A Story's a Story, in Book or Movie

Today I'm interviewed over on writer Weronika Janczuk's blog. Not about books, but about the PBS movie I've been slaving over helping with. And, yes, working on movies is related to books - a story's a story, whether you're telling it in print or on screen. I'll even quote myself:

I learned in newspaper writing to never bury the lead: to start off with your strongest moment, to pull the reader into the story. This is also true for fiction, and for documentary filmmaking as well.

And I'll point out that Weronika has offered to critique every query and first 10 pages sent to in specific time frames on March 2. Check it out.

Finding a Nicer Way to Say "No, You're Not Ready"

I've done it again - told another writer the equivalent of No! Stop! You aren't anywhere near ready to query yet!

Because he isn't.

Actually I emailed him You're not ready for an agent. The book has to be COMPLETELY polished and finished and just about ready for publication. Which even I recognize is rather blunt. But I'd just emailed a critique of his novel's early chapters, which in very nice terms said the equivalent of You're on the right track but you need to rewrite most of it and drop about every fourth word. So I reacted with a bit of alarm and not much diplomacy when he asked if he should go ahead and look for interested agents.

And I've found in the past that people can find the "you're not ready" message very insulting and hurtful. So I have to learn a nicer way to say it.

Note: And perhaps I'm more protective of this writer as he's still in high school.

Hasn't Every Writer Had a Conversation Like This?

I've watched this more than once, and laugh at it every time.

The Girlfriend's Guide to Understanding Men

I met Bo Sebastian at the now defunct Nashville Writers Group. I was a little standoffish at first - he says he thought I hated him - but I'd recently had problems with a couple of writer stalkers, so at that point I was wary of anyone new. But we bonded over the use of the subjunctive tense (how can you not love a guy who understands the subjunctive?) I edited some of his manuscripts; he gave me yoga lessons. And he became one of my dearest friends, and helped me through some very rough times. I saw part of an early version of this book, and was surprised at the time that it hadn't been sold. And now it has.

You can purchase The Girlfriend's Guide to Understanding Men from bookstores or from Amazon.

Bo, you rock. And a huge congratulations to a very talented guy.

Note: I'll put the book trailer back up when it's live again.

The Perfect Writer's Saturday Morning

Roll out of bed and enter the hand-edits on the final three chapters of your novel that you reviewed the night before, just in time for a phone call with another writer where you read the final chapter aloud and revise wording (and slash the verbose bits, some even before the words leave your mouth, because as you read ahead you can see the words don't fit).

And then you rush off to a Michael Connelly event, where you introduce yourself briefly to him beforehand and are astounded afterward when he remembers you mentioned you have a book coming out next year, asks the title, and personalizes the inscription in his book you just bought.

And then you come back to the house, where the dogs greet you effusively, and find an email from another writer (this one you've never met in person and has an androgynous first name, so you aren't even sure of gender) whose query you trashed so thoroughly the night before that it was barely readable through strike-outs, insertions, and comments, and you are heartened to see that not only is this writer still speaking to you (the default rate is about 50-50 so far; one writer I told she had to ditch the entire last half of her novel - astoundingly, she's still my friend) but has listened, and has produced a new query that is 90% there.

And then you eat lunch outside, because the sun is shining, and you get back to work on your almost-done chapters, and you have a just-purchased Michael Connelly book to be read when you have time.

And life is good. Very good.

"The Driving Rules (Because Life Goes On)"

This is such a wonderful post from my friend Vodka Mom (who has a great blog) that I'm reposting it here in its entirety: four simple steps so that you (and your child) survive your teenager's driving years - and if she can get her kids to follow them, so can you.

We've had many close calls, scares, and a tragic ending involving cars and our family. My sister's precious son was lost after a tragic, tragic car accident one snowy evening in New England.

As a consequence, I am even more vigilant and CRAZY when cars and my teenage girls (and their friends) are involved.

However, in my own dear sister's words, life DOES go on. The sun comes up, people go to work, meals need made and children need nurtured. We survive our shocking realities and soldier forward.

Bitchy was just seventeen when we lost her dear cousin. They were the same age, and it took me some time to feel comfortable sending her off at night in the car - on her own. As a result of many sleepless nights, we came up with a plan.

Whenever she went to a friend's house (which is simply PART of a teenage girl's life) I always had her do four things.

1. She had to call me when she arrived at her destination.
2. She had to take a picture on her phone of where she was and send it to me on MY phone.
3. She had to hand the parents at said house the keys to her (and when I say her I really mean MY) car.
4. Said parent had to call me from their landline to tell me the keys were in hand.

These simple rules (rituals) helped us make baby steps toward recovery. And now that Sassy is doing the same thing (without questioning why) we are all sleeping a tad bit better at night.

Even if it is with a still-aching heart.

Why to Join a Writers Group

Because there you meet people like Meg Clayton and her husband, Mac. Who were greatly encouraging at my efforts to write my first novel, and Mac got me to the end of that first draft - we met weekly and exchanged chapters, and I wasn't going to show up without a chapter.

They moved away; I moved away; Meg sold her first novel.

Then Meg suggested I send my novel to her agent.

So I did.

That agent made great comments, and asked to see it after a rewrite, which galvanized me to try to fix it. And this agent represented Laurie R. King, so when Laurie King had a book signing near me, I went, and Laurie King said to me, You should go to Bouchercon.

So I did.

There I met Michael Robotham, whose books I'd just discovered, and when I was near his town later we met for lunch, and he told me I needed to change the title of my novel, which I was rewriting at the time.

So I did.

Then Meg told me I should apply to Squaw Valley Writers Conference, which both she and Mac and another friend of ours, Brenda VanTrease, had attended.

So I did.

And an agent there said he loved my book and wanted to see it when finished (by then I knew it needed still another rewrite).

So I rewrote it, and got an agent, who sold it, along with a sequel.

And that is why you join a writer's group

How One Gets Down A Steep Icy Southern Driveway

One doesn't. One finds an alternate route.

Of Carnival Kings and Ladies Fry Pan Tosses

How can you not love a newspaper that reports

On Saturday afternoon, less than 24 hours after receiving his crown, Winter Carnival King Frank Camelo injured his ankle in a fall in Riverside Park shortly after attending the Ladies Fry Pan Toss.

Yes, I used to work at this paper. I learned a huge amount about writing, layout, photography, and people - not to mention sled dog racing, football, rugby, luge, bobsled, ski jumping, horse shows, softball, hockey, and more. I learned about the Winter Carnival, and the ice palace, and all the competitions and activities that accompany a winter carnival in a spot that's more than once had the honor of being the coldest spot in the nation, and I learned the singular feeling of eyelashes freezing on your face as you walk down the street.

And I fell in love with a town and a region. Which is why they're featured in my novels. And why a part of my heart is still in this little area in the Adirondack mountains.

How Lake Placid Held 2 Olympics - and Why These Filmmakers Think It Can Do It Again

Yes, I'm lifting my own press release and posting it here - this is a movie I've been working hard on. It's showing on PBS currently and will screen in Lake Placid on Sunday, Feb. 14. Feel free to repost this or parts of it, or contact me if you'd like to host me or one of the filmmakers on your blog.

NATIONALLY TELEVISED LAKE PLACID MOVIE DEBUTS IN “MIRACLE ON ICE” ARENA

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – As the Winter Games in Vancouver get underway, a film about Lake Placid and its two Olympics debuts Feb. 14 on the site of the Miracle on Ice, 30 years after the underdog U.S. hockey team defeated the Soviets en route to winning its historic gold medal.

Small Town Big Dreams: Lake Placid’s Olympic Story, which is airing nationwide on PBS, will make its big-screen debut in Lake Placid's Herb Brooks Arena as part of a 30th anniversary celebration of the 1980 Olympics. The film tells how the village developed into a winter sports capital and hosted the Winter Games in 1932 and again in 1980.

And the filmmakers think it could happen again. “Lake Placid has proven that with grassroots involvement it has the capability to hold one of the biggest events on the planet,” says producer Scott F. Carroll. “During the making of this film it became clear to us that history can be repeated.” If the Games do return, he said in an interview on NCPR last week, they would likely expand beyond Lake Placid into Vermont or Quebec.

“Incredibly, Lake Placid did all this with only 2,800 year-round residents,” says writer and director Marc Nathanson, a former Lake Placid News reporter now with NY1. “At one point in the movie one of the Olympic officials wonders how a town that's so small has been able to accomplish so much.”

Small Town, Big Dreams includes rare film footage and audio recordings unearthed from museum collections and private archives as well as footage of the 1980 hockey victory and broadcaster Al Michaels’ famous line, “Do you believe in miracles?”

Among those featured in the film are Godfrey Dewey, who almost single-handedly brought the 1932 Olympics to Lake Placid; Jack Shea, the hometown hero who won the first gold medals of the ‘32 Games and began a dynasty of Winter Olympians; J. Bernard Fell, the dynamic Methodist minister and former policeman who helped bring the Olympics back to Lake Placid in 1980; and Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 hockey team.

It will be shown at 7 p.m. Feb. 14 at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, with the filmmakers in attendance, followed by Disney’s Miracle. The suggested donation is $8 for adults and $5 for seniors and children, to benefit the Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum.

Small Town, Big Dreams is narrated by New York stage actor Ted Kastenbaum and produced in association with Sundial Pictures. It is being presented on PBS by Mountain Lake PBS and American Public Television, and is available on DVD.

Additional information available at http://www.smalltown-bigdreams.com
PRESS CONTACT: Sara J. Henry

Oh, How I Love My Subaru

There's something wonderfully ironic about leaving Vermont in the winter months to drive south only to get caught in a snowstorm and the longest, thickest traffic jam you've ever encountered.

I was even being sensible for a change - I sprang for a motel instead of driving through the night as I usually do. I was zooming along the interstate, and then it started snowing.

Of course no one thought to turn their lights on, even though you could hardly see. Of course people make quick lane changes and ended up in the ditch. But we pressed on.

Then it became wall-to-wall cars, inching forward at one to four miles an hour. Yes, in a car with a stick shift, you pretty much have to ride your clutch to keep moving at that speed.  Darkness fell. We inched on. Hours passed.

And then there was a slight incline on the interstate and miraculously, space opened up. One lane was clear of snow on the far left, and two cars ahead of me were fishtailing mightily, desperately trying to reach that lane. To the right and behind us, cars and trucks were sprawled all over the road. And I realized They couldn't make it up that slight hill in the slush. 

I slowed to let the two cars wiggle over to the clear lane, and stayed where I was, in the snow, in my own private lane. My little Subaru, sans winter tires, chugged steadily along, up and over the hill without hesitation, and then the roads were clear of traffic and I sailed on to my destination, and got out of the car, shaking with fatigue.

Thank you, Subaru.

And Now You Can See the Movie I've Been Working on

If you wonder why I haven't been posting, there's been a small matter of painting my house, reviewing my novel with my editor, copyediting a friend's manuscript, tweaking some websites, and helping finish a movie and get it on the air.

And now you can see that movie, on your local PBS station.

It's called Small Town, Big Dreams: Lake Placid's Olympic Story, and I'm so zonked from writing press releases and tweaking websites that I'm going to lift a description from one of the stations showing it.

In 1932, a small village in upstate New York transformed from a winter sports resort destination into the "Switzerland of America" when it brought the Winter games to the United States. Forty-eight years later, Lake Placid would witness one of the greatest moments in American sports history, when a team of untested, amateur U.S. hockey players defeated the powerhouse squad from the Soviet Union in the famed "Miracle on Ice."

It's a great movie, and a true labor of love for the filmmakers, Marc Nathanson and Scott F. Carroll (hint: another word for PBS is "nonprofit.") Watch it on PBS. Order the DVD - through Mountain Lake PBS or Amazon, or from your local bookstore. Make a donation if you're so inclined.

The film is also screening at the Lake Placid Olympic Arena, the site of the Miracle on Ice (30th anniversary!) at 7 pm Feb. 14, along with the movie Miracle, as a fundraiser for the 1932 and 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum.

Would be great to see you there.