tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27220129548062485292024-03-12T19:04:02.954-03:00Jan MorrisonJan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771180344305042855noreply@blogger.comBlogger1150125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-1957286352914266672024-03-06T06:30:00.001-04:002024-03-06T06:30:00.144-04:00Carrying On<p><span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCnmb0-_TrCa4JGq9GRwkQvCPxvC5Xqou5orZujsIkV34qFFrZcxw1m17On1GsVrnOw7Ne9MQoUWFnRVW4XAePV7P7-5IPho8JUwnXBWHRNmjXF6yruItJQ7CEZr31ygwb_5qEmwQn9EN1y3X3hA_1Lc7xnw28KuzYaBGdydiyDCfEc67e3tWiipPHiYI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="932" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCnmb0-_TrCa4JGq9GRwkQvCPxvC5Xqou5orZujsIkV34qFFrZcxw1m17On1GsVrnOw7Ne9MQoUWFnRVW4XAePV7P7-5IPho8JUwnXBWHRNmjXF6yruItJQ7CEZr31ygwb_5qEmwQn9EN1y3X3hA_1Lc7xnw28KuzYaBGdydiyDCfEc67e3tWiipPHiYI" width="244" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">I now call this meeting of the <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">Insecure Writers' Support Group</a> of Prospect, Nova Scotia to order!</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">I'll do roll call.</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000;">Is Jan the writer here?</span></p><p> <i>Here!</i><br /></p><p><span><span style="color: red;">Is Jan the author here?</span></span></p><p><span> <i> 'sound of crickets'</i><br /></span></p><p><span><span><span style="color: red;">Okay then, is Jan the procrastinator here?</span></span></span></p><p><span><span> <i>Yes, I'm here.</i> (mumbles something under her breath)<br /></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span style="color: red;">Is Jan the diehard romantic here?</span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span> <i> Yes, I'm here in my writing jacket with leather on the elbows and a pipe and a tumbler full of scotch.</i><br /></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span style="color: red;">Oh, I didn't realize that Jan the diehard romantic was a guy.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span> <i>Well...sometimes. Today I'm fashioned on Hemingway. Yesterday I was a starving artist in a garret in Paris. I was wearing a wispy gown and drinking absinthe.</i><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span style="color: red;">Alright, moving on. Is Jan the business person here?</span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span> voice of Jan the writer - <i>"she is out trying to find Jan the author."</i><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: red;">Of course she is. Finally, is Jan the householder here?</span></p><p> <i>Yes, but I can't stay long. I'm still trying to finish the decluttering in the writing studio, but Jan the painter is making that nearly impossible. Also, we have folks coming for dinner.</i><br /></p><p><span style="color: red;">Okay. We have a quorum. First thing on the agenda is that Jan the author hasn't heard back from the publisher and can't give Jan the writer the go ahead to collaborate on the new query package. Who will contact Jan the A. and get her to write another blasted email?</span></p><p> voice of Jan the diehard romantic "<i>I will. I'll fill her mind with thoughts about what fun she'll have when her next book is published - that week or two when everything is rosy."</i><br /></p><p><i> </i>voice of Jan the procrastinator, "<i>I don't think she should bug the publisher just yet. Maybe after Easter would be better. Or Monday next, Monday is a good day to begin things."</i><br /></p><p><i> </i>voice of Jan the business woman who has just come in the room, <i>"No! It has to be done today. I couldn't find Jan the author anywhere. Think she's on a bender. I'll write it."</i><br /></p><p><span style="color: red;">So do we have a motion?</span></p><p> all speak up, "<i>don't be crazy! If Jan the business woman says she'll do it, she'll do it."</i><br /></p><p>Jan in charge looks abashed, - <span style="color: red;">Okay, next order of business. Jan the writer, I've heard that you aren't keeping up with your writing schedule? How can we help you?</span></p><p> Voice of Jan the writer <i>"You can tell Jan the householder to quit inviting people to dinner. And why do things need to be so clean?" </i>(laughter all round) <i>And Jan the painter needs to remember where she is in the pecking order."</i><br /></p><p><i> </i>Voice of Jan the householder <i>"You know darn well that every time you come to some plot point you can't figure out that you call on me to insist on cleaning the fridge or doing our taxes so lay off!"</i><br /></p><p>Kafuffle breaks out, <span style="color: red;">"Order! Order!"</span></p><p> Voice of Jan the writer "<i>I think this meeting is over! I have a piece to write for the Insecure Writers' Support Group and then I'm working on edits in Butter & Snow so get lost."</i><br /></p><p><span style="color: red;">I now call the March meeting of Jan's Insecure Writers' Support Group Prospect Division over.</span></p><p><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-57645740647292649312024-02-07T07:13:00.001-04:002024-02-07T07:13:00.146-04:00February Blues<p>Hello all dear Insecure Writers and those who love us. The <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">IWSG</a> meets the first Wednesday of the month so here we are. I'm not really blue despite the title, just a wee bit flat of spirit perhaps but it'll come back. It always has. </p><p> I don't wish to discuss authoring today, only writing. I've been swapping teaching with a pal on our street. She's a talented oil painter who is working on a novel. At least once a week we get together and paint and talk writing. She's a generous teacher and I think I am too. Obviously we talk about the crossovers in our disciplines. I'm doing an edit on her novel this week and it strikes me that figuring out the mechanics of the plot and structure are a lot like composing a painting. And the diction, the actual word choices, the metaphors, similies, and so on are a lot like the brushstrokes a painter uses. We both seem to have a good handle on composition or plot, we know what we want to say and even when we want to say it, in order to lead the viewer (or reader) to the focal point (crisis) but we both need help loosening up our brushstrokes, being more confident and even daring in that department. I want her to stretch and try to say things freshly, cut out hackneyed phrases for surprising ones, and I think she'd like me to be bolder with my mark-making. I know once she starts she'll get what fun figuring out just the right word or phrase is. And I sometimes get a fleeting moment of grace and joy when I let loose with my brush. And isn't that it? Isn't that the real reason we do this crazy highwire act?</p><p>Hope you are all well and using these winter days to go deep into your work with verve and joy!</p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-9309895218887415862024-01-03T05:00:00.001-04:002024-01-03T05:00:00.169-04:002024<p><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">Happy New Year</span> dear Insecure Writers! It is our first meeting of the year of the <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">Insecure Writers Support Group</a>,* and I hope everyone has a nice clean notebook because it is time to set our intentions for the year ahead. No, I did not say the word 'resolutions'. Intentions. I like to think of it as a trip I might want to take in 2024. Where am I now? Where do I want to go? How will I get there? What will I do when I'm there? For the purposes of this meeting I will focus on my writerly intentions. Before I know where I want to go, I must ascertain where I am. </p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Step 1</b></span> - where am I?</p><p>Let's see - I have one novel traditionally published. I have a second book finished but for the copy editing in the same series, and one finished in a different series. I have one YA book finished and about three books started but not nearly done. </p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Step 2</b></span> - where do I want to go?</p><p>I want to see my three unpublished novels published.. I want to continue writing as the three finished ones look for a home and would like to have two more ready to send out by year's end, if not sooner. So, to synthesize, I'd like to find a publisher, either on my own or with the help of an agent, who wants to represent most if not all of the books I can churn out. While of course realizing they'd have to accept each one on its own merits.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Step 3 </span></b>- how will I get there? </p><p>I have the second in the Nell series being read by beta readers. When I get feedback on them I will revise accordingly. My fella is a primo copyeditor and has agreed to do that. I will be sending <i>The Rock Walker</i> out next week to beta readers and will by the end of January have both of those books ready to shop. When I have my query package made I will send to the agents and publishers I'm most interested in working with. While I await word on them I will have fun with my brand new work in progress - a hard-boiled detective story set in 1946 in Halifax!</p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Step 4</span></b> - what will I do when I get there?</p><p>When I have some possible deals to make I will carefully insure that the agent or publisher is the right fit for me and my novels by being as straight-forward as possible about what I want. This will never be about money for me, but about enthusiasm and understanding of what my books are about. As well, I will continue to have fun writing which is, in fact, what is deeply important to me. </p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">*<b style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;">Purpose:</b><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;">To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></span></p><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><b>Posting:</b> The first Wednesday of every month is officially <b>Insecure Writer’s Support Group</b> day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks for coming by everyone and hope you are having as much fun as I am navigating in this strange land of writing.</span></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-9585884686141002832023-12-06T10:32:00.005-04:002023-12-06T10:32:46.594-04:00If we are insecure we are also secure<p> Greetings dear fellow insecure writers and those that love us!</p><p>It is time for the December meeting of the <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">IWSG</a> - sign up here!</p><p>I love December and this particular December I feel a resurgence of my creative energy. This is the new year for me. My birthday is on the solstice and I naturally feel the world turn to the light as it approaches. I was in a slump for awhile but my energy like the light is starting a slow turn to the positive.</p><p>I have a message for all aspiring writers that is burning a hole in my metaphoric pocket. Here it is:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Do not dance with someone who isn't flat-out crazy to dance with you.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;">And by this I mean do not get into a publishing or agent agreement unless you can easily ascertain that they are full on enthusiastic.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I used to feel that if anyone was willing to dance with me - a tall gawky red-haired flibbertigibbet - that I had to say yes. I got over that after several disastrous unions but I neglected to take that learning into my artistic life. As writers who often accrue enough rejections to paper our writing studios, we can leap when someone expresses even the mildest of interests. Do not! Take your time to find out why they like your piece (your essay, your poem, your short-story, your novel) or if indeed they do at all. Publishing in this treacherous time is fraught so it seems like we should take any scrap of interest offered. Remember why you write and if you will still want to do so if you are writing solely to get published. Unless you are Margaret Atwood or Stephen King you won't really be making any money anyway so you might as well do it for the love of the craft. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I'm going to be way old on the solstice and I have at least five more books I want published, but they will not be represented or published by anyone who doesn't think they are as special I do. That might mean they sit in a drawer or I publish them myself (not what I want to do) because I've decided I'm a writer first and an author second.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Merry Holidays to all who celebrate this time of year whatever your belief system.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Hold yourself precious!</p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-53401754209312602252023-11-01T16:20:00.002-03:002023-11-01T16:20:28.042-03:00another insecure writer speaks up<p> It is Wednesday and the first of November, do you know where your insecure writers are?</p><p>Yes, it is another meeting of the <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">IWSG</a> - sign up here!</p><p><br /></p><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Posting:</b> The first Wednesday of every month is officially <b>Insecure Writer’s Support Group</b> day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!</div></b></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hi everyone! Boy these months sneak up on ya, wha! Here in Nova Scotia it has been softly snowing all day. My regular writing pal, Gwen, doesn't have her snow tires on yet, so we did our tomatoes alone and just checked in after every couple. What? You don't know what a 'tomato' is? Well, it's called the Pomodoro system and it is just a way to track your time. Like a kitchen timer (often a tomato) and we use it to write for 25 minutes, break for 5 and go back at it. Somehow it is </span>incredibly<span style="font-family: inherit;"> motivating and Gwen and I have been using them for just about as long as I've been part of the IWSG. Here's a program I've linked here - <a href="https://pomofocus.io/">Pom</a></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><a href="https://pomofocus.io/">odoro</a></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;">The question this month was about NaNoWriMo and I'm ignoring it as I've answered it several times already. I'll just say that my one published novel originated in a NaNoWriMo and I'm grateful. Won't be using it this month though as I'm in heavy duty revision of <b><i>Butter and Snow</i></b> - my second Nell Munro mystery. It will be ready for my beta readers in two weeks and then back for another swipe before anyone else looks at it.</div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;">In October I took part in Inktober for the fourth time. For that challenge you simply have to draw, ink or paint something daily. I like it and I really like the notion of simply showing up for your self in this way. This time I focused on landscapes and used all sorts of mediums and techniques to render the beauty I saw on the trips we took this summer and fall. It was fun and juicy and I love doing it.</div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;">I'm on a self-imposed challenge right now to get this revision done - 21 days of two hours a day. Doesn't seem like much but it sure makes a difference when you show up day after day. Like the snow fall today - the words accumulate.</div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;">Okay - see you next month!</div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;">Keep on keepin on.</div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><br /></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-2907078829786518322023-10-06T09:43:00.002-03:002023-10-06T09:43:39.735-03:00Late for the meeting...but still here. IWSG<p> Hi dear pals,</p><p>I'm late for the meeting but just a couple of days. I'm at Gampo Abbey in Cape Breton. My fella is doing some renovations here - the abbey is like Howl's Moving Castle - a rambling shape shifting place on a bit of land floating out over the Atlantic, mountains behind, whales and ships moving slowly on the horizon, eagles and ravens playing in the wind. I have spent time here before - once I spent a month in the winter but that was decades ago. Before I go further though, let's do the traditional opening for a meeting of the IWSG - </p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">IWSG</a></span></b></p><p><b style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center;">Purpose:</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-size: large; text-align: center;"> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;">I'm not going to answer the question which is no longer posted at any rate, but instead do something that my close pals and I do when we get together for any length of time. I'm going to check-in. Not about my whole life mind but just about my writing one. </p><p style="text-align: left;">hmmm... I'm okay-ish. I am writing - working on my second Nell Munro novel, <i>Butter & Snow</i>, which is going slow as mud, but that's alright I think. I have a former mystery ms, <i>The Rock Walker,</i> with the woman who helped me with <i>The Crooked Knife</i>, but she is silent so far. I have another novel, <i>Lost and Found</i>, not a mystery, that I have about 60 thousand words written, but I want to change it from 1st person to 3rd. That'll waste a shit-load of time but I believe will save it from being binned. And I have an idea born of being here at the abbey for an 'end of days' type story, working title <i>The Unwinding</i>. So, let's see - that's four books in every stage from ready to pitch to nebulous thoughts.</p><p style="text-align: left;">My main anxiety - the one that keeps me in okay-ish and not just flat out okay - is that my discipline has been, well, absent. I can attribute that to some degree with the amount of traveling we've been doing. This has been the late summer early fall exploration of mountains. We were in Woody Point, Newfoundland, which is within the National Park of Gros Morne, a gorgeous range of mountains. Then we were in the Canadian Rockies, which are the most stupendous mountains in North America, and now we are in the Cape Breton Highlands. It is hard for me to keep my discipline when I'm traveling. I brought my laptop here because my fella is working so I can spend a few hours each day writing. The rest of the time I'm involved with helping out here at the Abbey and spending some good time with my old pal who works here. The truth is though, that I've had this kid ego-state who has just rebelled against me doing any of my disciplines lately. (last five months) No yoga, not much meditation, my drawing is down, all of it. Maybe you've had these fallow periods. I'm trying not to panic and just be gentle with it all, but it has me concerned. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkwo6yk5IkGEHYkThSH5RpV1GTlxyvtSvIpRtj2MEYxQRG4HjYCnrZp0NcD87n2RqxqCfvDOV5MIS5h24Esdvfn2CpiG9quUBAi-HH5ysnQq5jRQpSk6jg31lsI-jEVVrQtb6MnIWu488sC0GUnP77DB4TKd3slnFPyochiFdlB2xEMEnUwrOob88sHvk/s4032/IMG_4068.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="485" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkwo6yk5IkGEHYkThSH5RpV1GTlxyvtSvIpRtj2MEYxQRG4HjYCnrZp0NcD87n2RqxqCfvDOV5MIS5h24Esdvfn2CpiG9quUBAi-HH5ysnQq5jRQpSk6jg31lsI-jEVVrQtb6MnIWu488sC0GUnP77DB4TKd3slnFPyochiFdlB2xEMEnUwrOob88sHvk/w364-h485/IMG_4068.JPG" width="364" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Well, that's it for today, for this month I suppose. I'll be back, and I look forward to catching up with you all now.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-75790195215251231952023-09-06T05:30:00.009-03:002023-09-06T05:30:00.150-03:0012 Years Ago<p><span style="font-size: medium;">This is a special date for us insecure types - twelve years ago our fearless leader, Alex Cavanaugh, stuck his toe in the water and asked other writers if they wanted to chance a group dedicated to supporting the emotional and mental needs of struggling writers. We did! And so the </span></p><p><a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Insecure Writers Support Group </span></b></a><span style="font-size: medium;">was launched. After going back through thousands of posts I found that I had not posted proper on that day, although I meant to, and wrote some kind of ramble a few days later mentioning it, that Alex, in his imitable and kind way acknowledged. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I have not always posted through these years, but in my defense, I've been more faithful to this group that probably any other one I've belonged to. In fact it has lasted longer than a couple of my marriages (ahem). Back in 2010 when I started a version of this blog, I posted a lot. A lot. Like five times a week. I treated my blog as a journal of my life and it thrills me to look back and read what I was thinking and feeling about. Nowadays I generally post at least once a month, and yes it is my IWSG blog that takes me to my chair and sits me down and says "write something, anything" because the words of our peers clang in our hearts in a most encouraging way.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Following is my first post for IWSG (October 12 years ago). Most things are the same as when I wrote this only I am a published writer (and strangely working on about my 12th book, ha - with only one published!). I haven't smoked even once for many many years and I hardly ever eat bank statements any more. Oh and I now use a different font. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;">Dear Journal,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;">Hi, my name is Jan and I'm an </span><a href="http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/insecure-writers-support-group.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ff6142; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;">insecure writer</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;">. Oh, I know you don't believe me. You think I'm just trying to fit in with the new in-crowd, but you're wrong. I am insecure at writing and perhaps even more with revising. You see, I believe that revising separates the sheep from the goats (hi Elspeth's sheep!!!). I don't know if a writer is a sheep or a goat but today, of all days, insecure writers' day, I'm saying that a writer is a goat and not a sheep. Why? Well because goats eat anything and live off of it. Same as writers. Exactly. Why today, just today, dear journal, I ate an old tire, some sh*t (don't ask, won't tell), and my bank statement. Why? You may well ask. The tire is obvious for you alert journals, the second item I've already said I won't comment on, and the bank statement - that was dessert. If I wasn't a writer and a reviser I might have said that it was desert, but that would be wrong. Why would a bank statement be a big sandy hot area with a cartoon guy crawling across it, saying in balloon speak "water...water...just a bit of water..."? Some other reasons that writers are goats and not sheep. We smell. It's true. I know we don't like to admit it but when we are deep in revisions, showers are just another pesky thought. Plus we eat popcorn with garlicky oil on it (no - not butter, we're on a diet!) and parmesan with that nice old sock odour. And the third reason we're like goats and not like sheep is that we can't sleep. We're always jumping around on mountains trying to find something, anything, to write about. If we were sheep we'd count ourselves and sleep. I can't sleep - that's why I'm writing this in my journal pretending it is Wednesday - oh - it is almost Wednesday - just 13 more minutes and it will be - then I can put the compost out and maybe go to sleep. I might have a cigarette. On the deck, in the driving cold rain. That would make me feel like a writer and I would definitely smell like a goat. Then I couldn't go to sleep and I could work on fleshing out my main character in the revision I'm doing. Good idea. By the way, Mari and Tartlette, I'm not blunking or drogging or any one of those elvish words. I'm just really really really tired. Because I'm a goat, an insecure writing, revising goat and baaaaaah (oh come on - I heard four goats today and that is just how they sound - the sheep copied them - they ARE sheep ya know).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;">Sometimes when people ask me what I'm "up to" (very suspiciously I might add) I will tell them I'm a writer and go blah blah blahing about 'what I'm working on' and how hard it is to find 'real publishers' these days. But don't kid yourself, journal, I'm still being insecure when I do that. Yes, I am. I'm blowing a lot of hot air. The thing is that when I'm finally a 'published writer' I won't ever say that. I'll slip it in real cool. "Yes, I'm working on my twelfth book. Uh...well only one's been published, but I AM working on my twelfth book. I'll be so secure. Then every first Wednesday of every month I'll write a Secure Writers' Post. Ha! OK, I'm going out on the deck to smoke now. See you tomorrow, I mean today.</span></span></p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-85605489380729298172023-08-02T07:31:00.004-03:002023-08-02T07:31:00.156-03:00The fruits of our labour<p> Hello <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">fellow insecure writers</a>! </p><p>Now it is August - such a wonderful time of the year in this part of the world. I can usually walk down the road and down the path to a tiny beach and have a dip in our bay, and the tomato plants are starting to fruit. I have about eight of them and they are over five feet tall and just a bursting with tiny tomatoes or flowers. The basil has gotten over being shy and is getting nice and bushy. The peas are just about all picked and we'll be taking down the old stocks. The garlic is almost ready to harvest too. We already got a huge amount of bok choy and I'm hoping my two or three squash plants will do their thing - early days for them. I'm going to look up what one does with an overly enthusiastic lavender plant too. In the flower bed the daylilies are going gangbusters and the hydrangea is starting to do its thing. The beautiful little snapdragons I started from seed are blooming and my tiny rose bush has two blooms on it. All is happy.</p><p>And yet...we have had quite the summer with environmental disasters. In June we had terrible forest fires in an area not to far from us. Many houses were lost but no lives. Our bags were packed for a quick getaway. The air was thick with smoke. And a week and a bit ago we had torrential rains in almost all of Nova Scotia. People were flooded out, many roads are still impassable. We had friends who'd driven from Indiana to an orchardist convention and they had to spend the night at a highway exit - unable to go in either direction. Four people died in the flooding, one adult, one teenager and two small children. Hearts are very heavy.</p><p>Because of this, I suppose, I have been struggling with nihilistic thoughts. It has been hard to get to my writing when I cannot imagine that it is of any use in a civilization that seems intent on destroying itself. The worst night of the rain storm I woke to hear the rain beating down as it had been doing for eighteen hours by then and felt such despair. No one alive today who has lived in Nova Scotia for seventy years or more has seen anything like it. The news tells me of people in North America dying from the heat because they are trying to carry on as usual. That notion that we can just keep on is not to me sensible in any way. Today when I sit on my deck and take in all the growth in my garden it is hard to imagine the fury of the fires and the pummeling of the rain. All seems so peaceful and fruitful.</p><p>Still, I go to my computer early in the morning, while it is still breezy and cool, and I write. I work on various projects - my second Nell book, and a book that I shelved ten years ago that I now realize is quite pleasing to me, and maybe deserves to be trundled out to the various publishers and so on. So, in fact, sensible or no, I carry on. </p><p>How about you? How do you find strength in troubling times?</p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-69854532072251790792023-07-05T08:43:00.004-03:002023-07-05T08:43:15.941-03:00Summertime and the living is...<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjky_hXE9ipSN8dsJK5ILcNJCFPdxBpKZPJKw3IRBf4Vq_TtTDmcisLGUMXgqEKSmNCxjwbKBi_S2izlwIV7FfNE6A55dEXdXuH0WLVm2g6gRQ_M51aC9zM-fqgVNXBriJAQ6AW_HZLA9OcmJr3Mj044rwaL6R2M6TRFkv6nENKr2FeiJLCPxVGejDgvsI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="932" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjky_hXE9ipSN8dsJK5ILcNJCFPdxBpKZPJKw3IRBf4Vq_TtTDmcisLGUMXgqEKSmNCxjwbKBi_S2izlwIV7FfNE6A55dEXdXuH0WLVm2g6gRQ_M51aC9zM-fqgVNXBriJAQ6AW_HZLA9OcmJr3Mj044rwaL6R2M6TRFkv6nENKr2FeiJLCPxVGejDgvsI" width="244" /></a></div><span style="text-align: left;">Yep! It is another meeting of the <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">Insecure Writer's Support Group! </a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">Purpose:</b><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">T</span><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">he awesome co-hosts for the July 5 posting of the IWSG are </span><b style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.pjcolando.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">PJ Colando,</a> <a href="http://kimlajevardi.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Kim Lajevardi,</a> <a href="http://gwengardner.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Gwen Gardner,</a> <a href="http://www.patgarciaandeverythingmustchange.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Pat Garcia,</a></b><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> and </span><a href="http://www.literaryrambles.com/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>Natalie Aguirre!</b></a></div></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFaW7AkNeCAXW_uCkuozQH3NoyGIY0d0jIq4eq4ADhYagLLf-EnEfMH3zkMSjh0wvr4kt4OA631C7Dh2scJvFaH5Kle_oGmYtkfGoG93D4Szsz0zEErk4mmLk5plZUnqHaVxgOvRRnh7jE0ilZtExLRAQid89-v39lxt6G57Uyk1drJ4nQpl6Z0togzS4/s2033/IMG_0143.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2033" data-original-width="1452" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFaW7AkNeCAXW_uCkuozQH3NoyGIY0d0jIq4eq4ADhYagLLf-EnEfMH3zkMSjh0wvr4kt4OA631C7Dh2scJvFaH5Kle_oGmYtkfGoG93D4Szsz0zEErk4mmLk5plZUnqHaVxgOvRRnh7jE0ilZtExLRAQid89-v39lxt6G57Uyk1drJ4nQpl6Z0togzS4/s320/IMG_0143.JPG" width="229" /></a></div><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">July 5 question - 99% of my story ideas come from dreams. Where do yours predominantly come from?</span></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">Hmm...not dreams so much. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">I get my ideas at the <b><span style="color: #800180; font-size: medium;">Ideal Idea Emporium</span></b>. I have a loyalty card in fact, because I go there so often. My favourite part of the store is the <span style="color: red;"><b>Rant & Rage Section</b></span> where I pick up ideas based on my most recent outraged feelings. I am particularly drawn to rants about the environment, human rights, racism, and equality for women. Now you must realize that these ideas are quite raw and need a fair bit of refinement to be usable.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">A section of the store that I stay well clear of is <span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Political Correctness Aisle</b></span>. I find the ideas there quickly get stale and some even spoil altogether. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">I can spend hours in the <span style="color: #04ff00;"><b>Eavesdrop Café </b></span>where for the price of a cup of coffee I can linger and overhear lots of juicy conversations. I go there when I forget that not all people are like me and therefore my characters mustn't be too much like me either. I need some different views, quirky turns of phrase etc...</span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">My all time favourite section is <span style="color: #ff00fe; font-weight: bold;">Zeitgeist</span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">. </span>That aisle is very odd indeed. It is full of large stoppered bottles that you are invited to open and take whiffs from. Those scents springboard you into ideas that you might not have known were even available but when you get them, you must use them quickly as they very rapidly become known far and wide. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">For poetry inspiration you can not beat the <span style="color: #274e13;"><b>Forest Walk</b></span> department. I go there when I'm depleted from rage (see above) and need to be reminded that nature heals and inspires.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">Sometimes, when I'm really fed-up with my own monkey mind, I go to the <span style="color: #0c343d;"><b>Meditation</b></span> department. You pay a small fee (which is the cost of feeling like if you are not actually typing you are not writing) sit down and settle your mind. When you aren't looking for ideas and in fact want to empty your mind - well, let's just say we are very contrary beasts we humans.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">How about you? Where do you go to get your ideas?</span></span></p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-44285764926356961862023-06-07T05:30:00.003-03:002023-06-07T05:30:00.131-03:00Late Bloomers and the Insecure Writer's Support Group<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></p><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><br /></b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The awesome co-hosts for the June 7 posting of the IWSG are <b><a href="https://www.patriciajosephine.com/blog" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Patrcia Josephine,</a> <a href="https://pensivepenspost.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Diedre Knight,</a> <a href="http://olgagodim.wordpress.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Olga Godim,</a> </b><a href="https://jlennidorner.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>J. Lenni Dorner</b>,</a> and <a href="http://cathrinaconstantine.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>Cathrina Constantine!</b></a></div></div></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My post: No long answer to this month's question- just for those who don't know it is "if you ever did stop writing, what would you replace it with?" Nothing could replace writing in my life. It is how I find out who I am and how I fit in the world. I do lots of things that I love - painting, gardening, psychotherapy, stitching, cooking, but writing is the rock on which everything else is perched.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><img align="BOTTOM" height="148" naturalsizeflag="3" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20060910124225im_/http://www.stanfordalumni.org/images/news_magazine/magazine/novdec97/art/doerr.gif" width="360" />Today I want to talk about late bloomers. Maybe it is because I've been gardening or perhaps just the reading I've been doing, but I'm a late bloomer in the world of publishing. I've steadily written for as long as time but having one's first novel published at the age of 70 is something else. I guess I'm thinking about it because my book launched on June 10th last year and just about now my fella, dog and I were travelling the 2000 kilometers to Labrador in order to do so. It was a very heady time for me - fruitional I suppose. In many ways I'm glad I didn't get one of my heart's desires until I was this age. I didn't start dating (dating?) the man I'd been hoping to find until I was fifty (21 years this month) and oh my goodness but he was well worth waiting for. We both needed to ripen a bit to have the sweet time we have. So, sticking with the garden metaphor, I planted lots of gardens both emotionally and creatively before something bloomed good and proper. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This makes me very interested in other late bloomers or steady producers! I just finished the autobiography of Elizabeth Jane Howard. Last year I read her Cazalet Chronicles - five novels of hefty size that follow the life of a family in England starting just before WW2 is declared. She started that series of books when she was in her sixties and they were her most well-known and popular books. Another of my favourite novelists is Mary Wesley who had a number of children's books published but had her first adult novel <i>Jumping the Queue </i>when she was 71. She went on to become a most prolific writer (may I be so blessed) my favourite of which is <i>The Camomile Lawn. </i>In other art forms we have the very famous Grandma Moses who began her painting career in her seventies. Norman Maclean wrote his phenomenal novel (the only one he wrote) <i>A River Runs Through It </i>when he was in his mid-seventies. Here is a few more - Jean Rhys who had <i>Wide Sargasso Sea </i>published at the age of 76 (not her first but most known). Harriet Doerr finished her Stanford degree at age 67 and won a National Book Award for <i>Stones for Ibarra </i>at the age of 73. And I could go on!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I went back to university when I was forty. My kids were gone on to lead their lives and I was single and decided that heck I would try. One thing that decided me was that I whinged to someone that I would be 46 by the time I got my degree. "And how old will you be in six years if you don't go back to school?" they asked. Smack!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">By the way - a year after having my novel debut I am debuting as an artist at a group show near where I live. Woo hoo!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></b></div></span></div></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-70332953625898598352023-05-03T05:30:00.006-03:002023-05-03T05:30:00.144-03:00Inspiration<p style="text-align: left;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="color: #057452; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></p><br style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">Sign up here!</a></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The awesome co-hosts for the May 3 posting of the IWSG are <b><a href="https://joylenebutler.com/blog" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Joylene Nowell Butler,</a> <a href="http://www.ronelthemythmaker.com/blog/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Ronel Janse van Vuuren,</a> <a href="https://authormekajames.wordpress.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Meka James,</a> <a href="http://dianeburton.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Diane Burton,</a> <a href="https://www.victoriamarielees.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Victoria Marie Lees,</a></b> and <a href="http://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>M Louise Barbour!</b></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">May 3 question - When you are working on a story, what inspires you?</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Words inspire me, so I looked up the word inspire, or rather its etymological beginnings. I did know but I wanted confirmation. I knew that to conspire meant at its root 'to breath together with another or others'. I knew that 'spire' was a root word meaning spirit, or what animates the biological form. That a scientist of a literal bent would say 'to inspire is to breath in'. When we are inspired it is thought we have breathed in some feeling or thinking that the gods wish us to have. I am not a believer in gods so what do I think I'm doing trying to tickle the muse into releasing some of her or his ideas into the waiting vessel of my (empty?) mind? I do not know. But what I do know is that inspiration can be invited by discipline (the boys in the basement are waiting for you to show up says Stephen King), by honing my craft so when the spirit enters me I'll know what to do with it, and by holding the space ready for lightening, inspiration, gods, the fairies, to strike me. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sometimes I'm inspired by great grief, or overwhelming rage, or a sudden burst of empathy and love. All can ignite the bits of dried leaves, twigs and old poems on dry paper I've gathered - but I must tend the flame that ensues. I can't just leave it up to that one strike, that one inward breath. No. I must poke at it, apply more fuel, bits of wood, logs, branches, old cereal boxes, yesterday's manuscript. I must blow gently to get it going and sometimes to keep it going. In this metaphor I must be the tinder, the kindling, the match, the striking surface, the hand that holds and strikes the match, the flame that catches what has been prepared, the roaring fire, the smoldering wet branches, and the glowing coals. All of it. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What inspires you?</span></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></div></div></div></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-2613646089640019742023-04-05T07:58:00.000-03:002023-04-05T07:58:02.445-03:00What is important?<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;" /><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">Posting:</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first Wednesday of every month is officially</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><b style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html" style="color: #ff6142; text-decoration-line: none;">Insecure Writer’s Support Group</a></b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">day. </span></div></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #1e1e1e; text-align: center;"><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div dir="ltr" style="color: black;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">The awesome co-hosts for the April 5 posting of the IWSG are <b><a href="http://jemimapett.com/blog/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Jemima Pett,</a> <a href="https://nancygideon.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Nancy Gideon,</a></b> and <a href="http://www.literaryrambles.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>Natalie Aguirre!</b></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><b style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">April 5 question - Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you?</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><b style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">hmmm...my first book...insert those swirly camera shots here designating a flashback.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first one I attempted was when I was in grade seven with my best friend Sheila McClow. She did the illustrations and we both worked on the story. I think I still have it somewhere but we didn't get very far. It involved three tiny dolls (yep, still have them) and a tiny teddy-bear (nope) and a trip on a turtle's back somewhere. I do not remember the name. We were hugely inspired by E.B. White's </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Stuart Little. </i>And yes that is the same E.B. White who co-wrote with Strunk <i>The Elements of Style</i>, which I presume you keep to hand.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For many years after I did not attempt a book-length story. I wrote poems, and I wrote some journalistic pieces and I wrote plays. But I always wanted to write the great Canadian novel. I started up again in 2000. My first one that I finished all the way through is a novel called <i><b>Feckless</b></i>. It went nowhere but I still like it all the same. Then I wrote a mystery called <i><b>The Rock Walker</b></i> which I believe I talked about endlessly on this blog. It too went nowhere but perhaps I didn't try too hard as I don't think it was really that good. It has some good bits that I mourn still and I suppose I could go back into it. Then I wrote <i><b>True</b></i>. I really liked that book, but it again did not inspire any publishers. My next one is <i><b>Bright Angel</b></i>. It is a YA I guess, though I didn't think that it was while I was writing it. I worked very hard on it and got some outside help. It has received some positivity from publishers and was being considered two years ago when the publisher who was thinking on it died. It is still out there because I think it is a damn good story. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">About six or seven years ago I began <i><b>The Crooked Knife.</b></i> I started it in a NaNoWriMo (which had kick-started several of my projects) and I sold it about two years ago to an independent small publisher (<a href="https://boulderbooks.ca/">Boulder Books</a> in Newfoundland - you can go there and see their other books and maybe buy mine if you like mysteries set in Labrador). Now I'm working on a second Nell Munro novel that I'm calling <i><b>Butter and Snow</b></i> until someone tells me different.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">As to my thoughts on my career path as a writer I didn't have any. I had fuzzy dreams and so forth but no. I think maybe the closest I came is to have some career plans around my play writing. After all those mostly happened. I wrote some plays, mostly with other people, and then they were on the stage with people stomping around speaking words I'd written. But my thoughts as a writer were mostly that I'd sit around in a tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows, puffing on a pipe in some bar with Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje and wouldn't we laugh! Apparently I'm sort of a guy in my writer fantasies. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>An important aside: </b>The other day I was feeling kind of punk about the whole writer thing. Or the whole selling books thing. (that's possibly why the notion of writing being a <b>career</b> kind of evades me right now) Anywhoozie - I was a bit down and not able to talk about it because I should be nothing but excited because I got a book published and that was my dream and yada yada you know. And then I got a fan letter - the person had actually labelled her email as a fan letter. And this person wrote about how much <i>The Crooked Knife</i> meant to her and described to me why and it was for all the reasons I wrote the book and my heart got too big for my chest because I remembered that is why I write. I write so that a stranger can see the world the way I do for a moment, or can be touched because I see the world the way they do. I was thinking about percentages and book sales and so on and she cut through all of that and reminded me about what was important.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div></div></div></div></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-16159897041838071962023-03-01T06:00:00.001-04:002023-03-01T06:00:00.207-04:00Lost in Plot<p> </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="color: #0b0bc3; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">Posting:</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first Wednesday of every month is officially</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><b style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">Insecure Writer’s Support Group</a></b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">day. (link in blue)</span></div></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!</span></div></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The awesome co-hosts for the March 1 posting of the IWSG are <b><a href="https://pensivepenspost.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Diedre Knight,</a> <a href="http://www.bookwormforkids.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tonya Drecker,</a> <a href="http://bish%20%20randomthoughts.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Bish Denham,</a> <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/olgagodim.wordpress.com" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Olga Godim,</a> </b>and <b><a href="http://www.jqrose.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">JQ Rose!</a></b></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes - it's another meeting of my favourite group. I'm not answering this month's question, which is </span><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- <i>Have you ever read a line in novel or a clever plot twist that caused you to have author envy?</i> Because the answer is too short. Yes. Yes, all the time. I read many many books. I read very good books. I'm an author because I have author envy. If I didn't have author envy I would not work so hard at what I do. The end of that.</span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So what can I talk about at today's meeting. Um...I'm still working on my next Nell Munro novel tentatively called </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Butter & Snow</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">. My goal for March is to finish a proper first draft. I have the words but truly I do not have an ending. Last month I went through and wrote a synopsis of what I had. That was a great exercise - I've used it before. Whether you are a pantser or a plotter, the same work will have to be done. I write without an idea of where I'm going - just tooling around in the bush seeing where I end up. Then I realize that I have a lot of characters in search of a plot. So.. I wrote the synopsis up to where my ending wasn't. Now I've been working on that. Once that is done and not a moment before I'll go back in with my synopsis and write out the story again with my synopsis notes - because I changed a lot with that. Then I'll have a first draft. I'll go through this draft and make a beat sheet (see <a href="https://rozmorris.org/my-books/">Roz Morris </a>- who's book Nail Your Novel - is invaluable to me). The beat sheet briefly summarizes every scene in the book and I get to use different coloured pens and make squiggles and other </span>hieroglyphics<span style="font-family: inherit;"> in order to see what is going on in about five pages of teeny tiny writing. I love doing that, but I can't do it until I have an ending. I may change the ending - I undoubtedly will - but I cannot change or improve on nothing. </span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm just glad I'm not a house builder. "Uh no. I really don't want the staircase there after all, but I had to put it in to realize that."</span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Therefore my goal for March - for the whole month - is just to finish the ending. I'm doing that by writing in longhand while I stare at our woodstove. Seems a good idea. During my writing times I'm allowed to do nothing or write. I'm not allowed to do something but nothing is fine. Thank you Neil Gaiman for that stellar tip.</span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What are your goals for the month? How do you deal with plot and structure? Do you ever write by hand?</span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now to take the girl out for a walk. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-85817181930496149962023-02-01T06:00:00.002-04:002023-02-01T06:00:00.202-04:00Trust<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></p><br /><br />Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!<br /><br /><br />Yay! It's another meeting of my favourite group! And I'm on time and everything. To sign up go here <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html"> IWSG</a>.<br /><br /><br />The awesome co-hosts for the February 1 posting of the IWSG are <a href="https://worddreams.wordpress.com/">Jacqui Murray,</a> <a href="http://www.ronelthemythmaker.com/blog/">Ronel Janse van Vuuren,</a> <a href="http://www.patgarciaandeverythingmustchange.com/">Pat Garcia,</a> and <a href="http://gwengardner.blogspot.com/">Gwen Gardner!</a><div><br /></div><div>I'm not that interested in today's topic as I am traditionally published so I get some input into my cover but ultimately it is up to the publisher. I am lucky that I totally loved the cover for The Crooked Knife. You can see it here on the left of the book signing poster. The crooked knife in the photo belonged to my father-in-law - we have three of them from various places and I took the photo so...</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qMdIOgz8dLVFoD3JAtIrzlX8OfBFvyGY4SF1jIvGs_qw2KhiubPFSoHS9SOKtzNr45hIe1bhKxQwlveShwzv8U0Fosk2P4ccbsaT4RlrxI4GgvHNnEks_RI5UNwFnedYK1RbUrhMra-DPZZM-BugcxI4XIA1DIGjn26LWN0KqJEB8AuRLToRzn1x/s1056/Jan%20Morrison%20-%20Dec%203%202022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="816" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qMdIOgz8dLVFoD3JAtIrzlX8OfBFvyGY4SF1jIvGs_qw2KhiubPFSoHS9SOKtzNr45hIe1bhKxQwlveShwzv8U0Fosk2P4ccbsaT4RlrxI4GgvHNnEks_RI5UNwFnedYK1RbUrhMra-DPZZM-BugcxI4XIA1DIGjn26LWN0KqJEB8AuRLToRzn1x/s320/Jan%20Morrison%20-%20Dec%203%202022.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So what do I want to talk about? Trust. I want to talk about trust when it comes to writing, or probably any venture. The kind of trust I want to explore is self-trust. I lost that for awhile in the fall. I love all the to-do with having a book published but it ate up a lot of time. Constantly being on the hunt for ways to promote a book is extremely exhausting and although it can be a real adrenaline rush from time to time it isn't the same as writing. By November I had about fifty thousand words on the new book, tentatively named <i>Butter & Snow </i>but I was unhappy. The story wasn't exactly there yet. It was just a bunch of folks in a situation and I wasn't sure where it was going. So I started thinking it wasn't going anywhere. I started to believe my monkey mind. That I was a one book person and that if I thought I could do another I was crazy. That I only had the one story to tell. I went so far as to turn my writing space into my painting space. Made my desk the holder for my pastels and did any writing I felt like out on the kitchen table. Demoted my writer self and promoted my artist self. Told everyone I was now an artist and not a writer anymore - mostly facetiously, but with a kernel of truth. Then I stopped wanting to paint. Oh oh. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the turmoil of that tiny room one thing arose that saved my writing bacon. I had to organize the room and we'd painted the living room before installing a wood stove so there was a lot of decluttering and shifting of books and papers going on (still actually!). When I was organizing my office bookcase I came upon a journal I kept for part of my revising process of <i>The Crooked Knife.</i> What do you imagine I discovered there? I discovered that even when my book was accepted by the publisher I didn't have a proper ending - in fact I had to rewrite the last couple of chapters before they'd send me the contract. I found that a couple of years before that I didn't have a story. I was reminded that actually that is my process and while it might make some people crazy (for instance I know it makes Elizabeth George out of her mind) it is how I roll and I know it works because I have a book that has a complete story and a plot too. A pastel teacher I follow says that every painting has its ugly adolescent phase and that about covers it. After I woke up with this reminder I did another thing (besides reinstate my writing space as ...well...my writing space). I got out the book <i>Bird by Bird</i> by Anne Lamott and read a chapter a day until I finished it. When I set up my bullet journal for the year (no fancy illustrations - just a system that works for me) I wrote that my writing goal for January was to have 80,000 words for <i>Butter & Snow</i> by the end of the month. I hit that three days ago. Every time my conviction faded I read my journal or Lamott's book and then went back in. It is a hot mess but I know I can wrestle a novel out of it. I have to trust my process. It isn't blind trust, but a measured and well considered trust.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This month for me will entail going into my manuscript and using tools like mindmaps, beat sheets and character studies. My achievable goal is to have a good enough second draft by the end of March. I will also write a plot treatment that is sort of like when you ask a teenager how a movie is that they saw and they tell you the whole movie in mind-numbing detail. That.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hope your writing is going well and would love to know how you deal with moments of doubt.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">p.s. <i>Butter & Snow</i> is the name of a tiny settlement near North West River in Labrador where the Nell Munro mysteries are set. It is a real place.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-81863728119439624332023-01-04T06:00:00.105-04:002023-01-04T06:00:00.269-04:00Light<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></p><br style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p><b style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Posting:</b><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">The first Wednesday of every month is officially</span><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><b style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Insecure Writer’s Support Group</b><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!</span><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b> </b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">The awesome co-hosts for the January 4 posting of the IWSG are </span><a href="http://jemimapett.com/blog/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Jemima Pett,</a><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><a href="https://fictioncanbefun.wordpress.com/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Debs Carey,</a><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><a href="http://kimlajevardi.com/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Kim Lajevardi,</a><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><a href="http://thefauxfountainpen.blogspot.com/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Sarah Foster,</a><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><a href="http://www.literaryrambles.com/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Natalie Aguirre,</a><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> and </span><a href="http://journalingwoman.blogspot.com/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">T. Powell Coltrin!</a></p><p><b style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #01ffff; font-size: x-small;">January 4 question - Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year? </span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Yes, I do have a word of the year. Not just for my writing but as a gentle reminder of how I wish to comport myself in every realm. My word this year is <b>light</b>. In choosing it I did not consider how many meanings there were in total. The word <b>light</b> is a noun, an adverb, an adjective and a verb. That about covers it! So I'll talk about how I wish the word to inspire me during this year.</p><p style="text-align: left;">First of all I want it to inspire me to take things lightly - not be so reactive to things that occur in life. Last year was both intense in joy and grief for me. I want things to be a little lighter in both departments. More peaceful and less roller coasterly. I also want to remember that human existence is full of comedy and though I don't wish to laugh at sorrowful predicaments, I want to be light-hearted. Merry even.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The second meaning of light that I wish to employ is as a verb - to ignite, to light a fire. I want to feel my creativity ignited. That means I must find the kindling to help that be so. I will do that by reading broadly, by remembering my purpose and why I write, or paint, or in fact, live, in the first place. To en<b>light</b>en. </p><p style="text-align: left;">In the area of my writing - I definitely write because I want to illuminate or shine a <b>light </b>on various conditions and situations that I would like to know more about and once knowing want to share with others. I write about Labrador and its indigenous and settler people because I think most folk know nothing about this vulnerable and beautiful wild part of the world. I write about the predicaments that beleaguer the Indigenous of Canada because I think the first step those of us who live lives of relative privilege can take is to be informed of the reality of the world we live in. I write poetry to explore the basic impermanence that everyone lives in. I paint to find out what beauty means to me and then share it with those around me.</p><p style="text-align: left;">One of the adjective meanings is to exert a gentle or <b>light </b>touch. I would like to employ that in my relationships with others. I would like to be more gentle with my views and opinions and generally have a softer approach to life. When I combine this with the others I realize they may be somewhat at odds. If I get all lit up about social injustice, and fired up to let others know or do something about some of them, then I may go against my desire for a light touch.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The light from the sun nourishes all life, but when the light is low and days are short in the northern hemisphere this time of year, it is a good time to rest, move gently, feed our roots rather than stretching out our branches. It is good to remember that light is needed, like everything, in balance with its opposite.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Hope all of you had a restful, nourishing holiday and are ready to leap back into the writing world. Or gently step...</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div><b style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></b></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-50007437113591921772022-12-07T21:57:00.002-04:002022-12-08T15:20:20.590-04:00IWSG late meeting! <p style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></p><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Posting:</b> The first Wednesday of every month is officially <b>Insecure Writer’s Support Group</b> day. </span></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div></div></div><p><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">connect here: </span><a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #ff6142; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;">Sign up page</a></p><p>Hi all you insecure writers! It's that day again - where we gather together to celebrate the highs and bemoan the lows of this crazy writing life. I'm late today and trying to do this on my tablet so although I'm officially here I'll be swooping in tomorrow to really write my post. On my laptop. Or edit this one.</p><p>I did write today. I'm just about at 60 thousand words but this part of the process is very slow for me. I put some in and take some out. It is the hokey-pokey part of the first draft. I'm trying to be patient with myself. I'm also doing a few signing and reading gigs this month which I really enjoy. </p><p>So all and all I'm in an okay place with the writing life. The holidays don't truly impact my writing that much. Maybe I spend extra time making cookies but we do a pretty chill time here. All my kids and my partner's kids and their partners and a couple of grandkids will be here on the 30th for a feast but everyone will pitch in. And we're getting a wood stove in January! Yay!</p><p></p><p>I'm making a lot of art so that is fun too.</p><p><u>NaNoWriMo: </u> just a short note on my recent NaNoWriMo activity. I'm a hundred percent successful when I start the month with a brand new story, and I'm a hundred percent failing when I think I can form the month to suit revision or getting a newish but not new draft on the go. This last NaNo was the latter and I hardly did a thing. Oh well. Still plugging away however and will continue to do so. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggHoRbtG46NC2e-vUDAfnPECuVwnaQJFLEmk81uQv69Eq4FwY8PFowyGsg23C4KxuKoSK6g0m4qg5b-WsnxMGmz3uNk5GnXV7MC_pC1mKEGUwDmbFwzEUlCri5KB4z515JosYppzR8_dcedilUFOgeKxuJd_Xa-lu7N8VGNxCJIwUACTr5gOYvOQa9/s1056/Jan%20Morrison%20-%20Dec%203%202022.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="816" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggHoRbtG46NC2e-vUDAfnPECuVwnaQJFLEmk81uQv69Eq4FwY8PFowyGsg23C4KxuKoSK6g0m4qg5b-WsnxMGmz3uNk5GnXV7MC_pC1mKEGUwDmbFwzEUlCri5KB4z515JosYppzR8_dcedilUFOgeKxuJd_Xa-lu7N8VGNxCJIwUACTr5gOYvOQa9/s320/Jan%20Morrison%20-%20Dec%203%202022.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-33578229501549835522022-11-02T06:00:00.129-03:002022-11-02T06:00:00.209-03:00<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></p><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f4f2f8;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="color: #1e1e1e;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="color: #1e1e1e; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="color: #1e1e1e; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Posting:</b> The first Wednesday of every month is officially <b>Insecure Writer’s Support Group</b> day. </span></div><div style="color: #1e1e1e; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #1e1e1e; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">connect here: <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html" style="color: #ff6142; text-decoration-line: none;">Sign up page</a></span></div><div style="color: #1e1e1e; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-weight: 400;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The awesome co-hosts for the November 2 posting of the IWSG are <b><a href="https://pensivepenspost.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Diedre Knight,</a> <a href="http://douglasthomasgreening.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Douglas Thomas Greening,</a> </b><a href="http://nickwilford.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>Nick Wilford</b>,</a> and <a href="http://dianeburton.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>Diane Burton</b>!</a></span></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">November 2 question - November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">NaNoWriMo - </b><span style="font-family: inherit;">have I ever participated? Hell yes. Many times. I don`t even know how many times. Let me think...well, at least four successfully - meaning I did my 50 thousand words in the month. Three of them went on to become completed novels - and one of them - </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Crooked Knife</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> was published this year. I started it in November of 2016. One thing that I did with that one is make the novel start November 1st so I have to not do that again! Dead give away. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I hope to get another one of the ones I wrote for the challenge published - that is </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Bright Angel. </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">It has been looking for a home for awhile. Or rather </span>I've<span style="font-family: inherit;"> been looking for </span>it's<span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> home. It nearly found one last year but fate stepped in and the publisher stopped publishing - at least for awhile. NaNoWriMo is a great way to get a little fire going in your writing life. </span>I'm<span style="font-family: inherit;"> pretty good at sticking to challenges that </span>I've<span style="font-family: inherit;"> taken up. As a true pantser however, it means that at the end of the month I have fifty thousand words but a great need for revising. There is a strong community, but it </span>isn't<span style="font-family: inherit;"> as good as this one (IWSG) is for me. There are many participants who are quite young and into epic fantasy writing - that being said - you can find your crew if you spend a bit of time. For me it is the buttons that work a magic. Entering my word count daily is such a boost. So when </span>I've<span style="font-family: inherit;"> tried alternative ways to do the challenge it has not worked. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Back many years there was a great alternative to NaNoWriMo that took place at a better time of year for many folks - that was BuNoWriMo - the Burrow Novel Writing Month in June. That was instigated in part by the terrific Tami Hart (Hart Johnson, Alyse Carlson and other aliases too many to mention) writer of the terrific blog <i style="font-weight: bold;">Confessions of a Watery Tart </i>and her intrepid writing group <b>The Burrow</b> (of which I was blessed to be included). </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;">So...do I recommend month long </span></span></span><span style="text-align: center;">challenges</span><span style="background-color: white;">?</span><span style="text-align: center;"> No, because I don't think everyone is the same as me. Pretty sure they aren't</span><span style="text-align: center;">. I can only say they have worked for my particular sort of wiring and they might for you too. However many words you write you cannot fail at it though - if you weren't writing any words before. I have a second Nell Munro mystery that I'm writing - have forty thousand words. I might do the challenge but don't want fifty thousand more words - maybe I'll enter it with my goal to write another thirty thousand. That would work. And seventy thousand would give me a good solid first draft to completely re-write! </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">See! Now I'm all excited. Yay for challenges. How about you</span><span style="background-color: white;">? What makes your engine run</span><span style="background-color: white;">? Your socks go up and down</span><span style="background-color: white;">?</span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div></div></div></div></div></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-72417984505275219592022-10-05T06:00:00.049-03:002022-10-05T06:00:00.181-03:00October meeting of the IWSG<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></p><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f4f2f8;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Posting:</b> The first Wednesday of every month is officially <b>Insecure Writer’s Support Group</b> day. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">connect here: <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">Sign up page</a></div></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;">The awesome co-hosts for the October 5 posting of the IWSG are <b><a href="http://www.bookwormforkids.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tonja Drecker,</a> <a href="https://www.victoriamarielees.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Victoria Marie Lees,</a> <a href="http://playoffthepage.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Mary Aalgaard,</a></b> and <b><a href="http://sandracox.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Sandra Cox!</a></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Post:</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Hello fellow neurotic writers! How is your writing world today? I've been a member of the IWSG for a long time. How long? Well, let me distract myself from writing to have a look. Okay - some time later - the first post that I can find is from October 2011 - so eleven years ago. Here it is:</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Past Me:</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;">Dear Journal,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;">Hi, my name is Jan and I'm an </span><a href="http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/insecure-writers-support-group.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ff6142; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;">insecure writer</a><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, sans-serif;">. Oh, I know you don't believe me. You think I'm just trying to fit in with the new in-crowd, but you're wrong. I am insecure at writing and perhaps even more with revising. You see, I believe that revising separates the sheep from the goats (hi Elspeth's sheep!!!). I don't know if a writer is a sheep or a goat but today, of all days, insecure writers' day, I'm saying that a writer is a goat and not a sheep. Why? Well because goats eat anything and live off of it. Same as writers. Exactly. Why today, just today, dear journal, I ate an old tire, some sh*t (don't ask, won't tell), and my bank statement. Why? You may well ask. The tire is obvious for you alert journals, the second item I've already said I won't comment on, and the bank statement - that was dessert. If I wasn't a writer and a reviser I might have said that it was desert, but that would be wrong. Why would a bank statement be a big sandy hot area with a cartoon guy crawling across it, saying in balloon speak "water...water...just a bit of water..."? Some other reasons that writers are goats and not sheep. We smell. It's true. I know we don't like to admit it but when we are deep in revisions, showers are just another pesky thought. Plus we eat popcorn with garlicky oil on it (no - not butter, we're on a diet!) and parmesan with that nice old sock odor. And the third reason we're like goats and not like sheep is that we can't sleep. We're always jumping around on mountains trying to find something, anything, to write about. If we were sheep we'd count ourselves and sleep. I can't sleep - that's why I'm writing this in my journal pretending it is Wednesday - oh - it is almost Wednesday - just 13 more minutes and it will be - then I can put the compost out and maybe go to sleep. I might have a cigarette. On the deck, in the driving cold rain. That would make me feel like a writer and I would definitely smell like a goat. Then I couldn't go to sleep and I could work on fleshing out my main character in the revision I'm doing. Good idea. By the way, Mari and Tartlette, I'm not blunking or drogging or any one of those elvish words. I'm just really really really tired. Because I'm a goat, an insecure writing, revising goat and baaaaaah (oh come on - I heard four goats today and that is just how they sound - the sheep copied them - they ARE sheep ya know).</span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;">Sometimes when people ask me what I'm "up to" (very suspiciously I might add) I will tell them I'm a writer and go blah blah blahing about 'what I'm working on' and how hard it is to find 'real publishers' these days. But don't kid yourself, journal, I'm still being insecure when I do that. Yes, I am. I'm blowing a lot of hot air. The thing is that when I'm finally a 'published writer' I won't ever say that. I'll slip it in real cool. "Yes, I'm working on my twelfth book. Uh...well only one's been published, but I AM working on my twelfth book. I'll be so secure. Then every first Wednesday of every month I'll write a Secure Writers' Post. Ha! OK, I'm going out on the deck to smoke now. See you tomorrow, I mean today.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #800180;">Back to Present Me:</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;">So all pretty much the same. Yes, I know that now I've actually been a published person. For five months I've swanned around (now I'm a swan not a goat so that's an improvement - though come to think of it I really like goats and I never ever wanted a pet swan...hmmm) going to book launches and signings and readings and so forth. So an author - not just a writer anymore - but oddly I do not feel more secure. If anything I feel more insecure. Now instead of just worrying about getting on with the newest book (40 thousand words in the first draft as of today), I worry constantly about how my first book is doing. Has it entered the right contests? Has it entered any? How are my numbers? Why doesn't my publisher email me begging for the second book? Why are we born only to suffer and die? (oh that one is from the masterpiece called Venus on the Half-Shell by Kilgore Trout but really by Farmer Philip Jose).</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzzlepJEcIbcNYkYiy_Q-l4iki5sCjFSTiqk1OsUXiIClaKLtZCrz3ZCUG9TzC-zjFc2a8V-Y3rJ7_5PXcEa-_KWemlDiYZ3wo9XbwcT76FE7dVfq1p-ouYvgewLgO87arhHFL6ZRp0EHbvet6V4fy3aH2WEI_ordbEHJBRaEKHq6f93SZ5_ADZvY/s291/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="291" data-original-width="173" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzzlepJEcIbcNYkYiy_Q-l4iki5sCjFSTiqk1OsUXiIClaKLtZCrz3ZCUG9TzC-zjFc2a8V-Y3rJ7_5PXcEa-_KWemlDiYZ3wo9XbwcT76FE7dVfq1p-ouYvgewLgO87arhHFL6ZRp0EHbvet6V4fy3aH2WEI_ordbEHJBRaEKHq6f93SZ5_ADZvY/s1600/download.jpg" width="173" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Okay - enough - you get the point. I'm off now to make applesauce. Yes, that is true. When someone, say a friend of yours, asks you if you want to go pick apples in the Annapolis Valley - that you'll get more apples than you know what to do with - just say no. I now have way more apples than I know what to do with. I had apple crisp for breakfast. I thought I might make dried apples but it takes nine hours and uses up eight or so apples unless you have four ovens. Also the propane!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I love October. It makes me so happy to be here at last. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">How are you all? Secure yet? Well keep coming - I've been here for eleven years at least and I'm still insecure but I'm very very happy in my insecurity because insecurity loves company!</div><br /><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-84129537929415437542022-09-07T06:00:00.013-03:002022-09-07T11:29:01.138-03:00Pencil poised - fresh notebook<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Welcome to the September meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group.</span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">Link here to sign up.</a><br style="background-color: #f4f2f8;" /></span><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The awesome co-hosts for the September 7 posting of the IWSG are <a href="http://kimlajevardi.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Kim Lajevardi,</a> <a href="http://cathrinaconstantine.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Cathrina Constantine,</a> <a href="http://www.literaryrambles.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Natalie Aguirre,</a> <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/olgagodim.wordpress.com" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Olga Godim,</a> <a href="http://www.writer-in-transit.co.za/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Michelle Wallace,</a> and <a href="http://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Louise - Fundy Blue!</a><br /></span><div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Remember, the question is optional!<br /><br /><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: white;">September 7 question - What genre would be the worst one for you to tackle and why?</span></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm going to sort of answer the question, but I'm using it more as a prompt for a stream of conscious on genre altogether...kay?</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am generally not adverse to tackling any genre. I have novels in my drawer that are YA, some that are mystery, a couple that are contemporary literary. As well, I have plays, poems and essays. I hope that I choose the genre, or indeed form of writing, because I have a certain story I want told and the genre I choose is the best one to tell it with. I don`t make a Nicoise salad in a frying pan. So the worst genre for me to tackle would be one that doesn`t suit the story.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">For my novel, <i>The Crooked Knife, </i>I chose the broad genre of mystery - maybe it is a detective story, but not really a procedural as I am more interested in what happens to the characters than in how evidence is collected. I did not write it as a cozy mystery, because the story I`m telling is a dark one. Maybe it is an environmental mystery. I cannot parse it so fine. When I knew it was actually going to be published I entered into a discussion with my publisher about the back cover copy - the place of blurbs and concise ways in which the prospective reader can be informed as to the read she might encounter. My publisher wanted to write that the story is set in Canada`s North</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">. For those of you who read this, who aren`t Canadian, this next bit might be confusing but bear with me. To most Canadians, when they hear the words Canada`s North, they are thinking about the western arctic - Baffin Island, the North West Territories, the Yukon. My book is set in Labrador, in the Eastern sub-arctic. So I did not want Canada`s North mentioned in the blurb, as to me it would give the wrong idea. But I agreed that one of the selling points was that it was set in a northern community. So I invented a new genre - <b><i>Northern Canadian Noir.</i></b> It`s a subtle difference I`ll give you that, but it lands differently. And it nicely addresses the problem of what kind of mystery it is.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I didn`t know it was a noir when I was writing it, but I do think it fits the description.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here are a couple of descriptions I pulled out of Wikipedia - the first two on the term Noir:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span><blockquote><span style="background-color: white;">A typical protagonist of noir fiction is forced to deal with a corrupt legal, political or other system, through which the protagonist is either </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symptoms_of_victimization" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;" title="Symptoms of victimization">victimized</a><span style="background-color: white;"> and/or has to victimize others, leading to a </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-win_situation" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;" title="No-win situation">lose-lose</a><span style="background-color: white;"> situation. </span></blockquote><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><blockquote>In noir, everyone is fallen, and right and wrong are not clearly defined and maybe not even attainable.</blockquote></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That might not be strictly what <i>The Crooked Knife </i>is but close enough. Nell Munro is dealing with both victims of greed and corrupt influences in the government and police.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nordic noir comes a little closer: here again from Wikipedia</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"></b><blockquote><b style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Nordic noir</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">, also known as </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Scandinavian noir</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> or </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Scandi noir</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">, is a </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_genre" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Literary genre">genre</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_fiction" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Crime fiction">crime fiction</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> usually written from a police point of view and set in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavia" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Scandinavia">Scandinavia</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> or </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_countries" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Nordic countries">Nordic countries</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">. Plain language avoiding </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Metaphor">metaphor</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> and set in bleak landscapes results in a dark and morally complex </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mood_(literature)" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Mood (literature)">mood</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">, depicting a tension between the apparently still and bland social surface and the murder, misogyny, misandry, rape, and racism it depicts as lying underneath. It contrasts with the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whodunit" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Whodunit">whodunit</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> style such as the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_country_house" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0645ad; text-decoration-line: none;" title="English country house">English country house</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> murder mystery.</span></blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So here is my invention - definitely needing some rework but hey!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Northern Canadian Noir </b>is crime fiction, usually written from a police point of view and set in northern communities in Canada. The landscape, both in its wildness and inherent difficulties informs the story, as does the mix of cultures found in northern regions of the country by nature of its Indigenous and Settler roots. Isolation and the sense that criminal activity can go unchecked where the population is thin, also adds to the despair and darkness of these stories. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>In Other News...</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had a quiet August as far as events for my new novel, but took the dog-days of summer as an opportunity to get a good chunk of my newest mystery, the working title of which is <i>Butter and Snow. </i>I made myself a promise to get a thousand words done a day - had a few in the bank to carry me over some rather busy days and ended up yesterday with 31 thousand. I`m very happy with my new (ha!) old approach - which is what someone described as going down a road with a flashlight illuminating only the steps directly in front. That sounds a bit right. I`m now sort of beginning the middle section and know things won`t flow so quickly, as I will have to respond to various ideas that I threw on the page in those heady early days. That is all known to me. Having been through the complete process now - from idea to publicity - I know I can do it. It doesn`t mean that I will do it - but why wouldn`t I?</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I`ve also spent a bit of my time almost every day now for the last two weeks walking across the road and down the path and over the rock beach and into the ocean. This is my favourite thing ever to do...my dog, Bella, comes with and waits patiently on the shore for me to come to my senses. She distrusts water that has waves or isn`t in ditches. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And I`ve been making pastel paintings almost daily. It has become my most favourite medium (other than words natch) and I`m on a steep learning curve. I just keep up my mantra (which is also helpful for a first draft) "don`t worry about what you are making - just enjoy the process"</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How is everybody else`s back to fall going ??</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></b></span></div></div></div></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-53563582633753472812022-08-03T06:30:00.001-03:002022-08-03T06:30:00.195-03:00August is here! Gasp!<p> It is another meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group - sign up <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">here!</a></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s1600/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="color: #0b0bc3; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnFtxaW1rVNClRcoIWn31RSVUzDAEHGUhnIOW6ghWDWajqiBuFVfES2V_iapV6JXEX_aII1AW2VccZdoBvjpwMDXTSEDw_qZCSBcNSO0SiW-XtmnVy0GY7-Og8Hm7IAa71HZZds6RWi4/s320/Insecure+Writers+Support+Group+Badge.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><p><br style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /></p><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">Posting:</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first Wednesday of every month is officially</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">Insecure Writer’s Support Group</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: center;">The awesome co-hosts for the August 3 posting of the IWSG are </span><a href="http://taratylertalks.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tara Tyler,</a><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a href="http://www.lisabuiecollard.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lisa Buie Collard,</a><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a href="https://www.lonitownsend.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Loni Townsend,</a><span style="text-align: center;"> and </span><a href="http://leelowery.com/" style="color: #0b0bc3; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lee Lowery!</a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This month's question (completely optional): </span></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: yellow;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">August 3 question - When you set out to write a story, do you try to be more original or do you try to give readers what they want? </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">hmm...trick question I believe! I do not try to do either. I think it is a fool's errand to try and be original. Know if you are putting your authentic self into your work that there is no trying needed. We are all authentically original no? Maybe what it means that sometimes writers try to be shockingly new or come up with something so outstandingly different that folks will gasp with astonishment. When I feel myself heading in that direction as in <i>I think I'll write a novel from the point of view of an armchair </i>or <i>I'm going to set my newest mystery inside of a whale </i>then I've lost my reason for writing. I write because I'm both trying to wake myself up to existential truths or (and more likely) I'm trying to wake others up. I'm trying to make sense of this crazy-ass world. If I'm struggling to shock folks then I'm doing the second thing - second-guessing the desires of readers. The readers don't come into it as far as I'm concerned. That sounds kind of cold but bear with me. I am burning to tell some story. I don't know who is interested, I just know that I would be. I write it as clearly as I can but I don't pander to the reader. I don't want to read folks that do that either. It is pretty easy to figure out I think. I'll read a long and go oh the writer plunked in a bit here on a hot topic even though it has nothing or little to do with the plot. Why? I don't like it my friend. I do not like it. I hope and make an effort not to do the same thing. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I know that sounds high-falutin and smug. Believe me I struggle with this. Recently I spent quite a bit of time writing the first part of a novel based on my desire to have a second Nell Munro mystery. Because I hadn't found the story burning away in my heart, but simply wanted to get book number two under way I spent a lot of time on stuff that I am now abandoning. About forty thousand words worth. Now I'm back to a new start and I will find the heart of the story like I usually do, wandering very slowly down a dark trail!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Hope your summer is great! This coming Saturday I'm signing copies of The Crooked Knife in the two local Chapter stores. I'm quite excited to be at a Meet the Author. Woo hoo!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">How is your summer working out? Do you write much in the summer or does your discipline go all kablooey in the heat?</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div></span></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-56472380845247238492022-07-07T16:42:00.005-03:002022-07-07T16:42:55.983-03:00Adrift<p> Hi all,</p><p>I'm a day late for the <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">Insecure Writer's Support Group</a>. Mea culpa. </p><p>If you are new here - welcome! I've been very slack with my posting on this site and will not make more promises I won't keep - but I'm usually very faithful with a post on the first Wednesday of the month. The IWSG has been of tremendous help and support to me over the years as I made my way, ever so snail-like, to publication. I appreciate everyone in this group who takes the time to see how fellow writers are doing, especially our doughty captain - <span style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alex J. Cavanaugh and his crew of volunteers! Huzzah!</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Summer is finally here and the green is gorgeous and unrelenting. My garden is doing okay although setting off for two weeks on my very fun book tour did it no favours. I was away the last two days at a friends and it was glorious to see her majestic gardens and hang around eating yummy food and chatting.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now to the question at hand - </span></span><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span></p><blockquote style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">July 6 question - If you could live in any book world, which one would you choose?</span></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">I'd live in the book I'm currently reading. For the last several weeks I've been living in the world written by Elizabeth Jane Howard - the world of the Cazelet family set in England. There are five books in the series called <i>The Cazelet Chronicles</i> and I've just finished the third. They start just before the beginning of WWII and end in the fifties. I've just experienced the end of WWII at the end of the third book <i>Confusion. </i>I have spent most of that time in Sussex at 'Home Place' the country home of the Cazelet family. Women are becoming aware that being pampered and cossetted has its price. The children (which I think Howard is brilliant at portraying) have known war for five years and not sure what to make of the new world. Theirs is a middle-class family, so this isn't the heavily servanted world of Downton Abbey, but they are mostly comfortable. At the same time I'm rereading an old favourite book set in the same period called <i>The Camomile Lawn </i>by Mary Wesley. I wanted to reread this as she is a particular role model of mine having had her first novel (The Camomile Lawn is her second) when she was seventy. Hers is a slightly darker story than the Cazelet's but similar in many respects.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Now - in case you are misunderstanding me - when I'm finished these books I will not want to live in the book world portrayed. I only want to while I'm reading it. I want to be in Kenya in 1916, or in PEI during the early part of the twentieth century, or China in pre WWI times, or ...well, you get the idea. I want to read books where I want to be there - maybe not ones that are too scary - I don't even like spending a night in Bangor, Maine though I have spent a few there. But for the most part - I'm in! I want to be a servant girl in Anne Boleyn's home at Hever Castle and roam the Dorset hills with Tess. And I love not having to sit in an airport to do so! I want to know what was likely served for dinner when Elizabeth Bennet was home from a long stroll and what was in Elnora Comstock's dinner pail when she attended school in the Limberlost. I want place details galore - the landscape and the house furnishings, the loos and the laundry arrangements - the whole thing.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And I hope that when people read The Crooked Knife that they will feel like they have travelled for a time to Labrador and experienced what that might be like at a certain time. I want readers to get lost in my world - don't you?</p><p style="text-align: left;">Here is a photo of Muskrat Falls in Labrador which is no more. As the song tragically says "Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."* or something like that... </p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjZk9Cu2As5qazCh-IYSlKgAJKTtySxmHB_axuTQsfyqRfBui00XrKvMIWqeBETEFoMjEWrdlllbqyzz2FFPLXcRuDlvrT4TRNLto22-NSSCiRz1S8sakk0O86zbgXXuWaUh_p7BZE6K0fEuLUHog_JwazvMlvVJym5tbcjghr9mMje3qNgnEeOj1r/s2048/IMG_0191.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjZk9Cu2As5qazCh-IYSlKgAJKTtySxmHB_axuTQsfyqRfBui00XrKvMIWqeBETEFoMjEWrdlllbqyzz2FFPLXcRuDlvrT4TRNLto22-NSSCiRz1S8sakk0O86zbgXXuWaUh_p7BZE6K0fEuLUHog_JwazvMlvVJym5tbcjghr9mMje3qNgnEeOj1r/w419-h279/IMG_0191.JPG" width="419" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>*<span style="text-align: left;">Paradise by John Prine</span> </p><span style="background-color: yellow; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><blockquote style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote></span></span><p></p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-14473354015867316012022-06-01T06:30:00.001-03:002022-06-01T06:30:00.202-03:00Road Trip and a meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group<p> It is the June meeting of the <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">IWSG</a> (hit name to go to sign-up page) </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq1BtcfQUMGnVYFNNgh2IJ2t-eDsXsp3v1JzqjLPmHGcIy7BSFGMGKKd7knDv5prTpj0P2TcWP1WxsNXkccW5bIbDJsoJdfnM9JOMmmkRQ2wCBHVPNnkXNmOsUsiFRVA01n4MLDOIStuv2aBGWXHocgey09qE6no5LSMU9GCZb4b_q6ks-qhLtDT3Z/s2048/Newfoundland%20trip%20from%20CD%20168.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq1BtcfQUMGnVYFNNgh2IJ2t-eDsXsp3v1JzqjLPmHGcIy7BSFGMGKKd7knDv5prTpj0P2TcWP1WxsNXkccW5bIbDJsoJdfnM9JOMmmkRQ2wCBHVPNnkXNmOsUsiFRVA01n4MLDOIStuv2aBGWXHocgey09qE6no5LSMU9GCZb4b_q6ks-qhLtDT3Z/s320/Newfoundland%20trip%20from%20CD%20168.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Purpose:</b><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></p><p><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">The awesome co-hosts for the June 1 posting of the IWSG are </span><a href="https://sewhitebooks.com/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">SE White,</a><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><a href="http://cathrinaconstantine.blogspot.com/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Cathrina Constantine,</a><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><a href="http://www.literaryrambles.com/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Natalie Aguire,</a><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><a href="https://joylenebutler.com/blog" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Joylene Nowell Butler,</a><span style="background-color: #f4f2f8; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> and </span><a href="https://worddreams.wordpress.com/" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; color: #0b0bc3; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Jacqui Murray!</a></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">June 1 question - When the going gets tough writing the story, how do you keep yourself writing to the end?</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">I feel particularly qualified to answer this question as I ponder the last twenty years. For it was roughly twenty years ago that I began to focus my writing on producing a novel. I had always wanted to write one and had begun a couple here and there but truly there must have been a part of me that thought that was a dream too far. Luckily I was wrong. So I turned my mind to writing a novel. Since then I've finished (mostly still need more revision) five novels. One was published this year - <i>The Crooked Knife. </i>One is on the hunt for a publisher -<i>Bright Angel </i>, a YA. And three are probably not going anywhere. I'm happy I wrote them though because you need to write a novel (or three) to learn how to write a novel. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">What helped me? A couple of things - I mostly will do things that I say I will do - so having outside accountability, even when I know it is mostly in my mind, really helps. Belonging to IWSG, blogging about my ambitions, doing several (six?) NaNoWriMo's - one of which generated <i>The Crooked Knife.</i></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">Another help was the voice of my father (affectionately referred in this blog as Daddio) saying to me things like "When the going gets tough the tough get going" and "the secret to writing success is bum-glue". </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">My third boost for when the going got tough was to remember that no one requires of me to write. It is a choice and therefore pointless to whine and whinge about how hard it is. I remember that writing is my art and my discipline and that I write to share ideas I feel passionately about and also for the sheer joy of stringing words together. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><u>Road Trip</u></b></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">I'm going on a book tour and I'm taking my fella and my dog with. We're leaving on June 6th and will travel from Prospect, Nova Scotia to North West River, Labrador and then on to St. John's, Newfoundland and then home. 5000 kilometres - three ferries, many different beds, old friends, family and flogging books! Yay! I'm launching in North West River where <i>The Crooked Knife i</i>s set. Kind of nervous about that as it is a small place and well...eek...maybe no one will have read it yet! We will drive to St. John's by way of Red Bay where my next Nell Munro mystery is set and I've only been once before. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and very thrilling to me as it looks out onto Iceberg Alley - a highway from North to South that icebergs travel on! After that we will go by the lighthouse pictured above in Point Amour, Labrador. I'm happy to go to St. John's which is one of the funnest cities in North America. On our way home from there we'll be going through Gros Morne National Park - a place of exquisite beauty. Then a ferry to Cape Breton and a six hour drive back to Prospect. Ah... A week after we are home I will do the Nova Scotia launch of the book in Halifax. Tonne of fun!</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">Hope you are well and writing and do remember to keep on truckin' !</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-67510772952677865532022-05-04T09:02:00.004-03:002022-05-04T09:02:24.285-03:00The Crooked Knife is here!<p> It is the monthly meeting of the <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">Insecure Writer's Support Group</a> and I couldn't be happier to report in! </p><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">Posting:</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first Wednesday of every month is officially</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">Insecure Writer’s Support Group</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm excited to be able to talk about my triumph instead of my struggles today. Huzzah - the book is here! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS9I5E95NQm7khi4Q6OKGKdiTY7THuLGkla0ZhHQ_NizGs0JruP9FvZaoxMWQZKy8sppNOjGAHgQb-h62VFEYZKHK1b6rqiPazTZRDDpEEz9eRZgv0Wo-1Wux1VmykjYoIB-a_Ey6uWLGy2D1Rz9SYDAE-XJS67KvL05qRcAD9GzNYQXVTXOYBpB6J/s1280/Image-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="720" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS9I5E95NQm7khi4Q6OKGKdiTY7THuLGkla0ZhHQ_NizGs0JruP9FvZaoxMWQZKy8sppNOjGAHgQb-h62VFEYZKHK1b6rqiPazTZRDDpEEz9eRZgv0Wo-1Wux1VmykjYoIB-a_Ey6uWLGy2D1Rz9SYDAE-XJS67KvL05qRcAD9GzNYQXVTXOYBpB6J/w295-h524/Image-1.jpg" width="295" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I went and got a box of them from my publicist on Monday and I've been floating on a cloud of fluffy dream stuff ever since. Wednesdays is always the day that I meet with Gwen, my writing pal, and we write and drink coffee and walk the dog and eat lunch and talk. Today I will be working on quite a few launch details so that will be fun too. My plan is that my fella and I will drive to Labrador for the first launch early June and then to St. John's on the island (Newfoundland) for another one before heading home. It is a 5,000 kilometre road trip (over 3000 miles) so lots of planning to do. Then I'll do a launch in Halifax and some other ones in Nova Scotia (Chester, Lunenburg, Wolfville...). Boulder Books is a small publisher but they've given me lots of help - a publicist here and in Newfoundland.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But this is all just the gears going round in my head.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What I wanted to say about it for those of you insecure writers who have been slogging away without too much action for some time - don't give up. Keep on with your discipline. Passion (or intention) and discipline are the two virtues that will keep you developing your craft. Elizabeth George talks about the qualities needed to be published in her wonderful book <i>Write Away</i>. She says that a writer will<span style="font-family: inherit;"> be published if they possess three qualities - talent, passion and discipline.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">They will probably be published if you possess two of the qualities as long as one of them is discipline. Discipline is key. Or as my Daddio called it <i>Bum Glue</i>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What I've learned about discipline is that it is full of joy. I did not know that at the beginning of this and other discipline practices I've employed. But creating a firm boundary - knowing that I chose to write - nobody gives a hoot if I do or don't - so that I can play safely within that boundary is a wonderful joyful exercise.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The other thing that kept me going with this project is that I believe in the story I told. I wanted other people to understand what I experienced working on a reserve in Labrador. I care about the kids of Sheshatshiu and know that this was one thing I could do to help bring light to the multiple obstacles they face day to day.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Guess that is the passion part. The talent part - meh! I do not recognize that.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So thanks for being here - it does make a difference to have this community.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Tell me what you do to celebrate a writing victory. Get a tattoo? Go out for dinner? Start another project?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /></span></div></span></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-42285904387240781472022-04-14T14:42:00.001-03:002022-04-14T14:42:32.477-03:00 A late breaking post for a meeting of the Insecure Writers Support Group<p> Only a week and a bit behind...</p><p>I was away. In Cuba. Snorkeling. Writing short Hemingway sentences. Okay?</p><p><br /></p><p>Now I'm back and this will be the the quiet period before the storm of publishing. Or more likely the whole thing will be very quiet, but I'll scream a little when I feel the book in my hands, okay? I was going to be figuring out my various launches but if the Covid surge happening here doesn't calm the heck down then I'll be joining my brothers and sisters of the word who published in the last two years and having one of them there virtual book launches. I have learned not to get excited about a plan during these times. Well, I did get very excited about our trip to Cuba but that didn't work out so well. The water was good, the Cuban staff are heaven but the resort we've loved for years is doing a deep dive into the abyss. Very sad.</p><p>If you ever get the chance to take the electric train from Hershey Town to Jeruka - go for it. They'll let you drive and pull the whistle. Wow! See that happing on Via Rail - not likely.</p><p>So, as to the IWSG - I'm feeling medium insecure. I had a new feeling the other day (well, new to me), which was that when I get published people will be able to read my book. And they may have feelings or thinkings or judegements about that book that took me seven years to birth. And I would like to say that it isn't nice to say to a new mother that her baby is odd-looking. Okay. It just isn't.</p><p><br /></p><p>See you on May fourth.</p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722012954806248529.post-45499614242636382352022-03-02T19:20:00.001-04:002022-03-02T19:20:35.158-04:00Insecure can mean lack of knowldege<div class="separator" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">It's another meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Link here <a href="https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html">IWSG</a> to the sign-up page.</div><div class="separator" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Here's the mandate:</div><div class="separator" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: #f4f2f8; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>Purpose:</b> To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kind</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: large;">s!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Now to it! I'm not answering this month's question as I have other thoughts burning holes in my mind. Yesterday - and that is the real yesterday as I'm writing this on posting day - I got my copy edits for <i>The Crooked Knife</i> back. I thought this part would be a breeze and it isn't. I didn't look at them yesterday because I had other obligations but was secure that I'd whip through them today.</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Uh...no.</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"> I do not want to pimp and bawl as they say round these parts - lots of the edits are just what a person (a lazy ungrammatical person) such as myself would expect. I use the word 'pretty' too much. And 'nice'. I see that and am grateful that someone is taking me to task on it. As to the rest, well, I need to remember that it is my writing and my ideas. If I feel strongly about some of it staying - I need to be firm about it. I'm a folksy sort of writer. You probably see that here and my novels are no different. I might be able to clean up but I'm not sure I want to. I'm not going to go into details because I'll regret that later when I'm over my sulks, but I want to say something that no one seems to much talk about.</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO THIS! I NEVER DID IT BEFORE!</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">There, now I feel better. </span><span style="font-family: times;">I will say this mantra to myself "I'm a little bit funky, I'm a little bit rock and roll ".</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">On other fronts I feel just plain gutted about what is happening in Ukraine. Every irritation I feel in my precious sweet life I try to imagine dealing with while trudging down a road wearing all my clothes, holding on to my toddlers and great aunties and wondering where we'll all sleep tonight. Would I give a care that I have a stiff neck or the kind of horseradish I like isn't available at the Super Store? Probably not.</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8_NxEavSVJ_uIk1OR8n4cAWFaHX-a5-FVUY_V5jmRRJjGrq7sxbXci3m4UjrQApLwQALV9_Qf6nix3iM_kvPOlj9Qy_JrEK7eBxxjv0nl1V-8Scs9noTOXKhqInD_Ba5SKAeeYfITYw3wQ4nXC1MP5d8HJ9XoxR_CkbHrX_ukw8X9igII8xpaXsTt=s1080" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1080" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8_NxEavSVJ_uIk1OR8n4cAWFaHX-a5-FVUY_V5jmRRJjGrq7sxbXci3m4UjrQApLwQALV9_Qf6nix3iM_kvPOlj9Qy_JrEK7eBxxjv0nl1V-8Scs9noTOXKhqInD_Ba5SKAeeYfITYw3wQ4nXC1MP5d8HJ9XoxR_CkbHrX_ukw8X9igII8xpaXsTt=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Tomorrow is Tibetan New Year. I'm deeply hoping that the Year of the Water Tiger doesn't suck. Yes, that is the extent of my hopes and dreams right now. Please world - don't suck so much, okay? Said in a whiny valley-girl up talk.</span></div><div style="background-color: #f4f2f8; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times;">Okay - you can see that I might have waited until another day to post, but sometimes I'm just feeling so...fru.</span></div>Jan Morrisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12727266796590751202noreply@blogger.com8