Saturday, November 13, 2010

Out of the Mouths of Babes


...come words of wisdom. Or so it seems. Maybe. I just came back from a Meetup (That's an official thing, a Meetup.  (www.meetup.com) I only found out about Meetup a couple of weeks ago, when Peggy Richardson (that's Peggy on the right) popped into the NaNoWriMo discussion board and proposed a meetup for people doing NaNoWriMo. It sounded good to me, so I joined the group, met some fascinating people -- and since then, have attended  two more Meetups. Tonight I met C.J. Gosling, (left) yet
another lovely young thing, whose YA novel, The Guardian, will be coming out in February. I got to see the book itself, which is a work of art in more ways than one. The story is beautifully written and also beautifully illustrated.

So we talked about Charity's book (that's CJ's proper name) and we talked about NaNoWriMo and we swapped stories, and I talked about what a hard time I'm having this year, writing my NaNovel. I am trying to explore a mother's nightmare scenario - (one of many possible nightmare scenarios -- Parenthood is such a risky endeavour!) and I keep screeching to a halt. Perhaps I just don't want to go there.

And as we were getting ready to leave, Peggy asked me why I was trying to write from such a dark place when I just don't seem to be that kind of person. Charity said I told great stories, and wondered why I didn't go with those, instead of plumbing the depths of my angst, or my characters' angst...

Well, damn. Food for thought. I'm facing my NaNovel again, wondering whether I should turn around and head in a completely different direction with the story. You know, it's a sad thing to get to be an old lady and still come across as Little Mary Sunshine.

Speaking of (Not)writing, I've also discovered Blip.fm, which has given me endless hours of distraction.  I've revisited music I had forgotten all about, like Cream, and music that has stayed with me all through the years, like this:


4 comments:

Unknown said...

We can all only tell the stories we feel we need to tell, tho sometimes this isn't convenient for either ourself or others. Courage!

Sandra Leigh said...

Thanks,John.

RLM Cooper said...

Being Miss Mary Sunshine isn't all bad, you know. There are those of us out here who need you - just the way you are. :)

Sandra Leigh said...

Awww, thank you, AM. Feeling less than sunshiny today, so this helps.