Saturday

But the week has flown by. More Internet troubles and then some time on a line edit. Now, back to proposals.

But right now, I'm listening to a guilty pleasure. Justin Timberlake's Future Sex/Love Sounds. I don't know how this has happened, but I love this CD!

Off to work with a pot of Earl Grey and my current fave music. :-)

Lifelines and other dial-up things

I'm addicted to email. It's not a shock to me. I knew. Believe me, I knew, cause I leave it on, and I grin when I see a note come up from say, Karen, or Kath or Jen, or Carmen, and many others.

But for the past few days, I've been suffering Internet problems and I think I've been stranded on the non-Information-Highway tundra. Miserable. I'd think, "I need to look that up." Couldn't.

"I need to ask Amy ???" Couldn't.

"I need to see if this movie's available for watching during Insomnia Moments." Couldn't.

Our connection has risen like the Phoenix, but I have a ton of work to do so I can't swim in the lovely coursing (okay, on dial-up, meandering) byte stream!

I love a good library!

Don't get me wrong. Any library is a great library, but the one in my town is so small I've had a hard time finding something to read. (Partly, my own fault. I have a hard time just pulling a book off the shelf and reading it--as I did in my youth thereby finding many wonderful reads!)

Anywhooo, I discovered I'm also allowed to use the library in the next town and I stopped by there yesterday. I found some lovely mysteries written during the 30s/40s. I love that for the same reason I love old movies. It's like time travel. Of course we put things in movies in our time that don't have anything to do with reality, and I guess folks did the same then, but right now, because I couldn't put the Leslie Ford mysteries down after just one--I'm reading Honolulu Story and learning how much the city changed before I lived in it. I can see so many bare spaces in her narrative where buildings and people live now. And yet I see the places that her characters visit where I've been, too. Also, I'm learning something as a writer. These characters never spend time in a kitchen! :-)

And oh, yeah, the story's good, too!

I've stumbled, brain first, into a treasure chest! How will I climb out to do my own work?

Writing is a Business?

Today is kind of a work vs. fun-work day. I've had to distill TEMPORARY FATHER into twenty-five words. Okay--I cheated and got it down to twenty-six words. It's really hard to describe a story in that many words. A lot of writers start out with a blurb of around that size, and every time I have to do this, I think I should make myself begin the next story that way.

As usual, though, I'm looking into a bowl of 75,000 words, and I have to choose 25 that describe the story in a meaningful, "buy me" kind of way. That cackling you hear is me. Laughing hysterically. This is why I have a creative job. Because I can't create a story in twenty-five words.

Here are the ones I chose: Aidan Nikolas and Beth Tully have only her deeply troubled son in common. Aidan’s the man this family needs, but can he make Beth believe he’ll stay?

Oh, no--that's twenty-seven!

Writing/Reading

I've had a migraine and haven't been in the mood for either--but that's over! Had some chat last night with writer friends and came home, tearing to get at my proposals. I'm hoping to have them both ready to go by next Monday--and then, on to something completely new and different.

I've enjoyed the talk in comments about paintings being a creative spark. I find historical places the same. A friend and I are going to visit Biltmore House in Asheville, NC soon and I cannot wait. I have never left there without an Edwardian-set story begging to get out of my head and onto paper. At last, new timeframes are opening with houses, so maybe now's the time to let that story come.

What sparks a new idea for you? I mean, what's your surefire spark?

A Break--Who Needs It?

Had to break from writing today because I had a trip to the dentist (apparently my new best friend), and then we took my brother-in-law to see a museum exhibit I've anticipated seeing for months.

All the while, I wished I'd slipped my laptop into the car (traffic was terrible because of bad weather). Then at the museum, after I saw the new exhibit, my husband wandered the rest of the collection, which I've seen many times, but he's never visited before. I could have used a notepad and pen! (I did peruse the notepads in the museum shop, but the beloved would rightfully have inquired why I needed yet another notepad/pen combo for my addiction.)

Does anyone else make up stories about the people in the paintings? I can't help myself! (What kind of writer goes anywhere without notepad/pen?)

Off to work! Yay!

Finally, One Sticks!

Not any of the proposals I was working on, but a new idea that popped into my head as I was hurrying to the pharmacy last night for a wee, emergency visit. Funny, how a touch of anxiety peels you down to the bare essentials. And this idea seems to be opening up in the way ideas do when they're working.

I got large print copies of my March book yesterday. It's called Temporary Father, and I loved writing the story. I miss those characters. I'm going to admit I'm not enamored of the cover. I've never been anything but thrilled with covers in the past so maybe I was due for a not-so-attractive one, but somehow it hurts. ;-) You want your baby to be clothed in its best.

I tried to upload the image, but it didn't work. However, you can reach the book on Amazon with a click to the link on the right.

Off to work on that new idea that's nudging me even as I write this! (I love when that happens!)

Proposals Here, Proposals There

I have one proposal down, though I have some changes to make, but I have three other "starts" all vying for my attention. I think it's a bad sign that none has given me that "I have to write this" feeling, but it's nice having so much to choose from, and they all have their points. Too much largesse--a confusing, but not altogether horrible place to be.

I'm being distracted now by one of those home improvement shows I mentioned before. The other thing begging me to step up to the paintpot right now is my kitchen. We've decided on this lovely, buttery yellow color and I'm dying to paint. Here's the thing painting shares with writing. Each day as you work away on a manuscript, you see your slider moving down the screen on the right--more pages behind it. (I used to print the pages each day, but in the past few years my process has changed to include so much editing, I'd be slaughtering trees willy nilly if I printed. I miss that growing stack).

And painting? I cannot wait to see that soft yellow spread across my kitchen. I think it may even seduce me to work at the kitchen table, so I should stop all this work and do some painting, right? Piles of pages--spreading, comforting yellow--both achievements!

Back, unwillingly!

I've come back from revisions and from a minivacation to the beach.

It's the beach where I grew up and I never thought I'd leave, but my parents split up and my mother felt more comfortable with her family far inland. :-) So, suddenly, I lived in the mountains, which I also love, but the ocean calls me as if my soul comes twisting to shore in each wave.

I walked the beach with my daughter and we found sand dollars, which were scarce even when I still lived there. Bundled up in our meager jackets (we haven't needed coats in about six years) and scarves and gloves, we found clams bubbling in the sand--and we left them alone to bubble in peace. We followed little birdies learning to scavenge in the wavelets. We walked in rivulets formed by the tide coming into tidal beds that high tide formed the night before and the night before and the night before, since--forever. We breathed in the sea air, which is the most elegant perfume to me, but "fishy" to her. I even tasted the water--which tastes the same--salty and lifegiving--after all this time. And then last night, I read an article that says the elegant perfume is due to bacteria in the water. (I'm so Howard Hughes in nature you wouldn't believe it!)

Nevertheless, I'm planning a book set at the beach. Need-more-research-time!