And Now?

My two year blogging anniversary is almost here, so I'm asking... And now? Where am I? What have I learned?

• Give it time. Last spring I queried ROMEO, ROMEO, then let the novel rest for a few months. When I went back, I could see it needed tightening.
• Say only what needs to be said.  
• Have faith. Truth is, I thought I'd be closer to publication. Isn't that what we usually think? What keeps us going?
• Write every morning.
• Get little things out of the way.
• Listen. I started two new websites this year, neither which I'd planned, but which seemed to ask to be cultivated, GOT BETTER and ROBERT GUTHRIE III.
• Love the process. Writing helps me feel alive. 

Now I'm off to write. Planting seeds, nurturing, weeding, pruning, harvesting... the whole deal.

(photo of fields from Lee Mann Photography, king of Pacific Northwest images)

Year of the Water Dragon

I like to think of January as a comfortable build-up between western and Vietnamese new years, which explains why I'm now posting my 2012 Writing Resolutions.

• Finish epilogue short stories of six characters from the ROMEO, ROMEO novel, January
• Write a chapter a week of the novel, JEB KNOWS
• Complete first draft of JEB KNOWS by July 1st
• Return to the resolution table in July

There's more I'd like to plan for: a novel I outlined two summers ago; the third book of the LUCKY trilogy; upcoming films for Our Spirit. So... I acknowledge those projects, but hope for the wisdom to let them germinate without demands from me.

In Vietnamese astrology, a year of the water dragon is often dynamic. Cool. I like high-energy and lots of projects. But it's also known for being balanced, the water not quenching but easing the fire within. 

That seems like wisdom.


(illustration from Hilo Living blog)

Coconut

Bliss the past two weeks has been coconut milk in my coffee. Coconut milk warmed beforehand on the stove with cinnamon.

Um, and that has what to do with writing?

Happiness. The happiness of stirring dark cinnamon into the white, white milk. Of pouring the milk into the coffee. Of taking first, second... and all those sips. Of gulls squawking outside as I drink and write. Right then I know that all's good. All's exactly how it's supposed to be.

My favorite poem, Coconut by Paul Hostovsky, heard on The Writers' Almanac with Garrison Keillor, is about the decision to look for happiness.

That's all we can do. What we ought to do. For me that's writing. Which also means slogging away at the business stuff necessary for a career.

So, as I try to get inside happiness, I'll drink my coffee with coconut milk and write and know that I'm on my way.

And you? How do you get inside happiness? 

Coconut, by Paul Hostovsky

Bear with me I
want to tell you
something about
happiness
it’s hard to get at
but the thing is
I wasn’t looking
I was looking
somewhere else
when my son found it
in the fruit section
and came running
holding it out
in his small hands
asking me what
it was and could we
keep it it only
cost 99 cents
hairy and brown
hard as a rock
and something swishing
around inside
and what on earth
and where on earth
and this was happiness
this little ball
of interest beating
inside his chest
this interestedness
beaming out
from his face pleading
happiness
and because I wasn’t
happy I said
to put it back
because I didn’t want it
because we didn’t need it
and because he was happy
he started to cry
right there in aisle
five so when we
got it home we
put it in the middle
of the kitchen table
and sat on either
side of it and began
to consider how
to get inside of it

Squawker II

I need to reread my original post about Squawkers. Need to feel it more deeply.

There's still an inner circle squawker who's behaving badly. And there are the query squawkers. To be clear, the query squawkers aren't exactly squawking. They're polite in their passes of novel #1, or silent... But it feels like squawking.

What do you mean you won't represent my novel? Don't you get how well-written, emotionally immediate and compelling to the niche market of gay YA readers it is? What do you mean you don't want to be part of my success?

Deep breath. This is the industry. This is how it works. And it's not been that many. I'm a cautious querier.

Sigh. My ITunes "Peace" shuffle is helping. Breathe.

I gotta get back to enjoying the squawking gulls.

How do you maintain peace?

(photo: "Welsh + Gull", http://alanindyfed.blogspot.com/)

Adjustment Bureau

I last posted about being in the flow for Novel #3. I stand by that, but with a major adjustment.  I'd been talking about the state of publishing with writer and blog maven, Heather Kelly. She helped me see that print and e-books can be complimentary. Yes, I hope for traditional print publication of ROMEO, ROMEO. And yes, once the book is in the stores, Amazon etc, we can simultaneously offer shorter e-books about secondary characters from the novel. Two tracks.

Here's the adjustment... I'm focusing on e-books for five secondary characters. ROMEO, ROMEO itself is done, its arch finished, I'm not touching it. But it's so much fun to be hanging out with those characters again.

How do you guys deal with adjustments?

Got It

Finally got it – YA novel #3. (Novel 0, forever in a box, doesn't count.) The characters, plot & the premise have finally come together. 

Bobsledding is off-season, but this is how I feel, that the key elements have aligned, that the team for novel #3 is ready. Kinda a long time in coming. #3 is based on a screenplay from forever ago that I never produced. But it's narrated by a new guy, a character in LUCKY, novel #2.

And the premise is different. Mostly, it's fun. Which in the past I might have thought was superficial... but... Sometimes a good ride is just what we want. So #3 is out of the gate, a chapter a week. 

How about you guys, how's your novel-writing team?

(photo from winterolympics)

Squawker

So many voices. Those who believe in us, those who want us to write only what they want to read, those who encourage, those who squawk.

When I was a kid, seagulls meant beach vacations. How cool that I now live by the ocean and for the first waking minutes of most days I think I'm on vacation. Usually. Sometimes the squawking is ugly.

I'm wondering if that might be similar to the voices around our writing. How cool that people care enough to voice opinions about our work? How cool that we're not in this alone? So what if not everyone uses the words we'd like. Our job is to hear what they're trying to say and not how they're saying it. And to those other squawkers in our lives... the people who are difficult for whatever reasons? They're just a small part of the flock.

Thank you to all the voices. May we hear them as if we're beginning a beach vacation, open and full of possibility.

How to you deal with squawkers?

(photo from Royalty Free Stock photos)