Query submitted

Today I composed and sent off a query to the William Clark Associates Literary Agency. They have a form to fill in on their Web site, and that was an interesting process. I know every writer gets a lot of rejections before one acceptance, so this is just one more attempt. I am confident my book, I Just Want to Be Happy, will be published soon.

I also had a wonderful talk with my friend Steve this morning, and we decided to go hear some live music this evening. Life is very, very good.

Royalties

I never know when they are coming, so I was delighted to receive another royalty check from The Elements of News Writing. I'll never get rich from it, but it is gratifying to know it is being used in journalism classrooms all over the country.

My goal for the sabbatical is to finish another textbook, The Elements of Academic Writing, plus my spiritual memoir, I Just Want to Be Happy. Maybe I can even make some progress on my novel, Wither the Revolution. Perhaps royalties form four books will be a retirement plan of sorts!

No writing this morning: I have to take my car in for servicing and run a few other errands. I'll have to fit my writing in between other things today.

Writing again

This morning I worked on preparing a 20-page sample of my memoir to send to the agents at the Grub Street Manuscript Mart. I chose a few chapters and write a one-page query letter and formatted them all the way they want. I sent off an e-mail asking for confirmation of the names of the agents, so that I can address the query letters personally. I'll send them off as soon as I receive that confirmation.

This afternoon I'm headed back to Tufts Dental School to have an extraction in preparation for an implant. I hope it goes smoothly.

Running again

My running is going better than my writing this weekend. On Saturday I ran up a steep hill in Leverett, and today I ran the Falmouth 5000 race with a 10-minute mile pace, which is faster then I have been running lately. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the race course was beautiful, mostly along the shore. It felt very good. Cool! Tomorrow, more writing.

The bookcase is done!

So there is this bookcase next to my desk. It is right at my right elbow as I type on my computer. It is the perfect place for the things I need most often. Unfortunately, over the last three years that I have lived here it has become a catch-all for all the miscellaneous junk I didn't know where to put. For quite a while I have wanted to clear it out and make it organized and useful. I even put it at the top of my "To Do" list.

Well, after about a year of procrastination, I finally did it. I took everything out of the bookcase, dusted the shelves, and then sorted all the junk. I threw out or recycled about a third of the stuff, found better places for another third, and replaced the remaining stuff in a logical order. It took about six hours.

I am not sure if I used that project as an excuse to avoid writing. Nevertheless, I do believe I will be able to write more efficiently with all my stuff so well organized.

More snow?!?

Enough already! Here it is March 19 and it snowed overnight.On Sunday it was sunny and I took a photo of beautiful crocuses filling a field in Barnstable. Today, they are all covered with snow.

Yesterday was a partly productive day. I research the Grub Street conference in Boston called the Muse and the Marketplace. I signed up for all three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday May 3, 4, and 5. I also signed up for two meetings with agents. It is much more money than I can afford, but I am thinking of it as an investment in my future career as an author.

Today I am getting a pair of hearing aids. Again, it is a lot of money, but I believe it will make my life happier.

All in all, I need to embrace prosperity teachings and realize I have all the resources I need. Combined with that is the need to avoid unnecessary spending.

Rockin'

Friday was not a productive day in terms of writing, but it was still a good day.

In the morning I went up to the Tufts Dental School in Boston and made arrangements to get a dental implant. It was just X-rays and forms and exams, so there was no dental work. That starts on the 25th. On the way back I stopped by the hearing-aid dealer and finished up arrangements to get hearing aids. That happened Tuesday.

Back at home I checked out the Grub Street Muses writing conference in  May. It looks good. I plan to register Monday.
In the evening the Unity Drumming Circle provided entertainment at a party, and we were really in the groove. We rocked that place--thanks mostly to our talented leader Vern Parris. Everyone was up and dancing. What fun!

Good Thursday

Today was a good day. I did not sleep well last night, so I slept in this morning. Nevertheless, I managed to get up and write most of Chapter 3 in The Elements of Academic Writing. I wrote most of a chapter on page formatting.

In the afternoon my friend Laura showed me a beautiful set of trails through a nature preserve just a few miles from my house. I must have driven past the entrance to the Lowell Holly Reservation dozens of times but never stopped. I am so glad I did today. It is a beautiful natural area with lovely holly, pine, oak and beech trees. I can't wait to go back there. We took a brisk, vigorous hike for more than an hour, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I am grateful to the Trustees of Reservation, a wonderful nonprofit group that preserves such beautiful places for all of us to enjoy.
http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/cape-cod-islands/lowell-holly.html

Productive Wednesday

What a good day!

This morning I worked hard and finished Chapter 2 of The Elements of Academic Writing, which is about establishing a writing routine. I included a section on mindfulness meditation as a good form of relaxation in preparation for writing. I feel good about it.

After lunch I stopped by the college to take care of some business, including ordering a book through inter-library loan. I also went to the post office and bank, did some shopping at Trader Joe's (great organic avocados), and picked up batteries at the drug store. Then I came home and changed and went for a good three-mile run. That felt good too. It was a beautiful afternoon to be out. It was about 51 degrees and sunny. It felt like spring!

Allis well in the present moment.

Disappointing conference

Attending the "largest writers conference in the country" sounded like a wonderful idea, especially since it is held in Boston this year. But then a "perfect storm" of negative factors ruined it for me.(Yes I know "perfect storm" is overused, but I have my reasons this time.)

The Conference is the annual Conference and Bookfair of The Association of Writers and Writing Programs, known as AWP. Because I had to teach a class Thursday afternoon, the only time I could pick up my registration packet and name tag was Wednesday afternoon. I drove to Quincy and rode the T to the Hynes Convention Center. Then I discovered there was a three-block hike from the subway stop to the center. Also, it turns out my hike coincided with the start of a three-day nor'easter that was just starting to slam into Boston.

After my class on Thursday, I attempted to drive up to Quincy, as I had done the afternoon before, but the blizzard was in full force, and I could not make it. The heavy snow and winds gusting over 60 mph made it impossible. So I turned back. On Friday I decided to avoid that problem by taking a commuter bus from Cape Cod to South Station in Boston. The bus crawled along the road through the same blizzard about about 10 mph. So the scheduled one-hour trip took about three hours. Then I still had to take two subway lines form South Station to the convention center, plus the three-block trek through the snow. I had already missed about half of the convention.

Then there was a problem with some talks being canceled because the speakers could not get to Boston because of the storm. Other talks were overcrowded, and I couldn't even get in the door. The layout was confusing and finding alternate rooms was difficult.

I did make it to one good talk about voice in writing. It too was overcrowded, but at least I got there early and had a seat. Others were sitting on the floor. Four excellent writers spoke, but the introductions were confusing, so I was not sure who was who. One said "Voice is what causes the story to happen." One said, "You have to be willing to sound like a complete idiot--don't be afraid to play."  Several suggested staging "character interviews" with your characters to learn their voices.

My favorite quote was "In writing and in life, don't change for somebody who doesn't love you."

Unfortunately, I next went to the two-year college caucus, where I thought I would share best practices with other two-year college writing professors, but instead the whole meeting was taken up with in-house organizational politics. I disliked it intently and decided to leave. I didn't even attempt to return on Saturday.

I am looking forward to returning to small, intimate writers conferences, where we actually spent time discussing writing.

5 p.m. update: The weather finally cleared, and I went for a great three-mile run this afternoon. It sure feels good.

Application Day

Today I worked hard, although there was not much creative writing involved. I researched the Wildacres Writers Retreat and Writing Workshop. I decided to apply to attend the Writers Retreat from June 30 to July 6, followed by the Writing Workshop from July 6 to 13. Then, after a week to visit family in Asheville, I will return for my residency from July 22 to July 29.

The application to attend the retreat required an application essay, which I wrote and edited and printed today. I also applied for a scholarship, since I will have trouble paying for all this. There was no scholarship for creative nonfiction so I applied for the poetry scholarship. That meant I had to select and print out six poems. That took some time.

All in all, I am happy with the work I did today. I also ate a healthy bowl of steel-cut oats, and I enjoyed them very much.

Good weekend

It's Monday, and I feel like I accomplished a lot. The weekend started off with great news about the Wildacres Residency. I also spent a lot of time working on my poem for Mutual Muses. I re-wrote "Up In the Sky," about my father pointing out Sputnik, and I like the new version much better.

I also went through the program of the AWP Writing workshop in Boston this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And I applied to be on the staff at the August Thich Nhat Hanh retreat. I got a lot of exercise and ate a pretty good diet. All in all, all is well. I am all right.

Yahoo (and I don't mean the Web site) !

I'm very excited. I was just accepted as a writer in residence at Wildacres Retreat Center in Little Switzerland, N.C. I get a mountain cabin for a week with nothing to do but write. It starts July 22. 

 http://www.wildacres.org/about/residency.html.