electric mist

Killer Year (update)

We’re kicking off in an official capacity by being adopted by the International Thriller Writers organization (ITW) — and wow, there’s so much good news about that… go see MJ’s post on our newly redesigned Killer Year blog to see what all that means.

And while you’re at it, check out our brand spanking new Killer Year site — especially the individual author’s pages. The guys working on the design did an amazing job and put in a tremendous number of hours gathering up all of the info, designing, etc., and my hat is off to them. I love the expansion features that are designed in, too: we’ll have a calendar so everyone’s events can go up in one place for all Killer Year visitors to see at a glance (everyone’s tours or signings or events of any stripe) and we’ll also have the ability to expand our author’s page to include press-worthy news (like reviews, etc.) and excerpts (woo!). So come on, pull the curtain back and see what’s new over there!

autism speaks

My friend, Tamar, has an absolutely wonderful essay up on the prestigious website, Autism Speaks. If you or anyone you know is affected by autism, I think you'll really appreciate her essay and the helpful information available via her efforts in her blog, Hidden Laughter, which chronicles their very successful trip in helping their son after his diagnosis (all the way through mainstreaming him in school); there's a great deal of information on the Autism Speaks site itself. Please pass along these links to anyone you know who'd benefit!

go see...

I blog over at Killer Year... the topic is "Why I blame my breasts for turning me to a life of crime / caper writing."

And I'm mostly blogging over at my new site: over here... see ya there!

killer year blog -- grand opening

Forgot to publish the "moving day" post below until just now... so please change your bookmarks to my new digs.

And...

Please do go over and see the grand opening of our brand-spanking new blog -- Killer Year. We are the Class of 2007 of crime/thriller/mystery writers, and with the enthusiasm and talent in this group, I think it really is going to be a Killer Year. We'll be blogging on all sorts of topics, so come on over and bookmark us!

moving day...

Hey everyone, check out my new digs over here. I needed a fresh look, a place to put all of the writing related entries (writing, business, PR, etc.). I'll still do odd stuff (essays, humor, observations) over there. Please change your bookmarks to:

http://tonimcgeecausey.wordpress.com/

still busy

Still have lots going on, not the least of which is prepping to shoot this weekend. Have the location, the actors, the props, all of the equipment lined up. Need a sunny weekend. More on what all of this is about later, when I'm sane. (Hey. I heard that. I may be sane one day. You never know.)

Having a ball with book 2.

More soon. Well... eventually.

Wow! Look what I won!

The only thing I ever won was a cowboy hat when I was 17, and it didn't really fit all that well (hey, hush up, cowboy hats were "in")... but there'd been a contest over at the fantastic Murder She Writes last month. Now, I would have participated in commenting anyway because these writers rock -- they always have excellent posts about the writing business or the craft and they're a fun bunch to hang around. Besides, I never win anything, so I didn't even think about the contest. When I clicked on the site this morning, this is what I saw! What a haul! I have to admit I was very very confused when I saw my name at the top as the winner. I had to double-check and read through twice!

This totally rocks! Thank you to all the terrific writers over at Murder She Writes.

busy

I'm not posting as much over the next couple of weeks because I'm running like crazy to do a bunch of things. I'm going to Houston to give a talk about "voice" and how to shape it. I've also just been invited by the Baton Rouge Chapter to do the same, which is extremely cool. Woo! I'm in the middle of casting and shooting something here locally (more on that when it's done). And, most important, working on book 2, which is so rocking, I am thrilled. I mean, it's not "easy" -- but it's extremely fun to come up with the twists and turns and characters and.. well, this is the cool part of writing: creating that world afresh, finding what makes the people tick, throwing up huge obstacles in their paths and seeing just how they climb over or around (if they do). It's the first draft, Playing God, not having the self-critic on my shoulder too terribly often. Real joy in the writing. (You know, except when I paint myself into a corner and then grouse for a few days until I figure it out. Then, it's annoying as hell.)

I still need to figure out what I want for a design for the website (the official one), and I'm not sure. The design my guy came up with was terrific and exactly what I asked for -- so it's not his fault. I changed my mind when several people (mostly guys) pointed out that they thought the design was more for a YA type of book, and since Bobbie Faye is so far from that, it hurts, I figured it would be best to rethink this. You know, with actual thoughts. Design type thoughts. Of which I've had exactly zero. I'd like something edgy, hip, and yet, still funny, that I can us for an author site, and then something that ties in with that for the official book site. Gah. Anyway, eventually, there will be an official site. I hope.

memorial day...

I think this is one of the sanest, calmest, most level-headed, well-reasoned posts on supporting the troops that I've seen. If you support this current administration, if you believe that you're supporting the troops by doing so, then please read all of the way to the end. This is not one of those posts aimed at trying to vilify conservatives, or vilify liberals. This is one of those smart, rational posts that looks at what really matters and defines our actions around our responsibilities as patriots.

(Original link via Diane.)

conversation with my son

Jake walked in and we chatted a bit about this and that (girls, work, book), and as he was going to bed, something (hell if I know what) compelled me to say, "You know, I don't remember if I ever told you this... I told your brother, but not you... but if anything ever happens to me and your dad at the same time, you need to call Pam."

"Pam?"

"Yes, Pam A. (the amazing organizational friend who filed stuff for me)... she knows where the life insurance policies are."

::: odd look from son ::::

"Seriously. If something happens to us, if there's an accident, there's some money. But this policy expires in a couple of years, so after that, you get nothing."

"You're not giving me much time here to form a plan, mom."

loads and loads of fun...*

Okay, so last year, I went to the dentist, who sent me to the endodontist, who sent me to the periodontist. I even had an orthodontist in on the act. It was team tooth time. And it was imperative that I get something done, they all said. I totally agreed.

But.

I had to finish the book, then there was Christmas and loads of projects which had to be done which had not been done while I wrote the book, then going to NY to meet everyone, and then a few other things thrown in the mix, like starting book two, editing book one and there's a family around here somewhere who kinda wanted some attention, and before you know it, it was May and I still hadn't done anything about the tooth. It could wait, right? It wasn't infected, wasn't hurting. Nada.

Until last Wednesday, I started feeling something scratchy inside my cheek and looked at that molar and saw what looked like bone protruding a little from above my tooth. My beloved, expensive, tooth. (sigh)

A couple of hours of oral surgery later, and the tooth / crown is now removed. There were nasty things like fractured roots and a fractured jaw line and bone grafts (yes, really... I was kinda floored), and eventually, you'll never know it had to be operated on, but right now, I have a bunch of stitches and I look like I'm trying to store a squirrel in there. They are making me a temporary, which will go there until my jaw heals enough to put the permanent tooth back, and I feel like I ought to be on some hillbilly show, although I realize that you cannot actually see the location of the tooth unless I stood in front of you with my mouth wide open while simultaneously pulling my cheek back. So not going to happen, so don't worry.

The real bummer? The pain pills weren't even any fun. Oh, they got rid of the pain well enough, but they didn't make me loopy or happy or even sleepy (damnit). In fact, my thoughts ran amok while on them and I had a hard time sleeping, so I'm off them.

* I may have exaggerated the fun part a bit.

the script that just won't die

The bottom line to the story: a producer wants to option one of my scripts.

The preamble:

Before I sold the Bobbie Faye books (see description in left column), I was a screenwriter. In fact, that had been my focus for several years before making the switch to fiction. I probably would have never deviated from fiction into screenwriting if my university had not been so closed-minded about anything that was genre. As it was, if you wanted to write anything other than literary fiction, you were going to have a really difficult time getting any serious help or attention from the faculty, who all prided themselves on their literary publications. And, maybe, that was okay, because every program should probably have a focus (I say this with loads of hindsight) in order to be successful, and literary fiction was theirs. I love reading lit fic; in fact, I wrote in that vein for a while, but writing it didn't move me, didn't entertain me in the same way as the bolder stories of genre fiction did.

I had gone back to school when the kids were young; I had already published a lot in non-fiction (news features, magazine articles, mostly local/regional and a couple of national sales), but I wanted to get help in learning how to structure a big story. Novel length. However, through a series of events, I realized I wasn't going to really learn anything, in spite of making straight As, and I felt a world of frustration. I couldn't just pick up and go to another college. There was no internet as we know it today or blogs or links to writing sites. I didn't really understand how to dissect a novel from a writer's POV (instead of just a comparative literary study). There had to be some way to learn structure.

Then lo, there was an answer: screenwriting class. Whether you wanted to write a small, literary script or a big, honking action story, all were welcome. Screenwriting was a new subject for the university, and no one was quite jaded against it yet. (Later, there were many faculty complaints that the screenwriters kept winning all of the big awards and got the attention. Ahem.)

I thrived in that class. The internet was growing by leaps and bounds about the same time, and I discovered the fantastic (and I would say "master level" class-worthy) essays over on Wordplay. I took every one of the university classes they'd let me take, and then they invited me into the MFA program (again, another euphemism for much political bickering and my screenwriting professor and another mentor won). Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I landed an agent. (Another long story, but a big thanks to Tamar for the referral.)

The first script which went out was an action script, and I got tons of meetings. It came very close to selling to Warner Brothers, but they had already spent six million trying to repair a script on a very similar subject as my script, and they didn't want throw that one away, even though the producer said that mine already solved all of the problems they were having with the other one. So, strike one. Next, my agent wanted me to write a romantic comedy. The logic there was to show range to the producers, with the goal being to gain their confidence that I could do any type of story they needed, so that they would hire me on assignment. Assignment work is what runs Hollywood. Spec script sales (a spec script being one a writer creates and writes and then tries to get to an agent to sell) were dropping off. Most producers / studios preferred to come up with an idea (or buy the rights to a property), then get a bunch of screenwriters to pitch how they would execute that idea, and then they'd pick the one whose pitch they liked best and assign them the job. Assignment work is how many screenwriters manage to have long careers... many many scripts do not get made for a thousand different reasons. If all you had was one sale and all you were waiting on was one script to be produced so you could make the production bonus money (the money they paid you when the film was done), you'd go broke in Hollywood very very quickly. Every agent, therefore, tries to get their clients assignment work, but in order to do so, the producer has to be able to see samples of the writer's work: hence writing various types of stories to show a range.

I enjoyed writing the romantic comedy much more than I expected, and it went out wide (meaning lots of producers wanted to read it) and it went to the top of three studios and almost got purchased and then didn't because someone's stars were playing hooky, or Lord knows what, it's hard to tell, but at any rate, it didn't sell. Strike two. Ironically, I got way more meetings, ended up making a lot of long-term contacts who are supportive of my writing through today.

Fast forward through other scripts, which was a wash/rinse/repeat of the above, but all the while, someone, somewhere, would call me about the romantic comedy script. And then that someone would try hard to get it made. Again, and again, and again. We were on the verge of getting it made (it had been optioned), when Katrina hit and the company which was going to make the film ended up being gutted by the losses from the hurricane. I had, however, sold the Bobbie Faye books and was kinda in an, "eh, whatever" mood about the whole thing because really, I have had a tremendous amount of fortune, no need to expect more. When a close friend of mine called me last week to say she'd pitched the script to another production company which loved the concept and wanted to see it, I was still in the, "eh, whatever" mode. That producer happened to be in New Orleans making another film there (he's made eight films in New Orleans alone, so he seems to know the city / state pretty well). When I was on the way to New Orleans yesterday evening to meet said producer, I was still in an, "eh, whatever" frame of mind.

He seems to really love the script and he's serious. We talked about exactly what will happen next, who does what, option agreements, what I wanted, what all I brought to the table. In the previous process of trying to get the film made, I had managed to get some very nice things attached which would be a big deal, marketing wise. (Big as in international prominence. I'll say more later when it's a done deal.) Since I brought several fairly big things to the table, he agreed that I should get a producer's credit (and therefore, producer's money) as well as money for the script. What any of that will be remains to be seen. I'm cautiously optimistic. At this stage, I know he's moving forward. They are drawing up the agreements, which I will then send to a top entertainment attorney in L.A., and my "we'll see" attitude is due to the fact that I don't know what the specific amounts are yet, so I don't know if it's something I'll end up agreeing to. I have ballpark notions (because of the proposed budget).

Mostly, though, I liked his down-to-earth attitude, the fact that he has made a lot of films and has some really good connections, and I was very impressed by his tiny notes on the script. They were extremely smart. (I must be the luckiest freak on the planet to get a really cool editor with terrific notes and now this guy. You may think I'm just saying that because it's a blog, but seriously, I have been impressed.) I like that he wants to move this script up into his next slot and make it his next film. (He has one film in line to do before mine, and another one he was developing which would have been next.) I also like that my close friend would be a producer on this film. She deserves the break and she's an amazing friend and has always always always had my back, even to her own detriment sometimes. I want her to succeed, big time, so if this can do that for her? I will be extremely happy.

The thing about script options, though, which are vastly different from book sales is, the option may end up only being that. If they can't get the stars on board, or if they can't get the exact stars the distributor will approve or the money people will approve, or the right combination of stars, or any number of variables, then the script could be back-burnered until the option ran out and that would be the end. With a book sale, they are definitely publishing the book. It's way more relaxing and joyous for that sort of sale. At the same time, I am sort of bemused by the fact that this little script just won't seem to die. Every single time I have completely forgotten about it, someone else tries to make it. Maybe, just maybe, some good karma will head its way this time. We'll see.

on discipline...

Alison Gaylin cracked me up over on the First Offender blog this morning. When talking about her own discipline, she said:

"[W]hile I'm liking what I've done with it so far, I have pages and pages and pages to go before the first draft is done. And I seem to have the discipline of a second grade class set loose in Chuck E Cheese's with Ozzy Osbourne for a chaperone."

It's a great entry (and not just because she was answering my question!)... but it also points out just how much discipline best selling authors have. I would post about my mulling, surfing of websites, staring into space, but then, you know, my editor reads this, so just for the record, I am writing all of the time. Seriously. Every single minute. You know, when I'm not napping. But other than that? All of the time. (Well, except for checking blogs.) But other that that? Every single moment of every day. Well, except for the...

hmm. I think I'd better shut up now and get back to work.

brainstorming

So. Book 2. It's begun, and I'm pretty jazzed about it. I'm balancing between writing some stuff and still working out some details on the plot twists. This weekend, I had one of those epiphanies that you live for as a writer, a woohoo moment of ooooooh, and if I do that, then it makes all this other stuff mean this other thing and... hey, you. Wake up over there. This is the interesting part! Of writing! Well, maybe not to you.

Sorry about that.

I love the brainstorming part of writing, when a story is new and growing. Sometimes there are discoveries that are giant leaps forward and sometimes, there are little teeny nuances a writer discovers that deepen the meaning of everything around it. I love playing, "what if?" and then seeing where that trail leads.

My way of writing is a sort of mishmash. I tend to write reams of notes, thinking out the characters and what they want, what they need, why, what bothers them, upsets them, makes them happy... what the obstacles I'm about to place in front of them mean, what's at stake for them if they fail, etc. And I also tend to simultaneously start incorporating some of those what ifs, how they'll affect the character, what direction with they take the story, and so on. At some point, the structure of the story gels and I can start writing; I'll have a pretty good idea of where I'm going and the major turning points and twists and obstacles, but I'm also free(ish) to incorporate new discoveries along the way. Sometimes I'll have set something up without realizing it, and then suddenly, I'll have an epiphany about the way that set up could pay off, and I'll usually be floored at how well the set up worked... when I hadn't even planned it that way consciously. Overall, though, I have to have the general structure of the story and know (reasonably well) how it ends to know where I'm going with it. I chalk this up to a tradition of oral storytelling in my family -- it's a bit of a performance art, really, and you have to know where you're going so you know how to bring your audience along with you. (If that makes sense.)

So, I'd worked on book 2 quite a bit prior to getting the edits from my editor, and am back working on it, having a lot of fun, although this part of the writing process is the one where my family wants to say, "Yeah, sure you're writing while you're staring out the window eating chocolate." Hey, it is not my fault that staring and chocolate are required for brainstorming. It says so. You know, in the writer's manual. Which I had around here somewhere. It was on page 82, I think. And I'd be happy to show you... as soon as I put my hands on it... I think someone borrowed it. But I'm telling the truth. Would I lie to you?

the thing about guns...

I wanted to shoot a Glock, since a couple of characters in my book shoot one, and shoot really well. I've shot a 22 before at the range and was a pretty good shot, but I knew handling a Glock would be different.

What I am aware of is how dangerous handguns are, and yet, even knowing this intellectually, I didn't expect to feel so squeamish handling a more powerful handgun than what I've held before. We met our oldest son at the indoor shooting range, and had to don the safety equipment, and by the time we got into the actual range, I was feeling nervous. My son taught me how to hold the Glock (watching out for the slide) and when I took it, my first shot was dead center in the bullseye. No kidding, dead center.

But.

The recoil surprised me. It was a 40 caliber Glock, and while the kick was nothing compared to some bigger handguns (I'm told), I just hadn't expected it to be as much since, when my son shot it, he didn't seem to have as much recoil. And then I started thinking a lot about aiming and that these were real bullets going out there and through the target and them zooming to the back wall, and the more I thought, the worse I got. I finally went and rented a compact Glock (much smaller), which was also a 9mm (slight smaller bullet than the 40 caliber), and it was a little easier to hold and aim, and I started doing better.

Still, I was nervous the entire time.

Later, we ate lunch and Luke told us a bunch of facts he'd learned in his gun classes (he's applying to be in the FBI, he's taking gun classes)... and one of the things he talked about was how a 40 caliber bullet could go through something like 17 layers of sheetrock. 17. So all of those times in a movie or TV show that we see someone dodge behind a wall or a corner in a house and bullets riddle the wall? That person would have been dead on the other side.

I'm going to go back for more lessons, just so I know more about what I'm writing about when I have Bobbie Faye shoot at something. But I don't think I'll ever actually get used to it; I think that fear will stay with me. At least, I hope so.

staying original

In the comments on the "10 things" entry a couple of days ago, JScott said:

I envy people who can write and just seem to flow effortlessly across pages. I read anything I can get my hands on.. How does one keep from plagarizing due to reading SOOOO many books. How does one stay original? I imagine that it can be hard..

It's an extremely good point. If we read really good work which resonates with us as a writer, we want to dissect it, analyze it, learn from it, and figure out how whatever it was we admired could be put to use in our own writing. That is, frankly, how you learn to be a writer -- read very good work and learn from it. So how do you keep from plagairizing it?

Here are two mini examples. Each of these could easily be a whole book, so I'm just touching on the highlights here.

1) Characters

Character = story. Who your character is, what they need, what they want, what their obstacles are, what's at stake, what is painful for them, what makes them happy, how they grew up, who hurt them, who helped them, what they fear, what they're ashamed of, what they'll do under pressure, what is their core moral center... are all things which make your story unique. When you do the homework on the character, when you really know them, their choices (how they speak, how they act, how they choose, how they dress, etc.) will be unique to them. They're simply not going to do something identically to someone else in another book. Fill your story with well-developed characters that come from your own hard work, your own imagination and perception of their world, and you very likely won't inadvertently emulate another author.

2) Voice

When you're choosing the method of telling the story, you're going to have to choose the type of point of view you want to use, the tone, and the perspective. Every one of those choices will affect presentation of the matererial, particularly as the story is filtered through the character's eyes / thoughts. A rapper is not going to perceive the world the same way as a wealthy, elderly widow. A poor person is not going to comment or think or notice the same things in the same manner as a tycoon. A truck driver will have different life experiences that informs his perceptions from those of a pastry chef. When you've created a unique character and you've chosen the method of the story (first, third, omnipotent), your method will be used by the characters.

If you have, for example, two characters telling the story equally, then each section should have a voice -- a perspective of that person and their life. That will influence what they see in the world around them, what stands out as important imagery to comment on (if they do comment at all), what they think of the people and activities surrounding them.

And so on...

The question is, what drives the story for you? If you're creating, what do you find helps you find that unique story? If you start with plot first, what do you do to work out the voice, to give your own work that unique spin that you and only you could do?

BIC

In the comments section on the previous post, Lori Armstrong made the excellent point of how accomplishing anything as a writer really depends upon the writer putting Butt In Chair and working. There are tons of ways to procrastinate, and there are loads of ways to freak out about what your career will or won't be (yep, done that) and really, the only thing a writer can control is the practice they give to the act of writing.

My youngest son (bear with me) is having a really painful time right now coming to grips with the fact that he can't earn a couple of paychecks and then run out and buy the really cool motorcycle he's drooling over. I know that feeling. I want to have that instant gratification too, quite often. I want to hand in something and the world screech to a halt, startled by their joy at what I've written. (I don't have big dreams, no?) The world really doesn't work that way, and it's lucky for most of us that it doesn't. I'm glad a guy who wants to be a doctor can't just decide that as a senior in high school and run out and pick up a scapel. I'm really relieved that girl who wants to be an air traffic controller can't say, "Oooh, planes are cool!" when they're a junior in college and, after an all-night kegger, go get that job.

Some people get big headlines for having sold something, like the recent debacle involving Kaavya Viswanathan and the alleged plagiarism case buiding against her now. She got a $500,000 advance, and there are up to (and possibly more, I'm not sure) 29 passages in her book which are very very similar to that of Megan F. McCafferty's works. Instant gratification, like a sugar high, or a cocaine high, can have a price. You really can't say, "Oops, I read these when I was younger and accidentally worked 29 nearly identical passages into my own work and it is a complete mystery to me how that happened." Well, you can, but that's not only egotistical idiocy, it's a little disingenuous to proclaim yourself smart enough to get into Harvard and yet, too naive to realize that you've plagiarized when you have such identical passages. Using the "I'm a genius, I can't help but absorb so much it's hard to remember where it came from" excuse is pretty much bunk.

Accidentaly mimicry can happen. There are too many stories out there where two people came up with similar books or movies at about the same time and when they were published, one looked to be a copy of the other (depending on which came out first, usually). But, if true (and since she's apologized for it already and not denied it, I'm not sure how it could be anything other than true), the effort of copying here is pure greed. Wanting that instant gratification, wanting that acclaim, wanting that money, wanting that attention... is not what writing and work (anyone's work) is really about. If you're a genuine person -- in the sense that you care about being authentic -- then you care about what you do. Whether you're a nurse or a doctor, a contractor or a ditch digger, you try to do your best at what you do. You hope that one day, what you do will matter, will shine, and that somehow, people will notice (for we, most of us, are creatures of society and we want to be accepted, or even acclaimed, at least once or twice for our own accomplishments, I think). But if you co-opt the work of someone else and pretend it's yours, you're not only saying you have no respect for that person and the effort they put into their craft, you're saying you have no respect for the rest of us, to whom you are lying.

For me, the satisfaction is in the work. I like creating a world, building a place where people can go in their imaginations and feel like they have fully experienced that place, those characters, as if they were real. I like entertaining and keeping people glued to the story, seeing them have a moment of escape, a moment away from their lives as they enter that world. I like the hard work it takes to do these things, to build these worlds. I like that I have to push myself to continuously improve, to find better ways to express something, to find nuances to help build the characters into fully dimensional people. It's not easy. It is, occasionally, rapturous, when something goes really really well. I worked for a week on a small section of the book because I knew it wasn't quite working. It would have been easier to let a slighter effort pass because I had other stuff to do, and this was such a small section. But I knew it was important and I knew why: it set up mutliple character issues, emotions and a foundation for building of trust later in the story, and a sense of outrage when one character thinks the other has betrayed her. It's really a tiny moment, and I'm not even sure the reader will sense it when reading it. Yet, after wrestling with it for a few days, when it finally worked, when it finally just sang, I was elated. That, folks, is what's satisfying as a writer: to set a goal and then to know you've accomplished it.

Butt. In. Chair.

There is a second, equally important component to the BIC rule that many of us fail to disucss, partly because it's scary when you realize how much you're putting on the line with the choices you make... but the thing that will help keep your BIC is committment to the choice you make when you pick which story to tell. There is no one single story which is going to be all things to all people. There are stories which are serious, stories which are frivolous, stories which will wrench your heart out, stories which will make you laugh until you have to pee, and none of them could work if the author started doubting herself half-way through and worried that maybe the dark mystery would get more readers if she had some funny quips in there or maybe the humorous mystery would be better if it somehow touched on really deep, dark, important secrets (when none were originally set up).

There is nothing wrong with writing what you enjoy. Or what touches your heart. Or what captivates your curiositiy. It's perfectly Okay for other people to think that the only acceptable fiction is the kind which gets snooty awards. Whatever works for them, is fine. But if you put your butt in that chair and you start writing and you start second guessing yourself, trying to make your story all things to all people, something equally funny and sad, equally poignant and pithy, you're probably going to create mush (unless you're a stunning and amazing writer, and then we'll just cook you and eat you, so shut up). Most of us are going to learn, one book at a time. Hopefully, the first one the public sees will be so well polished, no one will see the growing pains that went into creating it. And believe me -- those growing pains are there, for every writer who really cares about their craft.

So, Butt In Chair. And No Fear.

10 Things I Know About Writing

10. You read.

9. You read a hella lot, in all sorts of genres. Quit whining.

8. You write. All. The. Damn. Time.

7. People read what you wrote. They hate it. They give advice. They usually tell you to get a job. Something not in writing.

6. You read a hella lot more to figure out where you can improve.

5. You're still writing. All. The. Damn. Time.

4. A few people sort of like some parts of what you wrote.

3. You repeat all of the above steps until you can substitute "few" in #4 with "most" and "sort of like" with "freaking love" and then you...

2. Keep writing.

1. You might sell. You might not. Odds are, people look at you weird when you say you're a writer, or they start telling you how they could be one, like, in an afternoon, if they just wanted to, and you try not to kill them (with witnesses around) and then you drink a lot and probably cry, and then you start to burn everything you've ever written and then this one piece, this one sentence, catches your eye and you start readng and you think, "You know, this is pretty good. I could do something with this." And so while they cart you off to jail or to the insane asylum, you start thinking just what you're going to do with your next story.

sludge, part deux

So remember my old friend, the sludge? Well, it's baaaaaaaaaaaaaack. I thought on Monday that I was getting pink eye because Carl had it all last week and when I woke, my eyes were all red and scratchy. But no, didn't have pink eye. That was just the sludge's opening volley for round two, otherwise known as "tortue for fun and profit." By today, I was battling a fever, which hadn't gone too high until this afternoon, when it decided that it had toyed with me enough, and it jumped up. In spite of the Tylenol I had taken, it was over a 100.

So, off to the doctor we go (since Carl has it, too), and we see him and hear how awful this stuff is. He'd taken several rounds of medicine himself trying to kick it about a month ago, and he didn't want to prescribe the Z-pack antibiotics, because they weren't strong enough. So he precribes this new antibiotic (new-ish, I dunno) that he said would really kick butt. Carl went to fill it and called me from the pharmacy. The antibiotics alone cost more than $400. That's with our insurance Rx card, which gives us steep discounts. (It's not a co-pay card, but then again, the rates can never be raised.)

$400? For antibiotics? What the hell is in that pill? A miniature Ahnold? mixed with an Uzi carrying Taz? For $400 for 20 pills, that thing better not only kill the damned bacteria causing this sludge, it should make me taller and younger.

I called the doctor, who was already home, who answered my page somewhat warily (he thinks I'm fiesty. I don't know why he thinks I'm fiesty. Can't imagine where the hell he got that idea.) I asked, "Just how sure are you that the Z-pack wouldn't work?"

"Um, well. It might work. Why?"

I told him about the cost of the meds. He said he'd call in the Z-pack, though I might have to take two rounds of them instead of one. Even with that, I'd still be way ahead of the cost of the other one.

"Damn straight," I said. And I heard him chuckling.

"What?"

"Well," he said, "I only see you when you're sick and exhausted. I'd hate to see how fiesty you can be if you're feeling really well."

Ha.