JK Rowling On Failure

I graduated from the Harvard Extension School the year JK Rowling gave this speech at Harvard's Commencement. I loved it then, and I love it now.



I hope these quotes from her speech give comfort to anyone going through a tough time (and, if you're not now, just save them for the next time one hits like a tornado)


*Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all. In which case, you have failed by default.

*You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift.

*Given a time turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisitions or achievements. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people...who confuse the two.

*Life is difficult and complicated and beyond anyone's total control and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

And for anyone looking for inspiration to get your butt in the chair, and your pen on the page:

*Imagination...is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

"News that will edge your fiction-writing friends closer to suicidal despair"

I love Salon.com for it's snarky, edgy coverage of everything from current events to books to the latest in bad T.V.

This article about Tyra Banks' new novel will make you laugh through the tears you shed about how hard you have to work to get anything published while famous people just make a call, it seems, and get a book deal.

The opening line had be laugh/crying:

In the latest "news that will edge your fiction-writing friends closer to suicidal despair," television host, model, producer and Fake Hair Academy headmistress Tyra Banks has announced that she is penning a series of fantasy novels for her own Random House imprint, Bankable Books. To paraphrase Ms. Banks herself: Stephenie Meyer, kiss her fat ass.

And I Quote

I love this quote about writing a novel, from a Powell's Bookstore interview with Brady Udall:

When you read a book, and it's good and you love it and you're just amazed by it, it feels like everything was with intent. It seems like the writer had this amazing ability. I think people who aren't writers don't understand this, and writers don't really advertise this very much. But most of it's just bumbling around and making mistakes. You happen on something, and think, "Oh, this works. Okay." Then you throw something else out, and it's just this chaos that eventually you wrestle into order. Most of it's what I would call mistakes or errors of judgment that turn out well somehow. When I look back, even when I was close to finishing the book, I thought I could never make this work. But somehow I found a way.

Man, that gives me hope!

Birth Announcement

The latest edition to the Junge Literary Family is here!

My baby, a short story named Cartes Postales, came into the world via the New Plains Review a few days ago, and arrived in my loving arms today. After months and months of nurturing her, I'm so proud to see her in print and introduce her to the world.

(You can't read my story online, but if you order a copy of the journal, I'll gladly autograph it for you! If you don't live near the Boston area, message me at writerbug2006 AT yahoo DOT com to coordinate.)

Calling all poems/stories/essays about death

I might be teaching a course this fall on writing about death and grieving. I'm in the process of gathering up ideas for readings--ie published stories, poems, or essays that deal with the subject. Here's where I turn to you, dear readers: to pick your brains. Any idea are most welcome! (One caveat: they have to be relatively short, ie, it's not helpful for me to get a list of novels that focus on death or dying.)

Thanks in advance!

Loving, Coveting, Sharing

Susan over at the Fiber Farm Blog has a great recurring series that features items and articles she thinks her readers will like. She calls it Probably Something You Would Like.

Well, I, too, come across cool things and want to share them with my readers. So...I'm stealing her idea and calling it: Loving, Coveting, Sharing (LCS)

Here's my first LCS post! Let me know what you think of my finds--and add things you love, covet, and want to share in the comment field.
1.
I so could have used this shoot-through camera bag when we were in Costa Rica. It's basically a camera carrying case with one end uncovered, so you can actually use the camera while it's snug in its carrying case. One day we rented an ATV and drove all over crazy dusty, very pot-holed roads. I took pictures as we went, but I would have felt much more secure if I could have had the camera protected AND been able to shoot the awesome scenery.

Me and the ATV

2.
I am in love with this all natural face cream, The Soy of Life. My sister-in-law, who's an esthetician, has commented when she does my facials how much less dry my skin is since I started using it. It's pricey, but worth it. And it's a small business run by a husband and wife team. I met them at a local fair where they were selling their products and they were nice as could be.

3.
For a long time I've wanted to grow my little menagerie of animals (currently two dogs, a cat, and two bunnies). At the moment, I need, in a deeeep way, to simplify my life, not add to it. But a girl can dream, no? If I ever have the time and energy to take care of more creatures, I'd buy these two books on beekeeping and raising chickens

4.
This time of the year, I'm usually getting package after package from Michigan Bulbs, a great gardening catalog whose products never fail to impress. But, see my note above about simplifying. So I'm limiting myself to growing veggies and a few flowers from seeds, and otherwise just tending the stuff I already have.

(I promise I'll post some garden pics this weekend--the tulips I planted last year are gorgeous!)

Welcome Writing Space readers

I'm so honored that Kim Smith, over at Writing Space chose to highlight my blog this week. Welcome to all her readers! Pull up a chair, read some posts, and say hello in the comments, if you please. :)

Some good (scary!) news!

An essay I wrote about struggling with my body image got accepted for an edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul, to be published later this year!

The essay was one of those pieces of writing that came out quickly. I thought about it in the airport and during my plane ride to see my writing buddies in Canada last summer, and then when I sat down to write it was like the words and paragraphs were already there. The two writers I was with read and critiqued it, and with some minor edits, I sent it out the door. Lo and Behold, it got picked up! If only all writing/publishing were that easy, huh?

But now that I know it's going to be Out There., I'm freaking out a little. I reread the essay and frankly, I don't remember being so candid! Of course, it's that honesty that makes an essay worth reading. But man, do I feel naked knowing that other people are going to know all the crazy things I've thought about my body over the years.

It's a good lesson--In journalism/marketing writing, you hear all the time, "Know your audience" and "Write for your audience." In creative writing, I think the opposite is true. Don't think of your audience at all. Write for yourself, write your truth.

Otherwise, if you're anything like me, you just might take out the most interesting bits because they don't put you in the best light (or, to stick with the body image theme, they make you look fat). But it's those private bits that make an essay (or poem or story...)good and make people able to relate to it.

Exposing those bits, of course, is a very scary thing. But, as Elanor Roosevelt advised, "Do one thing every day that scares you."

I'm back...take two

I got back from vacation and then immediately took a sick leave from this blog, and lots of other stuff.

I'm feeling about 40% better these days, and I'm trying to find a balance between:
--Not doing too much as to start another stress/headache cycle
--Doing enough of the things I find fulfilling to not get depressed

Not an easy balance, let me tell you. Add an insanely stressful time at work into the mix and you have...well, let's just say I'm not having the best time of it. But I'm not having the worst, either. So, anyway. I'm hoping to be able to commit to blogging more regularly again.

***

I've been away from my novel for a few weeks now, and I miss it. I had to write something for my writers' group, which meets Thursday night. I'm not at all happy with the chapter I handed in--I'm kind of embarrassed really. It was really hard to get back into it after such a long absence--my writing muscles had certainly weakened. But at least the deadline got me going.

And I'm committing to try to write a scene a day for the foreseeable future. Just one scene. Just something. Just enough, hopefully, to get the wheels greased again.

***
I'm doing a lot of meditating these days and let me just say that that is brightest spot to come out of all this pain/stress sh*t. Meditating is such a truly wonderful practice, and yet one I find hard to fit into my life on a very regular basis. These days, it's part of my slowing down activities.

I can't read much on my commute because of the headaches/potential for headaches, so I'm listening to my iPod. Sometimes I put on music and just breath. Sometimes I listen to a guided meditation or a podcast of a talk given at the Insight Meditation Society or Vipassana Metta Foundation--both of which I highly recommend. They offer such insights into life, in a completely accessible, not-religiously-based form.

On the weekends I'm taking some time to read about a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program based out of UMass Amherst. I hope to be able to take a class based on the program in the near future. Reading about it and trying to do it on your own are one thing, having a group to do it with is something else...

Good night for now. Hope to see you again soon!

a break

I was completely headache free while on vacation, and now the headaches have come back with a vengeance. I'm working to get them figured out, but in the meantime, I'm taking a break from a number of "extras" in my life, and this blog, sadly, is one of them. I'm hopeful that I'll be back in the ole blogosphere soon. Hold down the fort for me while I'm gone!

I'm back...and so is spring!

I'm back from a (mostly) relaxing, (mostly) wonderful vacation. I swam in the Pacific and under a waterfall, surfed (!), hiked up an active volcano, saw monkeys and sloths, went bird watching, drove an ATV across the Nicoya Peninsula, and drank lots of delicious coffee. Pictures to follow.

While I was away, the clocks turned back, and winter released its grip on New England in an unusually gentle way. It is a very strange feeling to go away in the middle of a long, dark, cold winter and to come back to sunny day AND EVENINGS, crocuses sprouted, and lots of buds on the trees. In some ways, it's an amazing way to say goodbye to winter. In others, its completely discombobulating, like going to a movie when it's light out and re-entering the world when it's dark.

I got two new story ideas while I was away. That leaves me wondering what it is about traveling and being somewhere totally foreign that washes story ideas from the corners of my brain and brings them into the forefront. Do you feel that way, like travel is a good story generator?

In any case, I'm off to Starbucks now to get some of those ideas down on paper.

Hasta luego

I'm heading to Costa Rica for some fun (and yoga and hiking) in the sun.

This is where I'll swim:


Where I'll nap:


Where I'll do yoga:


And whom I hope to run into:


Talk to y'all in a few weeks!

Seven fascinating (mostly writing-related) articles

I'm going away for 10 days (whoo hoo!), so I thought I'd leave you lovely readers with some articles I suggest you peruse in my absence. If you read any of them, I'd love to hear what you think!

1. Losing your whole town
Imagine that you don't only have to walk away from the house you bought and paid for and lived in and loved. Everyone else around you has to do the same. And the general store, the library, the post office--they all have to pack up and leave, too. All because of an underground coal fire that could have been put out when it first started, almost FIFTY years ago.
That's exactly what's going on in a small town in PA.

There's already some non-fiction books on the town's strife, which I plan to read. But I think there might be the seed of a fictional story in there, too. Imagine the family dramas that could be told amongst this heartbreaking, almost unbelievable backdrop.

2. Some Very Funny Dos and Donts of Writing
Thanks to Robyn for pointing me to this awesome and funny article by a debut novelist, Tony DuShane. My two favorite "dos and donts":

Don't: Get in this game if you don't absolutely love literature. Let me take that back, don't get in this game if literature hasn't saved your life somehow. Don't get into this game for the money. Don't get into this game while wondering if you should Tweet your novel online to show your digital forward thinking.

Do: Read and write. Read and write. And write. And write. It's like learning to play guitar and you play "Stairway to Heaven," and after you master that you play other songs.

3. An ode to the London Review of Book's personal ads.
This article is so quirky and funny--just my type! If I ever needed to place a personal ad, I'd totally do it in the London Review of Books. In the meantime, I'll check out the compilation books of the ads.

4. Seth Godin on creativity.
So many great gems in this article on creativity. Here's my favorite. This quote has really stuck with me in the weeks since I first read it:

For me, the single best thing you can do to become more creative is to be wrong more often. Creative people are wrong all the time (look at Apple's long string of failures). The goal is to create a safe place to be wrong, a way to be wrong without destroying yourself. The more wrong I am, the more often, the better I seem to get at being creative.


5. What makes a word sound good?
I found this NY Times article on the sound of words fascinating. I'm guessing the poets out there will particularly like it. Again, a favorite quote from it:
"Poetry, in fact, is two quite distinct things,” H. L. Mencken wrote in a 1920 magazine column. “It may be either or both. One is a series of words that are intrinsically musical, in clang-tint and rhythm, as the single word 'cellar-door' is musical. The other is a series of ideas, false in themselves, that offer a means of emotional and imaginative escape from the harsh realities of everyday.”


6. On Rejection.
I thought this Glimmer Train essay on rejection started a bit slow, but man was I glad I stuck with it when I got to the end:

The odds of winning the Nobel or becoming a perennial bestseller are astronomical. So why do we keep putting our heads on the chopping block when we can clearly see the worn dull blade dangling by a thread above? We don't do this in other facets of our lives, in which we are far more pragmatic and make decisions based on evidence. We don't put ourselves at risk when we know that odds are we are going to get hurt.

So why do we do it?

Because we are in love, and looking for those with whom we can share that love.

Which is why rejection, particularly in your love life, is good training for being a writer. Because your work, if it's true, is you—the culmination and symbol of your heart, your passion, your hopes and dreams. Your work is everything you want and need to make things right in the world—it's what sets you apart from the rest, what makes you believe that all the devotion, dedication, and the grueling brutal daily grind to produce actually means something.


7. The second book from the author of the Time Traveler's Wife!
Anyone who loved the Time Traveler's Wife will probably be interested in this interview with author Audrey Niffenegger about her new book.

Confession Tuesday: The week-before-vacation edition

I leave on Saturday for Costa Rica! Picture a week of yoga on the beach, followed by a few days of hiking in the rain forest. Ahhhh.

In spirit of prepping for the trip, here are some vacation-themed confessions:

I confess that I planned to lose 8 pounds before the vacation, and only managed to lose 2.

I confess that this is probably going to bother me the first time I put on my bathing suit, though I wish it wouldn't.

I confess that I'm bracing myself for my husband's culture shock--in the past he hasn't been the best at adjusting quickly and easily to foreign countries, though after a day or two he's fine.

I confess that I know these are awesome "problems" to have.

I confess that before going away, I like the house to be clean and my to-do lists to be as completed as they can be. My mom used to clean the house before we went away, and I thought she was crazy. Now I understand the peace of mind it brings, both before you go and after you come back.

I confess it bothers me that my to-do lists never get completely done, though I'm sure I would be sad if I had nothing I wanted to get done.

Recent Reads: February Edition

Like the month itself, this list of books read in February is a shorty. But quantity is definitely in inverse proportion to quality here--the four books I read/listened to this month were all good ones.

Three Bags Full by Leonnie Swann
Four-and-a-half stars
This sheep detective story, as it is called in the book's subtitle, is delightful and addictive. It's told from the point of view of a flock of sheep whose shepherd has been murdered. Swann does a great job of making each sheep a unique character, and of telling things from the sheeps' perspective. I didn't catch a single instance of her writing like a human instead of a sheep. And much like a book told from the point of view of a child, the sheep witness things that they don't understand, but that the reader does, making for an interesting, layered story.

The Perks of Being a Wall Flower by Stephen Chbosky
Three-and-a-half stars
This coming of age story reminded me and others in my book group of Catcher in the Rye--especially in that I got a lot more out of reading each book as an adult than I would have as a teen. The story is told through a series of letters that a troubled teen writes to an anonymous friend. It's a very quick read--I read most of it in one night (the night before my book club, of course!)--and one I would recommend.


The Reserve by Russell Bank*
Four-and-a-half stars
I am a big fan of Russell Bank, and this story was well done. The story is complex--it's told from multiple points of view, so it's about many characters and many stories--and a little hard to sum up. The themes include love, marriage, class, family, and what it means to be insane. What impressed me most was how deftly he switched points of view. My writers' group has been discussing the subject of how hard it is to write from an omniscient point of view, and this is a book I will turn to as a "how to" guide if I ever decide to go that route with a story or novel.

In the Time of Butterflies*
by Julia Alvarez
Four-and-a-half stars

This is one of those books that weaves fact and fiction to give readers a good sense of what it was like to live during a particular time in history. In this case, the story takes place during the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republica in 1960. It tells the story of four sisters--three of whom get involved in the revolution against Trujillo, and die because of their involvement. The fourth sister lives to tell their story. The book also deals with themes of women's roles in the revolution, marriage, family, and sisterhood.
*I listened to this as an audio book

Getting out of the slushpile...and into print!

It took me a long, long time to get my first story published. I spent a semester during my MFA program writing and editing the first draft. Then I probably tweaked it for another month or two. Then I spent a year and a half sending it out to 21 different journals. It got rejected by 17 of them, and then was accepted by two different places right around the same time. (The remaining journals I wrote to and rescinded the submission.)

So when I came across this article in Writers' Digest on getting out of the slush pile, I thought I would write a post listing a few of the minor things I did in between the time I first sent the story out, and when it finally got picked up. I think these little tweaks made a world of difference.
(Note: I read about the WD article on the Practicing Writing Blog)

1- When I got the first five rejections or so, I sent the story to some writer friends who kindly gave me feedback. They all agreed that it was ready to be submitted--but two of them questioned one particular part of the story.
That sent a red flag to me that something wasn't working in that area. I revised it.

2- After rejection 10 or so, I printed out the story and read it over from start to finish--something I hadn't done in months at that point. I found a few typos (egads!) and reworked a few parts that seemed clunky.

3- Around that time, I reworked the red-flagged area from item #1 yet again.

4- Right before I sent out this last batch of submissions, I tweaked the opening in a way that I think made a big difference.

The opening line went from:
On her first day in Paris, Chloe buys six postcards.

To:
On her first day in Paris, Chloe writes a postcard to her dead husband.

The latter is much more engaging, no? It leaves you wondering, What happened to Chloe's husband? Is she crazy? The former might leave you wondering, Who cares?

The moral
* Work on your story until you really truly believe it is done.
* Have friends read it and comment on it (other writers are great for this, but I also have non-writer friends read my stuff and their comments are often just as helpful)
* If your story gets rejected a number of times, take a look at it with fresh eyes and see if there are parts where your interest flags, where the writing seems clunky, that could be cut, or that need clarification. Pay particular attention to the beginning, since that's what the editor will see first.
* Don't give up hope!

Some February crafts

I got a lot of crafting done this month. Not sure if that's because the cold weather kept me inside, or if my headaches kept me away from books and my computer, or if I was just in a craft mood. In any case....
I didn't want to throw away the Christmas cards I was taking down at the end of January, so I decided to recycle them into Valentine's decorations. I cut them into hearts, and then sewed a thread through them so they would hang in a line and dangle. Hanging them in front of the windows by my front door meant that people outside and inside could enjoy them.


(Don't mind the bad photo--the way the house is set up doesn't allow for a good angle of the windows.)

I didn't just use Christmas cards--I also used images from magazines. I ended up with many more heart cutouts than I did window space, so I also made a mobile--something I had been wanting to make for a while now, ever since I noticed how soothing I found the slow movements of a modern art mobile that hung in my dentist's office (and what a good place to find something soothing, no?)

As you can see, I put images on one side and relavent or just amusing (to me, anyway) words from magazine articles (mostly a very iteresting New Yorker piece on how scent informs memory).

I had so much fun making it (which took a lot of trial and error in terms of finding the right materials to be sturdy enough to support the structure, but fluid enough to allow for movement)that I'm going to make another using birds instead of hearts--to hang to celebrate spring (whenever that comes around!).

Post-mobile, I had yet MORE hearts, so I hung them in the archway that separates my living room from the kitchen/dining area:






I'll also have some knitting photos to post soon... What crafty things have you been up to this month?

Confession Tuesday: The Simultaneous Submission Edition

I confess: In the past, I have submitted pieces simultaneously to journals even if they didn't allow simultaneous submissions. I figured: With all the rejections I have gotten, what are the chances that one of my stories would be accepted by two journals at the same time?

I confess: THIS JUST HAPPENED! Luckily, the second journal that accepted it was one that allowed simultaneous submissions, so the weirdness of having to reject their acceptance was somewhat dampened. I also felt good about the fact that I did email that second journal as soon as I found out that the New Plains Review accepted my story. My guess is that the editor didn't have a chance to go through all the "general inbox" emails before emailing authors whose work he accepted.

I confess: I will never flout simultaneous submission rules again.

I confess: Once the anxiety I am feeling over having to reject the acceptance and probably piss off the editor of the second journal subsides, I will probably be all aglow for weeks at the idea that TWO journals wanted the story that SEVENTEEN rejected.

I confess: The idea of pissing someone off (in general, not in this case alone) causes me way more anxiety than it should.

I confess: Having my story accepted makes me feel like a "real" writer, whatever that means.

I confess: I wish I didn't need this kind of outside validation but, alas, I do.

How to Survive February in New England

T.S. Eliot got a lot right, but he got one thing wrong: February is the cruelest month, at least here in New England, according to this Writerbug. Though it is so short, it feels so long. And so dark. And so cold. (Which reminds me of that lovely Shakespeare quote: "Though he is small, he is but fierce.")

I'm not the only one who feels this way about February.

My plan to conquer February is a little different than Soule Mama's, though. It does entail lots of knitting and being outside, but the main component is movies! I plan to see all of the Best Picture nominations this month.

And the nominees are:

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

I've seen Avatar (eh), Inglourious Basterds (awesome), A Serious Man (very awesome), and Up (awesome). I plan to see another one or two movies this weekend, and I have The Hurt Locker out from Netflix.
That leaves me enough movies to get me through the last of this long short month.

Congratulations...to me!

After most "victories," Brian very sweetly gets me one of these helium balloons. This week, I got one to celebrate my most exciting victory yet--one of my short stories, Cartes Postales, will be published in the Spring Issue of The New Plains Review!

It's been a little over a week since I've heard the news (I didn't want to share until I got in touch with the editors of the other journals that were considering the story), but I still get giddy when I talk (write) about it!

Maybe that's the benefit of having Cartes rejected 17 times--yes, I counted. Now this victory is all the more sweet for being so hard won.

Another twist: of the four journals from which I had to rescind my submission, three wrote back to say the story was being seriously considered for publication and I should send other work.
Of course I was very happy to hear this--and it makes me wonder if Cartes got close to publication at any of the 17 journals that rejected it. Man, that would have been nice to know! It would've taken the sting out of those rejections just a wee bit....

But anyway, I am so so so so happy about this. It's so gratifying to know that my instinct that told me this story was ready was correct, despite all those rejections. And it's a good reminder to all of you out there who might be on rejection #16....Keep sending your stuff out! After a series of rejections, you might want to look at the story again and tweak it as you see fit (I did that a few times). But most of all, keep sending it out. All it takes is one! And, of course, keep writing.

My very exciting plans for this Friday evening involve doing just that.