My First Conference

My First Conference


16 Days Before the Conference:

In less than three weeks, I will be going to my first writer’s conference. I can’t wait. I’ve been to conferences with my husband, he’s an optometrist, and may I sum up that experience with one simple consonant; “ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.” But, this conference is all about me, no kids, no husband, no dishes. I will be participating in a group pitch session. I hear that ‘it’s good practice.’ I understand this to mean that pitching is a painful, yet necessary right of passage in a writer’s life. Taking this to heart, I decide not to be nervous. I doubt the agent/editor will verbally flog me if they don’t like my story. I doubt I’ll be made to sit in the corner with a dunce hat on if my stories hook isn’t catchy enough, will I?


10 Days Before the Conference:
Today my focus is on my wardrobe. I’ve been an at-home-mom for a number of years and own very little in the way of ‘business casual’ dress. What I do own is nice, but over the last couple of years, I’ve stacked on a few extra pounds. I keep meaning to correct that situation, but every time I feel the impulse to exercise, my mind overrides it with the command to lie down and read a good book. I’ve tried joining a gym, where there’s nothing to lay down on, but my car is possessed. Instead of ending up at the club, I end up at Starbucks. The one near my house is inside of a grocery store. They sell doughnuts, not a good start to a workout. As the conference approaches, I must accept that I will not lose 40 lbs. within the next 10 days. I’m going to have to work with what I’ve got. I have learned that trying on clothes in my heightened state of fluffiness is like moving. I’m trying to cram all my junk into a container that can realistically only hold half the mass. Since my clothes are not going to conform to my more voluptuous figure, I’m going to have to get a bigger container.


One Week Before the Conference:
Appropriate apparel located! I tick that off my ‘To Do’ list. Now my focus moves to preparing the family for my absence. There is some innate need to make the world completely right before I exit the house. Why is this? When I’m at home the laundry is rarely caught up. You will never find precooked meals in the frig waiting to be reheated. Why do I feel the need to clean my house? Do I think it’s going to stay that way while I’m gone? I have two 8 yr. old, human tornadoes, able to destroy a room in a single pass. I will only be gone for three days. It’s not like they’re going to starve. Even if they didn’t eat the entire time I was away, they would still be alive when I got home. Heck, even the dog knows to drink out of the toilet when the water dish is dry. Maybe I’ll thaw some hot dogs.


1 Day Before the Conference:
Prior to any trip I take, I briefly entertain the thought that I will only take carry-on luggage. As I stand looking down at my big suitcase, I throw my head back and laugh. It’s filled with items to be donated for the basket raffle. This works out well since I’m quite sure I will be winning one of the baskets; donated items out, won items in. I may as well pack an extra pair of wongie-waistbands. There is nothing like putting on stretchy pants after a long day of conferencing. I cram my tennis shoes on top. Maybe the hotel has an exercise room. I pause, who am I kidding? I toss the sneakers back in the closet. I crack myself up sometimes.


The Conference and Home:
I’ve been home for five days and the conference high is wearing off. I’m exhausted and I still haven’t unpacked. Emptying my suitcase feels like the fun is over for another year. However, I have a lot to accomplish before next year’s conference rolls around. Four things have become my mantra for the next 365 days.
1. Write, write, and write. Get the story down on paper and stop obsessing. There’s always time to edit.
2. Let my voice shine through, which will happen, if I write.
3. Don’t get lost in the time suck of email, Facebook, Twitter, and a thousand other venues. Instead, turn off the internet and write.
4. Keep my butt in the chair. The refrigerator doesn’t need to be cleaned. The silverware drawer doesn’t need to be organized. I don’t need to try on all my old makeup until the pages are written. Focus on the goal. Write.
Okay, so there might be one reoccurring theme, but it’s an important one, write the book. The conference has shown me that I am capable of writing much more than I’ve required of myself thus far. Nobody is going to write my book for me. As-a-matter-of-fact, nobody but me really cares if I ever write a book. Family members still want to eat; the school still wants me to volunteer; and the dog still wants me to walk him. Nobody cares whether I sacrifice sleep in exchange for that hour of quiet writing time.

Plotting the Window

As I ponder what to write for my very first blog, I keep getting distracted by the insulation contractor thudding up and down the ramp to my addition. Construction has consumed all my energy of late, and at the moment its hard not to be resentful of the time it has taken away from my manuscripts.

But even with all the physical activity, my mind is never far from writing. Take “pantsing” versus plotting and my recent experience installing windows. Windows require framing the opening just so. If you just wing things, you might need some serious rearranging before you can actually display to the world your shiny new glass. On my addition, when I lifted the first pane into place, I discovered the opening was an inch and a half too short.

It really stinks to put in a whole lot of effort only to discover that what you created doesn’t work and has to be chopped and hacked. Think sawzalls and chisels and the awful squeak of galvanized nails coming out of boards you were just sure would be stout enough to withstand the strongest Alaskan earthquake. They probably would have, but I had to rip them out. I still used the same opening, but it was a lot of work to rearrange king studs and cripples and header boards and the OSB siding I’d already installed. And my beautiful framing is now a mess. If only I’d plotted that window beforehand!

No one will ever know I went through all this by looking at the window. The trim and siding cover up errors on the outside, while sheetrock will eventually hide all the mistakes on the inside. But much like my first novel, I wish I had saved myself the effort.

On the other hand, each window you install gets easier and better. The second window I planned better, and it went much more smoothly, with only minor bubbles in the flashing and a few bent nails in the lip. By the time I got to my fifth and largest window, I was darn proud to have it on the front of the house.

And just like those windows, my fifth manuscript, February Trust, was pretty enough to place second in the Emerald City Writer’s Conference.

So I will keep writing. I will think of it like installing windows into imaginary lives. And someday, my manuscript will be skillful enough to be a pane of shiny new glass with a publishing house.

Until then, it’s back to the addition on my own house.

Criss-Crossing Conversations

When I began to write Maxwell’s Fall and Jackson’s Rise, I knew the books were going to be connected but even I was a bit surprised how intertwined the stories became.

A little background…Jackson and Maxwell are identical twins and werewolves. In the second book of the series (Summer’s Caress) you meet the twins and I enjoyed these characters so much, I decided they needed their own stories.

The two books begin with the exact same scene, just written from a different point of view. The scene phone call between the brothers. Each brother is hiding something from the other. Being twins (and werewolves), they sense something is wrong r and individually decide on an impromptu visit to see their twin. They cross in the air, one arriving Anchorage, Alaska and the other in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I could have stopped there. They’d ended up in their respective cites and barreled into their conflict (or it barreled into them). The stories would have been good written separately. Instead, the books became wrapped around each other. They occur in the same week. And there are several phone calls…between the books. It was like dialing across manuscripts. Jackson calls Mandy, Reign calls Max. Both sides of the conversation appear, but in their respective books.

For example, in Maxwell’s Fall, after experiencing a night of incredible sex with a man she believes is Jackson, Mandy receives a voice message from the real Jackson. He apologizes for the previous night and sounds distracted. Mandy is crushed. She thinks he’s apologizing for making love to her.

In Jackson’s Rise, you get to see what he’s apologizing for and find out what (or who) is distracting him.

The books were written at the same time and when a line of dialogue changed in one book, it had to be changed in the other.

It’s not necessary to have read Maxwell’s Fall to enjoy and understand Jackson’s Rise—the stories stand completely on their own—but it was great fun as a writer to incorporate both POVs in a scene. We rarely get to live the scene from more than one person’s mind.

Moment of blatant self-promotion…Jackson’s Rise comes out from Ellora’s Cave October 7, 2009. Check it out!
http://www.jasminejade.com/ps-7583-50-jacksons-rise.aspx

Have fun,
Tielle

I Heart Writers Groups

Okay, so I'm moving. You know what that means: cramming my life into boxes, giving away half my possessions, filling out change of address forms, and in my case ... ((sob)) ... leaving my writers group! Yes, I'm going to do what I can to make it to meetings, but reality is, most of my Tuesday evenings will now be bleak and lonely. No more venting about plot points and query letters and contest judges who just don't get me. No more unconditional support and offers of chocolate after a rejection. No more celebrating after a contract offer.

Sure, my sweetie does his best. But he doesn't understand what we writers go through. And I'm pretty sure my babblings would eventually drive him insane. Should I pick out a handy birch tree that won't mind listening to me? Hire a teenager to nod sympathetically? Maybe provide a script?

No, nothing can replace a good writers group. Getting together with like-minded people who GET IT is like oxygen. I still remember how nervous I was when it was time for my first critique. I kept ducking into the bathroom hoping we'd run out of time before it was my turn. But my lovely critiquers came through. They gently pointed out "head-hopping" issues, but also made me feel on top of the world with just the right amount of praise. I left inspired, motivated, humbled, relieved, and chanting the mantra, "I love this group!" And then I read their work. OMG! So talented, so amazing, so diverse.

My group helped me learn how to be a writer, how to get my work out there, how to handle the ups and downs of this crazy business. Writing has to be the loneliest job next to long-haul trucking. And truckers get to hang out at rest stops. Maybe writers groups are our rest stops. Places where we can recharge, connect with others of our kind, and exchange war stories from the road.

Would anyone else like to give a shout-out to their writers group? Let's give our groups some love. Make sure they know how much they're appreciated. I LOVE my group, but it will be from a distance now. Thank God for the Internet, and Yahoo loops. And for the fact that I'll be close enough to make the trip once a month. Hmm ... it's a long drive ... maybe I should take up long-haul trucking. ;)

The Sweet Smell of September

School,
Effort, and
Play.
Trying your best
Each hour of the day,
Making new friends,
Being good as you can
Exciting discoveries,
Reading books with a friend."
- Boni Fulgham

This is most likely more appropriate at the beginning of the month, rather than the end, but as I was searching for inspiration, it struck me.

I always look forward to September. For me, rather than January 1, it has always seemed to be the true start of the year. Probably from associations with school. The death of summer, the start of a new school year. Tom Hanks said it well in “You’ve Got Mail” when he spoke of newly sharpened pencils. I also like to buy a candle in the scent of MacIntosh Apple for September.

For us here in the Far North, September brings leaves of red and gold and the smell of decay. You can smell the mustiness of leaves and mushrooms and the crispness of snow in the air. It’s a month of change. Flip flops are replaced by racks of snow suits in the stores. Boots and slippers go on sale. Sweaters take over the clothing racks and snow shovels push aside the grills and patio umbrellas. Halloween will be on the shelves if not this week, next for sure.

This week I’ll dig up my summer garden of weeds and scatter Arctic Lupine and Shasta Daisy seeds hoping come spring I’ll have an instant garden. Well, almost instant garden. The lemon thyme and Johnny Jump-ups should come back next year and I’ll start my Sweetpeas come March. I’ll also buy my pansy and petunia starts much, much sooner.

So until my garden can grow outside once more (inside my tomatoes are ripening one by one!) I’ll look to the last line of the poem above – Reading Books With a Friend – or three. And writing. Yeah, it’s a good time of year to hunker down and spend my time reading and writing.

What do you like about Fall? I’d love to see recipes, hear about rituals, and even see what you’ve got on your TBR pile. What makes Fall great for you?

Morgan Q. O'Reilly
Get Some Tonight
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A Bright Hello from Qwillia

Hey there,

I'm using my pen name just in case my students decide to get sneaky and try to look up my real name on the web. LOL. Wanted to say hello and crow about the fact that my January 2009 release, Diablo Blanco Club: Unfair Advantage, went to print at the end of August. YAY!

It's available for order online from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books A Million, as well as Loose Id, LLC. Links can be found on my website under the Books by Qwillia Rain page. Website address is: www.freewebs.com/clubdiabloblanco

I'm also feeling particularly relieved today because I just finished the first round of edits on A Neighbor's Ultimatum, the menage & M/M novella scheduled to release November 10th. It's a sequel to Meeting A Neighbor's Needs and takes up where the first book left off. And just for clarification--there won't be anymore books with these three in it.

Writing is not as easy as it looks. There are so many people out there who think it just takes an idea and a computer to become an author and it takes sooo much more than that. I can tell you, I've spent the last four days writing and re-writing the story and trying to figure out how to fix the issues raised by my editor.

But, I'm preaching to the choir. The other authors contributing to this blog know just how difficult writing can be. Getting the story onto the page is just the first stage. You have the editing, re-editing, re-writing, chopping out and plopping in of passages, details, and plot twists that make the story that much deeper.

I guess it's appropriate that I discuss the labor involved in producing a novel--considering it's Labor Day!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and you've had fun with family and friends. I'm off to relax in front of the television and work on the changes that need to be made to two other manuscripts under consideration by my publisher.

Congrats to the AK Heat Wave Winners!

First, we want to say a huge Thank You to everyone who entered!

What a fabulous turnout we had.

Our Grand Prize goes to Marilyn S. from Seattle, Washington.

She had the luck to have her name drawn to recieve all four books!

Our runner-up winners are:

Virginia C.

Juniper Bell’s The Extremist

Sandra M.
Kianna Alexander’s Skye’s the Limit

Ashley V.
Shea McMaster’s Six Foot Hero

Heather H.
Tielle St. Clare’s Maxwell’s Fall

Thanks to everyone who played along and/or purchased our books!

Stay with us as more exciting announcements are made in the coming weeks.

Also, our chapter members will blog weekly. If you have questions about life in Alaska, we'd love to hear them. Post your questions here, or email them to networking@akrwa.org