Month: February 2009

Feeling vindicated in my recommendation of Shadowbridge, here are some links about how good it is.

The ALA says read it!

Bookgasm says read it!

Other than that, I got nothing. We’ve been driving back from Minneapolis most of the day.

Catherine

Checked more papers, and have no more to check today, which is swell.

Sent in a story, and sent off some interview questions this morning for a Tamago feature up and coming.

Figured out how to download new software for computer updates. Can’t figure out how to dump things out of trash. Going to savagely turn off computer and severe connections.

Beat. Really. Beat. Curses!

If there is a resurgence of energy later, will do some writing. Inchoate, but important writing. Yeah.

Catherine

A writer thing and a health thing.

Health thing: Preliminary reports say blood test looks good. I’ll get more specifics Thursday, but it looks to NOT be biological. I’ll ask some wise questions about numbers. If I can avoid pills, excellent, but I will still need a plan of action, because there is still a problem. I may well smell grief counselling on the wind.

Writer thing: Research trip to Decorah and Vesterheim is set for March 14th, which will give me the illusion of getting out of Dodge for spring break. Yeah, baybee! Trolls!

Catherine

Over a bar of soap yesterday morning, my husband said to me, “Cath, I’d like it to be June.” I get that. He’s a high school teacher. June means freedom for him.

I said, “Oh no. There’s a lot of good weather in April and May I don’t want to miss.” In Iowa good weather is a commodity at the moment, and I don’t want to miss much of it.

“That’s true,” he said, “but I still want it to be June.”

“Okay,” I answered. “You fast forward to June, and I’ll catch up to you after I’ve lived through April and May. I’m sure you’ll wait for me.”

***

My April and May look to be busy. April has an academic conference and a science fiction junket. May is full of graduation. I’m not going to grocery list my work chores. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of things I need to get done. There always is. My April and May could be hard, but you know what, I want to live them. They’re part of my life, and I want that part! I’m getting old enough that I don’t want to fritter away any part of my life.

That includes my development in becoming a writer. We all dream of the day we will be considered pro. Hey, I was dreaming of that day this morning, just as I missed my turn to breakfast. I want a Terry Pratchett ending to my writing quest–a rising tide of money comes in and washes me away from the desk of my day job. I look forward to that day.

Meanwhile, I realize that now will never come again. So many of us are in such a hurry to become published writers that we often forget to savor the moments we are unpublished. What? you ask with a resounding note. Writing in obscurity doesn’t do much for the people who are writing for recognition, and I respect that.

Writing in obscurity works for me. Sure, I don’t have a choice. Of course, I want to publish. What I really want to do, however, is write a good book. It takes me about a year to write a good book and still have my day job, to undertake the necessary research, to focus on finding the characters, to live the story, to share it with friends. To do all this, I generally need about a year, give or take a few breaks. I’m at the beginning of that year.

While I’ve been taking a run at publication, I’ve cranked out a book in a year, a middle grade novel in 3 months (what mutant author pulled that off? Not me!), and several revised and new short stories. With the exception of Hulk Hercules, none of these works has had a deadline attached.

No deadlines. That’s sad for an author.

And yet…here is time, unpressured time for me to focus on myself as an artist. Here is time, not measured by anyone else, for me to improve my craft, create my real characters, and truly enjoy writing for the sheer joy of writing. Here it is, the most artistic freedom I will ever have in my career as an author. I do want to publish more, and I’m sure I will, because I’m a persistent cuss, but right now I can do anything I want to. How heady is that?

I’m being very careful to not fritter away the April and May of this time. All things come in their time, including this chance, this year to write another book with which I am satisfied and with which I can stretch myself. Some day, when I have deadlines, I will want this time back. I will want to remember it fondly.

Catherine

Three vials of blood, and we should solve the mystery of the volatile, sleeping, semi-depressed Catherine soon. My sense of humor remains rapier sharp, so either I’m a sarcastic depressive, or it’s something else.

I thought I would link to some impressive verbage on line as of late.

From Tiffany Trent: A reminder about patience and publishing.

From Jay Lake: A rejoinder about persistence.

From John Carroll: Your muse on the veldt. (with thanks to Karen Mahoney for pointing me in this direction.)

***

And now, off to teach, sort of, for an hour. This will be the prop yourself against the wall method of teaching. I’ll be back to edit in a section on patience in drafting of my own, after.

Catherine

Here are a few more words. I’m also going to keep track of hours, which I think might serve a beach comber better…

3,875 / 100,000 (3.9%)

Hours invested: 10

I can feel the thing is all over the place right now, but I’m trying to find its voice, and warm up to its flavor. It’s a lot like making preliminary sketches.

Since I expect company shortly, I’ll save all these things, and continue tomorrow.

Catherine

Time for some medical stuff!

I’ve been…weird lately. I’ve been having some over-reactive crying jags to daily events, and some feelings of despondency. Many of you writers think, well, you’re trying to publish! What else is new?

Except, you might remember, I’m the OPTIMISTIC writer on your friends list. 😛 Because I’m proactive, I toodled off to the doctor to see why I was feeling trapped in my own emotions. AND we’ve decided one of two possible things are going on:

1. Thyroid issues.
2. Situational depression.

I’m putting the rest of this under a cut for those of you who don’t want to hear this stuff.

Continue reading “My Current Health Scenario”

Hmm. I think I may need to revise my GrapeMo goal. I had a very productive afternoon plotting my novel. I think this one is going to be a beach comber–instead of words flowing, I’m going to have to rake the sand several times and find the shells.

At any rate, I feel a little more comfortable. I’ve been having depression issues because of this and that, and this feels like the first writing thing that fits in a while. I guess I’ll let the novel direct me, rather than try to direct the novel.

How about you? Do your creative processes do what you say, or do you do what they say?

Catherine

First of all, to remind my fellow Wiscon readers that I will continue to watch in February for reading sign up, but we all have to sign up separately as part of our group.

Next, here’s this week’s installment of ribald Victorianism.

***

I promised a piece on Magical Realism and LA Story. Without further adieu…

I watched LA story when it came out in 1991. My reaction was a classic meh. I understood it a parody level, but I had yet to undergo my awakening as a magical realist. The things that happen to you as you get older…

I caught the last half of it on television very recently, and I was amazed at the simple uses of the every day as fantasy. The exaggerated extensions of LA life I appreciated the first time around, such as open season on the LA freeway, and the unavailable restaurant, but this time I was captivated by parking sign as savior, which is planted all the way through the film, from the first time our hero sees another man pulled over, bowed almost in prayer in front of one of the signs.

The kernel of magic that occurs in the movie is very credible. That certain things in life matter, that if you are in love, you can stop engines, make fog roll in, cause the forces of nature to give you a second chance. That there are forces in the universe that want you to succeed, to love, and to be loved, and counsel you in that direction.

To me, the extraordinary in the ordinary is what makes writing tick. That’s what I want to capture, and I gotta keep working toward that. I remember reading Little Women. Jo wrote adventure stories full of pirates and swooning heroes, but at a certain point her professor suggests she write about the ordinary. It is the best thing he could have said, as she integrates her love of the fantastic into the world around her. What is more magical than love and how humans love each other?

Steve Martin understands this in LA Story. The movie has the trappings of a farce, a parody, but underneath, if you look closely, you will find a mythic love story.

It goes without saying that I’m putting this on my favorites list, and I hope you will revisit it.

Herm… I didn’t write last night. I taught a seminar about English Language Acquisition for new instructors, and I went home to check student revisions. My life is REALLY glamorous sometimes. 🙂 I am going to go in search of hot beverages, and then I am coming back to try to get things right with Grape Mo, after I look at another student rough draft.

Catherine

And that’s the Amazon entry. Go, brave little novel, into the world.

Catherine