Book Talks, Baby!

WHAT I'M READING NOW: Carol Lynch Williams' new novel PRETTY LIKE US--a story about a shy girl who befriends a new student at school suffering from that disease that makes you age (can't remember what it's called and I'm too lazy to get out of bed right now to grab the book). Anyway. It's one of the better things I've read lately. The writing is gorgeous and the characters are completely memorable. I love the book's southern setting, too.

WHAT I'M READING NEXT: Emily Wing Smith's debut novel THE WAY HE LIVED. Emily is having a reading and signing at The King's English tomorrow (Monday, November 10) at 7:00. This book is getting all kinds of good buzz and I'm excited to read it. (On a personal note, I knew Emily's dad in high school. HER DAD. We took Spanish together, along with picture book writer Rick Walton. Dude. I feel old. But really, really happy for Emily.)

What Every Writer Needs (Besides a Book Deal)

I met up with my writers' group the other night where we discussed manuscripts and ate oreos. So that was all good. Anyway, as I read through everyone's comments later I was struck (again!) by the notion that every writer needs at least three types of readers.

The Cheerleader/Mom Reader: This reader loves, loves, loves everything about your manuscript and also YOU and doesn't care who knows it. It's good to have someone like this in your corner when you're busy beating up on yourself because you think you're worthless. My mother is this person for me. (She wasn't a cheerleader BTW.) (But she was a rodeo queen once.)

The Intelligent Lay Reader: This is the person who you hope will buy (and like!) your book. Typically this person is a reader with innate good taste who reads for pleasure and enlightment. You know. The way YOU used to read before you started writing. This person isn't looking to find better ways for you to tell your story, necessarily, but he or she IS good at picking up on the things that don't make sense. My neighbor, Kathy, fills this niche for me.

The Writer Reader: This reader writes, too, and is therefore focused on elements of craft. You can find these people in writing classes, online, and in writers' groups. Lucky me. I have some REALLY experienced people in my group. A word of caution, though: in the end it's still your manuscript. A potential downside of groups is that people occassionally start writing by committee. You might want to avoid that.

Sara Lovely Zarr

I was lucky lucky lucky to have a nice long conversation with Sara Zarr yesterday. Sara, as you know, is the author of the fabulous STORY OF A GIRL and the also fabulous SWEETHEARTS. (READ THEM! I mean it.) Anyway. Sara is as smart and funny and truly gracious as you would want someone whose work you admire to be. Plus she has great taste in sweaters.

So here's what I want to say. It's a lovely thing when people who do the same thing (write, paint, raise kids, teach, whatever) can support instead of merely compete with one another. Sara goes out of her way to connect with and encourage her peers, and seriously I think I want to be her when I grow up.

What I did instead of write today

1. Check my e-mail
2. Surf the net
3. Do the wash
4. Go to TJ Maxx and buy Christmas present, even though it's early November
5. Talk on the telephone
6. Handwash all my cookie sheets
7. Check my e-mail some more
8. Surf the net some more
9. Take Q. to his guitar lesson
10. Hang out at the library and look at gardening books

And now I'm going to bed. And now I wish I'd taken the time to write something down--even if was only an auhtor's name!

I'm b-a-a-a-a-c-k!

Okay. Blogging is harder than I thought it was. Like I ran out of ideas somewhere in the middle of September. Or maybe August. But I am re-committing. Here's why. I happened to check my blog and saw that the always lovely Jewel posted. And then I found two of my favorite students ever here! Kristi! And Janine!

So now i want to blog again.

Nothing Wasted

So right after CHARLOTTE'S ROSE was published, I started a new book, a book about which I was really passionate. I loved (LOVED!) the characters, and I felt like I had total control over the story and language. Anyway. I did draft after draft after draft because I wanted to get. it. just. right.

I sent it out when it was finally ready. And it was rejected. Frequently. Thoroughly. Soundly.

I've been rejrected before. It took a few years to place THE LOSER'S GUIDE, for example. But the rejections on the new book were different. They held out no hope at all. I put the book away for awhile, and when I returned to it, I saw that the criticisms were justified. It was one of those books that was just wrong-headed from the get-go.

For a long time I looked at the box holding all my drafts as my own personal Box of Shame. How did this happen? Maybe I really DIDN'T know how to write a book after all. Maybe I was a fraud.

Well, a few years have passed, and I have a different perspective now. I'm glad I wrote that book. It was the book I apparently wanted and needed to write at that time. I grew with my characters, and I'm pretty certain that they'll show up in another book someday. Meanwhile, I've got some great back story.

See what I mean? The time I spent working on that book was NOT wasted time.

Turning Pain! Into Profit!

So I write a column every week for the Deseret News--the same kind of domestic humor column Erma Bombeck wrote (just not as wonderful). Anyway. I've been doing a version of the column for over twenty years now. And yes! Sometimes I don't have anything to say!

That's when I review the week I just had and identify the moment when I was feeling the worst--the angriest, the most embarrassed, the saddest. And THAT'S what I write about. Only I try to make it funny, which is much less difficult than you might think. Humor resides in the gulf between what is and what should be.