Interviewing Gerry from "Rain"

With Rain scheduled to come out on the 15th of May, I thought getting Gerry to sit down and talk with me might be a good idea. He agreed to answer a few questions. Here's a partial transcript. l apologize for a few of the words. Gerry can come up one now and then if pushed. I didn't edit them out.

Partial Interview Transcript- Gerry StClare

How would your best friend describe you?

I have to laugh. Tom has described me to others in several ways. I won’t say I agree with him on all of them, but he’s described me as “tall, too good-looking for his own good”, “Hard-headed”, and “a secret mensch”. Generally all three in a sort of light-heartedly disgusted way.

How would your enemy (or least favorite person) describe you?

I never thought I had enemies until recently, but, yeah, I know how they describe me. Privileged. Arrogant. There were a few more words. I won’t say them in polite company.

Do you agree with either (or both) of those descriptions?  Why?

I’m not sure I agree with Tom or not. I do tend to get on a track and stay on it, until someone or something really knocks me off of it. So I’ll go with the “hard-headed”, though I’d prefer “persistent”. 

The first description? I know I’m tall. That’s kind of hard to ignore. The other half? Try growing up male with nothing but sisters. They never thought or told me I was anything but average. They quickly squashed anything else.

The “secret mensch”? I’m not Jewish, Tom is, but I understand the word. That is not something many know, I don’t go around sharing it, but, yeah, I probably am.

Were the others right? Some would say yes to the first. I did grow up in what some would call a rarified bubble. My grandfather owned his own construction company and helped to establish the local country club. My godmother is highly regarded in “society” circles. So, although my immediate family could be considered “middle class”, I grew up with certain expectations–learning to dance and attending cotillions at the country club, going to college, and all that sort of thing.

Do I agree with them? I’m sure they saw it that way–the “privileged” part anyway. To me it was just home and family. The “arrogant” part? There were things I had to do I didn’t enjoy doing. but they had to be done.

You’re working with a group of people on some kind pf object.  What role do you play?  (Leader, strategist, laborer, etc.)  Do you like your role?

I would say leader. Actually that’s what I do for a living. I’m a supervising architect at my firm. I do have an original job from time to time, but I supervise construction most of the time right now. I grew up following my grandfather around when he was running his construction company, worked for him, and supervised jobs for him when I was older.

Do I like it? Yes. There's something very satisfying about getting a group of people to work hard and produce something you know is going to be around for years. Centuries, if it's the right project, and the job is done right. I like it a lot. Pretty sure it will become even more satisfying when I can do more of my own stuff.

What kind of baggage do you carry around?

Excuse me? Baggage? It depends on how far I’m traveling for and how long I’m going to be gone. My briefcase almost always.

No, Gerry, not that kind of baggage. The other kind--memories--regrets--that sort of thing.

Oh, that’s what you’re talking about. Kind of an invasive question. You’ll forgive me if my answer is short.

Yes, I have memories and regrets. Who doesn’t?

Okay, a silly question then, as people seem to enjoy them. Boxers or briefs?

You have got to be kidding me! No? Damn. Okay, okay. I’ll be brief. Son-of-a. . . I can’t believe I just said that.

I’ll answer the question. Boxers. Just don’t ask me why.

Why?

Enough!

Please note that is not a photograph of Gerry up there. I declined to take one. He is not shy, but I wanted you to form an opinion from his answers, not his face.

It's National Poetry Month! So. . . P is for poetry

Note: No, I'm not participating in the A-Z blog challenge. Far too much on my plate with Rain scheduled to come out next month. There are upcoming posts about it, but, in the meanwhile, I realized I hadn't posted any "bad" poetry lately.

 

 

 

 

Hidden

I don’t keep all my memories in boxes

Tucked away in square or rectangular cardboard

All glazed over with bright-colored paper

And sprinkled with stars.

 

My memories lie scattered about me

In haphazard places and on dangerous surfaces

Teetering on the edges, waiting to fall

Out on display, hidden in chaos.

 

Over there the ballerina en pointe

Long pink tutu,

Dancing to a song I no longer remember

Twirling, mesmerizing a five year old I still recall.

 

Glass enclosed bookshelves

Rescued from the trash heap

Carefully restored and gifted

Strewn once with frames and pictures

 

Voices telling stories, markers, places

People whose faces still laugh

Whose dreams I once knew.

Pain I saw as they buried their children.

 

All of my memories, pieces of story

Snatches of music, whispers of touch

All scattered around me–hidden in chaos

And my voice is silenced–no one listening.

 

 

 

 

Staggering: A Writing Trilogy

 

Staggering upright

Changing lanes, leaning on walls

One scene to the next.

 

Inebriated

Chattering so quickly now.

Can’t type that fast . . . please.

 

Words no longer mine

Just theirs, telling a story

Insistent rascals. 



Publication Date Set: "Rain" is coming out!

Late Sunday night I looked at my to-do list for Rain, looked at the calendar, and made the following post to my author Facebook Page: S.E. Hudnall.

We’ve set the date, the cast of “Rain” and I.
 
Gerry was a little disappointed when I had to tell him Valentine’s Day wasn’t going to work. Impatient man. I have to give him kudos though; he’s been bugging me since the story began. Cheryl beamed. Spring, rather than late winter February, pleased her to no end. I kind of knew she’d bring him around. Valarie squealed with excitement. Tom sighed, shook his head, and mumbled something like “at last”, while his wife, Linda, gave him one of her Mona Lisa smiles. What Marilyn said I can’t repeat, but she laughed as she said it. I won’t go into the other characters’ responses, though I could easily enough.
 
“Rain” will be out on May 15th.

Surely that has to be one of the scariest postings I've ever done. It's real. It's coming out. No turning back. No more postponing. Baring a totally unexpected problem or the whim of a cruel universe, the story I have been writing and working on since 1994 will be in the hands of readers. I hope they like it. I hope you like it.

There's still a lot of work to be done. I'm not kidding myself about that and there are a lot of
"feels" to be dealt with.

Optimist

I’ve been busy working on those adjuncts that go with getting Rain out into the world: covers, blurbs, loglines, teeny-tiny things on my author Facebook page (S.E. Hudnall), and waiting, perhaps not as patiently as I would like or should, for feedback from beta readers, so I can put on the final polish and proof. Snow is being submitted, chapter by chapter, to my critique group. And, for no reason I can fathom, my sci-fi love story seems to be peculating as well. It’s a long list and a story too long for blogging. I must write faster. I want four of them out before the end of next year. I think I can do that. I believe I can.

But . . . perhaps I have an inflated sense of my own capabilities, or maybe I’m just a cock-eyed optimist. Like this one I found in my backyard Sunday morning.

 

 

Optimist

A piece of trash . . . surely

Blown in by some capricious wind

A remnant of someone’s overload refuse bin

Now caught in the skeletal branches

Of leftover summer flowers

 

But . . . no.

One single white iris

Blooming low to the ground

Shy, but hopeful.
Whispering . . .
I’m here. Is winter gone yet?

 

 

The Word for 2016

I probably should have written this on January 1^st , or maybe the 7^th. The more traditional time for New Year’s resolutions or goal setting. It simply wasn’t in me this year. Oh, I had one. I still have one.

Rain will be published this year.

That’s it. The one and only goal–a goal perhaps twenty-two years in the making. I have to laugh at myself. So far I have managed to outdo any attempts by writing friends to moan about how long they’ve been working on a particular piece.

“Five years? Ten years? That’s nothing. Try over twenty.”

A strange satisfaction, to be sure. A satisfaction not unlike a parent who has a child still at home. Grade school and high school are finished. The rebellious stages of adolescence done and learned from. A parent knows their child isn’t perfect, but they’ve done their best. And they will always love them. Perhaps out there in the big, open world someone else will love them, too.

I’ll sniffle later and privately.

 

Any other goals for this year? What’s on my writing list? I used to post lists. Some projects remain there, some changed, and still others appeared out of the blue.

I’m not publishing them–not any more.

Someone in one of my writing groups posted something which appealed to me more than any list of writing resolutions for the coming year–taking just one word and applying it to the coming year. I loved it.  Simple. Flexible. Capable of being applied to every level, not just writing.

This is my word for 2016

 

 

I may not be glowing at the end of the year, or blinding others with my brilliance, but that’s O.K. I only want to shine.

What would be your word?

Untitled On Purpose: Hope and Bad Poetry

Untitled On Purpose

Gone for the holidays

Wafted away by snatches of carols

And starry, starry nights.

Lost in foil-lined wrapping paper

And gingerbread dreams.

Not I.

The carols I hear

The wrapping paper lies unwinding on the table

And the gingerbread dreams are still just dreams.

 

I roam in the world I created.

Looking into windows

Listening at doors

A voyeur in my own imagination

Watching the rain fall.

 December 2015

 

Normally I would be posting a Christmas haiku or tanka. I may yet, the day is still young or fairly so. This is what I have written though, so I am posting it.

 

Please note the final line. It’s been a very long time, and there are still obstacles to overcome, but I am starting to have some hope that Rain will be published in 2016. More than that I am afraid to say. Saying it aloud or definitely may jinx the whole thing. But maybe. . . just maybe. . .

Hope is curious thing, isn’t it?

What he could not tell her-- A Writing Prompt Completed

From Writers Write, 21 August 2015.

 

 

From Rain

What three things could Gerry never tell Cheryl?

There's actually very little Gerry could never tell Cheryl by the end of Rain. There may be things he simply has forgotten, but to say he could never tell her would be difficult. At least, not anything from the past. She knows his inner demons, his past mistakes.

The future is different and I'm foreshadowing a future story here.

I don't think he could tell her of the terror he experienced when he came home when she was pregnant and found her slumped over the kitchen table with a pool of blood at her feet.

I don't think he could ever tell her about coming home from the hospital that night and calling his father, not to simply inform him or his mother of the medical emergency, but because he needed to share his terror with another man. Tom would not have been enough. And he felt Cheryl didn't need to see or share his fear. Not that she could have.

I also don't think he could or will share his fear of losing her both during the birth and  in the estrangement which followed. His anger, yes. His fear, no.

 

 

From Snow

What three things could Aaron never tell Desiree?

I'm not sure yet what things Aaron could never tell Desiree. He is, after all, both an attorney and a judge. "The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" is something he believes in. Yet, he also knows, as an attorney, you instruct your client to answer only the question put to them, as simply as you can. He has a deep respect, if that is the word, for the truth.

But what three things would he refrain from telling her? Best I keep to the past with him. Their complete story is still very much in process. And Aaron is a particularly hard nut to crack.

I don't think he would ever tell her about meeting someone from the estranged branch of his family--the Cavalleros, his Italian mother's family. Not his Great-Aunt Bianca, who had, until she died a few years back, maintained a sporadic link with his grandmother, but a cousin who appeared as a witness in his courtroom.

I don't think he would ever tell her about the woman he almost became engaged to in law school.

I don't think he would ever tell her about Belinda Upstead, his senior year in high school. In the storage room of the bookstore. After closing. [Ha! Caught you, Aaron. :) ]

Electrifying. . .Terrifying: The Road to Indie Publishing

I'm scared. . .almost to the point of pure terror. How's that for a confession? I emailed a PDF file I formatted and designed of Rain to two people, both who have been super supportive and helpful (weak word) of me and the book. It was a very personal edition as I did it strictly for them, even designed the front and back covers myself. As yet I don't know what they thought of it. I wrote that I was not expecting any critique or feedback from them on the current edited copy I used. But knowing the ways of one of them I believe I will get some there.

You see I've decided to publish Rain independently and electronically. I don't know how long it is going to take me. There is a lot I need to figure out. My personal goal? I'd like to have it out within the next fourteen days, a purely arbitrary deadline as I have no idea what I'm doing.

Dozens of sites are out there loaded with advice and how-to's but a simple checklist is hard to find. Something simple like this (which is far from inclusive or even in the correct order) :

1. Finish editing.
2. Send to copyright office
3. Get IBSN number
4. Find cover artist.
5. Format for electronic upload by doing the following (step by step instructions which are no more than two sentences long)

I'm finding most of the "lists" and "advice" overwhelming right now when I want all I want is a simple list I can check off as I go. Details I can go back for.

Maybe this is a case of "if you want it, you should write it." The idea does get me thinking. Not all of us process information in the same way. Perhaps I will journal my experience (away from this blog) and comeback with a list of my own.

Every journey begins with a single step.

 

Yeah, nice platitude, Shelia. And what if you're standing on a drop-off, huh?

Some Writing Memes: Part Deux

I finished my first revision of Rain then left it alone while I got some important scenes done for Snow. Now I'm back chugging away at Rain again. I don't know why some things didn't occur to me on the first revision but they certainly have this time--with a vengeance. And it's still darn hard work for me. Maybe one day I will understand or get to the point where I actually can start to enjoy it like so many people seem to.

So, in desperate need of something to make me smile and since I bit the bullet and paid for an upgrade of my graphics program, I made a few more memes. What can I say? They relax me. Ok, they torment me, too, as they whirl across my screen when I've stopped writing for more than five minutes. The scoundrels!

 

 

Ah, yes, my two favorite prejudices. . . again.

 

Break-out Character: Does It Happen in your Writing?

Not too long ago I commented on another writer’s blog. Well, I actually didn’t comment–I asked questions since she had asked for questions. The questions I asked at the end were fairly simple:

·       Just how often does a secondary character morph into a primary character for you?

·       How often were you surprised when that happens?

·       Does it not surprise you at all?

 

When I look over my own project list I can see that happening. All. The. Time. Right now I’m revising Rain and working on Snow. His Honor, the honorable Aaron Johansson, came directly out of Rain and now has his own set of troubles in Snow.  Summer Heat will feature two characters from Rain, albeit in an earlier time period. And as if there isn’t enough characters from Rain jumping up and down and waving their arms–well, there are the kids! Fatherhood I will have to create a file folder for so I can keep the kids corralled and quiet for a little while.

Even in Dani’s Song, my fairytale, I have characters in the back of my brain waiting to have their story told. I simply refuse to listen to them right now. I know they are not happy but there is a limit to the number of voices I’m willing and capable of listening to at a time. Get all of them into my living room at the same time and I’d require a DSM-IV diagnosis with treatment plan and appropriate medication.
 
Troika has even more but Jerome is the most insistent of that group, aggravating pushy male that he is. I don’t care how much he grins at me or how charming he is! He will have to wait his turn as well.

Every single one of them is a love story, not always a romance but always a love story. At least they’re consistent.

 

Oh, my. . . the "Rain" Revision is done? It's done!

Somebody needs to pinch me or dance with me. I really can't decide which right now. But, oh my, my revision of Rain is complete. I thought I had three days, maybe even a week, before I would or could make that statement. But it's done. The first revision is done.

Over the next few days, while I continue to work on the first draft of Snow, I will be checking the formatting. Just the formatting. Some would tell me I should put the whole thing away for awhile then go back over it again. I have little doubt that if I did that I would find more things to change but what I don't know is if those changes would be absolutely necessary. Nothing one does is perfect and , sooner or later, it must be finished. Sooner or later, the work has to go out.

Rain has been in process for twenty years.  Like a child you've raised, it's time for it to leave the house. You've tried to do the best you could and now it is time to see how it makes it on its own. The house swarms with other children and, frankly speaking, you need the room. There will be some things left behind in the attic or the basement. Perhaps those things will be asked for later. Who knows? Some of the other children might claim them---to wear or play with. Hand-me-downs are not a bad thing.

So I will send Rain out next month and , to my total amazement, meet my self-imposed deadline. I wonder how often it will come back to me with bumps, scratches, and bruises. That's OK. One can't protect them forever either. I will need bandages, peroxide, and maternal antiseptic. Treat its hurts and send it back into the world. I can do that.

More Music to Write By

I've posted this on Facebook so I guess I will go ahead and blog it. At the end of the tunnel a light glows, pale and ghostly but there. Only a few chapters of Rain remain on my "revision" list. When those are completed I will give them a final run-through then stuff them into a file called "Completed Chapters-Rain" and let out a big sigh of relief.

After that I will be converting it into a complete PDF file for a friend who has been bugging me about it. Trust me, if Rain comes out in more traditional form she will be buying it! And I will ask another friend if she would like a copy.

A query letter will be written after that as I start down the list, sending Rain out into the publishing ether. I'm not really looking forward to that. Oh, not the getting it out there part! The query letter writing part I'm sure will have me gnawing at my remaining three fingernails. And I've been trying so long to grow some!

But this post is entitled "More Music to Write By" so how about some theme music? Yes, I have a completed (for the most part) soundtrack for both Rain and Snow. This one is one I discovered for Rain many months ago and I thought it would be appropriate here. Yes, it caught my ear then my eye when I saw the title.

 

 

 

Music to Write by

I'm still working my way through the revision for Rain. Yes, the process is still an arduous one for me but I think it's getting better. I hope I'm not too optimistic when I say the revision should be finished by the first of next month. At that point, Rain will be sent out to publishers and agents for their consideration. And sent out again and yet again. I have a number and/or a date on my query history sheet and if nothing happens by the time the number or date is reached. Well, I've kind of made up my mind---I will be publishing it independently and online. I want it out there somewhere and in some form.

Snow, the rough draft, is getting done as well. At least the primary love story is proceeding nicely. I'm working on the secondary arc now a bit more slowly. I want to get the facts and the tone right historically speaking. The time period can so easily become ---stereotyped? 

Both come from the same time period and I've been listening to a lot of the music I loved as a teenager: Motown, bubble-gum rock, and war protest songs of the late sixties.

I've also been thinking about that romance rule that says you have to have something keeping your couple apart for anything from 60% to 94% of the story. I've never liked that rule. I've always preferred letting them get together then spend the rest of the time trying to wreck havoc with them or the relationship.

"You think you're in love. Life is wonderful and nothing will ever hurt again? Bwa-ha-ha!" She cackled. Not a chance! I'm mean, ugly, and my mother always dressed me funny.


Back to the music, an old favorite of mine popped up on my playlist and I thought . . . perfect! Falling in love should be easy----but??? Will it stay that way? Should it? Can love persist or even grow deeper when things change? When challenged? Oh, yes, me and my questions again.

So I give you Mr. Len Barry and my personal trope that falling in love is easy.

 

 

 

 

 

Now I must get back to work. I have a very patient critique buddy who has been waiting far too long for her feedback! 

December's Bad Poetry and Brief Fiction Update

I have been so neglectful with this blog. With good reason, I suppose. I'm exactly six weeks post-op from a total replacement of my right knee, a surgery almost too long postponed. I'm actually doing quite well--at least my physical therapist thinks so. But the process is a draining one both physically and creatively.

I'm still writing every day but how much I can do every day varies a great deal. Some days are better than others.

I'm still waiting on feedback from a second reader before continuing with the revision of Rain. I do wish they would hurry up. I want--need--to get it sent out early in the coming year. I would pester and nag but one doesn't do that to friends, does one?

Snow is coming along, more slowly now than before surgery, and there are parts I think work well and others that don't work as well. But that's what revision is far isn't it? I'm still quite hopeful I can have it finished before the DFW Conference next year.  It remains to be seen.

Now, how about some bad poetry?

Recent Poems from Facebook and Twitter

I.

Wrapping my eyes in gray
My ears in soft cotton wool
Hypnosis or sleep?

No difference in the hours
One sliding into another.

II.

Sunlight refracting
Into droplets of color
Falling one by one.

III.

Now cold cobalt nights

Descend sans dreams or nightmares
Empty . . . so empty.

IV.

On every journey

Light roads, dark roads co-exist

Traveled best with friends.

Number IV is one I wrote and tweeted to someone I know (albeit not well) in response to one of his tweets. I generally consider such 'gifts' and would not share them here but Twitter is public.

One Reason Revison/Editing is so Hard

A friend of mine recently posted this on Facebook with the comment: This is one reason why it is so difficult to proofread your own writing.

 

 

As I work through Rain, chapter by chapter, page by page,  I can only sigh and agree. What? How did you miss that? Oh, no, you didn't! You could launch Sputnik through that hole! 

Where's the Author of this Blog?

That's a very good question. I have an answer or answers of sorts.

She's revising, one chapter after another. Rain, of course. I knew it was coming but I didn't expect it to be this difficult. It's not "killing my darlings". It's more like nuking adverbs, inserting very small words that didn't make it, and tweaking storyline.

The only thing I'm not paying much attention to is grammar. I know it sounds odd and probably egotistical but I do think of myself as fairly decent with grammar. I also plan on sending it to a professional editor just for grammar and punctuation correction. After months and years, in the case of Rain, things can get by you. So having something looked at by a professional makes sense.

My little three point review process may need some broadening of scope or method. Right now it makes sense to me. I've never revised anything before. Yes, you heard me correctly. I've never revised before. Perhaps I could say I've never revised on this level or on this big of a project. It doesn't compare to changing a word in a poem or finding another way to say something in a four hundred word essay. I do that all the time.

I identified the use of adverbs as one of my weaknesses. No, I don't think every adverb should be shot on sight. They are a legitimate part of the English language and don't deserve the treatment they've received. But, still I seemed to be using a lot of them. What do I do? Here's my page by page process.

• Highlight every single adverb.
• Go back and eliminate every highlight falling between quotation marks. To me, this is dialogue. The way my characters speak. I want to look at my words, not theirs.
• Go back again and look at each one. Did I describe the action, feeling, or tone elsewhere? Could I have described the action, feeling, or tone in some other way?
• If the answer to my first question above is yes, I delete it.
• If the answer to my first question is no I go on to the second question and either add or rewrite the action or dialogue.
• If the adverb fits --- horror upon horror! --- I leave it alone.  It works for me.

The second weakness I work on is my apparent inability to see where I've dropped very small words. All those little articles and such I thought I typed but didn't. This is a fun process. No, I'm not being ironic or sarcastic here. It is fun.

I don't participate in any face to face writing critique groups. The idea, right now, fills me with an utter state of inexplicable fear. Online is my chosen method for that. But that's another posting. But I often hear  is "Read your work aloud". Reading it aloud to myself? I'm afraid that didn't work for me but something else did.

Someone on the Facebook group, Novel Matters, posted the discovery of a small option in Adobe Reader. Under the 'view' tab was a little option called "Read Aloud". The voice is computer-generated and doesn't always pronounce words or names correctly but, by cracky, I could hear where I missed those "little" words, awkward phrasing, and repetitive words. Yes!! Down to the second process:

•  Convert Word Document to PDF file.
• Open saved PDF file in Adobe Reader
• "Read Aloud" page by page
• Go back to open Word document and make needed corrections
• When last page is done--delete PDF file.

Sounds a little simple but it works for me! Sometimes after (and sometimes before, to be honest) I will listen to the entire chapter to hear how it all hangs together.

Tweaking I cannot explain in a concrete step by step method. It seems to flow through the first two processes. I'm reading/listening as I go through the first two processes. I go either "what?" or "wait a second!" and change/tweak things right then and there. Perhaps as I revise more the pattern will come to me.

I do know I don't want to be caught in a never-ending revision loop--- like this guy here.

 

 

 

Sooner or later I think you have to stop revising, declare the story finished, and get it out there. Really, does any writer ever think: "This is perfect! Nothing more to do here."? There's a quote somewhere that states that.

 

 

 

Do Your Characters Ever Invade Your House?

I'm so sorry. I couldn't help myself. In a recent email exchange with another "writing buddy" I wrote:

I am busy with my 'own stuff' but I think the guys improve when I make them sit in the living room and amuse themselves while I do something different. (Now there would be a funny scene to write!) I better stop thinking about that image!!

Of course, I looked up from my laptop into the living room and the images started popping up. The urge became overpowering. My fingertips tapped out the following little scene. Maybe it will make you giggle like it did me.

A "Snippet" from "Rain"

I can't make up my mind on whether I was going to present Rain or  Snow at the upcoming Romance Workshop at the DFW Writers Conference. I've worked up both of them. So I've written two queries and two plot summaries. The activity should teach me something, shouldn't it? The rough draft of Rain is complete at least. Snow is a work in progress. I'll let you know my final decision and its ramifications after the conference.

But this posting I thought I would do something I've not done before---post what I call a 'snippet'. Frequently they don't make their way directly into the story but do form one of the building blocks of a character. I write them and stuff them into my character dossiers. This 'snippet' is from Rain and involves Gerry, the male protagonist. Right now it exists simply as a nightmare in the rough draft.

Sanity? I Was Sane Once?

Well, actually it hasn't. I don't think so anyway. I've spent the better part of today finishing up my homework for the DFW Writers Conference. Yes, the Romance workshop I signed myself up for in a sudden fit of brazenness.

My pitch session was emailed to me not too long ago and I initially was super excited about it. I looked at it again and groaned. Just from looking at the time my session is scheduled for the end of the day or pretty close to it. End of the day. I can't make up my mind if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I'm leaning toward the latter with various descriptors tumbling through my mind: tired, hungry, thirsty (for a stiff one), and aching (me at least).

Ah, well, as I told the friend who is carpooling with me. "It's practice. You're going to have to do it sooner or later. And there's always going to be a first time so just do it!" I was actually negging on her after she told me she wasn't going to pitch her manuscript. No way was I going to let her get away with such cowardice! Last night we talked for almost an hour and yes, she will be pitching as well. Yes! After all, misery loves company, yes? OK, I didn't urge her to do simply for that reason but it will  be a double learning experience. We debrief each other extensively afterwards I'm sure.

I will not be posting here again until  Saturday night at the earliest or Monday at the latest. In other words, if I hear encouraging words I will probably be posting Saturday; if the words are discouraging I will probably post Monday. All of which means absolutely nothing--------------everyone here knows I'm going to keep writing no matter what is said.

Cookies, Presentations, and Other Terrors

What do cookies, presentations, and other terrors have in common? It doesn't look like there is a common thread or pattern to it but there is.

All of them are focused on one particular weekend, the weekend of the DFW Writers Conference.

1. I do have cookies to bake. I had major problems with my early bird sign-up and two conference gurus went out of their way to get in the system and get the problems solved. Dealing with a bat-sh*t crazy lady in a totally courteous and prompt manner won them extra points. I gave them their choice of cookies. Chocolate-chunk Pecan cookies it is. Challenge accepted!
2. I  have an appointment scheduled with a literary agent. I will be pitching Rain. In a well-intentioned fit of either insanity or foolhardy bravery I picked the scariest agent I could find, thinking if I can get through it I can get through any pitch. As the time grows closer I am starting to wonder what the heck have I done? I've read article after article about pitching your work and as many blog entries. I've read everything I can find on the agent, including the agent's blog. I still have no bloody idea what I'm doing! Everything I've read has poured through my brain cells like soup served in a sieve, leaving only the aroma behind.
3. I also signed up for a Romance Writer's Workshop. This may have been an actual error on my part. I thought I was signing up for a nice little creative workshop. A teacher/facilitator, some blank paper, some writing exercises. After I signed up I got my homework assignment.
1. Cover Page
2. Query Letter
3. First two pages
4. Plot description

I have seriously thought about withdrawing from that one. Cover Page is no problem, first two pages are no problem, query letter is a bit of a daunting one, but the plot description has me dreaming of anti-emetic medications. Only four sentences allowed in that section. I wonder how compound and complex I can get without making anyone's eyes cross?

I think I will bake cookies tomorrow. Gotta start somewhere I guess.