Julia McDermott's Blog, page 7
April 4, 2016
List Post, avril 2016 (April)
I’m getting great feedback from both writers groups I’m in, on my work-in-progress, which is another novel. Thanks, Linda Sands, for connecting me to the newer one!
I’ve been selected to be a nonfiction presenting author at the Milton Literary Festival this fall. Read my updated bio here.
In case you’re wondering, we skipped a few Pizza and a Movie Fridays recently. There aren’t many films out right now that we want to see.
March 29, 2016
What he did was brave
“Scared is what you’re feeling. Brave is what you’re doing.”
-Emma Donoghue, author of ROOM
In the novel (and film) Room, maybe Ma and Jack wished they could float away in a balloon through the door when Old Nick opened it, or (magically) through the small skylight.
I’m currently reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It was on my to-be-read stack for a long time, and now I can’t put it down. But at the same time, I don’t want it to end; it’s already in the category of books that I love, and will remember. (Room is still on my to-be-read stack, but I’ve seen the movie). One of the many lines in The Book Thief that has touched me is, “But then, is there cowardice in the acknowledgement of fear?”
No, there isn’t.
In the spring of 2012, my Jack was a junior in college, and he was undergoing an MRI – a brain scan – every 3 months. Before then, it was every 2 months; later on, it was every 4-6 months. Now he is down to once a year.
That spring, my family and I attended our second Relay for Life at UGA with Jack. Early in the evening, someone gave each of us a balloon and a Sharpie. We were about to release them into the sky, to float away. But first, we were to write something on them that we wanted to let go.
It took me two seconds to decide what to write on mine.
I don’t remember what others wrote on their balloons. But as I watched mine float up and disappear, I hoped and prayed I could stop feeling scared. I was so worried about Jack, and afraid his next MRI wouldn’t be clean, and that his illness would come back.
When he was fighting cancer, Jack told me that he felt scared. But what he did was brave.
Read his story, in my book ALL THE ABOVE.
March 25, 2016
Where I’ve worked on my books, and when…
Where I was (and what the season was), when I began writing each of my books:
Book 4 (title to be revealed soon): My home office, in the winter ❄️
Book 3 (ALL THE ABOVE): My room at the One Ocean Resort & Spa in Atlantic Beach, Florida during spring break
March 24, 2016
Wine with Wendy on Wednesday, numéro six
For our March rendez vous, Wendy and I met at a French bistro in Buckhead (in Atlanta).
Some Atlantans may guess which one from the mural above (inside the restaurant). We had a lovely table near the front, lunch was very tasty, and it was wonderful catching up.
Here are a few things that I either learned, or that we talked about:
Wendy has never been to Paris (!) But she’s been to Europe many times – much more than I have.
We’d like to go to France together someday – at least, I’d love to go with her.
Current events (how could we not); football and other sports; travel destinations, domestic and international; our kids’ college news; and what our kids (of any age) choose (and choose not) to tell us
Wendy’s art projects, her approach to them, and her course(s)
The fact that she can create a painting (she calls it a “before” – it’s the model, sort of) in an hour! (Seen on her facebook page)
My inability to multitask on book projects right now, as I wait to view images to consider for my next novel (soon to be published), and try to craft the storyline and characters for my next one, which I’ve begun writing (I’m on Chapter 3)
It’s so much fun to talk about our creative endeavors, and Wendy continues to amaze me with hers. We agreed that it takes discipline for each of us to do what we do: If we don’t sit (or stand) in front of the canvas (or other surface, I’m guessing) or in my case, the computer, and work at it, it simply won’t get done.
No matter what else is going on!
March 19, 2016
Pizza and a Movie: 10 Cloverfield Lane
This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:
Banana Peppers
Pineapple
Red Onion
Movie:
10 Cloverfield Lane
I asked my husband to choose the toppings, because I had a phone call coming in when we arrived that I had been waiting to receive. I walked over to a booth while he ordered the pizza and our drinks at the counter.
He did okay (I like banana peppers, and red onion), and thoughtfully selected pineapple (one of my favorites). But it didn’t quite work for me. However, it was because of the combination; it wasn’t the restaurant’s fault.
I had chosen the movie, after glancing at the reviews online. I wish I had paid more attention to the story description, though. I was ready for suspense, but this film was more than that; it was too disturbing, and more like a horror movie, a genre I rarely like. I can’t count the number of times that I either shuddered or (partially) hid my eyes while watching it.
Think: Last year’s film Room, plus a little of the TV show Breaking Bad, plus The Cabin in the Woods, plus a bit of Halloween and even Fargo. (I liked all of those, though.) Throw in a conspiracy theorist/doomsday prepper and some science fiction (neither of which I like), and an ending that begs for a sequel.
Which, if there is one, I won’t want to see.
Ugh. It just didn’t work for me, and I came home being afraid I was going to have nightmares, and had to calm down before I went to sleep.
But even with two “misses,” I still enjoyed the evening out with my husband. It was a date night, and we had a chance to share some time together to talk, laugh, and enjoy each other. We even giggled as we walked out of the theater–not because the film was funny (it wasn’t), but because we just had to laugh at our mistakes.
March 16, 2016
Deciding what to read…and a flashback!
Start to finish, it takes (me) about two forevers to write a book. Then, when it’s finished, it gets dropped into the ocean of everything that’s available for people to read: books (in tons of genres, fiction and nonfiction); news articles/newsfeed; essays and opinion pieces; blog posts; social media updates on Facebook, Twitter, etc.; and even short stories, flash fiction and poems.
And that’s not all. There’s also entertainment like films, TV, videos, and plays–yes, plays– that pull us away from the printed written word on a page or device. So when I finish writing a book (make that, birthing my baby, because when you’re writing a book, it feels like you’re having a baby), I know it’s competing with a gazillion other things out there, to catch your eye and your attention.
So – how do I get you (y’all, and more important, all of y’all) to give my book a chance, for your time? How do I get it in front of you, even as one of your options? It’s hard, Mesdames et Messieurs. It’s quite hard.
Flashback to the 90s, when I had little kids at home, and very little time to read. But I did read. I read in the carpool line, and before I went to sleep. I read at the park. I didn’t have a device or even a laptop, and I spent little time at the desktop computer we owned. I watched movies and some TV, but I liked to read. A lot.
My four enfants (kids) on a family trip to San Francisco in the 1990s
How did I find books to read back then? Good books, that is – books that I was going to enjoy and remember? I had little time to myself, and even less to spend in those big fancy bookstores that were coming into vogue. I remember one time I got a generous gift card to spend at one of them, and I had a little time to browse while one kid was at a piano lesson, another was at dance, and the other two were at soccer. I walked into the fiction section and began to walk down the aisles.
I wanted to make some good choices; I was BUYING some books for me, and I didn’t want to regret my purchases. But I wasn’t in a book club, nor had I heard what the new must-have novels were. I was suspicious of anything positioned at the front of the store; maybe there was something for me there, but maybe not. I didn’t have time to watch Oprah, so I didn’t know what she was pushing. All I had read recently were classics that we already owned, that I either hadn’t read, or had read (but didn’t remember), or that my oldest kids were reading in school. But I didn’t want to buy a classic that day. I wanted something new and something great.
I wanted to discover something.
The clock ticked by and I made my selections. I don’t know if I wandered back to the front and picked up a best seller, or took a chance on a book whose cover I liked. Maybe I bought something written by someone whose other books I had already read and liked, such as Peter Mayle, Maeve Binchy, Ferrol Sams, David Sedaris, or Nicholas Sparks. Back then (and now) I read (and read) lots of different genres. It was great to find something new I liked, and tell people I knew about it. And now that I’m an author, that’s just what I want readers of my books to do (if they like my books, that is): tell others about them.
Even though what I like may not be what you like (or even, what I write may not be what you like), talking about books seems fun to me. I may give what you recommend a chance, and love it. But even if I don’t love it, I’ve tried it. I’ve sampled something new. I’ve given something a chance for my attention (and my brain) that somebody, somewhere sat down to write. And it may have taken them a couple of forevers to finish it.
I’ve tried my best to get the books I’ve written in front of potential readers. I’ve set up and appeared at book signings. I’ve participated in book festivals and served on panels. I’ve sent out emails, newsletters, and updates to my friends on Facebook, and followers on Twitter and Instagram. I’ve offered my books as free downloads and giveaways, produced book trailers, and thrown parties. The publisher of my suspense novel UNDERWATER has done a great job promoting it and has included it in various promotions and Kindle deals. And I’ve asked readers to write and post reviews of my books on Amazon and Goodreads.
I hope that if you discover my books, you enjoy reading them. In different genres, two are written in first person, and one in third, with multiple points of view. Two are novels (fiction) and one is a true story (memoir). My fourth book, another suspense novel, will be published very soon. Lately, I’ve begun writing my fifth book, a novel. My characters are clear in my head (and on paper), and so are some of their conflicts. But I’m still struggling with some pieces of the plot.
If you’ve read this far, you like reading; you might even love it. If you don’t love my books, or my writing, then I hope you find something in them to like–no matter how different they might be from what you expect, or usually read, like, love, or see at the front of the bookstore, in Costco, in People magazine, or on Oprah (is she still doing that?). With each book, there was a day that I got up in the morning, sat down in front of a blank computer screen, and tapped the first letter. And, IF you read one of my stories and like it, I hope you will take the time to write a review of it on Amazon. Don’t worry about exactly what to say. I promise it won’t take much time to do. I recently wrote a review of a book I had read, and it took me about five minutes.
Because what gets a book to buoy up to the surface of the reading (and entertainment) ocean–and stay there, for a while–is the number of reviews it has (and not what they say, exactly). The more reviews, the more people who find the book somehow start to think, “Hmm. That might be interesting, because so many other people thought it was.” They also know that many more people (than the number of reviewers) bought the book as well, but didn’t review it.
S’il vous plaît…Just do it. Because I did.
Merci!
March 6, 2016
Pizza and a Movie: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:
Feta Cheese
Garlic
Green Peppers
I was ready for feta cheese on a pizza, but somehow the toppings we chose didn’t quite work well together.
Movie:
Whisky Tango Foxtrot
This was more of a drama than a comedy, and at times it seemed a little slow. However, it kept me engaged in the story, and I thought Tina Fey did a great job in her role as a journalist in Afganistan. There were some very good lines, too, although – due to his Scottish accent – I didn’t quite catch everything that one character said. That’s too bad, and it made me wish that the film had had English subtitles throughout.
This was a decent to good movie, something that seems hard to find right now, just after the Academy Awards. It did a good job touching on what life is like in Afghanistan, and on the culture. All in all, it was a nice change from some of the less than great films we have been to see lately, and the cast of this movie did work well together. My advice, if you go to see it: brush up on your Scottish first.
March 1, 2016
List Post, mars 2016 (March)
Announcing a TITLE CHANGE for Book 4, a women’s fiction/psychological suspense novel! It’s no longer called A ZERO-SUM GAME. New title is better and shorter. As you might guess from the below, two characters’ names are Valerie and June. I don’t know how I came up with those names – but they worked.
No travels this month – so I hope to get lots of writing done. Then, I’ve got long weekends away in April, May, and June. Destinations: Texas – bro-in-law’s wedding; North Carolina – a “Sisters in Crime” (writers organization) presentation I’m doing with another Georgia author; Las Vegas – a sis-in-law’s (big) birthday celebration!
Book 5 (work in progress) update: I’m not even ten thousand words in (yet), but it’s taking shape…
Glad to serve as Publicity Chair for the Atlanta Chapter of Sisters in Crime . If you live in the area and receive a “Neighbor Newspaper,” check it for details on our monthly meetings!
Looking forward to connecting with a local reporter about a piece on my book ALL THE ABOVE: MY SON’S BATTLE WITH BRAIN CANCER and its nomination for the Georgia Author of the Year Award in the Memoir/Autobiography category!
Page and Word count (and other things) about my next novel, out soon. It’s finished!
February 27, 2016
Pizza and a Movie: Lady in the Van
This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:
Black Olives
Pineapple
1/2 Italian Sausage, 1/2 Jalapeños
Movie:
Lady in the Van
Just one thing to mention about the pizza: I wanted pineapple, he wanted jalapeños, and this is what we came up with. Some people love jalapeños on a pizza. I don’t.
Now, for the movie. I found this film disturbing, and not very entertaining.
I love Maggie Smith in (almost) anything, and I adore her in Downton Abbey. The best part of this movie was her performance. But the story (billed as “mostly true”) didn’t do it for me. Because of that, and because her character is so different (mentally, and in other ways) in Downton Abbey, it was difficult for me to watch Maggie Smith in this role.
I wondered, afterward, what parts of the story weren’t true, and what parts were left out. If you see it, I think you’ll know what I’m talking about. The treatment of the (real and fictional) lady in the van’s mental illness was terribly unsatisfying for me. Watching the film was like trying to solve a puzzle without all the pieces. And I don’t like that kind of puzzle, anyway.
I’ll be watching the Oscars this weekend, and I don’t believe Lady in the Van has been nominated for anything. Some people, I’ve heard, loved this film, and the performances.
To each his own.
February 25, 2016
Wine with Wendy on Wednesday, numéro cinq
This month, Wendy and I met for lunch at another Atlanta French restaurant.
We ordered our wine immediately, but we took a few minutes to order our food. The restaurant is a favorite – I’ve been to parties there – and the salmon salad I had was delicious.
We talked about travels (past and upcoming), schedules (she has a busy one!), movies we’ve seen, and books we’ve read. And, movies we’ve seen based on books – some that we’ve read – and whether we felt they were well adapted to the big screen. I described what’s going on with my books, and revealed the (new) title for my next novel, which is coming out soon.
It’s NOT A Zero-Sum Game, after all. I’ve chosen a shorter, catchier title that fits the story much better. Wendy said she thought it was awesome!
Which made me feel even more convinced that I’ve made the right decision.
Here’s a hint: It’s two words, and describes the main character. I can’t wait to see how it looks on the cover. Who knows, I may have the book in my hands the next time Wendy and I meet (in March) for déjeuner!
