Cereal Box Reader

Positive Rejection

2012-01-18T20:04:00.002-05:00

I had a very positive rejection for a poem I submitted to Strange Horizons recently. The editor suggested two other markets I could try and invited me to submit to Strange Horizons again. Yeah!

Books are magical

2012-01-14T18:42:00.002-05:00

I'm really enjoying running the Silver Birch Awards and Red Maple Awards programs this year as a librarian. It gives me a chance to read all the award-nominated books! I think this video captures a little bit of that magic feeling of discovery. More about the books and the club to follow. Happy reading...

Wayson Choy at WCDR

2011-12-10T19:33:00.001-05:00

I took away some great tidbits from Wayson Choy's talk at the WCDR breakfast this morning. It was the first time I have attended one of their monthly breakfast meetings although I've been to the related Ontario Writers Conference.

When I first stepped into the dining room at the Ajax Convention Centre, it reminded me of facing the cafeteria, my first day of grade nine. Most of the seats were full and there were countless unfamiliar faces. I sat down at a table near the back and crossed my fingers. I needn't have worried. WCDR members are very friendly. I enjoyed meeting new writers and saying hello to others I knew from CANSCAIP and beyond.

Choy began his talk by evoking discipline. He encouraged us to never give up but to find an individual writing process. Choy criticized teachers who insist all students learn as they do, likening this to a "teaching disability." With my background in special education, I have to agree. There are many ways to mastery and they are seldom the same for everyone.

Choy emphasized writers must try different methods and switch if they don't work. In other words: "If at first you don't succeed, don't be an idiot."

My other favorite Choy quotes were: "Good writing is great gossip" and "Don't call yourself a failure until you understand that failure is your teacher."

NANOWRIMO novel drafted in time

2011-12-01T06:14:00.001-05:00

This year I participated in National Novel Writing Month. It was great fun. I wrote a complete, short novel draft, mostly in the mornings between 5:00 am and 6:15, that is to say, before work. The information about my novel is on their site http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/cerealboxreader but it will expire eventually. For archival purposes, here's what I wrote...

Author bio:

For Halloween this year, I went to school dressed as "Conan the Librarian." I speak fluent Hockey Mom. I've taught everything from Gifted grades 1-8 to French to Remedial Math. I prefer to hang with people who don't take themselves too seriously. I have completed the 3-Day Novel Contest and JulNoWrimo. This is my second NanoWrimo. Best of luck all! I'm going to have a lot of fun with this.

Synopsis:

An anthropology grad student finds love and breakthroughs, caving in southern France, but must defeat a prehistoric doppelganger who assumes her identity.

I do speed-writing experiments like Nano to try out new things, including new genres. This time I can't decide whether it's literary or horror, but for once I am writing a story in which two humans experience romantic longing. That does not mean I've written a Paranormal Romance :-)

Excerpt:

When she could extricate herself, Jade wanted a bath and a change of clothes, absolutely, but her desire for knowledge was stronger. She'd spent years studying cave paintings, bone remnants and tools, theorizing about paleolithic humans. She didn’t care how evil this thing was. She would give anything to find out what it knew.

My statistics:

Average Words Per Day: 1,698
Target Average Words Per Day: 1,667
Target Final Word Count: 50,000

I have completed the 50 000 words with about four scenes to go. I am estimating a word count of 60 000 for the next draft.

NaNoWrimo 2011

2011-11-14T06:37:00.001-05:00

I won't be blogging much in the month of November. I have a new novel in the works and I'm trying to get the rough draft done as part of National Novel Writing Month.

If you haven't heard of NaNoWriMo, the link to my NaNo profile is here and the link to my novel synopsis is here. The goal is to write a 50 000 word novel, in thirty days. Wish me luck!

On this calendar widget, green days are very productive. Red days are bad. The green progress bar measures the number of words written out of 50 000.

Happy reading and writing all.

Sandra Kasturi talks ChiZine at WOTS

2011-10-01T21:43:00.001-04:00

Since I discovered CZP through local readings and SF/Fantasy events, I've been curious as to how this publishing company got started. Sandra reveals ChiZine's audacious successes and economic setbacks. It's a cautionary tale for those who might think starting up an ezine is an easy road to financial success. I found her talk honest and inspiring. It's all done for the love of books, in her case, dark fiction and poetry.

This video is recorded with a flip camera and edited in Premiere Elements. I apologize for the rumbling when the subway goes under Queen's Park. Word on the Street talks are held outdoors in Toronto every fall. I go for the books but I also enjoy the author readings, workshops, publisher displays and magazines.

Word on the Street Toronto

2011-09-28T20:12:00.000-04:00

I visited Word on the Street this past weekend. It's my favourite celebration of booky goodness. The weather was sunny and warm, the crowds large and cheerful. There was even some fun street theatre to compliment the books, talks, signings, sales, giveaways and concerts. I came away with too many books but why not? As vices go, a book fetish isn't so bad. Here is a little video of my impressions. It's shot with a flip camera and edited with Adobe Premiere Elements.

To self-publish or not

2011-09-24T12:15:00.000-04:00

Focus is supposed to be the key to success, in art, business, hockey, anything. If you lose focus, you are bound to make mistakes. Lately I have been reading too many blogs, tweets and self-appointed online experts. They all say, follow the John Locke method. Publish an ebook. I even spent a couple of days reformatting one of my plays to publish on SmashWords. Is this procrastination? I should be polishing my manuscript, "Marmalade Cat Detective: The Astounding Vampire Dogs."

Self-publishing is tempting, but not for the novel. I have a backlog of school plays that I know work because I have produced them. It's fairly easy to see what works with an audience of 250 or so kids when you can observe directly. The problem is, children's plays are notoriously difficult to get published, especially for someone like me who has not produced my plays in a professional venue.

The rational solution would seem to be self-publishing. It seems low-risk. My plays are written and collecting dust. I'm more interested in writing new plays than putting my old ones on in bigger venues. I do plays for the love of working with kids and the love of writing. I'm not interested in quitting teaching and going into theatre. If I self-publish my plays, it will be virtually as a service to other teachers. I doubt they will make a lot of money.

There is just one problem. I have a novel almost ready to send to agents. It's a YA novel which might also suit an imaginative adult audience. This is where the warnings begin. I've heard that once you publish anything with an ISBN number, publishers and agents look you up every time you submit a manuscript. The first time I try to interest them in a manuscript, will they will look up my sales figures see my plays aren't selling and take a pass?

Does it have to be a catch-22? I am pessimistic about publishing my plays through the usual channels because the demand for kids' comedy scripts is small. I am optimistic about my novel because I have read many children's novels and I haven't seen one quite like mine. I think it might attract readers of Sherlock Holmes novels, and of Shane Peacock's excellent boy Holmes mysteries. My story is also a spoof on Gothic elements in mysteries, like James Howe but for older readers. Obviously, I'm not comparing the quality of my writing to these authors. I'm trying to give an idea of my story's flavour.

Like any artistic hopeful, I believe in my 'thing' and hope other people will too. I just wish I knew what to do about it.

Drama Blog and Cat Detective Blog

2011-09-18T15:44:00.002-04:00

I'm busy promoting book fair at my school and with Word on the Street Toronto coming up, this fall it's all about the books. I've even started a couple of new blogs recently.

This funny blog, for kids and imaginative adults, is inspired by the protagonist of my novel-in-progress.

http://marmaladecatdetective.com/

As a teacher, with experience writing and producing stage plays and videos, I want to swap inspiration with others who do the same.

http://dramafun.wordpress.com/

There is no Dog -- And his name is Bob

2011-09-04T16:00:00.007-04:00

I found Meg Rosoff's There is no Dog in the YA section of a Chapters store. Teens should find the book funny for its irreverent philosophy but I wouldn't expect every adolescent boy to appreciate it. The premise is that God is incompetent and apathetic because he is a teenage boy. The job is foisted on Bob when his goddess mother loses a poker game.

Bob has a middle-aged adviser, Mr. B., whom he mistreats as only a spoiled teen can. Bob is too selfish, easily distracted and sex-obsessed to be bothered to look after Earth. He even flubs Creation because he rushes it in six days. Bob's genius consists of creating humans with a built-in desire to worship him, so he'll always be adored. It also gives him a whole planet of girls to chase.

Mr. B, who feels slighted to be passed over for the top job, does his best to alleviate some human suffering. In the end, he also fails, overwhelmed by a paperwork tower of prayers and problems.

This clever novel reads very quickly at 240 pages. It's one of those 'candy' books that affords simple pleasure but leaves little aftertaste. I don't recommend it to the extremely devout, unless they can tolerate a lot of playfulness in the premise. Reader know thyself.

Happy reading!

The Fiendish Plot of Doctor Cyclone

2011-06-16T18:26:00.001-04:00

I had my 3 showings of my video, The Fiendish Plot of Doctor Cyclone yesterday. People seemed to enjoy it and it was a pleasure to see the cast get up and get some applause after all their hard work. Here's the blurb:

The Fiendish Plot of Doctor Cyclone, a lunar comedy orbiting your funny bone...

You'd have to be crazy to raise kids on the Moon but when you work on a lunar base, what choice do you have?

When parents start acting strangely, it's up to the kids to find answers:
Why doesn't their teacher act like a teacher?
Is Shao's father really a traitor?
Can they stop Doctor Cyclone from attaining total galactic domination?

I wrote the script in July, cast students in grades 6-8 in December. Since then we have spent lunch hours and after school rehearsing or filming three days a week. I had all my footage by the end of April which gave me time to edit and figure out how to use Adobe Premier Elements. Not a bad program for the price. I like having the ability to edit the sound clips and to use colour key editing. Most of my scenes are filmed with a stationary camera in front of a green screen. I had a lot of fun later, putting in backgrounds. The story is set on the Moon so I used lots of copyright free pictures from Nasa. It was fun, way too many hours of work to edit but I've learned a lot. Next time it's going to be easier...

Cat Detective Novel Critique

2011-06-05T09:00:00.002-04:00

Encouraging Feedback
I recently attended the Ontario Writer's Conference and received some encouraging feedback for my mystery-in-progress. An editor with big publishing house credentials called my story good, saleable and said it should go to an American publisher. She liked the style and compared it to Alexander McCall Smith. She also told me I have a timely concept and I should submit it soon. Work is too busy right now with end-of-the-year deadlines and an upcoming change of position to do much editing before the end of June. You can guess how I'll be spending July.

I can't believe what I'm writing

2011-03-06T08:43:00.006-05:00

Here is a ticky tacky pic to go with my latest project. If you told me a year ago that I'd be writing a novel about a cat detective, I wouldn't have believed you. I guess that's what NaNo does to your brain.

I'm learning lots of things about structuring and editing as I move the manuscript through my critique groups. The question is, will I like what I've done when it's finished? I have abandoned so many first and second draft novels over the years. It seems a shame to ditch this one. On the other hand, I didn't realize what cliched territory I was wandering into in that mad, 2 000 word per day rush that is NaNoWrimo. Can you imagine? I thought I'd come up with a completely original idea. Worse yet, I don't read a lot of mystery or detective fiction and I don't read that much Fantasy that isn't SF. Who knows how many more cliches I will have put into this piece?

To help me figure it out, I read Sax Rohmer's Green Eyes of Bast because it was free on Project Gutenberg. His work is so racist as to be utterly irredeemable. I can see why there needed to be a workshop devoted to racism in genre fiction (particularly anti-Asian racism) at the SFContario conference. More of this kind of examination is needed.

I now have a reading list of popular titles starring kitty detectives that I can potentially order from the library. I hope I enjoy them. At least I'll find out if I'm wasting my time.

We have achieved a state of NaNo

2010-11-27T17:47:00.006-05:00

I finished my NaNo novel today! It needs lots of editing but who cares? Celebrate now, edit later. I love a good first draft.

Happy reading.

Bitter Marmalade: The Tale of a Gum Paw Detective.

2010-11-15T21:28:00.007-05:00

The NaNoWriMo novel is going well this past week. I only hope now not to run out of plot twists before I run out of words. One thing I have learned from these fast-writing marathons is, I don't seem to write much better when I have more time. Fitting in 1667 words a day is not easy on a regular working day but it's not impossible either. The hardest part is reserving some time in the morning, when my mind is fresh and my ideas are the most likely to be 'keepers,' when I go through and begin the edit.

The other good thing about NaNo is, it gives me a complete mental break from editing The Fiendish Plot of Doctor Cyclone, necessary before I adapt the shooting script for students.

Catching Up with NaNoWriMo

2010-11-14T08:49:00.004-05:00

The month is half over and I am not halfway to my writing goal. To finish NaNoWriMo on time, I would have to write 2000 words per day without skipping any days. So far I have been getting up at 5:00 am on weekdays but I still haven't been able to keep up. Today, I'm trying to do a mini marathon and make up for lost time. Here's the second installment for today:

Happy reading, and writing!

In the morning, early

2010-11-11T05:45:00.001-05:00

Hello to any fellow NaNoWriMo's. I'm in the Toronto region under Cerealboxreader if you are inclined to join me. Hear all about it on my LJ account where I have a number of writing friends. We like to cheer each other on.

In the morning, early

NaNoWriMo & Packaging this week.

2010-11-02T22:54:00.006-04:00

So far NaNoWriMo is going well. My wrists are sore, but they were before anyway. I've run out of plot ideas for the night but I'm not worried. I can always think of more crazy twists during my commute to work in the morning.

For now I'm going to celebrate the small victory of meeting my quota for the first two days of the contest. I aim for 2000 words a day. If you write a bit under 1700 per day for the month, you will make the 50 000 word 'novel-length' goal. I know I'm going to miss some days. There are shows to see, report cards to write and a writing class to attend. I won't be skipping any of my weekly online critiquing activities for NaNo either. It's more of a fun challenge than something serious. My idea is to write a series of linked stories that add up to the length of a novel. It will be a fun way to kick around some ideas in a low-stress way.

Saturday I'm going to CANSCAIP's Packaging Your Imagination, an annual day-long conference for children's authors and illustrators. I've enjoyed it in the past and now that I'm getting back into writing for kids, I look forward to what I can learn there.

First installment for tonight.

2010-11-02T20:05:00.000-04:00

First installment for tonight.

I started NaNoWriMo yesterday. It's madness but I can't help it. The idea of writing for two hours worth of new material per day for a whole month seems like very good discipline to me.

Gotta NaNoWriMo

2010-11-01T20:33:00.001-04:00

There are so many reasons why November is bad timing for me but this year I'm going to do it. I'm going to do NaNoWriMo. Here's the link for my profile. I will be writing under the alias "Cerealboxreader."

I will be attempting to write a 50 000 word novel between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30. I've done these speed-writing contests before but I've never managed to salvage any of the writing. This time I have a different plan. I'm going to write linked short stories. That way, if I do dream up an idea with legs, I won't have to edit through an incredibly bad manuscript to get to it. If I manage to write 2000 words per day of short story material this month, it will be well worth the loss of sleep...

Positive Rejection

2010-10-11T22:22:00.008-04:00

They say you have to paper a wall with rejection slips but I've been writing plays for school and novel-length manuscripts for so long, I just don't submit that often. Perhaps I'm making a mistake. I found out this week that a rejection can sometimes give just the right kind of encouragement.

I just got a letter about a short story I submitted to the Parsec Short Story Contest. Maybe I'm self-deluded but I can't help thinking that the judge's comments were very encouraging:

She called my manuscript "very professional...You have a clever story line, you write well, with a nice mix of dialogue and action, and an interesting use of the contest theme." The nicest part of all was when she said "I expect to see your name again, in professional magazines, other genre venues and maybe next year's contest! Good luck with your professional career."

While I know a lot of this might be said just to make me feel good, I'm going to take any compliments and encouragement I can get.

The criticism was very helpful too. I didn't make it into the top 20 out of 133 valid entries. The problem was the "resolution" to my story and "little plot holes." I find plotting the most challenging part of writing for a fiction audience and it never hurts to be reminded of it. Like most people trying to get better at something, a little negative feedback is necessary to help me direct my efforts at the weak spots. In all, I was delighted to get so much feedback from the contest coordinator, Ann Cecil. Thanks Ann, you really made my day.

To celebrate my good mood, I wrote a brand new story this weekend (Drafted Saturday and edited a bit Sunday, finished today). It's a light toned YA SF piece called "Marshmallow Apocalypse." I've sent it off to Julia Czerneda and Susan MacGregor, editors of the up-coming anthology, Tesseracts 15. I am definitely hoping to not get a rejection. Wish me luck!

Happy reading.

First Draft Done

2010-08-19T08:23:00.009-04:00

Yeeeehaaaaw! I completed the first draft last night. My wonderful husband took my son and I out for Hakka Chinese food to celebrate.

The other thing I did to celebrate was read M.T. Anderson's Whales on Stilts, a hilarious parody of children's adventure, horror and mystery books. I laughed so hard I ruptured my blubber. I really admire M.T. Anderson's book Feed, but now that I realize how funny he is, it makes me want to go out and get all his books, the parodies anyway.

This morning I'm going to help my mother-in-law pack moving boxes. I am not going to reread the manuscript. I'm afraid to. Step one is accomplished. Many hours of editing lie ahead, but not before tomorrow.

Happy reading.

Around the Moon in 85 Pages

2010-08-16T08:44:00.004-04:00

I have a new writing project. I drafted next year's school play in July, so now it's time to move on to something bigger. It's an SF comedy with lots of laughs and suspense aimed at a middle school audience.

So far I have written 85 pages. This has been one of the easiest writing projects ever because the ideas just keep coming. I'm finding writing a novel based on a story I've already visualized as a stage play works for me. One of my favorite writing mentors, Peter Carver, warned me that adapting one of my previous stage plays might be very difficult but there are countless well-known authors who seem able to make the transition between novel to stage play or screenplay. Let's hope I can be one of those people who takes the heart of a story and translates it for different mediums.

I'm planning to write at least four pages a day for the rest of the summer. That way once the school year comes around again, I should be editing, which is easier to do than writing the first draft when you can't spare big blocks of time.

So far I have recorded some of my word counts milestones:

Aug. 9 2 700 words
Aug. 10 7 300 words
Aug. 14 17 700 words
Aug. 15 19 000 words

Wish me luck as I continue today!

Happy reading.

New Novel Project

2010-08-09T17:52:00.003-04:00

I have a new writing project this summer. Now that next year's school play is drafted, it's time to move on to something bigger.

So far I have an outline, character sketches and a lot of ideas about tone for my new kids novel. It's an SF comedy with lots of laughs and suspense. What else would you expect from me?

So far I have written 14+ pages. My word processors disagree about the word count so I'll be pessimistic and go with the low total: 1930 words. My calculator tells me I should have about 2800 at 200 words per page (a very low estimate). Whatever the tally, I'm all set to write at least four pages a day for the rest of the summer. It's the only way I'll have a finished, edited manuscript, covering letter and plot resume finished by June 2011.

Wish me luck!

Happy reading.

Draft of school play done!

2010-07-29T09:39:00.002-04:00

I've been reading and critiquing during my summer holidays. The good news is, I have completed a first draft of next year's musical school play.

Okay, time to get back to writing.

Happy (summer) reading!