September 2006 Archives

After a summer break, I'm back to school visits. Today, the kick off for the fall started at the Alberta School for the Deaf/Tevie Miller Heritage School. I spoke to junior and senior high students. As always, the students were great. They listened to the stories and they asked many questions. One girl shared a story of how her mother made her try on a floral print sun dress after I had read the clothes shopping chapter from The Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul. I also was able to talk about The Bone House, the thriller I wrote a few years back. The students seemed keen to see the show, and I hope I can bring it back.

Of course, everyone wanted to know about the cats, Buddy and Max, and I was happy to share the stories about my thief cat and his flatulent brother. I'm still looking for the remote control, but I have not found it yet. I forgot to mention the sunglasses that Max tried to steal over the summer. He didn't get far before my wife caught him, but he looked hilarious running down the hall with the bridge of the glasses in his mouth.

Anyway, thanks to the staff and students for being such a great audience. I hope I get to visit again next year. I'll probably have new stories about my delinquent cats.

I keep trying to explain to people about the community spirit in Edmonton, but people always look at me strangely when I say that the folks in this city are extremely supportive of each other. It's like they don't believe that theatre folks would help each other, but we do.

For example, today, I met with the artistic director at the Edmonton Opera about the play. He's been extremely encouraging of the play from the very beginning. He saw the workshop production in 2003 and came out to another workshop a year later. I don't know if the play will fit with his company mandate, but he was kind enough to promise to read the script and give me some feedback. It's meetings like this that remind me why I stay in Edmonton.

On Tuesday, September 26 at 5:23 pm, author Marty Chan gave birth to his third novel. The delivery was incredibly painful, hopefully with a lot of complications to keep the reader entertained. The beaming papa of the first draft knows that he still needs to work on the manuscript, but he's just thankful to have gotten past this first stage. The manuscript weighs in at 33, 975 words and 80 single-spaced pages. Marty will be taking a short leave from the manuscript to catch up on sleep, play video games and charge up for the revisions, which will begin in about a week.

Yay! I love the feel of first draft. I wished I had printed the double-spaced version, because I love the heft of the full manuscript. However, I know there's still a lot of work to do, and I want to save the big version for when I'm ready to send the draft off for comments. Okay, now to take a well-deserved break for an evening. Tomorrow, I have to get started on my Edmonton Journal article.

I think I have a chapter or maybe two left to write before I can make the claim that I have finished my first draft of the novel. When I reached this stage on previous projects, I usually made a mad dash for the finish line. The last few pages of my plays or my books were always ugly and weird. This time around, I'm going to try to take some time to think through what I need to do and how to do it. The great thing about ending a story is that my job is to pull together everything and tie up the loose threads. I don't really have to invent. I just have to pay off all the things I set up. The bad thing about ending a story is that I just want it to be over right now. I have to remind myself to be patient and thoughtful especially at this stage.

Yesterday, I received some more awesome news. The Life editor at the Edmonton Journal liked all three of my pitches. I'm supposed to write the Halloween article first. I guess in my paranoid fantasies, I forgot the number one reason why I didn't hear back from the editor right away: she was busy.

After weeks of silence, I can finally break the good news. My monologue was one of the winners of the CBC writing competition. This makes 4 years in a row that I've won. The official announcement will be made on Wildrose Country at 12:50 pm this afternoon. I thought it'd be safe to break the news 40 minutes early. I don't know when my monologue will air, but I'll be sure to post the schedule when I find out.

Okay, quick update on the Alberta Anthology contest winners. Allan Boss, producer of the competition, listed off the prize winners. I didn't catch all the winners, but I did recognize some people, and I'd like to give a shout out to the following awesome writers: Ian LeTourneau, Conni Massing and Gary Garrison. The full list of winners are posted on the CBC website.

I pitched three ideas to the Edmonton Journal Life editor a week ago, and I'm waiting to hear whether she wants to pick up the articles or not. A week is not a long time to wait unless you're an obsessive compulsive like me. Seven days is enough for me to come up with various paranoid scenarios about what happened to my pitches.

1. The editor was so mortified at how bad they were that she's refusing to take any of my e-mails or calls.

2. The editor is having a good laugh at the lame pitches and is sharing them with everyone at the newspaper before she politely tells me thanks, but no thanks.

3. My pitches were lost in cyber-space and the editor has no idea that I even pitched her.

4. The editor sent me an e-mail saying she loved the pitches and wants all three articles by today, but the e-mail went astray in cyber-space, and is now sitting in the inbox of a Nigerian con artist.

5. The editor is reading my paranoid thoughts on this blog and has decided to delay her reply so she can mess with my mind.

Today, I found two reviews of my books. One was in the September issue of Alberta Views Magazine; the other on the electronic CM Magazine. Yay!

The review of The Mystery of the Frozen Brains was glowing, but the reviewer didn't like the cover, which I have to admit is the general consensus of most people who've seen the book. I know the book is a two years old, but seeing a positive review sure helps the ego.

The review of The Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul was also very positive. This gives me a lot of fuel to keep going with the third book.

However, I have to remind myself that basing my success or failure on reviews is a dangerous road. For every person who likes my work, there will always be someone else who hates my work. I'll take the encouragement for today, but I can't dwell on the comments. If I do, I run the danger of doing the same thing when a negative review comes out, and I would hate for a bad review to cripple me. The best thing to do is smile, accept the compliments or the complaints, and then continue working.

On that note, I've got to get another 1,500 words on the new book finished.

Never underestimate the power of a good walk. I started the day with a quick walk to the mailbox to send off my bills, and I had a "Eureka" moment about the manuscript. So far, the book has been a fairly straightforward investigation of a theft. I realized I need a big twist to send the second half of the book into a new direction or else I'd run the risk of repeating myself. I suddenly realized that if the kids think their teacher is a mad scientist, then I should give them a good reason to think that. I came up with an invention that the heroes discover in the teacher's house. I won't give away what the invention is, but let's just say it has given the book enough legs to make the second half way more interesting than the first half (I always aim to make the back half of a play, book, etc. more interesting than the first half).

My cat Max is a throat sleeper. He likes to sleep on my throat when I'm in bed. I'm now terrified of the sound of his purring near my head. Last night, I had a nightmare that someone was trying to smother me with an Elmo doll and I woke up to find Max's tail in my mouth. I know this is going to end up in one of my stories somewhere, somehow.

I have this strange idea for a short story. The other day, I picked up the new John Mayer CD, Continuum (which is pretty good by the way). As I was listening to the songs, I started flipping through the liner notes and saw that John Mayer had this to say about Eric Clapton: "Eric Clapton knows I steal from him and is still cool with it." It was a tongue-in-cheek thank you to the guitar legend, but it got me to thinking about the thank yous in liner notes. What if a character buys the CD and discovers he has been thanked on a CD? He has no personal connection to the band members. Most of us would probably assume that someone else in the world has the same name. But in this case, what if more odd coincidences pop up to link the main character to the band. This isn't quite a story idea yet, but it's an idea worth exploring. So I guess now I can write off my Continuum CD as a business expense.

I haven't reviewed a restaurant experience in a while, so I thought I'd take the time to rave about La Tapas, a Spanish restaurant in Edmonton. My wife and I joined my brother and his fiance for a late supper. This restaurant was already on my radar because of the patatas alioli dish that is a hit at the Taste of Edmonton Festival in the summer.

Thankfully, this dish is a regular feature of their menu, and I ordered two heaping plates of potatos in garlic mayonnaise. My brother and I shared a paella (the restaurant's specialty), and we were floored by the great taste. My wife had a halibut which she said was awesome. My brother's fiancee had a chicken stuffed with seafood and cream cheese. She couldn't finish the meal because she was stuffed from the appetizers of portebello mushrooms, chorizo sausage and croquettas.

The meals were excellent. The decor was festive. The atmosphere was just right. I'd definitely go back there again. The experience was just what I needed after a very long week of working on the manuscript and various meetings.

What a pleasant surprise. I woke up this morning to find my Beijing article in the Edmonton Journal. I love the photo the photo editor picked, but I am a bit disappointed that she couldn't use the shot of the Colonel Sanders statue in front of a Chinese KFC. I suspected that the shot was from too far away and I wasn't in the picture either. Next time I go to China, I will definitely pose beside that statue.

I'm fully booked for the month of October with readings in and around Alberta. Apologies to any teachers who wanted me to come out for Read-In Week. Maybe next year I'll be able to visit your schools. Okay, so now I have to start preparing. I have to be honest. I get nervous when I haven't done a school visit in a while, because I feel like the first session is like an exam. I keep worrying that I'll forget everything that I studied (even though I wrote the book in the first place). I have to actually take the time to review the passages I plan to read and remind myself of the origins behind the book. Of course, the nightmares will start shortly; the ones where I show up at the wrong school and try to give a presentation to some very angry high school kids who were expecting Steve Yzerman to show up and start taking slapshots at me to vent their frustration. Gulp.

I just realized why I went off my routine with the manuscript. Today, I just crossed over the halfway point. I have over 18,000 words. Whenever I get close to halfway through any project, I start to lose steam and wonder if I can pull it off. This also explains why I had sudden creative outbursts on new projects.

The great news is that I wrote 18,000 words in about 2 weeks. So if I keep the same pace, I'll have my first draft finished before I start all my school visits. Whew!

I know that I'll have a lot of work to do once the first draft is done, but I've left little notes on what I need to do at the end of a few of the chapters. In a way, these notes are signposts that will make the revisions go much smoother. I'm upping the count to 1,500 - 2000 words per day. As long as I don't get too distracted with meetings, e-mails and my cats, I'll be fine.

Yay. I finished 500 words, so now I can check e-mail and write blog entries. I'm starting to find my creative legs again. In fact, in addition to the 500 words, I pitched the Edmonton Journal a couple of article ideas (including one about procrastination). I don't know if the editor will buy the article, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Okay, back to the novel. I've got to finish the first draft by the end of the month.

This blog entry is more for me than anyone else. Next time, start the morning with writing and DO NOT check e-mail until at least 500 words have been written. Argh! Today, was a day of procrastination. One e-mail response turned into five e-mails and every time I hit send and receive another e-mail would show up in my inbox. From now on, I have to stop checking e-mail so frequently or else I'll never get any work done. Hmm, I wonder if I can this into a humour article.

The start of the week always bites, but especially if you had to work all weekend. I had to pull together a Canada Council grant application for a play idea I've been kicking around. Originally, I was going to apply for funding to support the Banff workshop, but I found out that I would have had to apply in March for a project that happened in this fiscal year. Also, I decided to send some letters to Calgary schools promoting my appearance at Wordfest.

So the weekend was pretty much wiped out, and now I'm a bit tired and feeling like I want to take the day off. However, I have to get at least 1,000 words written on my manuscript before I shut down for the day. It's easy to write when you feel like writing. I think the true test of any writer is to be able to write when you're not in the mood. And believe me, I am not in the mood today.

I'm starting to get dizzy from flipping between my book and the play. Yesterday, I met with my composer and the director of the workshop. I gave them the update on the project, and it looks like everyone is keen to go to the next step. We decided that we'll only target the first act for development. We can't do any prep work until October (when I hear if I get the grant or not). I'm really hoping to get get funding for this next leg of development. I still have to talk to the artistic director at Gateway Theatre to confirm what he wants to do. I hope that his company can take the lead soon, so that I can be a writer instead of a producer. I know that producing is a part of the job for most of today's playwrights, but it's my least favourite job. However, I know that if I don't do it no one else will. I just have to remember that the rewards make the work worth it. In this case, the rewards are to see a project that has been around for over 4 years finally get on a big stage.

I'm still working at the first draft. Today, I knocked off another 1,000 words. The interesting thing that I learned today was that I really need to writing in the morning. Because of Forbidden Phoenix stuff (calling Canada Council to figure out how to apply for development funds), I had a late start on my manuscript, and it took forever to move forward. I kept running upstairs to play a video game on my wife's computer. In my defense, she was already playing the game. I figure it's fair play to horn in on a video game if it's already up and running. From now on, I have to make sure that the morning's are reserved for my writing time. And I also better get my wife to hide the video game.

I just got off the phone with the Banff Centre and it looks like I have a 2-week production residency to work on the play. This is essentially a workshop to get the script, music and movement elements into shape. I'm thrilled to see some progress on the play, and I'm hoping that I can use the workshop/residency to get other companies interested in producing the show. However, the one huge hurdle that I have to clear before any of this happens is the money. I have to find funds to pay for everyone's travel and wages for the 2 weeks in Banff. I've applied for a grant through the Edmonton Arts Council and I'm going to put in an application with the Canada Council. The problem is I won't hear about one grant until October and the other one will announce recipients in April. This is the make or break period for the show. If I can pull off the funds for the residency, I can continue pushing the show forward and hopefully snag someone to commit to a production.

I'm still plugging away at the manuscript. Today, I finished 1,500 words and I'm feeling pretty good. The great thing about writing a third book in a series is that I know the characters well enough that they tell me what they would do. I don't have to second guess myself too much. The only trick is to make sure that the characters don't become too predictable. In this case, I'm creating a love triangle, which is new territory for all three characters, so I hopefully am not repeating what I did in the first two books. I'm hoping to get to the halfway point by the end of this week.

I hope everyone has a chance to relax and recharge this weekend. It's back to school for some (including me). I'm already starting to book my school visits and readings. If anyone is interested in having me visit their school, give me a shout.