March 2009 Archives

Just finished two days of writing camps for elementary students at the Bennett Centre. Very strange day for me. Today, the camp was at an old Jr. High school that shut down. The Bennett Centre shared the space with a police training unit. I was expecting to hear gunshots and screams down the hall, and I was a bit disappointed that there were no screams or police action. Oh well.

Still, the camps were a lot of fun. I had a blast working with the students, many of whom were fans of my books. I hope they keep reading my series, and I hope that they continue writing.

Well, I didn't feel like working today at all. Lack of sleep. Feeling stressed out about how to manage my dad's rehab schedule and all my speaking commitments. I just wanted to take today off, but I knew that if I didn't finish the first draft of Bad Hair Day, I'd probably not get to it for another week at least. I couldn't let the story get much colder, so I stepped into the ring and battled it out for about 12 pages, until I reached the end of the story. By no means is this a quality draft, but I have something I can punch up and rework. I'll most likely turf a lot of what I created, but at least I reached the end. I'm tired, but smiling at the accomplishment.

I think I was a bit less enamoured with the third book than I was with the first two. What I plan to do is go through the first and second book to address some notes and clean up the manuscripts. That might give me enough momentum to launch into the revisions of the third book.

I have to free up time in the next few months so that I can get cracking on the fourth and final book in the Marty Chan series. Now that I'm done the first draft on three Sasquatch novels, I feel pretty beat up, but I'm glad to have put myself through the paces. I have to do a little more work and test drive the novels, and then I can finish them off and send in my grant report for the project. The final report is due at the end of May, and I'll be able to meet the deadline no problem. Phew... that's a relief.

Off to nap.

I was supposed to finish the last 20-some pages of Bad Hair Day, but I didn't touch the manuscript. I have very good reasons for why I didn't feel like working on the manuscript today.

1. I just found out that The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher was shortlisted for the Golden Eagle Children's Choice Award. Yay!!!!!

2. I just learned that Playwrights Canada Press wants to publish The Forbidden Phoenix. Yay!!!

3. I learned that my dad is feeling less pain and feeling more like his old self. Yaaaaaayyyyy!!!!!!

For those three reasons, I'm not working today. Well, not working on the novel anyway. I did have to revamp my article for the Edmonton Journal ad feature. Time to shut down and celebrate.

First thing this morning I read the article that I loved last night and laughed my butt off at how cliched the writing was. Boy, was it a stinker. I tossed out my draft and started over with the mission to purge all the cliched and soft writing that pervaded almost every paragraph. I was brutal with the article, but I came out with a much stronger piece. Sometimes, you have to be hard on your own writing. I was glad that I was tough on mine. The work paid off. The person who commissioned the piece loved it. The article will run in an ad supplement of the Edmonton Journal on April 16. Keep an eye out for it.

I was a bit worried I was off for so long that I couldn't write on demand. Turns out that it's like riding a bicycle. You never forget. I dashed off a first draft of my article for the Edmonton Journal advertising feature this afternoon. I even had the time to revise the piece twice. I'll let it sit overnight and then I'll take one more crack at it. If I'm happy with the writing tomorrow morning, off it goes. The article was only supposed to be 600 words long, and I found myself having to cut a lot of my material down. I'd rather have the luxury of cutting than the agony of having to invent and stretch material to reach the word count.

Okay, I'm off for the night. Tomorrow morning, I'm hitting Bad Hair Day.

I feel like one of those dieters who is trying desperately to lose their last ten pounds to get to their ideal weight. In this case, I'm trying to figure out how to write the last ten pages of Bad Hair Day. I was on such a roll last week, but then the flu hit and I'm just trying to suck enough air to make it through a day. I'm starting to feel better now and I hope to plunk down at the computer Friday morning to finish out the first draft. However, first, I have to deliver an article about my cats to the Edmonton Journal. No, I'm not back with the Life section; I'm writing an article for an advertising feature in the Journal. It's connected to the opening of the new Edmonton Humane Society building and the article should be a lot of fun to write. Only 500 words. I should be able to get it down Thursday afternoon... I hope.

Brrrr. Spent an hour this afternoon sitting on a frozen rock in the middle of the Edmonton Chinese Garden as part of a photo shoot for Legacy Magazine. I wrote an essay about what the garden meant to me for their summer issue. The publisher wanted a photo of me in the garden. Because the issue was a summer one, I had to pretend that the biting wind running through my summer jacket was a tropical breeze and the blush on my cheeks was from sunburn and not the chilly temperatures.

All in all, the photo shoot went very smoothly. Always great to work with professionals. They set up the shot, had a stand-in to be me while the photographer roughed in the composition. Then I sat on a rock and tried my best to not breathe and smile without letting my teeth chatter. The issue comes out in June. Keep an eye out for it. See if you see the winter look in my eyes.

Nothing like a Nyquil-induced brain fog to knock a writer out. I'm staring at my computer and the screensaver looks a little psychedelic. I think I'm going to call it quits this weekend and just try to get some sleep. I'm also debating whether or not to start twittering. How different is it from blogging, only it's shorter and way more in the moment. Hmm... I think I have enough distractions in my life. No need to add one more. I know I'm a dinosaur with my blog, but I just can't can't be a twit just yet.

Not a great start to the day. I caught a cold yesterday and tried to sleep it off all morning. I had my session at the Grande Prairie Regional College, and it seemed to go over well. I was so pleased to see a couple of people from my past. One was an instructor who had me speak to her students many years ago, and the other was an actress who was in a play. I had no idea either of them were up here. Maybe Grande Prairie is the Paris of Alberta.

I'm back at the hotel now and I think I'm going to sleep the rest of the night and try to shake this awful cold.

A bit of a whirlwind trip, but I had a wonderful time at three schools. My thanks to the awesome students at Crystal Park, Derek Taylor and Hillside Community School. I was thrilled at how many of the video conferencing students remembered my writing lessons from the fall, and I was impressed with how keen the Derek Taylor students were during my presentation.

I'm sad I didn't get a chance to stay longer, but I'm sure I'll be back up this way sometime soon.

Now I get to hide out in my hotel room and write for a few hours. I'm going to try to make the most of it.

I'm plunking away at Bad Hair Day this morning before I have to fly to Grande Prairie. The few days off has left a lot of rust on the story. I had to reread the last chapter I worked on to make sure I knew which direction I was headed. It'll take me some time to regain the spine of the story, but I'm hoping that being on the road will leave me with nothing to do but write... although, I always seem to find ways to procrastinate... Monday night TV!!!!

What a tough week. I tried to find the energy to write, but between a residency at Belgravia School and my dad's recovery, I just couldn't must enough energy to write or work. Today, I was finally able to get some time to clear out the pile of little assignments sitting in my basket. I've finally cleared out my inbox and now I think I can actually just write for a few days. I'm dragging my laptop to Grande Prairie with me so that I can get some work done on the novel. I'm in need of a serious vacation, but I can't do anything until my dad is back to his old self. Right now, he's just one grumpy guy. Sigh. This is not an easy time.

Between my dad's surgery and trying to catch up on my work, I've found myself totally burned out for writing. I haven't hit the computer in three days, and I don't see myself sitting down any time this week either. Argh! I'm going to have to pack my computer for my road trip next week so I can make a good dent in the Sasquatch novel. I'm hoping to spend a couple of days squirreled away in my hotel room.

Yes! I just cracked 50 pages on the first draft of the third book in the Sasquatch series. And what a way to finish out the week. I introduced the big villain (who will turn out not to be the true villain). I'm thrilled with the progress despite some trying times. I will have even less time next week to work on the novel as I go into a week-long residency. What I will try to do is go back to the timer and try to bang out 5 pages per day. I still haven't decided if I'm going to write in the morning or the evening. I need to work in a run every day next week as well, so it's going to be a bit of a juggling act.

The other great news is that my agent read the second book in the series and enjoyed it. I still have another pass before I'm confident in the draft, but it's always nice to know I'm moving in the right direction. Of course, there's no publisher attached, so I can have all the fun I want now. The real pain comes when I get all the rejections. Part of the biz I keep reminding myself. Part of the biz.

So close to the halfway mark. I'm about five pages away from 50 pages of the manuscript for A Bad Hair Day. I know the manuscript will be longer, but I feel like if I can write 50 pages of a first draft, the rest is easy because I've proven I can write 50 pages. My schedule will be thrown a bit over the next few days as my dad is scheduled to go home tomorrow. Thank goodness for my laptop. I suspect I'll be spending a lot of time in transit.

I keep thinking that writing has been my anchor through this tough time. It's my one chance to get away from the reality of elderly parents, a cranky father who is too stubborn to change his ways and a very scared mom who lashes out as a way of coping with her own helplessness. Ah... the stuff of a y/a novel for junior high students. Maybe later... much later.

What was I thinking? I'm writing myself into a corner with the latest novel as I create one twist after another. I think there's too much exposition and not enough action right now. I'll keep going ahead until I get out of the rut that I'm in. Afterward, I can go through and revise, but right now I just want to get to the end of the story. It just feels like I have one too many elements going on and I need to find a central thruline. Sigh. That'll teach me for writing without an outline.

This morning started with a nice simple routine. I wrote 5 pages of the third novel in the Sasquatch series. Because of my dad, I'm moving a lot slower with my projects. I have to take my mom to the hospital and that puts a crimp in the day. I figure if I can stick to five pages a day, I'll have the first draft by the end of March, which gives me plenty of time to revise before my May 31 deadline. The key to the whole thing is just to maintain momentum. I hope to finish the draft before the bulk of my touring hits in early April. Yeesh. It's going to be a busy spring!

I have a ton of True Story picture books. I'm serious. Literally a ton! I'm thrilled to have them in my basement, but I'd rather see them in the hands of kids who are learning to read or have a love of books or hate books but are willing to give reading another shot. I'm going to be launching the book with a virtual campaign to Edmonton and area schools. The campaign is called "The Cats are out of the Bag."

The bookstores should be stocking the books within the next month, so keep your eyes open for two tuxedo cats on a book cover.