Runaway Day

I had a fun day today with picking a location for my current chapter of Trading Faces. I'm not giving anything away about the story, but Prince Edward Island sure looks like a fun place to visit. I needed a "weekend getaway" location, and ended up there in my virtual travels.

Not only do they have many fun things to do there, but it is in fact the setting for the Anne of Green Gables classic series of books for girls. And for your money, you also get a LiveCam view of the 12-mile bridge leading from the Canadian mainland to the island, and one on the island itself.

And beaches. What more could a pre-teen girl want in a weekend?

Oh, yes. Shopping.

I'm up to over 22,000 words, and only on the second section! Eek! I think I'm going to have to cut some stuff on the second go round for sure.

Here is the Lyric and Soundtrack of My Day.
It kept me on track today.

Runaway Day

You're here with me
There's nowhere else I'd rather be
This is the best day I ever had
Just for the day
Let's runaway
Won't you play with me?
Down by the sea
I'll show you how happy
We can be
Let's just drift away...
On a runaway day

(Alice Peacock, from soon-to-be-released album Who I am)

19,682 and counting

Apparently, being delirious agrees with me. I've been sick the last few days, with my third cold of the year. I haven't been sick this many times in I don't know when. I knew I was going too many nights in a row without enough sleep last week when I felt something coming on, and sure enough, by Monday, I had no voice and today I've even had fever.

The only good thing about being sick is I've been able to nearly double the amount I've done on Trading Faces. I am nearly to 20,000 words! That's about 80 pages in book format. The only problem is, I'm only about 80% of the way through my second section and I really want to have at least three or four more. That means this book could get pretty long, which might not be a good thing for a pre-teen book. I've started not concerning myself too much about my vocabulary, just writing as it comes to me. It could end up with an older audience after all, or I might have to cut lots out and really bring the vocabulary level down later. I'm not worrying about it right now, though.

Okay, if I can drag my delirium out for another day or two, who knows how much I might accomplish! I am sick of being sick, though. Cold medicine always did make my mind work in weird and unusual ways.

Did I say I was going to quote lyrics, by the way? What I meant to say was that I would quote lyrics or parts of books that grabbed me for some reason. :) I even marked a spot in The Horse Whisperer, which is what I'm reading now, to quote when I blogged again, but it's in the other room with my sleeping husband, so I won't bother him by making noise to go get it.

I guess tonight I'll have to be satisfied with lyrics. The one running through my head today is fun.

Lyric of the Day

Follow my lead

And yes, indeed

You will be:

Popular!

You're gonna be popular!

I'll teach you the proper ploys

When you talk to boys

Little ways to flirt and flounce

I'll show you what shoes to wear

How to fix your hair

Everything that really counts

To be popular

I'll help you be popular!

(From Wicked, the soundtrack, which I bought for my girls...and me...thanks to my friend Gail's lead, and we've been listening to nonstop since Sunday in our house. Appropriate for my book theme, I think!)

A good week for writing

I got a lot accomplished in the last week or so since I posted here. I was able to write a description at Julielayne about a meaningful experience I had while doing work for pay, as well as another write-up of a fun memory that came up at dinner the other day.

I have added about 5,000 words, or 20 pages to Trading Faces, and feel really good about that. I've gotten lots of things worked out over the last few days, especially, with some really weird "coinci-dances."

For instance, I was reading another novel for pleasure, liked a character's first name, so hijacked it for one of my characters. In the meantime, I was trying to figure out the story line for a section of Trading Faces—namely I needed to decide which famous ballet to refer to in the scene. I did an Internet search on famous ballets and came up with a page that listed about five—mainly the old standbys, such as the Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. The one I did not recognize had the same name as the character mentioned above.

How bizarre, and yet, how convenient! I was also able to develop the plot line even more because of the character and the ballet sharing the same name. (Twilight Zone music playing in background...) The rest of this section really got firmed up for me; now I just need to finish it! Tomorrow is a good day for that.

Tonight, I wrote a book review of a novel I just finished reading and submitted it to a site in hopes that they will like it and ask me to review books on occasion. If that works out, maybe it will be a good boost for my writing resume.

A lot of the blogs I'm reading mention what song the author is listening to on the Ipod, or what's on the radio. I think I'll start mentioning a "Lyric of the day." I listen to lots of music, and lyrics are a critical ingredient for me. Frequently a line, or lines will get stuck in my head, often because it meant something to me that particular day. Sometimes just because it's goofy. :)

I'll honor my favorite musician this time, but will try to give equal airtime to others.

So, without further ado...

Lyric of the Day

It's not just by coincidence
That lives are made of accidents
And doesn't it make perfect sense
That life turns on a point in time
And I know that this is mine

And my heart says, "C'mon let's go"
And my mind's saying, "I don't know"
And the train is at the station
But I'm lost in contemplation
And this ticket's only good for just so long
I can think about it 'til that train is gone
Or just get on

(David Wilcox, "Get On," from Vista, 2006)

Stealing time

It may be 2:00 a.m., but by golly, I made time to write some more on Trading Faces tonight. I am up to about 11,100 words (about 39 pages in Word), which is about 2,000 more than the last time I said anything about it. That doesn't sound like much, but I am determined to get through it a little bit at a time. I keep reading stuff on agent and author websites, and it is just making me crazy wanting to have something finished and ready to send a query letter about some time in the not-t00-distant future! This dream really took off a little over a year ago, and it gets stronger every day. I better work on that whole thing of wanting to write vs. wanting to be published, though, huh?

I've spent some time lately going back through the part I had already done and editing some, figuring I might save some time as I go that way. A lot of what I read recommends just writing it all at once, then going back and editing, but I figure if I haven't got mental energy to actually write, I can at least edit. I had some feedback from a few people, and I went ahead and fixed some things and made a few changes.

So, just wanted to toot my horn for a minute. I'll regret it in the morning, I'm sure...Well, maybe I won't, but I'll definitely feel guilty for taking a nap, which I surely will. :) But, as my friend and coworker Gail said this morning when I was relaying my usual message ("I slept in this morning because I worked until the wee hours, and I guess I'll never be one of those people who impress the world by getting up early and enthusiastic"), I guess I'm embracing me.

In fact, I think I'll paste in what she said here:
Hehe, hey, embrace who you are, girl. All of us who know and love you know that you need your sleeps, and that we could call you at midnight and you'd probably be up. As long as you get done what you need to, I guess it doesn't really matter unless you are stuck in the 9 to 5 world. Thank goodness you're not.

Thanks, Gail, I really needed that encouragement from a friend! :)

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to sleep I go! (I hope.)

Funny article on writing

If you ever listened to Prairie Home Companion, you might find this article amusing. If you never listened to it, you might also find it amusing. :)

You might have to click on a link that says “view ad to read this for free” or something. I did and it works, no time involved, really.

Monkey see, Monkey do

It's fun and sometimes scary to see your kids emulate you, especially when they are growing older--not just a preschooler dressing and acting like Mommy.

Kristen (age 8) is writing a book. She asked yesterday if she could use some marbleized printer paper I got as a gift to print something. I asked what it was, and she told me it was her book cover. I knew she had been working on something of the sort lately.

She printed it out and showed it to me. The Love of Frogs, by Kristen p...(she wrote the whole last name, I will leave it off here.) I asked if she wanted to capitalize her last name, and she said no. I asked her if that was because she wanted to use her own style, and she said yes.

I asked her what her book was about, and apparently, it's non-fiction--facts about frogs. She doesn't have any yet, though. I asked if she liked frogs. She said, "Yes, as long as I am not touching them."

:)

Scandal in the world of writing

The Opal Mehta book scandal continues. Today, I read a few articles about this that were a little depressing.

First, I do think it's great that the publishing world is actually saying it's not okay to plagiarize. (It was okay to lie, though. :) I deal with plagiarism more than I ever expected to in the editing world, and I think people have no clue how prolific it is. Little, Brown is not going to reissue the Opal Mehta books--they are recalling the unsold copies and the second book will not happen.

Hopefully, the young author (19) will have learned a huge lesson, and will continue to write if she is as gifted as it seems otherwise. Maybe she'll have another chance one day, although I imagine her road will be really tough from here on out.

I did find it interesting that the Sisterhood books, which I was raving about in my last post, came up in the articles I read. Apparently, Ann Brashares has the same agent (now or in the past, not really sure) as Kaavya Viswanathan (Opal's author) and the same book packager did the books. Another lady came up with the idea for the Sisterhood books, but wasn't chosen to actually write them--Brashares did. Brashares is obviously a good writer, given the success of the books and in my own opinion, but the lady with the original concept didn't get much more than a nod (and a tiny bit of compensation) for it. Not sure how I feel about that.

The publishing world is indeed an interesting one. As Annie and the girls said, "It's a hard-knock life."

Writing...a distant memory for now

I haven't been able to get much writing done at all for the last several days due to (a really fun) vacation, and will be up against a huge deadline this week for those people who pay me money to work.

I did get to have a late night conversation my last evening in California with my brother where he read the first few chapters of Trading Faces and gave me some good pointers. We did a kind of trade thing. I read the first few chapters of a young adult fiction book he wrote a few years ago (which took first prize in a contest, but unfortunately, he hasn't sold yet!). We then critiqued the other a bit. We were both really worn out, but it was good to sit and do that together. Lots of writing going on in this family for as long as I can remember.

I spent what little free time I've had in the last week or so reading the first two Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, a series about four best friends who by some twist of fate or magic can all wear the same pair of jeans in spite of their very different sizes. The books tell the stories of their journeys to self-discovery during the summers they spend both apart and together.

These are young adult fiction, but I believe readers of nearly any age, about 12 or 13 and up, would enjoy them. It is the kind of writing that, while not "literary," just makes you feel...you are almost there with the characters. I read the last half of the second book on the plane home yesterday, and honestly found myself near tears several times, and laughing out loud at others.

I love that kind of writing, and just hope I can find it in myself to write that well. I picked up the third one tonight at Target. The author is Ann Brashares, and she obviously has "made it" with this series--the third book is hardback, while I believe the first two came out in trade paperback first. Lucky and talented lady.

It's midnight. Guess I better go to bed so I don't turn into a pumpkin. I really need to work hard tomorrow...and the next day...and the next day...

Can't wait until May 19, or at least next week when I have met the biggest looming deadline and can spend a little more time writing.