Trying new things

Sorry to be so tardy inbetween posts, but I've been busy trying out all kinds of new and creative things.

Knitting:

I'm really excited about knitting! I've taken a few classes and have knitted three scarves and a hat. I'm working on another two scarves and another hat. In September, I'll take a five week class on knitting a cardigan.

Guitar playing:

I also picked up my old guitar and am taking a beginner's acoustic guitar class with a friend at a local senior center. I haven't decided yet whether I'll continue with the guitar or not, but it's been fun. If I continue it, I have to commit myself to consistent practice.  Right now, I'm having too much fun trying out different things.  Very soon, I want to take an introduction to pottery class and a crochet class.

Constants in my life since retirement:

The things I knew I'd consistently make time for in retirement are spending more time with friends and family, exercising, writing and reading.  I've now added knitting to that list. 

Trying out a local comedy club soon:

A friend from Woodlands is visiting soon and we're going to visit one of the local comedy clubs as well as a local live music venue. I'm excited! 

Things are blooming!

Here's Tomato Plant #1, in a sunny spot along the
side of my house.


And here's Tomato #2, already sporting a tiny
blossom.


I call this one "Training Bogey" -- I planted a
bouganvillia (sp?) last summer and this year I'm
trying to train it to climb along the fence.



Here are the Home Depot "Knock Out" roses,
under my kitchen window.

Here's a pale pink rose from the Olde Rose

Emporium, next to an antique water pump.

Roses in bloom!

Last year I planted several rose bushes, and I'm so happy to see them blooming this year!

Look at the photos attached, which include a pale pink rose from the Olde Rose Emporium, and several Knock-Out roses from Home Depot.

I'm waiting for the yellow and peach roses to bloom, also from the Olde Rose Emporium.

Great Writing "How To" Books

I'm furiously making notes for my novel's revision from the current craft book I'm reading. It's titled Don't Murder Your Mystery by Chris Roerden. Fabulous!

Other favorite books on Writing -- ones I've discovered so far -- are:

If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland, written in 1938 but still 'spot on.'
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
On Writing by Stephen King
Ten Rules of Writing by Elmore Leonard

Still revising my book!

I'm 75% through with the current round of revisions on my novel. I made some pretty major plot changes as a result of the feedback I got at the writer's camp I attended last month. One of my secondary characters, a seven year old stuttering, psychic little girl, has become more important, and Nana (another secondary character) is now mildly, non-violently schizophrenic.

Research:

I did a fair amount of additional research as part of my rewrite. For example, I found out what a dead body would look like fifteen years after the murder victim was entombed in an underground, abandoned coal mine! I also talked to a very nice man at the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources about abandoned mines, subsidence, and the events that lead rescuers to abandon their searches for entombed miners (they don't make that decision lightly).

I also researched the blooming time of the poisonous herb that one of the victimized secondary characters uses to try to off the bad guy. It turns out the herb blooms in the early spring and my novel WAS set in the fall! So I'm incorporating a 'season change' in this rewrite and moving all of the events to early spring.

Attending Writer's League of Texas Summer Conference:

I recently joined and will attend the June 2009 annual conference of the Writer's League of Texas, headquartered right here in Austin. I'm eagerly looking forward to it. I also joined the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers, Inc. I've been a member of the Romance Writers of America for some time.

Finished scarf #2 and starting #3

I finished my second knitted scarf last week. I like it so much that I think I'll rip it out and re-do it. Seriously, I really like the soft, fuzzy, 'hairy' (like mohair) yarn but mostly I LOVE the bright yellow-blue-orange-red variegated color combo. It looks GREAT with my denim jacket and my black Gap vest.

But now that I'm getting a tad better at knitting, all of the mistakes I made on it are jumping out at me. So I think I'll wear it while I knit another one from a second skein of the same yarn. I bought several skeins of several different color combos when they were on sale recently at Hobby Lobby. When I'm thru making my much-better-knit replacement scarf, I'll unravel the first one. And make something else with the yarn! I think I'll use the garter stitch (straight knit) because it knits up so fast.

I started my third scarf last night. It's a future gift for my sister. I struggled a couple of hours and ripped out several beginnings last night but I think I've finally got the hang of the 'seed' stitch. It'll be a narrow 5-inch cream colored scarf. I hope she likes it!

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Spring gardening time!

I planted two tomato plants on the sunny side of my house last week. Hopefully in a couple of months I'll have some luscious, ripe, homegrown tomatoes!

I looked for zucchini seedlings (to support my zucchini oatmeal bread habit) but couldn't find any. Maybe next week.

My yard's not big enough for much more than a few plants, but between my few veggie plants and the Austin Farmer's Market and my grown kids' gardens, I should be well-supplied.

Mtn Laurel and yellow vines

Spring must be near! Look at the mountain laurel in bloom, and some yellow flowers on the vines on the side of the house!

Next up: spreading new mulch and shopping for some tomato plants!

I FINISHED MY FIRST KNITTED SCARF!!!

I'm so psyched!

Here it is, in two poses!!

Next up, I think I'll try adding the 'purl' stitch!!

Aggie's Photo Gallery

Washing up...

I call this one, "Want to box?"

Soaking up the rays...

Do I have what it takes to start a business?

This is one SCARY subject. Being an entrepreneur is a totally different mindset than being an employee. When, after you get hired, you do what someone else asks you to do and in exchange, you get income and benefits.

Starting your own business means (1) you have an idea or a product that others will pay money to get, (2) the buck starts and stops with you, and (3) you have to move from a relatively passive role in terms of business success or failure, to a totally active one.

So The First Question Is: What Do I Want To Do?

Another hard question. But I'm a Pollyanna. So I view my recent and unexpectedly early retirement as something that can open doors that I didn't even know were there. To SEE them though, I need to wipe my mental filters clear.

What Did I Like To Do As A Child And Youth?

Write. And Read. And do projects. And figure out what was REALLY going on, particularly how and what other people were thinking, and why.

I started writing stories soon after I learned my A B C's.

I also recall being really excited when our teachers assigned us big, long projects. I'd rush home and start planning it. Doing research. Writing outlines. Putting notes on index cards. Yeah, yeah. Call me nerd. Or dork.

I Wasn't Sure What I Wanted To Be in College:

My early majors in college switched rapidly between English, Journalism, Computers, Nursing and Home Ec. (Go figure). When I finally got my BA, it was in Marketing. I was 38 and a single mom of three young children. It was time to get real. Get a well-paying job with security and regular hours and good benefits. That's what I wanted then.

What Do I Want Now?

I find myself, three months after retirement, slowly returning to my childhood and youthful dreams, and my somewhat bohemian philosophies.

And I'm thinking about freelancing. And I'm more than a little nervous about it.

Writer's Camp

I went to a writing workshop last week by a famous NY literary agent, and boy did I learn a lot. Mostly I learned my novel's first draft is not as good as I thought (hoped?), but it didn't suck either.

Another Six Months' work:

Agent/workshop master Donald Maass told all of us it takes A LONG TIME to get a manuscript to 'breakout' status. His sessions focused on characterization, plot, tension, and setting, among other topics.

My first draft is done, so I estimate it'll take another six months of almost-daily writing to review and revise my novel using Maass' techniques.

At least he didn't tell me to toss it out and start all over again :).

Line Dancing and Knitting

Recent post-retirement pursuits I've taken up include line-dancing and knitting and crocheting. And no, I'm not doing them simultaneously.

Line-Dancing:

The dancing class is great fun and good exercise too, even if most of us stumble and trip over our own feet pretty often. Our teacher, Leoda, is 93 years old!! She told us that she can't see or hear so well anymore, but from the neck down, she's fine. She can out-dance most of her students.

After we do dances like Cotton Eyed Joe, Elvira, and dozens of others I can't remember, my buddy Terese and I go somewhere nearby for lunch and then we return to the same venue for our afternoon class ----

Knitting/Crocheting!

I've tried to learn to knit before and gave up. But I've always admired the look and touch of knitted things so I decided I'd try again. Lucky for me, Terese was game.

Our group of about a dozen ladies split about half and half right away into wannabe knitters and wannabe crocheters. Most of our fellow knitters seemed to catch on right away from our 95 year old instructor, Mineola. Maybe they already knew the basics.

Mineola, by the way, knits and donates over 400 hats every year. Her mother taught her to knit when she was seven years old.

Terese and I are slow learners. We keep ripping out our weird, lumpy, uneven stitches and then we start again from scratch. A fellow classmate looked at my first sample, giggled, and said wasn't it nice that I'd already learned how to make buttonholes. Har de har har.

Finished 1st draft!

Hooyah! I'm done with the first draft of my novel!

It was such an amazing feeling of satisfaction when I wrapped up the first draft of my first completed novel a few days ago. I know it still needs a LOT of revision, but I'm really excited to move to that phase. I've been letting the book 'cool' and will start my edits tomorrow.

Editing Plans:

As my blog readers know (hello family!), I've already made some fairly detailed editing plans. After re-reading and making notes from Donald Maass' Writing the Breakout Novel, I've decided my first editing pass will focus on my male protagonist, Canice aka Connie: his characterization, motivations, and conflicts. Then I'll do the same thing for my female protagonist, Yarrow aka Herb.


Maybe a successful book can have two primary characters? When I think about Karin Slaughter's novels about Dr. Sara Linton and her sheriff husband Jeffrey Tolliver, I realize they both seem to have equal 'playing time,' and they both change significantly over the course of the several-book series. Ditto Meg Gardiner's series about freelance writer Evan Delaney and her paraplegic attorney boyfriend Jesse.

Stay tuned for more as I wade through the editing process!

The end is in sight!

I decided the last draft of my novel needed work. The plot went this way, then it made a 180 and headed the other way. Then it zigged off skyward, and then it came back around to dive-bomb southward.

So I started all over again. I’m now around the 95% point. Writing this novel has been a long journey, often very frustrating.

Editing Plans:

It will be important to review the entire manuscript for what I'll call 'plot logic' and 'plot timeline' and 'research holes.' For example, if my timeline starts on a Monday with granny's disappearance, how long can she be trapped underground before she dies from thirst or starvation? How cold is it underground?

One of the most important parts of my review will be the characters . Are they interesting? Likable? Are they authentic? (i.e. flawed, just like all of us).

What are my odds of getting published?

I read an article from some agent saying that yes, there is a bias against older writers getting published for the first time.

Well, drat. I’m gonna finish my novel and try to get an agent anyway. I only have this one life. Writing/publishing a book has been my dream for a very long time.

Stay tuned as I write more about ..uh..writing.

The road to publication has pot-holes.

A dream of mine since childhood has been writing and getting published. I have no idea why I want to do this. I saw a quote on Google’s home page that says “I can't understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars" (Fred Allen). Very funny. Hoo hah! I'm falling off my chair.

To date, this is my writing resume’:

· A poem (published in the now-defunct teenage magazine Ingenue at age 16)

· A reader-feature (published in Playgirl (blush) at age 56 or so). I SWEAR I am not/was not a regular connoisseur of Playgirl. I only read the articles. Well actually I read in Writer’s Market that adult magazines pay pretty well. I believed that until I got a contract for my feature for $50.00. I guess you had to write a longer article.

· A novel (uh oh…not done/not published).

At this rate I’ll be uh, quite OLD when my novel hits the shelves. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to rack in the royalties (yes I know I’m being wildly optimistic on the odds of getting a book published at all).

Time to get to work!

Weird Aggie

Here's a weird thing about Aggie, my cat. She loves, loves, loves to go to the bathroom. I mean that literally. She'll accompany me and anyone else who innocently lets her in the water closet with them.

Aggie's bathroom habit:

So the human sits down on the throne. Hope you're following me here. That's when Aggie jumps up behind said human (yes, you read that right) and then hops up onto the sink. Where she sits and waits for said human to turn on the faucet. For her to take a drink. It's a long wait for anyone but me of course. Whodathunkit?

Cool water please. Then she bends her head around and starts to sip daintily from behind the stream of water.

Why doesn’t she just sip from the front? It would be easier. I decide she wants to keep an eye on what’s happening. Like the stories you read about the Mafia always sitting in restaurants with their backs to the wall and facing the door? That’s Aggie. She doesn’t want to miss a thing.

When the human she's followed into the bathroom is me, I wait until she’s done getting her drink before I wash my hands. Wouldn’t want the princess to drink warm or soapy water.

Retirement is hard getting used to!

I’m retired. Now what?

It was a lot easier thinking about how I’d spend my retirement before I actually did the deed. I actually had a long list of fun things I’d do. Now that retirement is here, I find myself reviewing the list and mentally adding up the costs of taking pottery and art and yoga classes, cruising the Mediterranean, camping in the Grand Canyon, traveling all over the US, etc. Maybe I'll delay that stuff a bit. In today’s economy, retirement can be scary.

New Morning Routine

I sleep later than I used to and get awakened by Aggie, my cat. Generally she tries to rouse me around 6 a.m. by sniffing my nostrils. I’m not making this up. After a few sniffs, she presses her cold wet nose to mine. I thought it was cute at first but lately I’ve been gently nudging her away. She comes back. Sometimes she licks my nose. Lately she's been licking my face.

After I convince her I’ve survived the night, she leaves me alone for about an hour and then repeats her routine. I give up and get up. She’s happy.

A friend who retired several years ago told me that I’d start to lose track of what day of the week it was (check), and the date (check). She predicted that trips to the grocery store would be my new high-points. Oh gawd. I need to get focused.