Just a quick update to let you know I’ve gotten the cover art for my book. This makes it seem very real all of a sudden. All this work really is going to pay off. Anyway, here it is:

So finally I get to another update. Fortunately, most of the reasons why I’m so late are good, creative ones, so I’m happy. I’m hard at work on my second round of editing. This one is going much faster, but my editor has also made a few suggestions for possible rewrites (all good ones), so it might be more labor intensive, too. I have also begun my work as fiction editor for Dark Recesses. It’s been fun so far trying on the editing hat from this side of things again. Plus I’ve learned so much about what makes a story read well since my last stint as an editor, I feel like I really have more to offer.

I’ve been looking up some of my old stuff. My plan is to track everything of mine that is still online down and get links put on this blog, maybe even as a sidebar if I can figure out how to do it. Anyway, here are a few of my oldies, in no particular order:

The Steps My Lover Built
Prenup
What the Rooster Taught Me

I have this great story I’ve been working on for a long time now. I’ve got the plot and the conflict figured out. The problem is, my characters keep changing on me. For instance, I had this great career all figured out for my heroine — it’s such a cool career I’m not going to tell you what it was because I may want to use it later on. She’s changed her mind, however. She wants to be a business owner, evidently. I hope this solves more problems than it creates.

I’ve been struggling with the story and the characters for some time now. I know it’s a good story, probably as good or better than the one book I’ve had accepted for publication. I’ve gotten almost 40,000 words into this thing now and I’ve got to go back and rework it to fit my heroine’s new career. The task is daunting.

Still, I figure it’s a good sign that I had to listen to her. It means she’s really coming to life for me and that’s when I do my best writing — when my characters are as real to me as my next-door neighbors. That’s when they start telling the story and I’m just the scribe writing it all down.

Here. This moment. My desk in my home and my novel is back in the hands of my capable editor.

Whew.

Okay, breathe and on to the next step, next project, next thing. But I’m finding it’s hard to let go. Ever since signing the contract I’ve been back and forth — did I do the right thing? I’ve come to the conclusion that I did.

No, it’s not my dream contract. There’s no big advance and my book must prove itself in e-book format before it even gets a chance at being published in print. But it’ll be out there. Somebody will read it. Somebody will like it. More than a handful of somebodies, most likely. I have that much faith in my book and my publisher.

I’ve read a lot of blogs by people much more experienced than I am at this publishing thing. Lots of good advice. Lots of don’ts. Don’t jump at the first contract. Don’t sign before you read. Don’t give up when you get rejected.

I did all the right things. I persevered in the face of many rejections. I didn’t sign without having a lawyer look over the contract. (That’s expensive, by the way.) I did take my first acceptance. Keep in mind that I’d gone through months of rejections by the time I got that letter from Lyrical Press. Acceptance letters are sweet manna to writers. Rejections are spinach — necessary and full of vitamins to keep us growing, but really icky.

What would have happened if I had held out for a better deal, a bigger publisher, an agent who appreciates my brilliance? I have to say, acceptance in the face of rejection and possibly more rejection made me weak.

So that’s where I am, and I’ve learned so much already, things that will make my next book better, possibly more acceptable to a bigger publisher. Possibly enough to make my dreams come true.

I’ve been reading the copy of Easter Rabbit that Joe Young was kind enough to autograph for me (nothing like a well-placed hint, right?), and it’s gotten me thinking about the art of microfiction. Anybody who tells you you can read a good piece of microfiction in a few seconds is either joking or an idiot. The first story in Joe’s collection, “Sine”, is exactly twenty-one words long, including the title. It’s one sentence that I’ve read and read and re-read and re-read. I’ve probably spent half an hour on this one story. I know it tells a story. I can feel it. If I knew how to read between the lines of Joe Young’s brain, I’d know what the story was. As it is, all I can do is puzzle over it, wonder, and fill in the gaps as best I can.

As a writer who has tried her hand at microfiction, I know how challenging it is to resist filling in those gaps for the reader. As a novelist, I don’t leave many gaps. I tell the reader what my character is thinking and what his/her motivation is in doing what they do. There really is no mystery. Microfiction should be the exact opposite. Sometimes the writer reveals what happens but not what the motivation of the character was in doing so. Sometimes you know a little about the character, but not much about what she’s done or why. A good example would be Joe’s second story of the collection, “Marie Celeste”. In it, we know the character’s name and a little about her: she has “cup moons beneath her eyes” that are “in decline” and she talks about tsunamis and ping pong balls. But Joe doesn’t tell us what’s happened to her or what she’s done. After my tenth reading, I decided she had done something horrible, but after my twentieth, I decided she was dying in some slow, horrible way. Who knows what I’ll think after my thirtieth reading?

At the rate I’m tearing through “Easter Rabbit”, I may finish it some time next year, but that’s okay. The allure of good microfiction is the same as the allure of good poetry. It makes you think, and in doing so, it pulls something out of you that maybe you didn’t know was there.

If you’d like a copy of Joe’s “Easter Rabbit”, you can get it here: Easter Rabbit.

If you’d like to know who can write like Joe Young better than me, check this out: Easter Rabbit Contest Results.

If you’d like to read a couple of my better attempts at microfiction, try these: Day Care; Bubbles; Mantra and Thunderstorm.

Sorry it’s been so long since my last update. I’ve been busy with mom stuff. It seems I no sooner get done with my morning activity — playdate, PTO meeting or just errands — before it’s time to wolf down lunch and go pick up one kid or another. So I’ve not had much time to explore any of my thoughts in depth, but here are a couple things that have occurred to me over the past week.

1. I’m glad I got to see the the new Sherlock Holmes. Robert Downey Jr. was brilliant, but I really enjoyed Jude Law’s portrayal of an updated, completely non-fuddy duddy Dr. Watson. The movie had a little too much action, a little too little story, but it was fun, and I think that’s what it’s intended to be.

2. Speaking of movies, I’m really looking forward to the new A-Team movie. I saw the trailer and it was like the old television show on a much bigger budget. And it never hurts to have Liam Neeson in a movie, even if this is a surprising choice for him.

3. Still plugging away at the edits on my novel. Hope to have them complete within a week. After that, I plan to get back to writing, if I can just pick one of my many projects-in-progress. Seems these days the smart writers are writing about vampires, werewolves, zombies or time travel. One of my projects actually does incorporate one of those, so maybe I’ll go with that one. I’ve written about all four in the past and never been successful, so wish me luck.

4. I’m also planning to take over as interim fiction editor of Dark Recesses online literary magazine in February. I haven’t had a regular job as a fiction editor since edifice WRECKED, and I’m a little nervous about the schedule necessary. If you want to visit me over there, you can find it here: Dark Recesses.

Here’s a little something I wrote for a contest. It didn’t win and I have no intention of doing anything else with it since I don’t think it’s that great, so I don’t mind sharing it with you guys. The object of the contest was to sound like the brilliant Joseph Young, for which the prize was a copy of his new book “Easter Rabbit”. Guess I’ll just have to go order the book now, darn it, and I was hoping for an autographed copy!

The Beginning

By Michelle Garren Flye

“Watcha got?”

The boy raises the speckled object, held between thumb and forefinger. “Bird.”

“Egg?”

“Yeah.” He runs his finger over the egg’s surface. It appears smooth, but he can feel tiny pits and uneven valleys. It reminds him of his mother’s face, so fine from a distance but full of imperfections up close.

The Middle

By Michelle Garren Flye

He wishes she would turn the stereo up. The clock sounds so loud in the near silence. Somewhere upstairs he hears Joe Cocker’s wails working their way through the floorboards but by the time they reach him they are indistinct and the clock overwhelms them. He touches the threadbare covering of the green chair. The calluses on his thumb and forefinger make a raspy noise that overwhelms the tocking and ticking, so he caresses the fabric with a lover’s zeal.

The End

By Michelle Garren Flye

The floor is glass. The floor is ice. Hard. Cold. Perfect. He never noticed its fineness before. He’s on the ragged rug, the bare floor just inches away. The wheels of his chair spin above him, puffing air onto swollen knuckles as he extends his arm and lets it fall, feels his palm slap on the shiny surface. Dust wisps cloud his weeping vision, but the icy perfection tingles his fingertips like a flawless diamond in a jeweler’s grasp.

So I have this awesome editor who made all sorts of wonderful suggestions for tightening up my writing and generally improving my manuscript. I’m learning a great deal about novel-writing (not so much about blogging). Problem is, making these changes is incredibly painful. I’m slowly slogging my way through but I’ve only made it about halfway. Admittedly, holiday shopping and preparations did slow me down even more, but the truth is I can barely make it through a half hour of edits before my mind (and my internet) wanders.

Today, I even found myself coming up with other tasks to avoid editing today. I washed the dishes (hallelujah!). I put away the kids’ old schoolwork. I made cookies. In keeping with my New Year’s resolutions, I spent forty minutes on the elliptical and took a shower. I hauled up the boxes to pack away the Christmas decorations … and decided I’d rather edit. I still don’t know of anything I hate more than taking down Christmas decorations!

Ten minutes to midnight on the last day of 2009. It’s the fourth ending of a decade that I’ve seen. The second with a blue moon hanging in the sky. Is that significant? Prophetic? I’ve always been a little leery of astrological phenomena. If you juxtapose two planets in the sky and tell me about it, I might not actually go hide under my bed, but I will approach the day with caution.

In 2010 I celebrate my fortieth birthday. I always imagined I’d be a wildly successful author by the time I turned forty. I can’t claim that, but I can at least anticipate the publication of my first novel within the next year (or so) and hopefully follow it up with more. I’m learning more about writing every day and the publishing world is even losing some of its mystique. Live and learn.

Five minutes to midnight. (Yes, it took me that long to write that – imagine how long it takes to write a novel!) Aside from publishing and writing, I have a very happy, mostly successful life. I have three wonderful children who are cheerfully surviving my many mistakes as a parent. I’m a total loss as far as a social being, but I have several very good friends and some even better acquaintances. (Typically I would put a smiley there, but I’m trying to get away from emoticons – part of my New Year’s Resolutions.) And my husband is as wonderful as they come. He puts up with all my craziness, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. Not all of my craziness is funny ha-ha. Some of it is just plain irritating craziness. So if you put together my wonderful kids, husband and friends, my life is pretty damn good.

Two minutes to midnight. I’m going to start listing my resolutions now in no particular order. When it hits midnight, I’ll stop and post.

1. Finish editing my novel so Lyrical Press can publish it.
2. Pick another story and go with it. Write 65,000 words before the end of March.
3. Keep up with this blog. I’ve never been a good blogger, but I know some, so I’ll study up on it.
4. Exercise more, eat less and shed those last ten pounds I’ve been wanting to lose.
5. Come up with a fifth resolution at some point this year, because it’s right now midnight. Happy New Year, everyone!

Live hard, dream big and write it all down!