Running for My Life — the movie

I was surprised and awed when Jennifer Wolf a writer and video magician showed me the book trailer she made for Running for My Life. It’s wonderful.

To top it off her daughter, Sabrina, loves Running for My Life. That means the world to me. While I know there will always be people who don’t like what I do, and what I write, still a sharp negative review like the one I received on Amazon (One negative out of 16…so it’s not like I don’t have plenty of good to counterbalance.) stuns me. But, my floundering in that negative pool was short lived because Sabrina loved Pedro and the story and she matters more to me than the negative, anonymous, critic of my book.

Anyway, check out the trailer…it’s awesome and I’m grateful:

Running for My Life

Revision number three

Okay, I’m getting close. I ran into a problem where I revised my revisions so often that I lost track of my main character. So, I spent several days listening to her remind me what the story is about and what it is that she wants to say about it all. In essence, I stopped revising from some sense of “correction” and allowed the main character to address the issues my agent was concerned about. Sarah, the main character, she’s quite smart. I’m not sure how she puts up with me. I know she’s restraining herself from a long diatribe of “I told you so”s.

What I’ve learned? Let the narrator handle the revision. Share the revision letter with the main character and let him or her suggest solutions. I wish I’d done it months ago, but there’s no time for regrets…I’ve got a novel to revise, and a main character who is dying to revise it.

This manuscript has to be complete by November 1…because Nanowrimo is just around the corner. I’ve got another main character who has a whole other story he or she is eager to tell. (I’ve got two…one by he and one by she. Any suggestions on how to figure out which novel to tackle next? Flip a coin?)

I hope you are all writing well and enjoying yourselves. In Seattle, most of us are eager for some rainy writing weather.

A free and independent press no longer

Let’s face it — journalism is dead. It started to fail under the Bush administration and its last breath was taken sometime during 2007. I’m worried for our democracy and all democracies. Campaigns and elections will never be free and fair without an honest and independent press.

Consider it — do we know what is happening in Iran? How can we? Who won the election?

Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama went into the Democratic convention essentially tied for nomination. Obama led in pledged delegates and Clinton led in popular vote. And, considering that Obama’s delegate lead was obtained by disenfranchising FL and MI, Democrats should have gone into the convention with an opportunity to pick the best candidate for the presidency. If the press hadn’t made the decision that Obama was to be the nominee and repeatedly portrayed the nomination battle as a landslide victory for Obama, we would have. Instead, we were told that the nomination selection was obvious, and clear, and unanimous, and overwhelming, we were told that Obama won before the votes were even counted.

Is that any different from what is happening in Iran, or what has happened in any number of democracies in recent years?

Without a free and independent press there just elections are a challenge and accountability impossible. Without accountability democratically elected leaders become despots and there’s nothing we, the people, can do about it.

We need the press…we need a renaissance of journalism. That’s the hope and change we desperately need.

Ah, the job is done.

I’m doing the happy dance. I just completed revising my second novel and, thanks to my agents revision notes and the magic of nanowrimo, it’s much better than I ever imagined it would be or that I could write. That’s the bizarre thing about writing for me — I don’t know the stories I want to write until I write them.

It’s exciting to read and write at the same time. Problems are easy to spot when I’m so bored that I’m perfectly happy to end the story right where I am. It’s a sure sign I need to increase tension and mystery and heighten the stakes for the characters.

This moment is short lived. I need to work on promoting Running for My Life (thanks to those who have purchased a copy and written reviews. It’s terribly difficult to create buzz.) and my wonderful students to attend to, but for right now I feel complete, satisfied and relieved. What a feeling.

Back from my haitus

So much has happened since I last posted here. Too much to recount. Besides the release of Running for My Life, the most exciting thing to happen during my sabbatical was, ironically, I began teaching. Teaching, for me, is a triumph over the arthritic condition that has disabled me for much of the past two years, and it is a great love.

In my online writing class I have the best and nicest students. They are writing great stories, putting the ardour and struggles of their teenage protagonists onto the pages of their novels with incredible skill and craftsmanship. It doesn’t seem like I do anything as their teacher because they came to the class already knowledgeable and talented. Nevertheless, they assure me that they are getting something out of the class. As long as there are students who want to work on crafting stories for young adults and teenagers, I’m happy to help in any way I can. It’s been the most fun I’ve had since forever.

If it took a disabling illness to get me to leave my job and take-up writing and teaching for a living…then, this illness has been a blessing.

It’s the community of writers that make it worth it

There is no way any rational person would take a job where for every 1000 reprimands and criticisms of his work he received one, however faint, “nice job.” That’s a writer’s professional life — rejection after rejection after rejection, with the acceptances typically tossed in at the point just before you give it up for good.

I’m convinced there wouldn’t be any writers if it weren’t for the community of writers. I for sure wouldn’t be able to handle the isolation, and the challenges of the profession, if I didn’t have the benefit of knowing, and being a part of, a group of people that awe me with their talents and great hearts.

Maybe it’s simply that they know what it’s like. When I need it most, it’s a writer who will listen a little more attentively, crack a joke that gets me laughing despite the knot in my gut, or who will tell me a story of her own struggle, to reassure me that I’m not alone.

It is my sincere hope that I am able to be to others, in the writing community, what they are to me. Because without them, I would be driving a truck and wishing, above all else, that one day I could write.

Toasting the nano novel

Well, I didn’t make 50,000 words, but I did complete a novel. (My work always gets longer on revision so I expect the revised manuscript to finally reach 50,000 or so words.)

It took me almost 2 years to write my novel Snared, and 30 days to write the nano novel Blindfold. The honest truth is that Blindfold has more heart and energy in it than the one I worked on for 2 years. There’s something to be said for entering a story and writing non-stop until the main character has expressed every last detail of his or her story.

The wonder of nanowrimo, for me, is that it allows me to enter the main character’s world and hear her tell her story without distraction. My family may not like it so much, because they are the distractions I don’t allow…nevertheless, it’s the blocking out of everything that isn’t of the story that makes the story so visceral and successful.

I’ve sent the first chapters of Blindfold and Snared to my agent to see which one she thinks deserves more of my attention right now. I fully expect her to say, “Blindfold” because it is my nano novel and it is simply better.

I’m behind but Thanksgiving is a day of gratitude

I woke up early and pounded out enough words this morning to get me to 27,500. I know, I know, on day 27 of Nanowrimo one should be considerably farther along if one expects to win. Well, I’m not by nature an ultra competetive person, but I am a person who aims to do very well. I compete with myself and treat myself miserably when I lose. How’s that for a conundrum? Sometimes I think for my anxious psyche there isn’t any such thing as winning.

The most important thing to me about this years nano is that I’m fully engaged in the story I’m writing. It keeps me up at night, tortures my sleep, and fills me with dread and urgency as I approach the climactic scene.

I’m taking time out today to say thanks — thanks to Kathy, my family, friends, to readers and writers. Without the lot of you the world would hardly be bearable. A good book, good food, and a day with loved ones is the essence of nirvana. I hope everyone has a day filled with good words today. (And if you’re a nano-er like me, that you are blessed with thousands of them.) : )

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nano hell

Are you writing a novel? Are you enjoying the process? I’m at 9,700 words and behind schedule, but intrigued and scared by the words that I write. Nano certainly brings out the dark underbelly of story telling for me. If under normal circumstances I could be accused of letting my characters off easy, one would have to withdraw the charge with my nano novels.

I’m not sure if it is the stream of conscious writing, or the disquiet of attempting to write a novel of 30 days, but there’s something about Nano that leads me to take my sweet, innocent and nice main characters and force them to face the bleakest and most terrifying faces of humanity.

I’m not even sure if, without nano, I’d have the courage to write the things I’m writing now. My non-nano novel is much nicer, and less successful.

Anyway, I hope all you nano writers out there are having fun, or at the very least, are getting lots of support for the writing you are doing. If you are already in the middle of the dark forest, remember that you will most certainly find your way out in the next 20 days. You will not be lost there forever.

It’s Nano Time

Over 100,000 writers have officially started their November novels. I’ve written 1800 words and already I’ve been through an emotional ringer. My character is recovering from the trauma of being kidnapped and held hostage for 8 days…her coping mechanism is to wear a blindfold and to visualize the world as good and beautiful.

As I’ve talked about earlier, this idea came to me after I was diagnosed with Juvenile Macular Degeneration. Normally, I’m a writer who relies heavily on the appearance of things. This nanowrimo will be a great challenge and excellent practice for me. It would be virtually impossible for me to write this novel without focusing on the taste, smell and texture of things. I’m now acutely aware of every reference to the way something looks.

Are you participating in Nanowrimo? It’s early yet, but are you learning anything new about yourself as a writer? Do you like the story you are telling?