We're just waiting for the plane to load and then we're off. See you on the other side of the pond!
Mick and are at our favorite restaurant, Monsoon on 3rd Street Prominade. They have an appetizer called Tuna Crab Eggroll that is one of my favorite dishes of all time. I call it "deserted island food" because if I was stranded on a deserted island and could only pick one meal, it's probably what I'd pick.
What food or meal would you pick if you were on a deserted island?
Mick and I are taking a trip to England next week and whilst it is an opportunity to see his family, for me it is also going to be a research trip.
I have been to London many times, and this made choosing the city for my setting much less intimidating. Now that the novel is written, I have a pretty good idea of most of the locations in the book. The purpose of my research in London will be mostly to take photos, soak up some atmosphere (and hopefully some inspiration), and make sure that my chosen locations make sense.
Somerset House, the Strand, London
This was the queen's residence during the time I'm writing about.
Today is the first day I started planning, and I began by writing up a rough list of locations I need to visit:
Royal Exchange
Primrose Hill
Somerset House
Tower of London
Westminster Abby
Banqueting House
St Martins-in-the-Fields
There will, of course, be many more. I've already been to many of these locations, but this time I will return with my novel in mind. For example, the Tower of London houses the crown jewels, and I want to look at the items made for Charles II's coronation in 1661 because one of my characters was apprentice to the goldsmith who made them.
This is kind of a test post since I am sending it using email and my phone for the first time. I'm hoping to be able to post using my phone whilst we're in England. I wanted to share a picture of the lovely beaded bag I got in Diamond Springs, CA (which, incidentally, is where I grew up):
I love antique beaded bags, and this one is in great condition.
Well, let's hope this test post works!
This summer, I came to our Oregon house wanting to paint our kitchen cabinets white. I'd been threatening it for awhile, but could never gussy up the courage (or, frankly, the motivation) to do it. Once I got here this time, however, I decided I'd put the project off for another year.
I couldn't stop thinking about it though. Every day, I'd find myself wanting to do it, then I'd talk myself out of it. Finally, I told myself if I just work hard for two days, it would be done and I wouldn't have to think about it again. That's all it took. With Mick's help, I painted those cabinets and we're both loving the results.
As a reminder, here's a couple of pictures of our kitchen when we first bought the place in 2006:
As you can see by the paint on the counter top, I was rarin' to get this place fixed up as soon as I could. We put in laminate flooring, new appliances, replaced the countertops, and replaced the hardware almost as soon as we moved in. This was the result:
Certainly, a huge improvement, but I had chosen the appliances and the countertop with the plan to paint the cabinets white. But with only a six to eight weeks spent in the house every year, it's hard to get to every single project in a timely manner.
Now, the picture you've been waiting for:
Crisp, clean, and cool, my kitchen now looks like I always thought it should. The cabinets themselves have a nice country look, but the white paint keeps them from looking dated. Plus, they're in great condition and I could never have justified getting rid of them altogether.
Many thanks to Young House Love, whose great tutorial on painting cabinets I followed to the letter.
If you'd like to see the other before/after pictures of our Oregon house, you can see them here and here.
Earlier in the year, I wrote this post about a site a friend told me about called "This Young House."
As of tonight, the name of the site has changed. From now on, TYH will be called "Young House Love." You can read the story about the change here.
Yes, it's highly irksome that a big, successful brand (that shall not be mentioned) took notice of "Young House Love" and its former name and decided to go after it. But rather than get pissed off, I agree with John & Sherry. This is a fantastic opportunity to expand their brand–their brand–without being tied, even subtly, to a brand name that is antiquated and has little relevance to what they do.
John and Sherry are a lot more polite than I am, so I'll say what they might not want to: Fuck 'em.
It seems like a big deal to change a name mid-stream, but it's really not. Sure, it requires a little work, but in the end it's worth it. I used to work for a little website called "The Mining Co." With this name, they saw some success, but let's face it, miningco.com was a bit cumbersome. They quickly realized they needed a name that could be easily recognized, branded, and marketed. In one huge marketing campaign, they change the name to About.com and no one has looked back since.
So here's to a new day, and a new love: "Young House Love."
About a month ago, I finished the first draft of my novel, Diary of Bedlam. It was definitely a milestone–I have about 65k words, a beginning, a middle, and an end, and most importantly, I know "whodunnit."
But although I refer to this draft as a "book," does it really qualify? No. There's too many disconnects, too many errors, and too much bad writing for me to justify calling it a book.
For me the answer to the question "when does a book become a book?" will probably be around the time I'm ready to start querying agents, or slightly before. It will then be a complete story with most of the kinks worked out, and it will be ready for the "general public" to read, at least in my estimation.
When do you think a book becomes a book?
Many of you know Mick and I have been staying at our house in Oregon for the past few weeks. It's been great, but we've both been feeling a bit cooped up. Today we decided to make a day trip to Crater Lake.
It's about a two hour drive through some really beautiful country. We passed over the Rogue River several times, and if you ever get a chance to take a rafting trip down it, I highly recommend it.
I knew Crater Lake was going to be spectacular, but wowza! It is amazing.
We knew it would be chillier up there then it is down here in the valley, but I wasn't prepared for how cold it actually was. My baseball cap and pigtails weren't cutting it. Mick and I went into the gift shope and bought extra clothes to keep us warm.
Our plan was to take a two-mile round trip hike to the top of Watchman overlook but it was closed. We drove back to the lodge area and chose a slightly longer hike to the top of a peak. Two months off of from running has taken its toll–a mile hike with a 1000 ft. rise was really tiring, but worth it.
Mick took a few more pictures and posted them on our Picasa page. He did some gorgeous panoramas.
It was a lovely day! I'm so glad we decided to take a break.
Last week I put out a request to friends and family to read the first two chapters of my novel and supply feedback. The response was great, but the feedback they sent me back was even better.
By better, I'm not saying all their comments were positive. What was great, and oh so appreciated, was the fact they took time to read the chapters and give their honest opinions.
I asked two questions when I sent out the chapters:
1) Does the beginning hook you?
2) Is there anything unclear or confusing?
The overwhelming response was that yes, readers were hooked and wanted to read more (yay!). The second most common response was that there was some confusion in chapter two with all of the information I tried to impart.
Other comments included problems with pacing and needing more character development earlier. There were also some inconsistencies in the text that I didn't catch. All easily fixable.
I don't know why I'm surprised at how valuable this feedback is in going forward. It's given me confidence, but it was also a much needed reality check. Thanks to all who have read the manuscript so far and sent me your thoughts!
Today, I got my first mention in the New York Times:
Kindle Joins a Literary Ritual: Authors can Autograph it
On Thursday, I got an email from a reporter asking about my experience with having my Kindle signed. I was happy to talk with him, especially since my perspective on this has changed since I started writing my own novel.
The reporter pretty much got my point right in his brief article. But I want to emphasize when I had my Kindle signed the first time, I hadn't given much thought to the bookstore/author relationship. I figured, hey, this is Barnes & Noble, a big chain store–I didn't think about whether I was taking money out of their pockets. My main concern was that the author would question whether or not I had actually bought her book since Kindles were relatively new in May 2008.
Since then, I have learned a lot more about book promotion and I would hesitate in most cases to have my Kindle signed rather than buying a book at the store the author is appearing at. As I wrote in an email to the reporter:
"As a consumer I might not feel guilty about using Barnes & Noble as a way to gain access to a particular author, but as the author, I might feel differently about that. Sure, I just want people to buy my books, and I don't really care where they do it (from a financial standpoint). However, the big chain stores are still an important part of an author's promotional strategy, and if readers are not buying books there (and are instead having authors sign Kindles), stores like B&N might not feel the need to host book signings at all."
In our conversation, I originally said that I felt differently about big chain bookstores than I did about independent booksellers (from whom I'd always buy the book at the book signing rather than having my Kindle signed). But after thinking about it, I felt the need to clarify that it's probably important to buy the book from wherever the author is appearing, regardless of whether it's a big chain or a small independent.
What do you think? Authors, readers–do you have any comments on this?