It's my Birff-day

...Though I have a hard time believing it. Really. There's been so much crazy going on, on so many different levels. I haven't blogged much lately. Haven't used Twitter, either, but if you've been following the "news," you'll know that Twitter kills.

Anyway.

I got up this morning and checked my facebook page.

And realized that over the last year, my life has changed.

I discovered Greek yogurt. I got hooked on green tea. I found the perfect mascara. I learned to drive a car with cruise control. I got back on the sewing wagon. I figured out how to sift powdered sugar. I rediscovered the color yellow. I cut my hair short, as short (if not shorter) than it was in college. I watched my husband graduate with a masters degree. I made my first roux. I sang along with Glee.

I published a book. I can't tell you how many years I blew out my candles, wishing for a contract, wishing to publish a novel.

Plain Jayne came out in January. Sara will be out shortly. Over the last year, I've experienced my first release, first review in Publishers Weekly, first booksignings, first radio interview...

Because of the book, I've gotten to meet wonderful readers online, women who I'd never be able to connect with otherwise. It's crazy. It's humbling.

And I have no idea what next year will bring. But if there's something better than Greek yogurt out there, I'm ready.

Over the Airwaves. Kinda.

So, I'm on internet radio today - you can listen in here. I'll be chatting with Suzanne Woods Fisher, who, in all honesty, sounds just delightful. She does. Am I still nervous? Um...it's possible.

Why I'm nervous:

1. I make up words when I'm tired. Sometimes not even when I'm tired, sometimes at normal times.

2. I'm not sure I want to make up words on live internet radio.

3. I'm concerned I might mispronounce the word "Amish." I feel, given my current platform, that this would be bad.

4. My name might also get lost in the morass that is my memory. Is morass the right word? I don't know. I'm aging here, folks.

5. Describe my book? How? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?

Big stuff, I tell you. Want to hear this will-o'-the wisp live? You know what to do.

(Side note. I always thought the nuns were singing "flibbertigibbet, whillamawhiz..." Now google is teling me it's will-o'-the wisp. Now, I'm fairly certain I'm more of a whillamawhiz than a will-o'-the wisp, but that's besides the point. I'm feeling a paradigm shift coming on...)

The *Exciting* life of a writer

Really it's riveting. (type type type)

Nothing but excitement around here. (type-ety-type type)

For the last two weeks, I've been on schedule. Perfectly - so perfect, that I've not written at all on weekend. So perfect that by Friday night, I have the mental capacity of a...

...I can't come up with a good simile. Sorry. But basically, I sit around reading somebody else's book (this week it was Melanie Benjamin's Alice I Have Been) and trying not to self-destruct. Because before then, it's very possible that I only left the house two, maybe three times in the past week, and I've written two chapters. Some days, I don't do my hair or put on makeup. Instead, I spend most of the day staring at a computer screen that doesn't seem to change...

...and then out of nowhere it seems, it does. Seems all of the little nothing words add up to a lot of something, and when I read it back it's not that bad. Sure there's typo and continuity issues (the latter having bitten me in the behind quite often, lately), but it's coming. This puppy's going to end, and I might be alive to see it.

The good news, though, is that...hm. Went searching for an image (cute, no?), came back , and lost my train of thought. Train's gone. However, I can think of some other good things:

1. The Book Signing at Barnes & Noble's. Part book signing event, part "This is Your Life," seeing someone I see everyday (my husband), and someone I haven't seen in YEARS, a teacher from my old elementary school. There were a lot of people in between, enough that we sold out B&N's stock and dipped into the stash in the back of our car, selling enough that Plain Jayne was the store's top seller of the week.

When I found that out, I was like, "Hey, in this one market, I outsold Sarah Palin. Good times."

2. Hopefully, my laptop may be fixable with a $45 (ish) part, which would be nice because if I had to replace the whole thing (which is only three years old), I'd also have to buy a new operating system, update Microsoft Office, and update Photoshop. All of this means major dollar signs, and while I'm all for tax write-offs, I'd just rather not right now. I like my laptop, and the teensy fact that the screen doesn't work doesn't strike me as a good enough reason to part ways at this time. I am thankful for my handy husband, and this is just another example why.

3. We finally bought tickets for Danny's Vermont graduation, and are planning a jaunt to D.C. and farther south to visit the east coast family.

And the BMW museum. Everybody wins here.

Neither of us have been to D.C. for a while, but it's really less that we're going to D.C. and more that we're going to the Smithsonian Museums.

4. We returned the Big Book o' Bridge Codes to the University of Portland, further signifying Danny's completion with school. Sally (our car) started making sounds that one doesn't desire a car to make. Filled her with oil (the handy thing about being in Portland at a time, you can throw a rock in any direction and hit a Fred Meyer's), now she seems better...but definitely keeping an eye on that.

5. Ate the best red pepper I've ever eaten in my life last night. It was also the reddest red pepper - Dior lipstick red I've ever seen. Coincidence? Probably not. Just thought I'd share. It was a really good pepper, roasted(ish) in our toaster oven with olive oil and sea salt.

Well...diverting as the pepper news is, I should return to writing before I tell of my laundry successes (as in, laundry got done last week). It's Chapter 25, and so far, so good. Onward!

Mood Swings

Best of times...worst of times...who needs artificial hormones when you've got publishing?

The two weeks since my last post have been a wild, wild ride. The signing at Powell's? Good times. And honestly, my favorite part was getting to see people I hadn't seen in a long time. Did not sell many books, but I sold some, a couple to total strangers. But we got to hang out, chat, and catch up while in a bookstore.

I love bookstores.

Funny highlights: on shelves behind where I sat, there were stacks of books from a previous signing, and the title was something suggestive, like, "How to Be a Bad Girl." I really don't remember. My mom probably does, though, because it really, really bugged her. The experiencing of publishing has given me a certain capacity for zen, but my mom took matters into her own hands and covered each Dirty Girl book with a copy of Plain Jayne, thus preserving the photo op.

Also, my friend Janell came, bearing mini pies (one lemon meringue, one apricot raspeberry, ala Jayne). Mind you, we were at the Beaverton Powell's, so she had to walk though quite a lot of mall before reaching the bookstore, and got lots of terrific looks carrying miniature pies through the mall.

But that's what friends do for each other. They carry pies through malls.

Oh, and getting the pies home, Danny went into uber-engineer mode. I saw the look on his face and knew the situation was well in hand. True enough, he stuck one pie under the chocolate bowl, and other some other way...it was all very clever.

I regret I have no pictures of any of this for you. I charged up my camera battery and everything, only to leave the battery in the charger. Problem.

Anyway, signing over, we've been watching a lot of Olympics. More on that later.

Once the signing was done, I got to (briefly) focus on writing, then move on to final preparations for teaching a class at OCW about writing ensemble casts in fiction. The conference was tons of fun - loved seeing friends and meeting new people. Loved hearing from Robin Gunn (I've decided her voice reminds me of Shelley Long. I mean that in a good way. Shelley's very happy to listen to, and so is Robin.) Enjoyed teaching, though I really could have used a microphone - I wound up having to pretty much yell my material. Honestly came home hoarse. But it was fun, and I'd do it over again in a heartbeat.

With a microphone.

That was Saturday. Sunday, we taught 18 four-year-olds, attended service, and came home. At around 4pm, Danny turned in his graduate project. Like, the one that's taken over our lives. It looks like this.

And this:

For the second shot, I layered the bridge into a photo Danny took while doing the planning. Yes, that's me in the black coat.

Anyway, things stayed busy until Monday afternoon, at which point I found myself dead tired and frustrated with the amount of book left to write and an overall feeling of hopelessness...

...which is usually indicative of needing to do more synopsis work. Amazingly enough. I got on the phone with a friend to ask her about concussions, and at her suggestion we got a couple other of my process-readers together and had a planning party.

I don't know if anyone else does this in fiction - in the film and TV industry, it would be referred to as a spit-balling session. Basically, you sit around and throw around ideas. Great fun. In my head I'd decided to use 3x5 cards. Now, I've never used 3x5 cards, but I knew that I needed to get plot points out and then organize them. I came home with a stack dictating the next quarter, easily, of the book, with one random card waiting to find its place.

Wherever I do my writing (be it the couch, desk, or chair), the cards come to. And while, sure, I could write them out onto a computer file, I like the freedom of physical cards and the fact that if I wanted to write words in a circle, I could without some kind of word-processor gymnastics.

If you're stuck, try the note cards. They're great for sequencing. For big-picture stuff, I like sketchbooks without lines. I have a great sketchpad left over from art school with good, heavy paper that I probably shouldn't use for this sort of thing, but I love it. I can map out a plot structure or timeline, or write little snippets and connect them with squiggly arrows.

I love squiggly arrows.

And the great thing is that it's totally non-linear. I've tried to do that kind of work on a computer, but it just doesn't work for me. There's a lot of freedom to be found in a notebook. We took mine out to dinner, Danny and I, and worked at some of the big questions over Red Robin.

So between that and the planning session, things are looking good. I've moved from some very Anne-like depths of despair to complete elation over colored note cards.

A phrase that Robin said last week resonated with me - "fly, little heart." I think I start to feel trapped. I feel like I've lost all courage and hope. It's a scary place to be. But after investing the time away from writing and doing the planning work, I'm hopeful.

Looking forward to flight.

P.S. Hoping to post the cover of Simply Sara soon!

Crazycakes

...is the best word I have to describe the last 48 hours. Truly.

The contributing factors, I think, are:

1. The signing at Powell's (Cedar Hills) this Sunday (2pm).

2. The fact that Powell's is in Portland, and therefore requires travel.

3. Simply Sara's new release date and the ensuing start of production.

Add those together and you've got me on the phone with my agent while sitting in a dentist's chair. Seriously, I feel like one of those weirdo workaholic Manhattanites who close deals via Bluetooth at the deli counter. Except I don't have my Bluetooth, because it arrived today while we were out of town, and I have to tell you that it's very, very useful to be able to call your editor or agent back while driving. Or ironing. Or washing dishes.

Today the craziness continued while at a meeting planning for this summer's OCW Coaching Conference. The aftermath included me agreeing to be the assistant director, which I did not anticipate but am excited about. For the first time we're really working at getting high school and college-age conferees to come; that's my project to organize. I'm SUPER excited about it because that was me - 14 years-old, tall, scrawny, and ready to learn everything I could about writing.

While at this meeting, I got the cover for Simply Sara in my inbox (the joys of a Netbook). I love it! Honestly, I think it's fantastic. Warm tones, blue skies - there's even a Portland Cityscape at the top! I'm very pleased.

And speaking about the Netbook, I micro-blogged (I refuse to say "tweeted") about it but hadn't blog posted...the story on that is that my laptop monitor was wigging out on me, causing me to wig out because I knew we were heading to Portland and I couldn't go a weekend without working, and I couldn't borrow Danny's computer because he needs it, and we found ourselves with a half-hour window while waiting for Danny to get a haircut, during which we traveled five minutes to Staples and walked out with an Acer Aspire.

(Sorry. Longest non-Melville sentence ever? Possible.)

While I'm in love with its cuteness, smallness, and handiness, I have to say it's not a replacement for a proper laptop/desktop. Sometimes, it's useful to have a screen larger than 8 1/2 inches.

Oohh...headache. Pain. Wrapping this up... So, Powell's signing...anyway, picked up two boxes of books, so there will be lots this weekend and next. I'll pick up the chocolate for the signing tomorrow.

Until then...who knows?

I might try to relax.

Sara in the Fall

I'm tired. Not talking run of the mill lethargy, but honest to goodness near narcolepsy. But there's big news around here, so I'm going to push through.

If parts of this don't make sense, you've been warned.

I found out last night that the release date for Simply Sara has been shifted from Jan 1, 2011 to September of this year. Which is great, because it means that a few people might remember Plain Jayne when Simply Sara comes out. The trickiness lies in the fact that:

1. Writing Sara has been like typing through molasses. Thick, unsulfered molasses. That's been in the fridge, cold, for some unknown reason (I warned you, I'm tired). Mind you, it's a good book, and those who read and critique the early stuff (who are not the the sort to spare deserved criticism) have thus far agreed, but it has no intention of entering the world at anything resembling speed. So the fact that

2. I'll probably be eyeballing a cover for Sara sometime next week; dealing with early production and likely working on a synopsis so this puppy can go into a retailer catalog while figuring out how to market both books at the same time is

3. Just a bit overwhelming.

4. But everyone needs motivation. And this is the literary version of an extraordinarily sharp object poking in your back.

Did I mention that this release time is really great? Because it really is. One of the (many) reasons is that there's a fair amount of Christmas content in the first third - since SS picks up right after PJ, and that's mid-November, I think. Pretty sure. I'll check later. Anyway, as a reader, I think I'd enjoy reading about Christmas before Christmas, rather than after, when the tree is dried up and the lights need to come down. Before=magic. After=I don't know what. I just know that it was a lot to be writing Christmas scenes after Christmas, because I was really ready for all of the holidays to be over!

Oh. And a fall release means it's so totally available for holiday shoppers. Yay!!!

So, the lesson here is that writers who write for publication truly have at least two jobs. Not talking about what all they do to pay the bills or raise children or clean the house, but the actual process of writing for publication.

The secret is it's not just writing. It's assisting as much as possible with the production process, with marketing, and doing the editing so the book that winds up on shelves (or online retailer's warehouses) is the best possible book. There's a lot of non-writing that goes into this, but it's important. You don't get to sit in a hole and write, not if you want that lovely warehouse space.

In the end, it's a good thing. Because all of the production legwork means you get a lot more exercise.

And you know what exercise means?

That's right. You get to rationalize the cupcake.

P.S. I'm sure there are all sorts of typos in this blog. Don't worry. I'm sure my mom will catch them.

The Daily Grind

We're slogging a lot around here. Danny finishes graduate school in just over four weeks. And people, it's been a long haul. For the last long while (a year and a half? Two years? Time immemorial?), he's been working 40+ (and for a while, 50) hour weeks, then coming home and working on calculations and concrete/steel/wood/snow load/seismic analysis.

I, on the other hand, am working through a follow-up novel that's giving me mood swings. It's not the book's fault - if I wasn't 20,000 words behind where I wanted to be, things might be a bit different. Oh well.

In the meantime, my home hasn't been anything resembling since well before Christmas, and likely won't be until Danny's school is over, and possibly not until the book's done. Usually having guests over forces the issue, but we're both so swamped with work that we don't really have time for any sort of social engagement.

This is sad, because I've been wanting to throw a cupcake party for, like, four months.

In other news:

1. Plain Jayne has officially entered its second printing.

2. The second-edition will feature the Pub Weekly quote on the cover. (Yay!!!!!)

3. Honestly, I'm more excited about this batch for that very reason.

4. Hoping a quote from the Booklist review might wind up on the third printing.

Reminder -

1. Valentine's Day signing at Powell's on Cedar Hills. Yeah, I know the date sucks, but it's in the afternoon...and okay, it does cut into Sunday Afternoon Naptime, but if you're in the area, do it for a friend. Or Toledo. Frankly, I don't care why, but you'll be remembered in heaven for it. A good time will be had for all, I promise. You won't even have to park illegally, seeing as it's the Beaverton location.

2. Oregon Christian Writers Winter Conference 2010. Longest title ever? Probably. But it will be grand and lovely. The conference will be held at the Salem Red Lion on Market St, from 8:30-4pm (don't even think about leaving early!!!!), on February 20th.

Robin Jones Gunn is keynoting (and which means it will be PHENOMENAL. She's a terrific speaker, and let me tell you, not every writer is.) She'll also teach a workshop on getting unstuck. Love it. Linda Clare will be teaching "Essays for Anthologies," which will be super cool, and Kathy Ruckman will be teaching "The ABC's of Writing Children's Picture Books." I'll be teaching a workshop about writing an ensemble cast, which I'm totally excited about!

3. Lastly, found this AMAZING (sorry. I'm in a good mood. I promise to be cranky and lay off on the caps on the next post) blog post here by Laini Taylor (of Laini's Ladies, who also writes) about brainstorming. Great exercises. And great writing quotes, from which I found my favorite writing quote of the day:

"A writer is someone to whom writing is more difficult than it is to other people." - Thomas Mann

Sigh. So true! Back to work anyway!

Confessions of a Name Freak

My name is Hillary Lodge. I'm a name-o-holic.

The indicators showed up early. As a child, I renamed myself frequently. My first grade teacher quickly learned that if the name on the top of the page did not belong to a child on her roster (and in fact was odd to the point where a set of hippie parents would shake their heads at it), it must be mine (blessings upon Mrs. Bauer).

I loved Anne of Green Gables. Her desire to be called Cordelia made complete sense to me.

I spent a lot of time naming my dolls and stuffed animals the right name. Because heaven help us if they had the wrong name.

One thing led to another. My condition worsened. I began to write fiction.

I collect names. I've sat in movie theaters watching the credits, looking for good names. I'm very interested in the etymology of names. I'm always looking out for good baby name books. I'll write down random names that I like. I'll make fun of ones I hate.

I didn't think much about this until recently, when the subject came up in a blog interview. The section I had the most to write about was how I chose characters' names.

Now I've got my protagonist, Sara, starting in a new atmosphere, and I need to meet the people she'll encounter.

First, writing a follow-up novel means you've got a cast of thousands. There's more than half of the characters from the first book, plus all of the new ones. I actually had to pull out a copy of the book to remember what Jayne's mom's name is.

To avoid name conflicts (because I worry about such things), I made a categorized list of everyone in the book so far.

And wow. I have an addiction to names from the middle of the alphabet. Grady, Gemma, Jayne, Joely, Kim, Kip, Levi, Nora - this is Simply Sara alone, and does not count Grace, Jenna, Joel, Livy, Lewis, Mark, or Nick from my first novel.

Sure, I've got Sara and William and Zach and Arin, and Beth and Spencer and Sol, but good heavens. And talk about a soft-G/J addiction; I want to write a book about someone named Ginger (no idea what, just love the name), and now I realize it would just feed the pattern.

I'm teaching a class at OCW next month about creating an ensemble cast, and let me tell you that this experience of trying to add three characters has completely changed the way the seminar will be presented.

After a couple days, I finally managed to name the three young women I'd been working on. I'd think I was settled, then made changes at least once per character. I love the women I ended up with! Sometimes I wish some of the characters I wrote were real, I'd love to hang out with them.

Since then, writing's been a bit easier. There's knitting in this book (finally! I get to write about knitting!), which is happy. And like I said - I have people to play with!

Updates

A few things...

1. )You can read the first chapter of Plain Jayne here.

2.) Amazon has PJ back in stock, so order away without the 2-3 week wait.

3.) Borders (with luck) will stock this Friday.

4.) Wal-Mart (as far as I can tell) is either stocking nationally or only in Oregon and Florida (those are the only ones that have been reported to me). I'm guessing it's the former.

5.) If you've read the book, or if you'll read it soon, and you like it, please post a review on Amazon, CBD, or wherever (hint: you can post the same review on each site. Just sayin'). And no, you don't have to have ordered the book from that source to post a review and rate the book. Positive reviews are very, very helpful when it comes to sales - I really appreciate the help!

In other news...

1.) I watched the "Sectionals" episode of Glee on hulu again. Happiness. There are people who say they just can't get into Glee. My theory is that these are the same people who make unkind remarks about the Twilight books (which is mean, you know, because picking on the writing is like shooting fish in a barrel, and obviously she did something right to get thousands of teens reading books), and claim to have gotten through H1N1 by drinking ginger tea. We must pray for such people.

Anyway, here's a bit of Glee joy to help you live 'till April.

2.) My new method for getting through the winter with a smile on my face is: soup.

3.) And oatmeal cookies.

4.) Watched Alexis Bledel in Post Grad. Not earth shattering, but cute.

5.) Will watch Hurt Locker soon.

Well, I've procrastinated writing my actually book for too long. On to the next writing project!

Twelfth Day

Happy Epiphany! Sorry I've been AWOL. The holidays have that effect on me...

So. The big news around here is that Plain Jayne has released! In fact, it was found in Wal-Marts throughout the Eugene-Springfield area. I say "was," because (by all accounts) they've been kind of cleaned out. I haven't poked around much to see who else has it in stock yet, and I'm admittedly unmotivated because I have a box of copies taking up floor space in the study. Also, I'm kind of holding out for Borders, and they're not stocking for a couple weeks.

But it is out there, and now when people (inevitably) ask me when the book is out, I can (finally) say "Oh, it is out." Like that.

In other news...

-If you're in Eugene and near campus, there should be a bit of something or other about me in Thursday's Oregon Daily Emerald.

-Mark your calendar! Not only is February 14th Valentine's Day, it's also the day I'll be signing books at the Beaverton Powell's. Will get back to you on the time...I think it's 2-ish.

-If you received your CBD Catalog, disregard the bit about Jayne going to "Harrisburg, Oregon's Amish Community." Because Harrisburg is never mentioned in Plain Jayne. Because that's not where she goes. However, two Harrisburg residents (one former, one current) are listed in the acknowledgements, so maybe that's it...

Today is Epiphany, and I had this whole grand plan about making a special dinner or something. Never came up with specifics. I'm thinking of the Butternut Squash soup from Molly Wizenberg's "A Homemade Life" book. Or this recipe, which I'm made before and I think will be much improved by the addition of sour cream (I was underwhelmed last time). And cheese. And maybe a bit o' guacamole for garnish.

Anyway, this all depends on me having day where I'm not completely wiped, which hasn't happened yet this week. We had a BUSY weekend involving a LOT of driving, as well as the dismantling of our tree.

I don't know about you, but with the holidays ending, I'm ready for spring. Like, now.

Lastly, if you received a digital photo frame for Christmas, beware the alarm. I was home, minding my own business, when I started hearing (and not softly, mind you) the sounds of a rooster. Crowing. Yes, my frame was crowing at me, because at 2:43 in the afternoon it thought it was 9am, and therefore time, I guess, to crow.

Hoping to get moving today. We'll see how goes...

From Our Fridge to Yours...

Merry Christmas!!

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given . . . His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
~ Isaiah 9:6

Plain Jayne, Civil War, and Good Vino

Danny and I are at our favorite getaway spot for the weekend, and at the moment we're both working on our respective laptops, eating grown-up lunchables (Pepperidge Farm wheat crisps, cheddar cheese, and summer sausage) with an inexpensive bottle of Pinot Noir that I'm quite pleased with.

In all likelihood I won't finish this post in one sitting, because I'm working on the Simply Sara FINALLY!!! Things have been so crazy, what with the holidays and projects and Civil War and that pesky writer's block that not a lot's been going on in that department, which is a problem because this book, like the last one, has a deadline.

Note to uncontracted authors: Savor your leisurely writing speed. It will disappear at some point, but savor it now.

So, where were we?

Books, that's where. I got my copy of Plain Jayne! It's lovely, it's happy, I wrote it, and now it's all bound and official looking. You'll be able to get yours soon! I'm really looking forward to it, so we can talk about it. Good times for all in the future.

It was kind of funny how I got it - I wasn't expecting it in the slightest, but I heard a UPS truck pull up (very distinctive sound), and a few minutes later a person coming up the steps and a thud at the door.

The package at the door was small and, well, book-shaped. And from my publisher...I did put two and two together. Thankfully, a friend was on facebook chat, so I had someone to celebrate with!

Then there's Civil War. In case you're not up to date with your sports news, last Thursday's Civil War (the game between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University) guaranteed for the winner not just bragging rights, but a ticket to the Rose Bowl. Now, there's a lot of animosity every year surrounding the Civil War, animosity that makes presidential election season look tame. That tension was ratcheted up just. A. Bit.

The Ducks won, and I was happy, being a third-generation U of O grad. I was placed in a duck onesie at a young age, so I never had much choice in my loyalties.

Danny on the other hand, his last completed degree (soon to be his second of three) was from OSU. While he is not a rabid football fan, this does get a bit...complicated, at times.

The great thing about the game, though, is that both teams played well. This is not to say that there were not sore losers, but at least they have nothing to be ashamed of. I was seriously impressed by OSU's passing game, and their defensive lineup was nothing to sneeze at. UO found their edge and momentum toward the end after putting Blount (!) in, who played well, with skill and graciousness.

In the end, the whole thing was a beautiful end to a season that started very, very badly. It speaks well of Chip Kelly (who apparently read the team Judith Viorst's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day after the Idaho State game), and his coaching and leadership skills.

So. If you can't feel happy that a coach, in his first season, who recovered from an embarrassing loss and the resulting scandal, who read his team Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, is taking his team to the Rose Bowl, then it may be time to soak your head.

(The irony does not escape me that the Civil War is scheduled during a season in which we begin to sing yuletide songs of peace on earth.)

Okay. Danny's picking on me to get back to the book. We brainstormed all the way out to our getaway and came up with some HILARIOUS plot points! So more to come, including the hilarious thing we found out upon our arrival...

Writing and Scones

Simply Sara is going well, but I have to admit that a part of me sees clever writing as an un-renewable resource.

Whenever I start a new project, I fear that this is the one where I realize I’ve used all the good words, the best jokes, the vivid characters, and there’s nothing left…

…until I come up with a really good idea, followed by another idea, and oh, wasn’t that a funny line? And I’m back to normal. The best part is, writers like Anne Lamott feel the same way (I found her Bird By Bird to be very reassuring). We’re all a little odd, a little fearful. I suppose that’s what happens when your job is to write down the voices in your head.

In other, less philosophical news, I made really yummy scones yesterday.

We went blackberry picking weekend before last. Danny’s the best person to pick with because he’s even taller than I am, has very long arms, and doesn’t like blackberries, so he’s not eating and picking at the same time. We gathered about 10 cups of berries.

After two batches of cobbler, I decided to get a little creative. I used this recipe and altered it for my purposes. I omitted about 1/4 c. sugar and the raisins (blech!) and added the zest of 2 1/2 lemons (basically, the amount of lemons I had on hand), 1 c. blackberries. When they cooled, I gave them a thin coat of lemony icing, using fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar (no particular amounts here, just start with the sugar and add lemon juice until it’s where you want it).

I worried about the dough because you’re not supposed to over-handle it, but it was so loosey-goosey I kind of had to manhandle it into submission, and getting the blackberries in took some work. I worried I’d made them too tough, but they came out perfectly. One note - I froze my blackberries so they’d keep their shape when I worked with them. Realize you’ll have to bake scones longer if you insert frozen berries into them (I didn’t, and had to keep putting them back in the oven).

If you live in a part of the country that’s lousy with raspberries, they would certainly work well too. Blueberries would be fine, but blackberries and raspberries are a bit juicier for this sort of thing.

If you try the recipe, let me know what you think!

Real live website

That's right. I now officially own hillarymantonlodge.com. Not only that, but we have an (extremely) basic bit o' stuff on it

Basically, it says a bit about the book and sends you to either here or amazon. But considering that the book's not released yet, it works for me.

Danny set it up. Well, I made up the little page in photoshop, but he got it all posted and stuff. My word of advice for unmarried women - marry someone useful. Marry handy. Make sure he can fix something - anything. The more he can fix, the more cost-effective he is.

In other news: I finished the first chapter of Simply Sara. Not only that, but my editor liked it (it's going in the back of Plain Jayne - she doesn't normally read as I go). And not only that, but I've started and made impressive progress on chapter two.

If you're not impressed, remind yourself it's Monday. See? Impressive? I thought so. Mondays are tough days not only because they're the first day of the week, but because there isn't much springboard text yet during chapter writing. You can go back to the previous chapter, sure, but subsequent chapters usually exist in a different timeframe, so you're still kinda starting from scratch. I get a lot more writing done on Thursdays and Fridays because of the momentum. Getting just over a page done on a Monday (granted, a Monday with a single, rather than double chapter goal) is a happy happy thing. And did I mention that I wrote most of it during the day?

(It should also be noted that I'm writing about shopping. I could write a doctoral thesis about shopping.)

Starting Over

I know I said I started Simply Sara. I didn't lie. I did start. But it wasn't the kind of start that began with several paragraphs and stayed several paragraphs for a while.

Then I got all frustrated with not writing and wrote a few more paragraphs, landing me in solid 1 1/2-page territory.

Though it seemed like much more in my head.

Through all of this, people asked me if I was hard at work on my next book yet. Seriously, that's like asking a woman with a two-month-old if she's working on getting pregnant again. You've just killed yourself getting out the last one - making another doesn't sound like fun yet.

But Plain Jayne is coming out and my editor suggested that we put the first chapter of Simply Sara into the back. And I'm all for that - sample chapters are one of the few marketing techniques that actually works on me as a book buyer. So the chapter has to be done. Today.

Now I'm remembering exactly how talented at procrastination I am, as I try to write and my mind whirs and I find myself thinking of the laundry I could do or the things to look for at the library, and when is the new Swell Season CD coming out, and has my JCrew sweater shipping status indicated that it's left Salt Lake City?

But I am enjoying Simply Sara, the more I get into it. This is the book that spends time in a bookstore and art school with a character who loves clothes and another named William Blythe, named after Shakespeare and Anne's Gilbert. Throw in a Godfather-quoting bookstore employee, and I'm feeling pretty good about things.

All I have left to do is write the rest of the book.

Plain Jayne Around the Web

This is what happens when you don't pay attention. I've been so wrapped up in the busyness of the summer, I didn't notice when my book popped up on Amazon.

Or CBD.

Or Borders.

It is not, however, on the Barnes and Noble site yet. However, this is. Glad I spelled the title a bit differently!

I did know that Plain Jayne was chatted about here, and that my friend Michelle included the trailer in a post here (Thanks, Michelle!). And, of course, it's posted on my publishers' site as well as AmishReader.com.

Crazy crazy stuff. Amazon? Seriously??

Catching up (again)

Wow, really bad about blogging lately, and that's a problem because there's a book trailer for Plain Jayne floating around YouTube that lists this site as my site (because my actual site isn't up yet), and I haven't posted here for a while.

In my defense, I went to Canada. For my brother's wedding, and I was in the wedding. Afterwards we drove to Banff national park. By the time we got back? I couldn't remember my PIN or what side to pull up on when putting gas in the car. BUT, the laundry's pretty much done, we have food in the house and we're halfway unpacked.

Here are the really exciting things:

1. The book trailer:



2. We fixed our vacuum. So our Christmas tree last year? Gave me fits then, and a few weeks ago we realized the reason - the vacuum was clogged with dried pine needles in TWO places. After turning the thing upside down and poking through the main tube with a straightened coat hanger, we had to take the hose outside and do it all over again, with the nasty dust flying through the air....but now when we vacuum, it actually sucks things up. Happy stuff.

3. I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife and really enjoying it. I also finished Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle.

4. We saw Julie & Julia last Friday and really enjoyed it. For one, it's a movie about married people. As a married person, I like movies about people with happy, successful marriages. There aren't a lot of them, but I appreciate the ones I see. It's also about two women negotiating the publishing world, in two different time periods. Bottom line? It's always been tricky.

5. My birthday is next week.

6. It's warm again.

7. Life is good.

July?

I know. I'm sorry. My blogs have been down lately, but in all fairness, let's recap the last month:

July 3-9: Out of town on Anniversary trip with Danny, both Silverton and Black Butte

July 11: Attended baby shower

July 11-12: In-laws visiting

July 12: Threw bridal shower

July 17: Picked up Plain Jayne galleys for edits

July 17-22: Finish electronic changes to manuscript

July 23: Make hard-copy changes to entire manuscript.

July 24: Finalize hard-copy changes, email edit inserts to editor, drive finished product to Harvest.

July 25: Pick up Brother-in-Law in Corvallis; photograph Geoff's bachelor party

July 26: Teach Sunday School. Drive BIL back to Corvy, assist in the purchase of mounting equipment for his new/our old window A/C unit.

July 27: Drive up to OCW at 7:20am; return home 9:30pm.

July 28-29: Prepare to leave for Canada/Geoff's Wedding

July 30: Depart for Calgary, then drive to Three Hills. Rejoice that it's much, MUCH cooler outside.

I really ought to be packing, but it's hot. Really hot. And yes, we have A/C, but only for the north side of the apartment. The south side is about 15 degrees warmer, and behind the office door, 25.

Trouble is, the things to pack are mainly over north; the suitcase is south. We've had some late nights lately, mainly because it's fairly late before the concept of moving around sounds like a good idea. Tonight may be another one of those nights.

Suddenly feeling better about not posting regularly. Time flies when you don't hold still.

P.S. Posted on http://burnsidewriterscollective.blogspot.com/. Yes, mine is the zombie one.

P.S.S. The basil is still alive, by the way. A little toasty from hanging in my car between errands (I was dropping to off at my grandma's not showing it the sights), but otherwise very healthy.

Avoiding what we love

Last week, I was between projects. I had just finished throwing a bridal shower for my brother's fiancée, and knew I was facing Plain Jayne edits at the end of the week.

I felt like I should hunker down and relax, but I was bored. And I hate being bored - actually don't believe in it. I feel that if you're bored, you're doing something wrong.

In my case, my antipathy towards boredom began (and likely continues) as a fear. Even as a child, I packed for all occasions. I brought toys, books; more than what I'd ever need to help pass the time, should the opportunity arise. I left things at friends' houses often.

Even now, I'm happiest with a book, and/or knitting in my bag when I go places. And when I say "go places," I mean the grocery store. But I digress.

Last week I was cranky and listless. But I opened my document for the first chapter of Simply Sara and started writing. I felt better. My muscles relaxed. Life was once again worth living.

Late that day, I had a conversation with my best friend Kara. Turned out, Kara had been exhibiting the same symptoms I had earlier that morning. She too was in-between projects and avoiding writing.

One of the tricky things about being a working writer is that writing becomes not work, but drudgery. Sure, we have the happy serendipitous moments when the stars align and the words flow, but a lot of writing is plugging away when you'd rather be doing anything else. Like housecleaning.

At that point, writers associate writing with a lot of negative feelings and bad karma. You rarely see any writers update their facebook status with something cheery, like, "so delighted I get to write today!" or "the words, they are a-flowing." No, it's more like, "I haven't unloaded my dishwasher in two weeks, my children eat nothing but cheap pizza, my husband has no clean underwear, and I'm still 2,000 words behind my daily quota."

No wonder we're cranky.

But it shouldn't be that way. I think with this next project, not only do I need to be on a more realistic writing schedule (last January-March's death march was not much fun), but take the time with a few side projects to enjoy writing. After all, I started writing because I enjoyed writing, didn't I?

In all fairness, I've loaded/unloaded my dishwasher and run five loads of laundry because I'm avoiding editing. Procrastination has the power to make me a crackerjack housewife sometimes. And I'm only going to Costco this afternoon because we're nearly out of toilet paper.

Right?

The things we read

I haven't written about books since the June before I got married. You can read it here - I lifted it from its myspace blog purgatory and stuck it into my 2008 lineup (small aside - I had to wade through my old myspace blogs - many of which weren't bad - to find the one I'm referring to. At the top of the page was a banner add for Trojan, reminding me again why myspace is not my preferred method of social networking.)

Anyway. I know I write about my books, but I also avoid talking about the stuff I read.

Thing is, I've suffered from literature peer pressure. Or maybe that's not the right phrase. Let me put it this way - the book everyone's talking about, the beautifully written, potentially tragic character drama? I'm generally uninterested. The beautifully written, moving/heartbreaking story about something that happened, in a third-world country? Completely uninterested.

And I'm sorry. I know that my overall disinterest in Three Cups of Tea is a character flaw. It's not personal; it's just not my thing. I checked out The Book Thief, and don't think I ever cracked the cover. I think I got through a page of John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things. I don't know that I'll ever touch The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society with a ten-foot pole.

Oh well.

In my defense, some of the things I've avoided are because of WWII content. I'm sick to death of WWII. Seriously. The Nazis have been done, and unless they're showing up in Argentina years later (a la Notorious, you know, with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant), I'm really done with them. I did the research. I've seen the concentration camp. I wrote a report that so sickened me in college that I found myself watching American Idol to recover (never watched it since).

This is not to say that I don't read the occasional impressive book. Loved Timothy Keller's The Reason for God, Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. I read Blue Like Jazz before it was a cliche. I'm trying to think of impressive fiction that I've read without a gun or a grade held to my head, but drawing a blank.
Thing is, I think I got it into my my head as a child that reading was fun. I'm fairly certain that's what the posters in my elementary school's library said.
Because of that, I read fun books. I read YA fiction, Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries and more recently her Airhead books. Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm: Fairytale Detectives books are delightful. For all of their faults, I read the Twilight books with incredible speed. Susannah also got me onto the Luxe books.
I feel slightly better about myself if the fun books are British. Hester Browne's Little Lady Agency books make me appreciate my own flatmate. Sophie Kinsella's heroine of the Shopoholic series had me at her packing list. Seriously. Kinsella managed to write a character who packed more for a weekend trip than I dreamed (then found a way for the luggage to go elsewhere, but never mind).
I love books with food in the story. Garden Spells, The Sugar Queen, The Matchmaker of Perigord, Chateau of Echoes, The Last Chinese Chef, Sweet Love, Sandra Byrd's French Twist books, Tender at the Bone, most everything by Ruth Reichl, really, Kissing Adrian, Serving Crazy with Curry, and Kate Jacobs' Comfort Food.
I love books about books (this doesn't count if the books are being read during WWII) - Geraldine Brooks' The People of the Book, Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale (which has the best medical prescription ever written into book), Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story and The Bronte Project.
Haven't even mentioned The Princess Bride or Gilbert Morris' All That Glitters, but at this point I think you're getting a decent portrait of my habits.
I know some people read to challenge themselves. I am not that self-actualized. Why should I be challenged by my reading when my writing, my home, my laundry, grocery shopping, traffic, empty gas tanks, bills, carpet stains, clutter, publishing, photo editing, marriage, all the forces of the earth move to challenge me. Why would I willingly add something else to that list? I'd rather have a good laugh. Go somewhere exotic. Get recipe ideas. Be swept up in a romance. Maybe learn about another culture or time period, think about an intriguing concept.
What do you think? What are some books you love but, possibly wouldn't advertise your affection for?
P.S. With any luck, I should be able to post the final cover for Plain Jayne shortly!