Optimism

First off - how bout them Seahawks?

Now, anyway, we took the kidlets to the Braves vs. Nationals on Saturday afternoon, and in spite of a dismal beginning, it turned out to be the best baseball game I've ever seen live.

We'd originally planned on going on Sunday, because it was a one o'clock game, and kids are allowed to run the bases after. My nephew, Bryce, started playing baseball this year, and would have loved to run the bases. But that was a big game, so MLB moved it to 8PM, and we had to change our plans.

We got a great deal on club level seats, which is pretty awesome, because they're great seats, but in spite of that, the game looked like it would be pretty disappointing at first. The main reason I wanted to go was to have one final chance to see Chipper Jones play at Turner Field. If you know anything about baseball, you know that Chipper is a first-ballot hall of famer, and possibly the best switch-hitter to ever play the game. So when we got to our seats, and I saw that not only was Tommy Hanson pitching, but Chipper wasn't starting, I was prepared to be furious.

Then, things got worse when we went down 4-0 by the top of the second. It looked like it was going to be a long, hard day. But I stayed optimistic, and kept an open mind, knowing the kids would enjoy themselves regardless, as long as they got cotton candy and ice cream (which they did), so I was pleasantly surprised when Freddy Freeman and Jason Heyward tied the game up by the sixth, and then Chipper came into the game.

The stands went wild as he stepped to the plate:

And my nephew started choppin':

Sadly, no hit for Chipper, but he did walk, and was on base as a hit batsman (Andrelton Simmons - welcome back!) drove in the eventual winning run. Here is in a powwow at third, while the Washington manager was getting tossed from the game at first:

Then, eventually, it was 5-4 in the top of the ninth, and we got to see my favorite Brave come in for the save:

I wish I could've gotten a better photo, but I only had my phone, so in case you cant' tell, that's Craig Kimbrel, the best young closer in the game.

He let one hitter on base with a single to left, but otherwise struck out the side, and put a perfect ending on what turned out to be a great day.

Here are a few other photos:

Mom and the kids.

That's how I wanna spend my 95th birthday.

Club-level seats, even the kids love em!

So that's it. How was your weekend? I've got some queries coming up soon, and then some tours and guest posts, so hopefully I'm going to be able to get back into the swing of blogging. I hope you all will start coming back to read. Anyway, have as good a Monday as you can!

Celebrate a Life

I saw this on Facebook yesterday, and while I already re-shared it there, I wanted to put it up here for you guys as well. I've experienced a lot of loss in my life, and it hurts, but I still subscribe to the school of thought that it is better to celebrate a life well lived than it is to wallow grief beyond the normal mourning.

Anyway, I didn't put this up to spark any philosophical discussions, just to say: have a great weekend!

Write On Con 2012

2012 Suckas

Okay. I've kind of been dreading doing this post for a while now. Some of you who know me well have heard my bitching. I know, I'm sorry, I've been really whiny lately, but I've been sick. That's no excuse? Fair enough.

So what have I been crying about? Well, I've been attending Write On Con for three years. Three. Years. I've had some great successes in the past. Winning a query contest, earning a full request based on my first 250. So you might wonder what's getting me down.

Well, I've been attending Write On Con for so long, and blogging about publishing and query letters, and writing, and all that for so long now, the Con kind of just serves as a reminder of everything I haven't accomplished. I have plenty of friends who got on to the writing/publishing corner of the internet a lot later than me, and already have books published. I'm not jealous, I swear, I love my friend's success, I'm just ... tired. I'm tired of working so hard for my dreams, and having so little to show for it.

But you know what? My friends, my dear, close writing confidants, are right. I've learned so much, and come so far, it isn't right to be so hard on myself. There are plenty of reasons to be excited. I've had more than five agents read my full manuscript, and not one of them called me a hack. I've had published authors read my work, and both compliment my writing and spend their own precious time giving me invaluable advice. I've made friendships--nay, partnerships--that will last a life's age (that's Tolkien for lifetime, deal with it). I've finished (nearly) two epic manuscripts, and started two others. I've met, IRL no less, some of my very favorite authors.

So I need to keep my chin up, keep my eyes on the path in front of me, and quit doubting myself. After working a query tomorrow and Friday, I'll be going back on hiatus, but I do really appreciate all of your support.

If you'd like to read more, you can find the first five pages of WARRIOR-MONKS (which I've never put online before): here (the formatting is shite, due to being in a forum, so please bear with me).

The first 250 words are here, but you will have already seen them if you read that first post.

I'm also taking part in a sort of query workshop with my query, here, even though the older version has actually garnered a pretty good deal of success in the past, just because I want to be an active part of the Con, because helping other writers really is a passion of mine.

I also wrote a brief tutorial if you need help coding your signature, here.

BTW, if you read these posts, please comment, and rate the posts, because that will help more people see them, which will help me get more feedback.

Other than that, you should really participate in Write On Con. Even if you don't need the help, others do. I know plenty of published authors who frequent the forums because they love to pay it forward as much as I do.

YOU SHOULD DO THE SAME.

I love and need you all like Oxygen (this is stolen from Bethany-with love and jade), dear friends and readers, and I promise to keep chasing my dreams if you will.

Solidarity, beaches.

Can I Quote John Cougar Mellencamp, Referene Glee, and Tell the Truth in a Single Post?

Try me.

So yes, I still watch Glee. On TV. Live. It isn't what it used to be, but my children both love the singing, and the underlying messages are still important. So I allow it. I'm usually drinking in the corner, revising, and paying scant attention to the audio.

Anyway, there was a moment in last night's episode (please tell me this was a new episode, and my DVR did not escape from 1984) when the show quoted John Cougar, and in spite of my never being a fan of Bon Jovi, it actually made sense to me.

I've thought a lot about what I write, and why I write it, lately. Some of it has to do with friends and mentors like Andrew and Joe, who never set out to write YA novels, and yet ended up writing books that broke the mold.

For me, I've always wanted to write a book, and I've had hundreds of ideas from high Tolkienesque fantasy to juvenile MG humor, but none of them were ever novel worthy. Then the WM idea struck me, and it seemed like it was the one.

I'm going on too long here, because that's what I do, but to get back to the quote, this is why I write YA, or at least why I might have written the book I wrote, when I didn't even realize it was YA:

Hold on to sixteen, as long as you can. - John Cougar Mellencamp, from Jack and Diane.

At first glance, this is a simple, innocuous line.

But anyone who writes YA, whether on purpose or not, knows different.

This shit matters.

Let me put that quote on a line of it's own.

Hold on to sixteen, as long as you can.

Do you get it?

This shit is serious.

Anyway, I want to talk about what this means to me, and why it matters when it comes to writing books.

I write the longest blog posts when I break paragraphs at every. Single. Sentence.

For me, 16 was the age of innocence and the age of insolence at the same time. My mother was long dead, and my father was long gone, and I had been angry at the world, and defying every rule it ever gave me for years. Every adult I'd ever known had abandoned me to my own devices, or abused me with their sickness.

And yet I carried on. I lived life passionately. Because being young is all about hope, and despair, and poignancy. It's about flipping the bird to authority, and thumbing your nose at conventional wisdom. It's about aching to be touched by someone who loves you, and about drowning your sorrow in cigarettes and booze and Nine Inch Nails. It's about reading your favorite novel for the first time, it's about driving for the first time, it's about freedom.

Or at least it was for me.

There are so many firsts. First love, first kiss, first smoke, first sex. Nothing you do again will ever be as cool (or perhaps as terrible).

Later, when you're all grown up, adulthood is about bills, and 401ks, and tax returns, and ethics competency training. When you're old, getting in the car to go to the grocery store is a chore. When you're young, getting in a car to drive anywhere is an adventure.

When you're old, going to work can feel like being shackled to an oar on a rotting slave galley out of old Volantis. When you're young, going to school can feel like solving a mystery.

When you're old, the days fly by like frames in a film reel. When you're young, each day is like an ocean, teeming with life, and full of possibility.

So ... I realize this is starting to get a little depressing, and it isn't meant to. I mean I might be a jaded, confused, and sad old man, but I do still have beauty and truth in my life. That isn't the point, though.

The point is, I write YA books about young people, that may or may not be for young people, because being young is exciting. Because being young is terrible and beautiful. Because being young is being full of life.

Because I'm trying to hold on to sixteen, as long as I can.

Fatty Bolger Part Deux

So I mentioned yesterday that Fatty Bolger is back home and safe and sound. He is not, however, very happy or fully healthy yet. Here is a photo of him with his poor little shaved forelegs:


He has to be confined to my oldest daughter's room so that we can be certain that he is using the litter box properly and regularly and that he is eating right and getting his medicine. He is not very happy though being separated from his sister and old lady friend. Serves him right a little for being such a fatty.

I'm only kidding. He actually seems mostly better, but is still on a heavy regimen of medicine. Luckily my daughter loves him very much and is helping out a lot because he needs the liquid twice a day and Mom and I can't always be there.

The bottom line is that I'm pretty sure he's going to be okay - even if he has to look a little pathetic until his hair grows back. I wonder if he can clean himself properly without the fur on his arms there?

Thank you so much all you guys for all your support and positive thoughts and energy. Frisky thanks you too.

NOTE: Yes that is my 14 year old daughter's cheesy leopard print fitted sheet exposed in this photo. No I don't have any idea where Mom got it or why it is in use in our home.

Meow!

Critique Partners

First of all a quick update on Frisky/Fatty Bolger. Kelly and the kids went to visit him yesterday and they said that he looked very sad with a kitty catheter running up one leg and a kitty IV running down the other ... but he was okay and he responded to their presence, which I think is a good sign. I couldn't go with because I have this stupid thing called a day job.

Anyway I think he is going to be all right.

As far as my actual post it will have to be short today but I just want to say that I am loving my critique group right now. Their feedback is astute and they have the courage to be honest with me, which is difficult but of course crucial to the process. I only hope that my feedback is helping them as much as theirs is helping me.

That is all.

Fatty Bolger

Sorry if you missed me and The QQQE yesterday but I missed work and got no chance to post. That little guy on the right is the reason. I was combing my facebook for a more recent picture of him and hate to have to admit that I don't have one. I checked Kelly's and she had this which does show his cut little face but is also over a year old:

Anyway the black one is our cat Frisky. He is about two years old. His sister's name is Mithrandir (I swear that my daughter picked that name, I only hinted that it might be cool). He now weighs 16 pounds and his belly hangs to the floor. That is why I have nicknamed him Fatty Bolger, a minor character from this little old book that I happen to like.

So the problem is that Frisky is very sick. We noticed him spending literally hours in the litter box over the weekend, and then on Sunday he was crying and hissing all throughout the night. He began leaking a sort fecal/urine like liquid on Monday morning so we knew then that something bad was wrong and made an appointment with our Vet ASAP. It turns out that he has blockage in his urinary tract. Apparently male cats can easily develop a condition that is similar to kidney or gall stones in humans except that it is much more serious. So it turns out the the poor little fellow had been blocked all weekend and had not been able to use the bathroom properly. He was in a lot of pain.

There is a procedure to correct it, which is somewhat expensive, but certainly worth it for such a young cat's life. The problem is that they have to make sure no kidney failure has begun to occur.

Needless to say I had a rough weekend and Monday, and as we are still waiting to hear about his kidneys my nerves are a little raw. I'm confident that he is going to be alright but I'm still a little bit nervous.

Please keep Fatty in your thoughts and prayers for now. Thank you.

Wheel in the Sky

It's a strange feeling for someone as long winded as I am but I have no idea what to write about this morning. I could just not post but currently I am in so in love with blogging and the interaction with my friends that is really not an option. Kind of like calling out of work and admitting you're hungover.

Anyway I did watch Glee. Now that we have U-Verse and a DVR we have been recording it and watching the next day because that much excitement at 10PM is just a little too much for Madison, my 8 year old, even in the summer. It was the season finale and it was pretty good but still didn't live up to my expectations. They did miss out on one grand opportunity. The kids did a Journey medley for their performance at regionals and while it was decent they didn't even do the best song. Everyone knows that Wheel in the Sky is the most epic Journey Ballad and I can't believe they didn't cover it. Oh well.

In other notes and updates I'm in a good mood this morning because I ran into an old crush on Facebook. I moved to Minnesota just before 6th grade and of course entered a new school. There was a girl there named Charlie who I fell madly in love with within the first few days. I was a nerd who played dungeons and dragons and wrote stories so of course she ignored me. I was devastated for the next few months.

Long story short her family photos on Facebook are filled with rugrats, and the whole family, including mom, are wearing bright orange hunting vests, camo, and holding rifles. She is still a pretty lady and I'm sure they have a happy family but it's kind of nice to know things never would have worked out as my childhood hopes and dreams had fantasized imagined.

So, now that I have thoroughly dated and embarrassed myself what else is there to say? Critique group is going very well. I'm actually discovering that I'm pretty good at giving feedback on others' writing and my partners have already told me that my questions and comments are making a difference for them. The idea that I'm helping others make their writing better, even if only a tiny bit, is pretty cool.

Otherwise the most important thing this week is of course that you all make sure you come back tomorrow for Hilary's guest post. I have not read NIGHTSHADE CITY yet, of course, but from her query I can say that Hilary clearly has a charming and entertaining story on her hands. Learn a bit about how she landed her agent when she posts her query here tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting!

Blogging Announcement!

Hey sorry for the trickery but I used that exciting title to try to entice some of you to come read ... again.

I'm going to try something different this weekend, partly to make up for no guest blogger today and partly just to see how it works.

I do want to make a very serious point first. I LOVE LOVE LOVE all my blogging buddies. All the other novice writers and even agented but unpublished authors out there who show love and support are so cool ... I'm not even sure I know how to properly express my thanks. I'm not going to do links here because I'm on a iMac here at home and my keyboard is basically pretty effed up but ... there are some particular people I would like to thank:

Justine Dell. We met on NB's forums. She was one of the first to give my query an honest crit. She was my first guest poster. She is my FBFITB.

Cole Gibsen. Cole is the coolest writer/samurai/ninja/homegirl that you have never met. She was my second guest blogger and though she is not YET published her crazy awesome debut novel KATANA is due out in 2012. Right Cole?

Rachele Alpine. Rachele is an English Teacher AND an MFA student and she is also going to be published soon. Her debut novel CANARY is on submission and shall be published soon. She rules because she is very helpful with crits and has a wonderful positive attitude.

Bish Denham. I won't go into details but Bish was the first one to "show me the ropes" of blogging and what kind of behavior is acceptable, what is borderline, and how to respect your fellow bloggers. She was honest and real and I truly appreciate it.

The Alliterative Allomorph. Jessica is one of the best ever because she had the stones to email me and ask if I was ignoring her on purpose (I hope it's okay to share about this Jess! I love ya!). I wasn't but I WAS new to blogging and had never followed her even though she commented on like my whole second week's worth of posts. If she hadn't said something I would have missed out on one of the coolest, realest, most honest writers I now know.

Tahereh. TH Mafi is the most talented writer I know. Period. That would be enough to make her awesome but she is also a prolific commenter on my blog and a fiercely loyal friend. I want to compare her to Sam Gamgee/Sean Astin here but I'm concerend she may be insulted.

Candace. Candace did a guest post too for her ridiculously unique novel. Which is great, but what really strikes me about her is that she is the most like me of all the bloggers I know. She's street smart as hell but still optimistic and a dreamer. She's honest but still smart enough to know when NOT to tell the truth, but most of all she's ghetto fabulous, in a good way.

Katie the Creepy Query Girl. Katie is still a mystery to me, mostly. As an American living in France she pretty much has the life we all envy but her writing is very crisp and she has just about the most classic sounding novel I've heard of in years.

Shannon McMahon. Shannon was the first person EVER to ask me for advice about blogging. We met on NB's forums which is like an auto gold star for our friendship but seriously ... I was such a noob I didn't know what to say to her! The advice I DID give her she took to heart and now she has one of my very favorite blogs. My only complaint it that since she has her own domain she needs to set it up so that I can download her recipes. THIS CHICK CAN COOK Y'ALL!

Lindsay aka Isabella. Lindsay is another sort of shy friend just like me. She is one of my very top commentators but she is totally on top of keeping us all up with the blogoshpere on her blog.

Jen from Unedited. Can you believe this lovely lady isn't published, isn't agented and hasn't even started querying yet? I can't.

Slam Dunks. I believe this guy is an ex-cop. He may or may not even be writer (though his blogging rules, and as far as I'm concerned that counts). What I love is that he spreads the knowledge about stories that should not have yet been laid to rest. And he is a first class family man, like me (I hope).

Sheri from Graffiti Wall. Sheri, known to many as Salarsen is the hippest chick out there. She's a writer, a dancer, a mother and a lovely wife but she is down with the illest styles and spends her time doing her best to highlight other people's careers.

Lisa and Laura Roecker. I don't know quite what to say about these two but they are pretty much like rock stars. I call them Lady LiLa, which is just like Lady Gaga but with two heads and MORE style.

Elana Johnson. Elana is like the quarterback at your local high school except she's nice. The analogy only works because she's famous AND accessible but it doesn't really apply because she is so much more giving than your average Al Dallas (that was the QB's name on my Chattanooga TN HS football team. I was a tight end. I swear this is true.)

Suzette Saxton. Suzette was the first blogger to send me a Google friend connect request. Then she introduced me to several of the best blogs I've yet discovered. Her sister Bethany is pretty cool/nice too but it was Suzette who reached out to me.

And here we come to the point. This is where I want to make something crystal clear. I'm worried that I offended some people with what was taken as a complaint about Suzette. If you look at today's earlier post you'll see a comment by an anonymous poster in which I was taken to task a little for what I said about Suzette. I sincerely hope it was a misunderstanding because I have an inkling of a clue that that poster actually knows something about Suzette that I don't.

I just want it to be known that me in particular, but I suspect other novice writers feel the same, really really, REALLY appreciate that agented, soon to be published, and even sometimes published authors take the time to participate in our blogs and give of themselves selflessly, hoping to assist in others reaching their dreams as they have done.

As a contributing author on the Query Tracker blog, Suzette is one of the very few who give so much that many of us can't quite comprehend it. I'm essentially mortified that someone would think that I would say, let alone think, anything negative about her. I sincerely hope that if she finds the time to see these posts she discovers the truth at the heart of them.

I'm not the smartest guy around but I care a lot about writing, reading and publishing and I think that people like Suzette, who are willing to mentor others, even if just a little bit, should be considered gems of islands in this turbulent sea of hope toward becoming published.

That's all I have to say about this right now but I'll make a promise for the sake of posterity. If I get ten comments on this weekend post I'll do another and tell you guys a bit about my unique critique group.

Invictus

Last night we watched what should have been selected as last year's Best Picture at the Oscars. Don't get me wrong. I saw The Hurt Locker. It was an excellent film. A powerful story that needed to be told.

Invictus was better. An uplifting story based on true events is always more inspiring than a depressing story based on real situations. Inspirational qualities of course don't necessarily make a film great, but this one was.

Invictus is a simple film about Nelson Mandela, the newly elected president of South Africa who has only just been released from prison, and his desire to keep the traditions of the national rugby side: their colors, their symbol, their nickname: The Springboks.

Nelson Mandela is played by Morgan Freeman, in my opinion one of the greatest actors of the modern era. Matt Damon plays Francois Pienaar, the Afriakaaner captain of the team. Mr. Damon is of course not quite the accomplished thespian that Mr. Freeman is but in my opinion he has recently proven himself to be much more diverse than I would have thought after Good Will Hunting and Chasing Amy. His South African accent is a bit better than Leonardo DiCaprio's from Blood Diamond, more subtle, but then his role is also less prominent. Clint Eastwood also continues to prove as the director that he can do much more than act tough.

Anyway the film is of course just a very thin slice of the topic of Mandela, South Africa, Apartheid, Political Prisoners and Human Rights. It takes all these weighty subjects and focuses them into the idea of Mandela supporting the Springboks and doing everything he can to see that they win the Rugby World Cup that was hosted in South Africa in 1995.

A very simple overview of history to better understand the South Africa situation: South Africa is the southernmost country in the diverse continent of Africa. It contains what is known as the Cape of Good Hope. In the 1600's the Dutch East India trading company was regularly sailing around this cape to reach India and Asia for trade. They eventually formed the Dutch settlement Cape Town which is now a modern city.

Long story short the Dutch continued to settle in South Africa and after fighting over territory with the British several times eventually the modern government and power structure in the nation ended up being run almost exclusively by whites known as Afrikaaners or Afrikaans. This set up a rather unique situation in South Africa because although racism has existed for eons in many places it is rare that the minority is in power oppressing the vast majority as was the case in South Africa during Apartheid.

Before I go on forever about all this backstory basically Nelson Mandela spent over thirty years as a political prisoner of the white government. They incarcerated him for nothing more than speaking out against Apartheid. In the film as in real life he is released from prison and quickly elected the president of the new democratic government.

I don't know how true to real life the film is but I suspect there is some poetic license. In the film Mandela decides to support the Sringboks, who represent all things Afrikaan and Apartheid to his people. He decides that he wants to bring the nation together, not to divide it.

I won't give away the whole plot but I'm sure it's pretty obvious what happens. That being said this is a great film because it tells a fun little part of the story of a great, great man. Nelson Mandela was one of those rare people who lead with a passion for the human condition. Like the Dalai Llama, Mohandes Ghandi, and even Jesus Christ he had that rare quality of forgiveness for his tormentors that has inspired entire cultures so many times.

There is a great line from the film when Matt Damon is talking about Mandela after visiting his old prison cell and he says:

"I was thinking how a man could spend thirty years in prison, and come out and forgive the men who did it to him..."

Mandela uses the Springboks as an example to his countrymen of this kind of forgiveness. That is leadership.

The film is actually named after a poem written in 1875 by English poet William Ernest Henley titled Invictus, which means Unconquered in Latin. Supposedly Mandela read the poem to himself often while he was in prison and it inspired him to many things. This may or may not be true, I have not looked it up, but the poem IS rather inspiring nonetheless. I will share it with you here:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

These are beautiful, powerful words and I think they fit quite appropriately with the subject of the struggles of the nation of South Africa and its people. Things are by no means perfect there but I look forward to enjoying the FIFA World Cup this summer which takes place in South Africa as well.

Hopefully this nation and its people will continue to improve their condition and have a bright future ahead of them.

Sorry for the rambling post but I was late to work this morning and had to throw this together without any preparation. I'm only reading it once to proof it, so please forgive the errors that surely will slip through.