Evan Katy's Blog

A little progress

I sent what I'm calling the second round of edits back today. It felt good to finally be through with that process. It also feels good to feel good about it. Now I can't wait to have it put together and published. I think there are a bunch of little kids who love space and robots and pirates who will love reading this book.

Now to start on Nightmares in June. Technically it has already been started, but now it starts in earnest. If I stay on course I can have it out next June (**high five the goal). I can't wait to jump back into Sam's world. It's so crazy and fun.

I also have to consider my children's writers group. We have a new member who sent out a reminder that we should be writing every day. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I didn't submit anything last month because I've been working on the middle grade book, but he didn't know that, and I didn't tell anyone. I do want to continue with my young adult book, but not whole heartedly. My main attention will be on the June book.

I can't wait for my daughter to be home. Two more weeks and all my babies will be under one roof. It's the little things.

Repeating ourselves...

Today I sat in the back of a room and listened to several men describe the people who worked for them. They used terms and phrases that if used them once a month would sound excellent, but hearing them over and over and over and over, sometimes in exactly the same inflection, in the span of a single day was an eye-opening reminder of the traps managers fall into. A person is a person is a person. There are things they know about their own lives that shape whether they have a good day, a shitty day, a boring day, a fruitless day, a sad day, an anxious day, a day in which nothing and everything gets done, or a simple day of labor toiled so that food could be put on a table. None of them should be expected to fit into a slender definition of worker effectiveness.

But I digress. In the latest chapter in Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark he talks about repetition. That was something I learned over time. I wish I knew what I did when I wrote my first book. It is so easy during that first draft to repeat words and I normally don't catch the repetition in my first edit. It is only in the edit I do where I read the words out loud that I catch them all.

So little time...

Today was one of those days that included every task imaginable plus some. I did laundry, worked, made dinner, washed dishes, cleaned counters, organized closets, tended to dogs, employees, customers, and spent the day checking Twitter looking for any new stories about our failing government. I'm so tired I can't keep my head upright. Last night I had insomnia and only had two hours sleep, which is complicating my current need to try and write, because what I really need now is to tell myself I'm not doing enough. It's like stabbing myself with a fork while I drown in quicksand.

On a brighter note I listened to some great podcasts this week. One is called The Room Where It's Happening: A Hamilton Fan Podcast - Ep 14 with Alex Lacamoire. It was so inspiring to hear a creator talk (and play) about the process. I love the Hamilton songs and hope that some day I'll see the musical, but until then I'm kept happy with shows like this. Another podcast I listened to was The History Chicks - Ep 82 on Lucille Ball. What an amazing story and those two ladies cover the details so well. I texted a friend halfway through the episode telling her to listen, but she already had and agreed it was amazing.

I finished the first part of the Writing Tools book (by Roy Peter Clark) and loved the chapter on punctuation. It has been such an interesting journey to see how different people edit my work. Some add commas, some remove them, some like dashes, some colons. It is ultimately my call, my voice, but since I have issues with self-trust...I will leave the punctuation to the experts.

Ingings...

Curbing the -ings and mastering long sentences are what I've read about recently. I use a lot of -ings. You could say I'm addicted to -ings. There should be a self-help group for the -ings. We could call ourselves Ingings.

I need to get serious about writing again. I need to learn how to destress from the workday in a manner that leads me to my computer rather than a blankie, my living room chair, and You Tube videos. In a couple of weeks I start editing my middle grade book. I'm hoping that the active process will encourage active writing on other things - like the June book.

But I think I've figured out that self-doubt is crippling me. The voice in my head that tells me I'm a quack is super loud right now. But I might have a solution, only the solution involves jogging, which hurts my knees, so the solution to one problem will be an instigator of another. Something like life...I think.

Overly Tired...

Flew to San Antonio today for work. It was raining and the drive to LAX was slow. My plane was delayed over an hour and several people took naps in the gate area. One man was so relaxed I thought he had expired and worried for a few minutes before noticing that his chest was moving.

Chapter 5 in Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark is on adverbs. My enemy. I use them overly much. He had some good tips, but ended by saying that JK Rowling uses a lot of adverbs. So, ultimately, I think it comes down to the story and the story-telling and at times we can become lost in editing grammar when we really should be focusing on the story. But that may also be what I tell myself.

Meditating a hairdo

I meditated last night. I'm not a person who meditates. I don't have a history with meditation, however, I did it and it was helpful. I will meditate again. More importantly, during that meditation I decided on a game plan for my hair. I haven't been happy with my hair. My hairline is receding and the length is too long in the back (which is the worst kind of mullet). So, today, inspired by my deep breathing and relaxation, I asked my hairdresser to cut my hair in such a way that I could achieve gravity-defying anime locks. It turned out well.

I went to the mall with my son today. He'd been deprived Cheesecake Factory for two years (according to him...I don't believe it's been that long...but a teenager's estimation of time elapsed between restaurant visits is entertaining exaggerated drama...like soap operas). After lunch we shopped and I spent an uncomfortable amount of time in a store called Lush. While my son perused the bath bombs I stood in the corner trying facial moisturizers on my hand. Two nice people asked me if I needed help. I smiled, babbled something incoherent, and they went away. I'm not sure what it is about that store, but every anti-social tendency I have is aggravated by it.

Spent a while on the phone with my grandmother...who is awesome.

In the late afternoon we recorded two episodes of Wekk. They were good. I'm looking forward to editing them.

Today's chapter of Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark is on passive verbs. The message was good, but the last paragraph has this sentence in it - "In his essay "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell describes the relationship between language abuse and political abuse, how corrupt leaders use the passive voice to obscure unspeakable truths and shroud responsibility for their actions." Time to look for passive voice in Trump's tweets. I'll call it writing homework.

Scanlan Is Alive (and I am very happy about that)

Friday. Friday. Friday. Friday.

Critical Role was on last night. Scanlan is alive and I am very glad about that. If you don't know what I'm talking about you are missing a fantastic show. Every week eight actors get together and play Dungeons and Dragons on Geek and Sundry's Twitch channel. My husband helpfully let me know I was crying as I watched. I let him know that it was very emotional when Grog the goliath sang a song (to the tune of the Washington Redskins fight song) to dead Scanlan. Trust me when I say the show is good.

The third chapter in Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark is about strong active verbs and how to use them. It cited an Ian Flemming Bond book, which gave it tremendous clout in my mind (because I'm a crazed James Bond fan...which I know goes against every feminist inclination I have, but I accept that about myself). I have a tendency in my writing to use passive verbs when I should be making them active and I have learned to try and catch it as I edit. I'm going to try being conscious of it during my writing tonight.

And speaking of that writing...it is slow going, but it is going.

Organizing

Today was crazy. I thought I was organized. Worked until late last night getting organized, only to find out that I was, in fact, so disorganized my to dos melted into my have dones and should haves. So I start over. A task that feels so shameful in its repetition. Getting Organized.

I read the second chapter in Writing Tools, by Roy Peter Clark. This one was on word order in sentences. Put the emphasis on the end and the beginning of the sentence. This again, is something that doesn't come naturally in my first draft stages, but in the edits, when I'm reading the work aloud, I will arrange and move and tweak until the sentences flow. I don't always succeed (especially not in my earlier work), but I'm beginning to think I can hear the melody better.

My son earned his permit today so he can begin learning how to drive. Yesterday he was just a little thing, clutching my hand, surrounding himself with his stuffed dogs, and planting stickers on every surface in my house.

I'm currently experiencing a love/hate relationship with time and plan on drowning myself in ice cream later. Seems justified.

The beginning has begun...

Chapter one for each Samantha Rialto books floats onto the page. It doesn't land with a lot of words - a thousand words tends to take a couple of days - but they are easy words, they enter with verbs and adjectives and proper sentence structure. But it is more than that. The first chapter always helps me ease back into her world, into her head, into the demons that threaten to overwhelm her. So, last night was fun for a lot of reasons, but mostly because the beginning of the book has begun.

Also, I hired an editor for my middle grade book. I love this story so much and I want it to succeed and for that I needed help. I found a wonderful freelance editor on Twitter, she sent me a sample of her work, and it looks great. We start in March. Next step is to hire an artist to draw the cover. I want something very specific sooooooooo, we'll see. But I'm going to try.

Finally, I decided to read a chapter a day on writing. Today's book is Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark. His first chapter is about structuring a sentence for success. Subject and verb at the beginning. He cites some great examples and as usual I will try and apply it during tonight's writing session, but knowing how my brain works I will forget it all and start every sentence with "I looked...."

I am challenged.

The gym and I have a love hate relationship. Today was mostly love.

They sold my hometown gym. They also changed the name of the gym to something silly - rhymes with munch. And I stopped going. There were other reasons (like work and finishing my book), but mostly it was because I knew it wouldn't feel the same.

And I was worried that with a new (idiotic) name there might be a change in clientele. Instead of middle aged "I love the treadmill" types like me there would be new folk...with muscles...and no body hair.

But today I went back, and surprise, it was mostly the same. In fact, other than the strange steel wainscoting in the lobby, everything was familiar. I grabbed my mat, tried to do some ab work, then managed not to look like a complete goof while pulling on some weights. I finished up by tromping on the treadmill like a god damn expert.

Now I just need to do this fifteen more times so I can go on a cruise and undo it all.

Expert.