writing thru the holidays

Hi everyone! 

Hope your holidays are going well! I'm tired, but happy. Gave a lot of photo books to family of the summer when we got together and that seemed to go over really well . . . yay! And apparently they want more photos because one of my gifts was a lovely little Canon Powershot S95. I'm happy to keep taking them (it's relaxing, like knitting) so that's great. 

[Sidenote: I've just tested that camera. Here's me standing over the battery charging for the first time: Please hurry, please, please HURRY... This little camera takes Fab-u-lous photos. I'll post some later. What a step up for me. I may never get one of this big, clunky SLRs ever . . . Finally I can do low light. Excited!]

I'm writing over the holidays. There's a couple of reasons for this: I get grumpy when I don't write something. And I'm under an editorial deadline. 

I've got theories about why the editorial deadline always seems to fall so I write over the holidays, but theories is about all I've got. This is only the third book I've published. I doubt if I should pontificate my theories when I've never seen an editorial office.

There. I've said it. 

But I used to work as a secretary so I know offices. And an editor works in Manhattan. This equals small, and crowded with books and papers, right? And I've seen Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery. You know the one where he plays an editor who has a tiny, tiny office and his writer (played by Angelica Huston) tries to teach him how to gamble. Funny scene. Highly recommend.

But anyway, anyway, anyway . . .  My theory on the editorial-holiday writing situation is this: That for editors December is a break between lists -- the fall and spring -- and so editors take December off. Which means, they send out editorial letters in November as they clear their desks for their December. 

That's what I imagine happens . . . Or I just have a subconscious desire to work during the holidays and keep my plate full. I'm not ruling that out either...

Anyone want to share tips for writing during the holidays? Here's my strategy: 

• I try to count on lost time (mostly so I don't feel disappointed with myself). 
• I plan the days I won't work: Dec 25, travel days, and days to unpack and do laundry. 
• In addition, I try to be extra-diligent about my working during the holidays. 
• If I'm around family and staying in a house that's not my own, I set an alarm, get up early and march off to the nearest coffee shop. At the coffee shop I set a timer for four hours and I write. 
• If I'm not around family, I try to simply be diligent and not do holiday fun stuff and chores until after I've done my work. 
• I try not to do OTHER chores, so I can enjoy family while I've got them!

How do you guys work during the holidays? Any tricks? Please share -- I may snag them for myself! 

Also: Favorite writing movies? 

OH! And here's a video of what I do when I'm not writing:   

Yay!

Amy

Progress & photos from the cabin...

I've just returned from time in northern Wisconsin with my mom, and it was wonderful -- both relationally AND in terms of my work.  

In the past, whenever I've travelled I've lost a lot of work time, but this time I was dedicated.  I got up at 6am EVERY morning and drove to the coffee shop. I sat there until 12P-1P and worked. By the time I returned to the cabin I was ready to do other things and I truly enjoyed myself. I did not feel rested when I returned to Chicago, but that's because I was still working. It wasn't a vacation. But it WAS a time with family. 

What I wonder is why it took me so long to do this sort of thing so deliberately.   

Here are some photos of the cabin area. There's 125 photos, but hey, dip your toes in! Wisconsin is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! Every day a new sunrise and sunset on the lake -- every one different, just like snowflakes.  

Wormser Friday: Poetry and Loss

Loved this quote from poet Baron Wormser: 

...poetry and loss -- no transience, no poetry -- if everything were permanent, we wouldn't have poetry.

-- from "A Conversation with Baron Wormser," in The Writer's Chronicle, March/April 2009

[He also has a book that sounds right up my alley: The Road Washes Out in Spring: A Poet's Memoir of Living Off the Grid.]

Promotion idea for the taking...

Last Saturday I was listening to the rock and roll show, Sound Opinions and they mentioned how some musicians (like Prince) are giving away their CDs at their concerts.  So you get a free CD with your ticket. Some musicians are doing even more -- they're giving away their entire backlist.  

My question: Would something like this work for authors? What if three authors hosted a ticketed event and everyone who bought a ticket got the books of all three authors for free? One of the authors would have to be someone who draws a crowd, but the other two could be up-and-comers.  $10 and you get to hear the authors read, you get all three of their books (maybe paperbacks) and the authors sign the books too.

I guess what this does is help launch people who are relatively unknown. You'd be pairing a name with 2 unknowns. 

The bigger question: How would you get the publishers to agree to it? But that aside, what do you think? Would it work?