NEW BLOG UP AND RUNNING!

Finally the new all-in-one blog and website is up and running. 
Check it out here. 

I’ve duplicated a few of the last posts here as the first posts there.  And this will be the last post I make here.  If you’ve linked to my blog in the past, many thanks!  And remember to change the link address to the new one:  www.josiegordon.com .

Best wishes!

Changes Afoot

I’m migrating internet hosts and WordPress formats so I’m told the blog will go offline soon. I hope to have it up and running in a few days. This level of technology makes me nervous . . .

Spring Breezes for this Writer

In honor of spring, I decided to do throw the windows wide and let in some new, fresh air to circulate with the familiar furniture of my imagination.  So for the next few weeks, I’m going to read a few books on writing that don’t look like the sort of thing I’d normally pick up.  For instance, no books on story structure for the next two months, since I love that stuff and read it all the time.  No, I want to bring in something different.  Then I thought I’d share what I read, and the good things I learned, with you.  Not book reviews, really.  More about sharing the good breezes . . .

So, for starters, last weekend I picked up Kenneth Atchity’s A Writer’s Time. Revised Edition. NY: Norton, 1995. Atchity himself is an interesting resource for writers and other creative people; his blog is worth a look.  Anyhow, this is a book for writer’s on time management.  Not what I’d usually read–time management . . .  which would make sense if you watched me go through a day wasting time!

Anyhow, I gotta admit that Atchity’s approach to writing projects really grabbed my imagination.  As you might imagine, the book spells out a clear working calendar for projects of any length and gives great tips for staying on task in manageable daily chunks.  But what really captured my attention was his emphasis on pre-writing using index cards.  That might sound awful to many of you (it does to me too, since I’m a discover-as-I-go first drafter), but this is just what I was looking for!  New breezes!!

Atchity says that when he teaches, he doesn’t let his students write a word on their papers until they have accumulated enough index cards of ideas (and research if needed) to write the entire work.  He encourages them to gather more than they need to allow for flexibility.  Then when they sit down to write, they never face a blank page.  Your working calendar develops from your deadline and targeted manuscript length.  You write through only the number of cards you need to on any one day to stay on task, thus avoiding burnout.  And best of all–he balances work with “vacation” time so that the writer’s creative well is constantly being refilled.  Check out the book for the interesting details.

This reminded me a lot of the index card for pre-writing method I remember reading in Elizabeth George’s Write Away some years ago.

I decided to give it a try, as I had a short article I needed to write for a workshop project.  So instead of opening my word processor, I gathered the number of index cards I figured I’d need for a 1000 word essay plus a few extra ideas.  And I walked around jotting ideas, one per card, for a few days.  I fussed with those cards off and on all the time, even jotting something at red lights.  Rearranged while eating breakfast.  Looked up a quote or two.

My biggest surprise:  I loved the tactile aspects of manipulating ideas.  That really engaged my brain in a new way. 

Anyhow, I wrote the article on time and I think it was richer than it might have been.  I liked the method though I’m skeptical about how well I’d do with it when writing a novel.  Still, I might give it a whirl sometime.

Mystery Award Finalist

The first Lonnie Squires mystery, WHACKED, has been named as a finalist for best lesbian mystery in the 21st Annual Lamba Literary Awards!  I’m thrilled with this honor and to be named in the same category as such other skillful writers as Ellen Hart, Jessica Thomas, Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall, and Ali Vali.

Remember, you can visit Bella Books to order WHACKED.

Also, get ready for a new look and new flavor to this blog.  I’ve spent the last few months really learning more about how to use Web 2.0 and doing a bit more planning.   I hope to get this up and running in a new way by mid year.

Working It Out

It’s the start of the new year and not yet halfway through January, so I’m still full of resolve to work out some of the things in my life that need it.

So, alleluia, the second Lonnie Squires mystery, TOASTED, is all done and ready to go to the publisher!  It makes such a nice neat pile on my desk compared to the last 13 months of sticky notes, maps, timelines, printouts, red marks, and version after version after version piled up on top of reference books and phone call notes and . . . well, you get the picture.  I can actually see the surface of my desk.  That won’t last long, though as . . .

I woke up this morning with a major plot problem for the third Lonnie Squires mystery, DITCHED, all worked out in my head.  Yippee!  Happy dance.  I wrote it down while half awake, and now that I’ve done my workout, it still looks good, so that’s a good sign.  One more week of getting my new job schedule worked out and then I’m back to work hard on that novel.

Yes … I said workout.  January is national fitness craze month, isn’t it?  Maybe not.  In any event, it’s cold and there are no bugs out, so it’s the best time of the year for me to get outside and get active!  Seriously.  I’d rather spend an hour or two hiking through the snow on the beach or through the woods in twenty degrees than do it in seventy degrees and have to fight mosquitoes and ticks and air full of things I’m allergic to.  Spring, I have to hide in the house with the windows shut.  Summer, I have to dose myself with bug spray.  But Winter, it’s just a coat and boots and I’m on my way.  Plus, I just started this excellent pilates/yoga fusion workout DVD (which I do indoors!) 

It’ll be funny to see how I feel about the workout regime in a month!

A New Book for Christmas

WHACKED is out. Some of my friends have had copies for days. But I didn’t until just about a half hour ago when the UPS man arrived!  That’ll teach me to be too cheap to buy one!

I took this picture two nights ago in my back yard. I almost fell over from the beauty of it. There were three lovely deer making their way through the deep snow toward my bird feeder and they no sooner stepped into my yard than the timer clicked the Christmas tree on. What a Christmas miracle! I was/am very grateful for it.

As I am grateful to have a new book out there in the world. I hope it’s giving readers a fun mystery along with some new ideas to think about–about lesbians, Christians, Christian lesbians, small towns, community, love/hate ties that bind. To quote “Midnight’s Gone” by Terri Clark (and thanks to a friend on the Bella Forum for sharing this song with me):
I’ve faced the morning light
Saying this day is the day I’m gonna go
All I have to do is drive away
But the things that make me crazy
Always make me stay

Happy holidays!!

Today I Live in A Snowglobe

It’s one of those wonderful days when the snowflakes are fat and slap-happy and whirling like scarves every which way outside of every window. I do love winter.

I also love having finished the “last” draft of my next mystery novel, TOASTED. “Last” of course not really meaning “last,” but meaning “this is the draft I will send to the publisher and I know that once the editor and I get on it together there will be more changes.” But “last” is shorter to type. And besides, for a while at least, it signifies this manuscript is off my desk, which after thirteen months, is a relief.

New Mystery Available for Pre-Order

 

WHACKED

The first mystery starring soccer-playing priest Lonnie Squires, is currently availabe for pre-order from Bella Books.

Click here to read an excerpt posted on my website.

End of November

It’s the end of November and though I crossed the NaNoWriMo 50,000 word finish line a

few days ago, I feel like I can now publish this!

More Than 51, 487 Blessings

What am I thankful for?   Well, right this bleary-eyed moment, the 51,487 words of my NaNoWriMo 2008 document.  The draft isn’t finished (onward into December!!) but the word goal is met.  Hooray.

For my beta readers who help me catch big stupid mistakes in the umpteenth draft of my mysteries.

For my family, who right now are running around crazily preparing for some Thanksgiving Day 10K run. Or sleeping in.

For the fact that I don’t want to run a 10K but can sit here an update my blog and look at the sunshine.

For my readers!  Without you, who would I write for?

For the parts of life that I wish weren’t there, but that call me to be more truly, bravely myself in ways which are never easy.

Lots of other stuff too, of course.   Gotta go fire up the parades!