Mette Ivie Harrison's Blog, page 108

who will be published?

When I was in my first real writing group as an adult, I remember being embarrassed that I always had a manuscript to be read, and that the others in the group would complain a bit about how rough my manuscripts were. But I also remember clearly one of them shaking his head and saying, but you know, Mette is the one who is probably going to end up getting published out of all of us. Because I wrote a lot. I needed to write.

He was right.

None of the others in that group have ended up being p...

who is keeping you from writing?

I am surprised sometimes at how often I will go to a workshop and find writers there who do not have a manuscript they have brought to be critiqued. Some simply have not yet written anything and are only dreaming of becoming authors. But others have written something, or have planned it out very carefully, but are not ready to share the results.

On the one hand, this makes good sense. You don't want to offer up something you know isn't ready for critique. That would be a waste of everyone'...

not compromise

I was talking to an aspiring author at the Writing for Charity event on Saturday, and was trying to explain how to walk the fine line between selling out and remaining in the Ivory Tower which I myself try to balance. She listened for a few minutes, then nodded and said, "So you compromise."

No! I don't compromise. Not in the way that people usually mean compromise. Which is, you get some of what you want, and the other person gets some of what he wants, and no one gets everything. Becau...

race report Jordanelle 2010

This course is mostly unchanged from the very first triathlon I did, back in 2004. My husband was doing the Olympic relay with a guy from his office (he did the swim and the run) and 16 came and did her FIRST open water full sprint triathlon. I woke up too early (at 4:45) and lay in bed for a while, wishing I could go back to sleep. Then I got up and drove down to the race venue about an hour away, eating my breakfast of banana and whole wheat roll along the way.

You have to park about 4 ...

parenting

Lessons are getting really expensive at our house, with certain children taking multiple kinds of the same instrument lessons and multiple instruments and other kids trying to catch up. I never had private lessons when I was a kid. With 11 kids in our family, it wasn't something my parents could afford. They couldn't afford clean underwear for us, either. We had hand me downs. (I tell my kids this every year when I take them out shopping for new underwear, so they can feel how wonderful ...

critique and polarity

I am giving away a free manuscript critique at auction for Writing for Charity this Saturday. Or come and I will do your critique in person, and you'll get to hear other people's critiques, too. Go here for the on-line auction. I'm also doing a race Saturday morning, and am trying to figure out how to get showered in time for critiques. Maybe that will make me go faster?

A friend recently told me a story about how we become polarized in relationships. I won't tell her story here, but sh...

new website material

Some other new website items:

New first chapters and prologues from the Hound Saga


Also, a bunch of new recommendations for 2010.

teenage moment

It feels like a day to write about an embarrassing teenage moment. I was telling my daughters about this recently, because they are getting to be the dating age, and because we were recently at the amusement park in question. For some reason, they had never heard this story before, although I normally share embarrassing stories fairly readily. I do remember this painfully well.

I started dating my now husband as a junior in high school. But my father had a rule, which seems to make sense i...

free stuff

I've been planning for several months to put some free stories up on my website and finally had time yesterday to do just that. The first one I am highlighting here is called "The Magician's Apprentice." It begins:

Oldest story in the book. I fell in love with my master. Then she died. Then I tried to resurrect her.

Go here to see it.

Another one is "Stolen Heart." Here is an excerpt:

I leaned in, and then Joy picked the treasure out with a hand and held it out for me to see.

It was about th...

full circle

It was 7 years ago. I'd had my first book published and my second was under contract, due to come out soon. I went a third time to a great local writing conference that lasted a week. In the mornings, we spent 4 hours with a veteran writers in our chosen field, workshopping and learning about writing. The afternoons were breakout sessions with other authors, agents, and editors, talking about more general writing and business topics. I had found one of my editors at this very conference,...