Garfield I am not! I love Monday. I always have. I was the nerdy kid who loved school. In fact, at the Senior Awards Night in high school, I received an award certificate for missing less than 5 days of school in my entire four years there (and one of the days I did miss was senior skip day, while another was just an exhaustion day after our drama group went to NYC over the holidays).

And then in college, I loved Mondays because…well, yes…I got to go back to class and I liked class! I had the added bonus then though of having worked all weekend, so anything besides work looked good.

And now I love Mondays because starting last September I began to take weekends off. that means I get to go back to writing on Mondays!And tomorrow is a special Monday because I’ve had a whole week off! Boy am I excited to get back to work!!!!

By the way, if you’re wondering how come I finally realized I should take weekends off, it is because of the good example set for me by my agent. If you haven’t heard from him by “closing time” on Friday, you won’t hear from him until Monday. Now as much as I like to think the world is waiting with bated breath for my fantastic writing to hit the shelves, the truth is that I’m just plugging along and it will get there when it gets there. My agent, on the other hand, has a lot of people counting on him to produce, and follow through, and read the fine print…and yet he has time for weekends. Or I should say, he makes time for weekends. I have time for weekends. And now I have a reason to love Monday again!

…even though I’m supposedly on vacation.

1. OMG! I am sooooo relaxed bored! Here I am at the end of my vacation rope! Yeah, yeah…It is true I needed some time off, but a whole week? I took five days. Give me a break. I’m not a European who is used to seven weeks of holiday each year!

2. I have knitted until my right arm is about to fall off.

3. When I wasn’t knitting, I was cooking. I have made: pasta casserole, two kinds of soup, breakfast burritos, peach-rhubarb bread, regular bread, roasted veggies with quinoa, cabbage salad, apple crisp, scones (twice!), and loads more stuff I can’t remember without getting up to look.

4. The sheets are changed, the kitchen is clean, and I’ve even started the remodel in the bathroom…okay, all I did was scrape out the sillicone around the tub and replace it, but hey, that was a big deal for me! If I don’t go back to work soon, I’m going to have to keep working on it.

5. I miss you all!

And now, for a bonus 5! Five cool things that happened while I was on vacation:

1. I met the wonderful (and kind, sweet, and friendly) author, Susan Juby for lunch. We actually had breakfast (French toast) because by 3pm when we met, they were out of all the good lunch stuff. It was really fun and I hope to hang out with her again some time. And if you haven’t read her books, what are you waiting for???? Get with it, people!

2. I went to the fruit stand to get apples and I had to go by the beach. It was half an hour before sunset and the light over the water was magnificent. I got out and sat on a bench on the beach and just stared across at the mainland and the snow-capped peaks. Beautiful.

3. Yesterday I fed not one, but two big bucks apple cores and peelings by hand. Just so you know, deer aren’t that fond of you trying to pet them even if they are tame enough to be fed by hand, but this one, who I call Piggy because he practically shoves his head in the apple bag if I’m not fast enough, let me scratch him under the chin. Twice! This is an older shot, but cool anyway!

4. See the picture above? That was me being adventurous. What do you think of it for an author photo? Would kids think I’m cool or just some old fogie their parents’ age trying to act cool?

5. I’ve gotten about ten hours of sleep each night.

I actually did pretty well in the no computer/no reading attempt. I lasted all the way until Wednesday without reading and then as soon as my husband left the house for Boys Night Out, I grabbed a Diane Mott Davidson mystery and read it straight through. He came home in the middle, but by then I was so into it, I just kept reading! And while I did stay off the computer for the most part until right now, I did read emails each day as they came in. However, you all knew I was “away” and so after the first or second day, I hardly got any anyway. And I didn’t send any, except one about a reservation I needed to cancel. I did give in and listen to Stephen Colbert’s audio book, but it was a lot less like a book and more like a shouted monologue.

Part of the reason I took this vacation is because I needed it, but part of the reason is because my husband had started substituting the word “workaholic” for “work ethic” in regards to how much I work. But I ask you this…on an average day, I write 3 hours. On a good day I write 5. On an excellent, and extremely rare day I work 6-7 hours. Tell me…what other job in the world can you work 3-5 hours per day and have people call you a workaholic? I’m just sayin’… I have to go now before my husband wakes up from his nap and finds me on the computer and take the peach-rhubarb bread out of the oven and knit some more.

No…I’m not talking about the word count on my NOW FINISHED AND SENT OFF TO MY CRITIQUE GROUP MANUSCRIPT!!! Although, maybe after they read it, I might find that I do indeed have too many words. For now though, it is just right! Can I just say how good this feels? I wrote the first draft in about thirty days and then it sat around for about a year. I’ve been revising somewhat steadily since July (two full revisions) and now I have something that I’m really pleased with…we’ll see what they think…and my agent…for now I’ll just be happy though!

The too many word thing is that there are too many words in my head. Too much email, too many blogs, too many Google searches, too many books to read, too many books to listen to… I am taking one whole week off from everything word related, with the exception of stimulating conversation. And if that doesn’t happen, then that too. Seriously. I have a few must-dos on the computer and then I’m shutting down and putting it away in a closet. My husband will be scanning my email inbox for messages from my agent or my editor (because otherwise I’d go crazy with wondering!). If you need me, give me a call!

I’m also (gasp) going to take a week off from reading. No books. No magazines. No audio books. I didn’t tell my husband this bit because he’ll hold me to it and all I can say is it is a GOAL…it’s carved in hard dirt as they say down south.

To celebrate having finished writing my book (for now), I will share with you one of the most hilarious things I’ve seen in a long time. Thanks to The Longstockings for bringing it to my attention.

Here is the link to a news site where you can watch this hilarious video of college kids playing…you’ll have to go see it. All I can say is that JK Rowling has had a lot of amazing things happen due to the Harry Potter books, but this might be the funniest thing.

Two of my favorite words when working on a manuscript.

Okay…I know I ALWAYS say this, but seriously, I mean it. This is the most incredible book!!!! I loved it!!!

I actually listened to it on audio instead of reading it, because I was looking for some audio books at the library to listen to while I knit and it was there. If I were the author, I’d be thrilled with the job the actress did reading it. She was just perfect. She added vitality to the words and humour that I’m sure was there anyway, but was enhanced by her performance. I intend to read this book someday too, but I highly recommend the audio version.

So…what did I love? Well, the language, the rhythm, the story, the characters…hmmm…I loved it all, didn’t I? It was an unique exploration of religion, beliefs in general, and relationships, but never, ever heavy handed. I think what was so different about this book is that while many serious things were going on, it was more like life in that many good things were happening too. What I mean by that is that when you read a book, one bad thing after another usually happens to the character, adding dramatic tension and conflict (or it can be embarrassing things instead of bad, or frustrating things, or whatever…but conflict) and in this book, so many wonderful everyday things happened to the character, along with the big things. This made a very compelling case for the beauty of life, which is really what the book is about.

Reinhardt has two more books out and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on them.

I am very excited to see that my latest article for SCBWI is now out in the new bulletin. It is called How To Find The Right Agent and is chock full of tips that I learned the hard way! But the most exciting thing for me was to see that they added a sidebar with my wonderful agent, Michael Bourret! Surprise on me…he never said a word! Also, Dan Walsh did a very fun illustration to go with it. If you’re a member of SCBWI, then you can see it in your November/December bulletin or online, and if you’re not, I’ll have it up on my nonfiction page sometime in the near future. I think I can technically put it up now, but since they pay me for it, I like to wait at least until everyone’s gotten their bulletins before I put it up on my site, just as a courtesy. I hope some of you find it useful!

You all know I love the Betsy-Tacy books…just look at the background of my website. So the other day, I was chatting with Meg Cabot, okay, okay…I wasn’t “chatting” with her, but I had emailed her and she did email me back…anyway, the gist of our exchange was that Meg is going to be the guest speaker at the Betsy-Tacy Convention this summer in Mankato, MN. They have this every three years (I think) and I’ve wanted to go since the last one, but I hadn’t really considered it. I mean, to fly from here is expensive, and there’s the conference fees and the hotel…but then I thought, “I just sold a book!” What better way to celebrate selling a book than to go back and learn about, and explore the books, character, and author that made me want to write in the first place? Plus, it’s not until next summer, so by then I should have my advance, right? Publishing is slow, but probably not that slow!

I’m very excited. If you’re a fan of Betsy, you should join me! And if you’re not a fan, that means you just haven’t read them, so get thee to a library. They are most unfortunately out of print, which is what started my chat…er…exchange with Meg in the first place…I was hoping she’d use her undeniable clout to force Harpercollins to bring them back. She said she’d see what she could do, but knew they’d site “bottom line” and all that…Still there are the libraries and I bet yours has the Besty books.

I made a reservation at The Butler House B&B because I thought that would be more atmospheric than the hotel. And if you know Betsy, it’s all about creating the right setting. Will I see you there?

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, or clicked the link about my book RESTORING HARMONY, you’ll know all about Sarah Tradewell and how she looks just like Molly (the main character in my book) and how I found out about her because of the magic of her fiddle playing coupled with the internet and a lot of serendipity. Two weeks ago today, my husband and I drove down to Victoria and I got to meet Sarah and her dad. Sarah is just as charming as she looks. And bright, smart, and funny too. And she really, truly does look just like my character Molly. It’s unbelievable!

She also sings, plays other instruments besides the fiddle, acts, and is playing the lead in her school production of Grease. I’m pretty sure she’s doing theatre so that when someone decides to make a movie of my book (haha….long shot, but so was getting a book deal, right?) she’ll be ready to step in and play Molly. I mean, she already is an excellent fiddle player, like Molly, which she proves right here on youtube.

This part is kind of embarrassing, but I was so excited to meet Sarah that I totally forgot to have my husband (yes…the photographer) take any photos of us! So once again, I’m using a photo that Benjamin Madison so graciously said I could use.

I am revising. I thought I was almost done with this book, but after reading it, I saw that I needed to raise the stakes and so as I’m going through it again, I am adding and streamlining one particular facet of the story. Still, for the most part, this is a “near the finish line” revision, which means, mostly I’m reading and fixing a word here or a sentence there.

What just struck me as odd is how truly familiar I’ve become with the piece as a whole. I just opened the document and wanted to get to page 193. The easiest way to do this is to open the Find feature and put in a word from that page and voila, it takes you right to it. Of course, if you choose a word you’ve used fifty times, then it doesn’t really work. So I looked at this page and saw, “nightstand” and I thought to myself, “hmm…don’t think I’ve used that word anywhere else” and so I put it in and it took me right to page 193. How in the world do I know this? I mean, nightstand is not exactly an uncommon word! Just a minute ago I put in “lanky” and it took me not where I wanted to go, but to a page a few before it where I had just used lanky! I have this thing about using words like that more than once, especially that close together, and so I changed one of them.

Yesterday I was reading a part where a character gets introduced to another one and I kept thinking, “but they already know each other from that party” and then I realized the party wasn’t for another five chapters.

I think the truth is I might be going crazy! I just thought I’d share!

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada (Veteran’s Day in the US) and down at the RCMP building, they held a ceremony to remember the men and women who served in Canada’s military. One of my great uncles went MIA, another died of complications to his wounds, my grandfather served at Normandy on D-Day, another grandfather was in the Army stateside, and my husband’s father served in the Battle of the Bulge with General Patton - all in World War II. We went to listen, to remember, and to lay our poppies down with the others afterwards.

As people brought the wreathes forward, a man read aloud who they were dedicated to and why. One man brought a wreathe in remembrance of the survivors of the Atlantic, a ship hit by four German torpedoes. The ship sunk in two minutes and only twenty-one survivors managed to get into a lifeboat. After eight days, they were out of food and water. On the seventeenth day, the remaining nine survivors were rescued. The man laying down the wreathe was one of those nine.

Nine.

We remember.

  I just read SUITE SCARLETT by Maureen Johnson. I wasn’t really sure what to expect because while I loved her book, THE BURMUDEZ TRIANGLE, I was kind of lukewarm about her others (although she’s got a zillion fans so it’s just my taste, I guess). However, I am pleased to say that I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED everything about this book, from the fantastic cover to the structure to the fact that it seems ripe for a sequel and hopefully she’s writing one!

I have a little trouble reading third person. I actually think it might be because I’m out of practice. There’s not a lot of YA written in third person these days. At least, I’m not coming across it. Sometimes, especially when there are a lot of characters, like in this book, third person causes me to forget who each person is. I think that’s because you don’t hear the main character relating to the other characters in his/her mind like you do when it’s in first person. I’m not saying this is bad, I’m just saying I find myself rereading sometimes and then going, “OH! That’s the boyfriend, not the brother!” or “Oh, she meant her sister, not the MC.” Like I said, I’m pretty sure that’s just being out of practice and not the writing. What do you think?

Anyway, I loved this book and if you know if there’s a sequel, let me know! And if there isn’t one, but you know Maureen, tell her it would be a great idea!

I have taken procrastination to a new level. No, not with my writing…with my knitting. For the last few days I have been knitting swatches like a madwoman for a knitting workshop I took today. As my dear friend,Eileen Cook, so helpfully reminded me yesterday,”You’ve known about this seminar for THREE months.” Of course I have! Which is why I am surprised that a fabulous knitter like Eileen did not offer to do these swatches for me a long time ago!

Last January, I decided to take up knitting because I needed something to do after a full day of writing that didn’t involve words. I’d noticed that a lot of writers liked to knit, so why not me? I got a great book and taught myself to knit. For the most part, I’ve done pretty well on my own, but I signed up for a class called Fear of Finishing at the local yarn store (mostly to figure out how to fix my glaring mistakes, but also to teach me how to sew all the sweater pieces together), and one of the things you had to do before the class was knit three swatches. I started these on Thursday. They take (me) about 2-5 hours each, depending on the size. But you can’t really knit continuously or your arm will fall off.

By yesterday afternoon I was so sick of knitting swatches that I actually WROTE all afternoon just to avoid having to knit. I hadn’t anticipated it would help my writing that way! But wait, it gets better, and Eileen will appreciate this hilarity. After doing about a zillion things on my huge to-do list yesterday, including knitting off and on, I popped a Perry Mason DVD into the player, turned the TV on, and sat down to knit the last 16 rows of my last swatch. Perry’s theme music was still playing when the power went out.

Because I live on an island, and the power company gets here by ferry, we were out for the night. Yes…I had to knit by candlelight! And personally, I don’t know how people have done it for all these years because after ten rows I was practically blind. I had to do the last 11 on the ferry this morning, but when I walked in to the class, I was done! So if nothing else, knitting has proved to me that I can and will meet my deadline! Even if I have to do it by candlelight!

My friend Alix told me the other day that she was thinking of doing NaNoWriMo. In the end, she signed up for Seventy Days of Sweat instead. Same idea, more time. She’s never written and novel, but has the time, is a good writer, and had the inclination. I offered to be one of her “go to” people when she felt overwhelmed or needed advice.

That got us talking about stumbling blocks. For me, it’s a point about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the first draft. Knowing where to start the story is always a bit of a challenge, but once that’s done, I take off and write, write, write and then all of a sudden the manuscript becomes one of those lawn sprinklers. Not the kind that gently arc over the grass (like in the photo), or the kind that go in one direction for a while and then ratchet back and start over, but one of those wild ones that flings water all over the yard in crazy swoops and spray like a snake whipping around. You can’t get near them to move them without turning them off because there’s no pattern to the movement. You can’t see what you have, you can’t control it, it’s got a total life and will of its own. This is how I see my manuscript in my head at that point in the writing.

I generally go through a period where I try to tame it and plough on, but eventually I have to give in, print it out, read from the beginning and then, and only then, do I realize two things. One, it’s a lot rougher than in my imagination, and two it’s FINE! I just need to keep going!

What part trips you up?

P.S. After looking at sprinkler pictures, I remembered that sometimes there’s a rainbow. Maybe I should look for one in my book when I get to that point! And boy, does that look fun! Why haven’t I done that it twenty years?

I’ve had a few strikeouts in the reading department lately, so nothing much to write about.

One was a NBA nominee that I got about 80 pages into, but still didn’t really care by then, so I let that one go back to the library.

Another was a recommended book, but didn’t get past a few pages…it was MG, which doesn’t always grab me.

The third one was a memoir that I came across while looking for something else. I like the premise/story, and the writing is good, but the author is a bit of a …well, a word I don’t use on this blog. And you got the feeling that if his eperiences (the subject of the book) “changed him” by the end that they maybe didn’t actually change him, but that enlightenment sounded like good spin for book sales. In other words, I didn’t really trust him. After he did the fourth or fifth annoying thing (and morally wrong by my standards, not to mention slightly illegal) and seemed genuinely pleased by getting away with it, I just couldn’t really care anymore. I figured if he did “change” it would just be fake change for the sake of the book.

Oh, I did read another Diane Mott Davidson mystery, which I always enjoy. Some more than others. This one was one I liked more. It was called THE GRILLING SEASON. Number 6 or so.

I have a book waiting for me at the library that I’ve been wanting to read so maybe that will be the next big hit with me. I’ll let you know if it is!

What are you reading?

I know I’ve been blogging a lot lately, and I don’t intend to keep up quite this pace, but this relates to writing and I wanted to share. My husband has been gently nudging me to leave the house more. It’s true, left to my own devices, I can go an awful long time without leaving. Last winter I didn’t go anywhere for two whole weeks. So last night I went to an election night party and I have to say that there probably is something in this leaving the house. Being around people reminds you (or teaches you) how they act and talk and these are important things to writers! Last night I was reminded of the differences between men and women party hosts. Let’s say you take a pasta salad to a party and you notice the hostess loves it. She’s had thirds, but there are still leftovers.

Here is a conversation you might have with a hostess when it’s time to leave:

Me - Oh, if you have a container I’ll just leave the rest of this pasta salad for you and take my bowl.

Hostess - You don’t have to do that. Take it. You’ll eat it.

Me - No really. I made extra and have a bowl of it in my fridge. You have it if you want it.

Hostess - Well, if you’re sure. Thanks!

She gets the container and takes the food.

Now, here’s the same situation with a male host:

Me - Oh, if you have a container I’ll just leave the rest of this pasta salad for you and take my bowl.

Him - Great! Thanks! (hands you container)

These are important things to observe (when you leave the house) because they make your writing more believable!

I forgot to go to law school, so when I got my book contract today, I sure was glad to have the best agent in the world in my corner! Oh, I read every single word. Some of them twice. The parts I understood were cool. The rest I knew was okay because he’d explained things to me.

Here he is! Doesn’t he look nice? He is!

There’s a big discussion going on over at Editorial Anonymous and some of the comments say that authors have a responsibility to other writers to voice their bad experiences with agents and editors…as warnings to other writers, I guess. Well,I think that instead of warnings, we should use the opportunity to post about our fabulous agents. That way if unagented writers are looking for agents to query, then they have something good to go on instead of something bad!

Anyone else want to join me? Love your agent? I’m declaring this “I love my agent” week! Write about them on your blog and leave your link in the comments. I’m sure those are tears of joy your agent is shedding because he/she is appreciated and have nothing to do with the fact that you’ve just helped double the weekly queries. Right Michael?

It’s true. I’m all aflutter today. I can’t concentrate. I’m revising, or trying to, and at this stage in the draft, it usually takes me about 30-60 minutes to revise a chapter. I’m mostly cutting repetition, tightening, adding in a small new thread here and there…minimal stuff. It is 1:39pm and I have been up since 6am (WAY EARLY for me) and yet, I have only managed to do one chapter. Yep. One. On a normal day I do 3-5.

What have I done instead?

Watched The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and various SNL sketches from last night on TV.

Gone to CNN.com about a dozen times.

Gone to NPR.org a zillion times

Checked my Facebook page to see what people are saying…a trillion times.

Visited YA For Obama every hour or so.

And you know where this is going, right? THERE’S NO NEWS. They can’t report ANYTHING yet…so why am I doing this instead of writing???? You tell me.

Here is a bit of a sidebar about the Canadian election system.

How about you? Are you getting any work done?

As you know, I am an American who lives in Canada. My absentee ballot went off weeks ago and I don’t think they actually count them unless they need to, but I’m not sure about that. I love Canada, but I generally try very hard not to compare the two countries (at least not publicly). However, we had an election here recently, so as a new Canadian, I thought I should learn how their government works. I think the US might want to check out their voting system. They seem to have it down to a fine art. For one thing, there are very severe campaign spending limits. For another, the election is called approximately 27 days before it takes place. That’s it. Twenty-seven days of campaigning! And lastly, each polling station only has about 350 voters and they vote by hand on a card that is hand counted by the person in charge of the polling station. No six hour waits. No hanging chads, no haywire electric voting machines. I have to say that if the USA did their voting that way, I think I’d be getting a lot more done today. I’ll admit it. I’m nervous.

I’m very excited because I managed to actually take a week off from writing (my husband thinks I’m a workaholic, although he refers to it politely as my “work ethic”, but I just really love my job!). Now the week’s up and it’s time to go back to work. I wrote a book called TRUE BLUE BABY and while I was revising it, I got an idea for a book to go in front of it… a prequel so to speak, if it had been published, but just another book since it hadn’t. Now, as I know, and my agent reiterated, writing a sequel for a book that hasn’t been sold is a “recipe for heartache”, but what about a prequel? I don’t know, but I just knew I had to write it. So I did. About a year and a half ago. And then RESTORING HARMONY took over and it sat around and now I am back to working on this book. Like TRUE BLUE BABY, the title is taken from a song my husband wrote called Keep The Faith (music is a huge part of both books). So I am keeping the faith that even though having two unsold books that go together is not the brightest idea, it will somehow pan out for me in the end. If you’d like to hear the song that started it all, you can listen to it on my music page (scroll down a bit). And you can listen to Keep The Faith here.

This is a blog about writing. It is not about politics and I don’t intend for it ever to become one. However,this is a blog about politics and this is a piece I wrote for it. If you’re interested, drop by. If not, that’s cool too.I hope you’re having a great weekend and that you remembered to set your clocks back! It would be awful to be early to work tomorrow. I will be back to revising tomorrow and it might not be such a bad thing to be an hour early!