Writing with Chocolate

Experiencing writer's block?  Can't get through that last report?  Forget meditation and brisk walks around the block.  What you need is CHOCOLATE.

My personal favorite goodie for creating new prose comes in the form of a German-chocolate danish from Panera Breads.  Something in the dough unleashes the creativity molecules in my brain.  To wit, my next topic assignment for my humor column in U Magazineis on celebrating and entertaining.

I've attempted half-heartedly over the past few days to brainstorm some ideas for my column.  Most of them were along the lines of "I wish I were Martha Stewart," or "Isn't it hard to relax when you're hosting a party?" or "I loathe Martha Stewart."  You know, really knock 'em dead stuff.

But today I stopped in at Panera after my Toastmasters meeting and before the last bit of coconut was wiped from the tray I had myself a 550-word essay that left me giggling in my booth, causing people in the store to give me a wide berth.

No mind.  My assignment is done almost a month early!  All hail the mighty powers of chocolate.

Decorating Diaries - Rooms on Film

My decorator is coming tonight with a friend to take the "Before" pictures of our bedroom.  The good thing about before pictures is you want them to look as poor as possible so my motivation to clean before they arrive is pretty much nil...

Running into what may or may not turn out to be a problem with the bathroom contractor.  As noted earlier, the quoted cost for redoing our bedroom and bath was over double what we had allotted.  So both our decorator and bathroom contractor have been hard at work, redoing figures and finding replacement features (i.e., on/off faucets under $1000, thank you very much). The decorator has kept on top of it, calling me every few days of updates.  Can't say the same for the contractor.

No word from her.  In her defense, she is friends with the decorator who has acted as a go-between.  But even she (the decorator) was commenting that the contractor needed to be better about keeping customers apprised of the situation.

"I even offered to give you the figures myself if she would give them to me," said our decorator.

I appreciate the extra effort, but I don't think so.  I'm not working with anyone who can't manage to dial a phone and call me.  And as I said, it's certainly not to that point yet.  She's coming along tonight as well to lay out her new plan for our bath and I'm pretty certain she's put in some long hours on it.  We'll see.

I was outlining all this for Blair last night and he was shaking his head and grinning.  "Women's communication dynamics," he said.  He made a claw and slashed through the air.  "Rowr!  Meow!"

That's it.  He's banished from making any color choices for the bathroom.

No Cat Book thru Publications International

'Tis not to be.  Received an e-mail today from the Publications International editor that they've selected someone else for the cat book.  It's really been a marvelous week ego-wise for me as a writer. Don't know if I can stand any more bliss.

No worries.  That August deadline really had me scared.  And the editor did say the panel liked my writing and she wondered if I would be interested in applying to work on some inspirational/humor books they would be producing?

I jumped on the humor one and she is to e-mail me details later this week.  As for inspirational...not sure that's my thing.  My way of inspiring people is to tell them to get their heads out of their asses and get on with it.  But maybe if I wrote that and inserted something about the "heartbeat of life" I could get away with it? Hmmm....

Meanwhile, work is going swimmingly on the public speaking book.  I'm devoting at least an hour a day to it and it's amazing how quickly the words add up.  I'm also enjoying writing it (and amusing myself in the process) which tells me I'm on the right track.  I'm looking to get a few chapters written and then critiqued by my Writer's Group while I plot out a proposal to send to agents/publishers.  As I recall from the Lessons In Stalking experience, that's a good 6-12 month wait for replies.

That's all.  I'm working on an article for public speaking for The Toastmaster magazine that I need to get back to.

Manuscript Rejected

Not that I in the least feel like sharing this but I made a commitment to keep readers of this blog abreast of my writing highs and lows so I'll write today about a low.  My Millicent manuscript, the one for middle graders, received a rejection letter this weekend from the editor who had encouraged me to write a middle grade novel in the first place.

The letter itself is extremely helpful.  For those of you who have not yet experienced the joy of rejection, most of it comes in the shape of poorly copied form letters which state, "Dear Author, We regret to inform you..." and, if you're very lucky, is unsigned and smudged.

So this was a letter that actually gave advice, which is always great.  She felt the characters felt a bit too adult at times and that there were too many competing characters, making it difficult to focus on the main characters.  She recommended I look at Lois Lowry's ANASTASIA books (which feature lists as does my ms) for inspiration.

All in all, I'm pleased with the rejection letter.  And not surprised.  The work I submitted really was close to first draft material.  Certainly I went back and edited scenes and rewrote dialogue, but I have yet to do a major overhaul of the book.  To have been accepted for publication was a long shot.  (But fun to dream about).  And really, it's the right call.  I'm not giving up on the book, but am focused now on writing my public speaking book so Millicent will be put aside for awhile.  I hope for no more than 6 months before I haul her out for a dusting off and serious rewrite.