The Metaphor of Minestrone

Minestrone

Recently, I spent a week in manuscript therapy at Your Best Book, surrounded by the brilliance of:

• Lorin Oberweger and Brenda Windberg from Free Expressions Literary.
• Emma Dryden from Drydenbks.
• Josh Adams and Tracey Adams from Adams Literary.
• Authors/YA Muses: Veronica Rossi, Talia Vance, Donna Cooper, and Brett Ballou.
• Nancy Conescu from Dial Books.
• And fifteen amazing, aspiring authors.

I got to spend all day with these people! From breakfast at 8:00 am, to the craft chat that wrapped up at 9:00 pm, there was no stopping the flow of amazing.

Some days I got overwhelmed by the information. Some days I couldn't contain my euphoria.

First, daily classes on craft and the publishing business blew my mind. Deep POV? Deep Scene? I'm still looking back on my notes and finding gems. My favorite takeaway was from Brenda Windberg on world building: React to details, don't just note them.

Then there was a visit to the book doctor.

Lorin and Brenda evaluated my first pages and synopsis for plot holes, or flaws in point of view -like an x-ray. I needed this is on a couple of fronts, but I was glad to learn some good things are already in my bag of tricks.

I wasn't prepared for the book therapist.

Lorin and Brenda took my outline and analyzed the meaning, looking for the emotional path to a better manuscript - like a brain scan. Scary things live in my head, I tell you.

When combined with daily intense critique sessions, the Book Doctor and Book Therapist visits resulted in an epiphany brought on by:

Josh Adams, who saw my antagonist pages and helped me see my story in an enticing new way.

AND

Nancy Conescu, who told me I needed to write realistic fiction.

The two ideas didn't sound at all related, but they were the seasoned experts. I needed to stop and listen.

Apparently, I was trying to cram three stories into my current ms.
(Wonder if that was why I felt the need for three POV characters?)

At the end of the week, I came home exhausted, grumpy with a capital G, and convinced I needed to throw out the entire manuscript.

And then I made the worst minestrone of my entire life. (Chopping veggies was therapeutic, you know?)

"Is this what's going on in your head?" My husband asked as he ladled the concoction into a bowl.

Sigh. How right he was. Garbanzos, and lentils, and green beans, and kidney beans, and stars, and diced tomato, and... I spilled the red pepper flakes which made it almost inedible. There wasn't near enough broth to go with all the stuff swimming in that soup.

Metaphor? Definitely.

So here's the recovery plan: Sleep. Then separate the stories.

Instead of tossing everything, I'm outlining the third story, stripping the current manuscript of idea threads from the other two, and keeping a "cuts" file for everything. The first story will have to simmer while I keep an eye on it.

PS. This reaction to an intense workshop is not uncommon. A week into November, I've found my direction again, hopeful for a finished, brilliant revision by January.

Did I mention that I'd recommend this experience to any writer I meet? Epiphany seems such a small word for all the enlightenment.

Playing Favorites

Elizabeth George Speare

I'm in the Your Best Book writing workshop this week, where Tracey Adams of Adams Literary is discussing character. One of the prep questions for the workshop: Who is your favorite children's book character? Be prepared to share why.

The options seemed endless, so I broke it down in categories:

Picture Books-

HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON? Maybe. Yes. I like him, but is he my favorite? I think I like the crayon.

Stellaluna? I like her, but I didn't read her story when I was little. She's cute, but not my favorite.

Conclusion: I'm not really a picture book writer.

Middle Grade-

Lots of maybes in this category: Laura Ingalls, Mary Lennox, Lucy Pevensie, Nancy Drew, Anne Shirley...  Meg Murray? I reread A WRINKLE IN TIME because I remembered loving it years ago. But, it's not Meg. (Hey! Even Nathan Bransford has issues with this story these days.)

Conclusion: I like middle grade, but I don't love it.

Young Adult:

Karana from ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS - I really like this book, but Karana isn't the reason.

Kit Tyler? Kit Tyler.

Woah! Flashback!


I was in sixth grade the day I first read THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND. 

We had round tables in class, which I appreciated because the teacher couldn't just look down the rows and reprimand me for reading. Somehow I got a seat tucked way into the corner. The pockmarked plexiglass window behind me threw a dappled shadow over the table. The perfect place to hide a paperback? The inside of my science book, SERENDIPITY.

The story sucked me in, and then.... tears! I didn't care about the room full of kids around me, or the teacher who finally figured out the science wasn't making me sniffle. I even got myself a pen pal in the Barbados afterwards.


Remembering Kit's story, certain scenes are vivid still for me. Just in case she's not my favorite, and to research the WHY:

I reread WOBP over the weekend. I didn't cry, but it was a wake up call for me - as if I saw my younger self through a mirror portal, and I was comfortable with her.

Kit and I are sisters of the soul, and here's the why: Kit was one independent girl striving for a way to find her place in two worlds. Not an apple, or an orange, she was a pomegranate, like me. Did I know that way back in 6th grade? It was the year I went from Catholic school to public, so maybe I had an idea.

Now I look at BURNT AMBER and I see Kit Tyler walking through those pages, nodding her head. She knows me. Even in MIST OF KAVALA, I see her mark.

Conclusion:

Kit Tyler is my favorite.

Now, is it because I'm a YA writer at heart? Who is your favorite? Is it a classic? Is it something more recent?


AND lastly, I have to point out that Sarah Fine launched her book last week:

SANCTUM by Sarah Fine

 

 

A week ago, seventeen-year-old Lela Santos's best friend, Nadia, killed herself. Today, thanks to a farewell ritual gone awry, Lela is standing in paradise, looking upon a vast gated city in the distance – hell. No one willingly walks through the Suicide Gates, into a place smothered in darkness and infested with depraved creatures. But Lela isn't just anyone – she's determined to save her best friend's soul, even if it means sacrificing her eternal afterlife.

As Lela struggles to find Nadia, she's captured by the Guards, enormous, not-quite-human creatures that patrol the dark city's endless streets. Their all-too-human leader, Malachi, is unlike them in every way except one: his deadly efficiency. When he meets Lela, Malachi forms his own plan: get her out of the city, even if it means she must leave Nadia behind. Malachi knows something Lela doesn't – the dark city isn't the worst place Lela could end up, and he will stop at nothing to keep her from that fate.