M.J. Pullen's Blog, page 20

Book Reviews: Do As I Say, Not as I (Don’t) Do

A couple of people have asked me lately about my ratings on Goodreads and why I don’t seem to write reviews of the books I’ve read there. People also sometimes come across my blog and ask me to review their books here, and I almost always politely turn them down. The answer is that I don’t write book reviews, generally. Not on my blog, not on Amazon, and rarely on Goodreads. I’ve gone back and forth about this over the years, and that’s the conclusion to which I keep returning.

I know, it’s terrible. I’m a writer, and I frequently ask and hope that people will review my books. In case you are wondering, this totally does make me a hypocritical and selfish ass hat.

But for anyone interested, here are the enumerated reasons for this ass-hattery:

Reviews often reflect as much on the reviewer as they do on the book. If I were to write book reviews, I would want them to be genuine, and fully reflect my carefully-thought-out opinions as I read (or often, listened to) the book in question. It’s the only way they would be meaningful for me or the people who might read them. What’s more, people who publicly identify themselves as writers, and review books by other authors, should be (and are) held to a higher standard of quality, depth and perspective than a reviewer who is “just” a reader. This is both because of professional courtesy to treat other writers the way you expect to be treated, and because readers may put more weight on a writer’s opinion. The time it takes to do that justice means less time for reading and writing.
As a writer and friend, I am an absolute cheerleader for all writers. I carry a deep, harrowed understanding of all the work and hair-pulling that goes into simply completing a book of any kind. Putting words on a page in front of everyone takes courage; I try to treat other writers with the awe and respect they deserve.
As a reader, however, I’m a raving, critical bitch. In college I remember actually throwing Pat Conroy’s Beach Music across the room because he used the phrase “my native tongue” about thirty times to describe the sound of his fellow South Carolinians talking. Now, I love Conroy’s writing and admire him personally. But the overuse of that one little phrase, and the editorial laziness it implied, simply irked my arrogant 20-year-old self (who had no idea what an undertaking that novel must have been). I was reading that particular book for pleasure, between semesters as an English major at the University of Georgia, and I threw the damn thing against a wall. I’m aware there may be something wrong with me. Let’s call it a passion for getting things right in writing. I notice when authors get it right, and it keeps me coming back for more. But like most people with a critically-wired brain, I notice more often what is not right. It’s the sand in the oyster. This can be a good thing, when someone asks me to critique their work, or when I am turning my glare on my own work to make it better. Not so good when publicly reviewing books written by people I might see at a conference next month. Mr. Conroy, no hard feelings, right?
Hypocrisy, Level II. Whenever I have attempted to sit down and write a review of a book I’ve read recently, I find that the critical things I want to say, the things that would actually be helpful to potential readers, are things people might just as easily say about one of my books. I’ve done much worse than write “my native tongue” one time too many. This is a terrific discovery for me when I find it; it helps me see where my own work needs improvement. But it doesn’t seem fair to call out another author for making mistakes that I’ve clearly made myself. Maybe that’s silly, but it’s how I feel.
My reading lacks focus. I read whatever interests me, from any genre. I read more in the genres in which I write, obviously, but I’m not an “expert” in any one genre, which I believe lessens the quality and context of my reviews. It’s hard to accurately rate how well a book fulfills the expectations and compares to others of its genre when you’ve only read a handful of books from that genre lately. It’s great for my writing and I love reading this way, but it can make me a poor reviewer.
I am a slow and inconsistent reader, and my brain works more by intuition than methodology. Often my experience with a particular book depends on the context in which I’ve read it and what was going on for me emotionally at the time. It’s often difficult for me to separate my experience of the book from the book itself, making my opinions less than useful for other people. “Patience” by Guns N’ Roses will always be THE song about love and longing as far as I’m concerned, because it was the soundtrack to one of my earliest experiences with yearning and heartbreak. You couldn’t pay me enough money to go back and be thirteen again, btw. Does that mean it’s an empirically good song, from a critical standpoint? Would I recommend it to someone looking for a power ballad to crush an adolescent girl’s heart in 2014? Maybe not. Same with The Lovely Bones or A Soldier of the Great War.

I’m not saying my opinions are useless, of course. If you’ve read this blog ever, you know I am pretty free with my point of view on things. And there are certainly exceptions to my book review policy, if you can even call it that. I have put short reviews on Goodreads about writing-related books because I see myself in the consumer/student role for those books rather than a peer/professional role. And if a fellow author or friend ever thinks I’m important enough to invite me to write a blurb for their book or to ask me to review their book, I will do that as long as I can honestly and without reservation say that I love it. But if I don’t have anything nice to say… well, I’ll change the subject.

Chime in! Have you ever read (or avoided) a book because of a review by another author, or the blurb on the front cover? What is your reaction when authors review other people’s books? What about my fellow writers? Do you guys do book reviews? Why or why not? Under which circumstances?

While you’re thinking about your comments, please enjoy six minutes of pre-90′s tormented adolescent lust.

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I’m M.J. (Manda) Pullen, an author and mom in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I blog about writing, publishing, motherhood, health, psychology and whatever else strikes me in the moment. I’ve been walking the streets at night, just trying to get it right…

If you enjoyed this entry, please follow along or join my Inner Circle monthly email list. At the end of each month I do random drawings with various prizes for list subscribers, the friends who refer them, and everyone who comments on the blogs. Good luck with that!

My current roster of books includes The Marriage Pact series, a trilogy of Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction novels. You can find them for all eBook formats and in paperback here.

The post Book Reviews: Do As I Say, Not as I (Don’t) Do appeared first on MJ Pullen.

Reading List Update

A few of the books on my list, and of course my trusty Kindle!

Happy Almost-Truly-but-in-practicality-it’s already-Summer!! I just this morning finished listening to Neil Gaiman read me his novel, Ocean at the End of the Lane. It’s not my usual kind of book, but I enjoyed it and I like that his voice sometimes sounded like Alan Rickman. (

Since we are nearly halfway through the year, I thought I’d do an update post to let you know how the reading list is going. In case you missed it, you can find the original list from January here. You can also find this list, add the books to your own shelves, and see my ratings at my shelf on Goodreads.

As of today! Read, re-read or listened to on audible from original list:

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #1) by Sophie Kinsella
The Five Destinies of Carlos Moreno by George Weinstein
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Divergent (Divergent, #1) by Veronica Roth
Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, and the Scary by Jill Smokler
Voyager (Outlander, #3) by Diana Gabaldon
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Rise of the Machines–Human Authors in a Digital World by Kristen Lamb

Still to read from original list:

179 Ways to Save a Novel: Matters of Vital Concern to Fiction Writers by Peter Selgin
Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson
Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful, #1) by Jamie McGuire
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
On Writing by Stephen King
Pieces of the Heart by Karen White
Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making by John Fox
Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys by Dan Kindlon
Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
Strange Brew by Mary Kay Andrews
The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are by Danny Gregory
The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman
The Reading Group: A Novel  by Elizabeth Noble
The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
The Violets of March by Sarah Jio
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner
Writing from Life by Susan Wittig Albert
Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

Read, despite that it did not appear on original list:

Drums of Autumn (Outlander #4) by Diana Gabaldon
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green [absolutely beautiful book]

Added to list:

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
and others…

So. I have some catching up, and maybe even some list-adjusting, to do. To some extent, I blame Diana Gabaldon, since the Outlander series gets me so absorbed it’s hard to stop listening, and those books are 30+ hours each. In general, I have at least three or four books going at a time: a paperback or two, something on the Kindle, and an audiobook for the car. I tend to jump in and out of the non-fiction/writing craft books, and then come back to them, so several of those have been started but not finished. There are many busy days in which the audiobook is the only reading I get (thank goodness for Audible!).

I’m tinkering with both women’s fiction and a mystery/thriller series right now, the latter of which is pushing me out of my usual genres. I may have to make room on the list for more detective-type novels as the year progresses.  How’s your reading year going? Any favorites or life-changers since January? What are you taking to the beach this summer?

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I’m M.J. (Manda) Pullen, an author and mom in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I blog about writing, publishing, motherhood, health, psychology and whatever else strikes me in the moment.

If you enjoyed this entry, please follow along or join my Inner Circle monthly email list. At the end of each month I do random drawings with various prizes for list subscribers, the friends who refer them, and everyone who comments on the blogs. Good luck with that!

My current roster of books includes The Marriage Pact series, a trilogy of Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction novels. You can find them for all eBook formats and in paperback here.

The post Reading List Update appeared first on MJ Pullen.

Moms & Dads, Happy & Sad

I’m feeling a bit of turmoil the last couple of days. The kids have been crazy off, especially Skywalker, who is still adjusting to the long hot days at his new summer camp. Maybe it’s because today Friday the 13th AND a full moon, and the whole week has been weird in preparation.

It could also be that it’s been 13 years today since I suddenly lost my mom – an anniversary that is sometimes easier than others but never forgotten. Father’s Day is coming up this weekend, too, which means missing the dad I lost to cancer almost three years ago — and celebrating the always-amazing father of Skywalker and Fozzie. Lots of mixed emotions, needless to say.

I found an old picture of my dad and me that I posted on Facebook yesterday, and as I was scrolling through my pictures folder, I happened to see these other two as well.  I thought they made for nice juxtaposition. Hope you have a wonderful weekend celebrating, remembering, or even just longing for the important men in your life.

Me and my pops circa 1977

Thirty years later (2007)

Now it’s Fozzie taking the ride (last week at Disney)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I’m M.J. (Manda) Pullen, an author and mom in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I blog about writing, publishing, motherhood, health, psychology and whatever else strikes me in the moment.

If you enjoyed this entry, please follow along or join my Inner Circle monthly email list. At the end of each month I do random drawings with various prizes for list subscribers, the friends who refer them, and everyone who comments on the blogs. Good luck with that!

My current roster of books includes The Marriage Pact series, a trilogy of Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction novels. You can find them for all eBook formats and in paperback here.

The post Moms & Dads, Happy & Sad appeared first on MJ Pullen.

It’s a Magical Life

Yo Ho Let’s Go… get one of those Mickey-shaped ice cream bars!

Well, we did it. We managed to conquer the various kingdoms of Disneyworld in Orlando last week, hauling around a couple of tired and over-stimulated kids who, in my opinion, seriously don’t appreciate how much more fun life is for them than it was when we were kids. Exactly like our parents did before us. So goes the tradition.

I have to admit I enjoyed the trip much more than I expected I would, and while I don’t think we’re going to become Disney-every-year people, we might be Disney-every-two-to-three-years-depending-on-everything-else people. It really was fun.

Very few times did I roll my eyes at the constant wishful, wishy, wishing-ness of it all. Full disclosure: I did smirk almost every time someone told me to “Have a magical day!” because I couldn’t help but imagine them saying it in the most vicious tone of voice possible. Sort of like when Southern women say “Bless your heart” but what they really mean is “Please go fuck yourself.” Hey, I said I had fun, I didn’t say I was a brand new person.

Except for a few tantrums and having to strap Fozzie into a leash at Downtown Disney, I loved my job as Mommy last week. I am a somewhat strict parent during most of the year: not Joan Crawford or anything, but my kids do hear “no” more than some, and waaaay more than others. I love vacation because I get to to be the Mom Who Says Yes. Can we have ice cream? Yes. Will you go on the water slide with me? Yes. Can we wait two hours for the Seven Dwarves mine train? No. (Eh, can’t win ‘em all).

I like that Disney gives you plenty of things to say “Yes” to, and gives you so many options that even a “No” can quickly be turned into a “Yes” about something else. Also, the magic bands and the Fastpass+ system made life soooo much easier. That magic band is awesome: it’s your hotel key, your credit card, your photopass for all those great pictures and your fast pass (basically, a pass to jump the line) for three rides or shows a day. You can often change the options and plans with your phone in the park. It’s pretty stinkin’ cool.

Before we went, I heard people complaining about Disney tracking people with the wrist bands, and about halfway into the trip I realized I don’t care if Disney is tracking my movements, as long as I can pay for my Starbucks without pulling out my wallet and visit Mickey without making Skywalker and Fozzie wait in line for an hour, where they pull on my shirt and poke at each other and whine about EVERYTHING. So. Worth. It. Hubs and I actually said this into the magic bands a couple of times in case Mickey was listening. If Big Brother turns out to be a cartoon mouse, I want to be on his good side.

Totally pretending this picture wasn’t my idea. Ooh! Muffins!

Now that we’re back (and no longer wearing our magic bands, you’ll be happy to know), the hardest part has been adjusting to life at home where there isn’t non-stop entertainment and spectacle. I have been very disappointed since our return that not once has traffic been suddenly cleared off for a parade. And not enough things in the real world light up, spin or sing. I’m just saying.

Skywalker told us yesterday that his incredibly awesome and expensive summer camp was “boring,” and we finally pulled it out of him that he meant “boring compared to Disneyworld.” Sigh. Things will never be the same, will they? Now my kids know what magical really is and that most of life is not exactly magical.

That said, I am happy to be able to sleep once again in a separate room from my children and to be back with my trusty laptop. I’m a little behind on writing this spring, which is a lot like being away from the gym for an extended period. Once you get behind by a few weeks, it feels like starting over completely when you try to get back to work. (I also started over at Jazzercise yesterday and totally fell on my ass during class — more on that later).

Few people know that before she met Mickey, Minnie was a CIA operative. True story.

Even though it’s time to get back to work and discontinue eating dessert for three meals a day, I’m going to try to channel my inner Minnie Mouse just a tiny bit this summer. Maybe I’ll be less cynical and sarcastic. Maybe I’ll be the kind of wife to Hubs that I imagine Minnie is to her main mouse. Or I’ll just try to wear more polka dots.

Please look for blogs to be a little sporadic this summer as I navigate the world of summer camps and vacations, and fall into sugar-induced comas more often than usual. And if you see Minnie’s dress in my size, let me know!

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I’m M.J. (Manda) Pullen, an author and mom in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I blog about writing, publishing, motherhood, health, psychology and whatever else strikes me in the moment. Every time I successfully publish a blog, an angel gets his wings. Wait, that might be something else.

If you enjoyed this entry, please follow along or join my Inner Circle monthly email list. At the end of each month I do random drawings with various prizes for list subscribers, the friends who refer them, and everyone who comments on the blogs. Good luck with that!

My current roster of books includes The Marriage Pact series, a trilogy of Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction novels. You can find them for all eBook formats and in paperback here.

The post It’s a Magical Life appeared first on MJ Pullen.

Favorite Romantic Movies

I came across this great YouTube compilation of someone’s Top 50 romantic movies and thought it was good enough to share. Do you ever get the feeling from a list like this that you could absolutely be friends with the person who made it?

Some of the highlights of this list for me are: Shakespeare in Love, Dirty Dancing, Moulin Rouge, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Atonement, Pretty Woman, Pride & Prejudice, The English Patient, Sleepless in Seattle, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Titanic, Casablanca and Annie Hall.

There are several on this poster’s list I haven’t seen, and a few I would add:

If Lloyd Dobler means nothing to you, we cannot be friends. Okay, we can be friends, but you should see this movie. (Image: 20th Century Fox)

Like Water for Chocolate
When Harry Met Sally
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
An Affair to Remember
Say Anything
Reality Bites
Dan in Real Life
Bridget Jones
The Wedding Banquet
Love Actually
About Time
Westside Story
Princess Bride
The End of the Affair

I love classic romances and quirky comedies, and movies that capture a time and place through a love story. Some of my favorites are empirically solid choices (so you can’t dispute them – don’t even try), while others are probably favorites because of the age I was when I saw them or a favorite actor. We always remember the stories that teach us about love.

What are your favorites?

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I’m M.J. (Manda) Pullen, an author and mom in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I blog about writing, publishing, motherhood, health, psychology and whatever else strikes me in the moment. Occasionally I sneak out for a movie and mix Reese’s Pieces into the popcorn bucket. Now that’s love.

If you enjoyed this entry, please follow along or join my Inner Circle monthly email list. At the end of each month I do random drawings with various prizes for list subscribers, the friends who refer them, and everyone who comments on the blogs. Good luck with that!

My current roster of books includes The Marriage Pact series, a trilogy of Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction novels. You can find them for all eBook formats and in paperback here.

 

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How Divergent Are You?

I’m making my way through my 2014 reading list, which I probably should update for you soon, and I’ve just started listening to the audiobook version of the YA dystopian mega-hit Divergent. (Yes, I’m waaaay behind the times, I know).

For those who haven’t read it yet, Divergent is based on a future in which society has been broken into factions based on five basic personality traits: amity (friendship), dauntlessness (courage), erudition (knowledge), candor (honesty) and abnegation (selflessness). I won’t divulge too much about the consequences of this division or its implications for the story’s heroine, but the premise of the book has me wondering if I had to squeeze my identity into a single-trait box, what would it be?

Image credit: clker

Well, first of all, it could never be one trait. One of my favorite concepts from my psychology days is the Jungian concept of shadows. Carl Jung described the shadow as the “dark side” of ourselves, the parts of ourselves that are beyond our awareness or unconscious. Specifically, he talked about the shadow side of traits — for every trait we see in ourselves, there is a shadow side of which we may not be aware. I like to oversimplify this and just say that every characteristic has two sides, like a coin. One is potentially positive and the other negative, or at least they might produce different results for us. Caution is seen as a positive trait, but its shadow side is fearfulness or anxiety. Bravery is a good thing, recklessness may not be beneficial.

Because of the shadow side, I tend to think that our traits group themselves in balancing pairs. So if each coin has two sides, this would be two coins balancing one another out. When I try to think of characteristics that define who I am, the first one that comes to mind is Independence. I absolutely do not like to be told what to do. Try it, I dare ya! Personal freedom is high on my values list because I think in general we should have as little telling each other what to do as possible. The shadow side of Independence is Defiance, for which any one of my high school teachers can provide examples. Bless them. (It might help them to know I’m getting a big taste of the shadow side of this trait from Skywalker, who is exactly like me in this respect. Sigh.)

But just when I think that Independence is my defining trait, I stop to think about how little I enjoy being alone, and how much I value relationships with others. If you only care about doing your own thing, you’re not going to be super social; but I am. I think this is because my balancing trait is Empathy. I feel the pain of others incredibly deeply. (Hubs would say here that it’s sometimes too deeply for my own good). Some acquaintances of ours had a major family crisis recently, and I tossed and turned all night worrying about them, despite the fact that there was nothing at all I could do to help. Empathy drew me to counseling as a profession, and empathy is one reason I had to take a step back. There are definitely pros and cons to being able to walk in others’ shoes, to imagine someone else’s world as though it were your own.

For me Independence and Empathy balance one another, keeping me connected to those around me without completely losing my sense of self. Sometimes they work well together, other times the results are… well, less than perfect. As for which one I would select at a Choosing Ceremony to be my defining community forever? Hmm… I would have to think about that for a while. Would I go with the Empaths, who would focus on feeling the pain of others, or the Independents, who would focus on freedom and differences? I think maybe in the end I’d be selfish (or idealistic) and pick independence.

What about you? If you had to pick one or two characteristics that define you, what would they be? Could you choose one to be your community forever?

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I’m M.J. (Manda) Pullen, an author, mom and independent empath in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I blog about writing, publishing, motherhood, health, psychology and whatever else strikes me in the moment.

If you enjoyed this entry, please follow along or join my Inner Circle monthly email list. At the end of each month I do random drawings with various prizes for list subscribers, the friends who refer them, and everyone who comments on the blogs. Good luck with that!

My current roster of books includes The Marriage Pact series, a trilogy of Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction novels. You can find them for all eBook formats and in paperback here.

The post How Divergent Are You? appeared first on MJ Pullen.

My Writing Process Blog

This post is part of a blog tour series in which writers answer a set of questions about their writing process, and tag other writers to keep it going the following week. Many thanks to my friend and critique buddy Chris Negron for tagging me! Chris is an agented writer on the verge of international acclaim, repped by Amy Cloughley of Kimberly Cameron & Associates. And there’s Japanese archery. Naturally.

What are you working on?

Revisions – Round One

I’m always working on more than one thing. I’m pretty ADD like that, and while I don’t recommend it, I’ve learned to accept it’s part of how I work. I start multiple projects and tend to them a little at a time until one of them catches hold and demands my full attention. Right now I’m working on a couple of stories based in Atlanta: one takes place during “Snowmaggedon” this past January, and another involves a battle between two food truck proprietors. I have also started a women’s fiction novel about what happens when a marriage is on the verge of destruction, and I’m tinkering with a fun story about a reluctant sleuth who is a single mom. The mystery genre is new to me, so that one is particularly challenging. I’m still in love with romantic comedies, too, and I look forward to finding another great story along the lines of The Marriage Pact series.

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

What I love about the romance genre is that it transports me (temporarily) into another life – one that takes my breath away and promises me a satisfying ending. While a good romance always has some escapism, elements that are outside the scope of our ‘normal’ lives, I like for my characters and their relationships to be as realistic as possible. When I can relate to a character as a human being, not just a beautiful cardboard cutout, I find it’s easier to get absorbed in the story.

So, I want my heroes and heroines to have real flaws – not just cute little quirks. They should make mistakes, even big ones like Marci in The Marriage Pact, and deal with the consequences. When people read the interactions between my characters, I hope they feel they could be hanging out with their own friends, or flirting with their very own sheriff’s deputy or country music superstar. (Okay, so not everything is realistic!) I have a psychology background and experience as a relationship therapist, so I have access to an entire spectrum of human nature that I try to put to use in my writing. Plus I’ve had a really weird life myself, which helps more than anything. I hope that all somehow comes together to make my work a realistic, funny read. And if not, it’s still a great way to kill a few hours on the beach.

Why do you write what you do?

I’m kind of obsessed with people and relationships. Even my non-writing career has pretty much boiled down to developing and nurturing relationships. When I write, I think about plot, but I live with my characters. My favorite thing is the way they interact to screw things up for each other. Relationships bring out that best and the worst in all of us, and I’m fascinated by that.

Love stories are one of the most accessible kind of relationships for readers, but I also love exploring friendships, relationships between parents and children, bosses and underlings, etc. At the end of the day, we’re all seeking connection. The goal of my writing is to connect with readers’ emotions and impact them in some small way.

How does your writing process work?

It starts with an idea, or as I mentioned earlier, several ideas. I tend to sketch out notes in my head first, talking to myself in the shower or in the car after I’ve dropped off the kids. Now that I’ve written three novels as more of a ‘pantser’ (someone who writes by the seat of their pants), I am trying to refine my early process a bit to include more planning in the beginning. I use character maps and dossiers to understand back story and what motivates each character to do what they do. I also plot out the story arc on index cards to make sure it flows the way it should.

I write a first draft in a software program called Scrivener – which allows me to easily move pieces around and put things in the scrap pile as needed. This process involves lots of coffee, jazz, closing the door to my office, and occasional screaming. I try to bind and gag my internal critic while I’m writing and just let it flow, but to be honest that bitch is pretty loud and I think she’s learning Morse code. Once I’ve released her, I often go back and toss entire chapters and I’ve been known to start over more than once. This probably, eventually, produces great results. In the moment, though, it feels more like AAAAAAAAARGH!

Revisions – Round Four or Five (aka Sticky Note Hell)

When I’m close to finished, I export the whole thing to a Word document and send it to my local printer. He puts it together in a book format for me, which I take to a quiet spot (like a corner booth in an Irish pub or a coffee house) and tear it up with a pen.

I make those edits, re-print and go at it again. And again. Somewhere in there I try to take a step back and work on something else for a little while, to give myself a break and fresh eyes. I also read parts of the work out loud – sometimes to myself, sometimes to other people (like my fabulous critique group). This helps cure wordiness and artificial-sounding dialogue.

When I feel I’m getting close, I send the draft to my beta readers and give myself a break while they read the book. That’s when I start work on the cover concept with my designer, sketch the blurb, etc. Then I feed the beta readers vast quantities of wine and cheese and listen to their feedback. Once I’ve recovered from that hangover, I color code the whole manuscript according to the various issues that need attention. One color is for timing and plot issues, one color for character development, one for major scene editing, one for minor issues, etc. You can see a picture of this point in the process at the right – Sticky Note Hell. It’s pretty painful, but that trash can full of itty bitty stickies at the end is totally satisfying.

One more run-through later, the book is ready for the proofreader. She catches all the stuff I missed in previous rounds and checks for other problems with punctuation, grammar, and overall consistency. I can’t emphasize enough how important this part of the process is – the devil really is in the details.

Thanks for reading! If you are a writer and want to know more about my writing process and the lessons I’ve learned in the process of writing three novels, please join my Writers & Authors list here. Next week, please visit the Writing Process posts from these two great emerging voices in Atlanta. You’re tagged, Tracy and Ryan!

Tracy Cembor, Steam Punk Mama

Tracy Cembor
Balancing her days between a full-time job, chasing a preschooler, and rocking the baby to sleep, Tracy Cembor still finds time for writing.  Some days it is only half an hour eating a turkey sandwich and putting pen to paper.  Other days there are sparks flying from the keyboard.  Either way, it is always an adventure.  Goggles are not required, but strongly recommended.

Currently Tracy Cembor is finishing her rough draft of THE DREAMLESS CITY, the first book in a steampunk urban fantasy series about a girl and her imaginary horse in a cobblestoned metropolis where no one dreams.  She is also finalizing her novella LIFE OF A FOUNDRY MOTH, which started as interactive writing project with her followers and was Freshly Pressed on WordPress’s front page.  She plans to have her novella self-published Summer 2014.

You can find Tracy at her website and blog.

 

Ryan Van Meter

Ryan Van Meter, Bookshelf Tipper

A lifelong resident of Atlanta, Ryan Van Meter has loved books for as long as he can remember – at least since his Dad gave him a dollar for reading one of those texts assigned from the family bookshelf. Although he still feels at home picking up something from Steinbeck or Shaara, he found his reading passions in Southern literature and detective fiction.  He still finds himself reading occasional pages of William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! at night on his deck when the Georgia heat really kicks in, and he was thrilled to recently discover that there were still some Lew Archer novels he hadn’t read yet.

After getting his law degree at UVA, Ryan drifted from his passion for writing early in his legal career, but he rediscovered it a few years ago while writing a children’s book for his first nephew. Now he spends his spare time spinning yarns that meld his experience as a lawyer and former Congressional staffer with his loves of the South and a good mystery. When he’s not writing, you can find him walking to a Braves game, cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens, snapping photos on vacation, or caring as best he can for his yard in the Georgia heat.

Ryan lives in the Peoplestown neighborhood of Atlanta with his bulldog, Cameron.  Find him at his WordPress blog or on Twitter @ryanjvanmeter.

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I’m M.J. (Manda) Pullen, an author and mom in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I blog with honesty and humor about writing, publishing, motherhood, psychology and whatever else strikes me in the moment. Look for me at the local Irish pub. I’ll be the one covered in ink and sticky notes, muttering to myself about scene structure.

If you enjoyed this entry, please follow along with my blog or join my Writers and Authors Email List. At the end of each month I do random drawings with various prizes for list subscribers, the friends who refer them, and everyone who comments on the blogs. Good luck with that!

My current roster of books includes The Marriage Pact series, a trilogy of Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction novels. You can find them for all eBook formats and in paperback here.

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Pre-K Graduation Day

Okay, I’m totally indulging in a little Mommy-gushing for this blog. I just refuse to believe that my little Skywalker (the new nickname I’m assigning him since the “Little Monkey” moniker I gave him early on in this blog now seems babyish and inappropriate) graduated from Pre-Kindergarten today. I remember kids ‘graduating’ from Pre-K in recent years, and thinking that this is one of those graduation rituals that is less about accomplishment and more about preparing kids and their parents for ‘real school’ to start.

Now that we’re here, though, and I look back to when Skywalker started the journey with this preschool at 14 months old, I realize that it really is a big deal. I know people have differing opinions about preschool/daycare during the early years, and I certainly struggled with it sometimes as I tried to find the balance that worked best for our family.

But this little school is where he learned his prayers, learned to make friends on his own, learned to sing and dance in front of a crowd, learned to spell and write his name and count to well over 100. I realize how much the teachers and staff and other parents have become family – more like an extension of our household than mere caretakers. We are fortunate to have this kind of environment for Skywalker and Fozzie, and I admit I have taken it for granted sometimes.

Now that we are preparing to brave the waters of public school, where Skywalker will be one excellent little fish in a very large pond; it seems important to notice all that he learned and became during these early years. I will always remember the day this past fall when (at barely four years old) he patiently corrected me in the car on the way home from school: “The sun isn’t going down, Mommy. The earth is turning away from the sun. It just looks like it’s going down.” Somewhere his physicist Granddad was smiling about that one.

For everything that he learned, Skywalker has taught me ten times more about myself – as a parent and a person. It hasn’t always been an easy journey, but I can’t imagine loving a single human being more and even though it may sound trite and run-of-the-mill, I could not be one tenth of an ounce prouder of this kid. He just… rocks. We’re heading for new teachers and new friends and a BIG cafeteria in the fall, with big-kid camp adventures (fishing, rock-climbing, archery!) in the meantime. I’m not one of those parents who wishes they would stay babies or toddlers forever. I’ve loved these ages, but frankly, for me the toddler years have been beyond exhausting. They require infinite patience, which is not exactly my strong suit. There’s sooo much fun ahead. I’m looking forward to watching them learn and grow and develop into really fantastic, independent human beings.

Whatever Skywalker sets his heart and mind to from here, you better believe I’ll be there, cheering him on and making him stand for awkward pictures.

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My Weight Watchers App is Turning into a Jewish Mother

Okay, okay. I’ll admit it. I have been really struggling with the food thing lately. I haven’t been avoiding wheat and yeast entirely, and I haven’t been avoiding sugar much at all. When sugar calls, I answer the phone on the first ring, and I don’t even bother to pretend I was about to call someone else. I’m not good at being coy. I have a weakness for chocolate, and birthday cake, and wine, and beer, and ice cream, and beer-flavored ice cream. Also cheese. And cheese flavored with beer. When it comes to dieting, my weaknesses are starting to outnumber my strengths. Hey, wait — this armor isn’t armor at all! It’s just silver body paint!

MJ Pullen.

Happy Birthday Hubs!

Today the love of my life, while still younger than I am, is officially in the MIDDLE of his fourth decade on earth. This blog is going to be short and sweet because we have so much going on today (much of it not even related to his birthday, poor guy). But still, he should know, and you should know, that I know how incredibly lucky I am to have a guy like him. You know?

Many people go their whole lives without finding someone with whom they can really connect, someone who supports them unconditionally no matter what, someone who can consistently make them laugh at least once a day. I’m so fortunate that I have found all three wrapped up in the same person. He’s the first one to read anything I write, the first voice I want to hear every morning, the first one by my side in a crisis (and we’ve certainly had plenty of those). He’s an amazing dad and the kind of guy you want on your team, no matter what kind of castle onslaught you’re planning.

So just for him, I am posting this video that I am 1200% sure will make him laugh. Happy birthday, honey. Enjoy some people walking into doors.

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