WIFYR day one

I have the best husband in the world. That's just the way things are, there's no reason to get upset and nothing to argue about. He signed me up for the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference this year. I went last year and LOVED it and kind of wanted to live in an alternate writing-conference universe forever by the time I was done. I could really get into spending my day with adults talking about writing, and not doing laundry, dishes or dinner EVER AGAIN. However, I don't live in a world of alternate universes, so I've spent the last year with laundry, dishes and dinner. When I got the announcement about this year's conference I took a brief mental vacation to that universe and imagined spending a week with Brandon Mull as my mentor. An actual writer of middle-grade fantasy, just like me. (And a nice guy, if you can trust impressions from book signings, which I think I was safe to do on this one.) Then the vacation was over and reality came knocking, in the form of bills and expenses. I honestly didn't go back.

Then three weeks ago Matthew gave me my anniversary present (sixteen years!). He had signed me up for Brandon Mull's class (a miracle in itself, since it's been my observation that the fantasy ones are some of the first to fill up). So, today was my first day at the conference. I'm not as ready as I would like to be and I would like to blame that on Matthew for not telling me about this until three weeks ago. I didn't get over the whole school-stress until the actual last day of school, and then I had an Assassin's Creed costume to make for my son's birthday (thank you, Lis, for making all the parts that I couldn't) and then I had to get ready to have our niece and nephew come live with us for the summer. The 'getting ready' part still hasn't happened, even though the kids have been with us for a week and a half. I'll tackle that again this weekend.

It sounds like I'm making excuses, and I am, but not sincerely. The truth is, I could have submitted to the agent and editors who were at the conference last year, but I never had anything ready enough to do it. And that was a whole year, not just three weeks. So I am turning over a new leaf (pardon the cliche). I am not just going to attend this conference this year. I am going to participate, starting with blogging something that I've learned every day. Here goes.

I had an aha moment in Brandon Mull's breakout session this afternoon (it wasn't my only aha moment, but it's the one I'm picking on at the moment). He was quoting Orson Scott Card (basically): "What is in the story should be in the story for your character to react to." And I thought of the saying in mysteries (either books or movies, I'm not sure) that if there is a gun on table in the first chapter it had better go off by the end of the book (or something along those lines). Not that everything your character sees, hears or smells has to change the course of the story, but if it's in there, your character should be aware of it, it shouldn't just be there for the author. I don't know if Brandon or Scott would put it that way, or even agree with me, but it's a way of thinking about description that I think will help me decide what to put in and what to leave out. I think it was especially helpful coming after Alane Ferguson talked about description in her class right before Brandon's. Description is something I struggle with. Because I am so afraid of putting in too much, I usually start out not putting in enough and have to add more, which then becomes too much. Between the two of them I believe I have a better understanding.

This was supposed to be short and sweet but I got a bit carried away. (I had to sing Matthew's praises, especially because he took the whole week off work so I could go to this. Long before I had resigned myself to not going this year, my sister had agreed to watch my kids for me if I did go--to the extent of even having the three of them stay at her house all week so we wouldn't have to worry about ferrying them back and forth. (Not only do I have the best husband, but I also have the best sister.) Then we got two extra kids for the summer, and having her watch all five just wouldn't be right, especially since the two extras are from Matthew's side of the family, not mine. So Matthew took the week off to stay home and be Mr Mom to five kids, with no car to run errands in and a bathroom to finish putting together.) I need to get to bed and I still have homework for tomorrow. A one sentence pitch for my book, and a one paragraph pitch for my book. This is not something I am good at. In the many years I have been writing/revising/trying to hatch this book, I have never had a one sentence pitch for it. There is a reason for that. I am feeling stress. Pitches are for baseball, and I can't do that either. I am a non-pitch person. Except that come 8:30 in the morning, I won't get to be one any longer.