Cat Writers, here I come!

Heading down to White Plains, NY, this weekend for the annual Cat Writers' Association annual conference. I'll be giving a "Mystery 101" talk to aspiring whodunit authors and listening eagerly to reports on everything from the feline genome project to new media marketing. But basically I'm going to chill with my peers – and to attend the Westchester Cat Show.

Conference registration is now closed, but if you're in the area on Saturday, please come by the cat show. The CWA will have 29 of its authors signing books at our booth, 3-5 p.m. Some of us (okay, me) will be there as early as 1 p.m. Come say hi and see the cats!

Celebrating our NEW LIBRARY!!

The Cambridge Public Library's main branch - right by me - has been closed for several years while the original, wonderful Gothic-style 1889 main building was renovated and a beautiful high-tech green wing was built. Jon and I have watched the building, etc., come together, oh so slowly, and on Sunday we joined the THRONGS (yes! throngs! This is Cambridge, after all) who came to the grand opening. SO PSYCHED!!

From the Boston Globe:
"The Cambridge library is one of the best recent pieces of architecture in the Boston area. And it’s one of the best pieces of old architecture, too..."

photo courtesy of Bob Coe. Click through to the library's site for the full slide show.

Thanksgiving comes early!

Well, in this house! Just heard from my publisher that Shades of Grey has sold out its first printing and is going into a second run. Yay! (This is one of the best things about a small press - they may do small press runs, but they can go back QUICKLY. That, and you get personal emails from the production folks.)

Cats can get swine flu?

Great, another thing to worry about: a cat catches swine flu from his people. (Though this cat is "85 percent recovered.") Anyone sneezing on Musetta has to answer to me about it, got it?

I seem to be writing

The new project is coming along - I'm now at the stage where I believe this can become a book. It's funny, this being November - the month of NaNoWriMo - but I'm writing this book more slowly than any of its predecessors. Doing some every day, taking time to think about it, to plot (and then to ignore said plot). Maybe this is just going to be a contrary book. We shall see...

Anyway, excuse me if I keep my head down and write for a while. I'll be at the Cat Writers' Association annual conference in a few weeks (and that means I'll also be selling books at the Westchester Cat Show on Saturday afternoon), and I'll blog about that. In the meantime, just writing.

Celebrate National Cat Day

Every day is National Cat Day here at chez Musetta, but still, more reason to celebrate.

The new project

It's funny. I've been talking to friends recently about how difficult my new project is, and so few of them believe it. When I say I'm having trouble getting started and that at times I don't know if what I'm writing now will coalesce into a book, they scoff (a little). They say, "oh c'mon" or (the more encouraging) "you'll have a draft by March." They look at my track record – eight books in print, another in production – and they don't believe that I doubt myself, or this project, as much as I do.

Maybe this would make sense if I had a multi-book contract and a set formula. The contract, after all, would provide both financial incentive and a deadline, two elements that kept me going in journalism for many years. A formula would, well, be easy. But right now I have neither. In particular, the book I'm trying to write is somewhat different from any I've written thus far. It's crime fiction, rather than a "whodunit" style mystery with a private detective. It's darker, more terse. Yes, there's a cat in it. Somehow, my single female characters always have a cat. But the cat is really quite incidental. And I am having trouble with it. Right now, as I finish up some editing work and look ahead to at least a few hours to write, I am very aware that this will be only the third consecutive day that I've been able to make myself work on this new project. Been able to make myself actually commit words to paper. I'm actually blogging now because I'm a little scared to start. I have a rough idea of the next scene – I have an idea of who will be in it, how they will come into conflict – and I'm excited. But I'm also a little nervous. Is this new style any good? Is this project going to be any good? Will it ever all come together as it has in the past, or have I somehow lost that?

In some ways, I find my friends' faith in me – even their refusal to believe in my very real turmoil - encouraging. Maybe I am too close. Maybe I will do it. But cut me a little slack, folks. Yes, I am the one who chose to work outside my comfort level, but that lack of comfort is real. This is scary stuff, to me.

And now... to work.

Mystery Conference without leaving home

Am I jealous of all my colleagues at Bouchercon? You bet. But while I'm home getting work done, I'm also preparing for the Poisoned Pen Webcon to be held next Sat., Oct. 24. The first-ever online mystery conference will have it all: live events, text "panels" with mystery authors discussing topics. Even a coffee house for folks to gather in. Where will I be? Check out the panels on cozy mysteries and historical mysteries. See you in the coffeehouse, too!

Thank you, Bristol Library!

"Well-crafted mystery with numerous suspects and several intriguing (and topical) subplots that dangle in front of the reader like ribbons teasing a kitten..." Thank you, Bristol Library reviews!

Finally!

1. I think I'm healthy! Am almost afraid to say that out loud. But I think I may truly be myself again, germ free.
2. I think I have started another book. This is a surprise to nobody but me, I think, but I'll tell you, for a while I was near despair. I'd come up with an idea, a great scene or dilemma and within hours, I'd realize why it wouldn't work. But after long talk with beloved agent and much soul searching, I seem to be writing. Slowly - but Jon assures me that many of my books have started this way. I'm thinking this is kind of like childbirth in that if I remembered how painful it could be, I'd never do it again.
3. Hilary Mantel has won the Booker Award. She's my favorite writer and I'm thrilled!

And so it begins...

A young woman falls from a window during a party. Everyone was drinking. She was apparently having fun. Was it an accident? Was she pushed? Did she jump?

I'll tell you in 200 pages or so.

Thank you, Richmond Times-Dispatch

from:
Fiction review: five mysteries

JAY STRAFFORD TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Published: September 27, 2009

You're without a definitive idea for a thesis, you've had to have your beloved cat put down, you're working temporarily in a corporate snakepit, you've discovered your temporary roommate's murdered body -- and you're suspected of killing him.

Grad students' lives aren't generally this complicated, but Clea Simon makes it all work in Shades of Grey (216 pages, Severn House, $28.95), the first in her projected series featuring Dulcie Schwartz. The author of four books featuring Cambridge, Mass., rock journalist Theda Krakow, Simon steps boldly onto a new path with Harvard student Dulcie.

And though this is a fine whodunit, it's not just another mystery. Simon gives it a hint of the supernatural -- Dulcie thinks the spirit of her late cat, Mr. Grey, is trying to warn and protect her -- as well as subplots involving hacked computers and Gothic novels.

Dulcie's an intriguing and sympathetic lead character, Simon's plot is well-conceived and the feline angle satisfies without being overplayed. And "Shades of Grey" reminds us that our pets are never gone from our hearts. Give this one a blue ribbon.

One more reason to shop an indie bookstore!!

Amazon now says "Shades of Grey" ships in 1 or 2 MONTHS?! That's ridiculous! But you can order a copy today - signed, no less - from Harvard Book Store or Brookline Booksmith. You can order online, just the same as with Amazon. Or call them! Yup, they ship - and you'll be dealing with a real, live person at a real, live local and independent bookstore.

Friday's Forgotten Books: "Thank You for Not Reading"

One great thing about getting back out in the blogosphere is that I've reconnected with Patti Abbott, whose blog features weekly "Forgotten Friday books," a great place to discover – or rediscover – great, but not best-selling reads.

Maybe it's my mood. Maybe it's the latest rejection for my Dogs Don't Lie (a good rejection, but still...). Maybe it's Mercury still being retrograde. Whatever the reason, I found myself looking through my bookshelf for Dubravka Ugresic's spot-on skewering of the publishing industry, Thank You for Not Reading, and choosing it for my Forgotten Friday book.

Now, TYFNR isn't that old - it was first translated into English in 2003 and I found it as a Dalkey Archive paperback the year later. But it never received the attention it deserved. I guess that's what happens to small press authors without a country (Ugresic writes about feeling at loose ends ever since the dissolution of Yugoslavia) unless they fall into one of two recognized categories: the Gloomy Writer (an Eastern European we welcome, because he confirms our stereotypes) or the self-styled Great Man (as in "The Great Bulli"), one of those self-important, macho types (think Saul Bellows, I did) whose existence depends on subservient women. Ugresic herself is not at all gloomy. Despite the depressing subject matter, this is a laugh-out loud book, at least for those who have lived through the rejections, the silent (or missing) agents, and the general foolishiness of this industry ... and still keep on writing. What kind of world is it where Joan Collins can open a book fair? A very dark and silly one. "Come back, cynics!" Ugresic concludes one particularly sharp essay. "All is forgiven."

This is a great book for days like today, when you get a rejection and are able to think, "Well, at least it's a good rejection." You know who you are.

On a serious note: "The literary market does not tolerate the old-fashioned idea of a work of art as a unique, unrepeatable, deeply individual artistic act. In the literary industry, writers are obedient workers, just a link in the chain of production..." Yup, what more needs be said?

Things you'll do

I found out last night, when a neighbor's pitbull went through my back screen door like it was wet Kleenex, that I am the type of person who will throw herself on a pitbull to save her cat.

We are both ok. (Me and Musetta, that is. I do not care about the dog, whose owner was close behind and took him away.) Interesting thing to know about oneself. Case manager at my mom's rehab asked if this would go into a book. I don't know. It's way too soon.

I don't even think I can write any more about this here.

The waiting is the hardest part...

(Wrote this for the Sept. Shedunnit, the Sisters in Crime newsletter, and thought I'd share here:)


“The first things writers want – and this sounds so basic, but you’d be surprised how unbasic is is in the publishing world – is a quick response. Once they’ve finished a new manuscript and put it in the mail, they exist in a state of suspended emotional and psychic animation until they hear from their editor, and it’s cruelty to animals to keep them waiting.” – Robert Gottlieb, The Paris Review Interviews

Recently, I completed a manuscript for the second book in my Dulcie Schwartz series. It was a difficult birth, seeing as how for some reason I can no longer recall, I’d told my editor that I could easily turn it in within four months. I’d figured out, I think, that if I wrote a mere 2,000 words a day, I’d churn out enough copy and to spare for a cozy-length mystery by my deadline, and still have, oh weeks, to revise the thing.

Did I have a plot at that point? No. Did I have new secondary characters, a crime, a motive, or even a theme? No. Did I have other work – editing, a class to teach, a ghostwriting project? Yes. But you know what? The hardest part of writing what will now be “Grey Matters” (slated for Dec. ‘09 UK publication with Severn House, thank you very much) wasn’t meeting my own, somewhat ridiculous deadline. Nor was it even climbing over the growing pile of discarded papers, opened books, and journal articles that I scrambled through for research. Or even the heartfelt apologies to friends and family members who were either ignored or burdened with impossible tasks (“Of course you were supposed to shop and make dinner – how could I take time to tell you? I’m writing!”). The hardest part by far was the seven weeks following my agent sending the beast off to my editor. It was that month in a half during which I vacillated from “It’s the best thing I’ve ever written” to “it’s utter crap,” from “Well, at least it’s better than the first book” to “does a ghost cat even make sense?” with increasing rapidity. That waiting was relieved, briefly, when my agent sent out a tentative query and we found out that the editor hadn’t received the manuscript. (She must have figured that I simply hadn’t met my own deadline.) We then re-sent it and had a final two-plus weeks, during which I was alternately weepy and brittle, proud and prone to utter despair.

Why is the waiting, to paraphrase Tom Petty, the hardest part? I think largely it’s because for all our isolation, we writers are communication junkies. We want feedback. We deal with our hours alone, muttering things like “minimum lethal dosage,” because they are necessary in order to make the crazy worlds inside our heads into something that we can share. And when they are made as real as we can make them, we want those outside our heads to rush in, walk around, spot the bodies, and scream. When theydon’t, we are disappointed. We feel abandoned. And we slowly go nuts.

Friends, with all the best intentions, tell us to “enjoy the time off.” Like that was possible. They couldn’t see that fun for a writer is synonymous with being hip-deep in a new project, where an overheard comment or a street sign makes you start scribbling notes. When we interrupt family dinners to ask about the force needed to drive a fork through someone’s eye. This is what fun is for us, for me, anyway, and I don’t want time off.

There’s a cure for the ills of waiting. It’s known as starting another project. Because as soon as we get involved in a new story, the old one loses its grip. It becames stale, yesterday’s news. And that has the double benefit of giving us distance, which helps when that manuscript comes back and we need to be gimlet eyed to root out all the errors and awkward bits that we so blithely read over the first thirty-eight times.

Usually, I can do this, too. In fact, while I was waiting on my latest Theda Krakow mystery (Probable Claws), I’d drafted a new work, with a hard-boiled animal psychic. So, at first, when Grey Matters> went off, I went back to that “pet noir,” revising that one more time before handing it to the agent. But then that went out, too, and I was not only exhausted, I was at loose ends. Should I attempt another Dulcie or another pet noir? Return to the dark rock-and-roll mystery that I’ve been kicking around for two years now? Try to write something that didn’t feature cats? Pen an article for Shedunnit?

The latter seemed like a good idea, the methadone that would wean me from the shakes and the cravings. But while I dithered and tarried, picking up books (like those Paris Review interviews) and putting them down again, I had news. My editor had accepted “Grey Matters,” and I had to get to work on revisions. No word on the other project yet, but that’s okay. I’ve got a deadline again. A project. And so of course, I immediately got to work on this. Just keep those deadlines coming, folks. Anything less is cruelty to animals, and you know how I feel about that.

So you want a signed book...

I wish I could travel everywhere, but small press budgets (and small-writer budgets) don't make that possible. However, even if you can't come to one of my readings, you can buy a signed book from these lovely, indie bookstores. If you buy your book BEFORE my event, I can even personalize it – sign it to you (or your cat). Both these stores ship and will have extra signed books on hand after my events. Call or email them for details:

Brookline Booksmith Brookline MA. 617-566-6660. My reading is THIS Thursday, Sept. 10, 7 p.m.

Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA 617-542-READ. My reading is next Tuesday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m.

"Shades of Grey" September!

Yow, it's September! And Shades of Grey, my first Dulcie Schwartz mystery, is making its US debut (in reality) with a (virtual) tour.

Yes, I will be doing some live in-person readings. But this time out, I'm focusing on the online world. That means you can drop by and say "hi" at:

Lesa's Book Critiques, Sept. 1 (interview)
The Conscious Cat, Sept. 4
One Writer's World, Sept. 5
"The Well-Read Donkey," (Kepler's Books blog) Sept. 8
Lesa's Book Critiques, Sept. 8 (guest blog)
Caroline Leavittville, Sept. 9
Musings of a Bookish Kitty, Sept. 10
Mayhem and Magic, Sept. 10
Cozy Chicks, Sept. 13
"The Well-Read Donkey," (Kepler's Books blog) Sept. 15
Cozy Murder Mysteries, Sept. 25
The Lipstick Chronicles, Sept. 26

I'll be talking about "Shades of Grey," sure, but also about other books, reviewing, publishing, research... you name it. And I'll be offering some giveaways, too. No, I won't say at which posts! You'll have to come on by, leave a comment, ask a question. Join in for Shades of Grey September!

"Cries and Whiskers" in mass market!

Finally! Cries and Whiskers – the third Theda Krakow mystery – is now available in a mass market (read: cheap) paperback edition from Worldwide. Cool new cover, too!

Laying back

Got back from vacation this week and haven't done much of anything – nor, for the first time in a long while, do I have a new project on deck. In part, I'm waiting for the page proofs of "Grey Matters," which will pub in the UK in December (and the US soon after). And my agent has sent out "Dogs Don't Lie," my "pet noir," not that we'll hear anything till after Labor Day. And next month, "Shades of Grey," the first Dulcie Schwartz mystery, officially pubs in the US. So it's not like I haven't been busy (and I do have my hands full with various editing assignments, a nice change of pace). But I'm wondering what to work on next. Several readers have queried me about another Theda Krakow book, to follow up "Probable Claws." So maybe I should work on one of those. Or maybe in a few weeks, my Dulcie publisher will ask if I'm game to sign up for two more of those mysteries. Or "Dogs Don't Lie" will sell to a publisher who wants a sequel. Or maybe I'll be moved to start something entirely different.

It's Friday, so I'm definitely not starting anything today. But what should I do next? Wait for a clue from outside or....

Truth in fiction

We were on the beach in Provincetown when the news broke about the CIA hiring Blackwater to carry out assassinations. Strangely enough, this kind of thing was what I talked about with Joe Finder, author of the great new thriller Vanished, in this week's Boston Phoenix. Read it here.

Oline Cogdill likes "Shades of Grey"!

"It's easy to get caught up in the adventures of grad student Dulcie Schwartz." – Oline Cogdill, Sun-Sentinel

Big sigh of relief - and big thanks out to Sun-Sentinel critic Oline Cogdill!

Simon makes her elements of the supernatural work in `Shades of Grey'
By OLINE H. COGDILL
Sun-Sentinel

-"Shades of Grey," by Clea Simon; Severn House (216 pages, $28.95)
It's easy to get caught up in the adventures of grad student Dulcie Schwartz in the start of this new series by Massachusetts author Clea Simon.
The appealing Dulcie is at a crossroads in her life: She's looking for a thesis topic in gothic literature; her best friend and usual roommate is gone for the summer; and she's just had to put her beloved cat, Mr. Grey, to sleep. To add to her woes, Tim, her housemate for the summer, is a self-centered jock who has little patience for education and a snobby girlfriend.
Duclie soon thinks she's in a gothic novel herself when Tim is killed. The trauma of having someone murdered in her own home is hard to comprehend. Now his girlfriend keeps coming by looking for something hidden in his room.
Her temp work in an insurance agency takes a weird turn with computer viruses and petty thefts. Then there is the little matter of the ghost of her cat that she swears keeps popping up.
Simon makes her elements of the supernatural work by keeping this aspect as believable as possible in "Shades of Grey." Simon brought that same sense of realism to her four cat mysteries by showing how the felines enhanced the lives of their owners. In that series, she never stooped to making detectives out of the cats, as have other cat mysteries. She brings the same standards to "Shades of Grey."
Simon also layers on the gothic ambience as she shows the joys of a library and the terrors it can hold after dark.
Dulcie is a likable, intelligent young woman who also often says the wrong thing and worries that she doesn't always fit in. She aces the test of realism in "Shades of Grey."

© 2009 San Luis Obispo Tribune and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com

Thank you, Library Journal!

"This series launch ... is for readers who like their feline cozies mixed with a touch of the paranormal." – Library Journal on Shades of Grey

Full review (including what I hope is a typo: Theo?)

REVIEW
Author: CLEA SIMON
Title: SHADES OF GREY
Publication: LIBRARY JOURNAL
Issue: 1ST AUGUST 2009
Shades of Grey, Clea Simon. Severn, $28.95 (240p), Sept 2009, ISBN 978-0-7278-6781-0

Graduate student Dulcie Schwartz is working as a temp and renting a room to another student for the summer to make ends meet. When her roommate is murdered, Dulcie hears her dead cat’s voice warning her about dangers. VERDICT This series launch by the author of the Theo Krakow series (Cries and Whiskers) is for readers who like their feline cozies mixed with a touch of the paranormal.

Vicki Lane cracks me up

Vicki Lane, author of the marvelous Elizabeth Goodweather mysteries, never fails to entertain. I had the pleasure of meeting her at Bouchercon a few years back and ever since have read and thoroughly enjoyed her carefully crafted, smart whodunits.Though I believe she may now be working on a standalone, her main series features a smart, feisty widow who runs an herb and flower farm in the Carolina hill country. The latest, In a Dark Season, is up for an Anthony award. And she also provides a monthly newsletter. Today, the newsletter included the following clip - which reminds me of both Elizabeth and (forgive me) Vicki herself. This is what I aspire to.

Thank you, Booklist!

"Well paced and tightly plotted, Shades of Grey debuts a promising series from the author of the Theda Krakow mysteries." Thank you, Booklist!

Author: CLEA SIMON
Title: SHADES OF GREY
Publication: BOOKLIST
Issue: 1ST AUGUST 2009
Shades of Grey, Clea Simon. Severn, $28.95 (240p), Sept 2009, ISBN 978-0-7278-6781-0

Twentysomething Dulcie Schwartz is a doctoral student at Harvard, struggling to find a thesis topic, mourning her recently deceased cat Mr. Grey, and working a summer temp job. Then, one afternoon, she thinks she sees Mr. Grey and believes he warns her not to go home. When she enters her apartment, she finds her despised subletter dead with her knife in his chest. Mr. Grey, Dulcie’s mother informs her, is her spirit guide; that’s fortunate because Dulcie could certainly use extraterrestrial help, seeing as she finds herself suspected of both murder and hacking into her computer system at work. Well paced and tightly plotted, Shades of Grey debuts a promising series from the author of the Theda Krakow mysteries (Probable Claws, 2009). With scholar Dulcie as the main character, and most of the action taking place on the Harvard campus and inside the Widener Library, it should appeal to a wide audience, including fans of both cat cozies and fiction that uses an academic frame story (Lauren Willig’s The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, 2005).

Happy day!

It's my birthday and my editor emailed to thank me for my revisions and the copy editor has already touched base with some proposed cover copy (all this for "Grey Matters") and Jon is making dinner tonight and all is good!

One small step for man...

What do you remember about Apollo 11? Has it retained any magic for you?
I was seven years old, one week away from my eighth birthday. And although I was allowed to stay up, I fell asleep - but I remember being shaken awake to see that historic broadcast. We had landed on the moon - and it was on TV! All in time for my birthday! With all the hoopla surrounding the anniversary, I still get a little choked up thinking about it. How about you?

Thank you, Bristol Library!

A nice introduction to my Theda series, from a librarian's blog.

Farewell, Kate's Mystery Books

Kate Mattes started me writing mysteries. We've all known that she was trying to sell the store for quite a while now, but just heard about this last night and I'm sad. Thank you, Kate!

Kate's Mystery Books closing on August 1
An e-mail from the Porter Sq Neighbors mailing list.

Many of you have been aware that I have had the building which houses the store on the market for awhile. I have finally sold it. I of course have mixed feelings about this but know it is the right decision for me. The new owners have allowed me to stay on for a while but Kate's Mystery Books will be closing on August 1st. Between now and then, everything in the store will be sold at 25% off. On Saturday, August 1st, we will be having a packing party from 11-5 AND we will also have our Annual Yard Sale (books $1 and under) at the same time.

I hope you can get in in the next few weeks to say good-bye although I won't actually disappear. We will be having author events at different venues and of course we will have the annual holiday party so there will be opportunities for the mystery community to get together. You will get notices of them from me.

It is sad though to close the store. I hope you can join us on August 1st to celebrate the good times we have had and to help pack everything up. I know we can do it, as we have done it before. (Remember the bus?)

It is been a true joy for me to have had the opportunity to me such interesting and diverse people and i will definitely miss you.

Best, Kate


--
Kate's Mystery Books
2211 Mass. Ave.
Cambridge, MA. 02140
617/491-2660

Hours: Sun.-Mon: 12-5
Tuesday: CLOSED
Wed-Thurs.: 12-7
Fri.: 12-6
Sat.: 11-5

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

Happy Bastille day!

A really fun read for the holiday: Dancing on the Precipice:The Life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin, Eyewitness to an Era.

From my review: "Lucie de la Tour du Pin may have been only minor nobility, but her status guaranteed her a front-row seat at the major events of the late 18th century, while allowing her to survive upheavals the likes of which Europe had never before seen...."

Revision hell

I am in revision hell. Basically, I am re-reading "Grey Matters" for the umpteenth time and it is driving me nuts. I want to second guess every sentence, replace every image. This is my last change to make serious changes (though I'll see it again after the copy editor gets through and again on proofs) and the pressure is enormous.

I don't know why it should be this way. I liked this book before I sent it off. And my editor likes it a lot, too. In fact, she had very few suggestions for changes and the book is already scheduled for publication. I've printed out her email to remind me of this, whenever the going gets too rough.

Still, reading and revising again feels like pulling my fingernails out. And then trying to replace them. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. OK, back to work.

She likes it! (BIG sigh of relief)

Heard from my Severn House editor today and GREY MATTERS is a go! This is just a private email, and of course, she's the editor who bought the series so she's biased, but I cannot tell you how nice it is to read bits like "As well as a good story, it's a fascinating and very realistic picture of the academic world with all its rivalries and politics." Well, I'm not sure how realistic it is, but if I made it believable, I'm thrilled.

Some minor revisions to make – adding more kitty bits, I think – and then onto copy editing! Plan now is for Grey Matters to pub in the UK next Dec., which probably means US release in March 2010. Phew. A little hard to believe. And now... back to work!

Nice bit of advance news (thank you, Examiner!)

This makes me so happy!

"The first release in Clea Simon’s Dulcie Schwartz series, SHADES OF GREY (Severn House, September, 2009) has everything a mystery-lover could hope for–an engaging heroine, an intriguing plot, plenty of smart, sophisticated dialogue, and wonderful secondary characters. " – Mary Kennedy, Examiner.com

The internal editor

I originally posted this on the Kepler's writers' blog last week. But I find myself talking about this topic with friends and thought I'd repost here:

“Bash it out now. Tart it up later.”

This has become my mantra since my buddy and fellow writer Brett Milano first passed it along several years ago. The phrase originates with pubrocker Nick Lowe (who also penned the deathless “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding?”), he tells me. All I know for sure is that those eight words have saved my writing life.

Bash it out. That’s the essence of this advice, and the reason it is key is that this is the single most difficult part of writing. Bashing it out. Getting the words on paper. Putting word after word to make a sentence, a paragraph. A scene.

Apply butt to chair, I frequently tell prospective writers. Start typing (or scribbling). Just (to paraphrase a shoe ad) do it. That’s the first hurdle, the threshold into being a writer. And it is both high and hard to overcome.

Why is this simple first step so horribly difficult for so many of us? I blame the internal editor. Face it. There is nothing so wonderful as the book you are about to write. We are dreamers. Storytellers. Idealists – or we wouldn’t want to write at all. In our heads, before we’ve committed anything to paper, our ideas are quicksilver. Starlight. Translucent. But as soon as they appear in the light of day, they become fixed in the physical world with all that implies: They become leaden, earthbound. Not fun. It’s a terrifying transition from limitless possibility to concrete immobility, and it is enough to freeze up even the most experienced author. Whatever we write cannot compare to what we imagine. And so to our internal editors – our writing superego or our internalized mothers or high school teachers – it isn’t good enough. We aren’t good enough. And so we don’t write.

We tell ourselves that we are writing. That we are just searching for the right word. The right phrase. The opening scene that will spark everything off. But in truth we procrastinate. We fiddle. We cook. When I’m trying to start a project, I do more loads of laundry than a two-person household demands. I know this about myself now and accept it as part of my process – and then, I sit down and start the work.

Because if we are going to write, if we are going to be writers, then at some point we have to do the deed. We have to actually set words down and build them up, scene by scene, into something that others can read. We have to overcome the horrible, crippling doubt and dare to make it real.

Over the years, I’ve learned various techniques to get me over the threshold. One of those is, of course, fear of deadline. When you earn your rent by what you write, fear is a great motivator. This often works for students, too, and explains why so many assignments are penned only hours before deadline. This fear can be useful, and I confess I’ve allowed myself to wallow on occasion on a more nebulous, existential variety: Maybe I don’t have any more books in me. Maybe I’ve done it all and should simply teach full-time or take up PR. For while there is absolutely nothing wrong with either profession, the idea of not writing terrifies me – and gets me back to work.

I’ve said before that I believe the ability to write is like a muscle, and keeping the muscle in shape helps, too. All those years doing journalism have given me some fall-back techniques – surefire “ledes” to start a story that I can use in fiction, too, if need be. I’ll also assign myself fairly arbitrary word lengths – say, 1,000 words a day – and make myself do them.

But basically these techniques only work because of the second part of the mantra, the “tart it up later.” I can use a hackneyed device (“start with a quote”) or bash out 1,000 words of transitional sentences because I know I can fix it later. I tell myself that in a month or two, whenever I have a draft, I can choose to rewrite the entire work – or toss half of it. I can bash it out now, because (as I remind myself), I will have the opportunity to tart it up later. That’s the promise I make myself and to my internal editor. In exchange, she lets me write.

That sounds a little like a trick, doesn’t it? But it’s not so much outwitting the internal editor, as it is buying her off. I’m just typing, I tell her. You’ll get your turn later. And for a little while, she leaves me in peace.

Thank you, January Magazine!

"We engage with the work of the authors we love on many levels." So begins today's January Magazine Author Snapshot. It then goes on to say incredibly nice things – concluding: "Mystery, music, nightclubs, animals in danger: on a certain level, it’s an unlikely combination, yet, somehow, it works very well. And why? That special blend, I think: passion, heart, understanding and voice, voice, voice. Simon’s is as strong and clear as the passion she brings to the stories she tells."

January Magazine is a must-read, a 12-year-old online journal of the arts, with news, reviews, and interviews updated daily. I check in whenever I can, for information and just plain fun. But still, somehow, when editor (and fab author) Linda L. Richards asked me a few months ago if I wanted to be "snapshot," I said, sure and filled out an email interview. I never expected something as nice as this. Thank you, Linda! Thank you, January Magazine!

Michael Jackson, RIP

The weird face. The pedophilia, I know, I know...

But watching the coverage – especially those amazing early clips of the Jackson 5 and those Thriller videos – is making me sad. I grew up with Michael (well, I grew up, anyway). He was two years older than I was, which makes seeing him so young doubly poignant. I think for folks my age, he was like our Elvis: a great, seminal musician and force in music who had faded into sad irrelevance or worse. But we still didn't expect to lose him just yet.

RIP, Michael.