Archive for February, 2008
February 13, 2008
In 1995 I left Glaxo to create my own freelance writing business. So, you leave a good job, a steady paycheck, dig up the information to set up a business in your town, file all the forms, and then, voila, you’re in business. Now what? When does the money come in? And, small detail – from where? Isn’t there some boss who’s supposed to tell you what to do next? On the last – look in the mirror. That’s where the buck stops, or starts.
Of course I knew I wanted to write, but what? Articles? Essays? Short stories? Novels? Picture books? Yes. That was my answer. Yes. All of it. Of course, I would do it all. And succeed. Within the next few months. . . . right. I had to. I had to have that income. That’s probably the same answer anybody gives when they decide “I want to write.” The “I’ll write it all . . . and I’ll succeed.” So you sit down, write a bunch of stuff, send it out, and . . . get rejection notes. There’s a surprise. 🙂
I did have the advantage of having this dream since I was about 10 and tried to write my own Nancy Drew books. I joined the Writer’s Digest Book Club in the 70s when it first started – I’m probably one of the earliest members – and I even read some of them. This gave me some working knowledge of marketing and what it was I was supposed to do to submit. I’d even managed to collect a few rejection notes over those years, so I at least had a “glimpse” of what I was up against. Even so, I had to live it, to learn it.
After a number of rejections, it dawned on me that I wasn’t destined for instant stardom and I did the equivalent of that line from the Apollo 13 movie: “What do we have on the spacecraft that’s good?”
Taking stock, I looked at where could I come up with the quickest income. Given the medical background, I could do medical writing and editing. I had the experience. It would have paid well. And I would have choked. I JUST did NOT want to sit there doing SOPs, business writing, and ripping my hair out while I tried to figure out how to format chemical formulas in my computer complete with all the raised and lowered numbers you see – C6H12O6 and 1.65 x 106 (that’s 10 to the 6th power by the way, not 106) moles . . . as you can see, I still haven’t figure out how to do that. I hope I never do. I wanted to write stories – things with heart, not chemistry. Besides, I’d already done that.
My actual, very first publication ever, had been about 20 years earlier. It was a chapter in a medical Microbiology book, on a then relatively unknown bacteria called Campylobacter. Actually, it WAS known, but as the genus Vibrio. However, the taxonomists decided that certain species of Vibrio really WEREN’T Vibrios at all, and hence needed to have their own genus. That’s what taxonomists do. Change classifications and create new names for bacteria. My job was to write a chapter summarizing all this.
As an aside: If you ever have nothing better to do, check out a book called Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. It has almost EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know, and more that you didn’t want to know, about how to classify various bacteria. Not only that, but every few years the taxonomists change their minds about what boxes to put all the bacteria in and what names to give them, so they come out with a new volume. If you’re REALLY hard core about bacteria, get the Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. It’s a THREE-VOLUME set, soon to be FIVE volumes after the next revision. An editorial review of just the second volume says: “Satisfyingly heavy and a pleasure to handle Volume 2 of the Second Edition of this highly respected work boasts a combined weight of more than 7 Kg. Their sheer size is a testament to the quantity of information contained inside.” So, for all the bacteria geeks . . . or people who need satisfyingly heavy doorstops.
Anyway, I wrote this chapter summarizing all that was known about the appearance, biochemical characteristics, and pathogenicity (how well it causes disease) of all the known Campylobacter species in 1975. If you’re that interested, see my Author journey page for a reference. I’m sure I’m no longer in the book. Some other poor soul has no doubt, long since revised it. Bless them.
It was a fine enough debut for my writing. After all, how many college juniors can say they’ve been published, much less in a respected science reference series? While my appetite was whetted for the world of publishing, I just did not want to write science journals or textbooks.
So what do you do when you have left your job, you don’t want to write science, you’re running low on money, and all your fiction gets rejection slips?
You be realistic and go back to science, but you find something in science that is writing-related, and engages your heart. You also refuse to give up your dream.
COMING UP NEXT: Apprenticeship, Take 2: Getting a Grip – The Anal-Retentive Takes Over
Tags:1975, 1995, 70s, all of it, anal retentive, Apollo 13, appearance, apprenticeship, articles, bacteria, Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, biochemical, boss, business, business writing, Campylobacter, chapter, characterisitic, chemical formula, chemistry, classifications, college junior, debut, disease, doorstop, dream, editorial review, essays, fiction, freelance, geek, genus, getting a grip, Glaxo, good job, heart, income, job, kilograms, look in the mirror, marketing, medical, member, microbiology, microbiology book, moles, money, Nancy Drew, novels, paid well, pathogenicity, paycheck, picture books, poor soul, publication, published, reference, refuse to give up, rejected, rejection letter, rejections, ripping out hair, science, science journals, second edition, short stories, SOP, spacecraft, species, steady paycheck, succeed, take over, take two, taking stock, taxonomists, textbooks, the buck stops, three-volume, Vibrios, world of publishing, Writer's Digest Book Club, writing, writing business, writing-related
Posted in Broken Bits | Leave a Comment »
February 12, 2008
I’ve been promising the “where have I been, what am I doing, and where am I going?” piece. You’ve met the fiddler crabs and know that I’m doing some kind of strange book involving crustaceans and humans. And since it’s fiction, not nonfiction, God only knows what it’s about, right? You’re aware I am interested in everything from Nancy Drew, photography, and Tonka trucks (the old metal ones only!!!) to borescopes, poodles, and Buddhism. So, you know I’m odd.
My story as a writer – short version. Plan A: I had a dream. Left a job. Wrote a bunch of stuff. Submitted it. Waited for the money to roll in. It didn’t. So I was forced to move to Plan B: Take a step back. Scratch my head. Get a grip, then do what every writer since the cave man has done – learn my craft and build a business. SLOWLY. While earning paychecks to keep the bills paid.
I decided this story might be useful? Or at least entertaining, to any new writers who have illusions about how this business works. Maybe it will either inspire or make you laugh when you want to cry, so you realize you are not alone. Or you will run screaming from the room and say you never want to be a writer. That’s always a fair answer, too. But I have to tell you, writing . . . it’s a life-long affliction.
If you were born infected with the desire to write, you can run, but you can’t hide from that voice pulling at you to put words down. If you are honest, you will admit to secretly ripping a strip off of a paper napkin while driving because you just CAN’T let that thought go by. You might even admit to having torn bits of envelopes, doctor bills, the back of your son’s first draft of a term paper, or your hand, covered in scribbles of things you JUST CAN’T let escape from your brain without being written down. If it progresses to the more advanced stages, you may find yourself living with your walls, stairwells, garage, kitchen table and living room floor, covered in maps, sketches, notes, paintings, story outlines, books, articles, and half-written manuscripts. Let’s not even discuss what’s packed into storage boxes, onto book shelves, under the pool table or in desk drawers. Like I said, it’s an affliction. You just learn to live with it. And like Stephen King said, he’d do this job even if they didn’t pay him.
In any event, I will split this over a few posts. I think that way, it will also give living examples to the three stages of writer development as outlined by author and illustrator, Uri Shulevitz. The man has a tremendous body of work, has won awards from the Caldecott Medal to the Golden Kite Award, and I think, knows a few things about this business.
I have this old faded email from 8/27/96 from the Children’s Writing email group, where someone very kindly shared Mr. Shulevitz’s comments from a conference. By the way, if you want to write for children, that email group is a great group to be subscribed to. The writers range from the famous to the beginner, and the people there are generous, knowledgeable, and good-hearted. Just don’t show up and say – “I want to write for kids. What do I do?” Or the ever popular, “I wrote something. Where should I send it?” Do some of your own homework, first. Get a copy of:
 |
|
Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market 2008 (Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market) Read the beginning pages. They have great basic get-started information about the profession – and it is a profession – of children’s writing. For that matter, Writer’s Digest Book Club has a ton of great writing books, some slanted for children’s writing. Just get or borrow some of these books, read them, then come to the list with your questions. They’ll be happy to help. To subcribe, send a message to:
childrens-writers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
You can also visit the group’s home page at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/childrens-writers.
To finish up today’s post and set the stage for the rest of this project, I’ll leave you with Mr. Shulevitz’s thoughts about the process a person goes through to become a writer. Most of us will travel this road I suspect, unless you’re Isaac Asimov, who could write almost perfect first drafts, and over his life wrote or edited over 500 books, an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards, and whose works have been published in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal System. He missed out only in Philosophy. If you’re not another Asimov, here’s the stages:
The Three Stages of Writer Development (as paraphrased by the email author who apologized for not being as eloquent as Mr. Shulevitz):
Stage One: The Journey of Apprenticeship
Learn about the craft with an open mind. Set aside your preferences. Experiment, experience, try new techniques, look at different eras and styles. Copy other writers to understand their techniques. Survey all styles of children’s books to see what makes the best, good, and the worst, bad. In short: Gather Outside Knowledge
Stage Two: Search Inside
a) Find your own voice and vision. Seek solitude. Be alone with yourself. Seek a sanctuary where you can sort out the voices within and without. Achieve inner silence.
b) Be who you are. You must listen to yourself from your own depths and become acquainted with your own true self and sort out all you have gathered in your apprenticeship. Sort out what you learned from your apprenticeship and learn which is you and which is NOT you. You are what you truly love. Find themes which continue to repeat themselves within you and your work. Examine what may be to some, unpopular beliefs.
c) You will work alone in the end. Any teacher can only take you to your own frontier. You will have to take it from there.
Stage Three: Joy of Working
After the first two stages, you are ready to begin WORKING. You know yourself so well you can lose yourself in your work. Your work will be free and spontaneous because you know yourself so well, but not yet easy or simple.
And by the way, he notes: Sometimes you might have to go back to Stage One or Two once in a while.
UP NEXT: My apprenticeship
Tags:affliction, apprenticeship, articles, awards, beginner, bills, body of work, book shelves, books, borescope, boxes, Buddhism, build a business, Caldecott Medal, children's books, Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market 2008, Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market, crab, craft, crustacean, desk drawer, Dewey Decimal System, dream, experiment, fiction, fiddler, frontier, garage, God, Golden Kite Award, half-written, human, illusions, Isaac Asimov, job, journey, kitchen table, learn your craft, life-long, living room floor, lose yourself, manuscripts, maps, money roll in, Nancy Drew, nonfiction, odd, open mind, outside knowledge, paintings, paycheck, philosophy, photography, Plan A, Plan B, poodle, pool table, post, scribbles, sketches, slant, stairwells, Stephen King, storage, story outlines, teacher, techniques, The Three Stages of Writer Development, themes, Tonka truck, true self, unpopular beliefs, Uri Shulevitz, vision, voice, walls, what am I doing, where am I going, where have I been, work alone, writer, Writer's Digest, Writer's Digest Book Club, Yahoo, Yahoo children's writing group, you are what you love
Posted in Broken Bits | Leave a Comment »
February 12, 2008
Never look down on anyone.
You do not know whether the spirit of God
prefers to dwell in you or them.
Sayings of the Egyptian Fathers from: The Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on the Soul’s Ascent, from the Desert Fathers and other Early Christian Contemplatives
Tags:Christian contemplatives, contemplative, Egyptian Fathers, God, look down on, Meditations on the Soul's Ascent, sayings, spirit of God, The Book of Mystical Chapters
Posted in Memoir - sexual abuse trauma recovery | Leave a Comment »
February 11, 2008
I had the chance to visit the website of writer and inspirational speaker, Donna Shepherd. She describes herself as someone who “looks at everyday life and finds God’s fingerprints everywhere.” She’s a columnist, poet, pastor’s wife and is pursuing a Theology degree. There’s quite a variety on the site, everything from blogs for children and hidden picture puzzles, devotionals, info on her books for both children and adults, to a page with helpful links for writers. To check it out just click here or on the blogroll.
Tags:Blogroll, blogs, children, columnist, degree, devotionals, Donna Shepherd, fingerprints, God, hidden picture, inspirational, pastor, poet, puzzle, speaker, theology, website, wife, writer
Posted in Broken Bits | Leave a Comment »
February 11, 2008
Over the last 2 days my husband noticed that Admiral Byrd has been spending a LOT of time, meaning almost ALL of his time, up on top of the gravel hill or the decorative cave rock, or the live rock, or just about anywhere else in the tank, waving his claw. He looked so funny up on the cave rock. He seemed to be staring up at the aquarium tank light, waving his claw as if paying homage to a god. We figured either he held the aquarium light or my hand in high esteem.
My husband has joked that he thinks the crabs go inside the live rock so much because it’s actually their holy site. He thinks they’ve cobbled together a crude altar made of gravel and on the altar they’ve fashioned a shrimp pellet image of their deity, the hand that feeds them . . . basically mine. As he put it, imagine that every day a hand comes down out of the sky and places steak or shrimp or pancakes in front of us. That’s what it must be like every time my hand drops algae or shrimp pellets near them.
In any event we weren’t sure why Admiral Byrd decided to spend an entire day paying homage to me or the light. Why all of the sudden? There’s been nothing new going on in the tank otherwise, all three crabs have been actually pretty placid, out and about feeding, and generally happy. Was this some sort of designated crab “Holy Day” that just happens to coincide with Lent?
As it turns out, alas, neither the aquarium light nor my hand are the object of Admiral Byrd’s devotions. Melanie Hamilton is.
From the Fiddler Crab page on the Chesapeake Bay Program’s bay restoration site:
“When looking for a mate, he stands near the edge of the burrow, often alongside a string of other males and their (similarly well-maintained) burrows, while the females, returning from foraging, walk past. The male waves his large fiddler claw until he attracts the attention of an interested female, who then stares at him for a short period.. The male resumes his claw-waving, and if the female remains receptive, the male runs toward her, then runs back to his burrow, and repeats this motion several times until she either moves on or follows him to the burrow. ”
Apparently, mating behaviors take place not just when the female forages, but also when she molts. I happened to notice this pale, upside down body lying under the water filter this morning and immediately my heart hurt. I thought “Oh no! Melanie Hamilton died!” But not so. Looking closer, I saw that it was the pale ghost of Melanie Hamilton. It was that eerie translucent white, like Scarlett O’Hara’s was, though much more petite given that Melanie Hamilton is so dainty. Melanie Hamilton sat right behind it. I would have gotten pictures for this blog but she had tucked herself and her tiny ghost so far under the water filter that I could not get a shot. If only I had fiber optic cable, maybe I could get footage! I have concluded that the fiddler crabs have designated the “under the water filter space” as the “molting place.” All 3 have used it now. I think it has enough stretching room to shrug off the old shell, but is sheltered enough to keep everyone else away while their new shell hardens.
Admiral Byrd of course, was well aware of events in the tank. He was standing just a few inches from the water filter hoping to catch her eye. Alas, while Admiral Byrd is a true romantic and his efforts were truly heroic – I mean he has to be exhausted after almost 24-hours straight claw-waving – Melanie Hamilton is having none of it. She has turned her back on him and remains secluded under the water filter.
But anyway, the mystery is solved. Admiral Byrd doesn’t give a darn about the tank light or the hand that feeds him. He apparently can sense the approach of “molting” and was doing the crab Valentine’s Day equivalent of serenading his lady.
Sorry no pictures, though. I told my husband if he ever decides to spend money on expensive jewelry or clothes for me, I would prefer one of those borescopes like they use for colonoscopies. That would work GREAT in the tank for closeups of everybody! 🙂
Coming up this week:
Now that you’ve gotten to know me a bit – a cross between sea life maniac and soulful – I’ll start to introduce some of the projects I’m working on. I’ll share what I’ve done, what I’m doing and where I see myself going. Children’s writer and illustrator, Uri Shulevitz, described three stages of a writer’s development at a conference about 12 years ago. I’ve kept them as a kind of road map in my development and will use them to describe what I’m doing.
Also to come, a Writer’s bio page of what I’ve already written.
Happy Monday!
Tags:Admiral Byrd, algae, altar, aquarium, aquarium light, bio, borescope, burrow, cave, Chesapeake Bay Program's bay restoration, claw, claw waving, closeup, colonoscopy, crab, development, devotions, expensive jewelry, females, fiddler, fiddler claw, foraging, gravel, homage, husband, image, life cycle, light, live rock, males, mate, mating, mating behavior, Melanie Hamilton, molt, motion, paying homage, projects, reproduction, road map, rock, Scarlett O'Hara, sea life, serenading, shell, shrimp pellet, site, soulful, tank, tank light, three stages, three stages of a writer's development, Uri Shulevitz, Valentine's Day, water filter, website, writer
Posted in Broken Bits | Leave a Comment »
February 10, 2008
Just an FYI. Every day, even if I don’t post, I try to put up a gift of some kind. This new group “a writer’s extra” has evolved. I put these up in addition to the regular gifts. Whenever I come across something of interest to writer’s – web pages, books, blogs, whatever – I post them as extra gifts.
I’ve been mentioning blogs of various writers. There is one I have to mention, Anastasia Suen’s blog and website. It is a wealth of information on the writing business, including information on editors, other authors, agents. etc. She is the author of 106 books, a children’s literature consultant, former elementary school teacher, and writing workshop instructor. Her blog also has a gold mine of “author blogs” listed under alphabetical headings. If you’re looking for an author blog, chances are, she might have it. She also has two of her own blogs. Everything can be accessed at Anastasia Suen’s Blog Central.
Tags:agents, Anastasia Suen, Anastasia Suen's Blog Central, authors, blogs, books, children's, consultant, editors, elementary, gift, gold mine, information, instructor, literature, post, regular gift, school, teacher, web pages, website, workshop, writer, writer's extra, writing, writing business
Posted in Broken Bits | Leave a Comment »
February 10, 2008
“Never surrender dreams.”
JM Straczynski, author and creator of the science fiction TV series, movies, and books: Babylon 5
Tags:Babylon 5, books, dreams, J M Straczynski, movies, science fiction, surrender, TV, TV series
Posted in Memoir - sexual abuse trauma recovery | Leave a Comment »
February 10, 2008
I had about three other posts in mind for today. Each one flooded my brain though, making it impossible for me to find the “simple thread” at its heart. That means they’re meant for another day when my mind can absorb them and sift through the layers to the simple truth at their cores. Sometimes, what is not there, makes it useful. By clearing something away, you see what is waiting there to be discovered. As soon as I set these other topics aside, my eyes landed on what is meant to surface today.
There is a book from the 6th century B.C. written by Lao Tsu, called the Tao Te Ching. The book is described as the essence of Taoism, contained in 81 chapters, which are more like 81 poems or pages because the entire book is about 5000 words. Don’t let it fool you. The shortest entries are the hardest to decipher. What is not there makes it useful.
Entry Eleven is one I could actually figure out-at least most of it. We won’t discuss those last 2 lines whose meaning in view of the rest I still haven’t figured out.
Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.
While Lao Tsu probably wrote them as rules to live by, I realized that they also apply to the creative arts:
Michaelangelo said that the sculptures he did were already there, fully formed in the rock. He just released them by cutting away all that was not the sculpture.
In photography, the photo’s essence is all about what to include and what to exclude. Even when you print the photo, it is often cropped first, to remove the things that don’t contribute the the unity of the photo. Leave in too much, and you dilute the power of what remains.
I recently took an oil painting seminar on color theory. The artist, Caroline Jasper, shared her process of creating seascapes. She started with some photographs of boats docked in a small port town. Her next step was to make some quick sketches, deciding which boats and buildings to keep and what to cut. By eliminating the excess, what remained had power. Only then did she proceed to actually painting the scene.
In writing, the same is true. Whether fiction or nonfiction – there is a slant, a premise, a particular viewpoint. By the very nature of selecting a perspective, some things will be excluded because they don’t support the main focus of that piece.
If there is any process in writing where “what is not there makes it useful” it would have to be editing. It is the writing equivalent of cutting away the excess stone, cropping the photograph, deciding what elements stay in the painting and which are removed. If anyone doubts the importance of removing what is not needed, consider the Gettysburg Address experience.
On November 19th, 1863, many dignitaries, including President Lincoln, gathered to dedicate the cemetery for the thousands of soldiers who died during the Civil War battle that took place there in July of that year. The main speaker was the famed orator of the day, Edward Everett. A former US Senator, US Representative, Governor of Massachusetts, and President of Harvard University, Everett was held in high esteem. Lincoln’s invitation to attend was actually an afterthought. Everett delivered a well-crafted masterpiece that was 13,607 words long and took 2 hours to deliver. Lincoln spoke for 2-3 minutes and delivered a speech that ran approximately 10 sentences long and had about 272 words. Lincoln considered his speech a failure, yet that is the speech everyone remembers to this day. Edward Everett, himself acknowledged that reality in a letter to Lincoln the very next day. He told Lincoln:
“I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”
To remove the excess is to enhance the power of the creation. When I set the other topics aside, this one came up to be discovered. What was not there, made it useful.
Tags:battle, boats, brain, buildings, Caroline Jasper, cemetery, chapters, Civil War, creation, cropped, dignitaries, dilute, door, editing, Edward Everett, elements, eliminate, essence, excess, failure, fully formed, Gettysburg Address, governor, Harvard University, holes, idea, invitation, Lao Tsu, letter, Massachusetts, masterpiece, Michaelangelo, minutes, missing, oil painting, painting, perspective, photo, photographs, photography, poems, port, posts, power, President Lincoln, profit, rock, room, scene, sculpture, seascapes, seminar, simple thread, sketches, spokes, Tao Te Ching, Taoism, town, US Representative, US Senator, useful, vessel clay, what is not there, wheel hub, windown, words
Posted in Broken Bits | Leave a Comment »
Soul Mosaic 