I Know I Travel A Lot But.......

Mars?   Well, not exactly, but you could own a piece of it.  Yes, you can!  Just ask those crazy guys over at bluechrome.  You see, the paperback of Tangled Roots will be coming out at the end of March, just in time for Mother's Day.  But if you pre-order not only do you get your copy for £10, but you could be the lucky one to win your own acre-full of Mars.  Now could I make this up?  Go see for yourself at today's posting on The Blueblog.

Space-time, black holes, vibrating strings, sheets of floating m-branes.  It's all there waiting, just for you.  Go ahead.  You know you want to.  

Chuffed!!

One of the first "British" words that I adopted upon moving to these shores so many years ago was the word "chuffed." For those Americans (and others) out there who may not know, it means "to be delighted." Well, I am absolutely chuffed for two reasons today.

1. I'm not a big contest enterer, but every now and then I toss an idea in just for fun. But I never ever win. Ever. Except... a short while ago Carol-the-blogger was moving across the world and needed a new name for her blog. I had an idea (as did one other person who shares the kudos with me) and so now her blog is called Not Only in Thailand. But what makes this so wonderful is that Carol is a very talented artist (check out her work here), and my prize was to choose a piece of her artwork. I did (though it wasn't easy to choose just one), and today it arrived. Look. This is it on my computer stand in my office:
And here it is close up:
I already know exactly where I'll put it in my office. Can't wait!

And yes, there's more:

2. I've received an award today from Absolute Vanilla and Atyllah. It's called "The Best Blog Thinker" Award:


The creator of the award says: This award acknowledges the values that every Blogger displays in their effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values with each message they write. Awards like this have been created with the intention of promoting community among Bloggers. It`s a way to show appreciation and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.
I really can't think of anything more complimentary than that. Thank you so much Ab Van! And now it's my turn to pass it on and I'd like to present this award to...wait for it...
Cathy and Her New Notebook who shares with us the truth and struggles of her life as a parent and as a caring and determined woman. And:
Jon who always make me laugh, nod my head in agreement, feel encouraged to carry on.

Now go ahead everyone...feel free to be chuffed.

Up the Mountain and Down Again

Despite my husband and No. 2 Son insisting on skiing up to a place where they could take  a photo of such a sign, we have all returned safe and sound from our ski trip.  Every year for as long as I can remember, we've taken the kids skiing in February, and every year it coincides with my youngest son's birthday.  This year he turned 18 and needless to say I've been awash in nostalgia.  I'm in danger of turning this blog, which is supposedly about the "writing life," into a drawn-out portrayal of the soon-to-be "empty nest."  Ah, me.

But the week was wonderful, and luckily, and against all predictions, we had fabulous sunny weather. I even skiied enough to convince myself that my convalescence is over.  I'm back to nearly full energy capacities again, and so there are no more excuses.  Hi ho, hi ho.  It's off to work I go...

I did manage to stretch out on a couch in the hotel bar and read the penultimate chapter of the new novel.  I've now read everything that I've written (which is everything but the final chapter), and I feel rarin' to go on draft two.  There's plenty to be done.  I especially 

have to make a character who was originally quite secondary into someone decidedly primary. A bit scary, but I think I'm up to it.

It helped, though, that I made it back in time to go to a lecture on short story writing being held by Jewish Book Week.  This "literary festival" has turned into a huge annual event here in London with some of the biggest names in literature showing up to speak and joke and answer questions.  The audiences are full of eager readers with interesting viewpoints, and so I was especially pleased to be able to go along and support my friend, Tania Hershman, whose short story collection, The White Road, I blogged about here.

Tania was one of 4 writers speaking and reading from their stories which were included in a new anthology called "The Sea of Azov." Tania and the others read short portions from their stories and then discussed the art and pleasure of the short story.  Just being there got me energized to face the looming ream of revisions.  And it was especially wonderful knowing one of the talented writers sitting up there on that podium.  Again, I realized that there is this global community of writers out there and by being a part of it we all nourish each other.  

Just to cement this posting all together, I thought I'd leave you with a poem I wrote a few years ago, which is also part of my poetry play, Dreams of May.  Enjoy....

The Mountain Climber

My lips are burning
red and sore, they beg
the soothing balm of
greasy, stinging salve.

But, I don’t mind.
This is what mountains do.

Now, like every year, I pull on
layers of insulated cotton,
wide-woven Gortex,
knee-length tightly-knit socks.
One last scratch to the itching ankle welts and
I’m ready.

Not for battling the elements;
everyday life challenges me enough.

But instead to come and stand
on top of this snow-covered mountain,
look beyond into the depths of remote Italy,
and despite feeling minute within
the expanse of white-blue silence,
I believe I am also

brave
strong
capable
bold
briefly momentarily

in charge.

Stealing and 'Fessing Up

A few days ago I was reading the  interview Sarah Salway posted with Elizabeth Baines celebrating the publication of her new short story collection, Balancing on the Edge of the World.    You can read the full interview here.    Baines is a real find.  Her prose is pure poetry, and her characters feel like they are sitting in the room with you, as if you've known them forever. Each story strikes to your heart, whether you want it to or not. I really do recommend the collection.   And I recommend the interview.  It makes fascinating reading, but the one point which really intrigued me was the question of whether we writers "steal" our ideas or not.  I, for one, unashamedly believe that we do -- or at least I do.  In some ways I feel like it is my job to steal.  I walk through my life noticing people, overhearing snippets of conversations, savouring other peoples' words.  If you really attend to the world you live in, if you really are present within it, then you can't help but take it all in.  But it is the writer's job to then process all of it, churn it up, turn it inside out and go on to create something new from it, something that then becomes uniquely theirs.  The realities we create may be sometimes better or worse than the realities we already find around us, but certainly these creations are based on  what we have already stumbled upon.  Perhaps it's more genteel to call it "standing on the shoulders of giants."  But to me, it's all stealing, it's all appropriating something that started off belonging to someone else and claiming it as your own.   

And so, right at the top of this post is the video found and disseminated by the brilliant Ms. Salway herself.  Some of you may have seen it there.  But I urge everyone to take the time (ok -- it's about 18 minutes long but worth it!) to listen.  Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love (a book I reluctantly adored) discusses where genius comes from.  Her ideas are so fantastic, I'm going to steal every last one of them!                        

Listening in the Tropics

I'm so woozy from jet lag that I feel like I downed a pitcher of Singapore Slings. Singapore is a very long way from London, but I'm so glad I went. Number 2 Son's concert was incredible. A string orchestra of about 100 teenagers played a variety of music from Grieg's "Holberg Suite" to a newly commissioned piece called "Lion City" by Soon Hee Newbold which evoked the different musical traditions of the various ethnicities that make up the city's diverse population. It was an amazing experience for the kids and for the parents. The level of musicianship was beyond belief, and the stage was filled with kids from Mexico City to Sydney. It really was thrilling. Singapore itself is not one of my favourites, though. It's clean, efficient and very modern, but despite it's tropical climate it feels very Western and I, for one, love Asia enough not to have missed that feeling of really being there.

I knew that there wasn't going to be too much sightseeing to do, nor did I feel like turning this into a big sightseeing trip, so I planned to spend at least one day lounging by the pool and "working." And I really did accomplish a lot. I took a hard copy of the first draft of my new novel and spent a few hours reading through several of the chapters. One of the first bits of advice I ever received about writing was to read your work in a different environment for a new perspective. It is so true. Spending time with the novel outside of my little office upstairs in my house helped me see what was working and what wasn't. Not only could I see what was missing, but I also realized that one entire chapter was much worse than another, much "thinner" (if you know what I mean). I now plan to go back and try to figure out where I was in my life and what I was doing that caused me not to click with what I was writing about. It became so clear to me that during the time I was writing one particular chapter neither my ear nor my heart were really in the task. It's not so much that the sentences didn't flow, but that they didn't have any weight or substance to them. If I could figure out why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, that would be huge. But maybe that's the mystery we all face, time and time again. Now I know have my work cut out for me. It's scary, but maybe that's good. But I'll say one thing -- I'm no longer worried about coming up with the additional 10,000 words I thought would be missing. There's so much more in this book that I haven't yet said.
And look at what I came home to...a Superior Scribbler Award from my blogging friend Absolute Vanilla. This is just the shot in the arm I need! Thanks!!

Where Am I Now?

I'll soon be travelling to Singapore, a city, to be honest, I was never particularly curious about. At first it seemed so uninteresting that I had hoped to link it to a stop-over in Bangkok, a city I have wanted to return to (especially now that I have new blog friends there!). Unfortunately, that didn't work out, but never mind -- now that I'm about to go, I'm incredibly excited. But then again, I'm always excited when I travel, no matter where I'm going, and I realize how lucky I have been that my life has allowed me to fulfill this desire to travel -- no, it's more than a desire. It's a need.

The more I write, the more I understand that for me writing is all about turning reality into fiction. That metamorphosis might manifest itself in a novel, but it might also develop into a poem or a play. No matter - for some reason I travel through my life turning "real life" people, "real life" events and "real life" places into a new "reality," one which is nurtured in my own fevered brain, but which is more often than not born out of my experience of place. I do believe that how we live our lives is directly affected by where we live them. Whether we acknowledge it or not, our physical environments help mold us into who we are and what we do. In Tangled Roots, the characters' lives are forever changed by their interactions with their surroundings. John had to travel to Moscow and really experience it before he could take his step towards wholeness. For his mother, one afternoon sitting quietly in the English countryside was life changing. And in my next novel, I hope to be able to turn modern-day Cambodia into as much of a complex and changing character as the characters that inhabit it.

All of this has come out of my travels, but I'm not equally affected by everywhere I go. I also believe that for different reasons, different places resonate with you at different times. Have you ever had the experience of arriving somewhere for the first time and knowing, really knowing, that you belonged there? I have, and the wonder of it for me is that I never can guess where it will happen. No, I've never really wanted to go to Singapore -- but now I can't wait to see just what it may spur in me once I'm there.

So, hopefully the plane will take off, but at the moment there's a foot of snow on the ground at Heathrow and the airport is closed. Yes, a foot of snow in central London. And just to prove it, here's the view of my back garden! Amazing! But hopefully, all will be sorted by tomorrow night and then I'll be awol for a week in case you're wondering where I am. But then I'll be back (briefly). See you soonish.