The Joy of the Library

Thank you all for your encouragement on my last post! I did get out my journal (and my fancy pens that I bought for art and then never used because I haven't started the art book yet) the other day, but I haven't written in it yet. Mainly because I started a new writing project (I am calling it Jane Austen meets Alias meets Diana Wynne Jones, which gives you a glimpse into how my brain works) and am having too much fun with that to try anything else.

Carl and the kids dropped me off at the library Friday late afternoon, and after wandering around for twenty minutes in a blissful daze about being able to pick out books without distraction, I meandered to the back, sat at a table, pulled out my laptop, and wrote.

Aside from the one tutor who breezed through the DESIGNATED QUIET AREA (seriously, there are signs!) talking at the top of his voice to his clearly not-hearing-impaired student, it was bliss. Forty minutes of quiet writing time, no one needing me, no guilt over the household chores staring at me, no need to hop right up and get supper started, nothing.

So I wrote, and I plotted, and I looked up the differences in address as regards a contessa vs a countess, and I wrote some more, and finally I got up with a happy sigh, checked my books out, went into the foyer, called Carl, and talked him through the last few steps of supper prep (basically: "Stir, turn the oven off, leave the dish covered."). Then he and the littles came back for me, we went home, and ate the dinner that I'd started before I left and Carl finished. It was delicious, by the way. Lentils and rice!

We are definitely attempting to make this a weekly thing. Coffee shops are fun, but a quiet (or MOSTLY QUIET yes I'm talking to you obnoxious tutor who was supposed to be in the teen room anyway) library with all sorts of wonderful resources (not just the internet!) at my fingertips is far better for me. And it gets me out of the house, and even one hour of not having to be "mommy" is wonderful.

I love libraries, always have, ever since I was very young and enthralled by the one row of picture books at our local library (it was teensy-tiny, for a teensy-tiny town, but far better stocked than you might think). Library nights were the highlight of the week for our family for years: Dad would get home from work, we'd all pile in the car and drive to the library (the one night it was open late), browse for a while, check out an enormous stack of books apiece, stop at the gas station on the way home for soda (or Clearly Canadian - Mountain Blackberry was the BEST) and chocolate bars, then go home, Dad would make popcorn, and we'd all sit in the living room with our books and snacks, and read until bedtime.

The first thing I do in every new town we move to is find the local library. Sometimes the local library sucks and we have to go further afield to find the best one for us. We've been lucky these last two moves - we've ended up only five minutes away from a wonderful library each time.

The big excitement for Joy when she turned five was that she could finally get her own library card. Both the girls love going to the library, admittedly for the toys as well as the books, but also for the thrill of SO MANY books in one place, and all for the reading of anyone who wants. It really is a wonderful thing, when you think about it.

So it makes sense, for me, that the library would bring a sense of peace to my soul when I go there to write, that it would feel just right, comfortable and natural in a way that no other place can quite match. I'm already eagerly anticipating my next writing visit there.

Maybe this week I'll get around to attempting some poetry.

Where is your favorite out-of-the-house place to write?

Joy signing her name for the library card

Enthralled in a book that she checked out all by her very own self!

In My Little Corner of the World

What? Yes, of course I am working!

My new favorite spot to write is here: in the grey recliner in the corner of the living room, half-hidden by the Christmas tree but with a good view out the enormous picture window.

Although since downloading the Kindle app for Macs the other day, I've been doing less writing and more reading on my laptop. Not sure this was the best idea after all! I'm also having a terrible time not just buying any e-book that catches my fancy. Something about this instant gratification thing that is tremendously addictive, and dangerous. I have to keep reminding myself that this is real money I am spending, even if they aren't "real" (ie, paper) books.

Sigh.

But back to the writing. I really have been working, even if much of that work does look like I am just sitting and staring into space. After filling out a basic outline for the Celtic YA fantasy (and was I ever surprised to find myself working on that one again - I figured it was going to take much longer before I was ready to even look at that again, given my Frustrations with it on the last round), I've been doing much pondering about how things should go, and careful consideration of my writing style for this one (the source of much of my frustration before - no matter how much I wanted to keep a wryly humorous tone, it would insist on taking itself too seriously, and getting Grim and Depressing). I even have part of the first chapter written - and this is actually more progress than one might think, since (for me) as the first chapter goes, so goes the rest of the book. Plus I can reuse a decent amount of material from the last draft, so once I get past these new beginning bits, a lot of what is going on will be cutting-and-pasting with new (hopefully amusing) filler in between the old stuff.

I had planned to work more on my MG fantasy since finishing the first draft of the 1920s ms, but the muse stirred for this one, so I am bowing to her whims. As long as I am working on one of my plethora of unfinished projects, I'm not particularly fussy as to which one.

Especially since recently I found my research notes and partial outline for the story I had planned on writing this year, the one that got shuffled aside in favor of the 1920s story and the Celtic rewrite. Starsong, the one set in a Renaissance world with a heroine inspired by the Maya culture.

And I really, really want to start working on that one again, but with a second draft needed for the 1920s ms, a picture book to indie publish by this summer (that's the goal, anyway), a Celtic rewrite needing to be finished, and an MG fantasy impatiently reminding me that it's been the one sitting around waiting to be finished the longest ...

I am Not! Starting! Anything! New! Some people (those with sanity) would tell me this is too much as it is. And they would probably be right.

But it's fun.

All Quiet

The tennis elbow I gave myself last week through chopping vegetables (non-writing-related note: if you are going to chop sweet potatoes or winter squash raw, get the proper knife - you know, the one that looks like a hatchet - and make sure it's sharp. Your elbow will thank you later) has prevented me from doing much of what I usually do throughout my days. No making bread (kneading with tennis elbow=bad idea); no writing (either by hand or typing); no quilting; no scrubbing my floors or most other cleaning chores; no chopping more veggies or making elaborate meals!

So what have I been doing? Well, besides trying to keep up with my three-year-old's voracious appetite for preschool workbooks, I've mostly been reading. A lot of the nonfiction on my shelves that I keep meaning to get to but never seem to have time. I've also been charging through the rest of my Renaissance research, because as dull as the reading is, it is better than sitting around grinding my teeth over everything I want to be doing but can't.

So in the end, this has been an okay break. Irritating, and I am more than ready to be able to straighten out my arm full length without pain again, but productive. Sometimes you need to be forced out of your regular routine in order to get something else that's important accomplished, yes?

It does, however, mean both that I am writing short blog posts these days, and not doing much that lends itself to blogging in general. Which is why this post is as short and dull (sort of like the knife that did this to me) as it is.

So. Do you have any good stories or tips to share from this past week? Or, are there any posts or series you would be interested in reading on this blog, for when I'm back up to speed? Any questions you would like to ask?

The floor is yours, my friends!

God and Pantheism in Fantasy

A Mayan princess comes to a court in Renaissance Italy, where she learns to access the magic inherent in all nature, which is her birthright.

Sound intriguing?

This is the very basic outline for the new YA fantasy I am currently researching and plotting. The tentative, working title is "Starsong," and I'm already very fond of my characters. The heroine isn't really a Mayan, and the court she visits is not really Renaissance Italy, but a fantasy world based loosely on these real places, in that period of time.

I have come up against a snag, though, which is causing me great headaches. I am trying to avoid religion in general in this work, and am choosing to incorporate the Mayan pantheistic beliefs as a form of magic. That seems safe enough.

However. Whether a book is overtly religious or not, I always strive to glorify God in my writings. How does a pantheistic mindset work within a traditional Judeo-Christian belief which says there is one God, one Creator?

The closest I have come to resolving this is to delve back into the European beliefs before the Renaissance, where it was thought the whole universe was alive and danced to glorify its Creator. If I can keep that mindset, of yes there is life in all things, but it is all tuned to praise the One who made it, perhaps then I might be able to make it work.

I am, however, very open to other suggestions or ideas. As I said, I am still in the throes of outlining and researching, so everything is very malleable right now.

Research in Fantasy

When I started college, I was rather scornful of the portion of my writing class that was dedicated to research. I even tried to argue about it with my professor - "But I'm a fantasy writer! Why would I need to research anything real?"

Oh, the follies of youth.

I am currently more than halfway through JH Plumb's The Italian Renaissance. When I am finished with that, I have easily half a dozen more books on the Renaissance and the Mayan civilization in the 1500s on my reading list. All this for a fantasy story that has only the barest outline, because I don't dare start doing any real work on it until I have all my ... yes, you guessed it ... research done. This story is not even set in the real Renaissance, but in a fantasy world that resembles it. Yet, in order to create that fantasy world accurately, to know which things I can tweak or leave out, and which would be historical anachronisms, I need to study that real period in time.

In writing The Eldest Daughter, a YA fantasy set in a post-Roman Celtic type world, pulling in traditional Welsh lore, I not only studied the Celtic culture, but also read many, many Welsh fairy tales and legends, so that I knew what I could include and what I couldn't, or what I could include as a deliberate stand-out.

Even when I was writing my children's fantasy, about a magical garden that took the children on many historical and fantastic adventures, I not only studied the times and places they visited, but also had to learn about gardens, about what bloomed when and where, what plants could survive without tending, etc. (My mother, an avid gardener, was my main source of information on that point, but she even delved into her books to help me on some sticky points).

I have come to the point where I do enjoy research now, for its own sake as well as its usefulness for my writing (and will occasionally try to concoct a plot around a particular time or place I want to study, just so I can justify learning about it), but even if I was still in my college attitude of "Research is boring," I would be forcing myself to do it, just for how it helps to shape my world-building and bring details into my writing that wouldn't be there otherwise.

And, let's face it, education for its own sake is useful - even if my MSS never get published, at least I will have all this knowledge about other places and cultures, making me a more well-rounded and knowledgable person. I think that is a worthy cause in and of itself!