One Night in Sixes

I met Tex Thompson at the DFW Writers' Workshop a few years back.  In the years I've known her, she has written a blog post for this here blog, she attempted to enlighten my daughter about the awesomeness of math and she is one of the wittiest attendees at my "Death Over Dinner" parties. Not only is she super nice and fun to be around, she is like the smartest person I've ever met. I've heard a lot of critiques during workshop and she is one of the few people who can always find something nice or encouraging to say about someone's writing.  Plus, she can pinpoint what isn't working and deliver it in such a way that you don't feel like your innards are going to spill forth onto the table.

In other words, she's totally kick ass.  And today, her first book has just been released!  It has been such a thrill to witness the whole process for her, from finding an agent to finally landing a book contract. And now her baby is here and look how cool it is!

You can check it out on Amazon, or better yet, go to your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and get it there.  She will be at the Barnes and Noble in lovely Hurst, TX this Saturday at 3pm.  

She is also having a Twitter contest with a $50 gift card as the prize, so hop on over for the details.

My Path to Getting Published: The Blog Tour

I tried to give

Brooke Fossey

the blog tour/cheese touch for the "My Writing Process" blog tour, and she turned around and tagged me on Twitter for the "My Path to Getting Published: The Blog Tour." Click on her name to read her fabulous post.  She even has pie charts.  Not only do I not have pie charts for this post, I don't have any death stuff lined up for this week, so here goes...

1. Where are you on your publishing path?

Right now, my memoir "Death Becomes Us" is out on submission, which is crazy fantastic, but is also making me a bit anxious.  The thing with memoir is that rejection feels personal.  "You mean you don't like me?"  Waaaaaaah!!!

I have to remind myself that I am simply a character in a really important story about other people.  I'm just the messenger.   Plus,

rejection

is part of writing.  If you're not getting rejected, you're not submitting.  And if you're not submitting, you will never be published.

2. How long has it taken you to get there?  

I first began writing with the intent to publish in about 2005, so nine years.  I began writing "Death Becomes Us" in 2008. 

3. What’s your journey looked like thus far?  

If memory serves, I was first published in the phone book in 2006. Seriously. I used to work for Directory Plus in Durango, Colorado and they published an essay I wrote about cell phones in the phone book.  Jealous? I know, it's pretty darn impressive.

My first "real" published piece was in issue 33 of

Creative Nonfiction

, which came out in 2007.  I attended a workshop with Lee Gutkind, CNF's editor, in Ouray, Colorado and at this conference, he told me I was a "horrible public speaker."  That stung.  But, he apparently liked the essay I submitted because it was a runner up in their contest and I even made some dough from it.  They also turned that issue into a book, "Silence Kills: Speaking Out and Saving Lives."

Mostly, I've been published in literary journals, which means that a very small, select group of people have actually read my writing.  It's funny, but I thought that once I got published in print that something magical would happen, like I'd be handed the keys to the writer room by an elf or a dragon.  That didn't happen.  

4. What’s your future look like?

Do I look like Cleo, the "Call me now" lady?

I don't live in the future.  My feel are firmly planted in today where I am writing a blog post about publishing.  All I have to do is press "Publish" and it's out there on the world wide web.  Whoa.  

After that, I'm going to write two pages and then I'm going to brush my teeth, wash my face, kiss my family goodnight and go to bed.

As before, I am not going to tag five other people.  If you want to write your own blog post using these questions, I say go for it.

All write, all write, all write!

My Writing Process Blog Tour

David Goodner

, one of the wonderful members of the DFW Writers' Workshop, tagged me to participate in the "My writing process" blog tour, so for today, it's all about writing.

What am I working on?

In addition to revving up the old Death Writer blog, I've been writing a novel about a menopausal vampire.  It's called

Forever 51

. Yes, yes, I know.  Does the world really need another vampire story? I didn't think so either, but this woman was quite insistent that I tell her story. And so far, it's been quite fun.

Here I am having fun.  Damn, I love photo booth!

I don't know about you, but I think that's what we should aim for as writers.  FUN!  For the first time in quite a while, my butt is in the desk chair, I'm typing words and I'm laughing my ass off.  I'm thinking about all the crazy stuff this vampire is going to get into and I don't have to worry about the truth.  Or even getting published.  I get to make shit up and let me tell you, that is liberating. Despite my enthusiasm for fiction, my first love will always be nonfiction.  It's always way stranger than anything I can come up with in my imagination, so I hope to be returning to it soon.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Because I know so very little about vampire mythology, I've been reading several books about those blood suckers.  I think what makes my story different is that it hasn't been told, at least not from what I've read.  And yes I know, there are a lot of books about vampires.  I don't have the time or inclination to read them all.  But it seems that a lot of vampire stories focus on sex, power, youth and beauty, which is kind of like what we're already saturated with in real life.  My story takes a look at what happens to a woman who is perpetually stuck at an age that renders her invisible and unimportant, at least in American culture.

In the genre of nonfiction, I don't know how different I am as far as the writing, but I do know there is only one Pamela Skjolsvik and nobody has lived my story.  One of my strengths as a writer is voice.  I am what I am and that's all that I am.  I'm Pam.  I'm attracted to a lot of stuff that people fear, but I present it in a Mary Poppins, spoon full of sugar (humorous) kind of way.

Why do I write what I do?

Let's see.  I write what I know and if I don't know, I go find out about it.  I enjoy that process. It gives me permission in my head to go live or something.  If I have my writer hat on, I can go talk to someone in prison or follow a hospice nurse around or ride along with EMTs.  Pam without the writer hat would not do that.

I'm lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) in that I've had a fairly odd life filled with a fair amount of trauma and unusual characters, so it's been fairly easy to write what I know.  With death, it was a BIG I don't know.  I didn't have much experience, so I did my research and found out about it.

Why vampires?  Well, death, or at least the realization that our lives will end at some point is usually what inspires people to live their life to the fullest.  So what happens to a person who can't die and is stuck at an undesirable age?  How do they get up in the morning?  What motivates them?  I want to find out.

How does my writing process work?

I do a lot of writing while driving and washing dishes.  It's all in my head, of course.  And then when I've got things sorted out, I sit my booty in a chair and verbally vomit it out onto the blank page.  Then I take those pages to my

writers' group

and read them out loud.  That is probably the most important step for me and it's not the feedback so much as hearing the words out loud and the group's reaction to them.  Like a 12 step meeting, I take what I like and leave the rest.  I've learned you can't be too attached to what is on the page.  Kill your darlings and all that.

Then, I go home, I look at my scribbled feedback and I make those changes immediately while they're still fresh.  Then I let it sit for a day or two and come back to it.  It's a long damn process.  I'm lucky that I always have dishes in the sink and I do a lot of driving.

I am not going to tag anyone.  I figure most of the people I know and follow have already done this and if they haven't, they are welcome to say I tagged them.

Have a great week!