Saturday, April 29, 2006

Do What You Love...

One of the writing websites in my favorites folder is http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/mt/. Dean Wesley Smith is a writer and editor and if you have any questions about writing he is more than willing to teach. In fact, he's teaching two writing workshops next month that I am attending.

The link above opens to his latest article, which is titled, "Do What You Love." It is of course about deciding to be a writer, but the principles could apply to other professions.

It reminds me that if I want to write, I can make it happen or hold myself back. I know this is what I want to do, I just need to say "no" to the excuses and do it. :-)

Anyway, thought I would share...

Monday, April 17, 2006

One thing I want...

Today I drove to St. Pete to drive my mother-in-law home after she had laser surgery on her eye (it was to help prevent glaucoma). While in St. Pete, I decided to treat myself to a trip to Barnes and Noble.

I walked in the door and there it was. A display with a new Diane Mott Davidson novel. For those who don't know, this fabulous author writes a series concerning a caterer named Goldie who solves mysteries. There are delicious recipes through the book (including a fantastic brownie recipe in a book appropriately titled "Dying For Chocolate")

So I saw the book, and I said to myself, "OK, I have a lot of reading to do for the upcoming workshop. I don't have time to read this novel. It will be there later, it's not going to disappear. I haven't balanced my checkbook."

I walked away from the display.

I was back there picking up a copy before too long.

I paid for it with a snack and latte and started reading it, getting caught up in a few pages.

I write this not to demonstrate a lack of self control on my part (though yeah it does) but because I want to write that kind of book one day. The kind of book that makes someone not able to talk themselves out of buying it. The kind of book that makes a person WANT to read it.

Someday, I hope...

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Drip...Drip...

Ok, I recently got diagnosed with glaucoma. This means I have the questionable joy of putting in eyedrops every day.

Because I had an allergic reaction to the first eyedrop medication, I am on liquid tears for the next few days. Unlike the medicine, which is once a day, I have to use these 2-3 times a day. Lots of opportunities to practice.

The thing is, I have trouble putting on eye makeup, much less dripping fluid into my eyes. One reader of my column emailed me after I wrote about this with some tips. I'm wondering if any of the rest of you have any ideas on how people who blink a lot get eyedrops in their eyes.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Coming back up for air...

Yes, Virginia, the novel is finished. It came to around 77,000 words.

I finished it while dealing with a horrible stomach flu last week. For the most part I lived on Gatorade and slept a lot when I wasn't writing.

This week I worked on a novel proposal. I had never written one before, so I had to research how to do it.

When I started writing it, I had to keep referring back to my manuscript. Which is how I discovered I had to reprint half of it - understand that the manuscript is 365 pages long. That is a lot of paper. Reprinting half of it meant more trees died.

Add two copies of a thirteen page proposal, a one letter query, the first 50 pages of the novel for an editor to see, and a cover letter, and I probably mailed nearly a ream of paper.

I admit looking at the novel fully printed was a funny feeling. I almost couldn't believe I had typed all that in the space of five months. It was a major stack, believe me.

Now that it's off to Oregon (in preparation for a Novel Workshop I'm attending next month) I can concentrate on some short stories that have been neglected.

And, yes, the blog that has been neglected too.

Am I forgiven, Tina? ;-)