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WFMAD Day 1 – I doubledog dare you!

YES!!! IT’S HERE!!! AUGUST 1ST!!!

::runs around like a madwoman and scares dog::

Got your writing tool of choice warmed up and ready? Have you told your family that the only time they can interrupt your WFMAD writing is in case of fire or arterial bleeding? Have you turned off all your phones?

Many of you participated last year. While you are limbering up your fingers and stretching your minds, allow me to review the rules for our first-timers.

The rules are simple. In fact, they aren’t even rules. They’re more like guidelines, the Pirate Code of Writing.

1. Commit to write for 15 minutes a day for the entire month of August.
2. Just do it.

Seriously. That’s all there is to it. You don’t have to sign up anywhere, or meet minimum word count goals or complete a whole freaking novel in 30 days.

Just. Write. Every Day. This. Month.
15 Minutes.

::TANGENT ALERT:: Why am I doing this? Because writing is hard. Because life is complicated. Because so many people want to write, but they allow the complications of life to get in the way because the thought of actually living the writing dreaming can be scary. Because I love projects like NaNoWriMo, but I know that the goal of writing a novel in a month is unrealistic for many people. Because I know that we all have fifteen minutes a day that we waste (with the possible exception of new parents and authors on deadline).

Because we are all connected and we are all facing the same struggles.

This is not the time for editing or outlining. Just keep your pen, pencil, crayon, or fingers on the keyboard moving for 15 minutes. You can use the entire time to write "I don’t know what to write and LHA is crazy" the whole time if you want.

I’ll give a prompt a day for anyone who is feeling stuck. But you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.

I would love it if you guys checked in with me by posting in the comments section (feel free to be anonymous if that’s more comfortable). Tell me where you wrote today or for how long, or what you were working on. Tell me what kind of resistance thoughts cropped up as you were writing, or trying to start writing. Tell me what it felt like when the 15 minutes were up.

(LEGAL STUFF: These prompts, like all my blog entries, are my material and, thus, under my copyright. You have permission to reproduce them for classroom use only. Yes, you may link to these posts.)

OK, that’s enough blathering.

Ready….

Today’s reward: Of course you deserve a reward! Decide what it should be before you start writing, then give it to yourself as soon as you are done.

Today’s advice: Don’t judge, criticize, or edit what you’re writing this month. Right now, we’re concentrating on getting the words down on the page. You can do this. You can absolutely do this.

Set…

Today’s prompt: Write down the last dream you had. Was it boring? Then write down the last memorable dream you had. Can’t remember your dreams? Then write down the last memorable dream that you heard about. Focus on feeling the emotional state of the dream. When you reach the end of the decription, keep writing, Make the dream come alive for fifteen minutes.

Scribble…Scribble….Scribble!

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What have I been up to? Report from June 60th & WFMAD news!

I seem to spend most of my time trying to get my feet under me these days. I’m getting to the last of the paperwork generated from my mom’s death and setting up my dad so his life is worry-free. We’ve had a couple of extended family concerns that are working themselves out. I hope and pray that I’ll be back to writing next week!

BH has had his own paperwork and sorrow to work through, but he is back to making progress on the cottage. That’s him dragging the wheelbarrow.

I have even put in a few hours at the cottage. That’s me, below, surrounded by the cedar planks I stained. The planks are for the siding.

And my garden is growing, despite all my neglect. Last night I harvested a few things:

Onions, basil, tomatoes, and snap peas! I sauteed them in olive oil, tossed in some shrimp and alittle hot sauce and sesame seeds and served over rice. Bam! Was made of awesome.

So that’s a long way of saying life is gradually returning to normal. A new normal for us.

And just in time, too. My plan to extend June for an extra month has worked out rather well. (Sorry about that, July. I will lavish attention on you in 2010, I promise.) Tomorrow is June 61st and then…… August 1st.

And you know what that means, right?

August is the 2009 Write Fifteen Minutes A Day Challenge Month!!!

The rules will be the same as last year. I’ll be posting writing prompts and cheerleading in my blog every day in August. You just have to commit to write for a minimum of 15 minutes a day.

Are you up for it??

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Warming Up

I am going to try and write the Mother-Of-All-ALA reports tomorrow. Yes, with pictures. I have a particularly fine one of Neil Gaiman taken from approximately 400 miles away.

First up: thank you for all the kind wishes about the death of my father-in-law. BH and I appreciate each and every one. With the deaths of his father and my mother coming so close together, we’re both a little off-kilter right now, kind of like the earth has become sea and the deck of our ship tilts in unpredictable ways. But between the two of us, and with the love of our kids and friends, we lean on each other and stay upright most of the time.

The Horn Book has many great articles online this month. I strongly encourage you to read and discuss Nikki Grimes important essay, "Speaking Out" about the inexcusable fact that no African-American illustrator has yet won the Caldecott. (Leo Dillon won as a team with his wife… Grimes focuses on singular winners.)

(For the record, I agree with her.)

Love books? Love basketball? Then read this article about the literary basketball league my daughter Stef started across from Word, the bookstore she manages in Brooklyn. She has also started a literary matchmaking service. Yep, you better believe I’m proud. Yay Bookavore!!!

And from the Change Topics Completely File, I wanted to share the cover art for the British paperback version of CHAINS:

What do you think?

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Another passage

I am very sorry I did not post from ALA. I had a marvelous time and took lots of pictures and promise to fill you in on all the details within the next day or so.

But the sad news is that I had to leave ALA early because my father-in-law was dying.

Imet my father-in-law, Bill Larrabee, at the same time I met my husband; when I was three years old. Bill and his wife Edith became my parents’ best friends. They were so close that I grew up calling the Larrabees "Uncle Bill" and "Aunt Edith." I have never been able to shake that habit, so yes, I call my father-in-law, "Uncle Bill."

He was a magnificent man.

Last week was filled with sadness and many, many trips to the nursing home. The staff at St. Luke’s in Oswego, NY was magnificent, but that wasn’t a surprise. They have cared for him – and all of their other patients – with the highest level of compassion and service you could imagine. We are so grateful for them.

My Beloved Husband and I were sitting with Uncle Bill when he passed. In some ways it was different than my mother’s death last month, but in most, it was the same; the transition of a great spirit from one form to another. The day after his death, the house filled with relatives and we celebrated his life and legacy.

When we were visiting Uncle Bill a few weeks ago, he unexpectedly summed up his life’s philosophy for us with these words: "Don’t hurt anyone. Be kind and have fun."

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Words to live by. Happy June 51st, everyone.