Update time!

Time for an update with the book projects!

I'm on the LAST CHAPTER of the haunted houses book. Yay! I've got the appendix to edit, another appendix to write up and IT. IS. DONE. Holy crap. Four years invested in that book. WOW. I can't believe it's practically finished!

With the MG book, I'm handing it out to some beta readers. I've tinkered with the second draft a bit (found a few inconsistencies) and just waiting to hear what the betas have to say. I've already got Book Two going in my head! EEK! I better write it all down before I can officially start writing it. At least when I query the agents, I can safely say, "There are 12 books in this series and I've already started the second one."

The essay collection is still in beta mode.

The new writing book is coming along in bits and pieces. It's not moving as fast as I had hoped, but since I'm having a hard time figuring out how to put it all together, anyway, I'm not going to complain. (Yet.)

The poetry collection is once again in purgatory. Sigh. First I go months without hearing anything, then I get a "yes" then the publisher disappears again! Cripes. I'm thinking of emailing her another follow-up to get a status check, or something.

So that's what's going on with the books. Still shopping around some other manuscripts. Going to make some changes to a novel and jotting down ideas for MORE books. I'm also putting together ANOTHER poetry collection but that one won't be on the table for a while.

Taking notes

As a writer, I make it a point to write about the unusual circumstances that I go through, so that I can record something "as-is" to use for a later time. The events I write about are as mundane as what happened after i burned toast (I recorded the smell, the sight and the feel of the charred toast) or something as major as the time I sprained my foot (I can still remember writing, "It feels like my foot is on fire!"). Of course, there are times I CAN'T write about things. Months went by after 9/11 before I could write about it, because I was so numb with shock and grief. But when I CAN write about things, to capture them, then I will do so. It also really helps to add more "realness" to it if I use something like that in a story.

That said, I try to capture that moment, that feeling, as suddenly and as perfectly as possible. I'll record the sights, the smells, the sounds people describe and what something feels like. If I hold a gun for the first time, I'll note how heavy it is (like a gallon of milk, with one gun I've held) or, with something such as the time I was spitting up blood, how I knew right away that I had blood in my mouth to spit out just from the salty taste of it.

So the other day, when I had to get up to get Jennifer ready and dropped off to school, I had something happen that has never happened with me before: I awoke after only 3 hours of sleep. Well, I didn't really..."awaken." The alarm woke me up. If it hadn't, I would've kept sleeping! Anyway, during the time I only got 4 hours of sleep a night when the baby was a newborn, there WAS one time I only got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep. And amazingly made it through the day okay. But I wondered what it would be like to only get 3 hours of sleep. This morning, I found out!

After I took Jennifer to school, I sat down to write about this in my notebook:

"I only got 3 hours of sleep last night. My eyelids feel so heavy. Even as I try to write this. If I lied down or sat down, the temptation to fall back asleep is too great. I almost fell asleep while tying my shoes. I do what i have to do without focusing on it or being aware of it. Make coffee. Make Jen's lunch. Drive her to school. I am in shock I was able to drive. But I did it, but not being aware of it. It was all like mechanical. Even now it is hard for me to hold my pen and write this all down. I can't think straight. As I stand, I feel like I am going to fall. When I was talking, I lost my thoughts and ended up saying, "My brain is not fun-fun-functioning!" Haha. I decided after that not to talk so much. Everything is bright, too. The sun coming through my windshield was too bright. It was blinding. I had a few sips of coffee but it was no help. I am thinking, 'screw checking email! If I can, I am going back to sleep when I get home!'"

That whole "fun-fun-functioning" thing is hilarious, now that I reflect on it. LOL! Just call me Max Headroom. Oh, but I don't have a fun brain. Boo-hoo!

I did end up checking one email account after I got home. Thankfully, no new emails screaming for my attention RIGHT NOW. I have emails there but I could not answer them right then and there. I just couldn't think. What I'd written in my notebook was barely legible and had a lot of mess-ups, as it is. So I just went back to sleep and slept for a couple of hours. Boy, did THAT help! And I'm grateful the baby slept in, too.

Well, now I know what it's like trying to fun-fun-function on only 3 hours of sleep!

10 Reasons why I LOVE writing MG

1. The chapters are short. I've written chapters while waiting for hubby to join me for a movie, while my daughter watches a TV program, while waiting for the baby to fall asleep (or the water on the stove to boil), etc. I've also found I don't need a HUGE, GIANT chunk of time to write when writing one of the chapters!

2. I get to keep the writing simple. (The plot and structure, too! Yay! None of that pesky symbolism, plot devices, etc., to worry about! Meh!)

3. I get to be a kid again. :)

4. The WHOLE manuscript is SHORT! I was able to write the first draft of my latest in a spiral notebook, with LOTS of paper left over!

5. I don't have to deal with grown-up stuff and grown-up issues like I do in my grown-up novels (addiction, abuse, relationship issues, etc.).

6. There ARE real monsters, but they're not as gory or as scary as they would be in a grown-up novel. (Actually, they're just ghosts...)

7. It puts my writing skills to the test. With the reminder that kids in that age group are more focused outward, and not inward, I have to constantly change passages to keep everything that way. I have to really be creative with how to keep the story interesting and keep the kids wanting to keep turning the pages to read more. It doesn't harm the writing, the characters or the story at all. In fact, I have found that my writing is MUCH more better compared to my other, non-MG stories. In essence, it's definitely sharpening my writing skills.

8. I get to write good stories that emphasize things like friendship, trust, kindness, helping others, etc. (That's a GREAT feeling!!)

9. I get to write stories that introduce paranormal research tools and issues to kids in a way THEY can understand.

10. The next story is an even bigger adventure than the last. :)

Writing on the brain

I've mentioned before how I get a little..."obsessed" with a book project when I'm almost done working on it. That's been the case with a couple of book projects I have been working on this month. The essay collection was nearing the end of the editing rounds. The first book in a new middle-grade series was also nearing completion. So I started "putting the heavy" on these projects so that I could wrap them up and finish them by the time the month of March was over.

But apparently, I ended up finishing them sooner. Yay!

In order to ensure I had more time to work on them, I stopped blogging so much (and reading everybody else's blogs), stopped reading so many postings (and responding to certain posts) on the Absolute Write Water Cooler, stopped TRYING to read my hundreds of emails in my numerous email accounts, stopped working on EVERYTHING ELSE (short stories, songs, poems), and just used EVERY free moment I had to work on these books.

At some point, I got worried I was a little "TOO" obsessed with working on these books. Sure I'm pleased I was able to finish them even before the deadline of March 31st, but I was worried that I was just too wrapped up with working on my books to have much of a social life or anything else. I missed church so I could work on them. I missed the usual date of sending out my monthly update so I could work on them. I didn't go out very often. I rarely called up any of my family. I just..."disappeared."

I kept telling myself "this, too, shall pass." And even as I know that's true, even as I try to get my books edited/written and get all caught up with projects just NOT getting finished, I kept worrying that maybe I'm letting the "writer" have more control over the "wife" or "sister" or "mother." It's an ongoing battle to keep that writer in me in check. To make sure that it DOESN'T get too much control over me. I guess I have been able to control that obsession so far. Just let it have SOME power over me, but not too much. And I have to continue to make sure it won't have too much control over me, either. Yes, the writing is important to me, but my kids are MOST important. So it got to where if I wasn't writing, I was spending time with them. And not doing much else, either.

At least, not until I get through this madness of getting all caught up.

Revision blues, Part 2

I figured out what was wrong with the essay. Even though I kept thinking 'I NEED somebody to read this thing and tell me what they think is wrong,' there wasn't anyone available to read it so I had to work it out on my own. It ended up getting worked out in that workshop in my mind, while I was sleeping. I literally woke up knowing what was wrong with it! I guess "sleeping on it" really helps!

The problem was a case of "apples and oranges." I was talking about two different things. I guess I thought they were connected somehow but I realize now that they are not. The main issue this essay talks about concerns in-vitro fertilization, not abortion, as I also discussed. I'm not going to address the moral and ethical implications associated with the termination of healthy embryos once a viable embryo has been chosen for implantation. (As I understand it, instead of termination, the remaining healthy embryos are stored.) But what I was talking about was "designer babies" compared to deaf couples aborting their babies based on the suspicion that the baby can hear. (Yes! That's the ONLY reason why those babies were aborted! An outrage.) It's not the same thing, so I had to take that part out.

I WAS outraged over deaf couples doing that. In fact, my anger over that happening seeped into my essay. I had to take THAT out, too. Since I already took....that whole issue out altogether. But I have to remember that even though this IS a personal essay, I have to keep things like anger, sarcasm and satire in check.

I also decided to delete the part about a Bill passed by Parliament affecting the IVF community, because by the time this book comes out, that Bill might no longer be law in the UK. Well, I said MIGHT. Who knows. But better to leave it out, all the same.

So I made all those changes this morning. And I'm satisfied with the essay now. Thankfully, Draft 5 is the final draft. Woo-hoo!