Francie's Fortune

A year and four days ago today, I embarked in the crazy adventure of Nanowrimo, or the challenge to write a novel in a month. I didn't do it. But I got enough of a start that I couldn't stop writing. Through that process, Francie's Fortune was born.

I'm happy to announce that Blue Mustang Press will be publishing Francie's Fortune, which will be available on amazon.com and hopefully at a bookstore near you by the end of the month. The website for the book is currently in development, but check out the Francie's Fortune fan page on Facebook to get updates about the book.

Thank you to everyone for your support of my writing on this blog. I hope you'll check out Francie's Fortune as well!

Here's a sneak peak from the back cover:

Ten-year-old Francie is looking forward to spending the summer at home in Los Angeles as she always does, hanging out at the ice cream shop and at her best friend’s pool. When her mother drops the news that Francie will instead be spending the summer with her estranged grandmother in a remote mountain town in Colorado, Francie is crushed. Even worse, once she arrives, she begins to suspect that her grandmother is actually a witch. And why is a mountain lion following her? Will Francie survive the summer?

How To Try To Write A Synopsis

So now that my book is done, what to do next? I talked to my friend Christine, whose dad is an author, and she kindly put me in touch with him. The next thing I knew, I received an email from his friend asking me to send along an author's bio and synopsis. Great! Wait, what?

After a moment of panic, I looked up "author's bio" and found I only needed to write up a couple of sentences about myself. You know, listing all of the awards I've won for writing and all that. Since there are none, it was pretty easy to keep it short.

Then I looked up "synopsis". Okay, a two-page summary of my book. That's got to be easy, right? I did a little bit of research online and found out from different sources that a synopsis should be double spaced...or that it has to be single spaced. It should be four pages, but it can't be more than two pages. It should "show not tell", like all good writing does, but it should "tell, not show" since you only have two pages. Aaak! All the sites disagreed on just about everything, with the exception of three things: 1) Writing "the dreaded synopsis" sucks and 2) The first paragraph is critical in grabbing the reader's attention and 3) It's your ONLY chance to impress an agent and to get ANYONE to read your work! Basically, you could write Moby Dick, but if you don't have a great attention-grabbing synopsis, your big whale book is going straight into an agent's recycling bin.

And so, for three days now, I have been trying to write a synopsis. I've written it and rewritten it and now need to completely rewrite it again. I'm beginning to wonder, at what point is a synopsis harder to write than a novel? At any rate, I should get off of my blog and get back to the synopsis. Really, I'm just here to prove to myself that I don't have writer's block. Now, off to write that attention grabbing line!

Olive Kitteridge

Five minutes ago, I finished reading Olive Kitteridge while I gave Lucy and Noni a bath. Fortunately, I only had a chapter or so left, but even so they ended up pruned and playing in lukewarm water. It's probably a good thing I don't get that sucked into every book I read. When I read the last word, I felt like crying. Not because of the ending, which I won't of course discuss in this review, but because a perfect book, like a perfect day, only comes around so often.

Why is Olive Kitteridge a perfect book? The writing is beautiful, the characters are real and the stories that make up the novel are interesting. Most importantly, as I said to Toby when I handed the book to him to read next, there isn't a single word in there that shouldn't be there.

I have a whole new appreciation for writing like that now that I am attempting to write my own novel. I remember my friend Diana once told me that after film school she would never watch a movie quite the same way again. There might be a passionate kiss intended to sweep the audience away, and she'd view it not only with a whole new appreciation, but with a recognition of where the director chose to put the cameras in order to achieve the desired effect. When I'm reading now, I can't help but feeling the same way. As I read, I am thinking - How did the author know that Olive would say that? What made her think to write about whitecaps on the bay at that moment? How did she chose the exact words to portray a character with a simple, one sentence description of her coat?

As for my own writing, I can't decide if a book like that leaves me feeling inspired or simply intimidated. But I do know that I'm glad I read it. I'm only sorry that it's done.

100 Pages

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. - Joseph Cambell

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way, you would never do anything. - John Irving

About a month ago, a friend of mine asked me if I'd like to join a writing club. She explained that there would just be three of us in it and we would inspire each other to write more each month. I loved the idea and immediately said yes. Then, as I walked home, fear and doubt began to creep in to my thoughts. What if I can't think of anything to write? What if they are better writers than I am? How am I going to find time to even do this? Not only that, but then, before our first meeting, she send out an email suggesting that we all sign up for nanowrimo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/), or in other words, pledge to write a novel by our second meeting. I laughed out loud at the email and thought, there is no way I can write a novel in a month.

I have always wanted to write a novel. It doesn't have to be a novel that anyone reads. It doesn't have to be good. But it's always been on my list of Things I Want To Do. (A list which includes traveling to Vietnam, running a marathon in less than four hours and which doesn't include sky diving out of an airplane.) Yet it's very easy to find reasons not to write a novel. Like three kids for instance. Or a never-ending pile of laundry. But it occurred to me, as I went for a run after reading her email, that there will never be a perfect time for me to write a novel. The kids will grow older and I'll go back to work and there will still be the laundry, but then there will be papers to grade as well. It will always be easy to find an excuse. Plus, I love the idea behind nanowrimo. It's quantity over quality. It's a vow not to find excuses, but just to write at least 100 pages in a month, even if it's crap. And hopefully in that crap, there will be at least a few lines of beautiful writing that you want to keep.

And so, this month I will be writing. Probably not as much in my blog as usual, but I'll be on my computer typing away. While jumping out of an airplane has never been one of my goals, it feels strangely similar. When you set a goal for yourself, you always run the risk of failure. Yet I feel energized at even the thought of trying. And so, wish me luck. 100 pages, here I come!