Melissa Joy Adams' Journal

I don't think candice_ransom posted this as a meme, but I'm stealing it from her anyway:


1. Packing
2. Folding the blankets in the upstairs closet
3. Walking Lucy

What I Did Yesterday:
1. Met with financial adviser
2. Visited with parents
3. Returned kennel to Petsmart

What I Wish I Didn't Have to Do:
1. Drive home in a different vehicle than Brian (taking my parent's van home until my new car arrives)
2. Wait until tomorrow to go home
3. Wait for my new car

What I Just Did:
1. Typed "wait for my new car"
2. Looked at Lucy asleep on the sofa beside me
3. Helped my mom with some computer stuff

What I Wish I Could Do:
1. Head home this minute
2. See Jessica tonight
3. Eat more homemade gingerbread and peanut brittle without worrying about the extra poundage

What I'm Reading Now:
1. Pet Semetary by Stephen King
2. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimon
3. The Luxe: Splendor by Anna Godberson

What I'm Going to Do Next:
1. Talk to Brian (he just came in from shoveling the walk)
2. Shove Lucy away (she's moved right next to me and makes it impossible to use the mouse
3. Plan what to do with my lovely 4 day weekend at home

A writer named Meg White has written this incisive analysis regarding the next act in the fight for healthcare reform that points out a nasty abscess in the whole thing and points out that when our elected officials negotiates deals with the pro-choice right they are, in effect, negotiating with terrorists. But it seems that when it comes to women's healthcare, it's okay, because we don't matter as much as men.

I've included excerpts here, or you can use the link above to read the whole article:

Just when we thought American women would be spared the indecency of the House's Stupak-Pitts Amendment, expected to make abortion functionally unavailable by prohibiting women from using their private plans to pay for their own abortions, the Senate came up with a "compromise" that appears to be nothing but a poison pill.

The compromise would enact a kind of kabuki theater not yet seen in this already stylized drama. Under the proposal, anyone who wanted to enroll in a private insurance plan that would provide healthcare coverage for abortions (be they men, post-menopausal women, etc.) would be required to pay their monthly premiums twice: one check would go to pay the premium itself, and another smaller amount would go to a separate premium account within the plan that would be used to provide for abortion claims.

The "compromise" was billed as a deal with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), the man who, along with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) tried and failed to incorporate the Stupak-Pitts language into the Senate bill. Indications are that it may have been more about covering for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's purchase of Nelson's vote with the promise of state subsidies for Nebraska.

. . .

Furthermore, this whole segregation of funds idea only applies to those who are lucky enough to live in a state where officials decide that insurance companies and consumers even get to make that choice. The Senate bill allows any nanny state in the union to outlaw abortion coverage outright. So those of us who "get" to write out those separate checks could end up being few and far between.

And lest you think me an extremist for framing this in the heavy terms of "separate but not equal," know that I am not alone. For example, read this assessment from Lauren Simonds, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington:

If it wasn’t clear before the health care battle of 2009 that women’s reproductive
health care is viewed as separate and unequal to other types of basic health care,
it is now. No other medical procedure is singled out and stigmatized like abortion.
Even a proposed tax on elective cosmetic surgery was eliminated after public outcry.

Simonds' point about the attempt at a so-called "Botax" leads me to another inequality inherent in this argument. Why should I be forced to pay for the continued availability of elective plastic surgery, something I find at times stretches into the realm of moral reprehension, while common reproductive procedures are virtually outlawed?

Not only are women's healthcare needs being "segregated" out of mainstream funding, but there is an inequality of morals here as well. While the desires of pro-life America are being catapulted to the very top of the list in Washington, the rest of us must wait for our concerns over virtue to be heard.

What about those of us who oppose the notion of our money being spent on what we see as unjust wars? One abortion may indeed be a tragic procedure resulting in the termination of potential life, and even perhaps the scarring of another. At the same time, one war kills, maims and psychologically damages untold millions around the world. Oh, and it costs a whole hell of a lot more than any medical procedure. I have a feeling that if the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had to be paid for with separate checks, things would look very different abroad.

. . .

And that brings me back to what I was saying last month about negotiating with terrorists on healthcare reform:

The anti-choice lobby is not satisfied to keep the status quo afforded by the Hyde Amendment. Instead, they're willing to sink healthcare reform in the effort to remove any and all coverage, public or private, for the legally-available medical service of abortion...

Yes, it is still wrong to trade women's reproductive rights so that the rest of the population can have decent healthcare. The only new item we've learned is that not only is it wrong, but it doesn't work.

What is far worse than being seen as a bargaining chip worth expending is to be seen as a bargaining chip to be given away for free. Now that the bargaining chip of women's reproductive rights is in the hands of the pro-life community, they plan to use healthcare reform to take away the rights we still have.

So much for negotiating with the choice terrorists.

So, in the interest of again trying to learn something from the mistakes of the false promise of bipartisanship in this Congress, I suppose we can guess why these "choice terrorists" are so eager to sink the average American woman's chances at getting adequate access to healthcare: They see us as second-class citizens.

Would somebody please tell me what the FUCK is wrong with Congress? Since when did the Catholic Bishops dictate new law in this country? Since when has the right to birth control and abortion become the business of anyone but the woman needing it? It's okay to have poison shot into your face, but a raped 12-year-old can't be mercifully relieved of one concrete effect of her experience?

Maybe it's time to get us some guns and take us out some trash.

(and before anyone jumps on me, may I remind you I did not say our guys are squeaky clean in the sexual abuse department)

Today the New York Times published this disturbing report about the lot of the female soldier and of some male soldiers, dealing with harassment, stalking, abuse, and rape from fellow personnel. It's a long piece, and it's unsettling. We like to think, when our women go off to serve, that at least they'll be safe from sexual predation, but these witnesses testify to the contrary.

Okay, with that many people, there has to be a percentage of those with problems, like the man with multiple complaints against him. It's also true that a macho field like the military draws guys who think manliness means the brutalization and ownership of women. But the article clearly states that the percentage of reported incidents is higher than that of our civilian population, and the writers are not certain that all such incidents are being reported. I am certain they aren't. Women are reluctant to rock the boat; they are afraid they will lose their rank and position; they will be run out of the military; they will be harassed even more; they will find no support and even more harassment not just from other soldiers, but from their superiors. And they are all too often right.

But people can learn. The fact that this article has been published is proof of it. There are people in Congress who are putting on the pressure, and there are people in the military who are working for it.

Parents can work on it, too. If you want your children to continue a tradition of family service, then teach your boys to respect girls and women. Teach your girls they are worthy of respect and that they must demand it. Teach all of them the meaning of duty, and keeping their promises, and looking after their fellow soldier.

And those who do not know if they're preparing their kids to fight--these aren't such bad ideas for anyone. To look after those who work with you, to uphold your promises and the things you swear to, to respect the opposite sex and keep your hands to yourselves, those are all good things that get scant coverage in some of our homes.

No one in the article mentioned it, but these men are forgetting something very important. When you shit on a fellow soldier, you're just begging for the opportunity to be killed by friendly fire. It may not come from that soldier. But every soldier has friends.

The following folks won on either the Rath, my blog give away, or the randomizer.
( Read more... )

STILL WANT ONE/DIDN'T GET IT HERE:
I'm still giving 10 away in the Goodreads program thru the 12th of Jan.

So even if it's in the orders, the good general isn't really going to throw women and men in jail because the women got pregnant and, occasionally, they'll find out who the man was. He just meant to scare people into thinking. Women are valuable resources he doesn't want to send home if they get pregnant, because it's always on purpose, and not because the condom failed, or the pills, or the soldier was raped*, because that's never known to happen.

He doesn't trust the majority of his women to know their duty. He doesn't trust the majority of his women to do their utmost to serve. He would just rather tar all the women in the service with the licentiousness brush.

And I truly wonder how many women will name the men, apart from the 3 of 4 in this article. If I can recall at least two recent cases in which military men killed their pregnant solider girlfriends* and hid their bodies while their superiors covered it up, I'm sure any female soldier of the line knows of other women who have disappeared or been "killed in action."

Funny. One reason we supposedly sent our people to Iraq was to teach them the values of western style democracy. Who would have thought their religious fundamentalists would have taught our officers the uses of sharia law? What's next--stoning the woman to death after her child is born, and stoning the man right away?



*I never said, please recall, that the men of the military are squeaky clean when it comes to abuse of women. I just think that for a number of really confusing reasons they would take action against Afghani men assaulting women (obeying orders, peer pressure, law enforcement, and bigotry being chief among them).

The Creature With Fangs Elfed yesterday.



My Beloved Husband Elfed yesterday.



Queen Louise Elfed yesterday.



And I did, too.



A most merry time, indeed!

Revision Tip #23

I rarely have the image systems of my books in mind when I start writing. But by the end of the first or second draft, some image (symbol for Eng lit majors) has cropped up and I realize that I can riff on that symbol throughout the book to tell the larger story. In a subtle way, I hope.

In SPEAK, it was the image of the tree. There was only one mention of it in the early drafts. When I realized the power of it, I wrote in all the art class scenes, and made the tree into a year-long project for her.

WINTERGIRLS was interesting. The first paragraph of the first draft of the book was this:

"The crows stalk me, wings folded neatly behind them, hungry yellow weighing my soft spots. They circle around me once, twice, three times, claws scarring the stone floor of the church.

I curl up on the frozen altar. They flutter close, black feathers filling my mouth and eyes and ears."

I really don't know where that came from; I just wrote it down, plus a bunch of other stuff. The reference to the "frozen altar" is what got me thinking about ancient religions and mythology, which in turn led me to ponder if there was a mythological story within Lia's story. Of course there was: the story of Persephone. That became a central image system for the book, with references to pomegranate seeds and the death that is winter, along with mother/goddess figure at her wits end, trying to pull her daughter back from the grasp of hell.

(For the record - that opening paragraph wound up migrating to page 264. It fits much better there.)

Is there a small detail in your draft that could be expanded into a central image system?

ARC winners will be announced in the next day or so.  Thereason is prob obvious to For those who read the Twitter feed or FB (which gets my twitter feed),  but for those who aren't there:  we had around 18-19 inches of snow on Saturday.  The resulting being-snowed-in, waaay too many hours of shoveling snow, & canceled school tweaked my schedule quite a bit.

I haven't forgotten the contests.  Snow & kids & Winter Break starting a few days early took priority though.

Will get results up as soon as I can do so.

Even though it felt, well, wrong, I decided to take December off from writing. I really felt overwhelmed by Christmas and just felt I needed some time to recharge my brain. Some writers can write every day. I can't, as much as I wish I could. I really need time to re-charge my batteries.

That's not to say my month has been without any writing work. I sent out another batch of queries to agents, and already had one agent first request 50 pages, then the whole manuscript. Fingers crossed on that one! I also had an interview with the Children's Literature Database; they're doing a feature on me. Link forthcoming!

So what have I been doing? I'm still creating. I love making things for Christmas, so I've been crocheting almost every free moment. This year I've made 3 afghans, 3 scarves, at least 5 doilies, a few stuffed animals, ornaments, and, my personal favorite, an adapted pattern for animal purses. My cousin's daughter loves goats (small wonder; her granddad keeps them!) and I tweaked patterns for a cow, bear, and dog purse and somehow created a goat purse. I'll have to post a pic later.

I feel guilty for not writing. But I try not to feel guilty. I think about all the writers who have other hobbies, in particular Lucy Boston. We visited her home on an abroad trip and I was utterly fascinated by her elaborate quilts. Here was a woman who created some wonderful books, but also found time to create other things. I try to remind myself that any time spent creating something is valuable and can only help me as a writer.

And now I'm off to finish another scarf...

All work in the Forest today will grind to a halt as we enjoy the ceremonial viewing of Elf. And we might even make spaghetti with maple syrup.






I got to thinking about my family's tradition of setting out rice pudding for the julenisse. Nisse have been around long before Christmas celebrations. English words that describe them as elves, or gnomes; I've seen "pixie," too. If properly cared for, nisse will watch out for your farm animals, your house, and your barn. If you don't take care of them, they will cause all kinds of mischief on your property.

Nisse are low-maintenance creatures. All they require is a bowl of rice pudding (risengrød) set outside your door or in your barn on Christmas Eve. We've always done this faithfully and I think our nisse appreciate it.

But as the sun was setting yesterday and I was lighting candles in honor of the solstice I realized that the nisse have been around a lot longer than Christmas celebrations. Ack! Have I been disrespecting the nisse all these years? They are ancient creatures... do they wait, forlorn, on the night of the winter solstice, their tummies grumbling, while the Big People go about their ignorant business? And when the pudding FINALLY shows up on Christmas Eve, do they call up the other nisse and complain?

So last night I put out rice pudding for them. And I will again on Christmas Eve. You can't be too careful with nisse.


Revision Tip #22

Are you sure that you've chosen the right point of view for your novel?

Take your favorite chapter and rewrite from a different POV; shift from third to first, or first to third, or if you are bold and way smarter than me, experiment with the second person POV.

Or.... (and.....) fool around with the tense structure. If your story is told in present tense, rewrite that favorite chapter in past tense. If you've written the whole thing in past tense, try out that chapter in present tense.

What's the point of all this mucking around? It helps you see your characters and the Story from a slightly altered perspective.

My thanks to everyone, belatedly! It's wonderful to have so many well wishers!

It's the day to light the flames and keep them burning through the long night. The light can banish the dark, as long as we remember to tend the fire.

Good Solstice, everyone!

I feel like calling your main character Rudolph today. (Humor me.)


Revision Tip #20


Don’t make it too easy on Rudolph.

Your story should not be a tale of the desires of Rudolph. It should be the thwarted desires of Rudolph up until the very end, when finally, FINALLY, things go right, tho' not in the way he originally thought they would.

For every desire, there should be an obstacle. Every step on the path leads to another detour.

Review your manuscript and make sure that poor Rudolph runs into obstacles over and over again. You fiend.


Revision Tip #21

1. Record yourself reading your manuscript aloud. The whole thing.

2. Listen to it with your manuscript in front of you (I am most comfortable with the printed-out version at this point.)

3. Pause whenever necessary to make notes on what needs fixing. This is when I find repeated words, awkward phrases and dropped plot points.

4. After a marathon listening session, go back in and finish all the repair work.

Beware of echoes and doppelgängers!

Maybe I am the only writer in the world who suffers from this bad habit. It makes me crazy. I do it in every blasted book, no matter how hard I try to be aware of it early in the process and avoid it.

I always create characters that are identical, both in their core characteristics and the purpose they serve in the book.

(I may have mentioned this earlier this month, but it is such a big pain in my writing butt, I must rant about it again.)

I spent all day yesterday and the wee hours of this morning extracting one of those characters from my book, and turning over many of his scenes to a different fellow who – I can now see with the blazing clarity of humiliating hindsight – should have been driving those scenes in the first place.

It was a bloodbath, I tell you.

How can you perform this radical surgery in your manuscript?

1. List all the characters.

2. Define – using only a few words – that character’s relationship to the main character.

Examples: comic foil, trusted friend, villain, complication, love interest.

3. If (like me) you have two or more characters that serve the same purpose, get out a magnifying glass and sharpen your scythe. Is it possible to have one of the characters take over scenes from the others?

Example: in the early draft of SPEAK, the character who is now called Heather was two separate girls. Each girl was a “sort of” friend of Melinda for a few months. Each friendship died. Their personalities were a bit different, but not in a strong enough way to affect Melinda’s interactions with them. By melding them together, the story was cleaner.

I am crossing my fingers that the work I am doing this weekend will have the same effect.

Writing the 5th & final WL feels like writing the end of each novel. I have this its-here-finally-oh-gods-write-faster-NO-stop-don't-wanna-be-done-ARGH-must-write-this-been-seeding-clues-so-long . . . except yanno, more so bc it's finishing a 5 book series.

( Read more... ) . . .

. . . but today, I'm still on racing, so back to it.

HOLIDAYS:

As blurred as I am lately, I'm not sure I'll remember to post a holiday msg, so I wanted to at the very least wish you all a Happy Hanukkah. Happy early Yule. Happy early Solstice. Happy early Christmas. . . and to those who are non-faith, hope you're snuggled in somewhere lovely with someone fabulous for Winter's arrival.

Sometimes people forget that I wrote PROM because it is not exactly a depressing book. In fact, it's pretty funny, if I do say so myself. (If I had dread, depression and death in all of my books, I would not be a healthy person!)

So it is with great joy that I announce that PROM has been nominated to the 2010 Popular Paperbacks List, in the "Change Your World or Live to Regret It" category!!

School Library Journal has posted their annual collection of Christmas Memories written by children's authors and illustrators. This year's essays were written by me, my buddy Deb Heiligman, Barbara McClintock, Lauren Myracle, and our National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jon Scieszka. Enjoy!

Revision Tip #18

Are you stuck?

Have you tried all my plotting tips and dialog wisdom and adverb scorn and still you are stuck?

Try this.

1. Make yourself some comfort food.

2. Put on music that relaxes you.

3. Snuggle up in a warm, cozy place with a pen and a pad of paper.

4. Write a letter to your main character. Tell her everything that is worrying you about the story in general.

5. Pause to eat a bit. Make some tea or hot chocolate.

6. Pick up pen and paper again. Tell your character why you are specifically worried about her. Ask her what is going on in her life, in her relationships that you don't understand. Ask her advice about how to help her move forward.

7. Write down what she tells you.

8. If you can't hear her voice, then it is time to put that manuscript away for a while and work on a different story. But I am pretty sure you will hear the voice, so be chill and write.

Wonderful news of positive change from GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network)! After one year of their hard-hitting "Think Before You Speak" campaign, teens attitudes about anti-gay language have significantly shifted.

From the GLSEN website: "For instance, findings from a recent survey conducted by the Ad Council in 2008 and 2009 of teens aged 13-16 suggest that a higher percentage of teens in 2009 think that people should not say "that's so gay" for any reason (38% in 2009 vs. 28% in 2008) and a higher percentage also report "never" saying "that's so gay" when something is stupid or uncool (28% in 2009 vs. 18% in 2008).


"In the Ad Council's nearly 70-year history of creating campaigns to raise awareness and change public opinion and attitudes, we don't often see shifts of this magnitude in just over a year," said Peggy Conlon, president and CEO of the Ad Council. "We're looking forward to building on this success with a new series of PSAs and online tools that will help to further raise awareness and engage teens online."


Here is one of the videos that made the huge impact:



I adore Wanda Sykes. Just saying.

GLSEN is now started their second-year of education and awareness about the devastating effects of anti-gay hatred and language. Their website has information for parents and educators, along with all kinds of stuff you can put on your blog or website, plus polls, videos and lots more. Please take the time to check it out nd pass the word. (Thanks to School Library Journal's Extra Helping for the heads-up!)

Revision Tip #17

I keep thinking about the slightly different approaches Barry Lyga and I have to writing dialog.

I forgot to mention one part of that.

Your audience might affect your decision about how you structure dialog.

Many people are not sure who their audience is when working on the early drafts of their novel. Nothing wrong with that. But as you revise, you need to know who your reader is. The way you tell a story to olders teens will be different than the way you tell it to middle grade students. At least, I hope it would be.

My theory is that teen readers (ninth grade and above) have enough reading and life experience under their belts that they do not need as much visual action details accompanying dialog as younger readers do.

(This could also account for part of the difference between the Lyga and the Halse Anderson Schools Of Proper Dialog; Barry only writes for teens.)

The danger, of course, is that your middle grade (or younger) reader will get bored if you layer on the descriptive action with a heavy trowel.

Try this: Pull out only the action words from your dialog scene. Here's an example from a page I am working on now:

Character A speaks.
Character B gives reader visual description of Character A.
B speaks.
A reaches into sack and speaks. Hands apple to B.
B grabs apple, bites and speaks (note: he hasn't eaten for more than a day). Apple juice runs down his chin.
A removes hat, nods and speaks (introducing self)
B swallows, wipes faces on sleeve, speaks
A speaks
B speaks
A speaks
B chews and thinks
A speaks

I know - it's kind of boring to look at it that way, but by putting it under the microscope, I can make sure that the action details are an integral part of the story. They reinforce the fact that Character B is hungry, that he needs help, and that Character A might be a person he can turn to. It also balances a debt, because B helped A out of a bind in an earlier scene.

Bonus tip: since action in dialog scenes needs to be minimal and precise, it is a great opportunity to hone in on that perfect tiny detail that says volumes about the characters, setting, or conflicts at hand.

Yesterday was.... let's not go into it.

Today is here and that is all that matters.

If you are still shopping for a winter holiday, read "Cheese and Crackers Never Changed Anyone's Life" and then finish your shopping at Indiebound.

There now - wasn't that simple?

Congratulations to Melissa on this WINTERGIRLS video - the project earned her a 100 in her class.

Revision Tip #16 (yes, I know it should be 15, but yesterday really was something of a mess and it's easier this way. Do you remember the "Bruce" sketch of Monty Python? Remember how there was no Rule #6? This is the same thing.)

Where was I?

Right, Revision Tip #16

Revision is the perfect time to brainstorm.

Really.

Brainstorming is not a one-and-done part of the writing process. Not the way I see it. After that messy first draft, I usually have chapters that feel empty or out-of-place. I mentioned the way I use huge sheets of paper to organize my chapters. Here is another technique.

1. Identify the critical chapters in your novel. Which are the ones that contain The Really Big Stuff?

The Really Big Stuff chapters will usually be separated by chapters in which the action unfolds in a slightly less intense way. Think of your novel as a wide river that your reader needs to cross. The RBS (Really Big Stuff) chapters are small islands in the river. The other chapters are either stepping stones or bridges that get the reader from one island to the next.

2. List the Stones & Bridges chapters, then prioritize them by how alive they feel. What is the chapter that feels the most flat - the chapter (or chapters!) you are secretly wondering if you should cut?

3. Don't cut them yet.

4. There is no Four.

5. Brainstorm as if you were starting from scratch. For each of the flat chapters, dream up ten different ways the action could unfold. Go ahead - be outrageous. I dare you. Sometimes thinking way outside the box is what you need to jolt your writer brain into clearer storytelling.

6. (Please note; there IS a Rule Six, Bruce!) Pick one of the ten and just freewrite the chapter over again. How does it help the reader understand the characters better? How does it move the story forward?

7. Rinse. Repeat. Send me questions.