Hello

And a Happy Prosperous New Year to you all especially in the writing department.
I was offered a space in an on-line magazine to place a flash fiction story and the guy was generous to offer one of my stories a spot and I am of course thrilled, but get this, he was so great he told me to just write up the story and send it along for him to take a look. On the one hand I thought it was terrific but on the other, it was, boy he has a lot of confidence in me because the thought of just sending off a story a second after I write it makes me cringe because “Hi, I’m Lori and I am a re-writeaholic.”

I know this is suppose to be a good thing, even a great thing because no story is ever written once ( maybe some of those by Ernest Hemingway) but the other ninety-nine percent of them are re-written stories and mine are no exception, they may even be in the re-written-to-be-re-written-and-beyond category. My writing system goes along like this: I write the first draft in a spiral notebook and this seems to take forever but I cannot write any other way. After the spiral notebook I move on to clearing the story out on yellow legal pads. After the legal’s I move to the computer, get the story in there so that I can sit in front of it for a long time: turning, twisting, tweaking the story, ripping out parts (sounds so bloody doesn’t it but sometimes you have to be brutal) starting a chapter over or adding a new one, tossing out a character and growing another; I’m talking reams of time working to get one project just perfect which never happens but this is the way I write. So when told to “just write it up and send it in” I panicked then thought it over and to my surprise, wrote it up. Did I do it in one try? No way; I can't go without tossing it through a couple of re-writes but what got me to do it immediately was having an almost fully formed story idea; seeing the characters doing their thing and not peppering the story with too many of them in the first place and also knowing the story is bounded by a certain word length because it’s a flash-fiction piece; this was a kind of freedom.

I've written the story, I’m going to give it one more going over then submit it. Regardless if it’s accepted by the magazine or not, I’ll send it along to you and you tell me what you think.

Another holiday is upon us, enjoy it with those you love and if you can write up a couple of stories or is that re-write up a few. Best Wishes.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me at:matwrite1@aol.com, I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time God willing,

Lori

Hello and Happy Holidays to you,

I am having trouble coming up with an idea for a short piece of less than one-thousand words. Doesn’t it seem how you have ideas about stories coming out the wood work sometimes? That every time you turn around something comes across to you as a great idea for a story; it happens to me all the time too but my problem is that it works for longer stories and not for something less than a thousand but then I remembered that article I mentioned in a previous blog written by Ms. Oard Warner and how she takes “scraps” from a larger story and creates well-put together short stories with them. I thought okay, maybe I could try that but then I thought challenge myself, stretch my imagination and come up with something special, find a way to create a new out of the ordinary story and not something from drop offs of characters I already know, create new characters a new situation, move into unchartered territory with my writing and fill it with excitement, make it interesting, come up with well-rounded characters and do it in one-thousand words or less.

Writing should be as challenging to me as driving a race car is to Dale Earnhart Jr; I don’t believe he knows wants going to happen when he gets out on the track, every situation is different, heart pounding, exhilarating and I want to feel the same rush when I stare at that blank page and try my hand at a new kind of story.

My story is not due for a while so I’m going to read more this holiday season , books and articles I generally pass up; listen a little closer to those conversations that I try and tune out; pay more attention to the world around me that I dismiss in the every day grind and by doing all this I know I’m going to find that story even if I have to stumble across it or even fall face down on it and get my “ah” moment where I’ll pull out my notebook and start writing like a maniac and come up with a short piece I love.

So I’m going to write this holiday season and I hope you will too. Have a happy Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and just a plain old good time with those you love.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

When I write I make sure I have two special books at hand, they are: Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass and On Writing by Stephen King. I know most writers always have “writing” books or books about writing in easy reach when they are getting it down. My reasons for having my favorite writing books around are many but I’ll only comment on a few: I love reading passages from On Writing over and over again and not just the chapters on the practical aspects of writing, the “Toolbox” section as Mr. King calls it where he advises on the important basics of writing, using adverbs, grammar, style, plot (or not how to develop one), to read, read and read some more, description, theme, all the mechanics of the writing process, what I love the most about On Writing is that it’s truly like reading one of your favorite novels its full of stories of Mr. King’s life that draw you in like one of his great novels and they fit into the book just like pieces of a puzzle so perfectly that moving from a few paragraphs on how to write dialogue to the story of how he started writing Misery is a smooth ride like eating your favorite ice cream sundae and someone adding more whip cream on top.

I learn something from every page of On Writing. I can open the book on page one hundred fourteen and fall right into it (page 114 discusses vocabulary as one of the best necessaries as a writer) any page and not only learn something important, I’m also entertained, enthralled and like always--inspired--by its great writing and how it moves me to write—just write—and to try and do a great job at it.

I keep Writing the Breakout Novel close by because to me it’s a blue print on how to construct the best book that I can; Mr. Maass tells you like it is and he does it with precise language and a truckload of helpful information such as examples of the kind of writing that adheres to his point, checklists at the end of each chapter that gives the highlights of that chapter and he has also added a workbook that compliments his writing book where you can construct your novel right in front of you and I’m using it now for my novel The Geography of Love so that I will not miss out on the essential ingredients needed to create a great story. I use the workbook (as well as the book itself) when writing each of my novels because it gives me confidence that I’m going in the right direction while I’m traveling that long writing road.

Whatever “writing books” you use to help bolster you through the writing process is a great thing because the tools we need to get us to keep up the writing is to our advantage and to the works advantage. The goal is always to do our best writing as much as we possibly can and that’s not easy, so anything to help us along in this process is a gift.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

If we’re lucky we can write all type of things and sometimes I need to write something different especially when writing a long project, so I take a break from the longer novel by doing shorter ones, novellas and flash fiction or sudden fiction that doesn’t take long, doesn’t take too many words and straying from the longer piece to the shorter one can be the most liberating exercises you can do and I had forgotten this until I completed the first sudden fiction piece I had done in a long time and it was terrific. The story is called Ice Cream and Christmas Trees.

To me writing short stories occasionally is like being a mathematician who takes a break from the coldness of numbers to write poetry or a concert pianist who occasionally plays with a jazz quartet because its fun. Another great aspect about writing flash fiction when you have the chance is that you can write about anything and in anyway you like which is different from writing a novel that follows an order, a plan, that creates the novel from beginning to end. Flash fiction doesn’t have to have a beginning or end, doesn’t have to follow any order, it can stop in the middle, it can have poetry thrown in it, it can sound crazy, or plain one liners, it can be 200 words or a thousand, flash fiction can be anything you want it to be and that’s the greatness of it.

So write what you want, what you love, just remember there are so many different forms of writing we can do and should do if not only to help develop our skills so that we can write anything well, but because I have so many things I want to write about (and I know you do to) that getting my stories out in any form is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, ate grandly and wrote and wrote and wrote—good stuff. I did a lot of writing and I’m getting it done to my liking. I- as I do much of the time - was thinking about writing (though the key is doing it) and thought how much of it we really do and the different forms it takes. I start off my day writing out pages of my own work if I’m lucky or at least notes for a story or for a new idea.

From there I usually write notes to my children’s teachers, a line of two on their homework to let the teacher know I’m paying attention too or to comment on something the teacher sent me—those teachers send home a lot of information. Then at the office I write e-mails, more than I thought I did and for a number of reasons: one, because I seem to communicate better in writing than I do speaking to someone over the phone. Two, writing out something another person can read seems to me to clear up any beginning confusion; it’s in writing so quote me on it. Third, writing out a message is easier, cleaner; colder maybe but cleaner. And fourth, you can write out something beautiful, make something easier for the reader to take when its written out, you can pour your heart out in your writing something that sometimes cannot be easy to do over that instrument, the phone.

In the evening I write notes to my husband and those are my favorite. Writing to someone you love, even like a lot is special and I think it has always been since the birth of the printed word. How many times have reading the love letters of others: Catharine of Aragon to Henry VIII; Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine; Theodore Roosevelt Jr. to Bunny (his second wife); F. Scott Fitzgerald to Zelda and Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan make us realize that only through the written word can the feelings and thoughts in the heart be expressed for all the world to see and rejoice in.

Writing is a constant isn't it? It can’t be avoided; shouldn’t be avoided, we can’t live without writing, putting all we want to do, need to be, want to be, who we love, what we love; the way we live; all of it, in to words. I know I can’t live without putting something into words everyday and I don’t think you can either.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to you all and keep writing through the holidays, I will.

See you all next week God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I read recently in The Writer at writermag.com, an article titled “A ‘crazy-quilt’ approach to fiction” by Sharon Oard Warner. It was the first paragraph of the story that caught my attention, it told of going against the so called wisdom of writing a first draft non-stop and instead doing what Ms. Oard Warner called “premature revision” which sounds vaguely unpleasant yet it’s not, it’s her term for revising, rewriting, getting one section complete, done, as perfect as you feel you possibly can then moving onto the next part of the story and doing the same. Ms. Oard Warner goes on to write about how though while still writing the bigger picture out you can give birth to smaller, stand-alone stories from “scraps” off that larger picture or story.

I was taken though with what I’ll call “another way of writing” to Ms. Oard Warner’s “premature revision” and mostly because I’m writing a novel just that way and not because it’s an experiment or easier but because it’s the way the novel called “The Geography of Love” is developing. I started the work of course with an idea but pieces of the story didn’t come to me right away, I would be reading a book for research and a line would conjure up an entire scene, but one at the end of the book and I’ll write it out, put it aside then go back to writing the beginning of the novel; or I’ll write a short middle section or a long end section, hodge podge, back and forth depending on the inspiration I receive for whatever scene; it’s not the start-at-the-beginning-of-the-draft-and-keep-at-it-until-the-end; my novel is coming together piece meal yet in my mind its coming together as well as if I flamed through it as a first draft.

All of this sounds good, but the bottom line for me as well as for you I’m sure is just getting the work, the novel done, completed, by any means necessary; it’s the goal and if I had to stand on my head to finish my novel in the way that satisfies me—or as satisfied as I can get with my writing—then I’ll do it. So no matter how you write your novel or other writing projects, the point is that you’re writing it, finishing it and are as happy as you can be at that fact.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

Surprised to hear from me on a Thursday instead of my usual Friday, well, I won’t be around tomorrow; well not by death; well at least not that I know of, but I won’t be able to write the blog out tomorrow and wanted to make sure it was done. It’s the writer in me of course, write everyday, write what you need to and steadily.

Though I won’t be writing my blog tomorrow I will be writing; I will be having a “fantasy writing day.” I know you know what I mean; it’s the kind writing day you imagine for yourself as a successful writer. A fantasy of course, well maybe more of a dream because you know you want to get there,for now though you work your day job, attend to your other responsibilities and write toward that kind of success.This is what my “fantasy writing day” will be like.

I’ll rise around six-thirty and have a cup of coffee at my kitchen table while I read a writing magazine or book on writing. An hour later I’ll get my sons ready for their day, breakfasted, dressed and off to school. After dropping them off I’ll go to the gym for an hour or maybe an hour and a half because I have to spend time in the sauna and a nice shower.

Afterwards, home to start another pot of coffee, eat a light breakfast and then go to my “writing room”. In my mind it would be a great office with a plush red divine for resting but in reality it’s my dining room table. At the table I’ll get out my writing notebooks and write until one o’clock, grab a quick lunch, maybe read a few pages in a novel by one of my favorite writers for further inspiration and strength or watch one of my favorite half-hour programs like I Love Lucy, the ones before the Ricardo’s move to Connecticut. Or All in the Family, the one’s before Mike and Gloria move to California.

After lunch and a show I’ll go back to writing until three thirty when I go pick up my sons. The rest of the day would be filled with family and end after the kids are in bed and I write for another hour; the perfect writing day. It’s amazing to me that there are writers out there who have “fantasy writing days” everyday and my goal is to join that club and I know it’s yours too and the only way to get there is to write; write well, keep submitting until you find the right people who love your work as much as you do and don’t get discouraged more than two minutes a day; but the only real way to make that dream reality is to of course: write.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me at:matwrite1@aol.com, I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time—next Friday God willing,

Lori

Hello,

Do you ever have those occasions when you don’t want to write, can’t write because you’re too tired, too sad, on brain freeze? Or when you believe you can’t write? That what you write is awful and you’re wasting your time and no one can possibly love what you wrote besides yourself. We feel this way some times we can’t help it.
The key though is that your mind may say those things and believe them at the time but down deep, down in the heart of you, you know its not true because there is that flame for writing ever present, you feel it like its second heart and it keeps burning no matter how you’re feeling or thinking; its our passion for writing. A flame that never goes out no matter what. I once read a comment by science fiction writer Ray Bradbury I’ll paraphrase here, he said, “Sometimes you worry about bills you can’t pay or other things that are on you mind, but eventually you get over those things but the writing never really stops.”

The writing never stops though you may not put things down right away on paper your mind and heart are always looking for a story, ruminating over a story idea even though we all have lives—some of us very busy lives—outside of putting pen to paper, writing is our calling, the thing we do even when we shouldn’t, when we instead should be mowing the grass or doing that report for work we still will do anything to put those lives aside for a moment, an hour, a day to write because there is nothing else in the world we want to do more because its our passion.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me at:matwrite1@aol.com, I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I like ER and I watch the old shows when I can and one thing I like to see at the end of the show is the –C- for Consistency, it’s the logo for the production company owned by the author Michael Crichton at http://michaelcrichton.ne, who is the creator of the show. He is consistently writing not just books, screenplays and he even wrote episodes of the show. He consistently writes.

Each time the show ends and I see that confident “C” it's a consistent (I couldn’t help it) reminder how writing unfailingly, as much as possible, all the time, is the only way not just to learn to write well but to succeed at writing. And its not just writing everyday and writing all kinds of works that you enjoy, for instance writing mystery novels but one day writing a short horror story; it’s what I do and I can contest to the fact that over time my writing has improved using this technique and I mean to keep it up to make my writing the best it can be.

I remember reading the earlier fiction by Dr. Keith Ablow at www.keithablow.com and enjoying his work, but as he wrote further stories staring Dr. Clevenger they became better, the writing smoother, more texture to the characters and storylines, I know this may be rare and you have to throw some talent in but only writing and rewriting consistently makes that “some talent” blossom.

So write everyday if you can, write when it’s difficult, when you’re tired and it’s just plain hard to find the right words, it’s the best way, the only way to develop your talent and become the writer you’re meant to be; a great one.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me at:matwrite1@aol.com, I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I’ve been reading a lot lately about character development and have decided I don’t much like that term—character development. To me, my characters are more than “developed” I feel they are born through blood, sweat and tears like any human though birthed out the mind of course and I know you feel that way too. We make our character’s hearts beat like our own, we add the joy of a good life or the pain of a bad one we may have known, they feel what we have felt, look like people we may have known or imagined knowing and we give them lives we wished we had or would never want and we do it all in minute detail. I believe a combination of those factors can make for unforgettable characters we love or hate: Captain Ahab, Holden Caulfield, Madame Bovary, the list is endless.

I’ve found the easiest and best way to breathe a life into my characters is to sketch out their life from beginning to end. The main character Owen Story of my novel, You Don’t Know Me, was born in Catchem Hospital on January 23, 1969 in Long Island, New York. He moved to the small town of Grange and lived in the working class neighborhood of Straw Martin with his parents who were careless people without meaning to be. He was an only child. He was quiet, tried not to be too noticed, but was noticed any way. Owen wasn’t an outstanding student though he finished high school and the local college. The two most notable occurrences in his young life was his father leaving him his mother for good never to return and his meeting his life long friend, Robert Giordano, the son of a low-key mafia don when Giordano helped him fight off a couple of bullies who were going to turn the thin but suicidally brave Owen to mush.

You get the idea. Owens’s life story builds until he becomes as real as a made up person can be; we create our characters with this goal in mind so they can become like those we love: Hamlet, Ebenezer Scrooge, Don Quixote, Huckleberry Finn, Cinderella; all unforgettable.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me at:matwrite1@hotmail.com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time God willing,

Lori

Hello,

Words: As writers words are it for us. They make magic but they are more than that aren’t they? For instance: Provenance, a great word. It’s defined as “the origin of source from which something comes.” Say it out loud, it weaves through your vocal cords and moves across your tongue like the world's greatest chocolate. Or say one of my favorites: aberrant, it sounds so important, special. Or antiquities, salivary, disturbance; words; we can think of thousands of them and many are our favorites; words; as writers they mean much more to us.

Finding the right word and fitting it in just the right place is a joy because doing so can make a world of difference in our story. I toil over words, sweat them, are afraid of approaching them sometimes because I need to be positive I’m choosing the right word because there can only be that right one for that part of the story and if I don’t have it, I’m done for. It’s amazing, maddening, a treasure hunt and the found treasure is a great story where every word counts, worth its weight in gold.

You love words, you love to write, keep at it because whether your stories are published or not, read by two million or two, the power is with you because you do the hard work, you do the creating with words alone and that makes it and you in a word: wonderful.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail. com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I received a letter last month from a literary agent, Annie Hawkins of John Hawkins and Associates, Inc. She’d responded to the first three chapters of You Don’t Know Me, my mystery/crime novel featuring New York City detective Owen Story. She wrote only a few lines, I’ll quote them, “Dear Lori Mathews-Shabazz. Thank you for giving me the chance to read sample materials from YOU DON’T KNOW ME. (I’m not sure why that was capitalized) While I liked your writing and concept I’m afraid I didn’t FALL IN LOVE (this capitalization I did for emphasis) with the overall story line. I’m sorry we didn’t connect on this project, but I wish you well for its success. Very truly yours, Anne Hawkins.”

It was not the worst response I could’ve received, but what continues to play in my mind is that one word: LOVE. “I didn’t fall in love with…” Ms. Hawkins was the second agent who’d reviewed You Don’t Know Me—or at least the first three chapters—and informed me he “didn’t fall in love with it”. The literary agent Sheree Bykofsky of Sheree Bykofsky Associates Inc., writes in her introduction section on her website: www.sherebee.com, “I don’t limit myself to particular genres because I’m always surprised by what appeals to me. If I love it, then I’ll take it on.”
Or this passage from Building A Buzz For Elephants from the April 24, 2006 issue of Publisher’s Weekly. Margie Scott Tucker, co-owner of the northern California-based 10-store Books Inc. mini-chain, heard Popelars Elephants (Water for Elephants by Sara Grue) pitch at the institute. ‘…back home, Tucker started passing around galleys to the staff—“Everybody loves it,” she said.”
That LOVE again and again. But how do I get readers to love my writing? Is there is a recipe I can follow that would create this love for my writing? Is there a recipe any one can follow for any kind of love, that ephemeral, overwhelming feeling that’s as elusive as well, happiness?

Though I don’t believe there is a recipe I can concoct to get the readers to love my writing, I do believe there are elements I can create in my stories that may get people to apply that word to my stories. First, the story must be intriguing, inventive, exciting even if it’s about baking muffins, something different has to be made of it. The story has to show the reader something by use of the best words, smooth language that doesn’t get in the way of the story. The characters must be real to the reader and live a life that seems different from my experiences even if they’re the same. It must be characters I can feel something for love, hate, understanding.

I’m reading The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean and I LOVEd the story because I knew nothing about orchid growers and that world. The story about an orchid thief was so interesting you had to keep reading and as well as the characters being original, the main character John Larouche was outstanding.

So there maybe a recipe to get readers to love my stories; though a caveat here: realistically not everybody is going to love my stories, not everybody loves me or you for that matter in life so why should what I write go by a set of different rules. And getting and agent to love your work is a bit different because they have an agenda that’s tosses your work at the bottom of their lists, the top spots going to: profit; books similar to mine (or yours) already on their list; the agent may love your book but the others in the agency do not; a full booklist; a need for writers with track records only; all this. But—and a big but too—if an agent loves your work all those top spots become unimportant and the agent will fight for your work so that others will read it and love it too.

So, I guess LOVE is the key word here after all. LOVE the stories you write. Find an agent if you can that LOVEs your story or stories—DO NOT settle for less. And keep writing the stories you LOVE. It really is a simple recipe isn’t it.

If you have questions or comments I’d love to read them and reply, so please email me at: matwrite1@hotmail.com.

Until next time, God willing,

Lori

Hello,

I’m going to blog this one in a few paragraphs I hope and not because I don’t have enough to say (for some of you I have too much) but because I it’s about what I write, have written and is working on now.
I talk-write-about writing so you may ask, “Okay then, what have you written other than shopping lists? Since you have so much to say on the writing life.”
I do have a list of projects I’ve written believe me; I didn’t say all of them were Hemingwayesk, but they were written, then rewritten, rewritten, rewritten….I started off more than twenty years now beginning with short stories; one of them was titled, Never Eat a Dead Lobster, which was part comedy and part action/adventure story, a fun read if I say so myself. I wrote all kinds of short stories from humorous, to crime, to horror. The lobster story was even accepted for publication by a now defunct magazine I can’t remember the name of though I kept the acceptance letter for years.
I gave in to the need to jump from short stories to novels for two reasons: first my short stories were getting longer and secondly, those long short stories were getting to be mostly about crime and mystery with action tossed in. My first full length novel was called White God and I mentioned it in my first blog. It’s the story about DEA agent Jack Abrams who’s sent to the jungles of Peru to bring back his former partner Elvy Wyatt who’d been exiled there. Wyatt does a Captain Kurtz (Apocalypse Now) among Peruvian cocoa leaves growers. This novel was all action and adventure that included traitorous agents sent to kill, a terrifying jungle, crazed drug lords, chases and shoot-outs; it was so much fun to write and to read even now, though I find a thousand things that I can improve in the novel I couldn’t see as a beginning writer all those years ago. After White God I wrote a novel introducing a Boston police detective. Both novels and all the stories I’ve written for that matter, involve a lot of research which I do enjoy and it of course makes the work immediate, real, just better so no story can really do without it these days or at any time I believe.
Now, I’m writing the second novel in a mystery/crime trilogy featuring New York City detective Owen Story. The first novel is titled White God and the second is titled Beyond the End. I wrote a short story that featured Owen that appeared in the on-line magazine 3rd Degree.
Have I had any of my projects officially published so that if you by any chance wanted to could go out and buy it at Barnes and Nobles? One answer: no, you can’t. A better answer; I keep trying to get them published (never give up) and I could self-publish: the best answer; I keep writing what I love regardless of it all because I love the characters and stories I’ve created. I don’t wake up at 4:00 a.m. for nothing I do it because for an hour I can fall into that magical hole of a life that is Detective Owen Story’s world that’s full of adventure, trials, tribulations, interesting and outrageous situations, death-defying feats, mind-blowing circumstances in his world so far removed from my everyday world (thank goodness) but it's one I created, it’s the one thing I can do and I wouldn’t give it up. I feel terrifically blessed to be able to write for myself sometimes it’s all I can ask for.

If you have any thing you would like to tell me or ask, I’ll really appreciate it so please e-mail me at my new e-mail address: matwrite1@hotmail.com.

Until the next time God willing,

Lori

Hello,

When you need to write, write, whenever and wherever you can.

I woke at 4:00 a.m. to write and so did Dan Brown of The-You-Know-What so I’m in good company. As a matter of fact at his official website: www.danbrown.com, he is quoted as saying “If I'm not at my desk by 4:00 A.M., I feel like I'm missing my most productive hours”. We’re all grateful he’s so productive, it eventually creates great reading for us, for me though, I feel tired at this time yet I know it’s the best time for me too. So I sit on the couch with the house silent except for the house sounds and I manage a page and half before its time to exercise, get the kids up and get on with the rest of my day.

To find the time—no--make the time to write, so that we create a work of physical heft, something of weight that can be read from top to bottom, paged through, used as a door stop if need be, content whatever you want, believe in, know (don’t know) love can be a tremendous undertaking in itself. As ninety-seven percent of us writers know becoming a full-time writer is not just a dream, but a fantasy and is the world of only three percent of published writers and we know who they are, yet even for full-time writer’s; life, dare I say it? Gets in the way and has to be attended to so you work the writing into your real life. J.K.Rowling at her official website: www.jkrowling.com was asked, “How many hours a day do you spend writing?” Ms. Rowling replied, “Anything from ten minutes (with a new baby…) to ten hours.” Those ten minutes can be all we’ll get to write that scene, flesh out the new character, it sometimes can be enough and in Ms. Rowling’s case, her ten minutes add up to great books.

So you’ll take that ten minutes to write and for me it can be while my kid is going over his spelling list or taking down a character note while I’m waiting at a red light. Sometimes I get more than ten minutes, an hour after I’ve done all my projects at work, twenty minutes to scribble a paragraph while my kids play ball in the park, write anywhere and everywhere. And writing is not just the physical act of putting pen to paper writing is also the thinking process, mind-mulling-process, ruminating that you must find the time to do and it’s just as important as putting pen to paper or fingers to computer keys. T.C. Boyle writer of Talk Talk at www.tcboyle.com puts it beautifully on his April 25, 2006 news posting, “The news is that I haven't yet begun the new novel. I'm still creeping through the indecipherable notes, brooding, tugging at my beard, awaiting the propitious moment and the infusion of my brain and soul with the radiant light of conception.”

Mary Higgins Clark said it pretty well: “When my children were young, I used to get up at five and write at the kitchen table until seven, when I had to get them ready for school. For me writing is a need.” It’s like that for us too, I know it is, so write whenever you can, make the time, five minutes, fifteen hours, find it, create it, steal it, just do it, feed that need—write.
If you’ll like to comment, I look forward to it or would like to e-mail me at: matwrite1@hotmail.com.

See you next time God willing,

Lori

Hello,

To write what you don’t know is essential for most writers, a joy and a pleasure it makes us get up at 4:00 in the morning to put pen to paper, but to write what you don’t know takes one essential ingredient and for me (you as well) is research and a lot of it. Research I can’t do without, it’s the bricks and mortar, the foundation that I build the beautiful, mysterious and sometimes bizarre-house-of-a-story upon.

I believe that to tell a great story today, research makes that possible, its sixty percent of the pie, twenty percent is having a wonderful story and the other twenty is being a great storyteller. Not only is research unavoidable, you can make doing it easier by welcoming it into your writing because it only aids in giving your story “believability” and real life, the hall marks of a story the reader cannot stop reading. We love a well meticulously researched story don’t we? Think Michael Crichtonhttp://www.crichton-official.com/ one of the best writers/researchers, whose novels consistently make the New York Time bestseller’s list. When reading his work for instance, Jurassic Park, the information that he presents is so viable at its scientific level it’s without a doubt the bedrock of the story that it makes you believe creating a dinosaur is so easy, we loved him for it and kept reading because he then tossed in his storyteller hat and gave us rampaging dinosaurs, children in peril and death defying rescues. Or think Brad Metzler http://www.bradmeltzer.com/ the author of The Tenth Justice. I listened to an interview Mr. Metzler did on http://www.npr.org/ regarding the research he compiled for his newest novel The Book of Fate. Mr. Metzler’s book features a former president, so not only did he interview a former president, George H. W. Bush, he shadowed him, watched him live his life after being the leader of the free world so that he could make sure his character in his novel was not only believable but real; now that’s doing research.

I enjoy research because I find that people can be very helpful, want to be helpful, especially police departments. When I began researching my novel You Don’t Know Me, I had to learn about the New York City Police Department http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nypd/home.html. The department has a very good website that lists its information, profiles of each bureau, the commissioners and even crime statistics and when I found I needed more information I contacted their Public Information service out of the office of the Deputy Commissioner and they are wonderful at answering questions or leading you to where you can get the answers you need.

Nothing of course beats a great story in itself but I don’t think any deeply developed story, a winning story, can be complete without a fair amount of research even a personal one about your dentist you’re going to describe the dentist office, the magazines he has scattered in the waiting room, the sounds of the drills, the smell of Novocain, when you add as much “real” as you can to a story the easier it is for the reader to relate to it and the characters. As readers, most times, we love the details it makes us fall into the world you’re creating and hopefully fall in love with your writing for a lifetime. If you want to e-mail me on Writing, please do at shabazzlm@hotmail.com.

See you next weekGod willing,

Lori

Write what you Know? Don’t You Dare.

If I wrote what I know, I’d never read what I’d written, it would be boring What I know is boring: how to put together an entertainment center: use a good set of pliers. How to set up a screenplay: use Final Draft. That Meryl Streep is a great actress: watch her movies. That Toni Morrison is an awesome writer: read. Some of the things I know.

What I don’t know and for the most part (for some of them) I don’t want to ever know but I’m eager to imagine and write about: how long it takes to dig a hole to bury a body in the winter’s old dirt of the Minnesota woods. What its like to ride in an armored car full of money; terrifying you think? How long does it take for the Macy’s Day parade to end? What it’s like being a spy. What it’s like living in New York City. What it feels like to almost drown in a lake or even in your own home; the living room for example. What its like being a DEA agent and going on a raid. What it’s like being a man. How many homicide detectives are assigned to a New York precinct house?

The list can go on for miles but the thing each has in common is that they’re not boring; at least not to me. They get my blood flowing. They put the ink on the yellow legal pad one page at a time, hopefully. I can’t imagine writing what I know, it takes no imagination to put together the place where my television will sit, but it takes great and colorful megawatts of brain power, a kaleidoscope of thoughts, suppositions, questions, what ifs, anything goes, nothing can’t be done, try this out, find this out, go for it, let it flow, just write it—a great big world-chewing-imagination to write what I love which is the stuff I don’t know. There is no other way for me; thank goodness

If you would like to give me your take on Writing please e-mail me at: shabazzlm@hotmail.com

Until next time,

Lori

Writer's Conference. Who was There? Who was Not?
Hi,
This pass weekend I attended my first Writer's Conference in two years. It was held in Columbus Ohio and you know, it was nice, better than I expected. The writers, agents and editors were the nicest people which was a surprise to me, as a matter of fact the attendees were so nice, it was commented on. Did I get a lot out of the conference, information I could use when submitting to agents or editors at publishing houses? Yes, I did. Was there the smell of desparation in the air? With a room full of dying-to-be-published writers? Of course. Did I make useful contacts in the business? Possibly; though I believe where the agents and editors are concerned they encourage every writer who consulted with them, who grabbed them in the bathroom or who sat next to them at dinner to take their card and submit their precious baby to them; it's one of the points of the conference after all. You don't get a no from any of them--it'll probably come later--this is understandable, even acceptable, but right then and there as you stand in front of that smiling agent who hands you his card, there's the hope.

So I came away from the conference feeling good about myself and my writing, motivated. Sounds all good right? Yet, there was one fly in the ointment. Just one. This fly, a large fly now that I think about it, was pointed out to me by Lyn Walden an African-American writer of interacial thrillers, as she befriended me during the conference's lunch offering of beef stroganoff and brownies. Ms. Walden pointed out that inspite of the fact that she enjoyed the good speakers and their interesting topics, everyone of them were white and most of the attendees were also with a few African-American faces breaking up the color scheme along with a few other people of Asian ethnicity that could be counted on one hand, two fingers. We discussed the possibilty that the price of the conference--which had gone up from the previous year--wasn't affordable for most people and this is of course a valid point. But what about the speakers, the presenters? Where was their diversity? When you think about it, there are so many agents, editors and pubishers out there who contribute to ethnic diversity by publishing or taking on a diverse list of writers especially in the face of today's small world, it seems backwards not to include those writers, their point of view, their advice, even wisdom at a writer's conference where writers come to confirm they are not alone at any time in the world. As I think about it now I imagine my conference holding a panel featuring Evelina Chao, the Chinese-American novelist and her point of view of getting published and if her background was a help or hindrance. Or a session on How to Promote Your Book by someone such as Colin Channer a writer from Jamaica and the techniques he finds useful depending on his audience or his need to grow an audience.

I know what you're thinking. If attendees of the conference with diverse backgrounds don't go to writer's conferences in the first place, why should you need a diverse group of speakers or presenters? Because 'we are writers ' is my answer. As a writer I want to know everything I possibly can, seeking knowledge is the key and the best knowledge comes from those who are different from me, who have lived a life differnt from mine, who've had wider range of experiences; some I can't imagine, and when I listen to these people tell their stories it's as if my writing muse writes them down and files them away to be pulled out, looked over and possibly use depending on the story "I have to write" when its time for the story to be born.

I can't imagine a better place than a writer's conference to find these different worlds as an encouragement to all writer's, to titilate their need to know and to expand their world of possible stories because isn't this what writing is all about?

Until next time,

Lori

To Write, To Write, To Write

Hi, I'm Lori and not to waste your time I'll get to the point of this blog and it is: the art of writing. I believe we're all blessed with at least one talent, one charge, that pumps through us and it can be no more than half a cup worth or run through us like a river, but it's the one thing that you know, without a shadow of a doubt, you can do, whether it's singing, car repair or tight rope walking, even when no one else in the world believes it but you. I can write is my belief, my calling and most days it seems to ensure my place in the world.

A little about me to get it out the way. I live in suburban Cleveland, the mother of two, I'm a full-time employee somewhere, a full-time writer everywhere and it's all made possible due to a large and loving extended family. I write fiction novels, screenplays and I've written a children's book. I write in more than one arena not because I'm so prolific, but as you writers know, some stories don't lend themselves well to the novel or the novella yet work best as a short story or screenplay. It's funny, but there is something inside that tells me what venue would best fit the story I'm writing and I try to go with it because trying to wrestle a story out of the shape it was meant to be and fit it into a different mold can be difficult, sometimes impossible and has left me an unhappy writer with a bad story.

I want to talk with you about "something" at each posting, a point of view or maybe even a dreaded theme because if I don't, why would you read this blog? I don't want you to waste your time reading this when you don't get anything out and you could be writing instead; or like me, trying to get a least a page or more out to feel like I've contributed something to the day. The "something" will of course be about the writing life which could be books I've read that may not necessarily be on writing but are what I believe are great stories that teach about writing or telling a story well. It could also be about an interesting piece I've heard or read on npr.org for example that I can't forget, that tumbles around in my mind because it throws out life lines toward the possibility of a story. And I'll like to know about your writing, what kicks it going for you.

My first something is "imagination"the key that has always opened the door to my world of story telling, as it has for most writers, and it was the only tool I had when I called myself writing my first professional novel at twenty-two years old, alone in my rented room, sitting on a futon mattress, my note book perched on top of my thirteen inch black and white television set--brand new--that stood in for a writing desk. The novel was called White God and it was about a D.C. drug enforcement agent named Jack Kinsey who was more trouble to the agency than he was worth after he tangled with the city's most notorious drug lord, Alejandro Silvera. Jack is sent to the Peruvian jungle to bring back his partner, Elvy Wyatt, who had been exiled there to fight the Shinning Path drug runners and eradicate coca leaf production by the farmers. Instead, Elvy does a Colonel Kurtz and it's up to Jack to bring him back before the agency, the U. S. government, has no choice but to take him out. And unbeknowest to Jack, Silvera has someone trailing him whose mission was to kill them both.

Of course I had never been a DEA agent or met one, and at that time I had only been to Washington D.C. once on an elementary school trip. I had never had anything to do with guns, car chases, South America or international drug cartels, yet I had the key: imagination. And a vivid one. Of course I don't write in a vacum, most of us don't hopefully because we're smart enough to allie our imagination with real world observations, conversations, communicaitons, reading and research.

I'm writing the second novel in a trilogy featuring a New York City Detective named Owen Story. Again, mother of two, suburban Cleveland and I'm African-American and Owen is my opposite in every way except human and there lies the challenge, the excitement, that pumps my imagination to keep me creating so I can make Owen and his world as real as my keyboard and these words you're reading until he's: originally from Long Island, New York; a rising star out of his division in the nineteenth precinct; has no living family except for his wife Lorna and her father; he's so loyal, it's detrimental; desparately in love with his wife and has been friends since his teens with the son of a criminal.

The ability to create through imagination, it's so limitless and so powerful it doesn't matter if I don't own two vacation homes or look like Halle Berry; when that blank page stares at me staring back at it, none of that matters, what matters is what's in my head and heart. And in yours too. And how it comes together on that page to create new worlds, places, people: Hogwarts, Scout and Atticus, Salem's Lot, Rabbit, Brideshead, Captain Ahab, Middle Earth, Holden Caufield, West Egg, The Director of the Hatcheries and Conditioning, Mr. Scrooge, Heathcliff, Bloomsday, Hester Prynne and on, and on and on....You realize that through imagination we are able to create what seems to be everything we want and all we'll ever need.

Until next time--don't stop,

Lori