Molly O'Keefe's Blog, page 5

Girls… not the TV show… the Olympians

So I’m watching the Olympics…. which I think many here are. And I had this awful cringe worthy moment watching the women’s slope skiing event. As I sat there I thought… they really need to show the women before the men because the men are so much better at the tricks. Same with the half pipe last night.

Of course right after that thought I looked around for Gloria ready to revoke my feminist card! I mean I know these women are tremendous athletes. They are doing something I could NEVER do. But if we face the hard facts… they are not as good… not really even close… to the men.

Sure a lot of this physical. They don’t have the same dense muscles groups to get the speed and the height the men do. No one wants to change or alter female anatomy.

But as I watched I thought in many ways despite the physical differences the women seemed a little more hesitant. A little more intent on doing it “right” then doing it “big”. I felt a caution (sensible caution – some of what they do is ridiculous) that the men didn’t seem to have.

Is it because we’re always following the men? Is it because they figure out the trick that the women can only try to duplicate so they are more concerned about getting the trick right? It goes back to the idea that for so long we were in many ways second class citizens. And yes we’ve been pushing through those barriers incredibly fast.

Yet – when are we going to take the lead? When are the women going to be the first to come up with the trick, the jump, the thing that men may have to work to emulate. Hopefully soon.

But in keeping with girls… women… the other thing I notice that’s different is the way the competitors are with one another. Smiling, laughing, hugging, crying. Win or lose it doesn’t matter. These women support and encourage one another. They do it even after they just lost the gold.

Not the typical “good job” handshake I good sported man might offer. I’m talking real genuine happiness.

Just reminds me… that girls are different from boys in so many wonderful ways.

Getting Off On Getting On

Is anybody watching the new HBO show Getting On? I discovered it this weekend looking for something to watch while I was on the stair stepper (it is FINALLY raining in California which is fabulous but puts a crimp in weekend running and cycling). It’s a comedy that takes place in the an Extended Care Unit of a hospital in southern California. I know. Super funny. Dying old women and the people who take care of them.

It is hysterical. I realize I’m probably the ooey-gooey center of the Venn diagram that would represent possible viewers for this show.1)  I’m surrounded by medical professionals (especially nurses) so I’m used to their humor. 2) I’ve spent a lot of time in extended care units, rehab hospitals, assisted living facilities and skilled nursing facilities with my parents so I know what they’re like. 3) I like my humor a little dark.

The characters could be kind of two-dimensional, but Laurie Metcalfe, Niecy Nash and Alex Borstein really elevate the material. They take what could be caricatures and breathe life into them. No one is all good or all bad. Everyone of them is the heroine of her own story.

I’m curious as to why I haven’t heard about this show before. It’s not like I’m a huge pop culture maven (although I did get the Beyonce question right at the Pub Quiz), but I do read Entertainment Weekly most weeks and pay some attention to what’s out there. I don’t recall having seen anything anywhere about this show.

There are only six episodes of the show and I’m dying to hear if it was picked up for a second season.

Anybody else watching this? Anybody else want to watch it so we can talk about it?

Olympics!!!

Yes, the Olympics gets not one, but three exclamation points. As a Canadian, the winter olympics are my favourite, because it’s where Canada seems to shine more in the different events. But I’m excited for this for so many reasons.

1) Drama – It’s the inherent, pulse pounding drama of watching your country’s representative pushing themselves to strive for a medal. It’s the politics of were the competitors scored properly. (the best example of this is in skating, which is drama for so many reasons).

2) Danger – I don’t mean to minimize how highly trained these athletes are, but some of what they do looks so incredibly dangerous. Check out slopestyle snowboarding, which has competitors traveling down a steep slope at high speeds and doing incredible jumps and then just for good measure, balancing on a beam as they continue down. It’s possibly my new favourite sport to watch, but the ski jumping also looks insane and then there’s luge.

3) Heroism – I watched one athlete finish his slopestyle event, while clutching his back. He’d injured his rib before the competition, but showed no signs until he’d passed the finish line. These events remind me what the human body can do when pushed to it’s limits, and sometimes past them. It’s also the courage it would take to step out onto a world stage and know this is your only chance to compete, to quash nerves and bring your best. I’d crumple under the pressure.

4) Beauty – We’re looking at highly trained athletes at the peak of physical fitness. There is a lot of eye candy.

 

I’m in. Right now the Olympics is the most compelling show on TV and I’ll be glued to it till the end.

 

Ode Peyton Manning

The Superbowl was this Sunday and anyone who watched it knows what a horrible mess it was for non die-hard Seahawk fans. Not only was it non-competitive it was just flat out hard to watch.

Why? Because Petyon wasn’t having a great day. In fact by many standards he was having one of the worst professional days of his life.

Now let me say, I still love Petyon. I still consider him to be the best I’ve ever seen. I watched that Seattle defense and I knew in the first few minutes of the game he had no shot. They were completely overpowering his offensive line. Superman couldn’t have beaten that defense on that day. So this isn’t a post to defend him, or worry about what this means to his legacy or even football at all really.

This is about hard work and how sometimes it doesn’t pay off. No one works harder than Peyton. It’s a known fact in the NFL. First in, first out. Studies the game like no one ever has before or maybe ever will after. His work ethic is what made him so great. His ability to outthink and out strategize his opponent made him the best at what he did. Some say this season was the best regular season a quarterback has ever had ever. And he’s 37 years old – which is ancient in football years.

But he lost the big game. Not just lost…lost hard.

All that effort, all that work and didn’t pay off. It’s one of those lessons in life you have to remember and it lends itself to publishing very well. Sometimes you can work the hardest, but still not succeed. Sometimes the new kid on the block who hasn’t put in the time or the years… hits the bestseller right out of the gate.

I’m happy for the Seahawks. Happy for Seattle because it’s their first Superbowl win. I don’t begrudge them anything because they were the better team and they got what they deserved.

But I can take a moment to be sad that the person who put in all those years, and all that effort and all that work to reach the top, failed. Now has to start over again with potentially the same result next year. Because there are no guarantees.

Here is to you Peyton. And here is to those hard workers out there who just can’t seem to reach the top. Let’s not begrudge those who do, and let’s have the same sense of class and dignity in defeat as he had.

Non Post Cop Out

I’m tired and achy. It’s snowing.

That’s all I’ve got.

 

Punching it up

I’m working on a romantic suspense proposal. I’d love to say it’s a new proposal, but I’m slow as always. At any rate, I’m getting it down on paper. The problem was, what I got on the paper was just lying there.

No life. No snap. No pizzazz. It needed desperately to be punched up.

To be fair, the heroine’s mother commits suicide at the beginning of the book so she’s not exactly feeling funny and witty. Still . . .

I went over it a few times and nothing was really coming to me and then I remembered the workshop on deep editing I went to last spring with Margie Lawson. I pulled out my notes went back to work and, oh my gosh, what a difference!

As I  focused on the words as much as the characters’ emotions and actions, the text started to come alive. It was almost there. Almost. It just needed that little (or not so little) shove to make it lively on the page. I can’t tell you how satisfying it was.

So often I get so caught up in getting the story right, getting the emotion right, getting the setting right that I forget my best tool: words.

So let’s hear it for words!

What happened to craft discussions?

When we first started this blog–in 2006, yo!–I’d guess that 70-80% of our posts were about the craft of writing. Maybe that’s an exaggeration. But between craft and how-to-get-published posts, I’d guess that’s about right.

Over time, we’ve switched focus somewhat. And I figured this was a reflection of where we (the bloggers) all were with our careers, and what each of us was thinking about from week to week.

It’s not like I don’t still think about craft every day that I’m writing or editing… but the new, exciting discoveries about craft (for me) are fewer and farther between, when they used to come weekly or daily. (I’m not saying that I’m not still working on improving… just that I feel as if I’ve read about almost every technique out there, even if I can’t or don’t apply all these things consistently or well.)

But beyond this blog, I’ve noticed a decided reduction in discussions about writing. Almost no one asks questions about craft anymore on the loops, and on forums. And fewer aspiring authors are asking for advice on landing an agent, writing synopses and queries, etc..

The thing is, now that aspiring writers are able to self-publish, they’re way more interested in tips on publishing, and promotion, and daily sales numbers, and advertising, and meta-data, and hiring editors and cover designers and how much all those services should cost…

And for writers who already spent years working on their craft, this is all good. It’s awesome that the trail-blazers in self-publishing are so willing to share what they’ve learned with other authors.

But it does make me fear for the newbies. I learned SO MUCH from blogs and loops and forums. I spent the better part of four years spending a huge chunk of each day soaking in everything I could find on writing and storytelling and figuring out things for myself by answering questions for people even newer to writing fiction than I was. I was humbled to have quite a few people over the years thank me for answers I’ve given on various subjects on the loops. And frankly, responding to those questions helped me, too. I’ve worked so many things out myself, by trying to articulate them to others…

Sadly, it’s clear that these days some newbies are skipping over the learning stage that used to be mandatory, if you wanted to get published. Skipping straight to publishing. And that’s kind of sad. Haven’t they heard of Gladwell’s theory about 10,000 hours? Or the rule of thumb that you have to write about a million words before you can call yourself a writer? I used to find it depressing that I’d gotten so close to my first million words before getting a publishing contract. (I should calculate. I might have gone over.) Now I’m glad that it took so long. I’m glad I had more time to learn.

I’m hoping this lack of discussion on writing (vs. publishing) is just a phase on the loops and blogs and forums, and that discussion will once again turn to craft.

Because some of us still give a shit — ya know? And most readers don’t want to read crap…

When Celebrities Disappoint

As I get older, it gets harder and harder to change the course of my opinions. I’ve started to resent when people make me reconsider (and also wonder if it’s been me all along). I’ve had two incidents in the past week where celebrities that I have hated – HATED – have made me reconsider whether or not they’re horrible awful people.

Incident One

I love podcasts. I like to listen to them when I’m out running around. One of my favorites lately has been an NPR quiz show called Ask Me Another. It’s a super fun and funny pop culture/trivia quiz and every week they have a VIP or Very Important Puzzler. Recently, Elizabeth Gilbert was the VIP.

You may or may not remember how very much I detested Eat, Pray, Love. If you don’t remember, just imagine me with cockroaches pouring out of my mouth and my hair turning to snakes. That would pretty much sum it up. It wasn’t just a “I don’t care for this book and I think I’ll set it down” thing. It was a deep and visceral hatred. I especially hated Elizabeth Gilbert. She seemed like the kind of person I would actually leave a cocktail party to get away from and there are not many things that will make me leave a cocktail party.

So, she’s on Ask Me Another publicizing her new book. I was prepared to fast forward through her part, but when she came on I had three more minutes to run before my walk break so I thought I’d suffer through.

She was charming. She was funny. She was not self-absorbed or entitled or whiny.

Very very disappointing.

Incident Two

Sometimes when I’m doing something boring like cleaning the kitchen or folding laundry or gathering up stuff to do taxes, I like to watch  sitcoms on Netflix. My latest favorite is Raising Hope. It doesn’t ask too much of me, but it doesn’t ask too little either. I love the dad. I totally relate to him. Cloris Leachman is a national treasure.

They had Nancy Grace on as a guest star. She played a TV commentator with a true crime show. I hate Nancy Grace. I think she represents much of what is wrong and bad about cable TV programming and the bizarre histrionics surrounding many current events.

She totally spoofed herself. She made herself seem ridiculous. She mocked exactly the things that I despise about her show, which made me think that maybe she’s not that way at all. Maybe HER show is the act and the person she was on Raising Hope was the real Nancy Grace.

Very disappointing and somewhat confusing.

Conclusion

Maybe they just caught Elizabeth Gilbert on a good day. Maybe Nancy Grace was trying to do something about her image. Maybe it’s been me all along and there’s nothing wrong with either of them.

Do you have any big celebrity disappointments? Someone you hate turn out to be nice? Someone you love turn out to be a jerk?

 

American Horror Story and how to write awesome women

American Horror Story is wrapping up another season, and this one is about witches and so far has been my favourite of the three 3 seasons that have aired. It’s not as crazy loopy as last season and feels grander and more ambitious than the first season.

And it has the most terrific, over the top, awesome group of female characters in any show right now. Some are terrible, terrible human beings, some are nice, but everyone is deeply flawed, and the best are played with relish by incredible actresses. There’s a reason Ryan Murphy keeps casting Jessica Lange in key roles each season. Last year she played an uptight nun, and this year she plays a morally bankrupt witch who is powerful, but at the point of losing everything, especially her beauty, which Lange plays perfectly, her regret at war with a desperate wish to regain all she’s lost, no matter the cost.

Maybe it’s because the season is only 13 episodes long, or that Ryan Murphy has committed to changing the storyline in every incarnation, but I can’t think of another show where the characters, more specifically, lead female characters, are allowed to be both sympathetic and unredeemable. And Lange is supported by Kathy Bates and Angela Basset, both of whom are over the top, and awesome.

The whole show has been fun to watch, based around the idea of junior witches rising up to replace their elders and how power can corrupt, but the best parts have been watching the older witches fight and scheme, because amidst the terrible doings, there have been odd moments of weakness and humanity, and so the line between heroine and villain often ends up blurred and as a viewer, I’m never entirely sure who I’m rooting for.

Anyone else watching it? It’s not as scary as last season, so it might be a great introduction to the show.

 

 

Should I read my first book?

I’m in the process of packing and getting ready for my big move into the new house. The thing requiring the most boxes, that will have the movers hating me after about two or three trips up and down my condo steps, you guessed it… books.

My keeper-shelf books make up twelve boxes. My books… you know the print copy of my books are another eight.

I had this idea that I wanted to make sure I had at least some copies of every book so when I die and my grand nieces and nephews are going through all my stuff they can say… oh that’s right Aunt Steph used to write these books and I wanted them to all have copies for their bookshelves.

Well my nieces and nephews better start having lots and lots of kids because I have PLENTY of books to go around. I plan to start doing way more giveaways going forward!

That aside I did find a single copy of my first book. 1996 Undiscovered Hero. It was then a Silhouette Intimate Moment. To this day it was one of the single greatest experiences of my life. Opening up that box and seeing my name on the same Harlequin line as Linda Howard and Sandra Brown.

And as I was putting it in the box with all the other copies of all the other books I thought to myself that I should read it. I should see how far I’ve come and how much I’ve learned. As I tackle large historical fiction books – I should look back to the first book and remind myself who I am as a writer. Because really the voice, your voice, is there from the start.

I just know it will be so totally cringe worthy. I can’t even really remember who those characters were. I mean I remember the set up and the story, but wow… it would be so surreal.

So I’m on the fence. Do I take a chance and try to learn something from my writing past? Or do I leave that book where it belongs – on the shelf – and just look forward to the next project?

What about you out there? Do you like to read an author’s older works even knowing it might be a raw version of where they end up?