Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 255

Exchanging Ideas

My husband spent five years working at Microsoft (the North Carolina division) before switching to his current corporation. It's easy to get burned out at Microsoft.

I'd drive out there once a week or more for lunch with him. They actually had a food court in the building with real chefs.

The interesting thing about Microsoft was that nearly everyone there was genius material. And…different in appearance and demeanor (lots of long beards, flip flops, unusual clothing choices...quite a...

Leaders

Saturday evening, my daughter's Brownie scout troop drove to Huntersville (about 45 minutes away) to tour a historic home dating back to 1797. Latta Plantation was having a Christmas celebration, so we were learning how Christmas was celebrated long ago.

Since I'm the Brownie leader, I was put in the position of leading. You wouldn't think this would be a problem for someone who somehow found herself in a leadership role (I was conscripted), but I'm used to leading children.

I don't...

Starting Over from Scratch

I've had a couple of questions about revisions, so I thought I'd share my revision process for a problem that was really getting on my nerves. (Boring post here! Most of us don't really like revision.)

At the end of October I was revising the latest Myrtle Clover (my personal revisions, not the editor's.) I thought the beginning was 'okay.' But the more I looked at it, the more it really started bothering me.

I tried approaching it from a couple of different directions. I switched one...

Naming Characters

There's an interesting phenomenon that happens at the pool or the playground.

One child calls, "Mom!" and about ten women swing around.

Not a good thing to have in our books, though. It's really distracting when I'm reading a book and wonder who the character is because there's a Sam and a Sid. And sometimes the author doesn't give little helpful hints to help me know which character he's referring to ("Sam the accountant. Sid, who works at the barbershop.) I try not to have names...

How Do I Do This Again?

After I write this (right now it's Wednesday morning), I'm going to knock out revisions on two separate books, then get back to writing my second book of the Memphis Barbeque series.

This will be my 5th book. I've got two books on the shelves (one of them is out of print but still out there, mainly in libraries), two books in production, and one just starting out on a Word document.

Each time I start the process I feel a little at a loss. How do I do this? How did I do it last time...

Overdoing It

I was Christmas shopping for my family last month when I saw an interesting looking top—for me. Since it was on sale, I went ahead and grabbed it. Nothing like shopping for yourself when you're supposed to be shopping for other people. :)

When I put it on the next day, my husband said, "That top looks great on you!" He complimented it a couple more times before he left for work.

Hmm, I thought. I think I'll get another top just like this one. They had a whole rack of different colors ...

Pace

My daughter and I went to see the Nutcracker ballet on Sunday afternoon.

The ballet was amazing. The Tchaikovsky music was beautiful and the dancers were so graceful. It was easy to get swept away by it.

But…during the Dance of the Snowflakes, one of the snowflakes was decidedly off.

The snowflake seemed to have a very bad cold. Maybe swine flu? She was remarkably out of breath during her leaps. Her movements didn't match the other snowflakes on stage. Her pace was all off—completely u...

How New Friends Can Help Us Keep Our Writing Fresh

My daughter's best friend is Natalie. Natalie's parents moved here from South America nine years ago.

I always enjoy going to their house. I think it's because I'm so aware how different we are. We have lots of similarities, too, but I feel like such a gringo when I visit there.

The Spanish I know came from Sesame Street in the early 1970s. They speak excellent English.

I'm always in a tearing hurry when I arrive there—I'm either there for two minutes because I'm on my way to...

Birth Order

It was a great Thanksgiving. Our family enjoyed a trip to South Carolina to visit my parents.

My sister stayed in the Charlotte area to have dinner with her husband's family there. I'll be catching up with her in a couple of days.

My sister and I, although we get along really well together, are absolutely nothing alike.

I'm very introverted; she's very extroverted. She chose a job in the financial sector where she deals with numbers daily. I chose to work with words, instead. She...

Writing: the Fantasy and the Reality

The fantasy: I knock out a ton of writing at the beginning of the day.

The reality: I'm frequently distracted by email when I first wake up. It seems vital to me that I respond immediately. This takes some time and then abruptly, it's time to drive the school carpools.

The fantasy: A picturesque writing cottage in a lovely village is my inspiring retreat as I pen timeless masterpieces that will be studied by collegians for generations.

The reality: I write on the go. I frequently...