Cheers from the Birthday Girl

The Road Not Traveled... or Written

My little brain storming exercise, thinking through all of the conflict and hardship that could befall my newly fleshed out characters, was really helpful. That, plus a little research has taken my primary plot in a bit of a new direction.

That leaves me a little sad for the original plot, that wasn't as good, but had captured my imagination in a different way. The same goes for some of the other bits of brainstorming, interesting things popped up that don't belong in this story. Maybe they'll push their way into a different story.... let's hope. That exercise also gave me a few ideas, now, for a SciFi/Fantasy time travelish good versus evil story, the kind I love to read. So maybe that will be the next project, after Legacy... and the Nano project.

I've dubbed the NaNo project Prairie Apocalypse, because I'm terrible with titles and refuse to give it a real one until the first draft is done.

The outline is basically done, except to think through some of the first scenes. Then I'll put it away for a bit, work on my Legacy rewrite, and take it all back up for the official November first draft.

One Year Ago Today

I woke up a year ago today to a mild but unmistakable contraction. As they progressed throughout that rainy, fall Sunday, our little family of three just enjoyed our last few hours alone. We made pancakes, had a dance party (that was before dance party was a regular part of our days!), and we walked around the mall.

Finally, when some poor woman tried to hand me a perfume sample and I had to catch my breath before turning her down, we headed home from the mall (contractions 2 minutes apart!), and sent Joe out for a little KFC. What was I thinking? Well, a girl has got to eat before meeting her daughter!

As it turned out, I had to have the KFC left overs later. When I realized that I was pausing between bites to do a little yoga breathing, we put the greasy chicken away and stashed Maya at the neighbors to wait for Grandma and Grandpa.

Elliot made her way into the world only two hours later, in the most peaceful, natural way that the modern medical community would allow. And from that moment on, she has been this wise, observant, hilarious little person, snuggled in my left arm (seriously, you should see my left bicep after a year of toting her!).



In contrast, today is a gloriously sunny, still day. We had peanut butter banana chocolate chip muffins for the birthday breakfast, and though it may have been the sugar rush, Elliot has been dashing around with so much energy I swear she knows something is important about the day!

Know Your Birthday Girl

In the spirit of birthday week, we started the festivities yesterday, and we'll be celebrating all week! We're opening gifts and cards as they come, letting the birthday girl indulge in the peanut butter cookies Maya made her, and letting her pick the first book before nap time.

Tomorrow, we're celebrating the official day with a trip to the zoo, a birthday dinner, and a chocolate cake that guarantees timeless photographic classics.

In the meantime, here are some things about Elliot Rose that we've learned over the last year:

Favorite Food: French Toast, rivaled only by frozen peas (not cooked, or even thawed!)

Favorite Dance Move: The Deep Knee Bend with Tongue Stuck Out, though she's starting to learn Maya's trademark Running In Circles

Favorite Toy: Her sister's lil' princess talking cell phone or a stray playroom tea cup

Favorite Word: Uh Oh... particularly after she has hurled a leaky milk cup on the floor

Favorite New Skill: pushing plastic chairs around the play room and using them as a ladder to climb onto the table or day bed

Favorite Cohabitant: Anakin, the big black kitty that lets her lay on his back

Favorite Forbidden Item: The toilet, especially when it is left open for easy hairbrush dunking access

I'll add more if I think of them, but those are the Elliot basics. She is a very entertaining little person, and we're fantastically lucky to have her!

Glass Half Full?

As it turns out, my generally positive outlook on the world makes for a pretty dull plot. I'm having a hard time forcing myself to introduce dark events to my story (beyond the original problem of a major bird flu pandemic!) or attribute dark motives to my characters.

I have a reasonable outline for the overall conflict in my Nano story, and I'm trying to add complexity and contrast to my growing cast of characters. Hopefully more conflict will naturally emerge as I start to put all of these components together.

If not, I just sat down a made a huge list of all the terrible things I could introduce if I start getting board by November 6th or something. I'm not too crazy about most of them, but a few are intriguing. It's like a writer's block "free pass" to help me reach the November word goal.... we'll see if it works!

Sunday Morning Snuggles

There is nothing better than a slow, autumn Sunday morning.

It's usually Joe's turn to sleep in, so the girls and I tumble onto the couch in the dark. Maya watches a show or two; today she thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Rogers' visit to a New York dance studio, and then an episode of Strawberry Shortcake (I tried to quickly turn the TV off during commercials... I'm not fond of exposing her to that). Meanwhile, I sipped coffee, teased Elliot into chasing crumpled up ads, and scanned the paper.

Our chickens' ongoing contribution to the family larder almost requires French toast (is that freedom toast nowa days?), and Elliot ate more of the toasty, cinnamon goodness than Maya did today. She must be growing in preparation for her big birthday on Tuesday!

We're really enjoying our first truly autumn day this year! We have a few outside chores to do, chile in the crock pot, and Maya is even wearing her Bears jersey. This day may necessitate an apple pie!

Free Write Addict

So while I've been putting in a few hours here and there daydreaming about my setting, cast, and plot, I've also been doing daily free writes. It's such a great way to get back into writing, since before early September, I really hadn't written fiction for three years!

I'm so amazed at what falls onto the key board when I open my brain to a writing prompt and give myself 10, 20, or 30 minutes to create randomly. How fun!

My favorite prompt sites right now are:

Writing Fix
and
Quick Plots.

Anyone have other good writing prompt links?

An Obama Mama & the Obama Girls!

Don't forget to watch the debate!

Indulge Me, I'm a West Wing Fan

The McCain campaign tore through our neighborhood in the night, assaulting my morning drive to preschool with sign after sign after sign.

Within an hour, my own signs were on order (the campaign headquarters ran out of their latest shipment within an hour yesterday!

Maya politely listened to me rant about the ideological significance of conflicting world views as a basis for rational debate compared with angry us-versus-them, liberal-is-a-dirty-word, we-won't-listen-no-matter-what, lipstick-wearing pit bulls who can't speak college level English but believe it should be the official language of our country.

Phew! Poor kid. She sweetly responded, but I love Obama, mama. Oh I must drink in my influence now, as it will only fade over the next 15 years!

If you, like me, need a morale booster, read this New York Times article featuring President Bartlett from the West Wing offering (fictionally, of course) Obama some sound advice: sometimes impolite is required and condescension is called for!

Casting a Novel - How much is too much?

My outline is going pretty smoothly. The main plot is strong through the first half, and then sketched out more roughly after that, leaving me leeway to make adjustments later.

I'm struggling with the casting, though. I have WAY too many characters, even after weeding out the unnecessary ones. I think i have two viewpoint characters, whose growing friendship plays a key role in the story. One of them has a love interest, a sister and brother-in-law; the other has a daughter; the love interest has a friend, and there is a father figure and a grandmotherly figure that play leadership roles among the locals. There are a couple of other urbanite refugees that were going to play key roles in creating conflict... but it seems like too much! Maybe it isn't..... I don't know!

How many characters can/should a novel illuminate? I have seen some suggestions, but they range from 4 to 20! I imagine this means it is up to me.... once again I have to do all the work on this thing while my muse is out stewing over the absurdity of political game playing!

So, I'm off with a notebook and a pencil to determine whose story this is and what their goals/conflicts are; if they are still interesting, they stay. If not, they get the eraser!

Join us At the Park

We spent the morning climbing around in tunnels and trees.

End of Week Goals?

Wow, I was so excited to choose a story, that I forgot to set goals for this week.... and have gotten nothing done.

So by the end of next week I plan to:

1. Fill out my basic outline, since I have thought through most of the major plot issues this shouldn't take too long.

2. Apply Laura Cushing's 100 Questions for Character Development to my main character and decide if I should do that for all, most, or none of my other characters.

3. Reread Legacy after ignoring it for a week and a half, and assess how it can be improved for the next draft.

I have to admit, at one point I thought I had a good handle on the characters and setting, but no plot. After thinking through my plot a bit more this weekend, now I'm a little afraid to dig into the characters. I'm continuously coming to terms with the fact that I'm creating all of this, rather than having some ephemeral muse whispering it all into my ear.

It's not that it is hard, because the creation part is really fun. It just feels much more fallible when I'm inventing stuff than I imagined it would if I was just "inspired," meaning a story would emerge whole on Ruby, my laptop, after a really good free-write. How's that for deluded?!

Maybe that is why I've never really embraced writing before... I've put writers on this mystical pillar of intuition and inspiration, and simply hoped that someday I wake up on their level, with amazing stories pouring out of my head. I overlooked the amount of work it takes to open yourself to inspiration and wield it as a tool for creating an interesting story.

Geesh, and I'm just getting started!

Easy Garden-Bounty Dinner Recipe

It's time I shared my favorite garden-related find of the summer; essentially, it's spaghetti sauce.

I don't remember if I got the recipe in Cooking Light or Food & Wine or Better Homes (we get a ridiculous and environmentally atrocious number of magazines!), but no matter where it came from, it's spectacular!

The beauty of it is, while you boil your pasta, you can prepare a simple tomato puree. When the pasta is ready, you just mix the two together, allowing the pasta to heat the sauce, and add some Parmesan cheese. The flavor is amazing, if you like garden fresh tomatoes. It's really creamy, thanks to the tomato paste, and last time I substituted some roasted tomatoes for some of the fresh ones - it was outstanding! The original recipe called for sundried tomatoes too, but I'm not a fan of those, so I left them out.

Beyond its utter simplicity, this recipe is spectacular because it showcases all of those tomatoes I've been harvesting without requiring canning skills!

1 pound Penne
4 medium tomatoes, diced (I used two roma, one herloom, and a bunch of golden pear and cherry tomatoes)
2 tbs tomato paste
4 large basil leaves
1 garlic clove
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. boil the pasta in salt water
2. puree remaining ingredients in a blender. Pour sauce into a large boawl.
3. drain the pasta, add it to the sauce, and toss well

Serve immediately, it does get cold fast

NaNOWriMo Story Selected!

Finally, after scraping together a couple of hours for myself at a coffee shop, I selected my NaNo idea. I consolidated several notebooks full of random thoughts on two different potential stories. I was surprised at how much detail I had put together on both of them... I'm creating whole worlds of people and events and conflicts. It's liking being Zeus or something!

I am going with the idea that first came to me when I decided to do Nano.... Here it is:

A group of unfulfilled urbanites flee a city in crisis to survive a pandemic, finding themselves quarantined in a struggling small town.

First Friends

We joined some friends for coffee today, and capped it off with a walk to the local duck pond. This is truly the perfect outing, satisfying all of our various mid-morning cravings:

*Maya got to hang with her friend Sam, show off her protective big sister skills, drink a frothy steamer, and run around the park feeding hungry ducks.
*Poor, sniffling Elliot got to stare wonderingly at her little friend Molly and watch the world pass by from the comfort of her stroller.
*I was pampered with coffee and conversation with my own friend, plus I got rid of a bunch of stale bread!





Maya is all about her friends lately. The newness of her preschool class has worn off, so all of the kids are enthusiastic each morning. They greet each other with gusto and barely wave as their parents rush off to work or errands or a coffee shop.

Her new favorite game before bedtime is to pretend she is the teacher, Miss Stephanie. She sits in a chair, holds a book for Joe, Elliot, and I to see, and says loudly, "This is our new friend Grant, Hi Grant!." She turns the page, saying, "This is our new friend Stella, Hi Stella."

When she runs out of names, she makes me rack my brain to remember the other kids' names from her class. I can only guess that Miss Stephanie has taken pictures of the kids and assembled a book to help them learn everyone's name.

New Laptop!

My poor, hand-me-down MacBook died last week, leaving me chained to the PC hiding in our guestroom closet.

That was an uninspiring place to write.

Now, I have Ruby, my fancy new Gateway! She's sleek, sexy, and totally inspiring! Her first video download was the Palin/Hilary clip from Saturday Night Life, which was sooo hilaroius.

Unfortunately her first story attempt, late last night, fizzled when I realized I was regurgitating something I had seen in a movie. I didn't even notice until I started pounding out the ending.... It was sounding strangely familiar. Good think I didn't invest much in that effort!

Unfortunate first, but I'm sure it will get better!

Sleeep....

We're making progress! Elliot loves whole milk, chugging cups full at every meal. She has fallen asleep in her crib two bedtimes and two afternoon naps in a row!

A few people (mostly my neighbor) have laughed at me for not Ferberizing her... I just won't abandon her to cry it out. I'm trying to build trust with her, and I certainly wouldn't trust someone who went from snuggling me to sleep every night to suddenly disappearing after goodnight moon!

So we are doing the Baby Whisperer pick-up-put-down thing, never letting her cry for more than three minutes. And we've got Maya in there with her most of the time, which seems to both calm her down and inspire her.

When I left her at nap time, she was laying in her crib just like Maya over in the toddler bed. Both were reading books to themselves and babbling.

I must admit, working made the sleep thing a lot easier. Lynda, a child care expert for 30 years, taught Maya to fall asleep on her own during naptimes, making the bedtime transition really easy.

Now I'm on my own, and most of my at home friends also admit that nursing/rocking baby to sleep is so nice in the beginning, but so hard to move past.

Yea for Progress!

... My Pretties...

Point me toward a field of bewitched poppies, and I just might not be able to keep myself from cackling and sending in the flying monkeys.

I want a trick, a magic bullet to transform Elliot's bad sleeping habits for me.

I know I have created this monster. I have been away from her so rarely, and never for very long. I have nursed her to sleep or rocked her to sleep for almost every nap and bedtime. If I didn't rock her to sleep, Joe did.

Oh sure, I blogged a couple of months ago, vowing to sleep train her. But after a few days of letting her cry in short bursts and then comforting her, she learned to fall asleep quickly, during her bedtime snack. So I quit trying, because I had my evenings back.

Well, for two weeks now, Elliot has boycotted sleep in the evenings. Here she is two weeks shy of her 1 year birthday, she can't fall asleep on her own, and I'm ready to, um, dramatically reduce her non-kitchen snack times.

So yesterday, I brought my A game (Joe did too, of course). Eventually.... eventually, she fell asleep in her crib. I was nearby, and she was exhausted, but it's progress.

Maybe I'll fair better in round two!

Embracing Mistakes

Orson Scott Card offers this advice in his book How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy: Embrace writing mistakes. They aren't planned, so they are not likely to be cliche. Follow them and see where they take you.

I think it's fantastic. While I didn't get started on my Nano Outline, as I planned last week, I did capitalize on some mistakes in Legacy. The latest draft says what I want it to say, for the most part. So this week, the plan is to let it rest, so I can bring fresh eyes next week to polish the writing.

Goals for this week:

1) Consolidate the notes I have on two potential Nano Novels
2) Decide which one to proceed with for now
3) Begin outline for Nano novel

It's meager, but the girls have been swallowing up my would-be free time lately.

Dance, Dance, Revolution

The girls lived the high life at their first wedding celebration. Even though they didn't even make it to the official dance, they logged at least a half marathon in miles run around the dance floor.

Elliot followed Maya, Maya followed the bigger kids, and both of the girls paused now and then to shimmy, shake, and twirl their matching skirts around!

Joe and I reveled in the many family members eager to play with and watch the girls for us. We even had a few adult conversations, admittedly more of a novelty for me than for Joe. Unfortunately, I suffer from Wandering Syndrome. No matter how interested or engaged I am in a conversation, I am usually forced to wander off after one child or another. Either Maya needs me to confirm that the gum stuck to the underside of the cake table is not an appropriate snack or Elliot, refusing to be held, wobbles off for the nearest staircase.

Then I am stuck, unable to clarify my complete outrage at the possibility that Republican Palin could be the first woman in executive leadership (no, it's not that she's a mother, it has more to do with her inability to define, much less take a stance in regards to the Bush Doctrine) and unable to elaborate on the leadership ability of Obama (though he was not my first choice - aah Hilary - he clearly has the finesse and charisma of a natural leader and the experience and thoughtfulness of an attorney, state legislator, and senator... plus the passion of a pragmatic idealist who believes change is possible).

AAAh, I look forward to the days when I can a) enjoy more than one adult beverage at a time, and b) complete a conversation without aimless wandering.

In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the dance parties!

New Camera Craziness

I can't stop myself. I'm posing the girls by the garden, making Maya pose on her way to mail some letters, taking more dance party pictures (that's been done to death hasn't it?!) I LOVE the new camera, and I have no stories to share because I'm spending all of my time snapping pictures!

Passing the Buck

As it turns out, I have very little personal control over the time that I can devote to writing.

I'm making some progress toward my weekly goals, I have updated the most recent draft of Legacy and identified the key points that need to be fixed for the next draft. In preparation for outlining my latest Nano idea, I have finessed some design documents, modifying a few I found on other websites to fit my own style.

I haven't actually written anything new this week though. No practice, no free writes. I'm totally stuck because the baby is refusing to fall asleep on her own and the big sister is participating in the chaos. I have about 1 hour of naptime per day, during which I scramble to reheat my coffee and jot down whatever new plot twists or character traits I thought up while rocking and shooshing.

It's utter chaos. In November, as part of NaNoWriMo, I will forgo sleep and meet the word count, but as part of my everyday life, I'm just letting this be a low output couple of weeks, and I'm passing the buck.... You heard me.... blame the children.

Run, Chickens, Run!

We love our chickens!

They are all laying, giving us 5 eggs a day now.

As far as daily chores go, they take a combined 30 minutes or so if you include petting and giving them treats. Probably just 10 minutes if you don't include the fun/unneccesary stuff.

I'm in charge of letting the ladies out of their coop in the morning, checking their food and water supply in the coop, and giving them corn, garden scraps, and grass to snack on throughout the day (not necessary but fun!). Joe is in charge of locking them away at night, just in case the dreaded duck destroyer, whatever that was, returns for dessert, adding pine chips to their litter as needed, and researching what they will need to survive the winter back there (so far, we bought the specialty heater and have a good lead on efficient insulation).

As for Maya, she is our egg queen, harvesting 5 eggs with an efficient 13 to 16 egg checks.... usually right before I try to put her down for a nap or get in the car to go somewhere. She explains, "Oh, I'll just be RI-ight back. I need to check for eggs. By myself.... okay?" She then watches over her shoulder as she heads out side, making sure I don't follow.

She really loves her new ability to venture in the backyard alone from time to time.

Her other job, illustrated below, is to give those ladies their exercise. She pets them, chases them (gently and under supervision), and tosses 1 special treat (their favorite thing - green cherry tomatoes) over the fence for all five of them to run around stealing from each other. It's hilarious!

FYI: She went inside and added a sweater and pants to the tank dress look. It's getting COOoold here in the mornings. We love it!

Goals - Sept 7 - 13

Okay, without goals, I typically don't get anything done. And without writing goals, I have been drifting from one newly fascinating idea to the next. So here is an attempt to set some goals:

1. Finish 3rd Draft of Legacy

2. Outline Time project

3. Identify two or three publications that might consider Legacy to be a good candidate.

Second Draft

It's called Legacy, I think.

I'm terrible with titles. I keep hoping one will jump out at me, but it's now painfully clear that most fiction is created; it just doesn't spring forth completed onto my computer screen.

Not really a shocker.

But I did complete a second draft. One that is a bit better than the first. I did come up with a few ways to beef up scenes and bring out background characters to improve a third draft.

Each time it's getting a bit more sophisticated, which is fun too see. It still in no way resembles something I would intentionally read in a magazine, but maybe it will get there.

I feel like my daughter on her first big-kid bike. Even with training wheels and mom nearby, she is a bit scared, and finding it a bit tricky to take the curbs or pedal on the grass... or on any kind of slope. I'm just beginning to understand the level of craft and diligence that is required to create something worth reading.

I really don't have a lot of time to devote to learning right now, but I'm going to keep doing what I can. As long as I keep seeing a bit of improvement, it is really fun.

Go Time!

Maya is at preschool! All. By. Her. Self. That's really her favorite way to do anything!

She even posed for a picture, today, and marched into school like a pro, calling out "hey Grant, come on Kaden, let's go to our SkOO-ul!" when she saw her friends in the parking lot. She didn't cling to me as I left, like a few of the other kids. Instead she waved without looking, already engrossed in a game of dolls (or maybe a game of tug-of-war over some dolls... whatever) with another little girl.

Now, with Elliot sleeping, I'm having a serious deer in the headlights moment. In this brief window before the speeding truck of school pick-up/lunch/nap rig-a-ma-roll, do I organize their piles of fall clothes? Finish the laundry? Clean out my car? Or tinker with a writing project?

Hmmm, I'm too self-indulgent for my own good. Those clothes just might organize themselves... I think I'll give them another day, just to see.

Toddler, not Infant

I know that I shouild blog all about Maya's first day of preschool yesterday. How she was so nervous the night before that she forced a cough and said "well, I guess I can't go." How she fell in love with her teacher and set up a giant picnic in the middle of the classroom for Miss Stephanie and several other girls. How her teacher was crazy excited about our chickens and begged for pictures.

But on the first day, Elliot and I got to stay with Maya. Thursday will be a bit more momentous, as we leave her to the mercy of Miss Stephanie, Miss Leesa, and her classmates (more than half of whom she knows from ECFE last fall!). Even the first-day-of-school picture was less than exciting, as she refused to take her puppy pack out to the garden and instead posed in the doorway of the garage!






Instead, Elliot has stolen the show. At preschool, every parent commented about her advanced walking skills and her remarkable knack for navigating among block towers without knocking them down. She found a telephone and walked around saying, Hi, Bye, and Cheese (can you tell she's photographed often?!)

What really has me quaking in my maternal boots is the fact that she really is a toddler now, not a baby at all. I pulled out some fall clothes for her, and realized that most of them really only got too small for Maya last fall! Elliot is posing for pictures in outfits that Maya wore while we finger painted and sang our A,B,C's together.

That means Elliot is mere weeks from those things too! It's exciting, but as always, temepred by the frantic thought, "How do I slow this down!?" Of course the answer is, I can't, so I'll just enjoy it!

Draft.... Really Crappy Draft

Well, I have a draft for my story! Woohoo!

I overcame the call of the holiday weekend, and managed to eek out a terrible first draft. I also spent a bit of time thinking about how to rework the poor thing, and I have a reasonable idea of how to make it better. Seems like progress to me!

Bring Your Daddy To Adventure Day

For the last weekend of summer, we revisited the Adventure Day park that kicked off the season way back in May. And this time, we brought Joe along!

Tamarack was in complete autumnal splendor, a mess of growing things and wild trails that were almost unrecognizable compared to the sparse wilderness of skeletal trees and newly thawed ponds we explored in May.

After a morning full of hiking and an afternoon spent sleeping it off, the festivities resumed in the back yard. The tent was pitched, the dogs were grilled, and the fire stoked. A thousand marshmallows later, and we were all in the tent telling each other funny stories.

It was a memorable backyard camp out... and I am so thankful that Maya and Joe enjoyed staying out there while Elliot Rose and I had access to the nice big bed, the crib, and the changing table in the wee hours!

What an adventure! And I love the new camera :)

Bring Your Daddy To Adventure Day

For the last weekend of summer, we revisited the Adventure Day park that kicked off the season way back in May. And this time, we brought Joe along!

Tamarack was in complete autumnal splendor, a mess of growing things and wild trails that were almost unrecognizable compared to the sparse wilderness of skeletal trees and newly thawed ponds we explored in May.

After a morning full of hiking and an afternoon spent sleeping it off, the festivities resumed in the back yard. The tent was pitched, the dogs were grilled, and the fire stoked. A thousand marshmallows later, and we were all in the tent telling each other funny stories.

It was a memorable backyard camp out... and I am so thankful that Maya and Joe enjoyed staying out there while Elliot Rose and I had access to the nice big bed, the crib, and the changing table in the wee hours!

What an adventure! And I love the new camera :)