Cathy Yardley's Blog, page 3

Bra Wishes

Actually, the title of this post was going to be "Boob Wishes" but then I thought — okay, do I want the ads that Facebook is going to put up when I post that?  Lingerie I can handle.  Otherwise…. um, no.

So what's the deal with bra wishes?

First off: this is not about wanting more impressive cleavage, or even a Victoria's Secret gift certificate.

I'm a part of a wonderful online writer's group.  A few years ago, we were kicking around the concept of writing down what you want, and sort of law-of-attraction stuff.  The key was to keep a copy of what you wanted on you all the time… keep it top of mind.  The Chicken Soup for the Soul guys reportedly had a piece of paper with "I am going to make $1 million" or something in their wallets as they were selling their first book — and yeah, they hit their target.

Being the hilarious, bent  women that my writing friends are, one immediately piped up "I'm tucking my goal in my bra!"

Hence, "boob wishes" were born.

It became part of our vernacular.  When you wanted something, you were "writing up a boob wish."   They were never official, and never really tracked — just things we sort of spouted off about, joked about.  But some of us actually wrote them down, tucked them in.

And then they started coming true.

Not just little goals, either.  Big stuff.  Someone finally sold a book.  Someone's series got picked up.  Not one but two of our authors became New York Times bestsellers in less than three months of each other.

I could not have been happier.  And when they credited their boob wishes, I thought… okay, why am I not doing this?

Some notes on boob wishing…

After one week of official "boob wishing," I've discovered the following tips:

1.  Use a small piece of paper. Preferably one that's a bit kinder, too.  I've discovered that folded up, my "wish" had some sharp edges. While it definitely made me very, very aware of what I had as a goal all day, I don't know if that's the point.

2. Make sure your bra fits.  Otherwise, the nice checker at the supermarket may wonder why you suddenly had a folded up piece of paper fall out of your sweater while paying for groceries. You may wonder why I know this.

3.  Do it every day.  I've found that the act of popping that sucker in my bra in the morning is both symbolic ritual and a sign of consistency. I'm devoted enough to carry this piece of paper, with my goal, as close to my heart as possible.  And I'm consciously choosing to do it every single morning.

It doesn't have to be your bra.  One of my friends has switched to a "wish necklace/prayer box" that she wears on a chain around her neck. Others can do the wallet thing, or have it posted on a bulletin board. The trick, I believe, is being conscious… and choosing to follow your goal, through whatever reminder system works.  The sillier and more over the top, the better.

I'll tell you what happens, and if the magic of the bra works its wonders yet again.

What about you?  What's your boob wish?

©2011 Cathy Yardley Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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There Is No Try.

"Do, or do not… there is no try." — Yoda

Okay. This statement has been quoted by geeks everywhere.  It's usually the glib, ass-kicking,  "put up or shut up" quote that encourages pop culture freaks like myself to go out there and, excuse the expression, just do it.  Except I've been in writer's block at various points… and believe me, if I could've "just done it," I would have.

As a result, I really took umbrage at the "there is no try" philosophy.  Sometimes, I argued, all you had was "try."  Progress, not perfection.  Getting something on the page is better than getting nothing on the page.

I've recently discovered a different interpretation to the quote.

Think about the last time a friend asked you to do something.

If you say, "Yeah, sure, sounds like fun," you're putting it in your calendar.  Possibly in pen.

If you say, "I'll try," I've generally meant "I really doubt it, and I don't really want to, but I don't want to hurt you with a 'no' so I'll use this."

If I say I'm trying to do something in a week, I generally give myself wiggle room… it doesn't mean I'm going to commit to it.

If someone calls me on my crap, and I say "I'm trying my best," I mean it. But at the same time, it gives me a certain excuse: I'm still not owning my crap, per se.  I'm justifying it.

The difference between doing and trying.

I realized that I've been pretty stressed about my writing career for a while, which is the first floor in the worry building, with an express elevator to insanity.  There are so many variables that are out of my control. I can't say "I'm going to write a bestseller" because there's no way that's something I can influence.  It was, I've always thought, unhealthy.

But the difference is, if I say I'm going to do it, and then my books sell two copies and I get dropped by my publishers and my agents put out a hit on me, I can't say "I'm not a bestseller" definitively — because I'm not dead yet. As long as I can still write, I'm still in the game.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." — Thomas Edison

It's a matter of commitment.  I need to make smart goals, sure… but I also need to commit to an outcome. I need to connect with the things that keep my engine running toward what I want. I need to support others in their goals, and ask for help in mine.

I need to stop trying, and start doing.

©2011 Cathy Yardley Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Writing is Like a Chocolate Chip Cookie

I've been searching for the perfect chocoalte chip cookie recipe.  In my quest, I discovered truths about my writing.

Okay, how is a chocolate chip cookie like writing a novel?

Let me preface this: my husband's a cook at heart. He rarely uses recipes, going by the seat of his pants with whatever ingredients are at hand.  Which means the same thing is rarely replicated.

I'm a baker. There's a scientific precision to baking: you don't futz with something or leave something out without a clear consequence. You don't "wing" a loaf of bread and wind up with fifteen variations.

Okay, I don't. I'm sure there are bakers out there who experiment like crazy. I am also a plotter.  I imagine there are  correlations.

Anyway, because I don't futz with recipes because I don't know what components affect what, I've been searching thruogh established recipes, trying to find that perfect, elusive, crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside chocolate chip cookie.

The quest begins…

Doing internet research (yes, I was that obsessed… deadline, anyone?) I found a blog that documented a similar quest, referencing an article in the NYT about what makes the perfect cookie.

They had a lot of scientific-y sounding arguments that I have to say thrilled me.  I followed it to the letter.  Thirty-six hours of 'dry aging" in the fridge! Room temperature eggs and butter!  Perfect chocolate-to-cookie ratio!  Perfect size! Perfect oven temp!

And the results….?

They. Were. AWFUL.

Too fat, too cakey, too bland.  I've had better batches of day-old from the grocery store, pumped full of chemicals.  I followed the recipe like a chemist, and the damned things needed to be drowned in milk to be edible.

If it's not working, change the script

Despondent, I changed my recipe search, adjusting for the specific characteristics I was looking for: crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies.  And stumbled on a modest looking site that had, I swear to God, the Holy Grail of chocolate chips. Totally innocent, simple design.  Your run of the mill food blog, with a straightforward recipe that required no aging, no room temperature nonsense, no bells or whistles.

But my GOD, the cookies.

I actually danced in my living room, showing it to my husband like I'd discovered fire.  PERFECT.

You may wonder what this has to do with writing.

Well, okay, obvious points.

Figure out if you're a baker or a cook.  If you're one and you try to be the other — if you need a plot outline, and somebody tells you that the better way is to write an exploratory draft, don't listen.
Know what you like.  It wasn't that the "perfect cookie" recipe was wrong, per se. I'm sure for someone, it was the perfect cookie, or she wouldn't have blogged about it.  But it was absolutely wrong for me.
Keep looking when something doesn't work.  Doesn't matter if you' ve paid good money on a writing system or class or whatever. If it hits you wrong, don't use it.  Test it first, of course; give it the college try. But don't keep banging your head against the wall.
When you find something you love, celebrate it.  I am over the moon happy about these damned cookies.  Seriously.  The only thing better is when I've hit the perfect, glorious plot resolution… when the scene that wouldn't work suddenly does in a new, beautiful, amazing way.  When that happens, I tell somebody about it.

So I'm off to make some cookies.  Which, incidentally, you can find here, under "big fat chewy chocolate chip cookies."

©2011 Cathy Yardley Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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New Year, New Lots of Things

Happy new year!  Don't know about you, but as much as I believe in acceptance, I'm glad that 2010 is in the rear view mirror. 

I've got a lot of new things brewing for 2011.  A new attitude, to start: I'm determined to be more positive. I'm also excited about a slew of new projects I've got on tap.  Here's just a few:

I've finally launched my new writer's blog, Rock Your Writing.  I won't be posting writing blogs here anymore (at least, not directly) so if you're interested in writing novels, please check it out!
I'm also teaching this year.  The wonderful folk over at Savvy Authors are hosting my year-long mentoring course called From Concept to Complete Novel.
My top secret paranormal project is just about ready to be shopped, and I am so excited it's ridiculous.  Can't wait to tell you more about it… but must, for now. Keep checking in for details.
I'm re-designing this website, so my site might be down for a bit during the transition.

I don't really have resolutions, per se, but I do have dreams for this year.  My good friend Delores Fossen has a practice where she picks one word to symbolize the coming year.  Last year, she chose "AWESOME" and for her, it really was.  She's chosen words like WRITE or RELAX, too, for previous years.

I'm trying this out. My word this year?  FAITH.  Trusting that things are going to work out, instead of dwelling on all the ways it couldn't.  Staying calm and carrying on.

Want to try?  What word would you choose for this year?

©2011 Cathy Yardley Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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All Hail the Writergirls!

Once a month, I get to meet with some writer friends.

As a mom to a preschooler, just the fact that I get to leave the house for a grown-up outing is already cause for celebration, but this is more than a girls' night out.  This is a writergirl night out.

Ostensibly, this is to discuss all things writing: what we're working on, what our plans are, how it's going. There's a smattering of business discussion, promotional and career strategy.  A soupcon of writing philosophy.  Some reviews of what we've read recently.

Then we discuss the good stuff.  Like hot guys, crazy people, inappropriate fuzzy touching and porn names.

I don't know what it says about me, but I tend to gravitate to writer friends who are brilliant, intelligent, and bent like safety pins. They also all have a fantastic sense of humor, not just in their writing, but in general. They are fascinating, sparkling, amazing people, and every single time, I swear, I laugh until tears run down my face.

Writing as a business can be brutal at best, soul-crushing at worst.  I think it's safe to say that most of the writers I know are introverts. We don't go running around drawing attention to ourselves in the best of times and tend to save a lot of our drama for the page. When things go awry, we isolate, running on the hamster wheel installed in our brains, inevitably taking a simple situation and epically turning it into a Technicolor extravaganza.

What we need to do is find other people who understand the insanity. Who aren't going to judge us or snap "get over it" when we obsess over "what did this rejection letter mean?" or cry over another author's snarky back-handed complaint or a bad review or whatever.  Who are going to pass the ice cream when the words aren't coming. Who are going to tell you about their travails, reminding us that we're not the only ones with problems.

To my Monday night writergirls…

Thank you for listening to my rants, for being there in ways I never expected and being people I can be as raunchy and wrong and utterly unlovable with, and who love me anyway.

Thank you for giving me the gentlest "what the hell are you thinking?" possible when my mental train jumps the rails and I start thinking that writing an entire novel in Tweets — in multiple POVs and Pig Latin! – is just a brilliant idea.

I'm the most me when I'm with you.

©2010 Cathy Yardley Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Moving! Holidays! Somebody throw a brick at my head!

Okay, perhaps that's overstating the case.  But yeah, it's been a bit stressful round here, peeps.

I've been diligently working on my secret writing blog project, which should be soft-launching very soon.  Then there's my secret new fiction project, which has been in the hands of my agents since October 1 and which I am getting wayyyyyyy antsy about.  Especially since I love this particular series so much.  I've dreamed about it in a fever-induced delirium.  I can see the characters, know exactly who they are and what they'd do and imagine funny bits of conversations between them.

And, of course, there was that whole moving thing.  UGH.  Not fun.  How do you convince your son to play nicely by himself while you scrub floors and ovens and windows?  (Answer: load laptop with cartoons and pray he'll leave you alone.)

We're now finally settled.  I had to travel for a ghostwriting client meeting, with The Boy in tow, which ate up another week but did allow a family visit.  Which was great, although riddled with its own stressors.

Then, I just realized: next Thursday is Thanksgiving.  Which means Christmas is hanging around the corner like a thug in an alleyway looking to mug me.

I am determined to not stress over this fact.

I have slowly come to the realization that I have a tendency to dramatize things.  Nay, catastrophize things.  Admittedly, I've had some stressful things, but they're just events.  In many cases, isolated events.

My agents going over my proposal for over a month: a good thing. They're being careful.  And it's out of my hands anyway.  It does not mean "oh-god-I'm-never-gonna-sell-this-ugh."

My son's new penchant for smart-mouthing:  not a good thing, but not irrevocable. It means less TV, an easy thing now that I'm not trying to clean a three bedroom house out.  It does not mean "oh-god-he's-gonna-be-a-delinquent-rebellious-psycho."

My writing blog's design issues: challenging, but also good.  It means I need to stretch, be more experimental, focus on how much I love teaching.  It does not mean "oh-god-I'm-wasting-time-with-this-stupid-project."

I've discovered I just need to focus on the good, observe the tough, and just keep going.  Maybe read a little more for fun.  Drink more water.  Take some deep breaths.

In a nutshell?

I need to save my drama for my writing.

©2010 Cathy Yardley Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Aha! It's Supposed to Suck!

I've written many times about my fervent fangirl crush on The Fluent Self. Yesterday, there was a post about "Day 4 Syndrome." In a nutshell, it's about any project, or class, or whatever, and how after a certain point, you go from sailing along happily to suddenly being stuck in the suck of it… convinced that it's awful, it's useless, and suddenly you're paralyzed.

And I thought, holy crap, this sounds familiar.

Only I used to call it "Chapter 7 Syndrome." That's about the point in any given manuscript that the idea I'd fallen in love with, the one I was so convinced was brilliant and break-out and fun, turned into a mire of absolute merde. That would be the point where I started chanting "you're-a-hack, you're-a-hack" and scanning Craigslist job postings.

Bit extreme? Possibly. Imaginative overreaction?  Probably. But I'm a fiction writer, so I think it's in my job description.  Besides, once the deadline crept up, I'd bite the bullet, finish the project, and come to find I actually liked the book very much.  Granted, that would be a year later, but acceptance does come.

After seventeen novels, you'd think I'd get a grip on this little problem.

Here's the thing that made me smack my forehead with my palm, though, after reading Havi's post.

All this time, I kept thinking: Why do I keep doing this? Why can't I finally (get the right plot, get the right characters, get the right story idea, whatever) and avoid this whole Chapter Seven Suck thing? What the hell's wrong with me??

Then it hit me.

The problem isn't with the process.

THE SUCK IS THE PROCESS.

I could have characters that make Harry Potter look 2D, a plot twistier than corkscrew pasta and a story idea that Dreamworks would pay me millions for. I could "do" everything right, all the way down the line.

And when I hit Chapter Seven, I'm still going to think it sucks.

So from now on, instead of compounding the suck, by beating myself up with "you not only suck, you wouldn't be feeling this way if you'd done (x,y,z.)  You suck because you should have (whatever.) You suck because…"

I'm just going to say:  "Aha. Chapter seven. There you are."

And keep on typing.

©2010 Cathy Yardley Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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"The Kiss Test" Interview!

Something special on the blog today!  I'm interviewing Shannon McKelden, author of The Kiss Test, a new, Chick Lit flavored romantic comedy from Carina Press.  I'm thrilled to see contemporary romantic comedy coming back, and Shannon is one of my favorite people (after meeting her eight years ago at an Emerald City Writers Conference, she convinced me to move up to the Seattle area — yes, Shannon, I'm blaming you.)

So now the interview…

How did you start writing?  How long have you been writing?

I'm not sure how I started writing really. My earliest memory of realizing I liked writing was in 6th grade, when my teacher provided writing prompts and we had to write short stories.  I found that I loved it and my teacher gave a lot of praise, so I wanted to keep going.  A cousin and I spent years around that time creating long elaborate sagas in which we were teenage girls who were the girlfriends of Shawn Cassidy and Parker Stevenson (aka., The Hardy Boys).  I still have all of those stories in a file at home!

What inspired you to write THE KISS TEST?

The Kiss Test was borne from the song Miss Independent by Kelly Clarkson.  It brought to mind a character who was so independent she couldn't conceive of giving up her independence to fall in love because she was terrified of losing herself.  The idea took off from there, of course, morphing and changing as I wrote.

Elvis plays a big part in THE KISS TEST. Did you listen to a lot of him while writing it?  Do you generally write with a play list?

The idea for making the main character an Elvis fan came from a funky plastic Elvis statue I found in NYC.  I kept the statue on my desk for inspiration.  The idea to incorporate Elvis song titles as chapter titles came along later, and then I did listen to a LOT of Elvis songs.  I hadn't really realized how prolific he was, having recorded over 700 songs!  I didn't so much listen to him while writing it, but in between writing sessions to get ideas for chapters or to find titles that fit the chapters I had already written.

As for writing to a playlist?  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.  If I run across just the right songs for the book I'm working on, I'll put them together in a playlist, but I don't often work too hard at creating a list of songs to write to…it would be too easy to procrastinate from the actual writing.

For The Kiss Test,  though, I did listen to a playlist consistently.  It included the Kelly Clarkson song, as well as some less well-known Celine Dion songs….no idea why these spoke to me for this book, but they did.  I have since lost the playlist, which is disappointing, because I really would have liked to listen to it again to see if it evoked the same feelings it did when I was writing the book.

I love that it's a romantic comedy.  What are some of your favorite rom com novels?

Hands down, Susan Elizabeth Phillips is my favorite romantic comedy writer!  I adore everything she writes.  She can take the most unlovable character and turn them into someone you root for with all your might!  Ain't She Sweet is my favorite SEP novel, and I've read it over and over again.  Other favorites include just about anything from Jennifer Crusie, Susan Andersen, and Rachel Gibson.  Anyone who can make me smile and laugh and provide me with a happy ending, too, gets my vote!

Your first two novels, VENUS ENVY and VENUS GUY TRAP, were great, funny paranormal Chick Lit that you published through Tor Books. This is your first novel with Carina Press. What's your favorite part of going digital? Do you have an ereader of your own? What kind?

My very favorite part of going digital is how fast it is!  My first two novels took nearly 2 years between sale and publication.  That's a really long time to wait!  However, the whole process for digital books goes much faster.  The most time-consuming part of the process is the editing portion. But since there's no waiting for printing, etc., The Kiss Test took only 7 months from sale to publication. I loved that part!

I do have an e-reader of my own…now.  I didn't have one until a few months after selling The Kiss Test, when I realized that if I was going to be an e-book author, I needed to be an e-book reader, too.  Now I'm hooked!  I have a Sony Touch and I'm completely in love with it. I'll never give up reading printed books entirely, but the convenience of an e-reader is just fantastic.  Hundreds of books at the press of a button, plus the ability to download digital books from the library without the drive, is what makes the whole e-book thing the most fun for me.

If someone doesn't have an e-reader, how can they still get their hands on THE KISS TEST?

Absolutely!  I think a lot of people don't realize that e-books usually also come in the PDF format, which is able to be read on any computer.  PDF books are formatted just like real books and look great!  They can also be read on many phones, which makes it convenient to pull out and read while standing in line at the grocery store or the DMV.  J

What are you working on next?

Right now I'm working on a women's fiction novel…something a little more emotional than I've written before. I love the challenge of something new and different!  I'm also working on a motivational project for writers that I hope to launch around the first of the year.  There's so much exciting going on, I almost don't know what to do next!

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Can't wait to see Shannon's next projects.  She's definitely an author to watch!

©2010 Cathy Yardley Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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The Embarrassing Purse Story

It has been crazy around here lately. I've been finishing up my plotting class with my awesome and patient beta-students, I've gotten the domain and started the foundation work for my writing blog (which I am totally in love with), and I've been revising the proposal draft for my very book-of-my-heart-y novel series. And moving.

To relax (because I'm a freak like this) I've been reading Naomi Dunford's Marketing School.  Anyway, she has this fantastic quote in it, about blogs:

"If your [reader] doesn't know at least one silly, personal, or embarrassing thing about you, then you're not a real person to them yet."

I realized that I share some personal stuff with you guys, even some silly stuff (the woulda-shoulda post will live in infamy, for example.)  But I didn't think I'd shared an embarrassing story with you yet, so I took this as a personal challenge.

Also, I love this story.

Why I Don't Carry A Purse

I went to UC Berkeley for college.  Coming from a small and fairly sheltered beach community in Southern Cal, I started getting all sorts of well meaning advice on how to protect myself from the big, bad urban world of Berkeley, which was just north of Oakland.  Which apparently was like saying hell adjacent.  Of course, a lot of this advice was coming from people who hadn't actually been there, but I had hayseed written all over me.  And the one piece of advice that kept coming up?

Don't carry a purse.

Why?  Because the campus was riddled with talented, gypsy-like pickpockets who preyed on hayseed little suburban refugees like myself.

The problem was, I loved my purse.  It was this hobo-styled thing, made of acid-washed denim, with a zipper closure. (It was the nineties.  Don't judge.)  Anyway, I wasn't giving this thing up. I would wear it slung across my body, I said.  I'd keep it zippered shut unless I was paying for something or putting on make up.  I would keep track of it at all times.

And for months, I did.  Every time I stood up, or got crushed into the crowd of bodies rushing out to leave class, I reached back and made sure the zipper was closed.  No pickpocket was getting past me, damn it.

So I was leaving a class in this ginormous auditorium hall, merging with the other escaping lemmings.  And my purse was caught behind me.  So I reflexively reached behind me and, you know, made sure that the zipper was shut.

But something was wrong.  For one thing, I was fairly certain that was not my makeup case.

I turned, puzzled… only to find I had checked the zipper on the fly of the guy behind me.  Like, thoroughly.

I sprinted out of that classroom like something out of the Amazing frickin' Race.  And to this day, I no longer carry a purse.

The moral of this story?

There isn't one, really.

Although if you're a guy who has a particularly happy memory of leaving art history class… congrats, buddy.  That's one heck of a purse you've got there.

©2010 Cathy Yardley Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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What's Your GMC?

I'm teaching an e-course right now, and we've just finished the Goal-Motivation-Conflict section, a concept made famous by Deb Dixon's writing book of the same name.  Being a die-hard plotter, I've enjoyed the section enormously.

I'm also working feverishly on a new writing blog project.  I've been kicking around domain names (which has not been fun… jeez, did everyone pick a domain with "write" in it?)  and coming up with a blog content strategy and ebook ideas and more courses and maybe...