Yesterday I saw an interview with Jodi Picoult. Her newest novel (number 22) is Leaving Time. It has two storylines--one about a missing mother and one about elephants. Picoult traveled to one of the two elephant sanctuaries in the U.S. (Tennessee; the other is in California) and she also went to Botswana to work with a woman who studies elephants in the wild.
If you know Jodi Picoult's books, you know there is going to be some twists and turns, and you also know you're going to learn something--in this case, a lot about elephants. In her past books her readers benefitted from her research on the Amish, wolves, and various medical conditions.
In the interview, she said "You can edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page." She also talked about the limited amount of writing time she had when her kids weren't in school yet. She learned to write in spite of it. When her kids were all in school, she had most of the day to write--it was such a luxury--and now doesn't consider "writer's block--a valid thing, since she became so adept at writing in small snatches of time.
As far as performing... It might not be too late to submit to the Listen to Your Mother show that's nearest to you. The St. Louis show's deadline for submissions is February 16. They are looking for stories that fall under the "motherhood" umbrella, so even if you don't have any kids, you have/had a mother, and they might even snap at a story about your four-legged babies. If you're not in the St. Louis area, find out where the nearest show is going to be (it's always around Mother's Day) and submit...
How about you? Do you have lots of bad pages now or lots of blank pages? And are you going to submit to your local Listen to Your Mother show? If not, why not? Pushy minds want to know...
