Starting Anew

I always have mixed feelings about sending my kids off to school at the beginning of the new year. I want them to be excited, but I know too well that life doesn't always work out the way we plan it. That doesn't have to be a bad thing. So, on their first day of school today, I hope the surprises are good ones (or at least something that they already have the problem-solving skills to deal with).

I've already seen two of the three off to school. After I drop off the third, I'm going to start the beginning of a new series. It's something I've been dreaming about and making notes on for years, but I just found the setting last week. The setting is historical, and while I was researching it, a librarian introduced me to Interlibrary Loans (ILL). Through my local library, I can borrow books from libraries all over the world. Specifically, when I was looking up a certain historical figure, I found a book written by him that has been translated into English. This guy lived in the ninth century! That book is currently in Amsterdam, but I can request it and have access to it through my local library. Isn't that awesome?

But it could be months before the books I request arrive, and I already have story that I need to get down. I'm excited (and a bit nervous) to get started.

But I have a third child to get off to school first. :o)

TBW 9 Finished!

Thank you for your kind words on my last couple of posts. I appreciate your support.

I've been working on the ninth draft of TBW since January--over seven months--which is longer than it took me to write the first draft. Granted, the last five months have been rough for personal reasons. But in revising both this novel and SS, it felt like I hit a point where it was impossible to revise the story into what I wanted it to be. More than that, I wasn't even sure what I wanted the story to be anymore.  Earlier this month, I punched through that.

I remember when I was writing my first draft of SS, I hit a similar wall, and I just had to keep working at it until I found where the story was supposed to go again. Often I have to go back to move forward.

I'm not saying that TBW is perfect now or that I'm ready to send it off to agents, but I am ready to let critique partners read it again. I don't need to fix anything because it isn't broken anymore. And that is a wonderful feeling.

Life Update

It's been a long time.

Thank you for your kind words after Ben's accident. His shoulder is still recovering, and he has one area that still blisters from being burned so badly. But he's still here.

Two of my friends aren't. In April, one of them went into a diabetic coma and didn't come out of it, leaving behind a pregnant wife (who delivered a healthy baby girl the next day) and three children who loved and depended on him. In May, the other committed suicide. I've written posts and not posted them. I have to write my way through stuff like this, and yet some things are not only gut-wrenchingly personal; there's also the possibility that my observations will hurt someone who's already hurting. Family is especially touchy. The neighbor who committed suicide was my sister's brother-in-law, and suicides always make people question whether there was something they could have done to prevent it.

I may revisit what I've written for later posts, but today, I want to share what George Saunders had to say about kindness. It's beautiful.

An Explanation

I'm starting to get phone calls, e-mails, and FB messages from friends who've been concerned by my absence, and I'm thinking this blog is the best venue for an explanation. Ben was in an accident at work three weeks ago, and life has been hectic. It was scary at first, but he's recovering. Aside from some interesting scars, there shouldn't be any lasting damage, and I am SO grateful for that.

He managed to lift 50 pounds with his left arm in physical therapy today (which is a big deal for someone who couldn't even lift his arm a couple of weeks ago), so the doctor has released him to return to work. 

For those of you who already knew and are just reading this for an update, thank you for your prayers and your help. I have the best family and friends. I really do. 

And that goes for those of you who are just finding out as well. It's not your fault it's taken me this long to say something. If it makes you feel better, you can still pray for him. I'm sure that would make him feel better. :o)  

Seriously, though: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

Choosing Happiness Over Money

When I was at BYU, my favorite writing professor and I debated this topic more than once. He believed that most people live unhappy lives, trapped by their circumstances. I would concede that everyone has to deal with unfavorable circumstances, but that (in our country, at least) our happiness or lack thereof is determined by our choices.

I still believe that. Envy, guilt, fear, loneliness, anger, habit . . . there are probably more bad reasons to make a choice than there are good ones, but I don't think it is ever too late to choose compassion and courage, to lift others, to find something you are passionate about and throw yourself into it. I will probably never have a lot of money, but I am happy. When I was younger, I wanted to be a mother, a teacher, and I wanted to be a writer. There were a lot of other things I wanted to be and do, but those three were important. So, I made choices that lead me to a place where they would always be important.

I have this amazing critique partner named Adam Heine. Adam and his wife foster orphans in Thailand. She teaches dance, he while writes novels and is a designer/writer for computer games. They are making a huge difference in the lives of the children they love, and I believe they are happy.

Actually, all of my critique partners are people who have chosen happiness over money. It's one of the things that drew me to them.

I came across this video earlier today, which was the catalyst for this post. It's pretty awesome.

In the comments, if you'd be willing to share a choice you've made that is still making you happy, I'd love that. And if you'd like to share more than one, go for it!

Fairy Tale Variations

Over the course of the last several months, I've been outlining a fairy tale retelling. It had been a long time since I'd read the fairy tale, but I thought it was a little known variation of East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Nope. With a little help from my mother-in-law, I discovered that the tale is actually called The Unusual Nightingale. And while there are quite a few retellings of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, I haven't been able to find one for The Unusual Nightingale.

Yes, this makes me happy.

Why did I make the mistake in the first place? There are a lot of similarities between the two fairy tales. The Unusual Nightingale begins more like Beauty and the Beast, but the ending is more like East of the Sun, West of the Moon. And the story that I've been outlining isn't really any of them. It has bits of a nursery rhyme and an old story that inspired Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, and I'm searching for a historical culture that I can anchor it in. I don't know how much of the fairy tale will be left when I've written and revised it, but it's a good place to begin. How many variations of Cinderella are there?

Do YOU have a favorite fairy tale?

Elizabeth Gilbert's Take on Creative Genius

This TED video isn't new, but it was exactly what I needed this week. If you have a little while, it's worth watching.

I don't talk about inspiration on here often, because I worry that someone who hasn't experienced it will think I'm being weird. When I write poems or picture books, they tend to come all at once; if I don't write the idea as a whole, I can't go back and capture the unfinished part. That doesn't mean that I'll never have a chance to capture that idea again, but if I'm to get it right, I'll have to start over; it won't be the same.

But when you have children and friends, you get interrupted. And I love my husband, but he is more likely to interrupt my work-in-progress than to protect me from interruptions. *waves to husband* And this is okay. It just makes capturing those fleeting ideas more challenging.

Writing a novel is a more forgiving process for me. I can stop in the middle of scene and come back to it, though it's still easier for me to write from the beginning of a scene to the end. I know that not all writers are like this, though. Some leave scenes unfinished so that they'll have something to work on when they come back. And in theory, that's a great idea. It just doesn't work as well for me.

What about you? Do you have something that's hard to finish once it's been interrupted?