Decent and challenging

I was in the children's section of the library today.

There was a mother in there with three children, about 8, 10, and 12.

One of the children (the middle one) was trying to pick out a book.

As he walked through the aisles and studied the shelves, his mother followed him and "judged" every book he expressed an interest in. I couldn't see which books he was choosing, but she kept saying, "No. Pick something decent."

She must have said that five times!

I was so curious about what she meant by "decent."

Finally, she changed her wording and said, "Pick something challenging."

What does that mean? Challenging reading level? Challenging storyline? Challenging theme?

I was so irritated, I wanted to scream: "Just let the dang kid pick out a book he wants to read, for crying out loud!"

(By the way, she deemed books by Bruce Coville to be "decent and challenging." I did overhear that much....although, interestingly, she added, "I've heard he's good." So I guess she hasn't actually read anything by Bruce Coville.)

How stealing dogs and dating are similar

I've never really paid much attention to the "key phrases" for books on Amazon.

Not all books have them.

Here are some of the "key phrases" for How to Steal a Dog:

string leash
doggie door
gonna steal
Girl Scouts

I clicked on "gonna steal" and was presented with the following books (in addition to How to Steal a Dog):

• The Professional Bachelor Dating Guide
• The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Two of the books that displayed when I clicked on "string leash":

• Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic
• Magic for Beginners

All I can say is: HUH?

A sneaky book

This book sneaked up on me.

I was buying plants at a nursery and a postcard for this book was on the counter by the cash register.

I stuck the postcard in my purse.

A few months later, I got the book from the library.

I love memoirs. I especially love hillbilly dysfunctional family memoirs (The Liar's Club; The Glass Castle).

But I also find myself attracted to memoirs of rather mundane lives.

You know how you get hooked on somebody's blog who just writes about her day-to-day life and you find it oddly interesting and read it every day?

That's sort of how this book was for me.

When I first started it, my reaction was kind of "meh" (as those cooler than me sometimes say) and which translates to "so what?"

I mean, a newly divorced woman who moves into a fixer-upper and bribes her 12-year-old daughter to accept the circumstances by offering to buy her chickens?

So what, right?

But then, somewhere along the line.....I found myself really interested.

Must be a sign of good writing.

One thing I loved about this author is her ability to include the most mundane details that add a rich layer to the story - details that a non-writer might not ever notice - or might notice and not know she noticed, if that makes sense.

For example:

Where furniture used to be were now coins and pens and chew toys rolled in dust.

We've all seen that.

But I think good writers see that in a different way than a non-writer. A good writer sees it and files it away and brings it back so that the reader goes, "Oh yeah! I've seen that!"

The non-writer sees it, does not file it away and does not even remember it until reading it and thinking, "Oh yeah! I've seen that!"

(But then again, SOME writers find this behind their furniture....)

Still Life with Chickens by Catherine Goldhammer

The window

My window of opportunity is slowly closing.

Come October, I hit the ground running - school visits, travel, etc.

It's now or never to get a first draft under my belt.

So I'm doing what the brilliant Linda Sue Park says I should do.....no, no, not drink Manhattans and play DDR....
I'm going to write at least two pages every day.

Good pages.

Every day.

No matter what.

(And then, I'm going to drink Manhattans and play DDR.)

Writing Tip Tuesday

From writer Elizabeth George in her book Write Away:

I don't begin until I have an idea. But this idea is more than just a glimmer, more than a potentially evanescent wisp of inspiration. For me, what the idea is is a complete thought that contains one of three elements:

1. The primary event that will get the ball rolling in the novel
2. The arc of the story containing the beginning, the middle, and the ending OR (and please note that word OR)
3. An intriguing situation that immediately suggest a cast of characters in conflict.

If I have one of those three elements, I have enough to begin.




[Note from me: Item #1 up there is, in scriptwriting parlance, the catalyst of the story. In children's books, that catalyst should be as close to the beginning as possible and, ideally, clearly identifiable. The reader jabs a finger onto the page and says, "Here. This is where the story starts."

Help!

I need an intervention.

I'm hooked on Intervention.

What a difference a year makes

This is so sad.

Last year, at our annual visit to Lime Rock race track.

This year.

He said...she said

If you need to waste some time, check out the Gender Genie linked from Augusta Scattergood's blog entry. It's fun to fiddle around with - especially if you're trying to get the voice of a character right.

Crossed off my list

Raise your hand if you've ever used a jackhammer?

My husband seems to think that it is pretty much a waste of a human life if you've lived without ever having used a jackhammer.

So, at his insistence.....

Trust me, that thing jumps around, is heavy, makes a lot of noise, and is meant to be used only by hairy men in steel-toed boots.

But, while I can't exactly say it was high up there on my bucket list, I can now cross off: Use a jackhammer.

(Notice the safety goggles...)

(Notice the name of that thing - the "Wacker")

My drumming class

So here's a little snippet of an audio recording of my African drumming class.

The person at the beginning of the tape who goofs up is me.

The person who is laughing is me.

The person who is playing really well is not me.

The beautiful singing voice is my teacher, Mohammed.

If you make it through to the end (i.e., if you aren't bored to tears immediately), I actually get a little better.

(Warning to anyone reading this blog at the office: this has SOUND - and it does not sound like that conference call you were supposed to be making with IBM.)

(And by the way, here's why this is a "video": I have this great little digital recorder that is not Mac-compatible. So the only way I could figure out how to get an mp3 file onto my computer was to record the recording with Garage Band. Then import the file into iMovie. Then upload it to You Tube. That is either pure genius or total moronic stupidity. I'm not sure which.)

Writing Tip Tuesday

Yogi Bera said: You can't hit and think at the same time.

I would amend that to say: You can't write and think at the same time.

By that I mean, sometimes (most times), your best writing will come when you don't think so hard about it - when you let it just flow out of you in a zenlike way.

That is certainly true for me.

I can feel when my writing sounds forced - when it doesn't flow well.

And those times are almost always the result of thinking too much.

Natalie Goldberg calls this writing with your monkey mind - as opposed to your wild mind (in her book, Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life).

Katherine Paterson says: Send your inner critic off on vacation and just write the way little children play. You can't be judge and creator at the same time.

So my advice is to save your monkey mind for revising - but while you are creating, use your wild mind.

Don't think too hard about it.

Make sense?

Alvin Ho

I. love. this. book.

It is funny and charming.

The illustrations are adorable and add a lot to the book.

Lenore Look is now on my list of Authors I Love.

Porkenbeans, y'all

A recent discussion with my husband had me thinking about pork and beans.

Growing up in the South, I never used or heard used (at least not in my house) the term "baked beans."

We always said "pork and beans" - even if there was no pork in there - which there usually wasn't - or just one itty bitty little slab of salt pork or some weird fat-looking thing like they put in the top of Campbell's Pork and Beans. (And btw, we pronounced it "porkenbeans" - like it was one word.)

It made me realize how easily we let our own ear slip into our writing.

In Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia, there is a line:

She cussed at me and threw a can of pork and beans clear across the room.

I never would have written: threw a can of baked beans.

Yesterday I was listening to country western music on the radio.

There is a song by Sara Evans called When You Were Cheating.

It goes like this:

How do you like that furnished room
The bed, the chair, the table?
The tv picture comes and goes,
Too bad you don't have cable.
How do you like that paper plate?
And those pork 'n beans your eatin'
Maybe you should have thought about that...when you were cheating

So, I guess it's a Southern thing?

Or is it just me?

At any rate, I think it's important to stay in touch with your natural ear.

Plot

Dolores and I watched a Shirley Temple movie together yesterday (Curly Top).

So, here's the plot:

Shirley is an orphan.

She lives in a beautiful orphanage owned by a handsome rich man.

She has an older sister who is beautiful and who works in the kitchen of the orphanage.

Their parents were actors who died in a car crash.

Shirley has a pony and a duck that her parents used to use in their vaudeville show.

She is so dang cute that the handsome rich man adopts her and buys her a pony cart for her pony and gives her hula lessons.

Shirley wants to raise money for the poor orphans who are not as cute as she is and didn't get adopted, so she puts on a musical and sings Animal Crackers in My Soup and her beautiful sister plays the ukelele.

The handsome rich man falls in love with the beautiful sister and marries her.

Now that is a plot!

Stuff

Here's the stuff we scored at the antique fair. (I told you I'd make a bad monk.)

An engraved napkin ring:

A baby cup engraved with "Clark."
Don't you wonder where Baby Clark is today?

My favorite - these great little silver knives with mother-of-pearl handles:

A drying rack that hangs on the wall:

And folds up when not in use:

My husband found this - an antique fire truck. (We have a weird little recessed shelf that needed the perfect funky "thing.")

A lightning rod for the garden:

Another lightning rod for the garden:

This one has a great milk-glass "bulb" with stars:

And one more garden ornament: