storyfires

Yeah. Another one. What? Don't you have ANYTHING else to write a blog post about? No. You got a problem with that? Nothing happens in my life. Ever. I sit in front of my computer all day and type. I take care of my sweet and nearly-perfect children (Shut up and quit fighting, you guys! I'm trying to write!) who are old enough to pretty much take care of themselves. And I haven't been alone once all summer long. Being alone recharges me mentally. Too much socializing shuts down my brain. I NEED alone time. So when I go somewhere (alone!) I get really excited. Kind of like when you have a new baby and you finally make it Outside! The Door! To the...Grocery Store! And you really want to tell someone, only NO ONE cares. And neither should you. Because what's so exciting about getting in the car and driving to and from the store? So SCBWI is the kind of thing only writers get excited about, and for me it was kind of an alone marathon. With a thousand other people...

For more details on SCBWI in L.A., visit writer Matt Kirby's blog. It's a great sum-up, except I didn't meet as many famous people as he did, and of course I forgot to bring a camera. You'll have to look at his pictures to see any photos of me in L.A. Let's see if this link will work this time: http://matthewkirby.com/kirbside/?p=614 Technology doesn't like me.

My kid thinks I'm going to get shot. Whenever I get in the car to go anywhere, he says, "Bye, Mom, don't get shot!" It's a little disturbing. I don't know where he gets this. It's not like we watch lot of violent TV. Actually, we don't really watch TV at all. Last week I flew to Los Angeles for a national Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference. Saying good-bye was traumatic: "Bye, Mom," my son said mournfully, "Don't get shot in L.A." I wasn't much worried about getting shot. My room and the conference were in the same Century City hotel, which I hardly had a chance to leave, so a gunman would've had to have been pretty determined to get me if he'd wanted me. I was more worried about getting lost. Or missing my plane. Given my track record, neither of those things were unlikely at all. I have phobias about going places by myself, probably because the last time I traveled entirely ...

I've been meaning to write this post for a month, now, and finally, today, I have no trip to pack for, nothing to plan, nowhere to rush, so here it is at last. I mentioned Dramatica in an earlier post, and I need to explain what the heck that is. Dramatica is both a theory and a software program that walks you through the theory using your own novel-in-progress. I'm just using a free version of the software, which I find frustrating, since I can't save anything, so I can't say whether the software is worth the money. Here's my little sum-up of the theory, as I understand it. Or, if you're interested in the details, check out the Dramatica website at www.dramatica.com, or click on one of the links in the website the Hickmans created for our conference workshop in June: www.storymind.net (sorry, my links refuse to work today for some odd reason. Maybe because I have no clue how to use them). Dramatica uses the human mind and its problem-solving process as ...

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?