They're growing up...

I can't seem to make Creative New Zealand care for me. They still don't want to give me money. And I am still struggling to find out what part of my application is letting me down. Is it my writing, my project, my newbie-ness or my chocolate addiction (I have been trying to get help!). Will they ever give me the big tick? Hmmm - its all very frustrating.

Still these pictures cheered me up no end - my eldest up on high during warm up at the Allstar Cheerleading Internationals held in Auckland recently (her two teams 1st and 2nd equal) and above, my SO and my sweet Halloween baby. (There are only videos of my youngest so I will have to post a piccie of him in the future).

And I am nearly finished a junior fiction novel. It was previously unfinished (at around 32,500 words) because it had plot confusion so I've been editing to tidy that up and have finished that and now just need to write the ending (which I already know). I intend to complete that before we go away on holiday in December. All of you out there will have to keep me honest :)

A full time writer?...

It is a strange week. My daughters sports team is in crisis and its stressful for her as she comes up to her NCEA exams. My SO's work is a leetle crazy right now too. Yet I have had three good bits of news this week - one related to my writing, one for my university study, and one completely out of the blue. I'm trying not to jump up and down too much but I am definitely doing a little dance on the inside.

I came across this smart yet funny bit of writerly advice (where writer/editor Kit Whitfield cleverly compares query letters to dating) the other day via Sally Zigmond's blog The Elephant in the Writing Room. Its not quite so applicable for the New Zealand writing/publishing scene but still very much worth a read.

You know how gas expands to fill a jar? I am definitely an expert time waster. When people ask if I write full time I tend to laugh. I have time available at the moment to spend on my writing but I still manage to distract myself with other things LIKE HOUSEWORK or Sudoku or picking lint out of my navel. There are writers who sit at their computer every day and make themselves write so many words (like a thousand or ten thousand or something). I'm not sure I'm capable of this, or that I want to be capable of this. It works for them but I'm not sure it would work for me. I like the way my stories develop slowly over time. Short stories and picture books are my quick writing fix but novels need a longer gestation. There's a lot of thinking that goes on behind the scenes, and a whole heap of tinkering, both inside my mind and on the page. Sometimes I wish they'd just hurry and grow up and leave home but then they wouldn't be my stories. My stories have to be hand made by me, using the process that I use. So you tell me, do I write full time?

Favourite Books...

The festive season draws near and I am in a list making mood.

My Top 5 grown up books in no particular order

1) Lord of the Rings Trilogy - JRR Tolkien
2) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
3) The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffeneger
4) A Room with a View - EM Forster
5) The Boy in Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne

My top 5 children's books in no particular order
1) The Wizard of Earthsea series- Ursula le Guin
2) Northern Lights (aka The Golden Compass) - Philip Pullman
3) The Outsiders - SE Hinton
4) The Moon in the Cloud - Rosemary Harris
5) The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper
6) Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
7) The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling

My Top 5 picture books in no particular order

1) Dear Greenpeace - Simon James
2) Anything by Lauren Child
3) Olivia - Ian Falconer
4) The Chicken Thief - Beatrice Rodriguez
5) The Sneetches and other stories - Dr Seuss
6) The Lion in the Meadow - Margaret Mahy
7) Tulevai and the Sea - Joy Cowley

as you can see I have cheated. I have always been terribly undisciplined and I am not in a mood for rules right now. And lets face it, 5 (except for adult books) is not really enough. I know there are other books that should be on the lists and they have temporarily fallen out of my brain - maybe Bond's Paddington Bear books and Enid Blyton's Famous Five and some New Zealand saga set in and maybe titled Pencarrow, along with heaps of others. I really clocked up some serious book mileage with those books as a child. And comics - Little Lotta, Archie and Jughead, Superman, Casper and Wendy, Beano, Jackie, Mickey and Pluto, Scrooge McDuck. I spent hours reading all sorts of things when I was young. Folk who worry about the quality of what their children are reading shouldn't. How can you sort the good from the bad, what you like from what you don't like, if you don't read widely. Nothing is wasted with reading. Discovering that reading can be a source of enlightenment and pleasure should be the goal because of course if you enjoy it you will want to do more of it.

A wave of apologies is not anywhere near as good as a mexican wave...

Now that I have free time on my hands, my brain has turned to jelly. Not even coloured jelly, but more like the almost transparent kind you get from boiling pigs trotters. I have been wondering if there could be a literary equivalent of the NZ music airplay quota? What do you think?

I am non-plussed by the whole Witi Ihimaera thing, thrown on multiple levels by the plaigarism, the apology (?), the level of media coverage (I would dance naked through the streets for this kind of exposure except without the negative aspect of course), what this means in view of his teaching responsibilities and for writers in New Zealand in general and a few other things as well.

There seems to be a wave of apologising going on at the moment and I feel uncomfortable about all of it. Its like people who say, "don't take offence but..." and then go on to say something offensive. That doesn't make up for the offensive comment folks, it doesn't absolve you. These are people who if they weren't already aware they were doing something wrong, should have known. And if they did know then they shouldn't have done it. Thats why they are in these well paid positions of trust and responsibility. Yes people make mistakes and should be able to say sorry and move on but the kinds of mistakes we make reflect who we are. For example Mel Gibsons anti-semitic rant when trolleyed. Where he said it was his mistake, but what he said is what he believes - his apology couldn't cover that. Well I guess if nothing else, I now know what NZ's current apologisers really think and how they really act. And I guess I am not that impressed.

And why is Spring back-pedalling into Winter? Where's the warmth? I am so over my winter clothing. I want short sleeves and bare-feet. I can almost see the confusion in the plants in the garden. I can just about hear them saying 'my buds are cold. Should I bloom?' At least there hasn't been as many as usual of the sad little egg-filled nests blown out of trees at this time of year. My dog is off his food and as I sit at the computer typing this I am being serenaded by his belchy, squirty stomach noises. Its not conducive to creativity (not mine anyway, and i hate to think what his stomach is working on!) so i am going to take a wee break. Talk to ya later...

Someone turned my crank handle...

Colour me cranky...I didn't get one of the fellowshippy things I applied for, one of my children is having a bit of a crisis, there's way too much on for a friday evening (I JUST WANNA VEGE PEOPLE!) and well...I'm just a tad fed up with all the doom and gloom abounding in this industry. Yes recessions are not sunny happy things and yes, look what technology did to the music industry and now its hungry again and is it eyeing up the book industry? Well folks, I keep buying books, and whats more I keep writing them too. And all you other writers out there are DOING THE SAME! We love books. Heaps of us love books. This is what author Jeff Somers had to say about the death of the book... Go Jeff! There is nothing we can do but keep writing and reading and hoping. And the next person who starts warbling on about the terminal nature of the book industry better keep out of reach of me!!

And btw children are still reading. I've seen them. We've talked about it. And I'm not talking about my own kids (although they do read too). I was in an article about the new library opening at Owairaka Primary School in last wednesday's Central Leader Newspaper along with fab author Kyle Mewburn. When we visited, the whole school was just fizzing about their new library. The children were excited about books. And I was so happy to find out that some children chose my books to write about for NZ Book Month's ASB wordbank competition. I would be super sad if focusing solely on the bottom line led to the decline of book publishing. What would that say about our society? Probably something similar to what some people's desire to dismantle the anti-smacking law says. Folks you have to think about the bigger picture and stop using only one colour to colour it in.

Respect the head you're in...

Awhile back I gave a talk which included a discussion on Point Of View and I think I confused more than I clarified. I'm very sorry folks. POV is one of those aspects of writing that just when I think I have it sussed, breaks free of my grasp like a wriggley two year old who turns around and blows a raspberry at me. I confess that once or twice I have written in first person just to avoid committing any POV sins. And I must also confess that I am not confident when head hopping is and isn't a legitmate thing to do. But what I can say about POV is, respect the head you're in. Whatever point of view you are writing from will have certain limitations which must be respected. If writing from my own POV I cannot know what is going on inside someone else's head or how they are feeling. I can make educated guesses based on physical and verbal cues which is how it should be spelled out in my writing. I cannot know what is going on beyond my hearing or vision except for some physical or aural cues which must be spelled out in my writing. Likewise from any character's POV. POV can change during a piece of writing but there must be a reason for doing so and there must be enough cues for the reader to know who the POV resides with. Readers like a challenge but if they can't tell what is going on they will put the book down. An omniscient POV does not necessarily solve all these problems as knowing everything can also lead to reader confusion. If you are having trouble with POV in your writing, try working in first person for awhile. The discipline of a more restricted point of view will show you what is and isn't possible and once you have it under control, can provide a good springboard onto more complex POV arrangements.

I learnt something from the movie Bull Durham

A snippet from Tomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard"

Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Sigh