Juliette Crane's Journal

Moving Day

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:29:00 +0000

I have moved to juliettecrane.blogspot.com

Please update your bookmarks and see you there!

Longstanding

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:34:00 +0000

After a bit of a hiatus, I have much news to report. I spent a few days in Door County, WI, stayed at one of my favorite places, The Thorp House, and had a wonderful time hiking the trails of Penninsula State Park and meeting with some crazy locals at the Blue Horse coffehouse.

Of course, people always ask for your story. "So what do you do?" That's a question I sometimes hate answering for my answer right now is "writing a novel." And naturally, everyone thinks they can write a book too, and being the helpful kind of people that I meet, they always have the next great idea for me to write about.

So Door County was wonderful, but it was the first vacation I can ever remember being on when I couldn't wait to get home. Maybe it had something to do with my decision to attend the Odyssey workshop in New Hampshire this summer, of which I am so excited to have gotten in and have my manuscript critiqued by a fabulous group of people. The workshop can only be a good thing.

All About Children's Book Writing

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:11:00 +0000

I have debated joining the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for a while now. Author Kashmira Sheth was the first to mention it, telling me she got her agent through an SCBWI contact and that joining would be a great way to meet wonderful people in children's publishing. Still, I dragged my feet. Until finally last Saturday when I attended the SCBWI spring luncheon.

I sat at a table with fellow veggie lovers--authors Eileen Lucas, Anne Bingham, and Silvia Acevedo and illustrator Jeff Miracola. Oconomowoc Lake, one of my old stomping grounds in high school, made for a fabulous backdrop to our conversations. It was wonderful to meet many talented people and to talk specifically about writing and illustrating for children. Everyone was so willing to share their expertise.

The luncheon included a talk with Sarah Cloots, an editor from Greenwillow Books, who talked publishing and marketing. One phrase really hit home. When writers asked what books were selling, she stressed not to focus on what sells but to "write the story you have to tell." Find your own voice. In an industry where your heart can often be clouded by dollar signs, that was thrilling to hear.

As I am now an official SCBWI member, I look forward to meeting up with everyone again at future events.

A Moveable Feast

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:25:00 +0000

Just finished A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. When I started that book I figured it would help me with being away from writing while on vacation, figured getting inside Hemingway's head would help me to relate my feelings about writing to his experiences. I thought I'd be fascinated by his lifestyle and the people he met while in Paris. And I was. But mostly, I thrived hearing about his writing habits, both while writing and in daily living, and by the end of the book my thoughts on being a writer in general changed.

While Hemingway was great and very introspective, at least he seems to be in A Moveable Feast, I realized I admired his discipline as a writer, but I don't want to be like him. I love young adult fiction most. A few weeks ago when I had lunch with a friend she asked if I considered myself a YA writer and I had to think about it, not knowing if I liked and appreciated the label. Well, of course I don't want to be boxed in to any one category, but after several trips to the library and book stores where I stood in awe and marvel at the children's classics and new releases lined on the shelves, that is where I see myself. And this is what keeps me working.

At some point I wish to record all of the books I'm reading and have read into Goodreads. For now, a new book shall be added to my reading list.

No Test Today

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:31:00 +0000

I am so excited to see WISCON has extended their deadline for submissions to their writers' workshop. I now have two extra weeks to polish my first four chapters and am anxious to expand on characterization. I am also excited to see the workshop's list of "participating pros." Sarah Prineas (YA fantasy author of The Magic Thief, due to hit stores June 3, 2008) will be there and I really hope to work with her and get some advice from another new author. I might even contact her beforehand. After reading her bio, she sounds like such a great, imaginative person, plus her husband is a scientist and works with weird devices that look like aliens in his physic's lab.

Back to novel writing. It is a crazy thunderstorming day, quite perfect for buckling down and using an extra two weeks to write.

On Writing

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:53:00 +0000

I've been thinking a lot about the novel writing process and what changes from a first to second draft.

My initial skeleton (first draft) is so full of creative energy. Of course the plot lines don't all add up or even work and a million changes need to be made, but writing the second draft has become an analytical process and looking back and remembering that first draft helps me remember why I loved this story so much in the first place.

Looking back and using some of the ideas I initially had and the scenes I first wrote makes the second draft unflatten. I also find that since I have been reading so much, my new ideas are not as adventurous and risky. They are more plot driven and simplified so readers can understand them, which is great, but I really enjoy remembering where this story started and what I really wanted it to be about. Finding the balance between the drafts is what will make this novel really work.

beaches

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:12:00 +0000

Visiting the beach is so nice. I'm back from a week on Anna Maria Island, which sounds so glamorous, but it was just the beaching I needed. I caught up on a ton of reading and started a new book that is actually out-of-genre--the first I've read in what feels like a long while. The Teahouse Fire, by Ellis Avery, is one I heard a KQED podcast reading of (by Avery) and picked up for the trip. It's perfect for transporting you to 19th century Japan, inspired by Avery's five years of weekly tea ceremony study in New York and five weeks of daily tea study in Kyoto.

After spending time on Anna Maria, I think I might just have to step up the beach scenes in my novel. It already has a bit of beach in it, but it happens to be around a lake. I may make it an oceanfront beach instead--there's nothing the ocean waves can't do for the soul. And now I'm refreshed, ready to start back on novel revisions for the WISCON workshop.

Here's a drawing on did my first day on the island:

if only

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:04:00 +0000

While underwater collecting

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:44:00 +0000

Whew. Applications for Clarion SF and Clarion West have been submitted. After a ton of work, I keep all toes and fingers crossed. Next up is entering next quarter's Writers of the Future contest and applying for the Odyssey workshop. And then, the first few chapters of the novel go in for review at WISCON.

So, now it's back to novel writing, which I love. I picked up a few more children's books from the library. Some I have never read like Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl." Others are old favorites like C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." What better way to move from writing short stories back to young adult fantasy? I'm also rereading Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

And doing lots of drawing. Here's the latest (that may or may not be me):

Wings

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:10:00 +0000

Short Story Update

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:01:00 +0000

Garden party is nearly finished. The story has changed a lot but I think for the better and seems to be much easier to understand. The main character, Claude Leroy, also feels more sensitive but driven, and not quite so unstable.

When Thoughts Come Alive has been renamed to Fish Taco Tuesday, a title that really sticks to the story's hipster feel and doesn't give away the main character's, Sunset Carson (aka. Jim Beam), magical ability.

Both stories will be finished a few days before the Clarion application deadline which I am so excited about. I figured I'd be up until 11:58 March 1, but thanks to so many friends and colleagues who have taken the time to read these stories, things are ahead of schedule. Thank you to everyone.

Garden Party

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:41:00 +0000

Almost all of the Garden Party comments are in which means it's time to start some serious short story revisions.

In the meantime, whenever I am looking for interesting industry news and links I check out David Anthony Durham's blog. He is the fabulous author of Acacia, and I had the opportunity to talk with him at the Fantasy Matters event in Minneapolis last November where he gave me some terrific advice. He always has great resources up on his blog too so when I checked it out today, of course, I found a terrific link for Colleen Lindsay (aka La Gringa), a new literary agent for FinePrint Literary Management. She'll be handling science fiction, fantasy and graphic novels and also has a wonderful blog full of information for new writers, such as writing a query letter.

Back to work.

snow provokes hat wearing sentiments

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:36:00 +0000

Sometimes you get to a point in writing where it seems no good ideas come to you. You have ideas, but know they don't fit what you're working on. Then, you start believing there will never be another good idea, maybe nothing new.

Drawing helps. And now the revision of Chapter Two is almost complete.

Write those new ideas down as soon as they come or you may lose them again, forever, just as quickly as they arrived. But good ideas will always come. Keep working and believing and something new will slip into consciousness and soon you'll be obsessing over it too.

Here's the drawing I came up with to get thoughts going...

Valentine

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:37:00 +0000

Valentine, a character in Neil Gaiman's Mirrormask, makes me think about writing--imaginative writing where characters flow in and out of one another in a stream of unconsciousness. It's difficult to kick that left brained, editor out of the writing process and let anything go. Neil Gaiman does a terrific job at this. His stories remind me to write and let the unconscious sneak in and surprise you.

My revision of chapter one went this way. It was full of surprises. I was working at the coffeehouse and had just met Karen Meisner, fiction editor at Strange Horizons. We talked Doctor Who and I was so excited to know you can actually buy a sonic screwdriver, which I will order from Amazon as soon as I finish this post so I can finally open that secret portal I know hides behind our attic door. But when Karen left, I began revising chapter one--writing a scene I have had in my head for sometime--and discovered a wonderful gift Aunt Gloria gives the twins for their birthday. Something I never could have planned to come out in the way it did and something I only wish my Aunt could have given me .

My short story Theodore Lights has now become Garden Party, and I am much happier with a story following crazy characters who enjoy magical vegetables from Claude Leroy's garden. I finished the story by deadline, had it critiqued by my Advanced Fiction Writing class, and felt alright about the comments, but discouraged that so many readers felt confused. Karen Meisner offered to take a look at the story as well, before I turn it in for Clarion, and I am very excited to hear feedback from someone who actually reads fantasy. Then I'll start on the revisions.

Back to revising chapter two, which might end up as chapter three--if only the twins had a sonic screwdriver.

Oh, Bugger

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:54:00 +0000

Still writing Theodore Lights. I feel like I have rewritten this story hundreds of times already, come up with some terrific scenes, and then have to take them out because they no longer fit. The story has gone from having a little girl as its main character to being about a guy who can't talk to girls. It now has the structure it needs, but damn, I hope I'm not going to have to rewrite it again.

Reading Neil Gaiman's blog has helped. He is writing the Graveyard Book and blogs about having no idea where the story is going, thinking he knows, and then being lost in the dark again. I think I'm at the point now where I think I know what Theodore Lights is about. If only I had an agent and editor behind me, not to mention 2 million blog readers and fourteen published novels under my belt--then maybe I'd have his confidence in the words.

Back to Theodore Lights.

Sledding

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:58:00 +0000

And here's a fabulous winter sunset to close out our sledding adventure:

And Brian wearing my girlie-tight snow pants:

Bet You Thought I Was A Blog Slacker

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:27:00 +0000

Blog slacking- not such a bad thing. I've been arranging to meet with a Madison writer/editor friend of a friend, working hard on my schoolwork, and finishing up a new short story. The schoolwork deadline is an odd thing. I did my best writing the two hours before I had to leave for class.z How on earth can you trick yourself into believing you have a deadline daily, so that procrastination brilliance kicks in on a regular basis instead of just before you have an actual deadline?

So that means the first draft of the prologue is done, and like I said I was happiest with the end. Perhaps that means the story will take a new twist.

And the short story I'm working on is a rewrite for Theodore Lights, to be reviewed by my fiction writing classmates (about twelve of them), my professor, and the Tuesdays With Story clan. With all that, seeing as this is already the third draft and finally coming together, I'd say I'll have enough comments to finalize a piece worthy to submit to Clarion by March 1.

And I am having some fun. Mitchell Kim visited last week from Chicago and we took him sledding, for one of the first times in his life. We found a snow-covered stone staircase in Hoyt Park and made a run out of it. I even cleared a jump over Brian's legs.

Here's a video of the action:

Deadlines

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:29:00 +0000

Sometimes it's hard to write without a deadline. Well, I asked for it, I got it. My advanced fiction writing class will put me to hard work, asking for ten pages a week. Not that I don't already write at least that, but when you know someone else will be reading it, even if it's just supposed to be unedited, I'm going to make it decent. Plus we'll have two short stories edited in class, perfect for my Clarion deadline, not to mention good for getting into Odyssey.

So today I wrote an awesome addition to my prologue. I figure, why shouldn't the class work for me, right? My ten pages will be novel pages. At that rate, I'll have at least 100 pages by the end of class. That's a good part of the novel. Good thing for deadlines.

My short story When Thoughts Come Alive is now officially on the Critters queue as well, set for review by mid-February.

I also heard about a terrific organization from one of the guy's in class. It's Endicott Studio, a nonprofit started by Terri Windling where all of the sales from the site are donated to organizations working with abused, homeless, and at-risk children. You can link to books from here and buy on Amazon to get a great book and make the donation. They also have a terrific blog with tons of fairytale-inspired artwork, reading, and music suggestions. All with an inspiring message.

Now back to finishing that prologue.

Critters

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:04:00 +0000

I finally signed up for the online writer's workshop Critters. Everyone at the Fantasy Matters conference recommended it, and some of the authors, like Jim C. Hines, post their work there for critique.

Critters is for Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror writing, and it's free. You can post your stories for critique as long as you write at least one review of someone else's work each week. The downside is the queue runs about a month out, but you can move to the top by writing the most qualifying critiques in a week- by which "qualifying" means the critique is at least 300 words and turned in on Tuesday rather than Wednesday. If I want something reviewed before the Clarion deadline, which I do, I'll have to move to the top.

Tomorrow I start the Advanced Fiction Writing class at the University of Wi-Madison. It should be a good comparison to Critters-- academia vs. genre specific workshops.

As for the novel, I started the prologue. I'll post a preview here soon.

The King Begins

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:00:00 +0000

As I'm going through my plot grid, I know something is missing in my story. I can feel it. So I started to draw. Now I haven't drawn for ages, but I think it's my new way to get unstuck from things. I have so much imagery floating around in my head, getting it down on paper makes it concrete and I see what is missing.

So here is a little plot preview: The king, having just escaped with his lizards, and a few flat men thrown in...

Click the drawing and it will enlarge in a pop-up.

Back to Plot

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:52:00 +0000

Today I started work again on the novel's plot. A few months ago I'd taped scraps of paper to my closet door and listed every main event in the novel. I ended up with hundreds of papers, lined up and scribbled on. Here's part of what I'm looking at now:

I left this behind while working on short story projects, and it's fun to come back to, although I'm often wondering what on earth I was talking about. For instance, a slip of paper reads: "Olander builds the Enchantment Box. He puts Grandpa George's name inside to test it out." And what happens? I can't remember. I hope to find the outcome on some other scrap of paper.

In the meantime, I'm going through the plot line and kicking out anything that no longer fits, filling in plot holes. To do this, I'm using a J.K. Rowling grid technique she showed off in a 60 Minutes interview (2002): Take a piece of lined spiral notebook paper, mark three columns- one for months, one for chapter title, and one for plot strand, adding in sub plot strands on the paper's back. We'll see how this works to organize the plot pace and events.

The Barber Shop; Part 1

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:15:00 +0000

At first, I think the barber couldn’t be more out of his mind, offering me a free haircut and shave on New Year’s Day. Who on Earth is open New Year’s Day? Besides, the last thing I want is to be stuck with this hangover, small-talking about some barber’s grandkids visiting over the holidays.

I had wandered by his shop before-peered through the window as he stood on top his overturned milk crate to reach a stick man’s flattop, hopping down with so much zeal, I’d thought him to be much younger than the man before me now.

He looks just like a pig. His pink skin pulls tight and shiny to the back of his balding head, his round nose pugs enough to stop his wire-frames from slipping. A line digs deep across his wide forehead while he smiles.

“Free?” I ask.

He pats my shoulder like an old friend, holding open his shop’s glass door. “Be my pleasure.”

The wind howls, blows open the bottom flaps of my overcoat, stinging my legs. I step inside and sneeze quickly, three times.

Dust coats the magazine table in the entryway. The shop feels warm and relaxing, numbing my cheeks, but empty, like no customer has stopped by for years. I stomp the snow from my Sorel boots and sneeze again.

“Gazoontite.” The barber offers me a checkered handkerchief from his white jacket pocket.

“No thanks,” I say, wiping my nose with a fat, leather-gloved hand. I notice the dark wood paneled walls. They give the impression of a small room, but the shop stretches long and narrow, so five chairs fit comfortably in a line. The bright overhead fluorescents are turned off, and a table lamp illuminates the last chair. It makes me uneasy, like walking into a stranger’s living room.

Welcome

juliettecrane@hotmail.com (Juliette Crane) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:08:00 +0000

This is a place to discuss novel and story writing-so it won't all be swimming, but out there, for someone other than myself to learn from. Enjoy.