Too many ideas...

I'm having a bit of a quandary lately.  With the kids home from school for the summer, writing has been grabbed in little snatches whenever opportunity presents.  I've soldiered on with a bit of Loremaster 2, but little else has spilled from my pen this summer.  The problem is, I've been having this terrific influx of ideas for stories lately.

 I've been diligently scribbling down the ideas as they come and there are some real gems - ideas I'm eager to work on.  Yet tonight, as the family walked the dog, my son asked me when I'm going to get back to work on Gerry, the children's story I've been slowly writing for what seems like forever.  It's a story I love and one I really need to finish, so I made a promise.

I have one short story - 5000 words - I've committed to write.  That's what will demand my initial focus.  After that story is done, barring any news about Loremaster or any other stories on submission, Gerry will get my full attention once the kids are back in school and the days become my own again.

I think that I shall never see...

A poem.

Today I unexpectedly found myself writing a poem.

Over the last few weeks I've been plugging away at Gerry, my kid's story about an orphaned giant.  Each day I've become a little more immersed in Gerry's world and things are flowing nicely.  Today, however, I opened my notebook to where I left off Gerry last night, tapped the page a few times with my pen, then leafed ahead a dozen pages to a blank sheet.

I wrote these words:

Llewellyn never smiled again

And then the first three verses of a poem bled out of my pen onto the paper.  I'm heading back to my notebook now.

Beddgelert

It's a cool sunny day here in Fergus.

Most of my morning has been spent writing Gerry and it is coming along nicely, I must say.  I've imposed a deadline on myself for the rough draft to be completed and am well on my way to meeting that deadline.  I had a ready-made break built into this day, as my wonderful friend Willow had an appointment with the local vet.  Everything was fine and when I got home there was an unexpected postcard from my aunt and uncle in the mailbox.  I love the postcard and would have scanned it if my other computer was not in the shop - There's a rant I have about technology that I won't go into right now.  I love this particular postcard because there's a story on it.

 The Story of Beddgelert


  In the 13th century, Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, had a Palace at Beddgelert.  One day he went hunting without Gelert, "The Faithful Hound", who was unaccountably absent.  On Llewellyn's return, the truant stained and smeared with blood, joyfully sprang to meet his master.  The Prince, alarmed, hastened to find his son and saw the Infant's cot empty, the bedclothes and floor covered with blood.
  The frantic father plunged his sword into the hound's side thinking it had killed his heir.  The dogs dying yell was answered by a child's cry.  Llewellyn searched and discovered his boy unharmed, but nearby lay the body of a mighty wolf which Gelert had slain.  The Prince, filled with remorse, it said never to have smiled again.
He buried Gelert here.
The spot is called  Beddgelert.


The story on the face of the card is accompanied by a pair of photographs.  The first is of a few of the old buildings which comprise the village.  The second, is what appears to be the grave of Gelert, himself.

Okay, now back to stories about Giants.

What is it about a synopsis?

So... In order to submit book length manuscripts to agents and publishers more often than not you need to supply a synopsis of the story.  The synopsis needs to run through all of the major threads of the story so that whoever ends up reviewing your submission will quickly know the gist of the tale and know whether it is the sort of thing they will want to develop or represent.

A synopsis shouldn't be that daunting.  For Gerry - my children's story about an orphaned giant - a synopsis is a straightforward affair because all of the action follows Gerry.  From the mountain top beginning to the reunion at the end, Gerry is the character we follow around.  With The Edgeling (formerly titled Loremaster) things are a little more complex.

You would think that having written the damn book, the synopsis would be easy.  Not so.

In The Edgeling there are eight major characters and the flow of the story goes from one character to the next as they all scramble off in varying directions.  Layer onto that a politically complex world and a smattering of racial bigotry, a Cain and Able sub-story, a resurrection and a gypsy-like band of travelling folk and a synopsis begins to get daunting.

At 502 revised pages and just over 163,000 words, The Edgeling is a long story.  Attempting to give a fair synopsis in the standard 5-10 page treatment is asking a lot.  Because of the novel's length and complexity, I'm afraid the synopsis may run as long as 15 pages which may in itself be a reason for an agent or publisher to reject the manuscript without reading a single word of the actual text. I am therefore trying to be brief, but it is difficult.

To compound the problem - the weather has been terrific.  Sunny days with mild temperatures have me wanting to be anywhere BUT the basement writing the synopsis.  The last few days I've brought the laptop into the front porch to take advantage of the sunshine and still work on the synopsis.  That's the plan, anyway.

Because I don't really want to write the synopsis, I am find a thousand little things to do other that get the damn thing typed and polished.  Things like dishes, laundry, yard clean up, winterizing the carport and ...well...updating this blog...

Okay - enough  - back to it.

Strange and wonderful...

It has been a week of strange and wonderful things.  I have been plodding ahead with a synopsis for The Edgeling and have been moving (slowly) forward on Gerry.

Something strange to begin with - it seems after twenty-two years good old Duffer (who lately has more than his fair share of "Bill the Cat" moments) has decided to stave off Alzheimer's by challenging himself with new skills.

He's decided to start with Beatrix Potter.  Good choice, Duff.

Now onto something wonderful.  My little time-consuming park project, BT Corner.  Most of the landscaping is done.  The wall is all but finished and the paving stones are in.  There are a few touches left for this autumn, but then I can take a break from the park (for the most part) until Spring when there will be planting and benches and information plaques to contend with.  Here's how the Corner looks today:

I especially love that red maple.

Something else wonderful - this:

Is that?  Could that be?  No....no one would ever-

Yes.  That's Nature's Perfect Food, right there.  Bacon, and lots of it.  That is a bacon, potato and cheddar tart, my friends.  I wish I could take credit for this flavour treat/ heart attack on a plate but that honour goes to PEI chef, Michael Smith.

Here's what it looks like inside:

Trust me - all you need with this is the salad (and maybe a defibrillator).

Now on to strange and wonderful.

I love my town.  We are blessed with hundreds of heritage homes built from local limestone by the skilled hands of masons long dead.  One of these buildings is our own Carnegie Library.  It is a stately building and last night, as I waited for my daughter to finish her piano lesson, I snapped this shot - just in time for Hallowe'en.

This really is the only way to light a building like this.

And speaking of lights...Remember Trixie, the albino black cat.  Well here she is, mounted and lit, just in time for Hallowe'en.

A whole new year

The holidays were busy and filled with delight but it's nice to settle back into routine.

Walked the kids to school today then came home and got right down to business.  Business today was completing my application for the MFA I intend to begin in the autumn.  I am still assembling the "package" - transcripts, letters of reference and a portfolio sampling some of my work but the application itself is done.

While putting together "the package" I rewrote a chapter in my novella Patriot.  I needed to clean it up and flesh it out and I am very pleased with the finished result - so pleased, in fact, that rewriting Patriot to novel length has moved up the priority list.  Root of Evil still needs to be finished and The Witch has been waiting too long and Gerry has barely stumbled out of the gate but Patriot is beckoning.

I guess I have a lot to do...

It's starting to look a lot like...

The atmopsphere is very festive.  A pair of kids are eager for Santa's annual visit and are currently bouncing off the walls.  The tree is lit and decorated and a multitude of gifts are crammed beneath.  In the spirit of the season we are snowed under.

Last night I took Willow out for her midnight constitutional and snapped a few pictures.

I actually find myself not minding the snow...too much. 

 This morning my wife and I were shovelling out when the most musical Christmas noise imaginable drifted on the wind...our neighbour with his borrowed snowblower heading across the road to clear the end of our plowed-in driveway.  Ahhhh - like a choir of angels!

I've been under the weather this past week or so.  Unfortunately Gerry won't be done in time but I plan to secretly work on it while we visit the in-laws over the Holidays.

We have been entertaining visitors - friends from Vancouver - my mother before she left to spend Christmas with my sister in Newfoundland - and I even had a nice little chat with the local Jehova's Witness guy before wishing him a

 Merry Christmas and sending him on his way.

As the holiday descends I, Santalike, am making a list.  I currently have nine items on submission with various publications.  I am in the midst of preparing an application for an MFA Creative Writing 

program.  I have several stories in different degrees of completedness that will need to find homes in the New Year AND I have two kids, a dog and a wonderful, patient wife who all need some extra special attention at this time of year.

Merry Christmas to all.

Here There Be Giants!

It has been a while since the last post but I haven't been idle. I'm continuing to chip away at Root of Evil and revisiting The Witch every now and again but for the past few days I've had something spinning in my head that needs now to get down on paper.

Years ago, when my daughter was a very little girl, I was about to read from one of her story books at bed time when she asked, "No, Daddy. Tonight I want a made up story." I was surprised how easily a story gelled in my mind and how effortlessly it spilled from my lips. That story was Gerry the Giant and for the past few years I have been promising to write it for my daughter but I just couldn't find the right beginning.

Well, yesterday, just as Root of Evil was about to take a turn for the grisly, those thoughts that have been rattling around suddenly fell together. I am happy to say that Gerry (the new title of the story) is off to a strong start and with any luck will be ready to present to my target audience by Christmas or, at least, by her birthday.

Time to get back to Gerry.