Spring

At last, SPRING is showing its self.The buds on the pear trees are plumper every day.

The sparrows are dancing around, flirting. Eastern bluebirds who have been shivering in secluded places, appearing only when desperate for a snack, perch every day on my hanging planter hook. If I don't soon clear out the old stuff from their house, they'll move on.

Green tips of this and that are pushing through winter debris. The air,the sunlight have a distinct spring-like quality. It's time for new beginnings.

The Junk Lottery will have new beginnings now that I have my publishing rights back. It's a good story and has deserved a wider readership. Soot, my latest, is as ready as the pear trees to burst forth with new life.

Next week's writing conference, The Write Stuff, in Allentown, PA will spark the creation of another novel, and stories, maybe publishing opportunities, new friendships, new ways of thinking about everything.

Happy Spring.

Why do you write?

I write to find out what I really think and feel (my journal); I write to share and memorialize emotions, wonder and soul trips (my poetry); I write to exercise my imagination and courage (my fiction).
— Mary Karen Burke, Mohegan Lake, NY

I found this quote on The International Women's Writing Guild events page and thought it was lovely.

I write because I want to explore and liberate women's voices and my own in the process.

Why do you write.

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Thanks a bunch.

Avoidance??

This historical YA fiction is a challenge. Historical events must happen at specific times. They are wrapped in fictional events, those imagined in order to give my character the life I can't find in the history books. So i need to be sure I haven't included a character in an event when s/he has already been killed off. I have 28 chapters and I keep rearranging them.

I waste so much time flipping thru chapters looking to see if Sweeney is still alive in the current writing. Has Johnny been born, yet? When did Bridie marry Tim and how old was she?

I have notes of course. And notes about my notes. there are lots of scratching out old dates, ages and writing in new, which gets revised. What a mess! I date the notes and scratchings, but I cross out the dates when I change something and redate it. But still, it gets messy, and unreliable.

So, I've been learning Excel 2007. I am putting each chapter on the rows. The columns hold important info like chapter title & date. which characters are in that chapter, which have been killed off or had something significant happen to them. I include POV, # of words, # of pages, if I used an epitaph, the ages of important characters and a brief summary. When I'm finished, I will no linger have to flip thru unsightly notes or chapter pages.

My question: Is this writing or avoidance?

The darned Voki skipped town. I can't figure out how to get her posted onto this blog. Maybe she refused to sign on because I've been an infrequent blogger. One of my intentions for 2010 is to become a better blogger and a better facebooker.

I have signed up for the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group annual conference Write Stuff. One of the several exciting parts of the conference is a two day workshop "How to Plot Like The Pros" with James N. Frey. Future blogs will include tips I learn from Frey.

If you're interested in seeing the events offered look up GLVWG The Write Stuff 2010 Conference.

Tell you about my agent pitch next time. Happy writing!