Wednesday, June 19, 2019

My Schedule

Here (with thanks to Penny Sansevieri) is a chart of how my days have been going lately.  This will have to change, starting July First.

Monday, June 17, 2019

What's Your Book About, Anyway?

For me, part of the process of creating a novel involves committing to a specific storyline.  I've been mentally testing plot ideas for the better part of the last two months. Now, with just two weeks to go before the start of the July Camp NaNoWriMo writing marathon, I've finally settled upon the major plot elements: a heroine, a goal, a villain to stand in the way, a series of escalating crises, and a climactic denouement. Here's the synopsis.


Dr. Sarah Rebeccah Chomsky, accompanied only by her cat Elijah, arrives to assume her duties as Assistant Professor of History at Smoky Mountain State University at Birch Falls. She is excited and optimistic--determined to make a success of her new career. She harbors a romantic view of what a professor's office should look like--a Persian rug, a Tiffany lamp, an organized desk, shelves of wonderful books, and enough plants and tchotchkes to give it a personal touch. She envisions herself as an inspiration to her undergraduate students and a friend and colleague of her graduate students. Along the way, she might not even mind finding the answer to her mother's greatest wish--that Sarah might meet a "Nice Jewish Boy."

But one of those graduate students--Cassandra Jernigan McGehee--has other plans for her. As the youngest member of the graduate student cadre, she is determined to form an alliance with the newest faculty member and take over the department. Cassie's pushy personality soon takes on the characteristics of a stalker as she pursues her friendship with Sarah.

Then strange problems begin to crop up in the department--unwanted gifts, polarizing debates among the faculty and students, hate speech keyed into the car door of faculty members, unexpected illnesses and maladies, family problems, an April Fools prank that goes too far, and an unexplained poisoning.

As the problems increase in their intensity, the local police, represented by a definition-meeting "Nice Jewish Boy," will step in to hunt down the culprit, and Cassie is pushed to escalate her own attacks in response. Sarah's efforts to reach out to Cassie eventually uncover a diagnosis of a serious mental disorder, and the result is a life-threatening final confrontation.

Saturday, June 8, 2019

The Writer's Road


I suppose every writer has his or her own way of creating a new book.  I'm well aware that the weather affects my mood and therefore changes the way I write. After a soggy week of almost constant rain, flash flooding, and four-hour lightning and thunder barrages, I'm happy to report that the sun is shining brightly at my house. My porch flowers are lifting their soggy heads in delight, and two industrious spiders are creating new webs among my chive blossoms. The cats have curled up to nap in the sun puddles, while a neighborhood pooch is cavorting in leashed circles in the open area next door. All is apparently well in my world, and I was eager to get to work this morning.

Or so you might assume until you happen to stumble upon one of my workspaces--either mental ones or the physical desktops. I keep my Scrivener files on a new and powerful laptop computer out on my veranda, where I am surrounded with creature comforts--soft pillows, snacks, and three walls of windows looking out onto groves of cedar trees.  In that setting, I trust my words to flow, but this morning I find myself elsewhere.

For reasons too complicated to explain coherently, I do most of my internet research on an old desktop computer in my office. Here I'm surrounded by books, old notebooks, former tchotchkes that kept me on point with my historical period--everything from a jester's head on a feathered stick to a threatening gargoyle, a miniature civil war cannon, and a slave doll. My notes? On whatever scraps of paper come to hand. And my research topics? Also, purely random questions I need to answer.

What was the poison used on the pages of a forbidden book in "The Name of the Rose?" (Paris Green, aka arsenic) What herbs can be used to produce inching powder? (Dried baby's breath? Rose hips? Who knew!) Which order of nuns was most active in the United States after the Civil War? What facilities does a Veterinarian School need to have? What foods are traditionally served (or forbidden) on Jewish holidays? How does one address a rooky cop?

Recently an internet "factoid" has circulated, warning that people who drink their coffee black are most likely to have psychopathic tendencies. It's a silly idea, but there may be a germ of truth in it. As my mind jumps from one question to another, so does my focus. Heaven forbid anyone should explore my office, check my caches, or trace my browsing history!  The evidence of old coffee mugs with traces of some oily black potion would combine with the subject of my internet searches to condemn me for sure.


Nevertheless, I love this stage of creating a new book. A friend warned me yesterday that I was having entirely too much fun! So I am. The road a writer travels is a complicated one, and I wouldn't miss a single one of its crazy twists and turns.



Wednesday, June 5, 2019

OK, Fine! I'll Go Camping!


It's summer, and I'm thinking of signing up for camp. No, not like the one in this picture. And not like the grubby, itch-inducing, week of torment I suffered through as a kid, either. Instead, I'm dithering over my annual invitation to sign up for the NaNoWriMo-sponsored July writing camp.  For those of you who have not heard of NaNoWriMo, it's not a fake Indian name, but rather the abbreviated form of "National Novel-Writing Month."

The original NaNo always took place in November, and what a terrible idea that was! November is arguably the worst time of the year to ask writers to put aside their other duties every day and pound out 1667 words of a new novel. Do that, the promoters argued, and by the end of the month, you will have written your novel--all 50,000 words of it. Don't think about it, don't read what you've written, don't go back and correct the typos--just write your heart out. That formula pretty much guarantees that at least half your words will be sheer gibberish. And even if what you have written makes sense, 50,000 words will not give you much of a fleshed-out novel. You'll need at least 25,000 words more, and maybe as many as another 50,000. Now add in the other distractions of November--there's Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, the first snowfall, football games, and the run-up to final exams week. I've tried to do the November exercise, but I usually fail--spectacularly!

With those truths in mind, the NaNo sponsors came up with a couple of new ideas--do an abbreviated "camp"--one in April, another in July. I'm not a big fan of writing in April either. That's often the month I've just finished publishing my latest book and have sworn off writing for life. But July tempts me. It's too hot to be outside, most friends are off on vacation somewhere, and the tasks of September are still far off. To sweeten the deal, writers can choose their own word-count goals and share their writing problems with a small group of like-minded fellow campers--groups of 20 or so who share a virtual "cabin" and cheer each other on. Silly as it sounds, it works!

So once again, I'm seriously considering joining the effort this year. I started by looking at the picture above. Turns out I already have much of this scenery waiting for me. Somewhere, in another part of the house, there's a big, soft, comfy bed awaiting me. I have the rocking chair (two of them, in fact) to let me ponder and hatch some new ideas. My house sits in a grove of trees --not a forest, by any means, but enough to give me that isolated feeling. I have the soft lighting, the foot-cushioning rug, the desk, and the bottle of wine you can see on the table on the left. The clock is ticking and the candle burning down--both telling me it's time to get back to work.

But it's going to take more than an idyllic setting to jump-start a new novel. In the next few days, I'll be thinking about those requirements. What other preparations do I need? If you're a writer, what props do you need for motivation? Send suggestions, please, and then stay tuned for final decision time. (Note: the "Comments" function is open.)