Not Dead

Sorry. I know, it's been a while. Turning in the book sucked out my will to blog. Or write, really, much of anything.

To catch up:

1. Robin Hood. Thumbs-down, sadly. Honestly, you don't know how much that breaks my heart. I wanted to love this movie, but it wasn't meant to be. You really do have to have characters to make a story work. More on that later.

2. The Losers. Thumbs-up. Honestly, the trailer made it look like the poorer, potato-sack wearing cousin of this summer's The A-Team. Which I haven't seen yet. But The Losers does, it does well. The characters are drawn broadly with much love and affection. The action sequences are fun. The villain is pitch-perfect. If she could sound feasibly British, I'd nominate Zoe Saldana for the Tomb Raider reboot. I recommend much.

3. Letters to Juliet. Thumbs-up. It's swoony and unapologetically romantic in a take-no-prisoners sort of way. When I am old, I want to look like Vanessa Redgrave.

4. Crazy Heart. The scriptwriter really did go with the "less talk more rock" approach. Literally. And while I won't begrudge Jeff Bridges his Oscar in the slightest, I found the story itself to be lacking. My engineer husband (who spends a lot of time these days with a novelist) summed it up this way: "It's like it was an act and a half, rather than three acts. There was a lot of setup, the climax, some plot, and then it was over. I didn't like it.)

*Note* He'll come home from work and tell me I didn't quote him right. But it's pretty close and true to the intended message.

That's it for movies. We've been watching a lot of Top Gear lately. So much that the phrase "Some Say" followed by a pause will now cause a Pavlovian-type giggle reaction. (This is inconvenient for Ridley Scott, since it happened during Robin Hood while one of the actors was trying to be profound. I don't remember who. I was giggling at the time). But it's really delightful and is the only media-related item I've ever found that can make my frequently stoic husband weep with laughter. WEEP.

And honestly, I can't blame him.

One of the reasons I heart it much is that the three hosts - Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond, are all very good at being characters. And I'm all about characters.

So maybe Ridley Scott needed to watch a little more Top Gear, because the sense of character was missing from a film about one of the most famous literary characters.

Lessons We Can Glean From Robin Hood (2010)

1.) It's important to give the audience a reason to like the main character. If we like the character, we will care about his story. If we don't like him, we won't give a cockroach's tush. The late Blake Snyder wrote about this in his seminal screenwriting book, Save the Cat. Basically, give your protagonist an opportunity to save a cat, or something - anything - that makes us like him. It doesn't have to be much. It doesn't have to be a cat. Russell Crowe could have saved a horse, and it would have helped. This is true for anti-heroes as well. Even if they have issues, the likability has to be there.

2.) Characters have to be consistent. When characters are consistent, we believe they're real people. When they're not, we struggle with the suspension of disbelief. So if you give us a smart, gutsy woman like, say, Marian, and especially if you cast a smart, gutsy woman like Cate Blanchett to play her, do not have this character threaten to remove a man's manhood at knifepoint and then have her light a lamp so she can undress behind a thin curtain, giving the aforementioned man a lengthy opportunity to observe and admire the silhouette of her feminine form.

I mean, really.

3.) No plot development is going to be interesting enough to save your story if your characters are flimsy. In fact, if you don't have characters, it's not a story. It's not. It's a recitation of events. Character make story. Stories make character. You can't have one and not the other, if it's going to work. A lot of plot-driven writers struggle with this, particularly sci-fi/fantasy writers. I've seen it in both published and unpublished work. Political machinations don't mean a thing if we don't care about the characters. The reason why is that if we have nothing invested, the stakes will never be high enough to create the tension necessary for a moving plot. And you need high stakes. You need tension. As Lauri Deason once said, "The original Star Wars movies were about saving the universe. The new ones were about tax reform."

And we all know which ones were the most successful.

4.) Pick your tone. Own it. Films like The Losers, Clash of the Titans, and Letters to Juliet work because they know what they are and they're good with that. They're not trying too hard to be too much. Robin Hood swung around from battle epic to comedy to drama to romance in such an awkward way that it didn't work at any of those. (Note: kissing someone in the midst of battle while blood drips onto that person's face...gross. Not romantic. Not sexy. Gross and awkward. No one wants to kiss a bio-hazard.)

So there you go. I've been reading a lot of British Chick-lit lately. I can't wait for this book to arrive at the library (it's currently out). I have a thing for books in which a woman inherits or manages to land into a large, old, decrepit house and has to make it a home of some sort. I don't know why, but I've had this thing for a long time. It's a big plus if the house has a secret history, or if the heroine makes curtains for it. Books like this, this, and this, and obviously this. I just finished Harriet Evans' A Hopeless Romantic, and that was a lot of fun :-)

Speaking of books, need to get back to Simply Sara edits. More later...in less than two weeks :-)

P.S. The frog pic at the top is one of the ones I shot at the Oregon Garden during out getaway weekend. The rest are in the slideshow - go take a peek.

The Big Blue Yonder

I know I posted a couple days ago about Simply Sara being done and over and all the happiness that such a thing has brought me. But now I've sent it to my editor, and I'm realizing that, hey.

I did it.

I had doubts. This was not an easy manuscript. It's a good book - I honestly think so - but it wasn't easy to write. Sara's voice is very different from Jayne's, which meant being very careful with my writing voice.

There are so many things I've learned through this process. Such as:

1.) If you don't know where your book is going, there's a good chance you won't get anywhere anytime timely.

2.) A seriously good chance.

3.) If you're non-linear and hate written synopses like me, 3x5 cards are your BEST FRIENDS. Write out plot points as they come to you, and organize them according to when occur in the plot. Adjust as necessary. Add and subtract as necessary. Stack them together (not unlike Jayne and her quilt squares, let's be honest), and you've got the most fluid, painless road map ever. Stuck? Check the cards. Find a springboard. Get unstuck.

4.) There's a term in screenwriting circles called "spit-balling." I'm pretty sure I've written about it here before, but here's a refresher - it's sitting around with at least one other person and throwing around ideas (like spit-balls, but more sanitary). Good stuff comes out this way. I had several scenes and major plot points that needed this kind of work to get through. Even if the ideas that are flying around are not the direction you're intending to go, just thinking about why they're not quite right will often take you to what is right.

5.) Ignoring your book for periods of time will not, in fact, cause ideas to flow better. It just won't. Sorry. I tried. It doesn't work.

Well, I need to pack for my computer-work-free weekend (I almost said fiction-free, but I never travel without three paperbacks). Hopefully I'll have pictures to post next week!

Simply Sara at a (temporary) close

It's been a long road. It's been a tough road. But that road is coming to a close, because I finished writing Simply Sara on Saturday the 24th, sometime in the early evening, while sitting with Danny at Starbucks.

Granted...the work is not done. I've been working on some of the editing this week, before turning in the manuscript on Friday. And after that, my editors, bless them both, will come back with more edits. And after that, my publicist will give me things to do.

If you're looking for a sense of completion, do not go into publishing.

But I'm excited. SS goes into print in July, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the final product. I'm pretty proud of having published a book. But Jayne's lonely. She needs a friend on the shelf. And she'll have that friend come September.

What can I tell you about it? Not much, aside from the fact that I'm pleased with how it came out, and the ending TOTALLY took me by surprise. Sent me into a panic, actually. But it's good stuff.

In other news:

1.) My basil plant died. I honestly think it had a disease or something.

2.) Make sure you enter the Simply Sara contest! Details are here.

3.) Danny and I are going away this weekend! No computers, no book, no school, no work - I'm just a little crazy excited. I am, however, taking my camera, since we'll be going to the Oregon Garden, which is one of my favorite places in the state.

4.) Isn't this cute? I'm thinking 4th of July picnic with a basket of daisies or something.

5.) Watched The Young Victoria. Loved it! Thoughtful and lovely and observant. Totally recommend.

That's all for now - I made dinner last night, and should repeat the experience tonight (shocker!). But it's lunch time now, and for once, it's not ravioli.

End Times

...at least where Simply Sara is concerned. I met my base word count yesterday in a workday that saw the completion of a chapter in a single day (which is nothing for a lot of people, but I'm the world's slowest writer, and two days for a chapter is usually the best I can manage).

Anyway, things are wrapping up in Sara land. And that's okay with me, because I don't believe I've ever eaten so much ravioli. Ravioli, different kinds of ravioli, lunch and dinner. The idea of cooking sends me into a panicked state these days (we won't even talk about grocery shopping), so I am deeply grateful for stuffed pasta with sauce.

My deep hope is to have the book completed by this weekend - Monday at the latest - so I can tighten up the prose for a week before turning it in.

And after that, oh, what a celebration there will be...

In other news, Glee is back! Though I have to say, not a huge fan of the Madonna episode. This might have something to do with the fact that I'm not a huge Madonna fan. At this point, though, Glee has gone from the little musical show that could into this merchandising monster that keeps knocking you over the head with reminders that, yes, the songs are available on itunes. As much affection as I have for the show, I hope that Ryan Murphy stays focused on old-fashioned things like plot and character development and not become distracted by the glitz of being Hollywood's baby.

This is the man who was responsible (and I know this is hitting below the belt, but it's true) for Running With Scissors, one of the best-cast, worst movies of all time.

Now that I've said that, I'll end with the fact that my favorite line of Brittney's was "I pulled my hamstring once and had to go to a misogynist." I cannot type this without giggling.

What else...hoping to possibly see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo this weekend at the Bijou. Though Ebert gave The Losers a surprisingly good review, so maybe we'll hit that.

Oh! Radio show follow up. You can listen to the episode here. I did not forget my name. I did not make up any words (as far as I can tell), though i did stumble wildly over defining the term "Urban Amish," which is unfortunate considering that I coined the phrase. But it was a lot of fun, and Suzanne Woods Fisher was so much fun to chat with, I'd do it again.

You know. After practicing a better definition of "Urban Amish."

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...)

A Winter Adventure and Two Contests

If you are a Facebook Participant, pop by Bonnie Leon's new fan page. She's got a contest going - enter your favorite winter adventure story to win a complete set of her Sydney Cove Series.

Now, I already have the series, as Bonnie is a dear friend and mentor of mine. But, it got me to thinking...

It was the winter of 2005. I had been graduated from college for a few months, and was doing my internship in Portland at Northwest Palate Magazine.

My family and I had just attended to a private piano concert in Lake Oswego, OR with my aunt and uncle. The concert was lovely, but halfway through the snow starting coming down. Great for ambiance, bad for travel.

If you're not from 'round these parts, know that snow tends to freak out most Oregonians. Not all - snow is much more common on the Eastern side. But Oregonians on the Western side are to snow what Californians are to rain. What be this strange material falling from the sky? We don't get snow often enough to have well-trained responses, or cities prepared to deal with it.

Back to the story. Lake Oswego is pretty hilly, and we were at the top of one of those hills. The guests were invited to stay, but my uncle felt certain that he could get us safely down the hill and back to their home in Portland. All of us - including one of the pianists, for some reason (we were ostensibly driving him home, I think) - piled into the car.

At this point, my normally cautious and gentlemanly (think Cary Grant) uncle went into Mountain Man Mode. Come hell or high water, he was getting us off the hill. Off he started - cars were stuck in snow to the left and right, but he continued on, often missing them by mere fractions of an inch. Everyone else traveled at about 5 mph. I think we were going at least 25, if not 30. I also have memories of passing some of those cars...again, missing them by almost nothing.

My mom and I (and I think at least one, if not two) other people were in the middle bank of seats. Though I felt that, logically, we would likely collide at any moment, I rationalized that we were enough in the middle not to be mortally wounded. And since we were still deep in the neighborhoods of Lake Oswego, it was unlikely to present a Donner Party type situation.

The sequence of events is a little hazy in my memory. I know at one point my dad got out to Scout The Territory. I remember that he slipped, and that my uncle started driving off without him, not realizing that we were short a passenger.

My mom did not appreciate this much.

The part that is burned forever in my brain is when my uncle started driving on not only the curbs, but the - berms? Inclines? You know, when there's a sidewalk, then a steep hill of earth and shrubbery before it levels out to where the house is? Well, that. He was driving on that. Which meant the SUV was moving forward while tilting left at about a 40 degree angle. Now...this part concerned me. And after my uncle did this a few times, the pianist (having been quite silent throughout the trek) decided to try his own luck on foot, and departed.

Rather hastily, I might add.

Eventually, we made it down the hill with all of the family members in the car. We got onto the freeway, which wasn't in bad shape at all. We arrived at my aunt's home safely. The women were shaking their heads. The men were, I think, energized from the trip and ready to chop wood and hunt caribou.

So if anyone tells you that men and women aren't truly different, well...they're wrong.

Speaking of contests, there's a Simply Sara related contest on AmishReader.com. The site is down at the moment, but the contest is posted on their facebook fan page. Enter your favorite baked-good recipe - the winner, chosen by me, will not only receive a signed copy of Simpy Sara, but will find that the recipe has been featured in the book, having been baked by Sara. The author of the recipe will also be noted in the acknowledgements section of the book.

No recipe will go unnoticed, though - they'll all be posted with your permission on the AmishReader.com site.

When the site's back up I'll write another ditty about it, but I thought I'd give a preliminary head's up. Happy baking!