Weds check-in for ROW80 . . .

Just going to jump right in with a quick update. Like a wildabeest, its hoary, hairy beard swaying in the wind as it grazes, one eye out for predators, I hover over my keyboard, balancing writing with all else that intervenes. Some days, I make progress. Less so, this week.

William Buckley (Source: Wikipedia)

Writing: Still working on editing Section 2 of Years of Stone but I discovered some new research on Cascades Female Factory (a women's prison in Van Diemen's Land).

I found a painting of William Buckley in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Buckley, who actually worked as a gatekeeper for the nursery at Cascades, befriends one of my characters. Unusually tall, well over six feet, somewhat ungainly, and pock-marked, Buckley lived with aboriginals from 1803 to 1835. I'll let Buckley explain his history as he talks to Deidre about his life before working at Cascades . . .

“’Twas before I came to Van Diemen’s Land. The high court sent me to the mainland first. I guess you’d call me an absconder, for I didn’t stay there long. Those days was different. Never enough to eat.”

Buckley kept talking like a wagon wheel that once began to roll, couldn’t stop. “I ran away from Camp Phillip with a couple of my mates. I went one way; they went another. I never saw them again. I nearly starved out in the bush, but I managed. Found a spear and that was the ticket. Later I learned it was a marker for a grave. The Watourong saw that spear and thought I was the spirit of the one who’d passed. Those were good years . . .  

In writing about Buckley and the Cascades Women's Factory, my sense of the people and how they interacted is deepening, but sometimes only a phrase guides me. For example, Lucy Frost's very helpful Abandoned Women, describes Ann Hutchinson, the matron at Cascades, as "petulant" in responding to a government inquiry about the numbers of infant deaths there as well as the actual physical layout of the nursery. All useful stuff. And a prisoner who could read could find work at the nursery. What drives me forward is trying to imagine what this prison was really like. Ah, the writer's quest for verisimilitude!

Other goals. Does it count that I did my taxes which required meticulous accounting of book sales, starting and ending inventory, those books given away for promotion, for gifts, and other various expenses? Done! Getting ready for book club on The Mermaid Quilt at the end of the month. Reviewing Smashwords for its conversion requirements. Still don't know if I need another ISBN. Steady progress on reading craft and on keeping the travel blog updated (latest entry tonight re the wildabeest). Does anyone else get seduced into downloading Kindle books to read? No time! But I got to quilt tonight and my desk is ready for writing in the morning.

May your week go well.

Winter thoughts and ROW80 . . .

January brings

freezing fog this morning,

ice on the street slick and glassy.

Little nameless winter birds cluster

at the bird feeder,

as if the seeds will keep them warm.

Even the trees turn white

and still, each leafless branch,
each pine needle, frost-coated.

Like house plants, we are still alive,

My African violets yet bloom in winter.

ROW80 CHECK-IN: Skipped Sunday's ROW80 check-in. I can only blame volunteer work, writing PR stuff to deadline, and a truly wonderful baby-naming. So, the WRITING (or I should say revising) goes reasonably well "between" other commitments. I can't keep a word count, and I get sidetracked by research, everything from what does a possum really look like to who was the District Constable in 1842.

I'm currently READING Jennifer Chiaverini's Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, a well researched slice-of-life story in Civil War Washington, D.C., but a very different, more matter of fact style than the evocative writing in Kate Grenville's The Secret River. MARKETING should heat up in the next few weeks as my KDP contract runs out on Feb 7. The next challenge is to take The Mermaid Quilt live on Smashwords. I did learn much from participating in just the first week of The Ultimate Blog Challenge. But writing a blog post a day is simply too much, unless I want to cut back on my main writing project (and I don't).

Question of the Day: I do keep a travel blog, On the Road Again, where I've been posting pictures and some writing about what we saw in our 3 week trip to Africa this last November. But even if I don't post as often as here, more readers are jumping to that blog than this one, and some of those readers are complaining that I need to post more on the travel blog!

Market gurus say to find your niche and promote from there. But my writing is my main focus. I also find it hard to write on the travel blog when we're at home. That nasty inner voice says, "What's so interesting about home?" Today's poem came from what I see out my window at 6 am. Tonight's low will be under 20 degrees Fahrenheit; I'm expecting more frost-covered trees, more revision, and maybe another poem.

So the question is: What would make my writing blog more interesting to you? And thank you for stopping by.

WEDS ROW80 Check in . . . and possums

Tasmanian Brushtail Possum

One of my characters in Years of Stone carries around a possum. I thought I knew what this small animal looked like, most likely something like a raccoon, though I was uncertain why anyone would want one for a pet.

Then I found there's a big difference between an opossum in North America and a possum in Tasmania.

In Tasmania, the possum is cuddly, somewhat chubby, a nice, long bushy tail; big eyes and cute ears that look almost like a rabbit's ears, though the possum still has those very sharp claws. In fact, the proper name for a Tasmanian possum is Brushtail Possum.

Virginia Opossum (Wikipedia)

In Virginia, the opossum looks feral in comparison with an elongated snout, nice sharp teeth, and a ratlike tail. Who'd want to cuddle with that? So once again, I'm grateful for the  internet and the ability to find comparative information -- even for what appears to be a walk-on appearance!

WEDS ROW80 UPDATE. I'm pretty pleased with this week's WRITING. The writing/revising comes along slowly, and Deidre is less wimpy by the day. I'm not counting words while revising because the process is somewhat sticky. Most days I delete as much as I add. I'm also making steady progress with READING other participants in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and ROW80, and using Facebook and Twitter. Kate Grenville's The Secret River is a sheer delight to read for her descriptive ability and nuances of character and plot. I'm also knocking down 2-3 writing magazines every other day. So far, so good.

The toughest area for me (as with many writers) is MARKETING. One example. With Blogspot, readers can sign up to receive e-mail notification whenever I put up a new post. But these e-mails are invisible to me. Enter MailChimp, a free service (can upgrade for $$$) that allows me to set up a way for readers to sign up for a newsletter. I can then write directly to my readers.

I'm experimenting with this on my travel blog (On the Road Again) to see how it works. Some of the marketing bloggers I've read through the Ultimate Blogging Challenge use something like MailChimp to offer their readers something for free. For writers, that might be a free story or an occasional newsletter or events announcement. If you have experimented with developing such reader lists and/or a follow-up campaign, I'd love to learn how and if this technique worked for you!

But what makes me still smile is that today I walked into my favorite used book store. Here, the owners kindly set aside shelf space for local authors. So after dithering for weeks, I took my book, The Mermaid Quilt & Other Tales, and asked if they would be interested in carrying my book. The response: Perhaps February (they rotate authors). Marketing. One step at a time.

More about Tasmanian Brushtail Possums at the Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service site.
The image of the Tasmanian Brushtail Possum is a screen saver picture from National Geographic.

If you'd like to see what Scheherazade has in common with the Francolin from Tanzania (Africa), check out my latest blog, On the Road Again. As always, may your writing week go well.

ROW80 Update . . .

ROW80 (A Round of Words in 80 Days) begins officially with Monday and Wednesday posts, January 7 through March 20. We have set goals and now will climb the hill of accountability every week. On this last Monday, one ROW80 writer cleverly separated 'writing about goals' from 'writing about writing', so that's what I will try to do with today focusing on goals.

Writing: I would like to finish another round of editing of Years of Stone. This last week has seen a breakthrough as one of my major characters comes into her own. Of course, being somewhat demanding, she requires a complete rewrite. She will not faint. She will drink more than tea. She will confront dragons (figuratively). She is challenging me to rethink her every action, and I will.

Being part of several writing communities, the Internet Writing Workshop, the Ultimate Blog Challenge, and ROW80, as well as keeping up my travel blog makes me wonder if I've stretched myself too thin. Especially for the travel blog, I find it difficult to keep posts current, unless we are on the road somehow. This last six weeks, I've been writing about our trip to Africa. I'm now posting about one entry a week. But each morning begins with writing on Years of Stone first. So far.

Reading. Aargh! I'm feeling undisciplined. I'm reading four books, maybe five, right now: Sally Mitchel's Daily Life in Victorian England; Orson Scott Card's Characters & Viewpoint; Ken McGoogan's Lady Franklin's Revenge (nonfiction); and Kate Grenville's The Secret River.  But late at night, the Kindle calls with its lovely, oversized print. Of these, so far, Card has been most useful in digging into ideas I need to understand, particularly re character motivation. I did sign up for GoodRead's challenge to read 50 books this year.The mail also brings in Writer's Digest and The Writer to keep me thinking about writing craft.

Marketing/Publishing/Outreach. Today, I submitted Standing Stones to an independent publisher specializing in historical fiction. Big step. Lots of paperwork. Now I wait 5-10 weeks and may hear nothing at all. But the book is out there once again.

In addition to ROW80, I'm posting daily for the Ultimate Blog Challenge (UBC) through January. Most UBC participants are not writers, but they have marketing and technical skills galore. I'm learning new vocabularies and new ways of thinking about what marketing strategies will work for me. One lesson: Work on the 'business' side of writing every day. My goal: To have a specific list of actionable steps I can take to improve my marketing by the end of January.

Do you have your 2013 calendar yet? For the first time, I have listed writing goals throughout the year. Yes, I will submit to the Pacific Northwest Writers Association literary contest in February. Yes, I will write a month of poetry in April for National Poetry Month and participate in NaNoWriMo this November for Rivers of Stone (after a summer of research).

My favorite quote just now is from poet Sharon Olds. I met her one rainy weekend at a writing retreat on the Oregon coast. She says: "Writing or making anything -- a poem, a bird feeder, a chocolate cake -- has self-respect in it. You're working. You're trying. You're not lying down on the ground, having given up."  So, respect yourself. Respect the process. And may your writing (or other projects) go well. May you celebrate each day with joy.

Masaii Women in welcome dance, Tanzania, November 2012

Oct 3: Connections

I come to this constructed room 

each morning --

computer, books, table. 

On the wall,

Frida Khalo, holding hands 

with her divided self,

looks down on me, and yet

in this moment,

my past, present, future 

all stream into story,

into some sense that even on days

too full with obligation,

the African violet 

unfolds its newest blossom,

the tiny marble elephant lifts 

its trunk in celebration,

and I write.

This print of "The Two Fridas" by Frida Khalo, shows that tension between her colonial self (her German photographer father) and her mother (indigenous roots) that informs her self-portraits, divided and connected, affirming and violently separate. The print hangs on my office wall. I have visited Frida's house in Mexico and seen with my own eyes her garden and the narrow passageway that connected her quarters to those of Diego Rivera. This image is from WikiPaintings.

The writing prompt today from OctPoWriMo is connectedness. Here I think of artists and writers who have inspired me. I cannot explain so easily why I am driven to write every day.

ROW80 update. I am sadly behind. The quilt show looms. My volunteer job has expanded. Instead of writing, I work on public relations and the program for 5,000 attendees. The trip to Africa also is just three weeks away. Scored 2 travel shirts today at a thrift shop and 1 from REI, along with power-house DEET. Yes, I plan to wear a head scarf when traveling in Muslim areas. 

Some small success: I did write my goals for this next round of 80 days. I have accepted that I need another year of revision on Years of Stone. I am working on writing exercises to develop character and a deeper sense of their motivation. I will complete a review of Rick Bylina's soon-to-be-published Secrets (a sequel to his One Promise Too Many) within the next three days. I did personally sell 42 copies of The Mermaid Quilt, though my marketing plan languishes. Sigh. A shy writer. But all is well. I will persevere and return tomorrow. And write.

Weds check in . . . for Mermaid Covers

This week balanced moments of euphoria with dark thoughts. Well, maybe not that dark. I used i-stock as recommended by a writer from the helpful Internet Writing Workshop to find the perfect cover, only to discover that photograph I fell in love with would cost about $278. Not this time.

So my challenge to you, dear readers, is to give me some feedback. Which of these two covers do you prefer? 

The book is a collection of ten short stories (and a like number of poems) about mermaids -- historical, cross-cultural, gothic, and a tad of magical realism. 

Which cover grabs you, invites you in, makes you want to pick up this soon-to-be e-book?

The photos come from a summer trip to southern Mexico. I can't use a picture of my mermaid quilt without violating copyright, and truthfully, I have lost confidence in my drawing abilities, even if I can still paint large cartoons on walls to the delight of small children.

Now for this week's ROW80 Weds check-in, just 12 hours late.  

I can report steady progress. The edits are done entirely for Years of Stone. Gasp! Next week, I'll be reworking the synopsis and query and sending it out. Just two stories remain to edit for The Mermaid Quilt, the sequence of stories/poems is set, and I'm chopping out two stories that don't quite feel finished. Then I tackle Amazon's amazing guidelines for e-pubbing (yes, I'm using their template). 

Finally, I've had the chance to read other participants on ROW80. Not quite all of them, but enough to feel these are serious writers who, like me, are writing between other commitments. Yahoo! Unfinished work? A story to send out by Sunday.

Meanwhile, I shall hold my breath and hope for your reaction to these covers.
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Just in case you wish to see what other ROW80 writers are doing, click here.

Weds Check-in . . .July 26th

Not sure I'm quite understanding this ROW80, but here's the place to check in and see if I'm keeping up with this week's goals.

This week on the Internet Writing Workshop's NOVELS LIST, there's been much discussion about whether folks should submit work for critiques from stories that are "in progress" or "finished." Makes me want to jump in with an opinion, because the comments have raged against both types of writers, and some suggest there's only one way to participate in this IWW list.

What I've learned since last summer is that feedback from other writers has helped me focus my writing in unexpected ways.

When I was truly stuck, trying to decide which story to write, participating in the FLASH fiction group prompted me to explore ideas and pursue the threads of two possible novels. Over time, one story came to dominate my thinking. Could I have done this without the group? Perhaps.

I then rejoined NOVELS-L and dove into Years of Stone wholeheartedly, built my plot scene by scene on a cork board, spotted plot holes, and continued to write. Then occasionally, yes, work-in-progress, I subbed chapters from the story that was unfolding when I felt I wanted feedback on the energy of the writing overall. At this stage, I got enough feedback to feel I was truly on the right track. No one said, "Stop writing this crap!" though a few complained that I wasn't subbing chapters in sequence. Well, I wasn't writing in sequence so . . .

It's now a year later. The first draft is truly done. Every single chapter sings as best as I can make it. I'm subbing the final section 3 (yes to NOVELS-L) for review and have the entire first draft out to two 'first readers' I trust, and then . . . I'm not sure. Still waffling but leaning ever close to Amazon.

But my point is what worked for me may not work for anyone else. So, whether we submit finished, or work-in-progress excerpts for critique, this writing is a very unique journey, one filled with doubts and joys. Every comment I've received from critters on NOVELS-L (and FLASH) has helped me on my writing journey. I've struggled, learned, revised, edited, sweated, cussed a few times, retyped (oops, re-word-processed), and will persevere.

Thank you all.

Now to ROW80.
1. About 60% through edits on Section 1, Years of Stone. Got comments already on Section 2.
2. Edited one story for The Mermaid Quilt: A Collection of Tales.
3. Drew one picture for same.
4. Found two potential agents I like  for Years of Stone, but still waffling there.

May your week go well!