My Halloween fright came early

Cat-o-lantern carved by hubby

Don't freak out, my editor said on the phone this afternoon. But we're getting some resistance to the cover, so we want to make some changes.

The good news is I've never been crazy about the book cover. I grew used to it (and I did print 1,000 business cards with that cover), but never fell in love. And I love what we believe to be the cover now, so I'm actually very excited. I'll post it soon. Right now, you may understand, I feel a little skittish.

Four months to pub date and we're changing the cover. The new cover isn't in the ARC or the catalogue. Why should I freak out?

In addition to this non-freaking-out news, I've received some REALLY good news about Orange Mint and Honey that I can't share just yet. Soon as I can, I will post it (and the lovely new cover, please God).

Since when am I a sports fan?*

Well, the Rox got swept, but I'm still impressed. They made it to the big show when nobody, and I mean nobody, thought that was possible. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Now it's on to Jayhawks football. They're 8-0. Rock chalk Jayhawks!


*You can take the girl away from the Brices, but you can't take the Brices out of the girl.

Things I fear (in honor of Halloween)

I'm starting a meme. "Things I fear." It can't be about serious things like war with Iran or global warming. These must be real, but frivolous fears. Here goes:

1) Spiders: I used to catch spiders as a kid and play with them. One day I was letting a daddy long legs walk up my arm and my baby sitter told me it would bite me. Ha! I said with my little know it all self. Spiders don't bite. A few days later I was playing in the yard and my mom called me over to see why I kept scratching my leg. Just a mosquito bite, I said. No, looks like a spider bite to me. From that moment on, I was scared of spiders.

2nd creepiest story of the year was about the 200 miles of spider webs. I will not be linking because that might lead to pictures and I don't wanna know.

1st creepiest story of the year was about the guy whose tarantula bit him and killed him and then the rest of his spiders and reptiles ATE him. Again, not linking. You can Google it if you must know more.

2) Heights (though I'm getting better): For similar reasons. When I was a kid, we used to play on "the mountain." It was the end of a bluff (Omaha is very hilly) that overlooked railroad tracks. There was a tree and someone at some point had tied a rope with a big knot on the bottom of it so you could swing. All the neighborhood kids thought it was big fun. One day, our parents got curious and wanted to see "the mountain." So we took them. Holy #*&! They freaked out! And I saw it from their eyes: the tiny little knot at the bottom of the frayed rope. The railroad tracks very far below. From that moment on, afraid of heights.

3) Moths also freak me out.

4) That Grey's Anatomy is jumping the shark. Seriously. Trick-or-treating for ears? What was up with the guy cutting off his foot? I didn't see previews for next week. Will he be on so we can learn what the hell is wrong with him? Not sure I'm buying George and Izzy. Bailey seems to have lost her mojo. And since when did Christina become all moral? The show's always been a little over the top, but this season I have to say I'm a little worried. Seriously.

5) Red Sox pitchers.

I won't tag anybody, but feel free to post your own fears here or on your own blog. What gives you the spookies?

Mr. Magnolia

Mr. Magnolia is in today's Denver Post. He lives in Colorado Springs and runs a business selling trees from his yard. The city is threatening to cut down 13 of his trees that he planted in the median. They don't meet city specifications. I had to share this story because of this quote: "I'm the only person in this whole state that knows the secret of the magnolias." Sounds like an interesting character, doesn't he? And he must know their secrets: he's growing magnolias in Colorado. I didn't even know that was possible!

Intentions

As someone who blogs about writing, it’s easy to focus on the craft of writing: Characters, plot, setting, storytelling. Do you outline or not? What's your process?

It’s sometimes easy to focus on the business of publishing, to get caught up in the momentum of publicity, book tours, reviews, rankings on bestseller lists and amounts of advances.

These things are important. I want to write well, and I want writing to be financially successful for me.

But I feel like sometimes I forget about the meaning of writing, what purpose it serves for me and for any potential readers. Being published offers me an amazing opportunity to express myself, to say what I think and feel about important issues. That blows me away! I feel a deep responsibility to get it right, to honor this opportunity, to not waste it or treat it frivolously.

So I’ve been thinking about my intentions lately. What deeper things I want from writing and what I hope to give through it. I want my writing to be entertaining and interesting. I hope that readers might laugh and cry when they read my books. But I want my writing to mean something more than that too. I want my writing to touch people, to make them feel known and understood, if only for the short time they spend with my characters. I want to make them think, to maybe see things a little differently or at least understand how others might see things a little differently. And maybe I, too, can learn something from all this, can see things a little differently, understand something a little more.

These are my intentions. What are yours?

Best job in the world

Today, I did more research for my book.

This time I went to Idaho Springs. Thirty miles west of Denver.

This is one of my favorite views.
Just a few minutes up I-70.

Idaho Springs, like most mountain towns, has

a cute main street with shops and restaurants.

Plenty of places to buy fudge (I got hubby

a piece of handmade chocolate).

The bear is wise.

But the main event, the reason for my trip,
was the hot springs. Since I know my characters better now,

I know gambling isn't what takes them to the mountains.

What takes them to the mountains is the Indian Springs resort.

And because I want those scenes to be authentic

I needed to go experience the healing waters

along the Soda Creek for myself.

I booked a reservation for a Mother Earth wrap. A 30-minute

massage followed by being painted with clay and sea kelp mixed

together and wrapped in towels and blankets and

lying under a heat lamp for 30 minutes.

Before you do any spa treatment, you soak and steam.

Either in a private bath (which is where I am here;

I took this picture myself) or in the geothermal caves

(where I went after this, but since there were other undressed women there

I thought it wise not to bring out a camera).

The resort recommends 30-60 minutes of soaking before you

do a spa treatment. Worked for me.

Yes, researching a novel is a dirty job. But somebody had to do it.

And if I needed any proof I'm on the right track, I got it.

I asked my massage therapist if she saw clients

with lupus. (One of my characters has this condition and

I wanted to make sure that a person with lupus

would benefit from the hot springs and massage.)

Her answer was yes. As a matter of fact, one of her

very good friends has been in remission from lupus

for 12 years due to diet and exercise and other

natural methods. She gave me her contact information.

My character, Billie, is into diet, yoga, meditation and

other means to keep her lupus in check.
Destiny, no?

As for me, my skin feels great and my body feels like I've run a marathon (in a good way). I will be going back!

Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,

Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

or cultural system. I am not from the East

or the West, not made out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not

composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

am not an entity in this world or the next,

did not descend from Adam and Eve or any

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace

of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two

worlds as one and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that

breath breathing human being.

-Rumi (who died in 1273)

Reader's Circle

This is why I have hopes for reaching a wide audience.

Oh, and check out the Orange Mint and Honey playlist at the bottom of this blog. (If you have speakers at work, you might want to turn them down.) Some tunes from the great Nina Simone and others will be The Pajama Gardener's soundtrack.

Thanks to Sherry's site Sage and Thyme where I discovered this program!

Miracle of miracles

Look outside your windows boys and girls cause pigs just might be flyin' by! The Colorado Rockies are in the World Series. The who are in the wha? I know. The Rockies. After winning 21 of 22 straight games. They're my new heroes. I've never been a baseball fan before, but watching this team go from nobodies to National League champs was very inspiring. Seeing them do the unbelievable-win game after game after game-makes me think of what unbelievable things I can do. Like write 1,000-2,000 words a day, every day. So far, so good. In fact...come closer I have to whisper this...I think I know my story all the way through. The Rockies won the pennant and I'm going to get my book done on time. Folks are ordering ice water in hell as we speak!

And Tyler Perry's movie did just fine

without mainstream media support. #1 at the box office this weekend.

Standing tall

I spoke with my grandmother the other night. She's been living on her own for the first time in her life since April when Papa died. She's a tiny little thing, and while we all knew she was strong, I think we expected her to fall apart without him. She's an old-school woman who let her man run the household (even though like most black women of her generation she worked, and worked hard). But she didn't fall apart.

Someone shot at her house a couple of weeks ago. Shot bullets at her house! While she was home! She hit the ground and called the police. They told her that a house getting shot, even the house of an 85-year-old woman, wasn't a priority. They had cases where people had been shot and they had to investigate those first. They'd get to her whenever. Well, she didn't accept that. She called the daughter of somebody's cousin who knows so and so (this is how it works in small towns). This daughter of somebody's cousin is a forensics investigator. She went to the house and called the cops and told them to get somebody over NOW. And they did. After a thorough investigation (helicopters, squad cars, the whole shebang) they think it was some random idiot. (Lovely, aren't they? The random idiots.)

This is the big part: my grandmother didn't tell anybody in the family about this. She handled it herself. My father came into town to visit her and her next door neighbor told him what happened. This is what she told me about it on the phone: "I had to work through this myself and find some peace about it in my own mind before I told anybody else. I was afraid at first, but I prayed on it and I'm not afraid anymore. I'm really not. So please don't worry about me. I walked on Billy's [my grandfather] feet for 60 years. I was like a baby learning how to walk when he died. I didn't know how to write a check or pay any bills. But now I do. Now I'm standing tall. And I'm proud of me."

I'm proud of her too!

Why Did I Get Married?

I'm one of the lucky ones. I had all my marital doubt immediately after getting married. Once I got through the first year, the rest has been easy. I know why I got married and I'm very glad I did.

Tyler Perry's movie, Why Did I Get Married?, opens today, and I'm looking forward to it. I really enjoyed Daddy's Little Girls, and I like a lot of these actors, so I have high hopes. But here's something to think about: In the "mainstream media" (and I get a lot of it: NY Times, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, New York magazine, The New Yorker, O Magazine, Vanity Fair), I've seen not one review, not one article. (Though I did see a review on E! Online today, where I swiped this photo from.) The movie has been all over African American media, and black folks, I'm sure, will support it. But couldn't white people and Latinos and others enjoy a movie about four couples working out their marital issues? If the characters are black, does that mean only blacks can relate?

I bring this up as a black writer (whose debut novel has a black protagonist) who hopes for a wide readership (Let's say it straight: I want white folks to buy my book. I want Latinas and Asians and anybody and everybody.). But how will they buy it if they don't hear about it? And even if they hear about it, will they read it? There's plenty of opinions out there about the idea that, unless its "literary" whites don't read books about blacks. Call me naive (you won't be the first), but I'm hoping to hit the spot that Terry McMillan, Pearl Cleage and Bebe Moore Campbell hit. These are black women writers of "commercial" fiction that reached a wider audience. A very rare breed, let me tell you.

Oh, one more thing the movie and Orange Mint and Honey have in common: both are set in Colorado.

Ann Packer

I just got home from Ann Packer's reading at the Tattered Cover for her new book, Songs Without Words. An overview from her website:

In her long-awaited second novel, she takes us on a journey into a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point. Expertly, with the keen introspection and psychological nuance that are her hallmarks, she explores what happens when there are inequities between friends, and when the hard won balances of a long relationship are disturbed, perhaps irreparably, by a harrowing crisis.


This is a book with two points of view, which is of particular interest to me as my wip is from two points of view. She read a bit from both character's POV, and hearing her read made me much more interested in the book than anything on the jacket or anything the reviews have said. Proving again that it really is the writing that makes the book, not the promotion.

After she read, she answered questions. I like go to readings/signings, but I have to say people always ask the same questions. It made me wish I had gone prepared with something unique to ask. However, even though they are always the same questions, it's always interesting to hear a writer's response. So some quotes (as best as I can read from my notes):

What's your writing process like?

I really, really rewrite as I write...I'll spend the first hour rewriting from the day before so when I start to generate new stuff, I'm warmed up.

In The Dive from Clausen's Pier [her first novel], you use crafts, and now in this book you use crafts. Can you talk about that? (Actually, this was a great question!)

I think that making things is so important to a healthy life....in making things implicit is hope and I wanted my books to feel hopeful to readers even though they also go to dark places.

Do you outline or start with characters?

I start with a situation and a feeling of people in relation to other people with a sense of something happening so these relationships might change...I'm very organized in life. Writing is a place I get to be more free form.

How do you know when you're done?

When I have a sense that I've written the book I wanted to write.

This part is paraphrasing: She did six revisions of Songs Without Words, and by revisions, she meant rewriting over and over again from start to finish and showing it to people after each revision. She did nine revisions for The Dive from Clausen's Pier.

She was quite warm and funny. The event person from Tattered Cover introduced me to Packer as a newbie novelist, and Packer was kind enough to say she would keep a look out for my name. I gave her one of my cards, as I did to a woman in the audience who overhead and asked about my book!

Two takeaways for me. One: Ann Packer is a NY Times best-selling author and still had only about 20 people in the audience. Getting turnout is hard even for well-known writers. Two: "in making things implicit is hope." It made me feel good about trying to make good sentences and good stories. The hope is that they'll mean something to someone else.

Oh, and three: The TC event person and Packer's escort knew of my publicist and had good things to say about her!

On middles, dark woods and boots

In the middle of the road of my life I awoke in the dark wood where the true way was wholly lost. - Dante's Divine Comedy


Having found myself lost in the middle of my book AGAIN, I did what I typically do. I went back to the beginning and tried to find a new way through my story. Only to find myself lost in a different dark wood. But, and this is big, this time I'm not going back to the beginning to hack my way through again. This time I decided to start where I am and go from here, knowing that some things will have to change in the set up of the story to make where I am now and where I'm going make sense. But I'll wait until I get all the way to the end, to the other side of the forest, and then I'll follow my trail back to the beginning. I have hopes.

One thing that always changes as I write is my cast. I start out with way too many characters because I'm not really sure what they'll eventually mean to my main people. So I have to let them participate for a while and get to know them. During the first couple of trips through the first 100 pages, they all seem to have a role in the story, but then I get to the middle a couple of times and can see that, no, a bunch of them don't belong after all. Some of them really lovely people, kind people, children. But if they can't help me get to the other side of the dark wood, they gotta go! So far, I've given 4 characters the boot, and I believe I know now who my main secondary characters are (there are 3 of them) and how they're going to help us all get to the other side.

I have to say that one of my minor characters (not 1 of the above) just cracks me up, and I can't wait to reveal him to readers. He's based on a neighbor of a relative who I haven't met, but heard just one line about. One really good line. He's a nice companion through these woods. His only job is to make me smile from time to time, and he's really good at it.

Kim Reid's interview is up

Kim Reid's interview with Farai Chideya on NPR's News & Notes is available online. Great interview, Kim!

End times

Today was my last day at my old job. Gulp. The one that supposedly ended over a month ago. Well, me being me, it extended for a bit and probably would have extended until forever, except hubby stepped in and very lovingly and wisely reminded me that I have other things to attend to right now. So, until the end of the year, I'm going to lighten up on the freelance work and finish my novel. At least the first draft, so I can turn in something I'm proud of in March.

I packed up my cubicle and turned in my security key, and it felt weird. I have a meeting with my former boss on Wednesday and I'll check my work email a few times this month just to make sure nobody is contacting me with something important, but basically, I'm done...for a while. (Can you see what I mean about how I let things extend?)

Onward.

L.A. Book Buyers Needed!

Sad news this weekend about another indie bookstore in danger of going under. This one is Eso Won, an African American bookstore that I happen to know is a really cool store. I signed there a few years ago, and am supposed to go back next spring...but it's not looking good. From the L.A. Times:

After 20 years of hawking books -- some by popular authors; others, scholarly works, with rare and exotic titles -- L.A.'s leading independent bookstore specializing in writings by African Americans is facing bankruptcy.

Indeed, Eso Won may be closing its doors by the end of the year.

"We are suffering from what other independent bookstores have found -- that it's tough to compete against the Internet and the big chains," said James Fugate, a co-owner of the Leimert Park store.

People are rallying around the store, leading campaigns to buy books. However, the story goes on to say:

Encouraged by calls to help their struggling establishment, Fugate and Thomas Hamilton, the store's other co-owner, welcome the help, but also see the likelihood of closing as something they may not be able to avoid. "If people decide they don't want us, then it's time for us to leave," Hamilton said.

Let's hope that's not the case.

Listen up!

There's going to be an audio book of Orange Mint and Honey!

Don't know who will read it - Angela Bassett are you out there?! - but it will be out April 1st.

This is one of the best things about getting published--random bits of unexpected joy.

Kim Reid's going on NPR!

October 10th! Kristin Nelson has the deets (as they say in the gossip columns). Way to go, Kim!

New readers

Don't despair writers, a new wave of readers is coming. I just got back from my weekly reading session with Head Start kids. This is a good class. They love books, always asking, Read another one! I think they like stories even a bit more than they like stickers. And if you know any 3-, 4- or 5-year-olds, you know that's big. I hope it lasts.

It's a joy to read to them. Though, sometimes it's a little sad. Last week one of the books was Llama Llama Red Pajama (who better to read that one?) in which Mama Llama snuggles with her baby at bedtime. One of the girls said, I wish my mama was like that. Just about broke my heart.

They can also be funny. Last year, a kid who couldn't say combination s words told this story: One day my grandma got payed by a kunk and she tank!

They tell ALL their families' business. I heard a kid in the hallway today telling his teacher his mom got pulled over by the cops. Bet that's something she didn't really want him spreading around!

You won't be surprised to know that one of my current characters just so happens to be a Head Start teacher. Too much good material there to pass up.