Endings and Beginnings

The last day of school is a call to celebrate for me.  Not because I have two months off, but because now I can work on my books.  Summer is my writing time.  Yes, I will go to the beach, spend time with family and friends, read my fill and sleep a little later, but more than anything I will write.

I'm still waiting for my revision letter; I have a book to finish and I have another book that may have some rewrite potential.  I have a fourth book cooking in the back of my mind and I need to start researching that one very soon.  The stories are all in there and I can't wait to get things on the page.

How do you spend your summer?  Do things change for you?  Does the pace slow?  Do you have something special that you like to do?

The way I see it, the school year is ending, but the work is just beginning.

Facing your dream

I write because I have stories to tell.  I want to be published because I have stories to share.

I'm facing the dream today.  No I didn't get "the call."  But I did get something almost as valuable to an aspiring author--a revision letter.  Revision letters from editors indicate interest; they indicate opportunity; they indicate that your book doesn't totally suck.  The editor loved my voice and characters, but has a few issues with the plot in the second half.  Plot?  Plot I can fix.  Squee!!!

So, now I get back to work on a book I had wanted to put to bed.  One I wanted to sell, but I didn't want to work on it until it had publishing deadlines attached. Life is funny like that. Things never go as planned, but I am more than willing to adapt if I get one step closer to my dream.

This is scary, but I truly think any thing worthwhile has an element of fear attached to it.

Ah well, here's to being afraid.

What about any of you?  Have you stumbled, stuttered or crumbled when you are faced with a dream?  Something you thought you would never have?  Tell me about it.

Time passes

My role in my children’s lives has changed drastically over the last several years.  They are all young adults now and I find that I’m no longer refereeing fights, but I’m helping the three of them figure out who is taking which car where.  With each passing day they are becoming more independent, more self assured and more responsible.  It’s what I always wanted for them, yet it breaks my heart.

I’m coming to the point in my life where I am no longer as needed as I used to be.  I have more freedom. I am able to pursue my own interests. I can spend time with my husband…my possibilities are endless.  And like I said, this is what I wanted, until I had time to think about it.

Yesterday, I knew my husband was meeting with some colleagues for dinner, which meant I would be alone with my son.  Both girls are taking summer classes, so it was me and the boy for dinner.  I thought we could go out, get a burger or some pizza and talk.  He does talk when he’s alone with me and  I was looking forward to it.  It was not to be.  He had to be back at school for a student government meeting, but the oldest girl was home—her class was cancelled.  I'd take her to dinner instead.  Nope.  She had plans with friends.    Middle girl?  She had lab along with her class and would be out for hours.  I was alone.  Just me and the dogs.  Heaven you think? 

Nah. I lost it.

I’d had a bad day at school, and I’m stuck in my manuscript, and I wanted company, but no one was around.  Now, I’m a dedicated mom.  It’s one of the things that I’ve never had a problem with.  I’ve made good decisions with the kids; I've spoiled them when appropriate, but none of them are afraid of a good day’s work.  They’re good students, they volunteer and I’ve encouraged them to be independent.  And it was last night that I discovered I’d done a really good job because while I needed them, they didn’t need me.  They were out dealing with their own lives. 

I guess this post is about recognizing that sometimes doing a good job, and getting what you want, can hurt.  I miss my little children.  I miss reading them stories and cuddling with them in front of the TV.  However, I am very proud of the adults they have grown to be.  This parenting thing is a double-edged sword and while I know that every step they take is a step away from me, I also know this is the right thing. Because as sad as I am that I will never have them little again, I have a wonderful relationship with my adult children. 

So for all you parents out there, I know you hear this over and over, but enjoy your little ones. The time does fly, but understand that the loneliness that comes when you can no longer tuck them in at night is a sign you’ve done a good job.

Making the most of my time.

I’m busy.

Does that sound familiar?  I can also procrastinate with the best without much effort, which is why I try to keep myself on a schedule.  Routines are comforting for me and I am slowly building myself a new routine after spending years in chaos.

The only part of my day that’s scripted is my work day.  I know I have to be at work at seven in the morning and I can leave around two.  On Wednesdays I have meetings after school so that means I could be home as late as five o’clock.  Even though my kids are older and I’m not driving the carpools anymore, I still find there are tons of things that demand my time, so after winging it for a long time, I’ve decided to take control.  I make time to do what's important to me and slowly I add more to my routine.  

Writing was one of those things that I often found myself fighting to find time to do.  My biggest problem is I’m a nocturnal writer.  I do my best work between eleven at night and three in the morning; this is a problem when the alarm goes off at 5:15 AM.  However, I did find there was another stretch of time I had almost every day when the writing flowed.  I had about forty minutes in the middle of my work day when I was knocking out a couple of pages at a time.  I could write when I was on hall duty.

I've written about hall duty before.  I don’t like the way it breaks up my day and being in the library I feel like there are some days I’m on duty for nine periods, but I was assigned, so I go.  I discovered I could write productively by accident. 

I brought my netbook with me one day because I wanted to read something a friend had sent me.  I read her piece and then, with about twenty minutes left, I opened up my work in progress (WIP).  I wrote a page and a half.  It wasn’t that the hall was quiet, it wasn’t, but for some reason, even with an interruption here or there, I was able to write.  Since then, I almost look forward to my duty period.  I’ve been able to add about 3000 words to my book during my hall duty.  I know that’s not a lot, but it gets me going.  What I write while sitting in the cruddy old student desk is churning in my head the rest of the day, so by the time I get home, I’m ready to get back to work.  I’ll come home, take care of the dogs, have a cup of coffee while having a conversation with whomever is home, and then I open up what I did on my hall duty and work for a couple of hours.  Sometimes, I write a lot…sometimes not so much, but I am always moving the book forward.  That I’m doing all this while it’s still daylight is a big plus.

So what’s my point?  Use the time you have in the best way possible.  If you can wait at a lacrosse practice with a netbook or an Alphasmart and knock out a couple of pages, do it.  If that’s your social networking time, great, then it won’t be a time sink when you sit yourself down to work on your WIP.  If you can’t write while you're waiting at the doctor's office, bring a notebook to jot ideas for your next blog post or bring pages to edit, but use your time well.

My writing productivity hasn’t gone through the roof, but it’s been steady and my new book is now over two-thirds done.  I can see the words “The End” on the horizon. My next task is to get the daily exercise in the routine.  I don’t know if that one will be as easy.

Getting back to my roots.

I went to college and was trained as a journalist. I loved my time as a reporter and even though I never went past the local and collegiate level, I felt I learned my craft. It was something I was good at. It came naturally to me and leaving it wasn't easy. But when it came right down to it, I was born to teach and I wanted a life.

However, my writing has not only given me an outlet for my stories it's given me a chance to be the person I used to be. I'm going out on an interview today. I'm plotting a new book and I've gotten in touch with a great source and we're having lunch. I'm looking forward to the conversation, to learning about this woman, and I'm eager to hear what she has to say about my topic. Later I'll take a look at what we talked about and figure out how I might be able to take my information and build something with it.

When I get back to the person I used to be, before the frustrations of teaching, before my husband and kids, I feel like I find a missing piece of myself. I love my family and I know I do good work, and I don't regret any of the decisions I've made, but it's nice to find that at this point in my life, my writing has allowed me to be all things. I can be the teacher, the mom, the wife and on occasion, the journalist. I can enjoy the utter shock on people's faces when I tell them I write romance, and I like knowing they see me differently when they know this. When I finally get published, that will be a whole new rush.

Damn, this is fun.

My Favorite Things

I'm a reader, and yes, I am a voracious reader of romance novels. I still read good women's fiction from time to time, biography, history and I devour YA simply because of my job as a high school librarian, but romances make me happy. I like that people can fall in love, work their way past the obstacles and find happiness. This doesn't mean I don't like good writing. I love good writing, as well as rich characters, well-crafted settings and stories that keep me interested. I like to laugh and cry and I want to like the characters I read about. To find all those things, I read romance. So imagine my dismay when recently a colleague of mine laughed out loud when I told her I was an aspiring romance writer. "Seriously?" she asked me. "How do you write that stuff? Do you have pirates in your books?" I kept my cool and explained what I wrote (no pirates, no bodice ripping), but I was so taken aback by her lit snobbery, that this post started floating around in my head.

The definition of a romance novel as determined by the Romance Writers of America is as follows: a romance novel must focus on the developing love story between the two main characters and there must be an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. That doesn't mean there is always a happily ever after, for me it means that I walk away from the book feeling like the characters are going to be okay and are better for whatever the plot has thrown at them.

It's generally believed that romance does not get the respect it deserves because it is literature for women, primarily by women. I can buy that. But chew on these stats for a bit: romance generates over 1.3 billion dollars in book sales every year with about 75 million readers. Romance novels regularly occupy spots on all the major bestseller lists. In short, it is a force to be reckoned with in the publishing industry, and if the genre died, the economic repercussions in bookselling would be huge. (Check out the stats: RWA) Yet the stereotype of the genre and its readers still lives regardless of sales figures…so what is a genre to do? Enter Yale University.

Yale is offering a course on the romance genre. They are not offering this course as a sociology or psychology elective to examine the reader of this type of book, but instead it focuses on the genre as literature. The course had eighteen spaces. Eighty students applied for the spots. The publicity from this course is giving the genre some academic cred and pushing forward the growing movement that romance is, indeed, literature. See this article in the Yale Herald for details.

So what's a writer to do when the lit snob puts you down? Be armed with facts. Talk about the empowerment of women, economic impact, but also talk about the power of love. That's what it's all about and honestly, it's what we all want to believe in. The question to ask yourself isn't why you're reading romance, but instead to find out why the lit snob isn't?

People who know of my addiction are always asking me what I read. So in the interest of being a helpful librarian, here are my top ten romance novels:

10. The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks. A tearjerker of a story that focuses on Ally and Noah, teen lovers who are separated by class, meddling parents and circumstance. This is a book about the power of soul mates who find a way to be together. If you haven't read it I ask, "Where have you been?"

9. Summer by the Sea, by Susan Wiggs. I can read this book over and over again. Rosa and Alex are childhood friends who became lovers. Their romance ended, but now they are back together and trying to make it work in spite of family objections. He is delicious and she is a force to be reckoned with. Rosa's very successful restaurant is a central part of the book, but their love story is the real treat.

8. Born in Ice, by Nora Roberts. Brianna Concannon may seem like a mild mannered innkeeper, but this book, set in Ireland, tells the story of a woman who will not settle for less than a total commitment from the man she loves. Beautiful setting and glorious characters. This book is the second of Robert's "Irish" or "Born in" Trilogy. All three are excellent, but this one is my favorite.

7. Virgin River, by Robyn Carr. This is the first book in a series that focuses on the fictional, small, Northern California town of Virgin River. This is a town populated by former Marines, so the testosterone level is at Defcon 5. In the first book we meet Jack, a retired sergeant and now bar owner, who has his lightning strike when he meets Melinda.  Mel is a nurse midwife, who has moved to town to escape the tragedies she suffered in Los Angeles. He falls for her almost immediately and even though she resists, Jack is so damned perfect and honorable, it's impossible for Mel not to love him.

6. Fools Rush In, by Kristan Higgins. Millie Barnes returns home to Cape Cod to practice medicine and make the unrequited love of her life fall in love with her. Joe Carpenter is a perfect physical specimen and Millie has been obsessed with him since she was a teenager. What Millie begins to realize is that Joe is not the man of her dreams, but a certain cop, who has always been an important part of Millie's life, is exactly what her heart needs. One of Kristan's other books was almost sitting in this spot. Just One of the Guys has an amazing romantic ending, but I was really rooting for Millie to win this one.

5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. Mr. Darcy is the original wealthy, brooding hero. Elizabeth Bennett is headstrong, beautiful and from a less than desirable family. They meet, sparks fly, there are arguments and accusations and all is well at the end. I love this book and whenever I have girls looking for a "different" kind of romance (meaning no vampires, drug addicts or gang members), I give them Pride and Prejudice. They love me for it.

4. Three Wishes, by Barbara Delinsky. Tom Gates is a famous author who has lost his way. Bree Miller is a small town woman who offers him redemption. The two of them combine in a story that has me bawling every time I read it. The ending is unexpected, and heart wrenching, but it's all about the power of love to heal even the most broken hearts and lives.

3. This Heart of Mine, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. This book combines two of my favorite things, football and children's literature. SEP does this by having a romance develop between playboy quarterback Kevin Tucker and penniless heiress and children's author, Molly Somerville. Molly has had a crush on Kevin forever, so when circumstances throw them together at a camp Kevin has inherited, the crush flares and real feelings develop between the two. I like this book because Kevin has a vulnerable side and it's not just about him saving Molly from herself, Molly saves him, as well.

2. Bet Me, by Jennifer Crusie. I love this book. I read it and decided I want to be Jennifer Crusie when I become a grown-up author. This is the story of Cal and Min. He is gorgeous, successful and has no trouble getting the women to fall all over him. Min is successful, but she's chubby, lacks confidence and has no luck with men. They meet, the stars align and the chubby girl gets to have her love story with the gorgeous guy who can't resist her. The characters have depth, the dialog is rapid fire and there are tears to go along with the laughs. If you have never read romance before, read this one. You'll be hooked.

1. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. Claire is a WWII nurse, a Brit, who after leaving active duty takes a holiday with her husband to the Scottish Highlands. One morning, when out for a walk, she touches a standing stone and finds herself hurled back in time to 1743. There she meets a tall, broad Scots warrior named Jamie Fraser. 'Nuf said. This book is full of passion, adventure, humor and tenderness. It's also a long book, to the point of being intimidating, but not a page is wasted. I have friends who are die-hard literary fiction fans who list this book as their favorite. The story is epic and unforgettable.

Rules for Writers(and wannabes)

One item that is always on my desk is a copy of Diana Hacker's book, Rules for Writers.  I just bought myself the sixth edition of the book after using my old one to death.  The book is a must have for teachers, librarians, students and anyone who decides to play with words.  It's full of information on grammar, punctuation, usage, research...anything technical you'd want to know.  What it doesn't have is how to deal with the problems that come along when you want to be a professional writer. (I do think the title is a tad misleading, don't you?)  There are no rules for wannabes, so I figured I'd take a crack at it.

Rule #1:  Realize from the outset that the road to publication is bumpy.  Bumpy? That's an understatement.  If you're like me you have a full time job.  And a family. And a house.  And no matter how much your family says they will support your endeavor, they still need you, so interruptions will never go away.  The job?  Well, eating is good.  Paying the bills is good.  I need my job even if I would rather spend my days working toward becoming a published novelist and the reality is that even after I get published, I'm  keeping the job. At least for a while.  So the short version of this rule is this:  many things will get in the way of your writing; you have to deal with it.

Rule #2:  Your friends and family will think your first completed work is amazing.  Many will think this even if it sucks.  Do you know why?  Because you wrote a book.  For most people writing more than ten pages of anything is a feat.   If you've written 300 hundred pages of story, even if it's the most ridiculous drivel, they'll tell you that you are the second coming of Dickens.  Keep their praise in perspective.  They love you and want you to be happy, so try to find people who are more objective to evaluate your work.  It's fine to get opinions from friends,  and yes, they can be valuable, (I've gotten some great feedback from friends) but also get opinions that are constructive, that are technical and that may require you to rethink your story.

Rule #3:  Getting an agent is harder than writing a book.  I mean this.  It's hell.  If you thought getting through the sagging middle of your story was tough, getting an agent makes writing a full length novel feel like child's play.  Oh, the agents try to make you feel like you're the one in control here.  The rejection  letters and e-mails come back with things like "I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a pass"  or "I'm not the right person for this" or "You deserve someone who will totally commit to this project."   When you break down agent speak these mean,  "I don't think your project will sell."  Publishing is a business and agents are supposed to sell books to make money for you and for themselves.  If an agent doesn't think a book will sell she will not accept you because you turn a pretty phrase.  There are always stories of people who found the agent of their dreams and sold their first book in record time.  Those people are the exception, not the rule.  Be prepared for rejections.  Lots of them.

Rule #4:  Trends do sell and while everyone always says to write the book of your heart, people buy trends.  One thing in particular is bothering the hell out of me, and it has to do with the YA market.  So I will say this: don't try to write for the Young Adult market unless you have a YA voice.  Where did this come from?  YA lit is hot.  Ever since Stephanie Meyer birthed the Twilight series full-grown from her dreams, YA  has surged.  Some agents only want YA authors.  However, I can tell you as a high school librarian, not everyone is cut out to write YA.  I've read more junk in the past two years than I care to tell you about.  I've also read some really good work.  You need to have a strong teen voice, so no matter how hot the trend is, no matter how much you think you should do this, be honest with yourself.  Don't write YA because you see it as a way to sell a book.  Write YA because that is what you were meant to do.

That honesty thing goes for everyone. If you write to a trend, any trend, that's fine, but make sure you are writing honestly.  Agents, editors, and readers will thank you for it.

Rule #5:  Your ego will be battered. You will feel like a failure.  There's no way around this.  But if you really want to be a writer, don't give up.  Don't ever give up. Just remember your three "R's":   Rethink, rewrite, resubmit.

I have a query letter that is failing me miserably.  It's time to rip it apart and start over.  I have my books, my ideas and my nerve all ready to go.  Wish me luck.