NaNoWriMo2013

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Regina Garvie

It’s National Novel Writing Month!

I’m writing a novel!

I’m not taking part in National Novel Writing Month. Not this year.

I think NaNoWriMo is awesome. It’s a really cool way for people to get it going, and get that novel done. It’s great for perfectionists to stop editing their pages to death and get that rough draft on paper. It’s great for people who don’t think they can actually write a novel to see how a couple thousand words a day can really make a whole novel in just 30 days.

I tried it last year. I wrote Pairs in less than a month in July 2012, so I figured I could do it, no sweat. I wanted to try something new, so I went with a third person middle grade novel. It turned out to be The Clarinet Clique.

It went all right. About two-thirds of the way through I realized I had two characters I really didn’t need, and I had to make that deadline, so I just combined them in with the others and went on from there. I figured I’d go back and cut them out later. I finished NaNo…sort of. I guess I didn’t actually “win,” because the novel didn’t quite reach 50K, even though I finished it. I could have stretched it, but that seemed stupid, since it was complete to me.

Now that novel is the only one I haven’t shared with anyone. I haven’t gone back and made those changes. It’s not that I don’t think I can do it – I know I can. I’ve read it again, and it’s a pretty good little book, in my oh-so-valuable opinion. I just don’t know if I really want to have a middle grade novel. I’m starting to understand the value in focusing on the type of writing you enjoy the most. I truly enjoy young adult the most. I tried my hand at middle grade because a lot of agents were mentioning how much they wanted to see more middle grade. I just like young adult better. So…I’m just waiting on this book to see what I really want to do with my writing as a whole. If I’d rather rewrite it into a young adult, I’d rather do it all at once, instead of writing it into a better middle grade and then tearing it into a whole new young adult.

Wait. This was about NaNo.

Yeah. I’m writing this awesome new young adult contemporary that’s about these star crossed lovers / teen kids of modern political candidates. I’m in love with it. Thinking about the characters every waking moment…making up extra dialogue and scenes for them when I’m not actually writing things down…that sort of thing. Everybody around me seems to be doing NaNo, but I’m not. NaNo seemed too stressful for perfectionist me last year. If I didn’t get my 1,667 every day, I was all down on myself and trying to catch up. It stunk. Instead, I just outlined until I was bored with outlining, and then I started, around the last week of October. Now I’m almost 20,000 words in. That’s hooray times for me.

And…if I keep it up, I might not have to write 1,667 words when I want to be sleeping off Thanksgiving dinner later this month, bonus!

My Mustang doppelgänger

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Regina Garvie

Most of my local writer adventures come courtesy of the Oklahoma chapter of SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). I love this group! I try to not miss any of their events, and I find myself looking forward to each activity.

I’ve met a few other writers in different ways. One in particular is Regina Jennings, author of SIXTY ACRES AND A BRIDE and LOVE IN THE BALANCE.

I first came across Regina because of a twitter post from Writer’s Digest, pointing to an article in the ongoing series, “How I Got My Agent.” I usually click on those stories, and since we share a first name, Regina’s story in particular caught my eye, so I read it.

That was where I found her bio, and started making comparisons.

Regina Jennings is a homeschooling mother of four from Oklahoma. Really? I’m a homeschooling mom of three from Oklahoma. That’s interesting. She enjoys watching musicals with her kids, traveling with her husband and reading by herself. Well, yeah, who doesn’t like those things?

I went on and found out that she’d worked at the Mustang News and the Baptist church there. I’ve worked at the Tuttle Times and I haven’t been employed at my Baptist church, but I’ve volunteered there for years. And she lives in Mustang? That’s the next town over. We’re practically neighbors.

And she writes. And she’s published. Well…I’m working on that one.

And she’s awesome. We follow each other on Facebook and Twitter now. I ran into her outside of the Mustang library, and even though she seemed as cool and collected as she appears in the above photo and I believe I looked about as frazzled and frumpy as I could possibly get, she did not run shrieking to her car, or call security after I fangirled a little. She was nice. It was comfortable. Not awkward.

She was passing out information to the librarians about her upcoming release of LOVE IN THE BALANCE. I about passed out. (Inside. I played it cool on the outside. I think.) A real author doing real author things. My kids were there. They weren’t impressed. They never are.

Anyway. This amazingly long introduction of Regina Jennings is leading up to the fact that I got another chance to meet her this week, at a presentation at the Mabel C. Fry Library in Yukon. I don’t frequent this library, but Regina mentioned it on her Facebook page, so I got signed up. The topic was Getting Published: How to Sell Your Book to a Publisher. Sounded good to me!

It was fun. My mom helped with the younger kids; they came along and enjoyed a different library setting during the session. The turnout wasn’t bad, but I was surprised that not many had finished books.

It was funny at the beginning, when the librarian was introducing Regina. When she was saying how Regina was a wonderful writer, and somehow finds time to squeeze in her writing while homeschooling her children, I just kind of leaned back and pretended it was me. Someday.

Many of the things she spoke about were topics I had already learned through the Internet and through the SCBWI and OWFI (Oklahoma Writer’s Federation, Inc.) conferences. The others in the room were scribbling furiously, so it was good info – I’ve just obsessively researched it already. That was okay. Still good to refresh.

I really enjoyed the “behind the scenes” look at what happens at the conference sponsored by her writer’s group, ACFW, (American Christian Fiction Writers) and the steps her books go through prior to publication. I also liked hearing about what she’s working on now, and what’s currently being developed.

I also plan to look into a book she mentioned that was written by her friend and convention roommate, Stephanie Landsem, called THE WELL. She told us how the protagonist in the book was originally a certain age, but the author had to eventually change that age to get the book published, even though it was hard for her. That is something that I have been curious about, due to an issue in one of my novels. I am not at a point where I feel like I need to make a drastic change in age, but I am interested in reading a book by another person who faced something similar.

And…I badly need to read LOVE IN THE BALANCE! I enjoyed SIXTY ACRES AND A BRIDE very much (see my brief review with other Oklahoma authors here) but I’ve been focusing on young adult lately.

I’m currently in Tara Hudson’s HEREAFTER series, and I have two Anna Myers books sitting on the table next to me that I really need to return to the friend who lent them to me… (and my own writing…don’t forget my own writing) but soon!

Too many good Oklahoma authors!

Another writer at our place

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Regina Garvie

So I can’t stop obsessing about this amazing spider I found in our chain link fence today.

She’s fantastic, right? Right?

And she made that egg sac last night. That thing was not there yesterday. None of that was there yesterday. Last night, empty fence. Today, giant spider and super-enormous egg sac.

She looks tired. She wasn’t moving, but somehow she seemed stressed-out that me (and the kids, and my niece) were hovering around her, snapping pictures from both sides of the fence and exclaiming over her.

And I know that Charlotte was just a grey spider, and this spider is obviously not, but I can’t help but feel a kinship between this lady and the fictional arachnid who saved a pig named Wilbur.

I have already set my mind to make sure those eggs hatch out in the spring, even if the Internet says there are probably about a thousand spiders in there.

Oh! And the Internet also says that this kind of spider is actually called an Argiope Writing Spider. If that isn’t some kind of lovely coincidence, I don’t know what is. I needed another writer around here.

Of course, like Charlotte, this spider’s days are numbered. After somehow creating something in one night that is larger than her entire body, she is just about finished here. Internet believes she will hang around, protecting her magnum opus the best she can until the first hard frost, and then she’ll die.

Then it will be up to me.

Thousand Tweets

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Regina Garvie

I’ve been on twitter for a while, even though I didn’t use it much for a long time. I don’t have a smart phone, so I’m not really into texting, and that made twitter less fun, I think.

Anyway. I wanted to see how long I’ve been on there. I tried a couple of online tools, and they all said I was typing in my username incorrectly, which I most certainly was not, thank you very much. Finally I found How Long on Twitter at TWOP Charts, which was nice enough to work, yay.

So here’s what I got.

Yes. I have been on twitter since May 2009.

I started learning about twitter to help my sister publicize her acting group for children, and to help spread news about my church. Now I don’t do the church info. My sister died in November of 2009, but I am still involved with the children’s acting group. My niece runs it now. It is just notable how much life can change. I went back to working at the newspaper after that, and did a twitter for the paper as well. Then the paper sold to another company and I ended up writing my novels.

That’s why I started getting into twitter. The Internet says that twitter’s where the action is, in the publishing business. I think they’re right. I’m following lots of agents and editors and writers on there. I’ve learned quite a bit and made some contacts, and I feel like I’m closer to that world than I would be without it. So I keep reading, and posting, even when I’m not really sure it’s the most comfortable place for me to be.

And this isn’t even what I was planning on writing about when I started today. I wanted to write about the thousandth tweet.

You might have noticed on the above chart that I am currently sitting at 999 tweets. This is monumental for me. I also have 123 followers, which is pretty mind-blowing. Everyone else on twitter seems to say such witty, fantastic things and I feel like the village idiot, blathering to myself in a corner and trying to fit in.

But the 999 tweets.

It seems like 1,000 tweets is kind of a big deal. How did I get to 1,000 tweets? I have a hard time coming up with anything to say on there. It’s hard being slick and fun in 144 characters or less, and I’m more of a “best left unsaid” type of person anyway. Well, mostly.

So when I saw that I was at 999 this morning, I froze. I tweeted last night a couple of times – no big deal – but I didn’t know how close I was.

I wish I had just gone over 1,000 and not noticed. But I did. This morning I noticed. Nine hundred and ninety-nine. And now it seems like it must not only be noticed, it must be commemorated.

But how?

Oh, sure. I could blow it off. Ha ha, one thousandth tweet. Or, wasting my life, 1,000 tweets. Or, celebrate! One thousand tweets! But it doesn’t feel right.

I’d like it to be more poignant. Something better. Something deeper.

But then that feels silly. It’s not really a milestone. it’s just a thousand tweets. That’s not really anything. It’s like rolling over to all zeros on a car odometer. It’s not a real thing. It’s only a thing because we make it a thing in our heads.

And still, I can’t stop sitting here with a little smile on my face. Because anything could happen today. It’s my thousandth tweet. Something fantastic could happen today, and I could give tweet about it.

And maybe not.

It’s almost exciting.

Almost.

What will be my one thousandth tweet?

What would you tweet about?

Business and pleasure at the Teen Author Talk

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Regina Garvie

Today I mixed business with pleasure when I visited a library in the next town over and listened to three Young Adult authors talk about their books and careers.

Oklahoma authors Sonia Gensler and Tara Hudson were in attendance, along with Tessa Gratton, who lives in Kansas. That’s pretty close.

My homeschooled trio came with me, along with my mom, who lives in Blanchard. We picked her up on the way and headed for the library in our van ‘o fun.

A class of high schoolers were already there, and they were joined by a pack of kids from the middle school. My oldest daughter is 13, and she was really interested by the whole thing. She loves reading but has never been into writing, but after the talk, she said she might try writing some short stories and see what happens.

All three of the authors talked about their books and the paths they traveled to publication. They were asked numerous questions by an audience that was a lot more attentive than I thought they would be – the speakers were that good.

We stuck around for a few minutes after and said hi, but I didn’t want to keep them, and we had to get back home for dance lessons and things like that, so with thoughts of short stories and autographed bookmarks, we filed back to the car.

It was good. I’m glad we went.

This was one stop on a big tour they did with all of the Pioneer Library system. They’ve been all over – to schools and libraries in Norman, Moore, OKC, Shawnee, etc. Sonia’s blog says they’ll be at Noble tomorrow night, and that’s the last one. It’s worth it if you’re in the area. Check out the details here.

And now I’m ready to get busy on a new Oklahoma author review for this blog – I just added Tara Hudson’s trilogy to my Kindle!

My darling daughter with authors Tessa Gratton, Sonia Gensler and Tara Hudson.

Golden Kite, Golden Dreams

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Regina Garvie

One of the neat things about being a part of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) is that it not only provides a fantastic support base and introduces me to new friends, it also opens the world of illustration.

If not for SCBWI’s inclusion of both writers and illustrators, I would have never met many of the interesting artists in our local group. I also wouldn’t have attended a beautiful art show.

The OKC part of our state’s SCBWI generally meets once a month at a magical, old-fashioned, wooden-shelved, rolling laddered(!) bookstore called Full Circle Books. Local people, it’s at 50 Penn Place, and if you haven’t been there, please go. Please.

But this month, we were invited to attend a special art show at Oklahoma City University, Golden Kite, Golden Dreams: The SCBWI Awards. We were hosted by Mike Wimmer, Department Chair and SCBWI member.

The different pieces of art were fascinating. Pictures representing winners from each year of the Golden Kite awards were on display, along with information about the artists and the books they appeared in. It was interesting to see how styles have changed over the years.

It also struck me how each illustrator truly has their own style. You hear it again and again – how each artist must find their own voice – but when the art was all lined up like that, it was apparent how true it really was. There was so much beauty in those pictures, and each person told it in their own personal way.

The exhibit will be on display at the Nona Jean Hulsey Art Gallery, on the Oklahoma City University Campus, through October 20, and is well worth a visit. The gallery is open 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Golden Kite, Golden Dreams: The SCBWI Awards is presented by the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature.

Looking at all the beautiful artwork made me think of some of the beautiful scenes I remember from books. My mind immediately goes to the work of Garth Williams – his black and white drawings in Charlotte’s Web and the Little House on the Prairie books still tug at my heart when I see them – and the deceptively simple beauty of Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. I know there’s more that I’ve loved and admired, but for some reason, those two illustrators are the first in my mind when I think about art that’s touched me in children’s literature.

Who are some of your favorite children’s illustrators?

The Dark Between

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Regina Garvie

When I was focused on newspaper and the small town I covered, I didn’t read much, excepting each newly released Stephen King novel.

Now I’m back to reading a lot – and most of my attention is on Young Adult novels. I don’t read too many new ones, since I’m trying to play catch up on all the great ones I’ve missed over the years.

The Dark Between, by Sonia Gensler, was released August 27, 2013.

I did get the opportunity to read a very new book this month, however, when I received a copy of THE DARK BETWEEN by Sonia Gensler.

Sonia is an Oklahoma author. Her first book, THE REVENANT, was published several years ago, but I read it in the spring and mentioned in on this blog in April.

Here’s the blurb about THE DARK BETWEEN, from Sonia’s website, soniagensler,com: At the turn of the twentieth century, Spiritualism and séances are all the rage—even in the scholarly town of Cambridge, England. While mediums dupe the grief-stricken, a group of local fringe scientists seeks to bridge the gap to the spirit world by investigating the dark corners of the human mind.

Each running from a shadowed past, Kate, Asher, and Elsie take refuge within the walls of Summerfield College. But their peace is soon shattered by the discovery of a dead body nearby. Is this the work of a flesh-and-blood villain, or is something otherworldly at play? This unlikely trio must illuminate what the scientists have not, and open a window to secrets taken to the grave—or risk joining the spirit world themselves.

Spooky, right?

And I’ve got to say – the three characters are all so well defined that I’m still thinking about them. The writing was crisp; the story was direct and clear. I really, really enjoyed this book.

And when I got to the end, I turned the last page and wished there was more. I hope she writes a sequel, because I’m not ready for story to be done.

To get your copy, on Amazon, click this right now! THE DARK BETWEEN

And there’s a trailer!

Disclaimer: I received my copy of THE DARK BETWEEN absolutely free(!) but not for review purposes – it was because I follow Sonia’s blog (even though I don’t really like tea) and she had a contest back in February for a free copy of Maurissa Guibord’s book, REVEL, plus a pre-order of THE DARK BETWEEN, and I entered on a whim, and amazingly won! REVEL was fantastic, and then, after all those months, having THE DARK BETWEEN appear in my mailbox was almost like Christmas. What luck that reading the books was just as enjoyable as winning them! Thank you, Sonia!

The Princess and the Pee

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Regina Garvie

Thanks to my lovely critique partner Gayleen, I have several books by Oklahoma authors to read and review. Of course, I’m taking forever on it, but I really have the best intentions of reading the books and getting them on here.

The latest one I’ve pulled out from the bag was a short children’s book, The Princess and the Pee, by Oklahoma author Susan A. Meyers. Admittedly, my first thought was Ew. Pee. I don’t like the word pee. Of course, with small kids, we use it sometimes, but I much prefer the daintier sounding “pee-pee” or even “tinkle.”

But besides that.

The book is about Princess Pia Scarlet, who wants to sleep on the top bunk so she can see the fireflies outside. Her sister refuses to switch bunks until Pia Scarlet stops wetting the bed. (The sister says “peeing the bed,” which the Fair Queen says is a rude term. I have a few things in common with the Fair Queen!)

Anyway, the girls made a bet. Since the sister understandably doesn’t want to be peed on, she tells Pia Scarlet that if she doesn’t wet the bed for a whole week, she’ll switch with her.

The book is very cute as it goes through Pia Scarlet’s seven nights of attempted dryness. The illustrations (by Manelle Oliphant) are lovely and add to the story.The book is fun, never preachy, and has been enjoyed by my six year old.

Susan is also a member of the Oklahoma chapter of SCBWI, and I’ve gotten the pleasure of starting to get to know her. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more or her and enjoying the rest of her books. She’s a good writer and nice person too!

To learn more about Susan A. Meyers and her work, visit her website: http://susanameyers.com/

Anna Myers

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Regina Garvie

So, after reading Assassin by Anna Myers recently, I went on an all-out Myers binge.

I read Time of the Witches, Tulsa Burning, Stolen by the Sea, Graveyard Girl, Flying Blind, Fire in the Hills, and When the Bough Breaks.

I read them one after another. Some took me one day. Some took a little more.

I enjoyed them all, but my favorite, hands down, was When the Bough Breaks. I liked the complexity of the book. Instead of one storyline, there were two, woven together – and I liked both of them. Sometimes when I read a book from multiple points of view, I prefer one character and want the other to shut up and let me get back to my favorite. This time, both were intriguing. Both had terrible secrets – and both were satisfying to discover.

I also still love the little things you find in a book written by a person you actually know in real life. One of the storylines – the one featuring teenager Ophelia – includes a scene at the cemetery, which is across the street from the school. I’ve been to Myers’ hometown, and the cemetery in that town is indeed right across from the school. I was driving around, killing time before a SCBWI Oklahoma workshop, when I went by the school and noticed the cemetery nearby. I thought it was a little creepy and strange, and wondered what the students though. Later, when I read the When the Bough Breaks, I was delighted to see the school and cemetery put to use in literature.

Myers’ books are such a good way to combine fiction with historical events. We homeschool, and I think her work will be a great way to supplement history when we are doing studies this year. My oldest daughter doesn’t care for history, but I think that’s just because she hasn’t had it come alive for her yet. She enjoyed Assassin. Now I just need to add more historical fiction to the curriculum.

Time of the Witches – This one focuses on the Salem witch trials and the effect on the life of an orphan named Drucilla. She is separated from her bff, Gabe, and moves in with a crazypants woman and her weird family. After she and her foster sister start visiting the servant of the town’s new reverend, several girls, including Drucilla, start claiming they are being attacked by witches.

Tulsa Burning – A story of a boy named Noble who lives in the small town of Wekiwa and faces the Tulsa race riot of 1921. His friend is trapped in Tulsa, and Noble (nicknamed “Nobe”) goes into the burning city to find him. Wekiwa had a lot of twists with who was related to who – I would have liked to have seen a dossier on all of the people who lived in the town!

Stolen by the Sea – A girl named Maggie rides out the Galveston hurricane of 1900. I didn’t even know about this event before reading the book. According to Wikipedia, the Galveston hurricane is the deadliest natural disaster to ever strike the United States. An estimated 6,000-12,000 people died. In the book, Maggie stays in her home, struggling for survival with the help of Felipe, a Mexican boy from the orphanage who works for her father.

Graveyard Girl – Another new event for me – the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis in 1878. I loved the newspaper quotes at the beginning. I also adored a quote from Grace, the Graveyard Girl, about life and death. This was a library book, and I meant to write it down before I returned the book yesterday, but of course I didn’t. Figures. I did not really love the artwork on the front, and I was surprised at how that colored my view of the title character. It reminded me of someone, and that was hard to shake. On Amazon there’s a different cover for the paperback, which obscures Grace’s face. I wish I’d seen that one first.

Flying Blind – Told from two points of view – a young boy named Ben and…wait for it…a macaw named Murphy! I enjoyed it. This book looked at the problem of plume hunting in Florida at the turn of the 20th century. The line between right and wrong isn’t so clear when Ben learns that two of the plume hunters are orphans that use the sales of feathers to survive. Plume hunting took a terrible toll on birds, with millions being killed every year just for fashionable hats for women.

Fire in the Hills – This one was about a girl in a tiny Oklahoma town who loses her mother and cares for an ill military deserter during World War I. I liked the main character, Hallie, quite a bit and wouldn’t have minded this story going on a little longer.

All in all, eight enjoyable books. I probably should have spread them out a little more so I could give each one a post. Or maybe I should get back to writing my own novels.

When you find an author you like, do you rush and read everything by them that you can get your hands on? What authors have inspired you to race through all their books?

The writing mom

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Regina Garvie

It is hard to be a mom sometimes. Okay. It’s hard a lot of the time.

I stress and worry that I’m not a good enough mom. When I worked in newspaper, I had to put in my 40 hours a week even though I worked from home. I went out to interviews – kids in tow if it was daytime hours – and sometimes hid on the porch so I could talk uninterrupted to mayors and police chiefs on the phone. Favorite kid memory from that era – stopping in front of a burning house and snapping a picture from the car, then waving to the fire chief. “Kids in the car! I’ll call you!” I shouted, and he waved back in agreement.

Small town.

Now I’m in a corner of a different room in the house with my laptop, but I’m still trying to do it all. Headphones help to muffle the bickering of three (sometimes four) children while I slip into the worlds of my novels. A chapter here…a few sentences there.

I write what I can. I spend time with the kids when I can. I take a break from writing to make lunch or put laundry on the clothes line or admire a newly-captured baby frog. Or to yell at someone to clean up their mess. It’s not all sunshine, for sure.

And instead of feeling like I’m doing an adequate job at writing and at parenting, I feel like I’m doing a mediocre job at both.

I guess it’s my perfectionist nature.

Easter Egg coloring…yay Mom!

When I look at all I’ve accomplished: three awesome children and several completed books – I’m kind of impressed. But when I look at dishes stacked up and stains on the carpet and messy bedrooms and unrevised novels, I feel like I’ll never match up to what I’d like to be.

A friend posted a link to a blog post today that made me feel a little better. I need to remember to read it often, and try to live by it.

I’m not Supermom. I’m a real mom. That is enough.

http://rachelmariemartin.blogspot.com/2013/07/why-being-mom-is-enough.html