No Showers, no Flowers or Ducks.

That's a very vague title... and comes from a very convoluted region of my brain. I skipped April! There were no posts in April, I'm sorry. I've been in a weird combo of nose-down in edits and completely absent from writing - one or the other and nothing in between. 

My latest WIP has been sent off to the editor. The working title is Penny Layne. I likes it so much it may end up being the final title. This story had a weird gestation - I spent months thinking it was terrible - wait, no not terrible, but not up to snuff compared to #GoodDay and Aptitude. It doesn't hit on important issues or huge creative ideas like #GoodDay and Aptitude did... it didn't feel worthy.

But then a wise person said, "It doesn't always have to be heavy"

And then a few beta readers gave really great feedback.

And I started to like my ugly little duckling. Now it's on it's way to the editor to figure out if it's really a swan. Stay tuned.

N

A little birdie told me...

I've just spent the last fifteen minutes gazing at my calendar. It's hypnotic, all those squares of different colours, overlapping and competing. September is nutty: hockey tryouts, swimming and music start up swirled in with regular work. My old ladies ball team is trying to make up for a summer of rain outs during the month of September.

I need a clone or seven.

I secured a copy editor for my February release. Copy editors are a rare breed of bird, someone who can look at lines and lines of text to make sure the periods are all where they should be. Well and a little more than that. I'm not sure how they don't have permanently crossed eyes.

Today is about twits. Well no, tweets. I just think it's funnier to call them 'twits'. I need to improve the twits — tweets —that act as scaffolding for my story. I find it challenging to write authentic twits, especially those that may be posted/shared by YA. I'm ancient enough that I still type out every word, text in complete sentences. Throughout editing Game Plan and writing my next two novels (especially this one) that has probably been my biggest challenge to make the story accurate for the audience - the use of social media as a tool of communication. It has also had the biggest payoff when I finally get it right.

Intrigued? Stay tuned.

N

Time Flies

Good morning!

How is it already August 24?

Bad news: School starts in just over a week.
Good news: Aptitude comes out in less than a month!!!

Can you believe it?

Today is about editing my story that is coming out in February - can't wait to share it with you. It seems like such a long time away but here we are a month away from Aptitude's release and *that* used to be worlds away so I'm sure it won't take long.

Don't forget Aptitude is available for preorder, and if you show the Fierce peeps your receipt you can be entered to win an Aptitude-minded prize package.

N

Creative Drive

I've spent the past several days editing my indie pub coming out in February... Guys, I can't wait til I can share this story with you! I think it's a worthwhile, powerful story... I can't wait to hear what you think of it.

I've been dabbling in other creative activities... drawing and colouring again. I can remember always doing three things: playing baseball, writing and drawing. All three kinda went by the wayside with babies and toddlers and new companies and such, but they're creeping back in. Or pushing their way back in. I started writing again when we were adopting AnnaWen, then started in earnest with my Nov 2013 release, Game Plan. I started playing ball again last year with a great group of women who don't really care how many errors are made on the field so long as we're trying and having fun (which is really good b/c my 19 year old ballplayer self would be pretty embarrassed of my present day ball playing self). And now over the past couple of months I've started to draw again and it feels great! I'm looking at opening an Etsy shop to sell prints and am already collecting some peeps on Facebook.  Check it out!

Some may think writing and drawing are two different things... I think they're drawn from the same source of creation, of making ideas become real of giving breath to people or colours to animals and sharing those with others. It's a powerful source and I'm glad it's been forcing its way out again.

N

Happy May Friday

My favourite being on this Earth is a 13 year old lab. He's perfect. He adores sleep and food. He adores me. And he's 13. I booked a vet appointment to check in today and spent time last night crying because I was scared of what I may learn or hear at the appointment. But I got good news! His kidneys, which were concerning last fall, have returned to normal performance now that he's been off meds for a while and the vet had another suggestion to help manage his pain. I was so relieved. Still am.

I came home and dove into some editing... I'm really happy how that's going as well :)

All around a great day so far. My me-day is ending as chauffeur time is getting closer - music, hockey and errands are pressing.

N

Something cute...

I didn't get to this today... between blood donation to the CBS and to my editing I'm out of time!

I'll leave you with these cute laughs:

N

Five Stages of Editing Response

Research has demonstrated that there are specific stages of grief, though Google is undecided on whether there are five or seven of those stages.

I think there are stages to editing feedback. You send work out to an editor because, lets face it - self editing is a joke. The intent is for the editor to, um, edit it and point out areas that need improvement, make suggestions, identify weaknesses. But while that's the point I think it's every author's hope that that editor will actually write back "Holy Cannoli this piece is perfect! Don't change a thing!" 

I got my edits for #GoodDay back yesterday. Here are the stages of reaction to editing feedback:

1. Impatience - happens throughout the period of time in which the editor has your work. Symptoms include poorly hidden requests for updates ("What have you been doing today?") and flat out demands for reassurance ("It doesn't suck too bad does it?"). This stage lasts exactly until the point of the manuscripts return at which point the writer zaps directly into the second stage.

2. Indifference and Procrastination - even though you've spent the last several weeks thinking about nothing but the document, once the document arrives you immediately have forty seven other things you have to do right then and there is no opportunity to open the document and look at the editing. This stage can be fleeting or go on for hours.

3. Holy F#%k, I'm F*#ked - once the document is open, regardless of the level of editing, any and all suggestions look like monumental obstacles of penance and dire punishment. The thought of starting any of them is so impossibly daunting that the logical course of action is to forget the whole f@&king thing, crawl into a hole somewhere and curl up in the fetal position because you're not worth anything and no one likes you and who the hell said you could write anything anyway?

4. Suck it up, Buttercup - depending on the depth of the hole dug in stage three, this stage may take a very long time. Rereading and rereading and rereading the edit suggestions bangs them down from a vile dream destroying monster to a series of annoying, gnats. Giant gnats with disgusting breath and sharp teeth, but gnats just the same. During this period the writer climbs out of the hole and puts her tears away and tries to act like an adult by organizing and addressing each gnat as it presents itself.

5. Reverence - this stage comes on slowly, gnat by gnat, as the writer realizes (or probably rerealizes, that doubting nutter) that the editor is in fact a genius and each suggestion is a tiny angel sent from the beyond to lift the story to a new level of brilliance. (This is also the stage in which the writer feels slightly guilty for putting their own name on the cover and not the editor's - but that's a whole other series of confidence gymnastics)

I'm editing #GoodDay today and am trying to dig out of the hole into the field of buttercups. Think of me and send me healing vibes.

N

Voices in my head

Aptitude is off to the editors at Fierce which makes me incredibly nervous... I'm actually *more* nervous on a second round edit than the first. The first time around, the editor can chalk it up to, "well, she's just a bit of a moron" as they mark up my errors and make obvious suggestions for improvement that I never though of... but the second time around I have no excuse - they've already  made the suggestions, all I have to do is make the changes. So what if I don't make the changes enough, or make enough changes, or make them in the right way? So I tend to picture my editor glaring and muttering about how s/he already gave me the tools to fix that and thinking I'm some diva maverick writer who ignores reason and experience to do it my own way.

Anyway, those aren't the voices.

My task this week is to work on differentiating the voices in Henry - four different characters need four distinct voices. This goal has been the primary focus since the first draft and yes, I've heard editors' thoughts saying 'They still sound the same!' The problem is, they all came from MY head. They all sound the same because in many ways they all sound like ME. Every character I've written has been an extension, an example of me. Ella was me as a high schooler, Kat was me as an adoptive mom. I don't get the voices whispering to me like other people seem to... And this time it's been a very academic, technical approach to separating them out. Amputations. Poor editors.

N

Writing Emotions

Deadline time! I was editing today. Between the airport drama and the emergency tooth extraction last week I lost most of my editing time so now I'm feeling the crunch.

One of my pieces of feedback was that my main character did not have enough emotional involvement in the story... she reported the events from a distance that made it difficult for the reader to relate to her and give credit to her feelings. So I've been poking through the manuscript trying to change all the 'I was scared' and 'I felt silly' and 'I was nervous' to physiological reactions and feelings... 

I find it tricky to write authentic emotions without making it melodramatic or repetitive. Such a fine line, don't you think? I use this quite a bit. And I have this posted on the window in front of my desk. 

I love editing, working on the details and fixing sentences one by one, picking one word over the other.


N

Pushing Pushing

I'm unmotivated today.

---> that stairway looks STEEP.

I've been staring at my doc to edit. I'm against a deadline, I need to do it...

But editing / writing isn't like math homework that you can just buckle down, push through and get it done. When the motivation is missing it's like something extra, some magic? some spirit? some finesse? is missing too... and in its absence, I'm worried pushing through will screw it up. Pushing through will result in substandard results.

Good thing I work on a computer. That's my fallback - if I find tomorrow that the stuff I did today is crap I'll just time travel back to before today's work, revert the document to the starting point and start again. Takes the pressure off a bit to find that spark.

N

PS. I'm going to use my chocolate frog from Hogsmead as motivation.

Here you go...

Here's a companion piece to Game Plan... The Halloween party from Charlie's perspective.

I've been poking away at it for a while now. Also working on some edits and met a deadline. And that's all I have to say about that.

N

Real Writer Problems

So I've posted before that I don't always 'feel' like an author. And I've posted that my path to publication with Game Plan wasn't really typical. Now I'm at my desk again to write and instead I'm muddling through some other tasks and I'm thinking maybe this is what'll make me feel like a 'real author'.

I need to look into finding an agent... which is code for "send your heart and soul out at the mercy of the people to be squashed and burned". Okay that might be a little melodramatic, but it does look scary - instead of offering up one book for submission to publishers, I offer up myself and my entire work to one person. They can say 'no you suck'. Check that, they don't even say 'no, you suck', from what I can gather you submit and wait and if you don't hear from them you assume you suck. I might be taking the whole process a little too personally.  Other writerly types say the right agent is a must have, and actually the more I research the more I really like the idea of having a Super Agent in my corner... I just gotta find the right one.

AND I'm applying for a grant again. I had applied a few times before without success. There's only so much money to go around and I'm sure there's lots of deserving writers in Nova Scotia. Now that I've published one book, there are more opportunities so I'm jumping back in the game.

SO on this Writing Day Friday I'm not really writing - I'm researching and emailing and compiling supporting material and drawing up synopses and editing and everything else but WRITING my WIP. SO maybe that's what a real writer does?

N

PS, I was going to search for a picture that illustrated the chaos I tried to describe above, but thought a cute picture of my cat might work better because a cute picture of a cat ALWAYS works better. Here's my cat giving my puppy some love.

Ahhh

It's 8:26am, the house is quiet enough that I can hear the heat pump and the dryer. My fatcat Abby is perched on my left leg, Luna is on Rookie's launching pad on the floor (he needs the pad there to jump onto the bed) and Rookie is snoring in the living room by the door. I have no idea why he won't sleep in here when I'm home? My tall glass of Diet Coke is half gone, but still cold - the bubbles are popping at the surface. The lights are down, but my desk lamp is on, spotting the computer. The clutter that lands on my desk through the weekend has been cleared away so that only my old Cabbage Patch doll, Danielle Daniel's  Brave girl print and Brett Lawrie (the bobble head version) are watching me...

I've got the whole day ahead to tie up loose Game Plan strings and soak in UntitledSecondBook edits.

Ahhhh.

N

Writing Day... not!

So Monday and Friday I am supposed to write. The problem with that plan is that since I'm not seeing clients on Monday and Friday it makes it easy to book infrequent appointments so they don't interfere with my weekly schedule. So I'll spend half of my day today addressing my 'real job', and the other half taxiing the demons around... not much time left for writing.

I received feedback for my SecondUntitledBook and I have so much to tackle! Can't wait to get a solid day to get on it. Guess it's looking like Friday instead.

N

Hiatus and Update

So just when things were getting good and I could share updates like the Indiegogo campaign and the cover reveal, I got zonked with a wicked cold. I'm about nine days into it and still not 100% but actually feeling human again. I didn't write last week or this Monday - I slept instead. Which means no blog updates for my three readers to review.

but I'm back!

Cover is out! It looks awesome. And my friendly neighbourhood publisher (to be differentiated from the mean one who lives away) sent me texts with pictures of the inside, side and back. - Question: if the message is a picture is it still called a text? - Anyway. It's THICK. It's awesome. It's soooo cool to see. I can't wait to hold one and smell it. Does that make me weird? Yes I love to smell books. That's actually a point of conversation in my UntitledSecondBook, two characters argue about whether books smell bad or good - they don't, however, argue about whether or not it's weird to smell books.

So here's the update!

1. Game Plan GIVE-AWAY! If you missed your chance to pre-order a copy, or if you'd love to WIN a second copy for freeee (maybe to push on some unsuspecting person as a Christmas present?) you can enter the GoodReads giveaway. There's already 257 people entered! That's exciting because that's about 254 more people than I thought who know about the book!

2. Game Plan launch party is set for November 21 from 630-800 at the Canada Games Centre. There will be food. If you're coming in from out of town and need a ride from the airport, let me know. ;) They tell me I'm to read some aloud... I'm working on excuses to get out of that part.

3. I'm still not ready to watch Glee videos from The Quarterback and starting to realize I may never be.

4. I sent UntitledSecondBook out to an editor that came with a huge recommendation and he got back to me this week. I have some specific direction on where to improve and strengthen the story, some questions to answer and some details to provide... I'm excited to jump back in.

Happy Friday!

N

New book (not mine)

So that --> came in the mail this week! I was excited to see it. I can't remember which blog I first read of it but I've been stalking it for a few weeks. It's not available through Chapters which always makes me hesitant - don't know why, some kind of superstition or OCD habit thing - but I found it on Amazon so I finally ordered it. Free shipping included three day delivery - cool, eh?

I wondered how useful it would be (vs how hokey and stupid it would be) but I had heard it referenced in a few places and thought it was worth a shot. It's actually pretty cool. There are 75 emotions from 'adoration' to 'worry' with definitions. The coolest part is each has a list of physical signals and internal sensations - you know, 'show don't tell'.

Coolio, no?

N

Final Edits

I just sent it off... it's gone. Off into the wide world of publishing...

Game Plan goes through one more stage of editing - mostly for nitty gritty stuff like formatting, punctuation, etc. And then it's out.

On one hand, I want to hold onto it, put it off and go through it once or twice or a hundred times more to make sure it's just right. But on the other, I am so ready to hand it off. I know that no matter how many times I go through it, each time I'll find something to tweak or change or cut or add and it's time to walk away.

I've sent it off to my publisher and today I'll be moving on to my pesky second project that still doesn't have a name.

N

Preorder Game Plan here: Indiegogo campaign

aaaahhhh

This week has been something else.

But it's Friday. The kids are back in school and I'm back at my desk ready to tackle the edits I've been thinking about all week. Again I've been redirected with valuable advice that is growing my story. It's changing from a wimpy, floppy, thin being to a strong, muscular, purposeful creature - though there's still a ways to go yet.

Gotta go get some DC, then I'll be perfect.

N

Social Media

Game Plan grew into a YA book - I didn't have a plan to write it that way, I just had a story to tell and as it developed I realized that's what it was. But to make MY story into a story a YA reader would enjoy I had to work a lot on the dialogue, the interactions, the details that make my characters ACT like teens, not growed ups like me. Tough but doable. It was fun to explore and discover what makes a teen seem like a teen, right down to the texting - I still spell out every. single. word.

I've also been learning about social media. I've been a FB junky for years and I love Instagram, but I've pretty much ignored the rest. Today I sat down with my brilliant publisher who knows all about the techy world and she taught me everything she knows. Not really. But she showed me enough to be dangerous out there in the cyber world.

Good thing my kids aren't teens yet... their young age will save them a great deal of embarrassment.

N

Lessons

So we arrived home yesterday, after 4705 km on the road. Yes, exactly 4705. And all of the editing and writing I was excited to get done on my 'downtime' didn't get done, of course. There was very little downtime. I've spent the morning racing through the things I need to do so I can jump back into Game Plan edits and other things waiting for me. This post is one of them, getting so much closer to my Word Doc time but it would go more smoothly if FB would stop messing around with my head and just post the damn pictures already.

To write relevant stories, I like to watch and learn from what happens around me. A lot of Game Plan is autobiographical, though not in a factual way - I took events, feelings, thoughts and attributed it to other people. I don't really know how else you'd write? How do you write something you've never experienced (at least in parts)?

SO here are the 10 things I learned on my 4705 km trip with the Munsters to Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, our visits to The Bell Centre - Canadiens Hall of Fame, meeting Baby, Springridge Farm, Hockey Hall of Fame, Jays Game 1, Dinner with Marianne and Nina, Wonderland, campsite pool and playground, visiting more friends, Jays Game 2, Toronto Zoo, BaskinRobbins, Museum of Nature, the Mint, Parliament Buildings, ByWard Market, Ghost Walk Tour, Light show on Parliament Hill, 24 Sussex, Rideau Hall, Aviation Museum, Star Wars Identity Exhibit... phew.

1. In combination, Google Maps and a 10 year old navigator sway unpredictably between surprizingly effective and dangerously terrible.
2. I think I'm finally old enough to enjoy CBC Radio.
3. Hearing either Bruce Springsteen or Blue Jays Baseball will make any situation better.
4. Quebec City is lacking in hotel rooms for people who don't want to pay $200+/night.
5. My children have all turn into Mini-Mes when they're cranky - not a good thing.
6. Punishing a child by taking away entertainment such as screens or toys doesn't really help the situation.
7. My 9 year old is smarter than at least two tour guides in Ottawa.
8. My kids have kick-ass stamina, especially for amusement parks - 12+ hours without stopping. Except to pee - refillable cups aren't the best idea.
9. I'm too old to remember 10 things about our 10 day trip.

N