Merry, Merry

Brief post this time. I just want to wish you all a happy whatever. That may read cynical, but I truly mean it. I don't care what you may or may not celebrate, I wish you the happiness you deserve, the prosperity that keeps you well, and the joy that you can find in pursuing your dreams.

Don't forget to write 2008 on your checks soon.

--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts
Rules of Engagement by Christina Dodd
(And I've received a couple of gift certificates to book stores that I can hardly wait to use)

Comfort and Joy

Today I am facing grading twenty-two more tests that my charming eighth graders have taken on the wonderful novel Dandelion Wine. Of course, they didn't find it wonderful, despite the life affirming message of the book. They resented having been made to think while reading, or at least think after reading. But enough about the test. It's the grading I'm facing, and frankly I'm trying to put it off.

So I was thinking about taking a nice long bubble bath with book in hand, drink at my side, and snacks. One of my favorite guilty pleasures. Or I could just curl up under a down comforter (45 degrees here today) and read a book. Or perhaps make a cup of cocoa and sit at the table and read a book.

I believe you're getting the sense of where I'm going with this. My favorite way to escape reality is to read. Granted some books are better than others, and since becoming a writer, oh, sixteen years ago, I've become a jaded bibliophile, but when a book works, it works well.

So on that note, take some time for yourself, find your own guilty pleasure and indulge. I'm a firm believer in making yourself feel good.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Tangled up in You by Rachel Gibson
Santa Baby by Jennifer Crusie, Lori Foster, and Carly Phillips
The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (yes, again)
Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts

Fear, Worry, Panic and Other Beasts

I'm one of those individuals who obsess on things one really shouldn't. For example, a student from my school was walking home with her little brother as I was driving (No, I was NOT speeding and I was watching the kids who were walking home.). Just as I pulled up even with them, she grabbed her brother and did that pretend shove into the street gag, which I just love so much. I immediately stopped the car (what if he had slipped out of her hands, what if he had tripped?), and being in teacher mode, I opened the window, identified myself as one of the teachers at her school (she isn't one of my students) and told her of my disapproval of her actions. Turns out her mother was watching her children walk home. Mom got in her car, followed me home and proceeded to berate me for stopping to talk to her daughter. I told her that her daughter shouldn't scare drivers with a stunt like the one she pulled. In any case, the woman drove home, I went into my house and obsessed about the incident all day.

This is why I don't break rules. I can't handle the consequences. I don't want to deal with them, they make me uncomfortable, I obsess about them.

This got me thinking about fear and worry, which I do a lot of as well. I don't want to, but it's part of who I am. It's part of why I don't enjoy teaching. Too many students have parents who blame the teacher rather their own child's performance. I don't deal well with confrontation, even when I'm in the right.

So I try to live my life with as little chance of confrontation as possible. That's my real fear. That and worrying about my daughters when they drive. Or when they're out. Or when my husband is a little late. Or even waiting for medical test results, although I'm quite fine.

There's a reason I can write fiction. My brain is always coming up with the worst case scenario and rewriting reality.

--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:

Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypass

Family

Well, it's that time of year again. Family is coming to town. Mind you, I'm excited to see them, but it also means that I won't have a day to myself this week to write or simply do nothing. That's a little harsh. My sister would of course give me the time with encouragement no less. My mother on the other hand doesn't believe that I'm doing anything productive pursuing this writing career of mine and so will call me to fold laundry (!) rather than let me create. This is the woman who said, "When are you going to give up this silly thing of writing?" and "Why don't you write a real book?" and "I never understood you."

Family. You gotta love 'em. OK, you don't, but I love them anyway. At times.
--Gabi

What I'm reading now:
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
Raintree: Sanctuary by Beverly Barton

Obsession

No, not the perfume. Have you ever found yourself consuming everything about a certain subject in a short period of time? Like reading a ton of J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) at once? Or cooking something once a week for a month (when one cooks)? Or having to have a certain candy bar for a while? I'm going through one such phase right now. Only I'm doing it with two things. First, I've discovered the CONNECTIONS series. I've watched several of the original (from 1979), a few of the second series (1994) and a couple of the third (1997). Fascinating stuff and James Burke is rather funny. I'm totally buying into his view that history (of science, of literature, of religion, etc.) isn't linear at all, but that all these connections exist. So every week, I'm going to the library to check out as many of the DVD's as they have and enjoying them. Because to buy the original series alone is $149.99 and my dollar is devalued enough, thank you very much.
My second second obsession can hardly be called that because there are only three items to glom. I needed reading material (I've been physically down this week with little energy to do anything but read) and my husband bought me Dean Koontz's BROTHER ODD. So Now I'm reading the first in the series, ODD THOMAS, and I will most likely get the second one this week as well, when I go to return my latest CONNECTIONS DVD's.

--Gabi

Books I'm reading now (if you didn't get them from my post above)
Brother Odd by Dean Koontz
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Direct Proportions

I've noticed a direct correlation to the amount of writing work I get done to the amount of work I assign my students. After you read my discovery, you'll probably roll your eyes (if you could), and wonder why I consider myself even remotely intelligent. It's a real "Duh" moment. Let's just say I knew, but I never really thought about it much before.

So the observation is this: the bigger the assignment I have to correct, the less work I get done on my writing. (I told you--"Duh.") I have twenty-one more essays to correct by Monday, and I don't see myself getting to the chapter I wanted to have finished by Wednesday. Day jobs bleed your creative time, and teaching is worst than most. I also haven't read, haven't cooked, gone shopping, or any other useful thing. OK, let's face it. I'm a slug.

So onto the corrections and the shopping (we do need milk). I'm hoping I can get something productive done this week.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Late Night Talking by Leslie Schnur (finished, and that's all)

Red River

I've just returned from a wonderful non-conference weekend at Red River, NM. For about the past eight years, a groups of writers including myself have gotten together every October to meet, talk, discuss and support each other. We don't have scheduled talks, although one can give one if one wishes, we can bring up any topic we wish, writing related, and we just spend time with other writers. No meals except the ones you plan for yourself, no fees except the lodging, which you arrange yourself, no committees, no key speakers, no signings, no fuss, except those you create yourself.

Ahh, the joys of being a writer.

--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Rivals for the Crown by Kathleen Givens
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Moon Women by Pamela Duncan

And All is Well...

Today was the second day of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and the morning was cold, but cloud free. Most of the balloons took off, and I saw the totally awesome Darth Vader Balloon, an amazing sight. It was probably also the last time I will enjoy the Balloon Fiesta with all of my daughters. The oldest two are off to college next year, so they won't be home for next year's fiesta. Am I sad? In a way, but all is right with the world (I'm just speaking of my own little world, not the entire global situation--I mean, really. Who could call THAT right?) They are where they should be: growing up, going away, finding their own lives. So I'm good with this being the last Balloon Fiesta with the entire family. Who knows? Maybe the next time we are all together to see it, there will be more of us (No, I'm not pregnant--I'm speaking of husbands and grandchildren--but not for several years yet).

And I got an awesome amount of writing done today.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Candy Apple Red by Nancy Bush
A Kiss in Winter by Susan Crandall
Heart's Delight by Ruth Ryan Langan

Brain Games

One of the things I love to do when I have time is solve puzzles. I love them all--logic, crossword, acrostic, sudoku, jigsaw--almost everything except word search. Those I find stupid. So when one of my students (Hi, Connor) gave me a puzzle to do the first or second week of school, I was thrilled. I hadn't seen it before, so I was determined to solve it. No, I didn't google it (because that's what my husband did and found it at once), but I looked at it, and when I had a few moments here and there, I tried to solve it. So about five or six weeks later, I was lying in bed, about to fall asleep when suddenly I went, "Ah ha." I didn't even have the puzzle in front of me, but the answer clicked into place. Sure enough, the next morning when I went to check the puzzle to see if my answer made sense, I had solved it. What amazed me was how the subconscious mind will continue to work on a problem even when you don't think it's working. This happens a lot in plotting. In fact, I just solved a plot problem the other day using the same method.

So I thought I'd share the puzzle with you.

Determine the next number in this sequence:
1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221
1113213211
31131211131221
13211311123113112211
???

Keep reading,
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:

Must Love Dragons by Stephanie Rowe
Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Love Me, Love Me Hot by Stephanie Rowe

Movies, Part Deux

On the other hand, there is something to be said for watching truly bad movies. You can have a lot of fun watching hideously bad films. Look at Rocky Horror Picture Show. Horrible movie. So bad audiences started to make up movements and actions to correspond with the film, and now it's a classic (No offense to the actors--Susan Sarandon is an amazing actor, I've always liked Barry Bostwick, and I believe Tim Curry is one of the greatest underrated actors of all time. I'll watch anything with him in it--even his voice.) My daughters and I have watched a few movies that fall in this category; Deep Rising is the title that comes foremost to mind. We laughed at and mocked the screenplay until it has become one of our best family memories. (Coincidentally it stars yet another of my favorite actors, Treat Williams) Camp can be a good thing.

So here's how to watch a bad movie:
Never watch it alone. Have a group to "suffer" with you.
Have plenty of snacks.
Talking is definitely allowed.
Try to predict lines (this is fun).
Try to predict deaths (again, fun although some might call this morbid).
Try to predict the plot (Usually easy to do).
Repeat truly bad lines and act out scenes.
Rewrite as the movie plays out.
Laugh at inappropriate moments.
Scream and moan (I did this at the dialogue of Titanic. I know it's one of the most successful films ever, but I just didn't like it).
Critique as you go.
And if you get bored, turn it off. Life is too short to waste your time on a bad movie if it ceases to be fun.

And just for fun: Did you know Plan Nine from Outer Space has been rated the worst movie ever made? Bela Lugosi died during the making of it, so they have a body double playing the vampire for half of the film, his cape hiding his face in every scene. It's directed by Ed Wood, subject of a movie starring Johnny Depp. Actually Ed Wood is a pretty good movie.

Books I'm reading now:
A Family Practice by Gayle Kasper
A Lady's Pleasure by Renee Bernard
Date Me Baby, One More Time by Stephanie Rowe (who was so kind to me at the RWA National Conference in Dallas this summer. And I'm liking her book too.)

Movies

My husband and I have been members of Netflicks for a couple of years now. Our goal in joining was to show our children classic movies that are part of cultural literacy--in a way to expand their education into an area where school won't go. I know, I know; movies are hardly high culture, nor do they often provide true education, but, like literature, they do deal with universal themes and ideas. I truly believe the study of literature isn't for the examination of good writing but for the examination of the universal ideas. The arts help society deal with the changes and new ideas that bombard society, especially today with the advancements in technology and science. How can we expect people to accept stem cell research if they don't understand it? How can we as a society come to an ethical decision about cloning if we've never thought about it?Literature and stories (and the other art forms as well) can help society deal with all kinds of new ideas. OK, lofty thoughts, but you get what I'm driving at.

So back to movies. I believe that there are movies, the classics, that we should be showing children, although I firmly believe they shouldn't be taught at school--not for content reasons, but because we have to teach enough mandatory garbage there's hardly enough time for the core subjects. This generation should be exposed to movies like Casablanca, All About Eve, The Women, It Happened One Night, Duck Soup, The Heiress, etc. Some are heavier than others. I believe everyone should see Citizen Kane once, even if it does put some viewers to sleep. Let's not ignore silent films. People should know story tellers like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, etc. I know a lot of these names are the actors, not the writers, but they are the ones remembered.

So why this topic? Last night I watched Sunset Boulevard. I had never seen it before (yes, there are gaps in my education). It's creepy in a non horror movie way, the story is fascinating, and the humor in it is often disturbing. What a great film. I'm glad I watched it, and I'm glad my daughter saw it with me. And the theme is so interesting. It's all about selling out and compromising yourself for your dreams. Where are your limits? What would you do to be successful? And how much delusion can one person take in one's life? All interesting thoughts.

Go read a book, but watch a movie too.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen
A Family Practice by Gayle Kasper
Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling (Yup. My daughter and I finished Prisoner of Azkaban, and now we're reading Goblet out loud.)

Time and the Use Thereof

One of the worst things about wanting to write and having a day job is, of course, the day job itself and the time it takes out of one's day. But the truth is that if one wants something badly enough, one will make the time for it. It's an ugly truth because no one wants to hear that we are responsible for the things we do or do not accomplish. We want things to fall magically in our laps with little effort and have a big pay off for our little effort. I read an interesting article in today's Albuquerque Journal--an interview of the guy who stars in Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel. His theory is that somehow the American Puritan ethic-- hard work, discipline, duty, thrift, etc--has been replaced with the phrase "Work smart, not work hard." My students subscribe to this belief. They believe that they deserve good grades just because they show up. But I've seen the joy and satisfaction they have in themselves when they have worked hard and they earn that "A".

Anything worth having is worth working for. It would be nice if writing were easier, but then anybody could do it. And if I don't produce as much as I should, I have no one but myself to blame. Establish priorities, make goals, and work. It's simple, yet not simple.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Dead Shot by Annie Solomon
Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews

Confidence...

It's funny how shaky a thing like confidence is. I know grammar. I mean I really know grammar, yet doing some line edits, I am always questioning myself. The slightest remark can send my confidence spiraling. I know I shouldn't give others such power over me, but the thing is they don't know. My favorite motto is "Fake it, til you make it." When I tell people that I'm shy and have little confidence, they snort and tell me they don't believe it. That's because I ACT like I have so much confidence. It really doesn't hurt to act confident, and the surprising thing is that often the confidence will follow.
So I'm at this point where I'm questioning my abilities, which is dumb because I really do know what I am doing, but the confidence is slipping away.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Last Night at the Halfmoon by Kate Austin
McKettrick's Luck by Linda Lael Miller

It's ALIVE...

The thing about characters is that they take on a life of their own. My secondary characters start becoming more and more powerful and pretty soon I am enjoying writing their stories almost more than my hero and heroine's. I have in fact kicked a character off the island--literally; it was my pirate book--because she was taking over the novel. Right now I have created five characters who are so much fun to write, I look forward to my time in front of the screen. But more than that, they talk to me. I see them. I hear their accents, I listen to their speeches, I feel their emotions. With my hero and heroine I sometimes struggle through their story because I have to make it so much richer and deeper, since the story is theirs, but I can just do my secondary characters (if you know what I mean).

Which goes to show just how shallow and superficial I am.
--Gabi

Books I am reading now:
There Goes the Bride by Lori Wilde
The Marriage Bargain by Dianne Perkins
Almost Dead by Lisa Jackson

Platitudes

I hate platitudes. Don't get me wrong. I love quotes from famous authors or individuals. I enjoy learning from their wisdom. Quotes can help elevate my mood or inspire me. But don't give me platitudes. Like: Every day is a new beginning. Or: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Platitudes are empty, useless, trite phrases that make my skin crawl. You'll find them on plaques at craft shows. I hate cutsie things.

So why the rant? Lately it seems I've been surrounded by platitudes. I won't live my life by them, so stop throwing them at me. Give me credit for a brain and creativity. I come up with my own rules.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Beware a Scots Revenge by Sabrina Jeffries
There Goes the Bride by Lori Wilde
And still Harry Pottering along.

Brainstorming...

...an appropriate title for this blog, since not only did I brainstorm this evening, it is now also storming. Yes, it's monsoon season in New Mexico, and we have the most gorgeous thunderstorms in the summer.

But back to brainstorming. I've forgotten how much fun it was just to sit with a friend and throw ideas out to each other. I've done it before with my husband. I was having trouble with the plot of my third novel, so I asked him to brainstorm with me. We picked up the ping pong paddles and just hit the ball back and forth while we spoke. Here is a truth: often if you do something physical (even if it is puny like hitting a ping pong ball back and forth) it can free your creativity. Within a few minutes, I had cleared up the plotting problem and was able to finish the novel very soon after (No, not that day but within a couple of weeks.).

I sometimes let my students build with building blocks without telling them the purpose of the building. For the most part they laugh and think it is a childish exercise. After all, they haven't played with blocks since they were babies. But after letting them build for about fifteen minutes, I then ask them to write for fifteen minutes. They are always surprised at how easily the writing comes after playing with blocks.

Just goes to show you: Don't be afraid to play.

Anyway, I brainstormed the rest of my wip (work-in-progress, remember?) with a critique partner, so now I know where the rest of the novel is going. She helped me find the major plot point I needed to get to the end. And I have several ideas for the other two books in the series. Did I tell you my wip is the first in a three book series?

--Gabi, enjoying the thunder, lightning, and rain

Books I'm reading now:
The Spy Wore Silk by Andrea Pickens
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
Taming Him (anthology) from Ellora's Cave

Forces at Work...

Really weird things happen when I write. I tend not to plot; I just have an idea and I sit and write what the characters show me in my head. This means, of course, when I'm done with the first draft, I often have to go back and fix the beginning so it works with the rest of the novel. But strange things happen in the course of writing. I get these ideas that just fit and make a beautiful layer in the text. I don't know how I do it. I call this Magic.

So I was writing this morning and the Magic struck. I had to take a brief break to post here (and to take passport forms to the Post Office and get the dog chipped), but the Magic is waiting for me at my keyboard. I love the Magic. And it seems to be striking often in my WIP (work-in-progress, doncha know).
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Mommy for a Minute by Judy Christenberry
The Leopard Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt
The Italian Prince's Pregnant Bride by Sandra Marton (Gotta love the title)
And yes, I have finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the second time. And I so love JK Rowling for her Dateline interview last night where she answered some of the questions I had.

It's Just A Number...

Age that is. It's just a number. So on Saturday I did something I haven't done since High School. I pulled an all nighter. By 7:00AM, I had finished HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, so I went to bed. I couldn't fall asleep for another half an hour, then I woke up at 10:30 AM. I admit taking another nap in the afternoon, but I went to bed at 11:00 that evening and woke up just fine--OK, a little later--on Sunday morning. My point is I was having fun and I didn't want it to stop. One would think that someone of MY AGE would know better, but I realized I had nothing else planned, I wasn't hurting anyone, so why not stay up all night and have fun? Age has nothing to do with it. Now if only my knees would have that same philosophy.... --Gabi Books I'm reading now: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (finished and now I'm reading it for the second time--first time through fast for the plot, second time through to cherish the writing) Harry Potter and the Prisoner and Azkaban (still reading it aloud to the youngest child) All Night Long by Jayne Anne Krentz And I'm writing...

Harry Potter, Harry Potter

It's Friday. You know what that means. Tonight I start to read the last book. I'm so excited. Saw the last film. It was OK, but it just didn't have the richness of the book. Of course few movies do, and the film was good, but you just can't compare the two.
To all those spoil sports out there who "leaked" the DEATHLY HALLOWS" ahead of time, you are pathetic. It won't spoil anything for the rest of us who love the fun, and the attempt to spoil the fun, the anticipation, is just, well, pathetic. I pity you for not being able to enjoy as the rest of us do. You're not being an individual, someone who doesn't follow the "rules", you're just being obnoxious.

So, I'll be reading for the next day. Leave me alone.

--Gabi

Books I'm reading now (Just because Harry Potter 7 is coming out tonight doesn't mean that I'm not reading other things up until the release):
Finished Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (It is definitely a GUY'S book)
The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell by Samantha James
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
And starting tonight; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I'm ba-ack

The conference is over and I've returned to a house that is messy/dirty, and a work area that is cluttered. Usually I can overlook the clutter, but I'm feeling trapped by all the stuff. Just before I left, I saw an Oprah program on decluttering one's life and I tossed out several pieces of clothing that I really don't know why I still had. So now onto the writing space.

The RWA conference did do one thing for me. I've returned inspired to write. But it's not the usually uplifting sort of inspiration. It's an angry, pissed off sort of feeling. As if I want to prove all the nay-sayers wrong. So I'm isolating myself this week (as much as one can isolate oneself when one has a family) and writing. Because in the end, it's about the work, and if one piece doesn't work, you have to have another ready to go in its place.

--Gabi

Books I'm reading:
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (I didn't take this on the trip with me)
The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes by Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dreyer, and Anne Stuart
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (and you KNOW what's happening on Friday at midnight)

And I'm off again...

This time to Dallas. The Romance Writers of America's National Conference is next week. Don't get me wrong. I love my family, but five days of being just a writer is fabulous. Even if I have to dress up more than I usually do. Editors and agents to impress, you know.
--Gabi

What I'm reading now:
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (this is such a GUY book)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (see my previous posts)
and I'm writing a lot!

The Road Traveled

Notice I didn't write "less traveled." I just returned from a two week trip which put between 4K and 5K miles on my car. College tours. For the twins. And I learned a few things. Like road trips are overrated. I would rather arrive at a place and explore it for a week. Have a chance to unpack for a while, settle into the hotel room (as much as one can settle into a hotel room), and look at the details of a place. We saw lots of new places and interesting things, but we rushed past Civil War battle sites and an important Revolutionary War battle site because we didn't have the time to stop and look. Now I know the goal of this trip was to visit nine different campuses, so we had to keep to a schedule, but part of me regrets not having time in each place we stopped at. I didn't get to see the bats in Austin, spend an evening listening to music in the French Quarter, visit Margaret Mitchell's house in Atlanta, tour the cute village of Chapel Hill, spend more time at the Smithsonian (although the Museum of American History is closed right now), go antiquing in the Shenandoah Valley, or hear country music in Nashville. But I did get to see alligators on a swamp tour, eat some jambalaya, oysters, and dirty rice, and see my favorite painting in the whole world, Frederich Church's El Rio de Luz at the National Gallery. I even got to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution at the National Archives.

Of course, if the girls get into the colleges they want, I'll have the chance to visit those spots again.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading read (or have read recently):
The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn (which I left on the road for someone to discover)
Cover of Night by Linda Howard (with which I did the same)
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (I didn't know they could make paperbacks that size)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling (still reading it to the youngest kid)
The Trouble with Valentine's Day by Rachel Gibson
Tongue in Chic by Christina Dodd
Master of Dragons by Angela Knight
Atlantis Rising by Alyssa Day

A Thank You

The May 14 issue of Time Magazine held a pleasant surprise. It is the annual 100 most influential people in the world issue. As I'm flipping through the pages, there, listed under arts and entertainment (right under a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio), was Nora Roberts. The brief blurb praised her for her writing (yes, really : "She can make romance seem fresh and hopeful every time"), recognized her as the beloved author she is, and didn't put down the genre at all. When I saw the piece, my first thought was "My God, we've made it." OK, perhaps a bit overblown, but somehow it seems that a huge step toward romance not being considered the embarassing step-daughter of literature was taken by this inclusion. So I salute Nora for all the work she has done for the rest of us (although I would hazard the guess that she wasn't thinking of us but just writing the stories inside herself--the rest was just an unintentional call to greatness) and for all the terrific stories she has given us over the years. I know she will probably never read this, but I wanted to acknowledge her.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
The Trouble with Valentine's Day byRachel Gibson
Born in Death by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban (slow going this time with the kiddo)
Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
And I gotta go to the store because I'm finally on vacation for the summer

Hope and its many springs...

I'm feeling good about the writing right now, although I'm up to my neck in Huckleberry Finn tests and Tom Sawyer exams. It's a funny thing about hope. He/she/it (the monster) carries you from the highest peaks of euphoria to the depths of despair, and the journey can happen in the course of a few minutes.

So, yes, I have a few manuscripts out there, a few agent queries floating around right now, and for whatever reason I'm hopeful about them. I'm sure tomorrow I'll go back to thinking my work is dreck (OK, never that, just that it's not good ENOUGH) and wait for the rejections to continue to roll on through, but today, the sun is shining and I have hope.
Did you know that the Greeks didn't consider Pandora releasing Hope from the box a good thing? It was one of the evils of the world.

--Gabi

What I'm reading now:
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (Can you believe I missed this one and have never read it? And I've only seen parts of the movie and I love Hitchcock.)
The Mask of the Black Tulip by Lauren Willig (another fun romp following the Pink Carnation--and you know what, there wasn't a lot of sex in it, if at all--how about that in a world where erotica seems to be the only way to break into romance these days?)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark twain (But it ends this week--then my seventh graders are starting something new--A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Great Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (Guess what my eighth graders are doing?)

A writer friend whom I see every year at a non-conference for writers in Red River, NM, just published a new book about New Mexico at the beginning of the last century. This is the real Wild West, folks. I've interviewed her and the results are here.

Q. My guest today is Velda Brotherton, and we're glad she could join us. Welcome, Velda. You have a new book coming out. Fly With The Mourning Dove. Could you tell us something about it?
A. Thank you for having me. My book tells the story of the life of a young girl who, at the age of6, accompanies her parents to a homestead in the high desert of New Mexico in 1920. Usingjournal entries by her mother and actual stories related by Edna, I've recreated her growing up years among some of the first Anglo settlers in New Mexico. Edna's father's bout withTuberculosis hangs over the family like the shadow of death, and several times separates herfrom her parents. She is sent to live first in a boarding house situated along the road from Taos Junction to Santa Fe, then to a convent where she feels caged, and finally to her grandparents inNorth Dakota. At the age of nine she returns home to stay, and so begins her love of the highdesert that will endure for a lifetime. She still owns a ranch there as well as one in Colorado.
Q. You're not from New Mexico. How did you get interested in writing this book?
A. My Dad was a storyteller, and as I grew up, he told about how my grandpa's brother was aMontana cowboy who came home from WW I to homestead in New Mexico. The stories were so gripping I never forgot them, and many years later when I went to Albuquerque to a writer'sconference, I contacted my mother's cousin, who was raised on that homestead, and went to visither. I stayed with her a week while she drove me all over her beloved high desert and showed me things I would never have seen as a tourist. She also told me stories that added to those my Dadhad told. My husband and I returned year after year to visit this tiny dynamo of a woman, untilwe too became enthralled with her land and the life she'd led. It was a book waiting to be written.
Q. So tell about some of her adventures.
A. Oh, Edna was quite an unusual girl for her time and so was her mother Cassie. While her husband, Edna's father, was away at war, Cassie went to nursing school. Her father had refused to let her do so when she lived at home, and she was determined no man would ever tell her howto live her life again. And though she and her husband Finas were close, she was the dominant partner in the marriage. After they moved to the homestead, which she was against from the outset, she continued to practice her nursing through the years. Edna must have inherited some ofher mother's stubbornness, for when her parents sent her to live in a convent while her fatherwent to Fort Bayard to be treated for TB, she caused quite a ruckus among the nuns. Then later on, when she was grown, she attended a party where she refused to dance with Tony Lujan, avery high ranked Tewa Indian who was married to the notorious Mable Dodge. She also was mixed up in some political wrangling, which was common in New Mexico at that time. Her mother and father had some very strong opinions of Long John Dunn, a famous and controversial figure among Anglo settlers in New Mexico.
Q. Sounds like a wonderful book. What made you decide to write her story as creative nonfiction, rather than historical fiction?
A. The more stories Edna related, and by now she was writing them down and sending them to me, the more I realized that the only way I could tell her story and be true to how she had lived, was to write it as nonfiction. But I didn't want to record a bunch of dry facts, so I began to study the art of creative nonfiction. I found the best information online posted by Lee Gutkind, who is considered the godfather of creative nonfiction. It turned out I had already written a creative nonfiction book, I just didn't realize it. My first book, Wandering In The Shadows of Time, which was published in 1994, fit the rules of this genre perfectly. When I wrote it, all I knew was that I had to tell the story of the people I interviewed in a special way, by inserting myself into the stories and taking the reader along with me as I did so.
Q. Is that book still available?
A. Yes, at Amazon.com or it can be ordered from any bookstore.
Q. Okay, that's great. Now back to Edna's story. Wouldn't you have been able to expand more on her story if you'd written it as historical fiction?
A. Yes, but then it wouldn't really have been her story. She talked to me about writing her storyfor a couple of years before I began to get serious about it, and I knew how she felt about it being told like it really happened. Funny, once when she was reading one of my historical fiction romances, she read them all but skipped the "sexy parts ”, she told me she hoped that when I decided to write her story it wouldn't be a romance because there was too much fiction and not enough truth in the books. And she's right. No matter how hard we try, historical fiction, from necessity, stretches a lot of the truth all out of proportion.
Q. So, even when you wrote dialogue and internalization, you were telling the truth?
A. I must have been, because when I sent her the last draft of the book, she sent it back with apost-it stuck to the title page. It said, very succinctly, "I'm satisfied." You have to know Edna to realize what a compliment this was. At that point all she cared about was the book being published before she died, and would I make sure her children and grandchildren all got a copy?
Q. How old is she?
A. She's a very young 92, coming up on a birthday in July. She took her last horseback ride over the sagebrush flats at the age of 85 and only stopped hiking in the desert in her late 80s. She stopped driving at 90, but is still ready to go anytime visitors will take her. Often she wants to go down to Tusas, the ranch in New Mexico where she spent so much of her life. We're always happy to take her and spend some tranquil time living in her past. She would live there, except it's so remote and there's no electricity or running water, so her family won't permit it. After having written the book, I feel as if I grew up with her, and I never read the ending without crying, though I've read it over and over. Not because it's sad, but because her life has been sobeautiful, so complete and so satisfying. Would that mine can be the same.
Q. How do we get a copy of Fly With The Mourning Dove?
A. It's available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can order it from PublishAmerica or any bookstore in the country. If you want to read an excerpt from the book, check out my website.
Q. Thank you so much for joining me. Would you share your websites and any other presence onthe web?
A. Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.http://www.authorsden.com/veldabrothertonveldabrotherton.blogspot.com
www.historylady.gather.com

--Gabi

What I'm reading now:
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig (what fun)
Mr. Darcy takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Yup, still teaching it)
The Adventures of Hucklberry Finn (Yup, still teaching this one, too--and you try to say Huck Finn to a group of eighth graders and not worry about mixing intial letters--Ack!)

Life, what a concept...

Since last I wrote, I won one writing contest, and have finaled in another. So I guess it's not the writing that's keeping me from being published again. It's the production. My advice to would be writers--don't get a day job. Ahh, but it's a vicious cycle, because one does need money to live, so one works but then one can't devote the time one would want to the craft.

Never mind. The writing is coming along. Only it's in the form of a professional development dossier so that I can earn more money as a teacher next year. So far, forty pages of the driest jargon one could read. And worse, the powers that be force me to use incorrect style. The dossier is neither formal nor informal. It all grates on this language arts and literature teacher/ novelist.

Selling my soul for my daughters' college education,
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
six books I'm judging for the RITA, which shall remain unnamed because I do not wish to sully the reputation of this great contest
FairyDust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine (reading it aloud for my youngest daughter)
The Landlord's Black-Eyed Daughter by Mary Ellen Dennis, a galley I'm reading to give a quote for
The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Yup, I'm teaching it again)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Hey, I've got a seventh grade class this year too)