Thursday's Children 11/28/12

Perils of Querying

As some of you know, I've been querying TENDRIL. I was trying to approach the whole process cautiously and scientifically. By that I mean entering pitch contests to get feedback and help on my query, querying in batches, testing the waters with various incarnations of my query letter, and not blanketing AgentLand all at once with a desperate cry for representation. 

Rather unexpectedly I got a request from an agent for a phone call.

I can't go into details, and this isn't a THE CALL post. Though, I would LOVE to be doing one of those...

This is more about a deer in the headlights experience.

Based on her email, I thought we would be discussing her suggested revisions-and we did. 

I hoped she would tell me what she liked about TENDRIL-and she did.

I was worried that I would have technical difficulties using Skype-which I didn't.

I was worried that I would involuntarily start imitating her accent, because I sometimes do that when I'm talking to someone whose accent isn't like mine-but I didn't, THANK GOD.

Unfortunately I was not prepared for her to ask me why I queried her specifically. 

I mean, I had reasons, but  I didn't explain them eloquently. AT ALL. It was more like...

"Um, well, I saw you on Twitter. And then I went to your site. And your bio said stuff that seemed as though TENDRIL would be right up your alley..." 

See what I mean? Sounds more like a lame Match.com convo.

Perhaps even more tragically, I was not expecting her to ask me how I came to write the story, what INSPIRED me (here's the tie in to Thursday's Children) to write it. 

I, who have been spending nearly a dozen Thursdays rambling about inspiration, drew a complete and utter blank. Damn pathetic.

What I came up with was something along these lines...

"Uh, er, I have always liked fairy tales, and I liked the movie Tangled a lot, but of course because I wanted to write for a YA audience, and not copy anyone else's work, I had to make it different. So, uh, I..." 

Well, I'll spare you the rest. It was lame. And not even true. Because what really inspired TENDRIL was my love of old cemeteries. That's what got me started. Thinking about a girl who discovered she could communicate with the lost souls in a graveyard. I didn't even realize I was writing a retelling until I was a good halfway through the first draft.

Hopefully you've gotten a laugh at my expense, and if an agent wants to discuss revisions with you, bear in mind that he/she might also want to discuss INSPIRATION and other matters. 

Thankfully for me she was still expressing interest by the end of our chat.

If it all ends up going nowhere, at least I'll be ready next time. 

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Thanksgiving Blog Hop #2

In case you missed it, Brenda Drake is hosting a wonderful Blog Hop. 

Click on the link below the turkey to join.

Click Here!

Today's post is about my best friend, who also happens to be my husband. 

We met in art school, two of four students who actually showed up to Art History class in a blizzard. Apparently he spent the hour writing a note to his friend in New Hampshire about the cute girl in his class. *blushing*

Here I am at the time.

He was really preppy, I think he might even have been wearing a bow tie. I politely ignored him. Unfortunately I don't have a "Before" picture of him. 

But below you can see the result of my, um, influence. His family was none too pleased.

These are photos of our passport photos, taken just before we went to the U.K. 

Yes, it is a bit of a twist on the Pygmalion and Galatea story...because I did eventually fall in love with him.

In those days my creativity was channeled through hair gel and painting. He always cheered me on in art school, and told me my realistic portraits were great, even if everyone else was doing angry abstracts and conceptual work. And after some rough class critiques he cheered me up (I cheered him up too, of course). 

We got married and had a decorative painting business together for a couple of years - murals, faux finishes, that sort of thing. Our company was called Nymph & Satyr Designs. We never got sick of each other, even spending EVERY waking moment together.

But, I really want to talk about my husband and writing.

My very first attempt at a novel remains unfinished, but he read what I'd written and said I should keep writing, that I was good at it. He still thinks I should finish that book. 

It's called THE ISLANDS OF PENOBSCOT BAY. Look for it on bookstore shelves in 2030 or so.

He was the first person to read all three of my finished books. He read the first one at least three times, because I changed it repeatedly based on agent feedback. 

He helps keep me sane during the roller-coaster ride of querying, rejections, requests, more rejections, R&Rs, and so on. 

He keeps telling me "it will happen-don't give up" and I like to think he's right. We're even making a BIG move, in part so that I can keep writing and not have to go back to work full-time.

I'll always remember the moment he came into the kitchen, hugged me, quoted a line from my most recent book TENDRIL, and said "No matter what, keep writing. You are too damn good not to make it."
That made me cry.
Hopefully one of these days his faith in me will be rewarded. 

p.s. In case you're wondering, neither of us has a mohawk now.

Thursday's Children 11/1/12

Sandy provided the spark for this week's post.
Weather.
I like to make it work for me in a story.
Which sometimes means making it work against my protagonists.

Fair weather might be the pleasant backdrop of a scene.

Maybe it reflects the serene inner landscape of your MC...

This is Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, photo taken in August

Or the calm waters your MC is enjoying--before or after the storm.

Rachel Carson Refuge Wells, Maine August

I am extremely fond of fog. It can be peaceful and soothing.



Sailboat, Goose Rocks Beach, Kennebunkport ME October

It can also be eerie and disorienting.

Familiar landmarks disappear.

You think you are alone, then suddenly someone appears right in front of you.

Sounds are sometimes muffled. Sometimes clearer.

Goose Rocks Beach Kennebunkport Maine The day before Sandy's arrival

Weather can be a living nightmare, an antagonist in your story.
In UNQUIET SOULS the main characters have to contend with supernaturally gifted villains and their Scottish deerhound familiars, during a blizzard slash ice storm.

Weather can be a catalyst, forcing your characters to take action.
In TENDRIL, a hurricane creates opportunity for the bad guy, and forces the somewhat reluctant good guy to act courageously.

Portland Head Light Maine October 31, 2012

How have you made weather work for you in your stories?

This is a bloghop-we're trying a new linky tool. I think you'll be able to add yourself to the list here. If not, go to Kristina Perez 's blog.

Here's the Thursday's Children theme song.

Thursday's Children 9/27/12 Part I Where Do Your Characters Dwell?

"We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us."

WINSTON CHURCHILL, Sir Winston Churchill: A Self-Portrait

How much thought do you give to the places your characters live?
By that I don't mean geographic location (that'll be another blog post), but the actual house itself. 

Home. There's a loaded word if ever there was one. It might summon feelings of comfort, embarrassment, even terror. A house invariably affects the lives of its inhabitants.  How a home looks, sounds, and even smells, all help to convey its signficance within a story.

A house can be as much a character in the story as any of the human ones.
Houses have personalities.
And sometimes secrets.

 

The George Jacobs Senior House (see below) was an inspiration for my book
UNQUIET SOULS

Do you think a home can absorb the essence of those who have lived there?
Can walls, ceilings, and floors retain memories of their own?

If so, could a psychically sensitive person experience past events or personalities if she were to touch one of the structural beams that had once belonged to it?
I used this idea as an inciting event.

The Jacobs house collapsed during the 1930s.



Geo. Jacobs Senior's House c. 1891

This farmhouse helped me flesh out a minor but still important character.
Ezekiel Hovey,local historian and elderly bachelor, who lives with his white cat Mary.
 

Don't you think this house might smell like boiled cabbage and litter box?

In my YA Contemporary FOOLISH, Sparrow (the MC) lives in a mobile home adorned with hippy graffiti and crammed to the ceiling with her mother's unfinished art projects - it's only a few crocheted afghans shy of being featured on "Hoarders".

But notice the flowers.

So picture this van, as a mobile home, but only half-painted (because her mother never completes anything she starts). 

Of course it's on the wrong side of town, underscoring Sparrow's "have-not" status.

No wonder she can't wait to get the hell out of there. 

But in her next residence she plants a garden, to make her new house feel like home.

Many of us have ambivalence about the places we've called home.

Here's where I envisioned Opal MacBride, (the MC in my book TENDRIL) living with her grandmother, Pearl.
A cottage tucked into a cleft between forested hills, by a quiet lake in New Hampshire where trees and steeples frame the sky.
The walls inside are painted marigold yellow, delphinium blue, and geranium red.

A very "female" sort of place if you like symbolism, which I do.

But after Pearl dies, Opal must live with her Uncle Ned, a lighthouse keeper.

The perpetual fog smells like ocean creatures. When the swells are big Opal hears the hiss and roar of a sea monster, but when the waves are calm Opal imagines she hears mermaids whispering. The walls, floors, and furniture are white, like Opal (who has albinism).
Her uncle has an unhealthy obsession with her.

 

Constant movement, craggy cliffs, and of course, the lighthouse itself, you can't get much more "masculine" than that. It is here that Opal must reclaim her sexuality.



Photo Courtesy of Kari Jo Spear

Where do your characters dwell, and what does that say about them?

Does knowing what a character's house looks like, smells like, sounds like help your reader understand him or her?

Does knowing where your characters live help you understand them better?

For Thursday's Children this week Kristina Perez blogged about Falling With Grace, and as a former competitive figure skater I bet she knows a thing or two about that. Her post goes up on Thursday.

Here's the Linky List so anybody else who wants to share their Thursday inspirations can be part of an ongoing Bloghop.

Distractions

Feeling fidgety and unproductive?  Please say yes, so I don't have to add "guilty" to my list. 

I saw this link on the Writer Unboxed Facebook Group and couldn't resist the temptation. 

I Write Like

For TENDRIL the result was James Joyce

For UNQUIET SOULS the result was J. K. Rowling

For FOOLISH (my YA Contemporary Romance) the result was Cory Doctorow

If only!

Paste a few paragraphs of your novel, blog, or other writing into The Analyzer and share your results in Comments.

Favorite Authors - George S. MacDonald

Two books I loved as a child were THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN and THE PRINCESS AND CURDIE by George S. MacDonald (1824-1880).

I didn't know, until the other day, that MacDonald was C. S. Lewis's mentor (thanks Denise!)

Turns out he also was a major influence on Tolkein, Auden, L'Engle, Carroll and even Twain.  Guess I'm in good company!

Socially he hobnobbed with Thackeray, Dickens, Tennyson, Wilkie Collins, Longfellow, Whitman - well, really anybody who was anybody in those days.



Looks a bit like Rasputin - eek!

 About THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN, G. K. Chesteron said it "made a difference to my whole existence."

The books we had were early editions that had been in our family for ages.  I adored the beautiful evocative illustrations as much as the words. The stories involved a race of goblins who lived underground where they plotted to abduct the child Princess Irene and marry her to the goblin prince.  The mastermind behind the scheme was Prince Harelip's mother, the Queen, whose feet sported toes, unlike the other goblins.  She took great pains to hide her "deformed" feet from the other goblins, she probably feared they'd turn on her, I don't really remember much about her motivation as a character.  I do remember that the goblins had extremely hard heads, to hurt them Curdie had to aim his miner's pick at their feet instead. Curdie and Princess Irene's goddess-like great great grandmother ultimately saved the day. 

These stories inspired certain aspects of my novel TENDRIL.



Young Princess Irene & her Great Great Grandmother



Older Princess Irene with Curdie



What author from your own childhood inspired you?