October 14: Reflection

I could avoid looking in the mirror

or looking within, but not what I see

when I look at you, daughter of my heart,

from my flesh and from my bones.

I cherish this old photo taken in San Francisco,

just after I learned you were resting in my womb.

I remember longing for you, daughter,

the dream of night visions realized.

Today, you bless your own child with love,

one generation and, as the poet says,

“Joy on joy,” now two, sweet reflections.

Today's prompt from Octpowrimo simply asks us to look at our own reflection, and if that is too difficult (as evidenced by my frequent breaks from writing this morning), to reflect on Eric Hoffer, "With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves." So the prompt goes: What I see when I look in your eyes. There are some 50 of us trying to write a poem a day. To read what others have written, click HERE.

ROW80 UPDATE: Skipped Weds update. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by travel preparations and the quilt show (this coming week and then done!). When the "to do" list is too long, time management gurus say to tackle the hardest task, the one you least want to do. So yesterday I sewed secret pockets in my two travel pants.

BUT the good news is I have begun working through  Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell. A chapter a day. This process feels like it's more connected to the revision I want to do, even if the coming three weeks in November mean I will be far from home or computer. Still have two critiques to do for NOVELS-L. But I am writing a poem a day (and reading what others have written, sheer creativity!). Bell says set a writing quote for each day and then stick to your writing until you achieve it. I need to hear those words, though I'm setting goals, not a word quota  -- yet. 

And progress on yet another sideways marketing goal: gain skills on Twitter. Yep. I'm twittering. Twitter posts take me to very useful articles on writing craft -- and connect me with other writers. If you twitter, try @bluebethley  May your week go well.

October 13: Buddha Babe

The Buddha rests,

feet folded above the pink lotus,

its roots mired in mud.

His belly is full, his face reflects contentment,

his thoughts float far away,

yet I’d rather see him laugh, now,

his belly shake in sheer enjoyment.

I am surrounded by illusion.

The first winter winds sweep

yellow and red leaves up into a gray sky.

Two Canada geese honk their way south.

My African violets quiver in morning light.

Winter comes. My writing rests.

But I remember laughing,  

for I hold a four-month-old baby.

Her eyebrows lift and her lips

curve into welcome,

a grand chortle

worthy of any Buddha.

Today's Octpowrimo prompt is laughter. How lucky we are when laughter informs each day.  Click HERE to see how other writers celebrate laughter.

Real life swirls around me. Change is constant. Commitments and obligations yammer away. I'm truly not able to do all I'd like to do. Yet these moments of laughter hold all together. May your week go well. Tonight I see Leda Rose once again and will watch her face transform with joy.

October 12: Passion

Bang.  Slam. The house tilts.

Presidential debates notwithstanding,

the living room fills with testosterone.

I hyperventilate. Not even national policy

can be decided without an argument.

We have forgotten civility,

punctuation that brings order to discourse.

“Madame Chair,” pause, paragraph unstated,

I give you snarky innuendo, road rage.

You are the enemy.

We smile with all our teeth.

We have guns. We have heroes.

We circle in for the kill.

October 11: Biden/Ryan Vice Presidential Debates
Source: Associated Press, ABC

Day 12 Octpowrimo, a poem a day. Surely others found something other than this national argument to remind us that poets can celebrate passion? Click here to read 57 other takes on "passion," today's prompt. 

October 11: Was She Pretty?

Here she comes,

my mother, trailing five husbands.

Hollywood starlet, she never asked

if she were pretty. She couldn’t sing.

She couldn’t dance.

Her death began when she was knocked

eighty feet down the freeway;

a roaring semi-truck couldn’t stop in time.

She couldn’t stop in time.

What was she doing on the freeway,

crossing over to the other side?

Trying to cross over to the other side?

Crossing over the road to that wayside tavern

for just a little drink along the way.

Ever truly dizzy after that, she finally fell

To her death off a rocky cliff.

Was she drinking? Yes.

The ocean held her innocence one last time,

A blonde mermaid awash in the drink, gone,

a loss I still don't understand.

Today's Octpowrimo featured Katy Makkai's famous poetry slam performance, Pretty. We were to write about something we resist saying, something that moved us. But first, watch Katy Makkai before sinking down into the poem we wanted to write. And this poem came slamming out of my past. It's not the poem I wanted to write. I know very well what I want to resist, what I need to say and do. But the issue of "pretty" is charged for women of any age. I've always felt that poetry is for those times when we have no words to say what we feel. We read poetry and it eases something deep within. May it be so.

October 10: Morning

As I savor that first easy transition from night to pale dawn,

I leap out of bed and wriggle into the 19^th Century,

already setting the scene with storm und drang, the sense

of sea or prison or some aspect of colonial life

in Van Diemen’s Land in 1842.

Mac and Deidre now deep in the angst of their own morning;

my body becomes their bodies, bruised and shaken,

far from home, lost to each other by convoluted

plot twists. By 7, my cheeks hollow out.

Coffee made quickly.

Granola poured in the first bowl I touch.

All carried into my office, and morning begins.

Octpowrimo's prompt for the day:  Morning, that moment when mind connects with body. Read what others have written here:

October 9: Retirement

Steady tick, tick, monotonous tock, an empty sound

this morning, and then tick, tick, tock again.

A battery-run desk clock should not tock,

the inexorable shock of time unraveling.

Outside about a block away, a thrum of cars hums,

stop and go at the corner.

I balk at the mad rush and sip my coffee.

Ah. Clock sounds fade,

the ‘paper’ on the screen invisible.

I write pock-marked scratches,

chalk lines soon erased, unfinished,

take stock of what is left to do, and hear again

the clock inventory my days.

Octpowrimo's prompt (a poem a day for October) has us exploring sound, poetry as music, and maybe playing with onomatopoeia, no doubt to make our readers flutter, bang and whir through the rest of today, October, the beginning of fall, a time when red and yellow leaves swirl to the ground, and we hold to each day, reminded that winter comes. Check out the link to see what others have written.

Fall leaves,West Virginia http://www.forestwander.com/

October 8: Granola

In the 1960s, granola

was code for anti-war. We women

gathered in kitchens wearing granny glasses

and long skirts, while the men hunkered outside

by the hand-built illegal yurt deep in the forest,

trying to decide if they should evade the draft.

We used only natural ingredients, butter

fresh churned, organic oats, walnuts gathered last fall

and carefully saved, and honey [white sugar was akin to cursing].

We stirred our granola in great cast iron pots with wooden spoons,

adding vanilla at the very last moment. The smell hung in

the air like a promise of peace.

I remember those days when I have breakfast.

I still make my own granola on the stovetop,

pan-roasted, crunchy old-fashioned rolled oats;

my tongue delights in the sweet snap of brown sugar,

salty cashews and dried cranberries,

but the fathers who went to Viet Nam

watch their sons march off to Afghanistan.

Octpowrimo's prompt for today (the 8th) was simply taste. Visit Octpowrito to read what others have written. 

October 7: Mermaids for free

ALERT: Just for today, October 7, my collection of short stories, The Mermaid Quilt & Other Tales, is FREE on Amazon (KINDLE only) at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090VHKBC   I'm hoping for a few reader reviews. Shameless self-promotion I know, but I'm trying to learn about marketing. Slowly!

Now for today's poem. The prompt comes from Octpowrimo (click to read other writers) and asks us to write a poem about friendship.

My Best Friend

Our daughters played together first.

Your slashing New York wit scared me, but

I found you work editing a hundred-page

horror of a manual on springs and coils.

It paid well. When a teaching job opened,

I spoke for you. You already had a reputation.

Our offices were next to each other. At coffee time,

one of us would thump the wall.

At department meetings, I kicked your shins

when it was time to be quiet.

You taught me how to argue.

Our daughters grew up, each finding haven in our houses.

We live in different states now, sisters still. 

One day we will sit on the porch

of a run-down retirement cottage facing the sea,

aging mermaids with ear buds tuned to Mick Jagger.

SUNDAY ROW80 UPDATE. Slow going this week, but the 40-page program for the Quilt Show is done! Only the proof on Monday, then 4,000 copies. Now to my 'real' goals:  

WRITING: So far, so good on writing a poem a day. Best is earlier in the day before reality intercedes. I feel a bit scrambled on my main wip, though. I circle what must be done. Am I ready for true revision, this being my third time through? I work on writing exercises and am seduced by research. I did find a new way to get into the imagery of places I have not visited. I make a table in Word with images on the left and my comments (and source) on the right. When I slow down and really look at the image, I learn about what my characters might see close up. Birds, kelp on rocks, the slant of a wave. I still need to diagnose what's missing -- plot holes, character flaws. But my progress here is nothing measurable.

READING: OK slow going here, but I did read one magazine. Not good enough. Finished a novel (JANE by Robin Maxwell) and another for review (SECRETS by Rick Bylina). Also pulled down several more books to review from Review Seekers on Facebook. Now to write Rick's review -- and at least two crits for writers on NOVELS-L on the Internet Writing Workshop.

MARKETING. I really don't like this part, but I will persevere. Some successes to report. I'm more comfortable on Twitter, following the mantra of reading and posting 2x a day. It's kind of exciting to find writing-related articles so easily. Most say limit the time (and I agree). 10 minutes. If the articles are really worthwhile, I return to them . . . later.  

I actually lost my draft marketing plan somewhere. Is that a joke? But I've started a new one AND because of what folks online have said about reviews being important, I took the plunge and signed up The Mermaid Quilt & Other Tales for a free day, just for today, October 7. Already, by 8:30 am, I've "sold" 34 books. Maybe someone will post a review (that's my goal). I learned you can't be picked up by Kboards (a marketing goal of mine) unless you have at least 5 reviews. Aargh, what writers have to do!

May your week go well.

October 6: Remember

We wait for the bride among strangers,

two sisters standing beside a picket fence.

We’re dressed in crisp, white, starched blouses

with ruffled collars and matching jumpers.

I lost a brass button somewhere,

my bangs are too short, and

I peer through my glasses

with a slight smile.

I remember waking later that night,

open suitcases in every room,

then driving through darkness,

mother glad to leave California.

I would not see my father for two decades,

I keep this photo yet, me hopeful, yearning,

my sister hesitant, as if she knew 

what was coming.

Today's prompt for Octpowrimo (a poem a day throughout the month of October) asks us to remember the past, to dig down to early memories. I still feel like that bespectacled girl in the photo, long neck arched forward, a slight smile and hopeful. 

October 5: Eccentric

Call me sweet, mousy, quiet, unassuming,

rather like a tall librarian who wears glasses

and lurks along the stacks. But know this:

When I am 70, I shall have flame red hair,

wear décolleté with abandon,

stagger into morning on spike heels,

laugh raucously with my gut, drink beer for breakfast,

give perfect strangers poems written on lavender paper.

One morning you will come to my apartment

and find I’ve gone to Buenos Aires

to dance tango in San Telmo on Sundays,

under the leaves of the aurancaria trees.

You’ll caress my fourth published book

and say I knew her once.

But you knew me not at all. 

This video comes from a trip to Buenos where we found tango dancers dancing in the street in San Telmo. The prompt, eccentric, comes from today's OCTPOWRIMO, that eccentric group of writers who will write a poem a day through October.

October 4: Surprise Me!

Surprise me! I wish you would

change night to day. 

Morning begins

another round of words,

a familiar litany

of aches and groans and 

last night’s doubt:  

Why do I write?

The story first, then comes revision,

that torturing of inspiration with rules,

subject/verb agreement being least and last

or even lost 

in that moment

when my words bring tears.

I knew a writer who burned

two years of work in a single night.   

“Too many voices,” he said. He wanted

to write literature. He wanted fame.

There is no talking about this.

I build a story word by word. Bedrock.

‘Tis enough to face down doubt,

To balance inspiration with craft and discipline.

I make my own morning.

I make my own rules.

I tell stories. I write.

NOTE: This rather harsh poem came from today's OCTPOWRIMO. "Surprise me! Consider those moments you have said, “This is just the way I write poetry” and write differently. Close your eyes and think about the place where rules and inspiration meet." I would have loved to write something more inspirational. All I could think of was e.e.cummings' lovely poems without any capital letters. And those writers I have known who struggle to write at great cost. Who one day simply stop writing. This I can barely imagine. Before I retired, my writing always came between other commitments. Now I have the luxury of mornings and online writing communities of readers and writers. Hooray!

See what others have written for Octpowrimo:

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.

Oct 2: The Photographer

I frame pictures with my camera,

narrowing down to one angle of direction, colors bisecting;

always I seek some indefinable balance,

some essence of the scene,

some inner truth.

They tell me I am good at taking pictures, but I know

it is only because I no longer paint.

I still see the outstretched finger, Adam to God,

Michelangelo’s perfectly realized straining to perfection,

that icon of so many that floats on a ceiling

you have to crank your neck back to see,

yet I love how Eve snuggles next to God.

Too bad she doesn’t carry a camera.

Her view would be incomparable.

"The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo (source: Wikipedia Commons). Notice Eve sheltered by  the left hand of God.

I've taken on the challenge of a poem a day for OctPoWriMo. Read what others have written here: Or jump over to Sunday Scribblings where this week's prompt is "creativity."

Oct 1: Let Us Begin

Let Us Begin

Let us begin this journey, you and I,
we who have weathered four decades
together, a joining no one expected
to last, but we have
persevered through every
turning of the seasons.
Now we are here.
At the edge of fall,
that golden breaking of summer.
I see the gray in your hair;
I will hold your hand
every day that we have.

Today begins the October Poetry Writing Month Challenge, dubbed OctPoWrMo, most likely a spinoff of April's poetry challenge and the November Novel Writing Month NoWriMo, which I have done several times now, though not achieving that goal of 50,000 words.

But we leave for Africa at the end of the month, and so this poetry challenge fits right into preparing to leave my notebook -- and all else -- behind. Check out the daily prompts at OctPoWriMo's blog  You can follow on Twitter hashtag #OctPoWriMo or on Facebook Writing Poetry Group if you are so inclined. See what others have written here at Linky.

Photoplay

Roz Morris posted this writing prompt, really a blog hop and a challenge: To write about strangers who appear in a photo you've taken. 

So I selected this picture at random, a side street in Rio, taken in January 2009. The picture is quintessentially Allen. I play with my camera and wait beside the small neighborhood floral shop as he consults Lonely Planet, his mapping skill gained from years of traveling, but one he now fears he can no longer do as well. 

Behind him a couple strides determinedly. An older couple. Are they married? Are they Bazillian? Perhaps they are tourists, as we are, here for such a short time. Perhaps they are émigrés from Europe, for despite its pulsing samba beat and impossibly white sandy beaches(Ipanema, Cococabana, how these names linger), Rio has a decidedly European flavor. Brazilians drink espresso in small coffee shops with fresh, delicate sweet breads and stroll at all times along wide boulevards.

A couple strides past

my husband, lost in a guide book,

as anonymous as flowers in pots

lined up by the door of a small florist.

None of us notice the

raw pink vine flowers that blossom above.

The couple marches, arguing,

he has a lover,

she wants a divorce;

he cannot find his way.

ROW80: Going South

'Tis time. The Canada geese are heading south this morning, lifting up from the nearby wetlands; their cries begin my morning. That bite in the air says snow will fall before the end of the year.

October 1st begins the next Round of Words (ROW80), my second. Participants set measurable goals for the next 80 days and then report to the group via blog twice weekly -- Mondays and Weds. We'll read each other's progress reports, cheer wildly, and go back to work. I'm still a ROW80 newbie as the last session was my first. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment was finishing the rough draft of Years of Stone AND actually e-pubbing a collecion of short stories (just to learn how).

And so I post my goals for the coming three months. It's all about the writing. It's all good. You can jump in here!

My ROW80 goals for October 1st - December 20: 

WRITING:  Complete edits for Years of Stone (pov shifts, authorial intrusion, repeated words) and revision (character depth, conflict, more sensory detail). Work on back story to develop more fully realized characters throughout. Write a poem a day for OctPoWriMo. Read Standing Stones and make notes for revision. By January, I’d like to begin researching Rivers of Stone. My goal is to write the best story I can. The result may not be literary fiction, but it will be my best. Keep one writing session each week for WRITING IT DIFFERENT.

READING/OUTREACH: Each month The Writer and Writer’s Digest arrive. Each month the magazines wind up in a safe “to read” stack (now a backlog of 40 magazines). I’m challenging myself to read 15 of these magazines a month. Blog weekly on some inspiring writing skill (WEDS WRITING WORKOUT). Commit to Sunday and Weds updates for ROW80 – and read and comment on 10 other ROW80 bloggers weekly. Participate weekly on FB (Writer Unboxed, Fellow Writers, Reviewers) and Twitter. Other reading: 3 novels a month (and post reviews on GoodReads).

AGENT SEARCH/MARKETING:  Revise query, synopsis, and send Years of Stone out to 3 potential agents a month. Identify key elements of a marketing plan and draft mine. Develop book group questions.          

Standing behind Deidre . . .

I'm taking daily lessons on how to improve my ability to fully realize a scene. The resulting writing exercises may or may not add to my current revision of Years of Stone, but, like journaling or morning lines, keep me focused.

This came about as I began the hopefully last round of revision and perhaps another six months of work. After reading that so important first chapter, the critters over at the Internet Writing Workshop said I needed more sense-based imagery to flesh out the story. I talked with my hubby, a sometimes ferocious critic but always supportive, about different strategies and we came up with this scheme.

My first exercise on Wednesday was to hover in my imagination 20 feet above the foundering ship and describe what I see. What I realized immediately was that I couldn't SEE the ship! I didn't know what type of ship, how large, how many crew, how far out from land she had run aground. Aaargh! No wonder those sensory details were missing! So I wrote a little and jumped back into research.

Allen:  "That's cheating! You can't rely on research. You must force yourself to use your imagination, write from what you see, what you imagine you smell, taste, hear, touch." (I told you he could be ferocious.)

Me: "But I'm writing historical fiction. How can I write without knowing absolutely . . . etc, etc."

Source: D'Entrecasteaux National Park

That led to more conversation. We are both stubborn. It's my book, and I will do research. But I will also approach these exercises to focus on spinning out the story that uses the five senses. So today's exercise -- to stand behind Deidre and write what I see -- brought this draft.

Remember, Van Diemen's Land, 1842, the ship has foundered along the D'Entrecasteaux Channel near Southport:

Deidre holds Amalie’s hand tightly as they stand in line. The sailors, their faces sweaty and fearful, rush past them. One sailor drops a coil of rope and bumps into Deidre, shoving her to the deck. For a moment, Deidre loses her grasp of Amalie. “Deidre!” Amalie shrieks. “Don’t let go!” The little girl presses against Deidre and winds her arms around Deidre’s waist.

First Mate Banks roars just ahead of them. “Hold tight. Easy there.”

Deidre wraps Amalie close and leans over the bulwarks to look down at the churning sea. She can taste the salt in the wind that buffets her face. The sailors have rigged up a rope chair and are lowering Mrs. Rafferty over the side, her pudgy eyes closed tightly as she moans. The sailors groan as they lower her to the sea. One of the ropes slips, and she falls the last five feet, dumped unceremoniously into the water. The sailor waiting at the side of the ship tries to pull her out of the water. He goes under, Mrs. Rafferty clinging around his neck. He resurfaces and clouts her on the chin. She slumps, her skirts spread out behind her as he wraps a rope under her meaty arms and begins to haul her to shore.

“We won’t fall, will we?” asks Amalie.

 The Captain’s longboat pulls alongside. The sailors snug the boat to the ship. Immediately the waiting women and children are wound in rope and lowered over the side. Deidre moves forward in the line, Amalie with her, hoping this time they will go in the boat.

“No more ‘else we founder,” cries one of the sailors from below, and the line in front of Deidre stops. The ship’s list has increased. Moans of fear bubble up from the women behind her. Is this the day I die?

ROW80 UPDATE: The round of 80 days has ended. I'm late with my update, having joined this writing community in the middle of the 80 days, but the postings of other writers in the midst of working toward their writing goals has been a wonderful experience. Twice a week we are accountable for what we write. The next round begins October 1. I will be ready with a new set of measurable goals, ready to read what others write, and more than ready to write on!

My update is simple. Writing goals have shifted as I realize I cannot complete the final revisions to Years of Stone in under a month (that is, before leaving for Africa). Unbelievably optimistic! But, good progress on e-publishing as The Mermaid Quilt & Other Tales is up on Amazon and available in Kindle and Amazon formats. Whew! These skills were not easy to learn. I've made very good progress in professional reading, though the backlog stack of magazines is very high. And the last goal, building a marketing plan starts with a list and understanding what's involved -- and what I'm willing to do. Ordered Mermaid bookmarks! Next? Think ahead to the next three months.

Sunday morning . . . early.

It's 4:30 am. A motorcycle revs up and burrs through the night, the sound irrevocably splitting my eyes open. And I begin think what to do -- meetings, public relations projects, deadlines, and the marketing plan (when all I want to do is stay home quietly and write).

I open up my e-mail to find Karen Huber's post about stillness. The Power of Pause. Emptying the mind. Lovely evocative photographs that remind me we can find quiet.

This week I subbed a new opening chapter for Years of Stone to the NOVELS group on the  Internet Writing Workshop and got some generous and helpful feedback. My book now opens at the moment people abandon ship. Cries and screams. Crashing waves. A tenuous rope holds ship to shore. Sailors carry children on their backs and pull their way to safety. Women cling to the rope. A few -- terrified and cold to the bone -- can't hang on and are pulled away in the sea. And the ship goes down.

I found this photograph online of women in 1860 at Scratching Sydney's Surface and am struck by how unique each woman's face is. Of course, they would be, just as we are today, but I have to work hard not to generalize the past, as if all women had that patina from Romantic painters. But they did not. These early suffragettes ultimately brought women the right to vote. Their determination can be seen in their faces, even as their clothing reveals adherence to Victorian codes of dress and decorum.

ROW80 Update: Sadly missed Weds check-in but I have made some progress in writing, reading, and research. Marketing? Less so. Our major quilt show comes up in October with about 5,000 attendees. Should I invest in bookmarks???

Sunday night . . . late.

This last week has been hectic when I would rather simplify.

Slowly I am realizing that my exuberance of last week is premature. Yes, the first draft of Years of Stone is done, but now the real work begins. My quilt squares are off the cork board and the 3x5 scene cards are posted instead. Feedback from the harshest critics are ahead, and I know I will need to face down days of doubt.

This early morning crane (a photo taken this summer) makes me think I should not question the process, just take each writing session and work away at building a deeper understanding of character, motivation, and conflict. If I really want to understand what it was like to live in mid-19th Century, I must dig deeper. And that's all right.

ROW80 update: Tested Scrivener, liked the corkboard, the visual prompts for writing, but still not a good fit for me. I think my projects would collapse of their own weight (research files, photos, maps, outlines, character sketches, and that's not counting the story writing).

Worked rather desultorily on a market plan for The Mermaid Quilt & Other Tales. Made me feel like a used car salesman. Made me question my purpose in trying this avenue of self-pubbing. I hate to ask for favors, but this week, I will ask for a review. And maybe set up a 'free day'. What's aggravating is that the preview shows typos and I have uploaded the final correct copy three times now --  surely no one would believe an English teacher would spell 'dedicated' like this: 'DEDICATed.' Aargh! Well, I got it right here. Oh, and I didn't post on Weds. But reading what others have written keeps me going. Thank you all, ROW80 participants!

Sunday Musings:

Row80 Update is here.

Othello Crane Festival (click to see details of this photo)

Last spring, we drove down to the Othello Crane Festival in southern Washington. We saw cranes in flocks, and, at sunset, we were treated to a swarm of hundreds of ducks circling an open field, calling to each other, landing, sometimes taking off again, yet coming down to ground, safe for the night. 

Overall this magnificent pattern, repeated each day as these birds migrate spring and winter, driven by some unnamed passion, reminds me of flocks of words and my own journey. This week is about editing, analyzing, persevering. My challenge is to infuse more conflict into my writing. I will begin with developing more in-depth character sketches for my two main protagonists. I know them well enough to dream about them, what they will say and do, but I know little about their deepest hopes and fears. 

Noah Lukeman in The Plot Thickens says that "Once you really know your character, your knowledge will flow unmistakably through the text; like an undercurrent, it will authenticate every word, gesture, and action." My week ahead promises a litany of read, write, and reflect. 

May your writing week go well.

Sunday check-in: More on e-Publishing

Sometimes, regardless of our best writerly efforts, a dose of nasty self-doubt arrives. So I'm checking in to say that tenacity, perseverance, and sheer stubbornness are needed. As well as heart. Always.

My last two weeks have been a grand experiment in e-publishing. I can report the whole process takes far longer than I anticipated.

1) Is the project truly ready? Think write, rewrite, edit, re-edit, and then reread again. And I'm not just looking for typos.

2) Have the formatting guidelines been followed? As my mother would say, "Oofta!" Word puts hidden symbols in where I would least expect. Even downloading the Kindle template (which saves slower than a sloth in August) did not help UNTIL I saved my file in Wordpad and copied it over. Another wrinkle: Once the Kindle version was ready, I popped over to CreateSpace. Guess what: Another template to download AND another formatting session to go through. Only AFTER I completed this second formatting session did I learn I could have started with CreateSpace and created a Kindle version with one click -- after my CreateSpace version was complete.

3) Is that cover really copyright free? This question arises AFTER the writer is completely happy with overall design (image, font, layout, etc). Using someone else's image without permission is a simple no. Using a public domain image is ok -- according to Wiki Commons, if the original artwork is older than 70 years -- but NOT OK according to Wiki Art Gallery. Then, consider technical details:  Kindle liked my cover image because it easily fit one page. CreateSpace did not IF I use their cover creator because that template uses TWO pages (front and back). So, I now have a pretty blue ocean wave for the print version of The Mermaid Quilt and Other Tales. And that's OK, for this is a learning process.

See that picture of joy? That's my dear grandchild, Leda, just 11 weeks old. One hug from her and I'm ready to go again!

4) For print publication, is the final copy really ready? Preview is possible online, but paper copy is recommended for that final, final preview. And that's where I am, now awaiting paper copy from CreateSpace, due sometime the first week of September.

Than I revamp this website and jump back to work on the trilogy: revising Standing Stones or starting research on Rivers of Stone, while waiting for first reader feedback on Years of Stone. And then it's truly time to decide whether to e-pub or sub to small indie presses.

I'm sharing all this to build up to the reality of this Sunday check-in. I haven't written a word for two weeks. Not any words that move any story forward. I've made progress in every other area (reading about the writing craft, building a marketing plan, working on the e-publishing, participating in ROW80, and even critting on the NOVELS-L list of the Internet Writing Workshop), but not a poem, a story, or a plot outline.

I miss the writing.

Read the accomplishments of other ROW80 writers here

Weds Yahoo! I'm live on Amazon!!!!

Today was pretty exciting. The Mermaid Quilt & Other Tales went live on Amazon, proving that pure dogged tenacity does work. Sometimes.

After waffling over whether I should or shouldn't e-pub, I decided to put up a collection of short stories and poems. True, I couldn't get two images included in the final document, but I WAS able to format to Kindle standards. My next step is to learn how to publish on CreateSpace so that IF anyone did want a paper copy, that is possible.

You can click on the image or the title to visit Amazon and "look inside" to read the first story, if you like.

This whole process has taught me so much about formatting. I still can't quite believe that my stories are 'out there' for others to read. Right now I'm feeling pretty darn grateful to everyone who weighed in on the cover. I love the results! Romantic. A little mysterious. Hopefully inviting!

Participating in ROW80 has been a useful process for me.  Not only have I met other writers and seen how they approach these twice-weekly check-ins, but people have been very generous in advice and in sharing their thoughts about writing. By participating, we write ourselves into a sense of community, and I appreciate that universal caring of craft.  But the writing comes first and the goals and weekly check-ins push me to clarify what I really want to do. So, thank you ROW80!

ROW GOALS:

WRITING: I will reread Standing Stones and analyze it for revision (1 month). Still waiting for first reader feedback on Years of Stone. By the end of November, I'd like to begin researching Rivers of Stone.

READING: Each month The Writer and Writer's Digest arrive. Each month I dutifully read 10% and put the magazine in a safe "to read" stack. I'm challenging myself to read both of these magazines cover to cover and to use at least one article to strengthen writing or revision skills. Yes, I rip the magazine up and file selected articles by topic. But now I want to USE the information.

MARKETING: OK this is way more complicated than I thought. The least I can do is devise a plan -- this week.

PUBLISHING: Get The Mermaid Quilt up on POD through CreateSpace (maybe 2 weeks).

Quote of the day: "I wake up at 5 a.m., when very little threatens to distract me -- the hell if I'm gonna cruise around the 'interweb' at that hour when I'm giving up sleep." Jonathan Evison in "How to Take Your Fiction to the Next Level (The Writer, September 2012, p. 30).

How easily are you distracted by the 'interweb' when you begin writing?

Last Word on Covers . . .

The elusive cover floated just outside of my reach. Weds check-in brought lumps of coal (worthy and appreciated), but now I faced empty sheets of watercolor paper. Unused brushes. Expensive cover art that hinted at what could be!

And then Lee McAulay, a wonderful historical fiction writer from ROW80, suggested checking Wiki Commons for images in the public domain. And there she was, the mermaid for my cover! Of course, my editing friend from Oregon trounced me for using pedestrian fonts, BUT that only meant another several hours of trying this and that.

My goal remains to go live by the end of August via Kindle. Any comments re the cover are appreciated!

I can report that working on the Kindle edition of The Mermaid Quilt definitely triggered another, very different part of my brain. I have conquered (I think) the formatting, wrote the blurb, and have just the ISBN to figure out, the author bio for Amazon to write, and then the acid test of uploading and waiting to see how it all worked. This is not an easy journey, testing skills I didn't know I had -- with promises of more to acquire re marketing.

ROW80 keeps me focused. As we wind down through these last hot days of August, ROW80 challenges me to set monthly goals for September. And I'm dithering a bit for I'm between projects. Years of Stone (70,000 words, historical fiction set in 1840s Tasmania) will go out before the end of the month to potential agents. I have two months before the great disruption (month-long trip without computer), so what to do? The next book (Rivers of Stone) will take on the Great Pacific Nor'west, also in the 1840s, and involves plunging into lots of research, outlining, freewriting, in other words, starting from the beginning -- though I know my characters, setting, and have a few thousand words as starters.

What works best for you between projects?

Weds Check in . . . and Covers . . .

Every day I'm seeing a few more leaves turning that pre-fall yellow, just at the tips of trees. 90 degree weather, but these hints of fall are here. And what am I doing this week but obsessing about covers.

So far, I've learned that the three key elements of a 'good' cover are 1) title really large and in different font than that for the author, 2) author also with large font (no room for modesty here), and 3) an eye catching image. Startling. Make the person want to 'open' the e-book. Dear hubby wants me to go with original artwork (no, no, no, no). Shutterstock has some interesting images.


Here are the two latest for votes, if you please.  And do you like either of the earlier covers better?


Dare I say that the formatting for Kindle is done? Yes!

Did I write that blurb for the back of the book? Yes! Only because of  ROW80 am I reporting progress for the Weds check-in.

Now to see what others have done -- and to wish everyone well for the coming week. Mea culpa, mea culpa. I fear no progress is being made until this cover issue is resolved.

Sunday night . . . short and sweet.

As the first trees begin to yellow, just at their tops, and the quilting stores put out those rich orange and brown fabrics, I slowly realize we're heading closer into Fall. The ROW80 weekly goals really should be bigger picture goals, for an 80-day window, so by Weds, I hope to refine some writing goals that will take me through the end of the year (and snow).

ROW80 Update: These last few days I'm reading lots about Kindle guidelines, moving ever closer to e-pubbing. Argh! Those little Word codes are everywhere! But progress is being made. The edits are done. The sequence of stories is done. Decisions about the cover are in the works. A graphic artist offered to help, and I'm learning much as we go along. Of course, I did fall in love with a wonderful cover, but the copyright is not accessible. I can't even bring myself to put the picture here (the artist lives in China).  So it's back to the drawing board, literally. But if all else is ready . . . then what's a little picture?

I took this photo in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, a folk art mural of the holiday each February 2 that honors Yemanja, the siren goddess of the sea. All the stores close and the people walk down to the shore with little boats they'll fill with candles, flowers, and gifts of alcohol and fruits. They place the boats in the sea and sing and dance all night. The boats float out, the candles winking between the waves. All these celebrations very far from my keyboard, but I have memories of the music and the dancing. And maybe one day, I'll paint.

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.

Sunday night musing . . .

August. Too darn hot! It's nearly 8 pm, time for a walk up the hill, through a quiet suburban neighborhood, past a tidy row of houses, too tidy for me, and then along a wetland where the ducks will gather on a greenish pond, tails up as they bob heads down for dinner. Each night the moon has risen a little fuller. Maybe tonight the moon will be transparent and a cooling breeze will lift my spirits.

Writing only happens very early in the morning, and so far, I've reached this week's goals for editing Years of Stone; I plan to finish the final section in the coming week. But I didn't touch the short stories at all, though I did find a wonderful story about a quilt made in 1887 (or so).

A tailor in Helena, Montana, sewed this hexagonal quilt with scraps from men's suits, ties, women's gowns both from the upper class and ladies of the evening. The quilt is gorgeous -- paper pieced, with yellowing newspapers never cut out, a few confirming the date of the quilt. Here's a picture of this treasured quilt. I want to write about this unfinished project with bits of cloth from so many lives, all intersecting in unexpected colors and patterns. 

What do quilting and writing have in common? Tenacity! A sense of purpose. A belief that we can make something that will be of use, perhaps of pleasure. Picking up a needle is soothing, the skills to quilt every bit as complicated as those needed to write. Quilts and words can comfort. The process of writing and quilting is every bit as rewarding as the final project; both are often made to give away.

Goals for the coming week, by August 13:
1. Finish Section 3 edits for Years of Stone.
2. Finish final edits for The Mermaid Quilt.
3. Read other participants in ROW80 and persevere.
4. Send out ONE story to an online market.

May your own writing go well.

Weds Check In . . . August 1

Crazy world out there. Bombs. Shootings. Road rage.Sometimes I think writing is a way to create a world that's separate from all that, though my story has darkness as well. What history doesn't? I'm buried in edits, slogging my way through, but encouraged by first readers' reactions, positive enough that I'm back on the fence, agent or self-pub all over again!

Still July went by in a flash. My little tiny baby grandchild (now 8 weeks old) has grown by a third, coos and gurgles, and nearly holds her head up most of the time, and I can change her diapers before she realizes what's happening! She's a tranquil soul, still blue eyes, and I realize that I named one of my characters for her before she was even thought of.

Today is also our anniversary. 37 years! That passed by in a flash as well. We're going to the Milk Bottle Cafe, a landmark here in Spokane that was built in 1935. According to Wikipedia, this representational architecture was "designed to build better men and women by making dairy products attractive to boys and girls." Ah, the innocence! We're going because their milkshakes are unforgettable and  they fry up the best bar-b-que hamburgers in town.

So, goal setting for the week by WEDS 8/5:
1. Complete edits and add one major scene to Section 2 Years of Stone.
2. Revise two last stories for The Mermaid's Quilt and Other Tales.
3. Do two CRITS for NOVELS-L on the Internet Writers Workshop and participate in ROW80.

Writing thought for the day:  What does a writer do when the scene doesn't unfold, the characters don't talk to each other, the conflict lies flat on the page like a pancake? (Sorry, still thinking about that Milk Bottle Cafe).

If I've worked hard enough, I jump on the internet to look for a FACT that relates to this scene. Maybe an image of a street or an old house. In my current work, old newspapers online are a gold mine of trivia for local controversies, street names (a sense of place), shops that are going out of business, governesses that need to be hired, confirmations of ship sailings. Sometimes I'll search for biographies of key historical people and read through where they were born, how they grew up, when they married. Often the wives (mid 19th Century) died in childbirth. Sometimes the husbands remarried immediately. Sometimes they never married again. I found a lovely image wandering through a museum. Somehow a prison door had been preserved and now was on display. Prisoners had carved graffiti into the wooden doors of the prison -- the outline of a ship, a year, the names of their sweethearts. Some lines were cut deeply, as if the prisoner had a knife; other lines were faint. Paintings, portraits, photographs of old buildings, city histories -- and an unexpected wealth of PDF reports, doctoral dissertations, studies, all help prime the pump. TIP: No matter how much you download or save on your trusty computer, please, please remember to back up your stuff!

And, sadly, that old standby, interlibrary loan, doesn't always come through with books that no one else (apparently) in the world wants to read. So never pass a used book store without checking out what they might have in your area! My most recent find, a lovely collection of aboriginal folktales, The First Sunrise: Australian Aboriginal Myths by Charles P. Mountford (paintings by Ainslie Roberts). One of these will prompt me to add something to a character, a memory from childhood, a recurring dream, maybe a night terror.

May your writing go well.

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!

In the thick of revising . . .

Wonderful comments are starting to come in from first readers of Years of Stone. I begin most mornings with edits, rereads, and revision. I've also started working that list of potential agents. I'm reading more online, various blogs, and dipping into snarky agent query tips. Most mornings I feel good about my progress, though I did blow 3 hours on researching potential Australian agents before deciding that's not the right market. It's not like I can just pop over to Hobart or Brisbane.

So many of the articles I've read recently point to a basic shift in publishing -- the traditional route or e-publishing. There's something to be said for traditional publishing, but do I aspire to literary recognition? A terribly long writing career? A place on any best seller list? No!

What I really would like is to have some readers like my stories, maybe a few more readers than that so-close-to-vanity-press label 'family and friends.' Though family and friends would be good. Dear husband Allen is a purist. He wants my writing to be recognized professionally. With an agent. And a publisher. Since I've begun seriously writing on retiring from a teaching career, I don't have decades ahead. So, perhaps like other otaws (older than average writers), I vascillate ever closer to e-pubbing.

To keep me from jumping too quickly into researching the next novel, Rivers of Stone, the third in the MacDonnell saga, I've decided to experiment with an e-pub collection of short stories and join
ROW80, a lovely writing challenge called A Round of Words in 80 Days, that requires measurable goals and accountability -- and blogger posts on Weds and Sundays.

ROW80 Goals for the week to complete by Sunday, July 28. 
1. Complete edits for Section 1 Years of Stone.
2. Revise two stories for The Mermaid Quilt and Other Tales.
3. Decide whether Amazon or Smashwords works best for me.
4. Identify five potential agents for Years of Stone.
5. Draw two pictures for The Mermaid Quilt and Other Tales.


Dream on. May your own projects for the coming week go well!