Happy 2022!

 Well, <gulp>, it's been quite some time since I last wrote. In my defense...well, I have no defense. Everybody's been busy; everybody's been affected by the pandemic. And I'm no different. 

2020 AND 2021 have been full of challenges, but lots of good books as well. I'm blessed to be able to do what I love, with talented authors and clients who have become friends over the years. Looking at the numbers, I edited through 3,679,121 words in 2021. Although that looks like a big number, it's actually one of the lowest years in terms of word count. I was somewhat distressed by that, until I remembered why that number was so low.

There were authors who had their publishing plans changed because of life issues beyond their control: loss of loved ones, moving challenges, personal health issues, changes in their regular day jobs or family life. 

I took more time off in 2021 than I had in a long time, including a trip to see our family in Denver. We got to celebrate as our son and girlfriend officially got engaged, being there as part of the ring design. They are using the stones from the first wedding ring my husband gave me, so it was wonderful to be a part of that. And we had a great time seeing my husband's mother and sisters for the first time in two years!

I ran my church's Basket Bonanza, which always takes a week of preparation. We changed the format to an all-day preview, with online watching options as we pulled the winning tickets. It was a bit nerve-racking because we'd never done it that way, but we got great feedback from our attendees. And I had some great book baskets to give away, because of the support of some of my authors!

I took time off to work on a personal project, which I've never really done, either. (Usually personal stuff gets pushed to nights or weekends). I'm still working on it (slower than I should, really), but I'm pretty happy with my results.

I've been spending time strengthening my professional network as well. I've been the Chapter Coordinator for the EFA for some time, and now we meet virtually (twice a month at night; twice a month in the morning). With that option available, I've been able to meet some of our EFA members who couldn't make in-person meetings and developed relationships that have been resources for questions and situations that have popped up over time.

And over the course of the pandemic, home life has changed. No longer does my husband travel three out of four weeks each month. I actually stop for dinner, and typically don't work after that, either! It just to be that I'd have a small dinner at my desk, and then work until 9 or 10 before dropping into bed! But now, I'm spending time with the hubby and occasionally going out with friends (masked and in low-density locations...outside back in the nice weather!). 

So even though that's not the biggest number I've ever had for a year of editing, it reflects how the world has changed, and how I've changed with it. 

 

I hope 2022 brings you all the writing success you are looking for!

Sucker for Romance

It's a pretty well-known fact, I think, that I am a sucker for romance.  Always have been. At least, if you know me, you'd know that. And if you didn't know it, now you do.

My last post included my trip to the RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference in Denver. One of the reasons I went was to support one of my authors who'd been nominated for a RITA award.  About four hours before the award ceremony, she tells me that the winning authors AND their editors go up and say a few words (just like every awards show you've seen on TV). Now, never in a million years did I ever think I'd be having to go up on stage and speak to hundreds of people, including some of my favorite authors! I was in a panic...did I want her to win or not? Now I wasn't so sure.

Yes, I was sure. I wanted her to win.

So I prepared.  I had a few hours and jotted down a quick note:

As an editor, you always hope the manuscripts that come across your desk will be well-written, have great characters, make you feel all the emotions, make you laugh (in the best way possible, and not in a oh-my-God-this-can't-go-out-into-the-world way) and make you cry at the right time. I am so honored that all of that and more came to me in Evelyn's book, Dare and a Deposition. Thank you to the judges for your time and commitment to the process, but most of all, thank you to Evelyn for letting me be part of your journey. 

So, that's what I wrote down. I had some more ideas in my head, because there was more I wanted to say. But having never been to this ceremony before (or watching it online, which, apparently you can do), I wasn't sure of the tone of the night. Was it serious? Crazy? Laugh-a-minute? Tug-your-heartstrings? So I kept my thoughts to myself - didn't write them down so I wouldn't say them out loud unless I read the room and felt it was appropriate.  Or maybe so if someone saw my little speech, they'd be surprised by the ending.

That someone was, of course, my hubby. He came to Denver with me and worked that week with his guys in the area.  He wanted to support me for the award ceremony and generally support my career. Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling well that week, and the day of the ceremony things came to a head. He actually was at a Urgent Care clinic that afternoon, getting some tests run. By the time he was done and back at the hotel, the award ceremony had begun. I was in the banquet room, waiting for him, and he was out of the room, trying to find me. After about ten minutes of miscommunication and missed opportunities and missed connections, we finally met up and I took him to our table.

At this point, it's past dinner time...and neither of us have eaten. I don't know about you, but I can be rather...cranky when I haven't eaten.  And I was nervous. And I was worried about the hubby - because he wasn't feeling well and he hadn't eaten either. We were both stressed, to be sure.

But you know what? He came through for me in true romance-book-hero fashion. He was there. He cared enough about me to do his best to support me, even when he felt like crap and just wanted to grab something to eat and go back to the room to sleep. And he's always been that way. He's always been supportive of my choices and encouraged me to stretch, to grow.

So, to end my little speech, I wanted to thank my husband for always being there for me, for encouraging me to pursue this path, even when he didn't think it would necessarily go anywhere or work out well. I wanted to thank him for putting up with the deadlines and accepting that all my authors were the most important authors ever, and I needed to give up cleaning the bathrooms to make sure that those commas were in the right place. (Just kidding...I never actually really clean anyway!) And I especially wanted to thank him for being my body dummy when I had a problematic scene where I couldn't quite figure out where the guy's hands were in the sex scene. 

And all I could think of was that famous (well, for people of a certain age, I guess) Emmy award speech by Kristie Alley, where she thanked her husband for "giving her the big one." I was sure I was going to channel my inner idiot and say it just like she did:

But I'm kind of okay with that. After all, if you can't admit to loving your partner in a room full of romance junkies, where can you?

More Adventures...

Well, it's been a busy few months. I can't believe it's actually been three months since my last post! I've been on another adventure since then, have another planned, and completed a major project on my list of things to do.

So, about my adventure... I went to RWA in Denver this year. I joined as an associate member, which is what you do when you're an editor, not pursuing a career in writing.  One reason I went was to cheer on one of my authors who had been nominated for a RITA award (totally check out Dare and a Deposition for a great read!).  I also wanted to meet some more of my authors who were going to be there. I had a wonderful time, did a little fan-girling over some of my favorite authors (whether they were my clients or not!), and helped out at the trade show, representing the EFA. I sat in on some interesting seminars and picked up some cool tips to keep in mind while editing.

And it didn't hurt that because it was in Denver, I got to see my boy and my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law.

One of the elevator doors at the Sheraton

Sarra Cannon getting ready for her seminar on Getting Things Done.  She did a great job!

At the IT'SUGAR store at the 16th Street Mall

More from IT'SUGAR

Hey, everyone needed to check Facebook!

The EFA booth on Saturday

I totally grabbed Carrie Ann Ryan when she was walking by on Saturday morning!

I saw this in the restroom at a local bar

My next adventure: Well, it's a bit of a repeat of a previous adventure.  Yup, I'm headed back to the the Niantic Book Barns. This time, it's an EFA meeting at the library, a quick lunch in town, and then time at the book stores.

Major Project Completed: I've been thinking about updating my website (it's been a couple of years!) and decided to hand off the project to someone else.  That's right, I hired someone to take that over.  And I'm so happy with the results. You'll have to check out the website, and if you are interested in any updates for your site, Ogden Studios can help you out.

Book Adventures, Part I

On the second weekend of April, I convinced the hubby to take a road trip up to Burlington, MA.  The purpose: Talkbooks Author Signing Event.

I had two of my authors there: Cali MacKay and Jen Davies. And there were several other authors there I'd either heard of or read. 


So we headed up on Saturday afternoon, with the plan to stay overnight and head back in the morning. We got there late enough in the afternoon that the early birds had cleared out. In fact, Cali was pretty much out of books by the time I showed up:

An almost empty author's table

 I found Cali right away, and funny enough, Jen was across the aisle from her!  They'd actually talked a bit before the show started and it turns out they aren't that far from each other.

I got to meet Jen (finally!). Her book The Witch's Heart is a nominee for the RONE award (Reward of Novel Excellence). If you want to support an indie author, go ahead and register to vote!



As I walked around, I purchased some books, talked to some new authors and some favorites (I got to tell Julia Kent how I stayed up until 1 a.m. reading her Shopping for a Billionaire, pretty much laughing my butt off) and made plans to have dinner with Cali (and our husbands).

Somehow, I didn't get a photo of me and Cali, but I did get a picture of my dinner at the funky place she suggested, The Friendly Toast.

Breakfast for dinner - you bet!

We sat and ate, and talked, and talked and talked.  We were there for two hours, and I think Cali & I could have spent another two hours there without running out of things to talk about!

But the hubby and I had decided to check out The Black Panther, so off we went. I have to say, it was a pretty good movie, and I suspect watching it will help fill in some blanks for the next Avengers movie.

If you ever get a chance to attend a book signing, I'd encourage you to do so. As an author, it's a great chance to meet fans or gain new ones. As a reader, it's so cool to see the people who write these stories that entertain and enthrall us.

Book Adventures Part II

Okay, okay...careful readers of the blog will realize there hasn't been a Book Adventures Part I. There will be, I promise.  But that was last weekend, and I wanted to share my book adventures from this weekend, so I'm jumping ahead.  Hey, haven't you heard...you should start your story in the middle, right?

So, this weekend the hubby and I took a bit of a road trip.  I've been wanting to check out the Niantic Book Barn. (Technically, there are four locations.) And considering he wanted to take a long-ish drive in his new car, a plan was hatched.

This was the first warmish weekend this spring, so it was a nice ride up. And the Book Barn was pretty easy to find - not far off the highway exit. So I went in while the hubby fussed around with his car.

Like any good used (and even new - hey, I won't discriminate!) book store, here are the cats.  They were comfy-cozy when I saw them, so I left them to their own devices. This particular couch was upstairs, where I wandered into the Books/Publishing/Wordsmithing section.  I've never seen them before, but here's actual copies of the Chicago Manual of Style - both the 12th and 14th Editions.

When I started editing, the 16th Edition was in use (now the 17th is out). It was kind of cool to see the changes between editions.

I found a few other gems, too:

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing

 

 

 

 

Euphemania

I, of course, purchased them.  I had to buy something, right?

But that book barn was actually not the main book barn.  About 30 seconds down the road, on our way to find lunch, we found the main location.  Food could wait, we figured.

This was even bigger and better than the first one we stopped at. I mean, they had a panda poster:

Live goats (okay, not my best photo...but I never claimed to be a great photographer!)

Interesting and unique outbuildings

A decent selection of romance (okay, I might be a bit biased when they have a nice selection of Barbara Freethy books - even ones I haven't worked on).

Water features:

Hey, there's a cutie here, too!

Gargoyles and wind chimes:

But hunger prevailed.  We found a cute place (between the book barns, so it wasn't that difficult) called East Coast Taco.  It was kind of busy, but the food was pretty good. And the place itself was pretty cool, too.

I mean, a place with license plates from Aruba, Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands is not what you typically find in a New England town.


All in all, it was a pretty good day. And...considering we were only twenty minutes away, somebody decided we should go have a donut at Krispy Kreme. (Hint: it was not me.)

Anybody need a paper hat?

My and the hubby at Mohegan Sun...location of Krispy Kreme (and just a few poker machines).

So if you are ever in Niantic, CT, check out the Book Barn (any of the four locations) and enjoy a great day out!

Alternate Reality Part II

As a follow-up to my Alternate Reality post, I wanted to see whether anyone is watching Counterpart on Starz.  Here's a snippet from the IMDB page for the show:

Counterpart is an espionage series about a mysterious world hidden beneath the surface of our everyday existence...

Howard Silk (J.K. Simmons) is a lowly cog in the bureaucratic machinery of a Berlin-based United Nations spy agency. When Howard discovers that his organization safeguards the secret of a crossing into a parallel dimension, he is thrust into a shadow world of intrigue, danger and double cross...where the only man he can trust is his near-identical counterpart from this parallel world. The show explores themes of identity, fate and lost love, posing the eternal question, "What if our lives could have been different?"

Sounds like fun, right? A whole world to explore, with yourself as a mirror to the what-if questions in life.

 I've loved everything I've seen J.K. Simmons in (Oz, Law & Order series, Juno) - although he's such a good actor that I haven't dared to watch Whiplash yet. And the characterization between the Howards is incredible: the way they walk, talk, hold themselves makes it easy to see which Howard is in the scene.  

Alternate Reality

You might have guessed (if you've ever thought about it before - and really, why wouldn't you?), that I was quite the reader as a kid.  I read the expected Little House on the Prairie series, The Wizard of Oz series, the Tintin comics (man, I loved those!). But girls grow up and want to learn about the world around them...and so I started reading science fiction.

Okay, it may have been because it's what my older brothers were reading (although I don't think we read the same books exactly). I know at least one of my brothers was a big Lord of the Rings fan, and (sit down before you continue) I didn't read them until just before the movies came out. I think we did have our Robert Heinlein in common, though.

I had other favorites that I couldn't pass up: Robert Silverberg and Anne McCaffrey come to mind as authors I read everything I could get my hands on.

But there is one book that came out in 1992 (well after my youth - I was in my twenties at that point) that really made me think about what a book was.  It was a book of short stories entitled Alternate Presidents. (I can hear some of you just groaning...or desperately wishing...for an alternate president or two in the last two decades.)

The introduction starts like this:

Playing the Game of WHAT IF?
One of the joys of science fiction is that it gets to ask the question What If?

I would say that any fiction gets to ask the question What If?  You, the author, take the reader on that trip into what-if. You provide that alternate reality where people can explore the what-ifs in the world, whether that's in the safety of someone they relate to or the eye-opening experience of relating to someone they never thought they could. Sometimes that alternate reality makes our reality more bearable; other times, it gives us a chance to see the world from a different point of view.

So on those days when the words just won't come, or those characters have minds of their own and won't do what you want them to, remember that you are providing your readers with the opportunity to explore the what-ifs in the world...and the world would be a poorer place without your gift to it.

Keep writing!



PS- I just checked Amazon to link to the book, and it seems there is a whole series of Alternate Histories: Presidents, Kennedys, Warriors, Outlaws, and Tyrants.  Keep your eyes out for them online or at your favorite book sales!

2017 In Review

Maybe you've realized it (and maybe you haven't), but I have not been very social on social media in 2017.

I have not blogged.

I have not Facebooked.

I have not tweeted.

Well, some of that is technically not true.  I had 4 (yes, just four!) blog posts in 2017 (and that includes this post).  I kept up with my title milestone listings and occasionally checked my professional Facebook feed. I have several tweets set up to automatically repeat, so those have gone out.

But really, I have not been social on social media.  I had plans to be.  I had spreadsheets of ideas to write about, resources to share, and I wanted to spread the love for my authors. But alas, those plans did not come to pass.

Part of that is because I was busy. So very busy. With all good stuff, I swear. Like the 6.7 MILLION words I read for work this year. Like the God knows how many books for fun I read this year. A trip to Colorado to soak in the hot springs and see our son. A trip to Bermuda for a beautiful wedding. Some church projects (like my annual Basket Bonanza and other leadership roles). Like volunteering for my community as we build our library (it's currently in the basement of our town hall). Like coordinating chapter meetings for the editorial association I belong to, the EFA.

But as 2017 winds down, it's time to think ahead.  I'm going to try to up my game on the social media front - maybe it won't be as much as it was three or four years ago, but it needs to be more than it was in 2017. Another ambitious goal for 2018 is to update my website again.  I've got tons of new covers to put up, and it's always fun to give it a facelift! I'm thinking of joining RWA as an associate member and checking out their convention (okay, it doesn't hurt that it's in Denver so I'll get a chance to hang out with my son a bit more!).

What are you planning in 2018?

Year End Review/2017 goals

I've watched a few of these MarieTV spots on YouTube, but I really liked this one for a year-end review process:

So here are my answers to her 3 questions:


1) What did I do, create, or experience this year that I'm really proud of: I am picking experiences here. I am proud of my continued dedication to my swim lessons.  Now, this may seem peculiar, but if you factor in how afraid of water - much less actual swimming - I had been in the past, you can see how sticking to the lessons for a year and a half now is quite the achievement. I really look forward to my lessons: the time in the pool, learning a new skill (I'm currently struggling with the dolphin move) and fine-tuning it until it's just about perfect, and frankly, doing something I thought I'd never do.

The other experience I'm proud of is my attendance at the EFA National Conference.  Again, it might seem weird to you outgoing types, but for this introvert to go into (what I perceived, anyway) a large group of strangers and make it a point to talk to new people - well, it was a big deal.

Dinner out in NYC

Cool book walls at the resturant

Me and Mary Norris, of The New Yorker

2) What mistakes did I make that taught me something?  What lessons did I learn that I can leverage? I'm not sure what I'd consider a mistake in 2016; I'm sure there was something I did wrong at least once. So I think I'm going to say my mistake (and not one isolated to 2016) is my tendency to think I can't do something...that I don't have the skills or the talent or the innate quality to be successful at whatever that particular "thing" is. But the truth is I can do things I think I can't (see above re:swimming).  I'm learning all the time...I just have to realize I can and I am, and feel confident that I even if I am a beginner or novice, every expert started just like me.

3) What am I willing to let go of? This one is a bit harder. I don't like to let go of things (just ask my husband!). But maybe I can let go of my disappointments (I really don't have to dwell on them, especially in the middle of the night!) when things don't go quite my way...or the way they have always gone. I need to let go of that negative attitude, that negative mindset, when it sneaks up on me.

So what about you? Can you take a few minutes an answer these 3 questions? Share in the comments (if you dare!).

Oh, You Are So Punny!

The first time I met The Boy's current Girlfriend, we were in Denver, visiting The Hubby's family.  So it was me, The Hubby, The Boy, The Girlfriend, Grandma, and Aunt Dee driving down the highway. And one of us (not The Boy or the Girlfriend) starting making some snarky, punny conversation.  We all laughed a bit and then quieted down.  I looked back at The Girlfriend and said, "Doesn't being with someone's family explain a whole about them?" 

My family has always appreciated good word play.  And sarcasm (but that's another post for another time). Maybe that's why I love reading and books and authors-and yes, even editing-so much.  I grew up with words running around in my head, even if I never spoke them.  

The editor groups I participate in on Facebook have no shortage of pun enthusiasts.  Here's a recent post: 

And not to get on a political note here, but I couldn't help but laugh at this one:

 

My brother just shared Mental Floss's article on puns (This Is Your Brain On Puns - which, of course is a play on the anti-drug commercial "This is your brain on drugs" with the fried egg). It's a pretty quick article on how the left and right sides of your brain work to figure out puns.  

A few years ago, I found out there was a contest of puns: the O. Henry Pun-off World Championship.  I'm not sure how this wonderful event found its way into my world, but it's a cool idea: a bunch of people celebrating our wonderful world of words and often employing humor to do so. 

I've decided to run another contest for 2017, and this time I'm letting you all know what it's about.  And if you guessed puns, you'd be right. So for all of 2017, I'll be keeping track of the puns (or just the stuff the tickles my funny bone) and have a year-end poll for the best pun of 2017. 

 

Am I Crazy or What?

Yes, yes, I know it's been several (okay, almost six) months since I last wrote. It's just been so busy - in so many great ways.  My last post was just after my summer vacation, and after that wonderful, restful time...it was back to work! And more work! And volunteer work! And some house projects (okay, I didn't really do any real work...I was just there to see all the work get done and make sure no one melted away in the oppressive August heat).

And The Boy and The Girlfriend visited at the end of October.  It was nice to visit with them...and have him take my car on adventures as they went to Boston for a friend's wedding. Some things never change...kids always want the keys to the car.

Now Thanksgiving is over (let us give thanks!) and Christmas and New Years is staring us in the face.  And I suspect 2017 is going to be just as busy, crazy, eventful, happy, sad, interesting, terrifying, and uplifting as 2016.

But I have a few changes in store for 2017, so I'm working on my goals early this year.  And by early, I just mean not on Dec. 31. I'm going to take some time over the next few weeks (even if it's just 5 minutes before I go to sleep) to really think about the things I want to accomplish for 2017.  Here's my preliminary list, in no particular order:

1) 2017 is a "go to a writer's conference" year (2016 was my EFA conference, which apparently I only blogged about in my dreams).  I had thought it'd be Romantic Times in Atlanta, but I don't see many (actually, I think there was only 1) of my authors signed up to go.  So I'm thinking I might go to RWA Nationals in Orlando instead.

2) That leads into the probability of joining RWA, and maybe an online chapter.  There are a few chapters in my state, but I'm not sure I have the actual time to go to an actual meeting.  And that's because...

3) In addition to everything else I'm doing already, I've decided to head up the CT Chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association. Our previous leader got a full-time job editing, and doesn't have the time to continue.  I really liked our meetings, even when they were just networking/talking with other editors, so if I wanted them to continue, either I had to wait for someone to take the position or do it myself...otherwise the chapter would have been dissolved. So, yeah, after waiting a few weeks and checking in, no one else had expressed any interest in heading up the chapter.  So...there you go.

It probably seems a bit crazy for me to take on this additional responsibility. After all, I can't even keep up with a blog on any kind of regular basis, right? Which leads to...

4) I am going to write out a schedule of blogging.  It won't be much - maybe twice a month - but I need to get back in the habit.  I often use my blog posts to illustrate a point to my authors (how many of you have seen a link in the manuscript comments to a post I'd done in the past?), so it's a useful tool for me to have.  And if I had a plan of some sort, I could either follow it (Gasp! Follow a plan!?!) or ignore it for something I felt needed to be touched on.

How about you? Are you thinking ahead to 2017? Do you have ideas about what you'd like to accomplish?

Good News, Bad News

So the good news: I have finally completed the facelift to my website (www.theatwatergroup.com).  The bad news: It took so long, I need to update it already!

But seriously, you guys have been sending me such great manuscripts that I've been keeping very busy with you know, actual work instead of spending time on the website.  (Which I am totally okay with, by the way.)  I have been keeping up with updating my Facebook page with those new releases - keep them coming!

More good news (for me, at least): I managed to take a real vacation!  Yup, the hubby and I went to Denver to see our son, my mother-in-law, and my sisters-in-law.  We spent the first few days by ourselves, though, at the Springs Resort in Pagosa.  It was so wonderful.  I'd never been to a hot springs before, and it was a great experience.  We picked "the Romance Package," which included a couples' massage.  The resort has about 25 different pools, each at different temperatures so there is a variety to choose from - including an over 18 section to cut down on kids running around.

Then, it was back to Denver to visit with family.  We had a great time with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, but it was especially wonderful to spend time with our son and meet his girlfriend.  We got to see his office (okay, it's a room in a building downtown) and see some of the volunteer work he does.  He took us on a walk downtown through Poets' Row, a group of apartments named (surprise!) after poets and writers:

But now we are back home, getting into the swing of things.  It was nice to get away (and to take a real break from working) but I am happy to be going through those wonderful manuscripts you send my way.

And maybe I'll try to update that website in my spare time!

What to Leave In, What to Leave Out

I've always been fascinated with obituaries. Even as a young girl, I'd read the obits in the paper.  Sometimes it seemed so sad when I read about someone who died young - you know, age 40 (yikes!).  It was amazing to me that some people could live to 80 or 90!

It was kind of cool to read about their families, who was left behind, and the things they did during their lifetime. A bit of inspiration, I guess, that families matter, the little things we do add up to big things, and what kind of an impact a person could make on the small circle of family and friends, and maybe even the larger circle of the community.

But I was always puzzled why they never really said how they died.  (Hey - I was young and wanted answers to all my questions - which, I suppose, hasn't changed much!) It was "suddenly passed away" or "passed away unexpectedly" or "at the end of a long illness."  At least with that last one, you could get some sense of what happened.

I thought that for history's sake, an honest obituary would be a historian or anthropologist's dream.  How many people died in the 1860s from war-related issues vs. farming accidents, for example? Or how many people died from suicides in the 1920s? 

But lately, there's been more of a trend to include the story behind the death, notably with drug overdoses.  Those rare pieces give the reader a peek into the life of someone caught up in a situation they couldn't overcome, to act (sometimes) as a warning to some or as a balm to others that they are not alone in their struggle to deal with a loved one's unsuccessful fight with their demons.  See the articles on Addiction, Suicide and Obituaries and Huff Post, for example. 

This rarity, unfortunately, does not seem to include celebrities: anytime someone halfway famous dies, you can bet you'll hear the truth behind it: Robin Williams: first we hear it was depression, but then his widow tells us he suffered from Lewy body dementia. Joan Rivers: complications from surgery.  Jim Henson: pneumonia.

Now it seems there's a new idea in town: the mean obituary.  I was reading this piece on CNN (When vengeful obits go viral, who's to blame? ) and read some of the words written about 94-year-old Wilma Black, who died December 22 in North Carolina.It was a paid death notice, written and placed by a family member in the Raleigh News & Observer's advertising section. Wow.

But I think the most compelling reason I like to read the obits is to hear about people: people like me, people not like me; people who made a wide impact on the community, people who lead a quiet life.  I want to hear about their stories.

And story is what draws me into a book: a way to exist in these characters' world, whether it's a sci-fi/fantasy location or a person struggling with life and love. So, authors, pay attention to your characters and make your readers care about them too!

Can You Teach Someone to Write?

Early in the week, I was sick.  And the hubby was on a trip, so I had to suck it up and take care of myself.  But all I planned to do was sit on the couch and take medicine, so it wasn't that difficult.  I couldn't focus on a computer screen, so I watched the big screen instead.  I got caught up on my General Hospitals (oh the intrigue! oh the double-crosses! oh the passion!).  But then I pulled out the big guns: Hugh Grant.

I was cruising through the On-Demand section from our cable provider and saw Music and Lyrics listed.  I almost picked that one, but then remembered another movie of his I hadn't seen yet, so I kept going.  And once I found The Rewrite, I clicked Watch and spent the next few hours with Hugh and Marisa Tomei in Birmingham NY.  It features some of my other favorite actors - Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons.

Hugh's character is a screen writer in Hollywood, years after his success, trying to get any job he can.  And right now, the only job he can get is as a screenwriting professor at this college. He plans to go there, do as little as possible and spend time on his own project.  But as you can imagine, it doesn't go that way.  Especially with his attitude that you can't teach writing.

So I got thinking: can you teach writing? Some must think so, based on all the classes, workshops, books, forums, conferences, and blogs out there.  Maybe teach is the wrong word.  Or maybe the way we think about teaching, like it's only rote memorization, might give one pause about whether writing is teachable.

On the other side of the coin, is writing learnable? Maybe some people can't grasp the concepts of plotting or resolution or risk/reward and therefore can't learn to write.

I've recently talked to someone who is interested in writing a novel.  They've never written before, but they have this story inside them they want to tell.  And it's a pretty intriguing concept.  So I gave her the basic advice: Write. Read about writing. Join a writer's group. Find a critique group.  Use your library resources - whether that's for research, other writers, writing resources, or books in the same genre to see what works (and what doesn't) in other stories.

Today's Tweet (hey, are you following me on Twitter?  Why not?  Find me @FaithProofing) gives a resource that's been out of print for years, but the blog author has found invaluable for playwriting.  The author of the book (The Human Nature of Play Writing) wrote a thing or two: the play The Jazz Singer (the basis of the first movie with sound and music) and some scripts for  Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion and Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner(one of my favorites...in all its incarnations).  So if you are in the market for another book on writing, check it out and let me know what you think.

Vox Article:

For the first time in decades, the best book ever written about writing is back in print

Hello. old friends

Ouch.  I just looked at the date of the last blog post: August 23.

Where have I been since the end of the summer, you may ask?  Well, I've been in big cities, the wide-open ranches of Texas, the South right at the end of the Civil War, Las Vegas, Boston, the Canadian mountains, prison in California, planets out of our solar system, San Fransisco, small towns,  a world of zombie and alien invasions at once. I've been hanging out with lovers and fighters, losers and winners, people struggling to find themselves or find each other, people with a mission, and people searching for meaning.

In other words, I've been in books.  But I've also had some real-life stuff going on.  My son graduated from college, moved to DC for a few months, came home, moved to Denver. I worked on my annual Basket Bonanza fundraiser (thanks to everyone who donated!), as well as some other church projects. I've had some great fun with the hubby at a water park.  I've had some great results with a new workout/food program (lost almost 20 pounds!).  And I've started taking swimming lessons (no, I never learned to swim when I was kid.)

But I haven't blogged.  Why? Well, yes, all that other stuff kept me busy. But I've felt like I didn't have much to say, for some reason.  Not much motivation to write (thank goodness writing's not my job!). But I do hope that changes.  I like to write, when I have something to say.

So for now I'll say Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays...or maybe a simple hello and I'm thinking of you!