Wonderful News

Wonderful news for me and my novel, Soot. I've just been notified that Soot was accepted for local author consignment at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, PA. The Midtown Scholar Bookstore has been named as one of "America's Great Independent Bookstores". As if that wasn't enough, it was voted "Simply the Best" Independent Bookstore in the region for 12 years and counting. So grateful that Soot landed on top of the pile of books seeking that honor.

Good morning Fellow Writers and Scribblers, Are you interested in spending a few hours this Fall adding to your writer's crafty tool box? Join me at RACC for a few Saturdays for a discussion that I will lead. Discover Creative Writing Saturdays; September 28, October 5, 12, 19, 26. 9:00 - 11:30 AM. Emphasis will be on creating believable characters. There will be in class writing each week as well as feedback on your writing. Please bring a notebook or your laptop. Register on line: www.racc.edu/Register.pdf Register by phone: 610-607-6235 or 610-607-6231 Register in person: Berks Hall room 107, RACC 10 South Second Street Reading Hope to see you there. Mickey Getty, Author The Junk Lottery

Tell me a few of your favorite things.

Imagining myself preparing for an interview by The New York Times Book Review for my best selling Novel, SOOT.
My Name is Mickey Getty, unless you talk to sisters, then it is Adelaide. My DOB? classified. SIGN: Libra; EYES: blue; HAIR: yes;
A few of my favorite things:
TV SHOW: Survivor
SCREENSAVER: imagining possibilities; MUSIC: classical/jazz; FOOD: all of it and shellfish for desert; DRINK: water and wine, the stuff miracles are made of; CANDY: dark chocolate; : married >48 yrs. (Now you can guess my true hair color);
GUILTY PLEASURE: not telling; VIDEO GAME: bridge with real living in-person people;
BEST FRIEND: self; INSPIRATION: a snow highlighted red cardinal on a winter-bare branch if it isn't witnessing a purely unselfish act; HERO: a friend who has died from ALS;
MOVIE: Despicable Me until I see The Kids Are All Right; ACTOR: Annette Bening, Dame Judi Dench, and that hunk, Pierce Brosnan; WRITER: Anne Tyler, Harper Lee and oh so many more; POET:Don La Branche, Mary Oliver,Karen Blomain, Yeaats, more;
ARTIST: Barbars Thun, Andrew Wyeth,Sharon Mc Ginley, Georges-Pierre Seurat,Birdie Zoltan, Monet, Kevin Brett and more at the Gogglworks Center For The Arts; Pastime: daydreaming about my characters, I do that more than writing about them.
SPORT: grandchildren (ever play pirates with a 8-year-old?);
FAVORITE CITY: Paris; FAVORITE REGION: wherever I am; E-MAIL FOR FANS: AMGauthor@msn.com Because after the review hits the Times there will be fan mail;
FLOWER: daffodil; PET: Lady Bug and Licorice; VEHICLE: whatever gets me there; COMPUTER: may be second best friend, maybe not;
SOFTWARE: a kiss; COFFEE or TEA?: both; CHOCOLATE, STRAWBERRY, or VANILLA?: Cherry Garcia;
DEFINITION OF MYSELF: evolving, patient, persistent, nonjudgmental, playful.

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?