Getting on with it

Last week when I was searching Livejournal for a photo I'd posted long ago, I came across an old "WOE IS ME" post. Reading it again nearly three years later, I had to laugh. I was whining pathetically in this post, but I also was spot on with my predictions:

All right, so my book is on submission right now and it is pure torture to wait for news. I am getting crazier each day and this morning it struck me that I'm verging into a mild depression.

And you know what? Even if the planets align, God smiles down from heaven, and miracle of miracles my book actually sells (*knocks on wood*) -- this worrying WILL NEVER END! Because I will worry about edits. And I will worry about cover art. And I will worry about publicity. And then when it's out I will worry about bad reviews and my friends hating it and whether or not it's even on bookstore shelves, and whether or not it's selling at all.

So I just need to GET A GRIP. This is me telling myself to GET OVER IT. This submission thing is out of my hands right now. What I need to do is buckle down and get my outline hammered out for the next story. That much is in my control. This maudlin crap has GOT TO STOP!

Yeah.

(By the way, that book didn't sell, so it's a good thing I DID hammer out the next story. Desperation is a great motivator.)

My muse has been quiet lately. Perhaps it's been drowned out by all the doubting, worrying voices in my head. Thank goodness for writing conferences because I really needed some inspiration to kick me in the butt. This past weekend I attended the NC/NE Texas SCBWI conference in Dallas. It was a fabulous gathering of writerly people! Great presenters and charming, passionate attendees. The energy in the conference rooms really perked up my mojo.

Spent some quality time with my agent Jennifer Laughran AND stalked her during her presentations.

Saw the fabulous Tammi Sauer give her keynote speech, "Just Do It! Channeling Your Inner Scarlett O'Hara." (Hooray for Okie writers!)

And I took pages and pages of notes during Bruce Coville's talk, "At the Corner of Plot and Character."

(If only I could tuck these three in my pocket for whenever I needed them!)

Ultimately, what I took away from the presenters and attendees is that I just need to work harder. Write more. Write BETTER. I've been in a lull, partly because I've been doing promotion but also because I've been waiting for edits. Time to snap out of that. Time to stop spinning my wheels, to stop being scared, and just do the thing I love to do: WRITE.

And I will! But first I have to drive to TN, see family, and speak at the Southern Festival of Books. I'm appearing with Victoria Schwab on Saturday, 4:30 pm in Room 29. Come see us, y'all!

Wednesday randoms

Two giveaways to tell you about:
-- At Confessions of a Bookaholic I talk about my "haunted childhood" and you get a chance to win one of four copies of The Revenant, kindly provided by Random House. Wahoo!

-- My Oklahoma friend Jenna Klein interviews me at Fans of Fiction and offers up a signed copy of The Revenant. Yay!

Also:
-- My pal Brandi Barnett has alerted me to the existence of Out of Print clothing and goodies. Check out their mission. I purchased the Pride & Prejudice sweatshirt and the Brave New World t-shirt and felt smug on many levels. (A nice sort of smug, though, right? Is there such a thing?)

-- Tomorrow I drive down to Dallas for some shopping the NE/NC Texas SCBWI fall conference. I plan to get INSPIRED! And hopefully meet some new people, if I can crawl out of my shell.

-- I was also hoping to see Dream House this weekend, but sounds like it's pretty lame. In better news, American Horror Story starts tonight, and though I missed the premiere I will get caught up with Bedlam very soon. Maybe October won't be a total loss for creeptastic viewing?

Three things on a Thursday

1. Apologies to those who already saw it on my Facebook or Twitter feed, but I have to share this review of The Revenant at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy*.

(*Best. Blog title. EVER.)

I try not to post about reviews too often, but this one made me weepy because she really seemed to get what my editor and I worked so hard to convey about the protagonist. She also articulated something that made me see the story in a new way, which is very cool. I am soooo grateful to Liz Burns for featuring the book on her blog! (BTW, the review does contain spoilers, but she gives plenty of warning.)

2. The second part of this post was bascially going to be me navel-gazing about whether I suffer the right way for my art, but . . . GAH that's ridiculous! Who cares? I think the bottom line is that I need to: a) take more risks and b) practice learned optimism (as explained by my dear friend Lisa Marotta). What's really got to stop is the constant flailing over all my inadequacies. That is NOT the productive way to suffer for your art!

3. Looking forward to a fun weekend with friends. It was especially exciting to load Lola and the Boy Next Door and The Name of the Star on my kindle. Yay! Trying to decide whether or not to take my computer. We could probably use a break from each other . . .

TV Tuesday: pleasant surprises

It seems that all I've blogged about lately is TV. All I can say in my defense is "'Tis the season!"

(I'll make an effort to branch out soon.)

The season premieres of Fringe and The Good Wife were great fun -- and I'd love to discuss them in the comments -- but for this entry I'm focusing on pleasant surprises:

A Gifted Man -- Hadn't intended on watching this one, but ultimately couldn't resist the appeal of Jennifer Ehle. Actually, the whole cast is pretty dang good. This is the best I've seen from Patrick Wilson since Little Children, and we also get recent Emmy winner Margo Martindale as his secretary (?), Dexter's Julie Benz as his sister, and The Wire's Pablo Schreiber as the medium/psychic dude (please let his role be recurring!). The story is predictably schmoopy, but the performances won me over. And you guys, there's a GHOST! I'm gonna keep watching.

New Girl -- I was intrigued by the promos, but wasn't sure Steve would find this show appealing. Turns out that the trio of male roomates make the perfect foil for Zooey D's offbeat persona. We laughed outloud several times and definitely will tune in again.

Terra Nova -- I expected to be "meh" about this, but aside from some clunky exposition dialogue (especially toward the end), I found it pretty gripping. Not sure the show can sustain this pace, but so far so good. (Oh, and I've liked Jason O'Mara since he played Fergal on Monarch of the Glen -- he's the main reason I tuned in.) TN writers -- please give us more head-chomping dinosaurs! And don't overdose us on teen angst. Thanx. (Oh, I hope there's an interesting story behind the Shannons' third child.)

How about you -- found any new shows yet? Any pleasant surprises of your own?

[Cross-posted from Livejournal]

TV Tuesday: Brit TV on DVD

New fall shows are getting ready to air. Old favorites are returning. Seems like it's taken FOREVER, doesn't it?

I haven't suffered too much. For the last couple of weeks I've been watching a couple of DVD sets of British shows from the 90s.

The Minette Walters Collection was my first purchase after getting my all-region DVD player. I'd seen all these episodes long ago on TV, but was surprised to learn that the US broadcasts were edited for length and content. With these DVDs you get the Full Monty! (And I'm almost being literal on that.)

I was a huge Minette Walters fan in the 90s. I read each of these books when they came out and found them utterly gripping. The TV adaptations are fascinating, too. They were my introduction to (now outrageously famous) actors like Daniel Craig and Clive Owen. The characters were dark and complex. The mysteries were convoluted, and their solutions were nearly impossible to predict.

I still enjoyed the episodes during this recent viewing, but there was some squirming. For one thing, nearly every police officer depicted in these eps is disconcertingly homophobic. (They're usually the bad guys, though.) Many of the male characters are too sexually aggressive for my comfort. There's a high degree of dysfunction all around. If you have a tolerance for that, you might enjoy the dvds (or the books, for that matter).

(Of all the eps in this collection, only "The Sculptress" is available from Netflix/Qwikster.)

My dad recommended The Grand to me. (Now that he's mostly retired, he watches all sorts of recommendable dvds.) What I didn't realize was that it was written by Russell T. Davies. Who knew that he'd penned a historical melodrama? (Well . . there was Casanova.)

Since I've only just started this series, I'll share the Amazon blurb:

Lust, greed, and gossip in a glamorous British hotel of the 1920s. As the most opulent hotel in Manchester, England, during the decadent Roaring ’20s, The Grand is more than a building. It’s a nexus for schemes, scandals, romance, and intrigue. For owner John Bannerman, The Grand symbolizes a tradition of luxury and elegance begun by his father. For Marcus Bannerman, it becomes a risky investment and a way to entice his brother’s wife into bed. And for the maids and porters employed there, it represents a possible escape from their hardscrabble past--and an endless source of backstairs gossip.

Very mixed reviews on Amazon, but after four episodes I'm still enjoying it. It's rather fun to watch Stephen Moyer in his pre-True Blood days.

(This series is available from Netflix/Qwikster.)

Now that I have this all-region player, I'm itching to watch some UK shows that aren't available in the US. Any recommendations? Has anyone seen Marchlands?

[Cross-postd at Livejournal]