South of Broad? North of Broad? Am I a Broad?

         Recently I finished Pat Conroy's book South of Broad. Yes, I know--it's not his most famous novel. Yes, I know--there are movies made from his work ("The Great Santini" and "Prince of Tides") but I haven't read any of his books until now. Yes, I know--I'm behind millions of readers when it comes to Conroy.


     Reading South of Broad was life-changing. Or rather, it was novel-changing. Or to put it in an even more accurate way--it changed my direction as a writer. Now. On the project I'm struggling with.


     To find out how reading this novel changed my writing, check out my guest post for The Muffin.
  
     And don't forget to read something great this weekend. It might change your life (or your work)...

Being a Mom

       Early this week I'm going to be working on a "mom" story *. It's going to be early this week because I have a writing critique meeting on Wednesday, and I don't have a single word written that I can share. (Only rarely do I come empty-handed because when I have nothing to share, it's a waste of the great critique I get. As I sit there on pins and needles--will they declare my piece a pile of poop?--I have to listen to Linda's pen scratch across an entire page as she deftly rearranges my story. I have to hear Lynn's pen roll across the margin as she writes a whole letter's worth of suggestions and encouragement. I have to see Beth and Tammy's faces scrunch up, and I wonder if it's a good scrunch or a bad scrunch...) I haven't decided if I'm going to write a story about my mom or whether I'm going to write a story about myself as a mom but I...wait, as I was typing this, I made a decision.
     That's the interesting thing about writing. Sometimes just the physical act of typing something helps us sort things out in our head.
      I recently got some great news. (And no, I'm not going to "tease" and make you come back to my next post for the news.) My story "Elmo's Lesson" is going to be published in the upcoming Publishing Syndicate's Not Your Mother's Book...On Cats. And, my story, "A Risky Jump" has made it through to the final phase of Chicken Soup's Reboot Your Life. (Thank you WWWPs.) I know it can be yanked up to a month before publication but even though that's not happened to me yet, I won't say it too loudly. (I used to brag that I had been stopped by police officers many times--for speeding--but had never gotten a ticket, until I got my first and only one, so now I only whisper boasts like that.)
      I am giving away a copy of the recently published Not Your Mother's Book...On Being a Mom. Many of my friends and writing friends have stories in this collection--Terri Elders, Donna Volkenannt, Renee Hughes, Debra Mayhew, Pat Wahler, Mary Horner, Pat Nelson, Linda O'Connell, Marcia Gaye, Alice Muschany, Ellie Grossman, Diana Graveman and Tammy Goodsell. (My husband judges how good my story is by where it is in the book. He is positive that the editors put the good stories in the front, and they get progressively worse. My story, "So Little Wine," is on page 200 which makes it a "dud" in my spouse's eyes. You'll have to read it to see if you concur with him.)


         On July 1st I will post who won the book...
      My story that's being considered by Chicken Soup is about me wanting to do something that some of my family considered stupid/dangerous. Is there something you've done/considered in the past that made your friends or family look at you like you're crazy? 


* Chicken Soup is looking for mom stories--tales of you and your kids as well as stories about your mom. Two different anthologies doubles your chances of getting published...


    

Request + Unwanted = Embraced

      This summer I am co-facilitating Gateway's Summer Institute. It's one of the National Writing Project sites (Gateway is at U. of Missouri-St. Louis) and is an intense graduate course. We meet for five weeks, four days a week, from 9-3:30. (It's a 6-credit class.)


       I love it.


     A couple of days ago, the other teacher (Nancy) and I demonstrated a way their writing response groups could critique each other's work. Nancy (who is white) shared a poem about the worries she has for her son. Her son has a friend who is black. She compared her concerns to the issues her son's friend's mother deals with. (Have I lost you yet?)


      I suggested she try writing it in the style of a two-voice poem. At that point, Nancy didn't want to completely overhaul her piece. She also simply might not have liked the suggestion I made, which was fine. It's her work, and her decision...

          However, after thinking about it, I was inspired to write a two-voice poem comparing the worries I have for my son with the worries a friend of mine has about her son. (Both of our boys are the same age, but her son was shot when an intruder came into his house. He is now a paraplegic.)


       So, even though Nancy requested some feedback, it was unwanted, but I embraced it and made it work for me.


       How do you deal with unwanted/unasked for advice?


   

Constructive Criticism

       I must have skin that's a mile thick. (Perhaps THAT is why I'm so fat. It's not the chocolate and the buttered bread and the mashed potatoes...it's my thick skin. Halleluiah!) I ask for suggestions on what to cut. I relish offerings from others on how to improve my writing. I appreciate honesty when it comes to writing critique.




      This past weekend I went on a writing project retreat. It was at my favorite monk-ery. I didn't necessarily get too much feedback from the group I was in, but I did get some valuable critique from the guest editor (Britton Gildersleeve...I know--what a name!) who comes every year to this retreat.




      What is the best writing advice you ever got?  

Everything (Okay, SOME Things) I know, I Learned From a Puppy

        Our house is no longer a quiet, peaceful place. Four new paws patter and clatter across our floors. My husband and I already had two senior dogs, but a puppy changes things completely...


       Here are some things I've already learned in the very short time (24 hours) we've had Radar:

• It's a good thing to chew on bark. Radar--no matter how I try to divert him in a variety of ways--loves to get a piece of bark/a stick/a hunk of sod and chew on it. I pick him up and move him to another part of the yard, but he keeps returning to get his "prize" (or a different one--after all, there's an endless supply of things to slobber on in the backyard).

       If I had the same amount of persistence as that little dog, perhaps I'd be a best-selling novelist by now. (And if I chewed on bark instead of chocolate, I'd be skinny and successful!)


 

• Get rid of the bad stuff. How many times a day can a puppy pee and poo? Yesterday, the count was 1,237. I'm hoping for a few less times today.

       Of course, as writers, the "bad stuff" we have to get rid of is self-doubt. Negativity. That internal editor that cuts us down. Evacuate that sh**. Now.

• Naps (and breaks) are good things. After spending time tormenting the older, cranky dogs and checking the food bowls and floors for stray pieces of food and trying to tear up the rug and gnawing on the furniture and checking for stray bits of food and knocking over the trashcan...it's time to take a break. A short nap is all it takes to recharge and reenergize.

       When we're immersed in a writing project--whether it's a short piece or a novel-long manuscript--we have to step away. Relax. Do something different. And then get back to it...


        Now I'm off to play with the puppy ... (And if Blogger was cooperative, I would be including a couple of photos. Maybe it will get less persnickety later on.)








 

2 Winners and a Welcome

        The furry, puppy-breath part first. In a couple of days we will be welcoming a chewing-peeing-yipping machine into our fold. Here is a picture of Radar. He's coming to our house on Wednesday.

         And after spending hours and hours creating the entries, I was ready to draw two winning names.

      (The names on the left were for the copy of The Harsh and the Heart. The names on the right were for the We Will Survive anthology.)

      And the winners are:

Pat H.--We Will Survive

Donna--The Harsh and the Heart

       Ladies, if you email me your home address, I will send your book to you. (My email address is at the top of my blog.)