The Life and Times

Wording Away (Working away)

2007-01-06T20:07:11Z

I've been stumped for quite some time about writing Chapter Six of my YA novel "Malakei's Magic". I've been stuck because I don't trust my process. By which I mean my writing process. I always read books about the best way to "draft" and "revise". I don't about anyone else, but I read those books because I initially had no clue as to what I should do or how to do it. After writing on and off for more than a year now, I've finally come to this place where I find that I have to forgo all the wisdom of other writers and teachers and trust in the muse within myself that the words will come out right, if only right now!

With the health issues and book business that I've been dealing with lately, my muse has resigned to a back seat position, in my "vehicle of life" as it were. Life seems so funny to me. We spend the first 10 years developing a personality believing we are limitless. Then we spend our teen years reeling at the horor of all these stupid rules and limitations that society imposes upon us and trying to figure out what is the best "personality type" and "behaviors" suited to all those rules and limitations. We spend our twenties trying to push our limitations to the max. Indulging in every kind of excessiveness we can think of. In our thirties, we suddenly find that our bodies can no longer tolerate the long nights and hectic days and we tend to seek quieter more "relaxed" scenes to hang out in.

As for the rest, well, I'm not there yet, so I can't speak of them, but I'm sure there are some in our group who can comment.

It's just interesting to me that I had to go "all around the mulberry bush" (so to speak), just to find out that the hardest part of my "life" education, is having the courage to accept who I am and how I need to do things.

Hmmmm...Interesting indeed.

Recovering...

2006-12-30T17:25:06Z

Well the maddness of the holidays is over and I'm recovering. Recovering from the holidays, from surgery. Next, onto the January conference in Miami. Looks to be fun.

A new month, a new start

2006-11-03T04:12:19Z

Ok so its NANOWRIMO and in honor of that (National Novel Writing Month nanowrimo.org), I'm making a commitment to write something in my live journal every day.

It's kind of funny that I'm starting this on November 2nd and not the 1st, but I had a lot of things going on yesterday and actually forgot that it was November 1st.

Anyhoo, I'm going to start making a vested interest into writing in my journal as it is important to note my feelings and how things are generally going in my life, along with my writing.

I let my writing take a back seat the last few months, as I haven't been feeling well the last couple of months and had to go into hospital in September. I'll be going back into hospital on Dec. 12th again and will be in a couple of days, so I decided to get back to my writing again.

I need to keep invested in myself and my talent for writing. The only way it will improve is if I keep at it. To be honest, I'm not even thinking about getting published, as I sign up for the upcoming SCBWI conference in Miami, I'm just thinking about getting Malekai's Magic finished. I should have had this done months ago, but I did need to take a break for a while and the added health problems just destroyed any positive attitude I had towards it. I knew that it wouldn't be fair to the story, to the characters, TO ME, if I sat down to write, when my heart and mind really weren't in it, so I made the choice to give it a rest.

But now that I've decided to get back on the wagon so to speak, I thought another method to helping me generate words would be to keep a daily journal of whats going on in my life and also what's happening with my writing.

My step-son, Jeremy, is staying with us and he's working on developing a career as a rap artist. He writes and produces all his lyrics and beats (that's the term used, instead of music). It amazes me how much he works at it. It seems he's always writing or going over songs, rapping in his bedroom. I remember not too long ago, I was like that with my writing. But I will be honest and say that I never allowed it to overtake my life and become the center of my existence. I sometimes wonder, if that is what is really required in order to become a published writer, just like the great writers of the past. I read a book by Phyllis A. Whitney about Writing Children's books, gimme a minute and I'll google for it... Ok got it. It's called "Writing Juvenile Stories and Novels" and I read it about a month or so ago. It was one of the most "real" books I have ever read and I would strongly recommend it for anyone who is considering writing for children. It possessed a rare warmth and familiarity, as though it were just a note from your grandmother giving you some pointers for future reference. It also spoke to the core of the writer in me, confronting the "writer's block" syndrome and the "excuse monster". I seemed like an old friend calling out of the blue and having a nice chat about your talent and drive, while maintaining a lovely sense of wisdom and simplicity.

So if you're in the look for a book, that's the one I would recommend. And for goodness sakes, whatever you do, stay away from those "We'll tell you exactly what you need to do to get published books." they're simply awful and should all be burned as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, just wanted to rattle some nonsense into my journal for the first day of what I hope will be a long and extraordinary life,

yours truly,

Catch ya on the flip side. Over and Out.

Not in the mood to write

2006-07-07T16:51:50Z

So here I am at the library and I just can't concentrate on writing my MG novel. I've revised and tightened up the 2nd chapter that I'll be reading in the critique group on Wednesday, but I just can't seem to get a fire under my muse to write Chapter Six. The wierd part is, I know how it's going to turn out. I've already fleshed out the plot in my head, I just can't seem to get to work on it.

I need to give it some time tonight; some play time. That's when I just sit with a notepad and write down what ideas about the story I get after skimming through it once.

Maybe I just need to do a revision of the first five chapters, before going forward. Maybe my muse wants those cleaned up first. Oh well, time to take a walk around the library and see if anything strikes my fancy.

cancelojk1 @ 2006-06-07T10:31:00

2006-06-07T14:53:31Z

Yesterday, I came back from Delaware where I was visiting my "in-laws". My husband's son, Jeremy, graduated from high school, so we went to see the ceremony. We stayed with Jeremy's grandparents, Jim and MaryAnn. They were the most wonderful people I think I ever met. So friendly and down to earth--my kind of people. Carlos and I are seriously considering moving up there to live. It would make a welcome change from the hectic live of south florida as the town's population is 3100. I especially fell in love with the architecture and rolling hills. It reminded my so much of England and the people were so friendly. I don't know if I would be ok with the winter temperatures but I'd love to try.

I'm going to look into elance.com and ifreelance.com today and see if I can get some work that would give us additional income. If I could get enough work, we could move without having to worry about getting into debt.

I could just see myself up there, in one of those attics, pounding away on my next best seller. As far as general location goes, it's three hours from New York, two hours from Washington D.C. and one and half hours from Atlantic City (Mmmmm casinos).

We're going to see what the job situation is like and whether or not Carlos can get reliable pay and then I need to find out about transferring to another doctor up there. It's not likely that I'd be able to get a referral from Dr. Tokayer, but it won't hurt to ask him if he knows anyone there.

Well, it's back to my usual routine today, by 8:30 I was in the pool at the YMCA and doing my exercises. It was harder than usual today as the last time I did any exercises was last Wednesday. My arms felt like they were going to drop off, when I started doing my two laps.

Well that's all for now, time to get to work! I love B&N, where else could you get all sorts of ideas and inspiration, but a bookstore?

So here it is!... Another LJ by me

2006-05-04T03:33:56Z

I think I've actually forgotten how many of these things I've created. But this one is for the critique group I've joined in Boca. Put simply... "It Rocks Dude!"