Author: Admin

Celebrating a BIG Thing

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I’m a couple of days late getting my Celebrate The Small Things Day blog posted, which I’ve been doing every Friday. (If you’re interested in doing the same thing sign up here at Vicki’s blog.) Just as well, considering it’s a big thing I want to celebrate.  My publisher, She Writes Press, landed Ingram Publishing as a distributor. Excellent news for me and my memoir, Loveyoubye.

Bottom line what this means is that I’ll have a sales force behind me, men and women who will go out and pimp my book. I’ll also be eligible to get reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly. And then as part of getting Ingram on board, SWP streamlined and improved all of its metadata. This is also a biggie. This is the configuration that optimizes the chances of a book selling.  Only thing, Loveyoubye will now only be coming out in April 2014, instead of next month. I was so ready to get the whole thing over with, so ready to get my naked body and soul out there, to have the neighbors look askance at me, to have my ex-husband sue me, (I’m kidding about this . . . I think), to ignore negative reviews. Ah, well, later.

Something To Celebrate

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It’s Celebrate The Small Things Day. Something I’ve achieved each week, no matter how small. If you’re interested in doing the same thing sign up here at Vicki’s blog.

So I finally sent that essay to L.A. Times Affairs, a first-person column in the Los Angeles Times chronicling romance and relationships. They want stories grounded in the present with a strong sense of place, rooted in Southern California.

I crafted the essay from my memoir, Loveyoubye. It’s a big scene, one I’ve been working on for awhile. The only thing is, it’s kind of a mixed bag sending it now instead of after Loveyoubye is published, which would allow me to give interested readers a link to buy the book. But according to my editor it’s a good idea to build interest before the book comes out as well. So I’m going with that and holding my thumbs that my piece gets published. My American friends, if you would cross your fingers for me, I would truly appreciate it.

One Week Later

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I’ve got to tell you, not having to blog every day is not a good thing. It was a relief for the first couple of days and then I lost track of time, and here it is already an entire week since I last blogged! I’m realizing that I need to blog, it forces me to stay focused and to think on my feet; it forces me to extend myself, to move beyond my writing insecurities. But the thing is, I really do need to get my YA novel Monkey’s Wedding ready for publication.

And now that I’m in there with fresh eyes after finishing my memoir, Loveyoubye, and all my blogging adventures–which really gave me a handle on immediacy and brevity–I’m seeing flaws I hadn’t noticed before. There’s that information download on the third page, that I can parse in later, that labored description of one of the characters. And then worst of all, a time issue. A time issue! After all my plotting, all those charts. Well, it’s a good thing I love to edit.

 

Hooray!

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Last day of my June blogathon. I was going to head into another one, but instead I’m going to focus on getting my young adult novel, Monkey’s Wedding, edited and published. Again. I’m embarrassed to report. One of the things I’ve vowed to do to make this happen is to seriously limit my forays onto the web: that tempting daily headline on my home page–CNN Top Stories–The Daily Beast, all those emails with social media tips, writing contests, words of inspiration, writing prompts, Narrative Online Magazine. Facebook is a whole other rabbit hole of distraction.

Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist  at the University of California, San Francisco contends that our brains are adapting to handle the many inputs of digital stimulation. Not my brain. I thought perhaps I had Attention Deficit Disorder–something I’d wondered about before because of my hyperactive mind. Maybe some drugs could fix the problem? But then I researched the symptoms and checked with a psychologist friend of mine. Nope. I’m just not the amazing multi-tasker I used to be nor as focused. So, even though I have gained a certain immediacy through blogging, a boldness if you will, and confidence, I’m heading for my friend’s mountain cabin for some serious focus-time.

But I shall be blogging as often as I can, because I’ve grown to love it.

 

 

Celebratin’

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It’s Celebrate The Small Things Day. Something I’ve achieved each week, no matter how small. If you’re interested in doing the same thing sign up here at Vicki’s blog.

Two things I want to celebrate today. The first is that I’m at the end of my June blogging stint. The End. Done. Klaar. Finito. Termine. There’s even a drawing for prizes. Bonus! Actually, the bonus is I’m discovering that the more I blog, the less I worry about what to say and how I’m coming across. And how about them haikus? See that? I learned something new.

The second thing I want to celebrate is that I’m finally digging a hole for my little lemon tree. It’s supposed to be twice as deep and twice as wide as the pot, this means 20″x 20″. Do you know how frickin’ hard that is in ground that feels like cement four inches down?  With the sun blazing above? But hey, nobody can accuse me of letting a little thing like cement-ground deter me; I’ll get it done if it takes digging the rest of the hole with an ice pick. This is the woman who pick-axed the roots of a stand of dying bamboo–bamboo, people!–in this 12×5 foot plot then sat with a hand-hoe and removed each root until the were removed.

Misc 027

 

Sawdust Celebration Tonight

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Tonight I’m off to the Sawdust Festival’s opening night celebrations. This is an artist’s venue a block from my house down Laguna Canyon Road, where they sell everything from jewelry to iron sculpture to ceramics, clothing, paintings, blown glass, even tiny little ceramic and cloth fairies. There’s also music and dancing on the stage by the water wheel. It’s an invitation-only affair and the sawdust-covered grounds are always packed to the rafters  cedar fence.

From ’82 through ’86, my ex and I used to sell our ceramic creations at the Sawdust. Mine consisted of hand-built fish, vases, wall plaques and flowers, while he had his pots, plates, bowls and cups. We made, glazed and fired all this while working full-time. Of course it was only for the summer, but those were eighteen-hour days. We also did the Westwood Festival in Los Angeles during Christmas. It was an exciting and heady time. And exhausting. It about killed us. I hurt my back and his already gimpy shoulder gave out. He continued for a while then gave it up. I began writing.

So these days I head down to the Sawdust to visit friends’ booths, see what’s new, drink some wine, have a delicious gyro at the Greek booth and dance.

 

Haiku

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Here’s my first attempt at haiku (should I capitalize that?), prompted by the sight of a spider web along with Trifecta’s writing challenge to incorporate the word rusty–“dulled in color or appearance by age or use”–fresh in my mind. Whether it works or not, I had a blast writing this.

Dew-spangled spider web
across the path
Old Chevy rusting in the gully

 

Five Top Regrets of Dying People

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Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse who spent several years caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog called  Inspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her observations into a book called  The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. Here they are.

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

None of these resonate with me, well, not exactly. Here’s my response:

1. I’ve never lived my life according to what others expected of me–sometimes to my regret. As for having the courage to live a life true to myself, I don’t think it was courage I lacked, I just didn’t know know what was true for me, I was always looking to others to tell me.

2. I liked working hard. Perhaps I didn’t work hard enough.

3. For the most part I’ve always expressed my feelings, not always well but it has been important to me to try to do so.

4. I have stayed in touch with friends. Plus I’ve regained Donna and Joan, a couple of old school chums from Zambia, who might never have been in my life anyway, but thanks to Facebook they are.

5. “I wish that I had let myself be happier.” I don’t get this one. Perhaps because I’m a glass half full kind of person.

Right out of the gate, I could spew regrets all over the place. But when I give it serious consideration, I don’t think I have as many regrets as others. Perhaps because I’ve always believed that an unexamined life is not worth living and I’ve gone through some excruciating self-evaluations, culminating in the latest episode that prompted my memoir Loveyoubye.  All I think about now is making the most of tomorrow. Perhaps when the time comes at the end, the very finality of leaving life will bring regrets I’m not aware of.