Anna Adams

Posted By admin on January 27, 2012

It’s easy to write a random post today because I’ve been doing random things.

First–not so random. I set writing goals for the year. I never make resolutions, but I felt the need to decide where I want to be with writing at the end of 2012–as far as the things I can control.

Now, for the random…

Knitting an afghan for my daughter. (As usual, it started out as mine, but despite the fact that she’s owns another one I just finished, she’s adopted this one as well.) I don’t mind. I like thinking of my girl all wrapped up in my knitting! It’s a beautiful afghan, but my, how it eats up the yarn. I bought ten skeins yesterday, and I’m already at the end of the fifth one.

Watching Hawaii 5-O. The original version. I thought it was from way back in the dark ages, but it only ended in 1980. Shocking. I’m dying to see what everyone looked like in 1980 (vs. 1968), but I started at the beginning. Oddly, I think I recognize outdoor locations from Magnum as well. We lived in Hawaii for several years so I really started watching 5-O because I had a hankering to see Hawaii again, and I’m fascinated with the 60s right now. Some of the dialogue can be a little hippie-over-the-top for me, and I love that crazy dancing! I’ve really enjoyed seeing the Ilikai, where we stayed when we first moved there (and where Steve McGarrett turns to face the camera in the opening credits) and Iolani Palace and the beaches and the lava rock walls. I’m a little homesick.

And–Hilo Hattie had a part in one of the early episodes. I don’t know if Hilo Hattie’s is still around, but any time we had a friend visit, we took them to Hilo Hattie’s to invest in a T-shirt, or a muumuu. Cause doesn’t everyone need a muumuu? (I felt kind of funny wearing one except when I was pregnant with my daughter, and that one is packed away somewhere around here.) The tradition, when we lived there, was for everyone to wear some sort of Aloha wear on Fridays, always called Aloha Friday. Women wore muumuus, and men wore Aloha shirts. A couple of years ago, the beloved bought a violently flowered polo shirt for golf, that the girl and I always called his Aloha shirt. (With this stream of conscious gabbing, I may be taking Random too far!)

My final bit of random–I’m reading five books right now, and I’m brushing up on French via iTunes Education. Sometimes, I think I have a focus problem!

Category: Random | No Comments »
Tags: Random

Posted By admin on January 20, 2012

I feel like that boat--setting my course in a rushing sea of story possibilities.

…a couple of things.

First, I recently submitted a revised proposal, and I’m editing–threading the changes I made in the proposal through the rest of the book. Imagine my dismay when I discovered a massive continuity issue in the middle of the book. I think I’ve found a way to unweave and put it back together. Sometimes I love revisions. Sometimes, they’re the equivalent of prodding myself in the eye with a candelabra.

Second, and also a bit intimidating, I’m starting a new book. Not so much starting as plotting and planning. I need to know the characters. I need to have a powerful, affecting first scene in my writing grasp. A lot of writers know the beginning and the end when they start. I rarely know the end until I’ve written it four or five or seven times, so I can start without that, but I need to feel the hero and heroine.

This last book, I started during a “write-in.” I’d had a rejection that very morning and had gone to the write-in anyway because I’d promised a friend I’d join her there. When the proctor told us we were starting with a timed writing, I would have abandoned the field if I weren’t too shy to grab my stuff and bolt from a crowded room (well, crowd of seven writers–who were not afraid of more rejection).

Instead, I had to write. Or explain why I was staring at a blank screen. There’s a scene that’s always in my head. My go-to scene. A gorgeous, heroic Alpha male pounding on a locked door. I went to my go-to. Max didn’t pound the door. He kicked it open, and my story was off.

I can’t really start every story with a hero breaking down a door. However, there are also themes I love, and I’m fighting to twist one of those into a fresh new story even as I type this. I’m testing my ideas–characters and settings and plot points that work–and don’t work. Hence, the photo-metaphor of the tiny shrimper tossing on the sea. (Also, I love the ocean, and I’ll grab any excuse to post an ocean photo!)

I love working–even when it’s this hard.

Category: Writing | 2 Comments »
Tags: Gratuitous ocean pic!, Writing

Posted By admin on January 19, 2012

with a character. He takes saving the cat (the Blake Snyder concept) to a reckless degree. Jackson Brody, who begins his literary life in Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories, solves murders, searches for an elderly woman’s imaginary cats, helps out any lost stray human or animal, and loves his daughter. I don’t know what more you can ask for in a man.

Well–you can ask that Jason Isaacs play him in the TV adaptation. And that makes him utterly perfect. He’s tortured by the past and by his own emotions, but he always tries to do the right thing, even when the right thing drags at his soul. He’s not always perfectly nice. His judgement can be askew. He cannot say no–even when he tries to–because he is innately compelled to help.

I want to write characters like Jackson Brodie.

Category: Characterization, Jackson Brodie, Kate Atkinson's Case Histories | No Comments »
Tags: Case Histories, Characterization, Jackson Brodie, Kate Atkinson

Posted By admin on January 9, 2012

I’m not as slackadaisical as I look. I’ve been revising a proposal, and I decided to focus on that before I came back to blogging, post-holidays. I finished the changes and mailed the proposal mere moments ago, so here I am again!

(Pardon this tangent, but while I’m writing this, I’m watching a movie, and I fear one of my favorite actors is about to expire. I hate when that happens.)

Not a lot to report since last I blogged. We had company for the holidays, which was wonderful. We played tons of Taboo and Harry Potter Uno, and we made the traditional holiday trek to Cheesecake Factory for the pumpkin cheesecake. I actually only had a bite of my daughter’s pumpkin cheesecake, because I switched to a slab of chocolate cake at the last possible moment. It was so worth the calories. Seriously.

Have you noticed the lighthouse up there on the right? I wonder if it also makes you weep with joy? My daughter and my husband gave it to me. The second I saw it, I spewed some projectile tears of joy. Every morning of the early years of my life, I looked out my bedroom window and saw that lighthouse. I seem to have taken a crooked photo of it, but I still wanted to share it. Someday, I’ll post a level pic, but for now, you should gaze in wonder. And if you find you’d like an amazing artist to do something as beautiful for you, you might want to take a peek at Margalena Lepore’s website.

My next writing task–I’m going to edit the rest of the book to match the changes to the proposal. It’s a little worrisome that I’ve added over 20 pages already. Gotta keep an eye on that word-o-meter!

It’s nice to be back!

Category: Proposal, Random, Revision | 3 Comments »
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Posted By admin on December 25, 2011

We celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas at my house, so I’m wishing you the best of all the holidays this season brings! I hope your family will enjoy health and joy and peace all through the coming new year.

May today bring you sparkly new memories and happiness to last!

Category: Holidays | 2 Comments »
Tags: Holidays

Posted By admin on December 19, 2011

Don't worry--I'm on the lookout!

Have the holidays started at your house?

Our company arrived early, and somehow I’ve fallen behind in my revising. I’m on the last read-through, but terrible things happen here while I’m focused on work. The house falls apart. All cleaning ends.

That’s fine unless you hear someone you love is able to arrive early for a visit.

While I cleaned, Kitty kept watch for the arrival. I’ve spent most of the weekend discovering we live like animals! And not very tidy ones either! However, we’re back in shape now. All happy and together. As long as everyone avoids certain doors, no one will be crushed by falling clutter!

And my revision? I have this urge to hurry and get the proposal back to the editor, but I’m going to assume good is better than fast. I want these pages to be good, so I’m throttling back on the panic and I’ll work when I can to get it out of here sometime this week. Unless I’m overtaken by cutthroat family Uno!

Category: Holidays, Revision | No Comments »
Tags: Holidays, Revision

Posted By admin on December 16, 2011

Dear, Friday, you’ve arrived too soon! I have work to do and shopping to finish and a house to clean and dinner to sort out.

Everyone in this house is a better cook than I. Wonder why they wouldn’t rather eat their own tastier food? The other thing–I lack the carnivore instinct. Tonight, we’re having one of my favorite meals–Navy beans, salad, and cornbread. Mmmm. Wonder if I should run out for the fixings for Aunt Dorothy’s cole slaw. Always uber tasty! There will be wailing and gnashing of carnivorous teeth. But all they’ll have to gnash will be beans!

I’m putting the finishing touches on the proposal. Doing a final weaving of the new thread Karen suggested. Then, I need to do another read to cull errors. Do you have a mistake you always make? Before I submit a ms., I have to search every instance of it’s vs. its. I know when to use which, but my fingers rarely cooperate.

This weekend, I redo the snopes, that mysterious albatross for all writers everywhere. (That may not be true, but if you don’t find a snopes trying, you’ll be kinder if you keep it to yourself.)

I’m setting up old movies and the coffee pot and iTunes. Work beckons! After I submit the revised proposal, I plan to edit the rest of the book for this new thread. I cannot wait to write a scene that has to go in at the end. Writing it will be my treat for submitting!

Category: Revision | 2 Comments »
Tags: Revision

Posted By admin on December 13, 2011

I finished. I checked off all the changes the editor asked for, and then my critique partner, Karen Whiddon, read it. Thank goodness.

She’s unbelievably busy, so I was lucky she was willing. She put her finger on the problem I’ve been wrestling, and then she came up with an idea of how to fix it. I’m going to be able to layer in some conflict with the fix, and that’s always good!  It makes my conflict ever so much more personal.

I so wish Karen would move in next door to me. I miss our Starbucks times. I miss when I knew I could just call her up and meet and we’d come out with good answers!

Karen, if you’re reading, thank you! I’m off to revise my revision!

Category: Revision | 2 Comments »
Tags: Revision

Posted By admin on December 9, 2011

The Beach

Some friends are going to the beach soon. I’m sorry I can’t go along, so I thought I’d add one of the billions of beach photos I took last month.

I’ve been trying desperately to enjoy each day, not to wish time away, or think only of “when this happens,” which I have a tendency to do. Who knew living in the present could be such a difficult thing? But this year seems to be flying by with no regard for making memory or learning to be zen.

It doesn’t help when I’m so busy all I can think is I need to do this and this and this. And all my tasks need to be done yesterday–which has already flown by.

This is in contrast to my current method of editing, where I examine each word, every comma, all the nuances… Am I wringing what I need to out of them? Am I offering the editor what she wants to see? Am I creating a story that will make a reader happy?

Somehow, while I’m worrying each word, trying to shake them all into a perfectly revised proposal, another day has fled. I don’t understand how time works.

Category: Just Living, Revision | No Comments »
Tags: Just Living, revising

Posted By admin on December 8, 2011

No time for blah-blah-blah. No time to think if I’m not thinking about my proposal. I need to finish the revisions by Friday, let the story rest over the weekend, read again on Monday, and off Max and Ilena go on their return trip to the editor!

I’m trying to bury myself in their lives, burrow into their secrets, and clothe them in a good story!

Category: Revision | No Comments »
Tags: Revision