Published!

I got my copies of Leading Edge today. I'm so excited! I was worried about the drawings that would accompany the story (I didn't get to preview them) but they are so good! I'll admit, it's a really, really fun thing seeing my name in print. Let's hope it happens a lot more ; )

Here are some photos we did for posterity. These are very typical of when Hot Stuff takes pictures of me.

HS: "Smile with your teeth."

K: "I don't like my teeth."

HS: "You look way better when you smile with your teeth. Okay, do a smile where you're sad but you're smiling."

K: "What?" (Looking up, because HS is WAY taller than I am.)

HS: "Like that!"

K: "I don't know what you're talking about."

HS: "Okay, that's good."

Kiersten Revealed

This is why I shouldn't socialize. Last night while talking with friends, I said the following.

K: "Angel just lacked the emotional resonance of Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

K's Friend, laughing: "Did you really just say that Buffy had emotional resonance?"

It's true folks. I'm a nerd. I try really hard to cover, but when it comes down to it...

Get LOST

Tonight Hot Stuff and I are getting together with some other couples for a LOST season finale party. I'm always hesitant to write what shows (music, books, etc) I like on here because inevitably someone will read it and scoff and think, "She likes [insert show/band/book here]? What horrible taste! That is the worst [show/band/book] ever! I knew she was an idiot."

But here is why I like LOST, and why I loved the first two seasons of Alias, and why I still think Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of the best shows ever to grace the small screen: unlike movies, these serial dramas have a sustained narrative that allows for character development.

Take your average hour-and-a-half movie. In fact, let's take the recent chick flick 27 Dresses. (No, I did not see it in theaters; if I am going to spend ten bucks to watch a movie, it is going to be loaded with special effects and other things that make a big screen worthwhile. Hot Stuff lucked out--I actually prefer action/adventure/comic book adaptation/martial arts movies to chick flicks. In fact, I kind of hate chick flicks. That's another post.) Besides the fact that it was painfully formulaic and not funny (except for some reason Hot Stuff [I think he was really, really tired] thought some line was hilarious and it was the weirdest thing ever because he doesn't react very strongly to movies but he was on the floor laughing. Which I guess made the movie worth it right there), I didn't really care about any of the characters or what happened to them. There wasn't enough time for me to be invested in them or their lives, so who cares if she ends up with the boss or the guy she fights with all the time (which is somehow supposed to be sexy and romantic?)?

(Okay, let's look at the ratio of normal sentences to parenthetical asides in this post. I think I'm getting a little carried away. In real life I talk very fast, so maybe this is the best way of imitating that. Or it's the best way of irritating the heck out of you.)

But if you take a serial drama on tv, you have characters that you have invested a significant amount of time getting to know. You've followed them for months of their lives, and you actually care what happens to them. Let's take Sawyer on LOST as an example. In the beginning of the show, I didn't like him. He just struck me as slimy and gross and I hated that Kate liked him. He was also very selfish, and it bothered me.

However, as the seasons have progressed, Sawyer has grown as a character and also grown on me. He has gone from taking care of himself at the cost of all others (not to be confused with all Others) to risking his life for the other Losties. I think he's had the most interesting arc on the show, and I enjoy watching it. I know they'll probably have him regress a little (because hey, they can't have things turn out well), but it's still nice to see change.

So this is how I justify why I like these shows. To me they are more like reading, if that makes any sense. And if you get me loyal to a character, I'll watch the whole show, no matter how sadly crappy it gets toward the end (oh Sidney, what did they do to you and your wonderful show?).

I Love Agents

The other night I was reading a post on Pub Rants when some very bitter person with too much time on his or her hands decided to start posting incredibly nasty, vulgar, and rude comments about Kristin and her agency. First of all, if you don't like what she is saying, just don't read her blog. It's really that simple.

But it got me thinking. There is an idea among aspiring writers (and certainly not all of us, or even the majority) that they are in some sort of adversarial relationship with agents and editors. As one of the delightful editors at a conference I attended said, "You don't have to trick us into buying your book. We want your book to be good; we want to buy it. It's what we do." Yes, rejections can be frustrating, but it really isn't an agent or editor's fault if your book isn't getting published. They don't read your query and think, "Ha! This poor fool thinks she can get published. And wow, her sample pages are really good, but I had a bad morning and want to spread the pain, so...REJECTION! Ah, I feel so much better."

If they weren't interested in finding new writers they wouldn't accept queries. And while I'll admit that rejections hurt my feelings, I don't take it personally and I don't hold it against the agent. When they tell me that my book isn't right for them, well, clearly it isn't, and would I really want them to represent it? (Okay, maybe on my bad days, but when I'm thinking straight, no.)

I know I've talked about this before, but I really do love agents. When I am researching someone to send my query to, I get so excited. I guess that agents are just my kind of people--they love reading and they love good writing. Most of them are interesting, engaging, intelligent, and funny: the kind of people I'd like to hang out with. And, of course, the kind of people I'd love to work with.

So, this love letter is kind of pointless, since only friends and other aspiring writers read this blog, but there you have it. I love agents. And I'll love them even more when I finally get one ; )

Another Year

I'm a huge fan of other people's birthdays, but not so much my own. It's not that I don't like getting older--quite the contrary, I'm thrilled to be twenty-five. Something about my birthday just always makes me a little bit sad.

But this year? It was awesome! My parents sent me a great new digital camera, my sister put together a lunch, I got lots of books and bookstore gift cards, and it was on a Sunday. When I was little Sunday birthdays were the worst. We're pretty strict Sabbath observers--Sundays you go to church (for three hours) and pretty much nowhere else. So when I was growing up if my birthday fell on a Sunday, I could have a birthday party over the weekend, but on the actual day no friends could come over. However, now that I'm all grown up (twenty-five! Yay!) Sundays are the best day for a birthday. Hot Stuff is home, we don't run any errands, and I get to just enjoy my family.

And I'm also happy because Hot Stuff got me a file folder. You are thinking, what is wrong with this girl? A file folder? First of all, I requested it. (Hot Stuff gets kind of frustrated with my birthday requests: "What do you want for your birthday this year?" "Umm, I need a folder thing to keep my stories and notes in." "You want a folder for your birthday? That's not very fun.") Second of all, it's beautiful! I don't know where he found it, but it's got this really pretty green pattern on it, and I'm so excited to fill it with old stories and notes about future books.

So there you have it. It was a happy day.

Synopsis Round Two

Thanks to everyone for your help. I'm taking this synopsis down now, but I really appreciate your input!

Special thanks to Natalie, line editor extraordinaire!

And if any of you are struggling, here's something Hot Stuff suggested that was really helpful. He made me sit where I couldn't see the screen and he read it to me. Because he hadn't read it before (or written it) it was easy to see where sentences were awkward because he stumbled on them. I've heard of using that trick for poetry, but it works great for synopses as well.

"Tangle" Available for Order

For anyone interested, you can send in an order for the Leading Edge issue featuring "Tangle." Follow this link and order a single issue. You can specify #55 May 2008 to make certain you get the right one. It will ship this week!

I should get my copies on Wednesday; I'm quite excited.

Also, please don't feel like you have to order one. I don't get any money besides the payment for the story, so it doesn't help or hurt me either way. But the journal is usually pretty fun, and I'm very pleased with "Tangle."

And WW, I think you missed the post where I announced you as the winner of the contest. Please email me and we'll figure out how you want me to get it to you!

Synopsis!

I did it! I finally came up with a synopsis that I am mostly happy with. There is one particular agent who wants one that is about six paragraphs...this is seven, but I don't think she'll hate me for that. So, my lovely friends who haven't read the book and are willing, please tell me: does it make sense? Does it sound interesting? Is it okay stylistically?

I promise this is the last thing I will make you do for a while. I've been taking advantage ; )

Please see updated synopsis.

Strategy

So, all my writerly friends, I've been wondering. How do you write a novel? And that's not a rhetorical question, I mean it very literally. Pen and paper? Computer? A combination of both? Do you edit as you go along, or spew it all out and then go over everything afterward? Do you have the whole book carefully plotted out before you begin, or just a vague idea of what is going to happen? Do you write start to finish, or do you write episodes and then go back to connect them?

I'm curious because I'm thinking of trying a different tactic. With Tut I had it mostly framed; a lot changed during the course of the writing, but the story arc remained. I wrote it all out by hand (seriously...it took up two-and-a-half journals) and then typed it up in the week before my son was born. That was actually kind of nice because I couldn't go back and edit instead of writing more, which I have a tendency to do. I had to wait to edit until I typed it up.

I also wrote Tangle start to finish, but didn't really know where it was going when I started it. I figured it out as I went along.

Now I have a lovely, lovely laptop, so my handwriting days are over. It was kind of fun to scribble it down in a notebook though, and sometimes I miss it. I don't miss the handcramps though.

Anyway, I tend to get stuck in my stories' transitions. I know what has to happen next, but getting from here to there always mires me down for a few weeks. I'll write like a paragraph a day, if that. So I'm wondering if I went through and wrote major scenes, would it be easier then to go back and connect the dots?

That tactic does worry me, though. In Tut, events that I had planned a certain way ended up changing as I was getting to them, always for the better. By writing all of the big scenes first, would I would lose potential ideas for finetuning?

Hmmm...

Brucical the Musical?

Okay, first of all, they are making a musical about Bruce Lee?? Bruce Lee + Musical. Nope, still don't get it.

Moving on. My question is, how many is enough when it comes to rejections?

I'm considering moving on from Tut. I might put a few more queries out there, but it's just wearing me down. If I put all my focus on BW I can be done by the end of the summer. And then I can send THAT one out to get rejected! Awesome!

(But at least I won't waste ten or fifteen agents on a bad query and a bad first chapter this time.)

I'm also thinking of starting up a new project; one unrelated to writing. Or at least, my own writing. I'll let ya'll know.

On a slightly more ego-stroking note, this blog should pass 1,000 hits in the next couple of hours. I'm touched so many people tune in to see what I'm rambling about now. You're kind of weird, aren't you?

Help

Okay, I'm entering Nathan Bransford's dialogue contest. Might as well. I've debated writing entirely new dialogue for it, but decided to use something from Tut. Here are two options; please tell me which one you like better. Thanks!

1. Just as Darah was finishing her second sandwich, Samuel came bustling in, an absentminded grin on his face. “Did you save me anything, Dar? We have to remember to get here before her, eh, Josiah?”
Josiah grinned back. “I barely managed to salvage a few crumbs for myself.”
Darah primly stuck her tongue out, punching her dad affectionately in the arm.
“First she starves me, then she beats me! What did I do to deserve this? I told Emily we should have gotten a nice cat.”
“Dad! You don’t mean that!”
“Okay, you’re right. Cats are too prissy. We could have settled on a nice, calm fish.”
Darah laughed. “Oh, eat your lunch, you big lug, or I’ll quit helping you and take up shopping full-time like Mom.”
Feigning terror, Samuel began eating as quickly as possible. When he had finished, he leaned back in satisfaction. Turning to Josiah, he asked, “So, kiddo, what do you think? We’ve been running you around pretty hard these past few months. Are you sick of your crazy relatives yet?”
“No! Not even close.” No school, no hospitals, no bad memories—or at least, lots of distractions. He loved this life.
“There is the whole aspect of unpaid slave labor, but I’ll hold off on calling child services for a while yet, Dad. I’m keeping tabs, though,” Darah chimed in.
“You call exploring some of the most amazing sites on earth work?! Who raised you?”
“Wolves!” Darah laughed.

2. A few weeks after Horemheb scolded Tut, Josiah and Darah were in the main room playing a game Darah liked. They would go back and forth, coming up with bizarre and ridiculous names for bands.
“How about ‘Chris and the Mums’? So, it would be like the flower when you say it out loud,” said Josiah.
“That’s pretty good. My favorites are still ‘Odd Claude and the Pee-wads’ or ‘Phlegm Bott and the Fustigators’.”
“You’re pretty gross, Dar.”
“Well, thanks. Personally I always thought I was prettier clean, but to each his own!”
Josiah rolled his eyes. “Okay, I’m officially out of ideas. Any other games we can play?”
“Hmm . . . we could have a hand-stand contest?”
“In these dresses? Are you out of your mind?”
Darah laughed. “Good point. Okay, here’s one I used to play with my dad. It’s called the random game. One person says something, and then the next has to say something totally unconnected. We go back and forth until someone is stumped or says something that connects.”
“Why don’t any of your games make sense?”
“Not as much fun. Okay, I’ll start. Disco-skating.”
Josiah shook his head, but since there was nothing else to do, he said, “Deviated septum.”
Darah looked impressed. “William Randolph Hearst.”

Smartypants

Here's the opening for a YA book idea I have. I don't know if I'll ever end up writing it; I'm not sure I'm interested enough in doing something without any fantasy elements, but you never know. It's also first person, which is tricky, but can be fun. Also, even funnier is that it is based on my high school, which, turns out, Natalie went to as well. Maybe she can vouch for my assessment ; ) Anyway, just something fun to post for a Monday morning.

Smartypants

Here’s how it goes. You’ve got your popular set—the cheerleaders, the good-looking athletes, the really pretty and rich girls. Then it goes the not-as-good-looking athletes, the fairly pretty girls who act like they are really pretty, and the rich-but-not-especially pretty girls. They’re popular, just not as. So, after them comes the kids who can hang out with them if they want to, but aren’t naturally in the group. These kids are usually good-looking, personable, and on student council. They pretend like they are friends with everyone because they have to, but really they only want to hang out with the first two groups. No one likes to socialize downward.

So that’s the upper half. The lower half differs in degrees of severity, but basically you have to be either poor, ugly, seriously weird, or, unfortunately, very smart. The higher the degree of any of these traits, the lower your status goes. So, let’s say your family has no money, you wear out-of-style clothes, you like anime so much you taught yourself Japanese, you’re president of the AP Physics club, and you are the Dungeon Master of the local D&D chapter. And, since nature is never fair, you probably also have bad skin and oily hair. That puts you, my friend, lower than even the loser stoners whose lives are taking them absolutely nowhere.

Now, don’t worry. I am not the poor, poor soul described there. Far from it. I just wanted to give you an accurate picture of what to expect at the bottom. I’m in a more nebulous area of the ladder, if you will. I’d put myself at the top of the bottom.

Here’s how I’d break myself down. Not rich enough to have a gorgeous house and throw big parties – down one rung. Not rich enough to wear the really name brand stuff – down one rung. Naturally-colored hair – down half-a-rung. From the poorer of the two cities that funnel into the high school – down half-a-rung. Decent clothes, in style but not uber-stylish – up half-a-rung. Not drop dead gorgeous, but pretty – up half-a-rung. Great sense of humor – oh, who am I kidding, this is high school, no one cares if you are funny or likeable; what does that have to do with popularity? So we’ll just throw that out. In fact, we’d better add: not superficial – down one rung. Not a dancer or a cheerleader or on student council – down one rung. But so far that’s not too much, right? Three rungs down? Ah, but I’m leaving something out. Something I was too naive to hide in junior high, and that has haunted me ever since.

Smart – down three, four, what the heck, let’s say twelve rungs.

And the Winner Is...

Writtenwyrdd, with "The Princess, the Goat, and a Big Fat Lie."

Congratulations, WW! Yours was the title with the most votes. I will let you know when the issue comes out; I can either order one for you directly from the site, or sign one and ship it to you, whichever you prefer. And it won't hurt my feelings if you don't care about having it signed, because it will save me the cost of shipping! Please email me the address where you would like to have it shipped at kierstenbrazier (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Thanks for all of the participation, as well as the kind words on my silly little story. You guys rock! I wish I could send you all a copy, but alas, I can't blow the whole paycheck on sending the issue to people...selfish creature that I am, I want to spend it on myself ; )

(Also, I've closed the link to the story; if you didn't get a chance to read it and want to, please leave a comment. I'm more than happy to open it, but don't want it out there permanently.)

Synopsize THIS!

I don't really know what that is supposed to mean, but it would be a good line leading into a right hook to the jaw.

I'm trying to write a synopsis for Tut, and it just isn't happening. Too much detail, too little detail, too little of Josiah, Darah, and Tut's interaction, too much too little whatever. It's driving me nuts. I boiled the book down to its essence for the query; now I have to decide which plot points are crucial and which can be left out in order for a synopsis to make sense.

Tangentially, I love how many people offer to submit synapses instead of synopses. At this point, I think it might actually be easier to come up with some of my synapses than a coherent and powerful synopsis. But it would probably a) kill me, and b) gross out the potential agent, thus ruining my shot at representation. Plus, are synapses actual physical things, or just the space between nuerons? Maybe I should have taken more biology in college. It could have helped me get an agent.

And maybe I should just wait to hear back from my queries on submission before I bother querying agents who require a synopsis. And I think I'll avoid any that require synapses.

Meme

Welcome! If you've just clicked over by searching for me, this seems to be the only entry google ever pulls up. Frankly, it's a little boring. Why not click on the Kiersten Writes banner above and see the most recent postings, or peruse the archives located to your right? Thanks for stopping by!

I've always wondered how that's supposed to be pronounced. Me-me? Like, look at me! I'm so cool, you must want to know weird details about my life! MEEEEEE!!! Or like meh-meh, like, "Meh, someone tagged me, I'm sure you don't care, but here goes."

Regardless, Blogless Troll has tagged me, so here you go. Stuff you didn't even know you wanted to know about me.

Inquisition Meme

What were you doing ten years ago?
Ten years ago I was about to turn fifteen and just finishing ninth grade. While I had many crushes, I hadn't yet held hands with or kissed a boy. Annie Get Your Gun, the musical I was in, had just finished, and I was desperately trying to make up the grades that had suffered because of the practices spent flirting instead of doing homework.

What are five things on your to-do list for today?
1) Take husband to train station so that I can have the car. Check.
2) Drop off daughter's urine sample at doctor's office. Check. And as much fun as it sounds.
3) Work on synopsis for Tut. Not check.
4) Figure out dinner. Check.
5) Make the world a safer place for my children. CHECK. Today at the park I found a black widow underneath the slide and used my feminine wiles ("I'm sorry, but I'm terrified of spiders and there's a black widow under the slide...") to enlist a man to kill it. Then, when the other man at the park heard about it, he checked under the play structure and found another black widow, which he got rid of. Two black widows in one day kind of freaked me out; I don't think we'll be going back to that park any time soon.

What are some snacks you enjoy?
What aren't snacks I enjoy?

What would you do if you were a billionaire?
Trade in my clunky old double stroller for a new, sleek model. Or, you know, just get a car.

What are three of your bad habits?
Besides spending too much time online? I'm a procrastinator, I let my kids watch too many movies, and I don't keep my apartment as clean as I should/could.

What are five places where you have lived?
Orem, Utah, Highland, Utah, Provo, Utah, and San Diego, California.

What are five jobs you have had?
1. Research Assistant
2. Telemarketer (sort of; I called alumni on behalf of BYU for donations)
3. Editor (edited professors' writing for publication. You'd be amazed at how terrible most PhDs are at writing)
4. Freelance writer (google Kiersten Brazier and have your mind glaze over with the sheer and overwhelming boringness of the articles I wrote on everything from construction equipment to lemon law attorneys)
5. Mom (best job ever)

What were the last five books you read?
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Homicide My Own by Anne Argula
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque
Keeping King Tut by Kiersten Brazier (for editing yet again)
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

I think...I read a lot, so I have a hard time keeping track.

What’s playing on your iPod right now?
I don't listen to the iPod during the day because I need to be able to hear my children. I use Pandora, and right now it's set to Frou Frou.

What five people do you want to tag?
Natalie, Renee, Julie, Whirlochre (that should be entertaining), and each of my sisters who never update their blogs.

And the Title Is...

...well, I don't know. I'm sorry! Here are my two schools of thought, and you, dear friends and readers, can help me decide.

On the one hand, I kind of agree with Writtenwyrd and Erin that "The Frog Prince" is the most reasonable option. It is, after all, a retelling of the story. It also tells the reader what to expect, but keeps them guessing as to how a frog will actually factor into the story.

On the other hand, I like "The Goat, the Princess, and a Big, Fat Lie," and "The Princess and the Goatherd," for exactly the opposite reason--they don't give away the fact that this is a retelling of the fairy tale, so that aspect of the story would come as a surprise.

I liked all of the entries. Every single one of them was better than "How Helena Kissed a Frog and Made a Prince," which was the only alternate title that I came up with, but reminds me too much of "How Stella Got Her Groove Back," which I've neither seen nor read.

So, please vote: "The Frog Prince," "The Goat, The Princess, and a Big, Fat Lie," or "The Princess and the Goatherd."

Tangle Teaser

When Hazel's crazy neighbors promise her their baby as payment for stealing her vegetables, she thinks they're kidding. Turns out, they weren't. But raising a garden and raising a child aren't as similar as Hazel would have them be, and she will have to choose between protecting her daughter and allowing her to grow.

Along the way, she deals with yards and yards of hair, attempted involuntary manslaughter, and the discovery of penicillin.

Kiersten Brazier's debut short story appears in issue #55 of Leading Edge, a speculative fiction journal.

I've Still Got It!

(Please don't forget about the contest. I'm just so happy I had to post about it tonight.)

Sometimes I worry that my brain is atrophying: too many repeat viewings of Finding Nemo, too many conversations that revolve around garbage trucks. I worry that I'm no longer an interesting person to talk to, or that my adult experience is so narrow in its sphere I can't possibly be intelligent or engaging anymore.

Thank goodness for girls' night out. When I was leaving to meet a group of friends for dinner, Noah asked what we would talk about. "Probably giving birth and nursing," I answered. And while I did, in fact, make a joke about getting a combined c-section-hysterectomy-tummy tuck after my last baby (naturally exactly when our male waiter was standing right there--yeah, I have good timing like that), most of the conversation had nothing to do with staying at home with young kids. We talked literature (real literature, not just Twilight, although I did give them a nutshell review of Meyer's new book, The Host,), University politics and professors, Lost (okay, maybe that wasn't too intelligent. "I love Sawyer!" "He's grown on me. Isn't Keamy amazingly creepy?"), and we ended with a lengthy discussion of politics. I will convert my friends from mindless Republicanism. Even if it is just to informed Republicanism, fine, as long as they know why they are voting how they are voting. One girl even asked if we could have a politics night, where those of us who understand what is going on can give a primer. Of course, the three of us who are politically minded are all pro-Obama (PrObama? PrObamaMamas? Wow, if I wanted to start a politics blog, there's my name RIGHT THERE!), so it might be a little slanted. I used to be a Republican though, so I can be fair. Mostly. As long as it's not about Huckabee. I can't be fair about Huckabee.

Anyway, after talking until the place was empty, we all left to our various homes and duties. But I feel so refreshed and inspired. All of the women at the table were stay-at-home moms, and they are all vital, intelligent, active, interesting people. And I suppose I am, too, which is a really, really reassuring thing.

Contest!

As mentioned in the previous post, I have a story that I haven't been able to come up with a good name for. It's frustrating. This isn't a story I'm going to try to publish; I wrote it for my baby sister's birthday because she likes retold fairy tales. I think it's fun, but not something I'll pursue--mostly because it's pretty short.

So! Here is the contest. (I should have a contest to see how many paragraphs or posts I start with "So," but I edit a lot of them out. I guess I view these posts as conversation, and if feels weird to just start in the middle. So, I start them with so!) I'm going to post my story (I haven't figured out how I want to do this yet; I may post it in chunks, or I may put up a blog just for the story and then take it down afterward) and whoever comes up with the best title wins!

What do you win, you might ask? Well, provided you live in the continental US, I'll send you an autographed copy of "Tangle" when the Leading Edge issue comes out. If you live in another country, we'll figure something else out. You can even start submitting names now; the story is based on the Frog Prince. If no one comes up with a name I love, well, saves me the postage I guess ; )

Update: The story is up here. Enjoy!

Names

Clearly, like mother like daughter with the whole making weird faces for pictures thing.

But I've been thinking about character names today. For Tut, all of the names were either family member's middle names or actual Egyptian names. For BW, I picked Willa's name because that's what I would have named my son had he been a girl. In Tangle, obviously Rapunzel had to be used, but I tried to pick clever names for the other characters. In another short story I wrote, a version of the Frog Prince for which I have yet to come up with a title, I got really stuck on the love interest's (a boy) name, until I decided to give him a girl's name. Or really, a name that used to be a boy's name but has been taken over for girls. I don't know why; it sounded good and made for some fun jokes.

What is the point of this? Well, actually, it's all just elaborate set-up for me to show off how hilarious my daughter is. She has absolutely no problem coming up with names on the spot. Last night we received five live caterpillars in the mail. When I asked her what their names were, without pausing she said, "Lessy, Pooey, Curly, Slops, and Cinderella." Have you ever heard of better names for caterpillars? And in case you were wondering, Lessy is the best climber, but Pooey is the nicest.

A Happy Day

I look at my two beautiful children and I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Thank you, Noah, for making me a mommy. And thank you, Mom, for teaching me how to be one.

Life is wonderful.

Confession

I'm not much closer to finishing BW than I was when I decided to finish it by my birthday. While it was a noble goal, it probably won't happen. Let's extend my deadline until the end of the summer, okay? Thanks. I knew you'd understand.

I think the main problem (besides that I'm lazy, May is always our family's craziest month, I spend way too much time on other people's blogs [curse you, EE], and the reappearance of the daily headache) is that I'm still pretty focused on Tut. It's hard to immerse myself in Willa's story when Josiah, Darah, and Tut are running around demanding that I pay attention to them and fix the beginning of the book. Again. When I took out the first chapter and spread the info around the rest of the book, I thought that would solve my opening problems. But now I need to fine-tune my first few paragraphs. Right now Josiah's uncle does most of the talking, and it's just not a good intro to the book.

So, my focus is back on Tut, and BW is just going to have to wait patiently in the back of my brain until I can give it the attention it deserves.

"Tangle" May

It's May, and that means publication! A week or so ago I looked over the almost-final print copy of "Tangle." Either I did an excellent job or the copyeditors did an excellent job (I'm gonna vote for a combination of the two; after all, I am an editor by training), but there were only three things I saw that needed to be changed. One was a run-on and two were word choice.

When I was looking over it I'll admit I experienced a mini-panic attack. "Oh my gosh! This is going to be published! As in, final! As in, out there for everyone in the world to read, and laugh at, and point their fingers at silly Kiersten who thinks she can write for a living someday!" I started analyzing every sentence and lamenting my love-affair with the comma. But, thanks to the advice of some writer friends, I smiled, sent my corrections off into cyberspace, and stopped worrying about it.

Because, hello? I'm getting a story published! That's exciting! It's the second piece of fiction I've ever written, and the first short-story. It's a very odd story, and I was thinking today how weird it is that a) I wrote it and b) someone wanted to publish it, but there you have it. And there I'll have it, in print, in my hands, in just a few short weeks. Yay!

So, coming very soon is my teaser summary of "Tangle," featuring *gasp* my last name. Please don't stalk me; I promise I'm a very boring person and have no money. It's not worth it.

Four Years Ago

Four years ago I spent ten hours in labor and two hours pushing. You were a vain little thing and didn't want your head smashed, and so you came out perfect and beautiful while I was unconscious. We both survived, miracles of modern medicine, and I don't grudge you the scar. When I woke up you weren't there, and I cried and cried. That could also have been due to the full pain of surgery without a spinal block. My first question was, "Is she okay?" My second question was, "Does she have hair?" Yes to both was a relief, but didn't temper my sorrow at not being able to hear your first cry and see you as soon as they pulled you out. They pumped me full of morphine and left me to sleep while Daddy went to watch your first bath. The nurse tiptoed back in, sure that giving me the legal limit of morphine would have knocked me out. "She's asleep," she whispered to Daddy. "No, I'm NOT," I answered. Did they really think I would sleep before I got to see my angel baby?

Finally, three hours after you came into the world, I got to see you. They brought you in bundled so tightly in blankets that all I could see was your tiny, beautiful face, and your head covered with a shocking amount of dark hair. I just wanted to look at you, but the nurses had other things in mind, shoving you at my breast and instructing me to feed you. Neither of us knew what we were doing, and it would take a couple of days to get the hang of it. I'll admit to being a little overwhelmed. But when the nurses left us alone, and Daddy fell asleep, I held you on my chest. Out of the window the moon was shining and the Temple was brightly lit on a hill, and I knew that you would be mine forever. That was when I became your Mommy, and you became my Nayna, my beautiful little girl who still has a shocking amount of hair.

Language Matters

I'm a big fan of grammar. I like punctuation, I adore vocabulary, and I'm a stickler for spelling. Some authors can put together sentences that make me swoon; I don't even care what the story is about, I devour every word they write. I hope to write like that someday.

I wonder how one gets to that point; the ability to express a thought, humorous or poignant, so perfectly as to immortalize it forever in print. My husband was telling me the other night that the one thing bothering him about Tut is that he doesn't think my wit comes through as strongly as it does in real life.

(Let me take a minute to bask in the warmth of that--my husband thinks I'm witty!)

But for me it's a matter of style. Tut isn't a particularly playful story, and the narration style wasn't one that allowed for quirky commentary or puns. I added what I could in the dialogue between Josiah and his cousin Darah (she's very clever), but overall the story is a serious one. BW, my work-in-progress, has a more casual and fun tone; although it's third person POV, it adopts the thoughts and phrases of Willa, the main character.

Of course, I'll always be limited by, well, my own limitations. (Brilliant! I should copyright that: "The only things that limit you are your own limitations." I can see the inspirational posters now...) I read some books and it makes me sad because I know that I'll never be able to write like that (Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth and Marilynne Robinson's Gilead being examples at opposite ends of the spectrum), but that's okay, because obviously the author has already done it. My own style will just have to suffice, and as I write different things I'll be able to explore and develop it and maybe, someday, someone will read something I wrote and think, "Wow! How does she do that?"

Besides my family, because they're required by law to think I'm amazing.

Fregature

I recently cut off twelve inches of hair. When I heard from a friend that you could get good money by selling it, I put it on an auction site to see if I could make a little extra cash. Someone bid on it, and when I emailed them about purchasing it, this is the response I got:

"they are serious customer and I have received various fregature paying before as soon as arrived the package with hats I send the moneies to your address. if you want you can send to me in mark mails them for emergency of both, arrival of the package payment for the withdrawal salutes"

I empathize with her experiences with fregature, but I wasn't interested in including hats. Withdrawal salutes notwithstanding, I think I'll pass on her offer.

So, I didn't end up making any money, but I did get a new favorite word: Fregature. Since it has no actual meaning, it can be used for anything. Think of the possibilities.

"I want this fregature cleaned up, and I want it cleaned up now!"

"All of the fregature in this election is really frustrating me."

"From my studies, I'd say that fregature is the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle-East."

"Holy fregature!"

Wow. Thank you, bidder. You may not have gotten anything from the exchange, but I will be forever grateful for your fregature.