How Much House is Really Necessary (Not Much!)

by Sarah Smiley (www.SarahSmiley.com)

Dustin and I had a large house in Florida. Most people there do. Perhaps it is the heat, which even in the middle of October can still feel as hot as the air from a hairdryer (only with less wind), but most homes in Florida are sprawling. Two-story houses are an anomaly; the bigger the footprint of a house in Florida, the better. This makes it so that no one ever has to touch or be near anyone else in their family. And in that type of heat, who would want to?

Our house was also typical in that it was covered almost entirely with tile and wood floors. Carpet gets too sticky when you're hot. And just like the majority of children nearby, our boys had a large playroom and separate bedroom. They had their own bathroom, too, which I am told stayed remarkably clean most of the time, but I can neither confirm nor deny this because unless I had a reason to venture into the boys' bathroom, I didn't see it. That's how big our house was. We had two extra bedrooms and one extra bathroom that were furnished but ultimately not used. We could have stored a mini-van in our attic.

So you can imagine our surprise when we received military orders to Maine, and an online search revealed that very few homes are larger than 2000 square feet. I fell in love with one that is just barely 1500 square feet.

"The house is perfect, but it just seems, I don't know, kind of small," I said to our real estate agent.

"You've never had to pay a heating bill, have you?" he said.

On moving day, our boys shamelessly cried when we gave away almost three-quarters of the toys that once filled their playroom in Florida. There just wasn't any room for them. It was my turn to pout, however, when we had to store my piano and the dining room set my grandmother gave to me. I was beginning to believe that our rented storage unit was roomier than our new house.

But then an interesting thing happened. While I swept the kitchen floor, I could hear my boys through the wall, playing in their bedroom, talking to each other about the scariest dream they'd ever had, their favorite new friends, and their best and worst subjects in school.

Had they always conversed with each other like this? I wondered.

Whereas they used to go up to their playroom to watch movies and cartoons, now they had to share the living room with everyone else. As I typed on my computer in the kitchen, I could hear the dialogue of the television program and intervene when necessary.

Was The Clone Wars always this violent? And when had the boys stopped watching Franklin? What other conversations and insights had I missed when my children were upstairs, shut in their playroom?

Once I was in the basement folding laundry when I heard Ford and Owen teasing their littler brother, Lindell. I directed my mouth at the ceiling and yelled, "Cut it out or you're both grounded," and like a snake sneaking up on its prey and bouncing forward to strike, my voice came through the vents on the floor into the boys' bedroom. They were stunned into silence. Maybe Mom does has eyes in the back of her head, I imagined them thinking.

One year later, I can't imagine living in a large house. Much like soldiers in barracks or college students in dormitories, my family is bonding. We are under each other's foot, in each other's business, but finally living with each other, if not on top of each other. Before, I wasn't sure how my boys would handle sharing a small room and not having a playroom. "I never had my own room until I joined the Navy," my dad said. "And I never had a playroom." He turned out just fine. Maybe even better because of it.

In hindsight, our old house was excessive. Our voices echoed off the tall ceilings and wide, open living room, signifying to me the distance that had grown between my family. Our voices don't echo anymore. They seep through the floorboards, out the open screen windows (maybe our neighbors know us a little too well), and through the vents in the next room.

One day, as I was getting dressed upstairs, I heard my boys talking in their room below. "Remember how Mom seemed kind of sad before," Ford said.

"Yeah, she's much happier now," Owen said.

I smiled to myself, my heart full and grateful. Then I put my lips to the vent on the floor and whispered, "I love you guys."

Silence.

I wrote a bad novel in one month

(Or, the blessings of turning off your editor and turning on your imagination)

by Karen Harrington

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I just finished the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge. For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo dares you to write a 50 thousand word novel in 30 days with the aim of doing more writing and less editing. So I thought I’d share four observations after this – my third consecutive - post-NaNoWriMo experience.

1. Many a good writing book will tell you that writing is editing. Alas, you cannot edit a blank page. NaNoWriMo forces you to put something on the page as if on deadline. Funny thing about we humans – we are quite motivated by deadlines. Remember staying up the night before your term paper was due and actually creating something reasonably readable? The same applies for NaNoWriMo. The deadline oriented challenge forces you to get something on the page that you would otherwise procrastinate about.

2. The desire to procrastinate looms over the writer. With NaNoWriMo, you get the full benefit of applying my favorite writing method, known as the BIC approach to writing. BIC = butt in chair. No story is ever created without serious application of this method. If you sit down to write, you will write something. Very often, while writing something you HAVE TO write, you will write a gem. And then another, one sentence at a time.

3. My third point has to do with competitiveness. Each of us is competitive to varying degrees. NaNoWriMo attracts hundreds of thousands of would-be novelists as well as published novelists (author Sara Gruen wrote her first draft of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS during a previous NaNoWriMo). That said, you are competing against other writers to see who will cross the finish line. NaNoWriMo has neat little gadgets that allow you to input your word count – and view the word counts of others. There’s something about seeing the progress of others that prompts you onward, makes you want to stay with the pack or charge ahead.

4. The final point I’d like to make about my NaNo experience has to do with self-doubt. Sylvia Plath once said “the worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” I think many would-be writers do not sit down to write out of fear that the writing will be no good. Well, all first drafts are no good. But they are often inspired. There are always parts you will keep and hone. Ultimately, I believe that no writing is ever wasted. It is always practice. Like a pilot who must put in numerous hours before earning his license and being allowed to fly solo, writers, too, must put in untold number of hours before any good story appears. This is why NaNoWriMo, and challenges like it, are so valuable. The practice, experience and permission to write a bad novel in one month is liberating!

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JUST THE FACTS MA’AM

- I wrote between 2,000 to 4,000 words a day to finish. I didn't know I could do that!
- This year, I wrote a novel titled Mrs. Boyd, which re-imagined Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, set in modern Texas.
- Much of this challenge allows the writer to create lavish character sketches and describing locations in heavily adverbed-detail.
- Retracing the steps of an author, chapter for chapter, was a terrific experiment. I would compare this process to an artist sitting at a museum, doing his own sketch of a Monet. Try it!
- I will continue working on this novel.

What do you think about NaNoWriMo? Have you participated in it before? Do you think you would like to?

-- Visit my blog to read the variety of novel first sentences by my fellow NaNoWriMo participants.

--
Karen Harrington is the author of JANEOLOGY, a unique and captivating blend of legal drama and paranormal suspense.

A Sure Cure for Rejection: Get mad, Then Get Published
by Judy Lockhart DiGregorio

Anger erupted in me like hot lava when an editor critiqued my manuscript at a writing conference. His insensitive comments irritated me so much I fled home after the session, sat down at my computer, and literally pounded the keyboard as I began to flesh out an article rebutting each thing he said. My fragile ego couldn’t handle honest feedback.
I wanted to be petted and stroked like my calico cat. I wanted to be tickled under the chin. Instead, the editor had informed me, in effect, that my writing had fleas. To work through my anger and frustration, I wrote an article about the experience called “Feedback: Who Needs It?” In the article, I addressed each criticism and suggestion the editor had offered during my evaluation.
After I cooled down, I realized the suggestions he offered me were invaluable. They were specific. They were accurate. They were true. I needed to hear them.
After several rejections, I successfully sold the article to (http://www.inscriptionsmagazine.com/), an e-zine for professional writers. Then I sent a copy of it to the editor, thanking him for the suggestions that had enabled me to publish the article. I was still a beginning writer, but I had already learned one lesson. Accept criticism gracefully and learn from it. I wanted to be the best writer I could be, but I could not improve without help.
I continued writing and submitting my work. During a particularly frustrating period, I received 27 rejection letters in a row. Finally, I received a handwritten note scribbled on the bottom of a form letter from an editor at Field and Stream. The note chastised me for not paying more attention to the magazine guidelines.
Under the note, the editor had scrawled a word that electrified me -- “Retry.” This editor obviously recognized my talent, even if she didn’t accept this particular piece. I kissed the letter reverently and stuffed it into my pocket. In my excitement, I pulled it out to read and reread.
Unfortunately, when I scanned the letter again the next day, I made a startling discovery. The scribbled word at the bottom of the page matched the signature block on the letter. It did not say ‘Retry.’ It said ‘Betsy,’ the editor’s first name. In my desperation, I had misread the editor’s handwritten signature. My hopes of fame and fortune popped quicker than a balloon.
After eventually publishing several articles in regional and local magazines, I lobbied the editor of our local paper to give me a humor column. I informed him that I was dependable, funny, and cheap. He didn’t care. I left him sample columns and visited him every three months. After nine months, he finally gave me a column -- to stop my visits, I guess. Unfortunately, he took another job after my column appeared four times. The interim editor cut back on local columnists so I was once more columnless.
When a new editor finally started work, I employed the same strategy I had with the first editor. Again, I had to wait almost a year. This time the editor offered me a humor column in the newspaper’s supplementary publication, Senior Living magazine. I accepted at once. The pay was low, but the exposure was high. Since the magazine was distributed in hospitals, fitness centers, credit unions, and hotels, it gave me a great deal of visibility and added to my writing credentials.
Today I am a humor columnist who has published over 300 columns in several publications including pieces in the Army-Navy Times, ByLine Magazine, the Chicken Soup books, and The Writer. I’ve learned quite a bit since that first painful writing critique many years ago. Now I’m much better at handling rejection and accepting criticism. Patience and persistence enable me to survive rejection and successfully publish in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. You can do it, too.
Just be patient, be persistent, and be published!

Judy DiGregorio lives in Oak Ridge, TN. Celtic Cat Publishing published her collection of humorous essays, “Life Among the Lilliputians” in 2008. She is currently at work on her second humor book. Visit her website and blog at http://www.judyjabber.com/. Parts of this column appeared in “The Writer” in April 2003.

New Release - Saving Cicadas

By Nicole Seitz

I need to tell you about this little girl named Janie. She's eight-and-a-half, smart as a whip and loves her mama, even more now that Daddy's gone away. Her sister, Rainey Dae, is seventeen, has Down syndrome, and likes to Google. They both love bugs, and they're extremely close and protective of one another--sisters can be that way. And Mama works--hard--but Christmas is coming, and it never seems she has enough. And now, well, now, she's just found out she's pregnant again.

This can't be happening. But it is.

And so Janie and her sister Rainey and Grandma Mona and Poppy climb into the car with Mama for the last family vacation they'll ever have. Except that this isn't any normal vacation. And this isn't any normal family. These are the Macys. And there are family secrets to unearth. And difficult choices on the long road ahead.

A moving narrative about family, loss and longing, and the transforming power of truth, SAVING CICADAS is an eloquent reminder that life is a miracle—and even the smallest soul is a gift.

"well-drawn characters" — Southern Living

"will leave you awe-struck." — Beth Webb Hart, author of Grace at Low Tide, Adelaide Piper, and The Wedding Machine

"Seitz has a gift for creating wonderful characters, especially the young girls...this tale's spooky sweet dénouement includes a magical twist...marvelously memorable." — Publishers Weekly

"What a deeply moving novel! I literally could not put it down...I think the issues covered in the book …are so relevant to our society. The choices...seen from a child's perspective, was illuminating." — Valerie Jones, Fireside Books & Gifts, Forest City, NC

"a surprisingly creative tale that will leave readers guessing until the end." — River Jordan, author of Saints in Limbo, The Messenger of Magnolia Street, and The Gin Girl

"Plotted as tightly as a murder mystery--brings tears to a grown man's eyes." — Jim McFarlane, Fiction Addiction, Greenville, SC

"Resounding kudos to Charleston resident Seitz for penning a tale that spans Carolina towns, explores family ties, wrestles heart-heavy fare from abortion to the afterlife, and toys with magical realism." — Charleston Magazine

"do NOT miss this novel." — Fresh Fiction

Watch a short book trailer...with your speakers turned up.





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Nicole Seitz releases her fourth novel, SAVING CICADAS, on December 1. Her daughter was the model for the cover painting. Nicole's other titles include A Hundred Years of Happiness, Trouble the Water, and The Spirit of Sweetgrass. http://www.nicoleseitz.com/

Rewrite and rewrite and rewrite and ...

By Ad Hudler

True Story, sad beginning, happy ending.

Finished my first novel, Househusband, and tried to pitch it to an agent I'd met at The Sewanee Writer's Conference (Incidentally, this is a great conference to attend when you're seriously ready to sell a book … lots of great networking goes on here.)

Agent said, "Love the idea, too episodic."

So I rewrote it again, this time with what I thought was more plot.

Agent said, "Too episodic."

I rewrote it again.

Agent said, "Good luck."

More than a year has passed.

Finally, I contact agent Number Two, referred by a woman I jogged with while at the Sewanee Writer's Conference.

"Too episodic," she told me. "It needs … something."

"What?" I ask. "Just tell me and I'll do it."

"I'm not sure," she says, "but it's not ready. It needs ... something."

I rewrite AGAIN.

Agent #2 likes it a little better but still won't sign me on. "It needs something."

"What?!" I plead.

"Just ... something."

I rewrite it AGAIN, this time incorporating an entire new storyline dreamed up in one of my previously published short stories.

Agent #2 says, "Okay, I'll take it now, but don't expect anything big. It's tough out there."

Within 12 hours, we have five offers. The book ends at auction, and Ad gets a big fat six-figure advance.

So … don't give up, people. Rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. If someone says it needs to be rewritten, it probably does.

Ad Hudler's most recent novel, published by Random House, is "Man of the House." He blogs at AdHudler.com and has an essay called "Tree Bitch," forthcoming in The Oxford American. He will be one of the featured authors at this year's Southern Voices event in Alabama.

Rejecting Rejection

by Zachary Steele

I made it through the entirety of high school without having to endure the potential tragedy of a date.

Now, in that, it might seem as though I celebrate that I escaped the awkwardness of a staggered and indecisive conversation over a delightful dinner at Taco Bell, or that I rejoice in the passing of another dance without collapsing in a heap atop the punch bowl by way of two very clumsy, and inexperienced steps, or even that I am proud that I never had to answer that terrifying throttle of Ahab's harpoon to the nerves, "Should I use my tongue, or would she slap me?" But that would imply a choice in the matter. Sure, I was the shy kid that would blush if someone next to me sneezed, but for the most part I gave gallant, if not altogether misguided, attempts at finding a girl who, "got me." The problem--the ultimate failing in this course--was that I spent those years of my life chasing after every single girl in the school that would rather have structured their weekends around delightfully dull dinners with their parents and younger siblings, than to have succumbed to my cherubic charm (absent the charm). It made for quite a run of rejection, to be honest. The kind that, more often than not, left me standing bewildered in a hallway of students, a mere bumper to the course, a potential ramp of skateboarding delight, wondering why it was that a slap to the face could make my feet hurt so badly.

The pure fact of it all is that rejection sucks. Sure, you can pick yourself up, you can tell yourself that they just didn't get you, and that someday you'll find someone to flaunt in front of the line of people that rejected you, and take the high road, give a simple raise of the brow, and maybe a knowing smile (which always works best with the tongue out, if you ask me), and you'll revel in your triumph, hand in hand with acceptance. But those words...those god-awful words, just never leave you.

"No, you're just really not cool enough for me."

"Yeah, um, I'm just not looking for you right now. Check back with me in a couple of years."

"You're a really great guy, and you have great potential as a companion, but I don't think you fully understand what dating is all about. Maybe you should be looking for someone with lower standards."

"You know, I might have gotten those messages, but I haven't really had a chance to listen to them. How about you call me in a few weeks, and, if I've had a chance to review your proposal, we'll talk then?"

"See, the problem is your pitch. If you had begun with the most important part--where you ask me out--I might not have lost interest so quickly. The whole, 'I've been thinking a lot about what to say,' bit is a horribly cliche start. It's the way these things work, though. I get so many offers each week, and I only have so much time to listen."

It's a tired, tired, um, tired...thing, but you carry on. You carry on because you're stubborn. You carry on because you just couldn't imagine another day without a companion by your side. You carry on because, well, because you're just plain lonely, and really want someone to share your time with. Mostly, you carry on because you refuse to be denied, and know that someday the right girl is going to come around, and that you will utterly, absolutely, and undeniably rock her world. You do this because the failure to do so, would mean the end of your dating life, which is something you just cannot allow.

But never mind that, we're here to talk about writing, which has nothing at all to do with anything I have thus far said. After all, people will always appreciate you for spilling your guts out on the computer tremendously more than they do if you do so in person. You need thick skin in any area of life that presents the possibility for rejection, but writing is pretty straightforward, and is unlikely to ever cause you pain, or grief, or to feel like your brains have just been sucked out through your nose.

For example, I was on the verge of snagging a literary agent once at the William Morris Agency, but was declined, after a thorough reading, not due to poorly written material, but due to problematic scheduling, and an untimely submission. See for yourself: "Though we appreciate, and value, your talent as a writer, we feel that your manuscript is just not right for our agency, or for the market at this time. Please consider us for future projects, however."

See? That's not a rejection at all, and sounds nothing like the rejections posted above! They clearly wanted to represent me, but were unable to because of the market. They just couldn't wait to read the rest of my work!

Earlier that same year, I had sent sample writings to the wonderfully compassionate, and caring, people at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. They were so very considerate in their attempts to encourage my writing skills, that they sent me a letter to my request that included the following: "Writing is a skill that we wish to harness, and cultivate, in each, and every, writer. We feel, though you do show great potential, that you would be best served to improve your skill further before applying again for Bread Loaf. Please consider sending us more material in a couple of years."

Again, such a willingness to lead me in the right direction! How can I feel anything but complete acceptance of my skill, and ability? Goodness knows, I might very well have languished in a perpetual state of un-improvement for years to come! Now I'm a published author! Thank you, Bread Loaf!

Sometimes--yes, even in the publishing industry!--the level of acceptance you receive from publishers, or agents, or editors, or the like, can be twinged ever so slightly with a heavy, yet suggestive, hand. You might even feel a bit put off by the words they have chosen, but rest assured that they only have your best interests at heart, and want nothing more than to see you in their fold, successful and happy! They try so hard to offer you their acceptance that they will chance to wake you from your blissful rest with a most carefully aimed bomb. For example, I sent a manuscript to Harper Collins many years ago, offering them the glorious chance to view a book I knew they would trip over themselves to purchase. What I received was a carefully worded letter, indicating that my work was such a stellar piece of art, that they wanted to ensure I knew how elated they were that such a young man (I was 18 at the time, and fresh off a new branch of female-induced rejection) had, "taken up writing as a hobby." Wow! What kind words! I mean, I'm sure that spell-check missed the, "hobby," part of that. Obviously, they meant, "career," but such are the follies of the computer age!

So, rest assured, dear friends of the craft, that rejection is not something you will ever have to deal with. Your best interests, and the cultivation of your art, will be coddled by those in your midst: by your friends, fellow writers, agents, editors, the kindly old lady in the cafe that threatened to beat you with her walker if you talked about your writing just once more, and so on. They want only to see you succeed. All you have to do is smile, and wait for the offers to pour in.

Just don't ask me for dating advice.

Zachary Steele is the author of Anointed: The Passion of Timmy Christ, CEO, and has been featured on NPR and in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Publisher's Weekly, and Shelf Awareness. He can be found boring the world with his thoughts on his blog, The Further Promotion of ME.

Guest Blogger: Cathy Holton

MAKING FRIENDS AND INFLUENCING PEOPLE
(DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT)


My fear of rejection kept me from submitting my work for almost twenty years. Now when I talk to college creative writing classes I tell them, Don’t be like me; Don’t be afraid to submit your work; Don’t be afraid of criticism or rejection.

My son’s college punk band wrote a song with the hook, Here’s a thought; it’s just a thought. Go %@#! yourself! Now whenever I read a bad review, I sing this. Repeatedly. After that I log onto Amazon and read the bad reviews of some book I think is very well-written, a masterpiece, because this proves my point: no matter how good a writer you are, no matter how dedicated and conscientious and precise, there’s always going to be someone who doesn’t like your work. Get over it. (Martinis help).

I do think that having someone you trust read your work is important, especially during the early stages of your writing career. But be selective. Know ahead of time what your reader likes to read (or write) because if you’re writing a thriller, it probably isn’t a good idea to give it to someone who likes to read (or write) romances. I’m generalizing here, of course. There are many readers (and writers) who cross genres all the time but you at least need to know something about their preferences and background before you hand over your precious creative endeavor.

And I don’t think it’s a good idea to show your work to a lot of people. If you’re lucky, you have one or two readers who you can trust to give you honest feedback. If you’re really, really lucky you have an agent and editor who can do this for you.

The main thing to remember about being a writer is to be persistent. You have to not let anything get in the way of the work; not fear of rejection, not laundry, not self-doubt, not procrastination. I get emails all the time from people who write, I think I can be a writer! What do I need to do first – write an outline, or just start writing? And I tell them, just start writing. Write everyday. Write when you’re sick, when you’re tired, when you’re hung over. It isn’t a glamorous job. If you don’t like spending a lot of time alone in a room dressed in your pajamas, you probably should do something else.

George Singleton, in his marvelous book Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds; Indispensable Wisdom and Cautionary Advice for Writers, writes – “Every writer who was meant to write, and who continues writing over a long period of time, will succeed.”

Words to live by.


Cathy Holton lives in the mountains of Tennessee. She is the author of Beach Trip, Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes and Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes, all available through Ballantine/Random House books. Her fourth novel, Old Money, is due out in the fall of 2010. Visit her online at http://www.cathyholton.com/ and read her blog, The Surly Wench Journal at http://surlywenchjournal.blogspot.com/.