Saturday, April 28, 2007
It's a quiet day
This has been a quiet Saturday, I borrowed my mother's car to drive the middle son to a friend's and then did the groceries. It is misting more than raining and the spider webs are beautiful. The new grass has a lovely wet web of water draped over its lovely newness. The other day the bank gave me money for having a neat conversation with them, how often does that happen?Today my pet food store was closed forever and I went to another store that gave me a free (Large) bag of food because I was about to get it for purchasing my 10th bag, got that? Yesterday I found a lovely gold bangle on the floor in the washroom at Sears, it is only costume jewellery but it reminds me that my abundance is on its way!!!!!!!Love you all. K.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
To the Sky and Beyond
Wayne passed his exams and is a general contractor, he now expects special treatment. I wrote most of the outline for M&M3Sons since that is how I wrote the first book, but it doesn't feel right. I am just going to write. That feels wright. I love you all. K
Monday, April 23, 2007
Hey, Started My Next Book
Today the weather continues to shine and warm and cossett. My wash dried on the line even as I hung it out. I walked with Chuck (the dog) and we sat on the beach together. I was writing in my head and planning the outline for Me and My Three Sons. I wrote most of it this afternoon and will pitch it to my writer's group tonight. Wayne's Licsence arrived from the provincial government. He can put his RBQ numbers on his truck and build whatever he wants, he is very, very happy. I got a lovely phone call from Edgar last night. He called to tell me how much he and his wife enjoyed the book. Then he told me how they met after his first wife left him with three children. He was walking his father back to his room at the home, his dad had Alzhiemers, when a lady came up to him (she hadn't spoken in months) and said, "This is my daughter, Elizabeth, I want you to take her home, kiss her goodnight, and tuck her in bed." He married that lovely daughter and had two more children with her. He is now 77 and he loved my book. He is even emailing oprah.com to tell them. How magnificent. I love you all. Karen
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Won't Let a Scammer Ruin My Natural High
To all you lovely people out there, some of you must know that I was almost seduced by a scammer of the Screenplay Agency in New York ? maybe maybe not? The office is a virtual one and he could be slumming anywhere. A fine Ms Sherry Fine was sending me a contract because I wrote such a great screenplay that she was sure that they could sell. All I had to do was get it critiqued, not by them, no, but they could refer me and it would only cost less than $100. Go to Alex Epstein's blog, he has the full scoop. He used my questions about the legitimacy of Sherry Fine to post his blog that day and gathered fine research. This is a fine thing, I got out before the noose could tighten. I even sent Ms. Fine-Fletcher (his real name is Fletcher) some real fine emails about how he should be ashamed of himself and that I was sending him peace and love in the hopes that he could change his nasty ways. He sent me another missive today telling me to toughen up and not listen to those people and that they are jealous and have no proof. Excuse me, I sent him a forward with the proof in it. He also scams poets and novelists. He is certainly nasty and needs our love. I am submitting for awards and intend to win them all. Love, Karen
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Trying not to let the grey and drizzle get me down
The grey days are seemingly endless, tied together by drizzle and wet slushy stuff that is continuously being dripped on our heads. It is with supreme effort that I stay out of my bed. No champagne corks popping about the contract offer yet. I have more work to do and may not receive a payout. I am trying so hard to stay positive and the shooting in VA is making that even harder. Why do people need semi-automatics? Why is the gun-culture so pervasive? I send peace and love to all of those people suffering in VA and around the world. Karen
Monday, April 16, 2007
Radiothon Success and a sleepy weekend
Friday the 13th was lucky for me and for the Montreal Children's Hospital. They raised almost 2.5 million dollars over the three day event! I was on from 9-10 like I thought, but on three different stations over the hour. First was Cat and Lisa on Mix 96, then Tommy on CJAD and finally my old school mate Terry DiMonte at CHOM. I reminded him that his best friend wanted to fix us up about 25 years ago. He almost blushed. I had a great time and they all plugged my book. Saturday I got up almost as early 6am to go to Longeuil to do an Aloette monthly meeting. My first and only one, I am not quite the type to form a conga line at 10 am and jump on chairs. They are just a bit over the top for me, but good for them. I had a baby shower for Jodi at 2pm and came home and slept until 6:30 the next morning. I watched Coronation street, all five episodes at one time and lazed around and slept on and off all day. My dad came over with my mother for supper for his birthday and Wayne cooked for everyone, tacos for the guys and salmon for the ladies, it was really nice. I am starting the outline for my new book today, Me and My Three Sons! Hope you like it, 10 more years of humourous calamities. I love you all. Karen
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Radiothon Tomorrow
I just submitted an 800 word piece for the Quebec Writers Federation Newsletter, not that you would have access to this tome, but it was humourous (see previous blog, word for word). I am working on a grant application so that I can stand out from all the other starving writers living in garretts. It is due by the 15th so I have today and tomorrow to wrap it up. My house is for sale and that is always a bit disconcerting. We had a visit yesterday and they may come back next week. We would build another house when it sold. I am uninspired today and don't have much to say, I am glad that I don't need to be creative or anything, oh yeah, grant application, that's creative, get it in gear Karen. Love you all.
Monday, April 9, 2007
QWrite and Tommy Schnurmacher
I just emailed my first submission by my new laptop. It is very exciting to be pulled into the computer age. As far as I am concerned my laptop is just a typewriter that emails. Some of you of the younger set may never have even seen a typewriter, or a dial phone for that matter, with a cord. I will now submit for you enjoyment my article for QWrite and don't forget to give a listen Friday am at 9, any station CJAD, CHOM and Mix 96.
How to Get Published Without Losing One’s Mind
I have been writing since grade six and composing, I suppose, since birth. Always highly charged, I careened from one romance, one husband and from one career to another. In 1985, I gave birth to an outwardly healthy, male child. He subsequently required a lobectomy, which removed most of a lung. I could not give him back and ask for a refund. His father began to melt away in drips and drops until I was alone with a toddler. I began a harrowing journey in the nether-world known as dating. I fixated upon one likely specimen and willed him to be mine. Somehow I became pregnant and had another boy. This one needed three open-heart surgeries, but the good doctors managed to complete the rerouting of his physiology in two operations. His cardiologist gave me hope. I began to believe that my baby would not die. At that point, I knew four things: I would write a book about my experiences, I would call it My Two Sons, I would dedicate it to his cardiologist and that it would start with the words, Even pigs sweat on a day like this.
I had been keeping a journal since before the birth of my first son. I now collected related medical files and began to write. It was really easy. Just type, type, type (or as Margaret Atwood says, scribble, scribble) and I soon had three chapters, about one hundred pages. I didn’t know if it was any good and the helium writer’s group that I attended every week had little to say except, ‘‘add some dialogue, you can’t write it that way.’’ Well I couldn’t write it any other way and when I conferred with my mentor, Judy, she told me that was my style, that’s how I write. When I first began pushing myself under her wing, I told her I was going to write a non-fiction book. She lovingly dissuaded me by suggesting I write a children’s book. The following week after writing Dan and His You-Know-What and presenting it to her, she acquiesced and allowed me my vision. I found a book about getting published and did every damn thing that author said and worked on a book proposal for months. I then bought a heavy volume of agent listings and began the queer querying process. I drove to Vermont to buy pink flowered American stamps to slap on my SASEs. I furiously wrote, licked, sealed, mailed and received for weeks. The receiving was rejection letters, though fortunately, most agents did not bother to respond so my rejection rate was not quite as painful as it could have been. My hide was beginning to thicken. The My Two Sons book proposal was squashed in a drawer and I wrote on. I wrote children’s stories – the under-twelve set (and some over-twelves) tell me that they are very good. I have a fine screenplay that has only been rejected a few times. I have countless short stories that make me laugh and I have a murder mystery fully plotted and partially clothed. I also have got quite a decent start to a novel about a woman trying not to have an affair; I’m still waiting to see how that one turns out. My Two Sons remained in the drawer and I vowed there it would stay until someone paid me to take it out. A dreamer you say?
Years later, I began bumping into a publisher on a regular basis. At parties, at the fair, there he would be. And I kept promising him a look at my book and I never sent it. I fell down some stairs and got quite banged up. Then three surgeries in two years that slowed me down and finally I just sent it. Book proposal in hand, he showed up at my house offering to publish. I spent a few months finishing my book and after handing it in early the editing began. Thanks to my editor, Stuart Woods, of Price-Patterson, it was relatively effortless and we published in November. Aside from some nasty clichés that he unwittingly tried to insert, he did a magnificent job. Since the release of the book I’ve been astoundingly busy. I’ve done five interviews for newspapers, several radio appearances and many talks. I want very much to get this book out to a wider audience, across Canada and eventually into the States and Europe; also to find a French editeur to translate and publish Me and My Two Sons.
My reward has not been monetary, (God no!) but in the responses from my readers. I have heard countless times how the book made them laugh and cry and that they could not put it down. Many read it in one sitting, often staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning. This is a book of hope that is giving people a sense of joy and inspiration, even when enduring the most difficult of circumstances. Having told my tale of having two sick babies, of losing one husband and finding another, in a humourous and poignant fashion, I am pleased that my audience finds that reading my book feels like a visit from an old and dear friend.
I love you all Karen
How to Get Published Without Losing One’s Mind
I have been writing since grade six and composing, I suppose, since birth. Always highly charged, I careened from one romance, one husband and from one career to another. In 1985, I gave birth to an outwardly healthy, male child. He subsequently required a lobectomy, which removed most of a lung. I could not give him back and ask for a refund. His father began to melt away in drips and drops until I was alone with a toddler. I began a harrowing journey in the nether-world known as dating. I fixated upon one likely specimen and willed him to be mine. Somehow I became pregnant and had another boy. This one needed three open-heart surgeries, but the good doctors managed to complete the rerouting of his physiology in two operations. His cardiologist gave me hope. I began to believe that my baby would not die. At that point, I knew four things: I would write a book about my experiences, I would call it My Two Sons, I would dedicate it to his cardiologist and that it would start with the words, Even pigs sweat on a day like this.
I had been keeping a journal since before the birth of my first son. I now collected related medical files and began to write. It was really easy. Just type, type, type (or as Margaret Atwood says, scribble, scribble) and I soon had three chapters, about one hundred pages. I didn’t know if it was any good and the helium writer’s group that I attended every week had little to say except, ‘‘add some dialogue, you can’t write it that way.’’ Well I couldn’t write it any other way and when I conferred with my mentor, Judy, she told me that was my style, that’s how I write. When I first began pushing myself under her wing, I told her I was going to write a non-fiction book. She lovingly dissuaded me by suggesting I write a children’s book. The following week after writing Dan and His You-Know-What and presenting it to her, she acquiesced and allowed me my vision. I found a book about getting published and did every damn thing that author said and worked on a book proposal for months. I then bought a heavy volume of agent listings and began the queer querying process. I drove to Vermont to buy pink flowered American stamps to slap on my SASEs. I furiously wrote, licked, sealed, mailed and received for weeks. The receiving was rejection letters, though fortunately, most agents did not bother to respond so my rejection rate was not quite as painful as it could have been. My hide was beginning to thicken. The My Two Sons book proposal was squashed in a drawer and I wrote on. I wrote children’s stories – the under-twelve set (and some over-twelves) tell me that they are very good. I have a fine screenplay that has only been rejected a few times. I have countless short stories that make me laugh and I have a murder mystery fully plotted and partially clothed. I also have got quite a decent start to a novel about a woman trying not to have an affair; I’m still waiting to see how that one turns out. My Two Sons remained in the drawer and I vowed there it would stay until someone paid me to take it out. A dreamer you say?
Years later, I began bumping into a publisher on a regular basis. At parties, at the fair, there he would be. And I kept promising him a look at my book and I never sent it. I fell down some stairs and got quite banged up. Then three surgeries in two years that slowed me down and finally I just sent it. Book proposal in hand, he showed up at my house offering to publish. I spent a few months finishing my book and after handing it in early the editing began. Thanks to my editor, Stuart Woods, of Price-Patterson, it was relatively effortless and we published in November. Aside from some nasty clichés that he unwittingly tried to insert, he did a magnificent job. Since the release of the book I’ve been astoundingly busy. I’ve done five interviews for newspapers, several radio appearances and many talks. I want very much to get this book out to a wider audience, across Canada and eventually into the States and Europe; also to find a French editeur to translate and publish Me and My Two Sons.
My reward has not been monetary, (God no!) but in the responses from my readers. I have heard countless times how the book made them laugh and cry and that they could not put it down. Many read it in one sitting, often staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning. This is a book of hope that is giving people a sense of joy and inspiration, even when enduring the most difficult of circumstances. Having told my tale of having two sick babies, of losing one husband and finding another, in a humourous and poignant fashion, I am pleased that my audience finds that reading my book feels like a visit from an old and dear friend.
I love you all Karen
Saturday, April 7, 2007
It's All Good
My wonderful friends and fans, thank you for all the great energy I have received from you as a consequence of writing this book. I am sending my screenplay Remember Me to an agent today or tomorrow, as soon as I can figure out how. My blog looks better and newer since Matthew Brett helped me by tweaking it a little. I was with my French ladies group last night and we did an Intention Circle, it was amazing. I mean, these women had never done it before and just stating their gratitudes was an eye opener, then came the intentions. How fabulous. I love you all. K
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
I'm Back
I missed you all, my laptop was in the shop being reconfigured and Wayne's was at the accountant's being analysed. I got an A- on my CanLit essay and last night was the final class, with an essay exam. It's over and I am 6 credits richer. I may find a summer course to take, but I'll only look at it next week. I cleaned out my closet and got rid of well over 50% of my clothes. I feel lighter and fresher now that the chi in my life is flowing smoothly. Wayne had two exams today and he did really well, he has more tomorrow and three days next week. I am so proud of him. I am speaking in Cowansville at 1:30 and will be on the radio next week on Friday the 13th, with Tommy but possibly on all three stations. Things couldn't be better and I look forward to reporting even more great news soon. Lots and lots of Love, Karen
I'm Back
I missed you all, my laptop was in the shop being reconfigured and Wayne's was at the accountant's being analysed. I got an A- on my CanLit essay and last night was the final class, with an essay exam. It's over and I am 6 credits richer. I may find a summer course to take, but I'll only look at it next week. I cleaned out my closet and got rid of well over 50% of my clothes. I feel lighter and fresher now that the chi in my life is flowing smoothly. Wayne had two exams today and he did really well, he has more tomorrow and three days next week. I am so proud of him. I am speaking in Cowansville at 1:30 and will be on the radio next week on Friday the 13th, with Tommy but possibly on all three stations. Things couldn't be better and I look forward to reporting even more great news soon. Lots and lots of Love, Karen
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
