Cheers for March

Februaryitis is the new term for what we used to call, the February Blues or SAD issues. This Sunshine Absent Disease needs a more potent cure than Groundhog Day, Valentines Day, President’s Day, and Mardi Gras.

As wild as Mardi Gras may be, the message is: Party Hardy before the new cycle of oppression returns. Take 40 days and 40 nights to clear the crap from your life so the resurrection and rebirth with spring is pure.

During February I did lots of maintenance work on my home, websites, and projects. I began a new exercise class for my body and a new routine for my writing work. I’ve got supplies to grow flowers from seed and be ready in two months for planting. I’ve never done this before but it’s like I want to make changes to every process of my day, month, season.

March always comes in like a lion in my life, even if the weather is dull, and I’m ready. March 1st and the 24th are birthday celebrations for two of our girls, and St. Patty’s day carries more of a celebration flavor than any of the February holidays.

Does turning the calendar to March, and seeing the first day of spring is in three weeks, make you feel like cheering?

Inspired

  

I've worn these

This morning began like a manic Monday but by 10:00 am was able to pause and catch up on my morning routine of scanning through the blogs I follow. Many posts made me pause and appreciate the connection and inspiration shared through blogsphere. But I also noticed all the pictures that add flavor to the message and I don’t do this enough here. Then I read Jessa Slade’s rant and her comment about shoes made me remember these. One of my girls bought them years ago and as they are my size, I kept them and have worn them for fun.

As I set the shoes up for this photo, I realized there are all kinds of cool things all around my home that would add color and fun to my blog. This inspired me to take lots pictures that are now in a file for future posts. Happy Monday!

Reconnecting

Today was a day to explore and reconnect with me, my hopes and dreams, the core of what makes life worth living for me. This is a rare opportunity but I was chatting with my sister Rose, yesterday, and I told her something I hadn’t realized until I stated it. I’ve been exploring ways to return to the days when life was busy and fun, and writing was my hobby instead of my career and primary focus.

But it’s not working. I’m the queen of multitasking and have reached a point in my life where I don’t have to juggle a dozen agendas and schedules anymore.  So I checked the date and realized it was Wednesday. This is a big deal because there’s this group of women writers that meet every Wednesday at the college barely a mile from my home, and I haven’t been active at this gathering for years.

Of the twenty attendees at the Chrysalis Women’s Writers  weekly two hour critique and connection session, a third knew me from years ago and were thrilled to reconnect. I’m currently past the midpoint of reading Lisa Novak’s Running Wide Open and it’s a Top Recommend from me for anyone who wants to encourage teen boys to get into reading books. Then there is Roxie, who’s Sanna Series books I’d recommend for teen girls but I may have to give her some pointers on marketing so these books are easier to find. Then there’s Pat Lichen, the moderator for this critique group for so many years, and her book Kidnapping the Lorax that is on the top on my to-be-read pile.

As the large and plush conference room cleared out and all these women left for their daily agendas, I tucked myself into the corner of the room to work on one of my projects. Less than an hour later a few people entered the room for their weekly writer’s club meeting and I was welcomed to remain. They were young college students that shared stuff they’d written. I added nothing to the discussion until the topic was how to differentiate between first, second, and third person as the point-of-view. It was interesting for me to realize I write in all three, first person for memoir and blogs, second person for marketing projects, and third person for my romance novels.

But then I checked the time and realized I hadn’t eaten enough during the day and had to do so early enough to benefit from the Belly-Dancing/Zumba class I attend at 6pm on Wednesday’s with my novelist friend, Jessa Slade.

There were some other details to my day but the core message of today was for me to understand that I’ve been distracted with the business of writing and it is time for me to reconnect with the essence of writing.

A different audience

The movie I watched tonight was Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry. This is a Kate Hepburn movie made in 1986 and from the little posted online about the movie the most information seems to focus on this being written specifically for Katharine to be the star.

I’m not sure what I would have thought about this movie if I saw it in 1986 but watching it for the first time in 2012, I found it a delightful and hilarious farce depicting the posing of people according to their perceived status. Kate, as the actor, and her character Mrs. Delafield, highest of upper-class WASP, were both stellar women. Harold Gould, as her Jewish doctor and lover, was superb.

A well-to-do widow shocks her snobbish WASP family when she announces that she has fallen in love with her Jewish doctor. His family is equally devastated by the news leading both individuals to have to fight the prejudices of their families and of their narrow-minded neighbors.

Margaret and Marvin find love and a reason to live fully again in their 70′s while their family and friends are stuck in their ruts ruled by society or religion. There’s a the peeping Tom neighbor who would have considered the death of his best friend preferable to her marrying a Jew. The children of these too-old-to-live-or-love lovers are so concerned about either inheritance or cultural sagas that only one says – go for it. Fortunately the wisdom of the aged can be awesome.

This movie portrays the most delightful multicultural wedding I’ve ever seen.

A text touch

On Tuesday, we got a get well card to send to a family member beginning another round of chemo. As we were on our way to visit the daughter who lives the farthest from us, we decided she could add a note and we’d give it to all our girls to do the same.

Then there were phone calls and text messages to the other three daughters to determine when they could sign it. We added some pictures and it was ready to mail except for one daughter, a CPA, who may have time to meet on Sunday. Or if I wanted to come by her office she didn’t have any meetings scheduled on Friday.

This morning I was doing my hair, and I heard my phone chime that I had a text. When I checked it, it was from our CPA daughter. But it was also the exact same message sent two days earlier, and not the last one, the first one.

Hmm. Weird. Must have been an electronic glitch. So I returned to my hair routine when I remembered, I don’t believe in electronic  glitches. That made me wonder what it was supposed to mean. A few minutes later I realized my lunch date was within a mile of CPA’s office.

I figured out my time frame and sent her a text that I could stop by before my lunch date. Nope, she was at a client for a few hours. Okay, maybe after lunch.

Lunch was done, bill paid, and we were still chatting when the text chimed. CPA was in her office. I stopped by a half hour later.

This is why I pay attention to the little oddities. It wasn’t a big deal to mail the card today, and it wouldn’t have been a big deal to drive over to her house on her day off since it’s near the mall. But if I hadn’t paid attention, it wouldn’t have been a cool story, and so much more fun.

Snoopy dancing

Does everyone have the image? Good, now it’s time for a webbit tour! I was reminded that I hadn’t done one for a while. My webbit tours are a collection of links to different websites that interested me today. So here goes:

The first is one of those “restricted ones” so you can skip it, but it is an interview with a new author friend who I have yet to read but is definitely on my TBR list – that is To Be Read but Matt associates the acronym with  Typical Brain Ridiculousness. So check out  M. L. Buchman at his own website, which is not restricted.  :D

Next up, another writer friend Marc Acito has a great post exploring the question, “Why Bother Writing?” and yes, many of us need to revisit our answer to this craft.

For a some heart stopping True Stories check out Mike Perry’s Heart Saving Coincidences.

And for my final Valentines Gift to you, hop on over to SynchroSecrets where The MacGregors share the history of Charles M. Shultz, the creator of Peanuts and the immortal Snoopy with his happy dance.

Candle time

I met with friends at a candle party today. I prefer tea lights and votive sized candles over the pillars. Sometimes I’m in the mood for one sparkle of flame in a pretty holder, other times I create an arrangement. I like small candles to light with an intent or prayer and leave it glow until it is complete.

A lot of my writer friends will light a candle and turn on music as a ritual to stimulate their creativity. They use tea lights as a way to frame their time, writing 3 to 4 hours until it sputters out. I’m going to use this ritual to frame my fiction writing this week as I can easily get distracted with other projects and forget that creating story is my priority. Everything else is business.

I enjoy business, I can multitask better than many and it’s fun for me. In recent months I’ve had a variety opportunities tempt me to revisit business routines and activities that used to shape my schedule.

Writing was always my passion that had to be fit into time slots and I’ve been teased into the nostalgic comfort zone of writing being my passion instead of my business. But during the past few months every time I followed a lead on a job, or explored a project defined by the agenda of others, there was an exciting scramble of anticipation then the flame fizzled out. I shrugged and returned to my writing projects. Then something else popped up. Again. And again.

I even got excited about the business of writing, and writers, and distracted from actually writing. But while drafting pages on my new project this past week, I was reminded of the importance of being in that creative flow daily. My characters can multitask on the pages, and I can delve into business when the candle flickers out.

Drafting Days

I’m in First Draft mode for the new story 2012 challenge so am operating in the space-between story world and daily details. This may seem counter productive when I have other projects close to completion but it’s beneficial to shift gears for a few weeks. The first advice I heard about choosing the writing life is that it is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration.

The inspiration stage is the planning to first draft complete stage. Some may say the first draft is 10% of the perspiration stage. It all depends on our process, which is as individual as our characters. The bulk of writing energy, about 70%, on each project is in the crafting and editing stage. The smallest percentage of time is the polishing and promotions. This is why, after crafting and editing three different projects during 2011, I stepped into the creation stage to shift my energy.

I’m also refilling my creative well with old movies. It was fun to experience the whole story pertaining to the classic Marilyn Monroe “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” performance.  It is common when something is taken out of context the message can change. This song served a plot point purpose within this madcap story as written in 1953. Today the song has a girl greed flavor which was not the original point.

This is a good reminder for every stage from inspiration to polish and promote. We don’t know what will connect with our readers, or why it becomes important to them. All we can control is our craft, edits and potential for entertainment.

Watching Classics

I’ve been watching old movies from the library and some have been interesting.  Woman of the Year (1942) fascinated me on many levels.

This movie was a contemporary romance seventy years ago and yet, the themes and tropes of a romantic comedy are still the same as what makes a good story today. The sexual tension between “Sam Craig” and “Tess Harding” practically jumps off the screen, even when watched in black-and-white.

The movie The Aviator (2004) includes the story of the romance between Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn when it began with Woman of the Year. They continued their affair for 25 years.  It was a quiet scandal which was possible then. Yet watching the movie triggered a memory from childhood.

I think Spencer Tracy was my dad’s favorite actor and I know my mom admired Katharine. I was about seven when Spencer died and my mom told me the story about these two stars having an affair even though he was a Catholic married man with children. The reason mom told me about it was because it was news that Katharine would not attend Spencer’s funeral as that was for the Tracy family and she would not intrude.

My mom totally approved of that sentiment. She wouldn’t condone an affair with a married man, but those Hollywood people had questionable values. However, it was classy and admirable that Katharine would honor the Tracy family by remaining absent from the funeral.

What I found most fascinating was the “Tess Harding” character early in the movie addressing a room full of women (all wearing fancy hats) for not being more responsible about how they used the power of their vote “these past 20 years.” I wonder what “Tess” would say about that today.