Glowing Intestines and What Not

I've been out of the loop for a week. I was working onsite and trying to help my husband with marketing his book. Then on my husband's birthday I got these severe stomach pains. At first, I thought they were just gas. Maybe it was the weird chicken salad I had at the deli where I was working. But no ... it got worse and I couldn't finish my steak at Morton's that night. Ugh! Usually, I just deal with the pain and go on with my day. My grandma didn't raise no wuss. (In fact, she had a heart attack and a stroke at 90 years old and she had the ladder out and was about to clean the ceilings when she fell ill. Yeah, I come from tough stock.) But I couldn't straighten out. I was totally buckled over. So, to make a long story short (too late, I know), they ran all these tests and thought that it might be kidney stones or a urinary infection. I had a CT scan done and they didn't see any stones.

Though the doctor asked me while he was looking at my scans, "Did you have anything to drink before this?"
"No," I replied. "They told me I wasn't allowed."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Positive?"
Okay, by now I was getting agitated. "Yes, I'm totally sure."
"They didn't give you a drink to make your intestines glow?"
This took me aback. Glowing intestines? What the hell? "No," I said. "I think I'd remember that." I took a deep breath before I totally freaked on the doctor and asked evenly, "Why?"
"Well," he cleared his throat, "you'r intestines are glowing in this area and I don't know why."

I'm sure it was just a weird CT glitch, but for a moment I thought of the Glow Worm—the stuffed animal whose belly glowed at night. Was I going to turn into that? What kind of alien virus did I have? Doctors should never, ever comment on anything weird in front of patients. Never. It doesn't leave a warm, fuzzy (glowy) feeling inside to know that there's potentially something weird inside of you. I'm supposed to find out the results of my urinalysis today. )If the government doesn't hall me off for further testing.) Check out Medical Mysteries on the Discovery channel for the girl with the glowing instestines next year.

Anyway, writing has been going well. I've gotten back over 70K in my revisions and I'm on page 178. Yippee! I might work at a slower pace than others, but it's working for me and I've been happy with the outcome.

Margaret Atwood

Last night I went to a book signing and interview with Margaret Atwood at the Borders in D.C.
My friend Laura got me hooked on Margaret Atwood about 6 years ago when she told me that I had to read The Handmaid's Tale. I couldn't put it down. In fact, I had nightmares where I was one of the handmaids stuck in a furistic United States with all of my rights taken away by extreme religious leaders. I could hold no job, own no property, couldn't marry whom I chose. The scary thing is that there are so many women around the world where this is a reality. Whenever a book or movie seeps so far into my subconscious that it invades my dreams, I know it's a good story. My other favorite books by her are Oryx and Crake and The Blind Assassin. She is a poet, so her prose is very lyrical and her descriptions of feelings, life, everyday objects, scenes, and people are anything but ordinary. The book reviewer from the Washington Post interviewed her and had asked her about how she could write about mundane subjects (in her new book Moral Disorder there is a breakfast scene) and make them interesting. She said that people tend to leave out the good parts when relating everyday life events. Every scene has to work to move the story. Every instance in life moves our lives forward. It's all in how you perceive it.

Quote of the week:

"Read, read, read. Read everything—just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! Then write." William Faulkner

No Nano

So I started this month with hopes of doing Nano again. I had so much success last year with my latest and greatest that I was so looking forward to generating another story to write home (and to the publishers) about. But, alas, over 2K into my next story and I decided that I couldn't split my time between the one I'm revising to send to the publisher and a new one and still get my work done and market my husband's books. At first I felt like a total loser. It's something that really helps me and gets my butt into gear to move onto another story. Especially when I've been talking to my fellow writers, Sybir and Rogue Poet, about it. But the truth is that I'm not ready to move on. I thought I was finished with Dark Earth (my Nano creation from last year) but I received comments back from others this summer after RWA, which caused me to delete about 20K from my story, bringing my 80K-300-page story down to 60K and a lot less pages. I had one agent from the conference interested in a partial and an editor wanting to see a full. I thought that my story was finished barring a grammar and consistency check. Oh, how I was wrong.

"Revision," William C. Knott says in The Craft of Fiction, is like "wrestling with a demon," where there "is no escape for almost anyone can write; only writers know how to rewrite. It is this ability alone that turns the amateur into a professional." (Frey, James N. How to Write a Damn Good Novel. St. Martins Press, New York: 1987.)

I'm almost up to 70K now and am on page 150 and nearing 300 pages again. My characters are coming to life. My voice is getting bolder. Will it need more work after this revision? Probably. But my goal is to get this to a place before the year's end where I can send it to the editor, because I'm not going to let this opportunity slip away. It's a slap in the face ofauthors out there who haven't gotten the chance to pitch their stories. Once I am finished at the beginning of the year, I will set this aside and start another. Right now, first things first. Finish what I started. Body slam the demon.

Tagged

Okay, so Rogue Poet has just tagged me to write five things that are not commonly known about me. Ugh! This is so hard to do. I mean ... it's hard to think when you're put on the spot. Sure, when I'm having a conversation then someone says something that sparks my memory and I'm like, "oh yeah, you know what I did?" When I think over my life, I don't have anything exciting like being an extra on the A-team. How cool is that??? (Of course being one of those ref guys at Skateland, I'd probably keep that under wraps. They were always rude to me ... of course, sometimes I did ignore the rules.)

1. I love The Flintstones. It is one of my favorite cartoons. I got the fifth season on DVD for my birthday which has my two favorite episodes: Uncle Giggles and Jay Bondrock. I can quote excerpts from The Flinstones. I've related my life experiences to what has happened on The Flinstones. Yes, I'm a dork.

2. I have a large scar on my right palm from when my hand went through a window when I was a child. If I were a gangster, I'd be known as Scarhand.

3. I miss acting. I miss being on stage. I miss being a total ham and making people laugh. I took acting lessons as a child and was in plays throughout high school, but had to work to pay for college so I didn't have time for play practice. Ugh! I guess the world is now my stage. Ha!

4. I took guitar lessons when I was younger but stopped playing. I still fiddle around with it once in awhile and I hope to pick it up again. I took singing lessons as well and can hold one or two notes and belt out a few broadway show tunes and not kill anyone's ears. Definitely, not a natural.

5. Bowling is the one sport that I'm decent at. I was on a league for about 7 years when I was younger. I'm a little rusty now but when I was in college none of my friends could beat me, not even my husband ... which is why we stopped bowling. Did I mention how competitive he is?

That's it. Now back to writing.

Yours truly,
Scarhand