The Weekend After Christmas

So here it is, a cold but not quite dreary Saturday afternoon. The hubbub of Christmas joy shared with six children, two significant others of those children, and one nine-month old grandson is over, and the house is quiet. The trees are still decorated, but bare of presents, and look lonely. As I ambled around looking for something to do after lunch, I decided to catch up on some reading. In the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of Poets & Writers was a touching entry in the usual The Literary Life column, titled Finding Beverly. It took us through the journey of how Beverly Jensen, through the tireless work of her husband and friends (and the help of the columnist as well), will have her life's literary work - a novel called Going Back Up - published by Viking in 2010. I had tears in my eyes as I finished this column, touched that so many people cared so much about this woman's writing to ensure her voice was read even after her death. What a beautiful tribute to her and gift to her children! Wow!

Another Two Months Go By...

...and I finally get back to blogging. I am now taking a creative writing course at our local community college, and having a lot of fun with it. Also, NaNoWriMo is coming up next month. Time to churn out another 50,000 words in 30 days! Of course, I'm still editting the one I did back in February of 2005 with NaNoPubYe!

I'll share with you the monologue assignment we just completed. We had to write from two versions of our past selves.

THE OVERLOOKED

I am the overlooked one. The one they ignore most of the time, or belittle when I do come back in their line of sight. My parents are too old, too sick, too selfish to care about me. I am not encouraged in school, although I am expected to get good grades. There is no “Good Job!” or “Way to Go!” waiting for me when I get an A on an essay or an exceptionally hard test. There is no discussion of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I am not even given a choice when my parents divorce as to which parent I’d prefer to live with. I get stuck with my mother – the functional alcoholic, I discover later, although growing up, this is just the way Mom is. I am not given the choice of living with my father, losing his battle with lung cancer the Tuesday of the week of Thanksgiving the year I turn 13. Some part of me accepts this through three failed marriages, a myriad of failed relationships, until I am with a man who strikes me so much of my mother that the “Aha!” moment comes, and I choose not be overlooked any longer.

GETTING TO KNOW MYSELF

The advice-giving side of me says “Finally!” but there is that nubbin of fear of letting go of the familiar, of being alone with myself. Eighteen months go by as I learn to love and accept myself, to value myself, to begin to realize my dreams and visualize what I want, really want, for my life. There are struggles not only internally with my own demons who fear the unfamiliar, but also with the outer demons disguised as friends and family who fear the change in me might incite a change in their own lives. They carry on the ignoring and belittling behavior espoused by others in my prior life. Some who knew me before accept the change and our paths move forward. Those who fear the changes fall away, and I deal with the grief of loss as I struggle to keep my face towards the sun. After eighteen months with my new self, I finally have the confidence to seek a mate again.

Thank you for reading, and feel free to comment, if you wish!

It's Been A While

...and I probably need to clean this blog up a bit. Life got away from me this year - I started out with the best of intentions, forgetting that you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time! So, what have I accomplished thus far in 2008? I did get through a fair part of editting my book "Harken the Change"; I did get married in May and travel to Europe in June. I did sign up for a creative writing course at my local junior college. I have thought about writing - continuing my "Theft by Character" train, getting at least 12 more pages written so I can get an ISBN for that book! In fact, just yesterday as I was reading the latest AARP magazine, an essay topic came to mind whilst I was perusing one of the more entertaining articles. But, alas, I have yet to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be) to begin. Oh, and I also joined the Northern California Publishers and Authors group today (NCPA - www.norcalpa.org). The speaker at their monthly meeting this time was Jennifer Novak Landers, and her topic was "Using Your Creativity to Promote Your Inner Artist." Very interesting discussion!

Progress!

Ok, so it wasn't 10 hours of editting this week - but I did manage about 6 hours and reworked over 40 pages of my 190-page manuscript thus far. And now that I've added that tidbit, I'm off to see if I can edit a few more in the next hour (so that will be 7 hours in one week - 70% of the goal for the first week - not bad!).

2008 Goals

Yes, I know, resolutions are deriguer this time of year...so here are mine, in the writing realm, by month:

Every month

10 hours per week minimum
Work on short stories for various contests (The First Line, etc.)

Every third month

Check progress on goals

January

First rewrite of Harken the Change

February

Work on Soultalker

March

Second rewrite of Harken the Change

April

Send Harken the Change out for critique
Work on Soultalker

May

Not much writing...getting married this month

June

Euro vacation - capture scenes, characters, dialogue

July

Last edit of Harken the Change
Synopsize it
Format and publish it

August

Work on Soultalker

September

Finish Soultalker

October

Develop story ideas for NaNo 2008

November

NaNo 2008 - write 50,000 words in 30 days

December

Enjoy the holidays
Update goals for 2009

GO, GIRL GO!