A Story A Week: Permanent

During their drive back to the hotel after a family reunion, Mandy feigns sleep in order to evesdrop on her parents' conversation, a conversation that could change their lives forever.

That's my one-sentence pitch for the story I wrote this week. It's about 2000-words long, so I'm not going to post it. Waaay too long for a blog post, imo.

Also, it's part of a sub-goal I've made for myself. Over the next two months I'm going to write eight stories. Then I'm going to pick my favorite, polish it up, and submit it here at One Story. (Thanks, Moonrat, for the link!) Of course, if I pick this particular story, I'll have to figure out a way to lengthen it by 1000 words. Uh, so maybe I won't be choosing this one. Unless I get a huge plot-altering inspiration.

I don't know, I probably don't have a chance getting published in One Story. I'd be running with the big dogs if I did. But, when self-doubt creeps in, I remind myself, Am I not already trying to run with the big dogs? If I don't think my writing is good enough to be published in a magazine like One Story, why am I even sending anything to agents at all?

Good question!

I think that's one way this A Story A Week challenge has been good for me. It's forcing me to focus on my writing, instead of on one big project. With a novel, I find that whether it's bad or good, I can't help but love it because it's my baby. I BIRTHED it. Sweat, blood, toil. We love our babies, even if they're ugly.

I don't invest anywhere near as much in a short story, so I can be brutal with myself. I can dissect without as much pain. I can experiment. I become more of a scientist and less of a mother. I think that's good for my writing.

Writers, what do you think? Have you written short stories? What is your experience with them?

Classic Onion

My sister sent me this link YEARS ago via email. I still had it in my inbox, and was delighted to see it still worked. Hilarious take on romance novel covers. Writers and non-writers alike, please click here -- and enjoy!

Remove Your Shoes ... Please

The other day I went over to my friend's house for a meeting. I was the last one to arrive (as usual!). As I closed the front door behind me, I took off my shoes.

It's my habit. Growing up in Hong Kong and living in China, we always took off our shoes when we entered a house. I don't think this is necessarily a Mainland Chinese custom. It's a Hong Kong Chinese custom. I also know it's a Korean and Japanese custom. When we visited Chinese friends' homes in Tianjin, we'd sometimes keep our shoes on, sometimes take them off. It seemed to depend on the type of flooring they had down. If the floors were concrete they told us to leave our shoes on. If they had tile or wood laminate, they usually asked us to remove our shoes and provided us with slippers to wear. But I digress....

In our own home in China we always removed our shoes. There were three primary reasons for this:

(1) Dust (think: super dust, the kind of icky gray dust that seeps in everywhere and sticks to everything)
(2) People spit (imagine: green and yellow globs all over the roads and sidewalks)
(3) No clean-up-after-your-pet-or-child signs (read: lots of dog poop, people poop; yes, this is the country where our taxi drivers all peed on the same wall right next to the place where our children caught the bus ... "No, children!! Back! Back away from the wall!!)

Honestly, who wants the green and yellow loogie slime (or worse) tracked all over their living room floor? Not me.

So, back to the present day in Prosser, Washington. I kick off my shoes at my friend's house. One of my other friends comments, "Why has everyone taken off their shoes?" He looks over at my friend's husband. "Do you guys ask people to take off their shoes?"

"No," my friend's husband replies. "In fact, I think it's rude when people require people to take off their shoes when they come into a house."

That made me think. I like the habit I picked up in Asia. I really don't like the look of dusty footprints through my house any more than I liked them in China. They're easy to clean up here, though, and there's not the loogie/poop factor. So, really, I'm not going to insist my guests remove their shoes. But I'll be honest, when I was in China, it irritated me when people would leave their shoes on. I just kept imagining green loogie germs all over my baby's hands.

But, what do you think? Is it rude to ask guests to remove their shoes when they come into a house? Are you one of those people who has a cute sign by the door that says: "Get a clue and remove your shoe" (I made that up!) or are you one of those people who wears your shoes everywhere and only removes them when you climb in bed at night?

Just curious.

Provision 4

What's cooking? Spaghetti. (This is one word I ALWAYS spell wrong. Thanks, Michelle, for pointing out my typo!) Nobody complains about dinner when I make spaghetti. I like that.

Today I want to thank God for Olivia.

And for all the ways He has provided for Olivia.

When Olivia was sixteen months old, even though she wasn't a U.S. citizen yet, we were allowed to bring her back to here (which in itself was a miracle!) to go to Shriners Hospital for Children in Portland, Oregon to have her cleft lip and palate repaired, completely free of charge.

It was a provision that she was even admitted into the program at Shriners because they usually don't accept children from other countries. But they made an exception for our baby girl.

That was seven years ago last Christmas.

Since then she's had one other major surgery -- a procedure to attach her palate to the back of her throat. This was primarily to help her speech, since she had a short palate and constantly had air escaping through her nose when she tried to talk. That surgery was also done at Shriners Hospital, also free of charge.

This Thursday, Olivia will have her first orthodontist appointment. Soon she'll have to start a spacing procedure to get her ready for a bone graft surgery. Shriners will do this surgery when she's ten or eleven.

Not only does this particular orthodontist have a lot of experience with cleft kids, but I also found out that his office accepts Medicaid for cleft lip and palate patients. Our kids happen to be on Medicaid, so ... perfect!

Next month, on April 16, Olivia is scheduled at Shriners for a lip and nose revision surgery. The surgeon will try to even out her lips and nostrils a little more. This isn't a "necessary" surgery. The last time we were there the doctor asked Olivia how she felt about her face and she said, "I sometimes wonder why one nostril is up and one is down." So, the surgeon said they would schedule this surgery. They want to do everything they can to make sure Olivia's not only functioning normally, but feeling good about herself, too.

Isn't that great?

So, on this beautiful, spring-is-in-the-air Sunday, I want to lay out my remembrance stones one by one. I don't want to forget how faithful God has been in providing for our little girl.

Write Like a Man

What's cooking? Nothing because we're heading up to Yakima again for the Girls' Basketball 2A State Finals. Go Mustangs! So, it's fast food tonight.

I bet that title got your attention.

I don't want to generalize. There are obviously thousands of female authors who write very, very well. And there are men out there who write very, very badly. Some of the purplest prose I've ever read in my life came out of a guy.


But I got to thinking about this the other day while I was reading Gary Paulsen's The Beet Fields. It was one of those books I read in a state of awe.

Don't get me wrong. I hated the ending. I thought it was incredibly cliche and not anything I'd ever want my son reading when he's a teenager. The YUCK factor was too strong for me personally.

BUT, Gary Paulsen is an amazing writer. I was in awe of his writing. How he could show so much in a few words. He didn't have to lead us through his protagonist's emotions. We knew exactly how the mc was feeling without Paulsen ever having to give a word of explanation. Because of that, the man's a genius as far as I'm concerned.

I felt the same way when I was reading Matt de la Pena's Mexican WhiteBoy. Paulsen's writing made me think of de la Pena's, even though they write in markedly different styles. It was their brevity that awed me.

And I guess because they are both male authors, I began to wonder, is it a guy thing?

I'm reading Cythia Voigt's Homecoming right now. I like it. It's good writing, but I'm not in awe.

So, I keep wondering. Is truly succinct writing (think Hemingway) something that mostly men achieve?

Can you think of female writers you've read who have been known for their few, but powerful, words?

Do women tend to use more words than men? And why is that? What's your experience?

Crumbling Foot & Other Randomness

What's cooking? Probably pizza. The frozen variety.

Thanks for all the great comments on Wednesday's post. I appreciate you sharing your wisdom with me.

The nice thing about *not* being published is that the only pressure I feel about my writing is the pressure I put on myself. One thing's for sure, I think I'm trying to focus on too many projects at once. So, for the next couple weeks, I'm just going to work on finishing my WiP (55,000 words at the moment!).

After that first draft is done, while I'm letting it sit, maybe I'll come back to my list of changes for V-Day. If I feel like it, that is. Yes, the unpublished life is a pampered one.

And while we're on the subject, Elana Johnson had a great post the other day about Dream Agents. It goes right along with what I was blogging about on Wednesday.

In other Sonnichsen news ... Here's a transcript of a conversation I had with eight-year-old Olivia last night:

At bedtime. Of course. Because that's the only time great conversations begin when you're eight. It's a tried and true sleep-avoidance technique.

Olivia: Mom, what is a crumbling foot?

Me: Uh, can you tell me the context?

Olivia: Well, when I was watching the documentary about King Tut with Daddy the other day, they said he had a crumbling foot.

Me: Um ... was it Tut's mummy? Maybe they didn't preserve his foot well enough and it crumbled?

Olivia: No, when he was alive he had a crumbling foot. They said he might have died because of his crumbling foot -- when he was hunting or when he was fighting in a battle, his crumbling foot made him die.

Me: Do you think they said he had a crippled foot?

Olivia: No, it was a crumbling foot.

Me: Okay, well, let me talk to Baba about it and see if he remembers anything about a crumbling foot.

*several minutes later*

Me: Olivia, Baba says King Tut had a club foot. Do you think you heard 'club foot' instead of 'crumbling foot?'

Olivia: No, it was a crumbling foot. (Then, in a perfect Egyptian accent, a direct quote from the documentary, and she did not forget to roll her r's:) King Tut lived all his life with a crrumbling foot.

Come on, say it out loud. I dare you. I think you'll see why my poor daughter was insistent about the state of King Tut's foot.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

WIP Wednesday:To Quit Or Not to Quit....

What's cooking? Tonight we're going to Yakima to watch the Lady Mustangs in the Basketball State Championships. We're going to Miner's for dinner. Yes, GIANT CHEESEBURGER, here I come!

I am one of those people.

I need a deadline.

I know exactly what I need to do to V-Day. But what have I accomplished this week? Well, I rewrote the first chapter, but that's the smallest (and easiest) thing on my list of overhauls.

Yes, I made a list. Still, V-Day sits there pretty much untouched. Because there's nothing driving me towards finishing it. No deadline, no active queries out, no thrill about submitting it to my favorite agent who I'm sure will love it....

In fact, here's my thought process about it, including some good old-fashioned numbers:

1. I've sent out 55 queries. Received six requests for more (either partials or fulls), which were later rejected. The rest were either form rejections or silence.
2. Those 55 include all the agents I know most about, including several agents that I would give my right big toe to work with. (No, maybe not, 'cuz then I couldn't do ballet anymore. Darn.)
3. I have picked out about 15 other agents that I would like to query after V-Day is revised. I will also be using a brand new query letter.
4. Still,I don't know much about these 15 agents. Not that they're bad agents, I just don't know them like I know the other ones. Maybe they don't blog, maybe they don't have a website, maybe they're kind of new, that sort of thing....
5. So, there's my quandry. Why am I revising? I know, I know, people say: Keep at it and don't give up!! But I figure I've already queried most of the agents I'm interested in and they've turned my project down. It's a big no-no to requery unless the story is HUGELY changed. My story is changed, but not drastically. I could still use the same query letter for it if I wanted to.

I'll tell you what I'm afraid of. Here's a story to explain:

I was watching a Garfield episode the other day with the kids. Garfield and the gang were going to be in a talent show. I guess it was one they competed in every year. And every single year all the contestants performed the exact same act they'd performed the year before. One rabbit had a hat. His trick was that when he tapped the hat with his magic wand, a rabbit puppet popped out. Garfield said, "I think you need to find a new trick." The rabbit looked thoughtful and said, "Hmm. Maybe a chipmunk puppet popping out of the hat?"

See, the rabbit was open to "revisions," but he still didn't get it. It wasn't the fact that what he pulled out of the hat was a rabbit. Pulling a chipmunk out instead wouldn't make it better. It was the whole trick! It just needed to go.

But that's not the end of the story. As Garfield walked away, the rabbit stood there, still thinking. Suddenly, a man pops out of the rabbit's hat. A full-sized human man. He's the puppeteer with the rabbit puppet on his hand.

You get it, right? The greatest trick in the world was right in front of their faces the whole time. But they couldn't see it.

There are two ways this analogy could work for me:

1. Stop revising V-Day. It's basically the same story. Just accept that no one's interested.
2. You might be close to the greatest novel of all time (okay, I'm exaggerating to make a point). Get those hiccups out of there so that those fifteen agents can see it.

I'll take YOUR advice now. I'm stumped.