So long, 2009

Just a couple of minutes left in the old year and soon to start a new decade. May this new year bring all your wildest dreams to fruition!

Happy, happy, happy!

Well, NaNoWriMo is over and I didn’t even crack 20,000 words – and they weren’t new ones either – so I guess in reality I didn’t do well on that front.  But on the plus side, it got me off my butt and working nearly every day on my ms.  Congratulations to those of you who started from scratch and wrote like crazy for NaNoWriMo!

If I didn’t do so well with NaNoWriMo, why am I grinning like a Cheshire cat?  It’s because I (finally) got enough courage to post my first three chapters in my private online writing group, and the feedback was better than I could ever have dreamed!  And when that feedback comes from two published authors who have tons of experience in writing historical fiction, I couldn’t help but pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming!

This makes a huge difference in my attitude.  I used to just poke at my writing, always doubting myself and wondering if it was all worthwhile.  The only thing that really kept me going was my promise to myself and to my in-laws, Irena and Anthony, that I would tell this story and hopefully get it out there.  Now that I know I can write a compelling first chapter, I can finally leave it alone and keep going!  No more looking back!

Chopping Trip

I am hard at it, chopping my second chapter into three, smaller, more easily digestible chunks.  I never realized how much I wrote in just the first two chapters… over 10,000 words.  I think it will work much better now that I have six small chapters instead of two big ones.  But I guess the real test will occur when I post them in KidCrit.

I really need to get off my butt and start the ball rolling on that!

On the plus side, this unofficial NaNoWriMo is keeping me motivated and forcing me to work on my WIP every day.  I know I am mostly editing right now, but still, I think that accounts for something!  And I am hopeful I will return to the writing feeling refreshed!

Check out my wordcount — I’m already at nearly 20%.  I don’t know whether to get excited or scream in defeat because it’s six chapters and nothing is really happening yet.  Ugh.  Maybe I should just shut up and go to bed!

Getting Somewhere… Sorta.

OK, so it’s been a busy few days since November started.  I have been busily chopping my first chapter into four smaller chunks, which explains the heading of this post.  Had to rework some of it because I made a glaring cultural error that my mother-in-law picked up when she first read the chapter.  Poles did not celebrate birthdays — they might now, but back in the late 1930’s when she was a girl, they celebrated name days.  Being a predominantly Catholic nation, most Poles were named for saints back then.  Therefore, the celebration did not occur on a person’s birthday, but on their namesake’s feast day.  So it was back to the drawing board reworking the whole family celebration that takes place in the first chapter.

Just one final chunk and I can move on to slicing and dicing chapter two the same way.  And on through my existing chapters before I can pick up the pieces again at chapter seven. Ugh.  I hate myself sometimes.

But this is it.  As hesitant as I am to start posting chapters in KidCrit, I do have to $h!t or get off the pot, as they say.  I’ve been told by a very wise woman this will give me fresh perspectives and keep me moving forward with my writing.  I am sure of the fresh perspectives, just not 100% on the moving forward part!  But it’s worth a try.

Hey, do you like my word counter?  Who’da thunk that little widget could keep me so motivated?  I am already at 10%, and I only put it up a few days ago!  (Yeah, I have to remind myself I’m sort of cheating with the NaNoWriMo thing, but at least I’m working on my ms!)

Oh, and in other news, my amazing, wonderful and gifted husband completed my little writer’s shack in my back yard.  He used our old windows, so I have a huge picture window down one side, and french doors to enter.  Inside it’s all wood panelled and insulated, plus he wired it for electricity!  All it needs is a small desk and furniture, and some nice items to cosy it up.  Any suggestions?  Will take photos and post soon!

Until my next update… keep on writing!

Happy NaNoWriMo!

To all my writing pals out there who are participating in NaNoWriMo, I hope you all have fun and reach your goal.

I would love to try it for once, but alas I don’t really qualify to join — although I could join up as a rebel.  I have a WIP that I’ve been working on for way too long (as you already know from my constant lamentation in here), and I am loathe to stick to the rules and start from scratch with a new project.  Doing so will delay me from working on WNEF for a month, and I can’t afford that time if my goal is to finish this manuscript by the time the Brantford Summer Writers’ Workshop rolls around in August.  So I’m going to try and attempt an unofficial NaNoWriMo and as you can see in the upper right corner of this blog, I am tracking my progress.  Yes, it looks like I haven’t accomplished much yet, but I do have more written than I am letting on.  I already have 6 chapters done, but I am going back to the beginning (ugh) and chopping up my chapters and going through another edit, as I am going to start posting them in my online group, too.  Then I can get back on track and proceed from Chapter Seven… I hope.  So that is why my word count looks puny.  I am sort of starting from scratch anyway!

So NaNoWriMo people… if you’re reading this — best of luck.  If you’re reading this after November has waned away, I hope it was a productive month for us all!

New Web Site

Several years ago, at the request of my father-in-law, I created a web site detailing his deportation to Siberia and eventual escape during World War II.  It was my first attempt at a web page and I must admit it wasn’t the best laid-out site on the web.  I was forced to create a new site for him recently because the original one was being shut down by Yahoo.  I was informed that I could move the site to their new web-hosting service — for a price.  So I decided I would move the site — to another service.  So if you Google “Siberian Survivor,” you will probably be disappointed for the first little while, as you will eventually find nothing there.  Hopefully the new site will be indexed by Google — especially considering Google Sites is the new hosting service.  But in the meantime, if you want to visit, here’s the link:

http://sites.google.com/site/siberiansurvivor/

I can’t wait for my father-in-law to see it and give it his seal of approval.

And now I can return to my writing!  It seems to have been neglected far too often now that I have returned to full-time work.

Fish or cut bait

I think it’s time to start posting something in my online writers’ group.  Actually, I was told I need to start posting something soon, as most of the time I’ve spent in there I’ve been doing nothing but critiquing.  I was off the hook for all that time mainly because I hyper-revise — in other words, I spend too much time writing and rewriting the same first few chapters.  But it seems not posting hasn’t exactly helped me move forward, either.  Sure, I’ve managed to get to chapter seven, but boy, do I have a ways to go to a completed manuscript.

NaNoWriMo… hmmm.  I’m thinking about that one again, too.  It’s coming up in a couple of weeks, and I wonder if I could possibly complete the remainder of the manuscript over the month of November.  Even if it’s just a really rough attempt, it’s better than nothing.  But can I commit?  Maybe I won’t join officially.  I’ll just play along.

Then there’s Inkygirl’s 500 Word a Day Challenge.  I really ought to join that one and commit to 500 words a day.  It seems do-able now that the literacy conference is behind me and I don’t have a lot of library stuff bogging me down.

But I digress.  It’s time to start posting.  Funnily enough, I have to make some revisions to chapter one before I post it.

Was that the sound of your hand slapping your forehead?

An Overlooked Anniversary

This past September 1 was the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, an event that pushed the Allies into war.  The event was newsworthy enough to make headlines.  In Poland, a special ceremony took place to mark the occasion.

September 17th marked the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, but sadly, I don’t recall hearing anything about it or reading anything in the newspaper.  It could be just my oversight, but I’m fairly positive this story did not get the same coverage as the anniversary of the German invasion.  Yet for many Poles, this anniversary is just as painful, just as heartbreaking.  There was a despot to the west, but there was also one in the east, and he was equally ruthless and bloodthirsty.

I thought about people I knew who were touched by the Soviet invasion, especially my in-laws.  Their fathers were executed by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, at Katyn.  But the Soviets didn’t stop there.  They deported the surviving families to Siberia, to a life of hard labour, suffering, and starvation.  My in-laws were children robbed of their childhood, surrounded by death and hopelessness.  It’s something that has haunted them for the rest of their lives.  Yet they speak about it, and as much as it hurts them to remember, they do, and they share those brutal memories with the rest of us.  They do it so we won’t forget, even after they are gone.  They pass the memories to us so that as we move further away from the pain, we can move closer to peace.

The day has passed, looked or overlooked, and we all have moved on with our lives.  But I continue to think about this every day as I write their story.  And while the events that shook our world 70 years ago have brought us no closer to peace, it’s still important that we learn about the past, whether it belongs to us or not.  We learn, and we remember.  Perhaps by doing so, all isn’t lost after all.

When sharing becomes difficult

My in-laws were visiting from Nanaimo last week.  I hadn’t seen either of them in two years, and it was great catching up.

They were very interested in finding out where things stood with the book.  I wish I could have told them I had a completed manuscript, but the best I could do was tell them I was approaching the halfway point.  My father-in-law then asked when he could actually read some of it.  I wish I could make him wait for the completed manuscript, but the man is 82 years old, and how could I honestly make him wait when I have already spent 2 years on this and still have so far to go?

Like sands through the hourglass…

It’s getting to be pretty tiresome of me to post about my complete befuddlement with the way time seems to speed by, but here it is, August, and I’m almost in panic mode.

Four more weeks and it’s back to school, back to long days, back to being a committed school librarian working extra hours and coming home exhausted to feed my family and catch up on “home work,” squeezing in writing in whatever time I have left at the end of the day.

I shouldn’t even be here.  I should be writing.  I should be making some solid inroads before the in-laws arrive in two weeks (’cause I know I won’t have much writing time during that week!)  I better get writing.  NOW.

I see you’re nodding your head.

I’m gone.

Bye!