Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 48
August 15, 2012
Wordless Wednesday
Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Photo by my husband, John
August 14, 2012
It's a Book Baby!
Proofreading in New Hampshire
Shelburne, New Hampshire
Yesterday, I had promised my novel to my critique group. I wanted to give them a week to read it before our meeting next Monday night, and then I'll have a couple weeks after our meeting to do last changes before it goes to my editor. I hadn't read the book straight through yet, and that always brings up changes and tweaks. And in a book of around 140 pages, it will take hours and hours.
But I have looked at this book so much over the summer, and it's an emotional book for me, so I woke up without a lot of enthusiasm to go through it all over again.
"What would make this more fun?" I asked myself. The book is set in New Hampshire, so I thought it would make it a delight instead of a chore if I did the work in New Hampshire.
"I'm going to stop at the first library that I see when I cross the border," I told John.
Gorham Library, Gorham, New Hampshire
I picked the Gorham, New Hampshire library and worked there for seven hours yesterday! I didn't realize it would take that long, but it did.
The library was open until six pm, and with a whopping six minutes to spare before it closed, I hit SEND to my critique partners. I sat next to the middle-grade stacks where a copy of Touch Blue was on the shelf and huge moose antlers were on the wall.
Every time I drive through Gorham, I will remember this day.
Gorham, New Hampshire
August 13, 2012
Rockland
Yesterday, I took a break from working and Julia and I went to Rockland to the Boatyard Dog Show. It was misty with occasional rain, but we just brought umbrellas and went anyway!
The event started off with last year's winner, Fenway, a member of the Rockland police force, showing off the course and challenges with his owner.
There's a lobster trap obstacle course, a tippy dingy challenge, a freestyle event that had to include a hula hoop, and the rules say that either the dog or the handler must end the trial soaking wet. The rules also say cheating and bribing the judges are encouraged, so it's a funny event.
Fenway's owner threw him a tennis ball and they both jumped in after it!
This time of year, the ocean in Maine is a balmy 60 degrees.
The dogs were all great, but the winner was Otter with her two girls as her handlers.
Otter did everything with gusto, except the dingy. Otter was afraid, so the little sister got in the dingy and the big sister picked Otter up and passed her to the little one.
Otter is a pretty big dog to pick up, but they did it. All three of them took a jump in the ocean and they could not have been cuter.
The funniest moment went to Pixel and her owner, though. Pixel did not want to get wet, so her owner had to jump in. But she set down the cup of treats before she jumped. . . and Pixel saw her chance!
The competition is part of the Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors show, which is full of boat builders, craftspeople and fun things.
I always love the nautical salvage booth, which has cool old ship parts.
And in the kids' area, little kids could have a ride in a miniature sail boat.
I could not resist these seagulls, but after I bought one, I had to carry him all around Rockland under my arm!
He went to lunch with Julia and me!
We walked around downtown and I saw Rockland's wonderful independent bookstore, The Reading Corner, had Touch Blue in the window!
They had Hot Rod Hamster inside, too! I wondered if I should introduce myself. But then I thought, "Do I really want them to remember me holding a big wooden seagull?"" :-)
August 12, 2012
Super Sunday!
I reached the end of my revision yesterday. I'll proofread it tomorrow and then send it off to my critique partners and my family. I promised it to my editor at the end of the summer, so that's what I'm aiming for. There will be more revisions ahead, but I made a good jump between the last draft and this one.
But today, Julia and I are heading up to Rockland for a day together. :-)
August 10, 2012
Five Things on a Friday
Cascade Falls, Farmington, Maine. Photo by my husband, John
1. I'm tackling Chapters 11-15 today. Go, go, go!
2. On Sunday, Julia and I are going to the Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors Show up in Rockland to see the Boatyard Dog Competition. I love that event.
3. I've enjoyed watching the Olympics. Who knew there were so many variations of volleyball?!
4. I hadn't seen our woodchuck for a couple days, and I was hoping maybe he had just been passing through our yard and not interested in moving in. I saw him yesterday, though. So apparently he likes it here!
5. My daughter arranged for a U-haul so her she and John can move her to Massachusetts at the end of this month for graduate school. That will be a bittersweet day for Milo and me. Well, bittersweet for me. Just plain old sad for him.
August 9, 2012
Revising
Yesterday I gave the second half of my mini-lesson on plotting at Kate Messner's Teachers Write Camp.
As part of that lesson, I mentioned that I use a Chapter Chart when I'm revising, just to keep track of what characters are in (or mentioned) in each chapter, the main threads of the story, what day the chapter takes place, what changes for the main character, etc.
Here's one I used when I was working on Touch Blue.
It's a mess :-) But I just do these for myself.
Touch Blue was set on the ocean, so I also marked my chapters out on a tide chart to be sure that I had the tides right for the amount of time that passed between chapters.
And I always lay my story out on a calendar so I can be sure if my main character is walking somewhere after supper that it would still be light out. Or what time Tess could see the sun rising. Here's a page from the calendar with sunrise/sunsets I used for Touch Blue.
I have charts and calendars running for my new novel, too. For this one, I've added in a place on my chapter chart to mention the weather. I tend to write about sunny days, but this new story is set on a lake. Having grown up on a lake, I know that people who live on lakes are extremely connected to weather. It was a constant topic of conversation: what color the water was, the waves or lack of them, and whether you could see the mountains on the other side of the lake. A lake looks very different on a foggy day than it does at sunset or on a sunny day.
To help me, I've found some webcams that I just love for this new book and I've captured screen prints of various weathers and times of day. As I'm writing, I look at a photo of that weather and it puts me there. I have several webcams bookmarked, including this video cam of Sebago Lake, Maine, so I can watch the water moving. (Though I have to warn you, there is a spiderweb on the camera today! So don't be shocked if a huge spider suddenly appears in the scene :-)).
And this one of Ossipee Lake in New Hampshire, which is not far from where I grew up. In fact, we used to get a huge puddle sometimes near our garage when we had heavy rain. My parents joking referred to it as "Ossipee Lake."
Now, I'm off to practice what I preach. :-) I'm revising and cleaning up five chapters a day to be able to get the whole book to my critique group by Monday. That'll give them a week to read, me a couple weeks to revise again using their comments and then it's back to my editor. It's always a little bittersweet to send something off, and I'm getting ready to let it go.
August 8, 2012
Wordless Wednesday
Tenants Harbor, Maine. Photo by my husband, John
August 7, 2012
Eyecare About Reading: Author John Perry
Author John Perry talks about writing his book and who would win in a battle between Harry Potter and Edward Cullen.
All of the authors who participated in the EyeCare About Reading book drive made a video, and I've really enjoyed seeing the other author's videos! My video is very tame compared to John's!
You can read more about the book drive here!
It's a Book Baby!
Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby! Name: Vampirina Ballerina
Date: August 7, 2012
Weight: 40 pages
Proud Parent: Anne Marie Pace (
annemariepace
)Godparents: Hyperion Books for Children
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