X-ed Off, Yikes!, and Zzzzzz

I admit it. I am pooped. This whole A-Z challenge started with great optimism and high hopes and the challenge certainly lived up to them. My own personal world, not so much. I had some let downs this month and some rough spots, but I am getting my ducks back in a row. Although I am in a state of regrouping, tentatively tipping my toe in the torrent, it does not mean I can't finish this thing. But I am going to cheat. Here goes:

X is for X that one off my list. Has anyone else who is querying come across this disclaimer on agency sites that the querant must acknowledge before submitting?

"Said Agency and/or any of its clients may have created, may create, or may otherwise have access to materials, ideas, and creative works which may be similar or identical to the Material with regard to theme, motif, plots, characters, formats, or other attributes; and (v) I shall not be entitled to any compensation because of the proposed use or use of any such similar or identical material that may be or may have been created by Said Agency and/or any of its clients..."

I know people still submit to these agencies, and perhaps it is totally kosher, but I shy away, even when there seem to be some awesome agents at "Said Agency." Why do they include this? All the other disclaimers seem appropriate, but this just screams, "...in case we steal your story." Which I certainly don't think reputable agencies would do, but then why include this? What do you think a writer should make of this?


Y is for Yikes! I am going to a pretty big writing conference next weekend, The Muse and the Marketplace. I will probably blog about it. It is very exciting. The attendees get to hob knob with agents and well known writers. There are seminars and panels and talks and keynote speakers. You can meet with an agent for a manuscript consultation. You can eat lunch at an assigned table with editors, agents, and NYT Bestselling authors. It is awesome, but it is also really intimidating. This year my Muse friend is not attending. So, I am flying solo. I have made a plan to approach a few specific people and introduce myself, just to put a face (mine) to a name (my query). I am excited to meet one of my fav authors, Katherine Howe (check out her awesome website), and I am excited to learn about a whole lot of different writing related things. But YIKES! I have to psych myself up and put on my Brave Girl Costume. Do you attend any awesome writing conferences, or other special interest events?

Z is for ZZZZZ. Sleeping is so important and I haven't been doing it well lately. In fact, I have noticed that many of my fellow bloggers and writers suffer from insomnia. Actually, a lot of my students do too. Why is this? Are we over stimulated with electronics? Is the modern world too fast paced? Are we stressed with information overload. I know too much and therefore I worry all the time. Are you a good sleeper?

So there you go. I did it. I made it through, with a little cheating. It was so great to meet all of you knew and interesting bloggers. Thanks for stopping by and visit again soon.

Western Massachusetts

 

I have noticed that many of the people visiting my blog are coming from places all of the United States and even all over the world! Since, very few of you are from Massachusetts, and probably think of Boston as the ONLY place in this state, I thought I might tell you a little bit about where I live. WESTERN Massachusetts.

   
As you will see if you look at the map above and to the left, these people didn't think it necessary to put my town on this map. In fact the entire area where I live has nothing labeled. Find Holyoke (pronounced Holy Oak - not Holly Oky - which I once heard someone say) Springfield and Northampton. Between Holyoke and Northampton is a small set of mountains or really hills called the Holyoke Range. Around here it is known as the Tofu Curtain. South of the Holyoke Range is a very different place than North of it. Northampton is an awesome, hip, college town. So from there, head North. To the left of the Quabbin (more on that later) and keep going. Follow the Connecticut River to the place where Massachusetts and the river meet Vermont and New Hampshire. Now back down a half an inch. THAT is where I live.

Massachusetts is really divided into at least three portions. Boston - urban, cultured, steal our water. Central, MA - a lot of commuters to Boston. Flat. Where I grew up. Western MA - which is really western central - also known as The Pioneer Valley and hill towns surrounding the Connecticut River Valley. This is where I live. Then there are the Berkshires - where the Berkshire Mountains are - & what I see as a place where New Yorkers go on vacation. I can't really speak for any of those other places. But I do know western MA.

I came here for college. UMass, Butterfield Alumni. I never left. I never left because the valley has a much different pace than where I grew up. Though there were rural sections of central Ma, there was still a mall, chain restaurant, fast paced, Boston oriented, mentality. Out in the valley we are much more rural except for our few semi-urban areas. For a long time I lived in a hill town on top of a plateau that was, for most, out in the boonies. But I can tell you, out here, 30 minutes to the store was not much compared to those who live between the hill towns and the Berkshires.

The book and the plow are the emblems of Amherst College and I think that fits this area well. It is both a farming and an academic community. There are professors mixing with good ole boys. The locavore movement is very strong here. Local foods, local products. Small family farms are flourishing and the art community is wonderful.

People in Boston think we are a place to visit. My family, who still lives East of here, always says, I'd move out there, but there are no jobs. Maybe not the kind of urban jobs they think of, but there is a different cost of living here and the slower pace, the organic lifestyle, the prevalence of sheep, chickens, gardens, and sugar shacks (which is where Maple syrup is boiled) is worth it. I am a teacher and my husband works for a large corporation that makes...scented candles. Can you guess which one?
It works out well for us.

In 2006, we moved from the hills into the valley because we were priced out of houses at the height of the boom. We hope to move back up there before too long. But we bought a house in the "city" of Greenfield. It is really a town. We live on a rural highway, but we have nearly two acres of land abutting 60 acres of undeveloped town land and 40 acres of Christmas Tree farm. We have 5 chickens, with three chicks on the way. We hope to have sheep, goat, and alpacas one day - but in the hills.

My husband is a native of the area, and about the Quabbin and Boston stealing our water thing. His family, descended from Salem (one of the executed witches), moved westward and settled in Dana. If you look on a map, you won't find Dana. It is under water. The Quabbin Reservoir flooded a few towns for Boston's water. Those families relocated. My husband's to New Salem, but not before his grandfather was one of the men who dug up the graves of the generations of people who had lived in Dana and moved them. Believe it or not, the people of that area still have a grudge against Boston.

So if you ever visit Massachusetts, don't just do Boston. Come West and stop in the Pioneer Valley.

Voracious Reader

I am a voracious reader and the book problem is getting out of hand. For a long time I have had the policy that I only bought books that I seriously wanted to own as part of my library, which meant that I usually had already read them. This helped keep the piles down, but lately I have begun to buy books just for the sake of buying them again. This is part of author good karma and I am happy to do it.

I am also an avid library supporter and so I go to the library on a weekly basis and usually come away with an armload of books. I don't always read each one, but, I read until I am bored or it loses my interest. Often, I am reading four or five books at once, and the one or two I keep reading until the end, wins the competition. (I imagine that is what it is like with agents and manuscript submissions).

Also, I have been going to used bookstores. We have some great ones. The Montague Bookmill being one of the best. "Books you don't need in a place you can't find." When I go to these places, I pick up books I have been wanting to add to my collection and books that are just for general interest, especially to visitors.

I love it when I walk into a house and there are piles of books. So, I have started to let that happen in my own home. I am not a clutterbug and I have had people come in to my house and say where is all your stuff. Well, I am letting the books and magazines clutter things. It is worth it. Although I really do just need another bookshelf.

Another spring feeding our Voracious Reading is my husband and I like to support our local book store and even if we aren't buying books, occasionally we go and select a few magazines from their varied collection. I am not talking about Cosmo or Better Homes and Gardens (although I do like that one), I am talking about Writer's magazines, or Beer Brewing magazines, or Farming magazines, or Art magazines. Supporting small publications, small book stores and our interests all at once. It is great. And then I keep them around for others to enjoy when they come to our house.

   
What do you read? Do you have piles around your house? What is in your bookshelf? I love seeing other people's bookshelves. (Lostinsidethecovers - that is a shout out to you!)

Unitarian Universalist

I do not ever talk about religion. In fact, I am a "None." In my day job, as a teacher of literature, religion comes into play a lot with the context of many classic works, but I am very non-denominational.

Having struggled to come up with a U post, though, I found myself continuously coming back to the initials U.U. which stands for Unitarian Universalist and since many people do not know about Unitarianism and since I do have a connection to it, I thought I might offer a bit of information.

When I was ten, we moved to a new town. To meet people and become part of the community, my mother thought it would be good for us to join a church. She had been raised Catholic, so we joined the town's Catholic church. I made my first communion, a little late, but when it came time to be confirmed, I declined. I was a teenager and becoming more and more rebellious. So, I did something pretty drastic. I joined the Unitarian Church on my own.

There was a large contingency in my town of U.U. kids and there was a youth group that was very active. This youth group was part of a larger regional youth collective that very much favored free spirits and alternative views. Piercing, tattoos, Doc Martins, dyed hair, boys in hippie skirts, clove cigarettes. That was us. Alternative. It was a very open and accepting community and it fit with my values. People of all sorts were welcome and in a time when the LBT community was still pretty quiet in high schools and such, it was a place where people who identified differently than the mainstream could feel welcome. I approved of this message and was happy to be a part of the community in general.

We would attend U.U. Conferences which would take us to Unitarian Churches around New England where we would stay from Friday night to Sunday morning. There was no religiousness at all, at least not that I can remember. But values of self-respect, community building, kindness, giving, sharing, and understanding were taught via group workshops like Stone Soup, where everyone would bring something (an object of meaning to them) to the "pot" and share it with others. We would take shifts in the kitchen and be responsible for cooking meals and cleaning up. We would stay up all night and make friends from new places. There were no drugs allowed at these conferences and people were generally respectful of that. It was a place where kids from all over got to be different and accepted at once and part of something bigger.

Today, I am not part of the local Unitarian Church, as I said, I am a "none" mostly because I am not a joiner. If I were to attend any church though, it would certainly be Unitarian. Both my mother and my sister have since changed from going to Catholic Church to going to Unitarian meetings. Some U.U. churches lean more towards the Christian side of things, as they are traditionally a part of the Protestant collection. Nineteenth century American thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Bronson Alcott and Henry David Thoreau were part of the early Unitarian movement. Some U.U. churches today lean to a true universalist meeting where all faiths and spiritualism are welcome and openly celebrated in a mixed forum.

Diversity and cooperative community are the aspects of Unitarian Universalism that I most revere and so, that is my U post.

Twitter

Are you on Twitter? I have been for about a year now and I have to say I really like it. It is easy to post and easy to follow people. Getting followers is also much easier than Blogger. One of the problems with blogging is that you put so much time into it and then people don't follow. Or people do, but they do in other ways than the Follow button and then you don't really know how many people are following. I try not to dwell on the numbers, but obviously it is something I like, because I like that on Twitter is it easier to garner followers.

The draw back to Twitter is that there are a lot of people who are just trying to sell things- especially their self-published books - which I understand, but still I'd like to hear about the people and their interests too. I alternately leave my feed open or close it to only people I accept as followers. This allows me to decline those who are just trawling.

The other fun thing about Twitter is the focused interest following of political or celebrity personalities. I enjoy seeing Alec Baldwin tween with Mia Farrow about Rosemary's Baby. It makes me feel like I am seeing behind the scenes.

With so many social media outlets, we all have to choose which ones work best for us. Honestly, I started a blog to chronicle my writing journey. If I do "make it," I am thinking an author FB page and a website would be more manageable. And I would keep Twitter, but blogging is like a whole other job and if I had a book published, I would want to focus on the book and not tangential material. I can see why for non-fiction or memoir authors it works well, though.

What are your favorite social media outlets and why? On Twitter? Follow me @AMSwan

Sass Master and the Stars

                      

So I have been hearing a lot about personality lately. And there is something strange going on. Somehow people are missing my personality. This has got me thinking. In life, I am known for having...shall I say...a strong personality? So, I am going to talk about my personality today. It all begins with my sign.

I am a Cancer on the cusp of Gemini. I also have a Cancer moon and Gemini rising. So - these two signs are me. The problem with being on the cusp is that I have what seems like contradictory personality traits. Half of those being Gemini (the twins) makes it even worse. At heart, I am a Cancer. I love home and food and comfort. I am soft, sensitive, emotional, creative, and easily hurt. I love animals and nature. Like a Crab, I maintain a hard exterior shell to protect my very soft insides. Also like a Crab I can be a bit snippy if I feel threatened and those claws can be dangerous.

Now conversely, on the outside I can appear to be very Gemini - especially in certain situations. I can walk in to a room of strangers and work the crowd. I can dazzle people with my wit. I can make new friends and talk up strangers. I am not afraid to put myself out there. Or so it seems. When I am feeling particularly Gemini-ish - like a bird in motion - my eyes turn green (from blue). No kidding.
When I am feeling very watery - like a Cancer - they are blue as the ocean on a sunny day.

In my professional life I am known for my sometimes biting wit. I am a sass master. I am sharp and quick and a straight shooter. I am the go to person when someone needs to be told something no one else wants to tell them. I say it like it is and I mean what I say. I am articulate, logical and speak with conviction. I am enthusiastic and communicative, helpful, and friendly. But I can be sarcastic with a very dry sense of humor.I am also quiet. I choose my moments.

I am less than five feet tall, but I am a lion, subtle, quick, and either dazzling or dangerous, afraid of no one. I can also be a know-it -all and alternately totally insecure, but I try to keep those moments under wraps. In fact, I have made an art out of hiding in plain site until I want to be seen, because all of my life I have had the unnerving feeling that when I speak, people stop and stare. Somehow I come across as bold and having something to say, even when I don't feel it inside. My voice probably has a lot to do with it, which you don't hear here. I don't mean my articulation, I mean my actual pitch and tone. I have always had a "tone" problem, though I have mostly learned to keep it under control. I think you'd have to meet me to understand this.

So that is my personality. On-line I try to keep it bright and light. As a writer approaching agents and other writers, I am humble, thankful, polite, professional, kind and encouraging and that is a public persona I will always cultivate. In my daily life, I am all of these things too, but like the ocean I am changeable, sometimes like glass, sometimes stormy, and what lies beneath is far deeper, darker, and more wondrous than the surface reveals.

So, hey baby, what's your sign?

Riches

 

So, just for fun, today I am going to fantasize about what I would do if I were rich and I invite you to do the same. If I had a million dollars... (you know the tune, hum along with me)...

After I paid off my student loan and my credit card, I'd build an addition on my house. It would be a family room on the first floor, complete with a pellet stove and a windowy wall for lots  of plants to live. Above would be a master bedroom and another bathroom. Maybe a spiral staircase, a cool cast iron one, to connect the two rooms.

Speaking of bathrooms, I'd also gut and redo both of the ones I have.
I'd buy a pick up truck and new furniture especiaa whole new king bedroom set.
Next, while I am doing the first addition, might as well blow out the kitchen and add some space and a screened in porch on the shady side of things.

I'd build a patio and install an outdoor hot tub. I'd have some serious landscaping done.

I'd go on vacation. To Europe. I'd hike along the moores of England and go to the English seaside. Visit castles and ruins, museums and cafes.

I'd buy tools to keep my husband busy and clothes and new appliances for me.

Maybe I'd just sell my house and buy another one with a barn. Yeah that would be better. We need a barn so we can have animals. Then, I guess I'd buy some animals. Alpacas! Of course this new house would have to have the patio, the porch, the sun room and the hot tub. Not to mention new kitchen and bathrooms.

What would you do with a million dollars or two or ten? 

               

Query

So, I am thinking about rewriting my query. It has worked quite well, but I want it to work better. Since, I think I will be continuing on with this current query batch, though the book is out with a handful still, I was wondering if anyone would care to comment. Any thoughts? Advice? Here is my current query:

I am seeking representation for my novel DISTILLATION, supernatural women’s fiction with New England flavor. DISTILLATION would appeal to readers who have enjoyed Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic and Katherine Howe’s The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. 

Alice Towne has been trying to get pregnant and to be a good wife, but the smell of the dead is getting in the way. She smells their memories, sweet and sour, essences of life hanging on with the soul. When her husband can’t accept her for who she is and his disdain borders on abuse, Alice finds the strength to leave. With few options, she agrees to do a favor for her mother, caretaking a house in the hills of western, Massachusetts, where she hopes to exorcise her demons and come to terms with her curse in solitude.  

Ashfield is beautiful and quaint, filled with history and an air of enchantment. Everyone in town, however, seems to have a secret to share or one to hide. Alice is wary of the witchy women who own the hardware store, friends of her mother, but knows their spells are what has kept the old house’s past at bay. Alice’s presence, though, seems to wash away that protection. The odor of peppermint lingers in every corner and the spirit of a woman lurks beside the garden, seemingly aware Alice can sense her and waiting to be heard. In the middle of it all, is Josephine, her mother, pushing Alice to stay the course and embrace her gift. But, when Alice unearths the preserved bones of an infant buried in the cellar, and discovers an ancient symbol that ties her own family to the house’s history, she knows she must learn the truth of what happened on Watts’ Hill, if she ever wants to understand herself.

From an alchemist damned, to a distillery that launched a pharmaceutical giant, Alice will sift through history and legend uncovering a betrayal and a love that echo across time. In doing so, she also discovers who she truly is and just what eternity really means.

Princess Bride

 

There are many P posts I have thought of. One of them being personality, one of them being persistence, one of them being pain in the ass. But, I thought I would instead go the safe route, forget about my troubles for a while and post about something that has been near and dear to my heart for a very long time.

The Princess Bride. I saw this movie in the theater when it first came out. I owned a VHS copy for years. Recently I bought the 20th anniversary DVD. At the end of the school year, if we finish with time, or perhaps in a study hall, I show the film. Kids of late, boys especially, say, "Oh, God, do you mean The Princess Diaries?" I always reply with something along the like of Peter Falk's line about pirates and giants, sword fighting and revenge. This usually perks them up.

I am known for quoting this film as it applies to life. One of my favorites being an adaptation of Westley saying to Buttercup, when he is in that oh so tricky disguise of a mask: "Life is pain, your highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something." I use this a lot with the replacement of unfair for pain, whenever students whine about something being unfair.

In, I think, tenth grade or maybe ninth, I was ejected from Sunday School one day for giddily reciting lines from this film with my best friend. It was making us giggle like crazy. For some reason, I think it was just the name "Princess Buttercup" as said by the Impressive Clergyman Peter Cook. Or perhaps it was Carol Kane saying Humperdinck over and over. Either way, it was worth the reprimand.

I of course loved Cary Elwes as Westley and Robin Wright as Buttercup, but Inigo and Fezzick (Mandy Pitinkin and Andre the Giant), Count Rugen and Prince Humperdinck (Christopher Guest and Chris Sarandon) and of course Miracle Max (Billy Crystal) were just so much fun. I didn't know then, but would later discover that Christopher Guest is of course from then Spinal Tap and now such lovable comedies as Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman.

I even read the book, which had a whole ruse about its creation and the lost pages or something like that. Anyway, here are some favorite quotes.

Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

We are men of action, lies do not become us.

I do not mean to pry, but you don't by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?

Buttercup: We'll never succeed. We may as well die here.
Westley: No, no. We have already succeeded. I mean, what are the three terrors of the Fire Swamp? One, the flame spurt - no problem. There's a popping sound preceding each; we can avoid that. Two, the lightning sand, which you were clever enough to discover what that looks like, so in the future we can avoid that too.
Buttercup: Westley, what about the R.O.U.S.'s?
Westley: Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist.

I'm not a witch, I'm your wife.

Prince Humperdinck:Surrender.
Westley: You mean you wish to surrender to me? Very well, I accept.

Westley: Give us the gate key.
Yellin: I have no gate key.
Inigo Montoya: Fezzik, tear his arms off.
Yellin: Oh, you mean *this* gate key.

The Ancient Booer: Boo. Boo. Boo.
Buttercup: Why do you do this?
The Ancient Booer: Because you had love in your hands, and you gave it up.
Buttercup: But they would have killed Westley if I hadn't done it.
The Ancient Booer: Your true love lives. And you marry another. True Love saved her in the Fire Swamp, and she treated it like garbage. And that's what she is, the Queen of Refuse. So bow down to her if you want, bow to her. Bow to the Queen of Slime, the Queen of Filth, the Queen of Putrescence. Boo. Boo. Rubbish. Filth. Slime. Muck. Boo. Boo. Boo.

(There are just too many good ones.)

Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind. The End.

Owl Lore

I have been interested in owls lately. I am thinking some owl lore will be featured in my WIP. So, I thought for today's post I would share some.

"Owls are one of the oldest species of vertebrate animal in existence, fossils have been found dating back 60 million years, showing the bird to have changed very little in that time.
Throughout the history of mankind, the owl has featured significantly in mythology & folklore. Owls are one of the few birds that have been found in prehistoric cave paintings. Owls have been both revered & feared throughout many civilisations from ancient to more recent times." (source)

Owls are messengers. How appropriate then they carry the mail in Harry Potter. In historic lore however, people being the fearful creatures we are, often they were seen as messengers of death. This may be because of their eerie calls in the night. A voice in the night is always chilling.

"In ancient Greece, owls were often seen as a symbol of good fortune. The idea of the 'wise old owl' may have come into being from the association of the Little Owl with the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athene.

---

In contrast, the Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster. Hearing the hoot of an owl indicated an imminent death, it is thought that the deaths of many famous Romans was predicted by the hoot of an owl, including Julius Caesar, Augustus & Agrippa. While the Greeks believed that sight of an owl predicted victory for their armies, the Romans saw it as a sign of defeat. They believed that a dream of an owl could be an omen of shipwreck for sailors & of being robbed. To ward off the evil caused by an owl, it was believed that the offending owl should be killed & nailed to the door of the affected house.

---

Beliefs on owls varied between ancient American Indian tribes. Some tribes viewed owls as harbingers of sickness & death. Other tribes saw them as protective spirits, others believed them to be the souls of living or recently departed people & should be treated with respect. Some tribes even saw the owls as earthly incarnations of their gods, the Hopis believed the Burrowing Owl to be their god of the dead. The Inuit explain the flat face & short beak of owls, in the story of a beautiful young girl who was magically changed into an owl with a long beak, as an owl, she became frightened & flew into the wall of her house & flattened her face & beak. Some tribes referred to death as "crossing the owls bridge".

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Some people believed that owls were particular bad to children, in Malaya it was believed that owls ate new-born babies, the Swahili believed that owls brought sickness to children, in Arabia it was believed that owls were evil spirits that carried children off in the night.

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Some people believed that owls had magic powers, in Arabia it was thought that each female Owl laid two eggs - one with the power to make hair fall out, the other with the power to restore it. In Algeria, it was believed that if the right eye of an Eagle Owl was placed in the hand of a sleeping woman, that she would tell everything you wanted to know (now that is stretching the imagination too far).

---

British beliefs about owls include the Welsh belief that if a owl is heard amongst houses then an unmarried girl has lost her virginity. Another Welsh belief is that if a pregnant woman hears an owl, her child will be blessed. In Yorkshire owl broth is believed to cure whooping cough, amongst other things. Because of its ability to turns its head so far & its habit of watching things intently, it was believed that you could get an owl to effectively wring its own neck by walking in circles around it." (source)

Owls can be symbolic of psychic power, or supernatural knowledge. One site notes that perhaps the glow of an owl's eyes could have been seen as the inner light of wisdom. Owls can also be spirits of the dead especially when heard calling from cemeteries. Owls are old souls. They regurgitate what they have consumed and thus represent a reckoning of sorts.

In one way or another, owls are associated with fate. As night birds, as predators, as beautiful creatures with expressive eyes, it is no wonder they have perched so in our collective imaginations.

MOJITO - Yay for M

 

DISTILLATION is all about peppermint. Well, it is about a lot more, but everything centers on the essence of peppermint. In the book there is actually a scene where Teddy, my beloved town historian, makes a mojito. I love mojitoes and drink them all summer. So...here is the recipe. Tried and true.

First of all - you must buy freshly picked or - better yet - grow your own -peppermint. I grow peppermint just for this one reason.

• Tall glass with fingers full of peppermint leaves squeezed or shredded into the bottom
• Ice to fill glass 1/2 to 3/4 full
• Bacardi Rum - a shot and a half per drink - depending on how much of a lush you are.  Pour the shot+ over the ice.
• Lots of FRESH lime - half to a whole lime per drink - as per your taste. Squeeze the lime over the ice. I like to put the squeezed out lime right in the glass so I can poke it with my straw.
• 1 Tbs Simple Syrup (make in advance)- take a cup of sugar and pour it into a small sauce pan with a cup of water. Heat on medium low stirring occasionally until the sugar and water are completely mixed. Pour into a Ball jar and let cool. Refridgerate and keep for all the mojitoes you can drink. Pour the syrup over the ice.
• Fill the rest of the glass with Tonic water.
• Use a brightly colored straw to crush and stir the whole shebang together and...sip!

Lovely.

Lessons Learned

As you may or may not know, I am a  writer. I started out with nothing but a dream. I wrote a lot in high school and college, but in my early 20s fell out of practice. I was mostly a poet, and honestly sucked at short story writing. But, I had ideas and I am a voracious reader. When I couldn't find books in the genre I loved, I decided to write more of them. And so it began.

This post is about the lessons I have learned along the way. This is only a selected list. I am sure I could think of more.

1) Writing a book is the easy part. Everyone has written a book it seems. The cliche is that every HS English teacher has a novel tucked away in a desk drawer. It is probably true. NANOWRIMO, or whatever it is called, is also evidence of this. Whacking out a "novel" can be done, but making it readable and worthy of an audience is a whole other story.

2) Editing is actually writing. Just when I think I can't edit it any more, I do it some more.

3) Finding an agent is a long process for most. Yes there are those who get one with five queries or in six months. But let me tell you, as agents are of course monumentally busy, the pace of response is geologic. I am not a patient person and at times I have thought I would die from waiting.

4) Karma (see yesterday's post) is real and it is important. Do not think you are the center of the universe - ever.  Be nice and act like a professional no matter how much you feel you've been slighted.

5) A FULL ms request does not mean you are really close to getting an agent. Sorry folks. This is a hard one. Everyone squees when they get a Full request. See Query Tracker. Requesting a full ms is just requesting pages. If you hold your breath, you will die. Write another book and forget about it. (I am still trying to master this lesson myself).

6) Have a thick skin and be ready to walk through the desert - alone. Even those who are supportive will become sheepish or sick of hearing about it as time goes by. If you want to succeed and don't right away, it is you and you alone who has to pick yourself up again and again and keep going. Revise, Rewrite, Write Another Book. Whatever. But you have to make yourself keep going.

7) Listen to your Beta Readers. Definitely have beta readers.

8) Enjoy the process. Love writing for the writing. Create worlds and characters that make the rest of life pale in comparison. Take time to smell the peppermint and drink a mojito for goodness sakes. More on that tomorrow. Love the hope, the lives you create, the small deaths you suffer, and the rebirth, that...if you are a trooper, will happen again and again, until you get it right and reach...Nirvana.

Karma

 

Karma is defined as the effect of a person's actions during the successive phases of the person's life, regarded as determining the person's destiny. (American Heritage Dictionary Fourth Edition)

I believe in Karma. What goes around comes around. In life, as in literature, what we put out into the world comes back at us. If we are kind, kindness is returned. Not necessesarily, immediately, but it pays off. If we are rude, the same rule follows true.

I think Karma is a word we should all know. It has nothing to do with religion. It is about being a good human being. And when we are wanting, wishing, waiting - it is so easy to get frustrated. It is so easy to be angry. What is hard is remembering that the world does not center on us. You and me are just tiny pin points in a universe of mess. Sometimes that mess gets all over us and we want to splash it back in the face of life and say F-you. Sometimes we actually do.

But today, if only for a moment, consider the butterfly effect. Every action has an opposite and equal reaction. Your energy gets put out into the world and it affects another and they pay it forward. Take a deep breath and think ahead a few steps and maybe your Karma will help win you that simple twist of fate you have been waiting for.

Jane's Addiction

  

Jane's Addiction - much love. From commercial to subversive. Beautiful and hard. Central to my 90s teen identity. Two of these songs are Jane's covers of the Dead and the Stones - and they are both covers that stand firmly beside the original as a new and equally powerful version of that song. Perry Farrell - forever.

Summer Time Rolls

Jane Says

Ripple

Been Caught Stealin' Video

Sympathy for the Devil

                 

Initials - what's with the trend in author names as initials?

 

I have noticed for a long time now, the trend of authors to use two initials in place of a first name. It is not a new phenomenon, but as I have met more people around the blogosphere who are aspiring or debut authors, it seems the trend continues. I wonder why this is.

Here are some example, both past and present.

J.K. Rowling
A.S. Byatt
E.M. Forster
A.G. Howard
E.B. White
C.S. Lewis

Even I, as you can tell by my blog handle, have considered the two initial first name. But, in recent times I have thought I might not use A.M., but just plain Ariel. And what about the first name initial and then use of the middle name. As in F. Scott Fitzgerald. No one called him F or Francis, which was his first name after is ancestor Francis Scott Key. So, I guess it made sense. He went by the name Scott. But perhaps some authors might take that as a cue. A. Marie Swan. Hmmm. No, it doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

I think using the two initials might create a buffer between the reader and the author. It is a bit of anonymity. Although in the Internet age it is near impossible to keep anything secret. Or perhaps people use it because of the air of mystery or the sound of professionalism, since so many great writers have also assumed the initialed name. What do you think?

Heathers

This is cheating a bit. Heathers came out in 1988, but I am sure it didn't reach me until 89 or 90, so I am counting it as another 90s flashback.

I was definitely young when I watched Heathers, because I watched it so many times I memorized the lines. Incongruously, I can recite almost verbatim both Heathers an The Princess Bride .

The dark angst of Christian Slater and Wynona Ryder and the black comedy of the whole high school farce definitely formed part of my identity. I was not the Rah Rah type of high-schooler. I very much identified with Veronica and was anti Heather and pro JD, even if he was psychotic. Cow tipping meat head jocks were the worst of all. I think anyone in high school can find some aspect of this movie to relate to, because it is about the absurdly disgusting cliquishness, popularity contest, insecurity, and secret desperation that riddles the age.

Even today, as a teacher, every time we have a pep rally I think of this movie. Though I keep my cynical thoughts to myself. But, this film is I think, perhaps even more relevant today than it was in the late 80s or early 90s. Issues of bullying, peer pressure, vacuous parent and teacher awareness, and dangerously marginalized anger are still ever present.



Some Quotes:

What is your damage, Heather?

It's one thing to want someone out of your life, but it's another thing to serve them a wake-up cup full of liquid drainer.

Chaos was what killed the dinosaurs, darling.

Lick it up, baby. Lick. It. Up.

Garden Time

Yay, it is almost garden time. The smell of damp earth, the caked dirt crammed beneath my finger and toe nails, the aching backs of my legs...wait that doesn't sound so great. Oh, but it is. When the earth is tilled and I tromp bare foot for the first time in a season, I know the true meaning of spring.

Every year my husband and I plant a garden with great expectations. A few years ago we began to focus our efforts and grew mostly a soup garden. Onions, celery, carrots, potatoes, parsley, cilantro, hot peppers, tomatoes, and so much more. Of course there are the obligatory cucumbers and summer squash. They always grow all at once and we have more than we know what to do with. I always loved Garrison Keillor's story about leaving zucchini on the front seat of a parked car. Please take it off my hands!!

Of course, now that we have chickens, the gardening situation is even better. What we don't eat or can't give away we feed to them. Happily they nom nom nom it and then...poop it out again to make excellent fertilizer. Chicken poop really makes things grow. Thanks to them our strawberries and concord grapes are flourishing.

In our yard, we are also lucky to have blueberry bushes, that need some poop this year, and a wicked raspberry patch that does so well and is thankfully controlled by the lawn getting mowed around it. Hint for growing raspberries: plant them out in the open so you can mow around them. It keeps them from taking over everything.

What we don't grow, I get at the local farmer's market (see yesterday's post.) So this is my favorite time of year. Before the weeds begin, before I am cucumber and zucchini-ed out. Before the pumpkins have been eaten by deer. (Yes we also have a pumpkin patch that shares a home with the asparagus patch). The thought of growing my own food, even if it bests me every year in the end, is just the sweetest things about spring and the summer to come.

Do you garden? What are your favorite garden recipes? Have any tips?

F is for: FARMER'S MARKET!!

 

Today's post is about one of my favorite things: Farmer's Markets. We have an awesome one here in my small home town. It starts again this month. I am so excited. Every Saturday morning I go with my bags and cash and fill them with locally grown, fresh produce, bread, goat cheese, and grass fed meat. I spend $30-$50 dollars and come away with a priceless feeling of satisfaction and bounty.

Eating locally is something I support and encourage. The Pioneer Valley in which I live is a leader in what Barbara Kingsolver termed the locavore movement. Do you know that buying a one pound bag of shrimp at the grocery store "costs" one ton of fuel! Every tomato or nectarine you buy in the grocery store has usually come from very far away and the fuel costs and carbon emissions that come with it certainly add to the price of that produce exponentially. I am sure you have all heard of your carbon foot print. If you want some ideas on how to reduce it, go here. Buying local food as well as growing and storing your own food (even in a little bit of space) are great ways to conserve and get some enjoyment out of it too.

Also: here are some books you might like that encourage small food production and local eating.

              
Do you have a local farmer's market that you support? Would you like one? Do you garden? What do you grow?

E is for Expectation

 

Today I want to write about the rule of rising expectation. The idea is that once you achieve what you have been working towards, say landing a literary agent, the joy of the success is washed away by the the roar of the next hurdle, the next expectation you need to meet. So, first you say, "All I want is to write a novel." Then: "All I want is to get an agent." Then: "All I want is to land a book deal." Then: "All I want is some good reviews." You get the idea.

In some ways, I think this is inevitable, especially for a person who is motivated to succeed. Always we are looking  for what comes next. That is how we get things done. There are other kinds of people who only focus on the task at hand and don't even think to look for what else has to be done in order for general goals to move along. (My husband is a person like this. I say, put the bowls from dinner in the dish washer and run it. So he does, leaving a forest of dirty glasses on the counter. But I digress.) I envy people like this a little, because I am a worrier. I am always fretting over the next stage of things, long before they happen. This is my way to prepare and consider necessary plans of action that need to be taken to ensure success.

But as I work towards getting an agent and hold my breath each day for an email of new import, I hope that I will take the time to enjoy the success of each stage as it happens, if it happens. It is important to stop and smell the peppermint before it bolts and fades. Take time to enjoy a mojito for goodness sakes.

Mmmm...mojito season is coming. More on that later.

D is for Doc Martins

 Another 90s flashback for you. The hip combat boot for the alternative teen. Do you wear them now? I remember my first pair of Docs. I learned to hacky-sac in them. Wow, the blisters were bad, but then I wore them religiously for years along with my flannel shirts. At some point I started alternating them with Birkenstocks. I was one of those grunge, alternative, somewhat punkish hippies. Well as a teen styles change with the wind. Right? I have always been a person that didn't do well with styles though. I was never able to have all the right paraphernalia, the exactly right outfit, the perfect image. I was always just sort of me and I guess I still am. That, I think is the best style to be.

Did you wear Doc Martins?

What was your teen style?

C is for Comparative Titles

When a writer queries an agent, he or she should identify a work or two that an agent can think of as comparative to your work. The work of Alice Hoffman long ago inspired my own writing, though my book is different than her style for sure. I actually began to write a book when I struggled to find more books to read that were in the genre of what I call supernatural women’s fiction. So I wrote the book I wanted to read. In the time since, as I was writing my book, lots of stories have been published that share some element with DISTILLATION. But it seems nothing is really like it. Maybe that is good, maybe that is bad. But here are some books I can recommend or am looking to read that fit somewhere in the genre:

                         

Have you read any of these books? Can you recommend a good
ghost story, a story of past lives, or story with literary witchy magic?

B...Believe in yourself

 

B is for Believing in yourself. As an aspiring writer, this is something I have had to hold to. When others don’t understand what I am trying to do, or they hint that I should give up or take an easier road to publication, I just smile. I believe in myself and I am making progress. That doesn’t mean I never have doubt, but I never stop believing that no matter what, I have already succeeded just in setting out to write a novel and getting as far as I have has meant success.

Here are “9 Principles for Success” as written by a man named Terry Dean. You can find his original site here. I think they are right on.

1. Set Goals. Set aside any negative thoughts and write down the goals… map your course... and follow it.

2. Become A Problem-Solver. Never believe any problem is unsolvable…Stay away from negative thinkers.

3. Be Confident. If you believe you can’t achieve something, you probably won’t…Train yourself to believe you can achieve and you will.

4. Be a Possibility Thinker. Think big! The only thing holding you back is you.

5. Don’t Worry About Failing. …Trying to do something great and failing could be one of the best things you have ever done in your life. Failure is not failure to meet your goals, but the failure to reach as high as you possibly can.

6. Take Action. Just get started…TODAY! …Don’t be a dreamer…be a doer. (Those who want it, find a way, those who don’t find an excuse.)

7. Be Enthusiastic!

8. Maintain A Positive Attitude.

9. Never Give-up.

How about you? What do you believe in?

A is for ...Ariel. Nice to meet you. What is in a name?

Yay! It is day one of the A-Z challenge.

A is for Ariel. That’s me. And the question for today is: What is in a name?

My name, meaning Lion of God, has always served me well, except for maybe when that pesky Disney mermaid stole it. When the cartoon came out I was 13 and I did not want to be associated with a mermaid princess. However, when I got married, my name became Ariel Swan and it seems the mermaid princess thing was inevitable. Though I am neither a mermaid nor a princess, people do tend to live up to their names. I think Lion suits my personality well.

But what is in a name for writers? Why do writers choose pen names? Is there a benefit to having your name start with a certain letter? I remember reading, though I can’t find it again now, that the most frequent starting letters for bestselling authors' last names fall between M and S. Do you think this is true?

And what about character names? A character's name can define his or her personality and existence. Sometimes I choose them for meaning, especially main characters. (This post could also be A for Alice Towne, my MC). But secondary characters, I sometimes pick at random.

What about book titles? Certainly much lies in the name of a book. It sets the tone, it implies plot, it creates mood.

So: What do you think is in a name? Introduce yourself and your work too, if it suits you.

For fun, you can try the Lulu Title Scorer to get an idea of how your WIPs title might fare. DISTILLATION  scores a 63% chance. I’m happy with that. I wish they had an author name scorer too.