borders gig

New event!

I've been invited to come hang out at Borders / Redmond Town Center during their Educators' Awareness Week Expo. No presentation this time, just signing books, hanging out, talking to people. All weekend! Should be fab. Pass it on.

Saturday October 14
& Sunday October 15
1 - 3 pm
Borders Books & Music
Redmond Town Center

(16549 NE 74th Street, Redmond, WA 98052 / Phone: 425.869.1907)

recovery walk, part two

It was just like I'd pictured it but even happier! Down to the babies and puppies and beautiful people and glorious sunshine. And we sold about 40 copies of Beachglass! YAY!

The best part for me though...what is it about seeing the before and after in people? There were several ex-residents in attendance today who all look and sound and feel and act and LIVE so much better than they did the very first time I saw them, and without fail (even all these years of "doing this job") I still get the chills when I see that transformation.

So thanks to all who participated, it was awesome! And look for it again next year...apparently this was a "First Annual" sort of thing.

recovery walk: today!

So -- I will be signing books at the Recovery Walk in Kirkland today. My post is at the Carillon Point end of things, the mid-point, where there will be a band or two, some inspirational speakers, hot dogs, t-shirts, mingling, etc. After a week of our stereotypical rainy gray 50-degree Seattle Gloom, we have a 75-degree day, complete with THE SUN!

The Recovery Walk is sort of like the Gay Pride Parade, but for recovering addicts and their friends and family. To remind the public that we aren't all skanky crack whores and skid row bums. That we are well-behaved citizens. That we are Bellevue soccer moms, doctors, artists, teachers, tech nerds, sisters, daughters, friends, neighbors. That we are healthy, young, old, everywhere-in-between, attractive, successful, smart, together people--who also have a disease. For which there is the hope of recovery. So here we go parading down the street, from the Marina to Carillon Point, along the waterfront, in the sunshine...I can see the strollers and golden retrievers now. Like Greenlake, only with this current running underneath all the cute workout gear, this feeling of unity and gratitude and celebration. The mayor will be there. News vans. I can't wait.

Especially since this morning over breakfast I learned that one of our ex-patients felt the need to leap from an overpass about a month ago.

Not everyone gets it.

If you have it, hang on to it--that window of opportunity doesn't always open and close as freely as one might think. Sometimes it only opens long enough to let you in (or out, depending on how you want to think about it) and then slams shut.

That's what I'll be thinking about as I sit in a chair in the sun watching this gorgeous bunch of people who should for all intents and purposes be dead or at least very intoxicated and alone and miserable. I'll think about the ones who jumped, who are huddled indoors, who are passed out, friendless, crazy, sad, afraid. I'll think about the ones who want to come back but are scared, whose ego won't let them, who are prying and picking at that window with their fingernails and it won't budge. And while I'm thinking about them, I'll be talking with old patients, laughing with co-workers, visiting with family, signing books, enjoying my blissful life, and not for a second forgetting that I am like, WAY lucky.

talk about handy

What's the deal with this recent trend in book cover art involving hands? Just...HANDS. Sort of disembodied almost, or at least alone. Lone hands.

Albeit great, eye-catching cover art; it's vivid; it's memorable. But HANDS? And so many of them at once. A hand epidemic.

Note to self: If (knock wood) this stuff I've been writing turns into another published novel someday, no hands on the cover. Hands off. It's creepy. Reminds me of the Six Feet Under episode "The Foot."

new dilemma

The good news: I've gotten on a bit of a roll with what might wind up being book #2. I can see the story, the plot, the arc if you will...I am starting to see the characters...and I have written what might almost be considered Chapter One.

The bad news: First-person or third-person? I can't decide.

And I can't go on until I know. What comes naturally for me is first-person; I like being in someone's head and getting that inner dialogue down on paper. But the problems with that are a) I am real annoyed with all the "you" comments that have come out of the whole Beachglass thing (see previous post entitled peeve du jour under July) that is the result of people not separating between "narrator" and "author," and b) I want to be able to let the story unfold and have the few little twists be surprising, not this whole let-me-tell-ya-what-happened thing that seems to happen in first-person...

And yet, the 'voice' I seem to lose in third-person. I tried to convert what I have here from first to third and it's just ODD. And I don't like feeling like some fly on the wall, like who the heck is lurking around during these private moments, who is in the characters' heads...I dunno.

Any hot tips from you writers out there?

I thought about the old tell-the-story-from-3-different-peoples'-POV trick, being in first person for each of them, developing three distinct voices and letting them tell the story each from their "side" but I don't know if I could pull it off. Barbara Kingsolver could (see: Poisonwood Bible, AKA sheer genius). But, to paraphrase: I'm no Barbara Kingsolver.

I just really like this narrator's voice so far. She's feisty. And a little intense, almost high-strung, but in a good way. Fast. Amusingly bitter. I would even say "plucky" but that sounds too much like the small hero animal in some animated short. Anyway -- I like her and am afraid I would lose that whole voice-thing going to third person.

Hmm.