Thanksgiving Traditions

Growing up we never had a regular Thanksgiving tradition. We always celebrated the holiday, but the activity changed from year to year. My parents were divorced, and some years were "mom" years, some years were "dad" years. And even then, nobody in my family had a regular tradition - a huge family gathering, to mark the holiday. Even the food changed from year-to-year. There was something about this lack of stability, on this one particular holiday, that always bothered me.

One of the first things I did after getting married was start my own Thanksgiving tradition. Three month's newly wed and I had everyone over for Thanksgiving...my mom, my dad and stepmother, my sister, my half-sister. (Thanksfully, everyone gets along and this is a stress-free event as far as family relations goes.) Over the years, the families have grown - my mom is remarried, my sisters are married with children. Some years my husband's out-of-town family has attended (his brother was a regular for a number of years). We've had "stray" friends with no place else to go, family members with an occassional free holiday (this year my aunt attended). Most amazing, since my father's death a few years ago, my stepmother has remarried (creating what my husband likes to call my "staircase family" - step steps) and her husband attends. Last year, all three of his children and their families took our total up to 24 for the year!

Even with just our core group, we are up to 16, requiring 3 tables:


I love my Thanksgiving holiday. It's the tradition I created. It's "MY" holiday.

Have you posted about your Thanksgiving? Add a link here, I'd love to come read. Or do you have a unique Thanksgiving recipe you'd like to share, put it in here. What's a Thanksgiving post without a discussion of food?

Everyone has a Turkey recipe they love. It's the side dishes that make a tradition, IMO. Here's my recipe for Brussel Sprouts (a vegetable I otherwise hate, but love in this recipe - who can hate anything cooked in butter and cream!):

Brussel Sprouts with Marjoram & Pine Nuts:

3 Tbsp butter
½ cup pine nuts
1 ½ lbs fresh brussel sprouts, halved (or 1 ½ lbs frozen,
thawed, halved)
1 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
2 shallots
1 Tbsp chopped fresh marjoram
1/3 cup whipping cream

· Melt 1 Tbsp butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add nuts & stir until golden, about 3 minutes. Transfer nuts to small bowl.
· Melt 1 Tbsp butter in same skillet over medium heat. Add sprouts & stir 1 minute.
· Add broth. Cover and simmer until sprouts are almost tender, about 7 minutes.
· Uncover & simmer until broth evaporates, about 5 minutes.
· Using wooden spoon, push sprouts to side of skillet. Melt 1 Tbsp butter in center of same skillet. Add shallots, sauté until tender, about 2 minutes.
· Stir in marjoram, then cream. Simmer until sprouts are covered with cream, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes.
· Season with salt & pepper.
· Transfer brussel sprouts to platter. Mix in ½ pine nuts. Sprinkle with remaining nuts.

(Can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover and chill. Stir over medium heat to re-warm.)

HOPE EVERYONE HAD A GREAT TURKEY DAY.

What I Didn't Do Yesterday

I did not write yesterday.

I did not do the Thanksgiving grocery shopping. I did not clean the house, or do the laundry. I didn't even rake the leaves.

I did not spend time with my children, or my husband.

I did not critique queries in Writer's Exercises on the Compuserve Books and Writers Forum. I did not critique chapters for my critique group.

I didn't work.

I did not watch TV, or make Christmas cards, or finish that baby quilt.

What did I do?

Almost a year ago, a friend of mine lost her husband. Loosing a spouse must be difficult at any age, but as a young adult, I can't imagine the pain. For me, the hardest part would be the lost moments - those memories never made. The unrealized opportunities - because there just wasn't enough time.

It's been a difficult year for my friend, and emotions are still raw. But healing is a step by step process, and yesterday she took another big step. Three of us spent the day yesterday (and well into the evening) making a memory quilt. The quilt is made up of cut-up sections of her husband's pants and shirts, and while the process of cutting up the cloths to create the pieces was a tearful one, the process of sewing them together to form something new was a moment of healing.


So how did I spend my time yesterday? Just exactly the
right way.

Change

How do your characters react to change? How do they face the unexpected? How long does it take them to adjust, and how hard do they fight the change along the way?

I ask this now because the software is in flux over at the Books And Writer's Community today, and there is no telling at present if the changes are permanent or the accident of some programmer who forgot to drink his morning coffee and accidentally pushed the RED nuclear detonation button.

My observation of people is that, on the whole, people react better to change when (1) they expect it and (2) they have some say in what's going to happen - even if their suggestions aren't taken, people like to feel that they've been heard.

Changes are threatening. They move people out of their comfort zones. Unexpected changes, especially, tend to throw people off. People like the world to be predictable – no matter how unrealistic this desire.

Some people adapt smoothly, some with anger, some with rejection of the new status quo. Most people come around eventually, if they are invested enough in whatever it was that changed.

Change is certainly something that often gets our characters off their duffs. It is a change in the status quo, or a threat of some sort, that spurs characters into action at the beginning of the story. It's the Call to Adventure.

What change spurs your character into action? How hard does your character fight against that call? What actions do they take to Refuse the Call? Certainly, if the change or call is insignificant enough, characters may just turn their back. Look at your story. Is the call something that might really spur the character into action? Or are they just moving along because you want them to?

Is your character someone who embraces change? This presents a different sort of challenge as a writer. If your character is someone who rushes off to join every new fad, try every new product, explore every new avenue, then how do you create the tension and conflict necessary to move them through your story? What changes are threatening enough for them to Refuse the Call? Or, if they don't refuse but go rushing in headlong, what is important enough about that goal to make them fail to hesitate and consider the risks? Or how do you show your readers how foolhardy that headlong rush is, and create tension that way? How do you make the character believable?

So, take a few minutes today to consider your reactions to change and how your own emotions related to change relate to your characters. Are they like you or different? How hard do they fight against change? And how, in the end, do they ultimately embrace the change and move into their adventure?

Good luck!

Surrey International Writers' Conference - Notes Posted

I posted my notes from the 2008 Surrey International Writers' Conference over on the Compuserve board. If you want to see them, navigate to the message here. You don't need to be a member to read, only to reply to a message.

One of the things that often happens at conferences is that speakers recommend various books, websites, blogs...that sort of thing. Below is a list of websites of interest to writers, recommended by Surrey presenters, in no particular order:

Queryshark.blogspot.com
A blog where Janet Reid reviews queries and makes recommendations. She’s got a huge backlog, so don’t expect to see yours anytime soon, but a great place to scroll through and see what works and what doesn’t.

Twitter.com
Social networking site that centers around updating and commenting on each other’s status.

http://www.free-expressions.com/
Don Maass’s seminars

Zoomii books
http://zoomii.com/
A virtual bookstore for Amazon books. Displays the books on bookshelves, categorized by genre and bestsellers. Click through to purchase through Amazon.

Sarah Lovett
http://sarahlovett.com/workshops/getwriting01.html
Articles about the writing process.

Ted.com
Video footage of great speakers talking about a variety of topic. There is a series on Master Storytellers. Recommended by Vicki Pettersson.

sfwriter.com
Rob Sawyer’s website. Look down sidebar for section on “How To Write” for his writing columns.

http://www.authorbuzz.com/
Author book promotion service.

http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/
Blog about book marketing

I'll post the short list of book recommendations from this year in the next day or so. Enjoy!

Surrey International Writers' Conference - Day Four

Ahhh...I've had my afternoon nap and now feel ready to face the rest of the day at the Surrey International Writers' Conference.

Reflect on This: At our forum party last night I was talking to Rachel Vater, agent extraordinaire. I asked her how many new clients she takes on each year. The answer, 8-10. 8-10 clients ONLY in a year. So, if a typical agent is getting 500 - 1,000 queries a month, 6,000 - 12,000 queries a year, and out of that hoard, they are only signing 8-10 new clients, imagine the chances of any ONE agent selecting your query, and then manuscript out of their pile. This just highlights that not only does your novel need to be well written, and you need to develop a really wonderful query letter, but that you need to really persevere when querying agents. In order to be selected by a particular agent, you need to be in their top 10 picks of the entire year. But if not this agent, then another. It may just be that they have their picks for the year.

Maybe this doesn't come as a revelation for anyone else, but for me it really highlighted just how competitive this business is.

How was the forum party? Wonderful, as always. Thank you to Kathy Chung and everyone else who helped organize the event. Diana Gabaldon read a selection from a story she and her son, Sam, are working on for an anthology. If the snippet is any indication, Sam's writing is as entertaining as his mother's and the anthology will be well worth buying. Michael Slade also read from his current book, Crucified. This is his take on a DaVinci Code style book, with puzzles and locked rooms. I loved hearing about his research, particularly on crucifixion. I won't describe it here. Let's just say Michael is a bit of a gory writer. Not my thing, but he is a riveting oral story teller and I always enjoy listening to him talk.

So, what did I learn today?

Donald Maass - Fear in Fiction:
This morning I went to Don Maass's Fear in Fiction session. Don's classes are wonderful because, no matter what his topic, he always makes you come up with new ideas to make your book stronger. Perhaps he ought to switch to weekly podcasts. Although his emphasis was on thriller and horror books - books that make you stay up all night with the lights on out of fear, the focus was really on creating believable villains. The thing that makes villains scary is that they are able to accomplish what we might otherwise consider unbelievable. Think your local shopping mall is safe from terrorists? Now, write a villain that eliminates all those improbabilities and makes the attack believable. THAT is what creates fear in fiction.

As always, Don offered an exercise. These are always more effective when your sitting in a room and have nothing else to do but sit there and think about his questions (he leaves VERY LARGE empty periods of time for you to think about what he's just asked). Even if you don't have an immediate answer, after about 5 or 10 minutes of sitting there thinking about his questions, something always comes (testament to the power of boring your muse into action). So, the exercise today is to answer the questions: What is the most unlikely or improbably event in your story? Why wouldn't this happen in the real world? What makes this event unbelievable? Now, ask yourself this another 20 times.

Once you have your list of 20 reasons why the event wouldn't happen, or your antagonist couldn't or wouldn't do what he did, start finding explanations or strategies to get around these obstacles.

Don's other advice: Make your monsters human. Villains who are so evil that they seem to be caricatures of evilness are not scary - they are unbelievable. Make them human - give them human wants, desires, opinions, daily activities and they seem more real and, ultimately, scarier.

Show and Tell, by Robert Sawyer
I attended this workshop not because "show, don't tell" is a new concept, but because the description included a promised discussion of when telling can be used effectively. Mr. Sawyer provided many good examples (an entire handout) of converting "telling" into "showing". Always good to get new ideas. Here is a short list (without discussion) of when telling can be effective:

• Very brief instances of conveying backstory
• Bridge over boring, no tension activities (a drive to the airport). Transitions.
• Descriptions to provide information the reader needs to know, now. For example, if we need to know the room has a fire-escape because we'll need it soon, then include it. Otherwise, there is no need to include it in a description of the room. Readers will provide their own details. Writer's don't need to stage the scenery.
• Move tension along in quicker scenes with a fast pace (showing takes longer than telling)
• Briefly set the scene

How do you convey important information - for example in a legal thriller, or medical thriller, or historical? You have an interesting character telling another character who needs to know! WHEN THEY NEED TO KNOW IT. (Where is that fire escape? It's right there! Now go!)

That's all for now. I'll post some interesting links provided by presenters, as well as book recommendations from presenters next week. In the meantime, stop reading blogs and go write!

Surrey International Writers' Conference - Day Three

Wow! I can't believe how fast this conference is flying. Only a half-day left and that's it. :(

While attending the sessions at Surrey International Writers' Conference is informative, probably the best part of the conference is talking with other writers, discussing what we're all writing, and reflecting on our own writing.

I started the morning with a session called The 90-minute Novel, by Sarah Lovett. I was only able to stay for about 45 minutes because I had my blue pencil, so I missed the guts of the presentation. Probably the most significant point Ms. Lovett made in the earlier portion of the session was that your MC should have a credo. Something they believe in absolutely. Something that defines them. What is your protagonist's credo?

Vicki Pettersson presented her famous from last year talk on "Get Over Yourself and Get Writing". One of the highlights (for me) of the conference, Vicki gives one a kick in the butt and makes you believe that you, too, can finish a novel, become a published novelist. I have pages and pages of notes from Vicki, but probably the most significant of what she said includes (1) set daily, weekly, monthly goals and then do whatever you have to do to make them happen. Life is not an excuse. This may be a word goal or a edit page goal, or whatever works for you. (2) Chart your progress. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. She uses and accounting notebook. (3) Beware of psuedo-writing activities (blogging, forum activity, attending conferences, reading about writing). The only thing that is really writing is WRITING! Vicki made a number of suggestions on what to try to keep yourself moving. The biggest point here was do what works for you, and have a box of tools you can fall back on when you get stuck.

The last session I attended was SIWC Idol. If you haven't heard about this, workshop participants can elect to turn in the first few pages of their manuscript (or you can just listen). The wonderful Jack Whyte read the pages (and who wouldn't love anything Jack read). This year 6 agents listened, and raised their hands at the point where they would stop reading if this was a submission (generally within the first 3 paragraphs). The strongest messages: Absolutely DO NOT start your story with someone waking up. Start with action and tension/conflict. Keep description to an absolute minimum.

Tonight is the Compuserve Forum Members party at Surrey and I expect it to be a late night. Two more sessions tomorrow and then....the Surrey International Writers' Conference is over for another year. Take care!

Surrey International Writers' Conference - Day Two

You are getting very sleepy....very sleepy...

Well, at least I am. It was a big, full day at the Surrey International Writers' Conference.

By all reports, the best session of the day was Donald Maass's Designing Venomous Villains. Unfortunately, I did not choose this class. Major boo's on me. I always regret skipping one of Don's sessions. He has a talent for really making your think about your own work. But I sometimes think "Oh, I've heard that person talk before. I should try someone new." Next year, I'll remember to stick with the tried and true.

The beautiful thing about Surrey is that if you find yourself in a session you don't really like, you can just move to a different session! People are coming and going all the time (to attend blue pencil and agent/editor appointments), so this shifting of locations can be done with some grace, although when half the attendees leave a half-hour into a presentation, the presenter may want to reconsider their syllabus.

The first session I attended was Bob Mayer's "Plot: The Events of Your Story". Bob Mayer is perhaps most famous for his collaborative writing with Jennifer Crusie (Don't Look Down, and Agnes and the Hit Man), but has an extensive list of books he's published under his penname Robert Doherty. I recently read "Lost Girls", one of his recent books, and thought it was great.

Anyway, I was disappointed that the class this year was identical (to the best of my memory) to a class on plotting he gave two years ago. There was too much material. He talks too fast. And it was difficult to really get anything out of it. However, he did remind me of The Conflict Box concept, which both he and Jenny Crusie talked about a few years ago, and I think also covered in their one year writing class online. The basic concept is that every scene must have conflict between a scene protagonist and a scene antagonist (may not be the overall story antagonist. For example, this could be the best friend!). The protagnoist and antagonist should have competing goals.

Bob used an example from Lost Girls to illustrate this concept. The protagonist's goal is to discover the kidnapper. The conflict is that the kidnapping continues. The antagonists goal is revenge. His conflict is that someone is trying to stop him.

The protagonists and antagonists goals should work against each other.

Try this on a scene or two. If the scene protagonist and antagonist's goals don't conflict, there may not be enough tension in your scene. I know I have some better examples of this at home. If anyone's interested, I can post them when I get back.

My second session was Dialogue by John Lescroart. Unfortunately, the bulk of this session was structured around audience questions and answers, which tend toward the more basic sorts of questions, so I left after about 1/2 hour and moved to a basic blogging 101 (too basic for me). THIS was the session I should have gone to see Donald Maass. The best tip on writing dialogue was "Skip right to the point." Don't waste a lot of time with "Hello, how are you" and the like.

If you're here on my blog, you likely know everything Darren Barefoot had to say in Blogging 101. However, he seemed a good a knowledgable speaker. Wish I had time tomorrow to attend his blogging and social networking talk tomorrow!

Third up was Characters in Action, by C.C. Humphreys. Lovely British accent! The major point of his talk was that characters have objectives and obstacles (see conflict box above - goal and conflict). This seems to be my theme for the day. Mr. Humphreys uses an acronym to demonstrate his principals: COMOCA - Characters, Objectives, Meeting, Obstacles, Creates, Action. He also mentioned "The Rule of Three" - obstacle, failure, obstacle, failure, obstacle, success. Don't make life too easy for your characters. And finally, he said "get in late and get out early." Try to cut out as much set up and closure as you can in your scenes. Get right to the point (where the scene really starts), and finish immediately when the conflict for that scene is resolved.

It's all about the conflict.

Sessions were followed by dinner, followed by a night owl session led by Michael Slade and a re-enactment of an Old Time Radio Show! Michael slade is a storyteller extraordinaire, and accompanied by a cast including Anne Perry, Diana Gabaldon, Jack Whyte, kc Dyer, and others, they re-enacted two famous radio plays. Very fun!

Too tired for the bar tonight. Last night in the bar we were joined by Rachel Vader (agent), and a crowd of members from the Compuserve Writer's Forum. Surrey is such a great place to meet people, talk about writing, and just absorb the atmosphere. Can't wait for tomorrow!