The arrival of the delivery truck pushed me about of my bunny-loss funk. The very nice Fed-Ex man had a much anticipated package for me!
Inside: My very first editorial letter and scribbled upon manuscript. Wheeeeee!
Now some might think my reaction is a bit odd. While editing might make some writers queasy, editor's notes for me like are like spinach to Popeye. I'm a horrible self-editor but given a few pointers and nudges my writer's brain goes into overdrive and amazing things happen.
If I go missing for a while, you'll know where I'll be - attached to my laptop. I'll update when I come up for air.
Sad news about Dandelion. We set our adolescent rabbit free as she was large enough to defend herself against cat attack and was about to be renamed Houdini for all her attempts to escape her cage.
I didn't see her for a little over a week, but sadly this morning I found her body in the middle of the sidewalk. She'd clearly been hit by a car and very recently, her body was still limp and warm. (Silver lining - at least the cat didn't get her, they hunt at night and hide their victims). I knew it was Dandelion because she had a unique white stripe on her face and a red ruff behind her ears.
I cried a lot and buried her under the ferns she found fascinating when I first set her free in our back yard. My tears weren't only about Dandelion. When I stopped the cat from killing her a month ago, I felt like I'd done something important, like a hero. Now I feel like a fool. A fool for thinking I'd made a difference in the baby bunny's life, a fool for feeling so much grief that she's dead, for being full of hope that I'd see her with her own brood of kits in our back yard next spring.
Will I try to save baby rabbits from cats in the future? Yes, I think so. I can't bear the way cats toy with them. But the experience will be less sweet and lacking hope, more bitter and shadowed by ambivalence.
If you want to understand the wily world of publishing, get thee to Kiersten White's blog. This lovely lady just rocked a major deal with Harper Teen and she's also full of sweetness and sharp wit to boot.
All former (or current) Girl Scouts in the house raise your hands!
Remember this song? (Sung as a round)
Make new friends But keep the old One is silver And the other's gold
I've always liked the message of this simple tune and my life of late reflects its sentiment very well.
I made some awesome new friends in the Tenners and I'm delighted to count myself amongst them. Let me tell you - next year will be a fantastic year for books! I can't wait to read the collective works of my fellow Tenners.
I'm indebted and thrilled to be working with a very old friend, the fabulous Lindsey. She is a creative, innovative graphic designer and she's building me a web site!
She sent me the page proofs yesterday and I went gaga over them. So beautiful! I can't wait to share the site with the the world, I'll let you know when it goes live.
Thanks to friends, old and new. Here's to a brilliant future for us all!
I guess my next move should be to buy a lottery ticket, since I just received the Kreativ blog award from Tricia over at Talespinning. Thanks, Tricia.
This award requires that I divulge some personal information. I'm going to leave you with one - I have a large freckle under my left eye that constantly causes people to stop and say, "You know you have a mascara smudge under your eye."
At what has become my favorite blog post of the week, the lovely Laura, weekly guest poster at Eric's fantastic Pimp My Novel has taken to challenging her readers to creative contests. The first contest: write the first line of an Amish vampire novel. Awesome and hilarious.
I'm all bubbles and sparklers because I'm about to put together a new playlist. I've mentioned in the past that I use music to write, but I haven't formally posted about the whys and wherefores of a novel's playlist.
Playlists serve three primary functions for me: 1) Create the mood of a scene 2) Define key traits of a character & his/her tastes 3) Get me to a better writing place if I get stuck
Regarding #3, while I wouldn't stay I've ever had writer's block I do experience writer's detour - wherein I find myself wandering away from the mental space I want to be in to write well. The best solution I've found for going off road involves literal driving. I do some of my best idea generating when behind the wheel, particularly if I'm listening to the playlist I've created for my current writing progress.
Up until this week I've had an informal playlist for my WIP, but I've heard a few songs recently that catapulted me into the novel and I knew it was time to put the REAL playlist together and get this baby rockin on the screen.
What about the playlist for my novel? That, my friends, will be posted in concert with the availability of ARCs. When I can share the book with readers, I'll share the music too!
But until then here's a key track from the playlist I'm buidling today:
What's even more neat-o? That girl looks like my protagonist.
I love reading about whether music works for other writers. Do you playlist?
