Critique Group, Teen Writers and Drop-dead deadlines

Aside from a few emails here and there, my writing today is focused on my asthma article for Family Time magazine. Wednesday is the due date. I finally finished my last interview for the piece about an hour ago. Now I can fill in all the holes, and see what I've got. As usual, I've uncovered way too much info for the space I've been given to fill. Sigh. With any luck, I'll put this puppy to bed well before the end of the day Wednesday, so I can return to M&R, finish edits for this Friday's critique group meeting, and prep for Teen Writers' Group later that day. On deck for the group: continued planning for the teens' first-ever magazine to showcase some of their work. They're all very excited at the thought of being published. I'm thrilled to be a part of the process helping to make it possible.

Crawling into Bed with Vampires and Littles

Rereading: Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith (and remembering why I enjoyed it so much the first time.)


On deck: Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles de Lint.

Inspired by Tolkien

A year ago last January I made plans to see the Tolkien papers at Marquette University. Unfortunately, the plans fell through at the last minute. I was bummed to say the least because Tolkien is more than just an iconic writer who's influenced generations of readers (and writers like this one) with his rich stories and unforgettable characters. He's also a writer I can relate to, someone who juggled work and family, and wrote through adversity, sometimes taking off a year or more from his work before returning to it.

I finally had the privilege of visiting the Tolkien collection last weekend. My daughter L and I went. She'd already seen it with P but being a tried and true fan she was eager to see it again.

We spent about an hour in the archives, long enough to examine only a small percentage of the university's holdings. But oh, what a rush to do so. Some of the most memorable pieces we examined:

1. A hand-written working draft of the cover page of The Lord of the Rings, then named The Magic Ring. Edits by Tolkien included crossing out the working title and replacing it with The Lord of the Rings. But a curious thing about this is that the s at the end of Rings was written in a way that suggests to scholars that it was added later. (Fun to see that even great works of art go through copious amounts of editing.)

2. A hand-written draft of the first page of The Fellowship of the Rings that hinted at the final draft to come with its references to Bilbo's birthday, etc., but clearly needed more editing (and a deeper POV) before it was finalized. (Again, a nod to the importance of editing, and the fact that even many drafts in, we must look at our works with an editor's eye.)

3. Lists, lists and more lists detailing the history of the world, even a number of events that led up to Bilbo's finding of the ring (and never made it to the final draft). (What a nod to the necessity of world building for any fantasy writer.)

4. Drafts and more written on the back of old student exams, menus, and desk calendar pages. One exam was clearly an essay test on Beowulf, one of Tolkien's fortes. We were told there was a paper shortage at the time, so any and all paper was saved for later. Can you imagine being the student whose exam was recycled for Lord of the Rings?

5. The "One Ring to Rule Them All" poem penned in an elegant script with a line of orcish written below it that's yet to be translated.

6. Maps and even an early draft of Tolkien's cover design for The Hobbit.

7. Plot grids set up on notebook paper in landscape format in order to track characters, events, dates and the phases of the moon, made necessary after the party split up.

Sigh. I know it's totally unrealistic, but taking up another degree so I can justify immersing myself in the entire collection in depth is really attractive right now. Maybe after my clone arrives.

Edited 10 p.m.

Writer on the Run

Although my life's been revolving around E's health issues lately, I've managed to keep up with my reading. Let's hear it for the portability of books, eh?

Recent reads (in no particular order, and, sometimes, read, concurrently):

Bliss by Lauren Myracle. I read Lauren's new book in a couple of evening's. For anyone who enjoys a good ghost story, this one's a page-turning must.

Nikki Moustaki's hilarious Dogfessions, a must for anyone who loves dogs. This one had E is stitches, and laughing so hard at times that she had to set the book aside just to catch her breath and give her stomach muscles a rest.

Denise Brodey's Elephant in the Playroom, a collection of essays from parents of special needs children. Good background reading for my Family Time autism article and for me personally.

Jenny McCarthy's books, Louder Than Words and Mother Warriors, more background reading for Family Time.

Current read:

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon. Another page-turner, this one. Kekla's book is a coming-of-age story and history lesson wrapped in one. Few writers have fictionalized the moments in history that catalyzed the Black Panther movement. Kekla does it with power and grace.

On a side note, Kekla is a fellow Vermont College classmate. Before graduation--our last semester, I think--I remember hearing about Sam and Stick when they were but whispers of an idea for Kekla. To see how far the story has come, and to curl up with her book at the end of a long day, is a thrill beyond measure.

Where's My Clone?

Okay, so, where's my clone? I ordered her months ago in hopes another me would help ease the stress of managing writing and family. Unfortunately, she's on back order, the to-dos keep piling up and up and up, and my uninterrupted butt in chair time keeps shrinking.

Looking back on Vermont College, I truly don't know how I managed to produce as much as I did for my advisers. Each monthly packet required 20 pages of new creative and 20 pages of revised material, plus two critical essays on some aspect of the craft of writing. How did I manage such a rigorous schedule while wearing my mom hat?

Granted, I was paying for the privilege, and permission (leveraged by the almighty dollar) is a powerful motivator. But so what. I graduated VC on a roll. I knew without reservation that in addition to being a mom, I am a writer.

These days, all things writer-ly should be equal, if not better than they were after graduation. Both girls are in school. And E started a new asthma medicine not too long ago that's been like the Holy Grail, greatly reducing the number of sick days. I should be pounding out the prose. So, why does it feel like I'm writing less?

I have a theory.

During my VC days, the balls I was juggling were predictable. E was sick often. Sometimes weeks at a time. We were constantly in what I call bunker mode--hunkered down for the long haul, but somehow, in between holding barf buckets and keeping track of meds, I wrote.

These days, the only constant is E's health. She's missing school less (ie fewer ear and sinus infections thanks to the Holy Grail), which should lend itself to more writing. But the opposite is happening.

As I write this entry, I'm beginning to realize why. E's run of "good health" is being offset by a significant increase in required therapies, testing, and doctor's visits.

Since early January E's had serial casting weekly to stretch the muscles in her bad leg, Botox therapy to stretch it further when casting no longer helped, and physical therapy weekly to work those muscles. Follow-ups continue with the doctor who ordered the casting and Botox, and with the neurologist--another doctor--on issues we can't ignore. And now the latest: we need a work up with a hematologist because numbers are off. We visit the clinic at Children's in a couple of weeks.

None of these issues are trivial. Not only do they require immediate attention, they trump any writing time I might have thought I had.

Hmmm. No wonder I need my clone.

Don't miss this book

Kudos to Vermont College classmate, Kekla Magoon , whose debut novel, The Rock and the River, is attracting powerful buzz for its touching and realistic portrayal of the Black Panther movement. See the latest review here from A Fuse #8.

Writer On Deadline

Deadline is fast approaching for the article I'm writing for Family Time Magazine. Did I mention this assignment in an earlier post? In case I only imagined writing about it, here's how I got the job:

I made first contact with Family Time at the Harvest Literacy Conference last fall when J and I spoke about our teen writers' workshop. Before our presentation, I stopped by the Family Time booth to introduce myself and ask if the publication ever used freelancers. Turns out I was talking to the editor who, like myself, is managing a career and family. A couple of months later, the editor contacted me, asking if I had any ideas to submit for consideration.

One of the items on my to-do list for 2009 was expanding into the nonfiction field (with a little help from my background in journalism); so, when K emailed, the timing was right. I pitched a couple of ideas. She pitched a few of her own, and asked if I had experience with healthcare.

Talk about divine providence. Between E and her health issues, and the fact that the majority of my PR and marketing experience was earned working in healthcare, I've not only worked the topic, I've lived it. Before long we settled on a couple of stories to pursue, one on autism, the other on allergies.

The autism piece is due in a little under three weeks. I've been making steady progress on it thanks to a background interview with D, a contact from the Easter Seals where E receives therapy.

Today I think I finished enough research to move onto the next step. Interviews. I need a few good quotes to fill in my story. Then comes the hard part: whittling the article down to fit the space I've been given. 850 words, including a sidebar.

I love a good challenge.