This N That

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THIS:

Just got a thumbs-up on an article query I sent to one of the major writing magazines. They love the idea and want to assign it to me as a two-page, 1650-word feature, but don't quite know when. So I agreed to give them a couple of months to see if they can be more definitive with timing. It's the first feature article query I've sent out in quite a long time, so it was nice to have it well received!
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THAT:

If you are visiting my blog from the Blogdramedy Blogshorts Challenge, please forgive me, as I am unable to participate after all because: 

A) I forgot, and 
B) I started writing my new book and I need to give it all my attention. 

It's nice to meet you though, and if you leave a comment on my blog, I will stop by yours. And if you follow me, I'll return the favor. Feel free to mosey around my blog - I look forward to getting to know you. 
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THIS:

Check out my husband's blog at http://rvpainter.blogspot.com. 


He's an artist and his blog combines talk about art and talk about RV's (we hope to buy one soon), but the main thing is he's very funny! So even if you don't care about art or RV's his blog will make you laugh. 
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THAT:


Over the weekend, I got up to 1200+ words on my new book. Taking it slowly at first, but it feels good to be working on a longer project again.
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In Which I Begin Writing My Next Book....

Today I wrote the first 500 words of my next book.

Starting is surely the hardest thing! The idea for the story has been building, but until today, I hadn't felt ready to actually start writing. I'm sure you are familiar with this feeling, that tingly combination of fear and excitement that comes with beginning something new. I purposely set a goal of only 500 words so as not to put too much pressure on myself. I actually wrote 547 words, but who's counting.

Because getting started is so hard, I keep the advice of my idol, Anne Lamott, in the forefront of my mind.

When you ask yourself, "Where do I start?" 
Anne Lamott answers, "You start where you are."

When you worry that it's not going to be any good, Anne gives you permission to write what she calls "a shitty first draft." The concept of the shitty first draft is so liberating, because one of the reasons we procrastinate getting started (I think) is our fear that what we write isn't going to be any good. And the fact is, what we first write usually isn't any good. It doesn't matter. What matters is that we begin.

What I wrote today is sparse and spotty and not very well written. It's pretty shitty. Anne would be proud of me. I know that the beginning I wrote today may not end up being the beginning of the book by the time I'm done. I know that the plot ideas I have in mind will change. I know that my characters will take on personalities that surprise me. But the only tingle I feel now is excitement, because today, my first three characters showed up and said stuff and did stuff. And tomorrow, I'll write another 500 words. More characters will show up, and they'll say and do stuff too.

It's okay that, right now, it's not very good and I don't know how it will all come out. Because the only thing that matters, right now, is that I've begun.

More of the Kindness of Strangers

This morning I opened my email to find a lovely surprise: emails from a man from Beaumaris, Wales, with gorgeous photographs attached. I had written a letter to the Beaumaris Town Council, explaining my desire to find out more about my mother's time there as a 14-year-old evacuee at the start of WWII. They put my letter in their town newsletter, which apparently just went out. (If you need to catch up on the background, read my May posts, "The Kindness of Strangers," and "One Mystery Solved").

Anyway, this nice man, Phil Roberts, read my letter and wrote this to me:

Melissa,

I have just read your touching letter in our local newsletter. Although I cannot help with any details I can forward you some photographs of Beaumaris  - some taken from a helicopter, others of the local scenery. From the photo attached you can see the green grass where she would have played (where all the cars are parked).  I hope you find them of interest and good luck in tracing your Mother's billet.

Phil

(Note from me: He means the green where my mother described playing in an essay she later wrote.)

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I'm telling you - these people from Beaumaris are so nice!  He also said my blog was "brilliant" - I love those English expressions that make things sound much better than they actually are! But I digress....

Here are the wonderful photos that Phil sent me. Beaumaris is a beautiful town - the stuff of my fantasies.  The town sits on the Menai Strait, which creates the isle of Anglesey, Wales. That's where Kate and William have a home (you know, THE Kate and William). And, best of all, it has a castle - one of the most famous ones in Wales.



Helicopter view of the town, showing Beaumaris Castle. Where the cars are parked across from the castle is the green that my mother described playing on. Her "billet" or foster home would have been somewhere along the street facing the water.



Another helicopter view of the town



Beaumaris Church




Looking across the Menai Strait to snow-capped mountains




Rooftop view of Beaumaris