Tag: writing

The discipline of the blog…and a graduation.

Here is what happens to me when I sit down to post to my blog these days.

1. I get an idea- "Today is my graduation from Vermont College of Fine Arts." Simple enough. A little yahoo! a few tears an amazing accomplishment. Shouldn’t be hard.
2. I start to reflect on the topic. It’s like cleaning my desk. I can’t just pile up the papers and put them neatly in the corner. No. I have to look at each sheet of paper. When I do, I realize that each paper- idea and memory connect to another.
3. Now the post is looking more like "Vermont College and all the amazing wonderful  things that have happened here, all I’ve learned, all about the incredible faculty, the community, my grad rez, my work and…and.. and before I know it the task seems overwhelming.
4. I click to some less daunting thread of the world wide web until I forget all about the blog tab on my desk top.
5. When I get back to it, the post seems irrelevant.
6. Repeat.

In order to reintroduce the discipline of the blog, I’ll be posting small at first. Trying not to get overwhelmed. I’m hoping to blog Mondays,  Wednesdays. Don’t be fussy if I miss a week and share interesting content with others when it moves you. Comment often to keep me going. That way I know you are out there and that it is worth it.

I do graduate from Vermont College of Fine Arts today. My residency has been wonderful. Full of friends new and old. A few stand out lectures from faculty and a lot of pride watching my fellow League of Extraordinary Cheese Sandwich members ace their lectures. The readings have been amazing. Each one full of heart and soul. We’ve come so far, and the growth is all based on two years of intense study and work.

My lecture and reading were well received. I am so thankful to the entire VCFA community. This process has taught me not just how to write, but how to be a writer. I leave the program with confidence. Confidence that might even last a whole week before the fear of creation begins again. I am ready to leave. I know I’ll stay in touch with my dear friends but like the end of an emotional book, I am reluctant to close the back cover.

More reflection in time. Peace.

What are you doing this summer?

Even though it is raining and in the mid 50’s I can’t get away from the question, "What are you doing this summer?" Yesterday was the last day of school for my students so I got to answer the question time and again. My summer is packed with trips and events. The first exciting event is my graduate residency at Vermont College of Fine Arts. The year of the thesis (Critical and Creative) has been extremely demanding and the graduation will be a chance for me to celebrate my own efforts and cheer on the fellow members of my class: The League of Extraordinary Cheese Sandwiches. As always it will be ten days of community, learning, and love but from a very different and special perspective.

After graduation I’m headed to LA to attend the SCBWI National conference. I’ve never been and can’t wait. If anyone else is going please say hi in the comments and we can email each other. I’m hoping to add a new feature to my blog for the summer and fall. "Member Monday" will be a reposting of interesting goings ons at SCBWI as it affects New England from Headquarters and around the globe.

Later in August, you’ll find me traveling through the Adirondacks and Western New York attending a family reunion and camping. Hopefully, there will be a few quiet days reading at the beach, gardening, biking, and running. I’ll be finishing the novel that I’m turning in for my creative thesis and then September brings the infamous– Hunt for an Agent. (More about that later.)

What are you doing this summer?

Happiness is a bike ride.

This morning has been a peaceful and relaxing end to a crazy week. I had the deadline for my 5th and final VCFA packet, a deadline for my workshop submission (15 pages out of 20 was all I could manage), and a deadline for my own student’s end of semester reports. My husband was gone for the third week on business, my sons had events each night, and son #1 sprained his ankle and ended up on crutches after a trip to the doctor. I said crazy, right.

Today, I woke at my weekday time (5:45) and hopped right out of bed. The sky was a beautiful cloudless blue and I wanted to bike. Leaving my husband in the bed, I dressed, pumped up the tires and started out of the house only to run back inside for a jacket. Blue, sunny, June skies do not especially mean warmth in Maine and when you are on the bike it is colder. The light breezes felt stiffer on the ride but the quiet roads and beautiful morning light was wonderfully worth it. Tiny yellow buttercups filled the fields along Flying Point road, and the occasional whiff of balsalm pine always gives me an energy boost. I passed a few other hardy Saturday morning riders but not many.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll bike the same roads in the Bicycle Coalition of Maine’s "Women’s Ride." I’m not sure if you can still sign up or do same-day registration but if you are interested, follow the link.   On the end of my loop I detoured to Mister Bagel, picked up a dozen and rode home. It was certainly not a training ride, I’m pretty slow these days covering about 13-15 miles in an hour, but the sense of freedom and release I feel when I’m alone on my bike is tremendous.

At home, I cut fresh chives from our garden, and served my hubby fresh, hot coffee, and bialy & chive cream cheese as he hustled out the door with son #2 for a baseball game. Now I’m sitting on my screen porch and enjoying the view of our neighbor’s field and listening to son #1 play the piano. Peace.

Five on Friday

1. I am sitting on my screen porch enjoying the third day of sunshine after two weeks of gray, foggy, cold. The cold came back last night, just as son #2 and I took our places on the bleachers to watch son #1 play baseball. "Where’d the blanket go, Mom?" "I took it out of the car when the sun came back yesterday." I should have known better. At least I got two hours of intensive snuggling from son #2.
2. In the dog walking field: many ticks, volunteer asparagus, two dead frogs in large standing puddles, one muddy yellow lab.
3. Got in a nice run Wednesday afternoon when it was about 75 degrees. Lucy dog kept up nicely and was thrilled when I let her cool off in the cemetery pond. (I don’t think the residents minded, do you?) Can’t wait to start training regularly again.
4. Walked the Portland, ME "Freedom Trail," yesterday with 13 fifth, and sixth graders. The trail features important sites and people involved with helping fugitive slaves escape to Canada on the underground railroad. http://www.portlandfreedomtrail.org/ Two weeks left of teaching. I’m ready for summer.
5. Final and fifth packet deadline this Tuesday. Must complete novel revisions. Not getting far. Please send productive vibes.

3am Ramblings

I’ve been eyes-wide awake in my bed for two hours and now that I’ve finally gotten up, this stupid blinking cursor is teasing me. It is 3:30 in the morning and in one way I could thank my lucky stars that I’ve finally gotten up early enough to write. On the other hand, I’m not feeling well, I’m going on a weekend vacation and the last thing I need is to be sick for a plane ride and a cruise. The funny thing is that I’m the best sleeper in the world. I can sleep anywhere. I love naps in sunny spaces. I go to bed early. Maybe it is taking me a little bit to get used to Daylight Savings. My brain is just awake. Of course, once my brain is awake in the middle of the night, I think about all the things that are stressing me out that I try to push away during daylight hours (some of which I can talk about here and now and some of which I can’t).

This is about the time in the semester when I start having my crisis of confidence. I miss my VCFA community. I so wish there was a mid-term residency. Just a short one. A weekend maybe. A time to get back together to say, "Yes, this is important. Our stories are important. You should invest this time in something that will probably never pan out financially because you are a writer and writers write. Because your story needs to be told. Because someone out there, some teen, some child somewhere needs this story." Okay. Tears now. But remember that I’ve been up since 1 am and that my throat hurts and that I’ve got gunk where gunk shouldn’t be.

I’m a little concerned too, that my grad lecture has the potential to turn into something much bigger than the 35 minutes of brilliance that it needs to be. I won’t know until I spend some concentrated time on it and the concentration of time is very hard to find.

The current political situation in our state and country and the disasters abroad certainly don’t help. How do we move through our lives in relative safety when a major part of a major country has been all but wiped out and is facing a possible nuclear melt down that will affect us all? How do we communicate to our own leaders that cutting 42 billion in vital programs and jobs while allowing 42 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest people in our country is unacceptable?

Moreover, and on a note much closer to home, how do I communicate to my almost 12 year old that he doesn’t have to see me as his antagonist for the next six years? Oh my, God the arguments are wearing me down!

And how do I do all this when I am alone? When my husband is away for work for extended periods of time? When I live in a place that requires a lot of driving? When I don’t want to impose on my friends too much? How do I get a break?

So yes, I guess I can’t sleep because I’m stressed. It certainly seems that way. At least I get a vacation this weekend and… would you look at the clock, 4 am… time to write.

Peace and Quiet

A huge round of applause for my sister-in-law who took my two lovely (read noisy and bored) children away for roller skating and a sleep-over the same day their father had to leave for a business trip providing me with 24 hours of peace and quiet. It is true that this peace and quiet was preceded by my two, plus her three, destroying our house and speaking in volumes loud enough to hear each other across three rows in a rockin’ stadium show when they were only three feet apart. None the less, I am thankful from my typing finger tips to my x-country skiing toes.

I managed to remove, dust, and vacuum their detritus, roast a pan of lovely root veggies for my lunch, catch up on my emails, waste a little time on livejournal, (this blog) twitter, and facebook while still enjoying the fictive dream and getting down quite a few concrete words today. Next stop, the library, to pick up books for my grad lecture, then off to dinner with the women of the Midcoast Triathlon Club. Finally, a private viewing of Sherlock Holmes with Fiddle Faddle in hand. What could be better than Robert Downey, Jr. and toffee covered popcorn?
  

Maybe a hot bath.

PS: A shout out to the UPS man who in all his glorious brown-ness delivered Kimberly Marcus’s, new novel in verse Exposed on the perfect day!

Five on Friday

1. Friday is supposed to be my writing day and I’ve failed miserably. After many self-admonishments to keep Friday’s sacred for writing I spent most of the day editing the newsletter for my paying job. I know, relax, right? Money is a necessary evil and I had all of Wednesday to write because of the snow day and I’ve been keeping up with my early morning writing sessions. In fact, I’m at a point where I should just print what I have and revise through the weekend. My deadline is Tuesday and I want it to be good. So I should just chill.
2. Snow. A lot of it. It’s beautiful and a heck of a lot better then the mud that’s sure to follow. Enough said.
3. The NESCBWI conference registration opens on the 15th of February. Go to the website and check out information about schedule and special offerings. This is New England’s 25th anniversary conference so there’s tons going on. Get your manuscripts ready for Quick Queries, and Critiques.
4. I’m excited that I have some books lined up to review for the spring. March is Women’s History Month and I’ll be reviewing Women of the Golden State written by Linda Crotta Brennan and others. Later in the spring, J.L. Powers will be joining me in the Chaos for an interview regarding her book This Thing Called the Future which is due out May 1. I have a couple of others up my sleeve if I can get to them.
5. My boys are amazing, smart, and talented and that’s just my unbiased opinion. I’m taking them to Blue Man Group on Sunday to celebrate report cards, swimming races, and performances. I am so very lucky to be their Mom.

Summing Up

It’s been quite a long time since my last post. Much has been going on and since it is too long to explain I’ll just sum up. (Did you get the Princess Bride allusion there?)

Jobs: I’ve applied to a writing specialist job at Bates and a teaching position at the Friends School of Portland. I’ve been interviewed at the Friends School so it seems that is more likely to come through. Contacting the Bates folks today to follow up. I also applied to LL Bean’s for retail sales position at the Bike, Boat and Ski shop. I was psyched when they called to offer me the job. I went in to fill out all my paper work, watch their harassment video (not how to, but how not to), and get cleared by their health department. Turns out that the job I was offered was a "level 5" position which requires lifting a 50 lb. box to the height of 76 inches. I did 40 safely, but needed spotting on 45 and help on 50. So bad news…no Bike, Boat and Ski job. Good news…they called yesterday and offered me a position in camping. Discount, here I come. Summer weekends, good-bye.

Triathlon: I’ve been training like crazy and after watching the Polar Tri last Saturday, I’m really excited about the celebration that my first race will be. The race is coming up soon, next Saturday, May 22nd, there is still time to donate to the cause. All money goes to help with YMCA scholarships for camp and membership. The "Mighty Mama’s" (our team) is so close to our $200 goal. Please help.
And because I’m a crazy girl, I’ve already signed up for my next Tri with the Bath Y. (Not a fundraiser) so I’ll get a chance to do all three sections and be timed for both transitions.

VCFA/Writing: I’ve been chugging away churning out picture book manuscripts this semester and have at least 2 or 3 that I feel are submission quality. One is with an editor now and I’m hoping to hear something soon. I need to revise my novel and start subbing to agents but things have been so busy that I’ve had to put that on hold.

Book Review Wednesday: Um… I’m really sorry. I just haven’t kept up and there’s really no excuse except, well, all the other stuff I’ve been doing.

Illustration: The Great Goose Auction is over and I’m trying to find out what happened with my two painted eggs. More on that later. My Fufu And Fresh Strawberries illustrations are awaiting an input of funding to The Telling Room in Portland. They are hoping for grant money to make the design and publication possible. Right now, I’m working on illustrations for my picture book Roar which I will show at the Illustrator’s Academy this Sunday. I’m also working on my poster for the showcase and trying to get my portfolio together too. I’ve been happy doing the whole portfolio thing on line so it’s kind of a pain to get all the images together, printed out and assembled in the book. So on that note, here are some images to take a look at. Enjoy.

Five on Friday

1. I know it’s been a while since I just blogged for the pleasure of blogging. I miss it. I really do. Life has been quite hectic recently. I’m sure a few of you are going through the experience of having a spouse who works far away so that they can have a job. This is our situation. We have gotten use to the good-byes, the hello’s are getting a little easier too. Hubby has been a total trooper doing the "bag drag." He really has two jobs. One with a private defense contractor company and the other in the Navy Reserves. I was very proud to attend his Change of Command ceremony last weekend. It’s rare that we get to see our spouses in action (at work). It was lovely to see him in uniform, carrying himself with such grace and exuding leadership. His speeches were eloquent, funny, and well delivered. What a treat! Here we are with his Chief Petty Officer.

The week leading up to this was crazy. The brakes in the trucks failed while I was driving (we are all fine) and I had to do the mechanic thing. The next day, I locked my sweet puppy and my keys in the car. Huge thank you to the lady who used her AAA to save me and the Dad of I’s classmate who drove my son to basketball practice. The next day, to travel to the Change of Command, my Hubby rented us a car from Enterprise. I showed up at 12:10 not knowing that they closed at noon. Needless to say, there were tears. But all was well.

2. I’ve completed a full draft of my novel. I missed the JONOWRIMO check in, but happy to have reached this milestone. Of course, now I turn around and start to revise: put in, take out, look for emotional distance, inconsistencies, character arc, adult word choice. Someday. Someday.

3. I turn in Packet Five today. This is my last packet for the first semester of my Vermont College experience. It’s been– I don’t really know– arduous? time consuming? enlightening? I can certainly say that I am able to look at my work with a more critical eye than before this semester. I write and read all the time. I read more critically than I did before. My critical writing has improved markedly. In my creative work, there is no time for excuses. (Although here I am at 6:30 am blogging, without my last critical essay complete and the packet due today.) I’m really looking forward to being at the residency again. Seeing my cohort group and getting the workshop pages from others to critique. I’ll be doing the Picture Book certificate and I’m really looking forward to working with Sarah Ellis and Kathi Appelt. (Time to look for a back support cushion.)

4. My puppy is growing quickly and needs LOTS of love and attention. When Hubby came home Monday (after a week away), I grabbed my computer and books and said, "You are in charge here at home. I’m going to the library." Yesterday he asked me, did I notice that it’s really hard to get anything done with the puppy wanting to play all the time? Um….yes.

5. I’m afraid that I failed to post Book Review Wednesday this week. I’m sorry. It’s just been too crazy here. I have three authors out there waiting for their reviews and I promise I’ll do them over the next few weeks. The new year is coming quickly, if you have a 2010 release and would like to send me a review copy, leave a comment with your email (spell it out so the spambots don’t get you.)