Thursday Thirteen
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Thirteen Things I'm Looking Forward to in April 1. No more Girl Scout cookies!!! What are you looking forward to next month? |
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Wisdom
Found in a passage from Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey.
Thought I'd share:
"Writers should bear in mind that they are Mentors of a kind to their readers, shamans who travel to other worlds and bring backstories to heal their people. Like Mentors, they teach with their stories and give of their experience, passion, observation, and enthusiasm. Writers, like shamans and Mentors, provide metaphors by which people guide their lives--a most valuable gift and a grave responsibility for the writer."
Thought I'd share:
"Writers should bear in mind that they are Mentors of a kind to their readers, shamans who travel to other worlds and bring backstories to heal their people. Like Mentors, they teach with their stories and give of their experience, passion, observation, and enthusiasm. Writers, like shamans and Mentors, provide metaphors by which people guide their lives--a most valuable gift and a grave responsibility for the writer."
Wow.
Read more...
Congratulations Are In Order....
To my CP, Elisabeth Naughton--Finalist in the 2007 RWA Golden Heart, Romantic Suspense.
Way to go, E!!
Congrats to all the other finalists this year as well!
Read more...
Sales musings
I was talking with a non-writer friend of mine the other day and we were discussing literary agents.
I was trying to explain how it works:
- how you know you have a good agent
- how they make the contacts in places an author can't
- how slow the industry is as a whole
- how a new author is walking in new territory
- how everything with an agent your still getting to know is risky
- how much there is to learn
- how many things can go wrong
- Etc....
He said something that really boiled it all down to a digestible size morsel: "Sounds like literary agents are a lot like Realtors. You've got some who are go-getter's and walk neighborhoods knocking on doors and others who sit in the office filing their nails waiting for the phone to ring."
There are so many agents out there. The chances of a new author landing one of the big-names is very small. It happens, and when it does, it's great. But when you look at the numbers...well, they're less than encouraging.
Still, I think there is a lot to be said for younger, hungrier agents. But the big caveat there is that you don't know until you try them, until you put your book in their hands, until you work with them on edits and ideas, until you receive emails and phone calls in a timely manner, until you've gotten thorough and satisfying answers to your questions.
Bottom line, unless your agent is uber-agent, you won't really know how the business relationship will work out for both of you until you've spent some time working with them. Unfortunately, that time could be wasted time, depending on the agent, the author, the market, a million different factors. Even top agents don't always fit with your ideas or your personality.
I guess you just have to gather that experience, tuck it away, keep writing, keep learning, keep your ears open and your fingers on the keyboard. At the risk of offending, I don't think a prayer now and then would hurt either.
I often feel like this industry is a big, old crap shoot.
Any advice on agents?
Read more...Escape: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
I suspect that all writers are superb escape artists--after all, if reading is a good escape, writing has got to be the ultimate. Then again, I suppose it depends on what you're trying to get away from.
There are pros and cons to escape. I think the key to knowing when you've gone from good to bad to ugly is consequences.
I'm a grand master escape artist. I've got so many escapist ideas I could do nothing but escape reality everyday for a year. Good thing I also have a relatively strong work ethic and a streak of compulsiveness or I could potentially be divorced, broke and unemployed.
The good: taking a focused break. A break with purpose that allows you just enough escape to get your balance back and enables you to face reality again with a clear head and renewed determination. You know you're at the "good" level if you feel refreshed and ready to go when life rushes up at you.
The bad: letting the break linger, unproductive. This diversion tends to drift past a reasonable amount of time. When reality encroaches on your escape, it means you've dwelled there too long. The bad escape can quickly sink into...
The ugly: important elements of reality go ignored for too long and consequences start cropping up--the bills don't get paid, laundry reaches the ceiling, cats start scouring the neighbor's house for food, kids call and ask, "Where are you? I've been waiting at school for two hours."
I've never actually been guilty of forgetting the kids...but those others...well, let's just say I'm dealing with a few of them at the moment.
What level escape artist are you? What are your favorite forms of escapes--from life, from writing, from whatever?
It's All About Love
"Where there is love there is life."
~ Gandhi
"The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved."
~ Victor Hugo
"Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedlyand without law, and must be plucked where it is found,and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration."
~ D. H. Lawrence
Everything in life boils down to love. Without love in your life (whether it be spouse/significant other, parents, children, siblings, friends, extended family) nothing else really matters.
You could have millions of dollars, the most powerful job, the most prestigious career...you could be a genious, a movie star, an opera singer...but at the end of the day, when you curl up on your couch to relax, if you don't have someone to sit beside you out of sincere love (any type of love--friendship, romance, familial), you're empty.
Have you ever noticed that about 99% of all songs are about one type of love or another and about 75% of those are about romantic love?
Have you ever noticed that tombstone engravings talk about the loss of a beloved family member--not a CEO or stock broker or real estate agent?
People live life to be loved. Loved makes us happy. There is nothing more important.
And I often remind myself of that fact when I feel embarassed to tell others I write romantic suspense.
Do you find yourself embarassed to admit to writing in the romance genre? Have you gotten nasty remarks or condesending attitudes when you tell them you write in the romance genre? Read more...
More wins!
I'm a little stunned. Not sure how this happened, but I've won four books in the last month.
Four!!
Guess entering those contests does occasionally work. :-)
Great authors, great books.
- All Night Long, Jayne Ann Krentz
- Causing Havoc, Lori Foster
- Getting Lucky, Susan Andersen
- Sweetheart Indiana, Suzanne Simmons
Whoo-hoo!
What have you won in past contests? Any contests?
Overload or laziness or ...
Elisabeth posted over at RWKF on overload.
Timely. I'm suffering my own overload. Although, not in writing like she is -- just life. Add to that the gorgeous weather we've got around here, and I'm coming down with the melt-into-a-chair-and-do-nothing syndrome.
(Of course, it could be the spring fever thing -- more light and longer days are kicking my brain chemicals out of whack.)
I'm also suffering from a little cabin fever. Seems that so many families I know have been traveling lately--two went to Hawaii, one is now in Fiji, another going on a Carribean cruise over spring break. Even my husband got to hang in San Diego for a few days searching out hotels for his next convention and now he's in Washington D.C. I want to go somewhere, too! Waaa!
But those of you who know me, know the lethargy won't last long. I'm too much type A. Can't sit still or I go a little nutso.
Can you sit still? I mean, without feeling guilty? Have you been traveling? Planning a trip? Tell me so I can live vicariously...or just dwell in a jealous limbo.
Spring Fever
I'm discovering there is a lot of science behind things I took for granted were...well, they just were.
In my post at Romance Worth Killing For on Valentine's Day, I outlined a few interesting tidbits of information on the chemistry of love.
I just finished a class on creating sexual tension and discovered, yet again, that the sex drive, attraction and love are all evolution and chemistry based.
Now, I try to look up a bit of info on spring fever and what do I find? More science!
Here's what the experts say:
- That surge of optimism? Merely the serotonergic response to increased daylight.
- The distraction and dreaminess? The neurotransmitter dopamine is responding to light and warmth.
- The "gathered fragrance" of romance in the air? The sensitivity of the olfactory system has been proven to directly relate to pheromones, the essential chemical ingredient of sexual attraction.
This information echoed the article in National Geographics on love chemistry: novelty increases the dopamine and norepinephrine levels in the brain. Dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonine are chemicals that give us that high we experience with new love. Key word there: New. Novelty.
Which got me to wondering...is that why some people have affairs? Why they can get addicted to affairs and have serial affairs or continue an affair even when their logical mind tells them it's not ethical or practical?
It's been proven that people with OCD and people newly in love have similar brain chemical make-ups. Are affairs a combination of novelty and obsession? Of high dopamine and low seratonin? And if so, could someone prone to affairs be phamaceutically treated for such a bent?
I could go off on all kinds of tangents here. Interesting concept, don't you think?
Read more...I won!
I'm so excited. After giving away so many things on RWKF...I actually won someone else's contest.
Lori Foster's Febuary release: CAUSING HAVOC, which is currently #10 on the NYTimes--An extreme fighter returns home to Kentucky to help his sisters and finds both trouble and romance.
Goodie, goodie! Can't wait!
What are you excited about today?
Read more...
Inspiration
Few quotes to brighten your day...
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
~ Albert Einstein
"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go."
~ E. L. Doctorow
"Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to popular belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young."
~ William Somerset Maugham
Read more...
Vanilla
That's how I'm feeling at the moment...blah, boring.
You may have noticed there's a lot of talk right now on Voice. I must be on the collective blogger's wavelength, because I wrote about it on RWKF last week. And in talking about voice, the topic of originality always comes up. Unique story lines, fresh voice, intruiging perspectives.
Its all been on my mind lately, and I have to say I'm feeling quite...vanilla. I can't find any of that in my past or present works. It may be that I'm too close to it, that I can't see my own growth when I'm working at it everyday. I'm sure that's true to a point. But I also think I'm objective enough to realize my work doesn't have the spark it should.
I'm rewriting Dead Man's Hand, and have found it lacking in every aspect. Why was I writing this story? What was it about this that intruiged me to begin with--enough to get through the first 15 chapters?
My characters won't let me in their heads. They stick their tongues out at me or turn their backs when I try to engage them in coversation. My red herrings are more green than red, my twists more a slight curve than a corkscrew.Do you ever feel like your work is rather vanilla in comparison to what's out there or what's selling or what agents/editors say they're looking for? When you find your work tending toward the ordinary, what do you do to spice it up? Read more...
Adventures in Ultrasound
I have a paying job...a few actually...none of which include writing at the moment. Realistically, even if I were to sell a manuscript, or two, or three, I most likely wouldn't quit that day job. One, I doubt I'd make enough money to warrant quitting. Two, I really like the people I work with. And three, my patients give me a lot of character and plot material.
I'm a sonographer (A.K.A., ultrasound technologist). Currently I work at a radiology clinic, but I've worked many places in my fifteen years including fertility clinics, general hospitals, trauma centers, and teaching hospitals.
It occured to me that sharing some of the sometimes strange, occasionally bizzare, often amusing situations I encounter in my work might also offer others insight into human nature (or my interpretation of it) and the medical setting.
Today was one of those days that started to unravel before it even began...but I'll just go with the highlight: my ten o'clock patient, a sweet, sweet, sweet woman with liver problems who comes in every week for a paracentesis--drainage of the fluid that builds up in her abdomen due to poor liver function. The doctor inserts the tube into her abdomen and I sit with her while the fluid drains. We chat, I change bottles, knit, cut out letters... When as much fluid that will come out has come out, I remove the tube, bandage her up and send her on her way.
Everything went as smooth as usual. Except...when I pulled out the tube, it caught on the edge of her skin and flicked up, spitting fluid and blood across my face and into my eye. In case you're not familiar with medical details, this is as good as getting stuck with a dirty needle.
Which has never happened to me in fifteen years of medical facility exposure. I've worked in the E.R., the O.R., post op, bone marrow transplant units, trauma wards. Never have I come in contact with blood or other bodily fluids--which will remain nameless.
Needless to say...I freaked. Not on the outside. On the outside, I calmly wiped my face (she had been resting during the hour-long procedure and had her eyes closed), cleaned up my patient, bandanged her tightly so she wouldn't leak leftover fluid, and sent her on her way with our usual hug and a promise to see her the following week.
On the inside, I panicked. My mind raced over her medical history--no hep C, no AIDs. Her fluid build up stemmed from cirrhosis with an underlying condition that wasn't contageous. I lucked out in that department. But she had battled Valley Fever for years and had an active node on her lung. Shit. Shit, shit shit.
Today, I lived what I write about-fear, stress, confusion. I broke into a sweat. I was so hot, I could feel the heat rising off my body, up my neck, over my face. My hands started to shake, and I couldn't stop them. My brain swung and twisted in twenty different directions. I couldn't hold one solid thought. What thoughts I did hold bounced like a rubber ball. Rational went out the window. Will I get sick? Should I go for tests? What kind of tests? I have patients, when can I go for tests? Now or when I'm done? What should I do? Who should I ask? Will I look like an idiot if I'm worried about this? Will I look like an idiot if I'm not?
I flushed my eye and searched out my bosses--Is this bad? How bad? What do I do now? The radiologist called her buddy the infectious disease guy, who sent me for a battery of blood tests, which have to be redone in six weeks--full hepatitis panel, AIDs testing, Valley Fever panel (can't remember the name).
I'm fine now. With a splinter of rational thought back, I know the chances are incredibly slim that anything will come of this. But it was another interesting chunk of information I'll take to the page with me next time I write about a situation involving those emotions.
That's all for today's adventure in ultrasound.
What experiences have you had in life that have helped you in your writing adventures?
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