10,000 Hours

Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, claims that ‘geniuses’ like Mozart were not simply handed their genius status at birth, but in fact, worked really hard to achieve their status. Gladwell claims you have to spend 10,000 hours at something to become truly good at it, which is what happened in cases such as The Beatles, Mozart, and Bill Gates.

If you consider this theory, it could explain why there are no real ‘sudden’ writing geniuses. For example, the ‘geniuses’ who have burst onto the publishing scene with stellar first novels, aren’t an actual sudden success. They have worked long and hard to become this overnight success. In fact, it is rare for these ‘amazing first novels’ to be a true ‘first’ novel. Generally it is simply their first published novel. The writer has, in reality, been working at their talent for years and years and often have a stack of discarded manuscripts and accompanying rejection letters to prove it.

Let’s say you decide to put in your 10,000 hours. How long will that take?

At one hour a day, five days a week = 260 hours a year. 38.46 years. Gulp.
At three hours a day, five days a week = 780 hours a year. 12.8 years. That’s still a lot.
At eight hours a day, five days a week (remember, no holidays) = 2080 hours. 4.8 years.

Yowzers, it’s hard to get in those 10,000 hours, isn’t it? You have to live it, breathe it.

I’ve been writing for 2 ½ years and I can see the difference that time has made in my skills. Over time, they have improved dramatically. But, have I put in 10,000 hours yet? Not likely! In the past 912 days (2 ½ years), I know I haven’t put in 76.3 hours a week to make 10,000 hours. Say you put in your 10,000 hours, then are you a genius? I would argue, not necessarily. Look around a typical office. Is the guy who has placed himself at his desk day after day for the past ten years further ahead than that newer guy who lives and breathes his work? You know, the one who jumps at every chance to go to a conference, who reads work magazines and puts intention behind his professional growth?

Although I am not drawing in on 10,000 hours as of yet, I would say the hours I’ve put in thus far have been full of intention. When I sit down at my laptop, it is with the intention of learning something new, of adding onto my skill set. There is an unreal amount to learn as a writer. HUGE amounts. It isn’t simply about plot and grammar, there is the business aspect and the personal growth. Challenging yourself. Building on your strengths, working on your weaknesses. If you aren’t spending your hours with intention, how far do you really expect to go?

In the past two years, I have sat down at my laptop and read agent blogs, editor blogs, publisher blogs, joined online communities, participated in online chats with authors and agents. Made friends, critiqued the work of others, had my own critiqued. Mulled over tons of advice and integrated it and shared it. I have reworked a 300-word document over 60 times, each time bringing something different and new. I’ve written five manuscripts, each time getting better and better. Stronger, more succinct. I learn a new word everyday to build my vocabulary. I read books on writing, I’ve attended workshops and taken classes. I look up grammar rules when I’m in doubt. I’ve built two blogs and a website. Even when I read for pleasure, I am working on my writing, seeing how the author has slowed the pace, described something, built a character or plot. How they made me laugh. Their sentence structure. It’s all there. Intention.

I might be only half way to 10,000 hours, but imagine what I can learn in the next 6,000 if the first 4,000 are any indicator.

I can hardly wait.

Fantastic Chat with Literary Agent Jamie Brenner

Last night literary agent Jamie Brenner replied to close to 40 questions over on AQ. There were 60 members from all across the world popping in and out of the chat. Whew! It was a busy place.

And what did I learn? A brief synopsis is anywhere from two paragraphs to two pages. Women’s Fiction can be considered to cover Chick Lit, Hen Lit, Granny Lit and the like. Agents don’t really like writers who’ve gone and self-published, they prefer a ‘fresh’ face and a ‘true’ debut writer. There are tons of great nuggets including word count and specific writing tips over in the transcripts. You will have to be a member to read them, but seeing as membership is free, what is there to lose?

There is a chat with author Tommy Newberry over on The Knight Agency website tonight.  I think I’ll check that one out too.

Enjoy!

Literary Agent Chat Tonight With Jamie Brenner

Welcome literary agent Jamie Brenner!

Jamie is a literary agent at Artists and Artisans Inc. in New York and will be chatting with AQ members on Agent Query tonight at 8 PM Eastern. If you are not a member, you can join for free.

Jamie has been involved in the world of publishing for the past ten years. She has been involved in literary publicity at HarperCollins, editing YA at BarnesandNoble.com, and scouting books and manuscripts for major film companies. She is now a literary agent and editor of the fabulous website Girl Meets Book. Talk about a list of fun jobs!

Jamie is currently looking for thrillers, commercial and women’s fiction, literary fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction and books about pop culture/entertainment, but is eagerly seeking YA fiction and women’s fiction. If you are interested in submissions, check out the agency’s submission page.

I’ll be serving as chat moderator tonight, so come stop by and say hello to Jamie.

Cupboards

Ugh.

At least it the wind isn’t exfoliating our roof for us today. (Blowing the shingles to Saskatchewan.)

I came home after a few hours out and about to find that one of my cupboard doors wouldn’t stay closed. I fiddled with it before realising that my Mixmaster was in the way. Hmm. The top seems to be off the stand. Weird. I’m pretty sure my husband wasn’t secretly mixing something last night–or this morning before he left for work shortly after 6 AM.

So, I reach in and begin moving the mix master around before I eventually realise that the top shelf has broken at the back, tipping down and breaking my mix master. That is why the top was relocated to the front of the cupboard, pushing on the door.

So, now I have dishes and appliances strewn over the floor. (Miraculously, my vases are all okay.) If I had half a brain cell, I could fix the shelf. But I don’t. So I won’t. I’m pretty sure I will just shove all that sh*t back in the cupboard and enjoy my denial for the next six months–that’s about when my hubby will realise that the cupboard is broken. Although, he never discovered that I broke the cutlery tray in the dishwasher and that was close to a year ago now….

If I had to pick one thing to break in that cupboard, the Mixmaster would have been my choice. Why you ask? Well, because I already broke it. Sort of. My mom was right when she told me as a child, “Don’t let the wooden spoon get too close to the beaters.” You can guess why. I did bend the beaters back fairly well, but the thing still jitters and bangs a bit. Despite having a heavy, platter laden shelf land on it, the Mixmaster still works. It is just a really, really heavy hand-held one now. Its stand was shattered. Impressive, really. Any guesses on what decade the Mixmaster was made in? Not this one! And the shelf, why yes, it was built in this decade. That is why it is a piece of sh*t that can’t hold up some god damned dishes.

Anyway, after that disaster my daughter began to realise that ‘her’ cat was missing (and yes, it meowed at her last night around midnight). We called the cat and could hear a muffled mew here and there. But no cat. Eventually I found her in with the placemats. She had only been in there for about three hours. I’m sure we would have found her sooner if we hadn’t accidentally shown up at the closed library an hour early for story time.

It all worked out okay. We went out for coffee and paid the mortgage while the cat curled up on the placemats. The cat is fine. We’re fine. I am reloading my caffeine supplies, because let’s face it, it’s only a touch past noon and today ain’t shaping up so great.

At least the car doors weren’t all frozen shut today. But it is snowing and the metal part on my snow shovel is worn out it is breaking off and dragging around. Is that sad that I’ve worn out a snow shovel? Oh, well, it’s okay. The next one I buy will definitely break before it wears out. Why? Because everything is built crappy these days. For example, the VCR I bought at a garage sale in university is finally wearing out. The DVD player we bought, what three years ago?, is close to toast.

I throw up my hands. Take me back to the eighties when they used to know how to make sh*t. Sure, it was heavy as hell, but it didn’t break all the figgin’ time.

I think I need more coffee. Or maybe I need less. I’m not sure which.

A Day in the Life: Aspiring Writer and Stay-at-Home Mom (Part 3)

In honour of reading Water Cooler Diaries: Women Across America Share Their Day at Work, I’m sharing my day at work. Missed part 1 and part 2? Click on the links to catch it all.

Enjoy!

3:15 p.m. Get a chance to catch up with some of the moms while waiting for our children to be dismissed.

4:00 p.m. Home from the grocery store. Unload car. Unpack groceries. Repack warehouse-sized meat. The freezer looks like I’m preparing for an apocalypse. Lock retarded cat in the laundry room where the freezer is. She always sneaks in and hides behind the dryer and won’t come out despite my ‘get out’ actions. I’ll retrieve her later when she realizes what’s up. I saved well over $50 on discounts and sales shopping the two discount days. Plus, I have gifts for kid birthday parties. Who can say no to Barbies being blown out for $2.44? Stock up!

4:25 p.m. Everything put away, school backpack emptied. I think my daughter is growing, her big snack is almost all gone. Yesterday she got through it all and was hungry when I picked her up. She went through the car snacks and was still hungry! The Grumpies is the next stage, probably in a day or two and she won’t be hungry. She’s burning up energy on the Wii as I get everything put away and organized.

Check email. Comments on query from a friend—too many details in query. I know, I know.… Discussion on memoirs going on at AQ…put in my 20 cents worth.

4:35 p.m. Try to figure out how much time I have before making tacos for supper. I think I have a few minutes to tuck into some edits while my daughter pounds it out on the Wii. Some days she doesn’t want to play or get much attention. Yesterday was a mucho attention day and today the opposite. I mean, we haven’t even played Barbies yet! I think I’d better take advantage of it and do some work.

Realize I haven’t looked through the draft of my will. We have an appointment to sign them tomorrow. I look through and find a few errors in mine which I highlight. Also a lot of grammar errors. Should I be concerned? I have finally put down all my passwords in a safe place so husband can find them—just in case. Also need to make a list of investments, etc. We need to get a safety deposit box. So many things to do in order to be ‘prepared’.

5:04 p.m. Time to start supper.

5:25 p.m. Leave meat to do its ‘get tasty’ thing and log into Facebook. I realized the friend request I made to a literary agent’s Facebook blog may have gone through. I’m not big into Facebook, and often forget to log in and check things out for weeks at a time. I see befriending the agent as another way to get my name ‘out there’. It’s a slow build and the more I do before my book gets published, the further ahead I am—I think. My daughter and I have a discussion about Disneyland. One day, one day.

5:29 p.m. I am a ‘friend’ of an agent now. I feel so special. Tee, hee. Too bad she rejected me last year. She did give me some good advice—which I followed—in her brief reject. I’m a much better writer now than I was then. She is the last agent I queried—over a year ago as I realized I had to learn more. I think I might be ready now.

5:30 p.m. Hubby called. He’s going to be late. Between him and his carpool buddy, they have some pick ups to do before and after their half-hour commute. I think we’ll go ahead and eat tacos without him—when they are ready.

5:49 p.m. My helper and I sit down to tacos since they are ready and we know hubby will be at least another half hour. Something smells hot and I don’t know what it is.

6:05 p.m. We’re done. Begin clean up—what I can without interfering with hubby’s supper whenever he gets home. He puts in some long days, working at least an hour before he leaves in the mornings. I don’t think his carpool buddy lets him unwind very often. It’s all about the business!

6:13 p.m. Third time I’ve turned on the radio and Jack Johnson playing (today). Hubby home! Kisses. Now wearing medicated lip crap.

After I do dishes, I sit and talk to hubby while he eats. Our daughter runs around back and forth, back and forth, back and forth….

6:29 p.m. I tidy up and whatnot before going to book club meeting. We meet once a month. Tonight’s selection is The Glass Castle. I really, really liked it and am eager to hear what others thought. We will meet in the library and probably close the place again. I missed the last meeting because of a school Christmas concert.

6:50 p.m. I’m out the door and on my way. I get there a few minutes early. The book club is wonderful. I love it. Piles of intelligent people with lots to say. I can’t stop smiling I’m having such a good time. Some people felt the story was really out there and unreal and had trouble identifying with it. I took that book in my heart. I identified, especially once I could see others I knew, or myself in the story. I highly recommend it. Diversado by Michael Ondaatje is lined up for February and The Thirteenth Tale for March. I can’t wait. I already have Diversado and will have to interlibrary loan the other. I’m currently reading about 5 books, so I’ll have to finish some up before I move on to Diversado. I tried to think of something half-new that I could recommend as a selection, but I’m a few years behind everyone else, or so it seems.

8:40 p.m. Arrive home. Husband is reading Robert Munsch to our daughter.

8:50 p.m. Daughter tucked away for the night. Another late one, I wonder how late she’ll sleep in the a.m. Usually she’s up between 6 and 7 and comes to get me up.

Catch up on email and agent blogs.

9:03 p.m. I can’t decide whether to do some edits or go to bed and read. It’s been a day all about comments on my query and feels as though I haven’t done any real work—even though the feedback is an important step in improving.

9:13 p.m. Play around on the internet after realizing I wandered off and didn’t finish checking my RSS feeds. Whatever did I do before them? My husband has called it a night. I will follow so I get my snuggles. Why does he have to wake up at 5am? Why can’t he stay up later? I bet he won’t even let me read my pile of books. It’s been a good day.

9:33 p.m. I turn out the light and I start talking. Hubby just wants to fall asleep and not listen to me, I can tell. But I keep talking anyway.

10:00ish p.m. I can’t sleep. I thought of an idea for a gal’s piece she’s posted on AQ. It has to do with something I read in a James Frey book on character empathy and sympathy. I also get a HUGE idea on how to use something I wrote years ago. I’m pumped! I’ll make a blog and give it away! I’m still not 100% sure how I’ll go about it. There are so many different ways. If I’m going to give it away, I want it to be worth something to my reader. It’s all I can do to stay in bed and not get up and go back to work on these new ideas. If I get out of bed, the morning will be rough. Instead I try to relax so I’ll fall asleep.

74 emails came in today. 10 of them were email posts of the discussions going on in regards to my query thread on AQ. No wonder it feels like I didn’t get any ‘real’ writing work in.

A Day In the Life: Aspiring Writer and Stay-at-Home Mom (Part 2)

In honour of my book review of Water Cooler Diaries: Women Across America Share Their Day at Work, I am sharing my day at work from January 6th, 2009. Part 1 can be found here.

Enjoy!

12:10 p.m. We’re running out of time. My daughter is going to need a burst of speed.

12:21 p.m. We get to school at the same time as five of my daughter’s classmates. Everyone looks relieved that they aren’t the last ones to arrive. Daughter manages to tie her shoes in record time and isn’t late.

12:35 p.m. Home again. Shovel walk of inch of snow that fell as well as the neighbour’s walk. Still hungry despite our ‘leftover’ lunch. Grab a snack. Discover new plates get REALLY hot in the microwave.

12:45 p.m. Work on query. Look at comments. Look at Query. Repeat. Can’t make myself change much. I feel good about this version and don’t want to standardize my hook. Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn’t. I email it off to a published writer who gives great advice in hopes that she has time to look at this latest version. I trust her more than most when it comes to this sort of thing. The fact that most of the comments are in regards to standardizing the letter and the removal of the last paragraph of details, I know I am getting close to a query that makes sense. Either that or everyone is too scared to rip it shreds. That’s one problem with everyone knowing me, I’m afraid they won’t be brutal and honest. I want you to rip it shreds! How else am I going to improve? Bring it on!

1:08 p.m. I check my email, most of it are email versions of the things I’ve posted or already read on AQ. I’ve learned I get more comments and feedback if I reply to the comments on things I’ve posted for critiques. Time to get off the couch and go outside for a cross-country ski. Hopefully yesterday’s trail that I made through the park beside the house which stretches over to a field out back will be useable.

Brr. Arms cold through sweater—quickly remedied by some movement. Across the fields and highway, it looks like one of two tall blue silos is on fire. I can see flames and smoke from this distance. Silos can’t burn can they? They are made of cement and metal. Hmmm. I make my way around the circle I’ve made in the field. In some places I can glide nicely. Mostly I plod through the extra snow that’s landed on my trail. I try to meditate and clear my mind but today it won’t clear. I keep thinking. By the time I’ve made my circuit in the gorgeous lightly falling snow, I can’t see flames at the silos, but the plume of dark grey smoke goes straight up in the windless air. Dark grey against pale greyish white sky, a slight question mark shape where the smoke met a wind current hundreds of feet above ground.

1:43 p.m. Check email. There is a reply already from my hero. She likes it, she likes it!! Too much detail, but she likes my tone and the beginning. I’m keeping it. Yes! See me pump my fist in the air and dance around the living room. Jack Johnson is the hero of my story’s main character. Whenever I feel as though I am losing hope, he comes on the radio. Is that cool, or what? It tells me this can happen. Yes! There’s a lot of new agent info in the Publishers Lunch email which I’ll post on AQ. It’s helpful for everyone and is a nice place to put all that updated info—which will come in handy in the weeks ahead as I research agents to query with my fabulous letter. ? Send off a thank you to the writer who sent me good words.

1:56 p.m. Make a cup of tea and sit down with manuscript to make some minor edits on paper. Then into the computer in the next few days so it is spit and polished and as perfect as I can make it before querying. Maybe put on someone like Frank Sinatra (Franks ‘n’ Nachos as my daughter calls him) or Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Armstrong. Or maybe Jack Johnson. They are nice to listen to while editing as they don’t interrupt. A little different than P!nk. She’s an interrupter!

1:58 p.m. Come to think of it, I haven’t heard back from Nelson on that book PDF they were going to send. I made other comments in my email request and confused them and never got my PDF. I love being a blog book reviewer for them. Free books! (I’m such a sucker!)

1:59 p.m. This time, I’m really off to edit. Really. Not procrastinating. Noooo. Not me. Better check email once first. Okay, must push off and edit. Where’s my pen?

2:09 p.m. I have less than an hour left and I’ve only gotten through one page. I need to speed things up. I get up off the carpet that needs vacuuming and move to the big table where I can spread out as well as drink my tea.

3:00 p.m. Got through 16 pages. Slow, but I found lots of ‘my’s that could be removed or altered. The story is first person, present tense. I found myself laughing at my main character a few times. I hope I make others laugh too. Now it’s time to go pick up my daughter. She could take the school bus home, but that’ll wait until next year. Usually I stay downtown and work in the library while she’s at school. Or when it’s not winter, I pull her there in the bike trailer to save gas. It feels wasteful to drive out to the school two times a day, four days a week. It’s not far, but it is wear and tear and gas. After I pick her up, we’ll return movies to the library and go to Sobey’s. It’s their discount day today and we’ll stock up on fresh vegetables and meat. Yesterday we hit Extra Foods for their discount day, but their meat and vegetables aren’t so great. It’s stopped snowing again. Now I have a thin layer of ‘slippery’ on the sidewalk where I shovelled. Tomorrow is supposed to be REALLY nice, so I think it’ll be okay. The weather has been all over the map lately.

3: 04 p.m. 11 emails came in while I was editing. Might do a quick scan of them before heading out. I like to be early enough I can chat with other moms and make sure my daughter doesn’t feel that I’ve forgotten her. It’s also easier to find parking if I come a bit early.

3:08 p.m. Dad called to talk about skiing. But must get out the door! She’s dismissed just before 3:20.

To be continued….

A Day in the Life: Aspiring Writer and Stay-at-Home Mom (Part 1)

In honour of yesterday’s book review of Water Cooler Diaries: Women Across America Share Their Day at Work, I am going to share a ‘day in the life’ diary I wrote for January 6th of this year. Since it is kind of long, I’ll break it into several posts. Here’s the first bit.

Enjoy!
6:50 a.m. Husband wakes me up to say goodbye. His carpool buddy will be here soon. They are leaving at ‘7:00 a.m. Oram Time’.

7:25 a.m. Wake up again. My daughter will likely wake up soon. Usually she gets up early, but yesterday was the first day back at school after Christmas holidays and school wears her out.

7:30 a.m. Daughter’s up. I do stretches and she goes to the TV room to watch CBC cartoons. No cable/satellite here. I feed the cats who try to convince me they’re starving. I sit with on the futon and watch cartoons for a few minutes. I ask my daughter if she’s hungry. She’s says, “not really.” I figure she’ll come and ask for breakfast once Animal Mechanical is over. Which she does. I take my big bowl of yogurt and join her at the table. (I thought we had more granola, but the cupboard is bare in that regard. Make a Costco list.)

8:30 a.m. Load dishwasher. My daughter wants to play Barbie games on the Barbie website on her dad’s laptop. She’s in a quiet, play by herself mood today. I help her get logged on and to the site. She’s getting good at navigating and finding new games. I had her on the CBC site but she switched to Barbie on her own. I go back to my own laptop. Finish reading email. Check out comments from friends and newbies on Agent Query site. I posted my latest query on there yesterday for a critique. There are some new comments, so I reply and take their ideas into account. I’ve got too many details in this version of the query. They don’t like my ‘hook’. However, I like it and a published writer liked it. It seems that we are alone. Make comments on other’s first pages, etc. I hope I wasn’t too discouraging with a newbie. I can see the potential and told her that. She just needs more ‘oompf’ and she is so close. My mom emails for some advice. I give her my usual blunt, straight forward brand of advice.

8:55 a.m. It’s snowing!

9:00 a.m. Help my daughter with her CD player so she can get to French ‘Jingle Bells’ and then I jump in the shower.

9:19 a.m. Hungry. Yogurt without granola just doesn’t cut it. Must. Find. More. Food.

9:21 a.m. I have book club tonight so I put in some effort and blow dry my hair. However, the chances are that I’ll go cross-country skiing later and the toque will wreck my efforts. At least I tried. Check out the Barbie my daughter made on the website. (I think she is addicted.)

9:27 a.m. Word of the day courtesy of dictionary.com is ‘beleaguer’. I thought it meant to be worn out in an overwhelmed sort of fashion. Turns out it means “to surround with troops; besiege” 2. “to surround or beset” How can that be? Have I been wrong all this time or are there two meanings? I looked it up. I can also mean to surround with troubles. That makes sense.

9:37 a.m. Have a snack and make a cup of tea. Decide we need to write our Christmas thank yous as it is already a few weeks after Christmas. We’ve thanked a couple of people, but there is more to do.

9:50 a.m. We’re still getting organized to write thank yous. I had two more books come in the mail yesterday. One for reviewing on my blog. Yesterday I declined a writer who sent a bulk email asking to review his short stories. I feel bad, but know I couldn’t give it a fair shake as short stories aren’t my focus at the moment. We are in serious need of bookshelves. I think I need a shelf or two just for our ‘to be read piles’. Could life be any better?

9:53 a.m. My daughter is dressed and just about ready to make a few drawings to go in the thank you notes.

9:58 a.m. I realize I only have two thank you cards. Hmmm. My daughter has decided to draw her butterfly Barbie (Mariposa) and has set her up to be her model. Searched for cards and have come up short. We’ll see how far we get without cards.

10:12 a.m. I realize I forgot to tell my grandma I’d mailed her an after-Christmas package. Called and left a message. It had her thank you in it and a coffee cup that we made her with pictures of her cottage and ‘Nana’ on it. Still working on thank yous. Found a way around the lack of notes. Check my email. A thank you posted on AQ from someone for comments I made on their query and a bit of commiserating. Also an email from Publishers Lunch. Back to thank yous. Look up brother’s new address in my email. It hadn’t made to my address book yet. Write it in pen before realizing I’ll probably be erasing it in a few months and putting in a new one. He’s as bad as I was when I was in university for moving all the time.

10:20 a.m. It’s still snowing.

10:25 a.m. My daughter is still making her first drawing. She has 5 left to go. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all. I forgot the care she takes with a drawing these days. They are pretty fabulous. I think she just did the math too. We are in negotiations. Solution met. One drawing a day and they don’t have to be fancy. We’ll see how this all pans out. I want drawing to remain fun.

10:31 a.m. Drawing complete! False alarm. More colour needed.

10:33 a.m. Realize I don’t have the in-laws new address in my book. Search my email. Look for Christmas letter.

10:36 a.m. The drawing is complete. Back to Barbie website. I can mail one thank you. Better than nothing!

10:38 a.m. Email the in-laws for address. See an email from Authonomy. Decide to check out their blog.

10:44 a.m. Blog wasn’t much help in terms of new info. Jumped over to AQ and replied to a comment as well as contacted another member who mentioned she’d comment on my query once it was up. Was going to tweak my query in regards to some feedback, but just realized I haven’t posted my blog entry for today. I’m in the middle of a one week stretch of posting writing exercises. I only have about 45 minutes until I have to make lunch, etc. and I have a feeling that this post will take some time.

10:50 a.m. I can’t find the discussion thread I wanted to reference in my blog in regards to the word ‘suddenly’. Frustrated. Thought I could check my deleted emails to see if anything triggers. Have 3069 deleted messages. Somehow I’m thinking this won’t help. Didn’t I just clean that out last month?

11:02 a.m. Solved some of my daughter’s playing ‘crises’. Also found the quote and thread I was looking for. Thank goodness for search functions.

11:22 a.m. The blog entry is done and posted. The actual writing took less time than finding the quote I wanted. Time for a little tidy up before making lunch. Dishwasher is done its work. Gotta love that!

11:41 a.m. My daughter’s snack is made and in her bag. Time to make lunch. Remember to put daughter’s school photos in the thank you envelopes.

11:58 a.m. My daughter is a nut! Excited to be going to school. Still snowing! Read more emails that came in. All from AQ. Log in and make some quick comments while daughter finishes her lunch and gets ready for school. Realized still logged in and there is a request for another pass over of someone else’s work. I’m pleased to see the usual gang has come out to talk about my query as well as a few new faces. The different POVs are great. It seems agreed that although my use of ‘beau’ in the query to agents is dated, it is quirky enough to work with my main character, storyline and query. I’m about ready to send that bad boy out. A few more tweaks–hopefully today.

Stay tuned, more coming tomorrow!

Book Review: Water Cooler Diaries: Women Across America Share Their Day at Work

Book Review: Water Cooler Diaries: Women Across America Share Their Day at Work
Edited by Joni B. Cole and B.K. Rakhra

‘Water Cooler Diaries’ is a collection of ‘day in the life’ diaries all written on March 27th, 2007 by different women. The editors’ goal: “was to gather a true diversity of women’s working lives by reaching across experiential, socio-economic, cultural, and geographical boundaries.” I’d say they achieved that goal.

The 35 diaries are broken down into times of day and cover a 24 hour span of time, making it an easy book to read on the go. They have all sorts of interesting people ranging from race car drivers to literary agents (Yes! They have Tina Wexler of ICM) to trauma surgeons to office workers to boxing promoters to Avon ladies to…you get the idea. Some themes I noticed: a lot of the women didn’t eat properly. They either ate not enough, went for junk, ate on the go, ate really late or even <gasp!> not at all! Whether it is connected or not, many women also seemed to be on a diet, a member of Curves or Weight Watchers and/or made some unhappy comments about their body. Plus there seemed to be a lot of Red Bull being consumed! Yikes! And seeing as it was a day that American Idol was aired, I’d say probably 1/4 of the readers watched American Idol. I’ve never done any of the above, so it was an interesting insight into the average American woman.

From a writer’s standpoint, the book is a goldmine of sneak peaks into different occupations, backgrounds, mindsets and voices. Although the diaries only cover one day, you do get a sense of who the person is and what they normally accomplish/deal with in a typical workday. As a bonus, there are more diary excerpts on the site www.my247life.com.

Enjoy!

Want to pick it up?
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