Resilience & Showing Up Every Day
Current mood: thoughtful
Category: Writing and Poetry

Before we get started, an announcement: Next week, May 13-15, I'll be doing a Q&A on BookBalloon where I'll be taking questions on the craft and business of writing. BookBalloon is a wonderful site for readers, who get to talk about their love in all its varieties, and for writers as well. Registration is required to participate on the Forum. But it's painless, free, and guaranteed no spam. Click here to sign up http://www.bookballoon.com/!

And we're off!

Back in the '80s there was a popular TV show, "L.A. Law." A few years into the series' run, a new character was cast, Jonathan Rollins, played by Blair Underwood. On his first day on the show, near the end, Rollins is cross-examining a witness when the man on the stand has a heart attack and falls to the ground. As pandemonium ensues, Rollins vaults over the stricken man's body, demanding the judge freeze his assets. The judge is horrified, insists it can wait. But Rollins insists, no, it can't wait, the judge must freeze the assets now because if the man dies without that happening first, his own client is basically screwed. The judge agrees, pointing out that while perhaps Rollins is not much of a human being, he's the man he'd want as his lawyer if he was ever in trouble.

I actually do advocate being "much of a human being," but the better part of success in writing and life and love is the spirit of that kind of resilience; the spirit that, even when the building is falling down all around you, impels you to take the steps necessary to save the day.

It's the ability, as a writer having had something rejected, of putting the next plan in place before you're even done saying, "Well, that sucks."

If you're a sports-minded person, it could be termed never letting the ball touch the ground.

If you're a gardener, in a different way it could be termed tending to your garden and never neglecting it, so that weeds don't grow up in your absence, choking the beautiful flowers that you once so lovingly cultivated.

That last example leads to another ingredient of success: showing up every day. One of the great writing Bausches - I can never remember which one - once said something to the effect: I write every day not because I'm brilliant every day, but so that I'll be there to catch it on the rare instances when I am.

That's it in a nutshell, at least for today (no doubt, I'll think of more tomorrow): be resilient and don't forget to show up, whether in writing or life or love. In The Odyssey, Odysseus goes off on his 12-year adventure leaving his wife behind. He doesn't call. He doesn't write. Never mind all the disasters that befall him, the guy is just lucky the bitch is still waiting for him when he gets home. But that's Penelope all over: weaving, using her weaving to keep all those suitors at bay because she's resilient, she's smart enough to know that if something or someone means the world to you, you find a way to show up every day.

So what are your tales of resilience? What ingredients do you think a person needs in order to be successful in writing or life or love?

Be well. Don't forget to write.    

6:32 AM - 14 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

Reinventing My Wheel
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Writing and Poetry

Before we get started, here's a link to a post I did over at The Nervous Breakdown two days ago upon the death of my 103-year-old grandfather-in-law: http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/lauren_baratz_logsted/

Madonna is 50 and, I'm told, just signed a ten-year contract. Nice work if you can get it. Love Madonna, hate Madonna, you have to respect the longevity of her career, the success of which I'd say is in large part due to her willingness to continually reinvent herself.

In publishing there's a dirty little secret that doesn't get talked about much but that occasionally crops up in novels about the business: writers changing their names to get a second shot at being brand new. Used to be, before the computers started running the show, that a writer could chug along at a slow but steady rate and still enjoy a breakout success if new work warranted it. But that becomes harder to do when buyers for bookstores consult their Bookscan figures and see 10,000-copy book sales and decide not to purchase the kinds of larger amounts of a subsequent book that would help ensure an author moving up. I know one author whose agent found a novel way to get around this without the author needing to change names. Author X was a literary novelist whose books were always well received by the New York Times etc but whose sales were always in that midlist-ish 10,000 range I mentioned. Then Author X got an idea for a suspense novel. But there was no point, Agent Y felt, in going the usual route. Even if a publisher picked it up, booksellers would look at the previous figures and purchase in line with that. So Agent Y started buzzing the book to foreign scouts...but without any author's name on the packaging at all. Before you know it, lots of foreign houses read the book, bought the book for large sums of money. Before you know it, U.S. publishers were approaching Agent Y saying, "Hey, what's this hot thing you're selling all over Europe and Asia that you won't show anyone here?" The U.S. publisher who bought it wound up paying seven times Author X's typical advance. Last I heard, Author X had received a total of $1.5 million in advance money. I do hope Author X didn't go out right away and buy the big house, though, as T.C. Boyle cautions against, because fortunes do turn so quickly in the book world. Still, it's an interesting profile in reinvention.

I'm not going to change my name, or even go anonymous, but I am ready to shake things up a bit.

I've always been a bit of a reinventer, not out of career necessity, but I do like to change things around: write in different genres, take on new challenges. Now I'm feeling the need, though, to make a more major overhaul.

It's easy to putter along in life, falling into the rut of doing the same things, usually in the same ways, out of habit. Every now and then, though, a person needs to take apart the whole to see what's joy, or could be joy, and what is merely habit. Or at least this person does.

Physical

I used to like to run but can't anymore. Still, recently I was able to add ballet and kickboxing into my routine and would like to add more things. Maybe I just need to dye my hair or shave my head? Maybe that'd be enough to push back this sense of ennui that's been creeping in lately? Or maybe I need to, I don't know, move to Scotland?

Professional

Nelson DeMille once said something to the effect that there are no retired or former novelists...but maybe he's wrong? I've finished 22 books in the last 14 years, 16 of which have either been published or will be. And I've handed in all but one book currently under contract. Maybe it's time to decide whether I want to keep doing this forever, or move onto something else? And what would that something else be? Agenting? I actually would like that; I enjoy the art of the deal. Editing? Maybe if I was 20 years younger, but not now, not unless I moved to New York. Bookselling? I loved it when I did it, in large part because I got to work with one of my favorite people on the planet, but that's a tough business these days and I'm not sure I have the stomach to move from one tenuous-paycheck career to another. Teaching? Now that does appeal, but do I want to go back to school for it? Politics, my other love? Hmm. Hmm. Well, we all know I want to be Mayor of Danbury. But, you know, there are all those pesky skeletons.

Play

What the heck do I like to do besides writing? Well, I've always been a huge reader, but I haven't been enjoying that so much lately. Maybe it's time to cut back? Or just read Shakespeare for a while? Pool. I used to love to shoot pool. But my greatest enjoyment came in the years I took the game seriously, played a couple of times a week, competed against some of the best guys in the area, played in tournaments. Is that what I need to do - get serious about my game? Or give it up? Travel. I really used to enjoy that, had a goal of seeing every state in the country and every country in the world. Maybe I need to start traveling again? Or maybe I really do need to move to Scotland?

Personal

In some ways, the rest is all cosmetic window-dressing. Yes, the average person does spend a ton of hours on the professional, so it's important to seek satisfaction there, but nearly everything eventually comes down to the personal. Who do I spend my time with? Who do I want to spend my time with? What do I want that time to be like?

So many questions. So much to think about.

For the first summer in nine years, my time won't be my own to work monomaniacally to my heart's content. And maybe that's a good thing. It's so easy to keep to the same habits when you're too busy working to think about change. So that's how I intend to spend my summer vacation, examining what works/doesn't, what people in my world give good value/don't, and what I can bring to my own table to improve everything I don't decide to cast away. Who knows? For once, I may even let my Golem skin go tan. Who knows? By the end of the summer, I may decide nothing needs changing. Or I may decide that nearly everything needs changing. Only time will tell.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: EVER FEEL THE NEED TO REINVENT YOURSELF? IF YOU WEREN'T WHO YOU ARE RIGHT NOW, WHO WOULD YOU BE?

Be well. Don't forget to write.

5:50 AM - 22 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

Whinges, Limbo & Glories, Part III of III
Current mood: pirate
Category: Writing and Poetry

I did promise last week that no matter what was going on, we'd talk about glories this week, so that's what we're going to do, even if it kills us. But before we get started I feel compelled to point out that as much as I'm going to crow here today, and as much joy as the things I'm going to crow about have given me, my life and career are not all sweetness and light. Bad and/or frustrating things happen in both every single day, but I'm aware that I've been very lucky in many ways so unless the specific subject is whinges, I try to avoid doing too much, well, whingeing.

Here, then, are some of my glories:

- selling THE THIN PINK LINE on my own, after having a top agent come out and say he thought it would never sell;

- having THE THIN PINK LINE be the first of all the tens of thousands of books that have been published by any imprint of Harlequin Enterprises, of which Red Dress Ink is one, receive a coveted starred review from Kirkus;

- seeing a book with my name on its spine in a bookstore for the first time;

- having an editor tell me that she bought a copy of THE THIN PINK LINE with her to give as a present to Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, at a luncheon meeting;

- being a big hit in France;

- having VERTIGO sell five years after the first draft of it was written;

- having an editor refer to ANGEL'S CHOICE as being "an important book";

- working with one editor I love working with more than anyone else in publishing;

- legitimately getting to put "Writer" on the line for "Profession" on my tax returns;

- working with 17 writers I respect to create the bizarre animal known as THIS IS CHICK-LIT;

- being able to have the career I want and the opportunity to explore the ideas that interest me in nearly every genre imaginable;

- going to my daughter's classroom and reading chapters from THE SISTERS EIGHT, the series we created together;

- using the clout I have, such as it is, to give a hand-up to those who have the talent and perseverance to want to pursue this crazy profession.

I could go on, but if I do, I'll start nauseating myself and/or alienating you, because you'll forget how I opened this blog by pointing out that it's not always a walk in the park here. So I'll just add one more of my glories:

- having loved tremendously and having enjoyed the grace of being loved tremendously in return.

So now it's your turn:

WHAT ARE YOUR GLORIES, PAST OR PRESENT, WRITING or NONWRITING? Oh, and if you're having a bad week or a limbo week, please feel free to talk about that too.

Be well. Don't forget to write.

5:46 AM - 38 Comments - 24 Kudos - Add Comment

Whinges, Limbo, and Glories, Part II of III
Current mood: restless
Category: Writing and Poetry

Well, this is a fine how do you do. Last week, I claimed the post was Part I of II, the first on whinges, the second on glories, and here I decide to throw a third spanner into the works. So sue me. But it's been that kind of week that makes me feel disinclined to crow about the good stuff. It's been a week of limbo.

There are all sorts of limbos that a writer or a person generally speaking can find herself in. There's the limbo of writing a book and then waiting to see if it'll be sold; or, if it has been sold, waiting to see if the editor will find it acceptable. And in life, well, some weeks, there just seem to be limbos cropping up all over the place: potholes of uncertainy a person gets mired in.

I don't like limbo very much, am not very good at it. Give me the bottom of the barrel any day; it's so much easier to claw my way up from that than it is to muster the same energy from a state of limbo.

Uncertainty: a place where you feel your fortunes lie too much in the control of others, that your fate is out of your hands.

Hmm...what to do...what to do...

What should you do? What should *I* do?

Focus on the things I can get done, for starters. But more important than that, remember how much I do control, particularly regarding my own attitudes. Remember that there are no other knights coming to save the day, that I've always been my own best knight, and that when I fall, the person most likely to catch me before I crash to the ground and shatter into pieces is, well, me. Nice trick, that: being the one who falls and catching one's self all at the same time.

So, question of the day:

WHAT LIMBOS ARE YOU STUCK IN, EITHER IN WRITING OR IN LIFE?

Shall we give a book away? Sure, it's what we do here. And since Emma Smith is one of my most limbo-bound creations, always caught between worlds, we'll give away a signed copy of VERTIGO to one lucky person who leaves a comment below.

And next week, we'll vow, no matter what else is going on, to focus on the glories. We'll do that even if it kills us.

Be well, y'all. Don't forget to write, so that I don't end up just talking to myself.  

6:58 AM - 16 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

Whinges & Glories, Part I of II
Current mood: restless
Category: Writing and Poetry

Writing, and life, comes with its share of whinge-worthy things (def: whinge = whine in Brit-speak) as well as its glorious moments. So this week we'll all have a whingefest and commiserate over our frustrations, and next week we'll celebrate our glories.

I guess since I'm the only one here right now, I'll go first.

Lauren's Whinges:

Professional: I am compelled to work with one person I cannot stand working with, and there is currently no end in sight. This situation drives me batshit beyond belief on a regular basis. The other day a group of writers and I were talking about what's worth the time in terms of marketing/promotion. I said I do what time and inclination allow, and don't worry about the rest; that I didn't become a writer so I could hate my life, but rather so I could better love my life. Well, This Particular Person brings out the rare-for-me feeling of "I *hate* what I'm doing!" And whenever I have to deal with or even think about TPP, it makes me wish I'd chosen a different profession, preferably one with a realiable salary, paid vacations and full medical.

Personal: Oh, why turn this into yet another loooong blog? Just to give you something, though: I think I've got some flu thing and, oh, the weather. After one perfectly gorgeous day yesterday, it's back to rain and lower temps today thru the weekend. Does Danbury thinks it's Ireland??? 

TV: I can't believe I've got a TV whinge of all things, but I do. Can anyone else believe that Michael Johns - Mr. Harry Hamlin But Younger - was sent packing from American Idol last night? Never mind some of the people we elect, what is wrong with this country??? With the possible exception of David Cook, everyone on that stage should have gone first. Now I know what my eight-year-old has to say about this: "But what about Brook White?" Yes, yes, yes, she has plenty of talent. But when I think of someone who should be number 1, I ask myself, "If I was paying good money to be at a concert, who could actually interest and excite me the most in one- to two-hour doses?" I admit it: I actually yelled at the TV last night. It was just so wrong, on so many levels. And yet I know how people fall through the cracks like that: a confluence of events where people like, say, *me" vote for someone else who seems to need it because we're sure that someone like Michael Johns is safe. Talk about "You Had A Bad Day." Ah, well. May he become another Chris Daughtry, the kind of person who proves it can be better to lose than to win. Still..."Michael, you got robbed!!!"

Idol: Yes, another Idol whinge. I was frankly shocked at the blatant and specific religiosity of the opening group number. It'd be fine to have one person singing it, based on their own personal belief, but presented in group form it came across as being anthemic to the charity drive. Given that there must be millions of viewers with different religious backgrounds or none at all, it didn't seem like the right tactic to encourage everybody to give til it hurts and instead came acrosss, at least to my household, as exclusionary.

So those are my whinges for today. What are yours? We'd all like to know. We will even rally round and say "Poor you" no matter what the whinge. For us today, no whinge is too big or too small.

Should we give a book away today? Sure, why not. Any why don't we make it A LITTLE CHANGE OF FACE, the one in which the beautiful librarian actually whinges on about the terrible things that come along with having perfect breasts. So one lucky whinger who comments below will get a copy of that particular book.

Be well. Don't forget to write.       

4:31 AM - 18 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

Music/Books + Book Giveaway
Current mood: talkative
Category: Writing and Poetry

 A couple of weeks ago I asked if anyone wanted any specific topics addressed here. I’m always open to hearing more ideas - so always feel free to post them! - but the one that stuck out at that time was Nicole’s request for somehow tying music into books. Keeping that in mind, here goes.

I love music and some days live for the brief times I’m in the car when I can crank up whatever I can find. And yet, I almost never listen to music when I’m writing. I think that, for me, the mood of the music would have to be a perfect match, or else I’d be throwing upbeat moments into murders or heartbreak into comedy. Since I do too much genre-bending of that sort anyway, it’s best for me to stay away from music when I’m working and just listen to GH and the political talking heads on the little TV in my office.

The one exception to my no-music rule is VERTIGO. As many of you who read regularly here already know, I wrote the first draft for that book, which has evolved many times since, in a 55-day fever dream in fall 2000. And what was I listening to as I wrote like a fiend, squeezing time out of the most amazing places? The soundtrack from the movie "The Piano" - picture me taking breaks to jete across the narrow hallway at certain points or doing plies with one hand resting on the bar of my infant daughter’s crib - and Sting’s "Desert Rose." The movie sountrack provided a lot of the madness and passion while Sting’s song with its Middle Eastern sounds and Arab wail provided the inspiration for one of the key passages, the one where Emma writes about an Arabian man who came to dinner and spoke of his religion, how his investment in it is too great to give it up, which Emma then applies to her feelings for Chance as she wonders if he has become "the Uncaused Cause behind my life, the Unmoved Mover behind my actions?"

3:02 AM - 26 Comments - 15 Kudos - Add Comment

Sex + Book Giveaway
Current mood: voluminous
Category: Writing and Poetry

Currently reading : Gods Behaving Badly: A Novel By Marie Phillips Release date: 10 December, 2007

4:26 AM - 46 Comments - 24 Kudos - Add Comment

My Spring Vacation + Book Giveaway
Current mood: working
Category: Writing and Poetry

So my daughter’s been on vacation for two weeks now, starts school again on Monday. This year, I decided on doing the rare-for-me thing of cutting back on work while she was off. She’ll only be eight once! (Even if being eight lasts 365 days.) So what have I been doing since March 7?

- went to Boston to meet with editor/publicist/publisher for THE SISTERS EIGHT.

- wrote a five-book proposal.

- wrote a one-book proposal.

- went over the copyedits for my fifth comedy for RDI, BABY NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF CHOOS, in a single day.

- copyedited a 355-page book for a friend.

- blogged at Amazon twice, once about YA fiction, once about Irish Lit; at Teen Fiction Cafe about my crushes; here last Friday and today; and guestblogged at Mystic Lit yesterday on that evergreen topic, "Don’t P*** off the Bookseller": http://mystic-lit.blogspot.com/

Gee, it sounds like I worked a lot anyway, doesn’t it?

In truth, I still did plenty with my girl:

- she came to Boston with me and wowed everyone at THE SISTERS EIGHT publisher. We even got to swim in the hotel pool three days’ running - not bad when it’s 39 degrees out.

- we ate lunch out together nearly every day.

- we shopped.

- we went to three movies: "Penelope" (you can now add James McAvoy to my crush list); "Horton Hears a Who" (I don’t think I grasped before what a spiritual/religious message the story has; I just thought it was about small people like me); and "College Road Trip" (don’t ask).

- we also watched lots of "Charmed" on DVD (Cole is on my crush list), and - of course! - American Idol (Michael Johns is on my crush list too; that list is growing).

- and of course we read together, laughed together, visited friends, had friends come here, stayed up late and ate pink frosting straight from the can.

And now I need to be thinking about turning my mind toward next week. On Monday, I need to start addressing something that has been a bear, will be a bear for a long time to come.

Then, next Tuesday, March 25, is the launch day for ME, IN BETWEEN, which is a mostly comedic novel about a generously breasted 12-year-old who feels conflicted about her mammary glory. Please go out and buy a copy or 10. In the meantime, one lucky person who comments below will win a signed copy. We’ll let the comments run through Sunday night, then randomly select a winner.

So that’s mostly it from me for now.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING WITH YOUR SPRING BRING (IF YOU HAVE ONE) AND/OR WHAT TOPICS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE ADDRESSED IN THE FUTURE HERE? I was thinking "Sex in Writing" for next week, maybe, but what about after that?

Be well. Don’t forget to write.

Currently reading : Me, In Between By Lauren Baratz-Logsted Release date: 25 March, 2008

7:02 AM - 28 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

Planning Ahead: Look to the Leave
Current mood: romantic
Category: Writing and Poetry

Before we get started, beginning today, Simon Pulse has something called Blogfest going on where for the next two weeks, 120 writers from iconic Judy Blume to insignificant me answer 14 preselected reader questions at the rate of one per day. Since each author answers a maximum of seven questions, none of us have something there every day, but you can read more about this mega event here: http://pulseblogfest.simonsaysblogs.com/index.php. It’ll be worth checking back again and again. Oh, and you can access my Blogfest page directly here: http://www.pulseblogfest.com/baratzlogsted.htm

And we’re off.

A few weeks ago I sold a new YA book at auction, CRAZY BEAUTIFUL, that I’ve been in the process of revising, now proofreading. Last night, I came across the following passage. For those of you who know me well, you know I love to shoot pool, and for those of you who’ve read my books, you know occasionally I endow my characters with that same love. So here’s Lucius Wolfe, a fifteen-year-old boy with hooks for hands, expounding on some of the finer points of the game:

I study the remaining twelve balls, plotting how I can sink all six of the striped balls left plus the eight.

People think to be a good pool player, all you need do is put a ball in the pocket, like hitting a ball over the fence in baseball or a tiny ball into a tiny cup in golf. But there’s so much more to it than that. In order to be really good, you need to be able to see the shot after the shot you’re taking right now; to be great, you have to see how to strategize in order to clean the whole table. The game is a game of concentration and angles, yes, but it’s also a game of looking to the leave: If I do this, where does it leave me? If I take this shot, what angle do I need to come at it from to not only make my shot but also set myself up for where I want to be for my next shot? Oh, and by the way, if I sink all my balls, what’s the point of my accomplishment if I manage to stitch myself on the eight?

To avoid that last, I’ve lately taken to working the games I shoot from backward to forward in my brain, meaning I think first about how I want to come at the eight in the end, before working backward in my mind step by step through each ball and angle it’s going to take me to get there until I arrive at the first ball that needs to be conquered. 

"Look to the leave." Yes, it’s a pool-shooting term, at least for me it is, and I’ve said countless times to people who should have beaten me but didn’t, "You should have looked to the leave."

But it doesn’t just apply to pool. It also applies to writing and to life its own self.

You want to get somewhere in your writing career, in any career, in your personal life, even, dare I say it, your romantic life? Look to the leave, which also means "Look to the end game."

Ever play chess, or read books about it, see movies about it? Ever see a player say, "It’ll take me X moves to mate you"? You wonder, How does she know that? But it’s because the player is doing the same thing: looking to the end game, the ultimate goal, and then perfectly plotting it all backwards.

Yes, you can have tunnel vision, and just take each step as they appear before you, vaguely hoping to end up where you want to be. But in plotting your work or story backward, if you at least know from the start exactly where you want to end up, it makes it all so much clearer.

And then, once you do see the whole path, you do simply take that next immediate step, or prepare for the next shot, freezing your focus, blocking out distraction, and narrowing your concentration unitl the universe becomes the size of a dime.

That’s the theory, anyway, and my, aren’t we philosophical today!

So tell me: How do you plan ahead? What are your strategies for achieving your heart’s desires? Or, you know, you can just tell me how you’re doing this fine Friday morning.

Enjoy Blogfest. Enjoy the philosophizing.

Oh, and once last tidbit of Lauren’s pool-shooting advice: Chalk Is Cheap.

Be well. Don’t forget to write.

Currently reading : Wake By Lisa McMann Release date: 04 March, 2008

4:39 AM - 16 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

Open-Mic Day
Current mood: bouncy
Category: Writing and Poetry

It's been a while since we've done one of these and since I'm slammed with work and life here today, this seems like a good time for Open-Mic Day.

For those of you who've played before, you know the basic rules. For everyone else, it goes something like this: Take adventage of the comments section on my MySpace blog here to...

- promote yourself or your work.

- ask a question about the art of writing or the business of publishing.

- ask about anything at all non-writing.

- make a comment about books/writing/publishing.

- make a comment about the larger world.

- recommend a book.

- just say hey.

- shoot, you can even talk politics today if you want to.

That's basically it. I'm sure I must have something to promote but can't for the life of me think what that might be right now. So post away and I'll pop in and out as the day goes on to see how everyone's doing.

Edit: Ooh, I just realized I do have something to promote! In the latest issue of The Smoking Poet, I have a story called "The Renewable Virgin." There are also a ton of other stories in the issue, including ones by my friends A.S. "Stella" King and Mark Bastable. Also a really fantastic interview my friend Russell Rowland did with bestselling author Sue Miller. You can read it all here: http://thesmokingpoet.tripod.com/

Be well. Don't forget to write.

Currently reading : Before I Die By Jenny Downham Release date: 25 September, 2007

6:14 AM - 24 Comments - 7 Kudos - Add Comment