Don’t Despise The Day of Small Things

Just a quick post today. A lot has been happening lately with the book, the blog, and my novel in progress (more on that later!) but through all the little steps forward and the big steps forward I have felt in my spirit a repeated reminder:

“Don’t despise the day of small things.”

Big things are coming, and they’re coming soon. I could write so many posts on how I know that, but you’d think me even crazier than you already do, so I’ll skip that part and just tell you that I’m looking forward to an AMAZING year in 2011. But all that success had to start with a seed. And that seed has to sprout before it can bloom. We’re at the sprout stage now. And when I start to get angsty about things not moving forward fast enough, I remind myself to enjoy what may possibly be the last days of the seed stage: I have time to relax. I have relative anonymity (yes, at some point that may go out the window, and I’m feeling good and bad about that).

If you are on your way to big successes, or you hope you are, take the time to enjoy the little steps forward as part of the journey. Someday you’ll look back and remember this time as the last time you had time to relax before the big time hit and your world changed. Your day is coming. Don’t despise the day of small things, which is when you are tested to see if you’re ready to handle more.

Peace!

–Laura

My Very First Rejection Slip!

I checked another box off my bucket list last week–sending out my first book proposal to a publisher–and then this week received my very first rejection “slip” (in quotes because it was an email, not a slip of paper I could frame on my wall and throw spitballs at). All things considered, it was a very nice rejection letter, listing two problems with my book:

1) the book spends too much time referring readers to my website, which, even though I’m not selling anything on my site, makes it sound like a sales pitch and reduces my perceived objectivity.

2) the book relies heavily on information sources such as Twitter, Facebook, flash sale sites, and other online resources for saving money that are very modern, which made the publisher doubt that a book–even and ebook like the ones he publishes–would be the right format for my content since it might need to be updated quickly.

As far as number one, I am extremely grateful to this publisher for pointing out that problem, and I will revise the book to cut out that tone. That will get me one step closer to a “yes” from a publisher, or if not that, to creating a better book for myself.

Number two? Well, I still think that a book or ebook would be a good format for this info (which is already on my blog) because it should be in one place so busy parents can read through it and learn what I can teach them (and revisit the info) without having to scroll through the backlogs of my website. I thought an ebook would solve the problem of needing quick updates when website info changes or companies went out of business, but this guy doesn’t think so.

So, should I consider another format for this content or just forge ahead? Until I can come up with an answer, I forge ahead, after a little revision work.

Just thought you might like a little peek into this side of the publishing process, which is brand new to me as well. Blessings!

Catch The Wind

Bald Eagle, photo credit PDImages.com

I want to share something with you that I found inspiring, and I hope it doesn’t sound preachy. The author of a book I’m editing tells a story about how when a storm comes, chickens flap their wings and run around in circles. Eagles are different. They sit on a rock and wait, and when the storm arrives they rise up to catch the wind and use the storm to soar higher into the air than they could normally go. Isn’t that how we all hope to react to the storms in our lives?

I tend to get nervous in the face of a coming storm, but also excited. Something in me recognizes an opportunity in upheaval; the trick is to time my actions just right to take advantage of upheaval instead of being uprooted by it. It’s tough to know how to do that, or if I’ve done it right even after the storm has passed. I do believe that if we keep an ear open for God’s voice of wisdom, though, we have a chance to react like eagles to tough times.

I have a habit of panicking in situations like this; taking matters into my own hands. But last year, I think I actually handled a storm like an eagle. The month before I was laid off from my last full-time job, I had three dreams about tornados in quick succession, and I knew something was up. I always dream of tornados before big upheaval in my life; they represent the winds of change to me–hence my interest in this metaphor of eagles rising on the winds of a storm. These particular tornado dreams dealt with my workplace and my family life and seemed to be warning me that a big change was coming in my work that would make a lot of noise, but that it wouldn’t do any damage to my personal life, that my family would be completely untouched by it. That couldn’t be more true, as it turns out.

Now, of course business was bad enough in the company I worked for that I had expected things to go sour long before they did and wasn’t at all surprised that things ended the way they did, but there was some inside information in the dreams that really encouraged me (even made me laugh!) that God was in control and I didn’t have to worry. For once–FOR ONCE!–I listened, and saved myself a lot of worry. Learning to listen to God’s direction can be as simple as paying attention when a small voice in your spirit warns you to do something (or often not to do something) that you wouldn’t otherwise have done, and that advice lines up with Scripture and the character of God, or it can be more involved–after all, communicating with God is all about relationship. But it’s so worth it, even if there are no clear road signs to show you the way.

I hope that was encouraging to you to pursue a relationship with God and to approach the storms in your life as opportunities instead of disasters, and didn’t sound too preachy. Blessings!

Ah Well…

I wondered how I was going to keep up with this blog and my new baby blog AND write a novel AND write another nonfiction book AND be a full-time mom AND do part-time book editing work for 3-4 different publishers. What apparently had to give was my posting on this blog and answering my email–well, and housework, but let’s not pretend: I never did much of that anyway. I now answer the important messages and have mostly given up on following all the blogs I used to subscribe to. 100 newsletter emails got trashed over the weekend without being read. But I’m still here! And I still love hearing from you!

Right now, I’m working on filling out the characters in my novel, giving them a little more time on-stage and figuring out how to reveal their personalities by illustrating the ways they react to one another. I feel like the next time I try this, it’s going to go 4 times as fast. It’s a lot of fun to figure out how to do this from scratch, but it sure is slow going when I only have a couple hours a day at most to even think about it. I’m going back and forth between feeling dismayed to have discovered that so much more needs to be done on this novel, and feeling good that I’ve figured out how to make it a more complete story. Three chapters are short and can easily be filled out with flashbacks that demonstrate the contrast between the way the characters’ relationships are now and the way they used to be. The trick for me is to catch myself when I write a summary of a scene instead of making it a specific and interesting story. Right now I’m going back and replacing all these “summary memories” with very specific (and hopefully interesting) memories that the main character has of happier days. Every time I do this, it improves the narrative threefold.

Have you written a novel or short story? How did you fill out your characters so they’re three-dimensional, real people? Were they there for a purpose, to move the plot forward, or did the people appear in your mind before the story? Just curious. Thanks for reading! I’ll be back and posting more regularly at some point.

Ichubbawha?? (The Sound of Me Doing Another Double-take.)

One of the desires of my heart: my stunningly beautiful back yard.

I ask you: What is UP with this serendipity thing? We just moved our daughter from her co-sleeper mini crib to a full-size crib, and she has adapted so well that I have gotten my two best nights of sleep in months… which means that my relentless drive has come out of hibernation and I started thinking about how to find more work–maybe even break into a new genre. As if I need to diversify, I know! I just would love to get into editing fiction–sci-fi/fantasy and mysteries, specifically–in addition to the Christian nonfiction and automotive work I’m already doing.

I just said (there seems to be something about saying these things out loud) to my husband that I was thinking of pursuing a new client, and ran an idea by him regarding how I might make it easier for myself to break that new-genre barrier. He said go for it, and before I could look up the company I was thinking of cold-calling, someone else came to me and asked if I might be interested in my dream editing job. Well, one of them. I have a lot of dream jobs. Well, yes! Yes, I would. It’s in Christian publishing, so maybe I’ll wait on that idea to pursue fiction work for a few weeks. We’ll see where this goes.

Lately this scripture verse keeps running through my head, and I hope that it encourages you as it has been encouraging me: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4, NIV). Every time I hear this verse, I’m reminded that I don’t have to slave for the things I want, nor do I have to choose between the relationship I want to develop with my Daddy in heaven and the dreams He has given me to pursue here on earth. “Relax, Laura!” that scripture says to me. “Just breathe, enjoy God and life, and everything will fall into place.”

And so it has, once again. Maybe I should spend more time meditating on this verse and less time ranting about Jeremiah 12:1.

Where to Find Your Inspiration

San Gregorio State Beach, Half Moon Bay CA

I have been busy–busy with the holidays, busy with my baby–but I have good news! I am also busy writing. Finally! This story has percolated in my brain for months now, a new detail worked out every time I take a walk to the north of my house.

Why north? This seemed like a fluke for a while; I was determined not to make too much of it. But I have been walking 30 minutes a day every day with my baby since the summer, and it seems to be true: whenever I take a walk on the dirt roads of our rustic neighborhood, traveling south through the trees or east around the pond keeps me trapped in the arguments in my head. Walking north past the old farmhouse and on through corn fields to the vistas near the failed subdivision always results in inspiration. How odd! I think I know why, though. I just haven’t given myself permission to admit this until recently, because it seems so finicky and spoiled of me.

My husband and baby and I recently took a trip to Silicon Valley, and while there I didn’t write a single word. I couldn’t just blame it on the busyness of traveling with a baby. The truth is I freaked out a bit, several days into the trip. I was suffocating. Silicon Valley is next door to the Pacific ocean, the Santa Cruz mountains, the Sierras, the San Francisco Bay, but it is not those places. Silicon Valley itself is brand-spanking-new paved paradise: new hotels, new office parks, new luxury apartments, new grocery stores, new Mercedes and BMWs and Porsches. I have never spent such a long time away from my beautiful woods and fields, and it confirmed my suspicions. I NEED the woods and fields, and more specifically (“Finicky! Spoiled!” my brain accuses me,) I need open, quiet natural spaces to walk in. Without these things, I am stuck.

So be it. I have come a long way in the past few years toward understanding how to take care of my body and nurture my spirit, so it is time to come to terms with the fact that my spirit is in fact in need of these things. If I don’t guard this territory, I will please others (I’m so good at that!), but I will never write. I need to write. And in order to write, I really do need these fields, or an ocean view, or mountain vistas. My apologies to my husband, who has to pay for the real estate to accommodate this need. No, I don’t need these things to live, but I really do need them to write on a regular basis.

Is everyone like this? Do they realize it? Do all authors who continue to write throughout their lives have a territory they must protect in order to continue to thrive? I am curious. What is your inspiration? Where do you find it? I spent so much time assuming I was supposed to be inspired by industrial decay, like Gwen Stefani. Ha! That couldn’t be further from the truth. Last night I discovered that every patterned picture frame on my mantle has leaves on it. My rugs have leaf patterns on them. Most of the pictures on my walls are of the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the Adirondacks, Lake Michigan. Even my indoor spaces reach out and pull nature indoors. If you’re not sure where your inspiration comes from, try what I did: look at your walls. How have you decorated your space? This might hold a clue.

Self-Publishers Flourish

The New York Times just posted a piece about how self-publishers are doing well in the current economy, while traditional book publishers are struggling. I work for a couple of book publishers that are considered a hybrid of independent publishing and self-publishing, and this article lines up with my recent experience: one of my clients seems to have as many projects for me as I have time to complete, though the pay is lower than with bigger publishers.

What do you think about this trend? Obviously many self-published or co-published books have little to no audience, either because of poor quality or just because they appeal to such a niche audience, but we keep hearing stories of people who had to self-publish, only to be discovered after self-publishing by a traditional house and ending up on best-seller lists. Case in point: The Shack, a self-published book that sold over 4 million copies based largely on innovative word-of-mouth marketing.

Has book publishing become so saturated with content and so log-jammed by its traditional methods that even the agents and publishers can’t find the good content anymore? That certainly puts a new perspective on self-publishing, which used to be regarded as loser-ville for writers. This trend seems to parallel the move toward self-published videos on YouTube, self-published podcasts, and using Twitter to market a project or service, or even the difficulties that large companies in other industries (ahem, automotive) have with innovation when they pass critical mass and become too large to stay nimble. Where do you think this is going? If you publish a book in the future, what services would you like to have provided to you, and which would you be willing or able to do yourself?

Art and Fear

I was up this morning at 2:45 (til 5:30–ain’t being preggo fun?) reading a book my brother-in-law Ben Cowan lent me at Christmas. It’s called Art and Fear, and pretty much touches on all the major reasons I didn’t write consistently for the last 14 years. There’s the lie that “real” art flows easily out of the artist without practice and hard work, the fear of rejection, the fear of success and the long slide of art into craft, the total lack of support for writers/artists once they leave school and have no more assignments or shows or papers or audience, and the temptation to pursue technical excellence instead of the uncertainty of an artistic form that doesn’t always result in concrete pats on the back. I know I LOVE concrete pats on the back. How about you? It’s really a wonder anyone doesn’t quit.

I recently also read a great book called The Artist’s Way, also lent to me by a caring friend, and that helped me work through some junk that’s blocked me for years. Did I mention the universe has been rearranging itself to encourage me to write lately? Thanks, everyone, for the support. I’m done quitting. Feel free to remind me of that when the kiddo arrives and I have loads more excuses to do busy work instead of my life’s work.

How are you finding your life’s work in the midst of the head games, busyness, and uncertainty? Where do you go to get unstuck? Tell me your story.