Crazy Week Behind Me With Adventures Ahead Of Me

So it's been a week since I last posted.  I've been a bad, bad blogger; I know.

It's been a crazy week in terms of work, and I've had time for little else.  Now I am caught up with my work,  volunteer work and my e-mail, so I am free to write in my blog and work on my book.  (insert deep sigh of relief)

So I have some exciting news; I'll be heading out to Ireland soon and will be seeing in person many of the places I have written about.  Once I'm there I will be sending pictures of the places in the book and blogging about them as they really are.  I'm also bringing my computer in tow to update my book the same night as I see the places to give as much accuracy as possible into the descriptions.

I can't even express how incredibly excited I am.  I've never been to Ireland and it's a place I've always dreamed of seeing.  From a more objective standpoint, I'm also really curious to see how much these places match how I've envisioned them.

If anyone has recommendations on a sacred/interesting/fae place to see, I'd love to hear them!  These are the places I'm going to which are also currently mentioned in my book:

Hill of Tara
Newgrange
Knowth
Jameson Distillery
Trinity College/Book of Kells
National Museum of Ireland - Archaeology
The Secret Book and Record Store
Dublin Castle

I'm sure more will be added - or at least incorporated in the next 2 books.  That's right, The Children is actually the first of a trilogy.  (The number three is a sacred number in Celtic cultures and it works well for this story).

Update you soon!

Twas The Night Before Midsummer

Twas the night before midsummer
and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring,
not even my spouse.

I had gotten caught up
in the bustle of life,
and I had not prepared,
for the day of most light.

I did not let go
of my daily travail,
but the shock of the date
had let balance prevail.

It made me just stop,
and then take up stock,
of the way I was going
and why I felt blocked.

I had gotten so focused
on the musts and the don'ts
that I had forgot my passion
the and joy I had known.

From writing and researching
my joy had once come,
and from playing with my website
and connecting to some.

I've been going back to basics
but now I see clear,
that those musts and those don'ts
were not really here.

It's what I have been doing
for all these years hence,
but my mindset had changed,
making the pressure immense.

So for tomorrow for solstice,
my plan is quite clear:
live my life as I want,
without focus on fear.

And I plan to enjoy
the longest day of the year.

How do you do it?

I'm having a difficult time trying to balance blogging, tweeting, working on my book, my volunteer work and my job.  So many people seem to have managed a system to be able to balance these parts of their lives. I just feel like I'm shorting myself on the quality of everything I am doing outside of work.

 If anyone could share their recommendations I'd really appreciate it!

Influences In My Life

Yesterday on his blog, Nathan Bransford posited the question: who have been the most influential people in your writing life?  Many people responded with authors.  For me, it's a balance between family, friends, and a few writers. 

I'm not going to list out everyone like some grand online academy awards.  I just have to say that my family and friends are wonderfully supportive, and I appreciate them every day. After the last 24 hours, I appreciate them even more.

I have 3 managers in my own career, two present and one past, who have been really influential as well.  They have all managed to live their personal lives to the max, while moving their careers forward.  When I think that I can't manage both, I think of their examples and soldier on.

Now for writers: 

• Many years ago I admired how Anne Rice had fused fiction and fact together so seamlessly that many people  I knew truly had trouble distinguishing which was which in her vampire novels.  I have aimed to do the same in my own work.  I have also re-read her earlier works when I need to revisit telling a story within a story.
• When I need to get my creativity going about the more fantastic aspects of my book, or need help with a sex scene, I read some Shana Abe or Nora Roberts' more Celtic/occult type works.
• When I need to lighten my mood, add a bit of quirkiness or levity, then I tend to read Madelyn Alt or Christopher Moore.
• When I'm getting a little creative with known facts and theories, it's Dan Brown that I turn to for help.

Now there are many other books I have read along this path, all with ties which in some way relate to my own book, although I have never seen anything very close to mine (phew!).  I read thrillers, fantasy, mysteries, Celtic themes, magical themes, mythological themes and anything else I think is even tangentially similar.  I'm actually a little concerned about how limited I have made my personal reading for so long.  I'll hopefully be able to expand my interests again but I'm not going to worry about that until I finish writing this work.

Eliminating the Weakest Link

So I've done an assessment of the parts of the book I haven't been happy with; the parts of the book which feels like it's not ready yet.  I narrowed it down to a  22 page section which has 22 different scenes which can be elaborated on significantly.  These are all cases of telling and not showing. 

There is a key difference in this section, one which makes it easy to fall into that basic writing trap. It is the only part of the book where I don't introduce a character, foreign setting, folklore or ritual/magical aspect. I guess without these components I didn't feel the importance of this part of the book, which is the preparation of the protagonist for the climax of the story.  This is going to be tough, but I feel like when I get through this I will have seriously improved my writing ability.

A Weekend of Laughter and Lager

So this weekend was a raging success! 

Saturday morning my husband and I went to the Rhode Island Scottish Festival and we are definitely going again.  Everyone was incredibly friendly and there was a lot going on.  As a Spence, I knew this name was associated with the Clan MacDuff, while my husband's family is Clan Cameron.  Coincidentally, the tents for the two groups were right next to each other

If you notice, Clan MacDuff's tent is bigger.

Well, Mike and I went to our respective peeps, and we both ended up walking in the opening ceremonies!  (Another complete coincidence was that the MacDuff's were the Clan of Honour for the day - a sign of good things to come!)

All playing aside, the people we met in both tents were wonderfully funny, warm and in the MacDuff tent a bit sarcastic.  These are people I hope to meet again.

I couldn't resist the "pet haggis" and Nessie on display in the MacDuff tent.

Overall we talked, we shopped, we jumped when the cannon went off and listened to some great music. (I fell in love with a band there named MacTalla M'or - I have got to download their albums)

We left early due to rain and the graduation party.

After celebrating much of the night, we managed to still get up early for Sunday's adventure - the Worcester Irish Music Festival.  I even managed to work in another 2 pages of manuscript that morning, still riding high from Saturday's adventures.

The music at the festival was good, and there was some really great genealogy information from the people of The Irish Ancestral Research Association aka TIARA .  The highlight was truly the O'Lympics.  Competitors had to first pour a can of Guinness, after it had been shaken and then run an obstacle course with the the beer in their hands.  In the obstacle course they had to kick a boiled head of cabbage through some pylons

They threw snakes into a basket a la St. Patrick

They also had to bob for potatoes in the baby pool

So, did this weekend do what it was supposed to do?  I think so.  I'm writing, I'm energized.

 I'm motivated.

Celebrating, Celtic-American Style

I've been working on this project for 6 years.  This last stage is killing me - I see the finish line but I can't reach it.  So now it's time for re-energizing, and I have a couple of things in mind.

First and foremost, this weekend marks my 38th birthday.  To celebrate my birthday, I am going to the Worcester Irish Music Festival and the Rhode Island Scottish Heritage Festival. (I'm also going to a friend's college graduation party - no rest for the wicked!)

I figure, what better way to get pumped up about Celtic culture than by surrounding myself with awesome Irish and Scottish music and games!

I'm also parsing out my social networking, and trying to separate work from my writing.  This is slightly complicated by the fact that my career is actually in publishing, but just a different type than fiction.

Now back to my fiction. I'm up to 63,000 words on the manuscript.  At 75,000 (the est size of a fiction novel) I will stop futzing with it and start trying to find an agent.  If I don't set an endpoint, I'm afraid I wont be able to stop myself from perpetually revising and developing characters/scenes.

If anyone knows of additional celtic cultural events in New England, New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania - please let me know.  I'm ready to keep on celebrating!