What’s Italian for “wow”?

This blog will be quiet for the next few weeks because I’m going off to do things to blog about!

First, I’m deep in the heart of revisions on my novel, BEACH GLASS, which will be out on Valentine’s Day 2014. That sounds like a long way from now, but it will be here before I know it. I like to take time with revisions and get them right, and I’m having a blast being with my characters on that romantic, moonlit black sand beach in Costa Rica.

Speaking of which, I’m also going on a writing research trip (which is what novelists call “vacation” – every trip is a potential setting for a story!). I’ll be away with my DH, seeing new things, drawing fab fashions and styles, and probably writing the bones of a new novel. After all, that’s how BEACH GLASS came about.

The art above is a vintage version of how I picture my BEACH GLASS heroine, Katy, to be. Maybe not quite as glam, but the spirit is right on.

Vacation – er, I mean research snaps when I get back. xx to all!

S

As I write new chapters of my novel BEACH GLASS, I’m looking at the end a lot. How have my characters changed since the beginning, and how did they get there? This brings to mind something I’ve heard in writing circles, which is that authors sometimes write their novels backwards.

Sounds sketchy, but apparently mystery writers do this all the time; it’s easier to construct the crime when the murder’s been solved. What the reader ends up with is a start with a lot of good plot twists and turns. But what about a love story? Would it work to take it from the happily ever after part and go backwards from there, to that spark-throwing first hello?

Tim Kane of the San Diego Professional Writer’s Group has a three-step formula for this in his blog on backward writing. He also cites my favorite formula creator, John Truby, whose master class I’ll be taking in early May. Truby’s The Anatomy of Story is grad school for writers, along with Deb Dixon’s classic Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. If you can find a copy; it’s so good they’re hard to come by.

Not sure how this would turn out, but it reminds me of something I do in yoga: Occasionally, I stand on my head and see the world upside down. Maybe looking at the end is a good way to start out. If you’ve ever tried this, or have opinions, please leave a comment.

xx, S

Something for your inspiration board

Whatever you’re dreaming or doing, keep going!!

xx, S

Work can really rock. I was recently fortunate enough to interview Inocente, an artist you may have heard of when the documentary about her, Inocente, won an Oscar. If you haven’t heard about Inocente Izucar, or seen her amazing art, give yourself an inspiration boost by renting the documentary.

Inocente is forty minutes of heartbreak and joy. Inocente Izucar was 15 years old at the time filmmakers found her in an art therapy program for at-risk youth, and they made her the face of undocumented, homeless children. And what a face: beaming with hope even as she weeps, her eyes painted elaborately, her designs decorating her cheeks, her smile a sign of a spirit that won’t be held back.

Her story has a happy ending; many other kids aren’t on the same path. Inocente, the artist is currently touring the country with Inocente, the film to promote advocacy for homeless children with DoSomething.org.

Inocente can be rented via iTunes. Below, “Love Me Always,” by Inocente. Find more of her artwork at Inocenteart.com.

“Woman Reading” by Alexander Deineka.

I was in the middle of reading my editor’s comments on my novel yesterday when I heard the news about Boston. I work at home by myself, but at that moment I felt sure I was united with many others who probably also stopped working, watched in disbelief and horror, and cried.

Going back to work on my novel, a bittersweet love story, didn’t feel right. How could I write about romance when bombs had gone off at what should have been a fun sporting event, on Patriots Day? I couldn’t, so I went for a walk.

During that walk I remembered another time when I was doing what I thought of as frivolous work during a serious event. I was working at Mademoiselle Magazine in September, 2001. One day I was writing cover stories on celebrities; the next day I was running down the stairs during a bomb scare, one of hundreds in the days that followed the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Even when things settled down, morale at the office was low. What were we doing? How could the beauty editors write about lipstick at a time like this? How could I review movies when everyone was huddled scared in their homes? What was the point of putting out a lightweight women’s magazine at one of the lowest points in our country’s history?

Someone wise told us exactly the point. I believe it was one of our readers who wrote and said that reading the magazine gave her a respite from the nerve-wracking reports on 24-hour news networks. Others outside our industry told us the same: People need occasional diversions from sorrow. Yes, we need to mourn, we need to acknowledge those who are lost and help those who are here. We help in every way we can. Some of us can help by writing.

Fiction has long been a way to escape for a while from ordinary life. In particular, romance and women’s fiction have been credited as providing uplifting moments in people’s days. Yesterday, I remembered as I walked and wept for the people of Boston, that the seemingly silly stories we wrote for Mademoiselle had given someone, somewhere, a break.

If you, like me, are in the middle of writing a love scene, or about a woman taking a fun adventure, I implore you: Keep writing. Your words are necessary, perhaps even more than they were last week. If you can put a smile one someone’s face when the world seems to be darkening, you have performed a wonderful service.

Authors, let’s make people smile again.

xx, S

Is all this writing and reading and sitting making me unfit? Oh, you bet. As a former yoga instructor I know I should be getting up every hour, busting a move, or just getting another glass of water because that would entail walking. Movement. Getting blood to whoosh through my poor numb legs. Yes, I should totally do that. Just one more paragraph…

Writers and fitness go together like – wait, they don’t go together. Every successful author says that the best way to get writing done is to do it. That advice generally has the words “ass in chair” in there somewhere. However, you will never see “ass in chair” in any fitness program.

So what’s a writer to do? Write. And then get the ass (if you’re me, the expanding ass) out of the chair. Here’s the deal I’ve made with myself: write from the first thing in the morning until I run out of steam at around 3 pm. Then, go out, get food for the evening, take a walk, do some yoga while Le Hubbins watches the evening news. It’s not a Jane Fonda regime, but it will have to do. That way, I’ll get my writing work done, and I won’t become a stiff zombie while doing it.

If you have any better ideas, PLEASE, share them while I try to revive my legs. Ouch…

xx, S (for Sitting)

A little inspiration for a Monday morning. I know what I’m doing. Tell me what your plan is…

xx, S

Boards like this used to be called “inspiration boards.” Life coaches use the term “vision boards.” On Girls, Shoshanna has a “manifestation board,” and in the art and fashion worlds, they’re called “mood boards.” I think this month’s board is a combi (to use Shoshanna-speak) of inspiration and mood. Usually my boards are project related, and I’ll pin things that apply to the story I’m writing. (Next month, look for a whole lot of photos of surfing and waves.) This month is more personal.

On the left is our upcoming trip to Italy. On the right, my gray area – not confusion, silver. Encouragement from the beautiful silver belle Cindy Joseph to keep letting my true colors grow in. The series is all the different iterations of one of Matisse’s works to remind me that even the great masters had to do revisions, and enjoyed the process.

In the center is a good reminder from graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister to stay in the present, and at the top is the creative prompt from style diva Diana Vreeland: “Why don’t you…?” Why, indeed.

Got a mood/inspiration/whatever board? Take a photo, send it to me, and I’ll post it.

xx, S