It's That Time Again!

So. Birthday post. What shall we talk about?

Over the past year, I published two short stories: My Apple Tree and Wishing Cotton. Exciting stuff. I’ve discovered through this process that I am more self-conscious of my writing than I’d actually realized. Nothing strikes terror in my breast like putting my work out there for people who don’t owe me favors, loyalty, or money to critique. That fear has always been a challenge I’ve struggled to overcome. The biggest source of pride for me is that I’ve published at all; I’ve left the safety of my computer files and journals and opened myself up for criticism. Even if no one ever reads my books, releasing them into the wild is a pretty big accomplishment all by itself.

I’ve also started edits on my first full-length novel, The Truth Seekers. It’s an historical romance, most likely my one and only. I’m planning to settle down after this. I’m getting too old to bounce around from style to style, so it’s time to commit. All the same, I’ve done a ridiculous amount of work on this book, so it would feel wrong not to share it in a final display of sowing my wild oats. I only hope it doesn’t suck, but that’s a question to answer in my NEXT birthday post.

Just lie and tell me it's brilliant.

My older son finished his freshman year of high school, making it onto the second honors roll despite all the nay-sayers who said that an autistic kid would never make it in a challenging, private college-prep school. 

Captain, my captain.

So nyah-nyah. It wasn’t easy, but as people are discovering about me, I would fight to the death for my kids. I don’t let anyone place limits on my boys – even themselves. Still, I have to admit that his next milestone fills my soul with dread. It’s time for him to learn to drive. Pray to your gods, people. This will be interesting.

"Please, don't let him see a squirrel..."

His little brother, Shorty, finished third grade in one piece. We have some concerns with his development, but that’s a battle we’ll start fighting again once school is back in session this autumn. Shorty is now having a blast at theater camp, and really, what’s the point of being a child if you can’t enjoy it? We’ll cross the appropriate bridges when we come to them. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to his first public performance next week.

The venue will be slightly less glamorous than this.

I became an aunt for the first time, which was really lovely. Although we haven’t met Minna in person yet, we are planning to spoil her like mad. Being an only child, I have always wondered if I would get the opportunity to be someone’s “cool aunt.” Here’s my chance!

Okay, not THAT cool.

Probably more like this.

I got a tattoo on my last birthday, and while I’m not doing that again this year, I did enjoy waiting for my parents to notice. They were just two weeks shy of going a full year. 

Way to miss the obvious.

They have dealt with this heavy blow by never mentioning it and pretending it never happened. I think I’ll give them a year off before I do something that upsets their worldview again.

Not exactly subtle, either.

I have gotten sucked into the world of crowd-funded projects this year. Many of you have seen my posts about The Minister of Chance, which began life as a sonic adventure and is now morphing into a film. The initial reason I loved this project so much was that it reminded me of the days when my father would play tapes of the old radio shows he listened to as a child. The imagination and imagery that went into some of those early productions has been amplified by the Minister of Chance cast and crew. Even without taking into account that this was a crowd-funded operation (and therefore wasn’t making anyone rich), what they have accomplished is really remarkable. The six episodes of the sonic series are available for free download on iTunes or the Minister of Chance website. I can’t recommend it enough. The talent that has come together to bring the Minister’s world to life is astounding, and the people working on this project are just lovely, dedicated, welcoming, and brilliant (as well as stunningly good looking).

Tell your friends! Hell, tell your enemies! We're not picky!

This year, I’ve reconnected with old friends, made new ones, and seen more of the amazing, screwy, wonderful, and insane place we call Planet Earth. I’ve been bowled over by beauty, heartbroken by cruelty, frustrated by ignorance, and frightened by risks.

I still have so much left to do. My husband tells me that I really need to learn to cook eventually, and he wouldn’t mind if I actually folded the laundry now and then. I need to learn the fine art of self-promotion without incorporating an apology for my mediocrity at every opportunity. My computer and I need to have more time apart, because there are some lovely people in my life, and I should take more time to enjoy and appreciate them. My health needs to be a bit more than an afterthought as I chug my eighth cup of coffee, too.

All the same, I’m proud of how I spent this year. It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t easy, but it took me further on my path. If I had to sum up the theme of my fortieth year, I would say it was this:

Make the scary choice.

Reprint: Interview with Mich's Book Reviews Blog

I'm still shamelessly recycling while I finish up a couple of projects. This is an interview that was originally posted on September 20, 2012, on Mich's Book Reviews blog in support of my release of "My Apple Tree." I'm providing the link to the original posting below; I encourage you to check out her blog for other reviews and author interviews!

Firstly, tell me a little about yourself...

I was born (obviously) in a university town in Kansas, which is where much of my extended family still lives. After moving around a bit, my parents and I ended up in Cleveland, Ohio. I got married soon after college and brought my husband back with me. We now have two sons, three cats, one mortgage, two coffee makers, and enough dust bunnies to repopulate a planet.

1) How did you start writing?

I don’t really remember a time when I wasn’t writing. I remember hiding under my bed and drawing the stories in my head since I didn’t know the alphabet yet. In college, I majored in English literature, but every adult around me insisted that there was no way I was going to be able to pursue a career as a professor or writer if I wanted to eat regularly. Eventually, I became a paralegal specializing in Intellectual Property law, but I left to stay at home shortly after my oldest child was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, which is on the Autism spectrum. While I was still working, I continued to write, but it wasn’t until I became a stay-at-home mom that I dared to consider pursuing writing as a career.

2) I know you also work with [Renaissance Romance Publishing] as editor in chief, how do you juggle this and being a freelance writer?

As with any job, there are times of frantic activity and periods of calm between the storms. I don’t know a single working mother who doesn’t struggle with balance to begin with, so I’ve become somewhat accustomed to being pulled in several different directions at once. I do try to avoid working on my own writing while in the middle of editing someone else’s manuscript. It’s important not to let the line between editing and rewriting get blurred. If I’m in “writing mode,” I will want to change someone else’s writing to match mine, and that’s not what I’m there to do. I do have plenty of support from RenRom itself – we have a wonderful team of people who are willing to jump in and help if things need to be juggled. I also disappear for the month of November to participate in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, which involves a worldwide challenge to write 50,000 words in thirty days. My longer works in progress came out of past years’ projects, and it certainly is my most prolific writing period. In a nutshell, if I’m not editing, I’m writing – but I’m always doing one or the other.

3) Where did the inspiration for My Apple Tree

My Apple Tree is a story I began several years ago, and it has evolved a lot since the original draft, much like an old house that has had wings and extensions added to it as the years pass. The story of young lovers torn apart is the earliest portion and was inspired by Sinead O’Connor’s version of the Celtic ballad “I am Stretched on Your Grave,” which appeared on her album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. It is a beautiful and haunting song, and it’s hard not to listen to it and not see the young lovers in your mind’s eye. At first, I had no plans to develop my story beyond that, but some other influences gradually mixed themselves in. Hope began to emerge, and what was once a story of heartbreak and despair became something more as the characters took on a mind of their own and sought out love and healing. When I went to visit family last May in Joplin, Missouri, and saw the damage from the tornado that had torn apart that community one year earlier, the last piece fell into place. Hopefully, the end product is an honest and faithful portrait of grief, healing, and the importance of the life-affirming influence of love in our lives.

4) Do you have any projects in the pipeline that you can speak about?

I have two novels currently at different stages of completion, which is a nice way of saying that I will be monkeying with them until someone from RenRom comes and forcibly drags the manuscripts away from me. One is an historical romance titled The Truth Seekers, which takes place at the turn of the century and deals with the friendship that springs up between a society daughter and a misanthropic, cynical gothic novelist. Because of its historical nature, working on it is a more delicate process, so I have a hard time anticipating when I’ll feel like it is fit for public consumption. Another novel, The Irrepressibles, is a contemporary mystery-romance with elements of the paranormal and comedy mixed in. It is more typical of my normal writing style, with wise-cracking lead characters and hilarity mixed in with the more serious feelings and dilemmas. At the moment, it’s in the stage known by professional writers as “a hot mess,” but I hope to finish work on it sometime in 2013.

5) Will you ever incorporate your love of Doctor Who with your writing?

Ooh, good question! Unfortunately, my answer has to be “yes and no.” Like the hopeless fangirl I am, I already know what is involved in writing an actual Doctor Who novel, and I’m not prepared to run that particular gauntlet. However, I have gotten flashes of inspiration from watching the show that exist now as random snippets and notes somewhere in the bowels of my laptop. David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston’s portrayals of the Doctor, in particular, are almost impossible NOT to be inspired by. In these days, it’s supremely important to avoid even a whisper of copyright infringement, so while I might get an idea that is triggered by a bit of one episode or another, you won’t be seeing any time-traveling aliens from me any time soon. I would love to write a novel that is good enough to get a film version starring David Tennant, but I’m not going to hold my breath for that one!

6) What's your least and most favourite aspects of the writing process?

I think my least favorite part of writing is the inner editor. The voice in the back of my mind that constantly pushes me to find better phrasing or improve characterizations won’t ever shut up long enough for me to just sit and relax and write. If my muse is the angel sitting on my shoulder, my inner editor is the devil perched on the other side. I think that’s why I tend to do my first-draft writing late at night or early in the morning when I’m not completely awake. When I’m totally alert, I’m second-guessing myself too much to get anything done. 

My favorite part would have to be what goes on in my mind’s eye as I get a new idea. I love seeing a scene play out unexpectedly in my head. It’s by far the best part of being a creative person – that vivid imagination that lets you really see the world you’re trying to recreate for your audience. It’s like magic.

7) What's your advice to prospective writers?

One piece of advice that I got and didn’t want is “Don’t quit your day job.” It’s not the idyllic life that we might imagine, surrounded by leather, grandfather clocks, and old books as we craft exquisite prose, unmolested by bill collectors, piles of dirty laundry, and children who for some unknown reason expect us to feed them on a fairly regular basis. We must all live in the real world at least some of the time, and there are many writers out there working in jobs they hate while they throw their hearts into their craft during free hours. The good news is that you need those experiences for your stories anyway. You can’t write about the human experience if you’re living in a bubble. 

Another piece of advice – and this really should be the most important – is that just because you love to write doesn’t mean you are naturally flawless. Learn about your art. READ STYLE BOOKS. Annie Dillard and Stephen King are two authors whose writing guides are particularly useful. Get a common English usage guide to answer your grammatical questions. Don’t wait for someone like me to take your baby away and cover it in red pen. Put the care and time into each manuscript that reflects your interest in telling the best possible story to your readers. The images live inside you –you must learn how to unlock them. As with any other creative endeavor like painting or music, writing is a craft that must be nurtured and honed and constantly improved. You’ll get a lot of advice you don’t want to hear, but you need to listen anyway.

Mich's Book Reviews: Harvest Treats Review & Author Interview