A Tale of Two Laurels

Remember that little saying (I learned it in Girl Scouts)? "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold." Yep, that's right. Gold. Anyone who has lived a while on this earth (ahem) can tell you what a treasure it is to have an old friend. They are hard to come by. But, oh the comfort of spending time with someone "who knew you when. . . " Less explaining, more reminiscing.

You know what else is hard to come by? Writer friends. Which makes the upcoming point of my story all the more amazing. But you know what I'm talking about. Writers work mostly in the confines of their home and even if they are social and have lots of friends, what are the odds any of them will be writers, too? It is better for writers in this day and age of internet, critique groups and wonderful writing conferences, but any writer out there will tell you how nice it is to have a friend that also writes. Who else can understand you when you're crying over killing off one of your own characters?

So imagine my surprise at the LDS Storymaker's Conference last weekend, I had just walked into the ballroom when my friend Sally recognized me. A friend I hadn't seen in say, 20 years. And who happens to be writing books! How cool is that? We were Laurels together in the same ward in Massachusetts. And now? We are both living in the Southwest (read desert). Some of our children are the same age. We are both writing books and I suppose to top it off - we both married men with the same first name! (Sally, is there a book in this somewhere?)

This was the first of many highlights to this year's conference. And I will be blogging about the rest soon. Meanwhile, for more on the story, check out my friend's blog here. And have a great writing day!

Coming Soon

The Post-LDStorymaker's Conference Report.
I will tell you how amazing & motivating  the last two days have been.
Right after I sleep.
And spend Mother's Day with my family.
And sleep some more.
Because even though Storymaker's is a lot of things
It is not a sleep-aid.

A Recipe and Friday Potpourri

The Pineapple Bomb - I didn't name it. And I can't even take credit for finding the recipe, my sister did that many years ago. But I have made it more times than her, so I get posting rights. That, and she doesn't have a blog. :)

Large Pound Cake, like Sara Lee Family Size 

2 Packages vanilla pudding

1 Tub Cool Whip, 8 oz

2 Cans Pineapple Rings

Maraschino Cherries - you know the red syrupy ones!

12 Cup capacity dome-shaped bowl & Plastic wrap

Slice pound cake into 16 slices. Drain pineapple rings (can do it on top of cake slices). Cut cherries in half, drain. Line bowl with saran wrap. Mix pudding according to directions, only reduce milk to three cups total. Fold in Cool Whip to pudding mixture. Set in fridge to chill for about ten minutes. Line bowl with pineapple rings and cherries. Spread pudding mixture over rings. Layer pound cake slices, then pineapple, then pudding until bowl is full. Make sure top layer is pound cake slices. Chill bowl in fridge for at least two hours, longer if possible. When ready to serve, flip bowl onto serving plate. Peel off plastic wrap. Enjoy.

Questions? email me at tlpassey@aol.com 

Complaints? forget above email address & remember - I didn't invent the recipe - just passing it along!

And Friday Potpourri for those who are actually still reading after that long and convoluted recipe!

Our house is now pigeon free. Not that there were ever pigeons inside. Our roof has been pigeon-proofed and as I write this post,  the cooing I would normally be tuning out is a distant memory. 

I did not watch the royal wedding. For the record, this makes me no better than those who did. Just more well rested. 

Feeling melancholy after talking to my sister (a different one than the recipe finder) who is on the east coast today looking for housing. She's moving and I'm in denial. 

And - gearing up for the Storymaker's conference next weekend. If I have time between stressing, rewriting and stressing - I'll blog about it. Last year's pre-conference blog post What Not To Wear still fits. Ha, no pun intended. Now if only my clothes did!

Rejection, Voice and Ten Thousand Years

I received a rejection letter for a short story. It did NOT look like this:

Most honorable Sir,

We perused your MS,

with boundless delight. And

we hurry to swear by our ancestors

we have never read any other

that equals its mastery.

Were we to publish your work,

we could never presume again on

our public and name

to print books of a standard

not up to yours.

For we cannot imagine

that the next ten thousand years

will offer its ectype.

We must therefore refuse

your work that shines as it were in the sky

and beg you a thousand times

to pardon fault

which impairs but our own offices.

–Publishers

Rejection letter from Chinese publisher, from Louis Zukofsky’s “A”

Ah, they just don’t write ‘em like they used to.

I submitted a short story to an unnamed publisher and the letter I received, (well it was an email) started with “Dear Author” –which I thought was really cool until I came across the “Most honorable” bit.

I won’t quote the whole letter here, just the one line that cut to the chase:  “Although we did not offer to publish your manuscript, we encourage you in your endeavors to get it published. . .”

See how they quickly followed their rejection with encouragement? Nice, hunh?

I was feeling pretty good and read through to the end and then read near the bottom of the page:

“This is an automated message. Please do not reply to this email.”

There you have it. A punch line disguised as a rejection letter.

I had a good laugh. Hey, I’ll take all the encouragement I can get, generic or otherwise.

Which brings me to voice.

Have you heard the ad campaign, (don’t ask me which one because I really do not pay close enough attention to the tv when its on) “Find your voice and use it?” Don’t know what they are advertising, but I may be putting that with my other writing mottos –I can do that, right? Anyway, my point about voice is that when we find it, we can withstand the rejection. Have you seen the movie (or read the book) The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio? Based on a true story of a 1950’s housewife with an unhappy, alcoholic husband and lots of kids, she enters jingle contests and wins lots of prizes and *spoiler alert* ultimately enough money to pay the 2 mortgages on their house. Of course she finds a little contesting group who support each other in entering the contests. It’s been years since I’ve seen this movie, but somewhere in the beginning, the wife is narrating and says something to this effect – about her abusive husband, “don’t blame him, he lost his voice, but I found mine.” Finding her voice, writing and pursuing her dream, allowed her to withstand the difficulties she faced raising lots of kids with little resources or support from her husband. (At least in the movie version, we find out after he dies, he had put all his pension checks in an account for his wife.)

Whatever it is in your writing journey, rejection letters, brick walls, crashed computers, crying kids, you know, not enough chocolate: KEEP WRITING. Find your voice and use it. For your sake, and mine and all the lives you will touch with your writing.

You never know. Yours just might be the writing that “the next ten thousand years will not offer its ectype” And yes. I looked that up. It means: A copy from an original, an imitation or reproduction.  Happy writing!

Japan Thoughts

The people of Japan have been in my thoughts and prayers these past few days. The shock has given way to sadness and even dread with the ongoing nuclear crisis. I saw a report last night that highlighted the orderliness and great calm the Japanese people have demonstrated, even distributing supplies evenly among themselves when they came upon shortages. Not exactly what we see here.

I remembered a short poem I wrote after the Tsunami in December of 2005.
I realize I may not have any shirts made in Japan, but I think the sentiment is similar.

Tsunami 

India and Thailand with ocean shores

So far from my dry desert home

If I hadn’t heard the news reports of you

I wouldn’t have known

I couldn’t have known, or believed

How many lives you lost

To waves travelling at jet-plane speeds

My desert life goes on uninterrupted

No un-channeled water here.

Until I pull the iron out to press some laundry and

Open the collar of the clean white shirt

And there on the tag are those oft ignored words

Made in Sri Lanka

While the iron steams in my motionless hand

All I can think is that this someone made this shirt across that ocean

And I wonder amid the news-report scenes of destruction

Replaying in my mind

Is the factory is still there? Are the people still alive?

Do they still have a home?

And with as little warning as Mother Nature gives

One drop, then two, and

I am taken over by a wave of tears in the desert.

Sharing the Love. . .

Blog style.
This is me letting you know about my friend's cool new blog on marriage.
If you are married, know someone who is, or want to be someday --check it out.
It's called Making Marriage Merry and who wouldn't want to do that?
(That's a rhetorical question!)
Click on the little linky-do and it will take you right there. How easy is that?

Cherene's Blog

Top Ten Reasons To Attend a Writer’s Conference

10. The stylish name-tags. Okay, kidding.

 9. The food. Still kidding.

 8. Meeting internet writing friends (people look different in 3-D than 2-D).

 7. The chance to listen to famous authors, published authors (not always the same thing) and lots of other experienced people in the writing and publishing industry.

 6. Sit at a table with total strangers and talk about genres, word count, writing methods and hooks.

 5. Attend workshops and learn I’ve written a few things right.

 4. Attend workshops and find out I’ve written a few things that will need to be burned.

 3. Have total strangers ask, “What do you write?”

 2. Have an agent or editor ask, “What do you write?”

And the  # 1 reason to attend a writer’s conference is having confirmed to you the universal truth :
Writing is the coolest, most awesome job/hobby/obsession in the world!

I get carried away, but how could I not after attending the fabulous ANWA conference? If you were there, you know what I mean. If you weren't there -(well why not?) mark your calendar for next year!