Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow

One week from today I'll have already given my pitch to the agent. And this time my pitch is actually done unlike other times when I write it the night before. I actually leave on Wednesday

I'm using for son's bedroom as a staging area. ( I don't say old bedroom since he will becoming home in February)

The RWA National is a professional event so one must dress accordingly. My outfits are all laid out and I went to Walmart yesterday and purchased all those trial sized items. I'm hoping to keep it to one medium sized suitcase and a small bag. My partner in crime Yolanda has purchased a case of water and I plan to go to Sam's Club and by a box of the 100 calorie snack packs so we don't hit the snack machines.

I've gone thru the schedule and highlighted the workshops I plan to attend. And as much as I complained about my netbook, I'll be glad to have it so I can blog about the conference while I'm there. Of course this is DC and I want to hit up the memorials and the Smithsonian. As much as I want to see the Library of Congress I won't go because I may not ever come out.

So I'm rambling again. Do you think I'm a little excited?

"There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. " - W. Somerset Maugham

Received the new RWR (magazine from Romance Writers of America) in the mail yesterday.

There are always some great articles and I'll share what struck me from two of my favorites:

Who's On Top? Intimacy, Control, and Conflict by Virginia Kantra explains the difference between the
character arc: Protangonist wants to do, accomplish, or change...something and must struggle, learn and grow to acheive it
romantic arc: the development of romance from development through exploration to emotional intimacy and sex
So we must develop all 3 arcs - the hero, the heroine, and the relationship.

Taking Your Writing to the Next Level by Liz Lounsbury
Lounsbury provides several ways to shake up your writing such as:
-Determine what life lesson your character must learn, and then plot backward from this resolution, picking events that will lead them to this end.
-Brainstorm what can happen at each stage of your book as you write.
-Are you using convention rather than feeling your way through the emotions and actions as they are felt by my specific hero and heroine with all their back story and baggage?

On a side note my pitch for the upcoming RWA conference in D.C. is complete.

The sound of my voice sank into the bowels of the house like a coin falling into a bottomless well. - from The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

After reading Shadow of the Wind, I've been waiting, and waiting for The Angel's Game to be released. It was worth the wait. Zafon is a master of imagery. 1920's Barcelona is not a mere setting - no, it's more of an atmosphere of shadows and light. The author weaves a tale that will make you want to rush thru until the end but you don't so you can savor each word.

From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Fans of Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind and new readers alike will be delighted with this gothic semiprequel. In 1920s Barcelona, David Martin is born into poverty, but, aided by patron and friend Pedro Vidal, he rises to become a crime reporter and then a beloved pulp novelist. David's creative pace is frenetic; holed up in his dream house—a decrepit mansion with a sinister history—he produces two great novels, one for Vidal to claim as his own, and one for himself. But Vidal's book is celebrated while David's is buried, and when Vidal marries David's great love, David accepts a commission to write a story that leads him into danger. As he explores the past and his mysterious publisher, David becomes a suspect in a string of murders, and his race to uncover the truth is a delicious puzzle: is he beset by demons or a demon himself? Zafón's novel is detailed and vivid, and David's narration is charming and funny, but suspect. Villain or victim, he is the hero of and the guide to this dark labyrinth that, by masterful design, remains thrilling and bewildering. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

I'll leave you with passage from the book...

...The streets were deserted beneath a mercury moon. I looked up and thought I saw the ghost of a huge black storm spreading its wings over the city. A gust of white light split the skies and a mantle woven with raindrops cascaded down like a shower of glass daggers. A moment before the first drop touched the ground, time came to a standstill and hundreds of thousands of tears of light were suspended in the air like specks of dust. I knew that someone or something was walking behind me and could feels its breath on the nape of my neck.....

Zafon is a master.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that

among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776


Here is something funny....(okay, my funny bone can be juvenile at times)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOWdg8yq8cY


As we celebrate the 4th remember (and whatever you feeling about Dick Cheney you can't deny him saying)

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.

Happy Fourth everyone and God Bless Us, everyone.

Writing without voice is wooden or dead because it lacks sound, rhythm, energy, and individuality...

Writing with voice is writing into which someone has breathed. It has fluency, rhythm, and liveliness that exist naturally in the speech of most people when they are enjoying a conversation. --Peter Elbow, Writing with Power


So getting back to latest edition of Poet’s & Writers -
Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Staus, and Giroux was asked What are you looking for when you’re evaluating a piece of fiction? Are you looking for any kind of sensibility or anything like that?
His answer: I think that would fall under voice……voice is one way of looking at it but aliveness is another.
　
So what is voice? I went to write101.com and Susan J. Letham says….
Voice is a reflection of your experience and how your characters experience the world of you story.
Voice is the way you’re your words “sound” on the page. The way you write - the tone (friendly, formal, chatty, distant, etc.), the words you choose, pattern of your sentences and the way these things fit with your character’s personalities.
What do I think about voice?
I know that voice develops over time as you develop over time as a person. My voice is different than what it was in my 20’s, even 30’s. I feel it more confident, more worldly. (At least I think so)
If I had to define my voice I liked to think of it as edgy and hip (of course, this could be just the voices in my head telling me what I what to hear).

Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried. - Thomas Jefferson

The love affair with my netbook is over. Yes, it's cute, but...but....urrrgggg...It's too small! I got a migrane from being hunched over the thing. And I have to keep scrolling to see the whole image - so annoying even for the simplest tasks as checking my e-mail.
I was hoping to use it for word processing - when I go to Borders or at work during lunch - but it only came with wordpad and the keypad is tiny. So frustrating.

So, I'll be on the market from a new laptop - but I'm waiting until new Windows 7 comes out. I always hated Vista. I've heard they are offering free upgrades with new computers but I've been thru that before....and don't want to go there again....never again. So I wait and keep using the netbook and my bulkly laptop.

But I'm not complaining...

Weird....

First let me say rest in peace to Ed, Farrah, and Michael.

Feeling a little sad for Farrah as Michael frenzy has taken hold.
I know he was an icon and his death is somewhat unexpected but the guy was unstable and I mostly feel sad for the life he led.

I feeling bad for Farrah because here was a classy lady who fought her cancer hard and with grace.

Onto the the weird part...at least for me anyway. After the Gulf War I wrote a story called War For View set in the not-so-distant-future. I wrote it after the 24/7 coverage on CNN of the Gulf War which was unpredecented for it's time. Fascinating, but left me severely depressed (I was also out of work at the time so I watched non-stop).

Anyway, the idea of War For View was that you paid a fee to watch the war live, including enemy interrogations, funerals, helmet and bomb cam. Morbid, I know but I was depressed - okay?

Here is the weird part...this is how I started the story...(written in 1993)

....From the people who brought you Sex For View, Neighbor for View, and the Michael Jackson at 50 Concert, here's the newest innovation in Pay For View land. It's war! That's right folks the war is on Pay For View. Pull up a seat...

So M.Jackson was going to have a concert at 50 (cue the twilght zone music here). Probably would have been his big comeback.

The story was rejected by several places but did receive one personal rejection. The editor liked what I was saying in the piece even bringing up CNN (my original intent) but felt the format didn't work. She encouraged me to send more in the future - of course I never did - what the hell is wrong with me?

I did the same thing with Woman's World and then a few years later I finally did send something else - that rejected too but I did received a very positive letter from the editor.

I'm rambling again...