Who, me?

When I was little and the house would get quiet, my mom would yell, “What are you up to?”  I’d invariably reply, “Who, me?” even though I was the only one in the house and knew full well whom she was addressing.  My kids do the same thing:  ”Who, me?”

Sometimes this response is to stall in order to cover up whatever malfeasance has occurred.  Sometimes it buys time to figure out an appropriate response.  Usually, “Who, me?” is a mindless response because the answer isn’t within reach or is possibly silly or embarrassing. In all three scenarios, the next utterance after “Who, me?” is usually, “Nothing.”

Well, I’ve had lots of folk ask me “What are you doing?” recently and I’ve found myself slipping into the pattern above.  Some of my friends do a Work In Progress Wednesday post on their blogs.  I should probably do that, but I’d rather be working on the work in progress than write about working on it.  

I have been busy, so the answer, “nothing,” isn’t going to fly anymore.

 

So, here’s the update:

Family stuff:

* School is out and the acting classes I teach are over for the summer.  Free time with my 3 kids, which brings me joy. 

*  I’m teaching a musical theatre acting camp for two weeks, which is an all-day gig.  My kids are involved, so I’m with them, which is fantastic.  My oldest daughter is directing the show.  

Writing news:

*  As you probably know, I have a new agent who is fabulous.  My YA paranormal, SOUL PURPOSE is in submission with publishers, but since it is summer, I expect it to take a loooooong time for the editors to respond.  The subs were sent out last week.  

*  I’m half-way through a children’s non-fiction on Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.

*  I have begun two books in a paranormal romance series (adult), DEATH ANGEL and MUSIC OF THE HEART.  I love writing in this genre.  So fun. Using a pen name, of course.

*  Polishing two children’s picture books–not thrilled with them.  I’m so clueless about this genre.  Guess I’ll get a professional children’s editorial opinion before I burden my agent with them.  

*  Working on solidifying two YA concepts.  One deals with DNA experimentation begun during the cold war resulting in the creation of a super species (an unwilling one, of course,  that has now reached the teen age). The other is a modernization of the original Grimms Fairy Tale of Hansel and Gretel.  It sounds stupid, I know, but the original story is dark and creepy.  And I’m not going to use little kids lost in the woods finding a candy house.  I’m focusing on the abandonment and the lure of safety that is only an illusion.  

So, that’s what I’ve been up to.  

If I’m lucky, I’ll come out of the summer with 1) a completed NF 2) a completed paranormal romance 3) The outline for a new YA project 4) a book deal for SOUL PURPOSE and maybe its sequel, SOUL POSSESSION.  

What are you working on?  (And you can’t answer, “who, me?”) Are you bouncing around in different genres like me?  Are you writing while your kids are at home, and if so, how’s that going?

Have a killer weekend!

Online Gets Real

I just got back from a trip to Utah.  I flew there to visit my online friend, Suzette Saxton.  The flight was necessary because, in my mind, it is impossible to have a best friend you’ve never really met.  Now I’ve met her.  All is right with the world.  As an added bonus, I got to meet several other writer friends who live in Utah.  Elana Johnson is a fellow QT blogger and has some of the coolest hair ever–as well as a snappy personality.  I met Angie Lofthouse, Michelle Mclean and Bethany Wiggins too.  

I think the coolest thing was how comfortable I felt with everyone right off the bat.  It wasn’t like a first meeting at all.  We had been corresponding for over a year and have all read each other’s books.  Some of them have read my stuff in its roughest stages, which is kind of like being naked–so I guess being at home right away is understandable.  

I wanted to share some of the fun pics.  We got a little silly.

Hannah and I were glad to be in Utah.

Suzette's sister is a photographer, so she snapped some shots of me and my daughter.

Elana Johnson and Mary Lindsey (me) at Salem Pond.

Angie Lofthouse, Elana Johnson and me.

Suzette Saxton, me, Michelle Mclean, Bethany Wiggins

Um...yeah. Librarian types.

Everything was going along fine until Elana picked up the pitchfork.

We could have taken Suz if I hadn't broken down laughing.

Me, Elana Johnson and Suzette Saxton

One of the highlights of the trip was when we went to Angie's house to play with chickens. A highlight, I kid you not, in that those suckers are FAST. It was hilarious.

This chicken's name is Tina Turner. Nice hairdo, huh?

I only have three regrets about the trip.  1) It was too short, 2) I wish I could have met a few more of my writer friends but they don’t live in Utah and 3) I forgot to give everyone the Dove Dark I brought for them.  I’d better mail it out before I give into the temptation and eat it all myself.  

Have you ever had the chance to meet someone you knew online for a long time?  I’d love to hear about it.

Work Clothes

My husband wears a suit and tie in court every day.  My kids carefully select what they wear to convey who they are when they go to work–which for them is school.  We wear clothes that set the right image and enable us to do our job best.  

So, I work in pajamas. 

On days I write, I get the kids off to school, shower and put on a clean pair of pajamas.  The reason is two-fold: 1) I am comfortable 2) It keeps me at the keyboard and prevents me from shopping or leaving the house. 

Except for last Friday.  Yep.  My work uniform choice backfired.  

One of my 12 year-old twins had an after school party at a pool near my house.  This isn’t a neighborhood club, mind you; it’s a high-dollar exclusive private country club to which my family belonged when I was a child, so complete ignorance isn’t an excuse on my part.  I knew the setting.  

I’ve had kids at this school for 9 years, and I thought I had the party routine down.  Not. 

The kids were taken to the country club after school by parent volunteers–great; more time to write.  I pound out the words until 4:30, which is when I leave so I can be one of the first in line to pick up my kid.  I assume the teachers and chaperones would have the kids ready to go and would be placing them in cars like they had at other functions.  Wrong. 

I arrive  and there is no line.  I watch from the safety of my car while parents (dressed to the nines) park their cars and stride into the country club.

Heart sinks.  A twinge of nausea.  Crap, I’m wearing pajamas.  

Remaining calm, I decide to keep my eye out for someone that I know so I can flag her over to beg her to retrieve my progeny.  No luck.  You’d think out of over 100 kids, I’d recognize someone’s parent.  

By the time I concede defeat and accept the fact I am going to have to go public in my pajamas, every parent has arrived and is hanging out at the pool.  I should have gone in right when I got there, grabbed the kid and beat it out.  Now, I had to join a social melee of epic proportions.  

So, I’m not fully fluffed and in makeup.  Nope.  I’m au natural sporting  a ponytail, black pajama pants and a blue T shirt–my work clothes.  

In all fairness, they are lounge pants, not true pajama pants, so there are not little sheep or sleepy teddy bears on them, but still.  

Hoping for the best, I launch mission “Get In Quick and Get the Hell Out.”  The mission fails.  

It takes almost 30 minutes to find my son and get him out of the club.  I am seen by and chat with almost everyone there.  I must have heard, “You look so cute,” two dozen times.  ”You look so cute” translates to “WTF” in social speak.

My family thought it was hilarious.  I do too, now that I’m comfortably cute in my own home again.

What do you wear to work?  Any “you look so cute” moments of your own?

Purple Prose Contest on the QT Blog

After the earth’s brilliant, illuminating orb rises from its slumber, peeking above the dark, horizontal, linear barrier at the edge of sight (at 9:00 AM tomorrow) and running for seven rotations of the blue sphere which we inhabit, the co-authors of the illustrious QueryTracker.net blog cordially invite you to lovingly submit your golden, or rather, violet literary nugget into our utterly fabulous foray into the ever-increasingly forbidden realm of purple prose in celebration of our second anniversary.

Yes, I know that’s a stinky sentence; in fact, it reeks. It would have been better as: For the next seven days, we are having a purple prose contest to celebrate QueryTracker’s second anniversary.  

This is a duplicate post from the blog, but I wanted to be sure all my friends know about the contest.

The contest is simple. Just submit one sentence of your purplest prose in our online form. It can be a compound or complex sentence because, well, it’s purple, which is hard to achieve in a simple sentence. The only stipulation is that it must include the word, “QueryTracker.” Other than that, it is wide open. (Keep it tasteful, please.) 

What is Purple Prose?

The easiest word I can think of to define purple prose is overwritten. Purple prose possesses one or all of these things: too many adjectives and adverbs, forced or ridiculous similes, alliteration and/or cliches. Basically, it’s using a whole lot of words to say something. Often, purple prose is nothing but description, which at one time was the norm.  In today’s internet world where you can see foreign lands from your desk, most multi-page description is unnecessary. 

The definition from Wikipedia:

Purple prose is a term of literary criticism used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so overly extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context. It also refers to writing that employs certain rhetorical effects such as exaggerated sentiment or pathos in an attempt to manipulate a reader’s response.

Why is it called Purple Prose?

Purple dye was rare and expensive during the Roman Republic. In order to appear wealthy, social climbers would sew purple patches (less expensive than a piece of purple material) onto cheaper clothing. The practice was regarded as gaudy and pretentious. 

 The term purple prose comes from a quotation from the Roman poet, Horace in 18 BC. He said that flowery, overwritten text was as ostentatious and inappropriate as sewing purple patches onto garments.  

Purple Trends

Throughout history, purple has been the color of many works of literature, both great, and well, not so great. The current trend to a more minimal writing style gained popularity with Earnest Hemmingway.  

Writers from Henry James to Edgar Allan Poe to Stephanie Meyer have been criticized for their purple prose. So obviously, it’s not a kill-deal.  

The difficulty is keeping straight the line between evocative, rich writing and flowery purple prose.

Some genres fall victim to crossing this line more than others. Romance has a tradition of purple shades dating back to Victorian times. Purple prose began a resurgence in romance several decades ago when the topics became steamier and because of societal dictates, writers had to find creative alternatives to naming parts of the human anatomy. Truly hilarious purple phrases and terms came out of this, and though more accurate terminology is used in today’s romance, vestiges of this violet hue still creep into the genre. I’m a big romance fan, so this isn’t a diss in any way.

Examples of Purple Prose

The most familiar example of purple prose was written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who begins his novel, Paul Clifford (1830), with the following sentence: “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Some fantastic examples of purple prose can be found in the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, in which entrants submit first sentences in the spirit of “It was a dark and stormy night” for their imaginary novels. The entries are amusing must-reads. Click here to read last year’s winners.

Rules for the QueryTracker.net Blog Purple Prose Contest 

Entry must be one sentence long and contain the word “QueryTracker.” Compound/complex structure okay. Submit via the online submission form here.  Submissions open at 9:00 am MST Tuesday, May 19th, and close Monday, May 25th, at 9:00 am MST  The purpler the better.  Make it wowy All entries will be posted on the QT blog on Wednesday, May 27th.  Winners will be posted on Monday, June 1st. 

Remember, this entry is not an example of how you really write. It’s a contest for fun. Go nuts. 

Prizes

As with all the contests during our carnival, every contest entry results in the contestant’s name going into the drawing for the grand prize: a free writer’s website design by Purple Squirrel Design, a $600 value! (They designed my website, by the way.)

First place will win a free premium membership to QueryTracker.net–a $25 value. (If the winner is already a premium member, an alternate prize will be offered.) 

Second place wins a gift basket of a purple nature. Chocolate, book related items, etc.  

Third place wins a copy of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors by Steve Weber.  

Go over to the QT Blog and enter!

Have a great week!  

 Mary

QueryTracker Carnival

We are having a party to celebrate the second anniversary of QueryTracker.net, a writer’s searchable database of literary agents.  

For three weeks, we’re having games and contests over on the QT blog.  By entering the contests, your name will be entered in a drawing for a free web design by Purple Squirrel Design, the company that designed my website. Join the fun by visiting the blog.

Click here to view the schedule of events.

Agented Again!

I signed my contract with Joan Paquette from the Erin Murphy Literary Agency today.  I’m thrilled to be working with Joan, who is a writer herself and had great suggestions for a round of revisions before submission.  

Thanks to all my friends who have been so supportive through this process. Especially Suzette and Carolyn, who have dropped everything to read through the manuscript multiple times recently on short notice.

Marla, you’re a rock.  I can’t wait to start filming! You gave me hope for what I thought was a box-under-the-bed project. 

Lauren, you made me realize it was time to query and move forward again. Your “pay it forward” attitude is awe-inspiring. 

Special shout out to my online friends Lisa, Michelle, Terri, Elana and Heather for tolerating my angst, and kudos to Jess for helping me over the rough spot when things hit a wall, and Leah who spent time on the phone helping me figure stuff out when I received the first offer.  

I also need to thank Pat for enduring endless prattle and Dotti for not rolling her eyes when I thought out loud for hours at Jason’s Deli.  

People say writing is a solo endeavor.  I disagree.  This particular writer has had the benefit of a support team.  I owe all of you.  Call in those chips anytime.

Idea Freshness: No Expiration Date

Archetype (Carolyn Kaufman) started the QueryTracker.net blog chain round with these questions:

How do you keep from telling the same story over and over? What are your tips and tricks for finding fresh ideas and adding new twists to your work?

I majored in English Literature in college.  Most of my assignments involved analysis of great works–often, a comparison/contrast of great works. What I walked away with, other than a degree, was the knowledge that there are no new ideas, only new ways of expressing them. 

That revelation in mind, every time I write something, I try to realize that it has been done before.  I have to find something different in the way I approach the subject. 

I almost always come up with a premise from a life experience or personal question.  

Over and over, I’ve wished I could trade places with someone.  What would it feel like to live in another person’s body, even for a moment?  How many times has this story been written and filmed?  Lots. Why?  Because it resonates with people.  For me, that’s a great reason for a re-telling.  Now, how to keep it fresh.  How can I add a twist? Perhaps add another old standard theme: ghosts stuck on earth because of unfinished business.  Cool. So the ghosts share the person’s body for a while.  

Still, not enough.  Been done…lots.  

Okay.  Add another popular theme: Reincarnation.  So, now we’ve got a reincarnated person who can share her body with ghosts to help them solve problems that keep them earth-bound. Yawn.  Been done.  How about she is reincarnated but doesn’t remember her past lives so this unusual ability to help dead people is an unpleasant surprise.  Okay, now we’re warmer.  But why reincarnated?  Because it adds unique history for this character.  A vengeful demon that’s killed her before and a guy who has been her companion in past lives makes the reincarnation relevant and freshens these tired themes.  Love across lifetimes is a tried and true theme.  Fresh because she doesn’t remember it.  Fresher because she’s jealous of herself from her past lives.   Ooo. Now we’re on to something.  Result:

SOUL PURPOSE is a 68,000-word young adult paranormal romance about a sixteen-year-old reincarnated ghost mediator with past life amnesia who is being pursued by a pissed off demon that wants her dead and a hot guy from her past lives who… well, just wants her.

I’ve tried to create something fresh and different by relying on the old standards of reincarnation with love across lifetimes, communication with the dead, and a form of trading places.  

Everything has been done before.  As a writer, I just want to retell it in a fresh way.  

Kate posted before me and Kat’s post on this topic will follow.  Other members of the blog chain are listed in the links on the right. 

A Weather Report

I’m one of the luckiest people I know.  I’ve had a charmed life in many ways.  I’m married to the perfect man for me, have fantastic kids and I work hard to make my life happy and fulfilling.  That’s why when bad things happen, I can trudge on knowing great things wait just beyond the little black rain cloud.  

Writing (or rather the quest for publication) can cause a person to feel like that little black cloud never seems to move along or rain itself out.  So many writers give up because they are sick of getting rained on.  Early on, I realized I’m made of waterproof material and I can weather the storm.  And it appears I have.  

The sun has come out from behind that cloud at last.  Things are looking good.  I’m grateful.

Why I Haven’t Been Writing

I’ve been working on my butterfly garden and goldfish pond:

 

Why I Haven’t Been Writing

More photos of my butterfly garden and goldfish pond: