I live in MinneSnowta

Today it one of those days that is made for NaNo. I'm sure that NaNoers across the midwest are going to have hefty word counts after today. I'm working today but I made sure to get a little extra word count yesterday before the storm of the century of the week showed up.

The snow meant that despite my denial I actually had to find my winter accessories. Since I put this off until the last minutes before leaving for work it meant I couldn't find my kitty cat ear flap hat. Which meant I had to wear what I like to call my kewpie doll earflap hat. It looks like this

The thing I forgot about this hat is that it makes people smile and talk to me. There is something about wearing a pink and purple pointy hat that makes people smile on a grey, snowy day like today.

Happy writing and if you aren't lucky enough to be living in a winter wonderland look at the top picture, pour yourself some hot cocoa and work on your NaNo word count.

Movember

November isn't just for novels anymore. It's also for moustaches. During November or Movember participants grow a moustache to raise awareness and money for men's health.

I can't grow a moustache but I've been playing with a lot of fake moustaches at work this month. I'm working wardrobe on a play called The 39 Steps based on the Alfred Hitchcock film. There are so many moustaches and mutton chops, wigs and hats in this play it is hilarious.

Yesterday the review for the play came out. I don't usually read reviews for plays. But everyone made sure the wardrobe crew read the review in the Star Tribune because there is a shout out to the wardrobe crew. Awesome. Yep that's me and three other amazing ladies back there adding and subtracting clothes, hats and facial hair in a matter of seconds.

Getting caught up on NaNo and blogs

Sunday I did something I've never done during NaNo before. I went to sleep behind on my word count. I tried to write after getting home from work but my cats were demanding attention. I realized I wasn't going to get anything done with a kitty on the keyboard so I gave up for the night with 800 words to go.

Yesterday I managed to get caught up on my NaNo novel word count. I've never been behind in NaNo before but lately I've done some writing after work before I go to bed. Sunday night I just didn't have any more words in me so I went to bed vowing to catch up on my day off. I did.

I also caught up on blogs I follow.

It seems that November might be blog contest month in addition to being NaNoWriMo.

1. Jessica Bell at The Alliterative Allomorph is giving away prizes for reaching 400 followers. If she gets to 500 followers she'll double the prize.

2. Jennie at Garden Full of Lily has prizes for reaching 100 followers. Go follow her and tell her a secret for extra points.

3. Tamara Hart Heiner at Chasing Dreams is having a Blog tour the celebrate the release of her book, Perilous.

Good luck to all the NaNoers out there. Now I have to go work on my word count for today.

Thing I miss during NaNo

Day three of NaNoWriMo.

First of all, wow I forgot how hard this was going to be. I took last year off so I haven't done NaNo since 2008. I am getting back into NaNo shape and carrying my notebook around for when I am away from my computer. But so far this month's novel is fun with a fun cast of characters.

But it is day three and I feel like it is important for me to talk about what I miss most during NaNo. See normally I am a voracious reader. Whenever I set off to do NaNo I don't get to read nearly as much as I usually do because I'm writing. But I miss reading. Already three days into NaNo and I feel like I've broken up with the library. But then I remember that it is just temporary and that once I get farther along in the process I may be able to read a little bit.

Halloween traditions

OMG. Halloween is almost here. I love Halloween. My mom and her childhood best friend exchange Halloween cards, every year, without fail. It isn't Halloween until Hoo's card comes in the mail. I have a tradition of working on Halloween so I'll probably just be a ninja this year.

Last year I worked at CostumeRentals and that was fun. I got to dress up every day that I worked. My favorite day was Vegas day. I was the three of hearts.



I just read Neil Gaiman's blog saying we should start a tradition of giving away a scary book on Halloween. I might totally need to do this.

One of my writer friends hasn't read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. This despite the fact that she reads the Newberry winner every year some how this one just slipped her radar. So I will give a copy of The Graveyard Book to my writer's group.

What about you? What are your favorite scary books?

Everything I need to know I learned from TV

As with most TV shows I don’t always see them right away. I work at night so I’m not home when TV is on. I finally watched the first season of Glee.
I knew that I would love Glee. I love music and my mom raised us on a healthy diet of musicals. Plus I work in theater. The idea that people just spontaneously break out in song is part is part of my job. I can’t carry a tune, I can’t sing on key, so I was never in a Glee club. I did run spot lights for some of my college’s show choir show.
You may think “Oh Carrie it can’t be that bad” but let me tell you that I have family members who couldn't find parts for me in children’s choir shows when I was a kid. My first backstage gig was when I was 12, assembling a clubhouse on stage while the rest of the kids sang. It is probably how I ended up backstage.

I was watching Glee and thinking it may be the most perfect thing to come out of my TV in years. I love the music. I love the costumes. I love all the Journey songs.

Glee got me thinking about villains. Sue Sylvester is the Glee club’s rival. She is constantly putting roadblocks in the Glee Club’s way on their road to the regional competition.

But she isn’t only a villain bent on bringing down the Glee Club. She is a complex character. She is an award winning cheerleading coach. She has interests. She likes Madonna and Olivia Newton John. (I named my home made cabbage patch kid Olivia Newton John) She has a sister who she takes care of. She has feelings. Her feeling can get hurt.

I think what makes Sue's character so fun is that she is a three dimensional character and we see that in the show.

It got me thinking about my own WIP. Is my own villain three dimensional. Do they have things they want outside of making life hard for my MC?

Wii Fit for writers

Last year I got a Wii Fit Plus for Christmas.

I wanted a way to stay in shape during those winter months when I wasn't biking to work.

The thing about the Wii fit is that it is brutally honest. For example the Wii tells me every time I do a body test that I'm overweight in its disapproving computer voice.

If I miss a day the Wii lets me know that too. Sometimes it's nice about it and sometimes in order to get back at me for missing a day the Wii will make my Wii Fit age 57.

The Wii loves my cat. Whenever I weigh him it tells me he should have a treat or have me brush him or have me play with him. As a result my cat hangs out by the Wii Fit when it is out hoping for a treat or some play time. The Wii tells me I should lay off on the afternoon snacks.

I admit I don't use the Wii Fit every day because I go to the gym too. I am also walking outside around the lake by my house every day that the sun is out because we don't have many of those left before winter returns to Minnesota.

Yesterday as the Wii fit was saying it hadn't seen me in 2 days it made me think What if I had this for my writing? Wouldn't it be great if I could bring up a word document and have it chide me for missing a day of writing. When I don't do My Routine on the Wii it also keeps track of that. Ideally my Wii Fit for Writers would also keep track of days missed on specific WIPs. "Carrie, you haven't worked on Jack Takes the Lead in 2 days. Try to come back every day, even for five minutes, for the best results."

The Wii Fit also has rewards for doing well. All exercise time is logged into a fit credits bank which changes color and eventually turns gold. There is happy celebratory music when credits go into the fit bank. Maybe the Writer Fit could have a happy music every time a writer churns out a certain number of words.

Maybe this guilt/reward based motivation wouldn't work for everyone but I think it would be pretty great.

Adverbs

Here's a little song about adverbs one of my facebook friends posted. I know we avoid adverbs when we can but I still think it is cute.

Viva la Siesta

I just found a contest that I would be awesome at. Spain is holding a siesta contest in honor of the siesta.

See apparently in Spain the siesta way of life is threatened by busy modern life. La Association Nacional de Amigos de la Siesta organized a competition to save the siesta.

I was born in the wrong country. I love to siesta. I know there are people who are morning people and people who are night owls. I feel like I'm a little bit of both. I like to wake up and start my day. I stay up late because I work at night. Enter the siesta. The siesta gives me the ability to do both.

I remember in high school when I first heard about the siesta. I was pretty sure America was missing something by not adopting this way of life. I was still mourning the loss of my Kindergarten nap time and I was in high school.

I read a writing book that talked about the Creative Nap. Sometimes I try to take a creative siesta in which I promise I will think about a story I'm working on and hopefully come up with a solution. Sometimes this works. Other times I wake up later with no solution but feeling very rested.

I don't do well when I work through my nap. I get tired and cranky like a toddler. I've tried to sleep later in the morning but that only works in the winter when we only have four hours of light in Minnesota.

So even though I can't fly to Spain and compete officially in the Siesta Olympics I'm there in spirit. Viva la Siesta!

Business cards

Yesterday I went to my friend's house to watch the Vikings play a little Monday Night football. The Vikes really didn't start playing until the second half of the game which started about an hour late anyway due to lightning.

But my friend Heidi's mom is also a writer so we got to talk about writing during the rain delay and the first half of the game. The subject of business cards came up and my friend showed us her cards which she got from Vista Print and it got me thinking about business cards for myself.

I work in the arts so I've noticed a lot more of my friends have business cards for freelance purposes. My friend Sara for example has a business card which states her mad skills with the glue gun. Another friend has a business card that states her awesome personal organizing skills.

So I went to Vista Print dreaming of awesome business cards. But then I was struck with indecision. What do I call myself in the Job title section? I toyed with writer but what about my sewing skills? What about all the babysitting I do? Do I say I'm a Carrie of All Trades? All of the sudden getting 250 business cards saying I was a "Writer" seemed so permanent. Of course there is the option of leaving the title blank but that seems so boring.

What about you? Do you have business cards? What skills to they advertise?

To NaNo or not to NaNo

Fall is in the air. The leaves are changing color. The Twins have once again been swept by the Yankees dashing my hopes of a World Series and leaving me with the all to familiar phrase "We'll get 'em next year".

The NaNoWriMo participant badges have been showing up on blogs everywhere.

I am faced with that age old question- To NaNo or not to NaNo.

See in November 2007 I was kinda sorta thinking about maybe being a writer. I mean I wrote in my journal all the time but I had never written an actual novel so I wrote a novel.

I confess I didn't do anything with it. I didn't revise my novel (although now that I've seen teen novels about angels on the shelves I kinda wish I had). But I did realize that being a writer was something I really really wanted to do.

The next year, 2008 I did NaNo again. I wrote something that I never even read again but I wrote. I also took a class, The ABCs of Writing for Children. I wrote a story inspired by my cat running out of my condo when I got home from work every night and me chasing him through the halls, usually still wearing my bike helmet and brightly colored clothes from my bike ride home. My story from class got published in Stories for Children Magazine in Sept 2009.

Last year was 2009 and the idea for my novel did not come to me on November like good little NaNo ideas. She came to me in June. So I decided to try this whole write a novel slowly thing. I'm currently nearing the end of draft 2 but I can't decide if I should do NaNo again. I don't want to abandon my WIP but I think that great creative things happen during NaNo. And I miss NaNo.

Eye opener

One session of the MN SCBWI conference was something called "First Pages". For this session people anonymously submit the first page of their story and then the editors pointed out what was good or what needed work.

I think it is awesome that there were brave people who submitted their work. In the handful of selections that were read there were at least two that started with the first day of school. Which got me thinking about how many books and stories start with the first day of school. If there were two in the eight examples that were read to the group then mathematically how many do editors receive in a day.

My current WIP starts on the first day of school. Which got me thinking about trying to change my opening chapter. It also got me thinking about the opening chapter of other books. For example Harry Potter could have opened with the first day of school at Hogwarts. Instead Harry Potter starts with the chapter "The Boy Who Lived". He lived. He cheated death. He's going to be famous in his own world and he's being dropped off with his muggle relatives. It is way more attention grabbing than "It was the first day of school at Hogwarts."

So now I'm revising my current work with this in mind. I'm changing the opening I've had and worked with and revised for a year. It is kind of exciting and I hope it works out well.

MN SCBWI and Iowa Puppy Days

On Saturday I had the pleasure of going to the Minnesota SCBWI conference. Jay Asher was one of the presenters. He talked about his journey to publications which was really great to hear because it took him 12 years to get published. So even though I some days I think I should just forget about this whole writing thing and use my free time to wait tables this presentation made me realize that the road to a published book can be long but I should stick with it.

Susan Marie Swanson, who wrote The House in the Nightwas the other presenter. She talked about how writers can use metaphors to encourage themselves. She showed examples of poetry from kids she taught. It was inspiring to see how these kids expressed themselves. Her presentation was beautiful, poetic and inspiring.

After the conference I got in my car and drove to Iowa to watch my mom and the Leader Dog she is training participate in Puppy Days. The puppy raisers and dogs did a series of drills. There were even dogs in costumes. I got to meet people and hear stories of people who raise the dogs as well as people who use the dogs. It is a lot to think about as a continue working on my picture book manuscript about a guide dog.

At the end of the presentation I got to hold one of the new puppies that will be trained by the prisoners.

Rocktober

OMG. It's my favorite month. Rocktober.

I really just like saying Rocktober and trying to make the entire month \m/Rock\m/ is why I love Rocktober.

I have met my writing challenge of the day. The cover letter.

No. It's not for a book but for a job. The next position up at my current job. But apparently reading blogs about query letters hasn't helped me learn to write a cover letter cause I'm stuck.

The other day I gave advice via facebook to my cousin who was trying to write some ads for his business. I told him "just tell the story". So I guess that is what I need to do in my cover letter. I just need to tell the very short story of why I am the most awesome person for the job. A lot of the cover letter examples have little bullet points highlighting awesomeness. I could do that.

Happy Rocktober!

Banned Book week

September 25- October 2 is ALA Banned Books Week. The week is about the freedom to read what we want to read. Yes, even if what we want to read is Twilight by Stephanie Meyer which was one of the top ten challenged books in 2009.

Looking through the list of Frequently Challenged books I feel like I've read a lot of them.

One of my favorite challenged books has been on my mind lately. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year.

I love this book for many reasons. Scout and Jem are raised by their father with the help of Calpernia, the maid. My mother and her brother were raised by their mother after their father died. Seeing Scout grow up with the perspective of only one parent (a parent who was respected in the community) gives me some idea of what growing up with one parent must have been like for my mother.

I was in ninth grade honors English when I first read this book. It was the first book we read that year. I would have gladly repeated ninth grade English just to read this book again.

I've been thinking about this book lately because I was working backstage on The Scottboro Boys during its run at the Guthrie. The play is about the nine African-American teenage boys who were riding a boxcar and were pulled off the train and accused of rape. Despite a lack of evidence including one of the accusers changing her testimony in a later trial the verdict kept coming back guilty.

I heard an interview with John Kander saying how this trial was always in the news when he was growing up.

It made me think about Harper Lee and how this trial would have been a part of her childhood especially growing up in Alabama with a father who was a lawyer.

Reading the book I can see the influence of this trial in her story as well. In To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus Finch is defending Tom Robinson, an African American who is falsely accused of rape by Mayella Ewell. Atticus takes his duty of defending Tom seriously. He points to the lack of evidence, that Mayella was never taken to a doctor. He even shows that Tom Robinson could not have bruised Mayella's face where she was bruised. The kids, Jem, Scout and Dill are sure that Atticus has won but then the verdict comes back guilty.

So to celebrate Banned Books week I'm reading my favorite, To Kill a Mockingbird again.

What about you? What are your favorite challenged books? How are you celebrating banned books week?

Books to Movies- Percy Jackson- The Lightning Thief

A couple weeks ago I started reading The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. A couple people recommended them to me and when my friend, Montana, saw I was reading the first book in the Percy Jackson series she loaned me rest of the series.

For some reason I added the movie The Lightning Thief to my Netflix. This was a mistake. I was talking with a child actor at work who told me the movie wasn't true to the book. He said it was Annabeth's hair color. In the book she is blonde in the movie brunette.

After watching the film it is so much more than that. I came to the conclusion that this film is a poor adaptation of the book. There are scenes in the film that never happen in book. Characters/plot points are left out of the film. Then there is the fact that the kids in the film are like 16 or 17 while the kids in the first book are 12.

I talked with the kid actor at work who admitted that the first time he watched the movie he walked out. I think this is probably a true reaction. Kids are tough customers. If they read a book and then go see a film based on that book I think they expect that it will follow the same action of the book.

I'm going to finish reading the Percy Jackson series but I recommend that if people like these books they avoid the movie version.

Censorship sucks

I’m a writer.

But before I was ever a writer I was a reader.

When I was in high school I took a journalism class. Then I joined the newspaper. See I wanted to be a writer even back then.

The first thing Miss Christensen taught us before we wrote a single word was The First Amendment. She made us know and love our right to free speech. She taught us to protect our right to free speech and expression. We had to sign a pledge to protect the First Amendment when we joined the paper. Even though my paper I signed my pledge on is long gone I still take my pledge to defend the First Amendment very seriously.

Needless to say book banning makes me angry and upset. To me banning books is a violation of the First Amendment.

I don’t think anyone has a right to tell me what I can and can’t read.

I believe in the power of books. The books we read help us navigate our way through childhood and adolescence and even adulthood.

When I was a kid the characters in books helped me realize I wasn’t the only kid who had divorced parents. I wasn’t the only kid confused about religion and wondering where God was.

So yesterday when I read Laurie Halse Anderson’s blog about a guy, Wesley Scroggins trying to get her book, Speak taken out of the school library in Republic, MO I was upset.

The Scroggins piece claims that parents and taxpayers need to be aware of what kids are reading and learning. I have to say I pay taxes and I don't have kids but I would still want kids to be allowed to read this book or any other book that is written with children and teens in mind. If I was a parent I would want my kids to have access to a book like Speak or any other book that has been challenged.

Scroggins also has a problem with the school's sex education program saying that children are learning about reproduction in the forth grade and sex in eighth grade. I distinctly remembered getting on a bus and going to the Catholic School Central to learn about reproduction in forth grade.

I have to admit I haven't read this book. I read Anderson's book Wintergirls recently and this book was on my list of books I would get to but now I am reading it. I was planning on reading To Kill a Mockingbird during Banned Book Week but now I am reading Speak instead.

I will post more of my thoughts on this book later. But for right now I think it is a good book. I am still early on in the book and the character, Melinda is depressed and withdrawn and her only escape in high school is art. Even though I wasn't this girl in high school I knew girls who were like her. Girls who were depressed. My sister was depressed and withdrawn during her teen years. I wish a book like this had been around when we were in high school.

This year is a super lucky fall for me. For the first time my schedule works out and I'm going to be able to go to the Minnesota SCBWI conference.

I'm really excited because I've never been to one of these. I usually go to the Loft Conference in the spring.

I even submitted my picture book manuscript for a manuscript review. This is way out of character for me. I blame the fact that I made this decision in the morning. Morning is not my time. I can't be held responsible for decisions I make before 10 a.m.

I'm actually kinda shy. But since the class I was going to take got cancelled and since I really want this manuscript to be awesome when I send it out I submitted it for review.

In other news I finally joined the new era of movie rentals and signed up for Netflix. Why? What finally convinced me? My mom. She told me "You can stream Netflix on you Wii. I don't know why you're not doing that." I tried to explain to her about my loyalty to my neighborhood video store but just hearing my mom talk about streaming movies was too much. I couldn't let my mom be more tech savvy than me. If my mom can stream netflix then so can I.

The thing is this has been kinda great. I'm catching up on movies I missed because they come to my mailbox or to my Wii or computer. It is genius.

Do you have any fall writing events lined up? Classes, conferences? Any movie recommendations for this Netflix newbie?

I never thought I'd...

That is the subject of Real Simple's annual essay contest.

My non-writing friends alert me whenever a magazine they read of having a writing contest.

Usually I don't do anything with it because I find out two weeks before it is due or the previous winning entries are too intimidating.

But this year I'm entering.

I've spent the summer working on my entry. I took a class on writing essays.

But two weeks until the story is due and I was still stuck. I didn't feel like my story was compelling.

So I wrote in my journal. And I did other exercises in my journal trying to figure out what was really important in my story. The exercise I used I learned about in my essay class.

I wrote the things my essay is about on the surface and feelings associated with each of the things until I landed on a feeling I didn't know was there before and it turns out that is what the essay is really about.

I've kept a journal for years. Probably longer than I realize really. They are instrumental in my writing.

What about you? Do you journal? How does it help your writing?

If you can read this...

I've been slacking on the whole blogging thing. I blame the State Fair and the kitten invaders.

It is super hard to write or blog or anything when a kitten may run across the keyboard at any moment.

Unlike my 20 pound cat these little kittens move fast. If my cat was going to walk across the keyboard I would know it but I can not anticipate the movements of a kitten.

The kitten house guests have gone home now so I feel safe using my computer again.

I'm bummed about the ending of summer but plan to go to the State Fair one last time.

Recently I've been trying to run again. I haven't run much since I get in my car accident last fall because well running is hard on my neck. But running helps me do everything else in my life better.

I spent most of the spring in a little bit of a funk and I thought it was just the fact that there was a lot of change in the lives of my family. But now that I'm trying to run again I feel like maybe part of the reason I was bummed was because I wasn't running. Running gives me endorphins. I'm sort of an endorphin junkie and running is the most efficient way for me to get my endorphins.

Running also helps me in my writing. Since I'm not fast and I'm not going to win any races I just run for myself. If I was running in 5Ks I would want a shirt that says "If you can read this you're going to be last." But it builds my confidence because for me running feels like an accomplishment. Right now running two miles feels like a big deal. That surge in confidence carries over into my writing. If I can run then surely I can write.

Running helps me deal with rejection in my writing as well. The fact that I'm not going to win any races doesn't stop me from running because I run for me. (I do hope to win races when I'm older. Like when I'm 80 I may win my age group because there won't be that many people in m age group running) When I get a rejection I remember that I write for me. That like running I get so much out of writing that can't be measured. I remember that the finish line is always there even if it takes me twice as long to get there as the fast people.