storyfires

This month has been crazy, beginning with a family vacation to Bear Lake, which turned into a family reunion there, then a week of girls' camp, and now the family's off to Yellowstone for a few days. In a couple of weeks I'll be flying to L.A. for a national SCBWI conference. I'm itching to write; it's driving me crazy. Got to finish up my rewrite of Hepzibah and then think about sending her out into the publishing world, but when do I squeeze it in?

Hadn't seen the sun in awhile. When it turned up today, poetry happened. Mountain Glory-Song For two weeks I thought the sun Was playing hide-and-find And tag-and-dash And blind-man-bluff— A fortnight of teasing games Of almost and not quite, And maybe tomorrow— But today the sun came up and stayed, And I realized— Sun never left, clouds just tricked My view—my eyes were the Trouble, my vision Too weak to poke Through to outer-space. Today the sun breaks out— The mountain sings its glory And I stand witness To the whole, great organ Of mountainous joy— The birds begin it— An ecstasy of towhee pipe song And warbler trills And camp-robber scree! scree! scrah! And the thrushes, of course— Running melodies over The rocks like streams of Snow-melt—nobody ever could beat a Thrush for song And then the crickets take it up With the grass-fiddlers. And the mountain opens up its stops— Every one— And lets loose sforzando Dragonflies dance with swall...

It's midnight and I'm writing a blog post. Does that tell you something about how much writing time I have when my kids are home in the summer? I miss 6-hour writing blocks. And not waiting up late on weekdays for teenagers to come home. Built-in writing time--too bad I'm too tired to appreciate it.

I always believed I was one of those people whose emotional/mental energy recharges in solitude. It's true: quiet time alone with mountains and nature will always leave me feeling better, more ready to face whatever hard thing life decides to dump on me today. Anne Morrow Lindburgh said once that being around other people is draining because there's nothing more exhausting than being insincere. Yeah. Most of the time social settings require at least some insincerity, especially for someone like me, lest I alarm anyone with the real Elena. I've changed my mind, just a little, about that, though. After spending a delightful week with hundreds of other writers at the BYU Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers (WIFYR) Conference, and my mornings with a small and talented group of fantasy writers in my workshop there, I've decided that being around other people isn't what's draining; it's being around people who don't "get" you. It's about c...

I'm taking a break from blogging for a bit while I madly write and prepare for the BYU Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference (WIFYR) which starts next week. I'm excited to be doing morning fantasy-writing workshops with Tracy and Laura Hickman, who have a ridiculous number of books in print and are fabulous teachers. I loved the one-day conference I attended with them last July and I've already learned a lot just working through the pre-conference reading. I'll be back after the conference is over, unless I get too busy with rewrites.