into retirement by the sparkling waters of Hot Springs.

As a girl, McDougall learned how to snap the head off a chicken but was otherwise not required to work much around the farm. Daddy’s money was paying her way. For the better part of the last century, McDougal’s family thrived on rice farming and it provided them with an abundant life.

Still, there was the constant undertow of worry about growing conditions and the farmers’ utter dependence on the weather. Too much rain? Too little? Will the bane of all rice growers — the deadly white tip disease — show up to ruin everything? All this caused strain in the household as her father routinely complained to her mother about the season’s crop. McDougall writes:

“It never occurs to either of them, I suppose, to pursue another way of making a living. They are beholden to the spreading sunsets of this forever landscape, to the smells of water irrigating a dry field. To the color of rice at harvest, like burnt butter. They are beholden to the dirt.”

Near the end of the book, McDougall takes her grandchildren for one last look at the farm, now deserted, where she spent her early years. Pulling on the rotting door of a barn, she is aware that the “old homeplace looks like the setting for a Tennessee Williams play: genteel decay in the Old South.”

This book is a little unsettling at times: There is a painful scene in which McDougall bids against her sister at a court-ordered, “closed” liquidation of the family estate for possession of the red wagon of their childhood. Otherwise, “Daddy’s Money” imparts a broad connection to family that is sweetened by McDougall’s eidetic memory for the rich details of her youth.

McDougall, the author of five books of poetry, includes several new poems in this book that help punctuate the moods of her story. Characteristically, her words are always carefully planted and pruned. They never fail to provide an abundant harvest.