Which means I get to write!

Right now I'm revising Butterfly Chaos -- I'm supposed to revise 5 pages/day but I've been all over the map with that. Right now I am trying to get deeper into what the heck is going on between Cassie and her cousin Big Mike. I'm starting to realize that this part of the story is very important to the book but when I try to work on it, ugh! I just don't want to! So I'm having to kick myself along on that, and it's been slow going.

Also writing a new novel where a girl changes into a raccoon. Other kids around the nation/world are changing into animals too -- not in huge numbers (it's like the AIDS epidemic when it first showed up in the 80's, where the numbers aren't huge but everybody is freaking out about it nevertheless). I'm liking this story a lot, because I LOVE writing from a raccoon's pov, because raccoons are so much fun, and I'm piling enough field biology and ethology and animal stuff into this story to choke a horse (but not the horse I have in this story because he is also awesome). And then there are all these political undercurrents because this story is kind of a kickback at a lot of fundamentalist attitudes that seem to have overtaken our nation. Also the story has a mountain lion.

I have no idea where this story is going, no idea of what will happen next, or what is causing kids to change into a native animal overnight, but I've been writing a thousand words about every other day and stuff keeps showing up. I figure I'll just keep writing until I have about 250 pages, and maybe by then I'll have enough of an idea to sort this puppy out.

Baby is still testing his ninja skills at inopportune times. He really packs a punch. I'm afraid that here in July I'll have to reinforce my belly with duct tape so he doesn't kick his way out. Then I'll be silver and shiny. Pregnancy is nuts.

Went on Twitter because it's President Truman's 128th birthday and I was going to say stuff about that. Because everybody should get worked up about presidential birthdays! I know I do!

Instead I saw that Maurice Sendak died at 83 and I'm all like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Well that shot my day to hell.

I memorized "Where the Wild Things Are" so I could recite it to my daughter anywhere I went.

And that interview on the Colbert Report was the awesomest thing EVER. I especially liked Maurice's take on Newt Gingrich and ebooks!

So bummed.

Apparently I'm going to give birth to a ninja here in August. He certainly is squirmy, and once in a while he unleashes DragonFist! and then I sit up and take notice.

Perhaps I should not drink two cups of tea per day. But it's soooooooooo good.

In other news, I'm back to revising Butterfly Chaos. I'd like to revise five pages/day so I can get through the whole thing by July 1, when I can then freak out about going to Hamline for my last residency. I will graduate two weeks before baby is due. This should be a very interesting residency.

I'm also working on a story about a girl who turns into a raccoon and acts like a raccoon and does raccoonish things, or at least her human side is working hard NOT to let her do some of those raccoonish things, i.e. eating baby rabbits, trash, or taking a nap in the fridge right in the butter dish. I'm shooting for 500 words/day on that, but having a hard time keeping on schedule with that due to the 5 page/day thing.

Perhaps I should be writing instead of writing long-winded blog posts. Yes, that would probably be a good idea.

This blog post is a few months old, but it has some really great information and things to think about if you want to write people of color into your stories.

I've been so fed up with the things I've heard around me in the last few months that I have decided to make all my main characters PoC -- a decision I've been coming around to for several years, ever since I followed Racefail 2009. A little scared of trying this, since obviously I am a pasty-white girl who lives under a rock. But at the same time, I hate what I'm seeing and hearing from people who are ordinarily good, friendly folks and it disturbs me like you would not believe. I'm going, how do PoC even put up with this from day to day? I have it so easy! But I want PoC as my main characters because then we can have more non-white faces on book covers, and that would be a tiny, tiny additional step forward. Unless the marketing department decides to whitewash the covers! 

It drives me nuts that marketers say "Books written by PoC's don't sell." But the huge majority of midlist authors are white. Perhaps it's white authors who don't sell! Otherwise all those white midlist authors would be insanely rich!! Obviously!

I gotta tell you, though, this paragraph from the above blog post scares the absolute hell out of me:

INCENTIVIZED?

Good God! What is this nonsense!! Is it that much trouble to say, "Gave them an incentive?" I'll give you an incentive all right! 

*hair catches fire* *brain slithers away*

Stop verbing language, you verbing verbers.

I swear, the best folks are on LJ and they're all good to have around when you're in a pinch.

In the words of Harold Ross, one of the most awesome editors of the New Yorker, "I am encouraged to go on."

"This cow will impact the performance of your herd."

LIKE A FREAKING ASTEROID.

Man, I really hate the word "impact" when it's used as a verb. I always want to go, "Impact this!!" It's one of those knee-jerk things I've had for a long time. Also, I hate the word "insightful."

I am having a grumpy day. Mama Bear needs to get more sleep.

Okay, I've really been out of the loop, but I have a reason! Like I'm 15 weeks pregnant!

December and January were sucky months because of general nausea and blah and I completely stopped writing for ALL THAT TIME, and went around under a cloud of "Why bother writing! I will never get published! Why go on!" And then I was also doing a lot of overtime, so I'd basically work and then I'd go home and mope and sleep, only to wake up in the middle of the night all the time because I also had major insomnia issues.

Yeah, I guess I *was* having a rough time there.

Well, last weekend out of desperation I asked my in-laws to come over and help me get the house in order because the whole place had gone to hell due to all of the above. So they did.

I have the most awesomest in-laws in the world. I am not kidding. We got a lot of stuff done, I found the energy to keep up and didn't even take a nap that day, and they'll be back on Monday for round 2 with the kid and my husband. (I will, naturally, be at work.)

Their visit drove that black cloud off my brain. I've felt so much better this week. Sent out queries even. Want to get back to the story but haven't had time due to the thick of overtime. But now I'm thinking about it and I just need to make a little time for it daily.

It's a super-good feeling.

But back to the baby thing. I'm due August 4, or thereabouts, since the date changes every time I have an ultrasound, and because I am such an old crone (I'll be 41 in April) I'm high-risk, so I get an ultrasound every time I turn around. I don't mind tho. More cool pics. I like to watch the little guy/gal jump.

Things are getting better. Now if the dishes would just wash themselves, I'd be in great shape.

From a book I'm proofreading: "Here's a bull that jumped through all of the hoops." Pretty nimble for a 1,245 pound dude.

Okay, I am still in a big revisions hole but the whole story is really starting to pull together very nicely now. While writing the NEW IMPROVED ending, I discovered some things that clarified several plot points in the beginning of the book and one thing that became what I call the "secret beginning."

And with all this under my belt, I wrote a query, even though I won't be sending these out for a little while. If anybody wants to give me a few pointers about it, fire away!

Dear Nice Agent Person –
 
I’m querying you because etc.
 
Three months ago, Cassie’s cousin Toni drowned before her eyes. Now Cassie has started seventh grade at the lousy junior high. Big Mike, the cousin who blames Cassie for Toni’s death, is dating the bully who torments Cassie in gym. Liza, who ran around with Toni and let Cassie tag along, now scarcely looks at her in the halls. Cassie has maybe a teeny little crush on Jake, who intercepted Toni’s body in the muddy river that night, but Cassie, who longs to talk to somebody about the guilt she’s drowning in, is too scared to approach him.
 
Until Toni’s ghost visits Cassie in a dream and shows her that in two nights, a powerful EF3 tornado will rip into a dance hall, killing Big Mike, Liza, and Jake.
 
Cassie forces herself out of her shell to save her friends’ lives. But as she grows closer to Liza and Jake, discovering the threads of grief that tie the four of them to Toni, Cassie finds that, despite all she does to change it, their destiny lies directly in the killer tornado’s path – and she must find a rock to cling to as the whole world flies to pieces around her.
 
Butterfly Chaos, an MG rural fantasy (because why should urban folks have all the fun?), is completed at 62,000 words. I am querying other agents at this time.
 
I have nearly completed my MFA for writing for children at Hamline University, where I worked with Gary Schmidt (The Wednesday Wars, Okay for Now) on this novel. My fiction and articles have appeared in Cicada, Cricket, Highlights, Read, The Horn Book, and I’ve written for many gardening magazines.
 
Please find, in the body of the email, the first five pages of Butterfly Chaos (or whatever that particular agent’s guidelines specify).
 
Thank you so much for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing back from you.
 
Sincerely,
Melinda R. Cordell
 
(contact info goes here)

The end.

P.S. ROSE I AM WRITING YOUR CRIT NEXT AND I AM SORRY TO BE A SLOWPOKE.

I've been really working on this story, 50 pages at a time, and turning them in to my faculty advisor. I've written the ending, though I was all like ARRGH ARRGH I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS THE RIGHT ENDING EVEN THOUGH IT MADE ME CRY. Well, actually, a little teary-eyed. So yesterday I wrote a different ending, but in writing it found out how much an ending like that would stink and it would make people throw the book across the room, so I won't use it.

The ending I have, though, is very interesting, in that I used to set up all my stories like this. (Though, one could argue, I still do. Could be a problem.) This weekend I read an old story I'd written while infatuated with some guy back in high school, and I thought, oh my goodness! That's the story I just wrote!

It's so cool that so much of what I'm doing today springs directly out of the things that really grabbed me when I was a kid.

Anyway, I am looking for a few sharp-eyed readers who want to take a look at this MG novel about love, death, and tornadoes, with a few explosions to liven things up. I'm just looking for global comments to be sure this story works before I go inflicting it on agents.


Thanks!

Dear Sale Manager who wrote this letter I'm proofreading:

Just because you Like a Word doesn't mean you have to Capitalize it.

Sincerely,
A Fan.

Okay, I'm writing a scene set at a junior high dance in 1985.

Problem: I never attended any dances in junior high or high school, mainly because I lived under a rock. So I don't know much about them at all!

What do you see at a junior high dance? How do the kids act? What kind of setup have you seen at your dances? Amusing anecdotes also accepted.

Thanks!!

I really like the Overture to Candide by Leonard Bernstein....

...but not when it's been running though my head all morning! 

I'm starting to feel over-caffienated. *switches on i-Pod*

Actual line from a sale catalog:

"Howdy folks, as we transcend into the cooler months of fall ...."


Henry D. Thoreau: Oh no you don't! (punches cattleman in the nose)

I LOVE IT WHEN THE WRITING REALLY HITS THE GAS, IT'S SUCH A WONDERFUL THING, WHY CAN'T EVERY WRITING DAY BE LIKE THIS!

And why did I have to get a sale book on my desk when I was cranking along like that! Well, besides the fact that I am at work. But couldn't the writing gods have come up with a way to delay the sale book? Like make the printer run out of toner or something? Then I could have gotten five more minutes in at least.

Oh well. *glances adoringly at shiny writing* That's what lunch break is for!!

I'm getting ready to send samples and resumes out to book packagers in order to do work for hire. (No fear, I'm still working on Zanny's story.) Have any of you readers done work for hire? What do book packagers like to see in a cover letter? I plan on sending a variety of samples -- the first chapter of my MG novel, two articles I've written for Cricket and Highlights, and a gardening article to emphasize my well-rounded writing skills -- but I can't find an example of a cover letter for this field online. (I'm still looking, though.)

Any tips or suggestions will be of great help. I am a fast writer when there's a deadline looming, and I'm skilled -- or I'd better be after all these years.

Thanks!

It's busy season again at work so I've let the posting slide. While proofreading sale catalogs, I've gotten through Hard Times and most of A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. I'm not as crazy about these as I am about Great Expectations, but to each her own.

Did I tell you that all the agents passed? I checked back with the last three agents while at Hamline and got back two rejections of the full. The agents, interestingly, concurred with the workshop that looked at my first two chapters. "What if you got rid of Roxy?" they asked. (One agent said, "Why is Roxy so old?" which caused old me to collapse in a mound of moldering grave dust.)

The idea hit home, and so I took Roxy out. Bam! And you know what? The surgery was a success. The wounds closed right up. And now the story ran a thousand times faster.

But I needed something, or somebody, to tell Zanny about the future event of the tornado which sets the book in motion.

Then I realized the solution was in the story all along: her dead cousin, for whom Zanny feels a ton of guilt. Not to mention that Toni, the dead cousin, is mad at Zanny for standing right there and not understanding that she was dying. Zanny suspects that the angry ghost wants to trade her life for one of the tornado victim's. So more conflict.

It's nice when the solution is right before your face all along.

Too bad I didn't get the solution like maybe a year ago!!

So now I'm going through the story and revising in light of the changes -- digging deeper into the relationships between Zanny and all her other cousins. I'll be working on the book this semester with Mary Logue. I plan to start sending it out toward the end of the semester. It should be great.

Yep, 'tis the season again for stuff I run across while proofreading. Today's tidbit:

"This March heifer is a little green now -- but feed her and watch her explode!"

And then watch me turn green.

What on earth is up with the spam? I have had to delete a zillion spam comments since I've been at Hamline. Good thing I don't have a huge following or else it would be worse.

Is there anybody out there to cuss at about this?