GOOD FRIEND

"Friendship is a living thing that lasts only as long as it is nourished with kindness, empathy, and understanding. --Anonymous

We had lunch yesterday with dear friends, Linda and Vic. They are both still working, very busy with elderly family members, and therefore, we don't see each other as much as we would like. But when we do get together, it's like we saw each other yesterday. Linda and Vic are like family.

Linda and I met many years ago in a writing class taught by a college professor. She came in that first day with a story about her Japanese grandmother's butterfly chair and I was blown away. She wrote tight. She wrote with so much emotion. She gave readers the lovely story and got out. It was amazing writing. She became an intricate part of the small group that had formed within that group. After two years of taking the same course over and over again, four of us decided to break off and form our own writer's group. Luckily, Linda agreed to be one of the four founders.

That group grew and grew after a few months, until it was sort of out of control. Too many people do not always make a good creative writing group. Eventually, we once again had a small class and, in addition, three of the four intial founders (one moved to Hawaii) met once a week in my home. I got so much out of that--especially from Linda's critiques--and my muse was running wild--in a good way. Then, reason still unknown, we were a group of two.

Linda has been my writing soulmate all these years. She has been a true friend, one who can take a red pencil to my work relentlessly and I accept that she is right more times than not. She has shown up at booksignings and talks on writing to support me. She has purchased my books, written reviews, and given me great blurbs for the back of my books. She has been that solid rock of a writer/friend I need.

And we can share all of our ups and downs, angers and happinesses--can laugh and cry on each other's shoulders. It was no different yesterday when we met. I listened to her working woes and she listened to the HOA Board messes, our travels, and Ray's health issues. And it was bittersweet to hug them both goodbye, knowing we won't see each other again until May.

But we'll meet there and it will be as always. Friends will pick up right where we left off yesterday. She will want to know all the scoop on the new publishing company I'm working with (maybe), and I'll ask about the possibility of her once more being free to meet at the mall for a critique session.

She has a book in her and I want to encourage her to get it onto paper.

That's what friends are for, isn't it?

THE GREAT CRITIQUE----NOT!

Well, really I can't call "Aunt Lutie's Blue Moon Cafe" a new book. Haven't we all read about authors who claim they've written a book in six weeks, edited it in two days, and it was in the bookstores within a year? I wish I could write that fast and had that kind of luck with publishing. I don't know if it's such a good sign that I'be been working (off and on) on this book for four years.

I actually wrote the first draft pretty fast. It started with an idea that I decided to share with my critique group. As I wrote the book, I shared it with my fellow writers. I managed to get some fairly good help with that first draft. By the time I completed those corrections, the group had faded away. And my life was in one of those you-gotta-be-kidding busywork runs. So the book went into the file cabinet.

Two friends and I later formed a line-by-line critique group which is still a viable part of my writing life today. I thought it would be great to haul out "Aunt Lutie" and get her in shape so I could seek an agent, publisher, or both. I was so enthusiastic on the next day we met. I listened and critiqued my friends work with enthusiasm. When it was my turn, I began reading the first chapter, with copies in their capable hands.

And bombed!

I can look back at the experience now and smile. Then I was crushed. They didn't get my book at all! Now, I know I was expecting too much of my dear friends--one born and reared in Los Angeles, the other in Hawaii. They were city gals so far removed from the south, the speech patterns, the cultural posturing, there was no way they were going to understand this book in order to critique this. Read it one day, yes, but at that time they were trying to correct everything from the grammar, to the spelling, and the description. It was irritating back them, understandable now. But at the time, I threw it back in the drawer again.

And then my dear editor friend, one who has counseled me along my writing path for years, Regina Williams, "The Storyteller Magazine," started her own publishing company, "Mockingbird Lane Press" (www.mockingbirdpress.com)asked me if I had a book for her to consider. Did I have a book!

Gina is one humorous lady on the other side of that very serious, unique editor. She wants humorous or down right weird Southern tales. So I downloaded the book onto my computer and have been working on edits/rewrites/deletes--I have a few more pages and then will print it off for one last looksee.

And then Gina critiques. YIPES!

WRITER CRITIQUE SITE

I continued to read the ads for this writer site in all the major writing magazines. I thought I would take a look at it, see what it was all about, maybe even post some of my writing and see what kind of feedback I received. That may have been a mistake.

There are interesting genres--short stories, books, poetry of all kinds, and I spent hours sampling them all. I read and commented, added what I thought was great about the work and, if noted, gave suggestions for editing the work.

I submitted the first, then the second, chapter of my novella, "Trusting Strangers" and had some good critiques. Several really good writers/readers picked up on a couple of goofs and made a suggestion or two. I appreciate it and learn from each one who does that.

The mistake is that I could very easily get hooked on this writing/commenting/submitting thing and never get any other writing done. So, readers, will you keep me in your thoughts, try to remind me that obsessions aren't allowed for women who have much too much on their plate already? Help me stay on this writing path and be serious about it. There is no time to allow a critique site to become too much fun. I must show restraint.

I guess I could not sign on, couldn't I?

DISCIPLINE WHEN YOU WRITE

There are times when you have to beat your lazy self into submission. There is always a part of the makeup of we writers that hits those times when we don't want to put seat to the chair and pen to paper. We'd rather play.

I haven't been playing but have found my injury and pain has curtailed the drive to write. I think my muse has been hijacked. I realize we can't always control this urge to be nonproductive but I am putting myself on a guilt trip. So I have tried to do something I teach writers to follow: take up my notebook and write this resistance out of my system. As I always preach, I plan to allow five or ten minutes to these voices who have nothing to do with what I should be writing--maybe work on my next book, write a short story for an online site, a new poem for my critique group, or sketch out another children's story. (If I worked on all of these, even bits and pieces, my notebook would certainly not be empty.)

Two friends and I have started a new snail-mail writer's group. We keep in touch in between submissions to each other (a newsletter from each of us to each other)by email and in a short while have already created a good bond for helping each other with our writing and our lives. I don't like groups where they expect you to be perfect or to always be striving for an agent or a market for your bestseller. I also don't enjoy groups that tear the offered writings into little pieces word by word but, on the other hand, I don't want someone to always hold back with critiques or pat me on the back with a "wonderful everything" proclamation either.

But I need to write, as do you. I need to find my way back to the demand on my mind and heart to create. And that takes descipline--and maybe more than one trick. I can tell myself I only have a certain time each day to write so I can't fool around and waste one minute of it. In other words, I should set a writing/working routine.

I read once that every writer should try to fill one of the 80-word spiral notebooks each month. That's a mountain for me--not because I can't do it but because I writein so many notebooks--writing, morning glories, quotes, etc. I need to stick to a open-ended notebook for writing anything and everything that comes to mind.

Whatever it takes, you and I should descipline ourselves to write something--dare I say somewhat useful--on a reasonable schedule. Only then can we continue to call ourselves writers.

CATCHING UP

Hopefully, I have sufficiently recovered from eye surgery to once more keep this blog up. Of course, that is just one of my excuses for not being as consciencious about writing this blog as I should be. Now, my brother introduced me to Facebook and my kids, grandkids and old classmates have me hooked. Also, I am back to teaching and writing and reviewing so...

My critique pals, Lora and Carol met while I was "laid up" so have kept the group going. Carol's workshop schedule has picked up so it might be Lora and I for the most part, especially since Carol is beginning her own speaking engagements soon. Lora and I write along the same lines so much it won't hamper us. We met last week and spent four hours critiquing, talking writing, and were a great help to each other. I am hoping to continue this no matter what happens.

I'm back into my book: BJ and the Alligator Stomp. It sat for a year or so while I worked on other projects and I felt I needed something for my snail-mail critique group so pulled it out. I have actually written several chapters in a few weeks so that has encouraged me. I need to go back and insert a chapter showing the on-going conflict (even after thirty years) between BJ and Pete, and rewrite their first new encounter. Can you believe I have them meeting again when BJ plows into his shiny black pickup with the U-Haul truck she is driving? Well, what can you expect from an author who has her main character in "Aunt Lutie's Cafe" meet the sheriff while climbing out of a dumpster?

Lora also has encouraged me to submit a children's story to a picture-book publisher. I am in the process of looking up such publishers and then I need to do the dreaded query or cover letter. She can certainly help me with this as this writing is right up her alley. She writes the greatest children's stories! I am sure she will find more than one publisher for her work this year.

I'll have more to say along those lines in this blog as time goes by.

The weather has been improving--though the wind is still high and the fire danger is growing. Our garden is producing and the camera has been kept busy with snapshots of all the beautiful blooms and nature. I need to work on some poetry/photo booklets again.

So many ideas, so little time.